Minimalist News

China Imposes Export Curbs On 40 Japanese Firms As Tensions With Tokyo Rise China imposed new export controls Monday on 40 Japanese entities it says are contributing to the country’s “remilitarization,” as tensions with Tokyo rise. China’s Commerce Ministry on Monday placed 20 Japanese entities, including the National Institute for Defense Studies and research centers for ground, naval, and air systems, as well as multiple divisions of Mitsubishi Corporation, on a control list, which prohibits Chinese and foreign exporters from selling to them dual-use items made in China. Dual-use items can be used for both civilian and military purposes. Additionally,

The US Economy In A Nutshell: Privatize The Gains, Socialize The Costs Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, Correspondent Simons Chase insightfully summarized this dynamic: Privatize the Gains, Socialize the Costs. In my post Five Dynamics That Make Sense of an Increasingly Chaotic World , #3 is the distribution of risk, costs and consequences to a diffused populace while concentrating the gains into the pockets of insiders/owners: Those seeking to reduce their private risks and increase their private gains seek to concentrate the gains generated by control structures and distribute the risks and costs to others. Pull the

Supergirl Movie A "Girl Boss" Bomb With Disastrous Opening Weekend There's no more excuses. Filming for James Gunn's Supergirl summer blockbuster started in January of 2025, with most of the US celebrating the defeat of woke politics and the downfall of DEI. There was no confusion in 2025; woke is dead. Gunn was well aware and decided to make an insufferable feminist "girl boss" movie anyway. In other words, his failure is his own fault. Either due to hubris, stupidity, or both. Initial projections for Supergirl a month ago hovered around $70 million for opening weekend. These estimates were already

LA Does Not Love LA Authored by Arthur Schaper via American Greatness , Rolling down Imperial Highway Sweet Nasty Redhead on my side Santa Ana winds blowing hot from the north We were born to ride. I love Randy Newman, and I love his signature song "I Love LA." When he won the mayor's race in 2001, James Hahn played that anthem to celebrate his victory. From city attorney to mayor, Hahn worked to ensure some decency and competence in the city. Fast forward to today, and Los Angeles is a hollowed-out, burned-out, blown-out shell of what it was. Hollywood

"Unbelievable Damage": 131-Mph Windstorm Snaps Wind Turbines In Half Across South Dakota An early morning storm ripped through Highmore, South Dakota, about 220 miles east of Rapid City, producing a reported 131 mph wind gust that, if sustained, would fall within Category 4 hurricane strength on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The South Dakota Mesonet station at Highmore has reported winds of 76 gusting to 131 mph at 6:25 am. NWS has issued a Civil Emergency Message for the area. https://t.co/SWdEBPXsud pic.twitter.com/WofSvWUnF9 — South Dakota Mesonet (@SDMesonet) June 29, 2026 Local KELOLAND meteorologists Scot Mundt and Brian Karstens were absolutely stunned by

Philippines Becomes World's Top Solar Panel Buyer By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com People in the Philippines are flocking to install solar power ​on rooftops and escape the burden of soaring electricity prices, making it the world's biggest spender on solar panels since ‌the war in Iran started. Top Philippines power distributor Meralco has raised prices by 10% since the Middle East conflict began in late February. Now, a median household spends around 12% of monthly income on electricity , assuming it consumes 200 kilowatt-hours, approximately the monthly average for three people. Amid record-beating electricity prices and a supply crunch in

John Fetterman Warns Mamdani About Defying SCOTUS Immigration Order The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a pair of clean immigration wins last week, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani responded by announcing he would ignore them. Now Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is sounding the alarm. The Court ruled 6-3 Thursday in Mullin v. Doe to allow the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian migrants . This ruling set off predictable outrage from the progressive wing of the party. Mamdani was first out of the gate. In a video

Alaska Judge Overrules Election Officials, Lets 'Fake' Dan Sullivan Stay On Ballot A retired elementary school teacher from Petersburg just punched his ticket back onto Alaska's Republican U.S. Senate primary ballot after he was accused of being a deliberate spoiler and struck from the ballot. Dan Sullivan of Petersburg announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate on May 29 to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan. (Photo courtesy of Dan Sullivan) Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews ruled late Friday that the Alaska Division of Elections had no legal right to disqualify Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. The Division had yanked him

RFK Jr. Says 1 Million Obamacare Enrollees Lacked Social Security Numbers Authored by AG News Staff via American Greatness , Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said 1 million people were enrolled in Obamacare health plans without Social Security numbers , as the Trump administration pledged to intensify efforts to combat fraud in federal health care programs. Kennedy disclosed the figure in a video posted to the social media platform X alongside Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. . @DrOzCMS and I are exposing how bad actors exploited the Obamacare marketplace

Venezuelan Housing Projects Collapsed "Like Sandcastles" As Twin Quakes Expose Socialist Rot Spanish daily newspaper ABC.es reports that some of the worst quake damage in Venezuela is concentrated in Caraballeda and Catia La Mar, where high-rise towers built under the Great Housing Mission Venezuela, or Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela (GMVV), were reduced to rubble. The Chávez-era socialist housing program is now facing scrutiny after the outlet noted, "The explanation given by engineers and construction specialists is that low-quality materials were used in the Chavista Housing Mission, without supervision and without applying anti-seismic standards." GMVV was later expanded by the socialist

Builders Vs. Gatekeepers Authored by Monty Donohew via American Thinker , A viral X post by @r0ck3t23 featuring Marc Andreessen hopes to ignite fresh debate in tech and political circles. In the clip, Andreessen articulates a blunt frustration familiar to anyone who has tried to build anything substantial in modern America: "Right now, in many cases in many places, no you can't. " The target is regulatory gridlock preventing factories, data centers, and, specifically the colocated nuclear microreactors many believe are needed to power the AI boom. The post's thesis is provocative. The old left-right divide is "obsolete." The real

