Minimalist News

Current State Of Physical AI: Everything You Need To Know Citi's Robotics & Physical AI Leadership Conference wrapped up on Tuesday. The annual Citi Research event brings together robotics founders, investors, operators, and industry executives to assess the state of "physical AI." Analyst Heath Terry summarized the key takeaways Wednesday morning, painting a picture of the robotics industry moving from proof of concept to commercial deployment , while warning that scaling robots remains challenging. " Labor shortages, reshoring, and favorable regulatory tailwinds are accelerating enterprise demand, while data scarcity, talent constraints, battery limitations, and high deployment costs remain key friction

"We're Gonna Win Someday": Graham Platner Suspends His Senate Campaign Update: Graham Platner, the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine, announced Wednesday that he's suspending his campaign. The move comes two days after Politico reported allegations of rape against him by a former girlfriend. He posted an emotional video explaining his decision. "And I just want to make it clear this is all false," Platner said. "The things that have been claimed did not happen; it's not real." He described the past few days as an ordeal no regular person should have to survive, a normal guy suddenly

Canada Considered Suing Citizens Over "False And Misleading" Social Media Posts Authored by Cindy Harper via ReclaimTheNet.org , The Canadian government drew up a plan to take individual citizens to court over what they post online. That plan sat inside a 35-page internal memo from the Department of Industry, most of it blacked out before the public could see it. Blacklock's Reporter pried the document loose through an Access to Information request. Dated March 31 and titled "Misinformation And Disinformation Strategy," it belongs to the department run by Minister Melanie Joly, known as ISED. The memo weighs "legal action" against

Nuclear Power Capacity To Jump 44% By 2036 As China Surpasses US Global nuclear capacity is set to surge by 44% over the next decade as China topples the United States as the biggest nuclear power capacity holder and India will hike its capacity to boost energy security. These are the estimates in a new report by BloombergNEF, which sees total global nuclear capacity at 535 gigawatts (GW) by 2036, up from the 372 GW of installed capacity as of the end of 2025. The world is projected to have as much as 535 gigawatts of installed nuclear power by

DOJ Warns State Election Officials Can Be Charged Over Noncitizen Voting Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times , The Department of Justice (DOJ) has sent letters to election officials across the country, warning them that they could be charged if they let noncitizens receive ballots or vote in elections. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington on Sept. 29, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images "Any election officer, including the chief election officer of the state, who knowingly retains noncitizens on the state's [voter list] or facilitates noncitizens

Watch: Fireworks At UN As Cuba Disrupts US Ambassador's Speech: "You're A Liar, Mr Waltz!" A UN General Assembly this week devolved into a high-charged shouting match amid procedural disruptions and chaos, after US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told the global forum on Tuesday that there is no American blockade on Cuba . Havana didn't take the bait quietly, given Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez immediately shot back at Waltz - who is a former Army Green Beret: "This is the United Nations General Assembly, not a Green Beret camp. You're a liar, Mr. Waltz." Tensions FLARE on

"It's Some Bullsh*t": Green River, Wyoming Considered License Plate Readers To "Protect Against Terrorist Attacks" Green River officials are weighing whether to accept a $111,956 federal grant to install automatic license plate readers at key entrances to the city, a proposal that has sparked backlash from some residents over privacy and government surveillance, according to Cowboy State Daily . The grant, funded through the United States Department of Homeland Security, is intended to help communities prevent and respond to terrorism. Police Chief Shawn Sturlaugson said the cameras would also help officers quickly identify vehicles tied to criminal investigations, Amber Alerts,

Berkeley Gives Back Corn, Peas, & Seeds To Tribes As Protected Items Of "Cultural Patronage" Authored by Jonathan Turley, The University of California (Berkeley) has ordered the return of new displays to native American tribes under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). That is hardly news except that the items were not human remains or relics, but corn, corn cobs, peas, beans, and other seeds. The university has decided that even such scientific samples are prohibited items of “cultural patronage.” The Act requires the return of human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony.

Modular Reactors To Solve Data Center Hysteria? For the nuclear energy nerds, last night Erik Townsend joined ZH to host a panel with the founders of modular nuclear reactor startup Aalo Atomics, Matt Loszak and Yasir Arafat. Townsend is a committed nuclear energy bull and has invested in many nuclear energy startups, his largest allocation being Aalo, a company that hopes to pump out small modular reactors on a mass scale to solve the rising energy costs that AI is rapidly ushering in. Here were some highlights from the panel for those short on time: The Data Center Dilemma AI

Dear Trump: Time To Flood America's Weigh Stations With ICE And CBP Agents Submitted by American Truckers United , We, the truckers who keep America moving, have had enough. An analysis of crash data and English proficiency violations reveals that drivers from just a handful of states are largely responsible for the epidemic of illegal alien truck and bus drivers terrorizing our highways. These preventable tragedies must end now. We are formally calling on President Donald J. Trump to immediately deploy ICE and CBP officers to commercial weigh stations across the entire country . No more half-measures. No more looking

Waymo Robotaxi "Snitches" On Two 15-Year-Olds Drinking & Shooting Orbeez Guns In Bay Area Two 15-year-old boys were detained in San Mateo Monday afternoon after the Waymo robotaxi they were riding in reported them to police - for drinking alcohol and firing a gel-bead blaster out of the moving car - then pulled itself over so officers could collect them. Waymo's remote monitors spotted the behavior on the vehicle's interior cameras and called the San Mateo Police Department around 2:10 p.m. with the car's exact location. The company then disabled the vehicle near 20th Avenue and El Camino Real, telling

Some College Students Are Testing At The Level Of 10-Year-Olds Via Futurism , Are you smarter than a 4th grader? Gone are the days of university freshmen reading classical philosophers like Plato or contemporary pedagogues like Ta-Nehisi Coates. These days, incoming college students are lucky if they can get through Judy Blume’s “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.” According to a new “Survey of Adult Skills” conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - a forum for 38 high-income, predominantly Western countries - a not insignificant number of adult students enrolled in higher education are now reading and

