umbertino

Great vid Their most popular song (probably due to the video) Composed by the 2 Rolling Stones Mick Jagger & Keith Richards...And Richard Ashcroft

Beautiful....

Lovin' this one a lot....To me best song on album though all are (very) good.....2nd best being ( for me) "Rolling People", 3rd "Lucky Man" (right below this song), 4th "Neon Wilderness" ...And then all the others including their most popular track "Bitter Sweet Symphony"...That's of course my very personal taste only.... In the end you be the judge (as usual)....

Short (at least to me it is....unfortunately) track but intense.....

From "Urban Hymns" ( really great album....likely their best ) 1997 Richard Ashcroft - vocals & band leader Lovin' this one...To me one of the specials on album even though all songs are very good https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Verve

Chuck Mangione, Grammy-winning jazz musician and composer, dies aged 84 Celebrated flugelhorn and trumpet player released over 30 albums and sold millions of records throughout his career Anna Betts Thu 24 Jul 2025 20.35 BST https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/24/chuck-mangione-musician-dead

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Mangione "Mangione" means "big eater" in Italian ( mangiare - to eat)

US embassy came out against UK’s proposed under-16 social media ban, which would affect American firms Dan Milmo and Jessica Elgot Tue 9 Jun 2026 18.47 BST White House displeasure over the prospect of an under-16 social media ban will not deter the UK from cracking down on tech platforms, the British government has said. The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, told the Guardian she was not concerned “in the slightest” by the Trump administration’s intervention in the debate over restrictions, after the US embassy in London posted a notice warning against a ban. Kendall added that nine out of 10 respondents to a government poll supported an under-16 ban. Kendall said she was “very happy to read any submission anybody makes” but her priority was “British young people”. Kendall denied there was any tension between seeking investment into the UK from US AI companies and implementing regulations that affect major American tech firms. “I think companies will continue investing in Britain,” she said. “My focus is on what is right for British parents and British families,” Kendall added. The government is set to announce some form of social media ban for under-16s next week, alongside other restrictions such as a possible block on conversations with strangers on gaming platforms. Limits on AI chatbot use are also under consideration. Asked about the Trump administration’s intervention, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “We will always act in the UK’s national interest and protecting young people is no different.” In a submission to a government consultation on online safety, the US government came out against “prescribed one-size-fits-all government restrictions” and “blunt regulatory instruments” to address online harms to children. The notice, published by the US embassy in London, added that age-gating for 13- to 16-year-olds would not work. “Technical methods developed to distinguish minors from adults cannot simply be repurposed for younger thresholds,” it said. Instead, the Trump administration called on the UK to give parents “robust tools” to manage their children’s privacy settings and account controls, as well as requiring platforms to offer a healthy online experience “rather than outright bans”. The UK approach to online safety has been a source of tension between the White House and Downing Street, with the Online Safety Act (OSA) attracting criticism from across the Atlantic because of free speech concerns. JD Vance, the US vice-president, has said free speech in the UK is “in retreat”, while one senior Republican congressman described the act as the “UK’s online censorship law”. The White House has expressed concern that the UK and EU are taking a legislative and regulatory path that singles out US tech firms. The US embassy notice said: “We have concerns about regulations that impose disproportionate compliance burdens on American companies or that apply to one platform but not similar services.” However, it is understood that ministers are mindful of the threat of a judicial review of the process. Plans for restrictions have been drawn up quickly, ready for an announcement next week, following the end of a consultation into online child safety that closed only two weeks ago. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram – platforms that will be affected by the outcome of the consultation – is already seeking a judicial review of one aspect of the OSA. It has launched a legal challenge against the UK’s media regulator over the fees and fines regime it is enforcing under the act. The imminent UK government announcement follows the implementation of an under-16 ban in Australia, where there is a blanket ban on under-16s accessing social media, meaning popular platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are blocked. Previously, Kendall has said nine out of 10 parents responding to the consultation support an under-16 ban. The Molly Rose Foundation, an influential voice in the UK online safety debate, has warned against an immediate ban for apps deemed to be highly risky. Instead, it has said the government should set strict safety standards for social media apps, such as curbing personalised algorithms that curate the content a teenager sees. Apps would then be banned only after they have shown they do not meet those requirements. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jun/09/crackdown-on-tech-platforms-will-go-ahead-despite-us-intervention-says-no-10