Rate On China's New Overnight Liquidity Tool Comes Below Estimates, Hints At Imminent Easing Last week we showed four China-linked charts which made it very clear that, laughable flatlined 5% GDP notwithstanding, China's economy appears to be on the verge of yet another collapse (explaining the unprecedented drop in both Chinese oil imports and refining output ): between autos, real estate, banks and overall consumption, the economy - as seen by the market - was in freefall. China is fine pic.twitter.com/PFJzVCz9Ba — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 26, 2026 With sentiment collapsing, and amid growing speculation that Beijing will have no choice

The Party Of 'Our Democracy' Has Nothing Left But Chaos Authored by James Howard Kunstler, “. . . there is no saving the Left. Whatever happens to them, it will have to happen without people like you or me trying to get them to return to any place of sanity.” - Sasha Stone on Substack A punishing heat-dome creeps over the eastern half of the country just in time for the gala Fourth of July week. The days are brutal, but anything and everything crawls out of the woodwork when that blazing sun goes down and the moon comes out.

"Thanks For The Mammaries": Hooters Shutters Every Location In Four Blue States Iconic chicken-wing chain Hooters, famous for buxom waitresses wearing skimpy orange and white uniforms, appears to be throwing in the towel on its 35-year struggle to stay politically incorrect . As Ben Sellers writes for HeadlineUSA.com , while some restaurants, like Cracker Barrel , have successfully fought off the takeover of corporate wokeness , Hooters recently announced the closure of its last New York location, the New York Post reported . “Thanks for the mammaries,” the paper wrote in a nod to the voluptuous waitresses who became a

DOJ Sues States Over Alleged Failure To Turn Over Food Stamp Data Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times , The Trump administration has sued four states, accusing them of withholding crucial data on food stamp applicants. Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania refused to turn over information to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that would let federal officials identify fraud , Trump administration lawyers said in lawsuits filed on June 26 against the states. Officials are asking judges to enter injunctions that would force state authorities to hand over the last five years of applications for the Supplemental

Johnson Says Reconciliation Is The Only Path For The SAVE Act Speaker Mike Johnson returned to the Capitol this afternoon after several hours at the White House, telling reporters that the only viable path to enact the SAVE Act is to attach it to a reconciliation bil l - and that work is already underway. " The only way to get the SAVE Act to the president's desk, we've been shown many times, is to put it on a reconciliation bill, so that is in the process, " Johnson said, adding that he believes a version of the measure would

Citizen Vigilante Should Terrify Western Governments Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker , This movie is a warning to globalists... Director Uwe Boll just released a movie that is ticking off all the right people. Called Citizen Vigilante , it is an unapologetic rejection of globalism, mass migration, Islamic conquest, and “woke” leftism. The movie bashes politicians, judges, NGOs, and law enforcement agencies that have bent over backwards to excuse inexcusable crimes committed by non-Western immigrants. It unequivocally demands a return to law and order. It urges viewers to seek justice. It threatens the continuing survival of any Western

Hormuz Tanker Traffic Plunges After Fresh US-Iran Strikes Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz tumbled since late last week, as ship owners and operators froze up amid the renewed hostilities between Iran and the US over the weekend. The Thursday attack on the container ship Ever Lovely prompted some shipowners to pull back and wait for additional information about how safe transiting the Strait is. The U.S. military on Friday carried out strikes on Iran in response to the attack on the vessel. Then, on Friday and Saturday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted strikes against multiple targets

"You're Next!": Democrats Discover The Mob Has A Mind Of Its Own Authored by Jonathan Turley, “You’re next!” This chant, at the victory celebration of the Democratic Socialists this week, was a message not for the oligarchs or the billionaires, but for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and the Democratic establishment. They were threatening that Jeffries would be the next to lose his House seat to a socialist candidate. It was a scene that has recurred throughout history, as establishment leaders are overtaken by the very mobs they sought to use for their own purposes. For years, Jeffries has

Supreme Court: Lisa Cook Keeps Job - For Now, Lets Trump Fire FTC Commissioners The Supreme Court on Monday handed President Trump a significant defeat - ruling 5-4 that his attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook was procedurally invalid and that the Fed's century-old independence from presidential removal-at-will remains constitutionally intact. That said, it isn't over for Cook - as the Court said she can stay in her job for now - while she fights in lower courts against Trump's bid to oust her over allegations of mortgage fraud. In a majority opinion authored by Chief Justice Roberts

The 51-year-old daughter of late president Alberto Fujimori secured the top office after authorities spent weeks reviewing contested ballots Peru’s conservative president-elect Keiko Fujimori has vowed to restore “order and hope” after defeating left-wing candidate Roberto Sanchez, in the latest victory for a resurgent Latin American right. Fujimori won the 7 June presidential runoff by the slimmest of margins, outpolling Sanchez by fewer than 50,000 votes out of the more than 18 million ballots cast, the final results showed. Continue reading...

More than 100 people removed on ICE flight were being held in hotel in La Guaira when earthquakes struck More than 100 people just deported from the United States were being held in a hotel when earthquakes struck Venezuela, setting off a scramble to find survivors and bodies buried in the rubble, according to survivors. A deportation flight from Miami arrived in Venezuela hours before Wednesday’s earthquakes. Onboard were 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children, according to ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First, which tracks deportation flights. They were transported to a hotel in La

Caracas and La Guaira affected by 4.6-magnitude tremor as death toll passes 1,700 and humanitarian crisis grows A strong aftershock has rattled northern Venezuela, sending terrified residents racing on to the streets five days after the twin earthquakes that killed 1,719 people, left tens of thousands missing and triggered a growing humanitarian emergency. The aftershock early on Monday – which the US Geological Survey measured at a magnitude of 4.6 – shook the capital, Caracas, and the devastated port city of La Guaira, where rescue crews are still hoping to pull as many survivors as possible from the rubble. Colombia’s

