Minimalist News

New Report Exposes Climate Litigants' Campaign To Influence The Judiciary Authored by Michael Toth via RealClearEnergy , Thousands of judges across the nation have sat through climate-science training and received literature from trusted federal bodies and scientific institutes. Those judges had every right to expect that the information they received was neutral, objective, settled science. They were mistaken. My latest research paper presents the first full taxonomy of a coordinated, multi-year campaign designed to shape how the American judiciary understands climate litigation. It documents how the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) built an extensive educational apparatus to train judges on climate

The Fauci Diary Entry That Explains Why MAHA Must Exist Authored by Peter Navarro via The Epoch Times , I fought Anthony Fauci across a White House table over the China travel ban, lockdowns, masks, hydroxychloroquine, vaccines, and boosters. Yet one of the most damning pieces of evidence I have ever seen against the man did not surface until six years later, when Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released Fauci's private pandemic diary. It is an entry dated Aug. 15, 2021. The Biden White House was preparing to roll out a broad COVID booster campaign. Behind closed doors, Fauci knew there

Trump Rejects AI "Pause" As Obama Urges Democrats To Regulate It Update (1455ET): President Trump and former President Obama have now weighed in on the 'pause' - with Trump calling for full steam ahead , and Obama endorsing the pause so the government can regulate AI (good luck with that). From the Irish Open in Doonbeg on Sunday, Trump dismissed Saturday's "pace the frontier" pile-on from Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk. Asked whether the industry should slow down or take more regulation, he said the United States is "leading China in AI," that " whoever wins AI, wins

Anthropic's AI Warning To Weigh On Stocks As Contracts Traded On Hyperliquid Slide Coordinated calls by the top AI execs, including Dario Amodei, Sam Altman and even Elon Musk, to slow development of the technology are likely to weigh on chipmaker and supply-chain stocks in the near term, Bloomberg reports, but will probably have limited long-term impact as spending on computing infrastructure remains strong, market watchers say, at least until the bond market cracks and credits refuse to fund the ROIC-free black hole that is the AI capex tsunami. Semiconductor makers and other artificial intelligence-linked stocks may bear the brunt

Warsh Faces An "Incredibly Difficult Dilemma" This Week By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities Never Forgotten! And Some Work Stuff… The 25th anniversary of 9/11 hit hard. What a scary day! What a scary time. I only attended a couple of funerals, but will never forget the last moments of some people who I had done business and hung out with for years. The funerals were cathartic. The whole experience even 25 years later seems surreal, at best. I will never forget walking through Central Park to avoid Grand Central (as a potential target). Then finally, standing around a TV

If Dems Win The House: Data Centers, Nuclear, Venezuela Oil Deal Likely Targets With polling favoring Democrats to win a House majority in the fall and two months till US midterms Nov. 3 ( where BofA's Michael Hartnett expects a market rout in case of a Democratic sweep ), Dems have begun to preview priorities should they win back the gavel. Earlier this week, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who won a crowded primary in August for Florida’s 20th congressional district, vowed if re-elected to help Democrats block Trump’s agreement over Venezuelan oil production. Lobbyists are already beginning prepwork in

Don't Raise Rates Based On A PCE That Will Be Re-Written September 30th Authored by Richard Roberts via RealClearMarkets , The Federal Open Market Committee votes on interest rates September 16. Two weeks later, on September 30, the Bureau of Economic Analysis will revise the PCE price index, the inflation measure the Fed targets, back to 2021 and publish the August reading in the same release. Governor Christopher Waller has already said which way one of the changes is expected to go. On September 3 he said the change in the way the Commerce Department measures fees paid to stock-market

Trump Admin Weighs Emergency Powers To Boost Refining As Diesel Tops $6 With national average diesel prices above $6 a gallon and regular gasoline firmly above $4.20, the Trump administration faces mounting pressure to deploy every available policy tool to contain fuel costs ahead of the midterm elections. Disruptions tied to the Russia-Ukraine war and turmoil in the Gulf are intensifying the global refining super squeeze. Reuters reports late Friday afternoon that the Trump administration is considering whether to use the Defense Production Act to expand U.S. oil refining capacity as the Iran conflict drives up fuel prices. According to

"I Ain't Playin'": Cognizant, Cloudera PERM Filings And H-1B Processing Suspended Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times , The Labor Department's inspector general said Tuesday that federal officials have suspended PERM filings for tech company Cognizant and software company Cloudera and halted H-1B processing for both firms. The logo of U.S. multinational information technology consulting and outsourcing company Cognizant in the Alpine resort of Davos during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting on Jan. 20, 2026. Ina Fassender/AFP via Getty Images Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito posted the announcements on X throughout the day on Sept. 8. He

Yemen Blame Game Begins: "Saudi-American F**k Up Of Epic Proportions" An official affiliated with Saudi-backed militias in Yemen told CNN that the Houthis " committed everything they had – waves upon waves of fighters ... along with their available ballistic missiles and weapons." "But the air support never came," the source said in reference to the fact that the Saudi-backed side rapidly folded and retreated in just days last week. "And Mocha has now fallen." The blame game has begun after a mere 36 hours has seen the Saudi coalition fracture on the ground, and the finger-pointing is likely to

Attack Drone Hits Warsaw-Bound Passenger Train Near Polish Border, Raising NATO Spillover Risk Western media outlets reported early Sunday that a Russian attack drone struck a civilian locomotive on the Kiev-to-Warsaw route just two kilometers from Poland's border . Whether a false-flag operation or an actual Russian strike, the incident suggests mounting spillover risks near NATO territory ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter. 🚨 BREAKING: Russian drone targeted a passenger train on the border with Poland. "Russian barbarians are at your gate, dear partners. Act now: throw the full weight of your sanctions at Putin’s aggressive regime," Ukrainian Foreign Minister

