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Elon Musk has vowed to unseat lawmakers who support Donald Trump’s sweeping budget bill, which he has criticized because it would increase the country’s deficit by $3.3tn.

“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” he wrote on his social media platform, X.

A few hours later he added that if “insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day”.

With these threats, lobbed at lawmakers over social media, the tech billionaire has launched himself back into a rift with the US president he helped prop up. Since taking leave from his so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, Musk has sharply criticized Trump’s budget bill, which he has said will undermine his work at Doge by increasing spending.

Musk had been relatively quiet about the bill after his dramatic fallout with Trump, but reentered the debate this weekend.

On Monday, he said lawmakers who had campaigned on cutting spending but backed the bill “should hang their heads in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” Musk said.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO called again for a new political party, saying the bill’s massive spending indicated “that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”

“Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,” he wrote.

After contributing $277m to Trump’s political campaign, Musk became a vital part of the US president’s orbit and his administration. Doge, which oversaw abrupt and chaotic cuts to various government programs, claimed it saved $190bn. But the effort may also have cost taxpayers $135bn, according to an analysis by the Partnership for Public Service (PSP), a nonpartisan non-profit that focuses on the federal workforce.

Both Musk and Trump were aligned in cutting social safety net programs, environmental and health initiatives and global aid programs. But Musk has railed against the president’s signature proposal, which he is calling his “big, beautiful bill”.

The Senate’s version of the bill would add nearly $3.3tn to the deficit over the next decade, according to a congressional budget office estimate, whereas the House-approved bill would add $2.4tn to the deficit over the next decade.

Musk has expressed disdain for both versions.

In addition to criticizing the bill’s spending provisions, he has bemoaned its slashing of subsidies for electric vehicles, saying that the bill “gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future”.

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Elon Musk at a press conference at the White House on 30 May 2025. Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

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A second city has been uncovered below Egypt’s iconic pyramids of Giza, according to Italian archaeologists who discovered the massive underground structure.

Located under the Mankaure pyramid, this colossal find may be able to “prove” how the three Giza pyramids are connected through the potential existence of a massive subterranean complex buried 2,000ft underground.

This remarkable discovery comes after the team previously found large underground structures below the Khafre pyramid back in March.

However, this latest research isn’t without contention, as some archaeologists and Egyptologists, such as Dr Zahi Hawass, have said these findings, which have not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal, are impossible due to a lack of sufficient technology as ground-penetrating radar isn’t able to analyse the surface that is thousands of feet deep.

That being said, research co-author and radar expert from the University of Strathclyde, Filippo Biondi, has defended his team’s research. He explained to the Daily Mail that, according to their data, there is a 90 per cent probability that the Menkaure shares the same pillars as Khafre.

“We firmly believe that the Giza structures are interconnected, reinforcing our view that the pyramids are merely the tip of the iceberg of a colossal underground infrastructural complex,” Biondi told the publication.

“This network likely consists of a dense system of tunnels linking the main subterranean structures.”

He continued to describe how the measures showed “pillar-like structures with consistent characteristics.”

“Given that Menkaure is smaller than Khafre, we believe the number of pillars is likely even but fewer than those under Khafre.”

According to the researchers, there are eight pillars under the Khafre pyramid with spiral-like structures that are thought to be 2,000ft long.

What is their theory?

This latest development of detecting pillars underneath Mankaure that resemble the ones under Khafe reinforces their theory that thousands of feet below, there is a hidden “megastructure” of some kind.

No doubt, there is curiosity as to the purpose of the second city, but Biondi noted that they’re still gathering information to thoroughly study the matter,” at this time.

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Second city has been uncovered below Egypt’s iconic pyramids of Giza,

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Kids have so much to manage during the school year. Social pressures, schoolwork and the myriad activities before and after school, like sports, music and clubs, are all sources of big emotions and confusing behaviors.

