Minimalist News

Iran's Reliance On China's Beidou Satellite System Is A Game-Changer In War With US Authored by former CIA officer Larry Johnson During the 12-day war in June 2025, Iranian missiles and drones struggled against sophisticated Israeli and American electronic warfare. GPS jamming and spoofing repeatedly disrupted their guidance systems, limiting their effectiveness during the intense 12-day conflict. Fast-forward to early 2026, and the battlefield dynamics had shifted dramatically. Iran’s precision strikes began threading through advanced air defenses, hitting high-value targets across the Gulf with surprising accuracy . Intelligence analysts pointed to one key factor: Iran had ditched GPS for China’s

White DSA Member Inadvertently Exposes Socialist Playbook: "Secret Nazis" Are Fine If They Advance Agenda Far-left podcaster and Democratic Socialists of America member Emma Vigeland appeared to inadvertently expose the far-left movement's ends-justify-the-means political calculus: Even a "secret Nazi" would be acceptable if the candidate advanced a national socialist agenda. Vigeland, a former field reporter, producer, and commentator for The Young Turks and identified as a DSA member, also co-hosts The Majority Report with Sam Seder. She explained on a separate Vox podcast that she doesn't care if a progressive or socialist candidate has "Nazi" skeletons in their closet .

Election Integrity: Is Representative Democracy A Foolish Fantasy? Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us The US Constitution is perhaps the most significant historical and governmental document in a millennia. It established the modern conception of the western Republic, along with true representative government designed to answer to the people rather than rule over the people. The Bill of Rights outlined clear restrictions on federal and state powers to legislate away the inherent and God given freedoms of the citizenry; an accomplishment which had been attempted in the past but was never truly realized until the war for independence and the

Welcome To Trillionistan; Don't Get Comfortable... Authored by Peter C. Earle via The Daily Economy , Not long ago, the notion of trillions belonged either to the furthest cosmic reaches of the universe or the submicroscopic world of atoms. These numbers describe galaxies in the observable universe, roughly two trillion , or, at the opposite extreme, the picosecond - one trillionth of a second - is used to measure molecular motion and chemical reactions. Until recently, magnitudes denominated in trillions were almost entirely confined to the theoretical hinterlands of astronomy, physics, and schoolyard exaggeration. Today, trillion-dollar quantities have become commonplace

Flock Safety Defends Cameras After AI System Triggers Wrongful Police Stops Of Two Journalists Plymouth, Minnesota - Automotive journalist Joel Feder and his wife were detained by multiple police officers in a coordinated stop while driving a Jaguar Land Rover press vehicle, after Flock Safety's automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras flagged the car based on a flawed database entry. Screenshot Plymouth Police Department via The Drive According to Feder's detailed account in The Drive , officers boxed in the $155,000 Range Rover in a Kohl's parking lot after the vehicle triggered alerts via Flock's network. Police had been tracking

The View's Sunny Hostin Hates 'Privilege'... Except For Her Own Authored by Andrea Widberg via AmericanThinker.com, No one hates “privilege” more than Sunny Hostin. The slightly black co-host of The View, who earns $2 million annually and lives with her orthopedic surgeon husband in a 12,000-square-foot New York City apartment, repeatedly castigates those—usually white—who exercise their “privilege.” However, when it came to throwing her weight around with the cops to protect her son from allegedly illegal conduct, the whole idea of “privilege” vanished from Hostin’s mind. Hostin, a former federal prosecutor with a pretty face, landed herself a gig on

DC Circuit Gives Trump A Huge Election Integrity Victory On Mail-In Ballots On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a temporary order allowing the Postal Service to move forward with a proposed rule requiring states to verify voter registration data before mailing federal election ballots. A three-judge panel, ruling per curiam , granted USPS's request to stay a district court injunction that had blocked the rule earlier this month in a lawsuit brought by the NAACP. 🚨 The D.C. Circuit has temporarily allowed the U.S. Postal Service to move forward with its proposed

Academia Embarrasses Itself... Again Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker , Over at Twitchy , a publication that curates the news in funny yet insightful ways, a headline reads, “Head of Medical School Tells Congresswoman the Vast Majority of Pregnancies Occur in Women.” Sure enough, Twitchy is telling the truth. During witness testimony before a congressional committee examining the impact of forced “diversity,” preferential (non-merit-based) admissions, and “woke” ideology upon the quality of medical schools, the chancellor of UC San Francisco testified under oath that not all pregnancies come from women. That chancellor, Samuel Hawgood, is not some administrative

"We've Burned Through All Buffers": Oil Traders Warn Market Running On Fumes Brent crude futures jumped a little more than 4% to nearly $88 a barrel, putting the crude oil benchmark on track for its biggest weekly gain since April. That move followed an Axios report that said the Trump administration had notified Israel it was deploying additional aerial assets to the region, signaling the US military could expand strikes on Iran as soon as this weekend. Financial Times spoke with energy traders at the end of the week who warned that slowing tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz

State Department Issues "Worldwide Caution" As US-Iran Tit-For-Tat Spirals Into Regional Crisis Summary CENTCOM Says US Forces Launch New Strike On Iran State Dept. Issues Worldwide Warning CENTCOM says two US troops killed in Iranian attack on Jordan base. Iran formally suspends MoU with the US , declaring agreement is over & commitments will no longer be fulfilled. Fighting escalates into seventh straight day of heavy bombings. Iran reportedly struck a US base in Saudi Arabia for the first time in four months. US strikes disrupt southern Iran's telecom network, knocking out 116 communication towers amid new infrastructure war. Iran

"Start Spreadin' The News": New York Losing Billions As Millionaires Flee Big Apple Authored by Jonathan Turley, Below is my column in the New York Post on the sharp decline in millionaires in New York, costing the state billions as many flee. The exodus has been building for years but may now be accelerating. As Mayor Mamdani holds another press conference promising to end the “violence of evictions,” businesses are reading the writing on the wall. Rather than work to make the state more attractive to wealthy residents and businesses, Democrats are seeking to diminish the appeal of two-tax states.

