Minimalist News

CDC Raises Ebola Response To Highest Level As Outbreak Grows Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has activated its highest-level emergency response to the growing Ebola outbreak in central Africa caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain, as the agency says that the risk of spread within the United States remains low. The move to Level 1 activation, signifying the most severe health crises, comes as the outbreak, which is now in its second month, has infected more than 1,200 people in Congo, with 321 deaths reported there, plus additional cases

Chinese AI Matches Mythos In Cybersecurity Tasks With Open-Weight Model While Anthropic has been forced to shut down its latest general-use models for over two weeks after it emerged that the company's de-tuned public-facing Fable 5 model could be 'jailbroken' into its unrestricted form (Mythos 5) to perform tasks that pose security risks, a Chinese AI company backed by Alibaba and Tencent has released a model that matches the performance of Mythos in some cybersecurity scenarios. The company, Zhipu AI - also known as Z.ai, can match the latest US models when it comes to finding security bugs - though

The Coming Return Of Commodity-Backed Money Authored by Chris MacIntosh via InternationalMan.com, This piece is as much a mental exploration as a fact-gathering exercise. Let’s begin with the problem. Bank failures come together with economic failures. So trusting banks is a problem, but furthermore, trusting fiat currency is also a problem. This is on top of the issue that moving capital from one bank to another is increasingly fraught with headaches. AML and KYC have become weaponised, and the global surveillance system is tightening its grip. So movement of capital, treasury, and of course what to own in your treasury

The Path To A September Rate Cut (Despite AI Inflation) By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities The Path to a September Rate Cut (despite AI inflation) A lot has changed in the past 24 hours. After Thursday’s CNBC interview, it seemed obvious (to me) that I needed to write about how there is a real path to a Fed Rate Cut in September . Not only has the market priced in a 75% chance of a hike in September , and 1.25 hikes by the December meeting, most have also taken any chance of a cut off the table. I

Next Switzerland Talks 'Stalled' After Past Days' Flare-Up In US-Iran Fighting (Update1500ET) : An expected next round of US-Iran talks in Switzerland has been 'stalled' by the latest fighting flare up in the Strait of Hormuz, after US forces bombed Iran's coast a couple times - and following more Iranian 'retaliation' on Gulf states, as well as against at least two international vessels in the Strait. WSJ is reporting Sunday : The fighting has rattled shipowners and has thrown a budding reopening of the waterway into doubt, threatening the key achievement of Trump’s preliminary deal, which pushes discussions of more

"Navigation Extremely Limited": Top Shipper Warns IRGC Mines Complicate Hormuz Normalization The top executive of Japan's largest shipping company told the Financial Times in an exclusive weekend interview that the path toward normalization in the Strait of Hormuz remains far more complicated than anticipated. He warned that shipping volumes may stay well below prewar levels for months, as IRGC-laid mines are forcing vessels into narrow, safer corridors near Iran and Oman. "The routes available for navigation are extremely limited — they're very narrow corridors," Takaya Soga, chief executive of Japan's NYK Line, told the outlet. "We're still nowhere near returning

Are The Epstein Survivors Being Exploited Yet Again? Authored by Nick Bryant , On February 8, 2026, the advocacy group World Without Exploitation launched a 40-second public service announcement during the Super Bowl featuring Jeffrey Epstein survivors demanding the full release of federal files related to Epstein's sex trafficking network. The Epstein survivors held up pictures of themselves when they were initially abused by Epstein as minors or young women. "After years of being kept apart, we're standing together," they said. The background was pitch black, and the music was haunting. The PSA ended with the following: "Stand With Us.

Heat Dome Halts German Trains After Track Sealant Liquifies Europe's heat wave is now quickly morphing from a public health crisis into an infrastructure nightmare, with power prices surging , more than 1,000 excess deaths reported across France, and extreme temperatures bringing parts of Germany's rail infrastructure to a halt. The local German outlet Leipziger Zeitung reports that after a week of sweltering temperatures above 30°C, with readings climbing toward 40°C on Saturday, critical transport infrastructure in Leipzig failed under the heat. The city, located in the eastern German state of Saxony, about 120 miles southwest of Berlin, was forced

Baghdad's Green Zone Locked Down As Officials Arrested In Corruption Sweep Beyond Sunday's Iranian drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait , launched in response to earlier U.S. airstrikes, Hormuz shipping traffic remains stable but well below last week's peak, when 57 vessels transited the strait on Wednesday. With maritime flows stable through the critical waterway, attention now shifts to Iraq, where a widening corruption sweep inside Baghdad's Green Zone could become the next area of focus. Iraq's state-run Iraqi News Agency reported that several political figures were arrested in a corruption probe tied to testimony from former Deputy

