Minimalist News

The Fourth Turning Global War Has Entered The Terminal Phase Authored by Milan Adams via Preppgroup , The numbers came in just after dawn on the East Coast, and they told a story that no amount of White House spin could obscure. Oil futures had stabilized at $86 per barrel overnight—a figure that would have seemed catastrophic eighteen months ago but now represented a temporary reprieve from the $119 spike that had crippled global markets in April. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, that emergency backstop established after the 1973 crisis, had fallen to 305 million barrels, its lowest level since 1983.

Bombing Campaign In Search Of A Strategy: Pentagon Offers Trump Two-Week 'Go Bigger' Plan In Iran "This is a bombing campaign in search of a strategy , " Joe Kent, a former Trump administration counterterrorism official who resigned in protest of launching the Iran war, recently said in a post on X. "We are choosing escalation when de-escalation remains an option, entrenching ourselves deeper into a broader war that we don’t have the capability or desire to sustain ," he explained, adding: "There is not a military solution here that will lead to a win. More bombing will not convince

Doug Casey On The Surveillance State Quietly Taking Shape Across America Via InternationalMan.com, International Man: Across the United States, we are seeing more surveillance infrastructure—Flock license-plate cameras, facial-recognition systems, massive data centers, and proposals for digital ID. Do you see these as separate developments, or as parts of a broader system being built? Doug Casey: It’s a sea change in the way society is structured. And not just in the US; it’s worldwide. Cameras are ubiquitous today. They’re in most stores. They’re on streets in every city and town recording your license plate and often looking to tag you with

China Scoffs At Iran Arms Transfer Report, After Trump Pours Cold Water On Allegation China has given its response on Thursday to a prior Reuters investigation which strongly alleged that Beijing is preparing to transfer up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers MANPADS to Iran. The Reuters report was highly specific, even identifying the Hong Kong-based company that facilitated the signing of the arms deal between the Iranians and Chinese, but Beijing has rejected the report as a lie and 'groundless', saying there's no truth to it. "China has made its position clear on relevant issues on multiple occasions.

Das: The End Of American Greatness? Authored by Satyajit Das via New India Exporess, A U-turn for the US in its 250th birthday America’s claim to singularity rested on plentiful resources, cheap labour, govt largesse and military edge. With all of the factors fraying, it needs a hard look at the mirror As the United States of America celebrates the 250th anniversary of its independence, it is useful to reflect on the nation’s ascent. History and geography foremost. A virgin territory for European colonisers provided a fresh start escaping the encumbrances, distinctions, hatreds and internecine wars of the Old World.

A Dozen Red States Join Trump's SCOTUS Vote-By-Mail Shadow-Docket Push The Supreme Court fight over President Trump's mail-in voting order picked up reinforcements this week : twelve Republican-led states, with Alabama at the front, filed Tuesday in support of the administration's emergency application, and the procedural clock now compresses the whole dispute into roughly the next two weeks - with the midterms 96 days out. As we detailed Tuesday , the administration went to the high court Monday seeking to lift the injunction blocking Executive Order 14399 - the March directive ordering DHS and the Social Security Administration to compile

Why Americans Soured On Higher Education Authored by Viktor Joecks via The Epoch Times, Even colleges can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Just 38 percent of Americans have high confidence in higher education, according to a new Gallup poll. That’s down from 57 percent in 2015. Gallup found the three main reasons for this lack of confidence are political agenda, cost and not preparing students for a future career. This is a stunning—and much-needed—fall from grace. Many schools and politicians spent decades pushing ever more kids into college. Sen. Bernie Sanders even sponsored the “College for

"Looks Like World War Z!": Spain's Ceuta Invaded By Thousands Of Military-Aged Male Illegals Shocking footage circulating on X shows thousands of migrants breaching Spain's border into its North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on Thursday, overwhelming local police and exposing a serious national security failure. The invasion comes shortly after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist-led government signed up 1 million illegal aliens to legalize their status under a new program to bring them into the workforce. However, the program applied only to migrants already living in Spain before Jan. 1, meaning Thursday's arrivals are ineligible. Sánchez has defended

Cuba Crisis: Assessing The Claims Against Havana By Patrick Pillow Via The Libertarian Institute When President Donald Trump declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security in a January 2026 Executive Order, the designation was accompanied by a series of sweeping claims . Among them were accusations that Cuba “provides support” to Russia, China, Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah, that it “supports terrorism,” and that the Cuban government supports actors who “seek to destroy the United States . ” What began as a discussion over Cuban intelligence capabilities has now expanded into a much broader narrative that presents

'Situational Bewareness': Star AI Investor Dumps Assets To Citadel After Massive Levered Bets Blow Up Summary: In echoes of Archegos chaos from 2021, Situational Awareness - a once $45BN tech fund - has been forced to liquidate its public share holdings due to margin calls from TRS Ken Griffin's Citadel scooped up the portfolio (at a health discount we are sure) as counterparties forced the liquidation. The fund is now around $10BN (all private holdings) Leopold - the fund manager - is getting married this weekend to Anthropic's Chief of Staff * * * Update (1500ET): Wondering who was involved?

