What happened
Google DeepMind’s Gemini 2.5 model has become the first artificial intelligence system to earn a gold medal at an international programming competition. It cracked a notoriously difficult problem at the event in Azerbaijan – sending liquid through a duct network into reservoirs in the fastest time. It was a puzzle no human competitor managed to solve. The AI completed the task in under 30 minutes, finishing second overall among 139 of the world’s best university programmers despite failing two of its 12 challenges.

Who said what
Google DeepMind called the result a “profound leap in abstract problem-solving” and a landmark on the path to artificial general intelligence that could aid breakthroughs in drug discovery and chip design.

Yet the University of California, Berkeley’s Stuart Russell warned that claims of “epochal significance seem overblown”. The machine’s performance “shows progress”, but he added that “the pressure on AI companies to keep claiming breakthroughs is enormous”. There were also unanswered questions about “how much computing power was needed”, said Robert Booth in The Guardian.

What next?
Google is expected to refine Gemini for broader use in science and engineering, with future tests likely to assess its reliability within real-world coding projects.

What happened
Women with long Covid have longer, heavier periods and more bleeding between periods than other women, research has suggested. A survey of more than 12,000 UK women also found that the severity of long Covid symptoms changed across the menstrual cycle, worsening just before and during a period.

Who said what
The survey suggests “a two-way effect”, said The Guardian. Long Covid affects periods, and hormonal changes over the cycle affect the severity of long Covid symptoms. But, “importantly”, there was no evidence that long Covid harmed ovary function.

This could “allow us to develop really specific treatments for women with long Covid who are suffering with menstrual disturbance”, said Jacqueline Maybin, honorary consultant gynaecologist at the University of Edinburgh. It may also lead to “female-specific treatments for long Covid”, which “can be quite prevalent in women of reproductive age”.

What next?
Preliminary tests revealed excessive inflammation in the womb lining of women with long Covid and higher-than-usual levels of the hormone dihydrotestosterone – both of which are associated with heavy menstrual bleeding. However, more tests are needed to establish a link.

While investigators have yet to uncover and confirm the motives behind the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, at least one group, known as Groypers, has been thrust into the limelight in the aftermath of his death. The alt-right network consistently criticised Kirk’s organisation Turning Point USA, but has denied having any involvement in the murder. Despite this, the suspect’s alleged ties to the Groypers have led to a closer eye being cast over them.

They are a “far-right, online-based movement organised around white nationalist and ‘America First’” causes, said Newsweek. The term “Groyper” is the name of the group’s mascot, a cartoon frog that’s a “variant of the ‘Pepe’ meme used widely among extremist groups”.

Groypers believe that they are “working to defend against demographic and cultural changes”, said the Anti-Defamation League. They also feel that many other groups on the right do not go far enough and “regularly confront mainstream conservative organisations” for “not being adequately ‘pro-white’”. The group’s main goal is to “push extremist ideas into the conservative mainstream”, said news site Salon.

In examining Kirk’s alleged shooter, some have “pointed to indications that he might have considered himself a Groyper”, said The Independent. Certain messages from the suspect were reportedly linked to the Groyper movement.

Whether or not the suspect in this latest act of violence was a Groyper, the group appears to be gaining wider recognition. Groypers “represent a new momentum within American white nationalism”, said UK think tank the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.