Five Dynamics That Make Sense Of An Increasingly Chaotic World Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, These dynamics and the incentives they generate lead to systemic crisis and collapse. As I noted in What Once Explained Everything Now Explains Nothing , the simplicity of either-or ideologies appeal to us. Identifying with an ideology is like having a favorite sports team: yea for our team! Our team good, other team bad. The roots of this simplistic either-or are obvious: our tribe good, other tribe bad. The problems with this simplistic loyalty arise when we attempt to explain complex real-world

Sadiq Khan Said There Were No Grooming Gangs In London; Police Investigating 4,000 Cases Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , The London mayor who once insisted there was "no indication" of grooming gangs now faces explosive new scrutiny after a police review uncovered thousands of previously sidelined child sexual exploitation files. The Metropolitan Police has identified more than 4,000 potential child sexual exploitation cases across London that may require reopening. These stem from roughly 12,000 reports dating back to 2010, with about one in three previously closed after police or prosecutors took no further action. Met Police uncovers

Saudi Aramco Helicopter Crash Kills 14 In Ras Tanura , Cause Unknown One week after a mysterious explosion - attributed to a "technical incident" - at Qatar's massive Ras Laffan industrial city killed dozens and set back restoration and recovery efforts at the giant LNG production facility by weeks if not months, a helicopter belonging to Saudi ​oil giant Aramco crashed on Sunday ‌in Ras Tanura on Saudi Arabia's eastern coast on the Gulf, west of the Strait of ​Hormuz, killing 14 nationals, the state ​news agency reported, adding that the ⁠cause was unknown. Aramco had resumed crude oil loadings

Tehran Retaliates Against Bahrain, Kuwait After US Bombing Campaign Along Iranian Coast Update(2300ET) : Earlier the IRGC warned: "If any aggression is repeated, the response will be broader." That broader response has come in the overnight into Sunday hours: Tehran attacks Bahrain, Kuwait after US bombs Iranian coast , Al Jazeera reports: Air raid sirens blare in Bahrain as Kuwait’s military says its air defenses are responding to "hostile missile and drone threats . " Iranian state media is also confirming the fresh 'retaliation' for limited US airstrikes over the last two days, triggered initially by the Iranians seeking to

Why Are Europeans Leaving Their Own Countries? While immigration often dominates discussions about Europe’s changing population, another migration trend receives far less attention: many countries are also losing their own native-born citizens. This visualization, created by DataPulse using Eurostat data via Visual Capitalist , ranks selected European countries by the net migration of native-born residents in 2024. Only Lithuania and Bulgaria recorded net gains, while Germany, Italy, Sweden, and several other major economies saw more locally born citizens leave than return. The pattern reflects a mix of economic opportunity, housing affordability, demographic change, and labor mobility within Europe, all of

IPO Market For AI Freezes Up While The Nuclear SPAC Market Runs Hot While it looks like OpenAI's IPO has been put on ice as they try to paint SpaceX as the scapegoat, there's still one sector that simply can't launch the IPOs and SPACs fast enough. After an announcement earlier this year that saw nuclear industrial company Holtec file privately for an IPO, one of the leading reactor developers X-energy debuted on the public market at an almost $10 billion valuation . Since then, microreactor developer Hadron Energy has completed their SPAC merger and has subsequently been digging itself

Even Einstein Admitted He Was Wrong... We Apparently Can't Expect As Much From Al Gore Authored by Gary Abernathy via The Empowerment Alliance , When it comes to scientific theories, even some of history's most respected and renowned people and institutions have graciously admitted when they were wrong when confronted with irrefutable evidence. It took 359 years, but eventually the Catholic Church conceded in 1992 that the church was wrong and Galileo Galilei was right - the Earth revolves around the sun. Throughout the 18th century, chemists widely believed that a substance called phlogiston was released when materials were burned.

