Minimalist News

Five Reasons Why Trump Is More Serious Than Ever About Cutting Deals With Putin Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack , Although Putin might agree to some trade-offs in Ukraine as the quid pro quo for these deals, it's not guaranteed, but they can still be clinched so long as Trump has the will to waive more sanctions without a ceasefire first. Putin's top aide Yury Ushakov confirmed after Steve Witkoff's latest meeting with Putin that "Other large-scale joint economic projects, which offer significant prospects for bilateral cooperation, were also discussed in detail; some of them are now nearing the

Gunmen Attack Orthodox Church In Jordan During Service, Killing 7 & Wounding Dozens Multiple gunmen brutally attacked a church in Jordan on Friday in the middle of a funeral, killing at least seven people and wounding 34 others - in what is one of the worst terror attacks on Christians in the country's modern history . The Jordanian government quickly condemned the act as terrorism, and authorities are reportedly seeking the attackers amid an investigation. St. George Orthodox Church in Karak, via AP It happened in Jordan’s Karak region , south of the capital of Amman, at St. George Orthodox

Anthony Fauci's Darkest Hours Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Brownstone Institute , “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” said Lady Macbeth as she paced in a hallucinatory state, reliving in her subconscious the murders she helped plan. She rubbed her hands as if washing them, to wash away the sin, following up the promise to her son that “a little water clears us of this deed.” The line comes to mind from the latest dump of entries from the diaries of Anthony Fauci that cover the months December 2021 to May 2022. These were the darkest months of

US Designates Helium A Critical Material In Reindustrialization Push To Avoid "Single Point Of Failure" America's reindustrialization depends on securing reliable, conflict-free supplies of critical materials, including rare earths and other critical metals, most of which are produced and processed overseas. The Trump administration has made rebuilding and strengthening domestic critical material supply chains a national security priority. Its designation of helium as a critical material on Friday morning extends that effort to now include the industrial gas used for semiconductor manufacturing and many other applications. The Energy Department's decision earlier today makes the 20th critical material designated by the

DOJ Seeks Appeals Court Intervention In California Ballot Lawsuit Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times , The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a notice of appeal on Oct. 22 in its bid to block California from counting mail-in ballots from voters whom the federal government suspected of being noncitizens. The DOJ asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene after U.S. District Judge David Carter failed to rule on its emergency application for injunctive relief by noon Thursday, the deadline set by the department. The department said the judge's silence amounted to what it called a "constructive

Why Are Scientists Suddenly So Concerned About An Asteroid Hitting Earth? Authored by Michael Snyder via End Of The American Dream , Authorities assure us that we are perfectly safe and that no giant space rocks are heading our way. If that is true, why is a scenario that has been developed for the 2027 Planetary Defense Conference "based around a hypothetical impact threat" from a very large asteroid? And why are scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory studying how to destroy a giant asteroid that is heading toward Earth using nuclear weapons? If there is no threat anywhere on

Selling Gas Twice: Venture Global Courts Qatar While Plotting A $160 Billion AI Power Empire Seven months ago, Qatar was the world's biggest LNG seller. Now it's a buyer. According to a Reuters scoop late Thursday, QatarEnergy is in advanced talks with Venture Global (VG) on a long-term supply deal for at least 3 million tons of LNG a year , sourced from VG's CP2 plant, which is still under construction in Louisiana. The report landed just hours after QatarEnergy signed a separate deal with Cheniere (LNG) for up to 4 million tons a year through 2054. VG shares jumped

Trump Says He Will 'Veto Everything' If Democrats Win Midterms Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times , President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he plans to use his veto power on bills or resolutions Democrats want to pass if they win in either the House or the Senate, with days to go before the November midterm elections. "I think the Republicans are going to win - but if there was gridlock, what happens is I veto everything , and then the Democrats come and want to make a deal," he said. When pressed further on congressional

Space War Fears Rise As Russian Satellite Makes Dangerous Maneuver Authored by RFE/RL staff via OilPrice.com , US officials publicly accused Russia of threatening a Finnish-operated commercial satellite that provides imagery and intelligence to Ukraine and other nations, calling the move "deliberately reckless." In response to the accusations, made during a United Nations debate on October 21, Russia broadly described US claims as "absurd" and accused Washington of its own "aggressive military space ambitions." The back-and-forth came days after a Russian military satellite known as Kosmos-2612 moved "dangerously" near to ICEYE-X36 , a satellite registered in the United States and

Nikola Founder Trevor Milton Accuses FBI Agent Of Witness Intimidation As New Report Challenges His Claims Trevor Milton, founder and former CEO of electric truck maker Nikola and now CEO of jet company Syberjet , is suing an FBI agent and a whistleblower who testified against him during his fraud trial, alleging they conspired to intimidate a potential defense witness ahead of his trial. Milton filed a complaint on October 13 in federal court in Utah against FBI Special Agent Christopher S. Essick and Nikola whistleblower Paul Lackey. The lawsuit alleges Essick secretly controlled two anonymous X accounts, @CntrlScrut1nizr and

Appeals Court Allows Mississippi Ban On DEI, Removes Judge Over AI Use Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times , Mississippi can enforce a law prohibiting some diversity practices in schools, a federal appeals court ruled on Oct. 22 in a decision that also removed the judge overseeing the case over the use of artificial intelligence. Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, Miss., on June 28, 2020. Rory Doyle/AFP via Getty Images The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruling overturned a 2025 decision from U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate that blocked the state from enforcing a law

Data Center Alley Goes Dark: Amazon Abandons Data Centers In Loudoun County Finishing a data center in America has become a logistical nightmare. Now just starting one is turning into a problem too, even in the one county that was supposed to say yes to everything. Back in April, when we reported that " Half Of US Data Centers Scheduled To Start In 2026, Will Be Canceled Or Delayed ," the blame was spread across the usual suspects: power, transformers, permitting and a vague, growing sense that the locals were getting restless. Two months later, Blackstone sold its stake in

