Minimalist News

Federal Judge Again Blocks Trump Mail-In Voting Rules Ahead Of Midterms Via American Greatness, A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s new mail-in voting requirements, setting up another potential Supreme Court fight just days before states are expected to begin sending ballots for the November midterm elections. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a 14-day temporary restraining order preventing enforcement of a new U.S. Postal Service rule implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order on election procedures. The ruling comes days after the Supreme Court allowed the administration to move forward in a procedural decision. The justices did

Uprising In Ceuta: Locals Have Had Enough Of Migrant Invasion Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , In the complete absence of any meaningful government action, the people of Ceuta have taken matters into their own hands. On Wednesday night, Spanish flags filled the streets of the North African enclave. Crowds chanted for deportations. Then a column of residents pushed toward El Trampolín beach, the open-air settlement that has occupied a family shoreline for nearly a month. Tents came down. Belongings went into the sea. Police formed a line between Spaniards and the camps - and opened fire with

Gap Soars On Old Navy CEO Shake-Up As Jefferies Sees "New Catalyst" For Stock Shares of major U.S. clothing retailer Gap, whose brands include Old Navy, Banana Republic and others, jumped the most in 16 months in premarket trading after the company reported stronger-than-expected profit and upgraded its earnings outlook. The company also named retail veteran Michael Francis as Old Navy's next CEO. Francis spent 26 years at Target , where he helped engineer the retailer's "cheap chic" strategy, before advising Walmart on its marketing operations. He joined Old Navy in March as chief customer officer. The leadership shake-up comes

PayPal Crashes After Advent, Stripe Abandon $50 Billion Takeover Bid PayPal shares plunged as much as 16% in premarket trading Friday, the most in months if the losses hold through the cash session, after a consortium led by private-equity firm Advent International and payments giant Stripe abandoned its takeover bid for the struggling payment processor. Bloomberg reports that the consortium offered more than $50 billion for PayPal in what would have been one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history. As per the report: The group is no longer pursuing a deal for PayPal, the people said, asking not to

Britain's Biggest Council Pushes Two-Year Jail Term For Flying National Flags Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , Britain's largest local authority has gone to the High Court to stop people hanging the Union Flag and the St George's Cross from lampposts, with campaigners warning that a breach could mean up to two years behind bars. Birmingham City Council filed the application this week as the latest move in a year-long war on "unauthorised attachments." The attachments in question are the flags of the country. The penalties being threatened include prison, unlimited fines, and seized assets. Protesters who fly

New Jersey Has America's Highest Lifetime Taxes: $1.36 Million How much money do you have to pay in taxes over a lifetime? This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, maps the estimated lifetime tax bill for a single filer in every U.S. state, including federal and state income taxes, as well as sales, property, and vehicle taxes. The data for this visualization comes from Self Financial , with estimates as of June 2026. The analysis assumes a 45-year working life with constant earnings and tax rates, a life expectancy of 79.6 years, homeownership beginning at age 40, and ownership of

Moscow Warns It Could Target British Military Facilities In Unprecedented Statement From the very start of the Ukraine war, the United Kingdom has consistently been among Kiev's most open and ardent military supporters, time and again transferring heavy weaponry, including cutting edge long-range missiles like the Storm Shadow. At the start of this week, Britain announced it plans to provide Ukraine with classified technology to allow for the country's own manufacturing of the British/French-designed SCALP air-launched cruise missile (which in the UK is known as the Storm Shadow). The allies expect to set up a production line in Ukraine as

WHO's High-Price Pandemic Plan Authored by David Bell and Ramesh Thakur via Brownstone Institute , The recent release of Anthony Fauci's diaries, followed by his refusal to answer questions in an appearance before a US Senate committee by invoking the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination 111 times , highlighted a stark divide in how the Covid pandemic was handled by public health authorities. This is as true of Australia as of the US. Repeatedly, against certainty expressed in public to justify official statements on the origins of the virus and on lockdown, mask, and vaccine policies, their private contemporaneous conversations

Got Hard Assets? UBS Says "Position For A Commodity Upcycle" As Global Scarcity Emerges One day after veteran commodities strategist Jeff Currie told investors to " get long and buckle up " for the next leg of the commodities rally, UBS strategist Sagar Khandelwal issued a similarly bullish call, urging clients to "position for a commodity upcycle." Khandelwal said electrification, surging power demand, artificial-intelligence infrastructure spending, persistent supply constraints, and years of underinvestment are converging to create a perfect storm for a sustained upcycle in hard assets. Commodities can generate returns while protecting portfolios against energy disruptions and renewed inflation,

'White Lives Matter' Graffiti Sparks Investigation, Suspects Face Up To 3 Years In Prison Via Remix News , Polish prosecutors are now investigating a "White Lives Matter" graffiti as a hate crime in the city of Rzeszów, with the suspects facing up to three years in prison if they are apprehended and convicted. Painted on a wall in the Polish city of Rzeszów, the graffiti was reportedly created as a memorial to the murdered British youth Henry Nowak. ??? In Poland, prosecutors are now investigating a "White Lives Matter" graffiti as a hate crime, with the suspects facing up to

The World's $158 Trillion Stock Market In One Chart In 2025, the global equity market reached a record $157.8 trillion in market capitalization, up more than $25 trillion from 2024. This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Gabriel Cohen, highlights the world’s major equity markets based on their 2025 market capitalization. Data has been sourced from the World Federation of Exchanges via SIFMA . The World’s Biggest Stock Market With a total market capitalization of $68.9 trillion, the U.S. is by far the world’s largest equity market , accounting for roughly 44% of the global total. The U.S. is home to the

