Minimalist News

Gen Z, Socialism, And The System That Failed Them Authored by Steve Cortes via Cortes Investigates, There’s real angst among older Americans about Gen Z’s openness to socialism. For those of us shaped by the Cold War, this flirtation with Marxism-lite feels alarming. But we need to pause and rethink what we’re actually seeing. Gen Z isn’t embracing socialism because they dream of five-year plans. They’re listening because the “capitalism” they were sold was already broken—rigged for insiders, punishing for everyone else. They’ve been: * Systematically lied to, about major issues * Shut out of real opportunity * Raised in an economy designed to reward

Australia Imposes World's First Under-16 Social Media Ban Australia will soon bar anyone aged 15 and under from using major social media platforms — an unprecedented national ban set to take effect Wednesday — leaving many young users bracing for sudden offline life, according to Nikkei.  Fourteen-year-old TikTok creator Zoey, whose account will be frozen despite more than 50,000 followers, told Nikkei Asia she expects to feel “much less connected” and “very isolated.” She called the ban “very much digital exclusion, because you’re excluding us from a huge part of the world, not just Australia, it’s the world.” Under the new rules, companies

Homan Defends Operations Against Illegal Somalis In Minnesota Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown on Somalis in Minnesota is targeted at illegal immigrants and felons, White House border czar Tom Homan said in a Dec. 7 interview with CNN, dismissing concerns of unjust targeting. “There’s a large illegal Somali community there … if you’re a U.S. citizen, you will have nothing to fear. We’re looking for criminal aliens. And, also, if you’re a resident alien, you have a felony conviction, by statute, you could be set up for deportation,” he said. “So, we’re looking for public safety

Americans Spent $2.6 Billion On OnlyFans In 2025 The United States is now the most OnlyFans-obsessed country on the planet, according to a new global rankings study that is almost certain to fuel debate online. The “OnlyFans Wrapped 2025” report, published by platform search engine OnlyGuider, names the U.S. as both the biggest market overall and home to the most intensely engaged cities anywhere in the world. While Americans spent an estimated $2.6 billion on OnlyFans in 2025, the report says the country’s dominance is most striking at the city level. Fifteen of the top 20 global cities for per-capita spending are

Saudi Arabia Didn't Learn Anything From China's 'Ghost Cities' Authored by Stefan Barti via TheDailyEconomy.org, You can’t build a castle on sand, and you can’t build a city on assumptions. Saudi Arabia unveiled The Line in January 2021 as a perfect, linear utopia stretching 170 kilometers across the desert. Three years later, the castle is already sinking. When Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced The Line on January 10, 2021, he promised a radical reimagining of urban life. “We need to transform the concept of a conventional city into that of a futuristic one.”  Tucked into the upper corner of the kingdom’s Tabuk province, the city would

Hypersonics, AI, Space Weapons, & Directed Energy: Lawmakers Release Defense Bill As Expiring Obamacare Subsidies Marinate On Back-Burner With Congress in its second-to-last week in session for this year, lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee released the final bill text of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Sunday night, which allocates a topline of roughly $8 billion over the $892.6 billion the Department of Defense had requested, and what the House version of the NDAA provided which stuck to the Pentagon's request.  The NDAA is the annual law passed by Congress that sets the budget, policies, and legal authorities for the

Trump Envoy Says 'Benevolent Monarchies' Work Best In Mideast While Hailing Syria's Sharaa Via Middle East Eye The US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, has stated that a "benevolent monarchy" has "worked best" in the Middle East. Speaking at a panel on Syria during the Doha Forum on Sunday, Barrack praised the Syrian administration of President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s "epic" and "heroic" achievements following the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. The US envoy warned against western efforts to impose democratic models on the Middle East, arguing that such initiatives "have not been successful". via Tom Barrack/X "Almost every decision that the West has imposed on the

NJ Governor Murphy Using Last Months In Office To Free 31 Convicted Killers...And Promises Even More New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is using his last months in office to release dozens of inmates convicted of homicide — and says many more are coming, according to NJ 101.5. Since December 2024, Murphy has granted clemency to 283 offenders, including 31 people convicted of murder, felony murder, or aggravated manslaughter, according to NJ 101.5. Some had been serving life sentences or faced decades before being eligible for parole. All will now walk free with five years of supervision. The governor fast-tracked the releases after creating

Greed, Centralization, Monopoly, Ruin Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, Greed is good up to the point that it delivers ruin. The primary characteristic of this era is the purposeful confusion of profit and greed, as if they are the same thing. Greed is good because profit is good, and profit is good because the profit motive is the engine of Capitalism which is the engine of global prosperity. The problem with this logic is greed is not the same as profit. In the sanitized version of the story, the profit motive of each individual magically generates the best possible socio-economic outcome for all via the secret powers

"Things Are About To Snap": China's Trade Surplus Tops $1 Trillion For The First Time, Sparking Global Howls Of Outrage With Europe finally realizing - very belatedly, as usual - that Trump was right all along in his crusade to hammer Beijing's relentless dumping of exports to flood foreign markets with its below-cost wares as China no longer has nearly the required demand for goods and services and so has to crush and dominate foreign markets by selling at far below market prices, overnight we learned that China’s trade surplus in goods surpassed $1 trillion for the first time, highlighting the

Trump Says He Has 'Other Methods' To Impose Tariffs If Supreme Court Limits Powers Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, President Donald Trump on Dec. 7 urged the Supreme Court to uphold his tariff program, saying a ruling against his use of emergency economic powers would weaken national security, while also saying there are alternative legal tools to keep the duties in place. Trump said in a Dec. 7 post on Truth Social that the tariff regime currently before the Supreme Court is “far more direct, less cumbersome, and much faster” than other methods available under U.S. law. “Speed, power, and certainty

