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BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Divisive social media personality Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, have been charged with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women, prosecutors in Romania said Tuesday. Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said prosecutors filed the charges against the brothers, who are both British-U.S. dual citizens, along with two Romanian women in a court in the capital Bucharest. In a statement, the agency said the four defendants formed a criminal group in 2021 “in order to commit the crime of human trafficking” in Romania as well as the United States and Britain. It alleged that seven female victims were misled and transported to Romania, where they were sexually exploited and subjected to physical violence by the gang.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter has been charged with failing to pay federal income tax and illegally possessing a weapon and has reached an agreement with the Justice Department, according to a letter filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware. As part of the agreement, made public Tuesday, Hunter Biden will plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and is expected to reach an agreement with prosecutors on the felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user. It is somewhat unusual to resolve a federal criminal case at the same time the charges are filed in court, though it is not totally unheard of.

Judge Aileen Cannon has set a date for the trial in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. The Trump-appointed judge has signed a court order listing the trial as starting on 14 August of this year in Fort Pierce, Florida. The news comes the morning after the former president denied that he ever possessed a secret document about attacking Iran despite the fact a recording exists that had him discussing a document he kept from his presidency. Mr Trump spoke in an interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier at his property in Bedminster, New Jersey less than a week after he pleaded not guilty to 37 charges in a federal court in Miami at his arraignment. A federal grand jury had indicted him for allegedly willfully mishandling classified documents, obstruction of justice and making false statements. The former president was also confronted by Baier over his insistence that he won the 2020 election — which he did not, as the Fox News host made clear in a testy exchange. Voters may be growing sick of Mr Trump as well. In a newpoll, voters were most likely to describe Donald Trump in one word: a “criminal”. STORY AND VIDEO OF INTERVIEW.

President Joe Biden’s son will plead guilty to three federal charges, the Justice Department said in a court filing on Tuesday morning Hunter Biden has reached a plea deal with the Department of Justice, agreeing to plead guilty to three federal charges following an investigation into his taxes. President Joe Biden’s son will plead guilty to three federal charges, the Justice Department said in a court filing on Tuesday morning. STORY

Bruce Lee’s long, violent journey to immortality: ‘He knew the star should always be the boss’ As many of the martial arts star’s classic films are re-released in cinemas – to mark 50 years since his death – Tom Fordy salutes a man who overcame incredible odds to become one of the biggest icons in cultural history Bruce Lee wanted to be the biggest box office star in the world. He said as much to his friend and martial arts student, Stirling Silliphant. Lee announced that he would one day be a bigger star than both Steve McQueen and James Coburn, A-list actors who were also students of Lee’s. Silliphant – an Oscar-winning screenwriter – replied in the negative: “You are Chinese in a white man’s world. There’s no way.” Silliphant’s words – more tough love than outward racism – summed up the battle that Lee faced in Hollywood. US executives did not believe that an Asian actor would be a bankable leading man. Lee’s “bigger than McQueen and Coburn” comment (though not the only time he would voice such bold aspirations) came amid frustrations about a passion project, The Silent Flute, which failed to materialise in his lifetime – one of numerous unmade, unfinished or fallen-through projects. FULL STORY

iPhone 15 will get upgrade that could give a hint of the Apple Vision Pro, report claims Apple’s new iPhone 15 will feature at least one new upgrade aimed at the upcoming Vision Pro headset, according to a report. The new iPhone is due out in September, and Apple has said little about it. But as the release nears, more reports are leaking out from the company’s supply chain that indicate its features. One of those may be a new “ultra wide band” or UWB chip that is looking ahead to Apple’s Vision Pro, according to a new report from reputable analyst Ming-chi Kuo. The chip will allow the phone and the headset to be able to work together, he suggested, as part of a “more competitive ecosystem”. “The ecosystem is one of the key success factors for Vision Pro, including the integration with other Apple hardware products, and related main hardware specifications are Wi-Fi and UWB,” he wrote on a post on Twitter. FULL STORY

