By Dianne Gallagher, Kyle Feldscher, CNN

Charlotte, North Carolina (CNN) — The shock and devastation of Kyle Busch’s sudden death at just 41 years old has shattered the racing world as it heads into one of its premier weekends of the year.

The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion’s family announced on Thursday that he would not be taking part in this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway due to a severe illness. Just hours later, Busch was dead.

It’s a stunning turn of events that has left the world of NASCAR stunned.

“To me, Kyle Busch just defines what it means to be a racer in NASCAR, everything about it – the fire, the greatness, the heart that sometimes you rarely saw. The sport was truly lucky to have him, and I believe I can speak for everybody in the sport, and I’ll just say this for me personally, the family reunions week to week are just not going to be the same without him, but we’re going to do our damn best to continue his legacy and support his family,” NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said in a press conference Friday afternoon.

The winningest driver in NASCAR history, with 234 victories across the sport’s top three series, Busch was a polarizing figure. He often loved to play the role of the villain, but he had legions of passionate fans as well. In the wake of his death, many of his peers pointed to that polarizing personality as one of the things that makes racing great – people loved Busch and they loved to hate him.

But that hate – which was always tinged with admiration for his undeniable driving ability – melted in the face of his sudden death.

Tributes at Charlotte Motor Speedway quickly popped up and memories from his fellow competitors came fast as the emotions caught up with much of the racing world. His team, Richard Childress Racing, announced on Friday that it will suspend the use of Busch’s No. 8 car and will instead run the No. 33 car.

“Kyle Busch was instrumental in the design of RCR’s stylized No. 8 and it has become synonymous with Kyle and an important symbol for his fans and the NASCAR industry,” the team wrote in a statement.

“No one can carry it forward to the level that he did. The No. 8 is reserved and ready for Brexton Busch when he is ready to go NASCAR racing.”

Brexton is Busch’s 11-year-old son who has already begun following in his father’s footsteps and has racked up numerous wins in races around the country.

A heartbreaking week

As the racing world tried to comprehend what had happened to Busch, attention was quickly turned to an exchange the driver had with his team over the radio while competing in Watkins Glen, New York, during the May 10 NASCAR Cup Series race.

During that race, Busch asked his team to have a doctor waiting for him after the race because he was “going to need a shot.” The broadcast mentioned he had been battling a severe sinus cold and Busch told reporters last week in Dover that he had been suffering from a substantial cough during the race.

Busch appeared to have recovered – he won the NASCAR Truck Series race at Dover on May 17 – though he was spotted coughing during a post-victory interview. But things took a turn on Wednesday.

According to a 911 call obtained by CNN on Friday, Busch required medical attention on Wednesday after coughing up some blood and experiencing shortness of breath while getting ready for this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600.

According to a call obtained by CNN in response to a request for recordings related to Busch’s medical emergency, a caller – whose name is redacted in the recording – asks for an ambulance to come to a training facility in Concord, North Carolina.

“I’ve got an individual that’s (experiencing) shortness of breath, very hot, thinks he’s going to pass out and producing a little bit of blood – coughing up some blood,” the c

By Lisa Eadicicco, CNN

(CNN) — There’s a simple reason Google is making sweeping changes to its iconic, decades-old search engine: users are making complicated requests.

“People are asking much longer and harder questions that no longer have a clear response anywhere on the internet,” said Robby Stein, vice president of product for Google Search.

Stein spoke to CNN about a new feature that lets Google generate custom visuals, interactive graphics and even mini-apps running on Google’s search page in response to queries by piecing together sources from across the web. It’s one of many updates the internet giant announced at its annual conference this week.

The most valuable real estate on the internet is evolving to reflect the new ways people find information online, the latest example of how artificial intelligence is changing the internet across search, social media, online shopping and more.

People are starting to use longer, more specific search terms instead of succinct generic keywords, according to Google, and are increasingly beginning their searches in apps like ChatGPT, experts say. Fake, AI-generated influencers are causing a stir on social media. And people are increasingly using AI to compare and buy products.

It’s getting impossible to avoid using the internet without somehow encountering AI, despite growing anxiety about the tech and its impact on jobs, safety and the environment.

“After a while, it just becomes part of the way you live,” said Joseph Turow, a University of Pennsylvania media professor who will soon be releasing a book about AI’s impact on internet advertising.

ChatGPT ‘trained’ people to search differently

Google says its search box is getting its biggest upgrade in 25 years. The new search field expands to fit more text and makes it easier to add other media to a search — like photos, files and Chrome browser tabs.

