Minimalist News

Anthropic–Pentagon Talks Stall Over AI Guardrails Contract renewal talks between Anthropic and the Pentagon have stalled over how its Claude system can be used. The AI firm is seeking stricter limits before extending its agreement, according to a person familiar with the private negotiations and Bloomberg. At the heart of the dispute is control. Anthropic wants firm guardrails to prevent Claude from being used for mass surveillance of Americans or to build weapons that operate without human oversight. The Defense Department’s position is broader: it wants flexibility to deploy the model so long as its use complies with the law. The tension reflects a larger debate

Bayer Soars After $10.5 Billion Settlement On Current And Future Roundup Cancer Lawsuits Bayer stock jumped the most in three months after the company announced a $10.5 billion settlement push to settle current and future cancer lawsuits over its Roundup weedkiller. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.  The German chemical giant proposed a $7.5 billion class-action settlement through cases filed in state court in Missouri designed to resolve Roundup suits that already have been filed and potential claims that could be filed over a 20-year period. Bayer also announced $3 billion in settlements of existing U.S. cases in which former Roundup users blame

Investors Overreacting To Starlink's Threat To Traditional Telcos; Goldman Says Talk of space-based data centers has suddenly become a major conversation on Wall Street. One key driver is Elon Musk's merger of SpaceX with his AI venture, xAI, aiming to eventually build "orbital data centers" at scale. With a potential IPO later this year, the space industry - first in low-Earth orbit, then on the moon - will be center stage for years to come. Goldman analysts, led by Andrew Lee, hosted a webcast titled "Space - Datacentres Opportunity and Telecom Risk," featuring Justin Hotchkiss (Associate Partner), Gregor Eichler (Principal), and Federico Torri

What Price Will You Pay For What You Need? By Michael Every of Rabobank A MATERIAL SHIFT It was that 2026 rarity of a genuinely ‘quiet day’ on Monday with the US out for Presidents’ Day and much of Asia already on holiday for Lunar New Year. However, despite China staying out for the rest of the week, things are likely to shift to a higher gear from today onwards. The RBA minutes this morning, which explained why rates were hiked 25bps, stated “the latest forecasts produced by the staff were materially stronger than those produced in August and November.” One would hope so,

SpaceX Enters Secretive Pentagon Contest To Build Voice-Controlled Drone Swarm Tech: Report Last week, we asked whether Anthropic's AI tool, Claude, played a role in the kill chain during the U.S. Delta Force raid targeting Maduro last month. We've also reported on the Department of War's search for "war unicorn" startups, and what appears to us to be the early innings of the rise of dual-use technologies - from humanoid robots to drones - reshaping the modern battlefield. A new Bloomberg report states that Elon Musk's SpaceX and its wholly owned subsidiary, xAI, are competing in a classified DoW contest to develop

Trump Calls In FEMA To Respond To Sewage Disaster In Potomac River Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times, President Donald Trump is directing federal emergency teams to respond to a sewage spill on the Potomac River, calling it a “massive ecological disaster” and blaming local leaders for not handling the crisis, which began nearly a month ago. “There is a massive Ecological Disaster unfolding in the Potomac River as a result of the Gross Mismanagement of Local Democrat Leaders, particularly, Governor Wes Moore, of Maryland,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Feb. 16. Moore’s office didn’t immediately return a request for comment

Hyatt Executive Chairman Thomas Pritzker Resigns Over Epstein Ties Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, Thomas J. Pritzker, the longtime executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, announced his retirement effective immediately on Feb. 16, acknowledging what he described as “terrible judgment” in maintaining contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Pritzker, 75, said in a statement released by the company on Monday that he will also not stand for reelection to Hyatt’s board of directors at the company’s 2026 annual shareholder meeting. In a letter shared by the company, Pritzker said that “good stewardship also means protecting

Netflix Grants Warner Bros. One Week Waiver To Reopen Paramount Skydance Deal Talks Warner Bros. Discovery said in a press release that it will temporarily reopen talks with Paramount Skydance after Netflix granted a seven-day waiver, allowing WBD to address "deficiencies that remain unresolved and clarify certain terms of PSKY's proposed merger agreement." "Netflix has provided WBD a limited waiver under the terms of WBD's merger agreement with Netflix, permitting WBD to engage in discussions with Paramount Skydance ("PSKY") (NASDAQ: PSKY) for a seven-day period ending on February 23, 2026, to seek clarity for WBD stockholders and provide PSKY the ability to

Russia Pounded By Biggest Ukrainian Drone Swarm Since January Ahead Of Geneva Talks Russia's Defense Ministry on Tuesday is reporting an overnight and early morning attack which marked the largest drone assault from Ukraine since early January. Russian air defenses shot down more than 150 Ukrainian drones in the attack which included hundreds of UAVs sent in total, as officials from both sides are imminently expected meet in Switzerland for another round of peace talks. via Reuters According to the ministry, 79 drones were intercepted over the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, 38 over annexed Crimea, and 18 over the Krasnodar region. It

Oil Declines As Iran Says 'Understanding' Reached In US Nuclear Negotiation The second round of indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran concluded in Geneva, Iran's semi-official Students' News Agency (ISNA) reported Tuesady. Delegations from both sides left the venue following the talks, however, the Iranian side says it's ready to stay in Switzerland for days or even weeks if needed, in order to reach a deal and stave off military attack by Washington. Oil is dumping on the following headline issued an hour after conclusion: > IRAN FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS WE HAVE REACHED UNDERSTANDING ON MAIN PRINCIPLES WITH THE US >

Nuclear Reactor Transported By Air For First Time In 60 Years In coordination with the Department of War and the Department of Energy, Valar Atomics has transported their high-temperature gas-cooled reactor from California to Utah via C-17.  The event marks a major turning point for the nuclear industry, as reactor developers had been seen until this point as just another group of boring construction teams and quiet operators. But the more glamorous side of venture capital funded efforts is starting to make its way into the world of fission. > Today, the Department of War will execute Operation Windlord, the first C-17 airlift

