Minimalist News

Netflix's Live TV Pivot Exposes Growing Engagement Crisis As Shares Falter Netflix shares are teetering on the edge of a bear market after a brutal stretch of underperformance and one of the stock's worst first-half starts in two decades. Subscriber engagement has become an increasing concern for the streaming giant, and a new report suggests management may be considering a risky pivot toward live television to revive viewing time and strengthen its advertising business. According to The Wall Street Journal, Netflix management is weighing live channels, third-party streaming bundles, and additional sports rights as it seeks to reverse declining subscriber

Trump Administration Launches Major H-1B Visa Fraud Investigation Via American Greatness, The Trump administration has launched its first major investigation into alleged fraud involving H-1B and PERM visa programs, expanding its effort to combat immigration-related fraud and protect American workers. 🚨PRESS RELEASE: U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General Launches Investigation into H-1B Visa Fraud and Human Trafficking to Protect American Workers Read:⤵️ https://t.co/uBG4GjU1up pic.twitter.com/naWt7h3AP3 — DOL OIG (@DOLOIG) July 8, 2026 Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito announced the investigation Wednesday during an appearance on Fox Business, saying the probe will examine allegations of H-1B and PERM visa

The Token Revolt Goes Mainstream: Palo Alto CEO Demands 90% AI Price Drop Eight days ago it was Palantir's Alex Karp going ballistic on live television about the "effing insane" economics of renting intelligence by the token. On Thursday it was Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora's turn , and while his delivery was calmer, his number was not: Arora told CNBC that AI token prices need to fall as much as 90% before enterprise adoption can actually scale. So the chief executive of one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the world - that buys this stuff at industrial

Apple Sues OpenAI Alleging Trade Secret Theft In Blockbuster AI Hardware Case Apple has filed a major lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accusing OpenAI , io Products, and former Apple executives of misappropriating trade secrets to fast-track AI hardware development. The complaint details a months-long scheme involving former Apple employees now at OpenAI. Key defendants include Tang Tan (OpenAI hardware lead and ex-Apple VP of product design) and Chang Liu (former Apple senior electrical engineer). Apple alleges they directed recruits to share confidential details on unreleased devices, components, manufacturing processes, and suppliers. Specific

Myth Busted: U.S. Much Safer Than Many Peer Nations Authored by John R. Lott Jr. via RealClearInvestigations , Conventional wisdom holds that the United States is the most violent and dangerous nation in the developed world. This dark view is frequently invoked by conservatives to demand stronger penalties for crimes and by progressives to argue for stronger gun laws. At the same time, other nations point to crime as an Achilles heel of the American system. These include two peer nations with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world - Australia and Canada. In 2025, the Australian

Mali Govt Says Al-Qaeda Extremists In Region Receive Training, Drones From Ukraine Via The Cradle The Malian government announced on Thursday that militant groups with links to Al-Qaeda carrying out terror attacks in the country were trained and armed by Ukrainian specialists . Fousseynou Ouattara, Vice President of the Defense Commission of Mali's Transitional Council, said authorities identified militants who received training in Ukraine to carry out operations using kamikaze drones produced by Kiev. "These young people are known, we have now added them to our lists, and we have their names," Ouattara said. Illustrative file image The militants fighting

US Nuclear Regulator Seeks Simpler Environmental Reviews To Boost Nuclear Expansion Authored by Evgenia Filimianova via The Epoch Times , The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on July 8 proposed narrowing environmental reviews for new and renewed nuclear reactor licenses , a move the agency said would reduce costs, as the Trump administration pushes to expand nuclear energy. In this aerial view, the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant stands in the middle of the Susquehanna River near Middletown, Pa., on Oct. 10, 2024. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The proposal would change how the NRC implements the National Environmental Policy

Durov Hauled In For Questioning Again In Paris, Telegram Blasts Case: 'Still No Evidence' As the high-stakes criminal investigation into Telegram nears its second year with no resolution in sight, French authorities have again summoned Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov for questioning. Durov spent around six hours being questioned at the Paris Judicial Tribunal on Wednesday, local media reported , citing law enforcement sources. He's allowed to travel internationally, and to live at his home in Dubai - though he's agreed specific judicial supervision rules, part of which is to periodically return to France when summoned. It marked the fourth time

