Minimalist News

6 Things To Know As Iran Conflict Hits 1-Month Mark Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times, A month has passed since U.S. and Israeli forces jointly launched a surprise attack on Iran, delivering the opening blow in an ongoing effort the U.S. military has dubbed Operation Epic Fury. Iranian forces have since retaliated with attacks on targets across the region and spooked international trade. President Donald Trump has recently raised the prospect of a peace deal, but his administration is also preparing additional military options. Here’s where things stand after four weeks of fighting. IRANIAN MILITARY, INTELLIGENCE, AND POLITICAL LEADERS KILLED The opening U.S.-Israeli attacks

US Monitoring Surge In China's Detention Of Panama-Flagged Vessels Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission on March 26 accused China of detaining Panama-flagged vessels in response to Panama’s termination of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison’s concessions for two key ports. Panama’s Supreme Court ruled in late January that the concessions held by Panama Ports Company, a unit of CK Hutchison, for the Balboa and Cristobal terminals in the Panama Canal were unconstitutional. The ruling followed an audit by Panama’s comptroller, which alleged irregularities in the 25-year extension of the concession granted in 2021. Following the ruling, Panama named U.S.

The Weird Obsession With Flying First-Class Among America's Anti-Capitalists Whether it was the head of a left-wing nonprofit reportedly linked to a Marxist propaganda network connected to a China-based billionaire last week, or Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders on Friday afternoon, there was one common denominator among these "champagne" socialists: their obsession with living an affluent, elitist lifestyle, including flying first class. TMZ reported on Friday that the socialist Senator from Vermont was flying first class out of Reagan National Airport yesterday afternoon as the government shutdown drags on. > .@TMZ making sure you saw Democrat socialist Bernie Sanders living large on his first

Watch: Vance Says The Clock Is Ticking For Ilhan Omar Authored by Steve Watson via modernity.news, Vice President JD Vance has put Rep. Ilhan Omar squarely in the crosshairs, confirming the White House is actively exploring legal remedies to hold her accountable for immigration fraud. In a direct interview with Benny Johnson, Vance stated the Trump administration believes Omar broke the law to enter and remain in the United States - and they are not letting it slide. “So we actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America,” Vance said. “And I talked to [White House deputy

Secret Service Agent Assigned To Jill Biden Shoots Himself In The Leg At Philadelphia Airport Perhaps incompetence is contagious... A Secret Service agent tasked with protecting Jill Biden managed to become his own biggest threat, accidentally shooting himself in the leg at Philadelphia International Airport last week, according to Reuters. Thankfully, Biden wasn’t anywhere nearby, presumably because the universe decided one crisis at a time was enough. Photos: Daily Mail The report says that the incident, politely labeled a “negligent discharge” (bureaucratic code for oh sh*t), happened in an unmarked car just before 9 a.m. Other officers rushed in to help, and the agent was

Middle-Schoolers' "Let's Go Brandon" Sweatshirt Case Goes To Supreme Court Authored by Dave Huber via The College Fix, Lower courts have ruled school can ban wearing such apparel as ‘can reasonably be interpreted as profane’ The case of two Michigan middle-school brothers who were told to remove their hoodies emblazoned with the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The siblings are represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression which says the boys’ school violated their First Amendment rights. The phrase was popularized during a 2021 NASCAR event when a crowd was shouting “F*** Joe Biden!” but the NBC interviewer told

Debbie Dupes Dallas: Porn Legends Clone Themselves With AI To Keep Raking It In Long After Retiring Worn-out porn stars have found a fresh way to keep raking in the cash long after they've aged out of the business, according to a new report from WIRED. Joi.com OhChat, a British startup that lets adult creators clone themselves with AI, has inked deals with Lisa Ann and Cherie DeVille to license their likenesses on the platform, basically creating a digital version of them in every possible way that can churn out custom sex scenes for paying customers. Despite leaving the business in 2019, Lisa Ann

O'Reilly Exposes San Francisco As A Violent Third-World Drug Dystopia Infested By Illegals Authored by Steve Watson via modernity.news, Veteran commentator Bill O’Reilly just returned from filming a special in San Francisco — and the reality on the ground is far worse than most Americans understand. O’Reilly painted a stark picture of a city ruined by open borders, sanctuary laws, and Democrat leadership that refuses to enforce basic order. In raw footage shot inside the Tenderloin neighborhood - now a notorious open-air drug market - O’Reilly showed how the system itself perpetuates the collapse.  > Bill O’Reilly travels into San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, now a violent,

Alarming West Texas Oil Theft Emerges As National Security Threat Criminals are exploiting weak points across the West Texas oil production region, which accounts for 15% of the world's energy resources. This emerging wave of oil theft is burning a multi-billion-dollar hole in the budgets of oil and gas operators across the Permian Basin and is becoming a national security threat. Bloomberg reports that oil and gas producers are losing at least $1 billion, if not more, per year due to oilfield theft in what the outlet describes as something straight out of a "Mad Max" movie. At the center of the Permian

US 'Only Certain Of Having Destroyed A Third' Of Iran's Missiles Via Middle East Eye The US is only certain it has destroyed around a third of Iran's missiles, despite comments from President Donald Trump boasting of military success. According to five people familiar with the US intelligence who spoke to Reuters, the status of around another third is less clear. However, US-Israeli strikes have likely damaged, destroyed or buried those missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers.  Iran's drone capability has also likely been reduced by a third, another source said. The assessment, which comes one month after the beginning of the US-Israeli assault on Iran, suggests Tehran

'No Kings' Rallies Erupt Nationwide LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: * Crowds are described as “massive” in St. Paul, with live video showing thousands filling the capitol grounds and surrounding streets in cold weather. * Confirmed speakers at the St. Paul flagship event include Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Jane Fonda, Joan Baez, and singer Maggie Rogers. * Bruce Springsteen is scheduled to perform his January 2026 protest anthem “Streets of Minneapolis,” written after the fatal shootings of Minnesotans Renee Good and Alex Pretti during federal immigration enforcement operations earlier this year. * Parallel marches and rallies are