"We Should Not Have Done It": Thiel Breaks With Trump Over Iran War, Warns America May Not "Have The Hard Power" One day after we reported that Donald Trump Jr. has privately broken with his father over the Iran war, Peter Thiel, the PayPal and Palantir (PLTR) co-founder who was the first big tech investor to back Trump in 2016 and the biggest funder of super PACs behind JD Vance's 2022 Senate run , has also drawn a line in the sand over Trump's defining foreign-policy gamble. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg In audio from an Oct. 12 private lecture in

California Man Said ICE Stole His Wife; Police Now Say He Murdered Her... Authored by Catherine Salgado via PJ Media , A man who accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of taking his wife is now in custody under suspicion of murdering her. AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File There have been some creative excuses to cover up murder, but this might be a first. Gurinder Gill - immigration status currently undisclosed - first told investigators that his wife went missing after September 30 because ICE detained her. Detectives subsequently uncovered inconsistencies in his story and dug deeper, coming to the conclusion

"I Am F**king Getting You!" Unhinged Mayor Lunges At Resident During Chaotic Meeting A New Jersey mayor erupted in a profanity-laced tirade during a chaotic public meeting Wednesday night, charging toward a resident and threatening him before several people rushed to restrain the furious politician. Pemberton Township Mayor Matthew Bianchini, a Republican, was caught on camera lunging toward Michael Sawka, a frequent critic of his policies, as an already contentious council meeting descended into pandemonium. " I'm fucking getting you ," Bianchini shouted as others scrambled to prevent a physical confrontation. The wild incident unfolded while recently fired township official

Here's One October Surprise, Anyway... Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Clusterfuck Nation , "The Left has always preferred the ashes of its own making to the inheritance of better men." - Celina101 on X By now, everybody and his uncle interested in public matters has probably read that a claque of current-and-former agency officials, ex-USAID busybodies, military officers, activist academics, Democratic Party paladins, and freelance communist jihadis has been exposed plotting the overthrow of the US government. The plot was reported by the diligent "X" blogger Jennica Pounds under her nom-de-plume "Data Republican," who lately received an enormous document-and-recording

Watch: Arizona Governor-Aligned Canvassers Caught Willing To Allow Noncitizens To Vote Submitted by Muckraker , Canvassers registering voters for groups backing Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs's re-election told undercover Muckraker journalists posing as a non-citizen and as a felon on probation that they could go ahead and register to vote, hidden-camera footage shows. With the midterm elections weeks away, Muckraker visited voter registration drives run by three Democrat-aligned organizations: Stand Indivisible Arizona, Worker Power, and the Democratic National Committee's When We Count program. At each, a Muckraker journalist told the canvasser they were not eligible to vote. Muckraker also attended an

Ex-FBI "Shadow Government" Official Among Two Charged With Lying To Congress Over Hunter Biden Laptop Two former senior FBI officials who ran the bureau's now-defunct Foreign Influence Task Force during the 2020 election were charged Friday with lying to Congress about their roles in the FBI's Hunter Biden investigations. Nikki Cole Floris, 46, and Bradley Benavides, 56, each face one count of lying to Congress in a criminal complaint, D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced in a post on X. Both surrendered Friday and made their first appearance in federal court in Washington, according to the AP . Floris led

Melania Trump 'Brokers' Oleshky Ceasefire - But The White House And Russia Give Different Start Dates The White House said Friday that First Lady Melania Trump brokered a localized ceasefire in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city in Ukraine's Kherson region, to let aid in and civilians out. The White House says it starts October 29, but Gen. Valery Gerasimov said Russian forces would stop firing October 27. (Credit: Matt McClain/Getty Images) In its statement , the White House said " both nations agreed to temporarily stop all military action in Oleshky to allow for humanitarian aid to enter and to prepare

Rare Earth Stocks Hit 52-Week Low As William Blair Says China Supply Optimism Is "Incorrect" Our " Great Rare Earth Disconnect " note earlier this week highlighted the widening gap between elevated rare earth prices and tumbling junior miners and producers. William Blair rare-earths analyst Neal Dingmann has also weighed in on the forces driving the selloff. " Revived rate-hike fears, hot CPI, and other macro concerns along with rare earth headline and company-specific concerns have notably hurt the largely high-beta rare earth group in recent weeks ," Dingmann wrote. The VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF (REMX) has

Mother, 36, died after current off North Bimini reportedly swept away two boys, who were later rescued, police say A British woman has died in the Bahamas while trying to rescue her two sons after a current swept them away as they were snorkelling. The Royal Bahamas police force said it had launched an investigation after the death of a 36-year-old woman on Tuesday. Continue reading...

US secretary of state makes comments after Trump tells US rally warships could intervene on return from Iran Marco Rubio urged Cubans seeking political change in their country to act, saying “now is the time” moments after Donald Trump told a Friday rally for candidates in south Florida that US warships could intervene in Cuba on their way back from the Iran war. The US secretary of state, in his social media post addressed “to those who seek to create positive change”, urged Cubans to capitalize on Trump’s plans. “The disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of

Our Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, heads to Roraima to hear what’s at stake for the rainforest and the communities that live there in the Brazilian presidential runoff on Sunday. Send your comments and questions to tif.questions@theguardian.com For the Amazon and the communities who live there, the stakes in Sunday’s Brazilian presidential election runoff could scarcely be higher. Our Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips heads to Roraima, the country’s most northern state, to hear from voters, preachers and politicians in a region that heavily backed Flávio Bolsonaro in the first round. Continue reading...

