Minimalist News

Trump Must Hand Over Finance Records Sought By BBC In Defamation Lawsuit, Judge Rules Authored by Rachel Roberts via The Epoch Times, A judge in Florida has ruled President Donald Trump must hand over financial records sought by the BBC for its defense against his $10 billion defamation lawsuit. The U.S. president is suing the corporation over an episode of “Panorama” that edited together different sections of his speech on the day of the Capitol breach in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. The BBC reported that Judge Enjoliqué Lett granted a motion by the corporation’s legal team to compel the

Historic Buffalo Church Torches Twice In Four Days Following Sale To Islamic Group Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , A 140-year-old Catholic church in Buffalo has been deliberately set on fire for the second time in four days, the third blaze to hit the site this year. Investigators confirmed arson. The property was sold years earlier by the Diocese of Buffalo to a company affiliated with the Downtown Islamic Center, which planned to turn the historic complex into a mosque. Christian heritage keeps vanishing while officials scramble over "securing" the site they already allowed to fall into the

Trump's Tariff Wall Returns With Forced-Labor Duties On 60 Countries The Trump administration imposed Section 301 tariffs on 60 countries accused of failing to " impose and effectively enforce " bans on goods produced with forced labor , according to a new notice from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Today, Ambassador Greer is taking action, at President Trump’s direction, under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 by imposing tariffs on 60 trading partners for their failure to adopt and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.… — United States Trade

US New Home Sales Rise For First Time In 3 Months As Prices Near 5-Year Lows With Case-Shiller reporting existing home price declines in half of America's largest cities, and despite a weaker homebuilder confidence print, New Home Sales were expected to rebound from April and May's ugly declines... and they did, but only very modestly. New home sales rose 1.6% MoM (+4.8% MoM exp) marking the first rise in three months, but May's 7.3% MoM decline was revised up to a mere 4.3% MoM decline. However, this bounce was not enough to get annual sales positive (still down 5.6%

US PMIs Mixed But Still Signal Accelerating Economic Growth In Q3 With 'hard data' trending weaker, today's preliminary July PMIs offer the first glimpse at whether the reignition of the Iran War is weighing on 'soft' survey sentiment in the US economy. The data was mixed (as always) with Manufacturing disappointing while Services accelerated more than expected: Flash US Manufacturing PMI: 53.8 (June: 53.9). 4-month low. Flash US Services PMI Business Activity Index: 53.6 (June: 51.2). 8-month high. “US businesses reported a good start to the third quarter," said Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, adding

Yet Another Wildberries Facility - Russia's Amazon - Goes Up In Flames After Ukraine Drone Strike Another large warehouse and logistics hub for major online Russian retailer Wildberries has been targeted and struck by Ukrainian drones. This is the third time in a week the company widely considered to be the 'Russian Amazon' has seen its warehouses go up in flames. At least eight of its shipping facilities have been attacked overall this month . Wildberries co-founder Tatyana Kim confirmed the fresh attack on company facilities Friday morning : Kim, Russia's wealthiest woman, said Wildberries facilities in St. Petersburg and

"It's Getting Worse": HSBC Warns Commodities Face Squeeze As Chokepoint Chaos Spreads The key takeaway heading into the weekend is that maritime chokepoint chaos has spread from the Strait of Hormuz to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, while fighting across the Black Sea has intensified between Russia and Ukraine. The widening disruptions have prompted several institutional desks this week to warn that a potential squeeze on physical commodity markets could send prices from energy to agricultural goods higher . "The Middle East conflict has escalated, putting a substantial squeeze back into commodity markets ," Paul Bloxham, HSBC's chief economist for Australia,

Braggawatts, Cheap Chinese Compute, & Simple ROI Authored by Peter Tchir via Academy Securities, With weakness in chips and AI the prior week, that was a major topic of conversation, as was the escalation in Iran (please see Academy’s Geopolitical Analysis for the latest on Iran and geopolitics more broadly). Two key themes from last weekend’s From Trinkets to Compute seem to be playing out: Cheap Chinese Compute Most importantly, the story of Cheap Chinese Compute is garnering staying power. While DeepSeek may have been a one-off, the story is increasingly about China delivering Cheap Compute . We have seen

NANO Nuclear And Fortil Advance Critical KRONOS Fuel System NANO Nuclear Energy has pushed another critical piece of its KRONOS MMR program toward preliminary design, this time with French engineering group Fortil. If there's a corner of the French industrial sector that America should be comfortable leaning into, their nuclear segment is arguably the safest bet. Their 57-reactor fleet, accounting for 70% of the country's electricity generation , is only surpassed by the US and Chinese commercial fleets. The companies said conceptual design work is nearly complete on the reactor’s Fuel Handling & Storage System, which will manage the safe

"I'm Not Racist": Musk Slams Snooty Leftist Interviewer, Says "I Support The Normal People" Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , During a terse exchange, Elon Musk told the virulently leftist editor-in-chief of The Economist that civil war in Britain is inevitable on current trends - driven by rapid migration of people whose beliefs clash with Western civilisation. In response, Zanny Minton Beddoes accused Musk of supporting the "far right," and amplifying racists. Musk called the coming confrontation a "reckoning," rejected the racist smear, and turned the tables on an interviewer determined to paint secure borders and opposition to

Futures Rebound As Brent Dips Below $100 US equity futures are seeing a modest rebound after posting their biggest drop this month, as Brent crude dropped back under $100 a barrel, and bond yields and rate hike odds - which track the price of oil one to one - halted their ascent. As of 6:00am ET, S&P 500 futures rose 0.3%, with the index still on track for its first back-to-back weekly loss since the early stages of the Iran war. Tech stocks remained under pressure as South Korea’s memory and Japanese chip giants were pummeled. Treasury yields hovered just

