Minimalist News

USS Ford Carrier Returns To Mideast After Extensive Fire Repairs Over the weekend it was confirmed by Pentagon statements that the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group has belatedly redeployed to the Middle East after a month in port for repairs following a fire aboard the ship. The world's largest aircraft carrier returned to operations after what's been officially described as a blaze in its laundry area, which headlines have presented as accidental. The incident injured sailors and forced significant maintenance work, and ever since it happened on March 12, there's been an avalanche of public speculation that Iranian forces

Chief Justice Roberts Faces Two Strikes After New Leak Rocks The Court Authored by Jonathan Turley, The legendary baseball player and manager Ted Williams once wrote a letter to the Angels outfielder Jay Johnstone on improving his hitting. Among his pieces of advice was that “with two strikes, you simply have to protect the plate.” Williams’s advice on not striking out came to mind this week when another leak of confidential information rocked the Supreme Court. (The prior leak of the Dobbs decision went unsolved). For Chief Justice John Roberts, the message is clear: it is a time like this when you have to protect the

Kuwait Declares Force Majeure As US Seizure Of Iranian Ship Escalates Tensions By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com Kuwait has declared force majeure on shipments of crude oil and refined products after disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz prevented some vessels from entering the Persian Gulf. The move comes as tensions in the Strait escalated again following the U.S. seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel in the waterway. According to Reuters, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation has notified customers that it is invoking contractual clauses allowing it to withhold certain scheduled deliveries after the blockade hindered access to the Gulf. The measure is not expected to result

DOJ Shakeup In Florida Signals Major Escalation In Russiagate Criminal Probe The Department of Justice appears to be gaining fresh momentum in its criminal investigation into the 2016 Trump-Russia collusion narrative, with a significant overhaul of the team handling the case in southern Florida. According to investigative journalist Julie Kelly’s reporting at Declassified.live, longtime Trump legal advisor Joe diGenova - a former U.S. Attorney and prominent commentator - will be sworn in Monday as counsel to the attorney general. He will assume leadership of the ongoing grand jury probe based in Fort Pierce, the district overseen by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon.

70% Of US Farmers Say That They Won't Be Able To Buy All The Fertilizer They Need In 2026 Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, We might want to listen to what the farmers are telling us, because if they don’t grow our food we do not eat. Coming into this year, we were already facing the worst farming crisis in America in at least 50 years. Farmers all over the nation are drowning in debt, and farm bankruptcies have been soaring. In all my years, I have never seen America’s farmers so angry, and now the crisis in

Tim Cook Stepping Down As Apple CEO; John Ternus, Head Of Hardware, Will Take Over Confirming long-standing rumors of Tim Cook's replacement, after hours Apple announced that Tim Cook will step down as CEO and become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directorsm while John Ternus, senior vice president of Hardware Engineering whose name has been speculated as the next boss of Apple, will become Apple’s next chief executive officer effective on September 1, 2026. The transition was approved unanimously by the Board of Directors. Cook will continue in his role as CEO through the summer as he works closely with Ternus on a

Half Of Americans Live In States Where Weed Is Legal In August 2013, the Justice Department stated in a press release that it was not going to enforce federal law prohibiting the cannabis use in states that were launching recreational cannabis programs at the time, clearing the way for state-by-state marijuana legalization in the United States. Approximately 12 years down the line, half of Americans live in states where marijuana is legal and another 105 million have access to medical marijuana. As Statista's Katharina Buchholz details below, this means that 80 percent of U.S. residents now live in a state with some sort of legal

Things Get Interesting-er Authored by James Howard Kunstler, > “It is one thing for the people (of Iran) to be ruled by globally feared autocrats armed to the teeth, but quite another to be governed by humiliated, now impotent incompetents and buffoons.” > > - VDH Wednesday the US / Iran ceasefire expires. It has been an interesting two weeks. The US used it to negotiate an end to hostilities, resupply our ships in the Arabian Sea, do maintenance on our ships and warplanes, dismantle Iran’s banking conduits, and blockade Hormuz to shut down the regime’s remaining income flow. The Iranians used it to

Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities Weigh Entering Prediction Markets Authored by Jesse Coghlan via CoinTelegraph.com, Traditional finance giants Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities are both considering entering prediction markets, with each separately weighing up how they wish to get involved in the fast-growing sector. “I think at some point we likely will have prediction markets,” Rick Wurster, the CEO of the banking and investing titan Schwab, told investors during a call on Thursday. He added that prediction markets weren’t “of tremendous interest” when he recently asked a group of Schwab clients about them, but it was an area the company would “take a hard look

Gunman Kills Canadian Tourist At Popular Mexican Pyramid Site Local Mexican outlet Milenio reports an "armed attack" at the Teotihuacan archaeological site, located in central Mexico about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Mexico City, in the State of Mexico. Details are scant, but preliminary reports say the attacker climbed the Pyramid of the Moon and fired at tourists. "Confirmed that the fatality from the armed attack at the Teotihuacan Archaeological Zone is of Canadian nationality," Milenio wrote on X around 1513 local time. > 🔴 #ÚLTIMAHORA | Confirman que víctima mortal por ataque armado en Zona Arqueológica de Teotihuacan es de nacionalidad canadiense >

Hormuz Traffic At Standstill After US Ship Seizure Confirming the Schrodinger nature of the notorious waterway, the Strait of Hormuz is now just closed even more than before Iran and the US said the vital oil channel had been reopened. Traffic through the strait on Sunday and Monday was reduced to a trickle following a Saturday surge, after Tehran rejected a continuing US naval blockade and moved to seal the waterway again. The reduced movement underscores just how quickly hopes unraveled that cargoes could once again resume. On Friday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strait was “completely open” for commercial shipping,

