Minimalist News

Trump Toughens Terms Of Iran Deal Framework, As Bessent Pinpoints Tehran's 'Big Mistake' Summary NYT on Sunday: President Trump has toughened the terms of a potential framework for a deal to end the war in Iran. Washington seeks to ratchet pressure , but Tehran s till not budging on issue of remaining nuclear material . Bessent describes the "big mistake" Iran made to Fox - attacking its neighbors & losing friends; also says of the Iranians " they're going to have to start taking down the wells . " Israeli PM Netanyahu says he has "instructed the Israeli military to

America's LNG Boom Is Real - But China Is Planning Beyond It Authored by Cyril Widdershoven via OilPrice.com , The Iran war and Hormuz disruption have turbocharged U.S. LNG exports, giving Washington a major short-term energy dominance boost as Asia and Europe scramble for alternative supply. China, however, enters the crisis from a position of greater energy resilience after years of investment in domestic production. The U.S. still has a major long-term opportunity, but sustaining dominance will require turning crisis-driven demand into lasting partnerships. The Iran war has handed the United States a rare opportunity: a new dawn of energy

Did Iran Get Its Hands On A US Stealth Missile? JASSM-ER Wreckage Sparks Reverse-Engineering Fears The U.S. committed nearly its entire stockpile of stealthy JASSM-ER cruise missiles to the military campaign against Iran and has fired at least 1,000 of these long-range, stealthy, precision cruise missiles to hit high-value IRGC targets. One of the unavoidable risks of deploying advanced weapons, such as the JASSM-ER, is that unexploded or partially intact systems can fall into enemy hands, allowing adversaries to study U.S. technology, refine countermeasures, and accelerate the development of copycat versions. A new report from Army Recognition , citing defense

Manufacturing Consent For Trump's Invasion Of Cuba Authored by Natasha Bannan via Common Dreams , Yves here. I wish I had the time to research and unpack more clearly is the set of legal theories the US is abusing to prosecute Nicholas Maduro and his wife and now to justify the arrest of Raul Castro and the conquest of Cuba. The US seriously takes the position that we can impose strained invocations of US rules against terrorism and engage in extrajudicial seizures, as in kidnapping. The article below describes how we are now putting a lot of weight on the

Congress Quietly Moves To Intertwine US, Israeli Militaries On Formal Level There are some stealth moves afoot by the Trump administration and Congress, which are poised to formalize the long-standing close US-Israel relationship, on the level of a formal defense pact . A sweeping new legislative proposal in Congress is moving to more deeply intertwine and combine the two countries' military arsenals. The House of Representatives' version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released this past week contains Section 224 , devoted to military integration with the name "United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative." The section lays out

Gold Waits As Global Markets Tempt The Unprepared Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via VonGreyerz.gold, 2026 is screaming “Uh-Oh” signals from nearly every sector and asset class with alarming yet eerily ignored clarity. This explains why the longer-term case for gold couldn’t be more obvious, regardless of natural price retracements in the near-term. In fact, if global financial conditions were not otherwise so disturbing, this historical moment in time would be fascinating. But rather than just say this, let me show you. Rising Yields: The Most Misunderstood/Important Signal of 2026? For example, the $145T global bond market, which is $20T greater

Non-English-Speaking Bus Driver Faces Manslaughter Charges After Horror Virginia Crash Kills Entire Family A commercial bus driver, who federal officials say could not speak English, faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter, with additional charges likely, after his charter bus plowed into vehicles on a Virginia highway Friday morning, killing five people, including an entire Greenfield, Massachusetts, family of four. The New York Post reports that Virginia State Police revealed the 48-year-old bus driver, Jing S. Dong, was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter and will likely face additional charges after killing five people, including an entire family of four

Parabolic Semiconductor Rally: What Breaks The Trade? Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, AI Validation Fuels A Ninth Weekly Advance The headline tape made fresh history. The S&P 500 closed Friday at 7,580.06 , finishing up 1.43% on the week and posting its ninth consecutive weekly gain. That’s the longest weekly winning streak since 2024, and only the 5th time since 1965 that has occurred. While markets previously saw weakness following such streaks, the 24- and 52-week outcomes were primarily positive, except in 1989. However, the Russell 2000 actually fell 0.59% to 2,919, a reminder that the small-cap participation everyone

"Well-Funded" NGO Machine Behind Newark Anti-ICE Chaos; Bessent Signals Nonprofit Crackdown Anti-ICE demonstrations outside Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, an ICE immigration detention facility, escalated in the overnight hours as the far-left and well-funded maximum pressure campaign entered its ninth day on Saturday. The continued mobilization only suggests a coordinated pressure operation, with dark-money-funded NGOs appearing to provide organizational and financial support. Citizen journalist Nick Sortor went undercover at the anti-ICE encampment outside Delaney Hall in Newark on Saturday night, documenting what he described as far-left revolutionaries training their so-called 'woke warriors' to combat ICE agents. Sortor explained: I

Is A New Iron Curtain Inevitable? Authored by Andrew Korybko, Russia’s consequent focus on the western front might embolden US-backed NATO member Turkiye to accelerate its power play in the south at the risk of sparking another regional crisis after Ukraine. Russian Ambassador-at-Large Artyom Bulatov warned in a recent interview that “Westerners, with energy worthy of a better cause, are erecting a new ‘Iron Curtain’, seeking to make irreversible the rupture – provoked by themselves – of socio-economic, trade, transport, interpersonal, cultural, and historical ties that have been built in the region not over years, but over centuries.” He also

Immigrant Hordes Set Paris Ablaze Because Their Soccer Team Won In case you needed further justification for denying your woman's request for a vacation in Paris, hordes of migrants gave your position another boost over Saturday night , as they rampaged across the "City of Light" and other French locales, setting structures and vehicles ablaze, smashing the windows of occupied cars, destroying shops and unleashing other varied forms of mayhem. And they were doing this because they were happy...about a soccer game . La Tour Eiffel est noyée sous un nuage de fumée après un départ de feu sur les

Intercepted Iranian Missile Injures 5 Americans At Kuwaiti Air Base; Tehran Identifies Two Key MOU Sticking Points Summary Iran is pushing forward legislation formalizing control/management of Hormuz Strait shipping , which flies in the face of Trump warnings & conditions. An Iranian Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missile targeted Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base , a key operational hub for the U.S. Air Force. BBG says missile intercepted, but falling debris struck part of the base, injuring five Americans . Two more American drones reported destroyed or damaged in the Kuwait base attack (DropSite/BBG). Iran says two big MOU agreement issues

"It's All So Tiresome": UK's Social Media Ban Trudges Ever Onward Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org, The UK government’s “consultation” on social media harm is over, and – brace yourselves – it turns out they’re going to have to do something about it. I know, I was shocked too. The main talking point is that “social media is like cigarettes” . Everyone is saying that, it’s the meme of the day . It’s a sentiment originally taken from a new report submitted to the consultation by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. Titled “Growing up in an online world”

More Mystery Drone Incidents In EU Skies As Putin Mocks: "The Russians Are Coming!" Flights at Germany's Munich Airport were once again temporarily suspended on Saturday after a drone sighting was reported , eliciting a response from a large number of police and security services personnel. Euronews reviews in the wake of the incident, which ended with the key European hub resuming regular operations after no UAV was found or identified, "Munich Airport closed twice within 24 hours in October following suspected drone sightings." This is the latest in a months-long spate of similar air traffic disruptions due to mysterious

Le Pen Leads Every Major Rival In New French Presidential Runoff Polling Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News, Marine Le Pen would beat every major rival in a second-round French presidential election runoff, according to new polling that hypothesized her eligibility to stand in the election expected in April next year. A Toluna-Harris Interactive poll for M6 and RTL, conducted on May 27, found Le Pen ahead in all three tested runoff scenarios when she is the National Rally candidate. The strongest result came against far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with Le Pen taking 67 percent to his 33 percent.

The Nocebo Effect: The Real PsyOp Behind Fake Pandemics Authored by Mike Adams via Natural News.com, The Nocebo Effect Is the Hidden Engine of Modern Pandemic Narratives When authorities tell you to be afraid of a virus, your mind can make symptoms real, even when no pathogen exists. This is not conspiracy theory; it's documented science, and it has been weaponized against the public for decades. The nocebo effect -- the evil twin of the placebo -- is the key to understanding how pandemics are manufactured as psychological operations. The word "nocebo" means "I will harm" in Latin, and that's

Seattle To Declare "State Of Emergency" To Protect Transgender Refugees? The ultimate claim to victimhood is the claim that a group of people are "refugees" from mass persecution or "genocide." The political left covets this victim status more than anything else because, within first world liberal societies, refugees have immediate political capital and access to easy money. Within every leftist narrative there is an agenda for power and a life without adult responsibility. It is perhaps ironic that thousands of progressive activists and LGBT advocates are leaving red states over imaginary oppression after they spent years attacking conservatives for escaping

Shortages And Rationing Loom As Global Oil Reserves Fall At Fastest Rate In History Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, No matter what happens now, the world is facing a very painful energy crisis . Let’s be as wildly optimistic as we possibly can and assume that Iran agrees to allow free passage through the Strait of Hormuz with absolutely no tolls or restrictions starting tomorrow. Before normal traffic through the Strait could resume, Iran would first have to remove all of the mines that they have laid in the Strait, and that could take months. Once

Meet The Woke Vegan "Christian" Democrat Senate Candidate From Texas For at least a decade the progressive movement has been obsessed with infiltrating every aspect of American life and culture, even going so far as co-opting Christian churches in an attempt to claim them as "safe spaces" for woke ideology. This might sound odd to those who grew up in the devoutly atheist era of liberalism, but those days are long gone and seem quaint in comparison to today's cavalcade of circus freaks. Well, despite their crushing defeat in 2024 the parade of unhinged woke Democrats has not abated. In

Three Debates Americans Have Had For 250 Years Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times, George Washington rode west from Philadelphia in command of 13,000 troops on a mission that would test his leadership unlike any previous campaign. These men were not soldiers in the Continental Army. They were citizen militiamen—forerunners of the National Guard—called up from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey. And Washington was no longer simply a general. He was president of the United States. The year was 1794, and Washington had made one of the most fateful decisions of his presidency: to use armed force

Ballots are being cast in the first round of the South American nation’s presidential elections Colombians are casting ballots in the first round of the South American nation’s presidential election, choosing between candidates with radically diverging visions for the future of peace in a country haunted by decades of armed conflict. The vote on Sunday, seen as a referendum on outgoing President Gustavo Petro’s policies, comes 10 years after Colombia signed a historic peace pact with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). Continue reading...

Sunday’s presidential vote is contest between left and right – and between contradictory proposals for dealing with the decades-long armed conflict Mateo Pérez Rueda was one internship away from completing a degree in political science. The 24-year-old also worked as a bicycle delivery rider and sold fruit salads and juice to finance his passion: the Colombian independent digital magazine El Confidente . On 4 May he travelled to Briceño, in the western province of Antioquia, to report on the long-running conflict between the army, paramilitaries and dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). Continue reading...

Opposition says constitutional amendment would give bill ruling party carte blanche to overturn will of voters Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Amid fierce criticism from opposition groups, Mexico ’s senate has passed ‌a constitutional amendment to include “foreign interference” as grounds to annul election results in the country. The bill, which was presented by the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, defines foreign interference as “illicit financing, propaganda, the systematic ⁠dissemination of misinformation, digital manipulation, and ⁠the intervention of foreign governments ⁠or agencies”. Continue reading...

Marco Rubio made announcement after meeting president’s far-right challenger Flávio Bolsonaro Brazil will not be treated as a “tinpot country,” the country’s president, Luiz Inácio da Silva, said on Friday after the United States designated Brazil’s two largest criminal gangs, the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command, as foreign terrorist organisations. The announcement, made by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, on Thursday, is being widely seen in Brazil as a setback for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president who had strongly opposed the designation – and a boost for Lula’s main challenger in October’s presidential election,

Kenneth Law, who sold lethal chemicals online with instructions on how to use them, admits counselling or aiding suicide ‘It was too easy’: families ask how Kenneth Law enabled so many suicides A Canadian man who mailed “suicide packets” of poison to more than 100 people in dozens of countries – including Canada, the UK, the US, Italy, Australia and New Zealand – has pleaded guilty to 14 counts of assisting suicide. Kenneth Law appeared in a packed courtroom in Newmarket, Ontario, on Friday to enter the plea after prosecutors agreed to withdraw 14 murder charges. Sentencing is expected to

Shinjiro Koizumi says Japan valued as a ‘peace-loving’ nation while China expands military capabilities ‘without sufficient transparency’ Japan’s defence minister took a veiled swipe at China on Sunday, pledging to keep strengthening the military despite Beijing’s criticism of Tokyo’s increasingly muscular security stance. Under the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi , Japan has quickened its pivot to a more proactive defence policy, further shaking off – with US encouragement – its pacifist outlook in place since the end of the second world war. Continue reading...

Minister at Singapore defence summit also reveals Australia to buy only secondhand Aukus submarines from US Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The defence minister, Richard Marles, has said the “seabed is a battlefield” in a combative speech urging Beijing to be more transparent about its maritime operations, and taking aim at weak international controls over so-called “shadow-fleet” vessels. The warning came as the US, UK and Australia announced a new Aukus project to develop new underwater drone technology to protect undersea cables. Continue reading...

Two still missing as divers make their way deeper into cave through muddy water and sharp rocks to find them Four more miners who were trapped in a flooded cave in Laos for 10 days have been freed by divers, but two people are still missing as rescuers continue to crawl through narrow, deluged tunnels and sharp rocks to find them. The first of the party of seven men was rescued on Friday in a perilous rescue mission which has required teams to drain water from the cave and navigate collapse hazards. Continue reading...

Hong Qi, who orchestrated protest against Communist government, claims interpreter on 101 call launched political tirade A Chinese dissident who orchestrated an anti-government protest in China after fleeing to the UK has claimed that a “pro-regime” interpreter used by a British police force berated him when he sought help. Hong Qi, who made headlines last year after using a mobile phone while in the UK to remotely project anti-regime slogans on to a building in his home city, Chongqing, contacted police after discovering that his bank accounts had been frozen. Continue reading...

Undermanned side upsets finals-bound ACT Brumbies 21-19 Players come together to mark victory and club’s expected demise An undermanned Moana Pasifika have capped off their potential final match with a stirring victory, upsetting the finals-bound ACT Brumbies 21-19. But there were mixed feelings as players celebrated a rare win before coming together with staff to mark the occasion of the club’s farewell game and expected demise with an emotionally charged hymn. Continue reading...

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation now the most popular political party in the country, Redbridge Group/Accent Research poll suggests. Follow today’s news live Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is the most popular political party in the country, a survey suggests. AAP reports the Redbridge Group/Accent Research poll, published on Monday by The Australian Financial Review, shows support for One Nation has risen four points to 31%. Older people told us they want care they can trust, close to home and at a fair price. We have listened, and Labor’s getting things moving in the right direction to ensure every older Australian can

The Bristol trip-hop group will perform in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney in August Massive Attack are set to tour Australia for the first time in 16 years. The influential British trip-hop group, made up of Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall, will play Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney in August. The upcoming tour will be the band’s fourth appearance in Australia and their first Australian shows since 2010. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Costings commissioned by independent MP Monique Ryan show possible savings for university graduates, as Hecs debts increase by $1bn on Monday Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast University graduates would save more than $3bn over a decade if the government changed the date of indexation on Hecs debts , dubbed a “broken system” in its current form by independent MP Monique Ryan. About 3 million students and graduates will see their Hecs debts increase by a combined $1bn on Monday, when they are indexed by 2.8%. Continue reading...

Buyers abandon auctions and Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra median house prices end May lower than they were at the end of 2025 Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Home prices in Australia’s capital cities have begun to fall, with experts predicting the decline could last at least a year and wipe as much as 10% from values. The median capital city home price fell in May, the first decline since January 2025, as high interest rates and inflation stretched buyer budgets, Cotality reported on Monday. Auction success hit a new low for the year.

Wind gusts up to 125km/h forecast to hit city as residents urged to stay away from windows Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Intense storms are lashing the western coast of Australia with an unusually deep low pressure system packing powerful winds and heavy rain. The extreme weather eventbrought wind gusts of up to 125 km/h to Perth and communities along Western Australia’s coast on Sunday afternoon. Continue reading...

Interior minister says 57 officers injured as rioters set fires and vandalise shops in about 15 cities French police have detained 780 people involved in violent clashes in Paris and other French cities that erupted on Saturday night after Paris Saint-Germain defeated Arsenal to win the Champions League. The interior minister, ­Laurent Nuñez, said 57 officers were wounded, with most suffering minor injuries, as football fans set off fires and vandalised shops. One small group even tried to storm a Paris police station. Continue reading...

