Minimalist News

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

DHS Pushes Forward With Large-Scale Warehouse Immigration Detention Hubs Via American Greatness , The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is continuing efforts to transform warehouses into large-scale immigration detention centers despite a growing number of politically motivated lawsuits. Officials with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently discussed plans to award contracts for construction and operations at warehouse sites in San Antonio and near El Paso , according to people briefed on the internal meetings. The administration is also examining how to continue work at a site near Hagerstown, Maryland, while complying with a court order limiting construction activity there.

SpaceX Reportedly Chooses Nasdaq And "SPCX" Ticker For Mega IPO Elon Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, has reportedly selected Nasdaq for its long-awaited IPO and is targeting a June 11 pricing, followed by a June 12 debut under the ticker "SPCX," according to a Reuters report released late in Friday's U.S. cash session. Immediately after the report, odds for "SPCX" on the Polymarket bet, "What will SpaceX's public ticker be?" soared to nearly 100%. Will SpaceX's public ticker be another ticker? Yes 97% · No 3% View full market & trade on Polymarket In April, SpaceX confidentially filed for an IPO

Uranium Gap Worsens: Nuclear News Roundup Goldman analyst Brian Lee reviews headlines across the nuclear industry for March ( full note here ). New reactor progress and announcements North America 4/16/2026 – Canada: Bruce Power has signed an MoU with SaskPower to share its experience in large-scale nuclear reactors, including project development and long-term operations, as Saskatchewan evaluates large reactor technologies alongside its SMR program. The agreement formalizes information-sharing and aligns provincial and federal nuclear strategies. 4/24/2026 – United States: Duke Energy's Robinson nuclear power plant has been cleared for extended operation to 80 years, after the US Nuclear Regulatory

UCLA Medical School Accused Of Racial Discrimination In Defiance Of Supreme Court Authored by Jonathan Turley, We previously discussed a disturbing account of how medical students at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) were subjected to a bizarre class where one of the university’s “activists-in-residence” showered them with anti-Semitic postings and racist rhetoric . Now, the Justice Department has found that the university engaged in systemic racial discrimination in the admission of medical students. Given the university’s history, it is hardly surprising, but it remains unclear how the university will respond to

Watch: Trump Spars With 'Treasonous' NYT Reporter On Iran War Coverage Friday saw a wild exchange play out between President Trump and a member of the media aboard Air Force One as it made its way back from China. The New York Times' David Sanger pointed out that Trump's Operation Epic Fury did not result in political transition in Iran, but that the same Islamic Republic theocratic government is in charge. Sanger in essence questioned whether there was actually 'total victory' as Trump and his officials have repeatedly claimed. A visibly angered Trump, standing physically close to Sanger, rebuked this

BWXT Holds A Realistic Path To Expanding Nuclear Capacity Ananym Capital is urging BWXT to commercialize its reactor production capabilities. The investor is looking for BWXT to bring back one of their old small modular reactor (SMR) design, mPower , that was abandoned in 2017. BWXT already produces one to three reactors each year for U.S. aircraft carriers and submarines. That steady cadence gives it unmatched experience turning complex nuclear hardware into delivered hardware on a predictable basis. With only a handful of AP1000 units built worldwide, no other American players can claim comparable low technology risk when it comes

Home Prices Register Biggest Annual Increase In More Than A Year: Report Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The median home sales price in the United States jumped 2.4 percent in April from a year ago, the largest increase since March 2025, real estate brokerage Redfin said in a May 12 statement. A home for sale in Austin, Texas, on April 24, 2025. Brandon Bell/Getty Images The company attributed the price increase to more buyers entering the housing market amid a stabilizing job market. In April, the United States added 115,000 jobs, well above the expected

Collum: Was Fed Chair Warsh Chosen For A Controlled Demolition? Supposed monetary hawk Kevin Warsh, who was officially sworn in as the 17th Fed Chair earlier this week, will now face the dilemma of staying true to his hawkish roots or caving to his unabashed high-rate hating President. That is, of course, unless there’s a deeper plan at play… Last night, Cornell professor Dave Collum hosted Michael Lebowitz and Stephanie Pomboy for a deep dived into ‘How F***ed Markets Are’ where Dave posited the theory that Warsh man be a demolition man for a managed crash . Collum and co.