FCC Head Carr Moves To Reshape TV Ownership Rules, Save Local Broadcasting From Being 'Mouthpieces' The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to scrap longstanding national limits on television station ownership - a regulatory overhaul that Chairman Brendan Carr says will give local outlets critical breathing room to compete and invest in community journalism - instead of being 'Hollywood mouthpieces.' The agency is scheduled to vote on August 6 to eliminate the ownership caps in favor of a flexible, case-by-case approach for reviewing deals. Carr detailed the plan in a Breitbart News op-ed, arguing the change will help local broadcasters counter

Is Home Affordability Actually Better Than Headlines Suggest Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, The doom feed says home affordability locked a generation out. The math on the payment you actually write says something the headlines won’t. Here are the “facts” that the media tells you about home affordability. Let’s start with a recent survey. Two out of three Americans now say it’s a bad time to buy a house, the most negative reading Gallup has ever recorded. Another study showed that a record 25.2 million adults under 35 are living with their parents. Scroll any feed, and you’ll hear

The Supreme Court's AI Collision Course Authored by Brian Boyle via RealClearPolitics , Imagine a tight House race in a swing state. In the final weeks of the campaign, a new super PAC begins spending heavily against the incumbent. It runs ads on local television and reaches individual voters with highly tailored texts. The messaging is hard-hitting and seems to be swaying the electorate. None of it traces back to the opposing campaign. It also doesn't trace back to any human operative. The super PAC is funded by a single LLC whose donor cannot be identified, and its spending decisions

"Enemies Of Our Civilization": Rubio Unveils Visa Curbs On 'Far-Left Terrorists' Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a new visa policy barring foreign nationals linked to far-left terrorist organizations from entering the U.S. The move appears to be part of a broader, multi-agency, and multinational campaign to identify, disrupt, and dismantle left-wing extremist nodes operating across the West. "Today, the State Department is imposing new visa restrictions to bar far-left terrorists from entering our country," Rubio said in a post on X late Thursday afternoon, hours after he hosted delegations from 65 countries around the world to begin coordinating operations

Paul Pelosi Officially Charged With Hit-And-Run In Northern California Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times, Paul Pelosi, husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was charged with misdemeanor hit-and-run on July 17 after authorities alleged he struck another vehicle parked on the side of a road on July 3 in Napa County, California. The Napa County District Attorney’s Office also charged Pelosi, 86 , of St. Helena, with making an unlawful turn. A witness who saw the accident called 911. Napa County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene in Yountville, California, on July 3 and found Pelosi sitting inside

Landmark Decision: Federal Appeals Court Rejects New Jersey's AR-15 And Magazine Bans In a major victory those seeking to rid America of bans on so-called "assault weapons," for the first time ever, a federal appeals court has ruled that a state's ban on AR-15s and similar rifles, and its ban on "high-capacity" magazines, violate the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution. The bans in question had been enacted by New Jersey, but the ruling carries weight throughout the jurisdiction of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which also includes Pennsylvania and Delaware. More significantly, the Third

DHS Issues Funding Warning To States That Don't Purge Voter Rolls Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times , Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Friday said that states that do not purge their voter rolls of potentially ineligible voters and noncitizens could lose funding. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin speaks during a news conference in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, on July 17, 2026. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images It came as he said the DHS has identified more than 250,000 noncitizens who were illegally on voter registration rolls in four states: California,

The Falkland Islands: Don't Cry Argentina Authored by Noel Williams via AmericanThinker.com, Yesterday, Mr. Noel S. Williams noted the impudent and impertinent behavior of Argentina’s soccer players after their World Cup semi-final match against England (you’re welcome). The unfurling of the banner that read “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” may have flown under the radar for many, but it was actually a rather sizable geopolitical offense . The Falkland Islands Government has now issued a statement condemning the Argentinian team’s hubris. Here is part of it: That said, it is hardly news to anyone that the people of the Islands were

Venezuela Quake Disaster Tops 5,000 Deaths As 50,000 Remain Missing Venezuela's official death toll from the twin earthquakes that struck the country on June 24 has surpassed 5,000 and could climb much higher. New footage of the June 24th earthquake in La Guaira shows multiple buildings collapsing #Venezuela pic.twitter.com/hq1ywikhpA — CNW (@ConflictsW) July 11, 2026 Poorly constructed multifamily housing complexes, built with low-quality materials under the socialist government's mass-housing programs, collapsed " like sandcastles " when the quakes hit the coastal state of La Guaira. The devastating earthquakes in Venezuela exposed exactly how the socialist government built housing for their

Poor air quality from wildfires continues to plague New York City as several neighborhoods hit by thunderstorms Saturday is delivering a double dose of dangerous weather across the north-eastern US, with smoky skies from Canadian wildfires giving way to severe thunderstorms that have already triggered a flash flood warning as torrential rain pounds parts of the region. After a brief break on Friday, smoke from the wildfires moved back into New York City and surrounding communities on Saturday, sending air quality back into unhealthy levels . Continue reading...

Rain could alleviate conditions in mid-Atlantic and north-east, with World Cup final expected to go ahead on Sunday Warnings of dangerous conditions are expected to remain in place on Saturday across swathes of the US, amid uncertainty about where the heavy wildfire smoke swirling from the Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of Minnesota will head next. Some parts of the US mid-Atlantic and north-east regions will continue to endure poor air quality until Saturday afternoon, where there is a high chance of thunderstorms , which could bring some reprieve from the poor air but come with other

As Cuba swelters under six-month oil blockade imposed by US, tempers are fraying and unrest is growing When Cuba’s national grid collapses, as it did for the third time in 10 days on Tuesday, a collective groan spreads across its cities and people wonder, again, whether the island’s antiquated electricity system may soon become unrecoverable. The 777-mile long Caribbean island of 9.5 million people has been sweltering under a six-month-long oil blockade imposed by the US, part of a pressure campaign to bring down its communist government. But the parlous state of Cuba’s infrastructure goes far further back. Continue reading...

