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Simply the latest news, updated on the hour.

Wed, May 20, 2026, 6:34 AM EDT

World

AI Summary

  • Global geopolitical tensions are escalating with reports of NATO intercepting a Ukrainian drone and Iran warning of potential regional conflict if attacked, while the US navigates complex diplomatic relations with Russia, China, and Middle Eastern allies.
  • The semiconductor and defense industries are experiencing significant shifts, evidenced by Taiwan's booming orders for "non-red" suicide drones and the EU's strategic mineral stockpile initiative, alongside South Korea's deployment of war robots due to shrinking troop numbers.
  • Economic instability and resource scarcity are major concerns, with South Africa facing a farming crisis that could trigger continent-wide food shortages, and Indian airlines urging refiners to delay jet fuel hikes amidst rising costs.
  • Developments in artificial intelligence and technology are becoming increasingly prominent, including discussions around the "digital enslavement" potential of AI, the introduction of AI in religious documents, and a growing debate among college graduates regarding their views on AI.
  • Political landscapes in several nations are marked by internal challenges and external pressures, including legal threats against UK politicians, electoral shifts in countries like India and Kentucky, and ongoing debates about immigration and sanctuary policies in the US.

ZeroHedge

  • UK COVID Inquiry's Endorsement Of Censorship Sets Chilling Precedent 33 minutes ago by Tyler Durden

    UK COVID Inquiry's Endorsement Of Censorship Sets Chilling Precedent Authored by Molly Kingsley via DailySceptic.org, According to the UK’s Covid Inquiry, whose fourth report was published in April, there was “in principle, nothing unlawful or inappropriate in the government monitoring publicly available social media to identify potential trends in disinformation or misinformation” during the pandemic period. The same report, in declining to criticise the censorious activities of the UK Government during the pandemic, noted that the UK government’s Counter Disinformation Unit was required to ensure that its actions were “lawful, necessary and proportionate”. On a careful reading of this language,

  • Global Rush For "Non-Red" Suicide Drones Begins As Taiwan Sees Booming Orders an hour ago by Tyler Durden

    Global Rush For "Non-Red" Suicide Drones Begins As Taiwan Sees Booming Orders Four years of war in Ukraine have rewritten how warfare is fought , accelerating the urgent need for low-cost aerial unmanned systems and ground robots. It has also prompted Taiwan to emerge as a supplier of low-cost suicide drones. Taiwan's national news agency, the Central News Agency, reported that a Taichung-based Taiwanese drone manufacturer is now focused on producing a domestically made variant of Iran's Shahed one-way attack drone. CNA said Carbon-Based Technology's main exports are " triangular-wing drones with a control range of over 90 km, and

  • Starmer Hit With Legal Threat After Barring Conservative Speakers From Entering UK For National Rally 2 hours ago by Tyler Durden

    Starmer Hit With Legal Threat After Barring Conservative Speakers From Entering UK For National Rally Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been issued with a formal letter of claim after several foreign politicians, commentators, and activists were blocked from entering the United Kingdom ahead of a major rally in London last weekend. The legal threat was announced over the weekend by Dutch commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek, who said she and others had instructed a lawyer to act on their behalf over potentially defamatory remarks made by the prime minister last week. “Today, Dominik Tarczyński,

  • South African Farming Crisis May Trigger Food Shortages Across The Continent 3 hours ago by Tyler Durden

    South African Farming Crisis May Trigger Food Shortages Across The Continent For decades South Africa has operated as the breadbasket for half of the African continent, and the vast majority of that food was grown by white farmers (Boers and Afrikaners). In other words, the very survival of Africans has long been dependent on the hard labor of the white people they are taught to despise. South Africa has around 142 race-based laws which largely discriminate against white citizens, especially when property, business and government office is involved. The Expropriation Act of 2024 allows the socialist government to confiscate any

  • UK Schools Push Radical Race Doctrine On Kids, Claiming Black People 'Cannot Be Racist' 4 hours ago by Tyler Durden

    UK Schools Push Radical Race Doctrine On Kids, Claiming Black People 'Cannot Be Racist' Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Schools in the north of England are teaching pupils that black people cannot be racist towards white people. According to materials adopted by a group of Sheffield schools, led by Notre Dame High School, teenagers are explicitly told: “Black people can be racially prejudiced towards a white person which is wrong and totally unacceptable. However, this is not racism. Racism is racial prejudice plus power. In the UK, white people hold the cultural power.” For children as young as 7,


