Statement following ‘productive’ talks in Washington comes as Israel launches strikes on southern city of Tyre
Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 45-day extension of their ceasefire after another round of talks in Washington, the US state department has said.
It came after two “productive” days of talks, and more negotiations would be held from 2-3 June, the department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.
Continue reading...Trump administration move echoes indictment of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro as fuel crisis racks Cuba
Tensions between Cuba and US seem set to rise further amid reports that
Raúl Castro, the country’s 94-year-old former president, may soon face the type of indictment that led to the US abduction of the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, in January.
Although Raúl is officially retired, he remains the most potent figure in Cuban politics following the death of his brother Fidel in 2016, and by targeting him Washington appears to be heaping pressure on Cuba’s communist leadership at the end of an already extraordinarily intense week.
Continue reading...Chancellor says he no longer views US as land of opportunity amid ‘deeply polarising’ social climate
Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, already embroiled in a row with Donald Trump over the Iran war, has said he would not advise his children to study or work in the US in the current climate.
Speaking to a conference of young Catholics in Würzburg, the conservative leader, viewed by many as a transatlanticist, said he no longer saw the US as the land of opportunity.
Continue reading...Muscat silent about plans – opposed by US – to charge fee and demand details on nationality of all transiting ships
Oman has been caught in geopolitical crossfire after Iran said it was coordinating with the Gulf state over the future management of the strait of Hormuz, including Tehran’s plans to impose fees on commercial shipping.
The Omani exclave of Musandam lies to the south of the contested waterway, which normally carries a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil traffic but has been blockaded for 10 weeks since the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February.
Continue reading...Army supported by Russian mercenaries launches airstrikes after offensive by coalition of Islamist extremists and Tuareg separatists
Mali’s armed forces, supported by Russian mercenaries, have launched airstrikes targeting a rebel alliance of Islamist extremists and Tuareg separatists as the ruling junta struggles to maintain its hold on power in the unstable west African country.
Earlier this week warplanes targeted the key northern town of Kidal, which was lost when the rebels launched a surprise offensive across much of Mali in late April.
Continue reading...US president has said he and Chinese leader ‘settled a lot of different problems’ but has given little detail on solutions
Donald Trump’s whirlwind trip to Beijing – the first US presidential visit in nearly a decade – wrapped up with much fanfare but little clarity about what was actually achieved.
Trump said on Friday he and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, “settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve”. But he didn’t provide much detail on what those solutions were.
Continue reading...Mirroring of each other’s attire may signal alignment – though the look wasn’t a huge departure for either leader
When Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met for a welcome ceremony in Tiananmen Square this week with the world’s gaze on them, they mirrored one another in strikingly similar suits.
Both were blue, single-breasted with flap pockets. Both had two buttons with only the top one done up. Both wore red ties.
Continue reading...State oil company fast-tracks previously undisclosed project, which is expected to double export capacity
The United Arab Emirates has announced it will complete a new oil pipeline bypassing the strait of Hormuz by next year to secure its future crude exports against the threat of disruption.
The current blockade of the vital waterway, through which 20% of oil and seaborne gas flowed before the Iran war, is approaching the 11-week mark, sending energy prices soaring around the world and throttling Gulf economies.
Continue reading...Uganda also reports outbreak and health officials say cases were caused by Bundibugyo strain of virus
An outbreak of Ebola has killed 65 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, health officials said.
There have been 246 suspected cases of the haemorrhagic fever reported so far in the conflict-hit Ituri province, which shares borders with Uganda and South Sudan.
Continue reading...Large-scale attack on Russian regions and huge oil refinery comes after 24 were killed when missile hit flats in Kyiv
Ukraine has launched a large-scale long-range drone attack targeting several regions in Russia including the huge Ryazan oil refinery, after three days of massive strikes by Moscow against Ukraine.
Kyiv’s attack on Friday followed a series of drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, including on the capital, Kyiv, where a cruise missile hit an apartment block on Thursday, killing 24 people including three children.
Continue reading...All victims of US strikes in eastern Pacific and the Caribbean identified so far came from extremely poor communities
A five-month investigation has named 13 previously unidentified victims of US attacks on boats allegedly carrying narcotics in a campaign that has killed nearly 200 people in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific.
