Minimalist News

Ferrari Fever Hits Samsung, SK Hynix Workers As AI Memory Boom Mints New Wealth The global memory boom, with Samsung at the epicenter of the production ecosystem, appears to be generating a sudden wealth effect among some employees, with local media reporting that newly enriched chip workers are now panic-buying luxury sports cars. A short clip from MBC News, the news division of Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation and one of South Korea's top national TV and radio broadcasters, featured at least one exotic car dealership reporting a sharp uptick in Samsung Electronics and Hynix employees seeking to buy high-end sports cars.

State-Sponsored Suicide Authored by MN Gordon via dollarcollapse.com "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within." - Will and Ariel Durant, The Story Of Civilization Enemy Within How does a superpower die? Does it come from the blinding kill shot of a hypersonic missile streaking through the sky? Or, perhaps, a rogue cyberattack that mortally destroys the national power grid? Will the end of America come with foreign tanks rolling through New York or a massive, coordinated amphibious attack on Los Angeles? These dramatic scenarios make for captivating conjecture. But they're highly unlikely.

Another Detransitioner Wins A Huge Settlement A woman who underwent a double mastectomy after identifying as "nonbinary" has reportedly secured a confidential $3.5 million settlement after suing the mental health professionals who approved her for the life-altering procedure. Camille Kiefel, 36, alleged in a malpractice lawsuit that two Oregon therapists signed off on the surgery after only brief telemedicine consultations, despite a documented history of mental health issues. The settlement was reached just days before the case was set to go to trial. The case is already fueling renewed scrutiny of how quickly some medical providers have approved irreversible gender

Building American Cities That Would Make The Founding Fathers Proud Authored by Charles Ma via RealClearPolicy , American cities need bold renewal. What we need is a "MadeCity" vision - a vision for intentionally crafting or "making" cities that emphasize the enduring higher order potential within people. Beginning to plan and build such cities as part of America's upcoming 250th anniversary is a fitting way to extend John Winthrop's vision for America as a "City on a Hill. " A MadeCity is a living monument to faith, freedom, and entrepreneurship - the very ideals that turned a collection of colonies

"I Think It Will Reduce Our Jobs": Jamie Dimon Predicts AI-Driven Workforce Shift At JPMorgan Artificial intelligence is set to significantly alter hiring patterns at JPMorgan Chase & Co., according to CEO Jamie Dimon, who said the bank expects to recruit more AI-focused talent while reducing reliance on some conventional banking roles over time, according to Bloomberg . During a Bloomberg Television interview at the firm’s China Summit in Shanghai, Dimon acknowledged the long-term impact AI is likely to have on employment across the industry. “I think it will reduce our jobs down the road,” he said. “There will be

Iran Destroyed 20% Of Pentagon's MQ-9 Reaper Drone Fleet: Report Via Middle East Eye Iran has destroyed $1bn worth of MQ-9 Reaper Drones , or roughly 20 percent of the US's pre-war inventory of the sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a report by Bloomberg on Friday. The report said that many of the drones were downed by Iran in flight, but that others had been destroyed on the ground when Iran targeted US military bases in the Gulf. via AFP The MQ-9 is both a surveillance drone and capable of carrying a payload, typically Hellfire missiles or Joint Direct

Disney Asks FCC To Declare 'The View' A News Show, Exempt From Equal Time Rule Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Disney is asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to declare the daytime talk show "The View" a "bona fide news" program to bypass the federal equal opportunities law, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr announced May 22. Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris (C) chats with the hosts during a commercial break at “The View” in New York on Oct. 8, 2024. From left are Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, Whoopi Goldberg, Harris, Joy Behar, and Sunny

Ivanka Trump Was Reportedly Targeted For Assassination By IRGC Terrorist First Daughter Ivanka Trump was allegedly targeted in an assassination plot by an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-trained terrorist seeking revenge for the killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. Iraqi national Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, reportedly pledged to kill Ivanka Trump and was found with a blueprint of her Florida home after his recent capture, according to an exclusive report from the New York Post. The alleged plot traces directly to the January 2020 drone strike that killed Soleimani in Baghdad. Al-Saadi, who US authorities describe as a high-ranking

What 'Compassion' Isn't Authored by Laura Hollis via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), One of the most frustrating aspects of contemporary conversations about politics and public policy is how often the deleterious effects of terrible programs - local, state and federal - are brushed aside with distracting and even deceitful claims that the intentions behind the policies were "compassionate." This is an utterly wrongheaded analysis for many reasons. Laws, public policies, and government programs should be evaluated by their results, not by the state of mind of their advocates or sponsors. Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash.com The weaponization of compassion has launched a

AI Content Is Swamping The Internet: How It Impacts Critical Thinking Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A never-ending flood of content generated by artificial intelligence is reshaping the internet and the way people engage with information faster than ever. Illustration by The Epoch Times, Freepik From news summaries to social media posts to academic research, the sheer volume of machine-assisted materials has been correlated with a spike in "cognitive offloading" - a phenomenon in which people outsource critical thinking and verification to automated systems. A 2025 analysis of how AI tools affect cognitive offloading showed

'Impossible To Negotiate With Ukraine' After School Dormitory Strike, Kremlin Informs UN The last year of the Ukraine war has been marked by both warring sides remaining far from the negotiating table, instead opting for a battlefield solution, also as a deadly tit-for-tat drone and aerial war continues to unfold. This week things just got even worse concerning the distant prospect of restarting direct peace talks, something underscored by a fresh statement of Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations. Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Friday after a massive Ukrainian drone attack on a college in Starobelsk (Starobilsk) in the

