Minimalist News

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,

New Oregon Initiative Would Criminalize Hunting, Fishing And Farming Only 1% of the American population identifies as vegan (a person who refrains from using or consuming any animal products), and around 3% of the population identifies as vegetarian. It is therefore a little confusing as to why American political and social discourse is hijacked by vegan issues so often. Leftist activists have adopted the age-old mantra that the "squeaky wheel gets the oil"; but imagine a wheel that never gets enough oil? Imagine a movement specifically designed to keep society constantly on egg shells, trying to figure out different ways

Will Trump Break JFK's Agreement On Cuba? Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation, In October 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union (i.e., Russia) came within an inch of all-out nuclear war with each other. To resolve the crisis, President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev entered into an agreement in which the United States agreed not to invade Cuba in return for Russia’s decision to withdraw nuclear missiles it had installed in Cuba. For more than 50 years, both Russia and the United States have complied with that agreement. Russia has never

Majority Of Arrested ICE Protesters At Newark's Delaney Hall Came From Outside New Jersey Arrest records from recent demonstrations outside Newark’s Delaney Hall immigration detention facility show that many of those taken into custody were not New Jersey residents, according to The New York Post . According to information reviewed by The Post, only a small number of the arrested individuals were from the state, while others had traveled from locations including Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Connecticut, and New York. The arrests stemmed from a series of confrontations between protesters and law enforcement that took place during ongoing demonstrations at

Radical Woke Mount Sinai Hospital Exposed: DEI, Child Sex Changes & Epstein Ties Prioritized Over Patients Authored by Tate Rosentreter via The Center Square ; Consumer protection organization Consumers’ Research began a campaign Monday highlighting New York City-based nonprofit Mount Sinai Hospital 's prioritization of what Consumers' calls the hospital's woke and political ideology as well as having what it says are questionable partnerships such as ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Executive director of Consumers’ Research Will Hild told The Center Square that “Mount Sinai is another example of a nonprofit hospital that has seemingly abandoned its core mission of patient

Iranian Tankers Cross US Naval Blockade After Trump Deal Allows Iran To Restart Oil Sales The first Iranian ships crossed the area of the US naval blockade without obstruction after a memorandum of understanding was reached to end the war between Washington and Tehran, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported Tuesday . At least three Iranian oil tankers and two cargo ships carrying essential goods broke through the US naval blockade following an accord between the countries. A large Iranian VLCC and another vessel used to transport livestock moved from open waters toward Iranian ports, the agency said. Another Iranian

15 Tied To Antifa Charged With Violently Interfering With ICE Operations In Minnesota Authored by Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times, Fifteen suspects are accused of conspiring with two Minneapolis-based Antifa groups to violently interfere with federal immigration enforcement, authorities announced on Tuesday. Daniel Rosen, who heads the U.S. attorney’s office for Minnesota, told reporters at his Minneapolis headquarters on June 16 that agents arrested 12 of the 15 suspects; one was already in custody for other offenses. Two defendants remain at large. Rosen said both are aware that federal agents are seeking them in connection with an indictment that

Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Trump's First-Term Tariff On China Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Supreme Court on June 15 declined to hear a legal challenge to tariffs imposed on Chinese imports by U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term in 2018. The decision follows an appeal by HMTX Industries and other businesses after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last year upheld the tariffs, which Trump previously imposed on Chinese goods under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 in response to China’s unfair trade practices related to technology

Wyoming And Spokane Data Center Pauses Show NIMBY Fury Has Shifted From Nuclear To AI The latest cracks in the data center buildout story arrived this month from opposite ends of the energy-rich West. Crusoe paused development activities on its 1.8 GW “Project Jade” campus near Cheyenne, Wyoming, at the explicit request of its customer. Just days later, Avista announced it was pausing processing of a 500 MW data center request in Spokane County after more than 5,000 community complaints, a proposed city council moratorium, and concerns over ratepayer costs and legacy contamination at the former Kaiser Aluminum smelter site.