Turkey Recruits Trump Insiders For New Washington Lobbying Push Via Middle East Eye The Turkish government hired a lobbying firm with close ties to US President Donald Trump earlier this month under a year-long contract worth $2.4m , according to US Justice Department filings reviewed by Middle East Eye. Ballard Partners, led by Brian Ballard, a prominent Florida Republican fundraiser who also worked on Trump’s presidential campaign, signed the agreement with Turkey’s Ministry of National Defense on August 8. The firm will receive $200,000 per month. via AFP Under the contract, Ballard Partners pledged to provide “government relations services, strategic

CIA Chief's Moscow Trip Was About Iran, Not A NATO Warning: Estonia's Ex-President Speculation has abounded over the nature of CIA Director John Ratcliffe's surprise Tuesday trip to Moscow and what was conveyed to top Kremlin intelligence officials. The 'official' Washington narrative of what was behind the trip was issued on Wednesday in the pages of The Wall Street Journal , which laid out Ratcliffe delivered a "warning to Russia not to attack NATO countries, according to people briefed on the visit . " Since then, media reports and pundits have mused that nearby small 'eastern flank' countries like Estonia,

Well This Is Very Awkward... Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , A street interview doing the rounds this week encapsulates the entire European open-borders agenda in under two minutes. Older Spaniards nod along when asked if they would welcome a migrant into their home, saying it would make for a much better system if everyone did so. Solidarity, humanity, of course. Then the interviewer produces a real migrant looking for a home and suddenly everything changes. Funniest thing I've watched this week. Boomers in Spain get asked if they'd accept a migrant into their home. They say yes.

The Economic Tsar Who Built Modern China-And Whose Reforms The CCP Is Dismantling Authored by Heng He via The Epoch Times , Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, the hard-edged reformer who engineered China's rise from planned-economy backwater to global manufacturing giant, died this month at the age of 97. Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji poses during a working session at the Europe-Asia summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Sept. 22, 2002. Gerard Cerles/AFP via Getty Images His legacy-tax centralization, mass layoffs, China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and a brief, forgotten moment of tolerance toward Falun Gong-now stands as both

FDA Clears Blood Test To Detect Signs Of Alzheimer's Disease Federal regulators have cleared a blood test aimed at detecting signs of Alzheimer's disease. The Food and Drug Administration cleared a blood test known as Elecsys pTau-217 for people aged at least 55 who have shown signs of, or have been complaining of, cognitive decline , Roche announced on Aug. 24. The test, which can be used by primary care doctors and specialists, detects a biomarker called plasma phosphorylated tau 217. In a study that ran from 2004 to 2025 and was published in JAMA, researchers found that higher levels

Brasília Makes Friends With Beijing Authored by Jake Scott via FEE , On a Sunday night in late July, Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and China's Xi Jinping spoke for more than an hour. It was cordial and faintly triumphant, with the two governments announcing their intention to accelerate a long-stalled China-Mercosur trade agreement . Alongside this, there are plans to deepen cooperation on satellites and critical-minerals processing, and waive short-stay visa requirements. Image Credit: Custom image by FEE This marks a serious change for Brazil. For years, it was Brasília that had spearheaded all resistance to exactly this

Jury Weighs Whether "Darn Good Mother" Lindsay Clancy Is Criminally Liable For Murdering Her 3 Kids Jury deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial started on Aug. 27 after five weeks of testimony. Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, is accused of killing her three young children while her now-ex-husband was running errands in January 2023. The 36-year-old mother faces three counts of first-degree murder, one for each child: Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan. Judge William Sullivan gave the jury the option to instead consider second-degree murder or manslaughter. Only a few hours of deliberations happened before

States Race To Cut Food Stamp Errors Before Penalties Kick In Authored by Sylvia Xu via The Epoch Times , States are racing to reduce faulty payments to food stamp recipients, in a bid to avoid penalties included in the signature budget bill passed by Republicans last year. Starting in October 2027, states with payment error rates of 6 percent or higher must cover 5, 10, or 15 percent of SNAP benefit costs, depending on the payment error rate. Even though the deadline is more than a year out, enrollment in the program has dropped by more than 5 million

Mayor Of Indiana City Claims Race Discrimination After Delayed Utility Repairs If a group's entire world view is built on the notion that they are perpetual victims because of their race, every time something bad happens to them they are going to go looking for racism as the scapegoat. In other words, they are going to see "racism" under every rock and behind every tree. They will even see racism in a power outage. When it come to the black community in the US, though, most of the bad things that happen in their neighborhoods are directly caused by their

Unpopular new policy comes as midterms loom and control of Congress could be decided by several Michigan races Every day $1bn worth of goods crosses the river dividing Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, two largely blue-collar US and Canadian cities that have come to act as one in the creation of North America’s auto industry. News this week of Donald Trump’s escalating trade spat with Canada has everyone worried. Political and economic leaders and observers labeled the move an act of “hubris” , blamed Trump’s “ego”, and called the escalation “insanity”. Continue reading...

Mark Carney rejects attempt to rename lake as did several US governors, with Tony Evers mocking the move US politics live – latest updates Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario, making it Lake America, amid his escalating trade war with Canada. The order directs federal agencies to adopt the name-change on US maps, documents and databases. But Trump has no authority to rename Canada’s portion of the lake, nor to compel Canada, international legal bodies, international mapmakers, or the rest of the world to adopt a new name. Continue reading...

The US president expected Ottawa to bow to tariff demands, but Canada is striking back – and it could cost Americans This was originally published in This Week in Trumpland. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday Earlier this year, a survey found that Canada , along with Switzerland , was the best-liked country in the world. We all know this kind of polling is about as scientific as a high school popularity contest, but at least anecdotally, Canadians have a reputation for being friendly and welcoming, respectful and polite. Many people would find it difficult to

Paper products among hardest-hit sectors after trade negotiations broke down, with 25-50% tariffs estimated Are you a Canadian boycotting US products? We’d like to hear from you Using the bathroom or having a cry is about to become more expensive for North Americans as the US and Canada enter a full-fledged trade war that threatens to flush away decades of peaceful trading between the two nations. After trade negotiations broke down between the two countries last weekend , Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, vowed to match US tariffs “dollar for dollar” and unveiled a list of nearly 900 American

Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo, deported to Honduras, is latest military spouse to face removal amid Trump 2.0 The wife of an active-duty US soldier was deported on Monday to her native Honduras , according to her family and the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo is at least the seventh spouse or parent of an active-duty US soldier to be deported under the immigration crackdown during Donald Trump ’s second presidency. Continue reading...

