Latest news from the United States of America. Politics, economy, aid to Ukraine, Ukrainian diaspora
Yum Brands divested Pizza Hut not from strength but from weakness — the chain is closing 250 restaurants in the US, system-wide sales have declined for the second consecutive year, and franchisees are suing the brand. Now the chain is split in two between private capital and a Chinese subsidiary.
# After White House Meeting, Trump Announces Plans for Putin-Zelenskyy Bilateral, to be Followed by Three-Way Talks with US Following his August 18 White House meeting, Trump announced preparations for a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, which would then transition into three-way talks involving the United States. Moscow neither rejected nor accepted the proposal.
The Atlantic has published four databases containing over 21 million tracks that were used to train AI models — without the consent of artists and without paying royalties. Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny are just the most famous names among millions of others.
CIA Director Kraklieff warned Trump: Iranians tell intermediaries one thing, but say another among themselves. The deal is signed, but all nuclear issues are postponed for 60 days — that's exactly where the real problem lies.
Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup for the first time since 2006, with their 37-year-old captain Jordan Staal, a defensively-minded center who was never considered a prolific scorer, recording goals in five consecutive games and becoming the oldest Stanley Cup winner in NHL history to claim the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Samsung has finally embedded internet speed display in the Galaxy status bar — through the QuickStar module in Good Lock. However, a stable version of the feature and its rollout to older flagship models remain without a clear timeline.
On June 14, mediators announced a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran. The document opens the Strait of Hormuz and extends a 60-day ceasefire — but the nuclear control issue has been postponed, and the IAEA still lacks access to Iranian facilities.
# Tech Companies Conducted 363 Layoff Waves Since Start of 2026, While Profit Figures Tell Different Story Since the beginning of 2026, technology companies have carried out 363 rounds of layoffs. The official explanation is artificial intelligence. However, profit figures tell a different story.
100% tariff on champagne is not a new Trump idea, but the sixth year of the same bilateral conflict. This time the stakes are higher: Macron is hosting G7 at home and cannot back down.
Omar Artan, Africa's Best Referee of 2025, was deported from the United States on suspicion of links to terrorists. FIFA will pay his full fee, and UEFA appointed him to the Super Cup. The accusations remained without evidence.
# UFC Freedom 250: Spectacle and Controversy at the White House On June 14th, the South Lawn of the White House hosted UFC Freedom 250 — seven fights broadcast live, commemorating both the 250th anniversary of the United States and the 80th birthday of the president simultaneously. Behind the facade of national celebration lies $60 million in UFC spending, a federal lawsuit, and questions about the line between patriotic commemoration and personal cult of personality.
Trump declared a "final determination" on peace with Iran — and oil reacted with a drop to a three-month low. But the text of the memorandum leaves the nuclear issue unresolved, and the signature remains undated.
At MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, the five-time world champion played to a 1-1 draw with Morocco, who dominated the first half of the match. Only a solo goal by Vinicius Júnior saved "Seleção" from their first defeat.
The Trump administration has issued a directive on export controls regarding Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing jailbreak concerns — but Anthropic says the same technique also works on OpenAI's GPT-5.5, which was not subject to the restrictions.
Following SpaceX's record share placement at $75 billion, Elon Musk's wealth crossed the $1.11 trillion mark — with the majority of this fortune tied up in the company that remains unprofitable by GAAP standards.
The United States and Iran are expected to sign an agreement on the nuclear program as early as June 14. Trump claims that Tehran has abandoned its ambitions to create a bomb. However, the details of the agreement, verification mechanisms, and Congress's reaction remain unclear.
# SpaceX IPO Raises $75 Billion — Largest Offering in History SpaceX's initial public offering attracted $75 billion, surpassing any previous placement in history. Elon Musk's wealth exceeded one trillion dollars, though the actual business underlying this valuation is primarily based on satellite internet services and government contracts.
September testing confirmed: F-35C can carry AGM-158C LRASM externally — but this represents a compromise between strike range and stealth capabilities that the Navy will still need to justify.
