Iniaes

In tech and business

Hackers reportedly used AI video generators to slip past Instagram’s verification systems and take over rare verified accounts without cracking passwords or stealing codes. A neat reminder that two-factor authentication only helps if the thing doing the checking is not also the thing being fooled.

Separately, Anthropic has confidentially filed for an IPO, joining the line of AI companies heading for the public markets. Best known for Claude, the company is trying to turn high valuations and high spending into something Wall Street can tolerate.

In U.S. news

The Trump administration plans to cut the number of U.S. embassies and consulates in Africa that process visa applications from nearly 50 to 20 regional hubs, according to officials and an internal memo. The change would be rolled out in the coming weeks.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has told the state DMV to stop issuing undercover license plates to ICE after the agency repeatedly used the program. And in Colorado, former election clerk Tina Peters has been released after a pressure campaign from Donald Trump, following her nine-year prison sentence over access to state voting machines.

In Utah, a judge has rejected Tyler Robinson’s attempt to block cameras and media from the upcoming preliminary hearing in the Charlie Kirk murder case. The court also set a June 12 hearing on whether prosecutors violated a pretrial publicity order, while Utah continues to seek the death penalty.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he wants the White House to drop the proposed $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund if a budget reconciliation package is going to move. Congressional budget fights, still the nation’s most reliable form of performance art.

In Britain

Newly released emails and WhatsApp messages show Peter Mandelson pressing ministers to attend his events and meet his staff after Labour’s election win, while also leaning on government contacts during his campaign for Oxford University chancellor. The messages add another layer to the long British tradition of influence dressed up as networking.

In science and culture

Archaeologists say painted red bands in Bacon Hole on the Gower peninsula are Britain’s oldest known rock art, dating to about 17,100 years ago. Using uranium-thorium dating, researchers concluded the markings were made by human hands, not mineral seepage, and said the cave deserves formal protection.

A meteor exploded high above New England, shaking an apartment in Massachusetts and releasing energy equal to about 300 tons of TNT, according to NASA. A rare celestial event, and a good argument for not blaming the plumbing immediately.

In the Kennedy family

Caroline Kennedy became emotional at the Kennedy Profile in Courage Award ceremony as she spoke about her daughter, Tatiana Schlossberg, who died in December after battling acute myeloid leukemia. Schlossberg, an environmental journalist, left behind her husband and two children.

In U.S. politics and courts

A federal judge is signaling that the court may take an unusual second look at a Trump-linked IRS settlement, after the deal had already been dismissed from the case. The move has reopened a politically charged fight that looked settled, at least on paper.

Elsewhere in Trump world, Mike Johnson met with the president at the White House to talk about the stalled Republican immigration enforcement bill. Trump is also reportedly pushing a tougher Iran peace proposal, including a demand that Iran give up its nuclear stockpile entirely, which is not a small edit.

Jill Biden also defended the pardon of Hunter Biden, saying the family believed Donald Trump would target him if he returned to power. In a separate interview, she said she publicly backed Joe Biden after the disastrous debate even while fearing he might have had a stroke.

In security and defense

The U.S. military says it killed three more people in a strike on an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific, its fourth such attack in a week. The escalation is drawing more attention to how far Washington is willing to push maritime interdiction when it decides a boat is, in effect, guilty before trial.

In the Middle East, Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs as the ceasefire with Hezbollah appears to be unraveling. Chilean prosecutors, meanwhile, say organized crime groups are opening new maritime routes through the Strait of Magellan, and the U.S. Navy has awarded Israeli firm Smart Shooter a $1.8 million contract for anti-drone rifle scopes.

In crime and courts

A St. Petersburg, Florida, garbage truck driver is facing a case after police say he backed into an alley despite warnings that people were sleeping there, fatally ran over a 49-year-old woman, and left without calling for help. He was later arrested and released on bond with a condition that he not drive while the investigation continues.

In Texas, two men in Temple have been charged after police found two children, ages 8 and 10, living in a home investigators described as filled with rotting garbage, feces, maggots, and signs of severe neglect. The children reportedly told officers they had never been to school and could not read or write.

In Southampton, Vickrum Digwa has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering university student Henry Nowak, after stabbing him five times with a knife he claimed was for religious reasons. He must serve at least 20 years before parole can be considered.

In travel and deliveries

Wizz Air is telling UK passengers to get to European airports three hours before departure, as new EU border checks are causing long queues and missed flights. The airline says summer travel could be disrupted further unless the delays ease.

Royal Mail is under investigation again after nearly a quarter of first-class letters arrived late in the year to March. Ofcom says the company missed its delivery targets once more, and Royal Mail has already been fined £37 million since 2023.

In business

EasyJet shares jumped more than 12% after Castlelake said it may make a takeover offer. The airline’s stock had already been under pressure this year from higher fuel costs and worries over Middle East tensions.