'Wright Is Wrong': Trump Rejects Energy Secretary's Comment That Gas Prices May Not Drop Under $3 Until 2027 Pain at the pump might not ease up for American consumers until 2027, according to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who said on April 19 that the price of a regular gallon of gas could stay above $3 for the rest of the year. Wright said a price of $3 per gallon of gas “could happen later this year, [but] that might not happen until next year” in an interview that aired on CNN’s ”State of the Union” program Sunday. “But prices have ⁠likely peaked, and

Market Lesson: Why Panic Is A Costly Mistake Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, The Iran shock erased 18% from valuations and fully recovered in two weeks. Investors who panicked missed it all. Here’s what the market lesson is about: risk management, behavior, and what to do with your portfolio right now. The stock market selloff between February 28 and April 14 produced one of the more instructive market lessons in recent memory. It isn’t because of what the market did, but because of what investors did in response. By April 2nd, the AAII Sentiment Survey showed bearish sentiment at 51.4%, the highest

Supply Chain What? The NSA Is Using Anthropic's Mythos According To Report Two months after the Department of War declared Anthropic a "supply chain risk" and moved to several all ties with the AI wunderkind, the National Security Agency (NSA), which falls under DoW, is using it according to Axios.  According to the report, the nation's top surveillance agency is using Mythos Preview - Anthropic's most powerful model to date. It is unclear how the NSA is currently using Mythos, however other organizations are using it primarily to scan their own environments for exploitable security vulnerabilities. The company has restricted access to Mythos to around 40 organizations

CBP To Begin First Phase Of Tariff Refunds Following Supreme Court Ruling Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is set to begin the first phase of its refund process for certain tariffs on April 20, following a ruling by the Supreme Court in February. CBP will deploy the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) through its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system, which would allow businesses to seek refunds for tariffs they paid that were imposed by President Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 20

Giant Data Center Developer Fermi Crashes 22% After CEO, CFO Abruptly Quit Last November, we warned that storms clouds were gathering over the torrid, and in some cases chaotic, rollout of US data centers, after Fermi's massive 11 GW energy and data center project in Texas, called Project Matador, which the company has envisioned to be the world's largest AI data center and energy campus in the Texas Panhandle, near Amarillo, was struggling to close the deal with its first major data center tenant (and since Fermi is set up as REIT that allocates income from tenants to shareholders, the delay may

Anti-ICE Protestors Face Trial After Judge Denies Dismissal Of Federal Charges Authored by  Bryan Hyde via American Greatness, Three defendants who took part in an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protest last year are headed to federal trial on May 18 after a judge denied their motions to dismiss the case. The defendants were part of a June 2025 protest near an ICE facility in Spokane, Washington, where they allegedly tried to block and damage law enforcement vehicles in response to the detainment of two Venezuelan men. The protest against the Trump administration’s immigration agenda coincided with demonstrations in Seattle, Portland, and other major

Chicago Man Sentenced To 25 Years For Conspiring With ISIS Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, Ashraf Al Safoo from Chicago has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for conspiring to provide material support to ISIS, which involved recruiting members into the terror group and encouraging attacks on its enemies. Al Safoo, 41, was a leader of online organization Khattab Media Foundation, which pledged allegiance to ISIS, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in an April 17 press release. The foundation created and spread threats and ISIS propaganda online, with Al Safoo and other members posting pro-ISIS articles, videos,

Populism Is Not Dead Yet: Bulgaria's Pro-Russia Ex-President Radev Wins In Landslide Victory Despite Orban's loss in Hungary earlier this month, Europe's populist right is not dead by a longshot. Official results released Monday show former President Rumen Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria coalition capturing roughly 44.6-44.7% of the vote in Sunday’s snap parliamentary elections, delivering an absolute majority of approximately 130-135 seats in the 240-seat parliament. It marks the first time since 1997 that a single political force in Bulgaria will be able to govern without coalition horse-trading. Radev, who stepped down from the presidency in January to lead the new party, wasted

FBI Director Kash Patel Files $250 Million Defamation Lawsuit Against The Atlantic, Reporter FBI Director Kash Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit Monday against The Atlantic magazine and its national-security reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick, escalating a high-profile clash over a Friday article that alleged Patel's "erratic behavior,” excessive drinking, and unexplained absences have alarmed colleagues and raised national-security concerns. FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice on Dec. 4, 2025. Daniel Heuer/AFP In the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Patel accuses the publication and Fitzpatrick of publishing the story "with

At least four more injured at world heritage site in latest violent incident as country prepares to co-host World Cup One Canadian tourist has been killed and at least four other people have been shot after an armed man opened fire at one of Mexico’s most famous tourist destinations, the Teotihuacán pyramids near Mexico City. The shooting – the latest violent incident to affect Mexico as it prepares to co-host the football World Cup in June – took place on Monday lunchtime and was captured in mobile phone videos shot by visitors to the site. Continue reading...

Prime minister details efforts to attract investment and sign trade deals with other countries in 10-minute video address Canada’s strong economic ties to the United States were once a strength but are now a weakness that must be corrected, the country’s prime minister has warned. In a 10-minute video address, Mark Carney spoke about his government’s efforts to strengthen the Canadian economy by attracting new investments and signing trade deals with other countries. Continue reading...

Director of state investigation agency among those killed in Chihuahua in operation to destroy clandestine drug labs Two United States officials and another two Mexican officials assigned to combat drug cartel operations died in a car accident in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua on Sunday, a US embassy spokesperson said. The Mexican officials were the director of the state’s investigation agency and an officer, state authorities said, adding that they were on an operation to destroy clandestine laboratories in the municipality of Morelos. Continue reading...

Jeremy Hansen praised for speaking French in space after Air Canada chief’s linguistic snub exposed tensions and drew rebuke from PM Few people foresaw humanity’s quest for the moon as accurately as the 19th-century French author Jules Verne, whose two works –From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon – anticipated many of the features of modern lunar exploration. But Verne’s language had never been spoken in deep space until the Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen uttered four words during Nasa’s recent Artemis II mission. Continue reading...

