Minimalist News

RFK Jr. Says 1 Million Obamacare Enrollees Lacked Social Security Numbers Authored by AG News Staff via American Greatness , Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said 1 million people were enrolled in Obamacare health plans without Social Security numbers , as the Trump administration pledged to intensify efforts to combat fraud in federal health care programs. Kennedy disclosed the figure in a video posted to the social media platform X alongside Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. . @DrOzCMS and I are exposing how bad actors exploited the Obamacare marketplace

Venezuelan Housing Projects Collapsed "Like Sandcastles" As Twin Quakes Expose Socialist Rot Spanish daily newspaper ABC.es reports that some of the worst quake damage in Venezuela is concentrated in Caraballeda and Catia La Mar, where high-rise towers built under the Great Housing Mission Venezuela, or Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela (GMVV), were reduced to rubble. The Chávez-era socialist housing program is now facing scrutiny after the outlet noted, "The explanation given by engineers and construction specialists is that low-quality materials were used in the Chavista Housing Mission, without supervision and without applying anti-seismic standards." GMVV was later expanded by the socialist

Builders Vs. Gatekeepers Authored by Monty Donohew via American Thinker , A viral X post by @r0ck3t23 featuring Marc Andreessen hopes to ignite fresh debate in tech and political circles. In the clip, Andreessen articulates a blunt frustration familiar to anyone who has tried to build anything substantial in modern America: "Right now, in many cases in many places, no you can't. " The target is regulatory gridlock preventing factories, data centers, and, specifically the colocated nuclear microreactors many believe are needed to power the AI boom. The post's thesis is provocative. The old left-right divide is "obsolete." The real

Rate On China's New Overnight Liquidity Tool Comes Below Estimates, Hints At Imminent Easing Last week we showed four China-linked charts which made it very clear that, laughable flatlined 5% GDP notwithstanding, China's economy appears to be on the verge of yet another collapse (explaining the unprecedented drop in both Chinese oil imports and refining output ): between autos, real estate, banks and overall consumption, the economy - as seen by the market - was in freefall. China is fine pic.twitter.com/PFJzVCz9Ba — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 26, 2026 With sentiment collapsing, and amid growing speculation that Beijing will have no choice

The Party Of 'Our Democracy' Has Nothing Left But Chaos Authored by James Howard Kunstler, “. . . there is no saving the Left. Whatever happens to them, it will have to happen without people like you or me trying to get them to return to any place of sanity.” - Sasha Stone on Substack A punishing heat-dome creeps over the eastern half of the country just in time for the gala Fourth of July week. The days are brutal, but anything and everything crawls out of the woodwork when that blazing sun goes down and the moon comes out.

"Thanks For The Mammaries": Hooters Shutters Every Location In Four Blue States Iconic chicken-wing chain Hooters, famous for buxom waitresses wearing skimpy orange and white uniforms, appears to be throwing in the towel on its 35-year struggle to stay politically incorrect . As Ben Sellers writes for HeadlineUSA.com , while some restaurants, like Cracker Barrel , have successfully fought off the takeover of corporate wokeness , Hooters recently announced the closure of its last New York location, the New York Post reported . “Thanks for the mammaries,” the paper wrote in a nod to the voluptuous waitresses who became a

DOJ Sues States Over Alleged Failure To Turn Over Food Stamp Data Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times , The Trump administration has sued four states, accusing them of withholding crucial data on food stamp applicants. Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania refused to turn over information to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that would let federal officials identify fraud , Trump administration lawyers said in lawsuits filed on June 26 against the states. Officials are asking judges to enter injunctions that would force state authorities to hand over the last five years of applications for the Supplemental

Johnson Says Reconciliation Is The Only Path For The SAVE Act Speaker Mike Johnson returned to the Capitol this afternoon after several hours at the White House, telling reporters that the only viable path to enact the SAVE Act is to attach it to a reconciliation bil l - and that work is already underway. " The only way to get the SAVE Act to the president's desk, we've been shown many times, is to put it on a reconciliation bill, so that is in the process, " Johnson said, adding that he believes a version of the measure would

Citizen Vigilante Should Terrify Western Governments Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker , This movie is a warning to globalists... Director Uwe Boll just released a movie that is ticking off all the right people. Called Citizen Vigilante , it is an unapologetic rejection of globalism, mass migration, Islamic conquest, and “woke” leftism. The movie bashes politicians, judges, NGOs, and law enforcement agencies that have bent over backwards to excuse inexcusable crimes committed by non-Western immigrants. It unequivocally demands a return to law and order. It urges viewers to seek justice. It threatens the continuing survival of any Western

Hormuz Tanker Traffic Plunges After Fresh US-Iran Strikes Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz tumbled since late last week, as ship owners and operators froze up amid the renewed hostilities between Iran and the US over the weekend. The Thursday attack on the container ship Ever Lovely prompted some shipowners to pull back and wait for additional information about how safe transiting the Strait is. The U.S. military on Friday carried out strikes on Iran in response to the attack on the vessel. Then, on Friday and Saturday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted strikes against multiple targets

"You're Next!": Democrats Discover The Mob Has A Mind Of Its Own Authored by Jonathan Turley, “You’re next!” This chant, at the victory celebration of the Democratic Socialists this week, was a message not for the oligarchs or the billionaires, but for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and the Democratic establishment. They were threatening that Jeffries would be the next to lose his House seat to a socialist candidate. It was a scene that has recurred throughout history, as establishment leaders are overtaken by the very mobs they sought to use for their own purposes. For years, Jeffries has

Supreme Court: Lisa Cook Keeps Job - For Now, Lets Trump Fire FTC Commissioners The Supreme Court on Monday handed President Trump a significant defeat - ruling 5-4 that his attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook was procedurally invalid and that the Fed's century-old independence from presidential removal-at-will remains constitutionally intact. That said, it isn't over for Cook - as the Court said she can stay in her job for now - while she fights in lower courts against Trump's bid to oust her over allegations of mortgage fraud. In a majority opinion authored by Chief Justice Roberts

