Corax

Corax

57% of 15 to 24-year-old Muslims believe that Islamic Sharia laws should take precedence over French laws, 42% of the group sympathize with radical Islamist groups, Muslims under 25 attending mosques has risen from 7% in 1989 to 40% this year and young Muslim women wearing veils has surged from 16% to 45%, according to a survey by Ifop who comments that it paints a very clear picture of a Muslim population undergoing a process of re-Islamization

World

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warns Brazil, China and India that they will face heavy sanctions if they keep doing business with Russia, urges the respective leaders to call Vladimir Putin to push him to seriously join peace talks
Donald Trump issues executive order to permanently revoke most sanctions on Syria and directs relevant agencies to examine scrapping sanctions that he cannot remove unilaterally, says there is great potential in working with Syria to stop radicalism, improve relations and secure peace in the Middle East
Canada transfers CAD 2.3 billion in revenues from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine as part of the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration initiative, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal writes on X that they have received approximately USD 17.6 billion through the immobilisation of Russian assets during 2025 and that they insist on full confiscation of frozen Russian assets to rebuild the state and as an act of justice to prevent aggressive wars in the future
Donald Trump criticizes the ongoing corruption trial against Benjamin Netanyahu, says on Truth Social that it is insanity and that the US which spends billions of dollars per year on protecting and supporting Israel will not stand for it
The island of Annobón which unilaterally declared its independence from Equatorial Guinea in 2022 but so far has not received international recognition formally requests to become an associated state of Argentina, the Annobónese Prime Minister Orlando Cartagena Lagar says the regime of Equatorial Guinea is repressive and that the island shares a historical heritage with Argentina as it was a part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata before being transferred to the Spanish Crown in the 18th century
American authorities discover during check that specific, Chinese-made, solar inverters include hidden communication devices which lack any documented purpose, could potentially circumvent firewalls and be used to disrupt or sabotage the energy grid
Donald Trump says US will remove all sanctions on Syria, comments that the new government will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace, wishes the country good luck and asks them to show something very special just like Saudi Arabia has done
South Africa criticizes the US for accepting white Afrikaners as refugees after reports that the first 54 are expected to arrive next week, calls the decision politically motivated and designed to undermine its constitutional democracy, Donald Trump has described the Afrikaners as victims of racial discrimination and Elon Musk has said Pretoria is leading a genocide against white farmers
Amnesty says the United Arab Emirates is supplying Sudan paramilitary Rapid Support Forces with Chinese weapons, says AH-4 howitzers which the UAE is the only country to have imported have been found in Khartoum, Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied arming the RSF despite reports from UN and other organizations
69-year-old American Robert Francis Prevost elected to be Pope Leo XIV, was appointed bishop in 2015 and called to be Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in January 2023 before being created cardinal in September that year

Miscellaneous

Aalborg Zoo in Denmark asks the public for donations of unwanted small pets or horses to feed its captive predators, comments that they have a responsibility to imitate the natural food chain of the animals
Dissatisfaction among people who donated money to black 18-year-old Karmelo Anthony who faces a first-degree murder charge for fatally stabbing white teen Austin Metcalf at a Frisco track meet in April, more than USD 515,000 raised where the family allegedly has spent over USD 500,000 on private expenses
Frederic Forsyth dead at 86 after a brief illness, wrote a series of novels including The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File and The Dogs of War and sold more than 75 million copies, was a staunch supporter of Brexit and wrote of his skepticism of climate change in his Daily Express column
Kanye "Ye" West's new song "Heil Hitler" banned in Germany for its antisemitic message, the greeting phrase as well as swastikas and the lengthy sampled Hitler speech banned in the country, the song went viral with millions of views on X which is one of few platforms to not ban it
Chess banned in Afghanistan, ruling Taliban fear game attracts illegal gambling and say compatibility of chess with Islamic law will be investigated
British mercenary Simon Mann dead at 72 from heart attack while exercising, rose through the SAS ranks before founding a company protecting businesses in conflict zones, was arrested in Zimbabwe 2004 along with 70 mercenaries and sentenced to 34 years in prison for planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea but was pardoned in 2009
Poland's digital affairs ministry says it will rename a recently launched government service as its acronym KURDE spells a commonly used euphemism for the swearword "kurwa", the petitioner writes that the phrase even officially appears in the PWN Dictionary of the Polish Language
Colossal squid filmed in the ocean for the first time since the species was discovered 100 years ago, the 30cm-long juvenile was caught on camera at 600m depth near the South Sandwich Islands in the south Atlantic Ocean by a team of scientists, experts believe the colossal squid can grow up to 7m in length and weigh up to 500kg which makes them the heaviest invertebrate on the planet
Transsexual Harriet Haynes beats transsexual Lucy Smith in the final of the Ultimate Pool Women's Pro Series Event 2 in Wigan, former US college swimmer Riley Gaines who has long debated the topic comments that it is a real life South Park episode and congratulates Mr. Haynes as the better cheat
USA Fencing disqualifies Stephanie Turner for removing her mask and taking a knee instead of competing against transgender Redmond Sullivan, the organization comments that they will always err on the side of inclusion, Turner comments that as a woman fencing in a women's tournament she does not believe she should be facing men and that she was not aware Mr Sullivan was registered until the night before the tournament

