Minimalist News

BlackRock Says Crypto Can Outrun The Quantum Threat... If It Moves Fast Enough Authored by Mathew Di Salvo via BitcoinMagazine.com, BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, has chimed in on the crypto-quantum debate - and is surprisingly optimistic. The firm, which manages over $15 trillion in assets, said in its new report, Quantum Computing and Blockchains, that upgrading existing cryptography to quantum-resistant standards is a far easier task than actually building a functional quantum computer capable of breaking that cryptography. “In our view, PQ migration for cryptocurrencies is eminently addressable from a technical standpoint, and the key challenge is one

Trump Ready For 'Strong Military Action' If Talks Fail, With Saudi Aramco Under Houthi Fire Summary Trump pauses strikes: Trump said the US paused attacks to give diplomacy a chance but warned military action will resume if talks fail. Iran denies that it pushed for talks: Tehran denied any direct negotiations with Washington, while saying its response remains "attack for attack." Saudi Aramco targeted: Houthis claimed fresh strikes on Saudi Aramco facilities, with reports of fires at the critical Abqaiq oil processing complex. Fragile pause holds two days: The US-Iran military pause entered a second day as mediators continued backchannel

'I Almost Cried' - Documentary Video Trove Shows Lindsey Graham's Joy At Start Of Iran War Batches of previously unreleased documentary footage give a behind-the-scenes look at the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's work to maneuver the United States into military conflicts on behalf of Israel, and the sheer joy he exuded when President Trump finally brought Graham's long-held dreams of an all-out war on Iran to fruition. The video comes from British documentary filmmaker Alex Holder, whom Graham had granted close, ongoing access from 2023 up until Graham's sudden death on July 11. Holder plans to release a documentary called

Key Events This Busy Week: FOMC, PCE, GDP, War On/War Off... And Earnings Galore Before we look at the week ahead, a quick look at the main event that defines the market this Monday morning: after 13 consecutive nights of US strikes aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping, Washington has refrained from further attacks since late Friday, while Tehran has publicly stated that it has also suspended retaliatory operations. The pause falls short of a formal ceasefire, but both sides are presenting it as an opportunity for diplomacy, with Omani-mediated talks continuing over the weekend focused on

Massive Relax By Benjamin Picton, Senior Macro Strategist at Rabobank Oil futures are being offered this morning after President Trump on Friday declined to continue strikes on Iran. The ‘pause’ was extended over the weekend and reciprocated by the Iranians, marking the first ‘cease’ of the ceasefire in almost a fortnight. According to Axios, Donald Trump’s advisors had provided the President with attack plans for the day but CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper reportedly advised against further strikes, arguing that Iran’s ability to disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz had already been substantially degraded and that the aerial campaign

Shootout Erupts At Seattle Festival, Killing 3; Second Gunman On The Run Seattle police are searching for a second suspect after two gunmen allegedly exchanged fire inside the crowded Bite of Seattle festival beneath the Space Needle, killing three people and wounding four others, including a 2-year-old boy. BREAKING: 2 killed, 5 injured in shooting at Seattle Center, Washington pic.twitter.com/MPaA3lzO7W — Rapid Report (@RapidReport2025) July 27, 2026 Assistant Seattle Police Chief Tyrone Davis told reporters late Sunday that investigators believe the suspects were shooting at each other when bystanders were caught in the crossfire. Three people were killed and four

Deutsche Bank Says Starship Flight 13 Made "Solid Progress" Despite Booster Setback Following last month's record-setting IPO, SpaceX shares have plunged 50% from their peak and now trade about 15% below the $135 offering price. The post-IPO euphoria has faded, stripping Elon Musk of his trillionaire status - at least for now. On Friday evening, SpaceX launched Starship on its 13th test flight and successfully deployed 20 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, making solid progress toward full reusability. The upper-stage spacecraft completed all its primary objectives, despite another landing-burn failure involving the Super Heavy booster. Deployment of 20 @Starlink V3 satellites

Appeals Court Blocks Trump Mail-In Voting Order In 23 Democrat-Led States, Setting Up SCOTUS Fight Via American Greatness, A federal appeals court sided with 23 Democrat-led states and blocked the Trump administration from enforcing key pieces of the president’s election integrity order, setting up a likely showdown at the Supreme Court just months before the midterms. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to deny the Justice Department’s request to pause a lower court injunction while the administration’s appeal moves forward, leaving in place a ruling that stripped federal agencies of the power to enforce several provisions of

Trump Accounts Are Now Open: What Parents And Grandparents Need To Know Before Contributing Authored by Adam H. Douglas via The Epoch Times , As of July 4, 2026, money can officially flow into Trump accounts, the new child savings vehicle created by last year's tax law. rblfmr/shutterstock Millions of families have already signed up, and millions more are asking the same practical questions: does my child qualify, how do I claim the $1,000, and is this better than the 529 plan we already have? Most coverage explanations answer these questions in tax-professional language. Here are the essentials in plain

Futures Jump As Brent Tumbles Below $90 On Fresh Round Of Iran Ceasefire Optimism A sharp drop in oil prices prompted by a quieter weekend for geopolitics and a pause in MidEast hostilities also sparked a drop in bond yields and the USD. A powerful relief rally in stocks and bonds emerged after a lull in hostilities in the Middle East, and started a week packed with earnings and a stack of interest-rate decisions on a positive note. As of 8.00am ET, Nasdaq futures surged after the index logged its first back-to-back weekly declines since March; S&P 500 futures rose

Iran Blasts "Freeloader" Zelensky For Ordering Deadly Attack On Caspian Vessel "At Israel's Behest" Summary: Iran Accuses Zelensky of Ordering Deadly Caspian Vessel Attack Weekend US Crude via IG Markets Down 5% Iran Will Halt Tit-For-Tat Strikes If US Maintains Pause Iran, Oman Hold Hormuz Talks As US Pauses Airstrikes For Second Day * * * US x Iran Effective Ceasefire by August 31? Yes 75% · No 26% View full market & trade on Polymarket * * * Iran Lashes Out at "Freeloader" Zelensky for Caspian Sea Attack Iran has accused Ukraine of attacking an Iranian commercial vessel in

