World News

Yemen’s Houthi armed group has shot down seven US Reaper drones worth more than $200m in recent weeks, marking the most significant material loss yet in Washington’s campaign against the fighters.

Three of the drones were lost in the past week alone, suggesting an improvement in the Houthis’ ability to strike high-altitude US aircraft.

The drones – each costing about $30m – were conducting surveillance or attack missions when they crashed into water or land.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/29147366

By Simon Hooper
Published date: 25 April 2025 15:17 BST

"“We stand with all those in Israel-Palestine seeking to bring about a just and lasting peace. We share in their call for an end to the bombing; an end to the siege; and the safe release of the hostages.”

The rabbis' intervention appears to hint at growing frustration and impatience within British Jewish communities towards the staunchly pro-Israel stance and claims to leadership of conservative Jewish institutions such as the Board of Deputies.

Signatories of the letter include prominent figures within both Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism."

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The FBI on Friday arrested a Wisconsin county judge accused of helping a man avoid immigration enforcement, Director Kash Patel said.

Patel made the announcement in a post on X and said his office believes Judge Hannah Dugan “intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse.”

Thousands of police officers will be deployed for the funeral, with reinforcements arriving from several Italian regions. That's before considering the security services being brought along by the 130 foreign delegations.

The area around the Holy See and along the route of the funeral procession will be protected by a full-fledged security presence covering threats from air, land and sea: a Navy destroyer near the capital, Eurofighter jets from the Italian Air Force, radar installations and anti-drone bazookas.

One of the officials added that Japan has conveyed to China on multiple occasions that it does not fully align with the US on chip-related exports and semiconductor restrictions.

In a sign of Japan Inc’s commitment to the China market, Toyota Motor Corp this week agreed to open a new factory in Shanghai in 2027, with the company reportedly planning to invest around US$2 billion (S$2.63 billion) in the plant.

cross-posted from: https://biglemmowski.win/post/6224801

Michael Gloss, 21, was the son of CIA Deputy Director for Digital Innovation Julianne Gallina Gloss, and Iraq war veteran Larry Gloss.

Before arriving in Russia on August 13, 2023, Gloss was travelling around Europe. On his Vkontakte page bio, he wrote: "I ran away from home (and) traveled the world. I hate fascism."

On April 4, 2024, he was killed, likely during a Russian offensive near Bakhmut, however, his burial in the U.S. did not take place until December 2024, Important Stories reports.

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Exclusive: EU Transparency Register shows law firms also among lobbyists working for fossil fuel companies

A handful of “small but dirty” public affairs and law firms in Europe are enabling pollution by lobbying extensively for big oil, an analysis has found, with most major companies in the industry working for at least one fossil fuel client.

Several of the top spenders on activities to influence EU policymaking are on the payroll of oil and gas companies, according to an analysis of the EU Transparency Register by the Good Lobby nonprofit, but fossil fuel clients represent just 1% of the industry’s revenue.

The researchers said it showed that public affairs companies could cut ties with the big polluters who pay them to influence policy without hurting their bottom lines – but warned there was little public or regulatory pressure on lobbyists to go green.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel offered condolences Thursday on the passing of Pope Francis, more than three days after the death of the Roman Catholic world’s leader.

The delay in issuing a statement highlighted apparent tensions in the relationship between Israeli officials and the pope, who pointedly criticized Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza and repeatedly called for a cease-fire.

https://archive.ph/T8OpI

For consumers such as 24-year-old Lily Zeng, who says sex was rarely discussed at home when she was growing up in northern China – and the topic of masturbation was absolutely taboo – the days of discomfiting modesty are over.

https://archive.ph/7xvPR

China has exempted some U.S. imports from its 125% 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.

...

But, he cautioned: "It’s clear that neither the U.S. nor China want to be the first in reaching out for a deal."

When a Spanish fancier released his eight-month-old pigeon for its very first race, the plan was for it to fly to Majorca from Ibiza, approximately 120 kilometres over the Mediterranean Sea.

Instead, the bird ended up some 5,000 kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean on Sable Island, a remote sandbar off Nova Scotia.

Kristina Penn is used to all sorts of wildlife living on Sable Island: hundreds of wild horses, thousands of seals and numerous seabirds.

Pigeons don't typically visit Sable Island, which is located about 290 kilometres southeast of Halifax. Penn could only recall one other time it happened, when a racing pigeon from the U.S. ended up on the island in 2017.

Two days before her new album was launched, musical icon Vivir Quintana was behind barbed wire at a women’s prison in Mexico. The singer had spent the past 10 years visiting women incarcerated after defending themselves and, in doing so, killing their abusers.

Their stories became part of “Cosas que Sorprenden a la Audiencia” (Things that Surprise the Audience), Quintana’s latest album, released Thursday.

It tells the story of 10 such women but in a first, Quintana does it through “corridos,” a typically male-dominated and controversial Mexican music genre that’s soared into the spotlight in recent years.

Summary

• Volkswagen beat Tesla in European EV sales across the first three months of 2025, data shows.
• Registrations for VW EVs are up more than 150%, while Tesla lost huge ground.
• However, the Model Y and Model 3 remain Europe's top two most-registered EVs.

Myanmar authorities have arrested an astrologer for causing panic by predicting a new earthquake in a viral TikTok video.

John Moe The had warned that an earthquake would "hit every city in Myanmar" on 21 April. But experts say earthquakes are impossible to predict due to the complexity of the factors involved in such disasters.

https://archive.ph/40yba

US President Donald Trump says Russia has made a "pretty big concession" to end the war in Ukraine by stopping short of taking the "whole country."

https://archive.ph/SHgoJ

Satellite imagery captured Thursday shows extensive damage at one of Russia's largest ammunition depots after it caught fire and exploded earlier in the week.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28662179

Israel has completely wiped out Rafah, turning a fifth of Gaza's territory into a giant buffer zone. This is part of Israel's plan to permanently remain in Gaza and facilitate the ethnic cleansing of its people.