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• The reemergence of Ebola has highlighted the dangerous consequences of the United States withdrawing from global medical research and health initiatives. • This retreat significantly weakens critical infrastructure, including disease surveillance, contact tracing, the staffing of isolation facilities, and the deployment of diagnostic testing. • The lack of US involvement hinders the research and development of new vaccines and treatments, as well as the distribution of essential medical supplies and humanitarian relief.

• UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) has launched a five-year artist-in-residence collaboration with Emmy winner and entrepreneur Keke Palmer. • The partnership aims to integrate Palmer's extensive experience as a multi-hyphenate star into the academic community to mentor and inspire students. • This initiative matters as it bridges the gap between professional industry success and formal arts education, providing students with direct access to a modern entertainment leader.

• V47 Entertainment and COL Group have partnered through VIRTUE Asia to develop brand-funded microdramas and vertical entertainment across Southeast Asia. • The collaboration targets key ASEAN markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. • This initiative leverages COL Group's expertise in the microdrama format and its FlareFlow platform, which currently serves 33 million registered users globally.

Police confirm they are investigating as sources close to accused MP say he vehemently denies the allegations and is considering legal actionFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA female Victorian Liberal MP has accused a member of her party room of assaulting her at a community event, throwing the party into turmoil just five months out from the state election.Sources close to the accused MP said he vehemently denies the allegation and is considering a defamation legal action against his colleague. Continue reading...

Two powerful earthquakes – with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 – sent residents running into the streets as buildings shook and collapsedVenezuela earthquake: powerful back-to-back quakes collapse buildings in capital CaracasBack-to-back powerful earthquakes hammered Venezuela on Wednesday evening, collapsing buildings in the capital of Caracas.The US Geological Survey said the first earthquake had a magnitude of 7.1 and its epicentre was west of the community of Morón, located along the country’s Caribbean coast, about 168km (104 miles) west of Caracas. The quake had a depth of 13km (8 miles). Continue reading...

Leftist Iván Cepeda conceded to far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella who won by razor-thin marginThe defeated leftwing candidate in Colombia’s presidential runoff has conceded to the far-right, Trump-admiring millionaire lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella.Since Sunday night, the preliminary count had already pointed to a De la Espriella victory by a razor-thin margin of less than 1% of the vote. Continue reading...

• Colombia defeated Congo and Cristiano Ronaldo ended his scoring slump to lead Portugal to victory in recent FIFA World Cup action. • England and Harry Kane were held scoreless in a draw against Ghana, while the Netherlands dominated Sweden with a 5-1 win. • Data shows that players from the top three professional leagues in England, Germany, and Spain have scored over half of the tournament's goals, with the English Premier League leading.

Building had been vulnerable before it collapsed in the middle of the night, killing 98 people in 2021The deadly destruction of a Florida beachfront condominium actually started weeks before it collapsed into a pile of rubble in the middle of the night, killing 98 people in 2021 – but the building had been vulnerable from the start, federal investigators found in a final report issued on Monday.The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said in the report that two connections between garage columns and the pool deck started to fail around early June. The combination of a structure design that did not meet building codes and alterations made to it over its 40 years meant that the other parts of the pool deck weren’t strong enough to withstand the extra load, leading to the type of slow-motion collapse. Continue reading...

• President Lee Jae Myung called for a thorough investigation into the National Election Commission on the 23rd, specifically citing budget waste and hiring irregularities. • Lee emphasized that because the Commission is a constitutionally independent body, the government lacks the authority to intervene in its management or control. • The move follows a rebuke from the National Assembly's special committee on state affairs, which questioned whether the Commission was engaging in collective misconduct.

