Minimalist News

"Rare Sight": USAF C-17 Jets Land In Beijing Ahead Of Trump-Xi Summit As the Strait of Hormuz takes center stage Monday morning, Iran is threatening to attack any ship that attempts to transit the critical waterway. This directly challenges President Trump's plan for the U.S. Navy to "guide" tankers and container ships through the chokepoint. Looking beyond the ongoing Hormuz crisis, the China topic is next: Trump is still expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming weeks. This means any U.S.-Iran escalation could leave Hormuz disrupted for even longer and will undoubtedly be a major topic at the

Iran War Threatens China's 4.5 Percent Growth Target: Analysts Authored by Jarvis Lim via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), China’s already-strained economy faces mounting pressure as the Iran war threatens to choke export growth and suppress domestic demand, putting its 4.5 percent growth target at risk, experts say. A woman takes a photo of the Lujiazui financial district across the Huangpu River on the Bund promenade in Shanghai, China, on March 5, 2026. Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images As the U.S.–Israeli war against the Iranian regime stretches past the two-month mark, President Donald Trump said in an April 29 interview with Axios that he

New York Parole Bills Could Free Some Of The State’s Most Notorious Killers Two parole reform bills advancing in New York are triggering intense debate, with supporters calling them long-overdue criminal justice reforms and critics warning they could allow violent offenders to leave prison early, according to the NY Post. One proposal, known as the Elder Parole bill, would allow incarcerated individuals to request parole hearings once they reach age 55 and have served at least 15 years of their sentence. That eligibility would extend to some inmates serving life sentences, and those denied parole could reapply every two years. The second proposal,

Elites And Their Contempt Authored by Reverend John F. Naugle via The Brownstone Institute, Last week, I was unexpectedly hit with a post-lockdown trauma response. While driving to a baseball game days before the NFL Draft came to Pittsburgh, I passed a digital highway sign instructing me to avoid nonessential travel. Suddenly, memories of empty highways with signs instructing drivers to “Stay Safe and Stay Home” came flooding back to me. As the week developed, it began to occur to me that the parallels were deeper than my subjective emotional response. Road closures intensified, rendering my beloved city of Pittsburgh less and less functional. Even sidewalks were

Sacked Russian Minister Flees To US Amid Corruption Probe In First Of Ukraine War A Russian minister has become the first known high-ranking official to flee Russia and seek asylum in the United States since the Ukraine war began over four years ago, amid a fraud probe. Denis Butsayev, a senior Russian official recently dismissed from the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, fled to the US to avoid criminal prosecution, regional media reports say. President Putin meets with then General Director of the Russian Environmental Operator Denis Butsayev He was officially removed from his post as deputy minister on April 22 by an order of Russian Prime

Virtue Gone Mad: Manager Punished More Harshly Than The Shoplifter He Stopped Authored by Theodore Dalrymple via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Commentary Nietzsche thought that the decline of the Christian religion in Europe would inevitably lead to a social, cultural, and moral crisis. This was because a traditional morality based upon religious belief could not be upheld once the religious belief itself weakened or was abandoned. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images This was not an original thought. The poet and essayist Matthew Arnold said much the same thing in a poem, “Dover Beach,” written in the 1840s but not published until 1867, before Nietzsche: The Sea of

Hormuz Closure 'Inflicting Enormous Impact' On Asia: Japan's PM Takaichi The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is "inflicting enormous impact" on the Asia-Pacific region, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Monday in somewhat dramatic remarks before the press. Takaichi's words were issued from Canberra, on the occasion of Japan having signed agreements with Australia on critical minerals, energy security, and defense cooperation amid high-level talks with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Albanese in turn endorsed her assessment, stating: "Today, (we are) again facing an energy shock and global instability... Our partnership helps us secure the energy we both need." via Associated Press Takaichi also said

The COVID Playbook Returns: Energy Rationing & The Politics Of Crisis Control Authored by Chris MacIntosh via Doug Casey's International Man, This recent headline from New Zealand should itself send chills down your spine… “GOVERNMENT REVEALS DETAILS OF FUEL CRISIS RATIONING PLAN – AND WHO WILL BE PRIORITIZED.” Anytime the pointy shoes get to decide who will and who will not get something, you must realise that you’re about to get royally screwed. The uncomfortable parallels between the Convid response and the proposed fuel rationing plan cannot be ignored. On the surface, the Fuel Response Plan looks more restrained than Covid. It’s incremental, it defers to

Japan Says It Counts Three Consecutive Days Of FX Intervention As One Earlier today we joked when, after the third intervention attempt by Japan's MOF/BOJ, the yen promptly sold off again as Japanese officials continued to sink billions of dollars into what has become bottomless monetary pit (ignoring for a second the lunacy of spending dollars to strengthen your currency while at the same time printing yet), one which gets bigger every day the BOJ refuses to simply raise interest rates.  > BOJ interventions working out great pic.twitter.com/qsD2f4gTnw > > — zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 4, 2026 So perhaps realizing the futility of their now

High-Intensity Beams, Not Whispers: Study Suggests Aliens Would Send Strong Signals Authored by Rupendra Brahambhatt via Interesting Engineering, For more than half a century, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has been built on the assumption that if aliens exist and try to communicate, their signals will be faint, scattered, and easy to miss.  An alien doll.James Bat Barrera/Pexels So astronomers have spent decades scanning narrow slices of the radio spectrum, hoping to catch a weak signal buried in cosmic noise. However, a new study suggests something totally different-if an advanced civilization actually wanted to be noticed, it would not broadcast weak, unfocused emissions.  It would do

Treasury Boost Quarterly Borrowing Estimate To $189BN: Full Quarterly Refunding Preview The US Department hiked its estimates for US debt borrowing in the current quarter, citing lower net cash flows. In a statement published today, and ahead of Wednesday's Quarterly Refunding Announcement, the US Treasury said that it now expects to borrow $189 billion in net debt for the current quarter, up ~$80 billion from the $109 billion it had forecast in February. The estimate assumes a June quarter-end cash balance of $900 billion, the same as the prior forecast.  According to the Treasury, the borrowing estimate is $80 billion higher than announced in