When Uncle Sam Turns Venture Capitalist, What Could Go Wrong? Authored by James Varney via RealClearInvestigations , The battery recycler Ascend Elements was riding high in 2023, flush with hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. The seed money provided to the Massachusetts company, which launched in 2017, was one of several large bets the Biden administration placed on the green future as it essentially created a venture capital arm at the Department of Energy and other agencies. In the movies, VCs almost always score big through their early investments in future behemoths (e.g., PayPal or Meta when it

Federal Judge Orders DHS Not To Obey Order From Another Judge Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times , A federal judge on July 8 said the Trump administration must not comply with an order from another federal judge and must continue to have key functions of an immigration database disabled. The Department of Homeland Security building in Washington on March 25, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times Judge Sparkle Sooknanan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said that officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies shall keep disabled the ability to

Three Reasons Gas Prices Are Likely To Remain Elevated The US national average for regular 87-octane gasoline remained uncomfortably above the politically sensitive $4-per-gallon threshold for roughly two and a half months. That stretch pressured lower-income consumers, forcing many to trade down or cut discretionary spending while weighing on broader consumer sentiment. The key question now is whether pump prices have further room to fall or whether current levels will become the new normal this summer. Answering that question is Goldman's leading commodity expert Daan Struyven, who penned a note on Thursday explaining the three forces keeping pump prices high:

World's First Commercial Nuclear-Powered Satellite Set For Launch Aboard SpaceX Rocket Authored by Mrigakshi Dixit via Interesting Engineering , Miami-based City Labs is all set to launch the world's first commercial nuclear-powered satellite into orbit. NanoTritium battery Citi Labs Solar panels have some challenges. When a satellite slips into the shadow of the Earth, hits a permanently dark lunar crater, or drifts into deep space, its solar arrays become useless. Batteries can step in, but they eventually die. City Labs thinks nuclear energy could solve this persistent problem. On July 7, the company announced that its BOHR (Betavoltaic Orbital High-Reliability)

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Illinois Ban On 'Assault Weapons' Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times, A federal appeals court on July 9 upheld Illinois’s ban on the sale and possession of “assault weapons” and large capacity magazines, overturning a lower court ruling that had blocked enforcement of the law. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Protect Illinois Communities Act into law in January 2023 after a gunman killed seven people in a 2022 shooting during an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago. A federal judge overturned the law in 2024, finding it violated the Second Amendment right to

SK Hynix ADRs Open At $170, Tapping Wall Street Liquidity To Fuel Korea's AI Memory Boom Summary: SK Hynix's ADR Open at $170 SK Hynix Chairman Tells Bloomberg " Demand Will Be Exponentially Growing In Future " SK Hynix's ADRs Set to Open $175 SK Hynix's ADRs Set to Open at $181, 22% Premium Above $149 Offering Price SK Hynix ADRs Priced At 3% Premium As Wall Street Readies Wave Of Leveraged ETFs SK Hynix's ADR Open at $170 Shortly after SK Hynix Chairman Chey Tae-won appeared on Bloomberg to promote the listing , the memory-chip giant's ADRs finally began

Watch: New Video Shows McConnell Wheeled Out On Stretcher After June Cardiac Emergency At D.C. Home New video shows emergency responders loading Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) onto a stretcher and into an ambulance outside his Capitol Hill residence on the morning of June 14, the same day the longtime Senate Republican leader was hospitalized. The neighbor-recorded footage, first published Friday by CNN , depicts emergency vehicles - including multiple ambulances and a fire truck - clogging the street near McConnell's home as first responders wheel a person identified by witnesses as the 84-year-old senator toward an ambulance. The individual's face

RFK Jr. Plans To Create A List Of Injuries Caused By COVID-19 Vaccines Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times , Health officials are proposing a plan to clarify which COVID-19 vaccine side effects would be eligible for government financial compensation , according to a new notice. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Minneapolis on May 21, 2026. David Berding/Getty Images The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and one of its divisions said in a description of a proposed rule released on July 1 that they plan to establish an injury table for COVID-19 vaccines through

Mitsubishi Motors Joins Physical AI Race With Humanoid Robot Production Deal Mitsubishi Motors shares surged as much as 17% in Tokyo on Friday after the automaker unveiled a deal with the University of Tokyo startup Highlanders to mass-produce humanoid robots, signaling a push beyond its core automotive business and reinforcing a broader trend we have highlighted that could sweep across the global auto industry. Highlanders signed an MOU with Mitsubishi Motors to develop humanoid robots for automotive factories and mass production at Mitsubishi's Kyoto plant as early as 2027. Early production runs could amount to 1,000 per month. The Japanese