"Preserve All Records": DOJ Puts Democrat-Run Maryland On Notice In Election Integrity Probe Submitted by Maryland Freedom Caucus , Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced on X last night that she has ordered Maryland’s State Board of Elections to preserve their records concerning the utter debacle of mail-in ballots during the state’s primary election season. It's the wrong time to send voters the wrong ballots. This @TheJusticeDept ’s @CivilRights will not let Maryland's mail-in ballot mistakes go unnoticed! pic.twitter.com/nm9S1x9amX — AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) May 22, 2026 “It's the wrong time to send voters the wrong ballots. This @TheJusticeDept’s @CivilRights will not

Nvidia CEO Urges Super Micro To "Enhance Compliance" Amid AI Chip-Smuggling Probe In a rare public comment that Nvidia is growing more sensitive to downstream risk, CEO Jensen Huang was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying Super Micro Computer must strengthen internal compliance controls after Taiwanese authorities detained three people accused of smuggling banned AI chips to China. " Ultimately, Super Micro has to run its own company ," Huang told reporters on Saturday in response to the chip smuggling scheme. " I hope that they will enhance and improve their regulation compliance and avoid that from happening in the

When Unfairness Is Systemic, The Consequences Are Flight, Resistance, Revolt Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, Now that we've drained the aquifers of a stable society, the replacement form of "wealth" is a delusional credit-asset bubble that generates the illusion of "wealth." Let's weave together two threads that look different: systemic unfairness and civilizational psychosis . As I often note, social species that organize themselves into hierarchies (i.e. primates, including humans) have an innate sensitivity to fairness, as this trait is essential to maintaining social stability, and therefore it has been selected as advantageous. This sensitivity applies both

No Wonder Men Are Opting Out Authored by Bettina Arndt via DailySceptic.org, The warning signs have been there for decades. Back in 1983, American author Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a powerful book — The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment — arguing that a male revolt was underway. Since the 1950s, she suggested, men had begun rebelling against the breadwinner ethic, inspired by Playboy culture, the counterculture and a desire for personal freedom. They were rejecting the cultural ideology that had shamed them into tying the knot and becoming a good provider, lest they be seen as

Tulsi Gabbard Resigns As Director Of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is stepping down from her role as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to support her husband, Abraham, as he battles an extremely rare form of bone cancer, according to Fox News . Gabbard informed President Donald Trump of her decision during a meeting in the Oval Office on Friday. Her last day at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) will be June 30, 2026 . In her formal resignation letter, obtained exclusively by Fox , Gabbard expressed deep gratitude to Trump, writing: "I am deeply grateful for

Ukraine Regained Territory After Cutting Russia's Black Market Starlink Terminals According to a newly declassified U.S. defense intelligence assessment first reported by Bloomberg, Moscow’s frontline command-and-control structures suffered a catastrophic blackout earlier this year due largely to coordinated crackdown that disabled thousands of black market Russian Starlink terminals . The Pentagon document highlights just how deeply Russian forces had come to rely on Elon Musk's commercial satellite terminals to patch over their own spotty military communication systems. For months, Russian units bypassed international sanctions via shadow supply networks to source the hardware. The Friday Bloomberg report claims that a "Ukrainian

Highlights From 2nd Batch Of Declassified UFO Files Include A UAP Shootdown The Pentagon’s second batch of declassified UFO files released on May 22 includes videos such as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) being shot down over the Great Lakes and audio of astronauts witnessing a series of unexplained phenomena. ​Dozens of documents were cleared for release on Friday, adding to the previous document dump on May 8, which revealed that Apollo 11 astronauts reported seeing a “sizable” object near the moon. ​The Epoch Times' Jacki Thrapp offers the following highlights from a partial review of the newly released files. UAP

Delivery Hero Confirms Uber's Takeover Bid In Push For Global Food-Delivery Empire Summary: Delivery Hero Confirms 33 Euro Takeover Bid Uber Speculation of Delivery Hero Takeover Uber Builds Large Stake in Delivery Hero Delivery Hero Confirms Takeover Bid Delivery Hero has confirmed that Uber has proposed buying the German food delivery company for 33 euros per share, in line with earlier takeover reports. Following today’s press publication, Delivery Hero SE confirms that Uber Technologies, Inc. reached out with an indicative proposal of €33 per share in respect of a potential takeover offer to all shareholders of the Company. Delivery Hero

40,000 Evacuated In Southern California As Chemical Tank Threatens Leak Or Explosion Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times, Roughly 40,000 people in Garden Grove, a Los Angeles suburb, were evacuated on Friday after a chemical storage tank was determined to be at risk of failing and spilling thousands of gallons of toxic material or exploding. The malfunctioning tank holds methyl methacrylate, a flammable and volatile chemical used in plastics manufacturing for aerospace applications, igniting widespread worries over potential toxic vapor release. The situation broke out Thursday, when the tank at a manufacturing facility started displaying signs of instability.

As Canada tightens asylum rules, refugees reuniting with family say they were turned over to ICE and jailed for months after failed border claims As each day in US detention passes, Markens Appolon can feel the life he had dreamed of slipping away. The 25-year-old fled Haiti to escape the rampant gang violence that upended his university studies in economics, and planned to join family in Montreal. Continue reading...

Judge said Trump administration would not have prosecuted Ábrego had he not challenged his high-profile deportation Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email A US judge dismissed a criminal indictment against Kilmar Ábrego García on Friday, finding that the Trump administration would not have prosecuted him had he not challenged his high-profile deportation. Ábrego, who had entered the United States without authorization in the past, became a symbol of the Trump administration’s drive for mass deportations when he was sent to the notorious anti-terrorism mega-prison in El Salvador known as Cecot in March 2025. Continue reading...

