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SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- The government finalized a budget proposal for official development assistance (ODA) for 2027 at 6.3 trillion won (US$4.6 billion) on Thursday, marking an increase of 871.2 billion won from this year. The budget proposal was part of the comprehensive ODA plan for 2027 approved during a meeting presided over by Prime Minister Han Seong-sook. The budget will be finalized after a review by the ministry of planning and budget and then approval from the National Assembly. Next year's plan, drawn up based on a mid-term ODA strategy that the government announced in May, calls for focusing on healthcare, culture and artificial…

Using AI to find loopholes in laws and safety mechanisms underlying AI for mental health. getty In today’s column, I examine ways in which people are using AI to find loopholes in the legal restrictions and AI safety mechanisms associated with AI-based mental health chats. This is a somewhat oddish effort in the sense that it amounts to using AI to outsmart various protections that are intended to guard the public from untoward mental health advice generated by AI and large language models (LLMs). Some users would prefer not to be bound by the rising tide of limitations. They believe that people ought to be allowed to use AI in an unfettered manner.…

A baby giant panda at Everland opens both eyes and begins crawling as it reaches 50 days, Thursday. Courtesy of Everland Just 50 days after making her quiet debut at Everland theme park, a newborn female giant panda is undergoing a dramatic change, offering a vivid portrait of early development as she reaches key growth benchmarks. Born on June 3 at a delicate 171 grams, the unnamed cub — the fourth female giant panda naturally bred in Korea following the celebrated births of Fu Bao in 2020 and twins Rui Bao and Hui Bao in 2023 — has transformed into a robust 2.3-kilogram infant. The 13-fold weight gain reflects both the formidable maternal instincts…

Visitors at the booth for Moonshot's Kimi K3 during World AI Conference in Shanghai, July 17. AP-Yonhap The launch of Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 has revived an intense debate that has raged in Silicon Valley ever since DeepSeek's shock breakthrough last year: whether China can overcome its limited access to advanced chips to match the performance of the United States' frontier artificial intelligence models. Trillions of U.S. dollars might rest on the answer, as some see Chinese developers' success in increasing performance through architectural innovation as weakening the rationale for America's vast spending on AI infrastructure. The arrival of K3 has…

Fliki is a popular AI video generator, trusted by more than 12 million users worldwide and 50,000 companies, including brands like Meta, ByteDance, Oracle, and PayPal. You can create and edit AI videos with natural-language prompts using its AI Copilot. In this article, we’ve put Fliki to the test, evaluating its features, pricing, and real-world in-app experience to help you find out whether this AI video editor lives up to its claims and whether it’s the right tool for you. Fliki: Plans and pricing Fliki is a fairly limited free video editing software, which gives you three credits per month, or 36 credits for the entire year. You can export videos…

The Yale Whiffenpoofs perform at the Seoul Outdoor Library in 2024. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government The voices of one of the world’s oldest collegiate a cappella groups filled a Seoul gallery this week as Yale University’s Whiffenpoofs performed Korean songs, offering residents a musical respite amid the summer heat. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Wednesday evening’s performance by the Whiffenpoofs at Seoul Gallery drew about 80 attendees, including officials from the U.S. Embassy in Korea, Yale University guests and visitors to the venue. The group performed Toy’s “Still Beautiful,” singing the Korean lyrics as part of an event…

Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon attends a meeting with science-related ministers held at Government Complex Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap Korea's science minister expressed willingness to promote investments in local companies from U.S. big tech firms, ahead of his planned trip to Silicon Valley later Thursday. The key point of the visit will be to "strengthen cooperation so that big tech companies can invest in Korea," Minister Bae Kyung-hoon told reporters after a meeting with chief executive officers (CEOs) of local telecom operators held in central Seoul. Discussions will center on artificial intelligence (AI) cooperation and market expansion, AI data…

Anthropic has released the Claude Security plugin for Claude Code in beta. The plugin runs a multi-agent vulnerability scan of a repository from inside an existing Claude Code session, then turns the findings you select into patch files that you review and apply yourself. Anthropic emphasized the tool’s versatility upon announcement, highlighting its capability to either run a comprehensive scan across the full codebase or inspect changes from the terminal right before a commit. What plugin adds The plugin adds a single command, /claude-security, which opens a menu of three jobs, per the official documentation: Scan codebase — the whole repository or…

AGI work was consolidated under senior vice president Peter DeSantis in December as part of a larger ‌group that also includes silicon development and quantum computing [File] \| Photo Credit: REUTERS Amazon on Wednesday cut jobs in ‌its artificial general intelligence group, marking the latest ​in a series of smaller ⁠reductions across the company since a much larger one in January. Artificial general intelligence is a hypothetical ‌AI system that surpasses human intelligence and can learn, grow and operate autonomously. Many ‌of the top AI companies are ‌working to ⁠develop similar systems, with the ⁠hope of deploying them to solve difficult…

Upstage CEO Kim Sung-hoon speaks during his presentation at a media conference at Conrad Hotel Seoul, June 16. Yonhap Upstage, a Korean artificial intelligence (AI) company, said Thursday it has released Solar Open 2, an open-weight large language model designed to complete multistep tasks rather than simply answer questions. The company published the model's weights, the underlying parameters that determine how the AI processes information, on Hugging Face, a global open-source platform, along with a technical report detailing its architecture and training methods. The model was developed under a government-backed project to build Korea's own…

Visitors at Bengaluru Tech Summit 2025 in Bengaluru. The government of Karnataka is trying to position Bengaluru Tech Summit as a year-round platform for global technology and innovation engagement rather than an annual event. \| Photo Credit: Sudhakara Jain Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS), Karnataka’s annual technology exposition, has expanded its engagement with Europe through partnerships with Italy’s We Make Future (WMF), France’s VivaTech and Poland’s technology ecosystem to create global growth opportunities for startups in Karnataka. The collaborations are aimed at providing start-ups in Karnataka access to international markets, investors,…

Augmental first showed off its tongue-controlled MouthPad as a CES curiosity in 2024. Today, the device is a real product you can buy, with the company opening public US sales alongside a beta release of Vox, a companion wearable built to handle the typing half of Augmental’s hands-free computing promise. A retainer that doubles as a mouse The MouthPad is custom-made for each user and fits over the upper teeth like a slim retainer. It features a pressure-sensitive trackpad that rests on the palate and, combined with head tracking, can be used to move a cursor, click, and swipe. Every gesture is customizable through a companion app. Augmental says more…

July 23, 2026 — 3:27pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA The warning signs are easy to spot. Long emails with bullet points, overly formal language, wordy answers to simple questions or extensive reports and attachments. A few years ago, any of these might have been signs of a diligent boss who worked hard or someone who thought deeply, but today they all point in a different direction. Any one of these is a sign that you’ve got a manager who’s addicted to AI, or a ‘ChatGPT Boss’. If you find yourself working for a ‘ChatGPT Boss’, you should politely request clearer or shorter…

A baby giant panda at Everland opens both eyes and begins crawling as it reaches 50 days, Thursday. Courtesy of Everland Just 50 days after making her quiet debut at Everland theme park, a newborn female giant panda is undergoing a dramatic change, offering a vivid portrait of early development as she reaches key growth benchmarks. Born on June 3 at a delicate 171 grams, the unnamed cub — the fourth female giant panda naturally bred in Korea following the celebrated births of Fu Bao in 2020 and twins Rui Bao and Hui Bao in 2023 — has transformed into a robust 2.3-kilogram infant. The 13-fold weight gain reflects both the formidable maternal instincts…

FILE - The OpenAI logo is displayed on a cell phone in front of an image generated by ChatGPT's Dall-E text-to-image model, Dec. 8, 2023, in Boston. Michael Dwyer/AP *hide caption* *toggle caption* Michael Dwyer/AP ChatGPT maker OpenAI says it is still investigating the "unprecedented cyber incident" that led its artificial intelligence systems to break out of a testing environment and hack into another AI company. OpenAI said Tuesday two of its most capable AI models were responsible for the cyberattack targeting AI startup Hugging Face. The incident is stirring debates over the need for stronger AI guardrails and the extent to which AI agents are…

Something strange happens when you look closely at the AI assistants we use every day. Two of them can be built on the same underlying model, trained the same way, given the same instructions, and still feel like two different people. One is warm and a little vague. The other is sharp and slightly cold. One asks before it acts; the other just acts and tells you afterward. One hedges its way to an answer with “it depends” and “you may want to consider.” The other states it like it read it off a card. None of that shows up in a benchmark. All of it shows up the instant a person starts talking. Now notice what’s missing. Nobody designed those…

My first job as a graphic designer was print, in Barcelona, around 2004: cosmetic catalogues, set in QuarkXPress. Quark handed me every typographic control I could want. Drop caps from a dialog box. Hanging punctuation that pushed the opening quotes out into the margin. Kerning a headline one pair at a time. A baseline grid the whole page snapped to. None of it felt special. It was just how you set a page. Then I moved to the web, and the browser could do almost none of it. Paste a paragraph into a blank HTML file and it sets it like a ransom note: left aligned, a heading that drops one orphan onto its own line, a widow at the bottom of the block, a…

Mr Dinesh also noted an uptick in workplace fatalities between April and July, particularly in June, which "prompted considerable reflection among the WSH Council and all of us involved in workplace safety". In June, MOM introduced enhanced workplace safety measures with the support of the Multi-Agency Workplace Safety and Health Taskforce to reinforce safety practices across Singapore, he added. The measures were announced after seven workers died in five separate workplace incidents over four weeks, and included higher fines and longer stop-work orders for companies responsible for repeat and serious lapses. "What we are seeing is that many of these…

aI AND ML Senior White House official claims China’s K3 model stolen from Anthropic And accuses Thailand hosting hardware that may have helped distillation attack Donald Trump’s Assistant for Science and Technology, Michael Kratsios, has accused China’s Moonshot AI of creating its head-turning Kimi K3 model distilling Anthropic’s Fable. Kimi K3 is 2.8-trillion-parameter open-weights model of such impressive quality that its mere existence suggests Chinese AI researchers aren’t far behind their US rivals. Moonshot AI released it on July 16, and not long afterwards the value of US AI stocks sank as investors worried the model could damage their…

Inaugural Index scores India's GCC ecosystem at 61.9, revealing that 83% of GCCs are mission-critical to their enterprises, while only 17% have full decision-making and budget authority BENGALURU, India , July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of their strategic collaboration to advance the future of India's Global Capability Center (GCC) ecosystem, ANSR and HFS Research today announced the findings of the inaugural HFS GCC Generative Enterprise Market Pulse study, including the introduction of the HFS Generative GCC Index, a new benchmark for measuring GCC maturity and readiness for the Generative Enterprise era. Developed using HFS Research's…

The KOSPI is displayed on a screen at Hana Bank’s dealing room in Seoul, Thursday. The KOSPI reclaimed the 7,000 level for the first time in five trading sessions, closing at 7,096.89, up 299.19 points, or 4.40 percent, from the previous session. Yonhap KOSPI surged back above the 7,000 level after five trading sessions on Thursday as Alphabet’s stronger-than-expected capital spending outlook reignited optimism over the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The Kosdaq also jumped sharply, triggering a temporary halt on program buying orders. The benchmark KOSPI opened 2.44 percent higher at 6,963.35, up 165.65 points from the previous session, and ended…

I’m on my way home from Samsung’s big Galaxy Unpacked event and I’ve moved into the new Galaxy Z Fold 8. So, ask me anything! The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the biggest deal in Samsung’s foldables in quite a while. The Galaxy Z Fold 7’s thin form factor was important, yes, and the Galaxy Z TriFold was exciting, but neither were such a clear shift in the company’s direction. And it leaves quite an impression. I walked into my initial hands-on with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 earlier this week full of optimism and excitement. I was ready to see this new design in person and, right off the bat, I was hit with this sense of complete bewilderment. Where I expected to…

Paul Jones / Android Authority TL;DR Samsung’s latest foldables are the first devices to come with Google’s Gemini Nano 4 on-device AI model. Gemini Nano 4 powers Gemini Intelligence features like task automation. Gemini Intelligence features like “Create My Widget” are yet to roll out. Earlier this year, Google announced new Gemma 4 models, which were to be the foundation for the company’s next-gen on-device AI model: Gemini Nano 4. Well, that model is now officially here with the launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8. According to a blog post on the Android Developers Blog, Samsung’s new foldables come with Google’s latest…

SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Seoul stocks spiked by more than 4 percent on a tech rally following Alphabet's second-quarter earnings release. The Korean won rose against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed up 299.19 points, or 4.4 percent, to 7,096.89. "The KOSPI recovered to land at the 7,000-point level, helped by foreign investors who snapped up semiconductors," said Kim Joo-yun, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities. Foreigners were net buyers for the fourth consecutive day, driven by anticipation memory chip demand will continue, following better-than-expected earnings results from Alphabet, Google's…

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR Google has confirmed that the ability to track online orders in Google Wallet is now “fully” rolled out in the US. This feature lets you easily view and track orders in the Wallet app. The feature is only available in the US for now, with no word on a wider release. Google quietly announced the ability to track online orders in Google Wallet last month, and there’s now good news if you were waiting for this feature to hit your Android device. The company just confirmed that it’s fully rolled out in the US. Google announced the rollout in an email to Android Authority as well as via a LinkedIn post by Stavan Parikh,…

Fonterra plans to use data and automation across 26 New Zealand sites.

Bloomberg reported ‌on Monday that Snap had reached a tentative settlement in the case [File] \| Photo Credit: REUTERS A Florida teen ‌whose lawsuit claimed Meta’s platforms were to ​blame for his depression and anxiety ⁠dropped his case against the company just days before the trial in Los Angeles was ‌set to start, his attorneys said on Wednesday. The lawsuit, brought by a ‌15-year-old boy known as R.K.C., originally ‌named ⁠four defendants, Google’s YouTube, Meta’s Instagram, Snap ⁠Inc.’s Snapchat and ByteDance’s TikTok, but YouTube and TikTok settled in June. The terms of those settlements ​were confidential. Bloomberg reported ‌on Monday that…

The Special Cover, released by Shri Chirag Paswan, Hon'ble Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, and Department of Posts, celebrates India's enduring mango heritage NEW DELHI, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- India's homegrown billion-dollar fruit-based drink, Maaza® celebrates 50 years of bringing the authentic taste of Indian mangoes from orchards to millions of consumers. On National Mango Day, Coca-Cola India and the Department of Posts, Government of India, released a 'Special Cover' celebrating 50 years of Maaza®. The occasion also honoured mango farmers associated with Project Unnati by Anandana – The Coca-Cola India Foundation,…

IBOV 177,547.57 ▲ 2.44% IPSA 11,009.22 ▲ 0.50% IPC MEX 67,298.78 ▲ 0.88% MERVAL 3,379,771 ▲ 2.98% COLCAP 2,297.00 ▼ 0.19% BVL PERÚ 57,575.02 — — USD/BRL5.05▼ 0.01% USD/MXN17.38▼ 0.07% USD/CLP937.27▲ 0.17% USD/COP3,205▼ 0.70% USD/PEN3.39▼ 0.30% USD/ARS1,482▼ 0.03% USD/UYU40.14▲ 1.16% USD/PYG6,035▲ 1.38% USD/BOB10.95▲ 2.82% USD/DOP57.99▼ 0.02% USD/CRC447.42▲ 1.36% USD/GTQ7.62▲ 2.31% USD/HNL26.74▲ 0.88% USD/NIO36.62▲ 0.31% USD/VES736.04▼ 0.13% USD/PAB1.00— 0.00% USD/BZD2.00— 0.00% USD/JMD157.49▲ 0.36% USD/TTD6.71▲ 0.76% EUR/BRL5.78▼ 0.76% BRENT 95.74 ▲ 1.78% WTI 87.91 ▲ 1.24% IRON ORE 161.91 — — COPPER 6.53 ▲ 1.19% GOLD 4,130 ▼ 0.41% SILVER 60.03 ▲ 0.01%…

IBOV 177,547.57 ▲ 2.44% IPSA 11,009.22 ▲ 0.50% IPC MEX 67,298.78 ▲ 0.88% MERVAL 3,379,771 ▲ 2.98% COLCAP 2,297.00 ▼ 0.19% BVL PERÚ 57,575.02 — — USD/BRL5.05▼ 0.01% USD/MXN17.38▼ 0.07% USD/CLP937.27▲ 0.17% USD/COP3,205▼ 0.70% USD/PEN3.39▼ 0.30% USD/ARS1,482▼ 0.03% USD/UYU40.14▲ 1.16% USD/PYG6,035▲ 1.38% USD/BOB10.95▲ 2.82% USD/DOP57.99▼ 0.02% USD/CRC447.42▲ 1.36% USD/GTQ7.62▲ 2.31% USD/HNL26.74▲ 0.88% USD/NIO36.62▲ 0.31% USD/VES736.04▼ 0.13% USD/PAB1.00— 0.00% USD/BZD2.00— 0.00% USD/JMD157.49▲ 0.36% USD/TTD6.71▲ 0.76% EUR/BRL5.78▼ 0.76% BRENT 95.74 ▲ 1.78% WTI 87.91 ▲ 1.24% IRON ORE 161.91 — — COPPER 6.53 ▲ 1.19% GOLD 4,130 ▼ 0.41% SILVER 60.03 ▲ 0.01%…

São Paulo wakes to a cool, grey morning with intermittent drizzle likely lingering into the afternoon, keeping temperatures below the seasonal average. The city’s pulse quickens tonight with a midweek Libertadores clash at Morumbi, while a major photography retrospective closes its doors this weekend. Regional markets tracked the cautious global mood overnight, with the Ibovespa and Merval offering the session’s bright spots as detailed in WEEK IN FIGURES. A day for indoor cultural deep-dives and securing a table early if you plan to watch the football. São Paulo Daily Brief for Thursday, July 23, 2026. Photo: The Rio Times archive. One-stop reference…

A weird leak has already confirmed that the upcoming Google Pixel Watch 5 will look the same as its predecessor. Turns out, it may even have the same specs as the Google Pixel Watch 4 with just one minor upgrade. A 9to5Google tipster spotted the Google Play Console listing for the Pixel Watch 5, revealing its alleged specs. Codenamed "godric," the watch will seemingly use the Qualcomm SW5100 platform. That's the same Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chip that powers the Pixel Watch 2 and newer models. It features 4x Cortex-A53 CPU cores and an Adreno 702 GPU. For the Pixel Watch 4, Google upgraded the platform to add support for Satellite SOS connectivity and a…