New Member Of Trump's Iran Negotiating Team Comes From FDD Think Tank Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com, Amid stalled peace talks and a US blockade on Iranian ports, the Trump administration has added a new member to its negotiating team who comes from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a notoriously hawkish think tank that has been lobbying for aggressive action against the Islamic Republic for many years. Nick Stewart, the head of the FDD's lobbying arm, has joined the office of US envoy Steve Witkoff, journalist Alex Marquardt first reported on his Substack on Friday. The White House confirmed the appointment to

Ceasefire Over? Trump Downplays 'Mini-War' After US & Iranians Trade Shots, Missiles Target UAE SUMMARY * Trump employs interesting new term: "We’re in, I call it a mini-war." * Fujairah says 3 injured in Iranian attack on Oil Industry Zone, UAE confirms "air defenses are now dealing with a missile threat", we have gotten reports of explosions in Dubai, which has sent oil higher and Emini futures into the red. UAE threatens retaliation.  * CENTCOM hails two US merchant ships exiting Hormuz Strait safely in "first step". Bessent issues remarks warning the US "will fire if fired upon." * Iran insists Hormuz

As Pump Prices Hit Iran War Highs, Duffy Claims They'll Fall Immediately After Hormuz Reopens As pump prices for gasoline (and diesel) hit Iran War highs, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Sunday that gasoline prices should begin to decline “immediately” once shipping resumes through the Strait of Hormuz, pushing back against analyst warnings that relief for consumers could take months. Duffy, speaking on ABC’s “This Week” program on May 3, acknowledged that prices may take time to return to pre-war levels but said reopening the critical oil transit chokepoint would quickly ease pressure at the pump. > “Once the Strait opens,

Did Bill Maher Just Kill Gavin Newsom's 2028 Dreams? For a man who fancies himself the future of the Democratic Party, Gavin Newsom had a rough Friday night. The California governor appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher, probably expecting the kind of warm exchange that comes with being a friend of the host. What he got instead was a methodical, public undressing from one of liberalism's most prominent voices — and it proves how weak Newsom really is as a potential presidential candidate. It may be early, but the Democratic presidential primary field for 2028 is slowly starting to take shape, and Newsom

All's Not So Quiet On Any Front Authored by James Howard Kunstler, Project Freedom. Cute move! Notice that it’s not Operation Freedom. That would frame it as a military move. The President is tactically framing this as a humanitarian action. Mr. Trump has advised Congress as of May 1 that hostilities with Iran (Operation Epic Fury) are terminated, at the 60-day limit of the War Powers Resolution. Commercial ships from countries not involved in the Iran / US dispute will now get escorted safely through the Strait of Hormuz by US naval vessels. (Later amended by CENTCOM, around 9a.m. Monday as being protected by US Navy vessels

Welfare Enrollment Drops Sharply Following New Federal Work Requirements Via American Greatness, Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has declined significantly since new federal work requirements took effect in mid-2025, with millions fewer Americans receiving benefits, according to newly reported federal data. The number of people enrolled in SNAP has fallen by roughly 3.5 million since July 2025, dropping from an average of 42.1 million participants in the prior fiscal year to about 38.5 million as of January 2026, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal. The decline follows the implementation of expanded eligibility rules included in the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed into law by Donald Trump on

Trump Renews Call For Israel To Pardon Teflon Bibi, The "Wartime Prime Minister" President Trump has renewed US pressure on some Israeli government decision-makers to grant a pardon to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he's still battling multiple corruption charges, at a moment he has ordered the armed forces to be engaged in several fronts, including in Lebanon.  Trump told the Israeli outlet Kan News on Sunday, "Tell your president to pardon Bibi. He's a wartime prime minister. They wouldn’t have Israel if it wasn’t for me and Bibi in that order. You want to have a PM that can focus on the

Deutsche Bank's Woke ESG Whistleblower Denied Millions By SEC For Tattling To Press In 2021, Deutsche Bank sustainability chief Desiree Fixler thought she was going to make millions after she blew the whistle with claims that the bank did not adhere to its goal of integrating ESG (environmental, social and governance) into all investment decisions. Fixler - who worked within the bank's DWS Group asset management arm - became a witness for the SEC, which fined the bank's asset-management arm $19 million in 2023. And had she actually gotten the SEC reward of 10% - 30%, it would have amounted to millions...  Desiree Fixler, former

Largest Viking Age Coin Hoard Ever Found In Norway Shocks Archaeologists Authored by Maria Mocerino, Hailed as a “historic discovery,” metal detectorists led archaeologists to the largest Viking Age hoard of silver coins ever to be found in Norway, reflecting the Vikings’ extensive network and a pivotal turning point in Norway’s history. The largest coin hoard in Norwegian history.Innlandet County Council On April 10, metal detectorists Vegard Sørlie and Rune Sætre uncovered 19 silver coins that quickly turned into an astonishing treasure when archaeologists rushed to the site. The number of coins grew exponentially—initially to 70, then to 500, and eventually to over 1,000. Archaeologist

Ashley MacIsaac, who is seeking $1.5m in civil lawsuit, says inaccurate information led to concert cancellation An acclaimed Canadian fiddle player has launched a $1.5m civil lawsuit against Google, alleging that the online giant defamed him by falsely identifying him as a sex offender in an AI-generated summary of his life and career. Ashley MacIsaac, a three-time Juno award-winning musician, filed the claim in the Ontario superior court of justice, asserting that Google was liable for the “foreseeable republication” of its AI-generated Overview feature, which previously published defamatory claims that he had been convicted of multiple criminal offences, including the sexual assault

Attendance at European Political Community meeting in Yerevan seen as part of effort to build ties after US rupture Canada is to become the first non-European country to attend a meeting of the European Political Community when the prime minister, Mark Carney, joins Monday’s summit of the 48-plus nation grouping in Yerevan, Armenia. Carney has said he is determined to build a new network of trade and diplomatic alliances after the loss of US markets under Donald Trump. His presence will also represent a show of western support for Armenia in its efforts to distance itself from Russia at a time when

Spinosaurid fossil bought by Stuttgart institution in 1991 has been the subject of a long restitution campaign It is a 113-million-year-old bone of contention. After Stuttgart’s museum of natural history bought a fossilised dinosaur skull in 1991, researchers found it was the most complete spinosaurid skull known to date, belonging to a previously unknown genus of the huge meat-eating dinosaurs. Continue reading...

