Minimalist News

Indian Scrapyards Welcome Growing Number Of Dark Fleet Tankers By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com At least three vessels sanctioned by the United States have arrived in recent weeks at the demolition hub of Alang on India’s west coast, following a record 15 dark fleet tankers sent to these scrapyards last year, as the business rebounds despite concerns about dealing with sanctioned ships.   The Woodchip, built in 1993 and sanctioned by the U.S. in 2021 under one of its previous names, is the third tanker to have arrived at Alang in less than a month, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing vessel-tracking data, agent reports,

"Billion Dollar Movie In One Prompt": AI Disruption Crosshairs Hone In On Hollywood Studios AI-driven equity disruption was everywhere this past week, spreading like wildfire beyond software into insurance, commercial real estate, financials, shipping, wealth management, and likely many more industries in the coming trading sessions. One industry in the crosshairs of AI disruption is Hollywood. Some of the publicly traded studios include The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, Sony Group Corporation, Netflix, Lionsgate, and others. On Friday, Axios reported that the Walt Disney Company sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, alleging that the Chinese tech firm has been infringing

Judge Weighs Whether To Block Vaccines Changes From CDC, RFK Jr. Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, A federal judge weighing whether to block changes to U.S. vaccine guidance and an advisory panel did not immediately rule Feb. 13 after hearing from attorneys representing medical groups and the government. Lawyers for the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and other groups told U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy during a hearing at the federal courthouse in Boston that recent changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine schedule and the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel violate federal law and will reduce vaccination rates. “This

FAA Mandates Airlines To Affirm Merit Hiring For Pilots Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is issuing a new mandatory rule that requires all commercial airlines in the country to formally commit to merit-based hiring for pilots, according to a Feb. 13 statement from the Department of Transportation (DOT). Under the new mandate, all U.S. carriers must certify that the practice of airlines hiring based on race and sex has ended or face a federal investigation. > “When families board their aircraft, they should fly with confidence knowing the pilot behind the controls is the best of

Vast Majority Of Americans Want Voter ID And Democrats Don't Care Are voter ID requirements considered a controversial idea in the eyes of US citizens?  If you watch the establishment media or follow leaders in the Democratic Party then you might think bills like the SAVE Act are the end of freedom as we know it.  However, outside the echo chambers of DNC propaganda, the vast majority of Americans have no problem whatsoever with people proving their US citizenship before they vote in local and federal elections.  The widespread support for voter ID is undeniable.  Surveys from the past year including those

Rubio Says US & Europe "Belong Together", Urges Alignment With Trump's Vision For Western Revival Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told European leaders on Feb. 14 that Washington is not walking away from the transatlantic alliance—but called for a renewed partnership that aligns with President Donald Trump’s push for national revival, tougher border control, and a return to industrial and military strength. Addressing the annual Munich Security Conference, Rubio sought to reassure governments unsettled by a year of tensions over trade, defense spending, and at times critical U.S. rhetoric toward NATO. At the same time,

The State Of Love In America: It's Not Looking Good Dating and relationships in the US have changed dramatically in the past decade.   Once heralded as a vast clearing house for unlimited hook ups and endless partner options, online dating apps have all but imploded compared the their peak from 2016-2021.  High traffic apps like Bumble have lost 90% of their market value.  Tinder has lost 40% of its users since 2022.  Match Group apps have lost around 50% of their engagement since 2019.   The word on the street is, the apps are cancer and no one serious about dating actually uses

Elon Demands Investigation Into Reid Hoffman’s "Ice Cream For The Girls" Epstein Ties Authored by Steve Watson via modernity.news, Elon Musk has ramped up his assault on LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, demanding a full investigation into the Democrat mega-donor’s disturbing Epstein connections—including buying “ice cream… for the girls” and offering PR help as the child trafficking scandal erupted. This latest clash exposes Hoffman’s role in Epstein’s elite circle, where he exchanged over 1,700 emails, called the sex offender a “very close friend,” and stayed at all three notorious properties, while funneling millions into anti-Trump dirty tricks that undermine American democracy. The feud intensified when

Iran Regime Change Would Be 'Best Thing', Trump Signals President Donald Trump continues to signal that he wants to see government overthrow in Iran, having told reporters Friday that regime change in Iran "would be the best thing that could happen" - at a moment he's also confirmed a second carrier group has been dispatched to the region. Speaking to reporters after visiting troops at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, Trump doubled down just hours after confirming he is sending the second carrier strike group from where it was operating in the Caribbean. "It seems like that would be the best thing that could

'Miss America' Org Dethrones Winner For Daring To Say 'A Woman Is A Woman' Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Kayleigh Bush, the 2024 Miss North Florida champion, has been stripped of her title and barred from competing in the Miss America nationals—all because she wouldn’t sign a revised contract that essentially erases the biological definition of womanhood to include men who’ve undergone surgeries. The Miss America organization demanded Bush affirm transgender participation, turning a century-old celebration of women into another battleground for gender ideology.  Bush, standing her ground on basic truth, called it out as a betrayal of the pageant’s legacy. > Miss North

More Nations Are Mulling Social Media Bans For Teens After Australia's first-of-its-kind social media ban for adolescents under the age of 16 came into effect in December, more countries in Europe and elsewhere are taking steps to implement their own restrictions. As Katharina Buchholz reports, according to Statista research, France and the United Kingdom have gotten furthest, with laws passing in one chamber each of the countries' bicameral legislatures as of early February. While the latter country is also aiming to ban social media for kids under the age of 16, France's proposed law targets only those under the age of 15. You will

