“Archaeologists have pieced together thousands of fragments of 2,000-year-old wall plaster to reveal remarkable frescoes that decorated a luxurious Roman villa. The shattered plaster was discovered in 2021 at a site in central London that’s being redeveloped, but it’s taken until now to reconstruct this colossal jigsaw puzzle. The frescoes are from at least 20 walls of the building, with beautifully painted details of musical instruments, birds, flowers and fruit. The art is revealing more about the affluence of the area where they were found – described by the team as the ‘Beverly Hills of Roman London’. There are also clues about who the artists were: one fragment is scored with the Latin word Fecit (which means ‘has made this’), but the piece where the name should be is missing. The Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) team still hope the vital piece will be found as they sift through the fragments.” (06/19/25)
“The Bank of England held interest rates at 4.25% as expected on Thursday but said it was focused on risks from a weaker labour market and higher energy prices as conflict in the Middle East escalates. Noting the elevated global uncertainty and persistent inflation, the Monetary Policy Committee voted 6-3 to keep rates on hold, with Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden joining Swati Dhingra and Alan Taylor to vote for a quarter-point reduction. A Reuters poll of economists had forecast an 7-2 vote to keep rates on hold after the central bank cut borrowing costs last month for the fourth time since August 2024.” (06/19/25)
“A retired Nicaraguan military officer who later became a critic of President Daniel Ortega has been killed in a shooting at his condominium in Costa Rica, where he lives in exile. The death of Roberto Samcam, 67, on Thursday has heightened concern about the safety of Nicaraguan dissidents, even when they live abroad. Police in Costa Rica have confirmed that a suspect entered Samcam’s condominium building in the capital of San Jose at approximately 7:30am local time (13:30 GMT) and shot the retired major at least eight times. Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Organisation identified the murder weapon as a 9mm pistol. Samcam’s wife, Claudia Vargas, told the Reuters news agency that the suspect pretended to be a delivery driver to gain access to her husband.” (06/19/25)
“A drug informant who helped the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration build some of its biggest cases has been arrested and charged with scheming to extort major cocaine traffickers facing extradition from Colombia and the Dominican Republic. Jorge Hernández, 57, was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday with one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud. He remains in custody after being arrested and making his initial court appearance Wednesday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. Court papers allege that Hernández operated a scheme starting in 2020 in which he pretended to be a paralegal who, for the right price, could obtain lighter sentences for drug kingpins, according to 17-page FBI affidavit. The FBI alleged that Hernández demanded payments of $1 million from six suspected drug traffickers who ended up surrendering or being extradited to the U.S.” (06/19/25)
“Since San Francisco’s OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, millions of people have made artificial intelligence chatbots a part of their everyday lives, in a surge of interest that rapidly outpaced research about the tech’s impacts. But now, the academic community is catching up — and some researchers from Stanford University are throwing cold water on one of ChatGPT’s popular uses. A new study from Stanford computer science Ph.D. student Jared Moore and several co-authors has ‘touched a nerve’, Moore told SFGATE, with its argument that chatbots like ChatGPT should not replace therapists because of their dangerous tendencies to express stigma, encourage delusions and respond inappropriately in critical moments. The findings come as the use of chatbots grows more normalized for therapy and more — a YouGov poll last year found that more than half of people ages 18 to 29 were comfortable with replacing a human therapist with AI for mental health discussions — and as companies big and small peddle AI therapy tech.” (06/18/25)
“Finland’s parliament voted on Thursday in favour of withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention that bans the use of anti-personnel landmines amid concerns over a military threat posed by neighbouring Russia. Finland joins other European Union and NATO members bordering Russia – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland – in leaving or planning to leave the treaty, as fears grow about their much larger neighbour. … The Finnish decision follows similar votes in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where parliaments have approved the withdrawal. Finland, which guards NATO’s longest border with Russia, will be able to start stockpiling landmines six months after formally notifying other treaty members and the United Nations of its resignation.” (06/19/25)
“Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman whose widely watched murder trial ended with a hung jury last year, was acquitted of second-degree murder Wednesday after prosecutors retried her in the 2022 death of her boyfriend, a Boston police officer. A Norfolk County jury also acquitted Read of two lesser charges — motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a collision that caused the death of John O’Keefe. Read, 45, was convicted of operating under the influence of liquor. She was sentenced to one year of probation immediately after the verdict was read.” (06/18/25)
“Banning or charging for plastic bags is helping stop them ending up on US shorelines, a study of the country’s litter suggests. Data from thousands of cleanups showed that areas which tried to reduce bag use saw them fall by at least 25% as a percentage of total litter collected, compared to areas that didn’t try. Bans or charging for bags worked better at state rather than town level, and had a bigger impact in places that had a bigger litter problem to begin with. Despite the good news, the researchers cautioned that, overall, more plastic bags are being found across the US – they’re just increasing less in those places trying to tackle the issue. Plastic bag laws in the US vary considerably by state, county and town, which made it a useful place for researchers to test the effectiveness of bag policies.” (06/19/25)
“European Parliament voted on Thursday to establish a working group to probe EU funding of nongovernmental organizations, with the support of right-wing political groups. The proposal was led by the center-right European People’s Party, the largest group in Parliament. The center-left Socialists & Democrats, the liberals of Renew Europe, and the Greens all voted against the working group, but the proposal passed in a vote of group heads with the support of far right groups. It’s the latest of many moves by right-wing forces in different EU countries to heighten oversight of NGOs.” (06/19/25)
“A SpaceX heavy-lift Starship launch vehicle exploded late Wednesday during a pre-flight test at Starbase in Texas. The two-stage rocket exploded at about 11 p.m. CT Wednesday as it was preparing for its 10th flight, SpaceX said in a statement on X. Both X and SpaceX are owned by Elon Musk. The Texas-based company said the Starship had ‘experienced a major anomaly.’ … The cause of the explosion has not been made public.” (06/19/25)