Inside Global Aerospace & Defense Boom: 12 Takeaways From World's Most Important Airshow The Farnborough International Airshow is coming to a close in the UK, marking the end of one of the aerospace and defense industry's top gatherings. Institutional research desks have had boots on the ground, tracking commercial-aircraft orders, defense procurement and other industry trends. A team of Citi analysts led by John Godyn attended Farnborough earlier this week and reported back to clients Thursday morning. Their findings pointed to accelerating missile demand and a wave of new aircraft orders that could fuel a stronger and more robust growth

India's Fuel Exports Set To Soar In July As Refining Margins Jump By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com , India is on track to export the highest volume of refined petroleum products in months as refining margins have jumped with the re-escalation of the Middle East conflict. India is estimated to ship as many as 1.55 million barrels per day (bpd) of light and middle distillates in July, per data by commodity analysts Kpler cited by Reuters columnist Clyde Russell. The July volumes would be nearly double the fuel export volumes of just 866,000 bpd in May, when the Strait of

Deaths Now Outnumber Births In 17 US States Natural population growth is slowing across much of America. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates, 17 states recorded more deaths than births between July 2024 and July 2025, up from only four states during much of the 2010s. Using U.S. Census Bureau data, Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld created this map showing natural population change in every state . Because the measure excludes domestic and international migration, it highlights where population growth increasingly depends on people moving in. Natural Population Change by State The table below ranks every state by natural

EU Is Launching A Mission To Board Russian Shadow Fleet Tankers In The Indian Ocean The European Union has authorized its naval mission in the Indian Ocean (apparently there is one) to stop and board Russian shadow fleet tankers suspected of operating under false flags, the bloc announced on Wednesday. The Spanish Navy frigate Santa María F81, deployed as part of the European Union Naval Force Operation ATALANTA, seen off the coast of Mogadishu, Somalia, on April 24, 2025. EU member states have authorized Operation Atalanta , the union’s counter-piracy naval mission off the Horn of Africa, to begin conducting

Eco Loon Lobbies For Cameo In British Soap To Spread Climate Alarmism Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , BBC naturalist Chris Packham has openly requested a guest role on the fictional soap EastEnders so he can turn the nation's most-watched entertainment show into a vehicle for climate crisis messaging. In comments reported by GB News and drawn from a Radio Times interview, the veteran naturalist described his fantasy appearance: an environmental disaster such as a flood hitting the fictional London borough, followed by him marching through as himself with a placard to lecture the locals. Packham told Radio

EU Approves Biggest Russia Sanctions Yet After Holdout Greece Secured LNG Exemption What is there left to sanction and what is its effectiveness? Europe is boasting of no less that its 21st package of sanctions against Russia , approved by the EU on Thursday. Apparently it has found plenty of entities still to sanction, as the compiled blacklisting is said to be the EU's largest in four years , targeting primarily financial and energy sectors. The bloc also agreed to freeze the Russian oil price cap at current levels for another year, alongside issuing 218 new designations . Getty Images

The Multipolaristas' Are China-Maxxing Authored by Iain Davis via Off-Guardian.org, Let’s consider the arguments of those who advocate global governance, the people whom Hrvoje Morić identifies as the Multipolaristas . They are often engaged in China-maxxing and are, whether they know it or not, essentially serving as propagandists for the global oligarchy. Research conducted by analysts working for the South China Morning Post (SCMP)—an English-speaking, Western-aligned Chinese news outlet—suggests that, between 2015 and 2025, a notable shift occurred in the way China and its government were portrayed by the leading Western media organisations. Chief analyst Jianlu Bi , who is

The Odyssey And The Tiresome Woke War Against White Culture Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us We’ve all heard the argument for most of our lives: “White culture doesn’t exist.” It’s perhaps the most common racial refrain because it’s the most socially acceptable to repeat. If someone said “Black culture doesn’t exist because black people all herald from different tribes…” that person would be browbeaten as a bigot by the woke mob. When it comes to white culture, such claims are applauded. The question is, why is it okay to diminish or denigrate white culture while worshiping every other culture?

China Plans Planetary Defense Test By Slamming Mach 26 Spacecraft Into Asteroid A new paper under peer review by the Chinese-language Journal of Deep Space Exploration lays out an ambitious plan to crash a spacecraft at Mach 26, or 20,000 mph, into a near-Earth asteroid to test new planetary defenses. The South China Morning Post reports that a team led by Li Mingtao, chief scientist for planetary defense at the China National Space Administration, is planning a mission even more ambitious than NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). That mission would slam a spacecraft into 2015 XF261, an asteroid estimated

Of the estimated 179 people aboard, 76 were rescued as efforts continue to salvage the ship and recover all bodies The confirmed death toll from the recent capsizing of a state ferry off Guyana ’s coast has risen to 72, with more bodies recovered as a multinational team struggle to salvage the partially submerged vessel. Of the estimated 179 people aboard, 76 people were rescued. The government has estimated that 100 may have died in the accident, which would make it the worst marine tragedy on record for the South American nation. Continue reading...

ICE will pay Canadian media giant US$125m to use its investigative database to identify ‘immigration fraud’ A Canadian federal opposition party leader has called on Mark Carney’s government to block the latest data-sharing deal between US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Canadian media company Thomson Reuters. Avi Lewis, the federal leader of the New Democratic party (NDP), demanded on Tuesday that Ottawa address the contract and further restrict Canadian corporations from doing business with ICE, after Canada’s National Observer news website reported on the deal. Continue reading...