National average gas price stands at about $4.16 per gallon as Americans grapple with price hikes sparked by the war Gaya Gupta Tue 9 Jun 2026 16.01 BST Donald Trump has claimed US fuel prices are “not very high, relatively speaking” as his administration grapples with affordability concerns after the surge in costs sparked by his war on Iran. The national average gas price stood at about $4.16 per gallon on Tuesday, according to AAA – $0.37 lower than a month ago, but still about $1 more expensive than the same time last year. The US president has faced sustained frustration over the sharp rise in fuel costs since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran in late February. While he has repeatedly sought to downplay the increase in prices, it comes as voters prepare to cast their votes in November’s crucial US midterm elections. Addressing reporters on Tuesday morning, Trump said the administration was releasing “a lot of oil coming out of the Hormuz strait”, one of the most crucial passageways for global trade through which about 20% of the world’s oil passes. The strait has been all but closed since the start of the war. The president spoke from New York after attending Game 3 of the NBA finals, where he was loudly booed when shown on Madison Square Garden’s jumbotrons. Prices still remain far higher than what they were before the Iran war started. Oil and gas prices jumped sharply after the strait of Hormuz effectively closed earlier this year, as Iran threatened ships in the area and maritime insurers cancelled war risk cover. Trump also pointed out that gas prices remain lower than during the Biden administration, “and he wasn’t stopping the country from having a nuclear weapon”. Record-high gas prices in 2022 were exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, which tightened the world’s oil supply. The sharp uptick in energy prices largely drove inflation to 3.8% last month, the highest increase the country had recorded since 2023. Americans have started to feel the effects of high energy costs on many other aspects of everyday life, such as the price of groceries and air travel. Moody’s Analytics has estimated that the war and its resulting high energy prices have cost American households about $100bn. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to release May inflation estimates on Wednesday morning, which economists expect to show that inflation remained high. The closely watched report will probably shape the outcome of the US Federal Reserve meeting scheduled for next week, where Kevin Warsh, the central bank’s new chair, and the rest of the central bank’s board of governors will decide whether to change rates, amid elevated inflation and a relatively strong labor market. Vid in link https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/09/trump-gas-prices-not-very-high

Police dispersed demonstrators in Nanyuki, 120 miles from Nairobi, amid rising anger at US plans Carlos Mureithi in Nairobi and agencies Tue 9 Jun 2026 18.13 BST Kenyan police have shot dead a man during a protest against a proposed Ebola quarantine facility for US citizens. Patrick Wahome, who has organised protests in Nanyuki against the centre, told Reuters on Tuesday the man died from a gunshot wound to the head. Reporters from the agency saw his body lying motionless in a police van with a large head wound. A police spokesperson said he did not have information about the incident. Dozens of people had gathered near Laikipia airbase, the proposed site of the centre in Nanyuki, 120 miles from the capital, Nairobi, some wearing protective equipment and carrying a coffin with “Ebola” written on it. Several people were arrested and police used teargas to disperse the small crowds. The non-profit Kenya Human Rights Commission said on X: “Hooded police officers ... fired live bullets and arbitrarily arrested 19 protesters.” Protesters have said they oppose the centre partly on the grounds that they did not want potential carriers of the highly contagious disease on Kenyan soil. There has been rising nationwide anger in recent weeks. Two people were killed during a protest in the town on Monday last week. The US government plans to send 30 medical personnel to staff the Nanyuki facility, which, if completed, will have 50 beds. After a petition by the Kenyan nonprofit Katiba Institute, a Nairobi court late last month temporarily blocked the establishment of the facility and the admission into the country of people exposed to Ebola. Last week, it barred the Kenyan government from proceeding with the plan before the case is resolved. The next hearing is due on 23 June. Kenya’s president, William Ruto, has vowed to press ahead, saying the country owes Washington for years of aid support. Health officials in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are battling to contain an outbreak of the virus. The outbreak was declared on 15 May but the virus is thought to have been circulating undetected for weeks before then. The epidemic, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a public health emergency of international concern, is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no vaccine or approved treatment. As of 6 June, the DRC had reported a total of 515 confirmed cases, with 91 deaths, while Uganda had reported 19 confirmed cases, including two deaths, as well as one probable case who has died, according to WHO figures. There have been no known cases in Kenya. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/09/man-shot-during-protest-against-proposed-us-ebola-quarantine-facility-in-kenya

