Minimalist News

Congressman Outraged After Brief Detention By Gun-Wielding Israeli Settlers In West Bank Visit Via The Cradle A group of extremist Jewish settlers equipped with US-made M4 rifles detained US lawmaker Ro Khanna and his group during their visit this week to the southern occupied West Bank, the Democratic representative has disclosed. "We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed; they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it," Khanna told Reuters on Thursday. "And these hoodlums come in with machine guns – M4, an American-made machine gun – and they

Guggenheim AI Survey Finds Adoption Surging Across Large IT Enterprises As Mass Layoff Fears Fall Flat Building on Goldman's estimate that AI adoption across corporate America currently stands at roughly 20.6% and could rise to 24% by year-end, a Guggenheim Securities survey of 150 large-enterprise IT professionals found that 81% of respondents have already deployed AI agents. Anthropic and OpenAI are leading adoption among AI-native platforms, reinforcing the view that the enterprise chatbot and frontier-model battle is increasingly becoming a two-pony race. The survey found that enterprise adoption of AI is quickly accelerating, with 81% of respondents already deploying chatbots.

DARPA's Chilling Pre-COVID Blueprint: Predict, Manufacture, & Deploy Pandemics On Demand Authored by Jon Fleetwood , via Substack , A sprawling, multi-institution effort for "predicting" future pathogen characteristics, developing vaccines "in advance of need," and building the very systems intended to validate those predictions. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) spent the early 2010s constructing what may have been the most ambitious predictive vaccine-development infrastructure ever attempted: a sprawling, multi-institution effort designed to determine the future characteristics of purported pathogens before they emerged and ultimately use those predictions to develop drugs and vaccines before they were needed. The program,

DHS Deports Convicted Child Rapist Gov. Tim Walz Pardoned The Department of Homeland Security deported Tou Lue Vang on Friday, the Laotian national Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pardoned last month in an effort to keep him in the country. Vang, 42, entered the United States illegally and built a life in Minnesota that included, by his own admission, sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty in 2006 to first-degree criminal sexual conduct after admitting he abused the girl over four years, starting in 2002. When police arrested him in 2005, he offered no denial. Instead, he told investigators that

The Real Grid Crisis Is A State Policy Problem Dressed Up As A Market Failure Authored by Todd Snitchler via RealClearEnergy , There's a critique of PJM making the rounds: PJM - the largest grid operator in the United States - is too big. There are too many state interests at play, and PJM doesn't have the ability to function cohesively or quickly enough. FERC even scheduled a governance technical conference this month to examine whether PJM's stakeholder structure can move fast enough to respond to demand. The reality is that policy disagreements at the state level are dressed up

Pro-Palestine Activist Reportedly Murdered By Migrant Boyfriend The phrase "suicidal empathy" has exploded like wildfire across social media in the past year largely because there are so many tragic stories of migrant crime against people who advocate for open immigration. Liberal women and devout leftist activists work in immigration centers or open their homes to third world migrants, only to be brutally assaulted or murdered by those same people. It's important to understand that the third world views the west not as a new home or an opportunity for integration, they view the west as a target for conquest. By

Fifth Circuit Rules Against In-State Tuition For Illegal Aliens Authored by Catherine Salgado via PJMedia.com, The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the Trump administration and against woke states or universities that try to provide special tuition breaks to illegal aliens. Brett Shumate, who serves as the assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Division, celebrated the court win on Thursday, July 9. This is a victory not only for the Trump administration, which is trying to enforce laws at the state level against law-breaking foreigners, but also for American taxpayers, who perforce

The COVID Reckoning That Never Came Authored by Ed Dowd via 'Beyond The Narrative' substack, The COVID Reckoning That Never Came... And the Silence That Proves the Psyop Over the last several years I have been posting nonstop on X about the same nightmares we’ve been living through…the COVID psyop, the experimental mRNA shots, the mandates that destroyed lives, the injuries, the excess deaths, and the relentless propaganda machine that tried to silence anyone who noticed the bodies piling up. I have watched it all in real time: the fear porn, the goalpost moving, the “safe and effective” lies repeated

Rubio Convenes 60-Nation Summit To Confront Transnational Far-Left Terrorism Secretary of State Marco Rubio has requested that senior officials from more than 60 countries convene in Washington next Thursday to discuss the alarming rise of transnational far-left terrorism, according to a Washington Post report. The State Department confirmed the meeting in a post on X Friday afternoon titled, " Secretary of State Marco Rubio Is Setting His Sights on Antifa ." . @NEWSMAX : "Secretary of State Marco Rubio is setting his sights on Antifa." pic.twitter.com/dHZvcpFrHf — Department of State (@StateDept) July 10, 2026 The initiative is intended to expand

5 Charts To Navigate This Chaotic Market Authored by Adam Sharp via DailyReckoning.com, I have 5 charts for you today which put this crazy market into context and give some clarity on what might come next. We’re at a fascinating crossroads for markets, geopolitics, and finance. Let’s get started. Semis Party Like It’s 1999 First up, semiconductor returns. The index below includes U.S. semi stocks like Nvidia, Micron, Intel, Broadcom, Marvell, Texas Instruments, and more: Source: Charlie Bilello As you can see, during the dotcom bubble, semiconductor stocks soared 234% over 14 months in the period leading up to February