These Are The Car Brands With The Fewest Problems In 2026 Drivers reported more vehicle problems this year than ever before, but some automakers continue to stand out for reliability. This graphic, created by Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, ranks the car brands with the fewest reported problems in 2026 based on J.D. Power’s Problems Per 100 Vehicles (PP100) metric. Lower scores indicate fewer owner-reported issues and better long-term dependability. The data comes from the J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study , which measures problems experienced by original owners of three-year-old vehicles. While Lexus once again topped the rankings, the

UK Parents Face Five-Year Jail Terms For Questioning Their Child's Gender 'Transition' Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , While schools have been given the green light to socially transition four-year-olds and exam boards slip pro-trans propaganda into Spanish GCSE materials, the government has published a draft bill that threatens parents, teachers and doctors with up to five years in prison for so-called conversion practices. The new legislation, unveiled by Equalities Minister Olivia Bailey, targets efforts to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. Penalties include unlimited fines, five-year prison sentences, or both. The government frames it as

The Shooting In The Strait Ain't Over, But... Authored by Larry Johnson via Sonar21.com A little over a week since the US and Iran signed the MoU, some ships that had been trapped in the Persian rushed to travel through the corridor, with many trying to use an alternative route on the southern side of the Strait along the Omani coast. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) had coordinated this alternative routing with Oman - hugging the UAE and Musandam Peninsula coastline, avoiding the central passage that Iran had mined . This route was significant because it bypassed Iran’s designated corridor

Young Americans Expect To Buy A Home Later In Life (Or Not At All) For decades, homeownership has been a key milestone of adulthood in the United States. In recent years, however, the middle-class ideal of homeownership and suburban comfort, once an embodiment of the American Dream, has gotten out of reach for many families , as elevated home prices , high mortgage rates and a period of stagnant real wages have left many families unable to even consider it. As Statista's Felix Richter shows below , only 25 percent of non-homeowners expect to buy a house in the next

President says ‘we always hold onto hope’ as discovery of earthquake survivors spurs fresh search efforts despite dwindling chances of survival Mortuary in Caracas ‘overwhelmed’ as Venezuela struggles to respond after earthquakes A man and his teenage son were found alive under the rubble in Venezuela on Sunday, in a town about 40km north of the capital Caracas, AFP journalists reported, as the death toll from last week’s twin earthquakes passed 1,450. The discovery of survivors in Caraballeda was made by French and American rescue teams nearly four days after back-to-back quakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck, completely destroying

Marco Rubio is scrambling to provide effective disaster response to country whose president US deposed in January This week’s dual earthquakes in Venezuela are a test for the new era of American power in the western hemisphere, as the Trump administration scrambles to provide an effective disaster response mission to a country that it now calls an ally in Latin America, after a US special forces raid in January deposed the country’s strongman leader, Nicolás Maduro. The US is marshalling what secretary of state Marco Rubio called a “big, fast, effective” and “whole-of-government” response as the state department sent three

Search for survivors continues with nearly 70,000 people reported unaccounted for by their family members The ⁠death toll ⁠in ⁠the twin ​earthquakes that struck ⁠ Venezuela earlier ⁠this ​week ‌has ‌risen to ‌1,430, according to one of the country’s top politicians, Jorge Rodríguez. Another 3,200 ​people were injured ⁠and 3,100 ​left homeless ​by the ​disaster, ​the National Assembly president added, speaking ​on ​state television. Continue reading...

Delcy Rodríguez says foreign rescue teams are arriving as anger grows at official response and limited resources Survivors tell of ‘brutal and fast’ Venezuela quake as hunt for survivors goes on Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has vowed to fight to save “as many people as possible” as the official death toll from the country’s worst earthquake in more than a century almost doubled, but frustration was growing at the perceived sluggishness of the government’s response. Rodríguez’s brother, Jorge, the president of the national assembly, said on Friday that the official number of dead had risen to 920. Delcy Rodríguez

Various issues – including a rodent infestation and mould – have left the historic, sprawling Ottawa estate empty 10 Downing Street has two things: mice and a chief mouser . For more than a decade, an officially recognized feline has kept rodent infestation in the British prime minister’s residence to a minimum. Over a similar period, the official residence of Canada’s prime minister has seen an unchecked explosion of rodents. Continue reading...

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

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

The 46-year-old was stopped at about 9.30pm on Friday while preparing to board a Jetstar flight to Perth, according to police and local media Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast An Australian man has been arrested at a Thai airport in connection with the alleged murder of a 17-year-old girl whose naked body was found in a suitcase, according to local police. The man , 46, was stopped at about 9.30pm on Friday while preparing to travel on a Jetstar flight to Perth, according to

Austrian Grand Prix declares heat hazard as dramatic rise in temperatures forecast in central and northern Europe Temperatures are forecast to rise dramatically in parts of central and northern Europe this weekend as the intense heatwave continues . In Germany and Poland, highs up to or exceeding 40C (104F) are expected on both Saturday and Sunday, days after swathes of France experienced similar extreme temperatures. The Austrian Grand Prix, taking place this weekend in Spielberg, has declared a heat hazard , the first race to do so this season. Temperatures are expected to rise into the low 30s celsius during

All branches of the military will be taught how to use technology that has become a ‘game changer on the battlefield’, says defence minister All of South Korea’s military forces will be trained as drone operators in a sweeping overhaul of its warfare strategy, the defence minister has said. “All soldiers should be able to use drones like a second personal firearm,” Ahn Gyu-back, who heads the defence ministry in Seoul, said on Friday. Continue reading...

Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Royal commission hearings resume today The next round of hearings for the antisemitism royal commission begins today. Regretfully, we’re here until Thursday night with Parliament and the game is at 4am Saturday morning. So I’ll be watching on the TV. And like I’ve said before, sometimes I’m the minister for sport and it’s important I’m at major events because there’s all kinds of elements and stakeholders that are there for me to be there in person. Sometimes I’m the minister for communications and I

The Australian Electoral Commission is examining if party breached laws in its $6m public funding claim after the last election, documents show Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Australian Electoral Commission questioned Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party over more than $800,000 of claimed electoral expenditure for the last election, Guardian Australia can reveal. Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show that the inquiries prompted the party to withdraw more than 140 items as it sought to provide additional information to justify almost 15%

As Labor pushes on with reforms, the Coalition must decide whether to join in the parliamentary deal-making Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast It’s the last week of parliament before the winter break, and not a minute too soon; tensions have been running a little high lately. The lower house speaker, Milton Dick, has been yeeting MPs mere moments into question time and accused Angus Taylor of “demeaning” the parliament by calling Anthony Albanese a liar; Andrew Hastie claimed One Nation “has declared war on

UK is latest country to set minimum age for social media access but big tech is fighting back globally against curbs Social media bans go global: big tech faces a reckoning after Australia’s crackdown Arturo Béjar, a former employee turned whistleblower at Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, has talked to parents around the world. He says they share the same perspective: they dread the day their children are old enough to go online. Governments appear to be listening too. This month the UK became the latest country to state that it would set a minimum age of 16 for accessing major social

Crocodile Dundee was held up by the One Nation leader as an exemplar of ‘Australian monoculture’. Hoges had other ideas Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast In one swift rhetorical blow, Crocodile Dundee has disarmed Pauline Hanson’s latest attack on multiculturalism. But his weapon of choice has left some scratching their heads. Continue reading...

Russia’s president says Ukraine’s attacks on infrastructure are causing ‘obvious’ but not critical problems The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, acknowledged that the country was suffering from “a certain shortage” of fuel in an interview published by the Kremlin on Sunday, after repeated Ukrainian strikes in their four-year war. Kyiv calls the attacks fair retribution for Russia’s near-daily barrages on Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure since its February 2022 offensive. Continue reading...

Heat records of over 40C set as extreme weather spreads east, with more than 191m in Europe enduring 35C or above After decades of warnings, why is Europe so unprepared? Germany, Czechia, Poland and Hungary reached record temperatures of more than 40C on Sunday as a heatwave linked to hundreds of deaths in western Europe spread east. More than 191 million people in Europe faced temperatures of at least 35C, with extreme heat warnings across the region. Continue reading...

Five students and five instructors dead along with pilot after plane fell suddenly near aerodrome, says prefect A skydiving plane has crashed in north-eastern France , killing all 11 people onboard, according to the region’s prefect. The parachuting-school plane crashed near Nancy at 11am, said Yves Séguy, the prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle region. Continue reading...

Temperature records broken in Germany, Denmark and Slovakia as Europe remains gripped by heatwave After decades of climate warnings, why is Europe so unprepared for rising heat? Seawater is seeping into Italy’s longest river as the waterway starts to run dry in the heatwave, hitting a farming heartland that produces the milk for Parmesan cheese. The Po River has never fallen this low so early in the year, raising fears of a devastating drought in July in this corner of northern Italy. Continue reading...

Denmark experiences highest temperature on record on Saturday as weather system spreads eastward Europe heatwave – latest updates Germany ⁠and Italy endured sweltering conditions on Saturday as a heatwave linked to dozens of deaths in western Europe spread eastwards, after temperatures broke records above 40C (104F). Denmark registered its highest temperature on record on Saturday, according to the Danish meteorological institute. “With 36.6C north of Odense, we have the warmest day ever since measurements began in 1874,” it said in a post on X. Continue reading...