With 4,900 AI Data Centers, There's Likely One Coming To Your Neighborhood Authored by Mary Prenon via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), As artificial intelligence continues to permeate everyday life, the data centers needed to support the burgeoning technology are popping up across America - many close to residential areas. More than one-third of Americans now live within a few miles of at least one data center. That proximity means many development projects are not going smoothly, as residents raise questions about the unknown effects on their resources. Both residents and developers who spoke to The Epoch Times pointed to

US Gasoline Inventories Plunging On Surging Exports, Resilient Demand Prompt Brent/WTI crude nearby futures increased by 5/7% week-over-week to $105/101 as flows through the Strait of Hormuz remained very low and on limited signs of progress on a US-Iran deal. Meanwhile, as global oil inventories collapse at a record pace yet sliding Chinese demand and strategic releases from Beijing keep crude prices relatively stable, Goldman writes that the US gasoline market has become very tight, with inventories drawing at a rapid average pace of 0.7mb/d since April 1st to 5% below their historical seasonal median this week. This has been

The Fed Is Losing Its Biggest Dove Via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Jerome Powell’s term as Fed Chairman expires today , with Kevin Warsh now confirmed by the Senate as his successor. The transition has implications beyond a change in the Fed’s leadership. Further, Stephen Miran, who was appointed Fed Governor in September 2025 to fill the vacancy left by Adriana Kugler, is seeing his term come to an end. Most noteworthy during his term, he dissented at all six FOMC meetings he attended, consistently pushing for 50-basis-point rate cuts. It’s not a stretch to say he was the Fed’s biggest dove. In

CIA Head Ratcliffe Spotted In Cuba As Trump Refocuses Crosshairs On Havana Communists We noted on Thursday that, once President Trump's summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded, the Trump team's next focus would likely shift back toward Cuba. That pivot now appears underway. Aboard Air Force One early Friday, while returning stateside, Trump told reporters that "Cuba needs our help," signaling the Caribbean island nation is moving higher on the administration's agenda. A new AP report offers more insight into how the Trump administration is shifting attention back toward Cuba: CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with officials in Havana

Musical Chairs By Molly Schwartz, cross-asset macro strategist at Rabobank Yesterday, Trump spoke with Xi in Beijing . While markets kept a watchful eye on any headlines about the war in Iran, palates were left dry as only tepid announcements dripped out, such as that China “ offered help ” on Iran and “ pledged not to send weapons .” What they did not manage to evade was a conversation about Taiwan. During the two and a half hour conversation with Trump, Xi underscored that US intervention in Taiwan could trigger a “highly dangerous situation .” While Rubio underscored that

Great Global Energy Rewiring Accelerates: UAE To Double Crude Export Capacity Bypassing Hormuz Chaos Days after the U.S. bombing campaign against Iran began, we pointed out on March 3 that the conflict was likely to accelerate a major Gulf infrastructure push to bypass the Strait of Hormuz . Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline to the Red Sea stood out as the clearest signal that regional producers needed a credible Plan B for moving crude and crude products when the Hormuz chokepoint becomes disrupted. That logic is now coming into sharper focus for the UAE. March 3: Surprising Fujairah is not a

Trump Talk, Taiwan, & 'Thucydides Trap' Threat Triggers Market Mayhem Overnight Traders are waking this morning in the US to some relative market mayhem and questioning what came first - the oil spike or the geopolitical angst - to trigger these moves as it appears the market finally remembered there's more going on in the world than trading 'short compute' demand to the moon... Oil prices are up significantly (WTI >$100)... Bond yields are breaking out everywhere (10Y 4.5%, 30Y UST 5.10%!, 30Y Gilt 5.82% - highest sine 1982)... Equity markets sharply lower overnight (Kospi -6%, Japan Semis approx. -5%,

