China factory activity shows surprise growth in June – Caixin PMI
June Caixin PMI data reveals unexpected growth in China factory activity
Man in Idaho kills firefighters in ambush after idolizing them
A 20-year-old Idaho man who fatally shot firefighters after luring them into an ambush once dreamed of becoming a fireman himself, police say.
Two firefighters, Frank Harwood and John Morrison, were killed and a third, Dave Tysdal, was injured after Wess Roley shot at them as they arrived at a blaze at Canfield Mountain, just north of Coeur d’Alene, on Sunday, officials say.
Authorities say Roley deliberately lit the fire to send emergency services to the area. The motive for the attack remains unclear.
After an hours-long standoff, a police Swat team discovered a dead man – identified as Roley – close to where the attack took place.
Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris told a news conference on Monday that Roley had once aspired to be a fireman.
The suspect’s grandfather also told NBC News his grandson had “actually really respected law enforcement”.
“He loved firefighters,” said Dale Roley. “It didn’t make sense that he was shooting firefighters. Maybe he got rejected or something.”
Mr Roley added that his grandson “had been in contact to get a job with a fire department”, and “wanted to be part of a team that he sort of idolised”.
Sheriff Norris said the homeless suspect had attacked fire crews after they asked him to move his vehicle, which he had been living in.
“There was an interaction with the firefighters,” Norris said. “It has something to do with his vehicle being parked where it was.”
Investigators believe Roley used a flint that was found near his body to deliberately start the fire.
“This was a total ambush,” Norris told reporters. “These firefighters did not have a chance.”
One firefighter who was killed worked for the city’s fire service, while another worked for Kootenai County Fire and Rescue.
A third was “fighting for his life, but is in stable condition”, Norris added.
Idaho’s governor ordered flags be flown at half-staff on Monday to honour the firefighters who were killed.
The first report of a fire in the mountainside community was made around 13:21 PST (21:21 BST), which was followed 40 minutes later by reports firefighters were being shot at, Norris said.
The so-called Nettleton Gulch Fire grew to 26 acres after it was first reported and continued to burn on Monday, Norris said. No structures are threatened, and officials hope to have the blaze extinguished by Monday night.
More than 300 law enforcement officers from city, county, state and federal authorities responded to the shooting, including two helicopters with snipers on board.
Norris said authorities believed the suspect used a high-powered rifle to fire rapidly at first responders, with officers initially unsure of the number of assailants involved.
A shotgun has been recovered, and several bullets or fragments possibly from a rifle have been found. Officials say more guns may be hidden on the mountain.
After an hours-long barrage of gunfire, the suspect was found by tracing his mobile phone on the popular hiking trail, which officials said was being used by hundreds on that Sunday afternoon.
“It appears that he shot himself,” Norris told journalists.
The sheriff said the suspect had had five “very minor” interactions with police since moving to Idaho in 2024. He said that in one case, he was found to be trespassing at a restaurant by police.
The sheriff said the suspect appeared to have recently deleted several social media posts.
In order to prevent the suspect from fleeing, officials disabled that vehicle and “pushed it off the mountain”, the sheriff said. They have not yet been able to access the vehicle for a more thorough search.
Several fire department vehicles also had their tyres flattened to prevent the suspect from driving away in one of them.
Norris ruled out the suspect having “any nexus to Islamic jihad”, which he said had been falsely suggested on social media.
According to a social media post from his mother, the suspect moved from Arizona to Idaho in 2023 to work for his father’s tree-trimming company.
She wrote in October 2024 that her son was “doing great living in Idaho”.
Massive fraud involving North Korean operatives and American accomplices targets Fortune 500 companies, resulting in millions stolen
The Justice Department on Monday announced a significant crackdown on the North Korean IT workers fraud scheme, with two new indictments naming more than a dozen alleged conspirators accused of stealing millions from at least 100 companies in the past four years.
