Minimalist News

Pentagon Puts 1,500 Arctic-Trained Troops On Standby For Minnesota Deployment Amid Left-Wing Chaos The Pentagon has placed 1,500 active-duty troops on prepare-to-deploy status for a possible deployment to the Minneapolis metro area if social unrest escalates in the sanctuary city governed by left-wing politicians, according to multiple reports from ABC News and The Washington Post, both citing unnamed defense officials. "The Department of War is always prepared to execute the orders of the Commander-in-Chief if called upon," Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told CNN. WaPo and ABC reported that the 1,500 active-duty troops are assigned to two U.S. Army infantry battalions under the

Imagine Ramping Up A "War Time" Economy Where Most Of The Stuff You Shoot At The Enemy, Comes From The Enemy By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities If you have not read our 2026 Outlook piece – ProSec 2026, we really urge you to do it. It is our best attempt, to date, to outline why ProSec, or Production for Security (and Resilience) is the dominant theme for this year (and likely for years to come). Not just for the U.S. government (which kicked it off), but also for investors (who are rapidly chasing opportunities in the space), and increasingly for foreign

EU Hosts Emergency Meeting Over Trump's Greenland Tariffs, Germany Threatens World Cup Boycott Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clarified Trump's positioning on Greenland overnight, stating that "we are not going to outsource our national security." The elites of The European Union are not best pleased at Trump's tariff threat (on some European allies that oppose the United States’ efforts to acquire Greenland) and immediately called an emergency meeting of ambassadors from the bloc’s 27 nations to discuss just how sternly worded their email response would be. As we detailed yesterday, Trump has reiterated numerous times that the United States needs Greenland for national security

Oil, Dollars, Gold, & Venezuela In A Nutshell Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via VonGreyerz.gold, Putting any kind of bow on the current headlines to conveniently explain or “wrap up” recent events in Venezuela would be a fool’s errand. The extraordinary mix, as well as polarized views, as to the personalities, policies, economics, military acumen, and even international legality of the entire saga makes consensus impossible. POLITICAL OPTICS? The operation itself, of course, has all the Hollywood features of a daring and successful military drama, which can create tailwind optics for a President. The opposite, of course, happened for Jimmy Carter, when his April 1980 Iranian

Trump Wants $1BN Fee From States Seeking To Join Gaza Peace Board According to a Saturday Bloomberg report, the Trump administration is asking nations interested in holding a permanent seat on a proposed Gaza Strip "Board of Peace" to pledge at least $1 billion in funding. Bloomberg described that US allies and regional partners have already been briefed on the concept as part of wider diplomatic efforts to influence and direct Gaza's future after the Israel-Hamas conflict. via AFP The intent of the funding threshold is reportedly to ensure that participating countries have substantial financial involvement in stabilizing the territory and supporting long-term redevelopment. Washington

The Real Watches Of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Authored by Watches of Espionage,  Separating Fact from Fiction in Nicolás Maduro’s Watch Collection On the morning of Saturday, 3 January 2026, the United States Military conducted an interagency mission to capture and arrest Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. While the long term implications are still unknown and “analysis” has fallen along partisan lines, Operation Absolute Resolve appears to be a masterclass on modern warfare and frankly an operation that only the United States Military and Intelligence Community could carry out. The situation is still developing, however according to an in-depth brief by Chairman of The Joint Chiefs

Trump In First Suggests Iran Regime Change: 'Time To Look For New Leadership' The deadly unrest and protests in Iran have largely gone quiet, but White House pressure on Tehran has not. President Trump over the weekend for the first time in the two-week crisis called for the end of the Iranian Supreme Leader's rule. His words came in an interview with Politico:  > President Donald Trump on Saturday called for an end to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s 37-year reign. > > "It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran," Trump told POLITICO, as widespread protests calling for an end to the regime

Rotation Continues As Markets Remain Bullish Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Sector rotation is this weekend’s 2026 Investment Summit. I am presenting at the conference as you are reading this. However, I would be remiss not to share a brief market update as we head into next week. The full newsletter will return next week. That said, U.S. equity markets delivered mixed performance last week. Major indices generally held near record levels even as volatility increased and macro and policy risks surfaced. Notably, breadth has expanded as the rotation from technology to other sectors continued. Such was particularly notable in materials, industrials, and transportation. We

The $134 Billion Betrayal: Inside Elon Musk’s Explosive Lawsuit With OpenAI Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft has evolved into a high-stakes dispute over whether OpenAI stayed true to the mission it was founded on or quietly outgrew it while relying on that original promise. Musk is seeking between $79 billion and $134 billion in damages, a figure derived from an expert valuation that treats his early funding and contributions as foundational to what OpenAI later became. While the number is enormous, the heart of the case is simpler: Musk argues he helped create and fund a nonprofit dedicated to AI

Ahead Of Mass Adoption Cycle: A Full Supply-Chain Breakdown Of Smart Glasses Smart glasses took center stage at CES 2026 in Las Vegas last week, highlighting a new generation of AI-enabled eyewear integrated with real-time assistants. In Meta's case, the push is clearly toward affordability and mass adoption, positioning these glasses as everyday consumer electronics rather than super expensive niche hardware for elites. A lesson for smart glasses manufacturers is not to repeat Apple's misstep with the prohibitively priced Vision Pro, which crushed any chance of widespread adoption and eventually led to the exodus of developers. Before affordable smart glasses hit the consumer market

UK Migrant Crime Surge: Foreigners Top 79% Of Theft Arrests, 40% Of Violent Suspects On Trains Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News, Foreign nationals accounted for 79 percent of all arrests for theft on trains in Britain last year, and 40 percent of all railway arrests, new data from British Transport Police has revealed. The figures were published as part of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the Centre for Migration Control (CMC) think tank. They showed that, despite comprising a minority of the overall population, foreign nationals were disproportionately responsible for several categories of offenses, including theft, drug violations, sexual