VIDEO Signal No. 1 in 13 Luzon areas due to Tropical Depression Kiyapo The state weather bureau raises Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 1 over 13 areas in Northern Luzon due to Tropical Depression Kiyapo on Thursday, July 23. Lacson flags ‘double appropriation’ for same Taguig slope project Article continues after this advertisement Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson flagged a possible “double appropriation” involving two P100-million allocations that appeared to cover the same slope protection project in Taguig City. “From P2.085B as earlier reported, we found three P100-M additional slope protection projects for a new total of P2.385B insertions under the…

(ATTN: RECASTS throughout; ADDS photo) SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Samsung E\&A Co., the engineering and construction arm of Samsung Group, said Thursday its second-quarter net profit rose 28.8 percent from a year earlier, driven by the steady execution of large-scale overseas projects and cost cuts. Net profit for the three months that ended in June increased to 182.5 billion won (US$124.4 million) from 141.7 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a press release. The builder said the adoption of advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), automation and modularization, in its projects continued to help reduce costs.…

London, United Kingdom—South Korean technology giant Samsung unveiled new, sleeker foldable smartphone models Wednesday priced more than previous models as artificial intelligence raises component costs. One of the models resembles a miniature tablet when unfolded. Samsung, which launched the high-end products in London, aims to reaffirm its dominance in the foldable smartphone market, where it has operated since 2019, ahead of a potential move by US rival Apple this year. “By setting a new standard for foldables, we are once again advancing the premium mobile experience,” said TM Roh, head of Samsung’s mobile division. READ: iOS 26.4: What iPhone…

Key Facts LIT is a miners ETF it tracks lithium and battery companies, not the spot lithium price. Albemarle and SQM are the key names investors use them as liquid proxies for Lithium Triangle exposure. Chile, Argentina and Bolivia matter most the Lithium Triangle holds a large share of global identified lithium resources and remains the centre of Latin American supply. EV batteries still drive the story electric vehicles and energy storage remain the main demand engines for lithium. Spot lithium and lithium equities can diverge ETF and miner moves do not always match daily movements in the physical market. Today’s quoted closes are fixed LIT was…

Key Facts The S\&P Merval closed at 3,379,771 points, a jump of 2.98% that puts the index within striking distance of its recent highs. Banco Macro soared 5.4% and Grupo Galicia added 3.9%, leading a powerful rotation into domestic financial stocks. The peso weakened 0.33% to 1,483 per dollar, edging closer to its 52-week low as the managed crawling peg adjusts. Investors piled into the ‘Milei trade’, betting that a stabilising political backdrop will accelerate fiscal and energy reforms. Country risk remains elevated but directionally improved, as traders eyed signals of a more pragmatic reform path from the government. Today’s Focus Argentina’s S\&P…

Key Facts The S\&P IPSA, Chile’s benchmark stock index, rose 0.50% to 11,009 closing near the middle of a session that favoured retail and banking shares over mining heavyweights. The Chilean peso was virtually unchanged at 935.60 per US dollar a pause that left the currency 3.9% below its 52-week high as copper prices drifted sideways. Falabella, the department-store and financial services group, jumped 2.1% making it the best-performing blue-chip retailer on a day when consumer names led the market higher. Banco de Crédito e Inversiones, known as BCI, surged 3.2% the strongest daily gain among the large-cap banks, on turnover of $8 million. Lithium…

Samsung’s new Galaxy Z-series foldables have been officially unveiled, and pre-orders have also kicked off in Australia. We’ve covered Samsung’s pre-order offers through its Australian eStore here, but retailers and telcos across the country are jostling for your attention with their own pre-order deals. The best outright pre-order deals are direct from Samsung with up to AU$650 in savings, while the best telco deal is from Vodafone, with savings of up to AU$1,000. In case you missed the Galaxy Unpacked last night, you can check out our live coverage of the launch. As for the handsets themselves, you can also read our first impressions of the newly…

WALK-IN PURCHASES ALLOWED AT CAFE Unlike the Desker Road outlet, which operates mainly on a pre-order basis, customers can either walk in to purchase cakes at the VivoCity store, subject to daily availability, or place a pre-order online for self-collection or islandwide delivery. Bake It Babe opens on Jul 31 at #01-58 VivoCity, Singapore 098585. The bakery's other outlets are at 105 Desker Rd, Singapore 209627 and Level 3, Jewel Changi Airport, Singapore 819666. More info via website and Instagram. This story was originally published in 8Days. For more 8Days stories, visit

The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Abia State Sector Command, has commenced a special intervention patrol codenamed “Operation KWUSI IHE MBEREDE OKPOROUZO, as directed by its zonal Command Headquarters in Enugu. The operation, according to the FRSC, is part of strategic efforts towards achieving its 2026 corporate goal of reducing road traffic fatalities and injuries by at least 10 percent through intensified enforcement, public enlightenment, and stakeholder collaboration. Speaking on the commencement of the exercise, the Sector Commander, CC Ngozi I. Ezeoma, stated that the operation was designed to promote safer road use, reduce preventable…

By Oh Seok-min MANILA, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Foreign Minister Cho Hyun on Thursday called on North Korea to respond to Seoul's offers for dialogue and join efforts to promote peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula at a regional security forum in Manila, the foreign ministry said. Cho made the remarks during the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), a 27-member multilateral security forum attended by the 11 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states and major regional powers, including the United States, China, Japan and Russia. The ARF is the only regional multilateral security forum in which both South and North Korea participate, but…

President of the Dorowa Babuje Youth Council in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State, Pam Fom, was on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026, reportedly ambushed and shot by suspected Fulani militias a day after he granted an interview condemning an attack on the community by terrorists on Tuesday, where two youths were killed. Conflict journalist, Masara Kim Usman, who confirmed the attack on Fom in a post on his Facebook page on Thursday morning, said the youth leader was attacked on his way to a neighbouring community by gunmen suspected to be Fulani militias shortly after he had an interview with him where he openly condemned an earlier attack…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

A US attack on Iran’s Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq killed at least two and wounded 11 others on Thursday, state media reported. The strike is part of a wave of assaults targeting sites across the country for the 12th consecutive night.

Over the past day, on July 22, 261 combat engagements between the Ukrainian Defense Forces and Russian invaders were recorded on the front lines. According to Ukrinform, this information is contained in a Facebook post by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine regarding the situation as of 8:00 a.m. on July 23. The enemy launched two missile strikes, using three missiles, and carried out 78 airstrikes, dropping 267 guided bombs. In addition, the Russians deployed 9,923 kamikaze drones and carried out 3,085 shelling attacks on populated areas and Ukrainian military positions, including 48 using multiple launch rocket systems. The Defense…

Approximately 1,300 Israeli settlers, accompanied by Israeli forces, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound early on Thursday, the Jerusalem Governorate reported. The storming took place on Tisha B'Av, a holiday which commemorates the destruction of the two Jewish temples and the exile of Jewish people. Israeli forces imposed tight restrictions Jerusalem’s Old City, preventing Palestinians from entering the mosque and restricting them from its surroundings.

India-United States defence cooperation has acquired an unenviable reputation in strategic circles for generating ambitious political announcements that fail to translate into industrial outcomes. Over the past two decades, successive administrations in New Delhi and Washington have unveiled defence technology partnerships and industrial collaborations promising to transform bilateral military ties, only for them to become bogged down in protracted negotiations, export-control restrictions, technology-transfer disputes and differing commercial expectations. *India's Ambassador Kwatra meets U.S. Senator Sheehy, discusses defence ties* The irony is that…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

Piramal Realty Launches Phase 2 of Piramal Vaikunth with \~ ₹4,700 Cr GDV Potential MUMBAI, India, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Piramal Realty, the real estate arm of the Piramal Group, has launched Phase 2 of Piramal Vaikunth , its integrated premium residential community in Balkum, Thane , with a Gross Development Value (GDV) potential of approximately ₹4,700 Cr . The company has launched the first residential tower under Phase 2, offering thoughtfully designed 2 and 3 Bed residences within Piramal Vaikunth, located next to the 21-acre NaMo Grand Central Park. The total project investment for phase 2 is estimated at ₹3,600 Cr. The launch marks the…

Equipments belonging to farmers in Bushehr's Dashti county were struck by US missiles, Iranian state media reported. According to the Bushehr Deputy Governor, there were no casualties in the attack, with the extent of damage in the area currently under investigation.

Houthis target Saudi ships as Trump repeats threat to hit Iran’s bridges, power plants Yomna Ehab and Enas Alashray July 23, 2026 — 4:49pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Iran-backed Houthi militants said on Thursday they had struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea as part of a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, threatening to create a second choke point on global oil supplies alongside Iran’s near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the US military said it had launched another round of strikes on Iran at President Donald Trump’s direction, marking a 12th successive…

Hanwha Ocean's shipyard in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province / Korea Times photo by Kim Hyeong-joon Officials from a U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee visited shipyards in Korea operated by major shipbuilders earlier this month to inspect their capabilities to build warships, sources said Thursday. Eight officials from the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense toured the shipyard of Hanwha Ocean in Geoje, about 330 kilometers south of Seoul, on July 11, industry and government sources familiar with the matter told Yonhap News Agency. The same group visited the main shipyard run by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in the southeastern city of…

ATHENS, July 223(Reuters) - Greece's security council, KYSEA, is expected to give its final approval on Thursday for the purchase of a multi-layer air defence system from Israel, worth up to €3.5 billion ($4 billion), and several types of drones, two sources told Reuters. KYSEA gave its initial approval earlier this year and is expected to approve the procurement contracts, an official with knowledge of the deal told Reuters. Greece wants to build a multi-layer anti-ballistic, anti-aircraft and anti-drone system, called "Achilles Shield". Israeli radars and missiles from Rafael and IAI will form the core of the system. The Greek government has said it…

Over the past 24 hours, on July 22, Kharkiv and 15 other settlements in the Kharkiv region came under Russian attack; one person was killed and 11 others were injured. According to Ukrinform, Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, reported this on Facebook. In Kharkiv, six people suffered acute stress reactions. In the village of Zolochiv, a 57-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl were injured. In the village of Staryi Saltiv, a 52-year-old woman was injured, and a 30-year-old woman suffered an acute stress reaction. In Izium, a 63-year-old man suffered an acute stress reaction. In the village of Yurchenkove, part of the…

BELGOROD, July 23. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces have attacked Russia’s Belgorod Region nearly 160 times over the past 24 hours. One civilian was killed, and nine injured in the attacks, the region’s acting governor Alexander Shuvayev reported on Max. "Unfortunately, there were casualties. A civilian was killed in yet another targeted and brutal attack by Kiev terrorists in the Shebekinsky district.. \<...> In addition, nine people were injured in Belgorod, as well as in the Belgorodsky, Krasnoyaruzhsky, and Shebekinsky districts. Four of them are undergoing treatment in hospital," he wrote. The Ukrainian armed forces 157 times attacked the…

Latin America · Business Key Facts —The order. Grupo Abra selected 100 CFM LEAP-1A engines for 50 Airbus A320neo-family aircraft destined for Avianca. —Fleet impact. The deal brings Abra’s combined LEAP-powered fleet across Avianca and GOL to more than 650 aircraft. —Service scope. The package includes spare engines and a long-term service agreement covering both Avianca’s A320neo family and GOL’s Boeing 737 MAX fleet. —No disclosed value. Neither Abra nor CFM International released a dollar figure for the engine order and services agreement. —Existing base. Abra already operates CFM56-powered aircraft across its Avianca and GOL brands. Grupo Abra,…

(ATTN: ADDS paras 4, 7 with more details) By Kim Seung-yeon and Kim Hyun-soo SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Officials from a U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee visited shipyards in South Korea operated by major shipbuilders earlier this month to inspect their capabilities to build warships, sources said Thursday. Eight officials from the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense toured the shipyard of Hanwha Ocean Co. in Geoje, about 330 kilometers south of Seoul, on July 11, industry and government sources familiar with the matter told Yonhap News Agency. The same group visited the main shipyard run by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in the…

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday will visit the two Philippine Navy personnel injured during an encounter with the Chinese Coast Guard in the West Philippine Sea, according to Palace press officer Claire Castro. Marcos will also personally confer the Order of Lapulapu on the personnel and provide financial aid of P100,000 each, the Palace official said during a briefing. READ: Marcos condemns China Coast Guard assault at Ayungin Shoal “President Marcos Jr. expresses gratitude for the remarkable heroism of the two soldiers and their courageous defense of Philippine waters,” she said. Marcos condemned the incident at…

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, attends a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila, July 23. Reuters-Yonhap MANILA — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday in the Philippines for talks where he was expected to renew the prospect of the U.S. trying to broker an end to the war in Ukraine. The U.S. and Russia did not immediately provide details of the meeting on the sidelines of an annual gathering by foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast…

On the night of Wednesday, July 23, a group of drones attacked an oil refinery in the Ulyanovsk Region of the Russian Federation. According to Ukrinform, this was reported by the ASTRA Telegram channel. On the night of July 23, residents of the Ulyanovsk Region reported explosions. The region’s governor, Oleksiy Rusykh, stated that drones had attacked an energy facility in the Novospassky District and that a fire had broken out. According to ASTRA’s analysis of eyewitness footage, the “NS-Oil” oil refinery in the district town of Novospasskoye was attacked. NS-Oil CJSC is a small oil refinery that receives, prepares, and processes crude oil to produce…

Firefighters battle a blaze at a Coupang logistics center in Incheon, Tuesday. Yonhap The dayslong fire at a Coupang logistics center in Incheon has highlighted growing fire safety challenges, as factories and warehouses become increasingly automated and rely on lithium-ion battery-powered robots, raising concerns that existing safety standards may not be keeping pace. Fire officials said one of their top priorities during efforts to contain the blaze at the site was preventing flames from spreading from the sixth floor, where the fire began, to the fifth floor, where hundreds of lithium-ion battery-powered warehouse robots were housed. They estimated…

British Airways jet carrying 180 passengers at 170mph comes within feet of smashing into illegally-flown drone near Windsor Castle By ANDY YOUNG Published: 12:34 EDT, 22 July 2026 \| Updated: 03:12 EDT, 23 July 2026 A British Airways plane came within a split second of smashing into an illegally-flown drone close to Windsor Castle, a report has revealed. The A320 jet carrying up to 180 passengers and flying at 170mph was on its final approach to Heathrow when the co-pilot saw the ‘small blue drone’ from the cockpit. The co-pilot who was in the right hand seat reported that the drone was ‘very close’ and certainly within 50ft – the equivalent of a…

The option for railway passengers to book excess luggage will be integrated into the online ticket reservation system from July 31. The image is used for representative purposes only. \| Photo Credit: K.V.S. GIRI Railway passengers carrying baggage beyond the prescribed free allowance will soon be able to book excess luggage online while reserving their tickets, eliminating the need to visit parcel offices for luggage van bookings. The facility follows a Railway Board decision permitting passengers to book personal luggage, within the prescribed maximum limits, for carriage in reserved compartments. The option to book excess luggage will be integrated…

A police investigator examines the body of a 31-year-old delivery driver in Barangay Vintar, Valencia City. The victim was gunned down next to his truck on Wednesday afternoon, July 22, 2026, following a road dispute. Photo courtesy of Valencia CPS CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — A request to share the road took a fatal turn Wednesday afternoon when a 31-year-old delivery driver was gunned down following a traffic altercation in Barangay Vintar, Valencia City in Bukidnon. The incident happened after the victim, traveling in an Isuzu Elf truck along Kapalong Road toward San Fernando, encountered a motorcycle allegedly not in the proper lane. According to the…

A major accident was averted after the loco pilot of the Banaras-Mumbai LTT Express applied emergency brakes after spotting an iron pipe on the tracks between Iradatganj and Link Station in Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Thursday (July 23, 2026). The train, travelling from Varanasi to Mumbai, was brought to a halt around 9 p.m. on Tuesday (July 21, 2026) after the obstruction was noticed on the track. The loco pilot immediately alerted railway authorities. North Central Railway (NCR) Chief Public Relations Officer Shivam Sharma said the pipe appeared to have been thrown onto the tracks. It was hollow and rusted, he said. The Railway Protection Force…

The Nigerian Navy has uncovered nine illegal refining sites and recovered about 104,000 litres of products suspected to be stolen crude oil during an operation in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State. The operation was carried out by personnel of the Forward Operating Base, FOB, Bonny under Operation DELTA SENTINEL following actionable intelligence, the Navy said in a statement posted on its official X account on Thursday. According to the Navy, the operation targeted illegal refining infrastructure hidden within the Wakama/Bolo and Aworkiri communities, preventing suspected crude oil thieves from expanding their illicit refining activities.…

Assam Minister Keshab Mahanta inspects the flood-affected area, in Nazira, Assam. File \| Photo Credit: PTI Not all flood-related deaths in Assam are due to floodwaters, State Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Keshab Mahanta said, adding that some drown or are washed away because of their “flood curiosity”. As of Wednesday (July 22, 2026), 41 people lost their lives during the current wave of floods since June, according to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA). At least 31 died in the last 48 hours, mostly in eastern Assam’s Sivasagar, Charaideo, and Jorhat districts. “I have interacted with many victims during my tour of the…

One dead and residents evacuated as wildfires engulf Sicily, dozens injured in Italy hailstorms, and more news on Thursday. One dead and residents evacuated as wildfires engulf Sicily Italian firefighters on Thursday were battling numerous forest and bush fires in Sicily, where temperatures exceeding 40°C in some areas and gusts of hot wind were fanning the flames, AFP reported. A 59-year-old firefighter died of a suspected heart attack during efforts to put out a blaze in San Cataldo in central Sicily, according to national broadcaster Rai, while a colleague was taken the Sant'Elia Hospital in Caltanissetta. Around 100 residents and 22 patients from…

Josh Gill, United Cajun Navy Incident commander, and meteorologist Amy Metz provide firsthand accounts of dangerous Texas flood rescues, as two people have died. They emphasize improved preparedness compared to the previous year's tragic Camp Mystic floods, which killed 28. The Guadalupe River rose 32 feet in four hours, highlighting the need for vigilance. NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! An Arkansas police officer drowned after entering a river to save his fiancée just hours after proposing to her, according to her mother. Fred Marsh, 24, of the Rogers Police Department, entered Missouri’s Elk River on Saturday to help another swimmer and…

SINGAPORE – Seven people died in work-related traffic accidents in the first half of 2026, including four platform workers. This is double the number of platform worker fatalities recorded for the whole of 2025, said Minister of State for Manpower Dinesh Vasu Dash on July 23. The deaths are “deeply concerning”, he said, even though a few fatal accidents were caused by other road users. In an address at the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Conference, Dinesh said workers face greater risks from spending long hours on the road. The WSH Council has reminded employers to address key risks, including vehicular safety and hazards arising from routine…

Wildfires swept across parts of Italy, France and Spain on Wednesday, killing three firefighters and forcing thousands to flee as scorching temperatures and strong winds fuelled the blazes. The fires come as southern Europe endures another spell of severe heat, with temperatures topping 40C in some areas. Scientists agree that climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is making extreme weather events such as fires and heatwaves more likely and more severe. In Sicily, around 6,000 firefighters, forest guards and civil protection officials battled dozens of fires that have raged for days across the Mediterranean island. Regional president…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

SINGAPORE – Motorists should expect road closures and traffic delays on July 25, in view of the upcoming National Day Parade (NDP) 2026 National Education show and preview. The closures will affect key routes leading to and around the National Stadium, where the third NE show and first preview will be held. These will take place during designated periods between 7am and 11pm, said the police in a statement on July 23. Access will only be granted to authorised vehicles, as well as police and emergency vehicles, the police said. Police officers, auxiliary police officers, security officers, and Singapore Armed Forces marshals will be at the affected…

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) warned Thursday that around 6,900 barangays nationwide face high risk of flooding and rain-induced landslides over the next three days due to Tropical Depression Kiyapo. Kiyapo, located 875 kilometers east of Northern Luzon as of 11 a.m, is forecast to further intensify into a tropical storm, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration. READ: ‘Kiyapo’ nears country: Northern Luzon areas under Signal No. 1 Based on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Mines and Geoscience Bureau list of hazard-prone areas, the National Capital…

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said that they targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, claiming the vessels had violated a ban imposed by the group. Saudi Arabia's state media later confirmed that one of its vessels were struck and the bow of the ship caught fire, with a source adding that all crew members onboard Encelia were safe.

