Minimalist News

Wanted Terror Suspect Entered U.S. Under Biden Admin, Got Commercial Truck License Federal officials say Akhror Bozorov, a 31-year-old wanted terrorist from Uzbekistan, illegally entered the US in February 2023, was released by the Biden administration, and later obtained both work authorization and a commercial truck driver’s license in Pennsylvania, according to the NY Post. He was arrested in Kansas this month while working as a trucker, according to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin condemned the sequence of events, saying, “Not only was Akhror Bozorov — a wanted terrorist — released into the country by the Biden administration,

DOJ Sues California Over Mask Ban, ID Rules For Feds The US Department of Justice has sued the state of California and its leading officials over two new state laws that make it a misdemeanor for local and federal law enforcement officers to wear face coverings on the job, which they use to prevent them from being doxxed by activists.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents form a defensive perimeter near an operations center in Los Angeles on June 8, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times The complaint, filed on Monday, argues that the "No Secret Police Act" and "No Vigilantes Act" discriminate against the federal government -

China Intel Officers Offering Western Gov't Insiders Cash For "Low-Level Information" Submitted by The Bureau's Sam Cooper, Chinese intelligence officers are offering Westminster insiders strikingly large sums of money for what looks like low-level political gossip – using "head hunters" on LinkedIn to offer paid "research tasks" – and effectively flooding Keir Starmer's government ranks with inducements to betray the people of Britain, in Beijing's efforts to build long-term relationships to undermine the West. That is the stark picture painted in an extraordinary new espionage alert issued by MI5 and circulated inside Parliament, which warns that officers of China's Ministry of State Security

Network Of California Democrat Party Insiders Under Investigation For Fraud Initial reports of an ongoing fraud investigation in Sacramento by the US Department of Justice revealed that Gavin Newsom's former Chief of Staff, Dana Williamson, was being indicted on 23 felony counts.  Crimes include conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, filing false tax returns, and making false statements to the IRS. The charges allege she orchestrated a scheme to siphon approximately $225,000 from a dormant campaign account belonging to former Attorney General Xavier Becerra (referred to as "Public Official 1" in the indictment), using it for personal gain through

ICE Houston Sweep: 3,600 Criminal Illegal Aliens Arrested, Including 51 Child Predators Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, The Trump administration’s deportation surge is already producing major results. In Houston alone, ICE has arrested nearly 3,600 criminal illegal aliens in a single operation, among them 51 individuals with child-sex offenses and 67 convicted sex offenders. These arrests are directly tied to the president’s new focus on narco-terrorism and cartel supply chains. Houston has long served as a major distribution hub for both drugs and human trafficking; the scale of this operation underscores that the administration is targeting the worst offenders first. > ? JUST IN:

President Sheinbaum Says No Way To US Strikes On Cartels In Mexico Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has again sought to stand up to President Donald Trump, on Tuesday repeating her rejection of any possibility of US military intervention against cartels on sovereign Mexican soil. Trump has recently floated openness toward the possibility, and also Colombia, in exchanges with reporters related to the military build-up off Venezuela. "It’s not going to happen," Sheinbaum said, according to The Associated Press. "He (Trump) has suggested it on various occasions, or he has said, ‘we offer you a United States military intervention in Mexico, whatever you need

An Age Of Forgotten Infrastructure Authored by Mollie Engelhart via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), We are living in the most materially abundant moment in all of human history, yet most of us move through life unaware of it. Men work at the site of a condo tower under construction in Delta, B.C., on July 2, 2025. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck We turn on a faucet and clean water appears. We flip a switch and light fills a room. With the tap of a finger, we can access the sum total of human knowledge, entertainment, and communication. We not only expect these things, we

One-Party-Rule Failure: Democratic Kings Own Maryland's Epic Demise Maryland is facing severe economic difficulties under long-standing single-party progressive control at the state, city, and even some local levels. Democrats function as the political "kings" of Maryland, and their far-left policies have pushed the state into an epic decline - all while Democratic Gov. Wes Moore is at the helm of the rudderless ship.  Decades of unhinged leftist political dominance in Annapolis and Baltimore City have coincided with a steady deterioration in Maryland's charm. The state was recently slapped with the first credit-rating downgrade in 50 years, a ballooning budget deficit sparking crisis fears, soaring taxes, and

Heart Attack Risk Halved In Survivors Taking Tailored Vitamin D Doses, Researchers Say Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Researchers found that adult heart attack survivors who took specific vitamin D doses reduced their risk of developing another heart attack by more than half, compared with people who did not take the vitamin D dose. A man sits in a hospital waiting room in Irvine, Calif., on July 8, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times Research done by Utah-based Intermountain Health found that there was a 52 percent lower risk of suffering another heart attack in people who already survived one

Watchdog: Chicago Public Schools Blew Millions On Trips, Spas, And Overseas Travel A new investigation by Chicago Public Schools Inspector General Philip Wagenknecht shows overnight and travel spending in the district surged from about $300,000 in 2021 to nearly $8 million by 2024, according to WTTW. His report says some staff exploited the district’s “lax, vague, inadequate and unenforced” rules, leading to “exorbitant” post-pandemic travel funded by taxpayers. The OIG found CPS spent roughly $14.5 million on travel in 2023 and 2024, much of it for out-of-town conferences or overnight student trips. WTTW writes that the probe began after an elementary school paid more

Trump Names Saudi Arabia A 'Major Non-NATO Ally' During MbS Candlelight Dinner Attended By Tech Moguls  Aside from a couple of hiccups involving exchanges with the press, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's (MbS) visit to the White House went well, after he came bearing massive gifts, especially a pledge for a whopping $1 trillion in US investment. During the Tuesday night candlelight dinner in his honor, which was attended by Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Jensen Huang, Cristiano Ronaldo, the head of FIFA Gianni Infantino - and many other tech moguls and notable figures - President Trump took the opportunity to proclaim for the first time Saudi Arabia