By LAURA UNGAR and ALI SWENSON Updated 1:25 PM CEST, June 9, 2026 A study commissioned by President Joe Biden’s administration to investigate alcohol-related health harms was released independently on Tuesday, after President Donald Trump’s administration decided not to feature the researchers’ findings in new dietary guidelines as it faced pushback from the alcohol industry and a congressional committee. The findings of the study, in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, were in line with years of research, saying that health risks go up with just one drink a day and no level of alcohol has a protective effect on mortality. Even levels considered “moderate” raise the risk of premature death and more than 200 diseases, including heart disease and cancer, researchers found. The new study was one of two government reviews meant to help inform the new dietary guidelines. Released earlier this year, the guidelines advised consuming “less alcohol for better overall health.” The authors of the independently released study say that didn’t provide detailed practical advice about the risks of drinking. One of the officials involved in the study commissioned by Biden’s Democratic administration accused Trump’s Republican administration of “sidelining” the research — an allegation the Trump administration denies. Robert Vincent, a former Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration alcohol policy official who led the yearslong effort, made the accusations in an editorial published alongside the study. Vincent was laid off last year as part of a government reduction in force. “The challenges confronting alcohol policy today are not rooted in scientific uncertainty,” Vincent wrote. “What remains contested is whether evidence will meaningfully inform policy when it conflicts with commercial interests.” The dispute over the study underscored the increasingly tense relations between the medical and scientific community and the Trump administration, which has questioned or ignored longstanding science in its policymaking, fired a slew of veteran scientists from the federal workforce and cut scientific grants that proponents say help keep the U.S. at the forefront of medical innovation. After the study’s researchers released a draft report last year, the alcohol industry mobilized against it, launching campaigns to discredit its work. The House oversight committee also criticized the study, releasing a report earlier this year that called it “fraught with bias” and accused the study authors of having predetermined conclusions based on their past research and affiliations. Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, denied any notion that the study wasn’t considered. HHS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture “reviewed the study alongside the broader body of available scientific evidence and followed the established process for developing the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” she said. “The Guidelines are informed by the totality of the scientific record, not any single report or analysis.” Vincent told The Associated Press in an interview that the researchers were thoroughly vetted for conflicts and the findings were scientifically sound. He said that while he was in the Trump administration, he was “asked to kill the study” but did not. HHS didn’t immediately respond to that claim. The Trump administration earlier this year released new dietary guidelines that advised consuming “less alcohol for better overall health.” The researchers said that they don’t dispute that advice but that their findings support a more detailed and forceful recommendation that current adult drinkers consume one drink or fewer a day. “I’m glad that they had a message that corresponds with our science, and that is that less is best,” said Dr. Timothy Naimi, director of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and one of the study’s authors. “But giving people quantity information is necessary to make a truly informative guideline.” The study differed from the other research commissioned by the government to help inform the dietary guidelines on the issue, which said moderate alcohol use was associated with a decreased risk of mortality from all causes but also an increased risk of some diseases. Priscilla Martinez-Matyszczyk, one of the authors of the new study and a deputy scientific director at the Public Health Institute’s Alcohol Research Group, said their study didn’t look at mortality from all causes but instead examined mortality specifically attributed to alcohol to avoid confounding factors. Martinez-Matyszczyk also addressed an issue raised by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz in his explanations of the new guidelines: that drinking is “a social lubricant that brings people together” and that even though not drinking is preferred, being social has health benefits. “I don’t know of any studies that have teased out the social effect from the health effect,” she said. The new findings are “in line with the latest science that basically shows less is better when it comes to health,” Naimi said. For example, a 2019 study in Lancet found that moderate drinking slightly raised the risk of stroke and high blood pressure and offered no protective effects on health. Moderate drinking was once thought to have benefits for the heart, but better research methods have thrown cold water on that idea. Older studies compared groups of people by how much they drink instead of randomly assigning people to drink or not, so they couldn’t prove cause and effect. When researchers adjusted for things like education levels, income and health care access, the benefits tended to disappear. About half of Americans age 12 or older had a drink in the past month, researchers said, making it the most commonly used addictive substance in the U.S. One drink is the equivalent of about one 12-ounce can of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine or a shot of liquor. https://apnews.com/article/alcohol-health-study-moderate-drinking-trump-biden-33d7b95c53db22a8dcdd16d53ce41b8b