Futures Fall As AI Selloff Resumes US equity futures woke up after President's Day and chose to resume their selloff (after a modest bounce on Monday's holiday failed to hold) dragged by Tech, as the risk-off moves on AI disruption fears continue. As of 8:15am ET, S&P 500 futures were down 0.5% with Nasdaq 100 contracts falling 1.0%. In premarket trading, all Mag 7 stocks are lower and Semis are being pressured with AVGO / NVDA lower by more than 1%. Pockets of outperformance (and higher absolute returns) can be found in Energy, Fins, Indu, and Defensives. Overseas markets mixed with UK

When Cash Disappears, So Does Something Else Authored by Mollie Engelhart via The Epoch Times, Last Sunday, I held a book signing at Pearl in San Antonio, the kind of place magazines love to feature. Old brick buildings have been transformed into beautiful restaurants, boutiques, apartments, and bookstores. It feels curated yet charming, historic yet modern, a vision of how we’re told that cities should look and feel. My signing happened during the farmers market, so there was music in the air, families strolling, dogs on leashes, linen dresses, and heirloom tomatoes. It was lovely. Before I sat down, I stopped into the

BHP's Copper Pivot Pays Off With Surprise Dividend Bump, Record-High Stock Price Shares of BHP Group, the world's largest miner, jumped to a record high in Australia after it posted earnings at the top end of Wall Street expectations. The miner's pivot into copper, aided by a surging rally in industrial metals, offset softer conditions in its iron ore unit. BHP chief executive Mike Henry reaffirmed to investors earlier on a call that the miner is pivoting toward "future-facing" metals. In other words, he explained that the world's largest miner's shift away from operations focused on serving China's steel mills has paid

The Obama Administration's Prostitution Scandal And The Ruemmler-Epstein Connection Remember Obama's 2012 Colombian prostitution scandal? Turns out, Jeffrey Epstein was involved... Newly released Department of Justice documents from the Epstein files have exposed a previously unknown connection between a 2012 White House advance-team scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, and Kathryn Ruemmler - the former Obama White House counsel who later became Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer. Ruemmler resigned from Goldman late last week, after the latest Epstein document dump revealed her extensive, affectionate, and years-long correspondence with the convicted sex offender. The emails show she called him “Uncle Jeffrey,” accepted expensive gifts, and turned to him for advice

Italy Beckons The Rich: How Flat Taxes And Lifestyle Are Luring Global Millionaires Submitted by Thomas Kolbe Think of Italy, and wanderlust awakens immediately. Last year, over 140 million visitors experienced the beauty of the Amalfi Coast, enjoyed time at Lake Garda, in South Tyrol, Tuscany, or on the beaches of Sicily. Italy is a land of dreams with a rich cultural history, attracting those who want to experience the dolce vita in its finest form. Italy is also a country that has drawn wealthy individuals from around the world for years. Last year alone, more than 3,600 high-net-worth individuals chose Italy as

Civil Rights Leader Rev. Jesse Jackson Dead At 84 The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the longtime civil rights activist and two-time presidential candidate, died on Tuesday at the age of 84, according to NBC News. Jackson's family released this statement: > "Our father was a servant leader, not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world. We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for

In Defense Of Sir Jim Ratcliffe Authored by Charles Johnson via TheCritic.co.uk, Far more energy has gone into condemning his phrasing than confronting the questions he raised... Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s statement that Britain has been “colonised by immigrants” has sparked a fierce reaction. From Starmer to Bluesky, to the Athletic and all the football social media pundits in between, the co-owner of  Manchester United has been bombarded with the same attack lines repeatedly. He has been called a tax dodging, racist immigrant hypocrite. Such an uproar has flared up in such a short space of time because Ratcliffe is radically different from those who have issued

Asians More Optimistic Than Most For Their Countries' Future A recent Ipsos survey of 25,000 people across 30 countries shows Asians are on average more optimistic for the future of their countries than people from the rest of the world. When asked whether they believe things in their country are headed in the right direction or off on the wrong track, 82 percent of respondents in Singapore said they think the city-state is on the right path, the highest percentage of all the countries included in the survey. In second position came Indonesia, where three quarter of respondents felt their country was headed in the right direction,

Germany's Climate Policy Has Moved From Politics To The Courts... And The Economy Is Paying The Price Submitted by Thomas Kolbe Germany is the political engine of the Green Deal, yet it continues to fall short of its own CO₂ reduction targets. Now Germany’s Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig has ordered the federal government to tighten its climate targets by the end of March. The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by the German Environmental Aid (Deutsche Umwelthilfe), aimed explicitly at increasing political pressure. Germany is tightening the screws on its own catastrophe. Germany in 2026: the economy has entered its eighth consecutive year

Karime Macías, ex-wife of a state governor, is wanted for allegedly pilfering nearly £5m of public money and now lives in London The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said her government will send a formal letter of complaint to officials in the United Kingdom after the wife of a former governor wanted for allegedly pilfering £4.8 million of public money was granted asylum in Britain. Karime Macías, ex-wife of jailed former Veracruz governor Javier Duarte, is wanted for extradition to Mexico for allegedly siphoning millions from the state welfare office, but has reportedly spent the last few years in London. Continue reading...

More than 130,000 people considered missing or disappeared in Mexico as drug cartels expand It was a bright morning in August 2022 when Ángel Montenegro was taken. A 31-year-old construction worker, Montenegro had been out all night drinking with some work buddies in the city of Cuautla and was waiting for a bus back to nearby Cuernavaca, where he lived. At about 10am, a white van pulled up: several men jumped out and dragged Montenegro and a co-worker inside before speeding off. Montenegro’s co-worker was released a few hundred meters down the street, but Montenegro was driven away. Continue reading...

