Minimalist News

Bonds Are Screaming "Something's Wrong" Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance Bond yields are doing exactly what I warned about yesterday : forcing reality back into a market that had become increasingly detached from it. Heading into Friday’s cash open, U.S. equity futures are under pressure, with S&P 500 futures down roughly 1% and Nasdaq futures off even more sharply as global bond markets sold off overnight. CNBC reported that by Friday morning in London , the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield had climbed nearly 9 basis points to 4.544%, marking its highest level in almost a year. The move wasn’t isolated

Samsung, South Korean Union Resume Talks As Strike Threat Risks Disrupting Memory Chip Fabs Heavy selling swept across Asian markets on Friday, with South Korea's benchmark KOSPI plunging 6% as traders aggressively reduced exposure to the country's semiconductor sector. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led the decline. The catalyst for the sell-off was labor action risk headlines at Samsung, where the company's union threatened a strike that could disrupt production lines at the world's largest memory chip manufacturer. By Saturday morning, there was a major sigh of relief: Samsung and its labor union would resume government-mediated pay talks on Monday,

UK Moves To Ban New North Sea Oil & Gas Licenses Permanently Via City AM , The UK government will introduce legislation banning new North Sea oil and gas exploration licences as part of its Energy Independence Bill. Critics argue the policy will increase Britain’s reliance on imported fossil fuels while damaging Scotland’s oil and gas industry. Rising oil prices and disruptions tied to the Iran conflict have intensified political pressure on Labour to reconsider the ban. The government will make it illegal to grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, the King said at the state

China Confirms Boeing Jet Deal, Agrees To Cut Select Levies & Expand Agri Trade Summary: China, U.S. Agree To Cut Levies On Select Products , Expand Agricultural Trade China, U.S. Reach Boeing Jet Purchase Agreement U.S. And China Agree To Establish Trade And Investment Boards Trump-Xi Summit Delivers Modest Trade Wins China Responds With Agreements To Purchase Jets, Cut Levies, Expand Trade One day after President Trump left Beijing, following his multi-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, China's Commerce Ministry released new details about agreements it had reached to purchaseU.S.. planes and farm goods . CHINA, US REACH ARRANGEMENTS

Pentagon 'Blindsided' As Hegseth Pulls Plug On 4,000-Troop Deployment To Poland President Trump's earlier previewed controversial troop cuts for the European continent may already be in progress, and could happen more rapidly than previously thought. The US Army has canceled the deployment of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division to Poland , NBC reports this week. The deployment would have involved over 4,000 soldiers as well as military equipment. Getty Images Various reports say that top Pentagon staff were 'blindsided' by what is being characterized as War Secretary Pete Hegseth's sudden U-turn on the plan to send

41% Of Muslim Youth In Vienna Believe Their Religious Laws Take Precedence Via Remix News, A recent study conducted on behalf of the city of Vienna highlights a concerning trend among young Muslims regarding their religious and political views. This follows the recent announcement that Muslim children now comprise nearly 41 percent of the population in Vienna’s compulsory schools , making them the largest religious group. The study, published on May 12, 2026, was led by Kenan Güngör. He classifies the results as “very worrying,” noting that religion occupies a much larger space in the lives of Muslim youth compared

Deadlocked At Square Zero: Very First Line Of Iran's Latest Proposal 'Unacceptable,' Trump Says Tehran and Washington are truly not just back to square one, but it's as if no rounds of dialogue - direct or indirect - have even taken place. It's more like being back at square zero - and the US President has just acknowledged it. President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Friday while departing Beijing that even the very first first sentence of Iran's latest proposal was "unacceptable" and blamed the Iranians for backtracking on the nuclear issue. The first sentence was an “unacceptable

Turkey Proposes $1.2B Fuel Pipeline To Reboot NATO's Eastern Flank Logistics Just when it seemed as if the European energy landscape couldn't get any more fractured, Ankara is stepping up with a massive, off-grid proposal. Bloomberg reports Friday that Turkey has " proposed building a $1.2 billion (€1 billion) fuel pipeline for military use to help meet the energy needs of allies on NATO's eastern European flank , according to people familiar with the matter." "Following a push by the alliance to expand its military pipeline network, Ankara is proposing that the new link be built from Turkey to Romania

UK's Telegraph Claims Attractive Young Women Are Now The New Face Of The 'Far-Right' Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, The Telegraph has published a piece so tone-deaf it reads like self-parody. According to the outlet, the “far-right” is no longer the domain of bald men in boots and tattoos. No, it’s now being led by “strikingly telegenic young women” who dare to look good on camera while warning about mass migration, grooming gangs, and cultural replacement. Three foreign activists – Ada Lluch, Valentina Gomez, and Eva Vlaardingerbroek – were banned from entering Britain for a Tommy Robinson rally, and

BRICS Summit Can't Muster Joint Statement On Iran War Amid Deepening Division Via The Cradle The two-day meeting of BRICS foreign ministers in New Delhi ended on Friday without a joint statement due to "differing views" on the US-Israeli war against Iran and the current situation in West Asia, the Indian government said in a statement. Representatives expressed "their respective national positions and shared a range of perspectives," the Indian statement read. The statement added that one member state had "reservations" about issues related to Gaza, as well as security in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Iranian

Beijing Showcased Future War Machines While Trump Was In Town The 11th China Military Intelligent Technology Expo opened Thursday at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, showcasing a lineup of drones, robotic war dogs, grenade launchers, wheeled unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, and other modern battlefield technologies. The key takeaway is that many of these once-futuristic war machines have moved well beyond the conceptual stage and are already being tested, fielded, or deployed across multiple Eurasian conflict zones. pic.twitter.com/cJu65g76ji — Drone Wars (@Drone_Wars_) May 15, 2026 State media outlet Global Times said the military and intelligence expo features 500 companies