UAE Oil Output Hits All-Time High, Doubling Pre-Crisis Levels Confirming reports from earlier this week , the latest estimates from the International Energy Agency signaled that the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which unexpectedly quit OPEC earlier this year in a shock move that threatened the cohesion of OPEC, produced 4.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in June, its highest output ever. The UAE’s crude oil production jumped from 3.3 million bpd in May to 4.1 million bpd in June after the country left OPEC effective May 1, started raising output, and managed to sneak a lot of

IEA Warns Escalation In US-Iran Hostilities Could Upend Oil Surplus Forecast Despite the tentative recovery of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz and the first build-up in global stocks since the war began, this week’s re-escalation of the U.S.-Iran hostilities could flip the outlook for an oil market surplus for next year, the International Energy Agency said on Friday. Oil prices have plunged since the United States and Iran signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the middle of June, with North Sea Dated prices down by $31 per barrel in June to $68 a barrel by early July,

No Takers, Nor Tankers By Molly Schwartz, cross-asset macro strategist at Rabobank Daily crossings through the Strait of Hormuz increased substantially after the US and Iran announced a “peace” agreement in mid-June . However, those numbers have started to dwindle as the ceasefire—peacefire, shmeasefire—appears increasingly shaky. According to Bloomberg , the Joint Maritime Information Center said that traffic through the Strait remains at “reduced levels,” (around 24% of pre-war transit) even though US-assisted vessel transits have been largely uninhibited. Reuters reports that “some war insurers advise shipowners to pause Hormuz voyages after attacks,” adding that “ war insurance for ships

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

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

Celeste Amarilla could face charges after French Football Federation complains about social media posts over World Cup match Prosecutors in France have opened an investigation into the racist attack on Kylian Mbappé by a Paraguayan senator, with officials weighing whether to demand that the senator be charged with aggravated public insult or incitement to hatred or violence. The Paris prosecutor’s office told the Guardian on Tuesday it had launched the inquiry after the French Football Federation (FFF) filed a complaint with the national unit for combating online hate. Continue reading...

Impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US imposed a blockade in January Cuba on Monday suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, the state electricity company said. The impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US president, Donald Trump, imposed an oil blockade in January, which has depleted the already dwindling supply of fuel for Cuba’s power plants. Continue reading...

TKMS beats South Korean rival to multibillion-dollar contract that will deepen Canada’s Nato ties Canada has selected a German consortium to build a dozen cutting-edge submarines in one of the country’s largest-ever defence contracts that will further deepen its Nato ties before a crucial summit this week. On Monday the prime minister, Mark Carney, announced the winner of a tightly contested battle for the lucrative government contract to replace its fleet of ageing, secondhand subs, most of which are undergoing maintenance. 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.

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

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

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

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

Exclusive: Records obtained by the Guardian show property owned by Catholic order used to house at least two brothers with horrific histories of child sexual abuse Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Christian Brothers properties have been used to house convicted child sexual abuse offenders, including one brother who preyed on orphans and another who was kept in teaching positions for almost three decades after senior officials became aware of his offending. The Christian Brothers prompted fury from survivors last month when it declared it was about to go broke, and could no longer

The telco has long banked on its reputation as having the most stable, widest mobile telco coverage. That is now badly dented Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Telstra has long profited from its reputation of having the largest and most stable mobile telco coverage in Australia, allowing it to charge premium prices. When its main rival, Optus, suffered a series of operational issues that culminated in a damaging triple zero outage last year, Telstra attracted new customers. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Resignation comes after abuse survivor said she was devastated her father, who was jailed for 48 years, was interviewed for the Shadow of Doubt podcast Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The journalist Richard Guilliatt has resigned from the Walkley awards judging board after the Walkley Foundation dismissed complaints about his podcast and then handed an award to the journalist whose reports were critical of him. Nina Funnell won a mid-year Walkley for freelance journalist of the year for a series of three articles in news.com.au about a survivor of sexual assault who

The One Nation leader is set to be interviewed by Tommy Robinson as part of a media strategy that seems designed to seek scandal – and reach millions Pauline Hanson’s highly publicised meetings with controversial far-right figures in the UK will drive international eyeballs to her content and continue building the global brand – and that’s by design, far-right experts say. The One Nation leader is visiting on a “fact-finding mission” with her chief of staff, James Ashby, ticking off a number of the country’s most divisive personalities. Continue reading...