Media

BBC upholds 20 impartiality complaints over presenter Martine Croxall adding "women" to a script mentioning "pregnant people", the channel's Executive Complaints Unit comments that Croxall's facial expression indicated a particular viewpoint in the controversies currently surrounding trans identity
Turkish police arrest four at the satirical magazine LeMan for allegedly depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a cartoon that the pro-government Yeni Şafak newspaper describes as Prophet Muhammad and Prophet Moses with wings and halos shaking hands in the sky while a war scene unfolds below, demonstrators have hurled rocks at LeMan's headquarters in Istanbul and clashed with police, the newspaper denies the allegations and says the drawing was intended to portray a Muslim man named Muhammad and was meant to highlight the suffering of Muslims
Business Insider lays off 21% of its workforce as part of increased AI focus, CEO Barbara Peng comments that over 70% of the employees are using Enterprise ChatGPT regularly and that the goal is 100%
Daily Star stops featuring pin-up women on Page 3 as the last tabloid to keep the tradition, 25-year-old model Isabella says she is heart broken and wants to organize a protest to keep the iconic part of British culture
Reddit shuts down the anti-natalist subreddit r/Efilism with over 10,000 subscribers after a bombing against a fertility clinic in Palm Springs where the 25-year-old suspect Guy Edward Bartkus who died in the blast posted a manifesto where he referenced the subreddit and referred to the idea that death, is the ethical end point for humanity, other anti-natalist subreddits still available
Donald Trump criticizes establishment media for ignoring the genocide and land theft taking place against white farmers in South Africa, says if it were the other way around it would be the only story they would talk about and adds that he doesn't care about race or color but only that what is happening is terrible
EU fines TikTok EUR 530 million for sending European personal data to China and for a lack of transparency, TikTok says it strongly contests the decision and plans to appeal, the company says it is disappointed to have been singled out despite relying on the same legal mechanism employed by thousands of other companies providing services in Europe and that it has among other measures made a EUR 12 billion investment in Project Clover which is rolling out data centers in Europe to store data locally in the EU
Donald Trump launches news aggregator White House Wire, with clear inspiration from the Drudge Report, links primarily to positive reporting about the administration and is published at whitehouse.org/wire
Former British PM Liz Truss announces she will launch an uncensored social media platform, warns that the deep state and mainstream media are stifling freedom of expression like in the Soviet Union and that a grassroots movement that is actually really demanding change is needed
Voice of America which delivers news from an American perspective to foreign countries terminates its contracts with The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse, VOA director Kari Lake says the contracts were expensive and unnecessary, adds that they should produce their own news using their billion-dollar budget and that the American taxpayer should demand to know why if that would turn out not to be possible

