Minimalist News

Taylor Farms Announces Recall Of Lettuce Shipped To 27 States Over Cyclospora Risk Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times, U.S. lettuce supplier Taylor Farms expanded on July 17 its voluntary recall of iceberg lettuce from central Mexico due to concerns over its link to a cyclospora outbreak affecting Americans across the country. Lettuce products that were possibly contaminated with the diarrhea-causing parasite were sent to 27 states, according to the company. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said July 18 the outbreak was linked to iceberg lettuce across five states and more than 1,000 people in the

Zelensky Boasts Of Hits On 3 Russian 'Shadow Fleet' Tankers After Kiev Military Depot Leveled Russia overnight and into early Sunday morning unleashed what Ukrainian officials have described as its largest barrage of ballistic missiles focused on Kiev of the war . Among the key targets was a large complex owned and operated by UKRTAC, a Ukrainian producer of military gear and personal protective equipment. Its manufacturing facilities and warehouses in the capital were destroyed in the assault . Ukrainian presidency's office UKRTAC, confirmed on social media that facilities and production equipment were entirely wiped out due to a direct

The Day Democrats Return To Wall Street Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance If there’s one thing the market has become spectacularly good at, it’s extrapolating today’s political environment out to infinity…and “pricing in” things (like the end of the Iran War, Trump Tax cuts, future rate cuts, etc.) over and over again until one day of bad news turns into a year of “market optimism” about things getting better, prompting the S&P to rally to new all-time highs 17 days in a row despite the fact that nothing has changed on the ground. And today, the market is acting as

Social Media Influencers Andrew And Tristan Tate Arrested In Miami Via Headline USA , Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, whose social media empire promoting wealth, male dominance and misogyny has made them among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities, were arrested Saturday in Miami as British authorities sought their extradition on rape and sex trafficking charges. The brothers were taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service on a sealed warrant, placing the United States at the center of an international legal saga that has stretched from Romania to Britain. STATEMENT OF JOSEPH D. MCBRIDE, ATTORNEY FOR ANDREW AND

Meet The "New Soros" Whose "Street Cred" Could Rise If Spain Blocks Extradition The federal government is well underway with a multiagency and multinational effort to combat the alarming rise of far-left revolutionaries. This was most evident on Thursday, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed delegations from 65 countries. Meanwhile, Jim "Fergie" Chambers, the communist centimillionaire and heir to the Cox media fortune, is apparently " one step closer to extradition " on federal charges linked to "international money laundering... with the intent to provide material support and resources to foreign terrorist organizations." Chambers is a major funder of

Traders Stunned By Momentum Meltdown As Earnings Quality Problem Simmers Under The Surface Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, 📈 Technical Backdrop – Coiling Below The Record Here is where the quiet-index story gets interesting for traders. The S&P 500 closed the week at 7,457.69, and that put it right on top of its 50-day moving average near 7,464. Call it dead flat against the line. The index still sits about 6.8% above its rising 200-day average near 6,985, so the primary uptrend remains fully intact, and it is roughly 2% below the June 2 record high of 7,620. Momentum

US-Iran Tit-For-Tat Spirals Towards Broader Conflict The escalation pathway in the renewed tit-for-tat conflict between the US and Iran is becoming increasingly alarming and has been underway for eight days. US forces reportedly struck Qeshm Island and the southern Iranian cities of Shadegan, Sirik and Hajiabad, while Tehran retaliated with drone and missile attacks targeting US bases and critical infrastructure across Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, according to Bloomberg , citing Iranian state media. The latest escalation could open the door for Israel to rejoin the fight. Itamar Ben Gvir, an Israeli security cabinet minister, told listeners on Israeli radio that

French Gambling Regulator Orders ISPs To Block Polymarket Authored by Zoltan Vardai via CoinTelegraph.com, France’s Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), or the National Gambling Authority, has ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket. Prediction websites are considered illegal gambling, the ANJ said in a Friday press release . The regulator said that Polymarket’s operations are not authorized in France and that advertising unauthorized gambling sites constitutes a criminal offense with fines of up to 100,000 euros ($114,000). Prediction markets allow users to buy and sell contracts tied to the outcomes of future events, from elections and sporting events