"Not Entirely Satisfied": German Foreign Minister Grumbles That Ukraine Isn't Buying Enough German Guns Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack , The more upset that his taxpayers become with their country's lack of tangible returns from the billions of euros that it's given to Ukraine, the more that support for the AfD is expected to surge... German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul complained that Ukraine isn't buying enough German guns. He told Bild, "We are now Ukraine's strongest supporter in terms of financial and military assistance. And naturally, the German defense industry should benefit from this. I told President Zelenskyy this

Long-Term US Unemployment Rate Creeps Up To 27% Despite Blockbuster August Hiring Despite the recent blockbuster August jobs report, the anemic pace of hiring in prior months has been exacerbating challenges for long-term unemployed Americans , new research from the Richmond Federal Reserve finds. The long-term unemployment rate - those who are out of work for 27 weeks or longer as a share of the total unemployed - has been steadily climbing since early 2023. Of all unemployed Americans in August, more than one-quarter (27 percent), or 1.93 million, had been out of work for a prolonged period , according

Anthropic Bans Israeli Account Over Iran, Gulf Social Media Citizen Profiling Via The Cradle , An operation run by or on behalf of the Israeli-Singaporean commercial intelligence vendor S2T Unlocking Cyberspace used Claude models to map, classify, and profile social media users across Iran and the Persian Gulf, according to a threat intelligence report published by Anthropic on 11 September. (Photo credit: AP / Vahid Salemi) The platform recorded the locations of users, sorted them as supporters or opponents of their governments, and grouped populations into six demographic categories covering urban, clerical, military, youth, diaspora, and rural. Its output was

"Something's Going To Happen": DHS Chief Says Lefty Ilhan Omar "Married Her Brother", Floats Deportation Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said "something's going to happen" in an ongoing investigation involving unhinged leftist Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), speaking with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas. Mullin said that Omar married her brother as part of an immigration-fraud scheme and raised the prospect of deportation. " Something's going to happen. This is an ongoing investigation. We know that she married her brother to try to bring him into the United States. We know he lives now in

Hey, Germany... It's Legitimate To Limit Immigration Authored by Michael Barone via The Epoch Times , Just weeks after far-left candidates have won surprising victories in Democratic primaries in Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, Colorado, and New York City for the Senate and House in the United States, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has won a widely predicted victory in the election last Sunday for the legislature of Sachsen-Anhalt, one of Germany's 16 federal states. Most Democratic officeholders have rallied around their far-left nominees even as the Democratic Socialists of America national platform calls for abolishing police, prisons, and immigration enforcement

How Romania Came To Host A Post-9/11 CIA Black Site & Got US Cash Bonanza Via Middle East Eye Ammar al-Baluchi remembers the cold most of all. Held nearly naked in a cell lit around the clock by fluorescent bulbs, he referred to his detention "as if I was living in a refrigerator". The nephew of self-declared 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Baluchi was one of six to a dozen men believed to be held and tortured in a secret CIA prison in Bucharest between 2003 and 2005. The treatment of detainees at the facility, formally known as "Detention Site

Florida's Attorney General Sues Netflix For Allegedly Harvesting, Selling Children's Data Florida's attorney general sued Netflix on Sept. 9 claiming the streaming giant collected data on its youngest viewers and added addictive features to the platform after promising not to . An aerial view of Netflix studios, with the Hollywood sign in the distance in Los Angeles on Dec. 5, 2025. Mario Tama/Getty Images Attorney General James Uthmeier is seeking billions in damages from the company and asked the judge to order Netflix to stop its alleged deceptive practices. "Parents were told kids' profiles were a child's own space -

Making The World Great One Nation At A Time Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker , What we call "globalism" has been on the march for eighty years. A system that embraces centralized markets, bureaucratic regulation, international institutions, and so-called non-governmental organizations (predominantly funded by governments), globalism places significant power in the hands of a small collection of wealthy and powerful stakeholders from the planet's top investment houses, corporations, law firms, universities, central banks, and government bodies. Globalism speaks in the language of "democracy" while ignoring - or even criminalizing - the will of the people. Across the West,

West Virginia Joins Nuclear Campus Race With Waste Storage In Focus West Virginia’s Governor Patrick Morrisey announced that the state had signed a memorandum of understanding with the DOE, joining Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah as the sixth contender for a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus (NLIC). West Virginia’s energy future will cover all the bases! 🔌 “You’ve heard me talk a lot about coal. You’ve heard we talk a lot about gas. And I said, just you wait, nuclear is coming.” —Gov. @MorriseyWV pic.twitter.com/J4LkLT8wmW — West Virginia Prosperity Group (@wvprosperity) September 9, 2026 The state was not included on

Canadian PM Mark Carney hosts president in Calgary, where he grew up alongside large Ukrainian community Canada offered support on Thursday to boost Ukraine’s air defenses and help replenish its drone stocks, as the countries pledged to deepen their alliance during a visit by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Mark Carney hosted the president of Ukraine in Calgary in the western province of Alberta, where the Canadian prime minister grew up among a large community of people with Ukrainian heritage. Continue reading...

Rubio visits Ecuador and welcomes cooperation after campaign of unilateral strikes on alleged ‘narco-terrorists’ The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, gave new clarity on the approach toward combating drug trafficking in Latin American waters, saying the Trump administration was focused on working with allied countries and aligning with their laws but insisted the military would “still blow up ships if need be”. The public acknowledgment of a shift in US strategy comes a year after Washington began a campaign of unilateral deadly strikes against those it calls “narco-terrorists” operating boats in international waters. Continue reading...

