Minimalist News

Futures Jump After Nvidia's Blowout Earnings Calm Nerves; All Eyes On Delayed Payrolls The AI euphoria, which defined markets for much of 2025 but went AWOL a month ago, is back if only for the time being as Nvidia’s blowout earnings and strong forecast, coupled with cautious positioning before the results, is spurring a relief rally. The results won’t erase all the concerns about AI circularity, but Jensen Huang’s view of the AI economy is taking precedence today. Focus later will turn back to macro data (or lack of it) and the Fed. Until then, US equity futures are sharply higher following

Democrat Plaskett Digs Deeper Grave On Epstein Ties Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Democrat Stacey Plaskett has doubled down on her Epstein collusion in a cringe inducing CNN interview, shrugging off his known sex offender status and sparking outrage as the Epstein files bill clears the Senate for Trump’s signature, exposing the left’s sudden “transparency” push as a desperate backfire. Here’s the backstory: Plaskett defended her Epstein texts, stating  “I believed Epstein had information. I was gonna get that information to seek truth.”  The CNN anchor pressed, “At the time, he was a known sex offender…” prompting Plaskett to respond “A lot of people

Walmart Beats Earnings, Hikes Guidance As Consumer Trade-Down Accelerates Walmart shares are moving lower in premarket trading despite solid third-quarter results, suggesting that price-sensitive consumers are flocking to its stores nationwide. The shift toward value mirrors what off-brand retailer TJ Maxx reported on Wednesday. It caps a pivotal week for retailers (as described by Goldman's Scott Feiler), with Home Depot and Target both highlighting sagging demand and stressed household budgets earlier in the week. What's key to understand is that consumers are continuing to trade down to Walmart in the third quarter. The retailer's core U.S. stores saw same-store sales rise 4.5%, beating the

How The Fed Deals Liquidity: The Monetary Toolbox Authored by Michael Lebowitz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, In our last article, QE Is Coming, we focused on why the capital and financial markets have become so dependent on the Fed for liquidity.  The article explains that, in the aftermath of the crisis, a slew of regulations drastically changed the liquidity landscape. As a result, the Fed—not the private market—is now the primary provider of liquidity. A reader asked us the following: > “Can you provide a list and description of the liquidity tools in the Fed’s toolbox?”   We like the idea. Given the importance of liquidity to financial market

Carson Block: Shorting Big Tech Is Widowmaker Trade, Even With AI Bubble Fears Muddy Waters Capital CEO Carson Block joined Bloomberg TV overnight to discuss whether it's time to short the hyperscalers and the broader artificial-intelligence trade. The answer he gave is somewhat surprising. Block, a notorious short-seller, warned against betting against the tech giants: "If you're out there trying to short Nvidia or any of these big tech names, you're not going to be in business very long." "I would much rather be long than be short in this market," Block told BBG TV, adding, "You have all these AI adjacent companies, AI pretenders, that's

US And UK Revolt Forces Basel To Rethink Brutal Crypto Capital Rules For Banks Authored by Ezra Reguerra via CoinTelegraph.com, Global bank regulators are preparing to revisit their most stringent crypto rules after the United States and the United Kingdom refused to implement them, a move that threatens to unravel the long-standing consensus of the Basel Committee.  In an interview with the Financial Times, Erik Thedéen, the governor of the Swedish central bank and chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), said they may need a “different approach” to the current 1,250% risk weighting for crypto exposures.  According to global law firm White & Case,

"GPUs Are Sold Out": Nvidia Soars After Blowing Away Results, Projections In our preview of NVDA's Q3 results, we said that "it's not a question whether the company beats - they always do - but whether the "blowout" and the "smash" will be big enough to impress a market that has already priced in perfection, and beyond, for the GPU maker." The market was impressed. Here is what NVDA just reported for Q3:  * Adjusted EPS $1.30, beating estimates of $1.24 * Revenue $57.01 billion, up +62% y/y, beating estimate $55.19 billion, and up $3BN vs guidance * Data center revenue

"Increasingly Becoming No-Go Areas" – Violent Crime Explodes At German Train Stations Via Remix News, Exploding violence in Germany has long been tied to mass immigration, as the statistics clearly show, and German train stations are becoming another perfect illustration of this worrying trend. The number of violent crimes at Berlin central station in 2024 has tripled compared to 2019, which was the last year before the coronavirus crisis. In Cologne, violent crime has grown 70 percent in the same timeframe, according to Welt newspaper. Those are just two cities, but the same trend is seen everywhere. “Look at a main train station, in Duisburg, in Hamburg,

Russian Spy Ship Breached UK Waters, Aimed Lasers At Military Pilots, Britain Says The British government issued a warning to Moscow on Wednesday, putting the Kremlin on notice over a Russian naval vessel allegedly having entered British territorial waters and aiming lasers at UK pilots. Defense Secretary John Healey accused the Yantar, a special purpose intelligence collection ship, of its second intrusion into UK waters this year, following a similar incident last January. "At the moment, the Yantar is positioned just off U.K. waters north of Scotland, after moving through the wider surrounding area over recent weeks," Healey told a press briefing held at

Tea And Cocoa May Offset Health Risks Of Excessive Sitting Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), We’re often advised to move more—whether through exercise or simply standing up—to counteract the adverse effects of prolonged sitting. But what if you could get the benefits of standing up simply by eating and drinking certain foods? The Epoch Times/Shutterstock New research from the University of Birmingham, recently published in The Journal of Physiology, suggests that eating foods high in flavanols—such as tea, berries, apples, and cocoa—may help protect blood vessels from the damage caused by prolonged periods of sitting. SITTING INCREASES CARDIOVASCULAR RISK If you’re

London Luxury Home Prices Plunge As Wealthiest Flee Ahead Of Tax-Hikes Asking prices for UK homes declined more steeply than expected in November, down 1.8% on a monthly basis - the biggest fall in prices for this time of year since 2012. Interestingly, alongside UK government budget anxiety, Rightmove pointed to "the decade-high number of homes available for sale" and resulting downward price pressure, mostly affecting the higher end of the property ladder. > “Months of pre-Budget speculation has taken its toll on house prices as it has with other parts of the economy,” said Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank. Colleen

