Minimalist News

Bondi Claims DOJ Produced 'Everything Required' In Epstein Files Release Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times, Former Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) acted in a transparent manner and acted appropriately in releasing files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, as she testified before Congress on Friday. “To the best of my knowledge, the Department produced everything required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Bondi said in a statement ahead of a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee. She added that “justice and transparency in this

The Democrat Establishment Is Starting To Worry About Spencer Pratt The last person California Democrats expected to keep them up at night is Spencer Pratt. Yet here we are. The former reality television personality-turned-independent mayoral candidate has spent the past several weeks doing something that Los Angeles's political establishment convinced itself was impossible: making incumbent Mayor Karen Bass look vulnerable. Conventional wisdom held that a candidate like Pratt, a former television personality with no governing experience, running as an independent in a deep-blue city, had no realistic path to victory. The conventional wisdom was wrong, or at a minimum, it

The Market's Biggest Buyer May Be Disappearing Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance Yesterday, as part of laying out the two paths I can see the economy taking , I wrote that beneath the surface, the American consumer is tapped out. The average consumer - AKA the "retail investor" - has been a key in driving the stock market higher the past half decade. This morning, I noticed two reports that came out yesterday that add to the conclusion that this "retail investor" looks increasingly broke. Yesterday The Wall Street Journal highlighted how rising prices and the highest interest rates in

Green Retreat: California Eases Carbon-Market Costs For Oil Refiners California's green-energy regime has hollowed out the state's refining and oil industry, leaving motorists paying the highest gasoline prices in the country. AAA data show the state gasoline average now north of $6 per gallon, compared with a national average of roughly $4.36 as of Saturday morning. The result of political blowback in California over unaffordable gasoline and diesel prices at the pump is a retreat from left-wing climate policies that could offer relief to motorists, Bloomberg News reports. On Friday, the California Air Resources Board voted to create up to

Caught On Tape: Washington Nationals Official Admits To Discriminating Against Religious Player Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness, Washington Nationals Director of Community Relations Sean Hudson has been caught on camera admitting that he discriminates against starting pitcher Trevor Williams because of his Catholic faith. The Daily Caller reports that O’Keefe Media Group has released a new undercover report where Hudson admits that the team avoids featuring starting pitcher Trevor Williams on social media because of his 2023 criticism of the Dodgers’ Pride Night. That particular event honored a drag group dressed as nuns and performing on a crucifix

Trump Blasts "Barack Hussein Obama Judge" After Kennedy Center Renovation Blocked President Donald Trump lashed out Saturday after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked the planned closure and renovation of the Kennedy Center , accusing the Obama-appointed judge of halting what Trump described as a badly needed structural and aesthetic overhaul of the performing arts venue. In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump said millions of dollars in marble, furniture, steel, heating, air conditioning, and other materials had been ordered or were about to be ordered for what he called a "magnificent structural and aesthetic rebuilding" of the center. He

Missiles Rain Down On Northern Israel In Large Hezbollah 'Revenge' Operation Northern Israel has come under heavy attack from Hezbollah on Saturday , after this past week a full-scale war has resumed in southern Lebanon, which even saw the resumption of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, much further to the north. Even while Tel Aviv maintains the illusion of a ceasefire with Lebanon (as in, its government and national army), there is no ceasefire with Iran-linked Hezbollah, following weeks of sporadic drones being sent on northern Israel, as well as troop positions of invading IDF forces. The Saturday drone

X Cracks Down On Large "Creator" Accounts Built On Stolen Content The saturation of large X accounts built almost entirely on recycled video clips has become impossible to ignore . Many of these accounts brand themselves as "creators," but they merely lift original reporting, strip attribution, repackage it, and monetize engagement as if the content were their own. Elon Musk and X product head Nikita Bier have zeroed in on this issue. X is now demonetizing repeat offenders while redirecting impressions and revenue to true originators. For genuine creators producing original reporting, analysis, and commentary, it's a long-overdue reset. Disclose.tv

Kenyan Court Rejects Plan For US Ebola Quarantine Center Amid Growing Outbreak Authored by Brett Wilkins via Common Dreams A day after US officials said Kenya had approved a request to open a quarantine center for Americans exposed to a rare strain of the Ebola virus, a court in the East African nation on Friday temporarily blocked the plan amid a growing outbreak in neighboring Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The High Court prohibited the Kenyan government from establishing or operating any Ebola exposure, quarantine, isolation, or treatment facility in the country under any agreement with the United

Why The SAVE Act Matters Authored by Stu Cvrk via American Greatness , American self-governance rests on one indispensable foundation: that elections reflect the will of eligible citizens, counted accurately, administered transparently. Republicans and election integrity advocates argue that this foundation has been progressively undermined - not necessarily by a single grand conspiracy, but by a systemic pattern of loosened safeguards, dirty voter rolls, exploitable mail-ballot systems, and aggressive Democrat opposition to the audits and reforms that would resolve public doubt once and for all. The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act - which polls at roughly 80 percent public

US Military Hasn't Identified A Single Confirmed Mine In Strait Of Hormuz, Officials Tell NBC Just a few hours after President Trump boasted that the US Navy had detonated "numerous" Iranian sea mines, NBC News reported that, even after three months of warfare, the US military has yet to confirm the presence of even a single mine in the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz . Citing two US officials and a "person familiar with the matter," NBC said relentless searches of the waterway by aerial and undersea drones haven't found any confirmed mines, merely finding some objects that might be

What To Own Before A Bond Market Crisis Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance As I wrote last week, foreign Treasury selling with yields already on the rise has perked up my attention. For decades, investors have treated U.S. Treasuries as the ultimate safe haven. In nearly every major panic, money rushed into government bonds, not away from them. But with deficits surging, interest costs climbing, and foreign demand for Treasuries no longer as unquestioned as it once was , some investors have started asking a different question: if the Treasury market itself ever came under severe stress, what assets could

