Minimalist News

Derek Chauvin Seeks To Dismiss Charges In Death Of George Floyd Derek Chauvin's legal team filed a new court petition Tuesday morning seeking to dismiss the charges against the former Minneapolis police officer and vacate his convictions, arguing that the case that sent him to prison for the death of George Floyd rested on a foundation that never had legal standing to begin with. Attorney Greg Joseph submitted the 31-page filing in Hennepin County, alleging that Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and the Hennepin County Attorney's Office engaged in unlawful and fraudulent conduct when they brought the case

ICE Proposes Insurance Coverage For Local Officers Involved In Immigration Arrests Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times , U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has proposed an insurance plan to shield local police officers involved in immigration arrests from financial liability if they face allegations of misconduct during those arrests. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents walk outside the Ventura County Government Center in Ventura, California, on July 27, 2026. Blake Fagan/AFP via Getty Images A proposal document published Aug. 14 by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shows the agency intends to pay for liability insurance coverage

Fauci Aide Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy That Shielded EcoHealth Records, Countered Lab-Leak Narrative Dr. David Morens, the longtime senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pleaded guilty in Greenbelt federal court on Tuesday to conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States (18 U.S.C. § 371). The plea caps a records scandal that began with his own emails bragging about making federal documents disappear. According to the DOJ: After the NIH terminated the bat coronavirus grant, Morens and a co-conspirator pledged to help its recipient restore the canceled funding and

Inside The DSA's Dilemma: Grow The Democratic Party Or Become It Authored by Russ Jones via The Epoch Times , The Democratic Socialists of America's national leadership was split 14-13 in Chicago this summer. Not over whether to endorse Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for president in 2028, but over whether the group's own 120,000 members should even get to vote on the question. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) speaks during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times The narrow margin, which blocked a nonbinding member poll, landed in the same season the DSA became,

Rubio Announces Sanctions Against International Criminal Court President & Top Lawyer Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday new sanctions against International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane and Senior Trial Lawyer Abdoulaye Sey e as tensions flare between the court and the Trump administration. “These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction,” his statement said. The ICC, he added, has attempted to “assert authority over” over U.S. citizens and nationals of other nations that have not consented to the Rome Statute that set

Why Teens Are Struggling To Find Summer Jobs Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times , Joslyne Baird has been looking for a job for about a year to help her family pay the bills. She began her job search at 14 years old, applying to summer camps and grocery stores around her small Kentucky town of about 1,500 people, without success, she told The Epoch Times. "I'm looking for babysitting jobs, mowing jobs, cleaning jobs, and so much more," the now 15-year-old said. "Anything I'm able to do to make money for, I will do." Baird has not

Comcast Turns Millions Of Routers Into Motion Sensors - The Same WiFi Signals Can ID You With 99.5% Accuracy Dear Comcast customers: The internet gateway in your living room is now a motion sensor. It's free of charge, and the data can go to law enforcement without further notice. What's more, researchers have already shown that these same signals can identify exactly who is in the room. On Tuesday, Comcast unveiled Xfinity Shield , a home security platform built entirely around the WiFi network. Its centerpiece, WiFi Motion, turns the leased gateway into a motion detector at no extra charge

Disengagement: Trump Vows New Strategy To 'Strangle' Iran Over Time Summary No talks: Trump confirms US-Iran negotiations are off, vows to 'strangle them' over time. Hormuz attack: Tanker hit, injuring a crew member. Houthis escalate: Attacks shut Yemen’s Mokha port. Diplomacy stalled: Qatar says not mediating until Oman-Hormuz deal finalized. Iran hardens: Tehran says it maintains an offensive posture. Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by September 30? Yes 9% · No 92% View full market & trade on Polymarket * * * Disengagement: Trump Vows New Strategy of Strangling Iran The US administration has already said this many

China Added 200,000 Bpd To Crude Reserves In July Despite Hormuz Crisis By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com China is estimated to have added about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to its huge inventories in July as imports rebounded from a decade-low in June and refinery runs remained depressed. The world’s top crude oil importer, unlike other major oil consumers, started drawing down on stockpiles only in May, the third month of the Middle East crisis, as it had amassed an estimated 1.4 billion barrels of crude oil in commercial and strategic stocks at the start of the

Unitree IPO 5,550 Times Oversubscribed As UBS Says Grey Market Points To 3.5x Open The global market leader in humanoid-robot shipments, China-based Unitree, is set to begin trading on Shanghai's STAR Market on Wednesday , potentially sparking a wave of robotics listings in Asia as the race for physical AI remains in its early innings. Unitree New Robot Preview: “Superman” Breaking the Limits of Humanity🥳 Standing high jump 2 m, top speed 12.66 m/s (0.85 m leg length) Surpassing the standing high jump and running speed records of all humans around the world This new machine has only been in

Battle Over Ten Commandments Arrives At Supreme Court Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times, The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 17 to review a federal appeals court decision that upheld a Texas law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit cleared the way in April for the Texas law to take effect. The state law known as Senate Bill 10, or SB 10, requires that public elementary and secondary schools conspicuously display in classrooms an easily readable poster

DSA Lawmaker Claims Shoplifting For "Biological Need" Shouldn't Be Illegal A radical Democratic Socialist lawmaker from New York is under fire after declaring that theft driven by "biological need" shouldn't be treated as a crime, effectively green-lighting shoplifting while slamming big retailers. Emily Gallagher, a New York State Assembly member and part of the Democratic Socialists of America's New York State Socialists in Office caucus, sparked outrage this week with comments defending petty theft at a press conference outside Manhattan Criminal Court. "Most of what we saw were crimes of poverty - people who are stealing things like toothpaste, people