‘Scapegoating non-permanent residents is not going to lower the cost of living,’ Vanesa Ortiz says When Vanesa Ortiz came to Calgary from Mexico, she found herself in a city gripped by winter. Outside the airport, it was -15C (5F). “I would come to understand that this was not an extreme cold,” she said. “But in the moment it was terrifying.” Continue reading...

Result is a victory for prime minister Mark Carney and supporters of Canadian unity Voters in Canada’s Alberta have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to begin the process of independence, delivering a decisive victory for supporters of Canadian unity and deepening divisions within the separatist movement. With nearly 1.9m votes counted, roughly 76% people supported remaining in Canada, while 24% backed beginning a process toward separation, according to unofficial results from Elections Alberta. Continue reading...

North Korean leader travels over New Yalu River Bridge to meet senior Communist party member Kim Jong-un has visited China, inaugurating a bridge that connects the two countries and saying he hopes to expand cooperation with his neighbour. The North Korean leader arrived in the Chinese border city of Dandong on Saturday after crossing the New Yalu River Bridge, according to South Korea’s unification ministry, which handles affairs related to North Korea, and China’s official Xinhua news agency. Continue reading...

Super typhoon weakening but large parts of Taiwan, including Taipei, still mostly closed and flights cancelled Typhoon Champi swept past Taiwan on Saturday killing one person, injuring more than 500, and uprooting trees and severing power as it weakened and ⁠headed north toward ⁠the ​Chinese coast. Earlier classified as a super typhoon and one of the strongest storms in the ⁠Pacific this year, Champi was still packing gusts of about 126km per hour (78 miles per hour) near its ⁠centre, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration (CWA). Continue reading...

Meghan reveals she was made aware of ‘disturbing allegations’ against him in 2018 by Met police The Duchess of Sussex has said she is “deeply distressed” over accusations involving child sexual abuse images against her estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr, and revealed she was made aware of “disturbing allegations” against him in 2018 by the Metropolitan police. Meghan issued a statement after the Sun newspaper published claims that her half-brother Thomas Markle Jr alleged he had found a stash of images belonging to their father at his former home in the Philippines. Continue reading...

Search and rescue efforts under way after quake strikes region’s north, with at least seven aftershocks recorded A magnitude-7 earthquake has hit Tibet, killing at least 16 people, injuring 54 and destroying hundreds of homes in the northern regional city of Nagqu, official media have said. Search and rescue efforts continued after at least 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds collapsed, the Nagqu media office said, citing city government officials. It was the biggest quake in the region in the past five years, according to China’s national broadcaster CCTV. Continue reading...

Kim Yo-jong, sister of Kim Jong-un, issues warning after inspecting border fortifications against backdrop of rising tensions Propaganda loudspeakers aimed at South Korea will be ready to restart within days along the entire border, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has said amid a worsening of ties between the two countries. The statement, carried by the state news agency KCNA on Thursday, came a day after she said the loudspeakers would be in operation along the whole border from some time in October. Continue reading...

WA politician says he considered attending Senate estimates virtually but was told it would be ‘unacceptable’ Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Jordon Steele-John has confirmed he will not attend parliament next week as the embattled Greens senator apologises for publicly releasing the letter outlining the claims against him. On Saturday afternoon, Steele-John removed a social media post containing a three-page letter marked as “confidential” sent to the Greens leader, David Shoebridge, earlier this month. The letter urged an investigation into allegations he had acted inappropriately towards women between 2017 and 2025. Sign up

Independent MP now serious but stable, according to update from Melbourne’s Alfred hospital Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Independent MP Helen Haines’s condition has been downgraded to serious but stable after she lost both legs following an alleged attack near her electorate office in north-east Victoria on Monday afternoon. The Alfred hospital in Melbourne provided an update on Haines’s condition on Saturday morning. Continue reading...

Parts of Queensland, Victoria and South Australia can expect severe storms on Saturday, moving into NSW and Tasmania by Sunday Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Severe thunderstorms and heavy rain will sweep across most Australian states this weekend, adding to the deluge in an already drenched Queensland. Flash flooding in south-east Queensland this week prompted hundreds of SES callouts and the closure of multiple schools. On Saturday morning, the Bureau of Meteorology had nine flood warnings in place for south Queensland. Continue reading...

David Shoebridge’s newly-minted leadership under pressure over handling of misconduct allegations as Senate estimates looms Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast More than a week after allegations that Greens senator Jordon Steele-John had behaved inappropriately towards women made headlines, his position in the party remains in limbo and its new leader’s handling of the issue in question. David Shoebridge ’s first major challenge at the helm of the federal Greens came earlier this month when the Nine newspapers reported a three-page letter had been sent to him urging an independent investigation into Steele-John. Sign

High inflation, low growth and rising unemployment can be added to the federal treasurer’s wall of worries Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Jim Chalmers in a speech last week offered the scant encouragement that the economy would be “a bit better” in a year’s time. Fast forward to Friday morning, and the treasurer revealed that his officials were busy downgrading their forecasts ahead of December’s mid-year budget update to show slower growth and higher unemployment. Continue reading...

French police have made 135 arrests, while Italian officers have raided homes in Milan, with protests also taking place in Spain and Albania Jesse, 40, a charity worker from the north of Paris, had turned out for the street march. She said: “I’m so angry. I’m here to support schoolchildren’s demands for better conditions. I’m so proud of them and we have to stand together.” Continue reading...

About 200 firefighters deployed to tackle blaze at former Nazi mountain retreat in remote part of southern Germany German police have arrested a suspect after a fire ripped through Adolf Hitler’s former mountain retreat in Bavaria, leaving the historic Nazi meeting place – known as the Eagle’s Nest – largely destroyed. About 200 firefighters were deployed on Friday night to tackle the blaze at the Nazi dictator’s remote, purpose-built Kehlsteinhaus residence, a protected building on the peak of Obersalzberg in southern Germany. Continue reading...