At the other end of the aviation mood spectrum, the market has discovered that a possible bid tends to be better for a share price than running the airline.

In politics

Downing Street is preparing to release more than 1,000 pages of documents and messages linked to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador. Officials are calling it an unusually broad show of transparency, with material gathered from across government and some of it declassified for publication.

Meanwhile, Labour minister James Murray defended the party after a poll suggested union workers trust Reform UK more than Labour. He said the government needs time to show progress on living standards, pointed to the minimum wage and NHS investment, and repeated that more Mandelson material will be published.

In Europe and security

France says it detained the suspected Russian tanker Tagor in international waters west of Brittany, with help from the UK and other partners. President Emmanuel Macron said the vessel is subject to sanctions and linked the operation to efforts against Moscow’s shadow fleet.

Macron also said this year’s “Choose France” investment event has generated €93 billion in pledges. The Élysée says more than 230 projects have been announced since the initiative began in 2018.

In tech and health

Nvidia has unveiled the RTX Spark, an ARM-based AI chip for Windows PCs and laptops made with Microsoft and aimed at machines from Dell, HP, ASUS, Lenovo and MSI. The company says it is built for high AI and graphics performance with lower energy use, and should arrive this autumn.

Separately, the parents of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse have launched a £10 million allergy research prize in her memory. Their foundation says it is the largest food allergy research fund ever awarded in the UK and will support work on preventing allergies before they start.

In brief

Sweden’s public health agency is telling parents to keep parts of the home phone-free and put devices away when spending time with children. The advice follows research on adult screen use and its effect on kids.

In Britain

The government is preparing to publish more than 1,000 pages of documents on Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to Washington, including private messages with ministers and officials. Ministers are calling it transparency. The timing suggests they may be discovering that word under protest.

Separately, campaigners say many families living with dementia are missing out on Attendance Allowance, a benefit worth up to £114.60 a week depending on care needs. The problem is low awareness, complicated applications, and the simple fact that dementia makes bureaucracy harder to navigate, which is not much of a design triumph.

And in North Yorkshire, police say a 13-year-old girl has died in hospital after going missing in a river near Burnsall. That is a tragic reminder of how quickly a water rescue can turn into something far worse.

In Europe and security

France says its navy boarded a sanctioned oil tanker linked to Russia in the Atlantic, with support from partners including the UK. President Emmanuel Macron said it was unacceptable for ships to evade sanctions and said the operation was carried out within maritime law.

Britain is also moving to deploy unmanned drones to help defend undersea cables and pipelines, after a new defence pact with the United States and Australia. The aim is to detect and deter threats to infrastructure that carries internet traffic, communications, and enormous volumes of financial transactions.

At the same time, a German company says it has built a drone designed to hunt other drones, after repeated sightings near airports and critical infrastructure. The race to stop drones is now producing more drones.

In the Middle East

The United States and Iran say they exchanged new strikes over the weekend, with each side claiming to have hit military targets. It is the latest round in the back-and-forth as the ceasefire continues to fray.

Weather

Typhoon Jangmi is heading toward Japan, with heavy rain and strong winds expected near Okinawa before the storm moves toward south-east Japan. Elsewhere, parts of Australia are bracing for rough weather, while Spain could see temperatures reach 40C. Summer remains committed to making itself everyone’s problem.

In AI and cyber

Anthropic’s Claude moved back to the top of weekly model rankings after the company released Claude Opus 4.8, which scored 69.2% on the SWE-bench Pro coding benchmark. Anthropic also says its annualized revenue run rate has climbed to about $47 billion and, after a reported $65 billion funding round, it is now the most valuable AI lab on paper. The AI race remains a wonderful place to find numbers that sound final right up until next week.

Separately, a report says Iranian military and intelligence-linked operators are using Western AI tools, including ChatGPT and Gemini, to help write malware, build phishing lures, and research targets in operations aimed at Israel, the U.S., and Gulf states. The tools do not appear to have given Iran new cyber capabilities, but they are making familiar attacks cheaper and easier to scale.

Also, the U.S. Commerce Department says its restrictions on AI chip shipments now apply to Chinese companies operating outside China, closing another possible workaround in the export-control system.

In South Korea

President Lee Jae-myung is marking his first year in office with approval ratings above 60%, a rising stock market, and his policy agenda still intact. Ahead of local elections, early voting turnout has set a record, while the Seoul mayor’s race is sharpening, with Jung Won-oh attacking Oh Se-hoon’s public safety record and Oh arguing that Jung is too closely tied to Lee. The electorate, in other words, is being told it has several very different ways to be anxious.

In crime and policing

North Carolina authorities have arrested a suspect accused of shooting one Virginia sheriff’s deputy to death and injuring another. The case remains under investigation.

