Minimalist News

SpaceX IPO Hype Ignites Blast Off For This Korean Broker Stock The SpaceX IPO, potentially launching as early as mid-June, is set to accelerate the "space investment" theme we previously outlined, with Elon Musk's rocket company rumored to target about $50 billion in proceeds at a $1.5 trillion valuation. Early bullish sentiment is already appearing in one public-market proxy: Seoul-based Mirae Asset Securities Co., which has about $400 million of exposure to SpaceX and xAI, and has surged to the top spot on MSCI's broadest global stock index performance so far this year. Ha SeokKeun, CEO at Eugene Asset Management Co., was quoted

Steve Cohen Tops Hedge Fund Rich List With $3.4 Billion Haul Steve Cohen spent last fall doing something few billionaire owners enjoy: apologizing. As the New York Mets staggered through a bruising 2025 campaign, he took to social media to tell fans he was sorry for the disappointment at Citi Field. Yet even as the baseball season fizzled, Cohen was clinching a very different kind of pennant, according to Bloomberg. The founder of Point72 Asset Management finished the year as the highest-paid hedge fund manager on Bloomberg’s annual ranking, pocketing an estimated $3.4 billion. That works out to more than $9 million

Ford Carrier Group Enters Mediterranean To Join Biggest US Build-Up Since 2003 Iraq War Open source monitors as well as US and Middle East media have confirmed that the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, has entered the Mediterranean Sea, having sailed passed the Strait of Gibraltar on Friday. This is the second carrier strike group expected to soon operate directly in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, amid the massive military build-up and pressure campaign against Iran. It was sent from the Caribbean earlier this month, extending its planned deployment. USS Ford entering the Mediterranean. Via @dparody The USS Mahan Arleigh Burke-class destroyer,

Judge Temporarily Blocks Democrat-Backed Referendum To Redraw Virginia's Congressional Map Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times, A county judge in Virginia issued an emergency restraining order on Feb. 19, pausing a referendum backed by Democrats that aims to redraw the state’s congressional maps. Tazewell County Circuit Judge Jack Hurley issued the order following a Feb. 18 motion by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) that sought to challenge House Bill 1384. HB1384 schedules a referendum for April 21 on a proposed constitutional amendment to allow the General Assembly to redraw the state’s congressional districts. Virginia’s redistricting plan was projected to give Democrats four

"We Saw It. We Passed": Blue Owl Fails To Secure Third Party Funding For $4 Billion Data Center As we discussed extensively yesterday, Blue Owl already has huge headaches with its software exposure, being forced to dump a substantial amount of its SaaS-linked loans (to related parties among others) as it gates retail investors in its private credit fund amid a tsunami of redemption requests. We now learn that the massive private credit asset manager is also facing major hardware challenges too.  According to Insider, Blue Owl - which is also a leading investor in the data center boom funding countless projects

Oakland Mayor, Who Supported 'Defund The Police' Has Her Car Stolen Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA, An alleged thief stole Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s city-owned vehicle after breaking into her office just two days earlier, according to the California edition of the New York Post.  The Oakland Police Department recovered the vehicle within hours, two days after somebody tampered with her office’s door.  > “The Oakland Police Department is investigating the theft of a city-owned vehicle. On February 17, 2026, OPD was notified that the vehicle was stolen from Oakland City Hall,” the OPD said through a spokesperson. > > “The vehicle was recovered within hours. OPD is following up on potential leads.”  Lee took office in

Goldman's Meeting With Top Memory Supplier Points To Higher Prices As Crunch Worsens The high-bandwidth memory (HBM) shortage is already pressuring the margins of consumer electronics companies, disrupting product launches, and pushing up the prices of TVs and computers. The latest development is Valve's handheld gaming PC, which is reportedly out of stock in select regions as the memory crunch now filters into retail availability. We have been leaning on institutional channel checks across the semis and hardware coverage universe to gain an insider's perspective on what's happening across the memory space and what to potentially expect in the quarters ahead. The latest

Meta's AI Would Like To Keep You Posting After You're Dead Ever since social media became a fixture of daily life, an uncomfortable question has lingered: what should happen to someone’s account after they die? Leave it frozen in time? Hand it to family members as a memorial? Or quietly let it fade into the algorithm? A few years ago, Meta Platforms explored a far more ambitious possibility, according to Futurism. In 2023, the company received a patent describing how a large language model could be trained on a user’s past posts to simulate their voice and behavior — keeping an account active

Inflation Fears Plummet As UMich's Democratic Bias Is Exposed After rebounding strongly in preliminary February data (as Democrats came to their senses over the fearmongered Trump tariff-flation), the final UMich sentiment survey print slipped lower with the headline lowered from 57.3 to 56.6. Both Current Conditions and Expectations were lower than the flash print with the latter falling to 2 month lows and the former holding at 4-month highs... Does anyone else think its weird that all the numbers were exactly the same at 56.6 Source: Bloomberg Democrats and Republicans led the decrease in inflation expectations... Source: Bloomberg UMich Survey Director Joanna Hsu noted that "all

London Mayor Khan Under Fire As BBC Exposes Scale Of Grooming Gangs Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News, London Mayor Sadiq Khan is facing renewed criticism after a major BBC investigation found that vulnerable girls as young as 14 are being lured into forced sex by gangs operating across the capital. The investigation, based on weeks of reporting and interviews with dozens of people, including five survivors of gang-based violence, concluded that exploitation by organised groups is rife in parts of London. Some victims told the BBC they were raped by multiple men as “payment” for unpaid drug debts run up by gangs that controlled

Watch: School Kids Chant "F**k ICE" In Disturbing Classroom Presentation Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, A disturbing video has surfaced showing middle school students delivering a classroom presentation that openly attacks U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and promotes unchecked immigration. Dressed in black hoodies, the boys stand before their peers, chanting profanities and gesturing defiantly against the agents protecting America’s borders. The footage captures the students declaring “F*ck ICE” while raising their middle fingers to federal immigration enforcement. > Students give a presentation to their class about being pro-immigration and against police officers and ICE > > They say “F*ck ICE” and all give the middle