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

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

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

Across region there is a push to disarm militia and reinforce state authority but the temptation to use proxies remains As Marco Rubio ended his brief visit to the Middle East on Friday, he sought to cast in the best possible light his discussions with leaders of the Gulf states. Those leaders are deeply anxious that the deal agreed earlier this month between Iran and the US fails to address their worries about continued Iranian efforts to project power and influence throughout the region. “They’ve shared with us some very concrete concerns,” the US secretary of state admitted, and insisted

No immediate reports of damage after Bahrain hit by ‘number of drones’ as ship in strait of Hormuz also targeted Bahrain has said it was attacked by Iran with drones on Saturday, apparently in response to overnight US strikes on Iran . A ship in the strait of Hormuz was also attacked. Bahrain’s foreign ministry said a “number of drones” were launched at the country, though there were no immediate reports of damage. It condemned the attack and described it as a “flagrant threat to the security of citizens and residents”. Continue reading...

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

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

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

Directive aimed at government workers, but reports of wider implementation spark warnings of future Afghanistan-wide prohibition The Taliban have ordered a sweeping ban on the use of smartphones by government officials – in what some analysts say could foreshadow broader, population-level restrictions. In a directive issued by the Taliban’s military courts and reviewed by the Guardian, the ban was to take effect this week and prohibits “high rank, low rank, general mujahideen, or service staff” from using mobile phones. Continue reading...

Campaigners welcome announcement cutting levies on menstrual health items, but say their work to end period poverty is ‘far from over’ Pakistan plans to abolish “period tax”, in a victory for young campaigners who had taken the government to court over the charges. Finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced that sanitary towels and related items were “daily necessities that are indispensable for women’s health, dignity and full participation in social activities”, and said he intended to remove the sales tax. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Sadiq Khan plans to use new powers after local council opposes city scheme for seasonal pedestrianisation The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, plans to override opposition to al fresco dining in Soho after the local council failed to apply to a scheme for seasonal pedestrianisation that is being introduced across the capital this summer. From 2027, restaurants in London’s entertainment district will be allowed to put chairs outside in the warmer months despite a longstanding local row on the issue. Continue reading...

Spending watchdog says high-speed rail project must be put on stable footing to avoid repeat of costly past failures Revised plans for HS2 should not be put into action until the government is confident they can be delivered, according to the public spending watchdog. The project to build the high-speed railway must be put on a stable footing to avoid a repeat of past failures, the National Audit Office (NAO) said in a report. Continue reading...

British Heart Foundation expects about 45 people a day to die over next decade if current trends continue About 170,000 people are expected to die from heart-related conditions linked to obesity – one of the leading causes of preventable illnesses – by 2035, according to a leading charity. The analysis, conducted by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), found that about 45 people a day are expected to die from cardiovascular disease linked to excess weight and obesity in England over the next decade, as long as current trends in obesity rates continue. In the UK, about two in three adults

The Happy Valley actor is lined up as the lead in German director Thomas Ostermeier’s first Shakespearean play in English James Norton is to take on his first major Shakespearean stage role and play Hamlet in the West End next year. The King & Conqueror star said it was a “privilege” and “pretty terrifying” to be cast as the tragic prince in the acclaimed German director Thomas Ostermeier’s production next autumn. Norton was last on stage in 2023 in the harrowing A Little Life, based on Hanya Yanagihara’s novel, which the actor described as the hardest thing he has ever

Commissioner calls for overhaul of state support after reporting 10% rise in young patient referrals last year More than 1 million children were referred to mental health services across England last year, with referrals up 10% from the year previous, according to a report by the children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza. She said the country faced a “crisis” in young people’s mental health. The number of patients who had an active referral to children and young people’s mental health services across England surpassed 1 million for the first time in 2024-25. This was almost double the number recorded in 2018-19,

Forecasters expect days of high temperatures in central and eastern US before Fourth of July and World Cup festivities A long and dangerous heatwave will blast a large swath of the central and eastern United States for the upcoming week, the National Weather Service (NWS) said on Sunday – with temperatures rising ahead of the Fourth of July holiday and feeling even hotter because of high humidity also arriving. Already parts of the US, especially Phoenix and central Texas, and much of the south-west were experiencing temperatures of about 100F (38C) on Sunday, while the NWS warned of severe wildfire

Markwayne Mullin’s remarks come after controversial supreme court ruling to strip TPS from over 350,000 people Migrants in the US on temporary protected status should seek permanent residence or leave, Markwayne Mullin, Homeland Security secretary, said in the wake of last week’s supreme court decision that stripped humanitarian protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants. The remarks to CNN’s State of the Union program comes after a decision ⁠that could allow Donald Trump’s administration to deport Haitian and Syrian immigrants to home countries plagued by conflict and ​destitution. Continue reading...

