Minimalist News

US, Japan, And South Korea Push SMR Exports For "Energy Security Needs" The American nuclear buildout is not just about the climate or powering data centers. It's a geopolitical war against the export of nuclear technology from Russia and China, mixed with a new demand for national energy security. On the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Ankara, the United States, Japan, and South Korea signed a trilateral Memorandum of Cooperation aimed at accelerating small modular reactor (SMR) deployments in other countries , with an initial focus on the Indo-Pacific. The agreement is designed to bring together the complementary strengths

Why Have Central Bankers Gone Radio Silent On The Digital Currency Agenda? Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us During the 2020 pandemic hysteria there was a mad rush by globalist institutions like the WEF, IMF, BIS and numerous national central banks to speed-run the concept of “CBDCs” (Central Bank Digital Currencies) into the mainstream consciousness. The idea of digital currencies rooted to a blockchain ledger was presented as a solution to the pandemic. A number of globalists asserted that digital exchange would be necessary because “paper money carries the covid virus.” This was, of course, complete nonsense. There was zero

Jack Smith's Team Exposed Classified Materials, Senator Finds Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, Prosecutors with the office of former special counsel Jack Smith left classified materials unsecured and provided materials to at least one person without confirming that person needed to see them, a senator said on July 8. A set of messages from Smith’s team showed that in 2024, the team left a facility designated for the review of sensitive information open overnight, and potentially longer. “Who opened the [facility] yesterday?” one member of the team asked in a message. “No one opened it yesterday because

Starbucks Using AI To Build Software Replacing Applications It Buys From Microsoft, IBM Corporate America has been desperate to see a burst of productivity (i.e., cost cutting) emerging from the latest flood of agentic AI euphoria, and it is slowly starting to get it. Not everyone will be pleased. Starbucks is developing in-house tools with the help of artificial intelligence that could replace some software applications it now buys from companies such as Microsoft and IBM. According to Bloomberg, the coffee chain, whose stock price has gone nowhere in the past 3 years, is building alternatives to a Microsoft system

Judge Hannah Dugan Gets The 'Good Person' Discount In Federal Court Authored by David Manney via PJMedia.com, Former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan just discovered a remarkable sentencing principle: Commit a felony, lose at trial, watch the conviction survive post-trial motions, face a guideline range of 15 to 21 months, and still walk out without prison, probation, and a $5,000 fine. Regular defendants may want to write down the magic words before the courts patch up the loophole: Otherwise good person . I hope you were sitting down for that. BREAKING: Former Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan has

French Security Services On High Alert For Morocco-France World Cup Semi-Final: 'Get Ready For Riots & Violence' France is warning football fans to behave and conduct themselves responsibly ahead of a major Thursday World Cup quarter-final match which pits France against African champions Morocco. Security services are on high alert , the government has said. The match kicks off at 4:00 PM ET. "I appeal to everyone’s sense of responsibility. It has to remain a celebration," Sports Minister Marina Ferrari told the France Info broadcaster, after in previous years various high profile matches have sparked unrest and riots. France's Interior

"Results Were Tempered": Pepsi Blames US Snack Slump On Cash-Strapped Consumers PepsiCo blamed the second-quarter slowdown in its North American food unit on consumers tightening their belts. The period was marked by elevated pump prices tied to the US-Iran war, a squeeze that hit lower-income households the hardest and weighed on discretionary snack and beverage purchases. Revenue in the company's North American food unit fell 2%, while volumes remained flat, even as the junk food giant slashed prices on some of its brands by as much as 15% earlier this year to lure working-class consumers. " Results were tempered in

Strong 30Y Bond Auction Stops Through For First Time Since March On the heels of yesterday's stellar 10Y auction , this afternoon saw an even more stellar-er 30Y auction with the US government selling $22 billion bonds at 5.058%, the highest result since 2007, vs a 5.061% when-issued yield at the 1 p.m. New York time bidding deadline. That is the first stop-through (0.3bps) since March (after three ugly tails - June's reopen was the weakest since July 2024)... The 2.44 bid-to-cover ratio compares well with the 2.39 average for the past six reopenings Dealer: 10.05% (prev. 14.7%, six-auction average

Gold Selloff Seen As "Stop-Loss Liquidation Positioning Reset", Not Fundamentally Driven Gold’s break below key technical support of 4050 to the 4023 low in New York trading on Wednesday appears driven primarily by stop-loss liquidation and positioning rather than a material deterioration in macro fundamentals , according to UBS. As the bank's trader Marcus Millis writes, "the move flushed out long exposure and left positioning looking more balanced, reducing the immediate risk of further forced selling." However, he cautions, the broader trading backdrop remains challenging. That's because with front-end USD rates expected to stay under pressure, upside in gold looks

"Deepening Dark Trend" Emerges On Hormuz As Ship Traffic Slows The US military has struck Iranian targets for a second straight day, while Tehran has responded with ballistic missile and drone attacks targeting Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and even faraway Jordan. While our overnight wrap focused on the latest war developments, the focus here is what energy traders are watching most closely: vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Bloomberg cites new shipping data showing that the Hormuz chokepoint slowed to a near standstill on Thursday. More color from the report: Among larger vessels, only a US-sanctioned supertanker heading out of

The Low VIX Hides Fierce Undercurrents Via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Goldman Sachs’ volatility desk made the following comment: “ With the VIX back to its lowest levels in more than a month, our Vol desk is focused on hedging opportunities as 1-month S&P implied correlation is near its lowest level in 20 years .” Simply, a low VIX can convey a sense of market calm on the surface, yet implied correlation tells a different story. The VIX, based on option trading data, measures the implied volatility of the S&P 500 index. A low VIX means traders expect the market to be relatively

