Within less than a year, Northern Ireland has witnessed several historic events: for the first time, Catholics now outnumber Protestants, and the nationalists of Sinn Féin, the former political wing of the IRA paramilitaries, have won the elections. At a time when peace in Ireland has been undermined by Brexit, is a reunited Ireland inevitable? This documentary looks at the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland, where the ghosts of the past still haunt the everyday lives of the population and thwart the part of the country’s economic and political plans. Extremist groups are disrupting the negotiations between London and Brussels, challenging the peace policy and the future of Europe. If Brexit has already poisoned the atmosphere to such an extent, what will happen if the island of Ireland votes on reunification? The 1998 Good Friday Agreement opens the door to such a referendum. This documentary first aired in 2024 #FreeDocumentary#ENDEVR#ireland
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You may feel nauseated before giving a presentation or feel intestinal pain during times of stress.
You’re not imagining it. The gut and the brain influence each other.
For example, stress (or depression or other psychological factors) can affect movement and contractions of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as sensations perceived to come from the gut.
Get your copy of Help for Your Sensitive Gut
When your digestive system is running smoothly, you tend not to think about it. Once trouble begins, your gut — like a squeaky wheel — suddenly demands your attention. This Special Health Report, Help for Your Sensitive Gut, covers the major sources of gastrointestinal distress: irritable bowel syndrome, gastric reflux, upset stomach, constipation, diarrhea, and excess gas.
It also includes a special Bonus Section describing how emotional stress and anxiety can cause gastrointestinal distress.SHOW ME MORE →
There is also emerging evidence that psychosocial factors may alter the types of bacteria that live in your gut, which can contribute to chronic inflammation. In addition, research suggests that some people with functional GI disorders perceive pain more intensely than other people do because their brains do not properly regulate pain signals from the digestive tract.
In other words, stress can make the existing pain from functional GI disorders seem even worse. These observations suggest that at least some people with functional GI conditions might find relief with therapy to reduce stress or treat anxiety or depression. And sure enough, one review of 32 studies showed that people treated with psychologically based approaches had greater improvement in their symptoms compared with people who received conventional medical treatment.
Integrative therapy for functional GI disorders shifts the focus away from pinpointing a specific cause for symptoms to engaging patients in activities and therapies that can help in managing symptoms and increasing quality of life. This may include the use of medications, dietary changes, and stress-reduction techniques.When assessing whether your gastrointestinal symptoms – such as heartburn, abdominal cramps, or loose stools – are related to stress, watch for these other common symptoms of stress and report them to your clinician as well.
Physical symptoms stiff or tense muscles, especially in the neck and shoulders headaches sleep problems shakiness or tremorsrecent loss of interest in sexweight loss or gain restlessness.
Behavioral symptoms procrastination difficulty completing work assignments changes in the amount of alcohol or food you consume taking up smoking, or smoking more than usual grinding teeth rumination (frequent talking or brooding about stressful situations).
Emotional symptoms crying overwhelming sense of tension or pressure trouble relaxing increased desire to be with or withdraw from others nervousness quick temper depression poor concentration trouble remembering things loss of sense of humor indecisiveness.For more on the connection between brain health and gut health, read The Sensitive Gut, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.
Albania’s ‘Flamingo Revolution’: What’s behind the protests?
Rashela Shehu in Tirana, Albania06/27/2026June 27, 2026
For weeks now, images of crowds of Albanians protesting on the streets have been relayed around the world. The protesters say they are fighting for democracy. PM Edi Rama insists the movement is part of a hybrid war.
The flamingo has become the dominant image of daily protests taking place in AlbaniaImage: Florion Goga/REUTERS
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Every evening at 7 p.m., protesters return to the same square in the Albanian capital, Tirana, with the same symbols, making the same demands.
More than three weeks of uninterrupted daily demonstrations have turned the “Flamingo Revolution” into Albania’s largest civic protest movement since the fall of communism.
It began when a government-approved luxury tourism project in Zvernec, a protected coastal area in southern Albania, triggered protests that soon evolved into a broader political movement.
Initially driven by environmental concerns, the demonstrations have expanded into broader demands, including calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Prime Minister Edi Rama has said protests are driven by external influences and digital manipulationImage: Stevo Vasiljevic/REUTERS
Rama has rejected the idea that the unrest can be explained by domestic political grievances alone. Instead, he has argued that protests are unfolding within what he describes as a “hybrid war” driven by external influences and digital manipulation.