Germany To Join French Nuclear Exercise, Deepening 'Counter-Russia' Deterrence In the latest development related to what some analysts have called the 'new Cold War' and nuclear saber-rattling between Russia and the West, Germany and France are planning a major nuclear exercise later this year. The atomic drills were announced Friday, after a joint top-level meeting of the French and German governments near Cologne. "Alongside this work on a shared doctrine, German conventional forces will this year take part in a nuclear exercise of the French military ," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz unveiled . picture alliance/dpa He detailed while at a

Nearly Half Of Poles Now Want To Stop Arming Ukraine Authored by Andrew Korybko, The reason is Poles’ radically shifting views towards Ukraine since the start of their spiraling dispute sparked by Zelensky’s state-level glorification of the Volhynia Genocide’s OUN-UPA culprits. Leading Polish conservative newspaper Rzeczpospolita published the results of a survey that it commissioned showing that 45.2% of Poles now want to stop arming Ukraine. The majority are from the opposition, which includes conservative and libertarian-nationalist (populist in American political parlance) groups who a separate survey recently showed could form a coalition government after fall 2027’s next Sejm elections,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Emergency response has rescued 67 people, including 15 children, from one of the country’s worst maritime disasters A ferry carrying 116 passengers and crew sank ⁠off the coast of Guyana in South America ⁠late Saturday, with 67 ⁠people, ​including 15 children, rescued so far, according to Guyana ⁠authorities. A massive search-and-rescue operation continues for dozens of missing passengers in what has been described by officials as one of the country’s worst maritime disasters. Continue reading...

More than 30 injured and 300 displaced after buildings collapse near Sicaya A 5.5-magnitude earthquake shook the Andes region of Peru, killing at least six people, authorities said Sunday. More than 30 people were injured and 300 have been displaced. The US Geological Survey reported the quake struck on Saturday at 9.24pm, with its epicentre located 2km (1.2 miles) west-south-west of the city of Sicaya in Huancayo province. It was 10km (6.2 miles) deep. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ABS data show one in 10 people are not satisfied with life – but community cohesion and trust lift happiness scores Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Nearly 2.2 million Australians 15 years and older are living below the wellbeing poverty line, with the share of people reporting very low life satisfaction doubling over the past decade. In 2025, 9.7%, or about one in 10 Australians, rated their general satisfaction with life at four or below out of 10, according to Guardian Australia’s analysis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’s (ABS) general social survey.

ACCC updates some recall notices to say products ‘may cause risk to health’, contrary to previous claims Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Schools, retailers and government agencies assured parents that asbestos-contaminated play sand posed a low risk to their children’s health based on a supplier’s own assessment which was not independently verified, the Guardian can reveal. The now-contested public messaging spread quickly after a range of Educational Colours children’s sand products were pulled from shelves in November 2025 after samples were found to contain asbestos , which was followed by more than 20

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

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

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

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

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

Attack on Ukraine’s capital and other cities leaves at least six people dead and dozens injured Russia has carried out one of its biggest ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, launching a five-hour assault that left at least six people dead and dozens injured, and caused fires and damage across the capital. Ukrainian officials said the capital had been hit with about 40 Iskander-M and hypersonic Zircon missiles. Residents heard an air raid siren sound at 1.30am. There was the sound of air defences, followed minutes later by a series of booms and explosions. Continue reading...