US And China Agree To Establish Trade And Investment Boards As Trump-Xi Summit Delivers Modest Wins U.S. and Chinese leaders agreed to establish a new "Board of Trade" and a parallel "Board of Investment" during President Donald Trump’s two-day visit to Beijing - a summit that ended much as it began: with significant pageantry, warm personal rapport between the leaders, and modest, incremental progress on trade. The new boards aim to oversee bilateral purchases, manage trade differences, facilitate deals in non-sensitive sectors (with roughly $30 billion in goods identified), and provide a standing channel to prevent future escalations without constant

The Stagflation Narrative: What Doomers Get Wrong Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, The stagflation narrative dominating financial social media isn’t completely wrong. That’s what makes it so dangerous. After more than 30 years of managing client portfolios through actual inflationary cycles, not watching them on YouTube, I’ve learned that the most damaging investment advice isn’t built on outright lies. It’s built on partial truths, stretched past the point where the data still holds. If you haven’t read Commodity Supercycle: The Enemy Of The Bull Thesis (Part 1) , it is an important primer to today’s discussion. Let’s dig in.

Iran Says It Has "No Trust" In US, Insists There Is "No Military Solution" Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that Tehran has "no trust" in the United States and remains interested in negotiations only if Washington demonstrates seriousness, as talks aimed at ending the war remain stalled. Speaking to Indian media during the second day of the BRICS foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi, Araghchi said military initiatives are ineffective in resolving regional crises, Turkey Today reported. “There is no military solution, and the U.S. must understand this reality,” Araghchi said, according to a statement shared by

Democrats In Illinois Just Lost Hundreds Of Violent Criminals Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, In yet another glaring example of failed “criminal justice reform” in blue cities, Cook County, Illinois officials have admitted that 243 dangerous criminals have gone completely AWOL from the county’s pretrial electronic monitoring program. These include individuals charged with murder, attempted murder, and sexual assault — all supposed to be tracked by ankle monitors while awaiting trial instead of sitting in jail. The revelation comes straight from Cook County Chief Judge Charles Beach II’s new transparency dashboard, which shows roughly 3,048 people currently on the

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

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

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

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

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

Peters, a Trump ally who backed the president’s false claims about the 2020 election, was found guilty in 2024 of allowing unauthorized access to county’s voting equipment Colorado governor commutes sentence of election denier Tina Peters Sign up for the Breaking News US email Jamieson Greer also said US export controls on semiconductor chips were not a major topic of discussions with Chinese officials in Beijing . The US trade representative’s comments to Bloomberg on Friday suggest a breakthrough on selling Nvidia’s advanced H200 chips to China remains far away, Reuters is reporting, despite Nvidia chief Jensen Huang ’s last-minute

US president has said he and Chinese leader ‘settled a lot of different problems’ but has given little detail on solutions Trump China visit live – latest updates Donald Trump’s whirlwind trip to Beijing – the first US presidential visit in nearly a decade – wrapped up with much fanfare but little clarity about what was actually achieved. Trump said on Friday he and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, “settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve”. But he didn’t provide much detail on what those solutions were. Continue reading...

US president hails ‘fantastic’ deals, but details remain scarce after pageantry and little progress at much-hyped summit with Xi Trump in China – latest updates Donald Trump left China on Friday after a much-hyped summit of the world’s two major powers that was rich in pageantry and promises of stability, but offered little by way of tangible progress. The US president had gone into the two-day talks with China’s Xi Jinping weakened by his prolonged war in Iran, and did little to change the perception that he and his nation are diminished on the global stage. Continue reading...