China Lands Reusable Rocket On Barge, But SpaceX Remains Years Ahead China successfully landed the first-stage booster of a Long March 10B rocket on a floating barge during an orbital launch test earlier Friday, marking the first major step in reusable launch technology, albeit roughly a decade behind Elon Musk's SpaceX. "This mission … signifies a historic breakthrough in China's reusable rocket technology and a solid foundation for accelerating the improvement of China's space access capabilities," the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation wrote in a social media post. China has achieved its first-ever controlled recovery of a rocket booster,

China Bans Helium Exports As Qatar Outage Deepens Global Supply Squeeze China has abruptly banned helium exports , a key component in semiconductors, which adds yet another serious constraint to a global market already reeling from the loss of production in Qatar. In a two-sentence Friday announcement, China's Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs said helium covered by customs code 2804290010 was subject to a temporary prohibition on exports , effective immediately. The agencies cited China's Foreign Trade Law but provided no explanation, expiration date, transition period or exemptions. Any future adjustments, they said, would be announced separately.

Without Subsidies, Is AI Unaffordable? Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, Let's pull all this into an undeniable conclusion: AI is based on massively subsidizing users' costs. What's already abundantly clear but verboten to say as it would pop the bubble of AI valuations and triumphalism is that AI is unaffordable once the direct and indirect subsidies are withdrawn. Nothing that consumes this much electricity and requires such an immense scale of costly processing and memory capacity can be low-cost, never mind free. The major AI platforms and vendors are subsidizing corporate and individual users in the hopes

Maine Dems Will Pick Platner Replacement At Rushed Convention This Month After their nominee for the 2026 Maine Senate race dropped out on Friday in the wake of sex assault allegations, Democrats will pick his successor at a convention on July 25th, the state party chair announced Friday afternoon. That's just two days before the deadline for making the change and securing a new nominees' place on the general election ballot. It's a tall order for one of the smallest state party organizations in the country, and Democrats haunted by the rushed 2024 insertion of deeply-flawed candidate Kamala Harris into

Key Revelations From 4th Batch Of Pentagon UFO Files Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times, The Pentagon released its fourth new batch of UFO files on July 10, including a transcript from a conference that included scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project. This release of information on UFOs, which the government refers to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), has a total of 40 files, including 19 videos, 14 documents, four audio clips, and three images. The mix of partially unredacted files and historical documents is sourced from multiple agencies, including the CIA, FBI, Pentagon, NASA, and the

Was SK Hynix's US Debut The AI Bubble Top? BNP Says It's Still 1998 With SK Hynix's American depositary receipts now trading under the temporary ticker SKHYV as of late Friday morning, the seven-times-oversubscribed offering highlights Wall Street's rush for more direct exposure to high-bandwidth memory amid the AI infrastructure boom. Against the backdrop of mounting concerns about an AI infrastructure bubble, Roth Capital Partners' sales trading team asked clients earlier Friday: "How will investors, looking back two years from now, view the timing and significance of SK Hynix's US offering?" Taking a look at the GS TMT Memory Exposed

Muhammad Tops Baby Boys' Names In England And Wales For Third Straight Year Official Office for National Statistics (ONS) data released today shows Muhammad - including variant spellings - has once again claimed the top spot as the most popular name for newborn boys in England and Wales. This marks the third consecutive year Muhammad has led the boys' chart, continuing a trend that has drawn significant public attention and debate about demographic changes. The ONS figures for 2025 births confirm Muhammad's dominant position. In previous years, when spellings are combined, it has frequently outranked traditional English names like Oliver

Small Business Chapter 11 Filings Increase 50% Year Over Year Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, Small business Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings jumped 50 percent in the first half of 2026 from the same period last year, signaling pressure on business owners. Chapter 11 is a type of bankruptcy filing that reorganizes a company’s debt to keep it afloat and allow the entity to become solvent. Subchapter V of Chapter 11 relates to small business filings. In the first half of this year, a total of 1,663 Subchapter V bankruptcy filings were made, up from 1,107 filings in

Cuba Plunges Into Second Island-Wide Blackout As Communist System Unravels Cuba suffered its second nationwide blackout in a matter of days late Friday, another sign that the communist-controlled island is sliding deeper into economic collapse amid tightening US sanctions and renewed pressure from the Trump administration. Havana blames US "gunboat diplomacy" and the financial sanctions for its economic demise, but the roots of the crisis are decades of communist rule, chronic underinvestment, widespread economic mismanagement and a crumbling power grid. Yet America's Democratic Party is increasingly embracing socialism and communist ideology, a deeply misguided political messaging campaign at a time

Leftists Celebrate Murder Of Conservative British Politician Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , The savage killing of 78-year-old Reform UK spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe has unleashed a torrent of vile celebration from left-wing activists, revealing the depths of ideological hatred among the left in the UK. Widdecombe, the outspoken former Conservative MP and prisons minister, was found dead with serious injuries at her Dartmoor home, prompting an immediate murder investigation by Devon and Cornwall Police. Police keenly informed the public that a 26-year-old white British man has been arrested on suspicion of the crime. The incident is not being

Discontent with Trump-backed government mounts as Chávez heirs struggle to respond to disaster for which they seem ill-prepared Even before two powerful earthquakes reduced the OPPE 25 government housing project to an anarchy of shattered concrete and broken lives, the foundations of Hugo Chávez’s populist “Bolivarian” revolution were shaking in what was once a hotbed of support. Gabriel González remembers his elation when, in 2013, he received the keys to his freshly completed apartment in one of the 12-floor tower blocks El Comandante had ordered to be built in an affluent corner of the resort town of Caraballeda. Continue reading...