There is hope that a change to building regulations could resurrect music clubs, which have been hit by rising rents, social shifts and noise disputes A move by the German government to reclassify nightclubs to distinguish them from amusement and adult entertainment facilities could give a much-needed boost to the country’s struggling nightlife, industry advocates say. Under a fundamental change to building regulations approved by Friedrich Merz’s cabinet last week, nightclubs will be formally recognised as providing cultural and artistic value, making it more difficult for developers to evict venue operators in favour of new construction. Continue reading...

Reggio Emilia prefect stops gig after Jewish community ‘concerns’ over rapper’s previous antisemitic remarks A Kanye West concert in Italy has been cancelled over “public order and safety issues”. The 48-year-old rapper, who changed his name to Ye in 2021, was due to perform at the Pulse of Gaia festival at the RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia on 18 July, but the city’s prefect, Salvatore Angieri, stopped the gigs after “concerns” from the local Jewish community over previous antisemitic remarks by West. Continue reading...

Four were part of seven-person group that had traveled to US to ascend North America’s tallest mountain Three people have died after falling while climbing Alaska ’s Mount McKinley, according to officials. A fourth climber has been rescued. The four were part of a seven-person group that had traveled to the United States to ascend Mount McKinley, also known as Denali, North America’s tallest mountain, according to information released by the Latvian Mountaineering Association . Continue reading...

Experts say AI firm’s engagement with Vatican risks creating ‘feelgood’ discourse that lacks critical examination Why did Anthropic’s founder sit beside the pope during a warning about AI? In the first major written teaching of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV took artificial intelligence to task. The pontiff delineated the technology’s most concerning threats to humanity: replacing workers , accelerating war and exploiting the environment . At a ceremony honoring the holy teaching the day of its release at the Vatican, the pope was flanked by an unusual guest speaker: Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, one of the people behind the AI

Experts say capture is largely symbolic, but it complicates efforts to extend the ceasefire between US and Iran Israeli troops have captured a clifftop castle as they made their deepest incursion into Lebanon in more than 26 years, further shattering a nominal US-brokered ceasefire and complicating efforts to extend the separate truce between Washington and Tehran. After days of intense fighting and airstrikes in nearby villages, the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the military had captured Beaufort Castle, also known as Qalaat al-Shaqif, which it had used as a base during its previous occupation of southern Lebanon between 1982

The far shorter Middle East war has rapidly revealed the strategic weakness of US firepower in an interconnected world In a 1965 speech justifying the war in Vietnam, Lyndon B Johnson argued that the goal was to ensure “every country can shape its own destiny” since only in such a world could the US secure its own freedom. However, he also admitted “such were infirmities of man that force must often precede reason, and the waste of war, the works of peace”. It was the kind of elegant justification of the country’s moral mission to which successive US presidential speechwriters

Sky News Arabia to retain name in brand licensing deal after criticism of its coverage of atrocities in Sudan Sky is exiting its TV news joint venture with the United Arab Emirates, Sky News Arabia, which has been criticised for its coverage of the war in Sudan, with accusations of genocide denial. Sky and its partner IMI – the investment vehicle controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the vice-president of the UAE and owner of Manchester City – have announced a new commercial deal in which the UK-based broadcaster will relinquish all strategic and operational ownership of the 24-hour

Sobering reality for president after three-month odyssey that threatens to take him back to where he started After the hubristic beginnings came the reality. The road travelled since the most momentous foreign policy decision of his presidency seems to have delivered Donald Trump to a sobering destination: that Iran has been the nemesis of several US presidents before him for a reason and is an adversary not to be taken lightly. Continue reading...

Some Iranians hoped foreign intervention would unseat the regime but instead the US-Israel war has damaged livelihoods and strengthened those in power As Donald Trump swung this week between threats of new military action against Iran and predictions that a lasting ceasefire deal was imminent, many Iranians were left exhausted and gripped by uncertainty. Despite the partial lifting of an internet shutdown that began when the war started on 28 February, fears of worsening repression at home have also fuelled pessimism about the future among some of those to whom the Guardian spoke. Continue reading...

Truck was carrying Afghan families returning Pakistan when it overturned, official says A truck overturned in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing 18 people on board including 10 children, a provincial official told Agence France-Presse. Deadly traffic crashes are common in Afghanistan, due in part to poor roads after decades of conflict, dangerous driving and a lack of regulation. Continue reading...

New digital marking system is aimed at reducing human errors but many students say it has resulted in wrong grades A national outcry has erupted in India after more than 400,000 students requested copies of their answer sheets amid mounting complaints of errors in the marking of the country’s most important school-leaving examinations. Within days of the grade 12 exam results being issued, students began reporting marking discrepancies they linked to a new digital marking system. Continue reading...

Rare albino buffalo spared due to security concerns over unusual level of public interest in 700kg animal A rare albino buffalo in Bangladesh nicknamed “Donald Trump” for its distinctive blond tuft has been spared from Eid al-Adha sacrifice after a last-minute government intervention, according to a home ministry official. The nearly 700kg (1,543lb) animal had already been sold for ritual slaughter when authorities stepped in, citing security concerns after a surge of public interest before Thursday’s festival. Continue reading...

Lack of Pfas regulations raised in parliament after Guardian revealed former Miteni plant bought by Indian company Protests over the production of cancer-linked Pfas chemicals have spread across India, after an investigation revealed that an Italian factory shut down due to an environmental scandal was bought by an Indian company and partly rebuilt. At the end of last year, the Guardian revealed that the former Miteni plant in Vicenza had been acquired by the Indian company Laxmi Organic Industries. The factory produced Pfas and was shut down in 2018 after being linked to one of Italy’s worst environmental contamination scandals.