Mirroring of each other’s attire may signal alignment – though the look wasn’t a huge departure for either leader When Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met for a welcome ceremony in Tiananmen Square this week with the world’s gaze on them, they mirrored one another in strikingly similar suits. Both were blue, single-breasted with flap pockets. Both had two buttons with only the top one done up. Both wore red ties. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. Sign up for the Breaking News US email Donald Trump will drive through a Chinese capital that is smoggier than it was on his last visit in 2017 , when the authorities launched emergency measures to clear the skies of pollution days before his first state visit to Beijing. Factories were ordered to halt production and heavily polluting cars were banned from the roads in the days ahead of the US president’s trip nearly a decade ago, an era in which China had declared war on air pollution and made special efforts to clear

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

Port Kembla residents will likely resist base due to risk of nuclear accident and potential as target for ‘military adversaries’, documents state Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A proposed nuclear submarine base in Port Kembla “could be a target for Australian military adversaries”, previously secret New South Wales government documents have revealed. The documents, prepared by the NSW cabinet office and premier’s department, identify Port Kembla – 75km south of Sydney – as the preferred east coast base for Australia’s proposed nuclear submarine fleet. No site has been announced, but speculation has focused

This blog is now closed Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Good morning, it’s Nick Visser here to take over the blog. Let’s get to it and see what Friday holds. Big news to start the morning: Australia’s Delta Goodrem has qualified for the Eurovision final. Continue reading...

Home affairs minister Tony Burke says listing will stop group from organising and meeting, and may prevent more ‘horrific bigoted rallies’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The government has banned neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network, also known as White Australia, listing it as a prohibited hate group under legislation passed in the wake of the Bondi terror attacks. The listing will mean that activities including supporting, funding, training, recruiting and joining the group will constitute a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of

Federal court affirms an August 2024 finding that Tickle was discriminated against on the basis of her gender identity and awards her $20,000 Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The federal court has upheld a landmark decision that found a women-only social media app and its founder unlawfully discriminated against Roxanne Tickle after the transgender woman was denied access to the platform. In their judgment on Friday, justices Melissa Perry, Wendy Abraham and Geoffrey Kennett affirmed an August 2024 finding that Tickle was discriminated against

All 46 Council of Europe members sign agreement ‘deplored’ by human rights organisations The UK and 45 other European countries have signed an agreement that explicitly endorses plans to send unwanted asylum seekers to third country hubs. A political declaration from the 46 members of the Council of Europe, the body that oversees the European convention on human rights (ECHR), said states had an “undeniable sovereign right” to control their borders. Continue reading...

Chancellor says he no longer views US as land of opportunity amid ‘deeply polarising’ social climate Friedrich Merz , the German chancellor, already embroiled in a row with Donald Trump over the Iran war, has said he would not advise his children to study or work in the US in the current climate. Speaking to a conference of young Catholics in Würzburg, the conservative leader, viewed by many as a transatlanticist, said he no longer saw the US as the land of opportunity. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here Meanwhile, the Latvian president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, has begun political consultations aimed at finding a parliamentary majority capable of forming a new government after the collapse of prime minister Evika Siliņa’s administration. Rinkēvičs’s office posted a short video from the meeting on its social media. Continue reading...

Man arrested after admitting to taking relic from church and planning to throw it in river, say police An 800-year-old relic believed to be the skull of Saint Zdislava, stolen this week from a Czech church , has been recovered encased in concrete as experts work to extract it, police have said. A suspect has been arrested, who allegedly confessed to taking the skull of Saint Zdislava of Lemberk from a glass shrine in the basilica of St Lawrence and St Zdislava in the town of Jablonné v Podještědí on Tuesday. Continue reading...

