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Johannesburg, South Africa – When the millionaire mining magnate-turned-president of South Africa landed in Washington to meet the billionaire real estate tycoon-turned-president of the United States, it was with a deal in mind. Tensions have been escalating between the US and its African trade ally since Donald Trump took office this year, cut off aid to South Africa, repeated false accusations that a “white genocide” is taking place there and began welcoming Afrikaners as refugees. At the meeting between Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House on Wednesday, the South African president began by focusing heavily on trade and…

A federal judge in the United States has told the administration of President Donald Trump that an alleged effort to deport migrants to South Sudan was “unquestionably violative” of his court injunction. The announcement from US District Judge Brian Murphy on Wednesday tees up yet another judicial battle for the Trump administration, which has faced repeated criticism that it is ignoring court orders. Judge Murphy, who is based in Boston, Massachusetts, has yet to announce what he plans to do about the apparent violation. He left that question to another day. But he indicated that the people on board Tuesday’s…

The head of Columbia University alluded to the detention of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil during a commencement speech Wednesday that drew loud boos and chants of “free Palestine” from graduating students. The acting president, Claire Shipman, also alluded to the crackdown on foreign students by the Trump administration that has roiled the Ivy League school in recent months. Graduates cheer during the Columbia University commencement ceremony on Columbia’s main campus, in Manhattan, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool) Graduates cheer during the Columbia University commencement ceremony on Columbia’s main campus, in Manhattan, on Wednesday,…

OpenAI is acquiring io, the device startup that CEO Sam Altman and famed Apple designer Jony Ive have quietly been working on for two years, in an all-equity deal that values that startup at $6.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. As part of the unusual deal announced Wednesday, Ive and his design firm, LoveFrom, will now lead creative and design work at OpenAI. “thrilled to be partnering with jony, [in my opinion] the greatest designer in the world,” said Altman in a post on X Wednesday. “excited to try to create a new generation of AI-powered computers.” thrilled…

A fifth round of nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran will take place in Rome on Friday, Oman says.Washington, DC – Officials from Iran and the United States will hold another round of talks in Rome on Friday, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi has said, despite the growing gap between the two countries over uranium enrichment. Wednesday’s confirmation that the nuclear negotiations would continue comes after days of Washington and Tehran expressing irreconcilable positions on Iranian uranium enrichment. US officials have said they want Iran not just to scale back its nuclear programme, but also to stop enriching uranium altogether —…

A ‘comprehensive review’ of the US’s chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 has also been ordered.Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the United States is reviewing whether to designate Afghanistan’s rulers, the Taliban, as a “foreign terrorist organization”. Rubio told the House Foreign Affairs Committee during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday, “I believe that classification is now, once again, under review.” The response came a day after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a “comprehensive review” of the United States’s chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, an evacuation operation in…

Disruption from the ‘highly sophisticated and targeted cyber attack’, first reported around Easter weekend, continues.British retailer Marks & Spencer estimates that a cyberattack that stopped it from processing online orders and left store shelves empty will cost it about 300 million pounds ($403m). The company said in a business update (PDF) on Wednesday that disruption from the “highly sophisticated and targeted cyber attack,” which was first reported around the Easter weekend, is expected to continue until July. Online sales of food, home and beauty products have been “heavily impacted” because the company, popularly known as M&S, had to pause online shopping. The…

Meta is launching a new program to incentivize startups to adopt its Llama AI models. The program, Llama for Startups, provides companies “direct support” from Meta’s Llama team, as well as funding in certain cases. Any U.S.-based firm that is incorporated, has raised less than $10 million in funding, has at least one developer on staff, and is building generative AI applications is eligible to apply by the May 30 deadline. “Members may receive up to $6,000 per month for up to six months to help them offset the costs of building and enhancing their generative AI solutions,” Meta wrote…

NEW YORK (AP) — The recommended reading list contained some works of fiction. It also contained some works that were, in fact, actually fictional.The content distributor King Features says it has fired a writer who used artificial intelligence to produce a story on summer reading suggestions that contained books that didn’t exist.The list appeared in “Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer,” a special section distributed in Sunday’s Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer last week.More than half of the books listed were fake, according to the piece’s author, Marco Buscaglia, who admitted to using AI for help…

In one case, a person suffered permanent brain damage because of a delayed transfer, The Guardian newspaper reported.UnitedHealth has allegedly secretly paid nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers — the latest accusations in a series of woes facing the health insurance giant. The alleged action, first reported by The Guardian newspaper on Wednesday, was part of a series of cost-cutting tactics that have saved the company millions, but at times, risked residents’ health, the publication showed, citing an investigation. The story, which cites thousands of documents and firsthand accounts of more than 20 former employees of the healthcare company and…