Minimalist News

The 10 States Losing Public School Students The Fastest Public school enrollment is shrinking across much of the United States, but nowhere faster than West Virginia. An August 2026 study by family location-tracking app iSharing found that the state lost more than 10,500 public school students between 2021 and 2024, a decline of 4.2%, the steepest in the country, according to family location-tracking app iSharing , The trend reflects a broader demographic shift. Births have fallen in 44 of the 50 states, meaning many schools are receiving smaller incoming classes. In West Virginia, births dropped 18.3% between 2005 and 2024.

How Socialism Gains Popularity Authored by Sylvia Xu via The Epoch Times, More than 80% agreed economic hardship can make socialist policies attractive even to people who oppose socialism. Most Americans see communism in an unfavorable light, and a strong majority of Epoch readers say it’s incompatible with the United States’ founding principles . Yet socialism, an early stage of communism, continues to attract people by promising equal wages, low costs, and public benefits. The goal sounds appealing, but the means have historically included higher taxes and extensive state control. When asked about a movement in the United States to

San Mateo County Passes Resolution To Regulate Commercial Humanoid Robots Authored by Lear Zhou via The Epoch Times, San Mateo County may become the first in California to regulate humanoid robots used for commercial purposes. The county board of supervisors on Aug. 11 passed a resolution sponsored by Supervisor Ray Mueller to direct county legal and administrative staff to draft an ordinance regulating the use of untethered autonomous or semi-autonomous humanoid robots, or “mobile humanoid robots,” in restaurants, retail stores, and other businesses. State law already regulates autonomous vehicles but not the commercial use of humanoid robots, according to a

"US Can't Bomb Its Way To Victory": Scotiabank Maps Bessent's Coming Economic Hammer On Iran Brent crude futures ended last week near $88.50 a barrel as traders awaited details of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's planned escalation campaign of the economic war against Iran . Bessent said Friday that Washington would announce unprecedented economic-isolation measures next week , warning that the coming pressure campaign would be unlike anything " seen in the history of economic isolation on a country ." US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced upcoming unprecedented economic measures against Iran amid ongoing blockades of its ports pic.twitter.com/OV3etgd2k0 — Chay

Autopsy Bombshell: Los Alamos Lab Worker's Death Looks Like Murder Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , Fresh autopsy findings on the skeletal remains of a Los Alamos National Laboratory administrative assistant have delivered a direct challenge to any suggestion of suicide. Melissa Casias was found propped against a tree in a remote stretch of New Mexico forest nearly a year after she vanished. The gunshot path through the base of her skull has left investigators and family members pointing to foul play - and the case now sits inside a much larger cluster of dead and missing scientists

Tokenization Of H₂O: Elites Are Claiming The World's Water Supply & Plan To Trade It Submitted by Patti Johnson, Yep, you heard me right. This is not a joke or exaggeration. The facts are out there for all to see. I wrote about the tokenization of nature in my article “From Blockchain to Ball and Chain: Are We Being Borged?” This article will deal primarily with the tokenization of the world’s water supply. Tokenization: Turning Life Itself into a Tradeable Chip For those who do not understand tokenization, here is a short and simple explanation: Tokenization means turning something real,

Beijing Wants Nvidia Out But China's AI Developers Aren't Ready China has spent years pouring money and political capital into building a homegrown semiconductor industry. Yet when its AI companies need to train their most sophisticated models, many still turn to Nvidia, according to South China Morning Post . The biggest obstacle may no longer be the chips themselves. It is everything developers have built around them. Nvidia’s CUDA software has become deeply woven into the way AI labs operate. Models, training tools and internal workflows have been designed around the platform, meaning switching to Chinese hardware can resemble rebuilding

'Wolves In White Coats': 5 Key Takeaways From HHS Report On Alleged Pediatric Gender-Treatment Fraud Authored by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times, A report released Aug. 13 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has shined a light on alleged fraud by health providers who performed pediatric gender procedures. The report , titled “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of ‘Gender Medicine’,” examined the actions and motives of 225 healthcare institutions and found they allegedly put profits and gender ideology ahead of patient needs. Here are five key takeaways

The Decline Of Higher Education Continues Authored by Mike McDaniel via AmericanThinker.com, During my second career teaching high school English, I noticed several darkly funny but disturbing trends in “higher” education. They were fueled by three primary drivers: abandoning merit, the federal government taking over the student loan industry, and DEI hysteria. It was Barack Obama who federalized the student loan industry, pushing the idea that everyone should go to college. To make that idea a reality, it was necessary for the government to guarantee student loans. That had plenty of unfortunate and foreseeable effects. Because Colleges no longer had

'Delusional': Iran Fires Back At Trump's Make 'Hormuz Strait A Territory Of The US' Ambitions Predictably, Iran has on Saturday issued a full-throated rejection of President Trump's Friday evening words related to the status on the conflict and energy transit in the region. In a speech on New York's Long Island, Trump introduced the idea of declaring the Strait of Hormuz a US territory. "After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated — pretty soon, I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States," Trump told a crowd of law enforcement officers. Trump on

Second Ceuta Border Invasion Attempt Underway As Military-Aged Migrants Mass Near Spanish Enclave Summary: Second Ceuta Border Invasion Attempt By Sub-Saharan Africans Ilegals Public Health Disaster Unfolds In Ceuta After First Invasion, Weeks Ago Hybrid Warfare Fears Mount As Migrant Flows Weaponized Italy's Schengen suspension with Spain will remain until security risks disappear Weaponized Migrant Flows: Spain's Ceuta Border Under Attack (Again) Multiple open-source reports indicate that thousands of illegal aliens are massing near Spain's Ceuta border , raising the prospect of coordinated attempts to breach the enclave for the second time. If verified, the invasion attempt comes just weeks