Macy's Closing Two Fulfillment Centers, Laying Off 1,000 Workers Macy’s will close its two fulfillment centers in Cheshire later this year, a move that will affect nearly 1,000 employees, according to a company notice released Tuesday and reported by WFSB.  The facilities on Knotter Drive and West Johnson Avenue will shut down. A small group of maintenance workers will remain through spring 2027 to assist with the closure, but most employees are expected to lose their jobs this year. Cheshire’s town manager said the community was notified and is working with state and regional agencies to help displaced workers. In a statement, the

The Nascent 'Islamic NATO' Might Soon Set Its Sights On Somaliland Authored by Andrew Korybko, The Somali Defense Minister’s request for Saudi Arabia to replicate its South Yemeni campaign in Somaliland coupled with reports about those two’s and Egypt’s impending alliance that would thus de facto include their Eritrean ally strongly suggest that something big might soon be afoot. Reports have recently circulated about three separate but complementary military pacts in which Saudi Arabia might soon participate, which could form the core of an “Islamic NATO”.  Bloomberg got the ball rolling by reporting that Turkiye wants to join September’s “Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement” between Pakistan

Rape Ensues After Dutch Students Forced To Live With 125 Refugees In Woke 'Integration' Experiment Dutch students forced to live side-by-side with 125 refugees in a woke government plan to aid the refugees' 'integration' were subjected to years of sexual assault and violence, according to an investigation.  The experiment - held at Stek Oost located in the Watergraafsmeer district of Amsterdam - placed a total of 125 students and 125 refugees together, where they were encouraged to 'buddy up' so that the migrants would quickly assimilate into life in the Netherlands. Instead, the refugees started raping.  Students told the Dutch investigative documentary program Zembla that they faced frequent sexual assault, harassment,

UK Mulls Under‑16 Social Media Ban Amid Rising Online ID Push Authored by Christina Comben via CoinTelegraph.com, The United Kingdom is considering new restrictions that could bar children under 16 from using mainstream social media platforms. The discussion builds on the Online Safety Act, which already requires services with minimum age limits to explain how they enforce them and to use “highly effective” age assurance measures where children are at risk of harmful content. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he is monitoring how Australia’s under‑16 ban works in practice and is “open” to an Australian‑style approach, despite previously expressing personal reservations about a blanket ban for teenagers. Conservative Party

John Mearsheimer On The Iran Playbook According to a recent podcast appearance by geopolitical analyst and University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer, the Arab Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia (the Gulf Cooperation Council) are increasingly behind the scenes pushing pack against those who advocate for regime change in Iran. This marks a serious potential de-escalation in what is a decades-long (or even centuries long) Sunni-Shia rivalry and war for influence in the broader Middle East. In a sense, the pro-Sunni Gulf-NATO axis has already 'won' - Assad was overthrown in Syria, and Hezbollah's leadership was decimated last year - now

Why Young Women Moved Left While Young Men Stayed Sane Authored by vittorio on X, Bill Ackman quote-tweeted a graph showing the partisan gap between young men and women almost doubled in 25 years. > Political scientists & data quants have been telling us this for half a decade. > > Women have moved *radically* leftward, at a scale & speed with no modern precedent, while men have, on the whole, remained largely steady & unchanged. > > And you can see it across the data: https://t.co/3uvlTDRwMg pic.twitter.com/Vh6zwPkKUI > > — Zarathustra (@zarathustra5150) January 15, 2026 Women moved radically left. Men stayed roughly where they were. Good question. Most

MSM Melting Down Over New Term For Liberal White Women In the days since Renee Good tried to run over an ICE agent in Minneapolis and was shot and killed by an ICE officer, the liberal media has found yet another offensive word to whinge over.  “The far-right has coined a new derogatory term for white women, which has gained traction following the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, in Minneapolis earlier this month,” reports The Independent.  The objectionable term is the acronym AWFUL, which stands for Affluent White Female Urban Liberal. Another variant is AWFL. For example: > Liberal white

A Big Bet On Apprenticeships In A Frozen Labor Market Authored by Zach Boren via RealClearEducation, For the better part of a year, the Trump Administration said little about apprenticeships. Then, almost out of nowhere, it announced a $145 million funding forecast aimed at expanding Pay for Apprenticeship—one of the largest investments we’ve seen in years. That move matters because it follows a long gap between rhetoric and reality. Early on, the President issued an Executive Order calling for one million apprentices and indicating apprenticeship as a central workforce strategy. But that ambition amounted to little more than lip service, as Biden-era apprenticeship contracts were either canceled or stagnated. For

Iran's Khamenei Says US, Israel Linked To Deadly Protest Violence: 'Thousands Killed' Iran's streets have at this point been relatively calm for the last several days, after two weeks of large-scale protests rocked the country amid an ongoing economic crisis and Washington threatened to intervene by hitting government sites. When protests and unrest turned to riots and clashes with police, which in some locations resulted in deaths on both sides, Tehran authorities moved to impose a complete internet and messaging blackout - believing this would thwart or slow any foreign plotting seeking to exploit the protests. After eight days of no internet access,

Fires blaze through 8,500 hectares, forcing 50,000 people to evacuate as firefighters struggle to extinguish flames Wildfires raging across central and southern Chile have killed at least 18 people, scorched thousands of hectares of forest and destroyed scores of homes, authorities said, as the South American country swelters under a heatwave. Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, declared a state of catastrophe in the country’s central Biobío region and the neighbouring Ñuble region, about 500km (300 miles) south of Santiago, the capital. Continue reading...

