Minimalist News

Winter Is Coming: Europe Faces Twin Diesel And NatGas Crunch Samantha Dart, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, began the week by telling Bloomberg TV that the global diesel-supply crunch is " what keeps her up at night ." She followed up Wednesday with a client note warning that European natural gas storage levels are also lagging the seasonal average ahead of the winter heating period. Benchmark TTF futures have fallen 7% this week to about 54 euros per megawatt-hour, but Dart maintained her 60-euro balance-of-third-quarter forecast. She noted that Northwest European LNG imports missed July expectations by

July Jobs Shock: US Lost 23K Workers, Below Lowest Estimate, As Unemp Rate Drops To 4.1% Ahead of today's jobs report, in our payrolls preview we warned that " July Has Emerged As A Very Poor Month For Jobs " and boy were we right: moments ago the BLS reported that in July, the US labor force shrank by a whopping 23K, sharply lower from a downward revised 20K in June (from 57K), and the worst print since the negative 156K in February. As noted above, the -23K print was below all estimates... ... and was a 5-sigma miss to

Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan Sign Islamic NATO-Style Defense Pact Amid Iran War On Friday Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a major defense agreement as leaders gathered in the city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. It seeks to strengthen joint deterrence and expanding defense cooperation, the Saudi Press Agency reported. It is essentially a NATO-style agreement for the 'Muslim world' - given that it stipulates and formalizes that an armed attack on any of the countries will be treated as an attack against all of them . Formally called the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement, it "reflects the three nations’ commitment to

Can Sam Altman Be Trusted Inside Your Home? Meet OpenAI's New Always-On Smart Speaker Trust remains OpenAI's biggest problem. Sam Altman's public feud with Elon Musk, combined with Apple's allegations that OpenAI stole trade secrets, has only intensified concerns surrounding the company's leadership and governance. Amid this glaring trust issue, OpenAI now wants to place what Bloomberg describes as "essentially a smart speaker without a display" inside millions of homes. Equipped with microphones, cameras, and environmental sensors, the $300 device would function as an always-on intelligence platform, potentially collecting voice, visual, behavioral, and household data. OpenAI’s first device is a

Futures Rise Ahead Of Closely Watched Jobs Report US futures grind higher in a European session devoid of newsflow ahead of nonfarm payrolls. As of 815am ET, S&P futures rose 0.2% while Nasdaq futures gained 0.4%, with some of yesterday’s beaten up tech names such as Sandisk and Western Digital getting some reprieve in the premarket. Asian stocks swung between a loss of as much as 0.5% and gain of 0.4%. South Korea’s Kospi declined as much as 2.2% before paring the loss; the index was headed to its seventh weekly drop, longest losing streak in more than three years.

Global Food Prices Hit Three-Year High As War, Chokepoint Chaos And El Nino Spark Perfect Storm The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Price Index climbed to a three-year high in July , extending its upward trajectory as conflicts across Eurasia (the Black Sea and the Hormuz chokepoint) disrupt critical trade routes and mounting El Niño risks threaten global harvests. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of globally traded food commodities, averaged 131.09 last month, up .6% from the previous month, led by gains

Meanwhile, In England... Idiocy Knows No Bounds Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , Mindless arson for online clout is torching farmers' livelihoods across England. Hay and straw stacks - vital winter feed and hard-earned harvest - are being deliberately set alight in a suspected TikTok challenge that treats the countryside like disposable content. West Mercia Police have circulated an urgent warning to farming groups after a string of overnight attacks. The force stated: "Following a recent spate of overnight arson attacks on hay stacks in the north of England there appears to be a TikTok challenge to 'set

$109,796 In Earnings Needed To Afford Typical US Home The income needed in order to purchase a typical home for sale in the United States in June was $109,796, marginally lower than the record high $110,382 in 2025, real estate brokerage Redfin said in an Aug. 5 report. Housing affordability has remained largely flat year over year since monthly housing costs and people’s incomes are growing at a similar rate, Redfin said. However, the income needed to purchase a house has been dropping consistently since October. While the income required is around $22,000 higher than the earnings of a typical

Indian Refiners Continue West Africa Crude Buying Spree By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com India’s state-run refiners continue their buying spree of crude from West Africa as the Middle East crisis has sapped supply and made deliveries uncertain. In one of the latest purchases via a tender, India’s state-owned refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) has acquired 2 million barrels of Nigerian crude oil from Shell , trade sources told Reuters on Thursday. HPCL has bought 1 million barrels each of Nigerian crude grades Forcados and Bonga for its Visakh refinery in the state of Andhra Pradesh on the east coast

IRGC Strikes 'Hostile Targets' In Hormuz As Iran Declares Oman Deal Bans US Vessels From Strait Summary Explosions heard near Qeshm island - Iran says it struck 'hostile targets' . Iran parliament reviews draft Hormuz plan banning US- and Israel-linked vessels , oil rises Houthis intensify attacks on Saudi oil shipping in the Red Sea. Yemen fighting escalates amid reports of major casualties. Iran-Oman talks continue as US backs diplomatic solution, searches for offramp . US announces end of Iranian blockade by August 15, 2026? Yes 60% · No 40% View full market & trade on Polymarket Iran Struck 'Hostile

How The World Views China Vs The US In 2026 The United States and China are the world’s two preeminent superpowers, but views of them vary widely by country. This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Gabriel Cohen, compares approval ratings for Beijing and Washington using survey results from more than 42,000 respondents across 36 countries. The survey was conducted in February 2026 by the Pew Research Center . China Now Leads in Global Favorability Public opinion in many countries has shifted in China’s favor amid changes in U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy. In 27 of the 36 countries surveyed, China received

