Minimalist News

'Situational Bewareness': Star AI Investor Dumps Assets To Citadel After Massive Levered Bets Blow Up Summary: In echoes of Archegos chaos from 2021, Situational Awareness - a once $45BN tech fund - has been forced to liquidate its public share holdings due to margin calls from TRS Ken Griffin's Citadel scooped up the portfolio (at a health discount we are sure) as counterparties forced the liquidation. The fund is now around $10BN (all private holdings) Leopold - the fund manager - is getting married this weekend to Anthropic's Chief of Staff * * * Update (1500ET): Wondering who was involved?

Musk's America PAC Reportedly Plans $120 Million Midterm Blitz, Setting Stage For Renewed Left-Wing War On Elon The New York Times reports that Elon Musk's America PAC plans to spend as much as $120 million to help Republicans in November's midterm elections, signaling that the world's richest man is preparing to reenter the political game with fewer than 100 days until voters head to the polls. America PAC's spending surge will likely spark a coordinated opposition campaign from Democratic groups and left-wing NGOs, ranging from protests and activist pressure to sustained negative press coverage of Musk, as well as attempts

Biden's Pardon Can't Protect Fauci From Legal Consequences Dr. Anthony Fauci may have believed his Fifth Amendment marathon at the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday would shield him from prosecution, but he miscalculated. Before he refused to answer questions from the committee, Fauci did deliver an opening statement, during which he attacked Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and explained his decision not to answer any questions. "Given Senator Paul's obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and, recently, his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing

Cocaine Valued At Roughly $20 Million Seized From Truck At US Border Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times , Federal authorities have seized more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine from a commercial truck at a southern border entry point, estimated to be worth at least $20 million, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Federal law enforcement officers seized more than half a ton of cocaine worth more than $20 million hidden in a truck at the Calexico Port of Entry in California. Courtesy of the DOJ The drugs were hidden in the floorboards of the truck and

See The Hilarious AI Ads That Furious California Democrats Want Banned Two California Democrats are moving to outlaw AI-generated campaign ads at the federal level, just days after a Republican rival for the governor's mansion used the technology to hammer their party. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) on Monday reintroduced the AI Ads Act, which would make it a federal violation to use artificial intelligence to impersonate candidates or committees in federal races. This is the satire Ro Khanna and Adam Schiff want to make illegal so democrats aren't the butt of jokes. — Charles Curran

Federal Judge Rules Race-Based Portion Of Houston Program Unconstitutional Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times , A federal judge on Tuesday permanently barred the city of Houston from enforcing the race-based parts of a program that includes numerical goals for awarding public contracts to minority-owned businesses, ruling that doing so is in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. A judge's gavel, in this file photo. Andrew Kelly/Reuters U.S. District Judge David Hittner described his decision as the first to extend the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling against race-conscious college admissions to municipal public contracting

Apple Tumbles On China, Service Revenue Miss The Thursday rebound in the Nasdaq 100 - largely on the coattails of Microsoft and the expectations that further liquidations by that 25 year old Leopold guy are over - has been powerful, though much of the urgency has come from the same high-beta corners punished hardest during the semiconductor rout. That helps stabilize the tape, but it doesn’t resolve concerns around capex spend or Chinese chip capabilities. Amazon speaks directly to the hyperscaler debate through AWS and spending plans. And while Apple is not at the center of concerns about hyperscaler spreads,

'We Won Completely': Weinstein Says COVID 'Conspiracy Theorists' Were Totally Vindicated Not so long ago, everything below was a bannable offense - usually based on the vapid logic of some 24-year-old "trust & safety" associate . In a clip circulating Thursday, evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein takes stock of what the dissidents actually won for their trouble, Vigilant Fox reports. WEINSTEIN: "We live in two worlds simultaneously at the moment. I remember conversations that I had with people I cared deeply about at the beginning of COVID right as the lab leak story was beginning to crack." Bret Weinstein explains how

House Democrats Expand Midterm 'Red To Blue' Target Map To 30 Seats Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) added five more seats to its Red to Blue program on July 28 , and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) responded the same day with a separate statement criticizing each of the five Democratic candidates. The U.S. Capitol on June 16, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times The expansion brings the program to 30 seats. Red to Blue candidates receive strategic guidance, staff resources, training, and fundraising support from the committee, according

Bank Of Japan Confirms Yen Intervention, Fed Conducted 'Rate Check' Update (1645ET) : Nikkei reports that market participants learned that the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan intervened in the foreign exchange market by buying yen and selling dollars . Additionally, Nikkei confirmed that the US monetary authorities conducted a "rate check," a preliminary step before intervention. This indicates that Japan and the US worked together to curb the yen's depreciation. * * * Having collapsed to its weakest relative to the dollar in 40 years, it appears the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan has had enough

Amazon Jumps On Solid AWS Growth And Profit, Even As Outlook Disappoints And Free Cash Flow Turns Negative As Bloomberg notes, "Microsoft’s solid earnings breathed new life into the tech sector Thursday, but Amazon’s report after the bell this evening could deflate the optimism again." To be sure, there’s a lot riding on Amazon results. The longevity of the AI spending boom is in doubt as shareholders punish ambitious capex plans, which has taken away some of the support away from the chipmaker stocks. Before Microsoft’s earnings, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index had fallen 27% this month. It bounced more than

US Intel Chiefs Back Trump's Claim China Interfered In American Elections Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, The heads of four U.S. intelligence and national security agencies have backed key elements of President Donald Trump’s claim that China engaged in election interference by targeting American voter-registration data. A fact sheet released July 30 by the White House Government Transparency Task Force says China and its proxies bought, stole, or hacked voter data belonging to as many as 220 million Americans, including some information that was not publicly available. The fact sheet pairs that finding with the intelligence community’s

