USA - Vice President JD Vance gave the commencement address at the Naval Academy’s graduation ceremony in Annapolis on Friday and declared a “generational shift” in foreign policy away from the US “meddling” in other countries. Vance praised President Donald Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East and said it “signified the end of a decades-long approach to foreign policy that I think was a break from the precedent set by our founding fathers. We had a long experiment in our foreign policy that traded national defense and the maintenance of our alliances for nation-building and meddling in foreign countries’ affairs,” he continued, adding:

USA - Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene argued with X’s AI software after the bot suggested her claim of being a Christian doesn’t always align with her actions. The feud began Friday when the far-right wing congresswoman took exception to Grok fact-checking her commitment to her faith by saying her support for conspiracy theories and Christian nationalism calls her beliefs into question.

USA - Anthropic said its latest artificial intelligence model resorted to blackmail when told it would be taken offline. In a safety test, the AI company asked Claude Opus 4 to act as an assistant to a fictional company, but then gave it access to (also fictional) emails saying that it would be replaced, and also that the engineer behind the decision was cheating on his wife. Anthropic said the model “[threatened] to reveal the affair” if the replacement went ahead. AI thinkers such as Geoff Hinton have long worried that advanced AI would manipulate humans in order to achieve its goals. Anthropic said it was increasing safeguards to levels reserved for “AI systems that substantially increase the risk of catastrophic misuse.”

USA - An open letter published today calls for “all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.” This 6-month moratorium would be better than no moratorium. I have respect for everyone who stepped up and signed it. It’s an improvement on the margin. I refrained from signing because I think the letter is understating the seriousness of the situation and asking for too little to solve it.

USA - An artificial intelligence software company cannot use a free speech defense in a wrongful death lawsuit lodged by the mother of a 14-year-old who died by suicide after developing a crush on a chatbot, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Last October, Megan Garcia sued Character Technologies, the developer of Character AI, an app that lets users interact with chatbots based on celebrities and fictional people. She claims her son, Sewell Setzer III, became addicted to the app while talking with chatbots based off of “Game of Thrones” characters Daenerys Targaryen and Rhaenyra Targaryen.

UK - British consumers have paid nearly £220 billion more on their energy prices over the past two decades as a result of Westminster’s radical green agenda schemes, a report from a leading energy consultancy firm has found. The UK public has been “seduced by narratives that renewables are cheap,” however, according to a study conducted by Watt-Logic’s Kathryn Porter presented by Lord Offord, the Shadow Energy Minister in the House of Lords, has found that the opposite is true, with the green agenda not only siphoning off taxpayer cash subsidies but also driving up energy costs for consumers. “That renewables are not cheap should be clear, based on the evidence that after 35 years of subsidies, we are yet to see any benefits through lower bills,” the report found.

USA - Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” of tax and spending cuts passed through the House early this morning, despite the government’s auction of 20-year bonds the previous day causing yields to leap. This response from bond vigilantes has rumbled on into today, much like when, in the aftermath of “Liberation Day”, investors dumped US Treasury paper until Trump backed down and suspended his tariffs.

USA - Representative Thomas Massie (Republican for Kentucky) broke ranks to deliver a stark warning that President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” was a time “bomb” in a scathing Titanic-inspired takedown that argued the policies will send the US full speed toward a fiscal “iceberg.” During a combative stretch of floor debate into the early hours of Thursday, House Democrats lambasted the legislation as a cynical giveaway to the ultra-wealthy that guts federal health and nutrition programs, Massie joined them in protest to offer what he called a “dose of reality.”

USA - Democrat Representative Ami Bera (California) on Tuesday admitted that “maybe we should have asked questions” and that he thinks maybe Joe Biden wasn’t the one running the country during his presidency. This comes as more and more questions arise surrounding who was really running the country, especially with the Biden autopen scandal, which revealed that many official actions during the sham Biden presidency were fraudulently signed with an automated signature. Outgoing Acting US Attorney for DC and now incoming Pardon Attorney, Ed Martin, announced earlier this month that the Justice Department is reviewing Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons amid the growing autopen scandal. President Trump recently said in a fiery Truth Social post that the autopen conspirators “stole the Presidency of the United States, and put us in Great Danger.” He continued, “This is TREASON at the Highest Level! They did it to destroy our Country.”

USA - Senator Ron Johnson is launching an investigation into former President Biden's health, he told Axios. Why it matters: The news of Biden's cancer diagnosis as well as new revelations about the White House's efforts to hide the former president's deteriorating health has reignited attacks from the GOP about Biden's fitness to carry out the duties of commander in chief. "We have to. I mean, who was running the government?", Johnson told Axios. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has already announced an investigation into Biden's use of an "auto pen" to sign documents.

USA - Wednesday, during an appearance on Fox News, Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway blasted Democrats and the media for the alleged cover-up regarding former President Joe Biden’s health. Conway told host Martha MacCallum the proper terminology would be that Democrats and the media “lied” to Americans. “They are all complicit, and I don’t know if it was a cover-up so much more of just an outright lie,” she said. “Let’s stop using nice words like gaslighting and cover-up. They lied to us. They lied to us about the fitness of the Commander-in-Chief while our active military was abroad, while our veterans and military spouses are looking for a pay raise and relief and care and health care. They lied to us..."

USA - News of former president Joe Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis prompted Americans of all persuasions to offer prayers and sympathy. Human decency like that, transcending political differences, is laudable. Whatever our political differences, Biden and his family deserve our compassion. What’s unusual is the scepticism – indeed, cynicism – surrounding the announcement, which came just before the release of a major book about Biden’s cognitive decline and its cover-up. There have been questions about whether officials knew about the cancer while he was in office and hid that from the public. Those doubts have been voiced by numerous specialists, including physicians who held high positions in Democratic administrations.

UK - Many a sigh has been heaved by bosses at an underling who has caused irritation. Well, now a judge has warned that expressing that frustration can legally be considered harassment. Using “non-verbal” expressions of disappointment or irritation can breach equality laws, an employment tribunal judge has ruled in a case involving a software engineer who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Robert Watson claimed that his manager’s “sighing and exaggerating exhales” were discriminatory. He is now in line for compensation from Roke Manor Research, the company that invented the Hawk-Eye technology for sports including cricket, football and tennis.

UK - At least 50 different countries have been hit by armed conflict in the past year, researchers find. Violence is more widespread today than it has been in decades, with armed conflict touching every major region, according to data analysed by The Telegraph. Last year, varying levels of conflict were reported across at least 50 different countries, from the civil war in Myanmar to extreme violence between drug cartels in Mexico, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED). Experts predict that the trend will probably continue throughout 2025 and beyond.

JAPAN - Global economic turmoil escalates, Japan warns of crisis, China halts talks, banks slow down. The global financial landscape is shifting rapidly, with major economies facing mounting pressures. The United States, Japan, and China are each grappling with economic challenges that could reshape markets in the coming months. Investors are watching closely as debt concerns, monetary policy shifts, and geopolitical tensions unfold.