Police say two people exchanged gunfire in shooting that mayor called an ‘irresponsible act of violence’ in festival attended by families A shooting near a Toronto street festival killed two men and wounded four other people on Saturday evening, police said, adding that what initially prompted an active-shooter warning was an exchange of gunfire between two people targeting each other. Toronto police deputy chief Frank Barredo said investigators recovered two firearms after the shooting, which was reported at 8.12pm near St. Clair Avenue West and Arlington Avenue, where the Salsa on St Clair festival was underway. Continue reading...

Nearly 17,000 injured and thousands more listed as missing amid calls by president Delcy Rodríguez and UN for financial help The death toll in Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes has passed 4,300, the government said on Saturday. At least 4,333 people were killed and 16,740 injured in the back-to-back quakes on 24 June that flattened entire districts in the coastal state of La Guaira, the Venezuelan parliament chief, Jorge Rodríguez, wrote on Telegram. Thousands more people are listed as missing. Continue reading...

Reporting suggests FBI involved in seizure of Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada García from Mexican territory in 2024 Mexico has launched an investigation into whether the US lied about its involvement in the capture and secretive transfer of a top Sinaloa cartel member in 2024, in what would be a potential violation of the country’s sovereignty. The US has long denied it played any role in the operation to detain the drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, a founder of the Sinaloa cartel, inside Mexico. Recent reporting by the local media outlet Pie de Nota , however, suggested that the

Activist is challenging ruling last year that restored colonial-era homophobic law against same-sex intimacy Some of the UK’s top judges are hearing arguments over whether a Trinidad and Tobago court had the legal right to overturn a 2018 ruling to remove colonial-era homophobic laws that criminalise anal sex between consenting men. The country’s “ buggery law ”, often referred to as its “sodomy” law, was created in 1925 and was written into Trinidad and Tobago’s 1986 Sexual Offences Act . In 2017 a Trinidadian LGBTQ+ rights activist, Jason Jones , challenged the law, and in 2018 a high court ruled

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.

SK hynix, a supplier of advanced memory chips, has seen profits skyrocket thanks to the global race to build AI datacentres South Korean chip maker SK hynix set pricing for its mega US listing on Friday, aiming to raise $26.5bn as it takes advantage of the AI boom in what will be one of the world’s biggest ever stock sales. The Asian semiconductor giant plans to issue the equivalent of about 18m shares on Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq index later in the day. Continue reading...

Plans to build a NZ$3.5bn datacentre in Makarewa in the country’s south has drawn concern about electricity and water use, and potential noise pollution People living near the site of New Zealand’s first planned AI datacentre are calling for more transparency about the project, especially about how the centre’s huge electricity and water use and potential noise pollution could affect them. Singapore-based company Datagrid has secured approval to build a NZ$3.5bn (US$2bn) AI datacentre on a 49-hectare site in Makarewa, just north of New Zealand’s southern-most city, Invercargill. Construction is due to begin this year, with the centre becoming operational

Local media in Hengzhou report king ratsnakes and cobras among hundreds in flood waters caused by typhoon Maysak Hundreds of snakes, including cobras, have escaped from flooded breeding farms in southern China as severe storms continue to batter parts of the country. State media reported that a snake farm in Hengzhou, in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was hit by flood waters after days of heavy rainfall caused by typhoon Maysak , prompting warnings for nearby residents. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed Telstra outage: Telco apologises for major time-keeping issue that hit mobiles, trains and triple-zero calls Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Telstra outage reported to be cause of Victoria train stoppage There is a long list of cancelled trains on the official V/line site, but the TL/DR is that Victoria’s regional train network has ground to a halt. Due to a radio network fault affecting the network, services are currently unable to operate … Passengers are advised to defer travel where possible. Continue reading...

Toowoomba woman Jana Armstrong, mother of a four-month-old baby, was last seen on Tuesday Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Queensland police have charged a former partner of a missing woman with murder, after a body believed to be hers was discovered in bushland by a group of hunters. As of Sunday, the remains were yet to be formally identified but police investigators said they believed they were those of Jana Armstrong, who was reported missing in Toowoomba on Tuesday. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Victorian Animal Justice party MP Georgie Purcell says abolishing the state’s group voting ticket system without any other changes would see the balance of power handed to One Nation. The Age reported yesterday that the Allan government is planning to introduce legislation, when parliament returns from the winter break, to reform the state’s unusual voting system. Crossbench MPs like myself support electoral reform, and we’ve been asking for it to be implemented in a sensible way for years. We want change too. But

Plucky defeats decorated with patches of excellence will not cut it for Australia with a home World Cup now looming large The camera found Joe Schmidt shortly after France had completed a 22-point swing. Australia’s coach had seen a 21-12 half-time lead obliterated in 16 brutal minutes. Schmidt, one of rugby’s sharpest minds, looked short of answers. The trouble was that the questions confronting him had obvious answers but almost impossible solutions. Why had Australia’s discipline deteriorated? Because they were under pressure. Why had their tackle intensity and ruck speed fallen away? Because France had introduced fresh power from the

Anthony Albanese will deliver a landmark speech on AI this week as MPs are torn between attracting datacentre investment and protecting the rights of creatives Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates When Anna Funder stood before a pack of journalists at Parliament House this month, she presented herself not just as a writer but also a “victim of crime”. The Stasiland author was using the analogy to illustrate how technology companies have flagrantly “hoovered up” her literary works for their own profit. Continue reading...

