Main page leads are the five featured articles displayed prominently on the Wikinews main page.
As a news site, keeping these leads updated with the most recently published articles is an important part of the publishing workflow. Highlighting newly published work on the main page ensures that articles reach more readers who may visit the site directly.
Typically, the reviewer who publishes an article also updates the leads. However, if you notice that your article hasn't been added, or suspect it might be overlooked, you can politely ping the reviewer with the link on the talk page.
The Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation announced on March 30 its decision to close all language editions of the project. In the announcement, a representative from Wikimedia Foundation cited motivations such as "long-term sustainability, levels of community activity, and the availability of reliable news coverage on other platforms". The announcement stated that all Wikinews editions—referring to the multiple language sections of Wikinews—would "transition to read-only mode" on May 4.
Pope Leo XIV arrived by plane in Algeria on Monday, April 13, beginning his apostolic visit to Africa. A senior Vatican official told the BBC the pope wanted to "turn the world's attention to Africa"; the BBC reported the eleven-day visit would address themes of peace, migration, and interfaith dialogue.
On April 12, United States President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that the US is imposing a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. According to Trump, the blockade was in effect as of 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time (1400 UTC).
On Thursday, March 12, 2026, the Tompkins Square Library in New York City hosted a concert by Musique Libre Femmes, in its basement performance space. This performance featured Cheryl Pyle on flute, Ayumi Ishito on saxophones, and Roberta Piket on piano.
On March 19, officials for the South Korean Army said at a press conference that they were suspending all scheduled drills involving smaller firearms such as rifles and handguns. The decision was made in response to an incident earlier in the week on Monday that resulted in a young girl at a children playground in Daegu being injured near the neck by an alleged stray bullet from a military drill at nearby military facility.
The following tools are available to help reviewers and editors manage the main page leads:
Make Lead: A classic JavaScript tool that allows reviewers to create lead templates one at a time. Supports automatic sighting of revisions.
Lead Manager: A user script that allows shuffling or replacing any of the five leads, individually or all at once. Also supports automatic sighting of revisions.
Best Practices
The following are some recommendations and long-standing practices.
These are not strict guidelines, but following them will help keep the leads consistent and reader friendly.
Always sight the edit after updating a lead template.
Whenever possible, include an image. If the article has none, you may use a suitable generic image, but try to avoid leaving the image parameter empty.
Keep the summary short: usually 1-2 sentences are enough.
Avoid time-sensitive words such as "today" or "yesterday" in the lead summary. Instead, use the actual date (e.g., "On 26 September 2025, …").
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