Moscow Signs Military Partnership With Taliban In Full Circle Since CIA's Operation Cyclone Via The Cradle Russia and the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan have reached a military and technical cooperation agreement , Russian news outlet Interfax reported this week. The deal was concluded during the International Security Forum held in Moscow. According to the report by Interfax’s correspondent, Taliban Defense Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob held talks with Secretary of Russia's Security Council Sergei Shoigu on the sidelines of the event. Russian MoD, via X During the meeting, Yaqoob said that engagement with Russia is important for the Taliban-led administration and

Iran Poised To Finalize Hormuz Strait Management Plan, Brushing Aside Trump's Threats Iran's state Tasnim is saying the US naval blockade remains in effect, despite days of headlines of a 'finalized' US-Iran deal, which were clearly premature - though both sides still signal they are close to agreeing on a Memorandum of Understanding. But this is toward simply extending the ceasefire by 60-days in order to get back to the table, in hopes of finally ending the war based on a final deal. Despite President Trump's latest warning which declared strict conditions on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran appears

Crypto And AI Could Be Dirty Words On 2026 Midterm Campaign Trail Authored by Aaron Wood via CoinTelegraph.com, The AI and crypto industries have made headlines over the past year thanks to the impressive war chests amassed by corporate political action committees (PACs). Profligate spending during the last federal elections in the US has led to unprecedented policy changes favoring the crypto industry, with indications that a full legislative framework in the form of the CLARITY Act is on its way to becoming law. But this hasn’t endeared the crypto industry to voters. Recent polls from Politico show distrust of

"Brief Exchange": Top U.S., Cuban Military Leaders Meet At Edge Of Guantanamo Base Three weeks after CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with officials in Havana, reopening a political backchannel between Washington and the Cuban government, a rare military-to-military meeting unfolded at the edge of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. U.S. Southern Command wrote on X that Marine Gen. Francis Donovan, head of U.S. Southern Command, met with Cuban Gen. Roberto Legrá Sotolongo and other officers at the perimeter of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay for what SOUTHCOM described as a " brief exchange on operational security matters ." #SOUTHCOM

Leftist German Party Leader Forced To Correct Lies About AfD Leader, Pay Her Legal Fees Via Remix News, Alice Weidel, co-leader of the anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has successfully sued the Left Party leader and won a retraction after she spread falsehoods about Weidel on live television. In mid-May, Ines Schwerdtner, the federal chairwoman of the Left Party, claimed during an interview on Welt TV that Wediel neither resides in Germany nor pays taxes. “Alice Weidel doesn’t even live in Germany, she doesn’t pay taxes here,” she told viewers. This statement is false. While Weidel spends much of

UK's Ofcom Investigates Airing Of Trump Interview Calling Climate Change A "Hoax" Authored by Jonathan Turley, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom for years , including in my book The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage. One of the most critical components of the British censorship system is Ofcom, the Office of Communications, which regulates the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications, and postal industries. The most recent controversy is detailed in the Telegraph , with Ofcom investigating GB News over the simple replaying of a Trump interview in which he called

The Case For Air Conditioning Is Growing In Britain A recent spell of extreme heat has intensified debate over whether UK homes should be designed with built-in cooling systems, according to FT . Air conditioning remains uncommon in Britain, with fewer than 5% of homes equipped with it, reflecting a long-standing view that cooling is a luxury rather than a necessity. FT writes that current building standards favor passive methods of controlling indoor temperatures, such as insulation, shading, and natural ventilation. Developers generally prioritize these measures, arguing they are more energy-efficient and better aligned with environmental goals. Concerns about the

Norway Lobbies To Persuade EU To Drop Arctic Drilling Ban Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com, Norway, Western Europe's top oil and gas producer, has intensified lobbying at the European Union to persuade the bloc to remove or tweak its moratorium on Arctic oil and gas drilling. Norway, which is not a member of the EU but is the biggest gas supplier to European markets , has sent nearly a dozen of its ministers to Brussels so far this year to discuss energy and trade and the state of the Arctic drilling. The Iran war and the biggest oil and

Sunday’s presidential vote is contest between left and right – and between contradictory proposals for dealing with the decades-long armed conflict Mateo Pérez Rueda was one internship away from completing a degree in political science. The 24-year-old also worked as a bicycle delivery rider and sold fruit salads and juice to finance his passion: the Colombian independent digital magazine El Confidente . On 4 May he travelled to Briceño, in the western province of Antioquia, to report on the long-running conflict between the army, paramilitaries and dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). Continue reading...

Opposition says constitutional amendment would give bill ruling party carte blanche to overturn will of voters Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Amid fierce criticism from opposition groups, Mexico ’s senate has passed ‌a constitutional amendment to include “foreign interference” as grounds to annul election results in the country. The bill, which was presented by the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, defines foreign interference as “illicit financing, propaganda, the systematic ⁠dissemination of misinformation, digital manipulation, and ⁠the intervention of foreign governments ⁠or agencies”. Continue reading...