By tying housing costs to immigration, Pauline Hanson promises a simple solution to a multilayered problem Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast In the three decades since Pauline Hanson entered federal politics, Australia has experienced numerous bouts of voter frustration with the mainstream parties. But it is only lately that the negative sentiment towards the majors has propelled One Nation to unprecedented polling numbers and delivered Hanson higher net approval ratings than the prime minister and opposition leader. Continue reading...

Foreign ministers will discuss options on Monday but decision on imports is not expected for months The EU has been accused of dragging its feet over upholding international law, on the eve of a long-awaited debate about banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements. EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday will discuss a possible ban on imports from the settlements, against an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza , where a UN inquiry found Israel to be committing a genocide , and surging state-backed violence in the occupied West Bank , which has killed at least 235 children . Continue

Errol Musk says far-right activist is ‘a fine young man’ and held meetings with Russian business figures Elon Musk’s family foundation took Tommy Robinson to Russia, according to the billionaire X owner’s father, who was with the British far-right activist in Moscow as he encouraged anti-migration protests in Britain. Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – appeared last month in Moscow , from where he issued calls for supporters to take to the streets after a knife attack in Belfast. He shared video of himself in a luxury Moscow hotel with the older Musk, whose son has been

Sculpture of Jewish army officer wrongly accused of treason has been moved around the city for decades For 40 years, the statue of Capt Alfred Dreyfus has been moved around Paris, never finding a permanent home. The French army twice refused to allow it to stand at l’École Militaire, where Dreyfus, a Jewish officer it had wrongly accused of treason in 1894, was stripped of his rank in one of the most notorious acts of antisemitism in France’s history. Continue reading...

Presidential bid by leader of far-right National Rally has no shortage of supporters in scenic Montargis In the small French town of Montargis, Jean-Antoine, a retired decorator, was pleased Marine Le Pen had again shaken up French politics by launching a bid for the presidency , despite her legal woes. “Even the judges said she didn’t personally profit from the money, it was for her party,” he said of Le Pen’s newly upheld conviction for embezzlement . “All politicians in France have always been schemers, it’s just a fact of life.” Continue reading...

The airfare for a baby on your lap could cost more than your own ticket. Here’s how airline charges and travel taxes can hit you Ryanair recently stopped making parents pay to sit next to their children but depending on the airline the hidden extra costs involved in flying with children can be substantial. In some cases, you can even end up spending more for the baby on your lap than you paid for your own flight. Your baby might not need a seat, but you are still likely to pay fees for them to travel. Some airlines offer discounts

Tehran says vessel using unapproved route in strait was struck, drawing strikes from US forces to ‘degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners’ Iran and the US exchanged fresh strikes early on Sunday over what Tehran said was unauthorised use of the strait of Hormuz by a container ship, raising further doubts about the prospects of talks to agree a way forward for the vital waterway. The latest flare-up began when the ⁠Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had struck a vessel travelling on an unapproved route and then closed the strait, warning that any retaliation would be met with

Ro Khanna said settlers were armed with US-made weapons and Israel Defense Forces refused to intervene The US congressman Ro Khanna says armed Israeli settlers detained him during a visit to the Israel -occupied West Bank recently, describing the experience as a first-hand view of the realities faced by Palestinians living under occupation. In an interview with Reuters on Thursday from a Palestinian village, the progressive US House Democrat from California said his detention happened the previous day while his delegation visited an area of the southern West Bank that has experienced repeated attacks by Israeli settlers. Continue reading...

Plans specify tolls must not be compulsory as US officials urge Iran to make public guarantee of safe passage for shipping Europe is studying proposals that could allow navigation fees to be charged in the strait of Hormuz, provided the payments are not compulsory and have the support of the UN agency that regulates maritime transport. Britain’s deputy prime minister, David Lammy, said imposing mandatory tolls would be disastrous. But some cabinet colleagues said they recognised that payments for specific navigational services were permissible in many natural waterways, including the strait of Malacca and the English Channel. Continue reading...

Renewed attacks the largest since an interim memorandum was signed this June, with Trump saying fragile truce is ‘over’ The US and Iran traded retaliatory strikes on Thursday as US president Donald Trump threatened to escalate the conflict unless Iran stopped attacking ships in the strait of Hormuz. Iran responded to the latest round of attacks by targeting US-allied Kuwait and Qatar and accused the US of striking near its sole nuclear power plant. Continue reading...

Local truckers’ association says it may suspend operations, after several eyewitnesses decried Ahmad Esleem’s murder A Palestinian driver bringing food aid from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) into Gaza has been killed by an Israeli soldier “in a field execution”, according to witnesses and the local truckers’ association, which said it may suspend operations in protest. Ahmad Esleem was shot in the head on Wednesday when an aid convoy stopped because of a breakdown to one truck soon after entering Gaza, according to three accounts. Israeli soldiers ordered the drivers to dismount and one of them shot Esleem in the

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...

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...

Amnesty International says Albanese has opportunity to ‘reaffirm mutual commitment’ to rule of law as thousands in diaspora expected at stadium event Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to Australia in three years has sparked calls for the federal government to raise human rights concerns, as excitement builds within the nation’s Indian diaspora. Modi’s visit begins on Wednesday evening and marks his third since becoming prime minister. It will see him return to Melbourne after more than

Thousands of women are killed in dowry disputes each year, despite the practice being banned in 1961 Dowry deaths in India no longer provoke the public anger they once did, despite thousands of women’s lives still being lost every year, according to new research. The killings – women who are murdered or driven to suicide following dowry disputes between families – have also faded from political debate, despite an increase in cases. Continue reading...

