Minimalist News

California Republicans Gain Early Voting Edge In June Primary Via American Greatness , California Republicans are showing unexpected momentum heading into the state’s June 2 primary election , posting stronger early voting numbers while Democrats remain divided across several high-profile races. More than 900,000 ballots have already been returned in California’s all-mail primary system, according to data compiled by Political Data Intelligence . The early numbers indicate Republicans are outperforming expectations in a state long dominated by Democrats. As of May 15, Republican turnout stood at 6 percent statewide, compared to 4 percent for Democrats. Despite Democrats maintaining nearly a

The Too-Long Goodbye Authored by James Howard Kunstler, “. . . we are witnessing mass formation in real time, where the group delusion becomes the only permissible reality.” - LH Grey on X Last week, Stephen Colbert celebrated his May 21 departure from late-night TV by French-kissing his fellow late-night soul-mate hosts goodbye , perhaps to honor the French origins of the Woke political ideology that guided his rocket flight to fame — Michel Foucault (1926–1984), who argued that power was all that mattered and that you could talk any absurdity about sex, mental illness, and criminality into mass belief.

Trump: Holding Off 'Planned' Attack On Iran At Request Of Gulf Allies, 'Deal Will Be Made' Summary Trump says holding off on 'planned' Tuesday attack upon request of Gulf states. US denies earlier Tasnim report of agreeing to lift oil sanctions during talks; Trump tells NYP 'not open' to Iran concessions. Trump calls for Iran's total military surrender in Monday morning Truth Social post. Oil rebounds on Tasnim reporting Iranian denial: Tehran "under no circumstances" will negotiate nuclear issue as part of an end to the war. A flurry of (the somewhat typically-timed) Monday opener headlines have pushed oil prices

Graham Calls For 'Short But Forceful' New Strikes On Iran, Complains Waiting For 'Status Quo' Talks Looks Weak At a moment the US-Iran ceasefire is officially on life support, and with the world's most critical energy chokepoint remaining blocked while the American consumer is paying the price at the pump, beltway hawks are calling for renewed major military action to 'solve' the standoff. Foremost among them, Senator Lindsey Graham, hit the Sunday news circuit to urge President Trump to rip up the current playbook and resume US major military strikes on Tehran . According to Graham, the current diplomatic paralysis

Watch $134 Million Go Up In Smoke As Navy Jets Collide At Air Show As if Pentagon losses in the Trump-Netanyahu war on Iran weren't already sapping them enough already, American taxpayers were losers again on Sunday when two U.S. Navy EA18-G Growlers blew up in spectacular fashion after colliding at an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. Four crew members ejected and were medically evaluated and said to be in stable condition. EA18-G Growlers are used to jam and suppress enemy radar and other electronics (USAF Photo) The aircraft were performing a maneuver for the

Saylor's Strategy Scoops Up Another $2B Bitcoin, Holdings Reach 843,738 BTC Authored by Helen Partz via CoinTelegraph.com, Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest public Bitcoin holder, made another massive BTC acquisition last week as the crypto asset hovered around $80,000. Strategy acquired 24,869 Bitcoin (BTC) for $2.01 billion between May 11 and 17, according Monday's 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Source: SEC The purchases were made at an average price of $80,985 per BTC , raising Strategy’s cost basis to $75,700 . The company now holds 843,738 BTC, acquired for about $63.87 billion. At the time

Senate Parliamentarian Rejects White House Ballroom Funding In Reconciliation Bill Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times, The Senate’s nonpartisan referee has rejected a bid by Republicans to fund $1 billion for the White House ballroom expansion and other White House security upgrades. According to Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, the $1 billion proposal breaks the rules of the reconciliation process. As parliamentarian, MacDonough’s go-ahead is traditionally required to approve individual items passed under the partisan process. Republicans are seeking to use the reconciliation process—which is not subject to the filibuster—to pass $72 billion in funding for Immigration and Customs

Judge Dismisses Musk's OpenAI Lawsuit After Jury Reaches Verdict Update: Musk to appeal * * * A nine-person federal jury has sided with OpenAI, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Microsoft, determining that Elon Musk filed his high-profile lawsuit too late under the statute of limitations. The verdict effectively ends Musk’s claims that OpenAI abandoned its founding nonprofit mission to benefit humanity. The jury unanimously concluded that Musk knew or should have known about OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit model and major Microsoft partnerships years earlier - potentially as far back as 2019–2021, making his August 2024 filing untimely. U.S. District

Judge Tosses Key Evidence In Luigi Mangione Case Over Warrantless Backpack Search A judge just handed Luigi Mangione some big wins in his high-profile murder case. On Monday, New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro issued a mixed ruling on evidence seized during the suspect’s dramatic arrest at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s . The decision represents a partial victory for the defense on constitutional grounds while delivering a significant boost to prosecutors by preserving the most damning pieces of physical evidence linking Mangione to the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione, 28, appeared in court for the hearing, dressed sharply

The Lines We Thought Machines Wouldn't Cross Authored by George Ford Smith via The Mises Institute , In 2000, the world braced for Y2K. It came with a date and a remedy. There was panic about doomsday but as I and other programmers stretched the year field from two to four characters, apart from scattered hiccups, the lights stayed on. Everything about Y2K was known - the problem, the solution, and the deadline. Q-Day is something else entirely. Q-Day is shorthand for the moment when quantum computing crosses a line we assumed would hold—when the mathematics that secures modern life

Buffett Cash Hoard: Why $397 Billion Sits On The Sidelines Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, $397 billion. That’s how much “Buffett cash” now sits on Berkshire Hathaway’s balance sheet after Greg Abel’s first quarter as CEO. Warren Buffett left $373 billion behind when he stepped down at the end of 2025. Three months later, after Abel’s debut earnings report on Saturday, the hoard had grown by another $24 billion. The figure is bigger than the GDP of Hong Kong or Norway. It exceeds the market value of every American corporation except a tiny handful of mega-cap names. And it

