Minimalist News

TotalEnergies CEO Reveals Cost To Move A Supertanker Through Hormuz The crisis-driven dislocation across Gulf oil markets has positioned French energy giant TotalEnergies SE as an early mover, capitalizing on heavily discounted Persian Gulf crude priced at $50 to $60 a barrel and moving it through the highly contested Strait of Hormuz. CEO Patrick Pouyanné revealed at the Norwegian energy conference on Monday that transiting the waterway now costs roughly $20 million per supertanker. Bloomberg earlier quoted Pouyanné as saying that the added cost of moving crude on supertankers through the Hormuz chokepoint is about $10 per barrel . However,

Regulation: Protecting Incumbents And Suppressing Competition Authored by Hal Snarr via Mises Institute , A previous article attributed widespread airline service failures not to individual carriers but to government interventions sold as consumer protections. Through a web of intricate regulations and controls, the state restricts entry, grants shared monopoly privileges to approved carriers, and creates what Rothbard calls a state-enforced cartel. The result is an illusion of competition that allows poor service to persist without attracting better alternatives. This article examines how the same pattern protects incumbents and suppresses competition across other industries. The banking system provides perhaps the clearest

US Scraps September Korea Marine Drills In Wake Of Iran War Strain Fresh on the heels of President Trump controversially ordering scaled-down US-South Korea military drills last week, there are emerging reports of more canceled plans for joint exercises. South Korean and American force were going to hold large-scale maritime drills focused on amphibious landing exercises in September, but Seoul has said the Pentagon had to back out related to constraints due to Iran war deployments . Marine Corps file image "The US Marine Corps formally notified our forces in June that its ability to deploy forces during this year’s

Supreme Court Backs Trump's Mail-In Ballot Overhaul The Supreme Court sided with President Trump over his plan to use the Postal Service to impose broad new restrictions on the distribution of mail ballots. Over the dissent of the court's three liberal judges, SCOTUS' ruling means that the Trump administration can move forward with a proposal for DHS to compile state-specific lists of people it believes are eligible to vote in the Democratic-led states that had challenged the plan in court. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, wrote that they believed lower courts had the authority to rule in

DEI Refuses To Die Authored by Kenin M. Spivak via RealClearPolitics , Although the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and civil rights laws dating back to 1866 prohibit nearly all racial preferences, most Americans oppose these preferences , and Donald Trump was elected vowing to eliminate DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) - progressives won't give up. Their race-obsessed thinking reduces America to intersectional classifications of oppressed and oppressor. This addled concept is a self-defeating dialectic in which no amount of progress on race relations is ever enough - or even acknowledged. Despite enormous advances, with the possible exception of

Iryna Zarutska's Family Sues City Of Charlotte Over Fatal Rail Stabbing, Claims Inadequate Security The family of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was fatally stabbed on a North Carolina light rail train last year, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Charlotte and a private security firm. A sreenshot from footage showing the moments before a Ukrainian refugee was stabbed to death on a light rail trail in North Carolina The lawsuit, filed on Aug. 21, alleges that Zarutska's death was entirely preventable. It claims the city and Professional Police Services - a security company contracted

Our World 'Is Coming Apart Now... In Astounding Ways' Authored by James Howard Kunstler, Cookery For All “We’re only cooked if we accept it.” - Blaine Holt on “X” They don’t call economics the dismal science for nothing . It has been noted - since Thomas Carlyle minted the term in 1849 (objecting to the emancipation of black slaves on Britain’s colonial sugar plantations as a harm to productivity ) - that attempts to manage the billion-footed transactions of human beings always find a way to bite back . But how can this creature we call society not try to

Federal Appeals Court Rules In Favor Of James O'Keefe Over Undercover Reporting Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times , A U.S. appeals court has entered a judgment in favor of James O'Keefe, founder of Project Veritas, and a Project Veritas reporter. A split panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit judges said on Aug. 21 that a district court judge had erroneously kept in place $130,000 in damages against O'Keefe over an undercover operation that targeted Democratic strategists. "The principal question in this appeal is whether the jury's damages award violated the First

Iran Airs Video Claiming Barron Trump Being Spied On, Offers $10 Million Bounty On His Head Update(1900ET) : While it was largely Israeli media's Ch.14 which first called attention to the "Where to kill Barron Trump" clip, the short video does appear to be a creation of Iranian state media . It is indeed authentic . It is currently featured at the Tehran-based Tebyan Cultural Institute's official Persian-language homepage . The institute is highly visible in Iran (more here ), and is affiliated with the Islamic Development Organization, which is under the Supreme Leader and is also linked to the

"I Hope It Gives A Really Good Lesson Going Forward": 'Pollster' Prakash's License To Lie Authored by Jonathan Turley via Jonathan Turley , In this political season, there is one question that needs no poll: Rahil Prakash is a liar. The other thing we know is that he will likely get away with spreading fake polling results. Lies can be protected speech under the First Amendment and, while Prakash would not likely want to take a popularity poll, he is unlikely to face legal consequences for his "short-term social experiment." We still do not know much about the twenty-one-year-old college

The Great Walkback: Sam Altman Admits He Was Wrong On AI's Economic Timeline For three years, Sam Altman has pitched the imminent, wholesale disruption of the global economy . This week, staring down the barrel of an IPO - based on a business model that's actively being 'wholesale disrupted' by China - the OpenAI chief executive quietly admitted he got the timing wrong. Appearing on David Senra's Founders podcast , Altman conceded that the economic upheaval he forecast following GPT-4 simply hasn't materialized - and that society is adapting far more sluggishly than he anticipated. In an interview with @davidsenra

Gold: From DC's "Enemy" To Its Last Hope? Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via VonGreyerz.gold, As headlines from the Iranian “conflict” continue to leave the world guessing as to what, if any, military, political and financial solutions lie ahead, we can at least know this much: The approaching autumn looks a bit scary . A Market Fall in the Fall? The macro setting for our collective transition from summer to fall in 2026 is marked by rising yields across the western yield curve, from Paris to DC. These rising yields, which represent the cost of servicing debt for nations and enterprises