According to the first major indictment from the District of Massachusetts, a crew of North Korean IT workers allegedly partnered with co-conspirators in New York, New Jersey, California, and overseas to steal the identities of more than 80 U.S. people, get remote jobs at more than 100 companies—many in the Fortune 500—and steal at least $5 million. According to the second indictment, a four-person team of North Korean IT workers allegedly traveled to the United Arab Emirates where they used stolen identities to pose as remote IT workers, get jobs at American companies for themselves and unnamed co-conspirators, and then systematically steal digital currency to fund North Korea’s nuclear-weapons programs, authorities claimed in the five-count federal charging document.
The indictments lay out in detail the way the IT worker scheme has leveled up from merely relying on fake and fabricated identities, to a complex web of American-led front companies. The front companies are founded by paid accomplices and make it appear as though the IT workers are affiliated with legitimate U.S. businesses. The front runners conceal the North Korean IT workers behind stolen American identities, and offer them U.S. addresses to take shipment of laptops sent out by companies for remote software jobs. The stolen revenue generated in the fraud scheme is allegedly transferred to North Korean leadership to help fund the authoritarian regime’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic-missile programs.
“North Korea remains intent on funding its weapons programs by defrauding U.S. companies and exploiting American victims of identity theft, but the FBI is equally intent on disrupting this massive campaign and bringing its perpetrators to justice,” Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI Counterintelligence Division said in a statement. “North Korean IT workers posing as U.S. citizens fraudulently obtained employment with American businesses so they could funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to North Korea’s authoritarian regime. The FBI will do everything in our power to defend the homeland and protect Americans from being victimized by the North Korean government, and we ask all U.S. companies that employ remote workers to remain vigilant to this sophisticated threat.”
The authoritarian leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has deployed thousands of trained IT workers around the world to trick companies into hiring them for remote IT jobs, authorities said Monday. Once hired, the IT workers are tasked with making money and gathering intelligence to aid in cyber heists. Known colloquially as the “North Korean IT worker scheme,” hundreds of Fortune 500 and smaller tech companies have been battling back a tsunami of fake would-be job seekers who are actually trained North Korean IT workers. The UN has estimated the scheme generates between $200 million to $600 million per year, not including the amount of crypto allegedly stolen in heists using intelligence gathered by the North Korean IT workers, which is in the billions.
According to the indictment, New Jersey man Zhenxing “Danny” Wang founded a software development company called Independent Lab as a front company in the scheme. Through Independent Lab, companies shipped laptops to Wang addressed to what the companies thought were hired IT workers, but in reality were people who had their identities stolen. Wang allegedly hosted the laptops at his home, known as a “laptop farm,” and installed remote-access software so the North Korean workers could access them from overseas locations. Wang also took in money paid as compensation from the U.S. companies and allegedly transferred it to accounts controlled by the overseas conspirators.
The indictment states multiple defendants and accomplices acted using front companies, including other unnamed conspirators in New York and California, plus an active-duty member of the U.S. military. The accomplices allegedly hosted laptop farms in their homes in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, authorities claimed. The fronts allegedly defrauded at least four major companies, causing each one at least $100,000 in damages and lost wages. One accomplice alleged to be Kejia Wang, allegedly knew the workers were acting on behalf of North Korea.
In addition to Danny Wang, the government charged eight other defendants and claimed the fraud included a California-based defense contractor, from which an overseas actor allegedly stole sensitive documents related to U.S. military technology. Other companies impacted in the fraud scheme are located in California, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Florida, New Mexico, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, South Carolina, Michigan, Texas, Indiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, Utah, Colorado, and the District of Columbia.
Michael “Barni” Barnhart, principal risk investigator at security firm DTEX, said the arrests announced this week serve as a reminder that the threats from DPRK IT workers extend beyond just generating revenue.
“Once inside, they can conduct malicious activity from within trusted networks, posing serious risks to national security and companies worldwide,” Barnhart told Fortune in a statement. “DPRK actors are increasingly utilizing front companies and trusted third parties to slip past traditional hiring safeguards, including observed instances of those in sensitive sectors like government and the defense industrial base.”