White House Fifa taskforce chief defends Argentina footballers, saying US believes in free speech The White House has backed Argentina’s footballers who displayed a banner supporting their country’s claim to the Falkland Islands after their World Cup semi-final victory against England. After Argentina’s 2-1 win in a fractious match in Atlanta on Wednesday, some players held up a banner that said: “ Las Malvinas son Argentinas ” – using the country’s term for the South Atlantic islands. Continue reading...

Whereabouts of artist imprisoned after 2021 protests had been unknown following end of his prison term in July Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, a prominent Cuban dissident artist whose whereabouts remained unknown after his prison sentence ended last week, has been given permission to travel to the US, according to his official Facebook page. Otero Alcántara, designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2022 for insulting national symbols, contempt and disturbing the public order. Continue reading...

Distillery owner could face only three months in jail over alleged poisoning of Australian teenagers Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Australian government has increased its travel alert level for Laos, advising travellers to “exercise a high degree of caution” due to the risk of methanol poisoning. It comes as a distillery owner in Laos was charged after a mass methanol poisoning incident killed six foreign nationals, including the Australian backpackers Bianca Jones and Holly Morton-Bowles. Continue reading...

Escaped flowerhorn cichlids are causing concern for native species and about parasites capable of infecting humans Escaped ornamental aquarium fish have integrated into a local ecosystem in the Philippines, but scientists say they may be threatening the native biodiversity of the lake. Flowerhorn cichlids – human-bred hybrid fish prized for their bright-gold colour and prominent head humps – are believed to have escaped from breeding facilities into Lake Sampaloc, which sits in a volcanic crater, during a typhoon. Continue reading...

Arrest in Pennsylvania of Wu Shaoping, who is awaiting asylum decision, raises fears of deportation and persecution A Chinese human rights lawyer has been arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), raising concerns he could be deported to China where he would face persecution. Wu Shaoping fled China at the end of 2019 amid a crackdown on human rights lawyers. He travelled to the US on a tourist visa and made an asylum claim in 2020, for which he is still awaiting a decision. Continue reading...

Storms are typical during intense heat but this week’s have been extreme. Plus, deadly monsoon rains in Bangladesh Hailstones the size of golf balls have been seen in French villages as, on top of the exceptional European heatwave, thunderstorms have struck across parts of Europe. While thunderstorms are typical during and after a period of extreme heat, the storms across countries such as France, Germany and Poland have been particularly severe, bringing flooding, strong winds and heavy showers with large balls of hail. Continue reading...

Move dealt ‘severe blow to Chinese companies’ confidence in investing in the UK’, says Ministry of Commerce China’s government has said it is “strongly dissatisfied” with the decision to nationalise British Steel this week, 15 months after the UK government intervened to prevent the closure of its steelworks in Scunthorpe and the loss of 4,000 jobs. On Thursday, British Steel was brought under public ownership to protect “the future of steel production”, the government announced. Continue reading...

New national plan accompanied by Labor push for digital duty of care legislation Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The use of AI in automated decision-making by government departments and agencies will be subject to tough rules under a new national plan, expected to extend to consumer protections, workplace safety and privacy. As the Albanese government grapples with the rapid growth in the use of artificial intelligence and a boom in datacentre construction, senior ministers have begun work to draw up new rules to ensure safety is built into AI processes inside government, prioritising

New laws would give Vcat power to force social and AI platforms to identify anonymous users in move premier says will protect children Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Social media companies could be forced to identify anonymous accounts accused of online vilification, under new laws being proposed in Victoria. The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, announced a suite of social media reforms on Sunday, saying families needed new ways to protect their children online. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Conservatives around world at war against ‘leftwing globalists’, Bridget McKenzie tells CPAC London event Pianist Jayson Gillham peforms joint concert for Palestinian families Pianist Jayson Gillham has performed a concert for Palestinian families. Healing is a long road. For Palestinians, for Gazans, for the families in our care, carrying grief and worry that most of us can barely imagine, there is no quick remedy. But music creates space. Space to grieve. Space to breathe. Space to feel held by something larger than ourselves.

Car chase began in Queensland after report of armed man on Gold Coast late on Saturday, police say Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast New South Wales police have declared a “critical incident” after a man died following a police pursuit in the northern rivers area, hours after the same man allegedly evaded Queensland police while armed with a gun. The 25-year-old from Queensland was found unconscious at the wheel of a vehicle, which had driven down an embankment south of Murwillumbah, about 2am on

Nationals senator echoes comments by Pauline Hanson as Labor criticises One Nation leader’s divisive stance Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The National party’s Senate leader, Bridget McKenzie, has used an appearance at a conference of the populist right in London to declare that conservatives are “in a war” against mass immigration, “leftwing globalists” and “woke” institutions, and to urge rightwing movements across the English-speaking world to unite and fight back. McKenzie was speaking at the inaugural CPAC GB in London, a British spinoff of

From Nevada to Manchester, developers are trialling innovative solutions to clean energy’s biggest challenge In the deserts of the United Arab Emirates a sprawling clean energy project , stretching across an area roughly the size of 12,600 football fields, will play host to a breakthrough allowing solar energy to power the equivalent of half a million homes through the night. The Gulf state has been steadily combining 5.2GW of solar power capacity with 19GWh of battery storage to create the largest battery scheme in the world. Continue reading...

