Minimalist News

World's Largest Refiner Says China's Oil Demand "Very Likely Peaked Last Year" One of the most understated stories of 2026, and the reason why oil (and gas) aren't trading at persistently nosebleed levels (ignore diesel for the time being), has been China's unexpectedly weak oil demand. And while there has been much speculation surrounding the reason for this chronically weak oil demand, ranging from an accelerated - and offsetting - SPR drain, to a dramatic economic slowdown behind the scenes (or even in front of the scenes based on the latest dismal economic data), today for the first time we

DOJ To Deploy 1,000 Election Monitors For Midterms The Justice Department is preparing to send a record 1,000 federal monitors to polling places for the 2026 midterms, the largest deployment of its kind in the agency's history. Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who runs the Civil Rights Division, gave the number to Bloomberg last week and the figure alone tells you how central "election integrity" has become to this administration's second-term agenda. This is not unprecedented. The Civil Rights Division has monitored polling places for decades under the Voting Rights Act, which bars discrimination, intimidation, or obstruction of voting

Japan Power Prices Surge To Highest Since 2023 By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com Japan’s nationwide day-ahead electricity price soared by 20% in one week to settle on Monday at the highest level since January 2023, as gas supply disruptions from the Middle East and an intense heatwave pushed up prices and consumption. The day-ahead power price in Japan has jumped to $0.16 (25.18 Japanese yen) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) on Monday, per data from the Japan Electric Power Exchange cited by Bloomberg . The heatwave in Japan is set to intensify later this week, with temperatures peaking on Wednesday, according to

Inside China's Humanoid Robot Boom: What BofA Analysts Saw On The Ground In Beijing China put its humanoid robotics industry on full display last week with a series of technological, commercial, and capital-markets milestones. Beijing first hosted the 2026 World Robot Conference, followed by the five-day World Humanoid Robot Games , while Unitree capped the week with a blockbuster IPO. Bank of America analyst Ming Hsun Lee attended last week's 2026 World Robot Conference and provided feedback to clients , noting that China's humanoid-robot industry has shifted from research demonstrations to commercial deployment, with logistics emerging as the first real-world

Michigan's Energy Abundance Is On The Ballot Authored by Samantha Fillmore via RealClearEnergy , It is indisputable that energy is the lifeblood of every civilization. We are reminded of that truth daily at the gas pumps and when it's time to recharge the latest iPhone. Another indisputable truth is that the availability and affordability of energy are as delicate as the fiber-optic cables that supply our homes with Wi-Fi. We are living out that truth in real time between the ongoing war in the Middle East affecting the global flow of energy and the growing energy demands that accompany data

Your Tax Dollars At Work: San Fran Shelter Workers Accused Of Hiding Cop Shooter Two employees at a San Francisco homeless shelter funded through city contracts have been arrested for allegedly helping a suspected cop shooter hide from police, according to the New York Post . The case stems from a May 31 confrontation near the Bay Bridge involving 36-year-old Norris Reed III. Authorities say what began as an attempted traffic stop escalated into a pursuit, ending when Reed’s vehicle struck a concrete barrier. Police allege Reed then fired at officers, wounding Officer Brittney Taylor in the leg, and escaped

"Operation Economic Outcast" Begins: Bessent Warns Countries Helping Iran Face Expulsion From Dollar System Summary Bessent Unveils "Operation Economic Outcast" Against Iran Pakistan enters diplomatic push: Pakistan's army chief reportedly traveled to Tehran after Trump urged him to help reopen Iran talks. Iran threatens new tanker action: Tehran blacklisted 45 vessels and warned of further Hormuz attacks. US readies sweeping sanctions: Bessent is preparing a sweeping economic offensive targeting Iran and its trading partners. Rial collapses: Iran's currency hit a record low as inflation and economic pressures intensify. Hormuz leverage in question: Washington & Western sources claim US-supervised shipping through

Massachusetts Citizenship Rule At Center Of Alleged Voter-Impersonation Case Authored by Arthur Zhang via The Epoch Times , After federal prosecutors charged a Chinese man for registering to vote and casting a ballot under his former landlord's name, experts are questioning Massachusetts' verification processes. A voter fills out his midterm-election ballot in Boston City Hall on Nov. 8, 2022. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images Yupeng Sun, a Chinese national living in Andover, allegedly submitted an online voter registration in the name of his former landlord, who was not a U.S. citizen, on Oct. 10, 2024. Massachusetts regulations - which took

TotalEnergies CEO Reveals Cost To Move A Supertanker Through Hormuz The crisis-driven dislocation across Gulf oil markets has positioned French energy giant TotalEnergies SE as an early mover, capitalizing on heavily discounted Persian Gulf crude priced at $50 to $60 a barrel and moving it through the highly contested Strait of Hormuz. CEO Patrick Pouyanné revealed at the Norwegian energy conference on Monday that transiting the waterway now costs roughly $20 million per supertanker. Bloomberg earlier quoted Pouyanné as saying that the added cost of moving crude on supertankers through the Hormuz chokepoint is about $10 per barrel . However,

Regulation: Protecting Incumbents And Suppressing Competition Authored by Hal Snarr via Mises Institute , A previous article attributed widespread airline service failures not to individual carriers but to government interventions sold as consumer protections. Through a web of intricate regulations and controls, the state restricts entry, grants shared monopoly privileges to approved carriers, and creates what Rothbard calls a state-enforced cartel. The result is an illusion of competition that allows poor service to persist without attracting better alternatives. This article examines how the same pattern protects incumbents and suppresses competition across other industries. The banking system provides perhaps the clearest

