Minimalist News

Hyped Mecca Joint Defense Pact Is MIA After Houthis Targeted Four Saudi Cities Saudi Arabia got pummeled by cross-border Houthi ballistic missiles and drones on Tuesday, where a reported four Saudi cities were targeted . ...So what about those much hyped Mecca Defense accords that were just signed last month? The pact between Riyadh, Islamabad, and Ankara has been likened to NATO Article 5 , where an attack on one is an 'attack on all'. These countries' own officials have in many cases advanced this interpretation. Getty Images As the Saudi-Yemen war heats up again, Pakistan is threatening just such

Japan Is Telling You To Run To Gold Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via Von Greyerz , Below, we look at lessons from Japan and its latest signals to prepare for a market sell-off, a debasement acceleration and a golden endgame . Pattern Recognition My father taught me long ago that the years teach things the days do not always notice. In all areas of our lives, we slowly acquire perspectives earned by experience over theory and by time rather than guesses. This is equally true of lives spent investing in markets and cycles. A certain pattern recognition is acquired that

Elon Musk's PAC Bets Trans Issue Push Will Drive GOP Voters To The Polls Elon Musk's America PAC has opened its 2026 midterm ad campaign with a barrage of ads centered on trans issues. Musk has reportedly authorized the PAC to spend more than $100 million this cycle and is targeting four Democratic Senate candidates in competitive races: Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Josh Turek in Iowa, James Talarico in Texas and Mary Peltola in Alaska. They are running online and across streaming platforms, marking the first coordinated trans-focused push of the cycle from a major Republican-aligned outside group. Photograph: Michael

"You Better Get Ready For... War": Socialists Call For "War In The Streets" & The End Of Capitalism Authored by Jonathan Turley via JonathanTurley.org , "You better get ready for ... war." Across the country, radicals are openly planning for the next stage of their movement, and notably, the Democratic establishment is not part of their plans. Despite the talk of a "Big Tent Party," socialists are riding high on a surge of support and talking purges and revolution. In Chicago, radicals gathered for a conference on Marxism during what many view as the heyday of socialism in the United

US Students Still Behind Much Of The World In Math And Reading: Global Assessment Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times , Results from a recent global assessment indicate that reading scores for American high school students have dropped over the past three years , while math and science performance still falls behind their peers in several other developed countries. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tests 15-year-olds in math, science, and reading proficiency as metrics for college and career readiness, conducted its last tests in 2025. The initial findings , released on Sept. 8, indicate that

Pentagon Informs Allies Prepare For "Protracted" War In Ukraine The full-scale war in Ukraine lately blew past four years and six months since February 24, 2022, and has also long been a proxy conflict , pitting the US and NATO against Russia. Beyond this, there's been what can be described as a raging 'dirty war' stretching back over 12 years since at least February 2014. Lest anyone think this is an exaggeration, or that it's not actually a deep proxy and covert shadow war as well, it is worth revisiting our prior widely viewed report from 2024: CIA Built "12

We May Only Get One Chance To Stop AI Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance It’s awful to say but at this point I’m kind of praying that AI industry valuations crash and the industry faces setbacks that give us months to reflect on its companies. Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon is leaving the AI industry because he believes the race to build self-improving systems is moving faster than the industry’s ability to control them, it was reported yesterday. Coxon, who previously worked at OpenAI, said Anthropic’s safety efforts were sincere but that competition makes meaningful restraint difficult without broader coordination. In

Trump Says 'War' To End Immediately 'After' Midterm Elections, IRGC Issues New Demands Summary Trump: "This war will end immediately after our election . " Iran escalates with " 20 for 2" response doctrine: 20 targets for every 2-3 targets struck. Iran sets heightened conditions for war's end: Tehran calls for an end to attacks, Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, an end to the Yemen blockade, and release of $24B in frozen assets . Shipping attacked: A tanker carrying 2M barrels of Iraqi oil was hit by a drone in Iraqi waters. Damage assessment in wake of overnight assaults: CENTCOM denies

Comcast Plunges As CFO Warns Broadband Subscriber Bleeding Won't Stop Comcast shares tumbled after CFO Jason Armstrong warned at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference that broadband subscriber losses would not improve this quarter from a year earlier. Bloomberg first reported Armstrong's comments, which sent shares down as much as 8.1% around 11:16 a.m. ET, their largest decline in months. Armstrong told the audience at the conference in San Francisco, California, today that he still expects broadband subscriber losses to improve for the full year , although quarterly results will vary. He blamed part of the pressure on what

FCC Chairman Says Agency May Issue Guidance On 'Fake Polls' Ahead Of Midterms Authored by AG News Staff via American Greatness , Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said the agency may soon issue guidance to television broadcasters over what he called "fake polls," particularly if they are intended to suppress voter participation ahead of November's midterm elections. Carr said Sunday that broadcasters face federal public-interest obligations because local television stations use FCC-licensed public airwaves, unlike cable networks and online platforms. "There's a lot of interest right now in fake polls that are out there," Carr said. "And so the

Scarcity Warnings In Physical World Send Commodities To 14-Year High, Threatening Stock Rally Readers are familiar by now with the broad-based commodity rally , with energy, agricultural products and metals moving sharply higher as former Goldman Sachs commodities head Jeff Currie warned this summer of growing scarcity in the physical economy . The Bloomberg Commodity Index has climbed to levels last seen in 2012... ... while the Quantix Commodity Index has hit a new record high. Bloomberg macro strategist Simon White is out with a new note this morning warning that the commodity rally is threatening to squeeze corporate margins