Exiled leader to revive push for change amid US backing of Delcy Rodríguez and delays to democratic transition Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado, will seek to revive her push for political change with a rally in Madrid on Saturday, having found herself sidelined by Donald Trump after the abduction of the president Nicolás Maduro. “Venezuela will be free,” the Nobel peace prize winner insisted in an interview on the eve of this weekend’s demonstration in the Puerta del Sol square, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of protesters. Continue reading...

People in affected areas are still urged to evacuate after quake registering 7.7 magnitude Australian officials in Japan are urgently following up on the tsunami warning off the northeastern coast of the island of Honshu. The Australian government said: We stand ready to provide consular assistance. Australians in need of emergency consular assistance should contact the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555 135, or +61 2 6261 3305 (if calling from overseas). Continue reading...

Blaze struck a ‘water village’ that is home to some of Malaysia’s poorest residents A huge fire destroyed about 1,000 makeshift homes, many of them built on stilts over water, and displaced thousands of people in a coastal village in Malaysia’s Sabah state on Sunday, authorities said. The blaze broke out early on Sunday morning in a “water village” in Sandakan district in Sabah’s northeast, where some of Malaysia’s poorest residents, including indigenous and stateless communities, live in closely packed, wooden stilt houses. Continue reading...

* Winning robot runs faster time than Jacob Kiplimo’s world record * More than 100 robots run in parallel tracks to avoid collisions with humans They can already carry the shopping, cook and clean. Now they can run and win half marathons. In perhaps the most unusual spectacle ever seen at the end of the 13.1-mile (21.1km) race, robots flew over the finish line ahead of the humans for the first time in Beijing on Sunday. And there wasn’t a bead of sweat in sight. Continue reading...

Growing numbers in the capital Honiara are playing the street card game Pass for a chance of a big payout, while risking big losses As the school day ends in Honiara, *Irene, a 43-year-old teacher in a floral dress with a yellow daisy in her bun, steps on to a minibus. After 10 minutes, Irene gets off the bus, walks down an alley, and enters a damp, smoky shelter. Plastic tables fill the space and playing cards are scattered on the floor. Irene has stopped by a hidden gambling table in a western suburb of Honiara to play Pass, a street card

Nine-day search for two-year-old Neukgu gripped nation and sparked safety concerns for animal and public The internet in South Korea erupted in celebration as a two-year-old wolf that escaped from a zoo was captured safely after a nine-day search that had gripped the nation and made the animal a national celebrity. The male wolf, named Neukgu, burrowed out of his enclosure at the O-World zoo in Daejeon on 8 April. Animal rights activists questioned whether the wolf could survive outside the zoo and also worried he might be killed during capture, something that happened to a puma that escaped from the same

Greens-led inquiry into gas tax begins after Labor MP Ed Husic says energy companies have been given an ‘obscenely sweet deal’. Follow today’s news live * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast NSW commission proposes heat-safe rentals to help tackle extreme temperature Heat-safe rentals and tougher workplace safety rules for outdoor workers on scorching hot days have been proposed by a state climate policy advisory body, AAP reports. Continue reading...

Stephen Heydt says he spoke in a custom-made T-shirt and was ‘charged with two offences: one for the shirt, one for the chanting’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Stephen Heydt woke up on Saturday, put on a T-shirt, hobbled out the door with the aid of a walking stick and spoke at a rally in the middle of Brisbane – where he was promptly arrested by a large and heavily armed contingent of police. For his choice of words and wardrobe, the 73-year-old Jewish clinical

The 82-year-old was accused of abusing girls in the 1960s but was acquitted in Perth despite judge finding the alleged victim was probably telling the truth * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The former champion footballer Barry Cable has been acquitted of a slew of historical child sexual abuse charges despite a judge finding the alleged victim was likely telling the truth. The 82-year-old faced a judge-only criminal trial over allegations he abused a girl aged about eight or nine at his family home in the late 1960s. Continue reading...

River ecologist says ‘classic bureaucratic tangle’ led to government agency stopping flows to Gwydir wetlands region in March * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A leading scientist has criticised an “appalling” New South Wales government agency decision to stop water flowing to wetlands in the state’s north-west, saying it was “absolutely crazy” that researchers had to scramble to save animals buried in drying mud. Guardian Australia reported on Saturday that turtles, waterbirds, frogs and sheep had died after WaterNSW abruptly stopped flows to the Gwydir wetlands

Review recommends better use of NDIS data to identify repeat rorters and a requirement for providers to register with the government * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Organised crime gangs are using the national disability insurance scheme to launder money, earn income and hide assets, law enforcement officials have warned parliament, seriously undermining probity in the $50bn program. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) has told a review into NDIS integrity that criminals are paying cash kickbacks to participants and their families, and sometimes resorting to

Billionaire owner elects not to attend voluntary interview as part of investigation by French cybercrime unit Elon Musk did not appear on Monday for a voluntary interview with lawyers in Paris, who had summoned the American tech billionaire over an investigation into his social media platform X and AI chatbot Grok. The prosecutors told AFP that they had “taken note of the absence of the first people summoned”, without mentioning Musk’s name. The billionaire called the French authorities involved “retards” weeks earlier in a French-language post on X. Continue reading...

New Hungarian leader says he could sign a political agreement with the EU in mid-May The commission also got asked about the Italian proposals for a “wild west-style bounties” that could be paid to Italian lawyers if they successfully convince their immigrant clients to return home. Our Rome correspondent Angela Giuffrida reported on the controversial proposal over the weekend: Continue reading...