Socialism Is Targeting The Foundations That Made America Great Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via The Epoch Times , This is a lightly edited transcript of a July 6 segment of the Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words podcast. One question that came up constantly during this 250th anniversary Fourth of July celebration was whether we were gonna make it another 250 years, 500 years. We could be longer than the Roman Republic. Longer than the Roman Empire. Democratic Socialists of America march in downtown Berkeley, Calif., on Aug. 5, 2018. Amy Osborne/AFP/Getty Images And to answer that question,

Consumer Credit Unexpectedly Shrinks For The First Time Since 2024 As Credit Card Rates Jump After two consecutive outsized jumps in consumer credit in the months of March and April, when gas prices surged and inflation resumed its track higher, lifting most prices as a result of the war in Iran, moments ago the Fed published its latest consumer credit (G.19) report for the month of May and it was a doozy: instead of the expected $17.5BN increase, in May total consumer credit unexpectedly shrank for the first time since November 2024. The move was driven by a notable slowdown

Brown University Prof Bans Take-Home Exams After Mass-Cheating Authored by Jennifer Kabbany via The College Fix, A Brown University professor says he will no longer allow students to take exams at home after he caught a large chunk of his class cheating on a test. Economics Professor Roberto Serrano said he allowed students to take a midterm at home, and 40 students, nearly half the class, earned a perfect 100 ; among the 86 students in the class, the average overall class score was 96, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported July 6. “I immediately knew that something was fishy.

Coffee Lovers, Take Note: Lavazza Sounds Alarm, Suggest It May Be Time To Stock Up Following the largest daily surge in Arabica coffee futures since the Dot-Com bubble, the head of Italian coffee giant Lavazza Group warned that prices are unlikely to fall over the next two years. Giuseppe Lavazza, chairman of the Italian roaster, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying, "The market needs to have stability before it's time to think about a reduction of prices." Lavazza explained that it will take two harvests and a massive rebuilding phase to replenish inventories and ease supply constraints, making lower prices

Are Flattening Curves And Style Rotations Deceptive Omens? Authored by Michael Lebowitz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Bond market pundits often warn that bear yield curve flatteners or inverted yield curves ultimately lead to recessions. Similarly, some equity experts caution that periods of violent back-and-forth rotations among stock sectors and/or style factors are precursors to a market top. Additionally, the combination of a bearish flattening trend and volatile equity rotations leads some analysts to forecast a recession, with concerning market repercussions. The argument we present in this article is that predicting economic or financial market activity is not as simple as following two

FOMC Minutes Show 'A Few' Fed Members Wanted To Hike In June, 'Majority' Fear Higher Inflation Tl;dr: The minutes underscored a more hawkish tone on inflation . UBS traders noted that most participants cited scenarios in which price pressures could remain elevated, including stronger AI-related demand, the ongoing Middle East conflict and tariffs. In those cases, nearly all of those officials said some additional policy tightening would likely be warranted. Fed staff raised their inflation outlook for 2026 and 2027 compared with the April forecast, reflecting the effects of the Middle East war and AI -driven investment, while trimming their

Bezos' Blue Origin Seeks $10 Billion In First-Ever Outside Funding Round Fresh off Elon Musk's SpaceX IPO, it appears that, for the first time, Blue Origin is preparing to raise outside capital in a deal that would value Jeff Bezos' rocket company at about $130 billion. Andrew Ross Sorkin, financial columnist for The New York Times and a co-anchor of CNBC's Squawk Box, wrote in a DealBook report , "I've got a scoop on Blue Origin closing in on a big fund-raising round, which is expected to value Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company at about $130 billion." "It would be the

The Great Migration: What The Dow-To-Gold Ratio Is Telling Us Authored by Bryan Lutz, Editor at Dollarcollapse.com , It takes about 13 ounces of gold to buy the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Dow-to-gold ratio prices the entire American stock market. And it does it in the one currency no central bank can print. Over the past century, it tells the same story. It measures when the US stock market is overvalued… when it’s promising too much. And there are a lot of promises that don’t look as good as they should these days. A bond pays only if the

Activist is challenging ruling last year that restored colonial-era homophobic law against same-sex intimacy Some of the UK’s top judges are hearing arguments over whether a Trinidad and Tobago court had the legal right to overturn a 2018 ruling to remove colonial-era homophobic laws that criminalise anal sex between consenting men. The country’s “ buggery law ”, often referred to as its “sodomy” law, was created in 1925 and was written into Trinidad and Tobago’s 1986 Sexual Offences Act . In 2017 a Trinidadian LGBTQ+ rights activist, Jason Jones , challenged the law, and in 2018 a high court ruled

Celeste Amarilla could face charges after French Football Federation complains about social media posts over World Cup match Prosecutors in France have opened an investigation into the racist attack on Kylian Mbappé by a Paraguayan senator, with officials weighing whether to demand that the senator be charged with aggravated public insult or incitement to hatred or violence. The Paris prosecutor’s office told the Guardian on Tuesday it had launched the inquiry after the French Football Federation (FFF) filed a complaint with the national unit for combating online hate. Continue reading...

Impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US imposed a blockade in January Cuba on Monday suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, the state electricity company said. The impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US president, Donald Trump, imposed an oil blockade in January, which has depleted the already dwindling supply of fuel for Cuba’s power plants. Continue reading...

TKMS beats South Korean rival to multibillion-dollar contract that will deepen Canada’s Nato ties Canada has selected a German consortium to build a dozen cutting-edge submarines in one of the country’s largest-ever defence contracts that will further deepen its Nato ties before a crucial summit this week. On Monday the prime minister, Mark Carney, announced the winner of a tightly contested battle for the lucrative government contract to replace its fleet of ageing, secondhand subs, most of which are undergoing maintenance. Continue reading...