On top of this, many are dealing with depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges. Three out of four high school students say they feel stress throughout the school year, and 50 percent of middle school students say the same. Emotional distress often fuels depression and anxiety; 20 to 30 percent of youth say they feel these at any given time. For a lot of kids, summer isn’t a break just from academics but from all the other stressors that can challenge their well-being. Routine is just as important during the summer as during the school year, but making space for downtime gives parents a golden opportunity to build stronger relationships with their children so they can be more self-aware, more capable, and ready to meet the new school year in confidence. Here are some tips to open those lines of communication, to use curiosity to learn more about what your child is feeling and experiencing and to create a deeper bond. That being said, if your child is showing signs of self-harm or suicidality, call 988; or reach out to your local National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) chapter for more specialized help.

Stay Calm during Meltdowns

Say your teen wants to go out with friends, but they’ll be out too late for your comfort. If they have an outburst—“You never let me go out with my friends! It’s like you don’t care how this makes me feel!”—it’s easy to jump into the argument: “Of course I care about you. You’ll be out too late. You can’t go. That’s final.” Take a deep breath. Don’t take the jab personally. Reflect on their feelings and offer an alternative: “You are upset because you can’t go out with your friends, and I understand this is difficult for you. But we both agreed that staying out past 10 P.M. won’t work, so can we come up with an alternative, so that you get to see them and be home at a time we can agree on?” Or: “I see how much you want to go out with your friends. Can you help me understand why this outing is particularly important?”

Our emotions can affect our interactions with our children, so when you have a moment, ask yourself, what past experiences might have influenced my reaction to my child? What am I feeling and can I name those feelings in conversation with my child? What fears do I have that might lead me to react strongly and be less supportive to my child?

Listen Actively when They Talk

Active listening is important in communicating with our children. We aren’t just hearing their words, but noticing body language, the words they use, positive and negative behaviors, and any other signs that they might be struggling to find the right words.

Say your child is struggling to go to school: “I hate it. Everyone makes fun of me.”

What else are they doing? Fidgeting with their shirt? Looking away? Possibly fighting back tears? These are signs of anxiety, distress and possibly avoidance. This is another great opportunity to reflect, but also to use their physical responses to guide your answers. “School was hard this year and you’re having trouble finding the words to describe it. You don’t feel safe and comfortable there. Let’s work together to figure out how to make it safer.”

Active listening does not mean you agree with or condone the thoughts or behaviors of the other person, but rather you are trying to understand their viewpoints and the underlying values and emotions tied to those views.

Beyond more simple reflections are ones that explore what your child means or what they are feeling—maybe you suggest that their distress about not being able to go out with their friends is rooted in the insecurity that they won’t get invited next time. Either way, when you take the time to listen actively, you show your kid that you won’t shut down their feelings and that if they open up more, you can begin to understand the underlying values and thoughts that drive their actions and reactions.

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I’ve always been proud my hands look just like my mother’s, even though we’ve had a strained relationship for most of my life. That’s because my mother’s hands look like her mother’s hands, and I never had a chance to meet my grandmother Ruth, although I was named after her. Somehow knowing my hands connected me to my matrilineal line gave me a feeling of belonging.

When my husband and I decided to use donor eggs to have a baby, resemblance was one of my first questions. Would my child’s hands look like mine? Or would his or her appearance belong to another family I’d never met?

At the time my husband, Rob, and I were choosing a donor, whether our child would resemble me was one of my biggest worries. Not just our hands, but the rest of us, too.

After all, we are living in a time when ancestry and genetic connection seem more important than ever — with more than 15 million people around the world spitting in a tube to send their DNA to 23andMe as of October 2024. Meanwhile, our Instagram feeds are filled with moms and daughters in matching pajamas, and there’s been a continued fascination with twins and doppelgangers. I’d seen friends with new babies post photos on social media and watched as their followers oohed and aahed about how their children looked exactly like them. I’d even done it, once telling a friend her newborn was a replica of her. Her husband turned to me and said, “DNA, it’s a powerful thing,” and I shook my head and thought to myself: “Yes. Yes, it is.”

Of course when we began pursuing egg donation, I understood, and made peace with, the fact that I’d be carrying a fetus made from my husband’s sperm and a stranger’s egg inside my body for nine months. It seemed vital, though impossible, to know whether our resulting baby’s face would forever remind me of another woman. And in turn of what I thought of then as my own failure.