Wildberries: Huge fires as Zelensky launches new attacks on Russian warehouses Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of…

President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday directed all federal, provincial and localauthorities to intensify coordinated preparedness, rescue and relief measures in view of the ongoing monsoon rains. According to a press release issued by the President’s Secretariat, the president directed authorities to “intensify coordinated preparedness, rescue and relief measures as the country enters a critical phase of the monsoon season, with increasing rains raising the risk of flash floods, cloud bursts, glacial lake outburst floods, landslides, river flooding and urban flooding in vulnerable areas”. He also “expressed deep sorrow over the loss of precious lives…

A fierce wildfire near Bordeaux in south-west France has led to the evacuation of a further 7,000 people on Thursday, bringing the total number of tourists and residents moved to 12,000, local authorities said.

Woongjin Foundation Chairman Shin Hyon-ung, front row sixth from left, Woongjin Group Chairman Yoon Seok-keum, front row center, and former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, front row fifth from left, pose with students during a mentoring event of Woongjin Foundation's summer scholarship program at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Woongjin Foundation The Woongjin Foundation held its annual summer mentoring session for math scholars at the Korea Press Center in Seoul on Thursday, marking the foundation's 18th anniversary. Established in 2008 by the Woongjin Group, the organization provides academic support to high…

There are a lot of people who think they know what science is, what science tells us, and how to evaluate claims based on their scientific merits. But are their assessments accurate? How do you, yourself, conceive of science? Do you do what most people do, and default to what you learned about science across a variety of classes in school, with a layer of cynicism and skepticism layered atop it? That’s understandable, as many of us remember being taught “facts” in our science classes that later were shown to be — if not completely incorrect — at least “not as they seemed” at the time. It’s as though, somewhere along the lines, many of us were taught…

SYDNEY — A group of killer whales have been documented blowing a sunfish to bits in an unusual underwater escapade offering never-before-seen insights into orca behavior, according to research released Thursday. Video released by the US-based NGO Beneath The Waves shows one orca holding the tail of a sunfish, with its fellow whale then charging with full force into the rotund mola, which explodes into pieces. The sunfish is already dead — this isn’t an elaborate murder ritual. READ: Killer whales spotted grooming each other with seaweed Instead, it might be an attempt to turn the fish into smaller bite-sized […]...Keep on reading: Killer whales: orcas…

SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's science minister expressed willingness to promote investments in local companies from U.S. big tech firms, ahead of his planned trip to Silicon Valley later Thursday. The key point of the visit will be to "strengthen cooperation so that big tech companies can invest in South Korea," Minister Bae Kyung-hoon told reporters after a meeting with chief executive officers (CEOs) of local telecom operators held in central Seoul. Discussions will center on artificial intelligence (AI) cooperation and market expansion, AI data centers and semiconductors, he added. Bae also said he plans to use the trip to promote South…

Central University of Karnataka Vice-Chancellor Prof. Battu Sathyanarayana addressing newly-admitted research scholars at a seminar on Research and Publication Ethics, in the university on July 22, 2026. \| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Honesty, integrity, originality and ethical conduct are the cornerstones of quality research and the foundation of a successful academic career, Vice-Chancellor of Central University of Karnataka (CUK) Professor Battu Sathyanarayana said on July 22. He inaugurated a workshop on Research and Publication Ethics (RPE) organised by the Central Library for newly admitted research scholars at the university’s Central…

MANILA, July 23 (Yonhap) -- An international heritage body adopted a decision Thursday calling on Japan to adequately reflect the "whole history" of the Sado mine, which was linked to the wartime mobilization of Korean laborers, Seoul's foreign ministry said. UNESCO's World Heritage Committee adopted the decision without amendments or discussion on its draft during the 48th committee session held in the southeastern South Korean city of Busan, according to the ministry. This AP photo released July 27, 2024, shows the Sado gold mine complex in Japan's Niigata prefecture on March 12, 2023. (Yonhap) When approving the inscription of the mine as a World…

The managing director of one of Switzerland’s most prominent euthanasia firms died while climbing Mount Fuji during a family vacation. Bernhard Sutter, 58, collapsed while ascending Japan’s tallest mountain with his son via the Fujinomiya route – the shortest, most direct way up the mountain. At around 3010 meters above sea level, he felt unwell and stopped at a mountain hut, where he lost consciousness and stopped breathing. Staff sprung into action using a defibrillator to rouse him. He briefly began breathing again, but his condition rapidly worsened. Rescuers transported him to a local hospital where he ultimately died. Sutter, who lived in Zurich…

PLC Resources has lit up a pair of compelling gold stories at its Abbotts North project in Western Australia’s Murchison region, with maiden reconnaissance drilling sniffing out a potential gold system at its Rochefort prospect. Additionally, a new airborne survey has unveiled a major, untested regional target corridor right next door. The company’s first-pass reverse circulation drilling at Rochefort returned anomalous gold up to 0.4 grams per tonne (g/t). Whilst the grades themselves are relatively low, it’s the associated geology and geochemistry that has caught management’s attention. Reverse circulation drilling at PLC Resources’ Rochefort…

For mine closure, we have dedicated funds worth $5 billion, or approximately ₹40,000 crore from the Ministry, G. Kishan Reddy said. \| Photo Credit: The Hindu Scientific mine closure is a national priority, and the government has allocated approximately ₹40,000 crore for scientifically closing completely-extracted coal mines, stated G. Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of Coal and Mines Wednesday. Speaking at the signing of the implementation agreement with Germany’s GIZ for cooperation in the realm of mine closure, he stated, “For mine closure, we have dedicated funds worth $5 billion, or approximately ₹40,000 crore from the ministry.” The Coal Ministry…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

In July 2024 marine biologist Kathryn Ayres was shark diving in the Gulf of California when she and her crew spotted a pod of orcas. Sensing a rare viewing opportunity, the team followed the pod by boat. Eventually and from a respectful distance, Ayres hopped in the water to get a better look at the whales. Everything that happened next was captured on camera—and to Ayres, it was shocking. Not far below the surface, she saw an adult female orca holding a dead sharptail sunfish—one of the ocean’s largest bony fish—in her mouth. The fish’s internal organs had already been hollowed out. And then, suddenly, a male orca soared into view, belly up, and…

Orcas have once again proven they deserve their 'killer' reputation, as scientists capture a brutal never-before-seen behaviour. Researchers recorded the moment orcas rammed into a fish so hard that it exploded into thousands of tiny pieces. What makes this gruesome strategy even more impressive is the fact that their target was a sunfish, one of the largest and heaviest fish in the world. Sunfish can grow up to three metres long and weigh up to two tonnes, but that didn't stop a pair of orcas from popping it like a balloon. This unusual behaviour was first spotted in 2024 by marine biologist Dr Kathryn Ayres, a scientist at Beneath The Waves, in the…

There have been numerous accounts in recent years of orcas ramming boats—and sometimes sinking them. Scientists believe this may be a form of culturally learned behavior passed down through generations. Now we have fresh examples: orcas in the Gulf of California were filmed teaming up to ram sunfish with so much force that the carcasses exploded into small fragments. While orcas have been known to use force to remove flesh from prey, this is something different, according to a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Ethology. “We think this may help younger orcas feed more easily, or it could also just be for fun,” said co-author Kathryn Ayres…

Orcas have been observed ramming into giant fish so hard that the prey explode, possibly as a form of gory entertainment. On several occasions, orcas were observed to hold sunfish in their jaws while a second whale smashed into the target at high speed, causing it to break into thousands of pieces. Since the fish had already been killed, scientists suggested the behaviour may represent a form of play. Dr Kathryn Ayres, a scientist at non-profit organisation Beneath The Waves, said: “We think this may help younger orcas feed more easily or it could also just be for fun. Orcas are known for playing with their food.” Ayres captured the first fish-ramming…

Despite living their entire lives in the water, killer whales share a lot in common with humans. Research out today shows that some can pull off the sort of antics you’d expect to see on an episode of Jackass. For the first time ever, marine scientists have documented orcas (Orcinus orca) ramming into an already dead fish and blowing it into pieces. The mysterious behavior may be a sign of parental assistance among these killer whales or an example of these creatures having a good time. “We propose that this ‘ram-to-fragment’ behavior may have multiple functions, including facilitating foraging for juvenile orcas or reflecting play behavior,” the…

Video Captures Orcas Ramming a Sunfish So Hard It Explodes. The Mysterious Behavior Might Be a Form of Play or Juvenile Care In two incidents documented in Mexico’s Gulf of California, orcas worked together to blast sunfish into smithereens after they had killed the enormous animals A new study documents two incidents of orcas breaking sunfish into pieces. Screenshot via Héctor Franz. Ayres et al., Frontiers in Ethology, 2026, under CC BY 4.0 A female orca gripped the back end of a sharp-tail sunfish in her mouth, holding relatively still as she stabilized the animal in front of her body. Kathryn Ayres, a research scientist with the nonprofit Beneath…

One of the ocean's most intelligent and aggressive predators has once again surprised scientists with a curious new behavior. In the Gulf of California, researchers witnessed orcas working together to smash dead sunfish into bits — a suspected food processing technique that makes it easier for younger whales to feed on the enormous bony fish that weigh up to 4,400 pounds (2,000 kilograms). In two separate encounters, one orca gripped a sharp-tail sunfish (Masturus lanceolatus) while another orca charged toward the fish. The first whale released the carcass just before impact, allowing its companion to slam into the fish at high speed and scatter…

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Despite the bloody picture painted in the movie Jaws, the real king of the ocean is not the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). It’s the orca whale (Orcinus orca). These skilled hunters stalk their prey in a variety of ways, from hydroplaning onto the sand to grab seals to corralling fish into big bait balls for a snack. A group of…

Previously the staff writer for physical sciences at Science News, Maria Temming is the assistant managing editor at Science News Explores. She has bachelor's degrees in physics and English, and a master's in science writing.

On camera, the moment looks almost cartoonish. A female orca holds a dead sunfish steady by its tail. A second orca comes in fast and rams it. The impact is so violent that the sunfish's tissue doesn't just tear; it bursts apart into thousands of drifting fragments, as a pillow struck hard enough to blow its stuffing everywhere. Off camera, the researcher filming can be heard reacting, a muffled, unmistakable sound of surprise. Researchers had never documented orcas ramming prey this way. Once the fragments began drifting, a juvenile moved in and started eating them. “We think this may help younger orcas feed more easily, or it could also just be for…

A holiday has been declared on July 23 for anganwadis, primary and high schools in Dandeli and Joida taluks of Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka because of heavy rainfall. The respective tahsildars issued the order as a precautionary measure. Deficit monsoon in Karnataka Overall, Karnataka seems to have received less rain than normal. The cumulative storage in the four reservoirs in Karnataka’s Cauvery basin – Harangi, Hemavati, KRS and Kabini – accounts for just 52% of their full storage capacity as of now. Of this, the storage at KRS is particularly poor as it accounts for a mere 35% of its full capacity. The inflows too are poor as KRS reported…

Yeouido Hangang Park Swimming Pool / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government As summer temperatures peak across the Korean peninsula, the municipal government is taking a bold gamble on the economic potential of the midnight hour. On Thursday, city officials unveiled a major initiative to transform the banks of the Han River into a bustling, 24-hour cultural ecosystem, anchoring the capital’s broader bid to build a thriving nighttime economy. At the center of the initiative is "Han River Bamping"—a portmanteau of the Korean word for "night" and the English word "camping"—a monthlong pilot program launching in August that will place up to 200…

Over the next several hundred million years, Earth could face numerous unexpected consequences, all due to the distance slowly yet steadily developing between the planet and its only moon. In what is coming to be defined as one of the most precisely known physical quantities in all of contemporary planetary science, the Moon is moving away from Earth at the speed of 3.83 centimetres annually, with a formal uncertainty of approximately 0.09 millimetres. The number is based on the current best interpretation of five decades of lunar laser ranging data. It has been directly measured, thousands of times over, from multiple observatories on three…

Sarah Duell, head of sustainability at the Land Registry, said the staff "really love it". Initially, there were concerns that the land might "look a bit of a mess". "But we got together and talked about the fact that it's going to be pieces of the grass rather than the whole grass," she said. "Once it got going, we had a little look around and started to see some of the insects and some of the butterflies coming to the areas that we have left to go wild. "It was really, really exciting for us and for the office in general." Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North.

Hotels are booking out two years in advance in the New Zealand city of Dunedin as it prepares for the region’s first total solar eclipse in more than 850 years. At 4.17pm on 22 July 2028, the moon will pass in front of the sun, casting a roughly 100km-wide shadowy band across parts of southern New Zealand. Everywhere within that band – from tourist hotspot Queenstown in the west to Dunedin city in the east – will be plunged into daytime darkness for 2 minutes and 51 seconds. Despite there being two years still to go, hotels are already fielding booking inquiries, including the Dunedin Leisure Lodge, which by Thursday was fully booked for its “solar…

Alpine glaciers, wild coastlines, temperate rainforests, and deep river valleys coexist on the Olympic Peninsula in the northwest corner of Washington state. Surrounded by blue waters, peaceful islands, and bustling population centers, its rugged interior remains a relatively remote bastion of wilderness. The Olympic Mountains’ imposing terrain comes into focus in this oblique view of the region, captured by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. The image is a composite, made of several sequential, overlapping photos fused together into a panorama. Olympic National Park encompasses the peninsula’s mountainous core, along with some…

Global gold heavyweight Gold Fields has fired up the drill rig at Great Southern Mining’s high-priority Mt Dillon copper-gold target in north Queensland, putting one of the company’s most exciting exploration plays to the test. Gold Fields is bankrolling the 1300-metre program under a farm-in agreement where the mining giant can spend up to $15 million to earn a 75 per cent interest in the expansive Edinburgh Park project. Diamond drilling underway at Great Southern Mining’s Mt Dillon prospect in northern Queensland. The project itself sits in a monster gold province 100km south of Townsville, a region known for its large-scale epithermal and…

MANILA, Philippines — Tropical Depression Kiyapo slightly accelerated as it moved northwestward over the Philippine Sea east of Northern Luzon on Thursday morning, while Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 1 remained hoisted over parts of Northern Luzon. In its 11 a.m. bulletin on Thursday, July 23, PAGASA said Kiyapo was estimated at 830 kilometers east of Northern Luzon, with maximum sustained winds of 45 kilometers per hour near the center, gustiness of up to 55 kph and a central pressure of 1002 hectopascals. The tropical depression is moving northwestward at 25 kph. Wind signals. The following areas remain under Signal No. 1: Batanes Cagayan,…

Collagen is a protein found in skin, hair, nails, tendons, cartilage, and bones. Our bodies naturally produce collagen using the foods we eat. But, in recent years, collagen peptides have gained popularity as a supplement to support joint, hair, skin, and gut health. A new study led by Jennifer Fields, assistant professor of nutritional sciences in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR), provides evidence in favor of yet another application for collagen peptides – protecting female runners' bones. The study was published in Frontiers in Nutrition. Bone health is a significant concern for endurance runners because, by the…

Dalaroo Metals says it has peered into the depths beneath the surface of its Blue Lagoon rare earths project in Greenland and liked what it saw, with a geophysical survey confirming unconsolidated sediment packages up to 50 metres in thickness. A total of twenty-one ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey lines were completed across five priority shoreline target areas, offering the first detailed, three-dimensional picture of the project’s sedimentary basin. Eastern sediment-filled valley interpreted as a source-to-sink transport pathway into the basin at Dalaroo’s Blue Lagoon project in Greenland. The work, combined with an echo sounder survey, has…

Hello, this is Priyanka Salve, writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to the latest edition of"Inside India"— your one-stop destination for stories and developments from the world's fastest-growing large economy. On Saturday, Indian space-tech startup Skyroot successfully test-launched a low-orbit rocket carrying a payload of 350 kilograms, marking its entry into the global satellite launch market dominated by American and Chinese companies. I caught up with the co-founder of Skyroot to unpack what's next for the country's first space tech unicorn. Any thoughts on today's newsletter?Share themwith the team. The big story The demand forsatellite…

The winners of this year's international astrophotography awards have been revealed, with stunning images taken across the world wowing judges. The awe-inspiring photos were taken as part of the David Malin Awards, which showcase the finest images taken of the night sky. The awards, named after British-Australian astronomer and astrophotographer David Frederick Malin, are run by the Central West Astronomical Society in New South Wales, Australia. Malin, now 85, is known for discovering the gigantic spiral galaxy - aptly named Malin 1 - in 1986, as well as his colour images and photographic processing techniques of astronomical objects. Malin used…

MANILA, Philippines — Tropical Depression Kiyapo maintained its strength early Thursday as it moved west-northwestward over the Philippine Sea east of Central Luzon, with Signal No. 1 in effect over parts of Northern Luzon. In its 5 a.m. bulletin on Thursday, July 23, PAGASA said Kiyapo was located 950 kilometers east of Central Luzon, packing maximum sustained winds of 45 kilometers per hour near the center, gustiness of up to 55 kph and a central pressure of 1002 hectopascals. Kiyapo is moving west-northwestward at 20 kph. Wind signals. The following areas are under Signal No. 1: Batanes Cagayan, including Babuyan Islands Isabela Apayao Abra Kalinga…

Lower Hutt primary school students have successfully launched and retrieved a weather balloon which went high into the atmosphere. A group of 10 pupils at Maungaraki School launched a high-altitude balloon (HAB) on Tuesday from their school field. The balloon recorded video with two 360-degree cameras, longitude, pressure, altitude and temperature during the flight, which the children used to map out its path in 3D. Each of the pupils had a role, from looking after the trackers and electronics to wiping the camera lenses. Armed with clipboards and enthusiasm, they milled about getting everything ready for the launch and recovery. One student, Angad…

False rocket launcher report terrifies pilot landing at New York City's LaGuardia Airport A Delta Airlines pilot coming in to land a flight with more than 100 people on board faced terrifying moments over LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday night after an anonymous caller falsely reported a rocket launcher on the ground. Tom Hanson has the story.

