World, US, Culture, Market, and Sci-Tech News Aggregation from MSM and Independent News
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A few hours earlier, at least three commercial vessels, including two oil supertankers, appeared to turn around while attempting to cross Hormuz outbound on the Oman side. Shipping intelligence company Windward Maritime said the u-turns came after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps instructed vessels to turn around using radio calls and social media platforms.
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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised President Trump on Wednesday for degrading Iran’s nuclear capability, saying Tehran had been “basically getting its hands on” one. He also credited Trump personally for helping set that program back, remaining the true leader of the free world, and working to ensure Iran is unable to threaten Europe and other allies.
Rutte has been working hard to keep NATO unified since the Iran war, especially after tensions flared over Europe’s reluctance to back U.S. combat operations to open the Strait of Hormuz. Whether his praise is sincere or simply diplomatic damage control, the result is the same: even Trump’s critics have to acknowledge that the war’s bare minimum achievement was a meaningful degradation of Iran’s nuclear capacity.
🚨 NOW: NATO SecGen Mark Rutte has just STUNNED the fake news, coming out 100% in SUPPORT of President Trump scoring victory over Iran
“It would’ve been a threat to the WHOLE WORLD! They were VERY near a nuclear weapon.”
“ALL the G7 leaders applaud the fact the nuclear… pic.twitter.com/22TZAiM3hH
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 24, 2026
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Robert Jenrick has said it is “legitimate” for the media to ask questions about Nigel Farage’s £5m personal donation from a cryptocurrency billionaire, just days after the Reform UK leader told an interviewer it was “none of your business”.
Jenrick, who is Reform’s shadow chancellor, said voters on the doorstep were not asking about the money given to Farage by the Thailand-based British crypto investor Christopher Harborne.
However, he acknowledged it was not unreasonable for the media to have questions about the £5m, in contrast to Farage’s claim earlier this week that it was a private matter.
At the British Chambers of Commerce ann
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Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada is “preparing humanitarian assistance” for Venezuela following a pair of deadly earthquakes hit the country Wednesday evening.
In a post on X, Carney offered his “sincere condolences to the loved ones of those who were lost.”
“My thoughts are with everyone who has been injured or displaced and with the first responders working tirelessly to save lives.”
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The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said Thursday that a cargo vessel was struck by an “unknown projectile” near the Strait of Hormuz, the latest security incident in one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes.
According to the UKMTO, the incident occurred about 7.5 nautical miles southeast of Dahit, Oman.
“A cargo vessel has been hit on the starboard side by an unknown projectile, causing damage to the bridge,” the agency said in an advisory, adding that there were no reported casualties.
“Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO,” the advisory added.
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The U.S. has issued a sweeping rollback of sanctions on Iranian oil, allowing dollar-denominated trade for the first time in more than four decades, as Washington and Tehran press on with fragile talks toward a permanent peace deal.
The U.S. Treasury on Monday issued a wide-ranging 60-day exemption allowing Iran to produce and sell crude oil, petrochemical and petroleum products in U.S. dollars through Aug. 21.
Under the so-called General License X, vessels and entities previously subject to U.S. sanctions are also cleared for transactions. The waiver also theoretically reopens the door to U.S. imports of Iranian crude, a trade which has effectively collapsed since the 1990s under the weight of heavy sanctions, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Child under 12 years old is euthanised in the Netherlands for the first time after law change– www.thesun.co.uk
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A CHILD under the age of 12 has been euthanised in the Netherlands for the first time.
The child’s death was disclosed in a letter to parliament by Dutch Health Minister Sophie Hermans.
The euthanasia was carried out at the end of last year, although no further details have been released.
Euthanasia for terminally ill children aged between one and 12 has been legal in the Netherlands for the past two years.
Before the change, the procedure was only permitted for newborn babies in exceptional circumstances and for children aged 12 and over.
Former Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said the law would help “a small group of terminally ill children in agony with no hope of recovery and unbearable suffering”.
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When Jen was 17, she was introduced to a gang of Iraqi Kurdish Muslim men who called her and other girls “white trash” and “English pig‑dogs” while they raped and trafficked them across the U.K. to rape gang ”parties.”