Chancellor says PM-in-waiting needs ‘worked through plan’, in what could be one of her final interviews in No 11 Rachel Reeves has urged Andy Burnham to arrive in Downing Street with a “worked through plan”, saying the incoming prime minister will be tested quickly by a range of incoming “shocks and challenges”. In what could be one of the first female chancellor’s final major interviews while in No 11, Reeves said Burnham should remain focused on the priorities that first brought him into politics. Continue reading...

Jamie Mantzouridis used steroids, growth hormones and insulin until the side effects became impossible to ignore Fitness influencers linked to wellness brand helping run illegal steroid market on Telegram Jamie Mantzouridis vividly remembers the first time he took steroids. He got someone else to inject him and his mind was racing. “What if he hit an artery? What if there was an air bubble?” Mantzouridis, however, says he was young and fearless. He was small growing up, skinny and self-conscious. By the time he started training seriously in his early 20s, he noticed other guys at the gym who were

Prof Channa Jayasena says growing online sales of unregulated drugs risk fatalities as responsibility falls between regulators Fitness influencers linked to wellness brand helping run illegal steroid market on Telegram The UK has become a “wild west” for people peddling experimental peptides, steroids and other substances, a leading expert has said, warning action must be taken to avoid fatalities. Prof Channa Jayasena of Imperial College London, a consultant in reproductive endocrinology and andrology at Hammersmith and St Mary’s hospitals, said he is now encountering patients “day in, day out” who are taking experimental peptides. Continue reading...

Government to launch consultation after Everton’s deal with Stake.com went ahead amid warnings from Gambling Commission Ministers are poised to launch a crackdown on unlicensed casinos sponsoring British sports teams, amid criticism that a delay to the proposals has opened the door for offshore gambling firms to strike lucrative deals with Premier League clubs. Progress with plans to kick unlicensed gambling operators out of football has stalled since February, when the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said a review would begin in spring. Continue reading...

Suspect arrested in South Yorkshire after ex-politician was found dead at her Devon home on Thursday A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Ann Widdecombe, police said. The suspect, who is a white British national, was arrested at an address in the South Yorkshire area on Saturday evening and is in police custody. Continue reading...

Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the UAE reportedly came under attack as Tehran says it is closing Strait of Hormuz Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator in the peace talks and the country’s parliament speaker, said in a post on X this morning: The era of one-sided deals is OVER. We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking. Qatar Continue reading...

Republican senator served in Senate since 2003 and was sharp Trump critic before becoming one of his most loyal backers Lindsey Graham, a longtime US senator and key ally of Donald Trump, has died from a sudden illness, his office said on Sunday. He had just turned 71. Graham’s abrupt death will send shock waves through Washington and the Republican party. He had served in the Senate since 2003, representing South Carolina, and was running for re-election in November. Continue reading...

Sudden shift may be linked to affinity for Erdoğan but what might be consequences of erratic behavior towards alliance? Donald Trump’s relationship with Washington’s Nato allies is nobody’s idea of a happy marriage. But the US president’s volatile performance at the western military alliance’s annual summit in Ankara this week seemed extreme, even by Trumpian standards. As commentators sought toexplain what happened, their usually capacious stock of Trump-fitting cliches was at risk of exhaustion. Continue reading...

Body of Nolan Wells, 18, found after he traveled to Horn Island over Fourth of July weekend with three white friends A mother on Friday pleaded for anyone to come forward with information about what happened to ⁠her son, Nolan Wells , a young Black man whose body was found on an island off the coast of Mississippi after he traveled there over the Fourth of July weekend with three white friends. “We just want ⁠to know what happened and ⁠why our baby ​didn’t come home,” Christine Wonsley, choking back tears, said at a news conference about her son. Continue

Biden sued Patrick Byrne for defamation over claim that he sought bribe to lobby his father to free $8bn in Iran assets A federal judge on Friday awarded Hunter Biden $1.7m in punitive damages in a defamation lawsuit he filed against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne. Biden sued Byrne – a Donald Trump ally who denied the results of the 2020 election and funded efforts to overturn them – in 2023, accusing Byrne of lying in an interview that Biden had previously sought a bribe from Iran’s government in the fall of 2021. Continue reading...

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. In this wide-ranging series, we examine the pressure points and possibilities in those ties, from hard tech to soft power. Here, Khushboo Razdan looks at how books shape public perceptions and inspire lifelong connections between the US and China even as their geopolitical rivalry intensifies. Alexander Boyd was 14 when a book about China altered the course...

Taylor Swift shelled out six figures to cover the cost of NYPD officers and other city resources required to protect her massive Madison Square Garden wedding to Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce earlier this month, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani revealed. The Grammy winner “has paid already the cost of the permit that was lodged, which was over US$160,000 for that event and for the response to that event”, Mamdani said during a Friday press conference, after a reporter asked him whether...

Shortly before US President Donald Trump ended a ceasefire with Iran this week, Israeli officials presented his team with intelligence indicating Tehran was hatching new plots to kill him. It was not the first such warning. US law enforcement and intelligence agencies have tracked evidence for years of Iranian efforts to target the president, with signals only increasing since the start of the war. Their desire to target Trump and his top aides began six years ago, just outside Baghdad...