Musk's America PAC Reportedly Plans $120 Million Midterm Blitz, Setting Stage For Renewed Left-Wing War On Elon The New York Times reports that Elon Musk's America PAC plans to spend as much as $120 million to help Republicans in November's midterm elections, signaling that the world's richest man is preparing to reenter the political game with fewer than 100 days until voters head to the polls. America PAC's spending surge will likely spark a coordinated opposition campaign from Democratic groups and left-wing NGOs, ranging from protests and activist pressure to sustained negative press coverage of Musk, as well as attempts

Biden's Pardon Can't Protect Fauci From Legal Consequences Dr. Anthony Fauci may have believed his Fifth Amendment marathon at the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday would shield him from prosecution, but he miscalculated. Before he refused to answer questions from the committee, Fauci did deliver an opening statement, during which he attacked Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and explained his decision not to answer any questions. "Given Senator Paul's obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and, recently, his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing

Cocaine Valued At Roughly $20 Million Seized From Truck At US Border Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times , Federal authorities have seized more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine from a commercial truck at a southern border entry point, estimated to be worth at least $20 million, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Federal law enforcement officers seized more than half a ton of cocaine worth more than $20 million hidden in a truck at the Calexico Port of Entry in California. Courtesy of the DOJ The drugs were hidden in the floorboards of the truck and

See The Hilarious AI Ads That Furious California Democrats Want Banned Two California Democrats are moving to outlaw AI-generated campaign ads at the federal level, just days after a Republican rival for the governor's mansion used the technology to hammer their party. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) on Monday reintroduced the AI Ads Act, which would make it a federal violation to use artificial intelligence to impersonate candidates or committees in federal races. This is the satire Ro Khanna and Adam Schiff want to make illegal so democrats aren't the butt of jokes. — Charles Curran

Federal Judge Rules Race-Based Portion Of Houston Program Unconstitutional Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times , A federal judge on Tuesday permanently barred the city of Houston from enforcing the race-based parts of a program that includes numerical goals for awarding public contracts to minority-owned businesses, ruling that doing so is in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. A judge's gavel, in this file photo. Andrew Kelly/Reuters U.S. District Judge David Hittner described his decision as the first to extend the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling against race-conscious college admissions to municipal public contracting

Apple Tumbles On China, Service Revenue Miss The Thursday rebound in the Nasdaq 100 - largely on the coattails of Microsoft and the expectations that further liquidations by that 25 year old Leopold guy are over - has been powerful, though much of the urgency has come from the same high-beta corners punished hardest during the semiconductor rout. That helps stabilize the tape, but it doesn’t resolve concerns around capex spend or Chinese chip capabilities. Amazon speaks directly to the hyperscaler debate through AWS and spending plans. And while Apple is not at the center of concerns about hyperscaler spreads,

'We Won Completely': Weinstein Says COVID 'Conspiracy Theorists' Were Totally Vindicated Not so long ago, everything below was a bannable offense - usually based on the vapid logic of some 24-year-old "trust & safety" associate . In a clip circulating Thursday, evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein takes stock of what the dissidents actually won for their trouble, Vigilant Fox reports. WEINSTEIN: "We live in two worlds simultaneously at the moment. I remember conversations that I had with people I cared deeply about at the beginning of COVID right as the lab leak story was beginning to crack." Bret Weinstein explains how

House Democrats Expand Midterm 'Red To Blue' Target Map To 30 Seats Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) added five more seats to its Red to Blue program on July 28 , and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) responded the same day with a separate statement criticizing each of the five Democratic candidates. The U.S. Capitol on June 16, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times The expansion brings the program to 30 seats. Red to Blue candidates receive strategic guidance, staff resources, training, and fundraising support from the committee, according

Bank Of Japan Confirms Yen Intervention, Fed Conducted 'Rate Check' Update (1645ET) : Nikkei reports that market participants learned that the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan intervened in the foreign exchange market by buying yen and selling dollars . Additionally, Nikkei confirmed that the US monetary authorities conducted a "rate check," a preliminary step before intervention. This indicates that Japan and the US worked together to curb the yen's depreciation. * * * Having collapsed to its weakest relative to the dollar in 40 years, it appears the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan has had enough

Amazon Jumps On Solid AWS Growth And Profit, Even As Outlook Disappoints And Free Cash Flow Turns Negative As Bloomberg notes, "Microsoft’s solid earnings breathed new life into the tech sector Thursday, but Amazon’s report after the bell this evening could deflate the optimism again." To be sure, there’s a lot riding on Amazon results. The longevity of the AI spending boom is in doubt as shareholders punish ambitious capex plans, which has taken away some of the support away from the chipmaker stocks. Before Microsoft’s earnings, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index had fallen 27% this month. It bounced more than

Data shows Canadians have replaced US vacations with other international trips in apparent rebuke to Trump Canadians spent $3.3bn less on travel to the US in 2025 than in the previous year, as Donald Trump’s hostile policies towards his northern neighbour continue to incur an economic cost, new government data shows. The research also indicates that Canadians are not bucking travel overall and instead have replaced US vacations with other international destinations, in a rebuke to Trump’s tariff regime and the president’s continued musings on annexing Canada. Continue reading...

Three years after Maui wildfires many still struggle with ‘biological, emotional and social consequences’, study says A spate of ferocious wildfires across North America and Europe, worsened by the climate crisis, has incinerated homes and forests and forced thousands of people to flee. Previous fires suggest the effects of these blazes may linger for years to come. The current fires and their plumes of smoke can appear to be a temporary, if immediate, crisis. Nearly 1,000 fires have sprung into life in the boreal forests of Canada, causing the evacuation of towns and toxic smoke to waft into major Canadian

President also blames Brazil and Mexico and says online critics ‘do not want the ideas of freedom to succeed’ More than a week has passed since Ferran Torres scored the extra-time goal that gave Spain its second World Cup, but – at least for Argentina’s president – the tournament is not over. Javier Milei has claimed that a coordinated “anti-Argentina campaign” was behind criticism of the country’s team, accusations of racism among its fans and conspiracy theories alleging that Lionel Messi’s side was secretly being favoured by Fifa. Continue reading...

Nelson Haase Mazzei was sentenced for murdering Jara in 2023, but fled from authorities in Chile More than 50 years after the murder of the Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara , the last man wanted in connection with his death has been tracked down and brought to justice. Nelson Haase Mazzei, a retired colonel, fled from authorities in 2023 after he and six other retired soldiers were sentenced in absentia for murdering Jara and another man. Continue reading...