Senior lawyers call on prime minister to request Indian prosecutors drop charges that would breach double jeopardy rule Four senior lawyers, including the former attorney general Dominic Grieve, have written to Keir Starmer urging him to request that Indian prosecutors drop charges against the British national Jagtar Singh Johal on the basis that continued prosecution would be in manifest breach of the double jeopardy rule which prevents someone being tried twice for the same offence. Johal has been held in an Indian jail for eight years, and in March last year was acquitted of the terrorist charges laid against him

Social housing landlords to be able to evict perpetrators, while right-to-buy tenancy requirements to rise Social housing landlords will be able to evict domestic abuse perpetrators under a new bill, which will also increase the tenancy required before residents qualify for the right-to-buy scheme from three to 10 years in England. The government said the bill, which will be debated in the House of Lords on Monday, would fix “the long-term decline in social housing” and offer new protections for social tenants who were subjected to domestic abuse. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Papers to be published on Monday cast doubt on assurances provided by senior Whitehall officials Embarrassing WhatsApps, but no vetting report: what will be in the new release of Mandelson files? A trove of government documents about Peter Mandelson contains no record of any measures taken to mitigate serious security concerns over his appointment as Washington ambassador, the Guardian has learned. Multiple sources who have seen or been briefed on the files, which will be published on Monday, say there is no detail about any steps put in place to deal with flags raised about his associations with senior

Sarah Wynn-Williams did not speak during event after lawyers warned of possible sanctions from tech firm Facebook whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams was forced to sit in silence on stage at an event at Hay festival, after lawyers advised her not to speak because of ongoing legal action brought by Meta. Wynn-Williams, whose bestselling memoir, Careless People, details her years working at Facebook, was due to appear in conversation with the investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr and academic Tim Wu. Continue reading...

Attempted murder investigation launched after police officer struck by vehicle in Downpatrick Police have launched an attempted murder investigation after an officer was hit by a stolen police vehicle in Northern Ireland. The officer, who fired his gun during the incident at 4.45am on Sunday, had been chasing a suspect on foot after another vehicle had earlier failed to stop for police in the Fountain Street area in Downpatrick, County Down. Continue reading...

Proposal requires Rene Haas to steer US-listed British company to ‘exceptional growth metrics’ The chief executive of Arm is in line for a pay package that would make him a billionaire if he hits targets to turn the microchip firm into the UK’s first trillion-dollar company. Arm, which is listed in New York but retains its global headquarters in Cambridge, has proposed a pay scheme for Rene Haas in which he will receive generous annual share awards plus a maximum bonus of $800m if he can hit certain “exceptional growth metrics”. Continue reading...

Security came to inspect aircraft in Newark after report of Bluetooth device with a ‘certain four-letter word’ A United Airlines plane bound for Spain from Newark Liberty international airport turned around mid-flight on Saturday due to a possible security threat. That came one day after another United Airlines flight bound for Minneapolis from Chicago was diverted to Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday because an unruly passenger evidently tried to breach the cockpit. Continue reading...

New data suggests success in Gavin Newsom’s crackdown, as Illinois, Hawaii and Florida also report notable decreases California reported one of the largest decreases in homelessness over the past year, according to a new report from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud). The Golden state recorded a total unhoused population of 181,934 in 2025 – an almost 3% decrease since the year prior, placing it among the five states with the largest decreases from 2024. However, more significant drops were recorded in Illinois (44%), Hawaii (41%), Florida (11%) and New York (8%). Continue reading...

Visits were canceled after detainees began hunger strike, which prompted heated protests outside detention center Family visitation at the Delaney Hall immigration detention center is being restored to at least part of the facility, New Jersey’s governor and US homeland security officials confirmed on Sunday morning, after a week during which heated demonstrations at the site were met with aggressive policing tactics. Meanwhile, families of detained immigrants grappled with conflicting information about exactly whom among them would get visitation after the announcement from governor Mikie Sherrill and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). And local officials by Sunday had

US senator says Platner, whose wife says he sent sexually explicit messages to other women, has ‘questions to answer’ A high-profile Democrat has expressed concerns with party candidate Graham Platner’s Maine US Senate campaign amid revelations that Platner reportedly sent a number of sexually explicit messages to other women while married. “Yes, I have concerns,” Cory Booker , the US senator from New Jersey, said Sunday on ABC’s This Week when host Jonathan Karl when asked about the Platner revelations. “ That guy has questions to answer – and that’s what campaigns are for.” Continue reading...

Doug Burgum complains some musicians ‘segmented their audiences’ after artists back out of 250th anniversary event The Trump administration’s interior secretary, Doug Burgum, complained on Sunday that some musicians “seem to have segmented their audiences” after artists bailed on participating in a concert series planned for the 250th anniversary of the US’s independence. In the interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Burgum also dismissed calls to publicly identify who had made donations for the concert series – and maintained it was a “nonpartisan” event despite Donald Trump referring to it as a rally. Continue reading...

Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century, the military said on Sunday. The taking of Beaufort Castle, near the city of Nabatiyeh, followed days of air strikes and intense fighting in nearby villages between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants. The capture marked a major Israeli advance in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, which began on March 2, when...

A United Airlines flight bound for Spain from Newark Liberty International Airport turned around mid-flight on Saturday due to a possible security threat in-flight. The flight departed at around 6pm local time for Palma de Mallorca, Spain, but landed back at Newark at 9.37pm, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The airline said there were 190 passengers and 12 crew members on the Boeing 767 aircraft. According to air traffic control audio, security came to inspect the...

French police detained 780 people involved in violent clashes in Paris and other French cities that erupted on Saturday night after Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League title. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 57 officers were wounded, with most suffering minor injuries, as football fans set off fires and vandalised shops. One small group even tried to storm a Paris police station. Nuñez said at a news conference on Sunday that “the situation has been largely brought under...

