Top World News
Trump's obsession with 'stuff blowing up' videos alarms national security experts
Apr 2, 2026 - World 
National security experts were concerned that President Donald Trump has ignored important briefings and instead prefers to watch videos of explosions from the Iran war, according to an analyst on Thursday. Salon's Chauncey DeVega described how Trump has started to treat the war — which has killed 13 American troops and nearly 1,500 Iranians — as entertainment. In the past, presidents have sought information from daily security briefings. Trump, however, has not followed this method. "As the war progresses, Trump is reportedly being shown daily compilation videos of 'stuff blowing up' — two-minute highlight reels of death and destruction, curated to hold his attention due to his famously short attention span," DeVega wrote. This has impacted how he views the war and what comes next. "Trump’s reliance on the videos risks creating an echo chamber effect where he is not getting the best advice," DeVega wrote. "Pushing back against the reports, the administration claims the president receives advice throughout the day from senior military leadership, the intelligence community, diplomats and foreign leaders. He also watches the news. But this does not appear to be reflected in the planning and execution of the war, or its long-term strategic implications for American power and global stability."NBC News reported that these montages have added to the president's "increasing frustration" with how the media covers the war and skewed his views. "Trump has pointed to the success depicted in the daily videos to privately question why his administration can’t better influence the public narrative, asking aides why the news media doesn’t emphasize what he’s seeing, one of the current U.S. officials and the former U.S. official said," according to NBC News. Steven Cash, the executive director of the nonprofit the Steady State, an organization of more than 360 former national security and diplomacy experts promoting American democracy, told DeVega that Americans expect the president to listen to a range of expert voices to guide military actions. "This does not appear to be what is happening," DeVega wrote. "Instead, the process has been reduced to a closed circle of advisers reinforcing Trump’s instincts while screens display short, dramatic clips of explosions and destruction. War, Cash observed, 'is not a spectacle, and it is certainly not a form of entertainment. Treating it that way is both obscene and dangerous.'"Cash said the repercussions have been clear. "The president has publicly suggested that basic strategic realities — such as the central importance of the Strait of Hormuz to the global economy — were somehow overlooked by ‘the experts,'" Cash said. "That is simply not true. These are among the most well-established facts in international security. When a president appears unaware of such fundamentals, it raises serious concerns about whether he is receiving — or is willing to absorb — the information he needs."
Costa Rica strikes deal to accept third country deportees from US
Apr 2, 2026 - World 
Central American country to receive up to 25 migrants a week expelled as part of Trump’s immigration crackdownSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe Costa Rican government has agreed to receive up to 25 deported migrants a week from the United States, the latest deal in the Trump administration’s unprecedented efforts to deport scores of people to “third countries”.With the new agreement, Costa Rica seeks a closer alliance with Donald Trump’s government, which has been securing cooperation from other Central American countries in accepting deportees from other nations who have been detained by US immigration agents. Continue reading...
'Shocked!' Financial pundit says Trump's speech 'triggered' 60-cent gas price spike
Apr 2, 2026 - World 
MAGA financial pundit Eric Bolling revealed that President Donald Trump's Wednesday night address to the nation had likely "triggered" a 60-cent spike in gas prices.During a Thursday interview on the War Room podcast, Bolling said he had been giving MAGA influencer Steve Bannon updates on the oil market as Trump was speaking about the war in Iran.Bolling noted that oil was trading at "$98 a barrel" before Trump started speaking."It really didn't move very much during the speech. I kept updating you. When he talked about the part where he said, we're going to send them back to the Stone Ages, I think that triggered something because that's really where it started to tick up to $99 a barrel, $100 a barrel," he recalled. "When he finished, I think traders were hoping to hear some sort of legitimate off-ramp, and it just spiked 101, 101, 102, 103, 105, 107, 108 or so.""This morning I got up, Steve, and I was just shocked. $11, $12 a barrel, that's $13, $14 a barrel higher," he said. "Unfortunately, that turns into about a 60, 70 cent move up on the pump price just on the overnight alone, what it did overnight."
Belarusian parliament passes a bill to crack down on LGBTQ+ rights
Apr 2, 2026 - World 
The Belarus parliament has passed a bill to introduce punishments for people who promote LGBTQ+ causes, in an echo of similar laws that have been set up in neighboring ally Russia
Nobel Prize winner pinpoints 'radically disappointing' moment that'll mark Trump's legacy
Apr 2, 2026 - World 
Donald Trump has tainted his own second term in the Oval Office with one move this year, a Nobel Prize winner has warned. Paul Krugman believes the longer-term effects of the war with Iran will not just undermine the president's decision-making in future, but that his attitude toward NATO members and allied nations has destroyed what little legacy the president could cling to. Speaking in a video uploaded to his Substack, the award-winning economist noted the problem with the Iran war is not just the war itself, but the ongoing economic impact and erosion of relations with the United States' allies. "So this is going to be really bad," Krugman said. "But anyway, it was radically disappointing even to people who are, you know, the markets and a lot of people in the world were actually hoping that the United States would give up. "I mean, it’ll be terrible. We really don’t want a medievalist theocracy empowered. But since this is heading nowhere except for, again, massive war crimes, better to end it. But we’re not getting that."We have Trump lecturing the world and saying, why are you cowards? Why don’t you come in and help us in this ill-conceived, disastrous war that we started without checking with you? "But the reality is that the world is looking and saying, my God, what is wrong with America? They may still have a lot of bombs — although not as many as we started with — but it’s not a country anybody can trust for anything. And that, even more than the price of oil, is going to be the legacy of this war."Krugman went on to suggest that Trump had made the situation with Iran worse than before the strikes were approved. He wrote, "One of the moments that really struck me in the speech was him declaring that the whole world was extremely impressed by what happened. He said, 'The whole world is watching and they can't believe the power, strength, and brilliance. They just can't believe what they're seeing. The world can't believe what it's seeing.'"What it’s seeing is that the world’s greatest military power took on a fourth-rate power. Again, as I said the other day, Iran’s military budget is a rounding error in our military budget. And we lost. For all practical purposes, we’ve left ourselves in a much weaker position and Iran in a stronger position than it was before."