Tragedy has prompted a wave of support for town from neighbouring communities and across country When Jim Caruso heard the news of the school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, he knew immediately he needed to be there. He packed his bags and boarded a plane for the community 700 miles away. “I wanted to be here to bring some level of comfort,” he said. “I wanted to hug people, pray for them and, most importantly, to cry with them.” On Tuesday, a shooter opened fire in the town’s secondary school, killing eight people, most of them young children. It was one of the

Pentagon tracked sanctioned Veronica III from Caribbean Sea after it left Venezuela on day Maduro was captured US military forces boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said on Sunday. Venezuela had faced US sanctions on its oil for several years, relying on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains. Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure the president, Nicolás Maduro, before Maduro was apprehended in January during a

Diplomats in Havana are preparing for an alternative Trump tactic: the country being starved until people take to the streets and the US can step in Among the verdant gardens of Havana’s diplomatic quarter, Siboney, ambassadors from countries traditionally allied to the United States are expressing increasing frustration with Washington’s attempt to unseat Cuba’s government, while simultaneously drawing up plans to draw down their missions. Cuba is in crisis. Already reeling from a four-year economic slump, worsened by hyper-inflation and the migration of nearly 20% of the population, the 67-year-old communist government is at its weakest. After Washington’s successful military operation against

Japanese prime minister’s refusal to back down over Taiwan comments brings more criticism and travel warnings from China Chinese tourists are continuing to shun Japan in large numbers, with the country falling out of the top 10 destinations for those celebrating the lunar new year with a trip abroad. Japan has had a dramatic drop in the number of Chinese visitors since the end of last year as a diplomatic row between Tokyo and Beijing over the security of Taiwan continues. Continue reading...

Yoon Suk Yeol could face the death penalty when judges rule on the martial law crisis that many in South Korea see as a dark moment they would rather forget South Korea is awaiting one of the most consequential court rulings in decades this week, with judges due to deliver their verdict on insurrection charges against the former president Yoon Suk Yeol and prosecutors demanding the death penalty. When Yoon stands in courtroom 417 of Seoul central district court on Thursday to hear his fate, which will be broadcast live, he will do so in the same room where the military dictator

Leader vows to repay the ‘young martyrs’ who died as North Korea intensifies propaganda glorifying troops deployed to fight for Russia North Korea has said it completed a new housing district in Pyongyang for families of North Korean soldiers killed while fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, the latest effort by leader Kim Jong-un to honour the war dead. State media photos showed Kim walking through the new street – called Saeppyol Street – and visiting the homes of some of the families with his increasingly prominent daughter, believed to be named Kim Ju-ae, as he pledged to repay the “young martyrs”

Year of the horse signals optimism and opportunity, with authorities keen that the extra day of holiday this year provides an economic boost Chinese officials are hoping that this year’s extra long lunar new year holiday will provide a boost to the country’s economy, where increasing domestic spending has been identified as a key priority for the year ahead. The government expects a record 9.5 billion passenger trips to be made across China during the 40-day spring festival period, up from 9 billion trips last year. Hundreds of millions of people will be crisscrossing the country to make what is often their

Worst weather forecast to hit late on Sunday, a day after floods caused power outages, road collapses and home evacuations New Zealand’s weather bureau has warned more flooding could hit the country’s North Island, a day after floods caused power outages, road collapses, home evacuations and caused the death of a man whose vehicle was submerged on a highway. There was “threat to life from dangerous river conditions, significant flooding and slips” as a deepening low-pressure system east of the North Island brought heavy rain and severe gales to several regions, the weather bureau said. Continue reading...

A total of 2.1GW of wind and solar power came on to the grid in the three months to December. Follow today’s news live * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Randa Abdel-Fattah to headline Sydney Writers’ Festival Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah will appear during two sessions at Sydney Writers’ Festival this year, part of a program of around 200 events. Sydney is a highly diverse city, and the Festival aims to reflect the many and varied communities of writers and readers in its program. That commitment to breadth and representation sits alongside national and international voices across fiction

Thinking ‘supply is the answer’ lets politicians dodge a much more difficult conversation about tax – for investors and owners * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Is building more homes the answer to Australia’s housing crisis? No, it’s not. Not even close. Continue reading...

The former PM is open to resurrecting his parliamentary career, if Angus Taylor does what Peter Dutton wouldn’t and actively drafts him in * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast In June last year, the Liberal party’s federal executive met to discuss the next phase of an intervention into the troubled New South Wales division. The meeting will be a short footnote in the modern history of the Liberal party. Continue reading...

Mark Aitken, who worked in the sector for 16 years, said eight times out of 10 he disagreed with the integrated assessment tool * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Aged care clinicians and carers say an algorithm-based assessment tool that determines federal home support funding packages is “cruel” and “inhumane”, stripping away clinical expertise and leaving elderly people with inadequate support. The integrated assessment tool (IAT), introduced in November, is used across aged care to determine eligibility and classification for services, including residential care. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Greens move to call parliamentary inquiry after series of ‘disturbing’ attacks targeting gay and bisexual men lured via dating apps * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The role of “far-right manosphere influencers” in fuelling homophobic attacks where victims were lured through fake dating app profiles before being assaulted is set to be investigated by a Victorian parliamentary inquiry. Aiv Puglielli, the Greens’ equality spokesperson, will on Wednesday move a motion calling on the upper house’s legal and social issues committee to investigate the scale of

Secretary of state spoke of ‘golden age’ of US-Hungary relations at time of tense transatlantic relations with traditional allies Even before he in effect endorsed Hungary’s Viktor Orbán before of a crucial parliamentary election, Marco Rubio’s itinerary for Europe promised to be provocative. After meeting with US allies at the Munich Security Conference during a particularly tense moment in transatlantic relations, the US secretary of state departed for Slovakia and Hungary – the two EU states most dependent on Russian energy and sceptical of the bloc’s support for Ukraine. In what bordered on an explicit political endorsement, Rubio told Orbán that relations

Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier called for ‘justice and strength’ in diplomacy after Russia hit Ukraine with 400 drones and 29 missiles hours before talks The European Commission is just giving its daily midday press briefing, and it has confirmed plans to adopt the new, 20th, round of sanctions against Russia by 24 February, the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion on Ukraine. Foreign affairs spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said: “We keep on working on measures to deprive Russia of the funds, goods and technologies sustaining its war against Ukraine. This indeed includes the 20th package that you have mentioned, and indeed we aim to adopt

Prior of hermitage says digital technologies are designed to be addictive and present ‘challenge for monastic life’ The prior of a hermitage in Tuscany has urged monks living in the secluded retreat to avoid the use of social media and streaming services, arguing that their rooms are sacred places for prayer and “not for Netflix or other platforms”. Father Matteo Ferrari, the prior general of the Camaldolese congregation and of the Camaldoli monastery and hermitage in Arezzo, Tuscany, said such digital technologies were “specifically designed to create addiction” and “should absolutely be avoided”. Continue reading...

Descendants of Jewish brothers forced to sell company to Nazis say appropriation by German far right is ‘repulsive’ The Jewish descendants of a German motorbike manufacturer that was forced by the Nazis to be relinquished have voiced their repulsion at the appropriation of the vehicle by far-right populists. Members of the family, whose ancestors were forced to flee Germany in the 1930s, say they consider the use of the bike’s name by the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) as a “mockery of our history”. Continue reading...

Programme launched by last Tory government was worked on by Deloitte and IBM but was paused in 2024 * Business live – latest updates The UK government has shelved a project to simplify trade border processes post-Brexit after spending £110m on a contract with Deloitte and IBM for it, according to reports. The last Conservative government promised in 2020 to create the “world’s most effective border” by 2025 as part of its plan for a new trade system after Britain left the EU. Continue reading...

At least 80 film-makers and stars sign open letter after German festival jury president Wim Wenders says they should keep out of politics More than 80 current and former participants of the Berlinale, including Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton and Adam McKay have signed an open letter condemning the festival’s “silence” on Gaza. It comes after the film festival was swept up in what it called a “media storm” over the alleged sidelining of political discourse at the event. Continue reading...

Discussions through Omani intermediaries may pave way for further meeting on nuclear programme, Iran says Iran has described the latest round of indirect talks with the US as “more constructive” than the previous set earlier this month, and said agreement had been reached on “general guiding principles” that could lead to a further meeting to discuss its nuclear programme. The talks – held in Geneva through Omani intermediaries – were to discuss the terms for Tehran constraining its nuclear programme under the supervision of the UN nuclear weapons inspectorate. They ended after three and a half hours. Continue reading...

Israel accused of denying doctors re-entry into territory after they gave first-hand testimony on conflict Medics in the UK and US believe they have been denied re-entry to Gaza after speaking out on the conflict. Following reports of rising refusal rates, medical workers and organisationswho have provided humanitarian aid in Gaza have described what they see as arbitrary denials. Continue reading...

Abbas Araghchi is steeped in more than a decade of nuclear dealmaking with a book on the art of negotiations If the US and Iran are to avoid a regional war, both sides need to start to make concessions at talks in Geneva on Tuesday, and also to accommodate one another’s very different bargaining styles. The Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, steeped in almost 15 years of Iranian nuclear talks, is a near lifelong diplomat who has written a book on the art of negotiations that reveals the secrets of the Iranian diplomatic trade – the feints, the patience, the poker faces. Continue

Experts say the detention centres were a breeding ground for extremism and a new generation of IS members Humanitarians warned for years that the camps in north-east Syria holding tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State (IS) fighters would have to be dealt with. Calling them a “ticking time bomb”, relief groups said the women and children could not just be left to rot in squalid desert camps indefinitely, because eventually they would come home. Despite the warnings, most states ignored the problem, refusing to repatriate their citizens. At least 8,000 women and children from more than 40 countries

Many voice hope that moment will mark move away from repression and unrest and a chance to revive economy Bangladesh’s new prime minister has been sworn in, sealing a dramatic comeback for the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) and formally closing the turbulent chapter that toppled Sheikh Hasina in 2024. The swearing-in of Tarique Rahman restored an elected government after 18 months of caretaker rule led by the Nobel peace prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. Continue reading...

Mohan Karki – one of many people ICE has deported to countries with which they have little connection – leaves behind his wife and seven-month-old baby he has yet to hold Tika Basnet sat facing the glow of her iPhone, a red tika pressed into the center of her forehead. Seven-month-old Briana slept on her lap, her breathing soft and uneven. On the other side of the screen was Mohan Karki, Basnet’s husband, who had yet to hold his daughter. For Karki, nearly 9,000 miles (14,500km) away, it was already morning. He was in hiding in south Asia, his exact location withheld

Voting was largely peaceful in an election seen as a test of Bangladesh’s democracy after years of political turmoil The Bangladesh Nationalist party, led by Tarique Rahman, has won a sweeping victory in the country’s first election since a gen Z uprising toppled the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina. Results from the election commission confirmed the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, returning the party to power after 20 years, while the rival alliance, led by the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, won 77 seats. Continue reading...