Barnhart suggests the arrests underscore the notion that companies have to look beyond the typical applicant portals and reassess their entire talent pipelines given the way the DPRK IT worker threat has adapted.
“These schemes target and steal from U.S. companies and are designed to evade sanctions and fund the North Korean regime’s illicit programs, including its weapons programs,” Assistant Attorney General for the Department’s National Security Division John A. Eisenberg said in a statement. “The Justice Department, along with our law enforcement, private sector, and international partners, will persistently pursue and dismantle these cyber-enabled revenue generation networks.”
The second indictment outlines how the four-man delegation used a mix of stolen identities and aliases to get two North Korean IT workers developer jobs at an Atlanta, Georgia research and development tech firm, and at a separate virtual token company.
Together, the duo stole crypto valued at nearly $1 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia alleged in an indictment handed down last week. The two IT workers then brought in others to help them allegedly launder the currency so they could disguise its origins before sending the money home to North Korean leadership.
‘It’s not me!!!’
As alleged in the second indictment, the scheme in this case began in October 2019 when four trained North Korean IT workers traveled to the United Arab Emirates using North Korean documents and set themselves up as a team. The crew methodically leveraged stolen identities blended with their own photos to pass muster as legitimate employees and gain access to sensitive information at the companies. The goal, according to the indictment, was to earn enough trust to get access to the virtual currencies the companies controlled so they could transfer them to the DPRK government, led by authoritarian dictator Kim Jong Un.
Once up and running, in December 2020 defendant Kim Kwang Jim allegedly gave an unnamed company a fake Portuguese ID that included a photo of Kim with the victim’s actual birthdate and government identification number. Kim allegedly used the stolen identity as an alias to get work developing source code at an unnamed U.S. company based in Atlanta. The indictment only names the stolen ID victim as “P.S.” and does not name any company that allegedly hired a North Korean IT worker.
In March 2022, Kim allegedly modified the source code at the company where he had been hired. His changes altered the code for two smart contracts the company owned and controlled that lived on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. Kim triggered rule changes dictating when currency could be withdrawn from the company-controlled funding pools.
Then on March 29 and March 30, 2022, Kim allegedly took 4 million Elixir tokens, 229,051 Matic tokens, and 110,846 Start. All told, the virtual currencies were worth about $740,000 at the time of the theft, according to the indictment. Kim allegedly transferred the currency to another currency address he controlled.
Authorities say Kim offered up a dog-ate-my-homework rationale to the founder to try to explain the currency transfer: “hi bro, really sorry – these weird txs started happening after i refactored my github.”
On March 30, the company founder sent a message on Telegram to Kim accusing him of stealing the virtual currency from the company’s funding pools. Kim, using the Telegram account set up with the P.S. stolen identity, wrote back, “How many times do I need to tell you??? I didn’t do it!!! It’s not me!!!”
‘Bryan Cho’
Another alleged incident outlined in the indictment began in May 2021. Authorities say defendant Jong Pong Ju allegedly used the alias “Bryan Cho” to get a job at another unnamed company to provide IT services.
After he was hired, Jong allegedly gained access to the company’s virtual currency. Later that year, in October 2021, Jong allegedly used a Telegram account he had created using the “Bryan Cho” alias to recommend to the company founder that “Peter Xiao” would make a great developer. Authorities alleged Peter Xiao was actually another defendant, Chang Nam Il. The founder took Jong’s recommendation and hired “Peter Xiao” to work on front-end development. Chang, working as Peter Xiao, allegedly worked at the company from October 2021 until January 2022.
In January 2022, the company founder asked for a video to verify the identity of “Bryan Cho”—who was actually Jong, authorities allege—before giving Jong additional access to the company’s crypto assets. On January 25, 2022, Jong allegedly used a Malaysian driver’s license with the Bryan Cho alias to send a video to the founder over Telegram. The founder then allegedly gave Jong additional access.
The following month, Jong took that access and allegedly stole virtual currency tokens valued at approximately 60 Ether (worth $175,680 at the time) by transferring it to another virtual currency address that Jong controlled. Jong then used the Bryan Cho Telegram account to message the company founder, “I think I accidently (sic) dropped the private key into the .env sample file.”
