Plus: Apple has sued OpenAI for allegedly stealing trade secrets. Ties van der Meer doesn't know how many siblings he has. The 47-year-old was conceived at a private fertility clinic using sperm from an anonymous donor. He eventually tracked down one sibling, but he may have others he'll never find. Other donor-conceived people have found they have tens or even hundreds of them. "It does make you feel a bit mass-produced," said one who discovered they had 25 half-siblings.

Tech companies' renewed emphasis on cost coincides with business customers scrutinizing AI spending. Three prominent artificial intelligence developers released new models over the past week. They all promise to be more advanced, but their biggest immediate selling point may not be what they can do, but how little they charge to do it. OpenAI said its most advanced offering, GPT-5.6, is designed to complete more work while using significantly fewer tokens, a unit of data processed by AI models. This will make the software far more cost efficient for customers. Grok 4.5, from Elon Musk's SpaceXAI, is billed as having twice the token efficiency as comparable models from other firms.

'They don't need people': the workers left behind by China's robot drive KUNSHAN, China - The park was in the center of China's richest county. Willow trees clustered around a well-manicured pond. Joggers in performance gear circled shiny new playgrounds filled with children. But in a quieter part of the park, Hu Xinbing was resting after another day of trying, unsuccessfully, to win his share of the local prosperity. After failing to find a job that morning, Hu, 31, lay behind some bushes, using a windbreaker as a pillow, and waited until he could try again the next day. Around him, about a dozen other out-of-work men had claimed their own corners of the park in Kunshan, about 30 miles outside Shanghai, dozing on benches or inside tents.

Ukraine creates'long-range' command to step up strikes on Russia Ukrainian uncrewed aerial vehicles hit what the Ukranian military say was a Russian tanker during a strike at a location given as Sea of Azov in this screenshot taken from video released Thursday. Kyiv - Ukraine is setting up a "long-range impact" command within its armed forces, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as Kyiv's campaign against Russian energy and logistics has forced Moscow to ban diesel exports and restrict shipping near the Sea of Azov, which abuts the Black Sea. For months, Ukrainian attack drones have been targeting key energy infrastructure thousands of kilometers across Russia in what Kyiv casts as long-range sanctions against the primary contributor to Russia's state budget, backing its war effort. In recent weeks, Ukraine has reported strikes almost daily, with officials saying it is only fair to bring the war to Russia more than four years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

Smoke rises from an oil refinery following a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow last month. Kremlin insiders say recent Ukrainian strikes have strengthened Russian President Vladimir Putin's resolve to keep fighting. Russian President Vladimir Putin is rejecting calls to negotiate peace with Kyiv, three sources close to the Kremlin said, with Ukraine's recent drone strikes on Russia's oil refineries and ports strengthening his resolve to keep fighting for now. Two of the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Putin was instead likely to escalate the conflict, now well into its fifth year. One of them, who meets regularly with the president, described a "high probability" of escalation in the coming months.

Plus: NATO is building a network to stop Russian attackers in their tracks. I was really looking forward to July 4, and not just because I love a poolside barbecue. This year the American holiday also marked a big symbolic deadline for US nuclear power. Last year the Trump administration set a goal to see three new microreactors achieve criticality, a technical milestone establishing that a reactor can sustain a chain reaction, by the nation's 250th birthday. And just in time, not just three, but four reactors did so. But achieving criticality doesn't mean a reactor is ready to provide electricity for the grid (or at all, for that matter).

Since their listing in 2024, Kioxia's shares have surged on runaway demand for AI memory chips. Bain Capital has sold its entire stake in flash memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings, closing a chapter on a deal that's transformed the Japanese tech and investment landscape. "We don't have a stake any more in Kioxia," Bain Managing Partner David Gross said in an interview. The U.S. private equity firm has logged record-setting returns after a global spending spree on AI catapulted Kioxia's shares more than 4,800% from their debut, transforming the chipmaker into one of Japan's most valuable companies. "It's worked spectacularly for all the stakeholders involved," Gross said.

China had previously restricted the import of Nvidia's H200 chips on concerns that a flood of American-designed AI processors would hinder the government's long-held goal of developing an indigenous chip industry. China plans to allow its top artificial intelligence companies to buy a limited number of H200 chips from Nvidia, a sign the country is easing restrictions on the coveted U.S. technology, according to The Information news site. Chinese officials have informed companies such as Alibaba Group Holding, ByteDance and DeepSeek that they will have permission to purchase some of the processors, which are used to develop AI models, the news site said Wednesday. The companies need to say how many chips they need -- and why -- to get approval, according to The Information. The chips have emerged as a geopolitical flash point for the world's two largest economies.

Russia tries to jam Musk's Starlink systems to counter Ukrainian drones Service members of the Sparta company of the 422nd Unmanned Systems Regiment Luftwaffe of the Ukrainian Armed Forces prepare a Zozulia midstrike drone for a flight while they work at a position near a front line in an undisclosed location in southern Ukraine. ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION, Ukraine - Russian forces are trying to counter Ukrainian "midstrike" drone attacks by camouflaging cargoes and installing powerful jamming systems to disrupt Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet system, Ukrainian drone commanders and pilots said. Kyiv's development of "midstrike" drones that can hit targets dozens of kilometers behind front lines accurately and cheaply, and are often flown via Starlink, has transformed the war in Ukraine. In a concerted midstrike campaign this year, Ukraine has attacked supply lines, fuel storage facilities, air-defense installations and command centers, disrupting Russian forces' logistics and causing fuel shortages in Russian-occupied Crimea. But Russia is now developing many ways to try to counter the midrange strikes, four drone commanders and pilots told a Reuters crew that visited Ukraine's 422nd Unmanned Systems Regiment at work in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Iran targets sites in Bahrain, Kuwait after wave of U.S. strikes Security forces stand guard in front of a portrait of Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as mourners gather for a funeral procession in Najaf on Wednesday. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it targeted U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait on Wednesday after the U.S. launched a wave of military strikes on Iran in response to attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. In the latest blow to the fragile ceasefire agreement, the IRGC said it carried out a joint missile and drone operation against key U.S. military sites in Bandar Salman, Bahrain's Fifth Naval District and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, and shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone attempting to interfere in the operation. Air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain and Kuwait, and the Kuwaiti army said air defenses were confronting "hostile" missile and drone attacks. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.