Minimalist News

A Greenland-To-Patagonia Defense Axis Authored by Rick Fisher via The Epoch Times, While President Donald Trump’s ambition to control Denmark’s massive territory of Greenland has many strategic merits, it is also politically problematic and risks wasting scarce political capital that could be directed toward a far greater prize. A far more decisive use of the administration’s three years of limited political capital would be to assemble a Greenland-to-Patagonia defense axis of cooperation that secures the Western Hemisphere from Russian and Chinese missile attack for generations to come. The military-strategic value of Greenland to the defense of the United States—especially to the future of Trump’s

Trump Kicking BRICS Out Of The Americas Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times, Since the end of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, the U.S. dollar has dominated global finance as the chief reserve currency. It’s used in international trade, sovereign lending, and central bank reserves. This dominance allows the United States to borrow cheaply and wield great financial leverage globally. Recent actions by the Trump administration, sometimes labeled a neo-Monroe Doctrine for its assertive posture toward perceived rivals, can be understood through the lens of preserving dollar supremacy against challenges from rising powers like China and Russia. THE RISE OF DE-DOLLARIZATION Though the

"Emergency Intervention": Trump To Cap Residential Electric Bills By Forcing Tech Giants To Pay For Soaring Power Costs Back in August, when the American population was just waking up to the dire consequences the exponentially growing army of data centers spawned across the country was having on residential electricity bills, we said that the chart of US CPI would soon become the most popular (not in a good way) chart in the financial realm. > In one year, this will be the most popular chart on this site pic.twitter.com/h93gWXMoNL > > — zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 11, 2025 One month later we added that it

PJM Trims Near-Term Load Forecast On Stricter Data Center Vetting, Economic Outlook By Ethan Howland of UtilityDive The PJM Interconnection scaled back its load growth forecast through 2032 compared to last year’s estimates, but the largest U.S. grid operator expects electric demand to surge past those expectations through the next decade, according to an annual report released Wednesday. PJM expects its summer peak load will grow by 3.6% a year to about 222 GW by 2036, up from its previous 3.1% forecast. The increase totals about 65.7 GW over the next 10 years. In a change that affects PJM’s upcoming capacity auction, the grid

First European Troops Arrive In Greenland In Dark Of Night In a move that will further inflame already rising tensions over Greenland, the first European troops have quietly begun arriving on the island following President Trump's repeated provocative declarations on the need for Washington to take control of the territory, according to Germany’s Bild. The newspaper reports that a Danish military transport aircraft landed overnight in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, carrying Danish soldiers alongside members of the French armed forces. Soon on the first plane's heels, another Danish Hercules aircraft touched down at Kangerlussuaq in western Greenland. Both planes reportedly flew with their transponders

36,000 Refugees Could Not Provide IDs When Entering US After Afghanistan Withdrawal: Deputy IG Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times, A deputy inspector general revealed in a Jan. 14 Senate hearing that tens of thousands of Afghan refugees could not provide key identification when entering the United States through a Biden-era parole program. Additionally, lawmakers revealed that more than 50 individuals in the United States with confirmed or suspected terrorist ties were allowed into the country under the same program. The joint hearing was held with the Senate Border Security and Immigration and Crime and Counterterrorism subcommittees, which spiraled into arguments

Day One Of UBS China Conference Reveals Emphasis On Humanoid Robotics The first day of the UBS Greater China Conference in Shanghai wrapped up earlier today. It is one of the largest investment conferences hosted by the global wealth manager and investment bank, with a particular focus on Asia. "Robotics has climbed the agenda from previous years, but humanoids in every home remain many years off," analysts from the bank said while covering highlights from day one. The analysts noted another developing theme: > AI will divide nations into "AI‑developed" and "AI‑developing" economies, with China firmly in the former. The US is pursuing a

Inflation And Revolution Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times, The revolutionary fervor in Iran today has deep political roots and invites every theory concerning outside influences that have a deep stake in the kind of regime that rules this country. But amidst all the speculation about what’s really happening here, there is an overwhelming factor rarely mentioned. Iran has experienced the sort of inflation that brings down whole governments. This is why so many among the merchant class have joined the revolutionary movements. For many years, the regime had pursued an inflationary monetary policy that devastated the value of the currency, the

Gavin Newsom Caught In Massive Self-Own Over California Gas Prices The children running Gavin Newsom's X account might be legitimately brain dead, as evidenced by their latest attempt to 'own' conservative influencer Benny Johnson.  On Tuesday, Johnson took to the streets of Los Angeles, posting from an ARCO station that "The average price of gas in America is $2.82 per gallon." "There are 19 states where you can find gas under $2," he continued, adding "Here in Los Angeles, it’s over $4 and you get to step over homeless people while you fill up." > The average price of gas in America is $2.82 per gallon. >

Muslim Nations Scramble To Acquire Pakistan's JF-17 Fighter Jet Via The Cradle Several Muslim-majority states are in talks with Pakistan to acquire the JF-17 fighter jet, co-produced with China, as they scramble to upgrade their air forces amid shifting regional security dynamics. According to multiple reports from Reuters, Pakistan is in talks or has reached preliminary arrangements with Libya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, and Bangladesh over fighter jets, drones, and related defense systems, with negotiations at varying stages. via Reuters Retired Pakistan Air Force air marshal Aamir Masood told Reuters that a preliminary $4 billion agreement had been reached with the Libyan National Army for an unspecified number of JF-17s and

"It Has Cast A Shadow Over The Permian": Drilling Slows In Texas As Venezuelan Oil Policy Raises Concerns Efforts by the Trump administration to push more Venezuelan oil onto the global market, with the goal of lowering prices, are creating concern in West Texas, where producers say cheaper oil threatens drilling, jobs and local business activity, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. Oil prices have fallen since last spring, recently dipping below $60 a barrel — a level at which many operators can keep pumping but often avoid starting new wells. President Trump believes exerting greater control over

