Minimalist News

New CFTC Prediction Market Proposal Would Ban War And Terrorism Bets While Allowing Sports Markets The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has unveiled a proposed framework for prediction markets that would prohibit contracts tied to violent or harmful events, including terrorism, war, and political assassinations, while largely preserving sports-based markets, according to Bloomberg . Under the proposal, "gaming" would be interpreted more narrowly, focusing on activities driven primarily by chance. As a result, most existing sports event contracts would remain permissible. According to CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, the agency's goal is to "protect the integrity of our regulated markets without

Even 'Trust The Election' Pundits Are Suspicious Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker , California’s rigged elections are difficult to defend... California Democrats have rigged another election, and outsider Spencer Pratt has been bumped from the Los Angeles mayoral race . On Election Day, Pratt’s lead over third-place Nithya Raman was so large that she publicly cried over her loss. After a week of mail-in-ballot shenanigans, Raman has surged to secure a coveted spot on the November ballot — a statistical improbability in any jurisdiction familiar with arithmetic and basic ethics. This “come from behind victory” has made it

SpaceX Prices Biggest Ever IPO At $135 Per Share While there was little doubt as to SpaceX's actual IPO price, which due to its novel structure was always going to be $135, and unlike the proposed IPO price ranges as is customary for other initial offerings, moments ago SpaceX (SPCX) made it official when it filed a free writing prospectus (FWP) which confirmed the company sold 555.6 million shares at $135 each, for a total size of $75 billion (excluding the greenshoe), making history with the biggest-ever IPO, launching it into the top ranks of the largest public companies and

Trump: Iran Deal Should Be Done 'Pretty Quickly' But 'Subject To Settling' Over Next Few Days Summary Trump Talks Endgame In Iran: Says 'we'll have a signing very soon.' TACO SEASONING: Trump tells NY Post that Iran deal "pretty much all wrapped up," but FARS news agency says no deal has been approved. TACO: Trump Cancels Strikes After All Day Bluster About 'Bigger' Strikes on Iran Tonight (shocking TACO!) Iran Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf says "Wrong strategies and impulsive decisions will reset the entire board for the worse , explode energy infrastructure and markets & create an endless quagmire that you

Defendant In Deadly LA Wildfires Wanted 'Revenge Against Society,' Prosecutor Says Authored by Beige Luciano-Adams via The Epoch Times , LOS ANGELES - More than a year after one of the most destructive fires in U.S. history, attorneys on Wednesday offered opening salvos in a federal jury trial accusing a 29-year-old man of sparking the initial flame that would lead, a week later, to the catastrophic inferno that claimed the lives of 12 people and reduced thousands of homes to ash in the wealthy coastal enclave of the Pacific Palisades. Destruction caused by the Palisades Fire near Los Angeles on

Hidden Starship Trade: The Industrial Gas Giant Fueling SpaceX's Rockets Ahead of the SpaceX IPO , Rothschild & Co Redburn analyst Tony Jones published a note on space propellant economics and identified an industrial-gases giant that is well positioned to dominate the market for rocket propellants and mission-critical launch gases as SpaceX's Starship launch cadence gains momentum and the broader space economy is set to double by 2035. Jones and his team reiterated their "Buy" rating on Linde and raised their 12-month price target to $560 from $550, telling clients on Wednesday that the company has built a deep moat

16 Academics Sign Letter Calling For Public Inquest Into Epstein Accuser's Suicide Authored by Rex Widerstrom via The Epoch Times , The death last year of Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre was ruled a suicide by police, but 16 academics have now penned an open letter to the state coroner calling for a formal public inquest into possible domestic violence links. Undated handout file photo issued by the US Department of Justice (left-right) of the former Duke of York, Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre died on April 25, 2025, aged 41, at her farm in Western Australia, leaving behind

Karmelo Anthony's Family Can No Longer Fundraise Off Austin Metcalf's Death Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA , The family of Karmelo Anthony can no longer raise money from supporters through GiveSendGo following the conclusion of his criminal case. The Anthonys were able to raise more than $600,000 in the wake of the then-17-year-old’s prosecution in connection with the fatal stabbing of track star Austin Metcalf during an altercation on April 2, 2025. The controversial fundraiser was hosted by GiveSendGo, which attracted thousands of donors who bizarrely viewed Anthony’s prosecution as the product of racial injustice . Evidence shown

New Delhi Furious After Tanker Strike Off Oman Leaves Three Indians Dead, Summons US Envoy In a development that's unprecedented or at least extremely rare, India on Wednesday summoned a US diplomat in the capital of New Delhi over what it blasted as an illegal "attack" on a vessel off Oman this week. Jason Meeks, charge d'affaires of the US Embassy in New Delhi, was formally summoned by the Indian government to protest the US military attack on the Palau-flagged Settebello. There had been 24 Indian crewmen on board - but 21 were rescued . Later, the three missing crewmembers

Ugly, Tailing 30Y Auction Sees Foreign Demand Tumble, Dealer "Backtop" Bid Jump After yesterday's stellar 10Y auction, which saw the 5th highest Indirect take down on record, today's reopening of $22BN in 30Y paper (via Cusip UU0) was a mirror image: ugly, poor foreign demand, and tailing. Starting at the top, the auction priced at a high yield of 5.02%, down fractionally from 5.046% last month (which was the first 5% coupon auction in history). And just like last month, today's auction also tailed the When Issued 5.008% by 1.2bps; this was the third tailing 30y auction and was also

Backroom Detente: A Curious Lack Of Iranian Strikes On UAE, While Others Get Hit President Trump is vowing another consecutive night of even heavier US military strikes on Iran. Yesterday's salvo involved at least 49 Tomahawk missile strikes, mainly happening against southern coastal areas off the Strait of Hormuz. Amid Iran's counter-attacks on Gulf nations and reportedly on American bases hosted in these Arab Gulf allied states, there's been a curious lack of any new launches against the United Arab Emirates . Kuwait and Bahrain have been hit especially hard in this week's new flare-up in cross-Gulf fighting, but again,