Mega Heat Dome Inbound For Washington, DC A massive heat dome is set to descend on the eastern half of the U.S., stretching from the Midwest to the East Coast and putting more than 230 million people in the crosshairs of temperatures above 90F, while millions will experience triple-digit temperatures during the Fourth of July holiday week and into weekend festivities. The Midwest will be the epicenter of the heat dome early in the week, with metro areas such as St. Louis and Detroit climbing into the mid- to upper 90s. By Wednesday, the heat shifts eastward, threatening record highs

Oil Markets Are Pricing A Supply Surge That Isn't Guaranteed Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com, Oil prices are tumbling as tankers stream out of the Strait of Hormuz, but most of that traffic is stranded vessels finally allowed to leave, not new supply heading in. Iran struck a commercial ship near Oman this week even as the 60-day U.S.-Iran ceasefire holds and markets keep pricing in a supply glut. The U.S. strategic petroleum reserve is at its lowest level in four decades, and China may resume buying once it stops selling off the cargoes it's offloading now. Crude oil

Meta Restricts Engineers' Use of Claude Code And Codex Over Model 'Distillation' Concerns Meta Platforms has instructed engineers in its Applied AI division to limit or restrict their use of Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex coding and agent tools , according to internal documents reviewed by The Information . The policy, driven by concerns over inadvertent model distillation, aims to prevent outputs from rival AI systems from contaminating Meta's own training data and model development processes for its Llama family of models (which, quite frankly, could only help). The move reflects the increasingly zero-sum nature of frontier AI development,

Biden's Own Party Heckled Him During A Speech, And Then He Embarrassed Himself Authored by Matt Margolis via PJMedia.com, It's been two years since Joe Biden's catastrophic debate against President Donald Trump, which ultimately made his party realize they could no longer pretend he was fit for office and forced him out of the race. Two years later, Biden is still proving how unfit he was, this time stumbling through a combative speech in front of the very people who used to cheer him on. Biden showed up Saturday night at the Maryland Democrat Party's Fight Back & Win Summit

Iran Contradicts Trump, Refuses Talks 'At Any Level' For Coming Days, While US Delegation Travels To Qatar Summary Iran Foreign Ministry contradicts Trump on Doha talks: "We will not hold any negotiation meetings at any level with the American side in the coming days." US-Iran talks may resume Tuesday in Doha, Trump declaring the plan in a Monday Truth Social , with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveling to Qatar, though Tehran denies technical negotiations are scheduled. Qatar suspended most maritime activity as security deteriorates , while shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted & slowed. Recent US-Iran strikes

A $1,000 Playstation 6? Sony Won't Sell "At Significant Losses" Anymore The PlayStation 6 is shaping up to launch during one of the most challenging periods in recent consumer electronics history. Soaring prices for key components - particularly RAM and high-speed SSDs - have pushed the estimated component cost for the next-generation console close to $1,000 , according to recent analysis . Combined with Sony’s latest comments to investors, this suggests that a significantly higher launch price than many had hoped for is no longer out of the question. In a recent investor Q&A session noted by Wccftech , Sony

DOJ Grand Jury Probes Neville Roy Singham's Marxist NGO Empire: Report Perhaps we are finally learning why President Trump has taken to Truth Social in recent days to blast the socialists and Marxists who are transforming the Democratic Party into an anti-American movement that seeks to end capitalism and the Western world. The party's leftward drift became so glaring last week that even top Democrats were forced onto mainstream media to address the party's dangerous shift toward the far-left. The timing of Trump's Truth Social posts suggests the president may have been briefed on a federal grand jury probe in

Tether's USDT Jumps To 8.5% Premium In India After Crypto Payment Crackdown Authored by Shaurya Malwa via CoinDesk.com, Raids on crypto payment firms in Bengaluru disrupted the pipeline that feeds dollar-pegged USDT to Indian platforms, pushing its local price more than 8.5% above the dollar, roughly double the usual gap. The price of Tether's USDT, the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin, has climbed to more than 8.5% above its dollar value on Indian platforms after a government crackdown on crypto payment firms choked off the token's supply into the country. USDT traded around 102.88 rupees over the weekend against an official dollar-rupee

The 51-year-old daughter of late president Alberto Fujimori secured the top office after authorities spent weeks reviewing contested ballots Peru’s conservative president-elect Keiko Fujimori has vowed to restore “order and hope” after defeating left-wing candidate Roberto Sanchez, in the latest victory for a resurgent Latin American right. Fujimori won the 7 June presidential runoff by the slimmest of margins, outpolling Sanchez by fewer than 50,000 votes out of the more than 18 million ballots cast, the final results showed. Continue reading...

More than 100 people removed on ICE flight were being held in hotel in La Guaira when earthquakes struck More than 100 people just deported from the United States were being held in a hotel when earthquakes struck Venezuela, setting off a scramble to find survivors and bodies buried in the rubble, according to survivors. A deportation flight from Miami arrived in Venezuela hours before Wednesday’s earthquakes. Onboard were 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children, according to ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First, which tracks deportation flights. They were transported to a hotel in La

Caracas and La Guaira affected by 4.6-magnitude tremor as death toll passes 1,700 and humanitarian crisis grows A strong aftershock has rattled northern Venezuela, sending terrified residents racing on to the streets five days after the twin earthquakes that killed 1,719 people, left tens of thousands missing and triggered a growing humanitarian emergency. The aftershock early on Monday – which the US Geological Survey measured at a magnitude of 4.6 – shook the capital, Caracas, and the devastated port city of La Guaira, where rescue crews are still hoping to pull as many survivors as possible from the rubble. Colombia’s

No damage reported in 4.6 magnitude aftershock; At least 1,450 people are known to have died in initial quakes but number is expected to rise In an update to X, El Salvador’s president has said that after hours of intensive work rescuers have freed Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas, 21, who was trapped under a building in Caraballeda, La Guaira, calling the operation “a miracle”. “This rescue was made possible thanks to the coordinated effort of the rescue teams from Venezuela, Mexico, and El Salvador, who worked tirelessly to reach Aaron,” Nayib Bukele wrote in a social media post, adding that

Lucas Trejo of Argentina loses wife and two children while Héctor Bello’s partner dies saving their daughter Family members of two professional footballers are among those killed by the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela in a catastrophe that has claimed at least 1,719 lives . Among the reported victims are the wife and two children of Lucas Trejo, an Argentinian footballer signed to Club Sport Marítimo of La Guaira. He searched through rubble in the coastal city for his wife, Yanina, and their children, Aaron and Ainhoa, for three days before their bodies were recovered by rescue workers. Continue reading...