SPLC Official Shared Bank Accounts With Neo-Nazi Informant Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA , The New York Post reported on Tuesday the identity of the Southern Poverty Law Center official who, according to court records, was in a relationship with one of the SPLC’s paid neo-Nazi informants. According to the Post , the SPLC official is Heidi Beirich, who was the group’s director of intelligence between 2012 and 2019. The Post noted that the “Employee-2” named in the Justice Department’s indictment matches Beirich’s profile. “One figure, referred to as ‘Employee-2’ in the indictment is described as a ‘person

Record Percentage Of Central Banks Expect Gold Reserves To Increase In Next 12 Months Today, the World Gold Council released their 2026 Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey. Amongst the insights, here is the punchline: a record 45% of respondents expect their own gold reserves will increase over the next 12 months Central banks have accumulated an average of 1,000t of gold over the past four years, up significantly from the 500t average over the preceding decade. This marked acceleration in the pace of accumulation has occurred against a backdrop of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, which has clouded the outlook for

"By Any Means Necessary": Candidate Struck From Alaska Ballot Over Alleged Democratic Dirty Trick Authored by Jonathan Turley , There is an interesting controversy in Alaska where an election official just disqualified a candidate over his name. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) is in what is considered a close race with Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola. The seat is viewed as critical to the Democrats' retaking power. The race was thrown into disarray when a retired teacher named Dan Sullivan, who had no connection to the GOP but did have connections to Democratic operatives, got on the ballot. The alleged dirty

MLB Scolds Players Who Wrote Bible Verses On Pride Night Uniforms Major League Baseball on Monday issued a warning to three players who represent the gayest city in America, but who dared to write references to a biblical passage on their Pride Night uniforms . The three San Francisco Giants teamed up for the subtle gesture at Friday night's home game, which they lost 5-1 to the visiting Chicago Cubs. “The writing on the cap violates our rules and, consistent with normal practice, we have warned the players about future violations ,” MLB chief communication officer Pat Courtney told Outsports

Is California Reaching Critical Mass? Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness, By any measure, California is a failed state—and a national embarrassment. Taxes? It has the highest income and gas taxes in the nation. Roads? A Reason Foundation survey ranks it 49th among the states. Mass flight? Between 250,000 and 350,000 more Californians leave the state than move in each year. Housing, gas, insurance, and electricity prices? The highest in the continental U.S. Illegal aliens, the poor, the homeless, the foreign-born, and welfare recipients? The largest numbers in the U.S. Public K–12 schools? Test scores in the bottom

Semiconductor Stocks Tumble After Microsoft Balks At $3B Oracle Cloud Deal Chip stocks tumbled even further in late Tuesday trading following a report that Microsoft just walked away from talks with Oracle about leasing the company's cloud infrastructure because of concerns over security and compliance. The deal, according to Business Insider , would have been worth over $3 billion - as large Silicon Valley tech companies are running short on computing power (more on that later). The plan was to move some Microsoft workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, but Oracle's public cloud did not have the Federal Risk and Authorization

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 in China 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 yoga 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...

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...

This blog is now closed Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Kyle Sandilands has settled his legal dispute with ARN Media with a $12m cash payment over three years, but Jackie O Henderson’s $82m claim against the broadcaster will continue. The shock jock agreed to drop his $85m lawsuit against KIIS FM, in return for a cash payment and $1.5m in advertising contra on ARN’s stations for a new broadcasting venture yet to be announced. The inquiry heard evidence of residents being pressured to relocate, deceived about their rights and fearful of losing their

Girl told mother she thought about killing people ‘all the time’, inquest into 10-year-old Biddy Porter’s death hears Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast As a teenager descended into psychosis, killing animals, having visions and hearing voices, her mother consulted a naturopath believing the girl’s behaviour was due to a hormonal imbalance, an inquest has been told. Two weeks after the 14-year-old confessed to her mother that she thought about killing people “all the time”, the girl killed 10-year-old Biddy Porter at a property in

The moment was published by the White House after the US president walking into the summit for Wednesday morning’s session 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

Joint statement welcomes Trump’s deal with Iran to end war and calls for further talks involving European leaders Europe live – latest updates Donald Trump has backed a joint G7 leaders’ statement that welcomes the deal he has struck with Iran but says a follow-on agreement is necessary to rein in Iran’s ballistic missile programme, an issue not directly addressed in the memorandum of understanding that is due to be signed on Friday by Iran and the US. The statement says future negotiations with Iran would benefit from the involvement of a wider group of regional and international actors including

Arnault’s addition of leading weekly to stable of publications raises concerns about media ownership in France He is known as the “wolf in cashmere” – the owner of the world’s biggest luxury group whose brands including Louis Vuitton, Dior and Tiffany have made him one of the world’s richest people. But Bernard Arnault , a close friend of Donald Trump, is under fire from journalists’ unions in France for buying up almost all the country’s business and economic press. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Ed Davey to make call ahead of 10th anniversary of Brexit vote, in strengthening of party’s position on EU The Lib Dems will urge Andy Burnham to end Labour’s “torpor and timidity” towards the EU as they call for the UK to rejoin the single market, in a notable strengthening of their own position. Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Brexit vote next week, Ed Davey will challenge Burnham to scrap Labour’s red lines on the customs union and single market if he becomes prime minister and immediately begin talks on a more ambitious deal with the EU.