Venezuela Oil Revenue Projected To Hit $5 Billion Under U.S. Control By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com, Venezuela’s oil sales, under the control of the United States for five weeks now, are set to bring $5 billion over the next few months, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told NBC News in an interview.    “Sales today are over a billion dollars, and in fact, we have sort of short-term agreements over the next few months that will bring in another $5 billion,” Secretary Wright said in the interview during a historic visit to Venezuela to meet with the interim President Delcy Rodríguez.   The United States has

Was Anthropic's Claude Used In AI Kill-Chain During Maduro Venezuela Raid Anthropic's AI tool, Claude, was reportedly used during the Delta Force raid to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. As one X user joked about what U.S. officials might have prompted the chatbot: "Claude, tell me where to find Maduro so we can capture him with no casualties." The Wall Street Journal reports that Claude is "the first AI model developer to be used in classified operations by the Department of Defense." Anthropic's model was reportedly used by Palantir Technologies in the daring Delta Force raid to capture Maduro, which allegedly included bombing multiple

Demented: Councillor Pushes Kids To Send Valentine's Cards To Illegal Male Migrants Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, A Green Party councillor in the UK has sparked outrage by announcing plans to take her young grandchildren to deliver handmade Valentine’s Day cards to adult male asylum seekers at a migrant camp. This comes amid widespread local opposition to the government’s decision to house hundreds of illegal migrants in a former military base, and fresh revelations about horrific crimes committed by similar arrivals. Anne Cross, an East Sussex County councillor, made the announcement at a heated public meeting, claiming it would help “dispel fear” by encouraging people

In Latest Blow To Free Speech, German Courts Could Issue "Speaking Ban" Against Top AfD Politician Via Remix News, German courts are currently deliberating whether leading Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Björn Höcke could be hit with a “speaking ban” during a campaign event in the city of Lindenberg im Allgäu. The move could signal a worsening of free speech in Germany, with Höcke using the legal proceedings to make the case that his fundamental rights are being violated. “Democrats of all countries, look to Germany! Right now, German courts are seriously deliberating whether I should be issued a speaking ban for political events!

Newsom Tells Europe "Trump Is Temporary," Doubles Down On Failing Green Agenda California Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke at the Munich Security Conference earlier on Friday, telling European elites that President Trump is "temporary" and will be gone within three years. Newsom, noticeably angered by Trump's push for deregulation and the rollback of climate policy, lashed out at the president, calling him "more destructive" than the current occupant of the White House. The issue for Newsom is that he still operates within the climate crisis framework promoted by globalists, even as the West is moving on from two decades of nation-killing green policy regime

UK's Insane New Trans Guidance Says School Kids As Young As Four Can 'Change Gender' Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, The UK government has issued new guidance allowing primary school children, some as young as four, to ‘socially transition’ the gender by changing their pronouns at school. According to reports in The Times, the guidelines state that parents should be involved in the “vast majority” of cases where a child questions their gender, and schools should not initiate steps towards social transitioning. However, the move has sparked outrage, with critics arguing it undermines parental rights and exposes vulnerable children to harmful ideologies.   > ??? UK Schools issued new Gender Rules >

European Official Warns That Americans Can Be Silenced By EU Online Speech Laws Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Europeans who face criminal charges for what they said or wrote warned that Europe’s speech laws can silence Americans as well, regardless of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections.  Finnish Member of Parliament Paivi Rasanen arrives to attend a court session at the Helsinki District Court in Helsinki, Finland, on Jan. 24, 2022. Antti Aimo-Koivisto/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images While testifying before the House Judiciary Committee last week, Paivi Rasanen, a member of parliament in Finland, recounted how she has been prosecuted

The Unsettling Truths The Epstein Files Reveal About Power And Privilege Authored by Patrick Keeney via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The public fixation on the Epstein files has settled, predictably, on the most lurid elements of the story. This is understandable. Sexual exploitation, particularly of the young, is among the most corrosive of crimes, and the scale of Epstein’s abuse, as well as the apparent indifference of powerful institutions to it, demands moral outrage. But to focus exclusively on the sexual scandal is to miss the deeper and more unsettling lesson the affair reveals. Documents that were included in the U.S. Department of Justice release

Germany, France Hold Secret Talks On Continental Nuclear Shield In Pivot From US Has Europe really embarked on a nuclear reset, rethinking its US-led deterrent architecture? For the first time since the Cold War, major European capitals are openly debating the need for an independent nuclear deterrent - an emerging theme on clear display this week at the Munich Security Conference. We've reported before that the turning point came in March, when Washington temporarily halted battlefield intelligence sharing with Ukraine - a move that forced allies to confront the prospect that Washington may no longer serve as a dependable security guarantor, also

Luis Muñoz Pinto, 27, who was sent to notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador, would like to clear his name after US judge’s ruling A US federal judge’s order that some of the Venezuelan men sent by the Trump administration to a notorious prison in El Salvador must be allowed to return to the United States to fight their cases has been greeted with hope and a sense of vindication – but also fear – by one of the deportees. US district judge James Boasberg ruled on Thursday in Washington DC that the Trump administration should facilitate the return of deportees who

Wall Street Journal says Claude used in operation via Anthropic’s partnership with Palantir Technologies Claude, the AI model developed by Anthropic, was used by the US military during its operation to kidnap Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela, the Wall Street Journal revealed on Saturday, a high-profile example of how the US defence department is using artificial intelligence in its operations. The US raid on Venezuela involved bombing across the capital, Caracas, and the killing of 83 people, according to Venezuela’s defence ministry. Anthropic’s terms of use prohibit the use of Claude for violent ends, for the development of weapons or for conducting surveillance. Continue

Social media account for Palmerston, who retired in 2020, announces death of ‘Diplocat extraordinaire’ Palmerston, a rescue cat who became the chief mouser of the Foreign Office, has died in Bermuda. The cat, adopted from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, retired in 2020 after four years of service in Whitehall. Continue reading...