Police say death of Layla Jeffery ‘suspicious’ after remains found in town of Donald in western Victoria Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A 16-year-old boy has been arrested after the body of a 13-year-old girl, who went missing on the weekend, was found in bushland in regional Victoria. Victoria police said they were treating Layla Jeffery’s death as “suspicious” after her remains were found in Donald, a small town in western Victoria, late on Thursday afternoon, following an extensive search. Continue reading...

Twenty-three people missing and four Britons thought to be among those who died trying to flee Almería blaze ‘I had an incredible escape’: British woman tells of close encounter with wildfire At least 12 people have been killed and 23 are unaccounted for after one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires broke out in the south-eastern province of Almería as the country endures its second heatwave of the summer. The regional government of Andalucía said the victims, four of whom are believed to be British, had died while trying to escape the flames near the village of Bédar in the municipality of

Carmakers welcome ruling against suit claiming manufacturers including Nissan, Ford and Peugeot fitted devices to defeat emission tests Car manufacturers have welcomed a high court verdict that rejected most of the allegations in a “dieselgate” claim brought on behalf of 1.6 million UK owners of polluting cars. In her judgment, Lady Justice Cockerill said that “in the majority of instances, the court found that the relevant strategy did not constitute a prohibited defeat device” – software that enables the engine to behave differently in tests. Continue reading...

Blaze made worse by heat, strong wind and plentiful dry vegetation amid hollowing out of rural population Wildfire in southern Spain kills at least 12 amid heatwave As firefighters struggle to quell the flames ravaging southern Spain and doctors treat the injured, a horrific picture of the fallout is emerging. At least 12 people died in a fast-spreading inferno that ripped through Almería on Thursday, many trapped in cars as they sought to escape a blaze that scorched 3,800 hectares (9,390 acres). Overwhelmed authorities say eight people have been injured and 23 cannot be accounted for. Continue reading...

Kai Wegner admits poor communication in handling of power blackout overshadowed his other political work Berlin’s embattled mayor has abandoned his campaign to stand for reelection after failing to recover from a row over his decision to play tennis while large parts of the German capital were hit by a power blackout in January. Kai Wegner announced on Friday afternoon that he would not run in Berlin’s 20 September election after coming under huge pressure to step down from his party, the Christian Democrats (CDU). Some members wrote an open letter to Wegner this week in which they appealed to

Medieval artwork safely delivered to British Museum before going on display from September in tightly controlled conditions Bayeux tapestry crosses Channel in dead of night The Bayeux tapestry has survived myriad perils, from cathedral fires to its potential destruction for use as wagon covers. Now, with the embroidery about to be displayed in a blockbuster London exhibition , experts must contend with a host of more insidious dangers. The arrival of the tapestry at the British Museum in the small hours of Friday morning was a historic moment – albeit less dramatic than the landing of William the Conqueror it

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

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

This live blog is now closed. US and Iran trade most intense strikes since ceasefire extended Kuwait’s foreign ministry has issued a statement condemning the Iranian attacks against the country. It reads almost identical to the statement issued yesterday, although emphasises Kuwait’s sovereignty is “a red line” . “The state of Kuwait reserves its full rights to take all necessary measures to protect its security and preserve its sovereignty,” it said. Continue reading...

Exclusive: PM-in-waiting says party must ‘do better’ in approach to Middle East and he will put more pressure on Israel Analysis: Burnham’s apology marks ‘reset moment’ as Labour seeks to win back progressive voters Andy Burnham has apologised for Labour’s initial response to Israel’s military action in Gaza, saying the party “didn’t get it right” and needs to “do better” under his leadership signalling a significant shift in the UK’s approach to the Middle East. The prime minister-in-waiting told the Guardian he would put more pressure on the Israeli government, including through further sanctions on individuals and entities, as well

Residents in Bandar Abbas and Sirik regions describe communities in fear and ‘feeling abandoned’ after US strikes Middle East crisis live – latest updates Residents in southern Iran have described two nights of fear this week after explosions shook coastal communities as the US launched fresh strikes on targets including the port cities of Bandar Abbas and Sirik. US Central Command confirmed the attacks, saying they were carried out to “further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the strait of Hormuz”. 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...

