Auction house hit by cyber-extortionist group RansomHub which claims to have sensitive information of at least 500,000 clients

A ransomware hack was the last thing the precarious fine art market needed – but that’s what it got when Christie’s website went down days before it began its all-important 20th and 21st century May auctions in New York.

Guillaume Cerutti, CEO of the French-owned auctioneer, gently called the attack a “technology security incident”. Christie’s posted its auction catalogs on a separate site, the sale went ahead with sales of $640m, and 10 days later the website came back to life.

Claim rests on a misquoted section of FBI policy in a legal motion, and moreover, Trump was not in Florida during search

Donald Trump’s campaign has issued another extraordinary fundraising request to supporters by doubling down on a false claim that rival Joe Biden was prepared to hurt or kill him by authorizing the use of deadly force during an FBI search for classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago compound in August 2022.

The claim has become a currency among some Trump supporters and is widely described by them as an “attempted assassination” – but rests on a misquoted section of FBI policy in a legal motion. Moreover, Trump was not even in Florida during the search.

Scandalous behavior that has dogged the Catholic church is becoming increasingly common in shamanic healing circles

Shamanic healing or opportunity for ritualized abuse? A lawsuit filed in New Mexico last week alleged that a “shamanic master” assaulted a woman during an “energy medicine” training session in March.

The claim, which is being investigated, could shed more light on what some say is a dark side of some trends in modern spirituality, especially those that involve the ceremonial use of often intense psychedelic treatments.

Chipmaker reports strong demand and higher-than-expected revenue even as other companies spend to develop their own chips

Nvidia reported record quarterly revenue Wednesday on the back of the explosion in corporate appetite for artificial intelligence.

“The next industrial revolution has begun – companies and countries are partnering with Nvidia … to produce a new commodity: artificial intelligence,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia.

A Miss USA winner has handed back her crown, and another champion has resigned – is the lustre of the pageant starting to wear off?

The US beauty pageant industry, in a concise summation made last week, is “such a hot mess”.

Two reigning beauty queens have stepped down in as many weeks, and there may be more turbulence to come to an area of showbusiness that promotes a sheen of perfection – at least among its contestants – but is increasingly seen as out of date with modern social mores.

Pro-Palestinian students were attempting to take over a university hall to protest school’s refusal to negotiate in ‘good faith’

More than a dozen pro-Palestinian activists, including six students at the University of Pennsylvania, were arrested after attempting to occupy a hall on the university campus late Friday.

The protesters were arrested around 9pm after trying to take over Fisher-Bennett Hall but had been met with a response from university and Philadelphia police, according to reports. The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that protesters caused the evacuation of an alumni event at the Penn Museum.

Republican Glenn Youngkin also vetoed bills related to maintaining access to contraception, saying they were ‘not ready’

Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin has vetoed two bills that would have stripped tax exemptions for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, an organization that has opposed the removal of statues of southern state generals during the US civil war and other markers of the southern states’ attempt to secede from the Union in defense of slavery.

The Republican governor vetoed several measures, including those related to maintaining access to contraception, saying in a statement they were “not ready to become law”.

Ex-president’s legal team sure to make hay out of Juan Merchan’s $35 gift to Biden for President and anti-Republican groups

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush-money campaign finance trial in New York has been cautioned by a state ethics panel over two small donations made to Democrat-aligned groups in 2020.

The caution is likely to be seized on by Trump and his lawyers as evidence of his claims that the New York trial, now entering its fourth week, has been unfairly adjudicated by Judge Juan Merchan along partisan political lines.

Benediktas Gylys admits he was surprised by the rowdy behavior that came from the exhibit connecting people in the two cities

The artist behind the controversial “Portal” art exhibit that visually linked New York and Dublin in real time, but was then closed due to rowdy and extreme behavior by the public using it, has admitted he was surprised by the reaction.

Benediktas Gylys also vowed to continue with his project, which has the aim of connecting people and communities all over the world and is hoped to reopen soon.