Trump administration to seek extra funding from Congress to ‘dismantle’ Los Tiguerones over narcotics trafficking The US has designated Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones gang, which stormed a television station during a live broadcast in 2024, as a terrorist organisation as the Trump administration expands its campaign against narcotics traffickers it says are destabilising Latin America. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made the announcement in Quito, where he met Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa, one of several rightwing allies of Donald Trump whom Rubio is courting as a security partner during a three-nation tour through Latin America that began on Tuesday.

Andrew Frederick’s body was found in property he was staying at in Grenada in January The family of a British father who was found dead in the Caribbean in January is urging authorities in Grenada to work with UK police to uncover the truth about his death. Andrew Frederick’s body was found in the property he was staying at in Grenada on 4 January. An autopsy, performed in the same week by a privately hired pathologist, concluded that the 47-year-old’s death was a homicide. Continue reading...

Three men are on trial over the death of brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their friend, US citizen Jack Carter Rhoad, in Ensenada The father of two Australian surfers killed in Mexico two years ago testified in court on Tuesday that his life had been turned into hell, as the high-profile trial continued into its second day. Three men are charged in the killing of Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33, respectively, and their 30-year-old American friend Jack Carter Rhoad, who were on a surfing trip to Mexico’s Pacific coast in April 2024. Continue reading...

Search and rescue agency says 107 people brought to safety from vessel hit by bad weather in Java Sea Rescue workers in Indonesia said at least six people had died and 130 others were missing on Sunday after a ferry sailing between the islands of Java and Borneo capsized in bad weather. Basarnas, Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, said 107 people had been rescued from the Virgo ⁠Transport 8 vessel, which set sail on Saturday with 243 ​people onboard, including 30 crew members, ​from ‌the East Java ‌city of Surabaya. Continue reading...

Prime minister’s office tells families of those missing ‘the nation stands with you’ as search and rescue efforts continue One person has died and more than 30 are missing after a ferry sank off the coast of Vanuatu, the country’s government says. The vessel, MV Matui, had set sail with more than 40 passengers and crew on Friday from the island of Santo to Ambae island in very rough seas, but did not arrive. Continue reading...

Chinese president’s arrival in Delhi seen as step towards reconciliation after deadly 2020 military clash The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has received a red-carpet welcome in India for a summit of Brics developing nations, as regional rivals Beijing and Delhi make a public display of thawing relations while quietly competing to lead at a time of shaky US global dominance. As Xi stepped off the plane, he was walked past an honour guard of Indian soldiers and traditional dancers in colourful dresses. Later on Saturday, he was due to attend a gala dinner for the two-day summit. Continue reading...

The deadly fire had begun in the ferry’s cargo hold, then tore through the ship within seconds The bodies of passengers killed in a ferry fire off the Philippines arrived at a port near the resort town of Coron, Palawan, on Saturday morning, as the country’s coast guard warned the death toll of 35 would grow. Tents were being set up to receive 30 bodies brought from the M/V June Aster, which ran aground near the tourist hotspot after a fire erupted on Wednesday evening and tore through the vessel “in seconds”. Continue reading...

Phra Wachirayan Wi arrested alongside woman he was filmed having sex with in latest scandal to hit country’s clergy Police in Thailand have arrested a senior Buddhist monk on suspicion of embezzling $2.8m intended for his monastery, alongside a suspected female accomplice he was filmed having sex with. The case is the latest scandal to hit the clergy in the Buddhist-majority country, after a sex and extortion case involving senior monks last year prompted public outrage and calls for greater scrutiny of temple finances. Continue reading...

Follow the day’s news live Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Hanson’s comments on Albanese’s mother ‘gratuitous and unnecessary’: Hume Jane Hume has joined the pile on, blasting Pauline Hanson for her comments about Anthony Albanese’s mother. I think that these comments were gratuitous and unnecessary. And the idea that you would disparage people that have grown up in social housing, I think, is a little distasteful. I mean, it doubles down on the fact that Senator Hanson has also disrespected our veteran community with her atrocious comments about Andrew Hastie in that cartoon.

The currency has now reached its highest level against the US and Australian dollars in six months Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast In the unpredictable world of global currency markets, there has been one safe bet: that the Japanese yen would continue its relentless decline. In recent weeks, that trade has started to unravel after Tokyo and Washington intervened to support the longsuffering Japanese currency. Continue reading...

‘Red lines’ legislation would forbid defence equipment technology or services being used, includes parts for F-35 fighter jets Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Crossbench MPs including David Pocock and Sophie Scamps will put pressure on the Albanese government to ban Australian goods from being used by the Israeli military – including for F-35 fighter jets – by introducing a bill designed to force it to adhere to international obligations. The group’s “red lines” legislation, to be presented on Monday, would outlaw defence equipment, technology or services being used where they could breach Australia’s

Exclusive: New details underscoring depth of relationship between billionaire and party revealed in first episode of Guardian podcast The Populist Listen to the Guardian’s podcast The Populist here Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce stayed overnight at Gina Rinehart’s $20m Brisbane mansion after fundraising events held for One Nation, Guardian Australia can reveal. On one occasion, Joyce conducted a live television interview with Channel Seven’s Sunrise program from a room that appears to be a bedroom in Rinehart’s home. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue

South Australian authorities say case discovered on Kangaroo Island is first for species of which less than 12,000 animals remain Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast South Australia has recorded the first death of an endangered Australian sea lion from H5 bird flu. Experts say about 12,000 Australian sea lions remain – though a more recent estimate put the figure at less than 10,000. Most of the population are found in South Australia, with the remainder in Western Australia. Continue reading...

Projection taking in latest results has opposition bloc on 175 seats and the government parties on 174 Swedish election – full report If you’re looking just for a single story to quickly catch up on the story of tonight, let’s cross to our Nordic correspondent, Miranda Bryant , for her preview. The prospect of far-right anti-immigration Sweden Democrats entering the government has understandably attracted a lot of international attention, particularly coming just days after the Alternative für Deutschland won the regional elections in Saxony Anhalt in Germany. Continue reading...