Politics

Reform UK led by Nigel Farage makes major wins in British local elections, claiming 677 out of 1,600 seats, even in previously strong strongholds for the Tories and Labour, disastrous result for the Conservative Party which loses 676 seats and control of 16 local authorities
Donald Trump continues to flirt with the idea of ​​a third term and starts selling hats with text Trump 2028, has previously said that he is seriously considering running in the next presidential election and that many have asked him to do so
World Economic Forum launches investigation into Klaus Schwab after whistleblower accuses him of using the organization's resources for personal affairs, Schwab who the day before resigned as chairman denies the allegations and intends to file a lawsuit against the anonymous whistleblower and anybody who spreads the allegations
Canada's Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre says that voters shouldn't think that just because of Mark Carney's banker's haircut and blue socks that he is any different from Justin Trudeau, adds that Carney is not a businessman but a political grifter, Carney, who is leading in the polls, responds that Poilievre doesn't have any experience in crisis management
Polish team lead by billionaire Rafał Brzoska tasked by Prime Minister Donald Tusk submits its first 111 proposals on how to cut bureaucracy, the suggestions which were chosen among over 13,000 ideas and public voting are planned to start being implemented within 100 days
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defends Vice President JD Vance's speech at the Munich Security Conference, says Europe has been sacrificed on the altar of wokeness, bureaucracy and mercantilism and adds that Vance discussed deeper issues such as identity and freedom of speech, adds that we would live in a stronger Europe if those who were outraged had showed the same pride when Europe lost its strategic autonomy, tying its economy to autocratic regimes, or when European borders and our way of life were threatened by mass illegal migration
Friedrich Merz declares victory in the German snap election where his CDU/CSU finished first with a projected 29%, right-wing Alternative for Germany in second place with 20% ahead of center-left SPD with 16% which is the party's worst performance since it adopted its current name in 1890, AfD's chancellor candidate Alice Weidel calls the result a historic success and adds that she is open to participating in a coalition government with CDU/CSU although Merz has ruled that out
83-year-old Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell says he will not seek reelection, was first elected in 1986 and was the Senate's top Republican leader for 18 years, says representing the Kentuckian commonwealth seven times has been the honor of a lifetime but that he will not seek the honor an eighth time
Young voters drive the rise of Germany's right-wing AfD party which is expected to be the second largest party in Sunday's election, hundreds of young people line up in the eastern city of Suhl to listen to the party's extremist-designated Thuringia section leader Björn Höcke, 26-year-old Dante Reidel who says he idolizes Höcke and that his ideology represents Prussian virtues like diligence and discipline as well as cardinal virtues from antiquity
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius criticizes US Vice President JD Vance's claim that freedom of speech is in retreat in Europe, says it is not acceptable to accuse Germany or Europe of not being real democrats and adds that he's deeply convinced that the democracies are even more stable than ever before and that everybody is allowed to say his opinion wherever and whenever he wants

Opinion

Hungary passes amendment to the constitution with 140 votes for and 21 against that allows the government to ban public events by LGBTQ communities, the amendment declares that children's rights to moral, physical and spiritual development supersede the right to peacefully assemble, opposition politicians attempted to blockade the entrance to a parliament parking garage and used air horns to disrupt the vote
Bronze Age Pervert: The CIA supported more leftist regimes than it overthrew, played into the hands of Soviet Union and primarily sought to subvert European rule in Africa, first article out of three in series on US role in the decolonization of Africa
Nathan Halberstadt: The big three management consulting companies BCG, McKinsey and Bain all at the forefront of pushing DEI and similar left wing projects as it's been a major source of income as well as a way to appear morally superior, they must be pressured by the new administration to change course since they will never do so voluntarily, at the same time young ambitious Americans should stop lending their minds to the rotten legacy insitutions of the master class, wasting their lives creating yet another KPI-dashboard, instead they should strive to build a new future
Jayant Bhandari: India is about to return to its original state of corrupt, power-hungry sadism, the last remaining pieces of civilisation built by missionaries and the English will soon wither away, what's left is only a cargo-cult like adherence to Western values which still seems to fool many Westerners
William L. Anderson: Austrian economics explains WNBA's hostility towards white heterosexual star player Caitlin Clark – as the league constantly loses money and survives on subsidies, the loss from driving her out of the league would not cost much in compensation
Robert McGreevy: According to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability's report, the US federal government sent nearly USD 200 billion in Covid-19 relief programs to potentially fraudulent actors and allowed criminal networks to submit fraudulent claims and launder illicit funds with minimal oversight, resulted in the single largest transfer of money to criminal groups in our history where transnational criminal organizations in for instance China, Russia, Nigeria and Romania systematically exploited the benefits
EU's health ministers agree on recommending bans on smoking and vaping in many outdoor areas including cafe patios and beaches, all countries voted in favour apart from Germany and Greece which abstained, EU Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi comments that the agreement is a crucial step towards the goal of a tobacco-free generation in Europe
Peter Thiel: Humanity stands on the brink of apocalypse when modern technologies such as AI and nuclear weapons risk leading to a real Armageddon and pave way for the Antichrist in the form of a global state whose rule is justified by a need to control technology [video]
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy: Recent Supreme Court decisions make clear that numerous regulations are unconstitutional because they were not enacted by Congress, we will help Donald Trump identify such regulations so that he can immediately repeal them, this will also cause severe cuts to agencies and major cost savings
Jeff Bezos: Media fails to be seen as credible and is considered by most to be biased, it would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing decline in credibility but victim mentality does not help and I will not allow the Washington Post fade into irrelevance so changes are now needed for us to win this fight

