Minimalist News

Trump Approves DC Emergency Declaration For Potomac Sewage Spill Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration Saturday for the District of Columbia following a massive raw sewage spill into the Potomac River, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced. Water samples are taken from the Potomac River in Glen Echo, Md., on Jan. 23, 2026. Nathan Ellgren/AP The White House named the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the lead federal agency in response to at least 240 million gallons of wastewater discharged from the Potomac Interceptor sewage line into the waterway last month. Trump

21-Year-Old Male Identified As Shotgun-Wielding Mar-a-Lago Intruder Update (1230ET): AP News reports that the 21-year-old male, armed with a shotgun and a gas canister, who was shot and killed by law enforcement at Mar-a-Lago early Sunday morning after breaching the outer layer of the security perimeter, has been identified as Austin Tucker Martin. > 🚨 BREAKING: Mar-a-Lago intruder IDENTIFIED as 21-year-old, Austin Tucker Martin, who breached the secure perimeter and was shot dead, reports Fox’s @pdoocy. > > Tucker was reported missing by his parents and was LAST SEEN on Feburay 21st at 7:51pm. pic.twitter.com/xQv0kcAhJ4 > > — TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) February 22, 2026 Laura

"Devastating" Discovery: New Docs Confirm JPMorgan De-Banked Trump Shortly After Jan 6th Capitol Chaos New court documents released Friday show JPMorgan Chase told President Donald Trump a month after the January 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol that the bank was closing his accounts. The disclosure was made amid a $5 billion lawsuit Trump filed against JPMorgan and its CEO Jamie Dimon. JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, said for the first time late Friday that it cut off more than 50 Trump accounts in February 2021, shortly after Mr. Trump’s first term ended. The accounts included those for Trump hotels, housing developments and retail

CNN Slams Keir Starmer's "Atrocious" Ratings, 'Makes Trump Look Like Abraham Lincoln' Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Keir Starmer’s approval ratings have plunged to historic lows, with even CNN calling them “absolutely ATROCIOUS” and noting that President Trump appears “downright like Abraham Lincoln” by comparison. This brutal takedown highlights how Starmer’s globalist policies are alienating Brits across the board. As the Labour leader clings to power, his war on free speech and commitment to protecting illegal immigration is fueling a backlash that could spell the end for his regime. With polls showing just 20% approval, Starmer’s grip on Number 10 looks increasingly tenuous. The

Could The War In Ukraine Go Nuclear? Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker, Too many influential voices are contemplating how to ‘win’ a nuclear war... With all eyes on the U.S. military buildup around Iran right now, the Russia-Ukraine War has been temporarily upstaged.  It will not play second fiddle for long.  The recent trilateral talks in Geneva involving the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States have been unable to resolve a principal issue of disagreement: Ukraine’s martial-law-president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s refusal to cede any land and Russia’s insistence that the Donbas region — specifically the four eastern territories that have already held a referendum in support of becoming part of the

Jim Snow 2.0: Mamdani Requires Snow-Shovel Volunteers Show Two Forms Of ID, Social Security Card With 2-3 feet of snow predicted to hit New York City and New Jersey, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has called on New York residents to volunteer as emergency snow shovelers.  "You too can become an emergency snow shoveler. Just show up at your local sanitation garage between 8am and 1pm tomorrow with your paperwork," he said during a Saturday press conference before the city's first blizzard warning in nine years.  > 🚨 NEW: Zohran Mamdani Calls on New Yorkers to Shovel Snow During Tomorrow’s Blizzard > > “You too can become an

Non-Woke Game Of Thrones Spinoff Explodes In Popularity It is true that woke content in entertainment media has been in steady decline.  Some production studios continue to fight against reality in a vain effort to force their insane ideology on the public, but compared to five or ten years ago, far left-activism in film and TV is crumbling. The number of film productions are plummeting.  New movies and shows are becoming thinner in budget and frequency.  Hollywood is gasping for oxygen.  Many people consider this a good thing, and it is.  Hollywood deserves to die.  That said, there's almost nothing available to

"We'll Be Monitoring This Case": US State Dept Condemns Far-Left Activists Killing Of French Conservative Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News, The U.S. government has weighed in on the killing of French conservative student Quentin Deranque by far-left militant activists, warning that “violent radical leftism is on the rise,” and demanding that those responsible be brought to justice. In a statement posted on X, the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Counterterrorism said, “Reports, corroborated by the French Minister of the Interior, that Quentin Deranque was killed by left-wing militants, should concern us all. Violent radical leftism is on the rise, and

Fico Threatens To Cut Ukraine's Emergency Power As Russian Oil Transit Fight Escalates Slovakia's populist Prime Minister and pro-Trump ally Robert Fico has drawn an unexpectedly hard line in his country's ongoing energy showdown with Ukraine: restore Russian oil flows, or else a key emergency electricity lifeline for Ukraine gets pulled. In a weekend post on X, Fico warned that unless Ukraine resumes pumping Russian crude to Slovakia by Monday, Bratislava will cut off its emergency power exports. This is an immense threat given current frigid subzero temperatures in war-ravaged Ukraine. "If the West does not mind that the Nord Stream gas pipeline

"Potentially Worst Blizzard In Decade" Set To Hammer Mid-Atlantic And Northeast A potentially historic winter storm is set to slam the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast beginning Sunday, bringing heavy snow, damaging winds, and coastal flooding. As of Sunday morning, 35 million people are under Blizzard Warning alerts from the Mid-Atlantic through New England, according to a post on X from the National Weather Service Prediction Center. Meteorologists are already labeling the nor'easter as potentially historic and warn it could be the most intense blizzard to hit the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast in a decade. > "IT" HAS THAT LOOK!!!! > Simulation satellite shows the PERFECT phase of