No one was injured and no suspects have been identified in connection to shooting near Toronto compound, police say Shots were fired near the US consulate in Toronto early on Monday but no one was injured in the second shooting near the diplomatic compound in four months. “Officers heard a firearm being discharged in the area,” and “a white sedan was seen fleeing the scene”, Toronto police said on X. Continue reading...

Live, rolling coverage as British oil company looks for buyer amid political dispute over future drilling licences Petrol prices in the UK are expected to rise to their highest level so far this year this weekend after Donald Trump restarted attacks on Iran, adding to pressure on household finances. The AA , a motoring services company, said that average UK petrol prices had risen to 159.5p a litre on Thursday, having gone up more than 3p this week. The intriguing aspect of current pump prices is that, in early May when wholesale costs shot up 3p to 6p for more

Soldiers and emergency teams search damaged shopping centre, paper mill and homes for survivors Earthquake rocks southern Japanese island of Kyushu – in pictures The death toll from the powerful earthquake that hit Japan on Tuesday has risen to 30, as the search for survivors trapped in a badly damaged shopping centre, paper mill and collapsed homes across the south-west of the country continues. The 6.8-magnitude quake, which struck Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyushu, injured at least 62 people, according to the prefectural government. Continue reading...

Emergency workers are continuing their search for survivors in southern Japan after yesterday’s powerful earthquake ‘Race against time’: Japan earthquake death toll rises as rescue teams search for missing An aerial view of a collapsed section of a bridge in the city of Yatsushiro after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 struck Japan’s southern Kumamoto prefecture: Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun newspaper has been speaking to people at the Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro, where a chimney collapsed on to the site. “I never imagined something like this would happen,” said a 33-year-old man who worked at the factory.

Rescuers pulling people from the wreckage in southern Japan in a haunting repeat of disaster that struck 10 years ago ‘Race against time’: Japan earthquake death toll rises as rescue teams search for missing “There was a voice coming from the collapsed house, and I could see a hand,” Tomohide Nagata, a volunteer firefighter, told the Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun. “One of our senior members crawled in and pulled him out. He was bleeding from the head, but I’m so glad he survived.” Nagata had heard a noise coming from one completely flattened home in the rural town of Hikawa, close

Military mobilises thousands of personnel after quake on southern Kyushu island that registered a maximum 7 on the Japanese shindo intensity scale Earthquake rocks southern Japanese island of Kyushu – in pictures At least 13 people were killed when a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Japan on Tuesday, injuring hundreds and knocking out power and water to tens of thousands. “There are people who are still waiting to be rescued, and it’s a race against time,” the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, said on Wednesday. “We will go all out to find and rescue as many people as we can.” Continue

This blog is now closed Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast eSafety commissioner says court action against Telegram ‘very significant’ Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety commissioner, spoke to the ABC this morning after yesterday’s court action against Telegram over its alleged failure to detect and remove pro-terror material from its platform. The scars are still very raw around Bondi. … These are platforms – and they may be doing more content moderation and we would encourage that – but not to the degree that Australian law requires them to. This is just upping the

Robert Assaf separately tells anti-corruption inquiry money funnelled through lobbying firm to create ‘maximum benefit from a tax perspective’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A group of young conservative Liberal power brokers accused of soliciting illegal donations used some of the funds to pay for a bucks night, one of its members has told a corruption inquiry. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) on Friday heard again from Robert Assaf, who this week was the first witness from the conservative right Liberal factional group

Hancock Prospecting says chair Kim Williams among those ‘on notice’ for failing to remove program that joked about turning Rinehart’s insides into a sausage roll Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Gina Rinehart has threatened the ABC with legal action over crude comments aired on the national broadcaster, including a joke about mixing her guts into a sausage roll. The four-minute film, titled A Very Relaxing Video, aired on the Race Around the World program on 12 July and concluded with the film-maker, Kate McGuinness, making crude and offensive comments about Rinehart. Continue reading...

M Group’s lawyer tells inquiry while the firm’s directors ‘may have done business with Gatto’ they were not ‘frontmen’ for him Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A labour hire company accused of being a front for underworld figure Mick Gatto paid him more than $1m over nine years, with its lawyer telling an inquiry it did so to secure work on Victorian government Big Build sites where the construction union had influence. Integrity expert Geoffrey Watson SC appeared before the Queensland inquiry into the

Exclusive: ADF personnel who were discriminated against for being LGBTQ+ are owed a national apology, federal government told Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A national apology should be issued to LGBTQ+ veterans and service personnel who experienced discrimination at the hands of the Australian Defence Force, according to recommendations to the federal government. David Gibson, who was discharged from the military in 1989 because he was bisexual and chair of GLBTI Rights in Ageing, said it was time for the prime minister to issue

PM Pedro Sánchez expected to visit territory today as Italy demands Spain be suspended from the Schengen area amid concerns over fresh migration crisis Local police in Ceuta are fencing off the centre of the enclave as Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez is expected to visit in the coming hours, public broadcaster RTVE reported . Sánchez is set to get there just before midday local time (11am UK). Continue reading...

Unusual atmospheric phenomena causes widespread damage in US state, while heat continues to grip Europe A rare and powerful tornado developed over north-east Wisconsin on Monday, lasting 26 minutes and carving a 12-mile path of destruction in western parts of Appleton and Menasha before dissipating over Lake Winnebago. The US National Weather Service classified the tornado as an EF3, making it the fourth of that strength to strike Wisconsin in 2026. EF3 tornadoes are relatively rare in north-east Wisconsin, and this year’s total is already the state’s highest since 1984. Continue reading...