* Norwegian-born skier storms to historic slalom gold * ‘Your difference is your superpower,’ says 25-year-old As the snow fell in Bormio, and the fog settled in, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen made history by becoming the first South American to win a Winter Olympic medal. Then, as the realisation that he had won gold for Brazil in the men’s giant slalom, he collapsed to the floor and allowed the tears to flow. “I just hope that Brazilians look at this and truly understand that your difference is your superpower,” he said, still sobbing away. “It may show up in your skin or

The Canadian prime minister told residents of Tumbler Ridge that the country is ‘with you’ Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has told residents of Tumbler Ridge that the country is “with you, and we will always be with you”, during a candlelight vigil for the eight victims of a mass shooting that has shattered the small mining town. The prime minister, holding hands with opposition leader Pierre Poilievre while flanked by First Nations chiefs and local officials, paid tribute to the families enduring the loss of loved ones, after the shooting at a local school that has become one of the most

Discipline committee decides to terminate Miles Kwan from studies because of ‘multiple acts of misconduct’ A Hong Kong university student who had called for accountability over a deadly fire at an apartment complex in the city has been expelled by the school for disciplinary offences. Miles Kwan, a politics student, was detained for two nights by the city’s national security police last year for “seditious intent” after handing out flyers calling for an independent investigation into a fire that killed 168 people in November. Continue reading...

Customers flock to Daoxiangcun to pick up cakes selected by the president during lunar new year tour around city A Beijing pastry shop visited by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on a lunar new year tour this week has been swarmed by customers hoping to get their hands on Xi-approved sweet treats. Traffic was brought to a standstill in Beijing’s capital as the president took a tour around the city on Monday and Tuesday. Continue reading...

Army in turmoil after Xi Jinping placed top general under investigation for suspected corruption last month The CIA (the US’s Central Intelligence Agency) has published a Mandarin-language recruitment video aimed at Chinese soldiers, in an apparent attempt to capitalise on the recent instability in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) after a series of high-level purges. The video, published on the CIA’s YouTube channel on Thursday, is titled The Reason for Stepping Forward: To Save the Future. Continue reading...

Japan says vessel failed to comply with order to stop, with incident coming weeks after row with China over Taiwan Authorities in Japan have seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its captain in a move that is likely to inflame an ongoing diplomatic row between Tokyo and Beijing. The seizure, which occurred on Thursday about 105 miles (170km) from the south-western port city of Nagasaki, came after the skipper refused an order to stop for an onboard inspection, according to media reports. Continue reading...

South Korea’s spy agency monitoring whether girl, believed to be 13, will appear at political conference this month South Korea’s spy agency has told lawmakers it believes the teenage daughter of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, is close to being designated as the country’s future leader, as Kim moves to extend the family dynasty to a fourth generation. The assessment by the national intelligence service (NIS) comes as North Korea is preparing to hold its biggest political conference later this month, where Kim is expected to outline his main policy goals for the next five years and take steps to tighten

Meanwhile Jane Hume says opposition would resist any CGT increase. Follow the latest updates live * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Charlotte Mortlock, the high profile former Coalition staffer and leader of grassroots organisation Hilma’s Network, has left the Liberal party, days after Sussan Ley was ousted by Angus Taylor. Hilma’s Network was formed by Mortlock to bring “Liberal-minded” women together and push the party to preselect more women. Mortlock has been a vocal advocate for modernisation in the Liberal party, including pushing for the party to support net zero targets, and was part of a

Chris Minns announces change for minimum of two years as Anzac Day falls on weekends this year and next * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast People in Australia’s most populous state have been granted an Anzac Day long weekend for the next two years, and could be in line for more public holidays. The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has announced the state would have an extra public holiday in 2026 and 2027, when Anzac Day falls on a Saturday and Sunday. Continue reading...

Some female Liberal members ‘incredibly worried’ after Sussan Ley’s ousting, with one saying: ‘The boys are back in charge’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Liberal women are “incredibly worried” by a potential voter backlash to the ousting of the party’s first female leader, with the high-profile figure Charlotte Mortlock giving up her membership altogether. Just days after Sussan Ley lost the leadership, Mortlock announced on Sunday she was leaving the party and quitting Hilma’s Network – a grassroots group she established to bring “Liberal-minded women”

After a fast kick-off in Australia, e-scooter hire crackdowns fuelled by safety concerns have seen shared ebikes pull ahead * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Rental ebikes are booming in popularity as e-scooter hire operations decline across Australia amid what some have labelled a “moral panic” about safety. The ebike boom has been led by Sydney, where the number of vehicles on streets nearly doubled in 2025 as the US operator Lime deployed thousands more. Continue reading...