No damage reported in 4.6 magnitude aftershock; At least 1,450 people are known to have died in initial quakes but number is expected to rise In an update to X, El Salvador’s president has said that after hours of intensive work rescuers have freed Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas, 21, who was trapped under a building in Caraballeda, La Guaira, calling the operation “a miracle”. “This rescue was made possible thanks to the coordinated effort of the rescue teams from Venezuela, Mexico, and El Salvador, who worked tirelessly to reach Aaron,” Nayib Bukele wrote in a social media post, adding that

Lucas Trejo of Argentina loses wife and two children while Héctor Bello’s partner dies saving their daughter Family members of two professional footballers are among those killed by the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela in a catastrophe that has claimed at least 1,719 lives . Among the reported victims are the wife and two children of Lucas Trejo, an Argentinian footballer signed to Club Sport Marítimo of La Guaira. He searched through rubble in the coastal city for his wife, Yanina, and their children, Aaron and Ainhoa, for three days before their bodies were recovered by rescue workers. Continue reading...

Guo Wengui, who gained fans for criticising China’s Communist party, was found guilty in 2024 on nine charges including money laundering A US federal court has sentenced exiled Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui to 30 years in prison, after he was convicted of defrauding thousands of people out of more than $1bn. In July 2024 , a jury unanimously found Guo, also known as Ho Wan Kwok and Miles Guo, guilty on nine of 12 charges, including securities offences, wire fraud and money laundering. The FBI arrested Guo, who is in his fifties, in March 2023 at his luxury Manhattan apartment

Two sides agree to try to make bilateral relationship ‘more balanced’ after weeks of threats The EU and China have agreed to enter three months of talks to try to avoid a trade war over the bloc’s €360bn (£310bn) annual import/export imbalance. In their first joint statement in seven years, the two sides agreed in Brussels to open a formal trade consultation after weeks of threats and recriminations from China if the EU imposed any measures to stop the flood of goods and components into the bloc. Continue reading...

Value of some chip manufacturers have tripled, or more, driving Asia Pacific stock markets sharply higher Shares in chipmakers have surged in the first half of this year as investors piled into companies that make the hardware underpinning the AI boom, according to analysis. Investors have driven up the value of semiconductor and memory chip manufacturers, whose profits have soared during 2026, at the expense of some large software companies, which have fallen out of favour this year. Continue reading...

Simon Peter Carman, 46, has denied the charges against him Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast An Australian man has been charged with the murder of a teenage girl whose naked body was found in a suitcase in Thailand. Pattaya City police told the Guardian the man, identified as Simon Peter Carman, 46, has denied the charges against him. Continue reading...

Election will determine balance of power in New Caledonia before fresh negotiations with France on the territory’s status Polls opened in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia on Sunday for the archipelago’s first provincial elections since 2019, after the vote was delayed as talks stalled over its political future. The election, initially planned for 2024, will determine the balance of power in New Caledonia ahead of fresh negotiations with France on the territory’s status, with independence remaining the defining political issue. Continue reading...

Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Chalmers defends house price forecasts The government has been facing some heat over the cooling house market around Australia with falling auction clearance rates, and forecasts that house prices in Sydney and Melbourne could fall more than $100,000. Auction clearance rates in Brisbane came up on the weekend, if you compare the preliminary numbers from the week before. They also came up in Adelaide. They came up nationally in aggregate, as I understand it. But in Sydney and Melbourne, we saw some softness there,

LNP denies claims that recent changes to child safety practices have led to an increase in the use of office space Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Queensland government has rejected claims its policies have further strained an under-pressure child protection system, after revelations that vulnerable children were made to sleep on the floor of public service offices. The premier, David Crisafulli, confirmed on Monday that the approach had been used under his LNP government, but his government said it would typically be done

Federal court judge rules Ofir Birenbaum breached parts of settlement with Middle Eastern restaurant reached after incident when working with Daily Telegraph Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A pro-Israel activist breached parts of a legal settlement with Sydney restaurant Cairo Takeaway when Ofir Birenbaum and his lawyer released “highly misleading and even deceptive” statements that implied they had won, a court has ruled. Justice Robert Bromwich handed down his decision in the federal court on Tuesday after the Middle Eastern restaurant in Newtown alleged

Six trucks – including one carrying eight tonnes of butane cans – destroyed at NSW rest stop near Breadalbane, police say Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Police say it is “nothing short of a miracle” that six truck drivers emerged relatively unscathed after an explosive crash involving semi-trailers carrying tonnes of flammable materials on a major New South Wales highway. Two trucks appear to have collided when entering a roadside rest stop, police said, with one crashing into four other rigs just after 5am

NSW transport minister says growth in shared schemes is a positive development but pedestrians are ‘crying out for order’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Shared ebikes cluttering Sydney footpaths will be kicked to the kerb in the coming months under funding to establish marked parking bays, the New South Wales government says. On Tuesday, the state government announced $6.6m in funding for Sydney local councils to nominate and paint dedicated parking areas. Each council will be given up to $200,000. Continue reading...

Source says Vadym Yermolaiev was one of two adults left with life-threatening injuries after apartment blast on Monday A parcel bomb blast wounded a Ukrainian oligarch and two others in Monaco on Monday in an unprecedented act that has rocked the super-safe principality. A couple and a teenager were wounded in the explosion at about 9pm on Monday in a residential building on a street along the border with France. Continue reading...

It feels as if we are being abandoned to our fate by those in power, with further extreme heat expected next week In the summer of 2019, I had a “fun” idea for a piece. Paris was due to experience its hottest day in history, and I proposed travelling around the city trying out its various cooling-off strategies to see if they would help. Reader, it was not fun and they did not help . Last week, Paris experienced its worst period of catastrophic heat on record, worse than that day in 2019, and worse than in 2003, when a

Two people said to be in critical condition after CCTV shows man dropping backpack at residential building lobby An explosion in Monaco has triggered a police hunt for a man suspected of detonating a makeshift bomb that injured three people. The blast occurred on Monday evening in the semi-enclave famous for casinos and superyachts, French media reported. Continue reading...