"Xi Responded Positively": NVDA Spikes After Trump Allows H200 Chip Exports To China Having pumped (and dumped) earlier today on reports that the Trump administration will allow H200 chip exports to China, NVDA shares extending gains the after-hours (to the highs of the day) after President issued a statement on X, confirming he will allow Nvidia to ship its chips to China and noting that "President Xi respondedly positively." NVDA spiked... Trump wrote that "I have informed President Xi, of China, that the United States will allow NVIDIA to ship its H200 products to approved customers in China, and other Countries, under conditions

DC Police Chief Resigns As 'Massive Scandal' Over Crime Stats Heats Up Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced on Monday that Police Chief Pamela A. Smith will be stepping down, three months after we reported that the DOJ was investigating a "massive scandal" over manipulated crime data. Smith, who also doesn't know what the term "chain of command" means, is out for unknown reasons - however she told Fox 5 that she resigned to spend more time with her family. "After 28 years in law enforcement, I have been going nonstop," she said.  > Today, I announced that Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela A. Smith will be stepping

When They Say "Democracy", They Don't Mean Democracy Authored by James Howard Kunstler, > "Imagine if the US and EU were still aligned on the censorship-by-proxy strategy. Few people realize how close we were to global totalitarianism." > > - Michael Shellenberger Western Civ is choking itself to death with lawfare in the name of “democracy.” If you think just a little bit past the sale, you will realize that few will say what they mean by “democracy,” including the most ardent “democracy” cultists. What it supposedly means is legal outcomes that the political left wants, not what the law, or the truth, or

Offer Royale: Paramount-Netflix Bidding War For Warner Bros Heats Up In A Blockbuster Showdown Update (1324ET):  Here's the side-by-side comparison of the Netflix versus Paramount-Skydance offers as the bidding war for Warner Bros.' assets goes into overdrive. In markets, Netflix shares were down about 4% in early afternoon trading in New York, while Paramount shares were up nearly 10%. Fox Business reporter Charles Gasparino noted that "shares are getting slammed, and with the investor selling, it's unclear if the collar on the stock portion of its WBD bid is being compromised - meaning it might have to come up with more money." > Breaking: @netflix

Wendy's Data Pinpoints When Working-Poor Customers Ditched "Dave's Single" Burger Readers have been well informed about the bifurcated consumer landscape, where financial conditions look relatively stable for upper-middle-class and wealthy households. But for anyone earning less than $100,000 a year, financial misery persists, with many pressures lingering after four years of the disastrous Biden-Harris regime era. Last week at the Barclays 11th Annual Eat, Sleep, Play, Shop Conference in New York City, fast-food chain Wendy's Co.'s top executives participated in a fireside chat. They offered a clearer view of the consumer environment backed by Wendy's own proprietary data, only to reveal yet

Supreme Court Seems Poised To Side With Trump In FTC Firing Case Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times, The Supreme Court seemed inclined to remove certain limits on President Donald Trump’s power to remove bureaucrats, but oral arguments on Dec. 8 left questions about how far their eventual decision would go in empowering the executive. The case - Trump v. Slaughter - focused on President Donald Trump’s request to override a legislative barrier to firing members of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Trump attempted to fire Rebecca Slaughter, an FTC commissioner, earlier this year without invoking any of the reasons Congress listed in the

"Do Not Mistake Compliance For Surrender" - Alina Habba Steps Down As Acting US Attorney For New Jersey Alina Habba, the former personal attorney to President Trump, is stepping down from her contested position atop the federal prosecuting office in New Jersey. "As a result of the Third Circuit's ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down in my role," she said in a statement posted on X on Monday. Habba’s resignation came after district and appellate court rulings which found she was unlawfully serving in the role, a powerful post

Border Czar Says 62,000 Illegally Smuggled Children Rescued So Far Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times, White House border czar Tom Homan on Dec. 7 said more than 60,000 children who were illegally smuggled into the United States have been located by the Trump administration and that some were rescued from dire situations, including sex trafficking and forced labor. In an interview with the Fox News show “Fox & Friends” on Dec. 7, Homan said that the previous administration “lost track of 300,000” children who were “smuggled into” the United States, saying some of those children were released to ”unvetted sponsors.” Since

India Plans Coal Expansion Through 2047 Despite Supposed "Climate Goals" It's funny how no one actually seems to care about climate change malarky when there isn't an environmentalist Democrat in the White House to try and impress... Along that vein, India is weighing a major expansion of coal power that could extend new plant construction until at least 2047, according to people familiar with ongoing discussions between the power ministry and the government policy think tank NITI Aayog. The move would represent a sharp departure from earlier projections that expected additions to peak around 2035, Bloomberg reported this week. The talks align with Prime Minister

President accuses neighbor of violating treaty governing water-sharing and urges water to be released ‘immediately’ Donald Trump has threatened to impose an additional 5% tariff on Mexico if it does not immediately provide additional water to help US farmers, accusing the country of violating a treaty that outlines water-sharing between the neighbors. Under the treaty, which dates back to 1944, Mexico must send 1.75m acre-feet of water to the US from the Rio Grande through a network of interconnected dams and reservoirs every five years. The agreement also stipulates that the United States must annually allocate 1.5m acre-feet of water from the

Father of student detained at Boston airport on her way to visit family in Austin, says agents showed up at Texas home Immigration agents appeared on Sunday at the Texas home of the family of Any Lucia López Belloza, the 19-year-old college student who was recently deported to Honduras while on her way to visit them for Thanksgiving, her family reportedly said. López Belloza, who attended Babson College in Massachusetts, was detained on 20 November at Boston airport while she was on her way to surprise her family in Austin, Texas, for the holiday. Within 48 hours she was deported to Honduras,

Actor, who starred in The Passion of the Christ, will play the disgraced ex-Brazilian president in film written by his one-time secretary of culture Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president now in prison for plotting a coup, is getting the biopic treatment. Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, is reportedly filming a “heroic” portrait of the rightwing ex-politician in secret. Dark Horse, directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh and written by Mário Frias, who served as secretary of culture under Bolsonaro, started shooting three months ago in Brazil, where Bolsonaro served as president from 2019