Delegation sent to Brasília after gunmen from organised crime group enter homes in western Amazon Indigenous leaders on the Brazilian-Peruvian border have said their communities are being “taken hostage” by organised crime groups who are running rampant across the region, destroying rainforest, building roads and trafficking drugs. Earlier this month, masked men armed with semi-automatic weapons entered homes in Apiwtxa, a village in the Kampa do Rio Amônia Indigenous territory, intimidating people and searching for targets. Continue reading...

Fires remain out of control in Northwest Territories and Ontario, while Argentina endures record night-time heat Recent hot, dry weather in Canada has triggered hundreds of wildfires across the country. As of Wednesday, more than 900 were burning, scorching about 3m hectares of land. While fires have broken out in several provinces, the greatest concern is in the Northwest Territories and Ontario , where several remain out of control. Poor air quality has been reported across affected regions, with wildfire smoke carried by winds into the US and even across the Atlantic to northern Europe. The risk of further blazes

Valentín Lavín Romero is the 14th mayor to be murdered since Claudia Sheinbaum became president in 2024 A mayor was shot dead on Wednesday in the Mexican state of Morelos after having survived a previous assassination attempt earlier this year. He is the 14th mayor to be murdered since Claudia Sheinbaum became president in October 2024. Valentín Lavín Romero, who was from the Green party, an ally of the ruling leftwing Morena party, was wounded at the end of January when hitmen shot him at a petrol station on a motorway. Continue reading...

Dunedin will be the focal point, having last experienced such an eclipse in 1163 – before any humans reached New Zealand Hotels are booking out two years in advance in the New Zealand city of Dunedin as it prepares for the region’s first total solar eclipse in more than 850 years. At 4.17pm on 22 July 2028, the moon will pass in front of the sun, casting a roughly 100km-wide shadowy band across parts of southern New Zealand. Everywhere within that band – from tourist hotspot Queenstown in the west to Dunedin city in the east – will be plunged

Isabel Rose, 26, sentenced to six years for blackmail and perverting course of public justice over her allegations against British man A British woman who reported being raped to police in Hong Kong has been sentenced to six years in prison for blackmail and perverting the course of public justice. Isabel Rose, 26, from south-east London, travelled to Hong Kong in early 2024 to visit a British banker she had met while travelling in south-east Asia. Continue reading...

Foreign minister Penny Wong will deliver speech criticising China’s recent launch of a nuclear-capable submarine-launched missile Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Penny Wong will warn China that Australia and other neighbouring nations will not be bullied by its “provocative” actions, after its involvement in another “destabilising and dangerous” incident this week. The foreign affairs minister – who will deliver the address on Thursday in the Philippines, where the 59th Asean foreign minister’s meeting is being held – will also caution world leaders against placing a toll on the strait of Hormuz after both

Prosecutors seek a one-year sentence and heavy fine after chef garnished dish with insects not approved for consumption Prosecutors in South Korea have asked a court to sentence the owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant to one year in prison for serving a dessert topped with ants, an insect not approved for consumption under local food safety law. The request, made on Monday, also sought a 20m won (£10,108) fine for the company that runs the restaurant, Yonhap news agency reported . Continue reading...

In April Japan coined new term kokushobi for days above 40C as country advises workers to wear shorts to the office to cope with stifling heat Japan logged its first official kokushobi or “cruelly hot day” on Tuesday since the new term for when temperatures top 40 degrees Celsius was introduced in April. The Japan Meteorological Agency coined the new designation to warn the public of the heat dangers of days that were once freak weather events but have now become more common. The central Japan cities of Gujo and Tajimi in Gifu prefecture, along with Toyota in Aichi prefecture,

Economists’ warning comes as escalating Middle East crisis pushes global crude oil back above $US100 a barrel Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australian households face the prospect of a Reserve Bank interest rate hike and petrol prices above $2 a litre over the coming weeks, economists warn, as the escalating Middle East crisis pushes global crude back above $US100 a barrel. Financial markets now see an even chance the RBA board will deliver a fourth cash rate increase at the next meeting on 11 August. Continue reading...

The One Nation leader has allied herself with men’s rights activists for years, consistently suggesting women routinely make false allegations of violence Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast For a decade, Pauline Hanson has been beating the same drum. Her comments this week – suggesting domestic violence was a “two-way street” and questioning why women did not simply leave abusive relationships – have caused significant concern and been labelled “dangerous” by experts and other commentators. Continue reading...

Inquiry’s focus this week is on security for the Jewish community, with the MP telling the commissioner his son is afraid to attend synagogues and events Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The shadow education minister, Julian Leeser, has called for universities to undertake an audit of any classes that teach about the Jewish community, Israel or Palestine. Appearing before the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion on Friday, Leeser said he had been “very concerned” about antisemitism on university campuses and was not satisfied with how vice-chancellors had addressed the issue after

This blog is now closed Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australian exports sent to the US will be hit with a 12.5% tariff as the US president imposes levies on more than 80 nations. The Trump administration unveiled the latest tranche of tariffs for countries over their “failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour”. This, in our view, makes no sense. Forced labour is definitely something which needs to be combated around the world, so we support that objective. We absolutely need to

Australia’s trade minister, Don Farrell, says tariff regime is unjustified and inconsistent with free trade agreement with US Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Donald Trump has hit Australian exports with new trade tariffs, claiming the country is not doing enough to combat forced labour, but the Albanese government has demanded he remove them immediately. The United States announced on Friday morning (AEST) that many Australian exports now attract a new 12.5% tariff as part of a broader regime affecting dozens of countries. However the

‘Unpredictable’ blaze forces evacuation of holiday spot Cap Ferret and Spain declares emergency over fires near Madrid More than 80,000 people have fled huge wildfires in Spain and France as Madrid declared a national emergency and French authorities ordered the total evacuation, by land and sea, of one of the country’s best-known holiday spots. Authorities in south-west France ordered the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast to be evacuated “village by village” in the face of an “intense, highly unpredictable” wildfire that has burned through more than 12,500 hectares (30,900 acres) of forest. Continue reading...

