Minimalist News

Ease In Our Time By Micael Every, Global Strategist at Rabobank Yesterday saw the BOJ hike rates to 1%, the highest level since 1995, and the RBA hold at 4.35%, with some chatter of the next move being down, not up, despite inflation running way above 2%. Today it’s the turn of new Fed Chair Warsh who, like the other central banks, has to deal with a geopolitical backdrop which may or may not allow for any monetary policy easing. There, the text of the 14-point US-Iran MoU has been leaked ahead of its Swiss signing ceremony on Friday: ironically,

"Late Spring Buyer Rush": US Pending Home Sales Just Surged By The Most In Almost 2 Years Pending home sales in the US were expected to rise for the fourth straight month in May and they did with a huge beat (+3.8% MoM vs +0.9% MoM exp - above the highest analysts estimate) , which was slightly offset by a downward revision for April (from +1.4% to +0.3%). That is the best monthly improvement in pending home sales since Sept 2024 and that lifted sales by just over 2% YoY . “A late spring buyer rush - even with mortgage

DOJ Sues New York Health Officials Over Alleged Fraud In Medicaid Homecare Program Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on June 16 sued New York health officials and a Georgia-based company over an alleged fraud scheme involving the state’s $10 billion Medicaid homecare program. The lawsuit names state Health Commissioner James McDonald, state Medicaid Director Amir Bassiri, and financial management services company Public Partnerships LLC as defendants. In its lawsuit, the DOJ asked the court to issue an injunction barring the defendants from making “false statements and misrepresentations” about New York’s Consumer

No FISA Without SAVE Act: Trump Calls Out 'Dumocrat' Double-Cross," Keeps Pulte As Acting DNI Just two years after Donald Trump urged Congress to kill Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act while on the campaign trail, he's now livid that Democrats won't help Republicans pass it. Trump took to Truth Social early Wednesday morning with a lengthy post accusing 'Dumocrats' of breaking a bipartisan deal on FISA reauthorization - and announced a series of moves that throw a wrench into Senate plans for both intelligence leadership and surveillance powers. According to Trump, Republicans played themselves - after agreeing

"Radical Earnings Cut": JPMorgan Sounds Alarm After BMW's Forecast Shock BMW shares cratered in Germany after the automaker warned investors it would slash its 2026 margin guidance to as low as 1%, down from a prior estimate of as high as 6%, amid weakening demand in China, Middle East-related pressures, rising energy costs, and a deteriorating consumer backdrop hitting sales and profitability. BMW now expects its pretax profit to fall sharply this year, versus a prior expectation of a moderate decline, and for deliveries in the auto segment to slide, compared with a previous expectation of flat performance. Here's the

Despite Slumping Sentiment, US Retail Sales See Strongest Annual Rise Since Jan 2023 Despite record low consumer sentiment and declining real wages, BofA's omniscient analysts forecast a blockbuster beat for US Retail Sales for both headline, core, and control group cohorts. Retail sales should be a blowout beat, according to BofA's real-time card data pic.twitter.com/NZmfqWzVNr — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 17, 2026 And they were right with the headline retail sales rising 0.9% MoM in May (+0.6% MoM exp) driving YoY sales up a stunning 6.9% - the best since Jan 2023 Electronics and Food Services saw sales decline very modestly

Futures Fade Overnight Gains As Attention Turns To Kevin Warsh's First Fed Decision US futures are attempting to bounce back from yesterday’s losses on Wall Street led by Tech. As of 8:00am ET, Nasdaq 100 futures lead the charge, with gains of 0.5% versus 0.1% for the S&P 500 future, although both are off session highs. SpaceX’s post-IPO surge continues, with shares adding another 3% in the pre-market while Mag 7 are mixed: NVDA is up 0.4%, while GOOGL is down 0.5%. The Stoxx 600 is up 0.2%, while the MSCI APAC Index gained 0.5% in mixed trade for regional

A Social Media Ban For Minors Requires Data From Everyone Authored by Luke Nelson and Mike Campbell via The Epoch Times, In debating a social media ban for minors , it appears we face a choice between two perceived harms. One is the reported damage that social media is doing to the mental health of children and adolescents. The other is the normalization of mass age verification systems—most likely involving biometrics—that would apply to everyone, not just minors . This carries real risks of privacy invasion, data breaches, and future mission creep. There is little dispute that many Western countries

NetJets Business Jet Crashes On Texas Highway The aviation world has endured a turbulent week, with a series of high-profile incidents spanning a fighter jet crash, a B-52 bomber crash, and now a business jet that went down on a Texas highway in the overnight hours. A NetJets Cessna 680 Citation Latitude ( N523QS ) crashed on a Texas highway while attempting an emergency landing near Laredo International Airport, Texas. NetJets confirmed to Fox News that its Cessna 680 Citation Latitude was involved in the accident but did not provide details on what led to the emergency landing. Fox provided

Binance Says It Considers Its EU License Compliant Amid Reports Of Potential Rejection Authored by Turner Wright via CoinTelegraph.com, Cryptocurrency exchange Binance, whose application under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework is under consideration, has generally deferred responding to a report that the company’s licensed activities in the region could be at risk. In a Tuesday blog post, Binance said that Greece's Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC), one of the regulators responsible for overseeing MiCA, had completed its review of the crypto exchange’s application and “considered it compliant with MiCA requirements,” subject to review at the European

Deal Doubts Arise As Lebanese, Iranian Officials Say US Must Rein In Israel To Secure Regional Peace Summary: Iran Says Peace Deal Requires Israeli Withdrawal From Lebanon Hormuz Fears Ease As Trump, Ghalibaf Virtually Sign US-Iran Deal, But Energy Flows Remain Months From Normal Polymarket: Israel x Hezbollah permanent peace deal by June 30, 2026? Yes 26% · No 74% View full market & trade on Polymarket Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, held a call earlier, urging the U.S. to compel Israel to end its bloody war on Lebanon, stop home demolitions, and