Nvidia Informs Hyperscalers About Incoming Price Hikes As Memory Costs Soar The AI infrastructure buildout boom could soon enter another inflationary wave. Nvidia's largest hyperscaler customers face sharply higher costs next year, with Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell systems expected to jump in price as surging memory costs ripple through the chip stacks. Bloomberg cited sources familiar with Nvidia's new pricing regime, indicating that hyperscalers will see a 15% increase in prices for Rubin and Grace Blackwell processors next year. They said the size of the increase will depend on the chip generation and memory configuration. Contract manufacturers serving major

Mole Men Return? Weird Manhattan Manhole Crew Spotted At 4AM Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , The manhole people are back. Early Saturday morning, just after 4 a.m., a group was filmed exiting a manhole in Manhattan. The footage, captured and shared by independent New York photographer Viral News NYC, shows the individuals climbing out of the street in the dead of night once again. The manhole people are back . They were spotted at 4 am in Manhattan exiting another man hole . pic.twitter.com/F2VUD7DwAE — Viral News NYC (@ViralNewsNYC) August 22, 2026 A clearer image of one

Russia Scrambles To Restore Fuel Supplies As Refineries Resume Operations By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com Amid the ongoing fuel crisis in Russia, authorities are rushing to ease concerns that the shortages are worsening. Russia has been suffering from a gasoline and diesel crunch since the spring, when Ukraine intensified its drone attacks at Russian refineries, aiming to cripple fuel supply to the front lines and to the domestic Russian market. The drone hits on refineries, including deep into Russian territory more than 1,000 miles from the border with Ukraine, have become a nearly daily occurrence. But Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister

Jet-Fuel Price Shock Hits Airlines As Raymond James Cuts Estimate Across Coverage, Warns Of JetBlue Bankruptcy Risk As we've told readers, and as former Goldman commodities guru Jeff Currie explained last week , the energy crisis is not necessarily in Brent or WTI supplies, but in refined-product markets , given the diesel crack spread's jump above $100 a barrel last week. Early Monday, the spread was trading around $94. The secondary effects of a global refined-products crisis are beginning to hit airline earnings, according to Raymond James analyst Savanthi Syth, who wrote in a note Monday morning that she is

What Will Burst It: Ed Dowd Warns AI Is The Biggest Bubble Of All Time Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com , Wall Street money manager and financial analyst Ed Dowd of PhinanceTechnologies.com made a name for himself during the dot com bubble. It was not because he was telling people to buy, it was because he was telling investors to get out before it all blew up. Dowd saved people a lot of money by sidestepping a crash. Fast-forward to today, and Dowd sees the same bubble signs in AI (artificial intelligence) as he did just before the Dot-com bubble blew

Houthis Attack Saudi Oil Tanker In Red Sea, As Bab el-Mandeb Transit Is Up Slightly Yemen's Houthis on Monday targeted the Saudi oil tanker Amzan in the Red Sea off Yanbu with a ballistic missile and drones, the Iran-aligned militant group announced. Soon after initial reports emerged, Saudi Arabia confirmed the attack , with Saudi shipping company Bahri stating that its Amzan vessel was involved in a hostile incident in regional waters. Yahya Saree, the military spokesman for the Houthi rebels in Yemen, described that the attacks were carried out using ballistic missiles and drones and were executed as part

Los Angeles City Council Entertains Call For Homeless Masturbation & Hookup Centers Authored by Monica Showalter via AmericanThinker.com, What's this strange proclivity from the left to provide the dregs of society with the same accommodations as those who pay their bills? What on earth did I just listen to Is this real life ? pic.twitter.com/m8Va9OBcGl — IET 17 (@Inevitably_17) August 20, 2026 This is what passed for governance at the Los Angeles City Council last week: "I'd like to propose that Los Angeles consider a pilot program for free hygenic sexual relief clinics, primarily serving the homeless and unhoused. This

Key Events This Week: Jackson Hole. Nvidia Earnings And Core PCE As we start a new weeks, the upward pressure on long-end bond yields from last week has shown initial signs of easing. Indeed, the 30yr Treasury yield is down -5bps overnight to 5.22%, whilst the 10yr yield is down by the same amount to 4.69%. That’s been supported by an announcement by the Treasury to CNBC that some/all of the cash in the Treasury General Account may be used to fund buybacks (bringin the US ever closer to Yield Curve Control and a new QE, much to Kevin Warsh's

Far-right leader echoes ally Donald Trump and says operations to ‘track down illegal immigrants’ should begin this week, amid earthquake aftermath Colombia’s far-right president, Abelardo de la Espriella, has announced a crackdown on immigrants, ordering authorities to detain and deport people who are in the country irregularly or have committed crimes. In office for just over two weeks, the millionaire former lawyer made the announcement on Sunday as the country continued to grapple with the aftermath of a 7.4-magnitude earthquake on 10 August that killed more than 300 people and destroyed more than 30,000 homes. Continue reading...

US Southern Command has struck another vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two accused of trafficking drugs The US military has launched a deadly strike on a vessel in the Pacific Ocean, killing two people accused of drug trafficking. On Monday, US Southern Command (SouthCom) announced it “executed a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific”. Continue reading...

Move is latest deterioration in trade relations between neighbors with historically strong economic ties Donald Trump announced a new 50% tariff on automobiles and crucial raw materials from Canada , the latest deterioration in trade relations between the two neighbors with historically strong economic ties. The US president said that the increased tariffs would start on 1 January 2027 on all cars, trucks, automobile parts and steel. He also derided the nation’s tariffs on American farmers, writing on social media that Canada has been “ripping off” the US “for years”. Continue reading...