Harvard's CHIEF Model Outperforms Other AI Systems by 36% in Oncology Diagnostics. Meanwhile, a tool for predicting premature labor has received FDA approval. But behind the accuracy figures lies a question medicine has yet to resolve.
The startup The90 has launched a smart accessory that tracks personal ultraviolet exposure throughout the day. According to statistics, 90% of melanomas are caused precisely by accumulated UV doses — ones that a person doesn't feel.
# U.S. State Secretary Heads Delegation at World Championship Opening in Los Angeles — Meets with Paraguay's President Peña on the Side. Sports Becomes a Wrapper for Negotiations on Migration, Security, and Investment Climate.
Omar Artan was supposed to become the first Somali referee at the World Cup. The U.S. Border Patrol conducted an 11-hour interrogation, closed the doors and provided no explanation—despite proper documentation and a valid visa.
Players from Iran's national team received visas to the United States on the eve of their departure, but 15 staff members did not. Now the team is based in Mexico and will cross the border for each match day.
The 2026 World Cup kicks off with a rematch of 2010: Mexico vs South Africa. But the biggest question isn't about football itself, but whether the 48-team format will pass its first test on the quality of play.
Mobi Fold for $90 — Logitech's first foldable mouse without a physical scroll wheel and with "1 minute = 22 hours" charging. But one design quirk may deter buyers.
Claude Fable 5 is the same model as Mythos 5, only with safety filters enabled. The division reflects not a technical difference, but a new logic of controlling the most powerful AI systems.
Samsung has confirmed the registration of the SM-F776U model with the American regulator. Among the new features is support for NB-NTN satellite communication, but the UWB chip locator has disappeared. And this is no accident.
# Translation Democratic U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal argues that as long as Putin does not feel real pressure—neither on the battlefield nor within his own country—any diplomacy remains a sham. A concrete pressure tool already exists: a bill imposing 500-percent tariffs, which has been backed by more than 80 senators but has yet to be put to a vote.
Apple officially closed the Intel era on Mac: Golden Gate will only work on Apple Silicon. However, the real deadline is not this year, but 2028, when both security patches and Rosetta 2 will disappear.
A judge in Boston has ruled that a fee implemented by presidential proclamation in September 2025 constitutes an unauthorized tax—a power that belongs exclusively to Congress. The administration plans to appeal the decision.
Tim Cook held his last WWDC as Apple CEO: between a ceremonial video with Harrison Ford and Whoopi Goldberg — and the real decision to migrate Siri to Google's Gemini model with 1.2 trillion parameters.
Pope Francis will support the USA at the 2026 World Cup — but only because Peru failed to qualify. He formulated his allegiance to Real Madrid through a split between two identities: as Pope and simply as Robert Prevost.
The United States issued visas to players of Iran's national team but denied visas to 14 staff members, including federation president Mehdi Taj, who was previously banned from entering the country in December. Secretary of State Rubio directly named the reason: links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The company released internal data describing not a future risk, but an already existing trend: the AI model is accelerating its own development faster than humanity has managed to agree on what to do about it.
The DIA has raised the counterintelligence threat from Israel to its highest level for the first time. Under surveillance are the same American officials who are currently determining the terms of the Iranian nuclear agreement.
Investors are locking in profits amid expectations of Federal Reserve rate hikes — and this is far more than just a market correction.
$5,600, 4,999 units and a transparent "engine compartment" — but behind this gadget lies a quiet corporate alliance: since 2024, HP has been the title sponsor of Scuderia Ferrari in Formula 1, and the laptop is the first tangible evidence of this deal.
# Investors from China and Hong Kong barred from largest IPO in US history — basis was not general "concern," but specific US arms control law Chinese and Hong Kong investors have been denied access to the largest initial public offering in US history, with the restriction based not on vague apprehensions but on a specific American arms control legislation.
To save Siri from failure, Apple signed a multi-year deal with Google and opened access to user queries for Nvidia servers. The company, which spent years building an isolated technology stack, is now dependent on two of its main competitors.