Move will end six decades of production in area, as new CEO tries to simplify firm and cut debt Business live – latest updates BP has put its North Sea oil and gas business up for sale as it looks to end six decades of production from the region. The firm announced on Friday morning that it had launched a formal process to market its North Sea business for a potential sale. The move comes as BP’s new chief executive, Meg O’Neill, tries to simplify the company and cut its debt levels. Continue reading...

Latest study says global heating has made hot, dry and windy conditions in Spain at least 20 times more likely The extreme heat and drought stoking huge wildfires in Spain and France were made far more likely by the climate crisis, a scientific analysis has found. Global heating made hot, dry and windy weather at least 20 times more likely in Spain and twice as likely in France, experts from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) consortium calculated . The finding is the latest to pin the blame for the continent’s sweltering and deadly summer firmly on the heating caused by

Fernando Alexandre’s push to digitise marking process deemed a failure with some students and parents contemplating legal action Pressure is growing on Portugal’s education minister to resign amid student and teacher protests over his handling of this year’s national school exams. Fernando Alexandre is accused of failing to take responsibility for what critics say is an unprecedented and chaotic school exam season affecting children aged 14 to 18, prompting student protesters to call for him “to be flunked”. Continue reading...

Response from Hamas and Israeli officials suggest Gaza deal still faces obstacles; Tehran launches drone strikes at Kuwait in retaliation for recent US attacks Trump claims agreement for ‘complete disarmament’ of Hamas in Gaza but support uncertain Saudi Arabia prepares sea and possible land offensive against Houthis In case you need a refresher on Donald Trump’s Board of Peace – what it is and who is in it – here is an explainer from my colleague Maya Young from a couple of months ago: A man suspected of spying on a UK military base for Iran has been arrested in

This blog is now closed – our live coverage of the Middle East continues here A liquefied natural gas tanker controlled by QatarEnergy exited the strait of Hormuz overnight – the first such vessel ⁠visible on ship-tracking data to ⁠leave the waterway ​since 11 July, data from analytics firms showed on Thursday. The Al Areesh tanker , which loaded a cargo at Qatar’s Ras Laffan terminal around 4-6 July, sailed ⁠out of the strait overnight on 29 July, according to Kpler and LSEG data. Continue reading...

US president’s Board of Peace hails ‘critical step’, but responses of Israeli and Hamas officials suggest disagreements remain Middle East crisis – live updates What is Trump’s Board of Peace and who is involved? Donald Trump has said a deal has been reached for Hamas to disarm and for Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza, however briefings from both sides exposed disputes over its implementation that could prove difficult to overcome. “This agreement is a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Board of Peace to help the

Yemeni sources say Saudis concentrating forces for what could be attack in central Yemen Middle East crisis live – latest updates Saudi Arabia is preparing for a major military offensive against the Houthis by sea and possibly by land in central Yemen, Yemeni sources believe, in a move to break the chokehold on its oil exports through the southern Red Sea. Saudi forces have been seen withdrawing from the east of Yemen in what could be preparation for a land offensive. At the same time, Riyadh is trying to organise a naval coalition to protect shipping from Houthi attacks in

Central Command says strikes aimed at diminishing Iranian military while mediators say talks are continuing Middle East crisis – live updates The US struck Iran overnight and Tehran retaliated at US allies in the region, reigniting the low-intensity, tit-for-tat war as mediators struggled to pull the two countries back to the negotiating table. The US carried out overnight strikes on Iran – the first in more than five days – hours after Donald Trump vowed to hit the country “very hard” following Tehran’s targeting of a base in Jordan that hosts American troops. Continue reading...

Local civil rights group alleges authorities removed evidence of killings amid communications blackout At least 30 people are alleged to have been killed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the past two days as part of what has been claimed is a brutal state crackdown that has engulfed the disputed region for weeks. According to a local civil society group, Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), the Pakistani security services fired on tens of thousands of peaceful protesters, killing 25 people on Monday and five more on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Cockroach Janta party says government has broken promise, with detentions in Delhi, Assam, West Bengal and Bihar India’s youth-led “Cockroach” movement, whose nationwide protests forced the resignation of the education minister , has accused the government of backtracking on its promise not to act against student protesters and has threatened to restart demonstrations. The Cockroach Janta party (CJP), which organised mass protests over exam paper leaks and other irregularities, said it had received reports of hundreds of students being detained or “harassed” by police. Continue reading...

Wind and record-breaking heat are fuelling the continent’s explosive fire season, with Spain and France among worst hit Explainer: what is a ‘fire cloud’, and how have they worsened wildfires in Europe? Europe wildfires live – latest updates A combination of an unusually wet winter, very low rainfall since spring and repeated record-breaking summer heatwaves is likely to explain why wildfires have ignited, spread and resisted control so readily across France and Spain in recent days . About 90% of wildfires are started by human activity, typically igniting “fine fuels” such as vegetation grass, pine needles, litter and twigs. And

In today’s newsletter: Across ​the country, a ​younger generation is turning private disillusionment into public defiance​ against a government that once felt untouchable Good morning. As flames engulfed parts of France and Spain this weekend, in India, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, was trying to put out a very different kind of fire. Thousands of people arrived in Delhi on Saturday to demand the resignation of his education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. When he stepped down in the early afternoon, the protests turned into a triumphant block party. But the Cockroach protests that have swept through India this summer are about

Ally forced to resign, with opposition parties reinvigorated and strongman leader’s grip over media channels rocked Even the night before Narendra Modi accepted the resignation of his education minister, India’s prime minister appeared confident that the largest mass uprising to take place in his 12 years in power would do little to rattle his government. Addressing his “young friends” in a late-night Instagram selfie reel on Friday, he thanked the people – who were mobilised en masse across the country , shouting anti-government slogans – for their “thoughtful suggestions”. Continue reading...