Iran Counter-Blockade Bites As No Tankers Load At Kharg For 10th Day Earlier today, in response to news that the number of tankers anchored at Iran's Kharg Island oil terminal had hit a post-blockade peak, we wondered if this means that Iran is running out of tankers to store oil, i.e., Trump' blockade of the blockade is working. In any case, it certainly means that Iran is no longer able to sell any of the oil, depriving it of much needed oil export revenues which it has found itself forced to shut in as there is no open downstream path

Russian Drone Hits Chinese Ship In Black Sea, Less Than 24-Hours Before Xi-Putin Summit Just 24 hours before Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are set to meet for their planned summit in Beijing, soon on the heels of Trump's visit, and a geopolitical wrench may have just been thrown into the works. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian forces have attacked a Chinese ship heading toward a Ukrainian port - a provocative move that threatens to seriously anger Beijing at the worst possible diplomatic moment. via Ukraine Navy Early Monday morning, a Russian drone reportedly struck the KSL

DoJ Establishes "Anti-Weaponization" Fund After Trump Drops $10 Billion Lawsuit Against IRS Update (1130ET) : The DOJ announces that as a part of the settlement agreement in President Donald Trump v. the IRS, the Attorney General established “The Anti-Weaponization Fund” to provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare. “The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “As part of this settlement,

Cuban Foreign Minister Says US Is Building 'Fraudulent Case' For Military Action Authored by Chris Summers via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on May 17 said the United States is building a “fraudulent case” ​to justify economic war and eventual military intervention against the Caribbean island nation. Cuban troops participate in a military parade in honor of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro at Revolution Square in Havana on Jan. 2, 2017. Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images His comments were a direct response to a report by Axios, which cited classified U.S. intelligence reports saying Cuba

"Scale Matters": NextEra, Dominion To Merge In Utility Megadeal Aimed At Grid Expansion To Power AI Boom As power demand surges on the back of data-center buildouts, with hyperscalers expected to unleash about $700 billion in capex this year to expand AI infrastructure and maintain an edge over China in the AI compute race, NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy are moving to scale up. The utilities agreed to a $67 billion all-stock merger that would create the world's largest regulated electric utility network . Dominion shareholders will receive .8138 NextEra shares for each Dominion share, leaving NextEra investors with about

"Shockingly Bad" Chinese Econ Data Stuns Wall Street, Sparks Hard Landing Concerns Confirming our Sunday preview , overnight China reported growth data which slowed across the board in April with investment resuming declines, retail sales missing sales and growing at the weakest rate in 4 years while industrial production rose at the slowest pace in three years, calling into question Beijing's reluctance to add stimulus to the economy as a global energy crisis hits factories and consumers across the world. China's Monday data dump of official data on Monday painted a picture of an economy where booming exports no longer

Ukraine's Odesa Heavily Attacked In 'Retaliation' For Deadly Drone Raids On Moscow The Russian Defense Ministry (MoD) announced Monday that its forces executed a massive missile and drone barrage across Ukraine, which is clearly the expected big retaliatory response following Ukraine's large-scale drone wave attack on Moscow over the weekend. Kremlin officials specifically described the new assault as indeed direct retaliation for "terrorist attacks" carried out by Kiev, which killed at least three in the Russian capital, injured dozens, hit a refinery, and unleashed havoc and fear among the population. The MoD said it targeted military and defense industrial sites,

Cars Are Fast Becoming Dystopian Prison Pods... Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, The surveillance state has found its newest frontier: your car’s dashboard. What used to be a symbol of American freedom and independence is rapidly morphing into a high-tech cage that watches your every move and can override your decisions at will. In a widely shared post on X, users detailed complaints pouring in about Subaru’s upgraded AI ‘EyeSight’ system now featured on the latest models. Drivers report the system pouncing on brief glances away from the road – while Biden-era federal mandates prepare to make this level

Key Events This Week: Nvidia Earnings, FOMC Minutes And Global PMIs Looking at the week ahead, Nvidia’s earnings on Wednesday, with a market capitalisation now of $5.46tn, will be the main event. In economics, we have the global flash PMIs on Thursday, along with inflation data from Canada tomorrow, the UK on Wednesday, and Japan on Friday. From central banks, the highlight will be the FOMC minutes on Wednesday. Those flash PMIs will be important, as they’re one of the first indicators on how the global economy has performed this month, so will be scrutinized for any signs of how

Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum denies any links between her Morena party and organized crime Pressure is mounting on Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, after two former top officials from the country’s Sinaloa state – both members of her Morena party – gave themselves up to US authorities over alleged ties to the Sinaloa cartel. The state’s former security minister Gerardo Mérida Sánchez crossed the border into Arizona last week and was taken into custody by US marshals, Mexico’s security ministry said. Sinaloa’s former finance minister, Enrique Díaz Vega, was taken into custody in New York. Continue reading...

Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, says any US strike would be catastrophic after reports of 300+ drones Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has warned that any US military action against his country would lead to a “bloodbath” with incalculable consequences for regional peace and stability. “Cuba does not represent a threat,” Díaz-Canel said in a post on X. Continue reading...

Mayor’s attempt to beautify the city with murals of mascot and plum paint jobs criticised as waste of resources The giant purple axolotl peered up at Manuel Martínez from the black bitumen of the street. It was the second such painting of the rare amphibian he had walked past that morning. In recent weeks he had seen axolotl murals pop up in neighbourhoods across Mexico City. “It’s a waste of money,” he said. “You could use that budget for fixing potholes, traffic lights, security cameras. They’re spending on something that doesn’t benefit us at all – it’s just for tourists.”