Why Is The Trump DOJ Still Enforcing The Biden Pistol Brace Rule? Via Gun Owners of America, The current Department of Justice is choosing to continue enforcing an unconstitutional legal theory being weaponized against gun owners by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. GOA According to a recent statement in GOA’s Texas et al. v. ATF case, DOJ claims that ATF “continue[s] to enforce the NFA’s and the GCA’s regulation of short-barreled rifles against some brace-equipped pistols, even though the Rule has been universally vacated.” For those who are unfamiliar, in 2022 the Biden Administration issued an executive order instructing the Department of

Fannie Mae Set To Accept Crypto As Collateral For Home Loans For First Time Fannie Mae, the giant government-backed mortgage securitizer, is preparing to accept cryptocurrency as collateral for home loans for the first time, marking a further step in the integration of digital assets into traditional U.S. housing finance, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mortgage lender Better Home & Finance Holding Co. and crypto exchange Coinbase are teaming up to allow home buyers to pledge Bitcoin or the USDC stablecoin to secure a down payment on a Fannie Mae-conforming mortgage. While crypto-backed mortgages have existed in limited forms, Fannie Mae’s involvement—through

How To Convert Your 401(k) Into A Reliable Monthly Paycheck Authored by Adam H. Douglas via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Yes, you can turn your 401(k) into a predictable monthly paycheck in retirement. The key is to move from the accumulation phase to a structured distribution strategy. Many retirees combine systematic withdrawals, dividend-producing investments, and guaranteed income sources such as annuities. Smart planning can turn your 401(k) balance into a predictable cash flow. Ladanifer/Shutterstock By balancing these tools and managing withdrawal rates carefully, you can convert a fluctuating retirement account balance into a steady income stream that helps cover monthly living expenses throughout

Hormuz Bypasses Maxed Out: Saudi East-West Pipeline Hits Record 7 MMb/d, As UAE Fujairah Crude Loadings Reach Capacity The ramp up in Saudi Arabia's Hormuz-bypassing East-West pipeline has been nothing short of remarkable. Two days after we reported that flow through the pipeline which crosses Saudi Arabia east to west for oil flows (hence the name) and is also known as the Abqaiq-Yanbu pipeline for nat gas flows had doubled from roughly 1.5 million before the war, today Bloomberg updates on the latest flow numbers and it now appears that the crucial East-West pipeline is pumping oil at its full capacity of

Audits Spotlight Unusual Trends In Medicaid Spending For Autism Care Authored by Sylvia Xu via The Epoch Times, One in 31 U.S. children has an autism diagnosis. Among Minnesota’s Somali community, that number jumps to one in 12. That discrepancy made headlines last fall when the Department of Justice charged a Somali woman with netting millions in fraudulent autism services. Now, state and federal investigators are putting autism spending in the spotlight. The September 2025 federal indictment alleged that a therapy center—run by 28-year-old Asha Farhan Hassan—recruited Somali children for an autism services program that was then reimbursed by Medicaid. The White House pointed to the

French Police Foil Overnight Terror Plot: Suspect Caught Trying To Ignite Bomb Outside BofA Headquarters In Paris French anti-terrorism authorities thwarted an attempted attack early Saturday morning when police arrested a suspect as he tried to ignite an explosive device directly in front of the Bank of America headquarters in Paris.  The incident unfolded around 3:25-3:30 a.m. when officers from the Paris police's BAC (Brigade Anti-Criminalité) unit, already on heightened patrol near the building due to prior threats, spotted the individual attempting to set fire to the device with a lighter. The device consisted of a 5-liter transparent jerrycan filled with an

Russia Warns Situation At Bushehr Nuclear Plant Deteriorating After 3rd Airstrike In Ten Days On Friday Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that Bushehr nuclear power plant was struck by US-Israeli attacks for the third time since the start of the war. At the same time, the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom has confirmed that the situation continues to deteriorate; however, there's as yet been no damage to the operating reactor and no release of radiation reported. It was the third strike in just ten days. The Kremlin has newly accused Washington and Israel of putting the whole region in danger, and

Maersk Slaps Emergency Fuel Surcharge As War Upends Marine Supply Chains Submitted by Michael Kern of OilPrice.com, The war in the Middle East has upended shipping fuel markets with prices of marine fuels skyrocketing and regions running low on supply, pushing some traders to forgo cargo and ship additional fuel volumes to key bunkering ports outside the Middle East. The price of fuel oil has surged this month as the stalled tanker traffic at the Strait of Hormuz is tightening supplies of the fuel in Asia, the key bunkering hub for fuel oil used in ships. The Middle East is a major global supplier

Apple Forces British iPhone Users To Prove Age With ID Or Lose Unrestricted Internet Access Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, UK iPhone and iPad owners updating to the latest iOS 26.4 are now confronted with a stark choice: verify you are an adult by providing a credit card or scanning your ID, or accept automatic web content filters that restrict access. The message users see states clearly: “UK law requires you to confirm you are an adult to change content restrictions.” Those who do not confirm their age – or are found to be underage – have web content filters turned on automatically.  > 🚨NEWS: UK

AI-generated footage depicts group of men performing a corrido, singing phrases including ‘return to your roots’ An AI-generated video from the US embassy in Mexico encouraging migrants to “self-deport” has sparked disbelief and outrage online. The video posted this week on official embassy social media accounts depicts a group of men wearing black caps and sporting tattoos performing a kind of traditional Mexican ballad known as a corrido. Continue reading...

