The Reflecting Pool drama says everything about how the administration operates. If you wanted to make an argument that we are all living in some cruel simulation, a key piece of evidence might be that the news keeps providing us with absurd, occasionally quite alarming metaphors for what it's like to exist in 2026. To wit: The London School of Economics recently canceled an event on extreme heat because of an extreme-heat warning issued by the United Kingdom's Met Office. Or, closer to home for Americans: Donald Trump, trying to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool for America's 250th birthday and, instead, scoring a tax-payer-funded, $14 million-over-budget own goal in the form of a cracked and peeling, green-algae-riddled, potentially duck-killing militarized zone in the nation's capital. One of the firms hired for the renovation is named Greenwater Services.

Ukraine launched a significant drone attack against Russia as the brutal, years-long war between the two enemy nations continues to drag on.

A wiggly robot in Japan could help explain why we find eating certain foods so taboo. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. The edible agent in the study was made from edible materials and designed to sway from side to side in synchrony with vocalizations. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy .

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset . Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions . Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG . Debt collection letter for debt you don't owe? China's brain chip breakthrough raises big questions Should you change your phone number after a hack? McDonald's AI drive-thru may take your next order The Father's Day gift that protects your dad from scammers Sheriff's department uses drone to take knife away from suspect inside his home Quantum computing's threat to encryption explained Alleged UFC terror plot suspect called planned attack a'bloodbath' Lou Basenese urges investors to'buy every chip dip' amidst tech sell-off New Air Force One'flying palace' gifted by Qatar unveiled for President Trump Kevin O'Leary warns U.S. must accelerate data center growth to keep pace with China in AI race Kurt'CyberGuy' Knutsson warns fans about World Cup ticket scams involving fake FIFA websites, social media ads for fake tickets and AI-generated job offers and interviews.

Is the war entering a new phase? Russia has reported that it downed 660 drones overnight, as Ukraine maintains a barrage that is straining Russian air defences and energy infrastructure. The number of drones shot down marks one of Kyiv's biggest launches of long-range strikes, Russia's Ministry of Defence stated on Friday. That has stoked concern that Moscow may try to pull ally Belarus into the conflict, launched when it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The latest wave of Ukrainian drones saw Russia intercept unmanned aircraft over 13 regions, including the capital, Moscow, and the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula, as well as the Black and Azov seas.

Qatar has become the place where FIFA experiments with the next generation of football technology. The results are already visible across this year's World Cup. To casual soccer viewers, the game may look like it always has--same green field, 22 players, a referee, and the familiar rhythm of play unfolding over 90 minutes. The changes are only visible if you look beneath the familiar surface. What appears to be a traditional match is now supported by layers of tracking systems, automated analysis, and real-time data that run quietly in the background.

OpenAI unveiled its first custom inference chip, built with Broadcom and called 'Jalapeño,' signaling the U.S.-China AI competition has shifted to controlling critical infrastructure.

Sony is halting sales of its Aibo robotic dog in Japan, ending an era for the interactive pet that became an instant hit and developed its own personality. Sony is halting sales of its Aibo robotic puppy in Japan, the company has said, eight years after the latest model of its interactive android pet became an instant hit. The Thursday announcement marks the end of an era for loyal fans of the high-tech toy, which develops its own personality and can perform tricks like waving and mimicking its owner. It was also a big comeback for Sony's robot dog. The first iteration of Aibo came out in 1999, followed by numerous models over the years -- from angular metallic-silver bots to more cuddly round-faced versions -- with more than 150,000 units sold. But by 2006, Sony, facing a tough business environment, pulled the plug on Aibo, seen as something of a frivolous luxury.

Takeda Pharmaceutical is targeting a return on equity of at least 5% over that time, the company's newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Julie Kim said at her first news conference after assuming the top job this week. Takeda Pharmaceutical's newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Julie Kim says the company will return to growth in two to three years as it gears up for a wave of product launches. The company is targeting a return on equity of at least 5% over that time, Kim said at her first news conference after assuming the top job this week. Takeda is planning three major launches, including narcolepsy drug Oveporexton and psoriasis medication Zasocitinib in the next 12 months, while advancing a pipeline of five additional late-stage assets. It will ensure resiliency of its core therapeutic and business areas, which makes up more than half of its revenue. The company is also looking to leverage artificial intelligence, particularly in research and development, where it can accelerate the time it takes to run through pre-clinical work and improve decision making, according to Kim.

Modern machine learning systems have outgrown their origins as isolated predictive constructs, evolving into complex socio-technical architectures that actively mediate human opportunity. As algorithms increasingly determine access to economic and social opportunities, it has become widely recognized that these systems are deeply embedded with the structural inequalities and prejudices of their environments. The field of algorithmic fairness emerged in response to the growing recognition that models optimized for predictive accuracy can systematically disadvantage marginalized groups. Early mitigation strategies, however, rested on fragile simplifications that limited their effectiveness in complex sociotechnical environments. This thesis identifies and addresses two fundamental limitations of contemporary fairness paradigms: the reliance on deterministic point estimates for auditing and the treatment of individuals as isolated entities devoid of structural context. First, the diagnosis of algorithmic unfairness has traditionally depended on scalar metrics that fail to capture the nuances of real-world deployment. This deterministic approach ignores the high statistical variance inherent in small, intersectional groups, often leading to false alarms or missed detections of bias. Furthermore, standard auditing struggles with the opacity of black-box models, frequently conflating unjustifiable bias with the influence of legitimate features.