Minimalist News

Munich Security Conference A 'Circus' - Iran Says After Exiled Shah's Son Invited The Munich Security Conference, once regarded as a heavyweight diplomatic forum, has devolved into a spectacle that favors "performance over substance," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi complained after his country was snubbed. Organizers barred senior Iranian officials from attending this year's gathering after deadly protests and unrest shook the country last month, threatening the stability of the Islamic Republic. Tehran has lashed out: > "Sad to see the usually serious Munich Security Conference turned into the ‘Munich Circus’ when it comes to Iran," FM Araghchi wrote Saturday in a series

Fetterman Reveals His Parents Are Trump Supporters, Refuses To Call MAGA Voters 'Nazis' Authored by Steve Watson via modernity.news, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has once again set himself apart from the radical elements in his party by admitting that his own parents support President Trump—and using that as a reason to reject the Democrats’ over-the-top attacks on MAGA voters. In a recent interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns, Fetterman again explained why he won’t join the chorus labeling Trump supporters as threats to democracy, emphasizing personal connections over partisan hysteria. Burns asked Fetterman directly about Trump’s praise for him as the “most sensible Democrat,” questioning

Germany's "Two-Speed Europe" Proposal Is The EU's Adaptation To Great Power Geopolitics Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil recently declared that “Now is the time for a two-speed Europe. Germany, together with France and other partners, will therefore now take the lead in making Europe stronger and more independent. As the six biggest economies in Europe, we can now be the driving force.” Apart from those two, this exclusive tier will also include Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Poland. The goal is to optimize decision-making by going around the EU’s consensus requirement. According to the Washington Post, Klingbeil

From "Don't Be Evil" To Drone King: Eric Schmidt Warns Ukraine's "No Man's Land" Is Future Of War Google's old motto, "Don't be evil," was retired for very good reasons about eight years ago. Former CEO Eric Schmidt has found a new obsession and is linked to a covert drone production pipeline that has supplied hundreds of FPV drones to Ukrainian front-line units, reinforcing his warning in a new Financial Times op-ed that "Ukraine's no man's land is the future of war." "Future wars are going to be defined by unmanned weapons," Schmidt wrote in the op-ed. > 🔴 Ukrainian soldiers fired at close range at

A Month After Mass Amnesty For Illegals, Spain Urges Brussels To Take Migrants Off Its Hands Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News, The Spanish government has asked the European Commission to help facilitate the redistribution of migrants arriving in the Canary Islands to other parts of Europe as part of a broader package of measures aimed at easing the demands placed on the archipelago. Economy, Trade and Business Minister Carlos Cuerpo outlined the proposals in Spain’s Congress of Deputies on Wednesday during a question session with Canary Coalition deputy Cristina Valido, who raised concerns about pressures facing the islands. Cuerpo said Madrid had

Lavrov Soberly Acknowledged The Challenges Posed By Trump 2.0 Authored by Andrew Korybko, He calmly acknowledged that it’s now more difficult for Russia to advance its foreign policy goals due to the US’ renewed attempt to dominate the global economy through coercion and force, but he still believes that BRICS will play a pivotal role in furthering the global systemic transition to multipolarity. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently gave an interview to TV BRICS about their namesake organization and its role in the global systemic transition. He began by contextualizing the present moment in history as the interim period between the decline of US-led Western

Which US States Are Seeing Incomes Rise The Fastest (And Slowest) Since 2019, U.S. household incomes have surged - rising from $68,700 to $83,730 nationally, a 21.9% increase in just five years. But where you live matters a lot. While some states tracked close to the national average, others saw incomes climb at nearly double the pace, driven by booming local industries and major investment. States like Colorado posted outsized gains, while Georgia’s expanding EV industry brought billions in investment and rising paychecks. The map, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows which states saw the fastest growth in median household income from 2019 to 2024,

The Epstein Egregore Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com, THE POLITICS OF INSTITUTIONALIZED PREDATION. > “I become stronger as you become weaker, I absorb strength as yours flows into me. I become capable of this because I do not experience your pain, I don’t care about your loss, and I feel no regret about using, abusing, and devouring you.” > — Page 63, An Age For Lucifer Consider the following: > “This book explores a strange new spirituality about to enter into competition with other established religions. My purpose here is to convince you that its emergence is probable, if not inevitable. I begin this exploration