Ackman Floats "Immediately Actionable" Blueprint To Free Fannie And Freddie Bill Ackman thinks he knows what to do to finally resolve the 16-year limbo trapping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - the mortgage-finance pillars that remain under federal control over a decade after the financial crisis. In a Tuesday presentation on X, the billionaire founder of Pershing Square Capital Management outlined a three-step proposal he says would meet the Trump administration's policy goals, while restoring the companies to private-market discipline. The plan comes amid the White House's struggle to ease housing costs - which included an absurd idea to roll out 50-year mortgages.  The two government-sponsored

Venezuela's Maduro Seeks 'Face-to-Face Talks' With Trump Officials  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro made clear early this week that he'd be willing to hold "face-to-face" talks with US officials and warned President Trump against starting a war with his country. "In the United States, whoever wants to talk with Venezuela will talk, face to face, without any problem," Maduro said on his weekly TV program, comments that came after Trump suggested that his administration "may" be holding talks with the Venezuelan government. Via CBS But Trump also told reporters on Monday that he wouldn’t rule out sending troops into Venezuela, and the major

"GPUs Are Sold Out": Nvidia Soars After Blowing Away Results, Projections In our preview of NVDA's Q3 results, we said that "it's not a question whether the company beats - they always do - but whether the "blowout" and the "smash" will be big enough to impress a market that has already priced in perfection, and beyond, for the GPU maker." The market was impressed. Here is what NVDA just reported for Q3:  * Adjusted EPS $1.30, beating estimates of $1.24 * Revenue $57.01 billion, up +62% y/y, beating estimate $55.19 billion, and up $3BN vs guidance * Data center revenue

What We've Lost Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, What we've lost are the foundations of a healthy standard of living / quality of life. Amidst the constant drumbeat of tech "progress" and grandiose "solutions," it's a useful exercise to ask: what have we lost in the past 40 years despite all the "progress" and "solutions"? Put another way: what did we have in 1985 that we no longer have, despite all the "progress"? 1. We no longer have affordable, functional healthcare. As I have documented, based on what I paid as an employer and self-employed worker, healthcare insurance was still affordable in 1985;

Larry Summers Resigns From OpenAI Board; Harvard Launches Investigation After Epstein Revelations Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has resigned from the board of OpenAI following the release of messages in which Summers was asking Jeffrey Epstein for dating advice to try and bed a female mentee whose father was a former CCP official.  Then-Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers speaks at the University's 2004 Commencement ceremony. Summers recently retracted from public engagements after his emails with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released. By Crimson Multimedia Staff On Monday Summers announced that he would be stepping back from all public commitments - and while he said he would continue

Venezuela Sentences Doctor To 30 Years For WhatsApp Message Authored by Jonathan Turley, The Venezuelan socialist regime has just sentenced a 65-year-old doctor, Marggie Orozco, to 30 years in prison for criticizing the regime of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro in a WhatsApp voice note in 2024. Orozco was reportedly found guilty of “treason to the fatherland, incitement to hatred, and conspiracy” in complaining about the regime’s distribution of the often hard-to-find domestic gas cylinders in her community. She has already suffered two heart attacks in the last two years, including one while in prison. Some on the left, including members of the Chicago Teachers’ Union, have praised Venezuela despite

'Massive Shift' In US-Korea Relations After Trump Gets Seoul To Stop Targeting Tech Last month we noted that South Korea has been effectively running a racket to extract money from Big Tech through the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) - which, taking a note from the EU, has repeatedly targeted US firms with massive fines over various business practices. For years, the targeted industries have argued that Korean “network usage fees,” mandatory billing rules, app-store regulations, digital-platform laws, and privacy rulings were crafted to disadvantage foreign competitors while protecting national champions. President Donald Trump walks with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung as they prepare

FOMC Minutes Expose Fractured Fed; "Many" See No Tariff Inflation, "Several" Fear Disorderly Drop In Stocks Since the last FOMC meeting (Oct 29th), gold is the best performing asset (along with the dollar) as bonds, stocks, and oil are all down notably... Source: Bloomberg Rate-cut odds for the December meeting continued to tumble after Powell's hawkish comments (and the follow-up FedSpeak). Today saw BLS confirm no more payrolls data before the next Fed meeting and that pushed expectations even more hawkishly lower... Source: Bloomberg As a reminder, The Fed cut rates by 25bps in the October meeting to 3.75-4.00%, with two dissenters: 1 hawkish (Schmid)

"This Is A National Emergency" - US Govt To Buy 10 Large, New Nuclear Reactors Hot on the heels of news that it will invest "hundreds of billions" in loans to the nuclear power industry, including one already disbursed loan for $1BN to restart Three Mile Island, Bloomberg reported that the US government also plans to buy and own as many as 10 new, large nuclear reactors that could be paid for using Japan’s $550BN funding pledge, part of the Trump admin's existential push to meet surging demand for electricity The Energy Department’s chief of staff, Carl Coe, made comments today detailing

As president Lula tries to find common ground between negotiating countries, planetary scientists say emissions must be urgently cut Mother Earth is watching over Cop30. “I am taking care to watch over all the decisions taken here about me,” she told the Guardian. The blessing card she presented said: “Knowing the powerful impact my thoughts can have on others and the environment, I choose to create a positive mindset.” This beautiful vision is in everyday life Nazaré Oliveira, an indigenous woman from Belém, and a descendant of the Potyguar people. She is part of the international spiritual organisation Brahma Kumaris, led by

James Boasberg demands sworn testimony to determine whether US officials defied March court order A federal judge on Wednesday said he was resuming his long-stalled court proceeding to determine whether Trump administration officials willfully violated a court order by deporting hundreds of men to El Salvador in March. US district judge James Boasberg said he would demand sworn testimony from administration officials to determine whether they defied his March court order to turn around aircraft that were removing the men from US territory. Continue reading...