The more I immersed myself in the world of donor eggs, the more I realized I wasn’t alone. In Facebook groups I frequented, other donor-egg recipients clung to the field of epigenetics and the idea that our DNA can be modified by the environment. Epigenetics gave them hope that even though they didn’t share DNA with their offspring, maybe they could still look like them. For better or worse, I’d spoken to a few geneticists and knew enough to understand this was highly unlikely and not really how epigenetics worked. But I also felt the longing behind their desire, the yearning for proof there was no wedge between them and their child.

Illogical or not, resemblance seemed to be one of the primary emotional concerns of donor-egg recipients. From the outside, it’s easy to wonder why. What is it about family resemblance that is so persistent and powerful — even when we know resemblance has nothing to do with love?

We understand plenty of families adopt children who look nothing like them and still feel bonded with them. And even those who have kids who are genetically related to them don’t always look alike. In fact, when I told our fertility doctor I was worried about how important resemblance was in this whole process, he reminded me kids often come out looking more like distant cousins or even great-grandparents than their biological mother or father. And yet, the desire to see ourselves in our children lingers.

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Resemblance seems to be one of the primary emotional concerns of donor-egg recipients.

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Researchers studying the remains of a prehistoric woman who lived around 10,500 years ago in what is now Belgium have produced a reconstruction of her face using ancient DNA.

A team led by scientists from Ghent University found that the woman would have had blue eyes and slightly lighter skin than most other people from the Mesolithic period in Western Europe who have been analyzed to date, according to a statement from the university on Tuesday.

Isabelle De Groote, an archaeologist at Ghent University who leads the research project on Mesolithic Belgium, told CNN that the woman came from the same population group as the Cheddar Man, who lived in what is now the United Kingdom at around the same time, but had lighter skin.

The findings challenge previous assumptions that European hunter gatherers shared the same genetic makeup, and demonstrates that there was already considerable variation in skin color among different populations, said De Groote.

“From the skull we could also tell that she was somewhere between 35 and 60 years old,” De Groote told CNN on Wednesday.

“She also had a nose with a high nasal bridge, which is similar to Cheddar Man,” De Groote added. “She also has strong brow ridges despite being a female.”

The woman’s remains were found in the Margaux cave in Dinant during an archaeological dig in 1988-1989 alongside the bodies of eight other women, said De Groote.

This was “an unusual finding” as most Mesolithic burial sites contain a mixture of men, women and children, she added.

“Many of the skeletons were sprinkled with ochre, a practice associated with ritual or symbolic behavior,” said De Groote.

Most of the bodies were carefully covered with stone fragments, while one individual had cut marks on her skull that were made after her death, she added.

“Also interesting is that this burial cave was used over a period of several hundreds of years so that they were places of memory that people would go back to despite their mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle,” said De Groote.

“These findings point to complex burial customs and raise intriguing questions about the social structure and cultural practices of this early hunter-gatherer community,” she added.

Philippe Crombé, an archaeologist at the university who is part of the project team, said that the ancient woman’s skin color was “a bit of a surprise,” but there’s a limited pool of Mesolithic people with whom to compare.

“All individuals so far analyzed on ancient DNA in Western Europe have belonged to the same genetic group,” he said.

“So it’s a bit of a surprise, but on the other hand, it is to be expected that in the wide area of Western Europe there’s some variability, as there is today.”

When the remains were recovered there was no way to conduct research into ancient DNA, said Crombé.

“Techniques have developed since the excavation,” he told CNN on Wednesday, adding that the interdisciplinary project is “a re-analysis of old excavations using state of the art methods.”

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A reconstruction of a possible scene from daily life in the woman’s community. – Ulco Glimmerveen/Department of Archaeology

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Jeffrey Lawson was born prematurely in February 1985. Shortly afterward, the newborn had to undergo heart surgery without anesthesia. He remained awake throughout the procedure, given only Pavulon, a muscle relaxant, to prevent movement. He died five weeks later.

After Jeffrey Lawson’s death, his mother was told that her son had been too young to tolerate anesthesia. And the anesthesiologist had attempted to reassure her that there was no evidence premature babies felt any pain.

The Lawson family’s story, famous in pain research, was not an anomaly. Until the 1980s, surgical procedures on infants were routinely performed with little or no anesthesia. Even clear defensive reactions to painful stimuli were considered to be mere reflexes.

