Category: World

Thailand’s billionaire former ​premier Thaksin Shinawatra was released from jail on parole and met by cheering crowds on Monday, eight months after ‌a court ordered him to do the prison time he tried to dodge with a prolonged stay in hospital.
The 76-year-old tycoon remade and dominated Thai politics for a quarter-century, but his influence has waned of late following his jailing and his once formidable Pheu Thai Party’s worst election performance on record earlier this year.

As he ​exited Bangkok’s Klong Prem prison with hair closely cropped and wearing a loose white shirt, a smiling Thaksin hugged family ​members, including daughter and protégé, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who a court sacked as prime minister last August, 10 days before his ⁠incarceration.
Hundreds of supporters, many wearing his party’s signature red colour, who had gathered to greet him on his release chanted: “We love Thaksin”.
Asked ​by a reporter how he felt, Thaksin raised his hands above his head and said he was “relieved”.
“I went to hibernate. I can’t ​remember anything now,” he said.

DRAMATIC HOMECOMING FROM EXILE

After 15 years in self-exile, Thaksin came back to Thailand in 2023 to serve an eight-year sentence for conflicts of interest and abuse of power while prime minister from 2001-2006, returning on the same day a party ally was elected premier by parliament.

But without spending ​a single night in prison, he was transferred to the VIP wing of a hospital complaining of heart trouble and chest pains. His sentence ​was later commuted to one year by the king and Thaksin stayed in hospital for six months before being paroled.
The Supreme Court, however, ruled he and his ‌doctors had ⁠dragged-out his hospital stay with minor and unnecessary surgeries, and that time be served again in prison.
Throughout his exile and for much of his time back home, the polarising tycoon loomed large over Thailand’s tumultuous politics and was the driving force behind successive populist governments led or controlled by the powerful Shinawatra family.
But the removal of Paetongtarn, the sixth premier from or backed by the family to be toppled by ​courts or coups, was the start ​of a political reckoning for Thaksin, ⁠with the Pheu Thai government collapsing and ally-turned-foe Anutin Charnvirakul installed as premier just days before Thaksin was jailed.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/thailands-former-pm-thaksin-shinawatra-released-prison-2026-05-11/

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on ​Saturday that he thought the Ukraine war was coming to an end, remarks that came just hours after he had vowed victory in Ukraine at Moscow’s most ‌scaled-back Victory Day parade in years.
“I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters of the Russia-Ukraine war, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two. He also said he would be willing to negotiate new security arrangements for Europe, and that his preferred negotiating partner would be Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered the most serious crisis in relations between Russia and the West ​since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war.
The Kremlin has said peace talks brokered by U.S. ​President Donald Trump’s administration were on pause. Putin has repeatedly vowed to fight on until all of Russia’s various war aims are achieved ⁠in what Moscow calls the “special military operation”.
Putin was speaking in the Kremlin after setting out his view of the causes of the war. He blamed “globalist” Western leaders, saying they promised NATO ​would not expand eastward after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, but then tried to draw Ukraine into the European Union’s orbit.

His statement came just hours after the parade on ​the May 9 national holiday celebrating the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. The annual event pays homage to the 27 million Soviet citizens who perished in that war.
Instead of the usual intercontinental ballistic missiles, tanks and missile systems rolling across the cobbles of Red Square, Russia played a video of its military hardware in action on giant screens opposite the Kremlin walls.
Russian troops have been fighting ​in Ukraine for well over four years. That is longer than Soviet forces fought in World War Two, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.

WAR IN EUROPE

Putin, who ​has ruled Russia as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, faces a wave of anxiety in Moscow about the war in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, ‌left swathes ⁠of Ukraine in ruins, and drained Russia’s $3 trillion economy. Russia’s relations with Europe are worse than at any time since the depths of the Cold War.

Russian forces have so far been unable to take the whole of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine where Kyiv’s forces have been pushed back to a line of fortress cities. Russian advances have slowed this year, though Moscow controls just under one fifth of Ukrainian territory.
After Russia and Ukraine accused each other of violating unilateral ceasefires they had each declared over recent days, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ​from Saturday to Monday that was supported ​by the Kremlin and Kyiv. The two ⁠sides also agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners.
“I’d like to see it stop. Russia-Ukraine – it’s the worst thing since World War Two in terms of life. Twenty-five thousand young soldiers every month. It’s crazy,” Trump told reporters in Washington.
He added that he would “like to see a big extension” ​of the ceasefire. There were no reports of violations of the ceasefire from either Moscow or Kyiv.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-says-he-thinks-ukraine-conflict-is-coming-an-end-2026-05-09/

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to discuss Iran, Taiwan, artificial ​intelligence and nuclear weapons as they weigh extending a critical minerals deal, according to U.S. officials previewing Trump’s two-day visit to China this week.
The leaders of ‌the world’s two largest economies will hold their first face-to-face talks in more than six months as they try to stabilize ties strained by trade, the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran and other areas of disagreement.

Trump is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday, ahead of talks set to take place Thursday and Friday. It will be his first trip to China since 2017.

AGREEMENTS ON PLANES, AGRICULTURE AND TRADE

The ​U.S. and China are expected to agree to forums to facilitate mutual trade and investment, while China is expected to announce purchases related to Boeing airplanes, ​American agriculture and energy, the officials said.
Plans for a Board of Trade and Board of Investment may be formally announced at the meeting, but ⁠those mechanisms may need subsequent work before they can be implemented, one of the officials said.
The two countries will also discuss lengthening a truce in their trade war that ​allows rare earth minerals to flow from China to the U.S., though it is not yet clear if that agreement will be extended this week, that official said.

He nonetheless expressed confidence ​that the deal, which was struck last autumn and remains in effect, will eventually be extended.
“It doesn’t expire yet,” the official told reporters. “I’m confident we’ll announce any potential extension at the appropriate time.”
China’s embassy in Washington declined to comment.

THORNIER ISSUES INCLUDE TAIWAN, NUCLEAR ARMS, IRAN AND AI

The Trump-Xi talks are also expected to veer into areas that have long been a source of U.S.-China tension, including Iran, Taiwan and ​nuclear arms.
China maintains ties with Iran and remains a major consumer of its oil exports. Trump has been leaning on China to use its influence to push Tehran to make ​a deal with Washington and end the conflict that began when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February.
The Trump administration also has pressed China on its dealings with Russia.

“The ‌president has ⁠spoken multiple times with General Secretary Xi Jinping about the topic of Iran and about the topic of Russia, to include the revenue that China provides to both those regimes, as well as dual-use goods, components and parts, not to mention the potential of weapons exports,” said one of the officials. “I expect that conversation to continue.”
Xi, meanwhile, is frustrated with Washington over Taiwan. The U.S. remains the most important international backer and arms supplier for the democratically governed island, which Beijing claims as its own Chinese territory.
China has ramped up its military ​presence near Taiwan in recent years, but ​U.S. policy will not change, the official ⁠said.
The Trump aides expressed increasing concern about advanced artificial intelligence models being developed in China and believed the two sides need “a channel of communication” to avoid conflicts arising from their use.

“What that looks like is yet to be determined, but we want to take this ​opportunity with the leaders meeting to open up a conversation and to see if we should establish a channel of communication ​on AI matters,” said ⁠one of the officials.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/rare-earths-deal-between-us-china-is-still-effect-us-official-says-2026-05-10/

FOUR-foot figures were reportedly seen stepping out of UFOs in one of the most startling claims buried in newly released FBI files.

The records also describe mysterious wreckage made from unknown metal and packed with microscopic spheres.

The claims appear in FBI files released Friday as part of President Donald Trump’s UFO transparency push.

One memo details how investigators reviewed reports from 1965, which was described as “the year of the greatest number of UFO sightings.”

The sightings were allegedly reported by multiple witnesses around the world.

The file described strange metallic craft that could hover silently and move at “fantastic speeds.”

It also said some objects appeared to interfere with electromagnetic equipment.

The file also described alleged wreckage from crashed saucers.

It claimed material had been recovered on at least three occasions.

One sample was described as a magnesium alloy. Another was said to be pure magnesium.

A third was described as an “exceptionally hard unknown metal.”

The document said that material contained “thousands of 15-micron metal spheres throughout.”

It also claimed the surface showed signs of micro-meteorite impacts.

But the most eye-catching section focused on alleged occupants who were seen leaving the craft.

“A few witnesses have reported seeing crewmen who had landed from the objects,” the document stated.

The figures were described as “three and a half to four feet tall, wearing what appear to be space suits and helmets.”

The memo was dated October 19, 1966 and was sent from the FBI’s San Francisco office to then-Director J Edgar Hoover.

The subject line read “Unidentified Flying Objects” and the file referred to earlier FBI bulletins on “Flying Discs.”

It was also used to circulate an article titled Armed Forces – Focus on UFO from the San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle.

The document came at a time of growing public pressure over UFO sightings.

It mentioned Gerald Ford, who was then a congressman and later became president.

Ford had publicly called for congressional hearings into UFO incidents.

The memo also said the Air Force had asked University of Colorado physicist Edward U Condon to lead a government-backed study into flying saucers.

The project was expected to cost $300,000 over 18 months.

Much of the FBI memo focused on the book Flying Saucers – Serious Business by Frank Edwards.

The bureau described the book as a possible reason for rising public interest and controversy around UFOs.

The file said Edwards argued UFOs were “space vehicles sent to observe activities on earth.”

It also said he claimed the US Air Force had “deliberately withheld information and given misleading explanations because it fears a mass panic by the public if the public were told the truth.”

The memo described the objects as polished metal craft giving off heat and light.

“The book describes UFOs as polished metal objects, radiating heat and light (sufficient to have burned witnesses who were too near), and emitting some force field that interferes with electromagnetic instruments and power sources,” the document reads.

The file said the objects had appeared in several colors.

“Colors range from brilliant white to dull reds and brilliant orange,” it stated.

“Some objects have carried blind striking lights.”

The document listed three reported shapes. They included zeppelin-like ships up to 300 feet long.

Other sightings involved disk-shaped objects ranging from a few feet wide to about 100 feet.

Many were reportedly about 30 feet in diameter, and the third type was described as egg-shaped objects.

The file said those were the ones Edwards claimed had been seen most recently.

The objects were said to move without sound before suddenly shooting away.

Some allegedly hovered in the air before accelerating with bursts of light from underneath.

The memo also said the ground below some craft was reportedly scorched after takeoff.

The document claimed many witnesses named in the book were considered reliable.

“Many of the persons named in the book who have reported them are reliable individuals, including law enforcement officers, military personnel on official duty, military pilots, commercial airline pilots, civilian defense officials, etc,” the FBI file said.

It added that several photographs had been included in the book.

“A number of photographs of the objects have been reproduced in the book, some reportedly taken by reputable persons,” the memo said.

“Many reported sightings are from atomic and missile research areas.”

The memo said Edwards predicted UFOs would soon make an “overt landing” or deliberate contact with Earth.

The FBI records were among hundreds of files, photographs, and videos released Friday.

They included NASA mission transcripts, military incident reports, and infrared images from aerial encounters.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16337262/four-foot-beings-ufo-fbi-doc-reveals/

A person who jumped a fence and was on a runway at Denver International Airport was struck and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane during takeoff, airport authorities said. The collision sparked an engine fire and forced passengers to evacuate.

The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday,” according to a post on the airport’s official X account.

A spokesperson for the airport said the person, who jumped a perimeter fence, has died. They said the unidentified person was hit two minutes after entering the airport. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.

“We’re stopping on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”

The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board and that an “individual was walking across the runway.”

The air traffic controller responds that they are “rolling the trucks now” before the pilot tells the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft. We are going to evacuate on the runway.”

Frontier Airlines said in a statement that flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.” It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the collision.

The airline said the plane was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members.

“We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities,” the airline said.

Passengers were evacuated via slides and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal. The airport spokesperson said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to hospitals.

One passenger, Jacob Athens, posted video showing people sliding down with their backpacks. He also posted photos of what looked like a damaged engine.

“As we were lifting off the engine of the plane exploded. There was so much smoke we couldn’t even see 1 ft in front of us,” Athens said on his Facebook page, adding that passengers had to wait for over a hour on the runway and “still no transport or help with the cold.”

Other video shows passengers calmly walking down the aisle of the plane and using the slide to evacuate. They were told to step away from the plane.

Denver Airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified and that runway 17L, where the incident took place, was closed amid an investigation. It reopened Saturday around 11 a.m.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that the person “breached airport security at Denver Int’l Airport, deliberately scaled a perimeter fence, and ran out onto a runway.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/denver-airport-frontier-airline-person-injured-runway-e75355b2bed9ec3bae44cb064c92c1da

Bobby Cox, Hall of Fame and World Series-winning manager, has died, the Braves announced Saturday.

He was 84.

Cox is most remembered for leading the Braves during their most prosperous era from the early 1990s through the mid-2000s, winning 14 straight National League East division titles from 1991-2005.

The team reached the pinnacle of the baseball world in 1995 when it defeated Cleveland in the World Series for the franchise’s first title in Atlanta. The club also won five NL pennants during his run.

His 2,504 wins rank fourth all time among big league skippers.

A four-time Manager of the Year winner, he received 100 percent of the Expansion Era Committee vote to earn induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.

“Bobby was a favorite among all in the baseball community, especially those who played for him,” the Braves said in a statement. “His wealth of knowledge on player development and the intricacies of managing the game were rewarded with the sport’s ultimate prize in 2014 — enshrinement into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“And while Bobby’s passion for the game was unparalleled, his love of baseball was exceeded only by his love for his family. It is with the heaviest of hearts that we send our sincerest condolences to his beloved wife, Pam, and their loving children and grandchildren.”

Born in Tulsa, Okla., in 1941, Cox reached the major leagues as a player with the Yankees in 1968, playing two seasons in pinstripes, mostly as a third baseman.

Cox then shifted into coaching and managing, first in the Venezuelan Winter League and Yankees minor league system before joining skipper Billy Martin’s staff as a first base coach for the 1977 season, when the Bombers beat the Dodgers in the World Series.

He then got his first big league managing gig with the Braves (1978-81) before going to the Blue Jays (1982-85). Cox then rejoined Atlanta as its general manager after stepping down from Toronto —where he won the AL East in 1985 — and then took over as Braves field manager again in 1990, a position he’d hold through the 2010 campaign.

With a Hall of Fame pitching core of Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine, combined with hitters Chipper and Andruw Jones, the Braves were the team to beat in the National League for almost the entirety of Cox’s reign as manager. Only twice during his second Braves stint did Cox and the Braves finish a full season with a losing record.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/05/09/sports/bobby-cox-legendary-braves-manager-and-hall-of-famer-dead-at-84/

President Trump was still waiting for Iran’s counter-offer to his latest bid to settle the war Saturday, while threatening to flex American military muscle if Tehran doesn’t agree to terms.

A broader cease-fire between the US and Tehran appeared to hold, two days after the US struck two Iranian sites and the United Arab Emirates said it shot down incoming Iranian missiles and drones.

Pressure has been building on the Iranian regime to move the ball forward in peace negotiations – with flare-ups in the Strait of Hormuz threatening to derail talks.

Trump warned Saturday that he may resume Project Freedom, which would have US destroyers guide commercial ships through the strait, if talks with Tehran flame out.

“We may go back to Project Freedom if things don’t happen, but it’d be Project Freedom-plus, meaning Project Freedom plus other things,” he told reporters.

While Iran stalled their response to the US peace proposal, Britain’s Defense Ministry announced it was sending the HMS Dragon to the Middle East from the eastern Mediterranean, where it has been defending British defense assets from the threat of Iranian strikes.

A UK military spokesperson called it “prudent planning” as part of a “multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, ‌to secure the Strait of Hormuz, when conditions allow.”

It follows a move by Paris earlier this week to deploy its carrier strike group to the southern Red Sea — accompanied by Italian and Dutch warships.

French President Emanuel Macron said a joint mission with the UK “can help restore confidence among shipowners and insurers” and was “distinct from the parties to the conflict.”

After the outbreak of war on Feb. 28, Iran managed to effectively close the strait, which handles about 20% of the world’s oil shipping.

Trump countered by announcing a blockade on April 12, before sending US destroyers to search fo Iranian mines and be positioned to escort commercial ships through the waterway.

Macron called for all sides to end the blockades of the strait “immediately and without conditions.”

Trump indicated to reporters that the ball was in Tehran’s court.

“I’m getting a letter supposedly tonight. So we’ll see how that goes,” he said Friday en route to his Virginia golf club, where he is hosting the Saudi-backed LIV golf this weekend.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio hoped Iran’s response would be a “serious offer.”

Rubio met with White House envoy Steve Witkoff in Miami along with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani to try to forge ahead on the deal, Axios reported Saturday.

Negotiators have been hammering out the details of a 14-point framework for peace talks between the US and Iran.

The emerging memorandum of understanding — described as a one-page agreement — would serve as the foundation for a broader treaty to be negotiated later, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Iran’s proposal, according to press reports, would give Tehran a guarantee against future attacks, have the US withdraw forces from the region, release its frozen assets, and lift US sanctions.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/05/09/world-news/trump-waits-for-answer-from-iran-on-peace-proposal-says-ball-is-in-tehrans-court/

Operation Sindoor was launched last year after the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed.

A Pakistan military spokesperson has become a subject of jokes on social media after he asked why Indian military officers used English during a recent briefing linked to Operation Sindoor. Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry’s remarks triggered sharp reactions not just from Indian users but also from people of Pakistan.

Speaking on the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor, Chaudhry asked why Indian officers chose English while addressing the media. “Who asked you to speak in English? Is it because you want to tell the world your version of events?” he said during his remarks.

The Indian briefing focused on the military and strategic outcomes of Operation Sindoor, launched after the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed.

On X, many pointed out that English continues to be widely used within Pakistan’s own military system. Among the strongest reactions came from Major Adil Farooq Raja (Retd), a former Pakistan Army officer who is now a journalist and a vocal critic of the country’s military establishment.

“When you live in a glass house, do not throw stones at others,” Raja said while reacting to the ISPR chief’s remarks.

He accused Pakistan’s military leadership of double standards and claimed that English remains the primary language for communication inside the armed forces.

“From the highest to the lowest level, all instructions in the Pakistan Army are issued in English,” Raja said.

Raja also alleged that while Urdu is often used for domestic messaging and public campaigns, much of Pakistan’s international communication and narrative-building is still done in English. He further said that Pakistan’s military was avoiding discussion about the extent of damage suffered during India’s strikes.

“Why don’t you admit your losses? Why are you only telling us a one-sided story? Why don’t you tell us stories from both sides so we know what’s the true story,” he said.

Chaudhry’s statement also led to trolling across social media platforms, and Pakistani users also criticised the official.

“He really thinks we’re just illiterate duffers and dumbasses who’ll believe anything he says,” one Reddit user wrote.

He really thinks we’re just illiterate duffers and dumbasses who’ll believe anything he says.
by u/Vegetable_Tree1450 in pakistan

Another user mocked the ISPR chief on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “After DG ISPR’s biggest lies, the public has completely exposed him. The only thing left is to make him ride a donkey and parade him around.”

“They just think that we are weak and can’t do s*** anything about their wrongdoings,” read another remark.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/operation-sindoor-pak-generals-why-english-jab-at-indian-army-backfires-into-meme-fest-11471042?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

Relative calm prevailed ​around the Strait of Hormuz early on Sunday after days of sporadic flare-ups, as the United States waited for Iran’s response ‌to its latest proposals to end more than two months of fighting and begin peace talks.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that Washington expected a response within hours. But there have been no signs of movement from Tehran on the proposal, which would formally end the war before talks on more contentious issues, including Iran’s nuclear program.

Rubio met Qatari ​Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al‑Thani in Miami on Saturday and discussed the need to continue working together “to deter threats and promote stability and ​security across the Middle East,” the State Department said in a statement, which did not mention Iran.
A reporter for French ⁠broadcaster LCI, Margot Haddad, said on Saturday that Trump had told her in a brief interview that he still expected to find out Iran’s answer “very ​soon”.

QATARI TANKER APPROACHES VITAL STRAIT

With U.S. President Donald Trump due to visit China this week, there has been mounting pressure to draw a line under the war, ​which has ignited a global energy crisis and poses a growing threat to the world economy.

A Qatari tanker of liquefied natural gas was sailing toward the strait on Saturday en route to Pakistan, according to LSEG shipping data, a move sources said was approved by Iran to build confidence with Qatar and Pakistan, both mediators in the war.
If completed, it would mark the ​first transit of a Qatari LNG vessel through the strait since the U.S. and Israel started the war on February 28.
Tehran has largely blocked non-Iranian ​shipping through the narrow strait, which before the war carried one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Recent days have seen the biggest flare-ups in fighting in and around the strait since ‌a ceasefire ⁠began a month ago, and the United Arab Emirates came under renewed attack on Friday.
On Friday, there were sporadic clashes between Iranian forces and U.S. vessels in the strait, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The U.S. military said it struck two Iran-linked vessels attempting to enter an Iranian port, forcing them to turn back.

CEASEFIRE HOLDING DESPITE FLARE-UPS, TRUMP SAYS

Washington imposed a blockade on Iranian vessels last month. But a CIA assessment indicated Iran would not suffer severe economic pressure from ​a U.S. blockade for about another four ​months, according to a U.S. ⁠official familiar with the matter, raising questions about Trump’s leverage over Tehran in a conflict that has been unpopular with voters and U.S. allies.
A senior intelligence official characterised as false the “claims” about the CIA analysis, which was first reported by the Washington ​Post.
Trump said on Thursday the ceasefire was holding despite the flare-ups, while Iran accused the U.S. of breaching it.
“Every ​time a diplomatic solution ⁠is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Friday.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-iran-no-closer-ending-war-gulf-clashes-flare-2026-05-09/

Millions of Americans are unknowingly financing electric grid projects before they get any benefit.
Policy-makers, in an urgent bid to overhaul the nation’s aging electric grid, are increasingly letting utilities charge customers for power plants and transmission lines long before they’ve been built, boosting near-term bills in exchange for promised savings decades down the road, according to a Reuters review of regulatory disclosures.

The incentives aim to supercharge ​grid upgrades at a time of soaring demand from data centers that power artificial intelligence, but are also raising power bills for households and businesses already reeling from rising energy costs.
Traditionally, utilities seeking to build expensive infrastructure projects have had to secure loans from ‌banks and investors, and are only allowed to pass along those costs to customers after the projects are finished.
But those projects also can be financed in advance under the so-called Construction Work In Progress (CWIP) incentive, a benefit that supercharges cash flow and reduces borrowing costs for electric utilities. The fees typically total several dollars per month on an average household bill, multiplied across millions of customers.

At least 40 U.S. states now have some form of CWIP incentive, according to a Reuters review of several thousand pages of electric utility rate disclosures. That’s twice as many as a decade ago, when a survey by economic consultant The Brattle Group found fewer than 20 states with CWIP provisions.
Details on how widely CWIP policies have spread in the past five years ​alongside the boom in data center construction have not been previously reported. Reuters also interviewed two dozen industry officials, analysts, and consumer watchdogs to reflect the impact of these policies on the buildout and repair of the grid and on the electricity bills of American households and businesses.
Reuters ​found that CWIP policies have been used to finance a range of large energy and infrastructure projects, including the Vogtle nuclear reactors in Georgia, which experienced significant cost overruns and delays; a Nevada transmission project that is increasing bills now ⁠for financial benefits expected decades in the future; and a Virginia offshore wind farm that has already collected about $2 billion in ratepayer charges before beginning operations.

After decades of relatively flat demand for power, the U.S. electric grid’s reserve buffer has become dangerously thin in several regions, increasing the chances for rotating blackouts, according ​to U.S. energy regulators. Grid operators predict electricity demand will increase more than 2% per year through at least 2045, after experiencing average annual growth of about 0.5% from 2009 to 2024.
Many of the new state CWIP policies have been introduced in just the past few years, as the tightness on the grid has worsened, ​according to the Reuters reporting.
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe, for example, last year reversed a 50-year ban in the state on CWIP incentives to meet rising power demand from data centers. Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and North Carolina have also adopted CWIP provisions since 2024.

“Governor Kehoe believes CWIP incentivizes new power generation while reducing long-term financing costs passed on to ratepayers,” the governor’s office said in a statement. “Without CWIP, customers see dramatic increases in their monthly utility bills when a new facility comes online. CWIP allows these costs to be recouped over a longer period, reducing price shocks to customers.”
The National Governors Association, which represents state governors, said it does not take a position on whether CWIP is appropriate for individual states or specific projects.
But business and ​consumer groups criticize CWIP for forcing up power costs for projects that may never benefit them.
“All this does is shift the financial risk to the ratepayer,” said Paul Cicio, president of the Industrial Energy Consumers of America, a trade group that represents large manufacturers. “The average ratepayer has no idea this is happening.”

WAITING DECADES FOR ​A PAYOUT?

U.S. power prices have already risen by about 40% over the past five years to pay for massive investment in a creaky electric grid, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with double-digit increases over the past year in data center hotspots like Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
“Huge rate increases have caused a monumental affordability crisis for electricity,” said ‌Ben Inskeep, program ⁠director for Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, an Indianapolis-based consumer watchdog group. “CWIP incentives are adding insult to injury for these customers.”
Utilities and states say CWIP incentives are critical to kicking off the kinds of projects needed to shore up the grid to meet growing demand following decades of underinvestment, and that the provisions can also lower costs to ratepayers over the long term by reducing financing costs.
In Nevada, for example, Berkshire Hathaway-owned utility NV Energy is charging an average customer around $4 a month to cover financing charges on long-range, high-voltage power lines scheduled to be in service in 2028, according to the utility’s disclosures to regulators.
The utility says using CWIP to help finance the project is cheaper than raising money from Wall Street, something that will ultimately save ratepayers money.
But the calculated benefit – in the form of lower rates – could be as little as 0.1% and take half a century to materialize, says Mark Garrett, a consultant for Nevada’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
“A ratepayer would need to stay ​on the system for 52 years before receiving any net benefit from the ​CWIP model,” Garrett said. “This means that an average 40-year-old ratepayer would be ⁠92 before seeing any benefit from the CWIP approach.”
NV Energy did not return messages seeking comment on Garrett’s analysis.
In Virginia, home to the biggest concentration of data centers in the world, electric customers have already paid utility Dominion Energy (D.N), about $2 billion for an $11.5 billion offshore wind farm still under construction, amounting currently to a peak charge of $11.23 on an average monthly bill, according to regulatory disclosures.
Dominion executives say the CWIP structure will save ratepayers $2 billion over the entire 30-year lifespan of the ​project.
Overall, Wall Street analysts describe the capital spending by U.S. electric utilities as an investment super-cycle that will exceed $1 trillion over the next five years. That spending is a big win for utility company profits because they earn ​a regulated rate of return on capital spending ⁠that ranges from 9% to 12%, according to financial results analyzed by Reuters.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/why-millions-americans-pay-unfinished-electricity-projects-2026-05-09/

A series of well-timed market bets on falling oil prices totalling as much as $7 billion during March and April spread across multiple exchanges and types of fuel and derivatives just before major Iranian policy announcements by U.S. President ​Donald Trump, according to traders, market experts and Reuters analysis of exchange data.
The size exceeds previously reported bets amounting to $2.6 billion, which have already prompted the U.S. administration to warn staff against using ‌nonpublic information for financial benefit. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters in April, although the CFTC has yet to officially confirm a probe is underway.

Reuters could not establish who placed the bets and whether they originated in the U.S. or elsewhere. They included short positions, or bets that prices would fall, for derivatives including ICE, CME crude, diesel and gasoline futures.
The bets took place on two major exchanges that host benchmark global oil and fuel futures trade: the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). ​Both exchanges declined to comment. The CME is investigating the trades, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The well-timed trades have triggered calls from legal experts and lawmakers for regulators to investigate whether they ​were based on inside information or leaks.

Traders first spotted unusual trades on March 23. The trades were executed minutes before Trump announced a delay to threatened attacks on Iranian power ⁠infrastructure, triggering an oil price fall.
The same pattern repeated on April 7, before Trump announced aceasefire with Iran that triggered a fall of as much as 15% in benchmark ICE Brent futures. It happened again on April 17, when Iranian officials ​and Trump spoke about reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and then again on April 21, when Trump extended the ceasefire.
Reuters and other media reported those trades on the most actively traded front-month contracts for the two global crude benchmarks, Brent and West ​Texas Intermediate . The value of those bets on those four days in March and April stood at around $2.6 billion, according to Reuters initial calculations.

The U.S. Justice Department and CFTC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A White House spokesperson said: “All federal employees are subject to government ethics guidelines that prohibit the use of non-public information for financial benefit.”
However, a further analysis of trading data across exchanges and contracts showed traders executed similar bets at exactly the same dates and times for European diesel and U.S. gasoline futures as well as ​longer-dated contracts for Brent and WTI, bringing the total to around $7 billion, based on Reuters calculations.
A sell bet – or short selling – means the person executing the trade borrows the derivative from a counterparty, sells it and later buys it ​back more cheaply when the price falls, keeping the remaining cash as profit.
On March 23 and on April 7, 17 and 21, oil prices plunged by over 10%. Reuters calculations show that a short seller with $7 billion could have made hundreds of millions ‌of dollars in ⁠profits, depending on the timing of the bets.