Europe

57% of 15 to 24-year-old Muslims believe that Islamic Sharia laws should take precedence over French laws, 42% of the group sympathize with radical Islamist groups, Muslims under 25 attending mosques has risen from 7% in 1989 to 40% this year and young Muslim women wearing veils has surged from 16% to 45%, according to a survey by Ifop who comments that it paints a very clear picture of a Muslim population undergoing a process of re-Islamization
Eleven people in hospital of which two with life-threatening injuries after stabbing attack on a train in Cambridgeshire, two black British citizens arrested and police claim the attack is not investigates as terrorism, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood urges people to avoid comment and speculation
43-year-old Guillaume sworn-in as new Grand Duke of Luxembourg, takes over from his 70-year-old father Henri who had served for 25 years before abdicating, is the seventh grand duke since 1890 when the modern monarchy was established
110,000 people gathered in London according to police but supporters say there were millions despite heavy rain for Tommy Robinson's free speech rally Unite the Kingdom, no incidents of note according to police, Robinson comments that the revolution is on and that the protest is the largest demonstration in British history
At least 365 people arrested at London protest for supporting the Palestine Action group which was classified as a terror organization in July, seven other arrests made including five for assaults on officers
The European Commission proposes doubling the Ukraine aid to EUR 100 billion between 2028 and 2034, overall EU budget for the time period EUR 1.816 trillion, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says it is the most ambitious EU budget ever and a budget for a new era that matches Europe's ambition and strengthens its independence
German social democrats SPD pass motion calling for preparations to ban the right-wing largest opposition party Alternative for Germany party in accordance with the constitution, SPD co-leader Lars Klingbeil who also serves as finance minister and vice chancellor says that the room for tactics disappears the moment domestic intelligence confirms AfD as a right-wing extremist party
Spain's PM Pedro Sánchez rejects the Nato proposal to increase their defense spending to 5% of their GDP, says the idea would not only be unreasonable but also counterproductive as it would be incompatible with the country's welfare state and its vision of the world and adds that it is the legitimate right of every government to decide whether or not they are willing to make those sacrifices, the country currently spends 1.3% of its GDP on defense and plans on hitting 2% by the end of the year
Seven Pakistani men found guilty of 50 offences committed between 2001 and 2006 where they used two teenage girls as sex slaves in the English town of Rochdale, all perpetrators prosecuted as part of Operation Lytton where 37 individuals have been charged so far with five more trials scheduled to take place from September onwards
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says he will do everything possible to prevent Ukraine's EU accession, says the accession would be a lucrative deal for the Brussels bureaucracy in a lost war and that he would not be able to face his conscience, grandchildren or country if he failed to protect Hungary and the EU from letting Ukraine drain every euro, forint and zloty