The founder then asked where the “.env file” was uploaded, and Jong—as Bryan Cho—told him, “Github.”
“The defendants used fake and stolen personal identities to conceal their North Korean nationality, pose as remote IT workers, and exploit their victims’ trust to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement. “This indictment highlights the unique threat North Korea poses to companies that hire remote IT workers and underscores our resolve to prosecute any actor, in the United States or abroad, who steals from Georgia businesses.”
That wasn’t the end of it. From there, the North Korean IT workers allegedly needed to launder the stolen funds.
Chang, Jong, Kim, and a fourth defendant Kang Tae Bok allegedly used additional aliases and a virtual currency mixer known as “Tornado Cash” to launder the stolen assets. Tornado Cash is a crypto mixer that essentially blurs the trail of crypto transactions.
Authorities allege Kang used the alias “Wong Shao Onn” to open an account at an unnamed virtual currency exchange using a doctored Malaysian ID with his own photo. Similarly, Chang used a faked Malaysian ID to open an account using the alias “Bong Chee Shen.”
Jong, after he allegedly stole the 60 Ether, sent the currency to Tornado Cash for mixing, the indictment states. Kim allegedly sent his stolen tokens to Tornado Cash also. The mixed funds were then withdrawn into accounts controlled by Kang and Chang, using the Wong and Bong aliases.
Tornado Cash did not respond to a request for comment. Attempts to reach Wang were unsuccessful.
Two passengers on a Disney cruise were saved after falling overboard.
The passengers, who appeared to be a man and a young child, were rescued by Disney Cruise Line crew members after they drifted away from the ship.
Denmark to Grant Copyright Ownership of Face and Voice to Citizens in Response to AI Deepfakes
In what’s believed to be a first for a European country, Denmark is planning to give residents a copyright over their own likeness – a move that’s been called for by creative industries, including the music industry, since the rise of AI-generated deepfakes.
In a statement issued on Thursday (June 26), the Danish government said it had “broad support” from the country’s major political parties for an amendment to legislation that would give people rights over images of their facial features and body, and audio of their voice.
The proposed change will make it illegal to share deepfakes (convincing fake renderings of a person or their voice), though the law apparently will not mandate any prison or fines, but may allow for “compensation” in some circumstances, according to a report at Euronews.
The new rules are expected to make an exception for “parodies and satire.” The Danish government aims to have it in place by late this year or early 2026, and says it’s likely the first of its kind in Europe, according to The Guardian.
It’s “high time that we now create a safeguard against the spread of misinformation and at the same time send a clear signal to the tech giants,” Denmark’s Culture Minister, Jakob Engel-Schmidt, said in a statement, as quoted by Euronews.
“We are now sending an unequivocal signal to all citizens that you have the right to your own body, your own voice and your own facial features… Technology is developing rapidly, and in the future it will be even more difficult to distinguish reality from fiction in the digital world,” Engel-Schmidt added.
The proposed Danish law has echoes of legislation put forward by US states and in the federal Congress.
The NO FAKES (Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe) Act was reintroduced in the US Senate in April, brought forward by a bipartisan group of senators. The bill effectively creates a right of publicity at the US federal level for the first time: individuals will be able to control the use of their own likeness and voice.
“[It’s] high time that we now create a safeguard against the spread of misinformation and at the same time send a clear signal to the tech giants.”
Jakob Engel-Schmidt, Culture Minister, Denmark
The legislation has the backing of many prominent music industry figures, including Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl, who testified before Congress last year in support of the NO FAKES Act.
“Generative AI is appropriating artists’ identities and producing deepfakes that depict people doing, saying, or singing things that never happened,” Kyncl told the Senate Judiciary Committee in April 2024.
“Through AI, it is very easy for someone to impersonate me and cause all manner of havoc… They could speak to an artist in a way that could destroy our relationship. They could say untrue things about our publicly traded company to the media that would damage our business.”