Why Is This Scumbag Still In America? Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , A 26-year-old Ghanaian migrant stalked and attacked women across Oklahoma City over a two-week span in August, getting arrested three times for sexual battery before firefighters witnessed him trying to rape a fourth woman on a public trail and held him for police. Jeff Kufi (Kofi) Asare was booked on a first-degree rape charge with a $75,000 bond. The Oklahoma County District Attorney's office is pushing to raise that bond because of the rapid series of alleged assaults. Court records show at least 19 criminal

Vaccine-Maker Claims Splitting MMR Shot Could Take Up To 10 Years Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times , Splitting the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine into separate shots could take up to a decade, according to one of the two companies that produce the vaccine for the U.S. market. A tray of MMR vaccine vials at a clinic in Lubbock, Texas, on March 1, 2025. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images "Even under current expedited review pathways, it could take years - potentially as many as 10 - to meet the safety and efficacy requirements to obtain FDA approval and then

Pentagon Weighing Permanent Smaller US Presence In Gulf (Just Don't Call It Retreat) Already US officials have signaled they may just abandon hard-hit bases in the Middle East altogether, in the wake of Iran's retaliation as a result of Operation Epic Fury, and a conflict that's dragged on for nearly six months. On Tuesday The Washington Post reviews the damage control underway , as the Pentagon 'evaluates' its future military footprint . All of this is framed as if Washington has a choice and full control over the matter, when it seems that all along the Trump administration was woefully

Maryland Court Strikes Down Nation's First State Tax On Digital Advertising Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times , A state tax court in Maryland invalidated the nation's first state tax on digital advertising and directed state officials to refund tax payments already collected from major tech companies. People pass a building on the Google headquarters campus in Mountain View, Calif., on July 23, 2025. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The legal dispute had been closely watched by other states that are considering taxing online advertisements. The Annapolis-based Maryland Tax Court ruled on Aug. 14 that the digital advertising gross revenues

Jefferies Identifies High-Quality Energy And Materials Stocks As Cyclical Rotation Accelerates Jefferies analyst Lloyd Byrne wrote in a note on Monday that surging refined-product margins, stronger gas-fired power demand, and improving earnings estimates are providing clear tailwinds for energy stocks , even as valuations and technicals appear stretched. Byrne showed that the clearest source of strength in the energy market is refining . The six-month New York Harbor diesel-to-crude spread topped $100 (HOCL1 Index on Bloomberg) and has moved in close tandem with the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE). Included in the " 10 Charts That Mattered " report

Iraq-Syria Pipeline To 'Bypass' Hormuz Likely To Take Four Years, $15BN To Build Via The Cradle Iraq's plan to build a pipeline to export oil through Syria and partially bypass the Strait of Hormuz ​will likely take four years to complete and cost $15 billion , Reuters reported on Monday. Iraq urgently seeks new outlets for its oil exports, which have plummeted since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to the US-Israel war on the Islamic Republic that started in February. via Axios In July, Baghdad exported only 35.5 million barrels through its Basra ports via the Strait

Here's Where The Nation's Hottest Housing Markets Are The US housing market's top 10 hottest ZIP codes this year are all located in the Midwest and Northeast for the fourth consecutive year - as tight inventories due to limited homebuilding has fueled competition, according to a Monday report from Realtor.com. A builder works on a commercial property under construction in Peabody, Mass., on Jan. 12, 2015. Peabody is the nation's hottest housing market, according to Realtor.com. Elise Amendola/AP Photo The top 10 - as measured by buyer demand gauged by unique views and how quickly homes are selling are located

Federal Judge Halts Move Of FBI Headquarters To Ronald Reagan Building Rather Than Maryland Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times , A federal court on Aug. 17 blocked a Trump administration plan to move the proposed new FBI headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington instead of a site in nearby Greenbelt, Maryland, that was chosen in 2023. The former United States Agency for International Development building is seen at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC, on July 08, 2025. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images Congress passed laws requiring the General Services Administration (GSA),

US president delays 50% tariffs by three days, and says contentious oil project ‘may be awoken from the grave’ Canada has temporarily avoided a bruising 50% US tariff, reaching a Tuesday evening agreement with Trump officials, hours before a hike that would have affected $20bn worth of goods was set to take effect. Trump posted late Tuesday on social media that he had paused the tariffs for three days “based on the fact that Canada and the USA, subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!” Continue reading...

President, 80, vows to keep far-right from power as Flávio Bolsonaro tells supporters he will ‘fight this system’ Brazil’s leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has launched his campaign for a historic fourth term and vowed that as long as he lived he would not allow the “shameless” right to return to power. Addressing a sea of supporters in São Bernardo do Campo, the industrial city where his political career began nearly half a century ago, the 80-year-old politician reminded voters of the chaos and violence that unfolded during the 2018-22 presidency of his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro ,

Win is significant for region’s premier, Doug Ford, who blames protected zones for city’s traffic ills The Ontario government is now free to rip out Toronto’s bike lanes on its busiest streets after the region’s top court ruled in favour of the province on Friday, overturning a lower court’s decision that decreed removal would violate constitutional rights. The win is significant for Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, and his government, who have long railed against Toronto’s bike lanes, blaming the protected zones for the city’s traffic ills . Continue reading...

