Minimalist News

Hungary's Going Gay? TV Channel Dedicated To 24-hour LGBTQI Programs Will Soon Launch Via Remix News, Hungary will soon be getting a new government under Tisza’s Péter Magyar, but the landscape is already shifting, with a new LGBTQ-themed online television channel called “Rainbow” (“Szivárvány”) TV in the works to broadcast programs targeting the LGBTQI community 24 hours a day. The entrepreneur behind the project, whose identity is being kept secret for now, reports Media1, but they have already submitted the necessary documents to the National Media and Communications Authority. The channel will reportedly offer cultural programs, gastronomic content, and other shows about the history of

Downtown Baltimore CRE Crash Signals Deeper Fiscal Crisis Ahead A localized commercial real estate crash has been spreading through downtown Baltimore City's office market like cancer, with more than $1 billion in property value erased since 2020. The rapid decline of the commercial tax base in the downtown area is colliding with deep structural crises, including violent crime, a continued population collapse (now at a 100-year low), fiscal mess, and the increasing risk that the unhinged left-wing politicians in City Hall will hike taxes on working poor households to offset the shortfall. What you're seeing in Baltimore is a death spiral:

Ruthless Taxation And The Hyperstate: How Germany Profits From Crisis Submitted by Thomas Kolbe, The Hormuz crisis offers us a profound insight into the real power structures in Germany. Nothing seems able to convince the Berlin monolith to partially shield its citizens from the consequences at gas stations through tax cuts. It is now unavoidable that the Iran shock will translate into an inflation driver, working its way through economic value chains into consumer prices. These developments almost force a reduction of the tax burden on households and the middle class. It may sound strange to climate socialists, but wealth is created exclusively

Alleged Chinese Spy Ship Lurking Near U.S. Base In Qatar Raises Questions The War Zone's Ian Ellis posted on X about a suspicious Chinese vessel operating in the Gulf area, which he described as a "Chinese surveillance ship" with "close ties" to the People's Liberation Army. According to Ellis, Hai Yang Shi You (285) was moored not long ago, just 10 miles from U.S. assets, raising concerns about Chinese intelligence-gathering activity in the region amid the US-Iran conflict. > Chinese surveillance ship Hai Yang Shi You (285) got underway in the Gulf again, just before the ceasefire was set to expire. > The dual-use

"We Have All The Cards": Trump Cancels Witkoff-Kushner Trip To Pakistan For Iran Talks SUMMARY * Araghchi has responded - saying that he has conveyed Iran's position, waiting to see if The US "is truly serious about diplomacy" * In a sharp reversal, Trump has personally canceled the Witkoff-Kushner trip to Pakistan * Iran denies that FM Abbas Araghchi's trip to Pakistan will include new talks with US, rejecting reports that Trump is sent his negotiating team to restart negotiations. * 24/7 shuttle diplomacy (via Al Jazeera): There’' been shuttle diplomacy, and as one diplomat said, it's been relentless diplomacy that has been

The Technate Was Always Coming Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com, AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT (BESIDES COMPLAINING). Palantir dropped a manifesto last weekend. 22 bullet points distilled from Alex Karp’s book The Technological Republic, posted to X with the casual framing of “because we get asked a lot.” I haven’t seen a reaction so widespread, unanimously opposed and viscerally aghast since James Damore’s infamous “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber”. The usual suspects lost their shit. Engadget called it “the ramblings of a comic book villain.” TechCrunch clutched its pearls at the bits about “regressive” cultures and “vacant and hollow pluralism.” Bellingcat’s Eliot Higgins observed, (via Bluesky, of

The Petroyuan Myth: War Failed To Shake The Dollar Authored by Antonio Graceffo via The Epoch Times, Despite sanctions and two wars, the yuan is losing ground, with much of its earlier rise tied to Russia and now reversing. The Kremlin drafted a memo this year outlining seven areas of potential economic convergence with Washington, including a proposed return to dollar settlement for Russian energy transactions. The stated rationale in the memo is that dollar integration would stabilize Russia’s balance of payments and foreign exchange markets. Russia never actually wanted to transact business in yuan. Moscow only did so because it was cut

FBI Spooked By 15 Stolen Crop-Spraying Drones In New Jersey What has become extraordinarily clear is that nearly every data center, stadium, government building, power plant, substation, and other critical infrastructure site shares one major vulnerability: the lack of a low-cost, early-warning detection layer against one-way attack drones. Additionally, Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) architecture should include a kinetic countermeasure layer designed to defeat threats before impact. Without this layered approach, most critical infrastructure remains highly vulnerable to cheap kamikaze drones. When reports emerge, such as the recent case in New Jersey where 15 crop-spraying drones were reportedly stolen in what investigators described as

Launching AI Into Orbit Authored by Timothy Murphy via RealClearDefense, The Strait of Hormuz reminds us that a single chokepoint can shape the global economy overnight. What most policymakers miss is that space has its own version of Hormuz—and we are rapidly losing control of it. Multiple sectors of the global economy are dependent on access to the Strait of Hormuz, but nations are becoming ever more reliant upon access to space to drive their economies. Similar to the Strait, the key corridor in space is Low Earth Orbit (LEO). All space systems are dependent upon access to it (either directly or

Top US Diplomat Takes Post In Caracas As Part Of Post-Maduro Transition Plan For the first time in many years, the United States has a top diplomat officially in residence representing Washington to Venezuela. Veteran US diplomat John M. Barrett has arrived in Caracas to serve as chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy in Venezuela, the mission announced Thursday, marking a new phase in Washington's diplomatic presence in Venezuela, and after a US military raid on Jan.3 ousted and captured longtime leader Nicolás Maduro. Image via Prensa Libre Barrett is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, and he was tapped by the Trump