Marco Rubio made announcement after meeting president’s far-right challenger Flávio Bolsonaro Brazil will not be treated as a “tinpot country,” the country’s president, Luiz Inácio da Silva, said on Friday after the United States designated Brazil’s two largest criminal gangs, the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command, as foreign terrorist organisations. The announcement, made by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, on Thursday, is being widely seen in Brazil as a setback for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president who had strongly opposed the designation – and a boost for Lula’s main challenger in October’s presidential election,

Kenneth Law, who sold lethal chemicals online with instructions on how to use them, admits counselling or aiding suicide ‘It was too easy’: families ask how Kenneth Law enabled so many suicides A Canadian man who mailed “suicide packets” of poison to more than 100 people in dozens of countries – including Canada, the UK, the US, Italy, Australia and New Zealand – has pleaded guilty to 14 counts of assisting suicide. Kenneth Law appeared in a packed courtroom in Newmarket, Ontario, on Friday to enter the plea after prosecutors agreed to withdraw 14 murder charges. Sentencing is expected to

Kenneth Law pleaded guilty in Canada to sending products internationally, knowing they would probably be used to end lives Bereaved families whose loved ones were the victims of an online supplier of suicide kits say they feel insulted by a decision not to prosecute him in the UK. Kenneth Law pleaded guilty in a court in Ontario, Canada, to 14 charges of aiding suicide and sending products internationally in the knowledge that they were likely to be used to end lives. He is due to be sentenced at a later date. Continue reading...

Shinjiro Koizumi says Japan valued as a ‘peace-loving’ nation while China expands military capabilities ‘without sufficient transparency’ Japan’s defence minister took a veiled swipe at China on Sunday, pledging to keep strengthening the military despite Beijing’s criticism of Tokyo’s increasingly muscular security stance. Under the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi , Japan has quickened its pivot to a more proactive defence policy, further shaking off – with US encouragement – its pacifist outlook in place since the end of the second world war. Continue reading...

Minister at Singapore defence summit also reveals Australia to buy only secondhand Aukus submarines from US Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The defence minister, Richard Marles, has said the “seabed is a battlefield” in a combative speech urging Beijing to be more transparent about its maritime operations, and taking aim at weak international controls over so-called “shadow-fleet” vessels. The warning came as the US, UK and Australia announced a new Aukus project to develop new underwater drone technology to protect undersea cables. Continue reading...

Two still missing as divers make their way deeper into cave through muddy water and sharp rocks to find them Four more miners who were trapped in a flooded cave in Laos for 10 days have been freed by divers, but two people are still missing as rescuers continue to crawl through narrow, deluged tunnels and sharp rocks to find them. The first of the party of seven men was rescued on Friday in a perilous rescue mission which has required teams to drain water from the cave and navigate collapse hazards. Continue reading...

Hong Qi, who orchestrated protest against Communist government, claims interpreter on 101 call launched political tirade A Chinese dissident who orchestrated an anti-government protest in China after fleeing to the UK has claimed that a “pro-regime” interpreter used by a British police force berated him when he sought help. Hong Qi, who made headlines last year after using a mobile phone while in the UK to remotely project anti-regime slogans on to a building in his home city, Chongqing, contacted police after discovering that his bank accounts had been frozen. Continue reading...

Undermanned side upsets finals-bound ACT Brumbies 21-19 Players come together to mark victory and club’s expected demise An undermanned Moana Pasifika have capped off their potential final match with a stirring victory, upsetting the finals-bound ACT Brumbies 21-19. But there were mixed feelings as players celebrated a rare win before coming together with staff to mark the occasion of the club’s farewell game and expected demise with an emotionally charged hymn. Continue reading...

Wind gusts up to 125km/h forecast to hit city as residents urged to stay away from windows Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Intense storms are lashing the western coast of Australia with an unusually deep low pressure system packing powerful winds and heavy rain. The extreme weather eventbrought wind gusts of up to 125 km/h to Perth and communities along Western Australia’s coast on Sunday afternoon. Continue reading...

Australian Greens should ‘take on’ Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, Polanski tells Victorian conference, just as he took on Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Zack Polanski, the leader of the Green party of England and Wales, has told his counterparts in Australia that they need to start “connecting with people’s anger” and learn from the “storytelling power” of populist rightwing politics. Speaking via video link at the Victorian Greens campaign conference on Saturday night, Zack Polanski said the party in Australia needed to start “taking on” Pauline Hanson’s One Nation,

Environment minister Murray Watt decides against emergency declaration to halt construction but does not rule out ‘longer term protections’ Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The federal government has decided against an 11th-hour intervention to halt construction of an Olympic stadium and aquatic centre in the heart of Brisbane, in a park that traditional owners say is a First Nations sacred site . The environment minister, Murray Watt, issued a statement on Sunday afternoon to say he had considered applications made under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act for him to

This blog is now closed Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Extra negative gearing limits could hurt market and family budgets, Labor says Clare O’Neil has rejected calls from the Greens and others to put further limits on negative gearing access, saying the government should not interrupt “immediate arrangements”. There’s people in the debate who want to see the government go further. I really understand that but I just think we need to step back. Negative gearing is a very immediate impact on a household and family budget and it’s not something that governments,

Australia is pioneering a revolution in home renewables and battery use, proving what is possible with the right policies The timing was rich with symbolism. As intense heatwaves pummelled Europe and Asia, and oil markets around the world leapt and sputtered, the two big chimneys of one of Australia’s largest power stations were being demolished. Meanwhile, the Australian energy minister was holding a media conference to hail a fall of up to 10% in the benchmark electricity price in parts of the country. Quietly, and with surprisingly little fanfare from the rest of the world, Australia is pioneering a revolution

Interior minister says rioting took place in about 15 cities in France, with almost 300 people detained in Paris French police detained more than 400 people involved in violent clashes in Paris and other French cities that erupted on Saturday night after Paris Saint-Germain defeated Arsenal to win the Champions League title . Seven officers were injured as football fans set off fires and vandalised shops, the interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said, describing the violence as “absolutely unacceptable”. One small group even tried to storm a Paris police station. Continue reading...

There is hope that a change to building regulations could resurrect music clubs, which have been hit by rising rents, social shifts and noise disputes A move by the German government to reclassify nightclubs to distinguish them from amusement and adult entertainment facilities could give a much-needed boost to the country’s struggling nightlife, industry advocates say. Under a fundamental change to building regulations approved by Friedrich Merz’s cabinet last week, nightclubs will be formally recognised as providing cultural and artistic value, making it more difficult for developers to evict venue operators in favour of new construction. Continue reading...