The Whining Of Jacob Frey Authored by Monica Showalter via American Thinker, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey launched a lawsuit against the Trump administration for its faithful enforcement of U.S. immigration law, whining loudly that his city was being unfairly targeted because it was run by Democrats while other cities had higher numbers of illegal aliens. He was scored for it, of course, and just found new way to embarrass his city. According to the Washington Examiner's editorial page: > During his press conference announcing a suit brought by Minneapolis against the Department of Homeland Security, Mayor Jacob Frey questioned why thousands of immigration enforcement personnel, including agents from both Immigration

Polar Air Madness Returns As East Coast Winter Threat Rises Average temperatures across the Mid-Atlantic, including Washington, DC, have trended above the 30-year normal in recent weeks (pressuring NatGas futures) following an Arctic plunge in early December, but a second cold blast of the season is expected to arrive by the end of the week, bringing the risk of winter precipitation by late weekend that could extend into early next week. "Not one, not two, not three, but four or five plunges of polar air will probably hit the United States through the end of the month. The third, fourth, and fifth

Waste Of The Day: California County May Have Made Illegal Gifts Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations, Topline: A Dec. 18 report from the California State Auditor claims that Mendocino County is “vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse” after spending thousands of dollars on steakhouse dinners, unapproved donations and more. The annual dinners are a trademark of local District Attorney C. David Eyster, who earned $211,484 from taxpayers in 2024, according to Open the Books’ payroll records. Key facts: Law enforcement agencies can earn revenue by seizing property from convicted criminals, such as stolen cash or cars used to transport illegal drugs. California law

US Eyes Private Security Contractors To Protect Oil Assets In Venezuela A top White House priority for Venezuela in the aftermath of Nicolás Maduro is restarting and ramping up the country's oil production. But that's a tall order given many years of decaying and neglected infrastructure. Despite that Maduro's VP, now acting President Delcy Rodriguez, is currently running the country, there are still fears there could be a power vacuum if hostile forces challenge Caracas. There's not just the question of a political challenge, or even military insurgency which could further destabilize the country, but the role of the cartels. All of this

Devon-Coterra Tie-Up Would Create A New Permian Heavyweight By Julianne Geiger of OilPrice.com, Coterra Energy is kicking the tires on what would be one of the biggest U.S. shale mergers in years, holding talks about a possible combination with Devon Energy, according to people familiar with the matter. Nothing is signed, nothing is guaranteed, but the market liked the idea enough to send shares of Coterra Energy sharply higher on the day. The deal would be a classic all-stock shale mashup: two midsize operators with large footprints in the Permian Basin trying to bulk up as oil prices sit stubbornly around $60 a

Lindsey Graham Drowns Sorrows After Trump Refrained From Iran Attack On 'No Guarantees' NeoCon Senator Lindsey Graham wants to "go bigger" on Iran and is so disappointed that President Trump hasn't bombed it yet that he appears barely able to speak, with the color draining from his face. Journalist Ryan Grim comments on the below video clip of Graham responding to the lack of action by the US, "His life force is being drained in front of us by the lack of bombing." When this armchair general is deeply disappointed and shattered by American non-action abroad, it without doubt means something good

Chaos Is The Strategy, And Too Many Are Helping It Succeed Authored by Armstrong Williams via The Epoch Times, Let’s dispense with the convenient fiction: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not the primary threat to our communities. The real danger lies in the growing normalization of disorder, intimidation and lawlessness—often wrapped in the language of “justice” but driven by something far less noble. What we are witnessing is not spontaneous civic unrest. It is a sustained strategy of division, enabled by progressive activism untethered from accountability and amplified by legacy and social media ecosystems that reward outrage over truth. This is not how

MrBeast Broke? Billionaire YouTuber Claims He Has "Negative Money" As Tom Lee Invests $200M The allure of becoming a YouTube superstar often conjures images of endless wealth and effortless luxury. Yet for Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, the reality is more nuanced - and far less liquid. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Donaldson addressed the frequent media portrayal of him as a billionaire, clarifying the distinction between headline-grabbing net worth and actual cash on hand. “It’s funny talking about my personal finances because no one ever believes anything I say, because they’re like, ‘You’re a billionaire,’” Donaldson said.

Ron Paul: Making Imperialism Great Again? Authored by Ron Paul via the Mises Institute, It did not take long for President Trump to change the reason for sending the US military to “arrest” Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. The allegation that President Maduro ran a drug cartel was front and center in the months leading up to President Maduro’s “arrest.” Afterwards, President Trump said the invasion was about Venezuela’s oil and announced plans for the US government to send American oil companies into Venezuela. About a week after the invasion, President Trump had a meeting with executives from American oil companies

Mark Carney holds talks with Xi Jinping on rare Beijing trip as Canada seeks to diversify trade links away from US * Business live – latest updates Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China as he held talks in Beijing with President Xi Jinping, the first visit by a Canadian leader in eight years. Addressing Xi in the Great Hall of the People, Carney said: “Together we can build on the best of what this relationship has been in the past to create a new one adapted to new global realities.” Continue reading...