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Updated 3:00 PM CEST, June 9, 2026 WASHINGTON (AP) — After complaints about staffing cuts and long waits to get help at the Social Security Administration, its commissioner says he’s ready to make the case to Congress this week that things are getting a lot better at the embattled agency. Frank Bisignano is expected to face pointed questions from lawmakers at a hearing on his agency’s customer service performance, its ability to pay Americans their benefits, protect their privacy, and other questions about the inner workings of the SSA. He plans to tout shorter wait times and other customer service metrics to a House Ways and Means Committee hearing slated for Wednesday, and will slam his predecessor for requiring appointments for field office visits, according to his prepared testimony which was viewed by The Associated Press. In a letter sent to lawmakers ahead of the hearing, Bisignano states that the SSA has cut phone wait times by 75% under his leadership, fixed frustrating website issues, and served 50% more people. “I’ve been very clear. We will meet clients where they want to be met. You want to call us on a phone, we’ll have technology on the phone, or you can talk to somebody on the phone. You want to come to a field office, you can come with an appointment, or without,” Bisignano told The Associated Press in an interview. Critics argue those gains are being achieved through temporary staffing shifts, increased reliance on online services, and workforce reductions that have created longer-term service risks, shifting bottlenecks around rather than solving staffing problems. Bisignano dismisses the criticism. “People boo at Yankee Stadium, even when they’re winning,” he said. Bisignano took over the agency after a series of chaotic customer service changes, leadership exits, and false allegations made by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk — who ran the Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting program — that millions of dead people were receiving benefits. The SSA laid off 7,000 workers at the start of the Trump administration. Roughly 2,000 employees were reassigned last year into direct-service positions, including staff whose jobs don’t normally involve answering calls. The SSA’s Inspector General — its internal watchdog — has identified ongoing errors in benefit administration and claims processing. But its latest semiannual report to Congress also shows the agency has made measurable progress in improving telephone service and deploying technology to speed disability claims processing. The union representing SSA employees and field office workers says some offices are severely understaffed. That includes Ironwood, Michigan; Decorah, Iowa; Havre, Montana; Big Spring, Texas; Sheridan, Wyoming; Glasgow, Montana; Pierre, South Dakota; Cedar City, Utah; and Cody, Wyoming, according to the American Federation of Government Employees Council 220. But Bisignano said no field offices have been closed and noted that the agency is committed to meeting clients where they prefer. “What I’m trying to achieve is to have a better way for the American public to interact with the Social Security Administration,” Bisignano said. Bisignano also serves as chief executive of the IRS, in a role that was created by the Trump administration. Asked about a new tax audit immunity deal for Trump and his family that was part of the controversial settlement crafted to resolve Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, Bisignano referred The Associated Press to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s recent comments to a congressional committee, where he refused comment on ongoing litigation. https://apnews.com/article/social-security-administration-frank-bisignano-978eebb1649f05bb18184cf8c1fffa5b