But more than 20 years after Jeffrey Lawson’s operation, an international research team found evidence that the brains of newborn premature babies react to pain stimuli in a very similar way to those of adults. More specifically, the researchers observed an increased oxygen supply in parts of the cerebral cortex that were associated with conscious experience. This evidence of increased neuronal activity indicated that premature babies do indeed feel pain.

Understanding the experiences of infants has presented a challenge to science. How do we know when infants consciously experience pain, for example, or a sense of self? When it comes to reporting subjective experience, “the gold standard proof is self-report,” says Lorina Naci, a psychologist and a neuroscientist at Trinity College Dublin. But that’s not possible with babies.

Among the debates surrounding the developing mind is the question of when consciousness first emerges. And that question is tied to the scientific challenge of defining conscious experience. Various philosophical, psychological and neurobiological models have attempted to explain what it is and what underlies it. Investigating whether this phenomenon exists across early development may offer new insights and ways to assess theories of consciousness.

Many scientists now recognize multiple types of consciousness and suspect that certain forms exist earlier than others in development. That insight has helped address some issues but has left others unresolved. “The answer to the question of when children become conscious depends on what exactly is meant by consciousness,” says developmental psychologist Norbert Zmyj of TU Dortmund University in Germany.

Sensation and Sensibility

Broadly speaking, there are two camps among researchers when it comes to consciousness in early development, Naci says. Some take a strict view that consciousness emerges in early childhood and that a being is only conscious once it reaches a stage where it can demonstrate abilities such as decision-making and self-reflection.

For example, one influential idea is that a mental state becomes conscious when a thought is directed toward it. So if you see a red apple and then think, “I see a red apple,” you are conscious of this sensation because you have a higher-order thought that represents it. With that definition, consciousness only arises in the course of childhood because it requires higher thought processes.

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The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog says US strikes on Iran fell short of causing total damage to its nuclear program and that Tehran could restart enriching uranium “in a matter of months,” contradicting President Donald Trump’s claims the US set Tehran’s ambitions back by decades.

Rafael Grossi’s comments appear to support an early assessment from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, first reported on by CNN, which suggests the United States’ strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites last week did not destroy the core components of its nuclear program, and likely only set it back by months.

While the final military and intelligence assessment has yet to come, Trump has repeatedly claimed to have “completely and totally obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear program.

The 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran began earlier this month when Israel launched an unprecedented attack it said aimed at preventing Tehran developing a nuclear bomb. Iran has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

The US then struck three key Iranian nuclear sites before a ceasefire began. The extent of the damage to Tehran’s nuclear program has been hotly debated ever since.

US military officials have in recent days provided some new information about the planning of the strikes, but offered no new evidence of their effectiveness against Iran’s nuclear program.

Following classified briefings this week, Republican lawmakers acknowledged the US strikes may not have eliminated all of Iran’s nuclear materials – but argued that this was never part of the military’s mission.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported on Sunday the US had obtained intercepted messages in which senior Iranian officials discussing the attacks said they were not as destructive as they anticipated.

Severe but not ‘total’ damage

Asked about the different assessments, Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told CBS’s “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan”: “This hourglass approach in weapons of mass destruction is not a good idea.”

“The capacities they have are there. They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that. But as I said, frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there,” he told Brennan, according to a transcript released ahead of the broadcast.

“It is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage,” Grossi went on to say. “Iran has the capacities there; industrial and technological capacities. So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.”

Grossi also told CBS News that the IAEA has resisted pressure to say whether Iran has nuclear weapons or was close to having weapons before the strikes.

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CLIMATEWIRE | The Department of Housing and Urban Development is expected to announce Wednesday that it’s moving into the headquarters of the National Science Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia, according to the union representing NSF employees.

But as of Tuesday evening, staff at the science foundation hadn’t been informed by management about their building’s incoming occupants, leaving them feeling blindsided and unsure about where they’re expected to work.

One NSF employee said that they had “literally zero idea” the move was coming until reports began circulating among staffers Tuesday evening. That person was granted anonymity because they fear retaliation.