Ukrainian Drone Swarm Attack Obliterates Wildberries' Largest Warehouse Near Moscow Ukraine launched one of its largest kamikaze drone attacks of the war against Russia on Sunday, with Russia's Defense Ministry saying air defenses intercepted 822 Ukrainian drones overnight, including roughly 600 headed toward Moscow. Ukrainian long-range missiles and drone swarms have targeted high-value military assets and oil and gas infrastructure deep inside Russia this year, with Ukraine stepping up its latest attacks on logistical networks, such as Russia's version of Amazon, called Wildberries. 🔥 Ukraine has taken 7 of Wildberries’ 10 largest logistics hubs out of operation. On Sunday night,

British Busybodies Flood '999' To Report Neighbors' BBQs After Stupid Government Alert Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , Millions of phones across England and Wales blared a sudden siren on Friday evening as the government unleashed its emergency alert system over 'wildfire risk'. What followed was a wave of neighbour-on-neighbour reporting that left fire services and police inundated with non-emergency calls about barbecues in gardens and parks. JUST IN – UK Government issues severe national emergency alert over the risk of wildfires. pic.twitter.com/brMgNR6DxU — Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 14, 2026 The same compliant instincts that flourished during COVID appear

How Americans Spend Their Time On Weekdays Vs Weekends The rhythm of American life changes significantly when the workweek ends. Weekends and holidays bring more time for rest, recreation, chores, and social connections. At the same time, work and education occupy a much smaller share of the day. This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, shows how Americans aged 15 and older redistribute their time between weekdays and non-workdays. The data for this visualization comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey . Work Gives Way to Free Time Work accounts for the largest shift in

What To Expect From El Niño And La Niña? As a strong El Niño phenomenon is being predicted for the coming months, large parts of the United States can potentially expect a wet and stormy fall and winter. As Statista's Katharina Buchholz details below, this is seen in data from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University. You will find more infographics at Statista While El Niño can also bring excess rain to parts of South America, Central Asia and Africa, it can exacerbate drought conditions in places like the Pacific Northwest, the Amazon, Central America

Why Are They Getting Free Sh*t? Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , A major British telecoms giant is supplying thousands of free SIM cards loaded with six months of data to a charity that hands them out to illegal migrants arriving in the UK via boats, it has been revealed. The charity Care4Calais has distributed more than 162,000 items to nearly 30,000 people, including 2,221 Vodafone SIM cards, 3,765 hoodies, 3,532 pairs of joggers, 1,174 T-shirts, 1,173 Ramadan food packs around Calais, 2,770 cold-weather "snug packs," and 1,169 weatherproof garments. The charity also ran 80 drop-in sessions and

Inside Five Years Of Taliban Rule Since US Chaotic Exit Via Middle East Eye Five years after the Taliban’s return to power on August 15, 2021, Afghanistan has transformed from a chaotic battlefield into a functioning but deeply authoritarian state . Foreign troops are gone, and fragmented opponents have failed to mount a significant challenge to Kabul’s centralized control. The movement has established a degree of internal security unimaginable under the previous government. However, this stability rests on systematic exclusion, most notably of women, leaving the nation economically fragile and politically isolated . While the Taliban have proven they can

Where In The World Are The Beer Lovers? While many countries have their own special days to celebrate beer , one of the oldest alcoholic beverages known to humankind, International Beer Day is aimed at beer drinkers everywhere. Every first Friday in August, special events are held in bars and pubs around the world. As Statista's Katharina Buchholz details below, some countries' inhabitants might be more prone to celebrate than others. You will find more infographics at Statista A recent Statista Consumer Insight survey shows that some Latin American countries exhibit a share of between 35 and 44 percent of

How Much Money Should You Convert To A Roth Each Year? Authored by Javier Simon via The Epoch Times , A Roth conversion allows you to turn funds in a traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. As a result, you get to enjoy qualified tax-free withdrawals in retirement. And you avoid the required minimum distributions (RMDs) that may trigger major tax consequences for retirees. Roth conversions can deliver major tax benefits, but knowing how much to convert is crucial. Jack_the_sparow/shutterstock However, a Roth conversion can also set off surprise tax bombs if you convert a large enough amount . But

The Massachusetts Abortion Law Could Backfire On Democrats Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey spent this week signing away one of the last hard limits on abortion in a state that already ranked among the most permissive in the country, and now even some of her own party's lawmakers think she went too far. The Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act strips away the state's statutory ban on abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Physicians in the state can now perform abortions at any point in the pregnancy, based on their own professional judgment, with no gestational cutoff written into law. The

President, 80, vows to keep far-right from power as Flávio Bolsonaro tells supporters he will ‘fight this system’ Brazil’s leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has launched his campaign for a historic fourth term and vowed that as long as he lived he would not allow the “shameless” right to return to power. Addressing a sea of supporters in São Bernardo do Campo, the industrial city where his political career began nearly half a century ago, the 80-year-old politician reminded voters of the chaos and violence that unfolded during the 2018-22 presidency of his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro ,

Win is significant for region’s premier, Doug Ford, who blames protected zones for city’s traffic ills The Ontario government is now free to rip out Toronto’s bike lanes on its busiest streets after the region’s top court ruled in favour of the province on Friday, overturning a lower court’s decision that decreed removal would violate constitutional rights. The win is significant for Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, and his government, who have long railed against Toronto’s bike lanes, blaming the protected zones for the city’s traffic ills . Continue reading...