Trump Admin Pitching US Companies To Rebuild Gulf Infrastructure Hit By Iran, Arab Officials Say 'Tone-Deaf' Via Middle East Eye The Trump administration has told several Gulf states that they should use American companies to rebuild their infrastructure damaged by Iran's retaliatory strikes amid the US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic, US and Arab officials familiar with the discussions told Middle East Eye. Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE are among the countries the US has tapped as potential customers for US engineering, manufacturing and construction firms, given the extent of damage in their countries, the officials told MEE. Smoke rises following a strike on the Bapco oil refinery, amid the

Malaria Is Still Endemic In 80 Countries Significant progress has been made in the fight against malaria over the last two decades, according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2024, 80 countries (including the territory of French Guiana) remained endemic for the disease, down from 108 in 2000. The number of deaths have also declined since the turn of the century, with the WHO estimating that 610,000 people died from the disease in 2024, compared with 864,000 in 2000.  Recent years have brought further milestones. Cabo Verde and Egypt were certified as malaria-free in 2024, followed by Timor-Leste, Suriname and Georgia in 2025. To

The Final Battle For Your Mind Authored by Casey Fleming via The Epoch Times, Your phone buzzes. A notification lights up your screen—an article, a meme, a fun video, a flash sale, or the latest trend. It feels harmless, even entertaining. Just another moment in the endless rhythm of digital life. But beneath the surface lies something far more sinister. The seemingly trivial event is part of a quiet, persistent system designed to influence something deeply personal: your mind. U.S. intelligence agencies have made the scope of this issue increasingly clear. Certain foreign-developed applications, particularly those linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),

The WHO Is Building A Supranational Vaccine Authorization Mechanism Authored by Yaffa Shir-Raz via Brownstone Institute,  > “I need to ask someone else to take responsibility for the second part of the approvals process, so that I won’t have a conflict of interest. I’m also working with Bill Gates and the World Health Organization on the vaccine itself.” This admission of a conflict of interest was made by Prof. Lester Schulman, secretary of the Ministry of Health’s polio committee, in March 2023, during an internal discussion about approving the importation into Israel of a new polio vaccine. The vaccine was developed and promoted

Should Democrats Fear A Supreme Court October Surprise That Could Save The Senate For The GOP? There has been a lot of speculation about potential Supreme Court vacancies this year, mostly centered on Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Even President Donald Trump seems anxious about the possibility. In a recent interview with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo, Trump revealed that he has a shortlist of potential Supreme Court nominees ready in the event of a vacancy and signaled he’s prepared to fill multiple seats if the opportunity arises.  "In theory, it's two - you just read the statistics - it could be

'Spies Inside The Holy See': Report Reveals US Espionage Campaign Targeting Pope Leo Via The Cradle The administration of US President Donald Trump has been "spying" on Pope Leo XIV as part of a years-long intelligence campaign by Washington against the Vatican, US investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein said in a report released Friday.  Klippenstein – an independent, Washington-based investigative journalist who formerly wrote for The Intercept – cited sources as saying that Trump's recent comments on the new Pope were taken by the intelligence community as "a directive to prioritize spying on the Vatican." via Reuters Trump had said earlier this month that Pope Leo was "terrible on foreign

18 Shocking Facts That Prove The US Economy Is In Far Worse Shape Than Most People Realize Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, The economy has been the number one issue for U.S. voters for several years in a row, and it isn’t because things are good. Consumer confidence is at an all-time low, inflation is starting to accelerate once again, mass layoffs are being conducted all over the nation, and delinquencies and foreclosures are soaring. Nobody can dispute any of the facts that I am about to share with you. We have an enormous economic mess on our hands,

Crypto Industry On Track To Surpass 2024 Spending On Texas Midterms Crypto super PACs scored big in the 2024 midterms, backing 53 of 58 candidates who won seats in Congress nationwide - including four from Texas. (Azul Sordo/The Texas Tribune, Azul Sordo/The Texas Tribune) This cycle, the same groups are pouring money into a fresh slate of Texas contenders and are on track to exceed their 2024 spending levels in the state, according to KSAT.  Two major PACs - Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress - have already committed more than $2.5 million to Texas candidates this year, according to the latest Federal Election Commission

Federal Appeals Court Allows Texas To Enforce State Immigration Law Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times, A divided federal appeals court on April 24 allowed Texas to enforce a state law that permits the arrest and prosecution of individuals thought to have unlawfully crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit voted 10–7 to undo a 2024 injunction that had prevented enforcement of the law known as Senate Bill 4. Initially, the former Biden administration had challenged the statute, but the second Trump administration dropped the challenge in March 2025. SB 4, which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott,

DOJ Re-Adopts Executions By Firing Squad As It Strengthens Federal Death Penalty The Department of Justice on Friday directed the Bureau of Prisons to expand death penalty protocols to include pentobarbital injections and firing squads as part of broader actions to strengthen the federal death penalty, Fox News reports.  "Today, the Department of Justice acted to restore its solemn duty to seek, obtain, and implement lawful capital sentences — clearing the way for the Department to carry out executions once death-sentenced inmates have exhausted their appeals," the DOJ memo obtained by Fox News read. "Among the actions taken are readopting the lethal injection

The court sided with a Canadian hiker who deliberately challenged the order imposed to curb spread of wildfires As wildfires raged across Nova Scotia last summer, the Canadian province made a simple plea to residents: stay away from the woods. As the situation deteriorated, authorities turned the request into a prohibition: anyone caught hiking under the shade of the forest canopy faced a C$25,000 fine – a figure more than half the average worker’s yearly salary. Continue reading...