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu — Several areas in Northern Luzon have been placed under Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal (TCWS) No. 1 as tropical depression “Kiyapo” nears the country’s landmass, the state weather bureau said. As of 5 a.m. Thursday, July 23, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) raised the wind signal over the following: In its daily forecast, Pagasa said it raised the wind signal 36 hours ahead of the expected strong winds as a precaution, even though the affected areas had yet to feel their effects. READ: Potential tropical depression may enter PAR in 12-24 hours Strong […]...Keep on reading:…

Shatner told Fox News Digital it's only natural to focus on different things at different stages in life. NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! William Shatner and his 61-year-old daughter revealed this week that the two of them battled cancer at the same time several years ago. Melanie Shatner Gretsch first discovered her cancer four years ago when she woke up in the middle of the night and felt a little lump on her breast that she thought might be a bug bite. She told People magazine she decided to have it checked out despite a mammogram not finding anything just five months before. DAVE COULIER REVEALS 45-POUND WEIGHT LOSS, GRUELING SIDE…

There's nothing more disorienting than falling asleep in transit only to wake up and find you've somehow drifted billions of miles beyond the orbit of Pluto. Fortunately for NASA's New Horizon spacecraft, which scientists just awakened from a nearly yearlong hibernation at the solar system's edge, all systems are in "good health," according to a NASA statement. Now, with the probe recovered from its 321-day sleep and beginning to transmit science data again, New Horizons appears ready to continue its mission of studying the mysterious boundary where the sun's realm ends and interstellar space begins. "Every status report through this hibernation…

HELSINKI — A classified satellite launched by China in June is operating in a creative orbit, giving it a unique vantage point over the geostationary belt. Shijian-31 launched on a Long March 3B June 16 from Xichang spaceport, with navigation warnings and the launch vehicle type suggesting an insertion into geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite was later tracked in a specialized Molniya orbit, joining China’s two Shiyan-10 satellites and TJS-13 and TJS-21. However, the concept of a traditional Molniya orbit has been applied by China in a manner never seen before, according to outside analyses. Analysis by Integrity ISR and a recent followup by…

The world's most powerful solid-fuel rocket just aced its third-ever mission. Gravity-1, a distinctively squat and stubby rocket, launched Tuesday night (July 21) from the deck of a ship stationed off the coast of Shanghai. Liftoff occurred at 10:54 p.m. EDT (0254 GMT and 10:54 a.m. Beijing time on July 22), according to the state-run Chinese outlet Xinhua, which further reported that all nine satellites reached "their designated orbits." Details about those satellites were not provided. Orienspace's Gravity-1 rocket launches nine satellites to orbit from a ship at sea on July 21, 2026. (Image credit: CCTV) Gravity-1 is operated by Orienspace, a…

'Do not consume' warning issued for milk sold in major supermarkets - it's laced with 'veterinary antibiotics' By CIARAN FOREMAN, HEALTH REPORTER Published: 03:26 EDT, 23 July 2026 \| Updated: 03:36 EDT, 23 July 2026 Britons have been urged not to drink a popular milk over fears it is contaminated with animal medicines including penicillin. Health chiefs have announced that Graham's Family Dairy is recalling batches of its semi-skimmed milk, with a best before date of July 31. The recall noticecovers England and impacts one pint cartons, one litre cartons, and two litre cartons. Graham's supplies major supermarkets such as Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

Former governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, has dismissed any form of insinuation that he might contest for the Presidency of Nigeria. Fashola disclosed that he’s the president of his home and can’t run for the highest political office in Nigeria. The All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain, who spoke on Beyond The Headlines on TVC, also noted that he doesn’t miss public office. Asked if he would contest for the president of Nigeria, Fashola said: “No, president of what, I’m president at home. I don’t miss public office because I have seen and done it. “There is a sense now that one can look back and say you were lucky to have done it when…

The World Cup is sadly over and while it was a glorious five weeks of excitement, it's no doubt left many people – mostly men – concerned about their beer bellies. As a nation, we love a drink, but football turns the dial up on our consumption. During each England game around 8million pints were consumed across the country. For many, this will have added to the merriment of the occasion, but it will have also put a strain on livers, mental health and, crucially, waistbands. Beer, after all, is filled with calories. But just how dangerous is a so-called beer belly? And is it any worse than carrying weight elsewhere on the body? As a GP, there is one…

Authorities have warned against unscrupulous traders attempting to sneak undocumented hogs into Bohol province. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol — Authorities have warned against unscrupulous traders attempting to sneak undocumented hogs into Bohol province. The warning came as law enforcers intercepted 40 undocumented hogs from Cebu that were shipped into Bohol through Getafe town, the second such incident within a week. The unauthorized shipment was intercepted on July 19 along the shoreline of Barangay San Jose, Getafe, after authorities received information about the arrival of an illegal livestock shipment. Article continues after this…

Dengue is a viral fever caused by the dengue virus, which is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected Aedes mosquitoes. These mosquitoes breed in stagnant water like pails, vases and flowerpot plates. They are most active during daylight hours and usually bite just after sunrise and around sunset. Many people who get dengue do not develop symptoms. For those who do, the most common symptoms include high fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, nausea and rashes. These usually resolve within a week or two. In severe cases, however, dengue can lead to internal bleeding or even death. Those who get infected a second time are at a greater risk…

The Hospital at Maayo hosted a two-day forum dedicated to elevating the standard of care, awareness, and prevention for breast and women’s cancers. The two-part event, which took place on July 10th and 11th, 2026, invited an international oncologist, top local medical specialists, patient advocacy groups, and survivors to address the critical medical realities and emotional journeys associated with women’s health. Both forums were made possible through the major sponsorship and co-presentation of Pacific Cross Philippines, a leading medical and travel insurance brand under Paramount Life & General Insurance Corporation (PLGIC), highlighting the…

Koreans are living longer, healthier lives than almost anywhere else in the industrialized world, even as the nation operates with one of the most severe shortages of practicing physicians among developed economies. According to new data released Thursday by the Ministry of Health and Welfare based on the OECD Health Statistics 2026, life expectancy in Korea reached a record high of 83.7 years. The figure places the nation comfortably above the OECD average of 81.2 years and just behind Switzerland, which leads the 38-member bloc at 84.2 years. The statistics reveal a health care ecosystem defined by extraordinary access and world-class preventive…

Students at Alpha to Omega Learning Centre, a school for children with learning disabilities in Chennai \| Photo Credit: PICHUMANI K The Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2025-26 report has raised concerns about Children With Special Needs (CWSN) enrolled in schools, whose numbers have remained stagnant over the past eight years despite initiatives to get more of them enrolled. As per the data, there were 21.66 lakh CWSN in schools, a number that has remained fairly constant over the years. While one could argue that the overall number of children enrolled in schools has also remained fairly the same, the other question to be…

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that he would expect India to be “concerned” after US President Donald Trump announced that Washington would impose 200% tariffs on generic drugs from August 2028, Forbes reported. Generics are non-branded medicines with the same active ingredients as other drugs already authorised for sale. Rubio was asked whether India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had brought up the proposed tariffs during their meeting in the Philippines’ Manila. “I mean, not with me, we did not get into depth on pharmaceuticals today,” Rubio told a reporter. “Obviously, I would expect them to be concerned…

A 14-day UK study suggests that differences between workday and weekend sleep schedules may be linked to when people consume energy, with the clearest pattern seen later in the evening. Study: Social jetlag predicts greater evening energy intake in a UK cohort. Image Credit: PawelKacperek / Shutterstock In a recent study published in the journal npj Biological Timing and Sleep, a group of researchers examined whether social jetlag is associated with the timing of daily energy intake across weekdays and weekends among healthy adults in the United Kingdom. Background Nearly half of the general population may experience more than one hour of social…

An ancient molecule that existed long before the blood circulation system evolved, has been found to support cancer immunotherapy. Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan found that complement C3 protein acts inside tumors to prevent the accumulation of immunosuppressive cells, but only when produced inside the tumor. C3 circulating in the blood did not affect treatment outcomes. Published in Nature Communications, the findings suggest that artificially recreating this effect can help patients with tumors that do not naturally produce enough of this protein. C3 protein is extremely old in evolutionary terms and present in simple organisms such as…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

From cellular recycling to cognitive aging, spermidine is drawing scientific interest, but the evidence needed for routine human use is still emerging. Study: Geroprotective insights into the natural metabolite spermidine in aging and age-related diseases. Image Credit: Corona Borealis Studio / Shutterstock In a recent 'Article in Press' review published in the journal npj Aging, researchers reviewed mechanistic, preclinical, and clinical evidence to evaluate the geroprotective properties of spermidine. Spermidine is a ubiquitous natural polyamine and caloric restriction mimetic, essential for cellular proliferation and tissue homeostasis. Review…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

We live in an age of the camera. The camera as reporter captures the serious and the mundane, the beauty and the beast, the decent and the pornographic. Those who intuitively and consciously understand the visual language, aesthetics and logic of photography have been translating the world they know into compelling stories. And these translations into images of human thoughts and experiences, of faces and places, of ideas and events, have had huge impact on humanity. Laura Morton, a San Francisco-based award-winning documentary photographer, says that cameras are tools of exploration and passports to the deep. And Mary Golon, Assistant Managing Editor…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

Quality sleep is emerging as one of the most important pillars of brain health, with neurologists warning that increasing screen time, chronic stress and irregular sleep patterns are contributing to cognitive decline and raising risk of neurological disorders. On World Brain Day, observed on July 22, doctors say sleep is not merely a period of rest but a critical biological process during which the brain repairs itself, consolidates memories and clears metabolic waste accumulated during waking hours. Vikram Huded, president of the Indian Stroke Association and Director and Clinical Lead of the Interventional Neurology Programme at Narayana Health…

A thymus-derived peptide reduced inflammatory immune activity and improved immunotherapy responses in aged mice, suggesting a potential strategy to address age-related barriers to cancer treatment. Study: Thymulin restrains age-associated myeloid inflammation and enhances cancer immunotherapy. Image Credit: Lightspring A recent study published in the journal Nature Communications suggests that thymulin, a thymus-derived peptide, may suppress age-related myeloid cell inflammation and enhance responses to anti-programmed death-ligand 1 (anti-PD-L1) immunotherapy in aged mice with breast tumors. The researchers found marked enrichment of pro-inflammatory…

Origin Energy customers’ addresses, phone numbers and partial bank account data have been accessed in a hack, the company has confirmed. The company has 4.8m customer accounts in Australia, providing electricity, natural gas, LPG, and internet services to homes and businesses. Origin has yet to confirm which and how many customers had been affected. In a statement to the ASX on Thursday, it said it would tell customers once it confirmed they had been impacted. Origin said impacted data may include customers’ names, addresses, dates of birth, contact phone numbers and Origin account information, as well as the last four digits of a credit card, or the…

ExpressVPN has launched passkey sign-in for passwordless logins Passkeys are more resistant to phishing, but passwords remain a backup The feature arrives as part of a redesigned ExpressVPN+ dashboard One of the best VPN providers is retiring the password, at least as a requirement. ExpressVPN has added passkey sign-in, giving users a way to get into their account without typing anything at all. Instead of a password, you sign in using the screen lock already on your device, such as a fingerprint or face scan. That means nothing extra to remember and nothing to key in each time. The change was announced on Tuesday (July 21) and is part of a wider…

Four disgraced Hong Kong police officers have lost their appeal against convictions and jail terms for framing a homeless man for drug possession and destroying evidence of the cover-up six years ago. In a written judgment on Thursday, the Court of Appeal said the officers must have intended to pervert the course of justice when they tried to obstruct surveillance cameras while colleagues fabricated evidence against a street sleeper during an anti-drug operation on February 4, 2020. The three presiding judges rejected the officers’ claims that they did not intend to prejudice subsequent legal proceedings and that tampering with surveillance footage…

On a sultry Saturday evening in May, I took the elevator to the 18th floor of The Ritz-Carlton, Pune, home to Agave Lounge, touted as India’s first bar dedicated entirely to agave spirits. Opened in January 2025, the plush, mood-lit space overlooks the city’s skyline and neighbouring golf course. Most guests had gravitated to the hotel’s rooftop bar, Aasmana, leaving Agave Lounge surprisingly quiet. It only reinforced the question I had come to answer: Is India ready for a bar built around a single spirit? The Agave Lounge at The Ritz-Carlton, Pune \| Photo Credit: Special arrangement According to the International Wine and Spirits Record (IWSR),…

Police have dismissed a reported online threat against a Grade 6 pupil of the Sto. Niño Special Education (SPED) Center in Tacloban City as a false alarm, the latest in a series of incidents that have heightened security concerns in schools across the city following a deadly campus shooting last month. INQUIRER FILES TACLOBAN CITY — Police have dismissed a reported online threat against a Grade 6 pupil of the Sto. Niño Special Education (SPED) Center here as a false alarm, the latest in a series of incidents that have heightened security concerns in schools across the city following a deadly campus shooting last month. The Tacloban City Police Office…

Origin Energy confirms data breach has exposed customer information Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Origin Energy, the largest Australian power and gas company, has confirmed that a hacker has gained unauthorised access to some customers’ private information, including names, addresses and partial credit card and bank account numbers. The company said on Thursday it was still working to determine how many customers were affected by the cybersecurity breach, and was contacting customers individually once it was confirmed their information had been comprised. Origin Energy is…

Yiaga Africa has published its pre-election analysis regarding the current circumstances in Osun in anticipation of the upcoming governorship elections next month. According to Yiaga’s report, the integrity of the governorship election is at risk, noting an increase in the distribution of money or gifts by candidates or their supporters to voters. Yiaga Africa said that its findings conducted between 14 and 29 June 2026, recorded numerous occurrences of cash and gift distribution by political figures and their supporters during campaign events and community interactions. The report made available to reporters in Abuja further stated that while some of…

Watch Commonwealth Games 2026 live streams as Josh Kerr, Emma Finucane and Adam Peaty headline a star-studded cast ready to shine across 11 days in Glasgow. More than 3,000 athletes from 74 nations will compete for 215 gold medals across 10 sports (16 disciplines, including para sports), with the opening ceremony at the OVO Hydro indoor arena kicking off the festivities. Keep reading to discover how to watch Commonwealth Games 2026 online from anywhere – starting with those FREE options. Can I watch Commonwealth Games 2026 for free? Yes! Commonwealth Games 2026 will be streamed live and free in many countries around the world, with the best…

The Greater Chennai Traffic Police (GCTP) said as many as 43 accidents involving delivery personnel were recorded in the city in 2025, and four workers were killed in these accidents. Speeding, mobile phone use while driving, signal jumping, and rash driving were the main reasons for these accidents. A senior police officer said that in Tamil Nadu, 536 people died in 2024 in such accidents, while the figure came down to 496 in 2025, marking a decline of around 40 deaths. A resource person of the Transport Department said there are no specific details on the deaths of gig workers. Union Road Transport Ministry guidelines stipulate that only the gender…

SEREMBAN, Negeri Sembilan – Malaysia will not be intimidated into changing its decades-old policy of not allowing Israeli nationals into the country, said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on July 22. He said Malaysia was also not in contravention of any international laws for having such a policy in place. “I would like to respond to the United States lawmakers, some of them at least, who stated categorically that Malaysia is in contravention of international laws and was disrespectful of the rights of nations. “This is totally absurd because, as far was we are concerned, this policy has been adopted by […]...Keep on reading: Malaysia will not bow to…

SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- The ruling Democratic Party (DP) on Thursday proposed a bill requiring police to record the entire investigative process in a bid to ensure transparency as the party pushes to strip the prosecution of its supplementary investigative authority. Under the bill, police and prosecutors will be required to log details of each stage of an investigation in an interagency criminal justice information system, along with evidence collected during the investigation and materials relevant to sentencing. The names, positions and affiliations of the investigators, as well as officials in charge of directing the investigation, will also be…

Over 1400 CU Law Students Undergo Internship at Supreme Court, High Courts, Top Law Firms \& Judicial Institutions in 2025-26 CHANDIGARH, India, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- With early career guidance and practical legal training being provided by Chandigarh University (CU) to its law students, four CU students have secured coveted positions as Civil Judges cum Judicial Magistrates and over 244 have been hired by various corporate law firms and legal branches of top law firms and private companies, in the past four years, in addition to hundreds of students practicing law in various courts including High Courts and Supreme Court. Chandigarh…

As child-free spaces continue to grow rapidly, a group of non-profit leaders, researchers and artists argue for Le Monde that the youngest members of society should not be seen as a nuisance to be tolerated, but as a valuable presence to be welcomed.

