Secular News

Israeli settler violence has surged in 2026, leaving Palestinian communities terrified. Alex Croft reports on the burning of an entire village and how such attacks are becoming frighteningly normal

The hail storm that struck a couple of weeks ago was violent. On Constitution Street, the quarter-sized hail drummed on the roof, ricocheted off our windows and dimpled the hood of the Jeep as if it had been peened with an icy hammer. The barrage came at 10:58 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 5, and it […]

Many families are only just discovering the extent of damage to their homes for the first time.

I’m a little perplexed and bemused by the brouhaha surrounding Hong Kong’s decision to draft its first five-year plan, as if the sky is falling in around the city’s famed laissez-faire economy. Predictably, Yale University’s Stephen Roach (he of “Hong Kong is over” fame) warned in a commentary last month that “Chinese-style central planning” could “over-promise and under-deliver”. In a 2024 commentary, he said Hong Kong had been “shackled by the deadweight of autocracy”. But from my vantage...

Islam Makhachev cements his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding victory over Ian Machado Garry.

Islam Makhachev cements his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding victory over Ian Machado Garry.

Islam Makhachev cements his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding victory over Ian Machado Garry.

Islam Makhachev cements his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding victory over Ian Machado Garry.

Islam Makhachev cements his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding victory over Ian Machado Garry.

Islam Makhachev cements his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding victory over Ian Machado Garry.

Firefighters are tackling a fire at a market in Kyiv, while Moscow reports that a warehouse was hit.

Tensions between Beijing and Manila appear to have spilled over from the South China Sea to immigration, just as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr indicated he wanted to “reset” ties. Manila on Sunday dismissed Beijing’s criticism of Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr over his role in the arrests of Chinese workers at a steel plant in Misamis Oriental in May. A Chinese embassy official in Manila late on Saturday accused Teodoro of carrying out “anti-China activities” to “disrupt”...