June's payroll gains were much lower than the 100,000 new hires that economists had predicted.

All the latest news from Thursday’s live action at SW19
Order of play | Sinner battles past Borges | Mail Daniel

At 4-3 in the second, Shnaider makes 0-40, Sansonova saving the first break point with a forehand ushered to the corner and the second with a serve out wide and clean-up. But when a return, thudded flat and close to the baseline, arrives, the response falls long, and the French Open semi-finalist will now serve for a decider at 4-6 5-3.

We get going on No1 at 1pm BST, 1.30pm on Centre, but before that, we’ve close matches on 12 and 18. Samsonova is still holding her own against Shanider, who beat Sabalenka – admittedly with help from Sabalenka herself – on her way to the semis at Roland Garros, leading 6-4 3-3 and refusing to wilt though her opponent has improved. And Fery – who our commentators reckon has the ability to break the top 20 – trails Virtanen 5-7 4-4. Back with our hidings, though, De Minaur has just served out a 6-2 set to lead Mannarino 2-0.

⚽ All the latest news from day 22 of the tournament
⚽ Bracketology | Knockout stage draw | And email us

And I appreciate all this has been forgotten because England won but Harry Kane should have been awarded a first-half penalty. When a goalkeeper slides and does not get the ball, of course the forward is going to take the contact. Kane is just being punished for being as clever as the officials desire.

Maurico Pochettino was rather unhappy with Folarin Balogun’s dismissal. The striker painfully caught the Bosnia and Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemovic on the ankle but it was a complete accident with two players going for the ball.

A man who sold land for a controversial, Jared Kushner-backed luxury development in Albania is suspected of money laundering and drug trafficking.

The price of silver has dropped substantially from a January high. Here's why it's still a good investment anyway.

Top House Democrat on committee that issued report says president ‘tries to steal the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary and turn it into something that’s all about Trump’

• Full report: Trump hijacked US’s 250 anniversary to serve ‘political ideology and pet projects’

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OpenAI is reportedly in early stage talks to give a 5% stake in the ChatGPT developer to the US government as artificial intelligence companies attempt to smooth relations with Donald Trump’s administration.

The OpenAI chief executive, Sam Altman, has argued that giving the US public a financial stake in the company is the best way to share the benefits of AI, according to the Financial Times, which cited two unnamed people familiar with the discussions.

Government seeks workaround after licensing rules threaten to force pubs to shut before World Cup tie finishes

• World Cup live – latest updates

• UK politics live – latest updates

Keir Starmer is exploring ways to keep pubs open into the early hours of Monday after facing backlash over strict licensing rules that would force many venues to close during England’s next World Cup game.

The team’s win over the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Wednesday night booked a last-16 tie against Mexico that is due to run until at least 3am UK time.

Knowing when to stop paying a loved one's bills after they die can help you avoid costly financial mistakes.

The woman, 31, suffered some injuries but was found alert and in good spirits on Mount Shasta, officials said

A novice climber was rescued after surviving a 1,500ft fall down California’s Mount Shasta on Sunday, officials said.

The woman, 31, was attempting to ascend the mountain along the Left of Heart variation of the popular Avalanche Gulch route alongside two other novice climbers at an elevation of about 13,000ft when she fell.

People are seeking refuge from intense temperatures and humidity this week.

El-Sayed, backed by Bernie Sanders, leads polls ahead of Haley Stevens and Mallory McMorrow in primary

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has thrown her support behind Abdul El-Sayed, the doctor and progressive Democrat seeking the party’s nomination in Michigan’s closely watched US Senate race.

In an interview with the New York Times, Ocasio-Cortez – an influential congresswoman on the left of the Democratic party – endorsed El-Sayed, a former public health director. “Despite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,” she said.

Extremely dangerous heat, coupled with humidity, could result in heat index readings of 100 to 115 degrees from the Midwest to the East Coast, forecasters said.

From space to healthcare and artificial intelligence, what could the next 250 years of the United States look like?

Loan revamp affects how much students and families can borrow to pay for college, as well as their repayment options.

Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine's capital, killing at least 17 people and prompting President Zelenskyy to call for sped-up weapons support from his partners.

U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Franklin H. McKinney disappeared after leaving China for a spy mission over Thailand in November 1944.

See where a “ring of fire” weather pattern could produce disruptive thunderstorms.

Two elite event designers shared their thoughts on how Taylor Swift's team might transform Madison Square Garden.

Damage recorded in 30 locations across in the city from overnight attacks, with ‘most of them ordinary residential buildings’

in Dublin

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he hopes not to wait too long for the results of an Irish government investigation into alumina exports to Russia thought to be feeding the Kremlin’s war machine.

“Unfortunately there are companies in Europe that are owned or effectively controlled by Russia and its sanctioned oligarchs. They keep supplying the aggressor with essential materials even now.”

‘Rooftopers’ Angela Nikolau and Ivan Kuznetsov were arrested after allegedly scaling the New York skyscraper

Two Russian “rooftoppers” who staged an apparent marriage proposal at the peak of the Empire State Building’s spire were reportedly arraigned in New York on Thursday on a slew of charges including reckless endangerment.

Angela Nikolau and Ivan Kuznetsov were arrested on Wednesday after the stunt, which featured the pair, dressed in all black, unfurling a peace banner and kissing.

Despite a deadly heatwave sweeping through Europe, the US president’s ineptness has created reason for optimism on the climate crisis

• Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here

Two real-life climate-themed movies are playing in parallel across the globe. They are about the world today, but they are also a snapshot of the future. The first is a slow-building horror story; the second, a feelgood summer hit. Both are worth watching.

Horror films are suddenly box-office gold, so let’s start there. The World Health Organisation says the extreme, record-breaking heatwave blanketing Europe has killed more than 1,300 people. But everyone knows that number will end up a dramatic understatement.

OnePlus is directing customers in some European markets toward OPPO devices, with its German website presenting OPPO as the natural upgrade path for existing users. The regional handoff adds to "months of speculation that the smartphone brand is slowly being folded into its parent company," reports Android Authority. From the report: The banner, seen on OnePlus' German website, tells visitors seeking "the experience you trust" that OPPO offers the same speed, performance, and compatibility that OnePlus users have come to expect. It hosts devices ranging from earbuds and tablets to OPPO's latest foldables, with each button taking users straight to OPPO's website. Particularly revealing is the wording. Instead of pushing future OnePlus hardware, the company focuses on the fact that OPPO's products are built on the hardware and software that users already know, while promising seamless compatibility with current OnePlus devices. In other words, if you're up for your next upgrade, OnePlus seems to be saying OPPO has what you're looking for right now. Reports in the past several months have said OnePlus has been scaling back operations in several global markets. Previous restructuring reportedly included cutting headcount, a more focused regional strategy, and greater dependence on OPPO's infrastructure. The two brands have been sharing engineering resources, software development, and supply chains for years now, particularly as OxygenOS and ColorOS have begun to look more and more alike. Interestingly, the change appears to be regional. OPPO already has a retail footprint in Germany, so the handoff is fairly straightforward. In the United States, however, things are very different, where OPPO does not officially sell smartphones. That means American OnePlus customers aren't getting the same messaging, mostly because there isn't an OPPO lineup waiting to step in.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hernan Gil was brought out on a stretcher as elated rescuers cheered and hugged each other. He was loaded into a waiting ambulance and driven away.

More than 70 missiles fired at Ukraine capital as Russia faces fuel shortages after strikes against its oil refineries

At least 21 people were killed and dozens injured overnight in Kyiv, local authorities said, in what the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, called the worst Russian attack on the capital during more than four years of air assault on Ukraine.

Russia used nearly 500 drones and more than 70 missiles in the hours-long attack on Kyiv and other parts of the country in the early hours of Thursday. Loud explosions shook the capital for several hours as waves of drones as well as cruise and ballistic missiles came towards it and Ukraine’s air defence attempted to shoot them down.

Keir Mather and Virginia McVea’s claims follow decision by Maritime and Coastguard Agency to reject worker status of coastguard rescue officers

A government minister and a senior official have been accused of misleading MPs over their plans to strip coastguard officers of their hourly pay.

Keir Mather, the maritime minister, was said to have made false claims on Wednesday, while Virginia McVea, the chief executive of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), was accused of having done so during a meeting with MPs a week earlier.

Worried about your card account going to collections? You may have more control over that debt than you think.

HAMBURG, Germany, July 2, 2026 — The ISC 2026 event concluded last Friday, drawing 4,035 attendees from 64 countries for five days of discussions on the latest advancements in supercomputing. Participants also witnessed the announcement of a transition in the community’s most-watched benchmark, as stewardship of the TOP500 project passed to Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

ISC 2026: 4,035 attendees from 64 countries

Held from June 22 to 26, ISC 2026 featured a strong community-driven technical program, including invited and contributed sessions, as well as an international exhibition with 188 exhibitors from 26 countries.

A Milestone Handover for TOP500

It was announced that a new steering committee, consisting of existing authors Jack Dongarra, Erich Strohmaier, Horst Simon, and ACM Special Interest Group on High Performance Computing (SIGHPC) chair Christine Harvey, along with new members Satoshi Matsuoka, Wu Feng, and Anders Jensen, will oversee the transition and the new governance. A new technical committee will manage the list’s production, starting with the 68th November list.

The project was founded in 1993 by the late Hans Werner Meuer and Erich Strohmaier at the University of Mannheim, Germany.

“After managing the TOP500 since our father’s passing in 2014, we are pleased to hand it over to ACM,” said Martin Meuer, co-managing director of ISC Group. “We retained the project for over a decade to protect our father’s legacy and that of the other founding authors. We sought an organization that prioritizes the community’s interest and will not monetize the TOP500 project, and we are confident that ACM is the right home.”

A Successful ISC

Registration data from ISC 2026 revealed a diverse international audience, with participants from 64 countries. By sector, 39.5 percent of attendees were from academic and research institutions, while 33.9 percent were from hardware, software, or services vendors. Of the attendees, 63.6 percent identified their role as Industry and 30.4 percent as Academia.

Data on attendee interests indicated clear trends in the field. AI applications driven by HPC technologies and AI factories were the two most-cited areas of interest, significantly ahead of topics such as data center infrastructure, cooling, and quantum computing integration. This highlights the evolving landscape that ISC 2027 will aim to address.

Beyond the data, attendees consistently highlighted networking and ISC’s human-scale atmosphere as distinguishing features. They praised its environment compared to larger international HPC events, noting the ease of meeting peers, partners, and collaborators face-to-face.

The next ISC will take place in Hamburg from June 7 to 11, 2027, under the program leadership of Professor Rio Yokota of the Institute of Science, Tokyo, and the RIKEN Center for Computational Science.

More from HPCwire

• HPCwire ISC 2026 Speacial Feature Page
• ACM to Take Over TOP500
• ISC Introduces Rio Yokota as ISC 2027 Program Chair
• Jack Dongarra Discusses a Changing HPC World in ISC 2026 Closing Keynote

About ISC High Performance

Established in 1986, ISC High Performance is the world’s oldest and Europe’s most-attended event dedicated to HPC, AI, and quantum computing. The conference and exhibition bring together researchers, engineers, technology providers, system operators, policymakers, and students from around the world to exchange knowledge and discuss the future of supercomputing.

Source: ISC

The post ISC 2026 Concludes with Record Attendees and TOP500 Moves to ACM appeared first on HPCwire.

BROMONT, Quebec, July 2, 2026 — Pasqal, through its Canadian subsidiary Aeponyx, today announced the creation of a specialized center of competency focused on assembling and packaging key components used in quantum and advanced sensing technologies in Canada. The Center of Competency in Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) Packaging for quantum and sensing applications will be based at C2MI in Bromont, Quebec.

Supported by the Canadian government, the initiative brings together Aeponyx, HOP Technologies, and Phantom Photonics to strengthen Canada’s domestic capabilities in advanced photonics and quantum technologies.

Bridging Research and Industry at C2MI

Anchored at C2MI, one of Canada’s leading R&D and commercialization hubs, the initiative is intended to bridge the gap between research, prototyping, and low-volume manufacturing in a field that is critical to enabling scalable quantum systems. It will focus on advanced PIC packaging processes tailored for PIC based quantum technologies, with the objective of standardizing and making novel packaging capabilities available to the broader ecosystem – solving a bottleneck that is critical to scaling PIC based quantum technology. Central to the project is the installation at C2MI of state-of-the-art packaging equipment specifically designed for PIC based quantum computing applications, made possible through Aeponyx’s long-standing partnership with Aixemtec Gmbh, a leading German equipment manufacturer.

“Building on more than a decade of strong collaboration with C2MI on silicon nitride PICs, this initiative directly supports Pasqal’s roadmap by enabling a reliable, domestic supply chain for advanced photonic packaging in Canada,” said Philippe Babin, CEO of Aeponyx. “Creating this Center of Competency is an important step in strengthening the capabilities that will firmly position Canada as a global leader in the next generation of quantum and sensing technologies.”

“With Aeponyx, we validated our active-alignment technology on quantum photonics prototypes, and we believe the collaboration has created a strong foundation for scalable production,” said Tobias Müller, Chief Commercial Officer at Aixemtec GmbH. “We look forward to supporting Aeponyx as it advances capabilities that are important to Pasqal’s quantum hardware roadmap.”

Complementary Experience Across Canada’s Innovation Landscape

The consortium brings together complementary experience that reflects the breadth of the opportunity. HOP Technologies leverages photonic integration for physiological monitoring and wearable biosignals applications, targeting real-world human health impact. Phantom Photonics adds strong expertise in next-generation LiDAR and optical sensing designed for demanding environments including autonomous systems and defense. We believe this international consortium demonstrates that the packaging capabilities being developed at C2MI extend far beyond a single application field, they can serve a growing range of high-stakes applications across Canada’s innovation landscape.

The project is backed by $4 million in combined federal and provincial support, including $3 million from Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen) through its Advanced Manufacturing Technology Program. The total project budget is $7.9 million and marks the first phase of a broader effort to develop a domestic supply chain for advanced PIC packaging.

The first phase of the project will establish low-volume manufacturing capabilities and is intended to support thousands of devices. The second phase aims to scale production to 500,000+ modules per year.

C2MI has built a strong and recognized leadership in advanced packaging through years of close collaboration with the industry,” said Marie-Josée Turgeon, CEO of C2MI. “With this Center of Competency, we are now activating that expertise at scale, partnering with new players and unlocking new applications to fast-track the development and commercialization of next-generation photonic and quantum technologies.

A Strategic Move for Pasqal’s Quantum Roadmap

For Pasqal, the project highlights the strategic importance of PIC technology to the company’s long-term leadership in neutral-atom quantum computing. Aeponyx, acquired by Pasqal with the intention of bringing PIC experience in-house, will help enable Pasqal to strengthen the precision, robustness, and scalability of the photonic layer underpinning its quantum hardware roadmap.

“This PIC Packaging Center of Competency at C2MI, launched in collaboration with Aeponyx and our partners, helps turn advanced integrated photonics into repeatable, industrial-grade capabilities in Canada — a key step toward more robust, scalable controls for our neutral-atom quantum processors,” said Loïc Henriet, CTO of Pasqal.

About Aeponyx Enterprises Inc.

Aeponyx is a Canadian photonic integrated circuits (PICs) company specializing in silicon nitride (SiN) and hybrid photonic integration technologies. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Montréal, Quebec, Aeponyx designs, develops, and manufactures advanced photonic chips and modules for high‑performance applications, including quantum computing, optical communications, and sensing.

Aeponyx’s core experience spans PIC design, wafer‑scale fabrication, advanced packaging, and opto‑electronic integration, with a strong focus on scalable, manufacturable solutions. The company has built a robust intellectual property portfolio and works closely with industrial, academic, and government partners in North America and Europe.

Aeponyx is a subsidiary of Pasqal, a global leader in neutral‑atom quantum computing, and enables large‑scale, laser‑based quantum processors through advanced photonic technologies.

For more information, visit www.aeponyx.com.

About Pasqal

Pasqal is a global leader in delivering practical quantum computing at scale utilizing neutral atom technology and dedicated software for industry, science, and governments. Since its founding in 2019, Pasqal has leveraged Nobel Prize winning research to build high-performance quantum systems and cloud-ready software designed to address complex challenges in optimization, simulation, and artificial intelligence.

Headquartered in France, Pasqal employs over 275 people and serves over 25 clients and partners, including Aramco, CMA CGM, OVHcloud, Thales, IBM (Pasqal is part of the IBM Quantum Network), and Sumitomo.

Backed by more than USD 300 million in total private funding from international investors, Pasqal is pursuing a listing on Nasdaq in partnership with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II (Nasdaq: BBCQ) and is accelerating the adoption of scalable, high-performance quantum computing worldwide.

Source: Pasqal

The post Pasqal Expands Canadian Quantum Supply Chain with New PIC Packaging Center appeared first on HPCwire.

The fathers of a camper and a counselor who died last July Fourth after flash floods swept through Camp Mystic in Texas reflect on the tragedy a year later.

First judge found to have erred by giving 15-year-olds youth rehabilitation orders for rape of two girls in Hampshire

Two 15-year-old boys who were spared custody for raping two girls have been sentenced to four years’ detention after the court of appeal ruled their sentences were “unduly lenient”.

After a national outcry, the attorney general, Richard Hermer, referred the case to the court to consider whether the sentences given to three boys – identified only as X, Y and Z – were too light

It isn't approved by the FDA, but we found an experimental weight-loss drug called retatrutide for sale at a local convenience store.

National Weather Service warns heat index could reach 115F (46.1C) as heat grips midwest, Ohio valley and east coast

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A “prolonged, dangerous heatwave” is expected to intensify across parts of the central and eastern United States over the next few days and into the holiday weekend, bringing record-breaking temperatures, humidity, and dangerous conditions to millions of Americans.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned on Thursday that temperatures between 95F (35C) and 105F (40.5C), combined with high humidity, will push heat index values across parts of the region to between 100F (37.7C) and 115F (46.1C).

For all its gloss and elitist governance, football will not bend to the will of a president so eager to demonise and exclude

At 4.38pm on 28 June Donald Trump dropped a Truth. Nothing unusual in that. Trump’s Truth Social feed is relentless and ever-giving.

That same afternoon he also Truthed at 3.58pm, 3.59pm, and twice at 7.42pm, all in the same instantly recognisable, weirdly cartoonish tone, as if a giant maize-based salted snack from a jaunty 1970s TV advert has been pumped full of voodoo and vitamins and propped up behind a lectern to explain geopolitics to the world, but only in the kind of words you might use while arguing with your nine-year-old sister.

PM’s former chief of staff opens up on political mistakes and shares Trump’s theories about wind turbines

• UK politics live – latest updates

Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister’s former chief of staff, has said Labour was not prepared enough for government or for the volatile world when Keir Starmer was first elected.

McSweeney, who had been Labour’s elections guru credited by many in the party for the size of their victory in 2024, said the party did not have an idea about how to make things happen quickly for people who wanted change.

Indictment against alleged leader of gas pipeline attack claims former Ukrainian army officer was directed by state

German prosecutors have accused Ukrainian “state authorities” of ordering the 2022 explosives attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia with Europe, a charge likely to ignite tensions between Kyiv and Berlin, its biggest military backer.

The sabotage in the Baltic Sea by a team of assailants almost entirely destroyed the seafloor infrastructure of the key source of Russian gas to Germany.

How does artificial intelligence use tokens, and should we be worried that AI now has claws? Here's a quick primer on the vocabulary of today's inescapable technology.

Schism caused by Society of Saint Pius X ordaining four bishops without consent presents first crisis for Pope Leo

• Europe live – latest updates

The Vatican has excommunicated a rebel group of ultra-conservative Catholics who defied Pope Leo by ordaining bishops without his consent, creating a schism in the Roman Catholic church.

In a statement on Thursday, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who heads the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the group from the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), founded in the Swiss village of Écône in 1970, had “committed an act of a schismatic nature” which, under canon law, was punishable with automatic excommunication.

The midfielder had to work hard to win his place in Mauricio Pochettino’s squad for this tournament. He is more than repaying his coach’s faith

While Malik Tillman was unsure of what to expect from the United States’ last-32 clash with Bosnia and Herzegovina, he certainly must have assumed he would finish the game with his boots intact.

Tillman has been one of the US’s most important players in their run to the last 16, a vital part of their build-up and a tricky technician for opponents to contend with when he’s maneuvering through the final third. While everyone else waited to learn whether or not Folarin Balogun would be sent off during the second half of Wednesday’s 2-0 victory, Tillman noticed some discomfort with his right boot. There was a good reason: the top of it had been ripped after a stomp from an opponent.

A recent survey suggests that using apps and artificial intelligence for health advice may be linked to vaccine distrust.

Reports say up to 80,000 people waiting by mid-afternoon for chance to see historic artwork at British Museum

People keen to see the Bayeux tapestry faced online queues of up to nine hours when tickets went on sale for the first time on Wednesday morning.

The British Museum, which is hosting the tapestry from September, saw huge traffic to its ticketing website as a scramble for access began.

The Vatican says bishops from the ultra-conservative Catholic SSPX society were automatically excommunicated after ignoring Pope Leo's plea for unity.

Independence Day celebrations are a great time for fireworks photos. Here's how to capture them with just your phone.

The country’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.2% as US job growth also slowed for the month

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US job growth slowed in June as employers added 57,000 new jobs – just about half of what economists had predicted – and the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised its figures from the past two months down by a total of 74,000.

The country’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.2%, but the number of unemployed people changed little, according to the latest data, as 720,000 people left the labor force. The bureau revised the unexpectedly high May figures from 172,000 new jobs to 129,000, and revised the April figures from 179,000 to 148,000.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., July 2, 2026 — Qolab Inc., a leader in quantum computing hardware, today announced the initial closings of its Series B Preferred Stock financing, which, together with the conversion of an aggregate of $12.6 million in convertible securities and a commitment for an aggregate of $10 million in future convertible securities, represents total funding of $54.2 million for the company.

The round was led by UC Investments (the University of California Office of the Chief Investment Officer). The Series B Preferred Stock financing and prior convertible financing included participation from existing financial and strategic semiconductor investors including Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), Octave Ventures, and Phoenix Venture Partners.

The announcement was made during the 75th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, where Qolab co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Dr. John Martinis, recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics, joined fellow Nobel Laureates, leading scientists and emerging researchers from around the world. The gathering provides a fitting backdrop for Qolab’s next phase of growth at the intersection of breakthrough semiconductor manufacturing and quantum innovation.

Among other things, the Series B Preferred Stock financing will support Qolab’s continued development of scalable superconducting quantum computing technologies, expansion of strategic semiconductor collaborations, and acceleration of the company’s target toward fault-tolerant quantum computing.

“Quantum computing is entering a new era, where decades of scientific research are beginning to translate into technologies capable of addressing real-world challenges,” said Martinis, also a distinguished professor at UC Santa Barbara. “This investment enables Qolab to accelerate development of scalable quantum systems while deepening our collaborations across the University of California ecosystem and the broader scientific community.”

The investment by UC Investments further deepens Qolab’s ties across the University of California’s world-class research ecosystem. Qolab collaborates with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory through the Quantum Systems Accelerator — a U.S. Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Center led by the Berkeley Lab — and with researchers from UC Santa Barbara to explore next-generation quantum algorithms using Qolab technologies.

“Our mission at UC Investments is to help ensure that our great public research university system continues to thrive for generations to come,” said Jagdeep Singh Bachher, UC’s chief investment officer. “That’s why we seek transformative investment opportunities that we believe will speed scientific discovery and innovation, and, in the end, make the world better.”

The announcement also coincides with the seventh year of a highly competitive UC Investments fellowship that supports UC graduate students and post-doctorates’ participation in the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, a collaboration dedicated to fostering scientific excellence, encouraging emerging researchers and advancing breakthrough innovation.

“The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings create a unique environment where pioneering scientists, young researchers and visionary institutions come together to exchange ideas and inspire future discoveries and perhaps, future Nobel Laureates,” said Bachher. “UC is proud to continue supporting this extraordinary forum and to help cultivate the next generation of scientific leaders.”

“Solving the most difficult challenges in quantum computing requires deep collaboration with the semiconductor industry to effectively scale manufacturing,” said Alan Ho, co-founder and CEO of Qolab. “The support of UC Investments, together with our existing financial and semiconductor investors, strengthens our ability to deliver scalable quantum technologies that can transform computing.”

The Series B financing builds on significant momentum for Qolab as the company continues advancing its superconducting quantum computing platform and expanding partnerships across the global quantum ecosystem.

About Qolab

Qolab is a hardware company developing utility-scale superconducting quantum computers. By combining deep physics and engineering expertise with strategic semiconductor partnerships, we solve the toughest challenges on the path to fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Source: Qolab

The post Qolab Secures $54.2M Series B Funding for Quantum Hardware Development appeared first on HPCwire.

Charges yet to be filed over incident in Mukdahan involving 11-year-old, as police seek to establish circumstances

An 11-year-old boy has driven his parents’ truck into a Buddhist procession in Thailand, killing at least nine monks.

CCTV footage shared by a local rescue group showed the moment the monks, wearing orange robes, were run over as they walked in procession along a road. The timestamp on the footage was shortly before 11am local time on Thursday.

The 19th annual competition features photographers from 48 countries, most using older iPhone cameras.

Samsung's book-style folding phone lineup may be expanding to include both a widescreen variant along with an Ultra model.

Critics say the Trump administration is trying to rewrite and whitewash history by removing and altering scores of signs on public lands

Jerry Bransford, a former US National Park Service (NPS) ranger, has always had a deep connection with the land he grew up on – and the land hundreds of feet below it. His great-great-grandfather, Materson “Mat” Bransford, was one of the earliest explorers of Mammoth Cave in south-central Kentucky, the largest known cave system on the planet.

But for decades, Mat wasn’t paid for his work. Enslavers rented him out for $100 a year to a man who wanted to turn the site into a tourist attraction – what would later become Mammoth Cave national park.

Estimated 650,000 bags of potato chips are affected as US agency upgraded recall of popular brands made by Utz

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has upgraded a recall of several popular brands of potato chips to its most serious level because of the risk of salmonella contamination.

Manufacturer Utz issued a voluntary recall in May for varieties of its Zapp’s and Dirty potato chips products, citing the possible presence of salmonella in dry milk powder sourced from a third party used to make a seasoning ingredient.

July 2, 2026 — Quantum computers could one day solve problems beyond the reach of even the world’s most powerful supercomputers, accelerating everything from drug discovery to the development of advanced materials and cleaner energy technologies.

But the fragile quantum states that make such machines possible are notoriously easy to disrupt. Even tiny changes in the environment — such as stray radio waves, small fluctuations in temperature or slight physical vibrations — can interfere with calculations, introduce errors and disrupt quantum coherence.

Assistant Professor Han Zhao in his UCF lab, standing beside superconducting hardware and lab equipment. Zhao’s work on stabilizing quantum operations with mechanical vibrations is supported by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. Photo credit: Antoine Hart.

To help address this challenge, University of Central Florida Assistant Professor of Physics Han Zhao is developing a new approach that combines superconducting quantum systems with nanomechanical devices to make quantum operations more resistant to noise and errors.

Supporting New Quantum Research

“The future of quantum computing will be its real-world breakthrough applications in science and the economy,” Zhao said. “So it is absolutely true that practical quantum computers need to address the fragility of quantum states.”

The project is supported through the highly competitive Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award program, which provides seed funding to early-career faculty conducting research in science and engineering. The funding supports graduate student research and the acquisition of specialized superconducting quantum hardware used in the experiments. The project will also leverage UCF’s nanofabrication facilities and quantum research infrastructure, including advanced waveform control systems and superconducting quantum hardware.

“The most inspiring aspect of receiving the award for me is to know that the scientific merit of the proposed research received extremely positive recognition in the community,” Zhao said. “This means our lab is on the right track to accomplish research of high importance. We are also grateful for the support of getting students involved in advanced experimental quantum research.”

Entangling Quantum States Through Braids

There are generally two approaches to mitigate error rates in quantum computing, Zhao said. The first is quantum error correction (QEC), which uses multiple physical qubits (the basic unit of quantum information) to protect logical qubits, the encoded units of quantum information used for computation. However, QEC requires substantial hardware resources.

Zhao’s research explores an alternative approach that seeks to make quantum operations themselves more resistant to noise and errors. His efforts focus on developing a more fault-tolerant method for quantum entanglement using superconducting quantum systems and nanomechanical devices operating at temperatures near absolute zero.

At the center of the project are tiny mechanical resonators — microscopic vibrating structures capable of interacting with microwave signals inside superconducting quantum circuits. By carefully controlling these interactions, Zhao aims to create a topological “braiding” process in which quantum states cyclically exchange properties in a predictable and stable way.

Unlike conventional quantum operations that rely on extremely precise control sequences, the braiding process is designed to be inherently more resistant to environmental noise and small operational errors. Because the process depends more on the overall pattern of the interaction rather than every exact microscopic detail, the approach could help reduce the impact of noise and small hardware imperfections. Zhao compares the process to tying a shoelace.

“Braiding means winding multiple strands to form or undo knots,” Zhao said. “The formation of a knot, like how you tie a shoelace, does not need to be exact every time and can tolerate large wiggle room for the strands to deviate.”

“Now, imagine the strands as the evolution of the quantum excitations and the knots as the entangled quantum states,” he continues. “The process of achieving a certain quantum state, i.e., the knot, can have various wiggles due to noise and control imperfection, but as long as it follows a certain pattern, it will result in a high-fidelity quantum operation. And this certain pattern is dictated by the intrinsic topology of the engineered interaction between superconducting quantum circuits and the mechanical resonators in an open quantum system.”

A Stable Quantum State at Absolute Zero

To perform these experiments, Zhao’s lab uses superconducting quantum systems inside a specialized dilution refrigerator. Operating at these extreme temperatures helps eliminate thermal noise that would otherwise disrupt delicate quantum behavior. The refrigerator, which cools the system to just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, creates the ultra-stable environment needed for superconducting circuits and quantum mechanical interactions to function reliably.

Within this environment, Zhao’s team studies how microwave signals and tiny vibrating mechanical resonators can exchange quantum information through carefully controlled interactions.

Traditionally, researchers have sought to isolate quantum systems from the external environment as much as possible when building quantum computers, says Zhao. However, these physical systems are constantly interacting with their environment and should be used to generate new ways of thinking about the methods of quantum information processing.

“Practically, the ultimate success will be a big step towards a fault-tolerant quantum computing that solves problems beyond the capability of modern computing technology for applications in quantum simulations, complicated optimizations in relevance with the global economy and information security,” said Zhao.

This research is supported by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award program under Award No. FP00012463. Matching support for the project is provided by UCF.

Source: Andrew Miller, UCF

The post UCF’s Han Zhao Advances Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing with Nanomechanical Devices appeared first on HPCwire.

Federal prosecutors to focus on issue despite court backing constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. Plus: Greek priest whose metal music has become cult smash

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The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, has said federal prosecutors and law enforcement officers will focus on combating so-called birth tourism – which involves tourists, temporary visitors, or undocumented immigrants traveling to the US primarily to give birth and secure birthright citizenship for their children.

What did Blanche say? “There’s other things … the federal government can do in the visa process, and the application process, to try to minimize or limit the opportunity of folks coming here not to visit, and not to do what they’re saying they’re doing on the tourist visa, but just to have a baby that can then be a US citizen. What we have to do as Department of Justice is make sure our agents … and the FBI are focused on stopping that.”

President Trump has signed "Lulu's Law," which requires the FCC to allow emergency alert messages for shark attacks. It was inspired by shark attack survivor Lulu Gribbin.

Rebels shoot pilot and set his civilian ⁠plane on fire amid long-running low-level battle for independence in region

Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s restive easternmost region of Papua have shot dead an American pilot and set a civilian ⁠plane on fire, in what a spokesperson for a local militant group described as a “message” to the US and Indonesian governments.

Sebby Sambom, ⁠a spokesperson for the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), named the pilot as Nicholas F Gosselin and said separatist fighters had set his ⁠plane on fire after it landed in the Yahukimo region of Highland Papua province.

Two people climbed to the top of New York City's Empire State Building, unfurled a banner, and then apparently got engaged Wednesday afternoon.

Between 1949 and 1976, an estimated 185,000 babies were taken from unmarried mothers and placed for adoption in England and Wales

Starmer said what happened to the mothers, and their children, should never have happened. He said:

What happened to them, and to tens of thousands of mothers, children, and families, should never have happened. It is a stain on our history.

Mothers, many young, vulnerable, and without support were coerced, bullied, or misled into feeling that they had no choice but to have their children taken away from them. What a thing to do.

I have to confess, as I said to them this morning, I found it hard to read the testimonies and to hear their stories.

I find it particularly hard, as a dad. How much harder it must have been for them to go through that, to set out their testimonies and tell their stories over and over again.

The two people taken into custody for climbing New York City's Empire State Building where they apparently got engaged have been identified as Ivan Kuznetsov, 32, and Angela Nikolau, 33.

Negotiations between Iran and the U.S. will pause for a week for the funeral of Iran's slain supreme leader, but Trump, and mediators, say there's been progress.

The sect, the Society of St. Pius X, defied a direct plea from Pope Leo XIV and sought to consecrate four bishops without the Vatican's approval.

Exclusive: Finance experts warn against investing in bitcoin treasury companies after Stack BTC assets plunge

A bitcoin company that Nigel Farage has advertised lost more than 15% of its asset value, prompting finance experts to warn investors against those types of firms.

The Reform UK leader has invested £215,000 in a bitcoin treasury company named Stack BTC. A bitcoin treasury buys the cryptocurrency on behalf of its shareholders, and Stack aims to purchase other companies with the increase in value it gets from holding bitcoin.

The restoration of capital punishment in 1976 was based on a fantasy of fairness. It must be abolished

Thursday will mark the 50th anniversary of the rebirth of the death penalty in the United States. On 2 July 1976, the supreme court handed down decisions in five cases that laid out a formula for passing constitutional muster.

The formula the court devised and explained at length in one of those cases, Gregg v Georgia, was built on a wish and a prayer. It was a fantasy of fairness, powerful enough, its authors thought, to keep capital punishment alive and to lend it legitimacy, but it was a fantasy nonetheless.

Austin Sarat, associate dean of the faculty and William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author of Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty

Pennsylvania families note promised investment has yet to deliver safer mills or cleaner air in the Mon Valley

It was two days before Father’s Day, and Trisha Quinn was wondering how her six, 12 and 17-year-old nieces and nephews would handle the first of many without their dad.

Timothy Quinn, 39, worked at the Clairton Coke Works plant south of Pittsburgh, one of US Steel’s biggest production sites and the largest of its kind in the western hemisphere, for 18 years. Last August, he and colleague, Steven Menefee, were killed there in an explosion.

Birthright citizenship ruling only a surface level setback, with the court granting president’s multiple power grabs

The symbolic and high profile defeats cannot obscure a more uncomfortable truth.

The US supreme court – a vital cog in the US constitutional framers’ vision of an intricate system of checks and balances aimed at reining in an excessively assertive president – has made Donald Trump stronger than ever, and shows little inclination to stop.

Get your deep freezer ready. Summer grilling season is here, and it's time to stock up on all your favorite cuts of meat.

Contract-free flexibility isn't always a flex, especially when your ISP is nickeling and diming you.

Jaylen Brown is headed to Philadelphia in a stunning trade. The Celtics get Paul George and draft picks in return.

Weather this year has encouraged smaller but earlier cropping of sweet and bountiful fruit in gardens, RHS says

If your bowl of strawberries and cream tastes particularly sweet this year, you’re not mistaken.

It is a bumper summer for strawberries, with the recent weather conditions making them more abundant and delicious than ever, according to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).

Two people were arrested after an apparent marriage proposal atop the Empire State Building’s spire on Wednesday, having climbed well above the section open to the public. The pair were identified as Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, Russian 'rooftoppers' known for carrying out similar stunts in cities including Los Angeles and Tianjin in China. Dressed in black and with their faces covered, they unfurled a large black banner bearing the words: 'When the power of love beats the love of power, the ‌world knows peace.'

It remains unclear how they reached the uppermost section of the building, which rises 1,454ft (443 metres) above midtown Manhattan. The New York police department said charges were pending and the investigation remained ongoing. CBS News later reported that the pair were facing charges including burglary, criminal trespass and reckless endangerment

More than 100 million people could be affected in week leading to 4 July, with increased risks of droughts and wildfires

Meteorologists are anticipating a tumultuous summer that could rank as one of the US’s hottest ever.

New data released on Tuesday showed the first six months of the year were the hottest ever measured for parts of eight western states.

Man once called ‘godfather’ of Calais migrant camps lives in Leicestershire and is said to be trying to claim asylum

A convicted people smuggler who has reportedly been found living in Britain should be arrested and deported, the Conservatives have said.

The man, once labelled “the godfather” of the Calais migrant camps, was tracked down by the BBC to Leicestershire, where he reportedly changed his name from Twana Jamal and was working illegally while attempting to claim asylum.

July 2, 2026 — Researchers from the University of Sydney, working with IBM, have identified and quantified important factors limiting the performance of quantum computers and demonstrated ways to overcome their impact.

The findings, which improve our understanding of how errors emerge during quantum computations, could significantly advance the reliability of quantum technology.

IBM Quantum System Two in Poughkeepsie, New York. The machine was used in the experiments conducted by University of Sydney quantum physicists. Photo: IBM

The paper has been published in Nature Communications.

Project lead Professor Stephen Bartlett from the University of Sydney Nano Institute said quantum computers remain highly susceptible to ‘noise’, or external interference, and instability, making their scaling up to useful machines difficult to achieve.

The post University of Sydney and IBM Identify Major Source of Quantum Computing Errors appeared first on HPCwire.

Authorities say rainy season getting deadlier, with Ghana reporting 13 dead and floods hitting Benin, Togo and Nigeria

Floods in Côte d’Ivoire have killed 59 people since May, the communication minister told a cabinet meeting in Abidjan.

There are fears the toll could further rise as rescue teams continue to search for victims during the rainy season, which runs from May until July, the minister, Amadou Coulibaly, added.

On its 250th birthday, the US is still defined by its fault lines Expert comment jon.wallace 2 July 2026

The most urgent fault line in US politics is between those who believe in the system of government and those who do not. It is, in fact, the foundational US fault line being relitigated for modern times.

For 250 years, the United States of America has been defined by its fault lines, which have bound the landmass and its people together and, at times, have driven them apart. It is a history of rupture and repair. 

The original fault line was between the thirteen American colonies and British imperial rule. The Declaration of Independence stated that ‘When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation’. 

For the American colonists, those causes emerged from British rule, which had brought a series of ‘abuses’ and ‘usurpations’ amounting to a form of ‘Tyranny’. Pursuing their unalienable rights to ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness’, required an altering of ‘their former Systems of Government’, and a setting of a new course. 

In the centuries that followed independence, the US wrestled with a set of homegrown fault lines. The Civil War erupted along the great dividing line between the North and South over slavery, nearly ripping the country apart in the 1860s. 