The US sanctions target people operating in broad sections of Cuban economy, including energy, defence and mining Cuba’s government has said new sanctions imposed on the island by Donald Trump amounted to “collective punishment”, as an enormous 1 May procession outside the American embassy in Havana vowed to “defend the homeland”. In an executive order on Friday, the US president said he would impose sanctions on people involved in broad sections of the Cuban economy, as he seeks to put more pressure on Havana after ousting Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this year. Continue reading...

Leo, who has criticized Trump’s hardline immigration policy, selected Evelio Menjivar-Ayala as state’s new bishop * Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Pope Leo XIV has appointed a man who had once entered the United States as an undocumented immigrant, hidden in the trunk of a car, as the new bishop of West Virginia. The pope approved the resignation of Bishop Mark E Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, and selected Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, 55, of Washington to take his place, reported OSV News. Continue reading...

Foreign minister Penny Wong visits Fiji this week to progress the security and economic agreement * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Australia looks close to signing a landmark security and economic agreement with Fiji as part of the Albanese government’s efforts to contain China’s growing influence across the Pacific. But pushback from Beijing has undermined a separate pact with Vanuatu’s government, resulting in a scaling back of a deal aimed at locking in Australia as the country’s primary security partner. Continue reading...

Japanese leader Sanae Takaichi has called for discussions to revise the constitution, saying it should ‘reflect the demands of the times’ Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has called for “advanced discussions” on revising the pacifist constitution, as large demonstrations were held nationwide to oppose any changes to the country’s supreme law. Speaking during an official visit to Vietnam, Takaichi said the constitution, which was written by US occupation forces after the second world war, “should periodically be updated to reflect the demands of the times”. Continue reading...

Over the next two weeks stargazers have a chance to spot the blue-green orb and smudgy tail of comet known as C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS A comet formed on the edges of the solar system will grace southern skies over the next fortnight, giving viewers a rare chance to glimpse it before it disappears from view for another 170,000 years. The comet – known as C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS – had been travelling through the northern hemisphere but has “swung around the sun” and is now visible in the south, said Josh Aoraki, an astronomer at Te Whatu Stardome in Auckland, New Zealand. Continue reading...

Strongest tornado hits Mineral Wells, Texas, where disaster was declared. Elsewhere, extreme rain inundates China Spring is the season for severe thunderstorms across the central US, and the start of this week was a particularly active period for the region. A favourable weather pattern fuelled intense thunderstorms on Monday through Wednesday, bringing strong winds, very large hail and strong tornadoes. Eight tornadoes were reported on Monday, including an EF2 tornado that ripped through the town of Sycamore, Kansas. On Tuesday, a more widespread event tore across the mid-west, most notably as a severe hailstorm moved through Springfield, Missouri. Continue reading...

Media tycoon honoured in absentia as critics decry his 20-year sentence under national security law The jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster said on Thursday that Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on 23 June at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Continue reading...

Follow today’s news live * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Two marine rescue volunteers who went to help others are among those who have died in a tragic yacht accident on Monday night. As we reported below, three people died as volunteers went to the aid of a yacht at the Ballina bar in northern New South Wales. Continue reading...

Labor’s 2026-27 budget shows $727m operating surplus for this financial year as debt forecast to soar by decade’s end * Winners and losers: Victoria’s 2026 budget cuts transport costs and helps parents - but will future generations suffer? * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Victoria has recorded a surplus for the first time since the pandemic but the state’s financial recovery remains uncertain with debt forecast to near $200bn in coming years amid global uncertainty. The 2026-27 Victorian budget, handed down on Tuesday, shows the state

Reserve Bank of Australia raises rates for third consecutive meeting, lifting them to early-2025 levels * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast * Use our loan calculator to see how rate hikes could affect you The Reserve Bank has delivered a third straight interest rate hike to contain growing inflationary pressures linked to higher fuel prices, even as it warned the Iranian war would deliver a major blow to the economy. The widely expected decision to lift the cash rate to 4.35% from 4.1% comes as the

Prosecutors drop two other charges against Jasper Jones author, 43, including allegations he produced child exploitation material Award‑winning author Craig Silvey has pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child exploitation material, while a charge that he produced such material has been dropped. Silvey, 43, was first charged in January after detectives from Western Australia police’s child abuse squad raided his Fremantle home, allegedly catching him communicating online with child exploitation offenders and seizing his electronic devices. Continue reading...

Jewish children face antisemitic abuse, swastikas etched on school walls and other students performing Nazi salutes, hearing told * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Jewish children in Australia face antisemitic abuse at school, see swastikas daubed on walls and witness classmates perform Nazi salutes: they live with antisemitism “all day, every day”, a Sydney Jewish mother has told a royal commission hearing. The woman, known as Dina before the commission, said Australia had become a more hostile, more dangerous place for Jews, most horrifically demonstrated by

Exclusive: ‘Fish sludge’ in coastal waters now has nutrient levels equivalent to those in untreated effluent of country the size of Australia, report finds Norwegian fish farms are filling fjords and other coastal waters with nutrient pollution equivalent to the raw sewage of tens of millions of people each year, a report has found. Norway is the largest farmed salmon producer in the world, and nutrients in fish feed are excreted directly into coastal waters. Analysis from the Sunstone Institute found that Norwegian aquaculture released 75,000 tonnes of nitrogen, 13,000 tonnes of phosphorus and 360,000 tonnes of organic carbon in 2025. Continue reading...

