The global lactose-free products market is poised to grow from around $19.5bn in 2026 to $36.5bn by 2034.

Irish food giant Kerry Group has opened an expanded biotechnology manufacturing facility in Cork as it targets the growing global lactose-free market.

The facility, based out of Carrigaline, will help the company increase its capacity to produce lactase enzymes needed for lactose-free and sugar-reduced dairy products.

Lactase is a natural enzyme produced by humans to digest lactose, though a majority of adults worldwide cannot digest lactose efficiently. Market research suggests that the global lactose-free products sector is poised to grow from around $19.5bn this year to $36.6bn by 2034.

The Carrigaline site supports 200 clients across 80 countries. Lactase enzymes produced at the site are used to process more than 2m tonnes of milk annually, reaching around 28m consumers worldwide, Kerry said.

The expanded facility, alongside the company’s Kildare-based Global Innovation Centre and a biotechnology centre in Germany, established last year, are expected to help accelerate Kerry’s lab-to-commercial pipeline.

The company said it is “well positioned” to support the next phase of growth in the lactose-free market, with the expanded centre acting to link advanced enzyme engineering and strain development with large‑scale manufacturing.

“This investment translates decades of biotech research into scalable, real‑world capability,” said Shane McGibney, the president and CEO of biotechnology solutions and transformation at Kerry Group.

“By strengthening the link between enzyme engineering and industrial production, we’re able to move innovations more efficiently from the lab to the production line – helping customers access reliable supply and bring new products to market with greater speed and confidence.”

Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, TD added: “This facility demonstrates how industry, skills and innovation come together to support the future of Ireland’s food and biotechnology sectors.

“As a global leader in food, Kerry Group continues to play an important role in advancing high-value capability from its Irish base. Manufacturing sites like Carrigaline help move innovation towards scale and strengthen Ireland’s position in advanced manufacturing.”

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State-sponsored North Korean hackers are likely behind the $290 million crypto-heist that impacted the KelpDAO DeFi project on Saturday.

The attack reportedly also impacted the lending protocols Compound, Euler, and Aave, with the latter announcing a freeze and blocking new deposits or borrowing using rsETH as collateral.

KelpDAO is a decentralized finance (DeFi) project built around liquid restaking on the Ethereum network. It accepts user ETH deposits, restakes them, and returns a liquid token named ‘rsETH,’ that represents the restaked position.

The rsETH token is meant to help users keep earning restaking yield, while it stays usable across DeFi, including cross-chain via LayerZero, an inter-blockchain communication protocol and interoperability layer.

On April 18, KelpDAO announced that it detected “suspicious cross-chain activity” involving rsETH, forcing it to pause rsETH contracts across the Ethereum mainnet and L2s.

The project launched an investigation with the help of LayerZero, Unichain, and other partners.

Blockchain activity showed that around 116,500 rsETH were stolen, around $293 million in USD value, and went through Tornado Cash to hide the trace.

According to additional details that LayerZero shared today, the attack targeted the verification layer (DVN) used to validate cross-chain messages for rsETH.

Specifically, the attackers compromised some RPC nodes used by the verifier, feeding it falsified blockchain data, while simultaneously DDoS-ing healthy RPC nodes to force the system to rely on the “poisoned” ones.

This allowed a fake cross-chain message to be accepted as valid. The system confirmed transactions that never actually occurred on-chain and enabled moving the rsETH without authorization.

Based on preliminary evaluation of the attack indicators, LayerZero believes that the infamous Lazarus hackers are likely responsible for the heist.

“Preliminary indicators suggest attribution to a highly sophisticated state actor, likely DPRK’s Lazarus Group, more specifically TraderTraitor,” stated LayerZero.

The protocol also noted that the incident was isolated to rsETH and that there’s no broader contagion across other apps or assets.

While the KelpDAO breach constitutes a major loss so far this year in terms of the stolen amount, the Lazarus Group has also been linked to another large theft, $280 million from the Drift Protocol.

According to a post-mortem report, that attack was the result of a six-month-long, carefully planned operation that involved malicious agents attending conferences and $1 million deposits into the project.

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Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I thought that 4-Across, 7-Across and 3-Down were pretty fun — little puzzles inside of the puzzle. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Like the name Phil Quickley, for a speedy crossword solver?
Answer: APT

4A clue: What connects these names: Al Green, Betty White, Rose Byrne
Answer: COLOR

6A clue: Star ___ (plant with a pointy pod)
Answer: ANISE

7A clue: What connects these names: Tennessee Williams, Georgia O’Keeffe, Denzel Washington
Answer: STATE

8A clue: Teslas and Rivians, for short
Answer: EVS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Assumed name
Answer: ALIAS

2D clue: Washington paper
Answer: POST

3D clue: What connects these names: Chris Pine, Zach Cherry, Willow Smith
Answer: TREE

4D clue: Detective’s assignment
Answer: CASE

5D clue: Currently broadcasted
Answer: ONTV

At the huge Hannover Messe trade fair over the weekend, attendees heard calls for a lightening of EU Act regulations for industrial AI.

It’s one of the largest industrial trade fairs in the world, and little surprise that AI dominates this year at the Hannover Messe in Germany, with both the CEO of Siemens and German chancellor Friedrich Merz calling for a carve-out for industrial AI when it comes to EU regulations.

In a speech on Sunday, Merz warned that if Europe is to boost productivity, industrial AI will need more regulatory freedom than, for example, consumer AI.

“I will ​push to ease the regulatory burden ⁠in the EU on AI and, ​where possible, to exempt industrial AI ​from the current regulatory straitjacket that is too tight for AI within the European Union,” ​Merz said in his speech.