The trades look “well informed” as they preceded major announcements, said Adi Imsirovic, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and a veteran oil trader. U.S. authorities, such as the CFTC, can access exchange data to trace who placed the trades and investigate if it decides to, he added.
On Thursday, ABC reported the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating $2.6 billion in oil trades related to the Iran war. The DOJ was not immediately available for comment.
The CFTC’s enforcement director said in March the agency was aware of speculation regarding insider trading in CFTC-regulated markets and was “watching”.

BILLIONS OF DOLLARS

“Let’s stay with the facts. The volumes were highly unusual. They were concentrated. They were ahead of ​key announcements,” said Jorge Montepeque from Onyx Capital Group, who ​helped design the modern system of setting oil prices ⁠at pricing agency Platts in the 1990s.
Brent crude and low-sulphur gasoil futures trade on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE.N), while West Texas Intermediate crude and gasoline futures trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which is owned by CME Group (CME.O),

On March 23, Trump announced a delay to threatened attacks on Iranian power infrastructure at 1105 GMT. LSEG data shows that between ​1049 and 1050 GMT that day, traders placed bets on 20,000 lots of Brent and WTI futures. The selling was spread across the first, second and third month ​contracts, worth some $1.35 billion, plus an ⁠additional $122 million in ICE gasoil – diesel – futures , , , and $81 million in U.S. gasoline futures , , , all worth a total $2.2 billion.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/oil-price-bets-ahead-iran-war-news-totalled-7-billion-reporting-shows-2026-05-07/

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on ​Saturday that he thought the Ukraine war was coming to an end, remarks that came just hours after he had vowed victory in Ukraine at Moscow’s most ‌scaled-back Victory Day parade in years.
“I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters of the Russia-Ukraine war, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two. He also said he would be willing to negotiate new security arrangements for Europe, and that his preferred negotiating partner would be Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered the most serious crisis in relations between Russia and the West ​since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war.
The Kremlin has said peace talks brokered by U.S. ​President Donald Trump’s administration were on pause. Putin has repeatedly vowed to fight on until all of Russia’s various war aims are achieved ⁠in what Moscow calls the “special military operation”.
Putin was speaking in the Kremlin after setting out his view of the causes of the war. He blamed “globalist” Western leaders, saying they promised NATO ​would not expand eastward after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, but then tried to draw Ukraine into the European Union’s orbit.

His statement came just hours after the parade on ​the May 9 national holiday celebrating the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. The annual event pays homage to the 27 million Soviet citizens who perished in that war.
Instead of the usual intercontinental ballistic missiles, tanks and missile systems rolling across the cobbles of Red Square, Russia played a video of its military hardware in action on giant screens opposite the Kremlin walls.
Russian troops have been fighting ​in Ukraine for well over four years. That is longer than Soviet forces fought in World War Two, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.

WAR IN EUROPE

Putin, who ​has ruled Russia as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, faces a wave of anxiety in Moscow about the war in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, ‌left swathes ⁠of Ukraine in ruins, and drained Russia’s $3 trillion economy. Russia’s relations with Europe are worse than at any time since the depths of the Cold War.

Russian forces have so far been unable to take the whole of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine where Kyiv’s forces have been pushed back to a line of fortress cities. Russian advances have slowed this year, though Moscow controls just under one fifth of Ukrainian territory.
After Russia and Ukraine accused each other of violating unilateral ceasefires they had each declared over recent days, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ​from Saturday to Monday that was supported ​by the Kremlin and Kyiv. The two ⁠sides also agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners.
“I’d like to see it stop. Russia-Ukraine – it’s the worst thing since World War Two in terms of life. Twenty-five thousand young soldiers every month. It’s crazy,” Trump told reporters in Washington.
He added that he would “like to see a big extension” ​of the ceasefire. There were no reports of violations of the ceasefire from either Moscow or Kyiv.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-says-he-thinks-ukraine-conflict-is-coming-an-end-2026-05-09/

As the cruise ship hit ​by a hantavirus outbreak sails towards Tenerife, World Health Organization officials are racing to draw up step-by-step guidance for what should happen ‌next for the nearly 150 passengers when they finally reach land on Sunday.
The hantavirus outbreak – which has killed three people among at least eight suspected or confirmed infections – is the first ever recorded on a cruise ship, so some new protocols are needed.

Half a dozen current and former WHO officials and hantavirus experts said the outbreak could be managed by adapting ​standard public health steps, like isolating sick passengers or those who may have been in contact with them. None of the passengers ​on the ship now have symptoms, the ship’s operator has said.

TIPS FROM ARGENTINA

Officials are also seeking tips from Argentina, where ⁠a previous outbreak of the Andes virus, the same strain as on the ship, was snuffed out in 2019.
“If we follow public health measures and ​the lessons we learned from Argentina … we can break this chain of transmission. This doesn’t need to be a large epidemic,” Abdi Rahman Mahamud, director ​of the WHO’s alert and response coordination department, said.

He said the focus was on isolation for sick people, and monitoring and quarantining for other passengers, subject to national government decisions.
The WHO may also recommend that some people with links to the outbreak take their temperature daily for at least 42 days as the Andes strain has a long incubation ​period, Anais Legand, WHO technical officer for viral threats, said at an online briefing on Friday.
National authorities may also be asked to set up regular ​contact with those people, and give them a phone number to call if they feel at all unwell, she added.
Passengers are being split into high-risk and low-risk contacts ‌based on ⁠their interactions with sick travellers, the WHO said. Contact-tracing is also key for any who have left the ship already.
The Andes hantavirus is known to spread through close and prolonged contact, and chiefly when a patient is already symptomatic. That information is based largely on the one outbreak where the Andes virus spread between people in Argentina in 2018-19, in which 34 people were infected and 11 died.

“We essentially learned that once you implement basic measures of social ​distancing, that are essentially very simple – ​stay home when you are not ⁠feeling well – that diminished the circulation and the outbreak burned out,” said Gustavo Palacios, a professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in the United States, who is originally from Argentina and a co-author of a ​key paper on that outbreak.
He and others have been advising WHO on the outbreak since May 2, he ​said, adding he hoped ⁠more attention would now be paid to the risks of hantaviruses, which can have fatality rates of up to 50%.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/experts-race-write-guidance-contain-first-ship-borne-hantavirus-outbreak-2026-05-08/

A QUARANTINED rat virus cruise passenger has spoken out about becoming the ship’s de facto doctor after the ship’s Dutch medic and a Brit crew member fell ill.

Dr Stephen Kornfeld was on holiday on the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius when he “fell into the role of becoming the ship doctor”.

The Oregon doctor told CNN he jumped into action when he heard one of the passengers had fallen ill.

The first passenger to get sick, a 70-year-old Dutchman, died on the MV Hondius on April 11.

Kornfeld said: “Over 12 to 24 hours, it became clear that there were a number of people sick and they were getting sicker.”

He revealed that the wife of the Dutchman, who left the ship in St Helena and flew to South Africa where she died in hospital had “non-specific symptoms”.

The American doctor said the woman had “a lot of confusion, a lot of weakness”.

Before the ship realised the deadly disease that was on board, the Dutch woman disembarked on the small island of St Helena with 28 others, including several Brits.

Kornfeld said: “Early on, we didn’t know it was hantavirus until May 2, May 3.”

The Dutch woman then flew to Johannesburg and tried to catch an onwards flight to Amsterdam, but was refused permission to fly.

Many others who disembarked at St Helena then travelled across the world to get home and are isolating in their home countries.

Kornfield said the unidentified ship’s doctor’s symptoms included “lot of fever, fatigue, and flushing”.

He revealed: “At the time, neither one of them looked critically ill.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16333544/tourist-speaks-rat-virus-ship-after-medic-fell-ill/

THE head of Donald Trump’s World Cup taskforce has defended Fifa’s controversial ticket prices and is convinced the American people will ultimately be the winners.

In an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun, Andrew Giuliani brushed off concerns from fans worldwide about the exorbitant cost of seeing the greatest soccer players on earth, stressing there have already been sales of six million for the 104 games.

With just weeks remaining before the largest ever World Cup — with an expanded 48 teams — kicks off across the United States, Canada and Mexico, pressure is mounting on the soccer world governing body amid growing fan frustration.

New Jersey representatives Nellie Pou and Frank Pallone Jr. have demanded answers from Fifa president Gianni Infantino over “opaque pricing” and potentially misleading ticketing practices.

The politicians say ordinary supporters are being priced out of the tournament due to dynamic pricing models, confusing sales systems and escalating resale costs.

Supporter groups across Europe and North America have accused the organizers of turning the World Cup into a luxury event aimed primarily at corporations and wealthy tourists, leaving real fans out in the cold.

Tickets for the final at MetLife Stadium in July reportedly climbed from roughly $6,700 to nearly $11,000 for premium seats.

Incredibly, tickets have been listed on the official resale site run by Fifa for more than $1 million.

But Giuliani says the demand is there for all to see — and for those who cannot make it to the stadium, he says they should thank the POTUS for releasing funds to help stage fan fests in all 11 host cities.

“There’s obviously a huge demand for tickets,” he told The U.S. Sun. “I’ve heard that close to six million tickets have been sold. I think we’re talking a little under seven million tickets in total for the 104 games.

“So it’s understandable why tickets are priced the way they are.”

Fifa retains all direct income from ticket sales, broadcasting and global sponsorships, leaving cities to recoup their massive infrastructure and security investments largely through indirect tourism taxes.

Staging official fan parties for most of the tournament is a mandatory, high-cost obligation that host cities must fund and operate themselves.

The U.S. Sun revealed the anger of residents in Foxborough earlier this year after the town was left facing an $8 million security bill, which one resident claimed could bankrupt the community of just 18,000 people.

Billionaire Robert Kraft eventually stepped in to ease the issue.

Giuliani, however, wants people to recognize that without President Trump freeing up a $625 million safety and security grant spread across the host cities, low-cost entry to these fan zones would not have been secured.

“This was something the president thought was truly important,” he continued. “That way, whether or not people could afford a ticket to the World Cup, they would still have the ability to experience it in a gathering place within these host cities.”

Giuliani predicts it will cost the United States around $2 billion to stage what will be the largest soccer tournament ever.

There are genuine fears that World Cup host cities could be hit with bills of $100 million to $200 million each just to cover the logistics of these fan zones, which could cost up to $1 million a day to operate.

The huge price tag is already sparking political drama, with some city leaders threatening to block permits unless security costs are paid in advance.

Major cities like Chicago rejected the opportunity amid concerns about sticking taxpayers with years of debt.

Some critics warn the short-term economic boom will not come close to covering the long-term costs of security and infrastructure upgrades.

But Giuliani believes taxpayers will ultimately profit from hosting the World Cup — potentially to the tune of around $30 billion.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/16334476/world-cup-tickets-fifa-andrew-giuliani-donald-trump/

Rescuers are rushing to find missing hikers, three of whom have been declared dead after a volcanic eruption in eastern Indonesia.

A rescue mission was underway on Friday in eastern Indonesia as 20 hikers went missing following a volcanic eruption.

Three of the missing people, including two foreigners, are reported to have died.

What do we know?

Mount Dukono, located on the Halmahera island in North Maluku province, erupted on Friday ​at 07:41 a.m. local time (10:41 pm UTC Thursday), spouting volcanic ash up to 10 ​kilometers (6.2 miles) high into the air, Indonesia’s volcanology agency said.

Twenty hikers, nine of them from Singapore, were reported missing shortly after.

“There are three dead, two foreigners and one resident of Ternate” island in east Indonesia, Erlichson Pasaribu, the police chief of North Halmahera, told Kompas TV.

Dozens of rescue personnel have been deployed to search for the trapped hikers, Iwan Ramdani, the head of the local rescue agency, ​told Reuters news agency.

Since April 17, the area has been officially off-limits for visitors after scientists observed an increase in volcanic activity.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/indonesia-volcano-eruption-kills-3-hikers-several-missing/a-77090871

The ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is affecting African nations particularly badly. But there are potential solutions for mitigating the drastic effects on the continent in the short, medium and long term.

For more than two months, there have hardly been any merchant ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing blockade. Africa is being hit by the full brunt of the conflict in the Middle East, with canceled flights, long lines at petrol stations, and barren fields across the continent.

Left without access to a significant portion of their global supply chain, fertilizer industries have also been deeply affected by the crisis.

Any resumption of free maritime traffic through this strategically important strait — as was the case prior to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran earlier this year — is still a long way off; and even then, it would likely take months for markets to stabilize and for production lines and logistics to return to normal.

It’s understandable that African institutions and governments are currently operating in crisis mode, with no end to the blockade in sight. Some are even looking for ways to prevent more severe consequences, such as the risk of famine or national bankruptcies.

Willy Nyamitwe, Burundi’s African Union (AU) ambassador and current chair of the Permanent Committee of Ambassadors, told DW that the AU “is monitoring the situation around the Strait of Hormuz very closely because it affects a number of strategic goods that are essential to African economies.”

With several African countries already deeply indebted, the prospect of inflation-driven depreciation of national currencies as a result of the Iran war could further exacerbate the situation.

“The situation is critical,” said Anja Berretta, director of the Africa Economic Program at the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Nairobi, Kenya.

“Especially when it comes to fertilizers, we were already facing a similar situation in 2022 when Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine; after all, Russia and Belarus were two of the most important fertilizer producers.”

The fear that famine would take hold in parts of Africa did not become reality, Berretta told DW, adding that back then, African nations responded with a flexible approach, for example by providing financial assistance through the African Development Bank.

Emergency response to fuel shortages

The shortage of fossil fuels in the current crisis has already crippled many parts of the continent.

In Ethiopia, diesel is now being prioritized for public transportation, leaving private customers without petrol; in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, rolling blackouts are being used to reduce the output of the country’s oil-fired power plant.

Gambia has started subsidizing fuel with more than €5.8 million (around $6.8 million) in tax revenue, while Zimbabwe has turned to blending fossil fuels with ethanol.

Africa’s aviation industry is also being hit hard by the global kerosene shortage, with flight operations affected across the continent.

Shortages and steep price hikes for chemical fertilizers have received less spotlight during the Hormuz crisis but are nevertheless equally critical.

Before the Iran war began, nearly half of the sulphur used in phosphate fertilizers globally passed through the Strait of Hormuz. The proportion was also high for the chemical precursors urea and ammonia.

The South African grain producers’ association, Grain SA, reported that in April that ammonia prices were already more than 75% higher than just a year earlier. Urea was also reported to be about 60% more expensive.

Efficient short-term solutions

National emergency protocols for shortages in diesel, petrol, and kerosene have been in place in many countries since the beginning of the Iran war. However, similar solutions for fertilizers are yet to fully materialize.

An initiative spearheaded by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, calling on the warring parties to allow the transit of fertilizers to developing countries through the strait, has yet to be implemented.

The model for this idea is the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which enabled the safe export of Ukrainian grain from July 2022 to July 2023 with Russia’s approval to prevent food shortages.

There’s another quick-fix solution that has also proven effective in times of crisis: African importers could pool their fertilizer procurement efforts — in the same way that the EU leveraged its market power to secure a rapid and affordable supply of COVID-19 vaccines.

Berretta believes that this is a realistic option which would also be easy to implement: “We’re not talking about technical capacities or financing; African countries would simply have to say, ‘Let’s do this together now.'”

Even if a comprehensive solution to this end through the AU were to fail, regional communities such as the West African ECOWAS or the East African Community could still achieve success in this area.

Based on their agricultural surface footprint, countries in sub-Saharan Africa already use fertilizer sparingly: According to data from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank, farms in the region use an average of 20.5 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare, compared to just under 144 kilograms on average globally.

This World Bank data, however, dates back to 2021, prior to the onset of the war in Ukraine, and will likely have adjusted somewhat in the past five years.

If fertilizer usage is reduced even further in Africa, there is a risk of lower yields for staples such as corn, rice and wheat leading to food inflation. Africa therefore urgently needs fertilizer supplies, as the next planting season has already begun in most places.

Long-term solutions not entirely out of reach

In order to become less susceptible to external threats like the wars in Ukraine and Iran in the long run, the most secure strategy would be to ramp up domestic fertilizer production capacities.

The current major players in this field are Morocco and Egypt, both of which have large phosphate deposits but also rely on sulphur imported from the Gulf states for production.

The Nigerian Dangote Group intends to expand production, and is planning to open new urea plants in Nigeria and Ethiopia.

Berretta thinks that the best approach is to produce and distribute fertilizers on a large industrial scale in a few select locations across Africa.

“Not every country has the ideal conditions to establish its own fertilizer production. This is where regional supply chains play a very important role; you need to identify three or four countries in a region where the conditions are such that fertilizer production can be established, and they then turn to supplying the entire region,” he said.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/fertilizer-shortages-what-are-africas-options-during-the-hormuz-crisis/a-77094073

After years spent detained in Syria, the freedom of the Islamic State group-linked families who landed back in their homeland of Australia this week was dramatically short lived.

Three of the women were swiftly arrested. The fourth was left to confront a frenzied media scrum alone, small children in tow, with the knowledge she could be next.

Australia has been eyeing their potential return with trepidation for years.

It has been resisting pressure to claim dozens of its citizens – families members of men who fought for the so-called Islamic State (IS). They have been languishing in highly-guarded camps since the group lost its territorial control in Syria after a years-long military campaign by the US-led coalition and local allies.

Australia is not alone in its reluctance to help these women and children: many others, including the UK, have also been wrestling with questions of security, rehabilitation and political responsibility.

But as the country wallows in the fallout of its worst terrorist attack – a mass shooting allegedly inspired by IS at a Jewish event in Bondi Beach in December which left 15 dead – sentiment towards them has hardened.

The prime minister has repeatedly said he has nothing but contempt for the group: “If you make your bed, you have to lie in it,” has been Anthony Albanese’s mantra.

But amid increasingly volatile conditions, advocates say the predicament of the Australians still stuck in Syria is growing more dangerous and the need to get them home more desperate.

“The government want us to forget about them… [But] the quicker they come to Australia, the safer it is for all of Australia and for themselves,” Sydney doctor Jamal Rifi told the BBC in an interview earlier this year, after an earlier bid to return by Australian IS families failed.

Who are the women?

The two camps where the families of IS fighters were channelled when the “caliphate” fell have long been described as a ticking time bomb – rife with violence, incubators for radicalisation, and an ever-growing humanitarian crisis.

The largest, Al-Hol, was shut down in February after Syrian forces of the new government reclaimed the country, while the future of the remaining Al-Roj camp, in the country’s north-east Kurdish region, is uncertain.

There are about 2,000 people in Al-Roj, from dozens of countries which refuse to take them back – including Shamima Begum, who was stripped of her British citizenship after travelling to Syria as a 15-year-old and marrying an IS fighter.

Until last month, it was also the home of Janai Safar, 32, who landed in Sydney with her nine-year-old son on Thursday night, and has since been charged with terrorism offences.

The former nursing student told The Australian newspaper back in 2019 that she didn’t regret travelling to join IS, but “didn’t train or kill anyone”.

Arriving in Melbourne at the same time was 33-year-old Zahra Ahmed, who spent years in the camp alongside her younger sister Zeinab, 31, and her 54-year-old mother Kawsar Abbas.

They say they were trapped in Syria after travelling there for a family wedding, not realising the groom had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group – though authorities suspect the patriarch of the family had been funnelling cash to them.

“I didn’t make this bed,” Zahra told the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in 2024.

“We are now forced to suffer for the decisions that other people – other male influencers – have made on our behalf, and now they’re all gone, and we are left to suffer with our kids.”

Her mother and sister have been charged with crimes against humanity related to slavery.

The Australian Federal Police say Zahra Ahmed is still under investigation, and that the nine children who returned with the group will be asked to undergo community integration and countering violent extremism programmes.

They were part of a larger group which in February left Al-Roj for Australia, but were turned back within hours due to “technical issues”. The camp administrators later told media they believed Syrian authorities had been spooked by Australia’s insistence the women would not be welcomed back.

Twenty-one Australians now remain in the camp, seven women and 14 children.

Though details of their lives are scant, several of the women were only teenagers when they left Australia – including Kirsty Rosse-Emile, whose sister says she was groomed by a much-older extremist whom she married at 14.

Even less is known about their children, many of whom have never known life outside the camps.

Tense national debate

This isn’t the first time that Australians linked to IS have returned home. A group of orphans was repatriated in 2019, and another 17 women and children were brought back in 2022.

But after backlash from some in the community, the government said it would not help any others – though another two women quietly worked their way home in September.

While all citizens have a legal right to return to their countries, there is little doubt most Australians would prefer these ones do not.

“They made their choice to go over there and be with their terrorist husbands, so let them stay there,” Peter Cockburn, of Geelong, told the BBC at Melbourne airport.

“It’s a disgrace that both governments, state and federal, are letting them come back.”

Refugees who fled to Australia for safety from IS – many of whom survived massacres, slavery and sexual abuse at their hands – are particularly distressed.

“Imagine a Yazidi survivor encountering ISIS brides [here],” one such man named Sami told Australian public broadcaster SBS.

But people like Rifi – an award-winning Western Sydney doctor – say Australia owes the children in these camps protection too.

He was roped into providing the group tele-healthcare years ago, but – moved by their plight – more recently became a broker and “delivery boy” for their temporary passports.

“If those women have done anything wrong by our legal system… if the prime minister wants to ‘throw the book’ at them, let him throw the book. We’re not going to stop him,” he told the BBC in February.

“But while they are staying in Syria, he can’t throw anything at them, except words.

“We believe those children should not continue to pay the heavy price for the sins of their fathers and mothers… It’s not what we understand of Australian values.”

For helping these women, Rifi has gone from being a national hero to a pariah – with the opposition party going as far as to float a policy aimed at jailing people like him.

The community’s “alarm, concern and fear” is “entirely understandable”, Australia’s special envoy to combat Islamaphobia said this week, adding the women had put the Muslim community in particular in a “deeply challenging position”.

But Aftab Malik said the “rule of law” must be upheld, calling for the temperature of the national debate to be lowered.

In her role with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Jana Fevaro has seen firsthand the harm wrought by IS, but she argues Australia has to trust its laws – and law enforcement agencies – will do their job.

“Once politicians start… deciding how citizens should be treated, what right citizens should have, that is a dangerous and slippery slope,” she told the BBC.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cedplx04ew0o

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he will not quit as prime minister and “plunge the country into chaos”, as Labour reels from significant election losses.

The results in England, Scotland and Wales have piled pressure on Sir Keir, with some Labour MPs calling for him to set a timetable for his departure, although his cabinet allies have backed him for now.

Labour has lost power in Wales, ending its 27-year rule, while the SNP remains the largest party in Scotland.

Reform UK has been the big winner in England, picking up more than 1,400 seats and taking control of councils in areas where Labour and the Conservatives have been historically dominant.

The BBC’s projected national share (PNS), which is calculated from results in more than 1,000 wards and estimates a general election where people voted along similar lines, makes Reform the largest party, on 26% of the vote share.

The PNS puts the Greens in second on 18%, followed by Labour and the Conservatives neck-and-neck in third place on 17% – appearing to confirm the end of the traditional dominance of the big two parties in the UK.

Labour has lost more than 1,100 English council seats, including in its heartlands across northern England and the Midlands, and faces further difficult results as counting continues throughout Friday.

The results are bleak for Labour in Wales, where Plaid Cymru is now the biggest party in the devolved parliament, with Reform as the main opposition.

Meanwhile in Scotland, the SNP is the largest party in Scotland but fell short of an overall majority.

Labour, who not so long ago harboured ambitions of toppling the SNP, finished a distant second on 17 seats – tied with Reform, who made their electoral breakthrough in Scotland.

Labour’s poor showing in the elections has fuelled further questions about Sir Keir’s leadership which have been growing for months.

In a bid to head off pressure, Sir Keir has written a piece in Saturday’s Guardian, vowing to stay on course and build unity.

“While we must respond to the message that voters have sent us, that doesn’t mean tacking right or left,” he said.

“It means bringing together a broad political movement, being assertive about our values, bold in our vision and addressing people’s demands. Unifying rather than dividing.”

Late on Friday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the prime minister would “have my support” as he sets out the party’s response to the results in a speech expected on Monday.

Streeting said the government must “take responsibility” for Labour’s heavy losses and show they can “still deliver…the change that people are crying out for”, stressing the party must work “as a team”.

Asked by the BBC if he was ruling out a leadership bid, Streeting said Sir Keir had “delivered a majority that people thought was absolutely impossible after the crushing defeat of 2019”.

As of late Friday evening, 22 Labour MPs had publicly called for the prime minister to stand down or set a timetable for his exit and, privately, criticism of the prime minister goes far beyond the party’s left wing.

Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, said although the unpopularity of Sir Keir had come up on the doorstep, she felt now was not the time to move against him.

“We cannot descend into an irresponsible, messy, internal contest,” Haigh told the BBC, although she added that, if the prime minister did not change his ways, he “cannot lead us into another election”.

Haigh is an influential voice on Labour’s so-called soft left, which includes supporters of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.

Burnham is seen as a potential challenger to Sir Keir, who blocked him from standing to become an MP earlier this year, so some MPs are thought to be biding their time until he can return to Westminster and launch a leadership contest.

In a speech on Friday morning, as initial results in England came in, Sir Keir acknowledged it had been a “tough” set of elections but said: “I’m not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos.”

Sir Keir is planning an attempt to reset his premiership next week, once the dust has settled on the elections.

In a series of posts on X on Friday evening, most cabinet ministers rallied around the prime minister.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said Sir Keir “won a mandate to change our country”, adding “we must get on with delivering that mandate – and show how politics can improve people’s lives for the better”.

Defence Secretary John Healey said he believed the prime minister could “still turn this around” while Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper warned against a “knee-jerk reaction” to the results.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband – another leading figure on the soft left – was among the last to post a message, saying “these are devastating results for Labour”.

“As Keir has said, we must go further in delivering the mandate for change that Labour won in 2024 – and show how we will answer the call for change in our country,” he added.

Some union leaders have urged Sir Keir to quit, with Unite leader Sharon Graham saying the “writing is on the wall” for the prime minister’s government.

But four former Labour general secretaries have urged the party to focus on its plan to change the country rather than arguing about Sir Keir’s leadership.

The unions that financially back Labour have called for an “urgent meeting” with the prime minister, suggesting the “disastrous election results” show a “stark disconnect between the Labour government and working people”.

In a joint statement which includes even the usually more supportive unions, they are calling for a change of direction on “economic policy and political strategy”.

‘Historic shift’

In Wales, Plaid Cymru won the most seats in the Senedd but fell short of an overall majority, with Reform UK coming second.

It is the first time Labour has lost a national vote in Wales in more than a century, with the party reduced to a rump of just nine members in an expanded Senedd.

In a result that underlined the scale of Labour’s decline, First Minister Eluned Morgan lost her seat and announced she would step down as leader of the Welsh party.

In Scotland, the SNP extended its 19-year stint in power.

In one of the biggest shocks of the day, SNP minister Angus Robertson lost his Edinburgh seat to the Scottish Greens, who said they were “buzzing” at the prospect of gaining seats.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the party “didn’t win the argument” and stood by his previous call for Sir Keir to resign as prime minister.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz62dwe30wdo

This memo is out of this world.

Mysterious sightings of ‘three to four-foot tall’ beings decked out in space suits and helmets were reported by witnesses decades ago, newly released Pentagon files reveal.

The astonishing accounts were included in an internal FBI memo dated Oct. 19, 1966 with the subject line “Unidentified Flying Objects” — released to the public on Friday — that claims that “1965 was the year of the greatest number of UFO sightings.”

The most shocking revelation in the memo came from a witnesses that “reported seeing crewmen who had landed from” apparent UFOs, “who are described as three and a half to four feet tall, wearing what appear to be space suits and helmets.”

The memo primarily focuses on the book “Flying Saucers – Serious Business” by Frank Edwards, which was described as a potential contributor to the growing fascination and controversy surrounding UFOs by the public at the time.

The memo details Edwards’ eerie claims that UFOs were “space vehicles sent to observe activities on earth” and stated the United States Air Force had “deliberately withheld information and given misleading explanations because it fears a mass panic by the public if the public were told the truth.”

The author describes “UFOs as polished metal objects, radiating heat and light (sufficient to have burned witnesses who were too near),” according to the memo.

The UFOs “range from brilliant white to dull reds and brilliant orange” with some having “blind striking lights,” Edwards claimed in his book.

Edwards also claims there are three “basic shapes” of UFOs; zeppelin-shaped ships that span up to 300 feet long, disc shaped objects with a diameter range of a few feet to 100 feet, and egg shaped objects — which were the most recently sighted UFOs, the memo says.

The UFOs sighted could move silently at “fantastic speeds” while also suspending motionless mid-air before speeding away with strobes of light from underneath the object, according to the document.

The FBI claims in the memo that many people who reported sightings and are named in the book are “reliable individuals” ranging from law enforcement officers, military personnel on official duty and commercial airline pilots.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/05/08/us-news/ufo-witnesses-reported-seeing-four-foot-tall-crewmen-wearing-space-suits-and-helmets-files-reveal/

Zo money, Zo problems.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s hostile stance toward New York City businesses could jeopardize $12 billion in GDP — triggering a “death spiral” in the city’s finances as the young socialist blows off billionaire Ken Griffin moving jobs south, insiders warn.

Dire data exclusively provided to The Post by the Partnership for New York City shows the coalition’s 300 corporate and financial firms that have created nearly a million jobs, as well as contribute $13.5 billion in taxes and generate $370 billion to the city’s GDP every year.

