Happy Thursday, friends. Today’s mix has a little bit of everything: big moves on the world stage, an AI boom that keeps rewriting the economy, wild weather on two continents, and a World Cup halftime show that sounds like a fever dream. Here are the ten stories worth your time.

1. Ukraine to get licence to produce Patriot missiles, Trump says (BBC News). Letting Ukraine build its own air defenses would ease a supply bottleneck that has left its cities exposed to Russian ballistic missiles.
2. Nato allies announce £37bn for new missile project (BBC News). A dozen leaders are pooling serious money on a joint weapons program, a sign Europe is planning for its own defense over the long haul.
3. Khamenei’s coffin carried through Shia shrines as ceremonies held in Iraq (BBC News). Five days of funeral rites for Iran’s late supreme leader mark a transition that will shape the Middle East for years to come.
4. Top Democrats press Maine Senate candidate to drop out over sexual assault allegation (BBC News). Graham Platner denies the claim, but the standoff could decide who holds a Senate seat both parties badly want.
5. Outcry as Meta lets users make AI images from public Instagram profile pics (BBC News). Your face can now be remixed by strangers unless you opt out, and privacy campaigners are calling it a recipe for disaster.
6. Samsung profits jump 1,800% as AI chip sales soar (BBC News). The number sounds fake but it is real, and it shows just how much money is flooding into the hardware behind AI.
7. Wealthy AI workers send San Francisco house prices soaring (BBC News). The median home there now costs a record $1.7m, proof that the AI gold rush is reshaping whole cities and not just stock portfolios.
8. Trains and emergency calls affected after major outage at Australia’s largest telecoms company (BBC News). One failure at two data centres rippled into transit and emergency services, a reminder of how fragile the systems under daily life can be.
9. Amber heat health alerts in effect as UK set for one of longest-lasting heatwaves since 1976 (BBC News). Parts of southern England could hit 36C this week, and this is already the third heatwave of the year.
10. Justin Bieber joins Madonna, Shakira and BTS for Fifa World Cup final half-time show (BBC News). The World Cup final is getting a Super Bowl style spectacle, and the lineup alone guarantees a billion people will be watching.

That’s the roundup for today. All credit goes to the reporters at BBC News for the original coverage, and every headline above links straight to their work. See you tomorrow.