Minimalist News

Trump To Iran: War Can Be Averted If It Says "Those Secret Words" Among the most important foreign policy statements of President Trump's during his annual State of the Union address to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives Tuesday night came in discussing his Iran red lines. "We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal, but we haven't heard those secret words: 'We will never have a nuclear weapon.'" This 'challenge' underscores that at this point it may not matter at all what Iran actually says or does, as Washington is on the war path.

One In Five California Home Sales Canceled Due To Unaffordable Insurance Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com, Ponder a $44,000 insurance bill. This does not count as inflation in the CPI. DYSFUNCTION IN CALIFORNIA’S INSURANCE MARKET The Wall Street Journal reports A $44,000 Bill Shows the Dysfunction in California’s Home-Insurance Market > Glenn and Lorraine Crawford paid about $500 a month to insure their home in Agoura Hills northwest of Los Angeles when they bought it in 2012. > > The Crawfords say they have little alternative but to pay the bill that arrived last month, which, at more than $44,000 a year, is almost as much

On Gold, Oil, & Uranium Billionaire natural resources investor Rick Rule, legendary short-seller Bill Fleckenstein, and veteran oil trader Erik Townsend join ZeroHedge this evening at 7PM ET to give their outlooks on three key commodities sectors: Gold, Oil, and Uranium. Gold and silver have, of course, exploded in price over the last 52 weeks with gold’s price almost doubling and reaching a high of over $5500. Silver’s price more than tripled at one point and now sits ($87.50) just under 3X where it sat in February of last year ($32.93). Given the fast and intense rise, Rule recently reduced his silver position though

Software Stocks: Navigating The SaaSpocalypse Authored by Michael Lebowitz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, The recent rotation from growth to value is well documented. While the return divergences between, for instance, technology stocks and materials or industrials stocks are significant, they do not tell the whole story. There are also extreme return differentials between broad industries and their sub-industries. In this article, we address one such divergence between the broad technology sector and the software-as-a-service (SaaS) sub-industry. The graph below shows the wide gap in returns between software, technology, the Nasdaq 100, and semiconductor stocks. Since the well-followed software ETF (IGV) peaked on September 19, 2025,

Democrats Talk Affordability, Immigration In Rebuttal To Trump SOTU As usual, the opposing party was ready with a rebuttal to the President's State of the Union address last night.  Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger delivers the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in Williamsburg, Va., on Feb. 24, 2026. Mike Kropf/Getty Images Speaking from the House of Burgesses in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger focused on affordability and immigration. "As we watched our nation’s lawmakers gather for a joint session of Congress, we did not hear the truth from our president," she said, adding that Trump had "offered no real

Most Voters Want Immunity For Vaccine Companies Removed: Poll Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, A majority of voters say immunity for pharmaceutical firms should be removed in cases where the companies’ vaccines cause injuries, according to a new poll. Sixty percent of voters responding to the poll agreed that vaccine manufacturers should be stripped of immunity in such cases, including 33 percent who strongly backed withdrawing the immunity. Majorities across all age groups, genders, and races also supported the immunity abolishment. Just 27.5 percent of respondents did not think the immunity should end, while 12.6 percent of respondents said they were not

WTI Extends Losses After Biggest Crude Build In 3 Years Oil prices are sliding this morning following as an over-supplied market (API reported a huge 11.4mm barrel build last week) beats the geopolitical risk premia (with the US poised to attack Iran). > "Iran, rather than backing down and agreeing to all and any term [U.S. President Trump] is placing on the table (as he had expected), is instead daring him to attack. > > "Just you try it and you will see what you will get!" is kind of what Iran implicitly said to Trump when it held military drills in the

Horrific New Data Reveals Thousands Of Children Mutilated Under Biden Regime Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, New revelations from the Stop The Harm Database expose a grim reality: between 2019 and 2023, thousands of American children were subjected to life-altering surgeries, hormone treatments, and puberty blockers in the name of transgender ideology. According to the data compiled by medical watchdog group Do No Harm, 5,747 minors underwent surgical procedures often described as mutilation, including mastectomies and other invasive operations. Another 8,579 children received hormones and puberty blockers, chemicals that disrupt natural development and carry severe long-term risks like infertility and bone density loss. >

Trump Talks Economy, Immigration, Taxes, And AI In State Of The Union Address Update (2320ET): While predicted to be '2 or 3 hours,' President Trump's State of the Union was just 109 minutes - though it was still the longest on record since at least 1964. Trump emphasized border security, energy production, and tax policies while throwing Democrats under the bus over the economy and unchecked illegal immigration. Trump declared the "Golden Age of America" and stated that the state of the union is "strong," tying themes to the nation's upcoming 250th anniversary. KEY ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS Trump highlighted a robust economic recovery, claiming: * Core inflation has

"Enough Is Enough": David Tepper Slams Whirlpool For Value Destruction In "Scathing" Letter David Tepper, the billionaire behind Appaloosa Management, blasted Whirlpool’s board in a sharply critical letter, accusing the appliance maker of eroding shareholder value and demanding a strategic reset, according to CNBC, who viewed the letter. Tepper said he watched with “a certain astonishment” as Whirlpool moved ahead with what he described as a sizable and avoidable equity issuance that diluted investors. He argued the capital raise carried a cost of more than 10% — far above the company’s tax-adjusted borrowing costs of under 5% in public markets — despite

The US Dollar: From Exceptional To Average? Authored by Eva Sun-Wai via BondVigilantes.com, The dollar’s slide last year looks less like a sudden break and more like the culmination of pressures that have been gathering for a while. The fading of US exceptionalism has sat quietly in the background, and once the narrative started to normalise, the cracks became clearer: softer growth expectations, slower capital inflows, and valuations that had been leaning heavily on the idea that the US could keep outperforming indefinitely. The currency came into the year heavily owned and reliant on that growth premium, and when it began to

