Minimalist News

How Total Surveillance Conquered The Last Sanctuary Of Human Privacy Authored by Milan Adams via Preppgroup, The following investigation contains verified facts, classified document references, and eyewitness testimony that some readers may find deeply disturbing. We have cross-referenced all statistical claims with official government disclosures, Freedom of Information Act releases, and whistleblower documentation. However, certain programs referenced operate under classifications beyond public scrutiny, and specific capabilities described remain officially denied by the agencies named. The author has chosen to present this material without the sanitizing filter of institutional caution. Reader discretion is advised—not for graphic content, but for the psychological

Awkward: Trump Hails 'Tremendous' Ally Turkey, Knocks Israel Before Hosting Netanyahu Less than 24 hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with the US President at the White House Tuesday, and Trump not-so-subtly put the Israeli leader in his place while fielding questions from reporters aboard Air Force One. Trump was asked about Netanyahu's very public and long-stated opposition to Washington selling F-35s to Turkey. Trump responded by firmly stating, "Nobody tells me what we should be selling or not. Turkey has been a tremendous ally . " He added in the remarks, "Turkey’s not a

Houthi Threats Force Saudi Crude Tanker Onto Suez Route To Asia By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com The Houthi threats to shipping in the Red Sea and its chokepoint, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, have forced at least one oil tanker carrying Saudi crude to Asia to choose the much longer route through the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, and around Africa. The supertanker Olympic Luck, partially laden with Saudi crude at Yanbu on the Red Sea, transited the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean late on Sunday, according to shipping data monitored by Bloomberg . The U-turn from Bab el-Mandeb indicates that some

Feds Charge Atlanta Man Who Gave Border Agents 'Self-Destruct' Password For Phone A federal judge in Atlanta is weighing whether to throw out the evidence in what appears to be the first US prosecution of a traveler over a phone's built-in "duress password" - a privacy feature that erases a device when the wrong code is entered. Samuel Tunick, an Atlanta resident and US citizen, was charged under 18 U.S.C. § 2232(a), which makes it a crime to destroy or damage property to prevent the government from seizing it. The offense carries up to five years. He has pleaded not

Utility Profits In The Crosshairs Amid Affordability Concerns By Herman Trabish of UtilityDive , Last month, protesters angry over high electricity costs disrupted a Las Vegas conference of executives for the nation’s biggest investor-owned utilities — a vivid example of growing public outrage that has forced the industry to again defend their legally guaranteed profit margins. As affordability concerns increase political pressure, several states have taken steps to lower utilities’ return on equity, either through regulatory or legislative action. Consumer advocates say these measures are long overdue, while utilities say suppressing their ROE could impact their credit rating, which would

Inside America's Left: Mapping The Five Factions Battling For Power Many transformations are unfolding within America's political left, and its shifting factions can be difficult to track. The Democratic establishment is fighting to preserve its grip on power as progressives and reformist socialists gain ground in local elections, with some openly promoting the dismantling of capitalism and adopting increasingly hostile rhetoric toward America. Fox News has begun publishing explainers to educate its audience about the emerging far left, while Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have declared war on the radical left

Washington Gets A Win After Post-Maduro Venezuela Withdraws From ICC Via Middle East Eye The US has welcomed a decision by the new Venezuelan government to withdraw the country from the International Criminal Court (ICC). In a post on X , the US State Department hailed the move as marking a "partnership on American-led efforts to dismantle the corrupt and worthless ICC . " It pointed to an investigation by the court into former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, who was abducted from the South American country during a US military assault in January 2026, saying it had produced "no result".

Ex-Wife In Korea's $645M "Divorce Of The Century" Gets Iced Out Of AI Boom A Seoul court has ordered SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay his ex-wife 944 billion won ($645 million) , in the largest divorce award in South Korean history. And while the figure is a record, it was calculated against a stock price more than two years old - before it went ballistic in the AI boom. Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group. Lee Young-hwan/Newsis/Associated Press The Seoul High Court's First Family Division, presiding judge Lee Sang-ju, issued the ruling on Friday, nine years after Chey

The Left Is Using Kids As A Trojan Horse For Total Online Surveillance Authored by Lewis Dovland via American Thinker , It is the oldest trick in the authoritarian playbook. Anytime a Democrat politician looks into a television camera and declares a new policy is "for the kids," history tells us it is time to do three things: grab your Bill of Rights, lock your wallet, and check your firearms. The political left has mastered the art of semantic camouflage. Because leftists' true intentions - total state control and the systematic dismantling of individual liberty - are entirely unpalatable to

Taxpayer Millions Couldn't Stop Seven Save A Lot Grocery Stores From Going Dark In Crime-Ridden Chicago Save A Lot shuttered seven locations across Chicago's crime-ridden South and West sides over the weekend, once again exposing the dysfunction of a metro area run by unhinged progressives. City officials poured millions of dollars into the grocery outlets in hopes of improving food access, only to watch the stores remain unprofitable amid persistent theft. Seven Save A Lot grocery stores in Chicago are closing their doors on Saturday, citing financial difficulties. The company says the stores were severely impacted following the Trump administration’s

Los Angeles Mayoral Candidates Spar Over Response To Rise In Homelessness Authored by City News Service via The Epoch Times , Mayor Karen Bass and her challenger in the Nov. 3 election, Councilmember Nithya Raman, criticized one another on July 24 over the increase in homelessness in Los Angeles. Homeless tents are seen in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles on June 11, 2026. Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images Homelessness increased by 3.4 percent in the city to an estimated 45,194 people, and unsheltered homelessness also rose by nearly 8 percent, according to figures from the 2026 Greater