Grifols, which runs private chain of clinics, to temporarily stop taking donations after new government investigation A chain of private plasma donation clinics in Canada has said it is pausing collections after the deaths of two donors and a new government investigation into potential unsafe practices. Grifols, a Spanish healthcare company which runs 17 clinics in Canada and is the country’s only private clinic for plasma donation, said it informed Health Canada of its decision to temporarily pause collections on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Move will be one of first large-scale foreign investments in country since US ousted leader Nicolás Maduro in January BP has answered Donald Trump’s call for oil companies to help rebuild Venezuela’s fossil fuel industry with new plans to develop a large offshore gasfield. BP will partner with two oil firms with close links to the Trump administration to develop the second phase of the Loran gasfield, in one of the first large-scale foreign investments in Venezuela since the US ousted its leader Nicolás Maduro in January. Continue reading...

Ángel Aguirre indicted in case that rocked Mexico and became symbol of its brutal cartel violence The former governor of Guerrero state in Mexico has been formally charged over his alleged involvement in the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, a case that has become a symbol of the country’s brutal cartel violence and government impunity. Ángel Aguirre, who was arrested last week , is accused of forced disappearance and obstruction of justice for ordering the destruction of surveillance tapes that may have shed light on what happened to the students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college on the night

President says move is based on ‘very good relationship with Kim Jong-un’ but US military officials have said Ukraine war is boosting regime’s combat capabilities Donald Trump has said he is scaling back joint US military drills with South Korea aimed at deterring North Korea, despite military officials from both countries warning that Kim Jong-un’s regime was learning new battlefield tactics from the Ukraine war. The drills under Ulchi Freedom Shield, one of two major annual exercises held by South Korea and the US, start on Monday and run until 27 August. Continue reading...

Discussions to focus on Australia’s acquisition of Mogami-class frigates as Japan plays down Albanese’s podcast comments Japan’s defence minister will visit Canberra this week, the highest level engagement with Australia after controversy over Anthony Albanese’s comments about a gift of melons from prime minister Sanae Takaichi. The defence minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, will meet his counterpart and deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, on Tuesday, with discussions focused on Australia’s acquisition of Japan’s Mogami-class frigates and enhanced security cooperation. Continue reading...

Searchers dig through collapsed buildings and debris after 7.7 magnitude quake killed at least 53 people Rescue crews dug through collapsed buildings and landslide debris in eastern Indonesia on Sunday as they searched for bodies and possible survivors a day after a powerful earthquake killed at least 53 people, injured more than 100 and displaced thousands. At least 24 people died in Manggarai regency and 17 in neighbouring East Manggarai, with additional fatalities reported in Sikka, Ngada and Ende regencies, the national disaster management agency said. Rescuers were still searching for people feared buried beneath landslides triggered by the quake

Quake struck Flores region early on Saturday, prompting thousands to seek higher ground for fear of a tsunami A 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Indonesia has killed at least 47 people, causing widespread panic and collapsing buildings and homes in a region prone to deadly seismic events. Rescuers have yet to reach Nagekeo, the area closest to the epicentre, because roads were blocked by landslides and communications disrupted. Continue reading...

Evacuation orders issued for 400,000 after flooding, landslide warnings and power outages in Chiba prefecture At least five people have died in eastern Japan after “unprecedented” heavy rain that left nearly 7,000 stranded at Tokyo’s Narita airport and forced thousands to take refuge in government buildings. The torrential rains hit Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, on Thursday night, triggering landslide warnings and power outages. Evacuation orders were issued for more than 400,000 people in Chiba and other areas, and about 45,000 homes lost power, as 115mm of rain fell hourly, approximately the same amount usually recorded for the whole month

Vote to accept state government’s latest pay offer ends year-long negotiations. Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Hume says housing the ‘best indicator of economic security’ in retirement over super The deputy Liberal leader, Jane Hume says the Coalition will reconsider whether Australians should be able to access more of their superannuation balance early after Pauline Hanson called on Sunday for super rules to be “lightened up a bit” and allow workers to their money in times of crisis. It’s something that we will obviously consider as part of our

One seller says second world war memorabilia containing banned Nazi symbols is legal under exemptions to the laws Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Nazi artefacts bearing prohibited symbols are being openly sold in Australia three years after the federal government made it illegal to do so, with vendors saying they are doing so for “educational” reasons. The government in 2023 outlawed the display and trade of items bearing the Nazi Hakenkreuz (swastika) and double-sig rune that was the logo of the Schutzstaffel (SS), after

Australia records 3% fall in one-year-olds fully immunised against hepatitis B as downward trend continues, expert says Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australian medical experts have warned a shift in child vaccination advice in the US is not grounded in science and could undo decades of public health advances. The US president, Donald Trump, signed an unprecedented executive order calling for American children to be vaccinated against fewer diseases, suggesting a link to autism despite no evidence. The official number of recommended immunisations for

After securing wage rises for low-paid workers, weathering death threats and working with three PMs – the ACTU secretary is ready for a break Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Sally McManus started her job as the country’s most powerful trade union leader amid howls of criticism. Shouted down for suggesting union members were right to break “unjust” industrial laws in a live TV interview, McManus quickly adjusted to the high-decibel work of being secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. Continue reading...

Neill takes award for performance in legal thriller The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer, at a ceremony dominated by wins for the ABC Logies 2026 ceremony: the best moments and red carpet looks – in pictures Sam Neill has won a posthumous best actor award at Australia’s biggest television awards, the Logies, with comedian Sam Pang taking home the night’s top honour, the Gold Logie award for most popular personality. Neill, who died in July , won his posthumous Logie for best lead actor in a drama for his performance in legal thriller The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer. His close friend,

Head-on collision between two vehicles on M9 in County Kildare also injured four other people, say police Five teenagers have died and four other people have been seriously injured in a crash involving a car driving in the wrong direction on a motorway in the Republic of Ireland, police said. Gardaí confirmed the bodies of the youths, all male, had been removed from the scene of the two-vehicle collision, which happened at about 3am on Sunday on the M9 in County Kildare. Continue reading...

