Minimalist News

Frontier Jet Hits Person On Takeoff, Engine Erupts In Flames At Denver A shocking runway security incident unfolded late Friday at Denver International Airport after Frontier Flight 4345, an Airbus A321 bound for Los Angeles, struck an individual during its takeoff roll, forcing the crew to abort. Full transcript of the ATC audio: Frontier 4345 (pilot): Tower, Frontier 4345, we're stopping on the runway. We just hit somebody and have an engine fire. DEN Tower: Frontier 4345, I see that. DEN Tower (to Frontier 4345): Frontier 4345, I'm going to be rolling the trucks now. Do you know if there

Austrian Hotel Defends Burkini Pool Ban As Hygiene Dispute With Muslim Guests Heads To Court Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News, A hotel in the Austrian city of Salzburg is defending its refusal to allow two women to use its pool while wearing burkinis, arguing that the decision was based on hygiene concerns rather than discrimination. The case is now before the Salzburg Administrative Court after the operators of the hotel in Pongau appealed fines imposed by the district authority, according to Salzburger Nachrichten . Boshra and Jasmina Amasha, two sisters from Upper Austria, had booked a short wellness

"Doesn't Look Good": Explosion Rocks Major New Orleans-Area Refinery As Fuel Markets Tighten A fire broke out Friday afternoon at PBF Energy's Chalmette refinery outside New Orleans, according to the facility. Reuters cited people familiar with the incident who said the 190,000-barrel-per-day Chalmette refinery suffered an explosion on Friday afternoon. The explosion can be traced to a reformer heater used to convert refining byproducts into octane-boosting components added to unfinished gasoline to make premium and mid-grade fuel blends. The 190,000-barrel-per-day refinery is one of the major Gulf Coast refineries because it produces gasoline, distillates, and specialty chemicals, so any sustained

Europe Sees 'Hyper-Concentration' Of Crypto 'Wrench Attacks' As Losses Hit $101 Million Authored by Stephen Katte via CoinTelegraph.com, Estimated losses from global crypto wrench attacks reached $101 million in the first four months of 2026, with most attacks occurring in Europe, according to Web3 security company CertiK. With just 34 documented crypto wrench attacks, the losses have nearly doubled those of 2025, which came in at $52.2 million. Europe accounted for 82% of incidents, according to CertiK. “Our 2025 report documented a gradual tilt from Asia and North America toward Europe, and these first four months of 2026 mark a

Intel Leak: Russia Mulled Giving Iran Un-Jammable Drones To Fight US Forces Russia offered Iran thousands of advanced drones built to bypass electronic jamming systems, along with training for attacks on US troops in the Middle East, according to a confidential intelligence document obtained and reviewed by The Economist . Already the two countries have deepened their defense ties in the context of the years-long Ukraine war, with Tehran providing tens of thousands of Shahed suicide drones, but this fresh allegation points to potential increasing Russian involvement against the United States in the Persian Gulf region . Illustrative file image,

Germany's AfD On Verge Of Absolute Majority In Eastern Saxony-Anhalt Just Months Before Election Via Remix News, With just one more point on election day, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is closing in on producing a political earthquake. According to a recent poll by Infratest dimap, the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt is pushing its lead even further, now at 41 percent. The poll also shows that for the CDU, establishing a government is becoming more difficult, especially since any realistic option besides the AfD appears to be a minority government. There are just four months until election day, and much could

We're "Ending The Days Of Hiding Fraud": Bessent Goes After Dark Money In Nonprofits Authored by Stu Cvrk via American Greatness, On April 23, the US Treasury Department announced that the IRS plans to revise Form 990 —the annual information return filed by tax-exempt organizations—to improve transparency and strengthen oversight, specifically targeting reporting on government contracts, government grants, and fiscal sponsorship arrangements . The stated goals are to detect misconduct and hold wrongdoers accountable. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put the matter bluntly: “ We are ending the days of hiding fraud, abuse, and extremist activity behind complicated nonprofit arrangements. When

The Day Civilization Runs Out Of Bread Will Not Feel Like Fiction Authored by Madge Waggy, For nearly three decades, much of the modern world behaved as though the nuclear age had quietly expired sometime in the early 1990s. The collapse of the Soviet Union created the comforting illusion that humanity had stepped away from the edge permanently, as if the terrifying balance that defined the Cold War had dissolved together with old political maps. Younger generations grew up hearing about nuclear drills, fallout shelters, and atomic panic the same way they heard about trench warfare or medieval plagues: as

The Rise Of AI Writing And The Decline Of Human Voice Artificial intelligence has become a powerful writing assistant, helping people draft emails, essays, marketing copy, and social media posts in seconds. But as these tools grow more popular, researchers are raising concerns about an unintended consequence: AI may be changing not just what we write, but how we communicate altogether, according to Axios . New research suggests that widespread use of large language models is making language more uniform. A study conducted by University of Southern California found that after the release of ChatGPT, diversity in writing styles declined

Gold, Debt And The Inevitable Global Housing Market Crash Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us Maybe the most prominent economic discussion circulating today is the fear that the vast majority of people have been priced out of housing markets for the rest of their lives, regardless of the country they live. Gen Z and even Gen Alpha teens are already planning for a future in which buying a home is impossible. Those that are buying are aiming for cost efficiency and they are buying alone (prioritizing savings and home ownership over marriage). This is a subject for another article but

DOE's NNSA Removes Enriched Uranium From Venezuela And Japan The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has coordinated with Japan and Venezuela to remove enriched uranium from both countries. The U.S. has secured its largest-ever HALEU fuel shipment, working in partnership with Japan. This significant transfer advances President Trump’s strategy to restore America's energy dominance and power next-generation nuclear reactors. https://t.co/h5Oc6f5kRq pic.twitter.com/EG7kA9Eopg — NNSA (@NNSANews) May 7, 2026 The NNSA coordinated with Japanese government and nuclear agencies to transfer 1.7 metric tons of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) from Japan to the US. The material comes from excess supplies