2025 New Home Sales Highest Since 2021 US New Home Sales dipped 1.7% MoM in December (after a 15.5% MoM surge in November)... ...but ended the year at 745k - the highest SAAR since 2021... "New" home sales have notably decoupled from "used" home sales in the last few years as homebuilders incentivize buyers (reducing margins) and lower prices (reducing revenues)... Lower mortgage rates support modest further improvements in sales... Will this be Trump's lead on housing affordability? Tyler Durden Fri, 02/20/2026 - 10:24

Matt Taibbi: Epstein Files Are "Uniquely Destructive" To Both Political Parties Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance This week I interviewed Matt Taibbi at a moment when, as he put it, “this is a pretty weird time.” He had just learned that his outlet, Racket News, had been investigated by the British government using what he described as “human intelligence sources and all kinds of crazy stuff.” “It’s been pretty weird,” he told me. What struck him most was how normalized this kind of pressure has become. Governments, he said, now routinely “hire out private intelligence firms and private PR firms to devise strategies

Weather & Weak Demand Drive US PMIs Down To 10-Month Lows In February, But... While 'hard' data has been fading modestly in recent weeks, 'soft' survey data has bounced back but today we get a first glimpse at February's PMIs from S&P Global to see if that survey-based confidence is continuing. It is not as both Manufacturing and Services PMIs dropped notably., * Flash US Services PMI Business Activity Index: 52.3 (January: 52.7). 10-month low. * Flash US Manufacturing PMI: 51.2 (January: 52.4). 7-month low.    Source: Bloomberg Overall that dragged the US Composite PMI down to its lowest since April 2025 (and weaker than

Nvidia Favors $30 Billion OpenAI Investment, Retreating From Prior $100 Billion Commitment Update (Friday):  Bloomberg reported earlier this week that OpenAI is nearing completion of a new funding round that could raise more than $100 billion. Separately, the Financial Times reported on Thursday that Nvidia is close to finalizing an investment of about $30 billion in OpenAI, a significantly smaller amount than the $100 billion commitment agreed upon last year. FT cited people familiar with the funding round who said the "final stages" have begun and that Nvidia's $30 billion equity investment in OpenAI could be completed as early as this weekend. The downsized

With Shaky Reasoning, Trump Weighs Limited Initial Strike On Iran To Force A Deal Having amassed the heaviest US air power in the Middle East since the disastrous 2003 Iraq invasion, President Trump is now considering an initial, limited strike on Iran to force it to bow to the maximalist demands of Israel and the United States. The idea is based on two deeply questionable premises: * that air strikes alone will compel Iran to give up its defensive ballistic missile capabilities, and halt all nuclear enrichment  * that Iran won't retaliate for an American "limited strike" in a way that sends the United

US & Chinese Fighter Jets In Rare Brief Face-Off Near Korea US and Chinese fighter jets engaged in a brief aerial standoff over waters near the Korean Peninsula this week, according to South Korean media, in a rare and dangerous incident that underscores ongoing simmering tensions between Washington and Beijing. Yonhap, citing military sources, reported that China scrambled aircraft on Wednesday after roughly 10 US jets took off from an American airbase in South Korea for planned drills. The US had reportedly filed its flight plan in advance. F-16 fighters assigned to US Forces Korea (USFK) launched from Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek,

Agentic AI Isn't Eating Software – It's Feeding Market Volatility Authored by David Parsons via BondVigilantes.com, The sharp sell‑off across software names in recent weeks has prompted questions from investors, many centred on whether the rapid rise of agentic artificial intelligence marks the beginning of a deeper structural shift in enterprise technology. The catalyst was the latest demonstration from Anthropic’s Claude platform, whose new “Cowork” and “Code” capabilities promise to automate tasks that were once firmly in human hands, from drafting documents and synthesising research to generating production‑ready code. Equity markets were quick to draw conclusions, punishing enterprise software companies without drawing any

Q4 GDP Unexpectedly Grows At 1.4%, Half Expected Pace, As Government Shutdown Slams Growth There was a big surprise at 8:30am ET when the BEA reported the (delayed) GDP print for the last quarter of 2025: With consensus expecting a 2.8% print  (and the Atlanta Fed GDPNow model even higher) which would already be a big drop from the 4.4% in Q3, the BEA instead reported that the US economy grew at just 1.4% in the fourth quarter, the slowest growth since the tariff shock of Q1 2025. According to the BEA, the contributors to the increase in real GDP in the

FBI Director Kash Patel Says Bureau Uncovered Antifa Funding Sources Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), FBI Director Kash Patel said on Feb. 18 that the law enforcement agency uncovered what he said are funding sources tied to antifa organizations, suggesting that more enforcement actions could come against the left-wing movement. FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington on Dec. 4, 2025. Daniel Heuer/AFP via Getty Images “Whether it’s antifa or any other violent criminal organization—we know their operations don’t exist alone; they operate with heavy funding streams,” he wrote in

Subspecies driven to extinction by hungry whalers returns after ‘back breeding’ programme using partial descendants Giant tortoises, the life-giving engineers of remote small island ecosystems, are plodding over the Galápagos island of Floreana for the first time in more than 180 years. The Floreana giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger niger), a subspecies of the giant tortoise once found across the Galápagos, was driven to extinction in the 1840s by whalers who removed thousands from the volcanic island to provide a living larder during their hunting voyages. Continue reading...