Two sides agree to try to make bilateral relationship ‘more balanced’ after weeks of threats The EU and China have agreed to enter three months of talks to try to avoid a trade war over the bloc’s €360bn (£310bn) annual import/export imbalance. In their first joint statement in seven years, the two sides agreed in Brussels to open a formal trade consultation after weeks of threats and recriminations from China if the EU imposed any measures to stop the flood of goods and components into the bloc. Continue reading...

Value of some chip manufacturers have tripled, or more, driving Asia Pacific stock markets sharply higher Shares in chipmakers have surged in the first half of this year as investors piled into companies that make the hardware underpinning the AI boom, according to analysis. Investors have driven up the value of semiconductor and memory chip manufacturers, whose profits have soared during 2026, at the expense of some large software companies, which have fallen out of favour this year. Continue reading...

Simon Peter Carman, 46, has denied the charges against him Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast An Australian man has been charged with the murder of a teenage girl whose naked body was found in a suitcase in Thailand. Pattaya City police told the Guardian the man, identified as Simon Peter Carman, 46, has denied the charges against him. Continue reading...

Election will determine balance of power in New Caledonia before fresh negotiations with France on the territory’s status Polls opened in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia on Sunday for the archipelago’s first provincial elections since 2019, after the vote was delayed as talks stalled over its political future. The election, initially planned for 2024, will determine the balance of power in New Caledonia ahead of fresh negotiations with France on the territory’s status, with independence remaining the defining political issue. Continue reading...

The 46-year-old was stopped at about 9.30pm on Friday while preparing to board a Jetstar flight to Perth, according to police and local media Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast An Australian man has been arrested at a Thai airport in connection with the alleged murder of a 17-year-old girl whose naked body was found in a suitcase, according to local police. The man , 46, was stopped at about 9.30pm on Friday while preparing to travel on a Jetstar flight to Perth, according to

Melissa McIntosh doubles down on suggestion party might need a ‘rebrand’ to win back voters. Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Chalmers defends house price forecasts The government has been facing some heat over the cooling house market around Australia with falling auction clearance rates, and forecasts that house prices in Sydney and Melbourne could fall more than $100,000. Auction clearance rates in Brisbane came up on the weekend, if you compare the preliminary numbers from the week before. They also came up in Adelaide. They came up nationally in

Federal court judge rules Ofir Birenbaum breached parts of settlement with Middle Eastern restaurant reached after incident when working with Daily Telegraph Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A pro-Israel activist breached parts of a legal settlement with Sydney restaurant Cairo Takeaway, a court has ruled, after he claimed to have been “completely vindicated” following the settlement. Justice Robert Bromwich handed down his decision in the federal court on Tuesday, in the latest chapter of a long-running feud with Ofir Birenbaum, who visited the popular

NSW transport minister says growth in shared schemes is a positive development but pedestrians are ‘crying out for order’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Shared ebikes cluttering Sydney footpaths will be kicked to the kerb in the coming months under funding to establish marked parking bays, the New South Wales government says. On Tuesday, the state government announced $6.6m in funding for Sydney local councils to nominate and paint dedicated parking areas. Each council will be given up to $200,000. Continue reading...

Federal and NSW police say more than 100 letters sent to MPs and community leaders since 2015 Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Police are appealing for help in tracking down the mystery author of more than 100 letters, some threatening, sent to high-profile community figures. The Australian federal police and New South Wales police have released excerpts of anonymous letters sent by someone who goes by “Scorpio” and “Bullit”. Continue reading...

In the space of a week, two major musicals, Waitress and Beetlejuice, and a $20m opera were forced to cancel shows amid skyrocketing costs, putting hundreds out of work Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australia’s theatre industry is in desperate need of tax reform to keep it alive, experts have warned the federal government, after two major touring musicals and a $20m opera cancelled shows in the space of a week, citing skyrocketing costs and soft box office sales. Broadway musical Waitress , starring Rob Mills and Natalie Bassingthwaighte, announced on Sunday that

Two people said to be in critical condition after CCTV shows man dropping backpack at residential building lobby An explosion in Monaco has triggered a police hunt for a man suspected of detonating a makeshift bomb that injured three people. The blast occurred on Monday evening in the semi-enclave famous for casinos and superyachts, French media reported. Continue reading...

Four women among the dead and two people arrested after incident in city west of Hamburg Four women and two men have been killed in a shooting at a youth welfare facility ⁠in northern Germany, police said. Two people including the suspected ⁠shooter were arrested. The incident took place in Stade, a city close to the port city of Hamburg, on Monday afternoon. Police said the victims, employees of the shelter, were all shot inside the building. Five died at the scene and the sixth died in hospital. Police said the death toll could rise. Continue reading...

Red warnings issued in Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Balkans, with authorities urging people to stay indoors Parts of central, eastern and southern Europe sweltered on Monday as the “heat dome” behind last week’s record-breaking temperatures shifted east, bringing dangerous conditions to a new swathe of the continent. Budapest is forecast to exceed 40C on Tuesday, according to models from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Continue reading...