US Scraps September Korea Marine Drills In Wake Of Iran War Strain Fresh on the heels of President Trump controversially ordering scaled-down US-South Korea military drills last week, there are emerging reports of more canceled plans for joint exercises. South Korean and American force were going to hold large-scale maritime drills focused on amphibious landing exercises in September, but Seoul has said the Pentagon had to back out related to constraints due to Iran war deployments . Marine Corps file image "The US Marine Corps formally notified our forces in June that its ability to deploy forces during this year’s

Supreme Court Backs Trump's Mail-In Ballot Overhaul The Supreme Court sided with President Trump over his plan to use the Postal Service to impose broad new restrictions on the distribution of mail ballots. Over the dissent of the court's three liberal judges, SCOTUS' ruling means that the Trump administration can move forward with a proposal for DHS to compile state-specific lists of people it believes are eligible to vote in the Democratic-led states that had challenged the plan in court. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, wrote that they believed lower courts had the authority to rule in

DEI Refuses To Die Authored by Kenin M. Spivak via RealClearPolitics , Although the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and civil rights laws dating back to 1866 prohibit nearly all racial preferences, most Americans oppose these preferences , and Donald Trump was elected vowing to eliminate DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) - progressives won't give up. Their race-obsessed thinking reduces America to intersectional classifications of oppressed and oppressor. This addled concept is a self-defeating dialectic in which no amount of progress on race relations is ever enough - or even acknowledged. Despite enormous advances, with the possible exception of

Iryna Zarutska's Family Sues City Of Charlotte Over Fatal Rail Stabbing, Claims Inadequate Security The family of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was fatally stabbed on a North Carolina light rail train last year, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Charlotte and a private security firm. A sreenshot from footage showing the moments before a Ukrainian refugee was stabbed to death on a light rail trail in North Carolina The lawsuit, filed on Aug. 21, alleges that Zarutska's death was entirely preventable. It claims the city and Professional Police Services - a security company contracted

Our World 'Is Coming Apart Now... In Astounding Ways' Authored by James Howard Kunstler, Cookery For All “We’re only cooked if we accept it.” - Blaine Holt on “X” They don’t call economics the dismal science for nothing . It has been noted - since Thomas Carlyle minted the term in 1849 (objecting to the emancipation of black slaves on Britain’s colonial sugar plantations as a harm to productivity ) - that attempts to manage the billion-footed transactions of human beings always find a way to bite back . But how can this creature we call society not try to

Federal Appeals Court Rules In Favor Of James O'Keefe Over Undercover Reporting Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times , A U.S. appeals court has entered a judgment in favor of James O'Keefe, founder of Project Veritas, and a Project Veritas reporter. A split panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit judges said on Aug. 21 that a district court judge had erroneously kept in place $130,000 in damages against O'Keefe over an undercover operation that targeted Democratic strategists. "The principal question in this appeal is whether the jury's damages award violated the First

Iran Airs Video Claiming Barron Trump Being Spied On, Offers $10 Million Bounty On His Head Update(1900ET) : While it was largely Israeli media's Ch.14 which first called attention to the "Where to kill Barron Trump" clip, the short video does appear to be a creation of Iranian state media . It is indeed authentic . It is currently featured at the Tehran-based Tebyan Cultural Institute's official Persian-language homepage . The institute is highly visible in Iran (more here ), and is affiliated with the Islamic Development Organization, which is under the Supreme Leader and is also linked to the

"I Hope It Gives A Really Good Lesson Going Forward": 'Pollster' Prakash's License To Lie Authored by Jonathan Turley via Jonathan Turley , In this political season, there is one question that needs no poll: Rahil Prakash is a liar. The other thing we know is that he will likely get away with spreading fake polling results. Lies can be protected speech under the First Amendment and, while Prakash would not likely want to take a popularity poll, he is unlikely to face legal consequences for his "short-term social experiment." We still do not know much about the twenty-one-year-old college

The Great Walkback: Sam Altman Admits He Was Wrong On AI's Economic Timeline For three years, Sam Altman has pitched the imminent, wholesale disruption of the global economy . This week, staring down the barrel of an IPO - based on a business model that's actively being 'wholesale disrupted' by China - the OpenAI chief executive quietly admitted he got the timing wrong. Appearing on David Senra's Founders podcast , Altman conceded that the economic upheaval he forecast following GPT-4 simply hasn't materialized - and that society is adapting far more sluggishly than he anticipated. In an interview with @davidsenra

Gold: From DC's "Enemy" To Its Last Hope? Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via VonGreyerz.gold, As headlines from the Iranian “conflict” continue to leave the world guessing as to what, if any, military, political and financial solutions lie ahead, we can at least know this much: The approaching autumn looks a bit scary . A Market Fall in the Fall? The macro setting for our collective transition from summer to fall in 2026 is marked by rising yields across the western yield curve, from Paris to DC. These rising yields, which represent the cost of servicing debt for nations and enterprises

Far-right leader echoes ally Donald Trump and says operations to ‘track down illegal immigrants’ should begin this week, amid earthquake aftermath Colombia’s far-right president, Abelardo de la Espriella, has announced a crackdown on immigrants, ordering authorities to detain and deport people who are in the country irregularly or have committed crimes. In office for just over two weeks, the millionaire former lawyer made the announcement on Sunday as the country continued to grapple with the aftermath of a 7.4-magnitude earthquake on 10 August that killed more than 300 people and destroyed more than 30,000 homes. Continue reading...