Ukraine's Corruption Scandal Might Pave The Way For Peace If It Takes Yermak Down Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack, He’s Zelensky’s powerbroker so his downfall could undo the already shaky alliance between the armed forces, the oligarchs, the secret police, and parliament that keeps Zelensky in power, thus pressuring him into peace, especially if his warmongering grey cardinal is no longer pushing him to keep fighting. It was earlier assessed here that Ukraine’s $100 million energy graft scandal might only result in a cabinet reshuffle at most, the sentiment of which RT chief Margarita Simonyan shared when writing on X “But we all know it won’t”

UK Political Operative Imran Ahmed Of CCDH Should Be Prosecuted Before He's Deported: Thacker Authored by Paul D. Thacker via The DisInformation Chronicle, A British newspaper reported last week that the Trump White House aims to deport British political operative Imran Ahmed who runs the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a pro-censorship organization Ahmed founded in London several years ago with Morgan McSweeney, the chief of staff to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. But before they kick him out of the country, the Department of Justice should indict Imran Ahmed for laws he broke in America, to include lying to Congress and

Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Real And It's Driving Therapists Crazy The strange psychological anomaly first appeared in 2016 - Psychotherapists across the US and even Europe began reporting a sharp rise in patients with "anxiety" about the US elections and, specifically, a potential win by Donald Trump.  This "Trump Anxiety" was greatly exacerbated by the establishment media, which was relentless in their propaganda narrative painting Trump as the next "Hitler"; a racist, misogynist monster who was hellbent on "destroying democracy."   Another group that was feeding the national hysteria over a Trump presidency was psychotherapists.  At the time, Politico asserted that Trump's "crude"

Treasury Sanctions Former Olympian Snowboarder Turned 'Cocaine Kingpin' The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Ryan Wedding, the former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned cocaine kingpin, now on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, along with nine associates and nine front companies spanning Mexico, Canada, Italy, and the UK. Wedding sits on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list and is accused of operating a multi-ton cocaine trafficking operation that spanned worldwide and left a trail of murders with hired hits across the Americas.  Treasury, the FBI, the DOJ, and Mexico's financial intelligence unit coordinated sanctions targeting his criminal organization.  According to the FBI,

After Flip-Flopping Tantrum, Trump Signs Bill To Release Epstein Files Let's review... On the campaign trail, Trump promised to release 'the Epstein files' - i.e. the list of powerful men who partook of Jeffrey Epstein's network of sex-trafficked young women.  After a few months in office, a brave reporter asked Trump 'hey what about those Epstein files you promised?' - which drew a hostile response from the Commander-in-Chief. 'Why are we still talking about that DEAD guy? Who cares anyway?'  That was the record-needle scratch heard 'round the world - the 'vibe shift' that split the base along weirdly partisan lines that seems to have, for

Wanted Terror Suspect Entered U.S. Under Biden Admin, Got Commercial Truck License Federal officials say Akhror Bozorov, a 31-year-old wanted terrorist from Uzbekistan, illegally entered the US in February 2023, was released by the Biden administration, and later obtained both work authorization and a commercial truck driver’s license in Pennsylvania, according to the NY Post. He was arrested in Kansas this month while working as a trucker, according to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin condemned the sequence of events, saying, “Not only was Akhror Bozorov — a wanted terrorist — released into the country by the Biden administration,

DOJ Sues California Over Mask Ban, ID Rules For Feds The US Department of Justice has sued the state of California and its leading officials over two new state laws that make it a misdemeanor for local and federal law enforcement officers to wear face coverings on the job, which they use to prevent them from being doxxed by activists.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents form a defensive perimeter near an operations center in Los Angeles on June 8, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times The complaint, filed on Monday, argues that the "No Secret Police Act" and "No Vigilantes Act" discriminate against the federal government -

China Intel Officers Offering Western Gov't Insiders Cash For "Low-Level Information" Submitted by The Bureau's Sam Cooper, Chinese intelligence officers are offering Westminster insiders strikingly large sums of money for what looks like low-level political gossip – using "head hunters" on LinkedIn to offer paid "research tasks" – and effectively flooding Keir Starmer's government ranks with inducements to betray the people of Britain, in Beijing's efforts to build long-term relationships to undermine the West. That is the stark picture painted in an extraordinary new espionage alert issued by MI5 and circulated inside Parliament, which warns that officers of China's Ministry of State Security

Network Of California Democrat Party Insiders Under Investigation For Fraud Initial reports of an ongoing fraud investigation in Sacramento by the US Department of Justice revealed that Gavin Newsom's former Chief of Staff, Dana Williamson, was being indicted on 23 felony counts.  Crimes include conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, filing false tax returns, and making false statements to the IRS. The charges allege she orchestrated a scheme to siphon approximately $225,000 from a dormant campaign account belonging to former Attorney General Xavier Becerra (referred to as "Public Official 1" in the indictment), using it for personal gain through

Brazilian president underlines need to reduce emissions as Turkey set to host next year’s summit Guteress has told delegates that “communities on the frontlines are watching too” as he reminds them of flooded homes, failed harvests and lost livelihoods. “Please engage in good faith to reach ambitious compromise,” he pleaded. “1.5c must be your only red line. This is the hour for leadership. Be bold. Follow the science. Put people before profit and please keep your eyes on the finish line. Continue reading...

The former president’s far-right supporters have discovered a new interest in prison conditions as incarceration looms He fought the law and the law won. Two months after receiving a 27-year sentence for trying to “annihilate” Brazil’s democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally looks jail-bound. Continue reading...