French evacuees using hundreds of mobilised boats or the only road linking the area with the mainland as evacuation also ordered in areas near Spanish capital Over in France, it’s not just the south-west that gets affected, but the country’s south-east regions are also being hard hit, AFP noted. Dozens of fires flared up and are being fanned by the mistral wind around the historic village of Cotignac – officials saying around 25 houses had been destroyed since Tuesday. Continue reading...

Lib Dems call on PM to push for suspension of ‘bungled, malfunctioning’ system as overseas holiday travel peaks Andy Burnham has been urged to lobby EU leaders directly to suspend the new entry-exit system, EES, as the peak weekend for overseas holidays begins. About 2.2 million British holidaymakers are expected to head abroad between Friday and Monday, the majority to Europe, with all schools in the UK now on their summer break. Continue reading...

The conditions for ferocious fires are expected to worsen as the planet heats up, putting more people at risk Fierce wildfires after back-to-back heatwaves have forced tens of thousands of people across southern Europe to flee their homes , while powerful infernos across Canada and the US choke big cities with thick smoke. Continue reading...

Former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki and allies say they were forced out over factional disagreements Poland’s main opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party has split, after former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki and his allies said they were forced out over factional disagreements on policy direction ahead of next year’s parliamentary election. Speaking at a press conference, the party’s longtime leader , Jarosław Kaczyński, said dozens of members of parliament effectively left the party after refusing to sign a loyalty oath. Continue reading...

Latest attacks come after Trump vowed ‘major military punishment’ for Tehran and its Houthi allies Donald Trump said that in recent meetings with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin , both leaders assured the US president separately that they would not sell weapons to Iran . “Considering our relationship, I take him at his word,” Trump said of the Chinese leader. Meanwhile, the US president said that the Kremlin made the same guarantees, despite the ongoing war in Ukraine. Putin understands that the US does not sell weapons to Ukraine, “but to Nato countries”, Trump said in a post on Truth

Several others seriously injured in attack that residents of Palestinian village say also involved Israeli military Four Palestinians and one Israeli settler have been killed in a shooting in the northern West Bank, health officials have said, during what residents described as a settler attack also involving the Israeli military. Several more people were seriously injured. The serious incident in the Palestinian village of Tell, near Nablus, is the deadliest attack in the West Bank this year and has the potential to lead to a series of reprisals between Israeli-backed settlers and Palestinian communities. Continue reading...

This live blog has not closed, you can read our latest story from the region here Earlier in the US day, before Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had stopped three oil tankers from passing through the strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump issued this threat on his Truth Social platform : From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to,

IRGC claims base in south-west England was used by US to launch bombing missions, making it ‘legitimate target’ The government has said the UK is “ready to defend itself” after Iran’s military warned that any bases being used by the US were “legitimate targets”. The UK has allowed the US to launch “defensive” operations from British bases hosting American planes since the start of its war on Iran but has refused to help in offensive operations. Continue reading...

President’s remarks follow Houthi strikes on Saudi tankers in the Red Sea and oil prices rising past $100 a barrel again Donald Trump has said he is close to deciding whether to launch “a massive attack” against Iran, on a scale larger than strikes already witnessed during the months-long conflict with Tehran. Speaking to the Axios news site, the US president said: “I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it.” Continue reading...

Sonam Wangchuk secures ‘hard bargain’ with Delhi but talks between government and movement leaders stall The Cockroach activist Sonam Wangchuk has ended a 26-day hunger strike, as youth-led protests continued to erupt across India and leaders of the movement said there was no breakthrough in talks with the government. Wangchuk had been fasting since June in solidarity with the Cockroach Janata party (CJP), a new youth-led movement that has been holding mass protests calling for government accountability and the resignation of the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, over exam paper leaks. The leaks affected 2 million students in May and have

South Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen on the Cockroach movement – and the students driving India’s biggest protests in years ‘I’ve never seen this many young people out on the streets,’ says Hannah Ellis-Petersen . For days, tens of thousands of Indians have been marching under the banner of the Cockroach Janta party. Continue reading...

PM says ‘those who try to harm the future of our youth will not be spared’ as scandal spirals into widespread anger Narendra Modi has vowed to set up “fast-track courts” to speed up the punishment of officials accused of leaking examination papers, as the Indian prime minister seeks to quell a youth-led “cockroach” protest movement that has rocked Delhi and posed one of the biggest challenges to his government. In his first public remarks on the movement, Modi posted on X: “Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth … Those who try to harm

Proceedings suspended as politicians call for Modi government to address police violence and education scandals India’s opposition parties have shut down parliament in a protest calling for the resignation of the education minister, in solidarity with the new youth-led “cockroach” movement . Opposition politicians, led by the Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, gathered outside the parliament building in Delhi on Wednesday, many dressed in black and waving placards calling on Dharmendra Pradhan to quit. Continue reading...

Thousands of people again on the streets of Delhi calling for education reforms despite police violence on Monday Taru had come to the protest prepared this time. In one hand was an anti-government poster and in the other was a bicycle helmet. “We need to have protection in case Delhi police beat us up again,” said the 25-year-old, who stood among her friends. “We are not scared of them and we won’t run away, no matter what they do. We’ll stay here till they listen.” On Tuesday, central Delhi still thronged with thousands of protesters, as an unprecedented expression of

Party briefing notes say: ‘Daily routine of hit jobs and smears will not deter us from winning next general election’ Reform UK has instructed its councillors to describe a police investigation into donations from the mother of George Cottrell as an establishment stitch-up, as polling showed the party’s popularity plummeting. Internal briefing documents circulated to the party’s councillors included instructions to respond to questions about a Metropolitan police investigation into party donations with: “It is now clear that the establishment will try anything to stop us”, the Times revealed on Thursday . Continue reading...