Notably, besides Warner and the other recording majors – Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group – the NO FAKES Act also has the backing of major tech companies and platforms, including Amazon, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and YouTube.
Some tech companies haven’t been waiting for legislation to take action on the issue. As of last summer, YouTube’s policies have allowed people to make takedown requests of AI-generated video or audio of their likeness or voice. Last September, the Google-owned platform announced it’s working on tools to detect AI-generated faces and voices.
Individual states have also been taking on the issue, notably Tennessee – known for its prominent music industry – which last year passed the Elvis Act, which updated the state’s right of publicity law to include protections for songwriters, performers, and music industry professionals’ voices from misuse by AI.
However, that law and others like may be jeopardized by President Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the omnibus budget legislation that includes a clause that would prevent states from regulating AI for 10 years.
Nevertheless, given the bipartisan support for legislation cracking down on AI-generated deepfakes, a federal law is likely to emerge from Congress and get the president’s backing.
This past May, President Trump signed into law the Take It Down Act, which bans the non-consensual online publication of both AI-generated and real sexually explicit images.Music Business Worldwide
Tunisia court hands two-year prison sentence to lawyer who criticized president | News
Sonia Dhamani, a fierce critic of President Kais Saied, has criticised him for practices against refugees and migrants.
A Tunisian court has sentenced Sonia Dhamani, a prominent lawyer and renowned critic of President Kais Saied, to two years in jail, lawyers have said, in a case that rights groups say marks a deepening crackdown on dissent in the North African country.
Dhamani’s lawyers withdrew from the trial after the judge refused to adjourn the session on Monday, claiming Dhamani was being tried twice for the same act.
The court sentenced Dhamani for statements criticising practices against refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
Lawyer Bassem Trifi said the verdict was “a grave injustice”.
“What’s happening is a farce. Sonia is being tried twice for the same statement,” said lawyer Sami Ben Ghazi, another lawyer for Dhamani.
Dhamani was arrested last year after making comments during a television appearance that questioned the government’s stance on undocumented African refugees and migrants in Tunisia.
The case was brought under the nation’s controversial cybercrime law, Decree 54, which has been widely condemned by international and local rights groups.
Most opposition leaders, some journalists, and critics of Saied have been imprisoned since Saied seized control of most powers, dissolved the elected parliament, and began ruling by decree in 2021 – moves the opposition has described as a coup.
Saied rejects the charges and says his actions are legal and aimed at ending years of chaos and rampant corruption.
Human rights groups and activists say Saied has turned Tunisia into an open-air prison and is using the judiciary and police to target his political opponents.
Saied rejects these accusations, saying he will not be a dictator and seeks to hold everyone accountable equally, regardless of their position or name.
Earlier this year, the country carried out a mass trial in which dozens of defendants were handed jail terms of up to 66 years. Critics denounced the trial as politically motivated and baseless.
The defendants faced charges including “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group”, according to their lawyers.
Among those targeted were figures from what was once the biggest party, Ennahda, such as the leader and former Speaker of Parliament Rached Ghannouchi, former Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, and former Minister of Justice Noureddine Bhiri.
Tunisia had been celebrated as perhaps the only democratic success of the 2011 “Arab Spring” revolutions, with strong political engagement among its public and civil society members, who frequently took to the airwaves and streets to make their voices heard.
The years that followed the revolution, which overthrew long-time autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, saw the growth of a healthy political system with numerous elections declared free and fair by international observers.
But a weak economy and the strengthening of anti-democratic forces led to a pushback, capped off by Saied’s dismissal of the government and dissolution of parliament.
When will Congress approve President Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’?
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Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill is edging closer to becoming law, as Republicans race to meet the president’s July 4 deadline — but it must still overcome a host of hurdles.
On Monday, the US Senate was preparing to vote on the “big, beautiful bill”, which would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, slash healthcare and welfare spending and increase borrowing. But factional fighting within his Republican party threatens to derail the timeline.
Will the Senate approve the bill — and when?