OpenAI said the company had identified an account using abuse-detection efforts, but determined at the time it didn’t meet threshold for legal referral The head of OpenAI has written a letter apologizing that his company didn’t alert law enforcement about the online behavior of a person who shot and killed eight people in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. In the letter posted on Friday, Sam Altman expressed his deepest condolences to the entire community. Continue reading...

Small boat destroyed in video posted on social media as US campaign has killed at least 178 people since September The US military announced on Friday that it killed two people in an attack on a boat in the eastern Pacific, part of a series of deadly strikes on vessels in recent months which it claims are targeting “narco-trafficking” operations. The US Southern Command declared in a social media post on X that Gen Francis L Donovan directed Joint Task Force Southern Spear, the counter-narcotics unit that operates in the region, to carry out a lethal strike. The US military posted a

Internal email proposes US should reassess support for UK claim to islands because of lack of support for Iran war * UK politics live – latest updates Downing Street has been forced to insist that Britain will not yield sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, after a leaked Pentagon email proposed the US should reassess its support for the UK’s claim on the islands because of a lack of British support over Iran. The memo reflected ways in which the Trump administration could punish Britain for failing to follow the US lead in bombing Iran, and comes before a potentially fraught three-day state

Languorous tree dwellers from Guyana and Peru died from ‘cold stun’ in warehouse with no power or running water * Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Wildlife officials in Florida said in a newly released report that dozens of sloths taken from South American rainforests for display at a controversial new tourist attraction in Orlando died in the care of their new owners. An incident report from the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) said that 31 of the mammals procured from Peru and Guyana by the owners of a forthcoming attraction called Sloth World perished in a

The rival superpowers are ramping up preparations for a crewed lunar landing nearly six decades after the first moon walk The world watched earlier this month as Nasa sent four astronauts around the moon – but to actually land on the surface the US is once again in a space race, this time with China. And China may well win. Both countries plan to build inhabited lunar bases – the first settlement on another celestial body – as well as searching for rare resources and using the deep space environment to test technology for future crewed missions to Mars. Continue reading...

After a two-year wait, video of a young male crossing above a road gives hope that critically endangered species can survive habitat fragmentation The critically endangered Sumatran orangutan has been filmed for the first time using a canopy bridge to cross a road. In 2024, conservationists in the Pakpak Bharat district of North Sumatra in Indonesia built the bridge high over the Lagan-Pagindar road, which provides an essential route for local people but which became a barrier for animals. Continue reading...

As domestic sales slow, manufacturers are investing in AI and seeking growth in technology and in overseas markets At the world’s biggest car fair, which opened in Beijing on Friday, there were hundreds of manufacturers, more than 1,000 vehicles, hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts – and hardly anyone behind a wheel. China’s car companies have cornered the domestic electric vehicle market, and are increasingly visible on the global stage. Now they are turning their attention to what they are betting is the future of mobility: autonomous driving. Continue reading...

Officials hope more casual attire for public servants will save electricity during Iran war as summer heat approaches Public servants working for the Tokyo metropolitan government are being encouraged to swap their suits for shorts this summer to combat sweltering heat and rising energy costs caused by the US-Israel war on Iran. Inspired by Japan’s Cool Biz energy-saving initiative, Tokyo officials hope the measure will cut dependence on air conditioning. Continue reading...

David Pocock says prime minister – who is trying to shore up fuel supplies – is parroting industry talking points * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Labor is poised to reject a growing push for a new 25% tax on gas exports in next month’s budget, prompting David Pocock to accuse the government of “caving in” to the gas industry. It’s understood the government has elected not to pursue a new tax on gas exports in the budget, prompted in part by the global oil crisis

Alex Greenwich says inquest crucial to understand what failures led to Bikram Lama’s death and avoid similar deaths * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The New South Wales attorney-general, Michael Daley, has been urged to order an inquest into the death of Nepali rough sleeper Bikram Lama in Hyde Park. The death of Lama – who was also known as “the birdman” for his love of the area’s pigeons – has prompted widespread calls for change, after Guardian Australia revealed last week that the young migrant’s body lay unnoticed for up to a week in bushes

Calls for more security measures after man, 51, arrested over alleged assaults at Prince of Wales hospital * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A hospital attack that left a nurse seriously injured has fuelled calls for improved safety and security after several violent incidents in emergency departments. Police restrained a 51-year-old patient after he allegedly assaulted several nurses, police and a member of the public in a Saturday night melee at Sydney’s Prince of Wales hospital. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The health and NDIS minister, Mark Butler, says Queensland will be “answerable to their community” if they don’t sign on to NDIS reforms, with billions of dollars of hospital funding on the line. Every state and territory except for the sunshine state has signed a bilateral agreement with the government for the Thriving Kids program, which is designed to take children under nine with developmental delays or low to moderate autism off the NDIS. Now every state and territory has signed a bilateral agreement with us

Opposition leader doubles down on immigration policy and defends preferencing One Nation over independent in Farrer in ABC interview * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has said “there is a higher risk that some bad people come from those bad countries”, doubling down on his immigration policy and refusing to call out Pauline Hanson’s hardline stance. Speaking to the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, Taylor said Indigenous welcome to country ceremonies were overused, after booing incidents at some of Saturday’s Anzac

Footage posted online shows police telling people they were being removed due to suspicion they would interrupt ceremony * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Western Australian police say they proactively blocked 15 members of “issue motivated groups” from attending Anzac Day commemorations, following disruptions that marred earlier ceremonies in the eastern states. One man was arrested at the Sydney dawn service at Martin Place, where there was a small but noisy interjection of booing during the Indigenous acknowledgment of country. Booing also marred ceremonies in Melbourne

Trade union criticises airline’s plan to halve passenger numbers to the city as ‘purely profit-oriented’ Ryanair is to shut its Berlin operating base and cut its winter schedule to the German capital in half, blaming soaring aviation taxes in the country. The Irish budget carrier said its relocation of seven aircraft to other centres would reduce its Berlin passenger numbers from 4.5 million to 2.2 million a year, with flights in and out of the city served from October by planes based at other airports. Continue reading...