58% Against, Both Parties Scrambling: Data-Center Revolt Hits The Midterms A "booming backlash" against AI data centers is shaping the midterm election - candidates cutting ads touting their anti-data-center credentials, protesters showing up at campaign events, industry players taking note - which will come as genuinely useful news to anyone who has spent the past year getting their information exclusively from NBC News. The network's framing is that last year's elections in a handful of states revealed the hyperscale buildout as a major tension point up and down the ballot , and that the fight has now intensified into a

The Facts Behind China's "Gold Reset" Authored by Peter Reagan , The internet loves a reset . A “reset” takes an impossibly complicated subject and boils it down to a date, a decision and one big red button. China’s recent gold market announcements launched a veritable cottage industry of dire warnings and hysterical predictions. Over the past few weeks, my feeds have been absolutely flooded with claims that China’s brought back the gold standard . And that Beijing built a machine designed to “collapse the dollar.” Some warned that July 24 would mark “the end of gold trading” – somehow

Jim Rickards Slams Tech Bros Running The Marxist Playbook Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com, Can Marxism offer a framework for understanding artificial intelligence (AI) and the tech bros behind it? This is not to suggest that Marxism is a viable economic system or a practical alternative to capitalism. It’s not. But Karl Marx was a heterodox economist before he became an ideologue, and some of his ideas are powerful tools for understanding economics, even if his overall program was a failure. Let’s use some of those tools to understand the rise of AI oligarchs and the future of AI.

OpenAI Slashes GPT-5.6 Luna Price By 80% As China's Cheaper Models Close In OpenAI just cut the price of its cheapest GPT-5.6 model by 80 percent , three weeks after launch - the clearest signal yet that the company that kicked off the generative AI boom is being dragged into a price war it did not start. On Thursday the company said GPT-5.6 Luna, its speed-focused model, now costs 20 cents per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens, down from $1 and $6. GPT-5.6 Terra, the mid-tier model, gets a 20 percent trim to $2 per million

Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis Slams Democrat Lawmakers For Dragging Their Feet Over Clarity Act Authored by Mathew Di Salvo via BitcoinMagazine.com, Pro-crypto Senator Cynthia Lummis on Wednesday slammed Democrats for holding back the Clarity Act. Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Lummis, of Wyoming, spoke of the bipartisan work that had gone into the bill — but questioned why it was stalling. Lawmakers are hoping the Clarity Act gets passed before Congress departs for August recess. While the bill has been drafted bipartisanly, some Democrats are unhappy with the current version . JUST IN: 🇺🇸 Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis calls

"Diesel Is At Epicenter Of Supply Squeeze,": Goldman Goldman analysts are out with an eye-opening note showing that global refinery runs have plunged to their lowest seasonal level since the Covid era as conflict-related outages hammer Russia and the Gulf while Chinese processing remains subdued. Analysts, including Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby and Daan Struyven, introduced a new global refinery-runs nowcast, estimating that global runs declined by 6.5 million barrels per day from a year earlier in late July. Non-OECD throughput dropped by 7 million barrels per day, led by the Middle East, Russia, and China. Higher utilization in the Americas and

The Latest Wildfire Panic Is Refuted By Data Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org, Wildfires are in the news. With a hot, dry summer it was bound to happen. And, naturally, this is bringing with it talk of climate change. The Independent is screaming and rending its garments : Europe is on fire – will the continent’s climate change deniers finally wake up? The Guardian has an opinion piece calling for prosecutions for climate crimes . Twitter experts are calling for changes to the way we live our lives. Prince William is saying stuff : Wildfires ‘stark reminder’ of extreme

John Cleese: "Some Cultures Are Better Than Others" Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news , Legendary Monty Python star John Cleese has drawn a clear line in the sand, declaring himself a "culturalist" who believes some cultures are superior to others. Cleese has also openly backed Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe amid the accelerating collapse of British norms under mass migration and parallel societies. The legendary comedian responded this week to ritual insults hurled at him for supporting Lowe by rejecting the tired "racist" smear from the usual uneducated quarters. I see I am being ritually insulted for my support

Data shows Canadians have replaced US vacations with other international trips in apparent rebuke to Trump Canadians spent $3.3bn less on travel to the US in 2025 than in the previous year, as Donald Trump’s hostile policies towards his northern neighbour continue to incur an economic cost, new government data shows. The research also indicates that Canadians are not bucking travel overall and instead have replaced US vacations with other international destinations, in a rebuke to Trump’s tariff regime and the president’s continued musings on annexing Canada. Continue reading...

Three years after Maui wildfires many still struggle with ‘biological, emotional and social consequences’, study says A spate of ferocious wildfires across North America and Europe, worsened by the climate crisis, has incinerated homes and forests and forced thousands of people to flee. Previous fires suggest the effects of these blazes may linger for years to come. The current fires and their plumes of smoke can appear to be a temporary, if immediate, crisis. Nearly 1,000 fires have sprung into life in the boreal forests of Canada, causing the evacuation of towns and toxic smoke to waft into major Canadian

President also blames Brazil and Mexico and says online critics ‘do not want the ideas of freedom to succeed’ More than a week has passed since Ferran Torres scored the extra-time goal that gave Spain its second World Cup, but – at least for Argentina’s president – the tournament is not over. Javier Milei has claimed that a coordinated “anti-Argentina campaign” was behind criticism of the country’s team, accusations of racism among its fans and conspiracy theories alleging that Lionel Messi’s side was secretly being favoured by Fifa. Continue reading...

Nelson Haase Mazzei was sentenced for murdering Jara in 2023, but fled from authorities in Chile More than 50 years after the murder of the Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara , the last man wanted in connection with his death has been tracked down and brought to justice. Nelson Haase Mazzei, a retired colonel, fled from authorities in 2023 after he and six other retired soldiers were sentenced in absentia for murdering Jara and another man. Continue reading...

