Category Archives: World News

RFK Jr tells Congress ‘people shouldn’t take medical advice from me’

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Health secretary demurs on questions about vaccine stance and defends Republican plans to cut healthcare

The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, refused to say whether he would vaccinate his children if he had to choose today, and defended Republicans’ proposal to cut healthcare to fund tax cut extensions.

Kennedy’s back-to-back testimonies before House and Senate committees were his first appearances before lawmakers since his confirmation in February. The secretary was called to discuss Donald Trump’s proposed budget, which would impose disproportionately large cuts to scientific enterprises at the health department.

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Elon Musk shows he still has the White House’s ear on Trump’s Middle East trip

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Although Musk has pivoted from Doge, the Saudi summit shows how he’s retaining proximity to the US president

Over the course of an eight-minute interview, Elon Musk touted his numerous businesses and vision of a “Star Trek future” while telling the crowd that his Tesla Optimus robots had performed a dance for Donald Trump and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, to the tune of YMCA. He also announced that Starlink, his satellite internet company, had struck a deal for use in Saudi Arabia for maritime and aviation usage; looking to the near future, he expressed his desire to bring Tesla’s self-driving robotaxis to the country.

“We could not be more appreciative of having a lifetime partner and a friend like you, Elon, to the Kingdom,” Saudi Arabia’s minister of communications and IT, Abdullah Alswaha, told Musk.

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Canadian PM criticises UK invitation to Trump for second state visit

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Mark Carney says Canadians ‘not very impressed’ after Keir Starmer delivered invitation to US president in February

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has criticised Britain’s invitation to Donald Trump for a second state visit, saying it undermined his government’s effort to project a united front against the US president’s talk of annexing Canada.

Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly said he wants Canada to become the 51st US state, a suggestion that has angered Canadians and left Britain trying to tread a fine line between the two North American countries.

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Israel’s ‘no hunger in Gaza’ narrative flies in face of obvious evidence

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Justification for Israel’s blockade is hard to sustain amid photos of malnourished children and critical famine warnings

For many decades, Israel was proud of its officials’ ability to defend and argue and convince around the world. The war in Gaza has seen the country’s public diplomacy face its greatest test – as was made clear on Wednesday morning with a robust exchange between David Mencer, a spokesperson for the Israeli government, and Nick Robinson, a presenter of the BBC’s flagship Today programme.

Mencer stressed that he was speaking on behalf of the prime minister and made an uncompromising statement of Israel’s arguments, including the accusation that Hamas – described as a “genocidal death cult” – uses civilians as human shields.

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Sperm donor who claims he fathered more than 180 children loses custody battle

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UK judge rejects Robert Albon’s application for parental right of three-year-old girl he had with woman in Durham

An unregistered sperm donor who says he has fathered more than 180 children has failed to gain custody of a three-year-old child he had with a Durham woman, who said she was left “broken” and “suicidal” by their encounter.

Robert Albon, who goes by the pseudonym “Joe Donor” and has appeared on This Morning and in a Channel 4 documentary, applied to have the girl live with him after a court deemed her mother was unable to look after her.

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Mexican beauty influencer shot dead during TikTok live stream

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Death of Valeria Márquez, 23, being investigated as femicide, says Jalisco state prosecutor

A young Mexican social media influencer, known for her videos about beauty and makeup, was brazenly shot to death during a TikTok live stream, in an incident that sent shock waves through a country that faces high levels of gender-based violence.

The death of Valeria Márquez, 23, is being investigated as a femicide – the killing of a woman or girl for reasons of gender – the Jalisco state prosecutor said in a statement released on Tuesday evening.

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Trump cabinet member’s links to El Salvador crypto firm under scrutiny

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Commerce chief Howard Lutnick’s firm backed controversial crypto giant Tether as Bukele ties deepened

Trump administration’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and his family have had extensive business interests linked to El Salvador, whose authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has grown close to the White House and who has courted controversy by imprisoning people deported from the US in an immigration crackdown.

El Salvador also plays host to a booming cryptocurrency and new media industry, which has numerous ties to Donald Trump allies who are seeking to make money from various ventures which have sometimes drawn the attention of authorities or ethics watchdogs.