Founding member of Planxty, Lunny went on to play for bands such as Moving Hearts, the Bothy Band and Coolfin The Irish traditional musician Dónal Lunny has died at the age of 79 from cancer. Lunny rose to prominence in the trio Rakes of Kildare alongside his brother Frank and Christy Moore. He went on to play in bands such as Planxty , Moving Hearts , the Bothy Band and Coolfin among others and toured the world. Continue reading...

Video shows AI likenesses of people linked to Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party appearing to admit to wrongdoing A political ad from Spain’s main opposition party that used a deepfake video of the prime minister’s wife has sparked outrage and set off a wider debate on AI, as the deeply polarised country gears up for general elections next month. Launched this week across the social media channels of the conservative People’s party (PP), the video used artificial intelligence to manipulate the likenesses of various people linked to Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party and appeared to show them admitting to acts such as

Established under the Franco dictatorship, the lunchtime ritual is in decline but all is not lost A little before lunchtime each working day across Spain, evidence of one of the lingering, if less notorious, legacies of the Franco dictatorship is carefully traced in chalk, marker pen and printer ink. Beckoning to hungry workers from blackboards, whiteboards and pieces of paper hastily taped to windows, the competitively priced menú del día , or daily set-price lunch, has been part of everyday Spanish life for more than half a century. But while 4m menús are still served each weekday, Spain is slowly

PM Benjamin Netanyahu vows ‘to destroy this place’ in retaliation for militant attack on army checkpoint Israeli troops have levelled a neighbourhood in Hebron, driving out hundreds of families, in collective punishment for a militant attack on an army checkpoint outside the West Bank city, local Palestinian authorities said. The Hebron municipality estimated that 35 hectares (86 acres) had been destroyed or marked for destruction and about 1,500 people had been evicted from their homes by Saturday afternoon in the district of Ein Deir Baha. The whole city of 250,000 people was sealed off by checkpoints on every point of

Leading restaurateur says Gulf countries actively help businesses set up, while east Asia has a better work ethic Some of London’s top restaurants are opening branches in Dubai because of a “tax tsunami” in the UK and better work ethic abroad, according to a leading restaurateur. James Robson, a co-owner of Fallow in St James’s Market, regarded as the capital’s hottest restaurant, serving 1,000 people a day, has just signed a deal to open an outpost in the Gulf. Continue reading...

Footage broadcast on state TV shows three attackers approaching Greek Orthodox church and firing shots Eight people have been killed after gunmen opened fire at a funeral at a church in Jordan in a rare attack ⁠on the country’s Christian minority. Authorities described the attack on Friday as a terrorist act by extremists. Continue reading...

The prime minister has defined and dominated his country’s politics for three decades and is putting his rivals on the defensive before Tuesday’s general election They chant his name, they cheer and clap – and yet he is not the most dominant person in the room. Looming over the crowd that has gathered to hear Gadi Eisenkot, the former general who is the lead opposition challenger in Tuesday’s Israeli election, is a man who is not there. It is the man Eisenkot seeks to replace as prime minister, the man who first served in that role three decades ago and

Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers promise demolitions and forced displacement after deadly gunfight Israel has launched a campaign of collective punishment against Palestinians in Hebron after gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and injured three near a checkpoint outside the city. Benjamin Netanyahu announced a siege on Hebron and neighbouring Halhul and said residents of the gunmen’s home neighbourhoods would all be forced out. He promised mass demolitions of homes. Continue reading...

Case filed in 2022 by patient unable to afford medicine leads to cap on drug prices for millions who face ruin if diagnosed The Indian government has moved to reduce the price of cancer drugs after a retired bank clerk took her case to the supreme court. From next month, 137 cancer drugs in India will be cheaper as the government tries to tackle the tragedy of poorer patients either forgoing treatment, selling land or falling into debt to meet the high cost of some medicines, which are making large profits for hospitals and pharmacists. Continue reading...

Kim Aris says ‘hearing her voice again means more than words can express’ amid loosening of detention restrictions The son of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi has been allowed to speak to the detained former democratic leader for the first time in more than five years. “Today, I was finally able to speak with my mother, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, after more than five years. Hearing her voice again means more than words can express,” Kim Aris said in a post on Facebook on Thursday. Continue reading...

Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka spent a week in jail after defying restrictions on protests in Delhi amid government crackdown An Indian court has ordered the release of two leaders of India’s Cockroach movement who were jailed last week amid a mounting state crackdown on youth-led protests. The two leaders of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) movement, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, had spent a week in Delhi’s Tihar jail after being arrested by Delhi police last week. Continue reading...

Low-cost broadband provider Jio Platforms aims for £81bn valuation when it floats on the stock market on Wednesday India’s second-richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is launching what could be the country’s biggest-ever initial public offering (IPO), despite a stock market downturn. Mumbai-based Jio Platforms, a telecoms company backed by Meta Platforms and Google, is hoping to raise up to 302bn rupees (£2.4bn) and is targeting a 10.3tn rupees valuation when it floats on the stock market from Wednesday. Continue reading...

​After a protest clip went viral, a teenager’s life was torn apart by threats that sent her and her family into hiding. Plus, a book on citizen journalism • Don’t get This is India delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Before 24 July, a person I will call R was preoccupied with the ordinary routines of teenage life: experimenting with makeup, grumbling over mathematics homework and hanging out with friends at a tea stall. That month, as the fever of student protests spread across the country, the 15-year-old watched on her phone as young people poured into Jantar Mantar,

Second named storm in as many days will hit northern parts of UK as thousands remain without power after Friday’s Storm Austen The UK is bracing for a second storm this weekend, as strong winds and heavy rain are expected to disrupt travel and cause further power cuts in the north. Storm Boelo, the second named storm of the season, is expected to bring heavy, frequent showers and winds potentially exceeding 80mph to northern parts of the UK. Continue reading...