Prime minister uses European Political Community summit to begin negotiations for UK participation in scheme Keir Starmer has said the benefit of joining the European Union’s £78bn loan scheme for Ukraine “outweighs the cost” as he argued the continent must move at pace to bolster its own defence. The prime minister, who said the UK’s involvement in the recovery loan plan would also help create jobs at home, acknowledged that tensions were high between Donald Trump and Europe, particularly over military issues. Continue reading...

A suspect has been apprehended, but detectives say little is known about their motivation at this stage At least two people have been killed and several injured after a driver in an SUV ploughed into a crowd in the centre of Leipzig in eastern Germany, the city’s mayor has said. “The police have apprehended the suspected assailant,” Burkhard Jung said on Monday, adding that the authorities had the scene in a pedestrian zone under control. “We still don’t really know the motivation. We don’t know anything about the perpetrator.” Continue reading...

High winds have hit the South Aegean and heavy rain has fallen in Turkey, but Central Europe has felt summer heat Greece and Turkey have found themselves in the grip of a late-season cold spell this weekend. Conditions will persist over the next few days as an area of low pressure situated over Turkey is pulling in colder, moisture-laden air from the north-east via the Black Sea; this meteorological set up has suppressed temperatures well below where they should be for the time of year. Away from the Mediterranean coast, much of Turkey struggled to reach double figures, which is around

Austrian foreign minister says Russian diplomatic mission in Vienna was being used for illicit collection of data Austria has expelled three Russian embassy staff on suspicion of spying after determining that a “forest of antennae” on the diplomatic mission in Vienna, Europe’s espionage capital since the cold war, was being be used for illicit data collection. “It is unacceptable that diplomatic immunity be used to commit espionage,” Austria’s foreign minister, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, said on Monday. She added that the three embassy staff – whose expulsions bring the number of Russian diplomats sent home by Vienna to 14 since 2020 – had already

Quintessentially almost quadrupled staff in Middle East and Asia less than year before wealthy began to flee Gulf The embattled luxury concierge service co-founded by Queen Camilla’s nephew Ben Elliot embarked on what appeared to be an inopportune hiring spree in the Middle East and Asia before wealthy individuals began fleeing the region because of the US-Israel war on Iran. Quintessentially almost quadrupled staff in the regions from 22 to 84 during its financial year to 30 April 2025, according to newly released annual accounts, which again reported multimillion-pound losses and warned of “material uncertainty” about its future. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed * Trump threatens to blow Iran ‘off the face of the earth’ if it attacks US vessels * Trump sends warships to break Iran’s strait of Hormuz blockade We have a bit more of the statement from Maj Gen Ali Abdollahi, the commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central headquarters, who said earlier that the US or any other foreign armed forces would be attacked if they entered the strait of Hormuz (see post at 07.39 for more details). Abdollahi also said: We will maintain and vigorously manage the security of the strait of Hormuz with all our

US operation announced as ‘Project Freedom’ dramatically raises stakes in conflict The US has launched Donald Trump’s operation to open a route through the strait of Hormuz for hundreds of ships trapped with their crews in the Gulf, in a move that brought the region back to the brink of full-scale war as Iran sought to reassert its blockade. The US operation, which got under way on Monday after being announced as “Project Freedom” by Trump on Sunday night on his social media site, dramatically raised the stakes in a conflict that had been in a month-long period of uneasy limbo. Continue reading...

After banging his battle drum, Trump is back in Nobel peace prize mode. But the move has dramatically raised the stakes “Project Freedom” has all the trappings of a classic episode of the Trump Show, the reality series that the rest of the world does not just have to watch, but live through and survive. It has a dramatic plot twist, it is bathed in a self-projected beatific light, and the trailer looked far more promising that the reality. Trump spent a long weekend in Florida banging the war drum. Iran had not “paid a big enough price” for its past misdeeds,

Alice Chapman and Zak Khan say they were beaten, kicked and spat on after detention near Crete last week Two British activists have said they were admitted to hospital after being beaten by Israeli forces who intercepted their Gaza aid flotilla last week. Alice Chapman and Zak Khan were among 180 members of the Global Sumud flotilla detained by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in international waters near Crete late on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Result in key Indian state is set to have significant implications for the country’s political landscape Narendra Modi’s party has won a resounding election victory in West Bengal, a state which had been a rare opposition stronghold, expanding his unrivalled consolidation of power across the country. It is the first time that the Indian prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has won assembly elections in West Bengal, a large and politically significant state in eastern India. Continue reading...

Jitu Munda says he was refused access to money in case highlighting ‘lack of humanity’ in Indian bureaucracy The sight of a man bringing the remains of his dead sister to a bank in India after officials had refused to let him withdraw money without proof of her death has caused shock in India. Jitu Munda, 52, from the Indian state of Odisha, was captured on video carrying the remains of his recently deceased sister through the streets of Keonjhar and placing them outside the local bank. Continue reading...

Anant Ambani revives offer to transport 80 animals, all descendants of Colombian drug kingpin’s pets, to India It remains one of the strangest conundrums in modern zoological history – what to do with the descendants of Pablo Escobar’s hippos? The animals – herbivores native to sub-Saharan Africa – were originally imported into Colombia by the drug kingpin for his own entertainment. But the beasts and their offspring were left to roam free after his death in 1993. Continue reading...

Soaring oil prices and the blockade are preventing food, fuel and medicine being delivered to millions of people in desperate need, say NGOs The volatility of global oil prices caused by the US and Israel’s war on Iran is taking a toll on the most vulnerable people, by slowing or blocking food and medical aid from reaching them. Now aid organisations are calling for a “humanitarian corridor” to be opened through the strait of Hormuz amid rocketing transportation costs. Continue reading...

Customs officials say group allegedly hid 5kg of ‘kush’ in false walls of bags on return from Bangkok holiday Twenty-two Buddhist monks are in Sri Lankan police custody after customs officials found 110kg of high-grade cannabis concealed in their luggage, the largest ever drug bust at Colombo’s main international airport. The group, mostly junior monks in training from temples across Sri Lanka, were alleged to have “carried about five kilos of the narcotic concealed within false walls in their luggage”, according to a Sri Lanka customs spokesperson. Continue reading...