Contaminated Meat From Brazil Hits The EU, As Mercosur Opponents Are Proven Right Via Remix News, Opponents of Brussels’ deal with Latin American countries to import agricultural products are being proven right, unfortunately. Meat containing a banned growth hormone has shown up in the EU, a Dutch authority has reported, leading Polish authorities to order urgent inspections by the relevant inspectorates. EU farmers and multiple groups warned that the lack of safety regulations in use across the Mercosur countries would lead to such outcomes. The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority announced that it had detected Brazilian beef contaminated with estradiol, a growth

Futures Rise Ahead Of Critical Nvidia Earnings US equity futures are higher into NVDA earnings release after the close, and the risk-on tone in the US yesterday has spread globally with tech giant's earnings a catalyst for maintaining the rally aided by Tech. As of 8:00am ET, S&P 500 futures were up 0.3% as with Nasdaq 100 contracts +0.4%; NVDA is up 0.6% in premarket trading and while blowout results from the company later today may soothe nerves about the AI trade, “even if they have tremendous numbers, we know the markets are really fickle,” said Mahoney Asset Management’s Ken Mahoney. Other Mag7s

"I Did Nothing Illicit": Bill Gates Begins Apology Tour Over His Epstein Ties A week after Bill Gates abruptly pulled out as a keynote speaker at a high-profile global AI summit in India, the left-wing billionaire finally mustered enough nerve to "take responsibility for his actions" over his ties to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a town hall meeting with Gates Foundation employees. The Wall Street Journal reports that Gates told employees at a town hall event for the foundation on Tuesday that he never spent time with Epstein's victims, and never visited Epstein's island. He revealed that Epstein later

Spacecraft Builder That Beats Big Defense Primes On Cost And Speed: Here's How To Profit Provided continued AI disruption, indiscriminate software stock selling, and credit market risks do not trigger a broader risk-off market event in the coming weeks or months, a June SpaceX IPO could become the bedrock for the grand reopening of the IPO market. The second-order effects of a SpaceX IPO would be improved sentiment toward AI companies going public and potentially a serious investor appetite for the low-Earth-orbit space industry. Continuing our ever-evolving "how to profit" space theme, a newly listed company on U.S. exchanges is York Space

Diageo Shares Plunge Most In Two Years On Weaker Guidance, Dividend Cut Shares of Diageo Plc fell the most in 2 years after the maker of Guinness beer and Johnnie Walker whiskey cut its guidance for the second time this fiscal year amid soft demand in the US and China markets. The move marks an early challenge for new CEO Dave Lewis. The British distiller now expects organic net sales to decline by 2% to 3% this fiscal year, down from previous guidance of flat to slightly down, and said it would reduce its dividend. First-half results were mixed. Organic net sales fell

Market Bets Soar That Fed Will Cut Rates To 2% In 2027 Concerns about rising inflation, and the Fed hiking rates to contain it, have reversed rather dramatically.  As Bloomberg's Edward Bolingbroke observes, after months of consensus trades that the Fed's easing cycle will end in 2026, traders in US futures and options markets are suddenly piling on bets that the Fed will continue cutting rates well into next year instead of raising them.   As shown below, the key spread linked to the SOFR (the Secured Overnight Financing Rate) which track expected Fed policy, have becoming deeply inverted in the past week, a

The AI Boom Is Powering A Nuclear Renaissance Authored by Robert Rapier via OilPrice.com, * Hyperscale AI data centers require city-scale electricity loads, making dependable baseload power a strategic necessity. * Microsoft and Amazon are forming direct nuclear partnerships and pursuing advanced reactor technologies to secure long-term energy supply. * Energy infrastructure, particularly nuclear generation and uranium supply, is emerging as a structural beneficiary of AI-driven demand growth. For years, Silicon Valley took electricity for granted. The cloud sounded intangible, almost detached from the physical world. But now, artificial intelligence is ending that illusion. Behind every large language model and AI assistant

Trump's Cuba Pressure Campaign Could Spark Cohiba Cigar Price Spikes Cuba is buckling under a severe economic crisis. Years of economic mismanagement, turbocharged by hyperinflation and population decline, have left the nearly seven-decade-old communist government weaker than at any point in years. Now, the Trump administration has promised maximum pressure, with President Trump openly vowing to bring the regime to its knees. We've focused on Trump's blockade of oil deliveries to Cuba, the worsening power grid blackouts, and even the tourism collapse, as flight disruptions have erupted in recent weeks amid a fuel crisis. But one area that remains off the radar

Trump Admin To Launch New Free-Speech Site To Combat Censorship Abroad Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), In response to what the Trump administration says is a rising tide of censorship in Europe, the State Department is launching a new app that will give users worldwide access to content that has been censored in other countries. European Commissioner Thierry Breton speaks during a news conference at the European Union office in San Francisco on June 22, 2023. Josh Edelson /AFP via Getty Images This includes not only Europe but also China and Iran. The platform, called Freedom.gov, will go live over

João Francisco Inácio Brazão and Domingos Inácio Brazão sentenced for murder of Marielle Franco, a gay Black woman and rising political star Two influential Brazilian politician brothers have been convicted by Brazil’s supreme court of ordering the murder of Marielle Franco, the Rio de Janeiro city councillor, nearly eight years ago. João Francisco Inácio Brazão, the former congressman known as Chiquinho, and the former adviser to Rio’s court of auditors Domingos Inácio Brazão were sentenced to 76 years and three months in prison for the murders of Franco, 38, and her driver, Anderson Gomes, 39. Continue reading...