Female named Rounder surrounded by family members when about to give birth to her second calf Scientists have managed to film a sperm whale giving birth while other female whales worked together to support the mother and her newborn. A team from Project Ceti, an international effort seeking to understand how whales communicate, was in a boat near a pod of 11 whales off the coast of the Caribbean island of Dominica on 8 July 2023. Continue reading...

Two convoy vessels that were supposed to get to Havana by Wednesday have made it to Cuba, says US Coast Guard Two sailing boats that went missing while carrying humanitarian aid to Cuba have safely reached the Caribbean island, the US Coast Guard said on Friday. Earlier in the day Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, had said his country would do everything it could to save the people on the two boats that disappeared while travelling to Cuba from Mexico. Continue reading...

Navy searching for two boats that left Isla Mujeres last week bound for Havana with nine crew members of different nationalities on board Mexico’s navy said on Thursday it had activated a search-and-rescue operation in the Caribbean to locate two sailboats carrying humanitarian aid to Cuba after the vessels failed to arrive in Havana as scheduled. In a statement, the navy said the two boats left Isla Mujeres, in the Mexican Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, last week bound for Havana with nine crew members of different nationalities on board. Continue reading...

Petition seeks accountability from Salvadorian authorities over human rights violations at notorious Cecot facility A group of 18 Venezuelan men whom the US expelled a notorious Salvadorian mega-prison are demanding that Salvadorian authorities be held internationally accountable for violation of human rights – detailing new allegations of torture, sexual assault and medical neglect. A new petition, filed on Thursday before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleges that El Salvador violated the human rights of these men, who were expelled to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) last year without charge. Continue reading...

Malcolm Turnbull asks defence department official what Australia would do if the promised Virginia-class and Aukus-class submarines don’t arrive * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Australia will be left with no submarines if it abandons the Aukus deal with the US and UK, a senior defence official has warned, declining to publicly countenance an alternative plan if Australia’s promised nuclear-powered fleet does not arrive under Australian command. “Defence has been directed to pursue Aukus and we are pursuing Aukus and that’s our plan. I would not

US president says he will host Chinese leader in a reciprocal visit later this year * Middle East crisis – live updates Donald Trump will meet Xi Jinping in May during the US president’s first visit to China in eight years, a closely watched trip that had been postponed due to the Iran war. Trump was initially slated to travel next week, but will now visit Beijing on 14 and 15 May, he wrote in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. Trump said he would host the Chinese leader in a reciprocal visit in Washington later this year. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Indonesia reports growing number of attempts by Chinese nationals to organise boat journeys, as Australian authorities refuse to reveal details * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The Australian government has refused to reveal how many Chinese nationals have arrived in Australia by boat since 2024, saying that disclosing the figure may harm relations with other countries. However, reports by Indonesian police show that there has been a consistent trend of Chinese nationals attempting to reach Australia through Indonesia as an alternative to “zouxian”, or “walking

UK urged to tackle transnational repression, as dissidents say Beijing has targeted them with tax bills and other threats “I didn’t feel safe, even though I’m not based in Hong Kong any more,” said Christopher Mung Siu-tat after getting tax bills from Hong Kong authorities. “The regime can reach me by their long arms wherever I am.” Siu-tat, the executive director at the Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor, a UK-based NGO, fled Beijing’s sweeping national security laws years ago. The letters are the latest example of a series of transnational repression (TNR) tactics the 54-year-old has faced in recent years. Continue reading...

President’s declaration allows officials to tackle fuel hoarding or profiteering, while energy secretary says country will lean more heavily on coal * Middle East crisis – live updates The Philippines president, Ferdinand Marcos, has declared a state of “national energy emergency” as a result of the Middle East war, which his administration said posed “an imminent danger of a critically low energy supply”. The state of emergency, which will initially last for a year, was declared just hours after the country’s energy secretary said the Philippines planned to boost the output of its coal-fired power plants to keep electricity costs down as

Critical Western Australia agriculture region counting cost of brutal cyclone as flooding risk persists for low-lying communities * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast An agricultural region that supplies about 60% of Western Australia’s fresh winter produce is assessing damage as authorities continue work on Sunday to restore power to a popular tourist town hit hard by Cyclone Narelle. The food-bowl region near Carnarvon, about 900km north of Perth, provides 80% of of the state’s bananas. Meanwhile, flooding risk remains in the state’s low-lying communities. Continue reading...

Moderate-backed Dinesh Gourisetty won nomination for upper house seat * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Moira Deeming has lost her spot on the ballot for the Victorian Liberal party at the November state election, after a successful challenge by a moderate-backed candidate. Liberal members gathered at party headquarters in Melbourne’s CBD on Sunday for the western metropolitan region convention, where Deeming was defeated by Dinesh Gourisetty, a prominent figure in Melbourne’s fast-growing Indian community. Continue reading...

Allan government says measure is temporary as energy shock from Middle East conflict sees petrol prices soar * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Public transport will be free in Victoria for a month and in Tasmania until July, in an effort to encourage people to switch from driving and to alleviate the surge in fuel demand. However, the NSW and Western Australian governments will not follow suit, with NSW’s transport minister saying it needs to “keep our powder dry” to deal with a crisis that may last much longer than a month. Continue reading...

A 26-year old man died in a cell in Darwin on Saturday morning, and a 25 year-old man died in a police car on Tuesday * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A 26-year-old man died at Darwin correctional centre on Saturday, Northern Territory police said. It was the territory’s second reported death in custody in just a matter of days. Continue reading...

Major gas infrastructure hit by outages as weather system continues south-east * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Zac Saber did not sleep a wink as ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle battered the Western Australian coast on Friday night. As fellow Exmouth locals took shelter in evacuation centres and homes, Saber spent the night listening to the sound of “super intense” winds rattling his walls. Continue reading...

