Pallade Veneta - News from Venice, Veneto, Venetia and Italy, as well as from around the world

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez met Thursday with Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who fled to Madrid over the weekend requesting asylum, as tensions mounted between Caracas and its former colonial ruler.

A pioneering private crew made history Thursday with the first-ever spacewalk by non-professional astronauts, marking a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry.

McLaren are poised to introduce team orders to support Lando Norris's bid to beat Max Verstappen to the drivers' world title in this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur was charged by the Football Association on Thursday over an alleged misconduct breach for a remark made on Uruguayan TV about team-mate Son Heung-min.

UniCredit is studying a takeover of Commerzbank, Chief Executive Andrea Orcel said Thursday, a day after Italy's second-largest bank surprised markets by revealing a nine-percent stake in its German rival.

Tadej Pogacar returns to competitive action for the first time since his Tour de France triumph looking for wins in the Grand Prix races in Quebec and Montreal.

Animal rights group PETA on Thursday renewed its call for soldiers outside Buckingham Palace to stop wearing real bearskin hats after UK government figures revealed they now cost more than £2,000 ($2,600) each.

A new statue of Queen Elizabeth II has met mixed reviews, with one non-plussed critic assessing that it looks more like "an old lady buying potatoes at the market" than Britain's longest-reigning monarch.

An Irish regulator helping to police European Union data privacy on Thursday launched an investigation into Google's artificial intelligence development.

Irish skipper Tom Dolan won the Solitaire du Figaro solo multi-stage sailing race on Thursday after three gruelling days at sea.

Rescuers in boats carried 60 schoolchildren to safety in the northern Thai city of Chiang Rai on Thursday after they were stranded by what residents said was the worst flood in decades.

Heavy rains and strong winds hammered Louisiana early Thursday as Tropical Storm Francine moved inland, leaving many residents without power while floods threatened the US southern state.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has agreed a new three-year contract at the Premier League club, ending uncertainty over his future, according to widespread reports on Thursday.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived Thursday in Iraqi Kurdistan to meet the autonomous region's leaders, on the second day of a visit aimed at deepening ties with the neighbouring country.

More than 100 Pakistan police who provide security for polio vaccination teams in restive border areas went on strike Thursday after a string of deadly militant attacks this week.

Japan's leadership race kicked off Thursday with a record nine candidates including the surfing son of a former prime minister and an arch-nationalist vying to be the first woman premier.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will warn Thursday that Britain's state-run National Health Service must "reform or die" after an independent report said the venerated institution was in a "critical condition".

A surge in tech firms Thursday helped Asian markets track a Wall Street rally after data showed US inflation at a more than three-year low, reinforcing expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week.

Major Japanese and American business groups have urged US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen not to succumb to political pressure when reviewing Nippon Steel's proposed acquisition of United States Steel.

Saint Lucia's sprint queen Julien Alfred, her American rival Sha'Carri Richardson and Olympic men's 200m champion Letsile Tebogo headline a panoply of stars from the Paris Games at Friday and Saturday's Diamond League finals in Brussels.

Millions of people across Southeast Asia struggled Thursday with flooded homes, power cuts and wrecked infrastructure after Typhoon Yagi swept through the region, as the death toll passed 200.

When artist Robin Rhode needed a canvas for his latest work, he found it at an abandoned sports ground in his dysfunctional hometown of Johannesburg.

A hundred years after acquiring one of Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers", Britain's National Gallery in London will bring his vision to life by showcasing three works side-by-side for the first time.

With the beating of drums and pipes filled with medicinal herbs, the Tupinamba people of Brazil are counting down the final hours of a 335-year wait for the official return of a sacred cloak taken in colonial times.

Prices for bread have jumped so much over the last few years that Russian pensioner Oleg Ivanovich sometimes has to go without.

Brazil's breakout right-wing sensation Pablo Marcal is a fiery 37-year-old influencer who rails against the "woke" agenda, and has stirred up the mayoral race in the megalopolis Sao Paulo.

China will "crush" any foreign incursion into its sovereign territory including in the South China Sea, a senior Beijing military official said Thursday on the sidelines of a defence forum.

Adderall is an effective treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but a sharp rise in US prescriptions over the past two decades has sparked concerns among researchers about rare but serious side effects.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday meets Poland's leaders to forge common cause on Ukraine as upcoming US elections and Russian attacks raise new jitters.

China will "crush" any foreign incursion into its sovereign territory including in the South China Sea, a senior Beijing military official said Thursday on the sidelines of a defence forum.

With inflation slowing and the economic outlook darkening, the European Central Bank is expected to cut interest rates again Thursday but is unlikely to give much away about its next moves.

Israel bombed a school housing displaced Palestinians in central Gaza on Wednesday, which rescuers said killed 18 people, including UN staffers, while the Israeli army said it hit a Hamas control centre.