Desperate relatives trying to reach loved ones last seen in area where entire villages have been swept away Nepal-Tibet flash flood – latest updates Visual guide: how the deadly flooding unfolded Tell us: have you been affected by the flash floods? Families are rushing to Nepal to search for the 33 British nationals who are still missing, as fears mount over the risk of a second wave of flooding in the region. The catastrophic flash floods that hit Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday , thundering down valleys and sweeping away entire villages, have killed at least 538 people, while more

Thai navy says ‘routine’ visit’ will allow personnel to rest and recuperate amid reports of poor conditions onboard The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is set to make a temporary stop in Thailand next week as it heads back to the United States, Thai navy officials said, after spending more than 250 consecutive days at sea supporting US operations against Iran amid recent reports of poor living conditions and low morale onboard the vessel. The Lincoln left the Middle East several days ago after being relieved by the USS George Washington , and is now heading home to San Diego.

More than 1,500 people are missing, including hundreds of foreign nationals and tourists, amid race to find survivors Flood rescue efforts resume Visual guide: how the deadly flooding unfolded Tell us: have you been affected by the flash floods? More now on the Nepali army’s rescue operation to save about 100 people trapped in a tunnel at a hydropower project swamped by Wednesday’s flooding . “Two helicopters have been dispatched but it is challenging because it is tough to even locate the entry points of the tunnel,” army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet told AFP. Relief efforts are also under way

Risk of fresh flooding had forced rescue teams to withdraw as residents rushed up hills to escape possible river surge Nepal-Tibet flash flood – latest updates Visual guide: how the deadly flooding unfolded Tell us: have you been affected by the flash floods? Rescuers searching for survivors of deadly flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border have resumed their efforts after suspending operations when a debris dam burst its bank on Friday, increasing the risk of fresh flooding. Residents in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, on the border with Tibet, were seen rushing up hillsides ⁠on Friday to escape a possible surge in

Flash flooding and mudslides in Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures, while convective storms hit western Europe After an “unprecedented” deluge in Chiba in mid-August, Japan has experienced further extreme rainfall in recent days. Moisture from the Sea of Japan brought relentless heavy rain to the prefectures of Ishikawa and Toyama on Thursday. In Himi, Toyama, 361.5mm of rain fell in 24 hours, equivalent to half the average annual rainfall in London and Paris. Several rivers burst their banks, triggering flash floods and mudslides, felling and damaging buildings. Continue reading...

Relatives ‘really worried, but hopeful’ as they wait anxiously for news in the aftermath of the flash flooding disaster Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The families of an Australian defence force member and two Sydney boys who went missing with their parents in Nepal remain hopeful they will be found safe. Dozens of Australians are missing after devastating flooding on the Nepal-Tibet border. Nepal police on Friday said more than 1,500 people remained missing and 469 have been confirmed dead after massive flash floods

Brother of former state premier tells Icac he sent message to his wife referring to a plan to damage the career of rival David Elliott Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Charles Perrottet wrote about a plan to damage a Liberal minister’s career after his brother Dominic’s accession to the New South Wales premiership in October 2021, stating “we execute the prick once party room is over”, a corruption inquiry has heard. The younger brother of the former premier told the Independent Commission Against Corruption

Two 17-year-olds accused of subjecting teenage girl to hours-long sexual assault granted bail Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Two boys allegedly invited to join a “degrading” and “humiliating” gang-rape in Sydney have been granted bail. The pair are among three 17-year-olds accused of subjecting a teenage girl to an hours-long sexual assault on the night of 16 August. Continue reading...

Cara Severino has spoken with her parents – but still faces a trek of more than 110km to reach Kathmandu on foot ‘So desperately loved’: ADF member among dozens of Australians missing in Nepal floods as families pray for safe return How Nepali diaspora is responding to flood disaster and how Australians can help in relief effort Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast An Australian woman has made contact with her family, more than two days after she was reported missing in flash flooding in Nepal. At least 469 people have been killed and

Expeditioners at research station on Macquarie Island will be evacuated over possible ‘psychological stress’, while 100 dead little penguins found on Tasmanian island Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A dolphin has died from H5 bird flu in South Australia, marking the second native mammal species known to have contracted the virus. On Friday afternoon, the Tasmanian government said it was assessing the discovery of about 100 dead little penguins on King Island but it was unable to test them for H5 bird flu due to their “decayed condition”. Continue reading...

Monarch’s death comes at turbulent time for royal family over association of crown princess with Jeffrey Epstein King Harald V of Norway, Europe’s oldest reigning monarch, has died aged 89, the royal palace in Oslo has announced. He was succeeded immediately by his son, King Haakon VIII. “It is with deep sadness that we announce that His Majesty King Harald passed away today. King Harald passed away peacefully at Oslo University hospital on Friday 28 August at 6.35am,” the palace said in a statement. Continue reading...

Coroner finds 31-year-old deviated from a walking track as dusk fell, four days before the winter solstice Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Overlapping errors, including a lack of preparation in near-freezing winter weather, contributed to the death of a Belgian tourist on a wilderness track. Celine Cremer set off on a walk at Philosopher Falls in Tasmania’s remote north-west on 17 June 2023 and was reported missing almost 10 days later. Continue reading...