Though early exit polls suggested a new left-leaning government, later forecasts suggest an incredibly close race Sweden general election – live updates Sweden’s left and right parties appeared to be heading for deadlock on Sunday night with the majority of the votes counted. Earlier in the night, exit polls suggested that the country was on course for a brand new left-leaning government. But later forecasts showed it likely to be an incredibly close race, with just one seat’s difference between the two blocs. Continue reading...

US president brushes off Andy Burnham’s opposition to referendum and says he will remove Irish whiskey tariff Donald Trump has reiterated his support for Irish unification and brushed off Andy Burnham’s opposition to a referendum. “Everybody says that. Then things happen,” the US president said on Sunday of the British prime minister’s response. Continue reading...

Ukrainian Railways says former British PM and David Petraeus crossed into Poland shortly before drone attack near border A train carrying Boris Johnson and the former CIA chief David Petraeus may have been the target of a Russian drone strike that hit a train engine near the Poland-Ukraine border, according to Ukrainian Railways. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, described the attack as “Putin’s terror knocking directly on the doors of the EU and Nato”. Continue reading...

Key government meeting this month will consider US bid to try James ‘Fergie’ Chambers over alleged support for Hamas Attorneys for James “Fergie” Chambers, the US citizen and wealthy donor to leftwing and humanitarian projects worldwide who is currently imprisoned in Madrid and sought in extradition, have submitted a brief ahead of a decisive government meeting on the case. Meanwhile, Chambers’ partner, the actor and activist Stella Schnabel, met last week with multiple members of the Spanish parliament to assert his innocence. Continue reading...

Woman’s family says she died of injuries after being shot in the head while sitting inside a tent near Khan Younis A pregnant Palestinian woman died on Saturday from injuries sustained after being shot in the head by Israeli forces south of Khan Younis, according to her family and medical workers, as strikes across Gaza killed at least 10 people in 48 hours. The woman, named as Iman Shalouf, 27, who was nearly eight months pregnant, was sitting inside her family’s tent in the al-Mawasi area when Israeli gunfire struck her, according to paramedics and witnesses. Continue reading...

Iran-allied Houthis say drones and missiles used in attack that targeted ‘weapons depots and command and control centres’ in southern Saudi Arabia Houthi fighters have said they used drones and missiles to attack a military base in southern Saudi Arabia, as Yemen’s Riyadh-backed government described the rebels’ swift advance along the Red Sea coast as a “painful” development in a new front in the Iran war. The UN said on Sunday that nearly 86,000 people had fled Yemen, most of them since early September when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched a large-scale offensive that last week resulted in the capture

Riyadh has increased use of East-West pipeline since start of war on Iran to bypass closure of strait of Hormuz Saudi Arabia has shut down a critical oil pipeline, accusing militants in Iraq of launching drone attacks on the export route being used to bypass the lockdown of the strait of Hormuz. The world’s largest ⁠crude oil exporter has increased its use of the 745-mile (1,200km) pipeline running across the Arabian peninsula, which links Abqaiq, near the Gulf, to the port of Yanbu, on the Red Sea, since the US-Israeli war against Iran began. Continue reading...

Incident is latest to raise questions over Israel’s ability or willingness to stop violent settlers in occupied territory An Israeli soldier has shot a Palestinian man, wounding him in the leg, as settlers confronted villagers by grazing livestock on Palestinian-owned land in the town of Faqqua in the occupied West Bank. Witnesses said a group of settlers had entered the area with their livestock, prompting residents to try to stop them. Israeli forces then intervened and, according to men at the scene, opened fire at residents. One of them shot Qassem Hussam, a Palestinian man in his mid-30s, wounding him

Rampant Yemeni fighters take control of island in narrow point of Bab al-Mandab strait, which Saudi is relying on for oil exports Why the rapid Houthi advance matters and what’s at stake Yemen’s rampant Houthi forces have captured the strategic island of Perim in the Bab al-Mandab strait, expanding their control of the narrow waterway, one of the ​world’s vital shipping routes. The Iran-aligned Houthis took control of the volcanic island after forces allied to the UN-backed, Aden-based government left in the latest of a dramatic series of reverses along Yemen’s west coast in recent days, including the loss of

The presidential briefing documents were declassified on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks Several dozen presidential briefing documents declassified on Friday, the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks , detail intelligence that government officials had gathered about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida leading up to the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people and upended American national security . The documents illustrate security analysts’ tracking of Bin Laden’s movements and support system, as well as concerns about possible threats to US targets. They also detail officials’ understanding of his network in the United States and other countries, including

Following six years of talks, Pitt Rivers Museum will return body parts collected by British colonial administrators to north-east India Anthropologists and community leaders from Nagaland, a remote state in north-eastern India bordering Myanmar, have expressed joy and relief that human remains belonging to their ancestors that had been on display in a British museum for nearly a century are finally being returned. On Monday, the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford announced that 39 pieces of human remains – including parts of skulls, a finger and a piece of skin with hair – belonging to the Naga tribes, will be

India’s statistical system once commanded respect, and its data on economic and social indicators was considered rigorous – that appears to have eroded • Don’t get This is India delivered to your inbox? Sign up here There isn’t much that we Indians agree on these days. GDP numbers are no exception. Last week, India released glowing GDP numbers for the latest quarter – 7.8% growth – higher than the forecast 7% . It sparked a furore. Subhash Garg, a former finance secretary under Narendra Modi’s government and now a critic, reframed what Modi called a “herculean feat” as mere smoke

Foreign minister Shisir Khanal tells the Guardian the world’s biggest economies need to help Nepal, which contributes less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions Nepal is demanding $20m in climate compensation for the recent devastating floods, as a senior minister called on the world’s most polluting countries to “wake up” and accept shared responsibility for a disaster that led to the death or disappearance of more than 6,000 people. Scientists believe the climate crisis had a role to play in the floods , which were triggered when a melting glacier partially collapsed and set off a deadly landslide and