The Senate on Monday began weighing a series of amendments to the bill in a process that was expected to drag on throughout the day. A final vote in the Senate was expected to take place late on Monday or early on Tuesday.
Trump insisted on Monday morning that the bill was “moving along nicely”. But its progress depends on Republican leaders’ ability to win over sceptical senators. Deficit hawks in the party are concerned that the bill will increase US debt. Others worry about its deep cuts to healthcare for low-income and disabled Americans.
Two Republican senators — Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — have said they would vote against the bill. Others, including Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have also expressed concerns.
Democrats have accused Republicans of trying to rush the bill through “in the dead of night” and have sought to delay it, forcing a full reading of the 940-page bill on the Senate floor and amendments to the text.
If Republicans control Congress, why is Trump struggling to pass the bill?
Republicans hold slim majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate, meaning a small number of lawmakers can hold up the bill.
In the Senate, where Republicans have a 53-47 majority, fiscal hawks including Paul and Johnson say the bill will further swell the US debt pile. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has said the legislation would increase the national debt by $3.3tn by 2034.
Others, such as Tillis, have objected to its cuts to Medicaid, the government health insurance programme for people on low incomes. The bill would strip millions of people of health insurance over the next decade.
The House, where Republicans have a 220-212 majority, passed its own version of the legislation last month. But it must approve any changes made by the Senate before the legislation can be signed into law.
A handful of Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus have already raised objections to the price tag of the Senate bill, while more moderate members oppose the Senate version’s deeper cuts to Medicaid.
Republicans in New York and New Jersey are also trying to strike an agreement on deducting more state and local taxes.
How could all this congressional wrangling be resolved?
While most bills need to clear a 60-vote “filibuster” threshold to pass the 100-member Senate, Republicans are trying to pass the “big, beautiful bill” through a special process known as budget reconciliation. This allows legislation to be approved with a simple majority of 51 votes, and a 50-50 tie could be broken by vice-president JD Vance.
After passing the Senate, the bill will need to go back to the House, probably later this week. The House only passed its version of the bill by one vote in May, so there could be more wrangling before the lower chamber approves yet another version.
If the House disagrees with the Senate bill, there are a couple of different options. The House could amend it and send it back to the Senate, where it would need yet another vote. Or the two chambers could send members to a conference committee to strike a compromise.
What happens if Congress misses Trump’s deadline?
Not much — the deadline was imposed by the White House and Republican leaders in Congress to pressure members to pass the bill. The longer they negotiate, the harder it will be to enact the legislation by July 4, the independence day holiday.
Last week, Trump appeared to concede that deadline may slip. “It’s not the end-all,” he said. “We can go longer, but we’d like to get it done by that time if possible.”
In June, a series of polls showed that the legislation was broadly unpopular. Nearly half (49 per cent) of Americans oppose the legislation, while 29 per cent favour it, according to a Pew Research poll.
“Polls show that this bill is political suicide for the Republican party,” Elon Musk, Trump’s top donor in 2024, recently posted on X.
At some point in the coming months, Congress needs to extend the debt limit for the US government to pay for accrued bills. The legislation would avoid that crisis by raising the so-called debt ceiling by $4tn or $5tn, which stands at $36.1tn.
The Importance of the GOAT in Today’s World
Michael Phelps—the greatest athlete of all time—turns 40 today. And as much as we celebrated him at 15, 19, 23, 27, and 31, we need him more at 40 than we ever did on the blocks. Phelps wasn’t just a medal machine. He wasn’t just the guy who made the impossible look routine. He was, and is, the north star of swimming—reminding us of what this sport can be when it captures the world’s imagination.
We’re a sport of split-second differences. Tenths, hundredths, thousandths. But every so often, someone comes along who makes the whole world stop measuring—and start marveling. That’s what Phelps did. Icons matter because they define the outer edge of what’s possible. They push the horizon further. They remind the world that sport isn’t just exercise—it’s art, it’s ambition, it’s humanity at full throttle.
Phelps was, and remains, that reminder.