Nvidia Weighs $250 Billion Backstop For OpenAI's Gargantuan Ohio Data Center Campus Nvidia is in early talks to provide up to $250 billion in financing guarantees to help OpenAI lease computing capacity from a planned $500 billion, 10-gigawatt data center facility in Ohio, according to Bloomberg , citing people familiar with the matter. The proposed deal highlights investor concerns that the AI bubble has been fueled by circular financing. The SoftBank-led project is located in southern Ohio and, when fully built, would support 10 gigawatts of computing capacity, or roughly equivalent to the output of 10 large nuclear reactors. The

Chamath Warns A Government Ban On Open-Source AI Would Tank The Market And Crater Anthropic And OpenAI Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya warned that any U.S. move to ban open-source AI would blow a hole in corporate balance sheets and drag the stock market down. "If the United States government intervenes, it will tank the stock market. Not debatable," Palihapitiya said on the "All-In" podcast released over the weekend. "Now, you can debate which companies get tanked. For example, if they said, 'No more open source. American companies cannot use open source.'" Chamath: Banning Open Source AI Will Crash the Stock

Elizabeth Warren Claims Crypto Clarity Act Would Help Trump... And 'Criminals & Cartels' Authored by Matthew Di Salvo via BitcoinMagazine.com, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has blasted the Clarity Act draft bill, claiming it would allow criminals and cartels to move money. Speaking in a video statement on X Wednesday, Warren hinted that the potential law would allow President Donald Trump to make money from crypto. Lawmakers are currently mulling over the latest draft of the Clarity Act, which aims to set in stone digital asset regulation. The latest draft bans officials and their families from issuing or promoting crypto. “This

Left-Wing Activists Rush To Defend Islamic Migrants After Attack On Berlin Pride Parade Is "suicidal empathy" the real cause of the western world's immigration crisis? Or, is the political left completely devoid of empathy? Is the multicultural agenda so important to them that they're willing to sacrifice their own people to protect it? The problem of "intersectionality" and engineered mass immigration is that progressive ideals are not shared or respected by most cultures. Leftists envision a sweeping coalition of socialist and minority groups joining forces to destroy the "evil colonial west", but they seem to be ignoring the fact that

If This Isn't Treason, What Is? Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News , A newly revealed internal memo from the final days of the Biden administration exposes a calculated scheme to grant de facto amnesty to more than 3 million foreign nationals through Temporary Protected Status expansions, explicitly designed to block President Trump from carrying out the mass deportations the American people voted for. Senator Eric Schmitt obtained the document, which laid out options to shield vast numbers of Guatemalans, Ecuadorians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and others from removal. The plan aimed to force everything through activist judges and trap the

Intern At NATO Military Headquarters In Belgium Faces Spying Charges Belgian authorities arrested an intern working inside NATO's military headquarters, accusing her of spying . Nato’s sprawling military HQ close to Mons in western Belgium is where commanders plan and execute global operations and co-ordinate responses to threats © AP The intern was working at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, (SHAPE), in Mons, Belgium, where NATO commanders plan operations and coordinate the alliance's response to threats across the continent . "A Canadian national of Chinese origin, an intern at SHAPE, was served with an arrest warrant on Friday 24

European Wildfires, Net-Zero Stagnation, & The Great Industry Displacement Authored by Daniel Lacalle, Europe’s wildfire crisis has also exposed the failure of public spending rhetoric unsupported by effective land and forest management. EU governments spent 40.6 billion euros on fire protection services in 2023. In 2022, the total expenditure stood at EUR 37.4 billion. The European Court of Auditors discovered that spending oversight was incomplete, result monitoring was weak, and there was no assurance that the most impactful actions received financing. At the same time, the average annual burnt area in the EU rose to 527,000 hectares in 2021-2024, up

Which NATO Countries Boosted Defense Spending The Most In 2025? NATO’s European members and Canada increased defense spending by 20% in 2025, the group’s biggest military buildup in the last decade. Created in partnership with Inigo , this graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Jenna Ross, shows which NATO countries increased spending the most and how much they now spend as a share of GDP. Spending Heavyweights, Ranked by Annual Increases Our analysis covers NATO countries that spent over $10 billion on defense in 2025. Belgium was the country with the biggest spending jump of 58%. Once among NATO’s lowest defense spenders,

No-Go-Zone: Rotterdam Imposes Unprecedented Nighttime Exclusion Area Via Remix news, Rotterdam has introduced an unprecedented nighttime exclusion zone across large parts of the De Esch neighborhood following nearly three years of street racing, drug use, intimidation, prostitution, and persistent noise from migrant youth gangs. The order, which took effect on Thursday evening, makes it a criminal offense to enter the designated area between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. without a valid reason. Police can fine anyone unable to explain why they are there. Residents, workers, visitors to local homes, and people attending events, restaurants, or bars are exempt. The measure

Nelson Haase Mazzei was sentenced for murdering Jara in 2023, but fled from authorities in Chile More than 50 years after the murder of the Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara , the last man wanted in connection with his death has been tracked down and brought to justice. Nelson Haase Mazzei, a retired colonel, fled from authorities in 2023 after he and six other retired soldiers were sentenced in absentia for murdering Jara and another man. Continue reading...

No one was injured and no suspects have been identified in connection to shooting near Toronto compound, police say Shots were fired near the US consulate in Toronto early on Monday but no one was injured in the second shooting near the diplomatic compound in four months. “Officers heard a firearm being discharged in the area,” and “a white sedan was seen fleeing the scene”, Toronto police said on X. Continue reading...