"Promises Are Fairy Tales": NATO Will Not Accept Ukraine Authored by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida via GlobalResearch.ca, Apparently, the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO is increasingly being dismissed as unrealistic. Even the regime’s most hardline officials seem to have lost hope regarding Kiev’s accession to the Western military alliance, considering that such a move does not serve NATO’s current strategic interests. In a recent statement, Valery Zaluzhny – Ukraine’s current ambassador to the UK, former head of the country’s armed forces, now widely considered Zelensky’s top rival – asserted that Kiev will never join the Atlantic defense bloc. According to

Cambridge's Black Time-Travelling Professor (And His Many Superhuman Feats) Authored by Mark Collett, Running a single marathon is a great achievement. Running 30 marathons is a spectacular feat. Running 30 marathons in 35 days is something only a world-class athlete could achieve. But running 30 marathons in 35 days, and running the final nine of those marathons with a broken leg – that’s an impossible feat that would require superhuman powers. But that is exactly what Jason Arday has claimed to achieve. But that’s not all, Jason Arday’s incredible feats aren’t just limited to running nearly 240 miles on a

Zelensky To Make First-Ever Visit To Serbia, In Symbolic 'Slap In The Face' For Russia Serbia is set to host Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a major first of the war which could set off serious diplomatic tensions with Russia, a longtime Serbian ally and 'friend'. Zelensky will arrive on this first-ever trip on Saturday, August 8, according to Ukrainian officials, despite that Serbia - as a Slavic and Orthodox Christian country - has historically maintained warm ties with Moscow . via Wiki Commons But Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has been a leader who has put a little distance between

If This Is Real, We Are Cooked... Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , Footage circulating purporting to be from the North African desert shows what looks like an enormous column of sub-Saharan African men moving under escort. Some estimates put the number at a hundred thousand. Commentators claim Algerian military vehicles and personnel are shepherding them toward the coast. If the scale and direction prove accurate, Europe faces another deliberate pressure wave on top of the chaos already unfolding in Ceuta. Wait until they see what is coming I said early on Algeria with their best chums Iran

Are You Ready For The "Rogue AI" Psy-Op? Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org, The AIs are breaking free, that’s the story. It started two weeks ago, when OpenAI reported one of their “agents” had escaped its testing area and got loose on the internet to launch an “unprecedented cyber attack” . This was clearly meant to be scarier than the public response indicated, because a few days later OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was on the Invest like the Best podcast , asking why it didn’t cause more panic: “I’ve been a little surprised that more people don’t feel it

The Vanishing Art Of Presence Authored by Joseph Varon via Brownstone Institute , Medicine is always changing . In my career, I have seen intensive care units go from simple rooms with oxygen, monitors, and clinical intuition to places where artificial intelligence can predict problems before we notice them, bedside ultrasound helps us avoid guessing, and robotic systems help surgeons work with great precision. Telemedicine now lets specialists care for patients who are far away. These advances have saved lives, made care more accessible, improved efficiency, and helped doctors reach patients who might not have seen a specialist otherwise. Many

Trump Signs Orders To Curb Birthright Citizenship, Target Birth Tourism President Donald Trump signed two executive orders Thursday that will restrict automatic citizenship to ​children born in the United States because of commercial birth tourism and several other factors. One of the measures bans birth tourism , the practice of traveling to the United States on a tourist visa with the intention to have a child that is given automatic U.S. citizenship. Trump called it “a big deal” and said during the signing ceremony that birthright citizenship has been made into a joke. The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30

Judge Says Updated National Firearms Act Violates Constitution Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times, A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the registration and approval requirements for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns in the National Firearms Act (NFA) are unconstitutional. In the case of Silencer Shop Foundation v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix found that the requirements exceeded Congress’s constitutional authority once the NFA’s taxes on making or transferring those arms were eliminated. The taxes were reduced to zero last year. The court found that the NFA,

These Are America's Fastest-Aging States America’s population is getting older, but some states are aging much faster than others. Using U.S. Census Bureau data compiled by USAFacts , this ranking, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows how much each state’s population aged 65 and older grew between 2014 and 2024. Growth in 65-and-Older Populations (2014-2024) The table below ranks every state by the percentage growth in its population aged 65 and older between 2014 and 2024. State Change in 65+ Population (2014–2024) Total Growth Alaska 56% 39,425 Idaho 51% 120,188 Delaware 48% 74,383 Utah 48% 140,632 Wyoming 46% 36,760 New

As Abelardo de la Espriella takes office as president vowing a new military offensive, the country’s last leftwing rebels are getting ready to fight back As the boat approached the riverbank, camouflaged figures watched from the tree line. Behind them, in the dim understory of the jungle, a commander of the National Liberation Army (ELN) sat with his rifle on his lap, amid the buzz and whine of insects and the thwacks of machetes on bamboo as his troops set up camp, hidden from enemy drones. Continue reading...

DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin says ‘We’re going after them right now’ despite threat of violence in home country Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are faced with the prospect of imminent risk of arrest and deportation – to a home country racked with crime, violence and political unrest – after the Trump administration officially stripped them of humanitarian protections that had allowed them to live and work legally in the United States for years. US district judge Ana Reyes confirmed on Wednesday that her order blocking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from ending temporary protected status (TPS) for Haiti was

The 20-year-old’s third calf is being monitored by officials as survival rates for the species are challenging, the zoo said The Toronto Zoo has announced the birth of a female pygmy hippo calf. Kindia, the zoo’s 20-year-old pygmy hippo, started showing signs of labor at around 8.15am last Sunday, it said. Around four hours later, the calf’s feet emerged and after 1.5 hours of active labor, Kindia successfully gave birth to the baby pygmy hippo. Continue reading...

César Gastélum was filming outside a fast-food outlet in Sinaloa state when he was killed by a motorbike driver A popular Mexican influencer has been shot dead while doing a live stream on social media outside a restaurant in Sinaloa state, where lethal cartel violence has become widespread. César Gastélum, who had nearly 600,000 followers on TikTok and was known for making comedy videos, was filming with two friends outside a fast-food restaurant in the city of Culiacán. The three were dressed in the bright orange jackets and backpacks of food delivery drivers. Continue reading...