The goal is to shrink the number of steps for a user to complete a search, according to Stein. That includes tasks like performing a search based on a photo or switching to Google’s AI Mode before asking a follow-up question.

Searches that involve questions based on snapping a photo or circling something on a phone screen are growing 60%, year-over-year, he said.

Searches in AI Mode, or the version of Google tailored for back-and-forth interactions, have more than doubled every quarter since they launched a year ago, and AI Mode queries are triple the length of a regular search on average.

Data from SEO and marketing firm Semrush indicates some people are starting to search Google the way they type to ChatGPT. Searches containing 11 words or more increased from 3.27% to 5.37%, and conversational queries jumped from 5% to 20%, while keyword-style searches decreased. Yet the median query still contains just three words, suggesting that most people still search the old-fashioned way.

Robert Langenback, president of SEO marketing agency Eight Oh Two Marketing, said he’s observed people typing in more searches that range from three to five or five to 10 words instead of two to three words. That started before ChatGPT’s arrival in late 2022, although it’s ramped up significantly since then.

“(AI has) really almost trained people how to search differently,” he said.

People generally use a mix of AI apps like ChatGPT and Google. More than 20% of ChatGPT referral traffic goes to Google, Semrush found after analyzing 1 billion lines of US clickstream data, or “trails” of user activity across the web. Google is typically used for direct questions or transactions, while ChatGPT is used for summarizing information, making comparisons and drafting materials, Semrush said in an email

By Maureen O’Hare, CNN

(CNN) — In our roundup of travel stories this week, America’s most underrated destinations, the world’s most dangerous bowl of soup, plus how two US families’ lives changed when they relocated from the States to Italy, Ireland and Germany.

Families who moved from the US to Europe

The Galella family had a “great” life in Miami running a successful renovation company, they tell CNN. But, feeling that something was missing, in 2024 the whole gang — Norma, Gaston, their two kids and their dog — packed up for Italy and rented a home in the coastal city of Rimini.

Although they’d lived most of their lives in the States, having both moved there from Argentina as youngsters, Norma and Gaston “never truly felt American,” they say.

Returning to the land of Gaston’s grandparents was “more like coming back home for us.” Two years on, Norma says, “we’re happier and more united.”

Colorado couple Geoffrey and Sarah were content with their lives in the Centennial State, until a combination of the political climate and Geoffrey losing his job as a software engineer made them reassess their goals.

First, they moved to a houseboat in Malahide, Ireland. Then when a baby came along, they returned a few years ago to a home on solid ground. Their new base is Breisach, Germany, close to the French border.

Surprisingly, their then three-year-old son found the move hardest, taking around five months to adjust to the change. To others wanting to relocate, Sarah has this advice: “Go try it out for a while. Make sure that you like it. Have a plan B.”

America the Beautiful

The European relocation dream is one thing, but most Americans will be in search of adventure closer to home this Memorial Day weekend with gas prices near all-time highs.

For inspiration, CNN has put together our list of 25 of the USA’s most underrated destinations, from the untamed expanses of the Pennsylvania Wilds to the blues bars and barbecue joints of Western Tennessee. Take a look to see if your favorite spots made the cut.

For seekers of sun and sand, coastal scientist Stephen P. Leatherman, better known as “Dr. Beach,” has just released his annual ranking of the United States’ best stretches of shorefront.

Beaches in Hawaii and Florida top the list for 2026, triumphing across criteria including clear waters and swimmability.

Local food specialities

If there’s one thing you’re likely to know about pufferfish, it’s that if it’s prepared wrong it can be lethal to eat.

However, at the many pufferfish restaurants in Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city, the poison is safely removed and hungry customers are tucking in.

What can be trickier to remove is the stigma. Here’s what you need to know about the world’s most dangerous bowl of soup.

Rolexes are a national dish in Uganda, although these ones go in your mouth rather than on your wrist. They’re Indian-style chapati flatbreads topped with a thin omelet and vegetables, then rolled into a wrap. “Rolled eggs” became shortened to “rolex.”

This is a snack you want to make time for: Take a look here.

Ukraine has a thousands-year-long winemaking tradition, and now the country’s vintners

By Daniel Dale, CNN

(CNN) — There is so much going on in the news that it can be easy to overlook the fact that the president continues to tell a whole lot of lies.

President Donald Trump delivered a dizzying variety of false claims in his public remarks over the past week. They included inaccurately rosy assertions about the US economy and the war with Iran, baseless attacks against Democrats, and his familiar egregious lies about American elections.

Below is a fact check of 28 separate false claims Trump uttered between Monday and Friday. This is not intended as a comprehensive list, and it doesn’t include multiple Trump claims that are unproven but not definitively debunkable.