Pardoned J6er Sues Government For $18 Million Over Alleged Abuse In Pretrial Detention Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times, A former Jan. 6 defendant who alleged torture and other abuse in custody is suing the federal government for almost $18 million. The lawsuit by Ryan Samsel of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was filed late June 9 in federal court in Virginia, six months after he gave the government the legally required notice he was planning to litigate. He is seeking $17,980,000 from the federal government for physical and mental injuries suffered from January 2021 through January 2025. According to the

FIFA World Cup Gets Underway Across North America The largest , most inclusive, and most widespread World Cup tournament in FIFA’s history kicks off with two games in Mexico today . For the next several weeks, nearly 50 nations will compete in more than 100 games in stadiums spread out across Mexico, the United States, and Canada—the first time FIFA has allowed three countries to co-host the event. Here is a breakdown ( via The Epoch Times ) of what to know... Tournament Format The World Cup begins with a “Group Stage,” which runs from June 11 to June 27,

Emails Show Senior DOJ Officials Questioned Biden-Era Memo To Probe School Board Threats Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times, Internal emails from the Biden-era Department of Justice (DOJ) show that senior officials objected to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland’s plan to use the FBI to investigate parents opposed to school policies. Critics at the time said the policy change, which was contained in a memo signed by Garland, was calculated to intimidate parents protesting policies such as mask mandates and curriculum . Many of those who protested the memo were themselves heavily criticized by memo supporters. The DOJ’s internal

Cato Vs Heritage: Should The US Defend Taiwan? LIVE: https://t.co/SyvVxuu7Gt — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 11, 2026 ************************ While President Trump has softened his rhetoric on China since his recent visit to Beijing, he has continued to keep the answer to one question close to his chest: would the United States go to war to defend Taiwan if China attempts to seize the island by force? Though perhaps a better question is Should we? Tonight, the Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation join ZeroHedge Debates to tackle that question. Taking the case against military intervention is Cato’s Doug Bandow , who argues

Pentagon Lockdown: Multiple Floors Evacuated Over Hazardous Materials Air Quality Incident Several floors and corridors of the Pentagon were locked down and partially evacuated Thursday morning following the detection of a hazardous materials incident and air quality concerns, according to officials and multiple reports. What we know... Floors 2 through 5 in corridors 4 through 7 are currently locked down. Personnel observed wearing gas masks and full chemical protective gear. Pentagon Force Protection Agency’s HazMat team, along with Arlington County Fire Department, are on scene. Shelter-in-place order issued for affected areas; additional testing underway (estimated 1–2 hours). No injuries reported

House Rejects Short-Term Spy Law Extension As GOP Races To Preserve FISA Surveillance Tool Before Friday Deadline Update (1100ET): A key spy law could expire after the House blocked its short-term reauthorization. The June 11 vote set back an effort to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). President Trump’s selection of Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence drove Democratic opposition to reauthorizing Section 702. Some Republicans have voiced concerns about how the authority, though targeted at foreigners abroad, enables the incidental warrantless surveillance of Americans. The White House could attempt to bridge the gap

USPS Proposes Halting Mail Ballot Delivery To States That Refuse Voter Roll Verification Via American Greatness, The US Postal Service (USPS) has proposed a new rule requiring states to share voter information related to mail-in and absentee voting. The proposal follows a March executive order from Trump aimed at tightening regulations governing mail-in voting in federal elections. Trump has made election integrity a central focus of his second administration, issuing executive orders designed to require proof of citizenship for voters and combat mail-in voting fraud. The administration has argued that stronger verification measures are necessary to restore confidence in elections

After SpaceX IPO, Jefferies Lays Out Five Takeaways For Space Boom Into 2030s Friday’s SpaceX IPO will be a defining moment not only for capital markets but also for the booming space industry and Elon Musk’s broader industrial empire, which has catapulted America to the lead in the space race against Communist China and Russia. Ahead of the four-times-oversubscribed SpaceX IPO, we explained to readers how to profit from the incoming data center boom in low-Earth orbit and broke down the mechanics of the IPO in an easy-to-understand format . Next, we want to give readers the opportunity to understand

ActBlue CEO Pleads The Fifth During House Panel Hearing Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times , ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones invoked the Fifth Amendment on Wednesday before the House Administration Committee , surrounding reports that she may have misled Congress about how the platform vets foreign donations. The U.S. Capitol building on June 9, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times Wallace-Jones had originally agreed to testify voluntarily before Congress concerning ActBlue's vetting process for foreign contributions to domestic candidates. But her attorneys requested a congressional subpoena on Monday, ahead of her June 10 testimony, according to committee lawmakers.

Suit filed in US alleges chatbot told Alice Carrier, 24, ‘maybe this is just the end’ as she struggled with suicidal thoughts A Canadian mother sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, in US court on Thursday, alleging that ChatGPT encouraged her daughter to kill herself. The lawsuit is the latest in a slew accusing the company of failing to address dangerous conversations between users and the company’s chatbot. Kristie Carrier said in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco state court that her daughter, Alice, told ChatGPT about her suicidal ideations more than a dozen times leading up to her

Suspect, 19, still at large after officer dies in hospital having been shot while searching an apartment A Toronto police officer has been shot dead as police raided an apartment allegedly linked to the March attack on the US consulate, the city’s police chief, Myron Demkiw, said. Demkiw said 43-year-old constable Marc Pinizzotto was shot while conducting an early-morning search warrant in the north-west of the city and later died at a hospital. Continue reading...