Four women among the dead and two people arrested after incident in city west of Hamburg Four women and two men have been killed in a shooting at a youth welfare facility ⁠in northern Germany, police said. Two people including the suspected ⁠shooter were arrested. The incident took place in Stade, a city close to the port city of Hamburg, on Monday afternoon. Police said the victims, employees of the shelter, were all shot inside the building. Five died at the scene and the sixth died in hospital. Police said the death toll could rise. Continue reading...

Red warnings issued in Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Balkans, with authorities urging people to stay indoors Parts of central, eastern and southern Europe sweltered on Monday as the “heat dome” behind last week’s record-breaking temperatures shifted east, bringing dangerous conditions to a new swathe of the continent. Budapest is forecast to exceed 40C on Tuesday, according to models from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Continue reading...

US president posts that meeting will take place on Tuesday in Qatari capital after exchange of fire in strait of Hormuz Iran is jealously competing with Oman as decision-maker over strait of Hormuz Donald Trump has claimed that Iran has agreed to hold talks in Doha after the US and Tehran traded fire in the strait of Hormuz this weekend, threatening the collapse of a ceasefire meant to keep the strait open and pave the way for peace talks. In a terse post on Truth Social, the US president claimed the meetings would take place in the Qatari capital, as

Tehran believes it should control the shipping route but its neighbour has its own plans for reopening it The strait of Hormuz is Iran’s chief bargaining tool in the negotiations with the US and so it was always likely to be the greatest point of contention. Every inch of the 24-mile-wide waterway is being contested in a test of wills and patience. For Iran, the continuation of the dispute is not a problem so long as it does not lose control. Continue reading...

Tehran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait amid efforts to open strait of Hormuz without Iran’s direct oversight Fresh hostilities in Gulf suggest US-Iran memorandum was too broadly worded A new round of escalating strikes between Iran and the US has continued, further undermining the fragile interim peace agreement between the two countries, and prompting Donald Trump to threaten violence that would ensure Iran “will no longer exist”. On Sunday, Tehran launched drone and missile attacks against Bahrain and Kuwait after new US strikes on sites in southern Iran, and threatened a “complete halt” to negotiations to end the war. Trump said

Document appears to have been subject to conflicting interpretations on key issues of Lebanon ceasefire and strait of Hormuz Middle East crisis live – latest updates The sudden eruption of fresh hostilities in the Gulf – just 10 days after Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding to end the conflict – threatens to put the two countries back on the path to war . It appears the deliberately opaque wording in the memorandum has been unable to withstand the pressure of conflicting interpretations, and as a result supporters of the deal inside Tehran are on the back

Iran attacked Bahrain and Kuwait after US strikes, and threatened a ‘complete halt’ to talks US and Iran trade strikes as both sides accuse the other of endangering ceasefire We will soon be closing this liveblog, but you’ll be able to stay up-to-date with our ongoing coverage of the Middle East here. Here is a summary of today’s events: Iran launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to US airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic , and threatened a “complete halt” in negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. US president Donald

Exclusive: Activist tells of his life as one of India’s most prominent political prisoners and his opposition to the government of Narendra Modi Prison is hardest at sunset. As the thousands of prisoners incarcerated in Delhi’s most infamous jail are cast out of their cells and forced into the dank yard until darkness falls, prisoner number 626714 feels the punishing dread begin to rise. Yet the inmate – better known as Umar Khalid – was recently moved to discover that another political prisoner, exiled at a camp thousands of miles from India, wrote of the very same feeling more than

Pakistan says strikes were aimed at a terrorist group while Taliban condemn ‘cowardly act of aggression’ Pakistani airstrikes in three eastern provinces of Afghanistan killed 36 civilians and wounded 163 others, Afghan officials have said, as attacks between the two countries showed no sign of abating. Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said the operations on Sunday night were aimed at a terrorist group his country blamed for a deadly militant attack in Karachi that killed three security personnel over the weekend. Continue reading...

Fears hard-won gains in reducing child mortality over 20 years are at risk after end of USAID funding for nutrition programmes Child malnutrition in Nepal has reached “alarming” levels, according to the largest ever survey of under-fives in the country. The new figures came just over a year after USAID, the former US flagship agency closed by the Trump administration in 2025, stopped funding work on child nutrition in Nepal. Continue reading...

Husband arrested after Sylvie Yasmina, 54, and five children found at home in north-western province Pakistan police say they have rescued a French woman and her five children after she told authorities she had been held captive by her husband for more than a decade and subjected to years of domestic abuse in the country’s north-west. The woman, identified as 54-year-old Sylvie Yasmina, was rescued earlier this week from a mud-brick home in Bara, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, the district police chief, Waqar Ahmad, said. Continue reading...

Rights campaigners and MEPs say meeting would normalise regime that erases women from public life Rights campaigners and MEPs have warned that a meeting between EU officials and a Taliban delegation in Brussels risks normalising a regime that has banned girls from school beyond the sixth grade and sought to erase women from public life, while its ranks include two leaders accused of crimes against humanity. A spokesperson for the Afghan foreign ministry confirmed that a delegation representing the ⁠Taliban had travelled to Brussels after the Belgian foreign ministry issued five single-day visas. Continue reading...

