The Guardian, US
Millions of people in the central US could see powerful storms on Monday including long-track tornadoes, hurricane-force winds and baseball-sized hail, forecasters said.
Much of Oklahoma and parts of Kansas are at the greatest risk of bad weather – including areas in Oklahoma, such as Sulphur and Holdenville, still recovering from a tornado that killed four people and left thousands without power last week.
In all, nearly 10 million people live in areas under threat of severe weather, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said. Forecasters there issued a rare high risk for central Oklahoma and southern
Kansas.
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Javier Milei: President denies ordinary Argentines paying for austerity cuts
BBC
Argentina's President Javier Milei has denied that it is ordinary Argentines who are paying for his radical austerity measures.
In a BBC interview, Mr Milei, who campaigned with a chainsaw to symbolise his desire to slash public spending, insisted that the political class were paying for his huge cuts, not the people.
The right-wing economist was voted in after years of high government spending and high debt.
Inflation is now starting to fall after it initially soared when he took office in December, but it remains the highest in the world annually.
The president's critics argue millions of Argentines are paying the price for his austerity programme.
Al Jazeera
Israel’s cabinet unanimously voted to shut down Al Jazeera in the country on Sunday, immediately ordering the closure of its offices and a ban on the company’s broadcasts.
The decision was announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on X. Hours later, Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi published footage on X showing Israeli authorities – specifically inspectors from the Ministry of Communications, backed by the police – raiding the Al Jazeera office in East Jerusalem and confiscating the channel’s equipment.
Here is all you need to know about Israel’s Al Jazeera ban, and how it might affect reporting on the war on Gaza — and beyond.
Deutsche Welle
French President Emmanuel Macron has welcomed Chinese "commitments to refrain from selling any arms" or providing "any aide" to Russia in support of Moscow's war in Ukraine.
Speaking alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping following trilateral talks with European CommissionPresident Ursula von der Leyen in Paris on Monday, Macron said France and Europe "respect the ancient links which unite China and Russia" and therefore welcomed Beijing's commitment "to strictly control the exportation of dual-usage goods" which could be used militarily.
Referring to "the war of aggression being waged by Russia against Ukraine," the French President said he was keen to "maintain a close dialogue" with Beijing, thanking Xi for coming to France to "coordinate" ahead of a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to China later this month.
Insisting that the West "does not have a common goal to bring about regime change in Moscow," he said he hoped his meeting with Xi "will allow [us] to follow a common agenda and identify whether or not there is a will for a durable peace."
Following the meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, during which Macron and von der Leyen reportedly made it clear to Xi that Western powers were not prepared to abandon Kyiv, EU chief von der Leyen told reporters: "We count on China to use all its influence on Russia to end Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine."
The Guardian, US
The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial on Monday held him in criminal contempt for the 10th time and warned he could face jail for continued violations of a gag order.
Juan Merchan’s admonition to Trump came in response to the Republican presidential frontrunner’s repeated commentary on trial witnesses and jurors, which flouts the judge’s order barring him from speaking about those who are testifying at the high-profile proceedings and panelists weighing his fate.
Merchan’s decision – which imposed a $1,000 fine – came less than one week after Trump was held in criminal contempt and fined $9,000 for violating the gag order on other occasions. The order was in response to Trump’s comments on the jury, which described their selection as rushed.
Kyiv Independent
The EU is planning to ban political parties and think tanks from accepting Russian funding as part of its latest round of sanctions against Moscow, Bloomberg reported on May 6.
The European bloc has already adopted 13 sanction packages in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, aiming to undermine Moscow's economic output and the ability to sustain the war.
EU leaders are expected to introduce a 14th round of sanctions in the coming months.
According to Bloomberg, the ban on Russian funding could impact far-right parties in Europe, such as Germany's AfD and France's National Rally, both of which have previously been accused of links to Russia.
Several European countries have accused Russia of funding far-right politicians and disseminating pro-Kremlin propaganda in the EU ahead of the elections for the European Parliament.
BBC
More than 500 people have been taken to hospital with suspected food poisoning after eating bánh mì sandwiches from a shop in southern Vietnam.
Twelve of them, including two boys aged between six and seven, are in a critical condition.
The bakery, which is based in Dong Nai province, has been temporarily shut down.
It is believed the sandwiches may have spoilt as a result of the current heatwave.
An initial inspection of the bakery revealed that it did not meet food safety standards.
Bánh mì is a traditional Vietnamese sandwich consisting of a French-style baguette stuffed with cold meats, pâté and vegetables.
On Monday, Long Khanh Town authorities confirmed that at least 560 people had fallen ill after consuming sandwiches from Bang bakery in Long Khanh city on 30 April.
They also stated that 200 people had since been discharged.
NPR
TEL AVIV, Israel — A Gaza cease-fire deal is hanging in the balance, as Israel began striking targets in eastern Rafah, hours after Hamas said it had accepted a proposal from Egypt and Qatar.