US Southern Command has struck another vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two accused of trafficking drugs The US military has launched a deadly strike on a vessel in the Pacific Ocean, killing two people accused of drug trafficking. On Monday, US Southern Command (SouthCom) announced it “executed a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific”. Continue reading...

Move is latest deterioration in trade relations between neighbors with historically strong economic ties Donald Trump announced a new 50% tariff on automobiles and crucial raw materials from Canada , the latest deterioration in trade relations between the two neighbors with historically strong economic ties. The US president said that the increased tariffs would start on 1 January 2027 on all cars, trucks, automobile parts and steel. He also derided the nation’s tariffs on American farmers, writing on social media that Canada has been “ripping off” the US “for years”. Continue reading...

Prime minister praised for rejecting US trade proposal as Trump shows little interest in retreating from dispute Are you a Canadian boycotting US products? We’d like to hear from you Mark Carney said on Monday that while American negotiators saw the French language in Canada as an “irritant … in Quebec, these are rights,” days after receiving widespread praise from political leaders for rejecting a US trade proposal that many perceived as weakening the country’s Francophone culture. The prime minister’s remarks came hours after the US president, Donald Trump, showed little interest in retreating from the spat, posting on social

PM Mark Carney says ‘we got attacked’ as tariffs come into force on items from hockey sticks to tongue depressors The lesson from Canada’s collapsed trade talks with the US: negotiation may be futile Donald Trump has hit back at Canada after a breakdown in negotiations plunged the two countries into a trade war . In his first public comments since negotiations collapsed on Friday in Washington, the US president wrote on social media: “Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!” Continue reading...

In Indonesia’s Kalimantan, fires have ravaged tens of thousands of acres, with suffocating smoke reaching Malaysia and putting Singapore on alert Suwadi can barely see five metres in front of him when he steps outside his home in Indonesian Borneo. Each breath, he says, feels “like smoking a cigarette”. Continue reading...

After repairs to Hirosaki Castle in Aomori prefecture, officials employed a technique known as hikiya to move the structure more than two metres To chants of “so-re, so-re”, about 1,800 people came together in northern Japan over the weekend to pull a 360-tonne castle keep a little more than two metres closer to its original resting place as part of ongoing renovations. The keep – a fortified tower within a castle – had to be moved to repair a wall that was damaged in a major earthquake. Continue reading...

Test of US rhetoric will rest on whether nations such as India, China and Russia view economic threats as credible Tehran has vowed to retaliate against any country that cooperates with the US attempt to impose fresh sanctions against Iran in what the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has billed as “the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary”. In advance of the US announcement, the United Arab Emirates, Iran’s single biggest trading partner in the Middle East, announced it was ending all trade with Iran, a move Tehran believes was coordinated between Washington and the UAE. Continue reading...

China-based retailer swung to $99m loss in first quarter and faces scrutiny over its environmental footprint Business live – latest updates Shein, which built a fast-fashion empire on what seemed like impossibly low prices , has been forced to lower its own valuation in a cut-price stock market float, after falling into the red earlier this year. The online retailer will list on the Hong Kong stock exchange on 1 September at a valuation of close to $27bn (£19.8bn), significantly down from a near-$100bn private market peak four years ago. Continue reading...

Prime minister Christopher Luxon’s party to introduce bill seeking the ban, citing harm to a generation of children New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon has said his party will introduce a bill in parliament that ⁠seeks to ban children ⁠under ​16 from using social media, proposing fines of up to 10% of a platform’s global revenue for non-compliance. The bill would ⁠require social media platforms to take reasonable steps to verify users’ ages, including by utilising existing account information, facial technology and ⁠digital identity documents. Continue reading...

Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Number of NSW households in urgent need of priority housing hits highest level in over a year The number of NSW households in urgent need of priority social housing has reached 13,776, the highest in more than a year. The waitlist has sat [at] around 70,000 since May. Anyone reading that as stability should look at what is happening inside that number. Urgent need is growing six times faster than general need on this register. Every month, a bigger share of the people waiting

Bathla Group says softening sales and impacts from federal government’s May budget contributed it being placed in voluntary administration Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Embattled home builder Bathla Group has been placed into voluntary administration, leaving customers in limbo in what it says is a “perfect storm” of circumstances. It joins the long list of Australian residential builders and property developers which have entered voluntary administration or liquidation due to soaring material costs, labour shortages and fixed-price contracts. Continue reading...

Royal commission recommended First Nations healing centres in 2021 but the Indigenous health service says the state has ‘done nothing’ to fund it Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast On the steps of Victorian parliament stood 121 empty chairs, marking the number of Indigenous lives lost to suicide in the state in the past five years. All of these deaths, the state’s peak body for Aboriginal health said, came after the final report of the royal commission into mental health in March 2021 . Continue

NSW parole authority says Mohommed Farhat followed ‘extremist ideology of antisemitic character’ while separately judge ruled ‘Fuk Israel’ was ‘political comment’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A Sydney man convicted of writing “Fuk Israel” on cars and setting another vehicle alight has had his release on parole rejected a second time, despite a supreme court judge stating the case appeared to be a “serious miscarriage of justice”. Mohommed Farhat, 22, was initially due to be released on parole in December after serving 10 months

Australia’s biggest oil and gas company recorded a 27% increase in sales profit to $1.67bn in the six-month reporting period Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Woodside Energy has scrapped its long-term emissions and clean energy targets, even after enjoying a period of windfall oil gains caused by the Iran conflict, in a decision described by climate campaigners as “grossly negligent”. Australia’s biggest oil and gas company recorded a 27% increase in sales profit to $1.67bn ($A2.33bn) in the six-month reporting period, according to financials

