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May 18, 2026 - World

One of President Donald Trump's ambassadors has been linked to a scandal-ridden movement in Canada because of his involvement with a right-wing voting group, according to a new report. Pete Hoekstra, Trump's ambassador to Canada, has been linked to a separatist group in Alberta that has coordinated with a right-wing group in Michigan called 10xVotes for more than a year, PressProgress reported on Monday. The separatist group, known as the Centurion Project, is under investigation by Canadian authorities after it obtained private information about more than 3 million Alberta voters. A lawyer recently told the CBC that the data breach is one of the “the most significant privacy incidents” in Canadian history. "The issue of foreign support of Alberta separatist groups has been an open question since the US State Department confirmed earlier this year that Trump administration officials have held multiple meetings with Alberta separatist leaders," PressProgress reported. Hoekstra has claimed he "was not aware" of the relationship between The Centurion Project and 10xVotes, although some of the comments from David Parker, who leads The Centurion Project, have called that claim into question, according to the report. For instance, Parker has claimed that Hoekstra's group has been advising The Centurion Project behind-the-scenes for about a year. The report cites claims Parker made during a recent podcast interview, where he said the Centurion Project is the result of his collaboration with 10xVotes. The two groups also appear to be using almost identical apps to spur low-engagement voters to vote, according to the report. "First rolled out during the 2024 US presidential election, its backers tout 10xVotes as the secret weapon that helped deliver Michigan’s 15 electoral college votes to Donald Trump," according to the report. "Michigan Republicans are currently holding state-wide information sessions about 10xVotes in hopes that the technology will help send right-wing candidates to Congress after this fall’s midterm elections.""A version of 10xVotes’ Michigan app reviewed by PressProgress has a substantially similar interface and functionalities as the Centurion Project’s app in Alberta," it added.

May 18, 2026 - World

Estimated £1bn per year is laundered through vape stores, barbers, mini-marts and sweet shops, officials say“Dodgy” retail outlets such as vape stores, barbers, mini-marts and sweet shops suspected of being used to launder £1bn of criminal money will be targeted by a new specialist unit, the government has said.A £20m National Crime Agency cell will run and coordinate investigations and raids into UK businesses suspected of acting as fronts for gangsters, the Home Office said. Continue reading...

May 18, 2026 - World

The US president says plans for a US military strike on Iran have been paused because ‘serious negotiations are now taking place’Middle East crisis – live updatesIran has made a new proposal for a deal to definitively end the war in the Middle East, officials in the region said on Monday, with Donald Trump claiming he had postponed new military strikes so talks could continue.But while the US president has regularly used social media to threaten Tehran, and to claim that a peace deal was within reach, there has been no sign of an immediate breakthrough in the stalled negotiations to end the war. Continue reading...

May 18, 2026 - World

A former lawmaker and critic of President Donald Trump slammed the president's Iran war decisions following his announcement on Monday to stop a planned military attack amid "serious negotiations" and telling the military to be ready "on a moment's notice."Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) told CNN that Trump's Truth Social post announcement stating alleged negotiations underway and that an attack had been stopped by allies was putting the United States in a bad position."This is so damaging," Kinzinger said. "You know, regardless of let's just be, you know, agnostic on whether he should attack again or not for the moment when you make threats and then you're eager to back down from those threats, which he has been every single time. I mean, he's gone from 'we will destroy an entire civilization' to 'we have a deal,' which we never actually had, by the way, claiming the strait's open, claiming it's closed, claiming he was going to pull the trigger on May 19th."But Trump's decision-making was troubling, and he has not offered a clear strategy for the war, Kinzinger argued."One of the greatest things the United States had is our ability to say, we will do something," Kinzinger explained. "The enemy knows that, and then hopefully we won't have to do that. This has just been like threat, back off, threat, back off. And I haven't seen the Iranians move in any way here. And we find ourselves in the worst-case scenario, which is a closed strait, this nebulous future. And gas is now having to price in, and futures are pricing in the uncertainty." Kinzinger argued that the United States was lacking a strategy to exit the ongoing military conflict."That's what's crazy, is we did go in with overwhelming military power. And now in the White House, they are trying to figure out what Iran needs to be satiated to be pleased," Kinzinger said. "And I mean, this is why they should have thought this through.""If you're going to do something like attack Iran, you have to know what the contingencies are," Kinzinger added. "And honestly, those contingencies, you have to be willing to do them. Otherwise, you probably should not have gone to this fight in the first place. And so, what is the future here look like? You know, I don't know. Are they going to find something that Iran wants? Maybe are they going to actually denuclearize them or whatever? I don't know. Is there going to be an Iranian, you know, toll on every ship that passes?"Kinzinger warned about what could be next for future generations."But I know this much. I know that my kid, who's 4 1/2 years old, is going to probably be in a country that has a worse situation based on what's going on because of this war, than had we done nothing," Kinzinger said. "I think Donald Trump needs to figure out if we resume hostilities with Iran, you need to have a plan in place to reopen that strait and stick to the use of the military until it's done, or quit these threats, because this is just making it worse."

May 18, 2026 - World

The unconfirmed report by Iranian media cited an unnamed source, but analysts and traders seized on the news.