Alberta premier calls for referendum on secession after judge ruled initiative to force binding vote invalid The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney , has said that Alberta is “essential” to the country’s future, hours after the province’s leader moved the oil-rich region closer toward a referendum on independence. Separatists in the western province spent months collecting signatures seeking to trigger a binding October vote on seceding from the nation. Continue reading...

Andry José Hernández Romero was deported from the US to El Salvador’s notorious Cecot prison before he was allowed to return to Venezuela One of the Venezuelan men sent from the US to El Salvador’s most notorious prison by Donald Trump has moved to Spain to request asylum after concluding that he did not feel safe back home and did not trust US authorities sufficiently to return to fight his legal case. Andry José Hernández Romero left Venezuela for Spain in early February and is due for his first asylum hearing in court there in a few days, hoping that

US secretary of state says president would like a negotiated agreement with Havana but likelihood ‘is not high’ The US president, Donald Trump, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Thursday again raised the spectre of military intervention in Cuba, a renewed threat that takes on greater weight a day after the administration announced criminal charges against Raúl Castro, the island’s former leader. “Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years, doing something,” Trump told reporters when asked about Cuba during an event in the Oval Office. “And it looks like I’ll be the one that does

Xi Jinping urges authorities to ‘spare no effort’ in rescue operation after explosion in northern Shanxi province At least 82 people have been killed in a gas explosion at a coalmine in northern China’s Shanxi province, in the country’s worst mining disaster in 17 years. The explosion happened on Friday at 7.29pm (12.29 BST) while 247 workers were underground at the Liushenyu coalmine in Qinyuan county, the state media agency Xinhua reported. Continue reading...

Resolution backed by 141 states hailed as ‘new chapter’ that could improve climate diplomacy and litigation efforts When the UN general assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of a landmark climate crisis ruling on Wednesday, the Pacific island of Vanuatu’s prime minister hailed the result as the start of “a new chapter” in climate action. “The task before all of us now is to translate legal clarity into meaningful action, stronger cooperation, and greater protection for present and future generations,” said Jotham Napat. Continue reading...

Hung Cao’s comments are latest blow to Taipei after Donald Trump recently cast doubt over US’s enduring support US arms sales to Taiwan have been “paused” to ensure the US military has enough munitions for its Iran operations, according to Washington’s acting navy secretary, in the latest blow to Taipei after a series of comments by Donald Trump. When asked at a congressional hearing on Thursday about a $14bn (£10.4bn) weapons package awaiting Trump’s signoff for months, Hung Cao said: “Right now we’re doing a pause in order to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury

Twelve dead as southern and central areas also suffer travel disruption, electricity outages and evacuations Heavy, prolonged rainfall in southern and central China has resulted in weather warnings for flash flooding, landslides and waterlogging. The slow-moving band of rainfall spanned 620 miles (1,000km) and travelled eastwards across the regions on Tuesday. It was formed from the convergence of multiple bands of rain originating from the Bay of Bengal, South China Sea and Pacific Ocean. Given the accompanying low wind speeds, high daily and hourly rainfall totals have been recorded, with as much as 75mm locally in Hunan, 85mm in Anhui

Initial testing found evidence of metals in water samples, months after province’s residents began reporting unusual numbers of dead fish washing ashore Papua New Guinea’s government has warned communities not to fish from parts of the New Ireland coastline as preliminary tests show evidence of metals in some water samples, after months of residents reporting dead marine life in the area. On 7 May the fisheries minister, Jelta Wong, said initial testing conducted by an independent company detected various metals in water samples taken from affected areas around Kafkaf village and Larairu lagoon in New Ireland, an island in eastern

The 39-year-old was reportedly fishing at Kennedy Shoal between Cairns and Townsville when emergency services alerted about midday Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A man has died after a shark attack on the Great Barrier Reef south of Cairns. The 39-year-old had reportedly been fishing at Kennedy Shoal, a shallow reef about 50km off the Queensland coast, between Cairns and Townsville. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Climate activists say they have blocked two coal ships from entering Newcastle port Climate activists say they have stopped two coal ships from entering the Port of Newcastle this morning after kayakers and a small boat entered the channel. I grew up in the best years economically in Australia’s history, and I can’t sleep at night thinking about my 5 great-grandkids trying to live on a dead planet if we keep mining coal. I want to see more people my age standing up

Rightwing commentator says she is hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket and claims she was misled by promoter Rocksman Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast None of the 15,000 ticket holders for conservative influencer Candace Owens’ cancelled Australian tour are expected to get their money back from the promoter, after it spent all its money then collapsed. Owens herself says she is hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket and claims she was misled by the promoter, Rocksman, a company with links to the influential conservative lobby group Turning Point Australia

Australia joins the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand in condemning illegal settlements Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Israeli government is undermining stability in the West Bank as settler violence reaches unprecedented levels, a coalition of western countries says, as its leaders call for an end to construction of Israeli settlements it says breach international law. In a joint statement issued on Friday, Anthony Albanese and the leaders of the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand said: Continue reading...

The premier is offering 2,000 apprenticeships at the revived State Electricity Commission as part of a pre-election push Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Jacinta Allan has used Labor’s final state conference before the election to announce a plan for a government-owned electricity body to hire apprentices to address significant workforce shortages and job insecurity. The Victorian premier announced the plan in a speech that drew on her father’s experience as a linesman at the State Electricity Commission (SEC), which was revived by Daniel Andrews in 2023 after being privatised by former premier Jeff

Wait times of more than two hours reported at terminal for cross-Channel ferry to France French police have temporarily suspended extra EU border checks at the port of Dover as thousands of holidaymakers face long delays in the hot weather. Waiting times of more than two hours were reported at the terminal in Kent for the cross-Channel ferry to France. Continue reading...