Mitch McConnell Pokes Head Out Of Shell With New 'Proof Of Life' Pic From Rehab Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Monday 'said' he's undergoing physical therapy, but that he hasn't been medically cleared to leave rehab after being admitted to the hospital after his June 14 fall. "I'm still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate and in Kentucky, keeping up with intense physical therapy per my doctors' orders," McConnell, 84, one of the oldest members of the Senate, said in a statement - adding that he won't be able to make it

YouTube, Instagram, And The Future Of Ministry Authored by Van Mylar via RealClearReligion , Meta is testing Instagram on television . Pinterest has acquired a connected-TV ad-buying platform . Social media content is becoming one of the most-watched video types on American television. And YouTube is leading the way, with tens of millions of Americans now watching YouTube on the biggest screen in the house. YouTube's move into creator-led, 24/7 "Stations" points to something larger: digital and social platforms are no longer simply competing with television. They are becoming television. For nonprofits and ministries, this is not a passing media

Putin Admits Escalation: Enemies Unable To Defeat Russia On Battlefield, Resort To 'Open Terrorism' This month has witnessed a string of major Wildberries warehouses and logistics hubs go up in flames due to wave after wave of Ukrainian drones strikes. The Russian online retailer, which is by far the largest and widely deemed the 'Russian Amazon' - is bracing for likely more attacks to come. Ukraine's long-range drones strikes have very clearly moved beyond just oil and defense industrial sites , and have even included an attack on a holiday camp in Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia over the weekend, which killed at

Renewables 'Can't Keep Up' With Data Center Pace. As Usual, The Left Wants Government To Step In... Authored by Gary Abernathy via The Empowerment Alliance , The political left is worried that the rapid expansion of data centers across the U.S. - a controversial but necessary development considering our competition with China - is increasingly accompanied by the corresponding construction of stand-alone natural gas plants to provide the power demands of the centers. In Ohio, 10 gas-fired power plants are in the works to fuel new data centers. In West Virginia, a startup business building AI compute campuses plans to

Court Rules Illinois' In-State Tuition Benefits For Illegals 'Unconstitutional And Invalid' Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, A federal court ruled in favor of the Trump administration in a lawsuit challenging Illinois’ laws that offered education benefits to illegal immigrants while denying the same for out-of-state Americans. In a July 24 order, the District Court for the Southern District of Illinois declared that in-state tuition provisions under the state’s Acevedo Bill (which became law in May 2023), its 2024 amendment, the DREAM Act, and the Retention of Illinois Students and Equity (RISE) Act, as applied to illegal immigrants,

Cracker Barrel Dumps CEO After Woke Logo Fiasco Shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store have yet to fully recover from outgoing CEO Julie Masino's brief "woke" rebranding effort last year. The family-dining chain quickly restored its iconic "Old Country Store" logo and nostalgic aesthetic. Still, the failed overhaul now appears to have cost Masino her job after exposing a serious failure of brand stewardship. The Cracker Barrel controversy began on Aug. 18, 2025, when the company published a simplified logo that removed the "Old Timer" and barrel, sparking an immediate online backlash that intensified over the following week. President

Will The "Fat Lady" Finally Sing For Fauci? Authored by James Howard Kunstler, "The Fauci diary is amazing. He monologues like a Scooby Doo villain." - El Gato Malo on "X" Remember Covid-19? Seems like long ago in a world that time forgot. Well, you get to revisit the whole sketchy business on Wednesday, July, 29, when Dr. Anthony Fauci is called to testify about it to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). Though half the USA is still psychotic and unable to process reality, the other half of the country understands

BMO Says Return Of Mexican Cattle Is "Clear Positive" For Two Beaten-Down Meatpackers Following the USDA's announcement that it will begin lifting the year-long ban on Mexican live cattle imports on Aug. 24, BMO Capital Markets senior equity research analyst Andrew Strelzik called the decision a "key positive" for publicly traded meatpackers Tyson Foods and JBS. The restrictions were imposed to combat the New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite that threatens livestock. Restoring Mexican cattle flows should gradually ease tight U.S. supplies, improve slaughterhouse utilization, and support beef-processing margins. " A combination of recent beef plant closures and the recovery

BofA Downplays China's DUV Tool Production Report, Sees Only "Modest Threat" To ASML ASML Holding NV shares in Amsterdam suffered their steepest decline in more than a year, breaking below the crucial 50-day moving average after The Information reported that a Chinese state-backed company had begun producing immersion deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines. The Information did not cite the Shanghai-based company that plans to manufacture about five DUV machines this year and roughly 20 in 2027 . The firm reportedly assembled teams from other Chinese chip-equipment firms, including Shanghai Yuliangsheng Technology. ASML builds lithography machines that print transistor patterns onto silicon

Nelson Haase Mazzei was sentenced for murdering Jara in 2023, but fled from authorities in Chile More than 50 years after the murder of the Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara , the last man wanted in connection with his death has been tracked down and brought to justice. Nelson Haase Mazzei, a retired colonel, fled from authorities in 2023 after he and six other retired soldiers were sentenced in absentia for murdering Jara and another man. Continue reading...

No one was injured and no suspects have been identified in connection to shooting near Toronto compound, police say Shots were fired near the US consulate in Toronto early on Monday but no one was injured in the second shooting near the diplomatic compound in four months. “Officers heard a firearm being discharged in the area,” and “a white sedan was seen fleeing the scene”, Toronto police said on X. Continue reading...

Exclusive: CSI Aviation and GlobalX accused of violating civil rights as part of Trump immigration crackdown Venezuelan men sent last year to a notorious Salvadorian terrorism prison by the Trump administration are suing the US aviation companies that transported them there. A lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Washington DC accuses the companies CSI Aviation and GlobalX of violating the Venezuelans’ civil rights, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and other violations, for their role in flying the three planes that took the men to El Salvador. Continue reading...