German police say two people were apprehended after ‘numerous’ shots were fired at a youth care facility in Stade Meanwhile, Ukraine is bracing to absorb the impact of the heatwave on its energy network, already pummelled by Russian attacks over more than four years of war, AFP reported. Grid operators in at least five regions – from Ivano-Frankivsk in the west to Zaporizhzhia on the frontline in the south – announced temporary restrictions on energy usage would be in force during parts of Tuesday. Continue reading...

Parcels of goods worth under €150 will no longer enjoy ‘de minimis’ exemption, exploited by platforms such as Temu and Shein Business live – latest updates The European Commission has said it hopes to prevent the “desertification” of Europe’s high streets, as it prepares to introduce a customs tax on small parcels in an attempt to curb cheap Chinese imports. Consumers have been able to buy up to €150 (£129) worth of goods, including fast fashion, cosmetics and toys, without any customs charges as part of a “de minimis” exemption, a tariff break meaning too small to matter. Continue reading...

US president posts that meeting will take place on Tuesday in Qatari capital after exchange of fire in strait of Hormuz Iran is jealously competing with Oman as decision-maker over strait of Hormuz Donald Trump has claimed that Iran has agreed to hold talks in Doha after the US and Tehran traded fire in the strait of Hormuz this weekend, threatening the collapse of a ceasefire meant to keep the strait open and pave the way for peace talks. In a terse post on Truth Social, the US president claimed the meetings would take place in the Qatari capital, as

Tehran believes it should control the shipping route but its neighbour has its own plans for reopening it The strait of Hormuz is Iran’s chief bargaining tool in the negotiations with the US and so it was always likely to be the greatest point of contention. Every inch of the 24-mile-wide waterway is being contested in a test of wills and patience. For Iran, the continuation of the dispute is not a problem so long as it does not lose control. Continue reading...

Tehran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait amid efforts to open strait of Hormuz without Iran’s direct oversight Fresh hostilities in Gulf suggest US-Iran memorandum was too broadly worded A new round of escalating strikes between Iran and the US has continued, further undermining the fragile interim peace agreement between the two countries, and prompting Donald Trump to threaten violence that would ensure Iran “will no longer exist”. On Sunday, Tehran launched drone and missile attacks against Bahrain and Kuwait after new US strikes on sites in southern Iran, and threatened a “complete halt” to negotiations to end the war. Trump said

Document appears to have been subject to conflicting interpretations on key issues of Lebanon ceasefire and strait of Hormuz Middle East crisis live – latest updates The sudden eruption of fresh hostilities in the Gulf – just 10 days after Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding to end the conflict – threatens to put the two countries back on the path to war . It appears the deliberately opaque wording in the memorandum has been unable to withstand the pressure of conflicting interpretations, and as a result supporters of the deal inside Tehran are on the back

Iran attacked Bahrain and Kuwait after US strikes, and threatened a ‘complete halt’ to talks US and Iran trade strikes as both sides accuse the other of endangering ceasefire We will soon be closing this liveblog, but you’ll be able to stay up-to-date with our ongoing coverage of the Middle East here. Here is a summary of today’s events: Iran launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to US airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic , and threatened a “complete halt” in negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. US president Donald

Exclusive: Activist tells of his life as one of India’s most prominent political prisoners and his opposition to the government of Narendra Modi Prison is hardest at sunset. As the thousands of prisoners incarcerated in Delhi’s most infamous jail are cast out of their cells and forced into the dank yard until darkness falls, prisoner number 626714 feels the punishing dread begin to rise. Yet the inmate – better known as Umar Khalid – was recently moved to discover that another political prisoner, exiled at a camp thousands of miles from India, wrote of the very same feeling more than

Pakistan says strikes were aimed at a terrorist group while Taliban condemn ‘cowardly act of aggression’ Pakistani airstrikes in three eastern provinces of Afghanistan killed 36 civilians and wounded 163 others, Afghan officials have said, as attacks between the two countries showed no sign of abating. Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said the operations on Sunday night were aimed at a terrorist group his country blamed for a deadly militant attack in Karachi that killed three security personnel over the weekend. Continue reading...

Fears hard-won gains in reducing child mortality over 20 years are at risk after end of USAID funding for nutrition programmes Child malnutrition in Nepal has reached “alarming” levels, according to the largest ever survey of under-fives in the country. The new figures came just over a year after USAID, the former US flagship agency closed by the Trump administration in 2025, stopped funding work on child nutrition in Nepal. Continue reading...

Husband arrested after Sylvie Yasmina, 54, and five children found at home in north-western province Pakistan police say they have rescued a French woman and her five children after she told authorities she had been held captive by her husband for more than a decade and subjected to years of domestic abuse in the country’s north-west. The woman, identified as 54-year-old Sylvie Yasmina, was rescued earlier this week from a mud-brick home in Bara, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, the district police chief, Waqar Ahmad, said. Continue reading...

Rights campaigners and MEPs say meeting would normalise regime that erases women from public life Rights campaigners and MEPs have warned that a meeting between EU officials and a Taliban delegation in Brussels risks normalising a regime that has banned girls from school beyond the sixth grade and sought to erase women from public life, while its ranks include two leaders accused of crimes against humanity. A spokesperson for the Afghan foreign ministry confirmed that a delegation representing the ⁠Taliban had travelled to Brussels after the Belgian foreign ministry issued five single-day visas. Continue reading...