A runner was gored in the face and many more were fortunate to not be seriously injured during a chaotic bull run at Spain’s San Fermin festival on Saturday. The six bulls and accompanying steers charged through crowds of thrill-seekers who packed the narrow street course in Pamplona. The huge animals knocked down bodies to the cobblestones, and stumbling runners caused several pile-ups during the two-and-a-half-minute run from the pen to the bull ring where bullfighters will kill the bulls...

US Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna said ⁠he was detained by Israeli settlers armed with US-made rifles during a West Bank visit this week that he cast as an unfiltered look at the human toll of Israeli occupation as he weighs a 2028 presidential run. Speaking with reporters on Thursday in a Palestinian village, Khanna said his group’s van was surrounded by settlers wielding M4 rifles a day earlier while touring a part of the southern West Bank where residents face frequent settler attacks. “We...

The Trump administration has subpoenaed several New York Times journalists after their report on security concerns involving the new Air Force One, according to the paper. The new jet, which President Donald Trump received as a gift from Qatar, entered service last week. The subpoenas issued on Friday seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday. Federal agents delivered some subpoenas to the reporters at their homes. There was no immediate...

Russia attacked Ukraine with missiles and drones on Saturday, killing two and wounding 19 others, officials said, as Kyiv awaits supplies of air defence munitions after a shortage has ‌left it exposed to Russian attacks. Eleven people were wounded in the capital, Kyiv, by an attack that used ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones. “Civilian infrastructure was hit even before the air raid alert was issued,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said, adding that rescuers were working on the site....

Turkey’s health ministry has fined more than 100 obstetrician-gynaecologists for carrying out cesarean sections, suspending them from duty and forcing them to undergo training. The country has the highest rate of C-section births among the OECD’s 38 nations, according to the last available data from 2023, with around 615 such procedures out of every 1,000 live births that year. Medical professionals said C-sections were more time-efficient for medical staff – 30 minutes, versus 12 hours for a...

The brave new world of artificial intelligence (AI) is going to be a mixed and divisive blessing for governments – not least those of key Asian countries – as well as for financial markets. The AI revolution points to higher economic growth for economies linked to the tech supply chain, with others being left behind. It also signals the potential for financial crises. Balancing these risks will be tricky. The relative optimism, displayed in a recent report from the International Monetary Fund...

US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Saturday after the funeral of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saw open calls for his killing, further underlining the tensions gripping the Middle East, as an interim deal to end the war buckles under repeated crossfire in the region. Trump made the comments on social media after senior US officials demanded that Iran make a public statement saying the Strait of Hormuz is open and that ships crossing the vital corridor would not be attacked any...

Russia’s decision to ban diesel exports this week has roiled global energy markets, exacerbating shortages of the industrial fuel and sending prices soaring, even in countries that no longer buy the fuel from Moscow. Diesel accounts for the largest share of global oil consumption and soaring prices can ripple through the global economy given its wide range ‌of uses, from industrial machinery and farm equipment to heavy transport and electricity generation. Supply has remained tight for years due...

Apple on Friday sued OpenAI, accusing the artificial intelligence company of orchestrating a campaign to steal the iPhone maker’s trade secrets as it tries to develop its own consumer hardware device. The lawsuit – filed in a federal court in San Jose, California – paints a picture of an aggressive effort by OpenAI to poach Apple employees and extract confidential information to build its own device. The lawsuit marks a dramatic escalation in tensions between two companies that partnered in 2024...

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. In this wide-ranging series, we examine the pressure points and possibilities in those ties, from hard tech to soft power. Here, Xinyi Wu examines how changes to Washington’s trade policy have reverberated through the formerly secure international economic order. When US President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs against virtually all Washington’s...

We are all used to Western assessments of Deng Xiaoping. You may even be convinced by them, as I was for a long time. Ezra Vogel, for example, wrote in Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China: “It was [Deng] who would finally realise the mission that others had tried for almost two centuries to achieve, of finding a path that would make China rich and powerful.” And, according to Orville Schell and John Delury in Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-first Century, “Once in...

US President Donald Trump faces questions about the security of his new Air Force One plane gifted by Qatar, after he took an older jet home from a Nato summit this week. The billionaire president has barely been able to contain his excitement over the retrofitted Boeing 747-8 aircraft, which took him to Ankara on its maiden trip outside the United States. But then Trump abruptly announced in Turkey that he was sending the luxury plane on ahead to a British airbase – saying it was so US troops...

British police arrested a man on Friday on suspicion of murdering Ann Widdecombe, after the 78-year-old former government minister and Reform UK politician was found dead having “sustained serious injuries”. Police said a 26-year-old, white ‌British man had been arrested in Newton Abbot, a town about 15km (nine miles) from Widdecombe’s home in rural southwest England. Devon and Cornwall police assistant chief constable Matt Longman said there was no information to suggest the murder was related...

King Charles hosted Prince Harry and met his family for the first time in years on Friday, as they try to repair a rift that has persisted since his youngest son and wife quit royal life and moved to America six years ago. Harry, Meghan and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, met the king and Queen Camilla at Highgrove House, a country estate west of London. The Duke of Sussex had arrived on Monday in his homeland for a number of charity events that were overshadowed by...

