Minimalist News

German School Forces Teens To Design 'Inclusive Brothel' Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Parents across Germany are in uproar after a Catholic high school handed 13- to 15-year-olds the grotesque task of modernizing a brothel to make it “sexually inclusive” for every lifestyle and preference under the sun. The assignment at Cardinal von Galen Gymnasium in Kevelaer, North Rhine-Westphalia, formed part of a “Sexual Education of Diversity” module. Students were told to simulate running an existing brothel in a big city, with a fixed floor plan they could only tweak by adding doors and staircases. Insane pic.twitter.com/hFYy379mQV — Basil

How The FIFA World Cup Affects Short-Term Rental Markets For international football fans traveling to North America to attend the FIFA World Cup this summer, the costs of doing so quickly add up . As Statista's Felix Richter details below, between flights, accommodation, food, local transportation and tickets, a week-long trip to the tournament can easily set you back a couple of thousand dollars, which is why FIFA and local businesses in the United States have been accused of price gouging in the run-up to the multi-week event. Fans put off by sky-high hotel prices in host cities may look

65,000 Small German Retail Stores Have Disappeared As Economic Downturn Hits Europe's 'Powerhouse' Via Remix News, The number of small retail stores in Germany has declined drastically since 2010. According to a recent analysis by the credit agency Creditreform and the Handelsblatt Research Institute, there were 236,143 small retail stores with annual sales of less than €250,000 in 2010. For 2025, the sales tax statistics show only 170,770 such stores, a drop of 28 percent, reports Junge Freiheit . Across all size categories, the number of stores shrank by only 16 percent during the same period, meaning the smaller, owner-operated

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

Interest In Politics Often Ranks Low Interest in politics varies among countries and for many of the 34 nations surveyed by Statista Consumer Insights between April 2025 and March 2026, politics was in the bottom half of the most frequently named personal interests out of 18 surveyed . The topic ranked lowest in India (16 out of 18), Malaysia (16) and Saudi Arabia (16). As Statista's Anna Fleck shows in the chart below , the share of respondents naming politics as an interest also varied between countries where it ranked similarly. You will find more infographics at Statista For example,

The Slow Disappearance Of Cash In Europe Authored by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes via the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), Under the guise of fighting money laundering, the EU is making anonymous economic activity progressively harder... Starting in July 2027, Europeans will no longer be allowed to pay businesses or professionals more than €10,000 in cash (roughly $11,500). Any transaction above €3,000 (just under $3,500) will require mandatory customer identification. This is another step toward political uniformity across Europe, stripping countries of autonomy and subtly pushing citizens toward the digital euro. This measure, part of the new Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR)

Shutting Down Federal Bee Labs Threatens The US Food System Authored by Jennie Durant via TheConversation.com, America’s bees and beekeepers are losing a valuable ally just when they need its help most. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to soon close the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center , a 6,500-acre agricultural research station in Maryland that is home to the nation’s premier bee research and disease diagnosis hub, the Beltsville Bee Research Lab . The closure comes at a critical moment for bees. In winter 2025, many beekeepers lost over half their operations as pesticide-resistant varroa mites spread, bringing deadly viruses.

US Officials Suspect Iran Used Chinese Missile To Bring Down F-15E Warplane: Report Via The Cradle US officials believe that a Chinese-made shoulder-fired missile was likely used by Iranian forces to shoot down a US F-15E Strike Eagle over southwestern Iran last month , NBC News reported Saturday. The incident marks the first time in decades that the US has had to acknowledge that one of its jets was shot down by enemy fire, although three F-15Es were also shot down in Kuwait in March. Illustrative, via Reuters/stringer Washington insists the Kuwait incident was due to 'friendly fire,' even as

The Democrat Establishment Is Starting To Worry About Spencer Pratt The last person California Democrats expected to keep them up at night is Spencer Pratt. Yet here we are. The former reality television personality-turned-independent mayoral candidate has spent the past several weeks doing something that Los Angeles's political establishment convinced itself was impossible: making incumbent Mayor Karen Bass look vulnerable. Conventional wisdom held that a candidate like Pratt, a former television personality with no governing experience, running as an independent in a deep-blue city, had no realistic path to victory. The conventional wisdom was wrong, or at a minimum, it