Preparation For Martial Law? Europe To Recruit Migrants For "National Defense" Europe's lack of military readiness has become painfully obvious in recent years, due largely to the war in Ukraine as well as the Trump Administration's efforts to force NATO members to fulfill their basic obligations.  Specifically, Russia's successful use of attrition tactics against NATO supported forces in Ukraine has exposed a significant weakness in western military doctrine. New and cheap technologies (including drone technologies) are making large scale maneuver warfare obsolete.  The era of super-weapons dominating the battlefield with minimal manpower is over.  As was the case in WWI and WWII, troop

Ukraine's Fast-Tracked EU Membership Would De Facto Advance EU Federalist Goals Authored by Andrew Korybko, The approval of “reverse enlargement” to Ukraine and other candidate states would institutionalize a three-tiered Europe between the “E6”, Central Europe, and the new partial members from Eastern Europe and the Balkans for facilitating Germany’s divide-and-rule federalist plans. Politico reported on the EU’s plan to grant Ukraine partial membership by next year at the earliest as part of a comprehensive solution to that country’s conflict. An unnamed official described this as “reverse enlargement” and explained that “It would be a sort of recalibration of the process — you join

From Blockchain To Ball-And-Chain: Are We Being Borg'd? Authored by Patti Johnson via The Burning Platform blog, TOKENIZED TYRANNY: HOW ELITES ARE DIGITIZING OUR WORLD FOR TOTAL CONTROL I’ve followed investigative journalist Whitney Webb’s work for years, and her once-distant warnings now feel eerily prophetic as they unfold in real time. What she has consistently exposed, the systematic digitization and commodification of everything from natural ecosystems to human life itself, is no longer speculative theory. It’s happening before our eyes. When I first encountered Whitney’s reporting, I found it hard to believe. Could this level of control and financialization truly be underway? It seemed

Amb. Huckabee Claims Israel Has 'Biblical Right' To Conquer Whole Middle East In a jaw-dropping exchange with Tucker Carlson, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee openly framed Israel's territorial claims in biblical terms - suggesting the Jewish state has a divine mandate over virtually the entire region. Asked whether a passage from the Book of Genesis could be read as granting Israel the right to claim all the land between Egypt's Nile River and Syria's Euphrates, Huckabee didn't hedge. He bluntly and without apology said it would be "fine" if Israel and its military took over the whole Middle East. Full interview

Japan's $36 Billion Bet On US Energy Dominance Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com, * Japan has committed $36 billion as the first tranche of its $550-billion U.S. investment pledge under last year’s trade deal, including plans to build a 9.2 GW natural gas power plant in Ohio. * The remaining funds will support a synthetic diamond factory and the Texas GulfLink deepwater oil export terminal. * The massive gas plant reflects surging U.S. electricity demand — particularly from AI-driven data centers — with natural gas emerging as the preferred source of reliable baseload power. Japan has made the first commitments under

Boards Are Replacing CEOs At The Fastest Pace In Over A Decade A historic wave of leadership change is sweeping corporate America. Across 1,500 of the largest publicly traded companies, roughly one in nine CEOs was replaced last year—the highest churn since the post-financial-crisis years., according to the Wall Street Journal. The turnover has ushered in the largest cohort of new chief executives in more than a decade, and they’re arriving younger and, in many cases, with thinner résumés than their predecessors. The shake-up hasn’t slowed in 2026. Companies including Walmart, Procter & Gamble and Lululemon Athletica installed new leaders early in the

Trump Admin Mandates English-Only Tests For Truckers Seeking Commercial Driver's Licenses Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The federal crackdown on unqualified truckers kicked into a higher gear Friday when the nation’s transportation chief announced that tests for commercial driver’s licenses must be given only in English. A truck drives through the Port of Oakland in Oakland, Calif., on Nov. 14, 2025. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revealed the latest policy with a goal of ensuring that truck drivers understand English well enough to read road signs and communicate with law enforcement officers. Florida has already implemented English-only

The Quiet Revolution Reshaping America's Energy Future Authored by Haley Zaremba via OilPrice.com, * The geothermal revolution includes both shallow geoexchange systems, such as The Riverie high-rise which uses boreholes for heating and cooling, and deeper, more technologically advanced "enhanced geothermal" techniques. * Enhanced geothermal aims to make this alternative energy source viable anywhere by borrowing advanced drilling technologies from fields like hydraulic fracturing and nuclear fusion to access the Earth's core heat. * The sector is gaining momentum with significant investment from major tech figures like Bill Gates and Google, and is projected by the U.S. Department of Energy to

"Satanic, Awful, Sacrificial": Boebert And Maher Discuss Pizzagate, Epstein, And Baby Cannibalism Talk show host Bill Maher, that 'blood oath' sex party enthusiast who founded 'Kid Love Productions' in 1992 one year after starring in the movie "Pizza Man" - in which he plays a pizza delivery guy who stumbles into an elaborate criminal conspiracy involving Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, and Donald Trump (who he kills)... ...sat down with Rep. Lauren Boebert Friday, where the two discussed the latest Epstein files. Maher started out appearing to apologize to QAnon followers for being "righter than me" when it came to Epstein, adding "Now they also

Grinding The American Middle Class To Dust Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com, The housing market, for much of the 20th century, was the bedrock of the American Dream. Home ownership, and the financial stability it represents, was a sure path to middle-class prosperity. That dream turned to a nightmare for many American families during the epic real estate bubble and subsequent bust in 2008-09. What’s more, in the near two decades that followed, federal monetary policies coupled with restrictive local development standards have huffed and puffed an even more perilous bubble than the last one. Now the crumbling façade of American real estate

Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, leader of Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was one of world’s most wanted drug traffickers One of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers, the Mexican cartel boss known as “El Mencho”, has been killed by security forces, Mexico’s defence ministry has confirmed. The drug lord, whose real name is Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, was killed on Sunday in the western state of Jalisco along with at least six alleged accomplices, the ministry said in a statement. Continue reading...