V&A event celebrates all shapes and sizes as wider fashion industry stalls on body diversity Visitors to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum on Friday afternoon to watch Sinéad O’Dwyer ’s Fashion in Motion show would have encountered something a little different. The cast of performers and models wore everything from underwear to skirt suits and sequins, and sometimes danced interpretively on the catwalk to a performance by the band Jeanie and The White Boys, but most notably came in all shapes and sizes. O’Dwyer’s work has pushed against fashion’s insistence on a thin body type since she appeared at London

A physio, a tailor and a historian on the style trends that can put women in hospital and how to avoid the dangers “Buyer beware” is one of the oldest principles in English law. Now, a pair of wide legged trousers from Zara is bringing the phrase back to the forefront of shoppers’ minds. On social media the £25.99 wide-legged trousers from the high-street retailer have earned the moniker “Zara death pants” thanks to a slew of videos showing wearers tripping over the leg of the trousers and injuring themselves. Continue reading...

A £10,000 bar tab was drunk, there was a ‘lot of anger’, and now ex-ministers are thinking how to cooperate in future Keir Starmer’s leaving party had been planned for some time. But in years to come it might be seen as the birth of a new Labour movement. Dozens of ministers, aides and Starmer himself headed to the Grafton pub in Kentish Town on Monday night to drown their sorrows, hours after the former prime minister left Downing Street for the last time. Continue reading...

PM, on his first day at new base, says it will create ‘that sense of a more balanced country, that big things can be done from here’ Andy Burnham has arrived by police convoy at No 10 North at Heron House in Manchester: Andy Burnham was probably feeling left out of the “Celtic alliance”, after apparently telling John Swinney that Scottish independence was “off limits”. Continue reading...

Even some Republicans apparently expressing concern over measures against 85 countries What to know about Trump’s new tariffs on more than 80 countries Sign up for the US Breaking News email Represenatives Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jayapal, will visit the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis today to conduct a congressional oversight visit. The Democratic lawmakers are visiting the site of sustained protests earlier this year against the immigration crackdown that swept the state of Minnesota, and resulted in the fatal shootings of two US citizens by federal immigration agents. Continue reading...

US president faced criticism from Democrats after tariffs of between 10% and 12.5% imposed on more than 80 countries US politics live – latest updates Donald Trump has been accused of using forced labor as “a pretext” to impose a fresh wave of tariffs on dozens of countries, as critics warned of higher prices for Americans. The US president faced swift criticism from Democrats after his officials presented their latest effort to make his signature economic policy permanent following a string of high-profile legal setbacks. Some Republicans also expressed concern. Continue reading...

Over 11,500 people this summer are suspected to have been sickened by disease that can cause explosive diarrhea, CDC says Investigations into the largest cyclosporiasis outbreak on record expanded to nine states this week, as more than 11,500 people are suspected to have been sickened this summer, according to reports and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Data released by the CDC this week said the agency is looking into 4,173 laboratory-confirmed domestic cases of the disease and investigating an additional 7,400. Continue reading...

Explosive diarrhea infection detected in 41 states with at least 72 sickened by new, as yet unknown source of parasite Confusion abounds in the cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands in at least 41 states, as officials identify a new cluster of cases and more potential products come under scrutiny. The recall of products during this outbreak of explosive diarrhea has been an unusual one, complicated by poor communication, politicization and the delay of a new regulatory rule could have helped trace the cyclosporiasis outbreak faster. Continue reading...

Kagan rejects notion that high court ‘does whatever the administration wants’, pointing to tariffs ruling and more The liberal justice Elena Kagan has said it was “wrong” to accuse the US supreme court of becoming a rubber stamp for Donald Trump in his second term, amid criticism of its authorization of some of the president’s most controversial actions. Pointing to rulings against the president on key issues such as tariffs, Kagan – one of three liberals on a court that has in recent years been defined by rulings authored by members of its six-justice conservative majority – defended it at

After devoting the first half of 2026 to an ineffectual, expensive and inconclusive military adventure in Iran, it seems US President Donald Trump is about to turn afresh to the wars he loves best – the tariff wars he still believes can make America great again. He can’t quite walk away from the war in the Persian Gulf. Iran’s refusal to capitulate has left Trump with an awkward obligation to fight on, despite the widespread unpopularity of the conflict, even among his base, and the need to...

The US imposed tariffs as high as 12.5 per cent on 60 trading partners, including China, after President Donald Trump adopted a different method for pursuing his global trade war. The levies, which are related to forced labour, replaced a temporary 10 per cent global tariff that expired on Friday. The 10 per cent tax was imposed after previous Trump tariffs were struck down by the US Supreme Court. Trump’s new taxes, targeting imports from 80-plus countries, can probably withstand legal...

China has added 14 entities from the European Union to its export control list, including German defence giant Rheinmetall, the Ministry of Commerce announced on Friday. Effective immediately, the order means that the export of dual-use items – products with civilian and military applications, including some rare earth elements – from China to the named entities is prohibited, as is the shipment of dual-use items of Chinese origin to the listed companies and institutions. The move came after...

London’s mayor and police chief have used a drop in recorded street crime to reassure tourists the city is safe and counter an online narrative depicting Britain’s capital as a lawless dystopia. The city’s Metropolitan Police force said “neighbourhood crime”, a category that includes phone theft, pickpocketing, residential burglary and vehicle crime, fell 14 per cent in the year to June. In Westminster borough – home to tourist magnets including Parliament, Soho and Leicester Square – those...