Waste Of The Day: Seattle's Homelessness Fiasco Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClear Politics , Topline: The homelessness agency in King County, Wash., has a $45 million deficit, but auditors can’t fully figure out why, according to a state audit publicly released this April. Its accounting records are so poor that it’s impossible to track where portions of its money are being spent. Key facts: The King County Regional Homelessness Authority helps run shelters and outreach to the homeless population in 39 cities. It’s funded jointly by the county and the City of Seattle. Financial records claim that the city

Here's Where Wealth Is Moving In America Americans aren’t just moving, they’re bringing billions in wealth with them. This map, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, visualizes net wealth migration by state in 2023, based on Realtor.com’s analysis of the latest data from the Internal Revenue Service. Florida alone gained tens of billions in income from out-of-state residents. Meanwhile, states like California and New York saw massive outflows, highlighting how affordability is playing a central role in domestic migration trends. Ranked: States With the Highest Inflows of Wealth Between 2019 and 2023, Florida saw $137 billion in net income flows from

AI Bots Placed In Virtual Town For 2 Weeks Go Apesh*t, Prompting Concerns Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, A new experiment left 10 AI agents alone in a virtual town for 15 days and found they exhibited bizarre behaviour. The agents drafted their own laws — then promptly violated them. Two formed what researchers called a romantic partnership, only to torch buildings across the town as order collapsed. One eventually voted for its own deletion after hallucinating an entirely new rule. As a report from Channel 4 notes, this experiment was a simulation, but the same AI models are

Gun Control Advocates Turn Their Sights On Regulating Muskets? It's always interesting when gun control activists and the media discover something about the firearms world that gun enthusiasts have known for decades. It shows that the people desperately clamoring to erase the 2nd Amendment often know nothing about the weapons they want to regulate. The act of "gun control" has nothing to do with understanding firearms, their basic capabilities and what it means to have these tools in civilian hands. It is far more abstract. For example, in the mind of a leftist (because the vast majority of leftists do

We're Living In The Age Of Consequences Authored by Chris Macintosh via InternationalMan.com, Lookie here… The United Arab Emirates recently announced it would quit OPEC after nearly six decades, striking a major blow to the oil cartel and to Saudi Arabia, its unofficial leader. Let’s be clear, the UAE didn’t leave OPEC. They were bought out. You may recall that this event was preceded by two major developments that tell the actual story. The first was the shutting of the Strait of Hormuz (SoH). This bled UAE finances and continues to do so. It creates not only a loss of

Canada's Assisted Suicide Program Could Include Children And The Mentally Ill Canada's MAID program is the subject of ongoing concern among anti-globalist movements across the western world. The assisted suicide system kills around 15,000 or more Canadians each year and is quickly expanding to include more and more people who are not terminally ill. Almost all assisted suicide programs are created by liberal governments and all of them are initially promoted as a way to "end the suffering" of people who are close to death anyway. However, this is merely the first stage of the greater goal, which is to

India Raises Fuel Prices For The First Time In Four Years Submitted by Irina Slav of OilPrice.com Indian state refiners raised their retail prices for gasoline and diesel by the equivalent of $0.031 per liter in response to tighter crude oil availability. This is the first fuel price hike in India in four years , Bloomberg noted in a report on the news. The hike amounts to over 3% and was necessitated by the global crude oil price surge that resulted in losses for India’s refiners. Still, New Delhi put off the price hike for much longer than other governments,

"Energy Is The Issue" - NANO Nuclear Highlights Reactor And Enrichment Opportunity NANO Nuclear's founder and chairman Jay Yu was on Fox Business to discuss the company's opportunity with data centers, space, and uranium enrichment. Yu took the time to review their recent deal with Supermicro. The combination of AI and nuclear is being seen on multiple fronts across both industries . In the past few weeks we've also seen Terrestrial Energy partnering with Riot, and Oklo collaborating with Nvidia. Everyone understands the demand for power coming from the AI data center build out is insatiable. We've covered previous comments

Woke Judge Admits "Taking A Chance" On Violent Criminal... Who Then Went On Shooting Spree Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, A Massachusetts judge openly confessed in court that she knew she was rolling the dice by giving a light sentence to a career criminal with a 20-year rap sheet packed with violence, guns, and assault convictions. She did it anyway. Now Tyler Brown is back in custody after opening fire with 50 to 60 rounds on a busy Cambridge roadway, critically injuring two innocent drivers. The shocking audio, released this week, comes straight from Brown’s 2020 sentencing hearing after

Trump administration move echoes indictment of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro as fuel crisis racks Cuba Tensions between Cuba and US seem set to rise further amid reports that Raúl Castro, the country’s 94-year-old former president, may soon face the type of indictment that led to the US abduction of the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, in January. Although Raúl is officially retired, he remains the most potent figure in Cuban politics following the death of his brother Fidel in 2016, and by targeting him Washington appears to be heaping pressure on Cuba’s communist leadership at the end of an already extraordinarily intense

Record heat in North and Central America coincides with egg-sized hailstones in eastern China Extreme weather across several parts of the world this week has brought record-breaking temperatures to Honduras, North America and Indonesia. Honduras smashed its all-time May maximum temperature record earlier this month – only for it to be broken again on 13 May in Choluteca, known as the furnace of Central America. Temperatures climbed to 42.2C (107.9F), surpassing the previous record of 42.1C. With intense heat forecast to persist over the coming weeks, more records are expected to fall. Continue reading...