Police investigating an alleged home invasion 71-year-old sustained a head injury, says reports Swiss police are investigating an alleged robbery with reports that the four-times Formula 1 world champion Alain Prost was injured during a home invasion. The Swiss tabloid Blick reported late on Friday that the 71-year-old Frenchman sustained a head injury from intruders who forced his son to open a safe during the incident on Tuesday morning. “The perpetrators entered the residence while the occupants were present, threatened them, and forced one family member to open a safe before fleeing with the stolen goods,” the public prosecutor’s office

Ex-foreign secretary urges reset at ‘higher dosage’ after officials revealed to have pitched single market for goods Britain needs a “national consensus” about rejoining the European Union, David Miliband has said, in response to revelations that the UK government pitched the creation of a single market for goods with the EU to the bloc. The former foreign secretary, who is now president of the International Rescue Committee, said he thought the UK needed a reset of its relations with the EU at “a much higher dosage” than the government was planning. Continue reading...

Pontiff visits ‘Land of Fires’ where dumping, burial and burning of waste has caused rise in cancer and other illnesses Pope Leo has met Italian families whose loved ones have died or have cancer as a result of illegal toxic dumping linked to a multi-billion-euro criminal racket run by the mafia. Leo’s visit to the Terra dei Fuochi , or Land of Fires, near Naples, came on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Pope Francis’ big ecological encyclical, Laudato Si (Praised Be), and indicates Leo’s commitment to carry on his predecessor’s environmental agenda. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Top British official presented idea in Brussels but sources say it was rebuffed The UK government pitched the creation of a single market for goods with the EU as the cornerstone of an ambitious attempt to reintegrate British trade back into Europe, the Guardian can reveal. During recent visits to Brussels, the Cabinet Office’s top official on EU relations, Michael Ellam, presented the idea to deepen the UK’s economic relationship with the bloc. Continue reading...

Shehbaz Sharif congratulates US president on his peace efforts after Trump claims strait of Hormuz will be opened as part of deal Full report: Trump says peace deal with Iran ‘largely negotiated’ with strait of Hormuz to open In Lebanon, the civil defence agency said early on Sunday its regional facility in the southern city of Nabatieh had been destroyed by an Israeli strike . The Directorate General of Civil Defence said the building had collapsed and a large number of vehicles and equipment had been damaged by a “direct hit in a hostile Israeli strike”. Continue reading...

President’s claim is tempered by Pakistani PM’s hopes of hosting more talks ‘very soon’, and Iran’s Fars news agency saying strait of Hormuz will remain under Iranian control Middle East crisis: live updates Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that a peace deal with Iran “has been largely negotiated”, after calls with a Pakistani mediator, Gulf allies and Israel, potentially paving the way for an end to the war launched by the US and Israel in February. Trump wrote on his social media platform that “final aspects and details” of a “memorandum of understanding” were still being discussed and “will be

US president says it’s a ‘solid 50/50’ on either making a ‘good’ deal with Iran or striking the country anew Donald Trump said he would meet today with American negotiators to review Iran’s latest proposal and decide by Sunday whether he will strike Iran “to kingdom come”. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, also told reporters in India on Saturday that “there may be news later today” about Iran. He did not specify what that news would be. Continue reading...

People killed in strikes across multiple locations after child and six paramedics die in attacks a day earlier Israel has carried out overnight strikes on Lebanon’s Bekaa valley and the southern province of Tyre, killing at least four people and reducing buildings to craters. The strikes on southern Lebanon continued on Saturday morning, hitting close to Lebanese army barracks, killing a man on a motorcycle in the town of Nabatieh, and killing and wounding people in the town of Chehabiyeh, where the death toll is not yet known. Continue reading...

US-backed board has put sole blame for stalled ceasefire on militant group despite Israel not fulfilling its obligations, analysts say The top diplomat from the Board of Peace has blamed Hamas for the stalled ceasefire , but critics have said the US-backed board’s lack of even-handedness in implementing the truce risks a return to war. The “high representative for Gaza”, Nickolay Mladenov, told the UN security council on Thursday that Hamas was the “principal obstacle” to the ceasefire’s continued implementation because “it refused to accept verified decommissioning, relinquish coercive control and allow a genuine civilian transition”. Continue reading...

Move comes against backdrop of challenge by prime minister, Narendra Modi, to country’s traditional elites The Indian government has ordered one of the country’s most exclusive private clubs to vacate its premises in two weeks, underscoring the long-running push of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, against entrenched elite institutions. The ministry of housing and urban affairs directed the Delhi Gymkhana Club to hand over its sprawling site in the heart of New Delhi by 5 June, citing urgent public interest requirements, including defence and security infrastructure. Continue reading...

Up to 70% of girls may be in early or forced marriages but law now makes divorce impossible if husbands disagree Child marriage appears to have been legally recognised for the first time by the Taliban in Afghanistan, as activists say “shameful” new laws make it almost impossible for girls and young women to seek divorce against their husbands’ will. There are no official statistics on forced and underage marriages in Afghanistan, but activists say it has risen at an alarming rate in recent years, driven by the ban on girls being in education after the age of 11 .

Satirical project is viral sensation and outlet for protest on social media as it taps into young people’s frustration It began as a satirical online project after India’s chief justice compared unemployed young people to cockroaches. Now millions of young Indians are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party with the insect as its symbol has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humour into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach – an insect known

Climbers take advantage of clear weather after threat of ice fall on normal route delayed start of spring season A record 274 climbers have reached the summit of Mount Everest from the Nepalese side in a single day after a spring season that started late because of the threat of ice fall on the normal tourist route. The climbers took advantage of the clear weather on Wednesday, said Rishi Ram Bhandari, of the Expedition Operators Association Nepal. Continue reading...

