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Play video content Thomas Massie may be leaving Congress, but don't expect him to disappear from Republican politics anytime soon ... because he and Marjorie Taylor Greene have been cooking up plans behind the scenes
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'Alaskan Bush People' Matt Brown Cause of Death Revealed ... Meth in His System Published June 3, 2026 3:00 PM PDT Matt Brown's autopsy is shedding a little light on his tragic death. According to
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The "Baywatch" thirst traps are heating up, and Jessica Belkin and Livvy Dunne may have just raised the bar, serving major baddie energy in this mirror selfie. The key question here is: Who'd You Rather?!
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A Nepali climbing guide who went missing on Mount Everest for six days and was believed dead has been found alive after crawling alone almost to Base Camp, officials told AFP yesterday.His wife had even begun to offer last rite prayers for his soul, she told AFP at the hospital in the capital Kathmandu, where he is recovering from "some frostbite" but is conscious.Mountaineer Dawa Sherpa — who is in his 50s, and is better known as "Hillary", like famed climber Edmund Hillary — vanished on the upper reaches of the world's highest mountain in bitter conditions, early on May 30.He was found yesterday morning close to Base Camp by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), a Nepali team that helps set routes on Everest and clean up waste left behind."He was found by a team of SPCC this morning close to the base camp — he was crawling down," Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, which was overseeing search and rescue efforts, told AFP.A helicopter flew him to Kathmandu, where an AFP team saw him carried out on a stretcher."He is awake and undergoing treatment," Nishant Dhakal, a doctor in the intensive care unit of Kathmandu's HAMS Hospital, said."We are managing his frostbites, cold injuries, hydration and trauma. He is being further evaluated and will be in our ICU."Dawa Sherpa's wife, Damu Sherpa, said her family was overjoyed."We were very happy to hear the news, we had given up hope," she said. "We also began puja (last rite prayers) yesterday."His daughter Mendo Lhamu Sherpa said they almost did not believe it when they received a telephone call to say that he was found."At first we were not sure if it was him — but they sent us photos to confirm, and then I was happy," she said.— 'Tiger of the mountains' —Climber Chris Thrall, a former British Royal Marine, said he successfully summited the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) peak with Dawa Sherpa around 5:00pm on May 29.He posted a video message on Instagram on Wednesday mourning what he thought was the death of Dawa Sherpa.He called him an "absolute gentle giant of a man and a true 'tiger of the mountains'", in a post that assumed the worst.Thrall described how on May 30 he had begun to descend from Camp Four — at around 7,950m, just below the low-oxygen "death zone".He said that as he descended, Dawa Sherpa stopped."He sat down for a rest with his backpack, these guys carry huge loads," he said."And I turned and I said, 'Hillary, are you okay, brother?' He said, 'Yes, yes, fine Chris, please go, go!' This is nothing new, you know, I'd go ahead, he'd go ahead."As Thrall went down, he found a Polish climber who was struggling after running out of supplementary oxygen and had suffered frostbite."It had been a long summit push. What should have been five days to the summit and back took us 11 days, that's how challenging the conditions were," said Thrall."So, do I go back for Sherpa, who's probably going to rock up and be fine, as he has done hundreds of times before?" he added."Or do I help my fellow climber, who's got no oxygen, frostbite in his fingers, and obviously you're never far off hypothermia up there?"Thrall described tough conditions, sharing his oxygen cylinder with the Pole as they descended, taking 11 hours to get to Camp Three. It would usually take two hours."I realised we had a really serious situation," he said.Search teams set out to find Dawa Sherpa but he was not seen again until yesterday morning, having made his way down on his own.The climb was one of the last of the season, meaning that there were few other mountaineers on the peak.At least five people have died this season — two Indians and three Nepali climbers involved in Everest preparations.More than 1,000 climbers reached the summit of Everest this season, according to initial tallies by Nepali officials, making it the busiest season on record. Related Story
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An army personnel walks past the burnt house in Sri Lanka's Batagoda yesterday, a day after a fire broke out at an elder care home. (AFP) The owner of an illegally operated care home in Sri Lanka was remanded in custody yesterday, a day after a fire killed 12 residents and injured six others, officials said.Isuru Anushka, of the Maupiya Sewana home, was ordered to be held until June 11 as investigations opened into Wednesday's fire, one of the deadliest on the island for decades.A magisterial inquiry into the incident was told by officials that the facility was not authorised to operate as a care home and had not met the minimum standards set by regulators."Police have been ordered to investigate violations of regulations governing the care of the elderly," an officer told reporters following a preliminary court hearing.The inquiry was also told that 11 residents of the home were burnt to death at the home, while the 12th victim succumbed to severe burns at a local hospital.Another six escaped with complications from smoke inhalation.Forensic experts combed through the wreckage of the single-storey building and discovered seven charred bodies yesterday morning, raising the death toll to 12 from the initial five on Wednesday.An AFP photographer saw the owner in handcuffs being escorted to the scene yesterday, as police interviewed survivors and neighbours.In addition to elderly residents, the facility also housed young people with mental health issues.The youngest victim was a 17-year-old boy, police said.Police said initial witness accounts suggested that the fire originated in a storeroom where dozens of mattresses were stacked.Police spokesman Frederick Wootler said 51 residents and staff rescued on Wednesday had been moved to a nearby government school. Related Story