Lobby group’s figures, shared with John Healey, are misleading as they do not include major rival Paris, say campaigners A banking lobby group has been accused of cherrypicking data and trying to mislead the British government by claiming a tax rise for banks at next week’s budget would leave London less competitive than rival financial hubs. UK Finance, which represents banks including Lloyds, JP Morgan and Revolut, commissions an annual report tallying up all the taxes shouldered by a large bank, including corporation tax, social security, VAT and bank-specific levies. Continue reading...

Government campaign recommends three days’ worth of stores for emergencies, but some are ahead of the game Dried foods, bottled water, medicine stocks and backup power banks: it could be the props cupboard on a disaster movie, but instead it is precisely what some UK residents are stockpiling amid official warnings about Russian “state-sponsored terrorism” and the impact of the climate crisis. The government launched a campaign on Thursday advising people to set aside three days’ worth of stores to deal with a whole range of eventualities, and some are already well under way. Continue reading...

BBC series deliberately uses ‘more organic’ shots to assure viewers animals are not AI-generated, producers say The David Attenborough -narrated series Blue Planet III deliberately includes cloudier, less polished footage to counter AI fakery and assure viewers it is “authentic”, its producers have said. Nearly a decade after Blue Planet II shone a light on plastic pollution, and 25 years since the first Blue Planet aired, the hit BBC series is returning with more animal behaviour and cutting-edge technology, including the world’s first underwater CCTV camera – dubbed “stonefish” cam. Continue reading...

Tim and Geli Harris have spent more than a decade fighting to protect Catfield Fen, a rare wetland in the Norfolk Broads Polluters and regulators who fail to stop pollution must quake in their boots when they receive a letter from the lawyers for Tim and Geli Harris. The couple, who farm 460 acres in the Norfolk Broads, have now scored a hat-trick of landmark legal victories to save an internationally important wetland after they won again in the high court this month. Lady Justice Lieven found that Natural England failed in its statutory duty to protect Catfield Fen from

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 4,588 cases across the country, more than double the tally in 2025 Federal health authorities reported an additional 178 cases of measles in the US this week, as the vaccine-preventable illness continues to sicken people across at least 43 outbreaks. The new data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) comes as experts criticize the agency for lack of transparency, and as health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr takes steps to further upend US vaccine infrastructure. Continue reading...

Other voter concerns have prevailed but return of Congress likely to see renewed focus on late sex offender’s activities As US voters head to the polls for crucial and fraught midterm elections, some survivors’ advocates in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation have expressed concern that the scandal could recede into the background. Political experts believe, however, the Epstein issue is not going away permanently and that many voters can balance day-to-day concerns such as affordability and AI with the scandal involving the late financier and accused sex trafficker whose social circle was widespread among America’s elite. Continue reading...

Critics decry Trump administration rule that lets hunters lure bears with human foods on federal lands in Alaska A new Trump administration rule allows hunters to bait bears on federal lands in Alaska with bacon, doughnuts, meat scraps or other human foods typically used to help kill the trophy animals at close range. Opponents say the practice will cause bears to be more aggressive around humans, and allege that the rule change is a political gift to largely rightwing trophy hunters. The rule replaces a 2024 Biden administration rule that banned the practice, and environmental groups criticized the move as

New details of IV team’s attempts to find a vein shared by Pike’s lawyer ‘shocked and disturbed’ practitioners Medical experts have expressed shock at the apparent incompetence shown by Tennessee’s execution team during the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike, the prisoner who survived a normally fatal dose of pentobarbital, which they say would be considered medical malpractice in any other setting. New details emerged on Thursday of how Tennessee’s intravenous (IV) team struggled for almost an hour to set up a line into Pike’s arms through which she would be administered the fatal dose of sedative. A blow-by-blow account

Ebro Ahmed, who acted after driver’s medical emergency, said he hopes incident will show Eritreans ‘in a good way’ A man who hopped on to a school bus full of terrified children that was careering down a Minnesota street after its driver had a medical emergency and manually halted it says he was motivated to act by a Qu’ran verse about how saving one life is equivalent to saving all of humanity. “I’m a numbers guy, and those numbers make sense to me,” Ebro Ahmed, 27, said on Friday during an interview about his actions four days earlier in front

Days ahead of close-fought Israeli elections, campaigns have gone into overdrive with poor-taste jibes and inflammatory attacks against candidates, sometimes crossing red lines. Fuelled in part by a boom in AI-generated images flooding social media, candidates and activists are seeking to portray their opponents as weak, untrustworthy or damaging for the country as they play on stereotypes and fears to sway public opinion. The electioneering has at times turned personal, with some candidates who...

Parisians are buying tear-gas canisters and pepper sprays to defend themselves and their property during protests, which are expected to continue over the weekend, the owner of a weapons shop in the French capital has said. France was hit by its worst social unrest in years last weekend as nationwide protests over high prices and declining public services erupted into riots. A town hall was torched, shops pillaged ‌and buildings covered in graffiti as violent groups clashed with police in cities...

Kenya’s health ministry announced the country’s second Ebola death on Friday, saying a 65-year-old woman who was a close relative of the first patient died after developing symptoms while in quarantine. The woman began showing symptoms 10 days ago and began receiving supportive care at an infectious disease unit in the capital, Nairobi. The ministry said medical personnel “did everything possible to save her life”, but she died Friday evening. Her family was notified, and the ministry said it...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Beijing has “influence” over Moscow it should use to stop the war in Ukraine, and that a proposed summit meeting of the US, Chinese and Russian leaders must not lead to the division of his war-torn country. Speaking virtually at an event hosted by Washington-based Hudson Institute think tank, Zelensky said he did not know what would be discussed at the potential meeting between US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and...