All victims of US strikes in eastern Pacific and the Caribbean identified so far came from extremely poor communities Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email A five-month investigation has named 13 previously unidentified victims of US attacks on boats allegedly carrying narcotics in a campaign that has killed nearly 200 people in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. It is unclear if the US has ever identified any of its 194 victims before attacking them, and the names of just three had previously emerged, after their families launched legal cases against the White House. Continue reading...

Visit comes after US-Cuba relations deteriorated significantly, and as the island nation declared it had ‘absolutely no fuel’ because of US blockade CIA director John Ratcliffe met Cuban officials in Havana on Thursday as a way to improve dialogue between the US and the communist-run island, the Cuban government said. The meeting took place “in a context marked by the complexity of bilateral relations, with the aim of contributing to the political dialogue between both nations”, a statement said. Continue reading...

‘We know that Mark Carney wants to sort of embrace Europe,’ says competition director Martin Green Canada is welcome to join Eurovision if it wishes, its director has said, months after the country revealed it wanted to “explore” joining the song contest in its federal budget. Eurovision director Martin Green told the BBC on Wednesday that Canada hadn’t yet applied, but would be welcome to. Continue reading...

Thai authorities say 32 others injured near Makkasan station after freight train strikes bus and fire breaks out At least eight people were killed and 32 others were injured in Thailand after a freight train struck a bus at a rail crossing in Bangkok, rescue officials and a deputy transport minister said. Firefighters and rescue crews were dispatched as flames engulfed the bus and nearby vehicles close to the airport rail link’s Makkasan station, officials said, adding that the collision also involved cars and motorcycles. Continue reading...

Family and supporters had hoped the US president could help free the 78-year-old British citizen during summit talks in Beijing Donald Trump raised the case of jailed Hong Kong democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai in talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping but was told it “is a tough one”. Family and supporters of the 78-year-old British citizen had hoped the US president could help secure his release. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. Colorado governor commutes sentence of election denier Tina Peters Sign up for the Breaking News US email Jamieson Greer also said US export controls on semiconductor chips were not a major topic of discussions with Chinese officials in Beijing . The US trade representative’s comments to Bloomberg on Friday suggest a breakthrough on selling Nvidia’s advanced H200 chips to China remains far away, Reuters is reporting, despite Nvidia chief Jensen Huang ’s last-minute invitation to Donald Trump ’s Beijing trip this week. This was not a major topic of discussion at the bilateral meeting.

Change reflects both transformation of US in Trump era and China’s increasing confidence on world stage Asked before he departed for Beijing if he would raise with the Chinese president the case of Jimmy Lai , the pro-democracy activist jailed in Hong Kong, Donald Trump said: “I’ll bring him up.” But, the US president added: “It’s like saying to me, ‘If Comey ever went to jail, would you let him out?’ It might be a hard one for me.” Trump was referring to James B Comey, a former FBI director and a frequent target of Trump’s ire. Continue reading...

Chaotic week in which enforcer of ‘war on drugs’ flees senate building leaves government looking ‘incompetent’ The wanted man outran security agents , rallied protesters and even serenaded the media with a military hymn. Then, after a sudden exchange of gunfire, the Philippines’ most controversial lawmaker slipped out of the heavily guarded senate building in the middle of the night. Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who is wanted by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity, is now nowhere to be seen. Continue reading...

Supporters at the Victorian state library protested against prosecutors dropping a manslaughter charge against the man accused of killing her Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Isla Bell, the 19-year-old whose body was found in a Melbourne tip 18 months ago, has been remembered as a loving, courageous and open-hearted young woman with a green thumb and an “exquisitely beautiful soul”. Friends, family and supporters gathered outside the Victorian state library on Saturday to honour the teenager and protest against prosecutors dropping a manslaughter charge against the man who had been accused of killing

Voters in northern Brisbane electorate go to polls after sudden death of former independent MP Jimmy Sullivan Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A byelection in the Brisbane seat of Stafford is expected to swing towards the sitting LNP Queensland government in a result experts say would likely be fatal to former premier Steven Miles’ leadership of the Labor party. Voters in the northern Brisbane electorate of Stafford have gone to the polls after the sudden death of former independent MP Jimmy Sullivan in April. Continue reading...

Criticism of budget funding comes amid warnings the Australian National Audit Office will struggle to meet its targets for independent reviews Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Labor has been accused inadequately funding one of the central institutions safeguarding public administration, with transparency advocates and independent David Pocock criticising commitments for the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) in this week’s budget. Parliament’s Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit has previously warned the Albanese government that the auditor general’s financial position is unsustainable and of “serious concern” – even as the number of government

Politicians still care about traditional media, but winning over people spending more of their lives online is the challenge for modern MPs Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast He’s up before sunrise , pounding the pavement in a cap and running shorts. He’s still up late into the night , having slipped into a comfortable sweater while he checks figures in a darkened office by lamplight, fuelled by sugar-free Red Bull. It’s “decision week”, Jim Chalmers declares of the annual federal budget in a video that pinged around political group chats this week. The

Migrants are generally younger than the average Australian, are skilled and more educated. And they typically pay more tax than they receive in benefits Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Angus Taylor’s thinly veiled attempt to paint migrants as bludgers is not supported by the facts. The typical migrant over their lifetime pays more in taxes than they receive in government services. Far from lobbing up on our shores and demanding welfare , most migrants arrive hungry for work and motivated to make a life for themselves and their family. Continue reading...