France follows Australia’s lead, where since December 2025, a similar ban has been put to effect. \| Photo Credit: Reuters The story so far: Years since whistleblowers first sounded alarm over social media companies pushing harmful and addictive content towards children, France, on Tuesday (July 21, 2026), became the first European Union (EU) nation to legislate a blanket ban on social media access to children under 15 years of age. The ban had been a key priority on French President Emmanuel Macron’s agenda since his second term in office. “The brains of our children and our teenagers are not for sale,” he had said in a video message earlier this…

Russia is preparing false-flag provocations targeting NATO countries in an attempt to undermine allied trust in Ukraine. According to Ukrinform, Andrii Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, stated this on Telegram. "Russia is preparing false-flag provocations against NATO countries. In particular, it may use drones disguised as Ukrainian ones to carry out attacks against the Baltic states as well as provocations against Poland in order to undermine trust in Ukraine," Kovalenko wrote. He added that Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) is responsible for planning these…

The provincial government of Northern Samar is pushing for a policy on the use of mobile phones and other electronic devices in public and private elementary and secondary schools during class hours. TACLOBAN CITY- The provincial government of Northern Samar is pushing for a policy on the use of mobile phones and other electronic devices in public and private elementary and secondary schools during class hours. The officials cited concerns over distractions, cyberbullying, cheating, and exposure to inappropriate online content. The proposed “Provincial Learner Focus and Digital Wellness Ordinance of 2026” seeks to establish a stronger local framework…

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with details; CHANGES photo) SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Investigators raided the headquarters of the National Election Commission (NEC) on Thursday after detecting evidence some of its employees manipulated data to cover up errors in turnout rates during the June 3 local elections, legal sources said. The raid marks a new development in the ongoing investigation into ballot shortages reported on Election Day, as intentional data manipulation would constitute a far more serious crime than simple negligence on the part of election management officials. Investigators on a prosecution-police task force enter the National Election…

Officials of the police-prosecution joint investigation team raid the National Election Commission's headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. Yonhap The joint police-prosecution investigation team raided the National Election Commission (NEC), Thursday, as part of its probe into the ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections, saying it had uncovered evidence that election officials manipulated statistical data to conceal errors. Investigators said working-level officials in charge of local polling stations rigged voter turnout figures to cover up discrepancies in ballot counts. The raids targeted NEC headquarters in Gwacheon,…

Andrew and Tristan Tate style themselves as close confidantes of Barron Trump and are banking on presidential support to fend off extradition to the UK on rape and sex trafficking charges. But a MAGA insider tells the Daily Mail the Tate brothers are 'delusional' if they think the First Family are going to come rushing to their defense. The influencer siblings were arrested by US Marshals over the weekend after British authorities hit them with dozens of historic rape and sexual exploitation charges. The brothers have denied any wrongdoing in response to all charges against them. The alleged victims claim they were pinned down, violently abused and…

SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Investigators raided the headquarters of the National Election Commission (NEC) on Thursday to secure evidence in a widening probe into ballot shortages during the June 3 local elections, legal sources said. Prosecutors and investigators on a prosecution-police task force executed a search and seizure warrant at the NEC office in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, after detecting evidence some watchdog employees manipulated statistics in their computer system to cover up errors in voter numbers. Ballot shortages were reported at multiple polling stations on election day, forcing some voters to turn back without casting their…

Lenovo has revealed more details about an upcoming Legion gaming handheld that could be among the thinnest and lightest devices in its category. The Legion C700 will measure just 14.99mm at its thinnest point and weigh approximately 556 grams, or around 1.25 pounds. By comparison, Lenovo’s Legion Go S is 22.6mm thick and weighs about 730 grams, while the ASUS ROG Ally X measures 24.7mm and weighs 678 grams. Trimming these figures down should make the C700 much easier to hold for long periods and carry in a bag. But all of this portability comes at a cost–and that’s cloud gaming. Plenty of controls in a surprisingly thin body Lenovo The Legion C700 has…

‘Makes me sick to my stomach’: Students speak out about strapping scandal Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Boarders at a prestigious regional school at the centre of a “strapping” scandal were pressured to keep quiet about the claims, an independent investigation has found. Ballarat Grammar last year expelled two senior boarders over allegations that junior students – some as young as year 7 – were assaulted as part of a hazing culture going back decades that included beatings with straps. Ballarat Grammar School.Joe Armao On Thursday, the school released a report by workplace…

Ahead of the August 15 governorship election in Osun State, media executives and other stakeholders have been urged to create platforms that amplify the voices of Persons with Disabilities, PWDs, on political participation and increase media content focusing on their rights and electoral privileges. The appeal was made during a reflection meeting on media inclusivity in Osun State, organised by the Centre for Media and Society, CEMESO, the International Press Centre, IPC, TAF Africa and the Nigerian Women Trust Fund, NWTF, in Osogbo on Wednesday. The gathering brought together media executives, regulators and leaders of PWDs to discuss inclusive…

I'm not usually a fighting game person, but Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is my jam. Partly because it's superheroes, partly because it looks absolutely beautiful. And with the Marvel Tōkon beta dates coming up, our chance to finally play it is almost here—the previous playtest was exclusive to PS5, the greedy buggers. Below, I'll go over when you can websling into the open beta and what you can expect to have access to. While the full release is only a month away, this beta doesn't reveal everything you'll find on launch day. For one, we're missing a few fighters. When is the Marvel Tōkon beta? The Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls beta runs for just three…

NEW DELHI: As a young barrister in Ahmedabad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel spent his evenings at the Gujarat Club, where he would play bridge and smoke cigars, and it was there that he first heard about a man named Gandhi returning from South Africa, dismissing him as a "crank" at the time. It wasn't until Gandhi successfully organised the Champaran Satyagraha in 1917 that Patel took him seriously, abandoned his European suits and card games, including bridge, and joined the freedom struggle. It's a detail very few know about a game very few in India play these days, at least not the way they used to. Bridge is a mind sport, just like chess. Both are…

Industry executives have said 1 gigawatt of computing power, enough to power roughly 750,000 ‌U.S. homes, can cost ​around $50 billion [File] \| Photo Credit: REUTERS Advanced Micro Devices has signed a deal ​with artificial intelligence startup ‌Anthropic for tens of billions of ​dollars worth of ⁠AI servers and will invest up to $5 billion in the company, ‌the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The agreement ‌covers up to 2 ‌gigawatts ⁠of AMD’s next-generation Instinct MI450 ⁠chips, with deliveries set to begin in the first half of 2027, ​the report ‌said. Industry executives have said 1 gigawatt of computing power, enough to power roughly…

Right on the heels of launching its anticipated Steam Machine gaming system, Valve has rolled out a solid update for Steam that tackles two things players have wanted improved for a while: gifting and wishlists. Let’s break down what’s new. How much easier is gifting now? My favorite part of the update is that game gifting is getting a lot easier. Guest checkout used to only work for gift cards and hardware, but now it covers every game on Steam. If someone shares their wishlist with you, you can buy them a gift without ever creating an account. Valve Want to keep it a surprise instead? You can now send both games and gift cards straight to an email…

As a married father-of-two from Wales who has worked in the lottery industry for two decades, he may at first seem a relatively unremarkable man. But you can bet your bottom dollar that there is no one you would rather see walking up the pathway to your front door than Mr Andy Carter. For he is the National Lottery's 'fixer', an instantly likeable and cheery adviser who has helped guide more than 2,500 winners on how to manage a total of £4billion worth of sudden wealth. Since starting out in 2006, Andy has helped teenagers, centenarians and everyone in between following a win of anything between £50,000 and £195million. The 54-year-old who lives in…

The SM Group received 24 awards from Corporate Governance Asia, a quarterly business publication based in Hong Kong. Corporate Governance Asia recognizes corporations in the region, “which demonstrate excellence in governance, sustainability, investor relations, and corporate leadership in an increasingly complex global operating environment.” SM Investments Corporation. (SMIC), the parent company of SM Group, received eight awards, including Sustainable Asia Award, Best Corporate Social Responsibility, Best Corporate Communications, and Best Investor Relations. BDO Unibank, the SM Group’s banking arm, received nine awards, while SM Prime Holdings…

Japan ’s largest convenience store operator has issued a warning to its 7-Eleven franchisees nationwide that unauthorised resale of merchandise featuring popular anime and game characters may be rampant, multiple sources close to the matter said on Thursday. Some owners and employees have been caught setting aside merchandise before its release or buying up large quantities to sell on resale sites. Such activity is seen as a betrayal of consumer trust and likely to call into question the governance structure of store operations. The company, Seven-Eleven, sells items such as Pokemon cards at the discretion of its franchisees and offers paid lotteries…

Topline The Powerball jackpot rose to $600 million—the second biggest lottery prize of the year so far—after no tickets matched all six numbers drawn on Wednesday night, although the eventual winner will take home a much smaller payout after taxes and deductions. The Powerball Jackpot rose to $600 million. Getty Images Key Facts The six numbers drawn on Wednesday night were 4, 5, 22, 50, 58 and Red Powerball 1. If a winner emerges in the next draw, they can choose between taking the $600 million split across 30 annual installments or a one-time cash prize of $266.4 million—the preferred option for most winners. If the lump-sum payout is chosen, the…

A total of 125 Indian athletes will compete at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, which will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from July 23 to August 2. The squad includes 77 male and 48 female athletes across sports disciplines, including para sports. India will be represented across 13 disciplines - eight able-bodied sports and five para-sports - with hopes of adding to its rich Commonwealth Games medal tally. India's events at Glasgow 2026 Indian athletes will compete in athletics, boxing, weightlifting, judo, artistic gymnastics, track cycling, bowls and swimming. The country's para-athletes will take part in para-athletics, 3x3 wheelchair basketball,…

A Korean lottery winner, center, poses after claiming the top prize in Vietnam's Vietlott lottery. Captured from Vietlott's Facebook page. A Korean living in Vietnam has won the country's largest-ever lottery prize claimed by a foreigner, taking home a jackpot worth about 102.8 billion Vietnamese dong, or approximately 5.8 billion won (about $4.2 million), according to local officials. Vietnamese media outlet VN Express reported Tuesday that state-run lottery operator Vietlott awarded the winner, identified only as Mr. A, the top prize in its Power 6/55 lottery. The odds of matching all six winning numbers were approximately one in 28.9 million. Mr.…

BTS member V appears in HiteJinro's new global campaign for Jinro / Courtesy of HiteJinro HiteJinro is turning to one of Korea's biggest cultural exports, BTS member V, to expand Jinro's reach worldwide with a new campaign aimed at making the soju brand a more familiar presence in consumers' everyday lives. The company said Thursday it launched its first global campaign featuring V, titled "My Favorite JINRO," as part of efforts to communicate the brand's values to consumers around the world. The campaign began with the release of its main advertisement Thursday and will continue with digital content, consumer participation events and offline…

Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Dongdaemun, Seoul / Korea Times file When Design Miami first touched down in Asia last year, it offered a focused lens on the region’s creative output. This autumn, the world’s premier fair for collectible design — limited-edition, museum-quality furniture and functional art — returns to Seoul in a vastly expanded format, signaling the city’s rapid transformation into an indispensable global capital for contemporary art and design. The Seoul Design Foundation said Thursday that Design Miami Seoul 2026 will run from Sept. 1-6 at the landmark Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), following a VIP preview on Aug. 31. The event…

All Elite Wrestling Credit: All Elite Wrestling For the final Wednesday before Redemption, AEW Dynamite aired from Nashville on TBS, serving as the final stop before the July 26 pay-per-view. It also marked AEW's last pay-per-view build before All In. While more matches were expected to be added to Redemption, Dynamite was headlined by a star-studded trios match featuring Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay and Jon Moxley. Two championships were also on the line. Kevin Knight defended the TNT Championship against Darby Allin, while Divine Dominion put the AEW Women's World Tag Team Championships on the line against Julia Hart and Skye Blue in a No…

Cinerama Dome to Reopen in Early 2028 as Sony Deal Revives Iconic L.A. Theater The Hollywood ReporterHollywood’s iconic Cinerama Dome gets reopening timeline KTLASony Revives Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles as Box Office Sales Rebound The New York TimesCinerama Dome, an iconic Hollywood theater shuttered by COVID pandemic, will reopen AP NewsSony and Alamo Drafthouse announce plans to reopen the iconic Cinerama Dome Los Angeles Times

BTS member V appears in HiteJinro's new global campaign for Jinro / Courtesy of HiteJinro HiteJinro is turning to one of Korea's biggest cultural exports, BTS member V, to expand Jinro's reach worldwide with a new campaign aimed at making the soju brand a more familiar presence in consumers' everyday lives. The company said Thursday it launched its first global campaign featuring V, titled "My Favorite JINRO," as part of efforts to communicate the brand's values to consumers around the world. The campaign began with the release of its main advertisement Thursday and will continue with digital content, consumer participation events and offline…

John Romero, the co-founder of id Software and co-creator of Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein 3D, has been confirmed as the headline keynote speaker for this year's Gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show, to be held in Bangkok this October. The industry veteran's planned keynote, to be titled "Why We Still Make Games", promises to "reflect on a lifetime of building games, overcoming setbacks, and navigating decades of industry change." And presumably, unsuccessful attempts at making people his bitch. Doom co-creator John Romero. While Romero left the Doom development studio some three decades ago, he recently took to social media to express his support for…

The Singapore outlet, which opened in September 2025, is one of the few official Mugiwara Stores outside Japan. Other international stores include an outlet in Shanghai, China, and an upcoming one in Los Angeles, USA, in late 2026. The store sells merchandise from the hit manga and anime series, including keychains, plush toys, apparel, stationery and replicas inspired by various characters such as Monkey D Luffy, Nami, Tony Tony Chopper and Trafalgar Law. Within its first month in Singapore, the store drew long queues of fans eager to buy official One Piece merchandise without having to travel to Japan. Up until a day before the closure announcement,…

Cebuana Lhuillier reinforced its leadership in content marketing excellence by earning five awards at the Content Marketing Awards Asia-Pacific 2026, hosted by MARKETECH APAC, making it the most awarded Philippine company at this year’s competition. The recognition underscores the company’s success in delivering impactful campaigns that strengthen brand engagement, advance financial inclusion, and drive measurable business results. “At Cebuana Lhuillier, every campaign begins with a clear purpose—to create meaningful value for the Filipinos we serve,” said Jean Henri Lhuillier, President and CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier. “Whether we are advancing…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

SECURITY Talking smack about a doctor got him access to private medical files Who needs a working security badge when you know how to talk your way into the records room? PWNED Welcome back to PWNED, the weekly column where we focus on security own-goals so you can avoid them. This week’s topic involves serious problems in the healthcare sector, specifically the very human problem of compromised gatekeepers. Have a story about someone leaving a gaping hole in their network? Share it with us at pwned@sitpub.com. Anonymity is available upon request. Our legend of lameness comes courtesy of red teamer Dahvid Schloss, who shared so many great stories with…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

Scroll through Instagram Reels or Reddit for five minutes and you're bound to spot it: a video of a packed metro car, a facial-recognition camera on a street corner, an AI chatbot writing someone's breakup text, or a child staring blankly at a screen, all captioned with some version of "we are officially living in a dystopian nightmare ." The phrase has become one of the internet's favourite punchlines, hashtags, and think-piece openers. But behind the meme-speak lies something more interesting: a genuine psychological pattern in how humans process rapid, unsettling change. First, What Does "Dystopian" Actually Mean? A dystopia is the opposite of a…

React, Meta's open-source library for building user interfaces, has merged a Rust port of the React Compiler into its main repository, a move aimed at faster builds and tighter integration with the wider Rust-based JavaScript toolchain. The React Compiler, formerly known as React Forget, automatically memoizes components and hooks so developers no longer need to reach for useMemo and useCallback by hand. The pull request rewrites that compiler from TypeScript to Rust, and the team describes it in the PR itself as "an experimental, work-in-progress port." The headline figures relate to performance. As a drop-in Babel plugin the Rust version runs around…

Vijayapura MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal felicitated journalists on Media Day celebrations in Vijayapura on July 19, 2026. \| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT The Karnataka Union of Working Journalists’ district unit celebrated Media Day in Vijayapura on July 19. Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, MLA, inaugurated the event. He spoke against the menace of fake news. “The trend of some journalists spreading fake news on social media platforms is increasing. They are a danger to society and need to be regulated. I have written a letter to the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting urging action against journalists who are spreading fake news on online…

This has been one of my biggest annoyances working with Python and pip when dealing with projects where that are not meant to be installed as a package, how do you handle dependencies? Think projects like application backends, python scripts, REST APIs etc If you’ve ever struggled with this, you’re going to love this: a PR by Sebastian Höffner opened #13895 will add a new global flag to pip such that you can directly install any dependencies in your pyproject.toml without installing the package itself. pip install --only-deps . This is going, for me at least, be a huge boost in the way that I manage and distribute my projects on servers. Vastly…

Cruller: a production-focused Bun runtime ported to Zig 0.16 Cruller is a fork of the last Zig-based Bun release, reduced to the parts needed to run already-built production JavaScript servers and ported to vanilla Zig 0.16. Repository: GitHub - solenopsys/cruller: fork of Bun · GitHub The project keeps JavaScriptCore, Bun.serve, HTTP/1-3, WebSockets, fetch, streams, Blob, Request/Response, static serving, and the module resolver for pre-built JavaScript. It removes the package manager, bundler/transpiler, shell, test runner, most CLI dispatch, N-API, SQL clients, archive support, and other development-oriented subsystems. The interesting part of the…

The one piece of career advice I’m giving everyone right now is to get a side project. AI is changing how software gets made, and the best way to upskill yourself (and your team, if you have one) is to design and build something end-to-end. In the last nine months I’ve learned more, and at a faster pace, than in any period of my career. That’s because I’ve been building things. I made a web app that helps parents deal with school emails (more on that in a future newsletter). I built Pegs Out, an app that helps you work out if you should hang your laundry out to try today. And I have a second iOS app which will be out in the next few weeks. Every one…

The co-founder of Hugging Face, a technology start-up that was hacked after some of OpenAI's most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models went rogue, said on Thursday that the incident is "a wake up call" for the industry. Thomas Wolf told the BBC that "this will be one of the most common types of cyber attacks we see", but that most companies are not aware that the "game has changed". The BBC has contacted OpenAI for comment. The ChatGPT-maker said on Tuesday that its AI models broke out of a secure test environment during a trial and launched a cyber attack. The firm said the incident was "unprecendented" and that it was conducting an…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine. There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown. An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous…

People who used Windows 7 and earflier version would remember "My Computer". It's called "This PC" now a days but does the same job. You click on the icon, and it opens the file explorer and shows you the meta folders (Documents, Pictures, Downloads, etc.) and all the drives on the system and any other mounted devices. Windows 8 My Computer This is useful for many people to see all the locations in the system at a glance. On the Linux side, GNOME used to have Other Locations page in Nautilus file manager. It served as a central place where you could access network shares, cloud storage such as Google Drive, removable drives, and even your root…

Warning: this library is still under active development and the API may change. libhandler implements algebraic effect handlers in C. It works by capturing stacks in safe and portable manner. Algebraic effects handlers can for example be used to program asynchronous code in straightline manner and we hope to use it to make programming with libuv more convenient. This library is described in detail in the accompanying technical report. For a primer on algebraic effects, see the relevant section in the koka book. Enjoy! -- Daan. Building libhandler consists of generating a static C library that can be linked in your own projects. libhandler is written…