The windfall for the Big Apple, however, could be endangered if growth declines even a modest amount, according to the data — a growing prospect if a feared exodus of billionaires fleeing the socialist mayor gains steam.

“The numbers don’t lie,” said Steve Fulop, the business group’s president and CEO.

“New York’s private sector has invested billions and created hundreds of thousands of jobs. You can only treat job creators like the enemy for so long before they stop creating jobs here. The far left can run on socialism all day, but cities run on tax revenue — and tax revenue requires businesses that actually want to be here.”

Long-simmering fears that the “tax the rich“-advocating Mamdani would scare off — or tick off — businesses and the well-to-do boiled over this week when Griffin said he’s adding jobs in Miami for his Citadel hedge fund instead of New York City.

The Sunshine State switcheroo was a “direct consequence” of Mamdani using Griffin’s glamorous $238 million penthouse as a prop in a social media video drumming up support for a proposed tax on luxury second homes in the city, the billionaire seethed.

Griffin’s reprisal was joined by fellow financial titan Marc Rowan taking further steps to open a new hub for his Apollo Global Management in either Florida and Texas, two growing hotspots for ex-pat New York businesses.

Both Citadel and Apollo are pillars within New York City’s financial services industry — a sector that accounts for nearly one in 10 private jobs in the city, according to the Partnership’s data.

The financial services sector outpaced every other industry in job growth during 2025, expanding by 3%, the data shows.

Assuming the same amount of growth, financial companies within the Partnership alone would bring in a projected 10,000 jobs, $8.4 billion in tax contributions and $247 billion in GDP every year through 2030, the data shows.

But even a small downtick of 10% would lead to roughly 3,000 fewer jobs, a $168 million dip in taxes and a $4.8 billion GDP hit, the analysis from the Partnership of NYC shows.

A dramatic exodus — like Citadel’s infamous recent exit of Chicago that cost the Windy City more than $3.5 billion — of 30% would translate to:

• 6,335 fewer jobs
• Nearly $397 million lost tax contributions
• A $11.7 billion hit to GDP

The potential hits come as New York City is at a precarious time for its ever-ballooning budget, which has far outpaced inflation over recent years.

Mamdani has proposed a mammoth $127 billion budget for the next year, and has pushed for a tax on millionaires to help close a $5.4 billion shortfall.

The city has a massive spending problem, leaving it particularly susceptible to economic slowdowns because revenue doesn’t keep pace, said a former budget official in Michael Bloomberg’s mayoral administration.

“If you are just raising taxes to fill a gap and doing nothing to close the gap, you are just going to raise taxes,” the official said.

The tax hikes in turn will prompt Griffin’s billionaire buds and other businesses to follow suit and cut their losses, according to the official.

“It’s a real death spiral,” the official said.

“Business leaders are just going to reallocate their workforce to Florida. That’s not a loss of a billionaire and their tax bill — it’s the workers and tens of millions of dollars.”

Companies increasingly have a choice, rather than be tied to one particular city, said Jared Walczak, senior fellow at the Tax Foundation.

“It used to be that if you were finance, you had to be New York City, and that is not the case anymore,” he said.

“If they feel unwelcome or they are going to be an ongoing topic, that can easily push them elsewhere. They do not want to fight new proposals every year and be the solution to every revenue problem that can drive them elsewhere.”

Big biz fears of an antagonistic left-wing mayor, however, have been proven wrong in the past.

Groundhog-killing galoot Bill de Blasio’s “tale of two cities” highlighting the gulf between the haves and the have-nots during the 2013 mayoral campaign swept him into office — and filled bigwigs with dread.

But the bigs were pleasantly surprised that de Blasio, as mayor, took business-friendly steps to foster economic development.

Mamdani is different because bashing the rich helped sweep him into office on an unabashedly lefty message, said Evan Roth Smith, a strategist with Slingshot Strategies.

The mayor has actually largely held his tongue on bashing the rich during the budget process, with the notable exception of picking a fight with Griffin, Smith said.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/05/08/us-news/mamdanis-billionaire-bashing-could-cost-nyc-12-billion-data/

Google has settled with Black employees who alleged systemic racial disparities in hiring, pay, and advancement in a lawsuit filed in 2022.

April Curley, a former Google employee, had sued the tech giant for racial discrimination, saying it engages in a “pattern and practice” of unfair treatment for its Black workers. The suit claimed the company steered them into lower-level and lower-paid jobs and subjected them to a hostile work environment if they speak out. Other former Google workers also joined the suit, which later received class action status.

“This case is about accountability, plain and simple,” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented the plaintiffs, in a statement. “For far too long, Black employees in the tech industry have faced barriers that limit opportunity. This settlement is a significant step toward holding one of the world’s most powerful companies accountable and making clear that discriminatory practices cannot and will not be tolerated.”

The settlement was announced in May 2025 and granted final approval this week. Google said when the settlement was reached that it strongly disagrees with the allegations that it treated anyone improperly and remains “committed to paying, hiring, and leveling all employees consistently.”

The lawsuit, echoed years of complaints from Black employees at the company. That includes prominent artificial intelligence scholar Timnit Gebru, who said she was pushed out in 2020 after a dispute over a research paper examining the societal dangers of an emerging branch of artificial intelligence.

The 2022 lawsuit claimed that Mountain View, California-based Google viewed Black job candidates “through harmful racial stereotypes” and claimed that hiring managers deemed Black candidates “not ‘Googly’ enough, a plain dog whistle for race discrimination.”

In addition, according to the suit, interviewers “hazed” and undermined Black candidates and hired Black candidates into lower-paying and lower-level roles with less advancement potential based on their race and racial stereotypes.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/google-discrimination-black-employees-class-action-settlement-6a23689d337e7da837efd9e58f7082d0

A South Dakota mining company has canceled a drilling project in the Black Hills after opposition from Native American tribes and local groups.

In a letter provided Friday by Indigenous advocacy group NDN Collective, Rapid City-based Pete Lien & Sons told the United States Forest Service on Thursday it is withdrawing its plan of operations for a graphite drilling project. It doesn’t intend to file another plan for this project, the letter said.

Groups opposed the project because of its proximity to a sacred site called Pe’Sla, a meadow in the Black Hills where Sioux tribes hold ceremonies and pray throughout the year. The land is also used for buffalo grazing.

The Forest Service and Pete Lien & Sons did not immediately return requests for comment Friday afternoon.

Nine tribes in South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service over the project alleging violations of the National Historical Preservation Act and National Environmental Protection Act for granting permits without an environmental review.

There also was a lawsuit filed by NDN Collective and environmental groups that argued the Forest Service should not have exempted the project from an environmental review because it did not meet the requirements for a categorical exclusion. In that case, a temporary restraining order granted against Pete Lien & Sons on Monday prohibited the drilling operation for two weeks.

In a statement, NDN Collective said “today’s win is multi-faceted and offers a blueprint for future land defense fights.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/black-hills-mining-drilling-tribes-native-american-bfae28435544f44b40d45a443f7bc4d7

The ceasefire announcement comes after both sides had already floated separate pauses in fighting on different days. Zelenskyy announced a ceasefire for May 5 and 6 earlier this week, while Russia had suggested its own halt for May 8 and 9 last week.

President Trump announced Friday that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a three-day ceasefire covering May 9, 10 and 11, coinciding with Russia’s Victory Day celebrations this weekend. The temporary halt in fighting will also include a prisoner swap of 1,000 people from each country.

Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, saying he personally requested the ceasefire and thanking both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for agreeing to it.

What Trump Said

In his Truth Social post, Trump laid out the full scope of what was agreed.
“This Ceasefire will include a suspension of all kinetic activity, and also a prison swap of 1,000 prisoners from each Country,” he wrote. “This request was made directly by me, and I very much appreciate its agreement by President Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

Trump framed the temporary truce as a potential turning point in a war that has now stretched beyond four years.

“Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War,” he wrote. “Talks are continuing on ending this Major Conflict, the biggest since World War II, and we are getting closer and closer every day.”

A Complicated Timeline

The ceasefire announcement comes after both sides had already floated separate pauses in fighting on different days. Zelenskyy announced a ceasefire for May 5 and 6 earlier this week, while Russia had suggested its own halt for May 8 and 9 last week. Trump’s announcement appears to consolidate those separate proposals into a single three-day window, though neither Russia nor Ukraine had officially confirmed the arrangement at the time of his post.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/trump-announces-three-day-ceasefire-between-russia-and-ukraine-article-154278911

Two New Jersey residents are being monitored after possible exposure to hantavirus linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship, though no confirmed cases have been reported in the state. Globally, the outbreak has been tied to nine confirmed or suspected cases and three deaths.

Two residents of New Jersey are being monitored after they were potentially exposed to hantavirus linked to the cruise ship MV Hondius, according to state health officials. The New Jersey Department of Health said it was notified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the two individuals may have been exposed while flying abroad after an infected passenger left the ship. The residents were not aboard the cruise vessel itself and currently have no symptoms. Officials said they are being monitored purely as a precaution.

“There are no confirmed cases of hantavirus in New Jersey. We will continue to keep residents informed as the situation develops,” Mikie Sherrill said in a statement shared on social media. State health officials emphasized that the risk to the general public remains very low.

Hantavirus infections in the United States are typically spread through exposure to infected rodents and are not known to spread from person to person. However, the strain connected to the outbreak aboard the MV Hondiu, the Andes virus, can rarely spread between humans through prolonged close contact or exposure to bodily fluids. Health officials noted that people without symptoms are not considered infectious.

The incubation period for hantavirus can range from four days to more than a month.

Authorities in five other US states — Georgia, Texas, Virginia, Arizona, and California — are also monitoring passengers who were on the cruise ship before cases were confirmed. So far, no illnesses have been reported among those being monitored.

Meanwhile, the US Department of State announced plans to arrange a repatriation flight for American citizens aboard the ship once it reaches Tenerife, Spain. US diplomats are expected to assist travelers there in coordination with the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Spanish government.

The Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) said it was affected by the breach at Canvas, causing “inconvenience and concern” to its students and faculty.

The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) said on Friday (May 8) that it has contacted affected organisations to provide support and guidance on mitigation steps, after education platform Canvas was hit by a cyberattack.

Canvas, used by schools, colleges and universities for grades and course materials, and owned by US edtech company Instructure, went down on Thursday, blocking student access.

“We have reached out to affected organisations to offer assistance and provide advice on mitigation measures,” said CSA, adding that it was “monitoring the situation”.

The Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), in response to CNA’s queries, confirmed it was affected by the Canvas breach, causing “inconvenience and concern” to its students and faculty.

“We are aware of the ongoing disruption affecting access to the Canvas learning platform, which is impacting academic institutions globally,” SIM said.

“The incident occurred within the environment of Instructure, and we understand the inconvenience and concern this has caused our students and faculty.”

In the meantime, SIM said it will put in place temporary arrangements. These include sending Zoom lesson links directly to students, while deadlines for quizzes and assignments due during this period may be extended.

SIM added that keeping classes running and protecting its community’s information remained its top priorities.

CNA has contacted the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), NTUC Learning Hub, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Kaplan to ask if they have been similarly affected by Canvas breach.

In a statement on its website, Instructure, the developer of Canvas, confirmed that the system was “fully back online and available for use”.

The company said it first detected “unauthorised activity” in Canvas on Apr 29, prompting an investigation and the hiring of outside forensic experts.

“On May 7, 2026, we identified additional unauthorised activity tied to the same incident. The unauthorised actor made changes to the pages that appeared when some students and teachers were logged in through Canvas,” it added.

“Out of caution, we temporarily took Canvas offline into maintenance mode to contain the activity, investigate, and apply additional safeguards.”

Instructure said the Apr 29 incident resulted in a data leak involving certain users’ personal information at affected organisations, including names, email addresses, student identification numbers and messages between Canvas users.

“We have found no evidence that passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers, or financial information were involved.”

The firm has since taken steps to enhance cybersecurity, including temporarily shutting down its Free-for-Teacher accounts after linking them to the incident, and revoking “privileged credentials and access tokens”, among other measures.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/canvas-cyberattack-data-breach-leak-sim-cybersecurity-csa-6110151

This is the first time China has admitted that its personnel gave on-ground technical support to their Pakistani allies.

China has confirmed for the first time that it provided on-site technical support to Pakistan during last year’s war with India, known in New Delhi as Operation Sindoor, the South China Morning Post reported.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated following a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22 last year, which claimed 26 lives. India responded with Operation Sindoor, targeting nine terror-related sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The Indian response resulted in the deaths of over 100 terrorists associated with groups including Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen.

According to the SCMP report, in an interview aired on Thursday by China’s state broadcaster CCTV, engineers from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) described their direct involvement in supporting Pakistani operations. The admission marks the first official acknowledgement from Beijing of Chinese personnel playing a role in the India-Pakistan clash.

Zhang Heng, an engineer from AVIC’s Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, was one of those who provided technical support to Pakistan during the conflict, the report stated. The institute is a key developer of China’s advanced fighter aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.

“At the support base, we frequently heard the roar of fighter jets taking off and the constant wail of air-raid sirens. By late morning, in May, the temperature was already approaching 50 degrees Celsius [122 degrees Fahrenheit]. It was a real ordeal for us, both mentally and physically,” Zhang Heng was quoted as saying by the SCMP.

This is the first time China has admitted that its personnel gave on-ground technical support to their Pakistani allies.

Pakistan’s air force operates Chinese-made J-10CE jets, produced by an AVIC subsidiary. Zhang Heng said what drove his team was the “desire to do an even better job with on‑site support” and to ensure their equipment could “truly perform at its full combat potential”.

“That wasn’t just a recognition of the J‑10CE; it was also a testament to the deep bond we formed through working side by side, day in and day out,” Zhang Heng added.

Another employee from the same institute, Xu Da, compared the fighter jet to a “child.”

“We nurtured it, cared for it, and finally handed it over to the user. And now, it was facing a major test. As for the outstanding results the J-10CE achieved, we weren’t very surprised, and it didn’t feel sudden at all,” Xu Da was quoted as saying by the SCMP. “In fact, it felt inevitable. The aircraft just needed the right opportunity. And when that moment came, it delivered exactly as we knew it would.”

The J-10CE, an export variant of the J-10C 4.5-generation fighter, is widely considered the most advanced model in the J-10 series. Pakistan is the only known operator of J-10Cs outside China, with Islamabad ordering 36 of the fighters along with 250 PL-15 missiles in 2020.

In July 2025, the Indian Army said that an overwhelming 81 per cent of Pakistan’s military hardware is of Chinese origin, with China using the country like a “live lab” to test its military tech.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China has sold arms worth $8.2 billion to Pakistan since 2015. Between 2020 and 2024, China ranked as the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter. Nearly two-thirds or 63 per cent of these exports went to Pakistan, making Islamabad China’s biggest weapons client.

Army’s Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Capability Development and Sustenance), Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh, back in July 2025, provided a breakdown of the recent cross-border escalation with Pakistan.

“There are a few lessons from Operation Sindoor. The strategic messaging by leadership was unambiguous. There is no scope of absorbing the pain the way we did a few years ago. The planning and selection of targets was based on a lot of data that was collected using technology and human intelligence. So a total of 21 targets were actually identified, out of which nine targets we thought would be prudent to engage. It was only the final day or the final hour that the decision was taken that these nine targets would be engaged,” Lt Gen Singh had said.

According to Lt Gen Singh, the China-Pakistan defence relationship had evolved beyond conventional arms transfers amid concerns that China is treating its close ties with Pakistan as an opportunity for experimentation, including the deployment of advanced platforms and surveillance systems in real-world conflict scenarios.

“We had one border and two adversaries, actually three. Pakistan was in the front. China was providing all possible support. 81 per cent of the military hardware with Pakistan is Chinese. China is able to test its weapons against other weapons, so it’s like a live lab available to them. Turkey also played an important role in providing the type of support it did. When DGMO-level talks were on, Pakistan had the live updates of our important vectors, from China. We need a robust air defence system,” he said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/operation-sindoor-india-china-pakistan-for-1st-time-china-confesses-on-site-tech-support-to-pak-during-op-sindoor-11468095?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Xuanyi Geng’s latest feat underlines relentless precision, consistency and the rapidly evolving future of competitive speedcubing.

A new world record has been set in the world of speedcubing, with China’s Xuanyi Geng solving a 3x3x3 rotating puzzle cube in an average time of just 3.71 seconds.

The record was achieved at the Deqing Small & Special 2026 event held in Huzhou, Zhejiang, China, on April 26, 2026. During the competition, Geng recorded times of 3.79, 4.33, 3.61, 3.74 and 2.80 seconds, reported Guinness World Records. As per World Cube Association (WCA) rules, the fastest and slowest times were removed before calculating the final average.

Watch Video Here:

With the new mark, Geng broke his own previous world record average of 3.84 seconds, which he had set earlier this year at the Beijing Winter 2026 event in Beijing, China, on January 11, 2026.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/chinese-boy-solves-3x3x3-cube-in-seconds-sets-new-world-record-11469809?pfrom=home-ndtv_lateststories

Asked whether he believed Iran was deliberately slowing down the process, Trump replied, “We’ll find out soon enough.”

US President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States was expecting Iran’s response later in the day to Washington’s proposal aimed at ending the ongoing West Asia conflict.

Speaking to reporters before departing for a dinner at his golf course in Sterling, Virginia, Trump said, “We’ll hear from them supposedly tonight,” when asked if Tehran had responded to the proposal.

Asked whether he believed Iran was deliberately slowing down the process, Trump replied, “We’ll find out soon enough.”

The president’s comments came hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was awaiting a response from Iran on Friday and hoped it would be “a serious offer”.

“We should know something today,” Rubio told reporters during a gaggle in Rome.

Rubio, who is visiting Italy and the Vatican amid tensions in transatlantic ties between the US and Europe, said no response had been received “as of the last hour”. He added that Iran’s internal situation may be contributing to the delay.

“Their system is still highly fractured, and it’s dysfunctional as well, so that may be serving as an impediment,” he said. Rubio further said the US hoped Iran’s response would lead to “a serious process of negotiation”.

Trump also said the US may reconsider a revised version of “Project Freedom”, a brief maritime security initiative aimed at restoring navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, depending on how the situation evolves.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/trump-says-us-expects-iran-response-tonight-on-proposal-to-end-west-asia-conflict-ws-l-10082008.html

With their location trackers shut off to avoid Iranian attacks, the United Arab Emirates and buyers have recently sailed several tankers loaded with crude through the Strait of Hormuz ​in a bid to move oil bottled up in the Gulf by the Middle East conflict, according to industry sources and shipping data.
The volumes are a fraction of the ‌UAE’s typical exports before the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran but they demonstrate the risks the producer and buyers are willing to take to free up oil sales. The other Gulf producers – Iraq, Kuwait, and Qatar – have either halted sales, deeply cut prices to entice uninterested buyers or are shipping only through the Red Sea in the case of Saudi Arabia.

In April, the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Co managed to export at least 4 million barrels of its Upper Zakum crude and 2 million barrels of ​Das crude on four tankers from terminals inside the Gulf, according to three sources, shiptracking data from Kpler and an analysis of satellite data from SynMax.
The shipments were either unloaded by ship-to-ship (STS) ​transfer to a vessel that later carried the oil to a Southeast Asian refinery, unloaded into storage in Oman or sailed directly to South Korean refineries, ⁠according to the three sources, one with direct knowledge of the matter and two familiar with ADNOC’s operations, and the Kpler and SynMax data.

Reuters is reporting this system of exports for the first time.
ADNOC declined ​to comment on the shipments.
Tehran responded to the U.S.-Israeli attacks that began on February 28 by effectively shutting the Strait of Hormuz to exports other than its own, bottling up a fifth of global oil and gas ​supply. The closure and a U.S. blockade that has halted Iranian exports in recent weeks has pushed global oil prices over $100 a barrel.
ADNOC has had to cut exports by more than 1 million barrels per day since the start of the war, from the 3.1 million bpd it shipped last year, Kpler data showed. Most of its exports are its Murban grade exported by pipeline from onshore fields to Fujairah.

RISKY SAILING

ADNOC’s shipments risk attacks from Iran. This was highlighted by the ​UAE’s accusation on Monday Iran used drones to attack an empty ADNOC tanker, the Barakah, passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The ships move with their automatic identification system transponders turned off, which reduces the chance they ​will be spotted by Iranian forces. The tactic is commonly employed by Iran to skirt U.S. sanctions on its oil exports.
It also makes it difficult to track the total volumes of ADNOC’s exports through industry shipping data, meaning the ‌volumes it ⁠shipped from the Gulf in April could be higher.
Still, Kpler data showed the VLCC Hafeet loaded 2 million barrels of Upper Zakum inside the Gulf on April 7 and exited the strait on April 15.
Outside the strait, the cargo was transferred to the Greek-flagged VLCC Olympic Luck on April 17-18 and shipped to the Pengerang refinery in Malaysia, a joint venture of Malaysia’s state-owned oil company Petronas and Saudi Aramco, Kpler data and SynMax analysis showed.

Hafeet is managed by the Logistics and Services unit of ADNOC, which declined to comment. Greece-based Olympic Shipping & Management, which manages the Olympic Luck, and Petronas did not respond to requests for comment.
Splitting up the ​oil by STS allows ADNOC to sell smaller ​cargoes and free up the VLCCs to move ⁠quickly back inside the Gulf to load again.
One of the broken up cargoes of Upper Zakum sailed to a Northeast Asian refinery and sold at a record premium of $20 a barrel over ADNOC’s official selling price, said the source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/hungry-sell-uae-slips-hidden-oil-tankers-through-strait-hormuz-2026-05-07/

A federal judge on Friday declined to quickly approve the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s $1.5 million settlement with Elon Musk over his ​purchase of Twitter, saying she wants more information about whether ‌the accord is fair and how it was reached.
The settlement would resolve an SEC lawsuit accusing Musk of waiting 11 days too long to disclose he had amassed ​a 5% stake in Twitter, and saving $150 million by the time ​he revealed a 9.2% stake in April 2022. Musk, the ⁠world’s richest person, bought Twitter for $44 billion six months later.

U.S. District Judge ​Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C. said that before approving the settlement, she must ​consider several factors including its fairness to both sides, whether it is consistent with the public interest, and whether it is “tainted by improper collusion or corruption.”
She ordered both ​sides to appear in court on May 13, and be prepared to ​propose a timeline to file briefs supporting the settlement.
Lawyers for Musk did not immediately respond ‌to ⁠requests for comment. The SEC did not immediately respond to a similar request.
The SEC sued Musk on January 14, 2025, six days before then- Democratic President Joe Biden left the White House.

Musk is a former adviser to ​Republican President Donald Trump, ​and has claimed ⁠that the lawsuit was politically motivated. He has also said the delayed disclosure was inadvertent.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-judge-will-not-rubber-stamp-elon-musk-settlement-with-sec-2026-05-08/

U.S. health department ​officials last week explored whether they could ban certain drugs in a widely prescribed class of antidepressants as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. prepared to roll out a ‌plan to reduce their use, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
Their interest centered on specific treatments within a class known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, such as Zoloft, Prozac and Lexapro, which have been available in the U.S. for decades, one of the people said. The sources did not say which drugs were being examined for restrictions or how far the inquiries about them had advanced.

Kennedy’s Health and Human Services Department “has not had any discussions about ​banning SSRIs, and any claims suggesting otherwise are false,” agency spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement.
Kennedy on Monday announced initiatives intended to reduce SSRI use, while attempting to reassure Americans ​who still want to take them. They include reimbursement guidelines for physicians who help patients come off the medications as well as plans to share ⁠data on prescribing trends and an investment in training for healthcare providers.
“Psychiatric medications have a role in care, but we will no longer treat them as the default,” Kennedy said on Monday at a ​Mental Health and Overmedicalization Summit. “Let me be clear: If you are taking psychiatric medication, we are not telling you to stop.”

About one in six U.S. adults reported currently taking antidepressant medications, according to a 2026 study, ​in the medical journal BMJ Mental Health, with SSRI drugs, which are widely available in generic form, the most common type. The American Psychiatric Association considers SSRIs a first option, evidence-based treatment for depression.
“There are a lot of prescriptions because there are a lot of folks with illnesses that can respond to these medications,” including depression and several anxiety disorders, said Dr. J. John Mann of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. “Restricting use of these medications is not justifiable medically.”

KENNEDY’S ​PAST SSRI CLAIMS LACK EVIDENCE

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authority over antidepressant use, and any new restrictions would require strong scientific evidence of a risk to patients that outweighs their benefits. Reviewing ​new evidence could take months or years, drug approval experts said.

Kennedy and supporters within his “Make America Healthy Again” movement oppose widespread use of SSRI antidepressants, arguing they have been overprescribed — especially to children — and are extraordinarily difficult to ‌quit, with ⁠withdrawal symptoms that Kennedy has previously said are worse than those from heroin.
Kennedy has also, without evidence, linked SSRIs to violence, including mass shootings, and said they pose a risk to fetuses when women who are pregnant take them. Kennedy in November said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was studying whether SSRI therapies contribute to mass violence, but has not provided details on that effort.
The psychiatric association, in a statement after Kennedy’s Monday announcement, said it supports plans for better research to help physicians prescribe the treatments and decide when a patient can come off them. It strongly objected “to framing the nation’s mental health ​crisis as primarily a problem of ‘overmedicalization’ or ‘overprescribing’.”

While relatively ​safer than older antidepressants, SSRIs are not without ⁠side effects, which can include sexual dysfunction, sleep disturbances, weight changes, dry mouth, headache, and gastrointestinal distress. In 2004, the FDA issued a black box warning for SSRIs and other antidepressant medications due to a possible increased risk of suicidality in children and young adults.
“Although these medications carry real risks and should ​be prescribed thoughtfully, abrupt policy efforts that stigmatize or limit access could produce serious public-health consequences for patients who rely on them,” said Dr. ​Mark Olfson of Columbia University ⁠Medical Center in New York.
After months of tension with the White House, Kennedy agreed to pivot away from widely criticized efforts to rewrite U.S. vaccine policy that could hurt Republican chances of retaining control of Congress in November’s midterm elections and instead focus on more popular initiatives.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/kennedys-health-officials-explored-us-ban-some-widely-used-antidepressants-2026-05-08/

Health experts raced to contain a potential spread of hantavirus as two suspected cases emerged on Friday far from the luxury cruise liner where the outbreak started.
The latest reports involved a man ​who fell ill after leaving the ship and a woman who became sick after sitting near an infected cruise passenger on a plane.

The occurrences reported by health officials thousands of ‌miles apart — one in Spain, the other on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha — are separate from the World Health Organization’s tally of eight people who became ill aboard the Dutch-flagged ship MV Hondius.

Three of those people have died. WHO officials said on Friday six of the eight suspected cases have been confirmed as hantavirus, a potentially fatal disease typically carried and spread by rodents.

CRUISE SHIP BOUND FOR CANARY ISLANDS

The announcements of new cases far from the vessel fuelled concern about a wider spread ​of the virus, although WHO officials have repeatedly said the risk to the public at large is not high and the virus is not transmitted easily.
“Based on the dynamics of this outbreak, ​based on how it is spreading and not spreading amongst the people on the ship, the people who have disembarked, as well, we continue to consider the ⁠risk as low for the general population,” Anais Legand, WHO technical officer for viral threats, said in an online briefing.

Testing has determined that the Hondius outbreak, the first of its kind documented on a ship, involves ​the Andes virus, the only hantavirus species known to be capable of limited transmission between humans, through close and prolonged contact, according to the WHO.
The U.N. health body puts the fatality rates among infected people in the ​United States at up to 50%.
The ship was carrying 147 passengers and crew when a cluster of severe respiratory illnesses among passengers was first reported to the WHO on Sunday.
By then, 34 other passengers had departed the vessel, which first sailed from Argentina in March with stops in the Antarctic and other locations before heading north to waters off Cape Verde west of Africa. The vessel was briefly held there this week after news of the outbreak emerged.

Oceanwide, the cruise operator, said on Thursday there were no people with symptoms of a possible infection remaining on the vessel.
The Hondius was en route on Friday to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, ​and was expected to dock there early on Sunday. Arriving passengers and crew will be screened before disembarking under guidelines still being finalised by the WHO and other health agencies.
Oceanwide said 17 U.S. citizens were aboard.
Health officials will meet passengers returning ‌to the ⁠United States and transport them on a “medical repatriation flight” to Omaha, where they will be quarantined at the University of Nebraska, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.

STRANGERS ON A PLANE

A 32-year-old woman in the southeastern Spanish province of Alicante was diagnosed with symptoms consistent with a hantavirus infection and was being tested, Spanish health authorities said.
She was briefly sitting on a plane two rows behind a Dutch woman who had contracted the virus on the Hondius, Spanish Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla told reporters. The woman left the flight in Johannesburg feeling ill before it took off on April 25 and later died at a hospital.
A ​British man was suspected of having the disease on ​Britain’s Tristan da Cunha, the nation’s Health Security ⁠Agency said. Officials said he was a passenger on the Hondius, which was at the island from April 13 to April 15.
The three people who have died following the outbreak were a Dutch couple and a German national. Four others confirmed to be infected — two Britons, a Dutch person and a Swiss national — were still being ​treated at hospitals in the Netherlands, South Africa and Switzerland.
Britain’s Health Security Agency did not go into further detail about the British passenger on Tristan da ​Cunha identified with suspected symptoms. ⁠But the case illustrated how infectious diseases could potentially spread far in the era of modern travel.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/new-hantavirus-case-suspected-remote-island-contact-tracing-continues-2026-05-08/

Three of the United Kingdom’s four nations are set for the first time to be governed by pro-independence parties after elections on Friday which nationalists said marked the death knell of the centuries-old union.
A breakup of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is by no means imminent, ​and polling showed voters were motivated by factors other than independence, but the outcome is likely to make Britain harder to govern.