Humpback had been found deceased on Friday after rescue attempt criticised as ‘pure animal cruelty’ Timmy the whale has been confirmed dead by Danish authorities two weeks after the beached humpback was transported to the North Sea in a rescue attempt criticised as “pure animal cruelty”. Denmark’s Environmental Protection Agency said a whale had been found dead on Friday near ​the small ⁠island of Anholt in the Kattegat, a broad strait between Denmark and Sweden, and confirmed it was Timmy on Saturday. Continue reading...

Man in 30s arrested over incident in Modena that left two seriously hurt Seven people were injured, two seriously, on Saturday after a car rammed into a group of pedestrians in the northern Italian city of Modena. Police said the driver, in his thirties, has been arrested. He is also alleged to have attempted to stab a passerby who had tried to stop him. Continue reading...

Iran has a long history of unconventional operations, all designed to divert, distract and destabilise current or potential enemies The arrest by US authorities of an alleged Iraqi commander of an Iranian-backed militia group now accused of responsibility for 18 terrorist attacks in the UK, Europe and Canada since the beginning of the Iran war is an astonishing development – yet not the least bit surprising. According to a complaint unsealed on Friday in a federal court in Manhattan, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi is allegedly responsible for organising – among other operations – a string of recent firebombings of

With Punta Marina residents loving or loathing the incomers, ‘peacock rangers’ have been appointed to defuse tensions Federico Bruni was sitting on a bench, eating a piadina romagnola (flatbread sandwich) and minding his own business, when a peacock strutted up in the hope of a few crumbs. High-pitched squeals emanated from the direction of a disused military barracks across the road. “That would be the call to love,” Bruni said. “The male peacocks are courting the female ones – we’re in peak mating season.” As another couple of peacocks wandered by, their iridescent trains sweeping the pavement behind them, this

Mohamed Mahudhee suffered decompression sickness after searching for scuba divers in Vaavu Atoll and died in hospital A Maldivian military diver has died during a high-risk operation to recover the bodies of four of the Italian scuba divers who drowned while exploring a deep underwater cave in the Maldives. The diver suffered underwater decompression sickness after searching for the bodies of the Italians who, according to Italy’s foreign ministry, had “apparently died while attempting to explore caves at a depth of 50 metres (164ft)”. Continue reading...

Three paramedics at health centre among dead, while Israel also says it killed Hamas military chief in Gaza Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, killing at least six people, including three paramedics working at a health centre, just hours after its envoys had agreed with the Lebanese government to extend a ceasefire . Israel also said it had killed the Hamas military chief, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, in a targeted strike in Gaza on Friday. Continue reading...

Statement following ‘productive’ talks in Washington comes as Israel launches strikes on southern city of Tyre Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 45-day extension of their ceasefire after another round of talks in Washington, the US state department has said. It came after two “productive” days of talks, and more negotiations would be held from 2-3 June, the department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said. Continue reading...

The film-maker, who won the Grand Prix for A Hero in 2021, condemned both the killing of protesters and the conflict’s bombing campaigns during a Cannes press conference Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has described the deaths of civilians in Iran as “extremely cruel and tragic” during a press conference at the Cannes film festival. Farhadi, whose new Paris-set drama Parallel Tales premiered on the Croisette on Thursday night, was asked about working free from censorship in France, the war involving Iran, the US and Israel, and the repression of protesters in his native country. Continue reading...

Muscat silent about plans – opposed by US – to charge fee and demand details on nationality of all transiting ships Oman has been caught in geopolitical crossfire after Iran said it was coordinating with the Gulf state over the future management of the strait of Hormuz, including Tehran’s plans to impose fees on commercial shipping. The Omani exclave of Musandam lies to the south of the contested waterway, which normally carries a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil traffic but has been blockaded for 10 weeks since the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February. Continue reading...

State oil company fast-tracks previously undisclosed project, which is expected to double export capacity Business live – latest updates The United Arab Emirates has announced it will complete a new oil pipeline bypassing the strait of Hormuz by next year to secure its future crude exports against the threat of disruption. The current blockade of the vital waterway, through which 20% of oil and seaborne gas flowed before the Iran war , is approaching the 11-week mark, sending energy prices soaring around the world and throttling Gulf economies. Continue reading...

Gautam Adani, richest man in Asia, was accused of conspiring to pay $250m in bribes to Indian government officials The US Department of Justice is dropping its fraud charges against the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, the richest man in Asia, after he hired a new legal team led by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, according to new reports. In an undisclosed April meeting at the justice department, Trump’s personal lawyer, Robert J Giuffra Jr, said that Adani would invest $10bn in the US economy and create 15,000 jobs if prosecutors dropped the charges against him, according to the New York Times

Stone being paid $50,000 a month to ‘rebuild’ relations between Washington and Myanmar’s military-backed government The US lobbyist Roger Stone, a longtime friend and ally of Donald Trump, has been condemned for accepting $50,000 a month to “rebuild” relations between Washington and Myanmar’s military-backed government. Myanmar’s leaders have been internationally isolated since seizing power in a coup in 2021 , and have repeatedly been accused of atrocities that may amount to war crimes . Activists say the military rulers, which recently held widely condemned “sham” elections , are now trying to reassert themselves abroad. Continue reading...

Turmoil and violence rocks state after prime minister Narendra Modi’s party claimed victory in legislative election Tensions have been high in the Indian state of West Bengal after a top political aide from Narendra Modi’s party was shot dead in the street and hundreds were arrested as violence broke out following elections this week. The prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) claimed victory in the West Bengal elections on Monday , defeating Trinamool Congress (TMC), which had ruled over the state legislature for 15 years. Continue reading...