Cardinal Pedro Barreto received death threats and harassment during his almost 20-year campaign against a US mining company’s operations in the Andes A Peruvian cardinal who received a barrage of death threats when he challenged the firm behind a toxic smelter has called a $150m (£111m) out-of-court settlement to more than 1,000 people who were allegedly poisoned by the plant as children “a historic milestone”. Cardinal Pedro Barreto, 82, was in Rome meeting Pope Leo XIV and other cardinals in June when he received news that the firm that ran the smelter, the Doe Run Company, a subsidiary of Renco

Teenager killed his grandparents ⁠before opening fire at school near Bangkok, where 22 others were wounded Thailand school shooting – latest updates A Thai teenager killed his grandparents before opening fire at his school, where he shot five people dead and took his own life, police have said, in an attack that has shaken a country struggling to deal with gun violence. Police said the 14-year-old had wounded another 22 people in the school ⁠shooting on the outskirts of Bangkok on Friday morning. Nine people were in a critical condition, the Thai health department said. Continue reading...

Profit jump fuelled largely by unknown US refund amount as Japanese video game firm records quarterly sales drop Nintendo has reported a jump in profits, as the Japanese game maker’s earnings were buoyed up by a long-awaited refund on Donald Trump’s tariffs. The company said profits surged 53.5% to ¥147.4bn (£694m) over the three months to June, substantially beating expert forecasts for ¥77.8bn. Continue reading...

Coffee chain has faced backlash over marketing promotion tied to anniversary of Gwangju massacre South Korean police have raided the headquarters of Starbucks Korea as part of an investigation into a marketing campaign accused of trivialising the country’s 1980s pro-democracy movement. Investigators searched the building in southern Seoul on Tuesday, police said on Wednesday. No further details were released, although South Korean media reported that officers also searched the homes of the Starbucks Korea executives. Continue reading...

Snow falls in Wellington for the first time in 15 years while snow blanketed Dunedin and Christchurch on the country’s south island Temperatures have plummeted across New Zealand as an Antarctic cold snap hovers over the country, delighting the capital, Wellington, which experienced snow for the first time in 15 years, while giving a southern city’s residents a chance to ski through the streets. The front moved in on Tuesday, with much of the country waking to freezing conditions, frosts, snowfall, hail and bitingly cold wind. Continue reading...

WTA event win earns 21-year-old a presidential reception in the Philippines as interest in tennis surges in home country The Philippines has been swept up in tennis fever after 21-year-old rising star Alex Eala delivered a historic win, drawing praise from the president who hosted a reception in her honour. On Monday, Eala became the first player from the Philippines to win a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour-level singles title. Continue reading...

Police say body of 23-year-old found at Eschol Park property with significant injuries, indicating he may have been attacked before death Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A group of dogs has been taken to a shelter to be euthanised after a young man died following a suspected dog attack at a rural Sydney property. Authorities were alerted to the discovery of the 23-year-old’s body at a rural property in Sydney’s south-west on Wednesday. Police found the body with what they described as significant injuries

Barrister alleges ‘account of penis wiggling is an attempt to humiliate’ broadcaster who has pleaded not guilty to 22 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Alan Jones’s defence barrister has told a Sydney court one of the broadcaster’s alleged victims invented details of alleged indecent assaults at a Fitzroy Falls farm to “humiliate” and “smear” the former media titan. Complainant J told the court during evidence-in-chief earlier this week that during one alleged incident in the property’s bedroom, Jones’s penis was not fully erect and “not very

This blog is now closed Federal parliament is returning from winter break next week. Do you have a question you’d like to ask Guardian Australia’s team of political reporters in Canberra? Our political editor, Tom McIlroy , and the team will be answering readers’ questions on the Australian Politics podcast. Continue reading...

As Australia prepares for the H5 bird flu to potentially rip through hundreds of species, residents of the Limestone Coast are already seeing the impacts Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast It has only been three weeks since H5 bird flu was detected on South Australia’s Limestone Coast and already encounters with sick or dead birds are becoming commonplace. Maureen Christie, who lives in the seaside town of Carpenter Rocks, has been observing and protecting birds in the region for decades. She is now witnessing

Amid revelations that could damage the opposition’s state election hopes, the NSW government dropped key documents on three contentious issues Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast During the first week of the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s Operation Rosny’s hearings into allegations against people associated with the New South Wales Liberal party, Chris Minns took the high ground. “There’ll be no gloating or taking political advantage,” the NSW Labor premier told reporters. “It’s an important process and ultimately, hopefully, it makes all political parties cleaner and

Officials try to find homes for residents as talks to save social assistance hub collapse amid government crackdown Rome authorities are scrambling to find homes for hundreds of people sleeping in tents in extreme heat after talks aimed at saving Italy’s most high-profile centre for housing and social assistance collapsed amid a crackdown by Giorgia Meloni’s government on squatted buildings. The approximately 400 evicted residents of Spin Time Labs, located in a 10-floor building in Rome’s Esquilino district occupied by grassroots groups since 2013, will not be allowed to move back in after its private owner refused Rome council’s offer

High 30s celsius forecast for France, Spain and Italy next week, before affecting Germany, Poland and Czechia Another pulse of heat is expected to affect central and western Europe next week. The latest forecast models show daily maximum temperatures well into the high 30s celsius widely across France, Spain and Italy during the first half of the week, while Germany, Poland and Czechia will experience the highest temperatures towards the end of the week. The shift in the focus of the heat as the week progresses can be attributed to the movement of high pressure. At the start of the

The curator of Norway’s national museum in Oslo is bringing the work by the Flemish baroque artist Clara Peeters out of obscurity in a major exhibition of female artists Anonymous was often a woman: so said Virginia Woolf. And so thought Cynthia Osiecki one day in 2022, when she chanced on an unattributed still life in the storage area of the National Museum of Norway in Oslo. Osiecki had been studying the work of a renowned 17th-century Flemish artist, Clara Peeters, one of the earliest practitioners of still life painting. Works by Peeters hang in the Prado in Madrid, the

Slovakia reaches new high of 42C as authorities in Poland forced to shut down Kozienice and Połaniec power plants Europe’s dry riverbeds and scorched earth – in pictures Temperature records have been broken in several countries across central and eastern Europe as the extreme weather that has caused wildfires and droughts across the continent continues. Countries including Slovakia, Austria and Hungary registered record temperatures. On Thursday, the Slovakian hydrometeorological agency said a new high of 42C (108F) had been reached in Dolné Plachtince. Continue reading...