Former president’s win could end years of weak coalition governments but critics say it may be bad for EU Bulgaria’s Moscow-friendly former president has won an absolute majority in parliamentary elections that could bring the country political stability after years of short-lived coalitions, but leave it walking a tightrope on EU issues. With all votes counted on Monday, the Progressive Bulgaria party of Rumen Radev, a former fighter pilot and air force chief, had 44.6% of the vote, giving it an estimated 131 of the 240 seats in the national assembly. Continue reading...

Data shows 224,000 new EVs were registered in March, with Norway leading way in terms of switching Sales of electric cars soared 51% in continental Europe last month, amid a rise in petrol and diesel costs driven by the Iran war. Data shows that 224,000 new electric vehicles (EVs) were registered in March, and 500,000 across the first three months of the year – a 33.5% increase on a year earlier, according to analysis of national sales data in 15 countries by New AutoMotive and E-Mobility Europe, a trade body. Continue reading...

FC Basel and Polish stadium stop US rapper’s upcoming shows, after similar cancellations in France and UK over antisemitic comments Kanye West’s upcoming concerts in Poland and Switzerland have been cancelled, as a growing number of European countries have stopped or postponed the US rapper’s performances amid a furore over his past antisemitic comments. Swiss football club FC Basel, which is responsible for concerts and events that take place at its St Jakob-Park ground, told Reuters on Saturday that after reviewing a request for West to perform there in June, it decided against it. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. See our latest full report here: JD Vance to lead US delegation in Pakistan if Iran agrees to talks The US has just released some more footage of the encounter with the Iranian flagged vessel, the M/V Touska. In a post on X, US Central Command said US Marines had departed the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli by helicopter and rappelled onto the Iranian-flagged vessel. Continue reading...

US vice-president to travel to Islamabad with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as deadline for current ceasefire looms * Pakistan seeks to raise its global standing in push for Middle East peace JD Vance is expected to fly to Islamabad at the head of a US diplomatic delegation on Tuesday if Iran agrees to further talks in the Pakistani capital as the deadline for the current ceasefire looms. The US vice-president will travel with Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law – though Iran’s president warned there remained a “deep historical mistrust” of the US. Continue reading...

Netanyahu says ‘harsh disciplinary action’ will be taken after IDF confirms sledgehammer photo is authentic The Israeli military is conducting a criminal investigation after a soldier was photographed striking a Catholic statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer in southern Lebanon. Israel’s military officials said they had determined that an image circulating on social media showing the incident was authentic. The image appears to show an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen off a cross. Continue reading...

Islamabad has seized chance to act as mediator in Iran war and hopes to reap diplomatic and economic benefits As Pakistan works frantically to narrow differences between Iran and the US in its newfound role as global peacemaker, it is also seeking to recast its diplomatic standing and attract business. Pakistani officials, mediating between an unpredictable US president and hardliners in Tehran, were on Monday trying to coax both sides to put the conditions in place for a second round of talks in Islamabad this week, including easing the standoff in the strait of Hormuz. Pakistan was optimistic that the meeting would

After Guardian reports about danger to V2X employees, sources say state department raised concerns with defense contractor * Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox The US government has called on the defense contractor V2X to evacuate its employees from Kuwait and Iraq, warning the company that they could be targeted by Iran-backed militias, four sources said. The intervention follows reporting by the Guardian that V2X employees were stationed at US military bases in Kuwait, and at Martyr Brigadier General Ali Flaih airbase and Erbil in Iraq. Employees claimed having inadequate protections, receiving limited

Activists say clamp down on period products to target insurgents is gender-based violence and violates rights Myanmar’s military regime is expanding its ban on the distribution of period products, claiming they are being used to treat wounded resistance fighters, according to local activists. The south-east Asian country has been locked in civil war since 2021, when the military usurped the democratic government and launched a violent crackdown on dissidents. Artillery fire, the burning of townships and arbitrary arrests have become common in the years since then. Continue reading...

Opposition accuses Narendra Modi government of using quotas as cover for redrawing electoral map The Indian government has failed to pass a bill to increase female representation in parliament after being accused of using the plan as a guise to redraw the country’s electoral map. It was the first time in 12 years in power that a constitutional amendment proposed by Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government was not passed by parliament. Continue reading...

Trawler set off from Bangladesh and reportedly capsized due to heavy winds, rough seas and overcrowding About 250 people are missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals capsized in the Andaman Sea, according to the UN’s refugee and migration agencies. The agencies said the trawler carrying more than 250 men, women and children reportedly sank due to harsh weather and overcrowding. It had departed from Teknaf in southern Bangladesh and was bound for Malaysia. Continue reading...

Two-time Grammy nominee was one of Bollywood’s most versatile and celebrated voices The Indian singer Asha Bhosle, whose voice defined Bollywood cinema and whose career spanned almost eight decades, has died in Mumbai at the age of 92. Bhosle, who recorded more than 12,000 songs, became her country’s pre-eminent exponent of playback singing – recording tracks that were then lip-synced on film by actors. She also boldly embraced cabaret and western-influenced melodies to forge a distinctive musical identity. Continue reading...

In Pakistan’s capital, the army has been deployed, a public holiday has been declared and the streets are eerily empty * Middle East crisis – live updates The streets of Islamabad were on strict lockdown as Pakistan’s capital prepared to play host to historic negotiations between Iran and the US that have dangled the promise of an end to war that has devastated the Middle East. Even as the US-Iran ceasefire looked increasingly precarious, amid Israel’s continued bombardment of Lebanon and disputes over the terms of the talks, Pakistani officials insisted that the make-or-break peace negotiations would be going ahead over the

Move marks government’s most radical attempt to weaken impact of soaring wholesale gas prices on electricity costs * Clean energy generation exceeded rise in global electricity demand in 2025 The government has confirmed plans to move older wind and solar farms which make up almost a third of Great Britain’s power market on to fixed-price contracts to help protect households and businesses from future gas market shocks. Under the plans, first revealed by the Guardian, renewable energy projects that earn subsidies on top of the market price will be asked to sign up to contracts that pay a set price for electricity

PM admits he made mistake in choice of ambassador as he makes high-stakes statement to parliament over scandal Keir Starmer has accused Olly Robbins of deliberately and repeatedly obstructing the truth about the Mandelson vetting scandal before a high-jeopardy appearance of the sacked top official before MPs on Tuesday. Six days after the prime minister said he had learned that his pick for Washington ambassador had failed security vetting, Starmer admitted his decision to appoint him had been a fundamental mistake. Continue reading...

