Minimalist News

FCC Chair Pushes Back On Allegations Of Censorship Over Stephen Colbert Interview Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times, The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday pushed back against allegations of censorship from CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert and a Democratic Texas Senate candidate. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Colbert could have aired his interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, if the late-night TV show he hosts complied with federal equal time rules by airing interviews with other Democrats vying for the seat. “There was no censorship here at all,” Carr told reporters. “Every

Watch: Humanoid Robots In China Put On Jaw-Dropping Show Our coverage of humanoid robots has ramped up for a very good reason: global production is set to surge this year, these bots are getting "brains," and dual-use concerns are rising. In China this week, state-owned international news network, China Global Television Network, provided coverage on a Spring Festival gala showcasing the country's technological advancements, including a wild performance featuring humanoid robots. Four rising humanoid robot startups - Unitree Robotics, Galbot, Noetix, and MagicLab - demonstrated their robots on state TV. In one show, a dozen Unitree humanoids performed sophisticated fight scenes. China's humanoid robot

Surprising Revival: Gen Z Men & Highly Educated Lead Return To Religion Authored by Joel Kotkin, Bheki Mahlobo via RealClearInvestigations, The decline of religion remains a fundamental reality in most Western countries, particularly in Europe, where over 50% of those under age 40 do not identify with any faith. Even in more religious America, some estimate that as many as 100,000 churches will close in the near future. Meanwhile, the ranks of “Nones,” those outside religious communities, have grown so large that their numbers rival those of Catholics and evangelical Protestants. Yet, as we document in a new report for the Chapman Center for Demographics and Policy, there are

CNN Issues Dire Warning To Democrats On 2026 Governors' Races Midterm elections have rarely been kind to the party in the White House. Republicans lost both chambers in 2006 under George W. Bush; Democrats were crushed under Barack Obama in 2010 and again in 2014; Republicans lost the House under Donald Trump in 2018; and Democrats narrowly lost the House under Biden in 2022. The lone exception was 2002, when Republicans gained seats in both chambers after 9/11. Otherwise, the pattern is clear: the president’s party almost always faces setbacks. With the 2026 midterm elections months away, Democrats have many reasons to

Mortgage Recast Versus Refinancing: Which Works For You? Authored by Anne Johnson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), If you come into some extra funds, you might want to consider applying them to your mortgage. It’s a great way to pay down the principal or lower your monthly mortgage payment. Lowering your monthly mortgage payment is particularly helpful if you often have cash-flow issues. William Potter/Shutterstock There are ways to lower your monthly mortgage by using recasting or refinancing. Each option works differently, so it’s important to understand how they compare. RECASTING A MORTGAGE Mortgage recasting is when you make a lump-sum payment to your principal

80% Plunge In Immigration Is Reshaping Labor Market Math, But AI Wildcard Looms: Goldman The Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration has resulted in an 80% collapse in net immigration to the USA, and has fundamentally altered the mathematics behind the nation's labor supply to the point where the level of job growth needed to maintain economic stability is now far lower, according to a new Goldman analysis.  After a flood of more than 10.8 million illegal immigrants (official figure) entered the United States under Biden, net immigration - both legal and illegal - has gone from roughly one million people per year in the

Iran Leans On Russia To Develop Oilfields By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com, Iran and Russia are strengthening their economic and energy cooperation and consider joint development of another Iranian oilfield, top officials from the countries said on Wednesday.     Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev led a high-level Russian delegation on a visit to Tehran this week during which Tsivilev and Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad discussed deepening the economic and energy cooperation. In the face of increased pressure from U.S. sanctions, Iran and Russia have boosted their bilateral relations to strategic cooperation and Russian companies help develop oilfields in Iran.   “Within the framework of four contracts

US Withdrawing All Forces From Syria, Over A Year After Regime Change By Proxy War Last week we and others reported that American forces finally after many years withdrew from the remote Al-Tanf Garrison, a base in southern Syria near the borders of Iraq and Jordan. US troops had long operated out of Tanf to pressure the Assad government as part of the long-running US-backed regime change project. The US primarily trained the Syrian Free Army (FSA) in that remote desert area - which was an umbrella group of various factions, among them jihadists, armed and funded by Washington. But the majority of US forces

Waste Of The Day: Principal Bought Lobster With School Funds Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations, Topline: Most New York public school lunches consist of room temperature chicken nuggets or reheated pizza. But at Wyandanch Memorial High School on Long Island, principal Paul Sibblies dined on steak and lobster at taxpayers’ expense. Sibblies reimbursed himself a total of $35,519 from 2021 to 2024 using cash meant for a school club, without approval or supervision from anyone besides his own secretary, according to an audit obtained by Newsday. Key facts: Sibblies paid himself 41 times using money from the high school’s Kappa League club, a

Japan's Top Toilet Maker Is 'Undervalued, Overlooked' AI Play Over 'Cryogenic Etching' Technology, Activist Investor Says Japan's top toilet maker, Toto, is an undervalued AI play according to activist investment fund Palliser Capital.  Employees bond a toilet bowl with a rim. The work is demanding, requiring muscles to lift bowls and tanks, as well as a delicate touch to smooth surfaces. David Walter Banks for The Wall Street Journal The UK-based fund sent a letter to Toto's board asking for more disclosure over its advanced ceramics segment, which produces electrostatic chucks used in NAND manufacturing - specifically for a process called cryogenic etching. Toto's chuck technology uses ceramics designed to remain

No 'Gentlemen's Agreement' With Russia To Continue Compliance With New Start Treaty: Top Official Via The Libertarian Institute  Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control and Nonproliferation Christopher Yeaw said that there was no informal agreement between the US and Russia to maintain the limits on nuclear weapons imposed by the New Start Treaty. The pact expired earlier this month. During an event at the Hudson Institute on Monday, Yeaw was asked if there was a "gentlemen’s agreement" with Moscow to abide by the New Start Treaty. He responded, "I know of no such agreement. And that is still in the President’s hands." Russian