Project to refurbish ‘Angels’ hailed huge success as dean says it will ‘lift spirits and rekindle hope’ Sam Kelly admitted there had been some nights of broken sleep as he led a two-year project to restore one of Salisbury Cathedral’s treasures, a stained-glass window by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. “It would be wrong to say I didn’t lie awake sometimes,” said the head glazier. “You are working on something that is very precious and if it fell on the floor, it would be very bad.” Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: With the use of facial recognition skyrocketing, there are calls for the rapid development of safeguards Good morning. Over the last couple of days, the Guardian has been reporting that facial recognition technology is being rolled out across the UK at a pace that appears to be outstripping the rules designed to govern it. Police forces are increasingly using live systems to scan members of the public in real time, while retailers are deploying similar tools to identify suspected shoplifters. Advocates of the technology argue that facial recognition is effective and here to stay. Critics warn it risks creating

Exclusive: Worker pointed to Iran war and Pentagon’s Anthropic feud as indications the department is ‘not a responsible partner’ Workers developing Google’s artificial intelligence products in the UK have voted to unionize, in part out of concerns about a deal between the company and the US military that was announced last week. In a letter slated to go to management on Tuesday and shared exclusively with the Guardian, workers at Google DeepMind, the company’s AI research laboratory, requested recognition of the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union as joint representatives of the lab’s UK-based staff. Continue reading...

Party leader says vote for Labour or Greens in closely run seats will result in Reform victory at local elections Voters in the home counties will “regret it for a long time” if they do not back the Liberal Democrats and wake up to a Reform-led council, Ed Davey has said. The Lib Dems leader has identified five councils – East Surrey, West Surrey, Hampshire, West Sussex and Huntingdonshire – where his party could win overall control, as well as swathes of the former “blue wall” where Davey said it was a “straight fight” between his party and Reform at the English

Letter coordinated by Survivors Against Terror, which includes bereaved relatives, after spate of attacks on Jewish community Dozens of survivors and bereaved relatives of 19 separate terror attacks have written an open letter of solidarity to the Jewish community, saying: “Standing together in the face of hatred is not just the right thing to do – it’s the most effective way of defeating terrorism.” The letter was coordinated by the group Survivors Against Terror (SAT), after terror attacks on two Jewish men in north London earlier this week, in what was the latest in a series of attacks on the community in

This live blog is now closed. * Sign up for the Breaking News US email The supreme court issued a temporary order to restore access to the abortion pill mifepristone by mail on Monday. This comes after two companies who manufacture mifepristone the drug filed an emergency appeal to the court on Saturday asking it to halt a court decision that would require an in‑person exam before the medication can be prescribed. Continue reading...

Ketanji Brown Jackson blasted the decision, saying the court has hastened it ruling only twice before in 25 years The US supreme court went out of its way on Monday to help Louisiana Republicans redraw their congressional maps before this year’s midterm elections by allowing a recent ruling that gutted a key part of the Voting Rights Act to take effect ahead of schedule. The procedural move comes less than a week after the court’s landmark decision striking down Louisiana’s congressional map and gutting section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Usually, the court waits 32 days to formally issue its judgment

Suit alleges that Hong Kong-based Justin Sun engaged in a campaign to ‘torch’ the company’s reputation * Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture co-founded by Donald Trump and his sons, said on Monday it had filed a defamation lawsuit in Florida state court against the Hong Kong-based crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, as a dispute escalates between the project and one of its most prominent backers. World Liberty posted a copy of its lawsuit on X in which it accused Sun of launching a “public smear campaign”. It alleged that Sun had improperly transferred

State’s top insurance regulator says insurance company violated law while handling claims from 2025 wildfires California is seeking millions of dollars in penalties from State Farm after an investigation found the insurance company was slow to investigate and underpaid claims from the 2025 Los Angeles-area wildfires, regulators announced on Monday. State Farm violated the law hundreds of times in a sampling of 220 cases, the state’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, said. The maximum penalty amount allowed by law would be about $4m if State Farm is found to be “willful” in violating state law. Regulators may also temporarily suspend the company’s license,

The person’s condition and the circumstances surrounding the shooting were not immediately known An individual was shot by law enforcement officers on Monday near the Washington monument, the Secret Service said. The shooting occurred shortly after JD Vance’s motorcade passed through the area. The individual was first identified by plainclothes officers, who said he looked suspicious and was believed to be carrying a firearm, according to Matthew Quinn, the deputy director of the Secret Service. These officers called in support from uniformed agents. When the individual saw the uniformed agents, Quinn said he fled on foot, drew his gun and fired. Continue reading...

As the Middle East conflict spreads uncertainty among farmers around the world, Chinese farmers are carrying out their spring ploughing as usual and appear largely untroubled. “The supply of chemical fertilisers for spring ploughing is ample,” an official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said at a news conference last month, adding that domestic fertiliser prices were “far lower than international prices” and spring sowing was proceeding as normal. While policymakers around the...

An armed man was shot by US Secret Service (USSS) agents in downtown Washington on Monday, officials said, prompting a brief lockdown of the nearby White House. The shooting near the National Mall took place just after a motorcade carrying Vice-President J.D. Vance had passed by the area, USSS Deputy Director Matthew Quinn said. Quinn told reporters he did not believe that the vice-president was an intended target and said he could not speculate if it was related to recent attempts on the life...

In global discourse, a script has been handed to us: the United States and China are locked in a “tech race”. But this is really a misnomer. True competition requires a level playing field. When one runner trips the other to ensure victory, it’s not a competition; it’s cheating. So, when Washington deploys an arsenal of sanctions, export controls and diplomatic strong-arming to hamstring China’s technological ascent, it is not competing. It is an act of suppression. This reflects a deliberate...

President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a two-day ceasefire in the conflict with Ukraine on May 8-9 to mark Russia’s World War II victory, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky countered with his own proposed pause in fighting starting earlier, on the night of May 5-6. Putin had first spoken of a possible ceasefire coinciding with commemorations of the 81st anniversary of the victory ‌in a phone conversation last week with US President Donald Trump. Ukraine had been wary of the notion...