Exclusive: CSI Aviation and GlobalX accused of violating civil rights as part of Trump immigration crackdown Venezuelan men sent last year to a notorious Salvadorian terrorism prison by the Trump administration are suing the US aviation companies that transported them there. A lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Washington DC accuses the companies CSI Aviation and GlobalX of violating the Venezuelans’ civil rights, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and other violations, for their role in flying the three planes that took the men to El Salvador. Continue reading...

At least 90 active blazes in British Columbia in what PM says is one of the country’s most intense seasons on record How dangerous are wildfires and how can we stop them from getting worse? Fresh wildfires have broken out in western Canada and forests continued to ⁠burn in Ontario as the country ⁠battled what the prime ​minister, Mark Carney, called one of the most intense wildfire seasons on record. Nearly 34,000 lightning strikes over the past week led to a series of fires ⁠and evacuation orders in southern British Columbia. There were 25 evacuation orders and 90 active wildfires

Of the estimated 179 people aboard, 76 were rescued as efforts continue to salvage the ship and recover all bodies The confirmed death toll from the recent capsizing of a state ferry off Guyana ’s coast has risen to 72, with more bodies recovered as a multinational team struggle to salvage the partially submerged vessel. Of the estimated 179 people aboard, 76 people were rescued. The government has estimated that 100 may have died in the accident, which would make it the worst marine tragedy on record for the South American nation. Continue reading...

Dunedin will be the focal point, having last experienced such an eclipse in 1163 – before any humans reached New Zealand Hotels are booking out two years in advance in the New Zealand city of Dunedin as it prepares for the region’s first total solar eclipse in more than 850 years. At 4.17pm on 22 July 2028, the moon will pass in front of the sun, casting a roughly 100km-wide shadowy band across parts of southern New Zealand. Everywhere within that band – from tourist hotspot Queenstown in the west to Dunedin city in the east – will be plunged

Isabel Rose, 26, sentenced to six years for blackmail and perverting course of public justice over her allegations against British man A British woman who reported being raped to police in Hong Kong has been sentenced to six years in prison for blackmail and perverting the course of public justice. Isabel Rose, 26, from south-east London, travelled to Hong Kong in early 2024 to visit a British banker she had met while travelling in south-east Asia. Continue reading...

Foreign minister Penny Wong will deliver speech criticising China’s recent launch of a nuclear-capable submarine-launched missile Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Penny Wong will warn China that Australia and other neighbouring nations will not be bullied by its “provocative” actions, after its involvement in another “destabilising and dangerous” incident this week. The foreign affairs minister – who will deliver the address on Thursday in the Philippines, where the 59th Asean foreign minister’s meeting is being held – will also caution world leaders against placing a toll on the strait of Hormuz after both

Prosecutors seek a one-year sentence and heavy fine after chef garnished dish with insects not approved for consumption Prosecutors in South Korea have asked a court to sentence the owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant to one year in prison for serving a dessert topped with ants, an insect not approved for consumption under local food safety law. The request, made on Monday, also sought a 20m won (£10,108) fine for the company that runs the restaurant, Yonhap news agency reported . Continue reading...

In April Japan coined new term kokushobi for days above 40C as country advises workers to wear shorts to the office to cope with stifling heat Japan logged its first official kokushobi or “cruelly hot day” on Tuesday since the new term for when temperatures top 40 degrees Celsius was introduced in April. The Japan Meteorological Agency coined the new designation to warn the public of the heat dangers of days that were once freak weather events but have now become more common. The central Japan cities of Gujo and Tajimi in Gifu prefecture, along with Toyota in Aichi prefecture,

The NSW anti-corruption watchdog has begun a public inquiry into allegations of branch stacking, illegal donations, and interference with preselections Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast If you ever thought branch stacking was a harmless game played by young, ambitious political operatives seeking to advance within the party, think again. On Monday, on the first day of the corruption watchdog’s inquiry into operation Rosny, an investigation into allegations of “possible offences under the Electoral Funding Act”, we heard boasts on secret tape recordings from a developer that he had “my hands on the state

Exclusive: Resurfaced comments by the One Nation leader underline her criticism of paid family violence leave and domestic violence support groups Pauline Hanson told a podcast last year she believed “your employer should not be responsible” for providing paid domestic violence leave, while her colleague Malcolm Roberts recently referred to the family court as the “slaughterhouse of the nation”, in the latest One Nation comments critical of the family law system to emerge. Hanson claimed on a 2021 podcast that domestic violence was being “used as a weapon” in court proceedings, and criticised domestic violence groups for focusing on support

Emergency services pulled the bodies from the ocean at Port Macdonnell as hopes of finding second child fade Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A baby is missing off the coast of South Australia after the bodies of a mother and her toddler were pulled from the ocean below treacherous cliffs. Emergency services were called to the state’s southernmost coastal town, Port Macdonnell, about 11am on Monday after a vehicle with its engine running was discovered in a car park near cliffs at Cape Northumberland, police said. Continue reading...

Commonwealth and Western Australia to fund study into construction of large-scale petrol refinery as buffer against fuel vulnerability Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australia’s first new oil refinery in 60 years could be built in Western Australia under the Albanese government’s long-term strategy to shield the country from future global oil shocks. The commonwealth and the WA government will fund a $4m early-stage feasibility study into construction of what would be the country’s third large-scale petrol refinery. Continue reading...

Performer on trial on six charges of sexually penetrating a 20-year-old woman without consent A British YouTuber and musician accused of violently raping a fan after a gig never asked his alleged victim if she wanted sex, a court has been told. Rapper Yung Filly, whose real name is Andrés Felipe Valencia Barrientos, is fighting six charges of sexually penetrating a 20-year-old woman without consent in a Perth hotel room in September 2024. Continue reading...

Two women severely wounded before bystanders intervened in incident near Porte de Clichy A man attacked three women with knives in Paris before bystanders pinned him to the ground and an off-duty police officer detained him, the French interior ⁠minister, Laurent Nuñez, has said. The man attacked the three women, aged 19, 24 and 36, with ⁠two kitchen knives, severely wounding two of them, near Porte de Clichy on Monday, Nuñez said. Continue reading...