Juan Orlando Hernández thanked the Lord for being ‘a free man’ and then Trump for ‘changing my life’ Former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández recently thanked God and Donald Trump – in that order – for being pardoned by the latter of a drug trafficking conviction won by federal US prosecutors less than two years earlier. Speaking in a video posted to social media and referring to the US president, Hernández eventually said Trump “changed my life, and I’ll never forget that”. But first he praised God, saying in Spanish, “You saw the injustice and suffering, and in your infinite mercy you

Brazil aide says Trump’s closure of Venezuelan airspace amounts to an ‘act of war’ that could escalate * Maduro says the real reason for Trump’s Venezuela fixation is oil – is he right? A US invasion or attack on Venezuela could plunge South America into a Vietnam-style conflict, the chief foreign policy adviser to Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has warned. In an interview with the Guardian, Celso Amorim called Donald Trump’s recent decision to order the closure of Venezuelan airspace “an act of war”, and voiced fears the crisis could intensify over the coming weeks. Continue reading...

Legal team of man who was part of cohort of non-citizens freed after high court decision argues Nauru’s medical facilities are ‘insufficient’ to treat his severe asthma * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Lawyers for an Iranian refugee Australia wants to deport to Nauru say there is a “real risk he will die” there, setting the stage for a showdown against the federal government’s $2.5bn NZYQ deal. The case surrounding the Iranian refugee, known as TXCM, who was granted a 30-year visa for Nauru in February and subsequently placed back into immigration detention after being freed

Commerce department finalizing deal to allow H200 chips to be sold to China as strict Biden-era restrictions relaxed Donald Trump has cleared the way for Nvidia to begin selling its powerful AI computer chips to China, marking a win for the chip maker and its CEO Jensen Huang, who has spent months lobbying the White House to open up sales in the country. Before Monday’s announcement, the US had prohibited sales of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China over national security concerns. Continue reading...

90,000 people advised to take shelter after 7.5-magnitude quake, with 20 injuries reported A powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake has shaken north-eastern Japan, injuring more than 20 people and triggering a tsunami of up to 70cm in Pacific coast communities. The earthquake and tsunami warnings prompted orders for about 90,000 residents to evacuate their homes, although the warnings were later downgraded to advisories. Continue reading...

Escalation follows killing of Thai soldier and four Cambodian civilians weeks after Trump-brokered ceasefire Thailand has launched airstrikes along its disputed border with Cambodia after both countries accused each other of breaching a ceasefire deal brokered by Donald Trump. Four Cambodian civilians and at least one Thai soldier have been killed in the renewed clashes, which have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Continue reading...

* Yang extorted £153,000 from former Spurs player * Co-conspirator receives two-year sentence in Seoul court A woman has been sentenced in Seoul to four years in prison for blackmailing South Korean football star Son Heung-min. The woman, identified only as Yang, was charged with extorting 300 million won (£153,000) from Son in 2024 after sending him an ultrasound photo of a baby that she claimed was his and demanding money to stay silent. Continue reading...

The RBA board did not consider the case for a rate hike at today’s meeting, the RBA governor said. Follow today’s news live * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Kevin Hogan says no one ‘gobsmacked’ by Barnaby Joyce’s decision to join One Nation Kevin Hogan, the deputy leader of the Nationals, compared Barnaby Joyce to Mark Latham after the former said yesterday he would join One Nation. The only other person I can think of that has left who has been a previous leader of a political party and joined One Nation is Mark Latham. And Barnaby

Police say ‘active crime scenes remain at houses and dwellings’ in Koolewong on the Central Coast after devastating weekend blaze * ‘It came from everywhere’: NSW town counts the cost after bushfire hits * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Arson squad and forensic officers are investigating the cause of a bushfire that destroyed 16 homes on the New South Wales Central Coast on the weekend. Fanned by high temperatures and strong winds, the out-of-control blaze swept across Koolewong on Saturday afternoon, with the flames at one

Platform to introduce age-prediction model analysing users but argued to eSafety commissioner it was a source of information not a social media platform * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Reddit will comply with Australia’s under-16s social media ban, due to begin on Wednesday, but says it is “legally erroneous” and “arbitrary” in its effect. The company argued to the eSafety commissioner that its platform was a source of information, not primarily social media. Continue reading...

As Bulahdelah mourns dead firefighter, residents recall lucky escapes and say they have ‘never had fires like this’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast When Garry Morgan arrived home on Friday afternoon, his rural mid-north coast property was surrounded by a “big plume of smoke”. Less than 24 hours later, two houses on his street would be lost and the surrounding forest reduced to blackened skeletal remains. Morgan’s township of Bulahdelah, about 200km north of Sydney, was where a veteran firefighter died on Sunday evening when

Blazes in NSW and Tasmania have already led to a firefighter losing his life and close to 40 homes being destroyed as an ominous fire season begins * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Australians should “expect the unexpected” this bushfire season amid dangerous conditions, experts have warned, after a severe start that saw a firefighter killed and homes destroyed in several states. Bushfires at Koolewong and Bulahdelah in New South Wales destroyed 20 homes and a natural disaster has been declared in several

The group were at a popular seawater pool when the wave struck, prompting a major rescue operation Four people are dead and one is missing after a powerful wave dragged a group of swimmers out to sea while they were in a popular seawater pool along the rocky, western coastline of the Spanish island of Tenerife, Spanish authorities said on Monday. Crews recovered three bodies on Sunday – a 35-year-old man, a 55-year-old woman and another man about whom no information was given – during a major rescue operation that used jet skis and helicopters to locate and pick up people dragged

UK foreign secretary urges action against ‘information warfare’ made easier by advances in technology Foreign countries are flooding social media with AI-manipulated videos to undermine western support for Ukraine, Yvette Cooper will warn on Tuesday. The UK foreign secretary will urge other countries to help Britain fight what she calls “information warfare”, as officials warn Russia is using forged documents and deepfake material to advance its geopolitical goals. Continue reading...