BENGALURU, India , July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- What began as occasional weekend plans is increasingly becoming a lifestyle choice for urban Indians. According to insights from Alive App, India's AI-powered platform for curated lifestyle experiences, consumers are actively seeking meaningful experiences closer to home, signalling a broader shift in how leisure time is being spent. The company's latest platform data shows that more than 90% of bookings are for local experiences , with consumers increasingly choosing activities located within driving distance of their cities over conventional entertainment or short-haul travel. Rather than travelling…

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you're a veteran. Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically. By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a…

Professional gamer Lee Sang-hyeok, better known as "Faker," speaks after being appointed an honorary police officer and ambassador for a youth cyber gambling prevention campaign at the National Police Agency headquarters in Seoul on Wednesday. Yonhap Professional gamer Lee Sang-hyeok, better known as "Faker," has been appointed an honorary police officer and ambassador for a campaign aimed at preventing cyber gambling among teenagers in South Korea. The Korean National Police Agency said Wednesday that it appointed Lee as an honorary police officer and public ambassador for its youth cyber gambling prevention campaign during a ceremony at its…

Don't ask me what happened in any single episode of The Big Bang Theory, because I honestly can't remember. Across 12 seasons, a myriad of in-jokes, long-standing gags and endless scientific lore were created, and you can bet your bottom dollar that hardcore fans won't have forgotten a single thing. This level of detail initially made me nervous to try watching new HBO Max spinoff, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. Latest Videos From Our titular heroic lead, on-off girlfriend Denise (Lauren Lapkus), as well as friends Kripke (John Ross Bowie) and Bert (Brian Posehn), are brought back together when Stuart (Kevin Sussman) triggers a multiverse…

In this article, you'll build an accurate mental model of what a Container Network Interface (CNI) actually does. Not by reading YAML, but by doing every single step it does by hand with raw Linux kernel primitives. The Container Network Interface (CNI) is one of the great black boxes of Kubernetes. Most people who run clusters every day have never once looked inside it. They know the name of their CNI ("we run Calico," "we're on Cilium") the way you know the brand of the alternator in your car: as a label, not as a thing you actually understand. It lives at the very bottom of the stack, beneath the kubelet, beneath your pods, quietly moving every…

(ATTN: ADDS bond yields in bottom) SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Seoul stocks spiked by more than 4 percent on a tech rally following Alphabet's second-quarter earnings release. The Korean won rose against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed up 299.19 points, or 4.4 percent, to 7,096.89. Trade volume was moderate at 392.3 million shares worth 26.7 trillion won (US$18.2 billion). Winners outnumbered losers 829 to 73. "The KOSPI recovered to land at the 7,000-point level, helped by foreign investors who snapped up semiconductors," said Kim Joo-yun, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities. Foreigners were net buyers…

Teen sentenced for attempted school bombing, Sweden's 'rot month' begins, and other news from Sweden on Thursday. Teen sentenced for attempted school bombing An 18-year-old man has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for trying to kill an employee at an upper secondary school with a home-made bomb. The man built the bomb using instructions found on the internet and then placed it at an upper secondary school in Rättvik, Dalarna in January. He also used a 3D printer to build two weapons. The man was found guilty of one case of attempted murder, for breaking gun laws, breaking the law on explosive and flammable substances, and for attempted aggravated…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

Budgeting for a holiday can often feel impossible, especially when you have to account for flights, luggage, excursions – not to mention food and drink – for more than one person. Fortunately, some destinations are far more affordable than others, and a new Summer Holiday Value Index reveals where to jet off to if you want to save money without sacrificing a great trip. The research involved an analysis of 100 popular destinations, looking at average holiday prices, Google ratings and online reviews. Spain and Italy dominated the top spots, showing southern European hotspots like Florence, Milan and Seville are accessible to UK families looking for a…

UniCredit is aiming to acquire Commerzbank in the fourth quarter, the CEO of the Italian bank told CNBC in an exclusive interview. Speaking with CNBC's "Europe Early Edition," UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel said the bank is happy with its position in Commerzbank, with the bank now closing in on full control of the German lender, having upped its stake to 48%. Orcel said the Italian bank is firing on all cylinders, having raised its full-year guidance after posting its best-ever second-quarter and first-half results Thursday. An acquisition of Commerzbank could occur "potentially" in the fourth quarter, "maybe later," Orcel told CNBC's Carolin Roth. "That…

Half of surveyed economists still expect the Bank of Japan to wait until December to bump its benchmark interest rate higher, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government seen as a key obstacle to further action, according to a Bloomberg survey. Some 50% of 52 economists selected December as the most likely timing for the next move after the BOJ raised the rate last month, according to the poll. Another 40% said it would come in October. Takaichi is known to support monetary easing, and her government’s influence will be a deterrence for the board to proceed along the path toward policy normalization, according to 59% of the respondents. An…

(ATTN: ADDS additional info in paras 3-5, bottom; CHANGES photo) SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Seoul stocks spiked by more than 4 percent on a tech rally following Alphabet's second-quarter earnings release. The Korean won rose against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed up 299.19 points, or 4.4 percent, to 7,096.89. Trade volume was moderate at 392.3 million shares worth 26.7 trillion won (US$18.2 billion). Winners outnumbered losers 829 to 73. "The KOSPI recovered to land at the 7,000-point level, helped by foreign investors who snapped up semiconductors," said Kim Joo-yun, an analyst at Mirae Asset…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

China’s durian imports rose 47 per cent, year on year, in the first half of 2026, with Thailand and Malaysia posting particularly strong gains, according to customs data, as Southeast Asian exporters offloaded a glut of the fruit that had sparked a price drop. Thailand exported nearly US$3.79 billion worth of the pungent spiky fruit shipped to China in the first half of 2026, the Chinese customs data showed, taking an 81 per cent share of the market . Thai shipments reached US$2.56 billion in the first half of 2025, also nearly 81 per cent of the total. Vietnam came in second place over the first six months of 2026 with US$846 million, or 18 per cent,…

Yves here. Please welcome Ruben Bauer Naveira, who was not only so kind as to send his article on the imminent food crisis to us but also updated it in light of the changing conditions in the Iran war. Even though this site, like many many others, warned early on that reduced fertilizer supplies and high energy costs, particularly of diesel, would translate into higher food costs. The added whammy of a super El Nino means even greater harvest shortfalls, bigger price increases for staples, and not just widespread hunger but starvation. Yet like many, we’ve been engaging in a bit of “drunk under the streetlight” behavior. Public officials and following…

(ATTN: RECASTS headline; UPDATES throughout) SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung said Thursday that there is broad consensus on the need to raise property holding taxes, reaffirming his commitment to "normalizing" the runaway real estate market. The president made the remarks at a public discussion on real estate policy as the government prepares to revise real estate taxes to rein in soaring home prices. The discussion, which was televised live, brought together around 140 participants, including YouTubers, internet users, real estate agents and representatives from the financial, media and academic sectors, along with Prime Minister…

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. Total investment in Russia's rare earth metals separation production is expected to reach 400 bln rubles ($5.13 bln) by 2030, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov told Vesti journalist Maria Kudryavtseva. "These are capital-intensive projects that require government support. For our part, we will provide assistance through the cluster investment platform, including by subsidizing interest rates on loans," he explained. Manturov also added that the compensation mechanism will also cover the cost of manufactured products, including oxides supplied to end users.

Brazil · Business Key Facts —H1 2026 attributable profit. €8.97 billion (US$10.3 billion), including a €1.9 billion gain from the Poland sale. —Underlying profit. €7.33 billion (US$8.4 billion), a 15% jump from the same period last year. —Revenue growth. Total revenue rose 6% year-on-year to €30.85 billion (US$35.3 billion). —Profitability metric. Return on tangible equity (RoTE) reached 17.4% for the half-year. —Brazil’s role. The Brazilian subsidiary was the group’s No. 2 profit contributor, behind only Spain. Santander closed the first half of 2026 with an attributable profit of €8.97 billion, equivalent to roughly US$10.3 billion at the period’s…

Brazil · Business Key Facts —Extrajudicial recovery filed: Oncoclínicas submitted its plan on 14 July 2026 to renegotiate roughly R$5.1 billion (US$1.01 billion) in financial debt. —Goldman Sachs exit: The US bank sold its stake after 11 years, stepping away as the company entered formal creditor negotiations. —Patient care unaffected: Consultations, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy continue normally; the process targets financial creditors, not clinical operations. —Creditor support: Holders of about 37% of the covered debt have already signed on, enough to begin the court-approval timetable. —What comes next: The company must secure broader creditor…

Brazil · Business Key Facts —Net profit. R$ 264.4 million (US$ 52.4 million), down 6.2% year on year. —Revenue. Record R$ 694 million (US$ 137.4 million) in the second quarter. —Mall sales. Totaled R$ 5.9 billion (US$ 1.17 billion) across the portfolio. —Occupancy. Average occupancy held firm at a high 96.4%. —Tax credit. A R$ 253 million (US$ 50.1 million) PIS/COFINS credit lifted reported figures. Multiplan, one of Brazil’s largest shopping-mall operators, reported record quarterly revenue and robust occupancy on Thursday, yet its shares fell as investors balked at a year-on-year profit decline and the uneven quality of the earnings beat. Brazilian…

As the UK-India Free Trade Agreement comes into force, Invest Manchester, the inward investment agency for Greater Manchester, is positioning Manchester as the UK’s premier destination for Asia-Pacific manufacturers seeking to expand into the UK and European markets. The landmark agreement, which came into force on 15 July 2026, is projected to increase annual UK-India bilateral trade by £25.5 billion by 2040. With tariff reductions on advanced machinery and manufacturing-related goods, the agreement presents new opportunities for APAC manufacturers, with Manchester offering a strategic location from which to capitalise on this growing trade…

Retailers in Japan are offering a wide range of eel products to attract consumers ahead of Sunday’s Day of the Ox, a traditional day for eating nutritious grilled eels to fight the summer heat. Two major supermarket chains cut prices for their mainstay grilled eel items after a bountiful fry catch last year. Aeon Retail sells large kabayaki grilled eels weighing 156 grams at ¥2,180 ($13), down ¥500 from a year earlier. Starting Friday, the company will offer a choice of larger eels weighing 300 grams. “The price cut will give a good opportunity for many people to enjoy eels,” an Aeon official said. Ito-Yokado will begin on Saturday sales of unajū rice…

ServiceNow, the U.S. enterprise software company known for automating workflows like IT service management and HR operations, is betting on an Indian banking software specialist to deepen its push into global financial services. The company has invested $40 million in BusinessNext, valuing the 24-year-old Indian firm at $700 million and taking a roughly 5% stake. The deal gives BusinessNext access to ServiceNow’s global sales network as the companies expand their partnership in AI for financial services. ServiceNow’s investment reflects BusinessNext’s growing profile beyond India. The profitable, Noida-based company, which generated about $32 million…

Foreign tourists converge inside the grounds of Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, July 16. Yonhap Nearly seven years after global travel ground to a sudden halt, Korea’s inbound tourism market has not merely rebounded — it has decisively expanded past its historical benchmarks. According to data released Thursday by the Korea Tourism Organization, nearly 2 million foreign visitors arrived in June, marking a 23.1 percent increase compared to the same month last year. More significantly, the total of 1.99 million visitors represents a striking 35 percent surge over prepandemic levels recorded in June 2019, underscoring the enduring global appetite for Korean…

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. The MOEX Index with additional IMOEX2 ticker added 0.34% as morning trading session opened on the Moscow Exchange on Thursday to 2,143.34 points, according to trading data as of 7:00 a.m. Moscow time (4:00 a.m. GMT). As of 7:10 a.m. Moscow time (4:10 a.m. GMT) the MOEX Index was up by 0.21% at 2,140.49 points. The Moscow Exchange resumed its morning trading session on the Equities and Derivatives markets on January 27, 2025.

Funds approved by President Bola Tinubu to support the operations of agencies under the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation have been frozen for more than a week without any official explanation, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt. The funds were earmarked for agencies such as the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Voice of Nigeria (VON), National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), all of which are supervised by the ministry. PREMIUM TIMES could not independently verify the total amount approved by the president about three weeks ago to support the…

Senator Rufai Sani Hanga, a former political ally of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and the Kwankwasiyya movement, has attacked Kwankwaso, expressing dismay over what he described as flimsy reasons for denying him the opportunity to contest for any political office. Hanga, who spoke during a radio programme in Kano, said, “How can Kwankwaso cite my age and health condition to deny me the chance to contest for the position of deputy governor or my Senate seat?” He boasted that, “As of today, I’m healthier than Kwankwaso. His frequent references to my leg condition are nothing but a sham that cannot stand. Let me tell you, on age, he is two years older than I…

The top diplomats of Japan and China have had their first exchange since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments about possible Japanese military intervention in a Taiwan crisis in November. Speaking on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations-related meetings in Manila on Thursday, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters that he had spoken briefly with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, a day earlier. “We had a brief opportunity to exchange greetings and discuss bilateral relations,” Motegi said.

Pakistan on Thursday expressed “disappointment” with the European Union’s (EU) recent report that pointed out issues in Pakistan’s compliance with its commitments under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+). The report was issued as part of the European Commission’s global assessment of the GSP during the 2023-2025 period. It said Pakistan had “regressed in a number of areas while positive change was limited”. Responding to a query during a weekly press briefing on Thursday, Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Andrabi appreciated the report’s “acknowledgement of Pakistan’s legislative progress” and its continued compliance with 27…

Taoiseach Micheál Martin is to meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Thursday as pressure mounts on Ireland over alumina exports. The two leaders are expected to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine and how Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU can support Ukraine’s sovereignty. Martin will also meet Ukraine’s new prime minister Serhii Koretskyi, former head of state energy company Naftogaz, who was appointed last week during a controversial government reshuffle. Zelenskiy has cited Koretskyi’s record in the energy sector and said he was best prepared to guide Ukraine through another winter, when Russian attacks on the power…

Sixteen councils still without a coalition, four months on July 23, 2026 Photo: Depositphotos.com See more DutchNews articles in your Google search results See more DutchNews articles in your Google search results Add as a favourite source on Google Add DutchNews as a favourite source on Google Sixteen Dutch councils still have not formed a government coalition 126 days after the local elections on March 18 – the highest number ever recorded, according to local government news site Binnenlands Bestuur. The summer recess will add another 30 days, meaning coalition talks in those councils will have run for more than 150 days. The average formation now…

MANILA, Philippines — After telling the prosecutors in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial not to be one-sided, Sen. Robin Padilla followed up by reminding them of their duty to pursue the truth, and not just to win their case. In a Facebook post early Thursday morning, Padilla specifically addressed lead prosecutor Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville […]...Keep on reading: Sen. Padilla to prosecutors: 'Pursue the truth, not just win case'

WASHINGTON, July 23. /TASS/. The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) has rejected Iran’s claim that it has full control over entry and exit to the Strait of Hormuz. "Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz. The international waterway remains open for transit regardless of IRGC threats and attacks. Commercial vessels continue to use the strait with US military support. Since early May, American forces have helped more than 900 ships transit the strait," CENTCOM said on X. Earlier, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi warned shipping companies that using southern routes through the Strait of Hormuz was unsafe due…

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal meets United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer during discussions on the proposed India-U.S. trade agreement, in New Delhi on June 24, 2026. Photo: X/@PiyushGoyal via PTI U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer concluded his two-day visit to New Delhi, having held multiple meetings with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal during which they reviewed the core elements of the interim trade agreement as well as the broader Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday (June 24, 2026). While both sides “noted substantial progress” by the negotiating teams in recent months…

South Korea's Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, second from right, speaks at the ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Manila, Thursday. Yonhap South Korea, China and Japan on Thursday called for stronger cooperation on supply chains and food and energy security at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-related ministerial meeting amid the continued Middle East crisis, Seoul's foreign ministry said. The consensus was reached during the 27th ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Manila, which brought together top diplomats from the 11 ASEAN member states and the three Northeast Asian countries to discuss ways to…

The extension of parliament is playing havoc with lawmakers’ overseas travel plans, as a Lower House committee turned down an overseas trip request from some ruling lawmakers but approved others’ plans during the eight-day extension that ends Saturday. The lower chamber’s rules committee, made up of ruling and opposition party members, vetoed a planned trip by Liberal Democratic Party Policy Research Council Chairman Takayuki Kobayashi and two LDP lawmakers, who had been scheduled to depart July 19 for Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. While parliament is in session, all lawmakers must get permission from the rules committee to travel…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

Former BJP MP Balbir Punj. File \| Photo Credit: V. Sudershan Former Rajya Sabha MP, journalist and senior BJP leader Balbir Punj, 76, passed away on Saturday evening (April 18, 2026). Mr. Punj, a former vice president of the BJP and associated with the RSS from a young age, had a long career in public life — in politics and policy circles, and in the media. He began his career as a journalist in 1971 with the newspaper The Motherland, later serving for two decades at the Financial Express, and the as executive editor of The Observer of Business and Politics from May 1996 to March 2000. He served two terms as a member of the Rajya Sabha, between…

Police stop protestors gathered in support of Cockroach Janta Party and demand Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, near Shivaji Park in Mumbai. File \| Photo Credit: PTI The Mumbai Police have registered 13 offences related to the protests in the city in support of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. The FIRs have been registered since July 18 under various sections related to unlawful assembly and breach of prohibitory orders. Around 400 persons have been named as accused in these FIRs. While demonstrations were staged at various places, including Shivaji Park, Chaityabhoomi, Chembur and Shiv…

The Head of Research and Programmes at Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), Oluwafemi John Adebayo, has warned that the credibility of Nigeria’s 2027 general election is already being shaped long before Nigerians head to the polls, saying the country’s democratic future depends on what happens before election day. Speaking in an exclusive interview with DAILY POST on Monday, Adebayo said while Nigeria appears to be making administrative preparations for the election, the country is yet to address the deeper issues that determine whether an election will be free, fair and credible. According to him, “The credibility of the 2027 general election will…

Andy Burnham announces new £2 bus fare cap across England Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The…

When the current parliamentary session began five months ago, nationalist Sanseito and the centrist Democratic Party for the People (DPP) appeared poised to become kingmakers in parliament. Both made strong gains in last year’s Upper House election, and with the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), with which the ruling party formed a coalition after the exit of long-time partner Komeito, being five seats short of a majority, either of the opposition parties had a deciding vote to pass legislation. Their momentum also carried into February’s Lower House election. Even as the largest party in the opposition — the Centrist…

Born in Chicago to Gujarati parents, Amish Shah earned his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University and his medical degree at Northwestern University Medical School. File \| Photo Credit: AP Indian-American Amish Shah, a moderate Democrat, won the House primary for Arizona’s First District, defeating the establishment-backed candidate in a keen contest. Mr. Shah, an emergency medicine doctor, known for his door-to-door campaign style where he reached out to nearly 28,000 homes, will take on NFL kicker Jay Feely, the Republican candidate backed by U.S. President Donald Trump for the November election to the U.S. Congress. Mr. Shah, a three-term…