Founder of Maternity Safety Alliance says recommendation in Amos report will not solve wider cultural problems The appointment of a national maternity commissioner would be “fundamentally dangerous”, a bereaved mother who founded a maternity safety campaign group has warned. Emily Barley, whose daughter Beatrice died because of failings at Barnsley hospital in 2022, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the recommendation for a maternity commissioner in England in the Amos review was “not going to do what we need to move maternity safety forwards”. Maternity triage services – the childbirth equivalent of A&E – need an urgent overhaul, including

Hospitality trade bodies’ data published as celebrity chefs and restaurateurs launch campaign for VAT cut Nearly a quarter of UK pubs, bars and restaurants are losing money, according to new survey data that came as a group of celebrity chefs and business owners stepped up their campaign for a sector-specific VAT cut . Spearheaded by chef Tom Kerridge, leading figures in the hospitality sector are calling for VAT on the industry to be cut from 20% to 10%. Continue reading...

Energy system operator says sum needed to deliver clean power targets while meeting rising demand is up by 50% The cost of rewiring Great Britain’s electricity networks through the 2030s is now 50% higher than before the Labour government came to power, and could reach almost £90bn in the next decade, according to the energy system operator. Building new high-voltage transmission lines and infrastructure to connect low-carbon energy to the grid in the 2030s was initially forecast by the energy system operator to cost £58bn. Continue reading...

Simon Dubbins to announce he has secured required number of nominations to challenge Sharon Graham Sharon Graham, the leader of the UK’s second biggest union, Unite, is to face a challenge as general secretary over claims the union is not doing enough to challenge the rise of Reform UK. Simon Dubbins, who started out as a print worker and has been an international director with the union since 2008, will announce on Tuesday that he has secured the required number of nominations to mount a challenge. Continue reading...

Estimated 5.3m households on standard tariffs without smart meters risk being overcharged for some of June usage Millions of Britons could pay higher energy bills than they need to if they do not submit a meter reading before the price cap rises on Wednesday. The estimated 5.3 million households on standard tariffs who do not have a smart meter have been urged to take action before the new unit rates for gas and electricity take effect. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. Key cases today: Trump can fire federal regulators ; Lisa Cook firing unconstitutional ; bid to appeal $5m E Jean Carroll verdict ; mail-in ballots arriving after election day The supreme court is due to release some of its final opinions at 10am ET, with major decisions including on Donald Trump ’s effort to end birthright citizenship and to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook still to come. Last week the court handed the Trump administration huge wins in major rulings on immigration . It gave the administration a green light to block asylum

Carl Rinsch requested $11m for never-finished sci-fi series but diverted money to personal account, prosecutors said Hollywood writer-director Carl Rinsch was sentenced Monday to two-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of defrauding Netflix out of $11m for a never-finished sci-fi series. Supporters including Keanu Reeves had asked the court to show him leniency. Rinsch, best known for the 2013 samurai fantasy film 47 Ronin, was convicted in December of federal wire fraud and other charges. According to prosecutors and trial testimony, he told Netflix he needed $11m to finish a show called White Horse but diverted the money into

Challenger Dan Sullivan had been booted from ballot, but supreme court ruled he can compete against senator of same name A man with the same name and party affiliation as Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican, is qualified to run for the seat and ordered election officials to place him on Alaska’s primary ballot in August, the state supreme court ruled Monday. The ruling came hours after arguments on Monday and just days after state court Judge Thomas Matthews found the division of elections had “abused its discretion” in booting the challenger Sullivan from the ballot. The supreme court, in a

Sonderling is filling in as acting secretary after Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced she was leaving in April Donald Trump announced he is nominating Keith Sonderling to serve as US secretary of labor, a role he is currently filling as acting secretary after Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s announced her departure in April. “It is my Great Honor to announce that I am nominating Keith E. Sonderling, the outstanding Acting United States Secretary of Labor, to be permanent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Keith previously served as Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer and, during my First Term, worked at the U.S. Department of Labor

Settlement requires archbishop to write apology letter to each survivor and implement child protection reforms The San Francisco Catholic archdiocese has agreed to pay $395m to settle more than 500 lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by church officials, plaintiffs’ attorneys said Monday. Salvatore Cordileone, the San Francisco archbishop, will have to write an apology letter to each survivor as part of the settlement. Continue reading...

Peru’s conservative president-elect Keiko Fujimori vowed to restore “order and hope” as final results showed she narrowly won the election in the latest victory for a resurgent Latin American right. She inherits the task of running a country hit by powerful organised crime gangs and chronic political instability, as it burned through eight presidents in the past decade. Her win also means the name Fujimori is back in the presidential palace more than two decades after the fall of her late...

More than 100 people just deported from the United States were being held in a hotel when earthquakes struck Venezuela, setting off a scramble to find survivors and bodies buried in the rubble, according to survivors. A deportation flight from Miami arrived in Venezuela hours before Wednesday’s earthquakes. On board were 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children, according to ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First, which tracks deportation flights. They were...

Lutao Cen was swimming off Margarita Island, where he has lived for four decades, when twin earthquakes measuring above magnitude 7 struck northern Venezuela within two minutes. Only after returning to shore did he learn what had happened. Messages flooded his WeChat feed. Friends in Caracas, Valencia and Maracay described buildings collapsing and streets filled with dust. Then came the news he had feared most. A close friend in La Guaira, chairman of the local Chinese association, had been...

The recent visit of Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, carried the task of accelerating the development of the Northern Metropolis. This is not another urban expansion, but a strategic test of whether Hong Kong can reinvent its role in the nation’s innovation landscape. At its core, the Northern Metropolis bears a dual mission. For Hong Kong, it must become a growth engine, creating a third curve of development, beyond finance and real estate, by nurturing original...

Alex Murdaugh was back in court Monday on charges he killed his wife and son, appearing silently at a pretrial hearing that was mostly short on substance but long on spectacle as the true-crime sensation continues to captivate. Murdaugh’s murder convictions and sentence of life in prison were overturned last month by the South Carolina Supreme Court. On Monday, a new judge laid out a timeline for hearings set the retrial to begin April 5. She also nailed down deadlines for making sure the...