At least 90 active blazes in British Columbia in what PM says is one of the country’s most intense seasons on record How dangerous are wildfires and how can we stop them from getting worse? Fresh wildfires have broken out in western Canada and forests continued to ⁠burn in Ontario as the country ⁠battled what the prime ​minister, Mark Carney, called one of the most intense wildfire seasons on record. Nearly 34,000 lightning strikes over the past week led to a series of fires ⁠and evacuation orders in southern British Columbia. There were 25 evacuation orders and 90 active wildfires

Of the estimated 179 people aboard, 76 were rescued as efforts continue to salvage the ship and recover all bodies The confirmed death toll from the recent capsizing of a state ferry off Guyana ’s coast has risen to 72, with more bodies recovered as a multinational team struggle to salvage the partially submerged vessel. Of the estimated 179 people aboard, 76 people were rescued. The government has estimated that 100 may have died in the accident, which would make it the worst marine tragedy on record for the South American nation. Continue reading...

From Afghanistan to Taiwan, unprecedented deluge highlights devastating impact of climate breakdown “It rained for 10 days and 10 nights, non-stop – I’d never seen anything like it,” says Anar Gul, a construction worker who lives in the remote district of Dur Baba in eastern Afghanistan. The houses in his village are built from stone and mud, which makes them extremely vulnerable to heavy rains. After days of rain, Gul’s kitchen collapsed and his neighbour, Sayed Afsar Sadat, saw a large part of his house completely destroyed. “Rains like this are coming heavier and earlier each year,” says Sadat. “They

The Houthi threat to Saudi oil exports comes as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines are still reeling from the closure of the strait of Hormuz Governments in Asia are scrambling to avoid their second major energy crisis in six months, as another maritime chokepoint in the Middle East faces a violent blockade, leaving only the Suez canal completely open for the free movement of gulf oil. Countries like Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and South Korea – which rely on Middle East oil for up to 90% of their imports – are working to secure supplies after Yemen’s Houthis launched

Dunedin will be the focal point, having last experienced such an eclipse in 1163 – before any humans reached New Zealand Hotels are booking out two years in advance in the New Zealand city of Dunedin as it prepares for the region’s first total solar eclipse in more than 850 years. At 4.17pm on 22 July 2028, the moon will pass in front of the sun, casting a roughly 100km-wide shadowy band across parts of southern New Zealand. Everywhere within that band – from tourist hotspot Queenstown in the west to Dunedin city in the east – will be plunged

Isabel Rose, 26, sentenced to six years for blackmail and perverting course of public justice over her allegations against British man A British woman who reported being raped to police in Hong Kong has been sentenced to six years in prison for blackmail and perverting the course of public justice. Isabel Rose, 26, from south-east London, travelled to Hong Kong in early 2024 to visit a British banker she had met while travelling in south-east Asia. Continue reading...

Foreign minister Penny Wong will deliver speech criticising China’s recent launch of a nuclear-capable submarine-launched missile Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Penny Wong will warn China that Australia and other neighbouring nations will not be bullied by its “provocative” actions, after its involvement in another “destabilising and dangerous” incident this week. The foreign affairs minister – who will deliver the address on Thursday in the Philippines, where the 59th Asean foreign minister’s meeting is being held – will also caution world leaders against placing a toll on the strait of Hormuz after both

This blog is now closed Jacinta Allan resigns as Victorian premier before leadership challenge by Ben Carroll Who is Ben Carroll? Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast ACTU president says now is the ‘right time’ to leave Michele O’Neil, the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, said it’s the “right time” to leave after she announced her departure alongside ACTU secretary Sally McManus . We thought about this and we just think that it’s time for renewal. The union movement is in good shape. We’ve seen changes in workers’ rights that have

Federal opposition leader, who is not accused of wrongdoing, says he won’t provide ‘running commentary on matters before commission’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The federal opposition leader has been named as a potential donor to a conservative Liberal group now being investigated by the New South Wales corruption watchdog. Angus Taylor himself is not accused of wrongdoing. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) on Tuesday held its second day of Operation Rosny hearings into allegations of corruption against people associated with the NSW

Chief executive, Frank Calabria, apologises and advises customers to look out for suspicious activity amid heightened scam risk Origin Energy has admitted it was warned of the hack that accessed 900,000 current and former customers’ personal data three weeks before it first made the data breach public. Australia’s largest energy retailer said a “significant” proportion of the 900,000 had been former customers, with those affected to be notified in the coming days. Continue reading...

Jacinta Allan steps down from top job before expected spill, saying her deputy has her ‘unqualified support’ Live updates: Jacinta Allan quits as premier of Victoria Who is Ben Carroll? Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Ben Carroll has been sworn in as the premier of Victoria after Jacinta Allan resigned, with his first act as leader to announce a royal commission into alleged corruption in the construction sector. Carroll’s elevation comes just four months before the state election and follows a tumultuous 48 hours for Labor, during which Allan resigned and a surprise

Carroll, who was elected to parliament in 2012 and says he has always been ambitious, has been sworn in as premier after Jacinta Allan resigned LIVE: Jacinta Allan resigns as premier of Victoria Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast In 2023, when then-public transport minister Ben Carroll failed in his surprising bid to secure the leadership of the Victorian Labor party, he told a press conference: “I was always very keen to rise.” The premier Daniel Andrews had resigned, believing he had locked in his succession plan: his loyal deputy Jacinta Allan as premier

Emmanuel Macron warns that ‘we have to hold out’ as fires burn near city; Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez warns of ‘difficult hours’ ahead France and Spain race to contain huge wildfires before fresh heatwave begins But it’s not all good news: up to 4,000 people have been evacuated from campsites in Lacanau near Bordeaux in south western France as part of a “precautionary” move. “Due to weather conditions (heatwave) and to facilitate emergency operations, the Prefect has ordered the preventive evacuation of campsites in Lacanau, as well as group tourist residences and holiday villages,” the Lacanau town hall said

Coming days are ‘absolutely critical’ for firefighters before temperatures rise again this week, officials say Firefighters in France and Spain are racing to bring huge wildfires under control before another heatwave this week that will complicate efforts to tame the flames. Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said Monday and Tuesday were “absolutely crucial days” before temperatures rise again from Wednesday, prompting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to warn: “We face difficult hours, complex hours” ahead. Continue reading...