Civilians left increasingly exposed as a dangerous new front opens up in the country’s decades-old conflict As night fell over southern Colombia , and a group of children began their weekly Tuesday football match, a drone appeared overhead. The children looked up, and the drone dropped a grenade, its blast killing a 10-year-old boy and injuring 12 more civilians. The child’s death, in southern Cauca in 2024, marked the first known time a person in the country had been killed in a weaponised drone attack. Continue reading...

Four months after Trump’s surprise raid, a political thaw has descended – but mingled with hope is trepidation for what comes next When Ángel Linares heard a strange buzz followed by an explosion, his first thought was that neighbours were setting off fireworks to celebrate the new year. Then his windows shattered, the building’s walls shook and its facade was ripped off, sending him flying on to the ground of an apartment suddenly reduced to rubble. His 85-year-old mother, Jesucita, feared Venezuela’s northern coast had been devastated by an earthquake, like the one she remembers from 1967. Continue reading...

‘Tank Day’ event causes outrage with ‘malicious mockery’ of deadly crackdown during dictatorship era The chief executive of Starbucks in South Korea has been fired after the company ran a promotional event using slogans that evoked a massacre of pro-democracy protesters during the country’s dictatorship era, sparking outrage and boycott calls. The coffee chain launched a “Tank Day” campaign on 18 May for its “Tank” tumbler series. The date coincides with one of the most politically sensitive days in South Korea’s calendar, when citizens commemorate the 1980 democratisation movement in Gwangju, 167 miles (270km) south-west of Seoul. Continue reading...

Chinese state media say Beijing emerging as ‘focal point of global diplomacy’ with Russian leader arriving on Tuesday Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin exchanged “congratulatory letters” on Sunday ahead of the Russian president’s visit to Beijing this week, four days after Donald Trump left China after a high-stakes summit . Xi said bilateral cooperation between Russia and China had “continuously deepened and solidified”, Chinese state media reported, with this year marking the 30th anniversary of the two countries’ strategic partnership. Continue reading...

Naegohyang FC due to play Suwon FC in semi-final of Asian Women’s Champions League on Wednesday A North Korean women’s football club has arrived in South Korea for an AFC Women’s Champions League semi-final, marking the first visit by athletes from the isolated state to the South in eight years. The delegation of 27 players and 12 staff entered the country on Sunday before Wednesday’s match between Naegohyang FC and South Korea’s Suwon FC Women in Suwon. Continue reading...

Thai authorities say 32 others injured near Makkasan station after freight train strikes bus and fire breaks out At least eight people were killed and 32 others were injured in Thailand after a freight train struck a bus at a rail crossing in Bangkok, rescue officials and a deputy transport minister said. Firefighters and rescue crews were dispatched as flames engulfed the bus and nearby vehicles close to the airport rail link’s Makkasan station, officials said, adding that the collision also involved cars and motorcycles. Continue reading...

Family and supporters had hoped the US president could help free the 78-year-old British citizen during summit talks in Beijing Donald Trump raised the case of jailed Hong Kong democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai in talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping but was told it “is a tough one”. Family and supporters of the 78-year-old British citizen had hoped the US president could help secure his release. Continue reading...

Opposition leader last week tied migration rates to the ongoing shortage of housing. Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan said he has “deep concerns” the Coalition’s immigration policy will divide the nation, saying he doesn’t think the country should take a “negative approach to migration”. McLachlan broke with opposition leader Angus Taylor, who said last week the nation should heavily restrict immigration, tying migration rates to the ongoing shortage of housing. The senator told RN Breakfast this morning: I have deep concerns, coming from a multicultural

Police will be able to question children without an adult present and hold them after being charged under draft laws introduced by the CLP Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Northern Territory government has been accused of “funnelling Aboriginal children into prisons” over draft youth justice laws that would give police the power to charge, detain and question young people for up to 48 hours without a legal guardian. Under the proposed amendments to the NT Youth Justice Act, introduced by the corrections minister, Gerard Maley, young people charged with an offence would

Registration form informs patients that if they do not wish AI to be used, they will need their referring doctor to refer them to a different service provider Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A Melbourne psychiatrist has refused new patients unless they agree to allow her to use an AI scribe to transcribe the conversations in their sessions. AI-driven note-taking tools are becoming popular within the medical industry – with two in five general practitioners now using such scribes , according to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP). Continue reading...

Half of the teenagers who have been blocked say they are seeing less news than before – but they are not necessarily going back to traditional sources Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australia’s social media ban is preventing teenagers from accessing news, a new study has found, with half of the teenagers who have been blocked saying they’re seeing less news than before. Two-thirds of under-16s have remained on social media platforms since the ban came into effect in December. But for those who were kicked off, the change has meant seeing less

Never documented archaeologically before, evidence points to First Nations people caring for and nursing the animal Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The discovery of a millennium-old dingo burial site in western New South Wales, including evidence of a “feeding” ritual never before documented archaeologically, has shed new light on the longstanding relationship between the canines and First Nations people. The dingo was buried along the Baaka, or Darling River, in Kinchega national park near the Menindee Lakes. Continue reading...

Britain likely to face ‘warm, welcoming stance’ if it seeks re-entry but also a ‘hard-headed one’ – with no special deals Britain would not be able to rejoin the EU on the special terms it enjoyed in the past, veterans of the Brexit negotiations have said. The warnings came as senior Labour politicians jostling for the leadership of their party and country talk openly about wanting to return to the union at some point in the future. Continue reading...

The former German chancellor added that diplomacy alongside military deterrence is crucial when dealing with Russia. Elsewhere, we are getting a line from Rome, with the Italian foreign ministry confirming that rescuers have located the bodies of four Italian divers believed to be deep inside an underwater cave in a Maldive atoll, AP reported. Five Italian divers are believed to have died while exploring a cave at a depth of about 50 meters in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, according to Italy’s foreign ministry, way below the recreational diving limit of 30 meters. Continue reading...