The Guardian

  • Rubio criticizes WHO’s Ebola response as US continues sweeping public health cuts 16 hours ago by Maya Yang and agency
    Marco Rubio, World Health Organization, US news, Ebola, Uganda, Africa, Health, Trump administration, US politics

    US secretary of state says WHO was ‘a little late’ in identifying deadly Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Tuesday that the World Health Organization (WHO) was “a little late” in identifying the deadly Ebola outbreak in the the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. On Tuesday, Rubio told reporters: “The lead is obviously going to be CDC [Centers for Disease Control] and the World Health Organization, which was a little late to identify this thing unfortunately.” Continue reading...

  • WHO considers use of experimental vaccines as Ebola cases and deaths rise in DRC 19 hours ago by Kat Lay in Geneva
    Ebola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, World Health Organization, Global health, Global development, World news, Uganda, Africa

    WHO chief said he was ‘deeply concerned’ after at least 500 suspected Ebola cases and 130 deaths reported in outbreak of Bundibugyo strain ‘It’s heartbreaking’: panic in eastern DRC over return of Ebola Global health leaders are considering whether vaccines or medicines still in development could be used to fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the World Health Organization’s chief said he was deeply concerned by the outbreak’s speed and scale. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been at least 500 suspected cases of Ebola and 130 suspected deaths in DRC since the new outbreak

  • As WHO sounds alarm over Ebola in DRC, what can be learned from previous outbreaks? a day ago by Peter Beaumont Senior international correspondent
    Ebola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa, Global development, World Health Organization, Uganda, World news

    Conflict, mistrust and delayed detection could complicate response to emergency caused by Bundibugyo variant To be around the centre of an Ebola outbreak is to become used to the smell of chlorine. At hospitals and government buildings, surfaces are sprayed with it and hands washed in a 0.05% solution that can kill the virus in 60 seconds. Infrared handheld thermometers take temperatures at airports and border crossings. Any indication of a fever prevents passage. Contact-tracing teams crisscross the countryside. Continue reading...

  • US claims ‘emergency refugee situation’ as it admits 10,000 more white South Africans a day ago by Rachel Savage in Johannesburg and agencies
    US immigration, Trump administration, South Africa, Donald Trump, US politics, US news, Africa

    Trump has repeatedly made false claims that white Afrikaners facing genocide with costs of resettling them at $100m The US government has said it will increase the number of white South Africans it admits as refugees this year from about 7,500 to 17,500, claiming that “unforeseen developments in South Africa created an emergency refugee situation.” Since starting his second term in office last year, Donald Trump has repeatedly made false claims that white Afrikaners are racially targeted and face a “white genocide” , which South Africa’s government has furiously rebutted. Continue reading...

  • Calls for release of Sierra Leonean singer jailed in ‘crackdown on free speech’ a day ago by Sarah Johnson
    Global development, Sierra Leone, Freedom of speech, World news, Africa, Activism, Human rights

    Zainab Sheriff unjustly sentenced to four years in prison for incitement and threatening language, say activists Lawyers, politicians and activists have called for the release of one of Sierra Leone’s best-known celebrities, who they said was unjustly imprisoned as part of a government crackdown on free speech and political dissent. Zainab Sheriff, a singer and reality-TV show contestant who became a political opposition figure, was sentenced in April to four years and two months’ imprisonment for incitement and using threatening language. Continue reading...


South China Morning Post

  • EU picks tungsten, rare earths, gallium for first critical mineral stockpile 2 hours ago by Reuters

    The ⁠European Union has shortlisted ⁠tungsten, rare earths and ⁠gallium for its first joint stockpile of critical minerals aimed at reducing its reliance on China, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The EU is also talking to major ports ‌including Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the region’s biggest, to store the minerals, one of the three and a fourth source said. The move marks one of the bloc’s most concrete steps to insulate its economy from Beijing’s production dominance in...

  • Chinese investment in Europe surges to 7-year high despite rising trade tensions 2 hours ago by Xiaofei Xu

    Chinese investment in Europe hit a seven-year high of €16.8 billion (US$19.5 billion) in 2025, driven by a strong rebound in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and record greenfield completions, a new report has found. But the annual study, published on Tuesday by Rhodium Group and the Mercator Institute for China Studies, cautioned that the pipeline may be thinning, with newly announced projects falling under pressure from Beijing’s push to retain industrial capacity at home and Europe’s growing...

  • China turns to Russian oil as Gulf supply drops – but is it too expensive? 3 hours ago by Xinyi Wu

    While China’s oil and gas imports from Gulf nations plunged in April amid the Strait of Hormuz crisis during the US-Israeli war on Iran, shipments from Russia have provided Beijing with a partial buffer for its growing economy. Russia’s crude shipments to China rose 11.3 per cent year on year to nearly 9 million tonnes in April, according to Chinese customs data released on Wednesday. But market conditions have also shifted. Much of the discount on Russian oil and gas – long a source of cheap...

  • Outbreak of rare Ebola strain sparks race to find vaccines and treatments 3 hours ago by Agence France-Presse

    An escalating outbreak of a rare Ebola strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo has kicked off a race to find vaccines and treatments that can be quickly tested and rolled out to save lives and stem the crisis. More than 130 people have died so far during the outbreak, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, as WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated he was “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic”. Tedros pointed to the emergence of cases in urban...

  • Dozens could face criminal charges over London’s 2017 Grenfell Tower inferno 5 hours ago by Associated Press

    British police said on Tuesday they would ask prosecutors to consider charging 57 people and 20 organisations with criminal offences over the Grenfell Tower blaze, almost a decade after the deadliest fire in Britain’s modern history killed dozens. The Metropolitan Police said files of evidence would be submitted to prosecutors by the end of September, with charging decisions by June 14, 2027 – the 10th anniversary of the London tragedy, which killed 72 people. Bereaved families and survivors...


New York Times

  • I.R.S. to Drop Audits of Trump and Family 8 hours ago by Alan Feuer, Andrew Duehren and Glenn Thrush
    United States Politics and Government, Suits and Litigation (Civil), Compensation for Damages (Law), Internal Revenue Service, Justice Department, Blanche, Todd (Attorney), Trump, Donald J

    As part of the Justice Department’s compensation fund deal, officials vowed not to pursue any matters, including those involving President Trump’s tax returns, that are pending.

  • With Trump’s Settlement, a Possible $100 Million I.R.S. Penalty Melts Away 11 hours ago by Russ Buettner
    Taxation, Fines (Penalties), Internal Revenue Service, Trump, Donald J, Trump, Eric F (1984- ), United States Politics and Government, Trump Tax Returns

    The tax service argued that the Trump Organization tried to claim the same losses twice. The president said the audit was a “disgrace.”

  • Prison to Pardons to Payouts: Jan. 6 Rioters Are Elated at Trump Compensation Fund 2 hours ago by Alan Feuer
    Storming of the US Capitol (Jan, 2021), United States Politics and Government, Fringe Groups and Movements, Justice Department, Blanche, Todd (Attorney), Trump, Donald J, Tarrio, Enrique

    The possibility that people who ransacked the Capitol could get money from the government they attacked is the latest head-spinning twist in President Trump’s effort to rewrite the history of Jan. 6.

  • The IRS Thought it Could Fight Trump’s Lawsuit, but it Struck a Deal Anyway 16 hours ago by Andrew Duehren
    United States Politics and Government, Suits and Litigation (Civil), Government Employees, Taxation, Compensation for Damages (Law), Internal Revenue Service, Justice Department, New York Times, Treasury Department, Bisignano, Frank J, Habba, Alina, Littlejohn, Charles Edward, Trump, Donald J

    Officials wrote a memo outlining ways to challenge President Trump’s suit against the Internal Revenue Service. The administration is instead creating a compensation fund.

  • New Immunity for President Trump, and an Audacious Plan for Regime Change in Iran an hour ago by Will Jarvis, Margaret Kadifa, Jake Lucas, Ian Stewart, Mark Mazzetti and Reid J. Epstein
    United States Politics and Government, US and Israeli Attack on Iran (2026), Immunity from Prosecution, Internal Revenue Service, Trump, Donald J

    Plus, Tesla’s big bet on big rigs.


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