‘Maybe he’s a ‌racist’: Donald Trump takes bizarre swipe at NBA great LeBron James

• The United States is subtly shifting its strategy toward Iran, moving away from the goal of regime collapse, which is now viewed as unlikely. • This revised approach aims to degrade Iran's strategic position while managing regional stability to avoid catastrophic economic fallout.

• Iran is utilizing Chinese technology and Russian tactics to launch increasingly accurate and lethal bombing campaigns against US bases in the Gulf. • US intelligence estimates reveal that Iran's ballistic missile program remains roughly 70% intact, contradicting previous Washington claims that Tehran's military capabilities had been obliterated.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the UN Security Council on Thursday, July 24, emphasizing the critical role of diplomacy in resolving global crises. • Guterres acknowledged that while diplomatic efforts may have failed to prevent current military confrontations and border tensions, they remain the most effective tool for ending them.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the UN Security Council on Thursday to emphasize the critical role of diplomacy in resolving global crises. • Guterres acknowledged that while diplomatic efforts may have failed to prevent current military confrontations and border tensions, they remain the most effective tool for ending them.

• Mike Coté argues that the United States is currently trapped in an ineffective cycle of alternating between conflict and negotiation regarding Iran. • The author proposes a "third option" to break this pattern, suggesting a strategic shift in how the U.S. manages its relationship with the Iranian regime.

Initiatives including cutting permits just to serve ice-cream amount to a sweeping program of deregulationRed Scare? The democratic socialist mayor of New York City spent this week talking about red tape.On Tuesday, Zohran Mamdani – the politician at the center of a revived rightwing panic about socialists and purported communists winning elections across America - posted a video on X of himself putting a sheet of paper with the phrase “RED TAPE” into a paper shredder. Other pieces of paper, with phrases like “cumbersome fees and fines” and “a permit you need just to serve ice-cream”, were shredded too. The video, set to Wu Tang Clan’s If Time Is Money, shows Mamdani joining a handful of city officials and small business owners throwing the resulting paper shreds into the air like confetti. Continue reading...

Jewellery made from BC Iran worn at Odyssey photocall throws spotlight on the trade of rare archeological findsThe Odyssey has stormed cinemas, but while its take on the Homeric epic has created ripples among western classicists, it is an actor’s earrings that have made waves further afield.Zendaya, who portrays the goddess Athena in the movie, provoked outrage when she appeared at a London photocall wearing earrings that were allegedly made from Iranian artefacts dating back to the 1st millennium BC. Continue reading...

Comment follows news Axel Rudakubana had been transferred from prison to psychiatric hospitalThe lawyer for the families of Axel Rudakubana’s victims has said the Southport killer is “trying to retraumatise the families from his cell” after it emerged he had been transferred from prison to a psychiatric hospital.Rudakubana, now 19, was given a life sentence for the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults. Continue reading...

Dharmendra Pradhan steps down after demonstrations over exam leak scandal in major victory for youth political movementIndia’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, has resigned after a week of mass demonstrations, handing a major victory to a new youth movement that has posed an unprecedented challenge to Narendra Modi’s government.In a statement on Saturday afternoon, Pradhan said he had submitted his letter of resignation to the prime minister after student pressure. Continue reading...

After a Kyiv visit, rightwing firebrand now supports Ukraine – but perhaps it’s just because Trump favors a winnerLaura Loomer, the online Maga provocateur, has never worked in the White House or anywhere else in the government, but her sudden conversion to the Ukrainian cause this week is significant because her social media posts often have real policy implications in the second Trump administration.The rightwing commentator has spent the last few days in Kyiv, where she announced a newfound sympathy for Ukraine in its long war with Russia, and admitted that she had previously fallen for Russian propaganda. Continue reading...

Lucy Harrison, 23, was shot in 2025 with her father’s gun. He was never arrested and a grand jury chose not to indict himLucy Harrison felt that 2024 was her best year yet. The 23-year-old had graduated from university with first class honours, landed her dream job and bought her first house with her boyfriend.She was a “big girl adult” now, Lucy would say. She shed tears of joy seeing her idol, Taylor Swift, at Wembley on the Eras tour that summer. Life could hardly get any better. “All the hard work, all the tears, everything was coming to fruition,” said her mother, Jane Coates, from Warrington in north-west England. Continue reading...

No press briefing has been held for months, as the defence department belatedly or inaccurately releases figuresThe Pentagon is taking a “shameful approach” to releasing information about US casualties in the Iran war, Leon Panetta, a former defence secretary and CIA director, has told the Guardian.The defence department has not held a press briefing for two-and-a-half months. Officials have faced accusations that they are engaged in a cover-up designed to hide the true cost of Donald Trump’s war of choice in Iran, fearing a public backlash before November’s midterm elections. Continue reading...