Prime minister praised for rejecting US trade proposal as Trump shows little interest in retreating from dispute Are you a Canadian boycotting US products? We’d like to hear from you Mark Carney said on Monday that while American negotiators saw the French language in Canada as an “irritant … in Quebec, these are rights,” days after receiving widespread praise from political leaders for rejecting a US trade proposal that many perceived as weakening the country’s Francophone culture. The prime minister’s remarks came hours after the US president, Donald Trump, showed little interest in retreating from the spat, posting on social

PM Mark Carney says ‘we got attacked’ as tariffs come into force on items from hockey sticks to tongue depressors The lesson from Canada’s collapsed trade talks with the US: negotiation may be futile Donald Trump has hit back at Canada after a breakdown in negotiations plunged the two countries into a trade war . In his first public comments since negotiations collapsed on Friday in Washington, the US president wrote on social media: “Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!” Continue reading...

Test of US rhetoric will rest on whether nations such as India, China and Russia view economic threats as credible Tehran has vowed to retaliate against any country that cooperates with the US attempt to impose fresh sanctions against Iran in what the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has billed as “the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary”. In advance of the US announcement, the United Arab Emirates, Iran’s single biggest trading partner in the Middle East, announced it was ending all trade with Iran, a move Tehran believes was coordinated between Washington and the UAE. Continue reading...

China-based retailer swung to $99m loss in first quarter and faces scrutiny over its environmental footprint Business live – latest updates Shein, which built a fast-fashion empire on what seemed like impossibly low prices , has been forced to lower its own valuation in a cut-price stock market float, after falling into the red earlier this year. The online retailer will list on the Hong Kong stock exchange on 1 September at a valuation of close to $27bn (£19.8bn), significantly down from a near-$100bn private market peak four years ago. Continue reading...

Prime minister Christopher Luxon’s party to introduce bill seeking the ban, citing harm to a generation of children New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon has said his party will introduce a bill in parliament that ⁠seeks to ban children ⁠under ​16 from using social media, proposing fines of up to 10% of a platform’s global revenue for non-compliance. The bill would ⁠require social media platforms to take reasonable steps to verify users’ ages, including by utilising existing account information, facial technology and ⁠digital identity documents. Continue reading...

Boy, seven, had complained of feeling tired so father left him with snacks and a soft drink and continued his climb A man who abandoned his seven-year-old son on Mount Fuji in Japan after the boy complained of feeling tired while on a family hike has been reprimanded by local police. A worker on Japan’s highest mountain discovered the child sitting alone on a bench near the sixth station of the Fujinomiya trail at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) on Thursday. Continue reading...

UK Foreign Office condemns use of national security law to convict activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung Two Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils marking China’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown in 1989 have been found guilty of “incitement to subversion” in one of the most high-profile cases in Hong Kong since Beijing imposed its national security law in 2020. Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, “incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power”, a press summary handed out to reporters said. The defendants each face

Supermarket chain says growth slumped amid ‘competitor’s collectibles campaign’. Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Number of NSW households in urgent need of priority housing hits highest level in over a year The number of NSW households in urgent need of priority social housing has reached 13,776, the highest in more than a year. The waitlist has sat [at] around 70,000 since May. Anyone reading that as stability should look at what is happening inside that number. Urgent need is growing six times faster than general need on this register.

A day after suggesting other projects were more important to Victorians, Carroll says train line will go ahead but at a slightly reduced cost Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, has made an about-face, committing to pushing ahead with the first stage of the Suburban Rail Loop while promising to reduce its total cost by about 6%. Carroll will on Tuesday announce changes to the scope of the first stage of the project, known as SRL East – a 26km

Virus has already caused catastrophic losses in seals in South America and sub-Antarctica, particularly among pups Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Scientists have warned deadly H5 bird flu could cause “carnage” for Australia’s seal and sea lion populations after detection of the virus in long-nosed fur seals in South Australia. SA confirmed Australia’s first case in a mainland mammal on Saturday after a dead long-nosed fur seal found at Beachport on the Limestone Coast tested positive for H5N1. Continue reading...

Prime minister will use national cabinet meeting to assuage premiers over new AI law as Aemo forecasts seven-fold rise in datacentre power use Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Anthony Albanese will seek to use Wednesday’s high-stakes talks with premiers to quell growing unhappiness about national controls on datacentre developments , promising new approval laws will complement state rules. Faced with growing opposition from conservative governments in Queensland and the Northern Territory, Albanese will tell national cabinet he plans a major piece of legislation next

Ombudsman Iain Anderson says he is concerned police ‘had no clearly understood definition of racial profiling’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The commonwealth and ACT ombudsman has criticised the Australian federal police for failing to clearly define “racial profiling” after police in Canberra pulled guns on an Indigenous teenager they mistook for a suspect in an aggravated burglary. The scathing investigation, released on Tuesday, made eight recommendations to the Australian federal police (AFP) and ACT Policing after investigating the November 2025 incident. ACT Policing

London and Kyiv in deal to help stop protesters and hostile states targeting military bases and critical infrastructure AI models trained on Ukrainian battlefield data will be used to stop protesters and foreign states targeting UK defence sites, railways and energy plants under a deal struck between London and Kyiv. Private companies will also be given access to the vast trove of data from Ukraine’s Avengers AI lab to help build new systems, the first agreement of its kind in the UK. Continue reading...

Huge hailstones prompt organisers to act 15km from end Riders seen heading into hotel on route to take cover A torrential hailstorm in the French Pyrenees forced the abandonment of the ⁠third stage of the Vuelta a España on Monday. With 15 kilometres (9.32 miles) remaining of the 174km route ⁠from Gruissan to Font-Romeu, the ​skies darkened as the peloton neared the top of the Col de Mont-Louis and huge hailstones began ⁠bouncing off the tarmac and pelting the riders. Continue reading...