Hopes rise of a breakthrough in using £78bn of frozen Russian assets to bankroll Kyiv European leaders rallied behind Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday night amid hopes they might finally achieve a breakthrough to allow Ukraine access to billions of pounds of frozen Russian assets. Despite vociferous support for the Ukrainian president, who has come under heavy pressure from Donald Trump to cede territory in order to bring the war to a speedy end, there was still no agreement on the thorny question of turning immobilised assets into a loan for Kyiv. Continue reading...

Zelenskyy says talks with Starmer, Macron and Merz were a ‘small progress towards peace’ * See all our Ukraine war coverage Meanwhile, we are starting to look towards 10 Downing Street as the leaders should start arriving in the next hour. Last preparations are under way, and we have a live stream for you at the top of the page. In the last few minutes, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has just landed in the UK, Sky News has reported. Continue reading...

Nicolas Sarkozy’s new book, The Diary of a Prisoner, is being released this week – and also details the time he spent in jail The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has said Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party is “not a danger” to France, and he would not support a united front of parties against Le Pen at the next election. In his new book, written at a “small plywood table” in prison where he recently served 20 days of a sentence for criminal conspiracy, Sarkozy said many of his former supporters were now potential Le Pen voters, and he

Eyal Zamir said Israel would hold on to current positions, giving it control of more than half of the territory The “yellow line” that divides Gaza under Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan is a “new border” for Israel, the country’s military chief told soldiers deployed in the territory. The chief of the general staff, Eyal Zamir, said Israel would hold on to its current military positions. These give Israel control of more than half of Gaza, including most agricultural land and the border crossing with Egypt. Continue reading...

Former UK leader loses out on key role in transitional authority after objections from Arab and Muslim nations Tony Blair will not occupy a key position on Donald Trump’s Gaza “peace council” after Arab and Muslim nations were reported to have objected to the involvement of the former UK prime minister. According to the Financial Times (FT), Blair has been quietly dropped from consideration for Trump’s “board of peace”, which Trump has said he would chair himself. Continue reading...

Sanctions, instability and external meddling are still problems for Ahmed al-Sharaa, one year after Assad’s fall * Ddivided Syria struggles to escape cycle of violence * The fall of the house of Assad – in pictures If ubiquity and handshakes were the only measures of success, Ahmed al-Sharaa would be diplomat of the year. Since he formally became president of Syria on 29 January 2025, the former leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – a jihadist group with an al-Qaida lineage – has made a total of 21 public international trips to 13 countries. These include a visit to the UN general assembly,

While country’s return to global stage has filled many Syrians with pride, domestically old grievances threaten efforts to rebuild the state * Anniversary of the fall of house of Assad in Syria – in pictures Lying in bed recovering after his latest surgery, Ayman Ali retells the story of Syria’s revolution through his wounds. His right eye, lost in an attack on a rebel observation post he was manning in 2012, is covered by yellow medical tape. Propped against the wall is a cane he uses to walk, after a rocket attack in 2014 left him with a limp. For 14 years,

Concerns over recording of meetings at coordination centre excluding Palestinians that was set up to provide support for Trump’s Gaza plan Israeli operatives are conducting widespread surveillance of US forces and allies stationed at a new US base in the country’s south, according to sources briefed on disputes about open and covert recordings of meetings and discussions. The scale of intelligence gathering at the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) prompted the US commander of the base, Lt Gen Patrick Frank, to summon an Israeli counterpart for a meeting to tell him that “recording has to stop here”. Continue reading...

Officials say the Birch nightclub had contravened multiple safety regulations and that the basement had no fire safety exit Four members of the same family on their first holiday to Goa were among the 25 killed in a deadly fire at a nightclub in the popular Indian tourist state on Saturday night. The massive blaze broke out at just before midnight at Birch by Romeo Lane, a buzzing bar, restaurant and nightclub in north Goa’s Aporna district. Continue reading...

Fire broke out at midnight in Arpora with victims mostly kitchen workers, according to state’s chief minister At least 25 people have been killed in a fire at a nightclub in Goa, an Indian state popular for its nightlife and tourism. Several tourists were among the 25 dead in the fire, which broke out at about midnight at Birch by Romeo Lane, a popular restaurant, cocktail bar and club in Arpora, a district of north Goa. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here Russia and India will reshape their defence ties to take account of New Delhi’s push for self-reliance, the two countries said in a joint statement after a summit between president Putin and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. “In response to India’s aspirations for self-reliance, the partnership is currently being reoriented toward joint research and development, as well as the production of advanced defence platforms,” the statement said. Continue reading...

Narendra Modi says energy security is ‘pillar of the India-Russia partnership’ as two leaders meet in Delhi Vladimir Putin has told the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, that Russia is ready to continue “uninterrupted” shipments of oil to India, signalling a defiant stance to the US as the two leaders met in Delhi and affirmed that their ties were “resilient to external pressure”. The statement, made on Friday after the annual India-Russia summit, appeared to be directed at western countries – particularly the US – that have attempted to pressure New Delhi into scaling back its ties to Moscow. Continue reading...

Delhi visit gives Russian leader a chance to reduce Moscow’s isolation but both countries need each other to negotiate Trump’s US and a powerful China When Vladimir Putin last set foot in India almost exactly four years ago, the world order looked materially different. At that visit – lasting just five hours due to the Covid pandemic – Putin and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, discussed economic and military cooperation and reaffirmed their special relationship. Three months later, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine would turn him into a global pariah, isolating the Kremlin from the world and restricting Putin’s international travel. Continue

Exclusive: Charity Commission chief condemns public hostility towards staff helping women and refugees and at places of worship A surge in death and rape threats and harassment has created a “culture of fear” at charities serving women and refugees, and at mosques, churches and synagogues, the head of the Charity Commission has warned. Mark Simms said he feared growing hostility towards charity staff, volunteers and beneficiaries, both online and on the streets, was becoming normalised and risked eroding civilised values and norms British society once took for granted. Continue reading...