The Trump administration is expanding tariff exemptions to more Canadian products, a move that may help boost Republican US Senator Susan Collins’ re-election campaign in Maine. Collins announced in a statement on Friday that the exemptions would apply to certain paper, plastic, machinery and seaweed products, saying they would help the state’s rural and coastal economy, including the blueberry, potato, apple and seaweed industries. “Many of our farmers and growers rely on specialised equipment,...

A gunman firing from a car killed one person and wounded five – including a 12-year-old girl shot eight times – in the Paris suburbs on Friday, in what the French president called a “racist terrorist attack”. The man was “firing at random, wanting to cause a bloodbath” as he drove through the working-class town of Trappes southwest of Paris and neighbouring La Verriere, Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh said. Most of the victims were from foreign backgrounds and prosecutors are investigating whether the...

Gunmen killed at least seven people and wounded dozens at a church in southern Jordan on Friday, with the king vowing retaliation for the rare attack on Christians in the majority Sunni Muslim kingdom. Assailants stormed the compound of a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hammoud in Karak governorate and opened fire, authorities said. The gunmen got out of a vehicle and started shooting during a funeral procession, the public security directorate said in a statement, adding that a hunt was...

Ukraine’s top negotiator involved in a humanitarian mission led by US first lady Melania Trump has said that a local ceasefire with Russia will start on Tuesday – two days before the mission begins – and last several days. Ukrainian, Russian and US negotiators reached a deal on Friday to provide humanitarian aid in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, in the war-divided region of Kherson in southern Ukraine. Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian ombudsman and his country’s chief negotiator in the...

Authorities in the Philippines are investigating Thomas Markle, father of Meghan, the ⁠wife of Britain’s Prince ⁠Harry, the Philippine justice undersecretary said ⁠on Friday, after allegations he possessed child sexual abuse images. “Our Anti-Trafficking and Anti-OSAEC (online sexual abuse and exploitation of children) task force in Cebu is currently investigating the matter,” Nicholas Ty, Philippine justice undersecretary, said. Thomas Markle could not be immediately reached for comment but he...

France will deploy some 70,000 police nationwide as it braces for new protests this weekend after some of the worst urban violence in years erupted on the sidelines of demonstrations a week ago, the government said on Friday. President Emmanuel Macron, who, according to aides, is postponing a visit later this month to Nigeria and Senegal amid the crisis, held a meeting of his defence council of top ministers and officials and was to meet security forces. He was also set to host for the first...

China and Europe should jointly introduce a system like the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a levy on carbon-intensive imports designed to account for the carbon costs domestic producers face, which “applies against the rest of the world,” the co-chair of a global energy transition organisation says. “The biggest single thing which I would love China to do is to say, ‘We want to join with Europe in a climate club’,” said Adair Turner, co-chair of the Energy Transitions Commission,...

Beijing has told Brussels not to “fantasise” that pressure will extract concessions. This came after China made a goodwill gesture in the recent hybrid-car trade deal. The European Union responded by doubling down on a proposed trade “kill switch”. The instrument follows a Franco-German proposal. It would let the bloc swiftly restrict single-market access in response to economic coercion. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen says all 27 leaders back it. Chemicals and machinery are priority sectors....

As violent protests fuelled partly by the cost-of-living crisis shake parts of Europe, most notably France, analysts say the unrest could add to pressure on European policymakers to take a tougher trade stance towards China. “One could argue that the EU looks weaker, but then one could also argue that there is more of a need to show external strength at a time of such events,” said David Henig, director of the UK Trade Policy Project at the European Centre for International Political...

Ukrainian police said on Friday they had detained a 17-year-old girl suspected of helping Russia’s security services to poison Ukrainian soldiers and that two had died. Ukraine and Russia have throughout their war since 2022 accused each other of recruiting minors for sabotage acts including poisoning. The girl, who was not named, is suspected of having packaged deadly drugs and sending them to Ukrainian soldiers she contacted by Telegram, a police statement said. She was arrested by police in...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened a military operation in the occupied West Bank on a scale unseen in decades after Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers on Friday in an attack near Hebron days before the national election. A first step would see residents displaced, homes searched and “terrorist infrastructure” destroyed, said Netanyahu, who is in the midst of a tight race for a new term in Tuesday’s vote. Militant group Hamas, without claiming responsibility, praised the...

The World Health Organization has warned that Africa faced a “complex” Ebola outbreak after the virus crossed from east Africa to Nigeria, marking the first case in the west of the continent. Nigeria on Tuesday had announced an imported case of the Bundibugyo strain, currently causing a major Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was detected in the wife of a diplomat who had travelled from Uganda to the Nigerian capital Abuja. Health minister Muhammad Ali Pate said Thursday the...

Police across France are under pressure to maintain security during further protests expected in some cities, while facing scrutiny over their riot-control tactics used during previous unrest that left some teenagers seriously injured. Officers appeared outnumbered and overwhelmed during last weekend’s protests against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. In response, France’s Interior Ministry said it would deploy 20 per cent more police this Saturday than last weekend, even as...

US and South Korean officials see the chances fading of ⁠a meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this year, according to five people with knowledge of the situation. Trump, the only US president to have met a North Korean leader, has been eager to jump-start talks with North Korea, but Pyongyang has shown little interest in diplomacy aimed at containing its nuclear programme. The US has received no response from North Korea on holding a Trump-Kim meeting, and...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Honduras targets Chinese shops, state builder as president sits on Taiwan pledge Honduran migration officials have summoned or placed under review 41 Chinese nationals after inspecting shops in the capital and a hospital being built...

