‘DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.’ Donald Trump said he would ‘take a look’ at the possibility of Elon Musk being deported. Musk has criticised Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ for what he called ‘insane spending’ and renewed his call for a new political party.
Published On 1 Jul 2025
K-Pop superstars BTS are officially coming back next year, marking the end of a hiatus that started in 2022.
The HYBE-signed group revealed during a live stream on superfan platform Weverse today (July 1) that they will release a new album and embark on a world tour in the spring of 2026.
The announcement confirms reports published last month about a March 2026 return for the group.
All seven members of BTS appeared live together during the Weverse livestream, their first joint livestream since completing their mandatory military service.
During the livestream, the group revealed that starting this month, all members will head to the United States to begin working on new music.
“We’re approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started.”
BTS
The members said: “We’ll be releasing a new BTS album in the spring of next year. Starting in July, all seven of us will begin working closely together on new music.
“Since it will be a group album, it will reflect each member’s thoughts and ideas. We’re approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started.”
Alongside the release of their new album in 2026, BTS are also set to embark on what their label calls a “massive” world tour.
They added: “We’re also planning a world tour alongside the new album. We’ll be visiting fans all around the world, so we hope you’re as excited as we are.”
This will be BTS’s first world tour in approximately four years since the conclusion of ‘BTS PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE’ in 2022.
The tour drew over 4 million attendees/viewers across in-person concerts, online live streaming, live viewing, and live play.
Additionally, BTS shared updates on their upcoming activities for the second half of 2025.
The members reflected on the Korean leg of Jin’s solo tour, ‘#RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR,’ which took place in Goyang, Korea on June 28–29.
Following the ‘j-hope Tour ‘HOPE ON THE STAGE,’’ j-hope is slated to headline Lollapalooza Berlin on July 13.
Today’s livestream marked BTS’s first live broadcast since September 2022. It lasted approximately 30 minutes and garnered over 7.3 million real-time total views.
BTS are RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook. They debuted in 2013. The group has scored six No.1 Billboard Hot 100 singles since 2020, and performed multiple sold-out stadium shows across the world.
They were also named TIME’s Entertainer of the Year 2020. BTS are 5-time Grammy nominees (63rd to 65th GRAMMY Awards) and have been recognized with numerous awards like the Billboard Music Awards, American Music Awards (Artist of the Year 2021) and MTV Video Music Awards.
BTS were historically HYBE’s biggest earners. News of their break as a group in 2022 rattled investors, with the company’s shares falling by around 25% that day, wiping around $1.5 billion from HYBE’s market cap value in the process.
With the group’s absence, HYBE’s operating profit dropped 37.5% YoY to KRW 184.82 billion ($135.55 million) in FY 2024, which the company attributed to, among other factors, “BTS‘ temporary break.”
Music Business Worldwide
While we are still about three weeks out from the swimming portion of the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, there is no shortage of championship-level meets this month. With the European U23 Championships wrapping up this past Saturday in Samorin, Slovakia, we now have the European Junior Championships set to take place in the same venue from Tuesday, July 1 through Sunday, July 6.
This year’s meet represents the second-ever continental championship hosted by Slovakia after last week’s U23 meet, with 666 swimmers (308 girls and 358 boys) from 51 countries set to compete.
This 51st edition of the European Junior Championships features girls aged 14-17 and boys aged 15-18. Heats begin at 9:30 AM local time (3:30 AM ET), and finals begin at 6:00 PM local time (12:00 PM ET) on each of the six days of racing.
Here’s a list of all the links that you’ll need to follow the action this week, along with the event schedule.
A new tower is set to make a major impact on the skyline in Toronto, Canada. Named One Bloor West, the building is nearing completion and has officially surpassed 300 m (984 ft), making it the country’s first supertall skyscraper.
One Bloor West is designed by high-profile firm Foster + Partners, with Core Architects, and developed by Tridel. Once complete, it’s slated to become Canada’s tallest skyscraper, coming in at 308.6 m (1,012 ft), compared to the country’s current tallest skyscraper, the 298.1 m (978 ft) First Canadian Place completed in 1975.
However, things are rarely simple when it comes to skyscrapers and it’s worth pointing out that another upcoming building, the SkyTower (also in Toronto), will be even taller at 351.9 m (1,155 ft) once that’s finished, so depending on the timing of each project, One Bloor West’s time at the top might be fleeting. Also, it’s worth pointing out that neither will be Canada’s tallest manmade structure. That honor belongs to the CN Tower, a remarkably tall 553.3 m (1,815.5 ft) communications and observation tower, again in Toronto.
