General news

• Behind the smiles: Three things to watch as Xi meets Putin

  08-05-2025 23:56 via bbc.com
  
  The BBC’s Laura Bicker explains what to look out for during the Chinese leader's state visit to Russia.
  
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• US and UK agree deal slashing Trump tariffs on cars and metals

  08-05-2025 23:55 via bbc.com
  
  It will leave a 10% import tax on most goods shipped from the UK to the US.
  
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• Taiwan faces similar threat to Europe in 1930s, president says

  08-05-2025 23:54 via theguardian.com
  Lai Ching-te says ‘message of history is clear’ as Taiwan for first time officially commemorates end of second world warTaiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, has compared his nation to the European countries heading for conflict with Nazi Germany in the 1930s, in a punchy speech commemorating the end of the second world war in Europe.“Eighty years after the end of the European war, the message of history is clear. Today, 80 years later, we share the same values ​​
  
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• Catholic Americans rejoice for Pope Leo XIV

  08-05-2025 23:53 via nbcnews.com
  
  From priests on pogos celebrating in St. Peter’s Square to the crowd outside St. Patrick’s in New York, the overwhelming emotions were shock, joy, and hope.
  
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• ‘The pope is Peruvian’: elation in country where pontiff served as bishop

  08-05-2025 23:42 via theguardian.com
  Leo XIV celebrated as second Latin American pope having spent many years in Peru’s churchPope Leo XIV – live updatesThe election of Pope Leo XIV has been celebrated across Latin America, where many hailed him as the second pontiff from the region, after his Argentinian predecessor, Francis.The news prompted particular elation in Peru, where he lived and worked for more than 20 years and was granted citizenship in 2015. In the capital, Lima, the bells of the cathedral rang in celebrat
  
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• Swiatek breezes through to Italian Open third round

  08-05-2025 23:11 via bbc.com
  
  Defending champion Iga Swiatek cruises through to the Italian Open third round with a straight-set win over Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
  
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• New pope's social media posts offer some insight into his politics

  08-05-2025 23:07 via nbcnews.com
  
  On social media before becoming pope, Robert Prevost showed support for gun violence reform, immigration — and some disagreement with the Trump administration.
  
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• Bill Gates plans to give away most of his fortune by 2045

  08-05-2025 23:07 via bbc.com
  
  Microsoft founder said he will speed up his charitable giving - and accused Elon Musk and Doge of "killing children" through aid cuts.
  
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• The First American Pope: Pope Leo XIV

  08-05-2025 22:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  And, how big a deal is US and UK tariff agreement?
  
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• Pakistan denies attack on India-administered Kashmir after explosions reported in Jammu city – as it happened

  08-05-2025 22:55 via theguardian.com
  This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest reporting on the Kashmir crisis here:India claims to have thwarted Pakistan missile and drone strikes‘There will be war’: fear and defiance across borderThe Pakistan Aviation Authority has announced that operations at Karachi airport will be suspended until midnight, Reuters reports. It has just gone past 6pm in Karachi.Reuters is also carrying comments from India’s foreign secretary, who has said that any further escalation
  
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• Acting FEMA head fired a day after he testified against closing the agency: Sources

  08-05-2025 22:23
  Cameron Hamilton, acting FEMA administrator, fired day after telling Congress it shouldn't be disbanded, putting him at odds with Trump's suggestions to dissolve it.
  
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• India reports strikes on military bases, Pakistan denies any role

  08-05-2025 22:05 via bbc.com
  
  India has accused Pakistan of attacking three military bases, a claim which has been denied by Islamabad.
  
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• WATCH: Newly elected Pope Leo XIV addresses crowd at St. Peter’s

  08-05-2025 20:46
  The new pontiff made his first public appearance as Pope Leo XIV on a balcony at St. Peter’s Basilica.
  
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• Archive: Interview with Pope Leo from 2023 after he was chosen as prefect

  08-05-2025 20:34 via bbc.com
  
  The new pope Robert Prevost will be known as Pope Leo XIV - the first American pontiff to be elected leader of the Catholic Church.
  
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• Watch: From white smoke to balcony speech, how the new pontiff was unveiled

  08-05-2025 20:30 via bbc.com
  
  Robert Prevost becomes the first American to be elected pope, following a two-day conclave in Vatican City.
  
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• Watch: Pope Leo XIV's first public address - in full

  08-05-2025 20:21 via bbc.com
  
  Speaking from the Vatican balcony just after being unveiled as the new pontiff, he paid tribute to his predecessor and called for unity.
  