As president Lula tries to find common ground between negotiating countries, planetary scientists say emissions must be urgently cut Mother Earth is watching over Cop30. “I am taking care to watch over all the decisions taken here about me,” she told the Guardian. The blessing card she presented said: “Knowing the powerful impact my thoughts can have on others and the environment, I choose to create a positive mindset.” This beautiful vision is in everyday life Nazaré Oliveira, an indigenous woman from Belém, and a descendant of the Potyguar people. She is part of the international spiritual organisation Brahma Kumaris, led by

James Boasberg demands sworn testimony to determine whether US officials defied March court order A federal judge on Wednesday said he was resuming his long-stalled court proceeding to determine whether Trump administration officials willfully violated a court order by deporting hundreds of men to El Salvador in March. US district judge James Boasberg said he would demand sworn testimony from administration officials to determine whether they defied his March court order to turn around aircraft that were removing the men from US territory. Continue reading...

Unsealed indictment says Ryan Wedding tracked down witness who was then murdered before he could testify US authorities have charged a fugitive former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned drug kingpin with the murder of a witness who was prepared to testify against him. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on Wednesday that Ryan Wedding was accused in a newly unsealed indictment of tracking down a witness in Colombia who was then murdered before he could give evidence. Continue reading...

It’s a climate-vulnerable nation, while also being the world’s sixth-largest greenhouse-gas emitter. Global investment in climate action is vital Continue reading...

Penny Wong says translation notes were ‘taken hastily’ by official who was not accredited translator and were ‘for internal purposes only’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A top secret translation of the Nauruan president’s public commentary on the NZYQ deal will remain suppressed for a decade after the Albanese government considered its release “inappropriate”. Nauru declined to endorse an informal translation by Australia’s high commission of the 10-minute public interview uploaded to Facebook in February, nor did it provide its own translation, newly released documents

Guo, who pretended to be Filipina to become mayor, found guilty of human trafficking after raid on compound where more than 700 people were forced to run scams Alice Guo, a Chinese national who became a mayor in the Philippines while masquerading as a Filipina, has been sentenced to life in prison along with seven others on human trafficking charges, state prosecutors have said. Guo, who served as mayor of a town north of Manila, was found guilty of overseeing a Chinese-operated online gambling centre where hundreds of people were forced to run scams or risk torture. Continue reading...

Prime minister has accused the Samoa Observer of inaccurate reporting during his eight-week medical stay in New Zealand Samoa’s only daily newspaper has been banned from attending press conferences with the Samoan prime minister, in a move that critics say threatens the democratic integrity of the Pacific nation. Relations between La’aulialemalietoa Leuatea Polataivao Fosi Schmidt and the Samoa Observer have deteriorated in recent weeks, with the prime minister accusing the newspaper of inaccurate reporting during his eight-week medical stay in New Zealand. Continue reading...

Australia had been pushing to host climate conference next year with south Pacific nations, which are increasingly threatened by rising seas and climate-fuelled disasters Papua New Guinea has voiced frustration after Australia ditched a bid to co-host next year’s UN climate talks with its Pacific island neighbours. “We are all not happy. And disappointed it’s ended up like this,” foreign minister Justin Tkatchenko told Agence France-Presse after Australia ceded hosting rights to Turkey. Continue reading...

Former ABC chair says Australia has allowed ‘divisive groups’ into the country. Plus: national broadcaster unveils plans for more short-form news video * Want to get this in your inbox every Friday? Sign up for the Weekly Beast media newsletter here Ita Buttrose has revealed her views on immigration while on a book tour for her memoir Unapologetically Ita. Buttrose stepped down as chair in March 2024. “I think we’re more divided,” the former chair of the ABC said during an online interview with Prof Henry Brodaty from the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing. “I don’t think the multicultural society that that

Queensland researchers studying intimate-partner killings found one thing common to more than half the cases * Police made potentially critical mistakes in Hannah Clarke murders, new evidence reveals * Read more from Guardian Australia’s two-year investigation here When researchers in Queensland catalogued data from seven years of intimate-partner killings, they found one thing common to more than half of those cases – a victim’s own sense of fear about their impending death. Statistically, the most reliable way to predict a domestic violence homicide is to believe the victim. Continue reading...

SunCable says massive energy project proposed in NT could position Australia as global leader, but critics are concerned about scale * Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Energy company SunCable says a massive solar farm it has proposed building in the Northern Territory could power an AI data centre precinct in the region to position Australia as a global leader in “green industrial development”. The development would be Australia’s largest solar farm and would generate up to 20GW of electricity, or 10 times the output of a large coal-fired station. It would add to

Exclusive: Guidance distributed to MPs seeks to pre-empt questions about plan’s compatibility with Paris agreement, indicating opposition is aware of potential breach * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Coalition MPs are being told to argue that the decision to dump a net zero emissions target is “entirely consistent” with the Paris agreement, despite leaked documents suggesting the opposition is aware such a position could conflict with Australia’s obligations under the climate pact. Guardian Australia has obtained talking points issued to MPs to help them stay on message about Sussan Ley’s new energy and emissions plan, which

AFP allege the 30-year-old sent a ‘menacing message’ to an MP believed to be Allegra Spender after she condemned far-right protests * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A 30-year-old man has been arrested and charged by Australian police after allegedly harassing a politician who condemned a neo-Nazi protest outside the New South Wales parliament. The Australian federal police arrested the man in the Sydney suburb of Bondi and allege he sent a “menacing message” that encouraged abusive and hateful messages to be directed towards a federal politician as a result of the condemnation Continue reading...

Foreign ministers express misgivings about draft US-Russian peace plan favourable to Putin * Europe live – latest updates Europeans must be involved in any attempt to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia, the continent’s top diplomats said after reports of a US-Russia plan favourable to Kremlin interests emerged. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, welcomed any “meaningful efforts” to end the war, but said Ukrainian and European input was needed for any plan to work. Continue reading...