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‘We couldn’t tell if he was conscious’: Tom Cruise got stuck on top of biplane shooting Mission: Impossible sequel

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The star, who at 62 performed his own stunts for the forthcoming Final Reckoning, tells Cannes press conference ‘I don’t mind encountering the unknown’

Tom Cruise got stuck on the wing of a biplane shortly before it ran out fuel during the filming of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the director of the eighth instalment of the action franchise has revealed.

Speaking to an audience at the Cannes film festival hours before the film’s premiere, director Christopher McQuarrie recounted the filming of a stunt sequence in which Cruise, in his long-running role as the field agent Ethan Hunt, walked between between the two wings of a biplane as the aircraft was mid-air over South Africa.

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Middle East crisis live: More than 60 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza

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Dead include those killed in a strike on the European hospital complex near Khan Younis

Associated Press, citing local hospitals, reports that at least 22 children were killed in Gaza overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday by Israeli airstrikes.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met online with US president Donald Trump, Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, Reuters reports, citing Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency.

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Trump says there’s a ‘possibility’ he will attend Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Turkey – live

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Kremlin refuses to say whether Russian president will be part of delegation

“I worry a lot about a kind of world war one-type scenario,” former White House Russia adviser Fiona Hill told Lucy Hough, “in which the prevailing system is broken down, and you get a whole outbreak of conflicts that meld together.”

People are always asking: ‘What should we be worried about in the future?’ We should be worried about the here and now.

He wanted a very close relationship with Putin, kept talking about him as his friend, talking about phone calls he had when he hadn’t had phone calls. He’s done this with China as well.

It’s almost as if he’s saying: ‘Please call me.’ He’s laid out every way in which he can be manipulated, and that’s what Putin has done. Putin is an expert in manipulation.

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Von der Leyen’s texts with Pfizer boss can be shared, says EU’s highest court

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European court of justice says no ‘plausible explanation’ given for denying New York Times access to texts from pandemic

The EU’s highest court has cancelled a decision to withhold Ursula von der Leyen’s text messages with a pharmaceutical executive during the pandemic, in a significant defeat for the commission president.

The European court of justice on Wednesday annulled a decision taken by the European Commission in November 2022 to deny the New York Times access to the messages, after a freedom of information request by the paper.

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Israeli bombing wave kills dozens in Gaza including at least 22 children, say reports

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Bombardment signals new escalation after Netanyahu said Israel would ‘go in with full force to complete the operation’

An intense wave of Israeli bombing has reportedly killed dozens of people in Gaza, including many children, signalling a new escalation at a critical moment in regional politics.

The exact number of deaths from the attacks was unclear, with estimates ranging from about 30 to more than 50, making it one of the highest tolls in a single morning for many weeks.

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Trump meets Syria’s president after lifting US sanctions on country

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Meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia seen as key towards recognition of new Syrian authority’s legitimacy

Donald Trump has met Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Saudi Arabia and said that Washington is exploring normalising ties with Syria, a day after an announcement that all US sanctions on Syria would be lifted.

The US president met Sharaa, a former militant who fought against US forces in Iraq, before a conference of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), part of Trump’s four-day visit to the Middle East, where he is expected to court Gulf allies for investments in the US. Trump is due to land in Doha next, where he will meet the Qatari leader, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

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Germany arrests three Ukrainians over alleged Russian parcel bomb plot

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Prosecutors say men intended to attack German cargo transport by sending packages that would explode in transit

Three Ukrainian nationals have been arrested on suspicion of plotting parcel bomb attacks in Germany on behalf of the Russian state, prosecutors said.

The German federal prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday that the men, identified only as Vladyslav T, Daniil B and Yevhen B, in line with German privacy rules, had been detained in recent days in Germany and Switzerland.

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Cassie Ventura tells court at day three of trial that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs raped her

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Music mogul’s former girlfriend describes physical abuse, control and violence at trial in New York City

Singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a former girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs and a key witness in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial of the music mogul, returned to the witness stand in New York City on Wednesday morning and testified that Combs raped her, assaulted one of his employees, and detailed abuse she says occurred in their over decade-long relationship.