British prime minister was left making small talk unsure if a meeting with Trump and Zelenskyy was going ahead The wait for Keir Starmer’s first session of the G7 gathering in Évian-les-Bains was undoubtedly awkward. A meeting about the future of Ukraine had been due to start at 9am but more than half an hour later, Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron were nowhere to be seen. On a live Reuters feed, Starmer could be seen standing next to the leaders of Canada and Japan as they milled about making small talk. “Are they, are they having a meeting?”

Israel’s continued military operation in southern Lebanon puts at risk the agreement reached between Iran and the US on Sunday Full report: Iran says peace deal dependent on Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon Analysis: Where does Iran deal leave US-Israel relationship? 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

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

Any sense of relief is offset by doubts over durability of agreement and feelings of betrayal by Trump administration In the rural town of Sirik, in southern Iran, temperatures over the past week have climbed to 45C (113F), and residents were still queueing to fill buckets of water days after US strikes reportedly damaged two drinking water facilities serving nearby villages. Amid the water shortages and the looming fear of war came news of a possible deal between Washington and Tehran. But for those struggling to pick up the pieces in the aftermath, the announcement brought little relief. 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...

Washington claims vessel was violating its blockade of Iranian ports and failed to comply with instructions The Indian government has voiced a “strong protest” after three Indian seafarers were killed in US military strikes against oil tankers travelling through the strait of Hormuz. US Central Command confirmed that its aircraft had fired two Hellfire missiles at the engine room of the MT Settebello as it sailed through the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Broadcast channels under review and 10% of senior leaders to go as part of drive to cut £500m in costs Entire BBC programmes will be scrapped and compulsory redundancies will be necessary as part of sweeping cuts at the corporation, its new director general, Matt Brittin, has told staff. The former Google executive also announced he was reviewing the BBC’s broadcast TV channels and radio network, as audiences continue to switch to online content. Continue reading...

Former health secretary Wes Streeting also threatened to launch a leadership contest if the prime minister did not set out a timetable to step down 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

Education secretary describes historical practice in England as a ‘shameful period’ in country’s history Downing Street is to make a full apology on behalf of the state to those affected by historic forced adoption in England, the education secretary has confirmed. Bridget Phillipson, giving evidence to MPs on the education select committee on Wednesday, described it as a “shameful period” in the country’s history. Continue reading...

Ivan Rogers, Britain’s EU ambassador from 2013 to 2017, says party’s ideas did not ‘remotely measure up’ to challenge UK politics live – latest updates Labour arrived in power with no big idea on the future relationship with the EU, a former British ambassador to Brussels has said. Ivan Rogers, Britain’s EU ambassador from 2013 to 2017, said Labour presented “a ragbag of issues” on the EU in its manifesto, which didn’t “remotely measure up to the challenge of the times” and would “make no measurable difference to the UK macroeconomy”. Continue reading...

War’s impact on UK cost of living more muted than first forecast suggesting fuel price rises have failed to spill out more widely across UK plc UK inflation stays at 2.8% as slowing food prices offset transport costs Business live – latest updates As soon as Iran choked off oil supplies through the strait of Hormuz at the start of March, there were dire warnings about rocketing UK inflation and the drastic action the Bank of England might take to rein it in. At one point, investors were expecting as many as three quarter-point rises in interest rates before the

Republican primary runoff voters chose US representative Mike Collins to face Ossoff in November January 6 defendants who assaulted police officers are pursuing legal claims for millions in compensation from the Trump administration using an obscure federal process with minimal oversight, but which offers the Trump administration a way to compensate those responsible for violence even after scrapping its “anti-weaponization fund”. The defendants are pursuing their claims using the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) , which allows individuals wronged by the government to file claims for monetary damages. The justice department has complete and unchecked discretion over whether to settle

Federal Tort Claims Act, over which DoJ has total discretion, provides workaround to Trump’s $1.8bn slush fund January 6 defendants who assaulted police officers are pursuing legal claims for millions in compensation from the Trump administration using an obscure federal process with minimal oversight, but which offers the Trump administration a way to compensate those responsible for violence even after scrapping its “anti-weaponization fund”. The defendants are pursuing their claims using the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) , which allows individuals wronged by the government to file claims for monetary damages. The justice department has complete and unchecked discretion over