With some matches being held in nearby Miami, a Cuban response to US military action could mar the tournament As Cuba crumbles under a nearly five-month-long US oil blockade, many on the island hope that the World Cup might save the island from US attack – or at least offer a respite until the competition ends on 19 July. “The beginning of the World Cup will make it more difficult for the United States to carry out a military action in Cuba,” said Carlos Alzugaray, Cuba’s former ambassador to the EU. “Cuba is very close to the US, and can

Amanda Maria Souza de Oliveira faces fraud charges after allegedly persuading family to take her into their home A 38-year-old woman has been arrested in Brazil accused of pretending to be a 12-year-old girl to deceive a couple who took her into their home for more than a year. Amanda Maria Souza de Oliveira was charged in the southern state of Santa Catarina with fraud and false identity offences. Continue reading...

US defense secretary continues ramp-up of pressure against country including sanctions and devastating oil blockade Pete Hegseth has warned Cuba against acquiring weapons that could threaten the United States, during a visit to the US military base at Guantánamo Bay. Washington has ramped up pressure against Cuba with sanctions and a devastating oil blockade, and Donald Trump has repeatedly signaled that the Cuban government could be the next after Venezuela to fall to US pressure. Continue reading...

Twenty people were killed and 120 injured in the attack at the Erawan Shrine, a popular tourist destination A Thai court has handed out death sentences to two Uyghur men from the north-western Chinese region of Xinjiang for a 2015 bombing in the centre of Bangkok that killed 20 people. The explosion occurred at the Erawan Shrine in the centre of Bangkok, an area popular with foreign tourists. As well as the 20 people killed, another 120 were injured. Five of the dead were from mainland China and two from Hong Kong. Continue reading...

Critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan population falls after heavy rain and landslides, fuelled by climate crisis, in North Sumatra Extreme rainfall and landslides fuelled by the climate crisis killed 7% of the remaining population of the world’s rarest great ape, a study has found, prompting fears for the species’ survival. The research suggests 58 out of the remaining 800 critically endangered Tapanuli orangutans ( Pongo tapanuliensis ) were killed after more than 1,000mm (39in) of rain fell over four days in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province in November 2025. This equates to 11% of the local population and 7% of the entire

Renewed outrage at White House’s use manga and anime imagery after US president is depicted as ninja Naruto Japanese anime and manga fans are urging Donald Trump to stop using their favourite characters in his social media posts. About 20,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org entitled Protect Japanese Manga, protesting against the official White House X account posting videos featuring unauthorised use of imagery from the popular Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Naruto series. Angry fans have also been posting on social media. Continue reading...

People told not to enter damaged buildings for fear of aftershocks from magnitude-7.8 quake At least 37 people have died and hundreds have been injured after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake shook part of the southern Philippines early on Monday, collapsing buildings and triggering tsunami alerts. The quake hit early in the morning about 20km (12.4 miles) off the coast of Sarangani province, with tremors felt strongly across Mindanao and 420km away in the city of Manado on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Continue reading...

Kim Jong-un welcomes Chinese leader on visit to renew relations strained amid Pyongyang’s closeness with Russia Xi Jinping has arrived in North Korea for a two-day trip, his first in nearly seven years, as China’s leader looks to revitalise ties with his junior ally. Footage published by China’s Xinhua state news agency showed an Air China plane carrying Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, touching down at Pyongyang’s Sunan international airport. Continue reading...

Australia’s defence minister had been due to visit a naval base in Portsmouth with British defence secretary John Healey. Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Teens who use social media two hours daily at higher risk of depressive symptoms, study finds Teenagers who spend hours glued to social media are likely to experience poorer mental health and a decline in wellbeing, a decade-long study shows, with young girls most at risk. Continue reading...

Woman, 58, was last heard from Monday afternoon and her car was found the next day Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A man has been charged over the alleged kidnapping and murder of a woman whose body is yet to be found. Police have been investigating the disappearance of a 58-year-old woman who failed to returned to her home in Sydney’s northwest on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Labor talking points this week concede Australians are frustrated with an economy that ‘isn’t working for them’. The goal will be to convince voters One Nation isn’t either Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast It was mid-January when Anthony Albanese publicly admitted his “worry” about the rise of One Nation. The prime minister’s concern was not the political risk to himself or to Labor but rather the threat Pauline Hanson posed to the stability of Australia’s two-party system. Continue reading...

New South Wales police commissioner Mal Lanyon is among witnesses expected to appear at the six-week trial in July next year Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Twenty-five people who were charged after they protested against the visit of the Israeli president will face a six-week joint trial in July next year. The protesters had their matters heard before Downing centre local court on Thursday after their lawyers made a successful application for the joint hearing, arguing there were common legal issues across the cases. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Wong not ‘interested’ in One Nation’s fundraising Wong says she isn’t concerned about One Nation’s fundraising efforts, but more about their policies. Pauline Hanson ’s party says it has raised more than $1.5m in the last day, although those claims are unverified. I’m less interested in what Pauline Hanson fundraises and am more concerned about One Nation’s policies. Just as I am concerned about the fact that the Liberal party and One Nation seem to be working together and that it appears to

John Healey’s complaint is that Starmer sat on this problem for months before making a derisory offer John Healey’s resignation as defence secretary on Thursday was a long time brewing, though in the end the denouement was swift. It leaves an already weak Keir Starmer without a defence strategy less than a month before a Nato summit and an unresolved row about spending as Donald Trump threatens to restart the bombing of Iran. On Monday, No 10 finally told Healey how much more money it was prepared to give the Ministry of Defence to fund major projects as part of

European Central Bank increases main deposit rate to 2.25%, with two further rises expected by next spring Business live – latest updates The European Central Bank has raised interest rates for the first time since 2023 in response to higher inflation caused by the war in Iran. The ECB raised its main deposit rate from 2% to 2.25% in a move that financial markets expect to be the first of three rises by next spring. Continue reading...