Kushner’s luxury resort
For Rama, the controversy gained international visibility only after it became associated with Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, who is planning to build a luxury tourism project in Zvernec.
“The world did not wake up because of the fate of Narta, but because of the name of Jared Kushner,” Rama said at a meeting of the Socialist Party’s parliamentary group on June 20.
The prime minister has argued that what he referred to as the “digital cyclone” has allowed the protests to be amplified by a broad constellation of external actors, including Trump opponents, anti-Israel groups and what he calls state-sponsored “digital mercenaries.”
“State-sponsored actors have been identified, including those from Iran,” he said.
Echoes of Albania’s communist past
Jonila Godole, scholar of political communication and collective memoryat the University of Tirana, said Rama’s interpretation of the protests reflects a familiar communications strategy: shifting the focus from the protesters’ demands to the alleged forces behind them.
“When a civic protest is presented as Iranian, anti-Israeli or driven by Trump’s opponents, attention shifts away from what protesters are demanding. The debate moves instead to the alleged authors of the protest — the external enemy,” she told DW.
The protests, which have been going on for almost a month, have been dubbed ‘The Flamingo Revolution’ because the area where Kushner plans to build his resort is home to the pink birds and many other speciesImage: Vlasov Sulaj/NurPhoto/picture alliance
Godole also sees echoes of Albania’s communist past in Rama’s rhetoric. During Albania’s communist period, political dissent was routinely portrayed as the work of hostile foreign forces.
She argued that the language of external enemies continues to resurface whenever those in power face sustained domestic pressure.
“Fear was the political capital of the communist regime,” she said. “It kept society under control and concentrated power around the leader. Today, that language no longer works in the same way. Young people no longer recognize that political code. They reject it.”
Can algorithms explain a protest?
Academic and communications theorist Artan Fuga said attributing the protests to algorithms risks confusing the medium with the cause.
Digital platforms may accelerate the circulation of information, he said, but they cannot explain why citizens choose to take to the streets.
Academic and communications theorist Artan Fuga said while digital platforms may accelerate the circulation of information, they cannot explain why citizens choose to take to the streetsImage: Vlasov Sulaj/NurPhoto/picture alliance
“The algorithm is part of the communication environment. It can accelerate the circulation of messages, amplify emotions and increase visibility. But it is not the cause of social dissatisfaction,” he told DW.
“Technology may influence the way a protest spreads, but it does not create the reasons for the protest. Confusing algorithms with social discontent means mistaking the channel for the source.”
For many observers, the turning point happened not online but on the beach at Zvernec on May 30.
In front of mobile phone cameras and in the presence of police officers, a protester was dragged across the sand by private security guards. The footage spread rapidly on social media, transforming what had begun as an environmental protest into a broader national debate about power, accountability and the rule of law.
Fuga said the images resonated because they captured tensions that had been building in Albanian society for years.
“It was a shocking moment for the Albanian public,” he said. “That scene exposed the relationship between citizens and the state, between the individual and their rights, and the clash between private interests and the public good.”
More than just an environmental protest
Political scientist Blendi Kajsiu said the protests reveal a much deeper crisis than a dispute over environmental protection.
After security guards dragged a protester across the sand on the beach at Zvernec on May 30, the environmental protest evolved into a broader political movementImage: Armando Babani/Matrix Images/picture alliance
In his view, what unites the demonstrators is not a shared ideology but a shared rejection of Albania’s political model.
“We are witnessing a profound crisis of Albania’s democratic model. What unites these protesters is no longer ideology, but the belief that the country’s political system no longer represents them,” he told DW.
Kajsiu said the protesters are attempting to reclaim public space from what they see as its gradual capture by narrow political and private interests.
“The fence erected in Zvernec became a physical manifestation of what many citizens feel has happened to the prime minister’s office, parliament and political parties: They have been enclosed by their ‘owners,'” he added.
Beyond Albania
The debate has already spread abroad and reached the European Union’s halls of power.
In its latest progress resolution on Albania, the European Parliament expressed “serious concern” over developments in the Vjosa-Narta protected area, and called for an immediate moratorium on new permits and construction in protected areas.