Experts warn of dangers as England and Wales study shows 13- to 17-year-olds consulting AI amid long waiting lists for services It was after one friend was shot and another stabbed, both fatally, that Shan asked ChatGPT for help. She had tried conventional mental health services but “chat”, as she came to know her AI “friend”, felt safer, less intimidating and, crucially, more available when it came to handling the trauma from the deaths of her young friends. As she started consulting the AI model, the Tottenham teenager joined about 40% of 13- to 17-year-olds in England and Wales affected by youth

Bank reports 1.1% drop in card spending despite Black Friday boost for retailers UK households cut back on spending at the fastest pace in almost five years last month as consumers put Christmas shopping on hold, according to a leading survey. Adding to concerns that uncertainty surrounding the budget has helped dampen consumer confidence, Barclays said card spending fell 1.1% year on year in November – the largest fall since February 2021. Continue reading...

The work of surgeon and artist Joseph Maclise is the focus of a show at the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds It is an image of an unnamed black man with his eyes closed and his innards exposed. Drawn with care and precision, the image may be the only anatomical drawing of a black body made during the Victorian age. Now it is part of a new exhibition that focuses on the work of Joseph Maclise, a surgeon and artist whose work – including his 1851 atlas Surgical Anatomy – made the human anatomy accessible to the general public, and who

Livery for renationalised railway features red, white and blue alongside familiar double arrow symbol No matter how much train fares cost under Great British Railways, no one can accuse the government of wasting money on an expensive redesign. The logo, branding and livery for the impending renationalised and reformed railway will be unveiled by ministers at London Bridge on Tuesday. It is red, white and, yes, blue. Continue reading...

Civicus, a non-profit that monitors global civic freedoms, moved the US from the ‘narrowed’ to ‘obstructed’ category A coalition of global civil society organizations has downgraded the United States’ civic health rating from “narrowed” to “obstructed.” In a report released on Tuesday, Civicus, a non-profit that monitors civic freedoms in 198 countries, placed the US in its “obstructed” category. The group cited a “sharp deterioration of fundamental freedoms in the country … following a year of sweeping executive actions, restrictive laws and aggressive crackdowns on free speech and dissent.” Continue reading...

Agents who kneeled in 2020 accuse Kash Patel of retaliation and say they were trying to calm volatile situation Twelve former FBI agents fired after kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest in Washington have sued to get their jobs back, saying their action had been intended to de-escalate a volatile situation and was not meant as a political gesture. The agents say in their lawsuit that they were fired in September by Kash Patel, the FBI director, because they were perceived as not being politically affiliated with Donald Trump. But they say their decision to take a knee on 4 June

This live blog is now closed. * Trump news at a glance: US supreme court appears set to back Trump’s power to fire independent board members In a statement, Pamela Smith said she was “deeply humbled, grateful and deeply appreciative” of her time in her role, which she described as the “greatest honor” of her career. She gave thanks to the mayor for appointing her in 2023 and supporting her throughout her tenure, which she acknowledged had been both “challenging and rewarding”. Smith adds that “tremendous progress” has been made but the city is not at “zero percent crime” yet. I am confident

Conservative justices seem to signal support for president over move to fire Democrat Rebecca Slaughter in March * US politics live – latest updates The US supreme court on Monday appeared poised to back the Trump administration’s argument that the president should be able to fire independent board members that for almost a century have been protected from presidential interference. The court heard arguments concerning the legality of Donald Trump’s firing of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) member and appeared to be split down partisan lines in favor of a historic expansion of executive power, with the conservatives – including the sometimes

Footage shows officer said ‘It’s him, dude’ as testimony sheds light on arrest at Pennsylvania McDonald’s Moments after Luigi Mangione was handcuffed at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, a police officer searching his backpack found a loaded gun magazine wrapped in a pair of underwear. The discovery, recounted in court on Monday as Mangione fights to keep evidence out of his New York murder case, convinced police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, that he was the man wanted in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan five days earlier. Continue reading...

More than six decades after British historian AJP Taylor termed war the “mother of invention”, economies around the world appear to be ramping up their military spending, at least in part, to reinvigorate industrial production. Taylor was referring to the genesis of the tank, the aeroplane and poison gas in World War I, and that of radar, the jet engine and the atomic bomb in World War II. More modern examples, such as satellite-based navigation systems and the internet, were the products of the...

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said on Monday it may bar three major Chinese telecoms companies from connecting to US networks over efforts to prevent robocalls, the latest in a series of actions Washington has taken against Beijing. The FCC issued orders saying China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom must address issues with their certifications in the agency’s robocall mitigation database, and raised concerns about their presence in the database. If the FCC removes them,...

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer launched a TikTok account on Monday despite the app being banned from government devices, as he attempts to connect to younger voters. A spokesman for his office said “security mitigations” were in place to operate the Prime Minister’s account. “TikTok, follow me,” Starmer said in the first video posted on the account, which showed him with his wife at the ceremony to switch on Downing Street’s Christmas lights. The second video showed Ukraine’s President...

Trade unions at the Louvre Museum called on Monday for a rolling strike next week to demand urgent renovations and better working conditions, piling more bad news on the beleaguered Paris institution. The announcement came a day after the world’s most visited museum admitted to a major leak in late November and nearly two months after an embarrassing robbery in which French crown jewels were stolen from its permanent collection. In between those two incidents, it had to close a gallery...

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another scored a leading nine nominations to the 83rd Golden Globe Awards on Monday, adding to the Oscar favourite’s momentum and handing Warner Bros a victory amid Netflix’s acquisition deal. In nominations announced from Beverly Hills, California, One Battle After Another landed nominations for its cast – Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn and Chase Infiniti – and for Anderson’s screenplay and direction. It is competing in the comedy and...