The American Industrial Revolution in the decades that followed created booming urban population centres, setting up an enduring tension between the US farming heartland and its cities. The social revolutions of the 1960s and 70s fractured the country along generational, gender and racial lines. Threaded throughout has been a series of disputes about economic distribution and equality, from ‘taxation without representation’ to the Great Depression, the Seattle anti-globalization protests of 1999 and the Occupy Wall Street movement. 

Today, as the US looks to celebrate its 250th anniversary, the most urgent fault line in US politics is between those who believe the current system of US democracy can provide rights, equity and prosperity for all, and those who do not. It is, in fact, the foundational US fault line being relitigated for modern times. A long unthinkable question is being asked by Americans: is it necessary again to dissolve the political bands which connect them?

The new (old) fault line

This fault line can be seen at play in the emergence of New York City mayor and self- described ‘democratic socialist’ Zohran Mamdani. It can be seen in the near daily reporting of outside political voices performing well in primaries running up to this year’s mid-term elections. Americans want new leadership. 

It can be seen in shifting views of wealth and anti-billionaire sentiment: Americans want affordability, and a majority now view billionaires as a threat to democracy. And it can be seen in the growing skepticism around artificial intelligence (AI), which has become the engine of US economic growth. More Americans now think AI will have a negative impact on society and are concerned about the personal dangers it poses. 

The fault line can also be discerned in a shift over the last decade from partisanship and polarization to radicalization: on 6 January 2021 citizens overtook the US capital to reject an election outcome they viewed as fraudulent. Politically motivated attacks have surged: In 2022 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked in his home. In 2024 and in 2026, attempts were made on the life of Donald Trump. In 2025, Melissa Hortman, a Democratic member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, was assassinated with her husband. Charlie Kirk, a right-wing political activist, was also assassinated that year. Meanwhile US governmental departments have flagged the threat posed by the accelerationist movement, an ideology holding that the democratic state is so corrupt and irreparable that violent action must be taken against it to precipitate its replacement. 

This turn towards the use of violence is not isolated. As many a third of Americans polled agree that the US government is corrupt and it may soon be time to take up arms against it. Americans are increasingly considering bullets over ballots. 

A loss of faith

Together, these fractures reflect a catastrophic loss of public trust in the US government from 49 per cent at the turn of this century to just 18 per cent as of 2025. Approval ratings of the executive, legislative and judicial approval ratings have also waivered. 

Related work

Europe watches the next American revolution take shape

Especially telling is that even as Americans believe their freedoms are under threat, Supreme Court favourability has reached historic lows. The Supreme Court this cycle eased some restrictions on campaign finance caps, limited the scope of the Voting Rights Act and affirmed the president’s right to remove members of independent governmental agencies. But it also allowed mail-in ballot rules to stand and upheld birthright citizenship. Americans searching for clarity from the Court will be left wanting. 

As political skepticism grows, the two party-system that has defined US politics for centuries is showing cracks. A record-level 45 per cent of Americans now identify as independent of a political party. This surge in independents has overlapped with a declining number of Americans strongly identifying as either Republican or Democratic. Both parties are feeling this heat. 

For Republicans, questions of party cohesion and direction have for the last decade been answered by US President Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again movement. But defections from former prominent faces of the party including Representative Marjorie Taylor Green and journalist Tucker Carlson are revealing. 

First phase of inquiry identified multiple failings to prevent murders of three girls, which government will ‘urgently’ address

Downing Street has accepted all recommendations for changes made by an inquiry that found the Southport killings could have been prevented and identified “fundamental failings”, the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said.

Mahmood said the government would do “whatever is needed to protect the public” as she accepted the recommendations in full from the first phase of the Southport inquiry.

IEEE Spectrum argues that orbital data centers remain far from economically or technically practical despite Elon Musk's prediction that space will become the cheapest place to run AI within a few years. Deploying SpaceX's proposed million-satellite constellation would require enormous increases in launch and manufacturing capacity, while cooling, radiation, maintenance, latency, orbital debris, and astronomical interference present major unresolved obstacles. Longtime Slashdot reader xetdog shares the report: Consider this: There are roughly 14,500 active satellites in orbit. Musk's Starlink constellation accounts for about two thirds of those. Both the launch cadences and satellite-manufacturing capacity would have to scale up astronomically to deploy a million orbital data center satellites. For context, there have been roughly 7,000 orbital launches in all of human history. To loft 1 million satellites into low Earth orbit on SpaceX's Starship, which is designed to carry up to 60 satellites per vehicle, would require 16,666 launches exclusively devoted to satellite deployments. Considering that SpaceX launched a record 165 orbital missions in 2025, even at 10 times that cadence, it would take a decade. And how long would it take to build 1 million satellites, given Starlink's current pace of around 4,000 per year and a generous tenfold increase in capacity? Short of a manufacturing revolution, try 25 years. Dissipating heat in space also requires enormous radiators. As IEEE Spectrum editor Dina Genkina noted, startup Starcloud has sent only one Nvidia H100 GPU into orbit, and "their radiator was too weak to let the chip run at full power." A single 700-watt H100 would require about 1.4 square meters of radiator area, while a 100-megawatt data center could need 2,500 radiators measuring 80 square meters each. So, why are the hyperscalers hyping orbital data centers? Answer: because it's lucrative. "The Elon Musk part of it is honestly genius because he's got xAI building the data centers, SpaceX sending them to space, and Tesla building solar panels," Genkina says. "It's almost like he's paying himself."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As GLP-1s drive the current protein craze, a supplement once only taken by powerlifters is now so popular US producers are struggling to keep up

For generations, the Meives family made cheese. Tony Meives’s grandfather, a Swiss immigrant, and his father both ran small cheese factories in Wisconsin, in the heart of America’s dairyland. “I worked in the cheese factory my whole life,” Meives says. “I have four world-class cheesemakers in my family.” But when it came time to inherit the family business, Meives found there was more money in the industrial runoff that his grandfather would have once thrown away. Today, the 39-year-old bodybuilder and gym owner runs a company that sells whey protein powder, the watery byproduct of cheesemaking that was once considered waste. “Twenty years ago, the only people who took whey were bodybuilders,” he says. “Over the past five years, the market has really opened up to each and every type of person you can probably think of.”

When Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, declared late last month, that “the war on protein is over”, he sounded a bit like one of those Japanese soldiers of second world war lore, who spent years bunkering in the jungles of south-east Asia, oblivious to the fact that hostilities had long ceased. Perhaps there was a time when advice leaned more towards a diet based around fruit, vegetables and carbohydrates – but by May 2026, the war on protein was surely over. Protein had won.

After decades of campaigning by those affected, PM says state ‘did not do enough to protect’ mothers and children

Keir Starmer has formally apologised for the British state’s role in past forced adoptions after decades of campaigning by mothers and children affected.

The prime minister said “the shame is ours” and that he was “deeply and profoundly sorry” for what had happened, as he announced extra funding to help people access their adoption records and reconnect with biological families.

Police said the boy had taken his parents' pickup truck without permission before losing control of the vehicle and crashing into the monks.

To reach a more durable peace agreement with Iran and open the Strait of Hormuz, Trump needs Israel to uphold the terms of a deal with Lebanon that Hezbollah says it will block by "any means necessary."

The gang "has committed numerous attacks targeting civilians, law enforcement officers, and government officials," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

Apple raised the prices on its products, but not its phones. We tested and reviewed every iPhone the company sells. Here's which one you should buy.

Writer says ‘Trumpish’ decision to ban staging is warning of what may happen if National Rally runs country

In the Anglo-French playwright Alexis Michalik’s play Passeport, a young man has been beaten and left for dead in the notorious Calais refugee camp known as “the Jungle”.

When he wakes up, he has no idea who he is – and his only possession is a blue Eritrean passport containing the name Issa. With two others from the camp he decides to leave, not to take the perilous Channel crossing to the UK but instead to try to integrate into France and obtain the necessary papers to remain.

After weeks of testing Dyson's HushJet Mini Cool and comparing it to other handheld fans, these are my thoughts.

Democracies rarely last, but ours has. That alone is worth celebrating

One reason to celebrate America’s national big birthday – our 250th on the Fourth of July – is to honor the unusual longevity of our democratic experiment. Democracies rarely last, but ours has. Even if we know its flawed history – the land grab and slaughter of the indigenous population; slavery; enduring racial, gender and economic inequalities – it’s hard to fault the admirable, high-minded idealism of the Bill of Rights and the US constitution.

I’m all for celebrating democracy. The bicentennial was fun. I lived outside a small rural town where there was a parade, a fife and drum corps, tricornered hats, flags and fireworks. Then president Gerald Ford had sponsored civil rights legislation. Roe v Wade was three years old. There were brilliant and honorable judges serving on the US supreme court. The Vietnam war had ended. Obviously there were problems: our growing military presence in Central America, the bankrupting and colonization of American inner cities, growing disparities. Even so, there was a hope in the air, a sense that things might be looking up.

House Democratic subcommittee report outlines web of alleged corruption, wire fraud and pay-to-play schemes

Donald Trump staged a hostile takeover of the US’s 250th anniversary celebration to enrich political allies, harvest voter data and promote Christian nationalist ideology, according to a congressional investigation released on Thursday.

The interim report, “From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People Out of Their 250th Birthday”, outlines a web of alleged corruption, wire fraud and pay-to-play schemes orchestrated through a shadow corporation embedded within the National Park Foundation (NPF).

Some of these games are more casual while others offer a challenge.

Across the United States, the way you speak is filled with cultural authenticity and central to identity.

Why Should Delaware Care?
The popularity of artificial intelligence has sparked a boom in demand for facilities, called data centers, which house the servers that power the internet. But those facilities have also drawn criticism from local communities for their water and electricity usage. 

New Castle County Councilman Tim Sheldon says he recently brokered a handshake deal to pause a data center development project near Newark. 

Sheldon, who represents the Newark area, said the deal followed private negotiations with the developer’s prominent Delaware attorney, Shawn Tucker, who told him the New York-based developer behind the project, Shelbourne, agreed to consider the Newark site for uses other than a data center. 

“This is my art of the deal,” Sheldon said.

But the deal is dependent on the county finalizing an approval for an exploratory plan application from the developer, which would grandfather the land into zoning rules that existed prior to this year, Sheldon said.

That means the developer would not have to follow the county’s recently-passed data center regulations if the company ultimately decides to build a data center there. Since the property’s zoning already allows data center projects, the county likely does not have the legal authority to deny that exploratory plan application. 

An email sent between Sheldon and Tucker, dated June 10, shows that Tucker agreed to pause the data center project under those conditions. 

Neither Tucker nor Shelbourne representatives responded to requests for comment about this deal.  

Last year, Shelbourne filed documents with the county that showed plans to demolish the existing White Clay Center office and industrial buildings and construct a three-building data center campus that covered about 850,000 square feet. 

After the filing, the plans became wrapped into a larger community backlash in northern Delaware against the growth of the data center industry. Neighbors have voiced fears that such data centers would use too much water and energy, and be too noisy. 

Sheldon’s handshake agreement is not binding, and the developer still has the legal right to build a data center.

New Castle County General Manager of Land Use David Culver said he saw the email from Tucker but has no other information. 

Sheldon noted that the agreement is between him and Tucker — and not with the county as a party. He further stated that if he decides not to run for reelection in 2028 or loses to a challenger, “it may be null and void.”  

“If I’m not there, there’s no promises,” Sheldon said. 

Asked if he would try to secure an official county deal barring a data center on that property, Sheldon said the project is “too far in the process” and he doesn’t want to risk the progress he’s made. 

He said he will instead work to find another company to lease or buy the land. He said in a text after the interview that the deal is “the best I could’ve got.” 

“Nobody else has  even done this much and it seems like I’m getting hammered because I did something,” Sheldon said in the text. 

Sheldon said an Amtrak train maintenance site will open next door to the White Clay Center property in the next few years, and he thinks the track upgrades needed for that project could make the neighboring site more attractive for manufacturing. 

Delaware Public Media reported last week that Alstom, which conducts maintenance on Amtrak’s high-speed Acela trains – will open a new facility on 1601 Ogletown Road, next to the White Clay Center office and industrial buildings. 

Alstom did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

What’s the status of data centers in Delaware?

Beyond Shelbourne’s proposal, several other building projects proposed in Delaware could become data centers. 

The biggest is Project Washington, a 1.2-gigawatt data center campus planned for the land just north of the Delaware City Refinery. It would use enough energy to power almost a million homes.

That plan faced a major setback in March after a state board unanimously upheld Environmental Secretary Greg Patterson’s decision that the project is not permitted under Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act, a landmark law designed to limit heavy industry along the state’s shorelines.  

Developer Starwood Digital Ventures was expected to appeal that decision, but it is unclear whether it will. Representatives from Starwood did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Another potential data center plan is slated for land near the southern approach to the St. Georges Bridge off U.S. Route 13. The St. Georges project includes the land that hosts the popular Halloween attraction Frightland.  

County records show plans for three distribution centers covering 3.6 million square feet on farmland, along with 150 homes.  

The records say the buildings will be warehouses. But project engineer Verdantas also submitted letters to the county suggesting that the buildings could be a data center campus. 

Delmarva Power filings this winter showed two other potential data center projects. But Technical.ly reported that only one of those projects is still on the table, which would be located in Harrington. 

City officials are still in the preliminary stages of discussions about that plan, according to the report.

The post County Councilman says Newark data center plan paused after deal appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
The Delaware legislature reassesses the public education system through new legislation filed each year. In 2026, lawmakers passed a string of consequential bills that reforms school funding. 

When Delaware’s legislative session came to an end early Wednesday morning, lawmakers had approved a string of education bills that reform how the state and how school districts collect and distribute money for schools.

Among them is one that would enable the Delaware Department of Education to begin implementing its hybrid public school funding model, which would distribute more money to schools with large numbers of low-income students or English-language learners.

Delaware Secretary of Education Cindy Marten said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware that the passage of the hybrid funding bill, and others, does not represent a “victory lap” but marks the “beginning of the next phase of a shared civic project.” 

“The work ahead is implementation,” she said.

Here’s a look at Delaware education bills that have passed through or stalled within the General Assembly this year. 

A new public education funding formula? 

Two years ago, Delaware’s Public Education Funding Commission — tasked with recommending reforms to the state’s 85-year-old school funding system – launched an initiative to analyze whether public education in the state was serving all students.

Last year, the commission unanimously recommended that lawmakers approve their hybrid school funding framework, which would shift education spending away from a per-student basis to one that directs more dollars toward students with higher needs. 

In May, two bills that would lay the groundwork for Delaware to implement a new school funding system advanced out of a Senate committee.

One of the bills, sponsored by State Sen. Laura Sturgeon (D-Brandywine Hundred), would enable the Delaware Department of Education to begin implementing the hybrid school funding model. It also includes a provision to mandate that no school receive less money under the model than it would have under the previous funding model. 

If signed into law by Gov. Matt Meyer, the hybrid model would be implemented during the 2028 fiscal year.

Sturgeon, who serves as chair of the Delaware’s Public Education Funding Commission, also introduced Senate Bill 303, which establishes it as a permanent body to continue studying and evaluating the state’s funding formula in the years to come.

Both bills await the governor’s signature. 

School referendum reform

Lawmakers have spent the last year attempting to address Delawareans’ concerns about school district tax increases following last year’s first-in-a-generation property reassessment. 

Sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore David Sokola (D-Newark), Senate Bill 322 was spurred by school districts’ decision last summer to increase their property tax revenues by 10% following Delaware’s statewide property reassessment. 

Sokola’s bill follows two failed attempts by Republican lawmakers earlier this year to scale back districts’ ability to take those automatic tax increases in the future.

While Senate Bill 322 would rescind school districts’ current ability to automatically implement a 10% tax increase after property reassessments, it would allow them to seek additional funding without holding a referendum vote.

Instead of taking an automatic 10% hike, districts – should they meet certain criteria – would be able to implement an up to 2% tax increase each year without seeking approval from voters. 

That approach mirrors the process in many other states.

The bill now awaits Meyer’s approval. If signed, Senate Bill 322 would not take effect until 2031, after the state’s next property reassessment. 

Funding school construction projects

Late last week, lawmakers released Delaware’s $1.26 billion capital budget. The 103-page bill includes scores of spending items, including traditional appropriations for roads, parks, and school buildings. 

During a legislative committee meeting last week, Delaware’s Controller General Ruth Ann Miller said the bill will also allow the state to “forward fund” school districts’ Certificate of Necessity requests. 

If a school district wants to build a new school, add an expansion, or complete a substantial renovation, officials must seek out state funding and get approval from the Department of Education through the Certificate of Necessity (CN) process. 

If state officials approved the requests, then a percentage of the cost would be funded through state bonds. The district would then need to secure a local contribution through a referendum vote for the remaining funds. 

Multiple CN requests have failed in recent years and as a result, many districts have turned to unique ways to address overcrowding in schools. In Delmar, teachers hold classes in the high school auditorium. 

“The hope is that by forward funding all of these schools that were already in the pipeline, that opens the door next year for new CNs to actually be allowed in,” Miller said. 

The bond bill ultimately passed in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and now awaits the governor’s signature. 

Not passing last week was a measure to require union workers on school construction sites. Senate Bill 272 would have mandated that a school district sign an agreement with the Delaware Building and  Construction Trades Council – the umbrella organization for the state’s various unionized trades – to use union labor for construction projects that cost at least $5 million and have at least two bidders. 

Multiple major industry groups, including the Associated Builders and Contractors of Delaware and organizations representing minority-owned businesses, opposed the bill and held protests over it for months.

Expanding the childcare tax credit

Earlier this spring, two pieces of legislation that would each expand tax credits for Delaware parents also saw action in the state house.

One was a Democratic bill that proposes to double the amount of money that parents could receive from a Delaware childcare tax credit. The other, which had bipartisan sponsors, would expand the credit for lower-income parents and allow them to redeem more money than they pay in. 

Rep. Melanie Ross Levin (D-Brandywine Hundred) first introduced House Bill 274 in January as a means to ease financial pressure on parents in need of childcare.

In March, a revised version of her bill – which would increase Delaware’s match of the federal Child and Dependent Care Credit from 50% to 100% – passed the House Revenue and Finance Committee.

The federal Child and Dependent Care Credit allows working parents to reduce their tax liability if they pay for childcare.

During testimony at a committee hearing, Ross Levin noted that her proposal was not in Gov. Matt Meyer’s recommended budget in January. Still, she called the bill “fiscally, potentially doable,” and noted that the credits were designed so that taxpayers do not receive more cash from the government than what they pay in taxes. 

The bill was assigned to the House Appropriations Committee in March but did not make movement. 

The second bill, House Bill 284, was sponsored by Rep. Lyndon Yearick (R-Dover). It would double the childcare and dependent care expense tax credit for single individuals with an income of less than $60,000 and would make the credit refundable – meaning beneficiaries could receive payments even if they own little in taxes.

In an interview, Yearick said his bill is designed to attract “a qualified workforce” to the state by making childcare more accessible to parents who do not qualify for programs, such as Purchase of Care or Head Start.

Among the additional and co-sponsors of the bill were two Democrats — Rep. Alonna Berry (D-Milton) and Sen. Kyra Hoffner (D-Leipsic).

Yearick’s bill has also awaited consideration in the House Appropriations Committee since May.

The post Delaware General Assembly roundup: Public school funding appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

A deadly 1993 heat wave led to a pioneering program that scientists say continues to save lives.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is taking a beat from his busy day job ending the scourge of vaccines and modern medicine to take up a right-wing push attempting to link the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the United States to terrorism. 

The MAHA enthusiast announced last month that HHS was demanding federal action on allegations that the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also known as CAIR, and its California and Washington affiliates had misused federal grant funds. “If there is evidence of fraud, abuse, or ties to designated terrorist organizations, we will act,” he wrote on X. 

The post came as a shock at CAIR’s national headquarters in Washington, D.C., because the organization had never received nor solicited federal funding from Health and Human Services.

“Not even a penny,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of CAIR. “[Kennedy] would know that if he had spent any amount of time doing research before he decided to publicly attack us in this way.”

Kennedy’s mystifying crusade appears to be an attempt to satisfy the demands of a group of Republican members of Congress led by Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, as an emboldened right wing chomping at the bit to target Muslim Americans dictates the decisions of the executive branch. After Roy and his colleagues argued without evidence that CAIR and its affiliates were connected to international terrorist organizations and had misused federal funds intended to help settle Afghan refugees, Kennedy’s fumbling attempt to address their concerns set off a bizarre chapter in the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on dissent that left the intended targets wondering whether they were under a real investigation or had become pawns in a challenging midterm cycle.

“During election cycles we see the ramping-up of this type of anti-Muslim rhetoric,” said Saher Selod, director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. “Saying we need to investigate CAIR national is following a playbook of trying to motivate a base to come out and vote, and Muslims have become the bait in this moment.”

CAIR, which advocates for the civil rights of Muslims in the United States, has been a thorn in President Donald Trump’s side since his first administration, when the group sued to block his infamous “Muslim ban.” In Trump’s second term, CAIR national and its local chapters have continued to push back against the administration’s anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim agenda through the courts and in public statements.

While CAIR national has never received HHS funding, CAIR California and CAIR Washington, which operate separately from the national branch and are overseen by their own boards of directors, have received federal health dollars to provide legal services to Afghan refugees fleeing after the Taliban took power in 2021.

Both chapters vehemently denied any wrongdoing and emphasized the extensive vetting process required by both their respective states and the federal government to use the funds under contention. 

“They won’t get anything out” of an investigation, said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR California. “It is merely an attempt to create smear and destruction, to silence … the most important American Muslim voices in the country when it comes to issues dealing with Israeli abuses and the U.S. funding of those abuses.”

The allegations levied against CAIR and its local affiliates come amid a larger wave of anti-Muslim attacks as Republicans fight to hold onto power in a midterm cycle where they’re likely to lose seats. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in December in designating CAIR as a “foreign terrorist organization.” In Tennessee, Republican Rep. Andy Ogles posted on X that “Muslims don’t belong in American society.”

Democrats have hardly been immune from spreading Islamophobic rhetoric. During last year’s New York City mayoral election, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand had to apologize for comments characterizing now-Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim, as supportive of a “global jihad.” Before winning New Jersey’s June primary, Dr. Adam Hamawy faced attacks from some of his Democratic opponents over a brief 1995 trial testimony he gave for a religious leader convicted of plotting terror attacks, in what Hamawy’s campaign described as well-worn Islamophobic tropes.

Roy, who has been leading the charge against CAIR in Congress, was running his own campaign for Texas attorney general when he sent a letter to Kennedy urging HHS to investigate and suspend CAIR and CAIR California, accusing the organization of having long-standing ties to Hamas and documented “misuse of federal grant funds.” 

In response, CAIR California sent a letter to Kennedy refuting Roy’s claims as “lies, smears and defamatory statements.” The group noted that it was selected and vetted by the state of California to provide these services, and argued that its “use of public funds are fully accounted for, transparent and compliant with its legal obligations.” 

Over a month later, CAIR California received what Ayloush, its executive director, described as an “amicable” and “reassuring” response from HHS. In the letter, obtained by The Intercept, the director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, Paula M. Stannard, said she was directed by Kennedy to respond to CAIR California on his behalf.

“OCR plays a critical part in the effort to ensure that people are able to lead healthy lives free of discriminatory barriers,” Stannard wrote. “OCR’s policy and enforcement efforts continue to protect all Americans from unlawful discrimination; ensure equal access to health and human services and respect the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” 

The letter did not commit to anything, but Ayloush said that he did not get the sense that the secretary would be joining in on what he described as the “bashing of Muslim organizations.” 

So it came as a surprise when only a few days later, the secretary posted about an investigation not only into CAIR California, but also CAIR national and CAIR Washington. 

“There’s an interesting divergence between what he said privately to CAIR California in writing, and then what he said on social media,” Mitchell, the national deputy director, said. 

So far, all three organizations told The Intercept that they have not received any correspondence from HHS. “To this point, we have not received any communication from him indicating that he’s looking into anything,” said Mitchell. “No subpoenas, no nothing at all, just this shot across the bow in the court of public opinion.” 

Roy, who founded the Islamophobic “Sharia-Free America Caucus,” thanked Kennedy in June for “investigating CAIR’s alleged ties to the groups such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.” 

Imraan Siddiqi, executive director of CAIR Washington, said that accusing Muslim Americans of fraud had become a convenient line of attack politically. He pointed to attacks in Washington state on predominantly Somali Muslim childcare workers after conspiracy theories that Somalis were committing child care grant fraud spread in Minnesota.

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“They’ve found a line of attack that some people are responding to or resonates with them,” he said, particularly in an era where social media can easily amplify misinformation for an audience eager to confirm their own biases. 

Hatem Baizan, an Ethnic Studies lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, said the administration does not need to prove these claims to smear CAIR and its affiliates.

“Facts are immaterial for this current administration,” he said. “The aim is to throw as much dirt as possible, use as many investigative tools as possible with the hope that you have enough delegitimization, enough doubt, to actually get people to distance themselves from CAIR.” 

The post RFK Jr. Claims He’s Investigating Terrorism Now, Too appeared first on The Intercept.

Unmarried man and woman whipped 21 times each because they had violated province’s version of Islamic law

A young couple in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province have been publicly caned after a Sharia court convicted them of violating Islamic law by kissing during a TikTok livestream.

The court ordered the couple, a 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman, to be whipped with a rattan cane 21 times each for kissing without being married. At least 100 people witnessed the caning, carried out by a group of people wearing robes and hoods on a stage in Bustanussalatin City Park in Banda Aceh.

Commentary: As generative AI creeps deeper into creative endeavors, what are we to make of this bonkers period piece?

Another generation of Lenovo's powerhouse tower PC delivers plenty of performance and style, but it doesn't fully address its predecessor's prior issues.

If we don’t know the source, not only do humans remain at risk but wildlife can suffer needlessly via retaliation

While virologists and public health departments were palpitating over the news of an Andes virus infectious disease outbreak on a cruise ship (13 cases, three deaths), in the Democratic Republic of the Congo the Bundibugyo virus, the root of the current Ebola outbreak (currently more than 1,250 cases and at least 362 deaths), was smouldering under the radar.

Bundibugyo virus is a horrifying, highly fatal pathogen. Symptom onset is sudden and includes headaches, diarrhoea, malfunctioning kidneys and liver, and, less frequently, internal and external bleeding (hence the term “haemorrhagic disease”). Grimly, contagiousness remains after death, meaning the family and loved ones of the deceased can be exposed when they wash and clothe the body in preparation for the funeral.

Last month, my colleagues and I published an investigation into a Texas oil refinery startup, America First Refining, that had secretly gotten investment from Donald Trump Jr. We discovered a saga involving the Trump administration’s tariff policy, sanctioned Russian oil and an Indian billionaire family’s private zoo. 

At the center of the story was the CEO of the refinery company, Texas businessman John Calce. We’d spent weeks examining Calce — pulling old lawsuits, property records, corporate registry filings — and had pieced together a portrait of what appeared to be an obscure serial entrepreneur who’d for years tried and failed to secure funding for his long-shot refinery project.

Then, not long before our story was set to publish, we decided to do a scrub on a separate company he had incorporated called Brownsville Energy Storage Terminals.

Pulling up the company’s website, I felt a brief flash of panic: Had we somehow missed the existence of a major business owned by the man at the center of our next story? 

“From Houston to Rotterdam, Jurong to Fujairah. Our network connects the world’s most vital energy markets with speed, safety, and precision bulk oil storage,” announced the front page of the company’s website.

Brownsville Energy Storage Terminals, per the website, had more than 850 employees and 28 million barrels of oil storage capacity across six global hubs. This was puzzling: Our reporting had led us to believe Calce was struggling to raise enough money for a single project in the U.S., not overseeing a massive, multinational oil storage corporation. 

Had we been wrong? 

We turned to Google to learn more about the company’s top executives. Its CEO, Sarah Jenkins, had more than 20 years of experience at major energy firms. And its chief technology officer, David Chen, “built the company’s proprietary inventory management portal and integrated AI-driven predictive maintenance systems,” according to his bio. But we couldn’t find any trace of either of them online. Chalk it up to common names? 

We then Googled one of the more distinct names: Vice President for Sustainability Dr. Sofia Rossi, who had “spearheaded the ‘Future Fuels’ program, preparing assets for biofuels and hydrogen.” But, again, nothing. The links to their LinkedIn profiles were dead.

When we searched the company’s Texas phone numbers, we found the same numbers listed online for a Houston baklava caterer, a Dallas-area taxi service and an OB-GYN office.

We called the Texas numbers: dead. Then we tried the numbers for the company’s facilities in the Netherlands, Singapore and China. Also dead. 

We were beginning to suspect this company did not actually exist, at least as described on its website. 

What was going on with this website? We looked at the source code and noticed an odd notation, “This feature isn’t implemented yet, but don’t worry! You can request it in your next prompt!”

We checked the site’s domain registration, and we had our (apparent) answer: It was created this year and traced back to a company called Hostinger that offers an AI website builder for $2.99 per month. “Describe it, and AI builds it,” its homepage says. “Appear on Google and AI search automatically.”

Indeed, Google’s “AI Overview” search response, now thrust on users by default with more and more regularity, seemed to ratify the company’s bona fides:

When I searched for an award the company claimed on its website to have won, the Google AI Overview said that “Recent notable recipients include Brownsville Energy Storage Terminals, recognized for their rapid expansion in the independent oil and terminal operations sector.”

Brownsville Energy Storage Terminals is a real LLC. But everything on its website — from its history of the company, to its job postings, a diversity and inclusion policy — appears to be fictional. But perhaps more troubling is that Google, the proprietor of the world’s primary research tool, has rolled out AI Overviews that can indiscriminately take in fake material and authoritatively spit it back out as real.

In response to questions, a Google spokesperson said in a statement: “AI Overviews are rooted in our core Search ranking systems, surfacing reliable and high-quality information for the vast majority of queries. For uncommon search terms like these, there might not be high quality information published that matches the query — and we use these examples to improve our search systems.”

After we reached out to Hostinger, the company pulled down the site. “After receiving your inquiry, we carried out an internal review. Based on the violations identified, we suspended the website and the account behind it in line with our Terms of Service,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

What we encountered is a particular species of a larger problem that is beginning to be better understood. In April, The New York Times reported on an analysis that found Google’s AI Overviews were accurate approximately 9 out of 10 times, noting that that added up to “tens of millions of erroneous answers every hour” given vast search volumes. (A Google spokesperson told the Times that the study has “serious holes.” The company has acknowledged that AI Overviews “can make mistakes.”) 

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A BBC reporter wrote a fictional article naming himself the best tech journalist at eating hot dogs, and Google’s AI as well as ChatGPT quickly picked it up and parroted it back.  

And the source material for the AI Overviews also appears eminently gameable, even when not trafficking in actual fiction. “It Is Trivially Easy to Use Reddit to Manipulate AI Search, Research Suggests,” ran a recent headline in 404 Media. 

The mystery website ended up as just a single paragraph in our story. But the larger implication is obvious: fakes, counterfeits and frauds that would have taken considerable effort to create just a few years ago can now be churned out pretty much instantly.

While preparing this piece, we reached out to Calce asking about the site. An attorney for his company, America First Refining, replied to us with a letter dated June 24 that the attorney sent to Hostinger. The attorney also addressed the letter to several email addresses listed on the Brownsville Energy Storage Terminals website.  

“I write to demand immediate removal from the brownsvilleenergyterminals.com website of all unauthorized references to America First’s office address on your website,” the letter said. “As you are aware, America First has no connection or affiliation with the brownsvilleenergyterminals.com website and has not authorized the use of its corporate address there.”

I’m left with lingering questions about the website: What was it for? Was it put up by some malicious actor who simply found the company’s LLC records and decided to create a website? Was it a test site that was mistakenly put online? Or could it have been designed for consumption by someone who was meant to think it was real? 

We don’t know, and our emails to the press contact listed on the website, media@brownsvilleenergyterminals.com, bounced back.

The post How Google and AI Nearly Made a Seasoned Reporter Spiral appeared first on ProPublica.

Summer cooking doesn't have to mean a sweltering kitchen. Here's how I keep my cool during the warmest months.

People can begin depositing money in the new tax-deferred investment accounts on Saturday, with eligible children receiving a $1,000 government contribution.

Christian groups see the nation’s semiquincentennial as bringing history, emotion and faith together in a way that is ripe for spreading the gospel.

Dozens were injured overnight in Kyiv during an attack that caused fires and explosions throughout the city.

Researchers say Moscow acted with ‘substantial impunity’ in 144 incidents, including over RAF Lakenheath

The Kremlin orchestrated a concerted surveillance campaign using drones launched from shadow fleet vessels over an 18-month period which targeted nuclear sites in the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, researchers have said.

Analysis by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) of 144 incidents in more than a dozen countries beginning in late 2024 concluded Russian intelligence had operated with “substantial impunity”, leaving authorities across Europe flat-footed and confused.

Nintendo/TNX; Nintendo Switch
A joyful collection of vibrant rhythm games includes catching veggies in mid-air, practising dance choreographies and speaking to an alien

It has been a strange decade for the rhythm game genre. The legendary progenitors Rock Band and Guitar Hero are seemingly gone, yet companies are manufacturing plastic guitars again. Tango Gameworks, a studio best known for delivering survival horror hauntings, made Hi-Fi Rush and it ruled, but Microsoft sold the studio. Indie titles such as Sayonara Wild Hearts and Rift of the NecroDancer have done well on the margins, but now Epic Games has swept in, adding a rhythm action mode to Fortnite so now its mainstream again. All these titles have reinforced the ideas laid out by their forefathers: rhythm can intersect with video games as much as it already intersects with our everyday lives.

Few series hold this ethos to heart as strongly as Rhythm Heaven. Dormant since 2015, a new entry, Rhythm Heaven Groove (known as Rhythm Paradise Groove in Pal territories), doubles down on the concept of offering bitesize, rhythm-based experiences where you follow auditive cues to perform all manner of increasingly exhilarating actions with just a few buttons. Whether you’re catching veggies in mid-air, practising dance choreographies, or speaking to an alien, each mini-game is intended to be a vibrant, micro cacophony with its own rules.

What can financial regulators learn from Formula 1? Expert comment jon.wallace 2 July 2026

Formula 1’s regulator uses a diverse toolkit of rules and penalties to deliver multiple objectives. This could hold lessons for financial regulators as they respond to a rapidly evolving financial system.

Formula 1 (F1) racing is arguably the most complex sport in the world – and one of its most successful. This weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone will attract around half a million spectators and 80 million TV viewers, while F1 commercial rights alone are valued at $23 billion. The F1 movie, released last June, is the most successful sports film ever made.

F1 governance is not without its critics or its controversies, both historic and present day. But at the core of the sport’s continued success is the way it is regulated by the Fédération International de l’ Automobile (FIA). The FIA’s approach to regulation may offer the world’s national and international financial regulators some valuable pointers on how to meet current challenges.        

F1 regulation 

Liberty Media, a public company, is responsible for F1 ’s commercial exploitation. However, the FIA controls almost every aspect of F1. It sets the technical standards for the cars and the racetracks. It determines how races are run, how much each team can spend on competing, and even what media activities the drivers should undertake.  

F1 regulations are designed to achieve multiple goals – from ensuring the safety of drivers and spectators to creating the spectacle that underpins the sport’s commercial success, to driving technical innovation with potential benefits across the entire automotive sector. 

While they are highly detailed, F1 regulations also deliberately leave scope for teams to compete through driver skills, race strategy and technical innovation. Thus, while F1 cars are very fast, with a maximum speed of around 230 mph, they are not designed to be the fastest possible. Nor in some areas do they use the latest available technologies. Electronic driver aids were banned in 1994 for safety reasons and because they reduced the role played by the driver. 

F1 technical regulations are frequently tweaked and periodically go through a major overhaul. The 2026 regulatory update was one of the most far reaching ever, eliminating complex systems for recovering engine heat and assisting overtaking through drag reduction. 

In their place is a larger electric engine and smaller internal combustion engine within the hybrid system, creating a roughly 50:50 split between petrol and electric power. To overtake, drivers can draw on a power boost from the electric engine, but having exhausted the battery are vulnerable to being overtaken themselves.   

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The changes have not been popular with some. But it is hard to dispute that races have become more exciting, featuring frequent changes of position among the leading cars. Meanwhile the rule changes have focused the teams’ technical skills and resources on advancing the design of hybrid power units, and in particularly those that use 100 per cent sustainable fuel – a new requirement in 2026. The intensely competitive innovative environment in F1 is one of the main reasons that major car manufacturers such as Mercedes, VW and Renault own F1 teams. 

Regulations are developed through close consultation with F1 teams. But once in place they are rigorously enforced. Some penalties are applied in real time while the race is running. There are also frequent inquiries into possible breaches of technical standards, sometimes resulting in a team’s demotion or disqualification. Investigations are usually quick and teams and drivers do not hesitate to report on each other. 

Financial regulation and F1

F1 is by no means the only sport with enormous viewing figures, an evolving rule book and vast financial resources. But it is arguably unique in three respects: the central role played by technical innovation; the high importance of safety regulation; and its relevance to growth in the wider economy. It also stands out for the diverse range of objectives that F1 regulators seek to satisfy and the complexity and sophistication of its regulation.  

These features underpin the parallels between the role of the FIA and that of national and international financial regulators: The FIA must keep F1 drivers and spectators safe while promoting exciting racing, technical innovation and commercial success. Similarly, financial regulators must protect bank depositors – and indeed the whole economy – while promoting improved financial services, employment and economic growth. 

Lessons for financial regulators

So, what insights could financial regulators take from F1? Here are two suggestions. 

First, safety. F1 cars frequently crash and sometimes overturn, but in modern F1 drivers are very rarely hurt. Highly detailed regulations combined with innovation – such as the titanium ‘halo’ which was made mandatory in 2018 to improve cockpit protection – have made an enormous difference in reducing driver deaths. 12 drivers died during races from 1970 to 1999, while only one has been killed since 2000. 

Financial regulators seek to prevent losses to retail consumers of financial services and/or the governments that provide insurance. But they typically do not seek to eliminate all risk on the grounds that the level of regulation required would be so high as prevent the financial system delivering on its core functions. However, the experience of F1 suggests policymakers should test this assumption. 

For example, digital communication and artificial intelligence could allow regulators to collect and process much higher volumes of data on what financial institutions are doing with minimal cost to those being regulated. This appears highly intrusive, but it may also improve identification of illegal practices or excessive risk-taking without reducing the value the financial system can deliver to society. 

A further possible step, echoing F1’s enforcement regime, would see financial regulators imposing more varied  prudential penalties more swiftly and with fewer grounds for appeal. 

The second insight is on innovation. The FIA does not think all innovation will necessarily benefit F1. Instead, it uses detailed regulation to block innovation in some areas and drive it forward in others. By doing so it focusses constructor competition and resources on areas that it judges to be of most benefit to the sport (for instance driver safety) or the wider economy (such as sustainable fuels). 

