Iran and Israel said on June 8 that hostilities between them had halted, after the two countries exchanged strikes that threatened to reignite the Middle East war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the “fire on that front is contained” hours after Tehran said it had stopped its military action.
Tehran launched missiles at Israel on June 8 over Israel’s ongoing war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel then struck back, despite efforts by US President Donald Trump to dissuade Netanyahu.
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A US federal judge on June 8 blocked President Donald Trump from imposing a US$100,000 (S$128,966) fee on employers filing visa applications for foreign highly-skilled workers.
District Judge Leo Sorokin ruled in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic-ruled states that the move usurped taxation powers held by Congress and the fee for the H-1B visas constituted an unlawful tax.
“The substance and application of the US$100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called,” Sorokin wrote in his 42-page ruling.
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The leaders of France and Germany have agreed to scrap a landmark project to develop and build a new-generation fighter jet, officials said on June 8, bowing to industrial rivalries over Europe’s most ambitious defence programme.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the troubled project on the sidelines of the EU-Western Balkans summit in Montenegro last week and concluded that there was no prospect of breaking months of deadlock between arms firms involved in the plan, German officials said.
Merz has therefore advised Macron not to pursue the construction of a joint fighter aircraft any further, they said.
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A strong earthquake struck off Cuba’s north-west coast on June 8, according to official reports, shaking parts of Cuba, Mexico and Florida that are typically not prone to quakes.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) measured the quake at a magnitude 6.1 at a shallow depth of 26km and its epicentre 104km west-north-west of Mantua, Cuba, about two to four hours by car from the capital Havana.
The earthquake on June 8 was unusual for this area of the Caribbean, said Paul Earle, a seismologist at the USGS, noting that the quake occurred within a tectonic plate, where earthquakes are usually more scattered and less frequent than when they occur along plate boundaries.
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ChatGPT-maker OpenAI confidentially filed for a US initial public offering on June 8, joining rival Anthropic in a push toward the stock market as investors seek exposure to the artificial intelligence boom.
OpenAI did not disclose the size or terms of the offering, and said a timeline has not yet been determined. “It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company,” it said in a statement.
Reuters had reported that the AI giant is targeting a valuation of up to US$1 trillion (S$1.3 trillion) in a stock market debut that could come as early as September.
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