By Julie Steenhuysen June 9, 202612:02 PM GMT+2 CHICAGO, June 9 (Reuters) - Treatments based on the same mRNA technology that delivered COVID-19 vaccines to market in record time are showing lasting benefit against the deadly skin cancer melanoma and early promise in pancreatic and brain cancers once considered impervious to immune system assault. The apparent breakthroughs in cancer vaccines - deemed one of the fastest-growing segments of cancer research - are arriving even as U.S. officials send conflicting signals about the ‌technology's merits and safety. More than 130 studies were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago this month focused on such efforts. At the forefront was Moderna and Merck whose treatment combining a powerful immunotherapy drug with an experimental made-to-order mRNA cancer vaccine has kept melanoma at bay for five years, a milestone in efforts to create personalized vaccines to train the immune system to fight cancer. The companies are testing mRNA-based therapies in nine large and midsize trials in lung, kidney, bladder and pancreas cancers, and may have early results from their large confirmatory trial in melanoma this year. Elsewhere, years of early research at university and medical centers have progressed to development programs at pharmaceutical companies including Roche and BioNTech. Market research firm Vision Research Reports forecast the market for personalized cancer vaccines driven largely by mRNA technology could reach $8.5 billion annually by 2034. In infectious diseases, certain vaccines can teach the ⁠immune system to recognize and attack the virus, offering long-lasting protection. "That principle can now be applied to cancer, and that's a big advance," Merck Chief Medical Officer Eliav Barr said. These advances come even as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services led by anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cut $500 million in mRNA vaccine projects. Kennedy has attacked the safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines without evidence and has made exaggerated claims about side effects. Still, the National Cancer Institute is collaborating with the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health on a $200 million public-private partnership to fund trials of promising cancer vaccines, including those based on mRNA. Dividing mRNA research into silos, however, may stunt advances in a promising technology safely given to more than 700 million people during the COVID pandemic, scientists said. "We have to be able to innovate around technologies that are going to improve healthcare for all," said Dr. Elias Sayour, who directs an RNA engineering lab at the University of Florida and is an adviser to NCI's cancer vaccine effort. "If we don't do it, other countries will." HHS did not respond to a request for comment. A decade ago, Dr. Vinod Balachandran of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center was among the early scientists who saw potential in mRNA to treat even the deadliest cancers. He noticed that in rare cases, some patients were able to survive pancreatic cancer, a disease scientists believed was invisible to the immune system. Studies ‌revealed that in ⁠these cases, the patients' immune systems were able to recognize and attack their tumors. The question was how to make this more common. Balachandran believed mRNA, which can be made quickly, could be used to devise custom vaccines based on specific mutations found only on patients' tumors after surgery. A phase 1 trial of 16 patients kicked off in December of 2019 testing a combination of chemotherapy, Roche's immunotherapy Tecentriq and a made-to-order mRNA vaccine from BioNTech targeting mutated proteins based on individual patients' tumors. At the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in April, Balachandran reported that of the eight pancreas cancer patients whose immune systems responded to the vaccine, seven were still alive up to six years later. A 260-patient global phase 2 trial is underway to confirm those results. "What a breakthrough it would be if ⁠mRNA was the technology that finally was able to achieve an immune response that was clinically meaningful," said Dr. Robert Vonderheide, director of Penn Medicine's Abramson Cancer Center and AACR's president-elect. Messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, is naturally present in every cell of the body. Its job is to carry genetic instructions from the cell nucleus to parts of cells that make specific proteins. University of Florida's Sayour calls mRNA the software of the human body. It can be reprogrammed to do a number of tasks including making proteins ⁠that train the immune system to attack infectious pathogens or rogue cancer cells, he said. Such work is being done at Mount Sinai, where Brian Brown, director of the Icahn Genomics Institute, has developed a method of designing lipid nanoparticles - the fat bubbles that deliver mRNA into cells - to control where in the body it goes. A study published in Nature Biotechnology in April suggests mRNA could be amplified or quieted to increase the immune response or tamp down harmful reactions, leading to more ⁠potent cancer treatments or new ways to treat autoimmune disease. Sayour has designed a vaccine that involves injecting clusters of lipid nanoparticles into patients with glioblastoma instead of a single nanoparticle used in COVID vaccines. Delivered intravenously, the aim is to quickly spur the immune system to fight the fast-growing brain cancer, which has a 5-year survival rate of under 7%. Taking on a cancer like glioblastoma is a tall order for a vaccine, Sayour noted. But, he said, "if it can cure or even make a dent in glioblastoma, the implications for all forms of human cancer, in my mind, are extraordinary." https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/cancer-vaccines-based-mrna-advance-despite-us-cuts-2026-06-09/