GLP-1 Anti-Obesity U.S. Drug Market In Four Charts Beyond the most recent GLP-1 feud between Hims & Hers and Novo Nordisk, UBS analysts shift attention to anti-obesity drug trends in the U.S. market for the first week of February. Analysts led by Matthew Weston focused on new data that show new-to-brand prescriptions (NBRx) for starter doses and all doses across the major obesity GLP-1s in a series of charts: Obesity GLP-1 starter dose NBRx (up to 2/6/2026) GLP-1 starter dose NBRx trends (up to 2/6/2026) GLP-1 starter dose NBRx market share (up to 2/6/2026) Obesity GLP-1 all doses Total Prescriptions (TRx, up to 2/6/2026) Weston concluded: > NBRx

Voter ID Is Common Sense, But It Won't Fix Anything Authored by Connor O'Keefe via The Mises Institute, As panic builds within the GOP over the approaching midterm elections, Republicans have renewed a push for one of their most popular policy proposals: voter ID. In the latest version of the so-called SAVE America Act—formerly just the SAVE Act—Congressional Republicans added a requirement for every voter in federal elections to provide poll workers with a valid government-issued photo ID if they’re voting in person or a copy of a valid photo ID if they’re voting by mail. On Friday—a day after the House passed the law

Teacher Loses Career Over Two-Word Facebook Post Supporting ICE James Heidorn, who taught at Gary Elementary School in West Chicago, found himself at the center of a community firestorm that cost him not just his teaching position but his identity as an educator, all for posting two words on Facebook: "Go ICE."  The incident began in late January when Heidorn, a 14-year physical education teacher, responded to a news story about a local police department pledging cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His personal Facebook post sparked immediate backlash in the heavily Hispanic district, with local activists circulating screenshots and demanding action

Panics, Politics, & Power: America's 3 Experiments With Central Banks Authored by Andrew Moran via The Epoch Times, The Federal Reserve, established more than a century ago, is the United States’ third experiment with central banking. For much of its existence, the institution maintained a low public profile. Only after the 2008 global financial crisis did the Fed begin communicating more openly, introducing post-meeting press conferences and allowing monetary policymakers to engage more frequently with the media. Greater transparency, however, has brought greater scrutiny. Public sentiment toward the Fed and its leadership has fluctuated over the years. Today, YouGov polling suggests the central bank is viewed

Three Key Constraints That Could Derail The Data Center Buildout Story The data center investment macro story centers on hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon Web Services, whose massive cloud computing services are becoming the backbone for AI workloads, including ChatGPT and others. However, as we've previously noted, the data center buildout has run into supply-chain snarls, including memory chip shortages, power-grid constraints, and even a shortage of turbine blades for natural-gas generators. The data center boom powering the AI revolution is certaintly impressive to watch unfold, but it won't be a straight line from here as the US attempts

LIS Technologies Initiates Engagement With NRC LIS Technologies (LIST) initiated its first engagement with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in preparation for starting up the company's laser uranium enrichment technology facilities.  LIST submitted a Standard Practice Procedures Plan for the company's smaller-scale demonstration facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This is part of a process for obtaining approval from the NRC to start handling classified information related to nuclear technology. It's a relatively minor step, but important in the context of finally engaging the regulator. The company is currently pursuing novel uranium enrichment technology that could dramatically reduce operating costs through improved efficiencies. Laser enrichment technology

Trump Tells Starmer 'Do Not Give Away Diego Garcia' As US May Need Island To Attack Iran Update(1504ET): President Trump has come up with another key argument for why Britain must not "give away" the key Indian Ocean territory and military base in the Indian Ocean - Diego Garcia. He says it will be crucial for use in an potentially imminent attack on Iran. "Should Iran decide not to make a deal, it may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia, and the Airfield located in Fairford, in order to eradicate a potential attack by a highly unstable and

Oklahoma Governor Declares State Of Emergency As Fast-Moving Wildfires Scorch The Panhandle Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt declared a State of Emergency as a massive wildfire spread across the panhandle region of the state and crossed into Kansas. The Ranger Road Fire has burned 145,000 acres and is one of four wildfires raging in the northwest region of the state. In total, the fires have scorched about 156,000 acres. Latest from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture: * Ranger Road Fire: 145,000 acres, 0% contained * Stevens Fire: 5,500 acres * Side Road Fire: 3,300 acres, 25% contained * 43 Fire: 2,200 acres, 20% contained >

Calm Market Waters Hide Fierce Undercurrents Authored by Michael Lebowitz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, The price movement in the broad S&P 500 index is relatively calm. Yet the market’s undercurrent, as measured by sharply diverging returns across stock sectors and factors, is anything but calm. The current market picture we paint is well embodied by a quote from Jules Verne in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. “The sea was perfectly calm; scarcely a ripple disturbed its surface. But beneath this tranquil exterior, powerful currents were flowing with irresistible force.” Given this divergence between the calm market surface and the volatility of its underlying stocks’ returns, let’s

Kimberly Prost and Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza vow US reprisals will not affect work of international criminal court When the Canadian Kimberly Prost learned Donald Trump’s administration had imposed sanctions on her, it came as a shock. For years, she has sat as a judge at the international criminal court, weighing accusations of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity; now she is on the same list as terrorists and those involved in organised crime. “It really was a moment of a bit of disbelief,” she said. Continue reading...