The draft plan, reportedly developed by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev, would force draconian measures on Ukraine In the last hour, Ukraine said it had received from Russia the remains of 1,000 people that Moscow said were killed Ukrainian soldiers, in the latest repatriation – a rare area of cooperation between the warring sides, AFP reported. “Today, repatriation measures took place. 1000 bodies, claimed by the Russian side to belong to Ukrainian servicemen, were returned to Ukraine,” Kyiv’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said on social media. Continue reading...

Pedro Sánchez says his country must defend the democratic freedom ‘wrenched from us for so many years’ Spain has marked the 50th anniversary of Francisco Franco’s death with an absence of official events but a call from the prime minister to heed the lessons of the dictatorship and defend the democratic freedom “wrenched from us for so many years”. Franco, whose military coup against the elected republican government in 1936 triggered a civil war and brought about four decades of dictatorship, died in Madrid on 20 November 1975. Continue reading...

French government withdraws funding after claims of toxic management and dismissal of staff member who lodged rape complaint One of the world’s most prestigious comic book festivals is under threat of cancellation after leading graphic novelists and publishers announced they would boycott the event and the French government withdrew a tranche of its funding. In the biggest crisis in its illustrious history, the Angoulême festival of la bande dessinée (comic strip) may not take place in 2026 after claims of toxic management and the dismissal of a member of staff who had lodged a rape complaint. Continue reading...

Health secretary says he is not comfortable with some elements of policy but that it is the right thing to do for the country Wes Streeting has admitted he is not comfortable with forcibly deporting families under the home secretary’s migration plans, while maintaining it is still the right thing to do. The health secretary said he thought the number of forced removals would be low under the proposed model, which is similar to Denmark’s, because there would be an increased financial incentive for people entering the UK illegally to return to their country of origin. Continue reading...

Medical officials say 17 people killed in Khan Younis area and 16 in strikes on Gaza City Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed 33 people and injured many more, according to medical officials, in one of the most serious escalations of violence since the US-backed ceasefire came into effect last month. Officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said they received the bodies of 17 people, including five women and five children, after four Israeli airstrikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people. In Gaza City, medical officials said two airstrikes killed 16 people, including seven children and three women. Continue reading...

Saad Almadi’s family thanks Trump and state department as announcement comes after meeting with crown prince Saudi Arabia has agreed to allow US citizen Saad Almadi to return home to Florida, five months ahead of the scheduled lifting of travel restrictions and a day after Saudi crown prince and prime minister Mohammed bin Salman met Donald Trump at the White House. Almadi, 75, was sentenced to 19 years of incarceration in the kingdom in 2021 after he wrote 14 tweets critical of the Riyadh government. Two years later, the charges were reduced to so-called “cyber crimes” and he was sentenced to a

Exclusive: Images are first indication that Israel has used cluster munitions in nearly 20 years Israel used widely banned cluster munitions in its recent 13-month war in Lebanon, photos of munition remnants in south Lebanon seen by the Guardian suggest. The images, which have been examined by six different arms experts, appear to show the remnants of two different types of Israeli cluster munitions found in three different locations: south of the Litani River in the forested valleys of Wadi Zibqin, Wadi Barghouz and Wadi Deir Siryan. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. * Trump shrugs off Khashoggi murder during Saudi prince’s White House visit A reminder that Donald Trump’s family has a strong personal interest in Saudi Arabia. In September, London real estate developer Dar Global announced that it plans to launch Trump Plaza in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. It’s Dar Global’s second collaboration with the Trump Organization, the collection of companies controlled by the US president’s children, in the kingdom. Last year, the two companies announced the launch of Trump Tower Jeddah. Continue reading...

Senior aide to Mohammed bin Salman allegedly led campaign to identify users who were posting critically about Saudi regime A senior official in Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage, who is expected to travel with the crown prince on his first trip back to the US in seven years, has previously been accused by US prosecutors of playing a central role in a conspiracy to infiltrate Twitter and identify users who were posting critically about the Saudi regime. Bader al-Asaker, who has headed Prince Mohammed’s private office since before he became crown prince, has never been formally charged by the US government for his

Exclusive: Tshering Tobgay says his country is doing ‘a lot more than our fair share’ on climate and west must cut emissions ‘for the happiness of your people’ The wealthy western countries most responsible for the climate crisis would improve the health and happiness of their citizens by prioritising environmental conservation and sustainable economic growth, according to the prime minister of Bhutan, the world’s first carbon-negative nation. Bhutan, a Buddhist democratic monarchy and biodiversity hotspot situated high in the eastern Himalayas, is among the world’s most ambitious climate leaders thanks to its people’s connection with nature and a strong political focus on

Hasina sentenced in absentia by court in Dhaka over deadly crackdown on student-led uprising last year Bangladesh’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death in absentia by a court in Dhaka for crimes against humanity over a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year. A three-judge bench of the country’s international crimes tribunal convicted Hasina of crimes including incitement, orders to kill and inaction to prevent atrocities as she oversaw a crackdown on anti-government protesters last year. Continue reading...

The accidental explosion comes days after a deadly car blast in New Delhi which killed at least eight people near the city’s historic Red Fort At least nine people were killed and 32 injured after a cache of confiscated explosives detonated inside a police station in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police have announced. The blast occurred in the Nowgam area of Srinagar, the region’s main city, late on Friday while a team of forensic experts and police were examining the explosive material, said Nalin Prabhat, the region’s police director general. He ruled out any foul play, saying it was an accident. Continue reading...

Investigators believe an explosion that killed 13 people may be linked to group operating in the disputed region Police have carried out raids and made several arrests across the Indian region of Kashmir in the aftermath of a car explosion in Delhi that left 13 people dead. On Wednesday, the Indian government confirmed it was treating the blast as a “terror incident” perpetrated by “anti-national forces”. The explosion took place outside one of India’s most significant monuments during rush hour on Monday evening. Continue reading...

