British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is convening a second meeting of global leaders Saturday to discuss the developments regarding the war in Ukraine, following another frantic week of diplomacy aimed at getting Russia to back a 30-day ceasefire. Unlike the first summit on March 2, the meeting of what Starmer has termed the “coalition of the willing” will be conducted virtually. The call is expected to delve into how countries can help Ukraine militarily and financially as well as gauging support for any future possible peacekeeping mission.
The nuns who operate the Vatican’s switchboard are fielding a growing number of calls with questions like that as the pope remains hospitalized in Rome. “They feel like children waiting to know about their father,” said Sister Anthony, who runs the operation in a spartan office steps away from St. Peter’s. Basilica. The Vatican’s central number is public — and the sisters of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master make sure all who call it get a real person, not the “press 1 for English, 2 for Latin” version of the automation that’s become the norm at major institutions and businesses worldwide.
The fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government has aggravated already tense relations between Turkey and Israel, with their conflicting interests in Syria pushing the relationship toward a possible collision course. Turkey, which long backed groups opposed to Assad, has emerged as a key player in Syria and is advocating for a stable and united Syria, in which a central government maintains authority over the whole country. It welcomed a breakthrough agreement that Syria’s new interim government signed this week with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, to integrate with the Syrian government and army.
OpenAI and Elon Musk have agreed to fast-track a trial over OpenAI's for-profit shift, the latest turn in a grudge match between the world's richest person and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman playing out publicly in court. Billionaire Elon Musk and OpenAI jointly proposed a trial in December, according to a federal court filing on Friday. The judge this month denied Musk's request to pause the artificial intelligence group's transition to a for-profit model but agreed to an expedited trial in the autumn, the latest turn in the high-stakes legal fight.
The threat of tornadoes moved east into the Mississippi Valley and Deep South on Saturday, a day after a massive storm system moving across the country unleashed winds that damaged buildings, whipped up dust storms that caused deadly crashes and fanned more than 100 wildfires in several central states. Multiple tornadoes were reported in Missouri on Friday, just some of the extreme weather that was forecast to affect an area home to more than 100 million people. Winds gusting up to 80 mph (130 kph) were predicted from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfire risk in warmer, drier areas to the south.
Cuba suffered a general blackout on Friday caused by a crash of its national electricity grid, officials said, the fourth major power outage on the cash-strapped communist island in five months.The island of 9.7 million inhabitants suffered three nationwide blackouts in the final months of 2024, two of them lasting several days.
A dynamic storm system threatening to spawn powerful tornadoes and hail as big as baseballs has earned a relatively rare designation from forecasters: A “high risk” day of severe weather. Parts of Missouri, Iowa and Illinois saw some of the most extreme weather on Friday, with the system forecast to take aim Saturday at southern states including Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Storm Prediction Center uses five categories to warn of expected severe weather, ranging from marginal to high.
Nearly a dozen Senate Democrats joined Republicans to avert a shutdown with just hours to spare.
Sri Lanka carried out a nationwide census Saturday of nuisance wildlife, including monkeys and peacocks, in a bid to prepare countermeasures to protect crops, officials said.Sri Lanka removed several species from its protected list in 2023, including all three of its monkey species as well as peacocks and wild boars, allowing farmers to kill them. str-aj/asv/mtp
International students and faculty have watched the growing crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University with apprehension. Federal immigration agents have arrested two foreigners — one of them a student — who protested last year at Columbia. Department of Homeland Security agents also searched the on-campus residences of two Columbia students on Thursday but did not make any arrests there.
An elevated road being built in Thailand’s capital Bangkok collapsed, killing at least five people, officials said. The collapse, which happened in the early morning in southwestern Bangkok, also injured 24 other people at the construction site, said Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit. Bangkok police commander Siam Boonsom said authorities were still investigating to determine the cause of the collapse and that they would pursue legal actions against those found responsible.
Authorities and environmentalists in Zambia fear the long-term impact of an acid spill at a Chinese-owned mine that contaminated a major river and could potentially affect millions of people after signs of pollution were detected at least 100 kilometers (60 miles) downstream. The spill happened on Feb. 18 when a tailings dam that holds acidic waste from a copper mine in the north of the country collapsed, according to investigators from the Engineering Institution of Zambia. The collapse allowed some 50 million liters of waste containing concentrated acid, dissolved solids and heavy metals to flow into a stream that links to the Kafue River, Zambia’s most important waterway, the engineering institution said.
Commuters in downtown Barcelona have been able to ride the bus for free this week. The bus pulls away from the stop with its passengers on its own, brakes before changing lanes and eases down one of Barcelona’s most fashionable boulevards. Renault is testing a new driverless mini-bus in Barcelona this week.
Trump administration workforce cuts at federal agencies overseeing U.S. dams are threatening their ability to provide reliable electricity, supply farmers with water and protect communities from floods, employees and industry experts warn. The Bureau of Reclamation provides water and hydropower to the public in 17 western states. Nearly 400 agency workers have been cut through the Trump reduction plan, an administration official said.
Senate Democrats were grim Friday as they left Washington after a brutal 10-week stretch that consistently showed the limits of their power in the minority — and culminated with a deeply personal rupture over how to best counter President Donald Trump. Internal dissension burst into the open Thursday evening after Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced he would vote to move forward on the Trump-backed spending measure, ensuring its eventual passage even though Democrats said it would give Trump broad discretion on decisions that are traditionally left to Congress. The intraparty backlash was unusually swift as activists and House Democrats who had uniformly opposed the bill heaped criticism on Schumer.
Earlier this year, Michael Woolfolk attended a legislative committee in Georgia where lawmakers considered for a third year whether to compensate the 45-year-old for the 19 years he spent behind bars for a 2002 killing before charges against him were dismissed. Behind him sat Daryl Lee Clark, also 45, who spent 25 years in prison for a 1998 murder conviction that was vacated over a series of legal and police errors. It was his second attempt to obtain compensation.
Audio from a 911 call made after four University of Idaho college students were fatally stabbed reveals the panic of the survivors as they struggled to understand what occurred.
The head of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has been killed in Iraq in an operation by members of the Iraqi national intelligence service along with US-led coalition forces, the Iraqi prime minister announced Friday.
Haiti's lawless capital Port-au-Prince was in the grip of a new wave of gang violence on Friday, according to an AFP correspondent on the ground, as more families fled their homes. Human rights activist Pierre Esperance, director of a national network, warned that all of Port-au-Prince was now at risk of falling to the crime lords.
UK premier Keir Starmer will prod fellow leaders Saturday to sign up to a coalition willing to protect any eventual ceasefire in Ukraine, having said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "not serious about peace"."We can't allow President Putin to play games with President Trump's deal," Starmer said in comments released by Downing Street late Friday, ahead of the call on Saturday morning.
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