AI's Coming Reality Check: When The Physics Finally Hits The Hype Authored by Chris MacIntosh vis InternationalMan.com, In five years, we’ll all likely be chuckling and shaking our heads over AI. Because today, the tech feels free and limitless, doesn’t it? People are generating endless content: images, videos, memes, code snippets, social posts. Companies are bolting AI onto products by default, the way every Fortune 500 company suddenly discovered they were “sustainable” five years ago. There’s much deliberation on AI right now, and it splits into two main camps of thesis: The majority — those who will die on its

California Chemical Tank Emergency At F-35 Supplier Comes Amid Far-Left Campaign Against Defense Firms By the end of last week, dozens of lawsuits had been filed against GKN Aerospace after a tank explosion risk at its Garden Grove, California, facility forced 40,000 residents to evacuate the area over Memorial Day weekend. An apparent malfunctioning storage tank containing methyl methacrylate, a volatile, flammable chemical, sparked fears of an explosion across Garden Grove, Anaheim, Stanton, Buena Park, Cypress, and Westminster. Local authorities lifted the final evacuation orders last Tuesday after pressure inside the tank stabilized and officials ruled out the worst-case explosion

Monolithic 3D Silicon Chips Achieve Near-Perfect Yields At Low Temperatures Authored by Neetika Walter via Interesting Engineering , Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a way to stack high-performance silicon circuits directly on top of one another, a breakthrough that could help the semiconductor industry keep increasing computing power without shrinking transistors further. The 200-mm wafer contains multiple silicon layers stacked for monolithic 3D chip integration. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The approach tackles one of the biggest challenges facing chipmakers as Moore's law begins to slow . For decades, the industry boosted performance by making transistors smaller

Israel Seizes Crusader Beaufort Castle, Marking Deepest Plunge Into Lebanon In Decades Fresh Sunday reports say that Israel's military has made its deepest plunge into Lebanon in nearly three decades , having captured a strategic crusader castle site and UNESCO World Heritage Landmark, Beaufort castle . It was last captured in 1982, when the IDF later pushed all the way north to occupy portions of Beirut. The army posted photographic proof via its Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, who issued an image on X showing Israeli troops walking outside the castle . An Israeli flag has also been raised over the

The End Of Digital Trust: How Quantum Computing Could Upend Security, Business, & Global Stability Authored by Julio Rivera via American Greatness, The scariest technology threats are usually the boring ones. Not the giant killer robots. Not the science fiction stuff. Not the dramatic movie scenes where somebody in sunglasses launches cyberattacks from a glowing underground bunker while alarms blare in the background. The truly dangerous threats arrive quietly. Q-Day falls squarely into that category. To most people, the phrase sounds like something Netflix would slap on a conspiracy thriller thumbnail. In reality, it refers to the moment quantum computers

Berkshire Buys Taylor Morrison For $6.8 Billion In First Big Deal Under Greg Abel Less than a month after we mused at Berkshire's most recent cash hoard which as of March 31 stood just shy of $400 billion, and wondered who Warren Buffett's replacement Greg Abel will acquire first ... ... we got the answer on Sunday afternoon, when Berkshire announced it will acquire homebuilder Taylor Morrison Home Corp. in an all-cash deal worth about $6.8 billion . Which means that after the deal, Berkshire still has $390 billion in T-bills collecting about 3.5%. The offer of $72.50 per common

Oil's Peace Dividend Is Real, But Normalization Is Not A Light Switch Authored by Stephen Innes via The Dark Side Of The Boom , Markets can remove geopolitical risk premium far faster than physical energy systems can recover. The real post-war story may be strategic reserve rebuilding rather than simply falling oil prices. Canada's emerging Pacific LNG corridor highlights how Asia is increasingly seeking supply routes that bypass Hormuz altogether. The shift from efficiency to resilience could become one of the most important structural drivers of oil and LNG demand over the coming decade. The U.S.-Iran war may eventually end,