Grifols, which runs private chain of clinics, to temporarily stop taking donations after new government investigation A chain of private plasma donation clinics in Canada has said it is pausing collections after the deaths of two donors and a new government investigation into potential unsafe practices. Grifols, a Spanish healthcare company which runs 17 clinics in Canada and is the country’s only private clinic for plasma donation, said it informed Health Canada of its decision to temporarily pause collections on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Move will be one of first large-scale foreign investments in country since US ousted leader Nicolás Maduro in January BP has answered Donald Trump’s call for oil companies to help rebuild Venezuela’s fossil fuel industry with new plans to develop a large offshore gasfield. BP will partner with two oil firms with close links to the Trump administration to develop the second phase of the Loran gasfield, in one of the first large-scale foreign investments in Venezuela since the US ousted its leader Nicolás Maduro in January. Continue reading...

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise would end on 21 August at the request of the US South Korea’s military has confirmed that joint military drills with the US will be cut short, days after Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back the exercises. In a statement on Wednesday, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said at the request of the US side, the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise – which began on Monday would end on Friday, six days earlier than originally planned. Continue reading...

Country’s second fatal school shooting in two months took place in southern city of ⁠Zamboanga A student livestreamed himself shooting and killing another pupil in a classroom in the southern Philippines before taking his own ⁠life, ​the second school attack in the country in less than two months. The shooting took ⁠place at a school attached to Ateneo de Zamboanga University in the southern city of ⁠Zamboanga, a Catholic private institution in western Mindanao. Zamboanga city’s mayor, Khymer Adan Olaso, told the DZMM radio station that the ‌shooter “managed to enter carrying a high-powered firearm and a .45-calibre pistol”. Continue

Lee Jae Myung reiterates desire for full command back in Seoul’s hands after Donald Trump cuts joint exercises, citing warm ties with Kim Jong-un ‘Inane, haphazard decision’ by Trump to gut South Korea alliance South Korea’s president ⁠has renewed his push to regain independent control of the military from the US in the event of war and urged faster progress in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines after Donald Trump’s order to cut joint drills. On Sunday night, Trump instructed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” this week’s joint military exercises with South Korea, saying the nuclear-armed North “has been unthreatening and respectful” and

Person dies after landslide hits apartment building in southern city of Geoje as torrential rains lead to power cuts and mass evacuations Torrential downpours that pounded southern parts of South Korea since Saturday have killed one person and injured four others, officials have confirmed. Heavy rains have been recorded in South Gyeongsang province, including the city of Geoje, where an 800mm (31in) deluge over the weekend triggered a landslide, the interior and safety ministry said. The rain continued on Monday, bringing the cumulative rainfall total to 912mm by 6pm. Continue reading...

US president’s abrupt order to scale back joint exercises with Seoul is meant to ‘flatter’ North Korea’s dictator, top Democrat says Donald Trump’s move to gut Washington’s 73-year-old military alliance with Seoul has been called “inane” and “shortsighted” as lawmakers warned it risked strengthening Russia’s hand in Ukraine. The US president abruptly ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint exercises with South Korea just days after North Korea test-fired ballistic missiles, justifying the decision by citing his “very good relationship” with Kim Jong-un, the nuclear-armed dictator such exercises exist to deter. Continue reading...

Independent senator condemns gambling reform bill as ‘a victory for vested interests over the community’. Follow today’s news live Follow our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast ‘Collapsing confidence’ in housing market, Wilson says Tim Wilson has jumped on that reporting around rent increases and says there has been a collapse in confidence since the budget which is hurting renters. We’ve had, since the budget, collapsing confidence, a lack of will to invest in housing that is going to be available for rentals. We’re seeing a complete disaster in the housing market, and we know that’s

Victorian court of appeal to consider whether triple murder and attempted murder guilty verdicts should be quashed Mushroom murderer Erin Patterson was convicted over three deaths. Now she’ll argue the court got it wrong Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Limited accomodation during sequestering ‘issues of convenience’, Patterson’s barrister says Kidd says Patterson’s case must be considered in the context of other cases where jurors had unsupervised access to “outsiders”. He says in this case the jurors were under the supervision of the jury-keeper at all times. They are not, in our submission, a

Yolngu independent Yiŋiya Guyula accused the CLP of ‘contributing to the breakdown of our culture and people, in what is becoming a slow genocide’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A First Nations MP from the Northern Territory has resigned from parliament, accusing the ruling Country Liberal party of introducing laws that are “dehumanising, oppressing and destroying our communities and our people”, and contributing to a breakdown of culture that he says is “becoming a slow genocide”. Yiŋiya Guyula, a Yolngu man from the Djambarrpuyŋu

Effects of global heating in NT worsened by ‘dangerous and fire-promoting buffel grass’, expert says Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Fire authorities have warned large parts of the Northern Territory are facing heightened fire danger throughout spring, with above average fuel loads leaving much of the territory vulnerable. Low soil moisture has also led to elevated fire risk for parts of New South Wales, including some areas that were badly burned during the black summer fires, and south-east Queensland as an El Niño system

The young Indigenous girl was found on Tuesday after she was last seen leaving home in Butler on Saturday evening Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A ten-year-old First Nations girl, reported missing from Perth’s outer northern suburbs on Saturday, has been found. Western Australia police said the girl was found at 7pm on Tuesday, five hours after a press conference appealing for help to find the missing child. Continue reading...

Mykhailo Fedorov’s appeal is most direct challenge to Volodymyr Zelenskyy since Russian invasion in 2022 Ukraine’s recently dismissed former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for a wartime presidential election in the most direct political challenge to Volodymyr Zelenskyy since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The politician, whose abrupt sacking last month triggered a wave of protests , said that Ukraine had to “restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war” in a video address released online late on Tuesday evening. Continue reading...