By contrast financial regulators tend to start from the assumption that innovation is likely to be of general benefit to the financial system and only seek to limit it when they see evidence of substantial risk. A key lesson from F1 could be that regulators should be more willing to block innovation by financial institutions in some areas, such as stablecoins, where the benefits to society are hard to demonstrate, and instead focus it even more proactively on areas like cybersecurity, where the benefits are clear and the risk of slow progress is high.  

More broadly, a regulator inspired by the FIA’s approach would find decisions on, for instance, whether to address perverse incentives through ‘bonus’ caps a lot more straightforward. Similarly, central banks and financial regulators would not hesitate as much as they now do to use regulation to force the financial system to support the transition to net zero. And competition authorities might be more willing to use size caps on financial institutions to drive competition and broader economic growth. 

Of course, financial regulators might reasonably say that they already do many of the regulatory things that the FIA does. They might add that international competition, political lobbying and resource constraints prevent them from taking a more proactive approach in some areas. But the experience of Formula 1 suggests that a more complex, directive and ultimately intrusive regulatory approach can sometimes produce the best result not just for safety, but also for innovation and growth.    

CEO Sam Altman argued move would share benefits of AI and it would involve other firms doing similar, report says

• Business live – latest updates

OpenAI is reportedly in early stage talks to give a 5% stake in the ChatGPT developer to the US government as artificial intelligence companies attempt to smooth relations with Donald Trump’s administration.

The OpenAI chief executive, Sam Altman, has argued that giving the US public a financial stake in the company is the best way to share the benefits of AI, according to the Financial Times, which cited two unnamed people familiar with the discussions.

According to the Wall Street Journal, SpaceX showed investors an early prototype of a slim, "handset-like" AI device running a proprietary operating system and integrating xAI technology. Elon Musk, however, denied the report, calling it "utterly false." TechCrunch reports: SpaceX, alongside sister company Tesla, does have the manufacturing expertise to pull off mass-producing a bunch of AI devices -- not to mention access to the chips needed to power any on-device compute. SpaceX has also signaled that it's keen to expand into wireless, with Starlink Mobile as a potential competitor to Verizon and AT&T. One analyst even went as far as to speculate that T-Mobile or AT&T would make fine acquisition targets for the rocket builder, though such a purchase would, undoubtedly, be pricey. It's also not clear if SpaceX is just throwing spaghetti at the wall or if it will attempt to really mass-produce and market such a device. But one thing that seems clearer is that if OpenAI is doing it, Musk would, perhaps, want to try to do it better. [...] Like OpenAI, SpaceX's prototype is reportedly designed to run on a proprietary operating system and integrate technology from xAI, Musk's AI company that SpaceX acquired earlier this year. This would prevent these new devices from being trapped inside another company's platforms (like Google's Android). But the intent also appears to be to create something new, with native AI interfaces. That said, the graveyard is crowded with the unsuccessful launches of AI devices from companies like Humane and Rabbit. A company wanting to sell an AI device does not equate to consumers wanting to buy such a thing. Yet.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Former public defender Sara Bennett spent 13 years photographing women convicted of homicide. She traces their lives in prison – and what happens as they re-enter the outside world

The versatile striker was dangerous in his time on the field on Wednesday, but that time was prematurely ended with a surprising ejection

The day after the US supreme court upheld birthright citizenship, Folarin Balogun – a player who wouldn’t have even been on the pitch if not for the longstanding, constitutional law – pushed the United States through to the World Cup last 16. Just two days short of his 25th birthday, Balogun scored the opening goal in the US’s 2-0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina, his third of the tournament.

Then, about 20 minutes later, Balogun was sent off, given a straight red card for what appeared to be inadvertent contact with Bosnia and Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemović. It was a shocking turn of events for the Monaco forward, who was among the US’s best performers on Wednesday, as he has been for the entirety of the tournament.

New collaborations are helping researchers across Australia harness advanced computing, artificial intelligence and quantum technologies to tackle complex challenges in science, health, climate and industry.

July 1, 2026 — Some of Australia’s most ambitious research questions require more than traditional approaches. Understanding how galaxies form, predicting climate change impacts, designing new medicines and accelerating renewable energy innovation all depend on the ability to analyze vast amounts of data and run increasingly sophisticated computational models.

Through Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre’s PULSE collaboration scheme, researchers from across Australia are working with Pawsey experts to optimize workflows, explore emerging technologies and unlock the potential of advanced computing for discovery.

The latest round of PULSE collaborations has commenced, supporting 12 projects spanning supercomputing and quantum computing applications across universities and research organizations, including the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, CSIRO, the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney.

Together, these projects demonstrate how national research infrastructure enables Australian researchers to push the boundaries of what is computationally possible.

Accelerating Discoveries Across Science and Technology

In astrophysics, researchers at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have been granted Pawsey expert support to investigate the physics of galaxy formation through the SolAs Simulations Suite.

By improving the computational performance of these simulations, the project aims to help researchers explore the complex processes that shape galaxies and better understand the evolution of the Universe.

PULSE projects are also supporting advances in Earth and climate science.

The Pawsey team is working with researchers from The University of Western Australia to improve computational approaches for modeling subglacial sediment processes, helping advance ice-sheet models that contribute to our understanding of changing environments.

Supporting Health and Biotechnology Innovation

High-performance computing is becoming increasingly important across health and life sciences, where researchers are using computational approaches to accelerate discovery.

A number of PULSE projects are applying advanced computing and machine learning techniques to biomedical challenges.

Researchers at the University of Western Australia are exploring quantum computing approaches for high-dimensional decision-making problems related to personalized cancer therapy, investigating how emerging technologies could contribute to future treatment strategies.

Other projects are applying computational modeling and machine learning to drug discovery and molecular design, including work by researchers at the University of Sydney that predicts protein stability and supports the design of mRNA and miniproteins.

By helping researchers optimize their workflows and access advanced computing environments, PULSE supports the translation of complex biological questions into computational problems that can be explored at scale.

Exploring the Future of Quantum Computing

PULSE is also helping Australian researchers investigate practical applications for quantum computing.

Researchers from the University of Western Australia, The University of Queensland and CSIRO are exploring hybrid quantum-classical approaches, combining traditional supercomputing with emerging quantum technologies.

These projects are investigating potential applications in areas including molecular modelling, quantum chemistry and complex optimization problems.

This work contributes to Australia’s growing capability in quantum technologies by building expertise, developing workflows and identifying where quantum approaches may provide future research advantages.

Building National Capability Through Collaboration

Beyond individual scientific outcomes, PULSE plays a critical role in strengthening Australia’s national research capability by improving how researchers use advanced computing infrastructure.

A core focus of the program is supporting researchers to optimize their workflows for high-performance computing environments. This includes improving code efficiency, adapting algorithms for GPU and multi-core architectures, and redesigning computational pipelines to run more effectively on national supercomputing systems such as Setonix.

These improvements do more than accelerate individual projects. They also make research more computationally efficient, enabling researchers to achieve more science within the same allocation of compute time. In practice, this translates into greater scientific output per unit of energy and infrastructure use — improving both sustainability and the overall return on Australia’s investment in national research infrastructure.

Projects supported through this round include researchers working on:

• Climate and Earth system modeling
• Astrophysics and gravitational wave science
• Medical research and biotechnology
• Computational chemistry
• Renewable energy modeling
• Maritime archaeology
• Advanced engineering simulations

The diversity of these projects reflects the foundational role of supercomputing as a critical national infrastructure that underpins scientific discovery across Australia’s priority research areas.

More from HPCwire: Pawsey Welcomes Continued Australian Government Investment Through NCRIS

About Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre

The Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre is Australia’s premier high-performance computing facility for science, located in Perth, Western Australia. Pawsey is driving scientific breakthroughs through exascale-ready compute, data infrastructure, and expertise that support nationally significant research and international collaboration. Home to Setonix, one of the most powerful and energy-efficient research supercomputers in the Southern Hemisphere, Pawsey also advances quantum–classical integration through its Supercomputing Quantum Innovation Hub. Pawsey is a nationally funded NCRIS facility, supported by the Western Australian Government, and a joint venture between CSIRO and leading Western Australian universities.

Source: Karina Nunez, Pawsey

The post Pawsey PULSE Backs 12 Australian HPC and Quantum Research Projects appeared first on HPCwire.

The limits of "America first" in Africa.

The convenient fiction of continued menace.

Folarin Balogun got the scoring going with a goal in the 45th minute, but was sent off with a controversial red card in the 64th minute.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: US homeowners have embraced home batteries in record-breaking numbers in early 2026, spurred on by state incentives while seeking to offset rising residential electricity costs. The trend could even unlock a more flexible energy supply for power grid operators and even AI data centers. New home battery installations reached a record 673 megawatts of energy storage in the first quarter of 2026, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That trend was driven by states with high electricity prices that have implemented policies to incentivize home battery installation, Bloomberg News reported. This residential battery trend stands out as a natural next step for states that have already successfully boosted rooftop solar adoption among homeowners, given how batteries enable homeowners to use stored solar energy at night. California and Hawaii accounted for the majority of new residential battery storage, while Texas and Arizona also saw significantly higher numbers of installations. California incentivizes homeowners with solar panels to also install batteries by offering better pricing for residential electricity exported to the grid after sunset, Bloomberg reported. Hawaii offers a one-time payment of $400 for every kilowatt of battery storage that homeowners install. However, the record-breaking home battery installations coincided with a slowdown in residential installations of solar panels -- the result of the Trump administration and Republican-driven One Big Beautiful Bill having eliminated a 30 percent federal solar tax credit for homeowners. Nonetheless, US electricity generation from solar power continues to rise and even surpassed coal-fired generation in April. The battery installation spree also coincides with rising electricity costs for US residential customers. The Energy Information Administration's latest data shows that the nationwide average for residential electricity costs increased by more than 7 percent in April 2026 when compared to electricity costs in April 2025. So homeowners with smart home battery-management systems could benefit from storing energy when electricity prices are lowest and draining them during peak demand periods.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for July 2.

The FBI said in a statement Wednesday that some ransom notes in Nancy Guthrie's disappearance have been "deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy," and other "demands may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such."

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While fielding questions from reporters ahead of his flight to North Dakota today, Donald Trump batted down questions about the $1.2bn he earned from crypto businesses, according to his latest annual financial disclosure.

“We have funds that run my money well. I’ve made a lot of money before I became president,” Trump said. “They’re big institutions, and they run it … I think it’s called a ‘blind account’, but they basically they take it, and I purposely I never speak to any of the people that run the money.”

Law comes into effect that critics fear will further erode rights of Uyghurs and Tibetans, as well as allow Beijing to pursue dissidents abroad

A new ethnic unity law has come into effect in China despite warnings from Taiwan, the United Nations and rights groups that it could threaten freedoms, especially for minorities.

The Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress aims to forge a “shared” national identity among ethnic groups, for example by strengthening the status of Mandarin as the official language. But overseas campaigners have argued it will further degrade the rights of ethnic minorities, such as Uyghurs and Tibetans, that Beijing is accused of persecuting.

The automaker became a case study in AI hubris, bringing back 350 "gray beard" engineers to teach its automated quality systems to build cars that don't suck.

Statement comes a day after report that three messages received in case were determined to be fake

The FBI is investigating extortion demands related to Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance that “may potentially be legitimate”, the agency said on Wednesday.

The update comes a day after Reuters reported that kidnapping notes received in Guthrie’s case were fake.

Bizarre 250th spectacle in North Dakota sees Trump take ride on red, white and blue train – and speak with hologram of 26th president

The sound of YMCA by the Village People booming through the badlands of North Dakota could only mean one thing: Donald Trump’s 250th anniversary travelling circus had reached a remote corner of America more familiar with bison, wild horses and bighorn sheep.

The US president visited Medora on Wednesday to dedicate a $450m library and museum honouring Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president, in the region where he roamed as a cowboy and big-game hunter in the 1880s.

The 19th annual competition includes photos made solely with iPhone cameras.

On the same morning Sen. Mitch McConnell was hospitalized last month, EMS personnel went to his home to respond to an unconscious person who appeared to experience "cardiac arrest," according to a dispatch call.

It’s easy to get bogged down micromanaging HPC infrastructure. But focus too much on one aspect, and other things can quickly get out of hand in today’s complex HPC environments. With the latest release of the Fuzzball orchestration platform, the folks at CIQ hope to give customers a sense of simplicity and control of their HPC environments.

Fuzzball is a containerized HPC orchestration platform from CIQ, which was founded by Greg Kurtzer, the creator of the Apptainer container management system for HPC (among other popular software projects). It’s been adopted by organizations ranging from Sandia National Lab to the biotech FYR.

Fuzzball was designed by the same team of engineers that built Apptainer to efficiently schedule HPC jobs to run efficiently on containerized infrastructure, whether it’s a Kubernetes cluster running in the cloud, a small workstation running on a desk, or a multi-thousand-node cluster running in a national lab.

As Wolfgang Resch, a research computing engineer with CIQ, explained to HPCwire during a demo at ISC 2026 last week, there are essentially two pieces to Fuzzball.

“One is a set of services that are all the services you need to run a cluster: database, scheduler, provisioner, sequence management,” he said. “And the other side of it is the actual engine, the containerization engine that actual work is running under. And it’s a spiritual successor to Apptainer. Essentially, it behaves more or less like Apptainer as far as performance.”

The goal of Fuzzball is to allow customers to take a containerized environment and make it schedulable, reproducible, and scalable for their HPC workloads. Essentially, it’s about building a bridge from the world of traditional HPC technologies and workflows into the new world of containers and portable workflows.

“It adds things from the container world to orchestrating HPC workflows without giving up the good heritage of HPC,” Resch said. “It still thinks in terms of batch jobs, but for example, it brings along the notion of services. So you can define a workflow that has a set of jobs that are dependent on each other, but they also run a service that all the jobs can talk to.”

For instance, if your HPC workflow needs to grab something from a MySQL database or write to a database, or run a job on a Juypter server or a Web UI, Fuzzball can bring it all together. What’s more, Fuzzball gives the user a browser-based way to submit, monitor, and reproduce jobs (although they can always drop into the command line interface if they need or want to).

CIQ recently released Fuzzball 4.0, which brings several new features designed to bolster the product’s mission and make containerized infrastructure easy to use for HPC users. For starters, Fuzzball now supports an integrated container registry, which will make it easier for users to pull multi-service deployments into a single platform.

Jonathon Anderson, CIQ’s principal HPC product manager, explains why this is important.

“Fuzzball was developed with a little bit more leaning towards that cloud perspective, where it’s just one service among many that’s on the Internet somewhere and it interacts with them,” Anderson told HPCwire at ISC 2026. “One place that that’s obvious is a container registry. It’s talking to Docker Hub or GHCR [GitHub Container Registry] or your local Harbor or something like that, to get containers.”

Another characteristic of these types of services is that they expect to be able to ingress data from an external object or send it back out, Anderson said.

“That is well and good if you have those services, but it’s a barrier to entry for new users who just want to deploy it and try it,” he said. “We kept confronting this user expectation of people wanting to put push containers to Fuzzball or put data into Fuzzball. So that’s what we’ve added this object cache for.”

The new object cache in Fuzzball 4.0 is “roughly S3 compatible,” Anderson said. That means customers can upload data with the command line interface, Web interface, or through the API, and then pull that data into a job for execution. HPC customers could use this to, for example, run a simulation or generate a movie, and save it into this object store to enable functions such as real-time previews, Anderson said.

The third major new feature in Fuzzball 4.0 is streamlined access to file systems. User can now just import existing multi-petabyte Lustre, GPFS, and BeeGFS volumes directly into Fuzzball, thereby enabling workloads to run against data where it already lives. This is a meaningful difference in how Fuzzball works, Anderson said.

“In the past, Fuzzball expected to be the arbiter and kind of the originator of all volume storage, so it wanted you to just point it at a file system that it would own, and anything on there was a volume that it created and then you loaded the data,” he said. “That’s not how people really work, on prem at least anyway. So we’ve reoriented the way that those provisioners work, and now it’s easier to point it at an existing file system with existing data. It can import that data as volumes that are arbitrary.”

CIQ is already working on version 4.1 and is setting up for 4.2. Version 4.1 will bring a new priority ranking system that augments the existing scheduling capabilities, and CIQ eventually will build a preemption feature into the product. That will allow customers to prioritize certain workloads, such as AI inference, over other workloads, such as AI training, Anderson said.

The company is also working on a new MCP layer that will allow more integration with the world of agentic AI. It’s currently working in the lab, with a possible release targeted for version 4.2.

For more information on Fuzzball, check out www.ciq.com

The post CIQ Simplifies HPC Admin on Containerized Infra with Fuzzball Update appeared first on HPCwire.

NCAA President Charlie Baker told CBS News he doesn't think the group will need to change its rules on transgender athletes in light of a Supreme Court ruling that allowed states to ban their participation.

⚽️ Kick-off time: 5pm local/10am AEST/1am BST/8pm EDT
⚽️ Player guide | Golden Boot | Bracket | Mail Beau

The pregame show on Fox Sports 1, which is distinct from the pregame show on Fox, is hyping this as a can’t-lose game for the USA.

Dax McCarty, who has a serious playing resume, is reminding his chest-puffing co-host that Paraguay beat Germany.

• Celtics to get Paul George and draft picks in deal

• Brown had been unhappy with treatment by Celtics

The Boston Celtics are trading 2024 NBA finals MVP Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George and a slew of draft capital in yet another blockbuster offseason move in the league.

Boston will also receive two first-round picks and two second-rounders as part of the deal.

Pair also unfurled a large black banner displaying a message of peace on top of New York City landmark

Two people were arrested following an apparent marriage proposal atop the Empire State Building’s spire on Wednesday, after they climbed to the very pinnacle of the New York City landmark – well above the level open to the public.

The two people were identified as Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, two Russian “rooftoppers” who have conducted similar stunts in other cities including Tianjin, China, and Los Angeles. They were both wearing black clothing and appeared to be masked as they unfurled a large, black banner at the top of the skyscraper with the words: “When the power of love beats the love of power the ‌world knows peace.”

Watchdog criticises ‘lack of proactive, effective casework quality assurance’ but says CCRC ultimately fit for purpose

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) must urgently improve its investigations to avoid a repeat of failings such as those in the Andrew Malkinson scandal, a watchdog has found.

Anthony Rogers, the chief inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service, delivered the warning after carrying out an independent inspection of casework by the body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice.

AI-generated overview found to gloss over allegations of sexual harassment and describes hotel being sued over hygiene as ‘spotless’

A hotel being sued for mass food poisonings was described as “spotless” and a resort where guests complained of sexual harassment by staff was praised for “friendly” service by an AI intended to summarise millions of Tripadvisor reviews.

The overviews of customer feedback downplayed serious complaints, ranging from the stench of mould to a lack of mains water, according to an investigation by the consumer campaign organisation Which?

T-Mobile appears to be migrating its 303,000-core VMware environment to another platform while fighting Broadcom in court for the extended support it says its perpetual-license agreement guarantees. "The matter is somewhat urgent," The Register reports, because a court-ordered support arrangement expires August 3, "so T-Mobile may soon be unable to get support for its very substantial VMware estate." The Register reports: The dispute relates to a deal T-Mobile struck with VMware in August 2023, which saw the telco acquire perpetual licenses and two years of support for some software, plus the option for a further year of support. When Broadcom acquired VMware in 2023, it stopped selling perpetual licenses and standalone support deals for customers with those licenses. Broadcom also reduced the virtualization giant's product range from over 150 products to two subscription-only bundles. Broadcom now mostly sells its Cloud Foundation (VCF) private cloud suite. Customers including AT&T and Tesco tried to exercise their right to extended support, but Broadcom declined to do so. AT&T settled on confidential terms. Tesco is pursuing the matter in the courts. When customers exercise their option for extended support, Broadcom argues it can't deliver because the products covered by the contract don't exist anymore, its contracts allow it to deny support for dead products, and subscriptions are now the industry standard. T-Mobile started using VMware's products in 2008. In one hearing, the carrier's counsel described T-Mobile's VMware implementation as "the base of the entire internal network" and "the place where 1,000 applications reside." Another filing, from Broadcom, says the telco runs VMware software on over 303,000 CPU cores. Court documents allege that in 2024 Broadcom notified T-Mobile it would not renew support after the initial two-year deal expired in 2025. The two parties kept talking about possible new arrangements. T-Mobile also sought an injunction that would compel Broadcom to provide extended support. Broadcom opposed the injunction, arguing that T-Mobile deliberately waited too long to seek it. At one point T-Mobile suggested a $20 million deal for another two years of support. An affirmation filed last week by T-Mobile vice president of technology Kevin Luu says the carrier sought that arrangement "to be able to complete T-Mobile's transition away from VMware at a more deliberate pace." The court eventually granted the injunction forcing Broadcom to offer support beyond August 2025, but required T-Mobile to pay $5.28 million and post a $500,000 undertaking. Broadcom continued to provide support but also sought damages on grounds that the injunction meant it missed out on a new deal with T-Mobile. The telco has rubbished that argument in part because the two parties were still talking about a new deal. Broadcom later proposed to charge $24 million for extended support covering six products, a sum it said would cover over 20 staff needed to support T-Mobile. The carrier fired back by pointing out that it has made just two support calls in 2026, which hardly justifies such a massive staff and expense.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Premium subscribers can listen to narrations by both Jim Dale and Stephen Fry.

Body of 18-year-old man located after search involving Mountain Rescue, police and the fire service

A student has drowned while on a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) trip in Wales, police have said.

Emergency services were called to the River Wye in Glasbury, Powys on Tuesday evening after it was reported an 18-year-old male had entered the water and could not be found.

Analysis reveals extent of impact on NHS of placating Donald Trump over price of British medicine exports

The NHS will have to divert £45bn from essential services to pay for new medicines under the terms of the UK-US trade deal agreed last December, leading to more than 200,000 avoidable deaths of patients, analysis has found.

Ministers have defended the deal as a way of helping British drug exports to the US avoid tariffs, and giving patients in England access to potentially life-extending drugs that would otherwise be denied.

After the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, the president called on Congress to end it through legislation, saying a “long and unwieldy” constitutional amendment was not necessary. But constitutional and immigration law experts disagree.

These experts say the majority opinion from the Supreme Court — which interpreted the 14th Amendment as providing citizenship to anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions — indicated that a constitutional amendment would be needed.

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling on June 30, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process. No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!”

Trump is right about the significant hurdle constitutional amendments present. They must be supported by a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, and then need to be ratified by three-fourths of the states.

But constitutional scholars, and even some Republican supporters of ending birthright citizenship, say that’s now the path to end it.

According to the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.”

On the first day of his second term, Trump issued an executive order to deny birthright citizenship to children born to parents in the country unlawfully or who are in the country lawfully but only on temporary visas. It never went into effect, though, because lower federal courts blocked it.

The case Trump v. Barbara made its way to the Supreme Court and in the majority opinion on the case, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights— to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’ … We keep that promise today.”

That includes “children born of parents unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States,” Roberts wrote for the majority. “Under the Constitution,” he said, “they are citizens at birth.”

According to constitutional scholars we interviewed, that leaves no wiggle room for doing away with birthright citizenship through normal legislation. Legislators have been trying for years to end birthright citizenship for children of people in the country illegally, though no bill has ever passed. Now, many experts say, it is clear that any such legislation would be struck down by the courts.

“Trump is grasping at straws,” Garrett Epps, a professor of practice at the University of Oregon School of Law and a constitutional expert, told us via email. “There is no language in the majority opinion in Barbara that suggests Congress could change the birthright citizenship rule of the Fourteenth Amendment by statute.”

While the court’s 6-3 decision struck down Trump’s executive order, Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred with the majority only in part. He wrote in a separate opinion that he disagreed that Trump’s order violated the 14th Amendment. He said Congress alone has the authority to “enact new legislation establishing exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to foreign citizens unlawfully or temporarily in the country.”

Although three justices voted against the majority opinion, Kavanaugh’s was “the only voice of the nine that raises that possibility” of reversing birthright citizenship through legislative action, Epps said.

“Nothing—nothing—in the majority opinion suggests that Congress has the power to limit or abolish” birthright citizenship, Epps said. “Maybe—maybe—the three other dissenters would agree; but they do not say so in writing. Meanwhile, there’s no indication from any of the five in the majority that they are basing their decision on statutory grounds. As of today, there are five votes on this court to hold that the Citizenship Clause establishes a clear constitutional rule that cannot be overturned by act of Congress, any more than the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses could be.”

Muzaffar Chishti, a lawyer and senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, told us via email that Trump is “wrong” to say birthright citizenship could be reversed by legislation.

“He lost this one plain and simple!” Chishti, director of the MPI office at the New York University School of Law, said.

“Unfortunately for the President, the majority of Justices (5-4) did not support his position,” Chishti said on the day of the ruling. “The majority, in an extraordinarily strong opinion by the Chief Justice, ruled that only a constitutional amendment can reinterpret the current understanding of the 14th amendment: that every child (with the minor exceptions of children born to diplomats and enemy aliens) are citizens at birth. So, the only way that can now be changed after today’s decision is either a constitutional amendment or by the Supreme Court overruling today’s decision.”

Jorge Loweree of the American Immigration Council agreed.

“The Supreme Court did not say Congress can end birthright citizenship through legislation,” Loweree told us via email. “The majority held that the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects citizenship for nearly everyone born in the United States, relying on more than a century of precedent. While several dissenting Justices argued that the Clause should be interpreted more narrowly, those views did not prevail.”

“If Congress enacted a statute that conflicted with the Court’s interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, it would face immediate constitutional challenges,” Loweree added. “Unless the Supreme Court changes its interpretation in a future case, Congress cannot override the Constitution by statute.”

At least two prominent Republicans, both lawyers who oppose birthright citizenship, also agree it would now take a constitutional amendent.

“This was not a decision on procedural grounds (ie, POTUS can’t do this through executive order but Congress could legislate it); it is a substantive decision that says the 14th amendment requires citizenship for those born to, among others, birth tourists or those unlawfully present in the country,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on X. “Will need either a constitutional amendment or a future court to overrule this.”

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah also saw the decision as a call to pursue “the long fight” for a constitutional amendment.

“Neither the Founding Fathers, nor the authors of the 14th Amendment, nor the millions of Americans who fought and died for their country through the ages intended to establish a nation whose citizenship could so easily be purchased, whether through birth tourism of China’s communist party members or a vast border invasion enabled by faithless presidents,” Lee wrote on X. “This is the cheap and cheated citizenship the Supreme Court upholds today. The long fight for a constitutional amendment begins now. We must explicitly exclude foreign nationals who break our laws, violate our borders, or exploit loopholes to make their families American citizens.”

Birth tourism refers to pregnant women coming to the U.S. on tourism visas in order to obtain birthright U.S. citizenship for their newborn children.

Andrew Arthur, a resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that favors low immigration, told us there are “any number of actions that Congress could take that would address the issues that the president is raising.”

For example, he said, the government could restrict the nonimmigrant entry of pregnant women, crack down on birth tourism, or limit the ability of birthright citizens to petition for family members to be admitted to the U.S.

“Not to say that any of those are good or bad ideas (except for cracking down on birthright tourism, which most agree with)– but they are steps Congress could take,” Arthur said.

As we have written, there is no direct government data on the scope of birth tourism in the U.S., though the Center for Immigration Studies estimates it could be over 20,000 births per year. And it is against the law for those who purposely enable it. There have been some high-profile arrests of people accused of running birth tourism operations.

“There are means, short of tampering with the Constitution, to tackle what is without doubt immigration fraud and a misuse of the immigration system,” Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications for the Migration Policy Institute, told us, referring to cracking down on birth tourism. In fact, she said, the Trump administration has already taken some steps.

Arthur, of the Center for Immigration Studies, also believes it may still be possible for Congress to narrow the definition of who would be eligible for birthright citizenship.

But Samuel Breidbart, counsel in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, said any such narrowing of who would qualify for birthright citizenship would not stand unless a future Supreme Court reversed its opinion.

“There are five votes that said firmly, unequivocally that birthright citizenship is part of the Constitution, and that’s the law,” Breidbart said. “Now, is it true that a 5-4 outcome might be an invitation to the conservative legal movement to keep trying? I’m sure that’s how they’re thinking about this. I’m sure that they’re thinking that they can pursue future litigation. … But right now the law is as it has always been, that there’s birthright citizenship for all who are born here, and we require a constitutional amendment to change that. What the court did yesterday did not open the door to Congress legislating.”

Evelyn Cruz, a professor and director of the immigration clinic at Arizona State University’s law school, told us via email that Kavanaugh’s suggestion that Congress could amend who is eligible for birthright citizenship “stands on thin ice.”

But there may be political gain to such an effort, she said.

“Whether Justice Kavanaugh’s suggestion is legally sound or not, the fact that he has opened the door to a potential way for Congress to delineate access to birthright citizenship, even if the legislation is later ruled unconstitutional, leaves the birthright citizenship issue viable for political purposes,” despite the court’s unequivocal decision, Cruz said.

Lori Robertson and Justine Weng contributed to this article.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102.   

The post Trump’s Dubious Claim that Birthright Citizenship Could Still Be Overturned with Legislation appeared first on FactCheck.org.

Recently, there has been a surge in slopcoded new/hobby “operating systems”. Such slopcoded projects – which, due to the nature of “AI” tools, effectively consist of stolen code – will not be featured on OSNews and submitting them is fruitless.

Other websites may choose to employ lower standards, as is their prerogative, but OSNews will not. I obviously cannot guarantee nothing will ever slip through the cracks, but I will take utmost care to ensure OSNews remains free of these so-called “sloperating systems”. Plagiarism, license-washing, and code theft have no place in the world of enthusiast and hobby operating systems.

European governments are rolling out digital identity wallets, which are to be used by citizens to access services, and to verify their age online. As reported by Follow the Money and Android Authority, there is a serious problem with this: these wallets rely on safety services of Google and Apple. These are known as Google Play Integrity API, and Apple’s Managed Device Attestation. Such safety services (known as “remote attestation”) are used to ensure that wallet apps run on hardware that is not tampered with. In this article we explain why the EU-wallet case is part of a bigger problem: by embedding these safety services in public infrastructure, Europe risks making society dependent on private companies while serving their corporate interests.

↫ Danny Lämmerhirt

Setting aside the age verification nonsense, the fact that some European government are tying their identification services to iOS and Google Android is absolutely bonkers, especially in this day and age. There’s endless talk about reducing European dependence on the American tech giants who seem all too eager to do roll over when the Trump regime so much as glances in their general direction, and yet, they seem to want to effectively force us citizens to use American tech products.

Essential online tools, like banking, government services, communication services, digital driver’s licenses, and more, should not require the use of iOS or Google Android.

There’s a lot you can say about macOS, but one thing Apple used to be incredibly good at were making beautifully crafted, detailed icons. As with almost every other aspect of macOS, this deteriorated sharply over the years, with the recent macOS releases with Liquid Glass being an absolute low point. Not only have they become bland and featureless, Apple also started forcing every icons to have the exact same rounded-rectangle shape, making them even harder to distinguish from one another.

Rogue Amoeba, a company with a long history of developing applications with beautiful iconography, published a blog post pleading Apple to go back to proper icon design.

With last year’s release of MacOS 26 (Tahoe), Apple made a mess of app icons. In the first betas of MacOS 27 (Golden Gate), however, there are signs of a turnaround. We’re urging Apple to continue making improvements, by restoring the ability for MacOS app icons to have distinct shapes.

↫ Paul Kafasis at the Rogue Amoeba blog

I really hope Apple will turn its icon ship around.

Parents and grandparents charged as police say case in Hamden not human trafficking but ‘intra-family situation’

Sixteen children were rescued from a dilapidated home in rural Ohio after being confined to just one room in “deplorable conditions” for much of the past four years, authorities said on Wednesday.

The children, who officials said are from the same family and were living in squalor with human waste all around, ranged in age from one and a half to 18 and included boys and girls. Some of them were unable to speak and one – an 18-year-old who was developmentally disabled – could not even spell her name.

Prosecutors said members of the a gang targeted about 51 underage girls and women along LA’s Figueroa corridor

Ten people accused of facilitating a sex-trafficking operation that targeted about 51 underage girls and women have been arrested as California authorities conducted their latest operation to curb trafficking along the Figueroa corridor in Los Angeles, according to a Wednesday news release.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday that members and associates of the south Los Angeles-based gang the Hoovers acted as pimps, recruiting minors and women, some of whom were runaways or foster kids, with the “false promise” of a better life or with violence into sex work between February 2021 and June 2026.

Boy, 16, in hospital with gunshot wounds after incident in Alum Rock area

A teenage boy sustained “potentially life-threatening” gunshot wounds in a shooting near a mosque in Birmingham, police have said.

Officers were called to reports of an incident on Bowyer Road, near St Saviours Road in the Alum Rock area, shortly before 5.30pm on Wednesday.

Meta is reportedly developing its own cloud business that could sell access to its AI models and lease data-center computing capacity to other companies. The move would put Meta in direct competition with Amazon, Google, and SpaceX. Engadget reports: The cloud business could offer multiple services, according to [Bloomberg], like selling access to AI models run on Meta's infrastructure, or leasing the computing power of its data centers to other companies looking to train AI. Offering something akin to Amazon Web Services could help make back some of what Meta has already spent on its new bet. As part of its AI plans, the company has committed to investing $600 billion in the US by 2028. Meta has also already made more than a few expensive hires to build its AI superintelligence team. Meta Compute, the data center and AI-focused initiative Meta created in January, is currently developing the new cloud business, according to Bloomberg.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Almost 60,000 buildings may have been damaged or destroyed in Venezuela after two powerful earthquakes last week, according to a NASA satellite assessment.

Sony is bringing Modern Warfare 3, For the King 2 and more to all PS Plus subscribers in July.

From controllers and gaming keyboards to headphones and consoles, here are the top gifts to surprise the gamer in your life.

Ruling marks second time that Trump’s plan to restrict mail ballots across the US has suffered a setback in court

A federal ⁠judge blocked a proposed restriction on mail-in voting across the US, challenging a crackdown on elections ordered by Donald Trump.

Judge Emmet Sullivan of the US district court for the District of Columbia ruled that a US Postal Service (USPS) plan to deny ballots to voters in states that do not turn over their voter rolls to the federal government should not proceed.

Tariffs, inflation and changing consumer habits are reshaping how much Americans spend to tie the knot.

Investigations are underway into possible fraudulent activity at some of these kinds of facilities across New York, CBS News has learned.

The new survey comes amid a campaign for governments to keep kids off social media.

A vulnerability in Apple's privacy-focused iCloud Plus feature allows attackers to discover users' real email addresses.

BrianFagioli writes: Cloudflare announced new controls that give publishers more say over how AI companies access and use their content. Beginning September 15, new Cloudflare sites will allow traditional search indexing while blocking AI training and AI agent access on ad supported pages by default. The company is also expanding its monetization efforts with a Pay-Per-Use model that aims to compensate publishers when their content contributes to AI generated answers rather than simply being crawled. Cloudflare argues that publishers should not have to choose between being discoverable online and giving away their work for free to AI systems.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This term, the US supreme court handed down decisions on issues ranging from voting rights to immigration and birthright citizenship, reshaping life for millions of people. Kai Wright speaks with Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for the Nation, about how the court got all its power in the first place, and why Mystal thinks court reforms to rein in that power aren’t just constitutional – they’re necessary.

Free users will get just three hours a month of conversation focus, which amplifies the speech of the person you're talking to.

It might not be much longer before gamers cannot find physical versions of new games.

Plan safe indoor activities for the holiday weekend ahead. Heat indices could reach over 110 degrees in some areas.

July 1, 2026 — A new strategic partnership has been announced between Lenovo and the University of Southampton to deliver next-generation high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities that will power advanced research and innovation.

Under a four-year framework agreement, Lenovo will serve as the University’s preferred supplier for HPC infrastructure, supporting its ambition to enhance research computing capabilities and re-establish its position within the global Top500 ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

The partnership builds on a long-standing relationship between Lenovo and Southampton spanning more than a decade and marks a renewed collaboration following a competitive tender process.

As part of the agreement, Lenovo has secured an initial order valued at approximately £7 million, with delivery planned over summer 2026. The new HPC system will significantly expand the University’s computational power, enabling researchers to accelerate discoveries across a wide range of disciplines.

“This partnership represents a major step forward in strengthening our research infrastructure,” said Professor Mark Spearing , University of Southampton Vice-President (Research and Enterprise). “These new HPC capabilities will play a vital role in enabling cutting-edge research and innovation, helping to raise the global profile of Southampton’s research community and compete at the highest international level.”

“As research demands continue to grow in scale and complexity, access to powerful, scalable computing is critical,” said Andy Rhodes, Managing Director, Lenovo UK & Ireland. “Lenovo’s latest HPC solutions, including next-generation GPU-accelerated systems, will enable the University of Southampton to tackle data-intensive workloads and accelerate breakthrough research. We are proud to support their ambition to further elevate their global research standing.”

The first phase of deployment will include Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 servers, equipped with NVIDIA H200 GPUs and NVLink technology, designed to support demanding AI and simulation workloads. A second phase is expected to introduce a next-generation cluster based on NVIDIA Grace Blackwell architecture with Lenovo ThinkSystem SC777 V4 Neptune Servers, further enhancing performance and scalability.

Together, these systems will provide the foundation for cutting-edge research, helping the University strengthen its global research profile and drive innovation across key scientific fields.

Beyond infrastructure, the partnership creates opportunities for deeper collaboration between Lenovo and the University of Southampton. This includes exploring initiatives to expand end-user computing capabilities, support researcher engagement, and promote adoption of new technologies across the academic community.

Source: University of Southampton

The post University of Southampton Selects Lenovo for Four-Year HPC Partnership appeared first on HPCwire.

Yorgen Fenech, heir to property empire, on trial for alleged involvement in murder of journalist, which he denies

One of Malta’s wealthiest businessmen plotted to kill the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, paying €150,000 (£130,000) for three hitmen to carry out the murder, a jury has heard.

Yorgen Fenech, the 44-year-old heir to a property empire that includes the Hilton Malta hotel and casino, is on trial for the 2017 murder.

NEW CASTLE, Del., July 1, 2026 — FS, a trusted provider of ICT products and solutions, has launched its 800G OSFP/QSFP-DD ZR/ZR+ coherent optical module solution, delivering high-capacity optical connectivity for AI scale-across architectures and data center interconnect (DCI) networks. Featuring high transmission rates, high reliability, simplified operations, monitoring visibility, standardized packaging, and interoperability, the solution enables efficient and scalable optical connectivity for AI and cloud deployments.

As AI infrastructure expands beyond a single data center, inter-data-center traffic is growing rapidly, placing greater demands on network bandwidth, fiber efficiency, and operational scalability. To help customers address these evolving requirements, FS has introduced its 800G coherent optical module solution, providing a scalable optical transport platform for AI scale-across and DCI environments.

FS 800G ZR/ZR+ Coherent Modules: Built for High-Capacity and Reliable Optical Networks

FS’s 800G ZR/ZR+ coherent optical modules combine high-capacity coherent transmission, carrier-grade reliability, operational visibility, and broad interoperability in a pluggable form factor. Designed for modern optical transport networks, the solution helps customers simplify deployment, improve operational efficiency, and scale network infrastructure with greater flexibility.