Cabinet says explosion near Red Fort that killed 12 is suspected to have been perpetrated by ‘anti-national forces’ India has confirmed it is treating the explosion that killed 12 people outside Delhi’s Red Fort on Monday as a “terror incident” perpetrated by “anti-national forces”. The statement by the cabinet, led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, confirmed mounting speculation that a terrorist attack was behind the blast that took place during peak time in one of the capital’s busiest areas and outside one of India’s major landmarks. Continue reading...

Brendan Carr, head of FCC, asks if programme ever aired in US which is seen as key to any future litigation A US media regulator led by a close ally of Donald Trump is examining whether an edition of the BBC’s Panorama broke US regulations in the way it edited one of the president’s speeches. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), led by Brendan Carr, has written to the BBC’s outgoing director general, Tim Davie, asking whether the programme was ever aired in the US. Continue reading...

Shabana Mahmood reveals plan to revise rules on legal migration, including a wait of more than 10 years for settlement for migrants on benefits In an interview with ITV, Keir Starmer also defended the decision to delay the publication of the government’s review of educational provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilties (Send) in England until next year. He said the government needed to take time to get this right. He said: We do need to attend to Send provision. I think uniformly there’s a sense that the system at the moment isn’t working and needs reform. My strong view is

Musician’s Brixton and Dublin performances go viral after she performs Sinéad O’Connor’s anti-racism anthem Black Boys on Mopeds The UK and Ireland are entering a “dark time”, according to the singer Joy Crookes, who said the influence of far-right ideology on mainstream politics was comparable to the 1970s when the National Front was at its peak. Crookes, who has just played two sold-out shows at the O2 Academy in Brixton, said the recent wave of nationalism and the far-right march through central London in September made her feel unsafe in the UK. Continue reading...

Snow falls in parts of UK with Met Office warning that worst-affected regions could face travel disruption and power cuts Hundreds of schools are closed and many roads are blocked or treacherous to drive on as the UK feels its first significant blast of winter, with snow blizzards, ice and freezing temperatures. Many parts of the UK experienced the coldest night of the season. The Met Office issued eight separate yellow snow and ice weather warnings for Thursday, covering Devon and Cornwall, parts of Kent, the east coast of England and East Anglia, north-east England, south-west and north-west Wales, Northern Ireland and

Labour accused of delaying new rules to avoid backlash, after leak of EHRC guidance saying trans people could be questioned based on looks The UK government has insisted it will take as much time as necessary to “get right” new rules on access to single-sex spaces after a leak of guidance submitted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) raised concerns that its publication was being deliberately delayed. The equalities watchdog submitted its formal guidance on how public bodies, businesses and other service providers should respond to April’s landmark supreme court ruling on biological sex to the UK government in September.

Trump attacks Democrats as he seeks to shape the narrative surrounding his links with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein The Trump administration presented a new plan to roll back regulations in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on Wednesday, a move experts fear will accelerate the extinction crisis if adopted. The proposed changes would allow the federal government more power to weigh economic impact against habitat designations, remove safeguards against future events – including the impacts from the climate crisis – and rescind the “blanket rule” that automatically grants threatened species the same protections as those designated as endangered. Continue reading...

Unemployment rate hits 4.4%, its highest level since 2021, and government has said no October report will be issued The US jobs market added 119,000 jobs in September, according to the latest monthly jobs report, which was delayed by six weeks due to the shutdown of the federal government. Amid heightened uncertainty surrounding the strength of the US economy, the much-anticipated reading was higher than the 51,000 jobs expected by analysts to be added in September. Continue reading...

As federal agents descend in North Carolina, businesses close as even an after-school program is targeted On Central Avenue in Charlotte, North Carolina, Manolo’s Bakery has become a focal point for resistance to the upscaled immigration raids since border patrol officers descended on the city at the weekend. The owner closed the bakery to prevent his staff from being targeted. Most of the other shops on Charlotte’s busy immigrant-centric street followed suit. Dozens of people have taken up camp in the parking lot to wave signs of support for immigrants. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been active in the city for

As the veteran actor turns 100 he reveals that he was approached to play the British spy in the early 60s, but realised his accent wouldn’t have been up to scratch For more than six decades, the actor Dick Van Dyke has been pilloried for his attempts at a British accent in Mary Poppins (1964). Now, the actor who has since apologised for the “most atrocious cockney accent in the history of cinema” as chimney sweep Bert in the Disney classic has revealed he was in the running to play another UK icon on screen: James Bond. Speaking on the Today TV

The plan, which is likely to be viewed as ‘surrender’ by Kyiv, is facing pushback from the EU. Plus, Trump signs bill to compel release of more Epstein documents * Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here Good morning. US and Russian officials have quietly drafted a new plan to end the war in Ukraine that would require Kyiv to cede territory and severely cut the size of its military, it was reported on Wednesday, in a development that Kyiv will probably view as surrender. Is this plan formally backed by the Trump administration? That’s still unclear, as Witkoff

China should prepare for stricter US and EU regulations on global rules of origin – as signalled in the recent trade deal between the Western economic powers – with the changes potentially weighing on its export sector by redefining global trade patterns, according to a Chinese economist. “Trump’s current measures are temporary – tariffs can be imposed today and rolled back or even eliminated tomorrow. The real question for us is what the future global trade framework looks like,” said Zhang...

South African police and army units held a parade on Wednesday involving helicopters, K-9 dog units and officers on motorcycles in a show of force ahead of expected protests around this weekend’s Group of 20 world leaders summit in Johannesburg. South Africa has deployed 3,500 extra police officers and put the army on standby under its National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure - a body that brings police, army and intelligence services together under one command to provide security...

Nasa released fresh images on Wednesday of the interstellar object called 3I/ATLAS that astronomers have determined is a comet probably even older than our solar system, as US space agency officials dismissed speculation that it was actually an alien spacecraft. 3I/ATLAS was first spotted in July by an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, telescope located in Rio Hurtado, Chile, and has been tracked by astronomers since then. Its unusual trajectory indicated that it was...