Four-day Caricom summit dominated by debate about US interventions in the region as military strikes against suspected drug boats continue US interventions dominated speeches at a summit of 15 nations from the Caribbean and the Americas on Tuesday, as the region’s leaders met amid deadly military strikes against suspected drug boats and an oil blockade on Cuba. During the opening ceremony of the four-day Caricom summit in St Kitts and Nevis, leaders of the regional bloc called for a strategic collaborations to deal with the impact of recent US policies. Continue reading...

Firefighters search for 39 people missing in debris after river burst and houses were swept away Three firefighters pulled a man’s body from the mud amid the rubble of houses swept away in a landslide in south-eastern Brazil, where 30 people died and 39 were still missing on Tuesday after torrential rains. A river in the state of Minas Gerais burst its banks and streets became raging currents of brown water after an overnight downpour in a region that has seen record rain this month. Continue reading...

Chiquinho and Domingos Brazão accused of ordering shooting of Marielle Franco and her driver in 2018 Brazil’s supreme court has opened the trial of politicians accused of ordering the 2018 murder of Rio de Janeiro councillor Marielle Franco, a case that exposed deep ties between politics and organised crime in the city. Franco, an activist who grew up in a favela and became an outspoken critic of Rio’s powerful militia groups, was 38 when she was shot dead in the city centre alongside her driver, Anderson Gomes. Continue reading...

Mexico’s president says there is ‘no risk’ for those visiting for Fifa games after military killed drug lord ‘El Mencho’ * Violence in Mexico after military kills notorious drug cartel boss – a visual guide Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said that there is “no risk” for visitors coming to Fifa World Cup games scheduled to be held in the country, after the death of a top cartel boss triggered a wave of retaliatory violence from gunmen who blocked roads and attacked security forces across the country. The Mexican military attempted to detain “El Mencho”, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation

Tommy Schaefer released early from sentence for murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack and will face US federal charges Indonesia has freed and deported a US man after he spent 11 years in prison for the premeditated murder of his then girlfriend’s mother on the tourist island of Bali, and he will now faces federal charges in the US. Tommy Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in prison in Bali for the 2014 murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, the mother of Heather Mack, during a luxury holiday, in a case that became known as the Bali suitcase murder. Prosecutors allege the couple were

Surface-to-air missiles, which are capable of shooting down aircraft and ballistic missiles, will be located on Yonaguni, Japan’s westernmost island Japan will deploy missiles to a tiny island near Taiwan within five years, its defence minister has said, in a move that is likely to inflame tensions with China. The surface-to-air missiles, which are capable of shooting down aircraft and ballistic missiles, will be located on Yonaguni – Japan’s westernmost island – by March 2031, Shinjiro Koizumi said. Continue reading...

Rebound in the country – which has been having demographic crisis – said to be partly because of 3.6 million born between 1991 and 1995 having children South Korea recorded 254,500 births in 2025, the largest annual increase in 15 years, driven largely by a temporarily enlarged generation – known as “echo boomers” – now in their early thirties, alongside marriage rates recovering from Covid-era delays. The country’s fertility rate – the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime – rose to 0.80 from 0.75 last year, returning to the 0.8 range for the first time

Critics say proposal to fold department into a new ‘mega ministry’ will dilute accountability and put nature protections at risk New Zealand’s government is seeking to abolish its dedicated environment ministry to cut down on bureaucracy, a move critics say could dilute environmental protections. Under the plan, the department would be folded into a new “mega-ministry” that will cover housing, urban development, transport, local government and the environment. Continue reading...

Not enough support for freed victims, say aid agencies, with growing numbers sleeping on the streets, unable to travel home without passports or money Charities and aid workers have called for urgent international government support for victims of south-east Asia’s deadly scam compounds, following a damning report by Amnesty International. The numbers of survivors of cyberscam “farms” left destitute and abandoned on the city streets of Cambodia and Myanmar is an “international crisis”, according to the research published in January. Continue reading...

Jess Wilson’s housing plan offers little that is truly new – but Jacinta Allan claims it draws a line through Melbourne and locks millennials out * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A genuine policy contest has finally broken out over housing in Victoria – but it is as much about politics as it is about planning. The opposition leader, Jess Wilson, on Wednesday announced a plan to expand Melbourne’s capital city zone – effectively expanding the CBD to take in Collingwood, Fitzroy, Fishermans Bend, North Melbourne, Parkville and parts of Southbank not already included. This will

Cars with higher real-world consumption may add to Australia’s difficulties in reducing transport emissions * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Another 10 cars have failed to live up to fuel efficiency promises when tested in the real world, adding to Australia’s difficulties in reducing emissions from transport. The Australian Automobile Association’s latest test confirmed 76% of new petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles are still using more fuel on roads than in mandatory lab testing. Continue reading...

Police says ‘others involved’ in killing of Chris Baghsarian whose body was found near a golf club in Pitt Town * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Two men have been charged with the kidnapping and murder of 85-year-old Chris Baghsarian whose body was found on the outskirts of Sydney after disappearing from his home in North Ryde last week. A 29-year-old man from Kenthurst and a 24-year-old man from Castle Hill were charged on Wednesday night with murder and taking/detaining in company with intent to ransom

The artist, who was controversially revoked and then reinstated by his government, is planning a ‘nurturing experience’ to bring people together Australia’s presentation at the Venice Biennale in May will be a “nurturing experience” designed to bring people together – in the aftermath of one of the most turbulent and divisive periods in the country’s 72-year history at the prestigious international art festival. Artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino, who were controversially dumped and then reinstated as Australia’s representatives, will present not one but two major works at the Venice Biennale in May – both informed by Sabsabi’s practice as a

End of government subsidies drives electricity costs up by 19% in the month and leaves power bills nearly a third higher than they were a year earlier * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The Reserve Bank governor has denied inflation is “taking off” after new data showed price rises had persisted into 2026 and boosted bets on two more interest rate hikes. Annual inflation stayed at a high 3.8% in January, as the end of government subsidies drove electricity costs up by 19% in the month

Peter Kyle signs cooperation deal on competition and says it is not a case of being nostalgic for pre-Brexit past The British public are “not nostalgic” for the pre-Brexit past but are pragmatic and want to move forward and “deepen” ties with the EU on trade and the economy, the business secretary, Peter Kyle, has said. Signing an agreement in Brussels to cooperate closely on competition issues, Kyle said he thought the deal was “a real vindication of the reset and the relationships that have emerged between the EU and the UK” since Labour came to power. Continue reading...