Criminals paid on behalf of Iran are believed to be behind attacks against Jewish targets, say detectives Detectives are investigating whether the series of arson attacks in London was planned for weeks with suspects carrying out reconnaissance on the Jewish targets to be firebombed. The series of attacks against synagogues and other Jewish targets, as well as one premises linked to Iranian dissidents, are believed to be carried out by criminals paid on behalf of Iran, police said. Continue reading...

Government amendment to children’s wellbeing and schools bill to replace existing guidance with statutory ban A ban on mobile phones in schools in England is to be introduced by the government to ensure that “critical safeguarding legislation” is passed. The government will table an amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill in the House of Lords after the bill was held up by peers on opposition benches. Continue reading...

Boy died aged 13 months after ‘routine abuse’ by Jamie Varley and his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, jury hears A baby boy was “routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted” before he was killed by a secondary school teacher adopting him, a jury has heard. Jamie Varley, the teacher, 37, and his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, were in the process of adopting Preston Davey. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. * Trump news at a glance: another Trump cabinet member out – but not Kash Patel * Trump labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigns amid misconduct investigation * Sign up for the Breaking News US email My colleague Jeremy Barr has more on the lawsuit filed by Kash Patel against the Atlantic. Patel’s legal team accused the magazine and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick of publishing “a sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece” on 17 April. Continue reading...

Victory for abortion rights groups as court finds state’s constitution guarantees a right to abortion A Pennsylvania court on Monday said that the state’s constitution guarantees a right to abortion while striking down a decades-long law banning the use of state Medicaid funds to cover abortion costs. The ruling by a divided seven-judge panel of the appellate-level commonwealth court is a major victory for Planned Parenthood and abortion clinic operators who first sued Pennsylvania over its Medicaid funding restrictions in 2019. Continue reading...

* Mara Flavia Souza Araujo drowns early on Saturday * Rescue crews locate body after athlete vanished A Brazilian fitness influencer has died after getting into difficulty during the swimming portion of an ironman event in Texas. Mara Flavia Souza Araujo was reported as a “lost swimmer” around 7.30am at the Ironman Texas in Lake Woodlands near Houston on Saturday. According to KPRC 2 News, safety crews could not immediately locate Araujo. The 38-year-old’s body was discovered around 90 minutes later in 10ft of water by divers. She was pronounced dead on the scene. Continue reading...

Cook, who will stay on as executive chair, praises head of hardware engineering, who will take over on 1 September Apple announced on Monday that it had named a replacement for Tim Cook as CEO after nearly 15 years, with head of hardware engineering John Ternus succeeding him on 1 September. Cook will stay at the company in the role of executive chair. “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company. I love Apple with all of my being,” Cook said in a press

Musician charged after the dismembered and decomposing body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez found in abandoned Tesla The singer D4vd pleaded not guilty to the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the teenage girl whose dismembered and decomposed body was found in the artist’s apparently abandoned Tesla in September. The 21-year-old, whose legal name is David Burke, was arraigned on Monday afternoon hours after Los Angeles county district attorney’s office announced the charges against him. Continue reading...

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Monday that planned talks with Israel aim to end hostilities and the occupation in southern Lebanon, even as Hezbollah and its supporters rejected the negotiations. Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has sharply criticised the Lebanese government’s negotiations with Israel, which are set to enter a second round on Thursday. After the first round of talks last week, US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day truce pausing more than six weeks of war...

Labour Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is out of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, the administration announced on Monday, after a series of alleged abuses of her position’s power, including having an affair with a subordinate and drinking alcohol on the job. Chavez-DeRemer is the third Trump cabinet member to leave her post after Trump fired his embattled homeland security secretary Kristi Noem in March and ousted Pam Bondi as attorney general earlier this month. Unlike other recent cabinet...

Apple on Monday announced that Tim Cook will step down as the tech giant’s chief executive officer in September, handing the top job to company veteran John Ternus. The announcement answers long-simmering questions about a successor for 65-year-old Cook, who said he will become executive chairman of the board when he cedes Apple’s CEO position. “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company,” Cook said in a...

A Canadian woman was shot dead and four other people were injured by a gunman on Monday at Mexico’s famed Teotihuacan archaeological site, authorities said. The gunman killed himself after opening fire at the popular tourist destination, home to pre-Aztecan pyramids, said Cristobal Castaneda, the security secretary for Mexico state, where the site is located. Videos on social media show the gunman firing periodic shots from halfway up the Pyramid of the Moon while tourists take cover behind...

A senior Cuban diplomat on Monday confirmed recent talks in Havana with US officials, as the communist-led island faces a deep crisis over US President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign. “I can confirm that a meeting between delegations from Cuba and the United States was recently held here in Cuba,” Alejandro Garcia, the foreign ministry’s director of Cuba-US affairs, told the Communist Party newspaper Granma. Garcia said the negotiators included assistant secretaries from the US State...

One person died and six were injured on Monday after a trolleybus veered off the road and crashed into a supermarket in Salzburg, Austria’s Red Cross said. “One person died despite attempts to resuscitate,” a Red Cross spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse. Police said a 55-year-old passer-by was so seriously injured that he died at the scene of the accident. They said the driver and five passengers were injured, while the Red Cross said a total of seven people were injured, two of them...