North America

Former policeman Tou Thao, who was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months in prison for his part in the death of George Floyd, a free man after serving his time, says that he was only a human traffic cone holding back pedestrians, says that he's grateful for all the support over the years while in prison
At least a dozen teachers and professors nationwide fired or disciplined over social media posts after the murder of Charlie Kirk, many other educators suspended or under investigation with the number expected to grow as conservative online influencers share screenshots
22-year-old Tyler Robinson arrested for the murder of Charlie Kirk after being confronted by his father, is believed to have acted alone and has only commented on the inscriptions on the casings by saying that "Hey fascist, catch!" speaks for itself
Cartridges found at the Mauser .30-06 caliber bolt action rifle presumed used in the murder of Charlie Kirk contained transgender and anti-fascist writing, FBI searches a college-aged man filmed moving up the stairwells to the roof where the shooting took place
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk shot and killed during debate at an event at Utah Valley University, Donald Trump comments that no one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than the legendary Kirk, gunman still at large
23-year-old Ukrainian Iryna Zarutska randomly stabbed to death with a folding knife by 34-year-old ex-convict Decarlos Brown Jr on her way home from work on a train in Charlotte, Brown Jr arrested multiple times dating back to 2011 and was arrested in January for calling 911 to explain that man-made material inside his body was controlling his movements
Canadian veteran Jeff Evely fined CAD 28,872.50 for walking in the woods breaching the ban during the drought, says that he hs seen many countrymen die in battle and understands the price and cost of freedom, adds that he finds the ban unconstitutional and the fight against it is about human dignity
US bans mercury based vaccine preservative thimerosal, Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr comments that he is proud to finally deliver on a long-overdue promise to protect the most vulnerable from unnecessary mercury exposure and criticizes federal agencies for turning a blind eye to the science for decades
Donald Trump announces that he convinced Coca-Cola to use cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup in the US, says it's just better
University of Pennsylvania to block transgender athletes from female sports teams and erase the records set by transsexual swimmer Lia Thomas after pressure from the Trump administration, will also issue formal apologies to every female competitor who lost out to a man

Latin America

Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro who recently was sentenced to 27 years for coup attempt has been ordered to pay 188,000 USD for saying in 2021 that a man's afro hair was a breeding ground for cockroaches, Bolsonaro's defense argued there had been no intention of racial offence and that the supporter publicly said he was not offended but the judges ruled that the comment amounted to recreational racism
Eight dead after hot air-balloon with 21 passengers catch fire in Santa Catarina, Brazil, people seen jumping from the rapidly descending balloon to escape the flames
Haiti government hires Erik Prince to fight back against gangs that have taken over large parts of the country. Prince has previously operated drones to kill gang members and now 150 mercenaries are expected to arrive in the island nation during the summer
Argentina applies new anti-mafia law in the troubled city of Rosario, allows prosecutors to request the same sentence for all members of a gang regardless of their individual role and enables judicially authorized intervention zones with sweeping investigative powers such as raids and wiretaps, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich comments that "this all-out war is one we are winning"
Brazil raises the legal age for transgender people to receive hormone therapy from 16 to 18 years, also raises the minimum age for sexual reassignment surgery that involves a potentially sterilising effect from 18 to 21 years and bans the prescription of puberty blockers for children or adolescents with gender dysphoria
Brazil builds 13-kilometer four-lane highway through the protected Amazon rainforest to ease traffic for the expected 50,000 COP30 climate summit attendees, the state describes the project as a sustainable highway with bike lanes and solar lighting, other developments for the summit include airport expansion and port redevelopment
Cuban government offices in the city of Caibarién only service people who bring their own power generators due to the constant blackouts, employee at the state-owned BPA bank says the measure is duly consulted and authorized by the higher authorities
Cuba's population decreases by 307,436 people during 2024 to 9,748,532 inhabitants after the lowest birthrate recorded in the country in the past six decades, Cuba has been unable to achieve a 2.1 fertility rate since 1977 and more than a quarter are 60 years old or older, more than 90% of the population is estimated to be living in extreme poverty
Argentina's president Javier Milei orders the country's withdrawal from the World Health Organization, spokesperson Manuel Adorni says the decision is based on profound differences in health management especially during the Covid-19 pandemic and that the country will not allow an international organization to intervene in its sovereignty and much less in its health
Argentina's President Javier Milei doubles down on statements made at the WEF Forum in Davos against feminism and the LGBTQIA+ community, tells them to not get in the way and calls extreme gender ideologues pedophiles, writes on X that the world elites' ideology under the guise of good intentions and well-crafted rhetoric aims to impose an agenda whose only consequence is the infinite expansion of the state and the death of freedom