Fans evacuated from sold-out open-air show as organisers promise full refunds An open-air show by the Puerto Rican music star Bad Bunny was abandoned in Italy on Saturday night because of a violent hailstorm, but the organiser said ticketholders would be reimbursed. Videos posted on social media showed large hailstones hitting people at the sold-out show, along with strong winds and driving rain, after the star began his set at Milan’s Snai La Maura Hippodrome. Continue reading...

At least one person killed after dozens of missiles arrive in less than an hour and three-storey building catches fire Russia has carried out one of its biggest-ever ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, launching a five-hour raid that left at least one person dead and seven injured, with fires and damage across the city. Ukrainian officials said the capital was hit with about 40 Iskander-M and hypersonic Zircon missiles. Residents heard an air raid siren sound at 1.30am. There was the sound of air defences, followed minutes later by a series of booms and explosions. Continue reading...

Tamás Sulyok signed the constitutional amendment that cited ‘serious loss of confidence’ in him as leader Hungary’s president, Tamás Sulyok, has agreed to step down after signing a constitutional amendment passed by the ruling Tisza party of the prime minister, Péter Magyar. The amendment will end Sulyok’s term immediately, citing society’s “serious loss of confidence” in a leader elected in early 2024 by lawmakers from the former prime minister Viktor Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party. Continue reading...

Jens Spahn had criticised ‘rented wombs’ and his party is strongly opposed to surrogacy, which is banned in Germany A senior German politician and ally of the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has resigned as parliamentary group leader of the Christian Democrat (CDU) party after he and his husband used a surrogate mother to become parents, a practice he has criticised in the past and his party is vehemently opposed to. Surrogacy is banned in Germany, a policy Jens Spahn refused to relax when he was health minister in 2020, so he and his husband, Daniel Funke, used a surrogate mother in

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says two ships have also been involved in ‘accident’ after defying strait of Hormuz warnings Two US troops killed and one missing in Jordan after Iranian attacks Jordanian authorities ⁠have not issued any decision ⁠to ​evacuate the airport or ⁠seaport in the city of Aqaba, and have not detected ⁠any potential threats ​in ‌the past ‌hours, the state ‌news agency cited the government spokesperson as saying. This denial comes in response to the US embassy in Jordan earlier saying the airport and seaport in Aqaba had been evacuated by Jordanian authorities because of a “specific and credible

Sirens sound in Bahrain and Kuwait accuses Tehran of targeting civilian sites and infrastructure as Iran strikes US allies The US retaliated against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) after two American troops were killed and one was missing in Jordan when Tehran launched a wave of attacks against US allies in the Middle East. Iran’s attacks came as the renewal of US strikes on Iran entered a second week and fighting escalated over the strait of Hormuz. Continue reading...

Less than a month after hailing a ceasefire, Trump resumed strikes on Iran, a move experts warn could prolong the war and hurt Republicans before the midterms For half a century, Donald Trump has performed a public high-wire act based on high-stakes risks and shattering time-honored norms to get what he wants. The approach has paid off handsomely, helping him survive multiple bankruptcies to reach billionaire status and numerous legal and political scandals to be elected US president twice. Continue reading...

Central Command says attacks were designed to ‘continue degrading Iranian military capabilities’ The US military said it had launched a seventh consecutive night of strikes on Iran on Friday night as fighting escalated over the strait of Hormuz. US Central Command, in a post on X, said the strikes, which began at 7pm GMT, were designed to “continue degrading Iranian military capabilities”. Continue reading...

Defence minister seeks three ‘Nahal’ outposts in Gaza as top commander says Israel now controls 65% of the strip, violating Trump ceasefire deal Israel’s defence and finance ministers announced plans for three illegal settlements in Gaza and more than $400m (£300m) in funding to expand construction in the occupied West Bank, as Israel’s military commander for the region celebrated violent outposts as his “security partners”. With national elections scheduled for 27 October, Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition is racing to expand control of land in occupied Palestine and drive out Palestinians before its mandate expires. Continue reading...

Vessels believed to have departed from Myanmar in late June, with mostly Muslim Rohingya minority onboard The United Nations has said more than 500 people are feared dead after reports of two large shipwrecks off Myanmar since late June. The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) and its refugee agency UNHCR voiced alarm in a joint statement at reports “that two boats carrying more than 500 people may have capsized off the coast of Myanmar in recent days”. Continue reading...

Innocent man lynched by mob in West Bengal as police killing of suspect further escalates tensions Protests have engulfed the Indian state of West Bengal after the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl, the subsequent lynching of an innocent man and the police killing of one of the accused. Outrage erupted on Sunday after the body of a missing girl was recovered from a pond in a town just outside the state capital, Kolkata. Continue reading...

Eleven reported dead as flooding also brings danger of snakes, while buildings collapse in Mumbai amid heavy rain As the first typhoon to make landfall in China for the 2026 season, Maysak has caused devastating damage in southern and central regions. The Guangxi region received intense downpours of up to 280mm in 12 hours, causing rivers to swell and dam walls to break. By Monday morning, flooding across the city of Nanning and surrounding areas had resulted in many people being stranded on rooftops. Flood waters pose additional threats in China because of the presence of wild and farmed snakes.

Lawrence Bishnoi, who is in prison in India, is accused of orchestrating assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023 US and Canadian authorities say they have “dismantled” the leadership of a notorious Indian criminal group, charging dozens of operatives who have “inflicted pain and cruelty on people, victims around the globe”, including a high-profile murder in Canada that strained diplomatic relations between Canada and India. At a press conference on Tuesday, members of the FBI and Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said as part of Operation Hard Ball – a multiyear federal investigation into murder-for-hire plots, shootings, extortion and

Early flight data shows K2 Airways plane crashed into sea with five crew on board south-west of Karachi Pakistan has located the wreckage of a Boeing cargo plane, the country’s airports authority said, adding that rescuers were searching for the five crew members on board when the aircraft went missing. The plane was approaching Karachi from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates when radar showed it “rapidly descending” on Tuesday evening after reporting a “navigational system issue”, according to the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA). Continue reading...

