Elton John has strongly condemned the UK government’s proposal to relax copyright laws, allowing tech firms to train artificial intelligence models on the country’s music and creative output without ensuring proper compensation. This move aims to make Britain an AI superpower under Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership. However, prominent industry figures, including John, Paul McCartney, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Ed Sheeran, are urging the government to reconsider, citing the potential…

China has announced anti-dumping duties of up to 74.9% on imports of POM copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from the United States, European Union, Japan, and Taiwan. The commerce ministry’s findings conclude a probe launched in May 2024, following the US’s sharp increase in tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips, and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals like copper and zinc and have various applications in…

South Korea’s presidential candidates, Lee Jae-myung and Kim Moon-soo, faced off in their first TV debate on Sunday evening, ahead of a snap election on June 3 to choose a successor to former President Yoon Suk Yeol. The debate, the first of three TV debates scheduled over the next two weeks, focused on revitalizing the struggling economy, a key election issue. Lee Jae-myung, the main opposition Democratic Party’s candidate and…

A sophisticated hacking group known as Scattered Spider is actively facilitating cyber-attacks on major retailers in the UK and US, cybersecurity experts from Google have revealed. The group, made up of English-speaking hackers largely based in the UK, US, and Canada, has been linked to recent data breaches at top UK retailers including Marks & Spencer, the Co-op, and Harrods. According to Charles Carmakal, Chief Technology Officer at Google’s Mandiant…

A Federal Appeal court has lifted an order blocking President Donald Trump’s administration from stripping hundreds of thousands of federal employees of their ability to unionize and collectively bargain over working conditions. The 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put on hold an injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman at the behest of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). The…

Hadi Matar, 27, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for stabbing and partially blinding author Salman Rushdie onstage at a Western New York Arts Institute in 2022. The attack also wounded Henry Reese, co-founder of the City of Asylum. Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said Rushdie has been traumatized and experiences nightmares. Matar was found guilty of attempted murder and assault in February. The prosecution argued that…

US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that US officials will send letters to countries within the next two to three weeks, outlining the costs of doing business in the United States. The letters, expected to be sent by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, will detail what countries will be paying to operate in the US. However, Trump didn’t provide further clarification on the…

Tesla announced on Friday that Chipotle executive Jack Hartung will join its board of directors and audit committee in June.

Sir Keir Starmer is facing the biggest rebellion of his premiership over planned benefits cuts, with more than 100 Labour MPs saying they won’t back his sweeping welfare reforms in a vote expected next month. The proposals, outlined in the Spring Statement, aim to bring down the benefits bill by £4.3 billion. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has drawn concern with plans to restrict Personal Independence Payments (PIP) to only the…

The U.S. Supreme Court wrestled on Thursday over Donald Trump’s attempt to broadly enforce his executive order to limit birthright citizenship, a move that would affect thousands of babies born each year as the Republican president seeks a major shift in how the U.S. Constitution has long been understood. The justices are considering the administration’s emergency request to scale back injunctions issued by federal judges in Maryland, Washington, and Massachusetts…

Productivity growth in Britain’s economy weakened in the first quarter of this year compared to the final three months of 2024 and was down compared with a year previously, official data showed on Thursday. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that output per hour worked increased by 0.2% in the January-to-March period, weaker than the 0.7% growth in the fourth quarter of last year. Compared with a year earlier,…

The University of Greater Manchester, formerly known as the University of Bolton, has suspended its Vice Chancellor, Professor George Holmes, following a series of ‘serious’ allegations that have prompted an ongoing police investigation into suspected financial misconduct at the institution. Professor Holmes—one of the UK’s longest-serving university leaders—was suspended alongside the university’s provost and a third senior academic staff member. The move comes in response to findings from an independent…