The US economy contracted in the beginning of the year at a much faster pace than previously reported, after new data factored in much weaker consumer spending.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, registered an annualized rate of -0.5% from January through March, the Commerce Department said Thursday in its third and final estimate. That’s worse than the 0.2% decline reported in the second estimate. GDP is adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation.

The latest estimate showed that consumer spending — the lifeblood of the US economy — was tepid in the beginning of the year. Spending in the first quarter grew at a rate of just 0.5%, down from 1.2% in an earlier estimate. That’s the weakest rate in more than four years.

Real-terms gains of $33.9tn for world’s richest 1% ‘enough to end annual global poverty 22 times over’, charity says

The wealth of the world’s 3,000 billionaires has surged by $6.5tn (£4.8tn) in real terms over the past decade, according to Oxfam, equivalent to 14.6% of global output.

In total the richest 1% of the global population has gained at least $33.9tn in real terms, which the charity said was “enough to end annual global poverty 22 times over”.

The figures come as various governments face growing calls to introduce a wealth tax on the international elite.

UK health officials launch study into side-effects of weight loss drugs after increased reports of acute pancreatitis

Hundreds of people have reported problems with their pancreas linked to taking weight loss and diabetes injections, prompting health officials to launch a study into side-effects.

Some cases of pancreatitis reported to be linked to GLP-1 medicines (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists) have been fatal.

The move comes after an increase in reports of acute pancreatitis to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) Yellow Card scheme, which monitors any adverse reactions to medications and medical devices in the UK.

Health secretary unilaterally appointed ACIP’s eight new members, several of whom are critical of immunizations

The first meeting of a critical federal vaccine panel was a high-profile display of how the US health secretary and vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr has injected chaos into vaccine policy infrastructure.

Wednesday’s meeting was held amid controversy, not only regarding the new members unilaterally appointed by Kennedy, but also the questions they would consider, their conflicts of interest and views on vaccines, and the scheduled speakers.

The new chair of the committee, former Harvard University professor of medicine Dr Martin Kulldorff, who was fired for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid-19, began the meeting by criticizing both his former employer and the media.

A senior aide to President Donald Trump has claimed Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary is a result of a failure to control migration.

"NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration," Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, wrote on X.

Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, defeated former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in a stunning upset on Tuesday night.

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A fired Department of Justice lawyer says that top DOJ official Emil Bove told department attorneys to consider telling judges “f---k you” and ignore any court order barring the Trump administration from deporting immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act.

Donald Trump has nominated Bove as a federal circuit court appeals judge.

Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Dick Durbin, an Ilinois Democrat, urged his Republican colleagues not to “turn a blind eye to the dire consequences of confirming” Bove to a lifetime position as a circuit court judge.

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Tesla new car sales in Europe fell 27.9% year-on-year. in May.

The U.S. EV maker has sustained brand and reputational damage in part due to CEO Elon Musk’s incendiary rhetoric and political activity.

Chinese manufacturers, meanwhile, maintained their strong momentum in Europe’s new car market last month.

One of DOGE’s best-known workers Edward Coristine, 19, quits a month after his former boss Elon Musk’s departure

19-year-old Edward Coristine, has resigned from the US government, a White House official said on Tuesday, a month after the acrimonious departure of his former boss Elon Musk.

Last month, Reuters reported that Coristine was one of two Doge associates promoting the use of AI across the federal bureaucracy. Media outlets, including Wired which first reported his departure, revealed that Coristine had been active in a chat room popular with hackers and previously had been fired from a job following an alleged data leak.

In March, Reuters reported that Coristine had provided tech support to a cybercrime gang that had bragged about trafficking in stolen data and harassing an FBI agent.

The British paedophile charged in connection with organising a "mock wedding" to a child in Disneyland Paris is Jacky Jhaj, who was found guilty of sexual activity with two 15-year-olds in 2016, the BBC understands.

Jhaj, 39, has been charged in connection with organising the fake ceremony on Saturday, in which a nine-year-old Ukrainian girl was due to feature as his bride.

He was arrested when police were called on Saturday morning by an actor who said he had been hired by Jhaj to play the father of the bride.

The BBC has previously investigated how Jhaj was able to hire hundreds of children to act as his fawning fans at a fake film premiere in London's Leicester Square in 2023.

Canada believes Donald Trump is no longer interested in turning it into the 51st state, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday.

Asked by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on the sidelines of the NATO meeting in the Netherlands whether Trump is still saying he wants to annex Canada, Carney replied, “No, he is not.”

“He admires Canada,” Carney told Amanpour. “I think it’s fair to say, maybe for a period of time (he) coveted Canada.”

A review on the use of the preservative thimerosal in vaccines slated to be presented on Thursday to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's outside vaccine committee cites a study that does not exist, the scientist listed as the study's author said.

The report, called "Thimerosal as a Vaccine Preservative" published on the CDC website on Tuesday, is to be presented by Lyn Redwood, a former leader of the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense.

It makes reference to a study called "Low-level neonatal thimerosal exposure: Long-term consequences in the brain," published in the journal Neurotoxicology in 2008, and co-authored by UC Davis Professor Emeritus Robert Berman.

But according to Berman, "it's not making reference to a study I published or carried out."

A senior Ukrainian lawmaker who put Donald Trump forward for a Nobel Peace Prize has withdrawn his nomination.

Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign committee, told Newsweek on Tuesday that he had "lost any sort of faith and belief" in Trump and his ability to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

Merezhko said Trump had "virtually no reaction" to large-scale strikes on the Ukrainian capital in recent weeks, adding: "He has chosen the path of appeasement."