Long-serving socialist former leader Evo Morales has reappeared in his political stronghold after almost seven weeks of unexplained absence Bolivia’s long-serving socialist former leader, Evo Morales, reappeared on Thursday in his political stronghold of the tropics after almost seven weeks of unexplained absence, endorsing candidates for upcoming regional elections and quieting rumours he had fled the country in the wake of the US seizure of his ally, Venezuela’s ex-president Nicolás Maduro. The weeks of hand-wringing over Morales’ fate showed how little the Andean country knows about what’s happening in the remote Chapare region, where the former president has spent the past year

José María Balcázar, who argued for marriage at 14 and above, replaces José Jerí who was voted out after a scandal Peru’s congress has elected José María Balcázar, an octogenarian leftist lawmaker who has defended child marriage, as the country’s interim president ahead of general elections in April. Balcázar is Peru’s ninth president since 2016. The surprise election, in which Balcázar beat the favourite, María del Carmen Alva, a conservative, came after lawmakers voted to remove José Jerí as president on Tuesday after just four months in office, due to a scandal over secretive meetings with Chinese businessmen. Continue reading...

Kimberly Prost and Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza vow US reprisals will not affect work of international criminal court When the Canadian Kimberly Prost learned Donald Trump’s administration had imposed sanctions on her, it came as a shock. For years, she has sat as a judge at the international criminal court, weighing accusations of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity; now she is on the same list as terrorists and those involved in organised crime. “It really was a moment of a bit of disbelief,” she said. Continue reading...

Three boats targeted in eastern Pacific and Caribbean as Trump continues pursuit of alleged ‘narco-terrorists’ US military officials have said American forces launched assaults on three alleged drug-smuggling boats, killing 11 in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration’s months-long campaign against alleged traffickers. The military action on Monday brought the number of fatalities caused by US strikes to 145 since September, when Donald Trump called on American armed forces to attack people deemed “narco-terrorists” on small vessels. There have been 42 known strikes in notorious drug-trafficking routes such as the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, according to the

Dozens of the animals in Chiang Mai region first began to show signs of illness earlier this month A highly contagious virus is believed to have caused the deaths of 72 captive tigers in northern Thailand this month, with officials racing to contain the outbreak. Teams are urgently disinfecting enclosures and preparing to vaccinate surviving animals. Continue reading...

Police say UK entrepreneur Quentin Griffiths fell from 17th floor of an 18-floor condominium on 9 February Quentin Griffiths, the co-founder of the online fashion retailer Asos, has died after falling from an apartment building in the Thai seaside resort city of Pattaya. Police told Reuters that the 58-year-old had fallen from the 17th floor of an 18-storey condominium on 9 February. Continue reading...

Mayor says Japanese city will respect donor’s specification that £2.7m gift must be used to repair dilapidated system Osaka has received a hefty gift of gold bars worth 560m yen (£2.7m) from an anonymous donor and a request for its specific use: to fix the Japanese city’s dilapidated water pipes. The gold bars, weighing a total of 21kg (46lb), were given to the Osaka City Waterworks Bureau in November by the donor who wants to help improve ageing water pipes, the mayor, Hideyuki Yokoyama, told reporters on Thursday. Continue reading...

Arctesthes avatar moth, which won nearly half of the votes, was discovered in 2012 and is critically endangered A tiny critically endangered moth, named after the Avatar films because of the proposed mining activity threatening its primary habitat, has been crowned New Zealand’s bug of the year. The Avatar moth won by a wide margin, earning 5,192 of the more than 11,000 total votes cast. It won 2,269 more votes than the runner-up, the mahoenui giant wētā, one of the world’s largest insects. Other contenders included the wonderfully spiky hellraiser mite, the country’s heaviest spider – the black tunnelweb – and a

Officers devise unusual plan to arrest man suspected of stealing about $64,000 worth of Buddhist artefacts Thai police donned a lion costume during this week’s lunar new year festivities to arrest a man accused of stealing about $64,000 worth of Buddhist artefacts. Dressed as a red-and-yellow lion, officers made the arrest on Wednesday evening after responding to a report this month of a home burglary in the suburbs of Bangkok. Continue reading...

Software companies are facing major disruption from AI and investors are pulling back, wiping off billions in value – but does it spell the end for software-as-a-service? * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast After years of questioning whether artificial intelligence was creating a speculative market bubble, investors are now grappling with a new question: what if its hype is real? The “SaaS-pocalypse”, a trending term to describe the recent and dramatic sell-off in global software-as-a-service (SaaS) shares, is based on the idea that AI becomes so advanced that software becomes redundant. Continue reading...

Document also shows US miner had been unlawfully clearing land for 15 years despite warnings from department * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The Australian government’s decision to allow the US mining giant Alcoa to continue clearing swathes of Western Australian jarrah forest despite past illegal clearing practices was made in part due to a critical minerals deal reached between Australia and the Trump administration last year, a new document shows. The document also reveals Alcoa was unlawfully clearing land for its bauxite mining practices in the area south of Perth for 15 years, despite warnings

This blog is now closed * Federal police ‘received reports of a crime’ in relation to Pauline Hanson’s comments about Muslims * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Government says Syria situation ‘distressing’ for children, but lays blame on parents Murray Watt, the federal environment minister, also spoke to RN, saying the government understands the situation as “distressing” for the children in Syria. It’s a distressing situation that they’ve been placed in as a result of very bad decisions by their parents. We, of course, from a government perspective, you know, focus more than anything on the safety

Exclusive: AFP comment comes as Bilal El-Hayek, mayor of Canterbury Bankstown, says One Nation leader’s comments ‘will incite someone’ * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Federal police say they have “received reports of a crime” in relation to comments made to the media by Pauline Hanson this week. But an AFP spokesperson did not say whether they had begun a criminal investigation, only that they would have more to say “at an appropriate time”. Continue reading...