Destined to a perilous life with no right to an education or to vote, state recognition ‘gives them hope’, campaigners say Through the decades that the Daulatdia brothel in Bangladesh has existed, children born there have been invisible, unable to be registered because their mothers were sex workers and their fathers unknown. Now, for the first time, all 400 of them in the brothel village have their own birth certificates. That milestone was reached after a push by campaigners who have spent decades working with Bangladesh’s undocumented children born in brothels or on the street. It means they can finally access the

Jailed then exiled in London, Rahman returns home as the main contender to be next prime minister of Bangladesh Tarique Rahman, who after 17 years in exile is the main contender to be the next prime minister of Bangladesh, has pledged to end entrenched corruption and put the country on a “new path” as voting began in the first free and fair elections in almost two decades. Speaking to the Guardian before polls opened on Thursday morning, Rahman promised a new era of clean politics, including a “top down, no tolerance” approach to graft, if his Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) was brought

Kay Mason Billig accuses Steve Reed of forcing council to agree to poll delay in return for extra funding and powers • What made ministers think they could delay local elections? A Norfolk council leader has accused the government of “bullying” her local authority into postponing elections in return for extra funding and powers, as she pulled out of long-awaited devolution deal for the county. Kay Mason Billig, the Conservative leader of Norfolk county council, said she would no longer take part in local government reorganisation (LGR) or devolution plans in the area, saying the council could not participate in that and simultaneously

National Crime Agency says rise in child sexual abuse being driven by technology and online forums Child sexual abuse in the UK is soaring, police have said, with 1,000 paedophile suspects being arrested each month and the number of children being rescued from harm rising by 50% in the last five years. The National Crime Agency said the growth in offending across the UK was driven by technology and linked to the radicalisation of offenders in online forums, encouraging people to view images of child sexual abuse by reassuring them it was normal. Continue reading...

Group says they intend to establish permanent settlement but Mauritius attorney general calls their move a ‘publicity stunt’ Four Chagos Islanders have landed on one of the archipelago’s atolls to establish what they say will be a permanent settlement, in an attempt to complicate a British plan to transfer the territory to Mauritius. The Mauritius attorney general said the move was a publicity stunt designed to create conflict over a 2025 agreement with Britain on handing over sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory, which is opposed by some Chagossians who accuse Mauritius of decades of neglect. Mauritius has denied the accusations. Continue

Chair of UK government review says dramatic changes in labour market risks putting ‘a generation on the scrapheap’ On any given day, Poppy Blackman is engaged in the “soul-crushing” process of applying for a new job, and rarely ever hearing anything back. The 22-year-old has been unemployed since January 2025 and says she applies to an average of 50 roles a month, using one of four different CVs she has written for different types of jobs and sectors. Continue reading...

Official rules say government should keep gifts worth more than £140 unless ministers pay the value over that limit Keir Starmer has bought a pair of personalised silver cufflinks which were given to him by Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, according to the latest transparency records. The cufflinks, which were worth more than £140, were an official gift from the Trumps during the US president’s second state visit last September. They were the second gift from Trump that Starmer has chosen to buy, having paid for a personalised necklace last year. Continue reading...

Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Al Sharpton, Donald Trump and more react to death of the civil rights leader at the age of 84 * Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader, dies aged 84 * Jesse Jackson – a life in pictures * Share your tributes and memories of Jesse Jackson Three Democratic former presidents led a wealth of tributes to Jesse Jackson, a “titan” of the civil rights movement and “one of America’s greatest patriots” who has died at the age of 84. Joe Biden said history would remember Jackson as “a man of God and of the people”, calling him in a

Data analytics firm moves from Denver after about six years and joins host of businesses relocating to south Florida Palantir announced on Tuesday that it has moved its headquarters to Miami from Denver. The data analytics company, criticized for its role in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, joins a host of other businesses and billionaires that recently moved to Florida in search of a more business-friendly climate. Palantir’s move across state lines comes after its chair, Peter Thiel, announced on 31 December that he opened a Miami office for his private investment firm. Thiel already has a mansion in Miami Beach. The

Case became focal point for immigration after he was deported to El Salvador where he faces gang threats Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cannot re-detain Kilmar Ábrego García because a 90-day detention period has expired and the government has no viable plan for deporting him, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. The Salvadorian national’s case has become a focal point in the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to his home country last year. Since his return, he has been fighting a second deportation to a series of African countries proposed by Department of Homeland Security officials. Continue reading...

No database match for sample found two miles from home offers as search for TV host’s mother enters third week DNA found on a glove about two miles from Nancy Guthrie’s house did not result in any leads on the case, officials confirmed on Tuesday. Unknown male DNA was found on a glove that resembled one worn by Guthrie’s abductor in the surveillance video from the night of the 84-year-old’s disappearance, the FBI said on Sunday. Continue reading...

Jackson’s two presidential runs brought the civil rights movement into the heart of the Democratic party and opened doors for others to walk through * Share your tributes and memories of Jesse Jackson He witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King at the Lorraine motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Forty years later, he joined the jubilant crowd in Chicago’s Grant Park to greet Barack Obama’s election victory and had tears streaming down his face. Jesse Jackson, who died on Tuesday at the age of 84, was hailed by Martin Luther King III and his wife Andrea King as “a living bridge between generations”.

⁠Texas has sued TP-Link Systems for allegedly marketing its networking devices deceptively and allowing Beijing to access American consumers’ devices, the state attorney general said on Tuesday. “Despite its ‌claims of privacy and security, TP-Link’s products have been used by [China’s] state-sponsored hacking entities to launch multiple cyberattack operations against the United States,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a press release announcing the lawsuit. “With nearly all of ⁠its...

Israeli NGOs have raised the alarm over a settlement plan signed by the government which they say would mark the first expansion of Jerusalem’s borders into the occupied West Bank since 1967. Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community. Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. The proposal was published in early this month as international outrage mounts over creeping measures aimed at...

A UK court on Tuesday denied a legal challenge brought by the Freemasons against a new London police policy requiring officers to declare membership of the historically secretive society. In a 17-page judgment handed down at London’s High Court, judge Martin Chamberlain said the Metropolitan Police’s policy “serves a legitimate aim, maintaining and enhancing public trust in policing, and is proportionate”. He said the grounds of the challenge were not “reasonably arguable”, and the policy was...