Israel's government said the proposal failed to meet its requirements and said it's pushing ahead with a military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where earlier Monday it had ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians.
"The War Cabinet unanimously decided this evening Israel will continue its operation in Rafah, in order to apply military pressure on Hamas so as to advance the release of our hostages and achieve the other objectives of the war," said a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
NPR
The Pulitzer Prizes were awarded today at Columbia University, honoring American achievements in journalism, letters and drama, and music. Widely recognized as the most prestigious awards in their field within the United States, the 108th Pulitzer Prizes took place against an unusually fraught backdrop. In a statement last week, the Pulitzer Board commended student journalists covering campus protests against the war in Gaza, acknowledging they were often placing themselves "in the face of great personal and academic risk."
Twenty-three prizes were awarded last year, with cash prizes of $15,000 going to the recipients of most of the prizes and a gold medal to the news organization that wins the Public Service Prize.
The New York Times won one of its three Pulitzers this year for its coverage of the war in Gaza. The award for International Reporting went to its staff for "wide-ranging and revelatory coverage of Hamas' lethal attack in southern Israel on October 7, Israel's intelligence failures and the Israeli military's sweeping, deadly response in Gaza." The Times also took Pulitzers in the Features and Investigative categories, the latter for a series by Hannah Dreierthat revealed "the stunning reach of migrant child labor across the United States – and the corporate and governmental failures that perpetuate it."
Reuters
AMSTERDAM/BRUSSELS, May 6 (Reuters) - Students in Belgium and the Netherlands occupied parts of the universities of Ghent and Amsterdam on Monday to protest against Israel's
war in Gaza, joining international student protests that started on
U.S. campuses.
At a campus of University of Amsterdam (UvA) in downtown Amsterdam, hundreds of students set up camp, pitching dozens of tents, playing in drum circles, and barricading access with wooden pallets.
The students want UvA and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) to stop their partnerships with Israel.
Painting a banner with a friend, 21-year-old political science student Layla said the protest was about solidarity.
"As an individual, I feel I can't do much ... so every little bit feels like I am at least doing something. Just being here shows we don't support the actions of the Dutch government", she said, declining to give her last name for fear of reprisals.
The Guardian
An accused serial killer in Canada, who police believed disposed of his victims by dumping some of them in landfills, has admitted to killing four Indigenous women, with his lawyers arguing a mental disorder meant he was not criminally responsible for the crimes.
Jeremy Skibicki is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and an unidentified woman, who was named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) by Indigenous leaders. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and had been due to stand trial this week.
But the surprise development on Monday prompted Crown prosecutors in the city of Winnipeg to agree to a judge-only trial, which could begin as early as Wednesday. Twelve jurors, who were selected last month, will be dismissed.
BBC African news
Close to $55m (£44m) is being invested in building and upgrading schools in Liberia by the European Union.
They will become state-of-the-art Technical, Vocational, Education and Training (TVET) schools, say officials. Students will be able to choose from a range of specialisms including agriculture, welding, mechanics, carpentry and computing.
Nine existing schools are being kitted out. A further eight are being built from scratch, with completion expected five years from now.
The earmarked sites are located in the capital, Monrovia, and across the country.
Liberia's Education Minister Jarso Jallah told the BBC that these facilities - which specifically cater to young people pursuing vocational rather than academic studies - were "restoring hope in their future, restoring hope in them that no-one is left behind".
The Guardian, UK
Russia has threatened to strike British military facilities and ordered itsmilitary to hold battlefield nuclear weapons drills in a move the Kremlin described as a response to comments from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on western troops fighting in Ukraine and from the British foreign secretary, David Cameron, on using British-supplied weapons against Russia.
The Russian defence ministry said in a statement that troops from the southern military district would “practise the issues of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons … in response to provocative statements and threats by certain western officials against the Russian Federation.”
CNN
New YorkCNN —
Prosecutors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial dove into the paper trail at the heart of their case on Monday, revealing to jurors exactly how Michael Cohen was repaid by Trump’s trust and personal accounts in 2017 after he paid hush money to Stormy Daniels.
Testimony from two longtime Trump Organization employees who worked on the repayments to Cohen in 2017 allowed prosecutors to focus explicitly on the 34 counts of falsified business records.
And at the end of the day Monday, the New York district attorney’s office hinted at where things stand more broadly, telling the judge they estimated they have about two weeks left of testimony in their case.
Here are the takeaways from day 12 of the Trump hush money trial:
The Washington Post
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan started the 12th day of Donald Trump’s criminal trial by threatening to send the former president to jail, even as he emphasized that he really doesn’t want to. If Trump keeps violating the court-imposed gag order, Merchan said, he would have no other choice.
For the rest of the day, two witnesses who have worked at the Trump Organization took the stand. They handled the paperwork that helped pay Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, for what prosecutors say was a corrupt scheme to influence the 2016 election by keeping adult-film actress Stormy Daniels silent about her alleged tryst with Trump years earlier.
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) eeff, Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.