Asia

Japan's prime minister Ishiba Shigeru announces his resignation, comes after poor results in the July elections to the House of Councilors, where LDP and their coalition partner lost their majority
Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte re-elected as mayor of Davao far ahead of his competitors, is currently imprisoned in The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity as thousands of people were killed in his war on drugs
India and Pakistan agree to a full and immediate ceasefire, Donald Trump writes on Truth Social that the decision followed a long night of talks mediated by the United States
IMF approves USD 2.4 billion support for Pakistan of which 1 billion for an economic reform program and 1.4 billion to address vulnerabilities related to climate change and natural disasters
Indian security personnel neutralise 22 Naxalites in Chhattisgarh, hundreds of Naxal hideouts and bunkers destroyed so far and 168 left-wing extremists killed so far in the operation which involves 24,000 personnel from different units and has been going since April 21
India launches military operation against Pakistan in response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, says they have hit terrorist infrastructure in a focused and non-escalatory manner where no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted, Pakistan says the heinous provocation will not go unanswered
India bans imports from Pakistan and in a tit-for-tat-measure Islamabad also suspends all trade with New Delhi, India also bans ships bearing the flag of Pakistan to visit any Indian ports as well as Indian ships from visiting Pakistani ports, the decisions follow the Pahalgam terror attack where 26 people were murdered
20,000 security personnel from three states have surrounded over 1,000 Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur in the largest-ever operation against the Maoist rebels, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has set a deadline to eliminate Naxalism before April 2026 and nearly 150 Naxalites have been gunned down this year
Indian and Pakistani troops exchange gunfire for a second straight day, rising tensions between the countries after the Islamist terror attack killing 26 tourists in Pahalgam where India accuses Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism while Islamabad denies involvement
Japan imports rice from South Korea for the first time since 1999, rice prices roughly doubled since last year in the country and has increased 15 weeks in a row, the government released 230,000 tons from its rice reserves in March of which only 0.3% reached stores by the end of the month which the agriculture ministry explains with a shortage of delivery vehicles and the time needed to prepare the grain for sale

MIDDLE EAST

Africa

Two men sentenced to two years in prison for attempting to use witchcraft to kill President Hakainde Hichilema, were arrested in December with charms in their possession including a live chameleon where one man explained that the chameleon's tail when used in a ritual could cause death to occur within five days
The African Union backs campaign to end the use by governments and international organisations of the Mercator map in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa's size, the World Bank says it already uses the Winkel tripel projection or Equal Earth for static maps and is phasing out Mercator on web maps, request also sent to the UN geospatial body UN-GGIM
Algerian court upholds five-year prison sentence for French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal who was arrested in November for undermining Algeria's territorial integrity by saying in an interview that France unfairly ceded Moroccan territory to Algeria during the colonial era
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda sign US-mediated peace deal including US government and American companies access to critical minerals in the region after 30 years of war with millions killed, Rwanda says it is not supporting the M23 rebels and Congo is quoted to hope the US will provide the support to oust them from the region
Rwanda quits the Economic Community of Central African States ECCAS over tensions with the Democratic Republic of Congo, was take over the leadership but the bloc decided to let Equatorial Guinea continue with the role which Kigali condemned as Congo's instrumentalization of the bloc and added that the current functioning runs counter to its founding principles
Former Democratic Republic of Congo Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo sentenced to ten years of forced labor and the central bank's former Governor Deogratias Mutombo sentenced to five years of forced labor for corruption, embezzled 245 million USD from the Bukanga-Lonzo Agro-Industrial Park which was one of Africa's largest ever agricultural investments and intended to provide reprieve to the 28 million people who currently face acute food insecurity in the country
54 Benin soldiers killed in attack by al-Qaeda-linked Jnim near the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger during last week, several jihadist groups operating in the Sahel region where the governments struggle to contain the insurgency which is also spreading to Benin and Togo to the south
The Sudanese army seizes control of the presidential palace in Khartoum that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized in April 2023, has long been on the back foot but has recently made gains and retaken territory in the centre of the country, RSF says it has seized a key base from the army in the western North Darfur region where they have consolidated control and sets up a parallell government, the army says they are moving forward along all fighting axes until victory is complete by cleansing every inch of the country from the filth of this militia
The M23 rebels capture the strategic Congolese town of Walikale and say the Democratic Republic of Congo's and Rwanda's call for an immediate ceasefire does not concern them, the rebels are now within 400 km of Congo's fourth-biggest city Kisangani and repeat an earlier vow to march to Kinshasa
The Congo River Alliance including the M23 rebels pull out of peace talks, say EU sanctions earlier in the day against Rwandan officials and M23 undermine talks, were to meet the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Angola for direct negotiations