Google has launched Gemini Go, a simplified version of its AI assistant for smartphones running Android Go. This marks the first time Gemini becomes available to hundreds of millions of users of budget devices in Global South countries.
Apple is preparing for WWDC 2026, and the first data on iOS 27 compatibility has already emerged. Four popular models may be excluded from the support list — what this means for millions of users.
OpenAI has rolled out Dreaming V3, a new memory architecture for ChatGPT that has significantly improved context retention accuracy for the first time. However, few have noticed: deleting a conversation does not erase the memories extracted from it.
The US State Secretary has dismissed rumors about the presence of an American delegation at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum — however, the question of unofficial contacts remains open.
May 2026: 38,242 job cuts in the tech sector alone, the largest figure since early 2023. Yet the same sector leads hiring plans — a paradox that better describes the AI transition than any CEO statement.
Amazon's New Proteus Gets AI and Voice Control: The warehouse robot now plans routes and prioritizes tasks on its own. But behind the technical upgrade lies a much sharper bottom line.
On June 8, Apple will open WWDC 2026 under the slogan "All Systems Glow" — and the main intrigue is not new features, but whether the company will finally be able to restore Siri's reputation after a year of failures with Apple Intelligence.
Pershing Square is selling its remaining stake in Universal Music Group for approximately $1.5 billion after largest shareholder Bolloré blocked a €55.75 billion acquisition. Bill Ackman's five-year investment in the world's largest music company is concluding without control and possibly without profit.
Holland publicly explained how relationships with colleagues affect work quality — and cited a specific case from the new Spider-Man film shoot.
Lockheed Martin officially opened the MAB-5 production facility in Cortland, Alabama. The plant has been built on schedule, however, delivery timelines have already been adjusted due to issues with solid rocket boosters.
# Google Labs' New Dreambeans App Generates Up to 14 Illustrated Stories Daily from Gmail, Photos, YouTube and Search Data. An Antidote to Endless Scrolling — or a Perfect Surveillance Wrapper?
The House of Representatives voted 218-204 to bring the Ukraine Support Act to a final vote for the first time since Trump returned to power. The key was a procedure typically used by the minority: a discharge petition.
The U.S. Secretary of State presented two incompatible theses to Congress simultaneously: peace "does not appear close" because Moscow is not making concessions — but after the war, Washington is ready for better relations with the Kremlin.
On June 14, the first professional sporting event in the White House's 226-year history will take place on the South Lawn — and the convergence of three dates in it is no coincidence.
On May 25, American forces destroyed missile launch installations and Iranian boats attempting to lay mines — an hour before Trump's latest statements about negotiations. CENTCOM called this "deterrence during a ceasefire."
# U.S. State Department Head Admits Peace Process Has Slowed, Citing Lack of Faith in Diplomacy The U.S. State Secretary acknowledged that the peace process has stalled, attributing the slowdown to both sides placing greater faith in battlefield victories than in diplomatic negotiations. Ukraine's former foreign minister explains why Washington will remain engaged despite the challenges.
Wear OS 7 replaces familiar tiles with unified Android-compatible widgets and opens Galaxy Watch to third-party developers. Behind the convenient rebranding lies a serious bet on Gemini and voice control for smartwatches.
New leaks contradict earlier rumors about unchanged proportions for the iPhone 18 Pro. Behind them lies a long-standing engineering dilemma: how to increase the screen size without making the phone unwieldy.
# New Franchise Installment Leads US and Canadian Box Office. The Numbers Impress, But the Industry is Watching Another Metric.
Kyle Busch died of sepsis at age 41 — at a time when NASCAR was still waiting for him at the start line of the Coca-Cola 600. His last victory and his last silence tell us about the sport no less than the obituaries do.
Messi walked into the tunnel holding his left thigh after the 73rd minute of the match against Philadelphia. He still has not confirmed his participation in the 2026 World Cup — and this injury could turn a conditional "yes" into "no."
