Minimalist News

LIS Technologies Launches $1.4 Billion Laser Uranium Enrichment Project In Tennessee LIS Technologies announced a $1.4 billion uranium enrichment project in Oakridge, Tennessee at the former iconic K-25 site, which until 1987 was a massive gaseous diffusion facility built for the Manhattan Project to enrich uranium-235 for atomic bombs. The company will set up shop on the 206-acre on Duct Island, which will be renamed to LIST Island. Following the renaming of the 206-acre Duct Island to LIST Island and its redevelopment to house the Company's commercial laser-based uranium enrichment headquarters, Oak Ridge, TN is expected to become the site of the world's

Democrats Fight To Keep Insurrection Myth Alive In New J6 Committee Authored by Jonathan Turley, The new J6 Committee has started its hearings and, unlike the prior Committee, Republicans have allowed Democrats to select members to sit in opposition. That has led to sharp exchanges, but one of the more interesting occurred between Rep. Harriet Hageman (R., Wyo.) and Jamie Raskin (D., Md.). After Hageman got a witness to admit that no one was charged with incitement, Raskin made the clearly false statement that a few defendants charged with seditious conspiracy was the same thing as incitement. It is not. Rep. Raskin triggered

ACLU And Celebs Release Cringe Appeal To Allow Men In Women's Sports Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, The American Civil Liberties Union has rolled out a new campaign pushing for biological males to compete in women’s sports, just as the Supreme Court takes up cases that could finally protect female athletes from unfair competition. Featuring ‘stars’ including Megan Rapinoe and Naomi Watts, the ad frames this as a fight for “freedom,” when in reality it’s just another leftist assault on women’s rights and fair play. The ACLU’s “More Than A Game” ad, launched during women’s basketball games on January 12, features celebrities and

EU Mulls Ditching Accession System Used Since Cold War To Fast-Track Ukraine When in doubt, just change the rules - or so goes the thinking in Brussels as it seeks to get creative on ways to allow Ukraine's quick accession to the European Union, despite it being consistently ranked among the most corrupt governments on earth. EU officials have described that a current plan being taken seriously is a 'limited' membership tier, part of a proposed European peace deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war, but which would withhold full membership rights for Kiev, which later must be "earned" according to a phrased transition. Financial

Shale Pioneer Harold Hamm Steps Back From Bakken After Decades Harold Hamm says low oil prices are forcing a step he hasn’t taken in decades: shutting down drilling in North Dakota’s Bakken, according to Bloomberg. “This will be the first time in over 30 years that Harold Hamm has not had an operation with drilling rigs in North Dakota,” he said. “That tells you a whole lot right there: There’s no need to drill it when margins are basically gone.” The decision underscores how far conditions have shifted in the region that once defined the US shale boom. The Bakken was where Hamm

Isotopes 101 Submitted by TightSpreads  Many smart investors are catching up to the nuclear story already, but there is another angle to it that is grossly uncovered: isotopes. This educational primer provides a useful starting point for understanding isotope market opportunities and the nuclear equities or advanced materials companies to be featured soon. Why is this timely? * Because Oklo management has told the street that radioisotope revenues could begin as early as Q1-2026. * Isotopes are about to drastically change the semiconductor, industrial, and medical industries. What is an isotope? Isotopes are atoms of the same element with identical chemical properties (same protons/electrons) but differing

Another $3.5 Billion For Gas Power Generation Talen Energy is following in the footsteps of utility peers Vistra and Constellation by spending billions of dollars acquiring gas generation assets to expand their capacity and grow market share in the growing power demand market. After spending about $3.5 billion to acquire gas generation capacity in Pennsylvania and Ohio back in July 2025, the company announced it spent another $3.5 billion to acquire two more gas facilities in Ohio. With the newly announced 2.6 GW added to last year’s 2.9 GW, Talen is getting just as aggressive as others with acquiring as much capacity as

Underwater Auto Trade-Ins Reach Record Highs: Edmunds Authored by Rob Sabo via The Epoch Times, A record number of automobile owners are carrying negative equity of $10,000 to more than $15,000 into trade-ins on new vehicles, according to online vehicle data analytics website Edmunds. In the fourth quarter of 2025, a record high of 27 percent of vehicle trade-ins involved negative equity of at least $10,000, Edmunds reported on Jan. 15. Just more than 17 percent of trade-ins involved loans with $10,000 to $15,000 of negative equity, while 9.2 percent of trade-ins had loan balances exceeding $15,000. Negative equity on auto loans is commonly