Moscow threatens retaliation after Andy Burnham says UK will help Ukraine start producing long-range missiles Russia has said it could retaliate against the UK for its support of Kyiv by striking military targets inside and outside Ukraine, amid reports that the director of the CIA warned the Kremlin against attacking Nato during a secretive visit this week. Andy Burnham, Britain’s prime minister, said on Monday the UK would allow Kyiv access to classified technology to start ⁠its own production of Storm Shadow ​long-range ​cruise missiles. France has also agreed to supply missile technology. Maria ⁠Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said

Father Dionysios Tabakis says his views are those of Orthodox church, ‘nothing more, nothing less’ A Greek Orthodox priest whose home-recorded album of drone metal and religious dubstep has made him a cult figure in experimental music circles has issued a statement in which he has clarified his stance on homosexuality and the Greek radical right. “As can be seen from my musical expression, I am in favour of unity, love, empathy and help for every needy, wronged and suffering person in life,” Father Dionysios Tabakis said in a public statement shared with the Guardian. “Whoever they are, whatever they

Bosnian Serb commander responsible for Srebrenica massacre dies in prison while serving life sentence for genocide From the archive: Fourteen years a fugitive: the hunt for the Butcher of Bosnia Ratko Mladić will die in jail. But go to Bosnia: you’ll see that he won Ratko Mladić, the infamous Serbian general who was serving a life sentence for genocide committed during the Bosnian war, has died in prison in The Hague. Mladić had been one of the main architects of the policy of ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian war. He was convicted of genocide for orchestrating the 1995 killing of

President denies visit was to gain support for Iran sanctions or due to fears that Putin plans to ‘test Nato resolve’ Donald Trump has downplayed a visit to Moscow by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, as “semi-routine” after he turned up in the Russian capital unannounced, triggering a wave of speculation about the reasons for his trip. Ratcliffe was reported to have flown to Moscow on a government transport plane on Tuesday in a rare visit after taking off from the Andrews air force base in Maryland. Continue reading...

Efforts to rebuild domestic food production face severe challenges and have come at deadly cost As Gaza’s population of 2.1 million has been hemmed into an ever smaller slice of the territory, farmers are using every last remaining patch of unspoiled earth, no matter how tiny, in their struggle to survive. With severe shortages of water, fertiliser and pesticide, and with more than 80% of greenhouses ruined, it has taken inventiveness and determination to clear land of debris and coax new seedlings into life. Moreover, venturing out into the open to tend to plants can be deadly. Continue reading...

As photojournalist sentenced to 15 years, rights groups warn law would turn civic engagement into security crime Iran has taken the first step towards criminalising contact with foreign media, in a move human rights groups have said attempts to “sever the entire Iranian society from the rest of the world”. For journalists, researchers and even ordinary citizens, the proposed law being discussed by Iranian lawmakers this month could make speaking to international audiences and groups a potential criminal act and restrict coverage of events such as January’s mass anti-regime protests . Continue reading...

Internal calls to end war get louder as Gulf neighbours plan alternative pipelines to cut reliance on waterway Is the strait of Hormuz, recently cited by the office of the Iranian supreme leader as “the pillar of Iran’s new security order”, and as transformative as possessing a nuclear weapon, in reality becoming a fast-diminishing asset, leaving Iran increasingly vulnerable to the new planned US wave of economic sanctions? It is the key debate that is raging inside Iran, with many different conclusions being drawn for Tehran’s negotiating strategy. Those who warn the strait’s value as a chokehold on the world

Beijing says it will take ‘all necessary measures’ to protect its interests as US steps up efforts to isolate Tehran Explainer: could US sanctions threaten China-Iran ties? China has denounced the threat of US sanctions for its trade with Iran , saying any such measures would be illegal, and warned it would take “all necessary measures” to protect its national interests. Beijing’s rejection of the US threat of secondary sanctions for any country or entity continuing to trade with Tehran had been predicted. China buys an estimated 80% of Iran’s oil exports and has defied previous US efforts to limit

Flash floods have killed at least 469 people while homes and infrastructure have been swept away Nepal-Tibet flash flood – latest updates What caused the flash flood in Nepal and Tibet? The international community was scrambling to get aid into flood-stricken parts of Nepal and Tibet on Thursday as authorities warned that a lake ⁠formed at the ⁠site ⁠where the ​deadly torrents occurred ⁠was rising and ⁠at risk ​of ‌bursting. The catastrophic flash floods that hit Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday, thundering down valleys and obliterating entire villages, killed at least 469 people and left more than 1,300 missing. Continue

This live blog has now closed – but our coverage continues at a new blog here Eyewitness accounts have been emerging from the Tibetan side of the border , with a woman saying she was travelling from Gyirong town towards Nepal on Wednesday morning when her group encountered the flood about 4km from Gyirong port. “Trees and electricity poles had already been knocked down, and the flood water was bearing down on us. We didn’t dare turn around, so we could only reverse,” the woman, surnamed Fang, told Xiaoxiang Morning News . I was really scared. My whole body was

Unusual heat this year may have melted ice and thawed bonds that hold glaciers in place – leading to catastrophe Nepal-Tibet flash flood – latest updates What caused the flash flood in Nepal and Tibet? The devastating flash flood that has ripped through the border communities of Nepal and Tibet has heightened fears that the climate crisis is destabilising the geology of mountain and polar regions, threatening millions of people. Satellite imagery suggests a glacier collapse high in the Himalayas was the primary cause of the deadly torrent of mud, water and ice that tore along the Bhotekoshi River on

Rescue teams try to locate nearly 1,400 missing people, mostly tourists, while police report recovery of 389 bodies Nepal-Tibet flash flood – latest updates Rescue teams in Nepal are searching for at least 33 British nationals who are among those missing after flash floods ravaged its border with Tibet, killing more than 380 people. Nearly 1,400 people are missing, most of them tourists, authorities have said, after a glacier collapse triggered floods that roared down valleys and razed entire villages . Continue reading...