Chinese man at Trishuli hydropower project and Nepali woman in Nuwakot found 10 days into rescue operation Emergency responders have rescued a Chinese man and a Nepali woman in two separate operations as authorities continued to search for thousands of people missing 10 days after massive floods hit Nepal. The Nepali military said on Saturday a joint team comprising personnel from its army and South Korean disaster experts rescued the man from a 225-metre (740ft) tunnel in the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project, and that he was undergoing a health assessment. Pictures showed him being evacuated by helicopter after being carried

Kirsty McNeill reaffirms Labour’s 0.7% of GDP pledge and promises value for money to allay voter concerns The development minister, Kirsty McNeill, has declared herself “a huge believer in aid”, as she reaffirmed Labour’s manifesto pledge to return to a target of 0.7% of national income spending. McNeill, a former adviser to Gordon Brown and senior executive at Save the Children, declined to give any timetable, repeating the formula that the government would work towards the target “when fiscal circumstances allow”. Continue reading...

Prime minister vows to ‘reindustrialise Britain’ through new partnership with business The prime minister is to host business leaders, entrepreneurs and local mayors at Downing Street on Monday to pitch his government as a “partner for growth” that can offer a stable platform for investment and jobs in the UK. Ahead of the event, Andy Burnham said the country had “everything it needs to succeed”, including talented people and world-class universities, but requires “a culture shift in how Britain does business” if it is to unlock its full potential. Continue reading...

PM has so far declined to insert curbs on UK-based donors, despite £72m donations from billionaires to Reform UK Trade unions, MPs and donors have urged the government to look again at party funding rules, after Reform UK insisted £72m in donations from two crypto billionaires was within the law. Andy Burnham, a previous backer of caps on domestic donations, has so far declined to insert any curbs in the elections bill that would apply to UK-based donors. Continue reading...

Call for constitutional change in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales likely to challenge Burnham’s devolution agenda The first ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are to affirm their countries’ right to seek independence from the UK at a summit that is likely to challenge Andy Burnham’s devolution agenda. The Plaid Cymru leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Scottish National party leader, John Swinney, and the Sinn Féin vice-president, Michelle O’Neill, are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding at a landmark conference in Cardiff on Monday that will call on Westminster “to prepare, plan and facilitate constitutional change in Wales,

The man who once helped Richard ‘Dirty’ Desmond save a load of tax was wheeled out to face Laura Kuenssberg You wait years for one party donation of £36m and then two come along at once . Reform can hardly believe its luck. All hail the crypto billionaires. Tacky pale turquoise suits all round. And Nigel Farage won’t have to worry about spending any of his own money – if you can call the £5m freebie his own money – on his security. Nor do those champagne and oyster lunches to discuss loose change donations of £500k from people living

The 8ft statue, installed in Phoenix last week to mark one year since Kirk’s killing, was found painted red A newly unveiled statue of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk was vandalized at the Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona . The statue was found with red spray-paint. A nearby poster memorial in front of the statue was vandalized with red paint as well. Continue reading...

Police officer shared location of a woman with his relative who is accused of abusing woman A San Jose police officer was fired for using his department’s Flock license plate tracking system to share the location of a woman with the suspect accused of abusing her, Chief Paul Joseph told NBC Bay Area on Friday. The firing marks another in a growing number of cases of misuse of a controversial surveillance technology that has expanded rapidly over the last several years. Continue reading...

Disturbing and AI-generated versions of Dr Seuss character have been used to threaten schools and communities Schools and law enforcement authorities in the US are issuing warnings against a viral “Cat in the Hat” social media trend in which disturbing or AI-generated versions of the Dr Seuss character are used to threaten students, schools and communities. The latest warnings come as safety concerns increase and several teenagers have been arrested or charged over posts connected to the trend. Continue reading...

Vice-president wears religion on his sleeve but winding spiritual path could alienate evangelicals and Catholics US vice-president JD Vance has worn his religion on his sleeve since converting to Catholicism in 2019. He recently published a book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, and memorably met the late Pope Francis at the Vatican on Easter Sunday in 2025, a day before the pontiff died. But his religious identity could take on new weight as he positions himself for a presidential run in 2028, in which a successful campaign would make him only the third Catholic president in US history.

Jefferson county coroner says 40-year-old woman died on Saturday, while two infants died with disease in August A coroner in Pennsylvania announced the death of a 40-year-old woman associated with the state’s ongoing measles outbreak. The death appears to mark the third in the US state’s ongoing outbreak. Two previous deaths in the state were in infant children. In one case, the infant was born with a genetic defect that made her vulnerable to infection. The second infant child was infected with measles, and died of a ruptured spleen. Continue reading...

Ukraine’s state railway operator said top Western figures – including former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and ex-CIA director David Petraeus – were at a west Ukrainian railway station just before Russia struck a Warsaw-bound train there. “Shortly before the locomotive was hit at the Ukrainian-Polish border, a diplomatic train was at Yagodyn station,” Ukraine’s rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said in a statement. “There were, among others, security advisers from several EU member states and...

Canada’s Prime ⁠Minister Mark Carney wants a closer ⁠relationship with the European Union and is ⁠exploring whether his country could become an “associate member” of the bloc, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The EU, which has not been flexible about membership rules in the past, is open to the idea of granting Canada a yet-to-be-created status of associate membership, ‌the newspaper reported, citing unnamed officials both from the EU and Canada. Canada’s embassy in Brussels and...

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, a front runner in the French presidency race, signalled on Sunday that she would favour French citizens over foreigners, defending her long-held principle of “national priority”. Speaking seven months before France’s presidential polls, Le Pen, 58, said that under her presidency French people would “have priority in their own country”, regardless of their skin colour, religion, or origin. “We will guarantee all French citizens a natural and fair right, as is done...