Any Lucía López Belloza was detained at Boston’s airport in November and flown to Honduras two days later * US citizens and permanent residents: have you been racially profiled by ICE? The Trump administration apologized in court for a “mistake” in the deportation of a Massachusetts college student who was detained trying to fly home to surprise her family in Texas for Thanksgiving. But the administration still argued that the federal government error should not affect her immigration case. Continue reading...

John Ratcliffe meets Delcy Rodríguez in Caracas less than two weeks after his agents helped to oust her precedessor The CIA chief whose agents reputedly played a key role in abducting Nicolás Maduro has flown to Venezuela to meet his successor as the sidelined opposition leader, María Corina Machado, vowed she would become the country’s first elected female president. Machado’s comments were broadcast on Friday, a day after she handed her Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump in recognition of what she called a principled and decisive move against Maduro, whom US special forces snatched on 3 January. Continue reading...

Former president convicted for coup plot to take advantage of law that knocks four days off jail term for each book read Jair Bolsonaro’s lawyers appear to have been reading up on the country’s penal code and have found a way to help their client reduce the 27-year prison sentence he received last year for plotting a coup: by reading books. There is only one problem: the former far-right Brazilian president has never been known as a bibliophile. “Sorry, I don’t have time to read,” Bolsonaro once declared. “It’s been three years since I read a book.” Continue reading...

Mark Carney holds talks with Xi Jinping on rare Beijing trip as Canada seeks to diversify trade links away from US * Business live – latest updates Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China as he held talks in Beijing with President Xi Jinping, the first visit by a Canadian leader in eight years. Addressing Xi in the Great Hall of the People, Carney said: “Together we can build on the best of what this relationship has been in the past to create a new one adapted to new global realities.” Continue reading...

Politicians are raising the alarm, while MI5 quietly welcomes the prospect of Beijing’s new London facility While there has been no shortage of politicians eager to raise concerns about China’s proposed “mega embassy” near the Tower of London, the espionage community quietly takes a different view, arguing that concerns about the development are exaggerated and misplaced. The domestic Security Service, MI5, is already quietly welcoming the prospect of rationalising China’s seven diplomatic sites to one, but a more significant argument is that modern technology and the nature of the Chinese threat means that, in the words of one former British intelligence officer,

Yoon Suk Yeol’s conviction for obstructing own arrest separate from main trial that could lead to death penalty A South Korean court has sentenced former president Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison for mobilising presidential security forces to block his own arrest and abusing his powers. It is the first judicial ruling linked to the events surrounding his failed martial law declaration in December 2024. The ruling is separate from Yoon’s main insurrection trial, where prosecutors earlier this week sought the death penalty and a verdict is due next month. Continue reading...

US to lower tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15% as chip and tech businesses pledge $250bn spending in US operations The US said on Thursday that it had signed a deal with Taiwan to reduce tariffs on goods from the democratic island, while increasing Taiwanese semiconductor and tech companies’ investments in America. The agreement, the US commerce department said, “will drive a massive reshoring of America’s semiconductor sector”. Continue reading...

Crane in use on high-speed rail project hits passing train, causing it to derail At least 32 people in Thailand have been killed and scores injured after a crane collapsed on to a passenger train and derailed it, officials said. Footage from the scene verified by Agence France-Presse showed the crane’s broken structure resting on giant concrete pillars and smoke rising from the wreckage of the train below. Continue reading...

Results for 2025 risk further unsettling economies about China’s trade practices and overcapacity, and their own over-reliance on Chinese products China has reported a strong export run in 2025 with a record trillion-dollar surplus, as its producers brace for three more years of a Trump administration set on slowing the manufacturing powerhouse by shifting US orders to other markets. Beijing’s resilience to renewed tariff tensions since Donald Trump returned to the US presidency last January has emboldened Chinese firms to shift their focus to south-east Asia, Africa and Latin America to offset US duties. Continue reading...

Follow today’s news live * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Marles ‘confident about the future of Nato’ despite Trump pressure Continuing his media rounds, the deputy PM, Richard Marles, is pressed on the government’s response to Donald Trump’s tariffs on some European nations, in a bid to take over Greenland. Nato has played a very important role and continues to be very strong. I’ve been to the last two Nato meetings representing Australia, and there is a definite sense of unity when you’re at Nato meetings. So I feel confident about the future of Nato. Continue reading...

Three-page letter acknowledged that while Peter Malinauskas could not direct festival board, he was ‘deeply concerned’ Palestinian Australian author’s invitation not rescinded * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A letter sent by the South Australian premier to the Adelaide writers’ week board criticising the inclusion of Palestinian Australian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah in the 2026 program has been made public. The three-page letter, first published in full by Adelaide’s Sunday Mail newspaper, was signed by Peter Malinauskas and dated 2 January. Continue reading...

Child in a critical condition in hospital after being pulled from the water in Vaucluse at about 4.20pm Sunday * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A boy has been attacked by a shark in Sydney harbour and is in a critical condition after suffering serious injuries to both legs. The boy, believed to be aged about 13, was pulled from the water near Shark beach at Neilsen Park, in the eastern suburb of Vaucluse, at about 4.20pm Sunday afternoon. Continue reading...

