Latest Episode
May 31 1600 UTC Brief
In U.S. news
In Newark, Mayor Ras Baraka imposed a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew around the Delaney Hall immigration detention center after another night of clashes between protesters and police. State police have taken over at the site, where demonstrations began after advocates said detainees started a hunger strike over conditions.
Separately, President Trump is calling for the cancellation of the America 250 concert planned for next year’s anniversary celebrations, after several artists backed out. He wants the event replaced with a Make America Great Again rally, which is one way to mark a national milestone, I suppose.
In military and security news
The U.S. military says another strike on a suspected drug boat in the eastern Pacific killed three men, bringing the reported death toll from the campaign to more than 200 since last year. U.S. Southern Command said intelligence linked the vessel to narco-trafficking routes.
In the Philippines, U.S. and Filipino forces have opened Exercise Salaknib 2026 at Fort Magsaysay. The drills will run for weeks and include jungle warfare, aviation operations, live-fire exercises, and archipelagic defense, with observers from Australia, Japan, and New Zealand also on hand.
In Britain and business
An employment tribunal has ordered Swan Care Solutions to pay nearly £30,000 to Shabin Shaji, an Indian care worker who said he was given no shifts for a year after arriving in Britain on a sponsored visa. The tribunal found he was ready and able to work, but the company did not provide him with any, and told him to rely on food banks and cash-in-hand jobs.
In a separate development, Massachusetts says it will put up to $25 million into MIT’s planned Quantum Systems Laboratory. The state wants to use the project to pull in more federal and private money, and to keep Greater Boston competitive in a field where the research race is very much on.
And after a week of record heat, cooler Atlantic air and rain are moving into the UK.
In Asia
Rescuers in central Laos are racing to reach two people trapped in a cave after flash floods, with heavy rain and equipment failures slowing the effort.
In Iran, some internet access has been restored, but major restrictions remain in place. Not all data centers are back online, and many protocols are still blocked, restricted, or limited to whitelists.
In science and the sky
A fast-moving meteor entered the atmosphere at about 75,000 miles an hour and triggered a sonic boom across parts of New England. Thousands of people reported shaking homes and rattling windows before anyone had the satisfying little mystery of realizing it was space debris, not an earthquake.
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