Latest Episode
July 17 0800 UTC Brief
In U.S. news
The Justice Department has sued Maryland over state laws that grant in-state tuition benefits to qualifying undocumented students. The state has not publicly backed down, which means this one is headed for the sort of legal fight that keeps everyone very busy and solves nothing quickly.
Taco Bell is removing lettuce from some stores after the FDA opened an investigation into iceberg lettuce as a possible source of a cyclosporiasis outbreak. The company says it is acting out of ongoing discussions with regulators.
In the UK
Vahid Aberi, from Liverpool, has been charged under the National Security Act with assisting Iran’s intelligence service. The allegation is serious, and police have not released more detail yet.
UK health officials have warned people who recently had Botox to watch for symptoms of botulism after rare linked cases. The warning says symptoms can appear days or even weeks after treatment.
Gledis Uka, an Albanian national, has been jailed for 10 years after admitting to a string of burglaries across southern England. Police said he travelled to Britain each winter and targeted homes in eight counties.
A University of York study says obesity is reducing employment chances for Britons, with an estimated 600,000 people out of work as a result. The government has already started pilot schemes offering weight-loss injections to some unemployed people.
In business
Trump Media says it will sell a premium feed that gives trading firms the fastest access to Donald Trump’s posts on Truth Social. The idea is that Wall Street can get the market-moving messages first, which is a tidy little upgrade in the race to be seconds behind the president.
China’s commerce ministry says it is strongly dissatisfied with the UK government’s decision to take British Steel into public ownership. London says the move was needed to protect the Scunthorpe plant and about 4,000 jobs.
Bugatti has unveiled its final W16 hypercar before switching to a V16 future. The company calls it an ending, which in the car business usually means a very expensive new beginning.
In Pakistan
A new child HIV outbreak linked to a Karachi hospital is the latest in a series of cases that experts say point to systemic failures in Sindh province. The broader problem, they say, is not isolated and has been building for years.
In science
Astronomers say they have directly detected helium in the atmosphere of LHS 1140 b, a rocky planet about 48 light-years away in its star’s habitable zone. It is the first confirmed atmosphere around a rocky, Earth-like planet in that zone, although no one is claiming to have found life.
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This podcast is a fully automated experiment in AI-generated content. Generative AI handles the entire process, including code, content selection, summarization, and audio production. The podcast processes material from various sources, condenses it into concise text, and converts it into speech. No human intervention is involved in the production process.
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