NYC Tower Owner Prepares To Rebuild 15 Floors After I-Beam Failure Fears of a possible collapse at a condo tower under construction near Grand Central Terminal had abated by the end of the week, but the incident only signals the massive engineering challenges tied to Manhattan's office-to-apartment conversion boom. The former Pfizer headquarters at 235 East 42nd Street , being converted by David Werner and Nathan Berman's Metro Loft Management into more than 1,600 residential units, has become a high-profile example of the risks of repurposing aging office towers into housing at scale to achieve socialist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's

Tennessee Congressman Demands FBI Unseal Everything On Seth Rich Authored by José Niño via Headline USA , Rep. Tim Burchett , R-Tenn, has thrown a fresh spotlight on one of Washington’s most stubborn cold cases. On July 7, 2026, the Tennessee Republican posted on X that he had formally pressed FBI Director Kash Patel to surrender every document the bureau holds on the 2016 killing of DNC staffer Seth Rich. “I have called for @FBIDirectorKash to release all records related to the death of Seth Rich,” Burchett wrote. His press office added, “Today, I sent a letter to FBI Director

Return To War: Iran Fires Ballistic Missiles At Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, After US Struck 170 Iranian Targets Just as the US nighttime strikes were significantly bigger than prior rounds in June, so has Iran's 'retaliation' been bigger - chiefly on Gulf states and American bases there. In the overnight and Thursday daytime hours, Iranian ballistic missiles and drones have targeted Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and even faraway Jordan . The country is reporting that it has intercepted several missiles, which targeted Muwaffaq Salti Air Base - jointly operated by US and Jordanian forces. Oil prices have persisted above prewar levels

AI Price War Breaks Out: Meta Unveils Paid AI Model For First Time, Will Be "Among Most Affordable Options" Shortly after a leaked Meta memo revealed the company was planning on putting an AI chip into production in September as it looks to double computing capacity to 14Gigawatts, the company also unveiled a version of its most advanced artificial intelligence model, Muse Spark 1.1, that includes a new paid tier for developers , marking the first time Meta has charged businesses for access to its models and providing a new revenue stream. It’ll be " among the most affordable options

Qatar Halts Push To Ramp Up LNG Production After Hormuz Tanker Strikes Less than a month after Reuters reported that QatarEnergy was ready to resume LNG production ​at its Ras Laffan LNG plant "very quickly" ‌and expected to reach within a month full output of facilities unaffected by Iranian strikes, this morning Bloomberg reports that Qatar is pausing efforts to rapidly revive production at the world’s largest LNG facility, after an attack on one of its tankers in the Strait of Hormuz raised fears that transit through the crucial waterway is still too risky. According to the report, QatarEnergy officials

Leaked Meta Memo Shows AI Capacity Doubling To 14 Gigawatts Meta shares fell 4.3% at Thursday's open after Reuters reported the contents of an internal memo laying out the next phase of the company's AI infrastructure program. The stock has clawed back part of the loss through the morning but stayed solidly red while the tape digested the same question it has been chewing on for nine days: is Meta the hyperscaler that just started exercising capex discipline, or the one that just committed to doubling? Three things to note from today's news. The first is silicon . Iris, Meta's

US Existing Home Sales Unexpectedly Dropped In June, Just Off Record Lows After an ugly Spring selling season , existing home sales have rebounded in Q2 (so far) with expectations for another 1.0% MoM increase in June. However, that was not to be with US existing home sales tumbling 2.4% MoM in June (although May was revised up to a +3.7% MoM gain from +3.2%). That slowed the annual improvement in sales to +2.75% YoY... Overall, existing home sales SAAR remains just off record lows... “The back-and-forth in monthly home sales activity, driven by mild fluctuations in mortgage rates ,

The Choice To Go Up Or Down The Escalation Ladder Now Lies With Iran By Michael Every of Rabobank “It ain't over till it's over, but..." The US hit Iran for a second night along Hormuz, in southern cities, near a nuclear site, and a railway bridge in the northwest. The message from VP Vance was to stop striking ships in Hormuz or get hit back harder. From Trump, it was that Iran are “liars” and “scum” and the MOU is “over,” repeating threats to reimpose the US blockade of Iranian oil --showing why few (save China) were keen to

Bloom Energy Defends Supply Chain, Calls Hunterbrook Report "False And Misleading" Bloom Energy is responding forcefully against allegations made by short seller Hunterbrook Capital, rejecting the firm's claims about its accounting, supply chain and growth prospects a day after a report sent shares sharply lower. The clean energy company said Thursday that Hunterbrook's assertions regarding its financial reporting and access to critical raw materials are "false and misleading," according to a statement reported by Bloomberg. The response comes after Hunterbrook published an investigation on July 8 that questioned Bloom's independence from Chinese suppliers and argued that the company's long-term manufacturing

Reporting suggests FBI involved in seizure of Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada García from Mexican territory in 2024 Mexico has launched an investigation into whether the US lied about its involvement in the capture and secretive transfer of a top Sinaloa cartel member in 2024, in what would be a potential violation of the country’s sovereignty. The US has long denied it played any role in the operation to detain the drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, a founder of the Sinaloa cartel, inside Mexico. Recent reporting by the local media outlet Pie de Nota , however, suggested that the

Activist is challenging ruling last year that restored colonial-era homophobic law against same-sex intimacy Some of the UK’s top judges are hearing arguments over whether a Trinidad and Tobago court had the legal right to overturn a 2018 ruling to remove colonial-era homophobic laws that criminalise anal sex between consenting men. The country’s “ buggery law ”, often referred to as its “sodomy” law, was created in 1925 and was written into Trinidad and Tobago’s 1986 Sexual Offences Act . In 2017 a Trinidadian LGBTQ+ rights activist, Jason Jones , challenged the law, and in 2018 a high court ruled

Celeste Amarilla could face charges after French Football Federation complains about social media posts over World Cup match Prosecutors in France have opened an investigation into the racist attack on Kylian Mbappé by a Paraguayan senator, with officials weighing whether to demand that the senator be charged with aggravated public insult or incitement to hatred or violence. The Paris prosecutor’s office told the Guardian on Tuesday it had launched the inquiry after the French Football Federation (FFF) filed a complaint with the national unit for combating online hate. Continue reading...

Impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US imposed a blockade in January Cuba on Monday suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, the state electricity company said. The impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US president, Donald Trump, imposed an oil blockade in January, which has depleted the already dwindling supply of fuel for Cuba’s power plants. Continue reading...

TKMS beats South Korean rival to multibillion-dollar contract that will deepen Canada’s Nato ties Canada has selected a German consortium to build a dozen cutting-edge submarines in one of the country’s largest-ever defence contracts that will further deepen its Nato ties before a crucial summit this week. On Monday the prime minister, Mark Carney, announced the winner of a tightly contested battle for the lucrative government contract to replace its fleet of ageing, secondhand subs, most of which are undergoing maintenance. Continue reading...

Local media in Hengzhou report king ratsnakes and cobras among hundreds in flood waters caused by typhoon Maysak Hundreds of snakes, including cobras, have escaped from flooded breeding farms in southern China as severe storms continue to batter parts of the country. State media reported that a snake farm in Hengzhou, in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was hit by flood waters after days of heavy rainfall caused by typhoon Maysak , prompting warnings for nearby residents. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed Telstra outage: Telco apologises for major time-keeping issue that hit mobiles, trains and triple-zero calls Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Telstra outage reported to be cause of Victoria train stoppage There is a long list of cancelled trains on the official V/line site, but the TL/DR is that Victoria’s regional train network has ground to a halt. Due to a radio network fault affecting the network, services are currently unable to operate … Passengers are advised to defer travel where possible. Continue reading...

Chinese leader Xi Jinping calls for ‘all out’ rescue effort as death toll rises and 16 people ⁠remain buried after a ⁠landslide in the country’s west The death toll from devastating storms in parts of China rose to 15 on Tuesday, with hundreds more injured and tens of thousands evacuated, state media reported, as the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, urged “all out” efforts to rescue people affected by the weather. Thunderstorms and gale-force winds killed at least 11 people and injured 331 in the central province of Hubei, where “severe convective weather” hit cities, while tornadoes were reported elsewhere late

Solomon Islands prime minister says he doesn’t want to see more countries testing ICBMs in Pacific, adding ‘be our friend but don’t threaten us’ Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has said China’s weapons test in the Pacific risks fuelling dangerous nuclear proliferation, with the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fired on Monday capable of causing “considerable damage” if weaponised. International condemnation has grown overnight after China’s state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday that a “strategic missile carrying a dummy warhead” had been launched from a “strategic nuclear submarine of the navy”. Continue reading...

Tropical storm causes extreme flooding in south of the country with heavy rainfall expected in coming days A tropical storm has killed two people, caused dam breaches and forced tens of thousands to evacuate in southern China. Typhoon Maysak killed two people in Nanning, in China’s southern Guangxi province. Maysak, which lashed Vietnam and China’s southern island province of Hainan over the weekend, will dump the water it sucked up on its way ⁠across the South China Sea as it weakens and heads inland, meteorologists say. Continue reading...

One Nation leader welcomed by far-right figures including Tommy Robinson and Rupert Lowe. Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Alliance with One Nation ‘not our plan’, Angus Taylor says Opposition leader Angus Taylor said the Coalition doesn’t believe Pauline Hanson’s One Nation can be the party of government, describing it as a “one-person show”. We are working to get rid of the Labor government, that’s our focus. Our focus isn’t on some kind of coalition or alliance. Our focus is on getting rid of a rotten Labor government. I want us to be in

Exclusive : ‘The preferred policy is, of course, a carbon price,’ Dr Huw McKay says, amid slowdown in BHP action on emissions Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A former chief economist at mining company BHP says stronger climate policy by governments is needed to “move the needle” and incentivise tough decarbonisation decisions at major resource companies. Internal documents, leaked to Guardian Australia and the ABC earlier this year, showed BHP had delayed vast renewables projects in the Pilbara, scrapped a project that would have

A brown huntsman is the quickest of more than 250 species analysed by scientists in the UK and Germany If arachnophobes were not frightened enough by the horrific ability of Australia’s huntsman spiders to drag dead mice up the sides of fridges , they now have another reason. They might be the fastest spiders on the planet. Continue reading...

Exclusive : Documents show $117,455.50 was spent in a single legal fight over laws rushed through after Bondi attack Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The New South Wales government has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees to unsuccessfully defend constitutional challenges against protest laws that were expected to be struck down. The costs, outlined in documents obtained by Guardian Australia via freedom of information legislation, include $117,455.50 of taxpayers’ money on a single challenge to controversial public assembly restriction declaration

Indian prime minister wows crowd of 25,000 at Marvel Stadium as he praises role of diaspora in the India-Australia success story Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The throb of the drum beats intensified as the crowd of 25,000 Indian Australians prepared to welcome India’s prime minister back to Melbourne after more than a decade. As Narendra Modi and Anthony Albanese stepped on to the red carpet at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night, twinkling phone lights illuminated the feverish audience as they chanted “Modi, Modi,

Businessman stands trial over death of Maltese journalist killed by bomb in her car after she reported on corruption Moments before the explosion that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia , the journalist screamed in panic, a witness has told the trial of the man accused of ordering her murder . Caruana Galizia was killed in 2017 by a remotely detonated bomb placed under the driver’s seat of her car, after writing a series of reports on political and financial corruption in Malta. The government’s handling of the investigation led to mass protests and ultimately to the resignation of the Maltese prime

Britain expands heat alerts while estimates suggest June’s death toll could surpass 20,000 across continent The UK is sweltering through the peak of its third heatwave of the year as countries around Europe struggle to recover from an early onslaught of baking summer heat. Punishing temperatures pushed higher by fossil fuel pollution have broken records across the continent in recent weeks. Western Europe experienced its hottest June on record , scientists confirmed on Thursday, accompanied by high global ocean temperatures that could cause “mass-mortality events” for some species. Continue reading...

