The US is set to take the Syrian Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) off its list of foreign terrorist organisations on Tuesday, according to a state department memo.
The group led a rebel offensive in December that toppled the Assad regime, which had ruled Syria for 54 years. Its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa is now the country’s interim president.
HTS, also known as al-Nusra Front, was previously al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria until al-Sharaa severed ties in 2016.
In recent months, Western countries have sought to reset relations with Syria – which has faced heavy sanctions aimed at the old regime.
In late June, President Trump signed an executive order to formally end US sanctions against the country, with the White House saying the move was intended to support its “path to stability and peace”.
It added it would monitor the new Syrian government’s actions including “taking concrete steps toward normalising ties with Israel” as well as “addressing foreign terrorists” and “banning Palestinian terrorist groups”.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said the move would “lift the obstacle” to economic recovery and open the country to the international community.
On Friday, Syria said it was willing to cooperate with the US to reimplement a 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel.
Over the weekend, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy visited Syria – the first government minister to do so in 14 years.
He met with al-Sharaa and announced an additional £94.5m support package – aimed at supporting longer-term recovery and countries helping Syrian refugees.
The UK earlier lifted sanctions on Syria’s defence and interior ministries.
Ninety percent of Syria’s population were left under the poverty line when the Assad regime was ousted after 13 years of devastating civil war.
Al-Sharaa has promised a new Syria, but there are concerns within the country about how the new government is operating – with some suspicious of his radical past.
Only one female government minister has been appointed to date – and al-Sharaa has made almost every other appointment directly.
There have also been multiple violent attacks against minority groups in recent months.
In March, hundreds of civilians from the minority Alawite sect were killed during clashes between the new security forces and Assad loyalists. In April there were deadly clashes between Islamist armed factions, security forces and fighters from the Druze religious minority. And in June at least 25 people were killed in a suicide attack on a church in Damascus.
The Iranian president has said that Israel attempted to assassinate him by bombarding an area in which he was holding a meeting.
“They did try, yes. They acted accordingly, but they failed,” Masoud Pezeshkian told the US media personality Tucker Carlson in response to a question on whether he believed Israel had tried to kill him. Carlson’s interview, conducted via an interpreter and released on Monday, is one the first interviews the Iranian president has given with western media since the 12-day war fought between Israel and Iran last month.
“It was not the United States that was behind the attempt on my life. It was Israel. I was in a meeting … they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting,” he said, according to a translation of his remarks from Farsi, without specifying whether the alleged attempt was during the recent war.
Donald Trump has already said he blocked the Israelis from trying to assassinate the 86-year-old supreme leader, AyatollahAli Khamenei, who remained in hiding for nearly three weeks. He attended a religious ceremony in Tehran at the weekend that was greeted with excitement and relief by government loyalists. He had previously made three video appearances looking pale, if defiant.
A move to kill Pezeshkian, elected last summer, would be a qualitatively different step by Israel and underline the extent to which it was not seeking just to weaken Iran’s military leadership and cadre of nuclear scientists, but to destroy the political leadership as well. At times during the 12-day war Trump spoke in favour of regime change, but seemed to back off as the campaign persisted. He now talks in terms of securing a permanent deal with Iran, but the detail of what the US is willing to offer Iran is light.
Israel claims it killed more than 30 senior security officials and 11 senior nuclear scientists to deliver a major blow to Iran’s nuclear ambitions during the 12-day war. It says it has, with the US, wiped out Iran’s three main nuclear sites.
Pezeshkian and the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, have shown little restraint in being seen in public, attending funerals in Iran as well as travelling abroad. Pezeshkian went to a summit in Azerbaijan, while Araghchi has been to Brazil, Egypt and Moscow.
Pezeshkian also told Carlson: “We did not start this war and we do not want this war to continue in any way.”
He insisted his slogan for his presidential campaign had been to create internal national unity and to foster friendship with Iran’s neighbours.
During the interview with Carlson, Pezeshkian said his country has “no problem” restarting nuclear talks, provided that trust can be re-established with the US.