Steven Mills and Tiffany Score reached an agreement with the biological parents of their child after fertility clinic’s mix-up A Florida couple who learned they had been given the wrong embryo after their newborn, Shea, appeared to be of a different race, will retain permanent custody of the child. Steven Mills and Tiffany Score reached a custody agreement with Shea’s biological parents – identified anonymously as Patient 004 – in a court filing last week from their lawsuit against the Florida clinic allegedly responsible for the embryo snafu. Continue reading...

The Louisiana musician has now been sentenced, having pleaded guilty to the charge in March The rapper Mystikal has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for third-degree rape. In March, the US musician born Michael Tyler pleaded guilty to the charge , having originally been charged with the more severe first-degree rape, along with simple robbery, domestic abuse battery and false imprisonment. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. With 55% of the vote counted in Georgia, NBC News projects Mike Collins will defeat former football coach Derek Dooley to win the Republican primary for the US Senate. Collins currently leads by 10 points, 55% to 45%. The Associated Press has not yet made a call, but NBC’s analysis is based on the fact that Collins is doing better than Dooley in the votes cast on election day, which tend to favor candidates, like Collins, endorsed by Donald Trump , who hates mail-in ballots almost as much as he hates windmills. Continue reading...

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...

US President Donald Trump threatened to slap a 100 per cent tariff on French wine and champagne unless Paris removes a digital services tax on tech firms, the New York Post reported on Monday. France imposed in 2019 a three per cent levy on the revenues earned by technology firms – including American giants such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google parent Alphabet – within the country’s borders. French President Emmanuel Macron is due to host Trump on Monday before the G7 summit gets underway...

Britain will ban children under 16 from using a range of social media apps including Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube to protect young people from harmful content and excessive screen time, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday. Starmer told a news conference that he will fight back if technology companies resist the move, and acknowledged some teens would try to find their way around a ban. But he said he is “not prepared to compromise on the safety and happiness of our children”. “Every...

The United States and Iran are set to sign an interim peace deal on Friday that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and potentially end a nearly four-month-long conflict that has killed thousands and upended the global economy. “The deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” US President Donald Trump said on social media on Sunday, which was also his 80th birthday. “I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz” along with the “immediate removal” of the US...

The stepson of Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon was found guilty of two counts of rape, one count of domestic violence and other crimes and sentenced to four years in prison, after a seven-week trial that has further dented the royal family’s once picture-perfect image. Oslo District Court ruled that 29-year-old Marius Borg Hoiby, who joined the royal family when ‌his mother Mette-Marit married Haakon in 2001, was guilty of two counts of rape including one in the basement of the crown prince’s...

A 21-year-old woman who died in dramatic fashion, when two rope jumping instructors threw her from a bridge without first harnessing her to security equipment, was buried on Sunday in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state. Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas was going rope jumping on Saturday at Ponte do Esqueleto, an abandoned bridge in the municipality of Limeira where tourists practice extreme sports. The young woman, who aspired to become a physical education teacher, had asked to be launched from the...

Small businesses say relentless pressures from tariffs and higher energy prices have sapped their resilience and finances.

The U.S. central bank is widely expected to hold interest rates steady at Kevin M. Warsh’s first meeting as chairman.

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

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

President Trump is under pressure to significantly improve upon the Obama-era deal in order to justify the huge human and economic cost of taking the United States to war.

Amid the war with Iran, Bahrain has stripped 69 people of their citizenship, including children, accusing them of disloyalty and rendering them stateless.

Five stories show the hurdles that people with psychological diagnoses face when considering parenthood.

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.

Four Times journalists talk about their investigation into Epstein’s final weeks in jail and the unanswered questions that their reporting tackles.

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.

Eager to keep capital within its borders, China is restricting the ways individuals can engage with global markets.

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

The major A.I. companies keep telling us how dangerous their new models can be, yet they must keep on building them.

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

President Trump “promised he would drain the swamp,” Jimmy Kimmel said. “Instead, he spent 14 million of our dollars building a new one.”

For an upcoming story, we want fans to talk to us about the journey they have been on with Swift through the years and how they feel about her big day.

The plane’s crew reported mechanical problems and low fuel as they flew to Austin, Texas, from Mexico. Five of the six people on board survived the crash in Laredo.