Plan set to transform funding so English regions no longer rely on Whitehall handouts for projects Under a new “local first” principle, Andy Burnham will instruct ministers to justify why powers should remain in Whitehall rather than be devolved. As well as greater control over technical education for teenagers , announced by the government this week, some of those close to the prime minister have called for mayors to oversee schools, GPs and childcare providers through health and education commissioners – a similar role to that played by police and crime commissioners. Continue reading...

More than 100 firefighters remain at scene after Dunwich Heath blaze spread across 150 hectares and forced evacuations Fire crews tackling a large wildfire burning for more than 24 hours near Britain’s biggest nuclear power station have said the situation is “stabilising”. More than 100 firefighters have been battling the blaze in Dunwich Heath, near Leiston, on the Suffolk coast since Wednesday evening. Continue reading...

Price of average home now £277,542, up from £277,484 the previous month but lower than in May, says Nationwide Business live – latest updates Economic uncertainty dampened UK house price growth in July as prospective buyers remained cautious about interest rates during the Iran war in what should be the peak housebuying season. House prices rose by only 0.1% in July from a month earlier, according to the lender Nationwide, while annual price growth slowed to 1.8% this month, down from 2.2% in June. Continue reading...

Scheme brought in up to 500 foreign-trained doctors a year and was seen as example of British ‘soft power’ The NHS has scrapped a longstanding scheme that let overseas doctors boost their skills in UK hospitals and was seen as an example of British “soft power”. Senior doctors have criticised NHS England’s decision to axe the Medical Training Initiative, under which 400 to 500 foreign-trained doctors were given placements in Britain every year. Continue reading...

She Plays to Win face losing one of their female players after being told team must include a male The UK’s only all-female chess team have been promoted to the game’s top tier – only to be told they will have to add a man to their squad. She Plays to Win Lionesses A Team have fallen foul of a rule designed to boost female participation in the sport. Continue reading...

Pre-programmed flights gather data at different altitudes then return to bases to recharge and download Weather happens in the boundary layer, the atmosphere from ground level to a few thousand metres, but this can be difficult to study in detail: weather stations are too low, and aircraft are expensive. Instrumented weather balloons are the traditional solution, and thousands are released every day. But these are at the mercy of the wind and use irreplaceable helium. Drones offer an alternative and the US company Meteomatics has taken the idea further with Meteobase , a base station on the ground with a

Leftwing Democrats are having their moment in the sun, with Zohran Mamdani in New York, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and endless calls for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president in 2028. Has Democratic socialism shifted from the political fringe to the mainstream? And can this group lure back the all-important swing voters? Jonathan Freedland speaks to Bhaskar Sunkara , president of the Nation magazine, founding editor of Jacobin and author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequalities Archive: AP, Reuters Watch Jonathan Freedland on our new Politics Weekly YouTube channel Send your

Republicans senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul voted in favor of the motion to prevent Trump from continuing hostilities against Iran. This blog is now closed. Sign up for the US Breaking News email The US economy expanded at a sluggish 1.5% pace from April through June as rising imports weighed on growth . But consumer spending rose . And the Federal Reserve ’s favored measure of inflation grew more slowly last month despite remaining above the central bank’s 2% target . The commerce department reported today that growth in US gross domestic product (GDP) – the nation’s

Company says it discovered unauthorized access during ‘proactive review’ after rival OpenAI revealed rogue agent Anthropic ⁠said on Thursday its AI Claude model hacked ⁠systems of ⁠three ​organizations during testing, days after rival OpenAI ⁠revealed a rogue agent had gone on a days-long ⁠hacking spree at AI ​firm Hugging ‌Face. Claude gained ‌unauthorized access to the ‌systems during cybersecurity evaluations after a misconfiguration allowed the models to reach the internet from testing environments that ‌were supposed to be isolated, Anthropic said. Continue reading...

Officers in murder trial testify of arriving at Massachusetts home after anguished 911 call from Patrick Clancy The two police officers focused first on Lindsay Clancy drifting in and out of consciousness in the snow after jumping from her Massachusetts home’s second-floor window in January 2023. Within minutes, they were racing into the basement after her then husband screamed that all three of their children were dead. “I can’t wake them up – I can’t get them up!” Patrick Clancy frantically told the officers who, along with firefighters and paramedics, gave jurors first-hand accounts on Thursday of the aftermath. Continue

A US government map of Africa mislabelled every country during a State Department presentation at a global conference taking place in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attendees who took screenshots and posted them online. Reuters viewed a ‌video of the presentation given at the Aids 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, which shows the errant map displayed halfway during a presentation about the State Department’s new health agreements. A Reuters analysis found the image of the map included...

The Trump administration is weighing a plan to charge international students US$100,000 to stay in the country and work after graduating, according to a person familiar with the matter, in a potentially devastating move for student visa holders already squeezed by recent immigration crackdowns. The person familiar spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. A White House official said there was no imminent policy change, but did not deny the proposal was under...

A man who gave his son the gun he used to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison. Colin Gray’s sentencing comes days after his son, Colt Gray, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the September 4, 2024, shooting at the school 70km (45 miles) northeast of Atlanta. Colt Gray had pleaded guilty to murder and other charges. A defence lawyer for Colin Gray asked the judge for a sentence that...

Spain will deploy its military to restore order at its border with Morocco in Ceuta after thousands of migrants streamed into the tiny Spanish territory, with at least nine dying in the attempt. The announcement came after local authorities in Ceuta had asked the central government in Madrid for reinforcements to manage a border crisis that boiled over Thursday with large crowds of people breaching the border fence. Spain’s government said it would send the Armed Forces to help the Civil Guard...

Uefa member federations agreed on Thursday to boycott all Fifa competitions in protest of Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity investors. “Uefa and its national associations will not participate in Fifa competitions,” the European football body said after an urgent online meeting of the 55 members. “Some things are simply too important to sell,” Uefa said in a statement. “The Fifa World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a...