Israel included on United Nations’ sexual violence blacklist June 8, 2026 2:21 PM CDT By Zo HaDerekh TEL AVIV—United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has placed Israel’s armed forces on his blacklist of countries and entities accused of sexual violence in war zones, citing abuse of Palestinian inmates. The 2026 edition of the Secretary-General’s Report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, which covers the year 2025, said the UN had verified 13 instances of sexual violence against Palestinians by Israel’s armed forces in 2025, in addition to 18 cases in 2023 and 2024. The victims included 14 men, seven women, nine boys, and one girl, all from occupied Gaza or the West Bank. Alleged violators included the Israel Defense Forces, the Israel Prison Service, and the Israeli police, according to the UN report, which claimed violations were recorded in prisons, occupied West Bank checkpoints, and the Gush Etzion police station, as well as during military operations. Israel has failed to comply with demands in last year’s report for greater accountability and transparency, the UN chief said. As an example of the alleged “systematic lack of accountability,” Guterres cited the case of a detainee at the military’s Sde Teiman facility who reportedly suffered severe rectal injuries following the “insertion of an object in the anus” by guards in July 2024. Guterres noted that, despite “video and medical reports and a detailed description of the assault,” five reservists indicted in the case were not charged with rape, and the charges were dropped entirely earlier this year, after top army prosecutors admitted leaking the footage and lying about it. “Violations consisted of rape, including with objects, gang rape, attempted rape, physical violence to the genitals, instances of targeted shooting of the genitals, touching of breasts and genitals, strip and cavity searches conducted without apparent security justification, forced nudity, and threats of rape,” the report said. The sexual violence against female detainees “included mostly threats of rape, forced nudity, unwanted touching, and humiliating or degrading strip searches without justification,” while male detainees were targeted more severely with “rape, attempted rape, and violence to the genitals, resulting in five male victims suffering severe rectal bleeding or swelling…in some cases, without receiving medical treatment.” The verified cases “should be seen as indicative of incidents and patterns over multiple reporting periods rather than comprehensive, given the continued denial of access by the Government of Israel to detention settings, as well as to Gaza,” the report added. According to Hadash / Israeli Communist Party Member of the Knesset Ofer Cassif, “The inclusion of Israel in the UN Blacklist of Sexual Violence in Conflict Zone is sadly not a surprise.” He said that those “who chose to close their eyes in the face of countless testimonies must now witness the wickedness and depravity the Israeli government has institutionalized and sowed deep into the society. “I have personally attempted to shed light on these crimes in the Knesset, only to be silenced, censored, and expelled.” But recognizing the fault is only the first step, Cassif said, “accountability must now follow. The Israeli government has proven it is unable and unwilling to correct its ways, so the international community must step in and act—first and foremost to bring justice for the Palestinian victims, but also to cure Israel itself from this horrendous evil.” https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/israel-included-on-united-nations-sexual-violence-blacklist/

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan suspended amid sexual misconduct inquiry Khan, a prominent British lawyer, has repeatedly denied the allegations which first emerged in 2024 Harry Davies Tue 9 Jun 2026 01.34 BST The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, Karim Khan, has been suspended after a disciplinary process triggered by sexual abuse allegations against him reached a conclusion. The ICC’s governing body announced the decision on Monday evening after its executive committee voted to refer the proceedings against Khan to a special session of the court’s member states for them to consider his future. According to a document seen by the Guardian, the committee of 21 of the court’s member states voted by qualified majority to determine that Khan had committed serious misconduct in connection to the sexual abuse claims. Khan, a prominent British lawyer, has repeatedly denied the allegations which first emerged in 2024 and threw his tenure leading the court’s prosecution department into disarray. The claims were brought by a woman who worked for him at the court’s headquarters in The Hague. The decision to refer the proceedings to the ICC’s 125 member states is an unprecedented move for the court of last resort, and could lead to a vote on whether to remove the prosecutor from office. In a statement, the governing body said its decision to suspend Khan was “not an indication of the final outcome”. Khan had already temporarily stepped aside from running the division of the ICC that investigates and prosecutes individuals accused of atrocities. It said the executive committee had made its decision based on a UN watchdog report and the advice of a panel of judicial experts, as well as written submissions, understood to have been submitted by Khan and the alleged victim. The vote by the committee is the latest development in a process that has embroiled the ICC for almost two years. The allegations made by the ICC staffer relate to Khan’s conduct between 2023 and 2024. The woman has alleged he engaged in coercive and nonconsensual sexual behaviour over an extended period. The alleged misconduct is said to have occurred in hotel rooms on work trips, in Khan’s office and at his home. Khan’s lawyers have previously said he “categorically denies” having “harassed or mistreated any individual, or having misused his position or authority, or engaged in any conduct that could be interpreted as coercive, exploitative, or professionally inappropriate”. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/jun/09/icc-chief-prosecutor-karim-khan-suspended-international-criminal-court