Amos review sets out recommendations for government, but falls short on systemic racism and traumatic births England to get powerful maternity commissioner after ‘shocking’ failings The findings of Lady Amos’ review into maternity and neonatal services across England, which state the system is ultimately no longer fit for purpose, are unsurprising. The systemic failures and inadequacies of these services have been uncovered in several reports already, including Donna Ockenden’s review of the “toxic” Nottingham NHS trust published last week. But what this report does offer are a set of recommendations for the government to implement. Amos states that if they

City regulator will require booming industry to prove its resilience to risk from October next year Crypto firms operating in the UK will be forced to prove they can weather market shocks and hold capital against risky assets as part of sweeping new rules announced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The regulations will increase supervision of the crypto industry, which has so far has faced minimal oversight despite a boom in popularity linked to social media influencers and a legitimisation drive under the US president, Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Health secretary announces move after Amos review finds childbirth and neonatal care in need of ‘urgent reform’ Analysis: Transparency, standards and a new commissioner – but does maternity review go far enough? A powerful maternity commissioner will be appointed to push through an urgent transformation of childbirth care in England after a major review concluded that it had multiple failings. Ministers have bowed to growing pressure by agreeing to recruit the UK’s first commissioner for maternity and neonatal care. Whoever takes on the role will pursue hospitals over persistent failures in care, ensure wide-ranging improvements are made and try to

The prospective new prime minister will need to deliver on his ability to communicate – and get the big decisions right When Keir Starmer welcomed Mark Rutte , the Nato secretary general, outside No 10 on Monday, the attire fitted the moment: dark formal suits, polished leather shoes. Almost 200 miles to the north, when Andy Burnham strode into the engine hall of the People’s History Museum in Manchester, the vibe could not have been more different. Dressed in his trademark dark T-shirt and jacket, Burnham could just as easily have been walking down the street outside. He even began

Dan Jarvis persuaded Rachel Reeves to reduce £18bn funding gap that led to predecessor resigning The new defence secretary has secured an extra £1.5bn to the UK’s long-delayed defence investment plan, with the bulk of that to be spent on drones to deter Russia and Iran. Rows about closing an £18bn funding gap had led to the resignation of John Healey and raised questions about Britain’s commitments to Nato – though on Monday the head of the alliance told the Guardian he believed the UK would honour its commitments. Continue reading...

In blistering dissent, Sonia Sotomayor writes ‘the court gives the president a power unknown even to the English crown’ Key cases today: Trump can fire federal regulators ; Lisa Cook firing unconstitutional ; bid to appeal $5m E Jean Carroll verdict ; mail-in ballots arriving after election day The supreme court is due to release some of its final opinions at 10am ET, with major decisions including on Donald Trump ’s effort to end birthright citizenship and to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook still to come. Last week the court handed the Trump administration huge wins in major rulings

Carl Rinsch requested $11m for never-finished sci-fi series but diverted money to personal account, prosecutors said Hollywood writer-director Carl Rinsch was sentenced Monday to two-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of defrauding Netflix out of $11m for a never-finished sci-fi series. Supporters including Keanu Reeves had asked the court to show him leniency. Rinsch, best known for the 2013 samurai fantasy film 47 Ronin, was convicted in December of federal wire fraud and other charges. According to prosecutors and trial testimony, he told Netflix he needed $11m to finish a show called White Horse but diverted the money into

Challenger Dan Sullivan had been booted from ballot, but supreme court ruled he can compete against senator of same name A man with the same name and party affiliation as Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican, is qualified to run for the seat and ordered election officials to place him on Alaska’s primary ballot in August, the state supreme court ruled Monday. The ruling came hours after arguments on Monday and just days after state court Judge Thomas Matthews found the division of elections had “abused its discretion” in booting the challenger Sullivan from the ballot. The supreme court, in a

Sonderling is filling in as acting secretary after Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced she was leaving in April Donald Trump announced he is nominating Keith Sonderling to serve as US secretary of labor, a role he is currently filling as acting secretary after Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s announced her departure in April. “It is my Great Honor to announce that I am nominating Keith E. Sonderling, the outstanding Acting United States Secretary of Labor, to be permanent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Keith previously served as Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer and, during my First Term, worked at the U.S. Department of Labor

Settlement requires archbishop to write apology letter to each survivor and implement child protection reforms The San Francisco Catholic archdiocese has agreed to pay $395m to settle more than 500 lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by church officials, plaintiffs’ attorneys said Monday. Salvatore Cordileone, the San Francisco archbishop, will have to write an apology letter to each survivor as part of the settlement. Continue reading...

Lutao Cen was swimming off Margarita Island, where he has lived for four decades, when twin earthquakes measuring above magnitude 7 struck northern Venezuela within two minutes. Only after returning to shore did he learn what had happened. Messages flooded his WeChat feed. Friends in Caracas, Valencia and Maracay described buildings collapsing and streets filled with dust. Then came the news he had feared most. A close friend in La Guaira, chairman of the local Chinese association, had been...

The recent visit of Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, carried the task of accelerating the development of the Northern Metropolis. This is not another urban expansion, but a strategic test of whether Hong Kong can reinvent its role in the nation’s innovation landscape. At its core, the Northern Metropolis bears a dual mission. For Hong Kong, it must become a growth engine, creating a third curve of development, beyond finance and real estate, by nurturing original...

Alex Murdaugh was back in court Monday on charges he killed his wife and son, appearing silently at a pretrial hearing that was mostly short on substance but long on spectacle as the true-crime sensation continues to captivate. Murdaugh’s murder convictions and sentence of life in prison were overturned last month by the South Carolina Supreme Court. On Monday, a new judge laid out a timeline for hearings set the retrial to begin April 5. She also nailed down deadlines for making sure the...

Swiss authorities on Monday returned 18 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria in a ceremony at the National Museum in Lagos, the latest addition to the nation’s growing collection of repatriated treasures. Countries across Africa have been pushing in recent years for the restitution of artefacts and artworks taken during the colonial period – including Nigeria’s famed Benin Bronzes, which were looted as spoils of war by the British and today are scattered in museums and private collections across the...

A conservative law professor known for his expansive views of presidential power and for decades-old memos that justified harsh interrogation techniques after the September 11 terror attacks says he will be advising a team of prosecutors investigating whether former police and intelligence officials conspired against US President Donald Trump. John Yoo confirmed in an email to Associated Press on Monday that he would be helping Joe diGenova, the former Justice Department prosecutor who was...