Three boats targeted in eastern Pacific and Caribbean as Trump continues pursuit of alleged ‘narco-terrorists’ US military officials have said American forces launched assaults on three alleged drug-smuggling boats, killing 11 in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration’s months-long campaign against alleged traffickers. The military action on Monday brought the number of fatalities caused by US strikes to 145 since September, when Donald Trump called on American armed forces to attack people deemed “narco-terrorists” on small vessels. There have been 42 known strikes in notorious drug-trafficking routes such as the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, according to the

Interim president José Jerí voted out by country’s congress amid scandal concerning secretive meetings Peru’s interim president has been forced out of office in an “express impeachment” after a political scandal over his secretive meetings with Chinese businessmen. Lawmakers voted by 75 votes to 24 to proceed with the removal of José Jerí, who had been at the helm for just four months. Continue reading...

Karime Macías, ex-wife of a state governor, is wanted for allegedly pilfering nearly £5m of public money and now lives in London The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said her government will send a formal letter of complaint to officials in the United Kingdom after the wife of a former governor wanted for allegedly pilfering £4.8m of public money was granted asylum in Britain. Karime Macías, ex-wife of jailed former Veracruz governor Javier Duarte, is wanted for extradition to Mexico for allegedly siphoning millions from the state welfare office, but has reportedly spent the last few years in London. Continue reading...

More than 130,000 people considered missing or disappeared in Mexico as drug cartels expand It was a bright morning in August 2022 when Ángel Montenegro was taken. A 31-year-old construction worker, Montenegro had been out all night drinking with some work buddies in the city of Cuautla and was waiting for a bus back to nearby Cuernavaca, where he lived. At about 10am, a white van pulled up: several men jumped out and dragged Montenegro and a co-worker inside before speeding off. Montenegro’s co-worker was released a few hundred meters down the street, but Montenegro was driven away. Continue reading...

Abandoned beaches, public health warning signs and seagulls eating human waste are now features of the popular coastline in New Zealand A tide of anger is rising in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, as the city’s toilets continue to flush directly into the ocean more than two weeks after the catastrophic collapse of its wastewater treatment plant. Millions of litres of raw and partially screened sewage have been pouring into pristine reefs and a marine reserve along the south coast daily since 4 February, prompting a national inquiry, as the authorities struggle to get the decimated plant operational. Continue reading...

Lunar new year has ushered in a rare zodiac symbol with a reputation for energy and independence As the lunar new year begins, the focus has turned to the Chinese zodiac and the arrival of the year of the fire horse – a rare pairing in the 60-year lunar cycle. Drawing on Chinese metaphysics, the fire horse blends the horse’s reputation for energy and independence with the intensity of the fire element, giving it a distinct place in the zodiac tradition. Continue reading...

Sara Duterte, daughter of a former president who is facing charges of crimes against humanity at the Hague, pledged to offer her ‘life, strength and future’ in service of the Philippines Philippine vice-president Sara Duterte, daughter of the imprisoned former leader Rodridgo Duterte, has announced she will run for president in the country’s 2028 election. Sara Duterte, 47, said she would offer her “life, strength and future” in service of the Philippines, in a speech on Wednesday that accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, of presiding over a period marked by rampant corruption. Continue reading...

Donald Trump says deals ‘end our foolish dependence on foreign sources’, while Japanese PM hails enhanced economic security Japan has drawn up plans for investments in US oil, gas and critical mineral projects worth about $36bn under the first wave of a deal with Donald Trump. The US president and Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister, announced a trio of projects including a power plant in Portsmouth, Ohio, billed by the Trump administration as the largest natural gas-fired generating facility in US history. Continue reading...

Eye-catching martial arts performance at China gala had viewers and experts wondering what else humanoids can do Dancing humanoid robots took centre stage on Monday during the annual China Media Group’s Spring Festival Gala, China’s most-watched official television broadcast. They lunged and backflipped (landing on their knees), they spun around and jumped. Not one fell over. The display was impressive, but prompted some to wonder: if robots can now dance and perform martial arts, what else can they do? Continue reading...

Follow today’s news live * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Jonno Duniam, the shadow home affairs minister, spoke about the passports this morning as the opposition seeks to hammer the government on the matter. He told Channel Seven’s Sunrise reports those in the group had travel documents was “of incredible concern, I think, to most Australians that these people want to come back to Australia”, adding: And if one person has been hit with a temporary exclusion order for going to this part of world and doing what they’ve done, why is it not the case

Festival confirmed writer and academic would appear in two sessions in 2026 following disinvitation from Adelaide event * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Global accounting giant KPMG has distanced itself from the Sydney writers’ festival, requesting its name be removed from the event’s website where it was listed as a corporate partner. The move follows the festival scheduling Palestinian Australian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah to speak at two sessions in this year’s event. Continue reading...

Former minister helped develop Australia’s first Aboriginal education policy in the 1980s and brings decades of expertise to embattled university * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Linda Burney has been appointed to her first public role since leaving federal parliament, joining the board of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in a move the New South Wales government hopes will restore faith in the embattled institution. Burney, the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the federal House of Representatives, ended her two-decade career in politics

Proposal to replant inside a different type of protected woodland would not replicate diversity of cleared sites used by threatened cockatoo species, conservationists say * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Property developers in Perth plan to bulldoze an endangered banksia ecosystem used by threatened black cockatoo species, and conservationists have warned the damage cannot be mitigated by proposed offsets. The developers want to replant the banksia ecosystem within a different type of protected woodland – a proposal that a leading botanist said was doomed to fail. Continue reading...

Almost 70% of companies, including BYD and Toyota, beat their initial target for the average emissions efficiency of the new cars they sold * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Major auto brands including Mazda, Nissan and Subaru face the possibility of millions of dollars in penalties after failing to meet climate targets for new vehicles in Australia. The first six months of data since the Albanese government introduced a new vehicle efficiency standard shows 40 companies – 68% of the total – beat their initial target for the average emissions efficiency of the new cars they

Report says common agricultural policy provides ‘unfair’ levels of support to unhealthy, meat-heavy diets Beef and lamb receive 580 times more in EU subsidies than legumes, a report has found, despite scientists urging people to get more of their protein from less harmful sources. Analysis by the charity Foodrise found the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) provides “unfair” levels of support to meat-heavy diets that doctors consider unhealthy and climate scientists consider environmentally destructive. Continue reading...

