WiseTech begins redundancies – but omits ‘AI’ from emails to Chinese employees, workers say

• Multinational banks are reassessing their cross-border strategies as geopolitical considerations increasingly influence how they organize international operations and evaluate risk. • Financial institutions are now balancing the pursuit of robust financial performance with the need to manage complex geopolitical exposure.

• Envoys from the UK, France, and Germany issued a joint statement following diplomatic discussions in Moscow. • The representatives formally conveyed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's request for direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

• The war in Ukraine has officially surpassed the duration of World War I, leading analysts to draw unsettling parallels between the two conflicts. • The comparison highlights a pattern where initial technological innovations in warfare fail to provide a lasting strategic advantage.

• The UN Peacebuilding Fund has approved $4.8 million for a new program targeting central Mali. • The initiative aims to strengthen local institutions and communities in regions severely impacted by violent extremism.

Nearly 40 women detained at Delaney Hall join striking men and outline demands ‘rooted in basic human rights’ Dozens of women detained inside the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in New Jersey announced their participation in a hunger and labor strike, advocates announced on Thursday.The women, detained in unit 1 of the contentious privately run facility, also released a new list of demands. They are calling on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release women under 21, women with medical conditions and mothers. They are also demanding improved conditions inside the facility and for their immigration cases to proceed more quickly. Continue reading...

Jibril Rajoub attended opening match in Mexico but becomes latest football official hit by US visa issues, he saysThe head of the Palestinian Football Association has said he is unable to travel to the United States with other federation heads attending the 2026 Fifa World Cup because he has not been issued a visa.Jibril Rajoub went to the opening match between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City on Thursday. But he is among several people accredited to attend the World Cup who have been denied visas or have yet to receive them from the United States. Continue reading...

Trump claims strikes called off as deal is close, but Tehran denies agreement near, while legal experts question if US targets may be a war crime. Plus 20 years of Taylor Swift’s incredible influence on pop cultureGood morning. Yesterday, Donald Trump spent the day promising he was going to hit Iran harder than ever before, then announced – again – that the US and Iran were close to signing a deal. Iran’s foreign ministry dismissed the claim, and Tasnim, the semi-official Iranian news agency, wrote that “until a potential understanding is announced by Iran, any news from Trump on this matter should be dismissed”.The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said large parts of the text under negotiation had been finalised but Iran would not compromise on its red lines. Two days of escalating attacks between the warring nations had threatened to collapse the fragile ceasefire.What is the issue around the US choice of targets in Iran? Military strikes on 10 June that damaged two water storage facilities in southern Iran may constitute a war crime, legal and military experts say. The attack on the Bemani district destroyed a key reservoir serving about 20,000 people, raising critical legal questions over whether the strike hit a valid military objective or unlawfully targeted a civilian object.Why is there a legal challenge to the method? The method has raised concerns for its apparent brutality. Eugene Smith, the first person to die by nitrogen hypoxia, thrashed and writhed on the gurney, according to witnesses. The last nitrogen execution, of Anthony Boyd, appeared to take more than 30 minutes as Boyd shuddered and gasped. Continue reading...

Brent crude falls as optimism rises strait of Hormuz could reopen over the weekendBusiness live – latest updatesGlobal oil prices fell on Friday to lows not seen since the first week of the Iran crisis after Donald Trump claimed he was close to reaching a peace deal with Tehran.The price of Brent crude began to tumble from about $93 a barrel in overnight trade after the US president called off further military strikes against Iran which were scheduled for the evening. Continue reading...

Plus, Brexit at 10, dinner as protest, 100 best novels and not watching the World Cup (yet)We’re approaching the 10-year anniversary of the Brexit referendum. Documentaries are being aired and newspaper features are being written. But one thing seems to be missing. Why aren’t all those big names who campaigned for Brexit back in 2016 now shouting from the rooftops about what a great success it has been? Continue reading...

Desperate US parents pay up to $20,000 a session for a procedure scientists say could be bogusAutistic children as young as 18 months old are being injected with human stem cells derived from umbilical cords in unapproved, unproven and potentially harmful “treatments” that scientists warn are proliferating across the US under the active encouragement of the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.Clinics in Florida, Texas and other states are selling what they bill as “regenerative medicine” to families with autistic children who have intensive care needs. Parents who have taken their children through the process talked to the Guardian about their hopes and fears for a therapy that appears to be gaining ground in the US. Continue reading...

Law due to expire at midnight tonight following unhappiness over Trump’s pick for intelligence chiefA key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) is due to expire on Friday night amid a backlash to Trump’s announcement that Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a major Republican donor, would be acting DNI.While Trump has moved to contain the furor – announcing his nomination of another top official, Jay Carney, to take the role on a permanent basis – US Congress has so far failed to extend section 702 of Fisa in time for Friday’s deadline.Pulte has to go. He cannot be in the DNI role. It’s too important.Donald Trump declared “a great settlement” with Iran, which could be signed soon “maybe in Europe, over the weekend”.Trump’s hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday. The board voted on Thursday to seek a stay of US district judge Christopher Cooper’s 29 May ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting.Congressman Robert Garcia, who is in line to chair the House oversight committee next year if Democrats win back the majority in November, called for testimony from vice-president JD Vance and other senior officials over what he called “the White House cover-up” of the Epstein files revealed by the New York Times.US federal authorities are investigating what appears to be a massive etching of “8647” into the grass of the National Mall. Live webcam footage from atop the Washington Monument as of Thursday afternoon shows the markings, with a highly visible “8,” along with less visible “6”, “4” and “7”. Continue reading...

Arrest of Min Zin, who writes about Myanmar and Chinese foreign policy, comes just month after Trump visit to BeijingChina has arrested a US scholar who writes about Myanmar and Chinese foreign policy on suspicion of spying.Min Zin was suspected of “engaging in espionage activities that endanger China’s national security,” China’s ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson, Lin Jian, said on Friday. Continue reading...