Himalayan glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates and could lose up to 80 per cent of their volume this century if the Earth continues to heat, said a new report. Changes to the glaciers, snow and permafrost of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region driven by global heating are “unprecedented and largely irreversible”, said the report released on Tuesday Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (Icimod). The Himalayan glaciers have, in fact, disappeared 65 per cent faster since 2010 than in the previous decade, it said. The unprecedented melting has an impact on over 2 billion people that depend on rivers flowing from these mountains for freshwater sources, as well as the communities living in the region that are more at threat of extreme weather events. The report comes as a marine heatwave in the northern Atlantic region breaks records and worries scientists around the world. FULL STORY

The climate crisis is taking an enormous toll on Europe, which was ravaged by extreme heat, drought, wildfires and glacier melt last year, a new analysis has concluded. A joint report by the World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service found that last summer was the hottest on record for Europe and caused more than 16,000 excess deaths, according to the report. “Unfortunately, this cannot be considered a one-off occurrence or an oddity of the climate,” said Carlo Buontempo, the director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, in a statement. He added that current understanding of the climate system “informs us that these kinds of events are part of a pattern that will make heat stress extremes more frequent and more intense across the region.” Dry canals, low rivers and shrunken lakes: Europe braces for severe drought amid winter heatwave Several countries, including the UK, Spain, Switzerland and Italy, saw their hottest years on record in 2022. Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world, according to the report, and has been warming twice as fast as the global average for the last four decades. The continent was not only hot but also extremely dry, with big implications for agriculture and water supply. Many parts of the continent saw very low levels of precipitation last year, with France experiencing its driest January-to-September period on record. In Spain, water reserves plunged to just over 40% of capacity, the report found .FULL STORY

Teachers at kindergarten centre in Taipei allegedly give children phenobarbital to ‘make them more compliant’ Scores of parents in Taiwan have raised alarm over reports that teachers of a school have been drugging kindergarten students. Local authorities have launched a criminal investigation into claims that teachers at a kindergarten school in Taipei were giving students cough syrups like phenobarbital and benzodiazepines. On Sunday, more than 1,000 parents held a protest at the Civic Plaza outside New Taipei City Hall and demanded transparency. The demonstrating parents said they wanted stricter punishments for child abusers and more comprehensive protection mechanisms at preschools. Reports said the police have not yet ascertained why children were allegedly fed the sedative and often addictive syrups. FULL STORY

‘Miracle material’ solar panels to finally enter production in China A startup in China is set to begin production of ultra-efficient solar panels that are made from the so-called “miracle material” perovskite. The next-generation solar cells will be manufactured at half the cost of traditional silicon cells, with 50 per cent greater efficiency, according to researchers from Nanjing University who made the design breakthrough that made mass production possible. “The raw materials for making perovskite cells are cheap and abundant, making the production costs of these cells just one 20th of traditional solar cells,” Professor Tan Hairen from Nanjing University, told state media. “Moreover, they are easier to produce and can be made in a single factory. Even with other items added, the overall cost of production is only half of that of traditional silicon cells.” Professor Tan has created a startup called Renshine Solar to move forward with commercialisation of the technology, and has already signed a government deal to build a production line in Jiangsu province this summer. FULL STORY

Do Kwon: South Korean cryptocurrency boss jailed in Montenegro for forging documents Terraform Labs founder and aide sent to four months in prison Fugitive cryptocurrency chief Do Kwon, the entrepreneur sought by the US and South Korea in connection with a $40bn crash, was sentenced to four months in prison by a court in Montenegro. The 31-year-old South Korean national and Terraform Labs founder was found guilty of attempting to travel with a forged passport. He was arrested by the Montenegrin police in March as he tried to board a flight to Dubai at Podgorica Airport. Han Chang-joon, the former chief financial officer of Terraform Labs, was convicted of the same crime and handed a four-month sentence. The two were charged with forging official documents and placed in 30-day pre-trial detention. Police said they recovered doctored Costa Rican passports and a separate set of Belgian passports. FULL STORY

A year-long BBC investigation has uncovered a sadistic global monkey torture ring stretching from Indonesia to the United States. The World Service found hundreds of customers in the US, UK and elsewhere paying Indonesians to torture and kill baby long-tailed macaques on film. The torture ring began life on YouTube, before moving to private groups on the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Police are now pursuing the buyers and several arrests have already been made. Warning: This article contains disturbing content BBC journalists went undercover in one of the main Telegram torture groups, where hundreds of people gathered to come up with extreme torture ideas and commission people in Indonesia and other Asian countries to carry them out. FULL STORY