Winston Churchill famously praised the resilience of the British people during the Blitz, describing the nightly bombings of London as a “cruel, wanton, indiscriminate” attempt by Adolf Hitler to break the spirit of a tough “island race”. He was not wrong about the toughness and courage of his fellow citizens. But as one of the United Kingdom’s greatest leaders and historical writers, he created a false impression of the uniqueness of the British wartime experience. Strategic bombing alone,...

Sweden’s ⁠centre-left opposition bloc is projected to win a ‌one-seat majority in Sunday’s vote for parliament, the election authority said. The ⁠bloc, headed by Social ‌Democrats Party leader Magdalena Andersson, ‌was expected to win ⁠175 ⁠seats in ‌the 349-seat parliament, the agency ‌projected based ‌on votes ‌from 4,853 ⁠of Sweden’s 6,312 election districts. The ⁠right-wing governing bloc was seen ‌winning ‌174 seats. The election, while unlikely to change the course of Sweden’s pro-Western...

For anyone who has spent time living in Canada, the country’s default posture towards its southern neighbour has long felt almost hard-coded: polite, deferential, almost allergic to confrontation. I saw this first-hand as a visiting scholar in the country in the early 1980s, when I met locals who embodied the national stereotype of moderation in all things. Canadians preferred compromise even when they had a right to push back, treating their far larger ally as a partner to be accommodated, not...

The head of Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation ⁠accused Ukraine on ⁠Sunday of attacking diesel fuel trucks, ⁠killing two Russian servicemen and deliberately jeopardising safety at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Alexei Likhachev said the attack took place on Friday and also resulted in injuries to other ‌Russian soldiers. The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors, was seized by Russian forces in the early weeks of the Ukraine war that broke...

The French UN mission said it regretted an online post criticising how the United States voted during a UN General Assembly meeting, with US officials saying on Saturday that Washington appreciated the statement. France’s permanent mission to the UN published the apology on Friday, saying it regretted a social media post criticising the US’ commitment to human rights. “France and the United States recently took different positions on a vote at the United Nations General Assembly. This difference...

A growing consumer push to buy Canadian and boycott US products is ⁠reshaping supermarket shelves in Canada, forcing grocers to improve country-of-origin labelling and secure new sources of supply. In Ontario, the president of independent grocer Vince’s Market, Giancarlo Trimarchi, turned to social media to show customers that most produce on the shelves of his stores is Canadian after receiving angry emails and comments about the grocer stocking US produce. A bitter trade war between the United...

Houthi fighters on Sunday said they used drones and missiles to attack a military base in southern Saudi Arabia as renewed fighting with Yemen’s government forces forced growing numbers of civilians to flee. The attack at the southern Sharurah base targeted “weapons depots and command and control centres that are managing the aggression against our nation and people”, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on social media. The date of the operation was not specified. Clashes have increased...

A campaign document belonging to Flavio Bolsonaro, the right-wing front-runner in the presidential election to be held in Brazil next month, offered Washington a rare earths supply chain designed to weaken China’s grip, local news site Amado Mundo reported on Saturday. Written in English and dated March 19, the 22-page presentation was drafted by Andre Marinho, a close Bolsonaro ally who presented the plan to the Rockbridge Network, a group of wealthy conservative donors founded by J.D. Vance in...

Celine Dion wept tears of joy on Saturday as she fulfilled her dream of returning to the stage after years battling a rare neurological disorder, with a sell-out concert in Paris. The 58-year-old French-Canadian singer appeared visibly moved as she opened her first full concert in six years with her 1990s French-language ballad “On ne change pas” (“One Doesn’t Change”), singing to a crowd of 30,000 enthralled fans that one newspaper said included US former first lady Michelle Obama. “These are,...

Danish filmmaker May el-Toukhy’s post-war drama Woman Unknown ⁠won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, with its star Mathilde Arcel also taking best actress honours in a rare double victory. El-Toukhy was the only woman directing a feature film in the main, 21-strong film line-up, a disparity that drew criticism during the festival and prompted renewed scrutiny of the barriers facing women in cinema. Set in the aftermath of World War II, Woman Unknown follows a housemaid...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Saturday called on artificial intelligence firms to slow down the development of the powerful technology, amid mounting worries over the risks of “superintelligent” computer systems. His comments came a few days after AI researcher Jacob Coxon, who left OpenAI to join Anthropic, decided to leave the industry, accusing both US companies of “gambling with our lives” in the race to develop models capable of self-improvement. OpenAI boss Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who...

Bulgaria is investigating the cause of a fire at a weapons storage facility operated by EMCO, including the possibility of sabotage and a link to a previous blaze at another of the company’s facilities in August, the interior minister said. No ‌injuries were reported in the fire, which broke out near the village of Tsareva Livada and lit up the night sky, according to videos broadcast locally. The incident came weeks after an explosion and fire at another EMCO weapons depot in western...

Cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne said on Saturday he had donated £36 million (US$49 million) to Britain’s anti-immigration Reform UK, matching an already record contribution to Nigel Farage’s party a day earlier as it prepares for the next election. The donation gives the veteran Brexit campaigner’s party £72 million from two donors in ‌less than 48 hours at a time when it is confronting allegations about irregularities in its funding, which it denies. The figure exceeds what...

Investigators suspect that a train derailment in northwest France which injured 44, one gravely, was the result of sabotage, a police source said on Saturday. A fragment of rail was found on the track, with the possibility of a malicious act being treated as the main line of inquiry as a result, the source said. Carrying 186 passengers, the train was running between the Normandy cities of Rouen and Caen when it derailed around 7.45pm local time on Friday close to Renault’s factory in the town of...

