Find out what we're talking about today with the best news, articles, and opinions from around the world
Hello, this is Anna cutting through the noise with Wednesday's top stories and best reads
Today's headlines
Secret meeting in North Korea
Director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, travelled to North Korea for a clandestine meeting with Kim Jong-un over Easter to lay the groundwork for future talks between the leader and US President Donald Trump. Although the CIA has not confirmed the meeting, numerous US outlets publications - such as the Washington Post and the New York Times - reported the meeting went ahead from a number of undisclosed sources.
First lady and mother dies
Former US first lady Barbara Bush has died at the age of 92, a family spokesman confirmed. Bush had been reportedly suffering with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure that had worsened in recent days. Bush was one of two women in American history to be both the wife and the mother of US presidents, heading up one of the country’s most well-known political dynasties. She is remembered fondly by both Republicans and Democrats alike.
‘Racial bias’ training
Coffee giant Starbucks will close more than 8,000 company-owned branches in the US for an afternoon next month to carry out ‘racial bias’ training. The training comes after the company was thrown into peril last week following the arrest of two black men who were waiting to meet someone in a Starbucks in Philadelphia. Protesters gathered around the store and called for a boycott of Starbucks.
Super gonorrhoea
Two people in Australia have been diagnosed with the drug-resistant ‘super gonorrhoea’ infection for the first time, causing more concern about overuse of antibiotics. A Queensland Health spokesperson on Tuesday confirmed two cases of gonorrhoea resistant to multiple antibiotics were detected in the past month. It is understood one of the sufferers caught the infection while in south-east Asia.
What we like
Must-read
Young men are being lured into ‘sex for rent’ contracts to avoid sleeping rough, Buzzfeed News reports. The first instalment of the website’s multi-part investigation details the sexual abuse, violence, coercion and threats some gay men endure just to have somewhere to sleep. Buzzfeed’s report adds another dimension to the UK’s crippling housing crisis and is, at times, stomach-curdling.
Reflections
Vice News travelled to the Syria-Lebanon border to mark the seventh year of war in the torn-apart area. Alongside photojournalist Andrew Quilty, they capture the loss of hope, disillusionment and despair of those young people displaced by civil war.
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Spotlight
The New York Times published this opinion piece written by author Jon Meacham about former First Lady and First mother Barbara Bush in wake of her death on Tuesday. He writes the essence of her political persona was ‘as at once reasonable and reasonably conservative’, and her message was one ‘of compassion, of love, of acceptance’.
Entertainment
Not only did Beyoncé become the first black woman to headline Coachella last weekend with one of the greatest live performances in modern times, but she has also broken a streaming record. 498,000 viewers around the world tuned in to YouTube simultaneously to watch Queen Bey’s performance, making it the most viewed live music festival on the platform, as well as the most viewed Coachella performance ever, a YouTube spokesperson confirmed to Refinery29.
Culture
Are you a Casablanca fan? Of course you are, it’s a cinematic classic. Film critic Tom Shone journeys through the film’s production and explores how it came to be a story about ‘immigrants, timing and a “son of a bitch” director’, for the New Statesman.
Environment
Over 95% of the world's population is breathing unhealthy air and the poorest nations are the hardest hit, a new report has found. The report also says air pollution is the fourth-highest cause of death globally, coming in below high blood pressure, diet and smoking.