Swiss authorities on Monday returned 18 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria in a ceremony at the National Museum in Lagos, the latest addition to the nation’s growing collection of repatriated treasures. Countries across Africa have been pushing in recent years for the restitution of artefacts and artworks taken during the colonial period – including Nigeria’s famed Benin Bronzes, which were looted as spoils of war by the British and today are scattered in museums and private collections across the...

A law professor known for his expansive views of presidential power and for decades-old memos that justified harsh interrogation techniques after the September 11 terror attacks says he will be advising a team of prosecutors investigating whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against President Donald Trump. John Yoo confirmed in an email to Associated Press on Monday that he would be assisting Joe diGenova in an ongoing investigation into whether officials who over...

French police on Monday detained a couple after their 15-month-old twin daughters died of suspected dehydration, a source close to the investigation said. The couple’s four other children, aged three, four, five and six, were hospitalised with dehydration but were not in life-threatening condition, the source said. The parents alerted emergency services in the northern town of Beuvrages after discovering the twins in their beds, a police source said. Preliminary findings indicate that the...

In a bid to cool searing trade tensions, the European Union and China have launched a new ministerial-level platform for solving grievances, with Brussels insisting that disputes over trade imbalances, export controls and intellectual property must deliver “tangible results” by October. On Monday, in the middle of marathon talks in the Belgian capital, the sides issued a rare joint statement, in which they announced four initial workstreams, focused on trade and investment balancing, export...

Penelope Keith, a comic performer who shone as flinty but lovable upper-crust characters in British sitcoms The Good Life and To the Manor Born, has died aged 86. Keith’s family said on Monday that she had been diagnosed with cancer and died at her home in Surrey, near London. Keith began her acting career onstage and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963 but she found her greatest fame on television. She won a Bafta (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award in 1977 for The Good...

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has visited Russia and then China following a series of public exchanges with Ukraine, meeting President Xi Jinping in Beijing and Russian President Vladimir Putin at his Valdai residence. Lukashenko told Xi that being in China was for him “like coming home”, Belarusian journalists accompanying the delegation reported on Monday. Xi said China supported Belarus in preserving its state sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, according to...

The US Supreme Court on Monday fortified President Donald Trump’s powers to fire members of independent government agencies, but carved out protections for the Federal Reserve by blocking the firing of Governor Lisa Cook. In a 6-3 ruling, the court’s conservative majority rejected a challenge by Democratic Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, ruling that Trump had the power to fire “subordinates who exercise the President’s power”. The decision is expected to have wide-ranging...

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a push by President Donald Trump to throw out a jury’s finding that he sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll at a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. The High Court declined to take up the case in a brief, unexplained order, as is typical. There were no noted dissents. Trump’s lawyers had argued that allegations leading to the US$5 million verdict were propped up by “highly inflammatory” evidentiary rulings, including...

Russian missiles and drones killed at least 11 civilians and injured 40 others in Ukraine on Monday in what President Volodymyr Zelensky described as “horrific attacks”, while the nation’s energy grid buckled under temperatures in excess of 36 degrees Celsius, hit by the deadly heatwave that has afflicted much of Europe. Russian drone and missile attacks have decimated Ukraine’s energy network since Moscow invaded in February 2022, causing tens of billions of dollars worth of damage and leading...

Six people were killed in a shooting on Monday at a youth welfare facility in the northern German town of Stade, police said. Five people – four women and a man – died at the scene of the shooting. A sixth, also an adult, died later in hospital. A main suspect was arrested, while another two people were subject to “police measures” on suspicion of involvement, police said in a statement without elaborating. They said several people were wounded, some of them seriously, German news agency dpa...

The deadly heatwave that’s set temperature records across western Europe for more than a week has shifted east to scorch Hungary, Romania and the Balkans. Hungary’s Budapest is expected to top 40 degrees Celsius (104F) on Tuesday, according to models from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Belgrade in Serbia and Bucharest in Romania will reach 38 degrees and 37 degrees, respectively, on Monday. Red warnings for extreme heat have been issued in Poland, Hungary, Romania,...

Andy Burnham, Britain’s presumptive next prime minister, has set out details giving more powers to local government as part of a plan to spread wealth and economic growth. Saying Westminster “is not working” and is “broken”, he set out a sweeping economic vision in a key speech from Manchester – where he was mayor for nine years – to bring voters, colleagues and financial markets up to speed with his ideas during his rapid progress towards power. “We need to change politics and we need to do it...

As more patients recover from the world’s largest recorded Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak, doctors are beginning to piece together how the rare virus behaves, offering the clearest picture yet of one of the disease’s least-studied strains. The number of recoveries reported by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) health authorities almost doubled in a week, rising to 148 on Thursday from 80 on June 18, even as treatment centres admit dozens of patients daily. ⁠The DRC said late on ⁠Sunday that...

The critical 72-hour window for finding survivors of the powerful twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela had mostly closed by Monday, leaving international teams facing a grim race against time to pull anyone else alive from the debris. The death toll has surpassed 1,450 and nearly 200 buildings have completely collapsed. On Monday, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele shared the rescue ⁠of 21-year-old Aaron Levi from a collapsed building in the disaster-stricken state of La Guaira. “This rescue...

Every few minutes, the mortuary owner’s phone rings. Since a record-smashing heatwave started taking lives and storage space for bodies in Paris and beyond, the funeral directors and mourning families calling him mostly have the same question: do you have room for one more? With all 32 places in his cold room taken, Zouhaeir Hertelli reluctantly has to gently say “Non”, over and over and over again. “We’re facing a really catastrophic situation,” he said. “I’m getting hundreds of calls.” As the...

Nasa is racing to save an ageing telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission. The US$30 million salvage operation gets under way as soon as this week with the planned launch of a robotic lifesaver. Nasa hired start-up Katalyst Space Technologies to boost the Swift Observatory to a higher orbit where it can continue hunting for some of the universe’s biggest explosions. A three-armed spacecraft built by Katalyst will chase after Swift once it takes off from an atoll in the...