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• Weekly quiz: Which star showed off her baby bump at the Met Gala?

  08-05-2025 20:06 via bbc.com
  
  How much attention did you pay to what has been going on in the world over the past seven days?
  
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• What's in the US-UK trade framework announced by Trump?

  08-05-2025 19:49
  Trump touted the framework but acknowledged details are still being "written up."
  
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• WATCH: Cardinal Robert Prevost becomes 1st American pope

  08-05-2025 19:46
  A senior cardinal deacon, who stood on the balcony on the facade of St. Peter's Basilica, made the announcement.
  
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• Charity linked to Prince Harry admits human rights abuses in Congo park

  08-05-2025 19:38 via bbc.com
  
  African Parks acknowledged its rangers committed human rights abuses in Congo-Brazzaville.
  
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• Constance Marten cross-examined by partner Mark Gordon over baby death

  08-05-2025 19:04 via bbc.com
  
  Marten criticised her "biological family" during extraordinary cross-examination by her partner and co-accused.
  
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• Trump administration invokes state secrets privilege in Kilmar Ábrego García case

  08-05-2025 18:52 via theguardian.com
  Lawyers say they’re ‘still in dark’ about government’s efforts to free the man who was wrongly deported to El SalvadorThe Trump administration is invoking the “state secrets privilege ” in an apparent attempt to avoid answering a judge’s questions about its erroneous deportation of Kilmar Ábrego García to El Salvador.US district judge Paula Xinis disclosed the government’s position in a two-page order on Wednesday. She set a Monday de
  
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• Canada medical mystery takes twist as study finds no evidence of brain illness

  08-05-2025 18:44 via theguardian.com
  Researchers link suspected cases in New Brunswick to known diseases, suggesting ‘misdiagnosis and misinformation’A new peer-reviewed scientific study has found no evidence of a mystery brain disease in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, suggesting instead a troubling combination of “misdiagnosis and misinformation”.The research comes as the Maritime province prepares its own assessment of more than 220 suspected cases in the hope of giving families some answers to a
  
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• After-work drinks in decline outside London, peers told

  08-05-2025 18:42 via bbc.com
  
  A Lords committee hears Thursday is the new Friday for city-centre workers - but only in the capital.
  
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• Xi hails ‘confident’ China-Russia ties as Putin welcomes ‘dear friend’ to Kremlin

  08-05-2025 17:57 via theguardian.com
  Chinese leader describes talks as ‘friendly and fruitful’ during visit for Victory Day commemorationsXi Jinping and Vladimir Putin exchanged warm words in the Kremlin on Thursday during a grand ceremony welcoming the Chinese leader for his 11th visit to Russia, ahead of a military parade to mark 80 years since the end of the second world war.After nearly four hours of talks, Xi described his meeting with his Russian counterpart as “in-depth, friendly and fruitful”. Contin
  
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• WATCH: 7,000 drones celebrate Disney’s new theme park

  08-05-2025 17:57
  Lara Spencer shares the buzziest stories of the day in “GMA” Pop News.
  
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• Woman found not guilty of having illegal abortion in UK lockdown

  08-05-2025 17:54 via bbc.com
  
  Nicola Packer took abortion medicine at home when she was about 26 weeks pregnant, her trial heard.
  
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• From snail slime to salmon sperm: the K-beauty boom hits UK high streets

  08-05-2025 16:19 via theguardian.com
  South Korean skincare retailers want to capitalise on viral sales of beauty ranges by opening stores across the UKKorean beauty products are moving from phone screens to UK high streets as social media drives sales of skincare with the help of eye-catching ingredients such as snail slime and salmon sperm.Retailers are looking to capitalise on the TikTok and Instagram trend for skincare and makeup ranges from South Korea – known as K-beauty – by opening physical stores and launching b
  
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• WATCH: Black smoke rises from Sistine Chapel as conclave continues

  08-05-2025 16:16
  Thick black smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney on Thursday morning, signaling the conclave’s 133 cardinals have not decided on a new pope yet.
  
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• 'A tremendous honour' - Itoje named British and Irish Lions captain

  08-05-2025 15:55 via bbc.com
  
  Watch as British & Irish Lions head coach Andy Farrell names Saracens forward Maro Itoje as captain for the 2025 tour of Australia.
  