Two women severely wounded before bystanders intervened in incident near Porte de Clichy A man attacked three women with knives in Paris before bystanders pinned him to the ground and an off-duty police officer detained him, the French interior ⁠minister, Laurent Nuñez, has said. The man attacked the three women, aged 19, 24 and 36, with ⁠two kitchen knives, severely wounding two of them, near Porte de Clichy on Monday, Nuñez said. Continue reading...

Residents describe their fear as they were forced to leave their homes because of the ‘extremely intense’ blaze Sitting in their suburban apartment in Mérignac on the outskirts of Bordeaux, Krishma, an interpreter, and her husband, Nassir, first felt a sense of dread when a strange black cloud turned the sky dark in the middle of the day. Then a bitter burning smell filled the air outside. “The sky changed colour. It seemed like a cloud but it was smoke covering the sun – it wasn’t a natural phenomenon. It didn’t seem real,” said Nassir, an English literature graduate from

Gibraltar-based Ros Astengo inspired four men to report sexual assaults carried out by Allan Grimson in 1990s Ros Astengo, a journalist based in Gibraltar who usually focuses on politics and social issues, had qualms when she began investigating the case of the suspected serial killer Allan Grimson as he neared release from prison after serving more than 20 years. She worried that she might reopen the scars of survivors of Grimson – but also that she could be putting herself in the “crosshairs” of a dangerous man who had sexually assaulted and battered two young men to death in the

In normal times the Mashala shelter founder takes in strays, but in wartime, he is the only lifeline for animals in the area During Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah, Houssein Hamze woke up one night to the sound of barking. Alarmed, he got up to check on the dog – his first rescue pet. Moments later, a bomb dropped next to his home and a piece of shrapnel landed right where he had been sleeping. “I swear to God, he really saved me from death. Animals always possess a sixth sense we don’t have,” Hamze said. Continue reading...

Washington and Tehran issue conflicting messages over the status of talks to end Middle East crisis Donald Trump has once again warned that the US will return to “strong military action” against Iran if diplomatic efforts do not bring a rapid resolution to the crisis in the Middle East. “We are in very deep talks with Iran. If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action,” the US president told Axios on Monday. Asked for how long he would allow the talks to proceed, he answered: “Not much time. Either it goes fast or not

Culture Club singer sings ‘I stand with the Jews / I don’t feel brave, I just need to behave like a human’, in song defending Israel’s response to Hamas attack Boy George has released a new song entitled We Will Dance Again, which voices support for Israel’s military action in Palestine. Posted on X and Instagram with the Hebrew title עוד נרקוד alongside its English translation, the song features a pop-reggae backing. The opening lyrics are: “You say genocide, I say war / When you’re attacked, that’s what the army’s for / Does it get ugly? You bet it does

Refugee family reunions in limbo, despite Foreign Office saying it is ready to get people out of war-torn territory The Home Office is blocking the evacuation of dozens of women and children from Gaza, despite the Foreign Office saying it is ready to get people out of the war-torn region. Last September, the Home Office announced it was suspending refugee family reunion applications and that new, more restrictive rules would be announced in the spring. So far there has been no announcement and the process remains suspended. Continue reading...

Top military officials say campaign has reached its limit of effectiveness and warn of dwindling stocks of munitions The US has paused strikes on Iran for a third night as top military officials advised Donald Trump to halt his bombing campaign, and diplomatic negotiations have continued to avoid a return to all-out war. Oil prices fell on Monday as markets responded to the pause in combat. Continue reading...

Cockroach Janta party says government has broken promise, with detentions in Delhi, Assam, West Bengal and Bihar India’s youth-led “Cockroach” movement, whose nationwide protests forced the resignation of the education minister , has accused the government of backtracking on its promise not to act against student protesters and has threatened to restart demonstrations. The Cockroach Janta party (CJP), which organised mass protests over exam paper leaks and other irregularities, said it had received reports of hundreds of students being detained or “harassed” by police. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: Across ​the country, a ​younger generation is turning private disillusionment into public defiance​ against a government that once felt untouchable Good morning. As flames engulfed parts of France and Spain this weekend, in India, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, was trying to put out a very different kind of fire. Thousands of people arrived in Delhi on Saturday to demand the resignation of his education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. When he stepped down in the early afternoon, the protests turned into a triumphant block party. But the Cockroach protests that have swept through India this summer are about

Ally forced to resign, with opposition parties reinvigorated and strongman leader’s grip over media channels rocked Even the night before Narendra Modi accepted the resignation of his education minister, India’s prime minister appeared confident that the largest mass uprising to take place in his 12 years in power would do little to rattle his government. Addressing his “young friends” in a late-night Instagram selfie reel on Friday, he thanked the people – who were mobilised en masse across the country , shouting anti-government slogans – for their “thoughtful suggestions”. Continue reading...

Dharmendra Pradhan steps down after demonstrations over exam leak scandal, prompting celebrations among thousands of protesters India’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, has resigned after a week of mass demonstrations, handing a major victory to a new youth movement that has posed an unprecedented challenge to Narendra Modi’s government. In a statement on Saturday afternoon, Pradhan said he had submitted his letter of resignation to the prime minister after student pressure. Continue reading...