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China’s AI-powered laser mosquito zapper goes viral after crowdfunding success 2. Why Malaysia’s tourism boom lives and dies on a Chinese app 3. As Europe sizzles amid extreme heat, the hunt for China’s aircon remains elusive 4. Cathay Pacific says sorry to actor Wu Chun over 3-day luggage delay...

The public consultation for Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s last policy address of his current term is under way. Will he, for example, listen to the people about whether the baby bonus, one of the initiatives aimed at raising the birth rate and which is set to expire in October, should continue? Lee did say in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post that his government plans to “collect wisdom” before deciding. According to the chief executive, Hong Kong experienced a 10 per...

Sovereign wealth funds and central banks managing US$29 trillion in assets are turning to energy assets, and raising concerns about the dollar, in a portfolio reassessment driven by unprecedented geopolitical shifts, according to a survey ‌published on Monday by independent global investment management firm Invesco. The survey of 90 sovereign wealth funds and 54 central banks showed an increasing focus on diversification, and investment portfolios that can “take a hit and still hold it together”...

Iranian and US technical teams working on the implementation of an interim peace deal are expected to meet in Doha in the coming days, after tit-for-tat weekend strikes threatened to derail the fragile accord. The exchanges have underscored the fragility of a Pakistan-brokered agreement to end the conflict that has killed thousands and snarled the flow of oil shipments through the vital Strait of Hormuz. Although a ceasefire took effect in April, sporadic violence has flared up in the Gulf...

US President Donald Trump lashed out on Sunday at Washington’s presumptive next mayor, calling her a communist who would destroy the capital city, even as he touted grandiose building projects including the refurbishment of a golf course. Trump said in the Truth Social post that he would meet Janeese Lewis George, who prevailed in the Democratic Party mayoral primary on Tuesday which all but assures that she will win November’s election in the heavily Democratic city. But Trump warned that he...

Andy Burnham, the Labour lawmaker expected to replace Keir Starmer as British prime minister, will outline his vision for Britain on Monday, his office said, promising to change how the nation is governed with power moving from London to ‌the regions. Burnham, who returned to Westminster earlier this month after winning a parliamentary seat, is currently the only declared candidate to take over from Starmer and could be installed in Downing Street within weeks. Starmer announced last week he...

Thousands of protesters descended on the Serbian city of Kraljevo on Sunday, keeping up pressure on President Aleksandar Vucic a day after he said he would step down ‌within weeks to pave the way for early presidential and parliamentary elections. Although many protesters expressed satisfaction with Vucic’s resignation, they fear he may not fully relinquish power. Analysts say he may try to run for prime minister and install an ally in the presidency so he can continue to wield power. “I cannot...

⁠Kate, the Princess of ⁠Wales, said on Sunday that she had ⁠scaled the three highest peaks in the UK in 24 hours to raise money for a cancer charity, citing it as a personal achievement following her own battle with the disease. Kate, 44, the wife of heir to the throne Prince William, is in remission after ‌undergoing chemotherapy for an undisclosed form of cancer and, while she has returned to royal duties, she has spoken of the toll the illness has taken on her and her family. In a post on her...

Ukraine kept up its heavy drone assault on Russia, setting fire to a major oil refinery in the south, as President Vladimir Putin acknowledged for the first time on Sunday that the country was facing a “certain deficit” of fuel and vowed to strengthen protection of oil facilities and boost fuel output. Ukraine has markedly stepped up its long-range attacks on Russian military industries and energy facilities in recent months, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for its invasion – now in its fifth...

Turkish police on Sunday detained at least 50 people, including a journalist, during a Gay Pride event in Istanbul that went ahead despite a ban by local authorities and the lockdown of the city’s main gathering point, organisers said. Police stepped up security around Istanbul’s famed Taksim Square, erecting iron barriers, while local officials banned demonstrations in key rallying areas, including the Asian-side district of Kadikoy. The governor’s office also restricted subway transport in...

Car bombs and gun attacks killed five members of Israel’s Arab minority Sunday, the latest violence to hit a community that has already recorded dozens of deaths this year. Criminal violence has escalated among Israel’s Arab minority in recent years, where gangs extort residents and business owners for protection and frequently kill those who fail to pay. In Jaffa, part of the Tel Aviv municipal area, a car bomb killed a man in his 40s, police and emergency services said, while Israeli news...

A skydiving plane crashed on Sunday in northeastern France, killing all 11 people on board – among them a group of nurses – local authorities said, the country’s deadliest ever general aviation accident. The crash in the town of Tomblaine killed five instructors, five students and the pilot, said Yves Seguy, the prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department. The students were nurses, according to the head of Meurthe-et-Moselle’s nursing council, Thierry Pechey. “They were colleagues who had...

Generals losing a war examine the enemy, battlefield and their own forces. Brussels prefers a different sequence, ordering new weapons first and worrying about the diagnosis later. That instinct was on display at the recent European Council meeting. Faced with a trade deficit it cannot close and dependencies it cannot shake, the European Union agreed on a new label: “global macroeconomic imbalances”. To solve them, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was reportedly directed to...

A British man has been arrested in Ecuador after the body of a woman was found inside a suitcase despite him telling The Sun newspaper that he was watching England at the time. Matthew Ashley Foster-Smith is alleged to have caused the death of 36-year-old Natalia Villalba in a flat in the Chico neighbourhood of Bogota, Colombia, on June 18, local authorities said. But the 46-year-old from Bournemouth reportedly rang The Sun a day before his arrest and said: “I was watching England vs Croatia on...