Apple's Long-Awaited Foldable iPhone Arrives. Will It Fit In Your Pocket? Summary: Foldable iPhone: Apple announces its first folding iPhone iPhone 18 Pro Max: Starts at $1,299 . New CEO John Ternus' First Major Test with Wall Street Apple Set to Launch Foldable iPhone at 1 p.m. ET Event Apple Unveils its First Foldable, Called "iPhone Duo" iFold is here *APPLE ANNOUNCES FOLDABLE IPHONE — zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 9, 2026 iPhone Duo ... Apple has just unveiled its first foldable, iPhone Duo pic.twitter.com/JPZnpFEDdn — 9to5Mac (@9to5mac) September 9, 2026 Apple Unveils Foldable iPhone, iPhone 18 Pro Lineup and New Wearables

3rd Burning Man Attendee Dies En Route To Hospital Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times , A third person has died at this year's Burning Man Festival in the Nevada desert, according to the local sheriff's office. Details about the death, reported on Sept. 8, were not released as festival attendees faced the usual traffic jam on their way home from the annual event in Black Rock Desert about 110 miles north of Reno. The death occurred en route to a Reno-area hospital on Sept. 4, according to the Burning Man Project. " We are saddened to have

Google To Invest $15 Billion In AI Infrastructure And Nuclear Power In Finland By Georgia Butler of DataCenterDynamics Google has committed to investing €13 billion ($15.13bn) in digital infrastructure in Finland across 2027 and 2028. This will include data centers and supporting infrastructure investments in Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos, and Vaala, in the country. According to Google, this is its largest single investment in Europe to date. Google has had a presence in Finland since it acquired a former paper mill in Hamina in 2009 and transformed it into a data center. The data center is cooled with seawater, and has

Female Lindsay Clancy Jurors Have Public Meltdown Over Mistrial It's almost shocking how prophetic the conservative online memes were when it came to the hidden deliberations inside the Lindsay Clancy jury room. The court proceedings have sparked a political firestorm as a female led cult of supporters (mostly leftists) rallied to defend Clancy, a mother who confessed to brutally murdering her three helpless children after sending her husband out of the house on errands. The case has triggered a wake up call for America, with critics pointing out that the feminist movement has done far more damage to society than

Stellar 10Y Auction Stops Through, With Highest Bid To Cover In A Decade On BIggest Yield Since 2007 After today's very disappointing buyback announcement, which at $6BN came in far below whisper expectations of $10BN, and which sent yields surging to 4.85%, many were on edge ahead of today's $39 billion sale of 10Y paper. In the end, it priced far stronger than expected, with today's selloff providing a sufficient concession to stir up enough demand to avoid a fullblown bond market panic. The 9 Year/11 month reopening of cusip ER0 stopped at a high yield of 4.834%, up from

If You're Still Talking About Central Bank Independence, You Are Behind The Curve By Michael Every of Rabobank The US just hit five more Iranian oil tankers, citing attempted strikes on one of its warships, and warned more will be sunk if Iran tries it again . It also imposed more economic war via aviation sanctions. The Saudis and Houthis are on the brink of new war after a series of strikes at Saudi cities, followed by Riyadh’s reprisals and the threat of “consequences [the Houthis] cannot handle.” Qatar and the UAE both said the Gulf cannot rely on US

Treasury Yields Surge After Bessent Disappoints Market With Small Buyback Size Ahead of today's highly anticipated Treasury buyback announcement - which put a number to the shocking Aug 19 news from the Treasury that the maximum size of $2 billion per longer-dated buyback operation would be " at least $4 billion " - we warned that no matter what was unveiled at 11am ET, the market would be disappointed... Bessent will reveal the expanded Treasury buyback size at 11am ET. It will disappoint. — zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 9, 2026 ... for the simple reason that when it comes to $2+

Trump Admin Asks Supreme Court To Allow Voter Citizenship Verification Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times , The Justice Department on Sept. 8 requested that the Supreme Court let the government verify the citizenship of voters using a federal immigration database. A federal judge earlier in the year ruled that the Trump administration was violating privacy laws by using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to verify the citizenship of people on state voter rolls. An appeals court upheld the ruling on Sept. 4 in a split decision , with the majority concluding that using the

'It Could Kill Us All By 2030': AI Researcher Resigns, Warns "Do Not Underestimate The Power Of This Tech" Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times , An artificial intelligence (AI) researcher on Sept. 8 said he had resigned and warned people about the technology's dangers. Jacob Coxon, who has worked in recent years doing research at the firms OpenAI and Anthropic, said in a series of posts on X that neither company is acting responsibly as they move toward what he described as superintelligent AI that is capable of self-improvement. "Do not underestimate the power of this technology.

Trump administration to seek extra funding from Congress to ‘dismantle’ Los Tiguerones over narcotics trafficking The US has designated Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones gang, which stormed a television station during a live broadcast in 2024, as a terrorist organisation as the Trump administration expands its campaign against narcotics traffickers it says are destabilising Latin America. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made the announcement in Quito, where he met Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa, one of several rightwing allies of Donald Trump whom Rubio is courting as a security partner during a three-nation tour through Latin America that began on Tuesday.

Andrew Frederick’s body was found in property he was staying at in Grenada in January The family of a British father who was found dead in the Caribbean in January is urging authorities in Grenada to work with UK police to uncover the truth about his death. Andrew Frederick’s body was found in the property he was staying at in Grenada on 4 January. An autopsy, performed in the same week by a privately hired pathologist, concluded that the 47-year-old’s death was a homicide. Continue reading...

Three men are on trial over the death of brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their friend, US citizen Jack Carter Rhoad, in Ensenada The father of two Australian surfers killed in Mexico two years ago testified in court on Tuesday that his life had been turned into hell, as the high-profile trial continued into its second day. Three men are charged in the killing of Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33, respectively, and their 30-year-old American friend Jack Carter Rhoad, who were on a surfing trip to Mexico’s Pacific coast in April 2024. Continue reading...