Canada's PM Carney Praises "New World Order"; Opens Door To Chinese EVs The invasion of Chinese electric vehicles into North America is set to accelerate after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed to roll back the triple-digit tariffs previously imposed on Chinese EVs. The move sharply diverges from President Trump's America First policy, which aims to revitalize the North American auto industry. While Chinese EVs remain effectively blocked from US import, there has been a noticeable increase in BYD Motor vehicles on highways in Mexico. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who appears to have deep ties with Beijing, was the first prime

Trump Says Wants To Keep "Hassett Where He Is" Sending Warsh Fed Chair Odds Soaring; Gold Slides In a strong hint ahead of Trump's decision later this month who the next Fed chair will be, the president appears to have hobbled the chances of one of the Kevins when he said that Kevin Hassett was "fantastic on TV today", and Trump wants to "keep him where he is" since "Fed officials don't talk much" while Hassett is "good at talking." > “I actually want to keep you where you are, if you want to know the truth,” Trump told Hassett during a

Trump Stuns By Floating Tariffs On Countries That Stand In The Way On Greenland Days ago as it became clear that Europe and the United States would be locked in a showdown over the future fate of Greenland and its sovereignty, the EU touted that it has some cards to play, as leaders stepped up in defense of Denmark's longtime hold on the resource-rich Arctic territory: > The European Parliament is considering putting on hold the European Union's implementation of the trade deal struck with the United States in protest over threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to seize Greenland. > > The European Parliament has

"Connection Timed Out": X Goes Dark At around 10:10 ET, X went down, displaying a "connection timed out" message, suggesting an issue on the Cloudflare side. Here's the error message, indicating a host-side failure. Website tracker Downdetector is currently showing a spike in reported X outages. The disruption appears to be nationwide. Developing… Tyler Durden Fri, 01/16/2026 - 10:24

Washington & Moscow Trade Blows At UN As US Carrier Steams Toward Middle East US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told the UN Security Council on Thursday that the "brave people of Iran" have risen up and that President Donald Trump "has made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter" - this despite widespread reports that the protests and rioting are over at this point. "President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we see at the United Nations. He has made it clear all options are on the table to stop

US Outraged Iranian Warships Are Docked At Cape Town: South Africa 'Cozying Up' To Tehran The United States is making its anger known to longtime but strained ally South Africa, charging the country's defense ministry of ignoring directives from its own government to send Iranian warships home after they took part in naval exercises in South African waters. Washington's statement held nothing back: "South Africa can’t lecture the world on ‘justice’ while cozying up to Iran," the US embassy in South Africa posted on Facebook. Islamic Republic warships have been docked in Cape Town for some days now. "Iran is a destabilizing actor and

Gavin Newsom Caught In Massive Self-Own Over California Gas Prices The children running Gavin Newsom's X account might be legitimately brain dead, as evidenced by their latest attempt to 'own' conservative influencer Benny Johnson.  On Tuesday, Johnson took to the streets of Los Angeles, posting from an ARCO station that "The average price of gas in America is $2.82 per gallon." "There are 19 states where you can find gas under $2," he continued, adding "Here in Los Angeles, it’s over $4 and you get to step over homeless people while you fill up." > The average price of gas in America is $2.82 per gallon. >

"Emergency Intervention": Trump To Cap Residential Electric Bills By Forcing Tech Giants To Pay For Soaring Power Costs Back in August, when the American population was just waking up to the dire consequences the exponentially growing army of data centers spawned across the country was having on residential electricity bills, we said that the chart of US CPI would soon become the most popular (not in a good way) chart in the financial realm. > In one year, this will be the most popular chart on this site pic.twitter.com/h93gWXMoNL > > — zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 11, 2025 One month later we added that it

US Industrial Production Surged To End 2025 While 'soft' survey data has been disappointing, hard macro data has been resilient and Industrial Production ended 2025 on a bright note with a 0.4% MoM surge in December (considerably better than the +0.1% MoM expected) complementing November's 0.4% MoM rise. This left industrial production up 2% YoY... Source: Bloomberg The index for utilities increased 2.6 percent in December, supported by a rise of 12.0 percent in the index for natural gas... US Manufacturing output also rose more than expected, +0.2% MoM vs -0.1% MoM exp. Source: Bloomberg Capacity Utilization also rebounded in December, seemingly breaking the downtrend... Source: Bloomberg This

Trump Says 'Venezuela Leaker' Jailed As Polymarket Accounts Go Quiet Authored by Helen Partz via CoinTelegraph.com, US President Donald Trump said the “leaker on Venezuela” has been jailed, a remark that has renewed scrutiny of prediction markets following a series of well-timed bets earlier this month. “The leaker on Venezuela has been found and is in jail right now,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday, according to a video posted by The Wall Street Journal. Although Trump did not mention prediction markets, blockchain analysts such as Lookonchain have speculated that the leaker may be linked to a cluster of Polymarket accounts that placed concentrated bets on

