Can Americans spell the National Spelling Bee's winning words? The BBC challenged Americans to spell words used in the last three Scripps National Spelling Bee competitions. Shrey Parikh, a 14-year-old, won the competition this year after correctly spelling 32 words in a 90-second lighting round tiebreaker. He defeated 12-year-old Ishaan Gupta, who spelled 25 words correctly. Parikh won out against 247 spellers competing in the annual contest, aged between nine and 15, taking home a $52,000 (£39,000) cash prize.

We analysed thousands of Trump's posts - here's what we found In 2026, Donald Trump's use of social media has escalated. The BBC sifted through thousands of posts on his platform Truth Social to analyse what the President has been saying and when. What was the busiest day? When are the busiest hours? What type of content does President Trump share?

Best Power Banks Best Smart Rings Routers vs. Modems Choose the Right Laptop Smart Sprinklers Deals Delivered But This Is Why It's Heartbreaking Designed by Jony Ive and a host of ex-Cupertino colleagues, the Luce shows us what might have been had Apple made good on its $10 billion bet. You know things are bad when the Pope gets involved . No doubt reeling from a launch that somehow went down even worse than Ferrari itself anticipated, the Italian carmaker sought to get the endorsement of none other than His Holiness Pope Leo XIV for its first EV, the Luce. Guided by Ferrari chairman John Elkann and senior Ferrari executives, in a hillside town about 15 miles southeast of Rome, the pontiff sat in the driver's seat and listened patiently as test driver Raffaele De Simone explained the vehicle's controls and driving modes as if he really was speaking to a man clearly in the market for a 1,000-horsepower electric car capable of hitting 62 mph in 2.5 seconds. Meanwhile, as Pope Leo was no doubt pondering how the Luce could boast one of the largest batteries in any production EV yet still only manage a maximum 329 miles, or how an accelerometer on the rear axle somehow worked like a guitar pickup to create in-cabin sound like an "instrument," the market was speaking.

US President Donald Trump is transforming Washington DC by renaming institutions with his name, doing major renovations at historic sites and putting his face around the city. BBC's North America editor Sarah Smith visits the sites he's changing, including the Trump Kennedy Center, the Donald J Trump United States Institute of Peace and the White House, where a ballroom is being built. Fans rally behind US men's national soccer team as World Cup roster revealed BBC's Carl Nasman was at the event, where he asked enthusiasts about World Cup ticket prices and what the sport means to the US. The plans include permanent human habitation on the Earth's only natural satellite by 2032. Elon Musk's SpaceX has successfully launched its Starship V3 rocket, which landed in a planned fiery explosion on Friday.

Preparations are underway at the White House South Lawn for an upcoming Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event. The cage fight is scheduled to take place 14 June as part of the America 250 celebrations. US President Donald Trump said UFC president Dana White, a longtime ally, will build "a 5,000-seat arena right outside the front door of the White House", along with eight large screens in a nearby park for fans to watch from a distance. Fans rally behind US men's national soccer team as World Cup roster revealed BBC's Carl Nasman was at the event, where he asked enthusiasts about World Cup ticket prices and what the sport means to the US. The plans include permanent human habitation on the Earth's only natural satellite by 2032.

Meta Is in Crisis, Google Search's Makeover, and AI Gets Booed by Graduates This week on, the team discusses Meta's recent layoffs and what they've been hearing from employees about the increasingly grim vibes at the company. They also talk about Elon Musk losing his lawsuit against OpenAI and share highlights from Google's annual conference--including an ambitious AI vision to change how people search the web. Finally, what do recent college graduates and women whose spouses work in AI have in common? Google Search Goes Agentic--and Doesn't Need You Anymore Write to us at [email protected] . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . We spoke to more than a dozen employees and it turns out the job cuts are far from the only reason why Meta employees are really going through it. He lost his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI in really as full a way as you can, as dramatically as possible. I know, Zoë, you're looking forward to talking about that. We're going to get into why young adults might be using AI, but they have very complicated feelings about it. And later in the show, we're going to hear about why women married to AI bros have had enough . This week, the company is letting go of roughly 10 percent of its workforce, which is about 8,000 employees total. It's the latest round of job cuts, adding to the roughly 25,000 jobs that have been cut in the past few years as part of Mark Zuckerberg's Year of Efficiency that started in 2023 and now the latest AI-forward workplace, which he is trying to develop and impose. And while these latest cuts are not as big as some of the rounds of layoffs that have already happened, they're getting a ton of attention because Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO, has said that the reason they're happening, in part at least, in large part, is because the company is spending so much money on AI and data centers.

Elon Musk's SpaceX has revealed its plans to go public in the US, allowing people to trade shares in the firm on the stock market. SpaceX makes rockets, offers a satellite internet service called Starlink, and also owns Musk's controversial artificial intelligence (AI) firm xAI. The initial public offering (IPO) on the US stock market is set to be the largest in Wall Street history and could start next month under the ticker symbol SPCX. Because of the shares he will own in SpaceX, the IPO could make billionaire Musk, who is already the world's richest person, a trillionaire. SpaceX values itself at $1.25tn, and Musk's majority ownership of the company means his share could be worth more than $600bn.

The ex-employees, who cofounded a new AI watchdog group, say investors deserve more information about xAI's safety practices before SpaceX goes public. Two former OpenAI employees and a group of AI safety nonprofits are warning that Elon Musk's AI lab, xAI, could become a liability for prospective investors in SpaceX, which is preparing to file what's expected to be the largest initial public offering in Wall Street History. In a letter directed to investors published on Tuesday, the ex-staffers highlighted what they describe as "unpriced risks" related to xAI that could complicate SpaceX's reported plans to raise up to $75 billion as part of its IPO. The rocket company's private valuation shot up to over $1 trillion after it acquired xAI last year . Musk claimed his rocket company could launch data centers into space for his AI lab, but the letter's authors argue that xAI's poor record on safety issues could complicate how investors view the combined company as it gets ready to submit its IPO prospectus filing .

It is not only OpenAI but the AI race itself that was vindicated in the California courtroom last night . Even though Elon Musk essentially lost on a technicality, there's a clear signal from the verdict that making lots of money from AI and competing fiercely with rivals is simply business. The industry sometimes tries to display a united front, especially when it comes to safety, research and inclusivity. But this case served as a powerful reminder that none of the AI giants are charities and don't have to be, even if they once said otherwise. Cracks in the façade of industry collaboration for the sake of humanity have been exposed before.

Elon Musk, left, and Sam Altman. Elon Musk, left, and Sam Altman. How Sam Altman's victory over Elon Musk clears way for OpenAI's trillion-dollar ambitions OpenAI's plans now seem all but guaranteed, given that the world's richest man couldn't put a stop to them On Monday morning, a jury in Oakland, California, handed a resounding victory to Sam Altman and OpenAI in their long, bitter courtroom battle with Elon Musk. The federal jury found Altman, OpenAI and its president, Greg Brockman, not liable for Elon Musk's claims that they unjustly enriched themselves and broke a founding contract made with Musk when founding the startup. The unanimous verdict, delivered after less than two hours of deliberation, is a stark rebuke of Musk and his lawyer's claims that Altman "stole a charity" through his leadership of OpenAI.