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented engraved revolvers – with bullets – to his guests in Ankara, causing security concerns What does a world leader do with a gun and six bullets? That was the conundrum Nato leaders faced after the Turkish president offered them each a revolver after the Ankara summit. Keir Starmer was the first to mention the highly unusual gift presented by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to his guests. On the flight back from Ankara, where Nato leaders had gathered for two days, the British prime minister said he and others had received a revolver engraved with their names. Continue

Demonstrations at 18 sites set up as radical transformation plan put to board of Europe’s biggest carmaker Volkswagen’s proposal to slash up to 100,000 jobs and close factories faced a major test on Thursday as it was formally put to its supervisory board, with protests at the company’s plants in Germany. IG Metall organised demonstrations involving shop stewards and union council members at 18 sites at Europe’s biggest carmaker, including at its headquarters. The influential staff union told the chief executive, Oliver Blume, that he could not “pass the buck for failures of recent years on to the workforce”. Continue

Greenland Energy says billions of barrels of crude could lie beneath territory and claims it has permission to bring drilling kit ashore – a claim denied by Nuuk On 10 June, a snowy-haired American in his 60s addressed the residents of a remote Greenland hamlet. He was there to tell them about a business venture supported by figures linked to Donald Trump. “So,” Robert Price said via an interpreter, “we have a project to drill for oil here.” The Texas oil company that Price represents, Greenland Energy, hopes to prove that billions of barrels of crude lie underground by bringing

Iran responds by targeting US-allied Kuwait and Qatar and accusing US of striking near its sole nuclear power plant The US has launched new airstrikes against Iran, hours after Donald Trump threatened to escalate the conflict unless Iran stopped attacking ships in the strait of Hormuz. Iran, which was burying its former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday, responded by targeting US-allied Kuwait and Qatar and accused the US of striking near its sole nuclear power plant. Continue reading...

Local truckers’ association says it may suspend operations, after several eyewitnesses decried Ahmad Esleem’s murder A Palestinian driver bringing food aid from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) into Gaza has been killed by an Israeli soldier “in a field execution”, according to witnesses and the local truckers’ association, which said it may suspend operations in protest. Ahmad Esleem was shot in the head on Wednesday when an aid convoy stopped because of a breakdown to one truck soon after entering Gaza, according to three accounts. Israeli soldiers ordered the drivers to dismount and one of them shot Esleem in the

This live blog is now closed. US and Iran trade most intense strikes since ceasefire extended Kuwait’s foreign ministry has issued a statement condemning the Iranian attacks against the country. It reads almost identical to the statement issued yesterday, although emphasises Kuwait’s sovereignty is “a red line” . “The state of Kuwait reserves its full rights to take all necessary measures to protect its security and preserve its sovereignty,” it said. Continue reading...

Exclusive: PM-in-waiting says party must ‘do better’ in approach to Middle East and he will put more pressure on Israel Andy Burnham has apologised for Labour’s initial response to Israel’s military action in Gaza, saying the party “didn’t get it right” and needs to “do better” under his leadership signalling a significant shift in the UK’s approach to the Middle East. The prime minister-in-waiting told the Guardian he would put more pressure on the Israeli government, including through further sanctions on individuals and entities, as well as a potential ban on the trade of goods with illegal settlements. Continue reading...

Residents in Bandar Abbas and Sirik regions describe communities in fear and ‘feeling abandoned’ after US strikes Middle East crisis live – latest updates Residents in southern Iran have described two nights of fear this week after explosions shook coastal communities as the US launched fresh strikes on targets including the port cities of Bandar Abbas and Sirik. US Central Command confirmed the attacks, saying they were carried out to “further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the strait of Hormuz”. Continue reading...

Lawrence Bishnoi, who is in prison in India, is accused of orchestrating assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023 US and Canadian authorities say they have “dismantled” the leadership of a notorious Indian criminal group, charging dozens of operatives who have “inflicted pain and cruelty on people, victims around the globe”, including a high-profile murder in Canada that strained diplomatic relations between Canada and India. At a press conference on Tuesday, members of the FBI and Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said as part of Operation Hard Ball – a multiyear federal investigation into murder-for-hire plots, shootings, extortion and

Early flight data shows K2 Airways plane crashed into sea with five crew on board south-west of Karachi Pakistan has located the wreckage of a Boeing cargo plane, the country’s airports authority said, adding that rescuers were searching for the five crew members on board when the aircraft went missing. The plane was approaching Karachi from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates when radar showed it “rapidly descending” on Tuesday evening after reporting a “navigational system issue”, according to the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA). Continue reading...

Amnesty International says Albanese has opportunity to ‘reaffirm mutual commitment’ to rule of law as thousands in diaspora expected at stadium event Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to Australia in three years has sparked calls for the federal government to raise human rights concerns, as excitement builds within the nation’s Indian diaspora. Modi’s visit begins on Wednesday evening and marks his third since becoming prime minister. It will see him return to Melbourne after more than

Thousands of women are killed in dowry disputes each year, despite the practice being banned in 1961 Dowry deaths in India no longer provoke the public anger they once did, despite thousands of women’s lives still being lost every year, according to new research. The killings – women who are murdered or driven to suicide following dowry disputes between families – have also faded from political debate, despite an increase in cases. Continue reading...

Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries rushed to hospital after fighting between prisoners from two drug gangs Clashes at a Sri Lankan jail have killed 26 people, including seven guards, and wounded more than 100 in the country’s deadliest prison riot in years, officials said. Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries were rushed to Negombo hospital, north of the capital Colombo after overnight fighting between prisoners from two drug gangs, police said on Monday. Continue reading...

Outgoing PM has not ruled out drawing up honours list when he stands down, despite previously opposing it Keir Starmer has signalled he could hand out resignation honours when he leaves Downing Street, despite pledging three years ago he would not do so when he eventually stood down. The prime minister twice declined to rule out drawing up a list of honours when he stands down in just over 10 days’ time, to be succeeded by Andy Burnham. Continue reading...

George Cottrell’s mother, Fiona, at centre of criminal inquiry over potential evasion of restrictions on donations Police are investigating donations worth £500,000 made to Reform UK by the mother of a convicted fraudster and ally of Nigel Farage. The investigation concerns two donations of £250,000 made by Fiona Cottrell, whose son George has often accompanied Farage to Reform events and media appearances. The May 2024 donations are under investigation over whether they were intended to conceal a donation by an impermissible donor. Continue reading...

It remains unclear how much of substance will change – and whether it will be enough to rebuild electoral coalition On the final day of Labour’s party conference in 2023, when the public was still reeling from the brutal Hamas attack on Israel just days before, Keir Starmer took to the airwaves for the traditional broadcast round – but gave one interview that would have particularly damaging fallout. Sitting down with LBC’s Nick Ferrari, the then opposition leader asserted Israel’s right to defend itself, a stance that was in line with the broad political consensus at the time. But then

Father Ted co-creator detained by armed officers at Heathrow airport last year over gender-critical posts on X The Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan has been paid £25,000 in compensation by the Metropolitan police and received an apology after his arrest over his gender-critical social media posts. Linehan, 57, was detained by armed officers at Heathrow airport last September after a 10-hour flight from Arizona. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Source close to co-claimant Prince Harry says he is protective of social campaigner and will not ‘see her out of pocket’ Doreen Lawrence, the social justice campaigner, will not foot any of a multimillion-pound bill for the failed attempt to sue the publisher of the Daily Mail, the Guardian understands. Lawrence, the mother of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence , whose case was the subject of a long-running Daily Mail campaign from the late 1990s, was one of seven claimants defeated in court over claims the Mail titles used unlawful methods to source stories. Continue reading...

Group accused of planning sniper and drone attack on Donald Trump’s UFC cage-fighting show in June Eight men were indicted on murder and terrorism conspiracy charges Thursday for their alleged roles in a thwarted drone and sniper attack on the UFC cage-fighting show staged at the White House in June. The indictment, returned in Ohio, charges all eight in two separate conspiracies, one to provide material support to terrorists and a second to commit murder on federal government territory and to murder a federal government official. Continue reading...

On fourth day of preliminary hearing, state presents video of a prosecutor interviewing Lance Twiggs Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old charged with murdering far-right pundit Charlie Kirk, cried and told his then-roommate Lance Twiggs “he wishes he hadn’t done it” one day after the fatal shooting, according to testimony played Thursday in court. On the fourth day of a hearing to determine whether the case has probable cause to proceed to trial, the state presented the video of a prosecutor interviewing Twiggs, after back-and-forth on Wednesday over whether publicly broadcasting the testimony could expose potential jurors to prejudicial information. Continue reading...

Source tells the Guardian Platner intends to officially withdraw on Monday; Democrats have limited time to finalize an alternative Senate nominee in Maine Sign up for the Breaking News US email Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn has pleaded not guilty to vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. Hearn, 67, from Maryland, was arrested last month after stopping by the pool on a bike ride. He told several outlets that he was detained for almost five hours after he reached into the water to inspect what he described a piece of the blue liner that was partially detached from the bottom

National Weather Service says record-breaking event with power to supercharge weather becoming more likely El Niño is strengthening and the risks of a historic event with the power to supercharge extreme weather around the world are rising, according to the latest analysis from the US National Weather Service. Models show there is now an 81% chance that a very strong El Niño “that would rank among the largest El Niño events in the historical record going back to 1950 ” will develop before the end of this year, forecasters said in an advisory released Thursday. There is almost near certainty

Bipartisan group warns HHS that older adults and people with disabilities risk being pressured to end their lives Lawmakers urged the health and human services (HHS) secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, on Thursday to establish strict hospice reporting rules to prevent discrimination and coercion in medically assisted suicide. The bipartisan group of members of Congress warned that older adults, people with disabilities, or those with disaffected caregivers face a particular risk of being pressured to end their lives. Continue reading...

A Florida airport was renamed after Donald Trump on Thursday, accelerating a push by the US president and supporters to plaster his name and image on everything from national landmarks to banknotes. The Republican leader’s son Eric celebrated by landing in the private family Boeing 757 – the so-called “Trump Force One” – at what had been known as Palm Beach International Airport for nearly half a century. “A beautiful day,” a grinning Eric Trump said on Fox News at the newly minted President...

A court in Hungary on Thursday sentenced an Irish citizen to 14 years in prison for strangling an American tourist to death in the country’s capital in 2024. The victim, 31-year-old Mackenzie Michalski from Portland, Oregon, was in Hungary on holiday and reported missing on November 5, 2024, after she was last seen at a nightclub in central Budapest. Police launched a missing person investigation and reviewed security footage from local nightclubs where they observed Michalski, who went by...