20 College Majors Most Exposed To AI Job Disruption The rapid adoption of AI across corporate America is stoking anxiety among recent and upcoming college graduates, many of whom fear that the entry-level white-collar labor market is shrinking just as they prepare to enter the workforce. Goldman analysts led by Pierfrancesco Mei told clients that early signals are emerging, showing how college students are adapting to AI-driven labor market disruption. Students are shifting away from majors tied to high automation risk and weak job growth, and toward fields where AI and automation are less likely to have an impact. The

Telegram Founder Warns UK Social Media Ban Is Digital Iceberg About To Sink The Free Internet Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity , Telegram founder Pavel Durov told the Freedom Forum audience in Oslo that Western societies have already struck the iceberg and started sinking - yet most citizens remain in their cabins, convinced the ship of personal freedoms is unsinkable. His remarks arrive precisely as Keir Starmer's government rams through a social media ban for under-16s that functions as the perfect pretext for mandatory digital ID, device-level scanning on every phone, and the practical elimination of anonymous speech online.

Rolls-Royce Bags Third European SMR Deal While Adding Gas-Cooled Reactor Design Rolls-Royce SMR just added its third major European contract . Videberg Kraft, backed by Sweden’s utility Vattenfall, selected the UK design for three units on the west coast, making it Sweden’s first new nuclear plant in more than forty years. The multibillion-pound export win, actively supported by UK government trade efforts, lands on top of existing deals in the UK and Czechia and makes Rolls-Royce the only SMR developer with multiple binding commitments across the continent. We tracked when the UK advanced its own program, Great British Energy –

BBC Hands Soros-Linked Pro-Migrant Campaigners Direct Access To Shape Children's Show Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity , Britain's state broadcaster has opened the door to pro-migrant activists who openly brag about steering storylines in a CBBC comedy aimed at primary school children. While small boat crossings continue and communities deal with the daily consequences of unchecked arrivals, the BBC opted to let outside campaigners help frame migration narratives for the youngest viewers instead of reflecting the scale of policy failure. The programme in question is Pickle Storm , a CBBC (Children's BBC) series following a young 'alien' who flees

Which Countries Americans Like Most (And Least) Public opinion offers a window into how Americans perceive the world beyond their borders. Using Gallup survey data from February 2026, this ranking, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows how Americans view 21 major countries, from longtime allies to geopolitical competitors. The results provide a snapshot of global perceptions at a time of shifting international relationships and rising geopolitical tensions. How Americans View 21 Major Countries The table below shows favorable and unfavorable ratings based on a Gallup survey of 1,001 U.S. adults conducted in February 2026. America’s Allies Dominate the Top Canada

Yet More Churches Torched; Sustained Attack On Christianity Gathers Pace Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity , France suffered another direct hit to its Christian heritage last week when two historic religious sites burned within hours of each other. A 17th-century chapel in Brittany lost most of its roof and part of its framework, while a centuries-old cloister housing thousands of rare books in the southwest saw its library devastated. These blazes fit a widening pattern of attacks on churches and sacred sites that shows no sign of slowing, even as the state claims it lacks funds for preservation while

The AI Threat SciFi Predicted Is Right On Our Doorstep Authored by Mike Fredenburg via The Epoch Times, Science Fiction has long predicted the threats and challenges posed by AI. In the Star Trek universe, particularly in the original series, Season Two, Episode 24, “The Ultimate Computer,” Dr. Leonard McCoy delivers this haunting line: “Compassion: that’s the one thing no machine ever had. Maybe it’s the one thing that keeps men ahead of them.” The line comes in the aftermath of a revolutionary new AI computer, the M5, using its soulless AI logic to turn a training exercise into a

China Revives Heavy Naval Firepower With New 155mm Gun That "Could Support An Attack On Taiwan" As modern naval combat increasingly relies on aircraft, missiles and unmanned systems, China is investing in a capability many navies have largely moved away from: heavy naval artillery, according to South China Morning Post . Recent reports indicate that the PLA Navy is testing a new 155mm naval gun, a calibre larger than any main gun currently in active naval service. The weapon has been observed aboard the experimental vessel Wu Yunduo , which appears to have completed a round of sea trials near

Are Banks More Powerful Than Governments? Authored by Mollie Engelhart via The Epoch Times, Government is big. Elected and unelected officials wield enormous amounts of power. But lately I have found myself wondering whether we are paying attention to the wrong institution. What if the most powerful institutions in America are not governments at all? What if they are banks and payment processors? A few years ago, during COVID-19, a friend of mine owned a small shop in Northern California. It was the kind of place many young mothers loved. They sold raw milk, organic cotton sheets, natural baby products,

Brazil supreme court finds that Eduardo Bolsonaro – who resides in the US - tried to get sanctions put on judges trying ex-president over coup plot Brazil’s supreme court has sentenced Eduardo Bolsonaro to four years and two months in prison after finding him guilty of courting US ⁠interference in his father’s coup plot trial last year. The office of Brazil’s ‌prosecutor general had ‌charged Eduardo Bolsonaro – who lives in the US - courting interference from the Trump administration to help Jair Bolsonaro’s case, by imposing sanctions on the court’s justices and tariffs on Brazilian goods. Continue reading...

Young adults and teens are being recruited through apps like Telegram and paid to carry out attacks, officials say Police investigators in Toronto have said that dozens of shootings – including one at the US consulate in March – are linked to a “multilayered” gun-for-hire network that is also responsible for attacks on synagogues around Canada’s largest city. Toronto’s police chief, Myron Demkiw, told reporters on Tuesday that young adults and teenagers are being recruited through encrypted messaging apps such as Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp by “bad actors” and paid by the networks to carry out the attacks. Shooters are

Mark Carney says Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise office hasn’t been ‘effective’ since its 2019 setup Canada is eliminating a watchdog that investigates alleged human rights violations committed by Canadian companies operating abroad, after Mark Carney said the office hadn’t been “effective” since it was set up in 2019. The move comes as Canada faces criticism from Donald Trump ’s administration over its “unacceptable” efforts to combat forced labour. Continue reading...

