Problem

• A dispute has emerged on the prediction platform Polymarket regarding a $354 million payout following a reported agreement between the United States and Iran. • While traditional financial markets have already reacted to the news, Polymarket traders remain deadlocked over whether the specific conditions for the event's resolution were met. • This conflict highlights a systemic settlement problem within prediction markets, where subjective interpretations of "truth" can prevent the distribution of massive sums.

• EU Commissioner Henna Virkkunen introduced the European Technological Sovereignty Package on June 3 in Brussels to reduce reliance on non-European digital technology suppliers. • The initiative includes the Chips Act 2.0 and the Cloud and AI Development Act, targeting the EU's deep entanglement with dominant US AI ecosystems. • This move matters as Europe seeks to establish "AI sovereignty" and secure critical infrastructure against the market dominance of foreign players.

Alarm over the judgment and behaviour of the world’s most powerful man, and the consequent risks to the world, can only get worseThe main Nuremberg trial ended, Winston Churchill warned of an iron curtain descending across Europe, It’s a Wonderful Life received its premiere and, at Jamaica hospital in the borough of Queens, New York, Donald John Trump was born.It was 1946, also the birth year of George W Bush and Bill Clinton, but on Sunday the current US president celebrates his 80th birthday in a style uniquely his own. Trump will stage a night of cage fighting on the once-pristine White House south lawn as part of events marking the 250th anniversary of US independence. Continue reading...

Labor talking points this week concede Australians are frustrated with an economy that ‘isn’t working for them’. The goal will be to convince voters One Nation isn’t eitherGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastIt was mid-January when Anthony Albanese publicly admitted his “worry” about the rise of One Nation.The prime minister’s concern was not the political risk to himself or to Labor but rather the threat Pauline Hanson posed to the stability of Australia’s two-party system. Continue reading...

• Investor Manishi Raychaudhuri views the recent sharp sell-off in Asian tech stocks, particularly in Korean and Taiwanese markets, as a strategic buying opportunity. • He argues that the downturn is driven by temporary sentiment rather than fundamentals, as AI capital expenditure demand and semiconductor prices remain strong. • Conversely, Raychaudhuri warns that India faces a more critical issue with declining corporate earnings growth that must be addressed.

• U.S. stock indexes declined and Treasury yields rose on Friday following a surprisingly strong May jobs report. • The robust labor market data has dampened investor expectations for additional interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve this year. • This shift highlights the ongoing tension between strong economic growth and the central bank's efforts to curb inflation through higher rates.

• Japan continues to struggle with a "problematic" press freedom ranking, trailing behind regional neighbors like New Zealand (22nd), Australia (33rd), and South Korea (47th). • While overt government repression is rare, media insiders report that newsroom caution and pressures regarding information access significantly shape reporting. • This trend highlights a culture of self-censorship within Japanese media, contrasting sharply with global leaders like Norway, which topped the rankings for the 10th consecutive year.

• Margarida Ramos argues that the EU's push for "Made in Europe" AI risks incurring unsustainable costs for public budgets, workers, and the environment. • European companies like Mistral are lobbying for "Buy European AI" procurement preferences, tax incentives, and deregulation to drive demand for homegrown systems. • Mistral frames the development of domestic AI as a "collective duty" necessary to ensure technology reflects European values and wins the global AI race.

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...

Kalshi announces two-year investment to National Council on Problem Gambling ‘focused on trader health and safety’The prediction market Kalshi, which maintains it is not a gambling platform, has announced plans to give $2m to the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) as it continues to ride a nationwide surge.While prediction markets allow users to bet – or “trade” – on the outcome of almost anything, from elections to sports to geopolitical events, the industry has vehemently fought efforts by state officials to regulate its platforms like those of conventional gambling giants. Continue reading...

Health minister issues stern rebuke, saying Greenlanders are not ‘experimental subjects’ of geopolitical interestGreenland’s government has criticised the arrival of a US doctor in Nuuk alongside Donald Trump’s special envoy, Jeff Landry, saying that Greenlanders are not “experimental subjects”.Joseph Griffin said he had joined the delegation as a volunteer to “assess the medical needs” of the Arctic island, which the US president has repeatedly threatened to invade. Continue reading...