Mayor says progressive peers who swept primaries speak to Americans ‘coast to coast’ as moderates have reservations Zohran Mamdani , the New York City mayor, said on Sunday that he and a slew of democratic socialist allies who prevailed in recent primary elections are carrying a “national message” to struggling working Americans hungry for a new kind of politics “coast to coast”. Mamdani made that triumphant clarion call on ABC News’s This Week just five days after he had seen his endorsed candidates win Democratic nominations in three races for New York congressional seats, as well as for five state

Firefighters were involved in joint response to Knowles and Gore blazes as wildfires ravage western US, fire agency says Three firefighters were killed and two others were hurt while responding to wildfires along the Colorado - Utah border, the US Wildland Fire Service announced on Sunday. The agency, which was established in January to coordinate wildfire suppression and prevention efforts across public lands, said the firefighters were involved in a joint response to the Knowles and Gore fires on Saturday. Continue reading...

Out-going Louisiana senator’s rebuke over Iran war is rare instance of a Republican politician standing up to Trump Bill Cassidy, the Republican senator from Louisiana who is being ousted from his position after Donald Trump successfully backed a challenger in May’s primary, has accused the US president of treating Congress as “merely an appendage” in his handling of the Iran war. In an interview on Sunday with CBS News’s Face the Nation, the out-going Cassidy explained his recent face-to-face row with Trump over the president’s failure to brief Congress on the prosecution of the hostilities with Tehran. In a fleetingly

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

Kate Middleton, Britain’s Princess of Wales, said on Sunday ⁠she had scaled the ⁠three highest peaks in ⁠Britain in 24 hours to raise money for a cancer charity and “as a chance to explore life beyond diagnosis and to give something back”. Kate, 44, the wife of heir to the throne Prince William, is in ‌remission after undergoing chemotherapy for an undisclosed form of cancer and, while she has returned to royal duties, she has spoken of the toll the illness has taken on her and her family. In a...

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

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

Israel was shaken on Sunday by an unusual series of suspected criminal acts of violence that left five members of Israel’s Arab minority dead in a single day. Two people died in explosions involving car bombs in the Tel Aviv district of Jaffa and in the suburb of Holon. Three others were killed in two separate killings in Israel’s Arab communities. All four incidents are linked to organised or criminal violence, according to the police’s findings so far. Criminal violence has escalated among...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that ‌the American military struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar ⁠sites for violating a US-Iran ‌ceasefire agreement. “There may come a point ‌when we are no ⁠longer ⁠able to be reasonable, ‌and will be forced to ‌militarily complete ‌the job that we ‌very successfully started,” ⁠Trump wrote on social media. “If that happens, the Islamic Republic ‌of Iran ‌will no longer exist.” The president’s remarks came soon after US...

As France sweltered under one of the worst ⁠heatwaves ever recorded this ⁠week, city dwellers scrambled for any ⁠escape they could find, with many checking into hotels to benefit from air conditioning and access to pools. Temperatures in Paris hit a June record of 40.9 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, a day after France recorded its hottest day since records ‌began nearly 80 years ago. But few private flats in the country have air conditioning, particularly those in the densely populated capital....

Nowadays, prime ministers and even presidents cower before the mighty bond markets. These have the ability – in democracies, at least – to have leaders ejected from office via the ballot box, as even US President Donald Trump appears to acknowledge. However, it is not enough to simply offer dismissive gestures towards the bond markets, as some political leaders have discovered to their cost. It is much more important to ask why it is that bond markets have become so powerful. It is refreshing in...

The situation has grown more desperate by the hour in Venezuela as people dig through the rubble of collapsed homes and flat blocks three days after the devastating one-two punch of 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes, knowing time is running out to find survivors. Authorities announced on Friday night that they would block access to La Guaira, the epicentre of the destruction, as chaos and traffic began to hamper search efforts. Officials said anyone who wanted to enter would now have to seek...

Three months of war with the United States and Israel may not have broken Iran’s resistance, but its economy has been brought to its knees. Forty days of American and Israeli bombing in March and early April – targeting energy grids, steel mills, petrochemical plants, ports and transport corridors – were followed by a two-month US naval blockade that sealed off much of what remained. The damage bill has reached an estimated US$270 billion against a gross domestic product of US$371 billion in...

The US government has allowed Anthropic to release its powerful Claude Mythos 5 artificial intelligence model to some “trusted” US organisations, partially reversing an order two weeks ago to suspend access over national security risks. More than 100 companies and institutions will now have access to Mythos 5, including many Fortune 500 companies, according to a source familiar with the new directive, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. Concern that powerful AI...