Trump responds after Canada imposes $20bn in retaliatory tariffs and Canadian PM vows to diversify trade abroad The US is banning dairy products, most alcoholic beverages and motorcycles from Canada , the White House said on Tuesday, as the trade war between the two neighbors and longtime allies escalates. The ban will take effect in three weeks and comes after Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on $20bn in US imports earlier on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Counter-measures covering several sectors come after Trump announced 50% tariffs on Canadian goods Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of American imports have come into effect, escalating a trade fight that has been marked by intensifying tensions between the US president, Donald Trump, and the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney. The tariffs took effect at 12.01am on Tuesday, and range from 15% to 50% and apply to products covering $20bn in imports from the US. The measures target sectors including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics – industries that have been most affected by

Analysis of two skeletons reveals tooth wear and traces of psychoactive substance in what may be earliest known evidence for human drug taking What may be the earliest known evidence for human drug taking has been traced to ancient Indonesian foragers who sucked on mind-altering nuts as long as 25,000 years ago. Analysis of two exceptionally rare skeletons from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi revealed dramatic tooth wear and traces of a psychoactive substance in the individuals’ remaining teeth, suggesting they routinely sucked on hard, abrasive betel nuts. Continue reading...

The affluent city-state has justified high-end salaries for its political leaders, arguing they attract talent and ensure good governance Singapore’s prime minister has been given a $1m pay rise as the affluent city-state announced a dramatic one-off salary boost for government ministers. The pay increases add more than 60% to what are already the world’s highest ministerial salaries. Continue reading...

Shinjuku ward targets accommodation in residential areas and near cultural sites as locals complain visitors disposing of rubbish improperly and being too noisy A neighbourhood in Tokyo popular with foreign tourists will ban visitors from using thousands of short-term rental accommodations after a slew of complaints about behaviour. In the latest sign that Japan’s patience with mass tourism is wearing thin, Shinjuku ward – home to the notorious Kabukicho nightlife district and the world’s busiest railway station – will prevent visitors from using private lodgings in residential areas and near schools and important cultural sites, Japanese media reported this week.

Connection across Tumen River is further sign of closer ties between the two countries since start of war in Ukraine Russia and North Korea have opened the first road bridge across their shared border , in the latest sign of the rapidly deepening ties between the two countries since the start of the war in Ukraine. The one-kilometre bridge spans the Tumen River between Khasan in Russia’s far east and Tumangang in North Korea, along a remote and sparsely populated stretch of the countries’ shared border just a few miles from the coast. Continue reading...

Exclusive: US-controlled weapons corporations and forces have control or access to more than 100 facilities across the continent, which some analysts describe as a ‘colonisation’ of Australia’s military. Find a map of them here US military presence in Australia, mapped – video Why can the US access so many Australian military bases? – podcast US military interests control or have access to more than 100 defence facilities on Australian soil, in what some analysts describe as a “saturation” – even a “colonisation” – of the Australian continent. New data compiled by the Nautilus Institute and published by Guardian Australia maps

Follow the day’s news live Labor introducing new laws to crack down on illegal tobacco Labor will introduce new laws to make it easier to prosecute criminals involved in the illicit tobacco trade, as the government fights an uphill battle against the exploding black market. The new laws think about it as a list of observable indicators, very simple, fact-based things like: is the tobacco appropriately packaged? Is it a menthol cigarette even hiding in plain packaging? Is it being concealed? Does it have paperwork at the border? Or my personal favourite: is the retail price of this packet of

Exclusive: State government delayed releasing major report into the health of the koala population for more than 12 months Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Victorian government sat on a report for more than 12 months that found the state’s koala population was in chronically poor health. The review of the state’s koala populations, led by state science agency the Arthur Rylah Institute in conjunction with scientists from major universities, was completed for the Victorian government in June 2025. Continue reading...

The breakdown of the US-Iran ceasefire, rising oil prices and the explosion in datacentre investment are making the central bank’s task harder Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast For five years the Reserve Bank has been trying to wrangle inflation back to its 2.5% target, and for years it has essentially failed. The result is a cost-of-living crisis that has generated intense community grievance. Continue reading...

Climate Council forecasts more than 267,000 coastal properties will be damaged by flooding by 2100, costing hundreds of billions of dollars Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast When grazier Peter Lake moved to the Clarence Valley in the New South Wales northern rivers region in 2007, he knew was “buying in flood country with … eyes open”. His cattle farm, about halfway between Yamba and Grafton, borders the Coldstream River and has flooded five times since 2009. Continue reading...

Despite falls in some parts of the market, prices are showing signs of stabilising as investors exit and first-time buyers move in, analysts say Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast High-end homes are recording steep price falls, while more affordable properties are proving resilient, leaving Australians to experience the market downturn in very different ways, new data shows. Upper-quartile house values in the country’s two biggest markets, Sydney and Melbourne, are now down more than 10% from their peaks, according to analysis from Cotality. Continue

Government remains confident in under-pressure Martin Rolfe but transport secretary believes glitch was avoidable How have you been affected by UK air traffic disruption? The head of the air traffic control provider Nats has been given a week to report back on the reasons for a technical failure that grounded thousands of flights, as the transport secretary said she did “not believe the issue was unavoidable”. Heidi Alexander said on Tuesday she had also commissioned an independent review by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) into the latest Nats meltdown, which severely disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers. Continue

Spokesperson for Merz declines to give a reason for cancellation, but notes that it was not due to scheduling German chancellor accuses far-right AfD party of seeking ‘ethnic cleansing’ Back to Oslo, the funeral procession for King Harald is about the begin, and the 1.2km route to the Oslo Cathedral is lined up with 1,900 soldiers from all branches of the Norwegian defence forces. The procession is expected to walk very slowly – at around 60 steps per minute – and will include the royal family, including King Haakon , followed by a royal car with the widow, Queen Sonja.

