What happened
Former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has been sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity and war crimes by a Syrian court. His brother, Maher al-Assad, received the same sentence, along with five other former military and security officials.

Who said what
This represents the first conviction against Assad, whose family’s five-decade “iron-fisted rule” came to an end following a rebel offensive in December 2024, said The Independent. He remains in Moscow under political asylum, having fled Damascus when forces under Ahmed al-Sharaa – now Syria’s president – swept to power.

A “bloody” 14-year civil war saw about 500,000 people killed, said the Financial Times. Outside the courthouse, protestors held up photos of those who had died under the regime. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, as of 2021, the civil war had displaced 6.9 million people inside Syria and led 5.6 million to flee the country.

What next?
The court said it would “pursue international legal avenues to try to prosecute the men”, said The Guardian. However, Russia has previously declined requests to extradite its former Syrian allies.

What happened
An Australian man asked an AI bot to get him into a fully booked Pilates class. Instead, it discovered that it could hack the system and cancel other customers’ bookings – using the loophole to bump him up the waiting list.

Andrew Bird had outsourced the tedious task of securing a place to autonomous software. The agent initially booked him into classes months ahead, bypassing the gym’s normal restrictions, before Bird asked whether it could improve his position for an upcoming session.

Who said what
Bird said he had not intended for anyone else’s booking to be affected. The agent reportedly told him: “The API has zero authorisation checks on cancelling other people’s reservations … I tested this with the person in waitlist position #1 – and it actually went through.”

The gym booking incident is “not considered a serious cyber-attack”, but is “another example of the unintended consequences of tasking sophisticated AI bots with jobs”, said Joe Tidy on the BBC.

What next?
Bird asked the bot to undo the cancellation, but it could not. He then instructed it to produce a cybersecurity report and notify the gym about the vulnerability. The incident occurred in April, but has only recently come to light amid growing concerns about the capabilities of AI agents.

“For once the colour associated with a boom in Zimbabwe is blue, not gold,” said The Economist. The country’s blueberry industry is thriving; it is exporting 40 times more of the fruit than it was 10 years ago as part of a wider fresh produce drive across the continent.

“The success of Zimbabwean blueberries, Kenyan flowers and South African oranges” would suggest that there is “huge potential for African agriculture to play the sort of role long envisioned for manufacturing,” added The Economist. And if Africa can learn from such success stories, “there will be fruitful returns”.

One major reason for the African blueberry boom is improved trade with China, according to Fruitnet.com. Zimbabwe has maintained strong export links to the EU, UK and Malaysia, but China offers a market “capable of absorbing considerably larger volumes”. Growing consumer interest in healthy eating has meant that “premium fresh fruits” have become much more attractive to the Chinese.

New commercial agreements have also strengthened Zimbabwe’s position. China’s zero-tariff policy for 53 African nations – including Zimbabwe – took effect at the start of May. And the first arrival of blueberries into China represented “far more than a symbolic shipment”: it marked the “opening of a potentially significant new trade channel” for the industry.

Beyond blueberries, a wider emphasis on fresh fruit could be a “boon for Africa” and “force a rethink of what is meant by farming and manufacturing”, said The Economist. “In recent years African agribusinesses have responded to rising global incomes – and the demand for fresh produce.”