Expert review will consider whether children and teenagers should be able to carry passengers * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast New South Wales will introduce a minimum age to ride an ebike as part of a bid to address safety concerns and clamp down on “dangerous behaviour”. The Minns government announced the reforms on Friday, saying an expert review led by Transport NSW will recommend a legal minimum age limit between 12 and 16, and consider whether children and teenagers should be able to carry passengers. Continue

Government ‘expects privileged trading position’ to go on as EU ‘seeks clarity’ over Trump administration’s next steps Britain and the EU said they were assessing the implications of the US supreme court ruling against Donald Trump’s global tariffs, while business groups reacted to the court’s announcement with caution. A spokesperson for Downing Street said: “The UK government is working with the US to understand how the overturning of Donald Trump’s tariffs by the supreme court will affect the UK but expects our privileged trading position with the US to continue.” Continue reading...

Amateur climber’s conviction over girlfriend’s death could put people off activity, say experts * Climber convicted of manslaughter after leaving girlfriend on Austria’s highest peak to seek help The decision of an Austrian court to convict an amateur climber of manslaughter after he had left his girlfriend behind to die on an Alpine peak in winter is certain to be examined closely throughout Europe. In his decision in Innsbruck, the judge, Norbert Hofer – a climber, and an expert in Austrian law relating to the mountains – ruled that the “galaxies-wide” disparity in experience and skills between Thomas P and his late

Completion of glass cross brings Antoni Gaudí’s church to maximum final height of 172.5m, 144 years after work began The final piece of the central tower of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia has been laid in place, bringing the church to its maximum final height 144 years after work began. After several days when it has been too windy to work, the upper section of the 17 metre-high four-sided steel and glass cross was winched into position at 11am on Friday, completing the tower dedicated to Jesus Christ. At 172.5 metres, the Sagrada Familia, to which the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí devoted the later

Demonstrators were outside hotel in Washington demanding the release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan Bodyguards traveling with the Azerbaijani president, who was visiting Washington for the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, punched, kicked and chased protesters outside a Washington hotel on Thursday, video footage shows. Demonstrators calling for the release of political prisoners were driven from the street near the motorcade of Ilham Aliyev, the Azerbaijani leader. Continue reading...

Thomas P given five-month suspended prison sentence and €9,400 fine over death of Kerstin G by gross negligence * Europe live – latest updates An amateur mountaineer has been found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter over the death of his girlfriend, whom he left behind on Austria’s highest peak after they got into difficulty on their climb. Thomas P, 37, was handed a five-month suspended sentence and fined €9,400 (£8,200) for causing the death of Kerstin G in January 2025 by gross negligence, an offence that carries a maximum prison term of three years. Continue reading...

US president declares a global tariff after saying ‘other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected’ * Trump’s tariffs are illegal, supreme court rules * Trump threatens 10% global tariffs and rails against supreme court * What will happen to Trump’s tariffs after supreme court verdict? According to reporters at the supreme court, one box of opinions has been brought out. Typically, this means we can expect two decisions from the court. Continue reading...

Nasrallah Abu Siyam shot dead in occupied West Bank as UN human rights office accuses Israel of war crimes Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank shot and killed a Palestinian American man during an attack on a village, the Palestinian health ministry and a witness have said. Raed Abu Ali, a resident of Mukhmas, said a group of settlers came to the village on Wednesday afternoon where they attacked a farmer, prompting clashes after residents intervened. Continue reading...

New head will face decisions crucial to movement’s future, such as how far to cooperate with Trump’s Gaza plan Hamas has reportedly begun holding leadership elections among its members at a time when the militant Palestinian movement faces imminent decisions which will be critical to its own continued existence and the potential for peace in Gaza. According to the BBC and press reports in the Gulf, Hamas members in Gaza have already voted. Those in the West Bank, in Israeli prisons and the diaspora are also expected to cast ballots for delegates to the movement’s 50-member general Shura council, which ultimately chooses

Israeli police raid compound, arrest staff and curb Muslims’ access as Ramadan begins A six-decade agreement governing Muslim and Jewish prayer at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site has “collapsed” under pressure from Jewish extremists backed by the Israeli government, experts have warned. A series of arrests of Muslim caretaker staff, bans on access for hundreds of Muslims, and escalating incursions by radical Jewish groups culminated this week in the arrest of an imam of al-Aqsa mosque and an Israeli police raid during evening prayers on the first night of Ramadan. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. * Trump news at a glance: president weighs ordering ‘bad things’ against Iran as nuclear deal sits in limbo Donald Trump will start his day in Washington for the Board of Peace meeting at the White House. He’ll then travel to Rome, Georgia, as part of his tour of the country to tout the administration’s affordability message. He’ll meet with local businesses there, and deliver remarks at 4pm ET. Continue reading...

Google, Anthropic and OpenAI bosses to mingle with global south leaders wrestling for control over technology Silicon Valley tech billionaires will land in Delhi this week for an AI summit hosted by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, where leaders of the global south will wrestle for control over the fast-developing technology. During the week-long AI Impact Summit, attended by thousands of tech executives, government officials and AI safety experts, tech companies valued at trillions of dollars will rub along with leaders of countries such as Kenya and Indonesia, where average wages dip well below $1,000 a month. Continue reading...

Many voice hope that moment will mark move away from repression and unrest and a chance to revive economy Bangladesh’s new prime minister has been sworn in, sealing a dramatic comeback for the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) and formally closing the turbulent chapter that toppled Sheikh Hasina in 2024. The swearing-in of Tarique Rahman restored an elected government after 18 months of caretaker rule led by the Nobel peace prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. Continue reading...

Mohan Karki – one of many people ICE has deported to countries with which they have little connection – leaves behind his wife and seven-month-old baby he has yet to hold Tika Basnet sat facing the glow of her iPhone, a red tika pressed into the center of her forehead. Seven-month-old Briana slept on her lap, her breathing soft and uneven. On the other side of the screen was Mohan Karki, Basnet’s husband, who had yet to hold his daughter. For Karki, nearly 9,000 miles (14,500km) away, it was already morning. He was in hiding in south Asia, his exact location withheld

Voting was largely peaceful in an election seen as a test of Bangladesh’s democracy after years of political turmoil The Bangladesh Nationalist party, led by Tarique Rahman, has won a sweeping victory in the country’s first election since a gen Z uprising toppled the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina. Results from the election commission confirmed the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, returning the party to power after 20 years, while the rival alliance, led by the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, won 77 seats. Continue reading...