Tridel
The building’s exterior will feature a glass curtain wall broken up by eye-catching structural framing clad in bronze. Inside, the lower floors will contain commercial space, with higher areas hosting 476 plush residences, plus a five-star hotel.
“One Bloor West is officially Canada’s first supertall building (a label reserved for buildings above 300 meters [984 ft]), becoming the latest and most striking addition to Toronto’s skyline in over a generation,” says the developer’s press release. “A remarkable feat of engineering and vertical scale, One Bloor West reflects Toronto’s rapid urban evolution while showcasing what’s possible when vision, innovation, and dedication come together, One Bloor West is both a celebration of form and height, setting a new benchmark for urban development in Canada. Construction continues to progress steadily, with major structural milestones now complete and interior work soon to advance across multiple levels.”
Tridel
In a nice touch, some local history is maintained as part of the development too, in the form of the existing William Luke Buildings that were originally built in 1883. Their facades have been retained and incorporated into the building, some of the tower’s mechanical equipment has been installed on their roofs and their interiors will be used as hospitality spaces.
One Bloor West is due to be completed in 2028.
Sources: Foster + Partners, Tridel
BBC News
Getty ImagesBoth Portugal and Spain recorded their hottest June ever as scorching temperatures continue to grip Europe.
Spain’s national weather service Aemet said the country’s “extremely hot” June 2025 “has pulverised records”, surpassing the normal average for July and August.
The Portuguese meteorological service said 46.6C was the highest temperature recorded in June.
Elsewhere on the continent on Tuesday, tens of thousands of people have been evacuated because of wildfires in western Turkey, while two people died in Italy following separate heat-related deaths.
Overnight, the Aemet meteorological agency said that several places across the Iberian peninsula had topped 43C, but added that a respite in temperatures was on its way from Thursday.
Night-time temperatures recorded overnight into Tuesday hit 28C in Seville and 27C in Barcelona.
In Turkey, rescuers evacuated more than 50,000 people – mostly from the western province of Izmir – as firefighters continued to put out hundreds of wildfires that had broken out in recent days.
Fires have also swept through parts of Bilecik, Hatay, Sakarya, and Manisa provinces.
Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said over the past three days, emergency teams had responded to 263 wildfires nationwide.
Getty ImagesIn France, many cities experienced their hottest night and day on record for June on Monday, but forecasters have said the heatwave should expect to peak on Tuesday.
The top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris has been closed because of the intense European heatwave; while Climate Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher called an “unprecedented” situation.
For first time in five years the Paris region has activated a red alert, along with 15 other French regions. The Ministry of Education has said 1,350 public schools will either be partially or completely closed on Tuesday.
A reading of 46.6 C (115.9F) was registered in Mora, Portugal, about 60 miles east of Lisbon on Sunday. Portuguese weather officials were working to confirm whether that marked a new record for June.
Getty ImagesIn Italy, the Tuscany region has seen hospital admissions rise by 20%, according to local reports.
Italians in 21 out of the 27 cities have been subjected to the highest heat alert and 13 regions, including Lombardy and Emilia, have been advised not to venture outside during the hottest periods of the day.
In Lombardy, working outdoors has been banned from 12:30 to 16:00 on hot days on building sites, roads and farms until September.
Temperatures in Greece have been approaching 40C for several days and wildfires hit several coastal towns near the capital Athens destroying homes and forcing people to evacuate.
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.
In Germany, the country’s meteorological service warned that temperatures could reach almost 38C on Tuesday and Wednesday – further potentially record-breaking temperatures.
The heatwave lowered levels in the Rhine River – a major shipping route – limiting the amount cargo ships can transport and raising freighting costs.
Countries in and around the Balkans have also been struggling with the intense heat, although temperatures have begun to cool. Wildfires have also been reported in Montenegro.
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.”
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Macquarie has agreed to inject up to £1.2bn of fresh equity into struggling utility Southern Water as part of a recapitalisation that will result in the debt owed to its holding company lenders being cut by more than half.
Southern’s Australian owner will initially pump £655mn of equity into the company — which provides water and sewerage services to 4.7mn customers in the south-east of England.
Macquarie intends to provide a minimum of £245mn in additional equity by December, a sum that could rise to as much as £545mn.
As part of the deal Macquarie has also agreed a debt restructuring with lenders to Southern Water’s holding companies, which will apply significant haircuts to the riskiest bonds in the group’s multi-tiered financial structure.
While Southern’s finances are in a less precarious position than those of Thames Water, the UK’s largest water utility that was previously owned by Macquarie, it is still on a watchlist of financially stressed companies monitored by the regulator, Ofwat. It has come under pressure in debt markets over concerns it could breach its covenants.