Global Jet Fuel Exports Hit 10-Year Seasonal Low in April Submitted by Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com Global seaborne jet fuel exports crashed to a seasonal low in April as supplies remained trapped in the Middle East and Asian refiners slashed run rates amid lower crude availability, energy flows analytics firm Vortexa said in a report on Friday. Global seaborne exports of jet/kerosene fuels slumped to as low as 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, down by 630,000 bpd from the same month last year. That's also at the lowest end of the ten-year range between 2016 and 2025

Is Marco Rubio The New Heir Apparent To Trump? For months, the conventional wisdom inside Republican circles has been settled and simple: JD Vance is next. The vice president has led 2028 Republican presidential nomination polling by a country mile, averaging nearly 45.5 points in the RealClearPolitics aggregate — more than 30 points ahead of Donald Trump Jr. at 14.8% and Marco Rubio at 14%. And yet, something shifted this week. One press briefing, and the betting markets started hedging. Rubio stepped in as White House press secretary on Tuesday, covering for Karoline Leavitt while she’s on maternity leave, and

Is There More Risk Than Reward In The US–China Summit? Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Do the advantages of the U.S.–China summit still outweigh the disadvantages? Perhaps, but the negative risks are high. President Donald Trump (left) and Chinese leader Xi Jinping shake hands before their meeting at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 30, 2025. Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo The scheduled May 14–15 summit in Beijing between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping was intended to be a landmark “reset” between the two nations. But as the high-stakes game of

What The Indiana Primaries Tell Us About Trump's Grip On The GOP Tuesday night’s primaries in Indiana were not subtle . Five of seven Republican state senators who had blocked a congressional redistricting map favored by President Donald Trump lost their primary races to Trump-backed challengers. The message, delivered cleanly through the ballot box, couldn’t have been clearer. Twenty-one Republicans in the Indiana Senate voted against a new congressional map that would likely have added two GOP-leaning U.S. House districts. Eight of those dissenters were up for reelection this cycle, and seven drew primary challengers who carried Trump's explicit endorsement.

Nick Shirley Went To Cuba... He Almost Didn't Make It Home Authored by Sarah Anderson via PJMedia.com, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio often accuse the Cuban regime of rolling out the red carpet for our adversaries. They're not wrong. It actively welcomes those working against United States interests, and I'm not just talking about China, Russian, and Iran. If you'll remember, in March, a group of far-leftist folks from the U.S. and Europe — including members of Code Pink, commie activist Hasan Piker, and Ilhan Omar's daughter — flew into the crumblingly communist country and stayed in five-star hotels, enjoyed

UCLA Med School Illegally Using Race In Admissions: DOJ A DOJ investigation into the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) found its medial school allegedly used applicants' race to discriminate against white and asian candidates . Royce Hall on University of California, Los Angeles, campus is seen in Los Angeles on Aug. 15, 2024. AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File In a seven-page letter released on Wednesday, the agency’s Civil Rights Division wrote that UCLA "continues to intentionally discriminate against applicants based on their race after the Supreme Court’s decision in Harvard by granting and denying admission on the basis of race," citing

Clinton-Appointed Federal Judge Rules DOGE's Terminations Of Humanities Grants Unlawful Authored by Guy Birchall via The Epoch Times, A federal judge ruled on May 7 that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) termination of hundreds of humanities grants last year was unconstitutional and involved “blatant” discrimination. In April 2025, the Trump administration axed more than 1,400 grants, amounting to more than $100 million in congressionally appropriated funds awarded to scholars, writers, research institutions, and other humanities organizations. The move was part of a whirlwind cost-cutting drive that tech billionaire Elon Musk was leading at DOGE as a “special government employee”—a

Thailand Emerges As Possible Hub In Nvidia Chip-Smuggling Channel To Alibaba New details have emerged in the alleged AI chip diversion scheme involving the co-founder of Super Micro Computer. Bloomberg reports that some of the $2.5 billion worth of servers containing advanced AI chips were allegedly routed through a Bangkok-based company before reaching Chinese AI leader Alibaba. The Bloomberg report noted: US prosecutors this year outlined a scheme in which Super Micro's co-founder allegedly worked with an unnamed Southeast Asian company and a "rotating cast" of third-party brokers to divert the AI semiconductors in violation of US trade rules. The

Traders Puzzled As Physical Oil Prices Tumble Amid Surging Chinese Crude Sales, Plunging Imports Yesterday when discussing China's unexpected flip-flopping on its decision to order local banks to ignore the latest US sanctions on Chinese, followed days later by a demand that they pause loans to sanctions refiners, we highlighted something remarkable: in the aftermath of the Strait of Hormuz blockade, which throttled the transit of ~10% of global oil and sent physical prices soaring to record highs (especially for Dubai crude), resulting in a windfall for European refiners thanks to soaring gasoline premiums... ... the reaction in China was

Men were convicted in Miami federal court for plotting to kill Jovenel Moïse at his Port-au-Prince home in 2021 Four south Florida men were convicted on Friday of plotting to kill the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse , in 2021 by hiring mercenaries to assassinate him at his Port-au-Prince home, court records show. Prosecutors argued during the nine-week trial in a Miami federal court that the men assembled two dozen former Colombian soldiers and supplied them with money, guns, ammunition and tactical vests in a conspiracy to kill Moïse . The 53-year-old president was shot dead in July 2021 at his

US energy department says 13.5kg of uranium taken from reactor in Caracas – a fraction of the 408kg held by Tehran Donald Trump has succeeded in removing a country’s stash of highly enriched uranium – although that country is not Iran . On Friday, the US Department of Energy announced that “thanks to President Trump’s decisive leadership” 13.5kg (about 30 pounds) of uranium had been removed from a legacy research reactor in Venezuela . Continue reading...