No one was injured and no suspects have been identified in connection to shooting near Toronto compound, police say Shots were fired near the US consulate in Toronto early on Monday but no one was injured in the second shooting near the diplomatic compound in four months. “Officers heard a firearm being discharged in the area,” and “a white sedan was seen fleeing the scene”, Toronto police said on X. Continue reading...

Soldiers and emergency teams search damaged shopping centre, paper mill and homes for survivors Earthquake rocks southern Japanese island of Kyushu – in pictures The death toll from the powerful earthquake that hit Japan on Tuesday has risen to 30, as the search for survivors trapped in a badly damaged shopping centre, paper mill and collapsed homes across the south-west of the country continues. The 6.8-magnitude quake, which struck Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyushu, injured at least 62 people, according to the prefectural government. Continue reading...

Emergency workers are continuing their search for survivors in southern Japan after yesterday’s powerful earthquake ‘Race against time’: Japan earthquake death toll rises as rescue teams search for missing An aerial view of a collapsed section of a bridge in the city of Yatsushiro after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 struck Japan’s southern Kumamoto prefecture: Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun newspaper has been speaking to people at the Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro, where a chimney collapsed on to the site. “I never imagined something like this would happen,” said a 33-year-old man who worked at the factory.

Rescuers pulling people from the wreckage in southern Japan in a haunting repeat of disaster that struck 10 years ago ‘Race against time’: Japan earthquake death toll rises as rescue teams search for missing “There was a voice coming from the collapsed house, and I could see a hand,” Tomohide Nagata, a volunteer firefighter, told the Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun. “One of our senior members crawled in and pulled him out. He was bleeding from the head, but I’m so glad he survived.” Nagata had heard a noise coming from one completely flattened home in the rural town of Hikawa, close

Military mobilises thousands of personnel after quake on southern Kyushu island that registered a maximum 7 on the Japanese shindo intensity scale Earthquake rocks southern Japanese island of Kyushu – in pictures At least 13 people were killed when a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Japan on Tuesday, injuring hundreds and knocking out power and water to tens of thousands. “There are people who are still waiting to be rescued, and it’s a race against time,” the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, said on Wednesday. “We will go all out to find and rescue as many people as we can.” Continue

Move comes as the Trump administration has increasingly sought to keep Chinese technology out of the US The Federal Communications Commission announced a ban on humanoid robots from China on Tuesday, saying that the technology poses “unacceptable risks” to the country’s national security. The move comes as the Trump administration has increasingly sought to keep Chinese technology out of the US. The FCC defines the banned robots as “advanced robotic devices”, which include humanoids and animal-like quadrupeds. Continue reading...

Former premier’s brother to appear before inquiry. Follow live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast eSafety commissioner says court action against Telegram ‘very significant’ Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety commissioner, spoke to the ABC this morning after yesterday’s court action against Telegram over its alleged failure to detect and remove pro-terror material from its platform. The scars are still very raw around Bondi. … These are platforms – and they may be doing more content moderation and we would encourage that – but not to the degree that Australian law requires them to. This

Sam Mostyn says there is a widespread ‘failure to understand and engage with’ civic underpinnings of our democracy Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australia faces a “growing catastrophe” from poor understanding of the country’s constitutional foundation, the governor general, Sam Mostyn, has warned as attacks on institutions and threats against elected officials undermine democratic participation. Two years after her appointment as King Charles’s representative in Canberra, and as she brings a modern touch to the role of vice regal, Mostyn said that knowledge of

The opposition leader is the highest-profile person mentioned so far at the NSW anti-corruption commission – and the political figure with the most to lose Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast After the opening days of an inquiry exposing a dark underbelly of the New South Wales Liberals, the prevailing mood among Angus Taylor’s colleagues is one of apprehension. The federal opposition leader is not a specific target of Operation Rosny, which is investigating allegations of corruption against people associated with the NSW branch. He

The book, Antiquities of Athens, was handed back to Kiama library by a man who found it bricked into a wall An Australian public library has had a book returned an estimated 150 years late after being found behind a wall during a home renovation. The book, Antiquities of Athens, published in 1858, was returned to the library in the seaside town of Kiama, south of Sydney , by a man who had found it inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace Continue reading...

This blog is now closed Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Minister says meeting Closing the Gap target a major step, but more work needed on others Malarndirri McCarthy , the minister for Indigenous Australians, said early childhood education enrolment for First Nations children was a milestone in the effort to reach the Closing the Gap targets. It is important to see this milestone achieved, and that is because of the work of the Aboriginal and community controlled sector and those involved in the preschool sector. … Clearly, the challenges with all the other

CRS officers funded by UK tried to stop boarding of boat, on day four asylum seekers died trying to cross Channel French riot police funded by UK taxpayers used teargas on asylum seekers in an attempt to stop them from boarding a boat in which three women were later found dead, a charity has claimed. Footage and photographs seen by the Guardian show CS gas canisters being fired towards groups of people on Plage du Braek near Dunkirk at 4am on Thursday. At 6am, three women were found dead in a boat near the same beach. Continue reading...

Figures show hot, dry, windy conditions in EU are 43% more severe than the average over last 20 years Fire weather in the EU has broken records for severity for this time of year, data shows, as firefighters race to extinguish blazes across the Mediterranean. Inflamed by carbon pollution, the hot, dry and windy weather across the EU from the start of the year until the end of July has been 43% more severe than the average for the same period over the last two decades, data from the European Forest Fire Information Service (Effis) shows. Continue reading...