Sun Tzu wrote that “fighting and winning all your battles is not the height of skill; subduing the enemy without fighting is the height of skill”. That maxim offers perhaps the clearest lens to interpret the logic of American grand strategy under US President Donald Trump. What many dismiss as inconsistency may conceal a patient strategic deception. The aim is not direct confrontation, but the quiet reshaping of the global economy in support of long-term US power. The US wants to improve its...

Colombians will cast ballots on Sunday in what is likely to be the first round of a presidential election, choosing between a leftist pledging to expand reforms begun by the current government, an ‌independent businessman promising a security crackdown and a right-wing senator seeking to become the country’s first female leader. Leftist Ivan Cepeda, a 63-year-old senator, is leading opinion polls, but looks likely to fall well short of the 50 per cent-plus support needed to avoid a June run-off....

Nigerian politician Peter Obi will run for president in the West African nation’s January elections, ensuring that the opposition to incumbent Bola Tinubu will once again be fragmented. Obi, second runner-up in the 2023 ballot narrowly won by Tinubu, was ratified late on Saturday as the candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress party. In his acceptance speech, he pledged to tackle insecurity, double health insurance coverage, and “invest heavily in schools, teachers, technology, and...

The excitement around SpaceX, fuelled by the targeted US$1.8 trillion valuation for its initial public offering and its promising Starship rocket development, has revived a familiar claim: that SpaceX is on course to dominate the space market. Commercially, that view is understandable. SpaceX conducts more space launches than anyone and at very competitive costs, its Starlink satellite internet company provides strong in-house demand, and it has a scale advantage unmatched by any other private...

AI is getting expensive – and companies are starting to rethink their embrace of the disruptive technology. Playing by a well-worn Silicon Valley playbook, artificial intelligence companies charged rock-bottom prices to hook customers after ChatGPT burst onto the scene. Kevin Simback of start-up incubator Delphi Labs calls it the era of “subsidised intelligence” – meaning investors were basically footing the bill so companies could offer AI on the cheap. “But the tides are beginning to turn,”...

The Trump administration has walked back its announcement that non-citizens seeking permanent US residency, commonly called a green card, would need to return to their home country to apply, The New York Times reported. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the newspaper on Friday that its policy announcement last week was not a requirement for all applicants, but would rather be implemented “on a case-by-case basis”. A Trump administration spokesman, Zach Kahler, said on May 22 that...

The world is not “well prepared” for the next pandemic, Tom Frieden, the former head of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said, citing the current response to the Ebola outbreak and cuts to US public health efforts. “This Ebola outbreak is not going to cause a pandemic, it’s not going to cause a significant risk to large numbers of Americans,” Frieden, the CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, said. “It’s a stress test, and it’s a stress test the world is not doing well at. I would say so...

Russia’s state ⁠nuclear energy company Rosatom said on Saturday that a Ukrainian drone had struck the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, causing no damage to key equipment, but the Kyiv military ‌denied it. Rosatom’s head Alexei Likhachev called the incident “deliberate” and said it left a hole in the wall of a turbine hall. “This afternoon, a Ukrainian kamikaze combat drone struck the turbine hall building of Power Unit No 6, resulting in ⁠a subsequent detonation,”...

US President Donald Trump ⁠will headline an event commemorating the ⁠nation’s 250th anniversary on the National Mall next month after several musical performers scheduled to appear in the celebration cancelled, citing concerns about its association with him Danielle Alvarez, an adviser to Freedom 250, ⁠told The Washington Post that “Trump will ⁠personally kick off this historic celebration on Wednesday, June 24 in an opening ceremony celebrating America’s 250th birthday”. The president had said...

The body of a dead humpback whale known as “Timmy” has been brought ashore on the Danish island of Anholt, where experts hope a postmortem examination will shed light on how it died. A live streaming by the News5 broadcaster showed a vehicle slowly dragging the bloated carcass out of the shallow water by a rope onto the beach on Saturday morning, leaving behind a deep furrow in the sand. The Danish environmental protection agency urged people not to approach the whale as there is a risk of...

There is a good deal more to the rapid rise in bond yields around the world, not least in Asia, than meets the eye. It suggests a recognition by financial markets that governments are spending beyond their means, tax revenues and borrowing power. The implication is that either taxes need to rise or public spending needs to fall, or alternatively that financial markets, stock markets in particular, must shift their priorities away from glamour stocks in the tech and artificial intelligence (AI)...

The Trump administration’s immigration surge into US cities last year resulted in 668,000 job losses, creating a “chilling effect” that pervaded local economies, hurt businesses and affected American-born workers, according to a report from the Brookings Institution. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement campaign adopted “shock and awe” tactics that were broader and far more visible than previous enforcement efforts, including one started under former president George W. Bush in 2008 and...

A federal judge ordered US President Donald Trump to respond to “grievous allegations” that his deal with the government to create a US$1.8 billion fund to resolve his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was the result of a “fraud” on the court. In an order on Friday, US District Judge Kathleen Williams gave the president’s personal lawyers until June 12 to respond to a request by a group of former federal judges that she reopen the proceedings to investigate conduct by the president...

When Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr accepted the Asean gavel from Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim in Kuala Lumpur last October, the script was already written: a packed agenda, South China Sea diplomacy in the spotlight and a regional digital economy deal to clinch. Then the world changed. On February 28, US and Israeli forces struck Iran. The Strait of Hormuz, an artery of global shipping through which 98 per cent of the Philippines’ crude oil imports travel, became a war zone....

A former Southern California mayor pleaded guilty on Friday to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Eileen Wang, who stepped down as the mayor of Arcadia earlier this month, was charged in April with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She pleaded guilty to doing the bidding of Chinese officials by sharing articles favourable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 56-year-old was elected in...

