- LIVE UPDATES: Who are the cardinals who will choose the next pope? Catholic News Agency
- Cardinal Who Threatened to Crash the Conclave Now Says He Won’t The New York Times
- Conclave Update: Cardinals React as Convicted Becciu Exits Pope Election Newsweek
- Cardinals recognize right to vote of all Cardinal electors in conclave Vatican News
- Vatican's 'May Madness': Will new pope be progressive or will church turn back the clock? USA Today
Kneecap: Counter terrorism police investigating Kneecap videos – BBC
- Kneecap: Counter terrorism police investigating Kneecap videos BBC
- Kneecap row: police assessing ‘kill MP’ and ‘up Hamas, up Hezbollah’ footage The Guardian
- Massive Attack Back Kneecap Amid Coachella Backlash: ‘Gaza Is the Story’ Rolling Stone
- Kneecap’s downfall is a warning to pathetic Left-wing provocateurs everywhere The Telegraph
- Kneecap row: Paul Weller and Primal Scream lead musicians in signing open letter in support of rap trio Sky News
Hegseth orders ‘comprehensive transformation’ of US Army, merging offices and cutting units – Breaking Defense
- Hegseth orders 'comprehensive transformation' of US Army, merging offices and cutting units Breaking Defense
- Falling stars? Army weighing massive cut to generals, PEO offices and AFC power Breaking Defense
- US Army leadership says it wants soldiers figuring out what's needed for war, not 'focused on things like PowerPoint slides' Business Insider
- Defense Secretary Hegseth orders total transformation, consolidation of Army Washington Times
- Defense Chief Orders Army Transformation Review Mirage News
Trump tariffs cause fastest slump in British factory export orders in five years
Decline in output and new orders in April allied with rising uncertainty is prompting layoffs, survey finds
Britain’s factories suffered a slump in export orders last month as Donald Trump’s globally unsettling tariff regime sent overseas demand for UK goods tumbling at the fastest pace in five years.
Manufacturers reported rising economic and trade uncertainties in April as some tariffs took effect and other threatened border taxes loomed, forcing them to lay off workers for a sixth consecutive month.
Continue reading...DoJ civil rights division suffers severe personnel reduction under Trump
More than 250 lawyers have left or been reassigned since January as critics fear ‘end of the division as we’ve known it’
More than 250 attorneys in the justice department’s civil rights division have either left, been reassigned, or accepted a buyout offer since January , according to an estimate provided to the Guardian by people familiar with the matter. The significant decrease in personnel underscores how Donald Trump is gutting the arm of the federal government responsible for enforcing federal civil rights laws.
About 235 attorneys in the division’s civil enforcement sections have accepted buyouts or have quit the justice department and roughly another 20 have been reassigned or detailed to do other work within the agency, including handling public records requests and internal agency complaints.
Continue reading...Daily endometriosis pill approved for NHS could help 1,000 women a year
Linzagolix hailed as a possible ‘gamechanger’ in tackling the painful condition for some patients in England
More than 1,000 women a year in England could benefit from a new pill for endometriosis.
The condition occurs when tissue similar to the womb lining grows elsewhere in the body, such as the pelvis, bladder and bowel. It can cause chronic pain, heavy periods, extreme tiredness and fertility problems.
Continue reading...Japanese police arrest man after alleged car attack on schoolchildren, say reports
Motorist held in Osaka on suspicion of attempted murder after seven children injured, according to local media
Police in the Japanese city of Osaka have arrested a man on suspicion of attempted murder after he drove his car into seven schoolchildren, according to local media.
The children were walking home from school when the suspect appeared to deliberately drive the car at them on a quiet residential street at about 1.30pm local time, the public broadcaster NHK reported.
Continue reading...Local elections: voters head to the polls across England – UK politics live
Labour face first electoral test since general election with more than 1,600 council seats up for grabs
One of the signs that Bluesky is functioning as a decent alternative to Elon Musk’s X is the fact that it has become a decent source for #dogsatpollingstations. Here are some of the nicer pictures I have seen there this morning.
The Metropolitan police has confirmed that counter-terrorism police are investigating footage that appears to show Irish language rap band Kneecap calling for politicians to be killed, and shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”.
On April 22, we were made aware of an online video believed to be from a music event in London in November 2024. Following this, we were made aware of a further video, believed to be from another music event in London in November 2023.
Both videos were referred to the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit for assessment by specialist officers, who have determined there are grounds for further investigation into potential offences linked to both videos.
Continue reading...Lebedev promises to keep funding Standard after another £20m loss
Following a rebrand and move to digital-first the total losses over eight years rise to nearly £125m
Evgeny Lebedev, the owner of the Standard, has pledged to provide funds to keep the newspaper company going after it lost nearly £20m in the year before it went weekly.
The paper, formerly the Evening Standard, which had been published daily in London for almost 200 years, was rebranded last autumn to make it a digital-first publication, supported by a weekly print edition, the London Standard.
Continue reading...No Ken do: Trump says US kids may get ‘two dolls instead of 30’ due to tariffs
President acknowledged his tariff war with China could lead to a toy shortage and costlier products
Donald Trump on Wednesday acknowledged that his tariffs could result in fewer and costlier products in the United States, saying American kids might “have two dolls instead of 30 dolls”, but he insisted China will suffer more from his trade war.