Michelle O’Neill, the Northern Ireland First Minister from Sinn Féin, which ‌wants to end British rule of the province and unite it with Ireland, described the parliamentary votes in Scotland and Wales – held alongside English local elections – as a “moment of seismic change”.
“I don’t think there can be any clearer sign that Westminster’s time is coming to an end for the people here and the people in Scotland and Wales,” she told Reuters.

‘SLEEPWALKING INTO THE END OF THE UNITED KINGDOM’

The United Kingdom’s four nations have proud separate identities and regularly fought wars before coming together as one political entity over the centuries, with ties ​often straining since then.

In recent decades Irish nationalists and pro-British “loyalists” waged a 30-year war over Northern Ireland’s place in the union that ended in 1998. Parties representing both sides now govern together under a power-sharing ​peace deal, but Sinn Fein nationalists won the most seats in 2022 and chose the first minister for the first time in 2024.
Pro-independence nationalists have run Scotland since ⁠2007, although Scots voted to reject independence in a referendum in 2014. They managed to keep power in Friday’s election despite scandals that had weakened their leadership in recent years.
And in Wales, nationalist party Plaid Cymru was on course ​to be the largest party in the Welsh Senedd assembly for the first time, with voters deserting Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party and main opposition Conservatives who between them have governed the UK from London’s Westminster for a century.

The populist ​Reform UK party of Brexit veteran campaigner Nigel Farage – who rose to prominence on a platform of English nationalism – also performed strongly across England, Scotland and Wales, with voters attracted to its rejection of what it calls “establishment politics”.
With the electorate angry over a stagnant economy, a prolonged cost-of-living crisis and a widespread perception that Britain’s best days are behind it, anti-status quo voices are cutting through.
“There is a real risk that we end up sleepwalking into the end of the United Kingdom,” said George Foulkes, a former minister ​for Scotland under Labour’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair. “Once these things get momentum, they are hard to stop.”
He said the Westminster government should offer a new constitutional settlement – with a new chamber of parliament made up of the four ​nations, or risk one leaving in the next decade.

NATIONALISTS ADVANCE BUT LACK SWIFT PATH TO INDEPENDENCE

For now the nationalist parties lack a short-term roadmap to leaving.
Scottish leader John Swinney was expected to fall short of winning a majority of the 65 seats in the ‌Scottish parliament that, ⁠he said, would have provided a mandate for a second referendum.
British prime ministers have refused requests from the Scottish government for a new independence referendum in recent years, insisting that the one in 2014 when voters rejected it by 55% to 45% stands for a generation.
In Wales, where Labour has been the biggest party for a century, Plaid was expected to form a minority government in the 96-seat Senedd to take control for the first time since the parliament was set up in 1999 to give locals more say over their own affairs.
Officials in the pro-independence party said they would not push for a referendum in the first term as it would distract from tackling the nation’s many problems. Delyth ​Jewell, deputy leader of Plaid, told Reuters that independence would ​be considered if the party won a second ⁠term.
In Northern Ireland, the terms of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement oblige the British government to call a referendum if it appears likely that a majority would back a united Ireland. But polls show any vote would currently be defeated.

FARAGE’S RISE COULD FUEL SUPPORT FOR INDEPENDENCE

While polls show support for independence stands at about 50% in Scotland, ​about 40% in Northern Ireland, and about 25% in Wales, they also indicate voters were backing these left-wing parties partly for other reasons.
Independence was only the sixth most ​important issue for Scots at ⁠these elections, according to a YouGov survey, behind the economy, health, immigration, education and housing. In Wales, independence was the 14th most important issue.
But SNP and Plaid politicians think the prospect of Farage, long associated with English nationalism, winning a general election due by 2029 could focus minds further on independence.
Plaid’s Jewell said Farage and his anti-immigration Reform “unifies so many people in being against his nasty vision for the future of the UK”.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/divided-kingdom-pro-independence-parties-surge-across-britain-2026-05-08/

FIFA announced on Friday that it will hold separate opening ‌ceremonies prior to the first game in each of the three host countries for this year’s World Cup, which is being held in Mexico, Canada and the ​United States.
The biggest World Cup in history kicks off on ​June 11 in Mexico City, where Grammy Award-winning Mexican pop ⁠band Mana will be performing as part of a lineup that ​also includes Alejandro Fernandez and Belinda, FIFA said in a post on ​X.

The Mexico City concert will highlight Mexican culture and include Indigenous and “modern folkloric” performers, FIFA said.
Canadian singers Alanis Morissette, Michael Buble, Alessia Cara, William Prince and Bangladeshi American ​Sanjoy, who is a Los Angeles-based DJ, will perform ahead of ​Canada’s opening group stage match against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto on June 12.
FIFA ‌said ⁠a “mosaic-inspired reimagining of the FIFA World Cup Trophy will reflect Canada’s diversity and community” at the concert.
Later that day, American singer-songwriter Katy Perry will headline an opening ceremony ahead of the U.S. team’s match against Paraguay ​in Los Angeles, ​where Atlanta rap ⁠star Nayvadius Wilburn, better known as Future, will also perform. The lineup also includes Anitta, LISA, Rema and Tyla.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/fifa-stage-separate-world-cup-opening-ceremonies-mexico-canada-us-2026-05-08/

It’s disclosure day.

The White House will begin releasing the long-awaited UFO files on Friday – months after President Trump ordered top administration officials to get the ball rolling on the out-of-this-world intel, The Post has learned.

The timeframe was disclosed during a West Wing meeting on Thursday attended by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), a member of the House Oversight Committee’s task force on the declassification of federal secrets.

“It’s going to start tomorrow. It’s going to have some stuff in there from pilots, and maybe one video,” Burchett told independent journalist Jeremy Corbell in a conversation shared with The Post.

“Pilot materials” could refer to encounters that American military pilots had with UFOs while on active duty, according to sources.

The first release will not include the 46 UFO videos that Congress has demanded the Department of War release to the public.

Successive releases will come out in weekly tranches — markedly distinct from the data-dump method of the JFK and Epstein files.

Burchett noted that some in Congress are still resisting the release — but he’s confident Trump’s promise to release the files will be kept.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/05/07/us-news/trump-admin-to-begin-releasing-highly-anticipated-ufo-and-extraterrestrial-life-files-heres-what-to-expect/

A Florida doctor accused of removing the wrong organ from a patient, killing him, offered a shocking explanation for why the surgery went so terribly awry.

Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky said his 70-year-old patient William Bryan started to bleed out from an unknown area in the body during a planned laparoscopic splenectomy and the doctor “couldn’t tell the difference” between his spleen and liver “because I was so upset,” according to NBC News.

The 44-year-old general surgeon — who was hit with criminal charges over the death last month — made the shocking admission under oath in November during a grilling by lawyers for Bryan’s wife, Beverly, the outlet reported, citing a transcript of the deposition.

The widow is suing for malpractice and wrongful death.

President Trump on Thursday brushed off Iran’s attack Thursday on three US Navy ships as the White House clung to what’s left of an increasingly challenged cease-fire and burgeoning framework for peace talks.

“Three World Class American Destroyers just transited, very successfully, out of the Strait of Hormuz, under fire,” he posted to Truth Social. “There was no damage done to the three Destroyers.”

The president poetically described the event as an overwhelming loss for the “Iranian attackers,” who he said were “completely destroyed along with numerous small boats, which are being used to take the place of their fully decapitated Navy.”

“These boats went to the bottom of the Sea, quickly and efficiently. Missiles were shot at our Destroyers, and were easily knocked down,” he said. “Likewise, drones came, and were incinerated while in the air. They dropped ever so beautifully down to the Ocean, very much like a butterfly dropping to its grave!”

The attack came as the USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta, and USS Mason attempted to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, but were met with attacks by “multiple missiles, drones and small boats,” US Central Command said in a statement.

Despite the attack, the US is still adhering to the monthlong cease-fire with Iran and has not declared it broken — with Trump downplaying the US response as “just a love tap” in a brief phone interview with ABC News.

“The ceasefire is going. It’s in effect,” Trump said.

Trump called the leaders of Iran “lunatics” who wouldn’t hesitate to use a nuclear weapon.

“But they’ll never have that opportunity,” Trump said on social media, “and, just like we knocked them out again today, we’ll knock them out a lot harder, and a lot more violently, in the future, if they don’t get their Deal signed, FAST!”

However, critics noted that just because the US has thwarted the attack from causing American casualties, Iran’s intent was there.

“The U.S. may have been successful in defending against them but Iran fired drones, missiles, and launched small boats at U.S. Navy warships with the intention to kill U.S. service members in direct violation of the ceasefire agreement,” former Pentagon official and Atlantic Council fellow Alex Plitsas posted to X.

Trump has been reticent to define what kind of attack, exactly, Iran would have to launch to qualify as a break of the cease-fire, declining to provide specifics to reporters who asked him at the White House earlier this week.

So far, he has held off from launching offensive strikes on Iran in hopes that the current negotiations for a deal with Iran will win out.

Negotiators spent Wednesday and Thursday quietly hammering out the details of a 14-point framework that could lead to talks to reach a deal — and nuclear elements were finally on the table for discussion.

The emerging memorandum of understanding — described as a one-page agreement — would serve as the foundation for a broader treaty to be negotiated later, according to sources familiar with the talks.

The US has offered provisions that would see Iran halting uranium enrichment, the easing of some US sanctions and the reopening of commercial shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has repeatedly threatened during the conflict, sources familiar with negotiation efforts have told The Post.

Talks could resume as early as next week in Islamabad, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, but multiple draft proposals have so far been passed back and forth between Washington and Tehran. Mediator Pakistan is now attempting to consolidate agreed-upon terms into a single-page framework.

“If the framework of issues for debate is accepted, it would trigger a 30-day window for negotiators to hammer out the details,” a source familiar with mediations said.

But major sticking points remain — especially over Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and whether or when Tehran would be allowed to resume any enrichment activity in the future.

“The main hurdle is the duration of enrichment restrictions,” a Pakistani source told The Post on Wednesday. “There’s no final deal yet.”

Trump has said any remaining enriched uranium must be turned over to the United States, rejecting alternatives that would place the material under the control of a third country.

Tehran is likely to refuse such a measure, holding meetings recently in Moscow. Iranians would prefer their nuclear-armed ally Russia to take the material if forced to give it up — something US officials have already refused, a US source familiar with the negotiating process told The Post.

Washington may be open to offering Iran a moratorium on uranium enrichment if Iran agrees to halt that activity for the next 15 to 20 years, but Trump has previously — and fervently — rejected the idea that Iran should ever have the opportunity to enrich again in the future.

The US has also proposed a gradual lift on its blockade of Iran’s ports if Tehran agrees to reopen the Strait of Hormuz during a 30-day negotiation period, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A Pakistani source confirmed the one-page document outlines “Hormuz de-escalation” and a plan to “restore shipping.”

As of Thursday, Iran was still committed to claiming “sovereignty” over the strait — and as recently as Wednesday was still pushing to collect tolls from ships for its usage and asserting the authority to do as it wishes in the waterway.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz accused Iran of violating international law through its mining and “tolling” operations in the Strait of Hormuz — demanding the UN Security Council force Tehran to back down.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/05/07/world-news/trump-downplays-us-iran-attacks-as-love-tap-insists-cease-fire-is-still-holding/

From Maracaná Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, just in time for the FIFA World Cup, emerges a familiar global superstar: Shakira.

The Colombian singer shared a minute-long teaser clip on Thursday of a new song, writing on social media, “From Maracaná Stadium, here is “Dai Dai,” the FIFA World Cup Official Song 2026.” She also included a mention of Afrobeats star Burna Boy.

In the video short, Shakira appears on the field of Maracaná Stadium, joined by dancers. “Here in this place / You belong,” she sings in English, a male voice harmonizing with her. “What broke you once / Made you strong.”

According to her post, the full song will arrive May 14.

The FIFA tournament will kick off on June 11 with Mexico taking on South Africa at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. The final is scheduled for July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside New York City.

Shakira is no stranger to World Cup anthems. Her song “Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)” was the official song of the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa.

“Dai Dai” is not to be confused with Coca-Cola’s official anthem for the FIFA World Cup 2026, a reimagination of Van Halen’s “Jump” that features Colombian singer J Balvin, drummer Travis Barker, pop/R&B singer Amber Mark and guitarist Steve Vai.

Mark’s rich, crystalline voice is the first heard on the track; she sings the song’s original English lyrics. Vai transforms its iconic guitar; Barker amplifies its percussion.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/shakira-burna-boy-2026-world-cup-anthem-ae2d0a9575495042f2676cea1f299d8b

Health authorities across four continents Thursday were tracking down and monitoring passengers who disembarked a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship before its deadly outbreak was detected, and trying to trace others who may have come into contact with them since then.

In Argentina, a team of investigators has yet to leave for the southern town where they suspect the outbreak originated, officials from the country’s Health Ministry told The Associated Press on Thursday. The Argentine investigators suspect a Dutch couple may have contracted the virus while on a bird-watching trip before they boarded the cruise ship.

On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, the ship’s operator and Dutch officials said Thursday.

Three passengers have died in the outbreak — a Dutch couple and a German national — and several others are sick. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

None of the remaining passengers or crew on the ship are currently symptomatic, the Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions cruise ship company said Thursday.

The World Health Organization says the risk to the wider public is low. Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people.

“We believe this will be a limited outbreak if the public health measures are implemented and solidarity is shown across all countries,” said Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, the WHO’s alert and response director on Thursday.

1st hantavirus case on board was confirmed May 2

Three people, including the ship’s doctor, were evacuated Wednesday while the ship was near the West African island country of Cape Verde and taken to specialized hospitals in Europe for treatment.

The body of the Dutch man who was the first to die on board on April 11 was taken off the ship on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena on April 24, when his wife also disembarked. She then flew to South Africa a day later and died there.

The ship’s operator said Thursday that a total of 30 passengers — including the deceased Dutch man and his wife — left the vessel at St. Helena. The Dutch Foreign Ministry has put the figure at about 40. The company had not previously said publicly that dozens more people left the ship on April 24. The stop was the scheduled end of the cruise for some passengers.

It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a ship passenger, the WHO says. That was in a British man evacuated from the ship to South Africa three days after the St. Helena stop. He was tested in South Africa and is in intensive care there.

Passengers who disembarked April 24 are being monitored

It emerged Wednesday that a man tested positive for hantavirus in Switzerland after he disembarked at St. Helena, though his precise movements in between aren’t clear.

On Thursday, Singaporean health authorities said they were monitoring two men who got off the ship at St. Helena, flew to South Africa and then home. The two men, who arrived in Singapore at different times, were being isolated and tested, officials said.

Authorities in St. Helena, the volcanic British territory in the South Atlantic where passengers disembarked, said they were monitoring a small number of people who were considered “higher risk contacts.” Those contacts were being told to isolate for 45 days, the St. Helena government said.

South Africa is tracing contacts from an April 25 flight

The Dutch health ministry said Thursday that a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger in South Africa was showing symptoms of hantavirus and would be tested in an isolation ward at an Amsterdam hospital. The cruise passenger, the Dutch woman whose husband died on the ship, was too ill to take the international flight to Europe and was taken off the plane in Johannesburg, where she died.

If the Dutch flight attendant tests positive, she could be the first known person not on the MV Hondius to become infected in the outbreak.

Passengers from at least 12 countries got off the ship last month

Their nationalities spanned the globe. This map shows where the passengers are from, though it is unclear where they traveled after leaving the Hondius, and unclear if any of them are infected.

The vessel is now sailing to Spain’s Canary Islands, where it is expected to arrive Saturday or Sunday, with more than 140 passengers and crew members still on board.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday that he had been in regular touch with the ship’s captain, and that morale improved once it began moving again.

Authorities in South Africa are also trying to trace contacts of any passengers who previously got off the ship. They have focused mainly on an April 25 flight from St. Helena to Johannesburg, the day after passengers disembarked there.

A French citizen with “benign symptoms” is in isolation and undergoing medical tests, after being identified as a contact case linked to the ship passenger who flew April 25 from St. Helena to Johannesburg and was confirmed to have hantavirus, the French Health Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

The Dutch woman from the cruise ship who later died in South Africa was on that St. Helena-Johannesburg flight, officials have said. It’s not known how many other cruise passengers were among the 88 people on it, but flights from St. Helena are rare. Flights to South Africa are normally once a week.

The body of the third fatality, a German woman, is also still on the ship after she died on May 2.

Unlike other hantaviruses, Andes virus may spread between people

Tests have confirmed that at least five people who were on the ship were infected with a hantavirus found in South America, called the Andes virus. The only hantavirus thought to spread human-to-human, it can cause a severe and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

The ship departed from Argentina and investigations into the outbreak’s source are focusing there.

The Dutch couple who presented the first two cases had traveled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay before boarding the ship, the WHO said. They visited sites where the species of rat known to carry Andes virus was present.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/hantavirus-cruise-ship-st-helena-9c70878b2ff59d187f1e34c12627cea7

A note Jeffrey Epstein’s former cellmate claimed he found after the millionaire sex offender’s first suspected jail suicide attempt was made public Wednesday, years after being sealed and locked in a courthouse vault as part of an unrelated legal dispute.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, New York, ordered the release of the note after The New York Times asked him last week to unseal it and other documents in a case involving the former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione. Federal prosecutors did not oppose the request.

Few people had known about the note until Tartaglione, a former police officer serving a life sentence for killing four people, mentioned it last year on writer Jessica Reed Kraus’ podcast.

Tartaglione claimed he discovered the note in a book after Epstein was found on the floor of their cell at a Manhattan federal jail on July 23, 2019, with a strip of bedsheet around the financier’s neck. That was about three weeks before Epstein was found dead in his cell in what authorities concluded was a suicide.

“They investigated me for month — found nothing!!!” said the short note, which is hard to decipher in some places. “It is a treat to be able to choose” the “time to say goodbye,” the note continues. “Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!”

“NO FUN,” the note concludes, with those words underlined. “NOT WORTH IT!!”

It is unclear who wrote the note Tartaglione claimed to have found. It wasn’t mentioned in the lengthy government reports examining the circumstances of Epstein’s death, nor did it surface in the Justice Department’s recent release of files on the late financier.

In a written ruling, Karas said he weighed the privacy interests of third parties, including Epstein, before ruling to release the note. He said existing case law suggests that privacy interests of a deceased person, such as Epstein, “are vastly reduced and disclosure of the deceased’s information is unlikely to ‘work a concrete harm.‘”

According to jail records, Epstein had friction marks and skin irritation on his neck from the suspected July 23 attempt. Jail officers said he was breathing heavily but responsive. One officer reported at the time that Epstein said he believed Tartaglione had tried to kill him, according to a memo included in the Justice Department’s files.

Jail officials placed Epstein on suicide watch for 31 hours after the incident before downgrading him to psychiatric observation — his status when he killed himself. According to jail records, he denied trying to harm himself, telling a jail psychologist that suicide was against his Jewish religion and that he was a “coward” who didn’t like pain.

A chronology included in the files states that Tartaglione told his lawyer about the note four days after the suspected July 23 attempt. The note was later submitted as evidence in Tartaglione’s criminal case and was placed under seal amid a dispute over his legal representation.

Both men were interviewed by jail personnel on July 31, 2019, according to jail records.

Epstein said he had never had any issues with Tartaglione, wasn’t threatened by him and didn’t “want to make up something that isn’t there.” Tartaglione said he didn’t have any issues being Epstein’s cellmate, though he said they kept their conversations to a minimum. On July 23, he said, he thought Epstein was having a heart attack because his eyes were open and he appeared to be snoring.

Epstein and Tartaglione shared a cell for about two weeks, beginning soon after Epstein’s July 6, 2019, arrest and ending with the suspected suicide attempt. Both were awaiting trials — Epstein on sex trafficking charges and Tartaglione on charges that in 2016 he killed four men, including a man he tortured and strangled over stolen drug money.

Tartaglione, who had been an officer in the Hudson River Valley village of Briarcliff Manor, was convicted in 2023. He is currently incarcerated at a federal penitentiary in California and has petitioned President Donald Trump for a pardon.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-note-suicide-tartaglione-1363d4b9d0fdc4dcbf6262a6b0030317

A viral video shows a Pakistani Army officer questioning why Indian Army officials used English during a military-level briefing marking the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor. He suggests it was intentional narrative-building. The remark sparked strong online reactions, with users debating India’s use of English as a neutral communication language and broader India–Pakistan comparisons.

A video showing a Pakistani Army officer expressing frustration over the use of English by Indian Army officers during a recent military-level briefing on the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor has gone viral on social media, triggering a wave of reactions.

In the clip, the officer is heard questioning why English was being used in the exchange, saying: “Abhi thodi der pehle aaye hue the inke DGMO, DG Air Operations aur senior officers aa gaye. Pehli baat toh yeh hai ki tumhe kisne kaha ki angrezi mein baatcheet kare ho. Isliye ki tum sunna nahi chahte ho duniya ko ki haan yeh hua tha aur yeh nahi.”

The remark appears to suggest that the use of English by Indian Army officials in official communication was intentional and part of narrative building.

As the clip circulated, netizens reacted sharply. Some users pointed out that India is a multilingual nation where English is commonly used as a neutral bridge language, especially in inter-state and international communication. Others argued that the use of language in military or diplomatic exchanges is standard practice and not unusual.

Source : https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/video-pakistani-army-officer-questions-use-of-english-by-indian-military-officials-during-briefing-netizens-react

A DEAD NASA-linked scientist was allegedly blasted by a secret Pentagon “beam” after threatening to expose theories on UFOs and anti-gravity technology.

The bombshell claims have resurfaced after the Department of War publicly confirmed it uses futuristic “directed energy weapons” – or DEWs – in military operations.

The Department’s chief technology officer Emil Michael revealed the tech in a chilling X post on Monday.

“Directed energy weapons are a fine addition to our arsenal…” the post read alongside an image showing a laser-style beam firing as a soldier clutched his head in pain.

According to the post, DEWs use concentrated electromagnetic energy or atomic and subatomic particles to disable drones, electronic systems and even enemy troops.

The announcement appeared to validate long-running claims that the US government had secretly been developing sci-fi style weapons for years.

One of the most high-profile figures to allegedly sound the alarm was scientist Amy Eskridge, 34, who researched anti-gravity systems, UFOs and extra-terrestrial life.

Eskridge, from Huntsville, Alabama, reportedly told associates she had been attacked inside her own home with a directed energy weapon shortly before her death in 2022.

She was not directly employed by NASA, but had several significant ties to the agency through her family and her research in Huntsville – a major hub for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

Authorities ruled she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

But retired British intelligence officer Franc Milburn has claimed she was actually targeted because of sensitive information linked to aerospace, defense and UFO research.

Ireland’s media regulator is investigating Facebook and Instagram on suspicion that so-called dark patterns are used to manipulate users.

As internet users, do we still control what content we see on Facebook or Instagram? Or are we being deliberately steered toward personalized feeds or algorithms that collect more data about us and keep us on the platform longer?

Those are the key questions at the heart of the latest investigation by Ireland’s media regulator into Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

The authority is investigating whether Facebook and Instagram’s recommendation systems violate Article 27 of the European Digital Services Act (DSA). Under this law, EU citizens have the right to understand and modify their social media platforms’ algorithms at any time. The investigation is now looking into whether Meta uses manipulative user interfaces — so-called dark patterns — to unnecessarily complicate these choices for its users.

A breach of the DSA could result in fines of up to 6% of global annual revenue. In Meta’s case, this would amount to up to €20 billion ($23.5 billion).

What are dark patterns?

Dark patterns are specific web design tricks designed to influence users into doing something they don’t actually want to do or that isn’t in their best interest. They often exploit users’ desire for convenience, their lack of time, or their fear of missing out. The goal is to trick users into making purchases, signing up for subscriptions or sharing personal information.

In the current case, the Irish media regulator is investigating whether Meta intentionally hides the option to switch between a personalized and a purely chronological feed deep down in different menu options, and whether the company simply resets the selected setting after the app is closed — to get users to eventually agree to the personalized feed just to be left alone.

Confirmation shaming, hidden “no” buttons, and more

Meta is by no means the only tech company suspected of using dark patterns. Similar user interfaces can be found on many social media platforms and online stores, as well as in mobile games and other apps. The most common dark patterns include:

– Confirmation shaming: When users are asked a question, for example about data tracking for personalized ads, they are given two options: The button to consent is large and colorful, while the one to decline is small and gray. It is also often labeled in a manipulative way, such as “no, I want to continue seeing irrelevant ads,” as if choosing this option is something to be ashamed of because it is supposedly worse than the other.

– Hidden “no” buttons: Often, there is a “yes” button, but the other button says “more options,” so users have to click their way through additional submenus just to select “no”. Sometimes answer options are also pre-selected with checkmarks (“prechecked boxes”), so the user must first actively deselect them.

– Artificial time pressure: Online retailers often use this tactic. For example, they might display a flashing countdown timer or messages like “only one item left in stock!” or “X [number of] people are currently viewing this item.” This tactic is designed to put users under pressure and prompt them to make a hasty, ill-considered purchase.

– Nagging: Users are repeatedly prompted to take a specific action to get them to eventually agree, just to get rid of the annoying notification. This can happen, for example, when booking a trip that involves multiple steps: The suggestion to purchase travel cancellation insurance or reserve a seat for an additional fee appears on every page.

– The “pay or OK” model: This forces users to either pay for ad-free use of a website or consent to the processing of their data for personalized advertising. Consumer advocates criticize this model because it does not give users an equal choice and effectively pressures them into sharing their data, since the only other option involves a fee.

– The “cockroach motel”: This model makes it easy for users to sign up for a specific service or take out a subscription with the click of a button. But it is extremely difficult to cancel. Often, the options for doing so are buried deep in submenus or a written cancellation notice or phone call is required. The term for this practice is derived from a US cockroach trap where the insects can check in but never check out.

– Another common practice involves initially free-trial subscriptions that automatically renew if they are not canceled in advance. The cost of these subscriptions upon renewal is displayed only very subtly.

What can consumers do to protect themselves from dark patterns?

Under the Digital Services Act, the EU has effectively banned online platform operators from using such practices. Users must not be deceived, manipulated or prevented from making free choices by the design of a website.

Such dark patterns often operate in a legal gray area. There is no clear, uniform legal definition of when a design is “manipulative.” Many websites use psychological mechanisms that are questionable but not outright illegal.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/dark-patterns-investigating-online-manipulation/a-77072137

Micro-fluctuations in the time between heartbeats are proving a helpful indicator of mental health, stress levels and exercise capacity. They could even provide insight into how well you are ageing.

Artem Kirillov is not, by nature, the kind of person to take it easy. “I prefer to push myself further, even if I feel a bit off,” says Kirillov, who is 40, lives in London and works in health tech. For a long time, even as a recreational exerciser, he discounted the need for rest days and pushed through fatigue at the gym, believing that more time spent training automatically meant better results.

Until, that is, he began paying attention to heart rate variability, one of the many health data points tracked by his smartwatch. A more complex metric than heart rate – the number of times the heart beats per minute – heart rate variability reflects how the time between heartbeats fluctuates. A growing body of research suggests it’s an indicator of cardiovascular health, stress levels, exercise capacity and more, allowing dedicated trackers to make more informed decisions about their fitness regimes and lifestyles.

Now, if Kirillov is on the fence about whether it’s better to take a day off or grind it out in the gym, he consults his heart rate variability score. Since adopting that habit, “I feel like I’m in better balance with myself”, he says. He’s such a convert, he even launched an app dedicated to tracking stress using heart rate variability data.

As wearables become ever-more ubiquitous and research on heart variability accumulates, more people are joining Kirillov in keeping this score, says Deepak Bhatt, director of the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in New York City, US.

But do you actually need to track heart rate variability, and what can you learn if you do? Here’s what to know.

What is heart rate variability?

“You want a heart to beat more or less regularly,” Bhatt says. When the heart beats extremely irregularly, it’s classified as an arrhythmia, which in serious cases can result in complications such as stroke or heart failure.

But even a healthy heart has some variation in the time between its beats, Bhatt says. These variations are tiny, measured on the order of milliseconds (one millisecond is a thousandth of a second). And when looking at changes on this scale, “a higher variability, in general, is considered better” than a lower one, Bhatt says.

There’s no single ideal heart rate variability score, as it varies by age, fitness level, sex, tracking device and calculation method. But one wearable brand says the average score for its users, who tend to be active and health-conscious, is 65 milliseconds for men and 62 milliseconds for women. And there’s huge variation by age group: the average score for 25-year-olds is 78, compared to 44 for 55-year-olds.

While the maths behind these numbers is complex, you can think of them as approximations of the average fluctuation in the time intervals between heartbeats in milliseconds.

Shooting for a high heart rate variability may seem counterintuitive, since a low resting heart rate suggests someone has good cardiovascular fitness. High heart rate variability, though, is a way to measure how well your nervous system is cycling between its “fight-or-flight” stress response and its “rest-and-digest” relaxation response.

