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Kim unveils new warship

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has attended a ceremony for the launch of a “new multi-purpose destroyer”. The 5,000-tonne warship was equipped with the “most powerful weapons” and built “within 400-odd days perfectly with our own strength and technology,“ Jo Chun Ryong, a secretary in the ruling Workers’ Party, was quoted as saying by state media KCNA. In a speech from the launch, Kim, said the warship would be handed over to the navy and go into service early next year.

Reuters

Italy

VIPs arrive for Pope’s funeral

Royalty, presidents, prime ministers and a legion of faithful will pay their last respects to Pope Francis on Saturday at a funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square to honour his sometimes turbulent papacy. Among those attending from more than 150 countries will be U.S. President Donald Trump, who clashed with Francis on numerous occasions over their starkly contrasting positions on immigration. The Argentine pope died on Monday, aged 88, following a stroke, ushering in a meticulously planned period of transition for the 1.4-billion member Roman Catholic Church, marked by ancient ritual, pomp and mourning.

Reuters

Canada

3 hours ago

Carney condemns Gaza food blockade

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has urged Israel to allow the World Food Program to work in Gaza, hours after the UN agency ran out of stocks due to a sustained Israeli blockade on supplies. The WFP said on Friday it had delivered its last remaining supplies to kitchens providing hot meals in Gaza and that the facilities were expected to run out of food in the coming days. ”The UN World Food Program just announced that its food stocks in Gaza have run out because of the Israeli Government’s blockade — food cannot be used as a political tool,“ Carney said on X.

Reuters

3 hours ago

Africa

4 hours ago

Congo and Rwanda agree on pathway to peace

Congo and Rwanda have vowed to come up with a draft peace deal by May 2 and refrain from providing military support to armed groups, according to an agreement signed in Washington as part of diplomatic efforts to end violence in eastern Congo. The agreement, reached amid an unprecedented advance by Rwandan-backed M23 rebels in Congo, is expected to bring significant US public and private investment to the region, which is rich in minerals including tantalum and gold, the final text said.

Reuters

4 hours ago

USA

5 hours ago

Britain and US discuss trade deal

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has met US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to discuss a trade deal, shortly after saying that improving business ties with the European Union was “arguably even more important.“ Reeves held discussions with Bessent at a gathering of world finance chiefs at the International Monetary Fund that has been dominated by concerns about US President Donald Trump’s import tariffs.

Reuters

5 hours ago

Europe

7 hours ago

Rubio replaces top envoy with former staffer

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has appointed a former member of his Senate staff who primarily has experience as a business consultant as the US State Department’s top official for Europe, according to an internal email sent on Friday seen by...

Reuters

7 hours ago

Italy

11 hours ago

Argentines bid poignant farewell to countryman Pope

Argentine Marcelo Bruno jumped into a car early and set off on the long drive to Rome from Syracuse on the island of Sicily, to bid farewell to his compatriot Pope Francis. When he arrived he went straight to St. Peter’s Basilica where the body of...

Reuters

11 hours ago

Denmark

12 hours ago

Jeffries: US invasion of Greenland ‘unlikely’

The United States Congress is unlikely to support any invasion of Denmark’s semi-autonomous territory of Greenland, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives said while on a visit to Copenhagen. US President Donald Trump, a Republican, has...

Reuters

12 hours ago

Ukraine

13 hours ago

Texts show split over US peace drive

Ukrainian and European officials pushed back this week against some US proposals on how to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, making counterproposals on issues from territory to sanctions, according to the full texts of the proposals seen by Reuters. The...

Reuters

13 hours ago

India

Rival tensions soar over Kashmir

Armed police and soldiers searched homes and forests for militants in Indian Kashmir and India’s army chief visited the area to review security, after the killing of 26 men earlier this week – the worst attack on civilians in nearly two decades...

Reuters

In Depth

Trump’s tariffs dilemma for Orban, far-right leaders

After Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, Hungarian leader Viktor Orban predicted the “Trump tornado” would usher in a golden era for Europe’s far right. It isn’t working out that way. In Hungary, the strong economy that helped Orban...

Reuters

Trade

Trump says Xi called him, lays out trade and other deal plans

US President Donald Trump says his administration is talking with China to strike a tariff deal and that Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him, though Beijing has so far disputed the US characterisation of talks. The Republican president, in an interview with Time magazine on Tuesday that was published on Friday, did not say when Xi called or what the two leaders discussed. Trump said he would not call Xi. “He’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf,“ Trump said.

Reuters

Religion

Faithful flock to pay final respects

Tens of thousands have filed into St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican throughout the night and into the morning on the last day to bid farewell to Pope Francis ahead of his funeral on Saturday. The Basilica was open for most of the night, shutting its doors for only three hours between 2.30am (0030 GMT) and 5.30am. The body of the 88-year-old pope, who died on Monday in his rooms at the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse after suffering a stroke, was brought to St Peter’s in a solemn procession on Wednesday.

Reuters

China

China creates tariff carve-outs

China has exempted some US imports from its 125 per cent tariffs and is asking firms to identify critical goods they need levy-free, according to businesses notified, in the clearest sign yet of Beijing’s concerns about the trade war’s economic fallout. The dispensation, which follows de-escalatory statements from Washington, signals that the world’s two largest economies were prepared to rein in their conflict, which had frozen much of the trade between them, raising fears of a global recession.

Reuters

Iran

Trump open to meeting Iran’s leaders, sees chance of deal

US President Donald Trump says he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president and that he thinks the two countries will strike a new deal on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program. However, Trump, who in 2018 pulled the US out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, repeated a threat of military action against Iran unless a new pact is swiftly reached to prevent it developing nuclear weapons.

Reuters

Ukraine

18 hours ago

Russian strikes kill five after Trump rebukes Putin

Five people, including a child, have been killed in the latest round of Russian attacks on Ukraine, Ukrainian officials say. Three of the victims were killed in the city of Pavlohrad after a drone strike, said Serhiy Lysak, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region. “The aggressor again conducted a mass attack on the region with drones,“ Lysak wrote on Telegram, adding that 11 drones were destroyed over the region.

Reuters

18 hours ago

Ukraine

Zelensky: ‘Missile North Korean’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the Russian missile that struck a residential building in Kyiv overnight and killed 12 people was supplied by North Korea, confirming earlier reports. A North Korean KN-23 (KN-23A) missile hit a residential block in the Sviatoshynskyi district west of Kyiv’s centre during a major aerial attack by Russia, a Ukrainian military source said.

Reuters

Ukraine

Trump on Kyiv strike: ‘Vladimir STOP’

Russian strikes on Kyiv with missiles and drones, killing at least 12 people in the biggest attack on the Ukrainian capital this year have drawn a rare rebuke from US President Donald Trump, who told Vladimir Putin: “Vladimir, STOP!” Trump told reporters at the White House that his administration was applying “a lot of pressure” on Russia and reiterated his displeasure with the attack. But he said significant progress had been made in peace negotiations and that the Kremlin had made a “pretty big concession” by being open to “stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country.“

Reuters