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Good morning. Tonight could reshape the 2026 political map, a new scientific argument is reopening one of society’s oldest debates, and baseball delivered a ninth inning that players dream about and dread in equal measure. Elsewhere, China and Russia deepened ties, Wall Street wrestled with inflation fears, and Apple prepared its next AI push.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in Beijing today for two days of talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The trip lands less than a week after Donald Trump's own state visit to China.

Energy is set to dominate the agenda, with Xi and Putin advancing the long-delayed Power of Siberia 2 pipeline. China is now Moscow's top oil and gas buyer at steep wartime discounts.

Talks will also span Ukraine, Iran, and a shared push for a world less anchored to US-led alliances. The visit coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship.

Voters across six states cast primary ballots Tuesday, with Georgia, Kentucky, and Alabama headlining the day. Polls in Georgia's open governor and US Senate primaries close at 7 p.m. ET.

Kentucky pits Trump-backed Ed Gallrein against seven-term incumbent Thomas Massie in the most expensive House primary on record. Outside groups have poured more than $32 million into the race.

Many of the marquee Georgia races could spill into June 16 runoffs under the state's 50-percent threshold. Tuesday's results follow Senator Bill Cassidy's stunning Louisiana primary loss Saturday.

Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman collapsed Monday after less than two hours of jury deliberation in Oakland. The nine-member advisory panel ruled Musk filed his 2024 case well past the three-year statute of limitations.

Musk had sought to force OpenAI and Microsoft to surrender as much as $180 billion in "ill-gotten gains." He also wanted Altman and President Greg Brockman ousted, and the company's 2025 for-profit restructuring unwound.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accepted the jury's finding and tossed the case. Musk vowed to appeal, calling the decision a "calendar technicality" rather than a ruling on the merits.

Israeli forces intercepted at least 31 boats carrying Gaza-bound aid off Cyprus on Monday. Turkey called the operation "an act of piracy" as Ankara worked to secure the release of its citizens.

A shooting in Spain on Tuesday left two people dead, with multiple people injured, including infants, according to local reports. Spanish authorities are still investigating the motive and have not yet publicly named the suspect.

German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told G7 counterparts in Paris on Monday that Europe must assert its own interests against US tariff pressure and Beijing's expanding economic footprint. France's Roland Lescure echoed Klingbeil's call for European procurement preferences for regional carmakers.

Three people died in a San Diego Islamic Center shooting that authorities are investigating as a hate crime. Police had been searching for the teenage suspects in connection with prior incidents before the attack began.

Thousands have been ordered to evacuate as the Sandy Fire spreads through brush near Simi Valley, threatening homes north of Los Angeles. Early-season fire activity in Southern California is running weeks ahead of historical norms, raising concerns about a longer hot stretch.

NPR offered buyouts to journalists, with layoffs to follow if needed, as the public broadcaster overhauls its newsroom. Two $113 million private gifts will not offset the loss of federal subsidies for member stations.

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NextEra Energy announced Monday it will buy Dominion Energy in a $93 billion all-stock-plus-cash transaction. The combined company would become the largest US-regulated utility as AI data-center demand surges.

President Trump moved Monday to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the 2019 leak of his tax records. Judge Kathleen Williams accepted the settlement two days before her deadline to weigh dismissal.

Wall Street strategists are warning that the stock rally honeymoon is over as hot CPI and PPI prints push traders to price in possible Fed rate hikes. Oil above $100 and new Chair Kevin Warsh's first FOMC meeting loom over the rest of May.

Apple is preparing AI-focused software reveals for next month's WWDC keynote, including a revamped Siri interface in iOS 27. The June 8-12 conference will also unveil macOS 27 design changes and visionOS updates.

A new Nature analysis dismantles the character-is-destiny assumption in criminology, arguing timing and environment outweigh innate traits in who breaks the law. Researchers say youth-offending patterns depend more on neighborhood and cohort than personality.

NPR examined the Trump administration's quiet adoption of Paragon spyware tools at DHS, with transparency advocates raising questions about scope and oversight. Few details about deployment, targets, or legal authority have been publicly released.

Alex Newhook's overtime winner sent Montreal past Buffalo 3-2 Monday night at KeyBank Center, ending the Sabres' run with an 11:22 shot through a screen. The Canadiens advance to face the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final beginning Thursday.

Victor Wembanyama scored 41 points to stun OKC and steal Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on the road. Game 1 unfolded on the same night Shai Gilgeous-Alexander received his second straight MVP trophy.

Rookie JT Ginn was one out from a no-hitter against the Angels before walking Zach Neto and giving up a two-run homer. Oakland still won the game, with Ginn finishing with 8.2 innings of one-hit ball.

The Mets scored 10 runs in the 12th inning Monday night to bury the Nationals, tying a franchise record for the largest extra-inning rally. New York continues to surge atop the NL East with another late-inning explosion.

Gracie Cochrane has exited HBO's Harry Potter series before filming wraps season one, with recasting underway for Ginny Weasley. Production has not detailed reasons for the exit, the second high-profile shakeup at the HBO reboot.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ends Thursday, May 21, on CBS, with Jon Stewart slated for Tuesday's broadcast and Bruce Springsteen capping the run. The cancellation closes a 33-year franchise that began under David Letterman.

Netflix's new heist series Nemesis pairs Power creator Courtney A. Kemp with co-creator Tani Marole for a stylish LAPD-versus-crew thriller. NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour likens its glossy double-crosses to Michael Mann's Heat.

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What it is: Chinese start-ups are now moving brain-computer interface algorithms from clinical trials toward commercial deployment, with the first generation aimed at helping patients walk and talk again after spinal injury or stroke. Industry watchers say the pace marks a clear shift from research project to real-world product in a field that US and European companies have approached far more cautiously over the past decade.

The detail: The leading Chinese systems pair implantable electrode arrays with AI algorithms trained on each patient's own neural data, allowing increasingly natural and adaptive control over assistive devices and synthetic voices. Beijing has loosened device-approval pathways for high-priority medical AI in recent years, contributing to the speed advantage over US and European competitors.

Why it matters: Whoever sets the operational, ethical, and commercial template for human BCIs is likely to dominate the field for a generation, much as the US set the smartphone and app-store standard in the 2000s. Chinese state hospitals are already enrolling thousands of patients into BCI trials, building patient data assets that smaller Western pilots cannot match at this scale or speed.

What to watch: Watch for the first non-medical applications — gaming, productivity, and consumer-grade interfaces — and how Western regulators respond to imports from Chinese makers. Export controls debates that surrounded chips and AI models are heading straight at human neural data, and the lines have not yet been drawn between research collaboration and strategic risk in either Washington or Brussels.

- An Ohio man played his own birthday numbers and walked away with a $25,417 Pick 5 lottery prize on the evening drawing.

- Massachusetts firefighters freed a two-year-old boy whose head was stuck between staircase balusters while his mother kept him calm with Bluey.

- A Long Island high school senior class produced 21 valedictorians out of roughly 300 students, apparently the academic equivalent of an entire cul-de-sac getting trophies.

- Massachusetts firefighters used Bluey on an iPad to keep a toddler calm while they pried apart staircase balusters wedged around his head.

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—The Five Minute Daily Team