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Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes the opening remarks to a meeting of Regional Mayors at the National STEM Learning Centre in York, yesterday. (AFP) UK leader Keir Starmer accused US tech tycoon Elon Musk yesterday of "trying to whip up division" in Britain following anger over the police handling of the murder of a white student by a Sikh man.The case of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, who was put in handcuffs by police as he lay mortally wounded after being stabbed by Vickrum Digwa, 23, in the southern city of Southampton in December, has become highly politicised in the UK.Digwa lied and told police he was the victim as Nowak had racially insulted him.Far-right figures have claimed the murder is evidence that police forces in Britain treat white people and ethnic minorities differently — an allegation Starmer's Labour government and police chiefs vehemently deny.Musk, the billionaire owner of X, has posted numerous times on the platform about the police response to the stabbing.In one, he asked whether people knew that "official police policy requires them to be racist against Whites?"Musk has offered to fund a private prosecution against the police over its handling of the murder, and insulted the Hampshire Police force."We need to also assert who we are as a country, because Musk, again, has been interfering in our politics in the last few days, trying to whip up division. That is not who we are in Britain," Starmer told reporters."In Britain, we are reasonable, tolerant people," he added ahead of a meeting with Nowak's family at his official Downing Street residence."When we have a terrible case like Henry's case... we react calmly, as his family have done," the prime minister said, referring to pleas from Nowak's father that his son's murder should not be used "to create further division, hatred or tension".Digwa was jailed for at least 21 years on Monday for stabbing Nowak to death using a ceremonial knife with a 21-centimetre (eight-inch) blade following an altercation about a mobile phone.Starmer has said there was "no justification" for violence at a Southampton protest on Tuesday night attended by far-right agitators, which saw demonstrators throw bricks, flares and chairs at police officers.A 44-year-old man on Thursday pleaded guilty to violent disorder and carrying an offensive weapon. Another person has been charged with assault.— 'Lies and misinformation' —The prime minister said it was "unforgivable" that hard-right firebrand Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK party leads opinion polls, had called for people to respond to the murder with "pure cold rage".Farage, who has been accused of stoking racial tensions with his remarks, has defended his comments.Starmer has called bodycam footage of Nowak's death, during which the victim can repeatedly be heard telling officers he could not breathe, as "harrowing".He said "there are serious questions that need to be answered" about the police response.The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog is investigating and is expected to report back within the next three months.An inquest into whether police contributed to Nowak's death will open in front of a jury in September 2027, officials announced yesterday.Musk has long been an outspoken critic of Starmer, who served as a chief state prosecutor before entering politics.The pair clashed last year over a decades-long "grooming gangs" sexual abuse scandal.In that case the prime minister accused the world's richest man of "spreading lies and misinformation".
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As the European Union (EU) unveiled its technology sovereignty package on Wednesday, a top official posted in glee: “Today is Tech Liberation Day”. True technological independence from US Big Tech, however, will take longer to attain. The EU plan aims to boost European tech firms and limit some access for dominant US rivals. It marks a key but initial step, with the bloc trailing far behind the US and Asia on AI, chips, cloud services and data centres. Ralf Wintergerst, president of German digital industry group Bitkom, said measures like the proposed Chips Act 2.0 were a “step in right direction”, but Europe needed concrete action and a better investment environment from chips to AI infrastructure. “It is now crucial that these efforts do not stop at mere announcements. Europe needs to move quickly,” he said. EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen presented the package that restricts US giants like Amazon , Microsoft and Google from the most sensitive cloud tenders, while encouraging a quick build-out of data centres that use at least some European hardware or software. On chips, the plan is less about luring leading-edge plants and more about supporting existing strengths around leading chip equipment maker ASML from materials to advanced packaging, while using public demand to help startups scale. But with few regional champions, cutting reliance is not going to happen quickly. The bloc has no European version of Nvidia to design AI chips, no rival to Taiwan’s TSMC to manufacture them, and no software giants comparable with the big US firms able to drive demand through vast cloud platforms. “We will continue to rely on Nvidia and AMD for GPUs and will need to cooperate with international partners on certain AI models. This is not a weakness, but realism,” said Achim Weiß, CEO of German cloud provider Ionos. “It must be clear that sovereignty does not mean self-sufficiency.” The EU plan also contains little new money, especially compared with huge US investment and Chinese industrial support. That leaves the bill to member states already under budget pressure, while companies face high energy costs, labour shortages and fragmented capital