El Salvador deployed 100 special forces soldiers to Haiti on Thursday to help rescue four missing soldiers from the Central American country who recently came under attack by gangs, two officials told Associated Press. The special forces arrived a day after Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele announced a military operation to rescue the four aviation technicians, issuing an ultimatum directly to Haitian gang leaders in Creole. “We have a single objective: to bring our four compatriots back home...

Tennessee execution team members failed multiple times to establish working IV lines in Christa Pike’s arms before her attempted execution and warned that some of her veins may have ruptured, or “blown”, before she was injected with the lethal drug, her lawyer wrote in a court document filed Thursday. The IV team went through about 10 needles and tried several IV sites on both arms, lawyer Randy Spivey wrote in the document, which provides the most detailed account of the execution attempt so...

A Florida police officer who found a man dead during a welfare check in 2022 is accused of taking possession of the man’s home and impersonating him for years while fixing up the place, authorities said. The officer said he took possession of the property weeks after discovering the homeowner’s body to “prevent squatters from taking control of it,” according to a court document he filed. Investigators in South Florida have accused Lauderhill police officer Brian Sguros of carrying out a “complex...

Mississippi released video on Thursday showing the fatal shooting of a one-year-old boy by a police officer whom state authorities have cleared of criminal wrongdoing. Kohen Wiley was killed in June when Senatobia police officer Sergeant Hunter Foster fired his gun into a moving vehicle while responding to a shoplifting call. Kohen’s family says footage of the fatal encounter shows the shooting was not justified. The Mississippi Attorney General’s office said this week its month-long probe found...

US ⁠President Donald Trump determined ⁠on Thursday that petroleum ⁠production, refining and related activities are essential to national defence, a move that could open up US funding for fossil fuel projects. In a presidential memo, Trump also invoked part of ‌the Cold War-era Defence Production Act, allowing him to provide financial incentives for oil-related activities, pipelines and storage of liquid fuels. Prices for crude oil and diesel have surged since the US and Israel attacked Iran in...

Versatile actor Tom Skerritt, who starred in Hollywood megahits including the sci-fi classic Alien, the ⁠war comedy M*A*S*H, and the action drama Top Gun, ⁠has died at the age of 93. Skerritt, a Detroit native ⁠whose Hollywood career spanned from the 1960s to the 2020s, died on Wednesday of natural causes, his family said in a statement. “While the world knew Tom through his remarkable acting career, we knew him for his humour, curiosity, wisdom, generosity and the love he brought into our...

US President Donald Trump on Thursday accused LeBron James of disrespecting the United States after the NBA star appeared to continue his warm-ups while the national anthem was performed before Philadelphia’s season opener on Tuesday. “I said right from the beginning that he’s no good, a TOTAL DISGRACE,” Trump said of James in a social media post sharing the video. “LeBron James should apologize to all of those Great American Warriors and Heroes who died for the American Flag, and all that our...

Diplomats from the EU’s 27 member states were pressured this week to lift sanctions on Yusha Group, a Chinese textiles manufacturer accused of selling sensitive European technology to Russian buyers. In exchange, Beijing has pledged that the company will refrain from shipping banned items to Russian military-linked buyers. It will also remove German company Sindlhauser Materials from its own export controls list, according to multiple sources familiar with the affair. The unusual quid pro quo –...

A truckers’ protest in southern Italy has halted the production of the famed buffalo mozzarella, causing an estimated loss of €3 million (US$3.37 million) in just 24 hours as the milk cannot reach dairies in the Naples region and the finished cheese cannot reach customers, an official said. The week-long strike by truck drivers over the high cost of diesel driven up by the Iran war has also blocked deliveries of other basic goods to supermarkets and left fuel pumps empty in much of southern...

A federal judge on Thursday ordered US President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his US$10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC by December 11. The order from US Magistrate Judge Enjolique Lett came as lawyers for the British broadcaster complained that Trump had delayed his appearance. Charles Tobin, the lawyer for the BBC, said that with two months left in the discovery period, “we still haven’t been able to depose the plaintiff”. He noted there was an agreed-upon date of October...

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg will get a new chunk of shares in the company he founded, and in return, he has agreed to stay in California, where the company is headquartered, for at least eight more years. It is partly a financial carrot intended to keep Zuckerberg in California, where voters in November will decide whether to approve a temporary tax on wealth held by billionaires who live in the state. Meta announced the deal on Wednesday in a securities filing that coincided with its...

The European Union’s perception that China is yielding to its pressure tactics on trade is a “serious misjudgment”, as Beijing proved during last year’s tariff war with the United States that it will not back down from a confrontation, a former Chinese diplomat has warned. Beijing’s willingness to compromise during trade talks with the EU earlier this month – where the two sides agreed a quota on Chinese hybrid car exports to Europe – has been taken by some in Brussels as a sign that their...

This month alone, Europe has threatened China with a trade “kill switch”, rebuked it in parliament, sent its trade commissioner on a much-trumpeted trip to Beijing and announced three new economic security instruments. The sequence exposed a European Union that has no clear goal on China, no hierarchy of priorities and has reached no agreement on what it wants from Beijing or on what it would pay to get it. China has built its European policy around this vacuum. Its method rewards patience:...

A mob of about 50 people beat a foreign national to death on Thursday in South Africa’s port city of Durban, a flashpoint for anti-migrant sentiment, police said. Durban has been a focus of months of protests against foreign nationals, with looting and violence erupting after an anti-migrant march in the city two weeks ago. Thursday’s attack in the city centre was on the sidelines of a march, police said, without being able to say what the demonstration was about. Two men from the group...