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

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

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

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

Ndodana Mkhanyisi Tshuma was arrested in a Johannesburg suburb after an international manhunt A man has been charged with murdering his wife and two young daughters after being arrested in South Africa following an international manhunt. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it had authorised three counts of murder against Ndodana Mkhanyisi Tshuma, 45, after he was arrested on Friday in Kensington, a suburb of Johannesburg. Continue reading...

Crowd of more than 22,000 people – and the musician himself – filled Hyde Park with the ‘largest gathering of people wearing bald caps’ A tight plastic cap is not an attractive option for protective headwear in 30C (86F) heat. Yet 22,141 people opted for just that – along with a white shirt, black tie and aviator sunglasses – in Hyde Park, London, on Friday afternoon. It was both a homage to the rapper Pitbull, the night’s headliner at the BST festival, and part of setting a Guinness World Record for the “largest gathering of people wearing bald caps”. “I’m

Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet believed to have had private reunion with king King Charles has enjoyed a private reunion with the grandchildren he has not seen for four years, it is understood. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, were hosted by Charles and Queen Camilla at the king’s private residence, Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, on Friday afternoon. Continue reading...

Five charges related to encounter with woman Ward met at New Year’s Day party in London in 2023 The Top Boy actor Micheal Ward has been cleared of raping and sexually assaulting a woman who claimed he had attacked her in the back of a car. Ward, 28, who is best known for his roles in the crime drama and Steve McQueen’s Small Axe, was acquitted of two counts of rape, two counts of assault by penetration and one count of sexual assault, after a 10-day trial at Snaresbrook crown court. Continue reading...

A 26-year-old man in custody and officers say incident is not being treated as terrorism Police arrest man on suspicion of Ann Widdecombe’s murder Immigration policy (see 9.24am ) is just one area where Andy Burnham faces an acute challenge when he becomes PM. Here are some of the other stories around this morning about Burnham and what he might do when he takes power. Jim Pickard, George Parker and Jennifer Williams in the Financial Times say Burnham is considering having a deputy PM based in Manchester running his No 10 North. The deputy Labour leader, Lucy Powell, is well

Habitat destruction strongest driver of species loss, with legislation keeping 99% of listed species from going extinct The Trump administration repealed a crucial part of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on Friday, finalizing a new rule that will open habitats of imperiled wildlife to development, logging, mining and other uses. For the last 50 years, the landmark environmental law included a broader understanding of the word “harm”, which ensured that not just the plants and animals themselves were protected but also the places that are critical to their survival. The inclusion of habitat in the “harm” definition was upheld by

Paperwork ends Democratic campaign laden with scandals, including most recently accusations of sexual assault Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine, officially withdrew his candidacy on Friday afternoon, ending a campaign laden with scandals. Maine’s secretary of state confirmed Platner had filed the paperwork to remove his name from the November ballot, two days after Platner publicly said he planned to exit the race. Continue reading...

Venture between two Pennsylvania senators stokes speculation about Fetterman’s future in Democratic party The Democratic senator John Fetterman, who has faced mounting political challenges, is joining forces with the Republican senator Dave McCormick to launch a new joint fundraising committee, a move that is likely to fuel additional questions about Fetterman’s increasingly rightward lurch. Pennsylvania ’s two US senators have established a shared fundraising committee that will collect donations benefiting both of their campaigns in an unusual bipartisan arrangement. Continue reading...

Rule from Mamdani administration bans companies from trapping customers into paying recurring charges and ‘junk fees’ New York City has adopted a new rule that bans companies from using deceptive subscriptions to trap customers into paying for gym memberships, streaming services and other recurring charges, the city’s consumer protection office said. The new rule, which will start on 1 October, promises hefty fines and aggressive enforcement for violators. Companies that do not provide a simple way to cancel could pay $525 per user subscription, back fees and additional fines. Continue reading...