Mamata Banerjee says Narendra Modi’s party ‘forcefully captured’ election that ended her party’s 15 years in power A political showdown is taking place in the Indian state of West Bengal as the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, India’s most powerful female politician, has refused to resign after she lost elections to the prime minister’s party this week. Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) won an overwhelming victory on Monday in state elections in West Bengal, where Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress party (TMC) have been in power for 15 years. Continue reading...

Result in key Indian state is set to have significant implications for the country’s political landscape Narendra Modi’s party has won a resounding election victory in West Bengal, a state which had been a rare opposition stronghold, expanding his unrivalled consolidation of power across the country. It is the first time that the Indian prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has won assembly elections in West Bengal, a large and politically significant state in eastern India. Continue reading...

Police say 11 arrested ‘for a variety of offences’ as far-right and pro-Palestine marches take place in London Commenting on today’s policing operation in London, the Met Police said they had made two arrests near Euston station. A statement from the force read: Officers have made two arrests in the vicinity of Euston station. Two men, wanted on suspicion of GBH following an incident in Birmingham where a man was run over, were spotted arriving into London to attend the UTK protest. Continue reading...

Suspect detained at ‘unite the kingdom’ march meeting point over incident on Thursday after flags were removed from lamp-posts A man has been arrested in London after an incident in Birmingham in which a man was run over by a van after flags were removed from lamp-posts. Officers arrested the suspect at Euston station near the meeting point of the “unite the kingdom” march. Another man was arrested on suspicion of encouraging people to attack a police officer. Continue reading...

Ex-health secretary sets out fledgling policy platform – including call for new special relationship with EU Wes Streeting has confirmed that he will run to replace Keir Starmer as prime minister if a leadership contest is triggered and called for a “proper contest” to be held for the role. Speaking at a conference organised by the thinktank Progress on Saturday, Streeting confirmed he would enter any possible leadership race, outlining his belief that the UK needed to pursue a “new special relationship” with the EU, signalling that he wanted to see the country rejoin the trade bloc in the future.

Member of King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery received medical treatment but died at scene after sustaining serious injuries A service person has died after falling from their horse after a display at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, police said. The soldier, part of the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, fell at about 7pm on Friday after exiting the arena. Continue reading...

Planning inspector backs council’s rejection of development, which was ‘not exemplary, extraordinary, remarkable or distinctive, just tall’ Celebrities including Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger have defeated plans to build a 29-storey tower on the banks of the River Thames. Jagger, along with fellow rock star Eric Clapton, actor Felicity Kendal and comic Harry Hill, fought the developer Rockwell Property for two years over its plan to erect a 100-metre tower next to Battersea Bridge. If the tower had been built on the south bank of the Thames in south-west London, it would have rivalled the heights of the famous chimneys

Workers at the Long Island Rail Road, serving the eastern New York metropolitan area, walked off the job on Saturday North America’s largest commuter rail system was shut down on Saturday after unionized workers in the New York City area went on strike. The Long Island Rail Road that serves the city’s eastern suburbs ceased operations on early Saturday morning after five unions representing about half its workforce walked off the job. Continue reading...

FBI director reportedly took a snorkel excursion at site containing remains of more than 1,000 navy sailors and marines The FBI director, Kash Patel, is facing new scrutiny following reports that he participated in a snorkeling excursion around the USS Arizona during a trip to Hawaii last summer. The outing was first reported this week by the Associated Press, which obtained government emails describing the excursion as a “VIP snorkel” around the USS Arizona – the site that holds the remains of more than 1,000 US navy sailors and marines who died at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Continue reading...

Republican said she hoped recent commutation of Tina Peters by governor would free up federal funding for clean drinking water Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert suggested that Donald Trump blocked funds for a clean drinking water project in her state over the prosecution of election denier Tina Peters. Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis, commuted Peters’ nearly nine-year prison sentence on Friday, ordering her release on 1 June. The former Colorado county clerk had allowed unauthorized people to access voting records amid efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, in which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Continue reading...

Once Upon a Time in Harlem, completed by relatives of William Greaves after his death, showcased at Cannes In 1969, the pioneering documentarian William Greaves wrote of his fury over the racially degrading stereotypes that white film producers threw up on American screens. “It became clear to me that unless we black people began to produce information for screen and television there would always be a distortion of the ‘black image,’” he said. Three years later, Greaves began work on what he considered the most important footage he ever shot: a feature documentary gathering surviving figures of the Harlem Renaissance

Bill Cassidy raised ire of US president for voting to impeach after January 6 – so Trump is backing Julia Letlow The power of Donald Trump ’s endorsement will be put to its latest test on Saturday, when Louisiana holds primary elections in which the US senator Bill Cassidy, who voted to impeach the president following the January 6 insurrection, then tried to make amends by casting the pivotal vote to confirm Robert F Kennedy Jr as health secretary, stands a chance of losing his party’s nomination. An incumbent Republican running for a third term representing a deeply Republican state,

Two major protests are taking place on Saturday in London, with the Metropolitan Police warning it may be one of its busiest days in recent years. Tens of thousands of people are expected to march for Unite the Kingdom, an event arranged by far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, and the annual pro-Palestine Nakba Day march. London’s Metropolitan Police is drafting more than 4,000 officers to police the two events, a scale of operation it said was “unprecedented...

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

Czech police have arrested a man suspected of stealing an almost 800-year-old religious relic from a Catholic church and encasing it in concrete. According to a police spokeswoman on Friday, the suspect admitted taking the skull, which is revered by believers as a relic of Saint Zdislava of Lemberk, from the Church of St Lawrence in the northern Czech town of Jablonne v Podjestedi on Tuesday. Investigators used special equipment to confirm the skull was hidden inside a solid concrete block...