Coming days are ‘absolutely critical’ for firefighters before temperatures rise again this week, officials say Firefighters in France and Spain are racing to bring huge wildfires under control before another heatwave this week that will complicate efforts to tame the flames. Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said Monday and Tuesday were “absolutely crucial days” before temperatures rise again from Wednesday. Continue reading...

Residents describe their fear as they were forced to leave their homes because of the ‘extremely intense’ blaze Sitting in their suburban apartment in Mérignac on the outskirts of Bordeaux, Krishma, an interpreter, and her husband, Nassir, first felt a sense of dread when a strange black cloud turned the sky dark in the middle of the day. Then a bitter burning smell filled the air outside. “The sky changed colour. It seemed like a cloud but it was smoke covering the sun – it wasn’t a natural phenomenon. It didn’t seem real,” said Nassir, an English literature graduate from

Gibraltar-based Ros Astengo inspired four men to report sexual assaults carried out by Allan Grimson in 1990s Ros Astengo, a journalist based in Gibraltar who usually focuses on politics and social issues, had qualms when she began investigating the case of the suspected serial killer Allan Grimson as he neared release from prison after serving more than 20 years. She worried that she might reopen the scars of survivors of Grimson – but also that she could be putting herself in the “crosshairs” of a dangerous man who had sexually assaulted and battered two young men to death in the

Team to return for euphoric homecoming after winning all-Ireland men’s final against Kerry, ending decades of defeats The hex is broken, dispelled, banished, and a story that bewitched Ireland for decades has ended in fairytale: Mayo are all-Ireland champions. Seventy-five years after a supposed curse condemned its Gaelic men’s football team to endless defeat , the county prevailed and uncorked a wave of emotion that engulfed even its rivals. Continue reading...

Washington and Tehran issue conflicting messages over the status of talks to end Middle East crisis Donald Trump has once again warned that the US will return to “strong military action” against Iran if diplomatic efforts do not bring a rapid resolution to the crisis in the Middle East. “We are in very deep talks with Iran. If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action,” the US president told Axios on Monday. Asked for how long he would allow the talks to proceed, he answered: “Not much time. Either it goes fast or not

Culture Club singer sings ‘I stand with the Jews / I don’t feel brave, I just need to behave like a human’, in song defending Israel’s response to Hamas attack Boy George has released a new song entitled We Will Dance Again, which voices support for Israel’s military action in Palestine. Posted on X and Instagram with the Hebrew title עוד נרקוד alongside its English translation, the song features a pop-reggae backing. The opening lyrics are: “You say genocide, I say war / When you’re attacked, that’s what the army’s for / Does it get ugly? You bet it does

Refugee family reunions in limbo, despite Foreign Office saying it is ready to get people out of war-torn territory The Home Office is blocking the evacuation of dozens of women and children from Gaza, despite the Foreign Office saying it is ready to get people out of the war-torn region. Last September, the Home Office announced it was suspending refugee family reunion applications and that new, more restrictive rules would be announced in the spring. So far there has been no announcement and the process remains suspended. Continue reading...

Top military officials say campaign has reached its limit of effectiveness and warn of dwindling stocks of munitions The US has paused strikes on Iran for a third night as top military officials advised Donald Trump to halt his bombing campaign, and diplomatic negotiations have continued to avoid a return to all-out war. Oil prices fell on Monday as markets responded to the pause in combat. Continue reading...

Israeli prime minister says ICC’s war crime charges are ‘bogus’ and plans to be in New York for UN gathering this fall Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Zohran Mamdani , the New York City mayor, was “fomenting hate” by calling the Israeli prime minister a war criminal who should be arrested over Israel ’s war in Gaza if he visits the city for the United Nations general assembly. Netanyahu said he intended to be in New York in September to address the annual UN gathering of world leaders, despite the mayor’s suggestion that he is not welcome. Mamdani said

In today’s newsletter: Across ​the country, a ​younger generation is turning private disillusionment into public defiance​ against a government that once felt untouchable Good morning. As flames engulfed parts of France and Spain this weekend, in India, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, was trying to put out a very different kind of fire. Thousands of people arrived in Delhi on Saturday to demand the resignation of his education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. When he stepped down in the early afternoon, the protests turned into a triumphant block party. But the Cockroach protests that have swept through India this summer are about

Ally forced to resign, with opposition parties reinvigorated and strongman leader’s grip over media channels rocked Even the night before Narendra Modi accepted the resignation of his education minister, India’s prime minister appeared confident that the largest mass uprising to take place in his 12 years in power would do little to rattle his government. Addressing his “young friends” in a late-night Instagram selfie reel on Friday, he thanked the people – who were mobilised en masse across the country , shouting anti-government slogans – for their “thoughtful suggestions”. Continue reading...

Dharmendra Pradhan steps down after demonstrations over exam leak scandal, prompting celebrations among thousands of protesters India’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, has resigned after a week of mass demonstrations, handing a major victory to a new youth movement that has posed an unprecedented challenge to Narendra Modi’s government. In a statement on Saturday afternoon, Pradhan said he had submitted his letter of resignation to the prime minister after student pressure. Continue reading...

Bollywood stars accused of ‘cowardice’ as hundreds of thousands of young Indians take to the streets to challenge government Bollywood stars and other Indian celebrities have faced fierce criticism for staying silent in the face of some of the biggest protests India has seen in years. Hundreds of thousands of young Indians took to the streets this week as part of a new youth movement that calls itself the Cockroach Janata party (CJP), demanding accountability over exam paper leaks in an unprecedented challenge to prime minister Narendra Modi’s government. Many vented their anger against what they saw as “cowardice” from

‘I can’t tolerate this life,’ said the 24-year-old in his last voice message to his relatives. Attacked by the military, a rebel army and criminal gangs, Siraz Ullah risked all for a better future The fear was audible as he spoke, recording a message to his family, asking for their prayers. After pressing send, 24-year-old Siraz Ullah boarded a boat he hoped could deliver him from the violence and persecution surrounding him at home in Myanmar. Instead, Siraz is among 500 Rohingya refugees who have vanished at sea after setting sail for Malaysia in late June. Continue reading...