French police on Monday detained a couple after their 15-month-old twin daughters died of suspected dehydration, a source close to the investigation said. The couple’s four other children, aged three, four, five and six, were hospitalised with dehydration but were not in life-threatening condition, the source said. The parents alerted emergency services in the northern town of Beuvrages after discovering the twins in their beds, a police source said. Preliminary findings indicate that the...

In a bid to cool searing trade tensions, the European Union and China have launched a new ministerial-level platform for solving grievances, with Brussels insisting that disputes over trade imbalances, export controls and intellectual property must deliver “tangible results” by October. On Monday, in the middle of marathon talks in the Belgian capital, the sides issued a rare joint statement, in which they announced four initial workstreams, focused on trade and investment balancing, export...

Penelope Keith, a comic performer who shone as flinty but lovable upper-crust characters in British sitcoms The Good Life and To the Manor Born, has died aged 86. Keith’s family said on Monday that she had been diagnosed with cancer and died at her home in Surrey, near London. Keith began her acting career onstage and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963 but she found her greatest fame on television. She won a Bafta (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award in 1977 for The Good...

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has visited Russia and then China following a series of public exchanges with Ukraine, meeting President Xi Jinping in Beijing and Russian President Vladimir Putin at his Valdai residence. Lukashenko told Xi that being in China was for him “like coming home”, Belarusian journalists accompanying the delegation reported on Monday. Xi said China supported Belarus in preserving its state sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, according to...

The US Supreme Court refused on Monday to let President Donald Trump ⁠fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook as it stood firm to preserve the central bank’s cherished independence against an unprecedented challenge. The court, in a 5-4 ruling, blocked Trump’s bid to become the first president to remove a Fed official since Congress created the central bank in 1913. In his second term as president, ⁠Trump has tested the limits of presidential power in numerous other ways as well. Conservative...

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a push by President Donald Trump to throw out a jury’s finding that he sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll at a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. The High Court declined to take up the case in a brief, unexplained order, as is typical. There were no noted dissents. Trump’s lawyers had argued that allegations leading to the US$5 million verdict were propped up by “highly inflammatory” evidentiary rulings, including...

Russian missiles and drones killed at least 11 civilians and injured 40 others in Ukraine on Monday in what President Volodymyr Zelensky described as “horrific attacks”, while the nation’s energy grid buckled under temperatures in excess of 36 degrees Celsius, hit by the deadly heatwave that has afflicted much of Europe. Russian drone and missile attacks have decimated Ukraine’s energy network since Moscow invaded in February 2022, causing tens of billions of dollars worth of damage and leading...

Six people were killed in a shooting on Monday at a youth welfare facility in the northern German town of Stade, police said. Five people – four women and a man – died at the scene of the shooting. A sixth, also an adult, died later in hospital. A main suspect was arrested, while another two people were subject to “police measures” on suspicion of involvement, police said in a statement without elaborating. They said several people were wounded, some of them seriously, German news agency dpa...

The deadly heatwave that’s set temperature records across western Europe for more than a week has shifted east to scorch Hungary, Romania and the Balkans. Hungary’s Budapest is expected to top 40 degrees Celsius (104F) on Tuesday, according to models from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Belgrade in Serbia and Bucharest in Romania will reach 38 degrees and 37 degrees, respectively, on Monday. Red warnings for extreme heat have been issued in Poland, Hungary, Romania,...

Andy Burnham, Britain’s presumptive next prime minister, has set out details giving more powers to local government as part of a plan to spread wealth and economic growth. Saying Westminster “is not working” and is “broken”, he set out a sweeping economic vision in a key speech from Manchester – where he was mayor for nine years – to bring voters, colleagues and financial markets up to speed with his ideas during his rapid progress towards power. “We need to change politics and we need to do it...

As more patients recover from the world’s largest recorded Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak, doctors are beginning to piece together how the rare virus behaves, offering the clearest picture yet of one of the disease’s least-studied strains. The number of recoveries reported by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) health authorities almost doubled in a week, rising to 148 on Thursday from 80 on June 18, even as treatment centres admit dozens of patients daily. ⁠The DRC said late on ⁠Sunday that...

The critical 72-hour window for finding survivors of the powerful twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela had mostly closed by Monday, leaving international teams facing a grim race against time to pull anyone else alive from the debris. The death toll has surpassed 1,450 and nearly 200 buildings have completely collapsed. On Monday, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele shared the rescue ⁠of 21-year-old Aaron Levi from a collapsed building in the disaster-stricken state of La Guaira. “This rescue...

Every few minutes, the mortuary owner’s phone rings. Since a record-smashing heatwave started taking lives and storage space for bodies in Paris and beyond, the funeral directors and mourning families calling him mostly have the same question: do you have room for one more? With all 32 places in his cold room taken, Zouhaeir Hertelli reluctantly has to gently say “Non”, over and over and over again. “We’re facing a really catastrophic situation,” he said. “I’m getting hundreds of calls.” As the...

Nasa is racing to save an ageing telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission. The US$30 million salvage operation gets under way as soon as this week with the planned launch of a robotic lifesaver. Nasa hired start-up Katalyst Space Technologies to boost the Swift Observatory to a higher orbit where it can continue hunting for some of the universe’s biggest explosions. A three-armed spacecraft built by Katalyst will chase after Swift once it takes off from an atoll in the...

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China’s AI-powered laser mosquito zapper goes viral after crowdfunding success 2. Why Malaysia’s tourism boom lives and dies on a Chinese app 3. As Europe sizzles amid extreme heat, the hunt for China’s aircon remains elusive 4. Cathay Pacific says sorry to actor Wu Chun over 3-day luggage delay...