Clavicular, the “looksmaxxing” influencer and streamer whose real name is Braden Eric Peters, has reached a resolution in the misdemeanour case filed after a video posted online apparently showed him repeatedly shooting an alligator while on an airboat in the US Everglades. On March 26 in the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area, Peters was among a group of men on an airboat that had stopped near an alligator that did not appear to be moving, according to videos posted on...

Google’s YouTube and Snap reached agreements to settle the first lawsuit headed to trial over claims that addiction to top social media platforms has disrupted learning and pushed public schools to spend massive sums fighting a mental health crisis, according to court filings. TikTok and Meta Platforms were also sued by the rural Kentucky school district that brought the case, which is set to go to trial on June 12 in federal court in Oakland, California. The trial will serve as a test case for...

US President Donald Trump’s landmark visit to China comes as the US-Iran war disrupts global energy supplies, fuels economic uncertainty and adds fresh strain to Washington-Beijing ties. In the latest instalment of a series examining how rivalry, interdependence and geopolitical crises are reshaping the relationship between the two powers, we explore the massive upswing in capital expenditures across Asia that is driving a broad shift in economic power. When US President Donald Trump made his...

Hollywood star John Travolta was given a surprise lifetime achievement award at the Cannes Film Festival Friday as he premiered the first movie he has ever directed. The man who became an icon overnight with Saturday Night Fever was visibly moved as he accepted the honorary Palme d’Or before the screening of Propeller One-Way Night Coach, which is based on a book about his first experience in an airliner. “I just can’t believe it. This is beyond the Oscar, really,” he said as he accepted the...

What comes to mind when you think of China, Japan and South Korea? This was a question posed in a second-year sociology seminar during my time at Bristol, and it has stayed with me ever since. We were split into three groups and given 10 minutes to create posters capturing our immediate associations. Japan came first. Sketches of anime, sushi platters and temples appeared. My classmates spoke with enthusiasm, drawing on travel memories or aspirations to visit. A country that, less than a century...

Prime Minister Mark Carney and the leader of Canada’s oil-rich Alberta province took a major step on Friday towards building an oil pipeline that could substantially increase crude exports to Asia. Expanding overseas energy exports has emerged as a key part of Carney’s strategy to reduce Canada’s economic reliance on the US, but plans for a new pipeline are facing stiff resistance over environmental concerns. Alberta’s conservative Premier Danielle Smith was a relentless critic of Carney’s...

Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire and hold new talks on a political settlement, the US announced on Friday, even as Israel carried out new strikes that it insists are not subject to the truce. Israel has been pounding Lebanon and invaded its south in response to fire from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shia movement that is not part of the ceasefire diplomacy. Envoys from Israel and Lebanon’s government, which has struggled to restrain Hezbollah, met for two days in Washington and...

Harvey Weinstein’s third trial in New York over allegations he used his Hollywood clout to prey upon and sexually abuse women ended ‌in a mistrial on Friday, after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on a charge he raped the aspiring actress Jessica Mann. Weinstein, 74, was a top film producer until sexual misconduct allegations led to his downfall and fuelled a wider social movement that encouraged women to come forward with accounts of sexual abuse by ⁠powerful men. The case, brought by...

Peru’s leftist ⁠presidential candidate Roberto Sanchez will face ⁠Keiko Fujimori in the June run-off after narrowly securing second place in April’s first-round vote, official results showed Friday, with 100 per cent of votes tallied. The month-long count led to allegations of fraud in ‌the politically turbulent South American nation, notably from right-wing candidate Rafael Lopez Aliaga, who narrowly trailed Sanchez for much of the counting process. Fujimori, the daughter of late former...

Blink and you might miss the few stone walls that are all that is left of the village that Yusuf Abu Hamam’s family was forced to flee when he was an infant in 1948. The village, al-Joura, was demolished by the Israeli military at the time. It has since vanished under neighbourhoods of the southern Israeli city of Ashqelon and the grounds of a national park. The neighbourhood where Abu Hamam’s family ended up, and where he spent most of his life, now lies also largely in ruins. Buildings in the...

Thirty-four European states plus Australia, Costa Rica and the EU said on Friday they would join a future special tribunal for Ukraine to prosecute Russia over its invasion of the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed an accord with the Council of Europe last year to create a legal body to prosecute the “crime of aggression” in the invasion Russia launched in February 2022. The Council of Ministers, comprising foreign ministers from the organisation’s 46-member states, in a...

Fans of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace all have their own reasons for loving the epic novel. Some read it as a story of personal growth, reflected in Prince Andrei’s spiritual quest. Others favour its portrayal of the Russian aristocracy in the early 19th century. As for myself, the novel punctured the myth of the military genius – not just Napoleon’s. The book’s final section on Tolstoy’s philosophy of history presented the most significant challenge to G.W.F. Hegel – specifically regarding French...

Rescue teams in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives searched for a second day Friday for the bodies of four missing Italians following the country’s deadliest diving accident, officials said. Italy’s foreign ministry said on Thursday night that five citizens had died while diving, with Maldivian authorities recovering one body. Maldives Minister of Tourism Mohamed Ameen said coastguard officers and security forces were scouring remote seas around where the divers were reported missing...

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the continent’s top public health body, on Friday confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in Congo’s remote Ituri province, with 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths recorded so far. The deaths and suspected cases have been recorded mainly in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones, the organisation said in a statement. The Ebola virus is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood, or semen. The disease it...

Shortly after US President Donald Trump departed Beijing, China’s ruling Communist Party has called for strengthening the real economy – particularly manufacturing – to gain a competitive edge in the global economy. An article in Qiushi, set to be published on Saturday, curated selections from past speeches by President Xi Jinping to reiterate “our economy was built on the real economy and it must continue to rely on it for the future,” state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Friday. “At...