Arrival of endangered cats, including rare white cub, revitalises team straining under fuel and medicine shortages For the Cuban zookeeper Ángel Cordero, the sight of four Bengal ⁠tiger cubs playing in a cage at the Cuban national zoo is a small miracle on an island stifled by shortages ⁠of fuel, medicine and ⁠days-long power outages. The ​birth of these endangered big cats – including an exceedingly rare white tiger – has revitalised a team of zoo workers, he said. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed Telstra outage: Telco apologises for major time-keeping issue that hit mobiles, trains and triple-zero calls Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Telstra outage reported to be cause of Victoria train stoppage There is a long list of cancelled trains on the official V/line site, but the TL/DR is that Victoria’s regional train network has ground to a halt. Due to a radio network fault affecting the network, services are currently unable to operate … Passengers are advised to defer travel where possible. Continue reading...

Chinese leader Xi Jinping calls for ‘all out’ rescue effort as death toll rises and 16 people ⁠remain buried after a ⁠landslide in the country’s west The death toll from devastating storms in parts of China rose to 15 on Tuesday, with hundreds more injured and tens of thousands evacuated, state media reported, as the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, urged “all out” efforts to rescue people affected by the weather. Thunderstorms and gale-force winds killed at least 11 people and injured 331 in the central province of Hubei, where “severe convective weather” hit cities, while tornadoes were reported elsewhere late

Solomon Islands prime minister says he doesn’t want to see more countries testing ICBMs in Pacific, adding ‘be our friend but don’t threaten us’ Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has said China’s weapons test in the Pacific risks fuelling dangerous nuclear proliferation, with the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fired on Monday capable of causing “considerable damage” if weaponised. International condemnation has grown overnight after China’s state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday that a “strategic missile carrying a dummy warhead” had been launched from a “strategic nuclear submarine of the navy”. Continue reading...

Tropical storm causes extreme flooding in south of the country with heavy rainfall expected in coming days A tropical storm has killed two people, caused dam breaches and forced tens of thousands to evacuate in southern China. Typhoon Maysak killed two people in Nanning, in China’s southern Guangxi province. Maysak, which lashed Vietnam and China’s southern island province of Hainan over the weekend, will dump the water it sucked up on its way ⁠across the South China Sea as it weakens and heads inland, meteorologists say. Continue reading...

Launch comes just hours after Australia and Fiji sign defence agreement as expert says timing not a coincidence China has conducted a long-range missile test in the South Pacific just hours after Australia signed a defence agreement with Fiji, sparking condemnation from Canberra and regional leaders. The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the missile test was “destabilising” to the region, while her New Zealand counterpart, Winston Peters, described it as “deeply concerning”. Continue reading...

Antisemitism envoy says public broadcasters, which currently have ombudsman to handle complaints, need independent oversight committee Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal wants a new ‘oversight’ committee to vet the ABC and SBS’s Israel coverage, she told the royal commission on Thursday morning. Both the ABC and SBS have independent ombudsman to handle complaints. Continue reading...

Carrier says some still unable to connect to emergency hotline a day after mobile network went down Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Telstra customers are still having trouble calling triple zero on Thursday morning as the telecommunications giant confirmed a secondary issue stemming from Wednesday’s national outage continued to affect services. Some who tried to call the emergency hotline were receiving an error message before their phones would try to connect to an alternative network, Telstra said. Continue reading...

Meanwhile SA police say a small number of calls to triple-zero are failing to connect after Telstra’s Wednesday outages. Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The ABC issued a statement last night in which it rejected claims “that its journalism has contributed to antisemitism or social division”. It comes ahead of appearances today by senior executives from the corporation and SBS executives at the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion. The ABC reporting has consistently centred on the experiences of Jewish Australians while providing context regarding broader social and

Exclusive: New study contradicts statements that play products removed from shelves because of asbestos concerns were ‘low risk’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Colourful children’s play sand that was sold in Australia while contaminated with asbestos can release hazardous airborne fibres of the toxic mineral, researchers have discovered. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the lead researcher of the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) study, which found 90% of craft sand samples released asbestos into the air when played with, confirmed the

Flagship health report also shows vaccine rates for children are falling, prompting concern from experts Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australians with cancer are living longer than ever, a flagship health report has revealed, but falling childhood vaccination rates and increasing rates of measles, diphtheria and whooping cough have given experts cause for concern. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) biennial report card, released on Thursday, shows the five-year relative survival rate for people with cancer has increased from 50% to 72%

US president unexpectedly changed plans for flight to England after using Qatari-gifted aircraft to travel to Turkey Donald Trump flew from Turkey to England onboard the older Air Force One on Wednesday, rather than the new, Qatari-gifted aircraft he used to travel to the Nato summit in Ankara, an unexpected change in plans that prompted questions about security fears. Trump later boarded the new plane at Mildenhall air force base in the United Kingdom for the trip back to Washington. Continue reading...

Alliance leaders, who had feared the worst, will hail US president’s renewed support for article 5 as key victory An erratic and at times irascible Donald Trump has said he felt a “tremendous love” from western leaders at the Nato summit, only hours after lambasting them over their defence spending and not helping the US in attacking Iran. The US president’s mixed messaging dominated the final hours of the two-day gathering in Ankara, Turkey, beginning with him publicly calling Iran’s leadership scum and renewing his demand for control of Greenland . Continue reading...