President Donald Trump on Friday unveiled a rendering of a new limited-edition US passport to mark the country’s 250th anniversary of independence, featuring his stern-faced likeness. “The U.S.A.’s New Passport, which says, ‘Welcome, but be good!’” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform featuring the passport mock-up. The image features a glowering Trump leaning on his desk and his signature, with the text of the Declaration of Independence in the background. It appears to be based on...

The Texas Board of Education on ⁠Friday approved mandated reading ⁠lists for children in public schools that include passages from the Bible – the latest effort by leaders there to infuse the education system with conservative and religious ideals. The Republican-dominated board, in a 9-5 vote with ‌one member absent and not voting, approved the reading lists for more than 5 million public school students beginning in 2030. Texas had already mandated that the Bible’s Ten Commandments be...

My four-year-old son has become fascinated with his new friend, who has endless patience and an answer for everything. She is an artificial intelligence assistant on Doubao, one of China’s most popular AI applications. My son, obsessed with space, black holes and galaxies, keeps asking Doubao for related videos. When the video is of low quality or inaccurate, I would stop it and explain it may not be reliable. Despite my concerns about AI-generated information, I let him interact with AI within...

Burkina Faso’s ruling junta on Friday severed diplomatic ties with former colonial ruler France, accusing Paris of persistently acting against its interests. The military regime led by Captain Ibrahim Traore, in power since a coup in September 2022, is pursuing a policy repressive towards critical voices and hostile to Westerners, particularly France. “The government of Burkina Faso hereby informs the national and international community that it has decided to sever diplomatic relations with...

Billionaire investor Leon Black said on Friday that Jeffrey Epstein deceived him during a years-long relationship in which he paid the disgraced financier US$158 million, but insisted he committed no criminal wrongdoing as he appeared before the House Oversight Committee. Black is the 16th person to appear before the committee as part of their broader investigation into the web of wealth and influence around Epstein. Before entering the closed-door deposition, congressman James Comer, the House...

US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened a 100 per cent tax on imports from any country that imposed a tax on digital services from American companies. In a post on social media, Trump took aim at European countries that he said were discussing “imminent” implementation of taxes on US companies. The president has repeatedly sought to use tariffs as a way to deter such taxes, but many countries are looking for revenues as their economies increasingly operate in digital realms that are...

The US struck Iran on Friday in response to a drone attack a day earlier on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, a provocation President Donald Trump said violated the ceasefire between the two countries. US Central Command said the military struck missile and drone sites, as well as coastal radar locations in Iran, shortly after Trump hinted at retaliation when asked whether Tehran would face consequences. “We’ll find out,” Trump told reporters. Asked whether he still considered the ceasefire...

A German court on Friday jailed for life a Saudi psychiatrist who killed six people and wounded more than 300 when he drove a rented SUV through a crowded Christmas market in 2024. Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, 51 – an anti-Islam activist and adherent to right-wing conspiracy theories – listened to the verdict from inside a bulletproof glass box, his hands shackled. He was convicted of six counts of murder and 338 counts of attempted murder by the court in the eastern city of Magdeburg. Judges...

Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton pleaded guilty on Friday to illegally retaining classified information, sealing a deal with federal prosecutors that could allow him to avoid a prison term. Bolton, who became an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump after serving in the Republican’s first administration, is scheduled to be sentenced on October 28 by US District Judge Theodore Chuang in Greenbelt, Maryland. Bolton, 77, pleaded guilty to a single count of...

The official death toll from twin earthquakes that flattened parts ‌of Caracas and surrounding areas rose to 920, the authorities said on Friday. The government has estimated hundreds of people still trapped and missing nearly two days after magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors struck about 160⁠km (100 miles) west of Caracas. International search and rescue teams from at least 17 countries are being scrambled to Venezuela to help look for survivors of Wednesday’s devastating twin earthquakes, the...

Leaders of the G7 rich nations might have gone into this month’s summit in France hoping for a united front against China. But, overshadowed by the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine and alienated by a mercurial US President Donald Trump, the lacklustre gathering came up short. There was no public agreement on how to address the so-called China shock 2.0, the supposed overcapacity issues and currency manipulation that is considered to be the cause of Chinese exports flooding into Europe. Instead of...

A deadly European heatwave that has saturated hospitals as temperatures soared to record highs was shifting east on Friday, with authorities warning of more misery on a continent not used to stretches of punishing heat. At least 101 million Europeans have roasted for several days in temperatures of over 35 degrees Celsius, with an estimated few hundred people, including children, thought to have died as a result, many drowning as they sought respite from the inferno. Scientists said in a study...