The Guardian’s senior international reporter Luke Harding will be answering your questions live from 1pm BST. Ask him about his new book on Trump and Putin, the state of the war in Ukraine, or his career reporting from Kyiv, Moscow and around the world Ask a question: log in or sign up here Luke Harding, author and award-winning foreign correspondent , has covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and most recently Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2011 he was the Guardian’s chief writer in Moscow before being expelled by the Kremlin . Luke has been reporting this week on the

Rise in claims linked to heat-related deaths and illness, especially among older people, could drive up premiums Europe’s intense heatwaves could hit insurers’ earnings as companies face a rise in claims linked to heat-related deaths and worsening health conditions, the rating agency S&P has said. While a long summer of extreme heat will have increased drought and wildfire-related claims, the rating agency said there would also be fallout for life and health insurers, and for the reinsurers who provide financial protection to insurance companies. Continue reading...

True figure likely to be much higher as it only covers about half of continent and does not include August totals At least 35,000 more people died during Europe’s four record-breaking, back-to-back heatwaves this summer than would normally be expected, according to incomplete figures from barely half the continent. Excess mortality in three of the EU’s larger countries – Germany, France and Spain – alone has already exceeded 25,000, according to the provisional national figures, and experts say the toll will rise significantly once August totals are consolidated. Continue reading...

London and Kyiv in deal to help stop protesters and hostile states targeting military bases and critical infrastructure AI models trained on Ukrainian battlefield data will be used to stop protesters and foreign states targeting UK defence sites, railways and energy plants under a deal struck between London and Kyiv. Private companies will also be given access to the vast trove of data from Ukraine’s Avengers AI lab to help build new systems, the first agreement of its kind in the UK. Continue reading...

Huge hailstones prompt organisers to act 15km from end Riders seen heading into hotel on route to take cover A torrential hailstorm in the French Pyrenees forced the abandonment of the ⁠third stage of the Vuelta a España on Monday. With 15 kilometres (9.32 miles) remaining of the 174km route ⁠from Gruissan to Font-Romeu, the ​skies darkened as the peloton neared the top of the Col de Mont-Louis and huge hailstones began ⁠bouncing off the tarmac and pelting the riders. Continue reading...

Washington launches campaign to isolate Tehran but it is unclear whether it will apply measures to China The US has threatened to impose severe sanctions against any country or entity maintaining economic ties with Iran, hoping to achieve with economic measures what military means have so far failed to do. It is unclear, however, how far the Trump administration is prepared to go in confronting China, Iran’s biggest trading partner, which has signalled its resistance to US economic pressure to cut off links with an ally. Continue reading...

Incident marks apparent escalation by Tehran in its in retaliation against UK over allowing US to use British bases Hackers linked to Iran have been blamed for a cyber-attack that caused a British power plant to be temporarily shut down. The incident involved a small-scale energy generator, according to the UK government, which said that at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system. Continue reading...

Abbas Araghchi says country is unbowed but president Masoud Pezeshkian admits its people face ‘many problems’ Iran’s foreign minister has dismissed the threat of a fresh round of US economic sanctions as a “desperate” ploy, even as its president acknowledged that the Iranian people are facing “many problems” amid Washington’s efforts to isolate and debilitate the country’s economy. Last week, Donald Trump announced a new campaign to increase the pressure on the Iranian economy , calling it “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country”. The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, is expected to announce further punitive economic

Grassroots groups to urge PM to break with Starmer policy and impose full arms embargo on Israel Grassroots Labour groups are gearing up for a conference showdown with Andy Burnham over Gaza, as the party’s members seek to force the prime minister to recognise Israel’s actions as a genocide and impose a full arms embargo. Momentum, Labour & Palestine, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) plan to ramp up pressure on Burnham before his first Labour conference as prime minister next month. Continue reading...

In letter to Macron and Burnham, more than 100 senior figures accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing and call for measures including trade ban More than 100 French and British former diplomats have said Palestine is being erased in front of the world’s eyes and called for urgent action including trade and arms sales bans to press Israel to accept a Palestinian state. An unprecedented joint letter dispenses with diplomatic language by accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing and warning that the world no longer sees Israel as a genuine democracy. Uphold the decisions of the international court of justice and the

Supreme court ordered transfer of ex-leader whose health is reportedly deteriorating, but he was returned to prison several hours later Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan was briefly taken to a hospital in the country’s capital on supreme court orders after weeks of uproar about his deteriorating health. Khan, 73, was transferred to the hospital in the early hours of Friday, but then moved back to Adiala prison in Rawalpindi after a ⁠few hours, a spokesperson for his party said on Friday. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

UK prime minister ‘likely’ to travel to US in September, after meeting Zelenskyy and saying supply problem is ‘fixable’ Andy Burnham has said he plans to travel to the US next month to join European leaders lobbying Donald Trump to supply Ukraine with Patriot missiles. The UK prime minister told Bloomberg he was “looking forward to going to New York” in September, which is when the UN General Assembly will meet. He said details of the trip were not “fully confirmed” but it was “likely” to go ahead. The trip would be Burnham’s first US visit since becoming prime minister

Eight costumes spanning Queen frontman’s career will feature in a free trail developed with his former fiancee Eight famous costumes worn by Freddie Mercury, including the outfit featured on the cover of Queen’s debut album and the catsuit from the video for Bohemian Rhapsody, are to go on display at the V&A in London this autumn to mark what would have been the singer’s 80th birthday. Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things, a free trail developed with Mercury’s former fiancee and close friend Mary Austin, will run from 24 October 2026 to 17 January 2027. Austin is lending seven of the

NHS has target of eliminating the cancer by 2040, but up to 4 million eligible women are not up to date with screening Millions of women in England who have missed cervical screening appointments will be offered free home testing kits on the NHS. The move comes amid concerns that only two-thirds of women attend in-person cervical screening appointments when asked to do so, leaving as many as 4 million women not up to date. Continue reading...