Kerstin G froze to death on Großglockner when Thomas P descended mountain to fetch help An Austrian mountaineer is to appear in court accused of gross negligent manslaughter after his girlfriend died of hypothermia when he left her close to the summit on a climb that went dramatically wrong. The 33-year-old woman, identified only as Kerstin G, froze to death on 19 January 2025, about 50 metres below the summit of the Großglockner, Austria’s tallest mountain, after an ascent of more than 17 hours with her boyfriend, Thomas P, 36. Continue reading...

Unresolved ‘sensitive’ issues in peace talks are fate of occupied territories in east Ukraine and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant The peace talks ended abruptly today after about two hours, according to reports, in contrast with yesterday’s negotiations that apparently took place over six hours. Neither side have offered any public sign of progress, but instead said the talks were “difficult” with Russian news agencies quoting sources describing the negotiations as “very tense”. Continue reading...

Xalet del Catllaràs contains elements of architect’s naturalistic style, expressed in works such as Park Güell and Sagrada Família An elegant modernist building in the mountains north of Barcelona, originally constructed to house engineers establishing a nearby mine, has been confirmed as a work of Antoni Gaudí, Catalonia’s most celebrated and distinctive architect. The Xalet del Catllaràs, about 80 miles from Barcelona in the county of Berguedà, was built in 1905 and commissioned by Eusebi Güell, Gaudí’s lifelong patron. Güell was the owner of a cement company with mines in the region and he needed somewhere to house the engineers, many of

US ambassador accused of interference after labelling inquiry into suspected illegal circumcisions ‘antisemitic’ A diplomatic row is escalating between Belgium and the US, with Donald Trump’s ambassador refusing to apologise for accusing his host country of antisemitism and reportedly threatening to bar a socialist politician from travelling to the US. Bill White, a staunch ally of the president like many US ambassadors, on Monday demanded Belgium drop a “ridiculous” and “antisemitic” investigation into three Jewish men suspected of performing circumcisions without medical qualifications. Continue reading...

Research suggests more than 75,000 killed in the first 16 months of conflict, 25,000 more than announced at the time More than 75,000 people were killed in the first 16 months of the two-year war in Gaza, at least 25,000 more than the death toll announced by local authorities at the time, according to a study published on Wednesday in the Lancet medical journal. The research also found that reporting by the Gaza health ministry about the proportion of women, children and elderly people among those killed was accurate. Continue reading...

Dozens of world leaders head to Washington for what White House says will largely be a fundraiser on Thursday Dozens of world leaders and national delegations will meet in Washington DC on Thursday for the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, as major European allies declined to join the group and criticised the organisation’s murky funding and political mandate. The White House has indicated that the summit for his new ad hoc council at the renamed Donald J Trump Institute of Peace will heavily function as a fundraising round, with Trump announcing on social media that countries have pledged more

Mehdi Mahmoudian released 17 days after arrest for signing a statement condemning Iran’s supreme leader and regime’s protest crackdown Mehdi Mahmoudian, the Oscar-nominated co-writer of It Was Just an Accident, has been released from an Iranian prison 17 days after his arrest, according to local media reports. Mahmoudian was arrested in Tehran shortly after signing a statement condemning Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the regime’s violent crackdown on demonstrators. On Tuesday, he was released from the Nowshahr prison, along with two other signatories of the statement, Vida Rabbani and Abdollah Momeni. Continue reading...

At least 80 film-makers and stars sign open letter after German festival jury president Wim Wenders says they should keep out of politics More than 80 current and former participants of the Berlinale, including Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton and Adam McKay have signed an open letter condemning the festival’s “silence” on Gaza. It comes after the film festival was swept up in what it called a “media storm” over the alleged sidelining of political discourse at the event. Continue reading...

Hamdan Ballal says violence on West Bank as bad as ever, nearly a year after his Oscar-winning film shocked the world The co-director of the Oscar-winning No Other Land has said his home and family have come under renewed attack, almost a year after the documentary on Israeli settler and army violence in the West Bank received an Academy Award. Hamdan Ballal said a group of settlers who had conducted a long-running campaign of harassment against Palestinian villagers came on Sunday to his home in Susya, in the Masafer Yatta area on the southern edge of the West Bank. Continue reading...

Google, Anthropic and OpenAI bosses to mingle with global south leaders wrestling for control over technology Silicon Valley tech billionaires will land in Delhi this week for an AI summit hosted by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, where leaders of the global south will wrestle for control over the fast-developing technology. During the week-long AI Impact Summit, attended by thousands of tech executives, government officials and AI safety experts, tech companies valued at trillions of dollars will rub along with leaders of countries such as Kenya and Indonesia, where average wages dip well below $1,000 a month. Continue reading...

Many voice hope that moment will mark move away from repression and unrest and a chance to revive economy Bangladesh’s new prime minister has been sworn in, sealing a dramatic comeback for the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) and formally closing the turbulent chapter that toppled Sheikh Hasina in 2024. The swearing-in of Tarique Rahman restored an elected government after 18 months of caretaker rule led by the Nobel peace prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. Continue reading...

Mohan Karki – one of many people ICE has deported to countries with which they have little connection – leaves behind his wife and seven-month-old baby he has yet to hold Tika Basnet sat facing the glow of her iPhone, a red tika pressed into the center of her forehead. Seven-month-old Briana slept on her lap, her breathing soft and uneven. On the other side of the screen was Mohan Karki, Basnet’s husband, who had yet to hold his daughter. For Karki, nearly 9,000 miles (14,500km) away, it was already morning. He was in hiding in south Asia, his exact location withheld

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

Demand is rising at unsustainable rate and could cost £3.4bn by 2030-31, local authorities warn Families who have children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) should be means tested for school transport, according to councils in England, who say demand is rising “at an unsustainable rate”. Local authorities are urging the government to be “radical” in its Send reforms, which are expected imminently, warning that annual costs on home-to-school transport for children with Send could rise to £3.4bn by 2030-31, up from £2bn last year. Continue reading...