Bollywood stars accused of ‘cowardice’ as hundreds of thousands of young Indians take to the streets to challenge government Bollywood stars and other Indian celebrities have faced fierce criticism for staying silent in the face of some of the biggest protests India has seen in years. Hundreds of thousands of young Indians took to the streets this week as part of a new youth movement that calls itself the Cockroach Janata party (CJP), demanding accountability over exam paper leaks in an unprecedented challenge to prime minister Narendra Modi’s government. Many vented their anger against what they saw as “cowardice” from

The new prime minister is linking the need for better vocational education in school with his belief in localism Kemi Badenoch is about to hold a press conference where she will be urging Andy Burnham to pass emergency legislation to stop serious offenders being included in the prisoner early release scheme due to start in the autumn. This is what the party said about the announcement in a news release overnight. The Conservatives have been campaigning against the early release of violent and sexual offenders since Labour decided to do this in 2024 and we welcome the prime minister’s U-turn.

TUC says lender ‘can easily afford to pay more tax’ as it increases bonus pool by nearly 30% Business live – latest updates Andy Burnham has been urged to launch a tax raid on UK banks, as Barclays revealed a 30% rise in its half-year bonus pool after a surge in profits. Fresh corporate filings released on Tuesday showed the bank put £1.3bn towards its bonus pool for the first half of the year. That figure, which includes annual and deferred bonuses, was up from £1bn last year. Continue reading...

Co-presenter of former BBC motoring show given penalty after being caught twice in three weeks The former Top Gear host Richard Hammond has been fined £999 by a court after being caught speeding twice in three weeks while driving his luxury cars. The 56-year-old was in a Porsche when he broke the speed limit on 2 December last year, and was caught out again 20 days later while driving a Bentley. Continue reading...

Average 25% increase for letters such as marketing, bills and medical appointment notices from 5 October Royal Mail will increase the price of its wholesale postal service by as much as a third, in a multimillion-pound blow to the NHS and other large organisations. The postal company has warned customers who use its wholesale postal service for mail including marketing letters, household bills and medical appointment notices that it is raising prices by an average of 25% from 5 October. Continue reading...

Funding crisis could lead to an exodus that would be a blow for British science and national growth On a chilly day in December 1945, Bernard Lovell, a physicist at the University of Manchester, struck out for the Cheshire countryside to study cosmic rays, the streams of high-energy particles that crisscross the universe. Peering at the signals from his army surplus radar, he made an unexpected discovery: radio reflections from the ionised trails of shooting stars. The work marked the birth of radio astronomy at Jodrell Bank. A year later, engineers at the site mounted a radar on the base

This blog has now closed. Sign up for the Breaking News US email Donald Trump said ⁠today that ⁠he had paused US strikes on Iran to give diplomacy another chance, but he ​was ‌ready ‌for “strong military ‌action” if diplomacy fails. Washington was in “very deep ⁠talks with Iran”, the president told Axios , but, he added: “ If they don’t work out, we will be go back to very strong military action .” I am going to talk to Bibi about the fact that if I weren’t president, Iran would have had nuclear weapons by now and Israel would

In opening statements, state argued Meta’s own research showed it harmed teens while firm’s attorneys pointed to transparency The long-awaited trial between the social media company Meta and the state of Tennessee began proceedings on Monday. Attorneys for Tennessee told a jury in Nashville that Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, disregarded internal research about its platform’s impact on teenagers, while the company sought ⁠to maximize profit from those young users. During ⁠opening statements in a seven-week ​trial in state court, the state’s lawyers said Meta researchers repeatedly flagged teenagers’ compulsive use of the platform – leading to eating disorders,

Leading assemblage artist was known for reclaiming Jim Crow-era memorabilia as images of Black liberation Artist Betye Saar, the pioneering figure of the Black arts movement, died on Sunday morning in her home town of Los Angeles. She was 99. Saar, a famous practitioner of assemblage, an artistic style that builds sculpture from everyday objects, was best known for reclaiming Jim Crow era memorabilia such as dolls and washboards and recasting them as images of Black liberation. Saar also worked in genres including printmaking and film, exploring themes from family to spirituality. Continue reading...

Court filing shows authorities believe there is at least one more shooter than the two previously thought Seattle authorities said on Monday there were at least three suspects involved in the deadly shooting at a food festival on Sunday evening near the Space Needle. One of them was among the three killed in the violence. A document filed in juvenile court on Monday revealed a suspect aged 15 was arrested and waived his initial court appearance. The filing also showed that police think there are at least three shooters rather than the two initially reported: the 15-year-old, an acquaintance who

El-Sayed says in TV debate ‘ogre on a pike’ Zoom comment was in reference to John Fetterman, not Haley Stevens The Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said his comments that progressives need to put the head of an “ogre” on a pike was in reference to the US senator John Fetterman – not his opponent, representative Haley Stevens. In a televised debate on Monday, the final head-to-head before the state’s 4 August primary, the moderator asked El-Sayed whether he regretted his comments made in a Zoom meeting, in which, according to leaked audio published by Politico, he suggested that

A judge ruled Monday that there is enough evidence to put D4vd on trial in the killing and dismemberment of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who authorities said had threatened to expose their relationship and crater the indie-pop singer’s rising career just a few days before his debut album dropped. “i will end ur career and ur life,” she told him in a text message sent the night before her death. Los Angeles Judge Charlaine Olmedo decided that evidence presented during a preliminary...

US TV show host Savannah Guthrie has said in a new video that her family is living an unending nightmare nearly six months after her mother’s disappearance and pleads with her kidnappers: “Tell us where to look for her”. The video, released on Monday, is the latest public plea from the Today presenter about 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie since her disappearance on February 1 from her home just outside Tucson, Arizona. Savannah Guthrie said her family will never stop looking for her. “The world can be...

When Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), met Jiang Feng, head of China’s mission to the African Union, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in mid-July, the message was practical. They signed a handover certificate that brought Beijing’s direct emergency support for the Ebola response to US$4.5 million. A five-member Chinese medical team was already working in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital of Kinshasa. Kaseya described the contribution as...

