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Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office last January, analysts have debated whether he is pursuing a sphere of influence strategy—an approach by which great powers divide the world into privileged blocs, with little concern for the interests or preferences of the smaller states that those blocs subsume. In the affirmative view, the Trump administration is laying claim to the Western Hemisphere—including through military and influence campaigns in Venezuela and Cuba—while leaving China to expand its political, military, and economic influence in Asia. Yet the lavish but substantively modest summit between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held this week…

It started as a dream and a vision in 1999 to memorialize the spirit of Marines and Sailors serving in the Carolinas for future generations. On June 8, that dream officially becomes a reality. Starting as an idea floated at the tail end of the 20th century by a trio of Marines—Maj. Gen. Ray Smith, Col. Bruce Gombar and Sgt. Maj. Joe Houle—the Carolina Museum of the Marine will officially open its doors to the public on June 8. The 25,000-square-foot building located in Jacksonville, N.C., broke ground on May 17, 2024, and cost more than $30 million to construct.…

President Donald Trump said on Friday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed cyberattacks and espionage activities carried out by both nations during their bilateral meeting this week.Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One during his return flight to the United States, Trump, when asked if he raised the topics in their discussions, said, “I did. And he talked about attacks that we did in China. Y’know, what they do, we do too.”“They’re talking about the spying. Well, we do it too,” he said. “We spy like hell on them too.”“I told him, ‘We do a lot of stuff…

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Nigerian forces killed a leader of the Islamic State group in Nigeria in a mission carried out Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said. Trump announced the joint operation in Africa’s most populous country in a late-night social media post that offered few details. He said Abu Bakr al-Mainuki was second-in-command of the Islamic State group globally and “thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing.” Al-Mainuki was viewed as the key figure in IS organizing and finance, and had been…

May 16, 2026 Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org Members of the Air Force Reserve’s 920th Rescue Wing helped save 11 airplane crash survivors off the coast of Florida on May 12. The Reserve Airmen were flying an HC-130J Combat King II and an HH-60W Jolly Green II on a routine training flight when a Coast Guard call diverted their mission. A twin-engine turboprop aircraft signaled the Coast Guard with a potential distress call that morning May…

RIGA, Latvia — Exercising in Latvia’s dense pine and birch forests this week, local troops found themselves in an unfair fight against a new enemy: unmanned ground vehicles.As NATO tries to keep pace with fast-changing drone warfare, the alliance used Latvia’s Crystal Arrow exercise to test unmanned ground combat, equipping opposing forces with wheeled robots. The systems gave the red team an element of surprise over a blue team relying only on aerial drones, said Lt. Col. Andris Brūveris, the Latvian battalion commander leading the opposing side.“They are force multipliers, and they are here to stay,” said Brūveris, who commands…

The Teamfight Fuse was recently released for 2XKO. With this Fuse, it’s possible for both characters of a team to be active at the same time, though there are some important caveats to consider when using this Fuse. For example, the second character’s attacks always behave as mids, so it won’t be possible to create unblockable scenarios since they’ll be locked out of overheads and lows while the effect is active. Of course, it’s technically possible for a…

MMA Fighting has UFC Vegas 117 results for the Allen vs. Costa fight card and more from Meta APEX in Las Vegas on Saturday night.In the main event, Arnold Allen and Melquizael Costa clash in a featherweight contest. Allen has lost three of his past four fights, while Costa has reeled off six straight victories.Doo Ho Choi and Daniel Santos clash in a featherweight contest in the co-main event.Check out UFC Vegas 117 results below.Main Card (Paramount+ at 8 p.m. ET)Arnold Allen vs. Melquizael CostaDoo Ho Choi vs. Daniel SantosMalcom Wellmaker vs. Juan DiazModestas Bukauskas vs. Christian EdwardsTimmy Cuamba vs.…

The action will unfold later this evening (Sat., May 16, 2026) LIVE on Netflix from inside the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, Calif., as Ronda Rousey makes her anticipated return to mixed martial arts (MMA) for a long-awaited showdown will fellow women’s combat sports pioneer, Gina Carano.Luckily, Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) went all out for its first official MMA event. In addition to the massive main event between Rousey and Carano, the Netflix supercard will feature Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry, Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins, Salahdine Parnasse vs. Kenneth Cross, and Junior dos Santos vs. Robelis Despaigne. That main…

The world’s most consequential stretch of water is 21 nautical miles wide at its narrowest point. Through the Strait of Hormuz approximately 20 million barrels of oil and petroleum products per day flowed in 2025, equivalent to roughly one-fifth of global petroleum liquids consumption and one-quarter of all seaborne oil trade. Qatar alone dispatched over 112 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually through the same passage, representing nearly a fifth of global LNG trade. When the United States and Israel launched coordinated airstrikes on Iran on February 28, 2026, and Iran responded by closing the Strait to…