Death rate three to four times higher than among general population blamed on isolation of those leaving care ‘He was left on his own’: the care-leaver lives lost to a system that abandons them at 18 Profound isolation contributed to the deaths of more than 100 care leavers in England in a year, with a dramatic drop-off in support from social services at 18 leading to catastrophic consequences, a review has found. A government-commissioned report into the early deaths of young people who left care described the problem as a national tragedy and said many were left on their own

About 40% of £10bn from Affordable Homes Programme will now go on types of housing such as sheltered and shared ownership Andy Burnham has backtracked on his proposal to rip up the government’s housing plans and boost social home building. Ministers laid out plans on Monday to spend an initial £10bn from the 10-year Affordable Homes Programme on a mix of subsidised housing types in England, in line with the Starmer government’s policy. Continue reading...

Trump ally should cut budget deficit rather than try to suppress bond yields, says billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller Scott Bessent’s attempt to calm the bond markets and push down America’s cost of borrowing have attracted a rebuke from the US Treasury secretary’s former mentor. The billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller, who worked with Bessent at George Soros’s fund management firm in the 1990s, has warned that his former pupil is courting danger by trying to suppress US bond yields. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. US supreme court rules Trump can proceed with crackdown on mail-in voting Sign up for the US Breaking News email Donald Trump has threatened to increase tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, auto parts and steel to 50% today, after trade negotiations between Washington and Ottowa broke down last week. On Truth Social, the president blasted Canada, and said the new duties will go into effect on 1 January 2027 . Continue reading...

The state department will revoke B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026, whose holders have sought or are now seeking asylum Donald Trump’s administration said on Monday it planned to revoke the non-immigrant visas of foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the US, marking its latest step in a sweeping immigration crackdown. A state department spokesperson said it was coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security “to identify and revoke the non-immigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum

Tens of thousands are still under evacuation orders or warnings amid ‘human-caused’, wind-driven blaze The Hawk fire is about 27% contained, authorities said on Monday afternoon, two days after the fast-moving , wind-driven wildfire sparked near Reno, Nevada . Authorities added that 23,000 people are under a “go-now” order and 40,000 people are under a “get-set” warning, an improvement from the 90,000 Nevadans under evacuation orders or warnings on Monday morning. Continue reading...

Arbitrator determined the Post improperly fired Karen Attiah, a union-protected employee, over social media posts An independent arbitrator has ordered the Washington Post to rehire the high-profile opinion columnist Karen Attiah, abruptly fired by the news organization last September over comments she made on social media about Charlie Kirk , the then recently killed conservative activist. On Monday, an arbitrator ruled that the Post had violated her rights as a union-protected employee and ordered the newspaper to reinstate her and compensate her for lost wages. Continue reading...

“Nothing bad can happen. It can only good happen.” Donald J. Trump It would be easy to write off the regular word salads of America’s 47th president as the increasingly incoherent ramblings of an elderly man in obvious mental and physical decline. However, one can also argue that Trump’s seemingly dyslexic struggles with the English language reflect a deliberate disregard for grammar rules that resonates with his support base. It’s the level of language that up to half of Americans happily use...

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he and other European leaders plan to travel to the US next month to lobby President Donald Trump to let Ukraine access some of its Patriot air defence missile stocks ahead of the winter. “I’m looking forward to going to New York in September,” Burnham said in an interview with Bloomberg in Kyiv on Monday evening, referring to the coming UN General Assembly meeting in New York. It would be his first trip to the US since becoming prime minister. “I’ve not fully...

A federal judge on Monday postponed a trial in the US for a former Libyan intelligence official charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, citing the discovery of new evidence that defence lawyers want to examine in the nearly 40-year-old case. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Wednesday for the federal trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi in Washington DC. His trial will be the first in the US for the December 21, 1988, bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270...

The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in US history and would likely face legal challenges. Unless challenged or revised, the State Department was expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose...

The US Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump a temporary victory on Monday, lifting a lower court block on his executive order curbing the use of mail-in ballots. The Republican president signed an order in March seeking to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the November midterm elections but it was immediately met with multiple legal challenges. Democratic-led states sued the administration on grounds that under the US Constitution, states – and not the federal government – retain broad...

US President Donald Trump invested as much as US$50,000 ⁠in Elon Musk’s SpaceX in June, according to a public financial disclosure, giving him a financial stake in a major government contractor run by his former adviser. Trump bought between US$15,001 and US$50,000 in shares on June 23, according to a financial disclosure signed ‌by him on August 12 and made public on August 22. The purchase was part of more than 1,000 stock trades the president made in June. SpaceX priced the biggest-ever US...

The United States on Monday removed Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, rescinding a decades-old designation that came with severe economic restrictions and marking another step in warming ties between the countries. The US Department of State also revoked its designation of al-Nusra Front – latterly known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – as a global terrorist organisation. The Treasury Department announced corresponding sanctions relief. Rebels led by HTS overthrew long-time...