Executive Council of Australia Jewry implores Anthony Albanese and Sussan Ley to thrash out deal after government splits contentious bill * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Jewish leaders have warned Labor and the Coalition their community remains at risk from the promotion of antisemitic hatred, urging a last-minute compromise to secure tough new hate speech laws ahead of a special sitting of parliament. After Anthony Albanese agreed to split draft laws made in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack, new gun control measures are set to pass with the support of the Greens. Sign up:

This blog is now closed. * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Labor does not ‘share the concerns of the Greens’ on hate speech laws: Gallagher Speaking at Parliament House in Canberra, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, says she has spoken with the Coalition and the Greens Senate managers ahead of this week’s special sittings. We don’t share the concerns of the Greens on that one, and we’ve made that clear to them in the last week. The elements of the bill that exist without the racial vilification still have very strong purpose around combating antisemitism, and that is

UK prime minister holds phone call with US president as European leaders scramble to protect Danish territory Keir Starmer has told Donald Trump he is wrong to threaten tariffs against Nato allies to try to secure Greenland, as part of a flurry of diplomatic calls intended to tackle the crisis. The UK prime minister spoke to the US president on Sunday, as well as to Mette Frederiksen, the Danish PM, whose country’s territory includes Greenland; Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission; and Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general. Continue reading...

Two trains derail near Adamuz, Cordóba province, leaving scores injured, state-owned broadcaster reports At least 10 people have been killed and several injured after two trains collided in southern Spain on Sunday night, authorities said. A train travelling from Málaga to Madrid derailed near Adamuz, crossing on to the other track where it hit an oncoming train, which also derailed, Spain’s Adif rail body posted on X. Continue reading...

Emmanuel Macron calls on fellow leaders to use powerful anti-coercion instrument if US goes ahead with tariffs The EU was weighing up retaliatory tariffs on American goods and even deploying its most serious economic sanctions against the US as European leaders lined up to criticise Donald Trump’s threat to levy new taxes on imports from eight nations who oppose his attempt to annex Greenland – which one minister called “blackmail”. “Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral,” the leaders of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland said in a joint statement. “We are

US demand to own Greenland leaves little scope for compromise, and forcing the issue would entail end of Nato Greenland, with a population of fewer than 57,000, might not seem to be the territory on which the future of the relationship between Europe and the US, the viability of Nato as the world’s most successful defence alliance, or even the fractured relations between the UK and Europe would be determined. But battlefields are sometimes the product of chance, rather than choice. It now feels as if Donald Trump’s threat to impose 10% tariffs on eight fellow Nato states for sending troops last

The leaders of Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK issue joint statement ahead of EU ambassadors meeting The United States will also suffer if president Donald Trump implements threats to impose tariffs on European countries opposing his plans to acquire Greenland, a French minister said on Sunday. “In this escalation of tariffs, he has a lot to lose as well, as do his own farmers and industrialists,” French agriculture minister Annie Genevard told broadcasters Europe 1 and CNews. Continue reading...

President issues warning amid speculation Donald Trump plans to assassinate or remove supreme leader Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, warned on Sunday that any attack on the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would be a declaration of war. In an apparent response to speculation that Donald Trump is considering an attempt to assassinate or remove Khamenei, Pezeshkian said in a post on X: “An attack on the great leader of our country is tantamount to a full-scale war with the Iranian nation.” Continue reading...

Finance minister says Netanyahu should back annexation and settlement, and attacks Turkey and Qatar’s role on Gaza ‘executive board’ Far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition on Sunday rejected a US-backed plan for postwar governance in Gaza, criticising their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for failing to annex the Palestinian territory and establish new Israeli settlements in the territory. After the announcement of the White House’s pick of world leaders who will join the so-called Gaza “board of peace”, which includes representatives of Turkey and Qatar, both of which have been critical of Israel’s war in the strip, Israeli far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich,

Government extends grip on north after stalled efforts under Ahmed al-Sharaa to reach accommodation with Kurds and fold their forces into national army Syria’s army has taken control of swathes of the country’s north, dislodging Kurdish forces from territory over which they held effective autonomy for more than a decade. State media said on Saturday that the army took over the northern city of Tabqa and its adjacent dam, as well as the major Freedom dam, formerly known as the Baath, west of the Syrian city of Raqaa. It came despite US calls to halt the advance. Continue reading...

Many believed a US president would – for the first time – rescue them but now people can only despair after mass arrests and brutality When Donald Trump, said he would “rescue” protesters if Iranian authorities started shooting, Siavash Shirzad believed the US president. The 38-year-old father had seen protests rise up before, only to be brutally crushed by authorities. But this was the first time in his life that the president of the United States had promised to help demonstrators. Reassured, Shirzad took to the streets, ignoring his family’s warnings and joining the growing crowds. Continue reading...

Country says some appointments to the group, which will oversee the administration and reconstruction of Gaza, are ‘contrary to its policy’ Israel has objected to the White House’s pick of world leaders who will join the so-called Gaza “board of peace”, meant to temporarily oversee governance and reconstruction in the strip. The White House and other sources announced a flurry of appointments and invitations to the organisation over the last two days, including Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, former UK prime minister Tony Blair and the president of Argentina, Javier Milei. Continue reading...

Eastern region on high alert as authorities try to track animal tearing through villages in Jharkhand after apparently becoming separated from herd Forest officials in India are on the hunt for an elephant that has killed more than 20 people in a days-long rampage through the eastern state of Jharkhand. Since the beginning of January, 22 people have been killed by a single-tusked elephant that has been tearing through forests and villages in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. Continue reading...

Delhi is world’s second largest purchaser of Russian crude, which is now cheaper than oil from Middle East Russia is already working to circumvent the latest US sanctions to ensure India can continue to import high levels of cheap Russian crude oil, according to industry analysts. Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, India has become the world’s second largest purchaser of Russian crude oil, which has been heavily discounted due to the impact of western sanctions. Continue reading...

Police ask Paramjeet Singh Pamma to install security cameras and reinforce door locks at his home Police have advised a high-profile Sikh activist in the UK to install security cameras at his home and reinforce door locks because of threats from Hindu nationalist elements. Paramjeet Singh Pamma, 52, said he had been visited by police and received verbal advice to increase his security due to intelligence suggesting threats to his safety. Continue reading...