Syrian government plans to turn a former military airport in Damascus into a ⁠hub for private jets are raising alarm among rights groups and residents who say redevelopment could disturb suspected mass graves and override private land claims. Syria’s civil aviation authority said last week it was preparing to reclassify Mezzeh military airport for limited civilian use, focused on private and executive aviation, to complement Damascus International Airport. Rubble removal and infrastructure...

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would “love to see” a united Ireland, wading into a politically sensitive subject as he embarked on a two-day Irish visit that blurs the lines between his presidency and personal business interests. After meeting Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Dublin, Trump said reunification of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland – split for over a century – would be “a fantastic thing”. “The way I look at it, it’s going to happen eventually. It...

US health authorities on Friday declared the ⁠nation’s largest recorded cyclosporiasis outbreak ⁠over, after contaminated iceberg lettuce sickened thousands, though ⁠the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it was still investigating how the parasite entered the food supply. The outbreak, which federal investigators linked to lettuce from central Mexico sourced by Taylor Farms, prompted one of the largest food recalls in recent years and renewed scrutiny of food-safety controls for imported...

Standing in the town that sheltered thousands of stranded Americans after the September 11 attacks, former Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien marked the 25th anniversary on Friday with a pointed message for the US: “Never mistake our generosity for weakness.” The 92-year-old former leader, who was prime minister at the time of the attacks, drew a standing ovation after telling his “American friends” that Canadians might be tolerant and kind but “we bow to no one”. US Ambassador to Canada Pete...

Saudi Arabia has shut down its East-West pipeline after the vital oil conduit came under aerial attack in the widening Middle East war. The world’s largest crude oil exporter temporarily closed the pipeline after a drone attack that both Baghdad and Riyadh said had originated in Iraq, where Iranian-backed militias operate. Iraq dismissed a military commander on Saturday in response to the attack. The 1,200km (745-mile) pipeline running across the Arabian Peninsula had helped Saudi Arabia to...

A 15-year-old boy survived on top of an overturned skiff in Alaska’s frigid Bering Sea for roughly two days, losing his older brother and then his cousin to the ocean after the boat capsized while they were out fishing. The teen, identified by a relative as Derek Parker Aghnaanga, was finally hoisted to safety Monday by a fishing boat near St Lawrence Island – a remote Alaskan island closer to Russia than it is to the US. The bodies of his cousin and brother were also recovered. The cousin had...

Twenty-five years ⁠after the deadliest attack on US soil, Americans paused on Friday to commemorate the nearly 3,000 people killed when hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania – and to wrestle with the consequences of September 11 that reverberate to this day. In New York, family members of the victims, many carrying pictures of their loved ones, joined Vice-President J.D. Vance and four former US presidents at ground zero in Lower...

Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the leading right-wing challenger to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in next month’s election, is under investigation for alleged corruption and money laundering tied to failed lender Banco Master, according to court documents unsealed on Friday. The probe into the senator, the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, was opened in July by Supreme Court Justice Andre Mendonca, a Bolsonaro appointee who has recently been hailed ‌as a hero by many on...

Sweden’s party leaders campaigned on Friday in the final stretch of a close election race that could see either the centre left take back power or the far-right enter government for the first time. Outgoing Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson was hoping for a renewed mandate to “make Sweden great again”, he told Agence France-Presse on the sidelines of a campaign rally, in a nod to US President Donald Trump’s catchphrase. While Europe is dominated by right-wing governments, opinion polls in Sweden...

UK lawmakers on Friday voted down legislation to allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales to choose to end their lives. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was opposed by 286 members of parliament, while 270 voted for it. The vote brings an end to a two-year debate in parliament about assisted dying. On two previous occasions in 2024 and 2025, the elected House of Commons had backed the bill, but it did not become law because it was effectively filibustered by unelected...

US consumer prices accelerated in August as the cost of petrol rebounded after two straight monthly declines, bolstering financial market expectations that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates next week. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.4 per cent last month after edging up 0.1 per cent in July, the Labour Department’s Bureau of Labour Statistics ‌said on Friday. In the 12 months through August, consumer inflation advanced 3.4 per cent after rising by the same margin in...

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis reached the strategic island of Perim in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Friday, four Yemeni government sources told Reuters, moving to tighten their grip on a vital global shipping route in the widening Middle East war. Earlier, two sources from the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised Yemeni government said its forces had pulled out of Perim and that the Houthis had also taken the mainland Red Sea coastal town of Dhubab, which faces the island. If the Houthis gain...

Emma Bonino’s life in politics began with a crime. In 1974, at a time when abortion was illegal in Italy, ⁠she travelled to a clandestine clinic in Florence ⁠to terminate an unplanned pregnancy. “Coming back by train at night, I ⁠decided that never, never, never again should anyone have to suffer this humiliation,” she later recalled. A year later, determined to drag abortion out of the shadows, she handed herself in to police, turning her private “offence” into a public act of defiance. The...

Turkey has unveiled plans to more than triple its defence spending over the next three years, driven by regional conflicts and a desire for a greater security footprint across Europe and the Middle East. Rather than ramping up its purchases from Western allies, Nato’s second-largest military power will direct most of its 229 per cent budget increase between 2027 and 2029 towards expanding domestic production. Announcing the plan on Sunday, Vice-President Cevdet Yilmaz said the aim was to ensure...

On September 1, former Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced that Alex Karp, CEO of artificial intelligence and data analytics firm Palantir Technologies, would become the lead investor in a new defence technology company he is building. This confirmed what Fedorov had only gestured at two days earlier in an interview with the Financial Times: that what he was selling investors was never really drones. In that interview, he also suggested he was ready to trade drone-warfare...

