Search for painting looted by Nazis may have found more stolen art
The search of property in Argentina linked to the daughters of a fugitive Nazi may have unearthed more stolen artworks, say investigators.
Hot mic catches Xi and Putin discussing organ transplants and immortality
The Chinese and Russian leaders have been in power for 13 and 25 years respectively, with neither expressing any intention of stepping down.
Hot mic catches Xi and Putin discussing organ transplants and immortality
The Chinese and Russian leaders have been in power for 13 and 25 years respectively, with neither expressing any intention of stepping down.
Kim Jong-un promises to do ‘everything to assist’ Moscow after Putin meeting
North Korean leader invited to visit Russia as Zelenskyy says Putin is displaying ‘impunity’ with new Ukraine strikes
Vladimir Putin has invited Kim Jong-un to visit Russia during a lengthy meeting in Beijing on the sidelines of China’s biggest military parade, as Kim promised to do “everything I can to assist” Moscow.
North Korea has supported Russia in its war against Ukraine with weapons and troops, and the Russian president praised North Korean fighters for acting “courageously and heroically”.
Continue reading...Only two more Republicans needed to force vote on Epstein files release, bill co-sponsor says – live
Donald Trump calls clamor over Jeffrey Epstein files a ‘Democrat hoax that never ends’ as bipartisan group of lawmakers try to force vote on legislation
As part of the Trump administration’s campaign of mass deportations, the defense department will soon have hundreds of military judges work on immigration cases, the Associated Press reports:
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the federal justice department to serve as temporary immigration judges, according to a memo reviewed by the Associated Press.
Continue reading...Charges against Brazil’s Bolsonaro are political, says lawyer
The former Brazilian president denies conspiring to overturn his 2022 election loss to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Top Obama-era Latin American expert warns of ‘disastrous’ US intervention in Venezuela
US military buildup and attack on alleged narco boat spark fears of protracted guerrilla war in South America
The White House’s former top Latin America official has said he fears the US could stumble into a protracted guerrilla war in Venezuela after Donald Trump ordered a military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 alleged drug traffickers.
Tuesday’s controversial strike off the Venezuelan coast – which was reportedly carried out by an attack helicopter or Reaper drone – came after the US president ordered a major naval deployment to the region, ostensibly to combat South American drug traffickers.
Continue reading...Farage a ‘Putin-loving, free speech impostor’ says Democrat before Reform head’s US speech – UK politics live
Jamie Raskin says Farage is ‘a Trump sycophant’ before UK politician addresses the House judiciary committee in Washington
Kemi Badenoch is probably hastily redrafting her PMQs script in the light of Angela Rayner’s statement about underpaying her stamp duty. She has got less than half an hour to craft the right questions. And she will probably want to ask about the economy, and hate speech laws, too.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Continue reading...Fast-moving wildfire destroys multiple structures in historic California Gold Rush town
Blaze in Chinese Camp – a town settled around 1850 by Chinese miners – was caused by lightning, authorities say
Multiple structures burned in a historic Gold Rush town in northern California on Tuesday night, after thousands of lightning strikes ignited a spate of fast-moving fires in the rural dry foothills of the Eastern Sierra.
Chinese Camp, about 57 miles (92km) east of Stockton and named for the Chinese miners who settled there, is a registered California landmark filled with historic structures, and home to roughly 60 residents.
Continue reading...Controversy over TV writer Graham Linehan’s arrest for anti-transgender posts sees police appeal for clarity – CBS News
- Controversy over TV writer Graham Linehan's arrest for anti-transgender posts sees police appeal for clarity CBS News
- Graham Linehan goes on trial over alleged harassment of trans woman BBC
- Analysis: A comedy writer’s arrest supercharges a transatlantic debate about free speech in Britain CNN
- House Democrat slams UK arrest of comedian over transgender X posts The Hill
- How Graham Linehan’s gender activism led to career armageddon The Guardian
Florida to end vaccine mandates for children as surgeon general likens them to ‘slavery’
Joseph Ladapo, a long-time vaccine skeptic, says that every state vaccine requirement would be repealed
Children in Florida will no longer be required to receive vaccines against preventable diseases including measles, mumps, chicken pox, polio and hepatitis said Joseph Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general, on Wednesday in a speech during which he likened vaccine mandates to “slavery”.
Ladapo, hand-picked for the role by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, is a long-time skeptic of the benefit of vaccines, and has previously been accused of peddling “scientific nonsense” by public health advocates.
Continue reading...Can Keir Starmer afford to sack Angela Rayner over her stamp duty error?
Prime minister has a track record of firing errant ministers – but will her power within the party protect his beleaguered deputy?
Keir Starmer has a hard-won reputation for ruthlessness when it comes to dispensing with ministers who cause the government embarrassment. But the future of his deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, is the toughest call of its kind.
Every time Starmer has been confronted with this kind of decision since the very early days of his leadership, his instinct has been to cut loose.
Continue reading...The death of the wallet: how our pockets suddenly got a lot lighter
A new survey finds less than half of British people now carry a wallet – even though 80% own one
Name: The wallet.
Age: The word originates from the late 14th century, meaning something like knapsack. That’s how Shakespeare uses it in Troilus and Cressida, when Ulysses says: “Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back.”
Continue reading...Democrats call for firing of January 6 defendant who works at justice department
Jared Wise, a DoJ senior adviser, urged fellow rioters to kill police officers during the 2021 Capitol attack
A January 6 defendant who urged fellow rioters to kill police officers should be fired from his job at the justice department, three senate Democrats wrote in a letter to US attorney general Pam Bondi on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, the defendant, Jared Wise, was hired as a counselor to Ed Martin, a prominent January 6 defense lawyer who is leading a so-called weaponization working group inside the justice department that is targeting Trump’s political rivals. The scope of Wise’s role remains unclear.
Continue reading...Watch: Nigel Farage and US congressman clash on freedom of speech
The Reform UK leader has appeared before the US House Judiciary Committee to discuss freedom of speech and online safety laws.
Putin tells Ukraine: End war via talks or I will end it by force – Reuters
- Putin tells Ukraine: End war via talks or I will end it by force Reuters
- Putin says Russia will achieve all aims militarily if Ukraine does not agree deal BBC
- Putin invites Zelenskyy to a meeting in Moscow for security talks as he bombs Ukraine Fox News
- Putin open to meet Zelenskyy in Moscow, Kyiv says ‘unacceptable’ Al Jazeera
- Russia's Putin willing to meet Ukraine's Zelenskyy if he 'comes to Moscow' Euronews.com
Budget compromise needed if PM ousted, says French finance minister
Éric Lombard says he hopes François Bayrou will survive vote and dismisses talk of looming debt crisis
The French finance minister, Éric Lombard, has said the government would have to compromise on plans to cut the budget deficit if the prime minister, François Bayrou, is toppled in a confidence vote next week.
Lombard told the Financial Times that fresh negotiations would require the government to make concessions to the left to reduce the size of the fiscal package if the government falls.
Continue reading...Resale ‘subterfuge’: Viagogo sent fan his tickets along with a stranger’s passport
Experiences of booking for big London gigs underscore the opaque practices of some online platforms
When Danny bought tickets to see Deftones in Crystal Palace Park he was not expecting to be initiated into an apparent subterfuge.
Yet shortly before the south London gig, Viagogo, the resale platform that sold him the tickets, sent him a scanned copy of a passport ID page belonging to a Dutch man he had never met.
Continue reading...Xi, Putin and Kim: behind the choreographed image that could symbolise a shift in the global balance of power
In an unprecedented spectacle the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea led a group of more than 20 world leaders at a victory day parade in Beijing
It is an image that, had it been published just a few years ago, would have been dismissed as a piece of mischievous photo-shopping: the leaders of Russia and China, accompanied by the head of a pariah regime whose mission to arm his country with nuclear weapons had been opposed at the United Nations by his two companions.
But dramatic shifts in the geopolitical landscape – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and, crucially, the re-election of Donald Trump – have combined to bring Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un together in what many observers are calling a dramatic redrawing of the global balance of power.
Continue reading...Manneken Pis gets new uniform to honour soldiers who liberated Brussels
Gift comes 8o years after Welsh guards first left replica uniform for Belgian statue to commemorate end of Nazi occupation
When British forces commemorated the liberation of Brussels for the first time in 1945, they left a unique gift – a replica Welsh guards uniform for the Belgian city’s emblematic “peeing boy” statue, the Manneken Pis.
Now 81 years after the Welsh guards freed Brussels from Nazi occupation, the gift has been renewed: the Manneken Pis has a new regimental uniform, including scarlet jacket embroidered with gold lace, gleaming white belt and authentic bearskin hat.
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