Migration minister asked how he intends to stop deportations of people ‘who had lived in Sweden for decades’ The deportation and removal of British citizens from Sweden over Brexit residency rights is damaging relations with the UK amid efforts to improve links with London, a Swedish MP has said. Häkan Svenneling, representative for Vârmland, where a 78-year-old British widow, Joyce Thomas, has been given four weeks to leave Sweden after 21 years of residency, has written to the migration minister, Johan Forssell, asking what he “intends to do to stop the deportations”. Continue reading...

The blaze charring peatland, pine trees and hiking trails grew over the weekend to half the size of Manhattan Some first pictures from this morning’s earthquakes in Granada are emerging on social media… Andalusian president Juanma Moreno urged residents to maintain “maximum caution” as more seismic movements and aftershocks may happen. Continue reading...

Marie Ebert, Alexander Cromie and their pilot died when their aircraft crashed on island of Sifnos Greek police believe a mechanical fault may have caused a helicopter to crash moments before it was due to land on the island of Sifnos, killing a British couple on honeymoon and the pilot. Authorities were focusing on Tuesday on the “strange noise” the aircraft, a privately chartered Bell 206, is reported to have made before falling to the ground and exploding on impact. Continue reading...

Prime minister responds to Russian anger over Kyiv’s use of British-made drones in ‘deep strike’ campaign UK politics live – latest updates Europe live – latest updates Andy Burnham says the UK will continue to “support Ukraine 100%” after Russia threatened consequences after strikes by British-made drones. The Russian embassy to the UK said on Monday that Britain had been deliberately escalating the Ukraine conflict and the deeper its involvement, “the higher the price it will pay”. Continue reading...

Picture showing White Helmets volunteer unconscious and with bruises on his body went viral Syrians have protested over the death of a man who was arrested and allegedly beaten by security forces, sparking widespread anger at a practice thought to have ended with the fall of Bashar al-Assad. A crowd gathered in the city of Aleppo, demanding accountability for the security forces who are alleged to have carried out the torture, with participants holding signs and slogans such as: “Do not repeat the same oppression that we revolted against.” Protests were also planned to take place in front of Syria’s

Author Adam Johnson criticises Waverley council saying ‘reality is often upsetting’ while Palestinian group says libraries should hold ‘challenging’ books Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A Sydney library has removed a book critical of Israel called How to Sell a Genocide, following a complaint reportedly from a survivor of the Bondi beach terror attack. Waverley library at Bondi Junction is in the same council area as Bondi beach. Continue reading...

Likud’s depiction of Zohran Mamdani is latest move in spat between Israel’s prime minister and New York City mayor Benjamin Netanyahu’s party has compared the New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, to the leaders of Iran and Hezbollah on a campaign billboard. The billboard in central Tel Aviv depicts Mamdani alongside the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and the chief of the militant group Hezbollah, Naim Qassem. Continue reading...

US president makes threat in comments to Fox News, as his son-in-law meets the Israeli leader in Jerusalem in effort to push Gaza peace plan Trump threatens to bomb Oman if it ‘gets in the way’ of ending Iran war Netanyahu and Kushner talks make no breakthrough on stalled Gaza deal The UN rights chief voiced alarm Monday at the rising civilian toll of escalating hostilities in Yemen , urging restraint and an immediate de-escalation to avoid plunging the country back into a full-scale war. “I urge all parties to halt immediately any actions that risk returning Yemen to full-scale

Israeli PM again insists troops will not withdraw from strip until Hamas first disarms, but calls meeting constructive Benjamin Netanyahu has told Donald Trump’s son-in-law and envoy Jared Kushner there can be no progress on the stalled Gaza ceasefire deal or an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal strip until Hamas first disarms. An Israeli official said there had been no breakthrough in ‌the meeting between the pair, saying Netanyahu had made it clear the IDF would not withdraw and would continue to carry out operations in Gaza. Continue reading...

UK has refused resettlement application despite ‘years of loyal service’ that have resulted in ‘constant fear’ of reprisals A man has received threats from the Taliban after his work for the Afghan police was revealed by a Ministry of Defence leak and the UK refused his application for resettlement. Hamid* worked for the Afghan national police special unit and received certificates for his work signed by senior British figures praising his “dedication, unparalleled service and leadership”. His details were also included in an accidental 2022 leak by an MoD official that identified 18,700 Afghans who had worked with or for

Campaigners fear deeper diplomatic contacts are undermining demands for improvements in human rights The Taliban in Afghanistan have launched a diplomatic effort to end their isolation as major regional and international powers show a readiness to engage more closely with the repressive regime despite its systematic human rights abuses. Five years after the Taliban took power , an increasing number of countries are renewing ties or scaling up diplomatic contacts with the hardline Islamists, who seized power in Kabul in 2021 after 20 years of brutal insurgent warfare. Continue reading...

Kyaw Zwar Minn was ousted for declaring loyalty to Aung San Suu Kyi after 2021 coup but refused to leave his home Myanmar’s ousted ambassador to the UK has gone on trial on trespassing charges for refusing to leave a diplomatic residence after being unceremoniously locked out of the embassy in 2021. Shortly after Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021, triggering mass protests that spiralled into a civil war, Kyaw Zwar Minn was locked out of the embassy for declaring his loyalty to the deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Continue reading...