China’s top diplomat on the US-Mexico border denounced protectionism as a dead end at the weekend, delivering a pointed defence of open trade just weeks before Mexico, the United States and Canada sit down to review the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that governs North American commerce. Consul General Fu Xinrong told a business gathering in Tijuana that unilateralism benefits no one and called on nations to build economic ties based on sovereignty and mutual respect rather than...

Troubled pop princess Britney Spears on Monday admitted to reckless driving involving alcohol, in a plea deal that means she will avoid jail. The “Toxic” singer was arrested in March after police spotted her driving erratically on a freeway in Ventura County, near Los Angeles. She was initially charged with DUI – driving under the influence – but under the plea deal confirmed Monday she admitted to a lesser charge of reckless driving involving alcohol, drugs or both. A court in Ventura sentenced...

Chloe Zhao, Demi Moore and Stellan Skarsgard are among the jurors who will decide the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, organisers announced on Monday. Just about a week before the 79th Cannes begins May 12, organisers unveiled the nine-member jury that will deliberate on the films in competition at the annual French Riviera festival. As already announced, South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) is president of the jury. Moore, 63, along with Chinese filmmaker Zhao, whose...

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday pressed China to ramp up diplomatic pressure on Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz even as he stressed that the US has “absolute control” over the strategic waterway. “Let’s see [China] step up with some diplomacy and get the Iranians to open the strait,” Bessent said in a Fox News interview. “Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism and China has been buying 90 per cent of their energy, so they are funding the largest state sponsor of...

The China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed into a hillside in 2022, killing all 132 people on board, had its fuel supply cut mid-flight, newly released investigative material shows, which bolsters the theory that the aircraft was intentionally brought down. While China still has yet to release a final report on the accident, findings released by the US National Transportation Safety Board this month show that levers controlling the flow of fuel to the jet’s engines were switched to the...

A car ploughed into a crowd in the historic centre of the eastern German city of Leipzig on Monday, killing two people and injuring several others, authorities said. The driver, a 33-year-old German man, was arrested at the scene and officials said his motivation was unclear. Germany has been shaken by a series of car-ramming attacks in recent years, including one targeting a Christmas market in 2024 in Magdeburg, and also in Berlin and Munich. In the latest incident in Leipzig, a Volkswagen...

A German woman convicted of keeping her young daughter locked up at home for years was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday. The woman, who had kept her daughter confined to the home of the girl’s grandparents, was found guilty of kidnapping, abduction of a minor and mistreatment of a vulnerable person, according to a court spokeswoman. The grandmother was given a two-year suspended sentence for the same charges, while the grandfather also received a suspended sentence as an...

World Liberty ⁠Financial, the crypto venture co-founded ⁠by US President Donald Trump and his sons, said on Monday it had filed a defamation lawsuit against Hong Kong-based crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, in the latest escalation of a dispute ‌between the project and one of its most prominent backers. World Liberty posted a copy of its lawsuit on X in which it accused Sun of launching a “public smear campaign” including claims that it said were false. The crypto project – one of several...

The Supreme Court on Monday restored broad access to the abortion pill mifepristone, blocking a ruling that had threatened to upend one of the main ways abortion is provided across the nation. The order signed by Justice Samuel Alito temporarily allows women seeking abortions to obtain the pill at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. Those rules had been in effect for several years until a federal appeal court imposed new restrictions last week. Most abortions...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering global relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Quad summit plan turns uneasy as India pushes ahead without top leaders: sources A stretch of awkward diplomacy was unfolding in the Indo-Pacific in April: New Delhi was planning to host a foreign ministers’ meeting that could have been framed as a leaders-level discussion, even if the top...

The US stock market is holding tentatively near its record heights on Monday, while oil prices climb with uncertainty about when oil tankers can resume crossing the Strait of Hormuz and restore the world’s flow of crude. Duelling claims about a possible Iranian strike on a US Navy vessel in the strait heightened the tensions. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1 per cent, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 216 points, or 0.4 per cent, as of 9.35am Eastern time, and...

Amid the trade war with the United States, the last thing China needs is an economic confrontation with the European Union – Beijing’s major export destination. But with the EU seemingly determined to protect its market by introducing measures that many see as controversial, an economic stand-off appears inevitable. When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen blamed China last June for showing an “unwillingness to live within the constraints of the rules-based international system”,...

Austria declared three Russian diplomats personae ⁠non gratae over ⁠an “antenna forest” on the roofs of ⁠diplomatic buildings that could be used for spying, the government said on Monday. Numerous satellite dishes placed on buildings used by the Russian state in Vienna, particularly a residential complex for diplomatic staff, have long attracted ‌the attention of Austria’s main domestic intelligence service, which has warned for years they could be used to intercept other states’ satellite...

A weekend shooting at a lakeside park in Oklahoma that left nearly two dozen people injured erupted when a group began arguing at an unsanctioned party packed with young adults, a witness said on Monday. Authorities were continuing to search for suspects on Monday in the shooting that critically injured at least three of those hurt. No arrests have been made. It was not clear how many of the injured had been shot, police said on Monday in a statement. It provided few answers about what had...

A drone hit a residential tower in an upscale Moscow district in a rare strike near the city centre ahead of the traditional World War II Victory Day parade. Moscow air defences repelled an attack by two Ukrainian drones, and one hit the building on Mosfilmovskaya Street, according to a post on Monday by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Emergency services were sent to the scene, and there were no reports of casualties. Mosfilmovskaya is about 6-8km (about 4-5 miles) from the Kremlin, and local media...

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. Durian Express? China brings in cheaper fruit with new Southeast Asia train 2. ‘Structural shift’: new routes for Middle East freight to bypass Hormuz 3. ‘Nowhere to go’: helpers pushed out of parks spend day off in tents at bus terminus 4. Why Beijing now wants its spies executed in Taiwan back...