Advocacy group calls on acting attorney general to lead ‘thorough, transparent federal investigation’ The deaths in recent days of two Black men in Tennessee, one in the custody of police and the other at the hands of national guard troops, has prompted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to demand the suspension of the so-called Memphis Safe Task Force , Donald Trump’s anti-crime alliance of federal, state and local law enforcement. In a letter to the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, on Friday, the NAACP also demanded “a thorough, transparent federal investigation” into the actions of the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China’s Xi Jinping sets new precedent with July 4 message for Trump and US In a departure from convention, Chinese leader Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to the United States on Independence Day. Beijing does not usually...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A California man who swapped a library’s 17th century Chinese manuscript for a fake was sentenced on Wednesday after admitting to stealing a major artwork. Jeffrey Ying used a number of aliases to get access to classic works, some over 600 years old, at the library of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Department of Justice said. Ying, 39, would check the works out and return days later with dummy manuscripts. He would frequently travel to China shortly thereafter, officials...

A judge on Wednesday authorised the payment of a multimillion-dollar award to magazine writer E. Jean Carroll to satisfy a 2023 civil verdict in which a jury found US President ‌Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan ordered the disbursement of nearly US$5.8 million to the former Elle magazine advice columnist, representing the original US$5 million verdict plus interest. The funds had been held in escrow while Trump appealed the...

British anti-immigrant politician Nigel Farage faces the embarrassing prospect of going head-to-head with perennial joke candidate Count Binface in a by-election after he decided to quit Parliament. His surprise move threatened to backfire Wednesday after other heavyweight parties confirmed they would not contest the vote for Farage’s seat in southeast England. Count Binface, a self-described “intergalactic space warrior”, is the only other person to have said so far that they would run. In a...

US President Donald Trump unexpectedly left Turkey on Wednesday aboard an older Air Force One rather than the newly renovated Qatari-donated jet that brought him there, but later boarded the new plane in Britain for the flight to Washington. The trip to Turkey for the Nato summit, the first international travel for the new ‌plane, took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, a country that borders Turkey. The unexpected plane switch followed months of scrutiny over the luxury gift intended to...

The Pitt led all nominees with 25 in a dominant second season, while Hacks led all comedies with 24 for its final season as the Emmy nominations were announced on Wednesday. HBO Max’s emergency room series The Pitt was a rookie upstart last year with big wins including best drama series, best actor for Noah Wyle and best supporting actress for Katherine LaNasa. Already a beloved veteran show, it owned this year’s acting categories. Wyle was nominated again, as was LaNasa. Taylor Dearden, Fiona...

Spain remained calm in the face of US President Donald Trump’s latest attack on Wednesday – which saw him order a halt to all trade with the country – as Madrid stressed its relationship with Washington remained “positive”. Trump called Spain a “wasted cause” and “hopeless, bad people” during comments to reporters ahead of a Nato leaders’ meeting in Ankara, and ordered officials to cut off trade with the country – the second time Trump has made such a threat since March. The US leader has...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday modestly downgraded its outlook for the world economy this year, citing the energy shock caused by the Iran war. But the fallout from the conflict is being partially offset by booming investment in artificial intelligence and other technologies. The IMF now expects the global economy to expand by a sluggish 3 per cent in 2026, down from 3.5 per cent last year and from the 3.1 per cent it had forecast for this year back in April. The fund expects...

At least two girls have been seriously wounded and a 16-year-old suspect arrested after an attack at a secondary school in the southern German state of Bavaria on Wednesday. The perpetrator appeared to have deliberately targeted the Welfen grammar school in the town of Schongau in a suspected “rampage”, a police spokeswoman said. She was unable to confirm press reports according to which the assailant used a knife in the attack. Local police said on their social media account that “a suspected...

A German palliative care doctor was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for murdering 15 people with lethal doses of sedatives, and he remains under investigation for dozens more killings. The court in Berlin convicted the 41-year-old of killing 12 women and three men during home visits between September 2021 and July 2024. But presiding judge Sylvia Busch said the conviction for 15 murders may well be only a glimpse of his many crimes. Prosecutors said during the proceedings that he was...

In the animated Soviet film The Golden Antelope, inspired by Indian folklore, a magical antelope tries to save a boy from a greedy raja by promising him as much gold as he wants. When she asks whether there can be too much, the raja laughs: “You can never give me too much gold.” But when the gold begins to bury him, he cries “enough” – and loses everything. Today’s financial system risks repeating the raja’s mistake. For too long, rising nominal wealth, asset prices and the fortunes of the ultra...

Norwegian police said on Wednesday that 28 men across seven countries had been arrested in an operation targeting buyers of material depicting sexual abuse of children. Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos), said the men had used the cryptocurrency Monero to pay for access to several forums on the dark web. “We have worked closely with six countries to coordinate the arrests of the identified users who paid with cryptocurrency to gain access to the forums,” police prosecutor...