Thieves made a break for 413,793 units of the company’s new F1 line bars which could cause shortage before Easter A large shipment of KitKat bars was stolen while in transit to distributors, a major candy crime right before the Easter holiday that could cause shortages for customers. The truck carrying 413,793 units of a “new chocolate range”, about 12 tons of chocolate bars, was pilfered while driving through Europe on 26 March, Agence France-Presse reported. Continue reading...

Survivors tell coastguard smugglers ordered victims to be thrown overboard after six days adrift in boat from Libya Two Sudanese men, believed by Greek authorities to have been behind a smuggling operation in which 22 people were “systematically” thrown overboard after succumbing to days without food or water at sea, have been ordered to appear before a local court on Crete. Accused of illegally trafficking scores of would-be migrants into the south-eastern European country from Libya, the duo were given 48 hours to prepare to testify before an investigating magistrate on Monday. Continue reading...

Incident in the city’s 8th arrondissement reportedly involved a homemade explosive device French police prevented an apparent bomb attack outside a US bank in Paris on Saturday when they arrested a man about to set off a homemade explosive device, officials and sources close to the case said. The incident occurred at about 3.30am (0230 GMT) in front of a Bank of America building in the city’s 8th arrondissement, a couple of streets away from the Champs-Élysées. Continue reading...

Prime minister is scrambling to clean up her government after youth vote powered a damaging referendum defeat Filippo Michelini was having a drink at San Calisto, a popular bar in Rome’s Trastevere neighbourhood on Wednesday night. As he chatted to his friends, Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government was reeling from a failed referendum, and her beleaguered tourism minister, Daniela Santanchè, had just resigned. Michelini, a 29-year-old computer scientist who lives in Brussels, was spending a few days in the Italian capital after returning home last weekend to cast his ballot in the plebiscite on judicial changes. Continue reading...

Decision to choose small, wealthy – but very Catholic – state for first European trip has baffled some Vatican observers Pope Leo will travel to Monaco, the semi-enclave famous for casinos and superyachts, on Saturday on his first European trip since being elected pontiff, causing bemusement among some Vatican observers, not least because it comes 488 years after the last papal visit. Leo will travel from the Vatican by helicopter for the one-day trip, and will be greeted at Monaco’s heliport by Prince Albert and his wife, Princess Charlene, before being taken to the palace, which has been the residence of the

Iranian state media publishes message from Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf marking 30 days since the start of the war Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has condemned Israel’s killing of three journalists in Lebanon on Saturday. On his Telegram, Araghchi said the killings amounted to “targeted assassination” and “flagrant violation of international law”. He said they were a way of silencing “the voices of those who tell the truth”. Continue reading...

Five months after a ceasefire was announced in Gaza, airstrikes are still killing civilians, and the humanitarian situation remains dire There is little left that connects Palestinians in Gaza with their prewar existence. The contours of life have become darker and far more brutal, as if the population has been stripped of its past. “Drones never stop buzzing overhead, gunfire and shelling continue almost daily and naval boats fire towards fishermen,” said 56-year-old Ahmed Baroud, a father of five displaced in Deir al-Balah. Continue reading...

Islamabad is attempting high-wire diplomacy between US and Iran, but Israel could spoil any chance of success Intensifying Israeli bombing of civilian targets in Iran and an expanding US military force in the Gulf are casting a dark shadow over Pakistan’s hopes of hosting peace talks between Iran and the US. Pakistan is attempting high-wire diplomacy, using its relative neutrality as a country with good relations with Iran and the US, to provide a venue for negotiations. It is not a player in the Middle East and does not host any American military bases, so it does not bring the baggage of

Escalation represents dangerous spread of war and brings threat of even more damage to the global economy * Middle East crisis – live updates * Parents of Iran school bombing victims describe their worst day The US-Israeli war with Iran has expanded with the entry of Houthi forces in Yemen, representing a dangerous spread of the conflict and bringing with it the threat of more damage to the global economy. Pakistan has said it would host a meeting of Middle Eastern powers on Monday in an effort to find a regional approach to ending the conflict. But the talks, which bring together

CNN team detained while reporting on aftermath of attack by settlers in West Bank, Foreign Press Association says * Middle East crisis – live updates An international media association has condemned what it described as a “violent assault” by Israeli soldiers who detained a CNN crew in the occupied West Bank this week. A CNN team was reporting on the aftermath of an assault by Israeli settlers and the establishment of an illegal outpost near the Palestinian village of Tayasir on Thursday when it was detained by Israeli soldiers, the Foreign Press Association said on Saturday. Continue reading...

At least 77 people killed in anti-corruption youth uprising in September, which began over a brief social media ban Nepal’s former prime minister KP Sharma Oli was arrested early on Saturday morning over his alleged role in the deaths of dozens of people who took part in the gen Z protest that toppled his government last year. Police detained the three-time former prime minister at his residence in the capital Kathmandu, and also arrested his former home affairs minister Ramesh Lekhak. Continue reading...

Balendra Shah, 35, is a symbol of change in country whose government was toppled last year in youth-led uprising Nepal’s rapper turned politician Balendra Shah, who is about to be sworn in as prime minister, has issued his first post-election message in the form of a rap urging unity. Hours before the release he swore an oath as a newly elected lawmaker, and he is due to become the Himalayan republic’s new prime minister on Friday. Continue reading...

Marco Rubio welcomes release of Dennis Coyle, who was detained in January last year for violating unspecified laws Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have released the American academic Dennis Coyle after holding him for over a year, with the foreign ministry saying the release came on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. A statement from the ministry said the academic researcher had been released in Kabul on Tuesday, following an appeal from his family and after Afghanistan’s supreme court “considered his previous imprisonment sufficient”. Continue reading...

From a shop owner in India to a community worker in New South Wales, rising fuel prices are forcing people to ration oil usage * Middle East crisis – live updates Alagesan, 35, needs liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to run his roadside drink and snack shop in Coimbatore, India, but with the fuel shortage since the US-Israel attacks on Iran, he worries his business could fold. “I am far away from the Middle East, but my life is affected,” he said. “The gas cylinder is not available because of the war. I don’t know what to do.” Continue reading...