The proliferation of artificial intelligence models and the increasing parity in their performance suggest they are becoming a commodity. Soon, AI services will be priced by cost rather than the uniqueness of their model. With electricity the main cost of the services, the AI war between China and the United States is turning into a straightforward contest over electricity output and price. Open-source AI models are sprouting up like bamboo shoots in China. The American AI community has argued...

A German court on Thursday handed down a 10-year prison sentence to a 26-year-old man who fatally assaulted a train conductor during a ticket inspection in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate five months ago. The court sitting in Zweibrücken found that the man had attacked the conductor after being found without a ticket, hitting the conductor so hard that he later died of a brain haemorrhage. The assailant was found guilty of causing bodily harm resulting in death. The sentence is open to...

A four-year-old girl has died after being bitten by her family’s pet dog while playing, police and prosecutors in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt reported on Thursday. The dog was described as an American Stafford, a breed commonly known as the Pit Bull Terrier or American Staffordshire terrier. The report said people at the scene had attempted to pull the dog off the girl, but failed to prevent her suffering serious injury. A doctor called to the scene could only record her death. The...

Bonnie Tyler, the gravelly voiced, Grammy-nominated Welsh pop star best known for singing the chart-topping power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in 1983 and seeing new generations succumb to its bombastic charms during solar and lunar eclipses, has died. She was 75. Tyler died “unexpectedly” in a hospital in Portugal where she was being treated for an illness, her family said on Thursday in a statement on her website. She was hospitalised in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency...

China called on the United States and Iran to stick with peace plans after a resumption of missile strikes in the Middle East spurred a jump in oil prices. “Reigniting the conflict does not serve any party’s interests,” a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday. “We call on the US and Iran to follow through on their memorandum of understanding, resolve disputes through dialogue and negotiation, and avoid resorting to force.” Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose...

Graham Platner, a scandal-plagued Democratic Senate nominee whose insurgent rise had drawn comparisons to Donald Trump, ended his campaign on Wednesday after a rape allegation threatened to derail one of his party’s best chances of flipping a Republican-held seat. Platner, a Marine veteran, oysterman and political newcomer, won last month’s Democratic primary in the northeastern state of Maine to face Republican Senator Susan Collins in November’s midterm elections. His withdrawal gives Maine...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would ask the Supreme Court to rehear a case challenging his executive order curtailing birthright citizenship, a long-shot ‌bid to reverse the court’s rejection of one of his signature policies. The court last month rejected Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship in the US, ruling that his directive violated language in the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment that confers ⁠citizenship to those born in the United States who are...

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte defended US President Donald Trump’s criticism of the transatlantic security alliance, while saying this year’s summit showed “a huge sense of unity” and produced procurement plans worth tens of billions of dollars. During a press conference after the North Atlantic Council meeting of leaders at the Nato summit hosted by Turkey in Ankara on Wednesday, Rutte said this year’s gathering had resulted in more than US$50 billion in procurement deals as part of efforts...

The United States launched new air strikes against Iran early Thursday, and Tehran responded by targeting Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar in crossfire that again threatened an interim deal intended to help end the war in the Persian Gulf. Back-and-forth attacks, including a day earlier, have repeatedly threatened the ceasefire, but Thursday’s appeared bigger all around, with sirens sounding at least three times in Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters, and missiles targeting Kuwait and...

A California man who swapped a library’s 17th century Chinese manuscript for a fake was sentenced on Wednesday after admitting to stealing a major artwork. Jeffrey Ying used a number of aliases to get access to classic works, some over 600 years old, at the library of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Department of Justice said. Ying, 39, would check the works out and return days later with dummy manuscripts. He would frequently travel to China shortly thereafter, officials...

A judge on Wednesday authorised the payment of a multimillion-dollar award to magazine writer E. Jean Carroll to satisfy a 2023 civil verdict in which a jury found US President ‌Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan ordered the disbursement of nearly US$5.8 million to the former Elle magazine advice columnist, representing the original US$5 million verdict plus interest. The funds had been held in escrow while Trump appealed the...

British anti-immigrant politician Nigel Farage faces the embarrassing prospect of going head-to-head with perennial joke candidate Count Binface in a by-election after he decided to quit Parliament. His surprise move threatened to backfire Wednesday after other heavyweight parties confirmed they would not contest the vote for Farage’s seat in southeast England. Count Binface, a self-described “intergalactic space warrior”, is the only other person to have said so far that they would run. In a...

US President Donald Trump unexpectedly left Turkey on Wednesday aboard an older Air Force One rather than the newly renovated Qatari-donated jet that brought him there, but later boarded the new plane in Britain for the flight to Washington. The trip to Turkey for the Nato summit, the first international travel for the new ‌plane, took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, a country that borders Turkey. The unexpected plane switch followed months of scrutiny over the luxury gift intended to...

The Pitt led all nominees with 25 in a dominant second season, while Hacks led all comedies with 24 for its final season as the Emmy nominations were announced on Wednesday. HBO Max’s emergency room series The Pitt was a rookie upstart last year with big wins including best drama series, best actor for Noah Wyle and best supporting actress for Katherine LaNasa. Already a beloved veteran show, it owned this year’s acting categories. Wyle was nominated again, as was LaNasa. Taylor Dearden, Fiona...

Spain remained calm in the face of US President Donald Trump’s latest attack on Wednesday – which saw him order a halt to all trade with the country – as Madrid stressed its relationship with Washington remained “positive”. Trump called Spain a “wasted cause” and “hopeless, bad people” during comments to reporters ahead of a Nato leaders’ meeting in Ankara, and ordered officials to cut off trade with the country – the second time Trump has made such a threat since March. The US leader has...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday modestly downgraded its outlook for the world economy this year, citing the energy shock caused by the Iran war. But the fallout from the conflict is being partially offset by booming investment in artificial intelligence and other technologies. The IMF now expects the global economy to expand by a sluggish 3 per cent in 2026, down from 3.5 per cent last year and from the 3.1 per cent it had forecast for this year back in April. The fund expects...