Instructors hurled Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas into 40-metre abyss without attaching safety equipment A 21-year-old woman who died when two rope-jumping instructors threw her from a bridge without first harnessing her to security equipment has been buried in Brazil ’s São Paulo state. Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas was rope jumping on Saturday at Ponte do Esqueleto, an abandoned bridge in the municipality of Limeira where tourists practise extreme sports. The young woman, who aspired to become a physical education teacher, had asked to be launched from the bridge airplane-style, with two instructors hoisting her above their shoulders as

Outpouring of public grief for Lidia ‘Taty’ Almeida, leader of group of mothers that has marched every week since 1977 The human rights activist Lidia “Taty” Almeida – who spent more than half a century searching for her son after he was forcibly disappeared by Argentina’s military junta – has died aged 95, prompting a public outpouring of grief. Almeida, 95, was the president of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, made up of women who have marched around the square outside Argentina’s presidential palace every Thursday since 1977 , demanding the return of children who were disappeared during the

Online uproar follows Canadian brand’s use of taiko drum at sponsored festival held to celebrate Chinese culture The activewear brand Lululemon has apologised after a promotional event held on the Great Wall of China appeared to mistakenly feature a Japanese drum, prompting an uproar. The Canadian-headquartered company, known for its upmarket leggings, has been growing rapidly in China and arranged for a yoga festival to take place in late May on a section of the wall near Beijing. Continue reading...

Major operation launched after spate of pet thefts in Ho Chi Minh City, according to local media Police in Vietnam have rescued more than 400 cats in a bust of a cat meat crime ring in Ho Chi Minh City, according to animal welfare groups and local media reports. More than 40 cats were reunited with their owners after the multiday operation last week, but several dozen of those rescued have died due to the harsh conditions in which they were found, the groups said. Continue reading...

Fashion house pays tribute to Chinese style with its 75th anniversary catwalk show in Shanghai “New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Shanghai doesn’t even sit down.” For the British designer Ian Griffiths, who encountered this line in the New Yorker, it summed up why China’s biggest city was the right place to celebrate Max Mara’s 75th anniversary. “Max Mara is a product for metropolitan women, and it would be patronising to assume that a metropolitan wardrobe should be western-centric,” Griffiths said. Continue reading...

Japanese technology company at centre of Post Office IT scandal is negotiating settlement with UK government over faulty software Business live – latest updates The chair of Fujitsu, the Japanese technology firm at the centre of the Post Office IT scandal, has resigned after its board became aware of his “woman-related inappropriate conduct”. The company said on Tuesday that Hidenori Furuta had stepped down after two years in the role. Continue reading...

Country acts amid Iran war inflation pressures, but US Fed and Bank of England expected to hold rates Business live – latest updates The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has raised interest rates to a 31-year high as it tries to dampen inflationary pressures created by the Iran war. Policymakers in Tokyo raised the BoJ’s short-term policy rate by a quarter of one percentage point, to 1% from 0.75% , and warned that companies were passing on rising oil costs to each other at a “relatively fast pace”. Continue reading...

Fathers particularly affected, with almost 15% reporting suicidal plans after relationship breakdowns, according to survey of 20,000 men Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Men who have recently gone through a breakup are seven times more likely to report a suicide attempt than those who haven’t, a new study shows The Ten to Men project has followed more than 20,000 Australian men and identified the mental health risks in relationship breakdowns, which can include changes in their contact with their children, in their finances, and in their support network. Continue reading...

Labor minister says Australians would lose their jobs and wages would go down if One Nation’s policies became law Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Pauline Hanson has been roundly condemned for her National Press Club speech, with advocacy groups accusing the One Nation leader of using “hatred for political gain” while the Greens say Hanson is echoing “rubbish” lines from rightwing figures in the UK and US. In Hanson’s first address after 20 years in politics, the leader claimed transgender ideology “has penetrated almost every regulatory authority”. Continue reading...

Police found two children – both aged under five – had been struck by a car in Cabramatta, in the city’s south-west Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Two children in a pram have been struck and killed by a car in Sydney’s south-west. Emergency services were called to the intersection of Joseph and Gilbert streets, Cabramatta at about 3.15pm on Wednesday after reports of a crash, New South Wales police said. Continue reading...

Activist group GetUp claims responsibility for incident, saying ‘we thought the occasion deserved some honesty’ Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Australian federal police is investigating a protest incident during Pauline Hanson’s speech at the National Press Club after political activist group GetUp claimed responsibility for the stunt. In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the National Press Club said it had referred the incident to police after concluding none of its own staff were involved. Continue reading...

The One Nation leader offered a series of inflammatory statements at the National Press Club that may play well with her supporters but will alarm many others Pauline Hanson says Australia ‘must be monocultural’ in National Press Club speech Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast For months, voters have been telling anyone who’ll listen that they want Pauline Hanson. Pollsters , journalists and the (current) political establishment have all heard how the major parties are letting down the country and One Nation is the answer. Continue reading...

‘Balance of power has profoundly shifted’ to favour Ukraine, says French president as he closes summit in Évian-les-Bains Rutte says the adjustment in the US pledge to the Nato Force Model is “not primarily about where forces and assets are currently, but about who would do what if our defence plans were activated.” He says historically the model was “overly reliant” on the US. “You will likely have seen news adjusting its contributions to the Nato force model. In some cases, this has been cast as a problem, as the US pulling away from its allies, but that is not

Discovery in Siberia suggests bacterium from raw marmots devastated hunter-gatherer tribes about 5,500 years ago The earliest evidence for an outbreak of plague has been uncovered at late stone age cemeteries in south-eastern Siberia where dozens of hunter-gatherers and their children were buried. Ancient DNA collected from the remains suggests the disease tore through the sparse communities in devastating waves that began about 5,500 years ago, at least two centuries after the bacterium responsible, Yersinia pestis , first emerged. Continue reading...