Mette Frederiksen, who received message on returning from Ukraine, advises women to embrace self-acceptance Sick of getting unsolicited beauty tips on social media, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen , rebuffed a male cosmetic surgeon’s offer to “fix” her and advised women in similar situations to embrace self-acceptance. Frederiksen, a Social Democrat and Denmark’s second female prime minister, posted on Instagram that she had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, where she was subjected to air raid sirens, when she found a message proposing some help with her appearance. Continue reading...

Coalition of the Willing condemns Russian strikes on Ukraine, pledges to work on ‘constraining Russia’s war chest’ Here’s the full quote from Kremlin’s Peskov , via AFP: “ Britain is methodically and regularly throwing oil on the fire and methodically and regularly plotting schemes to prevent even the slightest progress in the peace process.” Continue reading...

As well as pledging military help and diplomatic backing, the prime minister could be useful in dealing with the US Since moving into Downing Street in July, Andy Burnham – a foreign policy neophyte – has expressed strong support for Ukraine. But on Monday he saw the bitter human cost of the war up close for the first time, visiting Kyiv during his first international trip as prime minister. The occasion was the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence. Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave awards to the families of fallen soldiers. Relatives wept, hugging Ukraine’s president. Photos of young men in their prime

Washington launches campaign to isolate Tehran but it is unclear whether it will apply measures to China The US has threatened to impose severe sanctions against any country or entity maintaining economic ties with Iran, hoping to achieve with economic measures what military means have so far failed to do. It is unclear, however, how far the Trump administration is prepared to go in confronting China, Iran’s biggest trading partner, which has signalled its resistance to US economic pressure to cut off links with an ally. Continue reading...

Incident marks apparent escalation by Tehran in its in retaliation against UK over allowing US to use British bases Hackers linked to Iran have been blamed for a cyber-attack that caused a British power plant to be temporarily shut down. The incident involved a small-scale energy generator, according to the UK government, which said that at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system. Continue reading...

Abbas Araghchi says country is unbowed but president Masoud Pezeshkian admits its people face ‘many problems’ Iran’s foreign minister has dismissed the threat of a fresh round of US economic sanctions as a “desperate” ploy, even as its president acknowledged that the Iranian people are facing “many problems” amid Washington’s efforts to isolate and debilitate the country’s economy. Last week, Donald Trump announced a new campaign to increase the pressure on the Iranian economy , calling it “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country”. The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, is expected to announce further punitive economic

Grassroots groups to urge PM to break with Starmer policy and impose full arms embargo on Israel Grassroots Labour groups are gearing up for a conference showdown with Andy Burnham over Gaza, as the party’s members seek to force the prime minister to recognise Israel’s actions as a genocide and impose a full arms embargo. Momentum, Labour & Palestine, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) plan to ramp up pressure on Burnham before his first Labour conference as prime minister next month. Continue reading...

In letter to Macron and Burnham, more than 100 senior figures accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing and call for measures including trade ban More than 100 French and British former diplomats have said Palestine is being erased in front of the world’s eyes and called for urgent action including trade and arms sales bans to press Israel to accept a Palestinian state. An unprecedented joint letter dispenses with diplomatic language by accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing and warning that the world no longer sees Israel as a genuine democracy. Uphold the decisions of the international court of justice and the

Supreme court ordered transfer of ex-leader whose health is reportedly deteriorating, but he was returned to prison several hours later Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan was briefly taken to a hospital in the country’s capital on supreme court orders after weeks of uproar about his deteriorating health. Khan, 73, was transferred to the hospital in the early hours of Friday, but then moved back to Adiala prison in Rawalpindi after a ⁠few hours, a spokesperson for his party said on Friday. Continue reading...

UK has refused resettlement application despite ‘years of loyal service’ that have resulted in ‘constant fear’ of reprisals A man has received threats from the Taliban after his work for the Afghan police was revealed by a Ministry of Defence leak and the UK refused his application for resettlement. Hamid* worked for the Afghan national police special unit and received certificates for his work signed by senior British figures praising his “dedication, unparalleled service and leadership”. His details were also included in an accidental 2022 leak by an MoD official that identified 18,700 Afghans who had worked with or for

Campaigners fear deeper diplomatic contacts are undermining demands for improvements in human rights The Taliban in Afghanistan have launched a diplomatic effort to end their isolation as major regional and international powers show a readiness to engage more closely with the repressive regime despite its systematic human rights abuses. Five years after the Taliban took power , an increasing number of countries are renewing ties or scaling up diplomatic contacts with the hardline Islamists, who seized power in Kabul in 2021 after 20 years of brutal insurgent warfare. Continue reading...

Kyaw Zwar Minn was ousted for declaring loyalty to Aung San Suu Kyi after 2021 coup but refused to leave his home Myanmar’s ousted ambassador to the UK has gone on trial on trespassing charges for refusing to leave a diplomatic residence after being unceremoniously locked out of the embassy in 2021. Shortly after Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021, triggering mass protests that spiralled into a civil war, Kyaw Zwar Minn was locked out of the embassy for declaring his loyalty to the deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Continue reading...

The wild capture and release of a female big cat into a nature reserve is the first step towards reintroducing a population that hasn’t been seen for 70 years On 31 July, “Umit” – which means hope in Kazakh – was released into a nature reserve on the edge of Lake Balkhash after more than a decade of careful planning to return the caspian tiger to the region. With this release, Kazakhstan became the first country to restore its tiger range after they had been thought extinct, with the last reliable sighting in the country recorded more than 70 years

Death rate three to four times higher than among general population blamed on isolation of those leaving care ‘He was left on his own’: the care-leaver lives lost to a system that abandons them at 18 Profound isolation contributed to the deaths of more than 100 care leavers in England in a year, with a dramatic drop-off in support from social services at 18 leading to catastrophic consequences, a review has found. A government-commissioned report into the early deaths of young people who left care described the problem as a national tragedy and said many were left on their own

About 40% of £10bn from Affordable Homes Programme will now go on types of housing such as sheltered and shared ownership Andy Burnham has backtracked on his proposal to rip up the government’s housing plans and boost social home building. Ministers laid out plans on Monday to spend an initial £10bn from the 10-year Affordable Homes Programme on a mix of subsidised housing types in England, in line with the Starmer government’s policy. Continue reading...