UN and many western countries as well as human rights groups say that in the absence of a meaningful opposition the election is neither free, fair nor credible Voters in war-torn Myanmar queued up on Sunday to cast their ballots in the second stage of a military-run election, following low turnout in the initial round of polls that have been widely criticised as a tool to formalise junta rule. Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military ousted a civilian government in a 2021 coup and detained its leader, Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a civil war

Satat Sampada founders Harjeet Singh and Jyoti Awasthi say allegations are ‘baseless, biased and misleading’ Police have raided the home of one of India’s leading environmental activists over claims his campaigning for a treaty to cut the use of fossil fuels was undermining the national interest. Investigators from India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) claim Harjeet Singh and his wife, Jyoti Awasthi, co-founders of Satat Sampada (Nature Forever), were paid almost £500,000 to advocate for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty (FFNPT). Continue reading...

Veteran MP says ‘time to put country before party’ citing Conservative position on Chagos Islands Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative MP for Romford since 2001, has announced his defection to Reform UK, the second such departure to Nigel Farage’s party in four days. Rosindell, who was a shadow Foreign Office minister under Kemi Badenoch, announced in a statement on X that he was joining Reform, giving as the main reason his opposition to the UK’s handover of sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Continue reading...

Trump lawyer Robert Garson told the Telegraph he discussed refuge for those leaving UK over antisemitism Discussions are reportedly under way within Donald Trump’s administration about the US possibly granting asylum to Jewish people from the UK, according to the Telegraph, citing the US president’s personal lawyer. Trump lawyer Robert Garson told the newspaper that he has held conversations with the US state department about offering refuge to British Jews who are leaving the UK citing rising antisemitism. Continue reading...

Proposed change relating to spies was criticised by campaigners and MPs as allowing an opt-out for senior officials The government has pulled an amendment to its proposed Hillsborough law amid concerns from campaigners and MPs that the legislation was being watered down and had become a “car crash” for the government. The public office (accountability) bill aims to force public officials and contractors to tell the truth after disasters. Continue reading...

Balwant Singh calls for regulatory intervention after Halima Begum was forced out as chief executive An Oxfam trustee has resigned from the charity’s board over claims of governance failures and “cruel and inhumane” treatment of the organisation’s former boss. Dr Balwant Singh said he had “lost confidence in the board’s governance, integrity, transparency and accountability” a month after Halima Begum was forced out as chief executive. “These failures are now sufficiently serious and systemic to warrant external regulatory intervention,” Singh said. Continue reading...

Establishment will give training in AI and other skills, more than a decade after David Cameron axed previous school Ministers will bring in a new “school of government” for senior civil servants to train them in AI and other skills – more than a decade after David Cameron axed the previous college for Whitehall. Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, will announce the new body in a speech on Tuesday setting out the government’s plans to “rewire” the civil service for modern times. Continue reading...

William Brock fatally shot Lo-Letha Toland-Hall in 2024 after wrongly assuming she was involved in plot to rob him An 83-year-old Ohio man faces sentencing on Tuesday after being convicted of murder in the shooting of an Uber driver who he wrongly thought was trying to rob him. William J Brock fatally shot the driver after wrongly assuming she was in on a plot involving scam phone calls that deceived them both to get $12,000 in supposed bond money for a relative, authorities said. Associated Press contributed Continue reading...

Trump’s support of Letlow comes after Louisiana senator voted to convict president in second impeachment trial Donald Trump has sought to deliver a staggering blow to the re-election chances of Senator Bill Cassidy – the president’s fellow Republican with whom he has politically feuded – by giving his “complete and total endorsement” to a potential primary opponent. Trump’s endorsement of US House member Julia Letlow as well as his encouragement for her to run for Cassidy’s Senate seat in Louisiana comes after the senator voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial during Trump’s first presidency. Continue reading...

Thom Tillis, Lisa Murkowski, Mike Pence and others say action could hurt US economy and strain Nato alliance Donald Trump’s escalating calls for the United States to seize or otherwise obtain Greenland has ignited fresh criticism from the president’s own Republican party, with some saying it could hurt the US economically or strain the Nato military alliance. Such Republicans included US senators Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski, who were part of a bipartisan group to travel to Denmark to discuss concerns in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory. Continue reading...

Karoline Leavitt was recorded warning network to put out new interview with president in full and without edits Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was recently recorded warning CBS News to broadcast a new interview with the president in full and without edits – or “we’ll sue your ass off”. Trump “said, ‘Make sure you guys don’t cut the tape, make sure the interview is out in full,’” Leavitt told CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil after he had interviewed the president, according to an audio exchange first reported on by the New York Times. The 13-minute exclusive segment aired on Tuesday,

Jake Lang’s anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-ICE rally near City Hall outnumbered by hundreds of counterprotesters Hundreds of counterprotesters on Saturday drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demonstration, saying on social media beforehand that he intended to “burn a Quran” on the steps of City Hall. But it was not clear if he carried out that plan. Continue reading...

European capitals may hit ‌the US with €93 ‍billion ($108 billion) worth of tariffs or restrict American companies ⁠from the bloc’s market in response to US President Donald Trump’s threats to ‍Nato allies opposed to his ‍campaign to take over Greenland, the Financial ‌Times reported on Sunday. The retaliation measures ‍are being drawn up to give European leaders leverage in ‌pivotal meetings ⁠with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, the Financial Times ‌report said, citing...

Eight people killed in three separate avalanche accidents in Austria were citizens of the Czech Republic and Austria, authorities said on Sunday. The deadliest incident on Saturday occurred in the Grossarl Valley in the state of Salzburg, where three men aged 53, 63 and 65 were killed. A 60-year-old woman also died after being buried by snow. The victims were part of a group on an alpine ski course offered by the Austrian Alpine Club, the organisation announced on Sunday. “Risk competence and...