Lawyers ask prosecutors to upgrade charges from manslaughter in light of text messages discussing fire risk Lawyers for victims of the deadly New Year’s Eve fire in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana have formally asked prosecutors to upgrade the charges against the bar’s owners after text messages emerged discussing the danger. Forty-one people were killed and 115 injured in the blaze at Le Constellation bar, which investigators believe started in the basement when sparklers attached to champagne bottles were held too close to sound-insulating foam on the ceiling. Continue reading...

Budget airline describes inquiry as ‘bogus’ as watchdog says it is only large carrier flying from UK to impose charge Business live – latest updates Europe’s biggest low-cost airline, Ryanair, is facing an investigation over the mandatory fee it charges a parent to sit with their child. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the Irish carrier’s terms and conditions require at least one parent to sit with their children, including those with disabilities, and bills them about £8 a flight to do so. Continue reading...

Singer and actor has denied all charges after more than 20 women made allegations against him dating back to 1990s The French singer Patrick Bruel has been charged with rape and sexual assault in one of the biggest #MeToo cases in the French music industry. The 67-year-old, a major figure in French pop culture, was placed under formal investigation over four cases that included alleged rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment. Continue reading...

US president claims signing will probably happen in Europe at the weekend; Iranian foreign ministry says it will not compromise on ‘red lines’ in negotiations Full report: Trump says US and Iran on verge of signing peace agreement Three Indian seafarers were killed in a US attack on an oil tanker earlier this week, India’s shipping minister, ‌Sarbananda Sonowal, said. “It is deeply unfortunate to learn of the tragic incident aboard the Palau-flagged MT Settebello. Sadly, three Indian seafarers initially reported missing are now confirmed dead after bodies have been located and identified,” he wrote in a post on X.

Iranian leadership has not confirmed claim, but US president says planned strikes on Iran cancelled Middle East crisis – live updates Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that the US and Iran are on the verge of signing a peace agreement and announced that he will cancel fresh missile strikes. His comments came in a new bout of public diplomacy by social media, which was not immediately confirmed by the Iranian leadership. Continue reading...

Strikes on Bemani damaged key water reservoir for 20,000 people living in area amid a historic drought in the country Middle East crisis – live updates Military strikes that damaged two water storage facilities in southern Iran may constitute a war crime, military and legal experts say, after reviewing media reports and visual evidence of a 10 June strike on Bemani, a small district about 2 miles from the strait of Hormuz. It’s unclear if the strikes deliberately targeted the district’s water tanks, or if they unintentionally destroyed a key reservoir for about 20,000 people living nearby. But if the

Washington claims vessel was violating its blockade of Iranian ports and failed to comply with instructions Middle East crisis – live updates The Indian government has voiced a “strong protest” after three Indian seafarers were killed in US military strikes against oil tankers travelling through the strait of Hormuz. US Central Command confirmed that its aircraft had fired two Hellfire missiles at the engine room of the MT Settebello as it sailed through the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Responding to an incident in which she was verbally abused, the actor said that ‘evil forces are rising everywhere’, as well as expressing support for MobLand co-star Tom Hardy Helen Mirren has commented on being called an “evil Zionist bitch” while being harassed in the street in London, saying she was “attacked by mistake by a man who was maybe a little over passionate or maybe mentally not quite stable”. Footage circulated last month of an incident, believed to have taken place last year, while Mirren was walking with her husband, film-maker Taylor Hackford. They were approached and filmed by

Government urged to reconsider proposal for 1,100 Afghans, currently stranded in Qatar, who worked with US forces Dozens of US lawmakers urged the Trump administration on Thursday to roll back any plans to ship to unsafe third countries Afghan nationals who worked with US forces during the war in their homeland. In a letter seen by Reuters, more than 80 House of Representatives members, including at least three Republicans as well as Democrats, appealed to secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to reconsider plans for 1,100 Afghans who have been stranded in Qatar awaiting relocation. Continue reading...

Thai woman is in custody in connection with investigation after man was reportedly found dead at a hotel in Yangon A US diplomat has been found dead in Myanmar ’s largest city, and members of the diplomatic community in Yangon say a Thai woman has been detained by police in connection with the investigation. US officials in Thailand and the US embassy in Myanmar referred questions on the case to the state department, which confirmed the “death of a US government employee” assigned to the embassy in Yangon, but gave no other details. Continue reading...

A child reported among those killed when Taliban forces fired on crowds in Herat, who were protesting over arrests of women accused of violating hijab dress code A Taliban crackdown on women’s dress code in Afghanistan has escalated into a rare mass street protest in the western province of Herat, with at least two people, including one boy, killed by security forces. Officials made a wave of arrests in recent days targeting women and young girls accused of “improper hijab”. Residents say many families had received no information about the whereabouts or condition of those detained. Continue reading...

Cockroach Janta party began as online joke but is growing into one of the most unexpected challenges to country’s rightwing government The call out to the youth of India was simple: “Get ready to swarm the streets of Delhi with peaceful and loving dissent.” They came in their thousands. The weekend marked the first public protest of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP), a movement that began as an online joke, but which has swiftly grown into one of the most unexpected challenges to the indomitable power of the country’s rightwing Narendra Modi government – driven by millions of discontented and

Climbing support team rescue Hillary Dawa Sherpa almost a week on from when he was last seen A Nepali guide who was believed to have died on Mount Everest has been found crawling to base camp a week after going missing – and after his funeral rites had begun. Dawa Sherpa, also known as Hillary Dawa Sherpa after the famous climber Edmund Hillary, was last seen on 29 May but did not reach base camp with other climbing groups. Continue reading...