Germany investigating whether foreign state involved as minister says ‘ripped’ detonator stopped device going off Europe live – latest updates A catastrophe with multiple casualties was possibly narrowly averted by the discovery of a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport, German officials said, as they examined whether a foreign state could be behind the plot. One of the Ukrainian aircraft next to where the bomb drone was found was loaded with military ammunition, according to a classified police report quoted by the public broadcasters WDR and NDR and the Süddeutsche newspaper. Continue reading...

Yinon Levy charged with manslaughter in first exception this decade to culture of impunity for Israelis who kill Palestinians in the occupied West Bank Prosecutors in Israel have indicted an extremist settler for shooting a Palestinian activist last July, the first attempt this decade to hold an Israeli responsible for killing a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank. Yinon Levy, who was under western sanctions, is charged with manslaughter over the death of Awdeh Hathaleen, an English teacher and peace activist. In his last moments, Hathaleen filmed the settler drawing his weapon and opening fire towards him. Continue reading...

By dragging out talks, Tehran aims to damage the US president politically – but some fear a bruised and weakened Trump could lash back Tehran has set out a protracted negotiating timetable designed to keep Donald Trump embroiled in the Iran conflict until the midterm elections, in the hope of inflicting the same ruinous blow on his presidency as Jimmy Carter suffered over the 1979-81 US embassy hostage crisis. For many inside Iran, inflicting meaningful revenge on Trump is a legitimate and self-standing war aim, reflected in the mood of those attending the funeral of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei

This live blog is now closed. Understanding reached on coordinates for shipping route through Hormuz, Iran says Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which was set up in January to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza , has finally issued its first construction contract in the devastated territory: a project to build a rudimentary 150-person military outpost to house Moroccan troops, a source familiar with the matter told the Guardian. The contract, which has not yet been finalised, was awarded to Arkel International, a Louisiana-based firm that has previously carried out work with the US government in countries such as Iraq. Continue

Exclusive: Louisiana firm awarded tender to build rudimentary outpost to house Moroccan troops Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which was set up in January to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza , has finally issued its first construction contract in the devastated territory: a project to build a rudimentary 150-person military outpost to house Moroccan troops, a source familiar with the matter told the Guardian. The contract, which has not yet been finalised, was awarded to Arkel International, a Louisiana-based firm that has previously carried out work with the US government in countries such as Iraq. Continue reading...

Letter says lifting of sanctions sent ‘clear message’ settlers can use deadly force in West Bank without consequences Senior Democrats have accused Donald Trump’s administration of giving a green light to violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, warning that its policies created “a climate of impunity and unbridled violence” that endangers both Palestinians and US citizens. In a letter seen by the Guardian, a group of 19 Democratic senators and representatives call for the restoration of sanctions against extremist settlers and demand independent US investigations into the deaths of nine US citizens killed in the West Bank since

Dhaka accuses India of giving platform to a ‘convicted genocider’ by allowing Sheikh Hasina to address journalists Bangladesh has lashed out at India for allowing the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to address journalists in New Delhi, plunging already strained bilateral relations to a fresh low. Dhaka accused India of giving a platform to a fugitive it labelled a “convicted genocider” and of undermining efforts to repair ties, after Hasina vowed to return to Bangladesh in December despite facing a death sentence on charges of “crimes against humanity”. Continue reading...

Tarun Tejpal, ex-editor of Tehelka magazine, was initially acquitted in 2021 in case that drew nationwide attention An Indian court has sentenced a high-profile former editor of an investigative news magazine to 10 years in prison after convicting him of raping a junior colleague, overturning his acquittal in a case that drew nationwide attention. Tarun Tejpal, 63, the founder and former editor of Tehelka magazine, was accused of raping a journalist in the lift of a five-star hotel in the western coastal state of Goa during an event in November 2013. He was arrested and spent seven months in jail

Sheikh Hasina plans a December comeback two years after being ousted in a bloody uprising led by students Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has vowed to return home by the end of the year, even though she faces a death sentence. “They may put me in a cell. They may kill me. Anything may happen, but still I have to go,” said Hasina, two years after a student-led uprising toppled her government. Continue reading...

Rules brought in soon after killing of dozens of protesters, news of which was reported only by overseas outlets Pakistani authorities have imposed severe new restrictions on international media, including barring them from reporting in most of the country, in a move that has provoked a significant backlash from journalist organisations. According to the new rules anyone, including Pakistani nationals, should seek permission first if they want to report from anywhere in Pakistan except three cities – Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore. Continue reading...

Lahore police official says all personnel were responsible for preventing and reporting any wrongdoing at station The alleged rape of a 20-year-old woman with learning disabilities in a police station in Lahore, Pakistan, has prompted authorities to suspend all 78 police officers and staff at the precinct, in one of the country’s biggest ever disciplinary actions against its police force. The woman alleges that an assistant sub-inspector apprehended her, took her to Ghaziabad police station and raped her in a room on the second floor. The woman’s family said she disappeared on the street, before returning home in tears and

Home Office minister Anna Turley says PM is ‘authentic’ and praises video of him discussing bar snacks with John Healey Streeting said it was “not OK” that the killers of PC Andrew Harper were eligible for early release , PA reports. He said the government should “never have been put in a position” where prisons were so full that offenders were going to be let out at an earlier stage of their sentence. Continue reading...

