Category Archives: World News

Spain demands release of Gaza flotilla activists ‘held illegally’ by Israel

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Israeli court extends detention of two men who were among 175 people intercepted near Crete on Thursday

Spain’s foreign ministry has demanded the immediate release of a Spanish national it said was being “held illegally” by Israel after the interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla, hours after an Israeli court moved to extend his detention by two days.

Saif Abu Keshek, who lives in Barcelona, and Thiago Ávila, from Brazil, appeared in court in Ashkelon on Sunday, days after Israeli forces intercepted at least 22 boats from a flotilla that was attempting to break Israel’s maritime blockade of the devastated Palestinian territory to deliver aid.

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Heathrow in talks with airlines to end row that could delay third runway

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Airport seeks deal with BA owner, Virgin and billionaire local landowner, who has own expansion plan, over cost and service issues

Heathrow’s new chair has opened talks with airlines and the billionaire local landowner Surinder Arora to defuse a row that threatens to further delay the £49bn plan to build a third runway at Europe’s busiest airport.

Philip Jansen, who was appointed at the start of the year, is understood to have held meetings with the airport’s carriers and with Arora, who has been promoting his own £25bn expansion scheme, in the hope of finding the middle ground in a row over cost and service issues.

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Republicans ‘concerned’ after Trump threatens to withdraw more US troops from Germany

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US announced withdrawal of 5,000 soldiers last week after German chancellor said US was being ‘humiliated’ by Iran

Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw more US troops from Germany after stunning European leaders and some senior members of his own party by last week announcing the withdrawal of 5,000 soldiers from Germany.

The move left 30,000 US troops still in the country, according to CNN. But Trump threatened on Saturday that more cuts were coming. “We are going to cut way down, and we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000,” he told reporters on Saturday.

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Two US service members missing after military exercises in Morocco

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Search and rescue operation launched after service members reported missing near south-western city of Tan Tan

Two US service members are missing in south-western Morocco after taking part in annual multinational military exercises in the North African country, the United States Africa Command (Africom) said on Sunday.

The US, Morocco and other countries participating in the African Lion exercise have launched a search and rescue operation, Africom said.

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Nato meetings with TV and film-makers prompt claims it is seeking ‘propaganda’

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Exclusive: Two ‘intimate conversations’ held with writers, directors and producers, with a third due in June

Nato is holding closed-door meetings with film and TV screenwriters, directors and producers across Europe and the US, the Guardian can reveal, prompting accusations the alliance is seeking to use the arts to generate “propaganda” for the bloc.

The alliance has held three meetings with film and TV professionals in Los Angeles, Brussels and Paris and is due to continue its “series of intimate conservations” next month in London, meeting with screenwriter members of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), which represents professional writers in the UK.

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Political blame game begins and passengers left adrift after Spirit ceases operations

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Republicans blame Biden administration block on JetBlue deal; Democrats point to fuel price surge amid Iran war

US airlines and government officials battled on Saturday to deal with stranded passengers and stricken employees after discount carrier Spirit Airlines abruptly ceased operations – and a political and business blame game got under way over the collapse of the low-cost carrier.

“If you have a flight scheduled with Spirit Airlines, don’t show up at the airport; there will be no one here to assist you,” the US secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, warned at a press conference after laying out measures for customers booked with the Florida-based company to obtain refunds or find discounted flights on other airlines.

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Nato seeks to ‘understand the details’ of US decision to withdraw troops from Germany

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German government calls redeployment of 5,000 troops ‘anticipated’ and reminder of Europe’s need to invest in its own defence

Nato is seeking to “understand the details” of a US decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, a redeployment ordered by Donald Trump amid a feud with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz.

The German government sought to play down the severity of Trump’s move, describing it as “anticipated”, and a reminder of Europe’s need to invest in its own defence. The US withdrawal, which the Pentagon said would take place over the next six to 12 months, comes after criticism from Merz over Trump’s war with Iran and his handling of subsequent talks with Tehran.

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Rescuers release humpback whale that was stranded off German coast

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Calf was transported by water-filled barge in operation deemed ‘inadvisable’ because of low chance of survival

Rescuers have released a young humpback whale that became a national sensation after it was beached in shallow waters off the coast in Germany, although marine experts have said its chances of survival are low.

The whale, variously nicknamed Timmy or Hope, was released into the North Sea off Denmark after being transported there in a water-filled barge by rescuers.

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Zambia cancels world’s largest human rights and tech summit days before start

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Government blocks RightsCon 2026 conference saying it did not ‘align with national values’

The world’s largest conference on human rights and technology has been cancelled just days before it was due to start after the Zambian government told organisers it did not align with “national values”.

Zambia’s government had originally welcomed the RightsCon 2026 summit on “human rights in the digital age”, due to be held in the capital, Lusaka, on 5-8 May, but Thabo Kawana, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Information & Media, said last week that the conference would not go ahead to allow time to ensure the gathering “aligns with Zambia’s national values, policy priorities, and broader public interest considerations”.

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Trump says US navy like ‘pirates’ while seizing a ship in Iranian blockade

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US president says ‘we took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business’

Donald Trump has said the US navy acted “like pirates” as he described an operation seizing a ship amid the tit-for-tat American blockade of Iranian ports.