Unsealed indictment says Ryan Wedding tracked down witness who was then murdered before he could testify US authorities have charged a fugitive former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned drug kingpin with the murder of a witness who was prepared to testify against him. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on Wednesday that Ryan Wedding was accused in a newly unsealed indictment of tracking down a witness in Colombia who was then murdered before he could give evidence. Continue reading...

Exclusive: André Corrêa do Lago says rise of clean energy must be acknowledged and rich countries need to do more * Cop30: click here for full Guardian coverage of climate talks in Brazil Oil-producing countries need to acknowledge the rise of clean energy, and rich countries will have to provide more assurances on finance if the chasm between negotiating nations at Cop30 is to be bridged, the president of the summit has said. André Corrêa do Lago, the veteran Brazilian climate diplomat in charge of the talks, said: “Developing countries are looking at developed countries as countries that could be much more

Sharp drop since 2024 in country regarded as a Latin American leader in childhood and adolescent immunisation Argentina’s childhood and adolescent vaccination rates have collapsed to historic lows, according to a new analysis, prompting warnings that once-eliminated diseases may resurge. The study of health ministry data by the Argentinian Paediatric Society (SAP) found that fewer than half of children aged five and six received several of their essential doses in 2024. All vaccine rates analysed were below the 95% level needed to reach herd immunity. Continue reading...

Guo, who pretended to be Filipina to become mayor, found guilty of human trafficking after raid on compound where more than 700 people were forced to run scams Alice Guo, a Chinese national who became a mayor in the Philippines while masquerading as a Filipina, has been sentenced to life in prison along with seven others on human trafficking charges, state prosecutors have said. Guo, who served as mayor of a town north of Manila, was found guilty of overseeing a Chinese-operated online gambling centre where hundreds of people were forced to run scams or risk torture. Continue reading...

Prime minister has accused the Samoa Observer of inaccurate reporting during his eight-week medical stay in New Zealand Samoa’s only daily newspaper has been banned from attending press conferences with the Samoan prime minister, in a move that critics say threatens the democratic integrity of the Pacific nation. Relations between La’aulialemalietoa Leuatea Polataivao Fosi Schmidt and the Samoa Observer have deteriorated in recent weeks, with the prime minister accusing the newspaper of inaccurate reporting during his eight-week medical stay in New Zealand. Continue reading...

Australia had been pushing to host climate conference next year with south Pacific nations, which are increasingly threatened by rising seas and climate-fuelled disasters Papua New Guinea has voiced frustration after Australia ditched a bid to co-host next year’s UN climate talks with its Pacific island neighbours. “We are all not happy. And disappointed it’s ended up like this,” foreign minister Justin Tkatchenko told Agence France-Presse after Australia ceded hosting rights to Turkey. Continue reading...

Critics warn move could have devastating impact on lives and wellbeing of those affected New Zealand has announced it is banning new prescriptions of puberty-blocking drugs for young transgender people, in a move that critics warned could worsen the mental health of those affected. The step comes amid growing global debate about the number of adolescents seeking to change gender, dividing those concerned about hastiness in prescribing such medications and those worried about access to remedies they deem lifesaving. Continue reading...

More than 300 people most at risk are moved to shelters as tallest peak on Java island unleashes clouds of hot ash Indonesia’s Mount Semeru, the highest peak on Java island, has erupted, blanketing several villages with falling ash, prompting evacuations and leading authorities to raise the alert to the highest level. The volcano in East Java province unleashed searing clouds of hot ash and a mixture of rock, lava and gas that travelled up to 7km (4 miles) down its slopes several times from midday to dusk, while a thick column of hot clouds rose 2km into the air, Indonesia’s Geology

Opposition leader stands down after long period of leadership speculation. Follow today’s news live * Turkey to host Cop31 climate conference after Australia drops push to hold it in Adelaide * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Government reaffirms that best Cop outcome is one that elevates Pacific voices Pat Conroy, the minister for defence industry, said Australia is still seeking to host the UN climate summit in Adelaide next year, but is being frank with the Australian people that any one country can block a successful bid. We’re continuing to negotiate the best possible outcome for progress

Murray Hunter charged with offence which carries a potential penalty of two years in jail, or a 200,000 baht (AUD$9,500) fine An Australian academic and journalist faces up to two years in prison after being charged – in Thailand – with defaming the Malaysian government. Murray Hunter, a longtime resident of southern Thailand, will stand trial in Bangkok next month, charged with criminal defamation over articles critical of the Malaysian government’s internet regulator. Continue reading...

Police allege man ‘had reportedly threatened to harm other residents and himself while armed with a metal object’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast New South Wales police have used capsicum spray to subdue an 87-year-old man in a Sydney nursing home. Police said the incident occurred at an aged care home in south-western Sydney on Wednesday at about 8pm. Continue reading...

Family of 17-year-old travelling on bus that was stopped by police say officers searched boy even after admitting mistake * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Police in Canberra allegedly pulled their guns on a 17-year-old Indigenous boy who they mistook for a suspect in an aggravated burglary, prompting accusations of “institutional racism” and “racial profiling”. The boy’s family allege he was travelling on a bus on when it was stopped by police officers looking for a suspect accused of robbing a shop with a knife. Continue reading...

Fortnight-long event to be held in Antalya but Australian climate change minister Chris Bowen expected to lead the negotiations * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Turkey will host the Cop31 climate conference after the Australian government dropped its push to hold the event in Adelaide at the last moment despite having invested in a more than three-year campaign. But Australia’s climate change minister, Chris Bowen, is expected to lead climate negotiations at the summit in Turkey’s Mediterranean resort city of Antalya in November 2026 under a

French government withdraws funding after claims of toxic management and dismissal of staff member who lodged rape complaint One of the world’s most prestigious comic book festivals is under threat of cancellation after leading graphic novelists and publishers announced they would boycott the event and the French government withdrew a tranche of its funding. In the biggest crisis in its illustrious history, the Angoulême festival of la bande dessinée (comic strip) may not take place in 2026 after claims of toxic management and the dismissal of a member of staff who had lodged a rape complaint. Continue reading...

