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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.

US President Joe Biden tripped and fell while handing out diplomas at a graduation ceremony for the US Air Force Academy in Colorado on Thursday. Mr Biden, who is the nation's oldest serving president at 80, was seen being helped up by Air Force officials and walking back to his seat unassisted. The president had been standing for about an hour and half to shake hands with each of the 921 graduating cadets. The White House communications director said "he's fine". "There was a sandbag on stage while he was shaking hands," Ben LaBolt wrote on Twitter.

The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to pass a bill to suspend the nation’s debt limit through January 1, 2025, as lawmakers race to prevent a catastrophic default. The bill will next need to be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. In the Senate, any one lawmaker can delay a swift vote and it is not yet clear when a final vote will take place. The timeframe to pass the bill through Congress is extremely tight and there is little room for error, putting enormous pressure on leadership in both parties.

The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague has increased prison sentences on two top former Serbian security officials. Jovica Stanišic and Franko Simatovic were convicted of training death squads accused of ethnic cleansing during the break-up of Yugoslavia. They will serve 15 years instead of the 12 they were originally given in 2021. The court's final verdict on the former Yugoslavia is also the first to prove a direct link between the Serbian state and a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Mr Stanisic, a former head of Serbia's State Security Service, and his deputy, Franko Simatovic, a senior intelligence operative, were key allies of Serbia's late ex-President Slobodan Milosevic. The court found the spymasters guilty of establishing training camps and deploying infamous death squads, the paramilitary units called the Red Berets.

The race for the 2024 Republican White House nomination is about to heat up as two long-tipped contenders enter the fray. Former US Vice-President Mike Pence and ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are poised next week to join the increasingly crowded field. It places a big political target on the back of the current front-runner, former President Donald Trump, setting the stage for what promises to be an acrimonious contest. The eventual winner looks likely to challenge President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the election of November next year.

Evidence of potential human rights abuses may be lost after being deleted by tech companies, the BBC has found. Platforms remove graphic videos, often using artificial intelligence - but footage that may help prosecutions can be taken down without being archived. Meta and YouTube say they aim to balance their duties to bear witness and protect users from harmful content. But Alan Rusbridger, who sits on Meta's Oversight Board, says the industry has been "overcautious" in its moderation. The platforms say they do have exemptions for graphic material when it is in the public interest - but when the BBC attempted to upload footage documenting attacks on civilians in Ukraine, it was swiftly deleted.

Steaks and cheese are being fitted with security tags and coffee replaced with dummy jars, as supermarkets battle to curb a rise in shoplifting. Some stores are also limiting the number of items on shelves in an attempt to reduce theft. It comes as data analysed by the BBC showed shoplifting offences had now returned to pre-pandemic levels as the cost of living rises. Retailers say they are spending heavily on anti-crime measures. In March, police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland recorded nearly 33,000 incidents of shoplifting according to data analysed by the BBC. That is a significant 30.9% increase compared with March last year. The BBC has contacted all the main supermarkets in the UK to ask whether they have put in place extra security measures. Coffee and chocolate drive supermarket prices up Food price cap will not make a difference - retailers Food prices 'worryingly high' as sugar and milk soar Some, including Waitrose, were unable to comment on matters of security. Others insisted the measures are not being taken nationwide, but have been implemented at individual stores facing high rates of theft.