The public consultation for Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s last policy address of his current term is under way. Will he, for example, listen to the people about whether the baby bonus, one of the initiatives aimed at raising the birth rate and which is set to expire in October, should continue? Lee did say in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post that his government plans to “collect wisdom” before deciding. According to the chief executive, Hong Kong experienced a 10 per...

Sovereign wealth funds and central banks managing US$29 trillion in assets are turning to energy assets, and raising concerns about the dollar, in a portfolio reassessment driven by unprecedented geopolitical shifts, according to a survey ‌published on Monday by independent global investment management firm Invesco. The survey of 90 sovereign wealth funds and 54 central banks showed an increasing focus on diversification, and investment portfolios that can “take a hit and still hold it together”...

Iranian and US technical teams working on the implementation of an interim peace deal are expected to meet in Doha in the coming days, after tit-for-tat weekend strikes threatened to derail the fragile accord. The exchanges have underscored the fragility of a Pakistan-brokered agreement to end the conflict that has killed thousands and snarled the flow of oil shipments through the vital Strait of Hormuz. Although a ceasefire took effect in April, sporadic violence has flared up in the Gulf...

US President Donald Trump lashed out on Sunday at Washington’s presumptive next mayor, calling her a communist who would destroy the capital city, even as he touted grandiose building projects including the refurbishment of a golf course. Trump said in the Truth Social post that he would meet Janeese Lewis George, who prevailed in the Democratic Party mayoral primary on Tuesday which all but assures that she will win November’s election in the heavily Democratic city. But Trump warned that he...

Andy Burnham, the Labour lawmaker expected to replace Keir Starmer as British prime minister, will outline his vision for Britain on Monday, his office said, promising to change how the nation is governed with power moving from London to ‌the regions. Burnham, who returned to Westminster earlier this month after winning a parliamentary seat, is currently the only declared candidate to take over from Starmer and could be installed in Downing Street within weeks. Starmer announced last week he...

Thousands of protesters descended on the Serbian city of Kraljevo on Sunday, keeping up pressure on President Aleksandar Vucic a day after he said he would step down ‌within weeks to pave the way for early presidential and parliamentary elections. Although many protesters expressed satisfaction with Vucic’s resignation, they fear he may not fully relinquish power. Analysts say he may try to run for prime minister and install an ally in the presidency so he can continue to wield power. “I cannot...

⁠Kate, the Princess of ⁠Wales, said on Sunday that she had ⁠scaled the three highest peaks in the UK in 24 hours to raise money for a cancer charity, citing it as a personal achievement following her own battle with the disease. Kate, 44, the wife of heir to the throne Prince William, is in remission after ‌undergoing chemotherapy for an undisclosed form of cancer and, while she has returned to royal duties, she has spoken of the toll the illness has taken on her and her family. In a post on her...

Ukraine kept up its heavy drone assault on Russia, setting fire to a major oil refinery in the south, as President Vladimir Putin acknowledged for the first time on Sunday that the country was facing a “certain deficit” of fuel and vowed to strengthen protection of oil facilities and boost fuel output. Ukraine has markedly stepped up its long-range attacks on Russian military industries and energy facilities in recent months, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for its invasion – now in its fifth...

Turkish police on Sunday detained at least 50 people, including a journalist, during a Gay Pride event in Istanbul that went ahead despite a ban by local authorities and the lockdown of the city’s main gathering point, organisers said. Police stepped up security around Istanbul’s famed Taksim Square, erecting iron barriers, while local officials banned demonstrations in key rallying areas, including the Asian-side district of Kadikoy. The governor’s office also restricted subway transport in...

Car bombs and gun attacks killed five members of Israel’s Arab minority Sunday, the latest violence to hit a community that has already recorded dozens of deaths this year. Criminal violence has escalated among Israel’s Arab minority in recent years, where gangs extort residents and business owners for protection and frequently kill those who fail to pay. In Jaffa, part of the Tel Aviv municipal area, a car bomb killed a man in his 40s, police and emergency services said, while Israeli news...

A skydiving plane crashed on Sunday in northeastern France, killing all 11 people on board – among them a group of nurses – local authorities said, the country’s deadliest ever general aviation accident. The crash in the town of Tomblaine killed five instructors, five students and the pilot, said Yves Seguy, the prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department. The students were nurses, according to the head of Meurthe-et-Moselle’s nursing council, Thierry Pechey. “They were colleagues who had...

Generals losing a war examine the enemy, battlefield and their own forces. Brussels prefers a different sequence, ordering new weapons first and worrying about the diagnosis later. That instinct was on display at the recent European Council meeting. Faced with a trade deficit it cannot close and dependencies it cannot shake, the European Union agreed on a new label: “global macroeconomic imbalances”. To solve them, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was reportedly directed to...

A British man has been arrested in Ecuador after the body of a woman was found inside a suitcase despite him telling The Sun newspaper that he was watching England at the time. Matthew Ashley Foster-Smith is alleged to have caused the death of 36-year-old Natalia Villalba in a flat in the Chico neighbourhood of Bogota, Colombia, on June 18, local authorities said. But the 46-year-old from Bournemouth reportedly rang The Sun a day before his arrest and said: “I was watching England vs Croatia on...

A helicopter crash in Saudi Arabia killed 14 Saudi citizens on Sunday, the kingdom’s official press agency reported, adding that the aircraft belonged to state oil giant Aramco. The Saudi Press Agency, citing an official at the energy ministry, reported the helicopter crashed in Ras Tanura in the country’s east. “The accident claimed the lives of all 14 passengers, all Saudi citizens,” the agency said, adding that an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the crash. Aramco says it...

France has ⁠recorded 1,000 excess deaths ⁠during the blistering ⁠heatwave sweeping Europe, the public health agency said on Sunday, warning that the true figure was likely to be higher. Detailing its preliminary count of excess ‌deaths, Sante Publique said most of the fatalities involved older people and that it expected the mortality rate to rise as more information became available about deaths in residential care and homes. Europeans have been enduring blistering ⁠conditions during a heatwave...

