Police seized ketamine hidden inside life-size Transformer robots in Thailand. A woman who was previously caught trying to ship meth hidden in a food processing machine was trying to send the robots to Taiwan. Thai prosecutors said Wednesday former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be indicted for defaming the monarchy, three months after he was freed on parole on other charges. Thaksin will not yet be indicted because he had filed a request to postpone his original appointment on Wednesday with proof that he has COVID-19, Prayuth Bejraguna, a spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General, said at a news conference. The attorney general's office scheduled a new appointment for Thaksin's indictment on June 18, Prayuth said, adding that Thaksin will also be indicted for violating the Computer Crime Act.

If you're looking for an image that perfectly showcases the confusion and chaos of a choose-your-own-reality information dystopia, you probably couldn't do better than yesterday's portrait of Catherine, Princess of Wales. In just one day, the photograph has transformed from a hastily released piece of public-relations damage control into something of a Rorschach test--a collision between plausibility and conspiracy. For the uninitiated: Yesterday, in celebration of Mother's Day in the U.K., the Royal Family released a portrait on Instagram of Kate Middleton with her three children. But this was no ordinary photo. Middleton has been away from the public eye since December reportedly because of unspecified health issues, leading to a ceaseless parade of conspiracy theories. Royal watchers and news organizations naturally pored over the image, and they found a number of alarming peculiarities.

The rapid proliferation of information in the digital era underscores the importance of accurate historical representation and interpretation. While artificial intelligence has shown promise in various fields, its potential for historical fact-checking and gap-filling remains largely untapped. This study evaluates the performance of three large language models LLMs GPT 3.5, GPT 4, and GoogleBARD in the context of predicting and verifying historical events based on given data. A novel metric, Distance to Reality (DTR), is introduced to assess the models' outputs against established historical facts. The results reveal a substantial potential for AI in historical studies, with GPT 4 demonstrating superior performance. This paper underscores the need for further research into AI's role in enriching our understanding of the past and bridging historical knowledge gaps.

The Albanese government has released its plan to revamp the safeguard mechanism – a Coalition policy that promised to reduce emissions from our biggest industrial polluters but actually resulted in the opposite. Labor has proposed a policy makeover. The government's plan will require big polluters to cut emissions by 5% a year until 2030, but will controversially allow them to continue buying carbon offsets from companies that pollute less. How the government regulates the safeguard mechanism is a big deal, given the polluting facilities included in the policy are responsible for 28% of the nation's emissions. If Australia is to meet its 43% emissions reduction target by 2030, this policy has to work.

The chief executive of west London's Kensington and Chelsea Council - who's been among the officials and politicians facing criticism over the Grenfell Tower fire - has resigned. Nicholas Holgate called the disaster, in which at least 79 people died, "heart-breaking", adding that remaining in office would be a "distraction". He also said that Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid had asked him to quit, but Mr Javid hasn't yet commented on the claim. Prime Minister Theresa May announced on Wednesday that 68 social housing flats in Kensington Row, about 1.5 miles away from Grenfell Tower, would be made available to survivors. It's clear from the Queen's Speech that Theresa May's main priority over the next couple of years is most definitely going to be Brexit.