High-capacity Coherent Transmission

Powered by a Marvell 5nm DSP and advanced modulation schemes, the modules support up to 800G transmission over distances of 120km and 500km over single-mode fiber, enabling flexible deployment across metro and regional networks.

Efficient Spectrum Utilization

Support for C-band and L-band operation improves fiber resource utilization and increases overall network capacity for AI and cloud traffic.

Carrier-grade Reliability and Interoperability

Compliant with OSFP and QSFP-DD MSA standards as well as 800ZR, OpenZR+, and OIF specifications, the modules ensure broad interoperability across multi-vendor environments. Open FEC further enhances transmission stability and reliability.

Simplified Operations and Visibility

With CMIS and C-CMIS support, the modules enable real-time monitoring, alarm reporting, and streamlined management to reduce operational complexity.

“The growth of AI and DCI traffic is driving greater demand for scalable and efficient optical transport. FS 800G coherent modules are designed to help customers simplify network expansion and scale network capacity more efficiently,” said Kyrie Zhang, Senior Technical Director at FS.

The FS 800G coherent optical module solution achieves a balanced combination of performance, efficiency, and interoperability. In future, FS will keep iterating on its products to meet the demands of high‑capacity, DCI, and long‑haul transmission.

About FS

FS Inc. is a trusted provider of ICT products and solutions to enterprise customers worldwide. Established in 2009, the company focuses on HPC, Data Center, Enterprise, Telecom, providing tailored product development and solution design based on professional customer needs. Leveraging dedicated R&D and testing teams, comprehensive technical service experts, a robust supply chain system, globalized warehousing centers, and convenient shopping platform, FS delivers a wide range of highly efficient customer-centric ICT products, solutions and services to global vertical industry and enterprise customers across ISP, telecom, retail, education, etc.

Source: FS

The post FS Launches 800G ZR/ZR+ Coherent Optics: High-Capacity, Reliable Connectivity for AI and DCI Networks appeared first on HPCwire.

July 1, 2026 — An international team that included scientists from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used neutron scattering, X-ray diffraction and high-resolution digital modeling to discover a simpler, cheaper way to create a prized form of silicon not found in nature.

A team that included ORNL researchers found a simpler, cheaper way to synthesize R8, a rare form of silicon prized for energy storage. Credit: GS Jung/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

The results hold promise for energy storage and electronics production.

“This question has been a long-standing problem in materials science, and 10 years of research have gone just into this project,” said Stephan Irle, an ORNL senior computational scientist and co-author of the study published in Materials Today. “This method would achieve tremendous energy savings and should be highly scalable for industry.”

Silicon, the most abundant material on the planet after oxygen, offers efficient conductivity at low costs for various forms of batteries. R8, a rare form of silicon so far produced only under laboratory conditions, offers even greater flexibility and higher efficiency.

Because R8 doesn’t occur in nature, scientists previously produced it only by crushing crystalline silicon at extreme pressure — an expensive, complicated and time-consuming process.

The research team, led by Bianca Haberl, an associate professor of physics at Australian National University in Canberra and former staff scientist at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source, sought to find an alternate way. The answer lay in density matching, which occurs when materials align perfectly by density and naturally organize themselves.

“You could imagine it as autonomous building blocks that sort themselves out and come together into just the right pattern,” Irle said.

The team found amorphous silicon — a disordered, glassy version of the element that’s easier to produce due to its simpler structure — could be compressed at room temperature under pressures roughly 25 percent lower than traditional methods to reach the necessary density level, known as a medium-density amorphous state. As the amorphous silicon compresses, its jumbled structure realigns into the crystalline structure of R8.

The research team used neutron diffraction at SNS and X-ray diffraction at Argonne National Laboratory’s Advanced Photon Source to measure density-driven transformations in silicon in real time. The unique tools and capabilities of the SNS and APS, both DOE Office of Science user facilities, captured the necessary details of the process for the team to reproduce the transformation digitally.

The team ran simulations of the data on ORNL’s Compute and Data Environment for Science high-performance computing cluster to model various methods under a wide range of conditions in detail.

“We tried to figure out all the available approaches for modeling the R8 phases and screen for the best one,” said Gang Seob Jung, an ORNL research scientist and co-author of the study. “The modeling was key to demonstrating that what we observed was accurate and scientifically sound.”

The modeling showed the disordered nature of the amorphous silicon gave the material enough structural flexibility to bypass the rigid pathways followed by crystalline materials. That flexibility allowed the starting amorphous material to bypass the usual complex pathway through various metallic phases and take a direct shortcut to the desired R8 structure. The team demonstrated this density-matching principle worked not just for silicon but for germanium, a sister element used in fiber optics and other electronics systems.

“With further exploration, we may determine this method can be used for other important materials as well,” Irle said.

Besides Haberl, Irle and Jung, the research team included Malcolm Guthrie and Jamie Molaison of ORNL, Leonardus B. Bayu Aji of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Guoyin Shen of Argonne, and Jodie Bradby of ANU.

This research was supported by the DOE Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Experimental Sciences, the National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council. SNS and APS are DOE Office of Science user facilities.

Versions of this story were originally published by Argonne and ANU.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.

Source: Matt Lakin, ORNL

The post ORNL: Researchers Use HPC and Neutron Science to Simplify R8 Silicon Production appeared first on HPCwire.

As a proposed billionaire tax in California moves forward, Gov. Newsom says other approaches are needed, including closing a tax loophole used by the ultra-rich.

Surging membership and pro-Palestinian activism reshape debate on how campaigning movement governs in office

Inside a Brooklyn industrial garage turned underground event venue, local leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America urged hundreds of mostly young people last month to avoid complacency. Sure, New York City had a democratic socialist representative in the US Congress, and just elected a democratic socialist mayor. But they had so much more to do.

“If we only elect Zohran, we only elect AOC, our project will have been a failure,” Gustavo Gordillo, co-chair of the city’s DSA chapter, told the assembled crowd. “Our ambitions are so much higher than just a position in government. We want to transform the world.”

Trump and US officials opted to keep USMCA alive on short leash of annual reviews rather than longer term renewal

Donald Trump has refused to renew the North American trade pact he once championed as his signature deal, opting instead to keep it alive on a short leash of annual reviews rather than committing to another 16 years.

Wednesday was the deadline built into the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) for the three countries to jointly decide its fate, which is set to expire in 2036.

Todd Blanche to target tourists and migrants despite such births accounting for less than 1% of US babies born yearly

A day after the US supreme court upheld the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, has said federal prosecutors and law enforcement officers will focus on combating so-called “birth tourism” – the process of tourists, temporary visitors and undocumented immigrants traveling to the US and giving birth.

“There’s other things that [the Department if Homeland Security] can do, and the federal government can do in the visa process, and the application process, to try to minimize or limit the opportunity of folks coming here not to visit, and not to do what they’re saying they’re doing on the tourist visa, but just to have a baby that can then be a US citizen,” Blanche told reporters.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for July 2, No. 1,117.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for July 2, No. 1,839.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 2 No. 851.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 2, No. 647.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement will remain in effect until it expires in 2036, unless the countries strike another deal to extend it.

Here's a look at how events have unfolded in the Karen Read case.

There's no shortage of big shows and movies this month on Hulu.

AleRunner writes: The first fully synthetic cell ("SpudCell") has been created in the Department of Genetics at the University of Minnesota. Strictly speaking, it's described as a "cell-like system constructed entirely from known chemical components that can perform a complete cell cycle." It is able to replicate, but only for approximately five generations. The key advance is that the cell is "built entirely bottom-up from individually purified, non-living components," although it still contains material from E. coli bacteria. "PURE is a defined mixture of 36 purified enzymes from E. coli bacteria," including ribosomes, that provides the infrastructure for genetic replication. CNN has an article on the advance, including interview material with Professor Kate Adamala, who led the research. "I know the full ingredient list of the cell. I know exactly what chemicals, what molecules, at what concentrations," she said. "It is fully defined, which means we can engineer it." "Humans did not create life," notes an anonymous Slashdot reader. "Researchers call it a constructed cell, not 'life created in the lab' but a 'genuine milestone on the road toward that question.' It lacks full autonomy (needs feeding, no independent evolution)." Special thanks to Slashdot readers kemosabi and AleRunner for submitting the story and additional sources, including reports from The New York Times and The Guardian, as well as information from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SEOUL, South Korea, July 1, 2026 — Classiq, a global leader in quantum computing software, announced today that it has signed a significant commercial agreement with quantum-AI datacenter specialist QAI Co., Ltd. to provide nation’s first local Quantum-as-a-Service offering in Korea.

The integrated offering combines Classiq’s enterprise-grade quantum software engineering platform with QAI’s domestic AI datacenter infrastructure and commercialization capabilities, enabling Korean enterprises, public institutions and research organizations to easily evaluate, develop, validate, test and execute quantum computing applications across a variety of quantum computing hardware. The joint QaaS business model will be tailored to Korean users and market needs, accelerating Korean quantum computing innovation.

Classiq’s SOC 2-accredited software platform automatically transforms high-level functional models into optimized, hardware-executable quantum programs that are portable across various hardware environments. Through this partnership, Classiq and QAI aim to expand access to advanced quantum software and cloud-based quantum resources in Korea, supporting customers as they apply quantum computing in real-world business and research environments.

By bringing together scalable quantum software innovation and QAI’s domestic infrastructure, the partnership creates an integrated pathway from quantum application ideation to execution. The companies will also explore local infrastructure options to address the stringent data sovereignty and security requirements of Korean public institutions and major enterprises, helping establish a sovereignty-focused quantum cloud service model.

QAI will launch and operate the QaaS business in Korea under its own brand and will be responsible for customer acquisition, business development, service operations and local partnership expansion. Classiq will support service enhancement and the establishment of a technical support framework aligned with the needs of Korean users, leveraging its quantum development platform and technical expertise.

The companies will also pursue mid-term and long-term commercialization roadmaps, including joint marketing, engineer enablement, customer education programs and technical support infrastructure to support successful market entry and adoption.

“Quantum computing will not flourish through hardware access alone. Combining software that allows enterprises, researchers and public institutions to design, test and scale quantum applications in a practical way is a catalyst for progress and innovation,” said Nir Minerbi, CEO and co-founder of Classiq. “Our offering with QAI is an important step toward making advanced quantum software and cutting-edge quantum resources seamlessly accessible in Korea, supporting a Korean QaaS offering that reflects the market’s infrastructure, security and adoption needs.”

“This partnership is meaningful in that it combines a global quantum computing software platform with QAI’s infrastructure and commercialization capabilities to establish the foundation for a quantum cloud service optimized for the Korean market,” said Seman Im, CEO of QAI. “We will accelerate the advancement of the service model and market expansion so that major Korean institutions and enterprises can more realistically evaluate quantum computing and apply it in practical business settings.”

About Classiq

Classiq is the leading quantum computing software company, providing the technology that makes it practical for enterprises and researchers to access and harness the power of quantum computing. Classiq’s agentic quantum software engineering platform enables an enterprise-grade workflow that transforms high-level functional models into optimized, hardware-ready quantum circuits automatically. This enables teams to develop algorithms faster, optimize them for cost and performance, and make quantum applications usable sooner on any quantum computer, all without requiring deep hardware expertise.

Source: Classiq

The post Classiq and QAI Launch Quantum Cloud Offering in Korea appeared first on HPCwire.

Many seabirds are starving to death as a marine heat wave lingers off California and fish seek deeper, cooler waters

Within minutes of walking on a San Diego beach, marine ornithologist Tammy Russell found the feathered carcasses – one after another.

Some were mixed in with washed up kelp. Others were under rocks.

Hundreds watched England in first round of knockout stages at Prospect Building in Bristol

• World Cup live – latest updates

Sisters Angela and Christine hugged, danced and shed a tear or two at the final whistle as England squeezed past the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

“That was brilliant,” said Christine, a 51-year-old lifeguard. “Watching England is exhausting, emotional, often heart-breaking but we love it. You’ve got to relish the ups and downs.”

A CD account has been especially worth opening in recent years, but especially so this July. Here's why.

Panel proses shared framework for responsible AI development as adoption grows unevenly across world

A new United Nations report warns that the development of artificial intelligence may exacerbate global inequality and proposes a shared framework for how to responsibly develop AI, as adoption and investment into the technology accelerates unevenly across the world.

“The more AI advances without shared rules, the less say governments and people will have in the outcome,” said António Guterres, the UN secretary general, at a press conference on Wednesday. “Our message to governments is simple: do not wait … the science is here. We can no longer say we did not know what we do.”

Catch these titles -- plus a new season of Batman: Caped Crusader and much more -- this month.

Interest earnings on a CD account of this size will be substantial. Here's what savers need to know right now.

July 1, 2026 — Quantum technology is advancing faster than most government planning cycles anticipate. Fault-tolerant quantum computers, machines capable of solving problems beyond the reach of classical supercomputers, now have a clear engineering path and a delivery timeline measured in months, not decades. The first applications will be in scientific computing workloads with deep relevance to federal agency missions, from energy research to materials science to national security. And as quantum hardware improves, so does the urgency of protecting today’s encrypted data from tomorrow’s quantum-enabled attacks, a migration that every agency will need to execute under hard deadlines.

Credit: Shutterstock

Last week, the White House reinforced that urgency with two Executive Orders that represent the most significant federal commitment to quantum technologies in a generation. The first, Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation, directs a whole-of-government approach to accelerate deployment and commercialization of quantum computing, sensing, and networking, and it establishes the Quantum Computer for Application Development and Discovery Science (QC-ADDS) Effort to deliver a quantum computer at the scale needed for scientific discovery to a Department of Energy (DOE) facility. The second, Securing the Nation Against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks, mandates that all federal high-value assets and high-impact systems transition to (National Institute of Standards and Technology) NIST-approved post-quantum cryptography (PQC) by the end of 2030 for key establishment and 2031 for digital signatures.

This week, DOE acted on that mandate, launching the Quantum Genesis initiative and the Q Competition to develop and deploy the world’s first scientifically relevant fault-tolerant quantum computing systems by 2028. The initiative will establish a National Quantum Supercomputing User Facility integrated with DOE’s exascale high performance computing (HPC), AI, and networking infrastructure.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been building toward this moment for years, on both sides of the quantum equation. On the computing side, AWS announced this month its expanded strategic collaboration with QuEra Computing to bring the first fault-tolerant quantum computers to the cloud through Amazon Braket, with scientifically relevant applications starting in 2028. On the security side, AWS security experts have been contributing to post-quantum cryptography research and standards-setting efforts for years, including the NIST standards that now underpin the federal PQC mandate. AWS has a well-defined migration plan already in execution across its infrastructure in alignment with the 2030 and 2031 deadlines outlined in the Executive Order. AWS has already achieved FIPS 140-3 validation for AWS-LC, the cryptographic library deployed across its infrastructure, which means agencies running workloads on AWS are already operating on a PQC-ready cryptographic foundation without needing to procure or deploy separate solutions.

This post will explain a little more about why both quantum computing and post-quantum cryptography matter for federal missions, and what agency leaders should be doing now.

The Computing Opportunity: From Experiments to Mission Applications

Quantum error correction has advanced rapidly. Research teams have demonstrated the core building blocks of fault-tolerant computation: logical qubits that outperform their physical components, real-time error correction at scale, and coherent operation of thousands of qubits in a single system. Based on these advances, AWS and QuEra are bringing Libra, a megaquop-scale device capable of executing one million quantum operations over hundreds of logical qubits, to Amazon Braket customers by 2028.

This matters for federal missions because the problems it can address are ones where classical supercomputers hit fundamental limits. At the megaquop scale, with 250 logical qubits and up to 100,000 hard fault-tolerant operations, researchers will be able to generate scientifically meaningful data that complements and validates what classical methods produce, reducing uncertainty and strengthening scientific conclusions in domains where classical simulations require approximations that can’t be rigorously verified today.

The specific applications are directly aligned to DOE and national security priorities:

• Quantum chemistry and energy science: Simulating the molecular processes behind next-generation solar cells and industrial nitrogen fixation, where classical methods are forced to make approximations they can’t verify. Quantum algorithms provide rigorous validation that no classical approach can deliver.
• Materials science: Understanding the behavior of strongly correlated materials relevant to high-temperature superconductivity, where classical computers can’t accurately model the quantum interactions that drive the physics.
• High-energy physics: Simulating the real-time dynamics of fundamental forces, a class of problems that is exponentially hard for classical supercomputers and directly relevant to the understanding of the universe at its most basic level.
• Nuclear physics: Validating the theoretical models used to predict nuclear behavior, where classical simulations rely on assumptions that currently can’t be independently confirmed.

Each of these represents a specific computational bottleneck where the physics of the problem aligns with the capabilities of the hardware being delivered, and where DOE researchers and their national laboratory teams have been co-designing applications with AWS and QuEra for years. And although DOE science missions represent the earliest applications, the same class of computational advantage extends across the federal government: drug discovery and genomics at National Institutes of Health (NIH), logistics and supply chain optimization at the Department of War, and financial risk modeling at Treasury. As fault-tolerant systems scale, the set of agencies with mission-relevant quantum workloads will grow rapidly.

The Executive Order makes the federal intent explicit: the United States must move quickly beyond quantum research and into deployment of systems capable of scientifically relevant computation. The order directs the Department of War to establish activities and programs to advance readiness for national security applications of quantum computing and calls on the Department of Energy to define technical specifications for transformative scientific applications within 90 days. DOE’s Quantum Genesis initiative and Q Competition define exactly what “scientifically relevant” means: fault-tolerant systems with hundreds of logical qubits, targeting applications in chemistry, materials science, plasma physics, and high-energy physics, delivered by 2028. The system AWS and QuEra are building matches those targets directly, with 250 logical qubits, up to 100,000 hard fault-tolerant operations, and cloud-native integration with classical HPC at scale.

Amazon Braket brings fault-tolerant quantum computing directly to the cloud, integrated with the classical HPC and AI infrastructure agencies already use. This is a critical point: fault-tolerant quantum workloads are inherently hybrid, requiring tight coordination between quantum processors and large-scale classical compute for preprocessing, error decoding, and postprocessing at every step. Braket delivers this as a single environment, inherently connected to AWS elastic HPC resources, GPU-accelerated compute, and workflow orchestration, so agencies can build end-to-end quantum-classical pipelines without standing up separate infrastructure or managing a second security posture.

“This is a very special moment. For the first time, a dream of realizing useful, fault-tolerant quantum computers is in our direct line of sight,” said Prof. Mikhail Lukin, Chief Science Officer, QuEra Computing. “Designed to enable quantum computation at an unprecedented scale, these systems should realize truly unique applications. We are proud to significantly expand our collaboration with AWS to bring these unique capabilities to the broader community of scientific users.”

The Security Imperative: Post-Quantum Cryptography Can’t Wait

Adversaries can harvest internet traffic today with the intent to decrypt it when quantum computers mature. This makes it urgent to upgrade encryption for data in transit that must remain confidential for 10-plus years. Similarly, long-lived devices such as industrial controllers, vehicles, and satellites that establish their cryptographic roots of trust at manufacture and often can’t be updated post-deployment need quantum-resistant roots of trust starting now. As quantum computing continues to advance, the timeline to a device capable of breaking today’s public-key cryptography is also compressing, and agencies can’t afford to assume that timeline is distant.

The new Executive Order on cryptographic security requires every agency to designate a PQC migration lead within 30 days. It mandates transition of all high-value assets and high-impact systems to NIST-approved PQC algorithms on hard deadlines. It directs the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FAR) Council to amend acquisition regulations to require contractor compliance by 2030. Global regulators beyond the U.S. have set hard deadlines for quantum-resistant confidentiality as early as 2027 and quantum-resistant authentication as early as 2029, making this a worldwide migration, not merely a federal one.

AWS has been leading this migration since before the standards were finalized. AWS has been active in the development and deployment of PQC since 2013. AWS employees contributed to the three new FIPS standards (ML-KEM, ML-DSA, and SLH-DSA) published by NIST in August 2024. The AWS open source cryptographic library, AWS-LC, already implements these algorithms. AWS’s TLS implementation, s2n-tls and s2n-quic, has supported post-quantum key exchange since 2019.

AWS’s migration plan is structured across four workstreams:

• Inventory and standards development: Completing cryptographic inventory, defining how PQC integrates into specific applications and protocols
• PQC on public endpoints: Deploying ML-KEM across all AWS service endpoints to protect long-term confidentiality of data in transit
• Long-lived roots of trust: Delivering ML-DSA across key services to enable secure code, document, and firmware signing
• Session authentication: Migrating to PQC digital signatures for server and client certificate validation

For government customers, this means the cloud infrastructure you run on is already preparing for the post-quantum era, providing a foundation your agency’s migration plan can build on. AWS’s goal is to deliver PQC in alignment with secure-by-default principles: transparent use, imperceptible performance impact, and minimal configuration required. A proactive and well-scoped migration strategy makes these upgrades a strategic decision rather than a deadline-driven fire drill, and organizations running on modern cloud services are better positioned than ever to migrate faster with least operational impact. AWS offers no-cost consultations to help agencies get started on PQC plans for legacy and on-premises workloads.

AWS Is Ready to Support Your Mission

Quantum computing and quantum security are deeply connected, and agencies that treat them with equal mission priority will be the ones best positioned to lead.

AWS is prepared to meet agencies on both. Amazon Braket gives teams access to quantum hardware today, with managed development environments, leading software frameworks, and direct integration with AWS HPC and AI infrastructure, so they can build skills and co-design applications now rather than starting from zero when fault-tolerant systems arrive. On the security side, AWS open source cryptographic libraries already implement NIST-standardized PQC algorithms, AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) and AWS Private Certificate Authority support the new quantum-resistant signing algorithms, and AWS security specialists are working with federal customers to map migration plans grounded in how workloads are deployed. AWS has been running this model with national laboratories, defense research organizations, and intelligence community collaborators for years.

Quantum matters to your mission. The question is whether you’re moving at the speed the moment demands.

Source: David Appel, AWS

The post AWS Highlights Quantum Computing and PQC Readiness for US Federal Agencies appeared first on HPCwire.

We’d like to find out how Americans feel about Donald Trump’s $2.2bn earnings since returning to the White House

Donald Trump has earned more than $1bn from his crypto businesses since returning to the White House, according to recent financial disclosures.

According to a 927-page document released on Tuesday by the US Office of Government Ethics, in all the US president made more than $2.2bn last year, benefiting from a vast global network of businesses and investments.

Brennan is seeking a court order to force the preservation of records in the investigations targeting him. His attorneys say he's being "vindictively singled out for investigation."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Reddit will start requiring people to be logged into Reddit to use old.reddit.com. The new requirement will take effect "over the next month," a Reddit employee going by the username boat-botany announced on the social media platform today. The person claimed that the change is part of an ongoing effort to "tighten how automated systems access Reddit." The Reddit employee wrote: "Old Reddit's logged-out experience is a significant source of abusive scraping and automated traffic on the platform. It's also an important interface for many long-time mods and Redditors. To strike the right balance between preserving your access to Old Reddit while preventing abusive scraping and automated traffic, over the next month we will start requiring everyone to log in." In a follow-up comment, boat-botany defined abusive behavior as that which violates Reddit's rule prohibiting activity that interferes with the platform's "normal use" or that "create[s] programs or applications" that break Reddit's (controversial) API rules. "By logging in, we get a lot more signal that allows us to detect whether an account is breaking the rules, and then we can block that traffic or enforce those accounts," boat-botany said. Asked why boat-botany scrapes New Reddit less frequently than Old Reddit, the Reddit employee pointed to another commenter's explanation. "[T]he shape of malicious traffic is always changing," the user, Nestramutat, wrote. "It's going to be a constant cat and mouse game[.] As you ban one method, a new one gets developed. It's easy to see abusive traffic in hindsight, but it's harder to pre-emptively block it. Given that they're claiming Old Reddit doesn't have the modern security stack, this is likely proving to be an even greater challenge." Nestramutat said that the login requirement will add a barrier against threat actors. "You're also now attaching an account ID to every malicious request, plus account creation is only available on New Reddit (with the enhanced security stack)." As for how long Old Reddit will exist, boat-botany left the door open for its retirement. "We can't promise it will be around forever, but [Reddit CEO Steve Huffman] himself has said we'll keep supporting it while folks are still using it," boat-botany wrote. "That said, it doesn't have the same modern security tech stack reddit.com has, so we need to tighten security on old reddit to keep it viable."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you have a Sega Mega Drive, you obviously want to run Linux on it. That’s something you can do now. You do need to have an EverDrive, but don’t worry, the port in question contains a custom fork of Qemu for those of us that don’t.

I don’t know what else to say, other than I wonder why nobody did this sooner.

With the much-anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI only available as download, Sony is following suit

Sony said on Wednesday that it would stop releasing new video games for the PlayStation console on disc in January 2028 following a shift in consumer preferences.

“Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only,” the company said on its official PlayStation blog.

Judge hands down 50-year sentence to defendant Ines Soto, whose wife Elizabeth was sentenced to same prison term

Seven more people were sentenced to prison Wednesday over a shooting outside a Texas immigration detention center that wounded a police officer and has left many protesters facing decades behind bars.

All but one of the defendants sentenced in Fort Worth courtrooms pleaded guilty to charges related to the shooting outside the Prairieland detention center near Dallas last 4 July. They each were sentenced to between nearly two and 15 years in prison.

• Three of the victims died from suffocation

• More than a million people gathered in Mexico City

Four people died, three ⁠from suffocation, as thousands of fans crowded Mexico City streets during World Cup celebrations, the capital’s health secretariat ⁠said in the early ⁠hours ​of Wednesday.

The deaths occurred near the Angel of Independence landmark, where thousands of fans had gathered to ⁠celebrate Mexico’s 2-0 victory over Ecuador in the last 32.

Start tuning and serving AI models on a single DGX Spark with ready-made templates, then scale the same workflows to thousands of GPUs without a rebuild

RENO, Nev., July 1, 2026 — CIQ, the enterprise software company behind Rocky Linux and the Fuzzball AI and HPC orchestration platform, has announced that its Fuzzball platform now delivers a production-ready AI compute and inference environment for the NVIDIA DGX Spark stack. AI teams get one consistent environment to develop, tune and deploy AI workloads on infrastructure they own and control. That environment runs the same way from a single Spark system to large GPU clusters and data-center infrastructure, with no rebuild as compute grows. NVIDIA DGX Spark is the first supported platform, with additional platforms planned.

The challenge teams now face is that before any model reaches production, AI teams must spend months assembling storage, container registries, schedulers, inference servers and deployment pipelines by hand. That assembly restarts every time the underlying compute changes, turning every infrastructure upgrade into a project that delays workload deployment and monetization.

Fuzzball replaces this with a ready-to-run AI compute and inference environment, designed specifically for private, local inference on DGX Spark. For organizations building sovereign AI workloads where data cannot leave the premises, that means a path from private model tuning to production inference that maintains control of the infrastructure underneath it. The time between a model idea and a running inference service compresses from months to days.

“Fuzzball is the Kubernetes of performance-intensive computing, and it is what AI teams have needed to truly own their infrastructure. The hard part of AI has never been the model. It has been operating that model at scale without rebuilding everything underneath it every time compute changes, and most teams spend months on that problem before a single workload reaches production. Fuzzball ends that. With hundreds of built-in workflow templates, a single DGX Spark becomes a complete environment for AI development, testing and validation from day one, and those same workflows run unchanged across thousands of systems and GPUs. CIQ stands for controlling intelligence. Fuzzball is how teams actually do it,” said Gregory Kurtzer, CEO and founder of CIQ and founder of Rocky Linux.

With Fuzzball, a single DGX Spark becomes a fully operational AI development and deployment environment from day one, with a direct path to larger infrastructure when the project demands it. Multiple DGX Spark systems can work together under a common Fuzzball environment, giving small teams a practical way to expand local compute capacity incrementally. When workloads grow beyond local capacity, the same containers, model assets and workflow definitions seamlessly move onto larger NVIDIA GPU deployments allowing you to scale from NVIDIA DGX Spark to NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 without changes to the application, Fuzzball orchestration model, or Fuzzball deployment process.

For AI teams and HPC teams that have historically managed separate toolchains, Fuzzball eliminates the operational split that slows AI from experimentation to production across the enterprise. Fuzzball bridges local DGX Spark systems and existing HPC clusters with cloud capacity and large GPU infrastructure including NVIDIA GPU systems, all under a single operational model. The result is a new generation of accelerated computing where job-based orchestration, workflow portability, containerized execution and production inference work together.

“Organizations in regulated industries have had to choose between moving AI to production and keeping data on infrastructure they control. That has never been an acceptable tradeoff. Fuzzball removes it. Teams can tune models privately on DGX Spark, operationalize those models as production inference services and expand onto larger controlled infrastructure without changing the environment underneath their work. For sovereign AI to be practical it has to run the same way at every compute tier, and that is exactly what Fuzzball on DGX Spark delivers. DGX Spark is the first platform this runs on, and it will not be the last,” said Bjorn Hovland, president of CIQ.

To see Fuzzball in action, join CIQ’s upcoming webinar, “How to deploy your own LLM and take it to production with Fuzzball” on Thursday, July 16, 2026 at 12pm PDT / 3pm EDT. Register at https://events.ciq.com/fuzzball-inferencing-ai-workload.

About CIQ

CIQ is the founding support and services partner for Rocky Linux and a leading provider of Enterprise Linux infrastructure. CIQ delivers commercially supported Linux offerings, high-performance computing solutions, and AI infrastructure to enterprises, government agencies, research institutions and supercomputing centers worldwide. CIQ’s products include the Rocky Linux from CIQ (RLC Pro) family of operating systems, Ascender Pro for IT automation, Fuzzball job-based container orchestration, Warewulf cluster provisioning and Apptainer, the leading container system for high-performance computing. For more information, visit ciq.com.

Source: CIQ

The post CIQ Delivers Ready-To-Run AI Development and Inference Environment with Latest Fuzzball Capability appeared first on HPCwire.

Powered by Broadcom’s Tomahawk 6 ASIC, the new 1.6 Tbps platforms maximize the performance of very large AI clusters with hundreds of thousands of XPUs

RA’ANANA, Israel, July 1, 2026 — DriveNets, a leader in large-scale networking, today announced the expansion of its AI Fabric portfolio, introducing DriveNets 2600SL and 2601S, networking platforms designed for large-scale AI infrastructures with hundreds of thousands of XPUs. These high-performance platforms are based on Broadcom’s Tomahawk 6 (TH6) ASIC with a total capacity of 102.4Tbps, across 64 ports of 1.6Tbps – which industry analysts expect to make up the majority of new AI ports deployed by 2027.

The platforms will ship in Q3 2026, in air-cooled (DriveNets 2601S) and liquid-cooled (DriveNets 2600SL) configurations to support diverse data center environments. Unlike solutions from other vendors, DriveNets 2600SL delivers a true 100% liquid-cooled design, ensuring consistent thermal efficiency across the entire system to maximize power efficiency.

“The most expensive idle asset in the world today is an XPU waiting on the network,” said DriveNets co-founder and CEO Ido Susan. “The new additions to our AI portfolio deliver industry-leading performance at massive cluster scale and let our customers maximize infrastructure utilization and power efficiency on any AI accelerator. These capabilities will only become more critical as the industry moves to Heterogeneous AI architectures.”

Maximized Performance and Economics

The new platform extends DriveNets’ AI Fabric portfolio supporting scale-up, scale-out, scale-across, and integrated front-end and storage networking at rack-scale performance and high reliability for massive cluster sizes. The platforms support the most demanding performance and scale requirements with flexible radix (64x1600Gbps, 128x800Gbps or 256x400Gbps, and 512x200Gbps) and low latency.

The new platforms:

• Support both current and next-generation XPU data rates and clusters – utilizing 1.6Tbps or 2x800Gbps NIC connectivity, via various network architectures (2-level fat tree, 3-level fat tree, and 2-level fat tree multi-plane), enabling hundreds to hundreds of thousands of XPUs in a cluster deployment.
• Provide high-performance alternative on par with a single-vendor solution, at a lower cost – DriveNets’ AI Fabric portfolio enables open, multi-vendor AI clusters to achieve performance comparable to single-vendor clusters while reducing infrastructure costs.
• Improve token economics – DriveNets’ solution provides full-stack performance optimizations across the entire AI cluster, including Network Interface Card (NIC) drivers, kernel, and Collective Communications Library (CCL) optimizations, as well as hardware efficiency (due to the high capacity and radix fewer platforms are needed).
• Address a wide range of AI use cases – DriveNets’ AI solutions address a wide set of AI use cases, including training and inference, and for customers ranging from hyperscalers and foundation model developers to NeoCloud providers and enterprises.

“As AI systems scale to hundreds of thousands of XPUs, the network fabric has become a critical factor in AI performance, infrastructure utilization, and overall token economics,” said Charlie Kawwas, President, Semiconductor Solutions Group, Broadcom. “Broadcom’s Tomahawk 6 silicon, paired with DriveNets’ high-performance AI Fabric, delivers unprecedented performance and reliability at massive cluster scale. This collaboration reflects how open Ethernet is becoming the foundation of the next-generation AI data center.”

Performance Optimization Tools and Services

The software running on the new platforms benefits from full-stack optimization that fine-tunes network performance end-to-end, from the NIC through drivers, kernel and Collective Communications Library (CCL) optimizations, up to the network protocols. This tightly integrated stack is complemented by the DriveNets AI Cluster Orchestrator which manages the entire cluster lifecycle, including provisioning, benchmarking, and Day-N operations at scale. It enables fast and efficient deployment with built-in performance validation and tuning. In addition, DriveNets Infrastructure Services provides expert professional services, including cluster bring-up and advanced software optimization services, ensuring each deployment reaches optimal performance quickly and reliably.

“What DriveNets is delivering reinforces what we’re already seeing in the market: Ethernet is the dominant fabric for AI infrastructure across scale-out, scale-across, and increasingly scale-up, overtaking the proprietary alternatives that came before it,” said Alan Weckel, Founder and Technology Analyst, 650 Group. “At the same time, the rack itself is changing fast: liquid cooling, tremendous AI bandwidth, and a new class of high-performance systems. This is no longer an incremental networking opportunity — it’s a brand-new market that didn’t exist two years ago and is now heading toward a TAM of more than $100 billion.”

About DriveNets

DriveNets is a leader in large-scale networking solutions for AI infrastructure and service providers. The company pioneered a disaggregated networking architecture that transforms the economics of large-scale networks while maximizing performance, utilization, and operational efficiency. Its high-performance AI fabric maximizes XPU utilization and accelerates deployments by optimizing the AI stack end-to-end, resulting in higher tokens-per-second and lower cost-per-token. DriveNets’ solutions power production networks for global tier-1 operators like AT&T and Comcast, and scale multi-vendor AI infrastructures at foundation model labs, NeoClouds, and enterprises.

Source: DriveNets

The post DriveNets Extends AI Networking Portfolio with High-Capacity AI Fabric Platforms appeared first on HPCwire.

Jury also finds Riad Bouchaker guilty of assaulting two other children and a childcare worker in 2023 stabbings

A man has been found guilty of attempting to murder three children during a stabbing attack in Dublin in 2023, a crime that horrified Ireland and triggered a riot in the capital.

A jury at the central criminal court on Wednesday also found Riad Bouchaker, 52, guilty of assault causing serious harm to a childcare worker, Leanne Flynn, and of assaulting two other children and a teenager.

Proposed development of protected shorelines and wildlife zones violates EU environmental policy, says MEP

MEPs have warned Albania that EU accession talks are at risk if the government does not “change course” over plans for a luxury resort backed by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Tineke Strik, the Dutch MEP heading a European parliament fact-finding mission to the Balkan nation, said Albania’s leadership was “playing with fire” by pursuing the €1.4bn (£1.2bn) real-estate venture that would, she said, wreak havoc on virgin coastline.

Our shopping experts track the biggest discounts and send the best finds directly to your phone before they're gone.

Supreme court rulings, and revelations of the president’s enrichment since his return to office, show that he has turned back the clock

Donald Trump is not known for his reverence for the US constitution. But in his second term, he is doubling down on his claim from the first: that the text grants him “the right to do whatever I want as president”.

This is, to put it mildly, an extremely unusual interpretation of article 2. But it is the thread that draws together the headlines dominating recent days: a spate of supreme court rulings, mostly to his benefit, and the revelation that he has raked in $2bn since returning to office, half of it from cryptocurrencies.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Labour leader-in-waiting wants to close loophole preventing deportation of sex offender

Andy Burnham will explore “all possible options”, if he becomes prime minister, to close a legal loophole that prevented the deportation of a “vile” Rochdale grooming gang leader.

In his first significant intervention as Labour leader-in-waiting, Burnham said nothing would be “off the table” in the case of Shabir Ahmed, 73, who is expected to be released from prison on Thursday.

The helicopter, which was assigned to the USS George H.W. Bush, is not believed to have been taken down by hostile action, the Navy said.

Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from the BBC: New PlayStation games will no longer be released on discs from January 2028, the gaming giant has announced. Sony said in a blog post new games would still be able to be bought in shops, but they would come with a digital code. It comes just days after Rockstar announced the hotly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI would similarly launch without a physical disc. It marks a significant moment for the gaming industry, which has in recent years begun to rely more and more on digital distribution. Sony said the move came "as consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital." "This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs," it added. [...] PlayStation said the move would have no impact on games which are already released, or would be released before January 2028.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More than 1,000 grand jury presentations are under review after charges were dismissed in the "Broadview Six" case​ due to grand jury abuses and prosecutorial misconduct, Chicago's top federal prosecutor said.

With the next Federal Reserve meeting looming at the end of July, borrowers may want to make these three moves now.

Get the right standing desk for your space and health.

Trump and Republican states are reviving this archaic death penalty method, and lawyers say for one man killed by gunfire, the process went very wrong. Guardian US reporter Sam Levin breaks down how we got here and speaks to advocates raising alarms

• Death by firing squad: archaic method on the rise in US as Idaho opens new execution chamber

• Revealed: Autopsy suggests South Carolina botched firing squad execution 

A federal judge rejected Meta's bid to dismiss claims from 29 state attorneys general alleging that Facebook and Instagram were designed to addict children while concealing the harms. The judge found significant factual disputes that must be decided at trial. They also ruled that Meta failed to comply with federal parental notice and consent requirements for children under 13, "and granted summary judgement to the states on that issue," reports Reuters. From the report: In a separate statement, California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the decision a "critical win" in holding Meta accountable for fueling a mental health crisis among American children. Gonzalez Rogers also oversees related multidistrict litigation by more than 2,600 individuals, school districts and local governments over whether social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok addict children. The states said research has shown that children's use of Facebook and Instagram could lead to depression, anxiety, insomnia, interference with education and daily life, and self-harm including suicide. Meta countered that the attorneys general had no evidence it misled consumers about its platforms' alleged addictiveness, including in congressional testimony by Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg. The Menlo Park, California-based company said this was because "social media addiction" is not an established psychiatric condition, and therefore statements that its platforms are not addictive could not be false. Meta also said it didn't violate the children's online privacy law because it directed Facebook and Instagram to a general audience, not just children under age 13. In a 38-page decision, Gonzalez Rogers found material factual disputes over whether Meta's social media platforms are addictive, whether Meta falsely denied it designed them that way, and whether it "partially" directed the platforms at children. "The AGs present a reasonable interpretation of [Meta's] statements that Facebook and Instagram are not designed in ways that cause teens to compulsively use the platforms to their detriment," the judge wrote. "To the extent plaintiffs' evidence shows that the platforms are in fact designed to do just that, a jury could reasonably find the statements were untrue to a reasonable person," she added. A trial over California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey's claims against Meta is scheduled for August 18, court records show. Further reading: Will Social Media Change After YouTube and Meta's Court Defeat?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Paying down debt matters, but pausing retirement contributions to do so may not be the smartest financial move.