“We see no problem in re-entering the negotiations,” he said.
skip past newsletter promotion
after newsletter promotion
“There is a condition … for restarting the talks. How are we going to trust the United States again? We re-entered the negotiations, then how can we know for sure that in the middle of the talks the Israeli regime will not be given the permission again to attack us?”
He denied that Iran had been involved in a campaign to assassinate Trump.
Asked if the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear inspectorate, would be allowed to return to Iran, Pezeshkian replied: “We still do not know the extent of the damage caused to the nuclear sites. Access is currently not possible because they have been severely affected. Once access is restored, we can consider inspections. The IAEA’s silence in the face of these attacks, which are contrary to international law, has sown mistrust among the Iranians.”
This sequence of images shows the fading light of the supernova SN 2025kg, which followed the fast X-ray transient EP 250108a, a powerful blast of X-rays that was detected by Einstein Probe (EP) in early 2025. Using a combination of telescopes, including the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab, and the SOAR telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab, a team of astronomers studied the evolving signal of EP 250108a/SN 2025kg to uncover details about its origin. Their analysis reveals that fast X-ray transients can result from the ‘failed’ explosive death of a massive star.
view more
Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Acknowledgment: PI: J. Rastinejad (Northwestern University)
Image processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
Since their first detection, powerful bursts of X-rays from distant galaxies, known as fast X-ray transients (FXTs), have mystified astronomers. FXTs have historically been elusive events, occurring at vast distances away from Earth and only lasting seconds to hours. Einstein Probe (EP), launched in 2024, is dedicated to observing transient events in the X-ray and is changing the game for astronomers looking to understand the origin of these exotic events.
In January 2025 EP alerted astronomers to the nearest FXT known at the time, named EP 250108a. Its proximity to Earth (2.8 billion light-years away) provided an unprecedented opportunity for detailed observations of the event’s evolving behavior.
After the initial detection of EP 250108a, a large, international team of astronomers jumped into action to capture its signal in multiple wavelengths. The FLAMINGOS-2 spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, provided near-infrared data, while the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini North telescope provided optical. Gemini’s rapid response capabilities allowed the team to quickly point to the location of EP 250108a where they found the shining aftermath of the explosive death of a massive star, known as a supernova.
Through analysis of EP 250108a’s rapidly evolving signal over the first six days following initial detection, the team found that this FXT is likely a ‘failed’ variation of a gamma-ray burst (GRB). GRBs are the most powerful explosions in the Universe and have been observed preceding supernovae. During these events, violent geysers of high-energy particles burst through a star’s outer layers as it collapses in on itself. These jets flow at nearly the speed of light and are detectable by their gamma-ray emission.
EP 250108a appears similar to a jet-driven explosion, but one in which the jets do not break through the outer layers of the dying star and instead remain trapped inside. As the stifled jets interact with the star’s outer layers, they decelerate and their kinetic energy is converted to the X-rays detected by Einstein Probe.
“This FXT supernova is nearly a twin of past supernovae that followed GRBs,” says Rob Eyles-Ferris, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Leicester and lead author of one of two companion papers presenting these results, to appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. “Our observations of the early stages of EP 250108a’s evolution show that the explosions of massive stars can produce both phenomena.”
While these early-stage observations provide insight into the mechanisms driving the FXT, longer-term monitoring of the event is necessary to piece together the characteristics of the progenitor star. So the team continued observing EP 250108a beyond the first six days, watching as the emission from the trapped jet faded and the optical signal from its associated supernova, SN 2025kg, dominated the spectra.
“The X-ray data alone cannot tell us what phenomena created the FXT,” says Jillian Rastinejad, PhD student at Northwestern University and lead author of the second companion paper. “Our optical monitoring campaign of EP 250108a was key to identifying the aftermath of the FXT and assembling the clues to its origin.”
At the location of EP 250108a, the team observed a rise in optical brightness that lasted a few weeks before fading, along with spectra containing broad absorption lines. These characteristics indicate that the FXT is associated with a Type Ic broad-lined supernova.