Policymakers didn’t think people had the financial capacity to purchase ‘durable’ goods – but a rise in spending contributed to inflation * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast One of the first things many Australians did last year after receiving a tax refund or a lower mortgage rate was to buy an armchair, an air fryer or a coffee machine. The purchases, evident in company earnings published this week, came after households had endured years of high living costs – and consumption had been weak up until

Magistrates will analyse evidence that could implicate French nationals and re-examine case of Jean-Luc Brunel The Paris prosecutor’s office on Saturday announced it was setting up a special team of magistrates to analyse evidence that could implicate French nationals in the crimes of the convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. With Epstein’s known circle extending to prominent French figures after the release of documents by the US authorities, the prosecutor’s office said it would also thoroughly re-examine the case of former French modelling agency executive Jean-Luc Brunel, a close associate of the US financier, who died in custody in 2022. Continue reading...

Mette Frederiksen tells Munich Security Conference that Denmark is willing to work with the US, but ‘there are, of course, things that you cannot compromise on’ Rubio insists that the US “do not seek to separate, but to revitalise an old friendship.” He says “we do not want allies to rationalise the broken status quo rather than reckon with what is necessary to fix it.” “We do not want our allies to be weak, because that makes us weaker. We want allies who can defend themselves, so that no adversary will ever be tempted to test our collective strength. This is why we do

Speaking in Munich, Volodymyr Zelenskyy also called for a clear date for his country to be allowed to join the EU Ukraine wants security guarantees for a minimum of 20 years from the US before it can sign a peace deal with dignity, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of talks with Russia and the US scheduled for next week. Speaking in Munich on Saturday, he also called for a clear date for Ukraine to be allowed to join the EU. Some EU officials have put the date as early as 2027. Continue reading...

Bouquets imported to Europe found to be heavily contaminated, often with chemicals banned in EU and UK Stay away from roses this Valentine’s Day, environmental campaigners have warned after testing revealed them to be heavily contaminated with pesticides. Laboratory testing on bouquets in the Netherlands, Europe’s flower import hub, found roses had the highest residues of neurological and reproductive toxins compared with other flowers. Continue reading...

Intelligence agencies say deadly toxin in skin of Ecuador dart frogs found in Navalny’s body and highly likely resulted in his death • What is dart frog toxin, which is said to have been used to kill Alexei Navalny? Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, was killed by dart frog poison administered by the Russian state two years ago, a multi-intelligence agency inquiry has found, according to a statement released by five countries, the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. The US was not one of the intelligence agencies making the claim. Continue reading...

Concern grows over Narges Mohammadi’s health, family says, after reports of ‘life-threatening mistreatment’ Iranian authorities have without prior warning transferred Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to a prison in the north of the country as concern grows over her health, her family said on Saturday. Mohammadi, who won the peace prize in 2023 in recognition for more than two decades of campaigning, was arrested on 12 December in the eastern city of Mashhad after speaking out against Iran’s clerical authorities at a funeral ceremony. Continue reading...

Militant group’s infrastructure and weapons storage facilities were hit, as Washington praised Damascus for fresh coalition role The US military conducted 10 strikes on more than 30 Islamic State targets in Syria between 3 and 12 February as part of a campaign against the extremist group in Iraq and Syria. US Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement on Saturday that the US had struck IS infrastructure and weapons storage targets. Continue reading...

USS Gerald R Ford will take about three weeks to sail to region, amid push for Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions Donald Trump has ordered the world’s largest aircraft carrier to sail from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East in an effort to increase pressure on Iran amid discussions over curbing its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. The USS Gerald R Ford and its supporting warships should take about three weeks to return to the region, where they will join the USS Abraham Lincoln, dramatically increasing the military firepower available to the US leader. Continue reading...

EU’s head of foreign policy claims ‘Board of Peace’ is vehicle for Trump with no accountability to Palestinians or UN A bitter dispute between Europe and the US over the future of Gaza has broken out into the open, with the EU’s head of foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, warning that Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” was a personal vehicle for the US president that removed any accountability to Palestinians or the United Nations. Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, also accused Trump of trying to bypass the original UN mandate for the board, and said Europe, one of the chief funders of

Annexe holding 6,000 women and children is now mostly empty, raising security and humanitarian concerns Most of the foreign families of suspected Islamic State fighters have left al-Hawl camp since the Syrian government took control of the facility, prompting security and humanitarian concerns over their whereabouts. About 6,000 women and children from 42 different countries were previously held in the foreigners’ annexe of al-Hawl camp in north-east Syria, which housed some of the most radical former members of the extremist group. The foreigners’ annexe was separate from the part of the camp that contained about 20,000 Syrians and Iraqis. Continue reading...

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

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

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

Jamaat e-Islami, oppressed under Sheikh Hasina’s rule, could take unprecedented share of the vote on Thursday As the clock hit midnight, the women held their flame torches aloft and marched into the Dhaka night. “The people have given their blood, now we want equality,” they shouted above the roar of the traffic. For many in Bangladesh, the past few weeks have been a cause for jubilation. The first free and fair elections in 17 years have been promised for Thursday, after the toppling of the regime of Sheikh Hasina in a bloody student-led uprising in August 2024 in which more than 1,000

With medication largely unaffordable in the country, experts hope community support and a change in diet could reduce soaring type 2 diabetes rates A return to the traditional lentil and rice dishes that have nourished generations of Nepalis could save them from a diabetes epidemic prompted by the influx of western junk foods, doctors have said. In a country where one in five of those over 40 has type 2 diabetes, the foods enjoyed by their grandparents have showed remarkable results in reversing the condition. Continue reading...