What Are Americans Most Worried About? Statista’s Consumer Insights survey has been tracking which issues adults in the United States consider to be the most important in the country right now, and how they have shifted over time. The following chart, via Statista's Anna Fleck , provides just a snapshot of these, listing the eight most cited concerns out of a possible 20 options, in the most recent survey wave as well as in the survey wave at the start of the pandemic . You will find more infographics at Statista Where health and social security came first in the

Fighting While Talking, Horses And Security By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities Fighting While Talking, Horses, and Security Some quick updates on recent themes. The latest on Iran is front and center, and if you missed this week’s Around the World, it is worth a look. Not just an Iran update, but we also cover Cuba, Russia/Ukraine, the China Summit, and Nigeria (I certainly need to get more up to speed on Africa). We will examine Universal Basic Income and the Job Market in the section we have decided to label Horses. While it feels like we’ve been talking about

The New Yorker Thinks Patriotism Is "Problematic" In a meandering essay name dropping every dress-to-impress academic figure from Voltaire to Alexis de Tocqueville to Howard Zinn, The New Yorker has set out on a quest to explain how the progressive left can essentially despise the country they live in the name of social justice, while also adopting the perks of "patriotism" so they can own the Chuds. The publication throws around some curious stats and asserts that patriotism is on the decline because, as they argue, patriotism today requires people to be blind to the injustices of the past. They

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

Lawyer and Trump admirer has risen rapidly in the polls and will face Iván Cepeda in election runoff in three weeks The far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won the first round of Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday and will face senator Iván Cepeda, the candidate backed by leftwing president Gustavo Petro, in the runoff. With 100% of ballots counted, the outsider and Donald Trump admirer Espriella secured 43.7% of the vote – just over 10.3m votes – compared with 40.9% (about 9.6m votes) for Cepeda, a philosopher and human rights activist who has served as a senator since 2014.

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

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

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

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

Powerful winds and rain expected in parts of Japan and Australia, while temperatures in Spain could hit 40C A powerful tropical storm is forecast to track near Okinawa, Japan, on Monday before moving towards the south-east of the country. Typhoon Jangmi (also known as Typhoon No 6) has formed within the monsoonal gyre over the Philippine Sea. A monsoonal gyre is a large, slow-rotating weather system that spawns typhoons through smaller vortices formed within it. This flow can intensify storms. Such typhoons are typically characterised by broad areas of low pressure and extensive wind fields, often without a distinct eye.

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

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

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

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

Labor MP Mike Freelander says party must continue to help under-pressure workers, including considering further income tax cuts Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Labor will seek to highlight Pauline Hanson’s record of opposing cost-of-living relief for working people as it tries to prevent One Nation further eroding its voter base. As the government grapples with how to deal with Hanson’s surge, one Labor MP predicted One Nation’s support had peaked and the rightwing populist party wouldn’t be able to replicate its polling success at a federal election. Continue reading...

Alleged threat on regional school north of Brisbane was ‘quite well advanced’, state counter-terrorism police say Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Queensland counter-terrorism police have charged a 13-year-old with planning an attack on a regional school north of Brisbane. The teenager was arrested last Thursday after allegedly making threats at a business in Maryborough, armed with a knife. Continue reading...

Graphic videos on social media appear to show upset onlookers after police accidentally ran over animal in Mount Isa street Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Confronting footage has emerged of police shooting dead a pet dog as it lay prone in the middle of a street in front of screaming onlookers, after they accidentally ran over the animal in an outback mining city. The graphic videos, posted to social media on Sunday afternoon, appear to show one resident in distress and being led away

This blog is now closed Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Tony Abbott, the new party president of the Liberals, said he wouldn’t get “too excited” by the poll showing One Nation’s surging support. But he told RN this morning he believes the country is in trouble and the Liberal/National Coalition is best positioned to lead the nation. Abbott spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying: Our economy is stagnant, our society is fragmenting, our security is imperiled, and yes, we don’t believe in ourselves nearly enough. I think the current government is making