Upgrade your office with the best desk of 2026.

It's a major shift toward digital distribution.

Despite its understated design and single-motor setup, the VMAX VX2 Hub delivers acceleration and real-world performance that rival those of many dual-motor scooters, all while remaining surprisingly practical for everyday commuting.

Federal agents took three people into custody at immigration courts in New York City over the last week in what lawyers said appears to be the first grave violations of two orders by federal judges barring such arrests.

On Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested an Ecuadorian man at a court at 26 Federal Plaza and a man from the Dominican Republic at another court at 290 Broadway, both in Lower Manhattan. The arrests continued on Monday, when ICE agents detained a third man, originally from Guatemala, at 290 Broadway.

In legal filings challenging the detentions of the men taken Thursday, advocates with the nonprofit Make the Road New York accused ICE of not only violating their clients’ right to due process, but also of brazenly flouting a federal court order.

The judge’s order barred ICE from making arrests at Manhattan immigration courts in all but a narrow handful of exceptions, while a similar ruling issued on June 23 from a federal court in California applies nationwide.

By detaining the men at court on Thursday, ICE appears to be directly contravening the New York order without yet providing a justification, according to Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y.

“ICE continues to flagrantly violate the law by arresting immigrants who are attending their mandatory court hearings, despite a court order mandating an end to courthouse arrests,” Goldman said in a statement to The Intercept, adding that his office was working to get the men released.

ICE appears to be acting outside the law, according to Murad Awawdeh, the head of the advocacy group New York Immigration Coalition.

“We’re witnessing ICE, yet again, operate in a lawless and rogue fashion and not following court orders,” Awawdeh said. “We’re supposedly a nation under the rule of law, and our judicial branch has said that this agency must stop engaging in this lawless behavior, and they continue to do so.”

In its habeas corpus filings, lawyers from Make the Road demanded that the two men arrested Thursday be released and allowed to continue navigating the immigration process.

In a statement to The Intercept, a spokesperson for ICE denied that the agency had violated any court order. The spokesperson did not explain how the arrests fit into the exceptions to the ban on courthouse arrests put in place by the federal judge.

No Exceptions

From May 18 until last week, just two arrests had taken place at Manhattan immigration courts; in both cases, the detainees were swiftly released after lawyers and immigrant rights groups mobilized to invoke the federal judge’s order.

That has not been the case for the men arrested on Thursday and Monday. All three men have since been transferred to detention centers, according to ICE records.

Related

“Warehousing Human Beings”

The Dominican man arrested Thursday is currently being held at ICE’s Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, while the Ecuadorian man arrested the same day is being held at the D. Ray James ICE Processing Center in Folkston, Georgia. The Guatemalan man arrested on Monday is being held at the Orange County Detention Facility in upstate New York. (The Intercept is withholding the detained men’s names because of the sensitive nature of their cases.)

The arrests appeared to end a brief period of calm at Manhattan immigration courts in the wake of the May 18 ruling by Judge Kevin Castel requiring ICE to revert to a policy put in place in 2021. The Biden-era policy allowed for courthouse arrests with prior authorization in only a handful of instances, including when a person might pose a threat to national security or to public safety — narrowly defined as cases in which agents are in direct pursuit of a subject or if it would not be possible to make the arrest in another location.

In their statement, the ICE spokesperson pointed to a conviction for trespassing on the part of the Dominican man and a 2025 conviction for disorderly conduct on the part of the Ecuadorian man.

One immigration lawyer said the courthouse arrests were part of a growing pattern of increased ICE detentions.

“For whatever reason, that order is essentially being disregarded, and we’ve seen a pretty significant uptick in detentions,” said Benjamin Remy, senior coordinating attorney at the immigration protection unit of the New York Legal Assistance Group.

Related

ICE Defied Direct Order From Federal Judge and Re-Detained Elderly Palestinian

In the year and a half since President Trump returned to office and unleashed the agency as part of his mass deportation agenda, ICE has repeatedly been found in violation of orders around the detention of immigrants. The alleged violations have been ramping up in recent months, according to advocates and court records.

“We’ve seen ICE have a fairly flexible and adaptive relationship when it comes to the truth and the facts,” Remy said, “and to complying with court orders and frankly to rule of law as a fundamental concept.”

An Impossible Bind

Beginning in May 2025 and continuing for almost exactly a year, ICE arrests at 26 Federal Plaza, 290 Broadway, and another immigration court at 201 Varick Street were commonplace, with hundreds of people swept up by masked ICE agents when they showed up for scheduled hearings. According to an analysis published last August by The City Reporter, a local news site, more than half of courthouse arrests nationwide were taking place in New York.

Related

ICE Held an NYC Child Incommunicado at Secret Hotels, Then Deported Him

Like the overwhelming majority of people arrested in immigration courts over the past year, the men arrested over the past week were following demands made of them by the immigration system.

Both men arrested last week had fled home due to persecution, entered the U.S., and been detained before obtaining release as their cases proceeded, according to petitions filed on their behalf by Make the Road New York. When summoned to court, both showed up as instructed.

ICE has repeatedly defended the arrests as legitimate. Immigration advocates, however, have warned that it puts immigrants in an impossible bind, forcing them to decide between risking arrest by following the law and showing up to court, or losing any chance of lawfully remaining in the country by skipping a hearing.

“It is not uncommon for me to encounter folks walking into court in the morning already just sobbing,” Remy told The Intercept. “These arrests are discouraging the legal process. It’s discouraging people’s fundamental constitutional right to due process and to be able to have their day in court.”

The post ICE Flouting Federal Judge’s Order to Stop Arresting Immigrants at New York Courts appeared first on The Intercept.

Minister and MPs have raised concerns that his ‘poisoned chalice’ plan will take cash from much-needed road projects

• Minister and MP ‘furious’ over cuts to road projects to fund defence plan

Dan Sabbagh is the Guardian’s defence and security editor.

Andy Burnham is a “true patriot” who will provide the money needed to maintain Britain’s security when he becomes prime minister, the new defence secretary, Dan Jarvis, said on a visit to a factory in Cambridge today.

I’ve known Andy Burnham for more than 15 years, he is a true patriot, and I absolutely believe that he will make sure that we have the resources that we need to field the kind of capabilities that are required given the nature of the world that we’re operating in.

I know what we need to do to keep Britain safe, and I’m absolutely confident that Andy Burnham, as the next prime minister, knows that as well, and we’ll make sure in the context of the next spending review that we’ve got the resources we need to keep the country safe.

Attendance at the Great American State Fair is sparse and the heat is extreme, but at least you can pay $25 for a pretzel

• This was originally published in This Week in Trumpland. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday

I have been to some disappointing fairs in my time. There was one, in a small town in north-west England, where the main attraction was a little slide that you rode down on a burlap sack: except the guy who owned the slide had forgotten to bring the sacks, so me and my sister slid down on a T-shirt.

Another time, at a village fete in a place called Longton, I won the main prize at the bingo. It was a whisky decanter with a bottle of whiskey. I was 11 years old, the decanter was broken and some bigger boys took the whiskey. More recently, I looked on as two farmers engaged in a shouting match over whose pumpkin was larger at a fair in Iowa.

Country is first to join since Australia in 2015 as event director says it ‘continues to welcome the world’

Canada will ​join the Eurovision song contest in 2027, becoming the first new ⁠participant since Australia in 2015, organisers have announced.

Participation is not limited to countries in geographic Europe and instead is open to all members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which Canada joined last week. Australia is an associate member.

Donald Trump cashed in on more than $2bn from crypto and other business ventures last year.

As the US races to become the self‑declared ‘crypto capital of the world’, the president and his family have turned digital tokens, meme coins and merchandise into an unprecedented revenue stream.

But just how rich can a sitting US president get? Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian reporter Aisha Down

Prime minister has said his successor in No 10 should use fiscal headroom to fund a £4.7bn gap in defence spending

• UK politics live – latest updates

Keir Starmer has suggested Andy Burnham borrow billions more to cover the hole in the government’s defence investment plan (Dip), in a move economists say would severely reduce the likely next prime minister’s headroom against his fiscal rules.

The prime minister said on Wednesday that his successor – who is very likely to be the Makerfield MP – should use the headroom to fund a £4.7bn gap in defence spending over the next four years.

President Donald Trump celebrated the Supreme Court’s June 30 ruling that states can ban transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s school sports teams. 

The ruling upheld laws in West Virginia and Idaho that prohibited transgender girls and women — people who were assigned male at birth but identify as women — from competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams at publicly funded schools and colleges.

"The United States Supreme Court  just RULED AGAINST MEN PLAYING IN WOMEN’S SPORTS," Trump said in a June 30 Truth Social post, saying the ruling "takes that ridiculous situation off the table." 

The White House cast the decision in the same light, posting a photo on X that read "No men in women’s sports," with the caption, "From now on, women’s sports will only be for women."

But the court’s ruling is not a nationwide ban on transgender women participating in women’s sports. Rather, it ruled that states are allowed to determine eligibility for women’s and girls' sports based on biological sex, meaning states can exclude transgender athletes from those teams. It also means states that allow transgender athletes to compete can continue to do so.

The court’s majority opinion says that explicitly, noting the cases are not asking whether "schools may allow biological males who identify as female to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams," and saying "nothing in this opinion is intended to decide that question."

Doriane Coleman, a Duke University law professor, said Trump’s statement is overly broad. 

The ruling "means, for example, that West Virginia can lawfully exclude transgender girls from girls’ sports teams and that California can continue to include them," Coleman said in an email to PolitiFact.

Twenty-nine states have laws or policies that prohibit transgender athletes from participating on women’s and girl’s sports teams.

We asked the White House for additional information to support Trump’s statement. 

White House spokesperson Allison Schuster said, "Today’s ruling is a win for women everywhere and empowers concerned parents to demand their local governments uphold fairness in girls’ sports and put their safety above bowing down to the woke mob."  

The ruling is a partial victory for the Trump administration, which has pushed for a nationwide ban on transgender girls and women competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams. 

Trump signed a 2025 executive order seeking to ban transgender women’s sports participation under Title IX, and his Education Department has launched investigations into several state education agencies and athletic institutions that allow transgender athletes to compete on girls’ teams. 

The Justice Department has sued Maine, California and Minnesota over their laws or policies allowing transgender athletes to participate on girls’ teams, and those cases are ongoing. 

Although the ruling does not require states to prohibit transgender women from women’s sports teams, the administration is likely to argue that the ruling gives more weight to its push for a nationwide ban, said Elena Redfield, the federal policy director of the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute. 

Redfield said the majority opinion emphasizes that "the court is not yet addressing these implications" about state laws protecting transgender athletes and that "some ambiguity exists in how Title IX has been enforced in the past."

Supreme Court ruling greenlights transgender athlete bans

The majority opinion, authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, focused on discrimination protections under the landmark education equality law Title IX and the equal protection clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. 

Title IX, passed in 1972, prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of sex and requires federally funded education institutions to provide "equal athletic opportunity," while allowing for sex-segregated sports teams. 

The court ruled that those protections refer to "biological sex," rather than gender identity, and Title IX does not grant transgender women the right to compete on women’s teams. 

On the constitutional question, the court ruled that state laws banning transgender women from women’s sports teams don’t violate the equal protections enshrined in the 14th Amendment. 

Laws that classify by sex are subject to what’s known as intermediate scrutiny, requiring the state to show that the law is substantially related to an important government interest in order to survive constitutional review. The court found that the state’s stated interests in preserving fair competition and preventing physical injuries in girls' and women’s sports survived that review. 

The court also ruled that states with these bans do not need to make exceptions for transgender women who took puberty blockers and hormone therapy to avoid or mitigate male puberty, though Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson split from the majority on that point. 

Our ruling 

Trump said the Supreme Court "ruled against men playing in women’s sports." Trump referred to transgender women competing on women’s athletic teams. 

The ruling set a meaningful precedent that federal law and the Constitution don’t require states and schools to allow transgender girls and women to compete on girls’ and women’s teams. But the court didn’t require that all states adopt bans.

Trump’s statement is partially accurate, but he overstated it by saying the court "ruled against" transgender athletic participation with no qualifications. States that allow transgender athletes to compete can continue to do so.

We rate the statement Half True.

PolitiFact Staff Writer Grace Abels contributed to this report.

July 1, 2026 — Registration is now open for the 2026 Real-World Quantum Computing workshop, jointly hosted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and San Jose State University (SJSU). The two-day workshop is designed for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in engineering, physics or related fields. Interns are encouraged to apply. Applications will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Participants and instructors work through a hands-on activity at the 2025 Real-World Quantum Computing workshop.

The workshop aims to orient participants to the physical principles of using superconducting hardware for quantum computing, focusing on low-level calibration and physical controls.

This free, in-person workshop will be held at the University of California Livermore Collaboration Center in Livermore, from Aug. 20-21, 2026.

Previous quantum computing experience or coursework is not required, but participants should have some experience with computer programming as tutorials are done using Python.

The workshop will feature research talks and tutorials by staff scientists at LLNL and SJSU professors, hands-on training in controlling quantum hardware and access to LLNL’s innovative Quantum Design and Integration Testbed (QuDIT) testbed.

Previous workshops have reached capacity ahead of the posted registration deadlines, so early registration is encouraged.

Registration for U.S. citizens must be complete by July 20. Non-U.S. citizens are welcome to register; however, access for foreign nationals may be limited due to approval timelines and site access restrictions. Non-U.S. citizens should apply before July 8.

More information about the workshop can be found on the workshop website here.

Source: LLNL

The post LLNL Opens Registration for Real-World Quantum Computing Workshop appeared first on HPCwire.

The agency also said it was considering repurposing a Mars rover development model for use as a moon rover.

Culture secretary launches first review of how money is spent in more than two decades

Funding from the national lottery is too heavily concentrated in the south, the culture secretary has said, as she launched the first review in more than 20 years into how billons raised by ticket sales is spent.

In comments that chime with Andy Burnham’s pledge to devolve more power from London if he becomes prime minister, Nandy said the model governing how lottery money is spent was “showing its age”.

The climate crisis and worsening disparity could be responsible for more than 100,000 deaths a year in Europe, which should set off alarm bells for policymakers

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Call it a tale of two heatwave experiences.

As brutally hot conditions brought much of western Europe to its knees, an American writer living in Paris asserted that, for many, the heat was not “nearly as apocalyptic” as most media were suggesting. He said he had yet to buy a fan, instead relying on closed shutters, misting sessions and open windows in the evening to keep his ground-level flat cool.

Oh, and don't forget about the return of Shark Week.

The US president flies to North Dakota on first trip aboard Qatar-gifted 747-8, as critics raise corruption concerns

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Donald Trump traveled to North Dakota on Wednesday for the first trip onboard the new Air Force One, a luxury Boeing 747-8 aircraft gifted by the Qatari government.

The US president introduced the $400m aircraft last month as the replacement for the military-grade 747-2 that has transported US presidents for more than three decades. The gifted Boeing 747-8 is expected to remain in service until the air force receives a new fleet of Boeing presidential aircraft in the next two years.

A proposed class action suit filed in California accuses Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix of deliberately inflating memory prices.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said "the Constitution is not a suggestion" and that "the Second Amendment is a sacred right belonging to all Americans."

President Trump is traveling Wednesday to North Dakota in what marks his first trip aboard the new Air Force One, which was gifted to the U.S. by the Qatari government last year.

Vance says the U.S. has accomplished its "core mission" in Iran, as Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meet mediators in Qatar, but not Iranians.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Space.com: NASA provided an Artemis update today (June 30), announcing new lunar landing contracts for its Moon Base initiative and a surprise new possible rover mission that could be headed to the moon's south pole. During the second monthly update that NASA has provided for its moon base plans, the agency named Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines as the providers of four robotic landers that will deliver scientific payloads to the surface of the moon, as NASA tests and expands the technologies needed for a permanent human outpost. "This is this drawing on the playbook that worked very well for NASA during the 1960s," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during the livestreamed update, explaining the experiential approach to a crewed lunar return. "We didn't just jump right to Apollo 11." Isaacman also announced the potential repurposing of an engineering development model built to mirror the agency's Perseverance and Curiosity rovers on Mars. "There is another," Isaacman said, quoting Yoda's line from "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back." That test rover is called PROMISE, short for "Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration" (though it was formerly known as Optimism). PROMISE was developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, where it has been used as a test platform for fixes or commands that engineers want to try on the ground before permanently sending them to Perseverance and Curiosity. Now, NASA wants to send PROMISE on a mission of its own. Though sending PROMISE to the moon would leave Perseverance and Curiosity -- both of which remain active on Mars -- without an Earth-based testbed, Isaacman thinks it would be worth it. "We've had years now of experience operating the two rovers on the surface of Mars, and we've got this hardware that the taxpayers have invested a lot in," he said. "So the question was posed: 'What if we send it to the moon?'" With a little refurbishment, PROMISE would help advance NASA's lunar plans, Isaacman added. Like Perseverance and Curiosity, the test rover is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), which converts heat from naturally decaying radioactive material into electricity. So it wouldn't require sunlight to operate -- a real benefit on the moon, where most locations experience long stretches of darkness. (NASA plans to build its Artemis base near the moon's south pole, which is thought to harbor an abundance of water ice and also has a relatively complex lighting environment.) The other robots currently in the works to launch on future missions to the moon, including the landers announced during today's update, are all solar powered. Through 2029, NASA hopes to launch up to 20 such missions as part of the CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative to support the first phase of the agency's moon base plans, and the landers announced today will be some of the first in that lineup.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Brother of Calais Campbell charged with murder

• Police found Campbell’s mother dead in Atlanta

• Family asks for privacy after mother’s death

The brother of NFL player Calais Campbell has been charged with murder after police found their 71-year-old mother dead at a home in Atlanta during a welfare check.

Arrest warrants say Nateal Campbell’s throat was cut and Ciarre Campbell was found in possession of a knife. Officers found her unresponsive when they arrived at around 12.30pm Tuesday, according to a police statement.

Avi Loeb, a Harvard astronomer who has made headlines with his theories about alien encounters, will lead a White House scientific advisory council on UFOs.

Your spouse isn't automatically responsible for your credit card debt after you die, but there are some exceptions.

Collaboration aims to accelerate electric grid interconnection of AI data centers in support of the Genesis Mission

UPTON, N.Y. and WASHINGTON, July 1, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced a partnership that will leverage AWS’ advanced cloud computing infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to accelerate the development of Brookhaven Lab’s GridSearch project. GridSearch is an innovative AI-driven solution designed to transform how new generation facilities connect to America’s electric grid. The partnership was announced this week during the AWS Summit Washington, D.C.

Chief AI Scientist for Innovation, Science, and Security Hendrik Hamann demos GridSearch at Brookhaven Lab. The software can help accelerate the connection of AI data centers, energy production facilities, and advanced manufacturing plants to the electric grid. Photo credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory/Tim Kuhn.

“This partnership will demonstrate the power of public-private collaboration in support of DOE’s Genesis Mission, a national initiative to build the world’s most powerful scientific platform to accelerate discovery science, strengthen national security, and drive energy innovation,” said Brookhaven Lab Director John Hill. “GridSearch is a great example of how we can apply Genesis Mission capabilities to real-world applications, helping the nation to achieve AI leadership and energy dominance.”

GridSearch uses a Grid Foundation Model (GridFM) developed as an open-source project under the Linux Foundation Energy, with major contributions from organizations including IBM Research, Hydro Quebec, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, Argonne National Laboratory, and others. GridFM is an AI system that enables significantly faster grid simulations while maintaining accuracy and robustness.

“GridSearch is an excellent example for AI enabling AI — what we call ‘AI4AI,’” said Hendrik Hamann, chief AI scientist for Innovation, Science, and Security at Brookhaven National Laboratory and joint appointee at Stony Brook University. “It aims to provide critical decision support to stakeholders and help them accelerate the data center interconnection process with optimal affordability and minimal disruption to the electric grid.”

This breakthrough technology will help address a critical national challenge: the lengthy and costly process of connecting new infrastructure to the electrical grid. This includes AI data centers, energy production facilities, and advanced manufacturing plants. Traditional interconnection studies can take years and require extensive infrastructure investments. GridSearch changes this paradigm by prescreening thousands of potential interconnection locations to identify optimal connection points with minimal grid impact.

“AWS is deeply aligned with DOE’s Genesis Mission to build the world’s most powerful scientific platform, and GridSearch is exactly the kind of AI-driven innovation that brings that mission to life,” said Christian Hoff, Director of Global Civilian Government at AWS. “Our collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory reflects AWS’s commitment to advancing American AI leadership by putting cutting-edge cloud and AI capabilities in service of the nation’s most critical energy and security challenges. Together, we’re demonstrating how public-private collaboration can accelerate discovery, strengthen national security, and ensure the United States leads the world in AI.”

Through this collaboration, AWS will provide the computational infrastructure and AI expertise necessary to scale GridSearch across major transmission grids nationwide. By reducing interconnection timelines from years to months and enabling data-driven infrastructure planning, this initiative directly supports national priorities in energy security, economic development, and technological leadership. It also exemplifies how collaboration can help accelerate America’s energy infrastructure modernization while supporting the Genesis Mission’s goal of doubling U.S. research productivity through AI-accelerated innovation.

“Grid interconnection has long been one of the greatest opportunities for unlocking America’s energy potential — from new data centers to advanced energy projects,” said Joseph Santamaria, General Manager, Energy & Utilities at AWS. “AWS is committed to modernizing the grid, and cloud and AI are powerful enablers that help energy companies accelerate that process, raise productivity, and reduce operating costs. This is the kind of work AWS was built to do across the entire energy industry.”

This announcement builds on the recently executed Memorandum of Understanding between DOE and AWS, which establishes a framework for advancing artificial intelligence and advanced computing initiatives across the DOE complex and its 17 national laboratories.

GridFM is supported by DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation.

Source: Brookhaven National Laboratory

The post Brookhaven Lab and AWS Partner to Connect AI Data Centers appeared first on HPCwire.

After January 2028, new games will be available exclusively in digital format from the PlayStation Store and at retailers, Sony said.

Figure is more than five times the widely used 600,000 figure widely cited in apologies by king and politicians

At least 3.3 million people were enslaved in the Netherlands during the transatlantic slave trade, research claims – more than five times the 600,000 figure widely used in history books and cited in apologies by the king and politicians.

King Willem-Alexander referred to the more than 600,000 people who were brought from Africa on Dutch ships to be sold as enslaved people when he apologised three years ago for the role of the Netherlands in the transatlantic slave trade.

Ahead of the Fourth of July weekend, experts are warning about the dangers of rip currents and the importance of water safety.

Elizabeth Warren and colleagues demand tighter rules on political figures’ crypto dealings, citing disclosures of large-scale Trump family profits

Donald Trump has again been accused of “brazen crypto corruption” after financial disclosures revealed his family’s cryptocurrency ventures generated more than $1bn in his first year back in the White House.

A 927-page disclosure, released on Tuesday by the US Office of Government Ethics, showed that the US president had been paid more than $2.2bn last year in total, from real estate, golf resorts, branded merchandise, licensing deals and court settlements.

Dramatic video showed the moment a rescue team pulled a small dog from the rubble nearly a week after twin earthquakes​ devastated Venezuela.

Ukrainian leader among guests in Dublin as Micheál Martin says ‘we will stand unswervingly by your people’

Pistorius talks about changes in the German military reserve system, with “the Bundeswehr building up.”

He talks about reforms needed to allow to mobilise reservists better and more efficiently.

When it comes to interest, what happens after death depends on the debt, the estate and the settlement timeline.

Check out our favorite Windows laptops and MacBooks for work, tested and reviewed by CNET's laptop experts.

Actor Danny Glover spoke about his Alzheimer's diagnosis in an interview with NBC's "Today" show, revealing that he has been living with the disease for several years.

July 1, 2026 — The ETH Zurich team ‘RACKlette’ has won first place in the 15th Annual ISC Student Cluster Competition, held during ISC 2026 in Hamburg, one of the largest high-performance computing (HPC) conferences, gathering more than 4,000 attendees to discuss advances in HPC and artificial intelligence (AI).

ETH Zurich students in Hamburg: Team RACKlette won the prestigious international ISC Student Cluster Competition for the second time. Credit: CSCS.

Competing in the in-person finals against ten teams from leading universities around the world, RACKlette finished ahead of Tsinghua University (China) and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), highlighting the exceptional talent and preparation of the Swiss students.

This is the second time that team RACKlette has won this prestigious international competition, which is typically dominated by contestants from East Asian countries.

From Classroom to Cluster: Students Gain Expertise in Supercomputing and AI

Beyond being a world-class competition in its field, the ISC Student Cluster Competition is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading training opportunities for the next generation of high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) professionals.

Students are challenged to design, build and optimise a high-performance computing cluster while running demanding scientific and AI applications under strict power constraints. The experience develops not only technical expertise but also teamwork, problem-solving and systems engineering skills.

Hands-On Expertise in Designing Advanced Computing Systems

The team prepared for the competition over several months with guidance from Professor of Computer Science Torsten Hoefler (ETH Zurich) and Senior HPC System Engineer Hussein Harake (CSCS). Their mentorship and technical expertise helped the students prepare for one of the leading international competitions in high-performance computing.

“Congratulations to the ETH Zurich students, their mentors and everyone who contributed to this outstanding achievement. The victory highlights ETH Zurich’s strength in educating the next generation of HPC experts, supported by CSCS’s hands-on expertise in designing and operating advanced computing systems”, says CSCS Associate Director Maria Grazia Giuffreda.

In this video, the members of the ETH team RACKlette discuss their preparation, strategy, and performance during the Student Cluster Competition at ISC26. We are delighted to share that, since filming, RACKlette has been crowned the winner of the ISC26 Student Cluster Competition — making this interview a particularly special behind-the-scenes look at a championship team before they knew they had won.

Source: CSCS

The post ETH Zurich Team Wins 15th Annual ISC Student Cluster Competition appeared first on HPCwire.

Two-seat Cessna aircraft was being used for short flight experience when it crashed in Ongar on Tuesday, police say

Two people have died after a light aircraft on a “short flight experience” crashed in a field near Ongar in Essex, police have said.

The two-seat Cessna plane crashed in a field off Mill Lane, Ongar, on Tuesday after taking off from North Weald airfield about seven miles west, Essex police said. The two people onboard have not been formally identified.

Consecrations by Society of Saint Pius X bring automatic excommunication for bishops – and crisis for Pope Leo

A rebel group of ultra-conservative Catholics has defied Pope Leo by ordaining bishops without his consent, which they declared a “sacred duty” despite it causing their automatic excommunication.

In a ritual-filled ceremony on Wednesday, streamed live from the Swiss village of Ecône, the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) went ahead with the consecrations of four bishops, one from Switzerland, one from France and two from the US.

Anger at authorities and government grows as local people, volunteers and rescue teams continue search for survivors

Four Venezuelan police officers have been arrested and are facing dismissal after being accused of looting cash from the rubble of a building that collapsed during last week’s devastating twin earthquakes.

Local people and national and international rescue teams continue to search for survivors in the aftermath of the back-to-back quakes, which have killed almost 2,000 people, injured more than 10,000, and left tens of thousands missing.

Potus pocketed over $2.2bn last year – but with an algae-filled reflecting pool and his State Fair a fiasco, what price happiness?

From certain angles, it might appear as if President Trump is having a tough month. He messed up the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, which he blamed on acts of vandalism no one has been able to stand up. The supreme court rejected both his bid to appeal against the $5m (£3.8m) civil judgment against him for defaming and sexually abusing E Jean Carroll, and his executive order to end birthright citizenship. And the war with Iran keeps rumbling on. And yet, after Trump’s mandatory financial disclosure report was released on Tuesday, headlines drew attention to the fact the president made more than $2.2bn in revenue in 2025 – more than three times what he pulled in the year before his inauguration. Contrary to appearances, perhaps everything is going exactly to plan.

It is always a question with Trump as to how much the wealth he has accrued in his second term in office is the spoils of strategy rather than the lucky result of his scattergun but industrial-scale hustle. Looking at the numbers in his financial report, one is reminded that before he became president, Trump piloted a series of failed businesses – six of which declared bankruptcy – and gave every indication of being a lousy businessman. It’s often pointed out that if Trump had simply invested the vast inheritance left to him by Fred Trump, his father, in a standard tracker fund, he would’ve made more money than through his lacklustre business career, and there’s nothing to suggest this was likely to change.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Less than halfway through Trump’s second term, the U.S. Department of Justice has authorized a rash of new death penalty prosecutions, already surpassing the total number of capital cases brought during Trump’s previous four years in office.

Since Trump returned to the White House, DOJ prosecutors have moved to seek the death penalty against at least 42 defendants in 34 cases, according to figures compiled by The Intercept, based on legal records and data from the Justice Department and Federal Capital Trial Project. In at least two additional cases, federal prosecutors have conveyed their plans to seek death but have not yet submitted a notice of intent — the formal legal filing telling the defense and presiding judge that the DOJ seeks to execute a defendant. By comparison, the DOJ authorized some 38 capital defendants total over the course of Trump’s first term.

Many of the new cases have originated in places where the death penalty has been abolished — states like New Mexico, Colorado, and Maryland — as well as jurisdictions where there is no history of capital punishment, like the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than 70 percent of the defendants are people of color, most of them Black.

The spike in new death penalty cases is a striking illustration of Trump’s longtime enthusiasm for capital punishment, which led him to carry out an unprecedented execution spree in the months before he left office in 2021. It’s also in stark contrast to the Justice Department under President Joe Biden, who put capital prosecutions almost entirely on hold — and whose attorney general, Merrick Garland, deauthorized dozens of pending death penalty cases upon taking office.

Trump’s ramped up authorizations won’t necessarily bring a wave of new death sentences. Only a relative handful of federal capital authorizations end up going to trial — and fewer still result in a death sentence. Although executions have been on the rise across the United States since Trump retook office, new death sentences have been on a consistent decline for decades. Prosecutors have become more reluctant to seek death sentences, and jurors have also been less and less willing to send defendants to death row.

“The American public has made a very, very decisive turn away from the death penalty during the last 20 years,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “Twenty years ago, we had five times the number of new death sentences than we had last year.” Although Trump’s DOJ “purports to be acting consistent with the will of the American people,” she said, “those are American juries that are making different decisions now.”

The Trump administration’s death penalty plans have already come apart in many cases. Since then-Attorney General Pam Bondi first started filing notices of intent last year, roughly a third of the defendants have seen the death penalty taken off the table. In numerous cases, the presiding judge has struck down the government’s authorizations. In one case involving two co-defendants, the DOJ has withdrawn its prior authorization. And two cases have been resolved with guilty pleas.

This still leaves at least 27 defendants currently facing capital trials. With Blanche, who was previously Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, vying to become attorney general, there is no reason to expect the push to send people to death row to slow down anytime soon.

The defendants facing the death penalty under Trump have been accused of grisly crimes, from mass shootings to gang murders. But if there’s one thing driving Trump’s escalating pursuit of new death sentences above all else, it is his sustained rage at Biden, who took the historic step of commuting 37 death sentences before leaving office, leaving three people on federal death row. Trump railed against the commutations in a Truth Social post on Christmas Day, wrongly referring to them as pardons and telling the commuted prisoners themselves to “GO TO HELL!”

Upon returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump immediately signaled his intent to repopulate federal death row, proclaiming in an executive order that his administration would “pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use.” Framed as a rebuke to Biden’s act of clemency, which he derided as a “mockery of justice,” it also called on states to step up their own efforts to execute people — and to try to seek new death sentences at the state level against the 37 men whose federal sentences were commuted.

Related

Pam Bondi Is Pushing Death Sentences for People Spared By Her Predecessor

A month later, in February 2025, newly installed Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo to DOJ prosecutors directing them to seek death wherever possible. “Absent significant mitigating circumstances, federal prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty in cases involving the murder of a law-enforcement officer and capital crimes committed by aliens who are illegally present in the United States,” Bondi wrote. She ordered prosecutors to prioritize capital cases involving gang members and people accused of international drug crimes. And in an unprecedented move, Bondi announced that the DOJ would review every decision in which the Biden administration declined to seek a death sentence to determine whether prosecutors should pursue the death penalty after all.

The attempt to turn Biden’s “no-seeks” into capital prosecutions has proven mostly unsuccessful. Of hundreds of cases reviewed by the DOJ, prosecutors ended up filing a notice of intent against 15 defendants who had previously been told they would not face the death penalty. One by one, the new capital authorizations were smacked down by presiding judges, several of whom scolded Trump’s prosecutors for their ham-fisted efforts to win death sentences in cases that, in many instances, were already set for trial. Currently three cases remain in which prosecutors are still seeking to move forward with a capital trial despite the Biden DOJ’s previous decision not to seek death.

It did not take long after Bondi was fired for her replacement, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, to make clear he intended to continue Trump’s death penalty push. In late April, he released a 48-page report by the Office of Legal Policy, which outlined in detail Trump’s plans to ramp up new death sentences and speed up executions. Titled “Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty,” the document again framed Trump’s commitment to capital punishment as a response to Biden’s dereliction of duty — and in particular to his betrayal of victims’ families.

The report included a chart showing Biden’s DOJ’s rejection of capital cases, casting Garland as an outlier among other attorneys general. By contrast, the report devoted little space to Trump’s new authorizations, avoiding entirely its mostly failed attempts to reverse Biden’s “no-seeks.” Nor did it hint at the fact that Blanche, like previous attorneys general, would himself issue a flurry of no-seeks in death-eligible cases upon taking over — something that is standard practice at the DOJ. Death penalty cases are, after all, at least in theory, reserved for only the most serious crimes. “To pursue use of the death penalty in the manner that is set forth in Trump executive order would require an almost singular focus on seeking death sentences to the exclusion of so many other priorities,” Maher said.

While the Blanche report is certainly cause for concern, Maher said a lot of it read as a wishlist more than an achievable blueprint. “The majority of that report, I thought, reflected the Trump administration’s grievances about lawful decisions made by the previous administration,” she said. “To me it was more like a campaign website instead of a measured legal document by a government agency.”

“These executive orders, these memoranda — everything is changing by the day,” she said. “We just don’t know how this is all going to play out.”

What might be most sobering about Trump-era capital punishment is not the way it differs from past presidents but how it remains consistent. In the hands of an administration overtly committed to white supremacy, the defendants chosen by Trump’s DOJ for capital trials look a lot like the defendants who have always faced the federal death penalty.

More than 70 percent of Trump’s authorizations have been against people of color, most of them Black. This is strikingly consistent with the federal death penalty’s overall track record; according to the Death Penalty Information Center, 73 percent of capital defendants authorized for death penalty pros­e­cu­tions from 1989 to June 2024 were people of color.

The racial disparities in the federal system have been well-documented for decades. Yet, apart from the most high-profile cases, Americans are generally unaware of capital prosecutions brought at the federal level since most authorizations never lead to a death penalty trial — let alone a death sentence. This leaves the most dramatic racial disparities hidden from view. Data from the Federal Capital Trial Project shows that, in the state of Maryland, for example, which has sent only one person to federal death row since the late 1980s, DOJ prosecutors have authorized death penalty prosecutions against more than 30 people, the majority of whom were Black. The rest were Latino.

Trump’s recent authorizations replicate this trend, with DOJ prosecutors in Maryland filing notices of intent against four defendants, three of them Latino and one of them Black. (The former three, alleged MS-13 gang members from Baltimore, have since seen their authorizations thrown out by a judge.)

Since last year, Trump’s DOJ has also authorized death penalty prosecutions of four people in the Eastern District of Missouri, which is home to St. Louis. As with every other federal authorization from the same jurisdiction to date, all of them are Black. (Two of these defendants have since seen their authorizations withdrawn by the DOJ.)

Related

Amid the Lingering Trauma of Trump’s Executions, a New Project Brings Families to Federal Death Row

Trump’s execution spree six years ago briefly put the racism of the federal death penalty on display. The eighth man put to death, Orlando Hall, had been sentenced to die by an all-white jury in Texas, where, according to his lawyer’s last legal filings, federal prosecutors were “nearly six times more likely to request authorization to seek the death penalty against a Black defendant than a non-Black defendant.” Co-defendants Christopher Vialva and Brandon Bernard, who were executed less than three months apart, were sent to death row by a federal prosecutor who openly told me that people considered him “crazy” for allowing a single Black man to serve on their jury.

At that time, the U.S. was experiencing a supposed reckoning over race, which made such cases all the more disturbing to those paying attention. Yet the executions had been made possible by a Democratic party that paved the way for Trump’s killing spree by expanding the death penalty in a way that was racially skewed from the start. That Trump’s aggressive death penalty push is no more racist than what came before speaks volumes about what capital punishment has always been.

The post Trump Has Already Launched More Death Penalty Prosecutions Than in His Entire First Term appeared first on The Intercept.

Commentary: The music rhythm game has returned, and I'm in love again

A super-resolution image of SpudCell’s liposomes with an encapsulated genome and active protein expression.

AI datacentres, memory scarcity and factory capacity are costing consumers –and console makers

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It was once a truth universally acknowledged that an ageing console in possession of good revenue must be in line for a price reduction. Those days may be over. In March, Sony announced a price increase of £90 for the PS5, while last month Microsoft informed gamers that it would be charging at least £75 more for the Xbox Series S and X consoles from August. All three were first released back in 2020. The Switch 2 will also be more expensive globally from September.

The main culprit, of course, is AI, or more specifically the exploding demand for semiconductors and memory to power datacentres. Console manufacturers could once source these components cheaply, but now they’re in high demand and manufacturers can’t keep up, so deals are being struck. “Initially, the wave of price increases seen in gaming were driven by tariffs imposed by Donald Trump early last year,” says Andy Robinson, editor in chief of gaming news site VGC. “Then, in October, OpenAI announced a deal with Samsung and [Korean chip manufacturer] SK Hynix to acquire a huge portion of their DRAM output for datacentres, causing prices to increase by almost 200%. According to Xbox, those prices have since doubled again, and they’re not expected to come back down any time soon.”

You can put a battery-powered security cam nearly anywhere. Here are the best models for your home.