⁠A judge on Friday ordered the removal of US President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Centre for the ‌Performing Arts, ruling that the iconic Washington venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress. US District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington directed the ⁠Trump administration to take down all physical signage ‌bearing Trump’s name and to eliminate any references to a “Trump Kennedy ‌Centre” from official materials within 14 ⁠days. “The ⁠Kennedy Centre’s organic statute makes...

China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi said ‌on Friday that Canada could surpass its goal of increasing exports to China by 50 per cent by 2030 during a meeting with Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand. Wang said he thought Canada’s exports to China could increase by 100 per cent, building on momentum between the countries. “Canada is focused on growing our economy and diversifying our trading relationships,” Anand said during the meeting. “The Canada-China economic relationship is...

Former US attorney general Pam Bondi rebuffed questions about President Donald Trump’s involvement in handling records of the Justice Department’s investigation of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Democratic lawmakers said. “She refused to answer any questions about President Trump,” congressman Robert Garcia, the top-ranking Democrat on the House panel investigating Epstein, told reporters during a break in the committee’s closed-door questioning of Bondi. Bondi also pushed any blame for...

The Canadian man who helped scores of people worldwide kill themselves by selling them poison pleaded guilty on Friday to 14 counts of aiding suicide, as prosecutors said they will withdraw murder charges. Since Kenneth Law’s arrest in 2023, details of the online forums where he advised distressed people on how to end their lives have caused public outrage and triggered investigations in several countries. In Canada, Law faced 14 murder charges and an additional 14 charges for aiding suicide. At...

The European Commission agreed on a tough new approach to trade relations with China, at a rare Beijing-focused debate among Brussels’ leadership on Friday. In a presentation, trade chief Maros Sefcovic laid out why the bloc needed to take stronger steps to defend itself from what is described as a new “China shock” to its industries, according to people briefed on the event. This may require developing a new instrument to compel companies in critical sectors to expand both the number and the...

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from moving ahead with a US$1.8 billion compensation package that critics have denounced as a “slush fund” for President Donald Trump’s political allies. US District Judge Leonie Brinkema barred the administration from taking any further action to create or operate the fund while she considers whether to impose a longer-lasting pause. Her order blocks the transfer of money into the fund, the consideration of claims and the...

Finance ministers ⁠from the EU’s six ⁠biggest economies (E6) have agreed a ⁠common position on a European Commission proposal for joint capital markets supervision, Germany’s finance ministry said on Friday. The push for financial market players to be supervised at a European Union rather than national level is part ‌of a bid to boost the bloc’s competitiveness as it struggles with weak growth and fierce competition from the United States and China. Supervision of significant market...

A Kenyan court temporarily halted the opening of an Ebola quarantine centre for US nationals on Friday following a petition filed by a rights group. The facility was due to open in the east Africa nation on Friday according to US officials, to quarantine Americans arriving from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is battling a major Ebola outbreak. Washington has defended its criticised decision not to repatriate Americans infected with the virus. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has...

The European Union and China are entering a new, more turbulent era in trade relations, as China has evolved from Europe’s favoured customer into a sophisticated competitor, a Brussels lobbyist has said. Chinese businesses are likely to face tougher scrutiny in the EU market as a result, with Brussels already taking steps to diversify its trade and mulling more robust measures to shield local industry from Chinese competition, according to Michael Koplovsky, a senior adviser at the strategic...

Kenyan authorities have arrested eight students on suspicion of arson over a fire at a girls’ boarding school that killed 16 students, ‌police said on Friday. The fire at the Utumishi Girls’ Academy Senior School in Gilgil in west-central Kenya broke out in the early hours of Thursday and also injured 79 students. Fires are common at Kenyan schools, with many set by students protesting harsh discipline and poor conditions, researchers ⁠have found. “Preliminary investigations have identified...

US authorities have found six more bodies following a chemical leak at a paper plant in Washington state, an official said on Thursday, with three of a total 11 victims still missing. A huge tank holding tens of thousands of gallons of a highly caustic substance imploded on Tuesday at the plant in Longview, Washington state, sparking a major search operation. Rescuers had initially confirmed two people were dead, and ruled out finding survivors as the search turned to recovering victims’...

There seems to be no end to the harm arising from US President Donald Trump’s madcap war on Iran. Go beyond the direct tragic impact across Iran itself, the collateral damage from Tehran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and its ad hoc assaults on US allies in the region: beyond the burgeoning impact of shortages of oil, gas, hydrogen, helium and sulphur, and the prospect of food shortages arising from the collapse in fertiliser supplies; beyond the hardships of tens of thousands of...

Nato member Romania said on Friday that a drone injured two people in a southeastern city during an overnight Russian attack on neighbouring Ukraine, the first time in the war that a drone had hit a densely populated area in Romania and caused injuries. The incident in Romania, also a member of the European Union, ‌was likely to increase tensions on Nato’s eastern flank at a time when Ukraine’s allies were worried about Russia’s war on its neighbour spilling over its borders. Nato accused Moscow...

An annual United Nations report documenting sexual violence in conflicts worldwide has included Israeli forces for the first time since the review began more than 15 years ago for their treatment of Palestinian detainees. Israel denies the accusations. The 35-page report – shared by the Israeli mission to the UN late Thursday ahead of its expected release on Friday – blacklists 77 government and non-government parties in a dozen countries suspected of committing or being responsible for sexual...

The United States on Thursday designated two well-known Brazilian crime groups, the so-called Red Command (CV) and First Capital Command (PCC), as terrorist organisations, despite opposition from Brasilia. “CV and PCC are two of the most violent criminal organisations in Brazil,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “Their influence and illicit networks extend far beyond Brazil’s borders, across our region and into our country.” “Together, they command thousands of members and...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Concerns mount in China’s space sector that Musk’s Starship will be a failure There are growing doubts within China’s space sector that Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket being developed by SpaceX in the United States, will...