Near-infrared observations from the 4.1-meter Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope at NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile further helped to constrain the supernova’s peak brightness, offering more clues as to what the progenitor star looked like. The team estimates that the star whose death ignited EP 250108a and its associated supernova had a mass of about 15–30 times that of the Sun.
“Our analysis shows definitively that FXTs can originate from the explosive death of a massive star,” says Rastinejad. “It also supports a causal link between GRB-supernovae and FXT-supernovae, in which GRBs are produced by successful jets and FXTs are produced by trapped or weak jets.”
Together, the team’s companion papers present the most detailed dataset to date of a supernova accompanying an EP FXT. Their combined analysis indicates that ‘failed’ jets associated with FXTs are more common in massive star explosions than ‘successful’ jets associated with GRBs. Since the launch of EP, FXTs have been detected several times each month. Meanwhile, GRB detections have historically been sparse, occurring roughly once per year.
“This discovery heralds a broader understanding of the diversity in massive stars’ deaths and a need for deeper investigations into the whole landscape of stellar evolution,” says Eyles-Ferris.
Astronomers’ understanding of stars will be significantly expanded upon by the upcoming NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, funded by the NSF and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE/SC). Its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will provide astronomers with immense amounts of detailed time-domain data on stellar explosions, revealing the internal workings of FXTs and many other exotic stellar events.
“The International Gemini Observatory combines rapid response capabilities with world-leading sensitivity to faint, distant sources,” says Martin Still, NSF program director for the International Gemini Observatory. “This optimizes Gemini to be a premier follow-up machine for explosive event alerts from gravitational wave and particle detectors, space-borne surveys, and the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory.”
More information
This research was presented in the companion papers: “The kangaroo’s first hop: the early fast cooling phase of EP250108a/SN 2025kg” and “EP 250108a/SN 2025kg: Observations of the most nearby Broad-Line Type Ic Supernova following an Einstein Probe Fast X-ray Transient,” both to appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The teams are composed of: R. A. J. Eyles-Ferris (University of Leicester), P. G. Jonker (Radboud University), A. J. Levan (Radboud University), et al.; J. C. Rastinejad (Northwestern University), A. J. Levan (Radboud University), P. G. Jonker (Radboud University) et al.
NSF NOIRLab, the U.S. National Science Foundation center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the International Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory (in cooperation with DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona.
The scientific community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on I’oligam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence of I’oligam Du’ag to the Tohono O’odham Nation, and Maunakea to the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) community.
The Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope is a joint project of the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovações do Brasil (MCTIC/LNA), NSF NOIRLab, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and Michigan State University (MSU).
THE TAILOR’S TABLE: Canali is ramping up its global lifestyle proposition with a new venture in food and hospitality.
After last month naming tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas its first brand ambassador, the Italian menswear tailoring brand has revealed the opening of its first branded restaurant in Hong Kong.
Dubbed Locanda Canali, the Italian word for inn, the dining space curated by chef Gianni Caprioli is located inside Harbour City Gateway Arcade, one of Hong Kong’s leading shopping destinations.
“The opening of Locanda Canali represents a strategic step in our lifestyle journey. This concept enhances our customer experience by integrating hospitality into our identity,” said Stefano Canali, president and chief executive officer of the brand.
“We believe strongly in the cultural vitality and economic relevance of Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area and are pleased to continue our development in this dynamic region,” he added.
The space is decked in soft and soothing tones, ranging from champagne-toned tapestry and wavy curtains on the walls to forest green upholstery on the wooden seats and banquettes. The checkerboard flooring is done in marble, a material reprised also in the tabletops and bar counter. Artworks and photographs hanging on the wall depict Milan landmarks.
Inside the Locanda Canali in Hong Kong.
Courtesy of Canali
Serving food from breakfast through dinner, the restaurant’s menu revisits Italian and Milanese cuisine with an international flair, building on Caprioli’s previous experiences across Italy, Europe and the U.S.