The wild capture and release of a female big cat into a nature reserve is the first step towards reintroducing a population that hasn’t been seen for 70 years On 31 July, “Umit” – which means hope in Kazakh – was released into a nature reserve on the edge of Lake Balkhash after more than a decade of careful planning to return the caspian tiger to the region. With this release, Kazakhstan became the first country to restore its tiger range after they had been thought extinct, with the last reliable sighting in the country recorded more than 70 years

An Amnesty International report reveals that the country is now a key part of Israel’s weapons supply chain. Plus, Assam floods, student anger spreads and a song to put in rotation • Don’t get This is India delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Hello, and welcome back to This Is India. For this week’s newsletter, I’m looking at India’s evolving relationship with Israel, and how it has deepened as conflict swept across the Middle East. Why is it that India has formed an even closer bond with a country that has faced mounting international isolation and backlash over a

More than 40 charities write to Pat McFadden and review head Alan Milburn over fears of stricter eligibility rules More than 40 of the UK’s leading charities have warned ministers against imposing tougher benefit sanctions or cuts on disabled young people, as the government considers how to encourage more young people into work. The charities raised concerns that an imminent review of young people and work by Alan Milburn could bring in stricter eligibility rules for keeping disability benefits – or remove them altogether – as part of a wider plan to boost flagging youth job rates. Continue reading...

Findings highlight importance of sleep health during middle age, particularly for those with lower socioeconomic status Sleep that is extremely disrupted or that goes on too long could mean a loss of nine months from working life after the age of 50, a study has found. It also found that women with no sleep disturbances had a longer working life from 50 to 68 than their male equivalents. Continue reading...

Researchers find capacity stunted by pollution was restored after introduction of ultra-low emission zone Children’s lungs grew bigger and stronger after the most polluting vehicles were restricted from entering London, a study has found. Examinations of London schoolchildren before and after the introduction of the city’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) found a restoration of lung capacity that had been stunted by exposure to pollution. Continue reading...

A man, woman and teenage girl have died, while a younger girl is in a critical condition, say Sussex police A couple and their teenage daughter have died after getting into difficulty in the sea off the West Sussex coast, police said on Tuesday. A man, a woman and a teenage girl died after the incident in Shoreham-by-Sea, the chief superintendent of Sussex police, James Collis, said. Continue reading...

Advice and guidance services for doctors in England found to be creating risk of missed or late detection of illness Cancer diagnoses have been missed or delayed because of a system designed for GPs to seek specialist advice before referring patients to hospital, according to an investigation. The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) identified patient risks linked to how advice and guidance (A+G) services have been implemented across England. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. Donalds and Jolly to face off in Florida governor race Democratic socialist Angie Nixon wins Senate primary Sign up for the US Breaking News email President Donald Trump posted an image of a map of the strait of Hormuz on his social media platform Truth Social, with a circle around the strait and the words “New US Territory” as the title on Tuesday morning. This follows comments made on Friday at a speech at a police academy on Long Island, New York, where Trump said “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very

This live blog is now closed. What we know about Tupac Shakur’s death and what to expect from murder trial District Court Judge Carli Kierney relayed a few questions directly from the jury to medical examiner Dr. Lisa Gavin. “Where there any wounds to the head that you or Dr. Jordan observed or noted?” Continue reading...

Nixon bested Alexander Vindman to win Democratic nomination and now faces Republican Ashley Moody in November Trump-backed Byron Donalds wins Republican primary in race to succeed Florida governor DeSantis In an upset for the Democratic establishment, progressive Angie Nixon won the party’s US Senate primary in Florida, beating former army intelligence officer Alexander Vindman. Nixon, a state representative and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, had significantly less funding going into the primary – with $975,000 to Vindman’s $16.3m at the end of July, according to Florida Politics . Continue reading...

Congressman had pledged to implement president’s agenda if he gained governor’s seat Democratic socialist Angie Nixon clinches surprise primary win in Florida US Senate race Byron Donalds, a congressman backed by Donald Trump , won the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday in the race to succeed Ron DeSantis . Donalds, who has represented south-west Florida since 2021, trounced three reasonably prominent Republican rivals, including Jay Collins, DeSantis’s handpicked lieutenant governor. Continue reading...

Potential presidential hopeful running for re-election in Georgia intensifies White House feud after remarks about ‘Natalie’ drew ire of president and allies The Democratic senator Jon Ossoff called Donald Trump a “draft-dodging, crook president” while defending the senator Mark Kelly as a hero during a Tuesday campaign appearance in Georgia, escalating his public feud with the US president. “I don’t think anything illustrates the times more aptly than that the draft-dodging, crook president, who has plunged our nation recklessly into a war he knows not how to end or to win, tried to imprison this man, who embodies American heroism,”

A US Navy destroyer with about 300 sailors aboard suffered a major breakdown in the Pacific Ocean last month that left it without power for four days, the Navy confirmed in a statement. The USS Benfold “reported an engineering casualty involving its generators, causing a loss of power” on July 24, Navy spokesman Commander Matthew Comer said in the statement. The breakdown meant the crew went without drinking water, meals, functioning toilets and air conditioning for days aboard the ship, Comer...

Mexico is weighing plans to impose further trade restrictions on selected products from China and other countries while raising existing import taxes on others, according to four people familiar with the matter. The so-called anti-dumping measures would deepen Mexico’s alignment with Washington as President Claudia Sheinbaum pursues a multi-year extension of the North American trade pact known as the USMCA, while also supporting her push to grow domestic manufacturing at a time of lacklustre...

The United States imposed sanctions on Tuesday on the International Criminal Court’s president and a senior trial lawyer at the court, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. The move is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign against The Hague-based court, which was established ‌in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. The US is not a member of the court. Rubio said in a statement that he was imposing sanctions on...

Meta Platforms intentionally sought to ⁠addict children to its Facebook and Instagram platforms, a lawyer for California said on Tuesday at the start of a trial that could reshape some of the most popular apps on the planet. A bipartisan group of 29 US states is suing Meta, seeking potentially tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in penalties and changes to how Meta does business. Four lead states – California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey – accuse Meta of designing Facebook and...