The Manchester City striker will feature in Viqueens, an animated film by director Harald Zwart, who described him as ‘powerful, fearless and uniquely Norwegian’ Manchester City striker Erling Haaland is to make his feature acting debut, in an animated film as the voice of a Viking – called Haaland. According to the Hollywood Reporter , the Norwegian international is to play “an animated version of himself” in Viqueens, directed and co-written by Harald Zwart, the Dutch-Norwegian director of The Karate Kid and Agent Cody Banks. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

Far-right Jewish marchers call for Palestinian villages to ‘burn’ as they storm through Muslim quarter of Old City Israeli nationalists chanted “death to the Arabs”, “may your villages burn” and “Gaza is a graveyard” in a state-sponsored march through Jerusalem to mark the anniversary of the city’s capture and annexation. The annual assertion of Jewish control over Palestinian East Jerusalem has grown more extreme in recent years, and Thursday’s event culminated with the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, unfurling an Israeli flag in front of the al-Aqsa mosque, the holiest Islamic site in the city. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

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

At one stage the northern mayor looked to be locked out of parliament, again, but he is still only one step along the road to his No 10 ambitions For weeks, Andy Burnham’s supporters had told MPs to “hold the line”, that he had a seat in parliament in his sights and that he would be a contender in any leadership contest. That was never the full truth. His path to No 10 – if he makes it – is littered with more failed attempts than almost any other politician. Two leadership contests, a block on a return in Gorton

Police investigate incident on Thursday after witness claims seeing Raise the Colours logo on side of vehicle Police are investigating an incident where a man was run over by a van after a group of people were taking down union flags put up by Raise the Colours campaigners in Birmingham. A man, in his 30s, suffered a broken leg that required surgery. He remains in hospital after the incident on Thursday evening in the Birmingham suburb of Stirchley, police said. Continue reading...

Female muntjac given nickname of ‘lucky’ Lucy after being freed from department store’s moving staircase “There’s a deer trapped in an escalator” was not a phrase anyone at Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norfolk was expecting to hear when staff at a Marks & Spencer department store in central Norwich called last Tuesday. “In Norfolk, deers often get themselves in trouble,” said the sanctuary’s founder, Wendy Valentine. “They get stuck between walls and sheds, and in gates. It’s quite common for deer to get trapped … but ‘trapped in an escalator’ was a first.” Continue reading...

Keir Starmer accuses Robinson of ‘peddling hatred and division’ and archbishop of Canterbury urges people to ‘choose hope’ Eleven foreign far-right activists have been blocked from entering the UK before a rally by Tommy Robinson supporters as Keir Starmer accused Robinson of “peddling hatred and division”. The archbishop of Canterbury urged people to “choose hope” and faith leaders spoke out before the rally on Saturday, the second of its kind, after more than 100,000 attended one last year. Continue reading...

Autumn conference in Liverpool targeted for victorious homecoming but Reform UK to fight hard in byelection Andy Burnham will push to become prime minister in time to address Labour’s autumn party conference in Liverpool, his supporters have said. The Greater Manchester mayor cleared his first hurdle to becoming the candidate in the Makerfield byelection on Friday when Labour’s ruling body gave him permission to stand for the seat. Continue reading...

Former election clerk who allowed unauthorized access to voting systems was convicted and sentenced to nine years The Colorado governor, Jared Polis, commuted the nearly nine-year prison sentence of a former Colorado clerk who allowed unauthorized people to access her county’s voting systems in a case that had been an intense focus of Donald Trump and other allies who sought to overturn the 2020 election. Tina Peters, who is currently incarcerated, will be released on parole on 1 June after Polis reduced her sentence from eight and a half years in prison to about four and a half. “This is

With third-highest number of books banned, state removes renowned work about slave trade from library shelves A Tennessee school district has banned Roots , the author Alex Haley’s groundbreaking novel and one of the most renowned and influential works about the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade. Knox county schools (KCS) took that step under a state law that has disappeared hundreds of titles from school libraries and alarmed advocates of free expression. Continue reading...

Prosecutors have described fatal shooting outside of DC’s Capital Jewish Museum last year as calculated and planned The US justice department will seek the death penalty for the man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington outside a Jewish museum, prosecutors said in a court filing on Friday. Elias Rodriguez faces federal hate crime and murder charges in the killings of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they left an event at the museum last May. Rodriguez shouted “free Palestine” during the shooting and later told police, “I did it for Palestine, I did

Officials of Social Circle, population 5,000, file lawsuit over plan to turn warehouse into 10,000-capacity facility Officials in the small Georgia town of Social Circle have filed a lawsuit against federal immigration agencies over plans for a huge immigration detention facility, arguing the project threatens to overburden local services and damage the environment. The complaint , filed on Wednesday in US district court for the middle district of Georgia, accuses US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) and the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) of moving ahead with the project without completing mandatory environmental assessments. Continue reading...