Bloc’s ‘made in Europe’ regulations risk shutting out British manufacturers in ‘most spectacular own goal in history’

The EU’s car industry has called for the UK to be fully included in new “made in Europe” rules that threaten to shut out British manufacturers from their biggest export market.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (Acea) on Wednesday urged Brussels to give the UK, Turkey and Morocco “justified, targeted exemptions” to the rules, which will require cars and parts to be made within the EU to qualify for subsidies or public procurement.

Trump administration is requiring borrowers to choose new options after Biden-era plan ruled unconstitutional

More than 7 million Americans will be forced to change their student loan repayment plan beginning on Wednesday, as the Save plan officially ends. The termination of the Biden-era initiative, which was launched in 2023, coincides with a larger overhaul of the US student loan repayment system.

The seismic changes to the student debt landscape are the results of the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in 2025 and a March 2026 federal court ruling that the Save plan, an income-driven repayment program created with the goal of cutting undergraduate loans in half, was unconstitutional.

US president raked in more than $1bn from crypto – an industry he has sought to deregulate – and a total of $2.2bn last year, files reveal

• Alarm bells over conflict of interest as filing shows Trump raked in $2bn in 2025

Donald Trump’s money-making ventures enriched him by more than $2bn last year, according to newly released financial disclosures.

The revenue was supercharged by the Trump family’s crypto projects, with the documents showing the US president made more than $1bn (£0.76bn) from crypto – an industry he has sought to deregulate.

Fable 5 was available for a week before the government demanded access limits.

Dreambeans is unlike any other social media or AI app I've tested in a good way.

Yorgen Fenech, who denies all charges, appears in court more than nine years after the journalist’s death

The businessman accused of ordering the murder of the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia goes on trial on Wednesday, more than nine years after her death in a car-bomb attack that sent shockwaves through Europe.

Yorgen Fenech, the heir to a property empire worth hundreds of millions, is one of seven men prosecutors accused of involvement in the killing, and the last to face trial.

RESTON, Va., July 1, 2026 — An ASRC Federal team was responsible for completing development and implementation of NASA’s newest supercomputer, Athena — an advanced system designed to help tackle complex challenges in space and science.

Athena, NASA’s newest supercomputer, is housed at the agency’s Modular Supercomputing Facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. Credit: NASA/Brandon Torres-Navarrete.

This high-performance computing (HPC) system – housed at NASA’s Ames Research Center – will help NASA scientists, engineers and researchers while lowering operational costs and improving energy efficiency. The NASA Ames Research Center conducts critical research and development for the technologies that make NASA missions possible.

According to NASA, Athena will provide “the computational power necessary to simulate rocket launches, design next-generation aircraft and spacecraft, train large-scale artificial intelligence foundation models and analyze massive datasets to uncover new scientific insights”.

“We worked hand-in-hand with our customer to help bring their vision for this transformational platform to life,” said Eric Velte, ASRC Federal Chief Technology Officer. “The team focused on balancing system stability, user adoption and performance optimization while minimizing disruption to ongoing scientific workloads.”

Interesting facts about NASA’s newest supercomputer include:

• Athena surpasses the capabilities of its predecessors, Aitken, Electra and Pleiades, in both power and efficiency, delivering over 20 petaflops of peak performance – a measurement of the number of calculations it can make per second – all while reducing the agency’s supercomputing utility costs.
• The system includes 1,024 nodes across four racks, delivering 262,144 CPU cores. For perspective, this four-rack cluster has as many cores as 16,000 to 22,000 modern laptops combined.
• Athena currently holds the 116th spot on the TOP500 list, that ranks high-performance computing systems used for advanced scientific and engineering applications worldwide.
• Athena was named after the Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare and was selected through a contest held last year among NASA’s High-End Computing Capability workforce – which was chosen because she is the half-sister of Artemis (the agency’s lunar exploration program).

Extensive planning, coordination and technical innovation were required to successfully guide the system through design, integration testing and rollout phases. This initiative relied on collaboration across multiple organizations, such as infrastructure, applications, cybersecurity, operations and vendor partners. ASRC Federal also provides continuous 24/7/365 operational support for Athena HPC.

More from HPCwire: NASA Brings Athena Supercomputer Online at Ames Research Center

About ASRC Federal

ASRC Federal delivers solutions and services to more than 30 U.S. government agencies in support of some of our Nation’s most critical missions – from space exploration to cyber defense to military base operations and public health. Our capabilities include IT modernization, mission systems engineering and other engineering solutions, software applications and analytics, critical infrastructure and base operations, supply chain management and logistics and professional services. As a family of Alaska Native-owned companies, our work helps secure an enduring future for more than 14,000 Iñupiaq shareholders from Alaska’s North Slope. Since inception, ASRC Federal has contributed to over $2 billion in shareholder dividends paid by its parent company, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. For more information, please visit www.asrcfederal.com.

Source: ASRC Federal

The post ASRC Federal Enables Next-Gen NASA Supercomputer appeared first on HPCwire.

Check out some old classics and great new releases on Netflix now.

If you can navigate yourself to Google Earth, you can take off and fly.

Some adults aged 65 and above will be able to get the drug for $50 through Medicare GLP-1, a temporary program

Kathryn, a retiree who worked in healthcare, has throughout her life experienced “cyclical weight-loss, weight-gain”.

“Every time that that has happened, it’s been a little bit greater of the loss and the gain, which is really unhealthy,” said the 66-year-old who lives in Denver, Colorado, and requested that only her first name be used. At her heaviest, the 5ft 1in-woman weighed 220lbs.

Lower costs in Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and Ohio raise questions about whether Republican strongholds will shift

While it’s regarded as a quiet, safe place, many would agree that there’s not much to Greene county, Ohio.

It’s a mix of urban, suburban and rural communities east of Dayton, Ohio’s sixth largest city, with Greene county much like the rest of the midwest: a mix of strip malls, corn fields and an interstate connecting Columbus with Cincinnati.

July 1, 2026 — IQM Quantum Computers Plc on February 22, 2026 entered into a definitive business combination agreement with Real Asset Acquisition Corp. (RAAQ), a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company, pursuant to which RAAQ would merge with and into IQM US LLC, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of IQM, with Merger Sub surviving the merger as an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of IQM. On June 25, 2026, the extraordinary general meeting of RAAQ was held, at which the RAAQ shareholders approved the Business Combination and the merger by the requisite votes. Since the conditions precedent of the Business Combination have been met, IQM and RAAQ have today completed the Business Combination and the merger has become effective, thereby consummating the Business Combination Agreement.

The Board of Directors of IQM, as authorized by the unanimous shareholder resolution of February 27, 2026, has issued 14,381,747 existing shares held by IQM as consideration in the Business Combination to the RAAQ shareholders. The RAAQ shareholders will receive the consideration in the form of American depositary shares (ADSs) issued by BNY (NYSE: BNY), a global financial services company, acting as depositary bank for the purpose of issuing and distributing the ADSs, with each ADS representing one share in IQM. Trading in ADSs will commence on the Global Select Market of the Nasdaq Stock Market on July 2, 2026 under the trading symbol “IQMX”.

The warrants issued by RAAQ were assumed by IQM and became warrants to purchase one share in IQM represented by one ADS (each, an “IQM Warrant”) at an exercise price of USD 11.50 per share, on substantially the same terms and conditions as were applicable to the corresponding warrant issued by RAAQ prior to the consummation of the Business Combination. A maximum of 12,530,975 new or existing shares may be subscribed for with the IQM Warrants. Trading in IQM Warrants will commence on Nasdaq on July 2, 2026, under the trading symbol “IQMX WS”.

Concurrently with the Business Combination, the Board of Directors of IQM, as authorized by the unanimous shareholder resolution of February 27, 2026, has issued 14,548,000 existing shares held by IQM in a private placement to institutional and other accredited investors at a subscription price of USD 10.00 per share, for an aggregate purchase price of EUR 127.7 million (USD 145.5 million). The subscription price is based on the subscription agreements between the PIPE Investors and IQM.

In total, IQM received net proceeds of approximately EUR 198.7 million (USD 233.5 million) in the Business Combination and PIPE Investment, taking into account the remaining funds in RAAQ’s trust account.

The closing marks a significant milestone for IQM as it advances its mission to accelerate the commercialization and adoption of quantum computing worldwide. Since its founding in 2018, IQM has become one of the leading providers of full-stack superconducting quantum systems, serving enterprises, research institutions, universities, high-performance computing centers, and national laboratories across Europe, North America, and Asia.

Jan Goetz, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, IQM, said: “We founded IQM with the conviction that quantum computing would become a foundational technology for nations, scientific institutions, and industry. Today, quantum computing is increasingly being viewed as strategic infrastructure, and customers around the world are investing accordingly. This transaction strengthens our ability to execute on our long-term vision, expand our global presence, and continue delivering the full-stack quantum systems that are helping define the next era of computing.”

Peter Ort, Principal Executive Officer and Co-Chairman of RAAQ, said: “IQM has distinguished itself through its technological leadership, global customer footprint, and proven ability to deliver quantum systems into production environments. We are proud to have partnered with the team on this transaction and look forward to supporting the Company’s continued growth as a public company.”

Advisors

J.P. Morgan SE is serving as financial advisor and capital markets advisor to IQM. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and TD Cowen are serving as PIPE placement agents to IQM. Rothschild & Co is serving as financial advisor and capital markets advisor to IQM and its Board of Directors. TD Cowen is serving as financial advisor and capital markets advisor to RAAQ. Cohen & Company Capital Markets is serving as a capital markets advisor to RAAQ. Cooley LLP, Borenius Attorneys Ltd, Mourant Ozannes LLP and Loyens & Loeff N.V. are serving as legal advisors to IQM, and Ashurst Perkins Coie US LLP, Krogerus Attorneys Ltd and Conyers Dill & Pearman LLP are serving as legal advisors to RAAQ. DLA Piper LLP (US) is serving as legal advisor to J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and TD Cowen. The Blueshirt Group is serving as investor relations advisor to IQM.

For further information, please contact: Blair Robertson, Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development,, Investor Relations Officer, Investors@iqm.tech.

About IQM Quantum Computers

IQM Quantum Computers is a global leader in superconducting quantum computing, delivering full-stack quantum systems and cloud platform access to enterprises, research institutions, high-performance computing centers, and national laboratories worldwide. IQM’s open and modular architecture enables customers to own, control, and integrate quantum systems directly into their workflows. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Espoo, Finland, with major operations in Munich, Germany, it has over 400 employees globally and one of the industry’s strongest track records in deployed quantum systems across Europe, Asia, and North America.

Source: IQM

The post IQM Completes SPAC Merger and Begins Trading on Nasdaq as IQMX appeared first on HPCwire.

Economic squeeze and anti-immigration raids have hit Hispanic communities, prompting people to shop online and reuse oil

• Business live – latest updates

The US cooking oil market is shrinking and unlikely to improve soon because of economic and immigration enforcement pressures on Latino households, the owner of the Mazola brand has said.

George Weston, the chief executive of Associated British Foods (ABF), told City analysts that cooking oil sales had suffered as “our heavy use consumer is that Hispanic population who are under financial pressure, who are under pressure from Ice [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and are feeling a bit miserable”.

Progressive Manny Rutinel is the projected winner in the Democratic primary in Colorado's 8th Congressional District, a GOP-held seat that is one of a handful of toss-up districts in the country.

Report accuses paramilitary force of crimes including ethnic cleansing in systemic campaign against civilians

The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its campaign to capture El Fasher, Amnesty International has alleged.

Many of the crimes, including murder, torture, rape, enslavement and sexual slavery, were carried out as part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians and amounted to crimes against humanity, the human rights organisation said in a report released on Wednesday.

Jamir Nazir’s The Serpent in the Grove, which critics allege has ‘obvious markers’ of AI use, was described as ‘original, poetic and deeply moving’ by the judging chair

A story widely accused on social media of being written using AI has gone on to win the overall Commonwealth short story prize.

Jamir Nazir’s story The Serpent in the Grove went viral after being named as a regional winner in mid-May, with critics on X and Bluesky claiming it showed “obvious markers” of AI use. The literary magazine Granta subsequently pulled out of its long-running agreement to publish the Commonwealth winners.

Netanyahu is caught between Trump and a hard place Expert comment LToremark 1 July 2026

As Trump and Netanyahu fall out over Iran war – and how to end it – the Israeli prime minister is caught between US pressure and domestic opinion ahead of crucial elections.

The relationship between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has grown increasingly tense since the start of the Iran war and seems to have reached an all-time low amid Trump’s efforts to end hostilities in both Iran and Lebanon. His memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Iran was largely criticized in Israel. Netanyahu – who always bragged about his great relationship with Trump – was seen as responsible. Another MoU between Israel, the US and Lebanon followed last week. Although it looks more favourable to Israel, it has nevertheless been met with a great deal of suspicion in Israel where the majority supports military action against Hezbollah.

Related work

Will the US–Iran ceasefire hold? 

Before last week’s deal, the US president had grown increasingly frustrated that Israel’s actions in Lebanon would jeopardize the ceasefire deal with Iran. Trump has confirmed reports he called Netanyahu ‘crazy’ and used an expletive during a tense phone call. A new book claims there was a similarly angry phone call just days before the public announcement of the ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza. 

These revelations paint a picture of two leaders who have always emphasized their close alliance and ‘beautiful friendship’ but no longer seem to be on the same page. But does this mean Trump is ready to translate his growing resentment towards Netanyahu into new policy? If so, how would it affect Israeli politics and the upcoming elections?

The end of the Trump–Netanyahu bromance

Quite possibly, no one was happier than Netanyahu after Trump’s election victory in November 2024. He reportedly used to stall to buy time during the Biden administration, postponing key decisions such as a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia, and fateful decisions on Gaza and the hostages until Trump returned to the White House. And indeed, the Israeli cabinet approved the ceasefire deal with Gaza, that allowed for the release of 33 hostages, just in time for Trump’s inauguration.  

But from that moment on Trump and Netanyahu have struggled to reach a consensus. Trump started his term with a plan to ‘relocate’ Palestinians from Gaza to Libya and a promise there would be ‘all hell to pay’ for Hamas if the hostages were not released. But just months later he presented his 20-point peace plan for Gaza and effectively forced a ceasefire on both Israel and Hamas. 

Just a few weeks prior to Trump’s peace plan announcement, Netanyahu had promised to continue the fight in Gaza to retrieve all hostages and eradicate Hamas. However, he later embraced Trump’s peace plan and the subsequent hostage deal. The families of hostages have argued that Netanyahu sabotaged previous chances for such a deal and eventually only succumbed to Trump’s pressure.

But the war with Iran provided ultimate proof that Netanyahu and Trump have very different worldviews and geopolitical goals. As the proclaimed goals of the war began to look increasingly unachievable, Trump increased cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Pakistan to secure a ceasefire. Netanyahu, meanwhile, wanted to maintain the military pressure on both Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, despite the heavy price of the war – and even as the IDF admitted that eradicating Hezbollah without a full-scale invasion is unrealistic. 

Related work

Netanyahu’s biggest gamble

Netanyahu’s dream that Trump would provide a carte blanche for Israel in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran did not come true. While Trump wanted quick victories for national and personal gains, Netanyahu was more interested in precisely the type of ‘endless war’ that Trump had promised to avoid. The disparity between their goals was made even clearer as the US signed a shaky MoU with Iran and demanded that Israel halt its military activity in Lebanon. 

The terms of the new Israel–Lebanon MoU allow Israeli troops to remain in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah disarms – and Netanyahu has already reiterated that they will. Significant pullouts of Israeli forces would be a highly unpopular move among Israelis and Netanyahu will want to avoid this ahead of the election. Trump, meanwhile, desperately needs this ceasefire to last to stabilize the situation in Iran. It remains to be seen how much pressure the US will exercise to enforce this agreement. So far, timeframes are vague and there are minimal demands on Israel – but this could change.

Consequences for Israel’s election 

Netanyahu will be running in the October parliamentary elections weakened by his rift with Trump – and with many of Israel’s international relationships already strained by the war in Gaza. US Vice President JD Vance’s recent statement that Trump is Israel’s last powerful ally rings painfully true.  

Polls in Israel indicate that Netanyahu currently cannot secure a coalition. Support for the prime minister and his Likud party has been eroded by the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks, his handling of the prolonged hostage crisis and inability to secure a decisive victory over Hamas, as well as the judicial reform and corruption. It remains to be seen whether the MoU with Lebanon will have an impact on the polls but for now it does not appear to be a game changer.

It is harder to establish whether the rift with Trump has had an impact. In 2015, Netanyahu skilfully used his confrontation with then US president Barack Obama over the JCPOA deal to win the elections. Now, 11 years later he will attempt to pull the same trick with Trump. Polls indicate that over two thirds of Israelis believe that Trump’s policies are damaging to Israel, while pro-Netanyahu media describe Trump as weak and undecisive. So, while some voters may be concerned by the very public rift between Israel and the US, others seem inspired by it.

A woman suffered injuries but survived falling 1,500 feet down California's Mount Shasta, which she had attempted to climb, officials said.

President made more than $1bn from crypto businesses last year while federal government oversaw regulation. Plus, giant seal causes havoc in Tasmania – but locals love him

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Good morning.

Donald Trump has raked in more than $1bn from his crypto businesses since returning to the White House, according to financial disclosures, making him substantially richer and ringing alarm bells over a conflict of interest.

Where else is Trump getting money from? The US president made millions last year from selling Trump-branded bibles, sneakers and other small items in another unprecedented move for the presidency. In the Trump-branded watches category alone, the president earned $4.7m. Trump also racked up tens of millions from fees and licensing deals in a flurry of new hotel, resort and condo deals overseas. Many of those countries were at the same time negotiating with the US over tariffs, military aid and other important matters.

• Former champion tweaked right knee in defeat against Joint

• The 44-year-old made return after nearly four years away

Serena Williams’ appearance in the women’s doubles alongside her sister Venus later this week is in doubt because of a knee injury.

The 23-time grand slam singles winner played her first singles match since the 2022 US Open on Tuesday, which ended in a 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 loss to the 20-year-old Australian Maya Joint on Centre Court, and is due to play with Venus at Wimbledon for the first time since they won their sixth doubles title a decade ago.

Victor Willis, lead singer of the disco group Village People, whose hit "Y.M.C.A." became a fixture at rallies for President Trump, has died at the age of 74, his wife and the band said.

Challenger Melat Kiros, a democratic socialist, is the projected winner of the Democratic primary in Colorado's First Congressional District.

We've tried dozens of meal kit and prepared meal delivery services to find the most affordable options that deliver not only on value, but taste, too.

With Motorola serving as the World Cup's official smartphone partner, I couldn't resist snapping some photos on its latest foldables.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has begun its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time, using the world's largest digital camera to image the entire southern sky every few nights. The project is expected to catalog billions of stars and galaxies, track changing and transient objects, and generate an enormous dataset for studying dark matter, galaxy formation, asteroids, and unexpected cosmic phenomena. The New York Times reports: "This is the end of a 30-year wait," said Phil Marshall, the deputy director of the telescope's operations at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, in a statement to The New York Times. "It's a major milestone for us." Astronomers expect this collection of data, known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, to revolutionize their knowledge of our galaxy's birth, the invisible matter permeating the cosmos, what shaped the universe into the structure it has today and more. According to Dr. Marshall, the survey is designed to see everything, "even the things we don't know we're looking for yet," he said. The team behind the observatory, a joint effort funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, unveiled several images of the cosmos that were jampacked with celestial goodness -- a peek at what the Rubin could do -- last year. Since then, scientists have been busy conducting final tests and reviews of the telescope's operations and systems. According to Bob Blum, the director of Rubin operations at the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, the team has also been hard at work ensuring that the telescope can operate reliably in different environmental conditions for the next decade.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The success of democratic socialists has led to an establishment backlash, fueling divisions over how to respond

A recent chair of the Democratic National Committee apparently wants democratic socialists to get out of his party. “If you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination,” Jaime Harrison tweeted on election day last week, shortly before results showed that three of those socialists had won Democratic primaries for Congress in deep-blue New York City. He didn’t identify his targets, but the implication was clear.

Harrison’s call for self-expulsion was the bizarre opposite of a welcome mat: “Don’t use our resources. Don’t rely on our volunteers. Don’t use our infrastructure. Don’t ask Democrats to invest their time, money, and energy in your campaign.” The tweet turned reality on its head. Socialist candidates have been winning because they inspired multitudes of people to volunteer and provide what’s needed to win.

Gen Z conservative women may be fewer in numbers than their male counterparts, but they are no less consequential

On the steps of the US supreme court on Tuesday, a group of women celebrated. They cheered and held up signs with phrases like “Girls’ Sports for Girls Only” and “Truth, Fairness, Biological Reality”. Penny Young Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, told the gathering that after a decade of these conservative women’s activism: “The court agrees with us that a man cannot be a woman.”

“The decision will affect the law across the country,” she said. “We will have a better opportunity to protect young women.”

In Wednesday’s last-32 match, the US team have more than just a chance to win against Bosnia and Herzegovina. They’re playing to win over their country

It took Mauricio Pochettino a little while to understand that he had accepted an innately vibes-based job.

If club soccer boils down to managers exerting control and fitting their players into an intricate system, buttressed by cutting-edge tactics, ultra-modern analytics and first-in-class sports science, international soccer demands a different job entirely. And it tends to take long-time club coaches who are managing in the international game for the first time a bit to catch on to the difference.

Advocates describe this moment as both a crisis and an opening to reimagine the promises of freedom and democracy

This Fourth of July marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence promised liberty and equality for all – even as it excluded most of the people living on the land it claimed to liberate.

For many Americans, the semiquincentennial is less a celebration than a reckoning. The country arrives at this milestone amid sustained attacks on voting rights, civil rights and democratic institutions – challenges that organizers say are taking the country back generations. It’s a moment that activists and advocates describe as both a crisis and an opening to reimagine the promises of freedom and democracy.

After a recent study found New Orleans is at a ‘point of no return’ amid the climate crisis, some locals say they will ‘only leave if forced to’. But what would it take to stay?

When a study in May concluded that New Orleans has hit a “point of no return” due to the climate crisis that will require people to eventually retreat from their storied yet ultimately doomed city, the local reaction was swift and fiery.

The onward march of rising seas around a sinking city was unsettling, but the study is “more focused on generating publicity and clickbait headlines” than coming up with solutions, said Helena Moreno, New Orleans’ mayor. There is flooding in Miami, and wildfires and earthquakes near San Fransisco, Moreno pointed out, “yet no serious movement exists to declare those cities lost causes”.

Longtime labor activist Dolores Huerta says President Trump's disparaging remarks about Mexicans show he "does not know history," and called on Latinos in California, Texas and other states to push for change.

Technical talks reportedly under way in Doha, with Qatar and Pakistan acting as mediators

UK manufacturing activity cooled in June despite a boost from ⁠companies stockpiling ahead of price increases and supply chain problems stemming from the Middle East conflict, according to closely ⁠watched industry survey.

The final reading of S&P Global’s purchasing managers’ index for June fell to 52.5, ⁠below a preliminary estimate of 53.1, and May’s reading of 53.9. Readings above 50 indicate an expansion in activity.

The UK ‌manufacturing sector ended the second quarter of the year on a positive note.

Sustaining the upturn is becoming a bigger concern. Manufacturers are currently benefiting from client strategic stockpiling, as they safeguard against supply chain ‌disruptions and expected price rises. A drop in the rate of growth of new work intakes suggests this boost ​is already starting to fade.

A further rise in manufacturing output in June adds to signs of encouraging resilience in the eurozone economy. June’s expansion in fact rounds off the strongest calendar quarter for euro area manufacturing production since the opening months of 2022, and will offset the recent decline that’s been recorded in the services economy.

This sustained growth was accompanied by a welcome cooling of cost pressures, largely reflecting the sharp drop in oil prices seen during the month, alongside an easing of supply worries.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware’s legislative session ended after lawmakers sent scores of bills to the desk of Gov. Matt Meyer. Amid negotiations over the state’s capital spending bill, they also overrode a veto that Meyer issued last year.

The fate of Delaware’s billion-dollar Bond Bill as well as a string of other measures was in question until early Wednesday morning as lawmakers jockeyed over which bills they could squeeze into the final hours of the state’s 2026 legislative session. 

In the end, they passed a mountain of legislation, including new data center regulations, wetlands rules, omnibus spending bills, and the first leg Constitutional amendment to codify the legality of marriage between people of any gender and any race.     

The lawmakers also voted to override Gov. Matt Meyer’s veto last year of a bill that limits the land-use restrictions a county can impose on marijuana shops.

Notable bills that did not pass the legislative chambers included a measure to require union workers on school construction sites, and another that would remove a statute of limitations on certain sexual assault claims. 

Lawmakers ended the all-night session just as the sun was beginning to rise. For many, it also marked an unofficial beginning of what is expected to be a contentious summer political campaign. 

Asked whether the early-morning rush of bills was a cause for concern, Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend (D-Newark) said the time it took lawmakers to consider legislation reflected the “sorting out of a lot of viewpoints.” 

“And to some extent, the piling up of items on the final day is part of the nature of the beast,” Townsend said. 

Expressing similar comments was House Minority Whip Jeff Spiegelman (R-Clayton) who called the early morning proceedings the end of a normal June. 

“It’s a normal June between Republican and Democrat, and House and Senate,” he said.

In closing remarks to her chamber, House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown (D-New Castle) celebrated the dozens of bills that passed the legislature in recent days and weeks, including those that she described as protecting “fundamental freedoms” and expanding “healthcare access.”

And in a possible scolding of certain legislators, she said she was grateful to those who “chose collaboration over division” and “solutions over headlines.”  

House deliberates Bond Bill

The biggest bill considered Tuesday into Wednesday was the state’s Bond Bill – a $1.26 billion spending package that funds public construction projects, including a planned port container terminal in Edgemoor. 

Bill sponsor Rep. Debra Heffernan (D-Bellefonte) called the bill the “largest jobs bill that we pass in Delaware.”

And just like one year ago when Republicans blocked the Bond Bill to gain concessions on wind energy, the legislation sat at the center of late-night negotiations. 

Just before 3 a.m., the Delaware House opened its debate on the spending bill. Republicans almost immediately requested a recess to deliberate among themselves. 

They briefly left the House chamber as a group. When they returned, the GOP leaders, including Spiegelman, gathered with Minor-Brown and other Democrats to quietly negotiate further. 

The remaining Republicans continued to quietly talk among themselves. References to veto overrides could be heard coming from the group. 

Shortly thereafter, the House session resumed with Heffernan asking her colleagues to table the Bond Bill. They promptly approved the request. 

House Majority Whip Ed Osienski (D-Newark) then brought a motion for the chamber to consider an override of Gov. Matt Meyer’s veto of Senate Bill 75, which would have prohibited county governments from creating restrictive zoning regulations on legal marijuana shops. 

The Delaware Senate overrode the veto in January. 

Rep. Shannon Morris (R-Harrington) rose to question why the House would consider the move in the early morning hours on the final day of the Legislative Session. 

“We had six months to do this. Why wait until July 1 when the state of Delaware is asleep,” Morris asked.

Osienski said the override decision came after a Delaware Supreme Court ruling in May that declared the state government has ultimate authority over land-use issues.  

“The General Assembly controls zoning power,” Osienski said. His comments highlighted a persistent debate in Delaware politics around the power of localities to control their land-use decisions. 

Ultimately the House voted to override the veto. Following the vote, legislators turned back to the Bond Bill, which subsequently passed.

Asked about the quiet discussions that preceded the votes, Spiegelman said they were to ensure “we are all on the same page.”

Sexual assault bill blunders

During the early Wednesday morning hours, after both chambers had already passed the Bond Bill and were nearing the end of a marathon final day, a prolonged debate over a proposal surrounding child sexual abuse legal claims gripped the Senate. 

House Bill 75, originally passed in the House last year, would have removed the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse civil claims. 

The bill also removed the state’s immunity in those types of lawsuits, meaning a sexual abuse survivor could theoretically sue the Delaware government for damages should they believe the state enabled their abuse.

Introduced by House Minority Leader Tim Dukes, HB 75 received strong bipartisan support in the House last year and was sponsored by Sen. Nicole Poore (D-South New Castle) in the Senate.

But a late-stage amendment to the bill, introduced this week by Senate President Pro Tempore Dave Sokola (D-Newark), led to nearly an hour of debate.

Sokola’s amendment added new definitions and clarifying language to the bill stipulating that an alleged abuser and their employer do not automatically share a civil liability for harm done to a survivor. 

The amendment drew criticism from both sides of the aisle, with both Sens. Poore and Bryant Richardson (R-Seaford) condemning its inclusion into the bill. Poore said the amendment would close the door on those looking for justice.

“When a child has lost their innocence, should they also lose their access to justice?” Poore asked during a lengthy speech opposing Sokola’s amendment.

Senators ultimately added Sokola’s amendment to the bill, sending it back to the House for a final consideration with the controversial changes added. 

But once back in the House, Dukes made the shock decision to kill the bill instead of considering it with Sokola’s amendment. Officially known as “striking” the bill, he removed it from consideration before it could be voted on. 

Dukes’ move was met with a standing ovation from the entire House chamber. 

In an interview with Spotlight Delaware, Dukes said it was better to strike the bill than pass it with Sokola’s amendment.

“It really gutted the bill,” Dukes said, “and it weakened the hope for victims.”

Following the HB 75 strike, the House unceremoniously passed the state’s annual grant-in-aid funding package, which allocated nearly $100 million to nonprofit organizations across the state. 

At just before 6 a.m., the House gaveled out for a final time, ending the 153rd General Assembly with a marathon 16-hour day of legislating.

As lawmakers enter their six-month off-season, many are gearing up for what will be contentious elections in an attempt to hold onto their seat.

The post Delaware lawmakers stay up late to pass Bond Bill, veto override, others appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Some experts say the Strait of Hormuz will not return to its pre-war state, so what could the future of this vital shipping lane look like?

Theodore Roosevelt protected swathes of land, while Trump has lifted them from more than 86m acres

Donald Trump will attend a ribbon cutting for the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library on Wednesday, touting the legacy of a president his own administration is attempting to destroy, critics say.

While in office from 1901 to 1909, Roosevelt established five new national parks, protected swaths of land and passed legislation enabling himself and future presidents to proclaim historic landmarks and other objects of historic or scientific interest in federal ownership as national monuments.

These titles, plus the return of Ransom Canyon and a new Heartstopper movie, are out this month.

Three-year-old remains in hospital after undergoing multiple surgeries but is now in a stable condition

The family of a three-year-old boy who was seriously injured in a crocodile attack at a zoo have thanked staff at the attraction in a new statement released through the police.

Last month, officers were called to Johnsons of Old Hurst zoo in Huntingdonshire over “reports of an incident involving a three-year-old boy, during which he ended up in the crocodile enclosure”.

Unions reject proposed below-inflation increase which comes as corporation prepares to cut thousands of jobs

BBC staff fear a strike is on the horizon at the broadcaster after anger over a below-inflation pay rise offer made amid plans to cut thousands of jobs.

There is widespread consternation among staff at the offer of a 1% increase, seen as derisory given that inflation is running at almost three times that level.

Buy it for the display's privacy screen feature (if you can afford it).

Crypto ventures eclipse much of property portfolio, with revenue also coming from Trump-branded products

• Trump accused of ‘disgusting’ crypto greed after earning over $1bn since return to office

• US politics – live updates

Donald Trump has raked in more than $1bn from his crypto businesses since returning to the White House, according to financial disclosures, ringing alarm bells over a conflict of interest.

According to a 927-page document released on Tuesday by the US Office of Government Ethics, in all Trump made more than $2.2bn last year, benefiting from a vast global network of businesses and investments.

Group confirms it will stop opening new accounts under the name and move existing ones to Lloyds

Lloyds Banking Group has announced it is axing the Halifax brand, meaning the 173-year-old former building society’s name will disappear from UK high streets.

The group will stop opening new accounts under the Halifax brand, and kickstart a process of shifting existing accounts to Lloyds branding over the coming days.

One excels at fitness, the other at sleep. After extensive testing, here's what you need to know about these smart health tracking devices.

Fans of all stripes pack the bars to sing, cheer and commiserate in city where more than 3m people were born outside US

Almost 200,000 Ecuadorians and Ecuadorian Americans live in New York City, and last week quite a lot of them were in a Brooklyn restaurant called El Encebollado de Victor to watch their football team take on Germany – a traditional World Cup powerhouse.

It made for quite a sight: a sea of yellow shirts under the restaurant’s blue roof, which had been adorned with red, blue and yellow balloons for the occasion. Among the most patriotically dressed was Luis Aguilar, 45, who was born in the US to parents who had emigrated from Ecuador.

Figure in John Hutton’s west screen, considered a 20th-century masterpiece, cracked by ladder used in lighting rig

Deep cracks have appeared in one of the huge angels etched into John Hutton’s west screen of glass panels at Coventry Cathedral after a major music event.

It has prompted concern that the increase in cathedrals hosting outside events, a big source of revenue, risks damaging some of the UK’s most important religious architecture.

A housing shortfall, record home costs and cuts to subsidies are intensifying the US affordability crunch

Of the various dimensions of the affordability crisis weighing on US families, housing probably weighs heaviest. The typical home price has risen above five times the annual income of the typical family. The monthly cost of owning a home has hit record highs.

The US faces a housing shortfall of millions of homes. But builders are not rushing to meet the shortfall. The supply of new homes declined over 14% in May, compared to May of 2025. Moody’s Analytics expects single-family and multifamily residential investment to contract every year between now and 2030.

Shannon LaNier, Jefferson’s sixth great-grandson, reflects on his lineage and the role of African Americans in the nation’s founding

When the US turns 250 years old on Saturday, Shannon LaNier will be reckoning with a fundamental contradiction in its origin story – and his own.

LaNier is the sixth great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson, the founding father who wrote the Declaration of Independence and became the third president.

Supporters of the method say it’s foolproof – but forensic experts say it can be ‘excruciating’ amid allegations it’s been intentionally botched

The tangled path of US capital punishment takes a new turn on Wednesday as Idaho becomes the first state to adopt the firing squad as its primary form of execution, embracing the brutal killing technique even as concerns grow that it can inflict excruciating pain and suffering.

The state’s department of corrections (IDOC) says it has met its deadline, set by the legislature, to have its death chamber at a maximum security prison south of Boise retrofitted and open for business by 1 July. It has spent more than $1m in the venture, including $24,000 on a rack of AR-style, .308-caliber, scoped rifles that will be wielded by volunteer marksmen.

Whether you want to track your stress, sleep, heart rate, steps or more, these are our favorite fitness trackers.

Report points to staffing shortages, procedural changes and lack of a board quorum as contributing factors

Dismissals of unfair labor practice charges have surged at the National Labor Relations Board under Donald Trump, according to a new analysis.

From January 2025 to 29 April 2026, the US top labor watchdog dismissed 34.7% of all unfair labor practice charges filed by labor unions, a 14.2 percentage-point increase from 2024. The agency dismissed 67.4% of unfair labor practice charges filed by workers, 10.7 points higher than 2024.

On Tuesday, a divided Supreme Court held that state lawmakers can regulate gender identity in scholastic sports competitions, and in particular, block transgender students born as biological men from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.

On January 13, 2026, the justices heard oral arguments for three hours in both West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, a case from Idaho. Tuesday’s decision applied to both cases.

In his majority opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said in West Virginia v. B.P.J. that “Title IX allows schools to provide separate women’s and men’s sports teams defined by biological sex, and West Virginia has permissibly maintained female sports for biological females consistent with Title IX.”

Title IX bans discrimination based on sex in educational programs and activities that receive federal financial funds. However, the Education Amendments Act of 1974, known as the Javits Amendment, allows schools receiving funds under Title IX to establish “reasonable provisions considering the nature of particular sports.”

In the case from West Virginia, a parent sued on behalf of her child, B.P.J., arguing that a state law banning biological boys who identify as girls from competing on girls’ teams was unconstitutional. A federal court ruled in favor of West Virginia on Equal Protection Clause and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 grounds. A divided Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the district court decision in favor of the student on the Title IX claim and ruled against the state under the Equal Protection Clause.

In his majority opinion, Kavanaugh pointed to actions taken by the former Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) in1975. “HEW promulgated comprehensive regulations requiring that schools provide ‘equal athletic opportunity for members of both sexes’ and authorizing ‘separate teams for members of each sex where selection for such teams is based upon competitive skill or the activity involved is a contact sport,’” he said.

Kavanaugh also held that “the term ‘sex’ in Title IX, the Javits Amendment, and the Title IX regulations cannot plausibly be interpreted to refer to anything other than biological sex.” He also rejected claims that the restrictions on trans athletes competing on women’s and men’s sports teams violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

“The challenged West Virginia and Idaho laws make sex-based classifications in limiting female teams to biological females. Under this Court’s equal protection precedents, sex-based classifications are permissible only when the classification is ‘substantially related’ to achieving an ‘important’ government objective. The States argue—and the Court agrees—that the interests of safety and competitive fairness are important interests for purposes of equal protection analysis.”

Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett joined Kavanaugh’s opinion.

Justices Thomas and Gorsuch also filed concurring opinions. Thomas agreed in full with the majority opinion but he added that “transgender status is not a suspect class requiring heightened equal-protection scrutiny.” Gorsuch said his opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) supported the holding in this case. In Bostock, Gorsuch ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor concurred in the judgment in part and dissented in part. “The Court should have affirmed the Fourth Circuit’s decision to remand for further factfinding,” she said. “Because of the Court’s decision today, West Virginia, and any other state actor, can deny B. P. J. and others like her these experiences simply because it thinks they have an inherent athletic advantage, even if the facts show that they do not.” Justices Kagan and Jackson joined her concurrence.

Justice Jackson also concurred in the judgment in part and dissented in part. “The Court did not need to hold that Title IX protects against discrimination solely on the basis of ‘biological sex,’ even if only ‘in the sports context,’” she wrote, citing Justice Sotomayor’s concurrence. “The Court should have assumed as much while leaving open the possibility that Title IX’s definition of ‘sex’ is more capacious.”

While the decision clearly establishes that states may restrict competition in women’s and girls’ scholastic sports by biological sex, the next challenge will likely come from athletes who claim harm in states where transgender athletes are allowed to take part in contests that match their gender identity.

Today, 29 states have laws or policies that prohibit transgender students from competing in sports consistent with their gender identity, while 21 states have no such laws.

Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.

On Monday, a divided Supreme Court held that a police request to obtain cellphone user location data represents a search and generally requires a warrant under the Fourth Amendment. Justice Elena Kagan authored the Court’s majority opinion in the case.

The Constitution’s Fourth Amendment reads, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

In Chatrie v. United States, a Virginia man, Okello Chatrie, claimed a detective did not reasonably obtain search warrants used to track down his cellphone location data. The government later used this data to convict him of robbing a bank.

Law enforcement had asked for a geofence warrant from a magistrate. Geofence warrants set a distance from a certain physical point from which service providers such as Google must provide data to law enforcement about a mobile phone users’ activity.