In Southampton, Hampshire Police have apologized after 18-year-old Henry Nowak was handcuffed and arrested moments before he died from stab wounds. Police say officers were initially misled about what had happened at the scene.

In Colombia

Colombia’s presidential race is headed to a runoff after right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, a Trump admirer, finished first, with left-wing senator Iván Cepeda close behind. Cepeda is backed by President Gustavo Petro.

In health

Researchers say the drug daraxonrasib has shown promising results for pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest major cancers, with reports that it can double survival time for patients.

In U.S. news

Police in Woodstown say a man was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds after officers responded Saturday evening to reports of gunfire at a Lee Street apartment. Investigators believe the shooting was targeted.

Two more children’s sand kits have been pulled from sale after testing found asbestos in the products.

In business and tech

DirecTV says 54 local Scripps stations across 36 Nielsen markets went dark after a retransmission dispute escalated between the two companies. Both sides are blaming each other, and the blackout lands just before several state and local primaries in June.

Valve has raised Steam Deck prices by more than 40 percent, citing memory and storage shortages that are pushing hardware costs higher across the industry. The 512GB model is up to $789 and the 1TB version to $949.

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded during testing on the launch pad in Florida, causing heavy damage but injuring no one. The failure could delay NASA’s Artemis plans by months or longer.

In Asia

Fifty-five people were killed and dozens more injured when gunpowder stored for mining detonated in a rebel-held village in Myanmar. The blast destroyed the village and left many residents wounded.

India is being urged to follow its own extradition law in the case of Christian Michel, a British man held in Tihar Jail for more than seven years without trial. His family says a new forgery charge has been added despite rules limiting new charges after extradition, and the case is due before the Supreme Court in July.

In the Middle East

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he will take Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz to the U.N. Security Council as the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire remains unsettled. Washington is pressing Tehran on the diplomatic front, at sea, and now in New York.

In Britain

Experts say Britain’s unusually warm weather could speed up Asian hornet activity this summer, raising the risk of new nests. Nest numbers have climbed from 24 in 2024 to 161, and officials are urging people to report sightings rather than try to deal with nests themselves.

In England

The government says its NHS modernisation bill would require GPs and hospitals to share data through single patient records for each person receiving health and social care. Ministers say the change could prevent about 20,000 A&E visits a year and save £20 million annually, while also paving the way to abolish NHS England.

In U.S. news

Five people were killed and more than 40 injured in a bus crash in Virginia early Friday, and the driver has now been charged with involuntary manslaughter. It was a brutal morning on the road, the kind that leaves a long trail of questions after the sirens fade.

In Newark, crowds have been gathering outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention center as detainees protest inside and videos show clashes with ICE outside. The site has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s deportation push, with hunger strikes adding to the pressure.

Former Vice President Mike Pence called a new $1.8 billion settlement fund tied to Donald Trump’s dispute with the IRS “deeply offensive,” saying it could be used to pay people involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

In international news

Hungary’s president, Tamás Sulyok, says he will not resign after a deadline passed on Sunday night, and he says he will wait for the Venice Commission’s opinion. He argues the dispute should be handled under the constitution.

Donald Trump said the United States is in no hurry to reach a deal with Iran, even as the war there enters its fourth month. The conflict is also pushing up fertilizer prices, which have risen 40 percent since late February and are now squeezing farmers looking for alternatives.

An explosives-store blast in a village in Myanmar killed dozens of people, with no further details given. In Brazil, health officials are monitoring two patients for possible Ebola infection, which would be the first confirmed cases outside Africa since the outbreak began in Congo. And in New Delhi, a five-storey building collapsed, with nine people reportedly rescued and more feared trapped.

Nicaraguan Indigenous rights leader Brooklyn Rivera has died after nearly three years in detention, ending a long and painful chapter for a man who spent years pressing for rights that his government was not interested in granting.

In business and technology

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that artificial intelligence could eliminate entire professions as it grows more powerful, saying the shift is irreversible. Meanwhile, the 2026 World Cup will bar a small goalkeeper timeout tactic.

In U.S. news

In Newark, Mayor Ras Baraka imposed a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew around the Delaney Hall immigration detention center after another night of clashes between protesters and police. State police have taken over at the site, where demonstrations began after advocates said detainees started a hunger strike over conditions.

President Trump is calling for the cancellation of the America 250 concert planned for next year’s anniversary celebrations, after several artists backed out. He wants the event replaced with a Make America Great Again rally.

In military and security news

The U.S. military says another strike on a suspected drug boat in the eastern Pacific killed three men, bringing the reported death toll from the campaign to more than 200 since last year. U.S. Southern Command said intelligence linked the vessel to narco-trafficking routes.