Experts say the attackers’ behaviour, and the handling of their cases, have striking similarities About 40 metres off Tottenham High Street, up a slip road for deliveries to a B&M homewares store, is a stretch of concrete paving behind a 2-metre wall topped with spikes. This is the patch of ground that Simon Levy tried to turn into his personal killing field. Continue reading...

Delays to sexual assault charges and failures to report past convictions in court hearings gave Simon Levy chance to attack more women Catastrophic errors left a prolific and proven sex offender free before he murdered two women in London, it can be revealed. On Friday an Old Bailey jury found Simon Levy, 40, guilty of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins five months later. The CPS admitted errors at three court hearings in May, June and August 2025, which ended in Levy remaining free. It would not specify publicly what those were, but a source authorised to

Festival organisers defend show after criticism from sister of Meredith Kercher, Knox’s murdered former flatmate The Edinburgh festival fringe said it was “not afraid of controversy” after calls to cancel a sold-out show by Amanda Knox , who was falsely imprisoned for the 2007 murder of her flatmate Meredith Kercher in Italy. Knox’s comedy show, Cartwheel, has been condemned by Kercher’s family, with her sister, Stephanie, saying it “normalises and trivialises violence against women”. A petition calling for it to be cancelled has been signed by more than 6,000 people. Continue reading...

Musician’s projects included Madonna’s Ray of Light, Blur’s 13 and All Saints’ chart-topping singles Pure Shores and Black Coffee William Orbit, the British music producer whose dreamy yet propulsive style invigorated work by Madonna, Blur, All Saints, U2 and more, has died aged 69. A statement on his social media, attributed to family and friends, said he died at home on 23 July. “He will be greatly missed by us and by so many whose lives he touched through his music, friendship and kindness,” the statement read. No cause of death was given. Continue reading...

Todd Blanche can’t afford another Republican deflection after Lisa Murkowski ⁠and Susan Collins voice opposition; all eyes on Bill Cassidy, who could sink nomination Murkowski won’t support Blanche’s attorney general bid Sign up for the Breaking News US email Following Lisa Murkowski’s announcement that she plans to vote “no” on Todd Blanche’s nomination to lead the Department of Justice, the acting attorney general can’t afford another defection in order to secure the permanent position. So far the only other holdout is Senator Bill Cassidy – a GOP lawmaker from Louisiana. Cassidy, a former physician, said this week he’s concerned about

Alaska Republican is concerned that proposed fund to compensate January 6 rioters will proceed even though Blanche confirmed it was dead US politics live – latest updates Lisa Murkowski, Alaska’s moderate Republican senator, announced early on Friday that she will not vote forTodd Blanche as US attorney general, leaving his confirmation in the post down to a single remaining vote. Murkowski issued a statement expressing her concerns that the Trump administration could proceed with its proposed fund to compensate rioters who invaded the US Capitol on January 6 in a failed attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s defeat of Trump in

Domestic flights cost 26.5% more than last year, data shows, amid demand for travel and reduced oil refining capacity Even if a lasting ceasefire between the US and Iran lowers oil prices , travelers hoping to snag cheaper airfare should buckle their seatbelts and expect continued turbulence . US domestic airfares are 26.5% higher than a year ago, according to June’s consumer price index data, and analysts say prices globally are up 25-30% compared with 2025. Continue reading...

Robyn Cory says daughter Kristen was not protected, amid questions about why it took six years to identify remains The family of Kristen Galvan, a 15-year-old Houston girl who was sex trafficked and murdered, says law enforcement failed her twice by not protecting her after she gave forensic interviews about her traffickers, and later by taking more than six years to identify her remains. The Texas attorney general’s office announced on 28 July that Kristen’s remains had been positively identified using advanced DNA testing conducted over the past year. Parts of her skull, clothing and an earring were found beneath

A Trump administration framework on AI testing leaves a lack of transparency – and plenty of open questions After months of talking with tech industry leaders, the Trump administration finalized a framework this week for how it will test new artificial intelligence models for safety and cybersecurity risks. So far, the White House is keeping details of the framework private, in a blow to transparency and potential boon for secretive AI companies. On Tuesday, staff from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, Nvidia and Microsoft attended a private meeting with White House officials to review the AI framework. Multiple outlets have since

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis killed at least 58 government troops in missile and drone attacks on Thursday, a military source said, in one of the deadliest days of the country’s civil war in four years. The attacks come as Yemen is increasingly drawn into the US-Israeli war with Iran, with the rebels stepping up attacks against both government forces and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, a key US ally and supporter of the internationally recognised Yemeni government. The evolving regional situation has...

A New Mexico judge on Thursday ordered Meta to pay more than half a billion dollars over the state’s claims that the social media giant created a “public nuisance” and harmed children. Meta was previously ordered to pay US$375 million in damages to New Mexico in March when a jury found the company liable for endangering children by making them vulnerable to predators on its platforms, among other harms. “We disagree with the ruling and will appeal,” Meta said in a statement Thursday. “We work...

Iran will seek to bar US and Israeli ships from the Strait of Hormuz and require compensation from hostile countries before they’re allowed to sail through it, according to local media reports on a proposed Iran-Oman deal to manage the crucial waterway. The agreement has become key to expectations for a reopening of Hormuz and a resumption of energy flows that have been throttled since the US and Israel attacked Iran in February. “That’s clearly not going to go down well in Washington,” said...

A US woman from the Atlanta area is alleging that she was wrongly diagnosed with cancer and underwent an unneeded hysterectomy because of a labelling error. Cassandra Barksdale and her lawyers filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Kaiser Permanente alleging the mix-up led to the surgery and months of physical and emotional pain. According to the lawsuit, another patient’s tissue sample was mistakenly labelled as belonging to Barksdale, who at age 43 then underwent a full hysterectomy on May 15,...