Destined to a perilous life with no right to an education or to vote, state recognition ‘gives them hope’, campaigners say Through the decades that the Daulatdia brothel in Bangladesh has existed, children born there have been invisible, unable to be registered because their mothers were sex workers and their fathers unknown. Now, for the first time, all 400 of them in the brothel village have their own birth certificates. That milestone was reached after a push by campaigners who have spent decades working with Bangladesh’s undocumented children born in brothels or on the street. It means they can finally access the

Study set to delay recruitment after warning participants should be a minimum of 14 years old A clinical trial into puberty blockers for children has been paused after the medicines regulator warned it should have a minimum age limit of 14 because of the “unquantified risk” of “long-term biological harms”. Discussions between the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the trial sponsor, King’s College London, will begin next week to discuss the wellbeing concerns, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said on Friday evening. Continue reading...

Officers being asked to ‘consider carefully whether anything they saw or heard’ may be relevant to review of Epstein files Scotland Yard has announced it is expanding its inquiry into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor by approaching all his former protection officers and reviewing records of flights at London’s airports to see if they were used for human trafficking. The disclosure by the Metropolitan police is separate to the inquiry that led to the former prince’s arrest on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, but underlines the complex nature of the multiple investigations now focused on King Charles’s brother. Continue reading...

Exclusive: David Blunkett and Estelle Morris among those calling plans a ‘once in a generation chance’ to fix system Five former education secretaries have made a joint appeal to Labour MPs to back the overhaul of special education provision in English schools, calling it “a once in a generation chance” to fix a failing system. The open letter is signed by David Blunkett, Estelle Morris, Charles Clarke, Ruth Kelly and Alan Johnson, who between them held the post for a decade from 1997. Continue reading...

Cherish Bean, 15, and Ethan Slater, 17, were discovered at a rental property in Little Eden Holiday Lodge Park on Wednesday A teenage couple who died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning at an East Yorkshire holiday park have been named by police. Cherish Bean, 15, and Ethan Slater, 17, were discovered at a rental property at Little Eden holiday park, near Bridlington, on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Move would follow any police investigation after former prince questioned on suspicion of misconduct in public office The government will consider passing legislation to strip Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of his right to inherit the throne once any police investigation has concluded, it is understood. Several politicians have called for the former prince to be removed from the line of succession after he was arrested and questioned by detectives on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Continue reading...

Legislation responds to concerns that immigration officers could interfere with voting during November midterms A bill introduced this week by California lawmakers would ban federal immigration agents from being stationed outside polling places, responding to concerns that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers could interfere with voting during the November midterm elections. The legislation was introduced on Thursday by state senator Tom Umberg and co-authored by state senator Sabrina Cervantes. Umberg said the measure intends to safeguard voters from “ruthless intimidation” near polling locations. Continue reading...

Karl Jacobson, city’s police chief for three years, is accused of pilfering money from fund meant to pay informants An official who recently resigned as police chief of one of Connecticut’s largest cities was arrested on Friday on larceny charges after allegations that he stole more than $85,000 from two department accounts – money that was meant to pay for certain informants as well as a youth extracurricular program. Karl Jacobson, who abruptly retired from the New Haven police department in January, turned himself in on an arrest warrant. He was later released on a court-set bond of $150,000, a state prosecutor

Authorities suspect renowned astronomer Carl Grillmair was shot by 29-year-old man arrested for nearby carjacking A renowned California Institute of Technology (Caltech) scientist who studied distant planets and other areas of astronomy for decades was recently shot to death at his home in a rural community outside Los Angeles, authorities said. Carl Grillmair, 67, died from a bullet wound to the torso on Monday in Llano, an unincorporated community in the Antelope Valley, according to information from the LA county medical examiner’s office. The county sheriff’s department said it had arrested a suspect in Grillmair’s slaying, identifying him as 29-year-old Freddy Snyder. Continue

President called justices who blocked his tariffs a ‘disgrace to the nation’ while praising three justices who dissented * US politics live – latest updates Donald Trump on Friday railed against the supreme court justices who blocked his use of tariffs, calling the decision a “disgrace to the nation” and claiming he planned to impose even more tariffs under other statutory authorities. “It’s my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think,” the president said during remarks from the White House. He cast that influence as social

First lady is first in more than 100 years to have two inaugural gowns in museum’s popular collection Her husband has described it as “OUT OF CONTROL”, a place where “everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been”. But Melania Trump, the wife of US president Donald Trump, declared a temporary ceasefire in hostilities with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington on Friday – with the help of a silk gown, diamond brooch and headless mannequin. Continue reading...

In a consequential decision with billions of dollars on the line, the US Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower-court ruling striking down President Donald Trump’s tariffs, coming just as the White House confirmed his visit to Beijing from March 31 to April 2. The South China Morning Post had exclusively reported the trip dates last week. Trump on Friday slammed the ruling as “deeply disappointing”, saying he was “ashamed of certain members of the court” and that some justices were “disloyal and...

Quentin Griffiths, who co-founded British fast-fashion retailer Asos, has died after a fall from a balcony in Thailand, Thai police said on Friday. Police said that Griffiths, 58, had fallen from the 17th floor of a flat block in the seaside resort city of Pattaya on February 9. The police went to the scene and found the body of a British national, whom they identified as Quentin John Griffiths, on the ground directly below the balcony, they said. Police said initial investigations suggested...