Russian air defences intercepted 660 Ukrainian drones in a major nighttime attack on 12 Russian regions as well as the Russia-held Crimean peninsula, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Friday. The authorities in Crimea on Friday declared an “emergency situation” in a bid to ease the fallout from increasing aerial attacks on the illegally annexed peninsula. “A decision has been made … to sign decrees declaring a regional-level emergency situation in the Republic of...

Who would have imagined that just over 100 days could so change the world? The US-Israeli “war of choice” on Iran has fundamentally – perhaps, permanently – shifted the global balances of economic, military and political power, and not in America’s favour. Mix the direct impact of this gratuitous military conflict with the broader effects on global security, efforts to mitigate climate change, contain soaring public debt and “de-risk” after America’s unilateral efforts to unravel globally agreed...

Former Israeli defence chief Gadi Eisenkot is emerging as the main rival to incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, months ahead of the nation’s parliamentary elections. Eisenkot’s new centrist party, Yashar! (Hebrew for “Straight!”), has rapidly been gaining popularity in opinion polls. It is currently second behind Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud. Israelis must elect a new parliament by October 27 at the latest, although the vote was most likely to be held on October 20. Opinion polls...

Iran and the United States may have entered a temporary ceasefire, but uncertainty over the agreement continues to cast a shadow over the operations of Chinese businesses across the Gulf region. While the deal has raised hopes that business activity could gradually resume, many traders and investors remain reluctant to make long-term commitments. For Abbas Shi, a Chinese businessman who has been helping connect Chinese companies with Iranian partners since 2024, the immediate priority is...

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. A crisis ‘defused’ as blockade lifted, assets to be returned to Iran after Swiss talks Statements from the US and Iran following talks in Switzerland have cooled tensions that nearly derailed the peace process, signalling an intention...

A New York City housing board voted on Thursday to freeze the rents for about one million regulated flats for up to two years, fulfilling a central campaign promise of Mayor Zohran Mamdani only months into his term. The 7-1 vote by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board set increases at zero on both one-year and two-year leases from October. Hundreds ‌of tenants who crowded into a Manhattan museum auditorium cheered and blew whistles at the result. “This is a historic victory for New York City...

“Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, published the sayings of Confucius in his colonial newspaper and today’s sculpture recognising that ancient Chinese age is carved into the face of the United States Supreme Court very proudly,” said US President Donald Trump in Beijing last month. It took two-and-a-half centuries for an American president to explicitly acknowledge the profound Chinese impact on the US founding fathers. Trump’s recent declaration could be a historical first. Unless archival...

The US Supreme Court on Thursday backed a Trump administration move to strip deportation protections from some 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians living in the United States. The 6-3 ruling by the conservative-dominated court could have implications for more than one million beneficiaries of so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from more than a dozen countries. Justice Samuel Alito, whose majority opinion was joined by the five other conservative justices, said the Department of Homeland...

Venezuela has received offers of rescue teams and humanitarian aid from across the Americas, including from right-wing governments that had broken off diplomatic relations with Caracas less than two years ago, in the wake of this week’s deadly twin earthquakes. The quakes, of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 and 39 seconds apart, struck the north of the country on Wednesday evening and were the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century. Interim President Delcy Rodriguez declared a nationwide state...

Back-to-back quakes in northern Venezuela killed more than 1,400 people and set off an agonizing search for survivors. It was the latest ordeal for a country rocked by economic and political turmoil.

A medical team set out from the capital to rescue people in the hardest-hit part of the disaster zone, La Guaira. They found silence in the ruins instead.

Fires are raging in the arid Southwest after a warm winter. Forecasters say the fires may grow rapidly, and parts of Colorado have been ordered to evacuate.

Forecasters warned that temperatures could break records in some areas. The heat is expected to last into the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

As partisan tensions swirl around festivities in Washington, red and blue states alike are leaning into complex history — and their own stories.

While prices are up overall, there’s a surprising pattern depending on your destination.

The annual celebration on Sunday took place in a city where many in the L.G.B.T.Q. community are optimistic about their local leaders but face challenges from the Trump administration.

In an era of electronic timepieces, he marketed $40,000 handmade watches as status symbols, breathing new life into a struggling industry.

The people who want to visit can’t function without the people who have to live there.

When speaking up actually means risking something, for once, it is more necessary than ever.

Mr. Maher, a frequent critic of President Trump, is receiving a top comedy award at the institution that once bore the president’s name.