“We … land on top of it and we took over the ship. We took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” said Trump at a rally in Florida on Friday.

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German museum to return rare Irritator dinosaur skull to Brazil

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Spinosaurid fossil bought by Stuttgart institution in 1991 has been the subject of a long restitution campaign

It is a 113-million-year-old bone of contention.

After Stuttgart’s museum of natural history bought a fossilised dinosaur skull in 1991, researchers found it was the most complete spinosaurid skull known to date, belonging to a previously unknown genus of the huge meat-eating dinosaurs.

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The White House power play post-dinner shooting: do what we say or else

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After correspondents’ dinner shooting, administration has rushed to capitalize in pursuit of its political goals

Less than 72 hours after a man was arrested for trying to assassinate Donald Trump at the White House, the justice department rushed to court to make an extraordinary filing.

The subject of the emergency was a lawsuit by the National Trust for Historic Preservation seeking to halt the construction of a new White House ballroom. A federal judge ruled earlier this month that construction had to stop, though an appeals court later paused that ruling.

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Letters and photos from Beatles’ early days to go on show in Hamburg

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Exclusive: The collection, including donations from Paul McCartney’s brother Mike, shows band’s development in early 60s

A rare set of letters and photos from the early days of the Beatles, in which they write about feeling like stars for the first time, is to go on display in Hamburg.

The collection, from an influential period when the band lived in the German city, includes the only letter in existence with words from both Paul McCartney and John Lennon, which was written to the bassist’s brother, Mike McCartney.

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First malaria drug for babies is approved in ‘major public health milestone’

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WHO prequalification of Coartem Baby means newborns can be safely treated rather than using medication for older children

The first malaria treatment for babies has been approved by the World Health Organization, opening the door to widespread use around the globe.

In parts of Africa, up to 18% of children under six months will be infected with malaria, but there has historically been no safe treatment for the smallest of them. There were 610,000 deaths from malaria in 2024, about three quarters of which were under-fives in Africa.

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Gerry Conway, creator of the Punisher in Spider-Man comics, dies at 73

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Marvel praises ‘undeniable and indelible impact’ of celebrated comic book writer who also worked for DC

Gerry Conway, a renowned comic book writer who helped create characters and stories for Marvel and DC, including the Punisher character in the Spider-Man comics, has died. He was 73.

In a Monday statement announcing his death, Marvel described Conway as a legendary comic book writer with a prolific career. He died of pancreatic cancer on Sunday in Thousand Oaks, California, his wife, Laura Conway, told the Associated Press.

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Trump claims hostilities have ended in Iran in letter to congressional leaders

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President seemed to suggest that legislative deadline to approve war no longer applies as Democrats push back

Donald Trump said in a letter sent to congressional leaders on Friday that hostilities with Iran have “terminated”, suggesting that the 60-day deadline to seek approval from the legislative branch no longer applied.

Friday marks 60 days since the US president notified members of Congress that the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on 28 February. Under the War Powers Act of 1973, the president can deploy troops to respond to an “imminent threat” but must receive congressional approval within 60 days to continue military operations.

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Pope appoints former undocumented immigrant as bishop of West Virginia

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Leo, who has criticized Trump’s hardline immigration policy, selected Evelio Menjivar-Ayala as state’s new bishop

Pope Leo XIV has appointed a man who had once entered the United States as an undocumented immigrant, hidden in the trunk of a car, as the new bishop of West Virginia.

The pope approved the resignation of Bishop Mark E Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, and selected Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, 55, of Washington to take his place, reported OSV News.

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Attack on French nun in Jerusalem draws widespread condemnation

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Israeli foreign ministry denounces ‘shameful act’ after video shows man pushing woman to ground and kicking her

A video of an attack on a French Catholic nun and archeological researcher in Jerusalem has caused widespread revulsion and been denounced as a “shameful act” by Israel’s foreign ministry.

In the video, a man runs up behind the nun as she walks down a street and pushes her over with force, so that the victim comes close to hitting her head on a block of stone. After walking away a few paces, the attacker, who appears to be Jewish, returns to kick the nun as she lies on the ground and only stops when a passerby intervenes.

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Octopus Energy boss: some people would accept blackouts if bills cut

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Greg Jackson argues against costly investments in UK’s power grid that are adding to household bills

The boss of the UK’s biggest energy supplier has suggested that some households would accept an occasional electricity blackout in exchange for much lower energy bills.

A year on from Europe’s largest power outage – which left tens of millions of people in Spain and Portugal without trains, metros, traffic lights, ATMs, phone connections and internet access – the chief executive of Octopus Energy argued against costly investments in the UK’s power grid that are adding to household bills.

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Danish treatment of Greenlandic mother may be ‘ethnic discrimination’, says UN

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Exclusive: Letter sent to government about case of Inuit woman whose baby was removed after now-banned test

The United Nations has warned Denmark that the treatment of a Greenlandic mother whose newborn child was removed by Danish authorities as a result of controversial parenting competency tests “may amount to ethnic discrimination”.

Keira Alexandra Kronvold’s daughter, Zammi, was taken away from her when she was two hours old and placed in foster care in November 2024 after Kronvold was subjected to so-called FKU (parental competence) psychometric tests. At the time, she was told that the test was to see if she was “civilised enough”.

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