Middle East crisis live: Trump threatens to ‘blow up’ entire South Pars gasfield if Iran strikes Qatar

Company says work on Paul Erdős planar unit distance problem shows advance in AI reasoningOpenAI has claimed a further advance in AI reasoning after its technology successfully tackled an 80-year-old maths problem.The company behind ChatGPT said it had made a breakthrough with a challenge first posed by Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős in 1946: the planar unit distance problem. Continue reading...

Greater Manchester police made the arrests after concerns over several independent candidates in May’s local electionFive people have been arrested as part of a police investigation into allegations that fake independent candidates were used to influence the outcome of a local election in Tameside.Greater Manchester police said four men and a woman, aged between 23 and 47, were arrested on suspicion of fraud offences on Thursday morning in the Ashton-under-Lyne area. Continue reading...

Aimee Bock ran Feeding Our Future, which claimed it helped provide millions of meals to children during the pandemicSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailA judge on Thursday handed down an extraordinary prison sentence – nearly 42 years – to the former leader of a Minnesota nonprofit who was convicted in a staggering $250m fraud case that helped ignite an immigration crackdown by the Trump administration.Aimee Bock ran Feeding Our Future, which had claimed it helped provide millions of meals to children in need during the pandemic. Continue reading...

Surging demand, low reserves and reduced Middle East exports predicted to cause global crunch by AugustOil markets will enter “red zone” by July and August as stocks dwindle before the summer travel season amid a shortage of fresh oil exports from the Middle East, the executive director of the International Energy Authority warned on Thursday.Fatih Birol added that the most important solution to the Iran war energy shock was a full and unconditional reopening of the strait of Hormuz. Continue reading...

Forecast came amid warning that US was unprepared for storms with staffing cuts under Trump administrationSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailThe US will see a below-normal hurricane season in 2026, federal government scientists said on Thursday, predicting eight to 14 named storms with winds at 39mph or more.The season has a “55% chance of being below normal, 35% chance of near normal and a 10% chance of above normal,” said Neil Jacobs, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) administrator, at a press conference. Continue reading...

Cubans express outrage at US charges against Raúl Castro but view military strikes as serious possibilityA new question in being asked in Havana as people digest the news that the US has brought criminal charges against Cuba’s 94-year-old former president, Raúl Castro: who’s your neighbour?If you happen to live near a senior figure in Cuba’s government or armed forces, others suck their teeth in an expression of concerned sympathy. For the first time, US military strikes on the island are being considered a serious possibility. Continue reading...

Singer Skye Newman also highlights how becoming a performer is becoming inaccessible to those without moneyThe music industry risks becoming a more hostile place for working-class artists, musicians including Tinie Tempah and Skye Newman have said.Without work to save small music venues that act as cradles to nascent music scenes – as well as specific efforts to find and promote talent from diverse backgrounds – the industry is likely to miss out on the next big thing, they argued. Continue reading...

Michael Thomson admitted to breaching a restraining order by selling a range of luxury itemsThe former boss of collapsed investment firm London Capital & Finance (LC&F) has been imprisoned for six months for contempt of court, after admitting breaching a restraining order by selling luxury items including horse saddles and a hot tub.Michael Thomson’s actions were characterised by Judge Milne as an attack on the administration of justice. Thomson was sentenced alongside his wife, Debbie, who also admitted to the offences but whose six-month sentence was suspended for a period of two years. Continue reading...

Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, apologizes for initial bid to block the report’s releaseThe Democrats have belatedly published a postmortem on the party’s disastrous 2024 election defeat, after an initial decision to withhold the document triggered an angry backlash.Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), released the report – accompanied by an apology to party members angered by his initial decision to keep the analysis of Kamala Harris’s loss to Donald Trump and defeat in both houses of Congress under wraps. Continue reading...

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has triggered global outrage after sharing footage of himself taunting bound activists who had been detained as they tried to sail to Gaza with aid. The video has been widely condemned by world leaders, including the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and by Israeli politicians, among them the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s chief Middle East correspondent, Emma Graham-Harrison – watch on YouTube Continue reading...

Top Republicans fear diverting taxpayer dollars toward the White House ballroom will alienate voters before midtermsSenate Republican leaders are expected to ditch a $1bn proposal for security measures tied to Donald Trump’s White House ballroom following a backlash from members of their own party.Under pressure from Trump, top Republican lawmakers tried to latch the proposal on to a roughly $70bn bill to restore funding to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the border patrol. Continue reading...

Tony Carruthers’s lawyers say no evidence tied him to 1994 crimes he was convicted of and is mentally incompetentSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailTennessee is scheduled on Thursday to execute a prison inmate whose lawyers claim there was no physical evidence tying him to the crimes he was convicted of and is mentally incompetent. Additionally, the inmate’s lawyers believe that the state may be using expired lethal injection drugs to carry out the sentence.Tony Carruthers, 57, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson; his mother, Delois Anderson; and Frederick Tucker, in Memphis. Continue reading...