Stocks Rise As Tech Meltup Accelerates Futures are higher, and trading near record territory, led by tech as this year’s great rotation shows no sign of slowing, broadening the base of names driving Wall Street’s push back towards all time highs. As of 8:00am, S&P 500 futures were 0.3% higher with Nasdaq 100 contracts up 0.4% as the latest wave of enthusiasm for technology stocks carried into Friday. Overnight headlines were mostly muted. Pre-market, Mag 7 are mostly higher led by NVDA +1.1%; AI names (AMD +3.2%, AVGO +1.3%, MU +2%) continued their rally yesterday. Bond yields are unchanged. Commodities are mixed: oil added 1.2%,

EU NatGas Spikes Most In Two Years As "Perfect Storm" Unfolds Dutch TTF natural gas futures, Europe's benchmark gas contract, are up 25% on the week and on track for their largest weekly gain since October 2023. The abrupt reversal in sentiment reflects tightening storage levels, short covering, and a burst of unusually cold weather sweeping across the continent. "Sentiment has completely turned ... you could almost call it a perfect storm," Global Risk Management analyst Arne Lohmann Rasmussen wrote in a note. TTF futures are set for the largest weekly gain (25%) since the week of October 13, 2023. TTF futures have rocketed

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

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

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

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

Women allege Spanish singer subjected them ‘to inappropriate touching, insults and humiliation … in atmosphere of control’ The Spanish singer Julio Iglesias has broken his silence over allegations that he sexually abused two women who worked in his Caribbean mansions, saying he has never “abused, coerced or disrespected any woman”. The 82-year-old entertainer, whose career spans six decades, had been accused by two female former employees who allege they had been sexually assaulted and subjected “to inappropriate touching, insults and humiliation … in an atmosphere of control and constant harassment”. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

Yoon is on trial for insurrection charges, after trying to declare martial law in late 2024 South Korean prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for former president Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed martial law declaration in December 2024, in the first insurrection trial of a Korean head of state in three decades. Prosecutors characterised the case as the “serious destruction of constitutional order by anti-state forces”, telling Seoul central district court that Yoon had “directly and fundamentally infringed upon the safety of the state and the survival and freedom of the people”. Continue reading...

Floods predicted for NSW south coast after severe storms dumped 180mm in six hours on Victoria’s Lorne and Wye River, washing cars into the sea on the Great Ocean Road * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Authorities have defended the timing of warnings for holidaymakers along Victoria’s surf coast who were hit by an “unprecedented” downpour on Thursday, as Sydney awaited its “soggiest weekend of summer” to date. Weatherzone forecasters predicted 20mm of rainfall was possible in Sydney on both Saturday and Sunday, which would be

The incident at Gunnedah near Tamworth is the third fatality involving police in the state this year * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A man armed with a bow and arrow has been shot dead by police in New South Wales as they carried out a welfare check – the third fatality involving officers this year. Authorities attended the man’s house in Gunnedah near Tamworth on Friday at 1.40pm after receiving a call about concerns for his welfare. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed * Penny Wong says Sussan Ley’s leadership ‘unsalvageable’ after Coalition flags opposition to new hate laws * Could Labor’s hate speech laws damage Australia’s free speech? Here’s what you need to know about the contentious bill * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Larissa Waters, the Greens’ leader, also says she’s concerned there has not been enough time to evaluate the legislation, warning there are a “raft of unintended consequences that could occur”. Waters told RN Breakfast: We’ve only had a handful of days to look at this legislation, and it’s very consequential

Calls for clear guardrails and consumer education before wider rollout of OpenAI’s health advice platform * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A 60-year-old man with no history of mental illness presented at a hospital emergency department insisting that his neighbour was poisoning him. Over the next 24 hours he had worsening hallucinations, and tried to escape the hospital. Doctors eventually discovered the man was on a daily diet of sodium bromide, an inorganic salt mainly used for industrial and laboratory purposes including cleaning and water treatment. Continue

The band pulled out over treatment of Randa Abdel-Fattah but delayed revealing their decision before confirming 27 February gig * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The British indie band Pulp will play at the Adelaide festival in February after initially pulling out of the event in protest at the cancellation of Palestinian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah. The band issued a statement on social media on Thursday night announcing that they would “honour our invitation to perform in Adelaide on 27 February” after the festival organisers performed a U-turn, apologised to Abdel-Fattah for her treatment and invited her

Song that topped Swedish Spotify rankings ruled ineligible after elements of song revealed to be partly AI-made A hit song has been excluded from Sweden’s official chart after it emerged the “artist” behind it was an AI creation. I Know, You’re Not Mine – or Jag Vet, Du Är Inte Min in Swedish – by a singer called Jacub has been a streaming success in Sweden, topping the Spotify rankings. Continue reading...