Emergency meeting called to discuss festival’s ‘future direction’ after series of controversies The organisation that manages the Berlin film festival is to meet for talks amid reports that its American director faces dismissal after a series of rows over Gaza. In a statement on Wednesday, the office of Germany’s federal government commissioner for culture and media said the emergency meeting on Thursday had been called to debate the “future direction of the Berlinale”. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was looking to repair the Druzhba oil pipeline but “it was not so fast,” Reuters reported. Shipments of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia have been cut off since 27 January, when Kyiv says a Russian strike hit pipeline equipment in western Ukraine. Continue reading...

Drinks maker reduces sales and profit forecast for second time in four months amid weak demand in US and China Diageo has slashed its dividend and cut its annual sales and profit forecast for the second time in four months, as the maker of Guinness warned of capacity constraints affecting drinkers of “the black stuff” in London pubs. The world’s largest spirits maker – which owns brands including Smirnoff vodka, Johnnie Walker whisky and Don Julio tequila – lost more than £5bn of its market value on Wednesday as it reported weak demand in the US and China in the first results

I looked back to discover the untold story of how western intelligence was misread, even in Kyiv. The conclusion offers a stark warning for the future Tuesday marked the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and at this time of year it’s hard not to recall memories of the morning of 24 February 2022, when the fate of Ukraine and the history of Europe were irrevocably changed by the decision of the man in the Kremlin. Around 9pm the evening before, I had received a message from a colleague at another news outlet. It was an unequivocal warning from

Israel welcomes move described by Palestinian Authority as undermining possibility of an independent state The US will provide on-site consular services in two Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank for the first time, breaking with previous policy, in a move that has been criticised by Palestinian officials as “a clear violation of international law”. In a post on X, the US embassy in Jerusalem said that as part of an initiative to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence, it would provide Americans with routine passport services in the West Bank settlement of Efrat on Friday “for one day only”. Continue reading...

Committee to Protect Journalists report says Israel also to blame for 81% of ‘intentionally targeted’ journalist killings * The deadly toll on journalists in the Gaza war A record 129 journalists and media workers were killed in the course of their work in 2025, and two-thirds of them were killed by Israel, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. It was the second straight year that killings set a record and the second straight year that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of them, the CPJ, a New York-based independent organisation that documents attacks on the press, said in its annual report. Continue

Hamas to almost certainly reject plan described in Israeli press, say experts, as no guarantee Israel will withdraw on surrender of weapons Progress in the Gaza peace plan has stalled over disagreements on how Hamas should be disarmed, with Israel threatening to go back to full-scale war if the condition is not carried out quickly. The second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire, which Washington declared had begun in January, was meant to involve Hamas disarming, Israeli forces withdrawing, and a Palestinian interim administration moving into Gaza backed by a Palestinian police force and an international stabilisation force (ISF). Continue reading...

Opposition campaigners claim top figures in regime use state wealth to fund lifestyles counter to those they preach Members of Iran’s ruling elite have been accused of brazen hypocrisy by allegedly using the state’s wealth to help to fund their adult children’s lives in the west while presiding over growing economic misery and repression at home. Opposition campaigners made the accusation against some of the clerical regime’s most powerful figures as a military confrontation with the US appears increasingly likely. Donald Trump has deployed a vast armada in the Middle East and confirmed he is considering strikes. Continue reading...

Secretary of state makes rare briefing to so-called ‘gang of eight’ as US deploys largest force of aircraft and warships to Middle East since 2003 * Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Marco Rubio delivered a rare briefing to top US lawmakers on Iran, just a few hours before Donald Trump used his State of the Union address to say that Tehran would never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Amid the largest deployment of aircraft and warships to the Middle East since the 2003 buildup to the Iraq war, Trump said he

Proposal approved by Modi government will bring official English name into line with Malayalam language The Indian state of Kerala, known as “God’s own country” for its golden beaches and lush tea plantations, is to be given a new name. Narendra Modi’s cabinet has approved a proposal to change the southern coastal state’s name from Kerala to Keralam. The move will bring the official English name into line with how it is pronounced in Malayalam, the primary language spoken by the state’s estimated population of 35 million. Continue reading...

Dominic Ethan Stewart was among 19 killed when vehicle veered off road and plunged down mountainside Tributes have been paid to a young British hiker who was among 19 people killed when a packed passenger bus veered off a treacherous stretch of road and plunged 200 metres down a steep mountainside in Nepal. Twenty-five others were injured in the pre-dawn crash in the Himalayan foothills on Monday. The bus was carrying 44 people, including a number of tourists. Continue reading...

Motorway stretch plays music as a safety feature but those close to it say ‘intrusive’ noise is constant and distressing Residents of one of India’s most upmarket neighbourhoods say the country’s first “musical road” has turned their daily lives into a nightmare soundtrack. A stretch of Mumbai’s recently opened Coastal Road seafront expressway has been engineered to play the pulsating Oscar-winning tune Jai Ho from the movie Slumdog Millionaire when vehicles drive on it at lower speeds. Continue reading...