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• Man charged with stalking former Friends star Jennifer Aniston

  08-05-2025 14:53 via bbc.com
  Jimmy Wayne Carwyle has been charged with stalking and vandalism after the incident at the actor's Hollywood home.
  
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• Candles, wreaths, famous faces: VE Day at 80 in pictures

  08-05-2025 14:53 via bbc.com
  
  Events are taking place across the UK to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe.
  
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• Irish broadcaster requests discussion over Israel’s Eurovision participation

  08-05-2025 13:22 via theguardian.com
  RTÉ asks European Broadcasting Union for talks after 72 former contestants call for ban on Israeli broadcasterIreland’s public broadcaster has asked the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for a discussion about Israel’s inclusion in the Eurovision song contest, as 72 former contestants called for the Israeli broadcaster Kan to be banned from next week’s event in the Swiss city of Basel.The director general of Ireland’s RTÉ, Kevin Bakhurst, said in a statement
  
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• Man admitted to Japan’s 2025 World Expo with 85-year-old ticket

  08-05-2025 07:09 via theguardian.com
  Collector of Expo memorabilia had a ticket to the 1940 Grand International Exposition of Japan, which was postponed indefinitely due to the warA man was admitted to the World Expo in Japan using a ticket to the 1940 Grand International Exposition of Japan, an event that was called off as war escalated, organisers said.Tickets for the Grand International Exposition of Japan in Tokyo were released in 1938 but the event was postponed indefinitely as Japan became embroiled in the second world war. C
  
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• Trump’s aid cuts blamed as food rations stopped for a million refugees in Uganda

  08-05-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  UN World Food Programme says $50m is urgently needed amid fears that Uganda may now begin forced repatriationsFood rations for a million people in Uganda have been cut off completely this week amid a funding crisis at the United Nations World Food Programme, raising fears that refugees will now be pushed back into countries at war.The WFP in Uganda warned two weeks ago that $50m (£37m) was urgently needed to help refugees and asylum seekers fleeing conflicts in the Democratic Republic of t
  
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• Australia news live: Chandler-Mather fires back at Albanese; shareholders lodge protest votes against Woodside over gas giant’s climate failures

  08-05-2025 06:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastBen Raue’s predictions for Menzies, Bullwinkel and BradfieldAnalyst Ben Raue also predicted that Labor’s Gabriel Ng lead by 1,145 votes in Menzies, Victoria, will “grow slightly”. Continue reading...
  
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• Cassius Turvey: two men found guilty of murdering Indigenous teenager

  08-05-2025 06:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Jury in Western Australia finds two men guilty of 15-year-old’s murder and another guilty of manslaughterTwo men have been found guilty of murdering an Indigenous teenager who was chased into bushland and bashed with a metal pole.Another man was found guilty of manslaughter, and a woman was acquitted over the attack on Cassius Turvey in Perth’s eastern suburbs on 13 October in 2022. Continue reading...
  
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• The witnesses: second world war survivors from across Europe share their stories

  08-05-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  On the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe, survivors, including veterans from both sides, remember what happenedEighty years ago today, on 8 May 1945, the second world war in Europe came to an end with the unconditional surrender of Germany’s armed forces. The number of people who remember the war – and how it finished – decreases every year, even as European security feels ever more precarious.Here, seven people, aged between 85 and 100, from Estonia
  
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• Scorpions ‘taking over’ Brazilian cities with reported stings rising 250%

  08-05-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Fast and unplanned growth of cities providing ideal conditions for the creatures to thrive, say researchersScorpions are “taking over” Brazilian cities, researchers have warned in a paper that said rapid urbanisation and climate breakdown were driving an increase in the number of people being stung.More than 1.1m stings were reported between 2014 and 2023, according to data from the Brazilian notifiable diseases information system. There was a 250% increase in reports of stings from
  
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• Scorpions ‘taking over’ Brazilian cities with reported stings rising 155%

  08-05-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Fast and unplanned growth of cities providing ideal conditions for the creatures to thrive, say researchersScorpions are “taking over” Brazilian cities, researchers have warned in a paper that said rapid urbanisation and climate breakdown were driving an increase in the number of people being stung.More than 1.1m stings were reported between 2014 and 2023, according to data from the Brazilian notifiable diseases information system. There was a 155% increase in reports of stings from
  
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• Joe Biden, VE Day and the politics of nostalgia

  08-05-2025 06:00 via bbc.co.uk
  How should we remember World War Two?
  