Blaze near Crawley destroyed 140 vehicles, damaged nearby businesses and led to power cuts on Saturday night A man has been arrested on suspicion of arson after a fire tore through a car park used by people flying from Gatwick airport, destroying about 140 vehicles. The blaze erupted at Caldyne business park near Crawley, about eight miles from the airport just after 9pm on Saturday. Images showed vehicles on fire and enormous plumes of smoke rising close to overhead power lines. Continue reading...

Nine men and three women aged between 19 and 61 arrested as part of investigation into events leading to deadly collision Twelve people have been arrested on suspicion of offences including being involved with organised crime as part of the investigation into events leading to a crash on the A66 that killed two police officers and five others. Cleveland police confirmed that nine men and three women were detained by officers investigating the events that led up to PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough dying when a Volkswagen Passat travelling the wrong way on the A66 near Middlesbrough collided

Plan part of a wider policy to remove foreign nationals from social homes and prioritise young British-born couples Social housing tenants will be evicted if they fail to keep their gardens well maintained under a Reform UK government, the party has announced. Lee Anderson, the party’s chair, said that if Reform came to power it would insist that those in social rented homes would be required to keep their properties decorated and gardens looked after. Continue reading...

Karen Solomon had been missing for six days after her husband Kurt Solomon was found dead at their home A mental health advocate suspected of killing her police officer husband was found dead on Monday, six days after she disappeared from her Massachusetts home, authorities said. Karen Solomon, an advocate who called for improvements and greater awareness of police mental health issues, had disappeared after Worcester police officer Kurt Solomon was found dead at their home just before 5.30am on 18 August. Officials had named Karen Solomon a suspect and said she was believed to be armed. Continue reading...

California governor also highlighted two new proposed state laws that would make it a crime to interfere with the delivery of mail ballots US supreme court rules Trump can proceed with crackdown on mail-in voting Sign up for the US Breaking News email Donald Trump has threatened to increase tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, auto parts and steel to 50% today, after trade negotiations between Washington and Ottowa broke down last week. On Truth Social, the president blasted Canada, and said the new duties will go into effect on 1 January 2027 . Continue reading...

Dr Kirk Heilbrun says he believes Clancy took children’s lives so they wouldn’t ‘suffer’ after she killed herself With just days to go before the murder trial for Lindsay Clancy concludes, a forensic psychologist called by the prosecution testified on Monday that he did not believe she was experiencing acute psychosis when she killed her three children. Kirk Heilbrun, who reportedly performed psychiatric tests on Clancy in April, told the court that he questioned her claims that a hallucinated voice commanded her to commit the act, and that he believed she took their lives so they wouldn’t “suffer” after she

Retailer removes kid’s clown costume after people said it resembled a racist caricature used in minstrel shows Target, the US retail corporation, said it pulled a controversial Halloween costume off its shelves after criticism across social media that it resembled a racist caricature . The ad image for the costume, sold as the “Kids’ Glows Under Blacklight Circus Clown Halloween Costume,” depicted a Black child in a bright orange and black top with solid black gloves and a mask with a wide, toothy smile. Both the child’s pose and the costume’s gloves and mask were likened to caricatures of Black

In Trump administration’s plan, California, Arizona and Nevada face about a 20% cut to water supply over two years Nevada filed a federal lawsuit on Monday challenging the Trump administration’s new plan for the imperiled Colorado River, launching what could become the first of many court battles over the waterway that supplies 40 million people, dozens of tribes and 5.5m acres of farm land across the American west. The federal plan, issued Friday, cut roughly 20% from the water supplied to lower basin states – Nevada, Arizona and California – over the next two years, with a potential for harsher

The United States on Monday delisted Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, rescinding a decades-old designation that had severely impeded investment. The US State Department also revoked its designation of al-Nusrah Front – also known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – as a global terrorist organisation, leaving Cuba, Iran and ‌North Korea as the three countries designated by Washington as state sponsors of terrorism. “Today’s action will help foster additional investment in Syria to promote...

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed optimism she can reach a trade deal with US President Donald Trump as her chief negotiator leads talks in Washington, just after negotiations between the US and Canada collapsed. “As President Trump said, we hope to reach an agreement with the US,” she told reporters on Monday after being asked about the escalating US-Canada impasse. “I’m optimistic an agreement can be reached.” Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard, Sheinbaum’s top trade negotiator, will...

The United States on Monday announced fresh sanctions against 60 entities, individuals and vessels around the world, including some in mainland China and Hong Kong, and issued a warning demanding “immediate action” from nations maintaining economic and commercial ties with Iran. The measures are part of the Trump administration’s latest efforts to choke off Tehran economically after military strikes and diplomatic negotiations failed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the six-month-long...

The football with which Diego Maradona scored his “Hand of God” goal against England at the 1986 World Cup has sold at auction for US$3.35 million. The sale price achieved by Heritage Auctions in the United States was around US$6.7 million below the US$10 million estimate. The Dallas-based auction house had placed a US$2.5 million starting price on the Adidas Azteca ball. Maradona scored twice in Argentina’s quarter-final victory over England on June 22, 1986 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. He...

US authorities are conducting a national security review of Shein Global Holdings’ purchase of American clothing retailer Everlane after Shein sought approval for the deal, people familiar with the matter said, adding to a growing list of regulatory hurdles for the China-founded fast-fashion giant in one of its most important markets. The review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (Cfius), an inter-agency panel led by the Treasury Department, began after the US$80 million...