The French far-right leader’s presidential campaign is clouded in uncertainty under the shadow of an embezzlement conviction Marine Le Pen ’s decision to run for French president in 2027, despite her legal woes, has drawn comparisons from her opponents to Donald Trump. Just as the US president felt his voter base cared little about legal investigations against him, the French far-right leader shrugged off the leftwing protesters who shouted “criminal!” as she launched her presidential campaign at a market walkabout in western France on Wednesday. The previous day, an appeal court had upheld her conviction for the embezzlement of European

Italian designer brings sculptural silhouettes and playful palettes to storied house, while it is hats off to Giorgio’s niece at her second Armani Privé show The house of Balenciaga takes haute couture very seriously indeed. Cristóbal Balenciaga was so horrified by the rise of mass-produced clothes that in 1968 he abruptly shuttered his brand and retired to his native Spain, announcing that “high fashion is mortally wounded”. So Pierpaolo Piccioli, who now helms the house , approached the brief of his first Balenciaga couture collection conscientiously, despite having 25 years of experience at Valentino. At a preview, the haute couture

US president say Spain ‘very bad’ in relation to Iran conflict and UK’s approach ‘not in spirit of Winston Churchill’ Trump renews call for US to take over Greenland as he arrives for Nato summit And that ends their short briefing, with Trump saying he will be back later, and Rutte desperately throwing in that he will also do a press conference if anyone is interested in it please. Trump also heaps praise on Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , praising the Turkish military might, and, amusingly, out of nowhere praises China , too. Continue reading...

Attacks on three locations across Iran came after three tankers in the strait of Hormuz were targeted on Tuesday The US military carried out strikes on Iran for a second day, hours after president Donald Trump said that an interim agreement to end the war was “over” . Late on Wednesday Iranian state media reported explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas in the strait of Hormuz; in Sirik, another southern coastal city; and the south-western Bushehr province, home to Iran’s nuclear-power-plant complex. Continue reading...

US president says new strikes are ‘retribution’ after ships hit in strait of Hormuz; Iranian state media report explosions in several locations US carries out another wave of strikes on Iran Wednesday’s strikes against Iran expected to be ​greater in number than those carried out on Tuesday, an unnamed U.S. official told Reuters. Sahar, a 34-year-old teacher in Tehran who uses only one name to protect her identity, said the latest attacks have left families worried about new strikes on the residential areas. “Every night we remain alert, in fear, and charge our phones, keep our packed bags near the

World is witnessing a turning point, says ministry spokesperson, as Iran seeks to assert independence amid rising tensions Before a foreign ministry press briefing at the Grand Hotel Tehran, the assembled reporters were asked to stand for the national anthem that duly blared from fuzzy speakers. At the podium, the ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, claimed the world was witnessing a turning point in the history of Shia Islam. A century from now, he claimed, the assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be revered as a second Imam Hussain, the martyred grandson of the prophet Muhammad. Donald Trump, meanwhile, would be seen

Ceasefire appears close to collapse as two militaries target each other after after Iran strikes three commercial vessels Iran and the US have threatened to reignite their conflict after the most extensive exchange of fire since an interim deal was signed last month. On a chaotic day at the Nato summit in Ankara, Donald Trump said the US would probably hit the country again on Wednesday evening and renewed his threat to take control of the strategic Kharg Island in the strait of Hormuz - a move that could provoke Iran to hit energy installations across the Gulf states. Continue

Mohamed al-Wahidi died when a missile struck his taxi shortly before Egypt played Argentina in their last 16 match Gaza’s World Cup screenings – in pictures A Palestinian aid worker who had organised screenings of World Cup matches in Gaza was killed by an Israeli missile strike just before the game between Egypt and Argentina on Tuesday evening. Two brothers aged eight and 10 and another man who was in the street near the site of the attack were also killed. Continue reading...

Lawrence Bishnoi, who is in prison in India, is accused of orchestrating assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023 US and Canadian authorities say they have “dismantled” the leadership of a notorious Indian criminal group, charging dozens of operatives who have “inflicted pain and cruelty on people, victims around the globe”, including a high-profile murder in Canada that strained diplomatic relations between Canada and India. At a press conference on Tuesday, members of the FBI and Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said as part of Operation Hard Ball – a multiyear federal investigation into murder-for-hire plots, shootings, extortion and

Early flight data shows K2 Airways plane crashed into sea with five crew on board south-west of Karachi Pakistan has located the wreckage of a Boeing cargo plane, the country’s airports authority said, adding that rescuers were searching for the five crew members on board when the aircraft went missing. The plane was approaching Karachi from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates when radar showed it “rapidly descending” on Tuesday evening after reporting a “navigational system issue”, according to the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA). Continue reading...

Amnesty International says Albanese has opportunity to ‘reaffirm mutual commitment’ to rule of law as thousands in diaspora expected at stadium event Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to Australia in three years has sparked calls for the federal government to raise human rights concerns, as excitement builds within the nation’s Indian diaspora. Modi’s visit begins on Wednesday evening and marks his third since becoming prime minister. It will see him return to Melbourne after more than

Thousands of women are killed in dowry disputes each year, despite the practice being banned in 1961 Dowry deaths in India no longer provoke the public anger they once did, despite thousands of women’s lives still being lost every year, according to new research. The killings – women who are murdered or driven to suicide following dowry disputes between families – have also faded from political debate, despite an increase in cases. Continue reading...

Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries rushed to hospital after fighting between prisoners from two drug gangs Clashes at a Sri Lankan jail have killed 26 people, including seven guards, and wounded more than 100 in the country’s deadliest prison riot in years, officials said. Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries were rushed to Negombo hospital, north of the capital Colombo after overnight fighting between prisoners from two drug gangs, police said on Monday. Continue reading...

Ministers also considering licence requirement and regulator to try to cut bills and increase choice UK vets may have to have a licence and cap prescriptions for pet medicine at £21 under plans being considered by the government. Ministers are also considering establishing a regulator for the veterinary sector, including inspections, a mandatory licensing system and published compliance reports to improve accountability and choice. Every vet practice could need an official operating licence – similar to GP surgeries and care homes – under proposals in a white paper. Continue reading...