At least 157 people dead and hundreds of tourists among missing after roads, bridges and power plants swept away Nepal-Tibet flash floods – live updates At least 157 people have been killed and hundreds, including large numbers of foreign tourists, are missing after flash floods ⁠hit the Himalayan border areas of ⁠Nepal and Tibet in China, police have said, with parts of India also at risk. The disaster was caused by a torrent of mud, water and debris that burst from the banks of a river that runs between China and Nepal. Homes, roads, bridges and power plants were swept

Chair Allan Leighton says lower prices and an improved online service are attracting more shoppers Asda has heralded its first quarterly growth in more than two years as the supermarket’s boss said it was attracting more shoppers with lower prices and an improved online service. Allan Leighton, the executive chair of the UK’s third-largest grocer, said a 0.2% rise in sales at established stores, excluding fuel, in the three months to the end of June was “a huge milestone” which was “psychologically important for the business”. In the previous quarter sales had fallen 2.3%. Continue reading...

Christian Drogan’s Invading Britain shows former builder turned journalist trying to travel from France to England in small boat Rupert Murdoch’s online channel TalkTV is facing criticism after it did not disclose that a journalist who travelled to Britain in a small boat for a documentary was a Reform party member and activist. The channel revealed the “world exclusive” this week, stating that the treacherous journey had made the former builder turned journalist Christian Drogan the first British man “to invade his own country”. Continue reading...

Average cost of petrol reaches 161.6p a litre, while diesel costs average of 183.4p, according to the AA UK petrol prices have hit their highest level since 2022, piling more financial pressure on motorists before the bank holiday weekend. The average cost of petrol has reached 161.6p a litre, while diesel costs an average of 183.4p a litre, according to the AA breakdown company. Continue reading...

As well as being quieter, cheaper to run and easier to clean, induction cookers can cut kitchen temperatures by up to 10C Leaping flames, searing heat, copious sweat and scorchingly inventive swearing – restaurant kitchens are never a place for the faint-hearted, but this summer they have been sweltering in successive heatwaves to a dangerous degree. Some restaurants, cafes and bakeries in the UK grew so hot that they were forced to close , or reduce their hours , for the safety of their staff. There is still no maximum working temperature, despite calls from the TUC , and tens

Sales of beans, lentils and soya bean derivatives on rise while Britons buy less real and fake meat British shoppers are munching more beans, lentils, tofu and tempeh – while cutting back on real and plant-based fake meat – to save money and improve their diet. The amount of beans, pulses and soya bean derivatives sold in the UK increased by 7.3% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year, led by a rise in cheap dried lentils, an analysis has found. Continue reading...

President has faced anger in his own party for suspending tariffs on foreign beef to lower grocery prices Sign up for the US Breaking News email A reminder that we are covering the latest out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Kevin Warsh – the new chair of the Federal Reserve – will deliver his first speech as the head of the US central bank at the annual economic policy symposium. As my colleagues note, Warsh is under pressure to provide clarity on how the Federal Reserve should handle with inflation if price pressures don’t abate. Continue reading...

Jake says his parents ‘never stopped helping’ his brother Nick, who has pleaded not guilty to murdering both of them at their Los Angeles home Jake Reiner has given his first interview since the killing of his parents, the film-maker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, saying: “I will never understand why this happened.” Reiner, who directed films including The Princess Bride, This is Spinal Tap and Stand By Me, was found dead alongside Singer Reiner from apparent stab wounds in their home in Los Angeles in December. Continue reading...

More than 1,300 people are missing in Nepal and in Tibet after catastrophic flash floods swept through the region, killing at least 469. Plus: Six months of the war in Iran Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here Good morning. Rescue operations have resumed in Nepal and Tibet after a pause when a lake at the border began to overflow. The lake was formed when a wall of mud and debris hit the hub of Gyirong in Tibet on Wednesday, causing catastrophic flash floods that thundered down valleys and obliterated villages. What could have caused this

Decision to rescind ‘roadless rule’ opens more than 45m acres of national forests to roads, drilling and logging More than 400 endangered animal and plant species could face accelerated extinction after the Donald Trump administration’s decision to rescind a rule that has protected old-growth forests for more than two decades. According to a new report from the Center for Biological Diversity, the rollback of the Bill Clinton-era “roadless rule” could put 7.4m acres of endangered-species habitat and nearly 1,800 miles of protected rivers and streams at risk, while opening more than 45m acres of national forests to roads, drilling and

Survivors begin receiving letters with payment amounts months after $305m settlement agreement was struck Survivors of child rape and other sexual abuse within New Orleans’s Roman Catholic archdiocese learned that $641,000 or so is the most they can individually get under a settlement approved in December to resolve a years-long bankruptcy protection case. Those amounts were communicated in letters that hundreds of clergy abuse survivors participating in the New Orleans archdiocese’s bankruptcy began quietly receiving on Tuesday. The figures are well below a $2.4m jury verdict awarded to an unrelated Louisiana religious sexual abuse claimant in June 2025 after the

Norway’s King Harald has died aged 89, the palace said on Friday, his 53-year-old son Crown Prince Haakon automatically succeeding him on the throne. “It is with deep sadness that we announce that His Majesty King Harald passed away today. King Harald passed away peacefully at Oslo University Hospital on Friday, August 28 at 6.35am,” it said in a statement. The flag at the royal palace in Oslo was lowered to half mast. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said he had received the news with “deep...

Six months after the air strikes that began the war and propelled ⁠a badly wounded Mojtaba Khamenei into the role of Iran’s supreme leader, he remains entirely unseen and unheard by Iranians – a vacuum at the heart of his country’s leadership. Questions over his condition and role are growing increasingly fraught, with Iran facing critical decisions over a war that has set the Middle East aflame while trashing the country’s already fragile economy. Iranian officials and other senior sources in...