British retirees Jane and Alan Kelvey say they do not want incident in Channel to stop them enjoying their sailing trip UK politics live – latest updates A British woman on a yacht in the Channel near which a Russian warship fired warning shots has told how she does not want the incident to be blown out of proportion, saying: “We don’t want world war three to start because of this.” Jane Kelvey, 69, and her husband, Alan, 70, were on their yacht, Bright Future, travelling from the south coast of England towards France on Tuesday when they came into

At G7 meeting in France, president angrily rejects suggestions US will contribute to $300bn fund for Iran Europe live – latest updates Middle East crisis – live updates Donald Trump has responded to criticism of his ceasefire deal with Iran, warning at the G7 summit that he was prepared to go back to dropping bombs and insisting the deal did not require the US to pay even 10 cents to Iran. At the same time, he has backed a G7 leaders’ joint statement that welcomes the deal but says a follow-on agreement is necessary to rein in Iran’s ballistic missile

Drivers suspended as prosecutors investigate group said to have been used to share and comment on CCTV images A group of tram drivers in Milan have been suspended from their jobs amid an investigation into a WhatsApp group in which they allegedly exchanged sexist and vulgar comments about images of female passengers. Milan prosecutors placed at least one employee of ATM, the city’s public transport firm, under investigation on Tuesday for allegedly accessing an IT system without authorisation and for hacking a CCTV system to obtain images of female passengers. Continue reading...

US president says the deal is ‘not final’, while his vice-president, JD Vance, says text will be released by Friday at the latest Trump backs G7 leaders’ call for wider talks on Iranian missile programme Analysis: Where does Iran deal leave US-Israel relationship? Trump also addressed media reports of a leaked US-Iran deal (see post at 11:57 ), denying claims it includes a $300bn reconstruction fund for Tehran. “We’re not putting up 10 cents,” he said. “We are not investing and we do not have a fund.” It’s not final. It’s a memorandum of understanding, and if I don’t like

Images show Israeli military using six companies’ bulldozers and excavators to demolish south Lebanon villages Human rights experts have alleged that six multinational construction equipment conglomerates may be aiding and abetting war crimes by supplying excavators and bulldozers to Israel, after photos and videos showed the Israeli military using their equipment to demolish villages in south Lebanon. The Guardian geolocated and verified images showing the Israeli military using excavators made by six companies – Caterpillar, Volvo, Hyundai, Doosan, Hitachi and Komatsu – to destroy homes, public utilities, shops and other structures across southern Lebanon. Israel has levelled entire villages inside

Pamphlets from event featured projects in West Bank and East Jerusalem despite previous denials by organisers An Israeli real estate event in north London appears to have advertised the sale of land in Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, despite previous denials that illegal settlement properties would be marketed at the event. Pamphlets shared with the Guardian from the event on Sunday showed real estate projects in Ma’ale Adumim, Givat Ze’ev, Kfar Eldad and Teneh Omarim in the occupied West Bank, as well as Ramat Eshkol and Givat Hamatos in East Jerusalem. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. You can follow all the latest developments from the G7 summit in our Europe live blog: We will be including any Iran-related news from the summit in our Middle East crisis live blog. Continue reading...

JD Vance says specifics ⁠to be ‌worked out as Senate Republicans say there are many unanswered questions Republicans have expressed tentative skepticism of the agreement Donald Trump has reached with Iran, and urged the White House to release more information. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) announced on Sunday to end the war in Iran, set for a ceremonial signing on Friday in Geneva, is centered around reopening the strait of Hormuz and lifting the US naval blockade in the region, along with financial incentives for Iran if it meets certain benchmarks. Both Trump and JD Vance, the US vice-president, have

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...

Relations at lowest ebb in years after Washington refuses to apologise for deaths in strait of Hormuz Fury has continued to mount in India over the US’s refusal to apologise for the deaths of Indian sailors killed in strikes in the strait of Hormuz, further straining relations between the two countries as their leaders meet at the G7 summit in France this week. Last week, three Indian seafarers, who were working on board commercial oil tankers, were killed when the US launched missile strikes on the vessel as it sailed through the strait of Hormuz. Continue reading...

Arrest of Min Zin, who writes about Myanmar and Chinese foreign policy, comes just month after Trump visit to Beijing China has arrested a US scholar who writes about Myanmar and Chinese foreign policy on suspicion of spying. Min Zin was suspected of “engaging in espionage activities that endanger China’s national security,” China’s ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson, Lin Jian, said on Friday. Continue reading...

Relatives of those killed on flight AI171 are still struggling to obtain answers about what happened When Sagar Patel’s mother boarded Air India flight AI171 on 12 June last year, she called her son as she always did before takeoff. The flight was due to leave Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel airport in Ahmedabad, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, and was destined for Gatwick. “We always had a little traditional thing,” said Patel, a business manager from London. “Once she got on the flight, she would sit down and call me. She’d tell me: ‘Yep, I’m on the flight. See

Government urged to reconsider proposal for 1,100 Afghans, currently stranded in Qatar, who worked with US forces Dozens of US lawmakers urged the Trump administration on Thursday to roll back any plans to ship to unsafe third countries Afghan nationals who worked with US forces during the war in their homeland. In a letter seen by Reuters, more than 80 House of Representatives members, including at least three Republicans as well as Democrats, appealed to secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to reconsider plans for 1,100 Afghans who have been stranded in Qatar awaiting relocation. Continue reading...