markets. “Europe cannot regulate its way into semiconductor leadership”, said Erik Rein, head of European chipmaker association ESIA, who also heads Bosch’s semiconductor business. Mitchell Rutledge, Europe Policy Manager at the Computer & Communications Industry Association, said a focus on data centre capacity was good but Europe needed to be attracting investment, “not shutting it out”. A Microsoft spokesperson said the firm shared the EU’s ambition to strengthen technological sovereignty and global competitiveness in AI, but called for an open market with “fair competition”. Wolfgang Weber, managing director of ZVEI, the German electrical and digital industry group, praised plans for faster approvals of strategic tech projects that require state aid, though he said Europe couldn’t “force the issue”. “Europe achieves sovereignty through its own strength, not through barriers,” he said. The final European Commission package also stopped short of a hard “Buy European” approach, which left some critics saying it had not gone far enough. “I am sceptical that this will be sufficient to ensure long term independence from the US,” said Greens/EFA European parliament member Kim van Sparrentak. “This long delayed package finally recognises the scale of Europe’s digital dependency, but ultimately falls short.” Some pointed to the balance the measures struck— realistic small steps towards a longer-term ambition. “The package frames tech sovereignty in a more pragmatic way than previous debates often did,” Julia Hess of interface, a German technology policy think-tank, told Reuters.
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A satellite image shows a possible raft at the opening to Scarborough Shoal, in the South China Sea. (Reuters) Satellite images obtained by Reuters confirmed the presence of a structure at the entrance of the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea last week, though later imagery suggests it is no longer there.The Philippines said on Wednesday it was investigating reports about the presence of a new structure on the Scarborough Shoal, which China has at times attempted to block since it seized de facto control of the atoll in 2012.Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro received raw information about the presence of the structure, he told reporters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue — a regional defence forum — in Singapore on Saturday.Photographs taken on May 27, 29, and 30 show what an analyst at Vantor, a commercial provider of satellite imagery, said was possibly a floating raft or buoy at the opening of the atoll, in addition to a barrier stretching across it in the May 27 and 29 images.On Tuesday, US-based maritime monitoring group, SeaLight, posted on X satellite imagery taken on May 28 of Scarborough Shoal showing what it described as a "small, reflective object clearly distinguishable on the reef flat near the lagoon entrance.""Evidence suggests it is a persistent feature rather than a transient optical artifact," SeaLight said, citing its review of additional satellite images.But it could no longer be seen in a June 1 image taken by Vantor, the first reported evidence that the suspected structure is no longer present there.China's defence ministry and its embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Scarborough, which China calls "Huangyan Dao" is one of Asia's most disputed maritime sites, and some diplomats and analysts fear long-running frictions and confrontations over the atoll could degenerate into armed conflict.In recent years, Chinese coast guard vessels have clashed frequently with Philippine fishermen around the shoal, which is located close to major shipping lanes and is coveted for its fish stocks and a turquoise lagoon that provides a haven for vessels during storms.China's military and coast guard carried out patrols in the area on Sunday, just after Philippine and US forces held a five-day maritime exercise in the same waters — the third such drill this year — to strengthen interoperability and maritime security.A landmark 2016 ruling on various South China Sea issues by the Permanent Court of Arbitration backed Manila, but establishing sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal was outside its scope.The court said Beijing's blockade there violated international law as it was a traditional fishing ground for several countries, including China, the Philippines and Vietnam.Last year, China announced the creation of a national nature reserve at the shoal, a move quickly denounced by the Philippines, which described it as a "clear pretext for occupation." Related Story
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Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron Technology Inc, shows a chip on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange. (Reuters/File Photo) Micron Technology’s march toward a $1tn valuation is nothing if not dramatic: a year ago it was a little over $100bn. That surge, though, was not built on its famed frugality, but on a nearly too-late push from Nvidia that pulled the US memory chipmaker into the centre of the AI boom. For decades, the Idaho-based company survived by building factories on a shoestring budget, adopting used equipment and avoiding cutting-edge bets. That discipline helped it endure brutal boom-bust cycles in memory chips and outlast rivals, leaving it one of three global suppliers alongside Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. But that approach of treating memory chips as a commodity clashed with Nvidia’s vision for AI. Three years ago, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met Micron boss Sanjay Mehrotra and outlined how he expected the memory market to evolve, Huang said in a media interview last month. Huang had long bet early that memory, and not just processors, would become a critical bottleneck for AI, forcing suppliers like Micron to rethink both technology and spending. “I was really grateful that Micron and Nvidia really lined up all of our road map,” Huang said in the interview. As Nvidia and other AI leaders rewired data centers, memory shifted from a commodity component to specialized high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips tailored to specific processors. These chips are co-designed for customers, making Micron’s offerings for Nvidia distinct from those it sells to Advanced Micro Devices or others. Micron’s chips are now tightly integrated into AI systems, including Nvidia’s upcoming Vera Rubin platform. That alignment reshaped Micron’s trajectory, pulling it into long-term, higher-margin deals and giving investors greater confidence in its earnings. Micron’s stock has surged roughly 10-fold over the past year. The company crossed the $1tn market capitalization on May 26, joining an elite group of trillion-dollar firms including Samsung. A day later, Hynix hit that mark. Separately, Marvell Technology’s shares hit a record high earlier this week after Huang called the custom chipmaker the next “trillion-dollar company” during the Computex week in Taipei. AI GROWTH RESHAPES MICRON’S TRAJECTORYMicron expects the HBM market it serves to grow to about $100bn by 2028. It posted a $14bn profit in the latest quarter, a striking turnaround from the $5.8bn loss it posted as recently as 2023, when the memory cycle turned and demand collapsed. That rebound follows a misstep. For years, memory was a commodity business, with customers such as Apple and Dell able to switch suppliers easily and drive down prices. That volatility made Micron wary of betting early on high-bandwidth memory, even as Korean rivals pushed ahead. Nvidia’s AI build-out forced a rethink. Micron said in March it had signed its first five-year supply agreement, a landmark shift for an industry long driven by short-term pricing swings. Analysts expect Nvidia to be central to those arrangements, though neither company has confirmed it. “They are seeing long-term customer demand, with real commitment,” said Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies. “That is the key driver getting them to spend money.” REMAINING NIMBLE IN A CYCLICAL MARKETMicron’s old habits have not entirely disappeared and may still be an advantage, even as the company adapts them for a faster-moving market. The challenge now is speed. Under Mehrotra, Micron has focused on shortening development cycles and quickly fixing production issues, a critical capability in AI where missing technical specifications can cost lucrative supply deals. Micron’s position as the only major US-based memory supplier also adds an edge as customers diversify away from Korea and governments push for domestic supply chains. But the real test will come when the cycle turns again. Analysts expect AI to make the memory market structurally larger, but not immune to slowdowns. When that happens, Micron’s longstanding discipline - the same frugality that once held it back - could again set it apart. “In the early days, nobody gave Micron a chance,” said Dan Hutcheson, vice chair of technology consulting firm TechInsights. “They’ve always had that back-against-the-wall attitude. If they lose that, like Intel lost it, they’ll die.”
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Pakistan said yesterday two river projects by arch-rival India would "weaponise" water and violate a major treaty between the neighbouring nations, threatening a response if they move ahead.India, which has announced the two initiatives separately this year, insists it is within its rights to press ahead with projects on the waters it controls, even though rivers flowing though both countries would be impacted.Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told journalists that New Delhi had not consulted Islamabad on the two Chenab River projects that he said would undermine the Indus Water Treaty."These projects confirm that India seems to weaponise water," he said. "This carries dangerous implications not only for Pakistan's economy but also for regional stability and international peace and security."India announced last year it was suspending the bilateral Indus Water Treaty that governs the use of waterways relied on by hundreds of millions, in the lead up to armed conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.Andrabi, however, said the treaty still binds both governments.Pakistan has previously said it would consider any attempt to change the flow of cross-border waterways an "act of war" and said there was no mechanism for either country to unilaterally withdraw from the 1960 pact that had survived three armed hostilities.In May, India's government-owned National Hydroelectric Power Corp issued a tender notice for a proposed tunnel project that would transfer water from the Chenab River to the Beas basin.India's power ministry said in January it was undertaking "sediment removal" at Salal Power Station on the Chenab River "following the termination of the Indus Waters Treaty".Andrabi said that "any illegal measure to endanger Pakistan's water, food and economic security as well as the survival and well-being of its 250mn people is unacceptable.""Pakistan will retain all options necessary for safeguarding rights under the treaty and to protect its vital national interest," he said, without elaborating on a course of action.Water risks becoming a flashpoint in a region grappling with climate change and population growth, which are stretching resources in the agricultural sectors that form the backbone of both countries' economies, experts say.India's foreign ministry rejected a May 15 decision by what it termed the "illegally constituted so-called Court of Arbitration" — the Hague-based body used to resolve disputes between India and Pakistan related to the treaty.Pakistan said the decision supported its stance that the treaty remained in effect, which New Delhi denied."India's decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance remains in force," New Delhi's foreign ministry said.The water treaty provided a rare avenue of diplomatic engagement between the rival sides until India suspended its involvement following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir in April 2025.New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the attack, which Islamabad denies.The two countries engaged in intense drone, missile and artillery exchanges the following month which left nearly 70 people dead on both sides.