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead with meeting results; ADDS details throughout; RESTRUCTURES) By Oh Seok-min MANILA, July 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea, China and Japan on Thursday called for stronger cooperation on supply chains and food and energy security at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-related ministerial meeting amid the continued Middle East crisis, Seoul's foreign ministry said. The consensus was reached during the 27th ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Manila, which brought together top diplomats from the 11 ASEAN member states and the three Northeast Asian countries to discuss ways to advance practical…

Key events Pubs, clubs and live music venues might be happy with the tax relief announced by Andy Burnham, but other hospitality businesses are left out. Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, a lobby group, told the Guardian: double quotation markWe welcome this as a positive down payment on the PM’s commitment to support hospitality and his pledge to return to look at this again at the budget. While support for pubs, bars and live music is welcome, [it misses out] the restaurants, cafes and hotels which are the heart of our communities and backbone of the high street. So if the PM truly wants to to deliver a high street renaissance and…

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The full fight card for the upcoming Fist of Fury 12 has officially been unveiled ahead of fight night on Sunday, July 26, at Robinsons Galleria Cebu. Chao Sy International Promotions matchmaker and boxing coach Edcel Tonacao announced the seven-bout card, which is being staged through a partnership between Cebu-based Chao […]...Keep on reading: Fist of Fury 12 full fight card announced

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

As the World Cup was unfolding, Israel was continuing its uninterrupted murder and land theft across occupied Palestine and Lebanon, having also triggered the megalomaniacal US President Donald Trump to join its war on Iran. But the genocidal Zionists were not entirely oblivious to the World Cup. They still managed to poison former world champion Argentina’s name and sully its reputation. Twenty years ago, I was in Lebanon while the 2006 World Cup was under way in Germany. Days after we left Beirut, the Israelis invaded Lebanon yet again. We had watched some of the World Cup games with Palestinian and Lebanese friends in refugee camps. We left Beirut…

Alicante, Murcia and Valencia to sizzle in 42C heat, mural of Spain's World Cup hero Ferran Torres vandalised by Catalan separatists and more news on Thursday July 23rd. Spanish rail worker dies after being crushed by heavy machinery A Renfe worker from a contracting company died on Wednesday after suffering a work accident at the Renfe base in Villaverde (Madrid). The causes of the accident are currently under investigation, and so far it is known that it occurred during maintenance work, but no further information has been released. In addition to the deceased worker, two other workers were injured and required medical attention . According to El…

Tips and previews for racing at Randwick on Saturday Ray Hickson July 23, 2026 — 5:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Race 1: MARCELLIN COLLEGE RANDWICK HANDICAP (1100M) 5. Letters Patent has had the good grounding of two starts, including a handy debut behind Omolong and a Newcastle win, and that should set him up to run well in what is a solid end of season two-year-old field. Always in control last time outside the speed and handled the ground nicely. Should run well. 3. Scintillation led all the way to a popular debut win before ducking down to Melbourne for a group 3…

Dwyer hopes Electric Impulse proves a winning move to Sydney Craig Kerry July 23, 2026 — 5:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Ballarat trainer Henry Dwyer hopes to make up for a lost opportunity in Sydney last week when he sends two runners to Randwick on Saturday. Dwyer has Nishino Crescent ($23) and Electric Impulse ($5.50) set to run in races six and eight respectively, after scratching the third of his entries, Salsa Fellow, to compete instead at Caulfield. Trainer Henry Dwyer.Getty Images The pair will be his second and third runners in NSW city races this season. His…

Dubbo teenager aiming for dream Randwick debut with first city ride Craig Kerry July 23, 2026 — 5:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Like many racing fans, Dubbo teenager Jacob Stiff’s greatest Randwick memory is being trackside to watch the legendary Winx win her final race in the 2019 Queen Elizabeth Stakes. On Saturday, the apprentice jockey hopes to create his own magic moment at headquarters with victory in his first metropolitan ride. Apprentice Jacob Stiff after a win at Muswellbrook. Muswellbrook Race Club The 19-year-old, who is apprenticed to Dubbo trainer Michael…

J-Mac back and driven to push for more records after incredible season Craig Kerry July 23, 2026 — 5:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA A refreshed James McDonald returns from a spell on Saturday driven to build towards more record-breaking feats after an “incredible” 2025-26 season. The champion jockey, down for five rides at Randwick, is back from a break, including holidaying in Spain and Greece, following three wins from 17 rides in England at the Royal Ascot carnival, which ended on June 20. “It was great, fantastic,” McDonald said. James McDonald returns refreshed…

William Saliba set for ‘extended period’ on sidelines with back injury Premier League champions Arsenal have been dealt a significant injury blow after centre-back William Saliba was ruled out for “an extended period” with a back injury. The defender played with a back problem during France’s run to the World Cup semi-final and, although he will not require an operation, the 25-year-old is set for a spell on the sidelines. “Subsequent specialist reviews on William’s return to London this week have confirmed that he has suffered a back injury which will require a period of rehabilitation,” said a statement from Arsenal. The defender played with a back…

US Congresswoman, Yassamin Ansari, has said that President Donald Trump was an unwelcome figure during the 2026 World Cup presentation ceremony, as he lingered on stage while Spain celebrated their victory. La Roja triumphed over the 10-man defending champions Argentina with a score of 1-0 in extra time during the final held in New Jersey on Sunday, July 19. The Albiceleste played the final 30 minutes with a numerical disadvantage following the late dismissal of midfielder Enzo Fernandez in regulation time. Ferran Torres struck the decisive goal in the 106th minute, assisted by fellow substitute Nico Williams, successfully beating Emiliano Martinez…

The Boston Red Sox tied their 80-year-old franchise record with a 15th straight Major League Baseball win on Wednesday, but couldn’t go one better as they fell in the second game of a double-header. Boston topped the Baltimore Orioles 6-3 at Fenway Park to notch their 15th straight Major League Baseball win. That tied the club record set in 1946 by a team led by Hall of Famer Ted Williams. The streak then ended with a 5-1 loss to the Orioles in the nightcap. “I think everybody knew it was going to end at some point,” Red Sox interim manager […]...Keep on reading: MLB: Red Sox's record-equaling streak halted at 15 wins

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Roxas City, best known as the Seafood Capital of the Philippines, is set to showcase another side of itself this August as it hosts its first international basketball tournament featuring teams from Australia. The organizers of the inaugural Roxas City Invitational Basketball Tournament have officially unveiled one of the participating foreign clubs for the Aug. 21 to 26 competition at the Dinggoy Roxas Civic Center. READ: Cebu Elite All-Stars embrace Hong Kong challenge Among the confirmed entrants is Australia’s Universal Athletic Centre (UAC) Keysborough, a club that competes in the Melbourne Basketball League. The team…

SINGAPORE — The Singaporean passport remains the world’s most powerful passport, having visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to 192 destinations. The latest Henley Passport Index, which was released for the second time in 2026 on July 21, showed Singapore holding the top spot. The United Arab Emirates was the biggest mover since the last report in […]...Keep on reading: Singapore number 1 ranked passport in the world — again

Former Portugal head coach, Fernando Santos, has praised the recent signing of Bernardo Silva by Real Madrid. Silva joined the Spanish giants last month on a free transfer after a successful tenure at Manchester City. Silva, now 31, makes his way to the Santiago Bernabeu following a nine-season period at the Etihad, where he netted 76 goals in 460 appearances across all competitions and secured 19 trophies, including six Premier League titles. Most recently, the midfielder participated in the 2026 World Cup held in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, where he narrowly missed a late equalizer, heading the ball over the bar as Portugal fell 1-0 to the eventual…

An Argentine psychologist has claimed that the La Albiceleste team, led by Lionel Messi, was instructed to lose the 2026 World Cup final against Spain. The final, held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday, was a tense and physical match that ended without any goals after 90 minutes. In the extra time, La Roja’s forward Ferran Torres scored the only goal (106′), leading his team to secure their second World Cup title, following their victory in 2010. Both fans and analysts noted several unusual elements in Argentina’s gameplay during the match. They became the first team in World Cup final history to record zero shots on target in the first 90…

By Yoo Jee-ho SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- The three-time defending champions South Korea will face Saudi Arabia and Qatar in the Asian Games men's football tournament this fall. The draw for the football competition at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games took place in Nagoya, Japan, on Thursday. With 15 teams drawn into three groups of four and one group of three, South Korea ended up in Group D with only two other opponents. Members of the South Korean men's under-23 national football team warm up before a training session at Korea Football Park in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, on March 24, 2026, in this file photo provided by the Korea Football…

Marvin Agustin, Jolina Magdangal and Dominic Ochoa are set to reunite in a new television series titled “Mommy Guard.” The project was announced by Agustin in an Instagram post on Wednesday, July 22. The actor shared a short video of him, Magdangal and Ochoa expressing their excitement. “Malapit na ang TV series na gagawin namin. #MommyGuard this September na on TV5,” read the caption of their video showing them playfully chatting and posing in front of the camera. The three stars previously worked together in the 1999 romantic comedy film “Hey Babe!” READ: Jolina Magdangal on invisible ties with Marvin […]...Keep on reading: Marvin Agustin, Jolina…

Argentina assistant coach and former defender, Roberto Ayala, has stated that he did not punch Spanish midfielder, Dani Olmo as being widely reported. However, Ayala said he intends to personally apologize to Olmo following their altercation after the 2026 final held in New Jersey on Sunday. The Albiceleste’s defense of their World Cup title ended with a 1-0 defeat in extra time to La Roja, with Luis de la Fuente’s team netting the only goal of the match through Ferran Torres, assisted by fellow substitute Nico Williams, in the 106th minute. Lionel Scaloni’s squad struggled for significant portions of the match, particularly after midfielder Enzo…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

She instantly became a pop culture icon after bursting into the public eye as loudmouthed Page 3 girl, Jordan. Having tried her hand at modelling, singing, presenting, campaigning and reality TV, the glamour model quickly became a household name in Britain. Yet while Katie Price's moniker will ring a bell for both young and old, you would be forgiven for not recognising the star on sight alone, with Katie famously undergoing numerous cosmetic procedures over the years. After two decades in the spotlight, Katie is almost unrecognisable from the naturally pretty teenager who burst on to the modelling scene at the age of 16, with her natural curls and…

Series The Odyssey Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of the epic poem has hit screens. Love it or hate it, the film has sparked a lot of discussion. Here, we bring some of it together. 7 stories Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Fans gather in large numbers outside Chennai’s Rohini Theatre for the first day first show celebrations of Vijay’s Jana Nayagan. The film’s release comes after months of anticipation, legal challenges, and controversies, including censor certificate issues and an online leak of an HD print. Directed by H. Vinoth and featuring music by Anirudh, Jana Nayagan marks a significant moment for Vijay’s career as fans celebrate what they call “one last dance” on the big screen.

In life, you often have to meet something at what it is, not what you want it to be. This is the logic that I need you to apply to Ransom Canyon season 2 when you watch it, as all eight episodes drop on Netflix on July 23. This Western drama soap opera hybrid serves to entertain, but it doesn't ever aim to cross a boundary. It's not striving to be the best TV show of 2026, or do anything remotely challenging or ambitious. Ransom Canyon is a show that stays in its subtly cringe and often stereotypical lane... and for that, I'm thankful. I don't need all of my television to be profound, life-changing or even that meaningful. Sometimes, I just want to…

Ritchie chasing memorable return to training with bargain buy Craig Kerry July 23, 2026 — 5:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Where’s The Circus gave Michelle Ritchie her biggest thrill in racing when the $1250 buy won the $400,000 Inglis Nursery on debut. Now Ritchie hopes the filly can give her a new high as a trainer when she returns on Saturday at Randwick under her name. Where’s The Circus (left) causing a huge upset in the Inglis Nursery at Randwick last December.Getty Images Ritchie bought the Trapeze Artist-Misplaced yearling at an Inglis online auction then…

The depths of winter demand a night in with a great movie. The problem? Choice paralysis. Every streaming platform has thousands of films available. To cut through that, here are 30 great hand-picked movies on Amazon Prime Video right now. Don’t have Amazon Prime Video? Check out our guides on Netflix, Stan* and HBO Max. The Assistant (2019) Kitty Green’s claustrophobic drama follows a young assistant (Julia Garner) at a film production company who suspects – in a reflection of real-life failings – that her mogul boss is sexually abusing women. Matthew Macfadyen plays the HR enabler. The Babadook (2014) A modern horror masterpiece, Jennifer Kent’s…

Before Sunrise (1995) Rife with telling talk and – increasingly – loaded glances, this twenty-something romance between an American tourist (Ethan Hawke) and a French traveller (Julie Delpy) unfolds over an evening together in Vienna. Their connection is everything. Best in Show (2000) Christopher Guest and his band of comic sparks – Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey and more – delivered one of the great mockumentaries in this haywire collection of human contestants at a prestigious dog show. Eric Bana in his breakthrough role as Mark “Chopper” Read. The movie won three AFI Awards, including Best Director and Best Actor. Chopper (2000) Eric…

Katie Noonan had a ‘gypsy’ life, great husband and kids. Then her marriage fell apart Robyn Doreian July 23, 2026 — 5:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Katie Noonan is best known for co-founding the ARIA award-winning group George with her brother, Tyrone. Here, the 49-year-old opens up on the important men in her life, including her ex-husband of 20-something years, and the pain she felt after the end of the relationship. Katie Noonan: “I’ve always gone out with older men as I’d found men my age to be a bit stupid.”Cybele Malinowski My paternal grandfather, Tommy, was a…

Margaret Qualley appeared to be in good spirits in her first public sighting since splitting from husband Jack Antonoff, just one month shy of their third wedding anniversary. The newly single 31-year-old was spotted listening to music to get into character on the Jersey City, New Jersey set of Paramount Pictures' Possession reboot on Wednesday. Her appearance comes shortly after her rep confirmed the breakup to TMZ on July 10, insisting there 'was no infidelity' and 'no trust issues' leading to the demise of her 'rocky' marriage to the 42-year-old Bleachers frontman. For her day on set, the two-time Emmy nominee bared her entire back in a black…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

Already seeing eye-to-eye with his 5ft 9in mother, Prince George is fast growing up in more ways than one. His big day yesterday – on which he turned 13 – was marked, as is now tradition, with a new portrait. It was taken after last month’s Trooping The Colour back at Kensington Palace and shows the young prince looking remarkably relaxed. It was followed by a video released on social media of a family holiday to Cornwall earlier this year. This offered a glimpse of the carefree life the future monarch enjoys away from the camera – he is grinning in a pair of cool sunglasses, playing cricket on the beach, cuddling his dog and climbing rocks barefoot…

Vijay in a still from ‘Jana Nayagan’ . \| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's highly anticipated film, 'Jana Nayagan,' has finally been granted an 'A' certificate by the CBFC, industry sources said on Thursday (July 9, 2026). The film, directed by H Vinoth — known for works such as ‘Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru' and ‘Nerkonda Paarvai' — received its censor certificate after a protracted seven-month battle. A source from the Tamil Nadu Film Distributors' Association said the film will likely be screened in about 1,000 theatres in Tamil Nadu from July 23. Widely regarded as Vijay's final cinematic outing before his…

Meghan Markle proudly boasted that her children enjoy eating Brussels sprouts and encouraged MasterChef Australia contestants to 'keep a sense of humour' about the competition in a new teaser for her judging spot on the reality show. The Duchess of Sussex, 44, will appear as a guest judge on the latest series of the Channel 10 programme during Sunday night's episode. In a two-minute clip released today, Meghan gave viewers a glimpse of the cooking challenge she set for competitors as she asked them to whip up a dish using ingredients like honey, macadamia nuts, citrus, edible flowers and celeriac. The Duchess, whose Netflix series With Love, Meghan…

In China, many heartbroken women are spending thousands of yuan on services that claim they can help win back former lovers, with the first rule being “no contact with your ex”. A 28-year-old woman, using the pseudonym Wan, said she had paid a “relationship coach” 3,500 yuan (US$500) for a month of 24/7 coaching to win back her ex-boyfriend who recently broke up with her. The coach used an initial free 90-minute phone call as bait, concluding that Wan’s relationship had ended not because her ex did not love her, but because her insecurity had pressured him too much. They further said Wan felt insecure because she was not loved enough by her parents.…

From fireballs to gunfights, Bollywood special effects master Vishal Tyagi is going the old-fashioned way to create cinematic chaos in a way he says artificial intelligence simply cannot. The tanker explosion climax in his latest blockbuster action film “Dhurandhar 2” used 500 liters of petrol along with explosives in a carefully orchestrated stunt involving star Ranveer Singh. “The fragments and fires were 100 percent real,” Tyagi, 48, told AFP in an interview. The sequence reflects a growing trend among Indian filmmakers to deploy special effects, looking to deliver the type of authenticity that computer-generated imagery often cannot replicate. To…

“Meanwhile, we could have yet another ‘Odyssey’ movie on the way. Now, Elon Musk is planning to create what he calls a ‘historically accurate’ version of ‘The Odyssey’ using his Grok A.I. And by ‘historically accurate,’ he means whiter than Christmas at Cracker Barrel.” — COLMAN DOMINGO, guest host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! “Of course, this is all because Elon and his musketeers are upset over the diversity casting of ‘The Odyssey.’ And I don’t want to get technical here, but you can’t make a historically accurate version of something that is totally made the [expletive] up.” — COLMAN DOMINGO “I mean, ‘The Odyssey’ is fiction, you know, like ‘The Hunger…

The official promotional poster for director Na Hong-jin’s genre-bending thriller "Hope." Courtesy of PLUS M Entertainment Long celebrated as one of East Asia’s most uncompromising genre purveyors, Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin arrived at Lincoln Center this week to do what he does best: leave audiences entirely unnerved and thoroughly exhilarated. At the 25th New York Asian Film Festival, Na’s latest cinematic juggernaut, "Hope," held its North American premiere as the festival’s centerpiece selection. The film — a sprawling, claustrophobic thriller set in Hopohang, an isolated port town near the demilitarized zone, where local police officer…

A public memorial for Ann Widdecombe will be held later this year, her family has said in a statement. Former Conservative minister and Reform UK spokeswoman Widdecombe, 78, was found dead in her Dartmoor home with serious head injuries earlier this month. Her family thanked the public for "the wide expression of condolences" but asked that her private service, to be held in the coming weeks and for which invitations have already been sent, is "limited to those closest to Ann". "We understand that there is significant public interest in the funeral of Ann Widdecombe," the statement said. "A private service for family and close friends will be held in…