The US president has tried to reassure a nervous country that his tariffs will not provoke a recession, after a new government report showed the US economy shrank during the first three months of the year.
Continue reading...Israel Scrambles to Extinguish Wildfires on Outskirts of Jerusalem – The New York Times
- Israel Scrambles to Extinguish Wildfires on Outskirts of Jerusalem The New York Times
- Firefighters battle blazes near Jerusalem as officials investigate cause The Washington Post
- Netanyahu Claims 18 Arrested Over Jerusalem Fires, Though It's Actually Only Three Haaretz
- Government accused of failing to take fire threat seriously despite years of warnings The Times of Israel
- Several countries sending firefighting planes to Israel to help tackle major wildfire ABC News
Israel declares national emergency as wildfires force evacuations
Witnesses tell of ‘walls of flame’ surging across woodland, while high winds disrupt Independence Day events
Wildfires continued to threaten swaths of forest and fields in Israel on Thursday, though firefighters successfully reopened the main road linking the country’s two principal cities.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, declared a national emergency after the fires broke out on Wednesday along the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, prompting police to shut the route and evacuate thousands of people from nearby communities.
Continue reading...Gaza edges closer to famine as Israel’s total blockade nears its third month – CNN
- Gaza edges closer to famine as Israel’s total blockade nears its third month CNN
- Israel redraws Gaza map, limiting Palestinians to a third of the enclave The Washington Post
- Looting of Gaza stores signals worsening hunger crisis Reuters
- The U.S. backs Israel's ban on the U.N.'s Palestinian aid agency at the World Court NPR
- Israel, Gaza, and the Starvation Weapon Foreign Affairs
North Korea and Russia Build First Cross-Border Road Bridge – The New York Times
- North Korea and Russia Build First Cross-Border Road Bridge The New York Times
- Russia builds first road bridge to North Korea The Telegraph
- New Russia-North Korea bridge will boost economic cooperation, both countries say NBC News
- ‘Milestone’: Russia, North Korea begin first road bridge construction Al Jazeera
- North Korea: First road bridge to Russia 'significant' development BBC
Profits fall at Premier Inn owner Whitbread on drop in UK bookings
Shares rise on promises to return £2bn to investors through buybacks and dividends, and more hotel openings
Profits at the Premier Inn owner Whitbread have fallen after it was hit by higher costs and a drop in UK bookings, but shares rose on the promise of a share buyback and more hotel openings.
Britain’s largest hotel group, which owns 852 hotels in the UK and 61 in Germany, reported a 14% fall in adjusted pre-tax profit to £483m for the year to 27 February. Revenues dipped by 1% to £2.9bn, as revenue per available room in the UK was down by 2%.
Continue reading...Spain and Portugal blackout blamed on solar power dependency – Financial Times
- Spain and Portugal blackout blamed on solar power dependency Financial Times
- Opinion | How the Lights Went Out in Spain WSJ
- The Spanish state should take over grid operator, says deputy prime minister Reuters
- The great Iberian power cut need not spell disaster for renewables The Economist
- Power Outage in Spain and Portugal Creates a Day of Confusion The New York Times
UK banks put £75bn into firms building climate-wrecking ‘carbon bombs’, study finds
Exclusive: Britain is key financial hub for destructive fossil fuel mega-projects, according to research
Banks in the City of London have poured more than $100bn (£75bn) into companies developing “carbon bombs” – huge oil, gas and coal projects that would drive the climate past internationally agreed temperature limits with catastrophic global consequences – according to a study.
Nine London-based banks, including HSBC, NatWest, Barclays and Lloyds are involved in financing companies responsible for at least 117 carbon bomb projects in 28 countries between 2016 – the year after the landmark Paris agreement was signed – and 2023, according to the study.
Continue reading...Private firms look to fill research gaps left by federal grant cuts: ‘We can’t wait four years’
Trump and Musk have gut National Institutes of Health and experts are wary of private efforts’ ability to replicate public service
The federal government has slashed research since Donald Trump took office – hacking away at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its grants, staff and long-held partnerships with academia.
Now, some private companies said they want to pick up strands of research that might have otherwise been funded by the federal government. The effort has stoked little optimism among experts, who caution that private efforts cannot remotely replicate the breadth, depth or public service provided by federal funding.
Continue reading...Trump’s attack on federal unions a ‘test case’ for broader assault, warn lawyers
Executive order cites national security to strip bargaining rights from more than 1 million federal workers
The Trump administration is seeking to strip collective bargaining rights from large swaths of federal employees in a test case union leaders argue is part of a broader attack on US labor unions that could land before the US Supreme Court.
A Trump win would deliver a severe blow to labor unions in the US. Some 29.9% of all federal workers were represented by labor unions in 2024 compared to 11.1% for all US workers.
Continue reading...Trump has launched more attacks on the environment in 100 days than his entire first term
Blitzkrieg has hit protections in place for land, oceans, forests and wildlife, and will worsen the climate crisis
Donald Trump has launched an unprecedented assault upon the environment, instigating 145 actions to undo rules protecting clean air, water and a livable climate in this administration’s first 100 days – more rollbacks than were completed in Trump’s entire first term as US president.
Trump’s blitzkrieg has hit almost every major policy to shield Americans from toxic pollution, curb the worsening impacts of the climate crisis and protect landscapes, oceans, forests and imperiled wildlife.
Continue reading...