Newshour

Pakistan says Indian missile attacks on its territory have "ignited an inferno in the region," and Delhi shall bear the responsibility for its consequences. It said twenty six people were killed in the attacks. After a meeting of its National Security Committee, Pakistan said it reserved the right to respond. India said it had targeted terrorist camps at nine locations, in response to a deadly militant attack on tourists in Kashmir two weeks ago.

Also, the former US President, Joe Biden, has condemned Donald Trump's position on Ukraine - saying that putting pressure on Kyiv to give up territory to Russia amounts to "modern day appeasement".

And cardinals from around the world have gathered in the Vatican to begin the secretive process of electing a new Pope.

(Photo: A city view of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administrated Kashmir. Credit: Getty Images)

Newshour reports from Syria again, as the country tries to emerge from the ruin of civil war and dictatorship. Tim Franks has met a man whose job under Bashar al-Assad was to collect bodies from a military hospital: "the hardest part to see was how they were tortured".

Newshour reports from Damascus on the doctors who say they are fighting against crippling sanctions when trying to look after their patients.

Also on the programme: Friedrich Merz has suffered a shock defeat in a parliamentary vote, failing to win the majority needed to become Germany's new chancellor; and Port Sudan is again attacked by paramilitaries.

(Photo: A child injured in an airstrike receives medical treatment at a hospital in Idlib, northern Syria, 01 December 2024. Credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Five months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, can Syria overcome immense problems under its new Islamist rulers?

Also in the programme: an army reservist speaks about the plan by Israel's government to send more troops into Gaza; and Donald Trump says he could hit movies made in foreign countries with a 100% tariff - but how?

(File photo: A drone view shows people waving flags adopted by the new Syrian rulers during celebrations in Umayyad Square, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 20, 2024. Reuters/Amr Alfiky/File Photo)

Five months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, we ask can Syria overcome its immense problems under its new Islamist rulers? Also in the programme: Europe commemorates the 80th anniversary of the Nazi surrender in 1945; and the end of the road for Skype.

Photo: A torn poster of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus suburb. Credit: Reuters.

Israel military has confirmed that tens of thousands of call-up orders are being sent to reservists, to prepare for another expansion of the war in Gaza. Israel says it's aiming to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages. Aid agencies have condemned Israel’s continued blockade of the territory.

Also, Newshour's Tim Franks reports from Syria, looking at the huge challenge of rebuilding this shattered country.

And as Cardinals concentrate on the spiritual aspects of a new pope, we look at the sartorial side.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Romanians vote for a new president after suspected Russian interference in 2024 poll. The nationalist presidential candidate, George Simion, a self described MAGA candidate, has said his only objective is “to put the Romanian people first”.

Also in the programme: We explore the ongoing impact of President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal repression tactics on ordinary Syrians; and we hear from International Booker prize nominee Solvaj Balle, alongside the translator who brought her work 'On The Calculation Of Volume' into the English literary canon.

(Photo: Banners showing U.S. President Donald Trump and Marian Cucsa, candidate of Republican Party of Romania, on the day of Romanian presidential election, in Bucharest, Romania, May 4, 2025. Credit: REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki)

Labor's Anthony Albanese has defied the so-called "incumbency curse" to be re-elected Australia's prime minister in a landslide. Also on the programme, the medical charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres, says one of its hospitals in South Sudan has been bombed and that there are reports of deaths and injuries; and, Warren Buffett - regarded as one of the world's most influential investors - has surprised shareholders by announcing he'll retire from his firm by the end of the year.

(Photo: Australia holds Federal Elections, Sydney - 03 May 2025 LUKAS COCH/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

The German Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has been classified as extreme-right by the country's intelligence agency. This will allow for closer surveillance of the party - and potentially even a total ban. We hear from the party’s deputy leader who calls the decision ‘totalitarian’.

Also on the programme: The crew of a boat transporting aid to Gaza claims it was attacked by drones in international waters near Malta, and; Prince Harry tells the BBC that his father King Charles won't speak to him because of a dispute over who should pay for his security.

(Supporters of the Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party wear morph suits and wave flags during an event to rally support for Sunday's European Parliament elections at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin May 23, 2014. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says an Israeli strike close to the Presidential Palace in Damascus is a message to Syria's government not to threaten the Druze community. The new Syrian government says any breach of the country's sovereignty is unacceptable -- but Mr Netanyahu insisted that Israel would "not allow" Syrian forces to deploy south of the capital. Sectarian clashes in Syria this week killed dozens of people.