Health secretary says he is not comfortable with some elements of policy but that it is the right thing to do for the country Wes Streeting has admitted he is not comfortable with forcibly deporting families under the home secretary’s migration plans, while maintaining it is still the right thing to do. The health secretary said he thought the number of forced removals would be low under the proposed model, which is similar to Denmark’s, because there would be an increased financial incentive for people entering the UK illegally to return to their country of origin. Continue reading...

It is unclear if Trump administration backs deal that would mean Kyiv giving up territory and slashing size of military US and Russian officials have quietly drafted a new plan to end the war in Ukraine that would require Kyiv to surrender territory and severely limit the size of its military, it was reported on Wednesday as Russian drone and missile strikes killed at least 25 people in the city of Ternopil. The draft plan, which was reportedly developed by Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev, would force draconian measures on Ukraine that would give Russia unprecedented

Ukraine to raise the overnight attack on Ternopil, in which more than 70 people were injured, at the security council tomorrow The Dutch economy minister said he had moved to take effective control of Nexperia to ensure Europe was not locked out of chip production “in an emergency”. He said the decision to lift the legal move to prevent Nexperia from moving intellectual property and physical assets from its European factory in Hamburg and its corporate headquarters in Nijmegen was the “right step” after consultation with the European Commission and others. “The Netherlands has considered it the right moment to take a constructive

Agriculture minister calls for investigation over marketing of carbonara sauce containing wrong type of cured meat Italy’s agriculture minister, Francesco Lollobrigida, has called for an immediate investigation after coming across what he claimed were jars of “Italian-sounding” pasta sauce on the shelves of the European parliament’s supermarket. Lollobrigida, of Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, was particularly vexed by a carbonara sauce made with “Italiaanse pancetta” – the classic Roman pasta dish is made with a different cured meat, guanciale – and a tomato sauce containing “oignons de Calabria”, or onions from Calabria. Continue reading...

Saad Almadi’s family thanks Trump and state department as announcement comes after meeting with crown prince Saudi Arabia has agreed to allow US citizen Saad Almadi to return home to Florida, five months ahead of the scheduled lifting of travel restrictions and a day after Saudi crown prince and prime minister Mohammed bin Salman met Donald Trump at the White House. Almadi, 75, was sentenced to 19 years of incarceration in the kingdom in 2021 after he wrote 14 tweets critical of the Riyadh government. Two years later, the charges were reduced to so-called “cyber crimes” and he was sentenced to a

Exclusive: Images are first indication that Israel has used cluster munitions in nearly 20 years Israel used widely banned cluster munitions in its recent 13-month war in Lebanon, photos of munition remnants in south Lebanon seen by the Guardian suggest. The images, which have been examined by six different arms experts, appear to show the remnants of two different types of Israeli cluster munitions found in three different locations: south of the Litani River in the forested valleys of Wadi Zibqin, Wadi Barghouz and Wadi Deir Siryan. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. * Trump shrugs off Khashoggi murder during Saudi prince’s White House visit A reminder that Donald Trump’s family has a strong personal interest in Saudi Arabia. In September, London real estate developer Dar Global announced that it plans to launch Trump Plaza in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. It’s Dar Global’s second collaboration with the Trump Organization, the collection of companies controlled by the US president’s children, in the kingdom. Last year, the two companies announced the launch of Trump Tower Jeddah. Continue reading...

Senior aide to Mohammed bin Salman allegedly led campaign to identify users who were posting critically about Saudi regime A senior official in Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage, who is expected to travel with the crown prince on his first trip back to the US in seven years, has previously been accused by US prosecutors of playing a central role in a conspiracy to infiltrate Twitter and identify users who were posting critically about the Saudi regime. Bader al-Asaker, who has headed Prince Mohammed’s private office since before he became crown prince, has never been formally charged by the US government for his

Kingdom’s de facto ruler to arrive on first White House trip since killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 Donald Trump is to welcome Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman to Washington on Tuesday, in a red-carpet visit expected to result in the sale of highly advanced US F-35 fighter jets to the Gulf monarchy. The crown prince’s arrival in Washington will be his first White House visit since the 2018 killing of the Washington Post journalist and critic of the kingdom Jamal Khashoggi. The CIA later determined Khashoggi’s murder was approved by the crown prince, leading to global condemnation. Continue

Exclusive: Tshering Tobgay says his country is doing ‘a lot more than our fair share’ on climate and west must cut emissions ‘for the happiness of your people’ The wealthy western countries most responsible for the climate crisis would improve the health and happiness of their citizens by prioritising environmental conservation and sustainable economic growth, according to the prime minister of Bhutan, the world’s first carbon-negative nation. Bhutan, a Buddhist democratic monarchy and biodiversity hotspot situated high in the eastern Himalayas, is among the world’s most ambitious climate leaders thanks to its people’s connection with nature and a strong political focus on

Hasina sentenced in absentia by court in Dhaka over deadly crackdown on student-led uprising last year Bangladesh’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death in absentia by a court in Dhaka for crimes against humanity over a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year. A three-judge bench of the country’s international crimes tribunal convicted Hasina of crimes including incitement, orders to kill and inaction to prevent atrocities as she oversaw a crackdown on anti-government protesters last year. Continue reading...

The accidental explosion comes days after a deadly car blast in New Delhi which killed at least eight people near the city’s historic Red Fort At least nine people were killed and 32 injured after a cache of confiscated explosives detonated inside a police station in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police have announced. The blast occurred in the Nowgam area of Srinagar, the region’s main city, late on Friday while a team of forensic experts and police were examining the explosive material, said Nalin Prabhat, the region’s police director general. He ruled out any foul play, saying it was an accident. Continue reading...

