A Colombian girl celebrating her 10th birthday was among three people crushed to death at a monster truck display when a vehicle veered out of control and ploughed into spectators, authorities said on Monday. Hellen Velarde was attending Sunday’s exhibition in the southwestern city of Popayan as a birthday gift when she was crushed by the truck in an incident that caused widespread anger. A second girl and a young woman were also killed, local media reported. Images circulating on social media...

Britain is in talks to join the European Union’s €90 billion (US$105.13 billion) loan to Ukraine to qualify for Kyiv’s defence orders that ‌the loan finances but will have to cover some interest payments on the borrowing to be eligible, the European Commission said. “Today marks the first high-level discussion on the UK’s potential participation in the €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan, following technical exchanges between the UK Government and the Commission,” a Commission spokesman told...

Coverage of the Trump administration dominated the Pulitzer Prizes announced on Monday as the prize committee unleashed a searing attack on US President Donald Trump’s attempts to limit freedom of reporting. “We stand for civil discourse and against censorship,” said Pulitzer Administrator Marjorie Miller ahead of the announcements, which honoured coverage of Trump’s immigration crackdown and his enrichment of his allies. “Unfortunately, this bears repeating now, as media access to the White...

As the Middle East conflict spreads uncertainty among farmers around the world, Chinese farmers are carrying out their spring ploughing as usual and appear largely untroubled. “The supply of chemical fertilisers for spring ploughing is ample,” an official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said at a news conference last month, adding that domestic fertiliser prices were “far lower than international prices” and spring sowing was proceeding as normal. While policymakers around the...

An armed man was shot by US Secret Service (USSS) agents in downtown Washington on Monday, officials said, prompting a brief lockdown of the nearby White House. The shooting near the National Mall took place just after a motorcade carrying Vice-President J.D. Vance had passed by the area, USSS Deputy Director Matthew Quinn said. Quinn told reporters he did not believe that the vice-president was an intended target and said he could not speculate if it was related to recent attempts on the life...

In global discourse, a script has been handed to us: the United States and China are locked in a “tech race”. But this is really a misnomer. True competition requires a level playing field. When one runner trips the other to ensure victory, it’s not a competition; it’s cheating. So, when Washington deploys an arsenal of sanctions, export controls and diplomatic strong-arming to hamstring China’s technological ascent, it is not competing. It is an act of suppression. This reflects a deliberate...

President Vladimir Putin on Monday ⁠ordered a two-day ceasefire ⁠in the conflict with Ukraine on May ⁠8 and 9 to mark Russia’s World War II victory anniversary but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky countered with his own proposed pause in fighting starting earlier, on the night of May 5 to May 6. Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement on Monday that Moscow expected Ukraine ‌to follow the May 8-9 truce and that Russian forces would take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of...

China’s top diplomat on the US-Mexico border denounced protectionism as a dead end at the weekend, delivering a pointed defence of open trade just weeks before Mexico, the United States and Canada sit down to review the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that governs North American commerce. Consul General Fu Xinrong told a business gathering in Tijuana that unilateralism benefits no one and called on nations to build economic ties based on sovereignty and mutual respect rather than...

Britney Spears on Monday admitted to reckless driving involving alcohol, in a plea deal that means she will avoid jail. The “Toxic” singer was arrested in March after police spotted her driving erratically on a freeway in Ventura County, near Los Angeles. She was initially charged with DUI – driving under the influence – but under the plea deal confirmed on Monday she admitted a lesser charge of reckless driving involving alcohol, drugs or both. A court in Ventura sentenced the 44-year-old to 12...

Chinese filmmaker Chloe Zhao, whose films from Nomadland to Hamnet have become awards-season favourites, will join the jury for the Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off next week, organisers announced on Monday. The film extravaganza on the French Riviera, one of the world’s most important annual cinema events, hands out a host of prizes, including the prestigious Palme d’Or for best film, decided by a nine-person jury. American actress Demi Moore, still riding high from the late-career boost...

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday pressed China to ramp up diplomatic pressure on Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz even as he stressed that the US has “absolute control” over the strategic waterway. “Let’s see [China] step up with some diplomacy and get the Iranians to open the strait,” Bessent said in a Fox News interview. “Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism and China has been buying 90 per cent of their energy, so they are funding the largest state sponsor of...

The China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed into a hillside in 2022, killing all 132 people on board, had its fuel supply cut mid-flight, newly released investigative material shows, which bolsters the theory that the aircraft was intentionally brought down. While China still has yet to release a final report on the accident, findings released by the US National Transportation Safety Board this month show that levers controlling the flow of fuel to the jet’s engines were switched to the...