Jesus Soriano, president of the union that represents NSF employees, said he was expecting a press conference Wednesday morning in the NSF lobby including HUD Secretary Scott Turner and Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Soriano said he was informed about the plans by NSF employees.

Soriano sent an alert to union members Tuesday evening informing them that NSF’s management “learned this afternoon [from HUD]” that the Wednesday news conference would include an announcement that “HUD will take over the NSF building” and that the science agency was not involved in the decision.

The union, Soriano wrote, “understands that there is no planning except that the HUD secretary may take over the 18th and 19th floors” and start planning the HUD move over the next two years. “There is no planning for NSF, no identified future location, appropriation for a new building or a move,” he wrote.

HUD and the General Services Administration announced in April that HUD wanted to move out of its current location in the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building near L’Enfant Plaza in Washington. That building, which opened in 1968, faces over $500 million in deferred maintenance and modernization needs, GSA said. The building would be at half of its capacity with every HUD staffer at headquarters, according to GSA.

An NSF spokesperson directed a request for comment to GSA. GSA, the White House and a Youngkin spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

It’s unclear what happens to the staff at NSF, where more than 1,833 employees work in the building, according to the employee union. The science agency moved into the Alexandria office from Virginia’s Ballston area in 2017.

“Is the government more interested in the technological and scientific leadership of this country or on using taxpayer dollars to offer luxury accommodations to government officials?” Soriano said.

The union said in a press release Tuesday that it was told that plans for NSF headquarters include a dedicated executive suite for the HUD secretary on the 19th floor, the construction of an executive dining room, reserved parking spaces for the secretary’s cars, exclusive use of an elevator for the secretary and a space dedicated to hosting the secretary’s executive assistants on the 18th floor.

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On the surface of the U.S. economy, prices are higher. The latest inflation data out on Friday from the government showed a bigger uptick than forecast. On Thursday, Nike said it took a $1 billion hit due to tariffs and the fact that price increases have yet to be implemented.

Inside the U.S. economy, within distribution networks that manage inventory, there are fewer items overall due to the trade war, but more goods on which sticker prices are going up.

“We are now seeing multiple customers increasing pricing,” said Ryan Martin, president of distribution and fulfillment for ITS Logistics.

While price tags are placed on items at the manufacturer, Martin said over the past month his company has started re-ticketing “millions of units of products for many customers,” items ranging from apparel to consumer products in the warehouse being prepped for eventual delivery or immediate transport to stores.

Depending on the product, price increases range from 8%-15%, he said.

“This is creating additional inflation,” Martin said. It is happening in e-commerce as well, he said, though the price change is reflected online, not on the product.

A new survey from the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America for Q2 shows 55% of respondents expect their average retail price to rise between 6%-10% in 2025 as a result of tariffs.

Martin says the last time he saw this amount of re-ticketing was during the pandemic, and it was much higher then.

“Everything was getting more expensive at that time, transportation, labor and quantities of product,” he said. “We saw increases across all products, including food and beverage,” he said. “Re-ticketing was between 30%-40%.”

It’s not just higher prices but less inventory

With current concerns about trade uncertainty and consumer softness, retailers and manufacturing clients are managing inventory by shrinking SKU counts and importing fewer SKUs they are keeping. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that gross domestic product shrank by 0.5% in the first quarter of 2025.

“The overall inventory footprint is smaller,” said Martin. “You are looking at three months of inventory on hand now versus six.”

Supply chain data from the warehouse sector and the growing number of empty shipping containers at ports are pointing to a more mild peak season (the summer buildup of inventory for the back-to-school and holiday shopping periods).

Warehouse inventory levels are down 6% month over month, according to the Logistics Managers’ Index.

Comparing readings from the first half of June to later in the month, growth in inventories started to slow down, which suggests that an increase in early June was temporary, according to Zachary Rogers, associate professor of supply chain management at Colorado State University. “Because of how long it takes inventories to move through systems, we haven’t seen any big shifts in transportation yet,” said Rogers. “Warehouse capacity did move from mild contraction to mild expansion.”

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Unlocking the future of energy! 🔋 Discover the latest in fusion technology and its potential for limitless clean power. The world might be on the brink of a revolutionary change! #FusionEnergy #CleanPower #SustainableFuture

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Fusion

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