Trump-admiring Abelardo de la Espriella has vowed to ‘disembowel’ the left and kill criminals like ‘rats and cockroaches’When more than 20 women accused a Colombian evangelical pastor in 2012 of sexually abusing them, the defendant’s lawyer sought to discredit the allegations by telling the court that they were “trepadoras” – a pejorative term meaning social climbers.He ultimately secured his client’s acquittal – although the case remains under review by the supreme court – but footage of the remark resurfaced during Colombia’s presidential campaign, sparking outrage among many progressive voters. Continue reading...

• Toy Story 5 premiered in North America on June 22, 2026, earning a record-breaking $160 million during its opening weekend. • The Pixar sequel's massive debut allows it to surpass the previous box office records set by the Super Mario sequel. • This performance highlights the continued dominance of established animation franchises within the $2.83 trillion global entertainment industry.

Leftwing opponent alleges vote count irregularities after Trump-endorsed lawyer secures narrow majorityThe Trump-admiring far-right millionaire lawyer and self-styled “outsider” Abelardo de la Espriella has won Colombia’s presidential runoff, defeating the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda.With 99.65% of ballots counted in the preliminary vote tally, de la Espriella had secured 12.91m votes, or 49.65%, just 248,310 more than Cepeda, who received 12.67m votes, or 48.7%. A further 1.6% of ballots were cast blank. Continue reading...

• A new Hollywood diversity report reveals a significant decline in the representation of women and people of color within streaming films during 2025. • Despite the release of specific titles like Netflix's 'KPop Demon Hunters,' the overall trend shows a "nose dive" in inclusive casting and storytelling. • This regression is critical as it signals a reversal in the industry's previous efforts to broaden representation for marginalized groups on digital platforms.

New College of Florida to acquire USF Sarasota-Manatee in deal that leading Democratic lawmaker says ‘reeks of grift’A liberal arts college seized by Florida’s hard-right governor, Ron DeSantis, and transformed into a model for conservative higher education is to triple in size after state Republicans engineered a hostile takeover of a rival university’s campus.New College of Florida, which is controlled by DeSantis’s hand-picked board of trustees, will acquire the Sarasota-Manatee campus of the University of South Florida (USF) next month in a deal described by a leading Florida Democrat as “a grift”. Continue reading...

Frontrunner Abelardo de la Espriella has vowed to return to full-scale military confrontation with armed groups Colombians go to the polls on Sunday in a presidential runoff expected to trigger to a dramatic shift in the country’s decades-long armed conflict, now at its most violent point since the landmark 2016 peace agreement between the government and most of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).Polls show the frontrunner is the Trump-admiring far-right lawyer and millionaire businessman Abelardo de la Espriella, who has vowed to abandon President Gustavo Petro’s “total peace” plan of negotiating the disarmament of all criminal organisations and instead return to full-scale military confrontation with armed groups. Continue reading...

• V47 Entertainment, via its agency VIRTUE Asia, announced a partnership with COL Group on June 17, 2026, to expand microdrama and vertical-first entertainment in South East Asia. • The collaboration aims to provide brands with increased access to short-form storytelling, leveraging COL Group's expertise as a pioneer in the vertical video format. • This move matters as it allows brands to engage audiences through a rapidly growing medium of bite-sized, mobile-centric content tailored for the regional market.

Colombians will choose on Sunday between two men whose lives have been very differently shaped by the militias, and whose visions for the country are poles apartWhoever wins Sunday’s presidential runoff vote in Colombia, the country’s next leader will have a personal history intertwined with one of the criminal forces at the heart of a decades-long armed conflict that claimed nearly half a million lives.The lives of Iván Cepeda and Abelardo de la Espriella have, in very different ways, been shaped by their relationship with Colombia’s paramilitaries – private armies originally established by rightwing landowners, drug traffickers, businessmen, mining magnates and politicians to fight leftwing guerrilla groups. Continue reading...

Mona Khalil led decades-long effort to protect nesting site for turtles near her home in south of the countryThe Lebanese marine activist Mona Khalil, who became a beloved figure in the country for a decades-long effort to protect a nesting site for turtles near her home, has died from injuries sustained in an Israeli strike.Khalil, 76, ran a sanctuary called the Orange House Project near the Mediterranean city of Tyre. She hosted volunteers in her house to clean and monitor a mile-long beach and welcomed tourists to stay and learn about conservation. Continue reading...