Spokesperson for Indian Ocean island nation says they will try to recover explorers in next couple of days Rescuers have located the bodies of four Italian divers deep inside an underwater cave in an atoll in the Maldives, four days after they were reported missing. Searches had resumed after being suspended following the death of a local military diver during a perilous mission to try to reach them. Continue reading...

Airline’s CEO says uncertainty is making travellers book later, keeping summer holiday fares down Business live – latest updates Ryanair said it has “almost zero concerns” about its jet fuel supplies this summer amid fears over widespread cancellations linked to the Iran war but warned that holidaymakers booking their flights later this year could face higher fares. The budget airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said Europe had now found plenty of alternative sources of jet fuel, but persistent consumer uncertainty had led to lower summer bookings than usual, keeping fares down. Continue reading...

Singer says she has faced ‘years of public shaming’, as court rules tax agency made mistake over her 2011 status A court in Madrid has ordered Spain’s tax authority to pay Shakira back more than €55m (£48m) after ruling that it had wrongly imposed huge fines on the Colombian singer and philanthropist because it had made mistakes over her tax status. In a statement released on Monday, the Audiencia Nacional said it had accepted an appeal from Shakira against the fine she was handed five years ago after the Agencia Tributaria claimed she had not paid the necessary tax in

US president says US will be ‘probably satisfied’ if Iran agrees to not have a nuclear weapon UAE blames Iran or its proxies for drone strike fire near nuclear plant Friedrich Merz has been embroiled in a row with Donald Trump over his war on Iran ever since the German chancellor suggested the Trump team was being outplayed in its negotiations with Tehran and said he would not advise his children to study or work in the US in the current climate. The Guardian’s Berlin correspondent, Deborah Cole, has looked at the declining relationship between the two leaders in this

Donald Trump says plans for a US military attack on Iran have been paused because ‘serious negotiations are now taking place’ Middle East crisis – live updates Iran has made a new proposal for a deal to definitively end the war in the Middle East, officials in the region said on Monday, with Donald Trump claiming he had postponed new military strikes so talks could continue. But while the US president has regularly used social media to threaten Tehran, and to claim that a peace deal was within reach, there has been no sign of an immediate breakthrough in the

A court case in New York has highlighted how Iran is using technology to recruit agents who may not even be regime supporters When on Friday a 32-year-old Iraqi was brought before a court in New York to be charged with planning to attack Jewish community sites in the US, a curtain was suddenly lifted on a corner of a shadowy world. The detention of Mohammed Saad Baqer al-Saadi in Turkey last week revealed rare details of Iran’s efforts to use terrorism to sow discord among communities in Europe, the UK and the US – but also the outlines of

Abu Dhabi denounces ‘dangerous escalation’ as Iran war ceasefire grows more precarious, and US president voices impatience at stalemate The United Arab Emirates has blamed a fire near its nuclear power plant on a drone launched by Iran or one of its proxies in what the UAE called a “dangerous escalation”. The fire was just outside the Barakah nuclear plant and caused no injuries or radiation alerts, with the emirate’s nuclear regulator saying there was no radioactive leak or risk to the public. Continue reading...

Three paramedics at health centre among dead, while Hamas military chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad killed in Gaza strike Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, killing at least six people, including three paramedics working at a health centre, just hours after its envoys had agreed with the Lebanese government to extend a ceasefire . Israel also said it had killed the Hamas military chief, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, in a targeted strike in Gaza on Friday. Continue reading...

Gautam Adani, richest man in Asia, was accused of conspiring to pay $250m in bribes to Indian government officials The US Department of Justice is dropping its fraud charges against the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, the richest man in Asia, after he hired a new legal team led by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, according to new reports. In an undisclosed April meeting at the justice department, Trump’s personal lawyer, Robert J Giuffra Jr, said that Adani would invest $10bn in the US economy and create 15,000 jobs if prosecutors dropped the charges against him, according to the New York Times

Stone being paid $50,000 a month to ‘rebuild’ relations between Washington and Myanmar’s military-backed government The US lobbyist Roger Stone, a longtime friend and ally of Donald Trump, has been condemned for accepting $50,000 a month to “rebuild” relations between Washington and Myanmar’s military-backed government. Myanmar’s leaders have been internationally isolated since seizing power in a coup in 2021 , and have repeatedly been accused of atrocities that may amount to war crimes . Activists say the military rulers, which recently held widely condemned “sham” elections , are now trying to reassert themselves abroad. Continue reading...

Turmoil and violence rocks state after prime minister Narendra Modi’s party claimed victory in legislative election Tensions have been high in the Indian state of West Bengal after a top political aide from Narendra Modi’s party was shot dead in the street and hundreds were arrested as violence broke out following elections this week. The prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) claimed victory in the West Bengal elections on Monday , defeating Trinamool Congress (TMC), which had ruled over the state legislature for 15 years. Continue reading...

Mamata Banerjee says Narendra Modi’s party ‘forcefully captured’ election that ended her party’s 15 years in power A political showdown is taking place in the Indian state of West Bengal as the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, India’s most powerful female politician, has refused to resign after she lost elections to the prime minister’s party this week. Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) won an overwhelming victory on Monday in state elections in West Bengal, where Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress party (TMC) have been in power for 15 years. Continue reading...

Result in key Indian state is set to have significant implications for the country’s political landscape Narendra Modi’s party has won a resounding election victory in West Bengal, a state which had been a rare opposition stronghold, expanding his unrivalled consolidation of power across the country. It is the first time that the Indian prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has won assembly elections in West Bengal, a large and politically significant state in eastern India. Continue reading...