Auction success hit a new low for the year on the last Saturday in May, with just 54.5% of homes sold Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has suggested falling auction clearance rates may be a “good thing” for first home buyers if it means they aren’t competing against as many property investors. After data was released showing home prices in Australia’s capital cities had begun to fall and buyers were abandoning auctions, Chalmers on Monday said Labor’s proposed property tax

President Macron says ship subject to sanctions and posts video of operation that took place with UK support A suspected Russian oil tanker has been detained in the Atlantic, France has announced, in the latest seizure aimed at combatting Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of vessels contravening international sanctions. The Tagor was detained on Sunday morning in international waters more than 400 nautical miles (740km) west of Brittany with the help of the UK and other partners, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

Strikes undermine efforts towards de-escalating conflict, says Kuwait, as US president hits out at ‘chirping’ critics and says they should ‘sit back and relax’ Netanyahu orders Israeli bombing of southern Lebanon Iran targets American bases in region The exchange of strikes between the US and Iran reflects the fragility of the current ceasefire, which has seen repeated violations even as American and Iranian officials try to negotiate a deal to extend it. Iran has maintained its chokehold on the strait of Hormuz, disrupting global energy supplies as a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed through the

Attacks reported in Kuwait – home to a US military base – and around the strait of Hormuz in latest exchange of fire as peace negotiations continue Middle East live – latest updates The US said it struck Iranian military sites at the weekend and Iran said on Monday it had targeted a US base in response, the latest exchange of attacks amid negotiations to end the three-month-old war. The US and Iran have sporadically exchanged strikes since their planned ceasefire took effect in early April, as diplomacy aimed at a more durable agreement drags on. A similar exchange occurred

Thousands leave homes after Israeli military instructed to strike ‘terrorist targets’ in largest escalation of war since ceasefire • Middle East crisis – live updates Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the Israeli military to bomb the southern suburbs of Beirut, the most serious escalation of Israel’s war in Lebanon since a supposed ceasefire was announced on 17 April. The Israeli prime minister and his defence minister, Israel Katz, said on Monday they had given instructions to strike “terrorist targets” in the southern suburbs for what they called “repeated and ongoing violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah”. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources predict ‘toe-curling’ revelations as more than 1,000 pages of documents relating to his appointment as US ambassador to be published Mandelson files show no mitigation of security concerns At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said the release of the Mandelson files today would be “an unprecedented piece of government transparency”. He said that party political material would be included, despite precedent suggesting it should be included, and that some material had to be declassified to allow it to be published. The broad scope of the [humble address motion – see 9.26am ] has required the discovery,

Firm says its RTX Spark PC chip for Microsoft Windows will let AI agents replace the mouse and keyboard Business live – latest updates A new front has opened up in the battle for dominance in AI chips, as Nvidia said its latest development could replace the mouse and keyboard in how people use computers. The $5tn (£3.7tn) US semiconductor company has launched a “superchip” that puts AI capabilities into laptops and desktop computers, a move that will pit it against Intel, Apple, Qualcomm and AMD. Continue reading...

Girl, 13, pulled from River Wharfe on Sunday and boy, 11, remains missing from River Don as hot spell comes to an end A 13-year-old girl has died after going into a river and a boy is missing as the water-related death toll reached at least 15 at the end of the UK heatwave. The girl was pulled from the River Wharfe in Burnsall, near Skipton, North Yorkshire, on Sunday evening. She was airlifted to hospital where she was pronounced dead, North Yorkshire police said. Continue reading...

Children of those on care worker visas, who came legally before rule change, told to leave even if parents can stay Children as young as five who are living legally in the UK are being told by the Home Office they must leave the country even if their parents have been given permission to remain. The Guardian has seen five letters sent to children by the Home Office telling them they must leave the UK. A sixth letter has been sent to a woman who is six months pregnant and lives in the UK with her husband, telling her she

Research for Roundhouse in London shows 87% of 18- to 30-year-olds believe they have fewer artistic opportunities Rising costs, the disappearance of third spaces and reduced access to artistic opportunities are causing young people to feel “disconnected, isolated and locked out of creativity”, according to research commissioned by a youth arts charity. The Roundhouse , a multi-arts venue in north London that reopened in 2006 with a focus on running youth programmes, has released the findings to coincide with the publication of its 20-year impact report on Monday. Continue reading...