Couple die in Salamis, while multinational forces and local farmers tackle Belgium’s biggest fire in a century near Liège An elderly couple died in fires on the Greek island of Salamis on Sunday and Belgium is battling its largest modern-day wildfire at an inaccessible area near Germany, in the latest wave of European wildfires. The couple died outside their home in the Peristeria beach area of Salamis, Greece’s coastguard said. More than 500 people were ordered to evacuate. Continue reading...

Kyiv launches what may be its largest attack wave of war, with fire breaking out at warehouse near Russian capital Ukraine has launched one of its largest drone attacks since the start of the war, causing a fire at a distribution warehouse near Moscow and killing at least six people overnight, according to Russian authorities. The defence ministry in Moscow said it had shot down 1,478 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours – the highest ever total claimed – in an escalating air war in which seven Ukrainians were also killed as Russia bombed 13 locations inside the country.

Hundreds watched the 56-metre monument’s consecration, including anti-communist leader Lech Wałęsa An enormous statue of the Virgin Mary that is believed to be Europe’s tallest was inaugurated on Saturday in a small Polish village, in the presence of the anti-communist leader Lech Wałęsa. Hundreds of people took part in the consecration of the monument, which towers 55.6 metres (182ft) over Konotopie in central Poland, a village of fewer than 150 people. Continue reading...

Theft of four works on national holiday described as wound to historical memory and cultural identity of city of Messina Four of the most important works of art by the 15th-century Renaissance master Antonello da Messina were stolen during a national holiday from a museum in the Sicilian port city of Messina. Thieves gained access to the Regional Museum of Messina , or MuMe, on Saturday evening, possibly capitalising on attention being focused on La Vara, a huge religious festival that takes place in the city on 15 August, when Italy marks the Ferragosto national holiday. Continue reading...

Trump’s son-in-law and envoy held rare meeting with Hamas chief in Egypt in push for progress on ceasefire Donald Trump’s son-in-law and envoy, Jared Kushner , held a rare meeting with Hamas ’s political chief on Sunday in Egypt , in a new diplomatic effort to make progress in the stalled Gaza ceasefire. Kushner will meet on Monday with Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure after rejecting the new 15-point, US-backed road map. The talks aim to salvage the plan for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory shattered by war . Continue reading...

Rescue services search for survivors and bodies after airstrikes hit homes in Ansar and Deir al-Zahrani Eleven people have been killed, including three children, and 19 injured in two Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon, the worst toll since deals in June brought a lull in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. Israeli warplanes bombed a home on the outskirts of the village of Ansar, killing seven people and flattening the building early on Saturday morning. Rescue services were working at the site to try to find survivors and locate bodies. Continue reading...

Seriousness of remark made in New York on Friday, and whether it signaled new policy ​position, not clear Donald Trump has threatened to declare the strait of Hormuz as “a territory of the United States” as his administration struggles to conclude the war with Iran. During a speech at a police academy on Long Island, New York, on Friday, the US president said he would “pretty soon” designate the waterway – a crucial chokepoint for global trade, through which about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supplies typically pass – a US territory. Continue reading...

Palestine’s vice-president calls plan ‘flagrant violation of international law’ and a step towards full Israeli annexation Israel’s defence minister wants to transfer law enforcement powers for Israelis in the occupied West Bank over to the police, a plan that Palestine’s vice-president described as a “flagrant violation of international law” and step towards full Israeli annexation. Israel Katz announced that he had ordered the military to draw up plans for the handover of responsibility for policing Israeli settlers amid domestic and international criticism of the army’s failure to tackle militants besieging three Palestinian families . Continue reading...

Israeli PM criticised by political rival for attacking an international ally and overseeing ‘horrific diplomatic failure’ The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the UK “the Islamic republic of Britain” in a podcast interview, where he also described the country as the “first Islamic republic to get a nuclear weapon”. His comments, made during an interview for Israel’s army radio, played into a common far-right Islamophobic trope about Britain’s small Muslim population. Continue reading...

UK has refused resettlement application despite ‘years of loyal service’ that have resulted in ‘constant fear’ of reprisals A man has received threats from the Taliban after his work for the Afghan police was revealed by a Ministry of Defence leak and the UK refused his application for resettlement. Hamid* worked for the Afghan national police special unit and received certificates for his work signed by senior British figures praising his “dedication, unparalleled service and leadership”. His details were also included in an accidental 2022 leak by an MoD official that identified 18,700 Afghans who had worked with or for

Campaigners fear deeper diplomatic contacts are undermining demands for improvements in human rights The Taliban in Afghanistan have launched a diplomatic effort to end their isolation as major regional and international powers show a readiness to engage more closely with the repressive regime despite its systematic human rights abuses. Five years after the Taliban took power , an increasing number of countries are renewing ties or scaling up diplomatic contacts with the hardline Islamists, who seized power in Kabul in 2021 after 20 years of brutal insurgent warfare. Continue reading...

Kyaw Zwar Minn was ousted for declaring loyalty to Aung San Suu Kyi after 2021 coup but refused to leave his home Myanmar’s ousted ambassador to the UK has gone on trial on trespassing charges for refusing to leave a diplomatic residence after being unceremoniously locked out of the embassy in 2021. Shortly after Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021, triggering mass protests that spiralled into a civil war, Kyaw Zwar Minn was locked out of the embassy for declaring his loyalty to the deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Continue reading...