Flamingos are common in the Vjosa-Narta Protected AreaImage: Florion Goga/REUTERS
The resolution argues that environmental protection and the rule of law remain part of Albania’s EU accession commitments.
Jonila Godole believes the parliament’s resolution demonstrates that European institutions have acknowledged the environmental and rule-of-law dimensions of the dispute.
However, she said portraying the protests using the language of hybrid threats and foreign interference risks shifting international attention away from the protesters’ democratic demands and toward questions of security and stability.
“For years, Europe has called for a stronger civil society to strengthen democracy,” she said. “Today, Albania has a strong civil society that has mobilized on an unprecedented scale, yet there has been little international reaction in support of that mobilization. The question is whether civil society is welcomed only when it is weak, and not when it becomes a real political actor.”
Edited by: Aingeal Flanagan
Rashela Shehu Albania-based reporter specializing in current affairs
Palantir, the US spytech firm accused of abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, enjoys lavish tax breaks on UK profits that are already derived from taxpayers’ money, an analysis by openDemocracy has found.
The company has been awarded at least £670m in UK public contracts in recent years. That includes a £330m deal to manage sensitive NHS data, signed despite the fact Palantir’s co-founder Peter Thiel has expressed disdain for publicly funded healthcare.
Those contracts have helped make the UK Palantir’s second-largest market by revenue, with 2024 pre-tax profits of £25.3m.
But its effective UK tax rate that year was only £2m, or 8%, far lower than the norm of 25% paid by firms with profits above £250,000.
In 2023 it was even less, at 4.7%, and in 2022 it was 4.2%.
For 2025, Companies House filings suggest Palantir paid less than £820,000 in cash tax in the UK, less than it paid in Korea, Japan, France and Germany.
The low rate was due a structured arrangement that limits the amount of profits recognised in the UK, as well as a rule that awards large tax breaks to firms that compensate their employees with stock instead of cash, openDemocracy reported.
The report said the nature of filings made it difficult to assess the total amount of tax breaks Palantir has received, but by 2022 alone it had accumulated £230m in tax relief from what it called “employee share acquisition relief”.
“When profitable companies are paying very little tax, especially when much of their revenues derive from taxpayers’ money itself, then it’s important to ask why,” Mike Lewis, director of TaxWatch, told openDemocracy.
“Is it because tax incentives and tax breaks are poorly targeted? Or is it because companies are shifting profits in ways that our tax system is supposed to counteract?”
Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan are interviewed by Ryan Nobles on “Meet the Press” yesterday. Photo: NBC NewsAxios CEO Jim VandeHei writes in his weekly C-Suite newsletter:
I never read Trump books. To me, there’s little mystery to how the president thinks, operates or governs.
Until now. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan (two reporters who are must-reads for Trump Kremlinology) deliver living history with “Regime Change,” which sparked a West Wing leak hunt and sold an astonishing 150,000 copies in preorders + Day 1.
I asked Swan, a longtime friend, to share his learnings on how business leaders can navigate Trump:
Play to his Great Man theory. Trump couldn’t care less about winning the midterms, boosting his domestic popularity or even helping set up Vice President Vance to succeed him. Trump’s singular obsession, fed by his staff and friendly historians, is being seen as a Great Man of WORLD history.
Master the oligarchy. Trump pops off in public but runs a more discreet operation with a half-dozen loyalists plotting future moves. To limit leaks, they sometimes use the Situation Room to secretly hatch domestic plans. This group includes: Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, chief of staff Susie Wiles and Stephen Miller.
Expect more volatility. Trump is playing for history and searching for grand gestures. Don’t be surprised if he seeks a deal with China to carve up the world map or expands his territorial ambitions south of the border.Get the book: With the book sold out in many places and distributors awaiting a new printing, Haberman tweeted last night that she and Swan “are so grateful that there is such interest in REGIME CHANGE … [T]he ebook and audiobook are both available immediately. Thank you for patience.”Share this story.If you’re a CEO or on a CEO’s team: Apply now to join Jim’s new Axios C-Suite weekly newsletter.
Can AI create a golden age of scientific discovery? In this episode of The Deep View Conversations, we sit down with Yossi Matias, head of Google Research, to explore how AI is transforming the way science gets done.
Rather than replacing scientists, Google is building AI systems designed to amplify human ingenuity. From searching millions of research papers to generating new hypotheses and accelerating experiments, these tools aim to help researchers move from ideas to discoveries faster than ever before.