Tumbler Ridge secondary school was site of February mass shooting in which nine were killed and dozens injured The school that was the site of one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings will be torn down, officials have announced. The decision to demolish the Tumbler Ridge secondary school came after meetings between the school board and survivors, family and community members, said the British Columbia premier, David Eby. Continue reading...

Powerful radar system is providing new data on city’s subsidence, which experts hope will draw more attention to it Walking into Mexico City’s sprawling central Zócalo is a dizzying experience. At one end of the plaza, the capital’s cathedral, with its soaring spires, slumps in one direction. An attached church, known as the Metropolitan Sanctuary, tilts in the other. The nearby National Palace also seems off-kilter. The teetering of many of the capital’s historic buildings is the most visible sign of a phenomenon that has been ongoing for more than a century: Mexico City is sinking at an alarming rate.

Argentina, where the MV Hondius cruise departed, consistently ranked by WHO as having highest incidence of hantavirus in region Officials and experts in Argentina are scrambling to determine if their country is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has gripped an Atlantic cruise ship, amid reports that a number of passengers have already returned to their home countries. Argentina, where the cruise to Antarctica departed, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America. Investigators there are working to contact trace the source of contamination.

Woman recovered after volcanic eruption on remote island, while operation to find two missing Singaporeans goes on Rescuers have recovered the body of an Indonesian woman who was caught in a volcanic eruption on Mount Dukono on Indonesia’s remote island of Halmahera, officials have said. Search operations continued on Saturday for the bodies of two Singaporeans. The dead hikers were among 20 who set out to scale the 1,355-metre (4,445ft) volcano in defiance of safety restrictions and became stranded when Dukono erupted early on Friday, spewing a thick ash column about 6 miles (10km) into the air. Continue reading...

Carmaker gives one of biggest warnings yet of conflict’s impact on businesses while Trump tariffs also take toll Toyota has reported a £3bn hit from costs from the war in Iran, as prices of parts and materials soared and sales dropped. The world’s biggest carmaker said profits declined in its financial year to March as it was “likely unable to absorb newly added impact from the Middle East”, in one of the largest warnings yet of the war’s impact on businesses. Continue reading...

Two Singaporeans and a local person were in no-go zone when they were killed, say officials Three hikers – two Singaporeans and an Indonesian – have died in an eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Dukono volcano, where they found themselves in a no-go zone, officials said. The eruption, on Halmahera island, sent an ash cloud about 6 miles (10km) into the air, with no towns or villages near enough to face any immediate threat. Continue reading...

Law says conviction of two men for spying raises serious concerns about how they accessed sensitive information Nathan Law, an exiled leader of the Hong Kong student protest who lives with a £100,000 bounty on his head from the Chinese authorities, was not surprised to discover a spy ring had photographed him entering the Oxford Union for an evening debate in November 2023. The conviction at the Old Bailey of Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 38, and Chung Biu “Bill” Yuen, 65, for assisting a foreign intelligence service, was a sobering first – no Chinese spies had been convicted in British

Jeremiah Manele toppled after months of political upheaval in the nation seen as one of China’s closest partners in the Pacific Solomon Islands prime minister Jeremiah Manele lost power in a no-confidence vote in the South Pacific country’s parliament, ending months of political uncertainty. Parliament was adjourned to allow the governor general to make arrangements for the election of a new prime minister. Continue reading...

David Farley wins One Nation’s first lower house seat after Coalition vote collapses and Angus Taylor says Liberals will take ‘hard lessons’ from result Tom McIlroy: the scale of the Coalition’s loss in the Farrer byelection can’t be understated Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Pauline Hanson says One Nation is coming after Coalition and Labor seats around Australia, declaring her supporters want to “take the country back” after winning an emphatic victory in Saturday’s Farrer byelection. The rightwing populist party won its first ever lower house seat at an election, with candidate David

Samuel Whitsed, 27, is believed to have travelled from Victoria to hike Bibbulmun Track near outskirts of Perth Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Three months after a hiker was last seen at a popular walking track, police have become increasingly concerned for the missing man’s welfare. Police have scoured dense bushland for a Victorian man after he disappeared from a popular hiking trail on the other side of the country. Continue reading...

Analysis commissioned by independent senator found national science agency’s funding is at its lowest since 1978 Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Albanese government will boost funding to CSIRO by $387.4m in a bid to meet the long-term costs of the national science agency. It follows months of advocacy by scientists and staff after hundreds of job cuts and cost-cutting measures. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast David Attenborough at 100: ‘I had thought I would celebrate quietly’ In a dose of good news, Sir David Attenborough is 100 today. The veteran broadcaster said he expected to celebrate quietly, but expressed gratitude for the well-wishes he had received. Continue reading...

Janai Safar, 32, will remain in custody in Sydney. Two other women facing separate charges are expected to apply for bail in Melbourne on Monday Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast An Australian woman charged with joining Islamic State in Syria has been refused bail despite concerns expressed by her lawyer over the loss of connection it would cause with one of her family members. Janai Safar, 32, appeared before New South Wales bail court on Friday after she was arrested at Sydney airport on

This live blog is now closed The interior minister of Spain told Reuters on Saturday that Germany , France , Belgium , Ireland and the Netherlands have confirmed they will send planes to repatriate nationals from their respective countries aboard the cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak. The European Union is sending two more planes for the remaining European citizens, and the US and UK have also confirmed planes and contingency plans for non-EU citizens. A total of 8 cases, including 3 deaths, have been reported as of Friday. Six of these cases cases are confirmed as Andes virus

Denmark’s king asks Troels Lund Poulsen to form government after PM struggles to gather support The king of Denmark has asked a centre-right politician to try to form a new government after the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has failed to put together a ruling coalition. The announcement on Friday night shook the political establishment as Frederiksen has been a staple of Danish politics for decades. Her left-leaning party, the Social Democrats, won the plurality of votes in parliamentary elections in March. Continue reading...