A planned fight among young people escalated into a shooting at a North Carolina park on Monday morning that left two teenage boys dead and five other people injured, authorities said. Winston-Salem police captain Kevin Burns said a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old died at the scene after being shot at around 10am at Leinbach Park, near a school. Five others between the ages of 14 and 19 were shot and suffered injuries ranging from critical to minor, Burns said at a news conference. Four of those...

David Burke, a 21-year-old musician known professionally as D4vd, pleaded not guilty on Monday to first-degree murder and other charges in the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, months after her dismembered body was found inside ‌the boot of his Tesla in Hollywood. Burke was charged with murder with special circumstances of lying in wait, committing a crime for financial gain and murdering a witness in an investigation. He faces a maximum prison sentence of life without parole. Los...

An Amish woman and her six children ranging in age from three to 11 were killed in a swift-moving house fire after an explosion that shook nearby houses in rural north-central Pennsylvania, authorities said on Monday. Firefighters responding to a report of an explosion and fire at a home in Lamar Township in Clinton County near Mill Hall on Sunday morning said seven people were trapped, but they could not search the house engulfed in flames, Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement. All...

A court in southern Turkey sentenced eight people on Monday to prison terms over a 2024 cable car accident in the coastal resort of Antalya that killed one passenger and injured seven. Four of the defendants were convicted of causing death and injury through negligence and were sentenced to seven-and-a-half years each, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The other four were sentenced to between three years and four months and five years for the same offence. In the April 12, 2024...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged Monday that he made the wrong judgment when he appointed Jeffrey Epstein’s friend Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington but said he would not have done so if he had known Mandelson had failed security checks. Starmer faced a barrage of opposition calls to resign as he tried to explain why Mandelson was given the job despite failing security vetting for the UK’s most important diplomatic post. Starmer brushed aside the demands, placing...

Elon Musk did not appear on Monday for a voluntary interview with Paris prosecutors, who had summoned the American tech billionaire over a probe into his social media platform X and AI chatbot Grok. Prosecutors said they had “taken note of the absence of the first people summoned”, without mentioning Musk’s name. The billionaire had dubbed the French authorities “retards” weeks earlier in a French-language X post. “The presence or absence [of the people summoned] is not an obstacle to continuing...

FBI ⁠Director Kash Patel filed a defamation lawsuit against the Atlantic and its reporter ⁠Sarah Fitzpatrick following the publication of an article on Friday alleging the director had a drinking problem that could pose a threat to national security. The magazine’s story, initially titled “Kash Patel’s Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job”, cited more than two dozen anonymous sources expressing concern about Patel’s “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences” that “alarmed officials at...

With global attention fixed on the US and Iranian shipping blockades in the Strait of Hormuz and how many vessels have traversed the critically important waterway, a leading Chinese investment bank has been calculating the long-term gains and losses and how they could rewrite the global economic order. The United States was on the horns of a dilemma over the strait that might herald an acceleration of Washington’s strategic retreat and its increasingly transactional relationships with other...

Pro-Russian former President Rumen Radev has won Bulgaria’s parliamentary election by a landslide, official results showed on Monday, crushing long-dominant political forces and possibly pushing the EU and Nato member state closer to Moscow. The performance, exceeding opinion poll forecasts, is one of the strongest results for a single party in a generation and may end, for now, the chronic instability that led to eight elections ‌in five years. Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria party had 44.7 per...

The chief of China’s top economic planner has outlined strategies and priorities to safeguard economic security, as Beijing reassesses its preparedness and vulnerabilities amid disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Israeli war on Iran. Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), warned external risks were mounting and said China had to reinforce its strategic reserves and response capabilities. “The evolution of the international situation is...

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s fourth visit to Beijing in four years has once again drawn attention across Europe and the Atlantic, but perhaps less scepticism than before. In an era marked by intensifying US-China rivalry, geopolitical fragmentation and the European Union’s emphasis on “de-risking”, Spain’s sustained engagement with China is often seen as a strategic divergence from Brussels. That reading, however, underestimates both Spain’s intentions and the broader shift under way...

Pope Leo lamented during an event in Angola on Monday that many people in the world were being “exploited by authoritarians and defrauded by the rich”, the latest example of a forceful new speaking style he has adopted on his ‌four-nation Africa tour. The first US pope, who has drawn the ire of President Donald Trump with his more outspoken comments, told worshippers at a Mass in Saurimo, near the Democratic Republic of Congo border, that violence and oppression went against the Christian...

Russia said on Monday it had arrested a German woman found with a home-made bomb in her backpack in what it alleged was a Ukrainian-hatched plot to blow up a security services facility in the south. Russia has arrested dozens of people throughout the four-year war, mostly its own citizens, on allegations of working for Ukraine to carry out sabotage attacks. There has been a string of high-profile arrests of Western citizens since Moscow ordered its troops into Ukraine – typically on espionage...

Pakistan moved ahead on Monday with preparations for a new round of talks between the United States and Iran days before a tenuous ceasefire is set to expire, even as renewed conflict around the Strait of Hormuz raised questions about whether the meeting would take place. Over the weekend, the US attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel, known as the Touska, that it said had tried to evade its blockade of Iranian ports. The US Navy ordered the ship to evacuate its engine room before...

China’s trade with Iran and Gulf countries fell sharply in March as restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz tightened amid the US-Israeli war on Iran. Newly released data by Chinese customs showed imports from Iran plunged 48 per cent year on year last month, while exports to the country dropped 90 per cent. Across the broader Middle East, exports to eight Persian Gulf economies – including Saudi Arabia and Qatar – fell by 57 per cent, while imports declined by nearly 33 per cent. The disruption...

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. Lesson for China? Iran’s low-cost 358 missile takes out million-dollar US assets 2. Hong Kong Sevens: Blitzboks win first title, Black Ferns go unbeaten again 3. The rupture: how Europe fell out of love with America 4. Closed? Open? Closed? Why is Iran changing course on the Strait of...