New prime minister wants to focus at home, but his first week already suggests the world has other plans It took just seven days in office for Andy Burnham to meet his first world leader. As he welcomed Volodymyr Zelenskyy to a naval base in Portsmouth on Monday, the new prime minister told the Ukrainian president it was “no accident” he was his first international visitor since entering No 10. “It is intended to send a very clear message,” Burnham told him. “We are with Ukraine 100%, I am personally with you 100%, and I will honour every commitment this

Robert Bush, owner of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, left bodies ‘rotting away’, family members say A fraudulent funeral director broke the trust of families on an “almost industrial scale” as their loved ones’ bodies were left “rotting away”, a court has heard. Robert Bush, owner of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull, appeared at Hull crown court on Monday for a five-day sentencing hearing. He previously pleaded guilty to 67 offences, including 30 counts of preventing lawful and decent burial. Continue reading...

PM promises lasting solution for England but Tories rule out backing changes funded by tax rises or borrowing Andy Burnham has pledged to work collaboratively with other parties to find a lasting solution on social care, though the Conservatives have ruled out backing changes funded by tax rises or borrowing. Senior Labour and Liberal Democrat figures have privately cast doubt on Burnham’s ability to find a cross-party consensus on social care reform in England, given the terms of the Tories’ participation. Continue reading...

Canadian-born British operator, president of the British Puppet Guild, died after a ‘short illness’ Ronnie Le Drew, best known for operating the puppet Zippy on the classic children’s television programme Rainbow, has died aged 78 after a short illness. The news was confirmed by the British Puppet Guild, of which Le Drew was president. The Canadian-born British puppeteer was also known for working on 1986’s Labyrinth alongside David Bowie as well as 1986’s Little Shop of Horrors and various Muppet movies including in 1992’s The Muppet Christmas Carol. He worked on various iterations of Sooty, alongside Harry and Matthew Corbett,

Judge quashes Enfield council’s decision to grant planning permission for new women’s and girls’ football academy A council’s decision to allow Tottenham Hotspur Football Club to build a new training facility in a park in north London has been quashed by a judge at the high court. The campaign group Guardians of Whitewebbs told a hearing in June that Enfield council’s decision to grant planning permission for a new women’s and girls’ football academy on 6.5 hectares (16 acres) of land in Whitewebbs Park was unlawful. Continue reading...

Trump said he thinks his defense secretary ‘has done a great job’ Sign up for the Breaking News US email Donald Trump said ⁠today that ⁠he had paused US strikes on Iran to give diplomacy another chance, but he ​was ‌ready ‌for “strong military ‌action” if diplomacy fails. Washington was in “very deep ⁠talks with Iran”, the president told Axios , but, he added: “ If they don’t work out, we will be go back to very strong military action .” I am going to talk to Bibi about the fact that if I weren’t president, Iran would have had

Kentucky senator has been absent and not seen in public since mid-June after he was hospitalized due to a fall US politics live – latest updates US senator Mitch McConnell is still not cleared to return to work, his office confirmed on Monday, six weeks after he was hospitalized after a fall at his home. An update released alongside a new photograph of the Republican lawmaker – one of the highest-profile figures in Congress , as a former Senate majority leader – said he was undergoing “intense physical therapy” and is “working hard” to get back to his duties. Continue

Julie Masino faced criticism as restaurant chain was called ‘woke’ and ‘soulless’ after unveiling modernized logo Cracker Barrel’s CEO, Julie Masino, is stepping down, the restaurant announced on Monday, nearly a year after the company was swept into a political maelstrom over proposed modernizations to its branding. Critics on social media denounced the Tennessee-based rustic restaurant chain as “woke” as well as “sterile and soulless” after it unveiled an updated logo that removed Uncle Herschel, the overall-clad man leaning against a barrel in the restaurant’s original logo, last August. Donald Trump weighed in on the updates soon after, posting: “WTF

Salamanca City Central says it is pausing project with Realbotix as it addresses concerns including data privacy A New York school district has walked back plans to introduce a humanoid robot at its high school after the proposal sparked backlash from educators and community members. The Salamanca City Central school district announced on 24 July in a social media post that its pilot project with Toronto-based tech company Realbotix had been put on hold “while we work through enhanced student data privacy agreements with the New York State Education Department and continue engaging with our community and stakeholders”. Continue reading...

Former top US health official wrote about challenging interactions with publicity-fixated Trump during Covid Diary entries released by a Republican senator in an attempt to damage Anthony Fauci also show the former top US government science adviser’s growing disillusionment with Donald Trump in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, branding the president “rambling”, “crazy”, “desperate”, “bumbling”, “incompetent”, “an idiot”, “a true embarrassment”, “totally nuts” and “truly an obnoxious adolescent”. From the earliest days of the crisis six years ago, Fauci noted in his journal challenging interactions with the publicity-fixated Trump. On 27 February 2020, amid the first stirrings of

Iran and the United States held their fire on Monday, handing Gulf shipping and the oil industry a respite from missile strikes as Donald Trump’s UN envoy said the president was “giving talks some space”. Tehran said it had halted retaliatory attacks against Washington’s allies in the Middle East, and US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told Fox News Sunday that, while forces remained “locked and loaded”, Trump would give negotiations “a little bit of room”. Fighting over the...

French police detained a man ‌on Monday after he attacked three women with knives near Porte de Clichy in Paris, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told reporters. The man attacked the three women, who were aged 19, 24 and 36, with two kitchen knives, severely wounding two ⁠of them, Nunez said. Video aired on social media and verified by ‌Reuters showed a man with long black hair, wearing a cream tracksuit and wielding one big knife in ‌each hand stabbing and attempting to attack a young woman. ⁠It...