US forces have struck another vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people accused of trafficking drugs, the US military said on Monday, in the first attack announced in about two months. The death toll in the nearly year-long US campaign of bombing boats allegedly trafficking drugs now exceeds 210 after more than 60 strikes off Latin America’s Caribbean coast and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Forces “executed a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operating along established...

British police have arrested 12 people after a car pursued by police crashed while driving the wrong way on a major road, killing five youths and two officers. The deaths on Saturday came as officials warned of a trend for young people to carry out dangerous driving stunts to post on social media. However, police on Monday denied the collision was linked to filming for the TikTok online platform. Police in the Cleveland area of northeast England said there was “no evidence to indicate that...

The French government said on Monday it would press ahead with a ban on mobile phones in high schools from next month, but trade unions warned that the measure might be hard to implement quickly. In July, France’s parliament approved legislation banning both social media access for children under 15 and mobile phone use in high schools. It is part of a push by President Emmanuel Macron for children to spend less time in front of screens, which the government fears is arresting their...

US tariffs on all cars and trucks, automotive parts and steel would be increased to 50 per cent starting January 1 next year, President Donald Trump said in a social post on ‌Monday after trade talks with Canada collapsed over the weekend. “Build in the US and there are ZERO TARIFFS. Canada will be treated like a State no longer!” Trump wrote. “On Trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst Nations in ⁠the World to deal with. They feel entitled, and yet, WE ‌DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY...

Police have arrested four suspects in an investigation ⁠into the deaths ⁠of 18 elephants in Kenya’s Amboseli ⁠ecosystem, where authorities also seized assorted substances including chemicals, the tourism and wildlife ministry has said. A Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) spokesperson told Reuters on Monday that the four had since been released on bail. Preliminary laboratory ‌results pointed to the probable involvement of a toxic substance, the ministry said in a statement released on Saturday, with...

There is no shortage of Western commentary on US President Donald Trump’s second term. What’s missing is an honest account of how 1.4 billion of us in China see it – or at least how China’s officials and scholars do, since that’s who I can speak for here. I’ve spent a decade watching that view change, from real alarm in 2017 to something closer to a shrug today. Four things now count as consensus among Chinese scholars. One, Trump is undermining America’s alliance system. His first term rattled...

⁠Ukraine wants peace but will not just give in to Russia at any price, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said in a defiant speech as foreign leaders gather in Kyiv to mark its Independence Day celebrations. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and European Council President Antonio Costa were among the foreign dignitaries present on Monday for celebrations of the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s break from the Soviet Union. Burnham, making his first visit to the Ukrainian capital as prime minister,...

The Netherlands will not take part in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, its broadcaster has said, adding that the event can “no longer be considered neutral” given divisions over the Gaza war. “It is undeniable that international conflicts are increasingly affecting the contest, undermining its neutral character. The Eurovision Song Contest has therefore become a platform for division,” said Taco Zimmerman, director general of AVROTROS in a statement from the broadcaster on Monday. The...

Military officials from Uganda and Burundi visited Israel last week to discuss deploying troops to Gaza as part of an international security force envisioned by US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” for the fragile ceasefire, according to officials. An official with the board said that Ugandan officials had joined a Burundian military delegation and that Uganda was finalising details of its participation after its parliament approved the troop contribution this month. Nothing has been...

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. Why Chinese foreign minister’s trip to South Korea ‘dealt a low blow’ to Seoul 2. How much of an impact will retiring expats have on Hong Kong’s luxury property? 3. Electrochemist Liu Jiawei moves from Singapore to Hong Kong to start her own lab 4. Malaysia’s Anwar traded reform for power. Now...

The Philippines is positioning itself as Latin America’s bridge to Southeast Asia, testing whether shared history and culture can translate into hard trade figures as Asean and the Mercosur bloc look beyond their traditional partners. Manila’s Foreign Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro made the pitch during visits to Brazil and Chile from August 10 to 13. “Upon this human foundation, commercial bridges thrive: the Philippines stands as the premier strategic gateway for Latin American firms expanding...

Londoners are facing historic levels of subsidence risk after five successive heatwaves dried out the clay soil on which much of the British capital is built. Insurance claims tied to subsidence – a phenomenon associated with bouts of hot, dry weather that shrink the soil and destabilise the foundations on which buildings stand – hit a record last quarter, according to data provided by the Association of British Insurers (ABI). On average, households claimed £20,000 (US$27,200) for the risk,...

A party led by allies of Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev won a landslide in parliamentary elections on Sunday, hours after he hinted that he may stay in power beyond his current term. The Adilet party won 71.2 per cent of votes in the election to a new single-chamber parliament, Kazakhstan’s central election commission said on Monday. The Auyl party representing agrarian interests was second with 6.3 per cent. “I have the right to be re‑elected in accordance with the law,” Tokayev...

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham will visit Kyiv on Monday on his first international visit since taking office last month, his office said, as Ukraine marks its 35th independence anniversary. Burnham has vowed to give strong support to Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion. The Labour Party leader’s visit comes as he announced that Britain had “agreed that defence firm MBDA can release classified information on UK components for the long-range missile, SCALP, to establish local assembly...

Syria said it held talks with Israel in Jordan on Sunday on de-escalation after recent Israeli strikes, and on keeping the country out of tensions between Israel and Turkey, an ally of Damascus. The high-level negotiations came after the sides in January agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism as they edge towards a security agreement. They also came after Israel bombed the disused Abu Al-Duhur airbase in the country’s northwest earlier in the week, claiming it wanted to avert...

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday welcomed Saudi crown prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman for a two-day visit, hosting him at the Esports World Cup before a second day focused on bilateral deals and the situation in the Middle East. A French presidential official said several agreements, on health, transport and energy, will be signed on Monday alongside talks likely to focus on Iran. But the visit kicked off on Sunday evening on a lighter note with the crown prince being...