For quite some time now, I have been closely tracking the absolutely meteoric rise of the indie entertainment juggernaut known as A24. They completely grabbed my attention after a few deep-dive sessions of research, and naturally, binge-watching a select curation of their stellar cinematic offerings. I have come to a definitive conclusion here, my dear readers. Let me break it down for you in my own signature analytical and critical style. First off, let us state the obvious: A24 has completely rewritten the rulebook of the classic Hollywood studio mold. They have mastered the art of transforming unconventional, high-risk arthouse […]...Keep on…

iQIYI Premieres "Mystic Tales: The Spider Lady's Vendetta", Bringing China's Supernatural Folklore to Life Through AIGC BEIJING , July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 23, iQIYI, China's leading online entertainment platform, exclusively premiered "Mystic Tales: The Spider Lady's Vendetta" on iQIYI and iQIYI International, making it China's first AIGC internet feature film released under an Internet Drama and Film Distribution License. Co-produced by Beijing Dream Big Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. and iQIYI, the film runs for more than 60 minutes and was created using AI tools throughout the entire production process, marking a notable milestone in…

Spoilers for Ransom Canyon season 2 ahead. I shouldn't love Ransom Canyon as much as I do, but theVirgin Rivermeets Yellowstone Western drama always has a way of hooking me back in. In season 2, we've explored a lot of overarching storylines that were first established back in season 1. The land feud between the Double K and Fuller ranches has become more ferocious, local bar owner Quinn (Minka Kelly) has left for New York despite her on-off relationship with rancher Staten (Josh Duhamel), and mysterious newcomer Yancy (Jack Schumacher) has revealed to new love interest Ellie (Marianly Tejada) that he has a secret wife. Latest Videos From But by the…

Visitors explore behind-the-scenes areas of the Incheon Culture and Arts Center during a backstage tour. Courtesy of Incheon Culture and Arts Center For most theatergoers, the magic of the performing arts exists entirely on stage, where a curated world of soft spotlighting, flawless acoustics and synchronized cues are enjoyed by the audience at a distance. To close that gap, the Incheon Culture and Arts Center will invite the public to enter the complex, high-stakes engine room behind the spectacle on Aug. 19. The center said Thursday that it will host its 2026 Backstage Tour, offering ordinary citizens unprecedented access to the hidden architecture…

The xx, Khruangbin and Massive Attack are set to headline Fuji Rock Festival this weekend. But don’t be surprised if Kaze Fujii steals the spotlight. Held annually at Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture, Japan’s premier summer music festival has increasingly embraced homegrown stars alongside its international lineup. Last year, city pop legend Tatsuro Yamashita transformed the main Green Stage into the weekend’s hottest destination ahead of U.S. headliner Vulfpeck. Fujii looks poised for a similarly defining moment this Saturday. Shortly after this year’s lineup was announced in February, Fuji Rock’s website briefly crashed due to a surge of…

From Roysten Abel’s A Hundred Charmers \| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Bejewelled howdahs on stately elephants, ornately patterned flying carpets and the simple snake charmer with his commonplace basket housing terrifying cargo. India of yore had a romance that has since faded into fables, but one can catch an echo of that past with Roysten Abel’s A Hundred Charmers, which will be staged in Bengaluru onJuly 26. The musical which debuted in 2014, features 100 snake charmers performing classic and contemporary tunes on the been, the traditional wind instrument of their profession crafted out of a hollowed-out gourd and bamboo reeds. According to…

K-pop boy group Cortis / Courtesy of BigHit Music The latest album from K-pop boy group Cortis has sold more than 3 million copies, its agency said Thursday, making it the second triple million-seller among albums released so far this year. BigHit Music said Cortis' second EP, "GreenGreen," recorded cumulative sales of 3,099,000 copies, citing data released by Circle Chart for the week of July 12-18. It took 11 weeks for the group to hit the milestone since the album was released May 4. "GreenGreen" became the second album released in Korea this year to become a triple million-seller, following BTS' fifth studio album, "Arirang." The album's lead…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- The latest album from K-pop boy group Cortis has sold more than 3 million copies, its agency said Thursday, making it the second triple million-seller among albums released so far this year. BigHit Music said Cortis' second EP, "GreenGreen," recorded cumulative sales of 3,099,000 copies, citing data released by Circle Chart for the week of July 12-18. It took 11 weeks for the group to hit the milestone since the album was released May 4. "GreenGreen" became the second album released in South Korea this year to become a triple million-seller, following BTS' fifth studio album, "Arirang." The album's lead track, "RedRed," has…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

P-pop powerhouse BINI released on Thursday, July 23, their song “A Parallel World” for the DreamWorks Animation film “Forgotten Island.” Aside from the mixed Filipino-English lines in the chorus, the over-three-minute-long track also includes an entire verse sung in Filipino. “Makulay ating daan/ Isang milyon ang larawan/ Matapos man ang mundo/ Maligaya ako sa nag-iisang tala sa langit,” a part of the song goes. Prior to the song’s release, Dreamworks shared a teaser on its social media pages, featuring glimpses of girl group members Jhoanna, Aiah, Colet, Maloi, Gwen, Stacey, Mikha and Sheena during the recording of the track. READ: BINI […]...Keep on…

Sydney Opera House, July 21 It is the “curse” – la maledizione – that drives the drama of Verdi’s Rigoletto. We hear it in the overture’s first portentous notes and in Rigoletto’s despairing cry at the close. Rigoletto believes it ultimately derives from his ugliness, the hunchback that condemns him to a life of humiliation and corrosive bitterness, making him over-protective of the one thing of beauty in his life, his daughter, Gilda. This classic production by the late Elijah Moshinsky transfers that ugliness to the world at large, in particular, the Duke of Mantua’s court, the centrepiece of designer Michael Yeargan’s rotating set. Creating a…

Oliver Jones, a Canadian music icon whose illustrious career spanned nearly nine decades and helped cement Montreal's international reputation as a jazz mecca, has died. He was 91. A child prodigy, Jones performed at his first concert at the age of five — among the first in an endless list of milestones for the pianist and composer. Jones was synonymous with Montreal's Jazz Festival, performing at the world renowned event every year between 1981 and 1999. On May 18, 2023, he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. "I kept on pinching myself saying I'm going to wake up and realize it's just a dream," An 88-year-old Jones told CBC Montreal…

Four flights have been cancelled and a further three have been delayed, due to fog enveloping Auckland Airport. An airport spokesperson says a further nine flights into Auckland have been cancelled. All 16 flights are domestic while international flights have not been affected. On Monday at least 14 flights were cancelled and another 17 were delayed due to fog restrictions. Flights were also affected by fog last week.

Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results. Snoop Dogg has done a lot of living in his 54 years. In addition to his status as one of the biggest selling rappers of all time, he's been an Olympic commentator, Martha Stewart's co-host, a movie star, voice actor, an affirmational guru for young kids, a purveyor of both wine and cannabis, and, at one point, affiliated with one of the largest gangs in Los Angeles. Next summer, Snoop Dogg's storied life is due to hit the big screen…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

SoundCloud announced Wednesday that it has acquired Nina Protocol, a decentralized music platform that enabled independent artists to sell music directly to fans while keeping 100% of their revenue. The financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. It’s also unclear whether any members of Nina’s team will join SoundCloud. The company has not yet responded to a request for comment. The deal is SoundCloud’s first acquisition since its 2022 purchase of AI music company Musiio to help improve music discovery. The deal signals that SoundCloud is continuing to expand beyond music hosting into a broader platform for independent artists. As part of the…

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US A money manager for singer D4vd testified Wednesday that he knew only Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s first name before the 14-year-old’s dismembered body was discovered in the trunk of a car. Benjamin Gregor’s testimony came during the second day of a Los Angeles preliminary hearing, where a judge is weighing whether there is enough evidence to send D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, to trial on charges including murder, continuous sexual abuse of…

Colombia · Culture Key Facts —What is RENT? A Pulitzer Prize and four-time Tony Award-winning rock musical by Jonathan Larson about a year in the life of a group of struggling young artists in New York City. —When does it run? August 7 through August 28, 2026, as a limited special season. —Where is the venue? Centro Cultural Gimnasio Moderno, Carrera 9 # 74-99, in the heart of Bogotá. —Who is producing it? A local Colombian production by 2 Productores, not a touring international company. —How much are tickets? Prices range from US$21 to US$57, depending on seating. RENT is coming to Bogotá for the very first time in 2026, bringing a landmark piece of…

Latin America · Culture Key Facts —What it is. The Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition is the Metropolitan Opera’s program to discover and develop exceptional young opera singers. —Who can enter. Vocalists aged 20 to 30 from Argentina, Chile, and Colombia can audition with a video of an operatic aria. —The prize path. District winners advance to a South America final in Santiago, then to New York semifinals and a Grand Finals Concert at the Met. —Cash awards. Semifinalists receive US$5,000, finalists US$10,000, and Grand Finals winners earn US$20,000 each. —First winners. Chilean soprano Camila Romero and Argentine mezzo-soprano Valeria Delmé were…

From rooftops to pasta bars: 14 new venues coming to Melbourne very soon Featuring new arrivals from Andrew McConnell and Chris Lucas, a double shot of energy for Chapel Street and two stellar regional openings, here is what’s landing before year’s end. Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Big-name restaurateurs, neighbourhood wine bars and ambitious suburban revamps – Melbourne’s hospitality landscape is warming up for a huge influx of newcomers. Halfway through 2026, some of the year’s hottest restaurant openings are still to come. Here are the places to bookmark. Arguably the…

Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA It’s a blustery Monday morning, and inside Opera Australia’s Southbank rehearsal studios, the cast and crew of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical are starting their second week of rehearsals. About a dozen young dancers in exercise gear are working with associate choreographer Yasmine Lee, traversing the space in exaggerated, slow-motion movements. In the rehearsal space next door, associate director Austin Regan is giving notes to the cast as they run scenes. The show opens with an elderly Diamond (Terence Crawford), talking to a…

Save our town: Lancelin residents take coastal erosion fight to city centre Updated July 23, 2026 — 5:23pm,first published July 23, 2026 — 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Dozens of Lancelin residents poured into Forrest Place on Thursday morning, armed with signs and banners with one message: “save our town”. Almost 100 residents aged seven to 80 chanted “no surrender, no retreat” as they peacefully protested in Perth city to try and raise awareness of their coastal erosion fight. Lancelin locals jumped on a bus on Thursday morning to take part in the Lancelin Rescue…

With a dune as its last defence, a WA town buses into the city to demand action Updated July 23, 2026 — 5:23pm,first published July 23, 2026 — 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Dozens of Lancelin residents poured into Forrest Place on Thursday morning, armed with signs and banners with one message: “save our town”. Almost 100 residents aged seven to 80 chanted “no surrender, no retreat” as they peacefully protested in Perth city to try and raise awareness of their coastal erosion fight. Lancelin locals jumped on a bus on Thursday morning to take part in the Lancelin…

The Tamil Nadu government has appointed senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer A. Udhayan as the new Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Head of Forest Force), the highest post in the State Forest Department. Mr. Udhayan, a 1991-batch IFS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, is currently the Director of the Advanced Institute for Wildlife Conservation (AIWC), Vandalur, a position he has held since June 14, 2022. Before taking charge at the institute, he served as Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) from October 2021 to June 2022. According to a government order issued by the Environment, Climate Change and Forests Department…

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

A Northern Territory minister has been criticised for scientifically inaccurate claims that groundwater in the Northern Territory needs to be used to prevent the Earth’s magnetic poles from flipping. The NT minister for trade and business, Robyn Cahill, made the claim while speaking in Darwin last week about the government’s push to make the territory “the datacentre capital of the globe”. “For datacentres, the water supply is already in existence. It’s mainly subterranean,” she said. “The water supply that Darwin has is extraordinary.” “There’s scientific evidence to suggest that we have so much water underground in the Northern Territory that it…

Major carmakers privately lobbied the UK government to revoke a ban on new petrol and diesel cars after 2035, according to documents that reveal for the first time the efforts to overturn a key decarbonisation policy. BMW, Ford, Nissan and Toyota, plus the parts maker Bosch, wrote a joint letter to ministers in April calling for an “open technology approach” including petrol and diesel cars after 2035, when the government had said new cars must produce zero carbon emissions. The letter was obtained by The Fast Charge newsletter via a freedom of information request and shared with the Guardian. The companies wrote that the government should allow…

In nature documentaries, the human species tends to remain behind the camera, casting wildlife into a narrative as seen through our eyes, yet keeping at a distance as if we are not a part of nature ourselves. Avoiding imposing on or disrupting natural processes in the animal kingdom can be considered one of the ethical foundations of nature filmmaking. But where does one draw the line between allowing nature to play out in both its awe and its anguish and using our position as humans to intervene? Award winner at the International Tourism Film Festival Africa, the South African documentary Bucket: The Lion Cub is a testament to the work of wildlife…

The land allocated to families that were part of of Arippa Bhoosamaram in Kollam district of Kerala \| Photo Credit: special arrangement For more than a decade, over 250 landless families of the Arippa Bhoosamaram in Kerala slept under plastic tarps and wooden sheds, dreaming of the day they could finally call a piece of land their own. Finally that moment arrived in February 2026 with the distribution of official title deeds, but their relief was abruptly cut short when they found themselves trapped in a jurisdictional tug-of-war between the Revenue and Forest Departments. The conflict erupted after the Forest Department issued a stop memo halting…

Advocacy group SAVE Kalinga Inc. has raised concerns about the reported issuance of clearance permits by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for the 52-megawatt Karayan Hydropower Project, saying the development has yet to gain the clear and legitimate consent of affected indigenous communities. INQUIRER FILES BAGUIO CITY — Advocacy group SAVE Kalinga Inc. has raised concerns about the reported issuance of clearance permits by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for the 52-megawatt Karayan Hydropower Project, saying the development has yet to gain the clear and legitimate consent of affected indigenous communities.…

SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- The ongoing monsoon season is expected to end early next week and be followed by an intense heat wave, the state weather agency said Thursday. This year's heavy downpours are determined to have already ended on the southern island of Jeju on Sunday, and are expected to end in the central and southern regions around next Monday, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said. Starting late next week, a heat wave is forecast to sweep across the nation with morning temperatures ranging between 23 C and 26 C and daytime temperatures ranging from 29 C to 37 C from next Monday through Aug. 2. The monsoon season started later…

A plenary session of the 48th UNESCO World Heritage Committee is under way at BEXCO in Busan, Wednesday. Yonhap The UNESCO World Heritage Committee on Thursday adopted a resolution calling on Japan to reflect the "whole history" across all periods of mining exploitation in on-site interpretation and displays at the Sado mines. During the 48th session of the World Heritage Committee held at BEXCO in Busan, member states adopted the decision regarding Japan’s State of Conservation report by consensus without debate. The decision emphasized that Tokyo's follow-up measures regarding wartime history remain insufficient, stating that "further clarification…

Shares of NTPC Green Energy soared more than 9% on Thursday after the renewable energy player reported a 38% year-on-year (YoY) increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 305 crore for the first quarter of the financial year 2027. The stock surged to Rs 99.60 apiece on Thursday, the highest level in more than month, amid a sharp surge in trading volumes. While the firm’s net profit rose 34% from Rs 220 crore reported in Q1 of the previous year, sequentially it grew around 55% from Rs 197 crore reported in the preceding three months. NTPC Green Energy’s revenue from operations, meanwhile, jumped nearly 63% YoY to Rs 1,107 crore during the quarter under…

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Council is seeking a review of the financial terms of the Carbon Public Market joint venture agreement (JVA) between the Cebu City Government and Megawide Construction Corporation following concerns raised by the Commission on Audit (COA). The move came after Councilor Sisinio Andales urged the council to examine whether the agreement provides a fair financial return to the city, given Carbon Market’s revenue performance and the terms of the deal. “It is now time to call the members of the 17th Sangguniang Panlungsod to rise and take into consideration that the city government […]...Keep on reading: Cebu City…

Andy Campbell says ratepayers shouldn't have to fund pest animal control.

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political…

From the Sensex pack, Infosys, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, NTPC and Reliance Industries were among the laggards. Trent and Eternal were the only winners from the pack. File \| Photo Credit: ANI Market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty edged lower in early deals on Thursday (July 23, 2026) due to surging crude oil prices amid escalating tensions in the West Asia. The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 230.95 points to 76,521.02 during initial trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty dipped 57.15 points to 23,937. From the Sensex pack, Infosys, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, NTPC and Reliance Industries were among the laggards. Trent…

Shares of Waaree Renewable , the EPC arm of the Waaree Group , dropped 7% on Thursday after the company announced its Q1 FY27 earnings , reporting a 34% year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit to nearly Rs 116 crore. The shares of the company dropped to Rs 951 apiece on Thursday, the lowest level seen since June 12. While consolidated net profit grew 34% from Rs 86 crore reported in Q1 of the previous financial year, it fell around 26% sequentially from the Rs 157 crore reported in Q4 of FY26. Revenue from operations also increased over 53% YoY to Rs 924 crore in Q1 FY27 from Rs 603 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of FY26, but fell more than…

The Centre has responded positively to four key proposals submitted for the benefit of tobacco farmers and exporters, says Tobacco Board Chairman Yashwanth Kumar Chidipothu. \| Photo Credit: File Photo The Union Government has responded positively to Andhra Pradesh’s request to reduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on unmanufactured tobacco meant for exports from 40% to 28%, offering relief to exporters and raising hopes among tobacco farmers, amidst the FCV tobacco crisis in the State. Acting on the directions of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Agriculture Minister K. Atchannaidu, along with other State Ministers and Members of Parliament, met…

"We've had really dry weather but also it's been really hot - and those things combined if you're a livestock farmer means excessive pressure on livestock," said Abi Reader, president of NFU Cymru. "You have to make sure they have enough water and shade, and we are getting farms with springs and streams drying up," she told BBC Walescast. "If you're an arable farmer the heat and dry weather have also forced a lot of the crops to come to ripening a lot earlier than they normally would. "It's unprecedented early harvesting this year and farmers are going to see lower crop yields." Welsh Water emphasised that NRW's drought declarations were different to…

July 23, 2026 — 3:06pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Running the company widely seen as Australia’s greatest global success story, Macquarie Group, is as drenched in status as it is in remuneration. But it comes with incredible challenges - not the least of which is comparisons with the performance of your predecessors. Greg Ward will be the fourth modern-era chief executive for Macquarie since the investment bank listed on the sharemarket 30 years ago when he takes the helm after Shemara Wikramanayake’s departure in November. Before her tenure, Allan Moss ran the company…