Reggio Emilia prefect stops gig after Jewish community ‘concerns’ over rapper’s previous antisemitic remarks A Kanye West concert in Italy has been cancelled over “public order and safety issues”. The 48-year-old rapper, who changed his name to Ye in 2021, was due to perform at the Pulse of Gaia festival at the RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia on 18 July, but the city’s prefect, Salvatore Angieri, stopped the gigs after “concerns” from the local Jewish community over previous antisemitic remarks by West. Continue reading...

Four were part of seven-person group that had traveled to US to ascend North America’s tallest mountain Three people have died after falling while climbing Alaska ’s Mount McKinley, according to officials. A fourth climber has been rescued. The four were part of a seven-person group that had traveled to the United States to ascend Mount McKinley, also known as Denali, North America’s tallest mountain, according to information released by the Latvian Mountaineering Association . Continue reading...

Experts say AI firm’s engagement with Vatican risks creating ‘feelgood’ discourse that lacks critical examination Why did Anthropic’s founder sit beside the pope during a warning about AI? In the first major written teaching of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV took artificial intelligence to task. The pontiff delineated the technology’s most concerning threats to humanity: replacing workers , accelerating war and exploiting the environment . At a ceremony honoring the holy teaching the day of its release at the Vatican, the pope was flanked by an unusual guest speaker: Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, one of the people behind the AI

Defence minister announces seizure of strategic ridge as advance against Hezbollah moves beyond Litani River Israeli troops have captured the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and its strategic ridge in southern Lebanon in a major advance against Hezbollah that took them beyond the Litani River – their deepest incursion into the country in more than 26 years. After days of intense fighting and airstrikes in nearby villages, the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the military had captured the fortress, also known as Qalaat al-Shakif, which the Israel Defense Forces used as a base during their previous occupation of southern Lebanon between

Sobering reality for president after three-month odyssey that threatens to take him back to where he started After the hubristic beginnings came the reality. The road travelled since the most momentous foreign policy decision of his presidency seems to have delivered Donald Trump to a sobering destination: that Iran has been the nemesis of several US presidents before him for a reason and is an adversary not to be taken lightly. Continue reading...

Some Iranians hoped foreign intervention would unseat the regime but instead the US-Israel war has damaged livelihoods and strengthened those in power As Donald Trump swung this week between threats of new military action against Iran and predictions that a lasting ceasefire deal was imminent, many Iranians were left exhausted and gripped by uncertainty. Despite the partial lifting of an internet shutdown that began when the war started on 28 February, fears of worsening repression at home have also fuelled pessimism about the future among some of those to whom the Guardian spoke. Continue reading...

US president did not announce decision on deal that could open strait of Hormuz after two-hour situation room meet Donald Trump has claimed he could approve an Iran peace deal on Friday that contains major concessions from Tehran, including the opening of the strait of Hormuz and the elimination of the country’s nuclear programme. However, top Iranian officials signalled a final agreement had not been reached. The two versions indicate Trump may once again be practising his “art of the deal” as he seeks to talk his way out of a war that has disrupted global energy supplies and rocked

Bushra Shaikh, from Surrey, who appeared in The Apprentice, ‘ highly active’ in spreading regime message A UK television personality went on two state-sponsored tours of Iran this spring where she met senior officials and was “active” in spreading the regime’s message, according to an investigation by a Iranian factchecking organisation. Bushra Shaikh, from Surrey, owned a luxury clothing brand and finished ninth on series 13 of The Apprentice in 2017, where she described herself as “inspired by Coco Chanel”. Continue reading...

Truck was carrying Afghan families returning Pakistan when it overturned, official says A truck overturned in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing 18 people on board including 10 children, a provincial official told Agence France-Presse. Deadly traffic crashes are common in Afghanistan, due in part to poor roads after decades of conflict, dangerous driving and a lack of regulation. Continue reading...

New digital marking system is aimed at reducing human errors but many students say it has resulted in wrong grades A national outcry has erupted in India after more than 400,000 students requested copies of their answer sheets amid mounting complaints of errors in the marking of the country’s most important school-leaving examinations. Within days of the grade 12 exam results being issued, students began reporting marking discrepancies they linked to a new digital marking system. Continue reading...

Rare albino buffalo spared due to security concerns over unusual level of public interest in 700kg animal A rare albino buffalo in Bangladesh nicknamed “Donald Trump” for its distinctive blond tuft has been spared from Eid al-Adha sacrifice after a last-minute government intervention, according to a home ministry official. The nearly 700kg (1,543lb) animal had already been sold for ritual slaughter when authorities stepped in, citing security concerns after a surge of public interest before Thursday’s festival. Continue reading...

Lack of Pfas regulations raised in parliament after Guardian revealed former Miteni plant bought by Indian company Protests over the production of cancer-linked Pfas chemicals have spread across India, after an investigation revealed that an Italian factory shut down due to an environmental scandal was bought by an Indian company and partly rebuilt. At the end of last year, the Guardian revealed that the former Miteni plant in Vicenza had been acquired by the Indian company Laxmi Organic Industries. The factory produced Pfas and was shut down in 2018 after being linked to one of Italy’s worst environmental contamination scandals.