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said on Monday it had identified a new strain of the mpox virus in England in a person who had recently travelled to Asia. “Our genomic testing has enabled us to detect this new mpox strain,” said Katy Sinka from the UKHSA, a government agency responsible for preventing and controlling the spread of infectious diseases. The agency said it would continue to “assess the significance of the strain”, which had elements of both mpox subtypes: the more severe...

Paramount Skydance on Monday launched a hostile bid worth US$108.4 billion for Warner Bros Discovery, in a last-ditch effort to outbid Netflix and create a media powerhouse that would challenge the dominance of the streaming giant. Netflix had emerged victorious on Friday from a weeks-long bidding war with Paramount and Comcast, securing a US$72 billion equity deal for Warner Bros Discovery’s TV, film studios and streaming assets. But Paramount’s latest attempt means the jockeying for Warner...

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that 114 people, including 63 children, were killed in “senseless” strikes on a hospital and kindergarten in Sudan’s South Kordofan state last week. The strikes “hit a kindergarten and, at least three times, the nearby Kalogi Rural Hospital, killing 114 people, including 63 children, and injuring 35 people,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media, citing the UN health agency’s Attacks on Health Care monitoring...

Few leaders travel to China seeking gravitas and return with only a couple of pandas, but French President Emmanuel Macron managed to do just that. After surrendering sovereignty to US President Donald Trump, Macron visited China seeking a validation that his citizens no longer grant. His authority at home has been eroded through cabinet implosions, collapsing support, stalled budgets and demands for his resignation. China could see that before he even stepped off the plane. Beijing handled a...

Syrians marked the first anniversary of the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad and his iron-fisted rule on Monday, as the fractured nation struggles to find stability and recover after years of war. Official celebrations are planned for the central Umayyad Square in Damascus, which has been packed with jubilant gatherings ahead of December 8, and in other parts of the country. Military parades are also expected. Assad fled Syria for Russia a year ago as rebels commanded by Syria’s new president, Ahmed...

US President Donald Trump’s new global security road map has dropped any reference to denuclearising North Korea as a goal, fuelling speculation that Washington may be angling to boost the chances of a diplomatic breakthrough with Pyongyang in 2026. The target of ending North Korea’s nuclear threat had been a constant in the National Security Strategy of every US president since the emergence of Pyongyang’s programme in 2003, but was conspicuously absent in Friday’s document. The omission of any...

Spain’s ambitious multi-billion-euro plan to become Europe’s leading player in the electric vehicle market presents a golden opportunity for Chinese car brands, which could be vital to the strategy’s success, according to analysts. The Spain Auto 2030 Plan, presented by Madrid on Wednesday, seeks to mobilise government funding to provide consumer subsidies, support the construction of charging stations and help the Spanish car industry – which drives about 10 per cent of the country’s economic...

The United Nations on Monday hit out at global “apathy” over widespread suffering as it launched its 2026 appeal for humanitarian assistance, which was limited in scope as aid operations confront major funding cuts. “This is a time of brutality, impunity and indifference,” UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told reporters, condemning “the ferocity and the intensity of the killing, the complete disregard for international law, horrific levels of sexual violence” he had seen on the ground in...

As Britain’s Defence Secretary John Healey talks up his plans to buttress the UK military, doubts over funding and the country’s ability to move fast enough are unsettling the industry and armed forces. Healey in June laid out a 130-page defence review, billing it as the first in a generation that would transform and grow the UK military. He set out plans to rebuild arms stockpiles, expand Britain’s nuclear deterrent and submarine fleet, and invest more heavily in long-range weapons and advanced...

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Hong Kong Legco election’s 31.9% turnout surpasses record low of 2021 2. Tokyo accuses Chinese fighters of locking on Japanese jets northeast of Taiwan 3. Chinese scientists develop promising stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s 4. The great slowdown: Germany at a standstill as ‘China shock’...

US President Donald Trump solidified his takeover of Washington’s John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts on Sunday by hosting its flagship awards programme, mixing politics with a celebration of stars from music and film. This year’s Kennedy Centre Honours, widely seen as the top US recognition for lifetime achievement in the performing arts, feted actor Sylvester Stallone, disco singer Gloria Gaynor, country musician George Strait, Phantom of the Opera star Michael Crawford and rock...

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani posted a video to social media on Sunday explaining immigrants’ right to refuse to speak to or comply with agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), days after federal agents carried out a raid in Manhattan. In the video, Mamdani vowed to protect the city’s 3 million immigrants, saying, “We can all stand up to ICE if you know your rights.” He explained that people in the US can choose not to speak to federal immigration agents, film them...

Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro said on Sunday he could abandon his presidential aspirations for a “price”, and suggested amnesty be granted to his father, the imprisoned far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro. The ex-president’s eldest son announced on Friday that his father, who is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup and is banned from public office, has chosen him to lead the country’s powerful conservative movement, shaking up the 2026 election race. But suddenly Flavio...

Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 100 kidnapped schoolchildren taken by gunmen from a Catholic school last month, a UN source and local media said on Sunday, though the fate of the 165 students and staff thought to remain in captivity remained unclear. In late November, 315 students and staff were kidnapped from St Mary’s co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state, as the country buckled under a wave of mass abductions reminiscent of the infamous 2014 Boko Haram...

When President Xi Jinping hosted his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin earlier this year, the choreography was familiar: smiles, handshakes and talk of a “multipolar world order”. Yet beneath the symbolism lies an imbalance impossible to miss. China radiated the poise of a civilisation sure of its trajectory; Russia exuded the defiance of a power seeking reassurance. The meeting, intended to display Eurasian unity, instead...

