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Measure fails 49-50 as US launches new retaliatory attacks in Iran and lawmakers question the prolonged conflictUS politics live – latest updatesThe US Senate on Thursday rejected a largely symbolic effort to limit Donald Trump’s authority to wage war in Iran, amid rising regional tensions after the US conducted a “heavy wave” of retaliatory airstrikes.The war powers resolution failed in a 49-50 vote, marking the second time in two weeks the chamber has taken up legislation aimed at forcing Trump to end hostilities. Continue reading...

• Tel Aviv-based startup Mate Security raised $35 million in a Series A funding round led by Canaan Partners, with participation from Insight Partners, Team8, and Microsoft’s M12. • The funding follows a $15.5 million seed round closed just eight months prior, signaling rapid growth for the company's AI-driven security approach. • Mate Security is introducing a "Security Context Graph" to provide AI agents with deeper enterprise context, aiming to replace traditional "copilot" additions to SIEMs with a context-first architecture.

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a new policy on Tuesday banning federal funding for "dangerous" gain-of-function research. • This type of research involves enhancing viruses to predict potential threats, a practice that has faced scrutiny following the COVID-19 pandemic. • The move follows a 2020 order from the Trump administration and aligns with a bipartisan bill signed by President Joe Biden on March 20, 2023.

Campaigners in Ukraine pledge to continue nationwide protests until Mykhailo Fedorov gets his job back Volodymyr Zelenskyy was under growing pressure to reinstate his sacked defence minister on Wednesday, after campaigners said they would continue indefinite nationwide protests until Mykhailo Fedorov got his job back.On Tuesday, Zelenskyy bowed to public demands by firing Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi. He appointed Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new head of the country’s armed forces, as part of a radical reshuffle of the top military command. Continue reading...

• Large Language Models (LLMs) are poised to reinvent cybersecurity by transforming how organizations manage and mitigate digital risks. • The primary breakthrough lies in the ability of LLMs to drastically compress the time defenders spend analyzing complex systems and identifying new vulnerabilities. • This shift matters because it allows security teams to operationalize defensive actions across environments of a scale that was previously impossible to manage.

Decline in clearing of trees and shrubs offset by sharp jump in clearing of non-woody vegetationFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAlmost 90 rugby league fields’ worth of woody habitat were bulldozed in New South Wales every day in 2024, according to new government data which shows the state has failed to rein in high rates of clearing.Clearing of vegetation across the state increased by 16% in 2024, reaching 81,293 hectares (200,879 acres) in total – an area more than 275 times the size of the Sydney CBD. The increase was due to a sharp jump in clearing of non-woody vegetation, up 70% on the previous year. Continue reading...

• Asia-Pacific enterprises are shifting their focus from basic digital transformation to comprehensive organizational reinvention to achieve deeper competitive advantages. • Executive teams have found that isolated AI projects, automation, and cloud migration provide operational improvements but fail to fundamentally change business models. • This shift matters because incremental change is no longer sufficient for companies to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving regional market.

• Major stock indexes closed lower on July 13, 2026, driven by a decline in memory chipmaker shares, including SK Hynix. • Oil prices surged following President Donald Trump's announcement that the U.S. is reinstating a blockade of Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz. • The market volatility coincides with the start of second-quarter earnings reports from several major national banks this week.

• Sam Fender and Olivia Dean have made chart history with their collaboration "Rein Me In," breaking the record for the longest-running number one single by a British act. • The track surpassed previous records to become the most enduring chart-topping hit by domestic artists in the UK. • This achievement highlights the significant commercial success and enduring popularity of both artists within the current music landscape.

• Enterprise clients now account for over 40% of OpenAI's revenue, though companies like Uber and Lindy are capping spending and switching models to prioritize cost-efficiency. • To drive adoption and real-world results, OpenAI has established a formal alliance network with consulting giants including McKinsey, BCG, Accenture, and Capgemini. • The company is also partnering with cloud and data providers such as AWS, Databricks, and Snowflake to better integrate AI into existing corporate infrastructures.