At least 400 killed in Pakistan’s strike on drug rehab centre, Taliban say, with families searching unmarked mass graves Sohrab Faqiri spent Eid, the Muslim festival to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, looking for the grave of his brother, killed in a massive Pakistan airstrike on Kabul this week. Pakistan’s bombardment campaign, on what it says is terrorist and military infrastructure in neighbouring Afghanistan, appeared to have gone catastrophically wrong. A rehabilitation centre for drug addicts was hit on Monday night, according to the United Nations and the Afghan authorities. The UN’s preliminary death toll is 143 people,

Police say seven people sustained ‘range of serious but not life-threatening injuries’ in incident on Friar Gate A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a car struck several pedestrians on one of Derby’s busiest streets. Derbyshire police said seven people were injured, sustaining “a range of serious but not life-threatening injuries”, in the incident on Saturday night. The force said that “contrary to online speculation” there were no deaths. Continue reading...

Model posted picture of herself naked and pregnant, standing ‘in her full power’, to celebrate Mother’s Day It is a black-and-white photograph of a heavily pregnant Erin O’Connor touching her baby bump with an expression of maternal bliss on her face. For the 48-year-old model, who has worked for Dior, Versace, Alexander McQueen and Chanel, it conveys the “abundance of life being right there” under her fingertips when she was pregnant. But to Instagram it was merely a nude photo of a woman’s body. Continue reading...

Forthcoming rules mean debilitating conditions may not meet strict ‘severe and lifelong’ eligibility criteria, say disabled people’s organisations Hundreds of thousands of severely ill and disabled people making new claims will have their benefits cut if the government assesses that their condition might improve, charities have said. In April, the health element of universal credit – an extra payment for people assessed as too unwell to work or prepare for work – will be halved to £50 a week and frozen for new claimants unless their condition is found to be terminal or severe and lifelong with no prospect of improvement. Continue reading...

In his strongest intervention yet, PM says some features ‘shouldn’t be permitted’, while education secretary says things ‘are going to change’ Keir Starmer has backed banning addictive social media features in his strongest intervention yet on curbs that could be placed on tech companies, saying the features “shouldn’t be permitted”. The prime minister said the government was “going to have to act” on the algorithms that hook young people and children to social media, such as scrolling or “streaks” that encourage daily usage of apps. Continue reading...

Ban on junk food adverts has cut advertising spend and prompted a debate over the policy’s impact The UK will have its first Easter without the traditional barrage of TV ads for chocolate eggs and hot cross buns as the ban on junk food advertising makes the sweetest tradition of the year a sugar-free viewing experience. New regulations, which came into force at the beginning of the year, prohibit products high in fat, sugar and salt from appearing in TV ads before 9pm, as part of efforts to tackle rising childhood obesity. Continue reading...

Sara Ziff, founder of Model Alliance, said business leaders need to be hauled before House oversight committee A top modeling industry activist has called for business leaders to be hauled before lawmakers in Washington to investigate what role modeling agencies may have played in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking scandal. Sara Ziff is founder of the Model Alliance, a non-profit advocacy group calling for fair treatment, labor rights and safe working conditions for fashion industry workers. Continue reading...

This liveblog is now closed. Read the full story here. * No Kings protests to see millions across US push back on Trump administration * What to know about the third No Kings protests happening in March In the year since Donald Trump retook office, the number of protests in the US outpaced those at the same point in his first administration, according to data from the Crowd Counting Consortium, an open-source project collaboration between Harvard University’s Kennedy School and the University of Connecticut, reported Lex McMenamin and Andrew Witherspoon. There were more than 10,700 protests in 2025, a 133% increase from

Vice-president received about 53% of votes at Conservative Political Action Conference held in Texas this year One of the biggest conservative gatherings in the US ran a poll showing vice-president JD Vance is the top choice this year to be the next Republican presidential candidate. The poll from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), released on Saturday, was taken during this year’s gathering. About 53% of the more than 1,600 attendees who voted in the poll chose Vance, Reuters reports. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, came in second with 35%. Continue reading...

Anti-authoritarian rallies, taking place in all 50 states plus 16 countries, are expected to be biggest in US history Large crowds protested the Trump administration at more than 3,000 No Kings events nationwide, as well as in more than a dozen countries, on Saturday, according to a coalition of organizers that includes “anti-authoritarian” groups Indivisible and 50501, labor unions and other grassroots organizations. “I would expect March 28 to be the biggest protest in American history,” Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, said ahead of the protests. Continue reading...

Tolkan, known for portraying authoritarian figures, died ‘peacefully’ in Lake Placid, New York, his agent said James Tolkan, known for his roles as an authoritarian figure in the Back to the Future and Top Gun films, has died. He was 94. Tolkan died Thursday in Lake Placid, New York, where he lived, his booking agent, John Alcantar, said Saturday. A brief obituary published on the Back to the Future website said Tolkan died “peacefully”, but no cause of death was given. Continue reading...

A huge shipment of KitKat chocolate bars has been stolen in Europe, the brand said, warning that the heist risked causing shortages in stores right before Easter. KitKat, owned by Swiss food giant Nestlé, confirmed in a statement on Saturday that “a truck transporting 413,793 units of its new chocolate range has been stolen during transit in Europe”. The shipment, weighing around 12 tonnes (13.2 tons), disappeared last week while heading between production and distribution locations, it...

French police stopped an apparent bomb attack outside a US bank in Paris early on Saturday when they arrested a man about to set off a homemade explosive device, officials and sources close to the case said. The incident occurred around 3.30am in front of a Bank of America building in the chic 8th arrondissement, a couple of streets from the Champs-Elysees. Police grabbed the man just after he placed a device, made of five litres of liquid (1.3 gallons), believed to be fuel, and an ignition...