Lines closed between Luton and Bedford as emergency services attend sceneTwo trains have collided in the Bedford area, authorities have said, with police and other emergency services at the scene.The collision, which is reported to have caused injuries, has also caused major delays to the evening commute, with lines closed between Luton and Bedford, Thameslink said. Continue reading...

• The Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) 2026 will take place from July 3 to 11, 2026, celebrating its 25th edition with a strong focus on Asian genre cinema. • The festival will feature new works by prominent Asian directors such as Yeon Sang-ho, Joko Anwar, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, showcasing films like "Colony", "The Furious", and "Sleep No More". • NIFFF highlights films from various Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, China, and the Philippines, demonstrating its commitment to promoting international genre cinema.

• The Global South is increasingly embracing the Global Governance Initiative, which advocates for the reform of international institutions. • Developing nations across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific argue that current systems, established after World War II, are outdated. • This shift matters because these countries believe existing global governance structures no longer reflect the economic and population realities of the 21st century.

Exclusive: Event co-founded by Jordan Peterson will bring together global populist-right figures, US state officials and Eton teachersThe Reform UK MPs Sarah Pochin and Andrew Rosindell will be there. As will a plethora of Reform advisers, backroom staff and figures such as Ben Delo, a British crypto billionaire who has given £4m to Nigel Farage’s party.Yet as populist-right politicians from across the globe and their multimillionaire backers prepare for this year’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) – a rightwing London summit dubbed an “anti-woke” Davos – others whose expected attendance has not been publicised potentially raises more questions. Continue reading...

• In a series of 2026 World Cup matches, England defeated Croatia in Thomas Tuchel’s debut, Colombia beat Uzbekistan, and Ghana secured a win over Panama with a late goal. • Portugal and DR Congo ended their match in a draw, while the four games combined drew a total of 281,223 fans. • This attendance broke a 32-year-old single-day tournament record previously set in the United States on June 28, 1994, with 277,070 spectators.

• Arsenal FC is reportedly preparing a bid for Bradley Barcola, while receiving a boost regarding Morgan Rogers. • Liverpool has completed the signing of Munoz to strengthen their squad during the summer transfer window. • Chelsea is considering offering striker Nicolas Jackson as part of a deal to acquire an unnamed Italy international.

• ECB President Christine Lagarde warned that AI could trigger financial crises, emphasizing that such systemic collapses—rather than the technology itself—are what destroy jobs and savings. • To mitigate these risks, Lagarde proposed a global governance framework for AI modeled after Cold War-era nuclear non-proliferation treaties. • These warnings follow similar alarms from IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva regarding "Mythos-class AI" and its potential to destabilize the global financial system.

Senator tells Brisbane Christian conference the party needs to ‘reconsider some things’ on abortion, contradicting Pauline Hanson’s positionGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastOne Nation should move to ban abortion entirely, Senator Malcolm Roberts has told a Brisbane Christian conference.His comments are at odds with those of the party’s leader Pauline Hanson, who told the National Press Club on Wednesday it was only “too late to have an abortion” after 20 weeks. Continue reading...

• VIRTUE Asia has partnered with Chinese digital entertainment firm COL Group to expand brand access to microdramas and short-form entertainment across Southeast Asia. • The collaboration leverages VIRTUE Asia's creative expertise and COL Group's distribution capabilities to offer brands new entertainment-led storytelling opportunities. • This initiative specifically targets key regional markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

• The local action-horror film 'Colony' maintained its top position at the South Korean box office during the weekend of June 12–14. • The film earned $2 million over the three-day period and officially surpassed the 5 million admissions milestone. • This continued dominance highlights the film's strong commercial appeal and popularity among domestic audiences.