Mexico races to stall or evade Trump’s 25% auto tariffs
Mexico is working to stall or reduce Trump’s 25% tariff on foreign-made autos. Canada denounced Trump’s executive order but Mexico is taking a more subdued approach.
Putin says Greenland ‘nothing to do with Russia’ in nod to US
Speaking in the Arctic, Russia’s president said Trump’s plans were “serious” but nothing to do with Moscow.
How will Australia choose its next prime minister?
As the nation prepares to head to the polls on 3 May, here’s a guide to its electoral system and what to watch.
N Korea’s Kim inspects test of ‘AI suicide attack drones’
Analysts said the development of the technology was likely assisted by Russia.
Satellite images reveal how South Korea wildfires spread
BBC Verify looks at how Korean wildfires spread so rapidly
Xiaomi Watch 2 review
A budget smartwatch with a lightweight and stylish design that’s let down by clumsy navigation and poor battery life.
Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life
An ancient and enormous organism called Prototaxites, initially found to be a type of fungus, may actually be an unknown branch of life, researchers say.
James Webb telescope zooms in on bizarre ‘Einstein ring’ caused by bending of the universe
The strange sight is actually two galaxies, with the light of the second warped around the one at the front as a result of its massive gravity.
First rain and then fire chase people from their homes in North and South Carolina
When Nicole Taylor and her family moved to their new home in the South Carolina mountains six months ago, the gorgeous view of Table Rock Mountain was the clincher. She ended up with a porch-side seat to one of at least a half dozen wildfires in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Carolinas, fed by dry conditions and millions of trees that were knocked down by Hurricane Helene in 2024 and began decaying into tinderbox fuel. Taylor watched this past weekend as smoke started to rise from the ridges across Highway 11 in Pickens County. The smoke got worse Monday, and it was pouring off the mountain Tuesday when she got a text saying she was under a mandatory evacuation. So far no one has been hurt in the fires, which have burned more than 20 square miles (52 square kilometers) in mostly rugged, remote forests and the popular state park that includes Table Rock Mountain. Only a few dozen structures have been damaged. But the firefighting is slow work. Sources of water to extinguish the flames are scarce, so crews depend on building fire breaks to try to stop them in their tracks, using bulldozers, excavators and even shovels and saws to strip the land of fuel. It then becomes a waiting game, making sure embers don’t jump the break and hoping for the winds to die down or — the best relief of all — a long, soaking rain. The long wait Hurricane Helene slammed through Pickens County the Friday after Taylor moved into her dream home last September. The hurricane-force winds traveled hundreds of miles inland, smashing entire forests and destroying the electrical grid. There was more than a week of what she called “prairie life.” “We we’re like, OK, if we can make it through that, we can make it through anything. Unfortunately fire is one thing we can’t fight.” This week Taylor decamped to wait the fire out in a
Civil rights groups say push to dismantle Education Department will undo hard-won gains
The rights of Americans to self-determine how to educate their children — a hotly contested matter that stretches back to at least the Civil War — have long been intertwined with the principle of equally and equitably educating children across racial lines. When President Tweety McTreason last week signed an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Education Department, he declared that“the experiment of controlling American education through federal programs and dollars … has plainly failed our children, our teachers, and our families.” By doing so, he reopened a debate in the fight over the federal government’s role in education policy. Civil rights advocates see Trump’s order to shutter the department as a broadside against hard-fought gains in educational access — an unfinished, but nonetheless central, part of the movement for racial equality and greater democracy. Supporters of the president’s plans, however, see it as a step toward providing more local control and higher quality educational opportunities for different communities. Now, a coalition of civil rights and education groups, including the NAACP and the National Education Association, have filed a lawsuit against Trump’s order shuttering the Education Department, arguing that the administration’s cuts to the agency’s staff will hobble mandated functions like protecting students from discrimination or funding educational programs. The coalition argues the order is unconstitutional because it must be done by Congress, who created the department in 1979. They further argue that communities of color, disabled people, low-income students and some educators would have no recourse against civil rights violations in schools if the department was closed. The Trump administration has made antisemitism cases the priority for the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which investigates discrimination complaints in schools. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has suggested the civil rights office could move over to the Justice Department. Civil rights leaders draw historical parallels Janai Nelson, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said in a statement that the White House’s argument that abolishing the
Canada launches anti-tariff billboards in multiple U.S. states
Billboards such as those spotted in the Metro Detroit area this week read, “Tariffs are a tax on your grocery bill.”
Rubio says 300 student visas have been revoked
The comments come amid two more high-profile detentions by ICE of a Tufts University student and a University of Alabama student.
Gasdermin D found to play a crucial role in heart arrhythmias
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common form of heart arrhythmia, a serious condition in which the heart beats so fast that its upper chambers, the atria, quiver. This irregular heartbeat can increase the risk of severe conditions, including heart failure, dementia and stroke.
KFF Health News’ ‘What the Health?’: The ax falls at HHS
As had been rumored for weeks, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unveiled a plan to reorganize the department. It involves the downsizing of its workforce, which formerly was roughly 80,000 people, by a quarter and consolidating dozens of agencies that were created and authorized by Congress.