Yossi explains why he believes we’re entering a new era where AI can democratize scientific research, empower the next generation of scientists, and dramatically shorten the path from breakthrough to real-world impact.
Topics covered include: How Gemini for Science is changing research workflows. What AI Co-Scientist, AlphaEvolve, and the Empirical Research Assistant actually do. Why the scientific method is becoming even more important in the AI era. How Google is partnering with universities including Stanford and Imperial College. Why AI could give every researcher a “virtual lab” in their pocket. What a golden age of scientific discovery might look like. If you’re interested in AI, scientific discovery, biotechnology, or the future of innovation, this conversation offers a look at how one of the world’s leading AI research organizations sees the next decade unfolding.
The first hotel run by robots will open its doors to the public next year. It comes as no surprise that it’s happening in China – on the artificial island built for the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, the cross-sea megaproject in the Pearl River Delta.
Pudu Robotics has announced the first “full-scenario robot-serviced hotel” on West Artificial Island that connects the ambitious bridge and tunnel crossing known as the Shenzhen-Zhongshan (ShenZhong) Link in Guangdong Province.
The hotel, officially set to open its doors in 2027, will see robots occupy every hospitality role, including reception, room service, cleaning, food preparation and guest support. Shenzhen’s Pudu Robotics has already deployed its machines to work in various retail, food-and-beverage and cleaning positions, but this new project will have them running the entire operation.
Pudu and Shenzhen Culture & Tourism Industry Development will work together to turn the West Artificial Island, which opened in December 2025, into a dedicated robotics and technology destination for visitors.
A few of the models to be deployed to the Artificial West Island hotel, on show at the Shenzhen launch
“This partnership represents an important step toward large-scale deployment of embodied intelligence in premium hospitality environments,” said Cong Guo, Co-founder and CTO of Pudu Robotics. “It also provides an opportunity to explore new service models where AI and robotics work together to deliver intelligent, end-to-end experiences in the real world.”
The hotel will be rolled out in stages, with the first trial scheduled to begin in late 2026, where a handful of guest rooms and robot-powered services will be in operation for the general public. These early visitors will get to experience robot-run welcoming and check-in services, plus autonomous in-room delivery.
Room-service delivery robots are commonplace in hotels across China’s large cities already, including the nearby technology hub of Shenzhen. And Shanghai’s Shangri-La Hongqiao Airport has recently put the humanoid XMAN-R1 to work on the front desk, with other robots handling room deliveries, luggage and cleaning.
However, the new island hotel isn’t just a smart space with robots assisting human staff throughout the premises. It’ll be designed to be a fully functional and interconnected robot “service ecosystem” run entirely by Pudu’s hardware and software. The company’s embodied intelligence foundation model, PuduFM 1.0, will work with PuduAgent to run the hotel’s “intelligent operations.”
Among the staff, Pudu’s FlashBot will operate an intelligent vending system, where guests can order drink deliveries via smartphone, the PUDU T300 will transport luggage from the foyer to hotel rooms, and the PUDU CC1 Pro and PUDU MT1 cleaning bots will do the dirty work using AI waste-detection technology.
“This architecture enables robots with different physical forms and responsibilities to operate from a shared intelligence framework,” Pudu said in a statement. “Reception robots can understand gestures and social interactions, delivery robots can autonomously optimize routes, and cleaning robots can dynamically adapt to changing environments – all while leveraging the same core AI capabilities.”
Artificial West Island
At the hotel launch in Shenzhen, the company’s BellaBot Pro served coffee while KettyBot Pro delivered refreshments and snacks to those in attendance. This isn’t novel by the city’s standards, however; at the sprawling Shenzhen Talent Park by the bay, a permanent coffee shop is staffed by a robot barista, close to a hub where you can get food delivered by drone simply by ordering on your phone like UberEats.
In this sense, it’s no surprise that West Artificial Island will become the home of even more advanced autonomous service. The hotel project is just one of the developments planned for the island, with advanced robotics rolled out in stages across service and tourism over the next four years.
“This ‘full-scenario’ model means Pudu robots will be deeply involved in every part of hotel operations, with no service gaps and no human interruptions,” Guo told Chinese news agency Xinhua at the launch.