Iran fired live missiles towards the Strait of Hormuz while its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that the US warship deployed in the Gulf could be sunk, amid nuclear talks between the two countries. “We constantly hear that they [the US] have sent a warship towards Iran. A warship is certainly a dangerous weapon, but even more dangerous is the weapon capable of sinking it,” Khamenei said in a speech on Tuesday. The US and Iran held their second round of talks about Iran’s nuclear...

Charismatic US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, an eloquent Baptist minister raised in the segregated South ⁠who became a close associate of Martin Luther King Jnr and twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, has died at 84, his family said in a statement on Tuesday. “Our father was a servant leader – not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said. Jackson, an inspirational orator and long-time Chicagoan,...

Belgium summoned the US ambassador on Tuesday over a social media post where he accused the country of antisemitic persecution of Jewish Belgians, the kingdom’s foreign minister said. “Labelling Belgium as antisemitic is not just wrong, it’s dangerous disinformation that undermines the real fight against hatred,” Belgian foreign minister Maxime Prevot said in a social media post on Monday. The summons is a rare move between staunch allies. “An ambassador accredited to Belgium has a...

Anastasia Kucherova, a Russian living in Milan, voiced her opposition to Russia’s war against Ukraine with a highly symbolic, if anonymous, act: carrying the Ukraine team placard during the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina Winter Games. Kucherova was swathed in a long, hooded silver puffer coat, her eyes covered with dark glasses – like all the other placard bearers for the 92 nations competing in the Olympics. The Ukraine sign was illuminated for the crowd to read. At first the country...

An extremely rare Pokemon card owned by American YouTuber Logan Paul has sold for US$16,492,000, smashing the record for the most expensive trading card sold at an auction. The supposedly unique PSA 10-graded Pikachu Illustrator was originally bought by Paul in another record-breaking sale in 2021 for US$5.28 million. This time it was bought by AJ Scaramucci, son of former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, according to Guinness World Records, whose representatives verified...

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has accused President Donald Trump of orchestrating a “cover-up” over files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to an interview with the BBC. “Get the files out. They are slow-walking it,” Clinton, who is due to testify before a Congressional committee on the issue, told the British broadcaster in an interview in Berlin published on Monday. The US Department of Justice last month released the latest cache of so-called Epstein files –...

US ⁠President Donald Trump has said he will be “indirectly” involved in talks between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme set to begin on Tuesday in Geneva. “I’ll be involved in those talks, indirectly. And they’ll be very important,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday, adding he believed ‌Tehran wanted to make a deal. Tensions are soaring ahead of the talks, with the US deploying a second aircraft carrier to the ⁠Middle East. The US military is preparing for the...

Three people, including the suspect, were fatally shot during a Rhode Island youth hockey game on Monday, authorities said. Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves told reporters that three other victims are hospitalised in critical condition. “We have three deceased. The suspect, and then we have two victims, and then we have three at the hospital,” said Goncalves. “It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” she said. Goncalves did not provide details about the...

Nancy Guthrie’s family has been cleared as possible suspects in her abduction, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said on Monday, as the case involving the mother of Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie entered its third week. Guthrie’s family, which includes “all siblings and ‌spouses”, has been cooperative and gracious as authorities investigate the kidnapping, Nanos said. “To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel,” he said in a statement. “The Guthrie family are victims, plain and...

US President Donald Trump’s pick for ambassador to South Africa has arrived in the country where he will seek to improve fraught ties between the two states. An embassy official told Reuters on Monday that ‌the envoy, conservative activist and writer Leo Brent Bozell III, had arrived. Bozell is expected to present his credentials to President Cyril Ramaphosa before officially taking up his post. Relations between Washington and Pretoria have deteriorated in the past year as Trump has accused...

Spain said on Monday it will use UN channels to send humanitarian aid to Cuba, which is suffering an acute economic crisis worsened by a de facto US fuel blockade. “Spain will provide humanitarian aid … to Cuba through the United Nations system in the form of food and essential health products,” the foreign ministry said in a statement following a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries in Madrid. The announcement follows the dispatch by Mexico of 800 tonnes of humanitarian...

Greece said on Monday it will seek to obtain a series of photos that appear to show the final moments of 200 Greeks who were executed by a Nazi firing squad in Athens during World War II, after the previously unknown pictures appeared on an online sale site. The images that appeared on eBay over the weekend allegedly show the men being led to their deaths on May 1, 1944, at a shooting range in the Kaisariani suburb of the Greek capital. Although the executions were well known, there were no...

The Pentagon is close to cutting ties with Anthropic and may label the artificial intelligence company a supply chain risk after becoming frustrated with restrictions on how it can use the technology, Axios news website reported. Anthropic’s talks about extending a contract with the Pentagon are being held up over additional protections the artificial intelligence company wants to put on its Claude tool, a person familiar with the matter said. Anthropic wants to put safeguards in place to stop...

The militant Palestinian organisation Hamas used emojis to signal to its fighters the start of the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Israeli TV channel N12 reported on Monday. It cited the Israeli army as its source but a military spokeswoman was initially unable to officially confirm the story. According to the report, the emojis were found on mobile phones belonging to members of Hamas’ elite Nukhba Forces unit, which were seized by the Israelis on the day of the attack. The specific...

Robert Duvall, who played the smooth mafia lawyer in The Godfather and stole the show with his depiction of a surfing-crazed colonel in Apocalypse Now, has died at the age of 95. His death on Sunday was confirmed by his wife Luciana Duvall. “Yesterday we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time. Bob passed away peacefully at home,” she wrote. Blunt-talking, prolific and glitz-averse, Duvall won an Oscar for best actor and was nominated six...

US President Donald Trump denounced a clean ⁠energy agreement between ⁠the United Kingdom and ⁠California Governor Gavin Newsom hours after it was signed on Monday, Politico reported. In an interview with the news outlet, Trump said it was “inappropriate” for Britain to be ‌dealing with the Democratic governor. Trump, a Republican, also branded Newsom “a loser”, saying “his state has gone to hell, and his environmental work is a disaster”. Newsom is an outspoken Trump critic and has publicly...