Germany’s drive to compete with Chinese imports is colliding with its long-standing tradition of Sunday rest, with policymakers and retailers now asking whether a century-old consensus still fits an economy struggling to regain its competitiveness. The latest flashpoint came in early July, when the country’s coalition government unveiled a package of measures to boost Germany’s competitiveness, including plans to let bakeries, confectioneries and public libraries operate longer on Sundays from...

A ⁠second suspect ⁠detained in connection ⁠with a deadly car-ramming attack on Berlin’s Pride celebrations over the weekend has been released, ‌the German federal prosecutors’ office said on Monday. “We continue to investigate broadly,” the prosecutors’ office told Reuters and declined to comment ⁠further. Spiegel on Monday cited sources as ‌saying that authorities released the person because initial suspicion that ‌he was a passenger in the ⁠vehicle ⁠at the time of the attack could ‌not be...

Israel will allow a multinational security force to enter Gaza as proposed under US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan for the enclave, an Israeli official said on Sunday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Sunday approved ‌the legal framework that would allow the force’s entry to Gaza, the official said. Netanyahu was scheduled to depart for Washington on Monday and was expected to meet Trump on Tuesday. The official said that the mission, called the International...

As Israel heads into a fiercely contested general election on October 27, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot has emerged as the principal challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Eisenkot’s rise comes at a pivotal moment in Israeli politics, with the election widely viewed as a referendum on the long-serving premier’s leadership in the violent aftermath of Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. A recent Channel 12 poll put Eisenkot’s new party, Yashar (Hebrew for “Straight” or...

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. After Apple leak, has India lost ground in its supply chain race with China? In the wake of a cyberattack on a local Apple partner, insiders say India has a long way to go before challenging China as a manufacturer. 2. China wants unique access to minerals with Indonesia offer, analyst says China...

Police arrested one suspect and were looking for another after gunfire erupted at a crowded food festival beneath Seattle’s Space Needle, leaving three people dead and four others injured, including a toddler. Investigators believe the two suspects were shooting at each other and, although one remained on the loose, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Tyrone Davis told a news conference Sunday night that there was no ongoing threat to the public. Police did not have a description of the outstanding...

Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Sunday she will not participate in US-backed talks with the de facto government of Delcy Rodriguez that are scheduled for August. In a statement co-signed by Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who ran for president in Venezuela’s 2024 elections, Machado said the opposition would “not participate” in the “design, development and operation” of the talks. In mid-July, Rodriguez’s interim government and a group of former...

US President Donald Trump’s border tsar said on Sunday that the vetting of an immigration officer involved in the deadly shooting of a Colombian native in Maine is under internal review after relatives revealed to Associated Press that he had a history of serious mental health struggles and violent behaviour. Tom Homan said if the allegations against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer are true, “I don’t think he should ever have cleared vetting.” “There’s several things under...

Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham will on Monday host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as his first foreign leader since taking office a week ago, to underline London’s “unwavering support” for Kyiv. The pair are set to visit a British naval base and hear from both countries’ armed forces personnel involved in training Ukrainian service members for battle, Burnham’s Downing Street office announced late on Sunday. It said Burnham would vow “to continue the unbreakable bond between the...

The four American troops killed during renewed fighting between the US and Iran in recent weeks are no longer listed as part of the Iran war death toll in the Pentagon’s official casualty count but have been placed in a new, separate category. It is raising questions about properly counting the impact to US service members as the Trump administration has escalated strikes on Iran in a bid to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while providing little indication of how it intends to wind down a conflict...

Cuba held a traditional rally on Sunday to commemorate one of the revolution’s most important anniversaries but former president Raul Castro was conspicuously absent. It was the first time in at least 30 years that 95-year-old Castro had not attended the event, and no explanation was given. President Miguel Diaz-Canel read a congratulatory message from Castro to his compatriots at the rally, held in the eastern city of Pinar del Río. The annual event commemorates the July 26, 1953 assault led by...

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is “fomenting hate” by calling the prime minister a war criminal who should be arrested over the war in Gaza if he visits the city for the United Nations General Assembly. Netanyahu said he intends to be in New York in September to address the annual UN gathering of world leaders, despite the mayor’s suggestion that he is not welcome. Mamdani said last week that while New York City does not have legal authority to...

The suspect in the deadly Berlin Pride attack that left one person dead and 29 injured was shot and killed by police during a confrontation on Sunday in a suburb of the city, authorities said. Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen with Lebanese roots, was killed following a search that lasted nearly 24 hours after the attack in downtown Berlin. Prosecutors said he had previously sought to join the militant Islamic State group. Ballout was suspected of driving a van into a crowd near...

Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv early on Sunday, setting off fires and wounding at least three civilians, while attacks on other parts of Ukraine later killed at least two people, local officials reported. The strikes come as Ukraine’s successful drone attacks have stalled the Russian army’s advances in an expanded campaign inside Russia that has been causing fuel shortages and piling pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin. In Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, Kremlin-installed...

Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez – who was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking until President Donald Trump pardoned him last year – returned to his home country on Sunday. After touching down in a private plane near the capital, Tegucigalpa, he travelled to a rally in the town of Comayagua. Speaking at a farm in front of hundreds of supporters, Hernandez thanked Trump for the pardon. “The most well-informed president in the world said: ‘I...

Israeli settlers attacked ⁠Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank early on Sunday, setting fire to two mosques and scrawling graffiti on buildings, Palestinian officials said. The attacks followed an incident on Friday when four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers – one of whom acted as a security coordinator for a nearby Israeli settlement – were killed when a crowd of Israeli settlers, some armed, approached the Palestinian village of Tal, southwest of Nablus. During the incident,...

Each year on July 27, North Korea commemorates “Victory Day”, marking what it presents as its triumph in the Korean war. While few outside the country accept that characterisation, the date underscores a reality: the war never formally ended. The 1953 agreement was an armistice that left the peninsula in a state of suspended conflict. Responsibility for the resulting instability is widely distributed. North Korea’s missile tests, expanding nuclear arsenal and escalatory rhetoric have undermined...

Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham “will always put Britain’s interests first”, he said in an interview when asked whether he was willing to call out US President Donald Trump. Burnham’s predecessor Keir Starmer, who announced ‌he was stepping down last month, had a fraught relationship with Trump due to differences over the US-Israeli war on Iran, immigration, energy and tech regulation. While Trump initially described Starmer’s successor as “extremely liberal”, he said this week he had...

An ⁠impending ‘super’ El Nino is likely to inflict a combined US$10 billion to US$20 billion of damage ⁠in affected African countries and trigger mass migration from hard-hit areas, the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) top climate expert said. Forecasters are warning that the El Nino weather pattern – which often drives severe droughts, flooding and storms in Africa – could turn into one of the strongest ever seen if current Pacific Ocean warming trends continue. As well as the threat to food...

Iran said on Sunday it had made progress in talks with Oman on management of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway crucial for oil and gas trade that both countries border. The latest talks come after the United States resumed attacks on Iran in an effort to end Tehran’s control of the strait, following a June memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war that had briefly eased tensions. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said several rounds of negotiations were held in...

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia has sought an extra 30,000 troops and missile launchers from North Korea to fight his country. Preparations for the extra troops are being made in Russia’s Voronezh region near the frontier with Ukraine, Zelensky said in a social media post late on Saturday. North Korea sent thousands of troops to help Russia fight off a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kursk region in 2024. It has also provided arms to help Russia’s invasion since...

One hundred days before the US midterm elections, President Donald Trump’s Republicans are staring down polling that points to the loss of the House of Representatives and a ferocious battle to retain the Senate. Trump will not appear on the ballot on November 3, but the stakes for his presidency could hardly be higher. A Democratic house would give the party control of powerful committees and subpoena authority, likely subjecting Trump’s administration to two years of investigations and...

European holidaymakers worn down by recurrent heatwaves are currently snubbing Mediterranean destinations for northern climes in hopes of cooler temperatures, but it remains to be seen whether it is just a fad or a durable shift in the tourism market. With temperatures in the European summer regularly climbing up towards 40 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit), cool has become cool. This year, visitors “have been telling me that they have escaped the heat in southern parts of Europe”, said...

Nearly three decades after its return to Chinese sovereignty, Hong Kong is once again at an important crossroads. The recent decision by the United States not to renew “The President’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization” has once again focused international attention on the city’s future. For some, it represents another chapter in the geopolitical competition between Washington and Beijing. For Hong Kong, however, it should also serve as a reminder that its future cannot be defined...

Skirmishes between Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia intensified, as a pause in the nearly two-week run of nightly US strikes on Iran raised fresh questions about President Donald Trump’s strategy in the war. The Houthis, Islamist militants based in Yemen and backed by Iran, said they fired missiles and drones at facilities linked to oil giant Saudi Aramco in the Red Sea port towns of Jizan and Yanbu. There was no immediate confirmation from the Saudi government or Aramco. Saudi authorities briefly...

A van ramming and stabbing near Berlin’s Pride festival that left one person dead and many others injured is believed to have been an Islamic extremist terror attack, Germany’s interior minister said on Sunday. The suspect in Saturday night’s attack remains at large. Authorities issued a wanted notice and warned people against approaching Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, saying that he may be armed and dangerous. Authorities said he is believed to have injured several people...

On July 13, more than 200 leading economists and AI researchers, including 16 Nobel laureates, signed an open letter organised by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. Its warning was stark: artificial intelligence may drive an economic transformation “larger than the Industrial Revolution” compressed into a fraction of the time, and that we “must act now” to build the institutions to steer it. We agree with every word. Then we scanned the signatory list. Four in five signatories come from the...

The Democratic Party in Maine picked its new candidate for a key US Senate race on Saturday, after the original nominee was pressured to drop out over sexual misconduct allegations. Delegates to a hastily organised nominating convention picked Troy Jackson, a former state senate president, to go up against Republican incumbent Susan Collins. “Thank you, Maine. In 101 days, we will defeat Susan Collins and reclaim our Senate seat. Let’s get to work,” Jackson said on social media. The move comes...

Two men died when a light aircraft crashed into a single-family home in the northern German state of Lower Saxony on Saturday. A police spokesman reported that initially one body was recovered from inside the aircraft in Ganderkesee, near Bremen. The second body was found later. Emergency services had been searching for the missing second passenger for hours. The aircraft is believed to have taken off from Bremen shortly before the crash, before losing altitude in a residential area in...

Heatwaves come and go, and while this is happening with increasing frequency and intensity – as this year’s record-breaking temperatures show – they slip from attention once things cool off. What does not disappear is the lasting and costly damage they do to the basic infrastructure we rely on in our daily lives. Ultra-hot days and nights can result in the deaths of many people (those who cannot afford air conditioning especially) and they ignite forest infernos of terrifying intensity. Some of...

Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Tehran-allied Houthi movement edged closer to opening a new front in the Iran war overnight, after Riyadh bombed the port city of Hodeidah in retaliation for a Houthi missile strike on one of its ships in the Red Sea. The exchange marks the latest escalation since the Houthis, known formally as Ansar Allah, imposed an embargo on Saudi shipping on Monday, disrupting maritime traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal. A...

US missiles struck targets across ⁠Iran on Friday and President Donald Trump vowed “major military punishment” for Tehran and its Houthi allies in Yemen, though he once again left open the door to a diplomatic deal with Iran. Separately, the US military said it had fired on and disabled a tanker ship after it was “repeatedly warned” and “didn’t comply” with the American blockade on Iranian ports. Two weeks after the collapse of an interim truce meant to end the war, Iranian armed forces...

For years, Syria was a wound the world watched fester: a country carved up by war, sanctioned into isolation and reduced to a byword for state collapse. Its economy needs US$216 billion to rebuild, according to World Bank estimates. This month, for the first time since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, it began to look like it might actually get there. On July 8, the government of Ahmed al-Sharaa – a former jihadi commander turned president – established a supreme constitutional...