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• Europe marks 80 years since VE day as continent faces new security realities

  08-05-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Events to take place against backdrop of Ukraine conflict, rises in defence spending and US foreign policy shiftSolemn ceremonies will be held at war memorials in towns and villages across France on Thursday as the country honours its dead and marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, a public holiday this year, as it is every year.In Paris, the president, Emmanuel Macron, will lay a wreath at the foot of Charles de Gaulle’s statue, walk up the Champs-Élysées
  
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• Erin Patterson trial live: nurse says mushroom cook did not ‘look unwell’ but lunch guest ‘couldn’t lift his head’ from hospital pillow

  08-05-2025 05:51 via theguardian.com
  
  Patterson has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder relating to a lunch she served at her Leongatha home in 2023. Follow live updatesWho are Erin Patterson and the other key figures in Australia’s mushroom murders trial?Erin Patterson’s lawyer Colin Mandy cross-examining Kylie AshtonMandy asks about the previous evidence from medical witnesses that Erin was present at the hospital for five minutes before she discharged herself.I said these could be symptoms of
  
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• NSW to review law that presumes children under 14 are incapable of evil

  08-05-2025 04:58 via theguardian.com
  After a 2016 high court ruling, the conviction rates 10- to 13-year-olds in NSW have plummeted, report findsAustralia news live: latest politics and federal election updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA centuries-old legal presumption that children aged between 10 and 14 don’t understand the difference between right and wrong is to be reviewed after New South Wales youth criminal conviction rates tumbled fivefold.The NSW attorney general’s office said t
  
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• Court greenlights trial of pianist’s discrimination claim after Melbourne orchestra cancelled concert

  08-05-2025 04:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Jayson Gillham had sued MSO claiming it cancelled concert over his pro-Gaza views but orchestra argued he was not an employeeAustralia news live: latest politics and federal election updatesGet our breaking news email,free app or daily news podcastThe federal court has given the green light for concert pianist Jayson Gillham to sue the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, with chief justice Debra Mortimer ordering the case to proceed to trial.In March, the MSO sought to have Gillham’s case thrown
  
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• Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested after Columbia calls in police

  08-05-2025 04:08 via theguardian.com
  
  NYPD officers entered campus’s main library building in riot gear after activists occupied area in hours-long standoffThe New York police department arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian activists who occupied part of the main library building on Columbia University’s campus on Wednesday evening, ending an hours-long standoff, roughly one year after student anti-war protest swept the Ivy League school.Claire Shipman, the university’s acting president, said in a statement that she
  
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• Protesters arrested as Columbia calls in New York police to clear Gaza solidarity sit-in – as it happened

  08-05-2025 04:02 via theguardian.com
  
  This blog has now closed. You can read more of our US politics coverage hereColumbia University calls in police to clear pro-Palestinian protestersBritain is in “active discussions” with US officials over the extraordinary 100% tariff on all movies produced outside the US proposed by Donald Trump, as it tries to protect one of its biggest creative industries.“We are already in active discussions with the top of the US administration on this subject. We are working hard to estab
  
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• Salt Lake City and Boise adopt official pride flags to skirt Republican bans

  08-05-2025 02:43 via theguardian.com
  
  New emblems approved by city councils in defiance of bans on ‘unofficial flags’ on government propertyEarlier this year, Utah and Idaho’s Republican-controlled legislatures passed bans on flying the rainbow pride flags and other “unofficial flags” on government property.Leaders in both states’ capital cities, Salt Lake City and Boise, recently devised an inventive workaround – changing their official flags. Continue reading...
  
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• Police, rangers and excavators move in to Brisbane parks as tent city residents face eviction

  08-05-2025 02:00 via theguardian.com
  Three Liberal-run councils deny coordinated crackdown as dozens of homeless are issued notices or moved onAustralia news live: latest politics and federal election updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThree Queensland councils have initiated or implemented crackdowns on homeless camps across the state’s south-east this week.The three local governments – Brisbane city council, City of Moreton Bay and Gold Coast city council – all deny coordination be
  
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• Trump nominates Dr Casey Means, influencer close to RFK Jr, for surgeon general

  08-05-2025 01:56 via theguardian.com
  
  President taps wellness influencer after withdrawing initial pick, former Fox News contributor Janette NesheiwatDonald Trump has tapped Dr Casey Means, a wellness influencer with close ties to Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, as nominee for surgeon general after withdrawing his initial pick for the influential health post.The US president said in a social media post on Wednesday that Means has “impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials” – referring to the “ma
  
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