Governments reacted cautiously on Sunday to US President Donald Trump’s invitation to join his “Board of Peace” initiative aimed at resolving conflicts globally, a plan that diplomats said could harm the work of the United Nations. Only ‍Hungary, whose leader Viktor Orban is a close Trump ally, gave an unequivocal acceptance in response to the invitations, which have been addressed to some 60 nations and began arriving in European capitals on Saturday, according to diplomats. “We have, of...

Yemeni politicians met on Sunday in Saudi Arabia’s capital in their first public gathering since a southern separatist group backed by the United Arab Emirates was disbanded following weeks of clashes. The meeting in Riyadh discussed the future of southern Yemen ahead of a Saudi-sponsored conference, the dates of which have not yet been announced. The separatist demands in southern Yemen are one element in a complex civil war that has gripped the country since 2014, when Houthi rebels backed by...

Iran’s president warned on Sunday that any US strike would trigger a “harsh response” from Tehran after an Iranian official in the ‍region said at least 5,000 people, including about 500 security staff, had been killed in nationwide protests. Iran’s protests, sparked last month in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar over economic grievances, swiftly turned political and spread nationwide, drawing participants from across generations and income groups – shopkeepers, students, men and women, the poor and the...

Kurdish-led forces withdrew on Sunday from Syria’s largest oilfield, a conflict monitor said, as government troops extended their grip over swathes of territory in the country’s north and east. The push came after President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree granting the Kurds official recognition in an apparent goodwill gesture, even as his Islamist government seeks to assert its authority across Syria after the ousting of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad in 2024. The Kurds’ de facto autonomous...

Talk of the United States acquiring Greenland has often been dismissed as rhetorical provocation. But the latest escalation is harder to wave away. President Donald Trump said it would be “unacceptable” if the US did not control Greenland only hours before Vice-President J.D. Vance hosted the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers. When territorial language is paired with senior-level diplomacy, it forces allies to draw public red lines, narrows the space for quiet crisis management, and turns...

A record 11 candidates are standing in Portugal’s presidential election on Sunday, with a populist party leader poised to bring another political breakthrough for Europe’s far-right. The large field makes it unlikely that any candidate will capture more than 50 per cent of the vote for a first-round win. That would leave the two top candidates to compete in a run-off ballot next month. Almost 11 million people are eligible to vote in the election, with most results expected late in the day. The...

The latest developments in Venezuela are interpreted as part of a broader US strategy to secure access to major oil resources. They are much more than that: the US raid signals a transformation in the global economy wherein a country’s power is increasingly determined not by its political actions, but by its capacity to embed resource wealth within a self-sustaining production system. These deeper processes did not begin today, but rather around 2008-2009 when, according to an integrated...

Ulrikke Andersen has already made a plan. If the United States invades Greenland, she will flee her home with her daughter. “Before, I was ready to die for my country but when I had a kid that changed everything,” she said. The 40-year-old is one of many residents of the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk, now weighing up options they would never have considered just a few months ago. But US President Donald Trump has been clear about his desire to seize the vast, self-governing Danish island, rich in...

The army has once again missed its own deadline for fielding the first US hypersonic weapon, in a sign that one of the Pentagon’s top priorities is still running late. The unit responsible for using the advanced weapon is trained and ready, but the missile – part of a US$10.4 billion hypersonic programme – is not ready for use. And while the army as recently as last month said that it planned to field the weapon by the end of 2025, the army acknowledged this week that it missed that...

US President Donald Trump’s fixation on Greenland offers an ice-cold reminder to leaders in Europe and abroad: no deal is ever final. Trump announced a 10 per cent tariff, rising to 25 per cent in June, on eight European nations, including Denmark, for saying they would undertake token Nato military exercises in Greenland in response to US sabre-rattling. While the tariffs are not certain to take effect, the threat was a brazen escalation and insult to close US allies, trampling over the US-EU...

The Trump administration is asking countries that want a permanent spot on his new Board of Peace to contribute at least US$1 billion. According to a draft charter for the proposed group seen by Bloomberg, US President Donald Trump would serve as its inaugural chairman and would decide on who is invited to be members. Decisions would be taken by a majority, with each member state present getting one vote, but all would be subject to the chairman’s approval. “Each Member State shall serve a term...

A third round of retaliatory strikes by the US in Syria resulted in the death of an al-Qaeda-affiliated leader, who officials say had a direct tie to the Islamic State member responsible for last month’s ambush that killed two US soldiers and one American civilian interpreter in the country. US Central Command announced that the strike in northwest Syria on Friday killed Bilal Hasan al-Jasim, who they claim was “an experienced terrorist leader who plotted attacks and was directly connected” to...

Europe’s debate over its technological future is both timely and necessary. The centre of gravity for platform technologies, advanced semiconductors, hyperscale cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) has undeniably shifted towards the United States and China. While the US boasts giants like Microsoft and Nvidia, and China has cultivated powerhouses like Huawei and Tencent, Europe has seen its share of the digital platform market shrink. However, viewing this shift as inevitable...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on ‍Saturday that this week’s Trump administration announcement on the composition of a Gaza executive board was not coordinated with Israel and ran counter to ⁠government policy. It said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar would raise the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The statement did not specify what part of the board’s composition contradicted ‍Israeli policy. An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment. The board, unveiled...

Opening a new front in his worldwide tariff onslaught, US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would impose a 10 per cent import tax on the United Kingdom and six European countries for opposing his plan to purchase Greenland and that the rate would more than double if they did not let him acquire the Danish territory. His post on Truth Social two weeks to the day after he abducted Venezuela’s president from Caracas marks the latest chapter in a tumultuous start to 2026, even by Trump’s...

