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Pope Francis is alert after suffering two episodes of “acute respiratory failure” on Monday afternoon, the Vatican has said. Doctors were forced to intervene to clear mucus from the Pope’s lungs, an update from the Holy See said, though it said he was alert throughout. The 88-year-old pontiff has resumed the use of an oxygen … Read more

Japan has deployed more than 2,000 firefighters to battle the country’s biggest forest fire in three decades. At least one person has died in the blaze, which has torched more than 5,200 acres around the northern Japanese city of Ofunato since Thursday, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA). Although January to March … Read more

Frank Gardner Security correspondent, BBC News EPA Whatever words are used to frame the plans emerging from Sunday’s summit of 19 mainly European leaders in London – ceasefire, truce or peace plan – the challenges ahead are enormous. The UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, along with French President Emmanuel Macron, hope this will be the … Read more

Lyse Doucet Chief International Correspondent Reuters Israel blocked food and fuel from entering Gaza after the ceasefire’s first phase expired on Saturday night The testing second stage of Gaza’s ceasefire was always in doubt; now it seems to be dead at the moment it was meant to start. Concern is mounting that war will return … Read more

Former Fifa president Sepp Blatter and French football legend Michel Platini are back in court in Switzerland to face accusations of fraud. In 2022, the pair were acquitted in a trial over a payment of 2m Swiss francs (£1.6m) made to Platini and authorised by Blatter in 2011. Both men denied wrongdoing and said the … Read more