Russian forces are trying to counter Ukrainian “mid-strike” drone attacks by camouflaging cargoes ⁠and installing powerful jamming systems to disrupt Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system, Ukrainian drone commanders and pilots have said. Kyiv’s development of “mid-strike” drones that can hit targets dozens of kilometres behind front lines accurately and cheaply, and are often flown via Starlink, has transformed the war in Ukraine. In a concerted mid-strike campaign this year, Ukraine...

Apple lost its challenge on Wednesday against landmark EU rules that designate its app stores and operating system iOS as gatekeepers subject to obligations aimed at giving rivals more room to compete. The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets out a list of dos and don’ts ‌for Big Tech with the threat of fines of as much as 10 per cent of a company’s global annual turnover, has triggered legal challenges by Apple, Meta and ByteDance since it took effect in May 2023. The ruling by the...

As another heatwave rolled across Europe, the warehouses emptied before the politics could catch up. Air conditioners and fans sold out across Spain, Italy and Germany, most of them Chinese. Fan sales in Spain alone on the retail platform of Alibaba Group Holding (which owns the South China Morning Post) nearly doubled last month while Midea Group’s air-conditioner sales in western Europe surged by over 70 per cent in the first six months of the year. A decade from now, such heatwaves may become...

British Columbia said on Tuesday it was preparing a lawsuit against OpenAI over the company’s failure to report violent ChatGPT activity by the person who committed a mass school shooting in the western Canadian province. OpenAI had banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025, months before the 18-year-old transgender woman killed eight people at her home and a school in the tiny mining town of Tumbler Ridge. Canadian families impacted by the February shooting have already...

Workers have started making emergency repairs to stabilise a Manhattan high-rise after buckled columns and sagging floors forced evacuations in and around the midtown construction site. The scene unfolded throughout Tuesday after the precarious conditions were spotted in the morning at the 1970s-era building, which is being converted into luxury flats. Construction workers at the site and people in nearby buildings – including a school, diplomatic offices and several hotels – in the busy...

The official urged requiring a fish farm to monitor for the tiny plastic particles. The E.P.A. said he had taken steps to embarrass the agency.

U.S. forces hit more than 170 targets, including air defense systems, drone and missile storage sites, and military speedboats.

The officials said that Iranian negotiators blamed the recent ship attacks on rogue military units.

Companies desperately want to get their ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz, but face mounting risks. “Things are becoming uglier by the minute,” one executive said.

The president has praised a network of 25 recently rebranded gas stations in the Philadelphia region that have been selling gas for considerably less than the national average.

Also, a major housing bill could become law without Trump’s signature. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday.

The last-minute scramble to name a replacement reminds some in the party of the challenges they faced in 2024.

The move paved the way for Democrats to choose a new nominee to challenge Senator Susan Collins in a race both parties see as key to the control of the Senate.

With plans still being finalized, officials are discussing a convention some time during the weekend of July 25-26 and are weighing options for choosing delegates.

Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed for a proposal to slash property taxes. But after some local Republican officials protested, he backpedaled, sort of.

The president did not say he would veto the housing legislation, so it would still become law unless he does. But his pronouncement reflects a growing rift between him and Senate Republicans.

He helped plot a car bombing in Washington that killed two people in 1976. Fifty years later, old government secrets could decide his fate.

Gov. Mike Kehoe declared a state of emergency after up to a foot of rain fell overnight in the southeastern part of the state. More storms are in the forecast.

Three children died last weekend when a storm whipped up 80 mile-per-hour winds and large waves on Geneva Lake in Wisconsin.

Start-ups are paying white-collar professionals to teach their jobs to artificial intelligence models. It’s a bonanza. It’s bleak. Where will it end?

A star 1,300 light-years away appears to have just consumed one world and is gearing up for seconds.

A space neophyte not long ago, China is now the United State’s main competitor for supremacy throughout the solar system.

A start-up company has permission to try its plan to bounce solar rays onto the dark side of Earth, turning night to day for a three-mile-wide patch.

The White House is sidestepping Congress to make huge decisions for even the most important private industries.

Helen of Troy was a legendary beauty, but also so much more.

A May lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims the newspaper discriminated against a white male employee who did not get a promotion.