Estimated £1bn per year is laundered through vape stores, barbers, mini-marts and sweet shops, officials say “Dodgy” retail outlets such as vape stores, barbers, mini-marts and sweet shops suspected of being used to launder £1bn of criminal money will be targeted by a new specialist unit, the government has said. A £20m National Crime Agency cell will run and coordinate investigations and raids into UK businesses suspected of acting as fronts for gangsters, the Home Office said. Continue reading...

Victim in his 20s was beaten up in north London street having stepped outside a property to use his phone A Jewish man is being treated in hospital for injuries to his face and body after being attacked by a number of men in north London. Police were called in the early hours of Monday morning following reports that a Jewish man had been assaulted by a number of men outside a property on The Grove in Golders Green. Continue reading...

Champion’s childhood coach recalls his early promise while a six-year-old fan hopes to follow in Rai’s footsteps There was a real buzz and sense of pride at the 3 Hammers golf complex in Wolverhampton, the old stomping grounds of Aaron Rai, who on Sunday became the first Englishman since 1919 to win the US PGA Championship . It was the first major title of the 31-year-old’s career and Rai described it as “truly a dream come true”. Continue reading...

Former contestants claim there was not enough protection for cast during making of Channel 4 show Two women have alleged they were raped during the filming of Married at First Sight UK, one of Channel 4’s biggest shows, and a third alleged she was subjected to a non-consensual sex act. The show did not do enough to protect them, the women told an edition of the BBC’s Panorama outlining their allegations. Continue reading...

Expected candidate in Makerfield byelection says party ‘needs to change if we are to regain people’s trust’ Andy Burnham drew the battle lines for the future of the Labour party on Monday as the Greater Manchester mayor promised he would “change Labour” and win back the voters the party had lost. Burnham, who is expected to be Labour’s candidate in the Makerfield byelection, claimed it would be no ordinary campaign and said he would make it about national issues where Labour was failing, in a direct challenge to the prime minister. Continue reading...

Trump claims number of medications available via the discount program will increase nearly sevenfold Donald Trump has announced a major expansion of his prescription drug website, TrumpRx, claiming the number of medications available via the discount program will increase nearly sevenfold. Experts raised questions earlier this year about the limited number of drugs listed on the site, suggesting they would appeal to a relatively small group of patients. Continue reading...

President says fund as been ‘well received’ and will be administered by ‘committee of very talented people’ as Democrats criticize it as ‘unparalleled corruption’ Trump dismisses $10bn suit against IRS and creates $1.7bn ‘anti-weaponization’ fund Sign up for the Breaking News US email Democratic reactions to the news about Trump moving to withdraw his lawsuit against the IRS are coming in. Ron Wyden, a top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said Trump deserved no credit for dropping the lawsuit, regardless of his reasons. “Even by his standards the move he’s trying to get away with now is a stunning

Suspects, aged 17 and 19, died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, officials said, with FBI investigating shooting as a hate crime Three people were killed in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego in California in what authorities said they were investigating as a hate crime. Two suspects, aged 17 and 19, were also dead from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds, officials said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is looking for any information from the public about the shooting as they investigate it, and had set up a tip line. Continue reading...

Fire reported in Simi Valley, north-west of LA, as mandatory evacuation orders were issued for over 20,000 residents A fast-growing brush fire ignited on Monday morning in southern California, prompting evacuation orders and damaging at least one home. The Sandy fire was reported just after 10am in Simi Valley, a city in Ventura county about 30 miles north-west of Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Trump administration unveiled sweeping restrictions on press access at the US defense department last September Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email The New York Times has filed a second lawsuit against the Pentagon, arguing that its recent policy requiring journalists to have official escorts when on Pentagon grounds is unconstitutional. The Trump administration unveiled sweeping restrictions on press access at the US Department of Defense, which it calls the Department of War, last September. Continue reading...

British broadcaster Channel 4 removed all previous seasons of Married at First Sight – one of its flagship reality shows – on Monday after a BBC report detailing allegations of rape during the filming of the series. Channel ‌4, the publicly owned but commercially funded broadcaster established in the 1980s, said it had launched a review into contributor welfare on the show, which is made by independent production company CPL, in April. BBC News reported that two women had told the news service...

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday the US will give a 30-day extension for countries to import Russian oil that is already in tankers at sea, a move that is meant to reduce the oil supply shortages caused by the Iran war. The announcement marks a continued policy reversal by an administration that had previously said the sanctions on Russian oil would resume. Originally announced in early March, the temporary waiver on the sanctions was first renewed in April, just two days after...

A US jury ⁠on Monday ruled against Elon Musk in ⁠his lawsuit against OpenAI, finding the artificial intelligence company ⁠not liable to the world’s richest person for having allegedly strayed from its original mission to benefit humanity. In a unanimous verdict, the jury in Oakland, California federal court said Musk had brought his case too late. The jury deliberated less than two hours. The trial had widely been seen as a critical moment for the future of OpenAI and artificial intelligence...

A British court sentenced a Polish lorry driver to more than 13 years in prison for smuggling £7 million (US$9.4 million) worth of cocaine in a shipment of underwear and clothing from Skims, Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand, authorities said on Monday. The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Jakub Jan Konkel, 40, was driving a vehicle carrying 28 pallets of Skims clothing from the Netherlands when he was stopped by border officials at a port in Essex in September. The agency said Konkel had stopped...

US prosecutors asked a judge on Monday to dismiss criminal fraud and conspiracy charges against Indian billionaire Gautaum Adani, who had been accused of duping investors in a major solar project in India. Adani, one of the world’s richest people, was accused in 2024 of paying massive bribes to ensure the project’s success. He was charged with conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud charges in connection with a lucrative arrangement for Adani Green Energy and another firm to sell 12...

Belarus said on Monday its armed forces had begun training exercises involving Russian nuclear weapons, in a move that drew strong condemnation from Ukraine. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko agreed in 2023 – a year after Russia’s ‌invasion of Ukraine – to host Russian tactical nuclear missiles. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made clear that Moscow retains control of their use. “During the training, in cooperation with the Russian side, it is planned to practise the delivery of...