The wild capture and release of a female big cat into a nature reserve is the first step towards reintroducing a population that hasn’t been seen for 70 years On 31 July, “Umit” – which means hope in Kazakh – was released into a nature reserve on the edge of Lake Balkhash after more than a decade of careful planning to return the caspian tiger to the region. With this release, Kazakhstan became the first country to restore its tiger range after they had been thought extinct, with the last reliable sighting in the country recorded more than 70 years

An Amnesty International report reveals that the country is now a key part of Israel’s weapons supply chain. Plus, Assam floods, student anger spreads and a song to put in rotation • Don’t get This is India delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Hello, and welcome back to This Is India. For this week’s newsletter, I’m looking at India’s evolving relationship with Israel, and how it has deepened as conflict swept across the Middle East. Why is it that India has formed an even closer bond with a country that has faced mounting international isolation and backlash over a

Robert Jenrick takes aim at disabled people and foreign nationals after saying UK guilty of ‘suicidal empathy’ Reform UK has been accused of excluding the most vulnerable from society and punishing non-Britons living in the UK as it prepared to outline £50bn of cuts to benefits for disabled people and foreign nationals. Robert Jenrick, Reform’s finance spokesperson, will detail the plans for £20bn of cuts to disability benefits overall, as well as another £21bn from stopping foreign nationals – including EU citizens with settled status – claiming almost any benefits, among other cuts. Continue reading...

Efforts of emergency services and military in Blaenavon appear to be working but there are fears for the future More than three weeks after it began burning and two days after the military deployed to the area, there is hope that the huge wildfire on the hillside above the Ebbw valley village of Blaenavon may finally be coming under control. Emergency workers and soldiers described a gruelling battle against the deep-seated peat fire that has spread over 4,000 hectares (9,800 acres), putting lives, farmland and property at risk. Continue reading...

Suppliers could factor water scarcity into charges as part of Ofwat proposal to reduce consumption Water companies could be allowed to raise bills for customers during periods of drought under proposals being considered by the sector’s regulator for England and Wales. Suppliers would be permitted to factor “water scarcity” into bills as part of efforts to reduce consumption under Ofwat’s plans, which are being likened to surge pricing – the practice where private hire firms raise taxi fares at times of higher demand. Continue reading...

Revelation comes after it was disclosed that Reform UK backer had paid for spying on prominent journalist The businessman and Reform UK backer Arron Banks commissioned a private intelligence firm to dig into the Conservative party chair, in addition to having paid for an investigation into a prominent journalist. Banks, a former Reform UK candidate and leave campaign donor, appeared to confirm on Sunday that he was behind an investigation into Kevin Hollinrake. Continue reading...

University says it continued to provide support after resignation of academic, who was found dead on Friday The University of Cambridge has defended its mental health support for the academic Jason Arday. The university said it had continued to provide Arday with extensive mental health support and security measures, including installing panic alarms and screening racist emails and post, after he resigned from his post as professor of sociology of education this month. Continue reading...

Hurricane Lala downgraded after skirting Big Island as one person dies and over 130,000 households are without power Hurricane Lala weakened to a tropical storm on Sunday after skirting Hawaii without making landfall, but it wasn’t done punishing the Big Island with hurricane-force gusts. Total rainfall of nearly 3ft (1 meter) was expected on the higher windward slopes, turning rivers into raging torrents and threatening mudslides. The Hawaii governor, Josh Green, said at least one person died in a car accident in the South Point area of the Big Island, where more than 100 homes were destroyed. More than 200,000

Outgoing Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor, voted to confirm anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr as health secretary before speaking out Republican senator Bill Cassidy – a medical doctor who voted to confirm anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy as federal health secretary in early 2025 – on Sunday denounced Donald Trump ’s “crazy, stupid” claims about the safety of the combined MMR vaccine for undermining faith in immunization. When Trump recently ordered changes to the recommended childhood vaccination schedule, with Kennedy by his side, the president called for two shots of the combined Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine to be

Suspect, 19, who is not enrolled at the university arrested in connection with shooting of five people, authorities say A young man suspected in connection with the shooting of five people on Saturday on the campus of Virginia State University (VSU) hid in a dormitory closet for more than 14 hours before being found and arrested, according to authorities. The suspect – identified as 19-year-old Camron Harris – was found in Seward Hall on VSU’s campus at 4pm, local police Lt James Lamb said, according to the Virginia news outlet WTVR . The shooting occurred at about 1.30am on Saturday.

Four-year-old boy, two men and three women among those who died since storms began on 11 August, officials say Days of storms and flooding in Indiana left at least six people dead as flood waters peaked in Indianapolis’s White River – and rains were expected to ease in the state capital region and other parts of the state on Sunday. A four-year-old boy, two men and three women were among those who had died since the storms began on 11 August, state homeland security department spokesperson Liz Woods said. Continue reading...

Senator Ruben Gallego calls carrier’s months-long deployment a ‘deep problem’ as wellbeing concerns mount Democrats on Sunday intensified their demands for answers from the Trump administration over conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln as the aircraft carrier’s nearly nine-month deployment continued fueling concern over crew morale, mental health and living conditions. Ruben Gallego, a Democratic senator from Arizona, said on Sunday that problems aboard the Lincoln had kept mounting – and he blamed the carrier’s prolonged deployment on the unresolved war that Donald Trump started in February with Iran as well as lackluster leadership in general from the Republican president’s

Thieves stole four works attributed to Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina worth millions of euros from the regional museum in the city of Messina in Sicily while crowds gathered across town for the traditional Assumption holiday celebrations, cultural officials and Italian media said on Sunday. The thieves bypassed alarm and security systems on Saturday evening at the MuMe museum, making off with three of the five surviving panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych, dated to 1473, as well as...

US negotiator and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner held a rare meeting with the Hamas chief on Sunday in a new diplomatic effort to make progress in the stalled Gaza ceasefire. Kushner will meet Israel’s prime minister on Monday. The talks aim to salvage the new 15-point, US-backed road map for Hamas to disarm in Gaza and Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory shattered by war. At stake are the lives of some 2 million people in Gaza and the reconstruction of the...

A passenger bus travelling on a highway in Hungary early on Sunday went off the road and into a ditch where it overturned, killing 12 and injuring others, police said. The bus, which was carrying a group of Polish tourists, was travelling on eastbound lanes near the town of Mezokeresztes when it overturned on the M3 motorway around 140km (87 miles) east of Hungary’s capital, Budapest, at around 1am on Sunday. In a statement, police said it was likely that the driver fell asleep, causing the...