A diplomatic push by Oman, Pakistan and Qatar is widely expected to yield another pause in the Iran conflict, but there remains little prospect of a stop to what analysts fear has already become a “forever war”. On Monday, Iran and Oman agreed in principle to a temporary maritime route for ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz. This could lead to the easing of the tit-for-tat blockades imposed by Iran and the US if President Donald Trump’s administration accepts it. Regional mediators...

South Korea supports US President Donald Trump’s efforts to resume dialogue with North Korea, ‌but aims to ensure its security posture is not weakened and that Seoul is not sidelined, according to South Korea’s national security adviser. Seoul believed the resumption of talks between the US and North Korea should focus on progress on the North Korean nuclear weapons issue and must not undermine the country’s security readiness, Wi Sung-lac told reporters on Friday. “One point to keep in mind is...

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. The path to America is narrowing. Here’s what that means for legal immigrants US green card interviews are on hold worldwide, student and work visas are subject to new restrictions, and citizenship is under fresh scrutiny. The SCMP...

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded a US$16.7 million contract to purchase 6,000 pairs of gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks, saying officers would use them to control detainees and protesters who resist. ICE moved forward with the purchase despite opposition from civil rights advocates and Democratic members of Congress, who said ICE officers cannot be trusted to use them appropriately. A notice published in a federal database Thursday said ICE entered into a no-bid...

South Korea said on Friday it would hold joint military exercises with the United States and Japan in September, after Washington scaled back annual drills with Seoul in an apparent bid to encourage dialogue with North Korea. The three countries would conduct the North Korea-focused Freedom Edge exercise from September 7 to 11 in international waters east and south of South Korea’s Jeju Island, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. “This exercise is a defensive drill conducted annually by...

Trita Parsi is co-founder and executive vice-president of the Quincy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. He is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign policy and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He has written four books on US foreign policy in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran and Israel. Born in Iran, Parsi moved to Sweden with his family as a child and then to the United States as an adult. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions...

A US federal judge on Thursday blocked the US Postal Service from implementing core parts of a new rule it adopted at President Donald Trump’s direction that would tighten mail-in voting requirements ahead of the November congressional elections. US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston issued a temporary restraining order ‌at the behest of Democratic-led states and voting rights groups after the US Supreme Court on Monday issued a ruling that led to the lifting of earlier injunctions blocking...

Construction work at the White House was a factor in the US presidential helicopter passing too close to a passenger plane in the skies over Washington earlier this month, investigators said Thursday. The close pass happened on August 4 after President Donald Trump took off on Marine One from a temporary site on the Ellipse, outside the grounds of the White House, during the construction of a permanent helipad inside the grounds. The White House and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)...

Peter Cullen, a prolific voice actor who enlivened scores of television series, specials and films, including Optimus Prime in the syndicated 1984 series Transformers and Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh cartoon franchise, has died. He was 85. His agent, Kevin Motley, said Cullen died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. “His family asks that you honour his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty and always remember ‘be strong...

In arguably his most important foreign trip, Elbridge Colby, US undersecretary for defence policy, visited key Southeast Asian capitals this month. In a speech in Manila, the Pentagon policy chief extolled America’s “flexible realism”, which he said serves “the practical, concrete interests of regular Americans” and echoes Southeast Asian nations’ commitment to “pragmatism, an openness to dialogue, respect for counterparts, proud nationalism, and a focus on economic prosperity”. Amid the United...

The US Federal Aviation Administration is taking steps to fire two air traffic controllers determined to have left their shifts early before an Air Canada Express plane collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport in March, according to people familiar with the matter. The moves are in keeping with a broader push by the Trump administration to crack down on controllers leaving shifts early or abusing sick leave, said the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the information...

Canada has awarded 64 global scholars with C$504 million (US$362 million) in funding to relocate their work to Canadian universities and advance projects in areas such as health and artificial intelligence. Some 48 of the researchers were poached from the US, including from elite institutions such as Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The other 16 researchers are coming from 12 other countries, including the UK, Germany, China and Japan. “While certain countries...

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he was renaming Lake Ontario to be known as “Lake America” in the United States, as he escalated his trade war with Canada. The Republican president signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the US geographic naming service. Trump cannot force Canada to follow along, however. Trump has been floating the idea of the name change in recent days as the US announced it was imposing 50 per cent tariffs on...

Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate stood in the witness box in federal court on Thursday and said they could not adequately defend themselves from criminal sex charges if they had to remain in a Miami jail while fighting extradition to the UK. During nearly two hours in a Miami courtroom, the Tates, in shackles and tan jail jumpsuits, denied under oath criminal accusations across multiple countries, blasted their critics and described their brash online personas that exude wealth...

Brazil will not be able to make rare earth magnets from its own raw materials before 2032, the coordinator of the country’s main magnet pilot plant said on Wednesday, leaving China’s near monopoly on the technology intact for years to come. Andre Luis Pimenta de Faria, who runs the plant for Senai, the research and training arm of Brazil’s national industry confederation, told a public policy panel at Exposibram, the country’s largest mining congress, that first batches could come by the end of...

The US military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe largely driven by US President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, an American defence official in Europe and a Nato official said, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in Nato countries to a potential Russian attack. The US defence official said the most concerning shortfall involves Patriot missile interceptors, which can shoot down Russia’s high-speed ballistic missiles. The Nato official...

The United Kingdom has seen a spike in the number of migrants applying for citizenship and permanent settlement ahead of a planned government clampdown. Government data shows what appears to be a rush to secure residency rights in response to changes announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood that would force migrants to wait longer before they can gain them. The Home Office said 199,628 people were granted settlement, giving them the right to live, work and study in the UK permanently, in the...