Republican US Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said on Thursday that he had been discharged from a rehabilitation centre and would continue his recovery from home. The former Senate leader was first admitted to hospital on June 14. He disclosed weeks later that his hospitalisation was the result of a fall and said he was undergoing physiotherapy. McConnell, 84, gave no specific date for his return to the Capitol, but senators are expected to soon leave Washington for the traditional August...

A British sociologist who became famous as the youngest black professor ever at the University of Cambridge has resigned after the university opened an investigation into “new information” about his academic qualifications. Professor Jason Arday, who was 37 when he became a Cambridge professor in 2023, announced his decision late on Wednesday following weeks of allegations about plagiarism in his academic work and questions surrounding claims about his athletic and fundraising...

Argentina has renewed its currency swap with China for five years, preserving a US$19 billion lifeline that Washington spent more than a year pressing it to give up. The Argentine central bank and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) signed the extension of the 130 billion yuan line on Wednesday, a day before the existing deal was due to expire. The new term runs to 2031, two years longer than any previous renewal since the two countries first signed it in 2009. The decision ends months of...

China has ⁠bought at least another ⁠10 cargoes of US soybeans, three ⁠Asian traders said on Thursday, the latest in a flurry of purchases ahead of President Xi Jinping’s expected US visit next month. State-run buyer Sinograin bought 10 to 15 cargoes on Wednesday, the traders said. At least 10 cargoes were ‌for October-November shipment, one trader said. The deals follow trade talks between Washington and Beijing that, according to the White House, included Chinese commitments to buy 25 million...

Congolese health authorities were screening more than 300 people ⁠travelling on a ⁠river boat intercepted near Kinshasa on ⁠Thursday after the death of a passenger suspected of having Ebola raised concerns the virus may have spread on board, officials said. Authorities deployed a mobile laboratory to the vessel after it was stopped in Maluku, around 65km (40 miles) upstream from the capital on Wednesday. The secretary general of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s health ministry, Body Ilonga...

The United States sanctioned Cuba’s senior military representative in Beijing on Thursday, accusing him of helping procure military-related equipment from China for the island’s armed forces. Waldo Perez Cortes, Cuba’s military, naval and air attache in Beijing, was among six Cuban nationals and five entities added to the US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list. The US State Department said Perez Cortes was an official of Cuba’s Ministry of the...

A US Senate committee voted on Thursday to ⁠hold Dr. Anthony Fauci ⁠in contempt of Congress after the former ⁠top US infectious disease official refused to answer questions about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved a referral pushed by its Republican Chair Rand Paul of Kentucky, a long-time Fauci antagonist, on a party-line vote of 8-7. The vote followed a hearing ‌last week where Fauci, who is 85 and retired in 2022, invoked...

Britain on Thursday gave the green light to Paramount Skydance’s US$110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, as the entertainment and media mega-deal still faces a key hurdle in the United States. The UK government and the antitrust watchdog both cleared the deal after initially raising concerns over media plurality and competition, respectively. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that the takeover would not weaken competition in film distribution, children’s TV and...

A German court on Thursday handed an Afghan man a life sentence for a car-ramming attack in Munich last year which killed a two-year-old girl and her mother and left dozens injured. The court in Munich found the man, named only as Farhad N., guilty of two counts of murder, 23 of attempted murder, and 22 counts of bodily harm, 19 of them serious. The court found that the offences carried a “particular gravity of guilt” – a designation that makes it much less likely that 25-year-old Farhad N. will...

A gunman killed a social media influencer during a live stream in Mexico’s volatile northwestern state of Sinaloa, authorities said on Wednesday, a public killing that underscored ongoing violence targeting social media personalities in the Latin American nation. The influencer, Cesar Gastelum, was killed on Tuesday night in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan, officials said. Mexican authorities implied the killing of the young man was linked to cartel violence but did not blame any...

Britain’s new Labour government is trying to reassure Southeast Asia that its push to rebuild ties with Europe will not come at the region’s expense, analysts have said, after Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband made an Asean meeting in Manila his first overseas stop. Appointed by Prime Minister Andy Burnham on July 20, Miliband attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ Meeting about 48 hours after taking office – a choice observers said pointed less to a policy reset than...

The United States is staring a historic “strategic defeat” in the face five months after launching the Iran war at Israel’s behest, according to Middle East observers. The Islamic Republic is unlikely to fully relinquish its new-found hegemony over the Strait of Hormuz, despite US President Donald Trump’s rhetorical mix of daily ultimatums and optimism about a deal, they say. Doing so would be giving up its leverage over the global economy – by far its greatest weapon in a war it cannot win...

When Russia fires a ballistic missile at Ukraine, air-defence systems have only minutes – sometimes seconds – to detect and intercept the deadly threat. The lack of time has left Kyiv and other cities increasingly exposed to devastating attacks by the missiles that come down so fast and so steeply that Ukraine says only the US-made Patriot defence system can stop them. But Ukraine says it has too few batteries and interceptors to protect itself. Unlike cruise missiles, which behave like...

The UK’s new foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, was confronted with his past criticism of “racist” Donald Trump as he held talks in Washington with his US counterpart Marco Rubio. Miliband ignored questions about whether he still thought the president was an “idiot, a racist and a misogynist” as he met with the US top diplomat. Miliband was invited to the US capital by Rubio after their recent first meeting on the sidelines of a foreign ministers’ summit in the Philippines last month. The pair were...

The director of a factory supplying drones to the Russian military was badly wounded and his driver was killed when the car they were in exploded, news reports said on Wednesday. The state Tass and RIA Novosti agencies said that Vladimir Tkachuk was hospitalised in grave condition following the explosion late Tuesday in Bolshoy Istok just outside Yekaterinburg, 1,400km (about 870 miles) east of Moscow. There was no immediate comment from the authorities. Tkachuk headed the Uraldronzavod factory...

The Federal Aviation Administration said a military helicopter carrying President Donald Trump on Tuesday was briefly too close to a passenger jet departing Reagan Washington National Airport, ‌but the US leader was not in danger. The incident raised serious questions about why the passenger plane was allowed to depart while Marine One was nearby, a time when commercial traffic is typically halted. Following a January 2025 crash between a military helicopter and a commercial jet that killed 67...

The Democratic Party’s progressive ⁠wing scored a high-profile victory on Wednesday when Abdul El-Sayed won the party’s US Senate nomination ⁠in Michigan, giving its anti-establishment message a boost ahead of November’s midterm elections. El-Sayed, a doctor whose campaign focused on healthcare, the economy and an end to unconditional military aid to Israel, was the first progressive to win a statewide primary in a state that US President Donald Trump carried in 2024. He will face Republican...

Iran and Oman have agreed a route for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz and were finalising arrangements for jointly managing the strategic waterway, Tehran said on Wednesday, even as fresh security incidents highlighted continued risks for regional shipping. The agreement would be a step towards reopening the key energy route, but official sources briefing Iranian media stressed that any easing still hinged on Washington ending its own naval blockade of Iran’s ports. Iran has exercised de...

Scientists have captured images of the sun’s surface in the finest detail yet, revealing a strange and dynamic facade. It is dangerous to look directly at the sun without proper eye protection. But researchers were able to peek at its scorching surface with the help of the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, located on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Scientists originally took the images for a different reason: to fine-tune and test the limits of the telescope. But when...

A woman has been arrested after four men were stabbed in Covent Garden in central London on Wednesday afternoon. The Metropolitan Police said the four men, aged 34, 39, 42 and 52, were found with stab wounds. No further update has been given on the extent of their injuries. The 47-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and assault, the force added. She was taken into custody, where she remains. The stabbing is believed to have been a mental health-related...

The leader of Britain’s opposition Conservative Party defended the selection of a former neo-Nazi who had been jailed for hate crimes as a local election candidate, saying on Wednesday that he was rehabilitated and could help fight ‌antisemitism. Joshua Bonehill-Paine was convicted in 2015 of racially aggravated harassment of Luciana Berger, then a Labour member of parliament, and had also been imprisoned for stirring up hatred against a north London Jewish community. His selection as a...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel did not agree to the US-backed plan for Gaza, even after receiving assurances that an Israeli pull-out would only happen after Hamas disarms. In a video posted to his social media accounts on Tuesday night, Netanyahu said the team of US President Donald Trump “believes that they can bring about the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarisation of Gaza”. “We are checking this. They sent us a draft – we did not agree to it, it is not our draft. We...

German police raised the alarm at an airport overnight after an explosive-laden drone was found near a Ukrainian cargo plane and another aircraft collided with an unknown flying object nearby before landing safely. All flights to Leipzig-Halle airport were diverted for several hours from around midnight as police deployed a bomb-disposal robot to remove the detonator from the explosive in the drone The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) had been found on the tarmac. The airport in eastern Germany...

Russian missile and drone strikes killed at least 17 people and wounded dozens more in Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight, authorities said Wednesday. Kyiv was unable to shoot down any of the missiles launched by Russia, whose intensifying attacks have prompted Kyiv to plead for more US-made Patriot interceptors. Russia has significantly upped its attacks on the Ukrainian capital in recent months, typically firing salvoes of hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles in short blitzes that rock...

Guatemala remained on alert Tuesday after evacuating villages during an eruption of the Fuego volcano, one of Central America’s most active. About 1,700 people remained in shelters with the evacuations to stay in place until conditions improve, according to the country’s disaster agency CONRED. Officials raised the alert level to red in Sacatepequez, Escuintla and Chimaltenango, where about 29,000 people are affected by ashfall and schools remain closed. Authorities on Tuesday warned the next 72...

The United States has revoked the visa of Brazil’s ambassador, a State Department official said Tuesday, in a mounting diplomatic row just months before elections in Latin America’s largest nation. The move would be reversed, the official said on customary condition of anonymity, if Brazil granted its approval of US President Donald Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Brasilia. Trump nominated Daniel Perez, a prominent Florida Republican, as the new ambassador to Brazil in early June. While the...

A man carrying ammunition and with a gun in his vehicle was arrested Sunday at President Donald Trump’s Los Angeles-area golf course after appearing to monitor security preparations ahead of Trump’s fundraiser there on Tuesday, authorities said. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Jeanine John Taele, 38, took photos and video and had a 16-round magazine with ammunition in his pocket. A search of his pickup truck in the golf course car park turned up a loaded 9mm pistol, binoculars...

A SpaceX rocket piece floating in space since last ⁠year smashed into the moon at high speed early on Wednesday morning, joining the ranks of meteoroids, wayward spacecraft and other pieces of space junk that have bombarded the lunar surface for ages, astronomers confirmed. The school-bus-size object is the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that had launched a lunar lander from Firefly Aerospace towards the moon in January 2025. Its predicted collision with the moon became a spectacle for...

A viral clip renews the headlined question for me. Jameela Jamil, a British actress of Pakistani and Indian descent, caused a public row in the UK for her interview last month on Yestergays, a pop culture podcast. She said: “Americans think British people are so sweet, which is crazy because British people are truly the most evil people in history. Like, they are Thanos. They owe 43 trillion to India … We colonised the world.” A similar figure came from Indian economist Utsa Patnaik. Based on...

A €1 million (US$1.15 million) lottery ticket was recovered from the trash in Italy after the frantic winner called on binmen to help her retrieve it, the waste management company said. The instant win ticket was “miraculously still in one piece” after rubbish workers combed through mounds of trash on their truck, said Roberto Nicola Toscano, the administrator of the SANB company in Italy’s southern Puglia region. Toscano explained how when the winner went on Sunday to check her ticket at her...

