Syria calls Israeli air strikes on Damascus a ‘dangerous escalation’

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Benjamin Netanyahu says strikes intended to deter Syria’s new leadership from any hostile move against the Druze

Syria’s new rulers have angrily denounced raids launched by Israel’s air force against unidentified targets near the presidential palace in Damascus, warning of a “dangerous escalation”.

Israeli officials said the attacks were intended to send a message to the Syrian government after days of bloody clashes near Damascus between pro-government militia forces and fighters from the Druze minority sect.

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Nick McKenzie denies seeing privileged communication between Ben Roberts-Smith and his lawyers

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Investigative journalist says ‘legal strategy’ he referred to in secret recording was reference to war veteran allegedly telling his ex-wife to lie to court

Investigative journalist Nick McKenzie has denied in a Sydney court that he saw privileged communications between Ben Roberts-Smith and his lawyers during the proceedings of the war veteran’s failed defamation case against him and Nine.

The court also heard a “secret” recording where McKenzie allegedly told a witness in the defamation proceedings that Roberts-Smith’s ex-wife, Emma Roberts, and her friend Danielle Scott were “actively briefing us on his legal strategy in respect of you”.

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Trump signs executive order to cut funding for public broadcasters

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President says neither NPR nor PBS ‘presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events’


Donald Trump has signed an executive order seeking to cut public funding for NPR and PBS, accusing the news outlets of being biased.

NPR and PBS are only partly funded by the US taxpayer and rely heavily on private donations.

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Why is Trump ending the ‘de minimis’ tariff loophole on low-value imports?

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Goods worth less than $800 will be subject to 120% levy meaning prices on Chinese exports will probably increase

At one minute past midnight on Friday, eastern time, a US tariff exemption that has fuelled the rise of companies such as Shein and Temu, and stocked the wardrobes of millions of Americans with cheap fast fashion and other household goods, closed. As part of Donald Trump’s flurry of tariffs on China, the US is closing a loophole that allowed low-value goods to be shipped into the US without paying any import fees. The “de minimis” loophole, known by the Latin phrase for “of little importance”, was “a big scam going on against our country”, the US president said on Wednesday. “We put an end to it.”

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NatWest profits soar by 36% as full privatisation looms

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Government stake reduced to under 2% as bank’s profit of £1.8bn beats analyst forecasts by £200m

NatWest has reported a 36% increase in profits in the first three months of this year as the government reduced its stake in the bank to less than 2%, paving a return to fully private ownership after 17 years.

The bank reported operating profit before tax of £1.8bn, up from £1.3bn in the same period last year, beating analyst consensus forecasts by £200m.

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HMS Researcher Denies Lying To Border Patrol Officials – The Harvard Crimson

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  1. HMS Researcher Denies Lying To Border Patrol Officials  The Harvard Crimson
  2. Harvard researcher detained in February for failing to declare frog embryo samples says she didn’t lie to government  Yahoo
  3. Harvard researcher held in Louisiana awaits judge’s decision on deportation to Russia  CNN
  4. Harvard Scientist Detained By ICE Just Wants To Go Back To Cancer Research  HuffPost
  5. Russian-born Harvard scientist seeks to clarify details that led to ICE detention  WGBH
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Is Nigel Farage’s quest to rid Reform of ‘amateurism’ paying off?

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Runcorn win was much bigger than polls implied, suggesting overall effectiveness of ground campaign

For the last few months, Nigel Farage has been promising to professionalise his Reform UK party, saying its general election result of five seats had been hampered by the party’s “amateurism”.

Friday’s narrow victory in the Runcorn and Helsby byelection suggests his strategy is starting to bear fruit. Not only did the party win a seat in which it came a distant third less than a year ago, but it did so with a much bigger swing than implied by the national polls – demonstrating the effectiveness of the party’s ground campaign.

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Reform wins Runcorn byelection by just six votes in blow to Labour

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Result will heighten government’s fears it could lose scores of MPs to Nigel Farage’s party at next general election

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has dramatically won the Runcorn and Helsby byelection by just six votes in a blow to Keir Starmer’s premiership.

The hard-right party narrowly overturned Labour’s 14,700-vote majority in the first full-scale electoral test of Starmer’s government and set a new record for the smallest majority at a parliamentary by-election since the end of the second world war.

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LGBTQ+ charities warn of ‘genuine crisis’ for trans people after UK ruling

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Charities say the judgment creates ‘a legal framework that simply cannot uphold the dignity’ of trans people

Fourteen national LGBTQ+ charities have written to Keir Starmer seeking an urgent meeting to discuss what they describe as “a genuine crisis for the rights, dignity and inclusion of trans people in the UK” after the supreme court’s ruling on biological sex.

The UK supreme court ruled last month that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 referred only to “a biological woman” and to “biological sex”, with subsequent advice from the equality watchdog amounting to a blanket ban on trans people using toilets and other services of the gender they identify as.

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RSF World Press Freedom Index 2025: economic fragility a leading threat to press freedom – Reporters sans frontières

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  1. RSF World Press Freedom Index 2025: economic fragility a leading threat to press freedom  Reporters sans frontières
  2. U.S. press freedom falls to historical low  Axios
  3. Global Press Freedom at 'all-time low' in 2025, RSF says  dw.com
  4. World press freedom plummets with ‘alarming deterioration’ in US under Trump, says RSF  France 24
  5. World Press Freedom Day 3 May: defending media freedom to safeguard democracy  European Parliament
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What will Modi bring to Amaravati this time?.. – Greatandhra.com

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  1. What will Modi bring to Amaravati this time?..  Greatandhra.com
  2. A 6-Year Hiatus, Then A Chandrababu Naidu Return To Relaunch Amravati  NDTV
  3. Dream becoming reality: PM Modi calls Amaravati foundation of Andhra's aspirations  India Today
  4. PM Modi in Andhra Pradesh LIVE: PM Modi lays foundation, inaugurates projects worth ₹58,000 crore in Amaravati  The Hindu
  5. PM Modi relaunches Amaravati projects: What it means for Andhra’s capital revival and real estate market  Hindustan Times
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‘World’s largest’ electric ship measuring 130 metres launched by Tasmanian boatbuilder

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Manufacturer Incat built Hull 096 to run between Buenos Aires and Uruguay, dubbing it the ‘most complex’ project it has ever undertaken

An Australian boatbuilder has launched what it describes as the world’s largest battery-power ship, describing it as a “a giant leap forward in sustainable shipping” and the “most important” project it has ever done.

Incat, a manufacturer based in Tasmania, constructed the ship – called Hull 096 – after being contracted by the South American ferry operator Buquebus to build a vessel to run between the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires, and Uruguay.

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‘A win-win for farmers’: how flooding fields in north-west England could boost crops

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A ‘wetter farming’ project explores rehydrating peatland to help grow crops in boggier conditions while cutting CO2 emissions

“I really don’t like the word ‘paludiculture’ – most people have no idea what it means,” Sarah Johnson says. “I prefer the term ‘wetter farming’.”

The word might be baffling, but the concept is simple: paludiculture is the use of wet peatlands for agriculture, a practice that goes back centuries in the UK, including growing reeds for thatching roofs.

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