Jen decided to speak up in the Rape Gang Inquiry Report “so that religiously-motivated coercive abuse is properly recognized and confronted, even when doing so is politically, culturally, or socially controversial.”
In response, Rape Crisis England and Wales, a U.K. “feminist” social services organization “working to end sexual violence and abuse,” released a statement calling the report racist for pointing out that 95% of the gang members are Muslim and exploited girls because they were white.
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Thune’s Senate won’t pass or even vote on the SAVE AMERICA but this they pass in a heartbeat. They passed a resolution calling on the president to end the Iran conflict.
Thune won’t allow a vote on the SAVE AMERICA Act, but this gets fast-tracked through the Senate without hesitation.
🇺🇸 BREAKING!!! SENATE PASSES WAR POWERS RESOLUTION
The U.S. Senate has passed a War Powers Resolution 50-48, directing President Trump to remove military forces from hostilities with Iran unless Congress declares war or authorizes military force.
Four Republicans, Sens. Susan… pic.twitter.com/OULFjKbDNU
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) June 23, 2026
So, I have Iran on the “ropes,” ready to go down for the fall, willing to give us practically anything, and for the first time in decades, respecting the hell out of the United States and its President, ME, and the U.S. Senate decides to have a poorly timed and meaningless War… pic.twitter.com/IaA64LSZGN
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) June 24, 2026
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A supercomputer in China now outranks its U.S. counterparts as the world’s most powerful, marking the first time since 2017 that a Chinese computer has topped a list sometimes viewed as a measure of a nation’s technological prowess
A supercomputer in China now outranks its U.S. counterparts as the world’s most powerful, marking the first time since 2017 that a Chinese computer has topped a list sometimes viewed as a measure of a nation’s technological prowess.
The LineShine computer in Shenzhen, China, displaced top-ranked U.S. computer El Capitan in the latest version of the TOP500 ranking announced Tuesday. It was the Chinese computer’s debut on the list.
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Talks between Israel and Lebanon include discussion of a US-backed proposal for Israeli forces to hand over some of the territory they have invaded during the war with Hezbollah to the Lebanese military, according to Israeli and Lebanese officials.
The Israeli officials said the Lebanese troops involved would undergo US training and vetting to ensure they are not linked to Iran-backed Hezbollah, while Israel would maintain a military presence in a buffer zone along the border.
The proposed “pilot” project is being discussed in the latest round of talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials, which got underway in Washington on Tuesday.
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A middle-aged couple from Moscow and their teenage son began their summer vacation to the Black Sea beaches of Crimea this month by filling five-gallon gasoline canisters and stocking up on food — as if headed to a war zone. Because in many ways they were.
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Iran’s chief negotiator called the deal it struck with the U.S. “a declaration of America’s defeat” on Wednesday.
“The Islamabad understanding was not the result of pressure and coercion, but rather the result of the resistance and authority of the brave Iranian nation,” Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Wednesday of the agreement signed last week.
“That is why, the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding became a declaration of America’s defeat,” he said, adding that security in the Middle East must be ensured by the countries of the region.
President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed the agreement last week, launching a designated 60-day negotiating period during which Pakistani and other mediators hope to bring the two sides to a permanent settlement to end the war.
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When it comes to matters of Iran, it’s hard for Americans not to view the Islamic Republic through the lens of the United States.
After all, few issues have been as contentious — even among conservatives and Republicans — as the Iran conflict has been during President Donald Trump’s second term.
But if you were to separate Washington, D.C., from Tehran, it’s evident that Iran’s issues run far, far deeper than anything the United States is doing or has done to the Middle Eastern country.
Just look at what’s happening at the 2026 World Cup.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime is intimidating Russian organizations and scientists on American soil, according to a prominent professor speaking out about the situation.
The incoming president of the Russian-American Science Association, University of Southern California chemistry Professor Anna Krylov, told The College Fix she fears for her safety and the safety of academics caught in the Kremlin’s scope — but refuses to stand down.
“I definitely am not going to quit RASA, because that’s not the proper response to bullies, and so I will continue with operations as usual,” she said. “I will be organizing our next conference, and I will be participating and doing my job as president-elect and then as president of RASA.”