In the Philippines, U.S. and Filipino forces have opened Exercise Salaknib 2026 at Fort Magsaysay. The drills will run for weeks and include jungle warfare, aviation operations, live-fire exercises, and archipelagic defense, with observers from Australia, Japan, and New Zealand also on hand.

In Britain and business

An employment tribunal has ordered Swan Care Solutions to pay nearly £30,000 to Shabin Shaji, an Indian care worker who said he was given no shifts for a year after arriving in Britain on a sponsored visa. The tribunal found he was ready and able to work, but the company did not provide him with any, and told him to rely on food banks and cash-in-hand jobs.

Massachusetts says it will put up to $25 million into MIT’s planned Quantum Systems Laboratory. The state wants to use the project to pull in more federal and private money, and to keep Greater Boston competitive in a field where the research race is very much on.

After a week of record heat, cooler Atlantic air and rain are moving into the UK.

In Asia

Rescuers in central Laos are racing to reach two people trapped in a cave after flash floods, with heavy rain and equipment failures slowing the effort.

In Iran, some internet access has been restored, but major restrictions remain in place. Not all data centers are back online, and many protocols are still blocked, restricted, or limited to whitelists.

In science and the sky

A fast-moving meteor entered the atmosphere at about 75,000 miles an hour and triggered a sonic boom across parts of New England. Thousands of people reported shaking homes and rattling windows before it was identified as space debris, not an earthquake.

In France

More than 750 people were arrested after Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League win over Arsenal set off disorder across France. Police said 57 officers were wounded, crowds damaged vehicles and shops, and tear gas was used in central Paris as celebrations turned into street clashes.

Authorities say 6,000 officers will be deployed for PSG’s victory parade on Sunday, a reminder that even a trophy parade now comes with crowd-control planning.

In U.S. politics

President Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 34 percent in a new Economist-YouGov poll, a record low for his second term. The survey adds to a run of weak polling about six months before the midterm elections, and it is not the sort of number a political team likes to tape to the wall.

In Brazil and Colombia

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launched Tela Brasil at Rio2C in Rio de Janeiro, a free public streaming service for Brazilian productions. It will debut with 555 titles and be available through a Gov.br login.

In Colombia, voters are casting ballots in the first round of the presidential election, in a contest that has become a test of President Gustavo Petro’s legacy and the country’s peace agenda after the Farc deal.

In war and security

Israel’s military crossed north of Lebanon’s Litani River and seized the medieval Beaufort Castle, marking another advance in its invasion.

Russian forces carried out new strikes on Ukraine, while Ukrainian forces hit Russian oil infrastructure, including a refinery hub. The back-and-forth keeps the energy war very much alive, which is one way to describe the year.

In science and defense

The Pentagon is pushing several hypersonic weapons programs as it tries to close the gap with China and Russia. Dark Eagle is the most mature effort so far, while the Navy and Air Force are developing their own long-range systems, and the older ARRW program has effectively become a cautionary tale with a budget line.

Separately, Chinese physicists say they boosted a key laser interaction more than 20-fold without increasing average power, using a quantum light state to trigger tunneling ionization in sodium atoms. The result could help future laser systems produce stronger effects with less heat and damage.

In Europe

Italy has banned upcoming concerts by Ye and Travis Scott in Reggio Emilia, citing security concerns. In France, celebrations of Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League title turned violent, and police detained 416 people nationwide, including 283 in Paris.

In the Middle East

Videos from northern Israel showed people running for shelter on a beach in Nahariya during a Hezbollah rocket attack. Separately, Syrian authorities say the six children of missing chess champion Rania al-Abbasi are likely dead, after disappearing in 2013 under Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

In defense and security

NATO ran a counter-drone drill over Lithuania and Latvia using F-16s, Patriot air defenses, NASAMS, and airborne warning aircraft as part of its Eastern Sentry activity. Canada also says its future River-class destroyers will get advanced towed-array sonar to track submarines at long range. In Tokyo, Japan’s defense minister denied the country was becoming militaristic and criticized China’s military arsenal.

In tech

A Netflix engineer has open-sourced Project Headroom, a tool meant to cut the number of tokens sent into large language models by trimming redundant data first. The company says it has already saved users an estimated $700,000.

In Ukraine

Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man and owner of Shakhtar Donetsk, gave a rare interview in Kyiv on the club’s 90th birthday, speaking about his ties to the team, Azovstal, and his belief in Ukraine’s future even after another heavy Russian air raid on the capital.

In Brazil

A court is due to rule on compensation for victims of the 2006 police killings in São Paulo, when officers killed more than 500 people over nine days after prison riots and attacks on law enforcement. Human rights groups and forensic studies say many of the deaths were executions, not shootouts.

On the environment

Officials on the U.S. West Coast say invasive golden mussels are spreading quickly and driving up eradication costs by the millions.