A United Airlines jet with 231 passengers and crew escaped a major disaster on Sunday after one of its wheels clipped a light post and truck on a highway while on final approach to land in New Jersey. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials said the Boeing 767 landed safely at Newark Liberty International Airport after arriving from Venice, Italy, and the agency would investigate the incident. A preliminary investigation from New Jersey State Police said “while a United Airlines Aircraft...

Congratulations to Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po for getting the city’s budget to sail through the Legislative Council. It wasn’t always such smooth sailing and Chan would do well to acknowledge as much. When Chan was first given the keys to the city’s coffers, they were full. Successive financial secretaries faced political pressure of a very different kind. There weren’t many issues that opposing parties saw eye to eye on. However, accusing the government of hoarding cash and not giving...

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is hospitalised in critical but stable condition, his spokesperson said Sunday, days after the Republican hoarsely told his talk show audience that his voice was “a little under the weather”. The spokesperson, Ted Goodman, did not say what sent Giuliani, 81, to the hospital, how long he has been there or what his prognosis is. “Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he’s fighting with that same...

One Palestinian man was killed and four others seriously wounded during an Israeli military raid in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the man’s wife was in labour at a local hospital when she was informed of his death. The Red Crescent said five people were hit by gunfire during an Israeli military operation. Nayef Firas Ziad Samaro, 26, was killed, according to the Health Ministry, and his body was...

Two US service members are missing in southwestern Morocco after taking part in annual multinational military exercises in the North African country, the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) said on Sunday. The service members are US Army soldiers who went missing while on a hike, a US defence official told Associated Press on condition of anonymity as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the issue. “They were not actively taking part in any training. The day’s exercises had concluded...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he must accept that US President Donald Trump does not share his opinions to work with the United States within Nato but stressed there ‌was no link between their rift and a planned troop drawdown. Merz dismissed suggestions that his criticism of US war planning in Iran had sparked Washington’s Friday announcement that the US would reduce its military presence in Germany, its largest European base, by 5,000 soldiers, and repeated his commitment to the...

A suspected outbreak of the rare hantavirus infection on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean killed three people, including an elderly married couple, and sickened at least three others, the World Health Organization and South Africa’s Department of Health said on Sunday. The WHO said an investigation was under way, but that at least one case of hantavirus had been confirmed. One of the patients was in intensive care in a South African hospital, the UN health agency said, and it was working with...

Jean-Luc ⁠Melenchon, the leading figure in ⁠the hard-left France Unbowed (La France Insoumise) political party, will stand in next year’s presidential election, he said on Sunday. “Yes, I am a candidate,” Melenchon told TF1 ‌TV. Melenchon, 74, has been a fixture of the French left for decades, holding ministerial posts in past governments when he was a Socialist Party member. He ran for president in 2012, 2017 and 2022, coming third that year behind ⁠far-right leader Marine Le Pen and President...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Pope Leo on a trip to Rome this week, in the wake of the pontiff’s clash with US President Donald Trump, a Vatican source said on Sunday. The source confirmed Italian media reports about the meeting, which newspapers said would take place on Thursday in an attempt to “thaw” relations. It comes just weeks after Trump’s extraordinary criticism of Pope Leo over the Catholic leader’s anti-war rhetoric. The private visit with the top US diplomat, who is a...

The United States will launch an effort on Monday to “guide” stranded ships from the Iran-gripped Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump said, as two ships around the strait reported attacks. Trump gave few details about what could be a sweeping attempt to help hundreds of vessels and some 20,000 seafarers. Iran quickly denounced the move as a ceasefire violation. Trump said in a social media post on Sunday that “neutral and innocent” countries have been affected by the Iran war, and “we have...

A state-backed Nigerian militia, operating alongside the military, killed scores of ethnic Fulani herders in a raid, local sources have told journalists. The herders were killed in an operation that also involved vigilantes from Benin, just across the border from Niger State, after the herders were accused of being informants for the jihadist group Ansaru. The Nigerian vigilantes from Bussa district raided herding Fulani settlements around Kabe, in neighbouring Borgu, in a massacre that also saw...

At the end of March, China inaugurated the World Data Organisation in Beijing, a body with a stated mission of “bridging the data divide, unlocking data’s value and powering the digital economy”. The move is the latest signal of a broader trend: over the past several years, Beijing has developed a distinct data governance strategy to drive artificial intelligence (AI) development as it reshapes the terms of technological competition. Since late 2025, Beijing has pursued an aggressive AI adoption...

A small boat carrying migrants trying to cross the English Channel ran aground on a beach in northern France, leaving two dead and 16 people injured, including three with serious burns, authorities said on Sunday. The vessel, carrying 82 people, set out overnight from Hardelot beach, a few kilometres south of the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, but the engine failed and it began to drift, Christophe Marx, Secretary General of the Pas-de-Calais prefecture, told reporters. A French maritime gendarmerie...

Two foreign activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla who were brought to Israel for interrogation appeared before an Israeli court on Sunday, according to the rights group defending them. The flotilla of more than 50 vessels had set sail from France, Spain and Italy with the aim of breaking an Israeli blockade of Gaza and bringing supplies to the devastated Palestinian territory. They were intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off Greece early on Thursday, with Israel saying it had...

A new US drawdown of roughly 5,000 troops from Germany over the next year prompted strong questions from both Nato allies and Republicans in Congress. A Nato spokesperson said the defence alliance is looking for details on the US effort, which was announced on Friday, adding that Washington’s move underscores the need for Europe to continue to invest more in its own defence. The alliance remains confident of its ability to provide for deterrence and defence as a shift towards a stronger Europe...

Middle Eastern governments are dusting off decades-old proposals for overland oil and gas pipelines, and urgently drawing up plans for new rail-sea transport corridors in a belated response to the wartime disruption of major maritime trade through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. With the threats to these key shipping lanes and economic infrastructure set to linger after the multifront conflict between the US-Israel alliance and the Iran-led Axis of Resistance draws to a close, other...