US economic growth slowed in the second quarter amid a widening in the trade deficit, but an acceleration in consumer spending and robust business investment in equipment related to the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure pointed to underlying strength. Gross domestic product increased at a 1.5 per cent ‌annualised rate last quarter, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said in its advance estimate of second-quarter GDP on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters...

Over the past 10 years, Washington, Brussels and London have made decreasing economic reliance on China a strategic goal. Western economic plans now stress supply-chain resilience, industrial sovereignty, technological leadership and national security. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted weaknesses in global supply networks. Increasing geostrategic tensions, export restrictions and technological rivalry have supported political backing for reshoring and “friendshoring” manufacturing. The objective...

Best known as Viagra, the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil started off as a treatment for reduced blood flow but soon saw its value spike after its other effects became clear. The blue pill could have more uses, according to research by scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Tel Aviv. The team found indications that it curbs cancer metastasis via a “newly discovered biological mechanism” drawing upon the drug’s blood dilatation effects. Sildenafil curbs the capacity of cancer...

David Cifaldi and his two hiking companions were crossing Montana’s ominous Froze-to-Death Plateau and approaching the top of the state’s highest peak when their adventure took a bizarre and dangerous turn: Cifaldi slipped and impaled himself on his trekking pole as he fell. The 44-inch (112-centimetre) steel-tipped pole passed through the flesh beneath Cifaldi’s left arm, missing any vital organs, and protruded from his back. After conferring with his friends – and considering the high cost of...

Russia pounded Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones, killing nine people in overnight attacks on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, decrying shortages of air defence supplies and urging allies to help. Russia launched more than 70 missiles and about 280 drones, Zelensky said in a statement on the Telegram app. The capital Kyiv and the western region of Lviv on Ukraine’s border with Poland were the main focus of the attack, the Ukrainian air force said. Poland, a...

It was important enough to the framers of the US Constitution to be included in the first 10 amendments known as the Bill of Rights – that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself”. Today, that protection – famously known as “pleading the Fifth” – remains one of the most visible and politically charged safeguards in American law. It has seeped into the culture, too. “Pleading the Fifth” has become an idiom in the United States, used jokingly in casual...

Nearly three-quarters of Cuba’s hotels have been closed and the island’s tourism sector has been brought to “almost total paralysis” by US sanctions and fuel shortages, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said on Wednesday. Detailing the scale of the tourism crisis for the first time, Marrero said seven international chains, responsible for about half of all hotel rooms, had left the island. Tourism had been Cuba’s second-largest source of foreign currency earnings, employing more than 300,000 people...

The US military said it struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard targets in Iran, including military command centres and drone facilities, in a two-hour operation launched after Tehran fired ballistic missiles at US forces in the Middle East. “The strikes aimed to further diminish threats posed by Iran and its proxies to American forces, commercial shipping, and neighbouring Gulf countries,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Wednesday. Iran’s state media reported that...

Five people have died after powerful gusts of wind in Brazil brought chaos to Rio de Janeiro and parts of Sao Paulo state, cutting power and bringing public transport to a standstill. Residents of Rio de Janeiro were taken by surprise when winds of up to 100km/h hit just before rush hour, felling dozens of trees and leaving thousands stranded as the city’s three subway queues ground to a halt. The fire department said in a statement that two people had died when a wall collapsed in the city of...

Lindsay Clancy sobbed in court on Wednesday as jurors listened to the anguished emergency call her then-husband made after returning from an errand to find she had strangled their three children in their Massachusetts home. On the roughly seven-minute recording, Patrick Clancy can be heard speaking with his wife upon finding her badly injured and bleeding in their yard, after she jumped from the home’s second-storey window. “Look at me,” he says. “Say my name.” He then tells the dispatcher he is...

US President Donald Trump unveiled a US$22 billion plan on Wednesday to rebuild Washington Dulles airport by replacing concourses and adding a large parking garage while preserving the landmark main terminal. The announcement is the latest in a series of major projects he has announced in and around the US capital. “It’s considered one of the ‌worst airports anywhere in the world, we’re going to make it maybe the best with some hard work,” Trump said, arguing it was time “for a major and long...

Brazil overtook Russia and Belgium in the first five months of this year to become the world’s largest importer of Chinese cars, buying US$5.2 billion worth of vehicles as brands raced to land shipments before a tariff increase took effect in July. The figure, drawn from Chinese customs data, is up 146.9 per cent from the US$2.1 billion recorded a year earlier, when Brazil ranked sixth among buyers. Russia bought US$5 billion over the same months this year and Belgium purchased US$3.8...

The man who stabbed and partially blinded author Salman Rushdie at a speaking engagement in 2022 was found guilty on Wednesday of federal terrorism charges for the attack, which prosecutors said was incited by death threats over Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses. Hadi Matar, 28, already serving a 25-year prison term on state charges of attempted murder for ‌the knife assault, now faces a maximum penalty of life behind bars when he is sentenced on his federal conviction, scheduled for November...

Four women have accused Jared Leto of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers, to which the actor and musician responded Wednesday that he has “never sexually assaulted anyone”. “I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life. These claims are absolutely and categorically false,” Leto, 54, said in a statement. The BBC documentary Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret, released on Wednesday, details allegations including those from four women who accused the actor of sexual misconduct...

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, a choice that may intensify questions about how US central bank chief Kevin Warsh will deliver on his commitment to bring inflation back down to the 2 per cent target. The widely ‌expected decision to leave the benchmark interest rate in the 3.50 per cent to 3.75 per cent range drew dissents from three of the 12 members of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee who “preferred” a quarter-percentage-point hike at this...