President raises pressure on European allies as US envoy says deal to take island ‘should and will be made’ * Fear in Greenland as threat of invasion looms Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on countries that do not “go along” with his plan to annex Greenland, increasing pressure on European allies who have opposed his effort to take over the Arctic territory. After a tense week in which Nato allies deployed troops to the largely autonomous territory, which is part of the Danish kingdom, the US president announced he might punish countries that do not support his plans to take

Experts say central banks are increasingly stuffing their vaults as an insurance policy in a volatile world Fifteen minutes after takeoff, the call came for Serbia’s central bank governor: millions of dollars’ worth of gold bars, destined for a high-security Belgrade vault, had been left on the runway of a Swiss airport. In air freight – despite the extraordinary value of bullion – fresh flowers, food and other perishables still take priority. “We learned this the hard way,” Jorgovanka Tabaković told a conference late last year. Continue reading...

Tourists keen to see island where couple exchanged vows, seven-star hotel where they stayed and paths trodden by their celebrity guests For the residents of Venice who travel daily through the city’s waterways, the small wooden floating jetty outside the Gritti Palace hotel is nothing special, “no different to a London underground stop”, as Igor Scomparin, a tour guide, puts it. But for a certain type of tourist it is a must-see spot. In June last year, Kim Kardashian disembarked from a water taxi here and navigated its planks during the five-day wedding of the billionaire Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos, and Lauren

Todolí foundation produces varieties from Buddha’s hands to sudachi and hopes to help citrus survive climate change It was on a trip with a friend to the east coast of Spain that the chef Matthew Slotover came across the “Garden of Eden”, an organic farm growing citrus varieties he had never heard of. The Todolí Citrus Foundation is a nonprofit venture and the largest private collection of citrus in the world with more than 500 varieties, and its owners think the rare fruit could hold the genetic secrets to growing citrus groves that can deal with climate change. The farm yields far

Reza Pahlavi sets out ambition to lead country his father once ruled, but many question his level of popular support Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former pro-western monarch, has predicted the country’s Islamic regime will fall and claimed he is “uniquely” placed to head a successor government. His bid to assume the leadership of a possible new Iran follows weeks of mass protests that have left thousands dead after being brutally suppressed by security forces. Continue reading...

US president also calls for return of final Israeli captive’s remains from group, which has refused to give up weapons Donald Trump has issued a fresh ultimatum to Hamas, adding to calls for the group’s disarmament as the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire with Israel begins, even as key elements of the first phase remain unfulfilled. In a late-night post on social media on Thursday, Trump vowed to push for what he described as the “comprehensive” demilitarisation of Hamas, warning of severe consequences should the group refuse to comply. He also demanded the return of the remains of the final Israeli

Jafar Panahi, director of Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident, says Iranian leaders want to destroy country The Khamenei regime will not be able to maintain control over Iranian society after the violent suppression of the latest wave of protests, one of the country’s leading film-makers has predicted. “It is impossible for this government to sustain itself in this situation,” the director Jafar Panahi told the Guardian. “They know it too. They know that it will be impossible to rule over people. Perhaps their only goal right now is to bring the country to the verge of complete collapse and

Relative calm in Tehran and authorities say they have no plan to execute protesters but internet shutdown continues Iran’s nationwide protest movement appeared to have slowed on Thursday under the weight of a brutal crackdown by authorities that has left thousands dead and put tens of thousands in prison. In Tehran, Iranians reported relative calm on the streets as the sound of gunfire faded and fires were extinguished – a marked contrast from the weeks before when large crowds confronted security forces. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on Iran, read our coverage: * Trump says Iran has told him ‘killing has stopped’ as he pulls back from strike threats * Families of protesters killed in Iran tell of heartbreak Trump has told Reuters in that Iranian opposition figure Reza Pahlavi “seems very nice” but expressed uncertainty over whether Pahlavi would be able to muster support within Iran to eventually take over. Trump said it is possible the government in Tehran could fall due to the protests, but that in truth “any regime can fail”. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

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

Two sides trade blows over defection while Conservative polling suggests economy is key weakness for Reform The Conservatives plan to intensify their attacks on Reform’s economic policy as they gear up for a fight to the death between the two big parties of the right, a battle brought to new levels of acrimony by Robert Jenrick’s defection. While Jenrick, the former shadow justice secretary, insisted he was “uniting the right” in signing up to Reform, Kemi Badenoch portrayed her former colleague as dishonest and no loss to the Conservatives, saying: “Nigel Farage is doing my spring cleaning for me.” Continue reading...