Ethics and integrity commission chief says overhaul is crucial to help restore trust in standards All lobbying of government ministers, aides and senior officials should be publicly declared – from WhatsApp chats to party conference meetings – in a fundamental shake-up of transparency laws, the government’s ethics watchdog has said. A review led by Doug Chalmers, the head of the ethics and integrity commission , has called for a new register to highlight who is lobbying, which policies they are seeking to influence and who in government they are meeting. Continue reading...

Interim report into Pip found process had systematic and deep-rooted problems and required bold and radical overhaul A landmark government review of disability benefits has warned “challenging discussions” remain on how to overhaul and pay for a system it concludes is unfit for purpose and too often leaves vulnerable claimants dehumanised and degraded. The Timms review of the personal independence payment (Pip) concluded the benefit, claimed by nearly 4 million people in England and Wales, suffered from systematic and deep-rooted problems that had undermined public trust in the benefits system. Continue reading...

Foreign affairs select committee says Peter Mandelson episode was ‘nothing short of disastrous’ for government Political selections for ambassador posts should be subject to a veto by MPs, a parliamentary committee has recommended, as it made damning criticisms of how Peter Mandelson became Britain’s top diplomat in Washington. The foreign affairs select committee concluded that Mandelson’s appointment was “nothing short of disastrous”, “highly damaging” for the British government and “painful and offensive to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein”. Continue reading...

Prime minister in waiting looks to address frustrations backbenchers had with Keir Starmer’s style of party management Andy Burnham has promised MPs that he will never use party discipline to “stifle debate” and says they should raise problems and policy ideas “without fear or favour”. Nominations for the Labour leadership will open on Thursday, and Burnham is expected to be the only candidate. On Wednesday night the former armed forces minister Al Carns confirmed he would not seek to enter the race to replace Keir Starmer. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. Graham Platner ends Maine Senate campaign after sexual assault allegation Maine contenders: the Democrats who could replace Graham Platner Sign up for the Breaking News US email During a bilateral meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Nato summit in Ankara, Donald Trump was asked about Iran, and he repeated his earlier criticism. On Wednesday, while speaking to reporters alongside Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, Trump said that memorandum of understanding signed last month by the US and Iran is “over”, in the wake of the latest strikes. Continue reading...

Democratic nominee, dogged by controversy since entering contest, says ‘for the movement to continue, it can’t be me’ Woman accuses Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner of sexual assault Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine, is suspending his campaign following sexual assault allegations. Platner announced his decision in an 11-minute video posted to social media on Wednesday evening, in which he angrily accused the Democratic establishment and corporate media of “using these allegations to take away all of the things we need to run a campaign” and acting “as judge, jury and executioner”. Continue reading...

Request for rehearing comes after Fox News report of Texas hospital advertising maternity services in Mexico Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would ask the US supreme court to reconsider its ruling that the 14th amendment to the US constitution guarantees birthright citizenship in light of what he described as shocking new evidence: a hospital in Texas advertising its services to expectant mothers in Mexico on a pair of billboards. “Signs and Billboards are being put up all over our Southern Border, and Mexico, advertising BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, with ‘Deliveries starting at $4000’, the president wrote on his social media platform,

Frustration mounts that Maine nominee has not withdrawn over sexual assault claim as Trump says Platner ‘in a bind’ Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Graham Platner, the embattled Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine, has been accused of trying to influence the process of picking his replacement as frustration mounts that he has not yet withdrawn from the race. Platner has publicly said he is “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward” after an allegation of sexual assault, which he denied, was published on Monday . Continue reading...

Andrew Giuliani claims actions of referee Raphael Claus over US player Folarin Balogun ‘very, very highly suspicious’ Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House’s World Cup taskforce, has defended Donald Trump’s lobbying of Fifa to lift the suspension of US player Folarin Balogun for Monday’s game against Belgium. The US president claimed that Brazilian referee Raphael Claus , who showed Balogun a red card in the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, was “a little bit suspect, if you check his past”. This was apparently a reference to a match-fixing investigation by Brazil’s senate in 2024 that examined how referees were

A judge on Wednesday authorised the payment of a multimillion-dollar award to magazine writer E. Jean Carroll to satisfy a 2023 civil verdict in which a jury found US President ‌Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan ordered the disbursement of nearly US$5.8 million to the former Elle magazine advice columnist, representing the original US$5 million verdict plus interest. The funds had been held in escrow while Trump appealed the...

British anti-immigrant politician Nigel Farage faces the embarrassing prospect of going head-to-head with perennial joke candidate Count Binface in a by-election after he decided to quit parliament. His surprise move threatened to backfire on Wednesday after other heavyweight parties confirmed they would not contest the vote for Farage’s seat in southeast England. Count Binface, a self-described “intergalactic space warrior”, is the only other person to have said so far that they would run. In a...

US President Donald Trump unexpectedly left Turkey on Wednesday aboard an older Air Force One rather than the newly renovated Qatari-donated jet that brought him there, but later boarded the new plane in Britain for the flight to Washington. The trip to Turkey for the Nato summit, the first international travel for the new ‌plane, took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, a country that borders Turkey. The unexpected plane switch followed months of scrutiny over the luxury gift intended to...

The Pitt led all nominees with 25 in a dominant second season, while Hacks led all comedies with 24 for its final season as the Emmy nominations were announced on Wednesday. HBO Max’s emergency room series The Pitt was a rookie upstart last year with big wins including best drama series, best actor for Noah Wyle and best supporting actress for Katherine LaNasa. Already a beloved veteran show, it owned this year’s acting categories. Wyle was nominated again, as was LaNasa. Taylor Dearden, Fiona...