‘Intelligence-based, selective operations’ carried out against Pakistani Taliban camps, says information ministry Pakistan launched multiple airstrikes on Saturday night targeting militants in neighbouring Afghanistan, where the government reported children were among dozens of people killed and wounded. Islamabad did not say precisely where the strikes were carried out or provide other details. Continue reading...

Google, Anthropic and OpenAI bosses to mingle with global south leaders wrestling for control over technology Silicon Valley tech billionaires will land in Delhi this week for an AI summit hosted by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, where leaders of the global south will wrestle for control over the fast-developing technology. During the week-long AI Impact Summit, attended by thousands of tech executives, government officials and AI safety experts, tech companies valued at trillions of dollars will rub along with leaders of countries such as Kenya and Indonesia, where average wages dip well below $1,000 a month. Continue reading...

Sharon Graham tells chancellor she should ‘back British industry’ by increasing military spending The head of Britain’s largest trade union has demanded that Rachel Reeves be sacked as chancellor if the Treasury continues to hold up a multibillion-pound defence investment plan. Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said tens of thousands of jobs were at risk from political dithering and called on ministers to “back British industry” by signing off on future defence contracts. Continue reading...

Former Northern Ireland correspondent Vincent Kearney subjected to ‘unprecedented’ surveillance, says lawyer Police and MI5 subjected a former BBC journalist to a “long and consistent campaign of unlawful interference” by obtaining communications data from his mobile phone, a tribunal has heard. The surveillance was targeted at Vincent Kearney, who was the BBC’s Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent, and occurred over an eight-year period as authorities sought to identify his sources. Continue reading...

Ex-US ambassador’s media strategy looks set to be ‘attack as best form of defence’, PR consultants suggest For those seeking to understand Peter Mandelson’s media strategy as he navigates the greatest crisis of a crisis-strewn life, the latest instalment of the Jeffrey Epstein files may offer a steer. “You and your lawyers must start setting down the irrefutable facts, build a narrative and fight back,” Mandelson advised the disgraced financier in May 2011, according to the emails released by the US Department of Justice. Continue reading...

Lib Dem leader says crisis at William Blake House is ‘one of my worst nightmares’ after Guardian revealed inquiry into finances Ed Davey has accused a trustee of a learning disability care home of embezzlement and called for watchdogs to take over the charity to resolve a crisis he described as “one my worst nightmares”. The Liberal Democrat leader’s intervention at prime minister’s questions came hours after the Guardian revealed the Charity Commission had opened a serious inquiry into concerns around financial mismanagement and potential misuse of funds at William Blake House. Continue reading...

Molson Coors says site, as well as national call centre in Wales, ‘no longer financially sustainable’ The Cornish brewery that makes Doom Bar ale is to be closed by its US owner, throwing the popular beer brand’s future into doubt and putting about 200 jobs at risk. The drinks company Molson Coors said it plans to shut Sharp’s Brewery in Rock, Wadebridge, along with its national call centre in Wales, saying it was “no longer financially sustainable”. Continue reading...

Aliya Rahman, who was dragged out of her car in January by agents, arrested for ‘refusing to obey orders’ to sit down A guest of congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, was arrested by Capitol police during the State of the Union address. Omar had invited Aliya Rahman, a US citizen and Minneapolis resident who in January was removed from her car and dragged by immigration agents in the city as part of the Trump administration’s increased efforts to arrest and deport alleged undocumented immigrants. The officers had been shouting at her to move. Continue reading...

Organizers scramble for new venue after University of Southern Maine cites sanctions over Francesca Albanese’s virtual talk The University of Southern Maine abruptly revoked access to an on-campus venue days before a conference about Palestine was to take place there, citing the participation in the program of an individual under US sanctions and following pressure from local legislators. More than 300 participants have registered to attend the “Consequence of Palestine” conference, which was slated to include remote participation from Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, who has been under sanction by the Trump administration since last

Democratic representative says Aliya Rahman was ‘forcibly removed’ because she stood for a ‘short period of time, part of which other guests were also standing’ during Trump’s State of the Union speech * Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox A newly revealed diplomatic cable calls on US diplomats to work against attempts by foreign nations to regulate how US tech companies handle their citizens’ data, as “data sovereignty initiatives” gather steam in Europe over security concerns. More from Reuters: President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered U.S. diplomats to lobby against attempts to regulate U.S.

The Broadway actor’s nine-decade career included beloved screen roles and coaching Marlon Brando and Jane Fonda Sondra Lee, the Broadway and film star, died on Monday of natural causes at the age of 97. The news of her death came from her collaborator and friend the Rev Joshua Ellis, a former Broadway publicist and an interspiritual minister. Continue reading...

Federal officials search district chief Alberto Carvalho’s home, but allegations being examined remain unclear The FBI on Wednesday raided the Los Angeles unified school district’s headquarters and the superintendent’s home. Federal officials served the warrants as part of an ongoing investigation, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the inquiry. The nature of the investigation and what allegations were being examined was not immediately clear. Continue reading...

The new year is not off to a good start. In January, US president Donald Trump ordered the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and now there is a massive US military build-up in the Middle East, apparently aimed at Iran. One aircraft carrier strike group has arrived in the region, with another one on the way. However, there does appear to be a silver lining to the stand-off. Unlike last year, when US bombers struck Iranian nuclear facilities during the conflict between Iran and...

As the United States assembles its greatest military firepower in decades in the Middle East, Iranians are warily awaiting the next round of talks with the US in Geneva this week – negotiations that many see as a last chance for their ruling theocracy to strike a deal with US President Donald Trump. Some say the situation feels hopeless. Battered by decades of sanctions, heightened by Trump’s 2018 decision to withdraw from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, Iranians also just suffered...

US President Donald Trump briefly laid out ⁠his case for a possible attack on Iran in his State of the Union speech to Congress on Tuesday, saying he would not allow the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism to have a nuclear weapon. Even while assembling a massive military force in the Middle East, Trump has done little to explain to the American public why he might be leading the US into its most aggressive action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution. In his speech, Trump...