Firefighters sought on Monday to take advantage of more favourable weather to subdue massive wildfires threatening the French city and tourist region of Bordeaux and a number of sites in neighbouring Spain. They were racing against the clock as another heatwave is expected to hit both countries later this week in what has been a blisteringly hot and dry summer across western Europe. Authorities have evacuated about 220,000 people, including holidaymakers and ‌local residents, in France, while...

Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate will remain in prison for at least two more weeks until their next hearing as they fight extradition to the United Kingdom, where the brothers are accused of rape and sex trafficking, a federal judge said on Monday. US Magistrate Lauren Louis set a detention hearing for August 13 to determine whether the Tates should stay in jail or be released during what could be a months-long extradition process. The brothers were not in court on Monday or...

Armed officers will be deployed for the UK’s largest Pride festival, police said following the attack on Berlin’s Pride event. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting condemned the “absolutely horrific” van and stabbing attack in the German capital that left one person dead and injured at least 29 others. The suspect – named as Abdul B and said to have links to Islamic State – was shot dead by police on Sunday after being on the run for nearly 24 hours. He was suspected of slamming a van into people...

At least one shot was fired early on Monday at the US consulate in Toronto, Canadian police said, the second shooting near the diplomatic compound in four months. No injuries were reported. An officer guarding the consulate “heard the sound of a gunshot in the vicinity here where he was stationed” at about 4.45am, the city’s deputy police chief Frank Barredo told reporters, adding that the consulate’s facade was struck by a bullet. Toronto police said a white car with no licence plates was seen...

A major new bridge linking Canada and the US at Detroit opened on Monday to trucks, cars and other vehicles, the climax of a years-long project that lately had been bruised a bit by international politics. Descendants of Gordie Howe, the hockey legend whose name is on the bridge, were among the first to cross over the Detroit River, which separates the Motor City from Windsor, Ontario. US Senator Gary Peters rode a motorcycle, while Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer drove a Ford Mustang with...

Former FBI director James Comey urged a judge on Monday to throw out federal charges against him, arguing that a photo of seashells arranged on a beach he posted on social media was not a call to violence against President Donald Trump but protected political speech. Comey’s lawyers argue the government cannot prove the Instagram photo of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47” constituted a “true threat” against the Republican president, who fired Comey in 2017, and has publicly...

UK television personality Bill Oddie, best known for his role in the television comedy series The Goodies and presenter of nature shows, has died aged 85, his agent said on Monday. “Bill was a multitalented celebrity – wildlife presenter, broadcaster, comedian, writer, songwriter, musician and conservationist,” Oddie’s agent, David Foster, said in a statement. “Yet it was never fame that he valued. Instead he encouraged us to respect and protect the environment. “He taught us the wonder of it....

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham held his first meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a UK naval base on Monday, pledging new “Stone Cloak” jamming technology to help safeguard Ukraine’s drones on the battlefield. The meeting on the dockside and on board an aircraft carrier in the southern city of Portsmouth was Burnham’s first bilateral with a foreign leader and came ahead of a visit by Zelensky to Washington on Tuesday aimed at ending the four-year war with Russia. “We are...

A British funeral director faced prison on Monday over a scandal that saw bodies left “stored on racks” and uncremated while relatives were handed other people’s ashes, sparking calls for better regulation of the industry. An ex-employee described Robert Bush’s funeral parlour as a “horror scene”, prosecutor Chris Paxton said at the start of a five-day sentencing hearing. Police who searched his premises after a tip-off found 31 bodies in a cold storage area that should have been cremated months...

Iran and the United States held their fire on Monday, handing Gulf shipping and the oil industry a respite from missile strikes as Donald Trump’s UN envoy said the president was “giving talks some space”. Tehran said it had halted retaliatory attacks against Washington’s allies in the Middle East, and US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told Fox News Sunday that, while forces remained “locked and loaded”, Trump would give negotiations “a little bit of room”. Fighting over the...

French police detained a man ‌on Monday after he attacked three women with knives near Porte de Clichy in Paris, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told reporters. The man attacked the three women, who were aged 19, 24 and 36, with two kitchen knives, severely wounding two ⁠of them, Nunez said. Video aired on social media and verified by ‌Reuters showed a man with long black hair, wearing a cream tracksuit and wielding one big knife in ‌each hand stabbing and attempting to attack a young woman. ⁠It...

Germany’s drive to compete with Chinese imports is colliding with its long-standing tradition of Sunday rest, with policymakers and retailers now asking whether a century-old consensus still fits an economy struggling to regain its competitiveness. The latest flashpoint came in early July, when the country’s coalition government unveiled a package of measures to boost Germany’s competitiveness, including plans to let bakeries, confectioneries and public libraries operate longer on Sundays from...

A ⁠second suspect ⁠detained in connection ⁠with a deadly car-ramming attack on Berlin’s Pride celebrations over the weekend has been released, ‌the German federal prosecutors’ office said on Monday. “We continue to investigate broadly,” the prosecutors’ office told Reuters and declined to comment ⁠further. Spiegel on Monday cited sources as ‌saying that authorities released the person because initial suspicion that ‌he was a passenger in the ⁠vehicle ⁠at the time of the attack could ‌not be...

Israel will allow a multinational security force to enter Gaza as proposed under US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan for the enclave, an Israeli official said on Sunday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Sunday approved ‌the legal framework that would allow the force’s entry to Gaza, the official said. Netanyahu was scheduled to depart for Washington on Monday and was expected to meet Trump on Tuesday. The official said that the mission, called the International...