Spain remained calm in the face of US President Donald Trump’s latest attack on Wednesday – which saw him order a halt to all trade with the country – as Madrid stressed its relationship with Washington remained “positive”. Trump called Spain a “wasted cause” and “hopeless, bad people” during comments to reporters ahead of a Nato leaders’ meeting in Ankara, and ordered officials to cut off trade with the country – the second time Trump has made such a threat since March. The US leader has...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday modestly downgraded its outlook for the world economy this year, citing the energy shock caused by the Iran war. But the fallout from the conflict is being partially offset by booming investment in artificial intelligence and other technologies. The IMF now expects the global economy to expand by a sluggish 3 per cent in 2026, down from 3.5 per cent last year and from the 3.1 per cent it had forecast for this year back in April. The fund expects...

At least two girls have been seriously wounded and a 16-year-old suspect arrested after an attack at a secondary school in the southern German state of Bavaria on Wednesday. The perpetrator appeared to have deliberately targeted the Welfen grammar school in the town of Schongau in a suspected “rampage”, a police spokeswoman said. She was unable to confirm press reports according to which the assailant used a knife in the attack. Local police said on their social media account that “a suspected...

A German palliative care doctor was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for murdering 15 people with lethal doses of sedatives, and he remains under investigation for dozens more killings. The court in Berlin convicted the 41-year-old of killing 12 women and three men during home visits between September 2021 and July 2024. But presiding judge Sylvia Busch said the conviction for 15 murders may well be only a glimpse of his many crimes. Prosecutors said during the proceedings that he was...

In the animated Soviet film The Golden Antelope, inspired by Indian folklore, a magical antelope tries to save a boy from a greedy raja by promising him as much gold as he wants. When she asks whether there can be too much, the raja laughs: “You can never give me too much gold.” But when the gold begins to bury him, he cries “enough” – and loses everything. Today’s financial system risks repeating the raja’s mistake. For too long, rising nominal wealth, asset prices and the fortunes of the ultra...

Norwegian police said on Wednesday that 28 men across seven countries had been arrested in an operation targeting buyers of material depicting sexual abuse of children. Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos), said the men had used the cryptocurrency Monero to pay for access to several forums on the dark web. “We have worked closely with six countries to coordinate the arrests of the identified users who paid with cryptocurrency to gain access to the forums,” police prosecutor...

Russian forces are trying to counter Ukrainian “mid-strike” drone attacks by camouflaging cargoes ⁠and installing powerful jamming systems to disrupt Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system, Ukrainian drone commanders and pilots have said. Kyiv’s development of “mid-strike” drones that can hit targets dozens of kilometres behind front lines accurately and cheaply, and are often flown via Starlink, has transformed the war in Ukraine. In a concerted mid-strike campaign this year, Ukraine...

Apple lost its challenge on Wednesday against landmark EU rules that designate its app stores and operating system iOS as gatekeepers subject to obligations aimed at giving rivals more room to compete. The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets out a list of dos and don’ts ‌for Big Tech with the threat of fines of as much as 10 per cent of a company’s global annual turnover, has triggered legal challenges by Apple, Meta and ByteDance since it took effect in May 2023. The ruling by the...

As another heatwave rolled across Europe, the warehouses emptied before the politics could catch up. Air conditioners and fans sold out across Spain, Italy and Germany, most of them Chinese. Fan sales in Spain alone on the retail platform of Alibaba Group Holding (which owns the South China Morning Post) nearly doubled last month while Midea Group’s air-conditioner sales in western Europe surged by over 70 per cent in the first six months of the year. A decade from now, such heatwaves may become...

British Columbia said on Tuesday it was preparing a lawsuit against OpenAI over the company’s failure to report violent ChatGPT activity by the person who committed a mass school shooting in the western Canadian province. OpenAI had banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025, months before the 18-year-old transgender woman killed eight people at her home and a school in the tiny mining town of Tumbler Ridge. Canadian families impacted by the February shooting have already...

Workers have started making emergency repairs to stabilise a Manhattan high-rise after buckled columns and sagging floors forced evacuations in and around the midtown construction site. The scene unfolded throughout Tuesday after the precarious conditions were spotted in the morning at the 1970s-era building, which is being converted into luxury flats. Construction workers at the site and people in nearby buildings – including a school, diplomatic offices and several hotels – in the busy...

All charges against a radiologist accused of trying to kill his family in 2023 by driving his car off a cliff along the Northern California coast have been dismissed by a judge following his completion of a mental health programme. Prosecutors charged Dharmesh Patel, 45, with attempted murder after he drove his Tesla off a 276-metre cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway known as “Devil’s Slide”, injuring his wife and two young children. All four survived the January 2, 2023, crash in what one...

Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight killed at least seven people as Kyiv’s army said it had hit several Russian tankers, in fresh attacks just hours ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at a Nato summit. A first large blast in Kyiv was heard shortly after midnight even before the city’s air alert sirens sounded - a rare failure in the system that has spooked residents of the capital. That was followed by a barrage of several more explosions. One...

The US Federal Communications Commission ⁠said on Tuesday it is adding California-based Digitalsystem Technology to a list of companies posing risks to US national security, citing links to Chinese telecoms firms and its ownership by a Chinese national. The FCC also said ‌it was denying the Los Angeles-based IT company permission to provide international telecommunications services, saying it could be exploited by Chinese threat actors. “There is significant risk that the government of China and...

The Iran battlefield might be quieter and diplomacy might have resumed, but the main contest has shifted to the architecture of the Middle East. The question is no longer whether Iran can be contained, the Strait of Hormuz can remain open or another round of escalation can be avoided. The larger issue is who will write the rules after the shock. Three tracks are taking shape. The first is led by the United States and built around the expansion of the Abraham Accords, the integration of Israel...

