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In a first, viewers on Earth got a chance to see Mars nearly in real time. The European Space Agency streamed on YouTube historic live images directly from the red planet. The images, shared on YouTube, ESA’s Twitter account and with the hashtag #MarsLIVE, showed the planet in a way it has never been seen before, ESA said. The event celebrated the 20th anniversary of the launch of the agency’s Mars Express orbiter — a mission to take three-dimensional images of the planet’s surface to see it in more complete detail.

Approximately 50 people are thought dead and hundreds injured after three trains collided in India on Friday evening, according to a local official, in what has been described as a “violent” crash. Two passenger trains and a goods train collided in an accident in the city of Balasore in Odisha state, according to a video statement by state chief secretary Pradeep Jena. In an interview with CNN affiliate News18, he added, “We have received reports suggesting that the death toll is approximately 50, while the number of injured individuals exceeds 300.”

Payment apps like PayPal and Venmo might be convenient, but they’re not banks — and a federal financial services watchdog is worried that too many consumers are treating them as such. Some consumers are using services like PayPal, Venmo, Cash App and Apple Pay for direct deposit of paychecks, or simply storing lots of cash in them. But the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants people to know they don’t have the same protections as a bank or credit union. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra warned in a Thursday statement that payment services like PayPal, Venmo, Cash App and Apple Pay “are increasingly used as substitutes for a traditional bank or credit union account but lack the same protections to ensure that funds are safe.”

Imagine waking up tomorrow to discover that MLB commissioner Rob Manfeld made another rule change to America’s pastime: All performance-enhancing drugs are legal. Imagine the increases in strength, speed, and stamina that baseball would have to contend with as players from every team experimented with pharmaceutical cocktails to give them the ultimate advantage. What we’re about to see in the 2024 election cycle, with the introduction of artificial intelligence, is the rise of "performance-enhancing digital." AI will revolutionize politics in the months ahead. Across America, digital agencies and operatives – Democrat and Republican – are already experimenting, and while the outcomes are difficult to predict, the differentiating factor for the winning side will be who best leverages AI to its full potential.

With reports of EV demand slowing this year, an Italian car maker has taken it upon itself to slash the price of its new battery models in a bid to spark sales. Almost 12 months after the Government terminated the Plug-in Car Grant, it has launched its own scheme in the hope it will help dealers shift more examples of it electric models. Bosses have also written an open letter to the UK Government pleading with ministers to boost incentives for British motorists to make the switch to electric vehicles. While the official PiCG offered to cut the price of a new EV by £1,500 by the time it was shelved a year ago, the car maker is offering to knock a lot more off the price of its battery vehicles.

When the Nazis occupied Poland in World War Two, many of the country's priceless pieces of art were stolen. One of those was Madonna with Child, a 16th Century painting attributed to Italian Alessandro Turchi. A Nazi official who oversaw the looting of art included the painting on a list of hundreds taken from occupied Poland. But the painting is finally returning home, after being discovered in Japan and handed over to Polish authorities during a ceremony in Tokyo this week. It is one of 600 looted artworks that Poland has managed to successfully bring home, but more than 66,000 so-called war losses are yet to be recovered. Poland recently launched a campaign seeking the return of hundreds of thousands artworks and other cultural items still missing after German and Soviet occupations in World War Two. It is also seeking $1.3 trillion in reparations from Germany for damage incurred by occupying Nazis.

A meeting of foreign ministers of the Brics group of nations in South Africa has called for a rebalancing of the global order away from Western nations. South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said the group's vision was to provide global leadership in a world fractured by geopolitical tension, inequality and global insecurity. Brics is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Allegations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine have clouded the talks. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the allegations and, as a member of the court, South Africa would be obliged to arrest him if he attends a Brics summit scheduled for Johannesburg in August. The Brics is seen by some as an alternative to the G7 group of developed nations, which held its annual summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima last month, and was also attended by the leaders of Brazil and India. G7 members have been highly critical of Russia and China. Brics countries have a combined population of more than 3.2 billion people, making up about 40% of the world's roughly 8 billion people.

