A blast on Sunday at a building in northeastern Myanmar said to have been storing explosives for mining has killed more than 45 people, according to rescue workers and independent media reports. About 70 other people were injured in the explosion that took place around noon in the village of Kaungtup, in Namhkam township. The area, located about 3 kilometers (2 miles) south of the Chinese border, is under the control of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, an ethnic armed group which has engaged in sporadic fighting against Myanmar’s central government.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/31/asia/myanmar-massive-explosion-dead-latam-intl
In a surprisingly strong performance, right-wing outsider candidate Abelardo de la Espriella will face leftist candidate senator Iván Cepeda in a June runoff election to decide Colombia’s presidency, setting the stage for a battle over the country’s political future and the direction of its relationships with key international partners, including the United States. With more than 99% of the votes counted in Sunday’s first round of the presidential election, de la Espriella won the most ballots with 43.74% of the vote, falling short of the absolute majority required to win outright in the contest. Cepeda, representing the left-wing Historic Pact coalition, was in second place with 40.90%. The left Democratic Center candidate Paloma Valencia was trailing well behind with 6.92%, according to preliminary results released by the National Civil Registry.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/31/americas/colombia-runoff-espriella-cepeda-latam-intl
When President Donald Trump first presented the idea of a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn, some people thought he was joking. “We’re going to have a UFC fight — think of this — on the grounds of the White House,” Trump said in Iowa last July, teasing special events honoring America’s 250th anniversary. Fast forward about a year, and the idea is becoming a reality.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/01/politics/what-we-know-ufc-fight-white-house
The biggest two movies in America right now, “Backrooms” and “Obsession,” come from twentysomething filmmakers who honed their craft on YouTube. Their films were made with relatively low budgets and were marketed online. Now that they’re filling theaters with teens and young adults who rarely show up at the movies, all of Hollywood is paying attention, with experts predicting that studios will copy this moviemaking model many times over. “Obsession,” directed by 26-year-old Curry Barker, opened in theaters May 15. Filmed for roughly $750,000, the darkly funny horror film has made almost $150 million to date, a jaw-dropping return on investment for Focus Features and Blumhouse Productions.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/31/media/hollywood-movies-youtubers-gen-z
The Trump administration has signaled to Republican congressional leaders that it plans to drop the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, though it was unclear how firm or permanent that plan is, according to two sources familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump has not committed publicly to taking any action on the controversial pot of money, and a third source familiar with the discussions indicated the administration was merely pausing efforts to pursue the fund — not dropping those plans altogether. That characterization more closely matches a public statement from the Department of Justice Monday, which said that it would “abide by” a federal court ruling that paused the fund until at least June 12. A fourth source familiar with the matter said Trump himself still believes in the fund, even as he acknowledges vehement pushback to the concept.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/01/politics/trump-weaponization-fund-pause