Italy’s Culture Ministry has banned loans of works to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, following a dispute with the U.S. museum over an ancient marble statue believed to have been looted from Italy almost a half-century ago. The dispute began in March 2022 when an Italian court ruled that the Minneapolis museum was irregularly in possession of the Stabiae Doriforo, a Roman-era copy of The Doryphoros of Polykleitos, an ancient Greek sculpture. Rome claims that the sculpture was looted in the 1970s from an archaeological site at Stabiae, an ancient city close to Pompeii that was also covered by ..read more

Voters in North Macedonia cast ballots Wednesday for a president they hope will oversee the country's long-anticipated entry into the European Union, The small Balkan country has orbited the EU for nearly two decades with little to show for its efforts to join the 27-nation bloc. A second round of voting is almost certain to follow on May 8 — coinciding with parliamentary elections — as no candidate is expected to exceed the 50% threshold of registered voters required for outright victory. By 6:30 p.m. local time (1630GMT), half an hour before polling stations closed, turnout was 48.25%, accor ..read more

British army veteran Bill Gladden, who survived a glider landing on D-Day and a bullet that tore through his ankle a few days later, wanted to return to France for the 80th anniversary of the invasion so he could honor the men who didn’t come home. It was not to be. Gladden, one of the dwindling number of veterans who took part in the landings that kicked off the campaign to liberate Western Europe from the Nazis during World War II, died Wednesday, his family said. He was 100. Although weakened by cancer, Gladden had been determined to make it back to Normandy to take part in this year’s D-Da ..read more

Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said Wednesday. Long sought by Ukrainian leaders, the new missiles give Ukraine nearly double the striking distance — up to 300 kilometers (190 miles) — that it had with the mid-range version of the weapon that it received from the U.S. last October. One of the officials said the U.S. is providing more of these missiles in a new military aid package signe ..read more

Dairy cattle moving between states must be tested for the bird flu virus, U.S. agriculture officials said Wednesday as they try to track and control the growing outbreak. The federal order was announced a day after health officials said they had detected inactivated remnants of the virus, known as Type A H5N1, in samples taken from milk during processing and after retail sale. They stressed that such remnants pose no known risk to people or the milk supply. “The risk to humans remains low,” said Dawn O'Connell of the federal Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. The new order ..read more

More than one-quarter of U.S. adults over age 50 say they expect to never retire and 70% are concerned about prices rising faster than their income, an AARP survey finds. About 1 in 4 have no retirement savings, according to research released Wednesday by the organization that shows how a graying America is worrying more and more about how to make ends meet even as economists and policymakers say the U.S. economy has all but achieved a soft landing after two years of record inflation. Everyday expenses and housing costs, including rent and mortgage payments, are the biggest reasons why people ..read more

Poland's prosecutor general told the parliament on Wednesday that powerful Pegasus spyware was used against hundreds of people during the former government in Poland, among them elected officials. Adam Bodnar told lawmakers that he found the scale of the surveillance “shocking and depressing.” “It is sad for me that even in this room I am speaking to people who were victims of this system,” Bodnar told the Sejm, the lower house of parliament. Bodnar, who is also the justice minister, didn't specify who exactly was subject to surveillance by the spyware. His office said the information was conf ..read more

A teenage girl was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder Wednesday after stabbing a student and two teachers at a secondary school in Wales, police said. The three victims were taken to a hospital for treatment of stab wounds after the attack at Amman Valley School in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, Dyfed-Powys Police said. “A teenage girl has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and currently remains in police custody," police Superintendent Ross Evans said. Jonathan Edwards, an independent member of Parliament from the area, said that a student was stabbed and the teachers were wou ..read more

Children dead in the English Channel. Morgues full of migrants reaching capacity in Tunisia. Police in Cyprus patrolling off the island nation’s eastern coast to thwart boats loaded with Syrian refugees. With pivotal June elections for the European Parliament getting closer, such scenes of despair and tragedy are complicating efforts to open a new chapter in Europe’s migration policy. As the European Union and countries across the 27-member bloc adopt tougher measures on migrants, politicians largely focus their rhetoric on the need to police human trafficking and smuggling — rather than the h ..read more

Are you ready for some movies this summer? There's action-adventure, romance, horror, franchises and anniversary re-releases of some of your favorites populating theaters and streaming services from May through Labor Day. You just have to know where to look. Things kick off in theaters in May with Universal's Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt action romantic comedy “The Fall Guy” (May 3), a new installment in the Apes series, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (May 10), followed by Jane Shoenbrun's buzzy thriller “I Saw the TV Glow” (May 17) and closing out with the Mad Max prequel “Furiosa.” June ..read more