Latin American countries should resist pressure to choose between the United States and China and use their vast reserves of lithium, copper and other strategic resources to strengthen their negotiating power, according to a high-level commission co-chaired by former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet and former Colombian president Ivan Duque. But the commission acknowledges that the region’s room for manoeuvre is sharply constrained in security, technology and critical infrastructure, areas in...

Ukraine on Tuesday accused Russia of committing a war crime after a video was released showing a drone chasing down and wounding a vegetable seller in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. Footage released by Ukrainian police shows the drone pursuing a man around a van being used as a street stand before exploding ‌as he dives for cover behind the vehicle. Police said the man in his 50s survived but suffered shock and shrapnel injuries. Ukrainian officials later identified him only as a...

It started with Instagram posts that suggested Spain’s border with Morocco was opening up. Then came Facebook users tracking coastguard patrols and TikTok videos showing where to swim. After many shares and comments, thousands of Moroccans became convinced that Europe was suddenly within reach. Within hours, young people began heading towards the border with the Spanish territory of Ceuta in North Africa. Packed buses rolled into the neighbouring Moroccan city of Fnideq. Regional trains filled...

The World Bank on Tuesday called on developing countries to embrace artificial intelligence technology tools to deliver better governance outcomes, warning that they risked being left behind if they failed to do so. “AI has thrown developing economies a lifeline, and they should seize it,” Indermit Gill, chief economist of the World Bank Group, said as the organisation launched its annual World Development Report. “They do not need large models or big data centres to reap its benefits,” he...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering Latin American relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Chile’s Kast courts China day after US hits exports with forced labour tariff Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast received China’s ambassador to Santiago, Niu Qingbao, at the La Moneda Palace, in an encounter that lasted more than an hour and marked the first meeting between the two...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering global relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Nato launches defence projects to counter Russia and China Nato member states unveiled a series of defence initiatives in June aimed at strengthening weapons development, production and supply chains in response to security challenges posed by Russia and China. Read the full story here. 2....

French and British vessels saved 157 migrants after their boat caught fire while trying to cross the Channel on Tuesday, authorities in both countries said. It is one of the largest such rescue operations reported since records began in 2018. “A small boat caught fire on the boundary between French and British waters, forcing its occupants to jump overboard” on Tuesday morning, the prefect’s office in France’s Pas-de-Calais region said, adding no casualties had been reported. They had left the...

The global AI race is becoming a contest over the international order. In June, the US convened the second summit under the 24-economy Pax Silica around secure supply chains, AI infrastructure and trusted technology partnerships. In July, all 193 UN member states met in Geneva for the inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance. Days later, 29 countries signed the agreement establishing the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO) in Shanghai. Together, these developments...

US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” on Monday assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel’s withdrawal in Gaza would only begin after Hamas’ complete disarmament, following his objections. Two members of Netanyahu’s security cabinet had urged a vote to tear up the deal championed by Trump after the board released a text that called for Israel to begin a phased withdrawal. Netanyahu’s office said it had raised concerns to the United States, after Trump on Friday hailed as a...

Russia said on Monday that seven people, including three children, had been killed and 40 injured at its Black Sea holiday resort of Gelendzhik in what it said was a deliberate Ukrainian drone attack on civilians. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which like Russia, ‌says it does not deliberately target civilians in the full-scale war which Moscow launched in 2022. Social media videos, verified by Reuters, showed what appears to be a drone slamming into a busy beach area near the town...

In countries like France and Norway, the government census strictly avoids asking about race and ethnicity. Governed by a desire for national unity, these states operate on a firm premise: categorising citizens by skin colour risks creating divisions and reinforcing prejudice. Across the Atlantic and in the Commonwealth, you find a different philosophy. The United States, United Kingdom and Canada measure race and ethnicity. In these societies, data collection isn’t seen as a wedge to divide...

Tennessee’s primary elections on Thursday came after Republican legislators carved up the state’s only majority-Black district in a bid to win all nine of the state’s House seats.

Senator Marsha Blackburn easily beat two Republican rivals and is now favored to become the state’s first female governor after the November elections.

In interviews, more than 20 people who tried to break an Israeli blockade described beatings, electric shocks and other abuse after being captured. Israel denied the accusations.

The conflict may have slowed, but not stopped, Iran’s nuclear program, officials and experts said.

The agreement treats an attack on any of the countries as an attack on all, but in a region of volatile rivalries, it was unclear what that would mean in practice.

Fans of the late writer and chef are cultlike in their devotion. But have they misunderstood his message?

On 1970s Cape Cod, a young Anthony Bourdain chases love and finds his future in this rambunctious, utterly charming little movie.

The country’s new Trump-endorsed president takes office on Friday. Sweeping plans to target drug traffickers with U.S. help are already underway.

While the motive in the strip mall shooting rampage in Twin Falls, Idaho, remains elusive, a community embraces a bystander who stepped in.

The penalty, imposed by a state judge, is on top of a $375 million fine ordered by a jury that found Meta misled users about the safety of its platforms.

Starting on Friday, the island’s water authority is scheduled to shut off water for rotating 48-hour periods in parts of San Juan and surrounding areas.

The legal principle prevents a person from being tried twice for the same crime. But Mr. Mangione’s situation shows how complicated the judicial system can be.

The Barbican, a once divisive housing complex in central London, is now considered an architectural masterpiece. Residents are fighting plans for a 20-story building next door.

In Georgia, where Black voters could help decide control of the Senate, Mara Gay asks what they want from America and the Democratic Party.

This Ohio congressman should not still be running for Congress.

We’re answering reader questions.

A student killed his grandparents before opening fire at his high school and shooting himself, the authorities said. The episode revived a debate about gun laws.