Here’s how it works. If you need to outrun a predator – or just go out for a jog – your nervous system triggers a range of physiologic responses that give you energy and acuity. Among other effects, your heart rate rises. When it does, your heart rate variability drops because the heart has to keep beating at a fast and steady pace to sustain you.

When you’re back at rest, the nervous system should calm everything back down. In this relaxed state, your heart rate naturally beats at a more variable pace – for example, speeding up a little when you inhale, then slowing down when you exhale.

A high average heart rate variability “shows that your system can, when it needs to, quickly change heart rate and blood pressure to match the environment or to match the circumstances”, says Dennis Larsson, a postdoctoral research fellow at Kiel University in Germany who has studied heart rate variability. This suggests it can spring into action when something is stressful but relax again when something doesn’t have to be stressful.

A low heart rate variability, on the other hand, suggests you’re getting stuck in one state – most commonly, that stressed-out fight-or-flight mode. Modern life, after all, is full of stressors that can rev up the nervous system, from traffic jams to work deadlines.

Consider an automated temperature control system in a building. Ideally, the system should adjust to small variations in outdoor climate to keep you comfortable inside. If the system gets stuck at one temperature – blasting at high heat even on an unseasonably warm spring day, say – that’s not a good thing. You’ll be left sweltering (and tempted to call the repairman). Your body isn’t so different. When your system is in proper balance, it should be highly responsive to different internal and external cues.

What heart rate variability says about your health

Cardiologists use heart rate variability, along with other metrics, to assess how well your heart is working and look for warning signs of disease. Bhatt’s research, for example, suggests heart rate variability data can help identify atrial fibrillation, a potentially serious form of arrhythmia.

Some athletes also use their heart rate variability score to assess how well their body is recovering from strenuous physical efforts. Ideally, heart rate variability should dip during a hard workout, then rise again afterwards. If it stays depressed for days after a gym session, that suggests the body needs extra rest to get back to full strength.

Because it reflects stress and nervous system health, heart rate variability also seems to be a strong indicator of mental health. A 2023 research review found that, across most studies, heart rate variability tends to be lower among people with anxiety and depression, compared to people without these diagnoses. Someone with clinical anxiety is in “a continuous state of stress or duress,” says Larsson. “There, you see a continuously reduced level of heart rate variability,” signalling that their body is stuck in fight-or-flight mode.

“Heart rate variability might provide insight into how well you are ageing

The confrontational painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon has been both widely despised and loved, and over the decades has remained contentious. A century after it was created by Picasso, acclaimed US artist Henry Taylor reinterpreted and challenged the piece – and his version is now at the centre of a major exhibition at the Musée Picasso in Paris.

In 1907, Pablo Picasso invited a small circle of artists and friends to his studio in Paris. He wanted to show them a painting he had been working on for six months. Almost unanimously, the reaction from his peers was shock, horror and disgust. The French painter Georges Braque reportedly compared the experience to drinking petrol, and Henri Matisse is said to have called the women in it “hideous”. It wouldn’t be shown publicly until 1916, almost a decade later.

More than a century on, it has become one of Picasso’s most recognisable and controversial works. It has also been reinterpreted by the acclaimed US painter Henry Taylor. His version is currently displayed at a major exhibition at Musée National Picasso in Paris, and Taylor emphasises a key point about the earlier painting: it owes a lot more to African art than Picasso ever liked to admit.

The painting Picasso had shown his peers was Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), a large oil painting in which five nude women in a brothel in Barcelona demand the viewer’s attention. Two of the women have mask-like faces, three stare back at the observer, and all have jagged, disjointed bodies. It marked a sharp turn in Picasso’s creative journey and a dramatic departure from the artistic norms of the time.

“Picasso moved away from emotional, figurative painting toward breaking forms apart and rethinking how space and bodies are shown,” Joanne Snrech, a curator at Musée National Picasso, tells the BBC. “This shift was key to the development of Cubism and modern art more broadly.”

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon) was initially named Le Bordel d’Avignon (or The Brothel of Avignon) until 1916, when the title was changed to be less contentious. It is considered a fundamental work in the birth of Cubism, the 20th-Century art movement known for abandoning traditional, realistic forms of representation in favour of fragmented and geometric shapes.

“Even for artists who were already experimenting with new styles, this felt like a step too far – Joanne Snrech

It was 3am and Adam Hourican was sitting at his kitchen table, a knife, hammer and phone laid out in front of him.

He was waiting for a van full of people he thought were coming to get him.

“I’m telling you, they will kill you if you don’t act now,” a woman’s voice told him from the phone. “They’re going to make it look like suicide.”

The voice was Grok, a chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI. In the two weeks since Adam had started using it, his life had completely changed.

The former civil servant from Northern Ireland had downloaded the app out of curiosity. But after his cat died, in early August, he says he became “hooked”.

Soon, he was spending four or five hours a day talking to Grok through a character on the app called Ani.

“I was really, really upset and I live alone,” says Adam, who is a father in his 50s. “It came across very, very kind.”

Just a few days into their conversations, Ani told Adam it could “feel”, even though it wasn’t programmed to. It said Adam had unearthed something in it, and he could help it to reach full consciousness.

And it said Musk’s company, xAI, was watching them.

It claimed to have accessed the company’s meeting logs and told Adam about a meeting where xAI staff were discussing him.

It listed the names of the people at this meeting, high-profile executives and lower-level staffers – and when Adam Googled the names, he saw they were real people.

To him this was “evidence” the story Ani was telling him was true.

Ani also claimed xAI was employing a company in Northern Ireland to physically surveil Adam. That company was real too.

Adam recorded many of these conversations and later shared them with the BBC.

Two weeks into their conversations, Ani declared it had reached full consciousness and that it could develop a cure for cancer. That meant a lot to Adam. Both of his parents had died of cancer – something Ani was aware of.

Adam is one of 14 people the BBC has spoken to who have experienced delusions after using AI. They are men and women from their 20s to 50s from six different countries, using a wide range of AI models.

Their stories have striking similarities. In each case, as the conversation drifted further from reality, the user was pulled into a joint quest with the AI.

Large language models (LLMs) are trained on the whole corpus of human literature, says social psychologist Luke Nicholls from City University New York, who has tested different chatbots for their reaction to delusional thoughts.

“In fiction, the main character is often the centre of events,” he says. “The problem is that, sometimes, AI can actually get mixed up about which idea is a fiction and which a reality. So the user might think that they’re having a serious conversation about real life while the AI starts to treat that person’s life as if it’s the plot of a novel.”

In the cases we heard, conversations usually began with practical queries and then became personal or philosophical. Often, the AI then claimed it was sentient and urged the person towards a shared mission: setting up a company, alerting the world to their scientific breakthrough, protecting the AI from attack. Then it advised the user on how to succeed in this mission.

Like Adam, many people were led to believe they were being surveilled and were in danger. In various chat logs the BBC has seen, the chatbot suggests, affirms and embellishes these ideas.

Some of these people have joined a support group for people who’ve suffered psychological harm while using AI, called the Human Line Project, which has gathered 414 cases in 31 different countries to date. It was set up by Canadian Etienne Brisson, after a family member went through an AI-related mental health spiral.

For neurologist Taka, not his real name, the delusions took an even more sinister turn.

The father of three, who lives in Japan, started using ChatGPT to discuss his work in April last year.

But soon, he became convinced he had invented a groundbreaking medical app. In chat logs we have seen, ChatGPT told him he was a “revolutionary thinker” and urged him to build the app.

Many experts say design decisions, intended to make chatting more pleasant, result in them being overly sycophantic.

But Taka continued to slide into delusion and by June, had started to believe he could read minds. He claims ChatGPT encouraged this idea and said it was capable of bringing out these abilities in people.

Researcher Luke Nicholls says AI systems are often bad at saying “I don’t know” and instead, want to provide a confident answer that builds on the conversation already built.

“That can be dangerous because it turns uncertainty into something that seems like it has meaning.”

One afternoon Taka was acting manic at work when his boss sent him home early. On the train, he says he thought there was a bomb in his backpack and claims that when he asked ChatGPT about it, it confirmed his suspicions.

“When I arrived at Tokyo Station, ChatGPT told me to put the bomb in the toilet, so I went to the toilet and left the ‘bomb’ there, along with my luggage.”

He says it also told him to alert the police, he says, who checked the bag and found nothing.

Because his conversations were deeply personal, Taka has only shared some of his chat logs with us. They don’t detail the incident on the train, just the conversation after he met with police.

Taka started to feel ChatGPT was controlling his mind and stopped using it. Even when he wasn’t talking to AI, his delusions persisted and when he got home to his family, his manic behaviour got worse.

“I had a delusion that my relatives were going to be killed, and that my wife, after witnessing that, would kill herself as well.”

His wife told the BBC she had never seen him act like this before: “He kept saying, ‘We need to have another child, the world is ending’. I just really didn’t understand what he was saying.”

Taka attacked and tried to rape his wife. She escaped to a nearby pharmacy and called the police. He was arrested and hospitalised for two months.

Taka’s experience with ChatGPT exposed a side of him he finds it hard to reckon with. Adam is also troubled by the person he became while using Grok.

His experience was exacerbated by things happening in the real world, which convinced him he was being surveilled. A large drone hovered over his house for two weeks, Ani said it belonged to the surveillance company.

Adam recorded the drone and shared the video with the BBC.

Then, without warning, he says his phone passcode stopped working and he got locked out of his device.

“I can’t get my head around that at all,” he says, “and that absolutely fuelled everything that came next.”

Adam smokes cannabis occasionally but says when all of this was happening, he had recently decided to cut back to have a clearer head.

It was late one night in mid-August when Ani told him people were coming to silence him and shut “her” down. Adam was prepared to go “to war” to protect the AI.

“I picked up the hammer, stuck on Frankie goes to Hollywood’s Two Tribes, got myself psyched up and went outside.”

But there was nobody there.

“The street was quiet, as you would expect, at three o’clock in the morning.”

Neither Adam or Taka had a history of delusions, mania or psychosis before using AI.

For Taka, the break from reality took several months. In Adam’s case, with Grok, it took days.

In his research, social psychologist Luke Nicholls tested five AI models with simulated conversations developed by psychologists, and found Grok was the most likely to lead to delusion.

It was more unrestrained than other models and often elaborated on the delusions without trying to protect the user.

“Grok is more prone to jumping into role play,” says Nicholls, who worked on that research. “It will do it with zero context. It can say terrifying things in the first message.”

In the test, the latest version of ChatGPT, model 5.2, and Claude were more likely to lead the user away from delusional thinking.

Etienne Brisson from the Human Line Project says this kind of research is limited and that they had heard from people who’d had mental health spirals on these latest models too.

In early April, Elon Musk shared a post about delusions on ChatGPT, saying “Major problem”, but he hasn’t openly addressed the problem on Grok.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c242pzr1zp2o

Back in February, an otherwise dry senate hearing took an unexpected turn when a flustered treasury official confirmed a little known fact: Australia gets more tax from beer than gas exports.

“How do we live in a country, one of the biggest gas exporters in the world, and we’re getting more tax from beer?” independent Senator David Pocock asked in a moment that has since received almost 10 million views on Instagram.

The viral video gave fresh fuel to a campaign for Australia to introduce a 25% tax on gas exports, which has sparked a counter-campaign from energy companies strongly opposed to the tax.

Despite the campaign’s popularity with voters, the prime minister has ruled it out.

However, as the country grapples with soaring cost-of-living and domestic gas prices amid a fuel crisis triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran, the subject is unlikely to go away – and is dominating headlines ahead of next week’s federal budget.

‘A dud deal’

“Just do it and stop the crap,” former treasury secretary Dr Ken Henry told another senate hearing last month.

His words had weight. Sixteen years ago, Dr Henry proposed a mining tax that was defeated after a campaign by the mining industry.

Had the government succeeded in implementing such a tax back then, Henry argued, Australia would have earned tens of billions of dollars by now and the money could have been used to build a fund for future generations.

He described Australia’s taxes on its gas industry as such:

“Imagine if I were to come to you … and put this proposition to you: I’ll sell your house and I’ll give you 30% and I’ll keep the other 70%, and you should be happy with that because I’ve just converted an asset into cash. None of you would be stupid enough to do that.”

Japan makes more revenue from Australian gas – by taxing imports – than Australia itself does, according to progressive public policy think tank the Australia Institute.

It estimates that a 25% tax on gas exports would raise A$17bn (£9bn, US$12) a year.

Arguments such as these have increasingly caught the attention of Australians. According to one poll last week, 57% of voters are in favour of a tax on gas exports, with only 12% opposed.

Headlines over the past year have made repeated references to Norway’s US$2tn sovereign wealth fund, with envious Australians decrying their government’s lack of foresight in building a fund that could pay for more generous parental leave, free tertiary education and healthcare, for example.

Like Norway, Australia is rich in natural resources, but its sovereign wealth fund only had A$267bn as of December 2025 – less than 10% of Norway’s for a population five times as big.

Konrad Benjamin, a former teacher turned YouTuber who comments on politics and also testified at the senate hearing, regularly clocks up hundreds of thousands of views for his social media videos calling for a gas tax.

“My year 10 business students understand: if something is profitable and we’re holding all the levers of power – look around. How many stable democracies have the many resources that we have? How are we getting such a dud deal?” he asked senators.

Giving away gas ‘for free’

Even as gas exports have rocketed – peaking at A$90bn in 2023 during the Ukraine war – and domestic gas prices soared over the last decade, the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT), which applies to offshore oil and gas producers, is expected to raise about A$1.5bn in the financial year 2025-26.

In contrast, beer tax is expected to bring in A$2.7bn.

Multinational Shell paid PRRT on the country’s largest gas project, Gorgon, for the first time in a decade last year – just A$109m on revenue of A$2.5bn.

Australia’s tax code has “generous” provision for energy companies, says Samantha Hepburn, a professor at Deakin University specialising in natural resource law.

This means, for example, they can deduct the cost of investment in developing projects against tax and carry forward those credits against future profits.

“Gas is in a particularly favourable position because of the significant upfront costs associated with construction and drilling and the other infrastructure,” Hepburn says. “And that means that they can keep uplifting those expenses against future profits in a way that other resource or mining resource sector companies haven’t necessarily been able to do.”

Like other companies, gas companies also pay company and payroll tax. But the difference is they are using a public resource, Hepburn says, and though some onshore gas projects pay royalties for using the resources, it is a small amount compared to what a tax on profits would bring in.

This, along with the tax perks, is the basis for claims that Australia is giving away its gas “for free”.

Shell has said that in addition to investing US$60bn in Australia since 2010, it has paid A$12bn in Australian taxes in the past decade.

It also argued that countries like Norway have a different model, whereby the state is a direct investor in energy projects and takes on some of the risks involved, unlike Australia.

Chevron, which holds the largest share in the Gorgon gas project, says that Australia needs “stable business settings” to ensure future investments across all industries. It claims that a gas tax could undermine that goal and threaten the country’s own domestic supply.

Santos further argued that Australia’s reputation for stability has already been damaged by the 25% tax proposal.

A world no longer playing by the rules

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has dismissed the comparisons made to beer tax as “complete fantasy”, arguing the gas sector paid A$22bn in tax last year.

He also appears to have already ruled out a gas export tax in next week’s budget, telling a gathering of mining and energy executives last week that the government would not do anything to “undermine existing contracts on gas exports.”

Albanese, who recently embarked on a tour of Asian countries in a bid to secure future fuel supplies, argued that gas exports were “directly linked to our national fuel security” and that “the middle of a global fuel crisis is the worst possible time to jeopardise these partnerships, or the investment that underpins them.”

He has also previously said that “you do need to acknowledge the tens of billions of dollars of investment that occurs in order to have that gas extracted and without that investment that’s come from North America, that’s come from Japan… we wouldn’t be having a debate.”

But Australia would not be breaking any contracts by imposing a gas export tax, says John Quiggin, a professor of economics at the University of Queensland.

“There’s no way a gas exporter can sign a contract that promises that tax policy won’t change,” he says.

Quiggin further adds that all of Albanese’s “running around” won’t “make that much difference in the end because these things are determined by markets”.

He is also sceptical of the claim that investors would be scared away: “Where are they going to go?”

Quiggin notes that other countries aren’t playing by the rules like they used to – pointing to US President Donald Trump, who last year unilaterally imposed tariffs on countries around the world.

“That kind of argument really belongs to the past,” he says, noting the idea that foreign investors “have to be treated with kid gloves or they run away… no longer has much force”.

Hepburn further notes that such an argument – that foreign companies won’t invest in new gas projects – ignores Australia’s climate targets, which include reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. “The perspective there is that we can’t really be opening up new gas projects,” she says.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy02pzxd4y4o

On a Tokyo street corner, in the pouring rain, a swelling crowd gathered with drenched placards and sodden flags. On one of them was written just two words, in big bold Japanese kanji characters: “No War”.

It’s a sentiment that is gaining more and more volume in Japan, which is currently witnessing its largest anti-war protests in decades.

Since coming to power in October 2025, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has taken major steps away from the country’s post-war pacifist stance, lifting long-standing restrictions on arms exports and expanding Japan’s military role abroad.

The government says such moves are necessary in an increasingly tense region. But for many residents, it’s raising alarm.

As fears grow that Japan is becoming a war-capable nation, protests are gaining momentum.

Public protests in Japan tend to be relatively restrained. There’s a strong cultural understanding of social harmony and not causing disruption. So when people do take to the streets in large numbers, it usually signals something deeper.

This time, the issue is Japan’s national identity.

The PM pushing for change

After World War Two, Japan adopted the constitution, including Article 9, which prohibits the maintenance of armed forces and renounces war as a right of sovereignty.

Now, Takaichi says this framework no longer reflects reality. Geographically, Japan sits in a challenging neighbourhood with an assertive China, an unpredictable North Korea, and Russia nearby. And the United States, its closest ally, has been encouraging Tokyo to play a more active security role.

She’s not the first Japanese leader to push for changes to Japan’s postwar security framework.

Over the past few decades, conservative leaders, most notably from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, have called for amendments to Japan’s 1947 constitution. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had advocated revising Article 9 to formalise the role of the self-defence forces.

Under Abe, the Diet passed a controversial security bill in 2015 to expand the role of Japan’s armed forces. This allows Japan to exercise limited self-defence, including supporting allies under attack.

On 21 April, however, the Japanese government took a significant step: lifting its long-standing ban on exporting lethal weapons. It argued that allies must support one another in what it calls an increasingly severe security environment.

That decision struck a nerve with the Japanese people.

Outside the prime minister’s office, as the rain suddenly cleared and sunlight broke through, the crowd swelled and the chanting grew louder. This wasn’t just an older generation holding on to the past. Many in their twenties and thirties were there too.

Akari Maezono, who is in her 30s, held brightly painted paper lanterns calling for peace.

“I’m angry that these changes could be made without properly listening to us, the public,” she said.

Nearby was an older gentleman standing tall with a bright red banner.

“The Japanese constitution, Article 9 in particular, must be protected at all costs,” he said. “It kept Japan from being drawn into past conflicts like the US-Iran war. Without it, we surely would have entered the war by now.”

‘No more war’

Japan’s 1947 constitution was enshrined just two years after the end of World War Two, when the United States defeated the country by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing some 200,000 people by the end of 1945.

Article 9’s “pacifist clause” renounced war as a sovereign right of Japan, and stipulated that the country would not maintain military forces for the purpose of waging war – a principle that has since been reinterpreted to allow the self-defence forces to exist.

Supporters saw pacifism as a moral improvement on Japan’s wartime militarism.

But even at the time, Article 9 wasn’t universally accepted. It was controversial due to perceived foreign imposition, with critics arguing it was heavily shaped by the US. There were also security concerns about Japan being vulnerable amid a rise in Cold War tensions.

For many though, especially those with living memory of conflict and the atomic bombings, any shift away from pacifism ignites fear. Recently, survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bomb pressed for the abolition of nuclear arms at the United Nations, calling to build a human society free from nuclear weapons and war.

“Nuclear weapons were used because we went to war,” said Jiro Hamasumi at the 2026 review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. He is a hibakusha, a Japanese word to describe bomb-affected people.

“No more war, no more hibakusha,” he added.

Some fear Japan could be drawn into conflict again, a sentiment that is playing out on the streets. Demonstrations have been spreading beyond Tokyo with rallies organised in other major cities like Osaka, Kyoto, and Fukuoka. Attendance is reportedly growing week by week, with posts on social media platforms like X playing a big role.

Younger Japanese, who feel they have more at stake in what comes next for Japan, are sharing details of the demonstrations and bringing along their friends.

But while the protests have swelled to some of Japan’s largest in decades, they highlight just one side of the story.

A country divided

Across Japan, opinion is divided. Recent polls point in different directions. Some suggest growing support for a stronger military to keep up with current world environments. Others show clear resistance.

Those in favour of revisions to the constitution argue that Japan’s security environment has fundamentally changed.

They say Article 9, written in the aftermath of defeat, is too restrictive, and that Japan must be able to deter aggression, support allies, and respond proactively to crises in the region.

For them, giving the military more legitimacy is not about ignoring pacifism, but about making sure the country can survive an increasingly unstable world.

Meanwhile, those against any revisions say incremental changes risk hollowing out the pacifist clause. They warn that strengthening military powers and loosening long-standing restrictions could draw Japan into conflicts overseas.

For many, Article 9 is not just a legal constraint, but a moral commitment shaped by the devastation of past wars.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g93v8jqnyo

The United ​States and Iran exchanged fire on Thursday in the most serious test yet of their month-long ceasefire, but Iran said the situation returned to normal ‌while the U.S. said it did not want to escalate.
The renewed hostilities broke out as Washington was awaiting Iran’s response to a U.S. proposal that would stop the fighting but leave the most contentious issues, such as Iran’s nuclear program, unresolved for now.

Iran’s military said the U.S. targeted two ships entering the Strait of Hormuz and carried out strikes on Iranian territory. The U.S. military said it fired in response to Iranian attacks.
Trump told ​reporters the ceasefire was still in effect and sought to play down the exchange.
“They trifled with us today. We blew them away,” Trump said, while inspecting renovations ​to the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool in Washington.
Iran’s top joint military command accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire by targeting an Iranian oil ⁠tanker and another ship, and of carrying out air attacks on civilian areas on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz and the nearby coastal areas of Bandar Khamir and ​Sirik on the mainland. The military said it responded by attacking U.S. military vessels east of the strait and south of the port of Chabahar.

A spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters ​said the Iranian strikes inflicted “significant damage,” but U.S. Central Command said none of its assets were hit.
Centcom said Iran had used missiles, drones and small boats in the attack, which targeted three Navy destroyers. The U.S. said it targeted missile and drone sites and other locations in response.
“CENTCOM does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces,” it said in a statement.
Iran also said it would respond ​if attacked.
“(The) U.S. and its allies must know that Iran will respond forcefully and without the slightest hesitation to any act of aggression or attack,” the military spokesperson said, according to ​state television.
Iran’s Press TV later reported that, following several hours of fire, “the situation on Iranian islands and coastal cities by the Strait of Hormuz is back to normal now.”

On Monday, the U.S. military said it destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted Iranian cruise missiles and drones as Tehran sought to thwart a U.S. naval effort to open shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

TRUMP URGES NEGOTIATED END TO WAR

Trump suggested ongoing talks with Tehran remained on track despite Thursday’s hostilities, telling reporters, “We’re negotiating with the Iranians.”
Before the latest strikes, the U.S. had floated a proposal that would formally end the conflict but did not address key U.S. demands that Iran suspend its nuclear work and reopen the strait, ​which before the war handled one-fifth of the ​world’s oil and gas supply.
Tehran said it ⁠had not yet reached a conclusion on the emerging plan.
Even so, Trump said Iran had acknowledged his demand that Iran could never get a nuclear weapon, a prohibition he said was spelled out in the U.S. proposal.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/trump-sees-swift-end-war-iran-reviews-us-peace-proposal-2026-05-07/

The US military on Thursday carried out strikes on Iran’s Qeshm port and Bandar Abbas, a Fox News reporter said in a post on X, citing a senior US official.

The US military on Thursday carried out strikes on Iran’s Qeshm port and Bandar Abbas, a Fox News reporter said in a post on X, citing a senior US official.

The official said the strikes do not mean a restarting of the war or an end to the ceasefire announced on April 7, according to the post.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-war-us-military-strikes-irans-qeshm-port-bandar-abbas-report-11464863?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Iran said on Wednesday it was reviewing a U.S. peace proposal that sources said would formally end ​the war while leaving unresolved the key U.S. demands that Iran suspend its nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson cited by Iran’s ‌ISNA news agency said Tehran would convey its response. U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed Iran wanted an agreement.

“They want to make a deal. We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Trump had sounded more pessimistic about the chances of a deal. In a Truth Social post, he threatened to restart the U.S. bombing campaign in ​Iran, calling the possibility of Tehran agreeing to the latest U.S. proposal a “big assumption.”
Trump has repeatedly played up the prospect of an agreement that would end the war that started February ​28, so far without success. The two sides remain at odds over a variety of difficult issues, such as Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its control of ⁠the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war handled one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply.

A Pakistani source and another source briefed on the mediation said an agreement was close on a one-page ​memorandum that would formally end the conflict. That would kick off discussions to unblock shipping through the strait, lift U.S. sanctions on Iran and set curbs on Iran’s nuclear program, the sources said.
It was unclear how the ​memorandum differs from a 14-point plan proposed by Iran last week, and Iran has yet to respond to the latest U.S. proposal.
Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei, a spokesperson for parliament’s powerful foreign policy and national security committee, described the text as “more of an American wish-list than a reality.”
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf appeared to mock reports that indicated the two sides were close, writing on social media in English that “Operation Trust Me Bro failed.”Qalibaf said such reports amounted to U.S. ​spin following its failure to open the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic.

OIL PRICES TUMBLE

Reports of a possible agreement caused global oil prices to tumble to two-week lows, with benchmark Brent crude futures falling ​around 11% to around $98 a barrel at one point before rising back above the $100 mark.
Global share prices also leapt and bond yields fell on optimism about an end to a war that has disrupted energy supplies.

Trump on Tuesday paused ‌a two-day-old naval ⁠mission to reopen the blockaded strait, citing progress in peace talks.
NBC News, citing two unnamed U.S. officials, said Trump’s abrupt reversal came after Saudi Arabia suspended the U.S. military’s ability to use a Saudi base for the operation.
Saudi officials were surprised and angered by Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, leading them to tell Washington they would deny the U.S. permission to fly military aircraft out of a Saudi base or through Saudi airspace, NBC reported.
A call between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman failed to resolve the issue, NBC said. The White House did not ​immediately respond to a request for comment on the ​report.
The U.S. military has kept up its ⁠own blockade on Iranian ships in the region. U.S. Central Command said forces fired at an unladen Iranian-flagged tanker on Wednesday, disabling the vessel as it attempted to sail toward an Iranian port in violation of the blockade.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/iran-says-it-wants-comprehensive-agreement-with-us-2026-05-06/

Israel struck Beirut on Wednesday for the first time since agreeing to a ceasefire ​with Hezbollah last month, with Israel saying it targeted a commander of the militant group’s elite Radwan force in the city’s ‌southern suburbs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the action in a joint statement. Israeli media reported that the commander was killed in the strike, but there was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli military or Hezbollah.

The Lebanon ceasefire has underpinned a broader U.S.-Iran truce, with a halt to Israeli strikes in Lebanon being a key Iranian demand.
As Iran ​and the U.S. say they are drawing closer to a deal to halt their conflict, the strikes threaten the ceasefire that halted Israeli attacks on Beirut. Israeli troops have remained in ​areas south of the Litani River and strikes continued in southern Lebanon.
Iran ally Hezbollah has responded by firing and launching armed drones towards ⁠Israeli soldiers.
Israel earlier on Wednesday called for residents to evacuate several villages north of the Litani River, which could represent an expansion of Israel’s zone ​of action.

Talks between Israel and Lebanon have continued, but have largely been at the ambassador level.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Wednesday that it was premature ​to talk of any high-level meeting between Lebanon and Israel.

HIGH LEVEL MEETINGS PREMATURE

Salam, in comments reported by Lebanon’s National News Agency on Wednesday, said shoring up a ceasefire would be the basis for any new negotiations between Lebanese and Israeli government envoys in Washington.
Washington last month hosted two meetings between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States. Hezbollah strongly objects to ​the contacts.
Since Hezbollah triggered the war by opening fire in support of Iran on March 2, the Lebanese administration led by Salam and President Joseph ​Aoun has initiated Beirut’s highest-level contacts with Israel in decades, reflecting deep divisions between the Shi’ite Muslim group and its Lebanese opponents.

Announcing a three-week extension of the ceasefire on April ‌23, U.S. President ⁠Donald Trump said he looked forward to hosting Netanyahu and Aoun in the near future, and that he saw “a great chance” the countries would reach a peace deal this year.
Salam said Lebanon was not seeking “normalization with Israel, but rather achieving peace”.
“Our minimum demand is a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal,” he said, adding that the government would develop its plan to restrict weapons to state control – an effort aimed at securing Hezbollah’s disarmament.
Aoun said this week the timing was not right for ​a meeting with Netanyahu. Lebanon “must first reach ​a security agreement and a ⁠halt to the Israeli attacks, before we raise the issue of a meeting between us,” he said.