Yemen’s Tehran-aligned Houthi movement has threatened to besiege a second key Middle East waterway as Iran launched drone attacks against US Navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend after a diplomatic effort to end the war appeared to collapse. A closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, would effectively sever Saudi Arabia’s only remaining oil export route. The kingdom has been shipping up to 7 million barrels of crude per day through the...

US federal prosecutors said on Sunday an Iranian national was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for allegedly trafficking arms to Sudan on behalf of Tehran. Shamim Mafi, 44, is charged with “brokering the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses and millions of rounds of ammunition manufactured by Iran and sold to Sudan”, US Attorney Bill Essayli wrote in a social media post. A resident of the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills, Mafi “is an Iranian national who became a lawful permanent...

Israel on Monday told residents of south Lebanon ⁠to stay out of a belt of territory running the length of the border and not to approach the area of the Litani River, entrenching its grip over southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah. The US-mediated, 10-day ceasefire took effect on Thursday, largely halting the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah that spiralled out of the ‌conflict between the United States and Iran. But it remains fragile, with Israeli troops...

British police have arrested two teenagers in connection with a weekend arson attack on a synagogue in northwest London, as Jewish leaders express concern about a wave of incidents targeting their community. Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes of London’s Metropolitan Police Service on Monday said officers arrested two young men, aged 19 and 17, overnight in relation to the attack on the Kenton United Synagogue in the borough of Harrow. The department has made 15 arrests related to six attacks on...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a video address released on Sunday that Canada’s strong economic ties to the United States were once a strength but are now a weakness that must be corrected. In the 10-minute address, Carney spoke about his government’s efforts to strengthen the Canadian economy by attracting new investments and signing trade deals with other countries. “The world is more dangerous and divided,” Carney said. “The US has fundamentally changed its approach to trade,...

Pope Leo on Sunday recalled the “sorrow and great suffering” Angolans endured for centuries, as the American pope prayed at a Catholic shrine located at the site of an important hub of the African slave trade during Portugal’s colonial rule. Leo travelled to the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, nestled in the Angolan savannahs of baobab trees at the edge of the Kwanza River. It became a major pilgrimage destination after believers reported an appearance by the Virgin Mary around 1833. But the Church of...

Senior Cabinet ministers on Sunday rallied around UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose leadership is teetering over his decision to give Britain’s most important diplomatic job to Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished politician and friend of Jeffrey Epstein. Starmer will face restive lawmakers in Parliament on Monday to fight for his job after the explosive revelation that Mandelson was appointed ambassador to the United States despite failing security checks. Starmer says he is “furious” that...

A man shot dead eight children – seven of them his own – early Sunday in the southern US state of Louisiana in an incident of domestic violence that spanned three locations, police said. The early morning massacre at a grey house in the city of Shreveport was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States in more than two years, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. Two women were shot and seriously injured, including the mother of some of the slain children. Three boys and five...

The head of Ukraine’s police patrol, Yevhen Zhukov, has handed in his resignation after two police officers were seen fleeing the scene when a gunman opened fire in Kyiv, killing at least six. “As an officer with combat experience, I have decided to tender my resignation from my current post. I believe this is the right thing to do,” said the police general at a press conference in Kyiv on Sunday. It comes after an unknown gunman killed at least six people and injured more than a dozen others in...

About 1,000 animal welfare activists who tried to gain entry on Saturday to a beagle breeding and research facility in Wisconsin were turned back by police who fired rubber bullets and pepper spray into the crowd and arrested the group’s leader. It was the second attempt in as many months by protesters to take beagles from the Ridglan Farms facility in Blue Mounds, a small town about 25 miles (about 40 kilometres) southwest of Wisconsin’s capital, Madison. Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said...

Since America launched its “major combat operation” against Iran, several Nato allies have distanced themselves from Washington. Now America also risks losing ground in strategically important Southeast Asia to China. Could it face an erosion of influence similar to that suffered by Russia in Central Asia as a result of its “special military operation” in Ukraine? Soon after US President Donald Trump launched massive air and missile strikes on Iran on February 28, it became clear Washington...

Two enormous sandlike dunes at an old chemical processing plant in South Africa are at the centre of an exploratory US-backed project to extract highly sought-after rare earth elements from industrial mining waste. The Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project has US support through a US$50 million equity investment by the government’s International Development Finance Corporation and is part of accelerated US efforts to reduce its reliance on China for the minerals crucial for making electronic devices,...

Pro-Russian former president Rumen Radev is set for a runaway victory in Bulgaria’s election and may even secure a parliamentary majority, exit polls showed, potentially ending years of weak coalition governments and altering the European Union member’s foreign policy. An updated exit poll conducted by Sofia-based Alpha Research showed Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria with 44 per cent, far ahead of the long-dominant GERB party, led ‌by former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, at 12.5 per cent. If...

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) powered by large language models presents a significant breakthrough. For the first time, humans are communicating with computers using language instructions. This has enabled the use of AI agents to perform intelligent tasks involving some degree of advanced reasoning and complex logic. Vibe coding – the use of AI for programming and software development by lay persons – empowers end-user application deployments. One-person companies using AI agents to...

Three people in California have been sentenced for insurance fraud in a bizarre scam that involved someone dressed in a bear costume damaging luxury cars. The California Insurance Department said the three used a person in a bear suit to stage fake attacks inside a Rolls-Royce and two Mercedes in 2024, then submitted fraudulent claims seeking nearly US$142,000 in payouts from insurance companies. The department called it “Operation Bear Claw”. Two Los Angeles-area men and a woman pleaded no...

Pope Leo sought ⁠to downplay his feud ⁠with US President Donald Trump on Saturday, ⁠saying reporting about comments he has made so far during his Africa tour “has not been accurate in all its aspects”. Speaking to reporters in English aboard his flight to Angola for the third leg of his ambitious 10-day Africa tour, the first US pope said comments ‌he made two days earlier in Cameroon decrying that the world was being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants” were not aimed at Trump. That speech, said...

For the first time in its history – and in a striking departure from its long-standing doctrine of minimal economic intervention – Hong Kong is preparing to draw up a five-year plan. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has asked all policy bureaus to help draft proposals by the end of the year. To lead the exercise, veteran civil servant Janice Tse Siu-wah has come out of retirement. The Legislative Council, not to be left out, has formed a committee supported by six coordinating groups spanning...

Former US president Barack Obama met New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani for the first time on Saturday at a child care centre where they read to preschoolers and led a singalong. The meeting comes as Mamdani, a democratic socialist who marked his 100th day in office just over a week ago, is also trying to build a working relationship with Republican US President Donald Trump. Obama and Mamdani did not take questions after reading the book Alone and Together to the children and leading a singalong of...

Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Saturday she had “no regrets” about symbolically handing over her Nobel Peace Prize to US President Donald Trump in January. “There is a leader in the world, a head of state in the world who risked the lives of his country’s citizens for Venezuela’s freedom,” she told a news conference in Madrid. Machado presented her Nobel Prize to Trump when she met him in the White House just two weeks after he ordered US forces to attack Caracas and...

A Canadian man accused of helping 14 ⁠people in the province ⁠of Ontario kill themselves by selling a ⁠legal but deadly substance online will avoid a murder trial by pleading guilty to lesser charges, his lawyer said on Saturday. Kenneth Law, 60, will plead guilty to counselling or aiding suicide under a deal with Crown prosecutors that will see more serious ‌first-degree murder charges withdrawn, Matthew Gourlay of Henein Hutchison Robitaille said in an email. Law’s case is scheduled to return...

A gunman who killed at least six people in the streets of Kyiv on Saturday before taking hostages and barricading himself in a nearby supermarket has been shot dead by police, Ukrainian officials said. The head of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, Ihor Klymenko, said in a statement on social media that special tactical police units stormed the store after attempts to contact the gunman with a negotiator failed. The attacker was killed while resisting arrest, he said. Speaking to reporters at the...

Mexican ⁠President Claudia Sheinbaum and Spain’s Pedro Sanchez ⁠met in Barcelona on Saturday after a summit of progressive leaders, signalling a rapprochement during the first presidential visit to the Mediterranean country in eight years. The meeting took place during Sheinbaum’s visit to Barcelona to attend the fourth “In defence of democracy” summit, a gathering ‌of global leftist leaders to mobilise advocates of these movements against the far-right. Sheinbaum’s trip marks a softening of...

US President Donald Trump on Saturday directed his administration to speed up reviews of certain psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine, which recently has been embraced by combat veterans and conservative lawmakers despite having serious safety risks. Ibogaine is banned under the federal government’s most restrictive category for illegal, high-risk drugs. But the administration is taking steps to ease access to psychedelics that Trump said were already designated as potential breakthroughs by...

John Ternus, a low-profile but influential executive at Apple, could be next in line to replace the company’s longtime chief executive, Tim Cook, if he steps aside.

Apple’s corner office has been a seat from which executives like Steve Jobs changed how we interact with technology.

Mr. Patel accused the publication of defamation, asking for $250 million in damages. A spokeswoman for The Atlantic called the suit “meritless.”

Xavier Becerra, who once struggled to gain traction, has found growing support after Eric Swalwell left the race amid sexual harassment allegations.

Helped by a favorable national environment and strong candidate recruitment, Democrats are tied or ahead in four Republican-held seats, polls show.

Voters in Virginia will decide on Tuesday whether to redraw the state’s congressional map in an attempt to eliminate all but one safe Republican district.

The kea gained fame for learning to use a pebble to groom himself. Scientists were astounded by his next innovation.

The gunman opened fire at the famous archaeological site just outside Mexico City before killing himself, the authorities said.

A high-energy laser weapon and a power struggle between federal agencies brought a night of hassles to the city.

Shamar Elkins had been suffering severe mental health problems, his family said. His deadly rampage, which killed eight children, has profoundly scarred a community facing rising domestic violence.

The singer is accused of sexually abusing Celeste Rivas Hernandez before killing the teenager with a sharp weapon and mutilating her body. He has pleaded not guilty.

A new deal, which would allow The Onion to use the Infowars name and website address, must be approved by a Texas judge.

The Earth slips behind the moon in an iPhone video taken by Reid Wiseman during NASA’s Artemis II mission, a sequel to the iconic Earthrise photo taken by Apollo 8.

The space agency is counting on Jeff Bezos’ company to deliver equipment essential to the next moon landing, only two years away.

The scientist, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had built up grievances against his co-worker after five years of working together, court documents said.

Children from New York schools are consistently winning national chess championships, and programs dedicated to teaching young people the game are booming.

The comically self-serious and outrageous 1936 morality tale, which warned the public about marijuana, became an unintentional parody and midnight-movie classic decades later.

The new Title X guidance from the Trump administration mentions contraception only once.

As the sale of Warner Bros. Discovery to Paramount Skydance hurtles toward board approval, David Zaslav is about to be more than an accidental mogul.

The ride-hailing giant has now lost the first two of more than 3,000 pending federal lawsuits.

Faced with a devastating snow drought and record-high March temperatures, some resorts closed early. But at Aspen Mountain, die-hards celebrated the last day of the season on Sunday.

He played the handsome Austin Reed on the NBC daytime soap opera “Days of Our Lives” in more than 400 episodes.

Rex Heuermann, who pleaded guilty to murdering eight women, told his wife that he killed seven of the victims in a downstairs room in their Long Island home, she said in a Peacock documentary.