Rachael Maskell said she hoped Andy Burnham could become prime minister before the Labour party conference in September Andy Burnham may have trouble getting through to Keir Starmer if he tries ringing him after the Makerfield byelection to urge him to set a timetable for his departure. Burnham reportedly wants to call Starmer this weekend. (See 9.47am .) But, in his interview with Sky News, Starmer said: “I’m sure I’ll talk to Andy after the weekend.” If Starmer declines to take Burnham’s call, he may be following Ed Miliband’s example. In a Times story today , Patrick Maguire and Steven

Head of National Cyber Security Centre says UK in ‘ongoing contest with capable adversaries’ and AI could add to threat The UK’s critical national infrastructure has been hit by more than 200 cyber-incidents over the past year and state-linked assailants were behind three-quarters of the attacks, according to the state cybersecurity body. Richard Horne, the chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, said hostile states such as Russia, China and Iran were increasingly targeting systems behind the UK’s key services. Examples of critical national infrastructure include the UK’s nuclear deterrent, power plants, hospitals and airports. Continue reading...

Private members’ bills to crack down on use of Slapps are likely to attract cross-party support A coordinated push to protect whistleblowers, journalists and victims of sexual assault from being sued by those who wish to silence them has been launched in both houses of parliament. Two private members’ bills designed to crack down on strategic lawsuits against public participation, known as Slapps, have been introduced by Conservative members within 24 hours of each other, and are likely to attract cross-party support. Continue reading...

PM says Greater Manchester mayor is ‘huge asset’ who can play big part in Labour government if he wins byelection UK politics live – latest updates Keir Starmer has indicated he would give Andy Burnham a cabinet job, describing him as a “huge asset”, as he attempted to head off a challenge to his leadership that is expected to come after the Makerfield byelection on Thursday. Starmer, who is fighting for his political life from the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains in France, said if there was a leadership challenge, he intended to fight. Continue reading...

Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet last visited Britain in 2022 during late queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will bring their two children to the UK for the first time in more than four years, it has been reported. Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, last visited Britain in 2022 during the late Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee celebrations. Continue reading...

Tom Cotton, chair of committee tasked with confirming Trump’s national intelligence pick, defies president’s cancellation of hearing Trump abruptly halts confirmation for Jay Clayton as US intelligence chief Sign up for the Breaking News US email Donald Trump also denied (again) that the memorandum of understanding includes a $300bn fund for Iran , and denied that he had asked the Gulf states to commit funding. “It’s false,” Trump told reporters as he sat alongside Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi . “You can invest if you want. What am I going to do, say no one is ever allowed to invest?

Congressman Jamie Raskin alleges FBI director authorized substantial recurring payments to agents in his inner circle FBI director Kash Patel has been accused of directing more than $1m in taxpayer-funded bonus payments to a small circle of loyalist agents as part of a “personal slush fund” that may have violated federal law. Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking member of the House of Representatives judiciary committee, alleged Patel had authorized substantial recurring payments to agents in his inner circle and security detail. Continue reading...

Child was fatally shot and his mother’s friend is wounded after Senatobia police responded to shoplifting call A one-year-old boy is dead and another person wounded after a northern Mississippi police officer shot at a vehicle while responding to a shoplifting call, according to authorities and the child’s grandfather. Kohen Wiley, the slain child, was in the car at the center of the shooting on Sunday alongside his mother and her friend, said Marquell Bridges, a local community advocate. Continue reading...

The jet, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, lost contact with air traffic control and crashed in Laredo Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email A private jet carrying six people crashed on a highway in Laredo, Texas on Tuesday night, killing one person, local police said. Videos shared online by the Laredo police department showed the wreckage of the aircraft and firefighters working at the scene. Other footage, shared by the Associated Press , captured the immediate aftermath of the crash, with flames rising from the plane as police and others worked to pull people from it.

Keith Sonderling, acting head of the agency, threatens to withhold administrative funds from states for first time in history Keith Sonderling sent letters to 53 states and US territories demanding action to “combat waste, fraud, and abuse” within the unemployment insurance program, threatening to withhold administrative funds from states for the first time history. “We are officially putting governors on notice,” said the acting US secretary of labor. “The American people will no longer tolerate the blatant waste, fraud, and abuse of their hard-earned tax dollars – no state should allow it either. If states allow it, they will suffer

US President Donald Trump suspended a Senate hearing on Jay Clayton’s nomination for intelligence chief, saying on Wednesday he wanted to be sure Clayton’s current post as prosecutor would be filled by the man of his choosing. In a game of musical chairs, Trump picked Clayton, who headed the Securities and Exchange Commission during the president’s first term in office, as his director of national intelligence (DNI). Clayton has served as US attorney for the Southern District of New York – one...

Over 1,100 foreign citizens received Russian visas last year for their declared commitment to “traditional values”, state media reported on Wednesday, a track opened as Moscow hardens its anti-liberal narrative amid the war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has for years denounced anything that goes against what he calls “traditional family values” as unRussian – including everything from LGBTQ rights to mixed-gender bathrooms – portraying them as a sign of the moral decadence of the...

The recent escalation in the Middle East has produced an unforeseen winner. The conflict has rekindled worries about logistics and energy security, prompting governments and businesses to reconsider their reliance on fossil fuels and fragile supply routes. This has sped up the move towards renewable energy. And the principal beneficiary of this shift is China. The strategic significance of the Strait of Hormuz is well understood. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil trade passes through this...

Norway’s ⁠Crown Princess Mette-Marit has undergone ⁠a successful lung transplant and is recovering ⁠from the procedure, the royal household said in a statement on Wednesday. The 52-year-old wife of Crown Prince Haakon, the heir to the Norwegian throne, was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2018, a chronic disease that causes scarring in the lungs and leads to a reduced oxygen uptake. The hospital said the transplant had “so far” been successful, ‌in a statement provided by the palace, but...