An official with the financial prosecutor's office said the searches are based on information provided by an anti-corruption agency. Police are searching the headquarters of the 2024 Paris Olympics organisers as part of a probe into suspected corruption. The Paris organising committee said in a statement that a search is under way at its offices in the Saint-Denis suburb of the French capital, and that "Paris 2024 is co-operating with the investigators to facilitate their investigations." It would not comment further. An official with the financial prosecutor's office said the searches are linked to two investigations that had not previously been made public and are based on information provided by an anti-corruption agency. Full Story

Zaporizhzhia, UkraineCNN — In a deserted shell of a building, a Ukrainian drone pilot blocks off his surroundings and focuses solely on the controller in his hands. The wall-less room gives him and his unit some cover in the moonless night. The small screen on the soldier’s remote control, the only light source allowed, illuminates his piercing stare while his drone, miles away, is moments away from dropping a 35-pound (16kg) explosive on a Russian position. “This moment we call ‘from Ukraine with love,’” his senior officer says. This secretive night-time strike is being carried out by an elite unit comprising elements from the Security Service of Ukraine – commonly known as SBU – and the country’s Patrol Police. STORY

Controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are to face trial in Romania over allegations of human trafficking and forming an organised crime group. The Tate brothers and two Romanian female suspects are under house arrest as part of an investigation into accusations made by seven women. They have denied the allegations. Romanian prosecutors on Tuesday agreed to send all four suspects to trial. Story

What we know about the search for the Oceangate submersible The Polar Prince arrived near the location of the Titanic wreck in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday morning. A Facebook post from Hamish Harding, who was on the Titan, said they expected to start the dive in the submersible at 0400 local time. The Boston Coast Guard, which is leading the search operation, said on Twitter that the five person crew "submerged Sunday morning, and the crew of the Polar Prince lost contact with them approximately one hour and 45 minutes into the vessel's dive". The Titan submarine was thought to be approximately 900 miles (1450km) off the coast Cape Cod at the time. The US Coast Guard's Rear Admiral John Mauger said on Monday that it is a challenge to conduct a search in such a remote area. MORE HERE

A submersible used to take people to view the wreck of the Titanic has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean, sparking a search and rescue mission. The Boston Coastguard told the BBC on Monday that an operation to find it was under way. It is not clear how many people, if any, were on board at the time it went missing. Small submersibles occasionally take paying tourists and experts to view the wreck of the Titanic. Multi day trips to the wreck cost tens of thousands of dollars and one dive to Titanic, including both the descent and the ascent, reportedly takes around eight hours.

I asked Mr,Google and got 27 secs. Must be awful waiting for that impact.

Juneteenth originated in Galveston, Texas, when enslaved people were told of their emancipation on this day in history, June 19, 1865. Texas was the first state to make it an official celebration. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, yet slavery's end was not implemented in certain places that were still under Confederate control until later, according to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

There's a ton more your phone can do and many of these functions are found in the accessibility settings keep a digital copy of my driver's license on my phone because it's just so handy. Here’s how to do that. Paying with your phone is so easy, too. Late to the party? I have a guide on setting that up. There's a ton more your phone can do. Many of these functions are found in the accessibility settings. Developers create them for people who need extra assistance using their phones — but they're handy for just about anyone. Click the link for full list.

New poll reveals voters think Trump is a criminal, Biden is too old and DeSantis is a fascist A new poll out from JL Partners underscores major weaknesses for the three men most likely to be sworn in as president on 20 January 2025, with little good news to soften the blow. With the GOP primary now in full swing, Americans are getting a good look at the alternatives the Republican Party will present to the re-election of President Joe Biden, who was already the oldest president ever to take office when he did so in 2021. But the top contenders in the GOP, former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, each have debilitating labels to overcome if they have any shot of picking up ground with a general election audience, according to the survey. For Mr Trump, voters were most likely to describe him in one word as a “criminal”; others were even less flattering, such as “disgusting”, “liar”, “evil” and “dangerous” (though “patriot” also made a top-10 appearance).