The unit is located next door to the existing Canali boutique in Hong Kong’s luxury shopping mall.
At a time of sluggish sales for luxury, hospitality is viewed as a strategic avenue to revive business, as customers increasingly pour their money into experiences rather than products.
Inside the Locanda Canali in Hong Kong.
Courtesy of Canali
Last month, the Canali CEO told WWD that despite the complex scenario the company is not skimping on investment. This month the brand will inaugurate a new store in Los Angeles, proving the centrality of the U.S., he said, while India and Italy remain solid markets.
Canali was founded in 1934 and, now in its third generation, it remains an independent family-run business that retains tailoring at the core, integrating technology into the artisanal process.
NEW ROLE: Massimiliano Giornetti has a new role. The designer, who in the past most notably served as creative director of Salvatore Ferragamo, has been tapped by Drumohr as its creative director.
Giornetti’s vision for the brand will be revealed at a press event on July 16 in Milan, when the spring 2026 collection will be presented.
Reached for a comment, the company released a statement to WWD underscoring this is the first time in its history it has named a creative director. “We are happy to begin this new chapter with Massimiliano Giornetti, whose refined and contemporary style will guide the development of the men’s and women’s collections, in the name of an authentic and timeless elegance,” read the statement. “His experience and the professionalism demonstrated in years of success, even in product categories still unexplored for us, will be a strategic lever for the evolution of the Drumohr lifestyle.”
Established in 1770 in Drumfries, Scotland, Drumohr is known for its high-end knitwear collections that over time have attracted an elite clientele, ranging from the British royal family to the King of Norway, in addition to celebrities spanning from Audrey Hepburn to James Stewart.
In 2006, the brand was acquired by the Gruppo Ciocca holding company, which operates sock businesses Ciocca and Sozzi, as well as knitwear brands Rossopuro and Heritage. The new owner transferred production from Scotland to Italy, where it also opened stores in key locations such as Milan, Turin, Rome and luxe resort destination Forte dei Marmi, part of its growth strategy that also sees a stronger push on womenswear, hospitality and home decor.
Giornetti will be tasked with propelling the revamp. After starting his career in womenswear with the Rome-based haute couture designer Anton Giulio Grande, Giornetti first joined the Salvatore Ferragamo company in 2000, to head up the design and development of its menswear. In 2009, his tasks expanded to also include the design of women’s collections and the following year he was promoted to oversee the creative development of all categories of the Florence-based luxury house, which he eventually exited in 2016.
In 2017, Giornetti took the design reins at Shanghai Tang as the premium Chinese brand underwent a revamp after Compagnie Financière Richemont sold the company to Italian textiles businessman Alessandro Bastagli and venture capital firm Cassia Investments. He exited the label at the end of 2018.
The following year, Florentine fashion school Polimoda tapped Giornetti as its first head of fashion design, tasking him with defining a creative angle to allow the institution to stand out among international competition, identifying the guidelines for the fashion design course’s final show and boosting the accessories, footwear and knitwear divisions, in addition to selecting new teachers for his department.
A Polimoda alumnus himself, Giornetti was promoted to director of the school in 2021, succeeding Danilo Venturi in the role. He will continue to retain the post at the school while working for Drumohr.
Samsung is all set to host its next Galaxy Unpacked event this month. Samsung has confirmed that it will launch its next generation foldable smartphones and smartwatches at the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event on July 9. Now a new leak has surfaced online revealing that the Google’s Gemini AI assistant may come with Wear OS on the Galaxy Watch 8 series.As reported by 9to5Google, Google’s advanced AI assistant, Gemini, appears poised to make its debut on Wear OS with the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 series. The leaked user interface for Gemini on Wear OS reportedly bears a striking resemblance to the existing Google Assistant for Wear OS, featuring an “Ask Google Gemini” prompt. However, Google has previously indicated that Gemini for Wear OS would offer significant improvements over its predecessor, including more sophisticated natural language processing and support for extensions and various applications within the Gemini ecosystem.