Bitcoin Mining & The Electricity Grid: A Quiet Savior Authored by Joakim Book via The Mises Institute, With all eyes on the winter storm raging through America last month, a silent hero was working in the background to keep the lights on. And I don’t primarily mean the emergency workers or the teams of electricians, foresters, and engineers that keep the power lines up and ice-free; these guys operate very much in the foreground, the public well aware of their critical work. Before and during winter storms, the electricity supply becomes strained and household demand spikes—think space heaters, heat pumps requiring more juice, more lights turned

Eat The Rich: California Democrats Trigger Reverse Gold Rush With Wealth Tax Authored by Jonathan Turley, This month, the anniversary of the California Gold Rush came and passed with little mention … for good reason. When James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill, millions traveled great distances to seek their fortune in the “Golden State.” Now, 178 years later, California has engineered an inverse Gold Rush, virtually chasing wealth from the state. Rather than covered wagons going West, there is a line of U-Hauls going anywhere other than California. From boondoggle projects to reparations, California politicians continue to rack up new spending projects despite a soaring

3 Detained As SWAT Team Swarms Home Near Guthrie's House In a dramatic Friday night development in a case that's garnered enormous public interest, three people were detained as a SWAT team executed search warrants connected to the abduction of the mother of NBC "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie -- and a neighbor claims another person shot himself in the head. Action unfolded at two locations -- both of them only about two miles from Nancy Guthrie's Tucson residence. As this is written, police have yet to reveal details.  A Pima County sheriff's deputy mans a roadblock near a home that was the focus of

Trump Promises Voter ID "Whether Congress Approves Or Not" The SAVE America Act squeaked through the House this week by five votes. The final tally was 218-213, with Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas standing as the lone Democrat to cross party lines.  On Friday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) gave Republicans their 50th vote late Friday afternoon, telling Maine Wire the revised bill strikes an appropriate balance between election security and voter access.  > “The law is clear that in this country only American citizens are eligible to vote in federal elections. In addition, having people provide an ID at the polls, just as they

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,

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

Pentagon tracked sanctioned Veronica III from Caribbean Sea after it left Venezuela on day Maduro was captured US military forces boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said on Sunday. Venezuela had faced US sanctions on its oil for several years, relying on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains. Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure the then president, Nicolás Maduro, before Maduro was apprehended in January during

Diplomats in Havana are preparing for an alternative Trump tactic: the country being starved until people take to the streets and the US can step in Among the verdant gardens of Havana’s diplomatic quarter, Siboney, ambassadors from countries traditionally allied to the United States are expressing increasing frustration with Washington’s attempt to unseat Cuba’s government, while simultaneously drawing up plans to draw down their missions. Cuba is in crisis. Already reeling from a four-year economic slump, worsened by hyper-inflation and the migration of nearly 20% of the population, the 67-year-old communist government is at its weakest. After Washington’s successful military operation against

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...

Worst weather forecast to hit late on Sunday, a day after floods caused power outages, road collapses and home evacuations New Zealand’s weather bureau has warned more flooding could hit the country’s North Island, a day after floods caused power outages, road collapses, home evacuations and caused the death of a man whose vehicle was submerged on a highway. There was “threat to life from dangerous river conditions, significant flooding and slips” as a deepening low-pressure system east of the North Island brought heavy rain and severe gales to several regions, the weather bureau said. Continue reading...

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...

Our food environment has been built to put profit over health — Australians can’t overcome that without stronger regulation and accountability * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Almost 13 years ago – and after a decade-long battle between health experts and the food industry – state and federal ministers voted to introduce a health star rating system to help consumers make healthier food choices. It was voluntary, thanks to the food industry being at the bargaining table and the decision-makers being largely food, trade and agriculture ministers (rather than health). Continue reading...

The tax has climbed by 60% since 2020 and accounts for three-quarters of the legal cost of a packet of cigarettes * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Experts say a freeze on the federal government’s contentious tobacco excise should be considered, after the Treasury revealed it was modelling the impacts of cigarette prices on demand amid a booming black market. Lachlan Vass, a research manager at the e61 Institute, said the Treasury’s examination of “price elasticity” and demand for tobacco would be a necessary step to costing potential reforms to the excise. Continue reading...