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed optimism she can reach a trade deal with US President Donald Trump as her chief negotiator leads talks in Washington, just after negotiations between the US and Canada collapsed. “As President Trump said, we hope to reach an agreement with the US,” she told reporters on Monday after being asked about the escalating US-Canada impasse. “I’m optimistic an agreement can be reached.” Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard, Sheinbaum’s top trade negotiator, will...

The United States on Monday announced fresh sanctions against 60 entities, individuals and vessels around the world, including some in mainland China and Hong Kong, and issued a warning demanding “immediate action” from nations maintaining economic and commercial ties with Iran. The measures are part of the Trump administration’s latest efforts to choke off Tehran economically after military strikes and diplomatic negotiations failed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the six-month-long...

The football with which Diego Maradona scored his “Hand of God” goal against England at the 1986 World Cup has sold at auction for US$3.35 million. The sale price achieved by Heritage Auctions in the United States was around US$6.7 million below the US$10 million estimate. The Dallas-based auction house had placed a US$2.5 million starting price on the Adidas Azteca ball. Maradona scored twice in Argentina’s quarter-final victory over England on June 22, 1986 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. He...

US authorities are conducting a national security review of Shein Global Holdings’ purchase of American clothing retailer Everlane after Shein sought approval for the deal, people familiar with the matter said, adding to a growing list of regulatory hurdles for the China-founded fast-fashion giant in one of its most important markets. The review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (Cfius), an inter-agency panel led by the Treasury Department, began after the US$80 million...

After a pause of more than two months, the US military announced Monday that it once again carried out a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people accused of trafficking drugs. It brings the overall death toll to 223 people killed in 67 strikes during the nearly year-long US campaign of bombing alleged drug boats off Latin America’s Caribbean coast and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. US Southern Command says the campaign has resulted in the destruction of 64 speedboats,...

British police have arrested 12 people after a car pursued by police crashed while driving the wrong way on a major road, killing five youths and two officers. The deaths on Saturday came as officials warned of a trend for young people to carry out dangerous driving stunts to post on social media. However, police on Monday denied the collision was linked to filming for the TikTok online platform. Police in the Cleveland area of northeast England said there was “no evidence to indicate that...

The French government said on Monday it would press ahead with a ban on mobile phones in high schools from next month, but trade unions warned that the measure might be hard to implement quickly. In July, France’s parliament approved legislation banning both social media access for children under 15 and mobile phone use in high schools. It is part of a push by President Emmanuel Macron for children to spend less time in front of screens, which the government fears is arresting their...

US tariffs on all cars and trucks, automotive parts and steel would be increased to 50 per cent starting January 1 next year, President Donald Trump said in a social post on ‌Monday after trade talks with Canada collapsed over the weekend. “Build in the US and there are ZERO TARIFFS. Canada will be treated like a State no longer!” Trump wrote. “On Trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst Nations in ⁠the World to deal with. They feel entitled, and yet, WE ‌DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY...

Police have arrested four suspects in an investigation ⁠into the deaths ⁠of 18 elephants in Kenya’s Amboseli ⁠ecosystem, where authorities also seized assorted substances including chemicals, the tourism and wildlife ministry has said. A Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) spokesperson told Reuters on Monday that the four had since been released on bail. Preliminary laboratory ‌results pointed to the probable involvement of a toxic substance, the ministry said in a statement released on Saturday, with...

There is no shortage of Western commentary on US President Donald Trump’s second term. What’s missing is an honest account of how 1.4 billion of us in China see it – or at least how China’s officials and scholars do, since that’s who I can speak for here. I’ve spent a decade watching that view change, from real alarm in 2017 to something closer to a shrug today. Four things now count as consensus among Chinese scholars. One, Trump is undermining America’s alliance system. His first term rattled...

⁠Ukraine wants peace but will not just give in to Russia at any price, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said in a defiant speech as foreign leaders gather in Kyiv to mark its Independence Day celebrations. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and European Council President Antonio Costa were among the foreign dignitaries present on Monday for celebrations of the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s break from the Soviet Union. Burnham, making his first visit to the Ukrainian capital as prime minister,...

The Netherlands will not take part in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, its broadcaster has said, adding that the event can “no longer be considered neutral” given divisions over the Gaza war. “It is undeniable that international conflicts are increasingly affecting the contest, undermining its neutral character. The Eurovision Song Contest has therefore become a platform for division,” said Taco Zimmerman, director general of AVROTROS in a statement from the broadcaster on Monday. The...

Military officials from Uganda and Burundi visited Israel last week to discuss deploying troops to Gaza as part of an international security force envisioned by US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” for the fragile ceasefire, according to officials. An official with the board said that Ugandan officials had joined a Burundian military delegation and that Uganda was finalising details of its participation after its parliament approved the troop contribution this month. Nothing has been...

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Why Chinese foreign minister’s trip to South Korea ‘dealt a low blow’ to Seoul 2. How much of an impact will retiring expats have on Hong Kong’s luxury property? 3. Electrochemist Liu Jiawei moves from Singapore to Hong Kong to start her own lab 4. Malaysia’s Anwar traded reform for power. Now...

The Philippines is positioning itself as Latin America’s bridge to Southeast Asia, testing whether shared history and culture can translate into hard trade figures as Asean and the Mercosur bloc look beyond their traditional partners. Manila’s Foreign Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro made the pitch during visits to Brazil and Chile from August 10 to 13. “Upon this human foundation, commercial bridges thrive: the Philippines stands as the premier strategic gateway for Latin American firms expanding...