Economy

Saab signs contract with Colombia for 15 Gripen E one-seater and two Gripen F two-seater fighter aircraft as well as associated equipment and weapons, training and services for an order value of EUR 3.1 billion where deliveries will take place 2026-2032, two offset agreements also signed outlining the framework for various military and social projects including aeronautics, cyber security, health, sustainable energy and water purification technology
American battery producer Lyten acquires all remaining Northvolt assets in Sweden and Germany, plans on restarting operations upon close of the transaction and rehiring a significant portion of the previously laid-off workforce, Sweden's Industry Minister Ebba Busch comments that the acquisition is a win for the country and for positioning Sweden as key to Europe’s energy independence
23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki buys back the company for USD 305 million, stepped down as CEO when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March
Swedish pension fund AP7 blacklists Tesla and has sold all its shares worth 1.36 billion USD, says the decision was made due to verified violations of labor rights in the US and that the company despite several years of dialogue has not taken sufficient measures to address the issues
Microsoft cuts 3% of its workforce affecting about 6,000 people across all levels, teams and geographies, the cuts are made to reduce layers of management and are not related to performance according to a company spokesperson
Jaguar Land Rover drops its ad agency after widespread backlash and sales numbers corresponding to a 50% drop in two years following a campaign where the iconic logo was swapped for a minimalist J and the ad showed no cars but vibrant and androgynous models, the rebrand aimed to reposition Jaguar as an electric-only luxury brand targeting a younger global audience
94-year-old Warren Buffett announces his intention to retire at the end of this year and step down as CEO and chair of Berkshire Hathaway after 60 years leading the company, recommends vice-chair Greg Abel as his successor
The European Central Bank warns about the region's reliance on US payment giants, the ECB President Christine Lagarde comments that it's "important to keep digital payments under our control", finance veteran Hugo Godschalk says that the warnings could partly be a strategy to promote the idea of a digital euro
Apple airlifted 600 tons of iPhones from India to US in three days during the final week of March to avoid the Trump administration's announced tariffs, the company is analyzing how different tariff structures across manufacturing locations affect the supply chain
Arla Foods and DMK Group announce intention to merge under the Arla name to create the strongest dairy cooperative in Europe with more than 12,000 farmers and a combined pro forma revenue of EUR 19 billion, Arla Foods CEO Peder Tuborgh comments that the joint market presence ensures stable food production in Europe, the merger is subject to approval from the Board of Representatives in the cooperatives as well as regulatory approval