We all have our own Phelps moment.
That snapshot that lives in our brain. For most? It’s Jason Lezak’s miracle anchor in Beijing, Phelps at the edge of the pool screaming into history, the hunt for eight intact. For me? It’s the kid Phelps. 15 years old. A little gawky, still figuring out where his arms and legs went, but crystal clear when he said:
“I want to grow the sport of swimming.”
He said it then. He meant it then. And over the years, that message rang out so often, so consistently, that we all started to take it for granted. But now? That mission feels and is urgent again.
Where We Are Now
Phelps left Rio in 2016 with 28 Olympic medals, the kind of record that makes statisticians stare at their spreadsheets in disbelief. But when he stepped off the stage, something else stepped off with him: swimming’s gravitational pull on the American public.
Since his retirement? USA Swimming registration is down. By 2023, we’d lost 4.6% of our membership. And in the Olympic year when we should’ve been booming? Flat. A net gain of barely 480-485 swimmers.
It’s not just about numbers. It’s about relevance. About identity. About what this sport means to kids, to families, to communities who don’t know what it feels like to hold their breath watching a 400 IM.
The Wake-Up Call
Michael Phelps at 40 isn’t just a birthday headline. It’s a wake-up call.
We don’t need him to race again. We need him to lead. To inspire. To remind the next generation why this sport is worth falling in love with. To show the world that swimming isn’t fading into the background of American sports—it’s still where greatness lives. Because if Phelps taught us anything, it’s that the lanes we swim in are just water. The real work is making people care.
So here’s to Phelps at 40—the GOAT, the guidepost, the man who showed us the outer edges of human ability, and the leader we still need if swimming is going to find its way back.
Happy birthday, Michael. The water’s still yours.
See Phelps at 11 years old swimming 50 butterfly. It’s grainy old footage, sometimes out of focus, but it remains among my favorite videos of the GOAT.
Smart Design Maximizes Space in Tiny Home Eden
Baluchon’s latest tiny house, the Eden, packs a home office and full-time residence into a length of just 20 ft (6 m). The compact dwelling maximizes its limited footprint with space-saving design, though still had to make some compromises.
The Eden is based on a double-axle trailer and is finished in red cedar, with a metal roof. It has similar styling to previous Baluchon models like the Hytta and gets power from a grid-based hookup. A 107 sq ft (10 sq m) terrace area was also added when the home was installed on the owner’s land.
It’s not the smallest tiny house we’ve seen by any means, but in comparison with the average North American model is really very compact and this made for some challenges. The entrance opens onto where you’d expect to find a living room but instead there’s a home office with a desk and chair.
Next to the office is the kitchen. This is quite basic and includes a two-burner propane-powered stove, a small fridge, a sink, plus shelving and cabinetry. A dining table is also nearby. This could potentially be swapped for an armchair or even a small sofa, but presumably the current configuration suits the owner as it is.
Baluchon
The Eden’s bathroom is placed on the opposite side of the home to the entrance and has a toilet, a vanity sink, and a walk-in shower, plus a little more storage space.
There’s only one bedroom in this model and it’s situated upstairs. It’s accessed by a storage-integrated staircase and is a typical loft with a low ceiling, and contains a double bed plus a little storage space.
Additionally, a secondary loft is situated above the entrance. This is much smaller than the bedroom but can be used for yet more storage.
The home is located in Normandy, where it serves as home to its owner Chantelle and is installed on her land. It cost €98,000 (roughly US$115,000).
Source: Baluchon
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France faces unprecedented heat wave as Europe swelters
Kathryn Armstrong
BBC News
A record number of heat alerts are in place across France as the country, and other parts of southern and eastern Europe, remain in the grip of soaring temperatures.
Paris and 15 other French regions – known as departments – have been placed on red alert for Tuesday, the country’s highest, while 68 departments are on orange alert, the second-highest alert level.
On Monday, 84 of 96 mainland regions were under an orange alert, which France’s Climate Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher called an “unprecedented” situation.
Heat warnings are also in place for parts of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, the UK and Balkan countries including Croatia.