Craig Guildford retires after inquiry found ‘greatly exaggerated’ intelligence was used to justify ban The head of England’s second biggest police force has stepped down after an official inquiry found that “greatly exaggerated” intelligence was used to justify a ban on fans of an Israeli football team attending a match. Craig Guildford retired with immediate effect as chief constable of West Midlands police on Friday, two days after a damning report led Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, to declare she had lost confidence in him. Continue reading...

Full-time carer Martina Karos and Eleni Edwards, eight, were found dead at home in Salford A translator who became a full-time carer for her severely disabled eight-year-old daughter killed herself and her child after becoming “overwhelmed” by loneliness, a coroner concluded. Martina Karos, 40, and Eleni Edwards were found dead at their home in Salford, Greater Manchester, after police were called when the girl did not turn up at school on 23 September 2024. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide

Reform’s latest defector from the Tories is a politician whose eye has only ever been on his own ambition It’s come down to this. Watch any reality TV show and it won’t be long before you hear the lead presenter talking about how each contestant has been on a journey. It’s as though we can’t survive without a narrative structure. An attempt to give emotional meaning to something fundamentally meaningless. It feels as if everyone has to be on a journey now. If you’re not, then you’re somehow less interesting. Only half a person. Even our politicians are no longer exempt. In

Pre-empting rival’s defection cements her position as leader and gives pause for thought for any others who may follow It is never ideal in politics to have a senior colleague defect, hurling insults as they depart, but as the dust settles on Robert Jenrick’s move to Reform UK, many of the remaining Conservative MPs agree on one thing: it has left Kemi Badenoch stronger. “Historically, the party has suffered from two weaknesses: too many people trying to bring down the leader, and not enough leaders getting rid of those people,” one shadow minister said. “Hopefully now we’re all pulling in the same

Trump says ‘I don’t think there’s any reason right now to use’ the act after baselessly claiming that people protesting in Minneapolis are ‘highly paid professionals’ Trump began his remarks today by undermining the Affordable Care Act, and touted his newly unveiled “Great Healthcare Plan”. A reminder that Affordable Care Act subsidies, that were extended during the Covid pandemic, expired at the end of last year, and legislation to revive them has stalled in Congress. Continue reading...

Actor held without bond in New Mexico on child abuse charges stemming from twin brothers’ complaint With allegations of prior sexual misconduct against him continuing to mount, Timothy Busfield received an expression of support from his wife and fellow actor, Melissa Gilbert – as he was also ordered held without bond in connection with on-set child abuse charges in New Mexico. A statement that a representative for Gilbert, known best for her work on Little House on the Prairie, shared with media outlets said she “supports her husband” and was keeping “her focus … on supporting and caring for their … family,

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

Lawmakers’ decision makes Virginia at least third US state in 2026 to vote on future of abortion access The Virginia state senate voted on Friday to let voters decide whether to amend the state’s constitution to protect abortion rights, in a move that will make Virginia at least the third state in 2026 to vote on the controversial topic. The state legislature first approved the proposed amendment in early 2025, but Virginia law dictates that suggested constitutional amendments must pass in two consecutive state legislatures. The state house of delegates approved the 2026 version of the amendment earlier this week. Continue reading...

Wanda Vázquez Garced, who accepted plea deal over campaign finance violation, endorsed Trump in 2020 Donald Trump reportedly intends to pardon Puerto Rico’s former governor Wanda Vázquez Garced, who was indicted in 2022 on federal corruption charges surrounding her earlier gubernatorial campaign. In addition to Vázquez, Trump plans to pardon her co-defendants including Julio Martín Herrera Velutini, founder of Britannia Financial Group; as well as Mark Rossini, a former FBI agent who served as a consultant for Herrera, according to CBS, which first reported the development on Friday. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

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

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

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Chinese military says it is developing over 10 quantum warfare weapons The People’s Liberation Army said more than 10 experimental quantum cyber warfare tools were “under development”, many of which were being “tested in front-line...

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

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

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

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

A hacker group with links to China recently used Venezuela-themed phishing emails in a malware campaign targeting US government-related entities, as cyberattack campaigns increasingly leverage geopolitical materials, according to Swiss cybersecurity firm Acronis. A malware campaign has used recent developments between the US and Venezuela as “thematic lures” to attack US government and policy-related entities with a back door that has espionage-focused capabilities, including basic remote...

The United States on Thursday said Iran halted 800 executions of protesters under pressure from President Donald Trump, after Gulf allies appeared to pull him back from military action over Tehran’s deadly crackdown on demonstrations. Iran was shaken over the last week by some of the biggest anti-government protests in the history of the Islamic republic, although the demonstrations appear to have diminished over the last few days in the face of repression and a week-long internet...

The United States has finalised a sale of Venezuelan oil – the first since Washington took control of the sector following the toppling of Nicolas Maduro, a US official told Agence France-Presse on Thursday. According to the official, who did not identify the buyer, the deal is worth US$500 million, and additional sales could take place in the coming days or weeks. “President Trump brokered a historic energy deal with Venezuela, immediately following the arrest of narcoterrorist Nicolas Maduro,...

Britain’s former ‍Conservative Party leadership candidate Robert Jenrick became the biggest-name defector to Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK on Thursday, saying the nation was broken and its two mainstream political parties rotten. Sacked by the Conservatives when his potential switch was leaked, Jenrick appeared alongside Farage at a press conference, the latest of 21 current ⁠or former Conservative lawmakers to join Reform. Farage’s anti-immigration party was ahead of both Prime Minister...

Pennsylvania federal prosecutors on Thursday announced charges against 26 people for allegedly rigging bets on college and Chinese professional basketball games, the latest case to accuse athletes of cheating at legalised sports betting that ⁠has exploded in popularity in the US. A 70-page indictment names more than a dozen former National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball players, a former NBA player and two sports-betting influencers who were previously charged in a sweeping NBA...

A federal appeal panel on Thursday reversed a lower court decision that released former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from an immigration prison, bringing the government one step closer to detaining and ultimately deporting the Palestinian activist. A three-judge panel of the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeal in Philadelphia did not decide the key issue in Khalil’s case: whether the Trump administration’s effort to throw Khalil out of the US over his campus activism and...

Minneapolis was on edge as US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke an 1807 law and deploy troops to quell persistent protests against the federal officers sent to the city to enforce his administration’s massive immigration crackdown. The threat came a day after a man was shot and wounded by an immigration officer who had been attacked with a shovel and broom handle. That shooting further heightened the fear and anger that has radiated across the city since an Immigration and...

European countries sent small numbers of military personnel to Greenland on Thursday as ‌Denmark said it was pressing on with plans for a “larger and more permanent” Nato presence to secure the island coveted by US President Donald Trump. The modest European deployments, meant to help ‍Denmark prepare military exercises, sent a strong message of support a day after a meeting of officials from the US, Denmark and Greenland failed to reach any breakthrough on the impasse. After that meeting, Trump...

US forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader US effort to take control of the South American country’s oil. The US Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of US President Donald Trump’s “established quarantine of...

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Ukraine was running out of options to strike a deal to end almost four years of war with Russia, as thousands were without heating in Kyiv in -12 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures following waves of Russian strikes on the country’s energy grid. Moscow has not backed down from its intention to seize the rest of east Ukraine as the fourth anniversary of its offensive – Europe’s worst war since World War II – looms. “The situation is...

When contemporary Europe engages with the world, it increasingly presents as two distinct Europes operating within the same institutional framework. This duality – a Europe of strategic dependence vs a Europe of normative assertion – creates a contradiction. For partners, particularly in China and across Asia, this is not merely an abstract identity crisis but a practical geopolitical puzzle that complicates engagement and challenges assumptions about Europe’s global role. One Europe, embedded...

A federal officer shot a man in the leg on Wednesday night in Minneapolis, a week after the fatal shooting of a local woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent touched off angry protests and an intensifying clash between state leaders and the Trump administration. The shooting followed a targeted traffic stop shortly before 7pm Central Time, when the man fled in his vehicle and crashed into a parked car, according to Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland...

Elon Musk’s platform X on Wednesday announced measures to prevent its AI chatbot Grok from undressing images of real people, following global backlash over its generation of sexualised photos of women and children. The announcement came after California’s attorney general launched an investigation into Musk’s xAI - the developer of Grok - over the sexually explicit material and multiple countries either blocked access to the chatbot or launched their own probes. X said it would “geoblock the...

US President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to unify his party behind his takeover of Venezuela succeeded Wednesday when all but three Senate Republicans voted to block a resolution opposing further military action in the country. US Vice-President J.D. Vance broke a tie vote in order to stop the resolution. The 51-50 vote followed fiery phone calls from Trump to Republican defectors who last week voted to advance the resolution. Trump’s success in flipping votes effectively ends one of the...

Four International Space Station (ISS) crew members splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, Nasa footage showed, after the first ever medical evacuation in the orbital lab’s history. A video feed from Nasa showed the capsule carrying American astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui land off the coast of San Diego at 12.41am local time. A health issue prompted their mission to be cut short, after spending five months in...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had held a “long call” with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez, the first known contact between the two leaders since the ousting of Nicolas Maduro. “We just had a great conversation today, and she’s a terrific person,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. He later said on social media that he and Rodriguez had discussed “many topics”, including oil, minerals, trade and national security. “We are making tremendous progress,” Trump...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday made a vague statement that he had been told “on good authority” that plans for executions in Iran have stopped, even as Tehran has indicated fast trials and executions ahead in its crackdown on protesters. The US president’s claims, which were made with few details, come after he told protesting Iranians in recent days that “help is on the way” and that his administration would “act accordingly” to respond to the Iranian government. But Trump has not...

On January 17, a quiet revolution will take place across around two-thirds of the world’s oceans. A landmark United Nations agreement known as the High Seas Treaty will formally enter into force, creating the first legally binding global framework to protect marine biodiversity in international waters. For the first time, activities beyond national jurisdictions – from industrial fishing to deep-sea mining and bio-prospecting – will be subject to environmental impact assessments, marine...

The Ford employee whose heckling of Donald Trump prompted an obscene gesture from the US president has been suspended, the US vehicle workers’ union said on Wednesday. During a tour of the Ford Motor Company’s F-150 factory in Dearborn, Michigan, on Tuesday, Trump raised his middle finger at the worker following catcalls, according to widely seen video of the incident. The heckler seemed to shout, in part, “paedophile protector”, US media reported – an apparent reference to suspicions that Trump...

A French applied mathematics professor has been charged with allowing a Chinese delegation to visit sensitive sites in a case of suspected espionage, a prosecutor said on Wednesday. The lecturer at a university engineering institute in the southwestern town of Bordeaux was charged on December 16 but released under judicial supervision, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The charges against him include “providing information to a foreign power” and “colluding with a foreign power”, which can be...

FBI agents searched a Washington Post reporter’s home on Wednesday as part of an investigation into sharing secret government information, officials said, ‍in a move that press advocates said threatened journalistic freedom. The reporter, Hannah Natanson, has covered US President Donald Trump’s campaign to fire hundreds of thousands of federal workers and shift remaining workers to implementing his agenda. US Attorney General Pam Bondi said federal agents had executed the search at the request...

The United States said on Wednesday that it was moving into the next phase of a Gaza ceasefire plan that involves disarming Hamas, rebuilding the war-ravaged territory and establishing the group of Palestinian experts that would administer daily affairs in Gaza under American supervision. US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in a post on X that the deal that the Republican president helped broker was entering its second phase following two years of war between Israel and Hamas,...

A top Danish official said on Wednesday that a “fundamental disagreement” over Greenland remained with US President Donald Trump after holding highly anticipated White House talks with Vice-President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The two sides, however, agreed to create a working group to discuss ways to work through differences as Trump continues to call for a US takeover of the semi-autonomous territory of Nato ally Denmark. “The group, in our view, should focus on how to...

When countries committed to supporting Ukraine met in Paris earlier this month to discuss Ukraine’s post-war security, Russia answered with fire. Just days after the summit, Moscow launched a strike that killed civilians and plunged Kyiv into darkness and cold, while also firing its nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile towards Ukraine’s Lviv region, attacks widely seen as intimidation rather than a battlefield necessity. The world wants peace. So why does Russia keep firing? Moscow is...

China is likely to accept Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips following US clearance, driven by immediate demand in the country’s vast tech sector, according to analysts – though they said Beijing would push to replace them over time. The American chip giant’s second-most-advanced AI processor can be exported to China from Thursday, as long as shipments total no more than half the amount sold in the US, according to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and...

As Russian President Vladimir Putin focuses his attentions on Moscow’s war in Ukraine, his strategic allies around the world have been left feeling neglected – or worse. In Venezuela, officials now think their years-long security relationship with Moscow was a paper tiger. They’re not alone: From Damascus and Tehran to Havana, over the last 13 months authoritarian regimes which previously benefited from their close ties to the Kremlin have found Russian support lacking when it mattered...