As Israel heads into a fiercely contested general election on October 27, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot has emerged as the principal challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Eisenkot’s rise comes at a pivotal moment in Israeli politics, with the election widely viewed as a referendum on the long-serving premier’s leadership in the violent aftermath of Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. A recent Channel 12 poll put Eisenkot’s new party, Yashar (Hebrew for “Straight” or...

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. After Apple leak, has India lost ground in its supply chain race with China? In the wake of a cyberattack on a local Apple partner, insiders say India has a long way to go before challenging China as a manufacturer. 2. China wants unique access to minerals with Indonesia offer, analyst says China...

Police arrested one suspect and were looking for another after gunfire erupted at a crowded food festival beneath Seattle’s Space Needle, leaving three people dead and four others injured, including a toddler. Investigators believe the two suspects were shooting at each other and, although one remained on the loose, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Tyrone Davis told a news conference Sunday night that there was no ongoing threat to the public. Police did not have a description of the outstanding...

Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Sunday she will not participate in US-backed talks with the de facto government of Delcy Rodriguez that are scheduled for August. In a statement co-signed by Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who ran for president in Venezuela’s 2024 elections, Machado said the opposition would “not participate” in the “design, development and operation” of the talks. In mid-July, Rodriguez’s interim government and a group of former...

US President Donald Trump’s border tsar said on Sunday that the vetting of an immigration officer involved in the deadly shooting of a Colombian native in Maine is under internal review after relatives revealed to Associated Press that he had a history of serious mental health struggles and violent behaviour. Tom Homan said if the allegations against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer are true, “I don’t think he should ever have cleared vetting.” “There’s several things under...

Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham will on Monday host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as his first foreign leader since taking office a week ago, to underline London’s “unwavering support” for Kyiv. The pair are set to visit a British naval base and hear from both countries’ armed forces personnel involved in training Ukrainian service members for battle, Burnham’s Downing Street office announced late on Sunday. It said Burnham would vow “to continue the unbreakable bond between the...

The four American troops killed during renewed fighting between the US and Iran in recent weeks are no longer listed as part of the Iran war death toll in the Pentagon’s official casualty count but have been placed in a new, separate category. It is raising questions about properly counting the impact to US service members as the Trump administration has escalated strikes on Iran in a bid to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while providing little indication of how it intends to wind down a conflict...

Cuba held a traditional rally on Sunday to commemorate one of the revolution’s most important anniversaries but former president Raul Castro was conspicuously absent. It was the first time in at least 30 years that 95-year-old Castro had not attended the event, and no explanation was given. President Miguel Diaz-Canel read a congratulatory message from Castro to his compatriots at the rally, held in the eastern city of Pinar del Río. The annual event commemorates the July 26, 1953 assault led by...

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is “fomenting hate” by calling the prime minister a war criminal who should be arrested over the war in Gaza if he visits the city for the United Nations General Assembly. Netanyahu said he intends to be in New York in September to address the annual UN gathering of world leaders, despite the mayor’s suggestion that he is not welcome. Mamdani said last week that while New York City does not have legal authority to...

The suspect in the deadly Berlin Pride attack that left one person dead and 29 injured was shot and killed by police during a confrontation on Sunday in a suburb of the city, authorities said. Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen with Lebanese roots, was killed following a search that lasted nearly 24 hours after the attack in downtown Berlin. Prosecutors said he had previously sought to join the militant Islamic State group. Ballout was suspected of driving a van into a crowd near...

Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv early on Sunday, setting off fires and wounding at least three civilians, while attacks on other parts of Ukraine later killed at least two people, local officials reported. The strikes come as Ukraine’s successful drone attacks have stalled the Russian army’s advances in an expanded campaign inside Russia that has been causing fuel shortages and piling pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin. In Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, Kremlin-installed...

Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez – who was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking until President Donald Trump pardoned him last year – returned to his home country on Sunday. After touching down in a private plane near the capital, Tegucigalpa, he travelled to a rally in the town of Comayagua. Speaking at a farm in front of hundreds of supporters, Hernandez thanked Trump for the pardon. “The most well-informed president in the world said: ‘I...

Israeli settlers attacked ⁠Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank early on Sunday, setting fire to two mosques and scrawling graffiti on buildings, Palestinian officials said. The attacks followed an incident on Friday when four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers – one of whom acted as a security coordinator for a nearby Israeli settlement – were killed when a crowd of Israeli settlers, some armed, approached the Palestinian village of Tal, southwest of Nablus. During the incident,...

Each year on July 27, North Korea commemorates “Victory Day”, marking what it presents as its triumph in the Korean war. While few outside the country accept that characterisation, the date underscores a reality: the war never formally ended. The 1953 agreement was an armistice that left the peninsula in a state of suspended conflict. Responsibility for the resulting instability is widely distributed. North Korea’s missile tests, expanding nuclear arsenal and escalatory rhetoric have undermined...

Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham “will always put Britain’s interests first”, he said in an interview when asked whether he was willing to call out US President Donald Trump. Burnham’s predecessor Keir Starmer, who announced ‌he was stepping down last month, had a fraught relationship with Trump due to differences over the US-Israeli war on Iran, immigration, energy and tech regulation. While Trump initially described Starmer’s successor as “extremely liberal”, he said this week he had...

An ⁠impending ‘super’ El Nino is likely to inflict a combined US$10 billion to US$20 billion of damage ⁠in affected African countries and trigger mass migration from hard-hit areas, the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) top climate expert said. Forecasters are warning that the El Nino weather pattern – which often drives severe droughts, flooding and storms in Africa – could turn into one of the strongest ever seen if current Pacific Ocean warming trends continue. As well as the threat to food...

Iran said on Sunday it had made progress in talks with Oman on management of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway crucial for oil and gas trade that both countries border. The latest talks come after the United States resumed attacks on Iran in an effort to end Tehran’s control of the strait, following a June memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war that had briefly eased tensions. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said several rounds of negotiations were held in...