Consular officials told son of unconscious, critically ill man they could not discuss the situation for ‘privacy’ reasons * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast An Australian man died in a Balinese hospital just days after the Australian consulate failed to issue an emergency passport that his son says could have saved his life. Wayne Harvey, an expat who had been living on the island since 2018, was 69 years old when he was admitted to the Puri Raharja hospital in Denpasar with suspected appendicitis on Christmas Eve in 2022. Continue reading...

Man charged after 2,600-year-old cat sculpture, mummy mask and necklace stolen from Caboolture museum * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Queensland police have arrested a man accused of staging a brazen cat burglary of priceless Egyptian artefacts from a museum in Caboolture, north of Brisbane. The man, 52, of no fixed address, was arrested on Russell Island in Moreton Bay on Saturday evening, after police allegedly found most of the stolen artefacts in a camper van parked at a ferry terminal. Continue reading...

Prime minister commits $3.9bn as ‘down payment’ for Adelaide facility to eventually build nuclear-powered vessels * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast At least $30bn will be spent building a construction yard to eventually build nuclear submarines for Australia under the Aukus agreement, despite doubts over the deal. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced on Sunday the federal government had pledged $3.9bn as a “down payment” to secure the future of the submarine construction yard in the northern Adelaide suburb of Osborne. Continue reading...

Yvette Cooper says claim against Kremlin ‘deeply serious’ while Russia dismisses western ‘feeblemindedness’ The UK is mulling fresh sanctions against Moscow after pinning blame on the Kremlin for the poisoning of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Yvette Cooper has suggested. The Foreign Office and four of the UK’s allies – Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands – announced on Saturday they had determined that Navalny’s death was most likely the result of poisoning using dart frog toxin arranged by the Russian state. Continue reading...

Kaja Kallas says other countries ‘look up to us’ and rejects idea Europe faces ‘civilisational erasure’ The EU’s foreign policy chief denied claims levelled by the US that Europe was facing civilisational erasure, rejecting what she condemned as “fashionable euro-bashing” by Washington. Kaja Kallas also insisted the US was discovering that it could not settle the war in Ukraine without Europe’s involvement and consent. Continue reading...

EU’s foreign policy chief says many countries still ‘want to join our club’ EU’s Kallas appears to be slightly sceptical about the idea of appointing an EU envoy for talks on ending the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She earlier said that “what matters more than having a seat at the table is knowing what to ask [for] when you are sitting there.” “That’s why I proposed to the member states [a] concrete mandate [of] the asks that we would have to Russia. So whoever goes to that table, whether it’s individually or bilaterally, they should ask [for] these things from the Russians. We have

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

Reza Pahlavi, son of the last shah, tells 200,000 in Munich he is ready to lead country to a ‘secular democratic future’ Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in rallies around the world to show their solidarity with anti-government demonstrators in Iran whose continued protests have been met with brutal and deadly repression. On Saturday, Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, addressed a crowd of 200,000 people in Munich, telling them he was ready to lead the country to a “secular democratic future”. Continue reading...

Israel says strikes, which killed 10 in Jabaliya and Khan Younis, were in response to Hamas violations of truce At least 12 Palestinians were killed and several more injured across the Gaza Strip on Sunday as the Israeli military said it carried out airstrikes in response to ceasefire violations by Hamas. The Gaza civil defence agency said five people were killed and several others hurt when an airstrike targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in the northern city of Jabaliya. 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...

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

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

Report finds members of Gorton and Denton byelection candidate’s team expressed support for far-right groups Reform UK’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection must distance himself from “racist content” shared by members of his campaign team, the Labour party has said. In a letter to Matt Goodwin, Labour’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell MP, said an investigation by the Manchester Mill revealed five separate members who had campaigned with Goodwin had shared racist content online and had expressed support for far-right groups. Continue reading...