Women allege Spanish singer subjected them ‘to inappropriate touching, insults and humiliation … in atmosphere of control’ The Spanish singer Julio Iglesias has broken his silence over allegations that he sexually abused two women who worked in his Caribbean mansions, saying he has never “abused, coerced or disrespected any woman”. The 82-year-old entertainer, whose career spans six decades, had been accused by two female former employees who allege they had been sexually assaulted and subjected “to inappropriate touching, insults and humiliation … in an atmosphere of control and constant harassment”. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. * Trump news at a glance: The medal may be in Trump’s hands, but peace prize is not his, Nobel officials say Donald Trump is in Washington today. He’s due to meet with Mariá Corina Machado – Venezuela’s opposition leader – at 12:3opm ET. At the moment that’s closed to the press but we’ll let you know if that changes and bring you the latest. Later, Trump is set to host the champions of the 2025 Stanley Cup, the Florida Panthers, at the White House. We’ll be watching to get his reaction to the news of

Artist and beekeeper who highlights eco crisis plans to spend £40,000 award on building cultural centre in Peru An artist and beekeeper from a remote corner of the Andes has won one of the UK’s most prestigious contemporary arts awards and plans to spend the £40,000 prize on building a cultural centre in the Peruvian mountains. Antonio Paucar was declared the winner of the biennial Artes Mundi prize after presenting work ranging from a spiral made of alpaca wool to a video of him writing a poem – in his own blood – about the environmental crisis facing his region as he

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel prize winner had been sidelined by White House after US seized Maduro Donald Trump will host María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel peace prize winner, at the White House on Thursday for high-stakes talks on the oil-rich nation’s future following the US capture of Nicolás Maduro. Many in Venezuela and abroad had expected Machado to take charge after an elite US military team seized Maduro in a pre-dawn raid on 3 January and transported him to a New York City jail. Continue reading...

Yoon Suk Yeol’s conviction for obstructing own arrest separate from main trial that could lead to death penalty A South Korean court has sentenced former president Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison for mobilising presidential security forces to block his own arrest and abusing his powers. It is the first judicial ruling linked to the events surrounding his failed martial law declaration in December 2024. The ruling is separate from Yoon’s main insurrection trial, where prosecutors earlier this week sought the death penalty and a verdict is due next month. Continue reading...

US to lower tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15% as chip and tech businesses pledge $250bn spending in US operations The US said on Thursday that it had signed a deal with Taiwan to reduce tariffs on goods from the democratic island, while increasing Taiwanese semiconductor and tech companies’ investments in America. The agreement, the US commerce department said, “will drive a massive reshoring of America’s semiconductor sector”. Continue reading...

Crane in use on high-speed rail project hits passing train, causing it to derail At least 32 people in Thailand have been killed and scores injured after a crane collapsed on to a passenger train and derailed it, officials said. Footage from the scene verified by Agence France-Presse showed the crane’s broken structure resting on giant concrete pillars and smoke rising from the wreckage of the train below. Continue reading...

Results for 2025 risk further unsettling economies about China’s trade practices and overcapacity, and their own over-reliance on Chinese products China has reported a strong export run in 2025 with a record trillion-dollar surplus, as its producers brace for three more years of a Trump administration set on slowing the manufacturing powerhouse by shifting US orders to other markets. Beijing’s resilience to renewed tariff tensions since Donald Trump returned to the US presidency last January has emboldened Chinese firms to shift their focus to south-east Asia, Africa and Latin America to offset US duties. Continue reading...

Yoon is on trial for insurrection charges, after trying to declare martial law in late 2024 South Korean prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for former president Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed martial law declaration in December 2024, in the first insurrection trial of a Korean head of state in three decades. Prosecutors characterised the case as the “serious destruction of constitutional order by anti-state forces”, telling Seoul central district court that Yoon had “directly and fundamentally infringed upon the safety of the state and the survival and freedom of the people”. Continue reading...

Floods predicted for NSW south coast after severe storms dumped 180mm in six hours on Victoria’s Lorne and Wye River, washing cars into the sea on the Great Ocean Road * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Authorities have defended the timing of warnings for holidaymakers along Victoria’s surf coast who were hit by an “unprecedented” downpour on Thursday, as Sydney awaited its “soggiest weekend of summer” to date. Weatherzone forecasters predicted 20mm of rainfall was possible in Sydney on both Saturday and Sunday, which would be

The incident at Gunnedah near Tamworth is the third fatality involving police in the state this year * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A man armed with a bow and arrow has been shot dead by police in New South Wales as they carried out a welfare check – the third fatality involving officers this year. Authorities attended the man’s house in Gunnedah near Tamworth on Friday at 1.40pm after receiving a call about concerns for his welfare. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed * Penny Wong says Sussan Ley’s leadership ‘unsalvageable’ after Coalition flags opposition to new hate laws * Could Labor’s hate speech laws damage Australia’s free speech? Here’s what you need to know about the contentious bill * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Larissa Waters, the Greens’ leader, also says she’s concerned there has not been enough time to evaluate the legislation, warning there are a “raft of unintended consequences that could occur”. Waters told RN Breakfast: We’ve only had a handful of days to look at this legislation, and it’s very consequential

Calls for clear guardrails and consumer education before wider rollout of OpenAI’s health advice platform * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A 60-year-old man with no history of mental illness presented at a hospital emergency department insisting that his neighbour was poisoning him. Over the next 24 hours he had worsening hallucinations, and tried to escape the hospital. Doctors eventually discovered the man was on a daily diet of sodium bromide, an inorganic salt mainly used for industrial and laboratory purposes including cleaning and water treatment. Continue

The band pulled out over treatment of Randa Abdel-Fattah but delayed revealing their decision before confirming 27 February gig * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The British indie band Pulp will play at the Adelaide festival in February after initially pulling out of the event in protest at the cancellation of Palestinian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah. The band issued a statement on social media on Thursday night announcing that they would “honour our invitation to perform in Adelaide on 27 February” after the festival organisers performed a U-turn, apologised to Abdel-Fattah for her treatment and invited her

Move comes as calls for Australia-style social media ban for under-16s grow around world TikTok will begin to roll out new age-verification technology across the EU in the coming weeks, as calls for an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s grow in countries including the UK. ByteDance-owned TikTok, and other major platforms popular with young people such as YouTube, are coming under increasing pressure to better identify and remove accounts belonging to children. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Jesse Binnall and Joe Flynn, who campaigned to overturn 2020 election, seek to win Bosnia deal for little-known US firm Leading members of Donald Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election are seeking a huge European pipeline contract, the latest figures from the US president’s circle to mix business and geopolitics. Jesse Binnall, a lawyer who worked on legal actions advancing Trump’s baseless claim that the vote was stolen from him, and Joe Flynn, who also sought to undermine Joe Biden’s victory, have been in Bosnia this week to discuss the project. Continue reading...

Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and France’s Marine Le Pen among figures showing support for Hungary’s prime minister Rightwing leaders from around the world have come together to endorse Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, hinting at the symbolism that the country’s elections hold for global far-right movements even as the populist leader lags in the polls. A campaign video published online by Orbán this week includes endorsements from nearly a dozen leaders including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini, France’s Marine Le Pen and Germany’s Alice Weidel. Continue reading...

Lesbos court clears aid workers of people smuggling, a move Human Rights Watch called a vindication of their lifesaving activities at sea Two dozen aid workers, who had faced up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of smuggling migrants into Greece, have been acquitted by a court on Lesbos. The verdict was met with cheers, tears and cries of jubilation as the presiding judge announced the words that would end a seven-year legal ordeal for the humanitarians. All 24 had engaged in rescue work on the Aegean island at the height of the refugee crisis. Continue reading...

Almost 2.5 tonnes of narcotic seized and 30 people arrested after 15-month investigation into drug-smuggling network * Falling price of cocaine forces drug traffickers to reuse narco-submarines, say Spanish police Spanish police have arrested 30 people and seized almost 2.5 tonnes of cocaine after breaking up a criminal network that used teams of young swimmers to hide the drugs on moving, Europe-bound ships which were then attacked and relieved of their unwitting cargo before reaching port. The 15-month investigation began in October 2024 when Policía Nacional officers found 88kg of cocaine in a vehicle in the southern Spanish town of Mijas. The

Jafar Panahi, director of Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident, says Iranian leaders want to destroy country The Khamenei regime will not be able to maintain control over Iranian society after the violent suppression of the latest wave of protests, one of the country’s leading film-makers has predicted. “It is impossible for this government to sustain itself in this situation,” the director Jafar Panahi told the Guardian. “They know it too. They know that it will be impossible to rule over people. Perhaps their only goal right now is to bring the country to the verge of complete collapse and

Relative calm in Tehran and authorities say they have no plan to execute protesters but internet shutdown continues Iran’s nationwide protest movement appeared to have slowed on Thursday under the weight of a brutal crackdown by authorities that has left thousands dead and put tens of thousands in prison. In Tehran, Iranians reported relative calm on the streets as the sound of gunfire faded and fires were extinguished – a marked contrast from the weeks before when large crowds confronted security forces. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on Iran, read our coverage: * Trump says Iran has told him ‘killing has stopped’ as he pulls back from strike threats * Families of protesters killed in Iran tell of heartbreak Trump has told Reuters in that Iranian opposition figure Reza Pahlavi “seems very nice” but expressed uncertainty over whether Pahlavi would be able to muster support within Iran to eventually take over. Trump said it is possible the government in Tehran could fall due to the protests, but that in truth “any regime can fail”. Continue reading...

US allies’ lobbying appears to have helped persuade president to hold off for now on military assault Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Oman urged Donald Trump not to launch airstrikes against Iran in a last-minute lobbying campaign prompted by fears that an attack by Washington would lead to a major and intractable conflict across the Middle East. The warnings of chaos from the longstanding US allies appear to have helped persuade Trump late on Wednesday to hold off for the moment on a military assault. In the case of Saudi Arabia, its reticence led it to deny the US use of its

US president says he has been assured by Tehran ‘there’s no plan for executions’ of protesters * Iran protests – live updates * Iran crisis explained: what we know so far * Analysis: why western diplomats are wary of predicting regime’s end days Donald Trump has at least temporarily pulled back from threats to strike Iran, saying he has been assured the killing of protesters has been halted and no executions are being planned. Speaking to reporters in the White House on Wednesday night, the US president said: “We’ve been told that the killing in Iran

Eastern region on high alert as authorities try to track animal tearing through villages in Jharkhand after apparently becoming separated from herd Forest officials in India are on the hunt for an elephant that has killed more than 20 people in a days-long rampage through the eastern state of Jharkhand. Since the beginning of January, 22 people have been killed by a single-tusked elephant that has been tearing through forests and villages in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. Continue reading...

Delhi is world’s second largest purchaser of Russian crude, which is now cheaper than oil from Middle East Russia is already working to circumvent the latest US sanctions to ensure India can continue to import high levels of cheap Russian crude oil, according to industry analysts. Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, India has become the world’s second largest purchaser of Russian crude oil, which has been heavily discounted due to the impact of western sanctions. Continue reading...

Police ask Paramjeet Singh Pamma to install security cameras and reinforce door locks at his home Police have advised a high-profile Sikh activist in the UK to install security cameras at his home and reinforce door locks because of threats from Hindu nationalist elements. Paramjeet Singh Pamma, 52, said he had been visited by police and received verbal advice to increase his security due to intelligence suggesting threats to his safety. Continue reading...

UN and many western countries as well as human rights groups say that in the absence of a meaningful opposition the election is neither free, fair nor credible Voters in war-torn Myanmar queued up on Sunday to cast their ballots in the second stage of a military-run election, following low turnout in the initial round of polls that have been widely criticised as a tool to formalise junta rule. Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military ousted a civilian government in a 2021 coup and detained its leader, Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a civil war

Satat Sampada founders Harjeet Singh and Jyoti Awasthi say allegations are ‘baseless, biased and misleading’ Police have raided the home of one of India’s leading environmental activists over claims his campaigning for a treaty to cut the use of fossil fuels was undermining the national interest. Investigators from India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) claim Harjeet Singh and his wife, Jyoti Awasthi, co-founders of Satat Sampada (Nature Forever), were paid almost £500,000 to advocate for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty (FFNPT). Continue reading...