Indonesia has launched emergency vaccination drives after measles outbreaks killed more than 20 children in two provinces, stoking fears of a wider epidemic amid a global resurgence of the virus. The scale and speed of the outbreaks have alarmed health experts, who warn the crisis is not simply the result of faltering immunisation coverage, but also a symptom of growing vaccine hesitancy – fuelled by online misinformation, religious concerns and a legacy of public distrust. This erosion of...

US President Donald Trump vowed Wednesday to end Sudan’s grinding civil war at the request of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, condemning “tremendous atrocities” in a conflict he has previously overlooked. Trump admitted that the devastating war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) was “not on my charts” before Prince Mohammed bin Salman pushed him to get involved. But Trump said he would now work to “stabilise” the conflict with regional powers, notably including the...

At least 25 Palestinians were killed in four Israeli air strikes on Wednesday in a part of Gaza under Hamas control since a shaky ceasefire took effect in October, health authorities said. The Israeli military said its forces struck Hamas targets across Gaza after members of the Palestinian militant group fired on its troops in violation of the nearly six-week-old ceasefire. No Israeli forces were injured. Hamas condemned the Israeli strikes as a dangerous escalation, and urged the United States...

A US judge on Wednesday repeatedly questioned the validity of the grand jury indictment of former FBI director James Comey secured by a prosecutor closely aligned with US President Donald Trump in the latest signal that the charges may be dismissed before trial. After repeated questioning by US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, prosecutors acknowledged that the final version of the indictment was never presented to the entire grand jury that approved the charges after panel members previously...

Toronto-Dominion Bank was sued by a group of former employees who claim they were improperly fired from their jobs amid disclosure of widespread criminal money laundering through bank branches. Five Chinese and Chinese-American former employees sued Toronto-Dominion claiming they were dismissed from branches in New York as part of the bank’s effort to crack down on money laundering. At least 22 people were fired from four Chinatown branches in the city’s Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens boroughs,...

US President Donald Trump signed legislation on Wednesday that compels his administration to release files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, bowing to political pressure from his own party after initially resisting those efforts. Trump could have chosen to release many of the files on his own months ago. “Democrats have used the ‘Epstein’ issue, which affects them far more than the Republican Party, in order to try and distract from our AMAZING Victories,” Trump said in a social media...

Britain said on Wednesday that it would ban the resale of tickets to concerts, sport and other live events for profit, disrupting ticket touts and the platforms that benefit from their activities. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said touts were ripping off fans by using bots to snap up batches of tickets for coveted shows and reselling them at sky-high prices. “Our new proposals will shut down the touts’ racket and make world-class music, comedy, theatre and sport affordable for everyone,” she...

Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers abruptly went on leave on Wednesday from teaching at Harvard University, where he once served as president, over recently released emails showing he maintained a friendly relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, Summers’ spokesperson said. Summers had been retreating from his public commitments amid the fallout of the emails revelation, but he had maintained that he would continue teaching economics classes at Harvard. Yet by Wednesday evening, Summers had...

British defence minister John Healey said on Wednesday that “military options” are ready should the Russian spy ship Yantar become a threat after it directed lasers at British pilots sent to monitor it. Britain’s Royal Navy and Royal Air Force routinely shadow potential threats to national security, and such missions to monitor Russian vessels and submarines have become more frequent since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Healey said directing lasers at RAF pilots was “deeply dangerous” and...

China slightly increased its US Treasury holdings in August and September – though the uptick did little to offset an overall downward trend – as persistent worries over US debt sustainability and the Federal Reserve’s independence deepened doubts about the safety of assets backed by the US dollar. The country’s stockpile rose to US$701 billion in August, up from July’s multi-year low of US$696.9 billion, but it again trimmed the total to US$700.5 billion in September, according to data from the...

China’s €4 billion (US$4.6 billion) euro-denominated bond sale has drawn record demand, highlighting robust investor confidence in its sovereign assets amid a global shift towards diversification. International and regional investors placed €100.1 billion in orders for the offering – 25 times the fundraising target – China’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Wednesday. The seven-year tranche, issued alongside an equal-sized four-year tranche, attracted demand 26.5 times its allocation,...

Christie’s said on Wednesday it was suspending the Paris auction of one of just a handful of examples of the world’s first calculating machine, developed by French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal in 1642. The auction of “La Pascaline” had been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, but late on Tuesday a Paris court suspended authorisation for export – meaning buyers would not be able to take it abroad. This example is one of only nine still existing and the only one believed to be in...

Russia pummelled Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones overnight, killing at least 25 people and throwing doubt over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s attempts to “reinvigorate” the peace process with talks in Ankara later on Wednesday. “Twenty-five people, including three children, were killed as a result of Russian shelling of the city. Another 73 people, including 15 children, were wounded,” the country’s interior ministry said on social media, updating earlier tolls from one of...

Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui remained the world’s fourth most expensive retail strip with rents at US$1,515 per square foot per year, as two other core shopping districts in the city – Causeway Bay and Central – also ranked among the Asia-Pacific’s priciest shopping locations, according to Cushman & Wakefield. London’s New Bond Street jumped two spots from last year to emerge as the world’s most expensive retail district, according to the real-estate services consultancy’s 35th “Main Streets Across...

Former US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo said US President Donald Trump’s tariffs are likely to outlive his administration, sustained by political fears that removing protectionist barriers will alienate workers who fear losing their jobs to offshoring and AI. Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, Raimondo argued that the political cost of unwinding tariffs is too high for any future administration, regardless of party. “Tariffs, once they’re put on, are hard to take off,”...

Family offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai are redrawing the global map of private capital. Each hub combines favourable tax and regulatory regimes with strong local networks of banks, advisers and deal makers. Together, they now rival Western centres in deploying private equity across the Global South. Drawing inspiration from family offices in the United States – where private equity has represented a major share of assets – these Asian hubs are scaling rapidly, positioning themselves as...