The Trump administration is forcing millions of civil servants to install an official application on their work smartphones. Cybersecurity experts have already determined that only 23% of the app's requests go to whitehouse.gov — the rest go to commercial services, none of which are certified under federal security standards.
Oil fell 6% not because a deal was signed — but because markets believed in its possibility. However, key disagreements remain unresolved, and Iran's nuclear program remains outside the scope of the first phase.
The United States and Iran have agreed on general principles of a deal, but Trump has publicly urged his negotiators not to rush. This reflects pressure from Republican hawks, Netanyahu's skepticism, and a key question — Tehran's nuclear program.
State Secretary Rubio announced "good news" regarding the Strait of Hormuz — while Trump says the deal is "basically agreed," Republican hawks in the Senate call it a disaster.
# Starship's Seventh Test Mission Ends in Destruction Over Atlantic. SpaceX Calls It Progress. Why Failure Has Become the New Standard in the Race to Mars?
Nassire Best was known to the FBI and Secret Service after two incidents in 2025, including a forced hospitalization. This raises an uncomfortable question not about the threat, but about the system.
Washington and Tehran are ready to halt hostilities for another two months and open the Strait of Hormuz, but the fate of 408 kg of enriched uranium and the mechanism for verifying the nuclear program remain outside the memorandum's scope.
Kevin Warsh took the oath of office at the White House—the first time since Greenspan in 1987. But the main question isn't about the ceremony: will he be able to navigate between presidential pressure to cut rates and inflation that still hasn't surrendered.
Zoom invested less than $100 million in Anthropic as part of a partnership agreement — and received a 13x return. This is not a venture strategy, but a corporate stroke of luck that now needs to be explained to shareholders somehow.
The first flight of the largest rocket in history experienced booster and Ship engine malfunctions, but the spacecraft delivered 22 dummy satellites to the target orbit. SpaceX obtained the data — and motivation ahead of its public offering.
On May 22, Trump convened a National Security Council meeting to discuss possible resumption of airstrikes. Simultaneously, a Pakistani field marshal and a Qatari delegation arrived in Tehran in a last-ditch effort to halt the escalation.
An Android update has broken the external display of the first Pixel Fold in software: the screen is active during boot, but turns off as soon as the system starts. Google remains silent — users found a solution on Reddit.
Estée Lauder shares surged 10% after the company announced the end of merger negotiations — the market viewed the rejection of the deal as a relief rather than a loss.
Apple is adding automatic captions for personal videos in iOS 27, and this is the first time an accessibility feature is transforming into a daily tool for everyone — but only in English for now.
Google is integrating CapCut tools directly into Gemini — now video ideation, generation, and editing can happen in a single interface. However, behind this convenience lies a non-trivial context: CapCut is owned by ByteDance and remains banned in several countries due to data security concerns.
# Pentagon Signs Contract with Shield AI to Integrate AI System into Drone Fleet The Pentagon has signed a contract with Shield AI to integrate the Hivemind artificial intelligence system into LUCAS drones — a reverse-engineered copy of the Iranian Shahed-136 valued at $35,000 per unit. The system will allow a single operator to control a swarm that operates autonomously even in radio jamming conditions.
# Pink vertical stripe on Pixel 8 display didn't qualify for Google warranty repair. Instead of scrapping the device, the owner assembled a fully functional retro console with HDMI output, four gamepads, and a computer fan — and it turned out to be a more practical solution than it seems.
On May 20th — Cuba's Independence Day — SOUTHCOM announced the arrival of USS Nimitz simultaneously with a federal indictment against Raul Castro. Coincidence or coordinated pressure — the White House does not distinguish.
An American Marine aboard the M/T Celestial Sea marks the 91st case of a forced vessel turnaround since the blockade began. Over 38 days, the United States has cut off Iran's oil revenue by $4.8 billion.
Google DeepMind has connected 280 billion Street View images to the generative model Genie 3. Practical consequence: Waymo is already training autonomous vehicles on scenarios that almost never occur in reality.