The new shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy said he was ‘sorry’ for how the Conservatives ‘handled certain things in those last few years’ in power A bit more from work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden now. He told Times Radio this morning there was “the same chaos and drama” on the right of politics as when the Conservatives were in power. Continue reading...

Up to 30,000 customers of South East Water had no supply or low pressure at height of incident Water has been restored to most homes across Kent and Sussex after almost a week of disruption. South East Water (SEW) said the outage, which began on Saturday, was the result of Storm Goretti causing burst pipes and power cuts. Continue reading...

Some supporters are concerned about the number of Conservatives being welcomed by their party, and fear it could alienate voters If Reform UK was officially celebrating Robert Jenrick’s defection to Nigel Farage’s party, the reaction of the rank-and-file was an altogether more complicated one – ranging from jubilation to despair that yet another Tory was coming onboard. “Enough already! Reform uk please take note, you are going to lose members and voters if you don’t cap this craziness … We don’t want a Tory party Pt II,” was the early response from James Scott, one of a number of members expressing their

Five organisations whose work fosters community, tolerance and empathy will share proceeds of readers’ generosity The Guardian has raised more than £1m in its Hope appeal to support grassroots charities whose work offers a positive antidote to social division, racism and hatred. The appeal, which closed on Thursday, had five partner charities that will share the donations: Citizens UK, the Linking Network, Locality, Hope Unlimited Charitable Trust and Who Is Your Neighbour? Continue reading...

Patrick Vallance says robots would take away ‘repetitive’ tasks, but Sadiq Khan warns AI will usher in ‘new era of mass unemployment’ Advances in AI and robotics will transform human jobs, starting with roles in warehouses and factories, the UK science minister has said, as the government announced plans to reduce red tape for robot and defence tech companies. Patrick Vallance said technological progress was creating a “whole new area” for robots to work in. “What’s really changing now is the combination of AI and robotics. It is opening up a whole new area, particularly in the sorts of things like humanoid

Denmark’s foreign secretary has denied the assertion and since reiterated that discussion over territory is a red line. France has warned the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent that taking Greenland would be “crossing the line” and could endanger the trade relationship with the EU. In an interview with the FT (£), the country’s finance minister Roland Lescure was asked if the EU would hit back with retaliatory trade sanctions if Donald Trump were to invade Greenland. “Obviously, if that happened we would be in a totally new world for sure, and we would have to adapt accordingly.” Continue reading...

Trump heaped praise on the Venezuelan opposition leader for presenting him with ‘her Nobel peace prize for the work I have done’ The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has presented her gold Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump after meeting him in the White House, nearly a fortnight after he ordered the abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. Machado, who received the award last year for her struggle against Maduro’s “brutal, authoritarian state”, told reporters on Thursday she had done so “in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to] our freedom”. Continue reading...

Washington Post reports local medical examiner found ‘asphyxia’ to be cause of Geraldo Lunas Campos’s death The death of a man who was being held at a federal detention camp in Texas in early January may be investigated as a homicide after the local medical examiner reportedly found the preliminary cause was “asphyxia due to neck and chest compression”. Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in July last year, was pronounced dead on 3 January. He had been in ICE custody at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent camp at the Fort

Heather Ammel says ex-Arizona senator pursued romantic relationship with her husband that led to couple’s breakup Kyrsten Sinema, a former US senator from Arizona, had a romantic relationship with a member of her security detail that led to the breakup of the man’s marriage, his ex-wife alleges in a lawsuit seeking at least $75,000 from Sinema. Matthew and Heather Ammel had “a good and loving marriage” with “genuine love and affection” before Sinema interfered, pursuing Matthew Ammel despite knowing he was married, Heather Ammel alleges in her lawsuit. Continue reading...

Anonymously sourced report that Jonathan Ross ‘suffered internal bleeding’ after killing Renee Good faced skepticism inside CBS newsroom Some CBS News employees expressed concern after the network cited two anonymous “US officials” on Wednesday to report that the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis “suffered internal bleeding to the torso” after the incident. CBS initially published the account about officer Jonathan Ross on X, formerly Twitter. About 30 minutes later, the network followed up with another post, containing a link to an article by two correspondents that similarly cited “two US officials briefed on his medical condition”. Continue reading...

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday even as he has questioned her credibility to take over her country after the US ousted leader Nicolas Maduro. The Nobel Institute has said Machado could not give her prize to Trump, an honour that he has coveted. Even if it the gesture proves to be purely symbolic, it was extraordinary given that Trump has effectively sidelined Machado, who...

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has proposed creating a new agency with US$2.5 billion to spur production of rare earths and the other critical minerals, while the Trump administration has already taken aggressive actions to break China’s grip on the market for these materials that are crucial to hi-tech products, including mobile phones, electric vehicles, jet fighters and missiles. It is too early to tell how the bill, if passed, could align with the White House’s policy but whatever the...

A hacker group with links to China recently used Venezuela-themed phishing emails in a malware campaign targeting US government-related entities, as cyberattack campaigns increasingly leverage geopolitical materials, according to Swiss cybersecurity firm Acronis. A malware campaign has used recent developments between the US and Venezuela as “thematic lures” to attack US government and policy-related entities with a back door that has espionage-focused capabilities, including basic remote...

The United States on Thursday said Iran halted 800 executions of protesters under pressure from President Donald Trump, after Gulf allies appeared to pull him back from military action over Tehran’s deadly crackdown on demonstrations. Iran was shaken over the last week by some of the biggest anti-government protests in the history of the Islamic republic, although the demonstrations appear to have diminished over the last few days in the face of repression and a week-long internet...