Norway’s former prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland has been admitted to hospital due to the stress caused by the Epstein scandal, the NTB news agency and others cited his lawyer as saying on Tuesday. Jagland is one of the most prominent figures to have been implicated by the release of files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Norwegian authorities are investigating allegations of serious corruption. The former top politician is said to have stayed at Epstein’s apartments in Paris and New...

This live blog has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Get faster notifications on the latest updates by downloading our app. US President Donald Trump delivered the traditional State of the Union address to a divided Congress, reviewing his first year in office and outlining priorities ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. In the longest speech of its kind, Trump spoke of a “golden age of America”, saying...

It has been a sad time for the legions of fans of Noam Chomsky, having to see their hero in a photo hobnobbing with the late paedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein inside the latter’s private jet. The picture and their email exchanges were part of millions of pages released by the US Justice Department from its so-called Epstein files. So far, the most high-profile fallouts have been, understandably, the arrest of the former Prince Andrew, the public disgrace of British Labour Party...

US military forces boarded a third sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking it from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. An organisation that tracks ship movements said the vessel was the only tanker left to pursue after more than a dozen fled the coast of Venezuela following the capture of the South American country’s authoritarian then-president, Nicolas Maduro. The boarding is the 10th interdiction of an oil...

The maxim, “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”, attributed to the Athenian historian Thucydides, described the reality of world politics for millennia. Today there are forces that wish to see a return to a world where “might equals right”. The European Union, born out of the ashes of war to secure lasting peace, stands for a different vision. We are convinced that the rules-based international order is a historic achievement. Despite not being perfect, this order and...

New York police are investigating after officers were pelted with snowballs while responding to a massive snowball fight at Washington Square Park in Manhattan, as a winter storm blanketed the Northeast in snow. A video of the fracas shows two uniformed officers pacing a walkway in the park on Monday as snowballs fly at them from all directions, hitting the officers and covering them in snow. The officers, growing visibly frustrated, shoved at least two people to the ground as snowballs...

The Louvre Museum’s director resigned on Tuesday after months of pressure following the October theft of the French crown jewels, as the world’s most visited museum faced widening scrutiny over security failures, labour unrest and a suspected ticket fraud scheme. Laurence des Cars quit after a punishing year for the former royal palace - the high-profile jewels heist from the Apollo Gallery, a mid-February burst pipe near the Mona Lisa, water leaks damaging priceless books, staff walkouts and a...

The European Union’s trade chief Maros Sefcovic has railed against the bloc’s glacial trade defences, warning that years-long probes and rigid rules will not protect the bloc from China’s increasingly fierce export machine. Speaking in the European Parliament on Tuesday, Sefcovic lashed out at Beijing’s “unsustainable” trade surplus and called for an urgent overhaul of world trading rules to account for “overcapacities”, “unfair trade policies” and “state subsidies”. He confirmed, meanwhile,...

Russia ⁠accused Ukraine on Tuesday of trying ⁠to obtain a nuclear weapon with help from Britain and France, an allegation Kyiv called an absurd lie. A French foreign ministry spokesman said the allegation was “blatant disinformation”. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “There’s no truth ‌to this.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously criticised Kyiv’s decision to give up its former Soviet nuclear arsenal in the 1990s without obtaining proper, binding...

Today show host Savannah Guthrie said her family is now offering a US$1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, who went missing from her Arizona home more than three weeks ago. Savannah Guthrie said on Tuesday that her family was still holding out for a miracle and hopes her mother will be found alive, but she also acknowledged that they realise it might be too late. “She may already be gone,” Savannah Guthrie said in a social media post. “She may...

Chinese ⁠drone maker DJI said on Tuesday that it had ⁠filed suit challenging the US Federal Communications Commission decision to bar imports of all of its new models and critical components. The ban also includes products from Autel, another China-based drone maker. DJI, the world’s largest drone maker, said in a statement ‌it had challenged the FCC decision in the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. “It carelessly restricts DJI’s business in the US and summarily denies US customers access...

The UK government said on Tuesday it supported the release of documents on ex-prince Andrew’s past role as a trade envoy, hours after a veteran politician was quizzed by police in the widening Jeffrey Epstein scandal. US authorities last month published millions of files related to the late sex offender Epstein, containing revelations that have rocked British political and royal circles. It has ramped up pressure on Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government to release its own vetting...

It’s no surprise that US President Donald Trump came out swinging after the Supreme Court’s stunning rebuke struck at the core of his economic agenda. It delivered his most consequential legal setback by blocking him from invoking emergency powers to unilaterally impose sweeping tariffs on trading partners. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), enacted in 1977, allows the president to regulate economic transactions after declaring a national emergency in response to an...

President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the four-year anniversary of the Ukraine war by accusing Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of trying to take over Ukraine, saying he had failed to achieve this and other war goals. In a video address that showed Ukrainians carrying out acts of resistance against Russian soldiers in the opening days of the conflict, Zelensky added that Ukraine was ready to do “everything” it could to secure a strong, lasting peace. Hundreds of thousands have died since Russia...

France’s feud with the US ambassador to Paris took another turn on Tuesday with the French foreign minister saying the top US diplomat in France must explain himself after ignoring a French summons. The minister suggested that Ambassador Charles Kushner will not have access to French government officials until he complies. French authorities had summoned Kushner, the father of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, for a meeting on Monday evening over comments from the...

In the early days of 2026, there has been an unexpected turn in China’s global relations. Some US allies have started reaching out to China just as China faced complications in ties with some friendly countries in the Global South. The underlying cause for both trends is the Trump administration’s imperial behaviour. With the dramatic abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and US President Donald Trump’s wish to control Venezuela’s oil, China’s economic stake in one of its closest...