Suspect detained under Mental Health Act, as police confirm counter-terrorism unit is leading investigation A 14-year-old girl has been charged in connection with three stabbings at a school in north Manchester, police said. The girl was charged with three charges of attempted murder and two charges of possessing a bladed article on school premises over the incident on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Government confirms Jarvis’s move from role as security minister to replace John Healey Ryan Henderson, assistant chief constable for the Police Service of Northern Ireland , is about to hold a press conference about last night’s rioting. Andy Burnham is facing criticism after saying that he thinks the Waspi women should be entitled to “some” compensation. I’ll stick by the Waspi women because they deserve some recompense for the unfairness. One government figure decried Burnham’s intervention as “pathetic”, adding: “He can’t say no to anyone.” An ally of Sir Keir Starmer likened Burnham’s economic agenda to that of hard-left former

Long-awaited course to examine human effects on natural world and explore everyday ways to aid biodiversity School pupils will learn how to plant a wildflower-friendly garden, according to long-awaited plans announced on Thursday for a natural history GCSE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Campaigners have for more than a decade called for the study of biodiversity loss and global heating to be introduced as a dedicated subject in classrooms across the country, but despite a curriculum being previously drawn up, its launch has faced repeated delays . Continue reading...

People in city’s minority ethnic communities speak of alarm as violence casts light on racism in Northern Ireland As widespread violence broke out in Belfast, a list of addresses began circulating on social media. Spread geographically wide, on dozens of streets across the city, the addresses were reportedly houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) where immigrants live. Joseph and Solomon, who are both from Eritrea, and came to Belfast as refugees, now have leave to remain and work full-time. They live on the same street as one of the properties on the list, but Joseph thought it was theirs that was

Former defence secretary accuses PM of putting UK’s security at risk at a time of growing international threats Keir Starmer’s premiership has been pushed to the brink of collapse after the shock resignation of John Healey as defence secretary undermined his security credentials and risked shredding his remaining political authority. In a blistering resignation letter , Healey accused Starmer and his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, of putting the country’s security at risk, saying the long-awaited defence investment plan (Dip) fell well short of what was required. Continue reading...

Senate Democrats welcome president’s nomination of Jay Clayton but say Pulte must not be allowed to serve as acting director for any time US House blocks extension of powerful surveillance law Sign up for the Breaking News US email The US supreme court has published its opinions , but none of the cases we’ve been watching for were part of the decisions today. In comments reported by NBC News, House speaker Mike Johnson has said it is “stunning” to him that “House Democrat leadership has put out a statement saying that they’re willing to allow the number one national security

US president had faced widespread criticism of his decision to install a controversial ally, Bill Pulte Donald Trump has nominated Jay Clayton, former head of the top US markets watchdog, to be the country’s leading intelligence official. The US president faced widespread criticism of his decision to install a controversial ally, Bill Pulte, as acting director of national intelligence while searching for a permanent candidate. Continue reading...

Experts say climate pattern could supercharge extreme weather events and push temperatures to record highs EL Niño has officially arrived, US officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said on Thursday, and scientists predict it could be the strongest of the century. Forecasters had previously anticipated that a phenomenon known as a super “El Niño” would emerge this summer – supercharging extreme weather events and pushing global temperatures to record heights. Continue reading...

Plan comes after major New York Times report alleges files became source of crisis within Trump administration Democrats on the House oversight committee, led by Representative Robert Garcia, plan to call on JD Vance to testify on the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files following a major report on Wednesday from the New York Times, which described how the Epstein files became the source of an internal crisis within Trump’s administration. Garcia will call on the committee chair, James Comer, to summon the vice-president to speak, according to a post from Max Cohen, a reporter with Punchbowl News. The

Live webcam footage from atop the Washington Monument shows a highly visible ‘8’, while the others appears fainter US federal authorities are investigating what appears to be a massive etching of “8647” into the grass of the National Mall. Live webcam footage from atop the Washington Monument as of Thursday afternoon shows the markings, with a highly visible “8,” along with less visible “6”, “4” and “7”. Continue reading...

The condition of the Belfast stabbing victim is “improving” and he could be awoken from a coma within the next 48 hours, pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson said on Thursday. Stephen Ogilvie lost his left eye and suffered deep cuts to his head, face and back in a stabbing attack on Monday night which preceded two nights of disorder in Northern Ireland. Twelve police officers were injured, 16 arrests were made and two people were charged following Wednesday night’s...

Nvidia’s top executive for Latin America denied on Wednesday that the region has served as a corridor for restricted chips into China, weeks after Anthropic, the American maker of the Claude AI models, alleged that Chinese labs had relied partly on smuggled processors to drive recent advances. Speaking at Web Summit Rio at a moment of intensifying rivalry between Washington and Beijing over artificial intelligence, Marcio Aguiar acknowledged that the pressure on export controls is real enough to...

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had cancelled planned military strikes against Iran after negotiations with Tehran reached what he described as the highest levels of the Iranian leadership and received approval from all parties involved. “Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings...

The man charged in the political assassinations of the top Democrat in the Minnesota House and her husband, as well as the non-fatal shootings of a state senator and his wife, pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday after prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty. Vance Boelter was charged with murdering Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, and with shooting state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman. Boelter came to their doors in...

The phenomenon El Nino has arrived, the US weather agency said on Thursday, and scientists expect the pattern synonymous with droughts, floods and soaring temperatures will intensify into the end of the year, potentially to historic strength. El Nino is a natural climate occurrence that warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, bringing worldwide changes in winds and rainfall patterns and erratic weather. Scientists fear it will exacerbate the heat of a...

A leather bag made from Tyrannosaurus rex cells failed to sell on Thursday, the Paris auction house Drouot said, commenting that bids were well below expected. Auctioneers Giquello had touted the “one-of-a-kind” piece to sell for more than US$500,000 but bids barely broke the US$150,000 mark, said the Drouot house where the sale took place. Unveiled in the spring in Amsterdam, the bag was created from traces of collagen from the femur of a T. rex found in the US state of Montana 25 years...