Gautam Adani, richest man in Asia, was accused of conspiring to pay $250m in bribes to Indian government officials The US Department of Justice is dropping its fraud charges against the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, the richest man in Asia, after he hired a new legal team led by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, according to new reports. In an undisclosed April meeting at the justice department, Trump’s personal lawyer, Robert J Giuffra Jr, said that Adani would invest $10bn in the US economy and create 15,000 jobs if prosecutors dropped the charges against him, according to the New York Times

Department for Transport is understood to back reducing levy, which critics have called a ‘pavement tax’ Business live – latest updates Government officials considered cutting the VAT charged on electricity used at public EV chargers from 20% to 5% at the last budget, but the Treasury under chancellor Rachel Reeves rejected the proposal amid disagreement between departments. Officials in the Department for Transport encouraged electric car charge point operators to write to the Treasury explaining how they would respond to a VAT cut, according to three industry sources. The charger companies said that they would pass the tax cut on

PR executives say UK companies are forcing them to present ordinary automation as artificial intelligence UK companies are performing “yoga-level” stretches to describe themselves as AI specialists in an attempt to capitalise on the buzz around the technology, public relations firms have said. Weary communications executives tasked with securing media coverage for brands have complained that bosses in low-tech industries or running businesses that use automation but not generative AI, are increasingly demanding they are pitched to journalists as artificial intelligence companies. Continue reading...

Travellers warned to beware of debit card cons after one was charged £1,500 for a kebab and another £3,000 for corn on the cob When Lisa Selby* used her debit card to pay for two slices of barbecued cheese from a beach vendor in Rio de Janeiro, she expected to pay 40 reais (£5.90) for the snack. But shortly after the payment had gone through, she realised that she had been charged 4,000 reais (£590) after the vendor added two extra zeros to the card reader. Continue reading...

Global events and the climate crisis have left Britain’s food system dangerously exposed and in desperate need of an overhaul The news that the Treasury was asking UK supermarkets to cap price rises on essential foods was greeted with predictable squeals of horror this week. Supermarkets were reportedly “furious”, while luminaries from the former head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies to the former chair of M&S could be found harrumphing about the evils of price controls. But this caterwauling is a distraction from two unpleasant facts. Firstly, the food price surge over the summer and beyond is likely to

Temperature reaches 30.5C in Kent as amber health alerts issued before bank holiday temperatures rise The UK has recorded its hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures reaching 30.5C in Kent as forecasters warned more extreme heat could follow over the bank holiday weekend. The temperature in Frittenden also marked the first time since 2012 the UK has reached 30C in May, according to the Met Office. Continue reading...

US imposed sanctions on nine judges and a prosecutor after ICC issued arrest warrants for members of Israeli cabinet A former prosecutor at the international criminal court has called for an EU-wide statute blocking what she describes as “thuggish” and “bullying” US sanctions imposed on members of the court that are designed to send the court into oblivion. In February 2025, the US imposed sanctions on 11 ICC officials, including nine judges and the chief prosecutor as well three Palestinian organisations, in response to the ICC decision in 2024 to issue arrest warrants for members of the Israeli cabinet, including

Guests on Only in Monroe included Jack White and Jeff Daniels, with appearances by Steve Buscemi and Eminem After his last appearance on CBS as host of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert continued his television hosting duties – on a public access show in Michigan . Colbert on Friday night hosted Only in Monroe in Monroe, Michigan, just one day after signing off from The Late Show. Colbert had been the host of The Late Show since 2015 and his tenure came to an end this week after CBS canceled the 33-year-old network staple, due to a “financial decision” by

First responders hospitalized and decontaminated after four people were found apparently overdosing Three people died and 18 first responders were sickened by exposure to fentanyl in a rural New Mexico home this week, New Mexico state police said. Police initially found four people unconscious at the home in Mountainair, 90 miles (145km) east of Albuquerque. Two were declared dead at the scene and a third died at a hospital. Continue reading...

Department of Justice acknowledges removal of information about criminal cases related to 2021 US Capitol rioters The Department of Justice is acknowledging it has removed from its website news releases about criminal cases related to the 6 January 2021 Capitol attack , calling the information about the prosecutions “partisan propaganda”. The purge of news releases documenting criminal charges, convictions and sentencings is the latest step by the Trump administration to dramatically rewrite the history of the assault on the US Capitol, when hundreds of supporters of Donald Trump stormed the building in an effort to halt the congressional certification of

The US president’s reversal on calling for a safety review of new AI models is a green light for tech’s unchecked power Only hours before Donald Trump was set to sign a long-awaited executive order on Thursday that would have called for a government safety review of new artificial intelligence models before their release, the president abruptly backed out . Despite growing public backlash to the technology and experts warning new models will pose critical security risks, Trump vowed the US government would not slow down the AI race. During a meeting with reporters on Thursday, Trump cited both American

Cristian Mungiu’s Norway-set drama about political polarisation Fjord has won the Palme d’Or, handing the Cannes Film Festival’s top honour for the second time to Mungiu, the Romanian director of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. At a 79th Cannes Film Festival that saw few films break out, Fjord found wide admiration for its engrossing tale of what Mungiu called “left-wing fundamentalism”. It stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as Romanian evangelicals who move to Norway, but soon after have...