It is unclear if the US has ever identified any of its 194 victims before attacking them, and the names of just three had previously emerged, after their families launched legal cases against the White House.
Continue reading...Under aviation regulator proposals rival companies would bid to design and build parts of airport expansion
Heathrow could be forced to allow other companies to design and build its third runway and new terminal after the UK aviation regulator argued that rival bids could keep construction costs down.
A long-awaited review by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) proposes changes to the regulatory model that governs how Heathrow runs and covers its costs.
Continue reading...Visit comes after US-Cuba relations deteriorated significantly, and as the island nation declared it had ‘absolutely no fuel’ because of US blockade
CIA director John Ratcliffe met Cuban officials in Havana on Thursday as a way to improve dialogue between the US and the communist-run island, the Cuban government said.
The meeting took place “in a context marked by the complexity of bilateral relations, with the aim of contributing to the political dialogue between both nations”, a statement said.
Continue reading...‘We know that Mark Carney wants to sort of embrace Europe,’ says competition director Martin Green
Canada is welcome to join Eurovision if it wishes, its director has said, months after the country revealed it wanted to “explore” joining the song contest in its federal budget.
Eurovision director Martin Green told the BBC on Wednesday that Canada hadn’t yet applied, but would be welcome to.
Continue reading...Export’s performances scandalised Austria in the 1960s, but are now recognised for exposing the objectification of the female body
Valie Export, the Austrian performance artist and film-maker who inverted the male gaze in ways that were provocative, shocking and often outrageously fun, has died aged 85.
The artist’s own foundation announced on Thursday evening that Export died in Vienna earlier the same day, three days before her 86th birthday.
Continue reading...Revelation seen as serious blow to candidacy of Flávio Bolsonaro, Brazil’s leading rightwing presidential hopeful
Flávio Bolsonaro, Brazil’s leading rightwing presidential hopeful, has been caught on tape asking a banker accused of corruption for $26.8m (£20m) to fund a film about his father, the former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The leaked voice memos and text messages were published on Wednesday by the Intercept Brasil, and later acknowledged by Flávio Bolsonaro, a far-right senator who is tied in polls with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ahead of October’s election.
Continue reading...Far-right Jewish marchers call for Palestinian villages to ‘burn’ as they storm through Muslim quarter of Old City
Israeli nationalists chanted “death to the Arabs”, “may your villages burn” and “Gaza is a graveyard” in a state-sponsored march through Jerusalem to mark the anniversary of the city’s capture and annexation.
The annual assertion of Jewish control over Palestinian East Jerusalem has grown more extreme in recent years, and Thursday’s event culminated with the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, unfurling an Israeli flag in front of the al-Aqsa mosque, the holiest Islamic site in the city.
Continue reading...Judge called Adriana Maria Quiroz Zapata’s deportation to the Democratic Republic of Congo ‘likely illegal’
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to bring a Colombian woman back to the US from the Democratic Republic of Congo, after she was deported to the African country that had refused to accept her.
The deportation of Adriana María Quiroz Zapata “was likely illegal”, the US district judge Richard Leon ruled on Wednesday.
Continue reading...All 11 onboard survived after the plane made an emergency landing near the Bahamas
A military rescue crew in Florida has spoken of the “pretty miraculous” survival of all 11 people it saved from a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean, and its own scramble to safety with five minutes of fuel left.
Members of the 920th rescue wing, based at Patrick Space Force base, not far from Cape Canaveral, raced on Tuesday to reach the passengers and crew in choppy seas. They had emerged from a small Beechcraft twin-propeller aircraft that ditched into the water about 80 miles east of Melbourne on Florida’s east coast.
Continue reading...William Majcher was accused of helping Chinese police coerce a Vancouver-area real estate investor, accused of fraud, to return to China
A retired police officer Canada accused of being an agent for China has been acquitted of national security charges after prosecutors failed to prove he acted illegally.
William Majcher, who served in the RCMP’s financial crime unit, was charged in 2023 over allegations he had breached Canada’s Security of Information Act by helping Chinese police coerce a Vancouver-area real estate investor, accused of fraud, to return to China.
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