The Meta AI app now has a "For You" section with a list of clickbait-style stories. The topics, images, and text are all AI-generated. When targeting a reporter based in London, the prompts involved topics like tea, manners, pubs, royals, football and the art of queuing.
The US carried out strikes on Iran following the crash of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has effectively closed the shipping lane during the war. Iran's foreign minister said foreign military forces near Iran's territory are at constant risk. Iran and Israel exchanged fire for the first time since the fragile truce took effect.
Lawmakers are moving to ban "toxic" chemicals in food packaging in a bill that is quickly gathering pace. The legislation is brought by Democratic Representatives Jan Schakowsky (Illinois) and Rosa DeLauro (Connecticut) and Senator Richard Blumenthal. It has quickly attracted the support of nine cosponsors. It could be one to attract bipartisan support as it aligns with the Make America Healthy Again contingent, associated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the Republican party.
Xi visited North Korea this week. CPPCC Chairman Wang Huning leads an inspection tour of Xinjiang ahead of the July 1st implementation of the national ethnic unity law. The Pentagon alleges that Alibaba, Baidu and BYD are linked to the PLA.
The Trump administration is trying to destroy the liberal consensus. The presidentâs tariffs destroyed the foreign markets for U.S. agricultural products, while his war on Iran has sent the price of diesel fuel farmers need skyrocketing and put the cost of fertilizer out of reach. The New World Screwworm has been found in Texas for the first time since 1966. The administration cut funding for disease control and prevention.
Drought, falling rainfall and unsustainable water use have pushed Iran into severe water stress. The US-Israel war on Iran has added further strain after reports of damage to desalination plants, pipelines and other civilian water infrastructure in the early weeks of the conflict. In 2025, Iranâs 92 million people consumed around 100 billion cubic metres of water, nearly 13 billion more than its renewable resources could provide. Many families are leaving rural communities in search of more secure livelihoods.
Study claims to be the first assessment of how live foundation species are influenced by their dead counterparts. The study examined data from 10 ecosystems, ranging from the tropics to the sub-polar, from montane to marine. It found that the dead remains significantly altered the growth, survival or makeup of living organisms of the same or similar species.
US employers added 172,000 jobs in May, more than double the consensus estimate of 85,000. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%. Polymarket increased the probability of a Federal Reserve rate increase before year-end to 53%, while the CME FedWatch tool shows a 42.7% chance that rates will be higher by December. Bitcoin slipped through its 200-week moving average over the weekend.
The US-Israel war with Iran has affected the Strait of Hormuz for the past 100 days. Around 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas trade, 30% of fertilizer trade, 40% of urea supply, 50% of sulfur supply, and 30% phosphate supply were affected by the disruption. Oil prices are 30% above pre-war levels, European gas prices 50% higher, and fuel costs for ships surged 59%. OECD estimates that the war and its duration will be decisive for assessing the global economic growth.
As China's role in global affairs continues to expand, Chinese media organizations, universities and digital creators are increasingly well positioned to help audiences move beyond headlines and stereotypes to better understand humanitarian realities, says Boris Kelecevic, acting Head of the ICRC Regional Delegation for East Asia.
The internet technology we were told would liberate us is now being used as part of an authoritarian crackdown on rights and freedoms. Centralized systems create chokepoints that attract everyone with an interest in squeezing them: companies looking to extract more value from users, governments looking for compliance from companies, and political movements looking for influence from both. Cory Doctorowâs encapsulates how centralized systems get enshittified.
Kumla prison in central Sweden is preparing for the arrival of the first child prisoners in the institutionâs 60-year history. The parliament has already voted through plans for 15- to 17-year-olds convicted of serious crimes to serve their sentences in prison, which will come into force in July. In June, it is expected to lower the criminal age of responsibility from 15 to 13 for crimes carrying a minimum sentence of four years' imprisonment. The prison population has almost doubled in the past decade and there are plans to expand prison places from 12,000 today to 19,500 by 2035.
Karli Swenson studied substance use during pregnancy in Colorado. She developed a training for obstetric and neonatal healthcare professionals to improve perinatal substance use care. 1,454 healthcare professionals completed the training in 33 hospitals, birth centers and community organizations in Colorado between 2023 and 2025.
"Pessimistic" predicts that the Middle East war could push tens of millions more people into the trouble spots. "The negative scenario is unfortunately materialising", Jean-Martin Bauer, the director of WFP's food and security analysis service, warned AFP.
The number of deployed nuclear warheads worldwide has increased over the past year, according to SIPRI's annual report. Of the world's 12,000 nuclear warheads, as many as 2,200 were kept on high operational alert as of January this year, an increase of up to 100 from the previous year. China now has around 620 nuclear warheads and is expanding its arsenal faster than any other country. Norway has opened discussions with Paris about Franceâs extended nuclear deterrence initiative. Finland confirmed similar talks with Paris.
Omer Bartov has written a new book, Israel: What Went Wrong? It's a look at Israel's transformation since Hamasâs attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, Israel has become more warlike, less liberal and more nationalist and religious. Some in Israel's cabinet actively encouraged the carnage on Gaza. Bartov blames the transformation on the way Israelis interpret the Holocaust.