Strike on Terminal Autonomy plant appears to be first time in the war that Moscow has targeted a US company A drone factory in Kyiv destroyed by a Russian ballistic missile on Friday was owned by a US corporation registered in Delaware, in what appears to be the first time Moscow has targeted a US company in the conflict. Terminal Autonomy makes precision “deep-strike” drones with guidance systems that are resistant to Russian jamming signals, according to a person familiar with the company. Continue reading...

Polish PM visits scene of crater thought to have occurred during deadly wave of attacks on Ukraine Russia has been accused of violating Polish airspace, after a missile exploded in a field in the east of the country, triggering Nato air defences, in the midst of a massive air raid that killed 13 people in neighbouring Ukraine. Polish authorities said that the explosion near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia, close to Lublin, had created a 10-metre-wide crater. Residents of Tarnawa-Kolonia reported hearing an explosion at about 4am that shook the windows of their homes, police said. Continue reading...

Maria and Czeslaw Krupa, who arrived as children of displaced Polish veterans, told they have no post-Brexit rights to return home to Bury Two Polish citizens who have lived in the UK for nearly 80 years after their parents fled the second world war have spoken of their terrifying experience after being told they did not have post-Brexit rights to return to the UK. In May, while visiting Poland, they learned that although they had been welcomed as refugees after the war, they now needed special post-Brexit paperwork to return to their home in Bury, Greater Manchester. Continue reading...

US president claims his Board of Peace has reached ‘historic agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza’ US launches fresh strikes on Iran after days-long pause, amid fears the war is widening A liquefied natural gas tanker controlled by QatarEnergy exited the strait of Hormuz overnight – the first such vessel ⁠visible on ship-tracking data to ⁠leave the waterway ​since 11 July, data from analytics firms showed on Thursday. The Al Areesh tanker , which loaded a cargo at Qatar’s Ras Laffan terminal around 4-6 July, sailed ⁠out of the strait overnight on

US president’s Board of Peace says Israel will withdraw from Gaza following disarmament of Hamas but no immediate statement from either side What is Trump’s Board of Peace and who is involved? Donald Trump on Thursday announced an agreement for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas, calling it a critical step toward a new Palestinian government in Gaza. There was no immediate statement from Hamas or Israel on the agreement. “This agreement is a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Board of Peace to help the Palestinian people,” Trump

Yemeni sources say Saudis concentrating forces for what could be attack in central Yemen Saudi Arabia is preparing for a major military offensive against the Houthis by sea and possibly by land in central Yemen, Yemeni sources believe, in a move to break the chokehold on its oil exports through the southern Red Sea. Saudi forces have been seen withdrawing from the east of Yemen in what could be preparation for a land offensive. At the same time, Riyadh is trying to organise a naval coalition to protect shipping from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab

Central Command says strikes aimed at diminishing Iranian military while mediators say talks are continuing Middle East crisis – live updates The US struck Iran overnight and Tehran retaliated at US allies in the region, reigniting the low-intensity, tit-for-tat war as mediators struggled to pull the two countries back to the negotiating table. The US carried out overnight strikes on Iran – the first in more than five days – hours after Donald Trump vowed to hit the country “very hard” following Tehran’s targeting of a base in Jordan that hosts American troops. Continue reading...

Government fears social discontent on ‘most important battlefield’ of economy and livelihoods as war takes its toll amid anti-state dissent Middle East crisis live – latest updates Iran, in the middle of an escalating five-month war with the US, continues to stumble from one internal crisis to another – whether it is over public executions, the rising cost of living, the alleged bias of the state broadcaster or even the post-midnight destruction of pavements outside liberal-leaning Tehran cafes. Very little that happens in Iran, cultural or political, momentous or trivial, does so uncontested. But there is now a growing threat

Local civil rights group alleges authorities removed evidence of killings amid communications blackout At least 30 people are alleged to have been killed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the past two days as part of what has been claimed is a brutal state crackdown that has engulfed the disputed region for weeks. According to a local civil society group, Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), the Pakistani security services fired on tens of thousands of peaceful protesters, killing 25 people on Monday and five more on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Cockroach Janta party says government has broken promise, with detentions in Delhi, Assam, West Bengal and Bihar India’s youth-led “Cockroach” movement, whose nationwide protests forced the resignation of the education minister , has accused the government of backtracking on its promise not to act against student protesters and has threatened to restart demonstrations. The Cockroach Janta party (CJP), which organised mass protests over exam paper leaks and other irregularities, said it had received reports of hundreds of students being detained or “harassed” by police. Continue reading...

Wind and record-breaking heat are fuelling the continent’s explosive fire season, with Spain and France among worst hit Explainer: what is a ‘fire cloud’, and how have they worsened wildfires in Europe? Europe wildfires live – latest updates A combination of an unusually wet winter, very low rainfall since spring and repeated record-breaking summer heatwaves is likely to explain why wildfires have ignited, spread and resisted control so readily across France and Spain in recent days . About 90% of wildfires are started by human activity, typically igniting “fine fuels” such as vegetation grass, pine needles, litter and twigs. And

In today’s newsletter: Across ​the country, a ​younger generation is turning private disillusionment into public defiance​ against a government that once felt untouchable Good morning. As flames engulfed parts of France and Spain this weekend, in India, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, was trying to put out a very different kind of fire. Thousands of people arrived in Delhi on Saturday to demand the resignation of his education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. When he stepped down in the early afternoon, the protests turned into a triumphant block party. But the Cockroach protests that have swept through India this summer are about

Ally forced to resign, with opposition parties reinvigorated and strongman leader’s grip over media channels rocked Even the night before Narendra Modi accepted the resignation of his education minister, India’s prime minister appeared confident that the largest mass uprising to take place in his 12 years in power would do little to rattle his government. Addressing his “young friends” in a late-night Instagram selfie reel on Friday, he thanked the people – who were mobilised en masse across the country , shouting anti-government slogans – for their “thoughtful suggestions”. Continue reading...