Investigators believe an explosion that killed 13 people may be linked to group operating in the disputed region Police have carried out raids and made several arrests across the Indian region of Kashmir in the aftermath of a car explosion in Delhi that left 13 people dead. On Wednesday, the Indian government confirmed it was treating the blast as a “terror incident” perpetrated by “anti-national forces”. The explosion took place outside one of India’s most significant monuments during rush hour on Monday evening. Continue reading...

Cabinet says explosion near Red Fort that killed 12 is suspected to have been perpetrated by ‘anti-national forces’ India has confirmed it is treating the explosion that killed 12 people outside Delhi’s Red Fort on Monday as a “terror incident” perpetrated by “anti-national forces”. The statement by the cabinet, led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, confirmed mounting speculation that a terrorist attack was behind the blast that took place during peak time in one of the capital’s busiest areas and outside one of India’s major landmarks. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: With the Reform leader now a serious contender for PM, we look at the impact the allegations about his behaviour as a schoolboy could have on Britain • Don’t get First Edition delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Good morning. For more than 30 years, Nigel Farage has been one of the most disruptive figures in British politics, known for building a brand on outrage and polarisation. He presents himself as the everyman, cigarette hanging out of his mouth or a pint in hand. Now that several polls suggest he is a serious contender to be the next prime

Exclusive: union leaders say proposed changes are immoral and could threaten patient safety if there is staff exodus Up to 50,000 nurses could quit the UK over the government’s immigration proposals, plunging the NHS into its biggest ever workforce crisis, research suggests. Keir Starmer has vowed to curb net migration, with plans to force migrants to wait as long as 10 years to apply to settle in the UK instead of automatically gaining settled status after five years. Continue reading...

Study finds new party divide as backing for Labour and Conservatives plunges from 84% in 2020 to 58% in 2025 A new party divide is emerging among British Jews, research has found, with support rising fast for the Greens – buoyed up by younger and “anti-Zionist” Jews – while older Orthodox men turn to Reform UK as trust in the two main parties “collapses”. Support for Labour and the Conservatives among British Jews had fallen to 58% by July 2025 from nearly 84% in 2020, according to a report from the Institute of Jewish Policy Research (JPR), which said it was “the

MPs will tell ‘dad jokes’ in parliament to highlight ‘real joke’ of UK paternity leave, which is a class issue Toe-curlingly bad jokes (“I’m reading a book about anti-gravity, it’s impossible to put down”) are not the preserve of fathers, but as a demographic, dads are widely recognised for their unique comic talents. Which is why on Thursday, dozens of MPs, many of them dad-joke specialists, will tell groan-worthy gags in the House of Commons to highlight the “real joke” of paternity leave in the UK. Winner: I gave my handyman a to-do list, but he only finished items one, three and five.

RSPCA says pet abandonments in England and Wales rose by almost 25% in 2025 compared with 2024 There is an “epidemic” of dogs, cats and other pets being abandoned as owners struggle to cope with the cost of living crisis, the UK’s largest animal welfare charity has said. The RSPCA said abandonments in England and Wales had risen by almost 25% in 2025 compared with last year, reaching their highest rate for at least five years. Continue reading...

President has previously criticised the New York City mayor-elect, labelling him a ‘communist’ and threatening to deport him Donald Trump has confirmed a long-awaited meeting with New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will happen in Washington this week, setting up an in-person clash between the political opposites who for months have antagonised each other. The sit-down, which Trump said on social media would take place on Friday in the Oval Office, could possibly represent a detente of sorts between the Republican president and Democratic rising star. Continue reading...

True to his irreverent style, author of The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) thanks his psychiatrist, his gastrointestinal doctors and his drug dealers Rabih Alameddine has won the National book award for fiction for The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), a darkly comic saga spanning six decades in the life of a Lebanese family. The novel, which traverses a sprawling history of Lebanon including its civil war and economic collapse, is told through the eyes of its titular protagonist: a gay 63-year-old philosophy teacher confronting his past and his relationship with his

President attacks Democrats in post on Truth Social after US lawmakers swiftly move bill through Congress Donald Trump signed a bill Wednesday directing the justice department to release files from the investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, surrendering in the face of joint pressure from Democratic opponents and the president’s conservative base. The signature marked a sharp reversal for Trump, who had the authority as president to release the documents himself, but chose not to. Continue reading...

Decision comes after ex-treasury secretary said he would step back from public commitments over links to Epstein Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard University, will stop teaching at the school while it investigates his connection to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, a spokesman for Summers said on Wednesday. Emails recently released by the US House oversight committee reignited questions about Summers’ relationship with Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex-trafficking minors. Many of the messages indicated a friendship that lasted well into 2019. Contact only ceased shortly before Epstein was arrested in July

Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick accused of funneling money to family healthcare business for 2021 congressional campaign Democratic representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly funneling more than $5m worth of federal disaster funds from her company into her 2021 congressional campaign. The indictment states that Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, stole $5m in Fema overpayments that their family healthcare company received, moving the money through multiple accounts to hide its origins. The indictment alleges that the majority of the money was used for Cherfilus-McCormick’s congressional campaign, as well as for the personal benefit of the defendants. Continue

At least 25 Palestinians were killed in four Israeli air strikes on Wednesday in a part of Gaza under Hamas control since a shaky ceasefire took effect in October, health authorities said. The Israeli military said its forces struck Hamas targets across Gaza after members of the Palestinian militant group fired on its troops in violation of the nearly six-week-old ceasefire. No Israeli forces were injured. Hamas condemned the Israeli strikes as a dangerous escalation, and urged the United States...

A US judge on Wednesday repeatedly questioned the validity of the grand jury indictment of former FBI director James Comey secured by a prosecutor closely aligned with US President Donald Trump in the latest signal that the charges may be dismissed before trial. After repeated questioning by US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, prosecutors acknowledged that the final version of the indictment was never presented to the entire grand jury that approved the charges after panel members previously...