Portuguese football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and billionaire Elon Musk were among the guests at a lavish White House dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump for the visiting Saudi crown prince on Tuesday. Ronaldo plays for Saudi club Al Nassr, one of a number of ageing players who have been attracted to the desert kingdom’s heavy spending on stars despite its rights record. The 40-year-old, whose contract with the Saudi club ends this summer, took his place near the head of Trump’s table a...

An Israeli air strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 13 people and wounded several others, state media and government officials said. It was the deadliest strike on Lebanon since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war a year ago. The drone strike hit a car in the car park of a mosque in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency said. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 13 people were killed...

Kissing did not begin with star-crossed human lovers but with the primate ancestors of great apes around 20 million years ago, according to a study published on Wednesday. Researchers from Oxford University and the Florida Institute of Technology wanted to examine when kissing began, given that from an evolutionary standpoint it has no obvious survival benefit, and could spread disease. Yet humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and gorillas all kiss, which strongly suggests the habit was...

A Gustav Klimt portrait painting sold on Tuesday for US$236 million, a record for a modern art piece, at an auction where a solid gold, fully functional toilet satirising the ultrarich also fetched US$12.1 million. The toilet, by Maurizio Cattelan - the provocative Italian artist known for taping a banana to a wall - went up for auction on Tuesday evening at Sotheby’s in New York. The starting bid for the 101kg, 18-karat gold work was about US$10 million. Cattelan has said the piece, titled...

Donald Trump ripped into a reporter from the US network ABC News on Tuesday, just days after calling another woman journalist “piggy” after she asked a question related to the convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump threatened ABC’s broadcast license after reporter Mary Bruce posed questions during a White House visit by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The earlier incident involving Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey happened a few days ago on Air Force One, but only...

A US district court, in a setback for President Donald Trump, struck down a congressional map on Tuesday redrawn by Republicans in Texas that was intended to give the party five more likely seats in the House of Representatives. The court ruled that the new map, which weakened five Democratic districts, could not be used in the 2026 midterm elections, where Republicans are seeking to safeguard their slim majority in the House. Democrats are eyeing a big win that would allow them to challenge the...

Facebook parent company Meta Platforms defeated a US attempt to unwind its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp on Tuesday when a federal judge ruled the company did not hold a social media monopoly. The ruling gives Big Tech its first decisive win against the antitrust crackdown started in US President Donald Trump’s first term, and is a major setback for the Federal Trade Commission, which is pursuing a separate antitrust case against Amazon.com. The agency sought to force Meta to...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks suggesting that Japan could intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait under the pretext of a “survival-threatening situation” represent a strategic pivot away from Japan’s post-war pacifist ethos. These statements, explicitly condemned by Beijing as “blatant interference in China’s internal affairs”, transcend mere diplomatic indiscretion. They reflect a calculated alignment with containment strategies aimed at curtailing China’s...

Brazil has cleared a Chinese navy hospital ship to dock in Rio de Janeiro in January, ending a months-long review that drew quiet pushback inside the country’s military, according to local media. The approval, dated November 13 and published Tuesday in the government’s official gazette, allows the Ark Silk Road to remain in Rio from January 8 to January 15 next year. The 178 metre (584 feet) vessel operates under China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy. Records show a United States ship will...

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Mohammed bin Salman knew nothing about the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, offering a fierce defence of the visiting Saudi crown prince that contradicted a US intelligence assessment. The controversy over the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and US-based critic of the Saudi leadership, flared again in the Oval Office in front of cameras as the kingdom’s de facto ruler made his first White House visit in...

The Republican-controlled US Congress voted almost unanimously on Tuesday to force the release of Justice Department files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an outcome President Donald Trump had fought for months before ending his opposition. Two days after Trump’s abrupt about-face, the House of Representatives passed the measure with a vote of 427-1, sending a resolution requiring the release of all unclassified records on Epstein to the Republican-majority Senate, which...

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that Europe does not want to be a “vassal” that is dependent on US and Chinese tech companies, calling for a “European preference” in the sector. “Europe doesn’t want to be the client of the big entrepreneurs or the big solutions being provided either from the US or from China, we clearly want to design our own solutions,” Macron told a Berlin summit, adding that this stance represented “a refusal of being a vassal”. Macron was speaking at the...

With a direct letter sent to nations and a draft text released on Tuesday, host country Brazil is shifting the UN climate conference into a higher gear. The letter sent late on Monday comes during the final week of the first climate summit in the Amazon rainforest, a key regulator of climate because trees absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet. Cop30 President Andre Correa do Lago later released a proposal with 21 options for negotiators to choose from on four sticky and...

Britain’s domestic intelligence agency on Tuesday warned lawmakers that Chinese spies were actively reaching out to “recruit and cultivate” them via headhunters or cover companies. Writing to lawmakers, House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said a new MI5 “espionage alert” warned that Chinese nationals were “using LinkedIn profiles to conduct outreach at scale” on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security. “Their aim is to collect information and lay the groundwork for long-term...

Cloudflare has fully restored its services after an outage on Tuesday at the web-infrastructure company prevented thousands from accessing major internet platforms, including X and ChatGPT. The company said the outage that began around 6.30am was caused by an automatically generated configuration file, designed to manage potential security threats. The file grew too large and crashed the software system handling traffic for several Cloudflare services, the company, whose network handles around a...

While the world’s attention is drawn to US President Donald Trump’s tug of war with China over trade tariffs and technological embargoes, a new development in the Ukraine war is catching the eye of geopolitical observers. Pokrovsk, a city in Donetsk Oblast, has emerged as the most critical flashpoint in Russia’s war on Ukraine. At the intersection of major supply highways and a key railway junction, it serves as a vital logistics hub for Ukrainian forces defending central and western Donetsk....

One of 25 schoolgirls abducted from a school dormitory in northwestern Nigeria’s Kebbi state has escaped captivity and returned home, the school principal said on Tuesday. The girls were abducted when gunmen attacked a high school in northwestern Nigeria before dawn on Monday, taking the 25 girls and killing a staff member at the school. The student who escaped through forests and arrived home late on Monday, hours after the kidnapping at the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, said...

Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said no company would be unscathed if the artificial intelligence boom collapses, as soaring valuations and heavy investment in the sector fuel concerns of a bubble. Pichai said in an interview with the BBC published on Tuesday that the current wave of AI investment was an “extraordinary moment” but acknowledged “elements of irrationality” in the market, echoing warnings of “irrational exuberance” during the dotcom era. There has also been much debate among...

Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil tried to find common ground after a financial dialogue in Beijing on Monday, with both officials saying the two countries should strengthen ties and support open, rules-based global trade. Klingbeil’s trip marked the first visit to China by a German minister since the new coalition government took office earlier this year and came at a delicate time for Sino-German relations, with Berlin gripped by supply chain anxieties...

Regardless of the outcome of the challenge to US President Donald Trump’s powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act now before the Supreme Court, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has made clear the administration will continue to use national security rationales to enact its disruptive trade measures. It was not always thus. Nations have always had national security interests. Major powers have always engaged in espionage targeting adversaries – even allies. But since the...

Thailand’s insistence that trade negotiations with the US can proceed separately from talks over a fractious border dispute with Cambodia has been met with deep scepticism given Washington’s increasing use of economic policy as a political instrument and US President Donald Trump’s personal stake in the ceasefire deal. Bangkok announced on Saturday that tariff talks with the United States would “remain separate from border issues”, a pledge government spokesman Siripong Angkasakulkiat said...

Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers said on Monday he will step back from all public commitments, days after President Donald Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate his and other prominent Democrats’ ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Summers, a former president of Harvard University, where he is a professor, told the university’s student newspaper that the move was to allow him “to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me”. The...

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he plans to approve the sale of US-made F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, speaking a day before he hosts Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a day of diplomacy. “I will say that we will be doing that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’ll be selling the F-35s.” A sale would mark a significant policy shift, potentially altering the military balance in the Middle East and testing Washington’s definition of maintaining Israel’s...

The Trump administration’s blueprint to secure and govern Gaza won strong approval at the United Nations on Monday, a crucial step that provides international support for US efforts to move the devastated territory towards peace following two years of war. The US resolution that passed the UN Security Council authorises an international stabilisation force to provide security in Gaza, approves a transitional authority to be overseen by US President Donald Trump and envisions a possible future...

Months before the US military began launching air strikes against suspected drug vessels, former Justice Department acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove told employees the government should just “sink the boats” rather than prosecute the people on board, three witnesses told Reuters. Bove made similar remarks on at least three separate occasions between November 2024 and February 2025 when the topic of maritime drug cases was broached, the witnesses said. All three were granted anonymity to...

Soybean futures jumped on signals that China is stepping up its buying of oilseed, offering hope for US farmers after purchases appeared to have stalled. Prices in Chicago rose as much as 3.2 per cent on Monday, hitting a fresh 17-month high, after US President Donald Trump said China is in the process of buying soybeans. “They’ll be doing a lot of soybean purchases,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, adding that those purchases could start before spring. Brokerage AgResource Co...

The meeting between Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, and President Trump will come after the two men have fiercely attacked one another.

The president sought to take credit for the legislation, despite months of pressure to kill it. The bill has significant exceptions that could mean many documents would stay confidential.

The former Harvard president has come back from controversy before, but revelations in new Epstein emails are threatening his omnipresence in public life.

The former Harvard president had previously stepped down from other positions following revelations about his longtime connections to Jeffrey Epstein.

For years, the state has been nudging its cities to build housing to address a severe shortage. Maybe what they needed was a shove.

As the country music institution celebrates a century of its radio broadcast, listen to how the show defined the culture — and was reshaped by it — decade by decade.

As the former vice president is honored at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, many eyes will focus on who comes — and who does not.

A.I. has added urgency to the U.S. national laboratories that have been sites of cutting-edge scientific research, leading to deals with tech giants like Nvidia to speed up.

The chipmaker at the center of the artificial intelligence boom reported blowout results. But that hasn’t resolved some key questions behind the tech rally.

The country’s anti-graft agencies have taken a cinematic approach to revealing a scandal that has touched President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inner circle.

India has been snapping up discounted Russian crude for three years, but U.S. sanctions that take effect on Friday are expected to end the lucrative trade.

Prince Mohammed was briefly a global pariah after the killing of a Saudi dissident. But over the years he has rebuilt his image as a deal-maker and influential investor.

After nearly a decade of expensive, hit-and-miss investments, Mohammed bin Salman is overseeing a behind-the-scenes restructuring of the kingdom’s all-important wealth fund.

A JetBlue pilot’s illness looked like food poisoning, but it was actually an increasingly common tick-borne meat allergy that can be fatal.

Jonathan J. Pollard, who was convicted of espionage, said in an interview that the meeting, which was highly unusual for a U.S. diplomat to attend, had been friendly.

The group, which powered Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s rise in 2018, is backing Darializa Avila Chevalier’s bid to unseat Representative Adriano Espaillat.

The New York City mayor-to-be, Zohran Mamdani, and the head of the Police Department, Jessica Tisch, have gaps to bridge on crime and policing.

Just outside Belém, the Amazonian city where the world is meeting to discuss climate change, electricity is a very recent arrival.

Have we been selling her short? Is she paving the way to the after-Trump?

We’re looking at two local stories that have national implications.

Kimmel wondered if President Trump might “pull a Taylor Swift and give us ‘The Epstein Files: Donnie’s Version.’”

Young Spaniards are increasingly drawn to the dictator Francisco Franco. So the government is designing apps, games and T-shirts to promote democracy.

Rabih Alameddine’s “The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)” won in fiction, while Omar El Akkad’s reckoning with Gaza took the nonfiction prize.

The image immortalized a Vietnam veteran’s joyous homecoming to his beaming family, but it hid the truth about an unraveling marriage.

Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick misused $5 million in Covid-related funds during the pandemic in part to finance her campaign, according to the Justice Department.