“AI will contribute ‌to ⁠greater efficiency and productivity, optimised use of resources and, above all, reduced costs.”

This position may well be influenced by the views of Munich-based Siemens, Germany’s most valuable company with a market capitalisation of some €194bn, according to Bloomberg.

Speaking in an interview at the Hannover Messe, Siemens CEO Roland Busch warned the industrial giant would prioritise investments in the US and China if the EU did not lighten its regulations in a sector he said is already subject to sector-specific regulations.

“It’s complete nonsense to treat industrial and machine data the same way as personal data,” Busch said, according to Bloomberg. “I can’t explain to my shareholders why I’m investing money in an environment where I’m being held back.”

The warnings come at a time when the EU’s AI Act is due to come into full force on 2 August of this year. While supporters have hailed the EU’s position on AI as a measured and necessary approach to a technology that has led to scandals like that of the Grok ‘nudification’ app, both critics and supporters continue to call for amendments, as Europe vies to compete in the fast-moving world of AI innovation. So we can expect to hear many more such calls between now and August.

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Hyundai has officially unveiled the Ioniq 3, a compact hatchback for European markets, and it’s going after something most EVs struggle to nail: being genuinely practical for real life. Hyundai promises no range anxiety, no confusing tech, and no cramped back seats. 

But does the Ioniq 3 bring enough features to the table to stand head-to-head with the competition? Let’s find out.

What makes the Ioniq 3 stand out in a crowd?

For Hyundai, it all starts with the design. The company is calling it “Art of Steel,” and the idea is pretty simple: clean surfaces, sharp lines, and no unnecessary fuss. The Ioniq 3 introduces a new Aero Hatch silhouette with a sleek roofline that flows straight into a rear spoiler, giving it a distinctive look without trying too hard. 

It also features Hyundai’s signature pixel lighting and four central dots that reference the letter “H” in Morse code, a nice easter egg for buyers. You get eleven exterior color options, multiple interior schemes, and wheel sizes ranging from 16 to 19 inches. There’s also an N Line variant if you want a sportier look.

Honestly, I like this design and prefer it over the too minimalist aesthetic that EV cars generally go for.

Are the specs good enough to ditch your petrol car?

While the design looks good, it wouldn’t matter much if the car cannot deliver a good range and performance. According to the press release, the Ioniq 3 comes in two battery options. The Standard Range offers a projected 344 km (213 miles) WLTP range, while the Long Range bumps that up to 496 km (308 miles), which Hyundai claims will be class-leading. 

What excites me more than the range is the fast charging tech. DC fast charging takes either version from 10 to 80 percent in under 30 minutes, and AC charging goes up to 22 kW. It’s not as good as what Chinese rivals like Xiaomi or BYD are offering, but it’s nothing to scoff at either. Both versions produce 250 Nm of torque, with a top speed of 170 km/h.

Inside, the flat-floor layout gives you genuine rear legroom and headroom comfortable enough for three adults in the back seat. The trunk offers 441 liters of space, with a bonus compartment hidden beneath the trunk floor. The cabin comes with heated and ventilated seats, a BOSE sound system, and dual-zone climate control, which feels generous for this segment.

As you can see, the Ioniq 3 is packed with features, offers a good range, and looks good while doing it. The car will be produced at Hyundai’s plant in Turkey, with pricing yet to be announced. That said, online chatter suggests it will start at around £25,000–£30,000. If Hyundai can hit that price, it might have a winner in its hand.

Over the years, smartphone brands have steadily refined their craft. From design to performance, devices in 2026 feel sharper, smarter, and far more polished than before. But a recent look at the Sony Xperia 1 VIII suggests Sony might be holding on a little too tightly to the past, and not entirely in a good way. Here’s why I feel that way.

This doesn’t look like the Sony we remember

I remember when Sony really stood out. There was a certain confidence to its design language, something that felt distinct. Looking at the Xperia 1 VIII now, though, it feels like that clarity has faded a bit. The back panel, at least in this render, is where things really fall apart for me. The design looks absolutely confusing. Sony’s signature vertically aligned camera setup has always been part of its identity, and moving away from that strips away a sense of familiarity that long-time users associated with the brand. Without that, the design feels oddly generic, almost like it could belong to any other phone.

As for the camera island, it comes across as bulky and somewhat dated, reminding me of the OnePlus 10 Pro from 2022, a design language even OnePlus has since moved on from. That’s what makes this feel particularly off. It feels like revisiting an idea the rest of the industry has already left behind.

What stands out even more is how out of sync this feels with where smartphone design is headed today. Most brands are leaning into cleaner, more minimal aesthetics that feel refined and modern. Loud, heavy camera islands are usually reserved for niche or limited-edition designs now, not mainstream flagships.

All of this makes it seem like Sony isn’t quite setting its own direction, but is instead borrowing from trends that have already run their course. And for a brand that once led with such a strong design identity, that shift feels a little disappointing.

A shift without a sense of direction

To be honest, I’ve always held Sony to a slightly higher standard. It was one of those brands you expected to take a clear, confident stance on design and experience. That’s why this feels a bit disappointing now. It’s not just about one device, but the sense that the brand has lost some of its direction along the way.

At a glance, the Xperia 1 VIII certainly tries to set itself apart, but that distinction feels a bit hollow. It comes across more like a shift without a clear purpose. That’s where it starts to lose ground. In the current flagship landscape, looking different isn’t enough on its own. A design needs to carry intent, show progression, and align with the direction the industry is moving in. This one doesn’t quite deliver on that front. Standing out is simple; moving the needle is what really counts.