Cabinet Office minister commissioned report that made ‘baseless claims’ about reporters who were investigating Labour Together Keir Starmer is facing calls by MPs for an inquiry into the commissioning of a report that made “baseless claims” about journalists who were investigating a thinktank linked to the prime minister. The calls add to pressure on the Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons, who commissioned a report in 2023 on journalists investigating Labour Together, the thinktank that would help propel Starmer to power. Continue reading...

Exclusive: National security adviser previously held the role under Blair but is considering plans to step down this year Jonathan Powell, Keir Starmer’s national security adviser (NSA), has rejected overtures to become the prime minister’s chief of staff after the resignation of Morgan McSweeney, the Guardian has been told. Powell’s allies say his decision not to take forward discussions about the job – the same role he undertook under Tony Blair’s premiership from 1997 to 2007 – was largely motivated by an intention to return to the mediation consultancy that he set up in 2011, with little interest in returning to a

Exclusive: Delay at Glascoed is latest setback for armed forces and for UK’s capacity to supply shells to Ukraine A new factory in Wales seen as crucial to boosting UK munitions production remains unopened more than six months after its planned launch, adding to a string of delays dogging the armed forces. The explosives facility at Glascoed, south Wales, was expected to bring a 16-fold increase in Britain’s capacity to make artillery shells, replenishing dwindling stock and increasing supplies for Ukraine. Continue reading...

Safeguarding minister says she wants to use momentum to invest in prevention and get more than quick-fix policies * Read Jess Phillips’ article: We owe it to every Epstein victim to better protect British women and girls Institutions can be persuaded to take action on violence against women and girls only when some sort of “calamity” or “political scandal” hits the headlines, Jess Phillips has said. Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said she wanted to use the momentum from the Epstein files to push for long-term legislative change and greater support for survivors, rather than quick-fix

Authorities ask neighbors within two-mile radius to send in any home video footage as search draws national attention The search for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC’s Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie, has entered its third week, as investigators ask neighbors within a two-mile radius to send in any home video footage. Nancy Guthrie was last seen on the evening of 31 January, when she was dropped off at her home in the Catalina foothills north of Tucson, Arizona, after having dinner with her older daughter and son-in-law. She was reported missing the following day, after she failed to arrive at

Trump sparked public backlash when he abruptly began demolishing the East Wing to clear space for his ballroom New renderings released this week provide the most detailed vision yet of Donald Trump’s proposed $400m White House ballroom addition. The renderings, submitted by the project’s architects and released on Friday by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), depict a vast sprawling structure, expected to be around 90,000sq ft, from multiple angles. Continue reading...

Elation as anti-extremists fight back against influence of billionaire megadonors through grassroots organizing Chris Tackett started tracking extremism in Texas politics about a decade ago, whenever his schedule as a Little League coach and school board member would allow. At the time, he lived in Granbury, 40 minutes west of Fort Worth. He’d noticed that a local member of the state legislature, Mike Lang, had become a vocal advocate for using public money for private schools – despite the fact that Lang campaigned as a supporter of public education. With a little research, Tackett found that Lang had received hundreds of thousands

Real estate agent brothers Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander – known as ‘closers’ – are on trial in New York for sex trafficking In their time as real estate brokers, the Israeli-American Alexander brothers – twins Alon and Oren and older brother Tal – were known as “closers”, the salesmen who could a get a sale over finish line, often to wealthy hedge funders who were then making hay in aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Their technique, one real estate expert explained outside the 26th floor of the federal court house in lower Manhattan last week, was based on the sense

Critics accuse administration of ‘cooking the books’ by claiming US would save $1.3bn from climate finding reversal The Trump administration claims its latest move to gut climate regulations and end all greenhouse gas standards for vehicles will save Americans money. But its own analysis indicates that the new rule will push up gas prices, and that the benefits of the rollback are unlikely to outweigh the costs. On Thursday, the president and his environmental secretary Lee Zeldin announced the finalized repeal of the endangerment finding, a legal determination which underpins virtually all federal climate regulations. He claimed the rollback would save the

As a long-time observer of Hong Kong affairs – and someone who cares deeply about the city – I have often felt that external debates about Hong Kong have been louder than careful assessments of how the city is actually evolving. Since the implementation of the national security law, discussion of Hong Kong has often become polarised. Less attention has been paid to outcomes and observable change. From where I stand, however, a clear shift is under way: the city has moved from prolonged...