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a major figure in implementing US President Donald Trump’s economic agenda including tariffs, disclosed on Sunday that he has recently divested his interests in a soybean farm to comply with the ethics agreement he signed last January when he joined the administration. The divestiture comes four months after the US Office of Government Ethics informed the Senate Finance Committee in an August 11 letter that Bessent had failed to comply with certain terms of...

A water leak last month damaged hundreds of books in the Egyptian antiquities department at the Louvre, underscoring the deteriorating state of the world’s most visited museum just weeks after a daring jewel heist exposed security flaws. Specialist website La Tribune de l’Art reported that around 400 rare books were affected, blaming poor pipe conditions. It said the department had long sought funds to protect the collection from such risks without success. Le Louvre’s deputy administrator,...

The UK will “turn the tide” on illicit finance at a landmark anti-corruption summit in London next year, the foreign secretary has said. Yvette Cooper confirmed on Sunday that Britain would host the summit at Lancaster House on June 23-24, 2026. The summit, first promised by her predecessor David Lammy, will bring together governments, businesses and campaigners to agree “tough international action” to combat corrupt practices. Cooper said the summit would target illicit gold used to fund the...

Celebrated British documentary photographer Martin Parr has died at his home in the western English city of Bristol, his foundation announced on Sunday. He was 73. Famous for his kitschy, colour-saturated images, Parr had a sharp eye for mundane oddities, typified in his humorous snapshots of bronzed beachgoers and selfie-snapping holidaymakers. “It is with great sadness that we announce that Martin Parr (1952-2025) died yesterday at home in Bristol,” a statement on The Martin Parr Foundation’s...

UK police were probing on Sunday an assault involving pepper spray at a Heathrow Airport car park that disrupted travel and left 21 people, including a three-year-old girl, needing medical treatment. In a departure from an earlier account of the incident at Terminal 3’s multi-storey car park, London’s Metropolitan Police said it now appeared to have stemmed from a suitcase robbery by people known to each other. Commander Peter Stevens, who had previously characterised it as an argument that...

US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz and European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas were both visiting Jordan on Sunday to discuss humanitarian aid for Gaza. Their visits came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expected the second phase of the US-sponsored ceasefire plan for the Palestinian territory to begin soon. Waltz said on social media that he was in the Jordanian capital Amman to discuss speeding up the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and “to see the...

Benin’s president said the “situation is completely under control” in his country after the government thwarted an attempted coup thanks to loyalist soldiers with support from Nigerian forces. A group of soldiers announced earlier in the day on state television that they had ousted President Patrice Talon. That sparked a swift response from loyal army forces, joined by air strikes and troop deployments from neighbouring Nigeria. Beninese military and security sources said that around a dozen...

Chinese cross-border e-commerce entrepreneur Andy Guo has just opened two warehouses covering a total of 5,000 square metres (53,820 sq ft) on the outskirts of Moscow. He said the move was not about addressing logistical bottlenecks, but preparing his business for a potential geopolitical shift that could reshape his fastest-growing yet most uncertain overseas market if Russia and Ukraine reach a peace deal. US President Donald Trump has continued to push for the end of hostilities between...

Ground has quite literally been broken on a Chinese-funded project to modernise the Tanzania-Zambia railway after years of negotiations, amid intensifying “corridor wars” as major powers compete to shape transport and trade networks across not just Africa but also Eurasia and beyond. The US$1.4 billion upgrade will restore the 1,860km railway, known as Tazara, a vital corridor linking Zambia’s Copperbelt to the Indian Ocean via Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam port, connecting southern and eastern...

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down on deadly US air strikes against alleged drug-running boats off the Venezuelan coast, saying he would have made the same call as the admiral who ordered survivors to be killed. The nearly two dozen strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific have come under bipartisan scrutiny, but recent reports that a September strike included a second one to kill two survivors clinging to wreckage at sea have prompted accusations of possible war crimes. “From what...

A US$140 million fine on tech tycoon Elon Musk’s social media platform underscores how Europeans undermine US policies even while demanding that the United States provide military protection, one of the top American diplomats wrote on Saturday. US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau joined Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other American officials in criticising the European Union’s fine on Musk-owned X as censorship. But Landau went further than Rubio by invoking broader ideological...

The fireworks between Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau are now Instagram official, following months of speculation and steamy sightings. The 41-year-old pop star, who recently ended her engagement to Orlando Bloom, shared a selfie on Saturday with the former Canadian prime minister, showing them cuddled up beneath the fall foliage in Japan. “Tokyo times on tour and more,” wrote Perry, who performed just outside the country’s capital on Wednesday as part of the Asian leg of her Lifetimes Tour. The...

A drone attack by the Sudanese paramilitary forces hit a kindergarten in south-central Sudan, killing 50 people, including 33 children, a doctors’ group said. Paramedics on the scene in the town of Kalogi in South Kordofan state were targeted in “a second unexpected attack”, Sudan Doctors’ Network said in a statement late on Friday. Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence against civilians in Sudan reported in a statement on Saturday the second strike on paramedics treating survivors...

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced on Saturday that he was sending a business delegation to Russia in the coming days in preparation for the end of the Ukraine war. Orban addressed Budapest’s foreign relations with Moscow and also Washington at an exclusive rally in the central city of Kecskemet, ahead of legislative elections in the spring. The delegation’s mission would focus on economic cooperation, particularly in a post-war landscape that could see Russia not cut out from the...

Cop30 concluded with confident declarations from global fashion brands: upgraded net-zero road maps, new partnerships under the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action and bold promises to “accelerate supply-chain decarbonisation”. However, the summit revealed something the industry continues to avoid. Fashion’s climate ambition is still being shaped in the West, while the responsibility for delivering it falls almost entirely on Asia. This imbalance has not shifted. Instead, the UN...