Iran’s military announced on Sunday that it was offering a bounty equivalent to US$30,000 for killing or capturing US soldiers, with the reward doubled if carried out by a woman. Army chief Amir Hatami said the plan had been drawn up following a “large number of requests” to take part, according to the IRNA state news agency. There has been no known deployment of US ground forces in Iran during the Middle East war, with the exception of a rescue mission in April for a downed American...

Britain’s BBC asked a US court for help in getting documents and testimony from members of US President Donald Trump’s family in connection with his US$10-billion defamation lawsuit against the British broadcaster, a court document showed. Lawyers for the BBC argued that Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jnr have “personal knowledge” and are likely to have records relevant to elements of Trump’s claims against the broadcaster, according to a filing on Friday in federal...

Russia carried out a wave of air strikes on Ukraine overnight, killing two people at a steel plant, and Kyiv launched a heavy drone attack on the Moscow region that killed one person and set ablaze a warehouse ‌used by Russia’s leading e-commerce retailer. Romania, which borders Ukraine, said an F-18 fighter on a Nato air policing mission had shot down a drone that breached its airspace during the latest attacks. It did not specify the origin of the drone, which entered from Moldova, but a...

More than 700 trucks carrying international humanitarian aid arrived in Afghanistan via Pakistan despite a near-total closure of the land border between the two countries following clashes in October, the United Nations said on Sunday. The convoy was carrying “food and other critical humanitarian items,” Olga Cherevko, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan, told reporters. United Nations Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan...

Firefighters battling Belgium’s largest modern-day wildfire were counting on crucial air support on Sunday to help tame the blaze in a hard-to-access nature reserve, after it doubled in size over the previous 24 hours. More than 250 firefighters and emergency personnel were mobilised through the night, according to a Sunday morning update from the regional government which warned conditions in the High Fens park near the German border “remain challenging”. From 80 hectares burned on Friday, the...

Whether he is pulling a pint, tossing a builder’s helmet in the air or running with Olympic medallist Mo Farah, the UK’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has embraced social media with a deft touch. As well as putting out videos on his own accounts on X and TikTok, he has sought to broaden his audience by appearing on entertainment channels run by creators with large followings. Compared with predecessor Keir Starmer, “Burnham has a far more astute communications team around him” with a “better...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the US is getting ready to squeeze Iran with unprecedented economic pressure, a claim critics greeted with scepticism given the country is already subject to a naval blockade and thousands of sanctions. While the Trump administration has not said what it is planning to do, there are still pressure points that Bessent’s Treasury Department could hit. The main challenge is that targeting the remaining options risks blowback on the US economy. “Unless the...

Colombia’s new President Abelardo de la Espriella on Saturday called on his US counterpart Donald Trump to suspend tariffs currently targeting the South American nation, which is reeling after a deadly earthquake. US tariffs on Colombian products rose from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent in late July, with a few exceptions including coffee and oil. “I asked him to consider to temporarily suspend the high tariffs that are affecting Colombian products, in order to give some relief to our business...

Iranian authorities revealed on Saturday that three of Tehran’s pilots who went down early in the Middle East war were still being held in Qatar, calling on the Gulf state to release them. Iran had previously reported one pilot killed and others missing after a sortie to Qatar in March, but news of their alleged capture was not publicised at the time. “Three Iranian pilots were captured alive by Qatari forces after their Su-24 fighter jets crashed during the war,” said General Mohammad...

Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon killed at least 11 people on Saturday, in the deadliest attacks since a truce between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on June 20. Lebanon’s health ministry and state news agency said an air strike that targeted a home on the edge of Ansar village killed seven people, including three children, and wounded two. The second, on the village of Deir al-Zahrani, killed four and wounded 17. Israel and the Lebanese government announced a “framework agreement”...

Police in Virginia have arrested a 19-year-old in connection with a shooting on Saturday that left five people injured. No one died in the shooting, though one victim sustained critical injuries. Chesterfield county police announced the arrest of Camron Harris of Henrico, Virginia. They found him hiding in a wardrobe on campus on Saturday afternoon. He was not a student at the university, authorities said. Police said they obtained eight felony warrants for his arrest including malicious...

The US is readying unprecedented economic measures against Iran, as President Donald Trump seeks to intensify efforts to force Tehran to capitulate after almost six months of war. The president said in a brief interview with Fox News that the US was planning to hit Iran’s economy hard, and that he did not care if the conflict were to end before the November US midterm elections, which would hinge on voter perceptions of the economy. Trump has struggled to find an off-ramp to the war, which has...

Russia is confounding expectations that its influence in the Middle East would drastically decline after the downfall of Syria’s Assad regime in 2024. At the time, Moscow operated about 100 military facilities in the war-torn country, following its intervention in the Syrian civil conflict from 2015 to prop up then president Bashar al-Assad in alliance with Iran and its regional proxies. When Assad was forced to flee to Moscow, and control of most of Syria was seized by Islamist rebels led by...

Thirty lions and tigers that were kept alive – barely – for years in cramped concrete cages at a closed Argentine zoo began entering jumbo-size transport crates on Friday as they embarked on ambitious journeys to wildlife sanctuaries halfway across the world in South Africa and the United States. The cats are being rescued from the former Lujan Zoo, about 70km (43 miles) northwest of Argentina’s capital of Buenos Aires, after years of uncertainty over their fate. Four Paws, the international...

President Donald Trump on Friday said he would “soon” declare the Strait of Hormuz waterway part of US territory after defeating Iran. “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated – pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” he said with a chuckle during a political rally at a police academy in Garden City, New York. “It’s true,” he added. It was unclear how seriously Trump intended the remark or whether it represented a new policy...