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced the “ruthless” US embargo against the communist island during a UN General Assembly debate on Tuesday that took place despite diplomatic pressure by Washington to prevent it. “The government of the United States is carrying out against Cuba a multi-dimensional, non-conventional warfare that has already lasted for almost seven decades now and has become ever more cruel and more ruthless during the last seven months,” Rodriguez told the body,...

Colombia’s president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella on Tuesday suspended the transition process with President Gustavo Petro and accused him of planning a coup to stay in power, after the incumbent leader refused to recognise results of the country’s election. Petro said Monday that he refused to recognise de la Espriella’s victory in the June 21 presidential run-off election over the Petro coalition’s candidate Senator Ivan Cepeda, alleging fraud without providing evidence. The conservative,...

At least five women have accused the archbishop of Rabat of sexual assault, according to an Agence France-Presse investigation, prompting the Spanish-born cleric to announce he was “stepping back” on Tuesday while the Vatican holds an inquiry. Agence France-Presse interviewed a retired woman involved in the Church and reviewed the written testimony of another woman who said Cristobal Lopez Romero had sexually assaulted them. The 74-year-old archbishop denied all wrongdoing when contacted by...

The US state of Utah has revoked the licence of a boarding school where socialite Paris Hilton said she was abused as a teenager, saying the school has “failed to provide applicable health and safety services for clients”. The state’s action, which took effect on Monday, cites multiple non-compliance issues against Provo Canyon School’s campus in Springville. The school has 15 days to request a hearing before the Department of Health & Human Services. The wide-ranging citations, which go back to...

A lawsuit claims the Trump administration is unlawfully giving confidential personal information to Iran about Iranians who applied for asylum to avoid “grave danger” in their native country. The US is sharing private data with the Iranian government about asylum applicants including pro-democracy protesters as well as members of religious minorities and the LGBTQ community, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in Washington. Asylum seekers allegedly face deportation back to Iran, where the...

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says he will quit as a lawmaker and seek re-election to clear his name over financial allegations linked to millions of dollars’ worth of donations. “I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money,” Farage, a prominent ally of US President Donald Trump, said in a broadcast statement that did not take questions. Farage faces a probe by parliament’s standards watchdog over a £5 million (US$6.7 million) gift from...

Prince Harry’s final lawsuit aimed at taming the British tabloids ended in defeat on Tuesday as a judge found he failed to prove his privacy invasion claims against the publisher of the Daily Mail. Justice Matthew Nicklin rejected the broad inferences the Duke of Sussex had relied on to try to show that Associated Newspapers had engaged in unlawful activities. The judge said there was a realistic possibility the news came from legitimate sources. The ruling scuttles the lawsuits filed by Harry...

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen ⁠announced on Tuesday that she ⁠will run for president in 2027 after an appeal ⁠court shortened her ban on holding public office. Le Pen’s presidential hopes had been in limbo since March 2025, when she received a five-year electoral ban for using money from the European Parliament to pay wages for staff at her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) party in France. On Tuesday, the Paris appeal court upheld Le Pen’s conviction for misusing European ‌Parliament...

The European Commission has been clearly signalling its intention to wage a trade war against China. Brussels’ intent to counter the so-called China shock 2.0 – the wave of subsidised Chinese exports such as electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels and batteries – is no longer merely a verbal threat but appears to be an imminent decision. Comparing current trade tensions between the European Union and China with the trade conflict between Europe and Japan in the 1970s and 1980s reveals striking...

Ukraine’s Security Service on Tuesday said it found the body of Ukrainian national Anastasiia Berezovska, who had been wanted by authorities in Monaco in connection with the bombing targeting Ukrainian business tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev. The security service, also known by its local abbreviation SBU, said an officer serving in Ukraine’s military intelligence agency confessed to killing Berezovska with the help of a former law enforcement officer. He claimed he acted on his own initiative and...

Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi led a business delegation to New Delhi for the 16th India-Japan annual summit. During last year’s summit in Tokyo, Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined the Japan-India Joint Vision for the next decade – during which period India may see up to 10 trillion yen (US$62 billion) in investment from Japan. Some of Japan’s most notable investments in India have been in the financial sector. Japanese...

Explosions rocked Damascus on Tuesday as France’s president met with his Syrian counterpart in a landmark visit, wounding at least 18 people, Syria’s Interior Ministry said. It was the second blast to rock the capital in a few days, and a setback for the country’s new president as he welcomed his first visit from a western leader since ousting long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad. Syria’s new rulers have wrestled with outbreaks of violence as they work to assert control, but the capital has been...

⁠Democratic Party leaders on Monday called on Graham Platner to withdraw as their nominee to run against Republican US Senator Susan Collins of Maine, after media reports that a woman accused him of forcibly having sex with her nearly five years ago. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement: “The DSCC will not invest in the Maine Senate race if Platner remains on the...

Cuba on Monday suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, causing mounting despair in the face of an energy collapse precipitated by a US fuel blockade. The communist island was already struggling to keep the lights on before US President Donald Trump in January cut off its oil supplies, depleting the dwindling supply of fuel for its power plants. Union Electrica (UNE), the state electricity company, announced a “total disconnection” to the entire island at midday,...

Singapore is the world’s most expensive city for luxury spending for a fourth consecutive year, as prices on items such as watches and jewellery surge around the globe. Zurich climbed to second place, edging out London, while Monaco entered the top three for the first time since the survey began in 2020, according to an annual report by Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer Group. Hong Kong and London rounded out the top five. Zurich’s three-place rise was propelled by the strengthening of the Swiss...

A third tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, British maritime security agency UKMTO reported on Tuesday, after Qatar blamed Iran for an attack on one of its ships. “UKMTO has received a report of a further incident involving a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The tanker was struck by an unknown Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and has sustained minor structural damage. No casualties or environmental impact reported,” it said in a post on social media. An “unknown...