Pope Leo and the co-founder of artificial intelligence company Anthropic will launch the pontiff’s first encyclical on May 25, a document on the care of human dignity in the era of AI, the Vatican said on Monday. An encyclical is an official letter from the pope to Roman Catholic bishops, usually to make a statement on official teachings. The presence of Anthropic’s Christopher Olah at the Vatican is significant, and suggests that the US pope’s position on AI will become a new flashpoint with...

The World Health Organization opened a meeting of global health ministers on Monday amid concern over deadly hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks and uncertainty over announced US and Argentinian withdrawals. While the rare hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship that has gripped global attention is not officially on the agenda, it is expected to feature prominently in discussions, alongside the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The two outbreaks “are just the latest crises in...

Donald Trump’s comment that he is “not looking to have somebody go independent” has sparked debate in Taiwan over whether it undermines the ruling party’s pro-independence platform. Trump made the remark after last week’s summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, where Taiwan emerged as one of the most sensitive issues in Sino-US relations. “I’m not looking to have somebody go independent,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News aired on Friday, adding that the United States was “9,500...

A Spanish court acquitted Shakira in a tax fraud case, ordering the government to return more than 55 million euros (US$64 million) in wrongly imposed fines, according to a court document. The decision follows years of tax troubles in Spain for the Colombian superstar. The ruling relates to a dispute over the 2011 tax year in which Spanish authorities failed to prove that the singer was a resident of Spain, the Madrid-based court said in its decision. For a person to be considered a tax resident...

China is stepping up economic engagement with Russia by hosting the 10th edition of a major bilateral expo ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expected trip to Beijing this week – just days after his American counterpart, Donald Trump, visited there last week. The back-to-back visits to the Chinese capital by two of the world’s most influential leaders highlight an uptick in diplomatic activity as Beijing seeks to stabilise relations with Washington while deepening coordination with...

The US ⁠Africa Command (Africom) said on Monday ⁠it had carried out additional air strikes against Islamic State targets in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday, in coordination with the Nigerian government, as joint operations against militant groups intensify. Nigeria’s ‌Defence Headquarters said the latest strikes were conducted in the Metele area of Borno State, following intelligence that fighters had converged there. Multiple air strikes killed more than 20 Islamic State West Africa Province...

Protests erupted in Kenya’s capital Nairobi on Monday as a nationwide public transport strike kicked off in protest at rising fuel prices. Commuters were stranded in various suburbs and the city centre remained deserted as motorists with private vehicles opted to stay home as protesters burned tyres on major roads. The Kenya Association of Private Schools had advised its members to assess and determine the safety of learners going to school, and most schools opted for online learning. Kenya’s...

The liquidators of China Evergrande Group are seeking 57 billion yuan (US$8.4 billion) from three PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) entities in one of the largest corporate lawsuit claims in Hong Kong, arguing the firm’s global coordinating arm assumed responsibility for audits linked to the collapsed developer’s accounting scandal. Evergrande’s liquidators, Tiffany Wong and Eddie Middleton of Alvarez & Marsal, were pursuing the claim against PwC International, PwC Hong Kong and PwC China jointly,...

A rare Ebola outbreak that may have circulated undetected in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for several weeks has exposed the difficulty of detecting deadly viruses in regions where malaria, typhoid and other fever-causing illnesses are common and health systems are stretched thin. The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday declared the Ebola disease outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. As of Monday, there were over 390 suspected cases and 105 deaths...

The thorny question of whether Britain should unwind a decade of estrangement from the European Union is resurfacing as the Labour Party starts to imagine a future beyond Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Two key figures have emerged as potential challengers after a series of political body blows that have left Starmer’s leadership in crisis, and the spectre of rejoining the EU was creeping back into the debate. Wes Streeting, who resigned from Starmer’s government as health secretary last week,...

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Trump leaves China after much pomp and pageantry, but little to show for it 2. Trump and his CEOs want China’s business – but has Asia moved on? 3. What do travellers need to know when Hong Kong airport’s Terminal 2 opens? 4. Reality deficit: how South Korea lost the plot on AI 5. Have Chinese...

No country on Earth has adopted artificial intelligence faster than the United Arab Emirates – and the Middle Eastern cultural crossroad’s ambitions to become an AI bridge to the Global South just got another major leg up with the delivery of the latest, cutting-edge US-designed chips. But those ambitions are taking shape in a hostile environment. Amid the US-Israel war on Iran, Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has repeatedly taken aim at major Emirati data centres, developed in...

US President Donald Trump and top cabinet officials addressed thousands of Americans at a mass prayer rally in Washington on Sunday – an event critics saw as an overt display of Christian nationalism undermining the separation of church and state. The gathering was organised by the White House as part of a programme of celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary and billed as an opportunity to revive the idea of a country founded on Christian principles. During the outdoor event on the National...

Israeli strikes killed seven people in Lebanon on Sunday, including an Islamic Jihad commander, Lebanese authorities and state media said, despite a fragile ceasefire as Hezbollah called US-brokered talks between the two countries a “dead end”. The health ministry published a “preliminary toll” for Israel’s strikes on Sunday, with three people killed in the town of Tayr Felsay, including a child, and two killed in the town of Tayr Debba, including another child. It said 11 people were wounded in...

A ⁠number ⁠of ⁠Americans currently in the Democratic Republic of Congo are believed to ‌have had exposure to suspected cases in the country’s latest Ebola outbreak, with several deemed to ⁠have had high-risk exposures, US health news website STAT ‌News reported on Sunday. At least one of ‌these individuals may have ⁠developed symptoms, ⁠the report said. Reuters could ‌not immediately verify the report. The ‌Ebola outbreak ‌in DR Congo ⁠and Uganda has been declared a ⁠public health emergency of...