As Andy Burnham enters No 10, Guardian data analysis reveals the fissures with Labour’s traditional supporters, and the traps the new PM will want to avoid Keir Starmer entered 10 Downing St on a wave of optimism after a landslide victory in the 2024 general election. His Labour party had overturned a defeat in 2019 in which the party crashed to its worst result since 1935. Labour won 412 seats, just a few shy of the 418 won by Tony Blair in 1997, a result that gave Labour a leader in office for a decade. But a little more than

Reform leader says support from fraudster before last election is ‘totally undeclarable in every single way’ Nigel Farage has admitted his close friend the fraudster George Cottrell let him use one of his London homes and paid for social media filming before the last election but insisted it was “totally undeclarable in every single way”. The Reform UK leader spoke in depth for the first time about his support from Cottrell and the £5m gift from the Thailand-based businessman Christopher Harborne in an interview with the anti-woke Triggernometry podcast. Continue reading...

People in Tunbridge Wells area face lower pressure, intermittent supply or no water after ‘instrument failure’ Thousands of homes and businesses in Kent are facing water supply problems for a second day, including a “complete lack of water” in some cases, South East Water said. About 7,000 properties in the Tunbridge Wells area could face low pressure, intermittent supply or no water, after an “instrument failure” at a nearby water treatment works, SEW said. Continue reading...

Health Foundation paper argues health is an economic asset and improving it could generate £72bn for public finances Restoring the deteriorating health of the UK’s population to the level of 2014 would boost GDP by 2% and generate a £72bn dividend for the public finances, research suggests. A paper by the Health Foundation thinktank , published on Sunday, argues the nation’s health should be valued by policymakers as an economic asset. Continue reading...

Data shows 32,559 earnings-related overpayments in 2025-26 after DWP’s measures to end carer’s allowance scandal Scores of unpaid carers were hit with demands to repay sums of more than £20,000 and hundreds more put at risk of prosecution last year as a result of official failures in what appear to be continuing problems with carer’s allowance. New figures showed carers were asked to repay £33m in 2025-26 as a result of 32,559 earnings-related overpayments, despite the introduction of measures over a year ago designed specifically to prevent carers falling foul of the system. Continue reading...

Investigation continues after college freshman was found dead on Mississippi island after 4 July boat trip with friends Two weeks after Nolan Xavier Wells was found dead, his family is still searching for answers. On 4 July, Wells, an 18-year-old Mississippi college freshman, and a group of friends took a boat out to Horn Island, a barrier island a few miles off the Mississippi Gulf coast. Continue reading...

Changes inside the Florida international airport are hardly evident as state and county hold back funds for full remodel One of Donald Trump ’s most grandiose vanity projects, a multimillion-dollar makeover of Florida ’s Palm Beach international airport into a self-aggrandizing , gold-plated transportation hub, is running into turbulence, barely a week after the first plane’s wheels touched the runway. At first glance, the rebranding of the airport less than 5 miles from his opulent Mar-a-Lago resort appears to be complete. Its website bears the name and oversized logo of the President Donald J Trump international airport, and state transportation

Top Democrat says findings show public ‘way ahead of the politicians’ as Trump dismisses global heating as ‘hoax’ Amid a summer of dangerous heat , drought and floods , a majority of Americans are connecting increasingly severe weather to the climate crisis, new polling shows, despite efforts by Donald Trump to dismiss global heating as a “con job” and a “hoax”. It’s a sign that attempts to suppress polarize climate concerns may not be seeing full success, said Grace Adcox, senior climate strategist at Data for Progress. Continue reading...

From manufactured election insecurity to an outbreak of ‘explosive’ diarrhea, Americans are bearing the brunt of harmful policies Between widespread cuts to vital government agencies, various disease and illness outbreaks, and new environmental disaster vulnerabilities, the United States is facing a convergence of crises with widespread repercussions. Yet the Trump administration has hamstrung the federal government from addressing these crises – and in some cases is actively fanning them. Over the past year, the administration has moved to shrink the federal workforce , roll back environmental protections and policies intended to fight the climate crisis , reduced funding for scientific

The fatal shootings of two men, both killed in their vehicles by ICE agents, have rekindled anger over the US’s militarized deportation push Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was driving to work with his brother and two other passengers in Houston, Texas , when immigration agents began tailing his car. They pulled him over and fired a fatal shot through the open passenger-side window. Six days later in Biddeford, Maine , Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26, was driving around his neighborhood when agents stopped him at an intersection – right outside the laundromat where he’d often go with his three-year-old daughter

Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, whose social media empire promoting wealth, male dominance and misogyny has made them among the world’s most polarising internet personalities, were arrested on Saturday in Miami as British authorities sought their extradition on rape and sex trafficking charges. The brothers were taken into custody by the US Marshals Service on a sealed warrant, agency spokesman Brady McCarron said, placing the United States at the centre of an international legal...

Prominent Cuban dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara flew to exile on Saturday in the United States after serving a five-year sentence on the island, as Washington urged Havana to release more than 700 political prisoners. Otero Alcantara, designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2022 for insulting national symbols, contempt and disturbing the public order. He landed in Miami, the capital of the Cuban diaspora, after a short...

The recent resignation of Keir Starmer as Britain’s prime minister has reignited a debate over the United Kingdom’s post-Brexit identity – and talk of rejoining the European Union. Over the past decade, has Britain’s decision to exit the EU returned the UK to its splendid isolation – or merely a splendid squalor? It may seem a far-fetched idea but what if the UK were to become a special sovereignty within the EU? And in that case, what can post-Brexit Britain learn from Hong Kong, which has been...