Senior lawyers call on prime minister to request Indian prosecutors drop charges that would breach double jeopardy rule Four senior lawyers, including the former attorney general Dominic Grieve, have written to Keir Starmer urging him to request that Indian prosecutors drop charges against the British national Jagtar Singh Johal on the basis that continued prosecution would be in manifest breach of the double jeopardy rule which prevents someone being tried twice for the same offence. Johal has been held in an Indian jail for eight years, and in March last year was acquitted of the terrorist charges laid against him

Andy Burnham and the Reform candidate lead the polls, but issues such as flooding and the state of the high street are main concerns locally The roads that connect the collection of towns and villages that make up this constituency in England are studded with turquoise banners declaring: “Makerfield needs Reform.” Once at the heart of Wigan’s coal-mining industry, and represented by a Labour MP continuously since the 1900s, Farage’s party has gained a foothold here, and with any other Labour candidate installed, this parliamentary seat would almost certainly fall to Reform. Continue reading...

Former Scottish first minister says she will not apologise for actions of her ex- husband found guilty of embezzlement Nicola Sturgeon has said feels like she is “serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit” after her former husband and former Scottish National party chief executive, Peter Murrell, admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the party. Murrell pleaded guilty this week to embezzling the sum from the SNP between 2010 and 2022 to fund a lavish personal lifestyle. Continue reading...

Fab Four are still making waves 60 years on – and upcoming Sam Mendes films are expected to turn the hype up to 11 If anyone needed a reminder of the enduring cultural clout of the Beatles, the past few weeks have provided a glut. Firstly, there’s the small matter of The Boys of Dungeon Lane , Paul McCartney’s 20th solo album, billed as “an adventurous and limber take on guitar music” by the Guardian. When England announced their World Cup squad, the soundtrack was Come Together, played alongside a film of fashionable young people in New York and a

Premier Group Recruitment went into administration with debts of £2.9m – including £647,000 owed to HMRC A recruitment executive – who was allowed to buy back the assets of his bust company in instalments despite it accumulating almost £3m of debt – has fallen behind on promised payments after pledging to send staff on an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas. The development is the latest case to raise questions about the practice of “phoenixism”, accounting’s controversial art of liquidating companies to allow directors to rise from the ashes with a new entity, free of debts. Continue reading...

Part of Marc Bolland’s government advisory role will be to help disabled or depressed young people to find training or job A former chief executive of Marks & Spencer has been appointed as a government jobs adviser in its latest attempt to tackle the growing youth unemployment crisis. Marc Bolland, who oversaw the retail chain from 2010 to 2016, will lead a summit of business leaders, amid warnings that the country risks a “lost generation” without urgent intervention. Continue reading...

Capture of Beaufort castle near the city of Nabatiyeh comes despite a nominal ceasefire and shortly before talks due in the US Lebanon’s prime minister Nawaf Salam had accused Israel on Saturday of pursuing a “scorched-earth policy and collective punishment” in the south, urging a halt to the fighting and warning it was “destroying towns and villages, and forcing their inhabitants into exile”, AFP reports. Military delegations from both Israel and Lebanon held security talks in Washington on Friday, with more US-brokered negotiations planned next week. Hezbollah vehemently opposes the direct talks. Continue reading...

Plane landed in Wisconsin and ‘unruly passenger’ was taken into custody before flight continued to Minnesota A United Airlines flight bound for Minneapolis from Chicago was reportedly diverted after an “unruly passenger” tried to breach the cockpit late on Friday. The FBI and police responded to reports of a security concern with the passenger, who was detained by police at the Dane county regional airport in Madison, Wisconsin. Continue reading...

President in ‘excellent’ health, despite ‘lower leg swelling’ and hand bruising after fourth hospital visit in second term Donald Trump has been grappling with “lower leg swelling” as well as “benign” hand bruising but remains in excellent health, the US president’s physician said in a memo released by the White House. Citing the results of a recent examination, the memo from Dr Sean Barbabella said Trump “remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological and overall physical function”. Continue reading...

Endangered snow leopard had leg amputated and capybara died at Mario Tabraue’s controversial roadside facility An endangered clouded leopard had a leg amputated and a capybara died following botched breeding attempts at a controversial Miami roadside zoo owned by a convicted drug trafficker featured in the Netflix documentary Tiger King . Federal wildlife inspectors found multiple other violations during a March inspection at Zoological Wildlife Foundation (ZWF), including dilapidated, insecure or unsafe housing conditions for wild animals, filthy cages, and water and food contaminated with algae and dead insects. Continue reading...

The virtually indestructible Pfas waste puts largely low-income neighborhoods at risk, public health advocates say The nation’s garbage incinerators are largely failing to eliminate Pfas “forever chemicals” air pollution, and are putting people in largely low-income neighborhoods at risk, public health advocates and independent experts warn. The powerful waste management industry is increasingly pushing incinerators as a solution to virtually indestructible Pfas waste, and a new industry trade group report alleges Minnesota’s incinerators are reducing their forever chemical emissions by 99.6%. Other incinerator operators have made similar reduction claims . Continue reading...

US President Donald Trump ⁠will headline an event commemorating the ⁠nation’s 250th anniversary on the National Mall next month after several musical performers scheduled to appear in the celebration cancelled, citing concerns about its association with him Danielle Alvarez, an adviser to Freedom 250, ⁠told The Washington Post that “Trump will ⁠personally kick off this historic celebration on Wednesday, June 24 in an opening ceremony celebrating America’s 250th birthday”. The president had said...

The body of a dead humpback whale known as “Timmy” has been brought ashore on the Danish island of Anholt, where experts hope a postmortem examination will shed light on how it died. A live streaming by the News5 broadcaster showed a vehicle slowly dragging the bloated carcass out of the shallow water by a rope onto the beach on Saturday morning, leaving behind a deep furrow in the sand. The Danish environmental protection agency urged people not to approach the whale as there is a risk of...

There is a good deal more to the rapid rise in bond yields around the world, not least in Asia, than meets the eye. It suggests a recognition by financial markets that governments are spending beyond their means, tax revenues and borrowing power. The implication is that either taxes need to rise or public spending needs to fall, or alternatively that financial markets, stock markets in particular, must shift their priorities away from glamour stocks in the tech and artificial intelligence (AI)...