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, unleashing the deadliest war in Europe since World War II. As the conflict reaches its four-year mark, here’s a look at the state of the conflict and some of the consequences for both countries. Destruction The war has resulted in widespread destruction in Ukraine. Entire cities in Ukraine’s east and south, among them Bakhmut, Toretsk and Vovchansk, have been reduced to rubble by fighting. The World Health Organization has...

When Brazilian K-pop fan Tami spotted a social media post last month selling a rare Polaroid photo signed by ZeroBaseOne member Zhang Hao, she jumped at the opportunity. The seller identified himself as a South Korean named Park Chae-ah, according to the Chosun Daily newspaper. She transferred the money. Then Park switched his account to private and vanished. Tami* is far from alone. Across Brazil, home to one of Latin America’s most passionate Korean pop culture communities, scammers have found...

US President Donald Trump has pushed back on reports that the Pentagon was concerned that an extended military campaign against Iran could prove difficult, even as he insisted his preference was still to strike a diplomatic deal. “Everything that has been written about a potential War with Iran has been written incorrectly, and purposefully so,” Trump said in a social media post on Monday. “I am the one that makes the decision, I would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don’t make a Deal, it...

A girlfriend of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the powerful leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel who was killed by the Mexican military, was key to finding him in Tapalpa, a picturesque village of holiday homes in western Mexico. The 59-year-old Oseguera, nicknamed “El Mencho”, was wounded in a clash with soldiers on Sunday and died while being airlifted to hospital. The operation was launched when Mexican military intelligence agents, supported by the US military’s Northern Command, learned...

After being sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for national security offences on February 9, Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying will decide if he wishes to appeal. He may challenge his convictions and/or sentences and has about two weeks to make up his mind. Given the length of his trial (156 days), the mountain of evidence and the legal issues, it will take time for any appeal to be resolved. Meanwhile, foreign actors have turned their attention to securing Lai’s early release. The lead...

An unidentified assailant detonated an explosive device next to a patrol vehicle in Moscow early Tuesday, killing himself and a police officer, and leaving two other officers injured, officials said. The attack happened minutes after midnight near the Savyolovsky Train Station in the Russian capital’s downtown, according to Moscow’s branch of the Interior Ministry. It said the assailant approached a traffic police vehicle and detonated an explosive device, killing an officer on the spot and...

A day after the Mexican army killed the country’s most powerful drug lord, the picturesque town where it happened was a study in contrasts. Tourist shops in Tapalpa were open Monday, and workers were on the job. But gunshots also rang out, and in the street was a dead man lying beside a bullet-pocked vehicle. Meanwhile, heavily armed Mexican security forces kept up their battle with cartel gunmen following the killing that sparked a surge in violence and put the country on edge. Cartel fighters...

Prosecutors portrayed a Utah mother and children’s book author as a money-hungry killer Monday on the first day of a murder trial in her husband’s death, while her defence team urged jurors not to make judgments before hearing her side. Kouri Richins, 35, faces a slew of charges for allegedly killing her husband, Eric Richins, with fentanyl in March 2022 at their home just outside the ski town of Park City. She has vehemently denied the allegations. Prosecutors say she slipped five times the...

Authorities in the northern Portuguese city of Porto have discovered the body of a woman believed to have died two years ago in her flat, national media reported on Monday. The remains were found on January 21, according to Correio da Manhã newspaper and other outlets, citing local officials. The diabetic woman is thought to have died at the age of 73. The exact circumstances of her death are still unclear. The alarm was raised by a doctor at a health centre after the woman failed to attend...

African nations have long been asking: who really opens their market, on what terms and how fast? Earlier this month, China provided a clear answer when it stated that starting on May 1, China will apply zero tariffs on imports from 53 African countries with which it maintains diplomatic relations. For years, Western governments have promised to rethink their partnerships with their African counterparts, tying positive language about equality and sustainability to complex trade frameworks. China...

The United States on Monday accused China of dramatically swelling its nuclear arsenal and doubled down on claims that Beijing had conducted secret nuclear tests, demanding again it be part of any future arms control treaty. Washington said the lapsing earlier this month of New Start – the last treaty between top nuclear powers the United States and Russia – presented the possibility of striking a “better agreement” including Beijing. Christopher Yeaw, the US assistant secretary of state for...

The British Academy Film Awards and BBC apologised on Monday for a racial slur that was broadcast during Sunday’s show while two stars of the film Sinners were on stage. The Tourette syndrome campaigner who shouted the slur said he was “deeply mortified” and what he said was “not a reflection of my personal beliefs”. The highly offensive word could be heard as Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, who are both black, were presenting the award for best visual effects during Sunday’s...

The son of US film director Rob Reiner pleaded not guilty to the fatal stabbing of both of his parents when he appeared in a Los Angeles court on Monday. Nick Reiner faces two counts of first-degree murder over the double killing that sent shock waves through Hollywood days before Christmas. The 32-year-old was arrested on December 14 after the bodies of his filmmaker father and his mother, photographer Michele Singer Reiner, were discovered at their home in the upmarket Brentwood neighbourhood...

A US judge permanently barred the Justice Department on Monday from releasing a prosecutor’s report on the criminal case accusing US President Donald Trump of unlawfully retaining classified documents following his first term in office. Florida-based US District Judge Aileen Cannon found that releasing the report would be a “manifest injustice” to the Republican president and two ‌former associates who were charged alongside him because it would detail substantial allegations of criminal...

Former British ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson was arrested ⁠by London police on Monday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, following revelations over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson, 72, was fired from the most prestigious posting in Britain’s diplomatic service in September, when the depth of his friendship with Epstein started to become clear. Police earlier this month began a criminal investigation into Mandelson after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s...