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

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

This live blog is now closed. US says another troop killed as Israel warns Tehran’s attacks coming close Two US troops killed and one missing in Jordan after Iranian attacks Jordanian authorities ⁠have not issued any decision ⁠to ​evacuate the airport or ⁠seaport in the city of Aqaba, and have not detected ⁠any potential threats ​in ‌the past ‌hours, the state ‌news agency cited the government spokesperson as saying. This denial comes in response to the US embassy in Jordan earlier saying the airport and seaport in Aqaba had been evacuated by Jordanian authorities because of a “specific and credible

US military says service member was killed in Iraq during ‘controlled detonation’ as it launches more airstrikes at Iran The US military announced another death of a service member as it launched more airstrikes at Iran on Sunday in response to the killing of American troops , and Iran fired missiles toward Jordan that risked widening the conflict into neighboring Israel. The US military said the service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone. Continue reading...

NYC mayor says in Times interview that’s he’s in ‘active conversation’ with city’s law department about the matter New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has said he was reviewing whether his administration could arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if as expected the Israeli prime minister visits the city for the UN general assembly in September. Mamdani’s comments on Saturday’s episode of the New York Times’s the Interview podcast echoed ones he had made to the publication as he successfully ran for mayor last fall. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Labour leader will visit king to accept role on Monday and will start making cabinet appointments that afternoon Andy Burnham will say Britain must be honest about the challenges it faces when he becomes its sixth prime minister in a decade on Monday, as he prepares to introduce measures to ease the cost of living and allow more North Sea fossil fuel drilling. The Labour leader is expected to start making appointments in the afternoon after going to Buckingham Palace to accept the role of prime minister from the king. Continue reading...

Tensions between his aims are already there, including disputes over key appointments such as chancellor Andy Burnham’s vision for cleaning up Westminster politics is a utopian one: ending the dominance of the whipping system, Whitehall power hoarding and the “insidious briefing culture” of the bubble. In his first speech on becoming Labour leader, he warned his party it “won’t beat Britain’s new right if we are consumed by infighting and pulling in different directions”. Continue reading...

Consortium preparing for potential legal battle amid reports new PM could put the company into temporary public ownership The group of investors pursuing a rescue bid for Thames Water have said they are willing to discuss greater public control but are also preparing for a potential multi-billion pound legal battle amid reports that Andy Burnham could temporarily nationalise the company. London & Valley Water (L&VW), a consortium of 100 institutional investors that hold £17bn of the company’s £21bn debt, has said it is open to government involvement with Thames Water, but indicated that this does not include public ownership in

As with the John Cleese original, comedian is supported by famous faces from Claudia Winkleman to David Jason John Cleese’s 1985 advert for the BBC in which he asks a pub full of stars “ What has the BBC ever given us? ” is one of the most famous examples of the corporation making the case to the public for the value of paying the licence fee. In the advert , Cleese is complaining to the bartender that he has just bought his TV licence. “Fifty-eight quid for the privilege of sitting in your own home, watching your own television

Britain seeks extradition over charges including rape, trafficking for sexual exploitation and offences relating to extreme pornography The controversial influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate have been arrested in the US as part of a UK police investigation into a number of alleged sexual offences. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it was bringing further charges in relation to four further individuals, and had requested the two men’s extradition. Continue reading...

US president watches Spain v Argentina match Trump avoids hostile reception from crowd World Cup final: live coverage of the match Donald Trump took his place at the World Cup final at the New York New Jersey Stadium on Sunday. Trump arrived at the stadium on Marine One, with the president’s helicopter first flying over the stadium around 45 minutes before kickoff. There was little reaction from the crowd as the aircraft flew over the stadium, with Marine One landing nearby a few minutes later. The president was seated in a glassed-in section of luxury seats on the west side

Energy secretary grapples with mounting criticism over length of US war as Democrat calls conflict ‘war of choice’ A Trump administration official on Sunday grappled with mounting criticism over the length of the US war with Iran after months of promised diplomatic breakthroughs, short-lived ceasefires, and the deaths of three more American troops bringing the total number of American military members killed in the conflict to 17. Appearing on ABC’s This Week, the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, defended the Trump administration’s strategy after being confronted with his earlier claims that the war which began in February would have ended