In the windswept village of Doonbeg on Ireland’s Atlantic coast, Donald Trump is less polarising US president and more golf resort owner credited with bringing jobs and money to a remote corner of the country. Trump arrives in Ireland on Saturday for a two-day visit, stopping for a few hours in Dublin before heading west to his Trump International Golf Links, where the Irish Open began Thursday. The tournament is set to draw up to 75,000 spectators to the links course, set among towering dunes...

In a cramped workshop near the front ⁠in northeastern Ukraine, military mechanic “Chimera” is helping prepare his unit’s robot forces for battle. Lined up in a row, the four-wheeled unmanned vehicles known as “Hyenas” will crawl towards Russian lines with their payload of explosives and attack an enemy dugout or halt an advance. Similar models have captured Russian prisoners, said Chimera, 44, who asked to be identified by his call sign. “Imagine what 20kg (44 pounds) of explosives is like: it’s...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Beijing tells Manila to ‘stop lying’ after minister exposes South China Sea note China has accused Philippine officials of “grandstanding and lying” after Manila’s defence secretary publicly read aloud a Chinese diplomat’s note on the...

Israel said Thursday it demolished key tunnels built by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group beneath the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, triggering a 4.1 magnitude tremor. Agence France-Presse journalists in the area heard several explosions. In a video shared by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, a huge fireball can be seen rising into the night sky. The explosion comes a few days after Israeli authorities claimed to have taken control of the Ali al-Taher ridge, saying that the...

A chilling new documentary about Israel’s AI-powered mass killing of civilians in Gaza from two Oscar-winning Israeli filmmakers received a 25-minute ovation at its premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday. The audience clapped continuously for Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor after the screening, setting what is thought to be a record in Venice after a 23-minute ovation for another film about Gaza last year. In their film NAZA, Abraham and Szor used conversations with 24 different Israeli...

This article was first published on September 12, 2001. America’s nightmare by Greg Torode in Washington President George W. Bush this morning (September 12, 2001) told the United States that thousands had lost their lives after two hijacked airliners destroyed New York’s World Trade Centre and another smashed into the Pentagon in the most brutal terrorist attacks in the nation’s history. Mr Bush, in a televised address to the nation, condemned the “despicable” attacks, saying: “These acts...

Police say five people have died and 40 others were injured after a Dutch tour bus slammed into a roadside crash barrier and overturned in eastern Switzerland. The bus, with 45 people on board, overturned Thursday afternoon in a construction zone between the villages of Susch and Zernez in the Alpine canton of Graubuenden. Seven rescue helicopters and 13 ambulance crews took part in the rush to evacuate the victims, police said. Three people remain in serious condition in hospital. Images from...

The “revenge dress” worn by the late Princess Diana in 1994 is up for auction at Sotheby’s for the first time in nearly three decades. The black silk evening dress by Greek designer Christina Stambolian is estimated to fetch as much as £220,000 (US$298,110) when it goes on sale on December 9 during Sotheby’s Luxury Week in New York, the auction house said on Thursday. Diana wore the dress in June 1994 as she arrived at the Serpentine Gallery in London for a fundraising dinner. It gained...

Venezuela’s former first lady wants to be let out of jail while she and her husband await trial on US drug-trafficking charges. Cilia Flores, the wife of ex-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, “deserves the opportunity to await her trial while on home confinement” while dealing with a heart condition that has only got worse since she has been in jail, her lawyers wrote in court papers filed on Wednesday. The lawyers, Mark Donnelly and Andres Sanchez, asked a judge to allow her to leave a...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks in Peru on Thursday on countering Beijing’s growing footprint around the strategic Chancay megaport, drawing a sharp response from China’s embassy in Lima, which defended its investments and took aim at Washington’s strict visa rules. Rubio met President Keiko Fujimori at the Government Palace, where she confirmed Peru would join the Shield of the Americas, a US-led coalition against organised crime. The Peruvian capital was the last stop of a...

The ocean looks like peace from afar and truth up close, they say. But beneath the waves, the map of the world’s oceans is far less settled than it looks. Today, dozens of sea borders remain unresolved. Like so many conflicts, they owe their origins to complicated questions of where one country’s territory ends, and another’s begins. Many involve overlapping claims to areas rich in resources; and a disproportionate number concern the waters of the Global South. Africa’s coastline is a stark...

The Swiss federal intelligence service on Thursday published a 200-page dossier on the notorious Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, the German doctor known as the “Angel of Death” for conducting horrific medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. During World War II, Mengele served at the Auschwitz extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, where about 1.1 million people were killed, around 1 million of them Jews. He became infamous for carrying out brutal medical experiments on inmates,...

Canada ⁠has agreed to a C$350 million (US$254 million) aid package for Kyiv to acquire air defence interceptors, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday, after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Kyiv is ‌running critically low on US-made Patriot interceptors capable of stopping Russia’s ballistic missiles at a time when Moscow is stepping up its attacks. “As Russia escalates its barbaric aerial warfare indiscriminately targeting civilian populations, Ukraine’s air defences are...

Talks between the United States and Iran hit a dead end weeks ago, leaving Arab countries struggling to manage their ties to Tehran amid ongoing attacks.

Mr. Paxton, the Texas attorney general now running for the U.S. Senate, was accused of abusing the power of his office to protect a campaign donor. He was acquitted on all counts.

The Democratic nominee for Senate faces strong headwinds in a decidedly Republican-leaning state. She has been a fighter, and an underdog, for years.

A man with a vision set out to revolutionize preschool. It became a $440 million fiasco.

A secret archaeological dig inside a Dutch church has led to drama worthy of Alexandre Dumas. Did Wim Dijkman really find the bones of the fourth musketeer? We may never know.

The demands of streaming, which is now how most viewers watch TV, are not suited to just plain old comedy.

On second thought, I’m not that hungry.

The case is the third reported death linked to a rapidly expanding outbreak that has sickened more than 670 people in the state.