“A South Korean court on Monday sentenced Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja to a combined two years in prison over political funding and bribery offences linked to efforts to gain influence with former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration. The Seoul Central District Court found that Han, 83, was involved in providing money to politicians and luxury goods, including Chanel bags and a diamond necklace, to former first lady Kim Keon Hee, according to the ruling. Han, head of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, was indicted in October 2025 by a special prosecutor team investigating allegations involving Yoon and Kim. The case was one of several probes launched after Yoon was removed from office following his December 2024 declaration of martial law.” (08/31/26)
“The largest infrared digital camera ever built and its scientific companion, a massive mirror originally designed for a spy satellite, are now safely in orbit, after the flawless launch of NASA’s newest flagship telescope. The US$4.3-billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope lifted off atop a SpaceX rocket at 7:35 a.m. local time today from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and it will soon be on its way to its final location. The observatory is expected to yield a wealth of discoveries, from insight into the nature of ‘dark energy’, the force causing the Universe’s expansion, to millions of stars in the Milky Way and the planets that orbit them. It is named after Nancy Grace Roman (1925–2018), NASA’s first chief astronomer and a leading figure in many of the agency’s most impactful scientific programmes, including the Hubble Space Telescope.” (08/30/26)
“MyPillow founder Mike Lindell has long denied Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election. Now, he’s refusing to accept his own election loss in the GOP primary for governor of Minnesota. The Minnesota Supreme Court on Saturday rejected Lindell’s bid for a full recount of his Aug. 11 loss to state House Speaker Lisa Demuth after she won the Republican primary by 45,000 votes. … Lindell told NBC News in a phone call Saturday evening that he plans to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. … Lindell previously pledged to pay an estimated $825,000 to cover a full hand recount and audit of the race but refused to pay the money on Monday, the state’s deadline, after finding out that the recount only included counting the ballots cast for either Lindell or Demuth.” (08/29/26)
“At least seven people have died after a ferry carrying nearly 270 passengers and crew capsized off the coast of northern Cyprus on Sunday, Turkish media reported. The prime minister of the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus, Unal Ustel, said 237 people have been rescued. A search is underway for another 24 people, he told the Turkish state-run TRT news channel. … The catamaran-style ferry was traveling from the port of Kyrenia, also known as Girne, in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus, to the Turkish port of Tasucu in Mersin province.” (08/30/26)
“U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday that NBC’s Kristen Welker will be reported to the Federal Communications Commission for ‘rebuke or punishment,’ after he said she reported the Republican president had mixed results in his endorsement of candidates. ‘Kristen Welker, the Unpopular ‘Hostess’ of the once great Meet the Press, now considered Meet the Fake Press, just stated that Donald Trump has ‘mixed results’ on his Endorsements of Candidates, when the recent WINS of Darline Graham and Mike Mazzei, stand at 100% for the U.S. Senate, and 98% for the U.S. House,’ Trump wrote. ‘Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment. Unfortunately, she is not the only one,’ Trump added in the post.” (08/30/26)
“Some of the world’s largest music publishers filed a blockbuster lawsuit against Anthropic late Friday night, alleging ‘one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts [sic] of intellectual property [sic] in history.’ … The Sony/Warner lawsuit is notable because it’s broad. It alleges Anthropic unlawfully trained its models off ‘tens of thousands’ of music publishers’ copyrighted compositions, whereas other lawsuits have focused on a narrower set of works.” (08/29/26)
“Iceland has voted against restarting accession talks with the European Union in a referendum held this weekend. A tally of votes on Sunday morning, reported by Iceland’s national broadcaster, RÚV, showed that Icelanders rejected the government’s bid to resume negotiations with the bloc, with 52.8 percent voting against and 47.2 percent in favor — a difference of some 12,600 votes. Turnout was high across the country of almost 400,000 people with 82.5 percent of eligible voters casting a ballot. While the ‘yes’ vote was widely supported in the capital, Reykjavík, the ‘no’ vote prevailed in rural areas. … Iceland first started talks to join the EU in 2009, in the aftermath of the financial crisis that devastated its financial sector. These talks were largely inconclusive before being definitively called off in 2015, with arguments over fishing quotas contributing to the collapse.” (08/29/26)
“Guinea-Bissau was voting Sunday in a referendum to decide on granting new presidential powers ahead of December’s general election, which will return the West African nation to democracy after its latest coup. There was a low turnout across many voting stations after the opposition urged voters to boycott the referendum, saying it would make the head of the military government more powerful. The military government seized power in November of last year following a disputed election in which former President Umaro Sissoco Embaló and opposition candidate Fernando Dias both claimed victory. If passed, the new constitution by the self-styled National Transitional Council will grant more powers to the president and reduce parliamentary representation, among other issues.” (08/30/26)
“The U.S. military, in conjunction with Ecuadorian officials, boarded and later sank a vessel on Friday allegedly used as a refueling station for drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean, according to U.S. Southern Command. The vessel, which was in international waters near Ecuador, was allegedly used as a floating ship-to-ship refueling station for drug boats belonging to the Los Choneros organization. The ship was boarded by Marines and sailors from the USS San Antonio and cleared without incident, SOCOM said. The people taken off the boat were then taken to Ecuador, and the U.S. sank the boat with an airstrike, SOCOM said, which also provided video of the ship being scuttled.” (08/29/26)
“For years, Arthur Kermalvezen, the child of a sperm donor, saw possible fathers everywhere he went. ‘I imagined it might be my teacher, the people I saw on the bus… and I was very angry because it’s impossible to live like this’. When, as an adult, he fell in love with Audrey, another sperm donor baby from Paris, the question became even more pressing. Audrey describes the moment they met at a gathering for donor conceived activists in 2010 as ‘love at first sight’ – but was this connection a romantic or genetic attraction? When they were born, there were only two sperm banks in Paris and many men had made multiple donations – so there was a real possibility they could be half-siblings. Before building a life together, Arthur and Audrey needed to know whether they were related. But in France, laws governing genetic testing and donor anonymity made finding the answer extremely difficult.” (08/30/26)