Facing US sanctions, the International Criminal Court was on Thursday awarded the European Union’s top rights prize, in a show of support that risks upsetting President Donald Trump. “The European Union is built on respect for multilateralism and international institutions, and this prize recognises the important work of the court in upholding international law and justice,” said European Parliament chief Roberta Metsola in announcing the award. The ICC thanked the European Parliament for giving...

Across Paris’ toniest shopping districts, luxury boutiques bear the scars of a weekend of rioting that filled social media feeds around the world. Now they are bracing for the possibility of another round. On the avenue Champs-Elysees, Louis Vuitton’s flagship store has metallic grates protecting its windows that are not there at quieter times, as does the Christian Dior Couture emporium on avenue Montaigne, a nexus of high-end shopping in Paris’ eighth arrondissement. Both stores escaped...

Moscow firing ballistic missiles at Ukraine shortly after talks between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russia’s Vladimir Putin showed the Kremlin’s position on the war had not changed, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday. The Kremlin had said it was willing to restart trilateral talks with Kyiv and Washington next month, though dismissed new ideas brought by Witkoff – developed with European countries and Ukraine – as lacking substance. Russia hit a dozen Ukrainian regions overnight,...

The publisher of top-selling Haitian-Canadian writer Thelyson Orelien said Wednesday it had confirmed that he used artificial intelligence to help write his novel It Was Either That or Die. Orelien has denied allegations that he used AI on his breakthrough novel and, last week, Canadian publisher Boreal said it was standing by the 38-year-old writer. But on Wednesday, Boreal said it had conducted a further investigation into the allegations. “New information, confirmed over the past few days,...

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] For two weeks in September, Samarkand was the capital of world chess — and when the pieces were finally swept from the boards, it was the home team standing at the top. Uzbekistan won the Open section of the 46th World Chess Olympiad, the largest in the event’s history with a record 397 teams from 205 federations, sealing gold with a final-round victory over Ukraine in front of packed stands. It is the country’s second...

The US State Department has ordered some diplomats and family members to depart ‌from its missions in Saudi Arabia and plans to withdraw family members from a number of other US missions in the region, US officials said. The order came as attacks in Saudi Arabia killed at least one person and injured eight others at a civilian airport in Dammam, and two people were killed in a drone attack on an oilfield. US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a post on social media ⁠that the...

Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for Ohio governor, faced a firestorm of criticism Wednesday over an ad featuring Democratic rival Amy Acton’s estranged mother, whose husband was charged with raping Acton when she was a child. Acton has not spoken with her mother, Donna Arthur, since her childhood, when she accused her then-stepfather of sexually abusing her for years. In the ad, Arthur says her daughter has “lied her entire life”. “Don’t let her become your governor. If you think...

Government agencies and companies around the world shut down websites as they raced Thursday to protect themselves from hacks after artificial intelligence uncovered critical flaws in a widely used programming language called PHP. Wiz, one of the cybersecurity firms that found the two flaws, estimated that PHP code helps run about 70 per cent of the world’s websites – from online stores and news outlets to government services. It called the flaws “among the most severe vulnerabilities discovered...

Last month, the US published the fine print of a US$686 million upgrade deal for Pakistan’s F-16 fighter jets. The deal is for data link systems, new encryption gear and a refit that keeps the jets flying until 2040. The notice says Pakistan can protect the technology to “substantially the same degree” as the US government. The Pakistan Air Force is also the only declared interested buyer of China’s J-35 stealth fighter, a generational leap in technology. The Chinese jet first flew at the Zhuhai...

Pope Leo needs no further treatment for lung cancer after follow-up tests confirmed the disease was localised, the Vatican said in a statement on Wednesday. Leo, 71, had the lower lobe of his right lung removed last week in the first major health event of his 17-month pontificate. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. He left the hospital on Saturday, four days after surgery and well ahead of the week-long hospital stay the Vatican had initially...

Meta Platforms was ordered to pay a groundbreaking US$25 billion civil penalty to the state of New Mexico in a consumer deception case spurred by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The fine issued by state court Judge Francis Mathew is among the largest verdicts issued in US legal history. The award comes after a jury in Santa Fe determined that Meta had violated the state’s consumer protection over 43 million times based on widely viewed deceptive statements made by the company and its top...

US President Donald Trump’s pivot away from Ukraine has triggered fresh questions about his attachment to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the man a top American envoy flattered on Wednesday as a “humanitarian”. Trump has cast his dealings with Putin as part of a mega-deal that has secured the release of American detainee Stephen Hubbard – and which Trump says will end Russia’s war on Ukraine. At the same time, he has repeatedly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and called for him to...

Election officials across the state received letters from the agency saying if they fail to comply, they “risk significant federal scrutiny.”

The fallout from Vivek Ramaswamy’s brutal spot targeting his Democratic rival in the Ohio governor’s race showed that even in the Trump era, a political attack can be seen as going too far.

The U.S. government has ordered diplomats and other federal employees to leave Saudi Arabia. It is also drawing down staff at other missions in the region.

Looters ravaged a storied commercial avenue in France’s second-largest city. Its merchants fear that more unrest could follow.

In states like Florida, officers who hand out fishing citations and inspect produce have been deputized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, expanding the reach of President Trump’s deportation campaign.

Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for governor, on her appeal to MAGA voters and her refusal to engage in the “culture wars.”

Look into that unblinking gaze and see the abyss.

Hope, dread and the final stretch to Election Day.

We’ve plunged fully into fall, complete with cozy scarves and puffy vests. Why not venture into the woods?

The Roman Catholic archdiocese might now avoid bankruptcy by reaching a settlement with 1,300 people who said they had been abused by clergy members and lay leaders.