Australia unveiled AU$3.9 billion (US$2.8 billion) in spending on Sunday as a “down payment” on a new facility to build nuclear submarines under the tripartite Aukus security pact with Britain and the United States. The Aukus pact aims to arm Australia with a fleet of cutting-edge submarines from the United States and would provide for cooperation in developing an array of warfare technologies. The submarines, the sale of which will begin in 2032, lie at the heart of Australia’s strategy of...

The British expert who led a review into children’s gender healthcare says young people have been “weaponised” and misled about the realities of transitioning by social media. Hilary Cass, a doctor, whose review of National Health Service (NHS) gender care for under-18s led to sweeping changes including a ban on puberty blockers, welcomed the draft published by Britain’s Department for Education earlier this week but accepted it is impossible for it to be “completely foolproof”. Baroness Cass...

Russia’s army chief Valery Gerasimov visited Moscow’s troops in Ukraine and said the Kremlin’s forces seized a dozen eastern villages in February, the defence ministry said on Sunday. Gerasimov’s visit comes days before US-mediated talks with Kyiv in Geneva on ending almost four years of war and ahead of the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale offensive against Ukraine. “In two weeks of February, despite severe winter conditions, combined forces and military units of the joint task force...

The US military is preparing for the possibility ⁠of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, according to two US officials, in what could become a far more serious conflict than previously seen between the countries. The disclosure by the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the planning, raises the stakes for the diplomacy under way between the United States and Iran. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared...

New Zealand’s government has come under fire for keeping its talks with the United States over critical minerals under wraps, as opposition parties level accusations of secrecy amid mounting concern about environmental damage and foreign influence. Analysts say Wellington is reluctant to promote any formal agreement with Washington or invite public debate on the issue, even as both governments have confirmed that they are “exploring further opportunities” on critical minerals cooperation. In a...

Former US president Barack Obama criticised a lack of shame and decorum in the country’s political discourse, responding on Saturday for the first time to a post on Donald Trump’s social media account that depicted him and his wife Michelle as monkeys. The video shared on Trump’s Truth Social account on February 5 sparked censure across the US political spectrum, with the White House initially rejecting “fake outrage” only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member and take it...

US President Donald Trump on Saturday celebrated Valentine’s Day by sharing a series of cards that praised his accomplishments while predictably slamming Democrats and even poking fun at his own secretary of state. The cards, posted by the White House on social media, kick off with a picture of a handcuffed and blindfolded Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro following his capture from his country in January. It is made to look a classic Valentine’s Day card, with the phrase: “You captured my...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is eroding the very capabilities young professionals need to remain valuable in a machine-automated era. That is the real challenge facing graduates entering the workforce. It is not simply a case of AI destroying jobs – though it is – but that it is undermining our cognitive and interpersonal skills. The numbers are starting to confirm what we suspected. Hong Kong graduates in 2025 found 55 per cent fewer job opportunities than the year before. Over 12 per cent of...

The International Space Station 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. Last month’s medical evacuation was Nasa’s first in 65 years of human space flight. One of four astronauts launched by SpaceX last summer suffered what officials described as a serious health issue, prompting their hasty...

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...

President Trump called President Isaac Herzog of Israel “disgraceful” because he has not yet pardoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his corruption trial.

Weeks of freezing temperatures and winter storms across parts of the United States have increased the demand for firewood and manufactured fire logs.

On the Strip and beyond, clubs, bars and restaurants spotlight local performers who deliver some of the city’s best entertainment.

Epstein’s network may not have known everything, but it is hard to deny that many of them knew enough to know better.

You want at least one weird entree on the Olympics menu, even if only for the pleasure of not ordering it.

We explore why we care so much about the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.

South Carolina’s state legislature is one of 17, mainly in heavily Republican states, that is moving to handcuff state agencies at a moment of tectonic changes in energy, technology and finance.

Rights groups are investigating the death of Ali Rahbar as a potential extrajudicial killing. Iran denies executions have taken place.

The party is dedicated to running the country under Islamic law, but ran on a more moderate platform. It gained far more seats in last week’s election than it ever had before.

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.