* Processor: Both models are expected to be powered by a new 3nm Exynos W1000 5-core chipset, promising significant performance upgrades.* Memory & Storage: Users can anticipate 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage.* Operating System: The watches will run on One UI 8.0 Watch.* Sensors: A comprehensive suite of health and fitness sensors includes an Accelerometer, Altimeter, Gyroscope, Light Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, PPG Sensor (Photo-Plethysmographic), ECG Sensor (Cardiac Electrical), and a BIA Sensor (Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis).Samsung Galaxy Watch 8This model is rumoured to come in two sizes:* 40mm Dial: Featuring a 1.34-inch sAMOLED display with 438×438 pixels resolution. Dimensions are 40.4 x 42.7 x 8.6 mm, weighing 30g. It will house a 325 mAh battery.* 44mm Dial: Equipped with a larger 1.47-inch sAMOLED display (480×480 pixels). Dimensions are 43.7 x 46 x 8.6 mm, weighing 34g, with a 435 mAh battery.* Build: Both Watch8 variants will feature an Aluminum Armor casing with Sapphire Glass for enhanced durability.Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 ClassicThe premium Classic model is expected in a single, larger size:* 46mm Dial: It will sport a 1.34-inch sAMOLED display (438×438 pixels). Dimensions are 46.7 x 46 x 10.6 mm, weighing a more substantial 63.5g. It will be powered by a 445 mAh battery.* Build: The Classic model will feature a Stainless steel body complemented by Sapphire glass.
Sparkle confirms 48GB Arc Pro B60 dual-GPU with workstation-only focus
Passive Arc Pro B60 model likely reserved for business and server partners
New Arc Pro B60 cards scale AI performance without gaming-style dual-GPU setup
Sparkle has confirmed three Arc Pro B60 graphics cards, designed for professionals working in AI, engineering, and media production, based on Intel’s Battlemage architecture.
The series includes a 24GB blower-style model, a 24GB passive-cooled version, and a 48GB dual-GPU card with blower cooling.
The Arc Pro B60 line is not aimed at gamers. Rather these cards are designed for workstation and AI inference workloads that demand more memory than consumer options like the Arc B580, which tops out at 12GB.
Only the second dual-GPU Arc Pro card
Each B60 GPU offers 24GB of GDDR6 memory, with the dual-GPU model combining two chips on one board to deliver 48GB.
These GPUs use separate memory channels and do not pool memory or split rendering tasks, unlike gaming-oriented multi-GPU designs.
The dual-GPU version shares a single PCIe 5.0 x16 interface with both chips accessing 8 lanes each.
Sparkle’s design is the second dual-GPU Arc Pro card after MaxSun’s 400W model. The Taiwanese company claims a total board power of 300W for its dual-GPU variant, while the single-GPU version uses 200W.
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
Although specifications for the 48GB card are still being finalized, both configurations feature 20 Xe-cores and 160 XMX AI engines per GPU, enabling high-throughput INT8 performance of up to 394 TOPS.
The architecture also supports ray tracing and AV1 acceleration via Intel’s Xe media engine.
The passive model appears to be aimed at server and enterprise deployments and will likely not be sold to DIY users. As Videocardz points out, similar approaches have been taken by other vendors, including ASRock.
Linux multi-GPU support and OneAPI compatibility will make the new cards a solid choice for scalable AI setups. Pro drivers promise reliable performance with professional software, while consumer drivers add flexibility for gaming features and lighter workloads.
Sparkle’s Arc Pro B60 cards are expected to launch later in 2025.
The reigning UEFA Champions League, Ligue 1, Coupe de France and Trophée des Champions winners have their sights set on a Club World Cup title that would give them a rare quintuple of trophies in one season.
Luis Enrique’s side has gotten key contributions from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (1g/2a) and João Neves (2g/1a), while Ballon d’Or contender Ousmane Dembélé returned from injury to score in their quarterfinal win over Bayern Munich.