Huge crowds rallied on Saturday against US President Donald Trump from coast to coast, venting their fury over what they see as his authoritarian style of governing, his hardline immigration policies and the war with Iran. It is the third time in less than a year that Americans have taken to the streets as part of a grass-roots movement called “No Kings”, the most vocal and visual conduit for opposition to Trump since he began his second term in January 2025. Organisers say they expect millions...

The threat to employment posed by artificial intelligence was not a “robot apocalypse” that would steal jobs, but “algorithmic collusion” that could quietly erode wages and workplace safety, Ekkehard Ernst, the International Labour Organization’s chief macroeconomist, warned in Beijing on Tuesday. While public anxiety frequently centred on the potential for AI to trigger a mass wave of unemployment, Ernst said its disruptive potential had been overestimated. “I don’t think that we are anywhere...

The law of unintended consequences, a theory popularised by American sociologist Robert K Merton, has rarely been more applicable to any situation than to US President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. Those consequences will be far greater than generally imagined. Their impact will fall heavily on Asia, the world’s most energy-import-dependent region and will almost certainly hurt US ally Japan more than it will the US’ main rival, China. Indeed, China may even emerge from the crisis with an...

A month after the US and Israel launched the war with Iran, nothing seems to be going according to President Donald Trump’s plan for a conflict lasting four to six weeks. Despite the assassinations of most of the Islamic Republic’s political and military leaders, the regime shows no signs of collapse. Similarly, wave after wave of US and Israeli air strikes may have degraded Iran’s ballistic missile and drone capabilities, but they still look set to remain a potent threat to the region for the...

Pope Leo on Saturday denounced the widening gap between the haves and have-nots as he visited Monaco, a millionaires’ playground that is the surprise pick for the first Western European trip of his papacy. Arriving by helicopter from Rome, the Pope was greeted by Monaco’s ruler Prince Albert II and his wife Princess Charlene at Monte Carlo’s heliport under radiant sunshine. Just after his arrival at the tiny principality on the French Riviera, Leo condemned what he termed the widening “chasms...

Bank of America has agreed to pay US$72.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that the bank facilitated a sex-trafficking ring orchestrated by Jeffrey Epstein, court documents showed on Friday. Bank of America said separately that while it continued to deny supporting Epstein’s crimes, “this resolution allows us to put this matter behind us and provides further closure for the plaintiffs”. The suit, filed by an unidentified woman on behalf of herself and other alleged victims,...

US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Friday he believed Iran would hold talks with Washington “this week” as the US-Israeli war against Tehran entered its second month. The war began on February 28 when the United States and Israel launched air strikes across Iran, killing supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and sending shock waves across the globe. A month later the conflict showed no sign of ending, with US-Israeli strikes hitting two Iranian nuclear facilities on...

The way Stephen Selby tells it, Guiguzi (鬼谷子) sounds like the ancient Chinese version of Dale Carnegie’s enduring self-help book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Given its contents and message, it should have been a text for the ages. After all, whether ancient, modern, postmodern, Eastern or Western, many of us still need to kiss up to wayward bosses and stroke their egos if we want to advance our careers – not to mention ancient despots who could chop off your head for saying the...

Henry Lee, the famed forensic scientist who helped bring modern crime scene investigation into the public spotlight through his involvement in high-profile cases like the O.J. Simpson murder trial, has died. He was 87. Lee “passed away peacefully” on Friday at his home in Henderson, Nevada, following a brief illness, according to a statement from his family and the University of New Haven, where he taught for more than 50 years. Lee rose to fame after his testimony in Simpson’s 1995 trial, in...

An Iranian missile attack on Friday left at least 10 US service members wounded and damaged several planes at a military base in Saudi Arabia, according to two US officials familiar with the situation. The attack on Prince Sultan Air Base damaged several US refuelling aircraft, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters. One of the officials said two of the troops were seriously wounded. Satellite imagery that appeared to show the damage to the...

Amid turmoil in the Middle East, including the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil passes, Beijing is pressing ahead with its Zhuri (sun-chasing) project to build solar power stations in space. Chinese Academy of Engineering academician and senior rocket scientist Long Lehao likened this space-based solar power programme to putting the Three Gorges Dam into geostationary orbit, underscoring its extraordinary scale and ambition....

Tiger Woods was released on bail on Friday, hours after his Land Rover clipped a truck, rolled onto its side and the golfer was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, officials said. Christine Weiss, a spokeswoman for the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, said Woods, who was not injured in the crash, was released late on Friday. Florida law required that he spend at least eight hours in jail before he could post bail. Woods had been travelling at “high speeds” on a residential road...

China denied on Friday that it had intensified inspections of Panama-flagged vessels in retaliation for Panama’s decision to strip a Hong Kong-based conglomerate of port concessions at both ends of the Panama Canal, accusing Washington of seeking to seize control of the strategic waterway. During the daily press briefing at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, spokesman Lin Jian charged that the US had made “repeated wrongful allegations” about the inspections that exposed...

The astronaut who prompted Nasa’s first medical evacuation earlier this year said on Friday that doctors still do not know why he suddenly fell sick at the International Space Station. Four-time space flier Mike Fincke said he was eating dinner on January 7 after prepping for a spacewalk the next day when it happened. He could not talk and remembers no pain, but his anxious crewmates jumped into action after seeing him in distress and requested help from flight surgeons on the ground. “It was...

Two aid boats bound for Cuba that were feared missing after they set sail from Mexico have “safely transited” to the island, the US coastguard said on Friday. The Mexican Navy had reported on Thursday that it launched a search and rescue mission after losing communication with the vessels, which had left from Isla Mujeres in southeast Mexico on March 20 with nine people aboard. The US coastguard, which was not involved in the search efforts, said on Friday it had received a report at 10.36am...