Southern also faces a backlash from the general public for sewage outflows at some of the UK’s most popular beaches, including Brighton and Whitstable, and is at risk of water shortages after years of under-investment. The company has considered importing water from the Norwegian fjords.
By 2030 Southern will raise annual customer bills by £222 to £642, the largest increase agreed between any of the UK’s 11 privatised water and sewage companies and the regulator. This bill increase comes on top of other inflation-linked rises.
Southern has appealed to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority to be able to increase bills even further over the next five years to help it finance upgrades.
Meanwhile, the company paid chief executive Lawrence Gosden a £183,000 bonus last year, helping to boost his total pay by 79 per cent to £764,200.
Southern announced on Tuesday that the debt across its holding companies would be reduced from £865mn to £415mn. There are two main tiers of debt above Southern’s operating company, which sit at a middle holding company and a top holding company respectively.
Bondholders including Ares Management and Australian infrastructure investor Westbourne Capital have agreed to a full writedown of their roughly £370mn of debt, according to a person familiar with the matter.
In return, they will receive an “equity-like” investment in the water company, the person added, in an arrangement similar to a debt-for-equity swap, in which these bondholders receive a minority stake in the business.
Bondholders at the middle holding company will see no impairment to the face value of their debt, the person said, but have agreed to change the terms of the debt and extend its maturity.
The maturities of the remaining debt facilities are being extended to at least September 2030, according to the announcement on Tuesday.
The writedowns are seen as a way to allow new equity to flow directly into the utility’s heavily-indebted operating company, rather than being used to service debt further up the capital structure.
In February, Macquarie committed to injecting £900mn of fresh equity into Southern, an increase on the £650mn it had promised previously.
“This additional equity investment demonstrates our commitment to Southern Water and its management team, and our belief that the planned investment programme will deliver for its customers and the environment,” said Martin Bradley, a senior managing director at Macquarie Asset Management.
As heavy rains battered southwestern China, drones were deployed to deliver relief supplies, disinfect flooded areas and airlift a trapped resident.
France shuts schools as heatwave grips Europe, sea off Spain at record high temperatures
A Thai court has accepted a petition from senators that accuse the PM of dishonesty and breaching ethical standards.
Thailand’s Constitutional Court has suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office pending an ethics investigation over a leaked phone call with a senior Cambodian official, heaping pressure on Thailand’s governing political dynasty.
The court said in a statement that it had accepted a petition from 36 senators, which accuses Paetongtarn of dishonesty and breaching ethical standards, in violation of the constitution, over a leaked telephone conversation with Cambodia’s influential former leader, Hun Sen.
Deputy Prime Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit will assume a caretaker role while the court decides the case against Paetongtarn, who has 15 days to respond.
Paetongtarn will remain in the cabinet as the new culture minister following a cabinet reshuffle.
The controversy stems from a June 15 phone call with Cambodia’s influential former leader Hun Sen that was intended to defuse escalating border tensions between the neighbours.
During the call, Paetongtarn, 38, referred to Hun Sen as “uncle” and criticised a Thai army commander, a red line in a country where the military has significant clout. She has apologised and said her remarks were a negotiating tactic.
The leaked call led to domestic outrage and has left Paetongtarn’s coalition with a razor-thin majority, with a key party abandoning the alliance and expected to soon seek a no-confidence vote in parliament, as protest groups demand the premier resign.
Paetongtarn’s battles after only 10 months in power underline the declining strength of the Pheu Thai Party, the populist juggernaut of the billionaire Shinawatra dynasty, which has dominated Thai elections since 2001, enduring military coups and court rulings that have toppled multiple governments and prime ministers.
It has been a baptism of fire for political novice Paetongtarn, who was thrust into power as Thailand’s youngest premier and replacement for Srettha Thavisin, who the Constitutional Court dismissed for violating ethics by appointing a minister who had once been jailed.
Paetongtarn’s government has also been struggling to revive a stuttering economy, and her popularity has declined sharply, with a June 19-25 opinion poll released at the weekend showing her approval rating sinking to 9.2 percent from 30.9 percent in March.
Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, the 75-year-old family patriarch and billionaire who was twice elected leader in the early 2000s, is also facing legal hurdles.
Divisive tycoon Thaksin, according to his lawyer, appeared at his first hearing at Bangkok’s Criminal Court on Tuesday on charges that he insulted Thailand’s powerful monarchy, a serious offence punishable by up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.
Thaksin denies the allegations and has repeatedly pledged allegiance to the crown.