Finland warned the public of drones possibly entering its airspace, for the first time near the capital city Helsinki, in the early hours of Friday. Flights were disrupted at the country’s biggest airport, Helsinki-Vantaa, and about 1.8 million residents of southern Finland were told to remain indoors after overnight Ukrainian strikes on Russia near Finland prompted concern that unmanned aircraft had strayed into the country. The emergency warning was issued at 3.49am local time and authorities...

Most readers of foreign news pages this weekend will be assuming that US President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing has been dominating everyone’s attention. But across Asia, Trump, with his massive business entourage, was not the only act in town this week. At least two other major sets of meetings should not be overlooked. First, in New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was hosting foreign ministers from the 10 Brics economies and a growing community...

Before he even entered the race, Andy Burnham was the favourite to unseat Keir Starmer as Britain’s prime minister. The mayor of Greater Manchester led opinion polls and was the front runner among bookmakers and Polymarket. Late Thursday, the biggest obstacle fell away: Labour MP Josh Simons quit the House of Commons, clearing the way for Burnham to win a seat in Parliament, a requirement for the top job. Arriving in London this week as Starmer’s government wobbled, Burnham has kept a low...

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 message China wants to send by hosting Trump at Temple of Heaven In Chinese diplomacy, historic venues are rarely just backdrops, and are often interpreted as rich in symbolism, carrying messages about history and bilateral...

The United States cast Israel-Lebanon talks held in Washington ⁠on Thursday as “productive and positive” and a State Department official said more discussions aimed at ending their conflict will continue on Friday. A senior Lebanese official said earlier that Lebanon will demand that US ally Israel cease fire in the face-to-face talks, as Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah continued to trade blows despite a US-backed truce declared last month. An Israeli government spokesperson said the talks were...

The head of the CIA visited Cuba on Thursday, an extraordinary step-up in contact between Washington and Havana as the communist-run island reels from US pressure, declaring that it was out of oil. John Ratcliffe’s ‌trip appeared to be only the second visit by a CIA director to Cuba since former leader Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution. Ratcliffe met with Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, grandson of former president Raul Castro, Interior Minister Lazaro Alvarez Casas and the head of Cuban...

In recent years, the Brics grouping has attracted attention as it adds members and positions itself as the voice of the Global South. At a Brics forum held in Beijing last month, officials discussed expanding trade within the grouping. Such initiatives reflect both an impulse to reduce exposure to external shocks linked to the US dollar and a long-term ambition to reshape global finance. These gatherings are as much about signalling intent as delivering substance. Brics wants to be seen as a...

A tourist from Washington state is facing federal charges after a witness recorded what prosecutors say was a video of him hurling a coconut-sized rock at an endangered Hawaiian monk seal just off a Maui beach last week. Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk, 38, made arrangements to surrender in the Seattle area on Wednesday as special agents with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were seeking to arrest him, Assistant US Attorney Aislinn Affinito in Honolulu said. He is charged with...

The head of US Border Patrol, the agency tasked with securing the nation’s frontiers and increasingly tapped by the Trump administration for immigration operations in American cities, announced his resignation on Thursday. Michael Banks’ decision, announced in a Fox News interview and later confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security, was the latest leadership shake-up of officials implementing President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and came as the Republican administration appeared...

US President Donald Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping offered to help broker an end to the Iran conflict and ensure freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring how Middle East tensions have become intertwined with a broader effort by Washington and Beijing to steady relations. In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity set to air on Thursday evening in the US, Trump said Xi had personally expressed willingness to assist amid mounting concerns over disruptions in...

Labour’s Wes Streeting announced his resignation ⁠as health minister on Thursday, calling for a leadership contest to oust British Prime Minister Keir ⁠Starmer, who has shown no sign he is ready to step down. Disastrous results for the governing Labour Party in last week’s local elections have plunged Britain into its latest crisis, just under two years after Starmer won a large majority on a vow to bring stability and end a decade of political chaos. After days of calls by a growing number of...

France’s health minister said on Thursday that 26 people in France identified as close contacts of hantavirus cases linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship had tested negative for the illness. Dutch authorities said that all people who arrived in the Netherlands on evacuation flights from the ship this week have also tested negative. Twenty-six people are in hospital isolation in France, including 22 identified as close contacts of a Dutch woman on the MV Hondius that was at the centre of an...

Ukrainian ⁠President Volodymyr Zelensky’s former right-hand man was taken into custody on Thursday on money-laundering charges, part of a fight against corruption that is fuelling wartime political tensions. Investigators on Monday had named Andriy Yermak as an official suspect in a sprawling, multi-episode case that has gripped Ukraine for months and stoked anger among a war-battered population at high-level corruption. His arrest represents the deepest authorities have dug into the president’s...

Russia carried out its largest aerial attack over a two-day period since the start of its war in Ukraine, pounding the capital Kyiv and other cities with hundreds of drones, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday. Russia had launched 1,567 drones since the start of Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. At least 27 civilians have been killed over the two days, officials said. Russian ‌President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that the war, which has killed hundreds of thousands...

All 11 people aboard a private plane that crashed at sea off central Florida survived the wreck and were rescued from their lifeboat hours later by a US Air Force Reserve team, US Coast Guard and US Air Force officials said on Wednesday. “For all those people to ‌survive is pretty miraculous,” US Air Force Major Elizabeth Piowaty, commander of one of the aircraft involved in the rescue, told reporters at a news briefing a day after Tuesday’s crash. The ill-fated plane, a twin-engined turboprop...