China has defended the World Trade Organization’s non-discrimination principle after the United States and the European Union recently proposed reforms that could weaken it – though analysts say the rule would likely remain despite deepening divisions within the global trading system. Beijing called for “most-favoured nation treatment” to remain the “bedrock” of the WTO, in a new position paper on reforming the international body. The rule mandates that any trade advantage granted to one country...

Turkey has arrested six European activists who came to the country to examine prison conditions of political detainees, their lawyer said on Friday. They were detained in Istanbul on Thursday after meeting a legal collective called the Office of People’s Rights (HHB), said Naim Eminoglu, head of the Istanbul section of the Progressive Lawyers Association (CHD), who is defending them. The six were from Italy, France, Spain, Belgium and Russia, he said. Known for defending individuals seen as...

If 2026 were a chess match, critical minerals would be the opening gambit, and both China and the United States are going all out. On January 28, China’s Zijin Mining announced a US$4 billion takeover of Allied Gold’s three African mines. On February 3, Swiss mining giant Glencore entered talks to sell a 40 per cent stake in its Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) copper and cobalt operations to the US-backed Orion Critical Mineral Consortium. Between the two announcements, US Secretary of State...

Kyiv said on Friday that 10 people were arrested in Ukraine and Moldova on suspicion of planning to assassinate senior Ukrainian political figures on Moscow’s orders, with payouts of up to US$100,000. Kyiv has previously accused Russia, which invaded Ukraine four years ago, of plotting to kill several senior officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky and the head of Ukraine’s intelligence service. “As part of the work of a joint investigative team of Ukrainian and Moldovan law enforcement...

An airport in Florida will soon be renamed after US President Donald Trump, after a bill proposing the change was approved by the state’s legislature on Thursday. Trump, a real estate mogul who has plastered his name on buildings around the world, has sought to leave his mark on the country in an unprecedented image and building campaign. Florida’s Republican-led legislature approved a bill to rename the Palm Beach International Airport as the President Donald J. Trump International Airport,...

Iran partially and temporarily closed the strategic Strait of Hormuz during a military drill on Tuesday, thrusting the vital shipping route under the global spotlight once again. The hours-long suspension was the first time Tehran had restricted traffic through the strait since US President Donald Trump’s warning last month that Washington could take military action over Iran’s nuclear programme, with tensions still high between the two sides despite recent bilateral talks in Geneva. Here, we...

I would like to explore some rather interesting data buried deep in the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Economic and Social Trends 2026 report: an estimated 15.3 per cent of jobs worldwide depended on foreign demand in 2024. In other words, they depend on international trade. The ILO report, based on data from 80 economies that account for 85 per cent of global employment, says this amounts to 465 million jobs. Of these, 278 million are in Asia and the Pacific and 96 million are in...

More than 1,000 Kenyans have been recruited to fight on Russia’s side in the war in Ukraine, according to a Kenyan intelligence report presented to lawmakers this week, five times more than authorities had previously estimated. The Russian embassy in Nairobi denied on Thursday that Moscow was involved in illegally recruiting Kenyans to fight in Ukraine, though it said ‌foreign citizens could voluntarily join its armed forces. Reading the report of Kenya’s National Intelligence Service to...

Until Thursday morning, it had been nearly four centuries since the arrest of a senior British royal. On his 66th birthday, the late Queen Elizabeth’s favourite son was detained on suspicion of misconduct in public office. By evening, the former prince was released from police custody. But the ongoing investigation will unpick years of lurid allegations about Andrew’s ties to the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein that have heaped embarrassment on his brother, King Charles. The arrest of...

US President Donald Trump declared the war in Gaza “over” at his inaugural “Board of Peace” meeting on Thursday, even as regional analysts warned that Israeli military operations could resume within weeks. At the gathering in Washington, attended by senior officials from more than 20 countries, promises of reconstruction and a “bright future” for Gaza were coupled with blunt US warnings that the alternative to disarmament would be a return to war. Outside the meeting, Israeli officials...

Venezuela’s National Assembly on Thursday unanimously approved a long-awaited amnesty law that could free hundreds of political prisoners jailed for being government detractors. But the law excludes those who have been prosecuted or convicted of promoting military action against the country - which could include opposition leaders like Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, who has been accused by the ruling party of calling for international intervention like the one that ousted former...

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. Why the growing network of American MQ-9 drones is a challenge for China America’s increasing use of MQ-9 drones near China poses a challenge to Beijing and makes it more urgent for the People’s Liberation Army to improve...

Actor Eric Dane, who played the handsome ⁠Dr Mark Sloan ⁠on the hit television ⁠series Grey’s Anatomy, died on Thursday aged 53, his family said, less than a year after revealing that he suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. For 15 years, Dane played a plastic surgeon nicknamed “McSteamy” by ‌female characters in the show. He also starred in the series Euphoria, and said after the diagnosis he would still return to the set for its third season. “Eric Dane passed on Thursday...

Nasa on Thursday blamed what it called engineering vulnerabilities in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft along with internal agency mistakes in a sharply critical report assessing a botched mission that left two astronauts stranded in space. The US space agency labelled the 2024 test flight of the Starliner capsule a “Type A” mishap - the same classification of the deadly Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters - a category that reflects the “potential for a significant mishap,” it said. The...

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he was directing the Pentagon and other government agencies to identify and release files related to extraterrestrials and UFOs because of “tremendous interest”. Trump made the announcement in a social media post hours after he accused former president Barack Obama of disclosing “classified information” when Obama recently suggested in a podcast interview that aliens were real. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I don’t know if they’re...

The world is a significant step closer to a universal vaccine for cold, flu, Covid and allergies, scientists believe. Experts at Stanford Medicine ⁠in the US have developed a universal ⁠vaccine that could be given as a nasal spray and ⁠could protect against a wide range of respiratory viruses, bacteria and allergy triggers. Although the study, published in the journal Science, was in mice, they said the vaccine offered broad protection in the lungs for several months. Vaccinated mice were...