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military chief dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia” for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, has died, Serbian state broadcaster RTS reported on Thursday. Mladic, 84, who had suffered several strokes in recent months, was serving a life sentence in The Hague for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity after overseeing the Srebrenica slaughter, Europe’s worst act of bloodshed since second world war. Serbian state officials and Mladic’s family had...

Two years ago, the prospect of a trade war between the United States and Canada, two of the world’s most closely integrated economies, would have been unthinkable. However, US President Donald Trump’s recklessness and capriciousness know no bounds. Last week’s breakdown in negotiations between the North American neighbours, which triggered the imposition of US tariffs of 50 per cent on a wide range of Canadian goods, showed the degree to which Trump’s trade policies are vindictive, politicised...

The Iran war has reached its endgame: a costly stalemate. Six months after US and Israeli ⁠forces attacked Iran, killing its supreme leader and maiming his son and successor, the Iranian government is under economic siege, but it still holds power and believes it has time on its side. A threat by US President Donald Trump to impose crippling new sanctions on Iran faces a fundamental problem: Tehran is betting he will not take the final step to break the stalemate – aggressively enforcing...

Russian ⁠foreign ⁠ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova ⁠said on Thursday that Russia could strike British military targets inside and outside Ukraine ‌in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russia using British missiles. Zakharova called on Britain to back off what she called London’s hostile ⁠stance on Ukraine, which she said ‌risked taking the conflict to an entirely new level. She ‌had told the same Moscow ⁠news ⁠briefing earlier that Britain and France were “playing with ‌fire” by supplying...

Colombia’s new hard-right government wants to use prison ships adrift at sea to lock up people it considers highly dangerous criminals, a defence ministry source said on Wednesday. President Abelardo de la Espriella took office earlier this month, vowing to come down hard on armed groups in Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer. The US-backed millionaire campaigned on a pledge to bomb guerrillas and build so-called “mega prisons” in the style of El Salvador’s leader, Nayib...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared “Mission Accomplished” in Iran even as the unpopular and costly war drags on with no end in sight and no sign that the US is close to achieving any of the lofty goals he set for the conflict. Trump posted an image of himself along with Iran’s slain former supreme leader Ali Khamenei against a stylised landscape background of punishing US air and missile attacks. “Mission Accomplished 2026”, a caption reads. The slogan evokes former president George...

Two workers at Frankfurt Airport have died from malaria after being infected by mosquitoes believed to have arrived in Germany on aircraft from malaria-endemic regions, airport operator Fraport and city health authorities said on Wednesday. The first death occurred in early July, the Frankfurt city health authority said, adding that the cause was established only after the patient died. The second death occurred in August, it said. The health authority said a total of six workers had been...

Tim Curry, the baritone-voiced British actor who pranced to movie fame as a singing, lingerie-clad “sweet transvestite” in the 1975 ⁠cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, has died at ⁠the age of 80, his manager said on Wednesday. A cause of ⁠death was not immediately given, but Curry had been in ill health for some time. He died peacefully on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles, his manager said. Curry appeared in numerous films, often as a hammy villain, was nominated three times for a...

Brazil has not answered two American proposals to formalise cooperation on critical minerals, a senior US diplomat said at Latin America’s largest mining fair, leaving Washington without a bilateral deal as it races to build rare earth supply chains outside China. Matthew Lowe, economic counsellor at the US embassy in Brasilia, said Washington invited Brazil years ago to join the Minerals Security Partnership, a US-led grouping that coordinates investment in mineral supply chains, but never...

Meta agreed to pay a coalition of US states as much as US$16.7 billion and to impose sweeping new limits on how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram, according to a court filing on Wednesday that ends a landmark trial in California. The settlement, which a federal judge quickly approved, resolves claims by 29 states that Meta deliberately engineered its platforms to hook young users, misled the public about the risks and unlawfully collected data from children under 13. Texas reached a separate...

Iran and Oman have reached agreement on their share of the Strait of Hormuz and its revenues, but the vital waterway will not be reopened if the US does not accept their conditions, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday. Iran and Oman have held on-and-off talks for weeks ‌about controlling traffic through the strait, which handled one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments before the war began in February. Most shipping has since been shut down, driving global energy...

Prince Harry and his family arrived back in Britain on Wednesday, the BBC reported, days after it was revealed the couple were relocating six years after quitting royal duties and moving to the United States. Last week, Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, surprised even their close family when it was disclosed that they would move back from California to somewhere ‌outside London for what was described as an extended period of time. Their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess...

Forty years ago, the Stockholm Document turned the political promise of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act into a more practical system of confidence-building. Amid the Cold War, Europe’s East and West did not disarm, abandon deterrence or begin to trust one another. Instead, they agreed that military competition could be made safer through prior notification, observation, information exchange and verification. The lesson was modest but durable: adversaries do not need trust to reduce uncertainty. That...

US President Donald Trump’s administration is starting to send staff back to some diplomatic missions in the Middle East that were evacuated ‌or downsized amid tensions with Iran, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The posts in Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Baghdad, Iraq, are among those where staff will return, the sources said. Family members will also be allowed to return to the US post in Riyadh, they added. The move suggests Washington sees a lower risk of the conflict...

A man killed eight of his relatives, including four children, as they gathered for Sunday dinner at a home outside Billings, Montana, weeks after his parents asked him to move out, a family member told Associated Press. Brad Ireland, whose former wife and two children were among the dead, identified the shooter as 44-year-old Alan Smith. Smith’s parents, who were also killed, had asked him to move out, but he returned on Sunday and opened fire, Ireland said. The victims represented four...

A prominent Sikh separatist said Tuesday that the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have warned him that he faces a new credible threat to his life even as a man from India faces sentencing later this year for a 2023 death plot against him. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel for Sikhs For Justice, said he was warned by FBI agents who visited him August 12 that he should not travel until the threat is resolved, and, if he does, the agency should be notified in advance of his...