Datacentre off Shanghai coast uses less power and water than land-based equivalent Amy Hawkins in Shanghai Tue 9 Jun 2026 06.00 BST The world’s first wind-powered underwater datacentre has started operations off the coast of Shanghai, as China presses forwards with solutions for energy challenges created by the country’s artificial intelligence boom. The Shanghai Lingang undersea datacentre demonstration project, which launched in May, has a capacity of 24 megawatts. It is a joint effort between HiCloud Technology and China Communications Construction, a state-owned company. Located more than 6 miles (10km) off the coast of Shanghai, the datacentre is submerged 10 metres below the surface of the water and is powered by a nearby offshore windfarm. According to the Chinese government, the datacentre reduces power consumption by more than one-fifth compared with land-based datacentres. That is because as well as being powered by renewable energy, its overall energy demands are less because of the natural cooling effect that comes from being submerged in seawater. In a traditional, land-based datacentre, anywhere between 25% and 40% of the total electricity demand comes from the need to pipe chilled water around the servers to prevent them from overheating. Traditional datacentres, known as the physical backbone of AI, have also come under scrutiny because of how much water they use. Having datacentres in the sea reduces the need for freshwater supplies. This week the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health warned that the water footprint of datacentres could reach 9.3tn litres by 2030 – enough to service the annual domestic water needs of all 1.3 billion residents of sub-Saharan Africa. HiCloud launched the world’s first commercial underwater datacentre in Hainan, a tropical island in southern China, in 2023. But the Shanghai launch is the first project to be powered by offshore wind. The farm is just about visible off the coast of Lingang, a hi-tech, free-trade zone in eastern Shanghai that is also home to a Tesla gigafactory. China was not the first country to experiment with building datacentres underwater to make them more efficient. In 2018, Microsoft launched a pilot in the waters around Orkney in Scotland. Two years later, the company reported promising results but progress has since stalled. “Microsoft was earlier in proving the concept, while China moved further on commercial deployment because it was able to bring together market demand, industrial capability, marine engineering and policy support more quickly into a commercial project,” said Dr Hanjiang Dong of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. China has made support for AI a central pillar of its economic and development strategy. Last year, it released an AI action plan that called for the acceleration of datacentre construction. The government has also pledged that clean energy supplies for AI infrastructure will be “significantly increased” by 2030. The Shanghai Lingang datacentre received 1.6bn yuan of investment (£177m), according to the Chinese government. Underwater datacentres also create some risks for marine ecosystems, such as by disturbing sediments or heating the seawater. Experts said these risks were most likely manageable but would require further monitoring. Prof Rick Stafford, a marine biologist at Bournemouth University, said: “An underwater datacentre is likely a good idea. While the cooling using seawater will result in some localised elevated temperatures, these will not be far reaching.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/09/worlds-first-wind-powered-underwater-datacentre-starts-operating-in-china