BRC survey finds finance bosses expect technology to improve productivity, with 69% pessimistic about the economy UK retailers are planning to cut staff hours and jobs amid rising employment costs and pessimism about the economy. Almost two-thirds (61%) of finance bosses at retail companies said they planned to reduce working hours or cut overtime, according to the latest survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the trade body that represents most big retailers. More than half (55%) said they would cut head office jobs and 42% said they would reduce jobs in stores. Continue reading...

Police arrest four after incident in the Briar Hill area that left a man in his 20s dead A man is dead and a teenage boy is in a critical condition in hospital after they were stabbed at a Northampton skate park. Northamptonshire police launched a murder investigation after emergency services were called to the park in Ringway in the Briar Hill area on Wednesday following reports that two people had been stabbed “during an altercation”. Continue reading...

Coalition of refugee support groups says board’s ‘traumatic’ and ‘flawed’ processes are putting children at risk A coalition of refugee support groups has called for a Home Office organisation to be axed, claiming it is putting hundreds of children at risk. The Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium, which consists of more than 100 organisations including the Refugee Council, Barnardo’s and the NSPCC, has published a report analysing the performance of the Home Office’s national age assessment board (NAAB), which was set up in March 2023 to determine the ages of young asylum seekers newly arrived in the UK, often on small boats. Continue

PM says measure, also applied to deepfake nudes, is needed owing to a ‘national emergency’ of online misogyny Deepfake nudes and “revenge porn” must be removed from the internet within 48 hours or technology firms risk being blocked in the UK, Keir Starmer has said, calling it a “national emergency” that the government must confront. Companies could be fined millions or even blocked altogether if they allow the images to spread or be reposted after victims give notice. Continue reading...

Programme that funds groups building tech to evade oppressive government controls under serious threat For nearly two decades, the US quietly funded a global effort to keep the internet from splintering into fiefdoms run by authoritarian governments. Now that money is seriously threatened and a large part of it is already gone, putting into jeopardy internet freedoms around the world. Managed by the US state department and the US Agency for Global Media, the programme – broadly called Internet Freedom – funds small groups all over the world, from Iran to China to the Philippines, who built grassroots technologies to evade internet

Reports say move could come this weekend as White House urges Iran to ‘make a deal’ with Trump on nuclear program The US military is ready for possible strikes on Iran as soon as this weekend, multiple news outlets reported Wednesday citing unnamed sources. However, the reports said, Donald Trump has yet to make a final decision on whether to carry out an attack. Trump has repeatedly demanded Iran cease its nuclear program, and has warned he intends to use force if no deal is reached. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. * Trump news at a glance: president’s ‘board of peace’ set to meet, minus some key US allies On a recent morning Eric Taylor, city manager for a small Georgia town of about 5,000 residents called Social Circle, was contacted by a staffer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “They asked me to turn on the water,” he said of a 1m sq ft warehouse nearby that the federal government recently purchased for $128m, with plans to use it for locking up as many as 10,000 detainees as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation plan. Continue reading...

Actor allegedly also made remarks to man who dresses in drag, and was seen dancing on Bourbon Street after arrest The actor Shia LaBeouf allegedly aimed homophobic slurs at two men – one who identifies as queer and the other who dresses in drag – as the Transformers star was arrested for purportedly battering them at a bar early on Tuesday morning in New Orleans, the victims said. Jeffrey Damnit – who was born with the last name Klein and was listed as one of the victims by New Orleans police – said in an interview on Wednesday that he was wearing

Lawsuit is first by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over workplace DEI in Trump’s second term A US civil rights agency has sued a bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola products it accuses of sex discrimination over an employee networking event that excluded men, its first lawsuit over workplace diversity programs since Donald Trump took office. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, says Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast violated federal law when it hosted the event for about 250 female employees at a casino in Connecticut in September 2024. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday he regretted Meta’s slow progress in identifying underage users on Instagram, as he faced stinging criticism at a landmark social media trial over accusations that his company deliberately hooked children. Asked to comment on complaints from inside the company that not enough was being done to verify whether children under 13 were using the platform, the 41-year-old head of Meta, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, said improvements had been made. But “I...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday sharply criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the UK’s agreement to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, warning the deal could create strategic vulnerabilities amid concerns about China’s growing ties with Mauritius. The deal, finalised in 2025 between Britain and Mauritius, would see Britain transfer sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius while securing a 99-year lease to maintain full operational control of...

Brazil has imposed anti-dumping duties on a broad range of Chinese steel products and hypodermic needles following two investigations that found the imports were being sold at unfairly low prices, harming domestic producers. Approved by the government’s foreign trade committee and signed by Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin in his capacity as trade chief, the measures apply for up to five years and target cold-rolled steel, coated flat steel and medical needles shipped from China. Cold-rolled steel...

Pope Leo lamented ⁠a world “in flames” ⁠due to wars and ⁠the destruction of the environment during an Ash Wednesday Mass, opening the season of Lent for the world’s Christians. Before sprinkling ashes on the heads of participants, a sign of mortality, ‌the pope said the ashes could represent “the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war”. He also told participants the ashes could signify “the ashes of international law and justice among peoples, [and] the ashes of...

US factory production increased by the most in nearly a year in January, offering hope for a manufacturing sector that has been squeezed by import tariffs and high interest rates. Manufacturing output rose 0.6 per cent last month, the largest gain since February 2025, after being unchanged in December, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday. Economists had earlier forecast production for the sector, which accounts for 10.1 per cent of the economy, would rise 0.4 per cent. Output in December was...