Letter signed by 25 rebel MPs claims approach from the top is ‘increasingly unpopular’ with public Union leaders and 25 Labour MPs have urged Keir Starmer to end a “narrow, factional agenda” within the Labour party. A letter signed by the MPs, by the leaders of several Labour-affiliated trade unions and by campaign groupings within the party, claimed the approach from the top was “increasingly unpopular with the public”. Continue reading...

Cases reported in seven schools and a nursery in Enfield amid concern over low levels of MMR vaccination in capital More than 60 children have been infected by a measles outbreak in north London, it has been reported. Seven schools and a nursery in Enfield reported the cases, with some children treated in hospital, according to the Sunday Times. Continue reading...

Brewer last month said it was closing its distilling brands, prompting concerns for jobs at its Scottish facility The beer-maker BrewDog could be broken up after consultants were called in to help find new investors. The Scotland-based brewer, which makes craft beer such as Punk IPA and Elvis Juice, has appointed consultants AlixPartners to oversee the sale process. Continue reading...

Family pay tribute to Demi Edmunds, from Caldicot, saying she ‘loved her friends, and she was loved by all’ A 17-year-old girl who died in a collision involving three cars in Wales was “funny, kind and caring”, her brother said. Demi Edmunds was the sole pedestrian in the incident on the A4042 in Cwmbran, Torfaen, Wales, which occurred at about 12.25pm on Thursday afternoon, Gwent police said. Continue reading...

At his official installation, Archbishop Richard Moth recognised the Catholic church’s failures but insists it’s a time of ‘opportunity’ The new leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales has said the church has failed vulnerable people, urging more work to be done to address the struggle of refugees and learn from victims of abuse. At a ceremony where he was officially installed in his new role as archbishop of Westminster, Richard Moth said: “Here, I am most aware of every occasion on which members of the church, or the church as a whole, have failed – most especially when the vulnerable

ISS now fully crewed after a medical issue forced the evacuation of four astronauts in January The International Space Station (ISS) returned to full strength with Saturday’s arrival of four new astronauts to replace colleagues who bailed early because of health concerns. SpaceX delivered the US, French and Russian astronauts a day after launching them from Cape Canaveral. Continue reading...

Speaking with progressive YouTuber, former US president stressed ‘unprecedented nature’ of agency’s actions Barack Obama publicly gave his support to demonstrators in Minneapolis for standing up to the “unprecedented nature” of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Minnesota. Speaking in an interview with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen on Saturday, the former president discussed the power that US citizens hold when standing up for the values they believe in and his hopes for the next generation of American leaders. Continue reading...

Senators said repeal was ‘particularly troubling’ and was counter to EPA’s mandate to protect human health More than three dozen Democratic senators have begun an independent inquiry into the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) following a huge change in how the agency measures the health benefits of reducing air pollution that is widely seen as a major setback to US efforts to combat the climate crisis. In a regulatory impact analysis, the EPA said it would stop assigning a monetary value to the health benefits associated with regulations on fine particulate matter and ozone. The agency argued that the estimates contain too

Clients including Chappell Roan and Abby Wambach cut ties to firm after communications came to light Casey Wasserman, a leading Hollywood talent agent whose clients include Chappell Roan, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lamar, is selling his business after communications with Ghislaine Maxwell were exposed as part of the US justice department’s recent dump of investigative documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein. Wasserman, grandson of the late famed Hollywood dealmaker Lew Wasserman, said late on Friday he was putting his eponymous talent and marketing agency on the block, citing the impact on the company from “past personal mistakes” and telling staff he felt

13% of federal civilian workforce is affected, although DHS – which spurred budget standoff – remains funded A limited US government shutdown came into effect on Saturday – the third of Donald Trump’s second term – after negotiations between the White House and Democrats in Congress failed to agree on new restrictions for federal immigration agents. The shutdown affects about 13% of the federal civilian workforce and is confined to agencies under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which screens airline passengers. Continue reading...

The United Nations is broke. According to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the institution can’t pay its bills. Members, such as the US, haven’t paid their dues. The UN doesn’t just face a liquidity crisis. An old rule obliges it to pay members back for unspent money, even from dues it never received. The UN Secretariat and some major operations could close by July. The UN is far from ideal. The secretariat and agency headquarters are massive bureaucracies, the General Assembly is widely...

Switzerland said on Saturday that Oman would host talks between the United States and Iran in Geneva next week, with Washington pushing Tehran to make a deal to limit its nuclear programme. “Switzerland stands ready at all times to offer its good offices to facilitate dialogue between the United States and Iran,” a Swiss foreign ministry spokesman said. On February 6, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held talks in Oman with US envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s...

In early 2013, Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak, was stressed about her US visa status. Later that year, she married an American citizen and her worries were gone. A Green Card followed, and in 2018, citizenship. Then Shuliak divorced her spouse: a woman named Jennifer who had been in a relationship with Kimbal Musk – Elon Musk’s brother – after Epstein connected them. “now that she’s an american you should throw her a big ole party,” one of Epstein’s go-to immigration lawyers...

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the Kremlin with a rare and lethal toxin found in the skin of poison dart frogs, five European countries said on Saturday. The foreign ministries of the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said analysis of samples taken from Navalny’s body “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine”. It is a neurotoxin found in the skin of dart frogs in South America that is not found naturally in Russia, they said. A joint statement...