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in Moscow ⁠on Tuesday with ⁠Myanmar’s junta chief-turned-president, Min Aung ⁠Hlaing, discussing a wide range of issues including prospective energy deals. Russia is the first non-neighbouring country Min Aung Hlaing has visited since becoming Myanmar’s president in April, a sign of the two countries’ ‌deepening ties in the face of pressure from the West. In remarks after the meeting, Putin described Min Aung Hlaing as a friend of Russia and said the...

US President Donald Trump paused the planned roll-out of new tariffs on some Canadian goods late on Tuesday, after negotiations between both countries that went down to the wire. The reprieve from Trump’s 50 per cent duties would last three days, the US leader said in a social media post. This was “based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalisation of documents, have a DEAL!” Trump said. Trump’s announcement came after he held urgent talks with Canadian Prime Minister Mark...

US President Donald Trump said that Tuesday that no talks with Iran were under way or scheduled, as he posted a map showing the Strait of Hormuz as a new American territory in a fresh jibe at Tehran. Trump has been pressing his threat to claim sovereignty over the crucial energy waterway as the nearly six-month-old Iran war grinds on with little sign of resolution. Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner had said on Monday that the United States and Iran were having “very positive and active...

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is moving faster than any previous epidemic of the disease and risks spreading to more countries, the head of the World Health Organization has warned. “We must be frank: the epidemic is far from being under control,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an emergency meeting on the outbreak on Tuesday. “It had a big head start, and we are still playing catch-up.” His comment came after the DR Congo on Monday said the outbreak...

Some women who entered Spain’s ⁠North African enclave of Ceuta on July 30 as part of a mass migrant crossing say the ⁠hardships of sleeping rough as they wait to be registered are compounded by the threat and fear of sexual harassment. More than a dozen women have set up camp on a wooded roadside running up to the barbed wire fencing that surrounds the government-run migrant reception centre, near the urban beach of El Trampolin. The facility is sheltering about 700 people, 200 more than...

The Israeli military is touted as the most powerful in the Middle East, striking targets deep into enemy territory. But for more than a week, Israeli troops have somehow failed to evict a small group of settlers sitting on rocks in the occupied West Bank. Experts say the military has long shown inertia when its task is stopping surging violence against Palestinians, due to government backing for the settlement movement and the increasing influence of settler ideology within the army’s...

As the Iran war spills over into the Red Sea – a crucial chokepoint for Asia-Europe trade – China has marked a milestone by launching its first regular service through the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route (NSR), a development welcomed by Russia. The route, which runs along Russia’s northern Arctic coast, slashes travel time compared with alternative paths. A journey from Ningbo city on China’s southeast coast to Felixstowe in the United Kingdom takes just 20 days – about half the time required for...

A German court on Tuesday handed a jail sentence of one year and three months to a Ukrainian man for spying for Russia and helping prepare possible acts of sabotage. The court in Stuttgart acquitted two other Ukrainian men aged 22 and 25 who were on trial for the same plot, which involved posting test packages containing GPS trackers in March last year to Ukraine. The plan was aimed at scoping out possibilities for “disrupting transport and infrastructure” and was ultimately directed by a...

A Syrian court on Tuesday handed a death sentence to Wassim al-Assad who appeared in the dock, a cousin of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad who was himself sentenced to death in absentia last week. The 46-year-old relative of Assad was convicted over atrocities committed under the autocrat’s rule during the country’s nearly 14-year civil war. Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan said Assad’s cousin was convicted of multiple murders and “murder accompanied by torture and brutality … classified as crimes...

The Milky Way, a ⁠large and spiral-shaped galaxy that is home to hundreds of billions of stars including our sun, has taken a long and complicated path to achieve its current dimensions, as illustrated by new research documenting a milestone event early in its history. Scientists observing clusters of stars congregated near the Milky Way’s centre have discovered evidence that our galaxy swallowed a smaller galaxy roughly 11.8 billion years ago, when the universe was less ‌than 15 per cent of its...

A Russian attack on a village in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine killed 10 people, Kyiv said on Tuesday, vowing to respond. The strike comes amid a surge in civilian deaths in the four-and-a-half-year war. Russian forces “carried out a rocket strike on Pechenihy”, a village around 40km (25 miles) from the Russian border, Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on social media. “According to preliminary information, 10 people were killed,” he added, with 17 people wounded. Ukrainian...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to host Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing on Tuesday, as the Southeast Asian leader seeks an economic reboot for his war-ravaged country and fresh supplies of fertiliser, oil and weapons. A pariah to much of the West over his 2021 coup and role as army chief during the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority, Min Aung Hlaing has nonetheless found friends in Beijing, New Delhi and Bangkok over recent months. That followed a heavily criticised election won...

Peace prospects in the Middle East faded, with US President Donald Trump ruling out a renewed ceasefire deal with Iran and more fighting breaking out in Lebanon. Trump said “no” when asked whether he wanted a new Iran accord to replace a 60-day agreement that expired on Monday. “They want to make a deal, but they’re not going to make the kind of deal that I feel is necessary,” he told reporters at the White House. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose above US$91 per barrel, having gained...

Aboard his boat moored along the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian fisherman Mohammad Amin mended a torn fishing net after a long day in waters that have long sustained his livelihood, but are now shadowed by the threat of death. It has been less than a month since the 47-year-old resumed his routine of waking before dawn, heading out to sea and returning hours later with the day’s catch – a routine he had to put on hold during months of fighting between Iran and the United States in and around the...

US President Donald Trump cited India’s election system as a model for the US, bringing the world’s largest democracy into a contentious American debate over voter access and election security. Trump said the identification requirements make elections secure and pressed Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register for federal elections and photo identification to vote. The measure has stalled in the Senate as Trump and his Republican allies push for...

