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Overnight News Digest: How Europe is luring US researchers amid Trump fears [1]
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Date: 2025-05-05
Al Jazeera
French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are hosting a conference in Paris to attract United States-based academics and researchers in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s targeting of universities. European Union commissioners on Monday announced half a billion euros ($568m) in incentives to lure international academics to the continent at the Choose Europe for Science conference. The meeting at Paris’s Sorbonne University is targeted at academics and researchers who fear their work will be threatened by billions of dollars of US government spending cuts for universities and research bodies as well as attacks on higher education institutions over diversity policies and pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
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C/NET
Self-driving car company Waymo announced Monday that it is significantly expanding its autonomous vehicle operations in the US by opening a new manufacturing facility in Mesa, Ariz. Currently, Waymo operates over 1,500 autonomous vehicles in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, completing more than 250,000 paid trips per week. With the new Mesa facility, the company plans to add 2,000 more vehicles to its fleet by 2026, and expand to cities like Atlanta, Miami and Washington, DC. This 239,000-square-foot plant, developed in partnership with Magna, will retrofit Jaguar I-PACE electric SUVs with Waymo's sixth-generation autonomous driving technology, known as the Waymo Driver. The facility is expected to produce thousands of vehicles annually, accelerating Waymo's mission to provide fully autonomous ride-hailing services in cities all across the country.
BBC
Rwanda is in the "early stage" of talks with the Trump administration to accept migrants deported by the US, the East African country's Foreign Affairs Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe has said. His comments come after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that Washington was "actively searching" for countries that would take in "some of the most despicable human beings". Nduhungirehe said the talks were "not new to us" as Rwanda had previously agreed to accept migrants deported by the UK. However, the UK abandoned the scheme, which faced numerous legal challenges, after Sir Keir Starmer's Labour government took office last July.
BBC
Israel's security cabinet has approved a plan to expand its military offensive against Hamas which includes the "capture" of Gaza and the holding of its territory, according to an Israeli official. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cabinet had decided on a "forceful operation" to destroy Hamas and rescue its remaining hostages, and that Gaza's 2.1 million population "will be moved, to protect it". He did not say how much territory would be seized by troops, but he stressed that "they will not enter and come out". The cabinet also approved, in principle, a plan to deliver aid through private companies, which would end a two-month blockade the UN says has caused severe food shortages.
Al Jazeera
The origins of heavy elements such as gold have been one of the biggest mysteries of astrophysics. A study has now provided a clue about the precious metal’s cosmic origins. Scientists have found that explosions in highly magnetised neutron stars, called magnetars, could have created gold in the universe. Analysis of archival data from space missions shows that a large amount of heavy metals, including gold, come from giant flares from magnetars, according to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on April 29. Anirudh Patel, a doctoral student at the Department of Physics at Columbia University in New York, led the study, which used 20-year-old archival telescope data from NASA and European Space Agency telescopes to investigate how heavy elements such as iron and gold were created and distributed throughout the universe.
Deutsche Welle
The Greek government on Monday launched "Kids Wallet," a state-operated mobile application that allows parents to monitor their children's screen time and verify their age on digital platforms and social networks. "We are giving parents a powerful tool to protect their children online," said Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou, presenting the new digital instrument in Athens. "This is an application that Greece — and Europe — needs to confirm children's ages when they use social media," Papastergiou added. "It will also serve as an identification tool for upcoming initiatives." Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his support for the initiative as well as his concern about the impact of technology on family life. "You see families in restaurants where parents and children are all on their phones, and you wonder when they actually talk to each other," he said.
Deutsche Welle
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced his resignation on Monday. His decision comes after his coalition government's presidential candidate was eliminated in the first round of elections on Sunday. "We saw how Romanians voted yesterday which means that the ruling coalition has no legitimacy, at least in this formula," he told reporters after a meeting of his Social Democrats party. Hard-right populist leader George Simion won the most votes, 40.5%, in the first round of the presidential election, a rerun of the original vote from last year. He will face off against pro-EU Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan in the May 18 runoff who received a 20.9% share of the vote.
The Guardian, Australia
Ed. Note: In Australia Liberals are the center right and Labor is the center left
Suburbs with significant Chinese Australian populations in key marginal seats recorded huge swings to Labor of up to 30%, and strategists and analysts warn the Liberal party has failed to rebuild trust with the community. The Liberal party’s review of the 2022 federal election found hawkish rhetoric on China cost it votes in several seats with high numbers of Chinese Australians. It called for greater community outreach and to rebuild trust before the 2025 poll. Those efforts, including increased engagment on Chinese social media , appear to have failed. Labor recorded swings towards it in the Melbourne seats of Menzies, Aston and Chisholm, and the Sydney seats of Bennelong and Reid. In all these marginal seats, between 13% and 30% of constituents have Chinese ancestry.
The Guardian, Australia
It’s old news, but people are only just beginning to believe it. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has, for some time now, been impotent when it comes to affecting the outcomes of elections. Once, it was widely accepted – though possibly never entirely true – that if a political leader did not have the blessing of Rupert Murdoch, then they could not win power. That hasn’t been the case for at least 15 years, and yet we have not broken free from the fear, caution and intellectual paralysis that results from the belief. At every state and federal election in Australia since 2010, the Murdoch press has supported the Coalition, and usually campaigned vigorously against Labor and other opponents. But look at the results in those contests. No discernible impact.
The Guardian, UK
As Big Ben chimed at noon and with the Cenotaph, the symbol of sacrifice, draped in the union flag for the first time since its unveiling in 1920, the UK marked the 80th anniversary of VE Day with military pomp before large crowds who had gathered in central London. Buckingham Palace may have served as the centrepiece of Monday’s spectacle before Thursday’s anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. At the event’s heart, however, were the VVIP second world war veterans, those remaining few who bore actual witness then and who today serve to remind. Back in 1945, Britain allowed itself a brief period of rejoicing on VE Day, with overwhelming relief and optimism at Germany’s surrender after long wartime years of deprivation and huge loss of life on all sides.
The Guardian, UK
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