Becoming the world’s first trillionaire is only going to supercharge this sense of impunity and bring us one step closer to full-blown oligarchy Tue 9 Jun 2026 12.00 BST Arwa Mahdawi “Whoever said ‘money can’t buy happiness’ really knew what they were talking about,” Elon Musk wrote in February on Twitter/X, the social network he bought for $44bn. He capped the statement with a sad face emoji. Alas, Musk’s information is outdated. A 2024 study found a substantial difference in happiness between the wealthy and people who are low income. “A greater feeling of control over life can explain about 75% of the association between money and happiness,” the study’s author noted. But there are exceptions to every rule. The world’s richest person doesn’t exactly radiate contentment, does he? Musk seems to spend every waking hour being angry on X. But perhaps he just needs a little bit more money to fix his existential angst. Perhaps, if all goes to plan, and this week’s Space X initial public offering makes Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire, he’ll finally be happy. Of course, the big issue here isn’t what his imminent trillionaire status is going to do to Musk’s inner psyche, it’s what it’s going to do to democracy. You think Musk-the-billionaire was bad? A trillion dollars is going to afford the rocketman a whole new level of impunity and give him even more power over our lives. It is hard to wrap your head around how big a billion is, let alone a trillion, so it’s worth pausing to really take in just how obscene this sum is. We’re talking 12 zeros; one million million dollars. If you spent $1m every single day it would take you more than 2,700 years to spend a trillion dollars. Another way of looking at it: if you are worth $1tn, then $1m is 0.0001%, or one ten-thousandth of 1%, of your net worth. The median net worth in the US is about $192,700; $1m has the same value to a trillionaire as 19 cents has to a median-net-worth American. To a trillionaire, $100m feels like $19.27 to the median American. About the cost of a large pizza. You can quibble with the figures above by arguing that Musk’s imminent trillion dollars is obviously not liquid and can fluctuate wildly. Musk has lost billions in a single day before. But the bottom line is this: one person has far more resources than any single individual should possess. He can buy an election in the same sort of way that you and I can buy lunch. It’s impossible to say exactly how the 2024 election would have turned out without the $290m Musk gave to Donald Trump and other Republicans, but Musk’s millions certainly made things easier for the president. In return, the tech mogul got a very healthy return on his investment. In October 2024, Musk was worth approximately $270bn. In less than two years, his net worth has jumped by more than $500bn, and he is now poised to become a trillionaire. Musk hasn’t just seen his net worth go up, he has imprinted his worldview on US institutions. Musk has been a sort of shadow president: attending cabinet meetings and tagged along with Trump on state visits to China and Saudi Arabia, where he has cut lucrative deals for his companies. He had a stint running his brainchild, the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), where he slashed various government agencies, encouraged the firing of tens of thousands of employees, and made catastrophic cuts to foreign aid. The Doge-driven dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children, because of disease and malnutrition, according to some calculations. “We are now witnessing what the historian Richard Rhodes termed ‘public man-made death’,” Harvard TH Chan school of public health’s Atul Gawande wrote of those deaths. You could perhaps even call it Elon-Musk-made death. Musk is the biggest brashest symptom of a far bigger problem: money has become inextricably intertwined with politics. Ever since the supreme court’s 2010 Citizens United decision opened the door to corporations and special interest groups being able to spend unlimited amounts of cash on elections, the ultra-rich have been funneling money into Super Pacs to influence elections. A New York Times analysis found that the share of billionaire spending in politics has gone from 0.3% in 2008 (just before Citizens United) to 19% of all contributions in federal elections in 2024, totaling more than $3bn. That enormous sum came from 300 billionaires and their families. Just 300 people have an oversize influence on how the rest of us live – and very different priorities. A 2013 study led by researchers from Northwestern University found the ultra-wealthy are much less willing than others to invest in healthcare and education initiatives that benefit society as a whole. They want lower taxes, less government regulation – a system that keeps making them richer. And they’ve been very successful in engineering that system. Musk may become the first trillionaire, but he won’t be the last: the rich are getting richer at staggering speed. Billionaire wealth reached historic highs last year, and wealth is now more concentrated than it was during the gilded age. “The amount of wealth owned by the poorest half of the world is less than the amount owned by just the 12 richest billionaires,” Oxfam notes. It has forecasted that, if trends continue, there will be five trillionaires within the decade. You don’t have to be a socialist or even a liberal to find this outrageous. No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, most people agree that the status quo is unethical and untenable. A Data for Progress survey published last year found 70% of respondents across age and party lines agreed that “our economic system is rigged in favor of corporations and the wealthy”. A recent Politico poll similarly found that 72% of Americans say there is too much money in politics. Across parties, majorities say billionaires wield outsized influence over US politics. And it’s not just US politics, is it? Musk, a South African immigrant to the US, hasn’t restricted his meddling to his country of residence. Musk has, for example, explored loopholes that would let him channel large sums of money into rightwing groups in the UK and has spent considerable time on X complaining about British politics. Most recently, he’s spent weeks weaponizing the horrible murder of Henry Nowak, a white teenager in England, by a Sikh man. Musk’s incessant commentary prompted Keir Starmer to accuse the billionaire of “interfering in our politics”. Being the richest person in the world has empowered him to say and do whatever he wants, without any regard for how much collateral damage he causes. Becoming the world’s first trillionaire is only going to supercharge this sense of impunity and bring us one step closer to full-blown oligarchy. We still have time to change this but, as we enter a new era of unelected trillionaire overlords, it is quickly running out. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/09/elon-musk-trillionaire-oligarchy