The six candidates vying to lead the United Nations stressed the importance of restoring the credibility of an organisation in crisis during a restrained debate Thursday, one week before the selection process formally starts. With the campaign struggling to generate real enthusiasm for a front-runner, the hopefuls faced nearly two hours of questions from diplomats, UN employees and civil society representatives at an event in the huge General Assembly Hall, broadcast by Bloomberg. Chile’s...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Liberation Day 2.0? US slaps fresh wave of tariffs on China, 50-plus economies The United States imposed late on Thursday a fresh wave of tariffs against 60 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, India and European Union...

Kozo Okamoto, the Japanese militant who took part in a deadly attack on Tel Aviv’s airport more than five decades ago, died on Thursday in Beirut, the Palestinian group that had been protecting him said. He was 78. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a faction that is the second-largest group in the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that Okamoto had been ill for a long time. Okamoto, who made rare public appearances since he settled in Lebanon after being released from...

Simon Johnson is a professor of entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he won a joint Nobel Prize for economics in 2024 for his research into how institutions shape national prosperity. On June 8, the British government announced Johnson as chair of its new AI Economics Institute. In this interview, conducted on the sidelines of the UBS Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong, Johnson discussed the...

Laura Loomer, an ardent ally of US President Donald Trump with a reputation for incendiary social media commentary, sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday after a dramatic turnaround on the war that could have political reverberations back in Washington. Loomer had spent years minimising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amplifying Russian propaganda to her nearly 2 million followers. This week she had a change of heart. “Just experienced my first air raid in Ukraine....

Officials talking about artificial intelligence (AI) often speak in terms of the next industrial revolution or existential risks. Such rhetoric ultimately does little to capture how AI filters into the ordinary workings of a city like Hong Kong. The geopolitics of AI are no longer abstract. They are beginning to shape who can use which tools – and on what terms. Over the past few months, two major international banks in the city have reportedly felt the impact. Anthropic’s Claude, a generative...

The White House threw a US-Saudi Arabia nuclear deal into question on Thursday, a day after it was signed, emphasising that it depended on the oil-rich Gulf country recognising Israel under a 2020 diplomatic initiative. “The Civil Nuclear Deal … will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords,” US President Donald Trump wrote on social media, adding that the deal would not include enrichment and involve only non-military use of...

Mid-July should have been a moment of quiet satisfaction in Beijing. Fresh data showed China’s favourability surpassing that of the United States in 25 of 37 nations surveyed by Pew Research Centre, including key European countries. Domestically, the second-quarter gross domestic product growth of 4.3 per cent, while softer than the first financial quarter, kept the annual target within reach. The logic was simple: with the US distracted by Donald Trump’s erratic trade wars and isolationist...

Donald Trump’s Justice Department will withdraw subpoenas issued to New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns about the president flying on a Qatari-donated Air Force ‌One, a prosecutor said at a court hearing on Thursday. The subpoenas issued by Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton on July 10 are the latest instance of the Trump administration seeking to force journalists to divulge their sources, part of what critics describe as the president’s broader pressure campaign against...

The Houthi militia in Yemen appears to be allowing some ships to pass through the Bab al-Mandab strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, despite its blockade of shipping to Saudi Arabia, experts said on Thursday. A Chinese oil tanker, Cosco Shipping’s VLCC Xin Long Yang, has been granted permission to pass through the waterway, according to the trade publication Lloyd’s List. It said Chinese tankers returning from the Saudi port of Yanbu in the Red Sea may be able to negotiate passage with the...

US President Donald Trump promised “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies after the Yemeni ⁠fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint. Fears that disruption could widen to block another sea route sent global oil prices surging in one of the steepest rises of the war. Brent crude rose more than 6 per cent, piercing the level of US$100 a barrel for the first time since May. Two weeks since the...

Greece on Thursday approved the multibillion-dollar purchase of Israeli anti-missile, anti-aircraft and anti-drone weaponry to set up an “Achilles Shield” protective dome, a defence ministry source said. Around €3 billion of a broader €4.2 billion (US$4.8 billion) spending spree will go towards Israeli-made systems for the new shield, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Greece has entered a new era, a new reality,” Defence Minister Nikos Dendias said on social media, confirming...

The EU has watered down its latest round of sanctions on Moscow after concluding that banning Greek companies from transporting Russian gas to third countries could hand strategically important shipping assets to China. To remove a Greek veto against the 21st package of measures aimed at hobbling Russia’s war machine, the bloc’s member states agreed to allow EU operators to continue transporting Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to third countries for one year. Officials explained that China’s...

German police on Thursday detained a 20-year-old man after he fatally stabbed another man inside a bank branch in the southern city of Regensburg, in an incident that initially raised fears of a hostage-taking. Special forces officers detained the German national inside the building about three hours after the incident was reported, a police statement said. Paramedics had earlier managed to administer first aid to the victim before he was transferred to hospital, where he died. It remains...

A friend of a man who went on a deadly stabbing spree at a Manchester synagogue was jailed for life by a UK court on Thursday for planning a separate terror attack with him. Jihad Al-Shamie went on a knife rampage targeting a mosque in the northwestern city last October that killed two people. Al-Shamie was later shot dead by police. His friend Mohammad Bashir, 31, last month pleaded guilty to the preparation of terrorist acts. Last August, he drove Al-Shamie on a trip to spy on the UK’s Defence...

One soldier died and four were injured on Thursday when a military helicopter crashed in the Czech Republic, the army said. “A Venom helicopter has crashed at the 22nd helicopter base in Namest nad Oslavou. Five soldiers were on board. Emergency services are currently deployed at the scene,” the army wrote on social media. In a later post, it added that one soldier was killed and four injured in the crash. “Our absolute priority now is to provide all possible care and support to the injured...