A pro-Iranian hacking group claimed Friday to have hacked an account of FBI Director Kash Patel and has posted online what appear to be years-old photographs of him, along with a work résumé and other personal documents. Many of those records appeared to be more than a decade old. “Kash Patel, the current head of the FBI, who once saw his name displayed with pride on the agency’s headquarters, will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims,” said a message posted on Friday...

Vladimir Putin is expected to visit China soon after Donald Trump’s trip in May in a diplomatic double-header that would be the first time Beijing has hosted the leaders of the US and Russia in the same month outside a multilateral event. According to Chinese analysts, the back-to-back visits highlight Beijing’s strategic effort to manage relations with both major powers amid rising global turbulence. Trump’s long-planned trip to Beijing was expected to take place from May 14 to 15, the White...

China’s market regulator has told companies including electric vehicle maker BYD and battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) to compete healthily when expanding overseas, amid mounting accusations of unfair competition, subsidies and dumping levelled at Chinese companies in global markets. Chinese firms should standardise their competitive behaviour and “build a healthy competition ecosystem” in their overseas expansion, the State Administration for Market Regulation said in an...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Group of Seven counterparts traded barbs over the wars in Iran and Ukraine, casting doubt on Europe bowing to Donald Trump’s demand for military help in the Gulf. “The United States is constantly being asked to help in a war,” Rubio said referring to Ukraine, before taking off for the Friday conclusion of a G7 gathering outside Paris. “But when the US had a need, he didn’t get positive responses,” he added. The Europeans have rebuffed Trump’s bid for...

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Friday that they had turned back three ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz, adding the route was closed to vessels travelling to and from ports “belonging to allies and supporters of the Zionist-American enemies”. “This morning, following the lies of the corrupt US president claiming that the Strait of Hormuz was open, three container ships of different nationalities … were turned back after a warning from the IRGC Navy,” the Guards said on their...

Beyond oil, the Middle East conflict is fuelling fears of a shortage of helium – a by-product of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production that is critical for semiconductors, aerospace applications and high-end medical equipment. The medical sector is on alert, as magnetic resonance imaging machines depend on liquid helium to cool their superconducting magnets, and a supply crunch could jeopardise diagnostic services. A warning from Marc Johnson, a virologist and professor at the University of...

The deadly bombing of an Iranian school spurred “visceral horror”, the UN rights chief said Friday, urging Washington to conclude its investigation and demanding justice “for the terrible harm done”. Speaking at the start of an urgent debate in the UN Human Rights Council focused on the February 28 strike on an Iranian junior school in Minab on the first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran, Volker Turk said that “whatever differences countries have, we can all agree they will not be solved by...

Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Iran on Friday after US President Donald Trump claimed talks on ending the war were going well and gave Tehran more time to open the Strait of Hormuz, though there have been no signs of Iran backing down. With stock markets reeling and economic fallout from the war extending far beyond the Middle East, Trump is under growing pressure to end Iran’s chokehold on the strait, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is usually...

In these turbulent times, focusing on the World Trade Organization’s 14th ministerial conference (MC14) in Yaounde, Cameroon, is a bit like trying to focus on a picnic sitting alongside a bar brawl, or listening to a lesson in pruning bonsai while a lumberjack takes a chainsaw to a giant redwood. But try we must. Even if the deliverables are meagre and may take years to materialise, the symbolism of Yaounde points to a possible future very different from today’s chaotic hegemonic unilateralism –...

After eight years in the deep freeze, the European Parliament is sending an official delegation to China next week in the clearest sign yet that Beijing’s targeted lobbying blitz of its members is paying off. Seven members from the parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) will travel to Beijing and Shanghai alongside Engin Eroglu, head of its China delegation. They will meet officials, customs and port authorities, lawmakers and companies, including Shein and...

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. What if US ground forces march into Iran? Chinese experts weigh the risks Potential US ground operations against Iran might constrain Tehran, but the prospects for reopening the Strait of Hormuz were “highly uncertain”, Chinese...

Almost four weeks of unrelenting US and Israeli air strikes have severely weakened Tehran’s military, but what remains of its vast missile arsenal was being used more efficiently from hard-to-reach bases in eastern Iran. In the latest example, strikes last weekend against Israel injured more than 100. Targets included the city of Dimona, home to the country’s main nuclear research facility, and most likely involved Khorramshahr missiles, which have among the longest ranges and heaviest payloads...

The Mexican navy said on Thursday that it was searching for two boats transporting humanitarian aid for Cuba with nine crew of different nationalities on board. The vessels set sail last Friday from Isla Mujeres in Mexico’s southeastern state of Quintana Roo and were due to arrive in Havana on Tuesday or Wednesday this week, the navy said in a statement. It said that there had been neither “communication nor confirmation of their arrival” in Cuba and that it has alerted naval commanders in the...

Amid uncertainty over the timing of a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, the world is watching closely to see where the two largest economies are leading us. At a time of cascading crises like wars, regional tensions and economic uncertainty, the relationship between Washington and Beijing has become one of the most important variables for global stability. And yet, for all the analysis of military budgets, trade deficits and geopolitical competition, one...

A British police force said on Thursday it would reopen a probe into rape and sexual assault allegations made by women against self-proclaimed misogynist influencer Andrew Tate between 2014 and 2015. It is the latest in a slew of investigations into Tate, a British-US citizen who promotes his divisive views to millions of followers on social media. “Hertfordshire Constabulary can confirm that a decision has been made to reinvestigate allegations made by women between 2014 and 2015 relating to...

The US Treasury Department plans to put US President Donald Trump’s signature on all new US paper currency, the agency announced on Thursday. The move would be a first for a sitting president, since traditionally, US paper currency carries the signatures of the Treasury secretary and the treasurer, not the president. The news was first reported by Vanity Fair. It was the latest instance of Trump putting his name and likeness on American cultural institutions, following his renaming of the US...