As protests in Tirana extend into a second week, they have escalated from opposition to two €5 billion (US$5.7 billion) planned resorts in ecologically sensitive areas linked to Jared Kushner into demands for the entire Albanian political establishment to step aside. Anger erupted on the coast on May 30 when bulldozers moved into one of the sites, spreading to the capital two days later. Every evening at 6pm since then, thousands of people have been gathering in a central square and marching...

Blockbuster initial public offerings from tech champions such as Anthropic and SpaceX are about to fundamentally reshape global capital markets. This wave will redirect capital flows and alter valuations across the tech sector. As competition intensifies, investors worldwide will be forced to completely rethink where future returns will come from. For China, the rise of these companies will intensify an already fierce contest for global capital, putting further strain on foreign investment...

British ⁠Defence ⁠Minister John Healey ⁠quit on Thursday in a dispute over military spending, accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failing to ‌commit the government resources that are needed to defend the country. The unexpected resignation, accompanied with ‌a scathing public letter, compounds the pressure on Starmer when he is facing a likely leadership challenge and exposes the crisis at the heart of government – how it can ramp up defence spending when there is no money to...

The rapid escalation in hostilities between Iran and the US-Israel alliance since Sunday is being driven by Tehran’s growing confidence that it can arise like a mythical phoenix from the ashes of war, strategically stronger than ever in the Middle East. To achieve this objective, Tehran has enacted a tactical shift in its “unity of the theatres” strategy involving its Axis of Resistance allies in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq: Israeli and US attempts to decapitate one head of this hydra-like monster,...

Russia has lifted its ban on the popular gaming platform Roblox after tens of thousands of children and parents sent letters complaining about the measure. The platform, which allows users to build their own games and share them with others, was among Russia’s most popular mobile games, tying third with TikTok in usage time among children in early 2025, according to Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow-based global cybersecurity firm. In a statement published on Wednesday, Russia’s digital ministry said...

Two days of anti-immigration violence in Northern Ireland is nothing short of racist thuggery, Britain’s minister for the province said on Thursday, after police deployed water cannon to tackle rioters for a second night. Hilary Benn said there was less disorder on the streets of Belfast on Wednesday night as opposed to ‌Tuesday, when rioters targeted ethnic minorities and foreign residents by torching homes and vehicles following a knife attack for which a Sudanese man has been charged with...

Zou Jiayi is president and chairwoman of the board of directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multilateral development lender headquartered in Beijing and inaugurated in 2016. Before leading AIIB, Zou was deputy secretary general of the national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body. She previously held senior roles at the Ministry of Finance, including as vice-minister, and as part of her three decades of...

Police blasted water cannons at protesters in Northern Ireland who set small fires and hurled bricks, rocks and bottles at them during a second night of violence Wednesday over a brutal stabbing on a Belfast street. Demonstrators wearing masks tore bricks from the walls outside homes and smashed pavements with sledgehammers to toss at riot police. In one place, the unruly crowd used sections of a dismantled picket fence to take cover on the street. The clashes with police came several hours...

Canada’s culture minister on Wednesday introduced legislation that would ban children under 16 from having social media accounts and require AI chatbot services to limit production of harmful content. The proposed Digital Safety Act makes Canada the latest in a wave of countries cracking down on social media platforms over concerns of harm to children. “We have seen the very serious consequences that online harms can have … The safety of children cannot be an afterthought,” said Culture Minister...

Chinese propagandists have been trying to ⁠use OpenAI’s flagship chatbot ⁠to gin up opposition to Donald Trump’s ⁠tariffs and intervene in American debates over data centres and AI, OpenAI said in a report published on Wednesday. The company said its efforts, dating to late 2025 and early 2026, appeared to have had little or no effect, but it is another indication of ‌how central generative AI is becoming in digital influence campaigns – even those aimed against AI companies themselves. The...

US ⁠President Donald Trump ⁠said on Wednesday that the United States ⁠might not renew its free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico and criticised trade deficits with those countries, although he said he was talking with their leaders about the matter. The three countries need to approve ‌a renewal of their existing agreement by July 1 or signal their intention to exit the pact, a process that would take 10 years and would buy time for alterations. “I’m not looking to renew it,” Trump said at...

During a recent discussion in Shenzhen with British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, I was reminded that the development of artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer only a technological race. It is a test of whether major economies can build the institutions, standards and economic systems needed to integrate intelligent machines into human society. Britain has every reason to enter this new era with confidence. It has contributed to much of the modern world’s foundations. In 1687, Isaac Newton...

Pope Leo on Wednesday blessed a giant new tower at Barcelona’s famed Sagrada Familia Basilica after celebrating mass inside what is now the world’s tallest church. A choir of 600 singers performed at the service which lasted around 90 minutes and was attended by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as well as King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. The stained-glass windows in various colours shone brightly in between the treelike columns of the temple as Leo delivered his homily in Spanish, Catalan...

⁠The ⁠United States will hit Iran “very hard tonight” and will ‌soon take control of the Middle Eastern country’s oil and gas infrastructure and ⁠markets, President Donald Trump said ‌on Thursday. “At some point in ‌the not too distant ⁠future, ⁠we will be ‌taking Kharg Island, and other oil ‌infrastructure points, ‌and assume total ‌control of their ⁠Oil and Gas Markets, much ⁠like we have with Venezuela,” Trump said ‌on ‌social media. Trump gave no details of how the US would seize Iran’s oil...

Nasa’s administrator Jared Isaacman on Wednesday defended the make-up of the space agency’s latest Artemis crew, an all-male group. The nominations have earned criticism that Nasa may have acted in accordance with US President Donald Trump’s direction to eliminate diversity and inclusion efforts. Isaacman insisted in a lengthy social media post that the “crew selection does not involve any political appointees”. “The Astronaut Office assigns the crew that gives the mission the best chance of...