Killhouse is based on real-life story of civilian couple saved from battlefield by Ukrainian drone operators It is being billed as Ukraine’s answer to Saving Private Ryan, updated for an age of drones. The war movie Killhouse is an action thriller which shows off the latest in battlefield technology. Released this week, it features cameos by figures well known in Ukraine, including the nation’s former military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov. One missing person is Donald Trump. The film is conveniently set in 2024, when Washington and Kyiv were allies. Continue reading...

French president cites joint military aid to Cyprus as proof of Europe’s ability to defend itself during trip to Athens Emmanuel Macron has spoken up for Europe’s ability to defend itself, saying a mutual assistance clause, enshrined in the EU treaty, was unambiguous and “not just words”. The French president said the pact had already been proved in action when several member states sent military aid to Cyprus after a drone attack against a British airbase on the island on 28 February. Continue reading...

Dnipro bore the brunt of the attacks but Odesa and Kharkiv were also targeted in largest onslaught for several days Russian drone and missile strikes across Ukraine killed at least seven people overnight, including five in the city of Dnipro, Ukrainian local authorities have said. Reports say that at least 34 people have been injured in the strikes, which lasted “practically all night”, according to the Dnipropetrovsk regional head, Oleksandr Hanzha. The bodies of four people were found in the ruins of a house destroyed in the attacks, and workers continued to search for bodies on Saturday morning. Continue reading...

Italian newspapers claim singer and actor, who is tipped to be next James Bond, are planning ‘wedding of the year’ in the city Last July, Dua Lipa shared a series of photos on Instagram while on holiday in Palermo with Callum Turner, the British actor she had become engaged to weeks earlier. In these photos, the pair appeared radiantly in love with each other – and the Sicilian capital. There were pictures of the couple strolling through the city’s vibrant baroque alleys, admiring the ceiling frescoes in its striking cathedral and enjoying sunset boat trips. In another, a smiling Turner is holding

This blog is now closed We have some images coming through the newswires of Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, speaking with Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, and other officials in Islamabad this morning. Araghchi arrived in Pakistan last night. He wrote on social media that his trip would focus on “bilateral matters and regional developments”. Continue reading...

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were to travel to Islamabad to attempt to revive ceasefire negotiations Donald Trump said he has told US envoys not to go to Pakistan for more talks with Iran, shortly after Tehran’s top diplomat left Islamabad late on Saturday. Trump added to Fox News: “They can call us anytime they want.” The White House on Friday said Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would travel to Pakistan’s capital to attempt to revive ceasefire negotiations. Continue reading...

Testimony emerges from Babak Alipour, who spent three years on death row before being taken to gallows in March Writing from his cell in the Rajai Shahr prison in the northern Iranian city of Karaj, Babak Alipour wanted to tell his friends about those who had already gone to their execution. There was Behrouz Ehsani, 69, the elder statesman of the group, who was “never angry” about their predicament. Then there was Mehdi Hassani, a 48-year-old father of three who he saw a couple of times in the prison hospital and who would ask him to pass on to the children the

This live blog is now closed. For the latest, read our full report: * Trump sending Witkoff and Kushner to Pakistan to resume talks on Iran war The EU’s foreign chief has said that talks with Iran should include nuclear experts otherwise “we will end up with a more dangerous Iran.” Speaking on Friday ahead of an informal summit of EU leaders in Cyprus, EU’s foreign chief Kaja Kallas said: “If the talks are only about the nuclear and there are no nuclear experts around the table, then we will end up with an agreement that is weaker than the JCPOA was.” Continue

White House says its Middle East envoys will meet Tehran’s foreign minister in Islamabad * Middle East crisis – live updates Donald Trump is sending his Middle East envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan to resume negotiations to end the war with Iran, which has lasted nearly eight weeks. The White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed the travel on Friday, saying that Witkoff and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, would meet Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, in Islamabad. Continue reading...

Officials assessing route after serac between base camp and camp one deemed unstable and too risky for climbers A large ice block on the route just above the Mount Everest base camp has forced hundreds of climbers and local guides to delay their attempt to scale the world’s highest peak. The serac between base camp and camp one was unstable and risky for climbers, said Himal Gautam of Nepal’s department of mountaineering on Friday. Continue reading...

Foreign ministry calls remarks of rightwing podcast host shared by Trump ‘uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste’ The Indian government has denounced a social media post shared by Donald Trump that described India as a “hellhole”, calling the comments inappropriate and “in poor taste”. On Wednesday, Trump posted a four-page transcription of remarks made by the conservative podcast host Michael Savage that denounced the US constitutional right to citizenship of everyone born in the country. Continue reading...

British foreign secretary told to impose new measures as ruble-pegged cryptocurrency A7A5 is supported in country More than 20 MPs and peers have called on the foreign secretary to take action against institutions and individuals in Kyrgyzstan allegedly facilitating large-scale Russian sanctions evasion. They urged the UK to levy personal sanctions against three top Kyrgyz officials for their alleged role in facilitating Russian sanctions evasion more broadly, and more specifically for allowing Kyrgyzstan to host infrastructure supporting the cryptocurrency A7A5. Continue reading...

Experts say Muslims and other minorities have been disproportionately deleted from the electoral roll ahead of the West Bengal elections this week Millions of people in the Indian state of West Bengal have been stripped of their vote ahead of a critical state election this week, after a controversial electoral revision described by critics as a “bloodless political genocide” and mass disenfranchisement of minorities. In West Bengal, a total of 9.1 million names have been deleted from the register, more than 10% of the electorate. While many were dead or duplicates, about 2.7 million people have challenged their expulsions, but still been

Islamabad has seized chance to act as mediator in Iran war and hopes to reap diplomatic and economic benefits As Pakistan works frantically to narrow differences between Iran and the US in its newfound role as global peacemaker, it is also seeking to recast its diplomatic standing and attract business. Pakistani officials, mediating between an unpredictable US president and hardliners in Tehran, were on Monday trying to coax both sides to put the conditions in place for a second round of talks in Islamabad this week, including easing the standoff in the strait of Hormuz. Pakistan was optimistic that the meeting would

Prime minister says his job is not at risk over Mandelson vetting as allies back him against claims of wrongdoing Keir Starmer has said he will lead Labour into the next general election, as his Downing Street allies denied claims of any wrongdoing over the appointment and vetting of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador. It has been a bruising week for the prime minister after the Guardian revealed that he appointed the former Labour grandee despite vetting officials recommending that he be denied security clearance. His handling of the row was called into question, including his swift decision to sack the Foreign

Police say incident in Dunmurry in which no one was hurt shows ‘murderous intent still exists’ in paramilitaries “Murderous intent and capability” still exists within paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, officers have said after a car exploded outside a police station on the outskirts of Belfast. Detectives said they believed the New IRA was involved and are treating it as attempted murder. Continue reading...

Prime minister has shed trusted staffers but can still turn to many genuine friends in and out of government Given that the signs of an embattled premiership are all around – defensive-sounding interviews insisting he will be in post at the next election; a rush of stories about supposed cabinet plotting – now, more than ever, Keir Starmer needs real allies. And here, at least, there is something to feel positive about. If you talk to most Labour MPs, Starmer most likely will not lead Labour into the next election. He may even not remain in No 10 much beyond a set

Exclusive: Investigation into campaigning materials for local polls in May challenges tactical voting claims Election leaflets are providing “grotesque” information about how to vote tactically in the May elections, using national polling data, “dodgy” bar charts and doorstep surveys to support claims about parties’ chances of winning. Leaflets distributed by local politicians across England are claiming that only their party can win, or that another party “can’t win here”, when there is no good evidence to show this is true, a Full Fact investigation for the Guardian has revealed. Continue reading...

Buckingham Palace says talks taking place in light of gunman’s attempt to storm dinner attended by Trump * US politics live – latest updates King Charles’s security is being reviewed before his state visit to the US this week after a gunman attempted to storm a dinner with Donald Trump in Washington DC, Buckingham Palace has said. Guests at the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night hid under tables when gunshots were heard, as the Secret Service evacuated the president and other members of his administration. Continue reading...

Todd Blanche says 31-year-old suspect will be charged with assault of a federal officer, discharging a firearm and attempting to kill a federal officer * Suspected gunman at White House press dinner named * ‘We went under the table screaming’: reactions from the White House correspondents’ dinner shooting Donald Trump took to Trump Social on Sunday to repeat his statement from the night before in which he said the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner was why a White House ballroom was necessary. “What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for

Pesident presses case for controversial $400m project following White House correspondents’ dinner shooting The shooting at the Washington Hilton hotel gives new urgency to the project to construct a 1,000-seat ballroom at the White House, Donald Trump claimed after the incident on Saturday night. The US president pressed the case for his controversial ballroom initiative at the press conference he held at the White House on Saturday and a social media post on Sunday, after an armed attacker was arrested as he rushed towards the Hilton’s ballroom, where Trump was attending the White House Correspondents Association’s annual dinner. Continue reading...

Acting attorney general says suspect was believed to have been targeting top Trump administration officials The gunman who tried to breach the ballroom at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington DC on Saturday night is believed to have been targeting Donald Trump and senior members of his administration, the acting US attorney general, Todd Blanche, said on Sunday. The suspect, who is in custody after being subdued by members of law enforcement as he rushed through the hotel venue, could be charged with trying to assassinate the US president, Blanche said. Continue reading...

Law enforcement agencies name Cole Tomas Allen as Trump posts video of man sprinting through checkpoint * US politics live – latest updates The suspected gunman in the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner that has roiled Washington has been identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old man from southern California. Allen, of Torrance, a suburb of Los Angeles, has no record of criminal charges or a civil court history in Los Angeles county, according to a records search. Continue reading...

Special session comes after Virginia voted to redraw maps and as Trump pressures Republicans to protect House majority Florida begins a special session on Tuesday in what may be the last front of the redistricting war before the 2026 election, with Republicans trying to redraw maps to pick up more seats in Congress. Lawmakers enter the session in Tallahassee cloaked in mystery, with no preview of a proposed map to consider and no clear path for Republicans to increase their representation in what appears to be a hostile year for their party. Continue reading...

Social media posts that appear to match the California man arrested on Saturday in the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer. A May 2025 profile photo of Cole Tomas Allen of Torrence, California, appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted on Saturday night by US President Donald Trump. The photo, posted to the professional networking site...