All four crew members ejected safely after two US Navy jets collided on Sunday during an air show at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho, officials said. The collision and subsequent crash involved two US Navy EA-18G Growlers from the Electronic Attack Squadron 129 in Whidbey Island, Washington, said Commander Amelia Umayam, spokesperson for Naval Air Forces, US Pacific Fleet. The aircraft were performing an aerial demonstration when the collision occurred, Umayam said in a...

Hong Kong should not limit the number of vehicles licensed to provide ride-hailing services. In particular, every owner of an electric vehicle that complies with the regulations should, in principle, be able to obtain one on demand by paying the required fee. Normal market forces, together with fees and other licensing requirements, will be sufficient to strike the right balance. I have used ride-hailing services a lot recently. Knee replacement surgery has restricted my mobility, and I have a...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Sunday visited people wounded by a driver with a history of mental health problems who ran over several pedestrians in northern city of Modena. Hundreds gathered in the evening at the call of the city’s mayor to “unite against those who want to divide and sow hatred” after some far-right politicians tried to tie the incident to immigration. The driver, a 31-year-old Italian man of Moroccan heritage, hit several people in central Modena before crashing...

A 67-year-old hiker has died after being attacked by a herd of cows in Austria, authorities said, in the latest fatal incident involving livestock in the Alps. The woman was attacked by what police described as a “mid-double-digit number” of cows in a pasture in the alpine district of Lienz in East Tyrol on Sunday afternoon. Her 65-year-old husband was also seriously injured. Authorities said the reasons for the animals’ aggressive behaviour remain unclear. The couple were not accompanied by a...

Norway’s interior security service, PST, said on Sunday a Chinese man had been arrested in the country’s north for spying, just weeks after a Chinese woman was arrested suspected of spying on satellite data. The suspect was arrested on Friday by the Nordland police district, Eirik Veum, PST’s media spokesman, told Agence France-Presse. Veum said the man was suspected of “attempted illegal intelligence activities in Nordland”, but declined to provide further details on the nature of the...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel had almost completed a key goal of the war in Gaza – eliminating all those responsible for orchestrating the attack on October 7, 2023. His remarks followed the Israeli military’s announcement that Ezzedine al-Haddad, commander of Hamas’ armed wing, had been killed in an air strike in Gaza on Friday. In the aftermath of the October 7 assault, Netanyahu pledged to target and eliminate the masterminds behind the attacks, which, according...

German police shot dead a tiger that escaped from a private facility near the eastern city of Leipzig, with a 73-year-old man seriously injured in the incident, authorities said on Sunday. Police said the man was inside the enclosure when the animal broke free in Schkeuditz, on the outskirts of Leipzig. He was described as a volunteer authorised to be on the premises and was taken to hospital with serious injuries. “The tiger left its enclosure. It was then found by police officers near a garden...

Around 10 “new” suspected victims have come forward in a French investigation into the network of the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a prosecutor said on Sunday. France opened a human trafficking investigation after the US Justice Department in January released the latest cache of files from the investigation into the disgraced financier, who died in prison in 2019 while facing charges of trafficking underage girls for sex. French magistrates are seeking to investigate possible offences...

A drone strike sparked a fire on the edge of the United Arab Emirates’ sole nuclear power plant on Sunday in what authorities called an “unprovoked terrorist attack”. No one was blamed, but it highlighted the risk of renewed war as the United States and Iran signalled they were ready to fight again. There were no reported injuries or radiological release. The UAE, which has hosted air defences and personnel from Israel, recently accused Iran of launching drone and missile attacks. Tensions have...

Russia’s capital and the surrounding Moscow region came under record drone attacks overnight, leaving at least three people killed and over a dozen wounded. Residential buildings were damaged across several suburbs and Moscow’s oil refinery was targeted in a rare strike, according to local authorities. Operations at all four Moscow airports faced rolling disruptions from late on Saturday but have resumed operations after dozens of flight cancellations and delays. Attacks on other Russian regions...

US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing with a delegation of leading American tech executives should not be read as a throwback to transactional diplomacy. It points to something more consequential. After years of rhetoric about economic separation, the reality is becoming harder to ignore: the United States and China are not decoupling. They are learning how to compete while remaining deeply entangled. For much of the past decade, Washington has framed its China policy around technological...

The World Health Organization declared an international health emergency on Sunday over an outbreak of an Ebola strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has killed more than 80 and for which there is no vaccine. Fears of further spread grew when a laboratory on Sunday confirmed a case in the major eastern DRC city of Goma, which is controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 militia. A total of 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever have so far been...

US President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jnr succeeded in their efforts to defeat Senator Bill Cassidy in Louisiana’s Republican primary, a signal of the enduring strength of the president’s hold on his party despite an unpopular war and soaring fuel prices. Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators in 2021 who voted to convict Trump on the charge of inciting an insurrection on January 6 that year. He placed last in a three-way race on Saturday against Representative...

The launch of limited edition Swatch watches descended into chaos on Saturday in several European cities and New York, with French police firing tear gas to restore order at one store near Paris. Hundreds of people waited through the night – and in some cases for several days – hoping to get their hands on the “Royal Pop” timepieces, made in collaboration with luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet. In France, lines of hundreds of people formed through the night in several cities and a police source...

Three polls firmly caught my attention over the past month or so. Each was conducted by a different outlet and addressed different questions. However, taken together, they tell one overarching story – implicitly, but unmistakably. Beyond an assortment of data, the story is about direction. The first was a CNN poll. It showed that 76 per cent of Americans now see high prices and the cost of living as their country’s most serious economic problem. Even more striking, nearly seven in 10 expect a...