Weinstein has been convicted of other crimes in the US and is already behind bars but move leaves rape charge in limbo Harvey Weinstein ’s retrial in New York on a rape charge ended in a mistrial on Friday after the jury deadlocked in the closely watched criminal case that another jury had already failed to decide last year. The disgraced former Hollywood mogul has been convicted of other sex crimes on the US east and west coasts and is already in jail. But Friday’s declaration of another mistrial leaves the New York rape charge in limbo after three trials.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. The message China wants to send by hosting Trump at Temple of Heaven In Chinese diplomacy, historic venues are rarely just backdrops, and are often interpreted as rich in symbolism, carrying messages about history and bilateral...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This live article is freely available to our registered users. Please log in or create an account below. Unrivalled Xi-Trump summit analysis: get real-time updates and exclusive boots-on-the-ground reporting from our Beijing and Washington bureaus. Subscribe now with great savings to stay ahead. US President Donald Trump has arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The state visit is the first by an American president in almost nine years. It...

Some European companies operating in China are shifting more production to the country as part of broader supply chain adjustments in response to the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to a new survey by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China. The flash survey of European companies found that more than a quarter of firms had adjusted their supply chain strategies in China following the Middle East conflict, as higher energy and logistics costs weigh on operations. Six in 10 chemicals and petroleum...

Senior officials from China and the United States concluded their latest round of trade talks in Seoul after less than four hours on Wednesday, the briefest session since the two countries began holding talks last year. The seventh round of negotiations – led by Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent – wrapped up just hours ahead of US President Donald Trump’s scheduled arrival in Beijing. The officials ended the session without speaking to the media, a departure...

The G7 economists’ memo from March and the IMF’s April report on global imbalances arrived at the same prescription: China’s current account surplus is excessive and should be cut by boosting consumption. The diagnosis is wrong. The world economy, especially emerging markets and developing economies, benefits from China’s high saving. A current account surplus is the excess of national saving over domestic investment. The saving is not lost; it is exported abroad in the form of net capital...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is under pressure to resign after more than 80 lawmakers in his Labour Party said he was not the right person to lead the country and win the ⁠next national election. He has vowed to stay on as no formal ⁠leadership challenge has yet been triggered. If Labour were to choose a new leader, here is ⁠a list of those in the frame to replace Starmer: Wes Streeting, 43 Streeting has served as health and social care minister since Labour came to power in July 2024 – a...

French President Emmanuel Macron is facing backlash after he interrupted a panel at the Africa Forward Summit in Kenya to demand silence from the audience. Macron stormed the stage to rebuke audience members for what he called a “total lack of respect”, accusing them of disrupting speakers during a presentation by artists and young entrepreneurs. He had earlier described himself as a “Pan-Africanist” during a news conference. The summit is meant to showcase France’s new policy for the continent...

Argentina’s city “at the end of the world” Ushuaia, the jump-off point for expeditions to the Antarctic, has been labouring under suspicion of being the source of the deadly hantavirus outbreak that killed three cruise ship passengers. The MV Hondius set sail from this spectacular Patagonian port, sandwiched between snow-capped mountains and the South Atlantic, on April 1. Five days later, a Dutch man who had travelled through South America on a birdwatching trip with his wife, developed...

Israel hammered south Lebanon with strikes on Tuesday ahead of talks between the two countries in Washington, as Beirut reported 380 people killed in Israeli attacks since an April 17 ceasefire took effect. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem vowed to turn the battlefield into “hell” for Israeli forces, and insisted his Iran-backed group’s weapons would not be up for discussion at the talks on Thursday and Friday, after the US had called for its disarmament. Israel has intensified its attacks on south...