Russia is demanding that European countries who accused Moscow of poisoning Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with a dart frog toxin provide concrete data to support their allegation, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said on Saturday that analyses of samples from Navalny’s body had confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America and not found naturally in Russia. They said Moscow...

At the opening of the Munich Security Conference this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that the rules-based international order is eroding before our eyes. His remarks echoed the conference’s annual report, which painted a picture of fragmentation and disorder. His remarks also echoed a growing anxiety across Europe: that the system built after 1945 is eroding under the weight of geopolitical rivalry, economic coercion and military confrontation. However, to many observers, Europe’s...

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators concluded a second day of US-mediated talks in Geneva on Wednesday, though neither side signalled they were any closer to ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. The talks wrapped up after just two hours, much shorter than the six hours of meetings on Tuesday, according to the head of Russia’s delegation. Neither side elaborated on what they discussed or whether they had agreed on anything, but both signalled the discussions had been tricky. The...

US actor Shia LaBeouf’s Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans allegedly took a violent turn on Tuesday morning, landing him in hospital and facing charges of battery. The New Orleans Police Department confirmed that officers arrested the Megalopolis and Honey Boy actor, 39, at 12.45am in the city’s famed French Quarter. He was charged with two counts of simple battery for allegedly assaulting two men. A representative for the Transformers star did not immediately respond to a request for...

Eight backcountry skiers have been found dead and one remains missing after an avalanche near Lake Tahoe in California, officials said on Wednesday, making it the deadliest avalanche in the US in more than four decades. Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said during a news conference that authorities have told the families the mission has moved from rescue to recovery. It is the deadliest avalanche in the US since 1981, when 11 climbers were killed on Mount Rainier, Washington. Crews have faced...

An ungainly barrel of a shark cruising languidly over a barren seabed far too deep for the sun’s rays to illuminate was an unexpected sight. Many experts had thought sharks did not exist in the frigid waters of Antarctica before this sleeper shark lumbered warily and briefly into the spotlight of a video camera, researcher Alan Jamieson said this week. The shark, filmed in January 2025, was a substantial specimen with an estimated length of between three and four metres (10 and 13 feet). “We...

After US and Iranian negotiators agreed on Tuesday to a set of “guiding principles” at their nuclear talks in Geneva mediated by Oman, Tehran went further – framing any eventual deal as a commercial proposition, not just a security arrangement. Iran is pitching access to its vast energy and mineral reserves as what it has called a “trillion-dollar opportunity” for American firms. In doing so, analysts say Tehran is speaking the language of a US president known for his deal-making...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed irritation over the standing ovation for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Munich Security Conference. “I wasn’t in the hall and even if I had been, I would have found it difficult to stand up,” Merz said on the political podcast Machtwechsel (“change of power”), which is due to be released on Wednesday. Rubio’s speech had not been as confrontational as the one delivered by US Vice-President J.D. Vance at last year’s conference, Merz said, adding...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said US President Donald Trump was exerting ⁠undue pressure on him in ⁠trying to secure a resolution to ⁠the nearly four-year-old war pitting Kyiv against Moscow. Zelensky, in an interview with US website Axios published on Tuesday, also said any plan requiring Ukraine to give up territory that Russia had not captured in the eastern Donbas region would be rejected by Ukrainians ‌if put to a referendum. Axios quoted Zelensky as saying it was “not fair” that...

Chinese and Indian tourists are set to make up for a potential slowdown in growth from US travellers to Europe this year, according to a survey published on ‌Wednesday by the European Travel Commission, with international arrivals to the continent set to rise by 6.2 per cent. This is the first sign of a slowdown in the post-pandemic boom in American travel to Europe, driven by a strong US dollar and economic resilience in North America. An earlier study from industry group the European Travel...

CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert, a critic of the Trump administration, says he was barred from airing an interview with a Democrat seeking a US Senate seat in Texas by network lawyers concerned the appearance would violate federal fairness rules. Speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday night, Colbert said the lawyers informed his team that state congressman James Talarico could not appear on the broadcast and his name shouldn’t be mentioned. “He was supposed to be here, but...

The US military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on three boats accused of smuggling drugs in Latin American waters, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration’s months-long campaign against alleged traffickers. The series of strikes conducted Monday brought the death toll to at least 145 people since the administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in small vessels since early September. Like most of the military’s statements on the 42...

A bipartisan chorus of lawmakers and national security experts in Washington is calling on the administration of US President Donald Trump to convene a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue leaders’ summit ahead of Trump’s expected meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in April. The push aims to project a unified front among Indo-Pacific democracies and prevent potential misunderstandings during high-stakes negotiations with Beijing. The Quad, an informal grouping that also includes Japan and...

US Capitol Police in Washington arrested an 18-year-old man on Tuesday after he ran from his vehicle toward the west side of the Capitol Building armed with a shotgun. Capital Police Chief Michael Sullivan said the unidentified man parked a Mercedes SUV near the Capitol, got out and ran “several hundred yards (metres)” toward the building before officers intercepted him and ordered him to the ground. Speaking at a press conference following the arrest, Sullivan said the gunman was wearing a...

Japan plans to invest US$36 billion in US oil, gas and critical mineral projects, the first tranche of its US$550 billion commitment under the trade agreement it struck with President Donald Trump. “Our MASSIVE Trade Deal with Japan has just launched!” Trump posted on Tuesday on social media. “The scale of these projects are so large, and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS.” The most significant investment is a natural gas facility in Ohio that is expected to generate 9.2...