Former Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Officer Leon Black told Congress he paid US$21 million to a woman he accused of blackmailing and extorting him. The billionaire investor said during a June 26 interview with the US House Oversight Committee that he paid the money to the woman, with whom he had had an affair, after she demanded US$100 million because he “ruined her life”. Black’s appearance at the voluntary interview was part of the congressional investigation into the late...

In Iran war news with major US political implications, two US soldiers were killed and several wounded by an Iranian drone, the Pentagon announced on Saturday. The tragedy, the first US combat deaths in months, came as US President Donald Trump has tried to downplay or distract attention from the hugely unpopular war that he started in late February, as his polling numbers tank four months in advance of a hugely consequential midterm election. “Two US service members in Jordan were killed in...

Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman has reclassified crocodiles from wild animals to “captive-bred wildlife”, a move that clears the way for the reptiles to be used for security purposes, including to deter prison escapes. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir – who reportedly proposed in December surrounding a prison for Palestinian detainees with crocodiles, a la Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility – welcomed the decision. “Are you...

The Canadian military was preparing on Saturday to evacuate a remote community of 600 people threatened by forest wildfires that have spread, choking smoke across a broad swathe of the United States. Federal Emergencies Minister Eleanor Olszewski said late on Friday that the armed forces would use aircraft to evacuate the inhabitants of Fort Hope in sparsely populated northwestern Ontario, where some of the most intense fires are burning. The region has few roads and relies heavily on air...

Germany plans to scale back renewable-energy subsidies in a sweeping overhaul of its funding system, as surging solar output puts growing strain on the country’s power grid. From 2027, new renewable generators should receive support “in a way that benefits both the market and the system,” according to a draft law published by the Economy Ministry late on Friday. That means rewarding projects that respond more closely to electricity demand and do not worsen grid congestion. Fixed feed-in tariffs...

As Norwegian World Cup footballer Erling Haaland’s herbal drink advertising blitz captivates millions, his home country has emerged as a popular destination for Chinese travellers. An increasing number of Chinese citizens have visited Norway over the past two years, with interest surging during this summer’s international football competition. The draw was largely Norway’s scenic allure, but in recent weeks Haaland’s social-media stagecraft had amplified the appeal, tourism professionals...

The resumption of US strikes against Iran has thrust incoming UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham into a potential day one decision on how much to support Britain’s closest ally in its controversial military campaign. Even as Burnham was installed as leader of the governing Labour Party on Friday, outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government was engaged in high-level talks about renewed US attacks on Iran, according to people familiar with the matter. The prime minister-in-waiting was kept...

Geography has handed the United Arab Emirates quite the quandary: its government wants to cut dependence on the Strait of Hormuz to “zero”, yet the ports that power its economy sit squarely inside the waterway it hopes to avoid. Jebel Ali and Khalifa ports collectively handle most of the UAE’s US$1 trillion in annual non-oil trade, much of which flows to and from Asia. Together, they form the single most vital link in a logistics corridor stretching from Singapore to Europe – a status not easily...

The historian A.J.P. Taylor wrote one of the most powerful openings of any book. “In the state of nature which Hobbes imagined, violence was the only law, and life was ‘nasty brutish and short’,” he wrote in The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918. “Though individuals never lived in this state of nature, the Great Powers of Europe have always done so. Sovereign states have distinguished European civilisation, at any rate since the end of the fifteenth century. Each individual state in...

Donald Trump’s social media company has discussed charging Wall Street traders and investment firms as much as US$100,000 a month for faster access to the US president’s posts on his Truth Social platform, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, has in recent weeks also pitched a discounted plan of US$60,000 per month if the firms sign up for a three-year plan, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the ‌discussions are...

European policymakers have watched Chinese carmakers roll in like a slow but unstoppable tide over the past few years: affordable, polished and threatening one of the continent’s proudest industrial legacies. Many have warned about the dismantling of their automotive prides following the new China shock. A crown jewel of Europe’s industrial output, the automotive sector represents directly and indirectly a total of more than 13 million jobs in the EU. It was no accident that electric vehicles...

A ⁠few hundred people in Venice protested ⁠on Friday against US Ambassador to ⁠Italy Tilman Fertitta as he arrived in the lagoon city aboard his superyacht, drawing criticism of President Donald Trump’s policies. Activists also objected to the heightened security measures put in place by local authorities as Venice prepares for one of its most important festivals. Fertitta, a billionaire businessman appointed by ‌Trump, is touring the Italian peninsula aboard his 117-metre (384-foot) yacht,...

US President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Canada for wildfire smoke spreading across the United States and said he would add the “incalculable cost” ‌of dealing with the pollution to existing tariffs on Canadian goods. Heavy smoke from hundreds of Canadian fires enveloped a swathe of the US from the Midwest to the Northeast on Thursday and Friday, prompting warnings to residents to stay indoors. Detroit on Friday remained the most polluted city in the world, according to tracker IQAir....

Iran launched more attacks on Washington’s Gulf allies and Jordan on Saturday after a seventh straight night of US strikes on Iranian military targets, including logistics hubs, escalating the war one week after a ceasefire collapsed. Kuwait came under sustained attack, with a desalination plant hit and operations at Kuwait International Airport suspended due to repeated missile and drone threats. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had struck a US military support centre at Camp...

A powerful magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck off the coast of Mexico’s southernmost state of Chiapas on Friday, shaking buildings as far away as Guatemala and El Salvador, though authorities said there were ‌no immediate reports of casualties or major damage. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said emergency protocols were activated but that neither Chiapas nor the neighbouring state of Tabasco reported issues, and Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said there were no deaths. In some parts of...