Europe’s royals and global political figures attend ceremony that brings 13 days of national mourning to a close Norway has observed a minute’s silence as it takes leave of King Harald V in a series of ceremonies, bringing to a close 13 days of ​national mourning that followed the popular monarch’s death last month at the age of 89. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Oslo and foreign heads of state and government converged on the Norwegian capital for the funeral of the late king, a light-touch and unassuming reformer who ruled for more than three decades.

After the AfD’s landslide win in Saxony-Anhalt, people in the state capital share what they make of the result – and what comes next • Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Asking residents in a city where a seismic political event has just taken place ‘How do you feel?’ demands chutzpah – this struck me as I walked around Magdeburg, Germany on Monday. The night before, the far-right populist, anti-immigrant, pro-Kremlin party Alternative für Deustchland (AfD) had landslide 44% win in Saxony-Anhalt’s state elections, sending shock waves to Berlin, across Germany and way beyond.

German chancellor attacks Alternative für Deutschland after far-right party’s win in Saxony-Anhalt election Europe live – latest updates Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz , has accused the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) of seeking “ethnic cleansing” with its “remigration” drive, after the nativist party’s seismic weekend victory in a state election. In his first public confrontation with the AfD since Sunday’s shock outcome in Saxony-Anhalt , Merz said at a raucous parliamentary debate that the far-right party would take an axe to one of the pillars of the German economy with a racist campaign of mass deportations. Continue reading...

Spiritual leaders stress diversity of views within Jewish community and warn against inaction on settler violence ‘It’s a good start’: prominent Israelis welcome UK sanctions Prominent British rabbis have backed Ed Miliband’s sanctions on Israeli settlements, warning that the time for inaction on settler violence must come to an end. The intervention comes after the UK’s chief rabbi, the spiritual leader of mainstream Orthodox Jews in the UK, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, described UK sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories as a “dark day for British Jews” and warned they could embolden people who “use hatred as

Ed Miliband’s intervention was ‘inevitable’ after Israeli government and security failures, say former ministers and diplomats Prominent Israelis have welcomed new UK sanctions as a necessary response to settlement expansion and spiralling violence in the occupied West Bank. The intervention was described – by the president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, a former prime minister, an ex-head of the army and former ministers and diplomats – as an “inevitable consequence” of Israeli government and security failures. Continue reading...

UK foreign secretary says international community including US shares ‘frustration’ at Israel’s failure to constrain illegal settlers British intelligence has been given assurances by its Israeli counterpart that information sharing with the UK will continue as before, Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, has said. The disclosure counters predictions that his decision to impose a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements would lead to a collapse in cooperation between the agencies. Continue reading...

The Wild Horse Nine actor had been due to appear on stage in The Music Critic in Tel Aviv – but pulled out over PR firm’s ‘unacceptable and untenable’ attribution of statement John Malkovich has cancelled a planned trip to Israel next year to appear on stage after a PR firm hired by the show attributed quotes to the actor that the company had written. Malkovich, who is a leading Oscar contender for his role in Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine , was due to appear in The Music Critic, a theatrical-musical satire composed by the Jewish violinist Aleksey Igudesman,

While a survey found Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters to be the strongest backers of such a ban on trade, even Tory and Reform voters were in favour overall UK politics live – latest updates There was a time when placing Israel under strict trade sanctions would have been a politically risky thing for a British prime minister to do. Andy Burnham, however, considers it an electoral asset. As Kemi Badenoch attacked him over defence spending at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Burnham deliberately turned the topic to the trade ban on illegal settlements which he had announced on

India’s statistical system once commanded respect, and its data on economic and social indicators was considered rigorous – that appears to have eroded • Don’t get This is India delivered to your inbox? Sign up here There isn’t much that we Indians agree on these days. GDP numbers are no exception. Last week, India released glowing GDP numbers for the latest quarter – 7.8% growth – higher than the forecast 7% . It sparked a furore. Subhash Garg, a former finance secretary under Narendra Modi’s government and now a critic, reframed what Modi called a “herculean feat” as mere smoke

Foreign minister Shisir Khanal tells the Guardian the world’s biggest economies need to help Nepal, which contributes less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions Nepal is demanding $20m in climate compensation for the recent devastating floods, as a senior minister called on the world’s most polluting countries to “wake up” and accept shared responsibility for a disaster that led to the death or disappearance of more than 6,000 people. Scientists believe the climate crisis had a role to play in the floods , which were triggered when a melting glacier partially collapsed and set off a deadly landslide and

Officials say pair were rescued from Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel in Nepal after being trapped at depth of 170 metres Two people have been pulled out alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal nine days after deadly flash floods buried the projects in deep mud and left them trapped. The workers were rescued during an operation at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, a hydropower project in one of the areas worst affected by last week’s floods , according to the army spokesperson Brig Gen Raja Ram Basnet. Continue reading...

About 46 people believed to be trapped in ‘room-like’ structure inside hydro plant tunnel on Nepal-Tibet border After the flood: human suffering on an unfathomable scale in Nepal’s worst-hit districts Nepal authorities have said they are “confident” that dozens of workers in Nepal’s Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant are still alive, more than a week after deadly flash floods left them trapped in an underground chamber. Authorities said that at least 639 workers were still missing from hydropower plants built along Nepal’s Bhote Koshi and Triushuli rivers. Continue reading...

Bangladeshi complainants allege Rampal power station’s pollution and climate risks threaten the Sunderbans, a world heritage site Barclays Bank is facing a formal complaint over its financial links to a coal-fired power station near the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and home to millions of people in Bangladesh and India. Three complainants from the region have submitted a case to the UK government’s Office for Responsible Business Conduct, alleging that the British bank breached international guidelines by underwriting companies involved in the emission-heavy Maitree super thermal power project, also known as the Rampal power plant. Continue reading...