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia has sought an extra 30,000 troops and missile launchers from North Korea to fight his country. Preparations for the extra troops are being made in Russia’s Voronezh region near the frontier with Ukraine, Zelensky said in a social media post late on Saturday. North Korea sent thousands of troops to help Russia fight off a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kursk region in 2024. It has also provided arms to help Russia’s invasion since...

One hundred days before the US midterm elections, President Donald Trump’s Republicans are staring down polling that points to the loss of the House of Representatives and a ferocious battle to retain the Senate. Trump will not appear on the ballot on November 3, but the stakes for his presidency could hardly be higher. A Democratic house would give the party control of powerful committees and subpoena authority, likely subjecting Trump’s administration to two years of investigations and...

European holidaymakers worn down by recurrent heatwaves are currently snubbing Mediterranean destinations for northern climes in hopes of cooler temperatures, but it remains to be seen whether it is just a fad or a durable shift in the tourism market. With temperatures in the European summer regularly climbing up towards 40 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit), cool has become cool. This year, visitors “have been telling me that they have escaped the heat in southern parts of Europe”, said...

Nearly three decades after its return to Chinese sovereignty, Hong Kong is once again at an important crossroads. The recent decision by the United States not to renew “The President’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization” has once again focused international attention on the city’s future. For some, it represents another chapter in the geopolitical competition between Washington and Beijing. For Hong Kong, however, it should also serve as a reminder that its future cannot be defined...

Skirmishes between Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia intensified, as a pause in the nearly two-week run of nightly US strikes on Iran raised fresh questions about President Donald Trump’s strategy in the war. The Houthis, Islamist militants based in Yemen and backed by Iran, said they fired missiles and drones at facilities linked to oil giant Saudi Aramco in the Red Sea port towns of Jizan and Yanbu. There was no immediate confirmation from the Saudi government or Aramco. Saudi authorities briefly...

A van ramming and stabbing near Berlin’s Pride festival that left one person dead and many others injured is believed to have been an Islamic extremist terror attack, Germany’s interior minister said on Sunday. The suspect in Saturday night’s attack remains at large. Authorities issued a wanted notice and warned people against approaching Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, saying that he may be armed and dangerous. Authorities said he is believed to have injured several people...

On July 13, more than 200 leading economists and AI researchers, including 16 Nobel laureates, signed an open letter organised by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. Its warning was stark: artificial intelligence may drive an economic transformation “larger than the Industrial Revolution” compressed into a fraction of the time, and that we “must act now” to build the institutions to steer it. We agree with every word. Then we scanned the signatory list. Four in five signatories come from the...

The Democratic Party in Maine picked its new candidate for a key US Senate race on Saturday, after the original nominee was pressured to drop out over sexual misconduct allegations. Delegates to a hastily organised nominating convention picked Troy Jackson, a former state senate president, to go up against Republican incumbent Susan Collins. “Thank you, Maine. In 101 days, we will defeat Susan Collins and reclaim our Senate seat. Let’s get to work,” Jackson said on social media. The move comes...

Two men died when a light aircraft crashed into a single-family home in the northern German state of Lower Saxony on Saturday. A police spokesman reported that initially one body was recovered from inside the aircraft in Ganderkesee, near Bremen. The second body was found later. Emergency services had been searching for the missing second passenger for hours. The aircraft is believed to have taken off from Bremen shortly before the crash, before losing altitude in a residential area in...

Heatwaves come and go, and while this is happening with increasing frequency and intensity – as this year’s record-breaking temperatures show – they slip from attention once things cool off. What does not disappear is the lasting and costly damage they do to the basic infrastructure we rely on in our daily lives. Ultra-hot days and nights can result in the deaths of many people (those who cannot afford air conditioning especially) and they ignite forest infernos of terrifying intensity. Some of...

Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Tehran-allied Houthi movement edged closer to opening a new front in the Iran war overnight, after Riyadh bombed the port city of Hodeidah in retaliation for a Houthi missile strike on one of its ships in the Red Sea. The exchange marks the latest escalation since the Houthis, known formally as Ansar Allah, imposed an embargo on Saudi shipping on Monday, disrupting maritime traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal. A...

The president also assured supporters that negotiations over ending the war in Iran, a conflict that has sent fuel and energy prices soaring, are continuing in a “friendly” fashion.

The filing focused on the question of whether a photograph of seashells arranged to read “86 47” constituted a true threat under federal law.

The arrest of David Huerta last summer helped spark a wave of protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

President Trump will meet his Ukrainian counterpart in Washington this week. President Volodymyr Zelensky will also attend the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham.

Paramount is betting that audiences will re-embrace the star a decade after allegations of domestic abuse and a defamation trial.

After nearly 10 years carrying out Chinese government repression in Xinjiang, a former police officer is now seeking asylum in Germany.

Private entries, released by a Republican senator, have reignited a furious debate over whether Covid-19 leaked from a lab.

At the final debate before next week’s Democratic primary for Senate, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Representative Haley Stevens showcased their wildly different ideological stances and political styles.

The Trump administration asks justices to intervene after an appeals court blocked key parts of a mail-in voting executive order.

South Korea temporarily paused trading on Tuesday as its benchmark stock index led losses across the region, closing more than 10 percent lower.

A 15-year-old suspect was in custody, and documents said a second shooter was killed on the scene. Police were looking for at least one more suspect in the attack that left three dead.

David Cifaldi was hiking up Granite Peak, Montana’s tallest mountain, last week when he slipped and fell on one of his trekking poles. A wound nurse, he went into survival mode.

Remember when ‘blame Canada’ was a joke?

Justice may proceed slowly, and cautiously, but it does proceed.

“And let’s just say Iran’s not the only thing he bombed,” Seth Meyers said of the president’s performance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Forecasters warned that more storms were expected into the evening stretching across the Midwest.