Britain’s charities regulator is looking into concerns about an Amnesty International report that branded a women’s centre for sexual violence victims founded by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling as “anti-rights”. The bestselling writer, who has been at the forefront of the debate about gender identity and has previously denounced trans activism, leading to accusations of transphobia, on Friday said she was angry at the label. “I’m often tickled by press articles asserting that I’m furious about...

Andy Burnham vowed Friday to “give hope” back to the British people as he was confirmed as the ruling Labour Party’s new leader, set to be the next UK prime minister. “People and places … have been waiting too long for politics to let them hope again … We’re going to give them hope back,” he vowed at a special party conference. “I am for us, for all of us,” he told cheering delegates. Burnham takes over from Keir Starmer, who resigned last month after months of political turmoil, scandal and...

Sitting by the Tanjung Aru beach in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, watching one of the most stunning sunsets in the world, I reflected on what it would take to prioritise the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. I had just finished an intense three days with 170 local and global organisations, such as the conservation organisation WWF, businesses, investors and policymakers on how the world should expand the scale of impact investing in the Sustainable Development Goals in Sabah and...

A Russian activist who spent years targeting opponents of the Kremlin before unexpectedly denouncing President Vladimir Putin and his Ukraine offensive was arrested on Friday, state media reported. Ilya Remeslo, 42, faces charges of “spreading fakes on the Russian army”, under censorship laws Moscow introduced when it sent troops to Ukraine, according to the TASS news agency. The charge carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Sergei Badamshin, named by independent media as his...

⁠Armed assailants are believed to have boarded the chemical tanker Asana off the southern coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden on Friday and are in control of the vessel, according to maritime ‌security sources. Based on initial assessments, the incident appeared to be related to ‌Somali piracy rather than Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militia, one of the maritime security sources said. The small tanker, which had no confirmed flag, had listed the Somali port of Bosaso as its next destination, ship...

Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the dual nature of artificial intelligence’s opportunities and challenges, calling for a principle of “openness” and regulations to keep the technology “secure and controllable” in a speech at the country’s flagship annual AI conference. Xi’s first speech to the World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai showed AI is a national strategic priority as China seeks to build greater technological self-reliance amid its tech rivalry with the United States. Earlier...

China’s companies have mastered social media marketing playbooks. Now, they must learn to win the trust of artificial intelligence (AI) agents that will increasingly shape what consumers discover, consider and ultimately buy. These personal concierges are starting to determine the best choices for each user by balancing price, quality, reliability, sustainability and individual preferences. Tell an AI agent you want to go “somewhere”, and it can autonomously choose the destination and book...

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. The young Chinese scientist behind ‘impossible’ breakthrough on sodium batteries Scientist Lu Yaxiang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Physics, has spent a decade working to make sodium-ion batteries...

Across the US this week, different disasters – from Canadian wildfire smoke darkening the skies in the Midwest and northeast to extreme heat along the east coast to catastrophic flooding in Texas – are disrupting daily life and putting people’s health at risk. When multiple weather catastrophes play out like this at the same time, or in quick succession, experts refer to them as compound events. As climate change makes compound events more likely, experts warned that grappling with them is...

President Donald ⁠Trump has ramped up US air strikes on Iran and threatened broader escalation, but there is ⁠little sign that a military strategy that has already failed to extract concessions from Tehran will succeed this time. With the collapse of an interim ceasefire deal reached a month ago, Trump finds himself in a bind as he seeks to break Iran’s grip on the vital Strait of Hormuz and force Tehran to accept his demands. While the two sides have so far avoided a return to full-scale...

US President Donald Trump delivered a prime-time “Speech to the Nation” on Thursday at 9pm Eastern Time, or 9am Hong Kong time on Friday. Such addresses are typically reserved for major national moments. During his second term, Trump has used them to highlight key priorities, including a year-end address in December, and a speech in April focused on the Iran conflict. While the White House did not release the full agenda ahead of the speech, its timing drew attention. It came soon after Trump...

The United States and Iran traded attacks on Friday, with Tehran targeting American assets across the Middle East in the biggest escalation since the two foes returned to outright war. A month after the two sides agreed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the conflict that began in February, Iran accused US forces of hitting civilian and energy infrastructure on Friday – including an airport, a railway station and two bridges, with state media reporting at least eight dead and 20...

Mandatory evacuations across the Texas Hill Country are under way as life-threatening flash floods wreck bridges and roads with more heavy rain expected overnight. A wide swathe of Texas is forecast to receive as much as 20cm (eight inches) of additional precipitation through Friday morning to cap off a week of downpours that revived memories of the catastrophic deluge that killed more than 130 people a year ago. Evacuations have been complicated by almost 90 road and highway closures between...

US Secretary of State Marco ⁠Rubio told officials from more than 60 countries on Thursday that the United States would seek to refocus international counterterrorism efforts on what he called “far-left terror”, arguing that left-wing violence had long been overlooked. The conference in Washington has sparked Democratic concerns that the Trump administration is politicising counterterrorism efforts and diverting resources from other extremist threats. In a speech, Rubio said the Islamic militancy...

Italian police raided the offices of several luxury brands including Bulgari and Chanel over suspicions they used subcontractors employing Chinese workers, a prosecutor said Thursday. The other luxury brands included Brunello Cucinelli, Etro, Goyard Italie, Jacob Cohen Company, Moncler, and Stefano Ricci, Milan prosecutor Paolo Storari said, confirming information published by business daily Il Sole 24 Ore. None of the nine companies is under investigation, and prosecutors have not sought...

A teleprompter operator for Donald Trump has been suspended over allegations he placed bets with a prediction market on the content of the US president’s speeches, the White House said on Friday. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the teleprompter operator was put on unpaid administrative leave on the orders of the president. Leavitt later added that he would no longer be working at the White House. Gabriel Perez is ⁠under investigation by federal regulators over potential...