US says it struck Iranian military sites at the weekend, as Iran targets an airbase used by the US to attack southern Iran Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here Good morning, Martin Belam here. I will be popping into your inbox writing First Thing regularly for the next little while. Here are today’s main stories … Is this the end of the ceasefire, then? The US and Iran have sporadically exchanged strikes since their ceasefire took effect in early April, as negotiations aimed at a more durable agreement drag on. A similar exchange occurred last

More than 120 groups issued warning to 10 million visitors about ‘serious rights violations’ under Trump With the Fifa World Cup just two weeks away, immigrant rights advocates in the 11 US host cities are mobilizing to protect fans and residents from immigration enforcement activities this summer. In Los Angeles, a labor union representing more than 2,000 hospitality workers at SoFi Stadium is threatening to strike if agents do not stay away from the venue, which is expected to draw about 70,000 fans per match. Continue reading...

As Trump’s approval ratings dip and gas prices rise, Democrats see an opening with Rob Sand Rob Sand, the best-known Democrat in Iowa , appears on podcasts to discuss his love of hunting, begins rallies by having the audience sing America the Beautiful and has a tendency to criticize the country’s two-party political system. Now, Sand is running to lead a state that Republicans have come to dominate under Donald Trump, and Democrats believe his candidacy for governor could be the breakthrough needed to win key Iowa offices in the November midterm elections. Continue reading...

Backrooms stunned industry observers by taking $81m in its first weekend, a record for studio A24 Kane Parsons has become the youngest film-maker to open a film at number one at the North American box office for his directing debut Backrooms. Parsons, 20, is seven years younger than the previous record holder, Josh Trank, who was 27 when his debut Chronicle recorded a $22m opening in 2011. Backrooms stunned industry observers by taking $81m in its first weekend in North America – which was also a record for its studio, A24. Continue reading...

Oregon man with extensive criminal record fired at three officers while speeding away from a traffic stop in 2025 A man with the unusual name Loony Toon and a lengthy rap sheet has been given 20 years in prison after admitting that he shot at police officers in Oregon , according to authorities. The 43-year-old whose name calls to mind the classic television cartoon franchise Looney Tunes – as well as a colloquial term some invoke when describing an eccentric or irrational person – fired a gun at three officers while speeding away from a 20 June 2025 traffic stop

It’s that time of the year again – tax season, so don’t forget to fill out your return. It’s also the time of the year when the Hong Kong government decides on pay rises for its civil service staff of over 170,000. There’s a well-established system for deciding on pay rises. It includes the pay trend survey submitted to the government last week. Its preliminary results indicate that civil servants are in line for wage increases of 4.12 per cent for senior civil servants, 2.64 per cent for...

The US Department of Commerce on Sunday moved to close a year-old potential loophole it had created that may have led companies to export ‌the world’s most advanced chips – such as Nvidia’s most sophisticated Rubin and Blackwell processors, as well as AMD’s MI350x – to Chinese entities located outside China. The unexpected guidance suggests the United States’ best artificial intelligence chips may have been making their way to the subsidiaries of Chinese AI firms based in places such as Malaysia...

Syrian President ⁠Ahmed al-Sharaa held a phone ⁠call with US President Donald Trump in which they discussed supporting the Syrian economy and the latest regional developments, the Syrian presidency said ‌on Sunday. During the call, Sharaa said lifting the remaining US sanctions on Syria was essential to reviving the economy and attracting investments, according to the statement. The United States says some sanctions remain in ⁠place despite dismantling most of its Syria sanctions regime and...

A family of four from Massachusetts were killed when a bus crashed into multiple vehicles in Virginia as they were travelling to a wedding. The family wedding will go forward on Sunday in South Carolina but it also will be a time to mourn the loss of Dmitri and Ecaterina Doncev and their two children, Emily and Mark, a relative said Saturday. “A son, a father – the whole family – everyone that has been dear to us,” Carolina Bublik said. The Doncevs were killed when a coach caused a...