An uncrewed Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded on a Florida launch pad during a test on Thursday, in a major setback for Jeff Bezos’ space venture as it seeks to narrow the gap with Elon Musk’s IPO-bound SpaceX. Video posted by NASASpaceflight, which live-streams launches from Florida, showed the towering New Glenn rocket igniting on the pad before erupting into a massive fireball that billowed skyward, sending a towering plume of flames and smoke into the air. Blue Origin was preparing the...

US President Donald Trump could soon appear on a new US$250 bill, in the Republican’s latest move to shatter US traditions by putting his personal stamp on national institutions. A proposal for the new bill, featuring a glaring Trump, was first reported on Thursday by The Washington Post. If carried out, it would be the first time the image of a living person - let alone a president - had appeared on US currency in a century and a half. “Right now there is proposed legislation - front of the...

Nothing about the summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Beijing suggested high drama. The language was restrained, the optics disciplined. The impression it left was simple: escalation of tensions for its own sake is a losing strategy. The announcement that China would buy 200 Boeing aircraft served mainly as a political gesture of goodwill, with the commercial details to be filled in later by negotiators. More important was the pattern across readouts from...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he had directed Israel’s military to take more of Gaza, initially by seizing 70 per cent of the Palestinian territory, where the population is already penned into a tiny strip of land along the coast. Israel effectively controls an estimated 64 per cent of the tiny coastal strip, bombarded to ruins by Israel’s two-year military assault that followed the 2023 Hamas ‌attack on southern Israel. Under an October US-brokered truce that has...

An explosion and massive fire at a Dallas residential building Thursday killed a child and at least two other people following a blast that shook nearby homes and happened while firefighters were rushing to a reported gas leak, officials said. At least five people also went to hospitals with injuries, Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesperson Jason Evans said. It was unclear how many residents lived in the two-storey complex in the Oak Cliff neighbourhood south of downtown Dallas, where a towering plume...

Recent articles in an Asia-focused international policy forum suggest that states such as Australia, Canada and South Korea can join up with other middle powers to secure the maritime order and restore the liberal international order. While well meaning and encouraging, the unfortunate truth is that these tasks are beyond the capacity of middle powers. The smartest ones won’t even try. Maritime security has transformed from a permissive environment dominated by uncontested naval supremacy into a...

An Austrian court on Thursday convicted a man of planning to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna nearly two years ago. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The state court in Wiener Neustadt, south of the capital, found the 21-year-old defendant, an Austrian citizen known only as Beran A in line with Austrian privacy rules, guilty on multiple charges including those related to the concert. The concert plot was thwarted, but Austrian authorities still cancelled Swift’s three performances...

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino on Thursday rejected suggestions that US pressure had shaped his government’s handling of a dispute over ports near the Panama Canal, as Panama seeks to stabilise relations with Beijing and renew a key maritime agreement. “The decision we made regarding those two ports was genuinely Panamanian,” Mulino said during his weekly press conference, after China accused unnamed “third parties” of interfering in bilateral ties. Mulino also expressed hope that...

There was no one in the courtroom on Thursday to speak on behalf of the four men Randy Santos bludgeoned to death with a metal bar as they slept on the New York City streets. No anguished friends or relatives to tell the judge about Florencio Moran, Nazario Vasquez Villegas, Anthony Manson and Chuen Kok’s abruptly shortened lives. No one to confront Santos face-to-face about his psychosis-fuelled rampage through Manhattan’s Chinatown neighbourhood nearly seven years ago, or to hear him...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called for a “new partnership” with the United States to “help make America great again”, in a speech delivered in New York on Thursday. Carney said that while the world is ‌undergoing a “rupture” as the US transforms its commercial relationships, working closely with Canada in specific sectors, including aluminium, cars and critical minerals, would strengthen both countries. Asked about his January trip to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, Carney...

Worn down by thousands of passers-by honouring an unusual tradition, a floor mosaic of an anatomically detailed bull in one of Milan’s grand arcades is getting a sensitive makeover. Legend has it that grinding one’s heel on the mosaic bull’s testicles at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II guarantees a return one day to the city. “Because of constant pirouettes on the heel made by tourists visiting Milan, the pink tesserae that make up its testicles have been worn down, forming a small crater,”...

Come November, the Republican Party will need the support of voters outside of President Trump’s base, many of whom are deeply dissatisfied with the economy and the Iran war.

The former clerk of Mesa County, Colo., is scheduled to be set free on Monday, after her nine-year prison sentence was commuted by Gov. Jared Polis.

Mr. Booker and other Senate Democrats faced questions Sunday about reports that Mr. Platner’s wife previously told his campaign he had exchanged sexual messages with women outside his marriage.

Steve Hilton grabbed headlines when he worked in conservative politics in Britain. His American political renaissance in the California governor’s race has bemused former British colleagues and rivals.

The prospect of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe raises unsettling theological implications.

The A.I. actress on her craft, the future of film and how she definitely does not intend to murder us.

We seem to have forgotten more or less everything.

“Heteropessimism” is all the rage — but really, there’s never been a better time to be looking for love. Go on, be a hetero-optimist.

Aviation start-ups and the Trump administration want to replace helicopters with electric aircraft, but the new vehicles still have to pass arduous tests before the public can use them.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not attend the annual parade, which took place amid a deterioration of public support for Israel and rising antisemitism across the United States.

Clinical trials in China are getting attention at an international oncology gathering in Chicago. China’s surging biotechnology industry is fueling alarm that U.S. dominance in the field is waning.

A fuel blockade on Cuba has aggravated a lack of consistent garbage pickup and produced enormous trash piles.