Over a hundred top figures from the world of entertainment signed an open letter on Saturday in support of UN Palestinian human rights expert Francesca Albanese, who faces calls to resign over comments about the war in Gaza. France and Germany have called for Albanese to step down over remarks last weekend in which she referred to a “common enemy of humanity” after criticising “most of the world” and the media for enabling Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza. Critics and Israel have accused the UN...

Bahrain and Egypt are attempting to mend ties between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, two sources said, weeks into a diplomatic rift between the Arab world’s most powerful countries. Saudi Arabia and the UAE had a public falling out in December, when the kingdom accused its neighbour of threatening its national security by supporting Yemeni separatists who orchestrated a brief land grab. A source close to the Saudi government insisted there was “no need for mediation” because direct...

Africa’s top regional body is hosting its annual summit in Ethiopia this weekend to discuss the future of the continent of some 1.4 billion people, as the organisation faces widespread discontent. Set up to “promote the unity and solidarity of the African States,” analysts say the African Union faces a legitimacy crisis among youth for failing to meet their expectations. Meanwhile, several African countries battle military coups, disputed elections and protests inspired by economic hardship...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the country’s main opposition leader held hands Friday as they paid tribute to the victims of one of the worst mass shootings in the country’s history at a vigil in a devastated British Columbia town. Carney and Pierre Poilievre, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, joined hands as an Indigenous leader sang a prayer outside the town hall in Tumbler Ridge. Carney and Poilievre also spoke. The Prime Minister named each of the six people killed at...

Award-winning Indian writer Arundhati Roy has said she is withdrawing from the Berlin Film Festival over jury president Wim Wenders’ comments that cinema should “stay out of politics” when asked about Gaza. Roy said in a statement on Friday that she was “shocked and disgusted” by responses from Wenders and other jury members to a question about the Palestinian territory at a press conference the day before. Roy, whose novel The God of Small Things won the 1997 Booker Prize, had been announced as...

The United Arab Emirates is rapidly eclipsing Hong Kong and emerging as a credible rival to Singapore as Asia’s most dynamic trading hub, thanks to an ambitious post-pandemic campaign of economic diplomacy. Defying global headwinds from war and instability across its own region, the UAE’s non-oil trade almost doubled between 2021 and 2025 to reach 3.8 trillion dirhams (US$1.03 trillion), Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum announced on January 31. That surge – powered by an aggressive...

During an entrance exam for a top middle school in Japan in January, students were asked to read two poems depicting life in Palestine and write responses to key passages. Controversy soon followed on Japanese social media over the use of the material related to war and displacement. Some criticised the test section as politically one-sided for lacking Israeli views, while others praised the school for choosing a subject that, despite its complexities, has galvanised the world after much...

The US Government experienced its second shutdown in four months on Saturday, as funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) halted, underscoring Washington’s growing partisanship and dysfunction. But in an ironic twist, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, at the centre of the Congressional showdown, will continue to operate despite being part of DHS, given its independent source of funding. In an unprecedented move, US President Donald Trump’s administration has allocated at...

The US military said on Friday it killed three alleged drug traffickers in a strike on a boat in the Caribbean. The attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 133 people in at least 38 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. “Three narcoterrorists were killed during this action. No US military forces were harmed,” US Southern Command said in a statement on social media. A video linked to the post...

Around a decade ago, aboard a train winding through China’s landscape, Wang Ning, the founder and chairman of Beijing-founded international art toy brand Pop Mart, shared with designer Kenny Wong Shun-ming the story of his early attempts at entrepreneurship. As a fresh graduate, Wang struggled to sell affordable men’s suits sourced from Yiwu in Zhejiang province, eastern China, experimenting with small-scale arbitrage and learning first-hand how difficult it was to connect products with...

There is this old British chestnut that says justice must not only be done, but must be seen to be done. Justice has been amply served in the 20-year sentence handed down to former media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, but it has not been seen to be done in many quarters, especially in the West. There is the reality of justice and the appearance of it, and the two don’t always or even usually coincide. There are two main reasons behind the widespread Western criticism of Lai’s case. One is that...

The Trump administration spent more than US$35 million to deport roughly 300 migrants to countries they had no connection to, doling out millions of dollars in lump sum transfers to foreign governments without a system to track how the money was used, according to a report released on Friday. The figures from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats average out to a cost of roughly US$116,666 per person deported. In Rwanda, which received seven deportees, the total cost reached about US$1.1...

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that a change of government in Iran would be the “best thing that could happen”, as he sent a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East to ratchet up military pressure on the Islamic republic. Trump’s comments were his most overt call yet for the toppling of Iran’s clerical establishment, and came as he pushes on Washington’s arch-foe Tehran to make a deal to limit its nuclear programme. At the same time, the exiled son of the Iranian shah toppled in the...

A viral AI-generated video of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting atop a building is causing a stir online. The 15-second video comes from the latest AI video-generation platform, Seedance 2.0. The platform was launched this week by its owner, ByteDance, the same Chinese parent that oversees TikTok. As the video circulates online, the Motion Picture Association and other industry stakeholders have called out the video for its unauthorised use of copyrighted works. MPA’s CEO, Charles Rivkin, wrote...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s landslide electoral victory on Sunday signals a troubling shift: Japan’s unsettling turn to the right. In a post-US-led world order, safeguarding Japan’s security will require reaffirming, not abandoning, its post-war pacifist constitution. At the recent World Economic Forum annual meeting at Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made a telling admission about the US-led international rules-based order: it was never truly fair. Canada benefited from...