The Trump administration’s immigration surge into US cities last year resulted in 668,000 job losses, creating a “chilling effect” that pervaded local economies, hurt businesses and affected American-born workers, according to a report from the Brookings Institution. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement campaign adopted “shock and awe” tactics that were broader and far more visible than previous enforcement efforts, including one started under former president George W. Bush in 2008 and...

A federal judge ordered US President Donald Trump to respond to “grievous allegations” that his deal with the government to create a US$1.8 billion fund to resolve his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was the result of a “fraud” on the court. In an order on Friday, US District Judge Kathleen Williams gave the president’s personal lawyers until June 12 to respond to a request by a group of former federal judges that she reopen the proceedings to investigate conduct by the president...

When Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr accepted the Asean gavel from Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim in Kuala Lumpur last October, the script was already written: a packed agenda, South China Sea diplomacy in the spotlight and a regional digital economy deal to clinch. Then the world changed. On February 28, US and Israeli forces struck Iran. The Strait of Hormuz, an artery of global shipping through which 98 per cent of the Philippines’ crude oil imports travel, became a war zone....

A former Southern California mayor pleaded guilty on Friday to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Eileen Wang, who stepped down as the mayor of Arcadia earlier this month, was charged in April with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She pleaded guilty to doing the bidding of Chinese officials by sharing articles favourable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 56-year-old was elected in...

⁠A judge on Friday ordered the removal of US President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Centre for the ‌Performing Arts, ruling that the iconic Washington venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress. US District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington directed the ⁠Trump administration to take down all physical signage ‌bearing Trump’s name and to eliminate any references to a “Trump Kennedy ‌Centre” from official materials within 14 ⁠days. “The ⁠Kennedy Centre’s organic statute makes...

China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi said ‌on Friday that Canada could surpass its goal of increasing exports to China by 50 per cent by 2030 during a meeting with Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand. Wang said he thought Canada’s exports to China could increase by 100 per cent, building on momentum between the countries. “Canada is focused on growing our economy and diversifying our trading relationships,” Anand said during the meeting. “The Canada-China economic relationship is...

Former US attorney general Pam Bondi rebuffed questions about President Donald Trump’s involvement in handling records of the Justice Department’s investigation of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Democratic lawmakers said. “She refused to answer any questions about President Trump,” congressman Robert Garcia, the top-ranking Democrat on the House panel investigating Epstein, told reporters during a break in the committee’s closed-door questioning of Bondi. Bondi also pushed any blame for...

The Canadian man who helped scores of people worldwide kill themselves by selling them poison pleaded guilty on Friday to 14 counts of aiding suicide, as prosecutors said they will withdraw murder charges. Since Kenneth Law’s arrest in 2023, details of the online forums where he advised distressed people on how to end their lives have caused public outrage and triggered investigations in several countries. In Canada, Law faced 14 murder charges and an additional 14 charges for aiding suicide. At...

The European Commission agreed on a tough new approach to trade relations with China, at a rare Beijing-focused debate among Brussels’ leadership on Friday. In a presentation, trade chief Maros Sefcovic laid out why the bloc needed to take stronger steps to defend itself from what is described as a new “China shock” to its industries, according to people briefed on the event. This may require developing a new instrument to compel companies in critical sectors to expand both the number and the...

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from moving ahead with a US$1.8 billion compensation package that critics have denounced as a “slush fund” for President Donald Trump’s political allies. US District Judge Leonie Brinkema barred the administration from taking any further action to create or operate the fund while she considers whether to impose a longer-lasting pause. Her order blocks the transfer of money into the fund, the consideration of claims and the...

Finance ministers ⁠from the EU’s six ⁠biggest economies (E6) have agreed a ⁠common position on a European Commission proposal for joint capital markets supervision, Germany’s finance ministry said on Friday. The push for financial market players to be supervised at a European Union rather than national level is part ‌of a bid to boost the bloc’s competitiveness as it struggles with weak growth and fierce competition from the United States and China. Supervision of significant market...

A Kenyan court temporarily halted the opening of an Ebola quarantine centre for US nationals on Friday following a petition filed by a rights group. The facility was due to open in the east Africa nation on Friday according to US officials, to quarantine Americans arriving from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is battling a major Ebola outbreak. Washington has defended its criticised decision not to repatriate Americans infected with the virus. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has...

The European Union and China are entering a new, more turbulent era in trade relations, as China has evolved from Europe’s favoured customer into a sophisticated competitor, a Brussels lobbyist has said. Chinese businesses are likely to face tougher scrutiny in the EU market as a result, with Brussels already taking steps to diversify its trade and mulling more robust measures to shield local industry from Chinese competition, according to Michael Koplovsky, a senior adviser at the strategic...

Kenyan authorities have arrested eight students on suspicion of arson over a fire at a girls’ boarding school that killed 16 students, ‌police said on Friday. The fire at the Utumishi Girls’ Academy Senior School in Gilgil in west-central Kenya broke out in the early hours of Thursday and also injured 79 students. Fires are common at Kenyan schools, with many set by students protesting harsh discipline and poor conditions, researchers ⁠have found. “Preliminary investigations have identified...

US authorities have found six more bodies following a chemical leak at a paper plant in Washington state, an official said on Thursday, with three of a total 11 victims still missing. A huge tank holding tens of thousands of gallons of a highly caustic substance imploded on Tuesday at the plant in Longview, Washington state, sparking a major search operation. Rescuers had initially confirmed two people were dead, and ruled out finding survivors as the search turned to recovering victims’...

There seems to be no end to the harm arising from US President Donald Trump’s madcap war on Iran. Go beyond the direct tragic impact across Iran itself, the collateral damage from Tehran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and its ad hoc assaults on US allies in the region: beyond the burgeoning impact of shortages of oil, gas, hydrogen, helium and sulphur, and the prospect of food shortages arising from the collapse in fertiliser supplies; beyond the hardships of tens of thousands of...