The case stems from a 2015 media interview Thaksin gave while in self-imposed exile, from which he returned in 2023 after 15 years abroad to serve a prison sentence for conflicts of interest and abuse of power.
Thaksin dodged jail and spent six months in hospital detention on medical grounds before being released on parole in February last year.
The Supreme Court will this month scrutinise that hospital stay and could potentially send him back to jail.
The Senate is slogging through an overnight session that has dragged into Tuesday, with Republican leaders buying time as they search for ways to secure support for President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts while fending off proposed amendments, mostly from Democrats trying to defeat the package.
An endgame was not immediately in sight. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota is working for a last-minute agreement between those in his party worried the bill’s reductions to Medicaid will leave millions without care and his most conservative flank, which wants even steeper cuts to hold down deficits ballooning with the tax cuts.
Thune declared at one point they were in the “homestretch” as he dashed through the halls at the Capitol, only to backtrack a short time later, suggesting any progress was “elusive.”
At the same time House Speaker Mike Johnson has signaled more potential problems ahead, warning the Senate package could run into trouble when it is sent back to the House for a final round of voting, as skeptical lawmakers are being called back to Washington ahead of Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.
“I have prevailed upon my Senate colleagues to please, please, please keep it as close to the House product as possible,” said Johnson, the Louisiana Republican. House Republicans had already passed their version last month.
It’s a pivotal moment for the Republicans, who have control of Congress and are racing to wrap up work with just days to go before Trump’s holiday deadline Friday. The 940-page “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” as it’s formally titled, has consumed Congress as its shared priority with the president.
In a midnight social media post urging them on, Trump called the bill “perhaps the greatest and most important of its kind.” Vice President JD Vance summed up his own series of posts, simply imploring senators to “Pass the bill.”
The GOP leaders have no room to spare, with narrow majorities in both chambers. Thune can lose no more than three Republican senators, and already two — Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who warns people will lose access to Medicaid health care, and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who opposes raising the debt limit — have indicated opposition. Tillis abruptly announced over the weekend he would not seek reelection after Trump threatened to campaign against him.
Attention quickly turned to key senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who have also raised concerns about health care cuts, but also a loose coalition of four conservative GOP senators pushing for even steeper reductions.
And on social media, billionaire Elon Musk was again lashing out at Republicans as “the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” for including a provision that would raise the nation’s debt limit by $5 trillion, which is needed to allow continued borrowing to pay the bills.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said his side was working to show “how awful this is.”
“Republicans are in shambles because they know the bill is so unpopular,” Schumer said as he walked the halls.
A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law. The CBO said the package would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the decade.
Few Republicans appear fully satisfied as the final package emerges, in either the House or Senate.
Tillis said it is a betrayal of the president’s promises not to kick people off health care, especially if rural hospitals close.
Collins had proposed bolstering the $25 billion proposed rural hospital fund to $50 billion, but her amendment failed. And Murkowski was trying to secure provisions to spare people in her state from some health care and food stamp cuts while also working to beef up federal reimbursements to Alaska’s hospitals. They have not said how they would vote for the final package.
“Radio silence,” Murkowski said when asked.
At the same time, conservative Senate Republicans proposing steeper health care cuts, including Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, filed into Thune’s office for a near-midnight meeting.
The Senate has spent some 18 hours churning through more than two dozen amendments in what is called a vote-a-rama, a typically laborious process that went on longer than usual as negotiations happen on and off the chamber floor. The White House legislative team also was at the Capitol.
A few of the amendments — to strike parts of the bill that would limit Medicaid funds to rural hospitals or shift the costs of food stamp benefits to the states — were winning support from a few Republicans, though almost none were passing.
Sen. Mike Crapo, the GOP chairman of the Finance Committee, dismissed the dire predictions of health care cuts as Democrats trafficking in what he called the “politics of fear.”
All told, the Senate bill includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, according to the latest CBO analysis, making permanent Trump’s 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act, while adding the new ones he campaigned on, including no taxes on tips.
The Senate package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits, which Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide. It would impose $1.2 trillion in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing work requirements on able-bodied people, including some parents and older Americans, making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states.
Additionally, the bill would provide a $350 billion infusion for border and national security, including for deportations, some of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants.
Unable to stop the march toward passage, the Democrats as the minority party in Congress are using the tools at their disposal to delay and drag out the process.
Democrats forced a full reading of the text, which took 16 hours, and they have a stream of amendments.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, raised particular concern at the start of debate late Sunday about the accounting method being used by the Republicans, which says the tax breaks from Trump’s first term are now “current policy” and the cost of extending them should not be counted toward deficits.
She said that kind of “magic math” won’t fly with Americans trying to balance their own household books.
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