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni won his seventh term with 71.65 per cent of votes, according to official results Saturday, in an election marred by an internet shutdown and fraud claims by his youthful challenger, who rejected the outcome and called for peaceful protests. The musician-turned-politician best known as Bobi Wine took 24.72 per cent of the vote, the final results showed. Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has condemned what he described as an unfair electoral process...

Trump administration officials had been in discussions with Venezuela’s hardline Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello months before the US operation to seize the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, and have been in communication ‌with him since then, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The officials warned Cabello, 62, against using the security services or militant ruling-party supporters overseen by him to target the country’s opposition, four ‍sources said. That security...

Thousands of people took to the streets of Denmark’s capital on Saturday to protest at US President Donald Trump’s push to take over Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory. The protest followed Trump’s warning on Friday that he “may put a tariff” on countries that oppose his plans to take over mineral-rich Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark. They also coincided with a visit to Copenhagen by a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress that has made clear the opposition of...

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday said “several thousand people” died in this month’s anti-government demonstrations, his first acknowledgment of the deadly scale of the unrest. Some of those were killed “brutally and inhumanely”, Khamenei said without offering details in a public meeting broadcast on state TV. He accused the US and Israel of aiding the killings and said the Islamic Republic had evidence to support the claim. Iran did not intend to push the country towards...

South American and European Union officials on Saturday signed a major trade deal, which they hailed as sending a powerful message at a time of tariff threats, global uncertainty and protectionism. The deal between the 27-nation European Union and Mercosur bloc members Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay creates one of the world’s largest free trade areas after 25 years of tricky negotiations. It was given fresh impetus amid the sweeping use of tariffs and trade threats by US President...

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned airlines on Friday to exercise caution when flying over Mexico, Central America and parts of South America, citing the risks of potential military activities and GPS interference. The FAA said it had issued “Notices to Airmen” covering Mexico and Central American countries, as well as Ecuador, Colombia and portions of airspace within the eastern Pacific Ocean. They say: “Potential risks exist for aircraft at all altitudes, including during...

Like many long-time reporters in Hong Kong, I had occasional dealings with David Webb, the market transparency and shareholder rights crusader who died this week of prostate cancer at the relatively young age of 60. Almost all of my encounters with him over the years were annoying and slightly unpleasant. But they made me respect him all the more. He once chastised me for misstating a relatively obscure Nasa space mission in the 1960s and demanded a print correction. I thought, who cares? But I...

The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children is suing his AI company, saying its Grok chatbot allowed users to generate sexually exploitative deepfake images of her that have caused her humiliation and emotional distress. Ashley St Clair, 27, who describes herself as a writer and political strategist, alleged in a lawsuit filed on Thursday in New York City against xAI that the images have included a photo of her fully dressed at age 14 that was altered to show her in a bikini, and others showing...

A man has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of an elderly Thai man whose 2021 killing in San Francisco helped spark a national movement against anti-Asian-American violence. A jury did not find Antoine Watson, 24, guilty of murder when it returned a verdict on Thursday for the January 2021 attack on Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84. Jurors found Watson guilty on the lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter and assault. The office of San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins...

US President Donald Trump on Friday gave a key role in post-war Gaza to former British prime minister Tony Blair and appointed a US officer to lead a nascent security force. Trump named members of a board to help supervise Gaza that was dominated by Americans, as he promotes a controversial vision of economic development in a territory that lies in rubble after two-plus years of relentless Israeli bombardment. The step came after a Palestinian committee of technocrats meant to govern Gaza held...

US President Donald Trump on Friday brushed aside concerns over a Canada-China trade deal involving Ottawa agreeing to reduce tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, saying it was “a good thing” for Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to pursue the deal. “That’s OK. That’s what he should be doing. It’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, you should do that,” Trump said, when asked about the agreement announced earlier in the day. The remarks not only...

Army helicopters rescued people stranded on rooftops and hundreds of tourists and workers were evacuated from one of the world’s biggest game reserves, as torrential rains and flooding in three countries in southern Africa killed more than 100 people, authorities said on Friday. The death toll across South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe is an accumulation after weeks of heavy rains. Weather services issued warnings that more rain was on the way, possibly bringing more destructive...

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Friday her country was starting a “true transition” to democracy and would become free with support from the US and President Donald Trump. Trump, however, has sidelined Nobel laureate Machado and backed former vice-president Delcy Rodriguez as interim leader of the oil-rich country following the January 3 US military operation that seized Nicolas Maduro. “We are definitely now into the first steps of a true transition to democracy,”...

US President Donald Trump took the unusual step on Friday of thanking the Iranian government for not following through on executions of what he said was meant to be hundreds of political prisoners. “Iran cancelled the hanging of over 800 people,” Trump told reporters while leaving the White House to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. He added, “and I greatly respect the fact that they cancelled”. The Republican president also suggested on his social media site...

US President Donald Trump suggested on Friday that he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the US controlling Greenland, a message that came as a bipartisan Congressional delegation sought to lower tensions in the Danish capital. Trump for months has insisted that the US should control Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Nato ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in US hands would be “unacceptable”. During an unrelated...

A hardline cleric leading Friday prayers in Iran’s capital demanded the death penalty for protesters detained in a nationwide crackdown and directly threatened US President Donald Trump, showing the rage gripping authorities in the Islamic Republic over demonstrations that have challenged their authority. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami’s sermon, carried by Iranian state radio, sparked chants from those gathered for prayers, including: “Armed hypocrites should be put to death!” Executions, as well as...

A British teenager who praised the killer of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event ‌and said he planned to bomb British rock band Oasis’ reunion concert ‍was sentenced to detention on Friday for possession of an al-Qaeda manual. McKenzie Morgan, 18, was arrested at his home in Wales after sending messages on the social media platform Snapchat in ⁠which he praised Axel Rudakubana, who murdered three girls and stabbed 10 others in July 2024, prosecutor Corinne Bramwell...