Both MPs have had the parliamentary whip restored following separate independent disciplinary processes MPs Diane Abbott and Joani Reid have been readmitted into Labour and had the parliamentary whip restored, just under two weeks into Andy Burnham’s premiership. The party confirmed that this followed separate independent disciplinary processes, although Labour said the leadership played no role in either decision. Continue reading...

Local leaders say plan will transform funding so English regions no longer rely on Whitehall handouts for projects England’s regional mayors will be able to break out of the “death grip of the Treasury” by borrowing to invest in big projects under “transformational” plans to shift power out of Whitehall. For the first time, mayors will keep a share of income tax generated in their area from 2028, as well as business rates totalling tens of millions of pounds by April 2027. Continue reading...

Major incident declared, with Sizewell B power station monitoring blaze and RSPB nature reserve badly hit Hundreds of people have been evacuated and a major incident declared after a wildfire spread over more than 80 hectares (200 acres) on the coast of Suffolk, just a few miles from the Sizewell B nuclear power station. The fire – which had been described by one witness as “apocalyptic” – was said to be stabilising on Thursday night. The statement was posted by Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service, which said at least 12 fire crews were remaining overnight in the area. Continue reading...

UK’s highest court gives permission for Huda Ammori to challenge court of appeal ruling The co-founder of Palestine Action has won permission to challenge the ban against the group at the UK’s highest court. The direct action group was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in July last year but its co-founder, Huda Ammori, has been fighting to have the ban overturned amid a mass civil disobedience campaign. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Electoral Commission urged to look into donations made by mother of convicted fraudster Revealed: George Cottrell transferred $2m to his mother days before her donations to Reform UK Labour has accused Reform UK of being “up to its neck in sleaze” as it called on the Electoral Commission to urgently investigate substantial donations made to the party by the mother of a convicted fraudster. Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s new chair, called on the commission to examine whether any rules had been broken, after revelations in the Guardian that George Cottrell transferred more than $2m to his mother in the days

Republicans senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul voted in favor of the motion to prevent Trump from continuing hostilities against Iran Sign up for the US Breaking News email The US economy expanded at a sluggish 1.5% pace from April through June as rising imports weighed on growth . But consumer spending rose . And the Federal Reserve ’s favored measure of inflation grew more slowly last month despite remaining above the central bank’s 2% target . The commerce department reported today that growth in US gross domestic product (GDP) – the nation’s output of goods and services

Company says it discovered unauthorized access during ‘proactive review’ after rival OpenAI revealed rogue agent Anthropic ⁠said on Thursday its AI Claude model hacked ⁠systems of ⁠three ​organizations during testing, days after rival OpenAI ⁠revealed a rogue agent had gone on a days-long ⁠hacking spree at AI ​firm Hugging ‌Face. Claude gained ‌unauthorized access to the ‌systems during cybersecurity evaluations after a misconfiguration allowed the models to reach the internet from testing environments that ‌were supposed to be isolated, Anthropic said. Continue reading...

Officers in murder trial testify of arriving at Massachusetts home after anguished 911 call from Patrick Clancy The two police officers focused first on Lindsay Clancy drifting in and out of consciousness in the snow after jumping from her Massachusetts home’s second-floor window in January 2023. Within minutes, they were racing into the basement after her then husband screamed that all three of their children were dead. “I can’t wake them up – I can’t get them up!” Patrick Clancy frantically told the officers who, along with firefighters and paramedics, gave jurors first-hand accounts on Thursday of the aftermath. Continue

Mayor announces resignation of Shon Barnes after city officials faced criticism over response to Sunday shooting Seattle’s police chief has resigned amid criticism of the city’s response to a fatal shootout at a food festival last weekend, Katie Wilson, the mayor, said on Thursday. The announcement followed hours of speculation about whether Shon Barnes would step down, as some of his supporters said he had rebuffed Wilson’s request that he resign. Continue reading...

Former lieutenant governor says path to Democratic nomination no longer viable as democratic socialist rival surges ahead Mandela Barnes, the former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, dropped out of the Democratic primary for governor on Thursday, upending the high-stakes contest less than two weeks before the 11 August election. Barnes announced the decision in a video posted on social media, saying he no longer saw a viable path to the nomination, as democratic socialist Francesca Hong surged ahead with a commanding lead. Continue reading...

A man who gave his son the gun he used to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison. Colin Gray’s sentencing comes days after his son, Colt Gray, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the September 4, 2024, shooting at the school 70km (45 miles) northeast of Atlanta. Colt Gray had pleaded guilty to murder and other charges. A defence lawyer for Colin Gray asked the judge for a sentence that...

Spain will deploy its military to restore order at its border with Morocco in Ceuta, after thousands of migrants streamed into the tiny Spanish territory, with at least nine dying in the attempt. The announcement comes after local authorities in Ceuta had asked the central government in Madrid for reinforcements to manage a border crisis that had been building up before boiling over on Thursday with large crowds of people breaching the border fence. Spain’s government said Thursday evening it...

Uefa member federations agreed on Thursday to boycott all Fifa competitions in protest of Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity investors. “Uefa and its national associations will not participate in Fifa competitions,” the European football body said after an urgent online meeting of the 55 members. “Some things are simply too important to sell,” Uefa said in a statement. “The Fifa World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a...

US economic growth slowed in the second quarter amid a widening in the trade deficit, but an acceleration in consumer spending and robust business investment in equipment related to the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure pointed to underlying strength. Gross domestic product increased at a 1.5 per cent ‌annualised rate last quarter, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said in its advance estimate of second-quarter GDP on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters...