Londoners are facing historic levels of subsidence risk after five successive heatwaves dried out the clay soil on which much of the British capital is built. Insurance claims tied to subsidence – a phenomenon associated with bouts of hot, dry weather that shrink the soil and destabilise the foundations on which buildings stand – hit a record last quarter, according to data provided by the Association of British Insurers (ABI). On average, households claimed £20,000 (US$27,200) for the risk,...

A party led by allies of Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev won a landslide in parliamentary elections on Sunday, hours after he hinted that he may stay in power beyond his current term. The Adilet party won 71.2 per cent of votes in the election to a new single-chamber parliament, Kazakhstan’s central election commission said on Monday. The Auyl party representing agrarian interests was second with 6.3 per cent. “I have the right to be re‑elected in accordance with the law,” Tokayev...

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham will visit Kyiv on Monday on his first international visit since taking office last month, his office said, as Ukraine marks its 35th independence anniversary. Burnham has vowed to give strong support to Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion. The Labour Party leader’s visit comes as he announced that Britain had “agreed that defence firm MBDA can release classified information on UK components for the long-range missile, SCALP, to establish local assembly...

Syria said it held talks with Israel in Jordan on Sunday on de-escalation after recent Israeli strikes, and on keeping the country out of tensions between Israel and Turkey, an ally of Damascus. The high-level negotiations came after the sides in January agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism as they edge towards a security agreement. They also came after Israel bombed the disused Abu Al-Duhur airbase in the country’s northwest earlier in the week, claiming it wanted to avert...

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday welcomed Saudi crown prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman for a two-day visit, hosting him at the Esports World Cup before a second day focused on bilateral deals and the situation in the Middle East. A French presidential official said several agreements, on health, transport and energy, will be signed on Monday alongside talks likely to focus on Iran. But the visit kicked off on Sunday evening on a lighter note with the crown prince being...

Tens of ⁠thousands of people have been ⁠evacuated this weekend from the ⁠area of Reno, Nevada, and many others were under orders to leave on Sunday as a wildfire reached the outskirts of the state’s third-most-populous city. About 42,000 residents have been displaced or are under active evacuations with an additional 45,000 ‌in “be prepared to evacuate” status as the Hawk Fire threatened northern Reno, local officials said late on Sunday morning. Local television footage showed flames...

The US special envoy to Syria and ambassador to Turkey on Sunday walked back his comments from two days ago that Israel “still” occupies the Golan Heights in violation of UN resolutions, remarks that went against US President Donald Trump’s position on the disputed territory. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981. The United Nations and most of the international community consider the territory occupied Syrian land and does not recognise...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes actions taken by dismissed Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, including his involvement in mass protests and calls for an election, were misguided, as he publicly detailed their dispute for the first time. Zelensky also alluded to problematic decisions over defence spending and said inaccurate information provided by the Defence Ministry contributed to an awkward encounter with US President Donald Trump over the use of Starlink in...

A landslide at a ⁠landfill in Guinea’s capital killed 30 people, the government said on Sunday, after heavy rains overnight prompted the collapse of a massive mound of waste that engulfed nearby tents and shacks. The incident happened less than a week ‌after the government announced plans to close the site and relocate the waste because of the threat it posed, especially during the continuing rainy season, which causes landslides and fatal flash floods each year in crowded, underdeveloped cities...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country played no role in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia to Europe, following the arrest in Croatia of a second Ukrainian suspect sought by Germany. “Ukraine has never even been involved in even the idea of this operation,” Zelensky told reporters during the Ukraine Nordic-Baltic summit in Kyiv on Sunday. “I hope there will be results of the investigation. We are ready to help.” Croatian police arrested a Ukrainian...

The Trump administration on Sunday warned that Canada would be “foolish” to think it could win a trade war with the United States, predicting a “devastating” impact on its northern neighbour. Negotiations between Washington and Ottawa broke down late Friday, putting into force new 50 per cent US tariffs impacting about US$20 billion worth of Canadian goods, or 5.5 per cent of Canadian exports to the US. Canada in retaliation said it would match US tariffs, with new levies notably targeting the...

Ukraine thinks Russia is planning to draft an additional 300,000 troops for its war effort after Russian parliamentary elections in mid-September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. Moscow’s forces are pressing ahead with an effort to capture the rest of eastern Ukraine’s industrialised Donbas region, where its troops have ground ‌forward at what Kyiv says is a great cost. In comments to reporters released on Sunday, Zelensky said Russia could draft more troops in 2027 to reach an...

At a recent Apec digital technology and AI forum in Chengdu, ministers across the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum issued a statement in support of open-source artificial intelligence models – a rare point of agreement in a debate often framed as a zero-sum US-China contest. It pointed towards an AI order that cuts against the assumption of a contest with a single winner, an assumption that still shapes Washington’s alarm over every Chinese AI breakthrough. Across Asia, governments are...

President Donald Trump is betting new sanctions, a naval blockade and ramped-up economic pressure against Iran’s trading partners can accomplish what thousands of bombs and missiles could not: force Tehran to accept a deal to end the war on US terms. But like other US efforts to force Iran into capitulation, there is one main problem: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has claimed control of the vital Strait of Hormuz and sent volleys of attack drones across the Gulf, may be...

Siding with Canadians weary of provocations from Washington, Prime Minister Mark Carney stood up to US President Donald Trump, rejecting what he called an “unfair” trade deal – a gamble that could prove economically risky. “We will not allow any nation to determine our future. We will set our own course to keep building Canada strong for all,” Carney said on Friday, as negotiations for a bilateral trade deal were crumbling. After weeks of talks with US officials in an effort to avoid punitive...