For years, Washington described India as an indispensable partner, a democratic counterweight to China and a strategic anchor in the Indo-Pacific. Then the US Navy killed three Indian sailors and America’s top diplomat could not even bring himself to apologise. India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar raised the deaths directly with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a phone call last Friday, reiterating what he called India’s “strong protest” and declaring, in a later social media...

A new political party called Restore Britain is threatening the rise of Nigel Farage’s hard-right group, with a tougher anti-immigrant stance and the backing of tech trillionaire Elon Musk. Led by businessman and ex-football chairman Rupert Lowe, Restore is tipped to deprive Farage’s Reform UK party of victory over the ruling Labour Party in a crunch special election on Thursday. Lowe, 68, formed Restore as an alternative on the right of British politics in February following his split from...

Captain Raman Kapoor was loading oil at an Iraqi port when word reached him that the United States and Iran were at war. Within hours, his tanker was trapped north of the Strait of Hormuz with 24 crew members aboard, as missiles began arcing across the sky overhead. “We were stuck inside the war zone and everyone was so scared and clueless about what to do,” Kapoor, 48, recalled. “We all felt so trapped. We were helpless, totally helpless.” He and his crew would stay that way for 75 days. The...

The leaders of the world’s richest democracies are talking about how to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems this week, but hot mics at the G7 summit revealed that conversations also covered lighter fare. Sports. Cigarettes. The weather. And something about Greenland? As world leaders made their way into conference rooms at a lakeside resort, microphones set up for their weighty discussions about war and trade often caught off-the-cuff banter. Meloni quit smoking Italian Prime Minister...

One of US President Donald Trump’s pet beauty projects for Washington was supposed to make the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool look blue, like part of the US flag. Enter Mother Nature. Algae has proliferated in the water, turning it a swampy green. “Can you see it in my photos? Oh well, I’ll just use a filter to hide the algae,” said Farrah Lu, a 43-year-old tourist from China. The invasion comes just days after the completion of the pool repainting project, part of Trump’s drive to put his...

SpaceX roared past Amazon’s market valuation on Tuesday ⁠and briefly topped that of Microsoft, rapidly scaling the list of the world’s most valuable companies on a topsy-turvy trading day fuelled by frenzied action in the firm’s newly listed option contracts. SpaceX shares rose 4.8 per cent to close at US$201.80, giving Elon Musk’s company a market value of roughly US$2.655 trillion – some US$800 billion more than its value when it sold its record initial public offering last week and about...

The race for artificial intelligence has hardened into a two-power contest between the United States and China, fought over rare earths, data and the rules governing the technology, with Latin America and Europe sidelined, Brazil’s top foreign policy adviser said on Tuesday. Celso Amorim, a former foreign and defence minister, made the case at the Forte de Copacabana International Security Conference in Rio de Janeiro, an annual forum run by the Brazilian Centre for International Relations with...

As trade tensions between Beijing and Brussels continue to rise, China’s firms in the European Union have been forced to walk a delicate tightrope: expanding their presence in the lucrative market while grappling with heightened regulatory hurdles and rapid geopolitical shifts. In the second part of this three-part series, we look at whether China and the EU are heading for a full-blown trade conflict. Last week, Beijing gathered more than a dozen Chinese companies in Berlin for a forum with a...

The Russia-India-China (RIC) dialogue is back in the diplomatic conversation. It has not formally restarted, and no summit is on the horizon. But the signals are here. In 2025, Moscow again pushed for reviving the RIC format. India said any meeting would have to be arranged in a “mutually convenient manner”, a cautious but open formula. China said it was willing to maintain communication with Russia and India on trilateral cooperation. This month, Russian President Vladimir Putin again spoke...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang – whose work helped enable artificial intelligence – stressed in an interview on Tuesday that society has no choice but to change in the advent of AI. Huang has been optimistic about the technology’s potential to rapidly change society, creating faster economic growth and more scientific breakthroughs. But as the head of a computer chip company now developing AI systems, Huang has felt obliged to respond to critics who warn of job losses and threats to humanity...

US President Donald Trump has invoked the Defence Production Act in a bid to bolster weapons stockpiles that critics say have been strained by the war in Iran and other conflicts. This came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a telephone call with his Pakistani counterpart on Tuesday during which they spoke about the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran. That MOU, announced on Sunday with few details, aims at ending the 109-day war started by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister...

A department store in central Paris announced on Tuesday the end of its cooperation with Chinese ultra-fast fashion giant Shein, which, French media reported, could see the e-commerce platform’s first physical store closed by this Christmas. La Societe des Grands Magasins (SGM), owner of the historic BHV Marais, which sits opposite Paris City Hall a few hundred meters from Notre-Dame cathedral, has sold the store to a group of executives, led by Karl-Stephane Cottendin, the group’s outgoing CEO,...

Russia said one of its warships fired warning shots on Tuesday near a yacht making a “dangerous approach” in the English Channel, though Britain evaluated that the shots were “not aimed at the vessel”. The incident involved the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich and a UK-registered yacht around 20 nautical miles (37km) south of the Isle of Wight, just outside British waters, a UK defence source said. The latest at-sea tension between London and Moscow came after UK commandos intercepted and...

US law enforcement said it had foiled an alleged plot to attack the White House during a crowded mixed martial arts event attended by US President Donald Trump. “Multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on Tuesday. The Department of Justice announced charges against five men and said the plotters planned to fly drones armed with explosives over the event, forcing an evacuation when snipers would fire on “high value...

The European Parliament approved on Tuesday cutting duties on many US goods imports to fulfil the European Union’s side of a trade ‌deal struck last year, and avert a new round of tariff conflict between the world’s largest trading partners. US President Donald Trump struck a framework deal with the European Union at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland last July under which the EU agreed to remove import duties on US industrial goods in return for tariffs of 15 per cent on most EU...