Over the past 10 years, Washington, Brussels and London have made decreasing economic reliance on China a strategic goal. Western economic plans now stress supply-chain resilience, industrial sovereignty, technological leadership and national security. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted weaknesses in global supply networks. Increasing geostrategic tensions, export restrictions and technological rivalry have supported political backing for reshoring and “friendshoring” manufacturing. The objective...

Best known as Viagra, the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil started off as a treatment for reduced blood flow but soon saw its value spike after its other effects became clear. The blue pill could have more uses, according to research by scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Tel Aviv. The team found indications that it curbs cancer metastasis via a “newly discovered biological mechanism” drawing upon the drug’s blood dilatation effects. Sildenafil curbs the capacity of cancer...

David Cifaldi and his two hiking companions were crossing Montana’s ominous Froze-to-Death Plateau and approaching the top of the state’s highest peak when their adventure took a bizarre and dangerous turn: Cifaldi slipped and impaled himself on his trekking pole as he fell. The 44-inch (112-centimetre) steel-tipped pole passed through the flesh beneath Cifaldi’s left arm, missing any vital organs, and protruded from his back. After conferring with his friends – and considering the high cost of...

Russia pounded Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones, killing nine people in overnight attacks on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, decrying shortages of air defence supplies and urging allies to help. Russia launched more than 70 missiles and about 280 drones, Zelensky said in a statement on the Telegram app. The capital Kyiv and the western region of Lviv on Ukraine’s border with Poland were the main focus of the attack, the Ukrainian air force said. Poland, a...

It was important enough to the framers of the US Constitution to be included in the first 10 amendments known as the Bill of Rights – that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself”. Today, that protection – famously known as “pleading the Fifth” – remains one of the most visible and politically charged safeguards in American law. It has seeped into the culture, too. “Pleading the Fifth” has become an idiom in the United States, used jokingly in casual...

Nearly three-quarters of Cuba’s hotels have been closed and the island’s tourism sector has been brought to “almost total paralysis” by US sanctions and fuel shortages, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said on Wednesday. Detailing the scale of the tourism crisis for the first time, Marrero said seven international chains, responsible for about half of all hotel rooms, had left the island. Tourism had been Cuba’s second-largest source of foreign currency earnings, employing more than 300,000 people...

The US military said it struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard targets in Iran, including military command centres and drone facilities, in a two-hour operation launched after Tehran fired ballistic missiles at US forces in the Middle East. “The strikes aimed to further diminish threats posed by Iran and its proxies to American forces, commercial shipping, and neighbouring Gulf countries,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Wednesday. Iran’s state media reported that...

Five people have died after powerful gusts of wind in Brazil brought chaos to Rio de Janeiro and parts of Sao Paulo state, cutting power and bringing public transport to a standstill. Residents of Rio de Janeiro were taken by surprise when winds of up to 100km/h hit just before rush hour, felling dozens of trees and leaving thousands stranded as the city’s three subway queues ground to a halt. The fire department said in a statement that two people had died when a wall collapsed in the city of...

Lindsay Clancy sobbed in court on Wednesday as jurors listened to the anguished emergency call her then-husband made after returning from an errand to find she had strangled their three children in their Massachusetts home. On the roughly seven-minute recording, Patrick Clancy can be heard speaking with his wife upon finding her badly injured and bleeding in their yard, after she jumped from the home’s second-storey window. “Look at me,” he says. “Say my name.” He then tells the dispatcher he is...

US President Donald Trump unveiled a US$22 billion plan on Wednesday to rebuild Washington Dulles airport by replacing concourses and adding a large parking garage while preserving the landmark main terminal. The announcement is the latest in a series of major projects he has announced in and around the US capital. “It’s considered one of the ‌worst airports anywhere in the world, we’re going to make it maybe the best with some hard work,” Trump said, arguing it was time “for a major and long...

Brazil overtook Russia and Belgium in the first five months of this year to become the world’s largest importer of Chinese cars, buying US$5.2 billion worth of vehicles as brands raced to land shipments before a tariff increase took effect in July. The figure, drawn from Chinese customs data, is up 146.9 per cent from the US$2.1 billion recorded a year earlier, when Brazil ranked sixth among buyers. Russia bought US$5 billion over the same months this year and Belgium purchased US$3.8...

The man who stabbed and partially blinded author Salman Rushdie at a speaking engagement in 2022 was found guilty on Wednesday of federal terrorism charges for the attack, which prosecutors said was incited by death threats over Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses. Hadi Matar, 28, already serving a 25-year prison term on state charges of attempted murder for ‌the knife assault, now faces a maximum penalty of life behind bars when he is sentenced on his federal conviction, scheduled for November...

Four women have accused Jared Leto of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers, to which the actor and musician responded Wednesday that he has “never sexually assaulted anyone”. “I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life. These claims are absolutely and categorically false,” Leto, 54, said in a statement. The BBC documentary Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret, released on Wednesday, details allegations including those from four women who accused the actor of sexual misconduct...

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, a choice that may intensify questions about how US central bank chief Kevin Warsh will deliver on his commitment to bring inflation back down to the 2 per cent target. The widely ‌expected decision to leave the benchmark interest rate in the 3.50 per cent to 3.75 per cent range drew dissents from three of the 12 members of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee who “preferred” a quarter-percentage-point hike at this...

The United States on Wednesday sanctioned a group of mainland Chinese and Hong Kong shipping companies accused of operating vessels that transported Iranian oil to China, extending Washington’s economic campaign against Tehran alongside its naval blockade. The US State Department said eight companies were designated for operating vessels that moved Iranian crude oil and petrochemical products to China and the United Arab Emirates as part of Iran’s sanctions-evading “shadow fleet”. Six of the...