Senior officials from China and the United States have started a new round of trade talks in Seoul, South Korea, hours ahead of US President Donald Trump’s scheduled arrival in Beijing. The delegations – led by Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent – arrived at Terminal 1 of Incheon Airport around noon on Wednesday Seoul time. The two officials had both paid courtesy calls to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in the morning. This is the seventh round of...

Vietnam’s state oil company urged the US to let a supertanker pass through an American naval blockade outside the Persian Gulf, saying the shipment is critical to the Asian country’s economy. The very large crude carrier Agios Fanourios I, managed by Athens-based Eastern Mediterranean Maritime, performed a mid-ocean U-turn on Monday at around the point where the US blockade begins. It had only just cleared the Strait of Hormuz, holding 1.99 million barrels of Iraq’s Basrah Medium crude, when it...

After the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, which almost doubled the size of the United States’ territory, US president Thomas Jefferson commissioned the legendary Lewis and Clark expedition, which surveyed new routes from the Missouri river to the Pacific coast. It also carried out work in agriculture, ethnography (with indigenous peoples) and geography. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, that was the kind of science the US government was willing to pay for – practical,...

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi is accused of leading attacks in Europe and being part of a retaliation campaign by Iran. Prosecutors say he is a leader of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia with ties to Iran.

A commander of one of the most-hard line and powerful Iranian proxies in Iraq has been charged with plotting to attack Jewish sites in the United States.

The F.B.I. director continues to come under scrutiny for mixing government business with dates, vacation and leisure time.

In a new tactic, the Justice Department this week instructed federal prosecutors to build criminal drug cases against Mexican officials using terrorism statutes.

The Trump administration broke the law, Michigan and others told a court, by declaring an “energy emergency” and forcing an aging coal-burning plant to keep operating.

For the deceased of Roman-era Egypt, Greek literature may have offered a cheat code to a more comfortable afterlife.

This was the third time Harvey Weinstein was on trial accused of raping an aspiring actress at a hotel in Manhattan in 2013.

Nancy Pelosi and Jerrold Nadler are retiring, prompting competitive races to succeed them. Whoever wins their seats could tap big donors and shape the Democratic Party.

Representative Steve Cohen has represented Memphis since 2007. After Republicans redistricted his seat, he is leaving the field, possibly to his young rival, Justin J. Pearson.

Republican state leaders tried to expel Democratic lawmakers during their fight over redistricting last year. The court said it was not necessary.

Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, commuted the sentence of Ms. Peters, a former county clerk serving a nine-year sentence for her role in a plot to examine voting machines after the 2020 election.

The loyalist, Dan Bishop, put his fealty to the president on display when he pressed the F.B.I. to chase investigative leads it had already rejected.

The comedy star, who is the subject of a new documentary, has faced a series of unimaginable losses. Yet he says there are always laughs to remember.

The Department of Health and critical psychiatry activists are hoping to upend 40 years of medical orthodoxy.

After two incidents, crews made repairs and installed protective netting on the Trans-Manhattan Expressway, which leads to the George Washington Bridge.

Three years after King Charles III was crowned, the Royal Opera House in London hung plush new stage curtains bearing the monarch’s insignia — but only after the old ones gave up the ghost.

Suits her, sir.

How Wi-Fi-connecting, app-based tech led to a backlash in the name of simplicity.

Authoritarians go after data. The president has already started.

The decade since Brexit has been one long, painful process of trying — and failing — to make sense of this new reality.

Ramtin Arablouei, a co-host of “Throughline,” left the network after an employee made a human resources complaint about his behavior.

Despite accelerating inflation and possible interest rate increases, the S&P 500 has posted a long weekly winning streak, driven by strong corporate earnings. Can it last?

The divers, including a marine scientist and her daughter, were part of a research trip and were exploring an underwater cave system when they failed to resurface.

After the president bumped into students with his car, an investigation by the university’s trustees said that the students’ actions were “inconsistent with university policies.”