School staff tell focus groups they believe school system in England and Wales cannot deal with attendance crisis Teachers have so little belief in the importance of pupils’ full school attendance that they would take their own children on term time holidays if they could, staff have told a three-year research programme. Frontline staff do not believe the school system is set up to deal with an ongoing attendance crisis in England and Wales, where nearly one in five children are now missing at least 10% of school, according to a report based on in-depth conversations with teachers. Continue reading...

Critics say threshold pushes higher-paid staff to cut back on work and often mothers to stop working to avoid losing entitlement John Healey has been urged to fix the £100,000 childcare “cliff edge”, that means some higher-paid employees cut back on work to avoid losing their entitlement. Since the latest expansion of taxpayer-funded childcare in 2024, families with young children in which both parents earn less than £100,000 a year can be entitled to 30 hours a week of care - or none at all, if one of them cross that threshold. Continue reading...

Sagal Abdi-Wali, who came from Somalia in the 1990s, likely to face Zack Polanski in Holborn and St Pancras contest A former child refugee who became the leader of Camden council has been selected to be the Labour candidate for the byelection in Holborn and St Pancras. Sagal Abdi-Wali, who came to the UK from Somalia as a child in the 1990s and was elected leader of Camden council in May, was chosen by Labour members to contest the north London seat vacated by Keir Starmer. Continue reading...

OS index examines which ‘urban heat islands’ suffer the most – and which cope the best with rising temperatures Portsmouth, Leicester, Exeter, Bristol and Nottingham will be among the cities that warm the most by the end of this century as global heating turns British cities into urban heat islands, according to research. Analysis from Ordnance Survey (OS) has created a heat vulnerability index for all cities in Great Britain. Portsmouth, which sits on the south coast of England and is home to 208,000 people, is the most vulnerable to extreme heat today and into the future, according to the

Joshua Cammidge, 31, arrested after investigation led by counter-terrorism policing London A man has been charged with offences related to national security as part of an ongoing investigation led by counter-terrorism policing (CTP) London, according to the Metropolitan police. Joshua Cammidge, 31, was arrested at an address in Swindon on Friday 4 September by CTP London officers, supported by officers from Wiltshire police. Searches were also carried out at a different address in Swindon. He was further arrested and detained the following day, being charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service and intending to commit or engage in conduct to

The senator from Pennsylvania who has found himself increasingly estranged from his party will thank Trump for helping US steel industry, Axios reports Republicans look to ‘midterm convention’ to overcome Trump unpopularity Sign up for US Breaking News email Stefany Shaheen, the daughter of a longtime New Hampshire senator and former governor, has won the Democratic nomination in the race for Chris Pappas’s former House seat. Stefany Shaheen’s mother Jeanne Shaheen is a former governor who has represented New Hampshire in the Senate since 2009. The younger Shaheen’s family ties to the Democratic establishment – and accusations of nepotism –

Opponents requested an emergency filing as state’s elections plunged into uncertainty over redrawn districts Opponents of congressional redistricting in Missouri appealed to the US supreme court on Wednesday after a federal panel let stand a ruling allowing the state to use a new map backed by Donald Trump in November’s midterms. The map’s challengers, including a group ‌opposed to the Republican-drawn map called ​People Not Politicians, made the request in an emergency ⁠filing, moving swiftly ​after Stephen Clark, a St ​Louis-based chief ​US district ​judge, ‌ ​issued his ​decision on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Cohen has not personally asked Trump for a pardon, but he submitted an application to the White House after his request was denied by the Biden administration Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would consider pardoning Michael Cohen, the former fixer whom he once branded a “rat” for testifying against him in court and before Congress, but with whom he has recently staged a stunning public reconciliation. Asked by a reporter whether he would grant Cohen’s appeal for presidential clemency, Trump said: “If everything is checking out, it’s something I would consider.” Continue reading...

Census Bureau also considers race and ethnicity questions in overhaul that would have dramatic effect on voter maps The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed changes to the US census intended to exclude immigrants without legal status in addition to other groups, with potentially significant effects on the allocation of federal resources and drawing of districts in the US House of Representatives . In a proposed rule published in the Federal Register, the Census Bureau also announced it was considering changes to the data it collects about race and ethnicity, amid the Trump administration’s push to rid the government of diversity,

Scott Bessent made announcement on Wednesday as bond yields rose to highest point since 2008 financial crisis US politics live – latest updates The US treasury moved to cut the cost of borrowing on Wednesday only to be swiftly rebuffed by the bond market. Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, announced the US would buy back $6bn worth of government debt – treasuries – in an effort to alleviate a selloff in the US bond market that has put pressure on interest rates. Continue reading...

The UN atomic watchdog’s board on Wednesday reported Iran to the UN Security Council for the first time in 20 years, citing it for failure to cooperate in a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by inspectors at undeclared sites. Western officials suspect that the traces could provide evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons programme until 2003. Iran says that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons and that its programme is entirely peaceful. Reporting Iran to the Security...

US President Donald Trump gave tens of thousands of dollars in cash gifts last year to executive assistant Natalie Harp and three other close aides working in the West Wing, according to financial disclosures released by the White House. The payments raised ethics concerns because federal employees are ‌generally barred by statute from receiving compensation beyond their government salaries. Harp, communications adviser Margo Martin and deputy director of Oval Office operations Chamberlain...

An artificial intelligence researcher who left OpenAI to join Anthropic has decided to leave the industry, accusing both US companies of “gambling with our lives” in the race to develop AI models capable of self-improvement. Jacob Coxon, 27, spent the past three years pretraining AI models, first at OpenAI and then, this year, at its rival Anthropic, which he considered more cautious in its approach. Pretraining is the stage where AI models absorb vast quantities of data. “Neither company is...