Bulgaria won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time on Saturday in a final overshadowed by five countries’ boycott over Gaza, claiming a dramatic ‌victory despite another big public vote for Israel that secured it second place. The garish and usually good-natured competition involving pop acts from countries across Europe and beyond, now in its 70th year, has been plunged into crisis by a dispute over Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, a response to ⁠the Hamas-led attack on October 7,...

One of four Canadians who returned home from a cruise ship where there was a hantavirus outbreak received a “presumptive positive” test result for the virus, Canadian officials said on Saturday. Results from the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg to confirm the case are expected to come over the weekend, said Bonnie Henry, the public health officer for the province of British Columbia. “Clearly this is not what we hoped for, but it is what we planned for,” Henry said. The person, one member...

A Rwandan suspect charged in connection with the 1994 genocide died in a hospital while in custody in The Hague, Netherlands, a UN court said on Saturday, three years after the court declared him unfit to continue standing trial. Felicien Kabuga, 91, was accused of encouraging and bankrolling the mass killing of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority. His trial began in 2022, nearly three decades after the 100-day massacre that left 800,000 dead. In 2023, the judges declared him unfit to continue standing...

A humpback whale that underwent a rescue operation in Germany two weeks ago after beaching itself there has been found dead near a Danish island, officials said on Saturday. “It can now be confirmed that the stranded humpback whale near Anholt is the same whale that was previously stranded in Germany and was the subject of rescue attempts,” said Jane Hansen, division head at the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. The whale, dubbed “Timmy” in German media, was initially spotted stuck on a...

⁠A man drove a car into a crowd in the northern Italian city of Modena, injuring at least eight people, four of whom are in serious condition, police said. The driver – a 30-year-old born ‌in Bergamo and of North African origin, who had moved to the province that includes Modena – attempted to flee after the car crashed into a shop window, Modena’s mayor told broadcaster RaiNews24. The fleeing driver was stopped by some pedestrians, one of whom he attacked with a knife and slightly ⁠injured. The...

Israel’s military on Saturday said it had killed the chief of Hamas’ military wing in an air strike on Gaza the previous day, the most senior Hamas official killed by Israel since ‌an October US-backed ceasefire agreement that was meant to halt fighting. A senior Hamas official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who was born in 1970, was killed in the attack. Hamas Gaza spokesperson Hazem Qassem later said in a video statement published on Facebook that...

China and the United States have agreed to establish trade and investment councils, committing in principle to match each other’s tariff cuts on a reciprocal basis. “The two sides will use the Trade Council as a forum to discuss issues such as tariff reductions on specific products,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Saturday, without providing further details. The world’s two largest economies also made progress on agricultural trade and aircraft, the statement added. The two...

China’s purchase of “double-digit billions” in American agricultural products touted by US officials following President Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing appears to be a marginal addition after factoring in previous commitments, analysts said, adding that new orders could reduce the country’s reliance on Brazil for soybeans and other items. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on ‌Friday that he expects to see China buy a 10-figure sum in agricultural products annually over the next...

At least 80 deaths have been reported in Congo’s new Ebola disease outbreak in the eastern Ituri province, authorities said, as health workers raced to intensify screening and contact tracing to contain the disease on Saturday. Officials first announced the outbreak on Friday, with 65 deaths and 246 suspected cases. In Ituri’s capital, Bunia, locals recounted their fears amid constant burials. “Every day, people are dying … and this has been going on for about a week. In a single day, we bury...

A nine-member jury found that Mr. Musk had waited too long to sue. The setback for the tech mogul frees OpenAI to continue in the artificial intelligence race.

Even as protests increase, the collapse of Mr. Musk’s suit against OpenAI and Sam Altman will speed up the artificial intelligence juggernaut.

It took a jury less than two hours to decide that Mr. Musk had waited too long to sue. But the testimony over three weeks was still illuminating.

The company announced the changes two days before it plans to lay off 10 percent of its work force, or about 8,000 employees.

The Trump administration is creating a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people it says were wronged by the federal government, a group that could be largely made up of the president’s allies.

The agent is the second federal officer to face felony charges in Minnesota stemming from Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Gautam Adani had been accused of lying to American investors about payoffs in India. The end of the case came as President Trump has signaled a transactional approach to justice.

Officials ordered more than 23,000 to evacuate after a brush fire broke out in Simi Valley, Calif.

An examination of the disaster commissioned by the county concluded that its efforts were muddled and chaotic, but said that it had not discriminated against Black residents.

The shipwrecked man was rescued from Channel Islands National Park, but the flares set off a 10,000-acre fire that has burned park buildings, forced evacuations and threatened rare Torrey pines.

The fate of Ken Paxton, the conservative Texas firebrand, could decide whether Republicans keep control of the Senate.

Early surveillance and testing failed to identify the rare species of Ebola responsible for the current outbreak. An American doctor is among the confirmed cases.

An American doctor working with a Christian missionary organization in the Democratic Republic of Congo was exposed to the deadly virus while treating patients, the organization said.

The order is in effect for 30 days and does not apply to American citizens or U.S. service members.

The United States restricted entry of people who have been to three African countries, after the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency. The outbreak has killed more than 100.

The ruling was a partial victory for prosecutors in the murder trial of Luigi Mangione. A state judge ruled that some other material and statements could not be used.

New research sheds light on how mediocre employees help would-be authoritarians maintain power.

America is returning to firing squad executions after failing to find a more humane way to carry out the death penalty.

Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, and South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, have surprised many observers by moving past their nations’ historical grievances.

An American from the hantavirus-infected cruise ship, who said she had tested negative for the disease, has been ordered to remain in an Omaha quarantine facility for two more weeks.

The Times is challenging a new requirement that reporters covering the military complex have an official escort, part of a broader legal challenge to the Pentagon’s press restrictions.

Étienne Davignon had been set to stand trial in connection with the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.