Toronto-Dominion Bank was sued by a group of former employees who claim they were improperly fired from their jobs amid disclosure of widespread criminal money laundering through bank branches. Five Chinese and Chinese-American former employees sued Toronto-Dominion claiming they were dismissed from branches in New York as part of the bank’s effort to crack down on money laundering. At least 22 people were fired from four Chinatown branches in the city’s Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens boroughs,...

US President Donald Trump signed legislation on Wednesday that compels his administration to release files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, bowing to political pressure from his own party after initially resisting those efforts. Trump could have chosen to release many of the files on his own months ago. “Democrats have used the ‘Epstein’ issue, which affects them far more than the Republican Party, in order to try and distract from our AMAZING Victories,” Trump said in a social media...

Britain said on Wednesday that it would ban the resale of tickets to concerts, sport and other live events for profit, disrupting ticket touts and the platforms that benefit from their activities. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said touts were ripping off fans by using bots to snap up batches of tickets for coveted shows and reselling them at sky-high prices. “Our new proposals will shut down the touts’ racket and make world-class music, comedy, theatre and sport affordable for everyone,” she...

Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers abruptly went on leave on Wednesday from teaching at Harvard University, where he once served as president, over recently released emails showing he maintained a friendly relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, Summers’ spokesperson said. Summers had been retreating from his public commitments amid the fallout of the emails revelation, but he had maintained that he would continue teaching economics classes at Harvard. Yet by Wednesday evening, Summers had...

British defence minister John Healey said on Wednesday that “military options” are ready should the Russian spy ship Yantar become a threat after it directed lasers at British pilots sent to monitor it. Britain’s Royal Navy and Royal Air Force routinely shadow potential threats to national security, and such missions to monitor Russian vessels and submarines have become more frequent since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Healey said directing lasers at RAF pilots was “deeply dangerous” and...

China slightly increased its US Treasury holdings in August and September – though the uptick did little to offset an overall downward trend – as persistent worries over US debt sustainability and the Federal Reserve’s independence deepened doubts about the safety of assets backed by the US dollar. The country’s stockpile rose to US$701 billion in August, up from July’s multi-year low of US$696.9 billion, but it again trimmed the total to US$700.5 billion in September, according to data from the...

China’s €4 billion (US$4.6 billion) euro-denominated bond sale has drawn record demand, highlighting robust investor confidence in its sovereign assets amid a global shift towards diversification. International and regional investors placed €100.1 billion in orders for the offering – 25 times the fundraising target – China’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Wednesday. The seven-year tranche, issued alongside an equal-sized four-year tranche, attracted demand 26.5 times its allocation,...

Christie’s said on Wednesday it was suspending the Paris auction of one of just a handful of examples of the world’s first calculating machine, developed by French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal in 1642. The auction of “La Pascaline” had been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, but late on Tuesday a Paris court suspended authorisation for export – meaning buyers would not be able to take it abroad. This example is one of only nine still existing and the only one believed to be in...

Russia pummelled Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones overnight, killing at least 25 people and throwing doubt over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s attempts to “reinvigorate” the peace process with talks in Ankara later on Wednesday. “Twenty-five people, including three children, were killed as a result of Russian shelling of the city. Another 73 people, including 15 children, were wounded,” the country’s interior ministry said on social media, updating earlier tolls from one of...

Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui remained the world’s fourth most expensive retail strip with rents at US$1,515 per square foot per year, as two other core shopping districts in the city – Causeway Bay and Central – also ranked among the Asia-Pacific’s priciest shopping locations, according to Cushman & Wakefield. London’s New Bond Street jumped two spots from last year to emerge as the world’s most expensive retail district, according to the real-estate services consultancy’s 35th “Main Streets Across...

Former US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo said US President Donald Trump’s tariffs are likely to outlive his administration, sustained by political fears that removing protectionist barriers will alienate workers who fear losing their jobs to offshoring and AI. Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, Raimondo argued that the political cost of unwinding tariffs is too high for any future administration, regardless of party. “Tariffs, once they’re put on, are hard to take off,”...

Family offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai are redrawing the global map of private capital. Each hub combines favourable tax and regulatory regimes with strong local networks of banks, advisers and deal makers. Together, they now rival Western centres in deploying private equity across the Global South. Drawing inspiration from family offices in the United States – where private equity has represented a major share of assets – these Asian hubs are scaling rapidly, positioning themselves as...

Portuguese football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and billionaire Elon Musk were among the guests at a lavish White House dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump for the visiting Saudi crown prince on Tuesday. Ronaldo plays for Saudi club Al Nassr, one of a number of ageing players who have been attracted to the desert kingdom’s heavy spending on stars despite its rights record. The 40-year-old, whose contract with the Saudi club ends this summer, took his place near the head of Trump’s table a...

An Israeli air strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 13 people and wounded several others, state media and government officials said. It was the deadliest strike on Lebanon since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war a year ago. The drone strike hit a car in the car park of a mosque in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency said. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 13 people were killed...

Kissing did not begin with star-crossed human lovers but with the primate ancestors of great apes around 20 million years ago, according to a study published on Wednesday. Researchers from Oxford University and the Florida Institute of Technology wanted to examine when kissing began, given that from an evolutionary standpoint it has no obvious survival benefit, and could spread disease. Yet humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and gorillas all kiss, which strongly suggests the habit was...

A Gustav Klimt portrait painting sold on Tuesday for US$236 million, a record for a modern art piece, at an auction where a solid gold, fully functional toilet satirising the ultrarich also fetched US$12.1 million. The toilet, by Maurizio Cattelan - the provocative Italian artist known for taping a banana to a wall - went up for auction on Tuesday evening at Sotheby’s in New York. The starting bid for the 101kg, 18-karat gold work was about US$10 million. Cattelan has said the piece, titled...