British police said on Wednesday a criminal investigation into the populist Reform UK party would be widened to include allegations made in a documentary that officials planned to break electoral law on foreign funding. Reform, led by veteran Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, denied any wrongdoing ‌and a spokesman for the party said it would “fully cooperate” with the investigation. Farage, under investigation by a parliamentary watchdog about earlier donations, was forced to sack two of his...

An explosion at an arms depot in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province killed 14 people on Wednesday, the local health department said, without specifying the cause of the blast. “The toll from the explosion in a temporary storage for collecting weapons and war remnants near the city of Sarmada … registered 14 killed and 11 injured in a preliminary count,” the Idlib health department said. The Syrian defence ministry’s media department earlier told state television that several of the ministry’s...

European cities will gain more leeway to curb short-term rentals such as Airbnb under new EU plans that aim to bring down housing costs in tourism hotspots. The European Commission laid out conditions on Wednesday under which local authorities can limit short lets, under a proposal seeking to address Europe’s “housing crisis”. “Short-term rentals are a part of the problem in many cities,” Dan Jorgensen, the 27-nation bloc’s housing commissioner, told a press conference in Brussels. Though hugely...

Norway bid farewell on Wednesday to King Harald V in a funeral reflecting his open and unifying nature, and attended by dignitaries including Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and Britain’s Prince William. After a procession through the streets of Oslo packed with crowds and a funeral service at Oslo’s Lutheran cathedral, the king’s casket was transported to the Akershus Castle church where it was to be placed in the royal crypt. Until his death on August 28 at age 89, Harald was the oldest...

At 18, Martin Taborda began studying law at Argentina’s prestigious University of Buenos Aires, hoping to become the first in his family to graduate. Just two years later, that dream has slipped out of reach. Unemployed and US$1,300 in debt, he can no longer afford the bus fare from his suburb or the books he needs to keep studying – even at a tuition-free university that has helped generations of Argentines climb into the middle class. He’s not alone. Nearly half of Argentina’s 45 million...

China and Russia’s negotiations regarding the construction of the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline have stalled, according to multiple sources who have knowledge of the issue, as both sides cannot bridge a big gap over gas price expectations. “China hopes to secure a price comparable to Russia’s subsidised residential rate, around US$50/thousand cubic metres, or at least the domestic industrial rate of about US$120-130/thousand cubic metres,” said one source, who asked for anonymity due to the...

A battle for control of Yemen’s coastal plains overlooking the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, launched on Friday by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, is rapidly intensifying into an all-out war with Saudi-backed government forces. A wave of Houthi missile and drone strikes launched against four cities in southern Saudi Arabia early on Tuesday, injuring 73 civilians, may prove to be the tipping point in the conflict, analysts say. Coinciding with an escalating battle of attrition between the United...

UK air travellers faced more misery on Wednesday with nearly 300 flights scrapped across the country, as Britain’s air traffic control service scrambled to recover from a technical glitch which it ruled out as a cyberattack. After 1,746 flights were cancelled on the first day of the outage on Tuesday, another 291 were axed on Wednesday – the majority to and from London Heathrow, the United Kingdom’s biggest and one of Europe’s busiest airports – according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. “We...

China’s factory-gate price growth accelerated in August, while consumer inflation picked up again, amid volatile energy and commodity costs linked to the US-Israel war on Iran. The producer price index rose 3.8 per cent year on year last month, up from 3.5 per cent in July, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday. The reading beat a 3.6 per cent projection from economists polled by financial data provider Wind. Meanwhile, the consumer price index (CPI),...

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday it had captured a ‌US uncrewed submarine at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, offering a rare glimpse into how underwater drones are being used in military operations. Iranian state media said the vessel was a Dive-LD, a large autonomous underwater vehicle built by California defence firm Anduril. The 5.8-metre (19-foot) submersible can carry out missions including mine countermeasures, seabed mapping, intelligence gathering ⁠and the inspection of...

Argentine President Javier Milei has every right to reassert his country’s territorial claims over the Falkland Islands. His proposal to use the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration as a template for resolving the Falkland Islands dispute merits serious consideration as a pragmatic framework for bringing this long-standing territorial conflict to a peaceful conclusion. Argentina’s claim to what its citizens call the Islas Malvinas rests on solid foundations. Upon independence from Spain in 1816,...

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday escalated his trade war against Canada, banning imports of alcohol and various products and raising tariffs on others, with the conflict showing no sign of abating. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stood firm, acknowledging that reducing economic ties with the United States would come at a cost but saying the benefits would outweigh the pain. A range of Canadian products, from mattresses to motorboats and golf carts, would be subject to a 50 per cent...

The Trump administration on Tuesday blasted Ford Motor’s business partnerships with Chinese companies, saying they posed national security concerns. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a letter ‌to Ford CEO Jim Farley sent on Tuesday said the carmaker’s dealings with Chinese battery maker CATL and Chinese carmakers Geely and BYD raised “profound concern”. He urged Ford to cut ties with major Chinese companies. Duffy said USDOT was “deeply alarmed” by Ford’s reliance on licensed technology...

Police in Albania blocked protesters from reaching parliament on Tuesday as the latest rally against a luxury development linked to US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, turned violent The march was staged as parliament resumed from a summer recess and after the demonstrations marked their 100th day on Monday. They challenged a police cordon in the centre of the capital, Tirana, pelting officers in riot gear with eggs and tomatoes. Cars transporting lawmakers to the parliament...

Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the US sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war. The attacks sent the price of oil surging, with benchmark Brent crude futures breaching US$100 a barrel for the first time since July. At least one seafarer aboard a tanker was reported killed and another listed as missing. Iran also said it had fired ballistic...

Nicaragua has granted a Chinese-owned company linked to one sanctioned by Washington the right to prospect and dig for gold across 262 sq km (101 sq miles) of rainforest, about a quarter the size of Hong Kong. The 25-year concession over the block, named Jade, went to Linze Excelente Mineria, a company that appeared in Nicaragua’s mining registry only last year. The block is in a corner of the country where prospectors first struck gold in 1880. Corporate filings list Lijun Dong as legal...

