Top World News

Jun 22, 2026 - World

21st Century Road to Housing Act, which aims to boost supply and stop investors buying up homes, heads to HouseSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe Senate on Monday passed a bipartisan measure aimed at lowering housing costs by streamlining construction and permitting, ending months of fraught negotiations on a priority for both parties ahead of November’s midterm elections.The 21st Century Road to Housing Act would limit investors’ ability to buy homes, waive some federal permitting rules in a bid to ease new construction, and authorize pilot programs to facilitate grants for home improvements and planning affordable housing. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly, with a vote of 85-5, and now heads to the House of Representatives. Continue reading...

Jun 22, 2026 - World

President says ‘vandals’ to blame for algae blooms and peeling paint as $14m renovation to undergo further repairsThe Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool is set to be drained again after Donald Trump said on Monday – without providing proof – that five people were arrested for vandalism and five more are under investigation in connection to the algae blooms and peeling paint that appeared weeks after his ill-fated $14m renovation attempt.“It’s not a lot of damage, but we’ll probably have to let the water out and refix it. They went in there with a knife,” Trump told reporters, describing what he first said was a 290- to 300ft slit in the paint but then later amended to a 350ft slit. He also said someone had put fertilizer into the water, which caused the algae to grow. Continue reading...

Jun 22, 2026 - World

Firms including BP and 7-Eleven accused of coordinating prices to ‘wring more money from pockets of consumers’Gas ⁠station ​operators including BP, Circle K, Marathon, 7-Eleven, Walmart and Albertsons were sued on Monday by California drivers ⁠who accused them of using artificial intelligence to boost prices at the pump.According to a proposed class action, the defendants ⁠violated California’s main antitrust law, the Cartwright Act, by using an AI-based tool that ​uses data from competing gas ‌stations to “coordinate high prices ‌and wring more money from the pockets of consumers”. Continue reading...

Jun 22, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump appeared angered by a reporter's suggestion on Monday that his negotiation tactics with Iran may be giving the regime leverage over him. Trump held a press gaggle in the Oval Office after he signed an executive order to support America's quantum computing industry. While he was taking questions, one reporter asked Trump if he was willing to cause economic mayhem by striking Iran again, which Trump said was an option that he's considering. The back-and-forth escalated from there. "War with Iran could cause worldwide depression, as you noted, Mr. President," the reporter began. "Are you willing to risk economic catastrophe and strike Iran again?""Well, not the way I'm doing it. It won't cause depression," Trump replied. "Nuclear weapon supersedes depression. Depression is real bad. Nuclear weapons will cause depression."The reporter then asked if Trump's willingness to cause economic harm to Americans to continue fighting Iran gives the regime leverage over the Trump administration. Trump scoffed at the suggestion. "Their Navy is gone. Their Air Force is gone. Their leaders are all dead. Their country is a mess. Their economy is shot," Trump began, repeating his claims from the weekend that recent reporting from The New York Times is "all wrong" about the state of Iran. "The reason the news is doing so badly, or, put it another way, the reason why I won in a landslide even though I got 92% negative press is that nobody believes the press anymore, and they have to start believing," Trump said. "The Times and everybody else, they're grasping for straws."Trump then claimed that the U.S. economy is doing well and continues to "set records" in performance. That's despite the most recent inflation report showing that inflation hit its highest point since the COVID-19 pandemic last month. "So, when you ask a question like that," Trump said to the reporter, "it's so stupid."

Jun 22, 2026 - World

A former GOP operative argued President Donald Trump "is drowning in his own failure" in a video on Monday.Anti-Trump conservative Steve Schmidt described how Trump's failed Iran war, struggling economy and blunders around the algae-ridden reflecting pool have further damaged the United States. He suggested the next move would be the Trump cabinet meeting inside the Situation Room, and how future generations would view this "as a portal into understanding the insanity of this moment.""The economy is wrecked. The nation dishonored, the people divided," Schmidt said. "Ghislaine Maxwell sitting in minimum security. All of it a function of our national raft ride down the sewer river of Donald Trump's creation." "It may not seem like we are all of us, on a boat, together, upon that fetid pool. But trust me. We are," Schmidt said.