Islamic militants attacked a remote village in northeastern Nigeria overnight, killing 11 people and leaving two critically injured, local officials said Wednesday. It was the latest violence in Africa’s most populous country that has long been battling a complex security crisis. The attack took place late on Tuesday in Pubagu, a community in a remote area on the fringes of Sambisa forest in Borno state, the epicenter of Nigeria’s long fight against an Islamic insurgency. Villagers said they buried the victims on Wednesday and attributed the attack to the extremist Boko Haram group. The local council chairman, Mwada Saidu Uba,...

Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and seized two of them Wednesday, intensifying its assault on shipping in the key waterway. The attacks came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump extended a ceasefire while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports. The standoff between the U.S. and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports through the strait — where 20% of the world’s traded oil passes in peacetime — with no end in sight. Iranian media said the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was bringing the two ships to Iran, marking a further escalation, though the...

The European Union on Wednesday was on the cusp of approving a massive loan for Ukraine as oil began flowing again through a key pipeline toward Hungary and Slovakia, lifting a major obstacle to approving the funds. The operator of the Druzhba pipeline in Ukraine, Ukrtransnaft, told the two countries that Russian oil was on its way and should arrive early on Thursday. Unlike most of the rest of the EU, Hungary and Slovakia still depend on Russia for their energy needs. EU envoys, meanwhile, launched a political procedure to endorse the loan. National governments have 24 hours to raise...

Canada ‘s Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday that Washington doesn’t get to dictate the terms of a continental trade deal known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, speaking of obstacles ahead of the accord’s review in July. The deal, dating back to the early 1990s, has intertwined the economies of the three North American countries but has faced bumps amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s constantly changing tariff policy. Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Carney said finetuning the latest version of the agreement “will take some time.” “We understand what some of the Americans would call trade irritants or...

According to The Wall Street Journal, and Axios, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed John Phelan after months of clashes over sluggish shipbuilding reforms and unauthorized talks with President Trump. Phelan, a businessman with no military background who served 13 months, departed immediately; Under Secretary Hung Cao, a retired Navy captain, Vietnamese refugee, and Naval Academy graduate, steps in as acting secretary. HUNG CAO: “Don’t come to this country and ask for the American DREAM if you’re not willing to obey the American LAWS and embrace the American CULTURE! “We came to this country with NOTHING. We asked nothing from this...

Governor Abigail Spanberger: “Today, I signed the Momnibus — a package of bills to improve healthcare coverage for moms and babies. “No mother should have to fear dying from childbirth. We have the highest maternal mortality rate of any high-income country, and we know Black women are at greatest risk.”