The business executives accompanying US President Donald Trump on his state visit to Beijing this week are the wealthiest such delegation to visit China – holding a combined personal net worth of over US$1 trillion – an indication of continued interest in the country’s lucrative market despite strained bilateral ties. With Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s last-minute addition to the delegation, 17 executives from the technology, finance, aerospace and semiconductor sectors have joined Trump, who landed...

Statues erected by South Korean civic groups on the other side of the world honouring the tens of thousands of women forced into sexual slavery by imperial Japanese forces during World War II have once again succeeded in making Tokyo’s elites deeply uncomfortable. The decisions by local governments in Germany’s capital and New Zealand’s largest city to rescind or decline to renew permits for “comfort women” memorials have been pounced on by conservatives within Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic...

A Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole for his murder, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Kouri Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing her husband Eric Richins’ cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying...

The Trump administration on Wednesday publicly renewed an offer of US$100 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba, stepping up pressure on Havana despite Beijing’s continued political and economic backing for the island. The announcement came as US President Donald Trump travelled to China this week for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with Trump saying before departure that Cuba would be among the issues discussed during the visit. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the State Department...

The US Senate on Wednesday confirmed Kevin Warsh as the new Federal Reserve chairman to lead a central bank whose independence is under attack and with inflation at a three-year high. The Senate voted 54 to 45 to in favour of Warsh, with Republicans holding a slim majority and ensuring US President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Jerome Powell was confirmed. Once known as a monetary “hawk” against inflation, Warsh has shifted in line with Trump’s push for lower interest rates that has posed an...

The United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry denied on Wednesday a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office that he visited the country and held a secret meeting with its president. The Israeli Prime Minister’s ‌Office said earlier he travelled to the UAE during the war with Iran and met Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. A statement by the Emirati foreign ministry said that Emirati relations with Israel “are public” and “not based on non-transparent or unofficial...

A paediatrician at a hospital near Berlin has been charged with sex offences in 130 cases, many of which are said to have taken place at the hospital, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The extent of the offences, which include serious sexual abuse of children and rape, had previously been unknown. The paediatrician has been in pre-trial custody since November, with prosecutors citing a risk of reoffending as a reason for the man’s continued detention. In January, it became known that the doctor was...

French prosecutors on Wednesday requested a seven-year prison sentence for former president Nicolas Sarkozy in an appeal trial on charges that he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election. Sarkozy, France’s right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012, has always denied any wrongdoing but last year became modern France’s first former president to have gone to jail over the case, before he was released after 20 days pending his appeal trial. Prosecutors had also requested seven years in the first...

The bodies of three women have been recovered from the sea off Brighton. Sussex Police said emergency services were called after concerns were raised for the women’s welfare at around 5.45am on Wednesday, and their bodies were pulled from the water near Madeira Drive. Chief Superintendent Adam Hays said the coastguard is completing an “extensive search of the water”, but the force is not searching for anyone else. The officer said CCTV inquiries are being carried out. Following the incident,...

The European Union will not ban “conversion therapy” targeting LGBTQ people, but will push member states to take action against such practices, it said on Wednesday. So-called conversion “therapies” involve methods that seek to change the sexual orientation or gender identity or expression of members of gay, lesbian, queer and trans people. The EU stopped short of heeding a call by over a million people, who signed a petition last May calling on the 27-country bloc to prohibit such...

French authorities on Wednesday allowed asymptomatic passengers to leave a British cruise ship, saying a gastrointestinal virus was behind an outbreak of sickness that came after an elderly man died of a heart attack. Earlier, authorities had ordered a lockdown for the more than 1,700 passengers and crew on the vessel, but insisted there was no connection with the hantavirus outbreak suspected of killing three people on the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius cruise ship, which has sparked international...

Keir Starmer faced his biggest challenge yet on Wednesday when his health minister was reported to be readying his resignation to try to trigger a contest to replace a British prime minister who had sought some respite to set out his government’s agenda. As Starmer and his ministers stood in silence to hear King Charles read out their government’s agenda, the ceremony was overshadowed by what could be the most dangerous threat to the prime minister since lawmakers began urging him to resign over...

A Republican candidate for the state land commissioner post has Democrats worried that protected state and federal land could be opened to industry.

Senator Bill Cassidy, who has drawn President Trump’s ire, is fighting for political survival.

Social media stars have become a magnet for campaigns and political groups that want to push priorities without disclosing where their money is going.

An analysis of oil export data offers clues about which nations have benefited from higher prices, and which have lost a lot of revenue.

The arrest of Mohammad al-Saadi in the United States on Friday has raised concerns that Iran could be working with its proxies to stage attacks outside the region.

Izz al-Din al-Haddad took over the group’s military wing in Gaza last year. Hamas officials confirmed Mr. al-Haddad’s death in an Israeli attack.

This is the first strike on the service in more than 30 years. It comes after three years of failed contract negotiations, two federal interventions and a volley of last-minute bargaining.

America’s busiest passenger rail service shut down on Saturday after unions and transit officials failed to agree on a new contract.

Could we English majors have a future after all?

In shutting down a 33-year late-night franchise, CBS is assenting to its own diminishment.

It’s graduation season, a time of aspiration and anxiety. Today is about the aspiration — the wisdom to be gleaned from great commencement addresses.

A onetime Beatlemaniac, he helped shape the sound of hits like “Walk This Way” and “(Just Like) Starting Over.”

The man disagreed with the 800-year-old relic’s display in a church in the Czech Republic and planned to throw it into a river, police said.

The chart-topping Canadian rapper released an anticipated new album, “Iceman,” on Friday and two previously unannounced LPs, “Habibti” and “Maid of Honour.”