A few weeks ago, while travelling in Buenos Aires, I learned a new word: chino. I already knew its literal meaning – even a poor linguist like me could manage that – but in Argentina the word has taken on a second life. A chino is the neighbourhood mini-market run by Chinese migrants, most of whom are from Fujian or Guangdong province. Known for staying open late, these shops have become a fixture of urban life. One afternoon, as an Argentine friend showed me around his neighbourhood in Palermo,...

Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday launched a multibillion-dollar plan to strengthen the Canadian military and rely less on the United States. Carney’s announcement of Canada’s first defence industrial strategy built on themes he has emphasised throughout his 11-month tenure as President Donald Trump rips through traditional US alliances. The prime minister says Canada has not done nearly enough to defend itself in an increasingly dangerous world and counting on US protection is no longer...

Peru’s Congress voted on Tuesday to remove President Jose Jeri from office following a series of undisclosed late-night meetings at a Chinese restaurant with a Chinese state contractor, setting off a political scandal dubbed “Chifagate”, a reference to the country’s Chinese-Peruvian fusion cuisine. Lawmakers voted 75-24, with three abstentions, to censure Jeri over the unregistered encounters with businessman Zhihua Yang, whose companies have supplied the state and who owns the restaurant and a...

Brazil is on course to exhaust its annual beef export quota to China by September, industry researchers said on Tuesday, as the government warns that uncontrolled shipments could trigger a collapse in domestic prices and jobs in the cattle sector. If the pace of exports recorded in January is maintained, Brazil will fill its 2026 quota of 1.106 million tonnes well before year end, according to the Centre for Advanced Studies on Applied Economics at the University of Sao Paulo, known as Cepea. In...

US Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin will leave the administration, an agency spokesperson said, a move that comes as public support for President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has dwindled. McLaughlin became a prominent booster of ‌the Republican president’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement and headed the press operation at DHS, which has come under scrutiny for issuing inaccurate or incomplete statements following violent encounters involving...

Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia met for the first of two days of US-mediated peace talks in Geneva on Tuesday, with US President Donald Trump pressing Kyiv to act fast to reach a deal. Trump is urging Moscow and Kyiv to reach a deal to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945, though Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has complained that his country is facing the greatest pressure to make concessions. Ukraine’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov said ahead of the talks that the two sides would...

⁠Texas has sued TP-Link Systems for allegedly marketing its networking devices deceptively and allowing Beijing to access American consumers’ devices, the state attorney general said on Tuesday. “Despite its ‌claims of privacy and security, TP-Link’s products have been used by [China’s] state-sponsored hacking entities to launch multiple cyberattack operations against the United States,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a press release announcing the lawsuit. “With nearly all of ⁠its...

Israeli NGOs have raised the alarm over a settlement plan signed by the government which they say would mark the first expansion of Jerusalem’s borders into the occupied West Bank since 1967. Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community. Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. The proposal was published in early this month as international outrage mounts over creeping measures aimed at...

A UK court on Tuesday denied a legal challenge brought by the Freemasons against a new London police policy requiring officers to declare membership of the historically secretive society. In a 17-page judgment handed down at London’s High Court, judge Martin Chamberlain said the Metropolitan Police’s policy “serves a legitimate aim, maintaining and enhancing public trust in policing, and is proportionate”. He said the grounds of the challenge were not “reasonably arguable”, and the policy was...

Iran fired live missiles towards the Strait of Hormuz while its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that the US warship deployed in the Gulf could be sunk, amid nuclear talks between the two countries. “We constantly hear that they [the US] have sent a warship towards Iran. A warship is certainly a dangerous weapon, but even more dangerous is the weapon capable of sinking it,” Khamenei said in a speech on Tuesday. The US and Iran held their second round of talks about Iran’s nuclear...

Charismatic US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, an eloquent Baptist minister raised in the segregated South ⁠who became a close associate of Martin Luther King Jnr and twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, has died at 84, his family said in a statement on Tuesday. “Our father was a servant leader – not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said. Jackson, an inspirational orator and long-time Chicagoan,...

Belgium summoned the US ambassador on Tuesday over a social media post where he accused the country of antisemitic persecution of Jewish Belgians, the kingdom’s foreign minister said. “Labelling Belgium as antisemitic is not just wrong, it’s dangerous disinformation that undermines the real fight against hatred,” Belgian foreign minister Maxime Prevot said in a social media post on Monday. The summons is a rare move between staunch allies. “An ambassador accredited to Belgium has a...

Anastasia Kucherova, a Russian living in Milan, voiced her opposition to Russia’s war against Ukraine with a highly symbolic, if anonymous, act: carrying the Ukraine team placard during the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina Winter Games. Kucherova was swathed in a long, hooded silver puffer coat, her eyes covered with dark glasses – like all the other placard bearers for the 92 nations competing in the Olympics. The Ukraine sign was illuminated for the crowd to read. At first the country...

An extremely rare Pokemon card owned by American YouTuber Logan Paul has sold for US$16,492,000, smashing the record for the most expensive trading card sold at an auction. The supposedly unique PSA 10-graded Pikachu Illustrator was originally bought by Paul in another record-breaking sale in 2021 for US$5.28 million. This time it was bought by AJ Scaramucci, son of former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, according to Guinness World Records, whose representatives verified...

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has accused President Donald Trump of orchestrating a “cover-up” over files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to an interview with the BBC. “Get the files out. They are slow-walking it,” Clinton, who is due to testify before a Congressional committee on the issue, told the British broadcaster in an interview in Berlin published on Monday. The US Department of Justice last month released the latest cache of so-called Epstein files –...

US ⁠President Donald Trump has said he will be “indirectly” involved in talks between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme set to begin on Tuesday in Geneva. “I’ll be involved in those talks, indirectly. And they’ll be very important,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday, adding he believed ‌Tehran wanted to make a deal. Tensions are soaring ahead of the talks, with the US deploying a second aircraft carrier to the ⁠Middle East. The US military is preparing for the...