Donald Trump ripped into a reporter from the US network ABC News on Tuesday, just days after calling another woman journalist “piggy” after she asked a question related to the convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump threatened ABC’s broadcast license after reporter Mary Bruce posed questions during a White House visit by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The earlier incident involving Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey happened a few days ago on Air Force One, but only...

A US district court, in a setback for President Donald Trump, struck down a congressional map on Tuesday redrawn by Republicans in Texas that was intended to give the party five more likely seats in the House of Representatives. The court ruled that the new map, which weakened five Democratic districts, could not be used in the 2026 midterm elections, where Republicans are seeking to safeguard their slim majority in the House. Democrats are eyeing a big win that would allow them to challenge the...

Facebook parent company Meta Platforms defeated a US attempt to unwind its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp on Tuesday when a federal judge ruled the company did not hold a social media monopoly. The ruling gives Big Tech its first decisive win against the antitrust crackdown started in US President Donald Trump’s first term, and is a major setback for the Federal Trade Commission, which is pursuing a separate antitrust case against Amazon.com. The agency sought to force Meta to...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks suggesting that Japan could intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait under the pretext of a “survival-threatening situation” represent a strategic pivot away from Japan’s post-war pacifist ethos. These statements, explicitly condemned by Beijing as “blatant interference in China’s internal affairs”, transcend mere diplomatic indiscretion. They reflect a calculated alignment with containment strategies aimed at curtailing China’s...

Brazil has cleared a Chinese navy hospital ship to dock in Rio de Janeiro in January, ending a months-long review that drew quiet pushback inside the country’s military, according to local media. The approval, dated November 13 and published Tuesday in the government’s official gazette, allows the Ark Silk Road to remain in Rio from January 8 to January 15 next year. The 178 metre (584 feet) vessel operates under China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy. Records show a United States ship will...

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Mohammed bin Salman knew nothing about the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, offering a fierce defence of the visiting Saudi crown prince that contradicted a US intelligence assessment. The controversy over the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and US-based critic of the Saudi leadership, flared again in the Oval Office in front of cameras as the kingdom’s de facto ruler made his first White House visit in...

The Republican-controlled US Congress voted almost unanimously on Tuesday to force the release of Justice Department files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an outcome President Donald Trump had fought for months before ending his opposition. Two days after Trump’s abrupt about-face, the House of Representatives passed the measure with a vote of 427-1, sending a resolution requiring the release of all unclassified records on Epstein to the Republican-majority Senate, which...

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that Europe does not want to be a “vassal” that is dependent on US and Chinese tech companies, calling for a “European preference” in the sector. “Europe doesn’t want to be the client of the big entrepreneurs or the big solutions being provided either from the US or from China, we clearly want to design our own solutions,” Macron told a Berlin summit, adding that this stance represented “a refusal of being a vassal”. Macron was speaking at the...

With a direct letter sent to nations and a draft text released on Tuesday, host country Brazil is shifting the UN climate conference into a higher gear. The letter sent late on Monday comes during the final week of the first climate summit in the Amazon rainforest, a key regulator of climate because trees absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet. Cop30 President Andre Correa do Lago later released a proposal with 21 options for negotiators to choose from on four sticky and...

Britain’s domestic intelligence agency on Tuesday warned lawmakers that Chinese spies were actively reaching out to “recruit and cultivate” them via headhunters or cover companies. Writing to lawmakers, House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said a new MI5 “espionage alert” warned that Chinese nationals were “using LinkedIn profiles to conduct outreach at scale” on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security. “Their aim is to collect information and lay the groundwork for long-term...

Cloudflare has fully restored its services after an outage on Tuesday at the web-infrastructure company prevented thousands from accessing major internet platforms, including X and ChatGPT. The company said the outage that began around 6.30am was caused by an automatically generated configuration file, designed to manage potential security threats. The file grew too large and crashed the software system handling traffic for several Cloudflare services, the company, whose network handles around a...

While the world’s attention is drawn to US President Donald Trump’s tug of war with China over trade tariffs and technological embargoes, a new development in the Ukraine war is catching the eye of geopolitical observers. Pokrovsk, a city in Donetsk Oblast, has emerged as the most critical flashpoint in Russia’s war on Ukraine. At the intersection of major supply highways and a key railway junction, it serves as a vital logistics hub for Ukrainian forces defending central and western Donetsk....

One of 25 schoolgirls abducted from a school dormitory in northwestern Nigeria’s Kebbi state has escaped captivity and returned home, the school principal said on Tuesday. The girls were abducted when gunmen attacked a high school in northwestern Nigeria before dawn on Monday, taking the 25 girls and killing a staff member at the school. The student who escaped through forests and arrived home late on Monday, hours after the kidnapping at the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, said...

Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said no company would be unscathed if the artificial intelligence boom collapses, as soaring valuations and heavy investment in the sector fuel concerns of a bubble. Pichai said in an interview with the BBC published on Tuesday that the current wave of AI investment was an “extraordinary moment” but acknowledged “elements of irrationality” in the market, echoing warnings of “irrational exuberance” during the dotcom era. There has also been much debate among...

Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil tried to find common ground after a financial dialogue in Beijing on Monday, with both officials saying the two countries should strengthen ties and support open, rules-based global trade. Klingbeil’s trip marked the first visit to China by a German minister since the new coalition government took office earlier this year and came at a delicate time for Sino-German relations, with Berlin gripped by supply chain anxieties...

Regardless of the outcome of the challenge to US President Donald Trump’s powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act now before the Supreme Court, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has made clear the administration will continue to use national security rationales to enact its disruptive trade measures. It was not always thus. Nations have always had national security interests. Major powers have always engaged in espionage targeting adversaries – even allies. But since the...