Uganda’s opposition said its leader Bobi Wine was under house arrest on Friday, after an election that also saw a member of parliament accuse security forces of killing 10 people at his home. President Yoweri Museveni, 81, is seeking to extend his 40-year rule of the east African country and has been accused of “brutal repression” of the opposition. Uganda’s Electoral Commission said on Friday that Museveni was on 75.4 per cent to Wine’s 20.7 with close to 60 per cent of votes counted. Final...

More than 2,300 years ago, Aristotle mused in Politics that to live alone, a man must be a god or a beast, or words to that effect. I wonder what he would have thought of the popularity of China’s “Are You Dead?” app. For Aristotle, we are social animals, thriving in the “polis” in the company of family, friends and fellow citizens. The average mother had at least five children. Many homes housed three, even four, generations. Family life was noisy and crowded, full of companionship, contest and...

US President Donald Trump’s investments in municipal and corporate debt through December included bonds of some companies affected by his administration’s policies. In all, the issues cost at least US$51 million. The new White House disclosure posted on Thursday shows Trump’s buys included bonds from Netflix, CoreWeave, General Motors, Boeing, Occidental Petroleum and United Rentals. He also bought municipal bonds from American cities and local school districts, utilities and hospitals. The...

President Vladimir Putin is mediating in the Iran situation ‍to try to quickly de-escalate tensions, the Kremlin said on Friday, after the Russian leader spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Moscow, an ally of Tehran, has condemned US President Donald Trump’s threats of new military strikes after Iran cracked down on protests that broke out late last month. Israel and the US last ⁠year both bombed Iranian nuclear sites, and Iran fought a...

China and Canada have agreed to remove the triple-digit tariffs imposed on each other’s imports – a major thaw in relations after years of icy diplomatic and trade ties – as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrapped up his state visit in Beijing. Canada will remove the additional 100 per cent in tariffs it had levied on Chinese electric vehicle (EV) imports – imposed in 2024 following a similar move from the United States – while China will lower its tariffs on Canadian canola, Carney said on...

As tensions between the United States and Iran threaten to plunge the Middle East into chaos again, regional military powers Turkey and Pakistan have revealed they are planning a tripartite defence partnership with Saudi Arabia. Thursday’s disclosure comes as Iran’s neighbours await clarity on US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 25 per cent tariff on the Islamic Republic’s trading partners earlier in the week – a measure which threatens to disrupt supply chains across the region. The...

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. Chinese military says it is developing over 10 quantum warfare weapons The People’s Liberation Army said more than 10 experimental quantum cyber warfare tools were “under development”, many of which were being “tested in front-line...

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro was on Thursday transferred to prison, where he will serve his sentence for orchestrating a failed coup in “more favourable” conditions, according to a court order. The 70-year-old former leader was sentenced to 27 years in prison last year for his attempts to cling to power following his narrow 2022 re-election loss to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro’s family has repeatedly complained on podcasts and social media about the conditions in which he was...

No pursuit of nuclear weapons. Confronting drug trafficking. An immediate recognition of the state of Israel. Exporting copious amounts of oil and gas. Exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi laid out his aspirations on Thursday for Iran if its theocracy is toppled – and experts say they sound exactly like what US President Donald Trump wants to hear. That plan is probably aimed at trying to secure support to lead Iran if the nationwide protests succeed in ousting the Islamic Republic. Activists...

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday even as he has questioned her credibility to take over her country after the US ousted leader Nicolas Maduro. The Nobel Institute has said Machado could not give her prize to Trump, an honour that he has coveted. Even if it the gesture proves to be purely symbolic, it was extraordinary given that Trump has effectively sidelined Machado, who...

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has proposed creating a new agency with US$2.5 billion to spur production of rare earths and the other critical minerals, while the Trump administration has already taken aggressive actions to break China’s grip on the market for these materials that are crucial to hi-tech products, including mobile phones, electric vehicles, jet fighters and missiles. It is too early to tell how the bill, if passed, could align with the White House’s policy but whatever the...

As the F.B.I. has added payback to its portfolio, Republican lawmakers like Senator Charles E. Grassley have emerged as a clearinghouse for leaks and whistle-blowers.

The board was originally conceived to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza, but its charter does not mention the Palestinian enclave, suggesting a possibly broader mandate.

As part of the settlement, The Daily Beast was not required to apologize or issue any payment to Chris LaCivita, who sued the outlet last year.

The potential 2028 presidential candidates showcased a Democratic midterm strategy that would assail G.O.P. votes in favor of cutting Medicaid and allowing health care subsidies to expire.

The president urged Representative Julia Letlow of Louisiana to run against Mr. Cassidy, in a move that is likely to further complicate his relationship with Senate Republicans.

The author of the memoir “I’m Glad My Mom Died” hopes her debut novel, about a teen’s sexual relationship with her teacher, will make readers uncomfortable.

Jennette McCurdy follows “I’m Glad My Mom Died” with “Half His Age,” a debut novel that confirms her gift as a chronicler of disaffected girlhood.

The United States is broken, but not in every way.

The ICE agent who shot Renee Good did not seem to hear what she was really saying.

Snow fell as far south as Florida and Georgia on Sunday but mostly melted by the afternoon. The same storm system brought snow to the Northeast, with a second round expected Sunday night.

Federal judges ruled that an Islamic teacher’s statements goading men in Virginia to join an overseas militant group were protected by the First Amendment.

Jan Philipp Burgard was one of Axel Springer’s most prominent editors, overseeing its influential German broadsheet Welt.