When Lip-Bu Tan took the helm of Intel in March 2025, the company was in desperate need of a turnaround. For years, the Silicon Valley-based semiconductor pioneer had been struggling to maintain its market-leading position as a chipmaker, having lost ground to Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm. Meanwhile, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) produces 90% of the world’s most advanced chips, leaving little room for Intel’s own foundry to compete. The problems plaguing Intel were not lost on Tan when he made his first public comments in a quarterly earnings report. “There are areas we need to improve, and there are no quick fixes,” Tan said in April 2025.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/07/business/intel-ai-race-ceo
Determined researchers have found East Asia’s tallest known tree in a secluded valley near one of Taiwan’s longest rivers. The team named the massive fir tree “Heaven Sword of the Da’an River” — a nod to the legendary weapon from Jin Yong’s martial arts novels. Researchers estimate the Heaven Sword — towering 84.1 meters (276 feet) tall — is about 1,000 years old. The quest to identify the Taiwania fir spanned a decade. The Indigenous Rukai people who inhabit the island’s southern mountains refer to the evergreen species, formally known as Taiwania cryptomerioides, as “the tree that hits the moon.” For reference, the world’s tallest known living tree is Hyperion, a coast redwood in California’s Redwood National Park, that currently measures 116 meters (381.3 feet) tall.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/05/science/east-asia-tallest-tree-heaven-sword
For those in Gen Z, life can be a bit of a monster — an uncertain economy, regular school shootings, a global pandemic. That’s why, with “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” they have twice recently been lured to the theater with the promise of made-for-them scares — a reminder of how hard but satisfying it can be when filmmakers dream up horrors for a generation stuck in a nightmare reality. “The genre of horror has kind of shifted with Gen Z, where it’s exploring some darker real life concepts sometimes rather than just the gore and things like that,” Lauren Cook, a therapist and author of “Generation Anxiety: A Millennial and Gen Z Guide for Staying Afloat in Uncertain Times,” said.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/07/entertainment/gen-z-horror-backrooms-obsession
American soccer player Miles Robinson was one of the US men’s national team’s top prospects heading into the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. For him, the hard part was already over as he had earned a rare, highly coveted spot on the elite 26-man roster to represent his nation on sports’ greatest stage. But when the time came, the then Atlanta United standout was forced to watch from the sidelines as a ruptured Achilles tendon in his left leg heartbreakingly ended his tournament before it even began. Four years later, the 2026 World Cup will be a first for many, including now 29-year-old Robinson, who will finally get his moment in the global spotlight.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/07/sport/world-cup-usmnt-miles-robinson
A earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck the Mindanao region in the southern Philippines on Monday, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), triggering scenes of panic in parts of the archipelago as buildings collapsed and several deaths were reported. The quake struck around 07:37 a.m. local time at a depth of about 35 kilometers (21.7 miles), according to the USGS. Several deaths have been confirmed, according to the Office of Civil Defense, while response teams are still trying to verify more reports of casualties on the ground.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/07/asia/southern-philippines-mindanao-earthquake-intl-hnk