Chatrie was convicted of bank robbery based on evidence gathered in three different cellphone data requests to Google covered under one warrant, based on a protocol developed by Google and approved by a magistrate.

Justice Elena Kagan, in a 6-3 decision, said the Court was presented with a two-part Fourth Amendment question. “Answering that question in full would mean deciding whether the police conducted a Fourth Amendment ‘search’ when they acquired the cellphone data leading to Chatrie’s arrest and, if so, whether that search was reasonable given the features of the warrant they employed.”

“We decide the first part of that inquiry today, concluding that the police conducted a search when they gained access to [Google’s] Location History data,” Kagan noted. The second part of the question Kagan returned to a federal court of appeals to determine if the search was reasonable, properly described with particularity, and supported by probable cause.

Citing the Court’s precedent in Carpenter v. United States (2018), Kagan said, “The Fourth Amendment protects individuals’ reasonable expectations of privacy, and governmental intrusion into that private sphere generally qualifies as a search.”

Kagan found the question presented in this case closely mapped to Carpenter. “In Carpenter, this Court held that accessing cell-site location information (CSLI) constitutes a Fourth Amendment search because ‘individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of their physical movements.’”

“Everything Carpenter relied on to find that law enforcement officers conducted a Fourth Amendment search when they accessed CSLI records applies as well or better to the police’s accessing of Location History data,” she concluded.

The second part of the question will head back to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. “The Fourth Circuit did not address the questions that unusual warrant raises. Because this is ‘a court of review, not of first view,’ the Court leaves it up to the Court of Appeals to decide whether, at each step of the search process, the warrant satisfied the Fourth Amendment’s requirements of particularity and probable cause,” Kagan concluded. Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined Kagan’s majority opinion.

In her concurrence, Justice Jackson wrote the Supreme Court should have settled the question returned to the Fourth Circuit. “As the Court observes, ‘[w]hen officers have obtained a warrant,’ the validity of a search turns on ‘whether a magistrate has properly found probable cause to support a particularly described search.’ In my view, it is clear that at a minimum the second and third stages of the search process here did not satisfy this foundational requirement.”

Justice Neil Gorsuch filed an opinion concurring in the Court’s judgment. But he would have taken a different approach to answering the Fourth Amendment issue. “To decide whether the Fourth Amendment is in play, I would consult its terms, asking first whether Location History qualifies as one of Mr. Chatrie’s papers or effects, and then asking whether the government searched those papers or effects. This traditional approach remains very much part of our law.”

“So just as the First Amendment protects speech over the internet today no less than it did speech delivered in the town square in 1791, it should hardly come as a surprise that the Fourth Amendment might protect as personal ‘effects’ electronic diaries of one’s travels as it always has more traditional ones,” he wrote.

Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett, dissented—arguing that this decision and Carpenter established a “protected Fourth Amendment interest in any sensitive personal information about them that is collected and owned by third parties.” This expanded definition also included a requirement, he believed, that “the police must obtain a warrant every time they access any cell-phone location information from a third party, however brief the duration, however innocuous the request, and however voluntarily that information was disclosed by the user.”

Justice Barrett, in a brief dissent, wrote that she agreed with Alito that “under our Fourth Amendment precedent, including Carpenter, Chatrie had no reasonable expectation of privacy in data about his public movements that he voluntarily disclosed to Google. I therefore respectfully dissent.”

Scott Bomboy is the editor-in-chief of the National Constitution Center.

AI company was forced last month to suspend access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for all foreign nationals

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Anthropic has restored customer access to its powerful newest AI model, Fable, after a more than two-week blackout resulting from US government safety concerns that it could be abused to enable serious cyber-attacks.

The San Francisco company said export controls had been lifted, citing a social media post from the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, in which he said: “Over the past two weeks, we have worked closely with Anthropic to analyze and approve Fable 5 to ensure alignment across the US Government and strengthen America’s leadership in AI.”

Apple will release iOS 27 this fall, but don't forget to check out all these iOS 26 features before then.

The 41-year-old says he intends to continue his career after his departure from the Lakers. There are several intriguing options to consider

It’s official: LeBron James will not finish his career as a Los Angeles Laker. The talking heads are in a gnashing froth. ESPN’s Shams Charania has become the first human being in recorded history to somehow get less than zero sleep over a 24-hour period. Steph Curry is widening his eyes. Bronny James is secretly relishing the chance to forge his own identity as he says “I’ll miss you, Dad.” James hasn’t been the best player in the league for more than half a decade, but at 41 he remains the most decorated and the one who commands the most coverage. So let’s indulge in a time-honored tradition one last time: wild speculation over where the King will play next season.

The short answer is that there’s nothing to disclose. But that doesn’t mean we won’t make contact with extraterrestrial life

Even before Stephen Spielberg’s latest film, Disclosure Day, began unspooling at local multiplexes, the internet was debating whether we would ever experience a real-life disclosure day – when the US government admits that it’s aware of aliens here on Earth, a secret it has supposedly kept since the 1940s.

That would be dramatic news. But don’t hold your breath.

The United States of America is … so many things, horrific and magnificent, good and evil, promising and cursed

The United States of America is a truck that has driven into a ditch. The United States of America is a program that has been hacked. The United States of America is … so many things, horrific and magnificent, good and evil, promising and cursed, as it approaches its quarter-millennium mark. I say it as though the US was one thing, but it is a thousand things.

It is the masked ICE agent shooting Renee Good as she stood up for immigrants, but it is also Good herself and the immigrants, and the streets of Minneapolis and their Dakota and Ojibwe Indigenous past – and present and future. The US before 1865 was slaveowners, but it was also the enslaved and the abolitionists.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her newest book is The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change

First of major coverage losses expected as a result of the ‘One Big Beautiful’ bill signed into law one year ago

Nearly 500,000 moderate-income New Yorkers will be dumped from their health insurance plans on 1 July – the first of major coverage losses expected as a result of HR 1, the Republican-led law signed almost exactly one year ago.

The law, sometimes called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” slashed government health spending by $911bn nationally in favor of permanent tax breaks for higher-income families and border security.

Richard Trahant fined $400,000 over apparent violation of order in case of priest who admitted sexual misconduct

The US supreme court has rejected an appeal from an attorney who was fined $400,000 after taking steps to get an abusive Roman Catholic priest removed as chaplain of a high school campus.

In a notice on Monday, the supreme court’s justices indicated without explanation that they would not take up the case of Richard Trahant, whose clients include dozens of people victimized by a clergy abuse scandal that drove New Orleans’ Catholic archdiocese into federal bankruptcy court.

The hit summer reality show takes Wednesday off.

Leaders in the arts, science and business, including Sundar Pichai, Jamie Lee Curtis, Katie Ledecky and Ken Burns shared their reflections on America.

The lack of accessible healthcare drives many to rely on social media feeds for medical advice.

Consumer advocacy group Choice blind tested 30 olive oils – and found many of the highest ranked came from Australia

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Consumer advocacy group Choice has taste tested 30 supermarket extra-virgin olive oils, and found some Australian-made oils rank higher than those imported from Italy and Spain.

“A lot of Australians are after local products, and there are a lot of Australian olive oil makers that have built quite a good reputation,” Pru Engel, Choice audience and engagement editor, said.

A preview of the forthcoming sci-fi game from Gareth Damian Martin showcases their unmistakable talent for innovation and game design

Over the past decade, an impression has taken root among gamers that any real creativity and originality in the industry is to be found in the indie, rather than mainstream, sector. Gareth Damian Martin can claim some responsibility for that. Their first game, 2020’s In Other Waters, merged sci-fi and underwater xenobiology in a uniquely calming and thought-provoking manner, while Citizen Sleeper (2022) and Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (2025) were full-blown sci-fi epics with ultraminimal aesthetics and a rare intelligence.

Martin has broken with tradition by unveiling their next game, Signet City, far in advance of its 2027 launch. Set in a dystopian monochrome city, it’s a narrative role-playing adventure with a curious first-person perspective. “You play as a parasite,” says Martin. “And it felt natural that it should be a game where you see the world through the eyes of your hosts, very literally. You wake up in the mind of a person called Sid at the same time as she’s waking up in the river of a city. You’re coming to understand what you are, why it is that you’re in the mind of this person who doesn’t know that you’re there, along with what your capabilities are, and what the world is, through Sid.”

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From screwworm to flesh-eating bacteria, mounting public health risks are emerging in the wake of deep cuts to federal health agencies and programs.

In the nation’s gravest hour, the country’s authoritarian regime has crippled an effective response, say survivors, rescue workers and former officials.

The FAA plans to replace its 1973 ban on civilian supersonic flight over U.S. land with a noise-based standard, potentially allowing aircraft to exceed Mach 1 as long as they stay below certain sound limits. The agency aims to finalize the rules by mid-2027, opening the door for companies such as Boom Supersonic and Spike Aerospace to operate quieter next-generation passenger jets over land. Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shared the notice (PDF) published Tuesday by the FAA. Forbes reports: Technological advances "will eliminate the old sonic boom," FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement. "This means we can ultimately repeal the ban from the 1970s on supersonic flight over U.S. territory while minimizing noise impacts to residents in communities along the route and near airports." The primary reason was public opposition to loud sonic booms. In the 1960s, a plane flying faster than the speed of sound -- about 660 mph at high altitudes -- created shock waves that traveled to the ground and reached human ears as a loud gunshot-like crack or thunder-like boom. Tests during that decade, including the Oklahoma City sonic boom experiments, found repeated booms broke windows, damaged property and generated thousands of public complaints. In its 1973 ruling, the FAA stated that due to the limits of technology at that time, "a prohibition was needed to protect the public from sonic boom .... by preventing operations of a civil aircraft at a true flight Mach number greater than 1." Several years later, Air France and British Airways introduced Concorde, and were allowed to serve New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport as long as flights remained subsonic over U.S. land. Notably, "the prestigious London-New York service was the only truly profitable [Concorde] route, supported by high-powered business and celebrity travel," wrote a former British Airways network planner for Forbes in 2021. Several U.S. companies are working on a new generation of luxurious supersonic passenger aircraft with much quieter sonic booms and improved fuel efficiency. In particular, Colorado-headquartered Boom Supersonic says it has pre-orders from United Airlines, American Airlines and Japan Airlines for its Overture jets, which will carry 60-80 passengers. Atlanta-based Spike Aerospace is developing smaller Diplomat jets for up to 18 passengers. Both companies' websites tout future transatlantic flights in under four hours.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In its term that ended last October, the Supreme Court passed an important milestone that went unnoticed: For the first time, it decided more cases by secret ballot, and with few signed opinions, than it did for cases argued in open court.

These decisions, which make up the court’s “shadow docket,” are a fast-track way to get a decision from the top court. They rarely include arguments, have limited briefings and have expedited timetables, and justices infrequently provide explanation of how they voted or to cite legal precedent. 

The Supreme Court’s increased willingness to bypass its regular process has empowered President Donald Trump at the same time as the administration has increased use of executive authority. The court has repeatedly green-lit policies of his that lower courts have blocked — and has done so with little to no explanation. 

These emergency decisions have thrown lower courts’ processes into turmoil and have sometimes directly contradicted longstanding legal precedent. The outcomes have been consequential: The high court has used the process to limit federal courts from issuing nationwide injunctions and diminished Congress’ authority over federal agencies, and it has allowed for the detention of American citizens by immigration agents. 

ProPublica analyzed over two decades of Supreme Court rulings, which cover all of the years under Chief Justice John Roberts and go as far back as the online archives allow. We found that when the last court term ended, justices had issued 63 orders on the shadow docket, as opposed to 56 orders on the more traditional merits docket — where the court hears oral arguments scheduled months in advance and the justices issue signed opinions.

Legal scholars and court watchers were shocked by our finding. They told ProPublica it’s likely the first time in modern history that so many consequential decisions were made in secret by its nine members.

“The patterns show a court going out of its way to enable Trump,” said Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University and a Supreme Court analyst. He said that our findings reinforce the appearance that the justices are voting on their political preferences. 

“That’s the real blow to the court’s credibility,” he said.

Representatives from the Supreme Court did not respond to a detailed list of questions. 

In a statement, a spokesperson for the White House wrote, “President Trump has faced a historically unprecedented number of injunctions by liberal lower court judges, the same judges who would rather push their own policy schemes and undermine the Administration’s lawful agenda. President Trump will not stop implementing the America First initiatives on which he was elected.”

For the First Time in Two Decades, Decisions on the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket Outnumber the Merits Docket

There are two ways to get a decision from the Supreme Court. One is to exhaust your appeals to lower courts and ask to argue your case in front of the high court. The justices determine whether to take the case on, and if they do, lawyers argue their case in front of them. The other is to petition the justices directly via the emergency docket — to freeze a lower court ruling or government policy while the case goes through appeal.

The appeals to the emergency docket have long outnumbered those to the merits docket, but most are procedural requests or requests to stay execution for capital offenses. When those are removed, what’s left is known as the shadow docket — cases that seek to skip the usual order of things and ask for a quick ruling from the court’s justices.

The modern shadow docket was born in 2016 when the Supreme Court issued an emergency stay against President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, experts say. Papers obtained by The New York Times show that liberal justices at the time urged Roberts not to decide the case on an emergency basis because it broke with longtime precedent. The conservative justices, meanwhile, forcefully argued that the president’s plan would eventually be overturned by the court anyway and that it would put too much of a burden on the energy industry.

Driven by its numerous losses in lower courts, the current Trump administration appeals to the emergency docket significantly more often than previous administrations, and the court has increasingly agreed to take quick action on its appeals.

The Obama and George W. Bush administrations together filed just eight petitions in 16 years. The Trump administration filed 32 in 2025 alone, an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice found.

The increased willingness of the Roberts court to intervene on Trump’s behalf — as well as in other issues that favor conservatives and Trump allies — has upended American life, said Donald Ayer, a former deputy solicitor general and deputy attorney general who served under the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.

“On many subjects of real importance to our future, they’ve demolished what used to be the law,” he said.

Public scrutiny of the shadow docket ramped up in September 2021 after the Supreme Court used it to issue a one-paragraph, unsigned opinion that further rolled back abortion rights established in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. In the order, the court refused to block Texas’ Senate Bill 8, the “Heartbeat Act,” which banned abortion after an embryo’s cardiac activity is detectable, typically at six weeks of pregnancy and before many people know they are pregnant. Protests erupted nationwide, and the Senate held a hearing on the shadow docket.

In an unusual public acknowledgement, Justice Elena Kagan referenced the shadow docket by name in her scathing dissent, accusing the majority of green-lighting a “patently unconstitutional law” with only a cursory review in less than 72 hours.

“In all these ways, the majority’s decision is emblematic of too much of this Court’s shadow docket decisionmaking — which every day becomes more unreasoned, inconsistent, and impossible to defend,” Kagan wrote.

That an opinion was even issued and that four of the justices signed their names to it was uncommon. On the shadow docket, justices do not have to make their votes known. In rare cases, their votes are revealed in terse indications that they grant or deny the application, or even more rarely, as an opinion. We found that just 17% of votes cast had any sort of public record of a vote or opinion.

Responding to public criticism, Justice Samuel Alito contended that the court isn’t to blame for the rise in shadow docket cases. “We do not file these emergency applications,” he said. “Parties file them.”

The debate has continued. “We cannot expect the public to have faith in our judicial system if, without clear explanation, we consistently green-light harmful acts that do real damage,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said during an April speech on the shadow docket at Yale Law School.

Until this past Supreme Court term, emergency applications fluctuated year to year but showed no clear upward trend. The applications are given first to a single justice, who decides if a case is worth referring to the full court. In recent years, justices have referred more of such appeals for a review and vote by the full court.

Last term, when there were both more cases and more referrals to the full court, the appeals to the shadow docket finally overtook those to the merits docket.

Emergency Applications Referred for a Full Court Vote Have Risen Sharply

Total applications have varied over the last two decades, with a surge last term under President Donald Trump. 

The cases were consequential. On June 23, 2025, after a lower court had ruled that eight men being deported to South Sudan should have due process, the Supreme Court intervened after a request from the administration to stop that order. The men were deported. The majority didn’t issue an opinion justifying its ruling.

Three months later, the Supreme Court voted to allow immigration agents to stop people based on racial or ethnic characteristics while still-ongoing litigation against it proceeded. To justify the decision, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a rare shadow docket opinion that people who were in the country legally would be “free to go after the brief encounter.” These became known as “Kavanaugh stops.” Last year, ProPublica found more than 170 citizens who had been stopped and detained by ICE agents. The more than 50 Americans held even after agents learned of their citizenship were almost all Latino.

And in May, while an election in Louisiana was already underway, the justices allowed the state to immediately redraw its electoral map, removing one of the two majority-Black voting districts. Louisiana can now use that map for the 2026 midterms as part of a nationwide redistricting battle for control of the House of Representatives — an effort touched off by Trump’s call for Republican-led states to create more safe seats for themselves.

Roberts once signed on to a Kagan dissent that assailed the shadow docket. But our analysis found that he has referred more substantive cases for a vote by the full court than any other justice, going from just one in the 2005 term when he joined the court to nearly half of all referrals in the last term.

There is an additional difference between the shadow docket and the merits docket. After the court holds public argument, the justices’ ultimate merits decisions are closely watched and extensively covered by the press. The summer’s “decision season,” when the final and most significant rulings come down, has a predictable cadence that ends when the justices go on summer recess. Not so with the shadow docket. Increasingly, the justices are making big decisions after they’ve issued their final merits docket decision, when public attention has waned.

A group of Democrats led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., have sponsored legislation to make the shadow docket more transparent.

Raskin told ProPublica that the court’s legitimacy has fallen with every significant decision made without “real opinions or analysis.”

“Lower federal courts have been deciding against the Trump administration in an overwhelming majority of cases with weighty and well-reasoned opinions,” Raskin said in a written statement. “Yet when things get to the twilight zone of the shadow docket, the Supreme Court is overturning 100-page opinions with a flippant sentence or two.” He added, “The result is a body that looks less like a Supreme Court and more like a Royal Court rubber stamping the madness and folly of the Trump Administration.”

“The jurisprudence of the Roberts Court today is as murky as the green algae water in the Reflecting Pool.”

How We Reported This Story

To compare the number of cases on the Supreme Court’s shadow docket to the traditional merits docket, we compared emergency applications listed on the court’s online docket search with counts of decisions compiled in Penn State’s Supreme Court Database (Version 2025 Release 01). For the merits docket, we counted only signed decisions in argued cases, the typical format for those rulings.

The court’s online docket goes back to the year 2000, but our analysis looks at Supreme Court terms from October 2003 to October 2025, where emergency applications are easily identified by the letter “A” in their docket number.

We identified more than 27,000 emergency applications during that period, including thousands of requests that are not commonly understood to be a part of the shadow docket. Most appeals to the emergency docket are the type of requests that were traditionally handled there: procedural requests, such as extending the time to file, and requests to stay execution for capital offenses. The remainder are the focus of our reporting.

Substantive Shadow Docket Cases Are a Small Fraction of All Emergency Applications

We defined a substantive application on the shadow docket as any filing where the full court was asked to intervene in the traditional appeals process, such as staying a lower court’s order. 

Most of the cases we excluded are decided by just one justice, each of whom oversees one or more federal circuits and has the power to refer filings to the wider court. When the cases are referred to the full court, they are the subject of a vote by the justices. We ran our approach by multiple experts, all of whom found it sound.

A filer can appeal to another justice if their application is denied. The next justice to receive the application always refers it to the full court. We did not include these renewed applications because our analysis found the court has never granted one.

The court has labeled capital punishment cases only since the October 2017 term. To identify them prior to that, we flagged applications for stays of execution. We then manually reviewed every case referred to the full court. For applications decided by a single justice, we used an AI model to flag potential capital cases by examining the parties on the application and the relief requested. The model flagged over 60 possible capital cases, and those were manually reviewed. Despite our effort, it is possible some capital cases may still be included in our final tallies before the 2017 term.

Although rulings on the shadow docket are typically unsigned and do not include vote breakdowns, we were able to identify how a justice voted in some cases. The analysis is based on either the opinions issued by the justices, most of which are dissenting opinions, or if the justice indicated they would have granted or denied. In some decisions, the justices issued a statement not attached to either a grant or denial. We did not record these as votes.

The post A Troubling Milestone: Most Supreme Court Rulings Are Secretive Votes With Little Justification appeared first on ProPublica.

The pope's visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa, desperate migrants' gateway to the West, will set up a split-screen moment as President Donald Trump holds an Independence Day rally.

Europe watches the next American revolution take shape Expert comment jon.wallace 1 July 2026

Europe cannot affect the course of America’s latest reinvention, as it did 250 years ago. But it can adapt to a more unhappy relationship.

London is a fraught place from which to watch an American revolution. 

There is an amusing local story, that King George III spent many hours poring over military plans in a basement near Buckingham Palace, scheming how best to supress troublesome revolutionaries. That basement, the rumour goes, was located in what is now Chatham House: my new professional home after leaving Washington and life as a US diplomat last year.  

Throughout America’s War of Independence, Great Britain’s leaders dumped blood and treasure into securing their rebellious colonies, intent on overcoming their scrappy but capable countrymen: revolutionaries who sought religious liberty and freedom to dissent. Revolutionaries who opposed unjust taxation and exploitative trade relations. Revolutionaries who rejected the status quo.  

King George’s basement plotting was for naught, and a new nation was born. Today, 250 years later, leaders in Britain – and across Europe – once again watch with trepidation as new political currents take root across the Atlantic. 

History doesn’t repeat itself, but in the US its echoes carry a similar spirit of revolt. This movement is not directed at an outside power, but rather at the current system’s ability to address Americans’ biggest worries: the availability and affordability of healthcare above all, followed by issues including the economy, inflation, federal spending and the deficit, and income and wealth distribution.   

While many Americans agree on the diagnosis, there’s sharp division on the remedies. Some call for reining in expansive US military commitments abroad and redirecting war spending to focus on investments at home. Others hope to dismantle the billionaire class and promote greater economic justice. Some seek a consolidation of executive power to unleash the authority of the presidency. These are live debates heading into the November midterms, and they cut across party lines.

Europe’s view

European leaders, observing this storm, wonder what will remain when the tempest subsides. They recognize these winds blowing across the US for what they are: not a short-lived gust but a sustained gale. They know that irrespective of who next presides over the Congress or sits behind the White House’s Resolute Desk, the US is fundamentally altering its role in the world. Plans must be made to account for a more inwardly focused US, one that is less embedded in alliances and less aligned on values.  

This is not a new American story. As the ink dried on the Declaration of Independence, the new United States began an awesome project of stitching together a vision for its role in the world – no small feat given the composition of its often-divided citizenry.  

President George Washington warned against alliances and entanglements, worried that permanent structures would weigh the new nation down with others’ burdens. His successors largely stayed the course. It took Pearl Harbor to drag a reluctant President Roosevelt into war in Europe. 

The post-Second World War structure was a new, American-crafted design, launching the most powerful set of interlocking alliances the world had ever seen. US troops ensured the security of partners on bases across six continents, paid for with ballooning federal deficits. Liberalized trade brought cheap goods but closed factories in the US. New immigrants made America an engine of innovation but fuelled a nativist backlash. President Trump did not spark such fears, but he stoked them.

As Americans begin the process to select Trump’s successor, competing visions for the US’s future will emerge. Candidates will debate the true nature of the threat from China, how much time to spend on Russia, the contours of a fairer trade regime, the rules of the road for emerging technology, and the future of alliances. 

Whoever wins, Europe is right to anticipate a different relationship with the US. Today’s era, of a Washington that prioritizes American manufacturing and higher trade barriers, is here to stay. A period of greater burden-sharing with partners and a more limited global US defence role will outlast Trump. So too will the president’s transactionalism, and narrower conceptions of national interest.

For those of us who still believe in the value of alliances, it’s not all doom and gloom. These alliances will endure in newer forms. The scope will be narrower, but the US still needs Europe when it comes to global financial markets, emerging technology cooperation, intelligence sharing, select military cooperation, and alignment on China.  

The World Today

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Laurel Rapp: ‘There’s no going back to the America of the past decade’

Europe needs the US too – maybe a bit too much, as its leaders have painfully learned. But Europe is now making key investments in NATO spending, an independent defence industrial base delinked from US defence trade, greater sovereign AI capabilities, and space and satellite infrastructure. Fear of US dependency has accelerated these investments, but in the long run, they can be converted into sources of transatlantic strength.

I recently hosted a former US official in conversation with diplomats in London. Like me, this person was pessimistic about the prospects for a restoration of trust with Europe post-Trump. But, the visitor observed, many loveless marriages survive because one spouse keeps cutting the grass and the other keeps cooking dinner. ‘What are these tasks?’ another wondered: that is, what bonds might keep the US–Europe marriage intact?

In my view, it goes something like this: the US provides Europe with a nuclear umbrella, integration in US capital markets and preferential access to American technology. Europe grants the US access to its capital, offers secure supply chains for key technology inputs and extends the reach of its sanctions.

As Europe takes on fuller ownership of its own neighbourhood, especially across its eastern flank, the US will be freed up to look east. The shared language of democracy and universal values are no longer centred. But the US and Europe remain bound together, joyless yet committed.  

The multitude

King George III marched over to Parliament in October 1775 to detail his war plans against the ‘unhappy and deluded Multitude’ in America. He promised to ‘receive the Misled with Tenderness and Mercy’ once they realized the error of their ways.

The revolutionaries may have been unhappy as British cannons tore into their defences, but they were certainly not deluded. The multitude went on to build a nation that has reshaped history, underwriting an era of security and prosperity for many, though not all.  

Why should Delaware care?
High electricity prices have been a top concern for Delaware residents, and many fear proposed data center projects could raise costs further. A slate of bills aiming to prevent further price spikes passed the legislature in the late hours of the session.

A trio of bills aimed at reining in rising energy costs in Delaware passed the General Assembly on Tuesday, the final day of the legislative session.

One would limit the amount of infrastructure spending that the private utility, Delmarva Power, could pass on to customers. 

Another would require power hungry data centers to bring their own energy generation to the state within 10 years of their construction. And the third would designate data centers as the first to be cut off from grid power in a blackout, and other provisions.

In all, they amounted to the latest legislative backlash to proposals to build data centers amid an electricity supply crunch in Delaware. The states’ bills followed data center regulations that the New Castle County Council passed in March. 

Gov. Matt Meyer has not said if he supports the bill that would require data centers to supply energy. He has indicated support for the other two bills in recent weeks.

The bills come as Delaware residents have struggled with high electricity bills. Critics say that proposed data centers could make those bills surge even higher. 

New data center proposals in Delaware have a combined energy demand that could double the state’s entire electricity usage. An independent analysis showed that scenario could raise wholesale energy prices by as much as 80%. 

What do the bills do?

Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 326, the infrastructure spending limits, overwhelmingly – an unexpected development after hints emerged Monday that a fight could be percolating with the introduction of an amendment to weaken the legislation.  

Beyond limiting some infrastructure spending, the bill would place several other regulations on Delmarva Power, including mandating audits of management.

Lawmakers also passed House Bill 233, which would make data centers the first to be cut off from power in a blackout and would have strengthened safeguards to ensure they paid the full costs of the energy they use.

Lastly, they passed House Bill 445, which would require data center developers to supply all of the power they use within 10 years of beginning operations and require some of that power to be renewable.

The two data center bills faced late-night deliberations in both chambers.  

Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate questioned why those bills were necessary now, or if they could wait until next session. Sen. Eric Buckson (R-South Dover) argued that lawmakers needed more time to deliberate them. 

“Unless the goal is to outright ban these things [data centers] in the state of Delaware — which might be an option — if it’s not the goal, then we should get the bill right,” Buckson said. 

Buckson introduced another bill to place a seven-month moratorium on data center development, which Senate Democrats shot down without comment. The Senate ultimately passed the bills on party lines.

The post Lawmakers pass bills to limit energy price hikes, regulate data centers appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Airlines and airports say passengers are struggling in queues of up to five hours for biometric checks

Airlines and airports have called for the new EU biometric border check system to be suspended during the peak summer holiday period, saying some flights are leaving half full and passengers are struggling in queues of up to five hours.

In a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, airlines and airports asked for an option to suspend checks under the system over fears the situation will get much worse during the busy summer season.

When it's too hot to grill or turn on the range, I turn to this speedy, compact cooker to whip up meals without overheating the kitchen.

Fears of resurgence of HIV/Aids amid loss of access to PrEP drugs as at least 40 people arrested in ‘toxic’ climate

A “witch-hunt” is under way in Niger, where dozens of people have been arrested for homosexuality in the west African state following the introduction of a new penal code earlier this year.

Up to 40 people have been arrested and 16 men, including high-ranking military officials, have been imprisoned across the country, according to local media.

The roof of a private tutoring center in Lahore, Pakistan, collapsed, killing more than a dozen pupils and leaving at least eight more injured, authorities say.

Security footage images show a friend went to Simon Peter Carman’s apartment in Pattaya, Thailand after reporting Thunchanok Donhomla missing

The friend of the 17-year-old girl allegedly murdered in Thailand reported her missing to police and then visited the condo of the Australian man charged over her death.

Security footage images obtained by the Guardian shows the friend at the apartment of Simon Peter Carman. The footage is time stamped 1.49pm on Friday 26 June, although it is not clear whether the time stamp was added manually.

US at 250: Separation vs. concentration of power – America’s enduring constitutional debate 17 September 2026 — 17:00 TO 18:00 BST Anonymous (not verified) 1 July 2026 Chatham House and Online

The third session in the US at 250 mini-series explores how checks and balances continue to shape American democracy.

As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its Constitution, debate is growing over whether power remains balanced across government institutions. The US constitutional system faces scrutiny amid disputes over executive, judicial and administrative authority. These debates raise broader questions about the resilience of the US constitutional system.

This event discusses:

• How has the separation of powers evolved over the past 250 years?
• Does the Constitution effectively prevent the concentration of power?
• What impact have the administrative state and judiciary had on institutional balance?
• Which reforms could strengthen accountability and constitutional resilience?
• How well is the Constitution equipped to meet future political challenges?

The Trump administration has lifted export restrictions that forced Anthropic to shut off public access to its Mythos and Fable models. After weeks of talks, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said Anthropic "has agreed to proactively detect and address security risks associated with the models; to work diligently with the U.S. government on protocols and standards and releases for Mythos, Fable and future models; and to inform the US government of any malicious activity." Access is set to begin returning July 1. TechCrunch reports: Anthropic had already publicly pledged to do much of this voluntarily, months before the export rule existed. That's part of why cybersecurity experts were skeptical of the restrictions in the first place. To them, the ban looked less like a security fix and more like leverage, a way for the Trump administration to punish Anthropic for its executives' public criticism of how the government, and the president's political opponents, might use the technology. Mythos was originally made available to a select group of organizations beginning in April to allay concerns about its ability to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in software, while a version called Fable was released to the public in June with additional security guardrails. However, with Asian AI companies beginning to release their own AI models approaching Mythos-level capabilities -- among them Fugu and Tulonfeng -- the US government was under pressure to ease its restrictions on Anthropic to ensure that American AI could compete globally. Last week, Lutnick cleared Mythos to be released to select customers approved by the White House. OpenAI's latest models were also released to a group of organizations approved by the Trump team, instead of the public. The Trump administration's erratic approach to AI policymaking has left companies across the industry with little clarity about what will govern future model releases. An executive order issued in June that signaled a desire to review models ahead of release was criticized by influential analysts like Dean W. Ball, who recently started a policy position at OpenAI.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In today’s newsletter: A country already in crisis since the removal of its leader earlier this year by the US, now has to find a way to rebuild with little state presence in evidence

The shaking seemed to come from nowhere. In a moment captured by fishers off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, two earthquakes struck seconds apart. Plumes of dust appear where buildings once stood in the recording as the camera rises and falls with the swell. The men rapidly head for the shore in search of their families. “I’m shaking,” says the cameraman.

Since the quakes struck last Wednesday, the search for missing loved ones has not stopped for scores of Venezuelans. Officially, more than 1,700 people have died. But tens of thousands remain missing: desperate relatives are walking up and down streets lined by rubble and collapsed buildings with photos of those they cannot find, asking for help.

World news | A child has been rescued from the rubble in Venezuela, six days since the country was hit by devastating twin earthquakes.

UK politics | Andy Burnham will have to find an extra £4.7bn for defence in his first budget, after Keir Starmer announced a £298bn defence investment plan (Dip) without having fully identified how it will be funded.

US politics | The US supreme court has upheld the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, affirming that nearly all people born on US soil are American citizens and rejecting a central pillar of Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.

UK news | The European media group Axel Springer has completed its £575m takeover of the Telegraph, ending years of uncertainty over the future ownership of the 171-year-old titles.

US news | Nine matches in the World Cup group stage were played amid potentially dangerous heat and humidity, a Guardian analysis shows.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is the winner in the pivotal race to be the Democratic nominee for governor in Colorado, AP projects.

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Twenty-nine-year-old beat representative Diana DeGette in deep-blue Denver district

The democratic socialist Melat Kiros unseated the long-serving US representative Diana DeGette in Colorado’s primary elections held on Tuesday, the latest in a string of high-profile victories for the party’s insurgent left.

The Associated Press reported that Kiros had defeated DeGette for the Democratic nomination in the deep-blue first congressional district centered on Denver. Kiros’s triumph came a week after New York voters unseated two Democratic congressional incumbents and replaced a third who was retiring with candidates who had campaigned on standing up to Israel amid accusations that it was carrying out a genocide in Gaza.

Co-hosts Mexico reached the last 16 – where England potentially await – with a stirring win over Ecuador at Mexico City Stadium

Mexico’s football culture dates back to the early 20th century, and the country has a place in history as participants in the first ever World Cup match, when they lost 4-1 to France on the opening day of the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay.

The following match against Chile they conceded the World Cup’s first own-goal.

Leftists toppled a three-decade incumbent they’d made the face of the Democratic Party’s failures on Tuesday in Denver amid an anti-establishment wave that has powered progressive and socialist midterm victories across the country.

Voters chose democratic socialist Melat Kiros, an attorney who lost her job for condemning her industry’s silence on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, ahead of longtime Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat representing Denver who touted progressive positions on domestic issues but drew criticism that she had grown complacent over three decades in Congress and generally followed the party line on support for Israel.

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The Democratic Party Gets Its Populist Takeover

DeGette’s defeat in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District brought more bad news for Democratic incumbents reeling after losses in New York last week. Party leaders are facing a surge in public frustration with their brand and a cascade of voters who say they don’t wield power effectively. Though some Democratic leaders have discounted those races and claimed that the ascendant candidates’ vision is out of step with the party’s base, leftists and progressives are continuing to notch wins under their noses as they take the battle over the future of the Democratic Party to the polls.

“In the last week, we have taken out 40 years of incumbency,” said Usamah Andrabi, spokesperson for Justice Democrats, which backed Kiros and two of the candidates who won in New York. 

Members of the Democratic establishment “hate that they can no longer simply spend unlimited sums of money to buy a seat in Congress, and we are truly proving that organized people power and mass movements can beat the money,” he said. “We’re just having an amazing fucking cycle.”

Kiros, who will face Republican Christy Peterson in November, is heavily favored to win in the solid Democratic district.

Anti-incumbent sentiment also came through in the tight Democratic race for governor, where the state attorney general framed himself as the choice against the establishment despite holding statewide office. Two-term Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser defeated sitting Sen. Michael Bennet after casting himself as outsider who went after President Donald Trump in court dozens of times and won — a fairly standard tactic for Democratic state attorneys general.

That’s not to say every race in Colorado was a warning sign for the establishment. In the statewide race for Senate, the incumbent safely kept his seat as progressive challenger Julie Gonzales fell short of ousting centrist Sen. John Hickenlooper. (Hickenlooper had refused to debate Gonzales and tried to thwart her run early in the race.)

Mixed Results in Key Districts

In the district encompassing Colorado Springs, Jessica Killin, an Army veteran and previous chief of staff to former second husband Doug Emhoff, easily beat Joe Reagan, a populist second-time candidate and fellow veteran. Killin had far outraised him with the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. 

Days before the 5th Congressional District primary, Killin pledged to sign onto a new pact from conservative House Democrats to promote capitalism, equating socialism with the right-wing MAGA movement and promising to fight both. Killin will face first-term incumbent GOP Rep. Jeff Crank, whose district the Cook Political Report changed from “solid” to “likely” Republican.

State Rep. Manny Rutinel, who has been described as a progressive but recently reneged on some of his policy pledges, meanwhile, beat a former state lawmaker backed by conservative Democrats’ Blue Dog PAC in the 8th District, rated a “toss up” and one of the DCCC’s “races in play” that could help determine control of the House. He’ll face freshman GOP Rep. Gabe Evans, who was ranked last summer as the most vulnerable incumbent in the country.

Rutinel campaigned in the heavily Latino district on fighting the “cruelty” of Trump’s immigration policy and attacked the record of his opponent, Shannon Bird, on the issue. He positioned himself as the candidate who would do more to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Backed by the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Rutinel backed off of some of his more left-leaning stances during his campaign, such as Medicare for All and opposing fracking. While he had reportedly been privately critical of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, he said he wouldn’t “boil it down to one word descriptors” and would support military aid to Israel. He ran without the support of the Working Families Party, which had previously endorsed him.

While Blue Dog-backed Bird had the institutional support of the centrist and party-aligned New Democrat Coalition Action Fund and EMILY’s List as well as the pro-Israel Democratic Majority for Israel PAC, Rutinel had the advantage in fundraising and dominated ad space. House Majority PAC — which is aligned with House Democratic leadership — has already reserved $6.1 million in ad reservations for the general election.

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“Voters can see through the hollow words and platitudes of the corporate-backed candidates who have tried to hijack our working families-centered messaging during this campaign,” said Carlos Valverde, Southwest regional director for the Working Families Party. “People are tired of status-quo, do-nothing politics that protect the comfortable while working families struggle with housing, healthcare, wages, and basic dignity.”

In Denver, according to Andrabi, on-the-ground energy from the campaign’s supporters made the crucial difference. While DeGette received a last-minute infusion of super PAC money, the Kiros campaign “knocked 115,000 doors in this race, which is just insane.”

The post Socialist Momentum Grows as Melat Kiros Wins in Denver appeared first on The Intercept.

The informal alignment of U.S. adversaries is dangerous.

With her popularity flagging and a general election looming, the Italian PM sees a strategic advantage in the rupture

If Giorgia Meloni thought that she could put her April spat with Donald Trump over the pope’s criticism of the US war on Iran behind her, she had not banked on the US president’s capacity to bear a grudge.

Trump reignited tensions by telling an Italian TV journalist that the Italian PM had “begged” him for a picture at the recent G7 meeting in France. The Spanish newspaper El País suggested that Trump’s feathers had been ruffled by a video at the same meeting, showing Meloni appearing to scold him. In any case he doubled down on his tale in a Truth Social post, adding that Meloni wanted the photo to boost her flagging approval ratings, which he blamed on her failure to support the US in the Iran war.