On the margins of a glitzy security event in Bavaria, the foreign ministers of France and Germany revived a dormant diplomatic format with China. In what was described as part of a larger effort to prevent the world’s superpowers from picking Europe apart, France’s Jean-Noel Barrot and Germany’s Johann Wadephul hosted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday. It revived a configuration not seen since the days of French President Emmanuel Macron’s first term, talks that Wang said were “both an...

President Donald Trump boasted on Friday about a secret US “discombobulator” weapon that can block Russian and Chinese defence systems, as he met the elite troops who captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Trump’s comments at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina marked the first time he has talked about the mysterious device at a public event, after previously letting some details slip in interviews. “They even talk about the discombobulator, because they never got a shot off,”...

Brazilian prosecutors and police launched an extensive crackdown on a Chinese electronics distribution network accused of laundering more than one billion reais (US$190 million) over seven months through a system allegedly related to one of Latin America’s most powerful crime syndicates. The Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, syndicate allegedly sold imported consumer electronics throughout Brazil via a Chinese e-commerce platform called “Knup Brasil”, including mobile phone chargers,...

⁠The Trump administration sued ⁠Harvard University on Friday, accusing it ⁠of failing to comply with a federal investigation and seeking documents to determine whether the university had illegally considered race in its admissions process. The move comes less than two weeks after US President Donald Trump said ‌his administration was seeking $1 billion from Harvard to settle probes into school policies, after a news report that said Trump had dropped his demand for a payment from the Ivy League...

The US eased sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector on Friday, issuing two general licences that allow global energy companies to operate oil and gas projects in the Opec member and for other companies to negotiate contracts to bring in fresh ‌investments. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a general licence allowing Chevron, BP, Eni, Shell and Repsol to operate oil and gas operations in Venezuela. Those companies still have offices in the country and stakes in...

Consumer inflation in the US cooled slightly more than expected in January, government data showed Friday, as energy prices dipped. Analysts say the figure allows the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates again later this year, but warn that policymakers need to see sustained improvement to do so – despite US President Donald Trump’s insistence that there is virtually no inflation. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.4 per cent year-on-year, the Department of Labour said, down from December’s...

As Hong Kong braces itself for the Lunar New Year tourist surge, and perhaps long-awaited evidence of a return to the tourism heydays of 2017 and 2018, spare a thought for the US and mounting evidence of a “Trump slump” in US tourism this year. While UN Tourism data shows that international tourism was up by 4 per cent globally in 2025 – back to levels not seen since the Covid-19 crash in international travel – the US stood alone worldwide, with at least a 4 per cent fall. US President Donald...

A French tourist who went missing in northeastern Chad after heading off to visit an oasis in the desert has been found dead “after a fall”, Chad’s tourism minister said on Friday. The 70-year-old man – from the city of Dijon, according to a French newspaper report – had been missing since Wednesday. He was part of a group visiting Chad for the International Festival of Saharan Cultures in the city of Amdjarass, about 100km (60 miles) from the Sudan border. “We found the body in the Bachekele...

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is due in federal court in Minnesota on Friday to enter a plea in a criminal case stemming from his coverage of a protest at a church against US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Lemon, now an independent journalist, livestreamed a protest against Trump’s deployment of ‌thousands of armed immigration agents into Democratic-governed Minnesota’s biggest cities. The protest disrupted a January 18 service at Cities Church in St Paul. He was charged with...

The mother of two infants found dead in a freezer in eastern France has been charged and placed in pre-trial detention, a prosecutor said on Friday. The case is the latest suspected instance of infanticide to emerge in France in recent years. Prosecutor Cedric Logelin said the 50-year-old woman was charged late on Thursday, a day after she was arrested in the western Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and admitted to freezing her newborns. No one else has been charged, he added. The grim...

The United States will send the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Middle East to back up another already there, a person familiar with the plans said on Friday, putting more American firepower behind US President Donald Trump’s efforts to coerce Iran into a deal over its nuclear programme. The USS Gerald R. Ford’s planned deployment to the Middle East comes after Trump only days earlier suggested another round of talks with the Iranians was at hand. Those negotiations did not materialise...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. ‘Time is ripe’: why China is eyeing another vast canal link to Southeast Asia China has almost finished building the US$10 billion Pinglu Canal to deepen trade ties between its southwestern provinces and Southeast Asia. Now, it is...

The US military said it completed a withdrawal from a strategic base in Syria on Thursday, handing it over to Syrian forces, in the latest sign of strengthening US Syrian ties that could enable an even larger American drawdown. The al-Tanf garrison is positioned at the tri-border confluence of Syria, Jordan and Iraq. Established during Syria’s civil war in 2014, the United States initially relied on it as a ‌hub for operations by the US-led coalition against Islamic State militants who once...

Goldman Sachs’ chief legal ⁠officer Kathy Ruemmler has resigned, CEO David Solomon said on Thursday, after recent documents by the US Justice Department showed she accepted gifts from late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and advised him on how to address media inquiries regarding his crimes. The departure of Ruemmler, who was among the top executive officers of the Wall Street firm, was the most high-profile banking exit after the release of the latest Epstein documents by the US Justice Department...

US President Donald Trump on Thursday revoked a landmark scientific finding underpinning US regulations to curb planet-warming pollution, marking his biggest rollback of climate policy to date. The repeal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 “endangerment finding” was paired with the immediate elimination of greenhouse gas standards on automobiles. But it also places a host of other climate rules in jeopardy, including carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and methane leaks for oil...