The United States and Iran sought on Sunday to finalise an agreement to formally end the Middle East war after Donald Trump said a proposal that included opening the blockaded Strait of Hormuz was “largely negotiated”. However, the US president emphasised that the deal was still “subject to finalisation”, while The New York Times reported that the two sides would only address thorny issues about Iran’s nuclear programme after an initial pact was reached. “An Agreement has been largely...

France has ⁠decided to ban Israel’s far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from French territory, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Saturday, adding that this reflected ‌growing anger among governments around the world over the treatment of an activist flotilla heading to Gaza. “As from today, Itamar Ben-Gvir is banned from entering French territory,” Barrot wrote on X. “Along with ⁠my Italian counterpart, I am asking the European Union to ‌also take sanctions against Itamar...

Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of May 21, according to the health ministry. Yet health workers were able to follow up with only 342 contacts that day – about 21 per cent of the total under monitoring – according to...

Pope Leo on Saturday called out companies who seek “dizzying” profits at the cost of environmental pollution, on a visit to an area in Italy known as a hotbed for illegal dumping of toxic waste. On a visit to Acerra, ‌about 220 km (137 miles) south of Rome, the first US pope urged the world to “reject temptations of power and enrichment linked to practices that pollute the land, water, air, and social coexistence”. Leo said he wanted to come to the area near Naples known as the “Land of Fires” –...

War is now a possibility in Norway, by the prime minister’s own admission. The country, which borders Russia, has gone into “total defence” mode, preparing its population for the worst in light of the fighting in Ukraine. Dug beneath a peaceful park, the St. Hanshaugen air raid shelter, one of Oslo’s largest, can take in 1,100 people behind its heavy metal doors if ever the worst comes to pass. The air is chilly, the lights dim, and the toilets basic: it is far from cosy, but it is designed to...

For months, the United Arab Emirates had denied Iran’s accusations that it was in league with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or hosting his country’s military personnel. Then, US ambassador to Israel Mick Huckabee handed Tehran a propaganda gift and Abu Dhabi a diplomatic headache all in a single sentence. Israel sent Iron Dome air defence batteries to the UAE amid the ongoing war on Iran to help protect it from Iranian attacks, Huckabee confirmed at a conference in Tel Aviv on May...

A four-week United Nations conference reviewing the treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons ended on Friday without agreement as the United States and Iran sparred over Iran’s nuclear programme. Vietnam’s UN Ambassador Do Hung Viet, who chaired the conference, announced that there was no consensus among the 191 parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty on even a watered-down final document. He did not say which country or countries blocked a consensus. It was the third failure in a...

Twenty-seven countries have moved since the Iran war started to put in place crisis instruments that could quickly access funding from existing World Bank programmes, according to an internal document viewed by Reuters. The World Bank document did not name the ‌countries or the total amount of funds potentially being sought. The World Bank declined to comment. The document showed that three countries had approved new instruments since the Middle East conflict began on February 28, while the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing in a much weaker position than he did more than four years ago, when he launched his invasion of Ukraine shortly after his last visit. US President Donald Trump left Beijing after much fanfare. However, he was criticised back at home for failing to deliver on any key aspect of American interests, such as committing China to pressuring Iran to end the war on US terms. His popular support is at a historic low. Putin, Trump and Chinese President...

In 1957, the Soviet Union kicked off the Cold War’s space race, shocking the world by sending Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, into orbit. Four years later, it did the same to cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, making him the first human in space. In 1969, the US provided another image that defined the era: Neil Armstrong leaving the Eagle lunar lander and planting the American flag on the moon, declaring it “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” For the two superpowers, the...

SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight Friday, an upgraded version that Nasa is counting on to land astronauts on the moon. The redesigned mega rocket made its debut two days after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he was taking the company public. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites for release halfway around the world. It is the 12th test flight of the rocket that Musk is building to get people to Mars one day. But...

A US federal judge dismissed a criminal case on Friday filed against a Salvadorean man at the centre of a row over US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on migrants. US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw ruled that the indictment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia by the Trump administration’s Justice Department was “an abuse of prosecuting power”. Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident married to an American woman, was among more than 200 people sent to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison in March of last year. The...

In an era when technology seems to defy all limits, one age-old barrier has managed to endure: geography. As geopolitical turbulence continues to disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz – a vital shipping artery, especially for energy – the search for other fuel sources, and other means of transport, has shifted from a strategic luxury to an existential necessity. This need has become particularly acute for China, a major consumer of fossil fuels. Middle Eastern imports remain a significant...

US ⁠President Donald Trump said on ⁠Friday he would not attend the ⁠wedding of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jnr, to Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson, because he has to stay in Washington for government business. “While I very much wanted to be with my son, Don Jr., and the newest member of the ‌Trump Family, his soon to be wife, Bettina, circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America, do not allow me to do so,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “I...

Foreigners applying for permanent residency in the US will now have to go back to their home countries to seek green cards. “From now on, an alien who is in the US temporarily and wants a green card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” Zach Kahler, a spokesman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a statement on Friday. “This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivising loopholes,”...

Kevin Warsh, whose broad criticism of current US ⁠Federal Reserve officials, playbook for rate cuts and ties to President Donald Trump elevated him past ⁠other contenders to lead the central bank, was sworn in as Fed leader on Friday at a pivotal moment for monetary policy and the American economy. Warsh, wearing a dark suit and tie and accompanied by his wife, Jane Lauder, heiress to the Estee Lauder fortune, was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after a lengthy introduction by...