Anthropomorphising artificial intelligence – that is, treating AI systems as though they possess human emotions, intentions, consciousness or moral judgment – is both an ethical and a practical problem. While attributing human qualities to AI systems may make interactions more approachable, it also risks clouding users’ perceptions of the technology’s true nature and limitations. Call a spade a spade. The so-called hallucinations that generative AI systems produce are nothing more than errors...

Beijing and Washington are actively soliciting industry feedback on potential bilateral tariff reductions under the newly established board of trade, according to China’s commerce ministry. “The Chinese side is widely soliciting views from stakeholders – including domestic firms, business associations, local governments as well as American firms and business associations – on relevant tariff reduction arrangements,” Meng Huating, director of the Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Foreign...

The UK government on Thursday announced a tax cut for struggling pubs, clubs and live music venues as new Prime Minister Andy Burnham aims to ease the cost of living crisis. The 20 per cent cut to business rates – a local tax paid by firms – is the third policy announcement since Burnham became prime minister on Monday, including a planned cap on most bus fares in England and the removal of value added tax on household electricity bills. The latest tax cut is expected to save some 32,000...

The European Union on Thursday slapped Google with fines worth €890 million (US$1 billion) in a move that risks escalating tensions with the United States. The EU fined the US giant €460 million for illegally favouring the company’s own services – for example, Google Flights or Google Hotels – over rivals in search results. The second fine worth €430 million was because Google did not allow app developers to show consumers offers, free of charge, outside its Google Play store, the European...

For the most dramatic change in a benchmark index in financial markets in recent years, look no further than the stock markets of developing economies. Just over a year ago, mainland China and India had a combined weight of 50 per cent in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Fast forward to today, and it is South Korea and Taiwan that account for over half of the gauge. At the end of last month, the weight of South Korea in the index stood at nearly 24 per cent, four percentage points more than that...

Wildfires raged on Wednesday in Sicily, southwestern France and central Spain, having claimed the lives of three firefighters and sparked thousands of evacuations. Temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius and gusts of hot wind fanned the flames in the southern Italian island, where wildfires have been raging for several days. Around 6,000 firefighters, forest guards and civil protection officials were deployed to battle the flames with the help of water-bombing aircraft, the head of the region,...

Adolf Hitler’s birthplace in Austria was officially inaugurated as a police station on Wednesday in an effort to destroy the building’s appeal as a site of pilgrimage for people who glorify the Nazi dictator. A memorial stone is to remain in place outside the house in Braunau am Inn near the German border with the inscription: “For freedom, democracy and liberty. Never again fascism. Millions of dead remind us”. Hitler was born in the building on April 20, 1889. His family moved to another...

In the past week, one regulation has forced many people in China to say goodbye to long-standing “relationships”. As of July 15, the government placed artificial intelligence (AI) companions under tight supervision. It comes as automated companions have experienced something of a boom over the past few years. According to the rules, AI-human interactions should not encourage violence or harm users’ physical and psychological well-being. Moreover, AI bots should not lure users into sharing...

The ⁠Iranian-aligned Houthis said on Thursday they struck two Saudi oil tankers as part of a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, threatening to create a second chokepoint on global oil supplies alongside Iran’s near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Two weeks since the effective collapse of an interim truce meant to end the war, the US military launched another nightly round of air strikes on Iran, prompting Iran to fire at neighbouring Arab countries that house US bases. US Secretary of State Marco...

The US on Wednesday announced a landmark deal with Saudi Arabia that would establish a civilian nuclear programme in the Gulf country, with Washington insisting the agreement includes safeguards against non-proliferation. The move comes as the US under President Donald Trump fights a war with Iran that began in large part over concerns with Tehran’s nuclear programme – an issue that remains a key point of contention during now-stalled peace talks. Two agreements – one on “peaceful nuclear...

Chile wants to widen the group of countries buying its copper and attract about US$100 billion in mining investment over the next decade, its foreign minister said on Wednesday, in the most explicit move yet by the new government in Santiago to reduce its exposure to Chinese demand. “The market is highly concentrated and we need to broaden the number of places that buy our copper,” Francisco Perez Mackenna said at a Bloomberg summit in Singapore, part of a tour through the Asia-Pacific. He said...

Washington is still not receiving sufficient critical mineral exports from China, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Wednesday, even as top American and Chinese officials met to finalise key economic deliverables for President Xi Jinping’s expected visit to the White House. “We are getting a flow of critical minerals from China. It’s not as much as we would want. It’s not at the pace we would want, but we are getting them,” Greer said during his testimony before the Senate Finance...

The man convicted of trying to kill Salman Rushdie spent years researching the writer’s whereabouts before stabbing him on a lecture stage, federal prosecutors said Wednesday at the opening of his federal terrorism trial. It is a second trial for Hadi Matar, who was found guilty in a New York state attempted murder case last year. The federal terror charges focus more on Matar’s alleged motive for the attack on the renowned author and free-speech advocate in 2022. Prosecutors started working on...

A French modelling scout with close ties to convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead at his home outside Paris, prosecutors and his lawyer said on Wednesday. Under investigation in France, Daniel Siad, 69, was one of several French men accused of aiding the US financier to traffic and abuse women. Siad had not yet been questioned by investigators, but had denied the allegations. “An investigation to determine the cause of death was opened on Monday evening following the...

⁠From humble origins as a family business run out of an ⁠apartment near Moscow, Wildberries has grown in under two decades into Russia’s top online retailer and a key economic driver in the country. It has now become a target of strikes by Ukraine. Ukraine has attacked four Wildberries warehouses over the last week in a widening campaign of drone strikes against a company at the heart of Russia’s consumer economy, bringing the war closer to millions of ordinary Russians. In towns across Russia,...