At least two girls have been seriously wounded and a 16-year-old suspect arrested after an attack at a secondary school in the southern German state of Bavaria on Wednesday. The perpetrator appeared to have deliberately targeted the Welfen grammar school in the town of Schongau in a suspected “rampage”, a police spokeswoman said. She was unable to confirm press reports according to which the assailant used a knife in the attack. Local police said on their social media account that “a suspected...

A German palliative care doctor was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for murdering 15 people with lethal doses of sedatives, and he remains under investigation for dozens more killings. The court in Berlin convicted the 41-year-old of killing 12 women and three men during home visits between September 2021 and July 2024. But presiding judge Sylvia Busch said the conviction for 15 murders may well be only a glimpse of his many crimes. Prosecutors said during the proceedings that he was...

In the animated Soviet film The Golden Antelope, inspired by Indian folklore, a magical antelope tries to save a boy from a greedy raja by promising him as much gold as he wants. When she asks whether there can be too much, the raja laughs: “You can never give me too much gold.” But when the gold begins to bury him, he cries “enough” – and loses everything. Today’s financial system risks repeating the raja’s mistake. For too long, rising nominal wealth, asset prices and the fortunes of the ultra...

Norwegian police said on Wednesday that 28 men across seven countries had been arrested in an operation targeting buyers of material depicting sexual abuse of children. Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos), said the men had used the cryptocurrency Monero to pay for access to several forums on the dark web. “We have worked closely with six countries to coordinate the arrests of the identified users who paid with cryptocurrency to gain access to the forums,” police prosecutor...

Russian forces are trying to counter Ukrainian “mid-strike” drone attacks by camouflaging cargoes ⁠and installing powerful jamming systems to disrupt Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system, Ukrainian drone commanders and pilots have said. Kyiv’s development of “mid-strike” drones that can hit targets dozens of kilometres behind front lines accurately and cheaply, and are often flown via Starlink, has transformed the war in Ukraine. In a concerted mid-strike campaign this year, Ukraine...

Apple lost its challenge on Wednesday against landmark EU rules that designate its app stores and operating system iOS as gatekeepers subject to obligations aimed at giving rivals more room to compete. The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets out a list of dos and don’ts ‌for Big Tech with the threat of fines of as much as 10 per cent of a company’s global annual turnover, has triggered legal challenges by Apple, Meta and ByteDance since it took effect in May 2023. The ruling by the...

As another heatwave rolled across Europe, the warehouses emptied before the politics could catch up. Air conditioners and fans sold out across Spain, Italy and Germany, most of them Chinese. Fan sales in Spain alone on the retail platform of Alibaba Group Holding (which owns the South China Morning Post) nearly doubled last month while Midea Group’s air-conditioner sales in western Europe surged by over 70 per cent in the first six months of the year. A decade from now, such heatwaves may become...

British Columbia said on Tuesday it was preparing a lawsuit against OpenAI over the company’s failure to report violent ChatGPT activity by the person who committed a mass school shooting in the western Canadian province. OpenAI had banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025, months before the 18-year-old transgender woman killed eight people at her home and a school in the tiny mining town of Tumbler Ridge. Canadian families impacted by the February shooting have already...

Workers have started making emergency repairs to stabilise a Manhattan high-rise after buckled columns and sagging floors forced evacuations in and around the midtown construction site. The scene unfolded throughout Tuesday after the precarious conditions were spotted in the morning at the 1970s-era building, which is being converted into luxury flats. Construction workers at the site and people in nearby buildings – including a school, diplomatic offices and several hotels – in the busy...

All charges against a radiologist accused of trying to kill his family in 2023 by driving his car off a cliff along the Northern California coast have been dismissed by a judge following his completion of a mental health programme. Prosecutors charged Dharmesh Patel, 45, with attempted murder after he drove his Tesla off a 276-metre cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway known as “Devil’s Slide”, injuring his wife and two young children. All four survived the January 2, 2023, crash in what one...

Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight killed at least seven people as Kyiv’s army said it had hit several Russian tankers, in fresh attacks just hours ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at a Nato summit. A first large blast in Kyiv was heard shortly after midnight even before the city’s air alert sirens sounded - a rare failure in the system that has spooked residents of the capital. That was followed by a barrage of several more explosions. One...

The US Federal Communications Commission ⁠said on Tuesday it is adding California-based Digitalsystem Technology to a list of companies posing risks to US national security, citing links to Chinese telecoms firms and its ownership by a Chinese national. The FCC also said ‌it was denying the Los Angeles-based IT company permission to provide international telecommunications services, saying it could be exploited by Chinese threat actors. “There is significant risk that the government of China and...

The Iran battlefield might be quieter and diplomacy might have resumed, but the main contest has shifted to the architecture of the Middle East. The question is no longer whether Iran can be contained, the Strait of Hormuz can remain open or another round of escalation can be avoided. The larger issue is who will write the rules after the shock. Three tracks are taking shape. The first is led by the United States and built around the expansion of the Abraham Accords, the integration of Israel...

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced the “ruthless” US embargo against the communist island during a UN General Assembly debate on Tuesday that took place despite diplomatic pressure by Washington to prevent it. “The government of the United States is carrying out against Cuba a multi-dimensional, non-conventional warfare that has already lasted for almost seven decades now and has become ever more cruel and more ruthless during the last seven months,” Rodriguez told the body,...

Colombia’s president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella on Tuesday suspended the transition process with President Gustavo Petro and accused him of planning a coup to stay in power, after the incumbent leader refused to recognise results of the country’s election. Petro said Monday that he refused to recognise de la Espriella’s victory in the June 21 presidential run-off election over the Petro coalition’s candidate Senator Ivan Cepeda, alleging fraud without providing evidence. The conservative,...