Panama on Monday took control of two ports at the Atlantic and Pacific entrances of the Panama Canal after a Supreme Court ruling voided the concession of their Hong Kong-based operator, a move Washington officials said was “in line with President Donald Trump’s drive to curb Chinese influence” over the strategic waterway. A decree published in the official gazette authorises the Panama Maritime Authority to occupy and run the ports of Balboa and Cristobal for “reasons of urgent social...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who heads to Beijing this week, had warned last year in relation to China that economic dependencies make Germany “susceptible to blackmail”. As chancellor, he confronts an export model under strain, a deteriorating transatlantic environment and the fiscal reality that moral posturing does not sustain an industrial economy. Merz has never been shy about stating where he stands. As chairman of the non-profit Atlantik-Brucke from 2009 to 2019, he boosted the view...

A new Dutch government took power on Monday, with 38-year-old centrist Rob Jetten sworn in as the country’s youngest-ever prime minister and the first openly gay one. Jetten pulled off a stunning election win in October, coming from behind to dethrone the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) led by firebrand politician Geert Wilders by a razor-thin margin. The snap election was called after the PVV withdrew from the previous coalition, the Netherlands’ most right-wing government in recent history,...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has already begun” World War III, in an interview with British broadcaster BBC. Speaking in Kyiv over the weekend ahead of the fourth anniversary of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday, Zelensky said that his view of the conflict was different from that of US President Donald Trump. “We have different views regarding a third world war,” Zelensky said in the interview, translated...

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Date set for US President Donald Trump’s trip to China 2. EU bans Chinese organisations from critical tech programmes, including AI, chips 3. Trump says raising US global tariff rate from 10 per cent to 15 per cent 4. As high-speed railways saturate China, how far can their global reach...

Abraham Newman is an American political scientist and a professor in the School of Foreign Service and Department of Government at Georgetown University. His research focuses on the ways in which economic interdependence and globalisation have transformed international politics. Along with Henry Farrell, he is co-author of the book Underground Empire: How America Weaponised the World Economy, published in 2023. In this interview, he discusses how the concept of weaponised interdependence has...

China’s leading planemaker is redoubling its efforts to boost the international profile of its home-grown jets in 2026, injecting a sizeable amount of capital into a subsidiary carrier as it attempts to widen its planes’ coverage area and attract more overseas buyers. The state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), manufacturer of the C909 regional airliner and the company’s flagship narrowbody C919, recently infused 634 million yuan (US$91.76 million) into C909 launch customer...

Iran agreed a ⁠secret €500 ⁠million (US$589 million) arms deal ⁠with Russia to acquire thousands of advanced shoulder-fired missiles, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. The agreement, signed in Moscow in December, commits Russia to deliver 500 man-portable “Verba” launch units and ‌2,500 “9M336” missiles over three years, the Financial Times said, citing leaked Russian documents seen by the Financial Times and several people familiar with the deal. Reuters could not immediately verify the...

Politically charged thriller One Battle After Another took six prizes, including best picture, at the British Academy Film Awards (Baftas) on Sunday, building momentum ahead of the Oscars next month. Blues-steeped vampire epic Sinners and gothic horror story Frankenstein won three awards each, while Shakespearean family tragedy Hamnet was named best British film. Jessie Buckley, as widely predicted, won the best actress prize for playing a grieving mother and wife of William Shakespeare, Agnes...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday described a pair of explosions in Lviv as a “cynical and brutal terrorist act” that was “organised by Russia”. Two explosions rocked the western Ukrainian city in the early hours, killing a 23-year-old policewoman and injuring 25 others. “This was a terrorist attack,” Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said in a video posted on his Telegram channel, adding that police have detained a female Ukrainian national. Police said that the detained woman was a...

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Sunday ordered the shutdown of the city’s entire traffic network for all but emergency travel as a massive snowstorm began to hit the northeast United States. Tens of millions of Americans from the US capital Washington to the northern state of Maine prepared for up to two feet (60cm) of snow forecast in some areas. The National Weather Service (NWS) said blizzard conditions would “quickly materialise” from Maryland up to southeastern New England, making travel...

Three editors in Washington discuss their approach to coverage of politicians and witnesses who sometimes seem to be performing for the cameras.

The president said he had negotiated a deal with tech giants to cover the energy costs of data centers, but offered few details. Experts said such pledges could prove difficult in practice.

In some schools, Yondr, a pouch marketed to keep kids off devices, has proved no match for actual children.

The investigation’s target was unclear. The school district is the nation’s second largest, and as superintendent, Alberto Carvalho has one of the highest-profile jobs in K-12 education.

A fifth-grade teacher and his principal wife hid in their bedroom as dozens of people who believed he might be a kidnapper appeared on their suburban street.

The findings may help explain why this group has such exceptional memory.

From George Saunders to the National Book Foundation, the literary world has been besieged by fake requests. Just like me.

The Venezuelan leader overestimated his strength and misread his exchange with President Trump in the decisive weeks before his capture by U.S. forces.

The owners have put a 67-year-old nudist colony on the market, hoping a new steward can help it shed its troubled past.

The race is one of a handful of competitive Senate elections this year, but Democrats seem most confident about North Carolina, partly because their candidate, former Gov. Roy Cooper, has never been beaten.

Gov. Greg Abbott hopes the ads featuring the Democrat will galvanize Republican voter turnout in November.

Eight Opinion writers weigh in on the speech.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz laid out his complaints in a frank message to his hosts on a trip to Beijing that China had designed to showcase their relationship.

When Malibu Diner in Chelsea shut down on Sunday night, it ended a unique breakfast program for older people in the city.

Verbal or physical tics can be a daily struggle. So can dealing with the hurt they may cause.

Conservation experts helped the Nazi regime inspect church and civil archives to track down people they sought to persecute, a researcher concluded.