Moscow blanketed in heavy security despite last-minute announcement of three-day ceasefire with Ukraine Europe live – latest updates Vladimir Putin has declared Russia will always be victorious as he oversaw a scaled-back Victory Day parade on Red Square held under heavy security amid mounting fears of Ukrainian attacks and growing public fatigue with the war. Speaking to the crowd, the Russian leader invoked the sacrifices of the second world war to rally support for his soldiers fighting in the war in Ukraine. “The great feat of the generation of victors inspires the warriors carrying out the tasks of the special

Jubilation in Budapest as Péter Magyar becomes leader and invites people to ‘step through gate of regime change’ • Europe live – latest updates The pro-European centre-right leader Péter Magyar has been sworn in as prime minister of Hungary, marking the official end to Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power. Saturday’s ceremony – during which Magyar had invited people to join him to “write Hungarian history” together and “step through the gate of regime change” – comes a month after his opposition Tisza party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections . Continue reading...

Norway’s energy minister says country has a ‘responsibility’ to address shortfalls caused by wars in Ukraine and Middle East In case of any doubt about Norway’s commitment to maintain – and expand – its production of gas and oil offshore, the energy minister, Terje Aasland, has a pithy response: “We will develop, not dismantle, activity on our continental shelf.” This week, to the alarm of environmental campaigners, he announced that three gasfields off the country’s southern coast would reopen by the end of 2028 – nearly three decades after they closed – to meet a shortfall caused by the impact

Simply hanging on could be a disaster for Iranians, while Trump needs to resolve this economic crisis he created Exchanges of fire between Iran and the US demonstrate the serious instability of the situation in the Middle East. Though the US strikes late on Thursday were just “a love tap”, according to the US president, Donald Trump, the reality is that neither side can continue the high-stakes standoff in the strait of Hormuz indefinitely. The US and its ally Israel demonstrated a comprehensive military superiority over Iran – taking minimal casualties in the 38-day war – but Washington has both

Diplomatic efforts continue despite fighting in and around contested strait of Hormuz in recent days Middle East crisis – live updates The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said that Washington is expecting a response from Iran to its proposals for an interim deal to end the conflict in the Middle East, as Iran accused the US of breaching the increasingly fragile ceasefire announced last month. In recent days there have been the biggest flare-ups in fighting in and around the contested strait of Hormuz since the informal truce began. The rise in violence followed Donald Trump’s announcement –

Israeli PM says he has ‘full coordination’ with US president amid reports that Washington no longer consults him Benjamin Netanyahu interrupted an uncharacteristically long silence over the Iran conflict this week with a video commentary insisting he had “full coordination” with Donald Trump, with whom he spoke “almost daily”. The insistence that all was rosy in the US-Israeli relationship followed weeks of reports in the domestic press that Israel was no longer being consulted over the Iran conflict, and even less over Pakistani-brokered peace talks . Such is the scepticism over Netanyahu’s trustworthiness among the general public and independent press

This blog is now closed US-Iran ceasefire under threat after exchange of strikes in strait of Hormuz The European Union is set to tell airlines the impact from the Iran war on tourism is not yet severe enough to justify emergency measures for the sector, draft EU guidelines seen by Reuters showed. “The current situation does not point to the need for dedicated measures for the tourism sector, unlike during the COVID-19 crisis,” said the draft EU guidelines, which the European Commission is due to publish on Friday. Continue reading...

Donald Trump says ceasefire remains in place despite strikes, with Iranian TV saying situation is ‘back to normal’ The US and Iran exchanged fire late on Thursday in the most serious test yet of their month-long ceasefire. Iran accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas, as the US insisted it struck in retaliation. Continue reading...

Stone being paid $50,000 a month to ‘rebuild’ relations between Washington and Myanmar’s military-backed government The US lobbyist Roger Stone, a longtime friend and ally of Donald Trump, has been condemned for accepting $50,000 a month to “rebuild” relations between Washington and Myanmar’s military-backed government. Myanmar’s leaders have been internationally isolated since seizing power in a coup in 2021 , and have repeatedly been accused of atrocities that may amount to war crimes . Activists say the military rulers, which recently held widely condemned “sham” elections , are now trying to reassert themselves abroad. Continue reading...

Turmoil and violence rocks state after prime minister Narendra Modi’s party claimed victory in legislative election Tensions have been high in the Indian state of West Bengal after a top political aide from Narendra Modi’s party was shot dead in the street and hundreds were arrested as violence broke out following elections this week. The prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) claimed victory in the West Bengal elections on Monday , defeating Trinamool Congress (TMC), which had ruled over the state legislature for 15 years. Continue reading...

Mamata Banerjee says Narendra Modi’s party ‘forcefully captured’ election that ended her party’s 15 years in power A political showdown is taking place in the Indian state of West Bengal as the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, India’s most powerful female politician, has refused to resign after she lost elections to the prime minister’s party this week. Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) won an overwhelming victory on Monday in state elections in West Bengal, where Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress party (TMC) have been in power for 15 years. Continue reading...