Watch a cheap commercial drone destroy a battle tank on the frontlines in Ukraine, or a cut-price Iranian Shahed menace Tel Aviv, then ask yourself why Southeast Asia’s defence ministries are suddenly very interested in unmanned aerial vehicles. The answer was on full display last week at the Defence Services Asia (DSA) exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, where vendors from Abu Dhabi to Pretoria were chasing deals in one of the global arms trade’s hottest emerging markets. “There is huge demand from the...

It was meant to be a glitzy Saturday night at a Washington ballroom featuring President Donald Trump, but the glamour was shattered by gunshots that left guests diving to the floor and the US leader bundled out by security personnel. Trump was seated on the dais at the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner – the first time he is attending as president – when loud bangs disrupted the revelry and caused him and others on stage to look up in alarm. Video captured by news outlets...

Student mental health is a matter of great concern. According to the latest data from the Education Bureau, the number of secondary students with mental health issues has doubled over the past five years, from 660 in 2020-21 to 1,330 in 2024-25. In recent years, the government and various stakeholders in society have worked to halt the continued rise in student suicides. However, the number of suspected suicide cases still rose by 10 per cent between 2024 and 2025, from 28 to 31. To help...

US President Donald Trump and other top administration officials were likely targets of a gunman who tried to storm a White House correspondents’ dinner, the acting US attorney general said on Sunday, after a major security breach in the heart of Washington. Chaos erupted at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night as shots were fired near a security checkpoint outside the subterranean ballroom where the glitzy, high-profile event was being held. Secret Service agents, weapons drawn, rushed to...

An explosive device killed 13 people travelling on a bus in southwestern Colombia on Saturday, an attack the country’s army chief described as a “terrorist act” that also left at least 38 injured as violence linked to drug trafficking in the region escalates. Octavio Guzman, the governor of the region of Cauca, said on social media that the device was set off while the bus was travelling along the Panamerican Highway in the municipality of Cajibio. Five children were among the injured, Cauca...

Lebanese state media reported a series of new Israeli strikes in the country’s south on Saturday night, after attacks earlier in the day killed six people despite a recently extended ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah. The new attacks followed orders from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the military to “forcefully attack Hezbollah targets” after the army accused it of breaching the truce. Lebanon’s health ministry had said earlier that “Israeli enemy strikes on a...

Hungary’s outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he would not take up his seat in parliament following his party’s landslide defeat in this month’s election but wants to stay on as Fidesz’s leader to lead a process of “renewal”. The most dominant figure in Hungarian politics since the fall of communism in 1989, Orban has sat in Hungary’s legislature for 36 years without interruption, serving as prime minister for the past sixteen years. “I’m not needed in parliament now but in the...

A former University of South Florida student has been charged with killing his roommate and the roommate’s girlfriend – two doctoral students from Bangladesh who disappeared earlier this month, authorities said Saturday. Hisham Abugharbieh, 26, is facing two counts of premeditated murder in the first degree with a weapon in the deaths of Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy, students at USF, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. He made an initial court appearance Saturday in Tampa,...

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad again on Sunday, just hours after US President Donald Trump told his special envoys not to go to Pakistan for ceasefire talks. Araghchi had left Pakistan’s capital on Saturday night after meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir. Pakistan has been trying to get US and Iranian officials back to the negotiating table after Trump last week announced that a two-week...

Pope Leo has called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty on Saturday, a day after the US administration mulled expanding the penalty. “The dignity of the person is not lost even after very serious crimes are committed,” Leo said in a video message marking the 15th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in his home state of Illinois. “The Catholic Church has consistently taught that each human life, from the moment of conception until natural death, is sacred and deserves...

Palestinians on Saturday buried a woman pregnant with twins and two of her children who were among at least 13 people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza. The toll on Friday included two men who were killed in Gaza City, and eight others killed in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to local hospitals. Officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said the eight people, including four police officers, were killed after Israel targeted a police vehicle. While the heaviest fighting has mostly...

Afghanistan’s foreign ministry says Afghans who helped America’s war effort and have been stuck in Qatar in the hope of reaching the United States can safely return to Afghanistan. The statement on Saturday by foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi comes after reports emerged that the Trump administration is in discussions to potentially send 1,100 Afghans who assisted the US during its war in Afghanistan, and relatives of US service members, to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). An...

An attack by “unknown armed terrorists” has been carried out on military barracks and other targets in the capital Bamako, the military in Mali reported on Saturday. Attacks had also occurred in other locations in the country, the general staff reported. Fighting was ongoing, a brief statement said. Witnesses reported intense fighting in a town near the capital where junta leader General Assimi Goita lives, and in other key cities. Mali, a landlocked West African country, has been ruled by a...

Every time a European leader lands in Beijing with a business delegation, the same speculation follows: is the Atlantic consensus beginning to crack? Is part of Europe drifting towards China and away from Washington? In Spain’s case, the drama expires on contact with the record. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s four visits to Beijing in four years have not produced a European pivot, a strategic vision or a narrower trade imbalance. They have produced market access for agricultural goods. Call it...

Argentina has called for talks with the UK over the Falkland Islands after reports the US could review its position on the South Atlantic territory in retaliation for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s lack of support for the war in Iran. Downing Street had earlier insisted the sovereignty of the Falklands was “not in question”. That came after a leaked internal Pentagon email set out options for President Donald Trump’s administration to punish Nato allies for refusing to join the US-Israeli strikes...

Russian strikes across Ukraine killed at least six people, officials said on Saturday, most of them in an attack on a residential building in the eastern city of Dnipro. Over 30 people were injured, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia launched 47 ballistic and cruise missiles as well as 619 drones of various types. Ukraine has been warding off a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022. Air raid sirens sounded across the country with residents urged to...