Despite the ban on disposables, waste professionals say the mountain of discarded devices is a £1bn-a-year issue It is 2pm and Ana, 47, has just started the afternoon shift at the Suez recycling plant near Birmingham city centre, standing beneath a sign reading “Non-ferrous sorting station” with a bucket of vapes in front of her. Sorting and dismantling them is part of her job as a site operative.Recycling them is not simple. Each bucket holds between 40 and 50 devices, and over the course of a shift, she gets through about half a bucket. Using a hammer, she has to smash each vape open, pry out the batteries and separate each component into a different container. Continue reading...

As continent faces tough headwinds, leaders are bearing brunt of delivering bad news to frustrated electorates“People hate you,” the adviser informed his leader. A think-piece in a daily newspaper noted that “almost everyone agrees on one thing: they don’t like him”.The recent disastrous set of local election results in the UK built on Keir Starmer’s longstanding reputational problem: only 11% of Britons believe he has been a good or great prime minister, and nearly 60% believe he has been poor or terrible, according to polling by YouGov. Continue reading...

Soaring cost of building materials, lack of affordability and planning bottlenecks are some of the obstacles thwarting housing targetAt South and City College in Birmingham, dozens of young people clad in hi-vis vests and hard hats are building mini-walls and plastering half-formed rooms.Some weave in and out of stacks of bricks with wheelbarrows, while others use spirit levels to check the walls are straight and flat. In a few days time, these walls will be demolished and the plastering scraped away, for a new class to come in and try their hands. Continue reading...

Government looks to rush through laws allowing pavement ‘charging gullies’ to help boost EV take-up and cut dependence on fossil fuelsUK to appeal against tax ruling cutting VAT on public EV chargers to 5%Households without off-street parking could soon be able to charge their electric vehicles from home under new government plans to help households cut their need for expensive fossil fuels.The government has promised to pass legislation this summer that will allow motorists to run power cables through a charging “gully” built into the pavement outside their home without the need for planning permission. Continue reading...

Prime minister says ban would come into force next year and calls for united action across European UnionGreece has announced a social media ban for under-15s from 1 January, with the country’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, citing rising anxiety, sleep problems and the addictive design of online platforms – although he acknowledged it may incur the wrath of some children.“We have decided to go ahead with a difficult but necessary measure: ban access to social media for children under 15 years old,” he said in a TikTok video intended to address a young audience. Continue reading...

Nearly a quarter of voters site the Reform leader’s support for the US president as the primary reason for not voting for his partyBy day 31 of the war in the Middle East, Nigel Farage had become somewhat less vocal about the closeness of his relationship with Donald Trump.“Trying to read what’s really in the minds of people in the White House right at the moment is a mug’s game,” said the MP, as he unveiled his party’s latest “pledge” to cut the cost of living on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Research finds cockapoo, cavapoo and labradoodle dogs display more undesirable behaviours than breeds they derive fromThe UK has oodles of doodles but a study might offer paws for thought: researchers have found some of these designer crossbreed dogs show more behavioural problems than the pure breeds from which they derive.Crosses between poodles and other dog breeds have become increasingly popular in the UK, with research suggesting the trend is – at least in part – driven by the expectation such dogs will be hypoallergenic, healthy and good with children. Continue reading...

PM calls on Kemi Badenoch to sack justice spokesperson after he called public prayers as ‘act of domination’Keir Starmer has claimed the Conservative party “has a problem with Muslims” after the shadow justice secretary described an event where the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, joined others to pray in Trafalgar Square as “an act of domination”.During PMQs, the prime minister urged Kemi Badenoch to sack Nick Timothy over a post on X in which he shared a clip of Khan and other Muslims praying in the square. Continue reading...

The bloc’s foremost troublemaker could lose April’s election, but the headaches he’s caused will not necessarily disappear with him• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereHow do you solve a problem like Viktor Orban? By crossing your fingers and hoping it disappears in just over three weeks’ time. But even if the European Union’s disruptor-in-chief is ousted in elections next month (which is far from certain), Europe’s Hungary problem is unlikely to vanish overnight.EU leaders will gather in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for yet another summit that will be at least partly hijacked by Orbán, Hungary’s illiberal prime minister. Continue reading...

The science writer delves into the vast subject of consciousness in his new book A World Appears – and draws some surprising conclusions, finds Grace Wade

The errors that quantum computers make are holding the technology back. But recent progress in quantum error correction has excited many researchers