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Raphinha's breakthrough season key for Barcelona as it nears Spanish league title

Raphinha is about to cap his best season for Barcelona with the Spanish league title.

Lamine Yamal has been getting most of the attention as Barcelona moves closer to lifting the trophy, but Raphinha has been just as important for the Catalan club in its title run.

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Amazon Catholics hope new pope will protect the rain forest

The bishop sat quietly near the front row, hands folded, listening as Indigenous leaders and church workers spoke about the threats to Peru's northern forests, a part of the Amazon rain forest. It was 2016, a year after Laudato Si, Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment.

When he was up to speak, the bishop didn't preach though he was in his city of Chiclayo as host of a regional gathering. Instead, he reflected on things he had seen.

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Tom Cruise returns to Cannes with 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning'

Three years after flying into the Cannes Film Festival with "Top Gun: Maverick," Tom Cruise returned to the Croisette on Wednesday with "Mission: Impossible — Final Reckoning."

Christopher McQuarrie's latest "Mission: Impossible" installment is the biggest Hollywood tentpole wading ashore in Cannes this year.

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What's in Trump's big bill? Trillions in tax cuts, changes to Medicaid and more

Republicans in Congress are moving with rapid speed to advance President Donald Trump's big bill of tax breaks, spending cuts and beefed-up border security funding as leaders work to enact many of his campaign promises.

House committees have been laboring for months to draft the legislation, which Republicans have labeled "THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,'' a nod to Trump himself. Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing to approve the package and send it to the Senate by Memorial Day.

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In Indian city, reflective paint and bus stop sprinklers offer relief from killer heat

For 20-year-old Mayank Yadav, riding a crowded bus in the summer months in this western Indian city can be like sitting in an oven. That makes it a treat when he steps off and into a bus stop outfitted with sprinklers that bathe overheated commuters in a cooling mist.

"Everyone is suffering from the heat," Yadav said. "I hope they do more of this across the city."

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New Zealand's unofficial fruit is not the kiwi and part of the fun is in giving it away

The unofficial national fruit of New Zealand isn't native to the country – it's South American. It isn't exclusively found in New Zealand. And it's not, perhaps surprisingly, the kiwi. It's the feijoa.

Known as pineapple guava elsewhere, the fruit — a green perfumed oval with a polarizing taste — can be purchased in California or Canberra. Yet no country has embraced the feijoa with quite the fervor or the fixation of New Zealanders.

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Trump's Middle East visit comes as his family deepens its business, crypto ties in region

It's not just the "gesture" of a $400 million luxury plane that President Donald Trump says he's smart to accept from Qatar. Or that he effectively auctioned off the first destination on his first major foreign trip, heading to Saudi Arabia because the kingdom was ready to make big investments in U.S. companies.

It's not even that the Trump family has fast-growing business ties in the Middle East, ones that run deep and offer the potential of vast profits.

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Extreme heat will make it feel more like August than May for Texas

Sweltering heat more commonly seen in the throes of summer than in the spring was making an unwelcome visit this week to a large portion of the U.S. – from the Dakotas to Texas and other parts of the South – and putting millions of Americans on alert for potentially dangerous temperatures.

In Austin, forecasters warned that the early heat wave could break a century-old record for May of 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).

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What to know about possible Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Turkey

The talks have taken place in the warring capitals of Moscow and Kyiv, from Washington and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to countries across Europe. Now, all eyes are finally turning to Istanbul to seek an end to Russia's 3-year-old, full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed restarting direct peace talks Thursday with Ukraine in the Turkish city that straddles Asia and Europe. And President Volodymyr Zelenskyy challenged the Kremlin leader to meet in Turkey in person.

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Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill 60 people, including 22 children

Israeli airstrikes pounded northern and southern Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 60 people, including almost two dozen children, according to local hospitals and health officials, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was "no way" he would halt Israel's offensive in the Palestinian territory before Hamas is defeated.

At least 50 people, including 22 children, were killed in the strikes around Jabaliya in northern Gaza, according to local hospitals and Gaza's Health Ministry. At least ten other people were killed in the southern city of Khan Younis, the European Hospital reported.

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