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged on Wednesday to take difficult decisions to overhaul England’s adult social care system, saying he wanted to work with other parties to end unfair high costs for users that he likened to US healthcare. Successive governments have failed to reform adult social care, for which families can pay hundreds of thousands of pounds, after previous proposals were defeated by opposition parties ‌who dubbed them a “dementia tax” or “death tax”. Burnham did not...

French DJ and musician Kavinsky, known for his electronic classic “Nightcall”, has been found dead at his home in Paris, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The self-taught pianist, whose real name is Vincent Belorgey, would have turned 51 on Friday. It was not immediately clear how he died, but emergency crews late on Tuesday noted nothing suspicious, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. “Nightcall” became a global hit after hit was featured in the soundtrack of 2011 movie Drive starring Ryan...

At least 15 elephants have died from exposure to a suspected poison in the Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya over a four-week period, the country’s nature conservation authorities reported on Wednesday. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said the animals had died in the park, which lies along the border with Tanzania, between June 24 and July 24. The nearby Kimana Conservancy and the Kuku Ranch area have also been affected. The KWS said that 10 of the 15 elephants showed similar symptoms,...

A ⁠Norwegian teenager ⁠was convicted on Wednesday of ⁠conspiracy to commit murder in Britain after being recruited by a Swedish organised crime group that prosecutors said was being used by the Iranian government. Johannes Natland, now ‌19, was arrested in a hotel room in Huddersfield, northern England, in March last year with two firearms and ammunition in his possession. Prosecutors said Natland had been recruited by the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish organised crime group used by ⁠the Iranian...

Firefighters in southwest France battled an uncontained wildfire four times the size of Paris on Wednesday as temperatures were forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), threatening to turn a calm night into only a brief reprieve. Authorities in the Gironde region said the blaze had not spread overnight, but rising heat and afternoon winds could revive smouldering hotspots, carry embers across firebreaks and open new fronts beyond crews’ reach. At the command centre in Lège,...

Over the past few decades, people in many countries have witnessed extraordinary technological progress. Transport is becoming smarter, robots and drones are entering everyday life, infrastructure is growing more complex, buildings are reaching ever higher into the sky and expanding cities are drawing in millions of new residents. The number of megacities – urban areas with populations of at least 10 million – rose from eight in 1975 to 33 in 2025. The United Nations expects this number to reach...

If South Korea wants to unlock access to South American trade, it will need to prove it is not a competitor interested only in extracting natural resources but a trustworthy partner committed to revitalising manufacturing industries, according to observers. On Monday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva agreed to revive negotiations on a free-trade agreement between South Korea and Mercosur, the South American trade bloc. A joint working group...

China’s emerging advantage in artificial intelligence (AI) is not that it already has the world’s best chips or strongest frontier models. It is that Chinese companies are increasingly providing capable intelligence at a price the global market can afford. AI is fast becoming everyday infrastructure. It is metered by usage and embedded in businesses, public services and devices, much like electricity or cloud computing. In an infrastructure market, leadership depends on affordability,...

Russia’s main domestic security agency said on Wednesday that Pavel Durov, founder and owner of the messaging app Telegram, has been charged with aiding terrorism and put on an international wanted list. The charges against Durov, who was born and began his career in Russia but later moved abroad, came as the Russian authorities restrict Telegram, one of the most popular messaging apps in the country. It is part of a long-term effort to bring the internet under the Kremlin’s full control that...

The US Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as Donald Trump’s top intelligence official on Tuesday, putting a permanent chief in charge of the country’s spy agencies as the president revives unsupported election fraud claims ahead of the midterms. Senators voted 51-47 to confirm Clayton’s appointment, with all Democrats in the upper chamber voting against it. “Jay is outstanding in every way, and will do a spectacular job as Director!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social shortly after the vote. The...

Elon Musk’s social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, launched its own bank account-like product where users can send money to one another. The service, known as X Money, is not a new bank. X Money is using technology and banking services provided by Cross River Bank and branding that backbone as X Money. It is common for new financial companies to use a traditional bank’s backbone to launch their services, as chartering a new bank is a timely and costly process. Currently X Money is...

A US teenager who shot dead four people at a high school with a gun his father gave him as a Christmas present was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday. Colt Gray, 16, pleaded guilty to carrying out the September 2024 attack at Apalachee High School in the town of Winder, Georgia. Gray was 14 years old when he shot dead two 14-year-old pupils and two teachers, while also wounding nine other people. He was charged as an adult. Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm sentenced Gray to life in prison...

Jordan’s air defences intercepted five missiles launched from Iran early on Wednesday, the country’s military said, hours after the US military said it had knocked down an Iranian missile barrage launched against American forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting. The Jordanian military said the missiles had been “intercepted and destroyed”. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency carried a statement from the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard saying the Guard’s Aerospace Force...

Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie and Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally were among public figures who on Tuesday called for refugee protections to be upheld as the United Nations decried mounting pressure ‌on asylum systems. Legal safeguards for refugees are enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, drafted in the aftermath of World War II, which displaced tens of millions of people. But while most people still support the principle of safe refuge, many governments are tightening border...

The man on trial in the stabbing of Salman Rushdie chose on Tuesday not to testify or call any witnesses in the federal terrorism case, which is expected to head to the jury as soon as Wednesday. Hadi Matar’s lawyer told the court that the 28-year-old – who already has been convicted of state-level attempted murder charges – would not take the stand at his trial on charges that include engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. “At this time, the defence rests,” lawyer Nathaniel Barone said....

Keiko Fujimori was sworn in as Peru’s president on Tuesday after winning the June presidential run-off by a margin of fewer than 50,000 votes, a victory that confirmed a regional shift in South America towards the conservative wing. With the ceremony, Fujimori, a four-time presidential candidate and leader of Peru’s largest political party, takes office as the country’s ninth president in a decade. The 51-year-old was hoping to stabilise Peru’s turbulent politics, reduce crime and boost economic...