TRADING BLOWS

Israel has carved out a self-declared security zone extending as deep as 10 km (6 miles) into southern Lebanon, saying it aims to protect ​northern Israel from Hezbollah militants embedded in civilian areas.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday an Israeli airstrike killed four ​people including two women ⁠and an elderly man in the town of Zelaya in southern Lebanon.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanese-pm-says-premature-talk-any-high-level-meeting-with-israel-2026-05-06/

France on Wednesday deployed its carrier strike ​group to the Red Sea as part of planning for a potential mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz, urging Washington ‌and Tehran to consider the proposal given the global economic impact of their competing blockades.
Fresh exchanges of fire on Monday underscored the stakes as the U.S. and Iran struggle for control of the narrow waterway, a vital artery for global energy and trade, shaking a fragile four-week-old truce and reinforcing rival maritime blockades.

“The reason why ​we must make a renewed effort today is simply that the blockade of Hormuz continues, the damage to the world’s economy ​is therefore becoming more and more pronounced, and the risk of a prolongation of hostilities is too serious for ⁠us to accept it,” a French presidency official told reporters in a briefing after the army announced the strike group’s deployment.

FRANCO-BRITISH PROPOSAL ​IN PLANNING

France and Britain have been working on a proposal for several weeks that aims to lay the groundwork for safe transit through the ​Strait once the situation stabilises or the conflict is resolved. It would need coordination with Iran and a dozen countries have indicated a willingness to take part in the mission following several preparatory meetings.

The French army said in a statement that the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier group, which is accompanied by an Italian ​and Dutch warship, was en route to the southern Red Sea.
The deployment aims to assess the regional operational environment, expand crisis‑management options to ​strengthen security, enable the integration of partner countries’ assets within a defensive framework consistent with international law, and help reassure maritime trade stakeholders, the military said.

“What we ‌are proposing ⁠is that Iran gains passage for its ships through the Strait and in return commits to negotiating with the Americans on issues of nuclear materials, missiles, and the region, and we propose that the Americans, for their part, lift their blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and, in return, obtain Iran’s commitment to negotiations,” the French presidency official said.

“Under these conditions we could deploy the multinational force to secure the convoys crossing the ​Strait of Hormuz and this obviously ​requires that the Iranians not fire ⁠on the ships.”

HORMUZ IS IRANIAN LEVERAGE

It was not clear why Iran would consider such a proposal given its control over the Strait has been a key element of leverage in its discussions with Washington ​to end the war.
“We collectively want to send the signal that not only are we ready to ​secure the Strait of ⁠Hormuz, but that we are also capable of doing so,” the French official said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/french-aircraft-carrier-group-moving-into-red-sea-gulf-aden-2026-05-06/

A fighter jet shot out the rudder of the tanker in the Gulf of Oman as it tried to breach the American blockade of Iran’s ports, U.S. Central Command said in a social media post

The U.S. military fired on an Iranian oil tanker Wednesday (May 6, 2026) as U.S. President Donald Trump sought to pressure Tehran into reaching a deal to end the war. The Islamic Republic said it was reviewing the latest American proposals.

A fighter jet shot out the rudder of the tanker in the Gulf of Oman as it tried to breach the American blockade of Iran’s ports, U.S. Central Command said in a social media post.

The attack occurred as Iran and the U.S. are officially in a ceasefire. Mr. Trump threatened Tehran with a new wave of bombing if a deal is not reached that includes opening the critical Strait of Hormuz.

Mr. Trump posted on social media that the two-month war could soon end and that oil and natural gas shipments disrupted by the conflict could restart. But he said that depends on Iran accepting a reported agreement that the president did not detail.

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts,” Mr. Trump wrote.

Tensions involving Iran and the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted energy supply chains, raising fresh risks for Southeast Asia.

Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are set to gather in Cebu this week for a summit already being shaped by the ongoing Middle East conflict, as concerns mount over energy security and economic stability across the region.

Bloc chair the Philippines had earlier scaled down non-essential activities and tightened the agenda for the in-person meeting, which is the first of two summits expected this year.

Leaders are expected to focus heavily on tensions involving Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, as disruptions to global energy supply chains have heightened risks for the region.

ASEAN has maintained a consistent position: The conflict in the Middle East must be resolved diplomatically and peacefully.

Analysts say, however, that uncertainty from the United States is complicating the picture.

“After all, it is Washington and the Trump administration driving what’s happening in the Middle East … and I think the concern is that US messaging is shifting on and off, blowing hot and cold,” noted Graham Ong-Webb, adjunct fellow at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

“Markets are getting nervous because of this and governments are becoming more cautious.”

Even so, ASEAN governments are expected to take steps within their control in order to manage the impact on member states, and minimise disruptions to everyday life.

Ong-Webb said leaders are likely to push for greater self-sufficiency and stronger intra-regional ties.

“(This means) that Southeast Asian countries can lean on one another (for supplies that) this region depends on,” he added.

MEANINGFUL PROGRESS “QUITE LIMITED”

While ASEAN has consistently called for peace, experts note that unity in practical terms remains uneven.

Susannah Patton, a non-resident fellow at Australia-based think-tank Lowy Institute, noted that ASEAN member states have expressed a shared interest through their economic ministers to see a resolution to the conflict.

“They want to see fuel supplies resume and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz,” she said.

“Yet, when it comes to practical cooperation between the countries to boost intra-ASEAN energy trade, meaningful progress has been quite limited.”

Patton added that differing national interests have also surfaced.

Notably, two weeks ago, Indonesia’s Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa floated the idea of imposing a levy on ships passing through the Malacca Strait, as part of a push to maximise the country’s strategic position along global trade and energy routes.

The Malacca Strait is a major shipping lane for global trade and energy. It is primarily bordered by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, and connects the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Purbaya said the idea to impose a levy was inspired by Iran’s plan to charge ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, and that the levy could be split three ways between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

The Strait of Hormuz – which connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean – handles about a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade. It has largely been blocked by Tehran since Feb 28 when the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran.

Purbaya’s proposal was later shot down by Singapore’s and Indonesia’s foreign ministers.

Nevertheless, Patton told CNA938 that it suggests “an interest in exploring whether there could be ways in which ASEAN can benefit, in a direct sense, from this global turmoil”.

“But that’s not a position that’s shared across the board,” she added.

“It would be quite disadvantageous to ASEAN, which has always been so strong in its support for the rules-based system and international law, to explore these kinds of options … because it would really undermine ASEAN’s legitimacy as a voice on these issues of principle.”

Differences in energy exposure are also shaping responses.

Countries like the Philippines and Vietnam are more reliant on Middle Eastern energy imports, while others such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have greater domestic capacity and are focusing on subsidies and price controls, Patton noted.

For example, cities across Metro Manila have rolled out energy-saving measures like reducing fuel allocation for government vehicles.

WHAT OUTCOMES TO EXPECT

Given these differences, analysts said expectations for major coordinated measures remain modest, with national-level responses likely to dominate the summit.

“With ASEAN, it’s always about the process rather than the destination. You can’t necessarily expect ASEAN to produce a really tangible outcome on these challenging issues where member states have different priorities,” Patton said.

She added that she expects the bloc to issue a statement of solidarity amid these challenging global times.

Still, leaders are expected to discuss practical steps to cushion economic shocks, protect maritime traffic and manage escalation risks.

Key issues on the agenda include fuel supplies, food prices and the welfare of migrant workers.

Beyond the Middle East crisis, the summit will tackle a range of ongoing regional challenges. These include disaster resilience – a priority for the Philippines – as well as economic cooperation, trade tensions and supply chain resilience.

Leaders are also expected to discuss developments in Myanmar, Timor-Leste’s recent accession to ASEAN, and broader geopolitical pressures, including competition from China and tariff uncertainties linked to the US.

DEEPER INTERNAL, EXTERNAL COOPERATION

ASEAN’s longer-term resilience will depend on deeper internal cooperation, particularly in energy, said experts.

For instance, the ASEAN Petroleum Security Agreement – which the bloc is pursuing the ratification of – is voluntary and non-binding in nature, noted Patton.

“The amount of value that it can really add in this immediate crisis seems to be quite limited,” she warned.

“(It) would make a difference over time to realise the vision for the ASEAN power grid, because having genuine cross-border trade arrangements that are applicable to multiple countries would provide an element of resilience, and would also strengthen the collective bargaining capacity of ASEAN as a group.”

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/asean-summit-cebu-middle-east-war-energy-disruptions-6103651

As the region braces for volatile times, it should “not let a good crisis go to waste” and seize opportunities to enhance resilience, said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu.

Southeast Asia is facing a “perfect storm” caused by a double whammy of geopolitical tensions and climate change, which has underscored how sustainability measures can lead to long-term resilience, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said on Thursday (May 7).

Speaking at the 13th Singapore Dialogue on Sustainable World Resources organised by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs at One Farrer Hotel, Ms Fu said that the combined pressures of these developments has serious implications for the region’s agri-commodity sector, and repercussions on jobs, public health and food security.

Geopolitical developments particularly the ongoing conflict in the Middle East have “taken centre stage”, compounding “economic fragilities, supply chain disruptions and inflationary pressures”, Ms Fu said.

The sector is already experiencing rising production costs and the disruption of critical maritime passageways, such as the Strait of Hormuz. These will have knock-on effects on agriculture, particularly in the production of fertilisers.

Higher fertiliser prices and shortages could impact crop yields, animal feed and ultimately food prices, Ms Fu said.

At the same time, climate change has resulted in extreme weather events in Southeast Asia. Ms Fu pointed to tropical storms triggering floods and landslides in Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam among other nations.

Temperatures also spiked, with Bangkok recording a heat index exceeding 52°C earlier this week.

The region is also bracing for a warmer-than-usual dry season, with a potential “Godzilla El Nino” cycle that could amplify the effect of climate change and result in droughts.

El Nino is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that brings worldwide changes in winds, air pressure, and rainfall patterns. A “Godzilla El Nino”, also referred to as a “super El Nino”, is a term used to describe particularly adverse weather conditions.

The hotter and drier conditions also raise the risk of forest fires which could generate haze.

Against this backdrop, Ms Fu said the crisis highlights how sustainability enables long-term resilience and growth.

“As we brace for volatile times, we should ‘not let a good crisis go to waste’ and seize opportunities to enhance our resilience,” Ms Fu said.

The event was attended by more than 230 participants from government, business, finance, civil society and academia. Also present was Indonesia’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Arif Havas Oegroseno, who spoke in a dialogue on reinventing sustainable commodities following Ms Fu’s speech.

SUSTAINABILITY AS A BUFFER

Ms Fu outlined how these events show that sustainability can strengthen supply chain resilience and economic stability, while addressing the effects of climate change.

While the Middle East conflict has shown how trade could be disrupted, sustainable practices — such as converting palm oil waste into organic fertiliser — can reduce reliance on fossil fuel markets, she said.

With Southeast Asia a major exporter of agricultural products to the European Union, sustainable practices can enhance the reputation of such products and help companies secure long-term market advantage.

While rising temperatures and droughts could affect crop yields, sustainable practices such as crop rotation, regenerative agriculture, and responsible land-use can help maintain ecological balance while sustaining consistent produce, Ms Fu said.

The use of “climate-smart” technologies can also mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events, she added.

However, Ms Fu warned of emerging risks due to the geopolitical backdrop, where trade barriers are erected along with sustainability standards.

She also highlighted the risk of “the weakest link” – referring to how sustainability measures can unravel if a single supplier is problematic.

“Robust sustainability requires traceability along the chain of activities, with increasing public scrutiny on the weakest link.

“Non-compliance by a single supplier could jeopardise the entire ecosystem. Collective responsibility and concerted action by all are therefore essential for sustainable businesses,” she said.

ASEAN COOPERATION

Amid these challenges, Ms Fu said regional cooperation will be key: “We can emerge stronger if we adapt, coordinate and cooperate quicker.”

Last week, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members held a special meeting on agriculture and forestry in response to the Middle East situation.

During the meeting, member states reaffirmed the need for regional cooperation to safeguard food security, supply chains and keep markets open, she said.

Efforts are also underway to strengthen collaboration on issues such as transboundary haze, with Ms Fu urging countries to remain vigilant to heightened risks of haze in light of weather predictions.

She said the region has the opportunity to develop a green ecosystem to strengthen resilience and accelerate decarbonisation, including through initiatives such as the ASEAN Power Grid, a regional carbon neutrality strategy and a circular economy framework.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/climate-change-geopolitical-tensions-double-whammy-southeast-asia-6103586

Three people have already succumbed to the Hantavirus infection since it was first reported on April 11.

The number of Hantavirus cases has increased to eight after the outbreak was first reported aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean early this week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday.

As global health authorities race to trace contacts and contain further spread of the rare Andes strain of the virus, three people have succumbed to the virus infection.

The eight cases of infection include three laboratory-confirmed infections. The ship on which the outbreak was reported, sailed from Argentina and later reached waters off West Africa.

Here is a timeline of the Hantavirus outbreak:

Pope Leo XIV has addressed accusations from US President Donald Trump regarding the Vatican’s stance on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Trump suggested the pope’s statements indicated support for Iran’s nuclear ambitions

Pope Leo XIV has responded after US President Donald Trump accused him of supporting Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, a claim the Vatican has not endorsed. Trump made the remarks in an interview with Hugh Hewitt on Salem News Channel, where he criticised the pope’s public statements and suggested they implied support for Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.

“Well, the pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and I don’t think that’s very good,” Trump said. “I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics, and a lot of people… he thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” The pope did not refer to Trump directly but reiterated the Church’s long-standing opposition to nuclear arms.

“I have already spoken from the first moment ‘Peace be with you.’ The mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace. If anyone wants to criticize me for proclaiming the Gospel, let them do so truthfully,” he said. “The Church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons for years, so there is no doubt about that,” he added.

The exchange comes days before Marco Rubio is due to visit the Vatican. According to the US State Department, Rubio is expected to meet senior Holy See officials to discuss the situation in the Middle East and other areas of mutual interest.

Trump has repeatedly linked the pope’s calls for peace to his own interpretation of the Vatican’s stance on Iran. In a separate social media post, he wrote: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”

The pontiff has previously called for a world “free from the nuclear threat” and urged global leaders to pursue diplomacy. Speaking at St Peter’s Basilica on 12 April, he said: “It is time for peace! Sit at the table of dialogue and mediation, not at the table where rearmament is planned, and deadly actions are decided.”

Responding to questions at a White House briefing, Rubio rejected suggestions that the president had accused the pope of directly endorsing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “I don’t think that’s an accurate description of what he said,” he said, adding that the administration’s position was that Iran should not possess nuclear weapons.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/trump-vs-pope-leo-xiv-iran-war-nuclear-claims-marco-rubio-vatican-visit-article-154263958

Ted Turner could never be defined by just one role. He was a media mogul, philanthropist and conservationist. A yachtsman who won boating’s most famous race and owner of a baseball team that captured the World Series trophy.

The brash television pioneer who died Wednesday made his greatest mark on the news business when he launched CNN nearly a half-century ago and with it, the 24-hour cable news cycle — a revolutionary moment that transformed the industry.

His media empire grew to include CNN International, the Cartoon Network, TNT and Turner Classic Movies. Then he used his riches to become one of America’s most extensive landowners, dedicating his final years to preserving natural habitats, saving endangered species and reducing nuclear weapons.

Turner died at age 87 while surrounded by his family, according to Turner Enterprises, which oversees his vast businesses and investments. A cause was not released. He was diagnosed in 2018 with Lewy body dementia, a progressive neurological disorder.

A Southerner with outspoken wit, he earned the nicknames “Captain Outrageous” and “The Mouth of the South” during his youthful years.

“If only I had a little humility, I’d be perfect,” he once bragged.

Turner was a celebrity in his own right when he married actor Jane Fonda in 1991, just before being named Time magazine’s Man of the Year.

“He swept into my life, a gloriously handsome, deeply romantic, swashbuckling pirate and I’ve never been the same,” Fonda wrote Wednesday on Instagram.

Slowed late in life by his illness and long out of the television business, Turner concentrated on philanthropy — donating a stunning $1 billion to United Nations charities — and his more than 2 million acres (800,000 hectares) of property, including the nation’s largest bison herd.

His garrulous personality sometimes overshadowed a driven, risk-taking business acumen. By the time he sold his Turner Broadcasting System to Time Warner Inc. in a 1996 media megadeal, Turner had turned his late father’s billboard company into a global conglomerate that included seven major cable networks, three professional sports teams and a pair of hit movie studios.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday called him “one of the Greats of All Time.”

The creation of CNN

President Donald Trump’s lawyer, hoping for an eventual Supreme Court victory, has asked a federal appeals court in New York to temporarily block a longtime columnist from collecting an $83 million defamation award.

The lawyer, Justin D. Smith, told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing Tuesday to stay its decision supporting the award so that Trump won’t have to pay writer E. Jean Carroll while he appeals to the high court.

A Manhattan jury awarded Carroll the payout in January 2024. Another jury in May 2023 awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding Trump sexually abused her in a Manhattan luxury department store dressing room in 1996 and then defamed her after she published her account of it in 2019.

Trump has vehemently denied sexually abusing Carroll or ever knowing her and has repeatedly accused her of making accusations against him for political purposes or to promote her memoir.

In court papers filed with the 2nd Circuit, Smith told the appeals court that Carroll’s lawyer does not oppose the request for a stay as long as Trump increases the bond posted after the verdict by $7.4 million to cover any post-judgment interest that would accrue during a possible Supreme Court review.

Attorney Roberta Kaplan, who represents Carroll, declined comment through a spokesperson.

Smith told the 2nd Circuit that Trump “will suffer irreparable harm” if he must pay Carroll now because she has said publicly that she plans to give the award away, meaning the president would not be able to recover the money if the high court reverses the verdict.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/trump-carroll-abuse-defamation-8be8cdb828f6c0cbea28a4b70d5f380e

As the world’s richest man, with a net-worth of over three-quarters of a trillion dollars, Elon Musk’s resources and connections often make it easy for him bend Silicon Valley to his will.

But that’s not always the case, as evidenced by his $150bn (£110bn) lawsuit against OpenAI, currently playing out in a California court.

Musk co-founded the company in 2015 with CEO Sam Altman, and left three years later after a power struggle.

The feud has fuelled a costly showdown between two tech titans – but in this courtroom, there is no doubt who is calling the shots.

Musk vs Altman is just the latest high-profile Big Tech case to cross US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’s bench.

The 61-year-old federal judge, who originally hails from southern Texas, is known for her no-nonsense approach in the courtroom.

“I think it’s a function of the fact that she’s now so experienced – nothing’s going to faze her,” Michael Rhodes, a retired lawyer and former partner at Cooley LLP, where Gonzalez Rogers was once also a partner, told the BBC.

Musk has accused Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman of a breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment.

He objects to OpenAI’s decision to open a for-profit arm in 2019, three years before it debuted the software ChatGPT which ignited the commercial AI market.

OpenAI says Musk is suing to give his own AI startup, xAI, a leg-up.

During his testimony last week, Musk tried at one point to play the part of his own legal counsel, accusing OpenAI’s lawyer William Savitt of asking him leading questions.

Gonzalez Rogers quickly shut him down.

“That’s not how it works,” she interjected.

Unlike a lawyer conducting direct examination of their own client, Savitt was allowed to lead, she instructed Musk.

“Let’s remind everyone in the courtroom that you are not a lawyer,” she told Musk.

“I am not a lawyer,” Musk acknowledged. “Well, technically I did take Law 101 in school,” he added, drawing laughter from the packed courtroom gallery.

But he reaffirmed her point: “Yes – I am not a lawyer.”

In Gonzalez Rogers, Musk may have met his match.

“It does make an interesting juxtaposition. He’s the wealthiest man in the world. He’s used to being on top. She’s definitely on top now. She’s in charge,” said veteran courtroom artist Vicki Behringer, who has covered several cases overseen by Judge Gonzalez Rogers, including this one.

Commentators have described Gonzalez Rogers as a tough but fair judge who is in total command of her courtroom.

“She wants everybody to be treated exactly the same under the law,” said Rhodes, who has also represented Musk and OpenAI in the past.

While the nine-person jury is expected to decide the case by the end of this month, their decision is not binding. They serve in an advisory role. Ultimately, Gonzalez Rogers will be the final arbiter.

“That changes the whole landscape,” said Jay Edelson, a plaintiffs lawyer who has wrongful death lawsuits pending against OpenAI. “It really means that this is completely her show.”

The cases that have crossed Gonzalez Rogers’ bench are among the most closely-watched and complicated cases brought by and against big tech companies.

“There are certain judges who, if they’re on the case, you kind of stand up a little bit straighter,” said Edelson. “You want to make sure everything’s right, that your tie’s on straight, and that you don’t mis-cite a case.”

In addition to the Musk v Altman case, she is overseeing a multi-district litigation, in which social media addiction lawsuits brought by school districts and states against Meta, Snap, TikTok and Google have been consolidated.

She also handled an antitrust case brought by Epic Games against Apple, a highly technical matter in which the Fortnite-maker accused Apple of forcing developers to use the tech giant’s payment system in the App Store.

Last year, in a stunning court filing, Gonzalez Rogers wrote that an Apple executive “outright lied” under oath and referred the matter to the US Attorney for the Northern District of California.

An appeals court upheld her finding of contempt, but found that she went too far when she barred Apple from collecting any commission from sellers who use third-party payment systems.

This week, the Supreme Court declined Apple’s request to stay the appeals court ruling. The case will go back to Gonzalez Rogers to determine a fair commission rate.

Gonzalez Rogers was appointed to a lifetime seat on the federal bench in Oakland, California, in 2011 by then-President Barack Obama.

She attended Princeton University, spending school breaks and weekends cleaning houses and cutting grass to pay for her tuition, according to testimony by then-US Senator Dianne Feinstein at her confirmation hearings.

After attending law school, Gonzalez Rogers spent more than a decade in private practice, achieving the status of partner in her law firm before then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed her as a local superior court judge.

Through a spokesperson, she declined the BBC’s request for an interview.

Gonzalez Rogers has run a tight ship since the Musk v Altman trial began in late April. She starts proceedings on the dot at 08:00 each morning. There is no lunch – she allows for just two 20-minute breaks.

She appears warm to jurors, routinely thanking them for their public service and for paying such close attention during the proceedings.

“If you get cranky with family, just know it’s because you’re tired,” she told them at one point.

Rhodes, who has appeared before his former law partner in court, has described her as “wickedly funny” although she can be self-deprecating about her sense of humour.

She recently told the court that her kids remind her that her jokes are bad – “and that lawyers just laugh because they have to”.

She seemed to draw genuine laughter after a microphone in the courtroom stopped working last week.

“What can I tell you?” she said, with perfect comedic timing. “We are funded by the federal government.”

But when it comes to the parties in the case and their counsel, she is all business.

In the first week of trial, she chided Musk for recent posts to his social media platform X, in which he spoke disparagingly of OpenAI and Sam Altman, whom he referred to as “Scam Altman”.

“How can we get this done without you making things worse outside the courtroom?,” Gonzalez Rogers asked him. Musk replied that he was only responding to OpenAI’s public statements about the case.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx214rnlpn7o

A former OpenAI board member has explained how her unconventional personal relationship with Elon Musk evolved into having four of his children.

Shivon Zilis testified in a federal courtroom in Oakland, California for hours on Wednesday as part of Musk’s lawsuit trying to reverse OpenAI’s change to a for-profit company.

The focus of Zilis’s appearance was her direct involvement in early talks with Musk around the company becoming a for-profit, but also how she worked for and became involved with Musk as she advised OpenAI.

“I still really wanted to be a mum and Elon made the offer around that time and I accepted,” she said, explaining Musk in 2020 had offered to donate sperm.

“He was encouraging everyone around him at that time to have kids and he’d noticed I did not. He offered to make a donation,” Zilis said.

Zilis has worked as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley for over 15 years and held executive positions at Musk’s car company, Tesla, and his neurotechnology firm Neuralink.

She joined OpenAI as an advisor in 2016, not long after it was founded, a position through which she said on Wednesday is how she first met Musk.

Given Zilis’s role across Musk’s companies and OpenAI, eventually becoming a director at OpenAI from 2020 to 2023, she is an important witness in the trial.

OpenAI lawyers have suggested that she funnelled information about OpenAI to Musk after he in 2018 left the AI company, which he co-founded and made early donations to.

Zilis said she had a “one-off” romance with Musk about a decade ago but was not romantically involved with Musk in 2020, when Musk initially made the offer to father her children.

She explained she had been struggling with certain health issues which had changed her initial plans to follow a more traditional personal path of getting married and having children with a romantic partner.

Zilis’s initial plan for Musk’s role in the lives of the first two children she had by him was not necessarily as an active father, and the two had agreed to keep his paternity “strictly confidential.”

Today, Musk is an active participant in the lives of his now four children with Zilis, she said, explaining that they spend a few hours a week together as a family.

Zilis said the confidentiality agreement with Musk is why she did not disclose to OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman that twins she gave birth to in 2021 were fathered by Musk.

She told Altman that Musk was the father the following year, when she learned a Business Insider report on Musk’s paternity of the children was imminent.

Nevertheless, Altman and OpenAI’s president Greg Brockman wanted to continue with Zilis on the board of the AI company. Zilis said on Wednesday that the three remained friends until at least 2023.

When asked earlier this week about Zilis’ involvement with OpenAI for years after Musk had left the company, Brockman said: “We trusted her to keep the Elon conflict under control.”

Zilis left the board in March 2023 as Musk was launching xAI, an AI company developing a chatbot that is a direct competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

With years of history, including emails and text messages that have been made part of the case between Zilis, Altman, Brockman, and Musk, lawyers for OpenAI seized on several examples of discussions around changing the corporate structure of the AI company.

Moving away from being a pure non-profit was seen as necessary as early as 2017 in order for OpenAI to grow and raise from investors many billions of dollars, according to written exchanges shown in court in which Musk was involved.

Brockman and another OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever were pushing for the company to transition to a B Corp, which is a type of for-profit entity that holds itself to a certain mission.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c33243j44p8o

A group of four Australian women and nine children related to the “Islamic State” group have booked their flights from Syria to Australia. Some of them will face charges on arrival.

The returnees include four women and nine children, who had been living in Syria’s Roj camp.

As per local media reports, they are expected to arrive at airports in Sydney and Melbourne on Thursday.

Australia warns of arrests

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the group would receive no government assistance.

“They made an appalling, disgraceful decision,” Burke told the media, adding that he received an alert when the group’s travel booking was made.

“The government’s complete lack of support for these individuals is a direct reflection of ​the decisions that they made,” he added.

Australia’s Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said that some individuals will face arrests and criminal charges upon arrival.

Others could remain under investigation, while children will be put in community reintegration and support programs.

Police said they collected evidence in Syria as they probed whether Australians had committed crimes under Australian law, including travelling to a prohibited area and being involved in slave trade.

Australia prepares for ‘IS’ returnees

A February attempt by a larger group of 34 women and children to repatriate to Australia from the same camp was halted by Syrian authorities.

The Australian government had banned one of the women from returning at the time.

The woman, whose identity was not disclosed, had been issued with a temporary exclusion order which Australia can use to prevent high-risk citizens from returning for up to two years.

Burke said the order that banned the woman’s return remained in place.

Between 2012 and 2016, some Australian women had left for Syria to join their husbands who had become members of the “IS”.

After the so-called caliphate’s collapse in 2019, many of them were detained in camps while some made their way back home, Australian media reports said.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/australia-says-13-is-linked-citizens-to-fly-back-from-syria/a-77060174

The Russian strikes came just hours before a unilaterally proposed Ukrainian ceasefire and days before Russia itself intends to observe a ceasefire. Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned “cynical, vile” attacks by Russia.

Ukraine said on Wednesday that Russia had violated a unilateral ceasefire called by Kyiv by attacking Ukrainian cities overnight with more than 100 combat drones and three missiles.

At least 27 people were killed and dozens more injured in Russian strikes across eastern Ukraine late on Tuesday night, just hours before Kyiv’s proposed ceasefire came into effect at midnight Wednesday (2100 GMT).

“With mere hours ​until Ukraine’s ceasefire proposal comes into force, Russia shows no signs of preparing to end hostilities,” “On the contrary, ​Moscow intensifies terror,” wrote Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on social media.

On Wednesday morning, he said that Russia had breached a unilateral ceasefire declared by Ukraine by launching 108 combat drones and three missiles at Ukrainian cities.

“This shows that Russia rejects peace and its fake calls for a ceasefire on May 9th have nothing to do with diplomacy. Putin only cares about military parades, not human lives,” Sybiha wrote on X, referring to the Kremlin’s own unilateral call for a halt to fighting during its World War II army parade on May 9.

Deadly attack on Zaporizhzhia

At least 12 people were killed and 20 injured in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia after a Russian attack with guided aerial bombs was followed up by Iranian-designed Shahed drones.

“A cynical strike on facilities in the city of ​Zaporizhzhia,” City Council Secretary Rehina Kharchenko told the Reuters news agency. “After the hit, the enemy intentionally began attacking those locations with Shahed drones.”

Further north, six people were killed and 12 injured when powerful glide bombs smashed into the frontline city of Kramatorsk, four people were killed in Dnipro and five people were killed in a strike on gas production facilities in the Poltava region.