When US President Donald Trump announced on August 28 that the United States had secured majority control over some 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil through a private company, the North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), he called it “the biggest oil deal in history”. The White House fact sheet provided the details: NABEP’s 100-year concessions on 17 oilfields with 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, a 35 per cent Pentagon stake, a 20 per cent State Department offtake at cost with...

The White House on Tuesday pulled a Tetris-style game called Build the Wall from its new online arcade, four days after a warning by the classic game maker that it takes copyright infringement seriously. The block-stacking game, subtitled Zombie Border Siege, told players to “protect the border from the coming horde”. It was no longer available on the website on Tuesday. The White House did not immediately respond to a request asking why it was removed. The Tetris Company said on Friday that it...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump on Tuesday discussed the Ukraine conflict in an “extremely frank” and constructive hour-long phone call, the Kremlin said. It came after US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow and Kyiv over the weekend in an attempt to kick-start long-stalled US efforts to end the fighting. Washington has been pushing for fresh face-to-face talks between Moscow and Kyiv. Kyiv says the talks could happen as early as this...

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Tuesday the release of tens of thousands of documents showing the city did not disclose all it knew about air toxicity after 9/11. The release comes ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed 2,977 people in the United States, mostly in the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York. In the years since, more than 9,400 have died from illnesses linked to their exposure to the area, according to a federal medical monitoring...

The US on Tuesday issued 36 ⁠fresh Iran-related sanctions targeting Iran’s aviation sector and other companies as part of a broad push to escalate economic pressure on Tehran as the war in the Middle East entered a seventh month. The US Treasury Department said the action was aimed at grounding Iran’s Mahan Air, already sanctioned by the US and the European Union, and all other Iranian airlines. The sanctions also ‌took aim at covert front companies, foreign intermediaries and deceptive...

The world’s most endangered tigers have started a family in Greece, offering hope for a predator rapidly vanishing from the wild. Three two-month-old Sumatran tiger cubs received identification microchips and their first vaccinations on Tuesday at a zoo near Athens, as part of a global effort to build a backup population. The Sumatran tiger, classified as critically endangered, is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, which is slightly larger than Sweden. As few as 400 are believed to...

Britain, France and Canada on Tuesday moved to block imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, while a wider group of Western countries signalled they may take further steps to defend the two-state solution amid mounting concern over settlement expansion and violence in the territory. The trade measures are the latest in a series of actions targeting Israel’s settlement policy and underscore its growing diplomatic isolation among some of its traditional allies. British ‌Foreign...

When President Xi Jinping arrives in Washington for his planned September 24 visit – his first state-level visit to Washington in more than a decade – artificial intelligence is expected to be near the top of the agenda. Both administrations are preparing for their first formal dialogue on AI. Washington has framed much of that conversation around the need for tighter controls on sensitive technologies. That framing is the problem. For much of the debate over US science and technology policy...

For one grandmother, it was when bullets began hitting ⁠the rooftops of her neighbourhood that she decided she would have to leave the housing development ⁠where she had lived for nearly 20 years. A sharp rise in fighting between gang factions in Ecuador has prompted thousands of families to flee and abandon their homes to the gangs, who strip the houses for drug money or use them to hide kidnapping victims, according to residents and police. One of the areas that has been the site of the...

Hungary ⁠expelled 10 Russian diplomats on ⁠Tuesday, saying they had acted in ways incompatible with their diplomatic status, in a stark reminder that the pro-Russian years of former prime minister Viktor Orban are over. Russia’s foreign ministry ‌said it would retaliate and its response would be painful for Hungary, local media reported. “The response to the Russophobic lobby in Budapest will be harsh and painful,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Orban, swept from power in...

Nicaragua on Tuesday accused Germany of “multiple violations of international law” at the United Nations top court, as it pressed its case that Berlin was complicit in what it described as genocide in Gaza. The Central American country has dragged Germany to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, accusing Berlin of breaching the 1948 UN Genocide Convention with its support, notably arms shipments, for Israel. “Nicaragua invokes Germany’s responsibility in connection to multiple...

Police were on Tuesday hunting for two thieves who escaped with two Renoir paintings from a museum in southern France, after abandoning two others in its garden as they fled, a mayor said. The heist is the latest in a string of such robberies in France, including the daylight theft last year of crown jewellery valued at around US$100 million from the Louvre in Paris. Bryan Masson, the mayor of the southern town of Cagnes-sur-Mer, said the duo appeared “well equipped and well informed” about the...

Vietnam’s president and Communist Party chief travels to Russia and France this week, on a trip analysts say is designed to do double duty: shore up support for Hanoi’s claims in the South China Sea and help bankroll its bid to become a high-income economy by 2045. To Lam’s itinerary encompasses talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow before flying to Paris to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and attend an International Space Summit from Wednesday. By engaging two opposing...

The Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen launched a wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, wounding more than 70 people and igniting fires at oil facilities and utilities in the kingdom, authorities said. The attack was a major escalation in renewed fighting between an important US ally and the Iranian proxy group. It also threatened to further destabilise a region rocked by nearly three years of wars and deliver a new blow to the global economy. Weeks of clashes have added pressure...

Russian missiles and drones pounded Kyiv overnight, killing two people and sending smoke billowing above the Ukrainian capital, ending Moscow’s temporary halt to strikes on the city. Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the pause in attacks as US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited the Russian and Ukrainian capitals at the weekend. Fresh explosions early Tuesday triggered fires and sent locals down into basements and metro stations for shelter. “The...

When Cathay Pacific Airways announced direct flights to Almaty starting next January, the significance went beyond adding another destination. The service will be Cathay Pacific’s first to Central Asia and the only non-stop passenger connection between Hong Kong and Kazakhstan. Another announcement pointed to Hong Kong’s growing aviation reach from a different direction. Qatar Airways Cargo relocated its regional office to Hong Kong and agreed with the Airport Authority to increase frequencies...

US President Donald Trump posted an image of dark “next generation” US Space Force uniforms on Sunday that the text claims were “inspired by the discipline and functionality of the Starship Trooper uniform” – a design the director of the 1997 film Starship Troopers said was directly meant to evoke Nazis. Trump also posted an AI-generated image titled “Space Force” of himself in a spaceship as two nuclear mushroom clouds detonate on Earth behind him, part of a frenzy of Truth Social postings over...

Investigators with the US National Transportation Safety Board said on Monday they had recovered the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from an Amazon Prime Air cargo plane that overran the runway and crashed while landing in Miami on Sunday, killing five people ‌on the ground. NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the two devices, commonly referred to as the black boxes, were being returned to the agency’s headquarters in Washington on Monday night for evaluation. The 32-year-old...

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government is expected to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Tuesday as he seeks to adopt a stronger policy on an issue that is important to his governing Labour Party but may anger US President Donald Trump. A new sanctions regime targeting Israel but limited to Jewish settlements in the West Bank will be announced by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, according to people familiar with the matter. Burnham and Trump spoke by phone on Monday,...

Gadi Eisenkot, the main challenger to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accused the sitting premier of looking merely after his own political survival and not the country’s security at a rally in central Israel on Monday. Unveiling the candidates of the Yashar party for the October 27 election, the former military commander said nothing about how he would handle the Palestinian question or the wars against Iran and Lebanon launched by Netanyahu, but accused him of ducking responsibility...

With the well-telegraphed arrival of Canadian retaliatory tariffs on US products on Tuesday, importers, exporters and trade officials waited to see which side would blink first with billions of dollars at risk in one of the world’s largest trading relationships. At midnight, Canadian tariffs of up to 50 per cent took effect on C$27.6 billion (US$19.9 billion) worth of steel, aluminium, apparel, farm equipment and other American goods, escalating an economic stand-off that saw negotiations break...

The number of ships sailing through the Panama Canal could be cut further due to drought caused by the El Nino weather pattern, the new administrator of the waterway said on Monday. Panama has declared a nationwide emergency over El Nino, a phenomenon developing over the Pacific Ocean that is affecting worldwide weather patterns and pushing up global temperatures. This year’s El Nino is expected to be the strongest since record-keeping began four decades ago. Panama’s restrictions come even as...

The suspected murderers of two Australian surfers and an American at a Mexican surfing hotspot went on trial Monday, two years after their killings in a suspected robbery. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33, respectively, and 30-year-old American friend Jack Carter Rhoad were on a surfing trip to Mexico’s Pacific coast when they were shot dead in Baja California state. They had been camping in a remote beachside area when they were attacked in April 2024. Their bodies...

The United Nations rights chief on Monday demanded accountability for swelling numbers of deaths in US immigration custody, and urged Washington to halt deportations to places where people face “irreparable harm”. Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council, Volker Turk highlighted that “four more people have died in US immigration custody since my last update to this council” in June. That meant there had been “a total of 23 deaths in 2026 alone”, he said, insisting that “there needs to be...

Britain’s King Charles has reiterated that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, remain non-working members of the royal family following their return to the United Kingdom. A letter sent on behalf of the king to senior government officials said the couple will continue to refrain from using their royal titles as they have done since stepping back from official royal duties in 2020. Any charity work the couple undertakes will be carried out in a private capacity and operational security decisions...

Sweden’s government said on Monday that the country would spend 7 billion kronor (US$730 million) to buy US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (Himars) rocket artillery for its military. The government said in a statement that the acquisition would “enable the Swedish Armed Forces to operate over larger areas, and with greater long-range capacity than with current systems”. Defence Minister Pal Jonson told reporters that the deal covered about 10 trucks equipped with launchers and a...

A worsening trade war and a spike in oil prices could create new economic risks as the president prepares to rally Republicans for the midterms.

No nominations or formal party business will be happening, as they would at a traditional presidential convention. But the made-for-TV speeches will look much the same.

Also, Apple unveils a foldable iPhone. Here’s the latest at the end of Wednesday.

The 10-year yield rose to its highest level in three years, suggesting investors were underwhelmed by the details of a move to buy back government bonds.

The 9/11 completist community wants to know and see everything. The Holy Grail? Pictures from inside the twin towers.

With an assist from A.I., President Trump offers a window into how he wants to be seen — and, critics say, a barometer of his mental state.

President Trump is not the first American president to feud with Canada. But today’s crisis might be the worst.

At the company’s annual September product event, Apple also demonstrated its work on artificial intelligence and other new devices.

The fierce retaliation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to the new restrictions is a reflection of his tough re-election fight, analysts say.

No matter the problem, the U.S. Open ambassadors are here to help.

With its oil-export routes once again under threat, Saudi Arabia is stepping up its military campaign against an old antagonist.

With few good options for safely shipping oil, Saudi Arabia’s exports have fallen to a 13-year low.

The latest round of fighting may result in reports of traumatic brain injuries among American service members, officials warned.

Their warnings echo concerns that other artificial intelligence experts have voiced in recent months, as calls increase for a slowdown in the pace of development.

A phenom in his 20s, he became the poster child for Zombie Formalism before abandoning the gallery frenzy for Montauk.

The country has built a system in which Americans can have confidence. President Trump is trying to wreck it.

Even without government regulation, private companies can act on their own to address A.I. safety concerns.

The host of The Fashions explains. And we share what you’re wearing.

When a truck driver unexpectedly collapsed and died in a remote village, frontline medical staff scrambled to safely isolate his body, triggering a standoff.