Nato member Romania said on Friday that a drone injured two people in a southeastern city during an overnight Russian attack on neighbouring Ukraine, the first time in the war that a drone had hit a densely populated area in Romania and caused injuries. The incident in Romania, also a member of the European Union, ‌was likely to increase tensions on Nato’s eastern flank at a time when Ukraine’s allies were worried about Russia’s war on its neighbour spilling over its borders. Nato accused Moscow...

An annual United Nations report documenting sexual violence in conflicts worldwide has included Israeli forces for the first time since the review began more than 15 years ago for their treatment of Palestinian detainees. Israel denies the accusations. The 35-page report – shared by the Israeli mission to the UN late Thursday ahead of its expected release on Friday – blacklists 77 government and non-government parties in a dozen countries suspected of committing or being responsible for sexual...

The United States on Thursday designated two well-known Brazilian crime groups, the so-called Red Command (CV) and First Capital Command (PCC), as terrorist organisations, despite opposition from Brasilia. “CV and PCC are two of the most violent criminal organisations in Brazil,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “Their influence and illicit networks extend far beyond Brazil’s borders, across our region and into our country.” “Together, they command thousands of members 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. Concerns mount in China’s space sector that Musk’s Starship will be a failure There are growing doubts within China’s space sector that Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket being developed by SpaceX in the United States, will...

An uncrewed Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded on a Florida launch pad during a test on Thursday, in a major setback for Jeff Bezos’ space venture as it seeks to narrow the gap with Elon Musk’s IPO-bound SpaceX. Video posted by NASASpaceflight, which live-streams launches from Florida, showed the towering New Glenn rocket igniting on the pad before erupting into a massive fireball that billowed skyward, sending a towering plume of flames and smoke into the air. Blue Origin was preparing the...

US President Donald Trump could soon appear on a new US$250 bill, in the Republican’s latest move to shatter US traditions by putting his personal stamp on national institutions. A proposal for the new bill, featuring a glaring Trump, was first reported on Thursday by The Washington Post. If carried out, it would be the first time the image of a living person - let alone a president - had appeared on US currency in a century and a half. “Right now there is proposed legislation - front of the...

Nothing about the summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Beijing suggested high drama. The language was restrained, the optics disciplined. The impression it left was simple: escalation of tensions for its own sake is a losing strategy. The announcement that China would buy 200 Boeing aircraft served mainly as a political gesture of goodwill, with the commercial details to be filled in later by negotiators. More important was the pattern across readouts from...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he had directed Israel’s military to take more of Gaza, initially by seizing 70 per cent of the Palestinian territory, where the population is already penned into a tiny strip of land along the coast. Israel effectively controls an estimated 64 per cent of the tiny coastal strip, bombarded to ruins by Israel’s two-year military assault that followed the 2023 Hamas ‌attack on southern Israel. Under an October US-brokered truce that has...

An explosion and massive fire at a Dallas residential building Thursday killed a child and at least two other people following a blast that shook nearby homes and happened while firefighters were rushing to a reported gas leak, officials said. At least five people also went to hospitals with injuries, Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesperson Jason Evans said. It was unclear how many residents lived in the two-storey complex in the Oak Cliff neighbourhood south of downtown Dallas, where a towering plume...

Recent articles in an Asia-focused international policy forum suggest that states such as Australia, Canada and South Korea can join up with other middle powers to secure the maritime order and restore the liberal international order. While well meaning and encouraging, the unfortunate truth is that these tasks are beyond the capacity of middle powers. The smartest ones won’t even try. Maritime security has transformed from a permissive environment dominated by uncontested naval supremacy into a...

An Austrian court on Thursday convicted a man of planning to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna nearly two years ago. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The state court in Wiener Neustadt, south of the capital, found the 21-year-old defendant, an Austrian citizen known only as Beran A in line with Austrian privacy rules, guilty on multiple charges including those related to the concert. The concert plot was thwarted, but Austrian authorities still cancelled Swift’s three performances...

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino on Thursday rejected suggestions that US pressure had shaped his government’s handling of a dispute over ports near the Panama Canal, as Panama seeks to stabilise relations with Beijing and renew a key maritime agreement. “The decision we made regarding those two ports was genuinely Panamanian,” Mulino said during his weekly press conference, after China accused unnamed “third parties” of interfering in bilateral ties. Mulino also expressed hope that...

There was no one in the courtroom on Thursday to speak on behalf of the four men Randy Santos bludgeoned to death with a metal bar as they slept on the New York City streets. No anguished friends or relatives to tell the judge about Florencio Moran, Nazario Vasquez Villegas, Anthony Manson and Chuen Kok’s abruptly shortened lives. No one to confront Santos face-to-face about his psychosis-fuelled rampage through Manhattan’s Chinatown neighbourhood nearly seven years ago, or to hear him...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called for a “new partnership” with the United States to “help make America great again”, in a speech delivered in New York on Thursday. Carney said that while the world is ‌undergoing a “rupture” as the US transforms its commercial relationships, working closely with Canada in specific sectors, including aluminium, cars and critical minerals, would strengthen both countries. Asked about his January trip to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, Carney...

Worn down by thousands of passers-by honouring an unusual tradition, a floor mosaic of an anatomically detailed bull in one of Milan’s grand arcades is getting a sensitive makeover. Legend has it that grinding one’s heel on the mosaic bull’s testicles at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II guarantees a return one day to the city. “Because of constant pirouettes on the heel made by tourists visiting Milan, the pink tesserae that make up its testicles have been worn down, forming a small crater,”...