Tens of ⁠thousands of people have been ⁠evacuated this weekend from the ⁠area of Reno, Nevada, and many others were under orders to leave on Sunday as a wildfire reached the outskirts of the state’s third-most-populous city. About 42,000 residents have been displaced or are under active evacuations with an additional 45,000 ‌in “be prepared to evacuate” status as the Hawk Fire threatened northern Reno, local officials said late on Sunday morning. Local television footage showed flames...

The US special envoy to Syria and ambassador to Turkey on Sunday walked back his comments from two days ago that Israel “still” occupies the Golan Heights in violation of UN resolutions, remarks that went against US President Donald Trump’s position on the disputed territory. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981. The United Nations and most of the international community consider the territory occupied Syrian land and does not recognise...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes actions taken by dismissed Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, including his involvement in mass protests and calls for an election, were misguided, as he publicly detailed their dispute for the first time. Zelensky also alluded to problematic decisions over defence spending and said inaccurate information provided by the Defence Ministry contributed to an awkward encounter with US President Donald Trump over the use of Starlink in...

A landslide at a ⁠landfill in Guinea’s capital killed 30 people, the government said on Sunday, after heavy rains overnight prompted the collapse of a massive mound of waste that engulfed nearby tents and shacks. The incident happened less than a week ‌after the government announced plans to close the site and relocate the waste because of the threat it posed, especially during the continuing rainy season, which causes landslides and fatal flash floods each year in crowded, underdeveloped cities...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country played no role in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia to Europe, following the arrest in Croatia of a second Ukrainian suspect sought by Germany. “Ukraine has never even been involved in even the idea of this operation,” Zelensky told reporters during the Ukraine Nordic-Baltic summit in Kyiv on Sunday. “I hope there will be results of the investigation. We are ready to help.” Croatian police arrested a Ukrainian...

The Trump administration on Sunday warned that Canada would be “foolish” to think it could win a trade war with the United States, predicting a “devastating” impact on its northern neighbour. Negotiations between Washington and Ottawa broke down late Friday, putting into force new 50 per cent US tariffs impacting about US$20 billion worth of Canadian goods, or 5.5 per cent of Canadian exports to the US. Canada in retaliation said it would match US tariffs, with new levies notably targeting the...

Ukraine thinks Russia is planning to draft an additional 300,000 troops for its war effort after Russian parliamentary elections in mid-September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. Moscow’s forces are pressing ahead with an effort to capture the rest of eastern Ukraine’s industrialised Donbas region, where its troops have ground ‌forward at what Kyiv says is a great cost. In comments to reporters released on Sunday, Zelensky said Russia could draft more troops in 2027 to reach an...

At a recent Apec digital technology and AI forum in Chengdu, ministers across the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum issued a statement in support of open-source artificial intelligence models – a rare point of agreement in a debate often framed as a zero-sum US-China contest. It pointed towards an AI order that cuts against the assumption of a contest with a single winner, an assumption that still shapes Washington’s alarm over every Chinese AI breakthrough. Across Asia, governments are...

President Donald Trump is betting new sanctions, a naval blockade and ramped-up economic pressure against Iran’s trading partners can accomplish what thousands of bombs and missiles could not: force Tehran to accept a deal to end the war on US terms. But like other US efforts to force Iran into capitulation, there is one main problem: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has claimed control of the vital Strait of Hormuz and sent volleys of attack drones across the Gulf, may be...

Siding with Canadians weary of provocations from Washington, Prime Minister Mark Carney stood up to US President Donald Trump, rejecting what he called an “unfair” trade deal – a gamble that could prove economically risky. “We will not allow any nation to determine our future. We will set our own course to keep building Canada strong for all,” Carney said on Friday, as negotiations for a bilateral trade deal were crumbling. After weeks of talks with US officials in an effort to avoid punitive...

The Panama Canal will cut the number of ships passing through it starting next month because of drought caused by the El Nino phenomenon, the operator of the strategic waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific said on Thursday. From September 3, the number of vessels allowed through each day will fall from 36 to 34 due to low water levels in two artificial lakes that feed the canal, the Panama Canal Authority said. It will drop to 32 from September 15 on, the agency said. Central America is in...

Some of Nvidia’s biggest customers have been told that the prices of servers containing its artificial intelligence chips are going up more than 15 per cent in many cases with memory chip costs soaring. The price rises will go into effect on systems shipped early next year and will impact systems including those with the flagship Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell chips, according to people familiar with the process, who asked not to be identified commenting on communications that have not yet been...

Iran on Saturday denounced US plans to announce ⁠new sanctions that could put further strain on the Islamic Republic’s economy and have an impact on its most important trading partners including China. Iran on Saturday warned countries against taking part in the United States’ “economic war” against the Islamic Republic, saying they would be considered enemies. “We declare to all countries … do not join the economic war waged by the United States. Any country participating in the imposition of...

Israel said it targeted a “terrorist” ⁠in southern Syria ⁠on Saturday in ⁠what Syria’s foreign ministry said was a drone strike on a civilian vehicle on the outskirts of Damascus in a “blatant” violation of its ‌territory. The Syrian foreign ministry said the drone had hit a vehicle on a road near Beit Jinn village in the countryside west of the capital, which caused injuries among civilians. Syrian state television ⁠reported one person was injured. The Israeli military said in ‌a statement that...

Seven people, including two police officers, died in a car crash in northeast England on Saturday after a car heading the wrong ‌way down a major road hit a marked police armed response car, the local police force said. Cleveland Police said the incident took place in the early hours of Saturday near the South Bank area east of Middlesbrough and that all occupants of the two cars ⁠died at the scene. “This is an incredibly sad day for Cleveland,” ‌Cleveland Police Chief Constable Victoria Fuller...