Is the economic decline of Europe worse than the last decades of the Qing dynasty? That’s a question posed by Luis Vassy, director of Sciences Po, one of France’s premier universities. It has caused something of a stir in Europe and China. “The European Union has seen its share of the world economy fall from 30 per cent to 17 per cent between 2008 and 2025, a span of 17 years,” he wrote in Le Grand Continent, a European current affairs publication, last week. “China covered the same distance...

US President Donald Trump said Russia should make peace with Ukraine after a “very good” meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, in comments that sparked cautious optimism among G7 leaders that a peace deal could be struck. The upbeat mood over the Ukraine war, now deep into its fifth year, stands in stark contrast to Zelensky’s meeting with Trump in the Oval Office last year, when he was told he had no leverage in potential peace talks with Russia. Zelensky and his European allies...

A Swedish court on Tuesday sentenced a 61-year-old man to four years and five months in prison for having “ruthlessly exploited” his wife to have sex with scores of men for payment. The man was convicted of “aggravated pimping” as well as attempted rape, assault and issuing threats, as well as a minor drug offence, the court said in a statement, noting the actions took place over three years. “The district court has found that the man was the one who initiated the woman’s entry into prostitution...

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that ending the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, was “the most important” issue in the peace deal with the United States announced the day before. “The important point I want to emphasise here is that in our view, there are two parties to this memorandum – one side is America and Israel, and the other side is Iran and Hezbollah,” said Araghchi during a briefing with foreign diplomats broadcast on state television. “This is perhaps...

“Overcapacity” has become the buzzword in Washington and Brussels. American and European policymakers insist China churns out far more steel, electric vehicles and green technology than it can absorb, flooding the world with subsidised goods. Yet the economic data tells a different story: of double standards, protectionist impulses and a habit of moving the goalposts. Start with steel. Western officials point to China’s massive output as proof of distortion. But China official data puts the...

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, one of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, said in an interview published on Monday that Russia and Ukraine must compromise to end the war that has raged for more than four years with no end in sight. Lukashenko, whose ex-Soviet state has been improving ties with Washington, also said that ‌he would not rule out meeting US President Donald Trump. Lukashenko told Al Arabiya television that it was clear that victory on the battlefield was...

Shipowners ⁠will not resume transit through ⁠the Strait of Hormuz for weeks until they are confident that the US-Iran deal is “material”, the CEO of Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines told the Financial Times in an interview published ‌on Tuesday. The Iran war that began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes largely stopped shipping through the transit route for around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supply, along with products such as aluminium and urea. Mitsui O.S.K., one of...

The drones are grounded, tankers are reportedly moving again through the Strait of Hormuz and an electronically signed memorandum of understanding has formalised the pause. After 108 days, thousands dead and hundreds of billions of US dollars stripped from the global economy, the US-Israel war on Iran has ended – for now. Not with victory. Not with defeat. With a freeze. The United States and Israel assassinated Iran’s supreme leader and many of its top officials, then went on to degrade the...

Benjamin Netanyahu bet that his joint war alongside Donald Trump would topple Iran’s clerical rulers and bolster ⁠himself ahead of the election at home, as the architect of a US-Israeli alliance that would reshape the Middle East. Instead, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister is on a collision course with Trump as the US president seeks to extricate himself from the war, with both men’s goals unmet and Israeli military operations tied down in Lebanon. For now, Israeli officials have been...

Iranian Americans streamed into the Los Angeles stadium where Iran play their first match at the 2026 World Cup on Monday, with some calling for Iranians to band together and forget politics while others bore symbols protesting the government. The team arrived at the stadium, having flown into the US on Sunday from their training base in Tijuana, ‌Mexico, touching down in Los Angeles just as a deal was announced to end the US-Iran war. They are set to play New Zealand in Group G at 6pm local...

Eight people died when a US B-52 bomber crashed and erupted into a catastrophic fire shortly after take-off at an air force base in California on Monday, officials said. The heavy bomber was on a routine testing mission with a mixture of military, government and civilian contractors on board when it came down in a huge fireball at Edwards Air Force Base, 95km (60 miles) north of Los Angeles. Footage of the aftermath of the crash, which officials said was “unsurvivable”, showed a large charred...

As trade tensions between Beijing and Brussels continue to rise, China’s firms in the European Union have been forced to walk a delicate tightrope: expanding their presence in the lucrative market while grappling with heightened regulatory hurdles and rapid geopolitical shifts. In the first part of this three-part series, we look at a new, complex EU carbon tariff system that has business owners scratching their heads. Neil Miao has been exporting metal hardware to Europe for years. But earlier...

British prosecutors have charged with sanctions contravention offences the Indian captain of an interdicted alleged Russian shadow fleet vessel seized in the Channel, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Monday. It follows British armed forces on Sunday intercepting the sanctioned oil tanker Smyrtos – said to belong to Russia’s shadow fleet – in a dramatic operation hailed by Kyiv and London as a blow to Moscow’s war machine. British commandos boarded the ship off the southern English coast...

When it comes to the performance of real estate markets in the Asia-Pacific, Japan reigns supreme. Asia’s second largest economy is the deepest, most widely traded, and the safest market in the region. Last year, Japan accounted for 28 per cent of direct investment in Asia-Pacific commercial real estate, data from MSCI shows. The average vacancy rate for grade A offices in Tokyo was 0.7 per cent in the first quarter of this year. Rents have risen for nine straight quarters, increasing 13.2 per...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday he was willing to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the United States, suggesting Putin would find such an offer “harder to refuse”. The Ukrainian leader said he made the proposal in a call with US President Donald Trump, and was waiting to see what came of it. Putin has repeatedly rejected offers for a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky to try to broker an end to more than four years of war. The Ukrainian leader said earlier that...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he intends to run in elections scheduled for later this year, as he faces domestic criticism over his wartime leadership. Netanyahu, 76, is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has led his country through three years of war on multiple interconnected fronts and is currently on trial for corruption. In recent months, he has come under mounting fire from opposition leaders who accuse him of failing to achieve the war aims he set out...