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday called for a major expansion of the country’s naval forces, suggesting the regime should build two large warships each year for the next five years.
Speaking at a commissioning ceremony for a new destroyer, Kim suggested North Korea should build two warships comparable in size to its 5,000-ton Choe Hyon-class vessel each year over the next five years, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Kim was celebrating the deployment of the new multipurpose destroyer at the port of Nampho. In April, he observed launches of two cruise missiles and three anti-ship missiles from the vessel.
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London — Labour Party lawmaker Andy Burnham, who looks increasingly likely to be Britain’s next prime minister, has previously criticized President Trump, accusing the American leader of bringing “instability” to the world.
Current Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday that he would resign in the wake of disastrous local elections in May, and 20 resignations from his government.
As his Labour Party still has a large majority of seats in the U.K. parliament — won in the last national elections in 2024 — it gets to pick Starmer’s replacement, and Burnham is widely expected to get the job.
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US President Donald Trump said the military operation in Venezuela lasted ‘exactly 48 minutes’ and claimed the United States has recovered its costs 28 times over through oil extraction.
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Reportedly, one of the results of Monday’s U.S.-Iran talks in Geneva will be a “deconfliction cell” for Lebanon. Its members are supposed to be the U.S., Iran, the Lebanese government, Qatar, and Pakistan. Notably missing from the roster is Israel.
Now — even though Israeli forces in Lebanon have been fending off an ongoing, Iran-directed Hezbollah assault on Israel since March 2 — it’s not even included in “deconfliction.”
Israel Hayom, one of Israel’s two leading dailies, reports that “the State Department strongly opposed the creation of the ‘cell…’ The State Department’s position, as expressed in position papers and closed-door discussions, was that Iran’s goal was to sabotage direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon by creating a bypass route.”
Bank of America is predicting the Federal Reserve will issue rate hikes by the end of this year in response to rising inflation. They are predicting a three-quarter-point increase in the benchmark rate. General Motors replaced 1,000 workers with “collaborative robots” in one plant alone. Oracle revealed it replaced 21,000 workers with AI solutions so far this year. The loss of jobs through technology, rising inflation, and potential rate hikes portend a poor-performing economy leading up to the November 2026 Midterm elections.
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“The adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce,” Oracle said Monday in an annual financial regulatory filing.
The company’s global headcount shrank to 141,000 full-time employees as of the May 31 end of the fiscal year, compared with 162,000 a year earlier, Oracle said. The reductions led to about $1.8 billion in restructuring costs.
Oracle is under financial pressure because of an expensive build-out of AI data centers for customers like OpenAI. Earlier this year, it began cutting thousands of jobs as part of efforts to save cash, Bloomberg has reported. The exact scope of the cuts was never formally disclosed.
As of the end of May, the company had about 49,000 US workers while about 92,000 were employed internationally.
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China’s newest and most powerful aircraft carrier, the Fujian, has sailed through the Taiwan Strait, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry
TAIPEI, Taiwan — China’s newest and most powerful of its three aircraft carriers sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, the Taiwanese defense ministry said, a day after Taiwan began a five-day military exercise on responding to a Chinese attack.
The Fujian carrier first sailed through the narrow body of water separating China and Taiwan in a trial run last September. It later transited the strait for the first time as a fully commissioned military vessel in December.
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African and Caribbean governments have recently adopted a coordinated strategy to seek slavery reparations that also include formal apologies, financial compensation, debt relief, and “cultural restitution” from former slave‑trading states in Europe as well as the U.S.
The demands were part of a 19-point reparations plan endorsed at the end of a three-day conference in Ghana, whose U.N. resolution recognising transatlantic slavery as the “gravest crime against humanity” was approved in March despite resistance from Europe and the United States, countries which have a legacy in the sprawling human trafficking system that saw millions forcibly taken from their homelands.
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LONDON — Announcing his resignation on Monday, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared in a uniquely British tableau: the small lectern, the glossy black door, the brass “No. 10” gleaming over his shoulder. Starmer was the sixth occupant of Downing Street to quit under pressure in the last decade.