Any new tax on the rich won’t raise much money unless many of the exceptions and loopholes are dealt withIn this new era of rampaging oligarchs, nothing may seem as satisfying as slapping a tax on Elon Musk’s new trillion-dollar fortune. What most bothers Americans about federal taxes is that billionaires don’t pay their fair share. As the race to develop artificial intelligence mints more billionaires, policymakers’ temptation to directly tax their brobdingnagian wealth is becoming unbearable.The first state out of the blocks is California, where voters in November will decide whether to impose a one-time tax of 5% on fortunes worth more than $1bn. Given the ease with which plutocrats avoid paying income taxes, the case for this sort of direct tax on their stash appears unassailable. Continue reading...

• Germany plans to mandate that streaming platforms reinvest 8% of their revenue into local productions, with specific exemptions applicable at a 12% threshold. • To further support the industry, the German government is nearly doubling its annual film funding to €250 million. • These measures aim to protect local cultural content and stimulate domestic production amidst the dominance of global streaming giants.

• RBC Economics predicts that the upcoming June jobs report will reinforce the Federal Reserve's current "inflation-first" policy stance. • Key indicators show that wage growth remains below headline PCE inflation, suggesting that earnings are not keeping pace with rising prices. • RBC expects initial jobless claims for the week ending June 20th to be slightly firmer, forecasting a figure of approximately 222,000.

Appeals court had ruled Pedro Hernandez, 64, was wrongly convicted over 1979 disappearance of New York six-year-oldThe US supreme court has reinstated a murder conviction in the long winding case of Etan Patz, whose 1979 disappearance at age six from New York City garnered national headlines.In a 6-3 decision on Monday, the supreme court agreed with New York prosecutors in their request to reverse a lower court ruling that had thrown out the murder conviction of Pedro Hernandez, 64, in the Patz case. Continue reading...

• Communications service providers (CSPs) are being urged to fundamentally reinvent their IT infrastructure to remain competitive in the AI era. • The report argues that incremental changes are no longer sufficient due to intensifying competitive pressures, cost constraints, and geopolitical complexities. • This shift is critical because speed, adaptability, and control have become the primary drivers for business differentiation and growth.

• The author proposes expanding the U.S. House of Representatives beyond its current 435-member cap to better rein in the power of the presidency. • This proposal comes as the U.S. approaches the 2030 Census and the 100th anniversary of the law that established the current membership limit. • The initiative aims to address systemic issues regarding representation and the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches.

• India's startup ecosystem is shifting its focus from rapid valuation growth toward solving critical real-world challenges through deeptech and innovation. • New ventures are leveraging AI-driven recruitment, climate-risk mapping, EV infrastructure, and space-tech to address systemic gaps in the economy. • This transition matters as it marks the next phase of the country's innovation economy, prioritizing sustainable impact and technical problem-solving over short-term scaling.

So-called ‘good behaviour’ legislation fiercely criticised by opposition politicians and rights groupsSweden’s parliament has voted to escalate the country’s crackdown on immigrant rights, backing laws that allow authorities to revoke residency permits based on a vague criteria of bad behaviour and obliging most public sector workers to report anyone suspected of being undocumented.The new legislation comes ahead of parliamentary elections in September, pitting the centre-right government, which currently depends on the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats to govern, against a far right that has said its intent is to create one of Europe’s most hostile environments for non-Europeans. Continue reading...

Founder of ‘anti-woke’ PR firm to pay £910 to woman whose hair she pulled at Bond Street tube station last OctoberA Maga influencer has admitted assaulting a woman at a London tube station during an altercation.Melissa Rein Lively, 40, the founder of the “anti-woke” America First Public Relations firm in the US, allegedly pulled a woman’s hair in a “forceful manner” at Bond Street station last October. Continue reading...

