Russia will continue to target sites used by Ukraine's military, Russia's foreign minister said in an interview broadcast on April 27, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that Russia had already conducted 70 attacks.
Moscow's top diplomat, Mr Sergei Lavrov, claimed a deadly Russian missile strike on a residential building in Kyiv last week was not on an "absolutely civilian" target.
"We will continue to target the sites used by the military of Ukraine, by some mercenaries from foreign countries and by instructors whom the Europeans officially sent to help target Russian civilian sites," Mr Lavrov said on CBS' Face The Nation, in an interview that was taped on April 24, after the attack.
The strike, which killed at least 12 people, drew a rare rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin from US President Donald Trump on April 25 on social media, "Vladimir, STOP."
Mr Zelensky, who met Mr Trump in Rome on April 26 before Pope Francis' funeral, wrote on Telegram that his top military commander had reported that Russia had already conducted nearly 70 attacks on April 27.
Israel carried out an air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday, after ordering an evacuation of a building that it said was being used by the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.
The attack occurred despite a ceasefire that came into force five months ago which put an end to the conflict between Israel and the military group.
Israel said that it had targeted a Hezbollah store of "precision-guided missiles" that "poses a threat to the State of Israel and its civilians".
The Lebanese presidency condemned the strike and called on the US and France - who brokered the ceasefire in November - to press Israel to cease its attacks on the country.
The attack marks the first time in almost a month that Israel has struck Beirut's southern suburbs - called Dahieh - where Hezbollah is based.
This will put further pressure on the ceasefire. Despite the deal, Israel has struck targets it says are linked to Hezbollah almost every day. The Israeli government has said that it will respond to any perceived threats from Hezbollah.
Western officials say that the militant group has been largely compliant with the truce, while accusing Israel of multiple violations.
Live footage streamed by Reuters showed a giant plume of smoke billowing from the targeted building an hour after the Israeli army issued an evacuation order to residents of the Hadath neighbourhood.
Lebanon's Civil Defence later said that no casualties had been recorded and rescue crews had extinguished the fire.
In a statement on X following the strike, the Lebanese Presidency said that President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack.
"The United States and France, as guarantors of the cessation of hostilities agreement, must assume their responsibilities and compel Israel to immediately cease its attacks," it wrote.
"Israel's continued undermining of stability will exacerbate tensions and expose the region to real threats to its security and stability."
Israel's government said that it had targeted a Hezbollah store of "precision-guided missiles".
"The storage of missiles in this infrastructure site constitutes a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and poses a threat to the State of Israel and its civilians," the Israeli military said in a statement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that Israel "will not allow Hezbollah to grow stronger".
"The Dahiyeh neighbourhood in Beirut will not serve as a safe haven for the terrorist organisation Hezbollah," it added.
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, wrote on X that the strike "generated panic and fear of renewed violence among those desperate for a return to normalcy".
"We urge all sides to halt any actions that could further undermine the cessation of hostilities understanding," she added.
Canada will elect a new government on Monday, with former central bankerMark Carney's liberal party vying to extend their hold on power againstPierre Poilievere's conservatives. The first results are expected to come in just after 7 p.m. ET after voting hours end in the four Atlantic provinces, with the majority of results expected to be released at 9:30 p.m. when voting ends in most of the country, including in seat-rich Ontario and Quebec.
In January, it seemed Poilievere was a lock over the center-left Liberals, who had been in power for a decade under the leadership of unpopular PM Justin Trudeau. Conservatives had a double-digit lead in polls amid public outcry over Trudeau, inflation, and steep housing costs - leading Trudeau to bow out for a Liberal party leadership contest that saw Carney take pole position.
Then, after US President Donal Trump began threatening - and imposed, 25% tariffs on many goods from Canada, Carney's fortunes shifted and he called an early election.
Carney, a former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, declared that Canada's "old relationship with the United States, based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over."
"President Trump is trying to break us so that America could own us," he told a crowd at a London, Ontario rally on Friday.
Poilievere, meanwhile, had positioned himself as the ultimate candidate for change - vowing to deregulate vast swaths of the Canadian economy, and cracking down on the "woke" liberal establishment.
By mid-March, when the election was called, Carney's liberals were polling neck and neck - and now maintain a narrow lead into the home stretch.
Carney has now positioned himself as the man most ready to counter Trump's tariffs - with his supporters pointing to his strong resume.
"I'm very impressed by the stability and the serious thought process of Mark Carney," Mike Brennan of Kitchener, Ontario told the BBC outside a Carney event at a Cambridge coffee shop, about an hour outside Toronto.