Bill Gates told members of Congress on Wednesday that he “did not fully understand the extent” of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes when he associated with the late convicted sex offender to raise money for his philanthropic foundation. Gates also testified that he never witnessed any criminal conduct from Epstein. He accused Epstein of blackmailing him over his extramarital affairs. “These affairs had nothing to do with my ‌interactions with Epstein, but they were painful for my family,” Gates said,...

The use of social media in planning violent protests over the Belfast knife attack has drawn condemnation, with Britain’s ruling Labour Party accusing Elon Musk of stoking divisions. The tech billionaire, who continued overnight to promote calls for people to take to the streets in response to the assault, hit back at the claims and blamed immigration policy for the tensions. Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese man, was remanded in custody after appearing in court charged with attempted murder...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday brushed off concerns about consumer inflation surging to a fresh three-year high in May, on the back of soaring energy prices caused by his war in Iran. “The numbers were great … I love the inflation,” Trump told reporters, a comment pounced on by Democrats who have made rising prices a cornerstone of their campaign to take control of Congress in November’s midterm elections. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 4.2 per cent year-on-year, up from the...

As the 2026 Fifa World Cup prepares to kick off on Thursday, the world’s elite players are vying for more than just glory – they seek a shimmering prize whose bullion value has eclipsed all previous benchmarks. The trophy set to be hoisted in the US state of New Jersey next month is now worth 157 per cent more than it was during the 2022 tournament in Qatar, owing to a historic rally in gold prices. The raw gold value of the statue currently stands at around US$713,000 – a staggering jump from...

A 30-year-old man from Sudan appeared in a Belfast court on Wednesday charged with attempted murder over a stabbing attack that left a victim seriously injured and triggered anti-immigrant violence in several parts of Northern Ireland. Hadi Alodid was ordered held in jail after an appearance by video in Belfast Magistrates’ Court, where a detective said he blinded Stephen Ogilvie in the left eye during the knife attack. He was also charged with possessing a knife and threatening to kill a...

Thousands of Iranians in the southern port town of Sirik have lost access to drinking water after US strikes hit two reservoirs in the area, Iranian state media said on Wednesday. The United States carried out strikes on the southern cities of Jask and Sirik and on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, after what Washington said was Iran’s downing of a US Army Apache helicopter over Gulf waters. The strikes damaged two reservoirs supplying the Bemani and Kouhestak areas of Sirik...

China’s factory gate prices rose by the most since 2022, surpassing expectations, as higher oil costs stemming from the war in Iran help manufacturers escape years of deflation. The producer price index rose by 3.9 per cent from a year earlier in May, more than the 3.5 per cent forecast of economists surveyed by Wind. Consumer prices rose by 1.2 per cent, the same as in April and below the 1.4 per cent forecast. Manufacturers have raised prices for three months in a row after the conflict in the...

Multiple attackers killed 12 people and wounded at least nine in a late-night mass shooting in Johannesburg, police said Wednesday, the latest in such attacks that have shaken the South African city. Police said they believe more than 10 suspects were driven in a minibus to an informal settlement in the Cleveland suburb of Johannesburg late on Tuesday night and once there, opened fire on people. South Africa has seen several high-profile mass shootings recently, including two in December that...

The European Commission has declared its trade and economic relationship with China “unsustainable”, pointing to a daily trade deficit of €1 billion (US$1.16 billion) and Chinese manufacturing overcapacity that puts millions of jobs across various sectors at risk. However, a clear-eyed analysis reveals this premise to be entirely flawed. The narrative spun by Brussels is a desperate attempt to weaponise trade policy to mask structural, self-inflicted failures. To understand the absurdity of the...

The race for California governor in November will be a battle between a Democrat promising to cement the state’s status as a stronghold of liberal policies and a Republican pledging to dramatically reverse course in America’s most populous state. Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator backed by President Donald Trump, has won enough votes to advance to the general election, Associated Press determined on Tuesday. He will face Democrat Xavier Becerra, a former state attorney...

Anti-immigration protesters torched buildings and vehicles in Belfast on Tuesday evening and blocked roads, a day after a stabbing allegedly by a Sudanese refugee, captured in a graphic video that shocked the country. Hundreds of protesters, many masked, gathered at several locations across Belfast. A bus and several cars were set alight, while a building fringing the city centre caught fire and its residents had to be evacuated. “By 7.30pm they started [a] fire in the bins … we heard police...

A huge treasure trove of ancient DNA from animals including extinct woolly mammoths has been discovered in frozen squirrel faeces in Canada’s remote Yukon territory, scientists said on Tuesday. The DNA found deep inside sealed-off burrows is between 3,000 and 700,000 years old, offering a rare window into how life has changed over the millennia. As well as DNA from woolly mammoths – which the US company Colossal claims it is trying to “de-extinct” – genetic material was also found from wolves,...

The US expects to complete President Donald Trump’s long-promised southern border wall by late 2027, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott said Tuesday. The barrier along the US-Mexico border is made of reinforced metal beams and is intended to run from San Diego to the Gulf of Mexico, except in selected areas “where we’ve made a conscious decision that we don’t need it”, Scott said at the Centre for Immigration Studies event in Washington. “The primary border wall will...

People always talk knowingly about Weimar, a period of extremes: artistic and social-sexual decadence, democratic liberalism and the radicalisation of the left and the right, before Germany’s descent into Hitlerian hell. The city as a symbol, close to the site of the former Buchenwald concentration camp, is back in the news, well, at least the op-ed pages of the Western press. That’s rarely a good sign. “The new crisis [in Germany] seems uncomfortably familiar because, in some respects, it...

Anthropic is rolling out ⁠a public version of ⁠its Mythos AI model, but ⁠with guard rails barring its use in risky areas such as cybersecurity, after a preview earlier this year sent shock waves globally with its ability to find software flaws. The new Claude Fable 5 is the most powerful model ‌Anthropic has ever made for wider use, the start-up said on Tuesday, touting its performance in software engineering and analytics. Anthropic has so far limited its access to a group of about 200...