Ukrainian drones killed at least 10 people in attacks against targets across Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, including a warehouse owned by online retailer Ozon and an industrial facility, Russian officials said on Saturday. Russia and Ukraine are both ramping up drone campaigns ‌aiming to cripple each other’s economic infrastructure, often striking targets far beyond the war’s front lines, as fighting on the battlefield grinds towards the four-and-a-half-year mark. On Friday, at...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Saturday he would slap retaliatory tariffs on the United States after walking away from a “bad deal” on trade, deepening the rift between the long-time allies. Negotiations between the neighbouring countries broke down on Friday in Washington, allowing new 50 per cent US tariffs impacting some US$20 billion worth of goods, or 5.5 per cent of Canadian exports to the United States, to come into force. Impacted products range from hockey sticks to...

Swedish police are investigating whether an 18-year-old man who attacked students at a high school with a sword on Friday, killing one, was involved in online communities promoting school violence, a police source said. The attacker struck at a school in the central ‌Swedish town of Fagersta, also severely injuring two teenage boys before being arrested by police. The parents of a 17-year-old girl told local newspaper Fagersta-Posten that their daughter was killed in the attack. Police are...

Somali pirates hijacked an oil products tanker off Yemen, a Somali maritime security official said, the latest in a resurgence of piracy that has seen six commercial vessels seized since April across the Gulf of Aden and western Indian Ocean. Six armed pirates hijacked the Eritrean-flagged M.T. Sibu 1 on Thursday about 136 nautical miles (252 kilometres) east of al-Mukalla, Yemen, and took it towards Somalia’s Puntland coast, the official, who has knowledge of the incident, told journalists on...

Fears of a military confrontation between Israel and Turkey are growing after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to assert dominance over Syria by ordering air strikes on a military airfield near the Turkish border. The eight strikes on the Abu Al-Duhur airbase in northwest Idlib province on Tuesday were characterised by Netanyahu as a warning to Turkey against expanding its military presence in Syria or helping rebuild the Syrian armed forces. Netanyahu’s office claimed Israel and...

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged US counterpart Donald Trump in a phone call on Friday to resolve their countries’ trade dispute, saying US tariffs were imposed on “baseless” grounds. Washington imposed two new sets of tariffs on the Latin American giant in July, a move that has become a key campaign issue ahead of Brazil’s presidential election in October. Lula – who is seeking a fourth and final term in office – told Trump that the tariffs “negatively affect both Brazil and...

Near the heavily fortified frontier dividing the Korean peninsula, the abandoned Woljeong-ri station is being recast as a symbol of South Korea’s hopes to reconcile with the North. But plans to reconnect South Korea’s northernmost station to the rail network come at an awkward moment, as Pyongyang ignores Seoul’s overtures while the South’s old ally Washington pursues its own talks with Pyongyang. A turbulent few days have raised doubts about the role of South Korea in any diplomatic push,...

A US ⁠judge has struck down a Trump administration ⁠policy suspending the issuance of immigrant visas to applicants from 75 countries, saying that the policy exceeded Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statutory authority. US District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan said on Friday ⁠that the policy that the ‌State Department announced in January was “patently unlawful” and ran afoul of federal immigration law, which explicitly stripped the secretary of state of authority over consular officers’...

The United States imposed 50 per cent tariffs on US$20 billion worth of Canadian products early on Saturday and Canada immediately said it would retaliate, after last-ditch negotiations failed to resolve the latest strain in already tense relations between the historic allies. US President Donald Trump’s import taxes will hit about 5 per cent of what Canada ships to the United States every year, including products ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors. “Canada will match those tariffs...

The president rallied for the sister of Lindsey Graham in her South Carolina Senate run and pressured allies to endorse her. A super PAC run by his advisers has spent nearly $800,000 on her campaign. Will it be enough?

The president has made a big bet on a senator’s sister.

Republicans still have some clear advantages on the map, but President Trump’s unpopularity has opened the door for an outcome that once seemed far-fetched.

For Eon Huntley, who won his primary in New York in June, good clothes and populist policies go together.

The 50 percent tariffs President Trump imposed on Canadian exports to the United States will make it impossible for many Canadian companies to continue to sell to the U.S. market, economists say.

The proposal comes after the Trump administration ran into legal challenges in its attempt to attach a similar fee to the H-1B visa last year.

The Mexican man was sent to his home country after assisting federal law enforcement by testifying against Mexican drug cartels.

The sailor, Joshua Aviles, was on his way home from the Middle East aboard the beleaguered aircraft carrier when he learned his father had been detained.

Christina Stanton offers a very specific and deeply personal tour of the World Trade Center site to remind visitors what happened 25 years ago.

After loosening requirements during the Covid era, some schools are shaking up admissions again, facing pressure from the Trump administration, A.I. and even their own professors.

Ms. Hochul, who ascended to the governorship in the depths of the pandemic, believes that New York is back. She hopes she has persuaded New Yorkers.

Zohran Mamdani is known for working around the clock as mayor of New York City, but last week he and his wife headed “upstate” for vacation and some locals were thrilled to spot them.

When a partial breakdown of the system occurred last week, New York City officials did not inform the public.

Regulators sent subpoenas to major Wall Street banks seeking information about the trading of Situational Awareness, three people briefed on the outreach said.

When OpenAI’s agents went rogue in July, they demonstrated ingenuity and drive beyond what many experts imagined — a dangerous harbinger of what such bots could do in the future.

The religious reference by a prosecution witness on Monday incensed the presiding judge, who sternly instructed jurors to disregard it. Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer asked for a mistrial.

She is being tried on murder charges for killing her three young children. The tragedy has resurrected debates over whether such women are criminals or victims.

Years ago, she donned a dinosaur costume to help make ends meet. Now she is a first-time Emmy nominee for her role in “Widow’s Bay.”

Are we willing to regulate and enforce cannabis safety, especially to protect the most vulnerable among us?

Mark Carney has chosen suffering, but he did what Canadians elected him to do.

The Hawk fire has burned more than 15,000 acres since it began on Saturday in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada near Reno.