The United States has finalised a sale of Venezuelan oil – the first since Washington took control of the sector following the toppling of Nicolas Maduro, a US official told Agence France-Presse on Thursday. According to the official, who did not identify the buyer, the deal is worth US$500 million, and additional sales could take place in the coming days or weeks. “President Trump brokered a historic energy deal with Venezuela, immediately following the arrest of narcoterrorist Nicolas Maduro,...

Britain’s former ‍Conservative Party leadership candidate Robert Jenrick became the biggest-name defector to Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK on Thursday, saying the nation was broken and its two mainstream political parties rotten. Sacked by the Conservatives when his potential switch was leaked, Jenrick appeared alongside Farage at a press conference, the latest of 21 current ⁠or former Conservative lawmakers to join Reform. Farage’s anti-immigration party was ahead of both Prime Minister...

Pennsylvania federal prosecutors on Thursday announced charges against 26 people for allegedly rigging bets on college and Chinese professional basketball games, the latest case to accuse athletes of cheating at legalised sports betting that ⁠has exploded in popularity in the US. A 70-page indictment names more than a dozen former National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball players, a former NBA player and two sports-betting influencers who were previously charged in a sweeping NBA...

A federal appeal panel on Thursday reversed a lower court decision that released former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from an immigration prison, bringing the government one step closer to detaining and ultimately deporting the Palestinian activist. A three-judge panel of the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeal in Philadelphia did not decide the key issue in Khalil’s case: whether the Trump administration’s effort to throw Khalil out of the US over his campus activism and...

Minneapolis was on edge as US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke an 1807 law and deploy troops to quell persistent protests against the federal officers sent to the city to enforce his administration’s massive immigration crackdown. The threat came a day after a man was shot and wounded by an immigration officer who had been attacked with a shovel and broom handle. That shooting further heightened the fear and anger that has radiated across the city since an Immigration and...

European countries sent small numbers of military personnel to Greenland on Thursday as ‌Denmark said it was pressing on with plans for a “larger and more permanent” Nato presence to secure the island coveted by US President Donald Trump. The modest European deployments, meant to help ‍Denmark prepare military exercises, sent a strong message of support a day after a meeting of officials from the US, Denmark and Greenland failed to reach any breakthrough on the impasse. After that meeting, Trump...

US forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader US effort to take control of the South American country’s oil. The US Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of US President Donald Trump’s “established quarantine of...

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Ukraine was running out of options to strike a deal to end almost four years of war with Russia, as thousands were without heating in Kyiv in -12 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures following waves of Russian strikes on the country’s energy grid. Moscow has not backed down from its intention to seize the rest of east Ukraine as the fourth anniversary of its offensive – Europe’s worst war since World War II – looms. “The situation is...

When contemporary Europe engages with the world, it increasingly presents as two distinct Europes operating within the same institutional framework. This duality – a Europe of strategic dependence vs a Europe of normative assertion – creates a contradiction. For partners, particularly in China and across Asia, this is not merely an abstract identity crisis but a practical geopolitical puzzle that complicates engagement and challenges assumptions about Europe’s global role. One Europe, embedded...

A federal officer shot a man in the leg on Wednesday night in Minneapolis, a week after the fatal shooting of a local woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent touched off angry protests and an intensifying clash between state leaders and the Trump administration. The shooting followed a targeted traffic stop shortly before 7pm Central Time, when the man fled in his vehicle and crashed into a parked car, according to Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland...

Elon Musk’s platform X on Wednesday announced measures to prevent its AI chatbot Grok from undressing images of real people, following global backlash over its generation of sexualised photos of women and children. The announcement came after California’s attorney general launched an investigation into Musk’s xAI - the developer of Grok - over the sexually explicit material and multiple countries either blocked access to the chatbot or launched their own probes. X said it would “geoblock the...

US President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to unify his party behind his takeover of Venezuela succeeded Wednesday when all but three Senate Republicans voted to block a resolution opposing further military action in the country. US Vice-President J.D. Vance broke a tie vote in order to stop the resolution. The 51-50 vote followed fiery phone calls from Trump to Republican defectors who last week voted to advance the resolution. Trump’s success in flipping votes effectively ends one of the...

Four International Space Station (ISS) crew members splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, Nasa footage showed, after the first ever medical evacuation in the orbital lab’s history. A video feed from Nasa showed the capsule carrying American astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui land off the coast of San Diego at 12.41am local time. A health issue prompted their mission to be cut short, after spending five months in...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had held a “long call” with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez, the first known contact between the two leaders since the ousting of Nicolas Maduro. “We just had a great conversation today, and she’s a terrific person,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. He later said on social media that he and Rodriguez had discussed “many topics”, including oil, minerals, trade and national security. “We are making tremendous progress,” Trump...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday made a vague statement that he had been told “on good authority” that plans for executions in Iran have stopped, even as Tehran has indicated fast trials and executions ahead in its crackdown on protesters. The US president’s claims, which were made with few details, come after he told protesting Iranians in recent days that “help is on the way” and that his administration would “act accordingly” to respond to the Iranian government. But Trump has not...

On January 17, a quiet revolution will take place across around two-thirds of the world’s oceans. A landmark United Nations agreement known as the High Seas Treaty will formally enter into force, creating the first legally binding global framework to protect marine biodiversity in international waters. For the first time, activities beyond national jurisdictions – from industrial fishing to deep-sea mining and bio-prospecting – will be subject to environmental impact assessments, marine...

The Ford employee whose heckling of Donald Trump prompted an obscene gesture from the US president has been suspended, the US vehicle workers’ union said on Wednesday. During a tour of the Ford Motor Company’s F-150 factory in Dearborn, Michigan, on Tuesday, Trump raised his middle finger at the worker following catcalls, according to widely seen video of the incident. The heckler seemed to shout, in part, “paedophile protector”, US media reported – an apparent reference to suspicions that Trump...