The Furious, Hong Kong’s latest action flick, is crushing it on Rotten Tomatoes and has garnered critical acclaim abroad – proof of what human-centric filmmaking can still deliver in today’s market. But before we rush to hail the return of Hong Kong cinema, a new breed of drama factory is quietly generating content at a velocity no human team could ever match. In mainland China, micro dramas generated by artificial intelligence (AI) have turned the industry upside down. A production schedule...

Lebanese state media said an Israeli strike on a car in the country’s south on Monday killed four people, including three women, despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said a school principal, her mother, a foreign female domestic worker and a male Syrian worker were killed when an Israeli drone targeted their car as they returned from inspecting their family home in Nabatieh al-Fawqa. The Israeli military said on Monday that it identified...

Norway wants China to use its ⁠ties to the Russian ⁠leadership to help bring about ⁠a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine, also for the sake of better relations with Europe, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said on Monday. “China is probably the country with the ‌best and most direct access to the Russian leadership. We expect, hope and strongly urge China to use that channel,” he told reporters after meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Oslo. The biggest chunk of their...

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. In this wide-ranging series, we examine the pressure points and possibilities in those ties, from hard tech to soft power. In this article, Sylvia Ma examines the numerous financial links between the two economies that make a true decoupling a difficult affair. On a landmark visit to Beijing in 1986, the New York Stock Exchange chairman at the time, John...

In a closely watched outcome, Canada on Monday chose a major German defence contractor over its South Korean competitor to build a US multibillion-dollar fleet of submarines, as mid-tier nations increasingly work together in the face of a less reliable United States. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Ottawa chose Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems’ (TKMS) package over Hanwha Ocean Company’s. The move was expected to strengthen ties between Canada and Nato, which is holding a two-day summit...

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he is building a granite helipad on the White House lawn, insisting that the landing area is needed to accommodate new, more powerful presidential choppers. Confirmation of the project came as construction crews had already begun working on the helipad on the South Lawn, where the president had UFC build a temporary arena for a cage fight celebrating his 80th birthday. He said the project would be privately funded and estimated its cost at up to US$6...

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Damascus on Monday for the first visit by a Western European head of state since Syria’s new authorities took power. President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been rebooting Syria’s international credentials and seeking to revive his struggling country after toppling long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. “I have come to reaffirm France’s commitment to the Syrian people. To a sovereign Syria, united in its diversity and at peace with its neighbours,”...

With the integrity of Fifa and the World Cup under attack from European football leaders, Fifa President Gianni Infantino acknowledged taking a call from US President Donald Trump before US forward Folarin Balogun was cleared to play against Belgium later on Monday. Balogun was issued a red card in the US match against Bosnia-Herzegovina last week, resulting in a suspension for the Belgium contest. Trump called Infantino after the match with Bosnia to plead his case to overturn the call and Fifa...

Nato cannot be “naive” about China’s military development, as the Indo-Pacific and European theatres are becoming “more intertwined”, evident in Beijing’s support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, Nato’s secretary general has said. During a pre-summit press conference on Monday, a day before the Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte responded to questions about a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine firing a test missile into the Pacific. Rutte said that Nato...

Prince Harry arrived in Britain on Monday for a five-day visit expected to go ahead mostly without his wife and children after they were reportedly refused police protection. Harry’s visit has been hit by several snags as plans for his family to accompany him fell through, his accommodation at Buckingham Palace was in disarray and a judgment in his latest legal battle against British tabloids loomed. The visit, to mark the one-year countdown to next year’s Invictus Games for wounded veterans,...

Iran’s president and foreign minister were physically attacked this week by supporters of a hard-line faction that vehemently opposes any deal with the United States.

U.S. satellite image limitations have hampered journalists covering the Iran war. But other sources are offering workarounds, making it harder for militaries to conceal their actions.

The Secret Service is said to have asked that the president not use the Qatari-donated jet when he left Ankara. The swap deepens questions about the retrofitting of the new plane.

The meeting in Turkey featured President Trump at his most mercurial, veering from scorn to praise for European countries, including some whose patience with mollifying him has worn thin.

With Patriot interceptors in short supply, President Trump’s statement that he would allow Ukraine to build them is a boon to Kyiv as it fights off Russian missile attacks. But it is just the start.

Ms. Carroll had asked a federal judge to order the president to pay the judgment after a jury found he sexually abused and defamed her.

I resisted the trend until I couldn’t any longer.

At World Cup matches featuring teams from five continents, our photographer captured fans, flags, fringe, face paint and at least one horned helmet.

The HBO Max medical series earned 25 nominations in the drama category. And in comedy, the final season of “Hacks” set a record with 24 nominations.

Other unexpected results include nods for Chase Infiniti and the “Love Island USA” host Ariana Madix and a snub for “The Amazing Race.”

The vice president called Democrats “a party that is fighting for fraud,” even as he highlighted the case of a woman who was first indicted under the Biden administration.

In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, said he didn’t consider the recent wave of anti-establishment victories “an overall critique of the party.”

Senator Mitch McConnell has been hospitalized since June 14. Speculation about his health has spread in recent days.

The man killed, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, was mourned by his sons as a father, husband and business owner. Details of the encounter remain unclear.

The last time the justices granted a rehearing request after a case decision was in 1965. The court has only once reversed itself after rehearing a case.

Fearful that officials would tear down damaged buildings without accounting for any remaining bodies, Venezuelans are desperately digging for their relatives’ remains.

Conor McGregor, who will make his return to fighting this weekend, took human growth hormone and anabolic steroids after recovering from a broken leg, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Tips for endearing yourself to your host and fellow attendees — and all but guaranteeing you’ll be asked back.

The trouble in Maine goes beyond a single candidate.

Our July 4 bash was troubled, and America may go the way of the Ghaznavid Empire. But here are reasons to be more positive.

Tennessee authorities are investigating both shootings involving agents working with the task force in Memphis.