An Italian court on Thursday sentenced the former head of motorway operator Autostrade per l’Italia to 12 years for his role in a deadly bridge disaster eight years ago. Giovanni Castellucci was found guilty of vehicle homicide and negligence related to the collapse of the bridge in Genoa that killed 43 people in one of the country’s worst infrastructure disasters. The courtroom was packed with relatives of those who plunged to their deaths when the Morandi Bridge – part of a key highway...

A UK court on Thursday jailed two young men for a 2024 cyberattack on London’s public transport operator that exposed the details of millions of customers, in one of Britain’s biggest data breaches. Thalha Jubair, 20, from East London, and 18-year-old Owen Flowers from England’s West Midlands were each handed five-and-a-half-year sentences at London’s Woolwich Crown Court. The pair pleaded guilty last month to hacking Transport for London’s (TfL) network between August 31 and September 3, 2024,...

Four acting members of Greece’s parliament were among ⁠22 people indicted ⁠on Thursday by the European Public ⁠Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) over an investigation into alleged farm fraud that has rocked the country’s government. Last year, European prosecutors charged dozens of Greek stockbreeders with faking ownership of grazing land and exaggerating the number of animals on farms to claim EU subsidies with the alleged help of state employees and conservative politicians. Some people receiving...

German far-right activist Marla-Svenja Liebich, who legally changed gender to a woman in 2024, was taken to a men’s prison after being extradited to Germany from the Czech Republic, officials said on Thursday. Liebich arrived in Germany on Wednesday and was initially taken to a ‌women’s prison in Chemnitz in the eastern German state of Saxony before being transferred to a men’s prison on the same day, the Saxony Ministry of Justice said. The decision was taken by experts in consultation with the...

Large protests erupted in several Ukrainian cities on Thursday morning against the removal of popular defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov. More than a thousand people gathered on a central square in Kyiv, singing the national anthem, waving Ukrainian and EU flags and chanting “shame” and “bring Fedorov back”. Appointed only six months ago, Fedorov carved a reputation as a moderniser who tried to reform the Ukrainian military, worn down by more than four years of the Russian invasion. His removal...

The US will begin charging 25 per cent tariff on imports of certain goods from Brazil following an investigation alleging that the country engaged in unfair trade practices. The year-long inquiry “found a number of Brazil’s practices to be unreasonable and discriminatory, restricting the competitive position of American farmers, workers, innovators, and exporters,” the Office of the US Trade Representative said in a social media post late on Wednesday night. Imports of coffee, beef, and certain...

Africa’s exports to China have surged since Beijing expanded its zero-tariff policy across the continent in May, as customs data showed signs of emerging trade links in a range of new sectors alongside traditional categories such as critical minerals. China’s imports from Africa soared by 21.1 per cent and 40.2 per cent year on year in May and June, respectively – outpacing the overall growth in Chinese imports over the same period, customs data showed. The increase was partly driven by China’s...

Detainees at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Texas told two rights groups they were beaten by guards, denied medical care and prevented from contacting family and lawyers, according to a report issued on Wednesday. The report, issued by Human ‌Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, spans dozens of pages and is based on 80 interviews HRW conducted with detainees that focused on conditions at Camp East Montana, which is located at the US Army’s Fort...

From rare earth elements to commercial drones, Washington has become all too familiar with the strongest weapons in Beijing’s manufacturing arsenal – the materials and products where China holds a strategic advantage in production, extraction or any other link in the supply chain. After those near-monopolies provided Chinese policymakers considerable leverage in last year’s trade dispute, US think tanks are asking whether pharmaceuticals represent the next critical dependency. Their concern is...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that arch foe Iran has freed an American citizen detained since December 2024 and allowed her to leave the country. “She is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition,” Trump posted on social media, adding: “The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran!” Trump – who in recent days has ordered a resumption of strikes against Iran and reimposed a naval blockade of its ports – did not name the woman or describe why she...

A former senior adviser for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors was sentenced to more than three years in prison for lying to federal investigators looking into whether he shared confidential data with Chinese intelligence operatives, the Justice Department said. John Harold Rogers, 64, was convicted at trial on February 3 of making false statements to investigators about sharing information on monetary policy, Washington US attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement on Wednesday after the...

The Trump administration has lost or abandoned hundreds of criminal cases against protesters and immigrants, a Times investigation found.

Troy Jackson, a progressive former State Senate president, showed signs of significant strength, as half the state’s counties picked delegates to a convention where they will choose Graham Platner’s replacement.

Political campaigns have something new to worry about these days: unflattering or incomplete information produced by A.I. programs when voters ask questions about candidates.

Longtime leaders and advocates in minority districts fear that victories by the Democratic Socialists of America in gentrifying neighborhoods could mean political erasure.

On Saturday, Ukraine hit two warehouses in Russia in strikes that killed at least eight people and injured 62.

Amid anxiety over how the United States would welcome the world, cities like Lawrence, Kan., and Boston threw open their doors. The bonds forged are still visible on the streets.

Has any seemingly overhyped phenomenon done a better job living up to the hype?

Federal marshals arrested the influencers, who are known for their misogynistic views and have faced years of criminal investigations in Europe. The new charges concern offenses dating to 2010, British officials said.

Barred from leaving Romania, Andrew Tate courted powerful figures on the American right, from Tucker Carlson to Barron Trump. Then an extraordinary order let him go.

I was drawn to and worried about this sort of therapy — maybe there were dangers in stirring things up.

A battle over idealized economic systems doesn’t help Democratic candidates.

For decades, Democrats have misunderstood Latino voters. Trump’s deportation campaign offers a chance for them to get it right.

A conversation about the World Cup.

The debilitating malady has gripped Monroe County, Mich.