A French applied mathematics professor has been charged with allowing a Chinese delegation to visit sensitive sites in a case of suspected espionage, a prosecutor said on Wednesday. The lecturer at a university engineering institute in the southwestern town of Bordeaux was charged on December 16 but released under judicial supervision, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The charges against him include “providing information to a foreign power” and “colluding with a foreign power”, which can be...

FBI agents searched a Washington Post reporter’s home on Wednesday as part of an investigation into sharing secret government information, officials said, ‍in a move that press advocates said threatened journalistic freedom. The reporter, Hannah Natanson, has covered US President Donald Trump’s campaign to fire hundreds of thousands of federal workers and shift remaining workers to implementing his agenda. US Attorney General Pam Bondi said federal agents had executed the search at the request...

The United States said on Wednesday that it was moving into the next phase of a Gaza ceasefire plan that involves disarming Hamas, rebuilding the war-ravaged territory and establishing the group of Palestinian experts that would administer daily affairs in Gaza under American supervision. US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in a post on X that the deal that the Republican president helped broker was entering its second phase following two years of war between Israel and Hamas,...

A top Danish official said on Wednesday that a “fundamental disagreement” over Greenland remained with US President Donald Trump after holding highly anticipated White House talks with Vice-President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The two sides, however, agreed to create a working group to discuss ways to work through differences as Trump continues to call for a US takeover of the semi-autonomous territory of Nato ally Denmark. “The group, in our view, should focus on how to...

When countries committed to supporting Ukraine met in Paris earlier this month to discuss Ukraine’s post-war security, Russia answered with fire. Just days after the summit, Moscow launched a strike that killed civilians and plunged Kyiv into darkness and cold, while also firing its nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile towards Ukraine’s Lviv region, attacks widely seen as intimidation rather than a battlefield necessity. The world wants peace. So why does Russia keep firing? Moscow is...

China is likely to accept Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips following US clearance, driven by immediate demand in the country’s vast tech sector, according to analysts – though they said Beijing would push to replace them over time. The American chip giant’s second-most-advanced AI processor can be exported to China from Thursday, as long as shipments total no more than half the amount sold in the US, according to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and...

As Russian President Vladimir Putin focuses his attentions on Moscow’s war in Ukraine, his strategic allies around the world have been left feeling neglected – or worse. In Venezuela, officials now think their years-long security relationship with Moscow was a paper tiger. They’re not alone: From Damascus and Tehran to Havana, over the last 13 months authoritarian regimes which previously benefited from their close ties to the Kremlin have found Russian support lacking when it mattered...

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, is the ideological arm of Tehran’s military, answering to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and stands accused by Western countries of orchestrating and perpetrating the crackdown on protesters. Who are they? The Guards, known as “Pasdaran” in Persian, were founded in 1979 by then supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini “to propagate the ideas of the Islamic revolution”, said Clement Therme, a researcher at the International Institute of...

The head of Iran’s judiciary signalled on Wednesday there would be fast trials and executions ahead for those detained in nationwide protests despite a warning from US President Donald Trump. The comments from Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei come as activists had warned hangings of those detained could come soon. Already, a bloody security force crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,571, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. That figure...

Four migrants died while in custody of US immigration authorities over the first 10 days of ‍2026, according to government press releases, a loss of life that followed record detention deaths last year under US President Donald Trump. The deaths included two migrants from Honduras, one from Cuba and another from Cambodia, and occurred from January 3-9, according to US Immigration and ⁠Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Trump administration was aiming to ramp up deportations and has increased the...

Washington’s Middle East allies are bracing for what they fear could be “catastrophic” consequences if the United States moves militarily against Iran – a possibility US President Donald Trump again dangled this week by promising Iranian protesters that “help is on its way”. Despite Trump’s vow of support, analysts warn that even a sustained US air campaign would be unlikely to unseat Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime. The US president’s rhetoric has followed a now-familiar arc, echoing his...

Ugandan authorities shut down internet access nationwide on Tuesday, two days ahead of elections in which President Yoweri Museveni has overseen a crackdown on the opposition as he seeks to extend his 40-year rule. The 81-year-old leader, who once said African rulers should not overstay their time in office, was widely expected to win a seventh term on Thursday due to his total control over state and security bodies. But he was taking no chances against a popular opponent, Bobi Wine, a...

US President Donald Trump raised his ‌middle finger and appeared to direct profanity towards a factory worker who expressed ‍criticism of his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein controversy at a Michigan auto plant on Tuesday, video circulating online showed. The entertainment site TMZ first published video capturing the exchange, and the White House did not dispute its authenticity. “A lunatic was ⁠wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and...

Some people wonder whether China could carry out a sophisticated state-sponsored kidnapping like the US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife. And it’s not just that; there is state terrorism like remote assassinations by drones, which also end up killing a lot of civilian bystanders, not to mention breaching the sovereignty of their countries. The United States can apparently do that anywhere around the world. Such Hollywood-style cowboy militarism no doubt makes its...

Roughly half a dozen federal prosecutors in Minnesota have resigned and several supervisors in the criminal section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division have given notice of their departures amid turmoil over the federal investigation into the killing of a woman by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, according to people familiar with the matter. The resignations follow growing tensions over a decision by the Trump administration to block the state out of...

Near the end of last year, thousands of European travellers saw their holiday plans unravel after a prolonged power outage in the Eurotunnel – the underwater train passage linking Britain and France – caused by a fault in the overhead supply. For many, this brought back memories of chaotic scenes the previous April, when rolling blackouts struck much of Portugal and Spain. The United States also suffered from multiple power outages last year, including major disruptions in California – most...