Iran’s chief negotiator warned on Sunday the United States was not to be trusted, saying Tehran would not agree to any deal with Washington unless it fully secured Iranian rights. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s remarks came as reports emerged that US President Donald Trump had sent a tougher peace proposal back to Iran, and underlined the rift that the parties still need to close. Any tweaks to the draft could further delay an agreement to formally end the Middle East war and reopen the Strait of...

A museum in eastern France on Sunday reported to police the theft of a banana that forms a core part of a multimillion-dollar artwork by Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan. The missing fruit – which was taped to a wall to form the provocative work by Cattelan called Comedian – was noticed by a guard on Saturday to have gone missing. An iteration of the artwork was bought by Chinese-born cryptocurrency founder Justin Sun in 2024. He forked out US$6.2 million for the work, then days later ate...

A concert by the US rapper Kanye West, who was supposed to perform on July 18 in Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, has been banned on public safety grounds, the authorities said. The prefect of the province, Salvatore Angieri, said the decision was made following requests from bodies including the local Jewish community. They had “expressed reservations” about the appearance of the rapper as part of the Pulse of Gaia Festival, the statement released on Friday evening said. Another concert by the...

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

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

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

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

Colombia’s first-round presidential vote on Sunday triggered a run-off between a pro-Trump showman and a leftist philosopher-turned-senator, after a security-dominated campaign that has been the most violent in over a decade. Colombia’s electoral authority said right-wing hopeful Abelardo de la Espriella won 44 per cent of the vote, beating leftist favourite Ivan Cepeda with 41 per cent and a string of other candidates who trailed far behind. It was a stronger-than-expected showing for...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With the midterm elections five months away, many Americans who backed President Trump are wrestling with pain at the pump and the war in Iran.

Jim Rigby, who rarely uses the word “God,” is a key to understanding the Senate candidate trying to pull off something unusual in Texas.

Graham Platner, whose contest in Maine is a key to Democrats’ hopes of winning the Senate, sought to discredit reports that he had exchanged sexual messages with women outside his marriage.

Congressional primaries in Manhattan, Brooklyn and beyond could test the strength of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist movement and reverberate across the country.

Tuesday’s Senate primary features two candidates with compelling personal stories. Both have stressed their independence.

New research examines how a Chinese company struggled to develop its predictive surveillance technology while U.S. restrictions were in place.

Li Ying, known as Teacher Li to his 2.2 million followers on X, doesn’t live in China but still faces smear campaigns and death threats. He is not letting that stop him.

In an exclusive interview, Sam Levinson explained why he felt it was time to bring the series to a close and responded to its detractors.

Virtual sex work is nothing new on TV. But this year it is more visible, central to series like “Euphoria,” “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” and “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed.”

For years, medicine has tried to eliminate stigma. Now, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is bringing back the language personal responsibility.

California’s public university system spent $16.9 million on A.I. The result has been chaos.

Growing demand for fiber-rich grains is boosting the premium flour industry, which offers less processed, but pricier, alternatives to the classic grocery store brands.

Mr. Epstein banked his sperm several years before his death and said that if he died, it should be left in the control of his estate.

A second batch of documents about the former U.S. ambassador Peter Mandelson, who was fired over his links to Jeffrey Epstein, could create more problems for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The candidate, Abelardo de la Espriella, will face a senator from the left-wing party of the outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, in a June runoff.

The city’s current savings plan starts with $100. A City Council proposal would make the initial contributions among the highest anywhere.

The Democratic battle over a House seat in New York City has reignited old tensions over gentrification, identity and who gets to define the left.

The secret to the Secretary of State’s success.

All Americans should have a stake in the future of this technology.

We look at U.S. boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

The world’s most valuable company is chasing Intel and Apple as it tries to bring A.I. agents to laptops and desktops.

The trial, Austria’s first against Assad regime officials, will be a rare chance for Syrian witnesses to confront two men they have accused of torture.

An investigation commissioned by Notre Dame found that the Catholic university could have done more to respond to allegations of sexual misconduct.