Riccardo Alcaro is head of research at IAI, Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

If Iran gets a new deal with America, so must Israel.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Inside Climate News: A new state law limits Florida communities' aims to offset greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the global climate and intensifying disasters such as hurricanes. Specifically, HB 1217 prohibits local governments from pursuing net-zero emissions goals. At least 10 cities and counties have implemented such policies, including Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando and Leon County, where Tallahassee, the state capital, is located. But the new law will not necessarily upend these policies, said Bradley Marshall, senior attorney at Earthjustice, an advocacy group. "It's certainly meant to scare municipalities and local governments from trying to do things to further net-zero policies," he said. "Now, its exact impact and what it exactly prohibits is probably up for some debate. Things that are adjacent to it -- emissions reductions and even climate change reduction policies -- on their face will not run afoul at all of a ban on adopting a net zero policy." The measure requires local governments to submit an affidavit annually to the state Department of Revenue verifying compliance. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed the measure on April 22, Earth Day, and the law will take effect July 1. It states that "net zero policies, carbon taxes and assessments, and emission trading programs are detrimental to this state's energy security and economic interests and inconsistent with the energy policy and the environmental policy of this state." [...] HB 1217 also prevents local governments from purchasing items such as vehicles or appliances based on the fuels they use or production of the items. Local governments may not participate in carbon-trading programs or use public funds to support other organizations with net-zero policies. Cities and counties also may not charge a tax or fee tied with carbon emissions. "This bill is definitely part of a larger coordinated push by the political enablers of the fossil fuel industry to obstruct any tools -- legal or legislative tools -- to hold the industry accountable for its contributions to climate change," said Laura Peterson, senior analyst at the Union for Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group. "Florida is really on the front lines. So I imagine the governor is taking this step because he sees what's coming down the pike. It's not getting better. So I can only assume that this is an effort to satisfy some of the pressures that he's getting from donors and from his party to protect the industry. And he's doing it at the expense of his constituents."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for July 1.

Lawyers for President Trump asked for E. Jean Carroll's consent to delay the $5 million awarded to her by a 2023 jury, according to an attorney for the writer.

Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic says the federal government lifted a set of restrictions on its powerful Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, resolving a weekslong dispute.

Hernan Gil Flores is believed to still be in the security booth of the building's underground parking garage. His wife says rescuers have been able to make contact with him and get him water.

After nearly two weeks of emergency vehicles, the smell of rotting food and a massive warehouse fire impacting Boyle Heights residents, some families are now facing extra financial strain after their vehicles were towed by Los Angeles police in the midst of the firefighting efforts.

The US have used outside companies, including one measuring players’ brainwaves, to help them determine who will shoot in a shootout

• Who would the US need to beat to win the World Cup?

There is perhaps nothing more polarizing in the game of football than a penalty shootout. But however you feel about them, you can’t deny the drama involved, which was on full display in Monday’s last-32 matches.

Germany were the first at this World Cup to fall victim to the cruel nature of the procedure, with Kai Havertz, Nick Woltemade and Jonathan Tah all missing from the spot and handing a shock victory to Paraguay. The Netherlands, who have plenty of familiarity with the devastation of losing in a shootout, came next, putting in a poor effort against Morocco, who took full advantage.

From old PCs to dusty printers, here's where to drop off your outdated tech without paying a cent.

The Aspen Acres Fire has destroyed 55 homes in Custer County and more than 100 structures in Pueblo County.

Justices to consider whether bans on AR-15s and similar semi-automatic firearms violate second amendment

The US supreme court will consider whether bans on AR-15 rifles and similar semiautomatic firearms are constitutional.

The justices said on Tuesday they will hear appeals challenging bans in Connecticut and the Chicago area in the next term.

President unveils plans for Dallas summit, in break with tradition of conventions only in presidential election years

Donald Trump has announced that Republicans will stage their first ever national convention ahead of the midterm elections, a move aimed at energizing voters as the party fights to hold its narrow congressional majorities in November.

The two-day gathering will take place in Dallas on 9 and 10 September, marking a break from the longstanding tradition of holding national conventions only during presidential election years. Trump confirmed the plans on Tuesday in a Truth Social post, describing Dallas as “One of my favorite places in the World”.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for July 1, No. 1,838.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 1 No. 850.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for July 1 No. 1,116.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 1, No. 646.

The probe focuses on Gallego's use of campaign funds for family trips, a source told CBS News. He has denied wrongdoing.

President Donald Trump has announced that Republicans will hold their first-ever national convention ahead of the midterm elections in Dallas.

President Trump earned more than a billion dollars from crypto-related ventures alone last year, according to a financial disclosure, including from his meme coin business and his family's cryptocurrency firm.

Local officials said preliminary reports showed the centre was unregistered and operating inside a privately owned residential building

Fourteen children died after ⁠the roof of a tutoring centre collapsed in Pakistan’s eastern city of ⁠Lahore on Tuesday, ⁠rescue ​officials have said, as authorities opened the way for a possible negligence ⁠investigation.

Punjab’s emergency service said rescuers found children and a 30-year-old female teacher ⁠under the rubble of the private after-school facility. The ​children killed were aged ‌five to ‌16 with most below nine.

The company is taking a slightly different approach to previewing its highly anticipated foldables. Here's what the cryptic videos could mean.

A long-term U.S.-Iran peace deal may depend on a separate agreement between Israel and Lebanon. Analysts say that presents a problem.

Doctors say survey shows need for morning-after pill to be available at corner shops, petrol stations and supermarkets

Almost half of the UK population believe it would be difficult to access emergency contraception on a Sunday, while nearly two-thirds think they would struggle after 10pm, according to a survey.

The research, carried out by YouGov, found that only 7% of people believe it would be difficult to access emergency contraception during the daytime on a weekday.

Ahead of England’s first knockout game of the World Cup, Love Letter to England celebrates what English people have in common

What does it mean to be English? Ahead of England’s first knockout game of the World Cup, Ian McKellen and the award-winning playwright James Graham have released a short film that attempts to answer that deceptively simple question.

The film, Love Letter to England, explores and celebrates what people across the country have in common. It draws on early contributions to the National Conversation, a UK-wide initiative that began last month.

Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome is underdiagnosed and inconsistenly managed, according to Nice

Up to 4 million women with irregular periods should be investigated for polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, according to new NHS guidance.

PMOS, previously known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, is believed to affect up to 13% of reproductive age women, the World Health Organization estimates.

Editor’s note: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.

The months after the October 7, 2023, attacks saw a wave of questionable mainstream news stories about alleged sexual assault in Hamas’s attacks that day on Israel.

It would be years before the American press began to deal with sex crimes against Palestinians imprisoned by Israel as part of its brutal occupation.

It’s a reckoning that is long overdue.

Sexual violence by Israeli forces against Palestinians in detention is both a systematic and a decades-old practice — a well understood dynamic that is being put in the spotlight this week in a new report from the Palestinian Feminist Collective, a group of Palestinian and Arab feminist researchers and organizers.

The extensive 188-page report, parts of which were shared with The Intercept in advance of publication, situates recent, high-profile news stories detailing the rape and sexual assault of Palestinians in Israeli detention as part of “a wider system of sexualized and gendered violence spanning detention, warfare, surveillance, reproductive destruction, family separation, domicide, and the desecration of Palestinian bodies” over decades.

The report, “A Predatory State: Israeli Systemic Sexualized and Gendered Violence Against Palestinians,” brings together witness and survivor testimonies; news coverage; academic research; United Nations reports; and findings from human rights groups, like the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, and Israel-based B’Tselem; along with declassified Israeli archival material. (The Israeli government, military, and prison system did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)

The United Nations added Israel in May to a blacklist of countries found to be committing sexual violence in war zones, citing 31 cases of sexual violence perpetrated in the last two years by Israeli forces against Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The new Palestinian Feminist Collective report underlines that the U.N.’s findings are merely the tip of the iceberg.

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The Story Behind the New York Times October 7 Exposé

The compilation of harrowing details from a multiplicity of sources offers a chilling rebuke to those who have sought to discredit Palestinian victims’ claims or dismiss cases of sexual assault and rape perpetrated by Israeli forces as rare aberrations.

Crushed testicles, genital beatings, rapes of detainees including children and the elderly — the report, like a number of the previous human rights reports it draws from, shows that such abuse is, according to the authors, “institutional practice rather than individual misconduct.”

Rape by Trained Dogs

A section of the report shared with The Intercept includes the detailed testimonies of multiple released Palestinian prisoners. A 42-year-old woman arrested in Gaza while going through an Israeli military checkpoint in November 2024, for example, described being stripped, blindfolded, and handcuffed to a metal table and raped vaginally and anally by Israeli soldiers.

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YouTube Quietly Erased More Than 700 Videos Documenting Israeli Human Rights Violations

“I felt a penis penetrating my anus and a man raping me,” the woman said, in testimony originally collected by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. “I started screaming, and they beat me on my back and head while I was blindfolded. I felt the man who was raping me ejaculate inside my anus.”

She then recounted subsequent vaginal rapes.

A 41-year-old Palestinian father arrested at Kamal Adwan Hospital in December 2023 and held for 22 months in Israeli prison reported, “One of the soldiers raped me by violently inserting a wooden stick into my anus. After about a minute he removed it and then inserted it again more forcefully.”

Other accounts from boys and men detail anal rape by soldiers and prison guards using carrots, bottles, batons, and other sharp objects.

The report also includes multiple accounts claiming the use of trained dogs as sexual threats and tools of direct sexual violence.

When the New York Times’s Nicholas Kristof last month reported on widespread and extreme sexual torture of Palestinians in Israeli detention, including the use of trained dogs to rape detainees, the backlash from Israeli authorities and pro-Israel mouthpieces was as swift as it was predictable.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs slammed the article as “one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press” — a typical retort that deems any criticism of Israeli brutality to be antisemitic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to sue the Times for defamation. No such lawsuit has materialized, bound as it would be to fail and risk a court process revealing further horrors perpetrated by Israeli forces.

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The Media Calls Israeli Captives “Hostages” and Palestinians “Prisoners”

Meanwhile, for Palestinians and advocates of Palestinian liberation, Kristof’s report was perhaps only surprising for its presence in the New York Times. Reports of rape, sexual violence, and sexual humiliation in Israeli custody have been widespread well established for years.

Pro-Israel media outlets like Bari Weiss’s The Free Press attempted to discredit and debunk the testimonies in Kristof’s article, particularly those from formerly detained Palestinians who alleged that trained dogs were used to rape prisoners. Such abuse was impossible, the critics claimed — despite the fact that, according to survivors, Augusto Pinochet’s regime in Chile, as well as Nazi prison commander Klaus Barbie, reportedly used dogs to rape and sexually torture prisoners.

The “Predatory State” report lists 10 specific incidents of rape or severe sexual assault involving trained dogs, as reported to human rights groups by victims themselves or firsthand witnesses.

“The shock came when they forced me to lie down, and a dog climbed on top of me and tried to insert its penis into me,” one detainee testified, in a report first compiled by Euro-Med and cited by the Palestinian Feminist Collective. “At first, I did not understand what was happening, but then I realised that I was being raped.”

“They unleashed police dogs on us again, allowing them to tear into our flesh,” a 48-year-old man arrested at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza told the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in further testimony cited by the Palestinian Feminist Collective. He reported that one dog attacked a fellow detainee and “started mauling his genitals (penis). He bled to death in my arms.”

“Violence Across Decades”

The report authors note that “sexual torture has often preceded the deaths of detainees and prisoners and therefore must be considered part and parcel of the crime of genocide waged against the Palestinian people.”

This statement covers more than just Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza: The Palestinian Feminist Collective report is explicit in including accounts of sexual violence reportedly carried out by soldiers as well as settlers in the West Bank.

“They zip-tied my penis, tightened it and then dragged me all around the village,” a Palestinian man, Qusai Abu-al Kebash, told B’Tselem of a reported assault at the hands of settlers in his West Bank village earlier this year.

In response to credible claims of sexual assault, particularly in Israel’s Sde Teiman military prison, Israel’s defenders have attempted to downplay incidents as aberrations or outliers in the fog of war.

“This is a story about how Israel was institutionally overwhelmed by events after October 7,” Jonathan Conricus, a former Israeli military spokesperson, now fellow at the neoconservative think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, told The Free Press.

He was responding to an incident caught on video of Israeli soldiers appearing to beat and brutally sodomize a Palestinian prisoner with a knife. Conricus blamed “reservists without the right training” who “were called up to be prison guards” — but rejected any claims of systematic abuse.

All charges were dropped against the soldiers accused of sexually assaulting the detainee. Numerous Israeli lawmakers, including far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, condemned the military for even attempting to charge the soldiers.

Reports like the Palestinian Feminist Collective’s further give the lie to excuses like Conricus’s.

“The Sde Teiman footage should have shattered the fiction that Palestinian testimony is unproven until Israeli perpetrators record themselves,” legal scholar and human rights attorney Noura Erakat told The Intercept. “Still the debate focuses on whether individual soldiers received direct orders, rather than how a state has sanctioned, protected, and repeated this violence across decades.”

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Video of Sexual Abuse at Israeli Prison Is Just Latest Evidence Sde Teiman Is a Torture Site

In a statement shared with The Intercept, Loubna Qutami, a member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective, said, “This report names what Palestinians have long known and what the world has too often refused to hear: Israel’s sexualized and gendered violence against Palestinians is systemic, historical, and constitutive of Israeli colonial rule.”

According to Igal Dotan, an Israeli attorney cited in the Palestinian Feminist Collective’s report, “The situation before the war was very bad, but it is not comparable to what happened in Israeli prisons after October 7.”

Dotan’s clients include a “severely disabled” 14-year-old Palestinian boy, diagnosed with autism, who was, the report notes, “reportedly sexually, physically, and psychologically assaulted while in detention.”

Before October 7

The Palestinian Feminist Collective refuses to begin its history of sexual and gendered violence on October 7. The report includes testimonies of sexualized violence gathered from oral histories, declassified archives and historical documents, dating back to the Nakba in 1948, the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from what are today’s Israel’s internationally recognized borders.

The long history of systematic displacement and dehumanization of Palestinians is run through with sexualized violence — as is common in situations of oppressive, militarized violence and population control.

“‘A Predatory State’ documents how sexual torture is a technology of Israeli rule: a means of terrorizing Palestinians and advancing a project of destruction,” Erakat told The Intercept. “Accountability must go beyond a handful of soldiers to reach and tear down the legal, military and political structures that command and then protect these crimes.”

With the genocide in Gaza ongoing and Israeli expansionist violence continuing in the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria, such accountability seems beyond our current horizons of expectation.

More evidence of the sort compiled by the Palestinian Feminist Collective is unlikely to change that; it is not for lack of evidence that Israeli forces continue to carry out war crimes with impunity.

The urgency is to act on the ample evidence we have.

“The report is a call upon all responsible citizens to stay united,” said Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, in a statement on the Palestinian Feminist Collective report, “not just to end genocide, but to fight once and for all this testosteronic model of power that roots and grows through subjugation and repression.”

The post How to Show That Israel’s Sexual Violence Against Palestinians Is Systemic — and Has Gone on for Decades appeared first on The Intercept.

Amazon says it is ending sideloading on new Fire Sticks because "apps that facilitate piracy, and other apps, can carry malware," adding that there is "a good amount of evidence" that sideloaded apps may contain unwanted code or behavior. However, the company did not provide specific examples of Fire Stick users being harmed. Ars Technica reports: Amazon has released two Fire Stick models that use its proprietary, Linux-based operating system, Vega OS. Previous Fire Sticks ran Fire OS, which is an Android fork based on the Android Open Source Project. One of the biggest differences between Vega OS and Fire OS is that the former doesn't support sideloading. [...] In a recent interview, Or Goren, editor-in-chief of Cord Busters, a UK-based streaming news outlet, noted the negative reaction to Vega being a closed OS. [Aidan Marcuss, VP of Fire TV, advertising, and Appstore] responded, per the publication, by saying that Vega OS was Amazon's opportunity to "innovate and deliver more capabilities, even on the least expensive devices." He also said that making a platform around security and privacy was "sort of utmost in my mind." The statement is somewhat ironic, considering Vega OS blocks custom launchers and other third-party apps that helped users avoid Amazon tracking and ads. Goren asked whether Amazon had evidence that sideloaded devices caused users harm. "Apps that facilitate piracy, and other apps, can carry malware," Marcuss responded. Marcuss also said that there is "a good amount of evidence that apps can carry unwanted code and behavior on them when they're sideloaded." Marcuss didn't provide specific examples of Fire Stick users being hurt by sideloaded apps. There are some potential examples, though. In 2025, Amazon claimed to blacklist (which blocked the apps from being sideloaded to Fire Sticks) four video streaming apps for malicious behavior. At the time, AFTVnews reported that two of the apps served as residential proxy providers and were considered riskware, and that the other two had APK files that were flagged by virus-scanning tools. Safari and Chrome also flagged one of the apps' official websites, the publication reported. And in 2018, a botnet that infected Android devices with cryptocurrency-mining malware appeared on some Fire Sticks, per discussion on XDA Forums. That said, Amazon also has a history of disabling apps that let users circumnavigate its home screen that Fire devices, including Fire Sticks and Fire TVs, have increasingly used for ads. Worth noting: developers can continue sideloading apps onto Vega OS devices if they register them with Amazon.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The holdouts blocked Speaker Mike Johnson's plan to merge the SAVE America Act with the annual defense policy bill before sending it over to the Senate.

Visit to monarch planned for 6 September and will take Jamaica’s mission for reparatory justice to the ‘next level’

Jamaican officials will travel to the UK in September to formally lodge an unprecedented petition with King Charles to seek legal guidance on their slavery reparations claim from Britain, the country’s government announced on Tuesday.

Speaking in the parliament of the Caribbean nation, Olivia Grange, the culture minister, confirmed that the trip was planned for 6 September, and was intended to take Jamaica’s mission for reparatory justice to the next level.

A new video shows the $500 Clicks Communicator phone actually working. It offers a preview of all the typing and messaging that's to come.

• Thomas blasts commissioner for silence on player safety

• Mercury star was suspended for hit to Clark’s throat

• Play was ‘complete accident’ and ‘unfortunate’, she says

Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas said she has received death threats and been called racial slurs in the aftermath of her one-game suspension after she made contact with her fist to Caitlin Clark’s throat in last week’s matchup against Indiana.

Thomas also criticized the WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, for not doing more to protect players.

Trump, who had signed an order to the effect, handed legal defeat after judge sided with Democratic-led states

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from implementing a new rule ⁠stripping public service workers of eligibility for federal student loan forgiveness if it deems their employers to have a “substantial illegal purpose”.

US district judge ⁠Myong Joun in ⁠Boston sided ​with Democratic-led states, cities and non-profits that argued the US Department of Education’s rule would allow it to target groups supporting immigration rights, transgender ⁠healthcare and other causes the Trump administration disfavors, by disqualifying them from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

Google has shut down the Tenor API, breaking GIF pickers in services that still relied on it and forcing platforms such as X to migrate elsewhere. 9to5Google notes that the library itself remains available at Tenor.com and "integrations within Google products are also still active, including Gboard, Google Messages, and more." From the report: The Tenor API has been rejecting new API sign-ups in January of this year, but existing integrations remained in place. This week, though, they're shutting down, and any integrations that remain in place will stop working on July 1. The support page adds details that "any API or Ads Distribution Agreements" with Tenor will be terminated on June 30, while "current integrations" will be "fully decommissioned" as of June 30. One of the most notable examples here is Twitter/X, which has relied on Tenor for its GIF picker for years. Twitter/X Head of Product Nikita Bier confirmed that the platform has migrated elsewhere, which is why the "recently used" section was purged, and why you might notice fewer GIF options when posting. Other platforms affected include Discord, WhatsApp, and Bluesky.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed the public’s understanding for more than 100 years that the Constitution guarantees citizenship, with narrow exceptions, to people born in this country. But particularly striking was that four justices disagreed with the majority’s interpretation of that constitutional guarantee.

The question before the justices was whether the Constitution guarantees citizenship to children born in the United States of parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present in the country. Under the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

President Trump’s executive order last year said children born in this country to parents here unlawfully or temporarily are not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” and don’t qualify for citizenship. A majority of justices disagreed.

Although the decision in Trump v. Barbara striking down the executive order is considered a 6-3 ruling with dissents by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, it was actually 5-4. Justice Brett Kavanaugh would have struck down President Trump’s birthright citizenship order because it violated a federal statute, but not the Citizenship Clause of the 14th  Amendment.

That 5-4 split is significant both legally and politically. The dissenters would encourage Congress to use legislation to change the federal statute (8 U.S.C. § 1401(a)) that codifies the Citizenship Clause to add new exceptions to citizenship as in Trump’s order. Such a change likely would face steep odds in the current court because of its ruling Tuesday. But if the narrow five-justice majority were to change in time, the constitutional ruling could be in jeopardy. It would only require one vote.

How could the nine justices divide on an issue that had been settled and reaffirmed for more than a century, and on Trump administration arguments rejected by some of the nation’s most respected historians and legal scholars as “off the wall?” To some observers, the divide is another example of how far to the right this court has moved, particularly with the Trump appointees Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett.

So why did they split?

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Roberts wrote that the story of citizenship in the United States begins with English common law, of citizenship, known as jus soli, or the right of the soil. That common law rule was carried to America and prevailed in all of the states after American Independence.

The common law understanding continued until Dred Scott v. Sandford, which departed from the common law and adopted the view that blood, not soil, determined citizenship, and descendants of slaves were not eligible. The country returned to the common law in the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which made citizens of “all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed.”

The 14th Amendment completed what the 1866 act started, according to Roberts. The amendment, he wrote, “was intended to repudiate Dred Scott. This time, however, the goal was even grander—to put the ‘great question of citizenship’ ‘beyond the legislative power’ altogether, to settle the issue once and for all.”

The 14th Amendment, he wrote, “achieved its aim. The Citizenship Clause mirrored the common law’s criteria for citizenship. The Clause starts, like the common law, with territory—a child must be ‘born . . . in the United States,’ not elsewhere (even to American parents). And the clause ends, again like the common law, with sovereign power—a child must be ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States, unlike (say) the families of foreign ministers. A child born on American soil and subject to American law was made an American citizen. Even the language of the clause is that of the common law.”

Roberts rejected the arguments by the primary dissenter—Thomas—that a person must be “domiciled” in the United States to be subject to its jurisdiction and eligible for citizenship.

“If Congress intended to limit American citizenship to the children of those domiciled in the United States, nothing in the succinct language of the Citizenship Clause conveyed that design. Words appearing frequently in the Executive Order—mother,’ ‘father,’ ‘lawful,’ ‘temporary—are absent from the clause. For a simple reason: they did not matter.”

Justice Thomas, joined by Alito and Gorsuch, said the executive order was consistent with the original meaning of the Citizenship Clause insofar as it applied to children born to parents here lawfully or unlawfully but not domiciled in the United States.

“The Citizenship Clause was enacted for people who were born in this country and called it home,” he wrote. “It was enacted for freed slaves such as Dred Scott, who had ‘a domicile’ here and therefore were entitled to sue as citizens. It was enacted for men such as Frederick Douglass, who demanded citizenship ‘not as aliens nor as exiles,’ but as ‘Americans.’”

That the Constitution requires “domicile,” he argued,” is supported by the constitutional text, contemporaneous evidence, early executive practice, early legislative practice, judicial precedent, and all of the other indicators of original public meaning. The Court’s alternative account does not have a similar degree of support.”

Thomas accused the Court of “repurposing” the 14th Amendment to protect its own preferred rights that were never envisioned by the Reconstruction Congress. “Today, the Court does so again by recognizing a constitutional right to citizenship for the children of all foreign birth tourists and illegal aliens,” he concluded.

Gorsuch echoed Thomas’ primary argument, writing: “What matters isn’t whether a child’s parents are citizens. What matters is whether they (and, by law, their child at birth) have made this place their home and are thus ‘domiciled within the United States.’”

And Alito said the majority’s interpretation of the amendment confers citizenship on “virtually everyone who happens to be born in this country, including the children of ‘birth tourists,’ women who come here solely for the purpose of giving birth to a child and then promptly return home.”

He contended that analysis of the amendment’s text and the history of its adoption “shows that it does not degrade the concept of United States citizenship in this way. Instead, the Fourteenth Amendment confers citizenship on only those children who, at birth, owe allegiance solely to this country.”

Kavanaugh wrote that the court could have struck down the executive order on grounds that it violated the federal statute codifying the Citizenship Clause, but not the 14th Amendment.

The Constitution, he wrote, is “an enduring document, and its principles were designed to, and do, apply to modern conditions and developments. The original constitutional principles do not change absent a constitutional amendment, but the relevant principles— both the rules and exceptions alike—must be faithfully applied not only to circumstances as they existed in 1787, 1791, and 1868, for example, but also to modern situations that were unknown or unanticipated by the Constitution’s Framers.”

He added that “under basic tenets of constitutional interpretation,” other exceptions to birthright citizenship, such as those recognized in the executive order and in the 1898 decision, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, are constitutional.

Tuesday’s opinions are long– more than 200 pages in total– a challenge for readers. But as Justice David Souter once told an audience, the public must read the decisions to decide who is right, whether one explanation of principles and history is more persuasive than a different explanation.

There may be attempts, as suggested by some of the dissenters, to legislate the Trump administration’s views, but for now, the Roberts Court majority has ruled on the meaning of the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause.

Marcia Coyle is a regular contributor to Constitution Daily. She was the Supreme Court Correspondent for The National Law Journal and PBS NewsHour who has covered the Supreme Court for more than three decades.

MILPITAS, Calif., June 30, 2026 — Worldwide 300mm fab equipment investment in the memory sector is projected to surpass $50 billion for the first time in 2026, rising 29% to $52 billion before increasing another 11% to $57 billion in 2027, SEMI reported this week in its latest 300mm Fab Outlook. The growth reflects continued AI-driven demand for advanced memory, supported by rising investment in AI infrastructure, data centers, and next-generation computing systems.

300mm Fab Equipment Spending on Memory Sector

Looking further out, global 300mm fab equipment spending in the memory sector is expected to grow at a 19% CAGR from 2024 to 2029. Worldwide 300mm memory capacity is also projected to increase, reaching 4.1 million wafers per month in 2026 and 4.2 million wafers per month in 2027.

“Strong demand for high bandwidth memory and other advanced memory technologies is reshaping investment priorities across the semiconductor supply chain,” said Ajit Manocha, SEMI President and CEO. “As AI infrastructure expands, memory manufacturers are accelerating investments in both capacity and technology migration to support the next wave of data-intensive applications.”

Memory Segment Growth

The 2Q26 edition of the SEMI 300mm Fab Outlook includes an increased projection in 300mm fab equipment spending in the memory sector driven by continued upward capital expenditure plans among leading cloud service providers and strong demand for AI accelerators. DRAM equipment spending is expected to grow 29% to $37 billion in 2026, supported by strong HBM and DDR5 demand for GPUs and other AI accelerators. Equipment spending on 3D NAND is also projected to rise 28% to $14 billion in 2026, supported by increasing data storage requirements tied to AI deployment.

Continued investment in advanced-node DRAM and higher-layer 3D NAND is supporting a stronger memory capacity outlook, which has been revised upward in the 2Q26 edition of the SEMI 300mm Fab Outlook. Effective capacity growth, however, remains moderated by technology migration and process complexity, including advanced-node DRAM, HBM, and higher-layer NAND transitions.

The SEMI 300mm Fab Outlook lists 413 facilities and lines globally. The report reflects 155 updates and addition of 7 new fabs/lines projects since its last publication in March 2026.

For more information on the report or to subscribe, please contact the SEMI Market Intelligence Team at mktstats@semi.org. More details are also available on the SEMI Market Data webpage.

About SEMI

SEMI is the global industry association connecting over 4,000 companies and 1.5 million professionals worldwide across the semiconductor and electronics design and manufacturing supply chain. We accelerate member collaboration on solutions to top industry challenges through Advocacy, Workforce Development, Sustainability, Supply Chain Management and other programs. Our SEMICON expositions and events, technology communities, standards and market intelligence help advance our members’ business growth and innovations in design, devices, equipment, materials, services and software, enabling smarter, faster, more secure electronics.

Source: SEMI

The post SEMI Projects 300mm Memory Equipment Investment to Surpass $50B in 2026 appeared first on HPCwire.

Once WhatsApp's username feature is launched, you'll be able to protect the privacy of your phone number for new contacts.

June 30, 2026 — AMD today announced the AMD Versal Premium Gen 2 Memory on Package (MoP) adaptive system-on-chips (SoCs). The MoP architecture integrates up to 32GB of LPDDR5X into a single package, delivering up to 288GB/s of bandwidth in up to 60% less board area, letting engineers build high-bandwidth systems without the risk and time of board-level memory design.

Directly integrating memory into an adaptive SoC package enables faster data transfer, reduces latency and can help lower power consumption compared to standard SoC packages.

As physical AI, networking, and aerospace and defense workloads push more data through ever-tighter space and power budgets, MoP targets the designs that need it most: test and measurement, professional video editing, and VPX systems for secure communications and defense acceleration.

“For years, system architects had to choose between the memory bandwidth they wanted and the space, power and longevity their programs could actually live with,” said Sumit Shah, head of product management and marketing, Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group, AMD. “Memory on Package removes that tradeoff. Our customers can design for the system they want to build, not the one their memory constraints allow, and bring it to market faster.”

Shrink the Footprint and Scale the Bandwidth

With AMD’s new memory on package adaptive SoC, the company is redefining what is possible in compact system designs. By integrating LPDDR5X directly into the package, the device enables higher performance compared to onboard LPDDR5X while using less area than discrete implementations.

This opens the door to form factors that have been difficult or impractical with external memory, such as the Enterprise and Datacenter Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) and 3U VPX systems, while also helping designers meet telecom and VPX requirements that discrete memory approaches often cannot match.

Versal Premium Gen 2 MoP devices integrate CXL 3.1 and PCIe 6.0 at 64Gb/s in hard IP, enabling high-speed data movement when paired with AMD EPYC CPUs to accelerate data-intensive applications. AMD helps system architects gain greater flexibility to scale memory resources with LPDDR5X support of up to 9,000Mb/s and connectivity to CXL memory pooling and expansion modules.

Built for Long Life Cycle Deployments

Designed with demanding physical and enterprise AI environments in mind, Versal Premium Gen 2 MoP adaptive SoCs support industrial-grade operation from -40 degrees Celsius to 110 C. They are well suited for always-on, mission-critical systems where performance and resilience must go hand in hand.

With LPDDR5X and 15-plus-year life cycle support, Versal Premium Gen 2 MoP devices help decouple product availability from high-bandwidth memory’s (HBM) shorter, data-center-driven refresh cycles, reducing the risk of forced redesigns caused by memory end of life or limited accessibility.

PCIe Integrity and Data Encryption (IDE), a feature introduced in PCIe 6.0, helps protect against physical attacks by securing data in flight at the link layer. DDR memory encryption in integrated controllers helps protect data at rest without consuming programmable logic resources. Hard 400G High-Speed Crypto Engines enable high-bandwidth secure processing, strengthening security without sacrificing throughput.

Accelerate Time-to-Market

Versal Premium Gen 2 MoP devices include a pre-validated, in-package LPDDR5X interface that eliminates high-speed memory routing across the circuit board to reduce board-level simulation and validation while helping shorten development cycles, lower design risk and minimize costly re-spins.

Users can begin development today with standard AMD Versal Premium Series Gen 2 devices, which are now shipping. Support for established AMD Vivado and Vitis tool workflows, compatible IP and available reference designs helps quickly move designs from concept to deployment while enabling existing customers to adopt new MoP devices with no rework or relearning.

AMD Versal Premium Gen 2 MoP devices begin sampling at the end of 2026 with production shipments expected to begin in the second half of next year.

About AMD

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) drives innovation in high-performance and AI computing to solve the world’s most important challenges. Today, AMD technology powers billions of experiences across cloud and AI infrastructure, embedded systems, AI PCs and gaming. With a broad portfolio of AI-optimised CPUs, GPUs, networking and software, AMD delivers full-stack AI solutions that provide the performance and scalability needed for a new era of intelligent computing. Learn more at www.amd.com.

Source: AMD

The post AMD Debuts Memory-on-Package Versal SoCs to Boost Bandwidth and Cut Board Space appeared first on HPCwire.

Williams fell just short on her return, Stan Wawrinka said goodbye to Wimbledon for the last time, while there first-round wins for Iga Swiatek, Alexander Zverev and Elena Rybakina, but exits for Ben Shelton and Elina Svitolina

Next no No 3: Alex de Minaur (5) v Roman Andres Burruchaga.

Next on No 2: Otto Virtanen v Ben Shelton (4).

European powers resist Trump administration’s pick for high representative after incumbent pushed out

Diplomats from the US and Europe have been unable to resolve their differences and agree on a new top international envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a standoff which has become a transatlantic test of wills over influence in the Balkans.

A meeting in Sarajevo to select a new high representative, a post with far-reaching powers, ended without a compromise, in a spat that has undermined western cohesion in the region in the Trump era.

The carrier is adding another plank to its budget mobile service offering by bundling wired or wireless home internet service.

Story from Nina Totenberg removed and replaced with editor’s note after journalist misheard announcement made by chief justice

The US public broadcasting organization National Public Radio (NPR) on Tuesday took the unusual step of formally retracting a major news story, after it published what seemed like a bombshell scoop that the supreme court justice Samuel Alito was retiring.

The story was written by Nina Totenberg, 82, one of the most prominent chroniclers of the supreme court in American media. NPR later explained that Totenberg had misheard a court announcement about upcoming retirements.

Hearing set to begin 6 July would mark the first time Kirk’s family has been in the courtroom with the suspect

Charlie Kirk’s parents and his widow Erika Kirk are expected to attend a key hearing next week in Utah for the murder case against the man accused of slaying the conservative political activist, according to multiple news outlets.

The preliminary hearing, set to begin 6 July, would mark the first time Kirk’s family has been in the courtroom with Tyler James Robinson, the 23-year-old charged with aggravated murder related to Kirk’s death.

California's Protect Our Games Act, which would require publishers to warn players before shutting down paid online games and offer refunds or continued access, failed to advance after a state Senate committee vote. Four state senators voted in favor, three voted against, and four abstained. Engadget reports: The committee unanimously voted in favor of granting the bill reconsideration, meaning it could come back before this group of state senators. Assemblymember Chris Ward introduced the bill in February and it passed the California State Assembly 43-16 in late May. That said, the abstentions prevented the bill's progression for now. "Not enough yeses means the bill stops here for this session," a volunteer with the Stop Killing Games campaign (which supported the bill) noted on Reddit. "That is the loss." The volunteer also claimed this was the movement's first attempt to nudge such legislation through in the U.S., and that the bill got this far without paid staff or an in-person lobbying campaign. They said the Entertainment Software Association -- a trade organization of major game industry publishers -- brought in a lobbyist to halt the bill's progress (including by claiming private servers for the likes of Minecraft would be "illegal") and that Stop Killing Games would be more prepared to counter that in the future. "Next session, we come back with an in-person lobbying presence, the funding to do this properly and a long list of organizations and developers signed on in support," the volunteer, u/Mr_Presidentle, wrote. "We are not limiting this to California. We intend to introduce versions of this in other state legislatures, and we are seriously looking at the federal level."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Fourth of July marks a momentous occasion for the US – 250 years of independence – but somehow Donald Trump has managed to make it all about himself. The Guardian's Washington bureau chief David Smith analyses how Trump has hijacked America's 250th and how instead the event should have been cause for a unifying celebration

• Donald Trump hijacked America’s 250 and turned it into a ‘theatre of the absurd’

• Only Donald Trump could make America’s special 250th birthday all about him

Critics call proposed limits on asylum claims a ‘quick fix that will create long-term chaos’

More than half of the people whose asylum and visa claims will be rejected under tightened human rights laws will continue to live in the UK, according to the Home Office’s own assessment.

Documents released on Tuesday show that plans to set new limits on article 8 of the European convention on human rights are expected to result in another 11,700 people having their claims rejected annually.

If you want to monitor your heart rate and more while you exercise, these are the chest strap heart-rate monitors you'll want to consider.

The first cloud environment to receive enterprise authorization to process S/RD will house the NNSA’s inaugural Genesis Mission workloads

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2026 — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has announced a significant milestone in its digital modernization efforts with the establishment of a Secret/Restricted Data (S/RD) Enterprise Cloud environment in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The S/RD Enterprise Cloud environment represents a transformative step in NNSA’s mission to modernize its digital infrastructure while connecting its geographically dispersed sites into a unified, secure digital ecosystem.

“A modern, flexible nuclear enterprise needs seamless integration to build and deliver at the pace the global environment demands,” said NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams. “Our collaboration with AWS in the establishment of an S/RD enterprise environment will connect our labs, plants, and sites, support real-time collaboration with common tools, and provide access to advanced digital collaboration and computing capabilities. This example of public-private partnership in service to national security is what makes America exceptional.”

“AWS has powered NNSA’s cloud transformation from day one; advancing America’s technological superiority when it matters most,” said David Appel, Vice President of AWS Global Government, National Security, and Defense. “Our purpose-built government cloud infrastructure ensures that the scientists and engineers safeguarding our national security have the most advanced, secure computing foundation in the world today.”

This initiative directly supports the President’s commitment to peace through strength — ensuring that America’s national security infrastructure remains modern, resilient, and effective through the digital transformation of the Nuclear Security Enterprise.

As the first cloud environment to receive enterprise authorization to process S/RD, the S/RD Enterprise Cloud supports multiple workstreams including product development and digital engineering, advanced computing and simulation, and secure data analytics. The S/RD Enterprise Cloud environment is enabling design and production agencies to access shared tools in a secure environment while maintaining boundaries that underpin the execution of NNSA’s mission.

The environment will also support NNSA’s efforts under the Genesis Mission, a dedicated national effort launched on November 24, 2025, to accelerate the application of AI for transformative scientific discovery focused on pressing national challenges.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy NNSA

The post NNSA Launches Secret Cloud Environment with AWS for Genesis Mission AI Workloads appeared first on HPCwire.

Justices upheld laws in West Virginia and Idaho, boosting similar restrictions in 25 other states

Transgender youth athletes have vowed to keep playing sports and fighting for equal access to teams after the US supreme court ruled in favor of laws banning their participation.

The court’s conservative supermajority on Tuesday upheld laws in West Virginia and Idaho prohibiting trans girls from participating in women’s teams, finding the laws were constitutional.

President reacts to ruling to uphold birthright citizenship after justices strike down executive order aimed at ending longstanding principle

• Supreme court upholds birthright citizenship, allows states to ban trans women from female sports and ends limits on federal campaign spending

• What to know about birthright citizenship – explained

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

The supreme court’s decision to reject Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook yesterday is part of a long-running battle over the independence of the central bank.

Trump repeatedly attacked former chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates fast enough, calling him a “moron” on social media. Powell’s term ended in May this year, and he was succeeded by Trump nominee Kevin Warsh.

July 4th sales are around the corner, but these standout discounts on tech, home and everyday essentials are happening now.