Top Stories
TOP STORY
TOP STORY
French parties build anti-far right front
France's political parties are collaborating to block the path to government of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN).
The RN won the first round of a parliamentary election on Sunday with 33% of the vote, followed by a left-wing bloc with 28% and President Emmanuel Macron's centrists with 20%.
The RN tally is a massive setback for Macron, who called the snap election after the RN trounced his ticket during last month's European Parliament election.
Whether the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic RN can form a government depends on how other parties thwart Le Pen by rallying around the best-placed rival candidates.
Leaders of the left-wing New Popular Front and Macron's centrist alliance indicated they would withdraw their candidates where another was more likely to beat the RN in next Sunday's run-off.
Running Stories
Presidential debate
Biden's family is blaming his top aides and urging him not to end his run.Fake coup in Bolivia claim
Bolivian president orchestrated a ‘self-coup,’ political rival Evo Morales claims.Contempt of Congress
Supreme Court denies Steve Bannon’s request to delay prison sentence.WORLD
WORLD
Multiple suicide bombings kill at least 30
At least 30 people are dead and over 100 injured after multiple suicide bombings in Nigeria over the weekend, sources said.
Alhaji Mohammed Shehu Timta, the Emir of Gwoza, said the first suicide attack was by “an unidentified woman” who, with her two young children, went to a wedding reception.
The woman detonated an improvised explosive device, killing “many people," including herself and her children, the Emir said. Two other suicide bombings occurred shortly after.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu condemned the attacks, calling them desperate acts of terror. Tinubu said his administration is taking necessary measures to secure the safety of citizens.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings.
Bubbling Under
Hurricane
Beryl closes in on southeast Caribbean.Controlled substances
Law requiring California bars to offer drink-spiking drug test kits takes effect.China rocket mishap
Chinese rocket accidentally launches before exploding.Subscribe to our newsletter
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SPORTS
SPORTS
Wilson youngest male US track Olympian
Quincy Wilson is set to become the youngest male American track Olympian after being selected for the US 4x400 meter relay team.
Wilson, a student at Bullis School outside Washington, D.C., performed remarkably at trials, setting—and subsequently besting—the world record for under-18 runners.
“I’ve never been this happy a day in my life when it comes to track,” Wilson said after he broke the record in the 400-meter semifinals.
Before Wilson, the youngest American male track athletes to qualify for the Olympics were Jim Ryun (in 1964) and Erriyon Knighton (also in 2024). Both were 17.
OTHER NEWS
OTHER NEWS
Three years’ jail in first ‘pretendian’ sentence
A Canadian woman who fraudulently claimed her daughters were Inuit has been sentenced to three years in jail.
The sentence is believed to be the first-ever custodial sentence for a “pretendian,” a person who has falsely claimed Indigenous identity.
Karima Manji, whose daughters accessed over C$150,000 (about $109.584) in benefits intended for Inuits, pleaded guilty to fraud. Justice Mia Manocchio said the sentence “must serve as a signal to any future Indigenous pretender.”
Canada’s Inuit population of around 70,000 people mostly lives in Inuit Nunangat, the vast northern homeland that spans more than 3m sq km.
Manji, 59, lived briefly in Iqaluit, the territorial capital, in the 1990s. But her daughters Nadya and Amira were born in Ontario and have no connection to the Inuit or the lands of Nunavut.
To deceive those reviewing the application, Manji claimed that she had adopted the pair, who she said had been born to Kitty Noah, an Iqaluit woman.
HEALTH
HEALTH
Good and foul odor in the nose of beholders
A study finds that cultural and ecological factors significantly influence how smells are perceived.
Researchers compared odors across cultures, examining whether preferences are more influenced by their inherent properties or how cultures relate to them.
The study involved 582 participants from five diverse groups: the Hadza from Tanzania, the Tsimane’ from Bolivia, the Yali from New Guinea, and industrialized populations in Poland and Malaysia.
Participants were presented with 15 odor samples, which included familiar scents like banana, coffee, and cinnamon and less-familiar ones like leather and turpentine. Participants rated each odor for pleasantness and familiarity.
Respondents had more positive reactions to smells they often experience. Overall, whiffs of peach, strawberry, and coffee were liked the most. Butter, butanol, and grass had the fewest likes.
TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Borderless talent is the future of tech work
Whether to work remotely is no longer the question. It’s more the distance companies go for borderless hiring for technology roles.
“Remote is like the gateway drug to borderless,” said Jeremy Johnson, CEO of AI-enabled tech talent marketplace Andela. “There are great people all over the world.”
Borderless tech hiring has doubled in the last three years, according to Gartner’s 2023 CEO Survey. By 2022, CBRE Global Tech Talent Guidebook 2024 says tech talent workers in Beijing and Delhi outweighed those in San Francisco and New York.
Adam Jackson, CEO of decentralized tech talent platform Braintrust, said, “Maybe 20 years ago … the best tech, best developers, best product managers and designers all lived in Silicon Valley. That’s just not true anymore.”
OFFBEAT
OFFBEAT
Woman charged for driving electric suitcase
Police charged a woman in Japan for driving without a license as Japanese police crackdown on driving electric luggage.
The woman, in her 30s and an international student living in Osaka, was stopped riding her electric suitcase on the sidewalk. The suitcase has a maximum speed of just over eight mph.
Patrol officers charged the woman after failing to show a driving license. As the suitcases do not have brakes and lights, she also violated Japanese road safety rules.
Korean girl group Blackpink rode electric luggage on their tour, which trended interest in driving the suitcases. But that may subside after the judge delivers the verdict in a Japanese court.
Otherweb Editorial Staff
Alex FinkTechie in Chief
David WilliamsEditor in Chief
Angela PalmerContent Manager
Dan KriegerTechnical Director