Tulsi Gabbard said on Friday she was resigning ⁠from her job as US President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, saying her husband had been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and that she was stepping away from her role to help him. Gabbard advised Trump of her intention to step down during an Oval Office meeting on Friday, Fox News Digital reported earlier. The resignation is effective June 30, it said. A source familiar with the matter said ‌that Gabbard had been forced...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered his military to prepare options to retaliate against Ukraine for what he described as a drone attack on a student dorm that killed six people and wounded dozens, with 15 still unaccounted for. Putin said the attack had struck the dorm in Starobilsk in Luhansk, a Russian-controlled region in eastern Ukraine. He said Kyiv’s military must have ‌known what it was targeting. Ukraine’s military denied the Russian accusations and said it had struck an...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday that Alberta was “essential” to the country’s future, hours after the province’s leader moved the oil-rich region closer towards a referendum on independence. Separatists in the western province spent months collecting signatures seeking to trigger a binding October vote on seceding from the nation. On May 4, they delivered their petition to provincial officials, insisting they had collected more than enough names to force a vote under Alberta...

Everlane, the retailer that bucked the fast-fashion industry by promising affordable ethically sourced and sustainable clothing, is being acquired by the king of fast-fashion, China’s Shein. A letter to Everlane employees from CEO Alfred Chang confirming the deal was obtained by Associated Press on Friday. Everlane did not disclose a purchase price. Shein declined to comment. Everlane was founded in 2011 by Michael Preysman and Jesse Farmer with a mission to produce eco-friendly and affordable...

France’s former prime minister Gabriel Attal said on Friday he would run for president next year when Emmanuel Macron steps down, becoming the second prominent centrist to challenge the far-right. “I can’t take this kind of French politics anymore, where it’s just 50 shades of managing decline,” said the 37-year-old, who was France’s youngest prime minister when he served in 2024. He announced his bid under a blazing sun in the southern village of Mur-de-Barrez – the kind of rural area where...

The head of the World Health Organization said on Friday that the Ebola outbreak in Congo is “spreading rapidly” and now poses a “very high” risk at the national level. WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN health agency was revising upwards to “very high” its assessment of the risk within Congo, which had previously been deemed as high. The risk remains high for regional spread and low at global levels, he told reporters. The WHO chief noted that 82 cases have been...

French ⁠President Emmanuel Macron said on ⁠Friday that the government will invest an additional €1 billion (US$1.16 billion) in its quantum strategy and €550 million to support the microelectronics sector, as global powers race to be first to leverage ‌emerging technology. “I’ll say it out loud. We have the means to be the winners of this race,” Macron said while announcing the funding. On Thursday, US President Donald Trump’s administration unveiled plans to take US$2 billion in equity stakes...

Perhaps the most fascinating and important aspects of US President Donald Trump’s jolt to the global economy have been its unintended consequences, especially the impact on relations between China and India. Two consistent aspects of Trump’s meandering narrative are to “make America great again” by bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US, and to hobble China as an economic and strategic threat. A decade later, there has been negligible progress on either objective. Instead, the unintended...

Bowing to pressure ⁠from within its ranks, the Democratic National Committee released on Thursday its long-withheld “autopsy” of Kamala Harris’ loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race – only to quickly disavow it. The report found that Democrats have ceded ground to Trump’s Republicans through underfunding of state parties and a “persistent inability or unwillingness to listen to all ‌voters”. In particular, Democrats underperformed among male voters, non-college voters, irregular...

The Brazilian head of a victims’ association for the 2009 crash of Flight 447 from Rio to Paris said that justice has yet to be served in France’s worst aviation crash after a Paris appeals court found Airbus and Air France guilty of manslaughter. Air France and Airbus, two of France’s most emblematic companies, said in separate statements that they would appeal Thursday’s ruling, potentially prolonging the legal battle for years. Brazilian Nelson Faria Marinho, who lost his son in the crash...

Paul McCartney led an all-star line-up for the final episode of The Late Show as frontman Stephen Colbert bowed out after broadcaster CBS cancelled his show as it courted US President Donald Trump. But one A-lister who eluded the comic to the end was the pope, whom Colbert, a devout Catholic, had long touted as his dream guest. “The pope, who was definitely my guest tonight, has cancelled,” Colbert joked, blaming a dispute over hot dogs before McCartney appeared to rapturous cheers. The show,...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Substance for Putin, ‘face’ for Trump as China, Russia deepen strategic alliance Days after US President Donald Trump’s visit framed around managing risks, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached a...

When Air Force One touched down in Beijing, one of the most photographed passengers was Boeing’s chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, there to close a deal. Washington had come to sell aircraft. Beijing was buying something else. The last time this scene played out in 2017, China signed an agreement for 300 Boeing aircraft. Since then, it has pursued an industrial programme aimed at reducing dependence on precisely such orders. That effort has not failed, but neither has it advanced at the pace...

The leader of a Minnesota non-profit group was sentenced to 41 years in prison on Thursday after she was convicted last year of being the ringleader of a US$250 million ‌scheme to defraud a federally funded child nutrition programme. Aimee Bock, 45, was charged in 2022 with using her non-profit group Feeding Our Future to enact what the Justice Department said was the largest known fraud against the US government’s relief programmes during the ⁠Covid-19 pandemic. More than 70 other people have...

At least 19 people were killed at a palm plantation in northern Honduras, authorities said Thursday, as the Central American nation prepares for a resurgent wave of anti-gang militarisation. The killings took place the previous night in Rigores, in the restive Bajo Aguan region, where rival gangs have fought over control of palm plantations and drug trafficking routes. The attack came shortly after the national legislature approved a series of reforms to confront criminal violence in Honduras,...