An Austrian court late on Thursday found a 37-year-old amateur mountaineer guilty of manslaughter over his girlfriend’s death of cold near Austria’s highest summit after he left her to fetch help when she could not go on. The case ‌is unusual because while climbing accidents are common, prosecutions over them were rare, even in situations like this one where a series of mistakes were made. The court in the western city of Innsbruck handed the Austrian man a five-month suspended prison sentence...

Britain’s typically pro-royal public welcomed the arrest of the former prince Andrew, whose friendship with convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has turned him into an outcast. Some on Thursday appeared delighted that police were holding King Charles’ brother, arguing it sent the right message that the royal family was not above the law. US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, called the arrest “very sad”. “I think it’s a shame. I think it’s very sad. I think it’s so bad for the royal family....

The global order has outgrown itself. The 2026 Munich Security Report describes this moment as a period of “wrecking-ball politics”, in which the post-war order constructed in 1945 is “under destruction”. However, that order was designed for a world shaped by bipolar rivalry and later sustained by American predominance. Today’s global system looks very different: economically diffuse, environmentally constrained and politically fragmented but deeply interconnected by both trade and...

A man who fatally beat four sleeping men on the streets of New York’s Chinatown was convicted of first-degree murder on Thursday, with a jury rejecting his insanity defence in the 2019 rampage. Randy Santos’ lawyers had conceded that he pummelled the defenceless victims – Chuen Kok, Anthony Manson, Florencio Moran and Nazario Vasquez Villegas – with a metal bar and meant to kill them. But Santos’ lawyers contended that he was too mentally ill to be held criminally responsible. They said he was...

The US military is stationing a vast array of forces in the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers, fighter jets and refuelling tankers, giving US President Donald Trump the option for a major attack against Iran as he pressures the country to strike a deal over its nuclear programme. The deployment is unlike anything the US has done since 2003, when it amassed forces ahead of the invasion of Iraq. It dwarfs the military build-up that Trump ordered off the coast of Venezuela in the weeks...

US President Donald Trump on Thursday promised US$10 billion and Muslim-majority nations offered funding and troops for Gaza as he inaugurated his “Board of Peace”, a new institution whose ultimate mission has drawn questions. Trump brought together allies from around the world - many authoritarians, with few Western democrats who traditionally ally with the United States - to hail his peacemaking just as he sends US military might near Iran and threatens war. Presiding with a gavel over the...

The youngest son of former Zimbabwean ruler Robert Mugabe was in police custody after a gardener was shot at his South Africa home on Thursday, media reported. Police said they were investigating a case of attempted murder after the shooting in a wealthy suburb north of Johannesburg and had taken two men in for questioning. A police spokeswoman declined to identify the men but several South African media outlets reported that one of them was Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe. Photographs on the IOL...

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called on Giorgia Meloni to stop “commenting on what is happening in other people’s countries”, after the Italian prime minister expressed shock at the fatal beating of a far-right activist in France. Quentin Deranque, 23, died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people last week on the sidelines of a far-right protest at a university in the city of Lyon. Most of the 11 suspects detained are from far-left movements, according to a...

I travelled to Zurich, Switzerland, last month to attend the Asia Leaders Series, a forum designed to foster candid exchange between Europe and Asia, offering policymakers, economists and business leaders a trusted setting to engage seriously with global challenges. The event took place on the eve of the World Economic Forum meeting. I was asked to moderate a session on a topic that was hardly novel: US-China rivalry. I approached the event with modest expectations. Strategic competition between...

The former prince Andrew was arrested and held for hours by British police Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to his links to Jeffrey Epstein, an extraordinary move in a country where authorities once sought to shield the royal family from embarrassment. It was the first time in nearly four centuries that a senior British royal was placed under arrest, and it underscored how deference to the monarchy has eroded in recent years. King Charles, whose late mother lived by...

Hamas is cementing its hold over Gaza by placing loyalists in key government roles, collecting taxes and paying salaries, according to an Israeli military assessment and sources in the Palestinian enclave. Hamas’ continuing influence over key Gaza power structures has fuelled widespread scepticism about the prospects of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which requires the militant group to give up its weapons in exchange for an Israeli military withdrawal from the territory. Trump’s...

A British couple detained in Iran since January last year have been sentenced to 10 years in jail for espionage, their family announced on Thursday, prompting condemnation from the UK government. Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both in their fifties, were arrested while travelling through the country on an around-the-world motorcycle journey, according to relatives, and have consistently denied Tehran’s spying claims. Their family say the sentences follow a court appearance last October which lasted...

Peruvian lawmakers picked Jose Maria Balcazar as the country’s new interim president on Wednesday, making him the country’s eighth leader in a decade after Jose Jeri was impeached on corruption allegations. The left-wing lawmaker was elected head of Peru’s Congress after a vote broadcast live on TV, meaning the 83-year-old lawyer and former judge will become Peru’s eighth head of state since 2016. The vote brought to an end a power vacuum of more than 24 hours, unprecedented in the country’s...

Satellite images show that Iran has recently built a concrete shield over a new facility at a sensitive military site and covered it in soil, experts ⁠say, advancing work at a location reportedly bombed by Israel ⁠in 2024 amid tensions with the United States. Images also show that Iran has buried tunnel ⁠entrances at a nuclear site bombed by the US during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran last year, fortified tunnel entrances near another, and has repaired missile bases struck in the conflict. They...

The top commander overseeing US forces in Latin America, General Francis Donovan, and senior Pentagon official Joseph Humire made a surprise visit to Venezuela on Wednesday for security talks, US officials said. The trip is the first by a US military delegation since US ‌forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid last month and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges. The visit was first reported by Reuters. Venezuela’s government said the US military...