Women working in US President Donald Trump’s White House were not surprised that press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last week she was leaving her job – and they do not think it was just because she wants to spend time with her young children. In an interview with the Daily Mail, several anonymous White House employees spoke of the pressure that Leavitt, executive assistant Natalie Harper and other female staff are under to adhere daily to a “Maga perfect” standard of beauty that requires...

China cut its holdings of US Treasuries to a nearly 18-year low in June, as Beijing continued to diversify its foreign exchange reserves amid heightened geopolitical tensions and growing uncertainty over the policy outlook in the United States. Holdings fell to US$633.4 billion in June from US$659.3 billion in May, data released by the Treasury Department of the United States showed on Monday. The amount in June marked the lowest level since September 2008, when holdings fell to US$618.2 billion...

President Donald Trump’s decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea does not just slight a long-time ally but raises broader concerns about the security interests of the United States in Asia and elsewhere. Trump explained his decision by citing South Korea’s refusal to join his war against Iran and pointing to what he said was his good relationship with North Korea’s reclusive dictator Kim Jong-un, a transactional and personal approach to foreign policy that has defined...

Colombia’s new housing minister has come under fire after it emerged that he took his family on a Caribbean holiday while the country was reeling from a devastating earthquake that left thousands homeless. The August 10 earthquake, which killed nearly 300 people in western Colombia, struck just three days after right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella took office. The 7.4-magnitude tremor was the most powerful in Colombia in nearly half a century. Over the weekend, photos and videos emerged...

The US diesel crack, a key measure of refining profitability, hit an all-time high of US$102.20 a barrel on Monday as global supply disruptions from the wars in Iran and Ukraine run into peak agricultural consumption season. Measured as the premium ‌of US diesel futures over US West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures, the US diesel crack was trading at US$99.82 a barrel, up 2.4 per cent from Friday. The crack has hit new intraday record highs in five of the last six sessions, reflecting...

Moscow said on Monday it had summoned the Japanese ambassador after Tokyo condemned President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to Russia’s far-eastern Kuril Islands, which are also claimed by Japan. Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945. Putin, 73, travelled to the islands after visiting the nearby Russian island of Sakhalin, prompting Japan to summon Russia’s ambassador in...

Thousands of people gathered in central London late on Monday to hold a vigil for black academic Jason Arday, blaming racism and relentless media pressure for his death last week. The vigil in central Trafalgar Square came as the head of Cambridge University on Monday condemned a “racist feeding frenzy” prompted by plagiarism claims against Arday. Arday, who became Cambridge’s youngest black professor when he was appointed in 2023, was found dead on Friday aged 41, after mounting accusations he...

US President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency, with an overwhelming majority of Americans ‌concerned the US war with Iran will last a long time, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Monday. Just 33 per cent of respondents in the four-day survey said they approved of Trump’s performance in the White House, while 64 per cent disapproved. Trump’s approval rating, down from 35 per cent in a poll that closed earlier this month and lower...

Rapper Tupac Shakur was shot dead in an act of gang revenge ordered by a mobster who later boasted of it, jurors heard on Monday, as one of America’s most anticipated trials got under way, 30 years after the murder. Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a one-time leader of the South Side Compton Crips, one of a patchwork of gangs that ran parts of Los Angeles in the 1990s, ordered the killing after his nephew had been beaten by a rival mob, prosecutor Binu Pilal told a Las Vegas court. “On September 7, 1996,...

The theft ⁠of four paintings by Renaissance master Antonello da Messina may have involved organised crime and raised troubling questions about security at a museum in the Sicilian artist’s hometown, a local official said on Monday. Enzo Caruso, Messina’s councillor for culture, said it was difficult to understand how thieves could have removed the works in a matter of minutes without detailed ‌knowledge of the museum’s layout. “It’s a very, very strange affair,” Caruso said. The theft on...

Nvidia has agreed to provide a ⁠guarantee of up to US$105 billion ⁠to help ⁠OpenAI lease a sprawling data centre in Ohio being developed by SoftBank-backed SB Energy, in one of the chipmaker’s largest infrastructure financing commitments. The Jensen Huang-led firm said on Monday it will also invest US$1.5 billion in SB Energy, months after a US$1 billion investment from OpenAI and SoftBank to expand data centre infrastructure. The new deal is the latest example of Nvidia financing the...

A Russian court on Monday convicted a prominent opposition politician for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and sentenced him to 11 years and one month in prison in the latest crackdown leading up to next month’s parliamentary election. The verdict against Lev Shlosberg, a senior member of the Yabloko party, was another step by the Kremlin to stifle dissent since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022. Yabloko is the only official political party overtly opposing the war. In a...

New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged messages with someone posing as Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, it was reported on Monday. According to Politico, which broke the story quoting anonymous sources, the British leader sent a “few messages” via an unspecified communication channel to a person he believed to be Wiles before becoming suspicious. The incident was deemed serious enough for the British embassy in Washington to raise the matter with the White House, according...

Since Chinese container ships began plying the Northern Sea Route three years ago, the Arctic shipping lane has gained global importance. Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea later that year disrupted traffic through the Suez Canal – the fastest route between Europe and Asia – in what was the most serious conflict-driven disruption since the Arab-Israeli war nearly six decades earlier. The 5,600km (3,480-mile) Northern Sea Route spans Russia’s Arctic coast, from the Barents Sea to...

Three people have been shot dead in a suspected revenge attack linked to the drug trade in southwestern Spain, the authorities in the Andalusia region said on Monday. The three victims were a pregnant woman in her eighth month of pregnancy, a 62-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy. The unborn child also did not survive, the authorities said, adding that two other people were injured in the attack. According to official statements, the attack took place in Isla Cristina, a town of 21,000...