Austrian prosecutors ⁠have filed terrorism-related and ⁠other charges against a now 21-year-old suspect arrested just before a 2024 Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, who they said planned to carry out an Islamist militant attack. The Vienna prosecutors’ office plans to bring a criminal case against the unnamed suspect in Wiener Neustadt, a town near Vienna, accusing him of producing a small amount of the explosive triacetone triperoxide and attempting to buy weapons ⁠illegally, it said in a...

US agencies are struggling to find the best method to fund additional software for millions of Iranian civilians to get around their government’s strict internet censors, amid a surge in demand over weeks of domestic unrest. The State Department, US senators from both parties, and other US agencies have advocated for funding virtual private networks and anticensorship technology programmes that would allow about a quarter of the people in Iran to access the internet without the Islamic...

After a year of refusing to choose between Washington and Brussels, Keir Starmer shifted tone in Munich by edging Britain closer to the European Union and calling for an end to over-reliance on American military support. In a speech to the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, the UK Prime Minister urged Europe to deepen its interdependence and sovereign deterrence in light of less support from across the Atlantic since Donald Trump returned to the White House. British officials told reporters...

Former US president Barack Obama said in a podcast interview on the weekend that aliens are real, but they aren’t at Nevada’s Area 51. During an appearance on YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen’s show, Obama said he hadn’t seen extraterrestrials but that they existed. “They’re not being kept in Area 51, there’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States,” Obama said during a rapid-fire round of questions at the end of the...

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. China allows visa-free entry to British, Canadian nationals 2. Rubio, Wang Yi manage US-China great power rivalry in Munich even as core tensions linger 3. Star Cruises ‘fully prepared’ for next sailing after anger over axed trip 4. Public fury as China mental hospitals recruit fake patients for...

Long after Jeffrey Epstein was known as a convicted sex offender, he was also a top contributor to an elite cluster of groups founded by Harvard University students. For years, he was able to fill a table with “girls” at an annual gala that featured celebrities, billionaires and cultural luminaries. Annual donations of at least US$50,000 to the Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770 – a non-profit umbrella for a social club, theatre troupe and a cappella singers – qualified him as a “Guardian of the...

US military forces boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said on Sunday. Venezuela had faced US sanctions on its oil for several years, relying on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains. US President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure then-President Nicolas Maduro before...

Iran’s top diplomat has arrived in Geneva ahead of a second round of negotiations with the United States, Iranian state television said on Monday, as Washington keeps up pressure on the Islamic republic. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his delegation are in the Swiss city after the first round of indirect talks took place in Oman last week. Oman would mediate Tuesday’s talks in Geneva, the IRNA state-run news agency reported on its Telegram channel on Sunday. Similar talks last year broke...

Last month, in the same week that Chinese and Philippine diplomats restarted political dialogue for the first time in over a year, the People’s Liberation Army bombers conducted combat patrols over Scarborough Shoal. China then released a video marking the fifth anniversary of its coastguard law, emphasising the force’s legal mandate and role in maritime governance. It also features footage of the June 2024 confrontation with the Philippines. In the South China Sea, conference rooms and...

A glove containing DNA found about 3km from the house of Today show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother appears to match those worn by a masked person outside her front door in Tucson the night she vanished, the FBI said on Sunday. The glove, found in a field near the side of the road, was sent off for DNA testing. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement on Sunday that it received preliminary results on Saturday and is awaiting official confirmation. Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen...

A Filipino man awaiting the result of a deportation order has been released from Tacoma’s Northwest ICE Processing Centre following a federal court order that called the man’s detention unconstitutionally “punitive”. US District Judge Tana Lin granted the release requested in Greggy Sorio’s habeas corpus petition on Friday, saying the Tacoma detention centre’s “unreasonable treatment” of Sorio brought about “extreme consequences” for his health. While in Immigration and Customs Enforcement...

White House border tsar Tom Homan said on Sunday that more than 1,000 immigration agents have left Minnesota’s Twin Cities area and hundreds more will depart in the days ahead as part of the Trump administration’s drawdown of its immigration enforcement surge. A “small” security force will stay for a short period to protect remaining immigration agents and will respond “when our agents are out and they get surrounded by agitators and things got out of control”, Homan told CBS’ Face the Nation....

Israel will begin a contentious land regulation process in a large part of the occupied West Bank, which could result in Israel gaining control over wide swathes of the area for future development, according to a government decision on Sunday. It paves the way for the resumption of “settlement of land title” processes, which had been frozen in the West Bank since the Mideast War in 1967. It means that when Israel begins the land registration process for a certain area, anyone with a claim to the...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that Washington is “not disputing” a report by five European countries that imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was fatally poisoned with a rare frog “toxin”. Rubio said the report released on Saturday by Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden was “very troubling”. Britain, which has outright blamed Russia for Navalny’s death, said it was considering new sanctions on Moscow as a result. Navalny, a staunch critic of...

Mindsets need to change in the fight against sexual violence, according to Gisele Pelicot, who was repeatedly drugged, abused and offered to strangers for rape by her then husband over nearly 10 years. “I believe this can only be achieved through education and through respect and empathy for one another,” the 73-year-old French woman told the news portal of German public broadcaster ZDF in an interview published on Sunday. “We must continue this fight. We must not relent.” In 2024, Pelicot’s...

Larry the cat is marking 15 years as the UK’s chief mouse catcher at the prime minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street, having served six prime ministers there. During his tenure, the 19-year-old tabby, officially known as the chief mouser to the Cabinet Office, has captured the hearts of the British public because of his frequent appearances outside the prime minister’s front door in central London. Larry was adopted from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in February 2011, and was originally...