UK academic Jason Arday, who resigned from the University of Cambridge last week amid a high-profile plagiarism storm that featured racism claims, was found dead on Friday, the prestigious British institution confirmed. Arday, 41, was found unresponsive on Friday afternoon at an address in south London, according to the capital’s Metropolitan Police Service, which did not confirm the identity of the deceased person discovered. “We are desperately saddened to hear this tragic news,” Cambridge...

President Donald Trump dismissed concerns on Friday over living conditions and the mental health of service members on a US aircraft carrier deployed against Iran, while confirming the ship would soon rotate out. Asked by reporters whether family members were worried about the situation on the USS Abraham Lincoln, Trump said “no, they’re not”. Trump also rejected the idea that the ship – now at sea for nine months – had been deployed for too long. “No, no, no, not nearly enough,” he said. The...

Italian authorities recovered three artworks by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse worth millions of euros that were stolen earlier this year from a private museum near the northern city of Parma, police said on Friday. A statement from the Italian Carabinieri’s art recovery squad said the artworks were discovered during searches ordered by prosecutors, but no details were given. The investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, Brazilian police said late on Thursday that they had located eight stolen works by...

Luigi Mangione admitted in court on Friday to fatally shooting US health insurance executive Brian Thompson and pleaded guilty to two federal charges of stalking the executive with the intent to kill him. “I shot Mr Thompson in Manhattan and ‌he died,” Mangione said. The guilty plea will avert a federal trial in the closely watched case over the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, a brazen crime that was condemned by public officials but became emblematic of Americans’ frustration with health...

Li, a woman in her late twenties from southwestern China, is anxious about her coming interview for a 10-year US visa. She has big plans for her travels – a weeks-long stay next year that would be her first visit to the country – followed by a planned return trip in two years while pregnant so her child can attain American citizenship. But those plans have been thrown into doubt. Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to end “birth tourism”, tightening scrutiny on...

A helicopter pilot has died after crashing in a forest in eastern Germany while carrying out liming work, the police directorate in the city of Chemnitz said on Friday. Workers managed to pull the man from the helicopter after the impact, police said. Despite immediate first aid administered at the scene, the man died from his injuries. The helicopter had no other people on board. Police did not provide information on the identity of the pilot or the cause of the accident near the small town of...

A drone entered Latvian airspace and was shot down by Italian Eurofighter jets, the military said on Friday. The decision to shoot it down was taken to avert a threat to Latvia’s population, Defence Minister Raivis Melnis said. An air alert was lifted after the drone was intercepted, Latvia’s military said on social media, after authorities had urged people across the Baltic state to avoid going outside and seek shelter. A spokeswoman for Latvia’s military said the drone was shot down over a...

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage won his self-triggered by-election in southern England on Friday, but saw his strategy to silence critics backfire when his main rival, Count Binface, a comedian dressed as a trash can, took more than a quarter of the vote. In a highly unusual move, Farage, one of Britain’s leading Brexit campaigners, did not turn up at the vote count in the southern English seaside resort of Clacton because, he said, ‌the police had advised him there was a campaign to disrupt the...

The top US priority now in the Iran war is no longer its nuclear programme but to bring petrol prices down for American consumers, the vice-president said on Thursday, with the treasury secretary adding that new economic punishment to wear down Tehran is imminent. The comments by Vice-President J.D. Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent illustrate the powerful leverage Tehran has gained by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz. Preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon – consistently...

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 completes milestone test of US$10.8 billion canal link to Southeast Asia Chinese authorities have conducted the first full transit test along a 134.2km (83.4-mile) canal megaproject linking a vast inland region with Southeast...

Some sailors have reportedly tried throwing themselves into the sea, basic supplies can run short and sanitation is going awry: life on America’s giant Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is increasingly difficult as the Iran war drags on. The ship – now in its ninth month of deployment – is expected to be replaced in the Middle East by another carrier, the George Washington, in a move sure to be welcomed by the Lincoln’s crew and their loved ones. But concerns about conditions on the Lincoln have...

In every civilisation, certain stories capture the psyche so profoundly that they are retold across centuries. In the West, Homer’s Odyssey is the one. Countless adaptations have emerged over millennia, inspiring literary giants from Dante Alighieri to James Joyce. Christopher Nolan’s cinematic adaptation is merely the latest. While it reflects the British-American filmmaker’s personal vision, it also offers a glimpse into the anxieties and self-reflections of today’s Western elite. Homer’s...

President Donald Trump ordered the US Navy to return to using steam catapults to launch planes off of aircraft carriers, acting on a long-time complaint despite opposition from many naval officers. In a presidential memorandum, Trump ordered US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to come up with a plan within 60 days on what would be needed to use hydraulic catapults in the next Gerald Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The planned USS Doris Miller will be the fourth ship in the six-vessel...

Luigi Mangione is expected to plead guilty on Friday to resolve federal charges relating to the fatal shooting of UnitedHealth Group executive Brian Thompson, and prosecutors will recommend he serve life in prison, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The plea would come at a Friday hearing that US District Judge Margaret Garnett set after federal prosecutors and defence lawyers jointly requested one. Court records did not identify the purpose of the hearing, and it is possible...

When Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the Mecca defence agreement, they executed a structural overhaul of the Middle East’s security architecture. The pact codifies a defence commitment, where an armed attack on one is treated as an assault on all. Building upon September’s Saudi-Pakistan defence agreement, this tripartite arrangement bridges the financial capital of the Gulf, the...

⁠Bird remains were found ⁠in the engine of a Ryanair Boeing 737 NG plane where a passenger was partially sucked through a broken window shortly after take-off from Greece in July, the US National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday. The NTSB ‌is investigating the incident where a piece of the engine broke off the plane and smashed the window. The plane, headed to Germany, lost pressure and was forced to make an emergency landing. The NTSB said in its preliminary report into the July 10...

The Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington has begun heading towards the Middle East, according to Navy statements and open source information on the ship’s movements. This comes as reports have emerged of mental health and supply issues aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose long deployment to the Middle East in support of the Iran war includes a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days. The USS George Washington left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week,...

The Kennedy Centre board voted on Thursday to add US President Donald Trump’s name to the facade of the performing arts venue and move forward with a two-year closure, according to congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a trustee through her position in Congress, and her lawyers. A representative for the Kennedy Centre did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The moves set up a test of US District Judge Christopher Cooper, who ruled in May that letters affixed to the building and spelling out...

A passenger train derailed on Thursday in southern England, seriously injuring two people and causing minor injuries for nine others after three carriages overturned, the British Transport Police said. The Southern Rail train from Victoria station in London to Eastbourne was carrying about 150 people when it went off the tracks outside the tourist town of Lewes. Passenger Rob Bradley said the train began rocking as it picked up speed and the carriage he was riding in with his six-year-old...

A professor managed US funding of computer science research for more than two years while failing to disclose that he was simultaneously involved in Chinese government programmes, according to previously unreported documents. The professor, Tao Li, was a programme officer at the National Science Foundation from 2015 to 2017, a job that included overseeing the awarding of grants for research in areas such as hardware, software and algorithms. During that time, Li took part in two Chinese talent...

Poland has ⁠arrested a ⁠Russian man who was ⁠hired by Moscow to kill a Ukrainian-American citizen in Warsaw, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday. The Russian was detained on August ‌7 and had been recruited to kill a man who was “inconvenient to the Putin regime”, Tusk told journalists. The Russian embassy in Warsaw did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Moscow has regularly ⁠dismissed accusations by European powers of attacks, saying the West ‌is stoking...

A blast at a ⁠storage facility for petroleum products at the Netherlands’ Rotterdam port killed one person and wounded six others on Thursday, officials said, as police investigated the cause of the explosion. A spokesperson for major energy commodities trading company Gunvor said an “incident” occurred during maintenance work on a storage tank. A police spokesperson said that there was no immediate ⁠sign of sabotage and that all possible scenarios were under ‌investigation. Rotterdam is...

German police said on Thursday that a suspicious object found on rail tracks in a Bavarian ‌town did not contain explosives, as initially feared. Earlier on Thursday, buildings near the object were evacuated in the town of Treuchtlingen for the item to ⁠be moved safely by a robot. Experts had earlier taken ‌X-ray images of the object that was found in the southern ‌part of the town. The public ⁠had ⁠been urged to steer clear of the area, which ‌was cordoned off, police also said on social...

Chinese carmakers could capture between 15 and 30 per cent of the European automotive market by 2035, up from roughly 10 per cent this year, analysts at Citi said, with the outcome resting on how far Brussels goes in tightening tariffs and made-in-EU rules. Current European Union rules would allow Chinese carmakers to reach 30 per cent by 2035 – Citi’s base scenario – while extending existing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to plug-in hybrids would cap the market share at 25 per cent, Citi...

US military facilities across the Pacific are in a worrying state of decay, the Pentagon inspector general warned, raising concerns about bases that are critical to deterring China. Corrosion and holes in buildings, falling ceilings and the presence of mould and asbestos were among the problems identified through inspections of 11 US facilities across the region and relayed to a dozen senior Defence Department officials in an emergency management advisory this month. The issues have affected...

The US military campaign against Iran has so far failed to force Tehran to capitulate. The Trump administration is betting once again that suffocating economic pressure will do the job. Facing a shortfall of necessary munitions and wary of continuing an unpopular war, Trump and his top officials are returning to a familiar playbook with Iran: relying on a steady increase in economic sanctions and a naval blockade to stifle oil exports. The renewed emphasis on economic pain – it was dubbed...

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited on Thursday Russia’s far eastern Kuril Islands for the first time, prompting a “strong” protest by Japan, which also claims the territory, and drawing diplomatic backing for Tokyo from the United States. Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by tensions over the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945. The Kremlin posted a video of Putin in the Kuril Islands, with Russian media saying...

President Trump’s Air Force One subterfuge duped potential adversaries — and the press. Here’s what happened.

Not all progressives are equal: Candidates of the activist left typically don’t perform as well as other Democrats.

Brandon Herrera, long an anti-establishment outsider, is trying to help the party defend a red-leaning House district in West Texas. It’s proving messy.

A lingering weather system has brought severe flooding and intense winds — including a few tornadoes — to Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, killing at least eight.

Since last week, hazardous weather has caused seven deaths, forced people from their homes and required some to be rescued by boat. The region was at risk for more flooding on Sunday.

After tearing an elbow ligament, he underwent a risky procedure and returned at his best, changing baseball and giving new hope to injured players.

The case represents a new front in President Trump’s mass deportation drive: arrests at airports of people who have active immigration cases and no criminal history.

As part of its expansionist approach to the Western Hemisphere, the Trump administration is trying to reassert its dominance, one U.S. visa at a time.

A woman who secured the criminal file of her grandmother, a collaborator, offered to share it with a Jewish family that had been betrayed. Then she balked and a new dispute ensued.

When prices spiked in 2021-22, wages failed to keep up for many workers, new research shows. Now the pattern is repeating.

A fatal accident has drawn attention to New York Harbor, a popular destination where not everyone necessarily knows the rules — or follows them.

A diving feat landed her on the cover of Sports Illustrated and led to a film and TV career. She also took part in one of the first LSD studies.

The race to go global is on.

Many queer people are going no contact — cutting off their families for myriad reasons. It’s not always the right answer.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani released videos in three languages to highlight a program that offers free theater tickets to high school students. His Mandarin earned some praise.