Subspecies driven to extinction by hungry whalers returns after ‘back breeding’ programme using partial descendants Giant tortoises, the life-giving engineers of remote small island ecosystems, are plodding over the Galápagos island of Floreana for the first time in more than 180 years. The Floreana giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger niger), a subspecies of the giant tortoise once found across the Galápagos, was driven to extinction in the 1840s by whalers who removed thousands from the volcanic island to provide a living larder during their hunting voyages. Continue reading...

Long-serving socialist former leader Evo Morales has reappeared in his political stronghold after almost seven weeks of unexplained absence Bolivia’s long-serving socialist former leader, Evo Morales, reappeared on Thursday in his political stronghold of the tropics after almost seven weeks of unexplained absence, endorsing candidates for upcoming regional elections and quieting rumours he had fled the country in the wake of the US seizure of his ally, Venezuela’s ex-president Nicolás Maduro. The weeks of hand-wringing over Morales’ fate showed how little the Andean country knows about what’s happening in the remote Chapare region, where the former president has spent the past year

José María Balcázar, who argued for marriage at 14 and above, replaces José Jerí who was voted out after a scandal Peru’s congress has elected José María Balcázar, an octogenarian leftist lawmaker who has defended child marriage, as the country’s interim president ahead of general elections in April. Balcázar is Peru’s ninth president since 2016. The surprise election, in which Balcázar beat the favourite, María del Carmen Alva, a conservative, came after lawmakers voted to remove José Jerí as president on Tuesday after just four months in office, due to a scandal over secretive meetings with Chinese businessmen. Continue reading...

Kimberly Prost and Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza vow US reprisals will not affect work of international criminal court When the Canadian Kimberly Prost learned Donald Trump’s administration had imposed sanctions on her, it came as a shock. For years, she has sat as a judge at the international criminal court, weighing accusations of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity; now she is on the same list as terrorists and those involved in organised crime. “It really was a moment of a bit of disbelief,” she said. Continue reading...

Friedrich Merz to meet Xi Jinping in Beijing, with goods worth €251bn traded between two countries in 2025 China has overtaken the US as Germany’s top trading partner, figures have shown, as the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, prepares for his first visit to Beijing since taking office. Merz will head to China on Tuesday and will be welcomed with military honours on Wednesday in Beijing by the prime minister, Li Qiang, before later meeting the president, Xi Jinping, for talks over dinner, his spokesperson Sebastian Hille said. Continue reading...

Major chains agree to halve default sweetness, but street vendors and cafes remain outside sugar tax rules A crowd of customers, holding phones aloft, watch intently as Auntie Nid mixes up her bestseller: an iced Thai tea. Condensed milk is poured into a glass, followed by three heaped tablespoons of sugar, and then freshly strained tea. The end product – a deep orange, creamy treat – is poured into a plastic bag filled with ice. Continue reading...

Dozens of the animals in Chiang Mai region first began to show signs of illness earlier this month A highly contagious virus is believed to have caused the deaths of 72 captive tigers in northern Thailand this month, with officials racing to contain the outbreak. Teams are urgently disinfecting enclosures and preparing to vaccinate surviving animals. Continue reading...

Police say UK entrepreneur Quentin Griffiths fell from 17th floor of an 18-floor condominium on 9 February Quentin Griffiths, the co-founder of the online fashion retailer Asos, has died after falling from an apartment building in the Thai seaside resort city of Pattaya. Police told Reuters that the 58-year-old had fallen from the 17th floor of an 18-storey condominium on 9 February. Continue reading...

Mayor says Japanese city will respect donor’s specification that £2.7m gift must be used to repair dilapidated system Osaka has received a hefty gift of gold bars worth 560m yen (£2.7m) from an anonymous donor and a request for its specific use: to fix the Japanese city’s dilapidated water pipes. The gold bars, weighing a total of 21kg (46lb), were given to the Osaka City Waterworks Bureau in November by the donor who wants to help improve ageing water pipes, the mayor, Hideyuki Yokoyama, told reporters on Thursday. Continue reading...

Measles transmission has been detected among people with no recent overseas travel or known public exposure. Follow today’s news live Ted O’Brien, the shadow minister for foreign affairs, is speaking this morning about a new opposition plan to make it a criminal offence to help Australians with links to the Islamic State to return home. The proposal comes as lawmakers wrangle over the future of 34 women and children stuck in Syria with links to dead or detained Islamic State fighters. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Police investigating the mistaken kidnapping of grandfather Chris Baghsarian are appealing for information about suspicious car fires that could be related to the case, AAP reports. Hopes are fading of finding the 85-year-old alive, who was taken captive more than a week ago when three men stormed his Sydney home and bundled him into an SUV. Continue reading...

The trade minister, Don Farrell, says Australia has ‘consistently advocated’ against the ‘unjustified tariffs’, after the US president announced new levies * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Australia will “examine all options” after the US president Donald Trump announced a temporary 15% tariff would apply to US imports from all countries. The US president’s move came less than 24 hours after the US supreme court overturned his original 10% import tariff. Shortly after the ruling, Trump announced he was reinstating the 10% duties using a different

One woman is subject to temporary exclusion order over security concerns, but home affairs minister says group is ‘not consistent’ in their beliefs * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Tony Burke says authorities “know the state of mind” of each of the 34 Australian women and children stuck in a Syrian detention camp, but says his options to prevent them returning to Australia are limited. The home affairs minister, who represents a south-western Sydney electorate with a high Muslim population, also warned Pauline Hanson’s recent derogatory

A 32-year-old has been charged with serious vilification or hate crime and other offences but police say it is not being considered a terrorist incident * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Police have charged a man after a car was used to ram the gates of a synagogue in Brisbane. Officers say the man was driving a Toyota Hilux utility when he knocked down the gates of the property in Margaret Street in Brisbane’s CBD shortly after 7pm on Friday. Continue reading...