US President Donald Trump said he would sign an order to pay Transportation Security Administration officers in a bid to alleviate disruptions at US airports with lawmakers in Congress deadlocked on how to end a partial government shutdown. “I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullen, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports,” Trump declared in a social...

The US Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a close call between a United Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter in California, the agency said on Thursday, in the latest incident between a passenger jet and a military aircraft. The FAA said ‌a United Boeing 737-800 jet on Tuesday at 8.40pm was on final approach to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California when a Black Hawk crossed in front of the plane. Flightradar24, a flight tracking site, said the aircraft were 160...

US President Donald Trump denied on Thursday that he was desperate for a deal with Iran, swinging between threats and diplomacy, while presenting a series of “boats of oil” that reportedly made it through the blocked Strait of Hormuz as an Iranian “gift” – a reveal that he teased a day earlier. This comes as the war he and Israel launched against Iran approaches the one-month mark with little end in sight, driving oil prices up globally and further unsettling the global economy. “I read a story...

Beijing is probably sighing with relief following US President Donald Trump’s postponement of his visit to China for “a month or so”. Initially, Trump had tried to threaten China for not joining a proposed naval escort campaign in the Strait of Hormuz, but quickly changed his tone after recognising the absurdity of such a demand. Not even the United States’ closest allies are willing to lend a hand. However, Beijing is even more frustrated with Washington’s lack of clarity and Trump’s hazy...

A 25-year-old woman who has been paraplegic since a failed suicide attempt underwent euthanasia in Spain on Thursday, after her father lost a lengthy legal battle to stop the procedure, Spanish media reported. Her case was the first to reach a Spanish court for consideration since Spain became one of the few countries to legalise euthanasia in 2021, a law fiercely opposed by the Catholic Church. The woman, identified as Noelia, died shortly after 6pm at a hospital in Sant Pere de Ribes in the...

A man who fled to China and his sister have been charged after an explosive device was left outside a gate at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa this month. Their mother was detained for deportation, having overstayed her visa, a federal prosecutor said on Thursday. Alen Zheng, 20, and Ann Mary Zheng, 27, were charged Wednesday in separate federal indictments. The sister was arrested upon her return from China, where she flew with her brother after the threat. Both have US citizenship, US Attorney...

Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro cut a relaxed figure Thursday as he returned to a federal court in New York for his second appearance since his capture by US forces in an extraordinary nighttime raid. During the one-hour hearing, the judge indicated he would not dismiss the case over Maduro and his wife’s apparent inability to afford their legal bill without aid from the Venezuelan government. The former leader, 63, and wife Cilia Flores have been held in a Brooklyn jail for almost...

China warned Mexico on Thursday it could impose retaliatory measures after concluding a formal investigation into tariffs Mexico imposed on more than 1,400 categories of Asian goods, in a dispute that threatens to complicate Mexico City’s parallel negotiations to renew its trade agreement with the United States. China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said the tariffs, which range from 5 to 50 per cent on 1,463 product categories in force since January 1, restrict the entry of Chinese goods,...

Scientists have used a tiny plastic “obstacle course” to test how much sperm would struggle to navigate during sex in the weightlessness of space. Some particularly resilient sperm still made it through the course, suggesting that conceiving children in space will still be possible, according to research published on Thursday. However, a bigger problem could be that the development of embryos after fertilisation was harmed by a lack of gravity, the Australian team of researchers found. With...

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday it was reintroducing testing for gender to determine eligibility to compete in the female category, preventing transgender women from competing. The screening will mean Olympic women’s sports at the 2028 Los Angeles Games will be limited to biological females, which would also rule out those with differences in sexual development (DSD) from competing. The IOC is abandoning rules it brought in in 2021 which allowed individual federations...

Britain’s decision to block a £1.5 billion (US$2 billion) plan by Chinese clean energy giant Mingyang to build the UK’s largest wind turbine factory in Scotland highlights the mounting challenges of doing business with China in an era of deepening global mistrust, analysts said. The move was likely the result of direct pressure from Washington, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The US-Israeli war in Iran and the subsequent energy crisis had raised hopes for the project to be...

The Iran war’s oil shock has dramatically increased the security risk for oil-dependent countries, incentivising a turn towards renewable energy. This impact will outlast the war and oil price spikes because the world knows this war will recur. China will be the biggest beneficiary and its exports are likely to do very well this year, offsetting losses from buying higher-priced oil. A fifth of the global supply of oil and liquefied natural gas plus a third of seaborne fertilisers traditionally...

As immigrant detainee deaths have increased, conditions in detention facilities nationwide are coming under more scrutiny.

The deadlock that left the Department of Homeland Security shuttered highlighted Republican divisions that are flaring ahead of the midterm elections.

President Trump signed a memo late Friday ordering the Department of Homeland Security to restore pay to airport screeners.

How a cascade of seemingly minor events led to the worst runway disaster at LaGuardia Airport in decades.

The accident at LaGuardia has raised questions about whether the minimum standard of two air traffic controllers on overnight shifts is sufficient.

In his remote headquarters, the United Farm Workers leader began to see himself as not just a union leader, but a visionary healer.

Marshall McLuhan was right about Claude, too.

Just as we changed our thinking around physical fitness, we need to change our attitude toward cognitive fitness.

A runoff election in two months sets up a fight between an incumbent who some say is not conservative enough and a challenger trying to shed scandals.

The city wants to redevelop a shantytown in Gangnam district, where hundreds are defying eviction, fighting for a right to own a home in an area notorious for the exorbitant cost of housing.

The astronaut, Michael Fincke, experienced a medical emergency in January that rendered him unable to speak, he said.

The Times called him “the world’s most highly regarded forensic criminologist,” but later in his career he faced accusations that he had hidden and fabricated evidence.