Technology

Denmark plans on granting its citizens property rights over their likeness and voice to tackle the issue of AI-generated deepfakes, Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt says technology has outpaced legislation and that he looks forward to discussing the proposed legislation with tech companies
English High Court justice Victoria Sharp says lawyers have cited fake AI-generated cases in court proceedings and warns that attorneys could be prosecuted for not checking the accuracy of their research, uses lawsuit involving the Qatar National Bank where a lawyer cited 18 non-existing cases as an example
Wallenberg Investments to build Swedish AI factory in collaboration with Nvidia, will ensure national AI capacity and stimulate implementation of AI in Swedish industry, AstraZeneca, Ericsson, Saab and SEB will use the data center, expected to include two Nvidia SuperPODs with GB300 units
Volvo EX90's lidar module for autonomous driving risks destroying smartphone cameras aimed at it especially while zooming due to laser pulses overheating the photosensitive substrate image sensors, lidar systems in general designed within safety limits created to protect human eyes rather than electronics
The UK government is developing a programme which it hopes can use personal data to identify the people most likely to become killers, the government comments that only data about people with at least one criminal conviction has been used and that the project at this stage is for research only
Commercial company Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lunar lands on the moon, comments that the lander is in an upright and stable position which makes it the first commercial company in history to achieve a fully successful moon landing as Intuitive Machines' IM-1 lander tipped over during its landing in February 2024, landed near Mons Latreille in Mare Crisium which was chosen to avoid magnetic anomalies and avoid rocks
Microsoft retires Skype in favor of Teams from May, the number of Skype users decreased from 150 million monthly active users when Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 to 23 million in 2020 while Teams currently has about 320 million monthly active users, Skype users will be able to log into Teams for free using existing credentials and chats as well as contacts will be migrated automatically
Apple promises bug fix during the day as the iPhone voice-to-text for the word "racist" writes "Trump" before correcting it, says the bug has been erroneously suggesting "Trump" in response to several words that include an "r"
Apple removes its end-to-end encryption data security tool ADP from British customers after the government demanded access to user data, the company says it's gravely disappointed but that they have said many times they never built a backdoor or master key to any of its products and never will
UK demands access to Apple users' end-to-end encrypted cloud data, the data currently only available for the account holder and not even the company can view it, both Apple and the Home Office decline to comment but the company has previously said that it rather pulls the encryption services than builds back doors

Science

The Association of Computing Machinery removes 27 published conference articles by Jordanian researcher Shadi Aljawarneh, after large scale plagiarism and citation stuffing was discovered by Solal Pirelli, a Swiss software engineer, who was then promptly sued buy Shadi and convicted for defamation in France
Swedish-Chinese group of scientists breeds new rice variety that reduces methane emissions by 70%, says the rice yields 8.96 tons/hectare to be compared to the world average 4.71, Swedish microbiologist Anna Schürrer who contributed to the study says rice fields cause 13% of the humanly caused methane emissions and adds that rice growers while awaiting regulatory approvals can reduce methane emissions by 60% by using intestinal parasitic worms drug oxantel on the soil
Rising scurvy incidence in France since 2015 with a 34.5% increase in hospital admissions since March 2020, largest increase among children aged 4 to 10 from low-income families, the study that was published in Lancet connects the increase to the rising food prices driven by Covid-19 as some of the children had not eaten for several days
WHO notes that five years have passed since the Covid-19 outbreak, asks China to share data regarding the virus origins as transparency is imperative both morally and scientifically
Ground squirrels observed hunting and eating vole in California, could be driven by an explosion in vole numbers with roughly seven times more voles than the 10-year average reported, squirrels are in general flexible regarding food and eat insects as well as hatchling birds but have never been seen hunting adult mammals before
Russia announces mRNA vaccine against cancer will be available to patients from early 2025, interviewed scientists say they are sceptical as there is no clinical data and there are multiple cancers
This year's Ig Nobel Prize, which is given to unusual scientific achievements, is awarded to studies that concluded that mammals can breathe through the anus, that drunk worms are slower than sober ones, that hair curls on people in the northern hemisphere generally curl in the same direction as hair curls on people from the southern hemisphere and scaring a cow every ten seconds affects its milk but having a cat on its back does not
Aging increases at the ages of 44 and 60 according to a Stanford study published in Nature Aging that examined 108 people between the ages of 25 and 75 of various races for up to seven years by taking blood samples 2-4 times a year
With moderate confidence there is link between fluoride in drinking water and children's IQ according to US government report, the addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has, according to the article, long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century as the chemical element is good for dental health
Reservoirs of liquid water 11 to 20 kilometers beneath the surface of Mars may have been found by scientists, who have analyzed four years of data collected by NASA's Mars InSight lander, if extracted to the surface the amount of liquid water found could cover the planet in a 1-2km deep ocean