Result in key Indian state is set to have significant implications for the country’s political landscape Narendra Modi’s party has won a resounding election victory in West Bengal, a state which had been a rare opposition stronghold, expanding his unrivalled consolidation of power across the country. It is the first time that the Indian prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has won assembly elections in West Bengal, a large and politically significant state in eastern India. Continue reading...

Jitu Munda says he was refused access to money in case highlighting ‘lack of humanity’ in Indian bureaucracy The sight of a man bringing the remains of his dead sister to a bank in India after officials had refused to let him withdraw money without proof of her death has caused shock in India. Jitu Munda, 52, from the Indian state of Odisha, was captured on video carrying the remains of his recently deceased sister through the streets of Keonjhar and placing them outside the local bank. Continue reading...

Catherine West says she will try to get the necessary signatures herself to trigger a leadership contest Mapped: how Labour lost ground in different directions Gordon Brown has been appointed as a special envoy on global finance. Number 10 said: The PM has committed to boosting the country’s security and resilience’ In this role, Gordon Brown will advise on how global finance cooperation can help to achieve this. Continue reading...

Tyrone Scott, who didn’t think he had a hope in the election, wants to help the Greens rebuild ‘community cohesion’ in Hackney You would expect most political candidates who pull off a shock win to celebrate their victory, maybe with a glass of bubbly and excitement for the challenges of elected office ahead. But on Friday, as thousands of new councillors celebrated their triumphs, some surprise victors were less than pleased. Green party handlers apologised to one newly elected councillor in Finsbury Park, north London, put down as a “paper candidate”, who pulled off an unexpected win. “You’re going to

Disregard from UK Labour and struggling public services are just some of reasons behind ‘astonishing’ collapse UK politics live – latest updates By Friday night, Keir Starmer and much of the Westminster Labour group were quietly relieved that the local election results in England hadn’t been quite as bad as feared. In Wales, however, Labour’s collapse in the Senedd was even more total than the most pessimistic predictions. For more than 100 years, Welsh Labour was the democratic world’s most successful election-winning machine, but the political behemoth limped into third place this week with just nine seats in a 96-seat

SNP leader wants to ensure voices of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland ‘are heard loud and clear’ John Swinney has said he plans to work with the nationalist first ministers in Wales and Northern Ireland in a coordinated opposition to Labour’s policies on the cost of living and UK government spending. The Scottish National party leader said he had spoken to Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin first minister of Northern Ireland, on Friday night after she had called to congratulate him on his party’s “emphatic” victory in the Holyrood elections. Continue reading...

Emissions understated by factor of five in Essex plans for tech giant, while Greystoke’s Lincolnshire plans show similar error Developers working for Google have significantly misstated how much carbon two proposed AI datacentres will contribute to the UK’s total emissions in planning documents reviewed by the Guardian. The tech company wants to build two huge datacentres – one 52-hectare (130 acre) project in Thurrock and another at an airfield in North Weald, both in Essex. To do so, developers are required to submit planning documents calculating how much carbon these projects will emit as a proportion of the UK’s total

Passengers evacuated safely after person jumped perimeter fence and walked on to runway, airport spokesperson says A Frontier Airlines plane hit and killed a person on the runway of Denver ’s international airport during takeoff, sparking an engine fire and forcing passengers to evacuate, authorities said. The plane, headed to Los Angeles, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff” at about 11.19pm on Friday, the Denver airport’s official X account wrote . Continue reading...

A company Trump has used for work at his Virginia golf course was awarded $6.9m to paint the iconic attraction Donald Trump ’s latest beautification plan for Washington DC – the restoration of the 2,000ft-long reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial – has met been with claims that a $6.9m contract to carry out the project was hastily handed out to a company that renovated a swimming pool at the president’s Virginia golf course. The New York Times reported that the no-bid contract for the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool was given to Atlantic Industrial Coatings , based in

Parent company of president’s Truth Social platform generated only $870,000 even as net sales were up 6% The parent company of Donald Trump ’s Truth Social platform – one of the president’s preferred communications channels – lost nearly $406m in the first three months of the year while generating a little over $870,000 in revenue, according to financial filings. The Trump Media and Technology Group ’s quarterly report for January to March 2026 showed that while net sales were up 6% year over year, the company took sizable losses related to other investments. Continue reading...

New York’s Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez brushed off question about run for presidency The New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez answered a question about potentially running for higher office in 2028 by declaring: “My ambition is to change the country.” The Democrat delivered that remark at a political forum in Chicago on Friday amid widespread belief that she is positioning herself to run for the White House in 2028 or challenge her party’s leader in the US Senate, fellow New Yorker Chuck Schumer. Continue reading...

Florida agreement grants US president control of licensing and merchandising at renamed airport, analysts say It was a week in which one prominent name in aviation, Spirit Airlines, disappeared , killed in the company’s own admission by high fuel prices resulting from Donald Trump’s war in Iran. Within days, however, another moniker was already flying high in industry circles: the president’s own. Continue reading...

In the 1980s, then Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad launched his “Look East” policy, urging his country and others in Southeast Asia to emulate the state-led economic development models of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, rather than those of market-dominated Western nations. China subsequently emerged as a prime example of state-led development, but Japan is now leaning again towards a more dirigiste model under the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, not only in...

Elon Musk has launched a tirade against French judicial authorities currently investigating possible abuses on his X social network. France opened an inquiry in January 2025 into allegations that X, formerly known as Twitter, was used to interfere in French politics. The investigation has since widened to cover allegations of Holocaust denial, distribution of sexual deepfakes and most recently possible complicity in the distribution of images of child sexual abuse. Responding to a post on the...

South Korea is drawing growing interest from Middle Eastern oil producers seeking to store crude oil at the country’s petroleum reserve bases, the world’s sixth largest, amid a prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a South Korean official and an expert on the matter have said. The strait’s closure in the wake of the US-Israel war on Iran has taken a toll not only on South Korea and other nations dependent on oil imports but also oil-producing countries whose storage tanks are filling up...