Israel fired air strikes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing at least 11 Palestinians, Palestinian officials said, in what the military called a response to ceasefire violations by Palestinian militant group Hamas. Gaza doctors said an Israeli air strike on a tent encampment housing displaced families killed at least four people, while health officials said another strike killed five in Khan Younis in the south ‌and another person was shot dead in the north. Air strikes also targeted what...

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Sunday she felt that EU governments were not ready to give Ukraine a date for membership despite a demand to do so from ‌President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky repeated on Saturday that he needed a date as part of security guarantees for a final peace package with Russia. “My feeling is that the member states are not ready to give a concrete date,” Kallas told a panel at the Munich Security Conference. “There’s a lot of work to be...

As a long-time observer of Hong Kong affairs – and someone who cares deeply about the city – I have often felt that external debates about Hong Kong have been louder than careful assessments of how the city is actually evolving. Since the implementation of the national security law, discussion of Hong Kong has often become polarised. Less attention has been paid to outcomes and observable change. From where I stand, however, a clear shift is under way: the city has moved from prolonged...

Australia unveiled AU$3.9 billion (US$2.8 billion) in spending on Sunday as a “down payment” on a new facility to build nuclear submarines under the tripartite Aukus security pact with Britain and the United States. The Aukus pact aims to arm Australia with a fleet of cutting-edge submarines from the United States and would provide for cooperation in developing an array of warfare technologies. The submarines, the sale of which will begin in 2032, lie at the heart of Australia’s strategy of...

The British expert who led a review into children’s gender healthcare says young people have been “weaponised” and misled about the realities of transitioning by social media. Hilary Cass, a doctor, whose review of National Health Service (NHS) gender care for under-18s led to sweeping changes including a ban on puberty blockers, welcomed the draft published by Britain’s Department for Education earlier this week but accepted it is impossible for it to be “completely foolproof”. Baroness Cass...

Russia’s army chief Valery Gerasimov visited Moscow’s troops in Ukraine and said the Kremlin’s forces seized a dozen eastern villages in February, the defence ministry said on Sunday. Gerasimov’s visit comes days before US-mediated talks with Kyiv in Geneva on ending almost four years of war and ahead of the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale offensive against Ukraine. “In two weeks of February, despite severe winter conditions, combined forces and military units of the joint task force...

The US military is preparing for the possibility ⁠of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, according to two US officials, in what could become a far more serious conflict than previously seen between the countries. The disclosure by the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the planning, raises the stakes for the diplomacy under way between the United States and Iran. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared...

New Zealand’s government has come under fire for keeping its talks with the United States over critical minerals under wraps, as opposition parties level accusations of secrecy amid mounting concern about environmental damage and foreign influence. Analysts say Wellington is reluctant to promote any formal agreement with Washington or invite public debate on the issue, even as both governments have confirmed that they are “exploring further opportunities” on critical minerals cooperation. In a...

Former US president Barack Obama criticised a lack of shame and decorum in the country’s political discourse, responding on Saturday for the first time to a post on Donald Trump’s social media account that depicted him and his wife Michelle as monkeys. The video shared on Trump’s Truth Social account on February 5 sparked censure across the US political spectrum, with the White House initially rejecting “fake outrage” only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member and take it...

US President Donald Trump on Saturday celebrated Valentine’s Day by sharing a series of cards that praised his accomplishments while predictably slamming Democrats and even poking fun at his own secretary of state. The cards, posted by the White House on social media, kick off with a picture of a handcuffed and blindfolded Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro following his capture from his country in January. It is made to look a classic Valentine’s Day card, with the phrase: “You captured my...

The Iranian minister, Abbas Araghchi, said both sides had agreed on a “set of guiding principles.” President Trump has called on Iran to make an immediate accord or face a possible U.S. attack.

The authorities moved to suppress shows of defiance at ceremonies commemorating 40 days since the death of protesters.

There were plenty of signs that something wasn’t right with Jeffrey Epstein. Why didn’t anyone say something?

The Tony winner returns to the stage in “Every Brilliant Thing,” an interactive monologue with a message of hope “that might be vital for somebody to hear.”

Adeliia Petrosian, 18, has the résumé of a medal contender — and ties to coaches and a skater who were at the center of a doping scandal at the last Winter Games.

The recent detention of a visiting research scientist has renewed attention on a confusing exit ramp in Buffalo that sends drivers across the border.

Veterans have taken part in demonstrations against the federal crackdown on illegal immigration in Minnesota. “I believe in the institutions,” one said.

Peru’s Congress voted to impeach President José Jerí, four months after he replaced Dina Boluarte, who had also been removed from the presidency.

Paramount’s takeover bid was rejected in favor of Netflix, which wanted only the streaming and studio businesses. Paramount said it would pay more if negotiations were reopened.

Russian attacks and Ukrainian civilian deaths rose as President Trump’s peace talks dragged on during his first year back in the White House.

Both sides described previous U.S.-mediated negotiations as productive, although they did not appear to address sticking points like territory and security guarantees.

The diplomat, Bill White, met with a foreign ministry official at a time of rising tensions between the U.S. and countries in Europe.

Limb-lengthening can add inches to a person’s stature. But its risks have made it controversial.

A new study by the novelist and scholar Namwali Serpell subjects the Nobel laureate’s work to rigorous inspection — with thrilling results.

Her novels reveal a deeply American desire for freedom and adventure, and one of her work’s great joys lies in always finding something new to discover. Here’s where to start.

The president appears determined to prevent his party from achieving a durable majority coalition.

At a hockey rink in Pawtucket, R.I., shots rang out, leaving two people dead, in addition to the shooter. The police chief said it was a family matter that exploded in public.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said his proposal to raise New York City property taxes was a “last resort” to close a budget gap.

From flood warnings around Los Angeles to heavy snow in the Sierra, the storm systems are an abrupt shift from recent dry weather.