Promise comes as minister admits to ‘uncertainty’ about new 15% levy on imports from around the world * Graeme Wearden: Trump’s trade war risks undermining his hopes of hefty US interest rate cuts The US will not back out of tariff deals it has already sealed with countries around the world, including the UK, the EU, Japan, Switzerland and others, Donald Trump’s trade representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday. The US supreme court ruled on Friday that many of the tariffs imposed by the US president were illegal, leading Trump to announce a new 15% global tariff on all imports the next

* Country wins most golds (18) in Winter Games history * USA, GB and Australia also set team records * Norwegians put emphasis on participation Norway has once again topped the Winter Olympics medal table, surpassing countries with far larger populations. The Scandinavian country won more gold medals (18) and more total medals (41) than the US, who came second in both categories (12 golds and 33 total medals). Norway’s 18 golds were the most by a country in Winter Olympics history, while their cross-country skiing hero Johannes Høsflot Klæbo accounted for six golds on his own, more than the all

‘Moscow continues to invest in strikes more than diplomacy,’ says Zelenskyy, as logistics and energy facilities targeted Russia has fired scores of missiles and drones at targets across Ukraine, flattening a residential house in the capital, two days before the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Kremlin had launched 297 drones and nearly 50 missiles on Sunday, in the latest in a wave of overnight strikes. He said “a significant proportion” had been shot down as he called on allies to strengthen the country’s air defences against enemy attacks. Continue reading...

Official US social media accounts posted about rise of ‘violent radical leftism’ after killing of Quentin Deranque The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has said he will summon Charles Kushner, the US ambassador to France, over comments related to the killing of the French far-right activist Quentin Deranque. Deranque was beaten to death in Lyon last week during a fight with allegedly hard-left activists. Continue reading...

Battle-tested Ukrainian startup that advertises a ‘Killbox’ drone recruited Prince as non-executive chair After multiple sources previously told the Guardian that Erik Prince – Maga ally and founder of the now defunct mercenary company Blackwater – was looking to work with Ukraine’s invaluable drone sector, recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents confirm he now is. Swarmer, which bills itself as a battle-tested Ukrainian startup specializing in autonomous drone software, filed for an initial public offering and has recruited Prince to help sell the company as non-executive chair. Continue reading...

Fresh Geneva negotiations suggest Trump’s team believes the Iranian government is making serious proposals Iran and the US are expected to meet for a further round of talks in Geneva this week in a sign that Donald Trump’s team believes Tehran is making serious proposals to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and show it is not seeking a nuclear weapon. As fears loomed of renewed conflict after Washington carried out a major redeployment of military assets to the region, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said he thought there was still a good chance of finding a diplomatic solution. Continue reading...

Arab and Islamic governments issue statement denouncing comments made on Tucker Carlson podcast Governments from across the Islamic world have condemned remarks by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, suggesting it would “be fine” for Israel to claim a broad swath of the Middle East. Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor and former Arkansas governor, has long been an outspoken supporter of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. Continue reading...

Proposal will be at heart of offer to US as Trump considers whether to attack Iran Iran is refusing to export its 300kg stockpile of highly enriched uranium, but is willing to dilute the purity of the stockpile it holds under the supervision of UN nuclear inspectorate the IAEA, Iranian sources have said. The proposal will be at the heart of the offer Iran is due to make to the US in the next few days, as the US president, Donald Trump, weighs whether to use his vast naval buildup in the Middle East to attack the country. Continue reading...

Parts of Maga view Israel with suspicion, but US ambassador continues to believe in its divine right to much of the Middle East Parts of the Maga right may be souring on Israel – but a hardline form of Christian Zionism seems to remain unofficial Trump administration policy, if a heated debate between Tucker Carlson and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, is any indication. On Friday, Carlson released a confrontational video interview with Huckabee, conducted at Ben Gurion airport in Israel, that vividly illustrated a gaping divide between two factions of the Republican party. On one side is a Christian

Trump orders massive buildup of naval forces in Middle East, leading to fears of an imminent war Iran’s foreign minister has said he expects to have a draft counterproposal ready within days after nuclear talks with the US this week, while Donald Trump said he was considering limited military strikes. The US president has ordered a massive buildup of naval forces in the Middle East, including repositioning aircraft carriers and other warships, leading to fears of an imminent war. But it is not clear if the military movements are intended as an intimidation tactic to put pressure on Iran to make concessions

‘Intelligence-based, selective operations’ carried out against Pakistani Taliban camps, says information ministry Pakistan launched multiple airstrikes on Saturday night targeting militants in neighbouring Afghanistan, where the government reported children were among dozens of people killed and wounded. Islamabad did not say precisely where the strikes were carried out or provide other details. Continue reading...

Google, Anthropic and OpenAI bosses to mingle with global south leaders wrestling for control over technology Silicon Valley tech billionaires will land in Delhi this week for an AI summit hosted by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, where leaders of the global south will wrestle for control over the fast-developing technology. During the week-long AI Impact Summit, attended by thousands of tech executives, government officials and AI safety experts, tech companies valued at trillions of dollars will rub along with leaders of countries such as Kenya and Indonesia, where average wages dip well below $1,000 a month. Continue reading...

Many voice hope that moment will mark move away from repression and unrest and a chance to revive economy Bangladesh’s new prime minister has been sworn in, sealing a dramatic comeback for the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) and formally closing the turbulent chapter that toppled Sheikh Hasina in 2024. The swearing-in of Tarique Rahman restored an elected government after 18 months of caretaker rule led by the Nobel peace prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. Continue reading...