At least five women have accused the archbishop of Rabat of sexual assault, according to an Agence France-Presse investigation, prompting the Spanish-born cleric to announce he was “stepping back” on Tuesday while the Vatican holds an inquiry. Agence France-Presse interviewed a retired woman involved in the Church and reviewed the written testimony of another woman who said Cristobal Lopez Romero had sexually assaulted them. The 74-year-old archbishop denied all wrongdoing when contacted by...

The US state of Utah has revoked the licence of a boarding school where socialite Paris Hilton said she was abused as a teenager, saying the school has “failed to provide applicable health and safety services for clients”. The state’s action, which took effect on Monday, cites multiple non-compliance issues against Provo Canyon School’s campus in Springville. The school has 15 days to request a hearing before the Department of Health & Human Services. The wide-ranging citations, which go back to...

A lawsuit claims the Trump administration is unlawfully giving confidential personal information to Iran about Iranians who applied for asylum to avoid “grave danger” in their native country. The US is sharing private data with the Iranian government about asylum applicants including pro-democracy protesters as well as members of religious minorities and the LGBTQ community, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in Washington. Asylum seekers allegedly face deportation back to Iran, where the...

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says he will quit as a lawmaker and seek re-election to clear his name over financial allegations linked to millions of dollars’ worth of donations. “I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money,” Farage, a prominent ally of US President Donald Trump, said in a broadcast statement that did not take questions. Farage faces a probe by parliament’s standards watchdog over a £5 million (US$6.7 million) gift from...

Prince Harry’s final lawsuit aimed at taming the British tabloids ended in defeat on Tuesday as a judge found he failed to prove his privacy invasion claims against the publisher of the Daily Mail. Justice Matthew Nicklin rejected the broad inferences the Duke of Sussex had relied on to try to show that Associated Newspapers had engaged in unlawful activities. The judge said there was a realistic possibility the news came from legitimate sources. The ruling scuttles the lawsuits filed by Harry...

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen ⁠announced on Tuesday that she ⁠will run for president in 2027 after an appeal ⁠court shortened her ban on holding public office. Le Pen’s presidential hopes had been in limbo since March 2025, when she received a five-year electoral ban for using money from the European Parliament to pay wages for staff at her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) party in France. On Tuesday, the Paris appeal court upheld Le Pen’s conviction for misusing European ‌Parliament...

The European Commission has been clearly signalling its intention to wage a trade war against China. Brussels’ intent to counter the so-called China shock 2.0 – the wave of subsidised Chinese exports such as electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels and batteries – is no longer merely a verbal threat but appears to be an imminent decision. Comparing current trade tensions between the European Union and China with the trade conflict between Europe and Japan in the 1970s and 1980s reveals striking...

Ukraine’s Security Service on Tuesday said it found the body of Ukrainian national Anastasiia Berezovska, who had been wanted by authorities in Monaco in connection with the bombing targeting Ukrainian business tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev. The security service, also known by its local abbreviation SBU, said an officer serving in Ukraine’s military intelligence agency confessed to killing Berezovska with the help of a former law enforcement officer. He claimed he acted on his own initiative and...

Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi led a business delegation to New Delhi for the 16th India-Japan annual summit. During last year’s summit in Tokyo, Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined the Japan-India Joint Vision for the next decade – during which period India may see up to 10 trillion yen (US$62 billion) in investment from Japan. Some of Japan’s most notable investments in India have been in the financial sector. Japanese...

Explosions rocked Damascus on Tuesday as France’s president met with his Syrian counterpart in a landmark visit, wounding at least 18 people, Syria’s Interior Ministry said. It was the second blast to rock the capital in a few days, and a setback for the country’s new president as he welcomed his first visit from a western leader since ousting long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad. Syria’s new rulers have wrestled with outbreaks of violence as they work to assert control, but the capital has been...

⁠Democratic Party leaders on Monday called on Graham Platner to withdraw as their nominee to run against Republican US Senator Susan Collins of Maine, after media reports that a woman accused him of forcibly having sex with her nearly five years ago. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement: “The DSCC will not invest in the Maine Senate race if Platner remains on the...

Cuba on Monday suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, causing mounting despair in the face of an energy collapse precipitated by a US fuel blockade. The communist island was already struggling to keep the lights on before US President Donald Trump in January cut off its oil supplies, depleting the dwindling supply of fuel for its power plants. Union Electrica (UNE), the state electricity company, announced a “total disconnection” to the entire island at midday,...

Iran’s history shows it is willing to dig in, even when it may suffer big losses.

Mendel Uminer faced a crisis when his landlord objected to the 10,000 volumes in his New York studio apartment.

The German automaker has struggled to compete with fast-growing Chinese companies that offer more affordable and sophisticated electric vehicles.

President Trump said the United States would license Ukraine to produce Patriots, which can intercept ballistic missiles. But it could be months or years before those are ready.

Midtown, with its high-rise office buildings and tourist hotels, isn’t hip, but it has become the site of a series of dramatic spectacles this year.

While shoppers may get better deals on some items, it’s unlikely their overall grocery bill will fall.

Crews installed “temporary shoring” on more floors in the building, and the developer of the project has reassured investors that the project will be completed on time.

The classic story (and recent culture-war object) remains wholesome but makes room for people who called the prairie home before the Ingalls family.

A Netflix adaptation of the beloved tale empowers Ma and adds new Black and Native characters to challenge prejudices. The creators know criticism is coming.

Is the right giving up on America?

How much have the rules of politics changed?

As a young woman in the 1960s, she wasn’t allowed to become a NASA astronaut. She finally realized her long-held dream of flying in space as an octogenarian.