Financial markets, stock markets especially, appear able to defy gravity despite the global geopolitical and economic situation. A plethora of institutional and individual explanations have been offered as to why, but most seem to miss the point. Which is, at least in part, that we have created a kind of monster in the asset management industry, which channels a glut of global savings into a limited number of investment areas and which, by virtue of these captive inflows, is able to maintain...

An unusual series of cargoes of military-grade fuel that is due to sail from the US across the Pacific Ocean illustrates how far the war in Iran has disrupted the global oil supply chain. A request for offers to ship 235,000 barrels of jet fuel from Cherry Point in Blaine, Washington, where BP has a refinery, to Subic Bay in the Philippines, a strategic access point and logistics hub for US naval operations, was issued on Thursday, according to a document seen by Bloomberg. The cargo is...

More than 4 million small parcels from China have arrived at the freight airport in Liege, Belgium, every day since the beginning of the year. On the receiving end, the Belgian customs inspection team at the airport has only 80 members. Belgium’s top customs official, Kristian Vanderwaeren, said the airport, close to the Netherlands, Germany and France, was built, in part, to cater to e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Shein, Temu and Alibaba. But the “explosion” in the number of small parcels...

Amid the rubble of the US-Israel war on Iran, a new Middle East appears to be taking shape as a constellation of regional powers jockey for a seat at the table. Led by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the grouping stretches from the Gulf across the Caucasus to Central and South Asia, binding together countries with overlapping interests, interlocking partnerships and a shared conviction: that the post-war order should not be dictated exclusively by the US-Israel alliance or Iran and its battered but...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the United States of ⁠abandoning internationally recognised diplomatic ⁠conventions in pursuit of its ⁠own interests, particularly in dominating energy markets, in an interview broadcast on Friday. Lavrov, interviewed by Russian state television, said Washington, in its dealings with Latin America and the Middle East, was “taking us back to a world where ‌nothing existed” in international law. “The United States has officially declared that no one...

The World Health Organization announced on Friday that it had given prequalification approval to a malaria treatment for newborns and infants for the first time. Artemether-lumefantrine is the first antimalarial formulation designed specifically for the youngest victims of the mosquito-borne disease. “The prequalification designation indicates that the medicine meets international standards of quality, safety and efficacy,” the WHO said in a statement. Up to now, infants have been treated with...

Another day, another big humiliation for William Lai Ching-te. The Taiwanese leader effectively had to cancel a visit to eSwatini, the island’s last partner in Africa, for the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession to the throne and his 58th birthday. Taiwan said the visit was “postponed” after the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar cancelled their previously approved overflight permission without warning. Lai and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)...

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has apologised to a Canadian town devastated by a February mass shooting, saying he was “deeply sorry” the company did not tell police about the killer’s troubling ChatGPT account. OpenAI had banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025, eight months before the 18-year-old woman killed eight people at her home and a school in the tiny British Columbia mining town of Tumbler Ridge. The account was banned over concerns about usage linked to violent...

G7 countries on Friday insisted on their support for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), warning of the dangers from a Russian and Chinese build-up. “We are concerned with China’s and Russia’s significant nuclear weapons build-up and modernisation,” the G7 Non-proliferation Directors Group said in a statement published on the French foreign ministry website. The group brings together the diplomats from the Group of Seven countries – Britain, Canada, France, Germany,...

The Trump administration is placing economic sanctions on a major China-based oil refinery and roughly 40 shipping companies and tankers involved in transporting Iranian oil. The move, announced on Friday, makes good on the Trump administration’s threat to impose secondary sanctions on companies and countries that do business with Iran. It is also part of the Republican administration’s overall ramped-up campaign to cut off Iran’s key source of revenue – its oil exports. Concurrently, the US...

The Trump Justice Department said on Friday it was seeking to expand the use of the death penalty in federal capital cases and add the firing squad, electrocution and gas to lethal injection as methods of execution. “The prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. Under US...

The US and the European Union on Friday deepened their coordination on critical minerals as part of a broader push by Western allies to loosen China’s grip on materials crucial to advanced manufacturing. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic signed a memorandum of understanding for a ‌partnership on producing and securing critical minerals. Rubio did not mention China in his remarks, but said the preliminary agreement with Brussels reflected growing awareness...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday there was no prospect of Ukraine’s “immediate accession” to the EU, but suggested Kyiv could join meetings of the bloc’s members without voting rights. Ukraine is pushing to speed up its bid to join the 27-nation European Union as it fights Russia’s invasion on the battlefield. Kyiv’s progress has been blocked by Hungary’s nationalist premier Viktor Orban, but his defeat in elections earlier this month raised hopes it can move to the next step. EU...

A proposed bill to allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales to choose to end their lives failed on Friday as parliamentary time ran out, nearly a year since elected members of parliaments gave their backing. Though the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was passed by the House of Commons last June, the UK’s revising chamber, the House of Lords, effectively talked it out since then. Proponents of what has been termed “assisted dying” – sometimes referred to as “assisted suicide” –...

The US Justice Department has ended its probe into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, clearing a major roadblock to the confirmation of his successor, Kevin Warsh. US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeannine Pirro said on X on Friday that her office was ending its probe into the Fed’s extensive building renovations because the Fed’s inspector general would scrutinise them instead. The decision ends an investigation, one of several undertaken by the Justice Department into President...

The Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it will offer ultra-fast review to three psychedelic drugs being developed to treat mental health conditions, including depression, the latest indication of the Trump administration’s commitment to the experimental treatment approach. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last weekend directing the FDA and other federal agencies to speed access and loosen restrictions on psychedelics, a class of hallucinogenic drugs which remain illegal...