The Panama Canal will cut the number of ships passing through it starting next month because of drought caused by the El Nino phenomenon, the operator of the strategic waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific said on Thursday. From September 3, the number of vessels allowed through each day will fall from 36 to 34 due to low water levels in two artificial lakes that feed the canal, the Panama Canal Authority said. It will drop to 32 from September 15 on, the agency said. Central America is in...

Some of Nvidia’s biggest customers have been told that the prices of servers containing its artificial intelligence chips are going up more than 15 per cent in many cases with memory chip costs soaring. The price rises will go into effect on systems shipped early next year and will impact systems including those with the flagship Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell chips, according to people familiar with the process, who asked not to be identified commenting on communications that have not yet been...

Iran on Saturday denounced US plans to announce ⁠new sanctions that could put further strain on the Islamic Republic’s economy and have an impact on its most important trading partners including China. Iran on Saturday warned countries against taking part in the United States’ “economic war” against the Islamic Republic, saying they would be considered enemies. “We declare to all countries … do not join the economic war waged by the United States. Any country participating in the imposition of...

Israel said it targeted a “terrorist” ⁠in southern Syria ⁠on Saturday in ⁠what Syria’s foreign ministry said was a drone strike on a civilian vehicle on the outskirts of Damascus in a “blatant” violation of its ‌territory. The Syrian foreign ministry said the drone had hit a vehicle on a road near Beit Jinn village in the countryside west of the capital, which caused injuries among civilians. Syrian state television ⁠reported one person was injured. The Israeli military said in ‌a statement that...

Seven people, including two police officers, died in a car crash in northeast England on Saturday after a car heading the wrong ‌way down a major road hit a marked police armed response car, the local police force said. Cleveland Police said the incident took place in the early hours of Saturday near the South Bank area east of Middlesbrough and that all occupants of the two cars ⁠died at the scene. “This is an incredibly sad day for Cleveland,” ‌Cleveland Police Chief Constable Victoria Fuller...

Ukrainian drones killed at least 10 people in attacks against targets across Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, including a warehouse owned by online retailer Ozon and an industrial facility, Russian officials said on Saturday. Russia and Ukraine are both ramping up drone campaigns ‌aiming to cripple each other’s economic infrastructure, often striking targets far beyond the war’s front lines, as fighting on the battlefield grinds towards the four-and-a-half-year mark. On Friday, at...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Saturday he would slap retaliatory tariffs on the United States after walking away from a “bad deal” on trade, deepening the rift between the long-time allies. Negotiations between the neighbouring countries broke down on Friday in Washington, allowing new 50 per cent US tariffs impacting some US$20 billion worth of goods, or 5.5 per cent of Canadian exports to the United States, to come into force. Impacted products range from hockey sticks to...

Swedish police are investigating whether an 18-year-old man who attacked students at a high school with a sword on Friday, killing one, was involved in online communities promoting school violence, a police source said. The attacker struck at a school in the central ‌Swedish town of Fagersta, also severely injuring two teenage boys before being arrested by police. The parents of a 17-year-old girl told local newspaper Fagersta-Posten that their daughter was killed in the attack. Police are...

The proposal comes after the Trump administration ran into legal challenges in its attempt to attach a similar fee to the H-1B visa last year.

The U.S. has spent 20 years promising ‘crippling sanctions’ on Iran. But the latest effort comes with a reverse twist, after military action failed to accomplish President Trump’s goals.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged the effort was more of a warning shot that would begin a period of “quiet diplomacy.”

Analysts say Tehran could intensify the dispute militarily after the United States announced new efforts to squeeze Iran’s economy. One Iranian official vowed that “not a single drop of oil” would leave the gulf.

The president rallied for the sister of Lindsey Graham in her South Carolina Senate run and pressured allies to endorse her. A super PAC run by his advisers has spent nearly $800,000 on her campaign. Will it be enough?

The Brooklyn Democrat, who is in line to be speaker should his party win the House, has drawn ire from some progressives for huddling with the president’s son-in-law.

In a smiling yet tense interview, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, argued that his Republican critics were using culture-war issues to distract from Americans’ economic concerns.

The mayor and three other council members of Avenal, Calif., had refused to leave despite a certified vote by residents to recall them. They will now step down, a city official said.

Ms. Hochul, who ascended to the governorship in the depths of the pandemic, believes that New York is back. She hopes she has persuaded New Yorkers.

Zohran Mamdani is known for working around the clock as mayor of New York City, but last week he and his wife headed “upstate” for vacation and some locals were thrilled to spot them.

When a partial breakdown of the system occurred last week, New York City officials did not inform the public.

Regulators sent subpoenas to major Wall Street banks seeking information about the trading of Situational Awareness, three people briefed on the outreach said.

After loosening requirements during the Covid era, some schools are shaking up admissions again, facing pressure from the Trump administration, A.I. and even their own professors.

The religious reference by a prosecution witness on Monday incensed the presiding judge, who sternly instructed jurors to disregard it. Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer asked for a mistrial.

She is being tried on murder charges for killing her three young children. The tragedy has resurrected debates over whether such women are criminals or victims.

Years ago, she donned a dinosaur costume to help make ends meet. Now she is a first-time Emmy nominee for her role in “Widow’s Bay.”

The Iran war was supposed to expose China’s weakness on oil, but it didn’t quite work out that way.

Given their past, what does a future in England hold for them?

“That means I’ve lost an entire Donald Trump,” the country singer said while guest hosting Monday’s late night show.

Australia confirmed its first case of H5N1 in June in migratory seabirds. Since then, the virus has spread rapidly, straining government responses.