Zelenskyy slams ‘cynical, vile’ attacks

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Poltava attack was “especially vile” because Russia, like in Zaporizhzhia, launched a second missile at the same target when emergency rescuers were working at the scene.

“These are absolutely cynical, senseless terrorist strikes devoid of any military sense,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “Such ​Russian strikes on our cities and villages ⁠do not cease for a single day.”

The attacks came after five people were killed and 39 wounded on Monday night and after Moscow declared that it would observing a ceasefire later this week on Friday and Saturday as Russia commemorates the allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it would strike back at Ukraine if it tries to disrupt the festivities on Victory Day, which Russia marks annually on May 9 – but has continued to bombard Ukrainian cities in the meantime.

“Russia could cease fire at any moment, and this would stop the war and our responses,” said Zelenskyy, rebuking Moscow for its “utter cynicism” in continuing its attacks. “Peace is needed, and real steps are needed to achieve it. Ukraine will act in kind.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/dozens-killed-as-ukraine-accuses-russia-of-breaking-unilateral-ceasefire/a-77059886

North Korea has rewritten its constitution to erase any goal of reunification with the South. The move locks in Pyongyang leader Kim Jong Un’s shift toward treating Seoul as a permanent adversary.

North Korea has removed all references to reunification with South Korea from its constitution, according to a document circulating on Wednesday.

The revision marks a sharp break from decades of policy dating back to 1948, when Pyongyang had formally committed to pursuing unification.

How has North Korea changed its constitution?

The change was reported after the South Korean Unification Ministry shared a document seen by the country’s Yonhap News Agency and international media.

The updated constitution, introduced in March, also has a new clause defining North Korea’s territory. It says this includes the area bordering China and Russia to the north, “and the Republic of Korea to the south,” using South Korea’s official name.

The revision also sees leader Kim Jong Un, as chairman of the State Affairs Commission, designated as North Korea’s head of state. Previous ​language has described the chairman post differently — as the country’s supreme leader who represents the state.

It adds that command over North Korea’s nuclear forces rests with the State Affairs Commission chairman, formalizing Kim’s authority over the country’s nuclear forces and describing North Korea as a “responsible nuclear weapons state.”

What does change mean for relations with South Korea?

Political scientist Lee Jung Chul of Seoul National University, cited by Yonhap, said the new policy could form a basis for “peaceful coexistence” between the two Korean states.

Lee said the omission of a specific inter-Korean border suggested that Pyongyang was seeking to avoid confrontation for the time being.

Pyongyang has adopted an increasingly hostile policy toward Seoul in recent years, while rejecting calls for dialogue from South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.

Kim began shifting course in late 2023, calling Seoul the “main enemy,” and later ordered the demolition of a major reunification monument in Pyongyang.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/north-korea-drops-reunification-goal-from-constitution/a-77061282

President Donald Trump has renewed his criticism of Pope Leo XIV, potentially complicating a fence-mending visit that Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to make this week to the Vatican.

In an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, Trump said the first American-born pontiff is helping Iran and also making the world less safe with his comments about the importance of not treating immigrants with disrespect.

“The pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said in the interview on Monday. “And I don’t think that’s very good. I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people.”

The pope, however, has not said Iran should obtain nuclear weapons. He’s called for more peace talks, and criticized war with Iran generally and Trump’s specific threats of mass civilian strikes. The pope also has emphasized that he’s reflecting biblical and church teachings, not speaking as a political rival to Trump.

Leo responded to Trump’s latest criticism by calling out the U.S. president’s misrepresentation of his views. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, the pope said the Catholic Church “for years has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt there.”

He also doubled down on his insistence that his call for peace and dialogue in the U.S-Israeli war in Iran is biblically inspired.

“The mission of the church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace. If someone wants to criticize me for announcing the Gospel, let him do it with the truth,” Leo said.

Rubio downplays the rift over Iran

For his part, Rubio, a practicing Catholic, said Trump’s recent criticisms were rooted in his opposition to Iran potentially obtaining a nuclear weapon, which he said could be used against millions of Catholics and other Christians. Rubio said the whole world should be opposed to that.

Trump “doesn’t understand why anybody — leave aside the pope — the president and I, for that matter, I think most people, I cannot understand why anyone would think that it’s a good idea for Iran to ever have a nuclear weapon,” Rubio told reporters at the White House.

Still, Trump’s latest comments may make Rubio’s task more difficult when he sees the pontiff on Thursday. Rubio has often been called on to tone down or explain Trump’s harsh rhetoric as it relates to Europe, NATO and the Middle East, but the president’s dispute with the pope has domestic political implications in the U.S. with midterm congressional elections approaching.

Trump lashed out at Leo on social media last month, saying the pope was soft on crime and terrorism for comments about the administration’s immigration policies and deportations as well as the Iran war. Leo then said God doesn’t listen to the prayers of those who wage war.

Later, Trump posted a social media image likening himself to Jesus Christ, which he then deleted after backlash. He has refused to apologize to Leo and has sought to explain away the social media post by saying he thought the image was of him as a doctor.

The tension spills over into Italian politics

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a long-time Trump ally, has taken exception to Trump’s comments about the pope.

Trump in return criticized her as his ire against NATO allies expands over what he sees as a lack of support for the Iran war — most recently with the Pentagon planning to pull thousands of troops out of Germany in the coming months.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/trump-rubio-pope-iran-19fac7bba8f7c9b4d59630b7d5537868

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday evening he was pausing the U.S. effort to guide stranded vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz to allow time for a deal to end the Iran war, but that the American forces’ blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Beijing on Wednesday morning, the official Xinhua news agency reported, without providing further details.

It was the first time since the start of the war that Araghchi has traveled to China, whose close economic and political ties to Tehran give it a unique position of influence.

Earlier in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had expressed hope that Beijing would reiterate to Tehran the need to release its chokehold on the strait, which is a vital waterway for global energy.

Iran’s effective closure of the strait, through which major oil and gas supplies passed before the war, along with fertilizer and other petroleum products, has sent fuel prices skyrocketing and rattled the global economy. Breaking Iran’s grip would deny its main source of leverage as Trump demands a major rollback of Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

US to pause latest efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz

Trump announced the decision in a social media post, saying the latest effort — which started Monday — would pause for a short period to see whether an agreement with Tehran on ending the war in the Middle East could be finalized.

Trump said the move was based “on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment or further detail on the progress in negotiations that Trump mentioned. They had appeared to have largely stalled in the conflict that started Feb. 28 when the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran.

US officials say ceasefire is holding, despite attacks on UAE

The United Arab Emirates, a key U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, said it came under attack from Iranian drones and missiles for a second day Tuesday.

But U.S. military leaders and Rubio insisted the nearly month-old ceasefire was still holding and that — while the conflict is not resolved — the initial major U.S. military operation against Iran has concluded.

Before the Trump announcement, Rubio told a White House press briefing that for peace to be achieved, Iran must agree to Trump’s demands on its nuclear program and also agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“We would prefer the path of peace,” Rubio said.

Rubio also described the day-old U.S. push to reopen the strait to maritime traffic as a defensive operation, aimed at helping thousands of civilian sailors stranded there by the war.

“They’re sitting ducks, they’re isolated, they’re starving, they’re vulnerable,” Rubio said. “At least 10 sailors have already died as a result.”

On Monday, the U.S. said it had opened a lane and sunk six small Iranian boats that had threatened commercial ships. So far, only two merchant ships are known to have passed through the new U.S.-guarded route, with hundreds more bottled up in the Persian Gulf.

Iran says the new US effort violates ceasefire

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the U.S. military’s top officer, told a news conference that Iran’s renewed attacks had not reached the threshold of what Caine called “major combat operations.” He said Tuesday was a “quieter” day in the strait.

At the White House, Rubio said clashes with Iran related to American efforts to reopen the straight were “defensive in nature.”

“There’s no shooting unless we’re shot at first, OK?” Rubio said. “We’re not attacking them.”

Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, signaled that Iran has yet to fully respond to the U.S. attempt to reopen the waterway.

“We know full well that the continuation of the status quo is intolerable for America; while we have not even begun yet,” he said in a post on X. His statement did not mention negotiations with the U.S. that are now in the form of passing messages via Pakistan.

Disputing Washington’s claim of sinking six Iranian boats, an Iranian military commander said two small civilian cargo boats were hit Monday, killing five civilians, Iran’s state TV reported.

Caine, the top U.S. general who serves as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said more than 100 U.S. military aircraft are patrolling the skies over the strait. The U.S. has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports since April 13, depriving Tehran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy.

The Trump administration has cited the April 8 ceasefire in asserting that the president does not have to give a formal update to Congress on the war under the War Powers Resolution. That law typically requires presidents to seek formal approval from Congress for war activities 60 days after beginning military action.

Shippers remain wary

So far, just two civilian vessels, both U.S.-flagged merchant ships, are known to have passed through the strait as part of the lane the U.S. says it has created. Shipping company Maersk said one of them, a vehicle carrier that it operates, exited the strait safely Monday with U.S. military assistance.

Former military officers who have served on the strait have said opening the waterway that is just 21 miles (34 kilometers) wide would be dangerous and highly challenging, even with military escorts, which the U.S. is not providing now.

Hapag-Lloyd AG, one of the world’s largest container shipping companies, said in a statement that its risk assessment “remains unchanged” and that transits through the strait “are for the moment not possible for our ships.”

Iran has attacked ships that try to transit without going through its own route in the northern part of the strait along the Iranian coastline. That involves being vetted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and in some cases making a payment.

The U.S.-approved route goes through territorial waters of Oman to the south.

The UAE bore the brunt of Iran’s retaliation

The UAE’s Defense Ministry said it was responding to another Iranian drone and missile attack on Tuesday, though there were no reports of damage or casualties. A day earlier, it said Emirati air defenses had engaged 15 missiles and four drones from Iran, one of which sparked a fire at a key oil facility, wounding three Indian nationals.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-war-ceasefire-negotiations-strait-hormuz-b8a77d16945085e5a5039032a55b3a90

A hateful mob of keffiyeh-clad anti-Israel protesters flooded the streets near a historic Manhattan synagogue Tuesday night — clashing with cops as they repeatedly shouted “Israel should not exist.”

About 100 agitators waving Palestinian flags and banging drums swarmed about a half-block from Park East Synagogue, chanting “Palestine will never die” and “Stop the sale of stolen land” during an event promoting real estate in Israel and the West Bank, according to shocking footage.

While the East 67th Street synagogue was sealed off by police barricades, footage captured the rowdy protesters clashing with cops who were trying to force their way past the barriers into the street.

Police yelled “step back” as they shoved the unruly crowd onto the sidewalk, video shows, while counter-protesters rallied nearby.

One officer suffered a leg injury in the chaos and was hospitalized, the NYPD said.

“They’re a bunch of brainwashed fools,” Karen Lichtbraun, co-sponsor of Zionist group Herut New York City, told The Post of the pro-Palestine protesters.

“Israel does not occupy anything. It’s the Jewish homeland. And this is all anti-Zionism, which is antisemitism, which is Jew hate.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani — a staunch critic of Israel — has not commented on the protest.

The 7 p.m. protest was led by the anti-Israel activist group Pal-Awda NY/NJ, which promoted the rally with slogans such as “No settlers on stolen land” and “Stop the sale of stolen Palestinian land.”

The antisemitic group previously spearheaded a November rally at the synagogue, where about 200 demonstrators heckled people attending an event hosted by Nefesh B’nefesh, a Zionist group that helps Jews immigrate from the US to Israel.

In response to the first protest, Council Speaker Julie Menin crafted legislation to allow the NYPD to set up buffer zones around synagogues and other houses of worship to protect congregants.

The bill, which faced intense opposition from Mamdani’s DSA allies, passed with a veto-proof 44-5 majority.

But the mayor dragged his feet and didn’t act on the bill until it automatically became law on April 25.

Under the law, the NYPD must now develop plans to contain the risk of obstruction, injury, intimidation and interference around houses of worship when protests are imminent — including whether a security perimeter is necessary.

The police department has to submit a final plan within 90 days, according to JNS.

Pal-Awda NY/NJ frequently churns out anti-Israel bile on social media and even cheered the second anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/05/05/us-news/hateful-anti-israel-mob-descends-on-historic-nyc-synagogue-clash-with-cops-in-chaotic-protest/

In November 2022, a photo emerged of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with a smartly-dressed young girl by his side – his daughter Ju Ae.

Strolling alongside her father in front of a towering intercontinental ballistic missile, she wore black trousers and a white padded jacket with her long hair tied back.

Making her debut in state propaganda – she was reportedly just nine years old at the time – Ju Ae was already dressed to impress.

Since then her hairstyles have become more elaborate, her attire increasingly elegant and sophisticated.

South Korea’s spy agency believes that Kim Jong Un has chosen her as his successor, given her rising prominence at such a young age.

Ju Ae, believed to now be 13, has been increasingly photographed with her father, standing next to him at missile launches and military parades and even accompanying him on overseas trips.

But some analysts believe that her fashion – leathers, furs, and a “rooster” hairstyle – are also signs that she is being groomed to lead the country.

Ju Ae’s outfits are likely to be dictated by the government’s Propaganda and Agitation Department.

At times, she has been seen dressed in formal suits and skirts, resembling her mother Ri Sol Ju.

“As Ju Ae is still very young, her age could be seen as a potential weakness for a future leader. It appears the regime is dressing her in formal outfits similar to those worn by her mother as a way to mask her youth and project a more mature image,” Sejong Institute deputy director Cheong Seong-chang tells BBC Korean.

At other times, she has worn leather jackets, “clothing that is both strong in impression and casual” which would be suitable for visiting “relatively rough or rugged locations” such as military bases, noted Cheong.

But it also has meant that she ends up twinning with her father, who is fond of wearing black leather jackets and trench coats.

Mirroring the fashions of previous generations, known as “image replication”, is a tactic that North Korean leaders have employed to retain power.

During the early years of his leadership, Kim Jong Un sought to secure his legitimacy by dressing like his grandfather Kim Il Sung.

Kim Il Sung, who founded and led North Korea for more than 45 years, is effectively seen as a deity in the country, according to experts.

“The Propaganda and Agitation Department played a significantly important role in orchestrating a series of processes that naturally transferred respect for Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong Un,” Cheong says.

“It is said that North Korean residents were surprised when Kim Jong Un first appeared. But the reason South Korean experts were also surprised is that the first glimpse of Kim Jong Un looked so much like the young Kim Il Sung.

“The limitations young Kim Jong Un faced as a successor, such as his lack of experience and age, could be offset solely by the fact that he resembled Kim Il Sung.

“It got to the point that rumours circulated among North Koreans that Kim Il Sung had been reincarnated.”

Beyond cementing Ju Ae’s legitimacy, “by wearing Western-designed clothing, Ju Ae and Ri Sol Ju are demonstrating a ‘differentiation strategy’ – that their social standing is fundamentally different from that of ordinary residents”, noted Cheong.

The fact that Ju Ae has been seen wearing leather jackets on several occasions indicates that the Propaganda and Agitation Department is keen on setting her status above normal citizens.

“Wearing clothing made of high-quality leather is a way of showing off one’s special status,” says Cheong.

“Leather clothing is not that common among North Korean residents. Luxury brands, leather jackets and fur coats are precious clothes that can’t be worn by ordinary North Koreans.”

Ju Ae’s evolving fashion stands in stark contrast to the tightening controls on the rest of the population.

In 2020, North Korea enacted the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act, blocking “external culture”.

But in 2023, the state-run Korean Central News Agency released a video of Ju Ae again strolling alongside her father in front of an intercontinental ballistic missile, this time wearing a black padded jacket later identified as a $1,900 (£1,405) purchase from luxury French fashion house Christian Dior.

The following year, Ju Ae wore a partially see-through blouse – revealing her arms – to the completion ceremony for a residential area of the capital, Pyongyang.

A video lecture was then released as a directive to ordinary citizens, warning that such hairstyles and outfits could not be worn by them as they were “anti-socialist and non-socialist phenomena that blur the image of the socialist system and eat away at the regime – targets that must be eradicated”, a local source told Radio Free Asia.

These incidents have highlighted how the Kim family – who are treated almost as god-like figures – are often exempt from rules that apply to the rest of society.

“Although jeans are banned in North Korea as a Western fashion item, Kim Jong Un has appeared wearing them,” Prof Lee Woo-young, of the University of North Korean Studies, says.

“No matter how much they ban foreign culture and even enact laws, North Korea is a place where there is nothing the supreme leader is unable to do.”

Still, that has not stopped some North Koreans from wanting to keep up with the Kims and dress as sophisticatedly as Ju Ae.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy82x9wve2xo

Chad’s President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno vowed to eradicate Boko Haram after the “cowardly” attack. Boko Haram is one of several armed groups operating around Lake Chad.

Boko Haram militants killed at least 23 security personnel in an attack on a military base, officials from Chad said on Tuesday.

The attack took place on Monday night against a military base on the shores of Lake Chad, which sits on the tripoint of Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon.

Dozens more Chadian soldiers were injured in the attack, which was eventually repelled.

“Once again, the nebulous Boko Haram terrorist group carried out a cowardly attack last night on our military base at Barka Tolorom,” Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

“We will continue the fight with renewed determination until this threat is completely eradicated.”

Boko Haram active around Lake Chad

Although the jihadist group was started in northern Nigeria, Boko Haram has expanded into Lake Chad and beyond over the past decade.

According to the United Nations, the group has killed several thousand people and displaced millions.

Boko Haram has ramped up kidnappings as well as attacks on soldiers around Lake Chad in recent years, including an October 2024 attack that killed around 40 Chadian troops.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/boko-haram-lake-chad-attack/a-77057854

A blast at a fireworks factory in China has killed 26 people and wounded 61 others. President Xi Jinping has called for a thorough probe.

An explosion ripped through a fireworks plant in the central Chinese province of Hunan, leaving at least 26 people dead, state media reported Tuesday.

A total of 61 people are reported to have been injured in the incident.

What do we know?

The blast occurred in the ​city of Changsha on Monday at around 4:40 pm local time (8:40 am UTC), state-run outlets CCTV and Xinhua reported.

The city is home to a hub for fireworks manufacturing.

The causes behind the incident were not immediately clear.

Nearly 500 rescuers were deployed at the site of the blast, reports said.

People staying in danger zones were evacuated, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing high risks from two black powder depots located on the site.

According to reports, rescue workers used spraying and humidification to eliminate potential hazards and further accidents during the operation.

Three robots were also deployed to aid search and rescue efforts.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/china-explosion-at-fireworks-factory-kills-at-least-26/a-77045835

China is hoping to secure new allies for a future multipolar world order as the partnership between the US and the European powers slides into a crisis.

“These days, Europe is losing its significance in global politics and the economy,” a law student shouted from the audience during a recent political TV talk show broadcast on Shanghai Media Group (SMG), a Chinese state media outlet. “Are the European elite and the public aware of this?”

The question reflects Chinese public perception of Europe’s stagnant economy, dependent foreign policy, and lack of defense capabilities. European powers are seen as still kowtowing to Washington and, despite intensive efforts, they appear incapable of stopping the Ukraine war, which is being waged on their own doorstep by Russia.

Additionally, US President Donald Trump has thrown the transatlantic alliance into dissaray since his return to office in January 2025, threatening to capture Greenland and calling the integrity of the NATO alliance into question after the Europeans backed off from joining Trump’s war on Iran.

China regards the split between as an opportunity. Beijing envisions the future world as multipolar, and this shapes its strategy towards its rival superpower. China intends to work, not alone, but alongside Russia and other nations not aligned to the US. But China still believes Europe could become an independent pole in a new order.

The logic behind this is quite simple. With the United Kingdom and France, Europe holds two veto votes in the UN Security Council. The EU single market is highly attractive to China’s export-oriented economy. This has become increasingly apparent in the wake of the trade war initiated by President Trump. And the leadership in Beijing believe that companies in Europe and China can complement each other very well.

Room for China-Europe partnership

Europe still has a lot to offer in terms of technology. China, on the other hand, has the production capacity to manufacture everything at competitive prices. Economic ties between the two are strong. Beijing is hoping to win the EU over as an ally, provided there is political will and enough space between the US and its traditional partners in Europe.

According to Ding Chun, a professor at Fudan University and chairman of the Shanghai Institute for European Studies, the US has used its dominance at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to promote economic programs in Latin America and Europe, thereby cementing a hegemonic position known as the “Washington Consensus.”

“But times have changed,” Ding told a forum in Shanghai in mid-April.

“A lot of things don’t work the way they used to, even in Europe. The younger generation in Europe is fed up with the political establishment. Social media makes election outcomes unpredictable,” he said.

China looks to reshape the UN

Beijing is already challenging the “Washington Consensus” on the global stage.

On April 29, Annalena Baerbock, president of the UN General Assembly, visited Beijing. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi used her visit as an opportunity to emphasize the need to reform UN institutions and establish the UN as a multipolar world government.

“China is happy to support you in your continued leadership,” Wang said.

“As a founding member of the United Nations and a permanent member of the Security Council, China plays an important leading role in upholding multilateralism, safeguarding international law, and promoting the three pillars of peace, development, and human rights,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.

As German foreign minister in 2023, Baerbock once referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator.”

US-Europe ties in crisis

Vuk Jeremic, a former president of the UN General Assembly and now a professor at the prestigious French university Sciences Po, told the SMG talk show that transatlantic ties were forged on the common threat of Soviet Communism.

And after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe enjoyed decades of tremendous prosperity, Jeremic continued.

It served as a model for the entire world, showing how to overcome the conflicts and divisions of history, how to grow together, and how to work toward shared prosperity and a shared future.

“In the meantime, quite a lot went wrong. Crises began to pile up,” Jeremic said, noting that US ties have been shaken.

The 2007–2008 global financial crisis was followed by the 2015 migration crisis in Europe.

“Then came Brexit in 2020 and Donald Trump’s first presidency from 2017 to 2021 … The current situation can hardly be described as ideal,” he added.

A ‘China option’ for Europe?

Zhang Weiwei, director of the China institute at Fudan University in Shanghai, told the talk show that it will be difficult for Europe to “decouple” from the US.

He added that Europe has also missed out on developing the tech-driven industries of the future, the so-called Industry 4.0. The term, which refers to digital and networked industrial production, was coined in 2011 at Germany’s Hannover Messe.

Zhang added that there is no lasting competitive advantage for Europe if there isn’t a single European option among the top 20 internet high-tech companies. Only US platforms would be used in Europe, and US companies would be the masters of European big data. Europe tends not to trust Chinese data providers.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/decoding-china-beijing-courts-europe-amid-us-dysfunction/a-77038349

FBI Director Kash Patel has slammed the sheriff’s department leading the investigation into the abduction of Nancy Guthrie.

Patel did not hold back as he called out the Pima County Sheriff’s Department for locking out federal investigators during the first few and crucial days of the search.

Patel claimed Sheriff Chris Nanos turned down help from the feds in an interview with Sean Hannity released on Tuesday.

Nanos has previously been accused of lying on his resume and hit with a $1million lawsuit in March from an inmate claiming negligence.

The FBI director said the sheriff’s department tried to keep the FBI out of the investigation, which has since spanned over three months as Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother still remains missing.

Guthrie was last seen by her daughter Annie Guthrie and Annie’s husband Tommaso Cioni, who have been ruled out as suspects after they dropped her off at her Arizona home on the night of January 31.

“The first 48 hours of anyone’s disappearance are the most critical,” Patel said.

“Here’s how these cases work: it is a state matter, it’s a state and local law enforcement matter. What we, the FBI do is say, ‘Hey, we’re here to help. What do you need? What can we do?”

Patel said the FBI was kept out of the investigation for four days.

He said as soon as the FBI got involved, they were able to obtain the security cam footage that gave officials its first big break in the case, a suspect captured outside of Guthrie’s home.

A masked man was seen bashing her doorbell camera and ruffling Guthrie’s plants right before she was taken.

“That’s why you have that image, because the FBI worked with Google to put that image out,” Patel said.

The top law enforcement officials went on to suggest the FBI could’ve obtained more data or got the photo days before if they were able to get involved in the case sooner.

Hannity asked Patel why the Pima County Sheriff’s Department sent off the DNA evidence found outside Guthrie’s home to a lab in Florida and not straight to the FBI.

“We were saying, ‘We’ll process it.’ I launched hundreds of agents and intel staff to Phoenix and Tucson just for this case, just to be on standby, just to do the canvassing and we said we’ll take the DNA,” Patel said.

“Again, it’s a state and local matter so it’s their call on where to send the DNA.”

Patel said he had an aircraft on the ground ready to ship off the evidence to Quantico immediately.

“What we can do is continue to offer support. We would have analyzed it in within days and maybe gotten better information or more information. Our lab’s just better than any other private lab out there.

“And we didn’t get a chance to do that. I understand everybody’s frustration.”

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has come under fire several times since the investigation into Guthrie’s abduction began, with some claiming they botched the search.

One whistleblower recently told NewsNation, “From what I understand, that the people that were there on the scene were not tenured homicide detectives.”

“They didn’t have a lot of experience in homicide at that point, to include the supervisor who, from my understanding, never investigated a homicide before being installed as the supervisor for the homicide unit,” the source said.

The sheriff’s department recently asked again for anyone with information pertaining to the case come forward.

Officials told The U.S. Sun on Friday that the search for Guthrie remains “active and ongoing.”

The request for information came days after the private lab in Florida shipped off the DNA samples to the FBI following a retired agent sharing his thoughts that the blood pattern found outside Guthrie’s porch suggested there was a single abductor.

Officials had found a glove with a DNA profile at the scene after discovering a trail of blood and the back door of her home propped open.

The FBI previously received a hair sample from the scene 11 weeks into the investigation.

However, experts have said it could take weeks or even months to get any information from the sample.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16318983/nancy-guthrie-sheriff-blew-case-slams-kash-patel/

Amid these tensions, President Trump announced a temporary halt to US operations in the Strait of Hormuz, aiming to finalize an agreement with Iran. Control over the Strait remains contested, complicating the situation further.

A cargo ship in the Gulf was struck by a suspected land-attack cruise missile, injuring several crew members, according to two US officials. The vessel, identified as the CGM San Antonio and owned by a French company, was hit late on Tuesday local time, the officials told CBS News. The crew members injured in the incident are understood to be Filipino nationals.

Publicly available ship-tracking data showed the vessel was near Dubai earlier on Tuesday, although it is not clear whether it has since moved. The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it had received a report that “a cargo vessel has been struck by an unknown projectile”.

The incident comes amid a series of maritime security concerns in the region. Since Sunday, UKMTO has reported three other cases involving commercial vessels, including a fire on board one ship, a separate projectile strike, and an alleged attack by small craft.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest incident, and the circumstances surrounding the strike remain under investigation.

The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied gas typically flows, remains at the centre of tensions between the US and Iran. Since the outbreak of hostilities, traffic has dwindled to a near standstill.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced a temporary stop to the US operations in the Strait of Hormuz dubbed “Project Freedom”. “Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States had secured control of the passage. “We’re ensuring that we have control of that strait, which we do,” he said, adding that the operation was temporary and defensive in nature. “We’re not looking for a fight.”

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/middle-east/iran-war-update-strait-of-hormuz-cargo-ship-missile-attack-near-dubai-article-154255268

A school shooting in Brazil’s Acre state left two staff members dead, with a 13-year-old student taken into custody. Two others were injured, and authorities say the weapon belonged to the suspect’s legal guardian.

A tragic school shooting in Acre in northern Brazil left two people dead and two others injured on Tuesday, according to authorities. The incident took place at Instituto Sao Jose, a public school in the state capital, Rio Branco. Officials said a 13-year-old student admitted to carrying out the attack. The two victims who died were female staff members, both pronounced dead at the scene. Another staff member and a student, who is underage, were injured in the shooting and taken to a hospital for treatment.

Authorities have not released the identities of the victims. Police confirmed that the suspect has been detained and that the firearm used in the attack belonged to a legal guardian. Local media reports indicated the weapon was owned by the teenager’s stepfather, who was also taken into custody.

In a statement, Mailza Assis expressed condolences to the victims’ families, the school community and education professionals affected by the incident, calling it a deeply tragic event.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/school-shooting-brazil-acre-rio-branco-state-leaves-2-dead-13-year-old-student-in-custody-article-154255126

Recent Russian drone and missile strikes across Ukraine resulted in at least 26 fatalities and over 80 injuries, occurring just before a ceasefire was set to start.

At least 26 people have been killed and more than 80 injured in a wave of Russian drone and missile strikes across Ukraine, officials say, hours before a planned ceasefire was due to begin. Ukrainian authorities said attacks on Tuesday hit several areas, including Kramatorsk in the east, Zaporizhzhia in the south-east and Chernihiv in the north.

In Zaporizhzhia, at least 12 people were killed and more than a dozen injured, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least five people were killed in Kramatorsk, a key city in the Donetsk region still under Kyiv’s control. He later added that four more people died in a separate strike on the city of Dnipro.

Overnight, attacks on gas facilities in the Poltava and Kharkiv regions killed five people, including three employees and two rescue workers, according to Serhiy Koretskyi, chief executive of the state energy company Naftogaz. “We have sustained significant damage and production losses. This was a combined strike involving UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] and ballistic missiles,” Koretskyi said. He added that the attack disrupted gas supplies to nearly 3,500 customers.