In 2025, India approved a number of major defence packages, together worth US$30 billion. Such rapid procurement approvals are relatively rare by Indian standards. However, what they signal to the region will depend less on such announcements and more on actual outcomes. To some observers, especially after India’s four-day clash with Pakistan during what the former called “Operation Sindoor” last May, the surge appears to mark the start of a regional arms race. That interpretation is...

Greenland would choose to remain Danish over a US takeover, its leader said on Tuesday, ahead of crunch White House talks on the future of the Arctic island which President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened. Trump has been talking up the idea of buying or annexing the autonomous territory for years, and further stoked tensions this week by saying the United States would take it “one way or the other”. “We are now facing a geopolitical crisis, and if we have to choose between the United...

Former US president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that they will refuse to comply with a congressional subpoena to testify in a House committee’s investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. The Clintons, in a letter released on social media, slammed the House Oversight probe as “legally invalid” even as Republican lawmakers prepared contempt of Congress proceedings against them. The Clintons wrote that the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Republican...

Dilbert comic strip creator Scott Adams, ‍a vocal Trump supporter whose career flagged after a racist rant, died on Tuesday, his former wife said. He was 68. Shelly Miles announced Adams’ passing in an online live stream in which she read a final message ⁠from the artist, whose strip lampooned life in the cubicle farms of corporate America, framed around its titular character, an engineer known for his glasses and perennially bent tie. Adams first announced he had metastatic prostate cancer in...

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Iranians to keep protesting and remember the names of those abusing them, saying help is on the way, as Iran’s clerical establishment pressed its crackdown against ‍the biggest demonstrations in years. Iran in turn accused Trump of encouraging political destabilisation and inciting violence. “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! … HELP IS ON ITS WAY,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, without saying what that help might...

Canada and China appear ready to kick-start trade talks after years of strained relations, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Beijing this week coinciding with both countries questioning their once stronger ties with the United States, analysts said. Carney travelled to Beijing on Tuesday for his first official visit to the country, where he will discuss trade, agriculture and energy with officials from Canada’s second-largest single-country trading partner. Liang Yan, a...

A Republican congressman from Florida introduced a bill on Monday to annex Greenland and make it the 51st US state as President Donald Trump threatens to seize the autonomous Danish territory. Trump has said the United States will take Greenland “one way or the other”, floating the idea of buying the territory or taking it by force, despite strong pushback from Denmark, a Nato ally. Representative Randy Fine said his new legislation would authorise Trump “to take whatever steps necessary to...

The BBC intends to ask a US federal court in Florida to dismiss a US$10 billion lawsuit brought by US President Donald Trump against the British broadcaster, according to newly filed court documents. Trump launched the lawsuit last year over a BBC documentary that edited his 2021 speech ahead of the US Capitol riot, when lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election win. The programme spliced together two separate sections of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, in a way that made it appear...

Two conversations this week confirmed that President Trump backs the remnants of Nicolás Maduro’s regime over the Venezuelan opposition seeking to hold elections.

In her State of the Union address, Delcy Rodríguez echoed her predecessors’ fiery rhetoric but tried to hew to President Trump’s agenda.

The Coast Guard boarded and seized the Russian-flagged tanker, originally named Veronica, in a pre-dawn operation in the Caribbean Sea.

The shutdown of online discourse within Iran has allowed both the government and its critics to flood social media outside the country with disinformation campaigns and fake images.

Activists spent years preparing for a communications blackout in Iran, smuggling in Starlink satellite internet systems and making digital shutdowns harder for the authorities to enforce.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel asked the president to postpone any planned attack. Israeli and Arab officials fear Iran could retaliate by striking their countries.

Iran’s representative denied the country had killed protesters, as the U.S. ambassador said President Trump had made clear “all options are on the table” to stop the killing.

The Trump administration agreed to lower tariffs on Taiwanese goods, while Taiwan said it would invest more in U.S. manufacturing.

The Justice Department has sued about two dozen states over access to voter rolls, as the federal government pushes to create a national database.

The White House and Denmark contradicted each other in public about what they had agreed to this week as President Trump continued to demand U.S. ownership of Greenland.

China will in turn cut its own tariffs on Canadian canola products, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said in Beijing on Friday.

In a lawsuit, the ex-wife of Ms. Sinema’s onetime staff member accused her of showering him with gifts and breaking up their marriage.

A court handed down five years in prison to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing multiple trials stemming from his short-lived imposition of martial law.

Some Black and Latino leaders worry they are being denied access to power under Mayor Zohran Mamdani and that they may lose the ground they had gained under former Mayor Eric Adams.

Roughly 8,400 businesses closed in the second quarter of 2025, according to the most recent city data, creating the largest net decline in business activity since before the pandemic.

The veteran congresswoman said she would like Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president, to replace her after she retires. She also said the mayor should stay out of political races.

The ride-hailing giant’s chief executive has made a bet on how it can finally grab a bigger piece of one of the world’s largest taxi markets.

Mr. Reiner, who is accused of killing his parents, was under a yearlong legal arrangement that allows for involuntary psychiatric treatment.

Many people who use these medications don’t want to stay on them long term. But research has repeatedly shown that quitting the drugs means gaining back weight.

Trump wants Greenland? Its previous colonizer has some thoughts.

In the MAGA imagination, white women are supposed to be helpmeets, not harpies.

A corporal in St. Johns County had responded to what he thought would be a straightforward call about an animal on the loose. Nearly an hour later, he was putting handcuffs on an emu named Tina.

The death of Kate Whiteman, whose accusation of sexual assault against Oren and Alon Alexander opened a floodgate of similar allegations, is under investigation.

The famed highway reopened this week after consecutive landslides shuttered two sections of the road in Big Sur and forced major repairs.