A red, white and blue colour scheme championed by US President Donald Trump will become the new look for Air Force One, the US military said on Thursday. The Air Force said a “red, white, gold and dark blue paint scheme” will be used for the updated jet that is slated to serve as Air Force One as well as other, smaller jets that routinely fly other top government officials. The military released a rendering of the new look that matches an aeroplane model that has been seen in the Oval Office for...

Retail tycoon Les Wexner told US lawmakers on Wednesday that he was “conned” by Jeffrey Epstein and denied any knowledge of his crimes, as Democrats pressed him over his decades-long relationship with the notorious sex offender. The 88-year-old founder of L Brands – the former parent of Victoria’s Secret – gave closed-door testimony from his home in New Albany, Ohio, after being subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation into Epstein and his associates. “I was...

The Trump administration is withdrawing forces from Syria as part of a strategic shift now that the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa is taking control of the fight against terror groups, according to a senior US official. A significant US troop presence is no longer required in Syria, according to the official who detailed the decision on condition of anonymity, but the Trump administration is ready to respond to Islamic State threats in the region. Some US personnel are leaving as part...

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday he regretted Meta’s slow progress in identifying underage users on Instagram, as he faced stinging criticism at a landmark social media trial over accusations that his company deliberately hooked children. Asked to comment on complaints from inside the company that not enough was being done to verify whether children under 13 were using the platform, the 41-year-old head of Meta, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, said improvements had been made. But “I...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday sharply criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the UK’s agreement to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, warning the deal could create strategic vulnerabilities amid concerns about China’s growing ties with Mauritius. The deal, finalised in 2025 between Britain and Mauritius, would see Britain transfer sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius while securing a 99-year lease to maintain full operational control of...

Brazil has imposed anti-dumping duties on a broad range of Chinese steel products and hypodermic needles following two investigations that found the imports were being sold at unfairly low prices, harming domestic producers. Approved by the government’s foreign trade committee and signed by Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin in his capacity as trade chief, the measures apply for up to five years and target cold-rolled steel, coated flat steel and medical needles shipped from China. Cold-rolled steel...

Pope Leo lamented ⁠a world “in flames” ⁠due to wars and ⁠the destruction of the environment during an Ash Wednesday Mass, opening the season of Lent for the world’s Christians. Before sprinkling ashes on the heads of participants, a sign of mortality, ‌the pope said the ashes could represent “the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war”. He also told participants the ashes could signify “the ashes of international law and justice among peoples, [and] the ashes of...

US factory production increased by the most in nearly a year in January, offering hope for a manufacturing sector that has been squeezed by import tariffs and high interest rates. Manufacturing output rose 0.6 per cent last month, the largest gain since February 2025, after being unchanged in December, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday. Economists had earlier forecast production for the sector, which accounts for 10.1 per cent of the economy, would rise 0.4 per cent. Output in December was...

Russia is demanding that European countries who accused Moscow of poisoning Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with a dart frog toxin provide concrete data to support their allegation, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said on Saturday that analyses of samples from Navalny’s body had confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America and not found naturally in Russia. They said Moscow...

At the opening of the Munich Security Conference this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that the rules-based international order is eroding before our eyes. His remarks echoed the conference’s annual report, which painted a picture of fragmentation and disorder. His remarks also echoed a growing anxiety across Europe: that the system built after 1945 is eroding under the weight of geopolitical rivalry, economic coercion and military confrontation. However, to many observers, Europe’s...

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators concluded a second day of US-mediated talks in Geneva on Wednesday, though neither side signalled they were any closer to ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. The talks wrapped up after just two hours, much shorter than the six hours of meetings on Tuesday, according to the head of Russia’s delegation. Neither side elaborated on what they discussed or whether they had agreed on anything, but both signalled the discussions had been tricky. The...

US actor Shia LaBeouf’s Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans allegedly took a violent turn on Tuesday morning, landing him in hospital and facing charges of battery. The New Orleans Police Department confirmed that officers arrested the Megalopolis and Honey Boy actor, 39, at 12.45am in the city’s famed French Quarter. He was charged with two counts of simple battery for allegedly assaulting two men. A representative for the Transformers star did not immediately respond to a request for...

If the party had waited out the storm in their cabins, one of the skiers said, the outcome might have been different.

Few laws govern backcountry skiing in California. Experts say that people engage in the sport at their own risk, but guides have responsibilities to keep clients safe.

The recent graduate, 21, was on a trail in the Lake Tahoe region of California on Tuesday and did not return, prompting a search. His death is under investigation, the authorities said.

King Charles III’s family, long rocked by infighting and grievous losses, is facing what could be the gravest threat to its moral authority in more than a generation.

Tech workers are increasingly worried that the artificial intelligence they are building will replace them. But some are optimistic that it is just one more tool to work with.

A writer grapples with the death of her sister, and the end of a marriage, during a challenging trek in Tibet.

Muslims make up a majority in Sambhal, but after deadly clashes over a mosque, they say they the arms of the state are now stifling them.

A closely watched clinical trial in Britain that screened blood for early detection of cancer did not show a reduction in diagnoses at later stages of the disease.

Officials are designing new ways to protect the shorelines from sudden flooding and longer storm seasons.

There’s a lot of hype, but not a lot of certainty among forecasters yet. Here are three scenarios to watch.

Did you notice a dip in the air quality the last few days? It’s winter’s fault.

What does this mean for the president, the economy — and your bank account?

It’s time to end the era of colorblind casting.

Nasrallah Abu Siyam, 19, was shot dead by an Israeli settler, according to a witness and Palestinian health officials, amid rising violent settler attacks in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Over three decades, he reported from Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and elsewhere and wrote well-received books based on his reporting, including one about his globe-trotting cat.

The images of political prisoners, taken just before they were killed by Nazis in 1944, were put up for auction on eBay. The sale was pulled shortly thereafter.

The German actor Lars Eidinger lost control of the weapon in the final scene of Shakespeare’s play.