Both Spain and Portugal had their hottest June days on record at the weekend.
El Granado in Andalucía saw a temperature of 46C on Saturday, while 46.6C was recorded in the town of Mora in central Portugal on Sunday.
Many countries have emergency medical services on standby and are warning people to stay inside as much as possible.
Nearly 200 schools across France have been closed or partially closed as a result of the heatwave, which has gripped parts of Europe for more than a week now but is expected to peak mid-week.
AFPFrench Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said she was working with regional authorities over the best ways to look after schoolchildren or to allow parents who can to keep their children at home.
France’s red alert will come into effect at 12:00 local time on Tuesday.
Several forest fires broke out in the southern Corbières mountain range on Sunday, leading to evacuations and the closure of a motorway. They have since been contained, fire authorities told French media on Monday.
Meanwhile, 21 Italian cities are also on the highest alert – including Rome, Milan and Venice, as is Sardinia.
Mario Guarino, vice president of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine, told AFP news agency that hospital emergency departments across the country had reported a 10% increase in heatstroke cases.
Parts of the UK were just shy of being one of the hottest June days ever on Monday.
The highest UK temperature of the day was recorded at Heathrow Airport in London at 33.1C. Meanwhile, Wimbledon recorded a temperature of 32.9C, the tennis tournament’s hottest opening day on record.
Much of Spain, which is on course to record its hottest June on record, also continues to be under heat alerts.
“I can’t sleep well and have insomnia. I also get heat strokes, I stop eating and I just can’t focus,” Anabel Sanchez, 21, told Reuters news agency in Seville.
It is a similar situation in Portugal, where seven districts, including the capital, Lisbon, are on the highest alert level.
Meanwhile, the German Meteorological Service has warned that temperatures could reach almost 38C on Tuesday and Wednesday – further potentially record-breaking temperatures.
The heatwave has lowered levels in the Rhine River – a major shipping route – limiting the amount cargo ships can transport and raising freighting costs.
AFPCountries in and around the Balkans have also been struggling with the intense heat, although temperatures have begun to cool slightly.
In Turkey, rescuers evacuated more than 50,000 people – mostly from the resort city of Izmir in the country’s west – as firefighters continue to put out hundreds of wildfires that have broken out in recent days.
The fires were fuelled by winds of 120km/h (75 mph) and have destroyed at least 20 homes.
Wildfires have also broken out in Croatia, where red heat warnings are in place for coastal areas, while an extreme temperature alert was issued for neighbouring Montenegro.
Temperatures in Greece have been approaching 40C for several days and coastal towns near the capital Athens last week erupted in flames that destroyed homes – forcing people to evacuate.
On Wednesday, Serbia reported its hottest day since records began, and the meteorological service warned on Monday that “severe and extreme drought conditions prevail” in much of the country.
Meanwhile a record 38.8C was recorded in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday. In Slovenia, the hottest-ever June temperature was recorded on Saturday.
The temperature in North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, reached 42C on Friday – and are expected to continue in that range.
While the heatwave is a potential health issue, it is also impacting the environment. Higher temperatures in the Adriatic Sea are encouraging invasive species such as the poisonous lionfish, while also causing further stress on alpine glaciers that are already shrinking at record rates.
The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Turk, warned on Monday that the heatwave highlighted the need for climate adaptation – moving away from practices and energy sources, such as fossil fuels, which are the main cause of climate change.
“Rising temperatures, rising seas, floods, droughts, and wildfires threaten our rights to life, to health, to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and much more,” he told the UN’s Human Rights Council.
Heatwaves are becoming more common due to human-caused climate change, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Extreme hot weather will happen more often – and become even more intense – as the planet continues to warm, it has said.
Richard Allan, Professor of Climate Science at the University of Reading in the UK, explained that rising greenhouse gas levels are making it harder for the planet to lose excess heat.
“The warmer, thirstier atmosphere is more effective at drying soils, meaning heatwaves are intensifying, with moderate heat events now becoming extreme.”