Brennan, a "lifelong Liberal," says he initially wasn't going to vote in the election over his hatred of Trudeau, however the departure of the former PM has reignited support for the Liberal party.
China said on Sunday it will improve tax refund policies for foreign tourists to boost inbound consumption, part of efforts to boost the economy as domestic demand remains tepid.
China will promote the expansion of tax refund stores in shopping areas, scenic spots, airports and hotels, according to a statement released jointly by the commerce ministry and other departments.
The minimum refund point for one overseas traveler in the same tax-refund shop on the same day will be lowered to 200 yuan ($27.45) from 500 yuan before, the statement said.
Brett Adcock, founder of Archer Aviation, who left the flying taxi company to pursue humanoid robotics and the deployment of Artificial General Intelligence, recently shared how his team atFigure AI developed a humanoid robot in just 31 months, achieving the robot's first successful walk within a year.
Adcock recently spoke at the 2025 Abundance360 summit in Los Angeles and described how humanoid robots are the ultimate "deployment vector" for AGI, comparing what's happening in robotics to an "iPhone moment"- a game-changing breakthrough when a new product suddenly transforms an industry.
Adcock said that Figure AI designs a new hardware platform every 12 to 18 months. He noted that his startup has secured commercial customers like BMW...
He forecasts that Figure AI's humanoid robots will be affordable, around $20,000 to $30,000, allowing for widespread adoption in both the workplace and the home.
Here's a summary of Adock's conversation about humanoid robotics and how the industry is in the midst of an "iPhone moment":
(00:00–01:42): Brett Adcock, founder of Figure, rapidly launched humanoid robots from scratch in 31 months. He sees humanoid robots as the ultimate "deployment vector" for AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), comparable to an "iPhone moment" happening now.
(02:21–03:30): Adcock stresses that giving AGI a physical body is critical to avoid dystopian outcomes where powerful AI remains trapped in servers. Humanoids allow AGI to learn and act through transfer learning and multitasking.
(06:24–07:54): Commercial robots are already operating at BMW's largest US plant (Spartanburg, SC), autonomously performing repetitive manufacturing tasks. Demand is growing, with a second logistics customer signed.
(08:28–09:58): Long-term goal: humanoid robots for home use, priced around $20,000–$30,000, leasing for about $300/month. At that rate, Adcock envisions multiple robots per home doing chores like dishwashing, laundry, dog-walking.
(10:40–12:28): Figure's success is attributed to assembling a world-class, hardworking team with a laser-focused, high-intensity culture (working 5–7 days a week in person) and a shared "ship-product" mindset.
(14:30–15:43): To succeed, Figure had to solve three hard problems: build ultra-reliable humanoid hardware, teach humanoids through neural nets (not hand-coded controls), and generalize actions to unfamiliar tasks via language instructions.
(16:51–19:17): Figure abandoned external AI vendors like OpenAI and built its own large vision-language-action AI model called Helix. Robots using Helix can generalize and complete new tasks, like putting groceries away without prior training.
22:04–25:45): Workforce applications (manufacturing, logistics, healthcare) are booming, with massive demand. Home deployment is harder but accelerating rapidly. Internal alpha tests in engineers' homes are planned this year, with full rollout projected within this decade.
Watch Here:
As we've previously described, AI, semiconductors, eVTOL, and photonics—are poised to define the great power nations in the 2030s and why the US needs to urgently re-shore or at least friend-shore those critical supply chains.
President Donald Trump's administration warned on Saturday that it will restrict livestock imports from Mexico if that country's government does not intensify its fight against a damaging pest called New World screwworm.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a letter Saturday to her Mexican counterpart said that she "will restrict the importation of animal commodities" if those issues are not resolved by Wednesday.
Rollins' letter, which she posted on the social media site X, said Mexico had limited one of the companies hired to conduct aerial spraying to eliminate the pest to flying only six days a week and had imposed "burdensome customs duties" on parts needed to keep its planes in the air.
Her threat comes against the backdrop of a global trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has ratcheted up tariffs on Mexico and other trading partners.
Screwworm can infest livestock, wildlife and in rare cases, people. Maggots from screwworm flies burrow into the skin of living animals, causing serious and often fatal damage.
Before screwworm's discovery, Mexico had been the U.S.'s largest supplier of cattle. Last month, the U.S. imported 24,000 head of cattle from Mexico, down from about 114,000 a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The U.S. blocked Mexican livestock shipments in late November after the pest was discovered. It lifted that restriction in February based on new protocols for assessing the health of animals before they enter the country.