Ukraine hopes to gain support from Japan as it looks to produce Patriot air defence systems under US licence, citing the expertise of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries that manufactures the interceptors for the Japanese defence forces, according to an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “We maintain political dialogue” towards seeking cooperation from Japan, which is one of the few countries granted a licence to build the Patriot surface-to-air missile system, Sergiy Kyslytsya, first...

US President Donald Trump has issued an executive order to install signage that warns visitors of inaccurate historical information inside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington. The highly unusual move marks the 80-year-old Republican’s latest battle in his ideological war on American cultural institutions and monuments, some of which he has renamed for himself and renovated to his liking despite legal challenges. The order issued on Friday calls on federal...

Saudi Arabia struck Houthi military targets in Hodeida on Friday with rebel media reporting two injured after the Iran-backed group announced a maritime blockade of the kingdom and hit its ships. Saudi Arabia and the Houthis traded fire recently for the first time in years, threatening a 2022 truce that has held despite expiring. The Saudi-led coalition said it hit Houthi sites and destroyed targets threatening commercial vessels in response to attacks on Red Sea shipping. A Yemeni security...

Two small businesses in the United States have ⁠challenged President Donald ⁠Trump’s latest round of tariffs on goods ⁠from 60 trading partners, saying that the new policy, like most of Trump’s previous tariffs, went beyond the president’s authority to tax imports. The lawsuit, filed in the US trade court in New York on Friday, argues that the new tariffs require ‌more detailed country-specific findings about “forced labour” to be legally justified. The two small businesses, backed by a...

US President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on products from the European Union in retaliation for the bloc’s US$1 billion (€890 million) fine of Alphabet’s Google. In a social media post on Friday, Trump said the US would launch a trade investigation “into the practice of ‘ROBBING’ American Companies and, in turn, the American Taxpayer”. “The penalties will be entirely reversed and, we anticipate, a substantial TARIFF to be placed on them at the earliest possible moment,” he posted. The...

Member states of the International Criminal Court voted to dismiss prosecutor Karim Khan for serious misconduct, the ICC said on Friday. Diplomats running ‌the executive bureau of the court’s governing body said last month the British barrister had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a junior ICC lawyer and should be fired, documents seen by Reuters showed. On Friday, a large majority of the ICC’s 125 member states voted to follow that recommendation. “The assembly decided by a majority of...

She tours major international defence shows, negotiates with arms manufacturers and takes part in discussions on Europe’s rearmament. At 34, Iryna Terekh, an architect by training, heads Fire Point, a company that has become one of the driving forces behind Ukraine’s long-range strike capabilities in the war with Russia. With her long hair tied back in a ponytail, a white top, beige jacket and wide-legged jeans, she stands out in an industry dominated by men in suits. She met with Agence...

A volunteer was injected on Friday with the first dose of a rapidly developed vaccine targeting the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola driving a deadly outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Oxford University said. More than 1,000 people have been killed in the DRC and Uganda since the outbreak emerged in May, according to the World Health Organization. Researchers and health organisations have since been racing to get a vaccine or treatment for the relatively rare strain to the clinical...

A Russian ⁠ballistic missile strike on Friday in Ukraine’s Kyiv region killed 10 people and injured almost 100 others at a site where a defence ‌industry event was being held, Ukrainian officials and industry representatives said. The attack came a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky met in Kyiv with senior representatives of Raytheon, the US company that makes Patriot air defence systems. Raytheon did not immediately respond to an email inquiring whether any of its workers were at the...

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham was to open his newly created northern office on Friday, as he bids to launch his flagship move to reverse decades of centralising power over England in London. Ahead of officially opening his “Number 10 North” hub in Manchester, Burnham – who replaced Keir Starmer in 10 Downing Street on Monday – repeated his vow to put “more power into every postcode” to spur economic growth. “For 40 years, power and resources have been sucked into the centre, and too many...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is set to meet President Trump on Tuesday, with one eye on Iran and another on the coming elections back home.

The kingdom is being dragged deeper into the wider regional conflict as it faces attacks from Iraq and Yemen.

A Times examination details how the Silicon Valley giant used private talks with local officials to start a project big enough to cover nearly six square miles.

The road to the giant project was paved with secret meetings and an ever-expanding building plan.

In a dogged demonstration of love for a Washington institution, Sandy Weiswasser is among a few dozen volunteers still showing dwindling visitors a hollowed-out building.

More light at the day’s end comes at a price: much later winter sunrises across much of the U.S. Scientists have documented consequences for public health and the economy.

In an interview from prison, Bryan Kohberger said he had filed a petition to reopen the case. He blamed his guilty plea on “false promises” and wrong information.

The first U.S. attempt at reopening a shuttered reactor has been held back by run-down equipment and a lack of planning.

Michigan’s Aug. 4 primary is a critical front in the fight between Democrats’ progressive and moderate flanks and a preview of the 2028 presidential primary.

A new statement said the senator was not “medically cleared” to leave a rehabilitation facility and would miss a Kentucky political event.

The New York Times on Saturday hosted an in-person search for places that hold centuries of the city’s history. Here’s what you need to explore those spots on your own.

Chinese A.I. models are gaining ground. But the companies behind them do not have a clear strategy to make money from that success.

The company is continuing to back A.I. systems that can be freely used by others amid a continuing debate over the use of Chinese-made technology.

As some executives fret over the safety of new A.I. systems, protecting against them could be a big business for tech companies.

Colson Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy turns away from the pessimism of his recent novels to offer a more hopeful vision for Black history.

The final installment of his Harlem crime trilogy is full of heists, cultural shifts and nostalgia for 1980s New York.

A teenager’s lawsuit against the food industry shows us the path to a better food system.

The Trump administration has a housing problem.

We look at the end of Temporary Protected Status.

New York has endured significant outbreaks in recent years. Some experts say officials should focus more on risks in plumbing systems, even shower heads.