US President Donald Trump surprised Nato allies by pledging to send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio cautioned alliance ministers that Washington’s frustration with some of them would still need to be discussed. “The President’s views of, frankly, disappointment at some of our Nato allies and their response to our operations in the Middle East ‌are well documented,” Rubio said on Friday at a gathering of Nato foreign ministers in the Swedish town of...

Israel said on Thursday it had deported all the foreign activists seized by its forces from a Gaza-bound flotilla, as the first group arrived in Turkey following global outcry over their treatment in custody. Hundreds of activists from countries around the world were placed in detention in Israel after they were intercepted at sea Monday while making the latest in a string of attempts to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory. Turkish foreign ministry sources said 422 activists,...

The Iran war has baked in stagflation and starvation through big reductions in the supply of oil and fertilisers. This inflationary pressure will only increase. As inflation sucks liquidity out of financial markets and into the real economy, bond yields are being pushed up across the world. If bond yields rise by more than a percentage point, a likely scenario before the year’s end, the liquidity diversion could be big enough to pop the AI bubble. The US-Israeli war on Iran has disrupted the...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday voiced hope of progress on ending the war with Iran, with mediator Pakistan’s army chief poised for talks in Tehran. The role played by Field Marshal Asim Munir, a powerful figure with a growing role in Pakistan’s foreign relations, has taken on increased significance as US President Donald Trump warned that negotiations to end the war were on the “borderline” between a deal and renewed strikes. “I believe the Pakistanis will be travelling to Tehran...

One day after the United States brought criminal charges against former Cuban leader Raul Castro over the 1996 shooting down of two civilian aircraft, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio portrayed Cuba as both a growing national security threat tied to China and Russia and a candidate for a negotiated political transition. The comments came amid renewed friction between Washington and Beijing over Cuba after China criticised the US charges against Castro and accused...

US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast has warned US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of “Chinese malign influence” in a bid for a major contract in Argentina, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The April 23 letter concerns an auction for a 25-year contract to dredge and operate Argentina’s Parana River, a vital waterway for most of ‌the country’s agricultural exports, that Argentina estimates will reach US$10 billion in investment. The terms of the tender, which is in its...

US federal prosecutors have charged two men with using artificial intelligence to create nude videos and photos of female celebrities under a newly enacted law meant to halt the spread of deepfake pornography. Cornelius Shannon, 51, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, were both arrested on Tuesday for generating sexually explicit AI content that drew millions of views online, according to criminal complaints. The men – who do not appear to be connected – are among the earliest defendants to face charges...

The United Nations expressed “grave concern” on Thursday about a new law issued by Afghanistan’s Taliban government on separation in marriage which includes provisions on child marriage, saying the code further entrenches discrimination against women and girls. The government rejected the accusations, saying the decree follows Islamic law and insisting the country has already banned the forced marriage of girls. Afghanistan’s justice ministry published Decree No 18 “on judicial separation of...

Portuguese police on Thursday arrested the mother of two young French boys found abandoned by a main road in the south of the country, alone and crying. The boys, aged four and five, were rescued on Tuesday by a passing motorist near the resort town of Comporta, where they had been left with backpacks containing food and water but no identity documents, according to Portuguese media. A manhunt was launched for the boys’ mother, 41, and on Thursday Portuguese police said they had arrested her in...

Police fired warning shots and tear gas ⁠as part of a dispute in Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeast over the burial of a suspected Ebola victim, a footballer who played for local teams, that saw protesters burn down tents for Ebola patients, Reuters witnesses said. The incident highlighted the struggle Congolese authorities could face to enforce the safe burials of people with confirmed and suspected cases that are required to help contain the outbreak. It took place in the town ‌of...

An Ankara court on Thursday annulled the 2023 leadership election of Turkey’s main opposition CHP party in a sharp escalation against the country’s embattled opposition. It is the latest in a string of moves targeting the Republican People’s Party, Turkey’s oldest political faction that won a huge victory over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP in the 2024 local elections and has been rising in the polls. The ruling overturned the result of a leadership election that brought in current...

Three fully laden supertankers – including two Chinese vessels – crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, in a possible sign that Tehran may be starting to open up the vital waterway to more shipping traffic. The exit of the three very large crude carriers (VLCCs) came on the same day that Iran confirmed it had allowed 26 vessels to transit the strait – a hefty uptick compared with the level of traffic Iranian forces have generally permitted since the war began. The moves appeared to signal an...

At least nine people were killed and others injured when a four-storey building collapsed overnight in the Moroccan city of ‌Fez, about 200km (124 miles) east of the capital Rabat, the city’s prosecutor said on Thursday. State media 2M had said 11 people were killed before issuing an official correction. Residents of nearby buildings in the densely populated neighbourhood were asked to evacuate as a precaution against potential further collapses while a search for potential survivors was still...

Firefighters continue to cool a chemical storage tank with water to prevent it from breaching or exploding. Some 40,000 residents near the Orange County plant have been evacuated to shelters.

The iconic actor on becoming a meme, a myth and larger than life.

If I cannot get an upgrade — and I cannot, as I have no status, in any aspect of my life — I would like us to suffer more equally when we travel.

Luke Morrison may be the youngest person keeping alive an age-old tradition: to process war through the memories and mementos of those who experienced it.

Buildings rattled in the Ukrainian capital for hours early Sunday. It was unclear if Russia’s Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile had been used.

The explosions at May Ship Repair Contracting Corporation, which erupted after a fire on a dock, killed one of the company’s subcontractors, a representative said.

A day after the comedian hosted the final episode of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on CBS, he hosted “Only in Monroe,” a community-access program in Monroe, Mich.

The film, from the Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, explores the tension between religious conservatism and social liberalism. The award closed a festival that felt comparatively muted to many.