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• Eurostat reports that the severe material and social deprivation rate for EU youth (aged 15-29) remained unchanged at 5.8% in 2025, matching the 2024 figure. • This rate is slightly lower than the 6.3% deprivation rate observed across the total EU population. • Significant regional disparities exist, with Romania (15.1%), Greece (14.7%), and Bulgaria (14.0%) recording the highest shares of deprived youth.

• New Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh held his first news conference on Wednesday after the central bank decided to keep its key interest rate unchanged. • Despite the hold, nearly half of the Fed's policymakers indicated they could support an interest rate hike later this year. • This decision reflects the central bank's ongoing struggle to balance inflation control with economic stability.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a new record high, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq remained relatively flat during the latest trading session. • Market gains were primarily driven by the information technology sector, offsetting declines in the energy sector as crude oil prices dropped sharply. • The decline in oil prices follows news that the United States and Iran are nearing the formal signing of a truce agreement.

Exclusive: Costings commissioned by independent MP Monique Ryan show possible savings for university graduates, as Hecs debts increase by $1bn on Monday Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastUniversity graduates would save more than $3bn over a decade if the government changed the date of indexation on Hecs debts, dubbed a “broken system” in its current form by independent MP Monique Ryan.About 3 million students and graduates will see their Hecs debts increase by $1bn on Monday, when they are indexed by 2.8%. Continue reading...

• Artificial intelligence is transforming vibrational spectroscopy in 2025 by automating critical processes such as calibration, feature extraction, and data interpretation. • These advancements are being integrated across multiple systems, including Raman, infrared, near-infrared (NIR), and hyperspectral imaging (HSI). • The integration of AI enables significant improvements in data fusion and spectral imaging, enhancing the precision of industrial and biomedical applications.

Some feel optimistic change will come, but for many it’s business as usual for the movement Hugo Chávez startedWhen Ángel Linares heard a strange buzz followed by an explosion, his first thought was that neighbours were setting off fireworks to celebrate the new year.Then his windows shattered, the building’s walls shook and its facade was ripped off, sending him flying on to the ground of an apartment suddenly reduced to rubble. His 85-year-old mother, Jesucita, feared Venezuela’s northern coast had been devastated by an earthquake, like the one she remembers from 1967. Continue reading...

‘Polyclass’ of 6 million people consider themselves to belong to more than one social category, researchers sayMore than a third of Britons say they have changed social class, with upper-middle and upper-class people most likely to identify as belonging to more than one class, according to a survey.Working-class people were the least likely to say they had changed class or identified with more than one, with 70% saying they were in the same social category they were born into, the study by research firm Attest found. Continue reading...

Previously prohibited use of websites such as Omoggle that connect a streamer to a stranger’s video feed now allowed Last week, at 4am, 19-year-old Sammy Amz was scrolling through X when something caught his eye: a popular Twitch streamer was competing in a 1v1 “mog-off” with a stranger, and losing.The next day he opened the Omoggle gaming website and began to play. Quickly he matched with another user – green dots appeared on their faces onscreen, as the website began to compare their measurements: canthal tilt, palpebral fissure ratio, nose-to-face width ratio and so on. Continue reading...

Fed officials cite elevated inflation, slow job growth and uncertainty in Middle East as reasons for holding ratesSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged after its latest board meeting, defying once again Donald Trump’s call for a cut as the central bank prepares for a leadership shake-up next month.On Wednesday, Fed officials continued to cite elevated inflation, slow job growth and uncertainty in the Middle East as reasons why rates were left untouched. Continue reading...

President says he gave Britain ‘better deal than I had to’ but ally was ‘not there when we needed them’ on IranMiddle East crisis – live updatesBusiness live – latest updatesDonald Trump has threatened to row back on the trade deal the US signed with the UK last year, in his latest salvo against the British government over sharp differences about the US’s approach to the Middle East.The US president said the economic deal struck with the UK, which cut some of his tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel, was “better than I had to” and that it could “always be changed”. Continue reading...

The prime minister clearly believed that Trump’s threat of mass bombings of bridges and power plants crossed a new lineGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAnthony Albanese has adopted a careful and deliberate strategy for dealing with Donald Trump since his return to the White House in early 2025: don’t buy-in, don’t bite back.The approach is a calculation that there is little to be gained from responding to Trump’s every Truth Social post, lest it distract the government, provoke the president or, heaven forbid, threaten the Aukus pact. Continue reading...

Kristi Noem was replaced by Markwayne Mullin as DHS secretary and Gregory Bovino was demoted, signally a change in tone even as arrests have continuedThroughout last year, Donald Trump delivered on his signature campaign promise of mass deportation in draconian and theatrical style. Hardline figures such as Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Gregory Bovino, the border patrol commander, became the face of Trump’s crackdown, defending a strategy of large-scale raids that sent immigration agents flooding into US cities, terrorizing communities and clashing with protesters.Then in January, immigration officers killed two US citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, in a matter of three weeks. The killings spurred a sweeping backlash that has led Democratic members of Congress to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for more than a month in an attempt to rein in ICE. Even Trump said “maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch”. Continue reading...

NASA’s DART mission slammed into the small asteroid Dimorphos in 2022, and the impact slowed its orbit around the larger Didymos – and also the pair’s path around the sun