Three people, including the suspect, were fatally shot during a Rhode Island youth hockey game on Monday, authorities said. Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves told reporters that three other victims are hospitalised in critical condition. “We have three deceased. The suspect, and then we have two victims, and then we have three at the hospital,” said Goncalves. “It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” she said. Goncalves did not provide details about the...

Nancy Guthrie’s family has been cleared as possible suspects in her abduction, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said on Monday, as the case involving the mother of Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie entered its third week. Guthrie’s family, which includes “all siblings and ‌spouses”, has been cooperative and gracious as authorities investigate the kidnapping, Nanos said. “To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel,” he said in a statement. “The Guthrie family are victims, plain and...

US President Donald Trump’s pick for ambassador to South Africa has arrived in the country where he will seek to improve fraught ties between the two states. An embassy official told Reuters on Monday that ‌the envoy, conservative activist and writer Leo Brent Bozell III, had arrived. Bozell is expected to present his credentials to President Cyril Ramaphosa before officially taking up his post. Relations between Washington and Pretoria have deteriorated in the past year as Trump has accused...

Spain said on Monday it will use UN channels to send humanitarian aid to Cuba, which is suffering an acute economic crisis worsened by a de facto US fuel blockade. “Spain will provide humanitarian aid … to Cuba through the United Nations system in the form of food and essential health products,” the foreign ministry said in a statement following a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries in Madrid. The announcement follows the dispatch by Mexico of 800 tonnes of humanitarian...

Greece said on Monday it will seek to obtain a series of photos that appear to show the final moments of 200 Greeks who were executed by a Nazi firing squad in Athens during World War II, after the previously unknown pictures appeared on an online sale site. The images that appeared on eBay over the weekend allegedly show the men being led to their deaths on May 1, 1944, at a shooting range in the Kaisariani suburb of the Greek capital. Although the executions were well known, there were no...

The Pentagon is close to cutting ties with Anthropic and may label the artificial intelligence company a supply chain risk after becoming frustrated with restrictions on how it can use the technology, Axios news website reported. Anthropic’s talks about extending a contract with the Pentagon are being held up over additional protections the artificial intelligence company wants to put on its Claude tool, a person familiar with the matter said. Anthropic wants to put safeguards in place to stop...

The militant Palestinian organisation Hamas used emojis to signal to its fighters the start of the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Israeli TV channel N12 reported on Monday. It cited the Israeli army as its source but a military spokeswoman was initially unable to officially confirm the story. According to the report, the emojis were found on mobile phones belonging to members of Hamas’ elite Nukhba Forces unit, which were seized by the Israelis on the day of the attack. The specific...

Robert Duvall, who played the smooth mafia lawyer in The Godfather and stole the show with his depiction of a surfing-crazed colonel in Apocalypse Now, has died at the age of 95. His death on Sunday was confirmed by his wife Luciana Duvall. “Yesterday we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time. Bob passed away peacefully at home,” she wrote. Blunt-talking, prolific and glitz-averse, Duvall won an Oscar for best actor and was nominated six...

US President Donald Trump denounced a clean ⁠energy agreement between ⁠the United Kingdom and ⁠California Governor Gavin Newsom hours after it was signed on Monday, Politico reported. In an interview with the news outlet, Trump said it was “inappropriate” for Britain to be ‌dealing with the Democratic governor. Trump, a Republican, also branded Newsom “a loser”, saying “his state has gone to hell, and his environmental work is a disaster”. Newsom is an outspoken Trump critic and has publicly...

The Trump organization said the move was necessary to protect the brand as Florida prepares to rename an airport after the president.

The intensified push is part of an extraordinary all-fronts effort to insert federal law enforcement into the machinery of American elections ahead of the midterms.

Both parties’ Senate primary races are kicking into high gear.

Among elite athletes exists an even more exclusive club: people who compete at both the Summer and Winter Games. Many are sprinters who turn to bobsled.

A lieutenant colonel is on trial after being accused of skimming payments for battlefield injuries. He denies the specifics of Russia’s accusation but acknowledges engaging in a payouts scheme.

The latest round of talks ended with no indication of progress, but negotiators are bargaining over who will control land in eastern Ukraine if they reach a settlement.

Narendra Modi, the prime minister, convened foreign leaders, the richest Silicon Valley companies and thousands of Indian entrepreneurs for a week of deal making.

How artificial intelligence will be used in future battlefields is an issue that has turned increasingly political and may put Anthropic in a bind.

In states that once focused mainly on health care and sports for transgender minors, debates now revolve around the validity of transgender identity.

The beating death of Quentin Deranque has quickly become a flashpoint between the far right and far left as France prepares for local elections next month and presidential elections next year.

True crime obsessives, internet theorizers and livestreamers are complicating the investigation of the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of the “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.

A best actor Oscar contender for “Blue Moon,” the star reflects on turbulent times in Hollywood and the notion of selling out: “I think about it constantly.”

Contenders say the criteria for judging the category can vary from, say, the number of newcomers to the seamlessness of the ensemble.

A political movement cannot survive on spite alone.

Ordinary citizens have a range of legal tools to hold the rich and politically connected accountable.

Also, Mark Zuckerberg takes the stand. Here's the latest at the end of Wednesday.

Have you ever been called a “love addict?” Ever suspected somebody else was?

The co-worker, who no longer works for Representative Tony Gonzales, shared screenshots of the text exchange with The New York Times. Mr. Gonzales accused his Republican primary challenger of being behind the revelation.

The assistant chief, Jamiel Altaheri, resigned almost immediately after starting the job, after The New York Times asked about misconduct allegations while he was a police chief in Michigan.

The steamer Lac La Belle, which was carrying passengers and cargo, sank in a storm in 1872. Eight people died when one of its lifeboats capsized.

House Republicans skipped a deposition with Leslie Wexner, the retail billionaire, and Democrats said his answers were not credible.