Fifa’s resale site has four tickets on sale for the World Cup final for just under US$2.3 million each. The $2,299,998.85 seats for the July 19 match at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, are located behind a goal in the lower deck in block 124, row 45, seats 33-36. Fifa does not control the asking prices on its Resale/Exchange Marketplace but takes a 15 per cent purchase fee from the buyer of each ticket and a 15 per cent resale fee from the seller. An aisle seat 33 in block 146,...

Talks on forming a new Danish government are in stalemate one month on from the country’s parliamentary election, slowing decision-making amid efforts to resolve a crisis in ties with US President Donald Trump’s administration over Greenland. Caretaker Prime Minister Mette ‌Frederiksen, armed with a royal mandate, is leading coalition talks among the 12 parties in parliament but has so far only won support from left-wing groups, which is not enough to secure a parliamentary...

German prosecutors have charged a 46-year-old man on suspicion of serious sexual abuse of children via live streaming. The man, from the district of Heidenheim in southwestern Germany, is alleged to have paid female accomplices in the Philippines to carry out sexual abuse against girls aged between four and 13 in six instances, the Cybercrime Centre of the Karlsruhe Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Friday. Videos of the sexual abuse were reportedly streamed live to the man, while he directed...

The wind industry smells opportunity in Europe. At an expo in Madrid this week, the convention floor was abuzz as hundreds of European, American, Japanese and Korean exhibitors vied to pitch their products, knowing the continent urgently needs to shore up its energy security amid the US-Israel war on Iran. But there was one glaring absence: not a single company operating a booth was Chinese, with China’s participants only networking from the sidelines. At a time when many in Europe seek a rapid...

As my wife and I quaffed our way through a sumptuous five-course South African wine tasting dinner at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) early this week, the world food crisis and global food insecurity seemed a very long way away. Yet as the US war on Iran approached its third month, with the Strait of Hormuz still blocked and a host of critical commodities hostage to the conflict, our FCC wine dinners must surely be in jeopardy. More seriously, millions worldwide may face much...

US President Donald Trump’s order for the US to attack Iranian gunboats is the latest sign that an asymmetrical war-fighting strategy is stymieing the world’s mightiest navy, with US aircraft and destroyers forced to track swarming speedboats in a vital energy waterway. “I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be,” Trump said Thursday in a social media post, claiming that those vessels are laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz. The target –...

Hundreds of alleged Mara Salvatrucha gang members sat chained, shaved and mute as they were accused of murder and torture during a mass trial at El Salvador’s notorious CECOT jail on Thursday. Seated in neat columns of plastic chairs in the prison’s main hall, some 220 defendants were accused of collectively carrying out more than 29,000 murders. “We burned her genitals and buttocks” one witness said over the loudspeaker, testifying in a mass trial El Salvador’s president has compared to those...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Trump extends Iran ceasefire, claims interception of ‘gift from China’ US President Donald Trump announced a last-minute extension of the ceasefire with Iran following a request from Pakistan’s top leadership, even as he appeared to...

US President Donald Trump’s “gold card” visa, where a foreigner can shell out at least US$1 million to legally live and work in the US, has been approved for one person, said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Thursday – appearing to fall a bit short of an earlier claim. After it launched in December, Lutnick said that the government had sold US$1.3 billion “worth” in just several days, as Trump stood by holding up the gilded ticket and said, “essentially it’s the green card on steroids.” Lutnick...

A US special forces soldier involved in the military operation to capture former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has been charged with using classified information about the mission to win more than US$400,000 in an online betting market, federal officials announced on Thursday. Gannon Ken Van Dyke was part of the operation to capture Maduro in January and used his access to classified information to make money on the prediction market site Polymarket, the federal prosecutor’s office in New...

US President Donald Trump reposted a video and comments from a conservative pundit calling India a “hellhole”, prompting the South Asian country on Thursday to criticise the remarks as “inappropriate”. The comments come ahead of a planned visit next month to India by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who would seek to turn the page on recent tensions between the normally friendly powers. Trump late on Wednesday reposted on social media a video and a screed apparently written by someone else...

Israel and Lebanon agreed on Thursday to extend their ceasefire by three weeks after a second round of negotiations between their envoys in Washington, despite reports of violations of the truce from both sides. US President Donald Trump announced the extension on social media, saying Washington “is going to work with Lebanon in order to protect itself from Hezbollah”. “The Ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will be extended by THREE WEEKS,” he wrote, calling the meeting “very historic” and...

Senator Thom Tillis said he had received assurances from federal prosecutors that eased his concerns, setting the stage for a key committee vote on Kevin Warsh.

Legislation and regulatory tweaks enacted over the past year have altered who is eligible, what recipients can buy and how much some receive in benefits, among other changes.

President Trump posted surveillance footage of Nilufa Easmin’s brutal killing by another immigrant to advance his agenda. Behind the rhetoric was a more nuanced story.

President Isaac Herzog of Israel has decided not to issue a pardon to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his corruption case at this time, and instead will seek mediation, officials say.

When Jacqueline Pritchett’s 11-year-old son, Jacob, vanished last year, she refused to acknowledge that he existed. Her life is as mysterious as his disappearance.

Dwarkesh Patel was a bored college sophomore looking for intellectual stimulation. Now he commands interviews with Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg and holds his own with deeply nerdy A.I. researchers.

How ICE transformed a Chicago neighborhood.

MAHA propelled Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the White House. It may become his downfall.

We have the latest on the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner.

It was the largest outbreak in recent U.S. history.

A victory for the manufacturer, Bayer, could end thousands of lawsuits against the company claiming that the herbicide causes cancer.

About 40 percent of American adults believe that we are living in the “end times,” according to a 2022 poll. Where did that idea come from?