Mohan Karki – one of many people ICE has deported to countries with which they have little connection – leaves behind his wife and seven-month-old baby he has yet to hold Tika Basnet sat facing the glow of her iPhone, a red tika pressed into the center of her forehead. Seven-month-old Briana slept on her lap, her breathing soft and uneven. On the other side of the screen was Mohan Karki, Basnet’s husband, who had yet to hold his daughter. For Karki, nearly 9,000 miles (14,500km) away, it was already morning. He was in hiding in south Asia, his exact location withheld

Voting was largely peaceful in an election seen as a test of Bangladesh’s democracy after years of political turmoil The Bangladesh Nationalist party, led by Tarique Rahman, has won a sweeping victory in the country’s first election since a gen Z uprising toppled the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina. Results from the election commission confirmed the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, returning the party to power after 20 years, while the rival alliance, led by the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, won 77 seats. Continue reading...

Paul Thomas Anderson drama enters final Oscars furlong as firm favourite after scoring six awards, as Hamnet’s Jessie Buckley becomes first Irish woman to win leading actress Bafta, and Chalamet and DiCaprio denied leading actor award * Full list of winners * How the ceremony unfolded – the action as it happened One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson’s counterculture comedy about a washed-up revolutionary trying to protect his daughter from a ruthless military officer, has dominated the Baftas, taking home six awards including best film, best director, best cinematography, best editing, best supporting actor, and best adapted screenplay. The film, inspired

Karoline Vitto, Phoebe English and Sinead Gorey include wide range of body shapes on catwalks Body diversity has made a comeback at London fashion week despite a wider shift towards ultra-thinness in the fashion industry. Emerging designers including Karoline Vitto, Phoebe English and Sinead Gorey included a wide range of body shapes on catwalks over the past four days. Sizes have ranged from a UK size 10-16, a category referred to as mid-size in the industry, to plus-size, also known as curve models, which measures from a UK size 18 upwards. Sample size, often referred to as straight models, ranges from a

Investigation under way regarding death of Cpl Lucy Wilde, 25, who prince said ‘served with courage and distinction’ Prince William has paid tribute to a young army medic found dead in her barracks who “served with courage and distinction”. Cpl Lucy Wilde, 25, who posted videos on TikTok documenting her daily life in the army, was found dead in her barracks in Warminster, Wiltshire, on 5 February. An investigation is under way, the Ministry of Defence said. Continue reading...

Reform UK leader flew to the Maldives for a day despite not having permit to visit nearby archipelago Nigel Farage has been accused of “performing Maga stunts” after claiming the British government stopped him from travelling to the Chagos Islands on a humanitarian mission. The Reform UK leader said he had flown to the Maldives to join a delegation bringing aid to four Chagossians who are trying to establish a settlement on one of the archipelago’s islands to protest against Britain’s plans to transfer control of the territory to Mauritius. Continue reading...

Letter to Shabana Mahmood describes controls that could block British dual citizens’ entry to UK as ‘unacceptable’ The Liberal Democrats have called on the home secretary to “move at speed” to delay the rollout of new border controls that could result in British dual nationals being blocked from entering the country. A letter sent by the party to Shabana Mahmood echoes one sent by the former Conservative cabinet minister David Davis on Friday asking for a grace period to be implemented urgently after one of his constituents living in the Netherlands told how she could no longer visit her dying mother in

Authorities say agents confronted a white male in his early 20s carrying shotgun and gasoline can early Sunday The US Secret Service shot and killed an armed intruder who breached the perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida residence and private club in Palm Beach, early on Sunday. Although the US president often spends weekends at the oceanfront resort, he was at the White House in Washington during this incident, as was first lady Melania Trump. Continue reading...

East coast scrambles to prepare for storm forecast to bring major disruption to more than 35 million people Blizzard conditions were forecast to bring major disruption across the north-eastern United States on Sunday and well into Monday, with a dangerous combination of heavy, wet snow and ferocious winds gusting up to 70mph. Residents along the east coast scrambled to prepare for the late-winter storm that spurred blizzard warnings from Maryland to Massachusetts, affecting more than 35 million people. Continue reading...

Jamieson Greer also said US won’t pull out of deals with UK, EU and others after court declared Trump tariffs illegal Top US trade negotiator Jamieson Greer insisted on Sunday that US policy on tariffs “hasn’t changed”, two days after the supreme court declared many of Donald Trump’s tariffs illegal. The ruling issued on Friday by the highest US court was a sharp rebuke to the Republican president that toppled a key pillar of his aggressive economic agenda – even as it prompted Trump to announce a new global tariff using different statutes, albeit temporary. Continue reading...

DHS official reportedly says Global Entry program would remain halted amid partial government shutdown The Department of Homeland Security partially reversed course Sunday morning on an order that had suspended the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs as a result of staffing shortages caused by the partial government shutdown. “TSA PreCheck remains operational with no change for the traveling public,” the Transportation Security Administration said in a social media post. “As staffing constraints arise, TSA will evaluate on a case by case basis and adjust operations accordingly.” Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report Continue reading...

US president calls for removal of Susan Rice as streaming platform pursues takeover of Warner Bros Discovery Donald Trump has told Netflix to remove the Democratic foreign policy expert Susan Rice from its board or “face the consequences”, while the streaming platform is locked in an extraordinary corporate battle to take control of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). In comments posted on his Truth Social platform, the US president described Rice – who served as national security adviser to Barack Obama and UN ambassador and White House adviser under Joe Biden – as a “political hack” and accused her of having “no talent

An armed man drove into the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, US President Donald Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, as another vehicle was exiting before being shot and killed early on Sunday morning, according to a spokesman for the US Secret Service. The man, who was in his early 20s and from North Carolina, had a gas can and a shotgun, according to Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesman. He had been reported missing by his family a few days ago and investigators believe he headed south, picking...