Ventura, who is eight and a half months pregnant, began her second day of testimony by revisiting the hotel surveillance footage of her 2016 assault by Combs. She said Combs was yelling at her and then threw a vase at her in the elevator lobby.

In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org.

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Critic of Covid boosters set to enact tough agenda as top US vaccines official

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Vinay Prasad, outspoken critic of pharmaceutical industry and of his peers in public health, to take over CBER

Vinay Prasad, an oncologist and hematologist who has called for more regulatory scrutiny of pharmaceuticals, including Covid vaccines, was named the top US vaccines official earlier this month.

Marty Makary, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), announced in a 6 May email obtained by the Guardian that Prasad would now lead the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), which oversees biological products like blood, vaccines, and cellular and gene therapies. Biotech stocks plunged at the news.

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China issues warning to UK over terms of US trade deal

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UK accused of aligning with US in move that could compel firms to exclude Chinese products from supply chains

China has warned the UK over its new trade deal with the US, accusing Britain of aligning with the US in a move that could compel British companies to exclude Chinese products from their supply chains.

The UK-US trade deal, signed last week, offers Britain limited relief from US tariffs on car and steel exports, but only if it complies with strict American security requirements. These conditions include scrutinising supply chains and ownership structures – a move widely interpreted as targeting Chinese involvement.

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Paris races to top of European rankings of cycling-friendly cities for children

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French capital overtakes Amsterdam, where there are concerns about rising road speeds under rightwing government

Paris was once notorious for speeding traffic and a parking technique involving gently nudging cars to squeeze into a spot – but now it has topped a European ranking of cycling-friendly cities for children, leaving Amsterdam in second place and Copenhagen in the dust.

Analysing 36 European cities in terms of their cycling infrastructure’s suitability for children, the report found that the French capital had raced to the top thanks to investments for the 2024 Olympics and a €250m (£210m) initiative to build 112 miles (180km) of cycling lanes under Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo.

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Wednesday briefing: Is Zelenskyy playing political poker – or Russian roulette?

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In today’s newsletter: the Ukraine president’s call for Putin to meet him in person represents a huge gamble in the prospect of peace

Good morning.

Talks. Istanbul. Thursday. In the geopolitical equivalent of a playground challenge, the latest move in the back-and-forth brinkmanship between Russia and Ukraine has seen President Zelenskyy call Putin’s bluff.

US politics | Donald Trump says he will lift sanctions on Syria and meet with the country’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, during his tour of the gulf states. Sharaa’s pitch to woo the US offered access to Syrian oil, reconstruction contracts and to build a Trump Tower in Damascus.

UK news | Peter Sullivan, who has spent 38 years in jail, has had his murder conviction quashed in what is thought to be the longest-running miscarriage of justice in British history. Sullivan was wrongly convicted in 1987 for the frenzied murder of a florist and part-time pub worker, Diane Sindall, 21, in Merseyside.

Conservatives | An MP has been charged with sexual assault over alleged incidents at London’s Groucho Club in 2023, the Crown Prosecution Service has said. Patrick Spencer, the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, was charged with two counts of sexual assault against two separate women, said the CPS.

Assisted dying | At least five MPs have decided to vote against the UK assisted dying bill, the Guardian understands. It comes as the Scottish parliament votes to consider a bill to allow assisted dying for terminally ill people for the first time.

UK news | A man has been arrested in connection with a series of suspected arson attacks on property linked to Keir Starmer, Scotland Yard has said. The 21-year-old was arrested in the early hours on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life and remained in custody, the Metropolitan police said.

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After chaos of the Yoon era, South Korea prepares to pick a new president

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Koreans hope politics can return to a focus on record high youth unemployment and a cost of living crisis after impeachment drama

After the unprecedented turmoil of the past six months, South Koreans could be forgiven for breathing a collective sigh of relief that the political focus has shifted from an impeachment crisis to economic policy ahead of next month’s presidential election.

The economy is expected to dominate the campaign to elect a new president on 3 June, after the impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol, whose declaration of martial law in December triggered the South’s most serious political crisis for decades.

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