The United States on Wednesday sanctioned a group of mainland Chinese and Hong Kong shipping companies accused of operating vessels that transported Iranian oil to China, extending Washington’s economic campaign against Tehran alongside its naval blockade. The US State Department said eight companies were designated for operating vessels that moved Iranian crude oil and petrochemical products to China and the United Arab Emirates as part of Iran’s sanctions-evading “shadow fleet”. Six of the...

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged on Wednesday to take difficult decisions to overhaul England’s adult social care system, saying he wanted to work with other parties to end unfair high costs for users that he likened to US healthcare. Successive governments have failed to reform adult social care, for which families can pay hundreds of thousands of pounds, after previous proposals were defeated by opposition parties ‌who dubbed them a “dementia tax” or “death tax”. Burnham did not...

French DJ and musician Kavinsky, known for his electronic classic “Nightcall”, has been found dead at his home in Paris, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The self-taught pianist, whose real name is Vincent Belorgey, would have turned 51 on Friday. It was not immediately clear how he died, but emergency crews late on Tuesday noted nothing suspicious, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. “Nightcall” became a global hit after hit was featured in the soundtrack of 2011 movie Drive starring Ryan...

At least 15 elephants have died from exposure to a suspected poison in the Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya over a four-week period, the country’s nature conservation authorities reported on Wednesday. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said the animals had died in the park, which lies along the border with Tanzania, between June 24 and July 24. The nearby Kimana Conservancy and the Kuku Ranch area have also been affected. The KWS said that 10 of the 15 elephants showed similar symptoms,...

A ⁠Norwegian teenager ⁠was convicted on Wednesday of ⁠conspiracy to commit murder in Britain after being recruited by a Swedish organised crime group that prosecutors said was being used by the Iranian government. Johannes Natland, now ‌19, was arrested in a hotel room in Huddersfield, northern England, in March last year with two firearms and ammunition in his possession. Prosecutors said Natland had been recruited by the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish organised crime group used by ⁠the Iranian...

Firefighters in southwest France battled an uncontained wildfire four times the size of Paris on Wednesday as temperatures were forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), threatening to turn a calm night into only a brief reprieve. Authorities in the Gironde region said the blaze had not spread overnight, but rising heat and afternoon winds could revive smouldering hotspots, carry embers across firebreaks and open new fronts beyond crews’ reach. At the command centre in Lège,...

Over the past few decades, people in many countries have witnessed extraordinary technological progress. Transport is becoming smarter, robots and drones are entering everyday life, infrastructure is growing more complex, buildings are reaching ever higher into the sky and expanding cities are drawing in millions of new residents. The number of megacities – urban areas with populations of at least 10 million – rose from eight in 1975 to 33 in 2025. The United Nations expects this number to reach...

If South Korea wants to unlock access to South American trade, it will need to prove it is not a competitor interested only in extracting natural resources but a trustworthy partner committed to revitalising manufacturing industries, according to observers. On Monday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva agreed to revive negotiations on a free-trade agreement between South Korea and Mercosur, the South American trade bloc. A joint working group...

China’s emerging advantage in artificial intelligence (AI) is not that it already has the world’s best chips or strongest frontier models. It is that Chinese companies are increasingly providing capable intelligence at a price the global market can afford. AI is fast becoming everyday infrastructure. It is metered by usage and embedded in businesses, public services and devices, much like electricity or cloud computing. In an infrastructure market, leadership depends on affordability,...

Russia’s main domestic security agency said on Wednesday that Pavel Durov, founder and owner of the messaging app Telegram, has been charged with aiding terrorism and put on an international wanted list. The charges against Durov, who was born and began his career in Russia but later moved abroad, came as the Russian authorities restrict Telegram, one of the most popular messaging apps in the country. It is part of a long-term effort to bring the internet under the Kremlin’s full control that...

The US Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as Donald Trump’s top intelligence official on Tuesday, putting a permanent chief in charge of the country’s spy agencies as the president revives unsupported election fraud claims ahead of the midterms. Senators voted 51-47 to confirm Clayton’s appointment, with all Democrats in the upper chamber voting against it. “Jay is outstanding in every way, and will do a spectacular job as Director!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social shortly after the vote. The...

Elon Musk’s social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, launched its own bank account-like product where users can send money to one another. The service, known as X Money, is not a new bank. X Money is using technology and banking services provided by Cross River Bank and branding that backbone as X Money. It is common for new financial companies to use a traditional bank’s backbone to launch their services, as chartering a new bank is a timely and costly process. Currently X Money is...

A US teenager who shot dead four people at a high school with a gun his father gave him as a Christmas present was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday. Colt Gray, 16, pleaded guilty to carrying out the September 2024 attack at Apalachee High School in the town of Winder, Georgia. Gray was 14 years old when he shot dead two 14-year-old pupils and two teachers, while also wounding nine other people. He was charged as an adult. Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm sentenced Gray to life in prison...

Jordan’s air defences intercepted five missiles launched from Iran early on Wednesday, the country’s military said, hours after the US military said it had knocked down an Iranian missile barrage launched against American forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting. The Jordanian military said the missiles had been “intercepted and destroyed”. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency carried a statement from the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard saying the Guard’s Aerospace Force...

Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie and Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally were among public figures who on Tuesday called for refugee protections to be upheld as the United Nations decried mounting pressure ‌on asylum systems. Legal safeguards for refugees are enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, drafted in the aftermath of World War II, which displaced tens of millions of people. But while most people still support the principle of safe refuge, many governments are tightening border...

The man on trial in the stabbing of Salman Rushdie chose on Tuesday not to testify or call any witnesses in the federal terrorism case, which is expected to head to the jury as soon as Wednesday. Hadi Matar’s lawyer told the court that the 28-year-old – who already has been convicted of state-level attempted murder charges – would not take the stand at his trial on charges that include engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. “At this time, the defence rests,” lawyer Nathaniel Barone said....