The hotel is planned to include 44 high-end rooms, a restaurant, gym and other spaces for guest use. They’ll be connected through a closed-loop smart service system ensuring that all aspects of service – from check-in to cleaning – will work together. Looking further ahead, plans are for the project to expand beyond the hotel to the island’s broader tourism and hospitality sector.
Bronwyn has always loved words and animals, and she has the journalism and zoology degrees to prove it. After more than 20 years as a writer and editor, the former music journalist went back to university to build on her passion for wildlife and conservation with a Bachelor of Zoology, which unlocked two new loves: sharing animal facts at any opportunity and getting others excited about science. Particularly interested in neuroscience, genetics, animal behavior and evolutionary biology, Bronwyn has found a happy home at New Atlas, coming on board in February 2023.
On July 4, the United States will celebrate its 250th birthday. Over the past two and a half centuries, American society has changed profoundly, from an agrarian republic of 13 colonies to the urban, diverse, and economic superpower it is today. To mark the quarter-millennium, we decided to look back on how the country has demographically evolved since its last major milestone, the bicentennial.
One of the most striking developments since 1976 is the increasingly diverse face of the nation. As our Graphic Truth shows, Hispanic Americans have increased to roughly a fifth of the population – a more than fourfold jump – while the Asian American population has grown from under 1% in the 1970 census to 6% in 2024.
In 1970, only 4.7% of the US population was foreign-born, the lowest share in the country’s recorded history. That reflected the long shadow of the 1924 Immigration Act, which tightened immigration from everywhere other than the Western Hemisphere. That law, along with other restrictive immigration measures, wasn’t overturned until 1965. Because the US experienced relatively little immigration over the preceding four decades, the country’s demographic breakdown in the 1970s reflected a period of demographic stagnation.
Meanwhile, the share of non-Hispanic white Americans has dropped, from 83% to 56%. The near-30-percentage-point drop reflects a half-century of steady flows of immigration into the country, the growth of ethnic-minority groups, as well as an aging population and lower fertility rates, meaning deaths outnumber births among non-Hispanic white Americans.
There are data challenges when it comes to checking how America’s changing racial and ethnic makeup has changed. Since the 1970s, the way the US Census records race and ethnicity has changed. Only since 2000 has the census allowed Americans to tick off more than one box for race – prior to the 21st century, people of multi-racial backgrounds had to select the race with which they most identified.
In 2030, the census will change again. After decades of advocacy, people with origins in the Middle East and North Africa will receive their own ethnic category, and “Latino” will be included as an option under “race and ethnicity.” As the US approaches its 250th birthday, it’s clear the country remains a demographic in motion. The picture is always changing, and the next census suggests it will continue to evolve in ways that challenge assumptions about who Americans are.
The Rundown: In this guide, you will learn how to use a free AI-enhanced video editor that connects to your existing Claude account. You can use it to have AI automatically transcribe, caption, cut, and color grade any raw footage for you.
Step-by-step:
Download and install Palmier Pro, open a new project, and create an Anthropic API key at console.anthropic.com/settings/keys In Palmier Pro, go to Settings > Agent, and paste your API key. Then, drag a 5-minute screen recording, talking-head clip, or product demo Ask the agent: “Edit this down to about one minute. Keep the strongest moments, remove dead air, and preserve the main point”After the first cut, ask for captions, better pacing, and light color or crop/frame polish. Review the timeline before exporting, then run this cycle in production
Pro tip: Install Palmier as an MCP server for Claude Code or Codex. This supports more automated workflows outside the in-app chat.
Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch warns that Britain’s economy will be left in ‘limbo’ as Labour MPs focus on the jobs they will secure in the next government.
• The Strangest Dictatorship You’ve Never He… 
![Environmental activists, families, members of the Albanian diaspora, tourists and young people participate in a demonstration in Tirana, Albania, on June 14, 2026. The child in the middle is wearing a T-shirt in the design of the Albanian flag and holds up a placard that reads 'Mornings are for [gaming] and afternoons are for Flamingo Revolution'](https://static.dw.com/image/77703483_900.jpg)
Jonathan Swan: 3 things to know about Trump
Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan are interviewed by Ryan Nobles on “Meet the Press” yesterday. Photo: NBC NewsAxios CEO Jim VandeHei writes in his weekly 
If you’re a CEO or on a CEO’s team: 
canisgallicus 