You can perhaps judge the rise and decline of a society by the quality of its public intellectuals. In the last century, the United States had some genuinely great thinkers such as Walter Lippmann and Hannah Arendt who addressed a literate public while producing enduring works that can still be read today with great benefit. Now you have people like Francis Fukuyama and Sam Harris who may be studied in the future more as a symptom of their society. A podcast between the two last month went viral...

In an extraordinary break from the diplomatic restraint typical of central banks, a dozen leaders of the world’s foremost monetary institutions issued a joint statement in January declaring their “full solidarity” with the US Federal Reserve and its embattled chair, Jerome Powell. “The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve,” they wrote. The move was intended to shore up the separation of monetary...

Mexican authorities have announced that the school year will end over a month early as the country gears up to host World Cup matches, prompting broad backlash. Education Secretary Mario Delgado said the decision to end the school year 40 days early was made in part due to a heatwave affecting several states. “We’re going to end the school year on June 5 because many states are already experiencing high temperatures, and there’s also the issue of the World Cup,” he said at an event on Friday in...

The old order is dead. We just don’t know what will replace it. As Henry Kissinger reminded us in his 2014 book World Order, “no truly global order has ever existed”. After US President Donald Trump’s erratic actions, the gloves are off. American comedians and Iranian Lego cartoons tell us all we need to know about the demise of the old order. If the unipolar order is not viable, and America is abandoning the multilateral order and the rules of the game it created after World War II, what are...

There is an “almost zero” chance that the Dutch man linked to the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship contracted the disease in the Argentine port of Ushuaia, a provincial health official said on Friday. Juan Petrina, director of epidemiology for Tierra del Fuego province, where Ushuaia is located, told reporters that his assessment was based on the virus’s incubation period, among other factors. The Dutch man and his wife, both of whom died of the virus, boarded the Hondius in...

US President ⁠Donald Trump’s administration is nearing a US$400 million settlement with TikTok to resolve an ongoing lawsuit over alleged child-privacy violations, ABC News has reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The White House declined to comment, referring questions to the Justice Department, ‌which did not immediately comment. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment. The settlement monies would be used to fund Trump’s “beautification” projects in Washington, sources...

US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a three-day ceasefire and a prisoner exchange following US-mediated talks, saying negotiations to end the war were continuing and “we are getting closer and closer every day”. “I am pleased to announce that there will be a THREE DAY CEASEFIRE (May 9th, 10th, and 11th) in the War between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump posted on social media. “The Celebration in Russia is for Victory Day, but likewise in Ukraine,...

The United States will host two days of intensive talks between Israel and Lebanon next week in a renewed push for a broader peace and security arrangement, according to a US State Department statement released on Friday. The talks, scheduled for May 14 and 15, will build on a previous round held on April 23 that Washington said was led personally by US President Donald Trump. In the statement, the US said Israeli and Lebanese delegations would engage in “detailed discussions” aimed at advancing...

Two new suspected cases of hantavirus were ⁠reported on Friday, one in Spain and the other on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, as experts race to contain an outbreak that began on a luxury cruise ship. The announcements in locations thousands of kilometres apart will fuel concern about a cluster of cases so far associated with three deaths, although the World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly said the risk to the wider public is low and the virus does not transmit...

US employment rose more than expected in April, while the unemployment rate remained steady, government data showed, with the world’s largest economy firming recent labour market gains but analysts warning of underlying weakness. “Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 115,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3 per cent,” the US Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) said. The gains mainly came in the healthcare, transport and warehousing and retail trade sectors. US job...

China’s shipping giants are bracing for a harsh new reality of persistent global volatility, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz shifts from being a problem of transit delays to a hard volume shock. With the crucial energy corridor still paralysed as the US-Israel war on Iran drags on with no clear end in sight, China’s state-backed shipping majors are doubling down on long-term contracts and creating new multimodal routes in an attempt to hedge against future shocks. Cosco Shipping Holdings,...

The Pentagon has begun releasing new files on UFOs, saying members of the public can draw their own conclusions on “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP). Besides the Pentagon, the effort is led by the White House, the director of national intelligence, the Energy Department, Nasa and the FBI. The Pentagon said on Friday in a social media post that while past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Donald Trump “is focused on providing maximum...

The clock is ticking: the European Union has about two years to decide if it is willing to make the sacrifices and take the risks necessary to become the economic and political power it envisions itself to be. The EU’s proposed Industrial Accelerator and Cyber Security acts are up for negotiation within the bloc’s policymaking bodies. In around two years’ time, we will know their final form. Beijing has two years to influence this: that work has already started with carrots – proposals for a...

Passengers aboard a cruise ship affected by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will start being flown to their countries of origin after the vessel arrives in the Canary Islands on Sunday, the Spanish government said on Friday. The MV Hondius is scheduled to reach the port of Granadilla on the island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, on Sunday morning, cabinet minister Angel Victor Torres told journalists. “That same day, we will have planes available and will be able to start getting these...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Friday to stay in office to “deliver change” after his Labour Party suffered heavy losses in the English local election and parliamentary votes in Scotland and Wales, deepening doubts over his ability to govern. Just under two years after winning a landslide national election, Starmer saw voters punish his Labour government, dealing it a blow in some of its traditional strongholds in former industrial regions in central and northern England. The main...

As the world held its breath over the fate of the Middle East this week, France has been gripped by a very different story: a scandal over a chewy rubber giraffe. Sophie la Girafe, the country’s national toy, has long been a symbol of “made in France” craftsmanship, sold as a gift to newborns across the country. But this week, it was revealed the beloved toy has secretly been manufactured in China for the past decade. Vulli, the company behind the toy, quietly began moving production to China as...