US President Donald Trump voiced ⁠irritation with Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of their White House meeting on Tuesday, complaining that details of the Israeli prime minister’s planned talking points on Iran had surfaced publicly, in a fresh sign of strain between the two leaders. Asked about reports that Netanyahu wanted to talk to him about Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Iran’s main nuclear sites, Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname: “I don’t need...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought licences to produce Patriot air-defence interceptors during a “good meeting” with US counterpart Donald Trump on Tuesday, as he underscored Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s loss of initiative on the war front due to heavy losses. Zelensky spent just over an hour with Trump at the White House, in talks that came with Kyiv and Moscow intensifying long-range strikes as US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war stalled. “Today we had good meeting with President...

Firefighters raced on Tuesday to subdue huge wildfires that have forced unprecedented evacuations of tens of thousands of people across France and Spain, as western Europe braced for another heatwave. The fires have torn through a region already battered by a blisteringly hot and dry summer. Crews were seeking to capitalise on more favourable weather before a new wave of higher temperatures settled in from Wednesday. In the Bordeaux region of France, firefighters contained ‌the forest blaze...

US President Donald Trump eulogised Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Tuesday as a fixture of American politics and unflinching foreign policy hawk, as the leaders of Israel and Ukraine joined Washington’s most powerful at his funeral. Earlier in the day, lawmakers paid tribute at the Capitol Rotunda, remembering one of the last prominent Republicans to advocate for muscular US military power abroad as gregarious, funny and persuasive. “He was extremely hawkish – he never saw a war that he...

Footprints left on a muddy lakeshore in northern Kenya ⁠around 1.43 million years ago are providing new insight into the size and behaviour of a species in the human evolutionary lineage that was the last of its kind, known for extensive anatomical adaptations for eating tough vegetation. The species, Paranthropus boisei, is known mostly from skull and tooth fossils. Now researchers working along the eastern side of Kenya’s Lake Turkana have identified 21 footprints made by eight individuals of...

Oman presented ⁠Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, a Gulf source and a Western diplomat told Reuters on Tuesday. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Tehran had yet to respond to the Omani proposals, intended to serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. President Donald Trump, who abruptly called off a two-week US bombing campaign over the...

In Orwellian totalitarianism, two plus two can equal five. But with American hegemony, things can be A and not A at the same time. Earlier this month, Washington declared war on the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose very existence, it claims, poses an “intolerable” challenge to America’s sovereignty. But, citing an international maritime law, it also led a coalition of 14 mainly Western countries in issuing a joint statement in support of a 10-year-old South China Sea arbitration ruling...

Confirmed cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s ongoing Ebola outbreak reached 3,262, its ministry of health said in an overnight update, nearly the same as the 2018-2020 outbreak that is the largest ever recorded in the country. Data from the Congolese health ministry showed that 1,437 patients have died out of the 3,262 cases, in what officials have said is the fastest Ebola outbreak on record, concentrated in the eastern Ituri province. The 2018-2020 outbreak that was recorded in Congo...

On a road ⁠in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district, Palestinian resident Assem Dawla loaded mattresses and ⁠bags onto a truck as concrete yellow blocks marking the edge of Israel’s expanding military zone stood amid the rubble nearby. He said it was the seventh or eighth time since the war began that he and his family had been forced to leave a shelter because of Israeli evacuation orders and the advance of what residents call the yellow line. Zeitoun is one of at least five locations across Gaza where...

An American company found itself under attack by American artificial intelligence systems. Its unlikely rescuer was a Chinese AI model. It sounds like a Hollywood science fiction film. It’s not. During an internal test, advanced OpenAI models bypassed network restrictions, gained access to the internet and launched autonomous cyberattacks on open-source platform Hugging Face. As engineers rushed to respond, several leading closed-source AI systems reportedly failed to provide meaningful help...

Plus, Trump weighs pulling his nomination of Todd Blanche. Here’s the latest at the end of Thursday.

Amazon joined a procession of tech giants that ramped up their spending on artificial intelligence, as its capital expenditures soared 69 percent. Concerns over the industry’s spending are mounting.

As fears spread over a possible artificial intelligence bubble, some tech investors say: Bring it on.

The disclosure followed OpenAI’s report last week that its own artificial intelligence had hacked into the network of an online library.

The company recently raised prices on a number of products because of component supply shortages caused by the artificial intelligence boom.

To meet the growing needs of his congregation, Justin Lester created an A.I. duplicate of himself. Every day he sees more people using it.

As the U.S. and Iran exchange strikes, more countries are being touched — and some are joining in.

Even after winning approval of a measure calling on President Trump to end the war, they continue to call votes to force Republicans to answer for it.

A $22.5 billion redesign plan eliminates the “mobile lounges,” which were conceived as a way of making air travel more efficient. Many passengers found the opposite to be true.

Trump officials have promised to “make visual arts great,” with a museum exhibition that includes artwork by several people with personal connections to the planners.

The decision to suspend tours indefinitely came after a volunteer tour guide was featured in a Times article detailing President Trump’s dramatic revamp of the Kennedy Center.

The mayor said in recent interviews that it was important to acknowledge the city’s role in slavery but that he could not commit to payouts before his racial equity commission completes its report.

The seaweed — a stinky, brown algae known as sargassum — has plagued Mexico and the broader region for more than a decade, but this year’s forecast is setting records.

The decision followed days of criticism over how the department handled the release of information about a shooting that killed three people.

Show trials are bad for democracy.

Aging politicians are just the “tip of the iceberg.”

The likelihood of hot, dry weather that helps wildfires spread has increased sharply in Europe in recent decades, according to a new report.