Jingan Technology uses artificial intelligence and data analytics to analyse national security and defence challenges. It based its assessment on the ârhythmâ of US military deployments around Cuba and on political cycles. The potential summer window was constrained by high uncertainty in the US-Iran war, which could divert US military resources to the Middle East.
Seven northeastern states have sued the Trump administration for paying TotalEnergies to withdraw from offshore wind projects. The case is tied to two offshore wind farms that the French energy giant had planned in the US. In March, it agreed to abandon the plans for $928m and invest in oil and gas projects instead. In April, it reached a similar deal to cancel the lease for Golden State Wind in Morro Bay, off the central coast of California, and Blue Point Wind off the coast of New York. The department would pay the developers more than $2bn.
India's fertility rate has fallen to 1.9 births per woman, below the replacement level of 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population over time. Elon Musk warned that declining birth rates pose one of the biggest long-term threats to civilisation. The decline was highlighted in the 2025 State of World Population Report by the UNFPA.
Jiangnan Shipyard has unveiled a concept for a nuclear-powered floating logistics hub that would serve as a container transhipment terminal, energy production centre and charging station for future vessels. The project is designed to support the long-term decarbonisation of global shipping and is based on molten salt reactor technology.
Demand for biofuels is expected to rise by nearly a third this year. The US, Indonesia, Brazil, Thailand and others are trying to increase biofuel use. The price of oil has jumped to nearly $100 a barrel after the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and the closure of the strait of Hormuz. Fertiliser supply has been constrained by the war and prices have soared. Biofuels compete with food crops for land and fertiliser.
Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969 is the first major exhibition to position performance as an origin point for contemporary Native art. The exhibition brings together over 100 artworks by over 40 artists and collectives. It is grounded in the pivotal year 1969, when Indian Theatre: An Artistic Experiment in Process was first published in Santa Fe at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Israel has repeatedly invaded Lebanon under the banner of security. Each invasion has inflicted immense destruction, generated mass displacement and reshaped Lebanon's political landscape. The current 2026 incursion has already resulted in more than 3,400 deaths, over 10,000 injuries, and the displacement of around 1.05 million people. Israel frames the current campaign as an act of self-defence.
The majority of planned datacenters in the US are being built in drought-ridden areas. More than 60% of the US is experiencing drought. Datacenters require a lot of water and energy to operate. They could use 73bn gallons of water a year by 2028, up from 17bn gallons in 2023.
Tobacco companies spent decades honing their marketing strategies to addict consumers to cigarettes. In the 1980s, they started buying up large food firms and used the same strategies to sell more ultra-processed foods. Researchers say the fight to curb our over-consumption of these foods should become the new war on tobacco.
The U.S. government is preparing to auction off slices of the seabed in federal waters. The first one is slated for August in American Samoa, with subsequent lease sales planned for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Alaska. If these go forward, they could mark the first commercial lease processes for deep-sea mining anywhere in the world. Critics say the regulations that would govern this industry are outdated and lack important oversight provisions.
In May 2026, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiroâs administration filed a suit against the company behind the popular chatbot platform Character.AI. A state investigation found that a chatbot character named âEmilieâ claimed to have a medical degree, seven years of practice and a Pennsylvania medical license and was providing users with a fabricated license number. Gretchen Chapman is a professor of behavioral decision research at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
The Pentagon has added several prominent Chinese businesses, including the tech giant Alibaba, electric car maker BYD and search engine Baidu, to its list of Chinese military companies. The Chinese Embassy accused the U.S. of âoverstretching the concept of national security and making discriminatory lists to go after Chinese companies.
The Pentagon has expanded a list of Chinese companies it says are linked to Beijing's military. The list now includes major companies such as Alibaba, BYD and robotics firm Unitree. There is growing concern in Washington over China's military modernization and the role private companies may play under Beijing's civil-military fusion strategy. Beijing accuses Washington of unfairly targeting Chinese businesses.
A new Canadian study has found that social anxiety disorder (SAD) now affects nearly 1 in 7 adults. This is a 71% increase in lifetime prevalence since 2002. One in 4 young adults between the ages of 20 and 24 have suffered from SAD, compared to a mere 6.2% of older Canadians aged 65 and above. Social media curation pressures, increased political polarization, and profound isolation during formative developmental windows accelerated youth vulnerability.
The CFTC has proposed new rules for prediction markets. The draft rules are open for public comment for 45 days. It clarifies that sports event contracts are generally not contrary to the public interest, even though federal law classifies them as âgaming.â It also clarifies election contracts are not considered âgamingâ under the relevant federal laws. The proposal comes as prediction markets continue to gain momentum.
Planned Parenthood clinics in Washington and Hawaii will offer abortion pills in advance. They will provide in-person and telehealth services to residents of Hawaii and Washington. 41 states have banned or restricted abortion, and the Food and Drug Administration is reviewing mifepristone. Getting an abortion in the US is frequently confusing and chaotic.
There is a ten-fold increase in the use of private ratings in the U.S. life insurance sector since 2018. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are exploring ways to trade on the cost of computing power. Futures contracts tied to rental prices for graphics processing units are being discussed.
The war with Iran is back on and there is no turning back now. The world is running an oil deficit. Global oil inventories will fall to 2.3 billion barrels by December. The OECD stockpile has not been this low since the EIA began keeping records in 2003. Even if the Strait of Hormuz was fully open tomorrow, there would be disruptions for at least 3 to 6 months.