A taboo-breaking book about Vladimir Putin’s rise to power and private life, written by two exiled Russian journalists, won a newly established French literary prize on Tuesday. The book, titled The Tsar in Propria Persona: How Vladimir Putin Deceived Us All, draws on more than two decades of investigative reporting by journalists Roman Badanin and Mikhail Rubin. The work won a newly established literary award called the Prix Strasbourg awarded by EBRA, France’s largest regional newspaper group,...

The gaffe at last month’s Aids 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, where a US State Department presentation displayed a map of Africa with every country mislabelled, serves as more than a source of embarrassment. It was a potent symbol of the distance between Washington’s rhetoric and its real stance regarding the African continent. Earlier this year, Nick Checker, a senior US State Department official, spoke of “resetting” US relations with Africa, pivoting away from dependency and towards...

The US Secret ⁠Service is aware ⁠of a video ⁠broadcast by Iranian state television discussing a potential plot to assassinate US President Donald Trump’s youngest son, a spokesman said on ‌Tuesday. “The US Secret Service is aware of the video and investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees. “Out of concern for operational security, we ⁠do not discuss matters of protective intelligence,” Secret Service spokesman Nate Herring wrote in an email. A three-minute...

Six Chinese nationals were killed and nine ‌more are missing after a fire broke out at a gas chemical complex in Russia’s far eastern Amur region, the plant said on Wednesday. A total of seven people died and 152 people were treated for injuries, including 36 ⁠who were rushed to hospitals, the plant said on the Telegram ‌messaging app on Wednesday. The fire, which broke out on Tuesday, was extinguished, it added. An emergency services ‌plane had arrived to transport the injured to other...

A shipper needing to transit the Panama Canal bid a record US$5.3 million to secure its spot, according to people familiar with the matter. South Korea-based SK Gas Ltd agreed to pay the sum to travel the canal on September 1, said the people, who could not be identified as the information was confidential. The fee, determined through an auction run by the canal authority this week, breaks the previous high of US$4.6 million set earlier this month, also paid by a shipper controlling a South...

Dolly Parton, the country music star who rose from grinding poverty in Tennessee to become a rhinestone-studded cultural icon with hits like “Jolene” and “9 to 5”, has died at 80, her family said on Tuesday. Parton was more than a singer – she wrote 3,000 songs, acted in major Hollywood films and donated millions of dollars to charities in her home state and beyond. She was also an accomplished businesswoman, with her interests spanning from her popular Dollywood theme park to cosmetics, pet...

Canada announced retaliatory tariffs of up to 50 per cent on US$19.94 billion (C$27.6 billion) of American goods on Tuesday, escalating its trade confrontation with Washington days after negotiations collapsed and the Trump administration imposed sweeping new duties on Canadian products. The tariffs, which take effect on September 8, will apply to more than 700 categories of US goods at rates of 15, 25 or 50 per cent, according to the Canadian government. The targeted products range from steel,...

Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid to overturn her sex trafficking conviction and be freed from prison was rejected by a federal judge Tuesday who said the claims by Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and long-time associate that new evidence had emerged were “demonstrably meritless”. Maxwell filed a habeas petition last December seeking to set aside her conviction and free her from a 20-year prison sentence, claiming exonerating information was withheld and false testimony presented at her trial,...

US CIA Director ⁠John Ratcliffe spoke with Russian intelligence ⁠officials during a visit to Moscow but did not meet President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Wednesday of a trip that US President Donald Trump described as “semi-routine”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Putin had been briefed on the outcome of Tuesday’s visit, ‌which came as the war in Ukraine drags on and as efforts to reach a lasting peace between the United States and Iran have stalled. Peskov declined to...

Two candidates for Town Council in Gila Bend, Ariz., finished with the same number of votes. A century-old state law mandated breaking the tie with a game of chance.

Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, has been working hard on behalf of Connie Chan, a San Francisco supervisor with a relatively low profile in California.

Governor Mark Gordon, a Republican, said he was concerned by the behavior of election observers who visited a polling station in Cheyenne.

Of course you can steal cars in this Bonnie and Clyde story. In the series’s first game in 13 years, you can do almost anything else, too.

The relative indifference to the news that the U.S. government now owes $40 trillion demonstrates how drastically the politics of deficit spending has changed.

Investors want Kevin Warsh, the Fed chairman, to address inflation, interest rates and the bond market in a major speech. Some worry he won’t say enough.

Even the most adept researchers may not know exactly what they do to get successful results. An A.I. model is trying to figure it out by watching every move.

Landlords are offering renters in rent-controlled apartments tens of thousands of dollars to leave their homes. For many, it’s not enough.

Analysis by the company’s DeepMind unit suggests that an A.I.-enabled model delivers accurate forecasts a day or more before conventional models can.

After decades as a coveted address in Syracuse, N.Y., the sprawling Nob Hill complex descended into neglect, squalor and death. One family paid a terrible price.

Her latest novel appears to savage a celebrity. But Cusk has, once again, managed to turn herself into the victim.

How to understand the wide range of sympathy for a mother on trial for murder.

To reach a verdict, jurors must agree on whether Ms. Clancy should be held criminally responsible for killing her three children.

His 35-year reign opened an ancient monarchy to marriages with so-called commoners and to an incendiary association with Jeffrey Epstein.

Crown Prince Haakon, the only son of King Harald V, will become monarch, a largely ceremonial and symbolic role.

A playbook to curb the growing power of Big Tech.

Robin Wigglesworth of Financial Times explains everything you need to know about the Trump administration’s meddling with the bond market.

The Nepali authorities warned people to head for safety because more water could soak flood-ravaged villages.

NASA’s latest offering to the stars comes from a legacy of great observatories that enabled decades of discovery and unearthed new mysteries about the universe.