The US Congress has approved a deal to lift the country's borrowing limit, days before the world's largest economy is due to default on its debt. The bipartisan measure sped through the Senate by a vote of 63-36, a day after it cleared the US House of Representatives. President Joe Biden has said he will enact the measure into law. His signature on the bill will spare the US from a catastrophic default on its $31.4tn (£25tn) debt. The country is forecast to overshoot its current debt ceiling on Monday 5 June. What's in US debt ceiling deal and who won? A simple guide to the US debt ceiling A default would limit the government's ability to borrow more money or pay all of its bills. It would also threaten to wreak havoc overseas, affecting prices and mortgage rates in other countries.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow despite the aircraft not being built yet. Scandinavian Airlines will start selling tickets tomorrow for flights on electric-powered aircraft. There will be 30 seats available to book on the three inaugural flights. But ticket holders won't know where they'll depart from, on what date nor what aircraft they'll be flying on - as they aren't built yet

Incredible footage released Wednesday showed a great white shark baring its teeth as it lunged at bait hanging off a tour boat in Mossel Bay, South Africa, just six feet away from an underwater videographer filming with a GoPro camera. "I feel a sense of excitement every time I see a great white shark," English videographer and dive crew member Mark Graham told British press agency Media Drum World. "The sharks come right up to the boat, often investigating people in the cage in a curious manner figuring out what they are.

EXCLUSIVE – Twenty Republican attorneys general are joining forces in an amicus brief against several LGBTQ+ groups that are pushing to allow minors to receive gender reassignment surgery and hormone altering drugs. The GOP attorney generals said there is scant evidence that the surgical and chemical interventions on children with gender dysphoria should be considered the standard of care. They added that some mainstream media and activists are bullying dissenting viewpoints into silence, and blasted court decisions for interfering with states' rights. The amicus brief – led by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey – opposed decisions on a federal lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, which challenged a ban in West Virginia on transgender medical interventions on children as well as a suit against North Carolina for blocking sex-change coverage for employees and their dependents.

Even as Joe Biden appears to have pushed off reaching the next debt limit until 2025, top Democrats on Capitol Hill say what he really needs to do is what he should have done last fall: Come out in favor of a drastic change to strip Congress of this power forever. Given the current math in the chamber, every senator in the Democratic Caucus would need to support such a change. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he couldn’t get votes from West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin or Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (who continues to caucus with Democrats, despite leaving the party). But Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle – along with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others – told CNN that this time around was a breaking point.

As gun violence increases and shootings seem to make headlines every few days, the fear of getting caught up in one is changing the lives of millions of Americans. A shopping mall. A classroom. A teenager's house party. All have suffered the scourge of a US mass shooting in recent weeks. To many Americans, it feels like it could happen anywhere. As National Gun Violence Awareness Day looms on Friday, how is this issue affecting the way people go about their lives? Tough conversations Around 60% of adults say they have talked to their kids or other relatives about gun safety, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Some of these conversations are sparked by lockdown drills in US classrooms. In some cases, students as young as five are taught when to barricade doors and when to run for their lives if a gunman is prowling the corridors.

Mexican authorities have found 45 bags containing human remains in a ravine outside the western city of Guadalajara. Officials were searching for seven young call centre workers, who had been reported missing last week, when they found the bodies. The remains include men and women, and the number of bodies is not yet known. The search is expected to continue for several days because of difficult terrain and poor lighting. The state prosecutor's office for the western state of Jalisco said in a statement that, following a tip-off in the search for the seven people, they had begun searching at the Mirador del Bosque ravine where they found the bags that included body parts. Firefighters and civil defence were working with police and a helicopter crew to recover the remains. The first bag was found on Tuesday, but because of the difficult terrain and lack of sunlight, the investigation resumed on Wednesday and will continue until all remains are located, the prosecutor's office said. Officials said they would continue working to determine the number of dead bodies, who they were, and their causes of death.