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he was reviewing a new Iranian proposal to end the war. “I’ll let you know about it later,” he said before boarding Air Force One, adding that “they’re going to give me the exact wording now”. Two semi-official Iranian news outlets, Tasnim and Fars, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said Iran has sent a 14-point proposal via Pakistan in response to a nine-point US proposal. Pakistan has hosted previous negotiations...

Bankrupt discount carrier Spirit Airlines ceased operations on Saturday, the industry’s first casualty linked to the Iran war, after failing to secure creditor support for a US government bailout plan. The collapse of the carrier following a doubling in jet fuel prices during the two-month-old Iran war will cost thousands of jobs. It is a blow to US President Donald Trump, who had proposed US$500 million to save Spirit despite opposition from some of his closest advisers and many Republicans in...

A rescue team on Saturday released from a barge in the North Sea a humpback whale that had been stranded in shallow waters near Germany since March, witnesses said. Nicknamed “Timmy” by German media, the whale was spotted swimming near Germany’s Baltic Sea coast on March 3, far from its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean. The mammal’s health deteriorated as it became repeatedly stranded in shallow waters near the coastal city of Wismar, and unsuccessful efforts to coax it towards deeper seas...

A senior Iranian military officer said on Saturday that renewed fighting with the US was “likely”, hours after President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with an Iranian negotiating proposal. Iran delivered the new draft to mediator Pakistan on Thursday evening, state media reported, without detailing its contents. The war, launched by the United States and Israel in late February, has been on hold since April 8, with one failed round of peace talks having taken place in Pakistan since...

Russian troops are inching towards the city of ⁠Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s eastern ⁠Donetsk region, trying to establish ⁠a foothold close to a heavily defended area, Ukraine’s top army official said on Saturday. Kostiantynivka, along with other cities, forms a so-called fortress belt in the country’s east – an area well-fortified by the Ukrainian military. “We ‌are repelling the Russian occupiers’ persistent attempts to gain a foothold in the outskirts of Kostiantynivka using infiltration...

A trial beginning ⁠in New Mexico on Monday could prompt a judge to order sweeping changes ⁠to how Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp operate – a move Meta Platforms has warned could force it to withdraw from the state. The case, which will be tried before a judge in Santa Fe, stems from a lawsuit filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a Democrat, accusing the social media giant of designing its products to addict young users and failing to protect children from sexual exploitation on...

A planned drawdown of US troops from Germany should spur Europeans to strengthen its own defences further, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Saturday, following the latest salvo from Washington against transatlantic ties. The Pentagon announced on Friday that ‌the United States would withdraw 5,000 soldiers from Germany, its largest European base, as a rift over the Iran war and tariff tensions place further strain on relations between the US and Europe. Pistorius said the move was...

The United Arab Emirates is expected to continue making high-risk geopolitical moves with potentially high rewards, following its exit from the Opec oil cartel, as the small but extremely wealthy Gulf state strives to become a global power. Framed by Emirati officials as an orientation towards strengthening economic autonomy, the UAE’s decision to leave the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) on Tuesday coincided with the downgrading of its diplomatic participation in the Gulf...

Not a sudden, major crash but a series of mini-crises. That, according to some, is the prospect facing the global economy and financial system in the wake of conflict in the Middle East. But what if these mini-crises cascade into a collective collapse? And what if the Trump administration emerges as the only winner in the conflict by virtue of the fact that it has, in engineering the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, locked Europe and Asia into a desperate dependence on US oil and gas, especially...

The aerial strike raised the death toll to at least 187 in the U.S. campaign against boats the Trump administration accuses of smuggling drugs.

The health secretary has long complained that Americans overuse psychiatric medications. New policies he is introducing aim to change that.

Regardless of the theme, these people just looked great.

The governments have no official diplomatic or military ties. But a loose network led by company executives and volunteers is bridging some of that gulf.

The Los Angeles suspect was lonely and angry and felt “enslaved” by rich people, prosecutors say. After being romantically spurned, they say, he went into the mountains and lit a fire.

The Washington Post won the award for public service, considered the most prestigious of the Pulitzers, for its coverage of the Trump administration’s overhaul of federal agencies.

Here is the full list of winners and finalists.

The photographer Saher Alghorra reported on the Gaza conflict while enduring the dire conditions his images portrayed.

Doctors say that the virus, which is rare, can quickly progress from flulike symptoms to something far more serious.

Three passengers of the MV Hondius died after showing symptoms of the rare disease. Health authorities confirmed two cases and are investigating four others.

Ms. Lively had accused Mr. Baldoni of waging a smear campaign against her after she complained of harassment when making a film together. He had denied her accusation.

A New York Times reporter joined a group of cyclists on a route meant to break down Cape Town’s lingering racial and economic barriers.

The legal team implied in a federal trial that Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and co-founder, was driven by greed rather than building safe A.I.

A lower-court ruling had reinstated a Food and Drug Administration requirement that patients visit a health care provider in person to obtain mifepristone.

Louisiana voters who successfully challenged the state’s voting map as an illegal racial gerrymander had asked the justices to quickly return the case to the lower courts, clearing the way for a new map.

Lea Michele, Christine Ebersole, Jennifer Hudson, Kristin Chenoweth, Adam Lambert and 10 others reflect on their favorite belters.

It turns out that some women do, in fact, dream of labor, at least the kind that comes with a sense of mastery, agency and glamour.

Keir Starmer’s collapse was written into the nature of his victory.

The budget carrier announced that “‘all flights have been canceled, and customer service is no longer available,’ which, coincidentally, was also Spirit’s motto,” Stephen Colbert said.

Last month, animal rights activists tried to steal some of the dogs from the Wisconsin facility, Ridglan Farms, but were thwarted by tear gas and rubber bullets.

The agency, which has been pulling back on lawsuits against major companies, ended a case that had accused Mr. Musk of hiding his purchases of Twitter stock. He agreed to pay $1.5 million.

New York State law prevents people from seeking punitive damages from the estate of someone who has died.

Dozens more were injured in the explosion, which appeared to be one of the country’s deadliest in recent years.