Hungary threatened to block a new package of European Union sanctions against Russia and to stall efforts to help Ukraine until Russian oil deliveries to Hungary resume. The EU’s foreign ministers are set to meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss the bloc’s 20th round of sanctions against Moscow, a measure they hope will be approved in time to coincide with the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Tuesday. In a video posted to social media on Sunday, Hungarian Foreign Minister...

A single policy could redraw global food supply lines and scramble markets from the Americas to Southeast Asia. In early February, the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee and State Council released the annual “No 1 document”, the country’s first policy statement of 2026 and its blueprint for agriculture, farmers and rural areas. As one of the world’s largest agricultural producers, importers and exporters, any shift in Beijing’s food strategy carries global repercussions. Covering...

Russia fired scores of missiles and drones at targets across Ukraine on Sunday, crashing into energy and rail infrastructure and residential buildings, just two days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion. Journalists in Kyiv heard a series of blasts starting at around 4.00am, shortly after an air raid alert was issued, with the air force later widening the alert nationwide, citing the threat of missiles. “Moscow continues to invest in strikes more than in diplomacy,” Ukrainian...

As political pressure on the US Federal Reserve intensifies in Washington, the reverberations are rippling across the globe. Gregory Peters, co-chief investment officer of fixed income at PGIM, has noted that bringing political pressure to bear on the Fed is an “own goal” – a self-inflicted shock that erodes confidence and is unlikely to deliver lower borrowing costs for the US. This reassessment – marked by quiet “sell America” trades – is beginning to surface. The damage extends far beyond...

US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday that President Donald Trump is questioning why Iran has not “capitulated” in the face of Washington’s military build-up aimed at pressuring them into a nuclear deal. The United States and Iran this week resumed Oman-mediated talks in Geneva aimed at averting the possibility of military action, after Washington sent two aircraft carriers, jets and weaponry to the region to back its warnings. In a Fox News interview with Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara, Witkoff...

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was sending a hospital boat to Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory that he has long coveted and threatened to seize by force. Trump’s rhetoric has ratcheted up tensions between the United States and Denmark, while putting the global spotlight on the Arctic as he insists mineral-rich Greenland is vital for US and Nato security against Russia and China. He said the boat would treat many “sick” people in Greenland, without providing any details on...

Deeper regulatory ties and a shared push for new growth sectors are expected to give fresh impetus to cross-border investment flows between China and the Middle East, according to industry players and a United Arab Emirates (UAE) regulator. Hong Kong would benefit from the increased China-Middle East cooperation as the city develops into “a key hub for Middle Eastern capital to deploy in Asia and an important gateway for Chinese capital to go global to the Middle East,” said Linda Cai, inbound...

Tehran resident Hamid struggles to sleep as fears of renewed conflict haunt the Iranian capital after last year’s 12-day war with Israel. “I don’t sleep well at night even while taking pills,” Hamid said, as he expressed concern for his “family’s health … my kids and grandchildren”. The city woke up to blasts overnight from June 12 to 13 last year as Iran’s arch-enemy Israel launched an unprecedented military campaign. The war erupted as Iran was preparing for another round of talks with the...

Arab and Muslim nations on Saturday sharply condemned comments by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who said Israel has a right to much of the Middle East. Huckabee made the comments in an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that aired on Friday. Carlson said that according to the Bible, the descendants of Abraham would receive land that today would include essentially the entire Middle East, and asked Huckabee if Israel had a right to that land. Huckabee responded:...

The 2026 Spring Festival Gala, one of the world’s most-watched television events, featured a dazzling array of humanoid robots. They performed martial arts, executed intricate sword dances and even took part in a comedy skit alongside human celebrities. While parts of the world still view humanoid robots with a mixture of fear and suspicion, as potential job-stealers or sci-fi villains, China is increasingly embracing them as partners in work, entertainment and daily life. Amid the escalating...

A tour bus carrying Chinese tourists plunged through the ice on Russia’s Lake Baikal, killing eight people, officials said. One of the Chinese tourists managed to escape from the bus, which was crossing the frozen lake on Friday, Irkutsk regional Governor Igor Kobzev wrote in a Telegram post on Saturday. He said the dead included seven Chinese tourists and the driver. The bus plunged into a three-metre-wide (10-foot-wide) ice crevasse, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry reported. The lake is 18...

Nasa’s new moon rocket suffered another setback on Saturday, almost certain to bump astronauts’ first lunar trip in decades into spring. The space agency revealed the latest problem just one day after targeting March 6 for the Artemis II mission, humanity’s first flight to the moon in more than half a century. Overnight, the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage was interrupted, officials said. Solid helium flow is essential for purging the engines and pressurising the fuel tanks. This...

A day after his stunning loss at the US Supreme Court, President Donald Trump said on Saturday he is raising from 10 to 15 per cent a temporary tariff rate on imports from all countries. “I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10 per cent Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the US off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15 per cent level,” he said on...

Germany’s ruling conservatives on Saturday passed ⁠a motion to ban social media use for under 14s and introduce more stringent digital verification checks for teenagers, building momentum for such limits in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. At a party conference in the city of Stuttgart, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union also called for fines for online platforms that failed to enforce such limits and European ‌Union-wide harmonisation of age standards. A growing number of...

India and Brazil agreed to boost cooperation on critical minerals and rare earths on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after talks in New Delhi with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. “The agreement on critical minerals and rare earths is a major step towards building resilient supply chains,” Modi said. Brazil has the world’s second-largest reserves of critical minerals, which are used in everything from electric vehicles, solar panels and smartphones to jet engines and...

At least 30 people in Iran are facing the death penalty in connection with the recent mass protests in the country, according to the human rights group Amnesty International. A death sentence had already been passed in eight cases, the organisation reported on Friday. Among the 22 other cases before the courts, two men were still minors, Amnesty said. The Iranian judiciary has not officially confirmed any of the death sentences. However, a week ago, the Misan news agency, which is linked to the...