Israel pounded south Lebanon with deadly strikes and widened its offensive with the first raid near Beirut in weeks where authorities said a woman and two children were killed despite a ceasefire. The attack near the capital came after heavy strikes on south Lebanon that authorities said had killed at least 14 people, including three children. The escalation comes as Lebanon and Israel prepare for talks between military delegations at the Pentagon on Friday, and for US-brokered talks early next...

Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Brittany Howard and Joan Baez will headline a star-studded protest festival set for the Washington area a month before the US midterm elections. Springsteen and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello announced the festival on Wednesday while performing together at Nationals Park in Washington as Springsteen winds down his Land of Hope and Dreams American tour. At the concert on Wednesday, Springsteen played many of his most political songs,...

A tentative agreement has been reached in the ongoing negotiations with Iran, US sources confirmed, though they stressed that the deal has not yet been finalised and remains subject to formal approval by US President Donald Trump. Trump has asked for a couple of days to consider the proposal before making a decision. “The teams have been going back and forth,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday at a White House press conference. He added that Trump has been “very clear” about...

A key inflation gauge accelerated in April to the highest level in three years, the latest sign that spiking gas prices and higher food costs are squeezing Americans’ finances. Inflation jumped to 3.8 per cent in April compared with a year ago, the Commerce Department said on Thursday, up from 3.5 per cent in March and the highest since May 2023. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.4 per cent, down from the 0.7 per cent jump in March. The report showed that prices have risen for many items in...

The reshaping of the global economic system we are witnessing has entered an acute phase. This raises several questions. When will the world return to a more stable condition? No less importantly, what places will key countries occupy in the new configuration? To answer these questions, it is useful to view current events through the prism of systemic interstate conflicts, which are among the main markers of such transformations. By systemic conflicts, however, one should understand not only...

A knife attack by a man reportedly shouting “Allahu akbar” that wounded three people at a Swiss railway station on Thursday was a “terrorist act”, a regional security official said. “I am exceptionally calling this a terrorist attack,” Mario Fehr, in charge of security in the Swiss canton of Zurich, told reporters, adding that it was clear that the motive for this “evil act of terror” must be sought “in the realm of radicalisation and extremism”. Witnesses described scenes of panic and confusion...

Germany and the Netherlands will set up a joint tactical headquarters in the Baltics this year to command forces on Nato’s eastern flank and help deter Russia, Berlin said on Thursday. The joint German-Dutch command centre known as 1GNC will “assume a command role on Nato’s eastern flank, specifically in the region of Estonia and Latvia” in coming months, the German defence ministry said in a statement. “The deployment of an additional tactical headquarters to the region strengthens the cohesion...

France ⁠will reimburse the cost of weight-loss drugs prescribed to severely obese patients from mid-June in a first for a European Union country, Health Minister Stephanie Rist said on Thursday. Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro medications have led a boom ‌in anti-obesity treatment, attracting interest from governments keen to address rising overweight levels worldwide. Rist estimated the annual cost to the state at around €100 million (US$116 million) at full roll-out. Patients in...

A US judge on Thursday declined ⁠to block President Donald ⁠Trump’s executive tightening rules on mail-in ⁠voting in a loss for the Democratic Party, whose lawyers argued that it could disenfranchise millions of voters. The decision comes as Trump’s Republicans are locked in a tight battle to keep control ‌of both houses of the US Congress in the November midterm elections. Trump has for years pushed the false claim that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voter fraud and has...

A fire ripped through a dormitory in a girls’ boarding school in central Kenya on Thursday, killing at least 16 pupils, a government official said, in the latest such incident to afflict the East African nation. Education Minister Julius Ogamba said 79 others were injured at the Utumishi Girls School, which has more than 800 pupils in the Gilgil area of central Kenya. Ogamba said authorities would investigate whether the school’s fire safety manual had been adhered to. Police said they were...

The European Union’s executive arm is set to back a tougher line against Chinese imports at a key meeting on Friday as a flood of low-cost competition undermines local industries. Potential measures include requiring companies in key sectors to have at least three suppliers from two or more countries in a bid to pare reliance on China, the South China Morning Post reported. Industry commissioner Stephane Sejourne will back broader use of regulations designed to prevent foreign companies...

Two candidates with the same name will be on the ballot seeking the same seat in the state’s primary. “It’s going to be confusing,” one Republican said.

NextEra, which is seeking to buy Dominion Energy, has often butted heads with consumer groups, residents and journalists in its home state.

In advance of Tuesday’s down-to-the-wire mayoral primary, several candidates have made the hospitality industry part of their platforms.

A remote gold mining town is under siege, as medical workers struggle to beat back a surge of deaths and infections.

Aid agencies are racing to help underequipped health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 245 people are now suspected to have died from the virus.

His changes to the proposed deal were potentially designed to speed up the process by putting pressure Iran to accept the current framework, one official said.

The Iranian soccer players, still awaiting visas to the U.S., are practicing in Turkey and making backup plans.

Laurie Santos on what will really bring meaning and fulfillment to your life, and what won’t.

Zohran Mamdani watched his favorite team, Arsenal, compete for the Champions League title with fans at a bar, getting a rare taste of his old life after a meteoric rise in politics.

“Heteropessimism” is all the rage — but really, there’s never been a better time to be looking for love. Go on, be a hetero-optimist.

Eleven lessons America must learn

The remains of the two workers who were still missing after the blast this week at a Washington State paper mill were recovered on Saturday, officials said.

A Chinese-born woman accused of infiltration has set off a debate over how Taiwan defends its democracy without profiling migrants from China.

David Rush, a longtime C.I.A. officer, appears to have first had contact with Stephen A. Feinberg during President Trump’s first term. Some officials said the two men were not close.

Under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, new visa rules are forcing some foreign business owners, who have put down roots in Japan, to leave.