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, is the ideological arm of Tehran’s military, answering to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and stands accused by Western countries of orchestrating and perpetrating the crackdown on protesters. Who are they? The Guards, known as “Pasdaran” in Persian, were founded in 1979 by then supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini “to propagate the ideas of the Islamic revolution”, said Clement Therme, a researcher at the International Institute of...

The head of Iran’s judiciary signalled on Wednesday there would be fast trials and executions ahead for those detained in nationwide protests despite a warning from US President Donald Trump. The comments from Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei come as activists had warned hangings of those detained could come soon. Already, a bloody security force crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,571, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. That figure...

Four migrants died while in custody of US immigration authorities over the first 10 days of ‍2026, according to government press releases, a loss of life that followed record detention deaths last year under US President Donald Trump. The deaths included two migrants from Honduras, one from Cuba and another from Cambodia, and occurred from January 3-9, according to US Immigration and ⁠Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Trump administration was aiming to ramp up deportations and has increased the...

Washington’s Middle East allies are bracing for what they fear could be “catastrophic” consequences if the United States moves militarily against Iran – a possibility US President Donald Trump again dangled this week by promising Iranian protesters that “help is on its way”. Despite Trump’s vow of support, analysts warn that even a sustained US air campaign would be unlikely to unseat Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime. The US president’s rhetoric has followed a now-familiar arc, echoing his...

Ugandan authorities shut down internet access nationwide on Tuesday, two days ahead of elections in which President Yoweri Museveni has overseen a crackdown on the opposition as he seeks to extend his 40-year rule. The 81-year-old leader, who once said African rulers should not overstay their time in office, was widely expected to win a seventh term on Thursday due to his total control over state and security bodies. But he was taking no chances against a popular opponent, Bobi Wine, a...

US President Donald Trump raised his ‌middle finger and appeared to direct profanity towards a factory worker who expressed ‍criticism of his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein controversy at a Michigan auto plant on Tuesday, video circulating online showed. The entertainment site TMZ first published video capturing the exchange, and the White House did not dispute its authenticity. “A lunatic was ⁠wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and...

Some people wonder whether China could carry out a sophisticated state-sponsored kidnapping like the US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife. And it’s not just that; there is state terrorism like remote assassinations by drones, which also end up killing a lot of civilian bystanders, not to mention breaching the sovereignty of their countries. The United States can apparently do that anywhere around the world. Such Hollywood-style cowboy militarism no doubt makes its...

Roughly half a dozen federal prosecutors in Minnesota have resigned and several supervisors in the criminal section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division have given notice of their departures amid turmoil over the federal investigation into the killing of a woman by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, according to people familiar with the matter. The resignations follow growing tensions over a decision by the Trump administration to block the state out of...

Temperatures are expected to plunge to around zero degrees this weekend. Minnesotans say they will be out in the street, using the weather to their advantage.

The Venezuelan opposition leader’s efforts to share her award with the U.S. president have shaken some Norwegians’ faith in their signature soft-power tool.

The Trump Administration’s exhaustive examination of materials on the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is drawing resources from other cases.

The Soviet Union was Cuba’s benefactor for decades. Venezuela took up the slack, and Mexico has supplied “humanitarian aid.” But the world is changing rapidly, our columnist says.

“There is massive disappointment and disillusionment,” one Tehran resident said. A human rights group acknowledged that demonstrations had been subdued since Sunday, with thousands of people detained.

Understanding the factors that can topple regimes.

Michael Saylor’s financial alchemy thrust an ordinary software company, Strategy, into the center of the crypto frenzy. It all worked spectacularly, until now.

Seeking to calm tensions, Republicans and Democrats affirmed that they supported Denmark’s control of Greenland as President Trump vowed to buy it or take it over.

China will in turn cut its own tariffs on Canadian canola products, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said in Beijing on Friday.

The definition is tricky, but the effects of poor metabolic health are clear — and can wreak havoc on the body.

Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in past winters, but this year intensified its attacks as temperatures in Ukraine plunged well below freezing.

A backlash over a rant against Ukrainian officials has raised questions about Eastern Europe’s welcome of Russian dissidents.

Voters will now get a say over whether the current maps can be redrawn ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Several of the past year’s films center on confused, bumbling protagonists — surrounded by women who are anything but.

Documenting ICE is dangerous. This man wants you to do it anyway.

In the MAGA imagination, white women are supposed to be helpmeets, not harpies.

Federal officials working on the new dietary guidelines had considered limiting men to one drink daily. The final advice was only that everyone should drink less.

The New York City comptroller, Mark Levine, said that poor budgeting practices by the previous mayor, Eric Adams, had left the city with looming deficits.

Prosecutors want jury selection to start in January 2027. That would be a quarter century after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.