An embattled leader forced to call a referendum on separation to ward off mutiny – and then pledging to campaign against it. Allegations that prosperity had been stolen by distant elites and could be remedied with a vote to leave. Mutterings of foreign interference.
Britain and France have scuppered a proposal for Nato allies to spend 0.25 per cent of GDP on military aid for Ukraine.
Mark Rutte, the alliance’s secretary-general, this week conceded his plan wouldn’t be taken forward because it didn’t have sufficient support.
“I don’t think this one will be proposed,” he told reporters, without naming the opponents.
But now The Telegraph can reveal that the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Canada blocked the idea when it was floated in discussions for how to boost support for Kyiv.
We’ve already spent over 20 Billion with no indication the spigot will be turned off. This sounds like performative BS for domestic consumption.
There was a striking story which was buried in the news cycle in Canada by reports of the new Carney-Smith Memorandum of Understanding. While Canadians were being told to celebrate an agreement that might — might — allow a pipeline to begin construction in the fall of 2027, the United Arab Emirates announced plans for a new pipeline that will be fully operational around the same time.
Let that land for a moment. A desert nation with roughly a quarter of our GDP is completing pipeline infrastructure on a timeline that Canada can only hope to begin breaking ground on.
VATICAN CITY — In his first encyclical, Pope Leo XIV put forth an ode to human dignity in the era of AI on Monday, delivering a far-ranging treatise on the morality of technology that included a dramatic plea for guardrails to ensure that artificial intelligence eases — rather than exacerbates — inequality and poverty, helping to improve conditions for workers and limiting the power of technology companies over the vast computing resources that could reshape how human beings live.
An encyclical is among the highest forms of papal documents, and Leo’s first — his most important writing to date — positions AI as the catalyst of a new kind of industrial revolution, a cognitive one that has already begun to redefine how the world works, lives, plays, loves and wages war. The document sets a clear tone for Leo’s early papacy, elevating the ethics of AI to a religious imperative in the same way Pope Francis did with the fight against climate change a decade ago.
A complaint alleging voting irregularities during a tense Ontario Liberal nomination meeting in Scarborough has been dismissed by a party arbitration committee.
Federal Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith launched the appeal earlier this month after narrowly losing the nomination in Scarborough-Southwest to entrepreneur Ahsanul Hafiz by 19 votes. Erskine-Smith levelled a series of allegations over the way voting was conducted, saying that there were 34 ballots recorded than registered voters.
At least five officers were struck by a driver during a “teen takeover” event early Sunday in Chicago’s West Side, only the latest in the viral trend hitting American streets.
Elsewhere, 19 people were shot and wounded on Memorial Day in the Windy City.
Hundreds of teenagers gathered at around 3:20 a.m. along Chicago’s South Loomis Street, shutting the street down as officers responded to disperse the chaos.
THUG CAPITAL
Chicago ….a failed third-world war zone tht treats armed teen takeovers like a minor case of “youths needing some bread and a hug.”
Keep voting blue, Chicago. We’re watching your collapse and taking notes on what NOT to do. pic.twitter.com/c4rS370c98
— . ™ (@MrWhiteMAGA) May 25, 2026
Five Chicago police officers were struck by a car while trying to disperse a “teen takeover” gathering on the city’s West Side, Saturday night, according to officials. The incident happened near Loomis Street and Roosevelt Road as officers responded to the large crowd. pic.twitter.com/WWo7kBmCsi
— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) May 25, 2026
No actual footage of the hit.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow announced she’ll be running for a second term in a news release Monday.
Her announcement comes weeks after the municipal election nomination window opened. While she was widely expected to run again for the city’s top job, neither Chow nor her team revealed their plans until Monday.
“This morning I registered to run for re-election. But that does not change what I do here as the mayor,” she said at a news conference Monday.
Hasn’t this city suffered enough?
Parwana Malik was just nine years old when her father sold her as a bride to a man in his 50s, desperate to find enough money to feed his family.
As tears streamed down his face, Abdul Malik pleaded with the groom to show mercy to his little girl.
‘This is your bride. Please take care of her. You are responsible now, please don’t beat her,’ he said.
It’s a major anniversary year for the U.S., which marks 250 years as an independent nation. But many Americans aren’t in the mood to celebrate. Most think the quarter-millennium of existence enjoyed by the country was the best time we’re likely to see, and that the future is bound to be grim.
In recent polling, reports Pew Research’s Blen Wondimu, “59% of Americans say the country’s best years are behind us, while 40% say its best years are ahead.” Forty-four per cent report feeling very or somewhat pessimistic about what the U.S. will be like in 50 years, as opposed to 28 per cent who feel optimistic and 27 per cent who just aren’t sure.
Congolese authorities say that suspected Ebola cases have now passed 900 in the ongoing outbreak in the east of the country.
The Congolese ministry of communication, in a post on X on Sunday, said there were 904 suspected cases and 119 suspected deaths.
Authorities had previously announced more than 700 suspected Ebola cases, and more than 170 suspected deaths, mostly in Ituri province, where the outbreak is centred.
Muhammadan sets up a stall in England telling British children they "deserved to be raped" for wearing shorts.
Get these cavemen out of our countries! pic.twitter.com/06NMVVykGP
— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) May 24, 2026
It takes a special kind of evil to destroy posters that have been distributed to help locate a missing child.
But Toronto has seen this kind of evil before. Back after Oct. 7, 2023, hostage posters of Jewish children kidnapped by Hamas were also ripped down or defaced.
To the people tearing down the “Help Find Esti” posters in my neighbourhood: STOP IT‼️
A 14-year-old girl is still missing.
I don’t know what you think you’re accomplishing, but I promise you, for every poster ripped down, many more will go back up, until Esti is back home. pic.twitter.com/N4kkAE6INw
— Michael Levitt 🇨🇦🎗️ (@LevittMichael) May 24, 2026
Iran says some progress has been reached in talks with the US, but a deal “is not imminent”.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqai’s remarks came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said an agreement could possibly be reached on Monday.
“It is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the issues under discussion,” Baqai said in Tehran on Monday. “But to say that this means the signing of an agreement is imminent – no-one can make such a claim.”
Restaurant chain Tim Hortons is planning to dial back its use of Ottawa’s Temporary Foreign Worker program to staff restaurants and commit to hire up to 10,000 local workers as it embarks on a push to expand the number of Tims locations across the country this year.
The chain’s new approach to hiring is a stark reversal from its previous tenor. For years, Tim Hortons was one of the biggest proponents of the TFW program, a controversial immigration stream that expanded in popularity during the pandemic and came to symbolize some of the failings of the Trudeau-era immigration strategy.
Only after Tim’s has imported a pool of millions of cheap foreign laborer’s they pull this stunt.
Just 17% of Germans think that the Bundeswehr is currently capable of defending the country in the event of a military conflict, according to a new survey.
The findings, from a recent INSA poll commissioned by Bild am Sonntag, highlight continuing public scepticism over the state of Germany’s armed forces—despite repeated government pledges to modernise the military following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