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. 2 former Chinese defence ministers handed suspended death sentences Two former Chinese defence ministers, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, have received suspended death sentences after being found guilty of corruption, according to...

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told US President Donald Trump on Thursday that his country’s rare earth reserves are open to investment from China and any other nation willing to process the minerals on Brazilian soil, resisting pressure to side with Washington in its contest with Beijing over critical mineral supply chains. “We have no preference. What we want is to share with whoever wants to invest in Brazil,” Lula said at a press conference at the Brazilian embassy in...

The United States and Iran exchanged fire on Thursday in the most serious test yet of their month-long ceasefire, but Iran said the situation returned to normal while the US said it did not want to escalate. The renewed hostilities broke out as Washington was awaiting Iran’s response to a US proposal that would stop the fighting but leave the most contentious issues, such as Iran’s nuclear programme, unresolved for now. Iran’s military ‌said the US targeted two ships entering the Strait of...

Russia and Ukraine launched major attacks on each other Friday, with a two-day unilateral ceasefire that Moscow had declared around its World War II commemorations appearing to be in tatters. Ukraine never said it would abide by Moscow’s call to halt strikes and lambasted Russian leader Vladimir Putin for only wanting to pause fighting so he could stage a grand parade on Red Square on Saturday. Kyiv said Moscow ignored a Ukrainian call to halt fighting earlier this week – a counterproposal for a...

The Trump ⁠administration is inviting CEOs from ⁠Nvidia, Apple, Exxon, Boeing and other big companies to accompany the president on his trip to China next week, Semafor reported on Thursday. Executives from Qualcomm, Blackstone, Citigroup ‌and Visa are also on the invitation list, according to the report. A person familiar with the matter confirmed that Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser was invited. Qualcomm confirmed the invitation but declined to comment further. Reuters was not able to confirm ⁠the...

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said the European Union must ratify its trade deal with the United States by July 4 or face “much higher” tariffs, after European officials fell short of agreement on the pact. The US president said he spoke to EU chief Ursula von der Leyen about the issue and “agreed to give her until our Country’s 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels”. The Fourth of July holiday this year marks 250 years since the...

The White House called Star Wars ⁠star Mark Hamill “one ⁠sick individual” on Thursday after ⁠an AI-generated image of US President Donald Trump in a shallow grave was posted on one of the actor’s social media accounts. “If Only” was inscribed on the image of ‌Trump lying with his eyes closed next to a gravestone, surrounded by daisies, with the inscription “Donald J Trump 1946-2024”. The image was posted on Hamill’s verified Bluesky account. Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the classic Star...

Paris’ public prosecutor has opened ⁠a judicial ⁠investigation into Elon ⁠Musk’s X social media platform, a new step in an investigation over alleged abuse of algorithms and fraudulent data, the prosecutor’s office said on Thursday. The latest legal development puts investigating judges in charge of the probe and follows tech billionaire Musk’s failure to appear at an April 20 summons for questioning. The public prosecutor is requesting that judges place ⁠X.AI Holdings Corp, X Corp and xAI, as...

The man who threw petrol bombs at ⁠a pro-Israel rally last year in Colorado, setting several people aflame including a woman who later died from her burns, was sentenced on Thursday to spend the rest of his life in prison but said he wished to be executed. Mohamed Soliman, 46, an Egyptian national, pleaded guilty to 101 charges brought by state prosecutors, including first-degree murder, then apologised in court and decried his own crimes as contrary to “the teachings of Islam” in a statement...

The Trump administration has expanded its pressure campaign against Cuba into the critical minerals sector, sanctioning a nickel joint venture tied to Canadian miner Sherritt International in a move that could reverberate through China-linked battery supply chains. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions on Thursday against Moa Nickel SA, a joint venture between Sherritt and Cuba’s state-owned General Nickel Company, as part of a broader effort targeting Havana’s military-controlled...

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen on Thursday slammed as “indecent” reported attempts by an American to pay locals US$200,000 each to sign a petition calling for Greenland to join the United States. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said the US needs to annex the Danish autonomous territory to ensure national security. “A foreign individual is offering money for a signature to incorporate Greenland into another country. That is not just deeply worrying. It is indecent,”...

UK police said on Thursday they had arrested a man wielding a weapon who “was behaving in an intimidating manner” close to the home of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in eastern England. Norfolk police confirmed they had been called to an incident late on Wednesday near the Sandringham Estate “and the man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence and possession of an offensive weapon”. UK media reported that a man wearing a balaclava had allegedly threatened the former prince when he was...

Authorities in Norway arrested a Chinese citizen on espionage allegations on Thursday in connection with a purported effort to set up a receiver to collect sensitive satellite data, the country’s domestic intelligence service said. Norwegian security officials also searched two premises in connection with the arrest, including one on an island in northern Norway that is home to Andoya Spaceport, which is part of Europe’s efforts to expand its presence in space. The other search took place in...

The World Health Organization insisted on Thursday that a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic did not mark the beginning of a Covid-like crisis. “This is not the start of an epidemic. This is not the start of a pandemic,” WHO epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters, insisting: “This is not Covid.” The WHO also said it expected the outbreak on the MV Hondius, currently sailing from Cabo Verde (formerly known as Cape...

