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Why L.A. condo sales have slumped to a 20-year low

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Why L.A. condo sales have slumped to a 20-year low In January and February, fewer than 2,000 condominiums were sold in Los Angeles County, according to Attom data. Above, the three towers that make up the Marina City Club condo complex in Marina del Rey. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here .


At least eight killed in Israeli drone strikes on highway south of Beirut

Al Jazeera

Why is Israel still in southern Lebanon? A war to shape Lebanon's future Three Israeli drone strikes on cars on a major highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon have killed at least eight people, including two children, Lebanon's Ministry of Health reported. A photograph of the bombed cars shared by Lebanon's National News Agency following the attacks on Wednesday in the Jiyeh area, some 20km (12 miles) south of the Lebanese capital, showed the vehicles severely damaged, their exteriors charred and torn apart. "It is a conflict that is taking a high toll on the civilians who live in these areas," she said. Lebanon and Israel are expected to hold a new round of direct negotiations in Washington on Thursday, brokered by the United States.


NASA's Curiosity Rover Got Its Drill Stuck on a Rock. Here's How They Freed It

WIRED

This is the first time NASA has encountered a situation like this, and it took nearly a week to resolve. The Curiosity rover landed on Mars in August 2012. While it has enabled many exciting discoveries, the Curiosity Rover has also encountered its share of setbacks. The latest left NASA engineers speechless. On April 25, Curiosity drilled into a rock nicknamed "Atacama" to collect a sample.


SoftBank profit jumps, emboldens Son to bet more on OpenAI

The Japan Times

SoftBank Group has reported a surge in quarterly profit due to valuation gains on its OpenAI investment, boosting confidence at the Japanese company to bet even more on the ChatGPT-maker. The gains on OpenAI outweighed lackluster investment gains elsewhere in the Tokyo-based technology group's portfolio while war in the Middle East roiled markets. That points to growing reliance on the U.S. startup, which faces rising competition from Anthropic and Google and is reportedly trailing its highest internal targets. SoftBank earned a net income of ยฅ1.83 trillion ($11.6 billion) in its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with the average analyst estimate of ยฅ295.2 billion. The profit could be attributed entirely to its booking $25 billion in valuation gains on OpenAI in the quarter, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kirk Boodry. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.


Chris Mason: Why a quick meeting is overshadowing the King's Speech

BBC News

Chris Mason: Why a coffee is overshadowing the King's Speech It is quite something when two blokes having a cup of coffee can generate more headlines and conversation than the King coming to parliament for the main ceremonial event of the parliamentary calendar. Both these things are happening this morning. The prime minister has met the Health Secretary Wes Streeting in private - a meeting offered by Sir Keir Starmer to cabinet ministers after Tuesday's cabinet meeting and an offer Streeting took up. It was a very short meeting - under 20 minutes - and we may not know what happened in Number 10 immediately. And then, not long afterwards, the King will arrive in Westminster for the State Opening of Parliament, in which the sovereign reads out the government's planned new laws for the year and a bit ahead. This ceremonial occasion was scheduled for this week precisely because government figures anticipated a rough set of election results and a splash of political tumult afterwards.


Trump and Xi to meet in Beijing: The key issues shaping the China summit

Al Jazeera

United States President Donald Trump has departed for Beijing ahead of a high-stakes summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, after weeks of unsuccessful US efforts to persuade China to help bring Iran back to negotiations and ease tensions around the Strait of Hormuz. The leaders of the world's two largest economies are due to meet on Thursday and Friday during Trump's first visit to China since 2017, with talks expected to focus on trade, Taiwan, artificial intelligence and the war involving Iran. Why does the Trump-Xi summit matter? The Trump-Xi summit is a high-level meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping taking place in Beijing as the world's two largest economies face growing tensions over trade, technology, Taiwan and the Iran war. The summit is particularly significant because Trump will be the first US leader to visit China in nearly a decade, while the talks also come at a time of heightened geopolitical and economic uncertainty.


US-China head-to-head: Explained in 11 maps and charts

Al Jazeera

US President Donald Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14 and 15, following weeks of delays due to the US-Israel war on Iran. The talks are expected to focus on trade relations and mark the first time a US president has visited China in nearly a decade. In recent decades, the US and China have emerged as the world's dominant superpowers, frequently seen as locked in a contest for who sits atop the world order. A quarter of a century ago, by contrast, the US dwarfed China in most major indicators, but today, Beijing is regarded as the factory of the world and is outpacing its Western counterpart in many regards. Who is the world's top trading power?


Chelsea flower show garden designers clash over use of AI

The Guardian

Matt Keightley in his 2015 Chelsea garden, designed for Prince Harry. This year he is launching an AI app that has'designed' three full-size gardens for the show. Matt Keightley in his 2015 Chelsea garden, designed for Prince Harry. This year he is launching an AI app that has'designed' three full-size gardens for the show. Wed 13 May 2026 01.00 EDTLast modified on Wed 13 May 2026 01.01 EDT With glasses of champagne sipped among the peonies, Chelsea flower show is generally a friendly and genteel occasion.


Optimal Policy Learning under Budget and Coverage Constraints

arXiv.org Machine Learning

We study optimal policy learning under combined budget and minimum coverage constraints. We show that the problem admits a knapsack-type structure and that the optimal policy can be characterized by an affine threshold rule involving both budget and coverage shadow prices. We establish that the linear programming relaxation of the combinatorial solution has an O(1) integrality gap, implying asymptotic equivalence with the optimal discrete allocation. Building on this result, we analyze two implementable approaches: a Greedy-Lagrangian (GLC) and a rank-and-cut (RC) algorithm. We show that the GLC closely approximates the optimal solution and achieves near-optimal performance in finite samples. By contrast, RC is approximately optimal whenever the coverage constraint is slack or costs are homogeneous, while misallocation arises only when cost heterogeneity interacts with a binding coverage constraint. Monte Carlo evidence supports these findings.


Chinese firm unveils 'transformer' style manned robot

Al Jazeera

Chinese firm unveils'transformer' style manned robot NewsFeed Chinese firm unveils'transformer' style manned robot Unitree Robotics has released footage of its CEO piloting the GD01, a 2.7-metre transformable mecha that smashes through walls with its mechanical arms. The machine is priced from $650,000. Starmer at risk because he pushed Labour to be'new Conservative Party' Trump skirts question on US'red lines' for Iran ceasefire How one Palestinian teen's life changed forever after Israeli gunfire