Five European nations have announced a new programme to produce low-cost air defence systems and autonomous drones using Ukrainian expertise hard-won over the past four years of war against Russia. Friday’s initiative of the E5 nations – France, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy – comes as one of many European efforts to bolster defence along their borders, like a “drone wall” with Russia and Ukraine to better detect, track and intercept drones violating Europe’s airspace. Both...

Turning the house where Adolf Hitler was born into a police station has raised mixed emotions in his Austrian hometown. “It’s a double-edged sword,” said Sibylle Treiblmaier, outside the house in the town of Braunau am Inn on the border with Germany. While it might discourage far-right extremists from gathering at the site, it could have “been used better or differently”, the 53-year-old office assistant said. The government wants to “neutralise” the site and passed a law in 2016 to take control...

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said on Friday that it had considered alerting Canada’s police last year about the activities of a person who months later committed one of the worst school shootings in the country’s history. OpenAI said the company identified the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar last June via abuse detection efforts for “furtherance of violent activities”. The San Francisco tech company said it considered whether to refer the account to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police but determined at...

The US military has carried out another deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. US Southern Command said on social media that the boat “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations”. It said the strike on Friday killed three people. A video linked to the post shows a boat floating in the water before bursting into flames. Friday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump...

For decades, China’s role in the global economy was easy to define. It made things cheaply and at astonishing scale. “Made in China” became shorthand for industrial capacity. It was often contentious, sometimes admired, sometimes feared. In the years after China joined the World Trade Organization, its firms were deeply embedded in global supply chains, mostly at the lower end of the value chain. They produced for others. Western and Japanese companies controlled the premium segments and brand...

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he was considering limited military strikes to pressure Iran into signing a new nuclear deal, but bombing the country may have the opposite effect, risking a new destabilising conflict in the Middle East. The Pentagon has orchestrated a massive deployment to the region that includes two aircraft carriers, fighter jets and refuelling planes, giving Trump the option to launch limited, or extended, operations against Iran. Yet Trump and other...

Slumped in the back seat of his Range Rover, a visibly shaken man once referred to ⁠as the “Playboy Prince” stares ahead of him ⁠as the car leaves Aylsham police station in ⁠Norfolk, England. The photo, taken by Reuters photographer Phil Noble, went viral when it was published late on Thursday. It shows Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles, after he was released from police custody following a day of questioning over allegations he sent confidential government...

Britain’s government will consider new legislation to remove the former prince Andrew from the line of royal succession once the police investigation into his ties with Epstein is over, a UK official has said. Any changes to the line of succession – Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is eighth in line to the throne – would require consultation and agreement with other countries where King Charles ‌is head of state, the official, who asked not to be identified, said on Friday. The former prince was...

Nasa aims to send astronauts to the moon in March after completing the latest rocket fuelling test. Administrator Jared Isaacman said on Friday that launch teams made “major progress” between the first countdown rehearsal, which was disrupted by hydrogen leaks earlier this month, and the second test, which was completed without significant seepage on Thursday night. The test was “a big step towards America’s return to the lunar environment”, Isaacman said on social media. Nasa could launch four...

US President Donald Trump said he was considering a limited strike on Iran after ordering a major naval build-up in the Middle East aimed at heaping pressure on Tehran to cut a deal to curb its nuclear programme. The latest threat came after Iran’s foreign minister said a draft proposal for an agreement with Washington would be ready in a matter of days following negotiations between the two sides in Geneva earlier this week. Trump had suggested on Thursday that “bad things” would happen if...

Barcelona’s towering Sagrada Familia basilica reached its maximum height on Friday, though the magnum opus of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi remains years away from completion. A crane placed the upper arm of a cross atop the Tower of Jesus Christ, the church’s soaring central piece, which now stands 172.5 metres (566 feet) above the city. A swarm of tourists craned their necks to see the instalment of the 7-metre-high white cross’s upper arm, visible amid the scaffolding and workers who put...

In a consequential decision with billions of dollars on the line, the US Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower-court ruling striking down President Donald Trump’s tariffs, coming just as the White House confirmed his visit to Beijing from March 31 to April 2. The South China Morning Post had exclusively reported the trip dates last week. By invalidating tariffs imposed under emergency presidential powers, the decision removes a powerful tool the White House had used to pressure Beijing,...

Quentin Griffiths, who co-founded British fast-fashion retailer Asos, has died after a fall from a balcony in Thailand, Thai police said on Friday. Police said that Griffiths, 58, had fallen from the 17th floor of a flat block in the seaside resort city of Pattaya on February 9. The police went to the scene and found the body of a British national, whom they identified as Quentin John Griffiths, on the ground directly below the balcony, they said. Police said initial investigations suggested...

China has defended the World Trade Organization’s non-discrimination principle after the United States and the European Union recently proposed reforms that could weaken it – though analysts say the rule would likely remain despite deepening divisions within the global trading system. Beijing called for “most-favoured nation treatment” to remain the “bedrock” of the WTO, in a new position paper on reforming the international body. The rule mandates that any trade advantage granted to one country...

Turkey has arrested six European activists who came to the country to examine prison conditions of political detainees, their lawyer said on Friday. They were detained in Istanbul on Thursday after meeting a legal collective called the Office of People’s Rights (HHB), said Naim Eminoglu, head of the Istanbul section of the Progressive Lawyers Association (CHD), who is defending them. The six were from Italy, France, Spain, Belgium and Russia, he said. Known for defending individuals seen as...

If 2026 were a chess match, critical minerals would be the opening gambit, and both China and the United States are going all out. On January 28, China’s Zijin Mining announced a US$4 billion takeover of Allied Gold’s three African mines. On February 3, Swiss mining giant Glencore entered talks to sell a 40 per cent stake in its Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) copper and cobalt operations to the US-backed Orion Critical Mineral Consortium. Between the two announcements, US Secretary of State...