US President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant each time Tehran attacks a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, escalating Washington’s response as the conflict spread across the region and placed another major shipping route at risk. The warning came hours before Trump was due to attend the return of four US service members killed in Iranian attacks and related operations in Jordan and Iraq. “From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran...

Why haven’t Ukraine’s drone and missile attacks on Russia triggered Moscow’s use of tactical nuclear weapons, as it has threatened? When Russia is attacked time and again, one wonders what purpose it serves to have the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. The Ukraine war is at a stalemate. Though roughly 90 per cent of the territory in East Donbas is under Russian control, its ground advances have slowed to less than 100 metres a day, according to a July 1 report by the Centre for Strategic...

More than 1,000 people have died in the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Africa’s top health body, a grim toll in the fastest Ebola outbreak in history, as conflict, community resistance and an uneven response fuel its spread. Speaking at a health summit in Ghana on Wednesday, Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said 1,031 deaths have been confirmed. “These are people dying. They are dying because we don’t...

A judge on Wednesday set a June 1, 2027, trial date for ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores on US drug-trafficking charges, while a defence lawyer vowed to seek dismissal of the case on the grounds that Maduro is immune from prosecution as the head of a sovereign state. Maduro and his wife, wearing beige prison garb, appeared during a hearing lasting about ‌20 minutes in Manhattan federal court before District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in one of the most...

On July 9, a fire burned through a shoe factory in Jinjiang, Fujian province, killing at least 28 people. The accident signals a larger problem: firms operating under financial pressure often cut costs by compromising safety. China’s low-cost business model needs reform, but why has change been so difficult? The plant that burned employed hundreds of workers, yet company filings for 2025 indicate that only a handful of them were enrolled in pension and medical insurance plans. A fire-safety...

After US strikes on Iran’s largest nuclear facilities last year, both US President Donald Trump and the White House were adamant that the Middle East nation’s nuclear programme had been destroyed. “Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term!” Trump wrote on social media. “Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated – and Suggestions Otherwise are Fake News,” the White House wrote in a press release. A year later,...

Searchers have found the wreckage from a Pan Am flight that plunged into the ocean off Puerto Rico in 1952, an accident that killed 52 and led to requirements for the passenger safety briefings given on every commercial flight. The plane, the Clipper Endeavor, made a hard landing after losing engine power shortly after take-off. The 17 passengers and crew who survived told investigators everyone lived through the landing, but panic set in as many passengers struggled to find life vests and the...

US President Donald Trump has approved an agreement with Saudi Arabia that could potentially provide the kingdom with uranium enrichment capability for its civilian nuclear programme, according to two people familiar with the matter. The people, who were not authorised to comment publicly about the yet to be formally announced decision, said the agreement was expected to be announced publicly as early as Wednesday. The deal was expected to last 30 years and was also expected to involve US firms...

The cost of the United States’ war in Iran has risen to US$37.5 billion so far, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday, as he faced sceptical lawmakers for the first time since heavy bombings resumed to seek urgent funding for the unpopular conflict. With just six months before midterm elections in which US President Donald Trump’s Republicans may face an uphill battle to keep their House of ‌Representatives and Senate majorities, Democrats are riding high in public opinion polls as...

Over the past year, China’s Belt and Road Initiative has seen rapid development in Central Asia. This has been evidenced by the launch of several railway and road routes connecting China’s industrial and economic centres to logistics hubs in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. China’s improved transport to the region reflects two interrelated trends: growing trade momentum and Central Asia’s strengthening position in continental logistics. Last year, China became the largest trading partner...

After a delay ordered by President Trump and new tariffs against Canada, the bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit opens in “underwhelming” fashion on Friday.

Despite threats from President Trump, the overall average weighted tariff on Chinese goods remained about the same, and is now lower than countries like Brazil and Canada.

Devastated by cycles of violence and economic crisis, many are giving up on work and their futures as the United States batters Iran again.

French officials ordered the evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula, a popular holiday destination. Fires west of Madrid were closing in on populated areas.

A French government delegation will travel to its southern neighbor to learn how it copes with long spells of hot weather.

Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania now join Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia in cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce.

Johnny Itliong says Cesar Chavez stole credit from his father, the farmworker activist Larry Itliong. For years, he has been trying to correct the record.

The president initially backed a little-known congressman. Then he talked to Gov. Henry McMaster and Ms. Graham herself.

Top officials overseeing state elections and law enforcement are stepping up plans to prepare for what they worry could be interference in the midterms.

In a recent study, scientists devised a way of reversing the buildup of compounds that lead to some age-related diseases.

The Amaurys of Paris own the race, but won’t share any of the $170 million in media revenue. Sponsors and riders say their resistance is dooming the sport.

Matthew Taylor, a conceptual artist and political strategist, made influential ads and documentaries produced by Steve Bannon. Now he’s assisting the White House.

Many Argentines condemned their players’ racist chants and aggressive behavior during the World Cup, but rejected what felt like a sweeping stigmatization of their entire nation.

Even as the market shifts to buyers, first-timers need to be resilient and flexible.

First-time buyers from the Bay Area won an abandoned house at a Kingston, N.Y., tax auction. Eight years later, they’re still restoring it.

What New York homeowners can do before and after a purchase to avoid or mitigate shoddy construction.

Conservatives who critique land acknowledgments aren’t acting in good faith, but they do have a point.

I’m not the target audience for online content about frontier chores and child-rearing. But if I’m honest, domestic rituals help to keep me sane.

Yesterday was a big day for mathematics. We look at the winners of the Fields Medals.

Latin America’s deep-seated inequalities prevailed over the grimly equalizing force of the Venezuela earthquakes, and set even the dead apart.