Across social media, a curious phrase has been circulating: “You met me at a very Chinese time in my life.” It appears under videos of hotpot dinners, DHGate hauls, Chinese streetwear fits and users joking about switching their phone interfaces into Chinese “for the aesthetic”. It has even spawned an ecosystem of spin-offs: “Chinamaxxing”, “you will turn Chinese tomorrow” and countless posts where people half-joke about becoming “more Chinese” by the day. But beneath the humour of what looks...

The families of victims of a shooting in a remote Canadian Rockies town grappled with unrelenting grief on Thursday as details emerged about those killed in the country’s deadliest mass shooting in years. Authorities said the 18-year-old alleged shooter, identified as Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed her 39-year-old mother, Jennifer Jacobs, and 11-year-old stepbrother, Emmett Jacobs, in their northern British Columbia home on Tuesday before heading to the nearby Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and...

The Trump administration reached a trade deal with Taiwan on Thursday, with Taiwan agreeing to remove or reduce 99 per cent of its tariff barriers, the office of the US Trade Representative said. The agreement comes as the US remains reliant on Taiwan for its production of computer chips, the exporting of which contributed to a trade imbalance of nearly US$127 billion during the first 11 months of 2025, according to the Census Bureau. Taiwan’s exports to the US will be taxed at a 15 per cent...

In January, James Zimmerman returned to the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China) as its chairman. He previously served in that role for four one-year terms in 2007, 2008, 2015 and 2016. A lawyer by training and a resident of China for 28 years, Zimmerman has witnessed the rise of the world’s second-largest economy, the challenges it has faced and the attendant changes to how American businesses operate in the country. In this interview, Zimmerman assesses the potential of US...

Hong Kong stands at a definitive demographic crossroads. With one-third of our population projected to be over 65 by the 2040s, the city can either treat ageing as a fiscal burden or it can transform longevity into a sustainable growth engine. Drawing inspiration from Andrew Scott and Lynda Gratton’s work on the 100-Year Life project, Hong Kong should boldly embrace longevity as a new development frontier. By leveraging our unique strengths in finance, world-class regulatory frameworks and...

The United States has issued a warning that Peru risks eroding its sovereignty after a court ruling limited state oversight of a Chinese-controlled megaport, prompting a sharp rebuke from Beijing and intensifying geopolitical tensions over a strategic hub on South America’s Pacific coast. The dispute centres on the Port of Chancay, a US$1.3 billion deep water facility located about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Lima and majority owned by China’s state-run shipping giant Cosco Shipping...

The Paris prosecutors' office on Thursday said that nine people were being detained as part of an investigation into a suspected decade-long, €10 million (US$11.8 million) ticket fraud scheme at the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum. The arrests took place on Tuesday as part of a judicial investigation opened after the Louvre filed a complaint in December 2024, the prosecutors’ office said. The loss for the museum over the past decade is estimated to exceed €10 million, it said. Those...

The UK’s top civil servant resigned on Thursday, the third senior aide to Prime Minister Keir Starmer to quit in a matter of days in fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. “Chris Wormald will stand down as the cabinet secretary and head of the civil service by mutual agreement from today,” said a joint statement released by the government. His departure came after two top aides quit earlier this week over the row triggered by the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington...

A UK childcare worker who filmed himself sexually abusing youngsters at a nursery where he worked and downloaded over 26,000 indecent images of children was on Thursday jailed for 18 years. Vincent Chan, 45, who admitted a raft of 56 charges including sexual assault, was described in court as “every parent’s worst nightmare”. Passing sentence, Judge John Dodd told him he was guilty of an “utterly wicked, perverse and depraved” campaign of sexual abuse. “You became a sexual predator and someone...

US President Donald Trump is privately musing about exiting the North American trade pact, people familiar with the matter said, injecting further uncertainty about the deal’s future into pivotal renegotiations involving the US, Canada and Mexico. The president has asked aides why he shouldn’t withdraw from the agreement, which he signed during his first term, though he has stopped short of flatly signalling that he will do so, according to the people who spoke on condition of anonymity to...

A federal judge in Florida on Thursday set a February 2027 trial date for US President Donald Trump’s US$10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC. Trump filed the suit against the British broadcaster last year over the editing of his speech ahead of the US Capitol riot in a documentary on the flagship BBC current affairs show Panorama. Trump alleges that the BBC’s editing of his January 6, 2021 speech made it appear that he had explicitly urged supporters to attack the Capitol, where...

The attacks since early November had specifically targeted suspected drug smuggling boats in the Pacific Ocean.

Nancy Guthrie, 84, the “Today” show anchor’s mother, vanished from her Arizona home on Feb. 1. In the time since, very little new information has come to light.

He speaks English. She speaks Mandarin. The secret to their happy marriage: Microsoft Translator.

The tech heroes turned zeros are leading us to our doom.

The heart is not romance; it’s the organ that guards the line between life and death.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said it was looking into three new complaints with links to the files and revisiting an earlier investigation into an Epstein associate who died in 2022.

A commercial about a lost dog being reunited with his family ignited concerns that a “Search Party” feature posed privacy risks. Ring parted ways with the tech company Flock Safety.

Brenda Ogden lost her waterproof prosthetic leg 10 months ago, and with it, her zest for swimming. Then a local fossil hunter stumbled upon it.