Inflation and the economy

1) The inflation Trump inherited: Trump falsely claimed, “When we inherited, when we started, we had the highest inflation in the history of our country.” They didn’t. The year-over-year inflation rate was 2.9% in former President Joe Biden’s last full month in office, December 2024, and it was 3.0% in January 2025, when Trump took over; those figures are lower than the most recent rate, 3.8% in April 2026, and unremarkable by historical standards. Peak inflation under the Biden administration, 9.1% in June 2022, was the highest in more than 40 years – but even that 9.1% rate was far from the all-time high of 23.7%, which was reached in 1920, or the highest point of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, 14.8%, which was reached in 1980.

2) The state of inflation: Trump falsely claimed, “We had inflation, but we’ve got that down.” Trump has not brought inflation down. The most recent inflation rate, 3.8% in April, is the highest since May 2023. Again, it was 3.0% in the month Trump returned to office in 2025.

3) Prices before the war: Trump falsely claimed that, before the war with Iran began at the end of February, “We got the prices down and we got them down to numbers that in some cases people have not seen before.” Overall consumer prices were rising, not falling, before the war; through February 2026, average prices were up 2.9% overall since the beginning of Trump’s second term. Trump could have fairly said that some products have gotten cheaper since the beginning of his second presidency, but even prior to the war, far more products had gotten more expensive.

4) The pre-war inflation rate: Trump falsely claimed that “inflation was at 1.6% for the last three months just prior to the war.” Nope. It was 2.7% in November 2025, 2.7% in December 2025 and 2.4% in January 2026; it was Read more

By Leah Dolan, CNN

(CNN) — Vibeke Tandberg met her husband at the bar. And the next one. And the husband after that. In fact, she met all 11 of her husbands at a bar in Bergen, Norway.

She became a bride in the summer of 1993, with a puff-sleeved gown trimmed in lace in the style popularized by Princess Diana. There was no ceremony, no priest and no guests — just a professional photography studio, a purple backdrop and almost a dozen different grooms.

Tandberg, a prominent Norwegian artist and the subject of a newly opened exhibition at Kode Bergen Art Museum, wasn’t an early pioneer of polyandry. In reality her multiple husbands, although lovely, were fake. She had poached them from the bartop stools of her favorite student drinking hole for a photography series she was working on in her second year at Bergen Academy of Art and Design.

“Bride” began as an exploration of the wedding photography tradition; a genre that tends to flatten female identity neatly into the shape of a white dress. By contrast, Tandberg wanted her version of performed matrimony to be more empowering to women. “I was choosing the men, I was the center of the photograph,” she said during a video call from her home in Bergen. A rotating roster of different men emphasized her “stage position” as the photo’s only constant, she said. Brides were expected, in most cultures at various points in history, to be virginal, pure and dedicated to their husbands. Through her 11 portraits, Tandberg created an inherently subversive character: the promiscuous bride.

The images were captured over a two-day shoot. Tandberg’s dress was borrowed from a local bridal shop, under the proviso they could use the images as adverts, and her bouquets were made from flowers she picked out of the city’s public flower beds. Meeting her husbands was easy. “It was my student years,” Tandberg said wryly. “I spent six days a week at the bar in Bergen.” The collaborative nature of “Bride” was a welcome shift to Tandberg’s previously solitary way of working. “I always worked alone, so I thought: ‘Let’s make, like, a party out of it.’”

Despite photography being Tandberg’s artistic medium of choice, she enlisted a commercial studio to take the pictures. “It was so fun for me to not be behind the camera,” she said. “Not controlling lighting, anything.” She wanted to enter the photographic tradition earnestly — not just imitate its specificities. The professional photographer who shot the images choreographed every pose as he would a typical paying newly-wed couple. “For him, it was business as usual,” she said. “I just got the exact pictures he would do of anyone else getting married.”

“Bride” was originally exhibited at Fotogalleriet in Oslo in 1993, but Tandberg wanted her images to go one step further in the cycle of realism. She submitted a different couple photo to several regional Norwegian newspapers, pretending they were sincere portraits for the wedding section. 23 newspapers published them with a formal announcement, many of them on the same day or the day after. “The meaning of it was to have it confirmed, verified,” she said. “Real photographs, real events becoming truth through media.” The Swedish photography magazine Index the first to expose the stunt, then the national press followed. “When the press is fooled, they really want to get on top of it,” Tandberg said. “So I got a lot of press on it.” Seemingly overnight, she was launched to national fame.

But behind the feminist statement and clever subversion, something else happened. “When I first saw myself in this wedding outfit, I thought, ‘Oh