Thailand’s insistence that trade negotiations with the US can proceed separately from talks over a fractious border dispute with Cambodia has been met with deep scepticism given Washington’s increasing use of economic policy as a political instrument and US President Donald Trump’s personal stake in the ceasefire deal. Bangkok announced on Saturday that tariff talks with the United States would “remain separate from border issues”, a pledge government spokesman Siripong Angkasakulkiat said...

Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers said on Monday he will step back from all public commitments, days after President Donald Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate his and other prominent Democrats’ ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Summers, a former president of Harvard University, where he is a professor, told the university’s student newspaper that the move was to allow him “to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me”. The...

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he plans to approve the sale of US-made F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, speaking a day before he hosts Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a day of diplomacy. “I will say that we will be doing that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’ll be selling the F-35s.” A sale would mark a significant policy shift, potentially altering the military balance in the Middle East and testing Washington’s definition of maintaining Israel’s...

The Trump administration’s blueprint to secure and govern Gaza won strong approval at the United Nations on Monday, a crucial step that provides international support for US efforts to move the devastated territory towards peace following two years of war. The US resolution that passed the UN Security Council authorises an international stabilisation force to provide security in Gaza, approves a transitional authority to be overseen by US President Donald Trump and envisions a possible future...

Months before the US military began launching air strikes against suspected drug vessels, former Justice Department acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove told employees the government should just “sink the boats” rather than prosecute the people on board, three witnesses told Reuters. Bove made similar remarks on at least three separate occasions between November 2024 and February 2025 when the topic of maritime drug cases was broached, the witnesses said. All three were granted anonymity to...

Soybean futures jumped on signals that China is stepping up its buying of oilseed, offering hope for US farmers after purchases appeared to have stalled. Prices in Chicago rose as much as 3.2 per cent on Monday, hitting a fresh 17-month high, after US President Donald Trump said China is in the process of buying soybeans. “They’ll be doing a lot of soybean purchases,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, adding that those purchases could start before spring. Brokerage AgResource Co...

The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives will vote on Tuesday on forcing the release of investigative files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with passage seen as all but guaranteed after President Donald Trump dropped his long-standing opposition. Trump’s reversal late on Sunday came days after a House petition gathered enough support to force a vote, a rare instance of House Republicans defying the president’s wishes. Until the weekend, Trump and his staff had lobbied hard...

As a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Moscow has lost much of its influence in Central Asia. In the coming months and years, the United States is expected to expand its presence in this strategically important region. But given that China has developed close economic ties with regional actors, how does Beijing view Washington’s ambitions? Coincidentally or not, on November 6, the US and China both held important meetings with Central Asia. In Washington, US President Donald Trump hosted the...

Former US television actor Danny Masterson claims a mix of failures by his defence lawyer and a police investigation that was biased against Scientology led to his conviction on two counts of rape, according to a lengthy motion filed on Monday. Masterson, 49, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison in September 2023 after a jury found he sexually assaulted two women in the early 2000s, while at the height of his fame starring as the mercurial Steven Hyde in the sitcom That ‘70s...

Brazil’s top military court has closed a dictatorship-era case against nine Chinese citizens who were arrested and tortured in 1964, ending a process that stayed open for more than six decades despite the lack of evidence behind the original charges. In a decision released on Sunday, Brazil’s Superior Military Court ruled that the case should legally have expired in 1981 but was never closed. As a result, a 50-volume case file remained on the docket. The closure lifts a lingering point of...

The EU’s European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Australian government said in a joint statement on Monday they would deepen cooperation on critical raw materials, as Western powers scramble to cut their reliance on China. With the exception of Japan, Group of Seven (G7) countries and the EU are heavily or exclusively reliant on China for a range of materials from rare earth magnets to battery metals. European officials and industry sources say financing remains a key hurdle in the bloc’s efforts...

Grand jurors have to vote on indictments to approve them, but a prosecutor told the judge in the case that only the foreperson formally approved the second charging document, a move that could cripple the case.

The resurrected inquiry could finally get to the bottom of lingering questions such as: Did top Trump administration officials purposely ignore a court order?

After nearly a decade of expensive, hit-and-miss investments, Mohammed bin Salman is overseeing a behind-the-scenes restructuring of the kingdom’s all-important wealth fund.

Some of the most prominent U.S. executives gathered at the Kennedy Center for an event promoting deal-making with the oil-rich kingdom.

Extreme heat causes cows to produce less milk. This poses problems in cheese-obsessed Italy, especially as it tries to meet growing demand for favorites like burrata.

The stars and the director look back on their days trying to break into the industry and how failure was part of the equation.

The 28-point proposal, which comes as the Trump administration tries to restart settlement talks, includes demands long rejected by Kyiv as nonstarters.

With the passing of Leonard A. Lauder and Agnes Gund amid financial headwinds, arts organizations worry that the cultural megadonor may be a thing of the past.

The image immortalized a Vietnam veteran’s joyous homecoming to his beaming family, but it hid the truth about an unraveling marriage.

Young Spaniards are increasingly drawn to the dictator Francisco Franco. So the government is designing apps, games and T-shirts to promote democracy.

With the government reopened, the space agency at last released pictures captured by a fleet of government spacecraft of an object that came from beyond our solar system.

Go straight to the good stuff this Thanksgiving: apple and cream, chocolate espresso, honeyed cranberry and more.

Working with imperfect partners does not mean that the United States should cover up and lie about their misdeeds.

They came bearing gifts. They left with what they wanted.

We want to hear about the ways in which the country’s politics are affecting your neighborhood, in ways big or small.

Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick misused $5 million in Covid-related funds during the pandemic in part to finance her campaign, according to the Justice Department.

Rabih Alameddine’s “The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)” won in fiction, while Omar El Akkad’s reckoning with Gaza took the nonfiction prize.

The twin sisters from Germany, who were nightclub stars and regular guests on international variety shows, chose to end their lives together.

Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic athlete said to be a major cocaine trafficker, is accused of ordering the murder of a witness who was set to testify against him.