China made Brazil its top global investment destination last year, pouring US$6.1 billion into the country across a record 52 projects. The figures come from the China-Brazil Business Council (CBBC), which released its annual report on Thursday. The 45 per cent jump in value from the previous year far outpaced the 4.8 per cent rise in total foreign investment into Brazil. It also dwarfed China’s worldwide outbound flows, which grew just 1.3 per cent. Brazil absorbed 10.9 per cent of all Chinese...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio left the Vatican on Thursday after seeing Pope Leo in what was expected to have been a fraught meeting following President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on the Catholic leader over the Iran war. Rubio spent 2-1/2 hours at the Vatican before driving away in a convoy under tight security. He met initially Leo before ‌sitting down with senior Vatican officials, including top diplomat Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin. “The meeting underscored the strong...

Countries worldwide scrambled on Thursday to trace people who had left the cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak before it got marooned off the coast of Cabo Verde, to prevent further spread of the disease. Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – died in the outbreak on the MV Hondius. Five of the eight suspected hantavirus cases have now been confirmed, according to the World Health Organization. The vessel’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said 29 passengers left the ship on...

US President Donald Trump said conflict in the Middle East would be “over quickly”, as Iran considered a peace proposal that could lead to the reopening of the vital Strait of Hormuz. “We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, according to Reuters. The president has repeatedly played up the possibility of an agreement with Iran since the war began on February 28, without reaching an...

For an indication of how much the energy crisis is shaping the path of monetary policy, look no further than Australia. On May 5, the country’s central bank raised interest rates for the third consecutive time, unwinding last year’s monetary easing. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said “higher fuel prices are adding to inflation and there are indications that this is likely to have second-round effects on prices for goods and services more broadly”. The RBA’s decision to keep tightening...

Tracy Arm Fjord, in southeastern Alaska ⁠within the Tongass National Forest, presents a majestic vista, with a narrow sea inlet surrounded by towering granite cliffs, waterfalls and glaciers. One morning last year it also was the site of a powerful landslide that triggered a huge localised tsunami. Researchers have now determined that the tsunami on August 10, 2025, was the second-highest ever recorded, with a wave reaching up to 481 metres (1,578 feet) tall – higher than New York City’s Empire...

Russia told foreign governments and organisations to evacuate diplomatic staff and citizens from Kyiv, saying a retaliatory strike would be inevitable if Ukraine tried to attack Moscow during World War II Victory Day celebrations on May 9. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said late Wednesday that Russia had sent a message to all accredited embassies urging them to take “very, very seriously” a May 4 statement from the Defence Ministry warning of strikes if Ukraine interrupts the...

Malaysian King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar arrived in Moscow on Thursday for a high-profile visit that comes as Kuala Lumpur looks for alternative oil sources amid a fuel crisis linked to the Iran war. Sultan Ibrahim landed at Vnukovo-2 International Airport at 4.20pm local time on Thursday, according to Malaysian reports, and was received by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko, senior protocol officials and Malaysia’s ambassador to Russia, Cheong Loon Lai. The king is attending Russia’s...

A US federal judge on Wednesday released a document described as a suicide note ⁠purportedly written by the late Jeffrey ⁠Epstein and including the line: “It is a ⁠treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye”. Epstein, the disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker, was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 in what was ruled a suicide. The handwritten note was said to have been found by his former jail cellmate, convicted murderer and ex-police officer Nicholas...

US President Donald Trump’s lawyer, hoping for an eventual Supreme Court victory, has asked a federal appeal court in New York to temporarily block a long-time columnist from collecting a US$83 million defamation award. The lawyer, Justin D. Smith, told the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing on Tuesday to stay its decision supporting the award so that Trump will not have to pay writer E. Jean Carroll while he appeals to the high court. A Manhattan jury awarded Carroll the payout in...

The US Air Force is targeting a Fourth of July delivery for a Boeing 747 gifted by Qatar that would join the Air Force One fleet in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary, a US official and a person familiar with the programme said. The White House accepted the luxury jet from Qatar in 2025 ‌and asked the Air Force to rapidly upgrade the aircraft to presidential standards, with L3Harris tapped to carry out the overhaul. If the company meets its deadline, US President Donald Trump will have a...

“In an increasingly severe security environment, no single country can now protect its own peace and security alone,” declared Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month, signalling a major shift in Tokyo’s defence posture. “Under the new system, we will strategically promote equipment transfers while making even more rigorous and cautious judgments on whether transfers are permissible,” she added, confirming long-running speculation that Tokyo would relax decades-old restrictions on...

Taiwan, one of the world’s biggest plastic users, is facing supply disruptions caused by the war in Iran. The crunch is already trickling down into everyday life.

Xi Jinping spent 13 years building a military to rival that of the United States. But the stronger the Chinese forces grew, the less he trusted the generals he had handpicked to run them.

A staff member on the House China Committee was promised $10,000 for U.S. policy insights, on issues like Venezuela and rare-earth minerals.

The war in Iran, trade, artificial intelligence and Taiwan are expected to be on the agenda. But expectations are modest.

The country’s exports surged and its trade surplus with the United States widened ahead of President Trump’s scheduled visit next week to Beijing.

The Trump administration’s focus on the show is testament to the enduring influence of an old-fashioned broadcast TV program started 29 years ago.

The president has reworked his tariffs repeatedly — sometimes because they have been declared illegal — with more updates still to come.

Captain Courageous cut a cool swath, in contrast to today’s creepy oligarchs.

Trump’s most lethal policy will almost surely be his 71 percent cut in humanitarian aid from 2024 to 2025.

Why does it feel worse to be early than to rush and stress and arrive a little late?

The plane reported an engine fire and aborted its takeoff. The people on board were safely evacuated.

The number raises the prospect that about half a million soldiers in total have died on the Russian and Ukrainian sides.

The former opposition leader, who won a landslide election, now faces the formidable job of dismantling what his predecessor called an “illiberal democracy.”

Insurgent parties like Reform U.K. surged at the polls this week. But the British electoral system wasn’t built for multiparty democracy.