On June 4, at a packing facility in Limuru near Nairobi, Kenya, avocados were being prepared for the Chinese market. The scene may seem mundane, but the politics behind it is significant. China has removed tariffs on imports from 53 African countries. African exporters are beginning to think about Beijing less as a distant buyer than as a market that could reshape their margins. When the UN projected 4 per cent gross domestic product growth for Africa for 2026, the figure landed quietly. No...

Iran and the US continued their attacks in the Gulf as each accused the other of violating an interim deal signed less than two weeks ago to end their four-month-old war. Shortly after President Donald Trump warned the US might “militarily complete the job”, Iran early on Sunday launched missiles and drones on US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain, continuing a series of escalating attacks. Beyond the Gulf, Israel said it had struck Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon as...

A recent apology by the Dutch prime minister to the Netherlands’ Malukan community for systemic mistreatment by the state has met with mixed responses; some welcomed the remorse while others demanded concrete action over symbolic words. On June 21, Rob Jetten formally apologised to members of the 75,000-strong Malukan community for the state’s mistreatment of the first generation of Malukans who arrived in Europe 75 years ago from the Maluku Islands in Indonesia, historically known as the Spice...

Hong Kong cannot be faulted for not working hard enough to catch up in the global artificial intelligence (AI) race. Government funding is flowing generously towards projects focused on AI adoption. In recent years, the government has pumped billions into building the necessary infrastructure, including HK$2.84 billion (US$364 million) for a semiconductor centre, HK$3 billion for an AI subsidy scheme and another HK$1 billion allocated for an advanced AI R&D institute. In March, the government...

Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday that he would resign his post within weeks, paving the way for early elections following youth-led protests that shook his tight grip on power. Vucic did not specify exactly when he would resign or when an election, either for parliament or for a new president, could be held. He has said in the past that he could leave the post amid speculation that he would try to switch to the formally more powerful position of prime minister of the...

A man with the same name and party affiliation as Alaska Republican US Senator Dan Sullivan is eligible to challenge the senator in the August primary, a judge ruled on Friday. Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews’ ruling overturns a June 15 decision by Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher to disqualify the challenger and keep him off the primary ballot. Matthews’ ruling can be appealed to the state Supreme Court. Lawyers for the state have said Tuesday is the deadline for a final ruling...

An 11-year-old boy was rescued from the rubble more than three days after twin earthquakes struck Venezuela, as rescuers on Saturday raced to find survivors and the death toll reached 1,430. Tens of thousands of people were reported missing as collapsed buildings dotted cities in a country already enduring an economic crisis and political upheaval after US special forces captured authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro in January. Millions of people were also feared to lack sanitation and other...

More than 100 Catholic bishops, nuns, priests and parishioners joined a procession across ⁠the US-Mexico border on Friday evening, urging the US government to treat migrants with dignity and respect. The procession, from Nogales, Arizona, to its sister city in the Mexican state of Sonora, was planned to coincide with commemorations of America’s 250th anniversary. “We want to be well together. This is what the Church is all about,” Bishop of Tucson, Arizona, James Misko said as he celebrated mass...

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that ‌the American military struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar ⁠sites for violating a US-Iran ‌ceasefire agreement. “There may come a point ‌when we are no ⁠longer ⁠able to be reasonable, ‌and will be forced to ‌militarily complete ‌the job that we ‌very successfully started,” ⁠Trump wrote on social media. “If that happens, the Islamic Republic ‌of Iran ‌will no longer exist.” The president’s remarks came soon after US...

As France sweltered under one of the worst ⁠heatwaves ever recorded this ⁠week, city dwellers scrambled for any ⁠escape they could find, with many checking into hotels to benefit from air conditioning and access to pools. Temperatures in Paris hit a June record of 40.9 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, a day after France recorded its hottest day since records ‌began nearly 80 years ago. But few private flats in the country have air conditioning, particularly those in the densely populated capital....

Melat Kiros’s challenge Tuesday to Representative Diana DeGette, who was elected the year before Ms. Kiros was born, is the latest Gen Z test in a year defined by generational upheaval.

It took six days to determine the outcome of the primary for Los Angeles mayor, and seven for the governor’s race.

Federal judge says that the administration’s attempts to block money for the $16 billion rail project were “flagrantly” illegal.

Time and again, President Trump has brushed off Americans’ concerns about the economy and their financial situations.

The clash reflects increasing skepticism of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which has been willing to pursue President Trump’s priorities.

As OpenAI and Anthropic prepare to go public, tech workers making six figures are grousing that they cannot compete with the new A.I. elite. Some doubt they can afford to stay.

Scholars say the “unknown unknowns” of using artificial intelligence in the workplace may be undermining the technology’s advertised benefits.

A law meant to end surprise medical billing has led to large paydays for some surgical assistants, who can earn far more than the doctors they help.

As positive parenting takes over France, one psychologist’s call for a return to discipline has set off a furious debate.

The death toll has risen to over 1,700, which is likely an undercount.

Dangerous heat is expected across much of the country through the Fourth of July weekend.

Emily Barker was one of two women who died fighting a large forest fire in Colorado this week.

Thousands of acres in Utah and other Western states have burned. Here is what to know about the firefighters who have died, the destruction so far and the spreading smoke.

Since last week, meteorologists issued a series of increasingly dire warnings about extremely critical weather conditions.

Now is a good time to catch up on films you may have missed. Our critics have thoughts.

Keiko Fujimori, a daughter of the former strongman Alberto Fujimori, returns her family’s movement to power, but with a narrow victory in a divided country.

The case for Haley Stevens’s candidacy rests on electability, but it’s far from clear how electable she really is.

The Supreme Court is bestowing new powers on a president who often behaves as an aspiring autocrat.

The authorities said a 45-year-old man opened fire at a youth facility after a quarrel about the custody of his baby daughter. The dead were all facility employees.