A helicopter crash in Saudi Arabia killed 14 Saudi citizens on Sunday, the kingdom’s official press agency reported, adding that the aircraft belonged to state oil giant Aramco. The Saudi Press Agency, citing an official at the energy ministry, reported the helicopter crashed in Ras Tanura in the country’s east. “The accident claimed the lives of all 14 passengers, all Saudi citizens,” the agency said, adding that an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the crash. Aramco says it...

France has ⁠recorded 1,000 excess deaths ⁠during the blistering ⁠heatwave sweeping Europe, the public health agency said on Sunday, warning that the true figure was likely to be higher. Detailing its preliminary count of excess ‌deaths, Sante Publique said most of the fatalities involved older people and that it expected the mortality rate to rise as more information became available about deaths in residential care and homes. Europeans have been enduring blistering ⁠conditions during a heatwave...

On June 4, at a packing facility in Limuru near Nairobi, Kenya, avocados were being prepared for the Chinese market. The scene may seem mundane, but the politics behind it is significant. China has removed tariffs on imports from 53 African countries. African exporters are beginning to think about Beijing less as a distant buyer than as a market that could reshape their margins. When the UN projected 4 per cent gross domestic product growth for Africa for 2026, the figure landed quietly. No...

Iran and the US continued their attacks in the Gulf as each accused the other of violating an interim deal signed less than two weeks ago to end their four-month-old war. Shortly after President Donald Trump warned the US might “militarily complete the job”, Iran early on Sunday launched missiles and drones on US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain, continuing a series of escalating attacks. Beyond the Gulf, Israel said it had struck Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon as...

A recent apology by the Dutch prime minister to the Netherlands’ Malukan community for systemic mistreatment by the state has met with mixed responses; some welcomed the remorse while others demanded concrete action over symbolic words. On June 21, Rob Jetten formally apologised to members of the 75,000-strong Malukan community for the state’s mistreatment of the first generation of Malukans who arrived in Europe 75 years ago from the Maluku Islands in Indonesia, historically known as the Spice...

Hong Kong cannot be faulted for not working hard enough to catch up in the global artificial intelligence (AI) race. Government funding is flowing generously towards projects focused on AI adoption. In recent years, the government has pumped billions into building the necessary infrastructure, including HK$2.84 billion (US$364 million) for a semiconductor centre, HK$3 billion for an AI subsidy scheme and another HK$1 billion allocated for an advanced AI R&D institute. In March, the government...

Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday that he would resign his post within weeks, paving the way for early elections following youth-led protests that shook his tight grip on power. Vucic did not specify exactly when he would resign or when an election, either for parliament or for a new president, could be held. He has said in the past that he could leave the post amid speculation that he would try to switch to the formally more powerful position of prime minister of the...

A man with the same name and party affiliation as Alaska Republican US Senator Dan Sullivan is eligible to challenge the senator in the August primary, a judge ruled on Friday. Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews’ ruling overturns a June 15 decision by Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher to disqualify the challenger and keep him off the primary ballot. Matthews’ ruling can be appealed to the state Supreme Court. Lawyers for the state have said Tuesday is the deadline for a final ruling...

An 11-year-old boy was rescued from the rubble more than three days after twin earthquakes struck Venezuela, as rescuers on Saturday raced to find survivors and the death toll reached 1,430. Tens of thousands of people were reported missing as collapsed buildings dotted cities in a country already enduring an economic crisis and political upheaval after US special forces captured authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro in January. Millions of people were also feared to lack sanitation and other...

More than 100 Catholic bishops, nuns, priests and parishioners joined a procession across ⁠the US-Mexico border on Friday evening, urging the US government to treat migrants with dignity and respect. The procession, from Nogales, Arizona, to its sister city in the Mexican state of Sonora, was planned to coincide with commemorations of America’s 250th anniversary. “We want to be well together. This is what the Church is all about,” Bishop of Tucson, Arizona, James Misko said as he celebrated mass...

It took six days to determine the outcome of the primary for Los Angeles mayor, and seven for the governor’s race.

After months of silence, Representative Tom Kean Jr. was expected to deliver a speech explaining his 116-day absence from Congress.

Republicans had sought the removal of a little-known candidate with the same name as the incumbent senator, arguing that he was not a “good faith” candidate.

A federal judge says that the administration’s attempts to block money for the $16 billion rail project were “flagrantly” illegal.

Time and again, President Trump has brushed off Americans’ concerns about the economy and their financial situations.

The clash reflects increasing skepticism of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which has been willing to pursue President Trump’s priorities.

As OpenAI and Anthropic prepare to go public, tech workers making six figures are grousing that they cannot compete with the new A.I. elite. Some doubt they can afford to stay.

Scholars say the “unknown unknowns” of using artificial intelligence in the workplace may be undermining the technology’s advertised benefits.

A law meant to end surprise medical billing has led to large paydays for some surgical assistants, who can earn far more than the doctors they help.

The businessman courted U.S. conservatives as an anti-Communist crusader while using his supporters’ money to buy lavish homes and a Bugatti supercar.

Dangerous heat is expected across much of the country through the Fourth of July weekend.

Emily Barker was one of two women who died fighting a large forest fire in Colorado this week.

Thousands of acres in Utah and other Western states have burned. Here is what to know about the firefighters who have died, the destruction so far and the spreading smoke.

Since last week, meteorologists issued a series of increasingly dire warnings about extremely critical weather conditions.

Keiko Fujimori, a daughter of the former strongman Alberto Fujimori, returns her family’s movement to power, but with a narrow victory in a divided country.

An impending clash between Pope Leo and ultratraditionalist Catholics threatens to end the pontiff’s honeymoon.

Venezuela’s natural disaster was unavoidable, but the devastation it has left in its wake was not.

The “Last Week Tonight” host said the United States was “dealing with a literal swamp of corruption” for its 250th birthday.

The authorities said a 45-year-old man opened fire at a youth facility after a quarrel about the custody of his baby daughter. The dead were all facility employees.