We krijgen vandaag voor het eerst dit jaar te maken met zomerse temperaturen! Dat betekent dat de temperatuur tenminste zal gaan oplopen naar 25 graden en plaatselijk kan het in de duinen bij Hoek van Holland zelfs 26 graden worden. Normaal gesproken meten we de eerste zomerse temperaturen gemiddeld rond half mei, we zijn er dus vroeg bij dit jaar.

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a rule banning senators from trading on prediction markets effective immediately. CNBC reports: The move came amid rising concern about insider trading on prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, and about event contracts that can involve death or violence. On April 22, Kalshi said it had suspended and fined one U.S. Senate candidate and two candidates for the House of Representatives for political insider trading on their own campaigns.

Earlier on Thursday, a group of Democratic members of Congress called on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to issue a rule "that prevents insider trading and corruption in the market and prohibits event contracts on the outcome of elections, war and military actions in the U.S. or abroad, sports, and government actions without a valid economic hedging interest." Kalshi and Polymarket both praised the Senate's action. "I applaud the Senate for passing this resolution to ban Senators and their offices from trading on prediction markets," Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour wrote in a post on X. "Kalshi already proactively blocks members of congress and enforces against insider trading. This is a great step to increase trust in our markets by making it an industry standard," Mansour said. "Now, let's pass this in the House!"

Polymarket, in its own post on X, said, "We're in full support of this. Our Rulebook & Terms of Service already prohibit such conduct, but codifying this into law is a step forward for the industry. Happy to help move this forward however we can."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Chonkers is a ~2000lb Stellers sea lion that has been hanging out with the much smaller California sea lions in San Francisco. Old Thom is a solitary Northwest Atlantic killer whale who is regularly seen in the company of much smaller Atlantic white-sided dolphins[YT]. Nzou, Shona for elephant, is matriarch of a herd of Cape Buffalo. Since being paired with the herd[YT] when she came to the Imire Rhino & Wildlife Conservancy at two years old she has taken over as leader and has killed over a dozen buffalo bulls who tried to usurp her position.

Speculative reports say Amazon is considering relaunching the reality show once hosted by the US president, with his eldest son floated as a possible host

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Amid speculative reports that Donald Trump Jr is being considered by Amazon to lead a reboot of The Apprentice, he’s already received a slightly muted endorsement from the reality show’s former host: his father.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Amazon was considering rebooting The Apprentice, which was hosted by the now US president Donald Trump between 2004 and 2015, for its streaming service Prime Video.

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US president faced a 60-day deadline on Friday to end the Iran war or make the case to Congress for extending it

A US-Iran ceasefire that began in early April has “terminated” hostilities between the two sides for the purposes of an approaching congressional war powers deadline, a senior official of the Trump administration said on Thursday.

Donald Trump faced a deadline on Friday to end the Iran war or make the case to Congress for extending it, but the date was most likely to pass without altering the course of the war.

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kasa51 has added a photo to the pool: