Category World News

The Denver Nuggets defeated the No. 1 seeded Oklahoma City Thunder 121-119 in a thrilling NBA Western Conference second-round series opener with Aaron Gordon’s stunning 3-point performance and Nikola Jokic’s stunning 42-point masterpiece.

With four seconds left, Nuggets forward Gordon drained a 25-foot effort from outside the arc to take the win on Monday against a Thunder lineup that had already scored up to 14 points in the third quarter at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

The Thunder held on to a double-digit lead for the majority of the fourth quarter, but their advantage came to an end when Jokic scored 18 points.

In addition to his 42-point tally, the towering three-time NBA MVP finished with 22 rebounds, six assists, two blocks, and a steal.

With 10 seconds left, Chet Holmgren’s team were defending a slim 119-118 lead before conceding two missed free throws.

Denver rebounded and launched the final offensive offensive exercise that culminated with Gordon’s impressive 3-pointer.

The all-around power of Gordon, who finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds, was praised by interim Denver coach David Adelman.

He is a Denver Nugget, the soul of our team, Adelman said, “I’m looking at ball-handling, responsibilities, leadership.” It’s cool to see him in that kind of a situation.

Gordon claimed that the Nuggets’ unflinching resolve had helped them win the game.

He claimed that “many guys stepped up.” No matter what the circumstances were, we had the conviction that we would prevail.

Jamal Murray scored 21 points for Gordon and Russell Westbrook, who added 18 points for Jokic.

With eight rebounds and eight assists, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 33 points, five three-pointers, and 20-point scoring from the bench.

On Wednesday, the second game of the best-of-seven series will take place.

EXPLAINER

As the formal mourning period for Pope Francis has ended, attention now shifts to the papal conclave in Vatican City, where powerful members of the Catholic Church are converging to elect the next pontiff.

At a ceremony of spiritual, political, and global significance, Cardinals from all over the world will elect the 267th pope, the leader of the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide. After serving for 12 years in the papacy, Francis passed away on April 21 at the age of 88.

The conclave, which will kick off on Wednesday, will be held behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel. It lasts typically for several days and, occasionally, for weeks.

What we know is as follows:

What is a papal conclave?

• Conclave is a term that derives from the Latin word “con clavis,” which means “with a key,” and is a reference to the custom of keeping the cardinals locked up until a new pope is elected.
• A papal conclave is a solemn, secret election of the College of Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church.
• Known as the “princes of the church”, the cardinals follow an intricate and centuries-old process rooted in the Middle Ages.
• Although the customs have changed, Pope John Paul II’s 1996 apostolic constitution, Universi Dominici Gregis, and subsequent modifications by Pope Benedict XVI, form the foundation of the current procedures.
• Despite being under the age of 80, all cardinals are able to attend the meetings. There are currently 135 eligible voters.

A pope is what?

• The pope is regarded as the first leader of the early Christian church and the follower of St. Peter, the head of Jesus’ apostles.
• As such, the pope holds supreme authority over the worldwide Catholic Church in matters of faith, morals, governance and discipline.
• 252 cardinals support the pope, who is the spiritual leader of Catholics all over the world.
• The pope is undeniably a powerful global figure, according to Father Francis Lucas, a Catholic priest and executive director of the Catholic Media Network, while Pope Francis stressed that Jesus Christ possesses real power and that he is merely a disciple.
• The pope typically presides over major church celebrations held at St Peter’s Basilica throughout the year. At least once every five years, he is expected to meet with more than 5, 000 bishops from all over the world. He is also in charge of overseeing and administering the Vatican in his capacity as the bishop of Rome.

When will the conclave start?

• The Apostolic Palace, or Papal Palace, at the Vatican, is where the papal conclave is scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
• This comes in addition to Francis’ customary nine-day mourning period.

What happens on the first day of the conclave?

Mass at 10:00 AM (08:00 GMT) to elect a pope

• The day’s opening mass is “Pro Eligendo Pontifice,” a public ceremony led by the College of Cardinals dean, in St. Peter’s Basilica.
• It’s a solemn liturgy asking the Holy Spirit to guide the church in selecting a new pope.

Procession into the Sistine Chapel at 4:30 p.m. (14:30 GMT).

• The 135 cardinal electors chant the Litany of the Saints in the Pauline Chapel near the Sistine Chapel in the afternoon.
• “This is an ancient prayer of the Catholic Church that names the saints in a sort of a roll call, one by one by one”, said Steven P Millies, professor of public theology at the Catholic Theological Union, a Catholic graduate school of theology in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States.
• St. Peter, please pray for us. “St. James, pray for us,” Millies said, “seeing the intercession of all the holy men and women who have come before us for the success of the conclave.”
• They then chant Veni Creator Spiritus and process into the Sistine Chapel.
• The Holy Spirit, fully God as well as the Father and the Son, but the Spirit who guides the church, is also a prayer, Millies said.

Locking the conclave is “Extra Omnes”:

• After taking an oath of secrecy, the phrase “Extra omnes”! (“Everyone out”) The chapel is sealed, and the declaration is made. Only the electors and essential staff remain, cut off from the outside world.

First vote

• The cardinals have the option of casting just one ballot in the first day.

Return to residence

• They return to their secured Vatican residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where they spend the rest of the conclave in solitude.
• Millies claimed that “this is a little different from what it was in the past.”
• “In the old days, what they did was they converted the salons of the Apostolic Palace with very uncomfortable cots and pitchers of water. They built this hotel because it was very uncomfortable for a room full of very old men to have to sleep in such conditions, he continued.

What is the procedure for voting?

• Voting after the first day occurs a maximum of four times: twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon.
• Each cardinal chooses a candidate on the ballot that reads “Eligo in Summum Pontificem” (“I elect as Supreme Pontiff”) and writes in their name.
• Before Michelangelo’s Last Judgement, they take the oath and place their votes in a chalice.

• Voting is suspended on the fifth day to allow for prayer, quiet reflection, and informal discussions if a pope is not chosen within the first four days of the conclave.
• A pope must be chosen with a two-thirds majority. If no one reaches that threshold, another vote is held. Votes are burned after each round.
• No pope has been chosen, as evidenced by the black smoke coming from a chimney above the Sistine Chapel. White smoke signals the Catholic Church has a new pontiff.
• A mixture of potassium perchlorate, anthracene, and sulphur produces white smoke, while potassium chlorate, lactose, and a conifer resin known as rosin are combined to create the latter.
• By the end of the second day of voting, the last two conclaves, held in 2005 and 2013, had come to an end.

What challenges does the conclave face?

• During his papacy, Francis significantly altered the College of Cardinals, focusing on pastoral issues and global representation. That presents its own set of difficulties.
• “]The Catholic Church] is a church that has to understand how to be one church globally which is united on fundamental things but has to do things differently in different contexts”, said Massimo Faggioli, a professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University.
• Because there is one canon law for every church, whether it be in Alaska or Indonesia, making that the most challenging aspect of Catholicism, he continued.

• According to experts, each cardinal brings a distinct vision. Global South cardinals may seek a pope who supports interfaith dialogue while those from the Global South are likely to prioritize globalization and poverty.
• According to Mills, “I believe what Francis was doing very intentionally was inviting those various concerns from various places to engage in dialogue.”
• “And one thing, I think, that was very much on his mind was the church in parts of the world where Catholicism is a minority – where there are Muslim majorities or other majorities too. He made these decisions, he said, considering the Catholics’ experiences there, and I believe that was very important to him when he made those choices.

What are the church’s principal difficulties?