Keiko Fujimori was sworn in as Peru’s president on Tuesday after winning the June presidential run-off by a margin of fewer than 50,000 votes, a victory that confirmed a regional shift in South America towards the conservative wing. With the ceremony, Fujimori, a four-time presidential candidate and leader of Peru’s largest political party, takes office as the country’s ninth president in a decade. The 51-year-old was hoping to stabilise Peru’s turbulent politics, reduce crime and boost economic...

US President Donald Trump voiced ⁠irritation with Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of their White House meeting on Tuesday, complaining that details of the Israeli prime minister’s planned talking points on Iran had surfaced publicly, in a fresh sign of strain between the two leaders. Asked about reports that Netanyahu wanted to talk to him about Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Iran’s main nuclear sites, Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname: “I don’t need...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought licences to produce Patriot air-defence interceptors during a “good meeting” with US counterpart Donald Trump on Tuesday, as he underscored Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s loss of initiative on the war front due to heavy losses. Zelensky spent just over an hour with Trump at the White House, in talks that came with Kyiv and Moscow intensifying long-range strikes as US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war stalled. “Today we had good meeting with President...

Firefighters raced on Tuesday to subdue huge wildfires that have forced unprecedented evacuations of tens of thousands of people across France and Spain, as western Europe braced for another heatwave. The fires have torn through a region already battered by a blisteringly hot and dry summer. Crews were seeking to capitalise on more favourable weather before a new wave of higher temperatures settled in from Wednesday. In the Bordeaux region of France, firefighters contained ‌the forest blaze...

US President Donald Trump eulogised Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Tuesday as a fixture of American politics and unflinching foreign policy hawk, as the leaders of Israel and Ukraine joined Washington’s most powerful at his funeral. Earlier in the day, lawmakers paid tribute at the Capitol Rotunda, remembering one of the last prominent Republicans to advocate for muscular US military power abroad as gregarious, funny and persuasive. “He was extremely hawkish – he never saw a war that he...

Footprints left on a muddy lakeshore in northern Kenya ⁠around 1.43 million years ago are providing new insight into the size and behaviour of a species in the human evolutionary lineage that was the last of its kind, known for extensive anatomical adaptations for eating tough vegetation. The species, Paranthropus boisei, is known mostly from skull and tooth fossils. Now researchers working along the eastern side of Kenya’s Lake Turkana have identified 21 footprints made by eight individuals of...

Oman presented ⁠Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, a Gulf source and a Western diplomat told Reuters on Tuesday. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Tehran had yet to respond to the Omani proposals, intended to serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. President Donald Trump, who abruptly called off a two-week US bombing campaign over the...

In Orwellian totalitarianism, two plus two can equal five. But with American hegemony, things can be A and not A at the same time. Earlier this month, Washington declared war on the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose very existence, it claims, poses an “intolerable” challenge to America’s sovereignty. But, citing an international maritime law, it also led a coalition of 14 mainly Western countries in issuing a joint statement in support of a 10-year-old South China Sea arbitration ruling...

Confirmed cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s ongoing Ebola outbreak reached 3,262, its ministry of health said in an overnight update, nearly the same as the 2018-2020 outbreak that is the largest ever recorded in the country. Data from the Congolese health ministry showed that 1,437 patients have died out of the 3,262 cases, in what officials have said is the fastest Ebola outbreak on record, concentrated in the eastern Ituri province. The 2018-2020 outbreak that was recorded in Congo...

The peninsula on Morocco’s northern coast that Spain has governed for centuries has been a frequent site of mass migrant crossings and political tensions.

The disclosure followed OpenAI’s report last week that its own artificial intelligence had hacked into the network of an online library.

After a recent sell-off, South Korea’s stock market rallied as concerns about overspending on artificial intelligence eased, sending the country’s chip shares higher.

As fears spread over a possible artificial intelligence bubble, some tech investors say: Bring it on.

Amazon joined a procession of tech giants that ramped up their spending on artificial intelligence, as its capital expenditures soared 69 percent. Concerns over the industry’s spending are mounting.

Flaming chunks of metal crash into homes, farms and parking lots. Who’s to blame? And who pays for the damage?

The recently ousted Ukrainian defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, an advocate for drone and robot warfare, says Ukraine’s tech-heavy strategy will persist.

A $22.5 billion redesign plan eliminates the “mobile lounges,” which were conceived as a way of making air travel more efficient. Many passengers found the opposite to be true.

Trump officials have promised to “make visual arts great,” with a museum exhibition that includes artwork by several people with personal connections to the planners.

The decision to suspend tours indefinitely came after a volunteer tour guide was featured in a Times article detailing President Trump’s dramatic revamp of the Kennedy Center.

As the U.S. and Iran exchange strikes, more countries are being touched — and some are joining in.

Even after winning approval of a measure calling on President Trump to end the war, they continue to call votes to force Republicans to answer for it.

The mayor said in recent interviews that it was important to acknowledge the city’s role in slavery but that he could not commit to payouts before his racial equity commission completes its report.

In a three-hour Senate hearing this week, Dr. Fauci invoked his constitutional right to stay silent, leaving people confused about many of the issues raised.

The seaweed — a stinky, brown algae known as sargassum — has plagued Mexico and the broader region for more than a decade, but this year’s forecast is setting records.

Show trials are bad for democracy.

This summer’s youth-led revolt punctured Modi’s aura and showed that Indian democracy may still be able to renew itself from below.

“The Daily Show” host defended the doctor’s diary entries about his Covid-era fame: “I literally saw Fauci more than I saw my parents.”

A wildlife photographer noticed a humpback whale displaying unusual behavior off Australia’s east coast, then something extraordinary happened.