• Netflix and other major streaming platforms are opposing a new German legislative proposal that would mandate the reinvestment of local revenue into domestic content. • The proposed law aims to ensure that global streaming giants contribute financially to the German creative industry and local production ecosystem. • This conflict highlights the tension between international business models and national efforts to protect cultural sovereignty and local media funding.

• Netflix and other streaming platforms have criticized a new German draft law approved by Chancellor Friedrich Merz's cabinet on Wednesday. • The proposed legislation would compel streaming services to reinvest a specific share of their locally generated revenue back into domestic film and television production. • This move aligns Germany with other European nations, such as France, Denmark, and Sweden, which already enforce similar reinvestment mandates to support local creative industries.

Jerome Laxale breaks ranks to publicly back reforms that would also wind back the diesel fuel rebateFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Labor MP Jerome Laxale says it’s “reasonable to expect more” from mining giants, breaking ranks to publicly back changes to the generous tax concessions blamed for holding back decarbonisation after revelations BHP delayed major projects to cut emissions.Labor’s grassroots environment action group has also renewed calls to wind back the diesel fuel rebate following an exclusive investigation by the Guardian and the ABC, which revealed BHP scrapped a project to significantly reduce global emissions, delayed vast renewables projects in the Pilbara and war-gamed options to push the electrification of its polluting diesel truck and train fleets into the next two decades. Continue reading...

Kentucky conservative says ‘I haven’t made a final decision about which office to seek, if I run’Thomas Massie is planning his comeback.The conservative Kentucky congressman filed to run again for the US House of Representatives in 2028, less than a week after losing to Donald Trump’s hand-picked challenger Ed Gallrein 55-45 in a bruising primary. Continue reading...

• Ed Gallrein, the Trump-backed former Navy SEAL, defeated Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s Republican primary on May 20, 2026, in one of the night’s highest-profile contests. • The race was among the most expensive House primaries on record, with nearly $33 million spent as Trump allies tried to remove one of the GOP’s most independent-minded lawmakers. • Gallrein’s win is being read as another sign of President Trump’s grip on Republican voters in solidly red states, even as broader national polling has shown softer approval on some issues.

• A federal court reinstated deportation proceedings against Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian activist detained amid U.S.-Iran tensions. • The decision reverses a prior halt, citing national security risks linked to Mahdawi's alleged ties to groups opposing U.S. policy in the Middle East. • This ruling underscores heightened immigration enforcement in geopolitically charged cases, affecting humanitarian considerations for activists.

Unions group wants rate returned from 3% to 8% after big four UK lenders reveal £14bn total profit in first quarter An increased windfall tax should be imposed on the UK’s largest banks according to trade union leaders, after the big four lenders reported almost £14bn in first-quarter profits, partly fuelled by market turbulence caused by the Iran war.The Trades Union Congress (TUC) renewed its call for an increase in the current bank surcharge, which was reduced from 8% to 3% of profits above £100m by the Conservative government in 2023, as banks benefit from the high interest rate environment. Continue reading...

Workers wrote ‘Katrina declaration’, warning that funding cuts made US dangerously unprepared for natural disastersFourteen employees with the US Federal Emergency Management Agency returned to work this week, after spending eight months on administrative leave for signing a public letter criticising the Trump administration.The so-called “Katrina declaration”, sent last August to members of Congress and a federal council formed to help determine Fema’s future, was written as a rebuke from the workers about the dangerous erosion in US capacity to prepare for and respond to natural disasters. Continue reading...

DoJ announces changes including ‘loophole’ that allows people to buy guns at shows without background checkThe US justice department has rolled back several significant restrictions on guns, including reinstating the so-called “gun show loophole”, which allowed people at such events to buy firearms without a background check.The changes, announced by the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, amount to a shift in firearm policy advocated by supporters of the second amendment, who are prominent in Donald Trump’s supporter base. Continue reading...