• The Catholic Church today faces multiple challenges. In addition to declining attendance, growing secularism, and rising numbers of people who claim to be religiously unaffiliated, there are some other factors.
• According to The Washington Post, which cited the Vatican in reporting, “The Holy See is receiving a steady 800 cases per year from places like Poland, Italy, Latin America, and Asia,” trust is still being eroded by widespread sexual abuse scandals.
• Internally, tensions between modernising reforms (on issues like LGBTQ+ rights and women’s roles) and traditionalist values are growing.
• However, creating a global church is regarded as one of the biggest challenges, according to experts.
• According to Mills, “the Roman Catholic Church of the 21st century is getting to know what it means to be a global church.”
• “And what it means to be a global church in the end is that the archbishop of New York City is every bit as much a Roman Catholic as the poor baptised worker in East Timor”, he added.

What transpires following the election of the pope?

• He first accepts the position and chooses a papal name that best captures his vision or inspiration after being elected. The previous pope, whose real name was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, chose Francis as his papal name to honor St Francis of Assisi.
• The “Room of Tears” then transforms the new pope into white papal vestments. The Room of Tears is reportedly named because many newly elected popes experience emotional shock as they first put on a white cassock and grasp the magnitude of their new responsibilities.
• Shortly after, the senior cardinal announces “Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum, HabemusPapam”! () “I tell you that we have a pope! The new pope issues his first official blessing from St. Peter’s Basilica balcony.
• ” The installation of the new pope will complete that cycle of events. Then, according to Mills, we will begin looking into the appointments that a new pope will make within the Vatican administration.
• What new appointments does the pope make, who sacks, and who stays. That will be very interesting to watch, as will the statements the new pope gives, “he added.

On Tuesday, May 6, 2018, this is the situation:

Fighting

• At least three people were killed on Monday in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Sumy, according to Ukrainian authorities.
• Two women were killed in a car attack by Ukrainian drones in the Kursk region of Russia, according to a post on Telegram by Governor Alexander Khinstein.
  He claimed that an explosive device was dropped onto a 53-year-old man’s car, killing him as well.
• According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, 105 Ukrainian drones were destroyed overnight by Russian forces, according to RIA Novosti news agency.
• As a result of the city’s repeated night-long strike, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that at least 19 Ukrainian drones had been destroyed, leading to the closure of all airports for several hours. There were no casualties reported.
• At least 18 drones were also destroyed by Russian forces in the southwest of Voronezh and ten drones over the southern Pena region, according to regional authorities.
• According to the governor of the region, Ukrainian forces attacked a power substation in Kursk, Russia.
• Alexander Sladkov, a war correspondent for the Russian state television, and a number of Russian war bloggers reported a recent Ukrainian land-based invasion of Kursk supported by armored vehicles. The reported advance was not made public by Kyiv.

diplomacy and politics

• On Tuesday, the European Union will release a “roadmap” on how to reduce its reliance on Russian fossil fuels by 2027.
• Olaf Scholz, the incoming German Chancellor, stated to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Ukraine would continue to support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. According to spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, Scholz “reaffirmed Germany’s continued and unwavering solidarity with Ukraine.”
• Friedrich Merz, Germany’s currently elected leader, will take office on Tuesday with a lengthy list of to-dos that include continuing to support Kyiv. Without a doubt, he said last month, “Germany will stand with Ukraine without any ifs or buts.”

The exact locations and causes of the massive fire and explosions in Port Sudan’s previously quiet city have not been known, despite the country’s civil war’s ongoing quake.

In the city’s immediate vicinity of the country’s largest maritime port, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge, dark smoke came out of clouds.

Residents of the port city reported that attack drones launched by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) hit a fuel depot and other targets, according to Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, a reporter from Khartoum, in Sudan.

Residents “believe that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces carried out drone strikes once more,” they claim. They “targeted a fuel depot in the city, as well as the port and the air base,” Morgan said.

The Sudanese army and the RSF conflict has led to the worst humanitarian crisis in history, one that is likely to get worse with these most recent attacks on Port Sudan, where UN and aid organizations have headquarters, as well as army-aligned government ministries.

The Red Sea coastal city’s attacks on Sunday marked a sharp increase in fighting, as ground or air attacks had never been carried out in Port Sudan up until this week.

A drone strike on Sunday caused the city’s only fully operational international airport to be close to the country’s only functioning airport. On Monday, the city targeted its fuel depots. Military sources gave the RSF the blame in both instances.

An army depot and an aircraft depot were destroyed in the RSF-controlled Nyala airport, according to a military source. The attacks were not caused by the RSF.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia’s neighbors have condemned the attacks this week, and the UN has expressed concern.

A dispute over a transition to civilian government sparked the army and RSF’s civil war that broke out in April 2023.

In his most recent effort to streamline the world’s most powerful military, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has announced drastic reductions in the number of top-ranking officers.

Hegseth ordered a 20% drop in the number of four-star generals and admirals, who are currently the highest-ranking members of the US military, as well as a 10% drop in the number of general and flag officers in a memo on Monday.

In addition, Hegseth’s memo mandated a 20% reduction in the National Guard’s general officers.

As of March 31, 2025, the US military lacked 38 four-star generals or admirals, according to information from the US Department of Defense.

Hegseth explained the “Less Generals, More GIs Policy” in a video explaining how the US military currently has one general for every 1,400 soldiers, compared to one for every 6, 000 during World War II.

Hegseth stated in the video posted on X that “more generals and admirals do not equal more success.”

“This is not a slash-and-burn exercise designed to punish high-ranking officers,” the statement continued. Nothing about this is more unbelievable than that. Working with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, this deliberate process aims to maximize operational readiness and strategic readiness by making prudent reductions in the ranks of the general and flag officers.

Hegseth did not specify the positions being cut.

The US military’s nearly 40 active four-star generals include the heads of US Africa Command, US European Command, and US Forces Korea, as well as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the army’s chief of staff, the chief of naval operations, and the Air Force’s chief of staff.

The administration’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal government and eliminate perceived political foes are part of a wider effort.

In a sharp escalation of its dispute with Harvard University, US President Donald Trump has announced that the institution will no longer receive federal funding for research.

Since “no will be provided,” US Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon wrote to Harvard on Monday, saying the prestigious university had created a “mockery” of higher education.

According to McMahon, “Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution and can operate as a privately funded institution, drawing on its enormous endowment, and raising money from its large base of wealthy alumni.”

The Trump administration’s decision comes after Harvard received nearly $2.3 billion in federal funding last month as a result of what it alleged was an inaction on campus.

After Harvard rejected a number of demands that it claimed would subject the university to excessive government control, including that it cooperate with external faculty and student audits to ensure “viewpoint diversity,” the administration announced the freeze.

Former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO McMahon addressed a number of complaints made by conservatives frequently about the university in her letter, including claims that it had promoted lax academic standards and accepted foreign students who “engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America.”

“Where do so many of these “students” come from, who are they, and how do they enter Harvard, or even our country, and why is there such a high level of hatred?” In the letter, McMahon compared Trump’s emphasis on particular words to the use of all-capital letters.

The biggest question of all is, why won’t Harvard provide straightforward answers to the American public, as the saying goes, “These are questions that need to be answered, among many more, among others.”

According to a statement from Harvard, which is contesting the Trump administration’s earlier funding freeze, McMahon’s latest demands will have “chilling implications for higher education.”

A university spokesman said in response to Harvard’s filing of its lawsuit on April 21, that the letter today threatens to illegally withhold funding for lifesaving research and innovation.

“Harvard will continue to uphold the law, uphold and encourage respect for viewpoint diversity, and stop antisemitism in our community,” said the statement. Additionally, Harvard will continue to fight against illegal government overreach intended to stifle research and innovation that would improve the security and safety of Americans.

Since the alleged anti-Semitism that occurred on US universities last year in response to widespread student protests against Israel’s occupation of Gaza, there has been controversy.

Separate Harvard task forces claimed that students and staff had experienced anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim bias on campus in two reports released last month.

In response to the reports, Harvard President Alan Garber expressed concern that some students had been forced “to the periphery of campus life because of who they are or what they believe” and pledged to work harder to make sure the university was a place where “mutual respect is the norm.”