User Articles

Newly discovered photos help Yazidi regain their history

Archaeologists who spent the 1930s in northern Iraq studying early civilizations befriended the local Yazidi community, taking photos of them going about their daily lives. The black-and-white images ended up scattered among the 2,000 or so photographs of the excavation work kept at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, which led the ambitious digs.

Reuters

Government

Pentagon planning to send troops to Louisiana

The Trump administration has drafted a proposal to deploy 1,000 Louisiana National Guard troops to conduct law enforcement operations in the state’s urban centres, the Washington Post has reported, citing Pentagon planning documents. Although statistics show violent crime rates have actually fallen in many US cities, President Donald Trump has sought to make crime a central issue, with his crackdown on Democratic-led municipalities has spurring protests, including a demonstration by several thousand people in Washington DC last weekend.

Reuters

Poland

13 hours ago

Fearful Poles flock to military

Six kilometres from the Russian border in northern Poland, office administrator Agnieszka Jedruszak is digging a trench. Driven by fear of war with Russia, she wants to be able to defend her family, including her 13-year-old son. Thousands of Poles like Jedruszak are signing up for voluntary military training as Poland’s army seeks to fill its ranks with professional and voluntary personnel amid escalating concerns over Russia’s military aggression.

Reuters

13 hours ago

Israel

Netanyahu’s Qatar gamble backfires

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered this week’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Qatar, he took a major gamble in his campaign to pound the group into submission. With signs growing that the mission failed, that gamble appears to have backfired. Netanyahu had hoped to kill Hamas’ senior exiled leaders to get closer toward his vision of “total victory” against the militant group that attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and pressure it into surrendering after nearly two years of war in the Gaza Strip.

Reuters

Conflict

Russia claims settlements, Ukraine targets refinery

Russia claims its forces have taken control of three more Ukrainian settlements in the past week, while Ukraine has reported striking Russian oil facilities. The Russian Ministry of Defence said in a weekly report that over the past week, Russian forces had taken control of three more settlements in the Dnipropetrovsk region and struck targets including Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises, transportation and energy infrastructure serving Ukrainian forces, and military airfields.

Reuters

Pakistan

Pakistani soldiers killed in Islamist ambush

Twelve soldiers have been killed in northwest Pakistan in an ambush by Islamist militants on an army convoy, officials say. The soldiers were moving in vehicles when they came under fire in the mountainous Badar area of South Waziristan near the border with Afghanistan. Pakistan’s military said in a statement that 12 soldiers and 13 militants were killed in the clash “after an intense exchange of fire”.

Reuters

Agriculture

16 hours ago

AI takes the wheel in high-tech harvest

Tom Gamble is not just a Napa Valley winemaker. He’s a forward thinker. When artificial intelligence-powered tractors hit the market, Gamble saw potential, investing early in a self-driving model to bring precision farming to his family’s historic vineyard. The electric powered tractor has learned every row of Gamble’s vineyard. Soon, it’ll operate autonomously, optimizing crop care and helping to reduce water and chemical use.

Reuters

16 hours ago

Brazil

Bolsonaro’s influence will endure

With former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro under house arrest and in poor health, his lawyer has said that the ex-leader was too sick to attend the final hearings when a Supreme Court panel convicted and sentenced him to 27 years and three months in prison on charges of attempting a coup. But despite frailty and his conviction, Bolsonaro’s political influence will certainly endure.

Reuters

Ukraine

Wounded soldier’s amazing escape

After being wounded in the leg by an attack drone on the front lines of eastern Ukraine, Surovyi, a 40-year-old Ukrainian soldier, knew his flight to safety would be fraught with danger. In the end, it meant five days of crawling through the scrub, hiding in ditches and covering himself with branches and earth to escape the gaze of Russian surveillance and attack drones buzzing in the air searching for targets.

Reuters

Nature

Powerful 7.4 quake hits Russia, no tsunami threat

A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake has struck near the east coast of Russia’s Kamchatka region, the US Geological Survey reported. There was no threat of a tsunami, the US National Weather Service’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said. The United States Geological Survey pegged the earthquake at magnitude 7.4, with a depth of 39.5 km (24.5 miles).

Reuters

Shooting

‘The movement my husband built will not die’

In her first public comments since her husband was assassinated, Erika Kirk has vowed in a tearful but defiant message that “the movement built by my husband will not die,“ and that his radio-podcast show would continue. She also thanked the ranks of law enforcement “who worked tirelessly to capture my husband’s assassin.“ The family of the young Utah man accused of shooting Charlie Kirk told authorities he had recently become “more political” and recounted a dinner table conversation where they discussed whether the conservative activist was spreading hate.

Reuters

Argentina

22 hours ago

Protests put pressure on Milei

A massive demonstration has swept through downtown Buenos Aires to protest against the spending cuts that President Javier Milei imposed on health and education, as he weathers turbulent days after a recent electoral defeat. The protest, another flashpoint for Milei, took place a day after the controversial leader vetoed two laws passed by Congress that would have restored funding for public universities and paediatric hospitals, which have declared themselves in crisis.

Reuters

22 hours ago

Crime

23 hours ago

Trump to send troops to Memphis

US President Donald Trump says he will send National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee, to combat crime, following his administration’s unprecedented police takeover in Washington, DC last month. Trump has sought to make crime a central issue even as violent crime rates have fallen in many cities. His crackdown on Democratic-led municipalities has spurred protests, including a demonstration by several thousand people in Washington last weekend. ”We’re going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled,“ Trump said in an interview with Fox News at a studio in New York.

Reuters

23 hours ago

United Nations

US vows to defend NATO territory

The United States has told the United Nations Security Council it would “defend every inch of NATO territory” after a suspected Russian drone incursion into Poland. ”The United States stands by our NATO allies in the face of these alarming airspace violations,“ acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the 15-member body. The remarks appear aimed at assuaging Washington’s NATO allies after US President Donald Trump on Thursday said Russia’s alleged drone incursion into Poland could have been a mistake.

Reuters

Business

AstraZeneca pauses investment

Britain’s biggest company AstraZeneca has paused a planned £200 million (US$271.2 million) investment in its Cambridge research site, a spokesperson said, the latest drugmaker to pull back on its business in Britain. The decision on the investment...

Reuters

Poland

NATO responds to drone incursion with eastern op

NATO announced plans to beef up the defence of Europe’s eastern flank, two days after Poland shot down drones that had violated its airspace in the first known action of its kind by a member of the Western alliance during Russia’s war in Ukraine...

Reuters