For the first time in a decade, hunters armed with rifles and crossbows are fanning out across Florida’s swamps and flatwoods to legally hunt the Florida black bear, over the vocal opposition of critics. The state-sanctioned hunt began on Saturday, after drawing more than 160,000 applications for a far more limited number of hunting permits, including from opponents who are trying to reduce the number of bears killed in this year’s hunt, the state’s first since 2015. The Florida Fish and...

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that he and his negotiators who are discussing a US-led plan for Ukraine had a “very substantive and constructive” call with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. “Ukraine is committed to continuing to work honestly with the American side to bring about real peace,” Zelensky said on Telegram as the third day of the talks were to be held in Florida. “We agreed on the next steps and the format of the talks with America,” he added. Zelensky, who...

A mass shooting carried out on Saturday by multiple suspects in an unlicensed bar near the South African capital left at least 11 people dead, police said. The victims included three children aged three, 12 and 16. Another 14 people were wounded and taken to hospital, according to a statement from the South African Police Service. Police did not give details on the ages of those who were injured or their conditions. The shooting happened at a bar inside a hostel in the Saulsville township west...

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has vowed to go to Norway to pick up her Nobel Peace Prize, defying a warning from Caracas that she would be a fugitive if she did so. The head of the Nobel Institute, Kristian Berg Harpviken, on Saturday said that Machado – who lives in hiding in her country – promised him she would make the ceremony, set to take place in Oslo on Wednesday. “I was in contact with Machado last night [Friday] and she confirms that she will be in Oslo for the...

Four protesters have been arrested after custard and apple crumble was thrown at a display case containing the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London. Take Back Power, which describes itself as a new non-violent civil-resistance group, claimed it was behind the act. Footage shared by the group showed one demonstrator removing the large foil tray of crumble from a bag and then slamming it against the glass protecting the Imperial State Crown. Another then repeatedly poured a tub of bright yellow...

The nearly two-month-old ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will not be complete until Israeli troops withdraw from the Palestinian territory under a peace plan backed by Washington and the United Nations, mediator Qatar’s prime minister has said. “Now we are at the critical moment ... A ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of the Israeli forces, [and] there is stability back in Gaza,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Saturday. Sheikh...

An overnight exchange of gunfire and shelling at a major Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing killed four civilians and one soldier, Afghan officials said on Saturday, the latest flare-up of fighting between the two countries despite a ceasefire since deadly clashes in October. Five other civilians were wounded, an Afghan government spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said in a video statement. The local hospital at the Pakistani border town of Chaman said three people suffered minor injuries during...

When Russia’s full-scale invasion began nearly four years ago, a 26-year-old soldier known as Monka did not see a combat role she could do. But that changed as technology reshaped the battlefield and opened new paths. Last year, she joined the military as a pilot of short-range, first-person view, or FPV, drones after giving up a job managing a restaurant abroad and returning home to Ukraine to serve. Her shift is part of a larger trend of more women joining Ukraine’s military in combat roles, a...

Stock prices are nervously high, bond and real estate prices are under downward pressure, cryptocurrency assets have sustained falls and global debt is at record levels. One common factor behind these coinciding and worrying trends is that much of the world is living on excess credit. Payment is now due. Another is how markets have bloated as financial systems fail to properly channel savings into good investments. This all suggests the coming correction in financial markets will be more...

Newly released surveillance footage from the US hotel where American actress Tara Reid claims she was drugged last month shows the actress downing more drinks than she recalls. Reid, 50, maintains she was drugged on November 23 at the DoubleTree Hotel by the Chicago O’Hare Airport, insisting she had just one drink before being wheeled out on a stretcher and taken to the hospital. Hotel security video, published by TMZ on Friday, shows a bartender bringing a glass of liquid to the American Pie...

Despite pressure from the Trump administration, Mr. Zelensky, after meeting with European leaders who vowed continued support in the war, said Ukraine’s position on territory had not changed.

Russell Bonner Bentley III, 64, who was living in the occupied Donbas region of Ukraine, was beaten and tortured to death after he was suspected of being an American saboteur, investigators said.

The archdiocese will raise at least $300 million to fund the settlement. It has agreed with its accusers on a mediator to conduct negotiations.

The Hollywood Classic cinema in Seoul is popular in a country where 70-year-olds now outnumber people in their 20s.

A ruling in the president’s favor in the case, which deals with his attempt to remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, would be a major expansion of presidential authority.

The U.S. Supreme Court directed a lower court to review the ban, which applies to strict vaccine requirements in New York schools.

The attorney general said he had asked Interpol to detain Juan Orlando Hernández, who was freed from a U.S. prison last week.

The president has shattered norms by pledging to “be involved” in the regulatory fate of a transaction that could reshape the news and entertainment industries.

Mr. Kushner’s private equity fund is one of the many groups helping Paramount mount a hostile bid to buy the group, whose holdings include CNN.

The Senate is set to vote later this week on a three-year extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that Republicans oppose. The G.O.P. has yet to coalesce around an alternative.

The executive order from the Florida governor came after another Republican governor, Greg Abbott of Texas, issued a similar declaration last month.

The 15-year effort by Japan is a model for countries now scrambling to reduce their dependence on Beijing’s critical metals.

Apps like OpenAI’s Sora are fooling millions of users into thinking A.I. videos are real, even when they include warning labels.

Statistics show a clear spike in eight cancers in younger people, but that has brought a debate over whether many cases ever needed to be found.

Here are the new kids on the block our critics loved most this year.

Bánh cuốn, chicken bastilla and 10 other unforgettable plates from 2025.

The system in the House promotes control by party leaders over accountability and achievement.

Also, Paramount made a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Here’s the latest at the end of Monday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul demanded the resignation of the head of New York’s Office of Cannabis Management following the withdrawal of a case against a Long Island-based company.

He gave readers a comprehensive and lyrical account of the historic mission in 1969. His science coverage as a Pulitzer-winning journalist and an author took him around the world.

The protest was over the removal of another instructor, who gave a failing grade on a paper about gender that relied on the Bible as its main source.