The United States launched fresh strikes against Iran on Tuesday, prompting retaliation from Tehran, which targeted a major US naval base in Bahrain and an airbase in Jordan. It came just hours after US President Donald Trump vowed to retaliate for what he described as the hostile downing of an American AH-64 Apache attack helicopter over the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The escalation tested a fragile US-Iran ceasefire that had taken effect on April 8 as both sides negotiate terms to end the...

Nasa named three US astronauts and ⁠an Italian astronaut on Tuesday to serve as the crew for its next Artemis mission, a spacecraft docking demonstration in Earth’s orbit next year that would test moon landers from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin for the first time in space. Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman at a ceremony in Houston named US astronauts Andre Douglas, Frank Rubio and Randy Bresnik and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency as the crew for...

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office called for calm on Tuesday after police said they arrested a Sudanese suspect over a stabbing in residential Belfast in Northern Ireland that drew national attention because of graphic videos of the attack online. Police said the victim was taken to the hospital with serious wounds to his face, neck and back late on Monday. They said the suspect, who is in his 30s, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and remained in police custody. A kitchen...

From Sunderland to Spain, Chinese manufacturers are revitalising idle factories and investing where traditional European carmakers are pulling back. Chinese carmakers are rapidly transforming from export-oriented manufacturers into embedded participants in Europe’s automotive industrial base, a shift increasingly visible across both continental Europe and Britain. What began as a strategy focused on exporting low-cost electric vehicles (EVs) has evolved into a broader industrial expansion...

Tighter US sanctions on Cuba have led to a spike in infant mortality and plummeting survival rates for child cancer patients, the UN warned in one of its strongest rebukes of Washington’s pressure campaign against the island. US President Donald Trump’s push to force change in Cuba by cutting off almost all fuel shipments to the government is depriving the nation of 10 million people of access to water, food and healthcare, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Monday in a...

Palestinian civilians are caught between “mass atrocities” of Israeli forces, settlers and Hamas’ brutal rule, a UN-mandated inquiry said on Tuesday. Civilians across war-ravaged Gaza and the occupied West Bank are being “systematically and deliberately” subjected to severe rights violations, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry said. The investigative team, which last year concluded that Israel had committed “genocide” in the war in Gaza, highlighted in a new report that...

Scepticism is rife about US President Donald Trump’s claims to have reprimanded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu over recent military escalations with Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran despite ceasefires negotiated by Washington. While Netanyahu’s apparent defiance is widely seen as an embarrassment to Trump, analysts say the mercurial US leader has done little more than wag his finger at his ally. In his latest interview with Israeli journalist Barak Ravid for US website Axios on...

A summit between Russia and Asean next week promises to ease Southeast Asia’s energy crisis and Moscow’s diplomatic isolation – but not all of the bloc’s leaders are expected to show up. Analysts are also divided on whether Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, the current Asean chair, will travel to Kazan for the meeting, hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 17–18. The summit marks the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations...

Beyond the diplomatic choreography of last month’s Xi-Trump summit, what are the structural implications of a less confrontational US-China relationship for the Asia-Pacific? The subsequent visits by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to India and US Secretary of Defence Peter Hegseth to Singapore in late May shed some light on the question. Both Rubio and Hegseth had accompanied Trump to Beijing. Perhaps most telling was the switch in the usage of a geographic term by the US administration. In...

A measure to temporarily continue a key surveillance law failed in the House, and members left for a weeklong recess, making an expiration all but inevitable.

Earlier reviews had cast doubt on the idea that a foreign adversary was behind Havana syndrome, a range of symptoms that American spies and diplomats reported.

The department once tried to stay out of state elections, urging caution. It is now pressing forward with claims of fraud as President Trump revives his unfounded assertions that elections cannot be trusted.

Democrats and voting-rights groups have challenged the proposed rule as a harmful federal intrusion that could affect millions of voters who cast their ballots by mail.

Commanders do not usually speak publicly about future operations to avoid jeopardizing the mission’s success.

In addition to concerns about their safety in the event of another all-out war, many Iranians worry about the country’s economy further collapsing if the conflict remains in limbo.

In his first extensive interview since his defeat by a Trump-backed challenger, the Texas Republican said the Senate was in for a “bumpy ride” as he and others flex new political freedom.

McGregor, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s main attraction, had the support of the prominent sports physician Neal ElAttrache when he decided to use performance-enhancing drugs.

The towering claw will be the site of an Ultimate Fighting Championship cage match on Sunday, which is President Trump’s 80th birthday.

Two stabbings have fueled violent protests in England and Northern Ireland in the last 10 days, fanned online by right-wing voices. In Britain and across Europe, it’s a grim pattern.

Her decades of work on Huntington’s disease helped lead to the creation of a genetic test for the devastating condition. Why didn’t she take it herself?

Mr. Dolan, the owner of the New York Knicks, began a public feud with Mayor Zohran Mamdani with his team on the verge of an N.B.A. title.

A thrilling, historic comeback victory in Game 4 of the N.BA. finals sent Madison Square Garden, and the rest of New York City, into a lasting frenzy.

The global weather pattern threatens to worsen floods and heat waves already intensifying due to climate change. But it may also mean fewer hurricanes.

For the second day in a row, Chicago is in the bull’s-eye of severe weather on Thursday, but the storm forecast is widespread.

With machine learning and a high-resolution imaging robot, scientists measured and mapped the extent of Earth’s carbon circulatory system.

Imagine what Tom Steyer could have done with all the money he wasted on another campaign.

Our founding creed has always had its critics.

One-third of Americans shoulder health care debt. Insurers are being asked to consider lending money to Obamacare consumers who can’t afford higher deductibles.