Portugal’s ruling center-right Democratic Alliance (AD) won a snap parliamentary election on Sunday but again fell short of the majority needed to end a long period of instability as the far-right Chega gained a record share of the vote.

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said the election result was a vote of confidence in his party, but with votes from abroad still to be counted Chega could supplant the center-left Socialists as the main opposition party, ending almost 40 years of dominance by the country’s two major parties.

Continued political instability could delay structural reforms and major projects in Portugal, including lithium mining in the north, and potentially compromise the efficient deployment of EU funds and the long-delayed privatization of TAP airline.

The election, the third in as many years, was called one year into an AD minority government’s term after Montenegro failed to win a vote of confidence in March when the opposition questioned his integrity over dealings of his family’s consultancy firm. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Electoral data showed the AD making gains, winning 89 seats in the 230-seat parliament, nine more than in the previous election.

Montenegro, who has ruled out any deal with Chega, said he expected to form a minority government.

“The Portuguese don’t want any more snap elections, they want a four-year legislature,” Montenegro said as his supporters chanted “Let Luis work,” his campaign slogan.

Chega gained 8 seats for a total of 58, winning a record 22.6% of the vote, while voters appeared to punish the Socialists for their role in bringing down Montenegro’s government.

They fell to 58 seats from 78, prompting Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos to say he would step down.

Chega leader Andre Ventura, who was hospitalized during the campaign after collapsing on stage with an esophageal spasm, said his party had “swept the left block off the map in style.”

“There are moments in life during which God says, just stop a little bit,” he told a crowd of jubilant supporters. “This time I am not going to listen. I am not going to stop until I become the prime minister of Portugal.”

Centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and nationalist Karol Nawrocki will compete in a second round of the presidential election in Poland on June 1, the electoral commission said based on votes from 100% of electoral districts.

Trzaskowski, from the ruling Civic Coalition (KO), got 31.36% of votes in the first round of presidential election on Sunday. The candidate backed by nationalist opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), Karol Nawrocki, got 29.54% of votes. Earlier late polls showed Trzaskowski leading in the electoral race.

Both candidates started preparing for the second round early on Monday, with Trzaskowski meeting voters in Warsaw and Nawrocki in Gdansk.

“We need to talk to everyone, arguments are the most important. I am glad that many young people went to vote, but the big challenge is to convince them to vote for me,” Trzaskowski told reporters.

Far-right candidates Slawomir Mentzen and Grzegorz Braun together accounted for more than 21% of the vote, a historically high percentage, winning widespread support from young voters. It is not clear, however, who their votes will go to in the second round.

Nawrocki, backed by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, said he will fight for the votes the people on both sides of the political landscape.

“My social agenda and the fact that I will be the guardian of the social achievements of the Law and Justice government and the Solidarity (trade union) make it an offer also for left-wing, socially sensitive circles,” he said.

Russia has battered Ukraine overnight with its largest drone attack since the war began, Ukraine’s military said Sunday, as Moscow intensified its military assault despite holding direct peace talks with Kyiv Friday.

Russia launched 273 Shahed drones in one night, the Ukrainian Air Force said, predominantly targeting the central Kyiv region.

A 28-year-old woman was killed, and three others including a four-year-old child were injured, according to Mykola Kalashnik, the governor of the Kyiv region.

Ruslan Stefanchuk, the head of Ukraine’s parliament, said in a social media post Sunday: “The air raid alarm lasted almost nine hours. This is what Putin’s ‘sincere desire for peace’ looks like.”

The attack destroyed residential buildings, damaged a high-rise and set garages on fire, Stefanchuk wrote, adding: “This is terror in its purest form.”

The “massive attack” caused a number of fires, Ukraine’s emergency services also said, adding that 55 rescue workers had been deployed.

Elsewhere, Russian shelling killed one person and injured eight in the Donetsk region Saturday, according to the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Vadym Filashkin. Russian drones also targeted the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, regional military chiefs said.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have downed 75 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours, TASS, a Russian state news agency, reported Sunday, citing Russia’s defense ministry.

The latest assault comes after a Russian drone attack on a bus in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy killed at least nine people and injured seven Saturday, just hours after the two countries met for the first direct peace talks since the early weeks of Russia’s 2022 invasion.

The negotiations in Turkey failed to produce a major breakthrough. The two countries discussed a possible meeting between their presidents, a ceasefire and agreed a prisoner swap.

The talks capped days of back-and-forth: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin called for the face-to-face meeting but did not attend himself, instead sending a junior delegation after rejecting Ukraine’s proposal of a 30-day ceasefire.

Donald Trump is set to speak with Putin Monday on ending the Ukraine war, the US president announced Saturday. Trump has previously said he doesn’t think there will be a significant breakthrough on peace talks until he speaks with Putin directly.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Saturday that preparations were underway for a phone conversation between the two leaders.

Leo XIV, the first ever American pope, will be formally inaugurated as the 267th pontiff Sunday during a special Mass in St. Peter’s Square attended by world leaders, royalty, and thousands of believers.

The May 18 service will be rich in symbolism and include the formal bestowing on Leo of the symbols of office including the pallium – a lamb’s wool vestment symbolizing his pastoral care for the church and role as shepherd to his flock – and the fisherman’s ring, which symbolizes the Pope’s authority as the successor of St. Peter, a fisherman by trade and who Catholics hold to be the first pope.

Among those expected to attend Sunday’s two-hour long liturgy include US Vice-President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the President of Peru, Dina Boluarte, the leader of the country where Pope Leo served as both a missionary and a bishop for several decades. Countries from across the globe will be represented, with the Vatican hosting delegates from more than 150 nations.

The 69-year-old Chicago-born pontiff is expected to greet delegations from different countries after his inauguration Sunday, a Vatican spokesman said.

Although Leo was elected as pope on May 8, the official beginning of his papacy begins on May 18, with his first general audience with the public scheduled for May 21.

In his first Mass as pontiff on May 9, Leo called on the clergy to show humility, has made repeated appeals for peace and explained his choice of name. Later in the week, he used his first Vatican address since his election to call for peace in Ukraine and Gaza, saying “Never again war!”

The first American pope, who is an avid tennis player, has also met with journalists and men’s tennis number one seed, Jannik Sinner.

Symbols of office

On Sunday morning , Pope Leo will use the popemobile for the first time and greet people in St Peter’s Square before heading inside the basilica for the Mass.

He will be joined by leaders of Eastern Orthodox churches for the first part of the service as he descends to pray at the tomb of St.Peter. The pallium, the ring and a book of the gospels will then be taken by two members of the clergy towards the altar in the square.

The scripture readings at the Mass will largely focus on the figure of St. Peter and the central passage from John’s Gospel, a text seen as foundational to the pope’s ministry as St. Peter’s successor.

Following this reading, three cardinals will then present the pope with the symbols of office.

Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, who announced the news that Leo had been elected, will place the pallium over the new pontiff. Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will say a special prayer. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines will present Leo with the signet “ring of the fisherman,” which was traditionally used to seal official documents but is now ceremonial.

The Vatican has released details of the ring, which has an image of St. Peter on the outside band, with “Leo XIV” and the pope’s coat of arms engraved on the inside.

All bishops wear rings to show their bond to the local church they lead and the ring of the Pope, as Bishop of Rome, symbolises his “betrothal” to the entire church.

After receiving the symbols of office, representatives of ordinary Catholics from across the world will show their “obedience” to the pope, something that in the past was done by cardinals. The decision to include non-cardinals in this part of the service shows the pope’s commitment to a church which seeks to deepen the involvement of Catholics who are not part of the hierarchy. The inclusion of ordinary Catholics in the ceremony is also a nod to Leo’s intent to continue reforms started by his predecessor, Pope Francis.

During the Mass, Pope Leo will also give a homily, where he will likely set out some of the key themes of his pontificate, something he would have spent time considering carefully.

After the Mass ends, the pope will lead the Regina Caeli, or “Queen of Heaven” prayer before meeting the international delegations inside the basilica.

Papal inauguration ceremonies have changed over the years. For centuries it also involved a “coronation,” which included placing the papal tiara on the new pope’s head. The last papal “coronation” was of Paul VI in 1963. He however, decided to sell the tiara and give the proceeds to charity. Catholics in the US bought that tiara, which is now on display at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Police in the UK have charged three Iranian nationals with national security offenses following a counter-terror investigation.

The three men, arrested on Saturday, 3 May, have been charged with “engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service,” namely Iran, between 14 August 2024 and 16 February 2025, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement Saturday.

The men, aged between 39 and 55, have been named by police as Mostafa Sepahvand, Farhad Javadi Manesh, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori.

They have been charged with engaging in surveillance and reconnaissance, with one man charged with the intention of committing “serious violence against a person in the United Kingdom,” the statement outlined.

The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service charged the men on Friday, and they are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday. The investigation is being led by the British counter terrorism police.

Commander Dominic Murphy, from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “These are extremely serious charges under the National Security Act, which have come about following what has been a very complex and fast-moving investigation.”

A fourth man, aged 31, who was arrested on Friday, May 9, has been released without charge.

A Russian drone attack on a bus in northeastern Ukraine killed at least nine people and injured seven others, Ukrainian officials said Saturday, just hours after the two countries met for the first direct peace talks in three years.

While the two sides discussed a possible meeting between the two countries’ leaders, a ceasefire and agreed a prisoner swap, there was no major breakthrough and since then Russia’s aerial assault continued.

The drone attack took place Saturday morning in the city of Bilopillia in the Sumy region, local authorities said, with Oleh Hrihorov – head of Sumy’s military administration – saying that seven people were injured, three of whom were in critical condition.

“This is not just another shelling – it is a cynical war crime,” Ukraine’s National Police also said on Telegram. Police and local authorities said Russia had struck a civilian target.

Moscow has not yet responded to Ukraine’s claims it struck a civilian bus.

However, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported around the same time, citing a statement from the defense ministry, that Russian forces did strike a Ukrainian equipment staging site in the Sumy region with drones.

Russia and Ukraine have both accused each other of targeting civilians, which each denies.

An image shared by Ukraine’s national police showed a heavily damaged van bearing massive holes in the right and top side of the passenger seats. Its windows, as well as the windshield, were shattered.

Overall in Ukraine, Russian attacks killed at least 13 people and injured over 38 in the past 24 hours, which includes the attack in Sumy, Ukrainian authorities say. Two were killed in Donetsk region, and one person was killed in both Kharkiv and Kherson regions.

Friday’s talks marked the first face-to-face meeting between the two sides since the early weeks of the war.

But the meeting – which took place in Istanbul chaired by Turkey – was not attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had first proposed the talks but instead sent a junior delegation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also stayed away, having said he would not meet any other Russian official but Putin.

On Saturday, the Kremlin said that a meeting between Zelensky and Putin could happen, but only if certain conditions are met.

“Such a meeting is possible as a result of the work of the delegations of both sides in reaching certain agreements,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov also spoke about preparing a list of “conditions” for a ceasefire agreement, that would then be exchanged with the Ukrainian side. Kyiv and its allies have repeatedly called for an unconditional truce and accuse Russia of deliberately holding up peace efforts.

An American basketball player for the Indonesian league was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle illegal drugs to the country, police said Thursday.

The Southeast Asian country has extremely strict drug laws, and convicted smugglers are sometimes executed by firing squad.

Jarred Dwayne Shaw, 34, from Dallas, Texas, was arrested May 7, after police raided his apartment in Tangerang regency, just outside the capital, Jakarta, and seized 132 pieces of cannabis candies, said Ronald Sipayung, the Soekarno-Hatta Airport police chief.

The arrest followed a tip from the airport’s customs that reported Shaw had received a suspicious airway package from Thailand, Sipayung said. Cannabis has been decriminalized in Thailand since November 2024. Under Indonesia’s anti-drug laws, Shaw faces up to life sentence or death penalty if found guilty, Sipayung said.

A video circulating on social media purportedly showed Shaw, wearing a black T-shirt and shorts, resisting as he’s being pushed away by police and shouting “Help … help!” when he was about to be arrested.

Shaw has played for several clubs in the Indonesian Basketball League since 2022, and signed a contract with Tangerang Hawk last year. He told police during interrogation that he wanted to share the cannabis candy with fellow basketball players, according to Sipayung.

He said the candy contained a total gross weight of 869 grams (30.6 ounces) of illegal cannabinoid inside a package.

“We are still running the investigation to uncover the international drugs network behind this case and to stop its distribution,” Sipayung said.

Shaw did not make any statement when he was presented by the authorities at a news conference Wednesday wearing a detainee orange T-shirt and a mask with his hands tied.

Tangerang Hawks’ manager, Tikky Suwantikno, told reporters on Thursday that they regretted what had been done by Shaw and the club had immediately fired him as he has breached the contract.

The Indonesian Basketball League banned Shaw from playing for life, said its chair, Budisatrio Djiwandono.

“We don’t tolerate players, administrators or anyone in the field involved in drugs. There is no room for drug users in the basketball world,” Djiwandono said.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.

About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ data showed. Indonesia’s last executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.

Police in Thailand have arrested a man on suspicion of wildlife trafficking after he was found with two baby orangutans in a basket at a gas station in the Thai capital.

The 47-year-old suspect was apprehended Wednesday as he was about to deliver the two primates to a customer, Thai police said in a statement on Thursday.

Officers discovered the orangutans – one about 1-year-old and the other 1 month-old – in plastic baskets, police said.

Images released by authorities showed one of the orangutans in a plastic basket, wearing a diaper and hugging a soft toy alongside feeding bottles.

The man was arrested on charges of “illegally possessing protected wildlife” under Thai law and could face up to four years in prison, police said.

The man had admitted he was delivering the animals, “but he didn’t say where he got the babies from,” Kasidach said.

Police said they had uncovered an illegal wildlife trade network and were working to find out whether the orangutans had been bred in Thailand or abroad, he added.

The operation was carried out in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Wildlife Justice Commission in the Netherlands, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the police statement said.

The department said that Stefan, the 1-month-old, is in an incubator because of weak health and Christopher, the 1-year-old, has been relocated to a sanctuary run by the agency.

Authorities said the orangutans are believed to have been sold for around 300,000 Thai baht ($9,050).

Orangutans are native to Sumatra and Borneo, two Southeast Asian islands that are home to some of the world’s most diverse rainforests, and have come under threat as a result of deforestation, habitat destruction and poaching.

They are listed as “critically endangered” under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, which assesses extinction risks.

The gentle apes, once found in greater numbers across Southeast Asia, have experienced sharp population declines, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Thailand has long been a hub for the illegal wildlife trade.

Its border area with Myanmar, Laos, and China – known as the Golden Triangle – is a hotspot of cross-border trafficking, illegal wildlife trade and consumption, according to WWF.

It seems some parents in New Zealand just can’t get the message. Once again, King has topped the list of baby names rejected by the country’s Registrar General.

The royal title led the list of banned baby names for 14 years in a row until 2023 when it was replaced by Prince, which ranks second in the latest iteration.

Other regal references including Duke, Majesty and Emperor are also a no-go in the country, which polices birth names under its strict registration law.

New Zealand registered 60,000 births last year and rejected 38 proposed names, according to a letter from John Crawford-Smith, Principal Advisor of the Department of Internal Affairs, in response to a written inquiry.

Under the law, baby names must not be offensive, unreasonably long, or include numbers and symbols. They must also refrain from resembling official titles and ranks “without adequate justification,” according to the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 2021.

New Zealand is part of the British Commonwealth and a constitutional monarchy that calls Charles III its King. It’s not known if the 11 parents who applied to call their child King meant it as an ode to Charles, but all were asked to have a rethink, according to Crawford-Smith.

In 2024, more than 1,000 children in the United States were called King, according to the Social Security Administration. (Liam and Olivia were the top US names last year).

Most of New Zealand’s rejected names had royal links. Ten applications for Prince were rejected, followed by four for Princess. Names like Kingi, Kingz, Prinz, Prynce, and Royallty were also banned – potentially because department staff also consider how names sound when spoken when deciding if they’ll be approved.

Officials also consider community perceptions of the proposed name. That may be why other names, including Sativa and Indica, both strains of cannabis, were rejected.

Fanny, once a popular first name, was also declined.

Parents are given an opportunity to explain their rationale before the Registrar General makes a final decision. “We continue to urge parents to think carefully about names,” Crawford-Smith wrote in the letter. “Names are a gift,” he added.

New Zealand is not the only country that imposes laws to regulate newborns’ names.

In 2015, a French judge in the northern part of the country refused to let two parents name their child Nutella because of the risk of humiliation.

Sweden also has a naming law and has nixed attempts to name children “Superman,” “Metallica,” and “Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116.”

In the United States, some naming fights have centered on adults.

In 2008, a judge allowed an Illinois school bus driver to legally change his first name to “In God” and his last name to “We Trust.”

But the same year, an appeals court in New Mexico ruled against a man – named Variable – who wanted to change his name to “F— Censorship!”

Indian police have killed 31 suspected Maoist rebels in what is being described as the “biggest ever operation” against the long-running insurgency.

Security forces spent 21 days attempting to capture the rebels along the border of the states of Chhattisgarh and Telangana in central India, Home Minister Amit Shah said Wednesday.

Describing the operation as a “historic breakthrough,” Shah said security forces carried out the “biggest ever operation” against the rebels, killing 31 of them in Karreguttalu Hill, considered a Maoist stronghold.

Indian authorities have been battling Maoist rebel groups, also known as Naxals, across several central and northern states since 1967. Inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, insurgents have over the decades launched attacks on government forces in an attempt to overthrow the state and, they say, usher in a classless society.

“Our security forces completed this biggest anti-Naxal operation in just 21 days and I am extremely happy that there was not a single casualty in the security forces in this operation,” Shah wrote on X, congratulating the soldiers for their “bravery and courage.”

“So far, a total of 214 Naxal hideouts and bunkers have been destroyed in this operation,” a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs said, adding that hundreds of explosives were recovered during the search.

The insurgents are known as Naxalites in India after Naxalbari, a village in West Bengal state where they originated in the late 1960s.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the operation in a post on X.

“This success of the security forces shows that our campaign towards rooting out Naxalism is moving in the right direction. We are fully committed to establishing peace in the Naxal-affected areas and connecting them with the mainstream of development,” Modi said.

The Indian government has cracked down in areas where Maoist groups are active – an approach that, while appearing to reduce the threat level, has been criticized by some observers as heavy-handed and prone to abuse.

Incidents of violence by rebel groups fell from 1,936 in 2010 to 374 in 2024, according to data from the home ministry. The total number of civilian and security-forces deaths have also fallen by 85% during this period, the data shows.

At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels and two police officials were killed in February, in what was described by police as the deadliest combat this year so far.

In 2021, 22 Indian security force members were killed and 31 injured in 2021 during a four-hour gun battle with insurgents, officials said.