India-Pakistan, Papal conclave and Germany's wobble
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Today, India strikes Pakistan, triggering fears of a further military escalation. What the wobbly start to Germany's new government means for Europe. And the papal conclave begins at the Vatican. It's Wednesday, May 7th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Jonah Green in New York. And I'm Tara Oakes in Liverpool.

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India says it struck nine Pakistani sites and that some of them were linked to an attack by Islamist militants on tourists last month. Tanvi Mehta in New Delhi is here with the latest.

India said its military has completely destroyed what it calls terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan, sites from where attacks against it were orchestrated. Pakistan has said the sites are all civilian, including mosques, dams and hydropower projects. The country's military has vowed a response. So the situation escalated very quickly. An intense firing was reported at the de facto border between the two countries.

Pakistan says it shot down five of India's fighter jets, but India has not yet confirmed this. And what does this mean for the wider world?

Since the attack, many countries have urged Islamabad and New Delhi to not let things go out of hand. President Trump called the fighting a shame. China, which neighbours both India and Pakistan and is a key player in this region, also called for a strain. At a time when relations between China and US are strained due to trade, more tension does not bode well for the region's geopolitics.

The U.S. Supreme Court says President Donald Trump's administration can implement his ban on transgender members of the military, at least until a lawsuit against a ban plays out in lower court. The court didn't rule on the legal merits of a case, but the decision could trigger the discharge of thousands of current personnel. The court's three liberal justices dissented.

Trump says the U.S. will stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen. The U.S. president saying that the Iran-aligned group had agreed to stop interrupting important shipping lanes in the Middle East. U.S. stock futures are up.

after it was announced that Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and chief trade negotiator Jameson Greer would meet with China's top economic official in Switzerland this weekend. The meeting could be a first step towards resolving a trade war disrupting the global economy. Tariffs will also be top of mind as the Fed officials meet today. The central bank is widely expected to keep rates steady, but investors will look for signals on future rate cuts.

Today, the world starts its wait for the white smoke.

133 cardinals will begin the secret process of choosing the new pope in the Sistine Chapel this afternoon. It's the largest ever conclave and Joshua McElwee joins us from the Vatican Press Room to give us a sense of what's next. Joshua McElwee: We're expecting one ballot this evening in Rome and more than likely no result. The cardinals are burning their ballots after every vote and tonight we expect black smoke which will signify that there has been no pope chosen.

In coming days when they do choose a pope, it'll be white smoke. It's going to be probably at least a day or two before we have a new pope. And what happens as the conclave kicks off?

Today, it's a lot of pomp and ceremony. The cardinals will formally process into the Sistine Chapel. As they process in, they will then each take an oath to uphold the secrecy of the conclave. They are under pain of excommunication from the church. And then once they're in the room, the master of ceremonies for the Vatican will formally close the doors to the chapel and scream the Latin words extra omnis, meaning everyone out. And at that point, the cardinals are

in full seclusion, to focus only on their considerations of who they think should be the next leader of the 1.4 billion member Catholic Church. What issues face the Cardinals as they make their decisions? Something Pope Francis did is he really expanded the geographical diversity of the College of Cardinals. In this conclave, there will be Cardinals voting from 70 different countries. It's the largest geographic representation in the history of the 2000-year church.

And it seems it's much more about these cardinals maybe not knowing each other very well. They don't have a lot of opportunity to meet. For more on the legacy of Pope Francis and the issues facing today's Catholic Church, listen to our special weekend episode. We'll drop a link in the pod description.

Thank you very much, everybody. It's a great honor to have Prime Minister Mark Carney with us. After weeks of lobbying insults across the U.S.-Canadian border, the leaders of those respective countries sat down in the Oval Office, Donald Trump repeating his desire to annex Canada as the 51st state. I just, I do feel it's much better for Canada.

But we're not going to be discussing that unless somebody wants to discuss it. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who rode to power on a wave of anti-Trump sentiment, flatly rejected Trump's proposal. Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign last several months, it's not for sale.

Sudan's army says anti-aircraft systems have intercepted drones targeting the country's largest naval base in Port Sudan. It's been hit by days of strikes that have torched the country's biggest fuel depots and damaged its main gateway for humanitarian aid.

Russia and Ukraine have launched more overnight airstrikes on each other's capitals. Moscow's key airports were out of operation for most of the night, as the city prepares for a major parade to mark the 80th anniversary of victory in World War II.

President Trump's administration may deport migrants to Libya for the first time this week. That's according to three U.S. officials who have spoken to Reuters. The White House, State Department and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

After a humiliating first-round defeat, German conservative leader Friedrich Merz was elected chancellor by parliament in a second round of voting. The wobbly start throws into question how stable Germany's union is at a time when Europe is looking for strong leadership. Thomas Eskritt is our senior correspondent in Berlin.

There was a hope that Germany, after three years of a rather unstable, messy coalition involving three parties that didn't much like each other, could finally become an assertive player, able to rally the continent to deal with the challenges of Trump's trade policies, to deal with China taking a much more aggressive stance on its trade policies, and also, of course, Vladimir Putin and Russia and their invasion of Ukraine.

And a sense that Merz is taking office in such awkward circumstances detracts from his ability to come in and be the strongman. After this vote, what does the governing coalition look like? And does Merz have enough support to govern? He does have a comfortable governing majority, but not a large majority, because we're in this strange situation where...

His party, the Conservatives, are governing with the party which came third in the election. The party that came second is the far right, the Alternative for Germany, and every other party in Parliament refuses to work with them. And the difficulty here is that you have such a large chunk of votes in Parliament which nobody can touch, because if you refuse to govern with the party which came second, then it's almost impossible to form majorities comfortably.

So in this case, we had to have an awkward coalition between two parties which were not enormously comfortable with each other. Is this whole thing fuel for the AfD? So the alternative for Germany, the German far-right party, for them, it's probably good news. Most pollsters seem to think it is. And the party itself was certainly jubilant when Merz unexpectedly failed to win the first round.

Like many far-right parties, they thrive on a sense of instability and chaos. Any sense that the traditional parties of the German establishment don't have things under control, any sense that the tried and tested solutions of the past are no longer working, anything like that plays into their hands and encourages voters to consider taking a flutter on this party, which literally calls itself the alternative. She's made up her mind

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Today's recommended read is a gallery of pictures from Alcatraz, the former prison turned tourist attraction in San Francisco Bay.

At the weekend, President Trump revealed a plan to rebuild Alcatraz and reopen it as a prison. Click the link in the pod description to see Reuters photos of the claustrophobic cells and the rusting cages that visitors flock to see. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Make sure to follow us on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.