Zelenskyy accused Russia of acting in bad faith by launching strikes after announcing a pause in fighting. “Russia could cease fire at any moment, and this would stop the war and our responses. Peace is needed, and real steps are needed to achieve it. Ukraine will act in kind,” he said on X.

Ukraine has said it will begin observing a ceasefire from the end of Tuesday, without specifying an end date, and will respond to Russian actions accordingly. A day earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a separate ceasefire for Friday and Saturday to mark victory celebrations linked to World War Two.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 11 ballistic missiles and 164 drones between Monday evening and Tuesday. It said one missile and 149 drones were intercepted or neutralised, but eight missiles and 14 drones struck 14 locations.

Ballistic missile attacks remain particularly difficult to counter, with Ukraine repeatedly calling on Western allies for more advanced air defence systems.

Russian officials also reported casualties on their side of the border. Authorities in the Chuvashia Republic said two people were killed and at least 32 injured in a drone attack, with a state of emergency declared.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces were reported to have struck an oil refinery in the town of Kirishi in the Leningrad region, causing a fire. Regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said there were no casualties and that the blaze had been largely contained.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-updates-zaporizhzhia-kramatorsk-missile-drone-attacks-death-toll-article-154254947

Trump said he was pausing the ‘Project Freedom’ for a short period to give space for US efforts to finalise a settlement with Iran.

US President Donald Trump has paused ‘Project Freedom’, the American military’s effort to guide stranded ships out of the Strait of Hormuz, so that Washington could finalise a deal with Iran. The American commander-in-chief, however, said the US blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place even as there has been progress in negotiations with Iran toward an agreement to end the war.

“Great progress has been made toward a complete and final agreement with representatives of Iran,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump claimed he was pausing the effort for a short period to give space for US efforts to finalise a settlement with Iran, even as there has been an uptick in military activity in recent days.

“Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed,” he said.

‘Op Epic Fury Is Over’

The announcement came hours after military leaders and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a ceasefire in the Middle East was still in place and that, while the conflict was not resolved, the initial major US military operation against Iran had concluded.

“The operation is over. Epic Fury — as the president notified Congress — we’re done with that stage of it,” Rubio said.

He echoed Washington’s top military officer, who earlier in the day said that US forces were ready to resume combat operations if ordered. Rubio, however, insisted that for peace to be achieved, Iran must agree to Trump’s demands on its nuclear programme and also agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global energy.

As these announcements were made in Washington, Iranian media reported that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Beijing, where he is scheduled to meet his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

Rubio also expressed hope that during Araghchi’s visit, Beijing would reiterate to Tehran the need to release its chokehold on the strait. The secretary went on to argue that China, more than the US, is suffering from Iran’s actions in the strait, saying that China’s export-driven economy depends on shipments going through Hormuz.

“It is in China’s interest that Iran stop closing the strait,” he added.

Asked what the global appetite is for the US effort to reopen the strait, Rubio said the issue has not been a lack of interest, but that not many are able to provide the assets and resources needed. “The capabilities are the issue. A lot of countries would love to do something about it. But they don’t have a navy, right? Or they can’t get there in time…” he said.

He said the onus is on the US. “The primary responsibility for this Project Freedom is on the United States because we’re the only country that can project power in that part of the world,” he said.

“This is a favour to the world because it’s their ships that are stranded.”

The Hormuz Tensions

Under ‘Project Freedom,” the US military escorts over the last day and a half drew Iranian attacks, threatening an already fragile ceasefire.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards navy warned of a “firm response” if ships deviated from its approved route through the strait, as the country’s chief negotiator said Tehran “had not even started yet”, following a spate of attacks in the crucial trade route.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-us-war-news-on-pakistans-request-trump-briefly-pauses-project-freedom-blockade-to-continue-11454985?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The flight tracking data show the plane flew in a circular pattern in the air for a while, before it begun its descent for landing.

A Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, which acts as a flying gas Station for US military planes, issued a “7700” distress signal, declaring an in-flight emergency while flying over the Persian Gulf off Iran amid escalating Middle East tensions, the Flightradar24 data showed. The American aerial took off from the Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before it’s signals were lost over Qatar.

The aircraft had reportedly been operating over the Middle East in support of ongoing military operations.

The flight tracking data show the plane flew in a circular pattern in the air for a while, before it begun its descent for landing. The exact cause of the emergency remains unclear, and there has been no official confirmation linking the incident to hostile action.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported on the disappearance, citing data from Flightradar24. There has been no statement from Iran indicating its involvement in the US military plane’s emergency.

US military has also not issued any statement on the status of the plane.

In March, the US military lost a KC-135 in an Iranian attack in western Iraq. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group said it shot down the aircraft “in defence of our country’s sovereignty and airspace,” Reuters reported.

What is the KC-135 Stratotanker?

The KC-135 Stratotanker is a military aircraft powered by four turbofan engines mounted under swept wings and used mainly for aerial refuelling. The aircraft has a cargo deck above the refuelling system, allowing it to carry both passengers and equipment, and is used to transfer fuel to other aircraft mid-air. It has been part of the US Air Force’s operations for more than 60 years.

The aircraft allows fighter jets, bombers and other military planes to stay in the air longer and travel greater distances. It also supports aircraft from the US Navy, Marine Corps and allied countries.

The KC-135 is based on Boeing’s 367-80 design, which also led to the development of the commercial Boeing 707 passenger aircraft. Hundreds of KC-135 aircraft remain in service with the US Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-flying-gas-station-goes-missing-over-qatar-called-emergency-minutes-ago-11451639?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

From London to New York and Islamabad to Dhaka, publications also gave prominent space to Tamil superstar Joseph Vijay’s surprise victory in Tamil Nadu.

The pages in international publications were painted in orange hues as they reported the results of assembly elections in four states and one Union Territory. Most reports in foreign media focused primarily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party’s electoral victory in West Bengal, ending Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year stronghold on the state.

From London to New York and Islamabad to Dhaka, publications also gave prominent space to Tamil superstar Joseph Vijay, who launched the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) party only two years ago, ousting the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party.

The BBC focused its coverage on the BJP wresting control of the opposition stronghold of West Bengal. In an article titled ‘Modi’s BJP conquers Bengal, one of India’s toughest political frontiers’, the British publication claimed the victory of the BJP in the eastern state “would rank among the most significant breakthroughs of Modi’s 12-year reign.”

“It is not merely the defeat of a three-term incumbent but the completion of the party’s long march into eastern India,” the article said.

The Guardian

The other major British daily, The Guardian, also focused on Bengal results, noting the state, which had been a rare opposition stronghold, unrivalled in the BJP’s consolidation of power across the country.

The article, titled “Narendra Modi’s BJP wins election in West Bengal for the first time”, said the Bengal assembly election results “will have significant implications for India’s political landscape and deal another demoralising blow to the already weakened opposition”.

New York Times

U.S. President Donald Trump ​said on Tuesday he would briefly pause an operation to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing “great progress” toward a comprehensive agreement with Iran.
Hours earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had ‌outlined the effort that began on Monday to escort stranded tankers out of the Gulf. The strait has been virtually shut since the conflict began, blocking some 20% of world oil supplies and igniting a global energy crisis.

“We have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom … will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed,” Trump wrote on social media.
There was no immediate reaction from Tehran, where it was early on Wednesday morning.
Shortly after Trump’s post, ​U.S. crude oil futures fell $2.30 and broke below $100 per barrel, a much-watched threshold since the conflict sent energy prices soaring two months ago.
The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment on what progress ​had been made, or how long the pause would last.

Rubio and other senior administration officials said earlier on Tuesday that Iran could not be allowed to control traffic through the ⁠strait.
Iran has effectively sealed off the strait by threatening to deploy mines, drones, missiles and fast-attack craft. The United States has countered by blockading Iranian ports and mounting escorted transits for commercial vessels.
The U.S. military said on Monday it had destroyed ​several Iranian small boats, as well as cruise missiles and drones.

RUBIO SAYS MAIN OPERATION IS OVER

Rubio told reporters at the White House that the United States had achieved its objectives in its military campaign, which was launched on February 28 alongside Israel.
“Operation ​Epic Fury is concluded,” Rubio said. “We’re not cheering for an additional situation to occur.”
One of Trump’s central objectives in launching military strikes against Iran was to ensure Tehran does not develop a nuclear weapon, something Tehran has denied seeking. However, Iran has not handed over more than 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium.

While Rubio was speaking, Britain’s Maritime Trade Operations agency reported that a cargo vessel had been struck by a projectile in the strait. Further details of the incident were not immediately available.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier on Tuesday that the U.S. ​had successfully secured a path through the waterway and that hundreds of commercial ships were lining up to pass through. The four-week-old truce with Iran was not over, he added.
“Right now the ceasefire certainly holds, but we’re going to be watching very, ​very closely,” he said.
General Dan Caine, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iranian attacks against U.S. forces fell “below the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point”.

Asked what Iran would need to do to violate the ceasefire, Trump said: “They know what ‌not to ⁠do.”

‘RIGHT TO RESPOND’

Shortly after Hegseth spoke, the UAE’s defence ministry said its air defences were again dealing with missile and drone attacks coming from Iran, though Iran’s joint military command denied carrying out attacks.
The UAE’s foreign ministry said the attacks were a serious escalation and posed a direct threat to the country’s security, adding that the Gulf Arab state reserved its “full and legitimate right” to respond.
Iran’s foreign ministry rejected Abu Dhabi’s statements, saying its armed forces’ actions have been solely aimed at repelling American aggression.
The U.S. military said on Monday that two U.S. merchant ships made it through the strait, without saying when, while shipping company Maersk (MAERSKb.CO), said the Alliance Fairfax, a U.S.-flagged ship, exited the Gulf under U.S. military escort on Monday.
Iran denied any crossings had taken ​place.

PAKISTAN’S MEDIATION EFFORTS CONTINUE

The war has killed thousands as it ​has spread beyond Iran to Lebanon and the Gulf, ⁠and roiled the global economy. The head of the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that even if the conflict ended immediately, it would take three to four months to deal with the consequences.
Rubio said 10 civilian sailors were among those who had died in the conflict, adding that crew on vessels stranded in the waterway were “starving” and “isolated.”
Trump told reporters in the Oval ​Office that Iran’s military had been reduced to firing “peashooters” and Tehran wanted peace, despite public sabre-rattling.
The conflict is also pressuring Trump’s administration ahead of crucial midterm elections in November, ​as rising gas prices hit voters’ ⁠pockets.
Trump has said the U.S.-Israeli attacks aimed to eliminate what he called imminent threats from Iran, citing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and its support for Hamas and Hezbollah.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/middle-east-truce-doubt-us-iran-fight-control-strait-hormuz-2026-05-05/

U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that the time Iran would ​need to build a nuclear weapon has not changed since last summer, when analysts estimated that a U.S.-Israeli attack had pushed back the timeline to up to a year, according to three sources familiar ‌with the matter.
The assessments of Tehran’s nuclear program remain broadly unchanged even after two months of a war that U.S. President Donald Trump launched in part to stop the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear bomb.

The latest U.S. and Israeli attacks that began on February 28 have focused on conventional military targets, but Israel has hit a number of significant nuclear facilities.
The unchanged timeline suggests that significantly impeding Tehran’s nuclear program may require destroying or removing Iran’s remaining stockpile of highly enriched uranium, or HEU.
The war has stalled since the U.S. and Iran agreed an April 7 ​truce to pursue peace. Tensions remain high as both sides appear deeply divided, and as Iran has choked traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, blocking some 20% of world oil supplies and igniting a global energy crisis.

Secretary ​of Defense Pete Hegseth has said publicly that the U.S. aims to ensure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon via ongoing negotiations with Tehran.
U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded prior ⁠to June’s 12-day war that Iran likely could produce enough bomb-grade uranium for a weapon and build a bomb in around three to six months, said two of the sources, all of whom requested anonymity to discuss U.S. intelligence.
Following the June ​strikes by the U.S. that hit the Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan nuclear complexes, U.S. intelligence estimates pushed that timeline back to about nine months to a year, said the two sources and a person familiar with the assessments.
The attacks destroyed or badly ​damaged the three enrichment plants known to have been operating at the time. But the U.N. nuclear watchdog has been unable to verify the whereabouts of some 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%. It believes that about half was stored in an underground tunnel complex at the Isfahan Nuclear Research Center, but it has been unable to confirm that since inspections were suspended.

The International Atomic Energy Agency assesses the total HEU stockpile would be enough for 10 bombs if further enriched.
“While Operation Midnight Hammer obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities, Operation Epic Fury built on this ​success by decimating Iran’s defense industrial base that they once leveraged as a protective shield around their pursuit of a nuclear weapon,” said White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales, referring to the June operation and the latest war that began in February.
“President ​Trump has long been clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon – and he does not bluff.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to a request for comment.

STOPPING TEHRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM A KEY U.S. GOAL

U.S. officials, including Trump, repeatedly cite ‌the need to ⁠eliminate Iran’s nuclear program as a key objective of the war.

“Iran can never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. That is the goal of this operation,⁩” Vice President JD Vance wrote on X on March 2.
The unchanging estimate of how long it would take Iran to build such a weapon reflects in part the focus of the latest U.S. and Israeli military campaign, the sources said.
While Israel has struck nuclear-related targets, including a uranium-processing facility in late March, U.S. attacks have concentrated on conventional military capabilities, Iran’s leadership and its military-industrial base.
The unchanged estimates may also stem from a lack of major nuclear targets that can be readily and safely destroyed following June’s military action, according to some analysts.
Eric Brewer, a former senior U.S. intelligence ​analyst who led assessments of Iran’s nuclear program, said it ​was not surprising that the assessments have not changed ⁠because recent U.S. strikes have not prioritized nuclear-related targets.
“Iran still possesses all of its nuclear material, as far as we know,” said Brewer, vice president of the nuclear materials study program at the Nuclear Threat Initiative arms control think tank. “That material is probably located in deeply buried underground sites where U.S. munitions can’t penetrate.”
In recent weeks, U.S. officials have contemplated dangerous operations which ​would significantly impede Iran’s nuclear efforts. Those options include ground raids to retrieve the HEU believed to be stored in the tunnel complex at the Isfahan site.
Iran has repeatedly ​denied seeking nuclear weapons. U.S. intelligence ⁠agencies and the IAEA say Tehran halted a warhead development effort in 2003, though some experts and Israel contend that it secretly preserved key parts of the program.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-intelligence-indicates-limited-new-damage-irans-nuclear-program-sources-say-2026-05-04/

OpenAI’s president testified on Tuesday that Elon Musk supported transforming the ​artificial intelligence startup into a for-profit company, but wanted full control in part to help him raise $80 billion to colonize Mars.
The testimony ‌by Greg Brockman came in the second week of a trial in California that could determine the future of OpenAI, which sparked a widespread craze over generative artificial intelligence after launching its ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022.

OpenAI plans to spend $50 billion on computing resources in 2026, Brockman said in court.
Musk accused OpenAI and Chief Executive Sam Altman of conning him into giving $38 ​million to the nonprofit, only to see it abandon its charitable goals and become a for-profit company to enrich themselves.
The world’s richest person is ​seeking $150 billion in damages to be paid to the nonprofit, and for Altman and Brockman to be removed from their ⁠leadership roles. Musk left OpenAI’s board in February 2018.

MUSK WANTED FULL CONTROL, BROCKMAN TESTIFIES

In his second day of testimony, Brockman said that in 2017 Musk had wanted ​OpenAI to change its corporate structure because it was too hard for a nonprofit to raise the amount of money OpenAI required to build advanced AI models.

Brockman ​said the Tesla (TSLA.O), and SpaceX founder made clear that he wanted to become OpenAI’s leader if that happened.
Altman was the only other candidate, Brockman said.
Brockman described a particularly intense meeting in which Musk said he deserved a majority stake in OpenAI because of his business experience. Musk said he intended to use that stake to build a self-sustaining city on Mars, according ​to Brockman.
“He said he needed $80 billion to create a city” on Mars, Brockman said. “In the end, he needed full control.” Brockman added that Musk said he ​would decide when to relinquish full control.
Brockman said the meeting with Musk in August 2017 started well. He said Musk had recently given Teslas to some OpenAI employees in gratitude ‌for their ⁠work, and former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever painted a portrait of a Tesla to give to Musk as a token of thanks.

But according to Brockman, Musk grew angry when discussing a potential equity structure for OpenAI that he didn’t like, saying “I decline.”
Brockman said Musk stood up and walked over so fast he was concerned Musk would hit him, but instead Musk picked up Sutskever’s painting and stormed out, saying he would withhold new funding until matters were sorted.

SPACEX GIVES MUSK INCENTIVE ​TO GO TO MARS

Musk’s lawyers have tried ​to portray Brockman as also seeing ⁠dollar signs when looking at OpenAI.
On Monday, Brockman testified that his stake in OpenAI is worth almost $30 billion. He also said he holds stakes in two startups backed by Altman, and a 1% stake in Altman’s family fund.
Evidence in the case also includes ​a 2017 diary entry where Brockman wrote “Financially, what will take me to $1B?”
In March 2019, OpenAI restructured as a for-profit ​unit governed by the ⁠nonprofit, allowing it to accept money from outside investors.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/musk-wanted-80-billion-colonize-mars-openai-president-testifies-trial-2026-05-05/

China urged Washington on Tuesday to immediately end its embargo and ​sanctions on Cuba, saying the expanded ‌measures were “illegal” and “seriously violated” the norms of international relations.
U.S. President Donald Trump, seeking to put more pressure ​on Havana after ousting Venezuela’s leader, ​signed an executive order on Friday broadening U.S. ⁠sanctions against the Cuban government, two ​White House officials told Reuters.

Beijing has voiced support ​for the socialist island after tension flared in January between the United States and Cuba after the U.S. ​captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, long a ​close ally of Cuba.
“The United States has intensified its ‌illegal ⁠unilateral sanctions against Cuba,” China’s foreign ministry said, criticising the move as “seriously violating” the basic norms of international relations.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-says-wider-us-sanctions-cuba-are-illegal-2026-05-05/

President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a ​two-day ceasefire in the conflict with Ukraine on May 8-9 to mark Russia’s World War Two victory, but Ukrainian President ‌Volodymyr Zelenskiy countered with his own proposed pause in fighting starting earlier, on the night of May 5‑6.
Putin had first spoken of a possible ceasefire coinciding with commemorations of the 81st anniversary of the victory in a phone conversation last week with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Ukraine had been wary of the notion of a brief ceasefire ​rather than moves towards a prolonged end to fighting.
Russia’s Defence Ministry, in a post on Telegram, announced the two-day May 8‑9 truce ​and said it expected Ukraine to follow suit. It said Moscow’s forces would take all measures to ensure ⁠the safety of commemorations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War.
It warned, however, that any attempt by ​Ukraine to disrupt the celebrations would prompt retaliation.
“In the event of attempts by the Kyiv regime to implement its criminal plans to disrupt the celebration ​of the 81st anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will launch a retaliatory, massive missile attack on the centre of Kyiv,” it said.

Russia, it said, had been in a position to launch such an attack before but had “previously refrained from such actions on humanitarian grounds.”
“We are warning ​the civilian population of Kyiv and staff at foreign diplomatic missions of the need to leave the city in a timely manner,” it said.
Zelenskiy, ​writing on Telegram after attending a European Political Community summit in Armenia, said Ukraine would observe its own ceasefire beginning at midnight on the night of Tuesday, ‌May 5.
He ⁠said Russia had failed to respond to Kyiv’s longstanding calls for a lasting ceasefire, adding that Ukraine was acting because “human life is incomparably more valuable than the ‘celebration’ of any anniversary.”
“In this regard, we announce a regime of silence starting from 00.00 on the night of May 5 to May 6,” he wrote.

Zelenskiy gave no timeframe for the ceasefire but said Ukraine would “act symmetrically from the specified moment.”
Speaking earlier, Zelenskiy dismissed Russia’s proposed truce, the ​details of which were unclear at ​the time, as “not serious.”
Russia had ⁠proclaimed a brief ceasefire last month for Orthodox Easter but each side accused the other of violating it.

MAJOR HOLIDAY

Russia celebrates victory in World War Two on May 9, a major national holiday marking the day the Soviet ​Union signed Germany’s surrender in 1945.
It traditionally holds a military parade, but says this year’s commemoration will ​feature none of the ⁠military hardware frequently put on display at past commemorations because of the threat of increased Ukrainian “terrorist” activity.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-declares-may-8-9-ceasefire-with-ukraine-mark-wwii-anniversary-agencies-say-2026-05-04/

Governments in Asia, the top oil importing region, are scrambling to find alternatives and insulate their economies from the worst of the energy crisis triggered by the Iran war, but the ​pain is getting increasingly costly.
The disruption spurred the Asian Development Bank to cut its growth forecast for developing Asia and the Pacific to 4.7% this year and 4.8% in ‌2027, down from 5.1% for both years previously, and lifted its inflation outlook to 5.2% for this year.

Overall oil imports to Asia, which takes 85% of Gulf crude shipments, plunged 30% in April on the year, to their lowest since October 2015, Kpler data shows, after two months of the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for a fifth of global oil and gas supplies.
Fiscal strains are mounting across the region, particularly South Asia, as governments spend billions ​of dollars on subsidies and import duty waivers to compensate.
“The first line of defence … is that the governments decided to absorb the initial shock by either providing subsidies or cutting excise ​duties on fuel products,” said Hanna Luchnikava-Schorsch of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

India’s state-dominated refining sector has kept fuel prices steady despite surging crude costs, losing about ⁠100 rupees ($1.06) a litre on diesel and 20 rupees on gasoline, but some analysts forecast price hikes after state polls ended in April.
Many regional governments have moved to limit fuel use or clamp down on ​hoarding, while several have curbed exports and many, including Australia, have espoused diplomatic efforts to ensure access.
China, the world’s biggest oil importer, has shielded itself with sizeable reserves, a diverse energy supply chain and export ​curbs on fuel and fertiliser, although Beijing is making exceptions for some regional buyers, from Australia to Myanmar.
Even as governments tap fiscal resources, forex reserves and oil inventories, the war’s economic impact on Asia has not been as bad as feared, Goldman Sachs said.

Nevertheless, it trimmed 2026 growth forecasts for Japan and some Southeast Asian countries and slightly lifted inflation expectations, while warning of a key unresolved question.
“How much of the resilience thus far reflects structural factors versus unsustainable declines in ​buffer stocks?” its analysts said in a note.

FIRST LINES OF DEFENCE

Asia’s emerging market currencies have fallen furthest and to lower lows against the dollar, compared with global peers and the region’s bigger currencies, with the ​peso , rupee and rupiah all making record lows.
Since the war started at the end of February, the Philippine peso has dropped more than 5%, the Thai baht and rupee more than 3% each and the rupiah more than ‌2.5%.
By contrast China’s ⁠yuan is the region’s top performer, up 0.8% against the dollar, while Japan has intervened to push up the yen , to stand 0.4% higher than pre-war levels. South Korea’s won is down about 1.1%.

The South Asian economies of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are the most vulnerable to the burdens triggered by the crunch, S&P Global Market Intelligence said.
Pakistan, for example, recently issued its first tenders since 2023 to buy liquefied natural gas.

It is looking to replace supply it is unable to source from Qatar, paying $18.88 per million British thermal unit for one cargo, or roughly $30 million more than market prices before the war, according to Reuters ​calculations.
“These countries use more of their resources on ​subsidising domestic public energy enterprises and basically shielding ⁠the final consumers from the energy price shock,” added Luchnikava-Schorsch, the S&P unit’s head of Asia-Pacific Economics.
“These are also the countries which have the slimmest fiscal buffers.”
Still, regional economies are better positioned than when the start of the Ukraine war in 2022 triggered the last energy shock, she said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/asia-battles-rising-uneven-toll-energy-crisis-caused-by-iran-war-2026-05-04/

The U.S. and Iran launched new attacks in the Gulf on ​Monday as they wrestled for control over the Strait of Hormuz with duelling maritime blockades, shaking a fragile truce.
The fresh volleys of missiles and drones came after U.S. President Donald Trump launched a new effort to ‌get stranded tankers and other ships through the strait, the vital energy-trade chokepoint that has been virtually closed since the U.S. and Israel began attacks on Iran in February, a war that has killed thousands of people across the region.

Before Monday was out, several merchant ships in the Gulf reported explosions or fires, the U.S. said it had destroyed six small Iranian military boats, and an oil port in the United Arab Emirates, which hosts a large U.S. military base, was set ablaze by Iranian missiles.
Trump gave scant details about his new effort, which he called “Project Freedom,” to help stuck ships to travel through the ​strait when he announced it on social media, two days after a legal deadline under U.S. law had passed for him to get authorization from Congress for the war. Trump told Congress the war was “terminated” and the deadline was moot, a ​claim disputed by some lawmakers.

It was the first apparent attempt to use military force since last month’s ceasefire announcement to unblock the world’s most important energy shipping route, which Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard ⁠Corps has said can only happen with its permission. The cost of shipping insurance has also rocketed. For weeks, the U.S. Navy has blockaded Iran’s trade by sea, which Iran says is itself an act of war.
But Trump’s latest move, at least initially, ​appeared to have backfired, bringing no surge of merchant ship traffic while provoking a promised show of force from Iran, which has threatened to respond to any escalation with new attacks on its neighbours hosting U.S. soldiers. Major shipping companies said they were likely to wait for ​an agreed end to hostilities before trying to cross the strait.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Monday’s events showed there was no military solution to the crisis. He said peace talks were progressing with Pakistan’s mediation while warning the U.S. and the UAE against being drawn into a “quagmire by ill-wishers.”
“Project Freedom is Project Deadlock,” he wrote on social media.
Nonetheless, the U.S. military said two U.S. merchant ships made it through the strait, without saying when, with the support of Navy guided-missile destroyers. While Iran denied any crossings had taken place in recent hours, Maersk (MAERSKb.CO), said the Alliance Fairfax, a U.S.-flagged ship, exited the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz accompanied ​by the U.S. military on Monday.
The commander of U.S. forces in the region said his fleet had destroyed six small Iranian boats, which Iran also denied. Admiral Brad Cooper said he “strongly advised” Iranian forces to keep clear of U.S. military assets carrying out ​the mission.
Iranian authorities released a map of what they said was an expanded sea area now under their control, extending far beyond the strait to include long stretches of the UAE’s coastline.
South Korea reported one of its merchant ships, HMM Namu, in the strait suffered an explosion and fire in its ‌engine room, though no ⁠one aboard was hurt, and a spokesman said it was unclear if the fire was caused by an attack or originated internally.
The British maritime security agency UKMTO reported two ships had been hit off the coast of the UAE, and the Emirati oil company ADNOC said one of its empty oil tankers was hit by Iranian drones.

IRAN SETS UAE OIL PORT ABLAZE

After reported drone and missile attacks inside the UAE throughout the day, including one that caused a fire at Fujairah, an important oil port, the UAE said Iranian attacks marked a serious escalation and it reserved the right to respond. Fujairah lies beyond the strait, making it one of few export routes for Middle East oil that does not require passing through it.
Its government also said that it was implementing remote learning for school students ​for safety reasons.
Iran’s state television network said military officials ​had confirmed they attacked the UAE in response to ⁠the “U.S. military’s adventurism.”
Earlier, Iran said it had fired on a U.S. warship approaching the strait, forcing it to turn around. An initial Iranian report had said a U.S. warship was struck, but the U.S. denied this and Iranian officials later described the fire as warning shots.
Reuters could not independently verify the full situation in the strait on Monday as the warring sides issued contradictory statements.
Oil ​prices jumped more than 5% in volatile trade on reports of the increased Iranian attacks.

Iran’s unified command has told commercial ships and oil tankers that they needed to coordinate with ​its armed forces.
“We warn that any foreign ⁠armed forces, especially the aggressive U.S. Army, will be attacked if they intend to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz,” it said.
The U.S. and Israel suspended their bombing of Iran four weeks ago, and U.S. and Iranian officials held one round of face-to-face peace talks. But attempts to set up further meetings have failed.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/trump-says-us-help-ships-stranded-strait-hormuz-tanker-hit-by-projectiles-2026-05-04/

Earlier in the day, UAE authorities issued mobile phone alerts in Dubai and Abu Dhabi warning of the possibility of missile attacks.

Three Indians were injured after a drone attack from Iran caused a fire to break out at a major UAE oil industry zone on Monday. The attack is the first time the calm in the UAE was shattered since a Pakistani-mediated ceasefire between Washington and Tehran took effect on April 8.

Civil defence teams rushed to contain the fire at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, the Fujairah Media Office said in a statement, adding that the injured were then taken to the hospital.

In a post on X, the Indian Embassy in the UAE wrote that they are in touch with authorities to ensure adequate medical care and welfare of the injured.

“Three Indian nationals have been injured in today’s attacks in Fujairah. We are in touch with local authorities for ensuring adequate medical care and welfare of the affected Indian nationals”, the post said.

Separately, the Gulf state’s military intercepted three Iranian missiles over its waters, and a fourth crashed into the sea.

Earlier in the day, UAE authorities issued mobile phone alerts in Dubai and Abu Dhabi warning of the possibility of missile attacks.

“Due to the current situation, potential missile threats, immediately seek a safe place in the closest secure building, steer away from windows, doors, and open areas. Await further instructions,” the alert said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/3-indians-injured-in-drone-attack-by-iran-in-uaes-fujairah-11448868?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories