Ecuador defends US sinking of vessels as drug operation

24 min agoUS intelligence assessments indicate Iran is determined to continue military confrontation at least until November midterm elections to wear down Washington, according to recent reports. Trump said 18 Americans have been lost and characterized the conflict as a minor matter. A federal judge extended a block on Trump administration orders seeking to restrict mail-in voting in the midterm elections.

39 min agoSix countries abstained from the UN vote on the new map, in addition to the United States' dissenting vote. The new map is known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection.

53 min agoPresident Donald Trump characterized the conflict with Iran as a minor military operation rather than a full-scale war, citing 18 U.S. service members killed. He compared the toll to the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan, which lasted years.

1 h agoThe United States intercepted and sank three Ecuadorean vessels this week in operations Ecuador said were part of joint investigations into drug trafficking. The sinkings are the latest in Operation Southern Spear, a broader U.S. military campaign that has destroyed some 70 vessels and killed more than 220 people over the past year, drawing criticism from human rights groups and some Latin American leaders.

1 h agoThe United Nations voted to adopt a new world map reflecting Africa's true size, with 164 nations backing a Togo-sponsored resolution and the United States as the sole dissenting vote. All 55 African Union member states supported the measure as part of the #CorrectTheMap campaign, addressing longstanding criticism that the widely-used Mercator map visually exaggerates and centralises Western nations.

1 h agoOn Friday, the Treasury Department added three Turkish entities to its sanctions blacklist, severing their access to dollar-denominated financial markets. According to the agency, these companies functioned as intermediaries in a scheme that routed Iranian oil sales proceeds through Chinese channels into Turkey, where they were converted into physical assets.

2 h agoThe US Treasury Department sanctioned Golden Global Investment Bank, a Turkish bank with $34 million in capital, and two subsidiaries for facilitating tens of millions in transactions for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force. The sanctions, part of Operation Economic Outcast, target what Treasury said was a critical channel providing Iran correspondent banking access.

2 h agoThe UN General Assembly voted 164 to 1 to encourage adoption of map projections that more accurately represent continent sizes, moving away from the 16th-century Mercator projection that distorts Africa and Latin America. The resolution, presented by Togo and backed by the African Union, faced opposition only from the United States, which warned of a radical ideological project.

3 h agoA six-week-old infant in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania died from measles, the county coroner confirmed Friday. The death is one of two measles-related deaths in the county last week, as the United States reaches 3,134 cases—a 35-year record.

3 h agoTrump said the US might attack Pickaxe, a mountain complex near Natanz suspected of holding highly enriched uranium reserves. Trump characterized the six-month military confrontation with Iran as minor, while Iran denied nuclear activities at the site, calling the accusations a pretext for aggression.