Argentina’s top central banker sat down with his Chinese counterpart in Shanghai, a quiet overture towards Beijing months after Buenos Aires moved to unwind a currency lifeline that Washington had pushed it to abandon. Santiago Bausili, president of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic, met People’s Bank of China governor Pan Gongsheng on the sidelines of an international symposium organised by the Bank for International Settlements and China’s central bank, according to a statement from...

California ⁠Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday accused US President Donald Trump of directing the Justice Department to undertake a politically motivated investigation of him and his wife. “Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets,” Newsom said in a ‌video statement posted to social media. “He’s coming after me because I am considering running for president.” Federal police officers in Sacramento, California, have been conducting several investigations related to the...

A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, that accused rival Sam Altman’s OpenAI of stealing ‌trade secrets for chatbots. US District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco, California, said xAI failed to show that OpenAI induced former xAI senior engineer Xuechen Li, a Chinese national, to divulge confidential information related to its Grok chatbot, or that OpenAI engineers knew Li might have disclosed any. Lin ‌dismissed the case with...

Hungary’s parliament approved a ⁠constitutional amendment ⁠on Monday that ⁠allows prime ministers to serve for a maximum of eight years, effectively barring former premier Viktor Orban from holding the role ‌again. Prime Minister Peter Magyar ousted Orban in an election in April after 16 years, gaining a two-thirds majority in parliament that allows his party to roll back or change legislation passed ⁠by Orban’s Fidesz, including the constitution. The amendment was a key campaign promise of...

US President Donald Trump announced plans on Monday for a major “rally” in Washington on the July 4 Independence Day, further imposing his political brand on celebrations of the United States’ 250th anniversary. The announcement comes a day after the Republican billionaire staged a mixed martial arts fight on the White House lawn – on what just happened to be his 80th birthday – with military honour guards and Air Force flyovers. Trump had previously posted that another event on June 24 would be...

A senior US official on Monday said that President Donald Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance had signed the memorandum of understanding electronically with Iran to formally reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the American blockade of Iranian ports. The official also claimed Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf signed the document on Tehran’s behalf. Trump “wanted to sign it personally because he wanted to show his dedication to the process and dedication to seeing this through to...

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said on Monday that the bloc has verified reports that China’s military has been “training Russian military personnel to fight in Ukraine”, a development that could deepen tensions between the two sides. Kallas, speaking after chairing a meeting of the EU’s 27 foreign ministers in Luxembourg, said that the EU was “carefully assessing the implications” of the assessment, adding that the ministers had agreed to sanction several Chinese entities...

A Polish doctor has been taken into custody after 34 human fetuses were found buried in the garden of her former home, the authorities said on Monday. Magdalena H. – a 57-year-old medical pathologist with no previous criminal record – is suspected of using the fetuses to perform experiments and now faces up to 12 years in prison. Her case has whipped up a storm in traditionally Catholic Poland, with many questioning how she managed to obtain the unborn babies’ bodies in a country with some of...

Fox Corp is buying Roku in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about US$22 billion in a bet that pairing its sports and news programming with a top TV streaming platform ‌will strengthen its position as audiences shift online. The deal, announced on Monday, gives Fox access to the more than 100 million households using Roku’s streaming platform, potentially helping the cable TV-reliant media company better target ads and reduce reliance on traditional distribution. It is Fox’s first major...

Two men were convicted on Monday of a plot last year to set fire to property linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The fires in May 2025 damaged the home Starmer moved out of when he became prime minister, as well as an apartment building he once owned a share of and destroyed his former Toyota SUV. Nobody was injured in the blazes. Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Stanislav Carpiuc, a 27-year-old Romanian citizen, were found guilty of a conspiracy to damage property by...

Elevated inflation and the specter of rate increases will greet Kevin M. Warsh in his debut as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The star of this seafaring horror-comedy, which wraps up Season 1 on Wednesday, also spends his downtime on the water.

Workers at the artificial intelligence company have been puzzled and increasingly concerned by the administration’s move to limit their latest A.I. models.

The Silicon Valley company’s ambitions to roll out autonomous cars nationwide have hit political roadblocks in some of the country’s biggest markets.

As tech giants rush to build infrastructure, some residents who live near data centers say a constant low-frequency vibration is ruining their health and homes.

The 39-year-old senator has become an internet sensation for Democrats seeking a 2028 contender. He says he’s focused on winning a second term in November.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones lost the Republican runoff for governor to the health care executive Rick Jackson despite the president’s endorsement. Mr. Trump’s picks won in other races.

An angry Musk has taken his business elsewhere, and has urged other companies to follow suit.

There are millions of possible phone numbers under each area code, but about once a decade, this growing city runs out of digits.

Lincoln, Ill., where Abraham Lincoln once worked in the local courthouse, has lost two colleges, a bottle factory and now a state prison.

Investigators are just beginning to determine what went wrong, but the Air Force has struggled to maintain the planes, which were first introduced in 1955.

“Backrooms” and “Obsession,” two breakout horror films from first-time directors in their 20s, have arguably redefined what a summer blockbuster can be.

Forecasters warned that Illinois and Indiana faced the highest risk of severe storms throughout the day.

Arthur just became the first named storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season. It’s caused heavy rain and flooding in Texas this week, and more is on the way.

“Voter fraud” is not about fraud. It is about who votes and how.

Despite its advantages, work-from-home arrangements have significantly deepened Americans’ isolation and distress.

Three Times reporters examine the possibilities.

Luigi Mangione, who was accused of killing a health care executive in Manhattan in 2024, faces both state and federal charges.