Kyiv said on Friday that 10 people were arrested in Ukraine and Moldova on suspicion of planning to assassinate senior Ukrainian political figures on Moscow’s orders, with payouts of up to US$100,000. Kyiv has previously accused Russia, which invaded Ukraine four years ago, of plotting to kill several senior officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky and the head of Ukraine’s intelligence service. “As part of the work of a joint investigative team of Ukrainian and Moldovan law enforcement...

An airport in Florida will soon be renamed after US President Donald Trump, after a bill proposing the change was approved by the state’s legislature on Thursday. Trump, a real estate mogul who has plastered his name on buildings around the world, has sought to leave his mark on the country in an unprecedented image and building campaign. Florida’s Republican-led legislature approved a bill to rename the Palm Beach International Airport as the President Donald J. Trump International Airport,...

Iran partially and temporarily closed the strategic Strait of Hormuz during a military drill on Tuesday, thrusting the vital shipping route under the global spotlight once again. The hours-long suspension was the first time Tehran had restricted traffic through the strait since US President Donald Trump’s warning last month that Washington could take military action over Iran’s nuclear programme, with tensions still high between the two sides despite recent bilateral talks in Geneva. Here, we...

I would like to explore some rather interesting data buried deep in the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Economic and Social Trends 2026 report: an estimated 15.3 per cent of jobs worldwide depended on foreign demand in 2024. In other words, they depend on international trade. The ILO report, based on data from 80 economies that account for 85 per cent of global employment, says this amounts to 465 million jobs. Of these, 278 million are in Asia and the Pacific and 96 million are in...

More than 1,000 Kenyans have been recruited to fight on Russia’s side in the war in Ukraine, according to a Kenyan intelligence report presented to lawmakers this week, five times more than authorities had previously estimated. The Russian embassy in Nairobi denied on Thursday that Moscow was involved in illegally recruiting Kenyans to fight in Ukraine, though it said ‌foreign citizens could voluntarily join its armed forces. Reading the report of Kenya’s National Intelligence Service to...

Until Thursday morning, it had been nearly four centuries since the arrest of a senior British royal. On his 66th birthday, the late Queen Elizabeth’s favourite son was detained on suspicion of misconduct in public office. By evening, the former prince was released from police custody. But the ongoing investigation will unpick years of lurid allegations about Andrew’s ties to the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein that have heaped embarrassment on his brother, King Charles. The arrest of...

US President Donald Trump declared the war in Gaza “over” at his inaugural “Board of Peace” meeting on Thursday, even as regional analysts warned that Israeli military operations could resume within weeks. At the gathering in Washington, attended by senior officials from more than 20 countries, promises of reconstruction and a “bright future” for Gaza were coupled with blunt US warnings that the alternative to disarmament would be a return to war. Outside the meeting, Israeli officials...

Venezuela’s National Assembly on Thursday unanimously approved a long-awaited amnesty law that could free hundreds of political prisoners jailed for being government detractors. But the law excludes those who have been prosecuted or convicted of promoting military action against the country - which could include opposition leaders like Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, who has been accused by the ruling party of calling for international intervention like the one that ousted former...

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. Why the growing network of American MQ-9 drones is a challenge for China America’s increasing use of MQ-9 drones near China poses a challenge to Beijing and makes it more urgent for the People’s Liberation Army to improve...

Actor Eric Dane, who played the handsome ⁠Dr Mark Sloan ⁠on the hit television ⁠series Grey’s Anatomy, died on Thursday aged 53, his family said, less than a year after revealing that he suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. For 15 years, Dane played a plastic surgeon nicknamed “McSteamy” by ‌female characters in the show. He also starred in the series Euphoria, and said after the diagnosis he would still return to the set for its third season. “Eric Dane passed on Thursday...

Nasa on Thursday blamed what it called engineering vulnerabilities in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft along with internal agency mistakes in a sharply critical report assessing a botched mission that left two astronauts stranded in space. The US space agency labelled the 2024 test flight of the Starliner capsule a “Type A” mishap - the same classification of the deadly Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters - a category that reflects the “potential for a significant mishap,” it said. The...

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he was directing the Pentagon and other government agencies to identify and release files related to extraterrestrials and UFOs because of “tremendous interest”. Trump made the announcement in a social media post hours after he accused former president Barack Obama of disclosing “classified information” when Obama recently suggested in a podcast interview that aliens were real. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I don’t know if they’re...

The Kremlin’s sabotage campaign against European allies of Ukraine has been escalating. It needs people like Aleksei Kolosovsky, 42, to carry it out.

At least one man was killed in Kyiv as Moscow launched a wave of drones and missiles, days after the latest round of U.S.-mediated talks to end the war.

A new law was supposed to help reduce the sentences of survivors of domestic violence. Most are still behind bars.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s comedy drama won six awards at the British equivalent of the Oscars. The best actor choice, however, was a surprise.

Teyana Taylor, Paul Mescal, Michael B. Jordan and the Prince of Wales turned out in style for Britain’s biggest celebration of film.

Swishy suits, mermaid skirts, skunk feet and more.

The tariff ruling may have just helped save the Republic.

Four years that changed everything.

Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” was the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and widely regarded as one of the country’s most violent criminal figures.

Three more skiers have died in the Lake Tahoe area since the deadliest avalanche in California history on Tuesday killed nine.

A student objected to the potential closure of her New York City middle school. The professor, speaking on a hot mic, said, “They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school.” The comment was assailed as racist.

Scores of Californians have moved to Tennessee for its friendlier business environment and conservative politics. On Saturday, the Democratic governor accused of driving them away paid a visit.