US President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of an American deal with Iran on the Strait of Hormuz, and called for Iran to surrender. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s*** out of them,” Trump told Fox News journalist Trey Yingst, referring to ongoing talks between Oman and Iran on control of the strait, while Washington is also pursuing its own talks. Iranian and Omani officials have been talking for weeks on future maritime navigation arrangements...

The US Supreme Court on Monday again rebuffed President Donald Trump’s push to throw out a jury’s US$5 million finding that he sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll at a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. The Republican president’s lawyers had asked the justices to reconsider their refusal to hear his appeal. It is unusual – although not unheard of – for the court to grant such requests. Trump paid the judgment shortly after the court declined to take up...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering US-China relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. US-China ‘Board of Investment’ stalls before expected Trump-Xi meeting The US-China Board of Investment, one of the key outcomes of the May summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, is unlikely to be among the deliverables for their expected meeting next month...

Last month, two Chinese companies released artificial intelligence models most people outside the industry know little about: Kimi K3 by Moonshot AI and Qwen3.8-Max by Alibaba Group Holding (which owns the South China Morning Post). The markets reacted even before publicly auditable evidence about the performance claims – detailed benchmark table, model card and licence – was made fully available. In the weeks that followed, global chip stocks shed about US$3 trillion in market value. That...

The European Union intends to significantly expand sanctions against Russia in the coming months over its war in Ukraine, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, told a ‌German newspaper. “EU sanctions have already cost Russia dearly, depriving Russia’s war machine of over €1 trillion (US$1.16 trillion) and for autumn I am putting forward the most far-reaching sanctions listings since the start of the war,” she told Die Welt. “Once adopted, they would immediately raise the total number of...

Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner on Monday wrapped up two days of meetings with Israeli and Hamas leaders to break a stalemate over the US president’s Gaza plan, but no breakthrough appeared imminent as both sides dug in. Kushner met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, a day after meeting Hamas’ political leader in Egypt to revive the plan, which has ‌stalled as Israel has carried out air strikes and grabbed more territory in Gaza despite an October ceasefire, while...

Hayden Panettiere, star of popular television series including Heroes and Nashville, has died. She was 36. Panettiere’s father, Skip, announced the actress’ death in a statement provided to ABC News on Sunday. “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her – and to the millions who watched her onscreen,” his statement said. No cause of death was...

An extremist Israeli lawmaker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition publicly advocated for killing “30 to 40” people in Gaza each night, comments that surfaced Sunday and were quickly shared by Palestinian media. Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir made the statement while speaking to a former Gaza-held hostage, Rom Braslavski, on Braslavski’s podcast. The two were discussing Israel’s recovery from the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, when Ben-Gvir criticised Israel’s recent...

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Why Chinese youth are turning to an 84-year-old Cambridge professor for support 2. Chinese officials rattled by White House chaos weeks ahead of Xi-Trump summit 3. How Southeast Asia’s monarchies stay relevant in a volatile region 4. Hong Kong policewoman facing probe over viral video of her...

“Horrific, horrendous, unbearable, unsafe.” That is how medical professionals describe the impact of this year’s heatwaves on Britain’s healthcare system, in response to a survey by the Doctors’ Association UK. In hospitals built for a cooler climate, staff are now dealing with patients too sweaty to receive intravenous drips, medication at risk of degrading in high temperatures and colleagues collapsing on the job with heat fatigue. The past few months have revealed the extent to which...

A top US military commander said mental health was a valid concern after meeting crew deployed on the USS Abraham Lincoln, where conditions aboard the aircraft carrier have led to complaints during its long deployment in the Iran war. Admiral Brad Cooper’s visit to the carrier in the Arabian Sea followed outrage among family members about reports of food shortages, water contamination, mouldy showers and long shifts in wartime aboard the vessel, which has been deployed without a port call for...

The move to end the military training a week earlier than scheduled comes after President Trump ordered the Defense Department to reduce joint military exercises with the key U.S. ally.

Although the fate of the ballroom is tied up in court, the Trump administration argues that the project is too far along to be stopped now.

The president’s hostility to allies like Oman, Canada and South Korea, and his affection for adversaries like North Korea, may still shock some. But it comes as little surprise after a decade of upheaval.

A day after President Trump’s envoy, Jared Kushner, visited Israel to advance a stalled plan for demilitarizing and rebuilding Gaza, the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas commanders.

As he looks for The One, Joseph Pascaretta is investing in pricey matchmaking services. Will it help him find love?

Despite the actress’s efforts to move on from a turbulent relationship with Brian Hickerson, they were together when she went into cardiac arrest and died.

The arrangement is one of the largest known deals that the Trump administration has struck to expel migrants who cannot be sent back to their home countries.

Federal agents have begun detaining Haitians in the Ohio city, signaling an increase in ICE activity that has panicked the community and kept many from leaving home.

After reviewing claims of persistent safety and sanitary failures, the court named two experts to monitor detention conditions across several facilities.

The agency joins a growing number of workplaces and groups to ban Meta’s devices, which have spurred privacy concerns.

The only member of the Texas power trio without a beard, he propelled the band’s blend of boogie, Southern rock and blues for more than a half-century.

We aren’t the only animals that like to take care of other species. A new study finds that the roots of keeping a pet may stretch deep into our primate past.

The damage was real and long-lasting.

Step 1: Take it seriously, not literally.

The rule to require efficient replacement tires was praised by environmentalists. But manufacturers warned that the change would hurt American companies and increase tire prices.