A woman who authorities say married more than a dozen men in Las Vegas to fund her gambling has agreed to plead guilty to two felonies. Jiaying Chen, 33, waived her right to a preliminary hearing during an appearance before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Rebecca Saxe on Tuesday. Chen’s lawyer, Thomas Wells, said she plans to plead guilty later this week to one count each of bigamy and obtaining money under false pretences more than US$100,000. “It will permit the victims of these crimes to...

The absence of Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei from the funeral ceremonies of Ali Khamenei raised questions about his health and fear of assassination, as well as indicating he may perform a quite different function as No 1 compared with his all-powerful father. The marathon funeral ceremonies for Ali Khamenei, killed on February 28 in an air strike on the first day of the US-Israeli war with Iran, culminated on Thursday in the holy city of Mashhad, with a who’s who of key figures in the...

US President ⁠Donald Trump said ⁠on Friday he would ⁠not sign a bipartisan housing affordability bill that he had called “a big yawn”, but the measure can become law without his signature. Trump said in a social ‌media post that he was withholding his signature “in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT”. The housing bill was a rare instance of bipartisan agreement on major ⁠legislation in the deeply divided Congress. Among its main...

The Strait of Hormuz faces a renewed plunge in maritime traffic after the United States ended its ceasefire with Iran, casting a shadow over a tentative commercial recovery, as analysts warn unaddressed differences in the framework agreement risk fuelling further escalation. Traffic volumes dropped again on Thursday, with only 14 vessels transiting the strait, down from 35 a day earlier, according to Veson Nautical, a maritime software and data provider. Real-time data from the vessel-tracking...

A man was nearly sucked out of the window of a Ryanair flight when it “detached” mid-air en route to Germany, with other passengers pulling him back inside, witnesses and officials said. The passenger, described as a tourist from Serbia on a flight from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen in Germany, has been hospitalised with friction burns but was otherwise in good condition, authorities said. “Most of us had fallen asleep, we had closed our eyes. There was a noise, like a tyre bursting,” a...

Police in Greece on Friday said they had arrested three people in connection to attacks this month that targeted ruling party politicians, killing a woman in a car explosion. Hours later, two more people were held over a 2010 deadly firebomb attack that left three dead. In the recent case, “three individuals have been arrested” by anti-terror police in Thessaloniki and the island of Crete, the police said in a statement. The July 1 attacks at dawn in the northern city of Thessaloniki targeted...

Eleven people were killed and 19 are missing after a wildfire tore through a Spanish village, with four victims who may have been British who were burned in their car, authorities said on Friday. Authorities said many of the victims may be foreign tourists visiting Bedar, a small village in Los Gallardos district, but that they were still confirming their identities. They described victims trying to flee the fast-moving blaze through difficult, forested terrain. About 400 firefighters and troops...

The United States is set to resume military sales to Turkey, Nato’s second-largest military power, after President Donald Trump said sanctions imposed against Ankara over its procurement of Russian air defence systems seven years ago would soon be lifted. “We don’t want to sanction friends,” Trump told journalists at the Nato summit in the Turkish capital on Wednesday, while emphasising his “good chemistry” with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Trump further said he would soon take a final...

As US President Donald Trump flew home from a fractious Nato summit in Turkey, he was poised to resume the war with Iran, whose leaders he labelled “sick” and “scum”. Trump also complained about European leaders’ failure to spend enough on arms, support him in Iran and recognise the need for the US to take control of Greenland. The sense of rising global conflict has been palpable this week. What clearly showed at the summit of the transatlantic security alliance was confirmed by the latest...

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. China’s Xi Jinping sets new precedent with July 4 message for Trump and US In a departure from convention, Chinese leader Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to the United States on Independence Day. Beijing does not usually...

Disease outbreaks, poor sanitation, lack of access to clean water, and disruptions to basic medical care could pose the greatest health risks to the tens of thousands of survivors of Venezuela’s deadly earthquakes, the Americas branch of the World Health Organization said on Thursday. Venezuela has opened more than 80 shelters for those whose homes were destroyed in twin quakes ‌on June 24, with the number of displaced reaching 17,907 by Thursday. Poor shelter conditions could leave many...

Iran on Friday laid to rest its former supreme leader Ali Khamenei over four months after his killing in an air strike, as two days of US and Iranian attacks raised fears of a return to all-out war. Khamenei’s flag-covered coffin was carried aloft into the shrine of Imam Reza in his home city of Mashhad in eastern Iran as a sea of people waited outside and listened to prayers, with no sign of a public appearance by his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei. The “body of the martyred leader of the...

The former roommate of Tyler Robinson, who is accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk, told prosecutors that Robinson expressed regret a day after the killing and planned to hand himself over to police, according to a video interview played in court on Thursday. The recorded interview with Robinson’s former roommate and romantic partner, Lance Twiggs, was presented as prosecutors tried to convince a Utah judge they have sufficient evidence against Robinson to warrant a trial...

US President Donald Trump’s negative portrayal of China’s achievements in renewable energy began at a White House meeting with oil executives on January 9 and was amplified at the World Economic Forum later that month. The story he told was shaped more by domestic politics than fact – a narrative that has lingered through subsequent debates over China’s alleged clean-energy “overcapacity”. While such rhetoric might rally support in the American Midwest, it does not withstand scrutiny. Trump’s...

The US Department of Agriculture dramatically lowered its reported beef export sales for late June on Thursday, sparking fresh concerns about the quality of the agency’s data after staffing losses as part of the Trump administration’s reshaping of the federal government. USDA said exporters in late June sold a net 12,064 tonnes of US beef to foreign buyers, 90 per cent lower than the volume it originally reported ‌a week ago. Traders had largely dismissed USDA’s initial report as inaccurate....

The Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo is the “fastest growing” ever, African health authorities said on Thursday, as the World Health Organization said the disease had killed 600 people. Updated numbers issued by the UN health agency showed there have been 1,759 confirmed cases in DR Congo since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, including 600 confirmed deaths. “This is the fastest growing Ebola outbreak ever, not only among the previous Bundibugyo outbreaks, but all the...

What does a world leader do with a gun and six bullets? That was the conundrum Nato leaders faced after the Turkish president offered them each a revolver after the Ankara summit. Several leaders said they had only discovered the contents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s gift package much later, or had not even seen it before it was seized by their security services. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney joked that his gift of maple syrup “kind of undermatched” Erdogan’s offering. British Prime...

A Florida airport was renamed after Donald Trump on Thursday, accelerating a push by the US president and supporters to plaster his name and image on everything from national landmarks to banknotes. “This will soon be one of the Greatest and Most Spectacular Airports anywhere in the World!” Trump said in a Truth Social post late Thursday reacting to the change. The Republican leader’s son Eric celebrated by landing in the private family Boeing 757 – so-called “Trump Force One” – at what had been...

A court in Hungary on Thursday sentenced an Irish citizen to 14 years in prison for strangling an American tourist to death in the country’s capital in 2024. The victim, 31-year-old Mackenzie Michalski from Portland, Oregon, was in Hungary on holiday and reported missing on November 5, 2024, after she was last seen at a nightclub in central Budapest. Police launched a missing person investigation and reviewed security footage from local nightclubs where they observed Michalski, who went by...

The proliferation of artificial intelligence models and the increasing parity in their performance suggest they are becoming a commodity. Soon, AI services will be priced by cost rather than the uniqueness of their model. With electricity the main cost of the services, the AI war between China and the United States is turning into a straightforward contest over electricity output and price. Open-source AI models are sprouting up like bamboo shoots in China. The American AI community has argued...

A German court on Thursday handed down a 10-year prison sentence to a 26-year-old man who fatally assaulted a train conductor during a ticket inspection in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate five months ago. The court sitting in Zweibrücken found that the man had attacked the conductor after being found without a ticket, hitting the conductor so hard that he later died of a brain haemorrhage. The assailant was found guilty of causing bodily harm resulting in death. The sentence is open to...

A four-year-old girl has died after being bitten by her family’s pet dog while playing, police and prosecutors in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt reported on Thursday. The dog was described as an American Stafford, a breed commonly known as the Pit Bull Terrier or American Staffordshire terrier. The report said people at the scene had attempted to pull the dog off the girl, but failed to prevent her suffering serious injury. A doctor called to the scene could only record her death. The...

Bonnie Tyler, the gravelly voiced, Grammy-nominated Welsh pop star best known for singing the chart-topping power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in 1983 and seeing new generations succumb to its bombastic charms during solar and lunar eclipses, has died. She was 75. Tyler died “unexpectedly” in a hospital in Portugal where she was being treated for an illness, her family said on Thursday in a statement on her website. She was hospitalised in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency...

China called on the United States and Iran to stick with peace plans after a resumption of missile strikes in the Middle East spurred a jump in oil prices. “Reigniting the conflict does not serve any party’s interests,” a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday. “We call on the US and Iran to follow through on their memorandum of understanding, resolve disputes through dialogue and negotiation, and avoid resorting to force.” Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose...

Graham Platner, a scandal-plagued Democratic Senate nominee whose insurgent rise had drawn comparisons to Donald Trump, ended his campaign on Wednesday after a rape allegation threatened to derail one of his party’s best chances of flipping a Republican-held seat. Platner, a Marine veteran, oysterman and political newcomer, won last month’s Democratic primary in the northeastern state of Maine to face Republican Senator Susan Collins in November’s midterm elections. His withdrawal gives Maine...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would ask the Supreme Court to rehear a case challenging his executive order curtailing birthright citizenship, a long-shot ‌bid to reverse the court’s rejection of one of his signature policies. The court last month rejected Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship in the US, ruling that his directive violated language in the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment that confers ⁠citizenship to those born in the United States who are...

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte defended US President Donald Trump’s criticism of the transatlantic security alliance, while saying this year’s summit showed “a huge sense of unity” and produced procurement plans worth tens of billions of dollars. During a press conference after the North Atlantic Council meeting of leaders at the Nato summit hosted by Turkey in Ankara on Wednesday, Rutte said this year’s gathering had resulted in more than US$50 billion in procurement deals as part of efforts...

The United States launched new air strikes against Iran early Thursday, and Tehran responded by targeting Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar in crossfire that again threatened an interim deal intended to help end the war in the Persian Gulf. Back-and-forth attacks, including a day earlier, have repeatedly threatened the ceasefire, but Thursday’s appeared bigger all around, with sirens sounding at least three times in Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters, and missiles targeting Kuwait and...

With its mass-produced and inexpensive A.I. powered war machines, the German start-up Helsing SE illustrates a profound shift in military spending.

The legendary rock star, now 82, on how fame, touring and aging have changed him.

When other countries cut ties, Americans pay.

Until Serena Williams announced her return to tennis at 44, I never realized how much I needed her.

The shooting disrupted a weekend Latino celebration where hundreds had gathered on Saturday evening.