Tom Homan’s comments come amid scrutiny over federal immigration agents’ fatal shooting of two men in six days US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) will require its officers to record vehicle stops with at least one body camera, said Tom Homan, the Trump administration “border czar”, on Sunday. The action comes as the agency is under renewed scrutiny after ICE officers fatally shot two men earlier this month. “They exonerate more law enforcement than they convict, and I want officers to wear body cameras because I want the American people to see what the ⁠officers saw when they

Outbreak has sickened dozens in the city but officials say they believe source of outbreak ‘has likely been eliminated’ A second person has died amid a legionnaires’ disease outbreak that has sickened dozens of people in New York City , according to officials, who also say there is evidence that the source of the outbreak “has likely been eliminated”. New York City’s health department served notice of the second death in a statement on Saturday. The statement didn’t have any information about that person’s identity, age, or details on when and how they fell ill, as was the case when

Investigators arrest 31-year-old man identified as Charles Medina in connection with death of Rapp who was 26 US boxer Hannah Rapp, who in June fought for the World Boxing Council (WBC) women’s featherweight championship, was killed on Saturday while she bicycled in Texas after a motorist struck her with his car, according to authorities. Rapp was 26, and investigators arrested a 31-year-old man identified as Charles Medina in connection with her death, the sheriff’s office of Brazos county, Texas, said in a statement. Continue reading...

US President Donald Trump has said people in the Scottish city of Aberdeen will be “dancing in the streets” following reports Andy Burnham could back new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. The incoming UK prime minister, dubbed the “King of the North” for his work as ‌the mayor of Greater Manchester in northwestern England, has not confirmed reports that he is considering approving new fossil fuel production, particularly in the North Sea’s Rosebank and Jackdaw fields. But in a post on his...

Russia battered Ukraine’s capital Kyiv overnight with one of its biggest ballistic missile barrages of the war, killing at least one person and wounding 16 others, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday. A series ‌of powerful explosions thundered across the darkened city in an attack that involved 41 missiles of various types and ravaged buildings across several districts. Residential buildings, warehouses, a supermarket and a dormitory were among the structures damaged, said Kyiv Mayor...

China and Russia are not formal allies, but their ties have grown significantly closer in recent years. The two countries have been “comprehensive strategic partners of coordination for a new era” since 2019, often sharing the goal of countering Western dominance in the international arena. But which nation holds the upper hand in this relationship? Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on an article in The Wall Street Journal on relations between Moscow and Beijing, said on July 14 that...

The leaders of Germany and France announced on Friday that the German military would participate in a nuclear exercise under a French initiative to deepen European nuclear cooperation. The move by both countries to deepen nuclear cooperation underscores growing European defence self-reliance amid concerns about the future of US security commitments to the continent. “We will have German conventional forces participate in a nuclear exercise conducted by the French armed forces before the end of...

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will make ⁠his first trip to the White House this week to present a plan to US President Donald Trump on how to disarm Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and secure Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon. Aoun, who served as the commander of Lebanon’s US-backed army before being elected president last year, is the first Lebanese head of state in nearly 20 years to visit the White House, where he will meet Trump face-to-face for the first time. Tuesday’s meeting comes...

Hong Kong has embarked on the path of drawing up its first five-year plan – a significant moment in its history. Hong Kong’s first five-year plan should be more than a local economic blueprint. Properly conceived, it should define how the city contributes to China’s national development while preserving the global connections that make Hong Kong uniquely valuable. Success will depend on three mutually reinforcing pillars – deeper integration with the mainland, seamless connectivity across the...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. The young Chinese scientist behind ‘impossible’ breakthrough on sodium batteries Scientist Lu Yaxiang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Physics, has spent a decade working to make sodium-ion batteries...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Democrats have a chance to flip a competitive battleground district in and around Scottsdale, but the winner of Tuesday’s primary will emerge bloodied and broke.

The debilitating malady has gripped Monroe County, Mich.

New York City health officials shared details of how they traced a much smaller cyclosporiasis outbreak, showing the difficulty of tracing contamination.

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

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

The number of people who attend the World Cup is nothing compared with the sheer world-buckling biomass of those who experience it on a screen.

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