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  • Iran weaponizes petroyuan in war reparations push

    Iran weaponizes petroyuan in war reparations push

    After weeks of escalating tensions and blockades between Iran and the United States at the Strait of Hormuz, this strategically critical narrow waterway has emerged as a defining battleground that could reshape the future of global energy markets and international economic power dynamics. While the U.S. has deployed military escorts for commercial vessels passing through the passage, the military posturing masks a far deeper, long-term transformation unfolding in Persian Gulf energy security.

    Beyond the competing bids by Iran and the U.S. to control the global flow of oil, natural gas, helium, and fertilizers exiting the region, a second major disruption has already hit global oil markets: key U.S. ally the United Arab Emirates has formally withdrawn from OPEC, a move widely regarded as a significant blow to the oil cartel’s cohesion and influence.

    Against this volatile backdrop, Iran has unveiled plans to introduce new tariffs for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, framing the charges as reparations for damage inflicted by recent regional conflict. Analysts estimate these annual tariffs could generate between $40 billion and $50 billion in revenue for Tehran, providing a much-needed buffer to soften the impact of long-standing U.S. economic sanctions.

    The most geostrategically significant detail of the proposed tariff regime is its currency requirement: all charges must be denominated in Chinese yuan, rather than the U.S. dollar. This policy, which already sees informal payments from ships bound for China, India, and Japan, with Iran’s parliament currently working to formalize the framework, could dramatically redraw regional and global power balances. Tehran has also added cryptocurrency as an accepted payment method to expand flexibility. For Iran, the policy is explicitly designed to deepen economic and political ties with Beijing.

    To understand the far-reaching implications of this move, it is necessary to revisit the 50-year history of the petrodollar system that has underpinned U.S. global economic dominance since the 1970s. The system was established when Washington struck a deal with Saudi Arabia: the U.S. would provide military protection, and in exchange, Saudi Arabia would price all of its oil exports exclusively in U.S. dollars. The framework quickly spread across all OPEC member states, becoming the global standard for international oil trade. This arrangement cemented the U.S. dollar’s position as the world’s primary reserve currency, a core pillar of U.S. geopolitical power.

    Under the petrodollar system, oil-exporting nations accumulate large dollar surpluses from energy sales, most of which are then recycled back into U.S. government securities, equities, and Western sovereign wealth funds. This system finances U.S. budget deficits, keeps Washington’s borrowing costs low, and grants the U.S. substantial financial leverage over oil-producing nations and global markets at large.

    If Iran’s yuan-denominated tariff regime takes root, leading economist Antonio Bhardwaj notes that it could set in motion the systematic erosion of the petrodollar system, while establishing the petroyuan as a credible, institutionally embedded alternative for settling global energy transactions. International relations analyst Pakizah Parveen warns the policy could also split the global oil market into two distinct blocs: shipments from nations compliant with Iran’s rules will transact in yuan through the Strait of Hormuz, while non-compliant parties will face sharply higher costs for dollar-denominated oil cargoes.

    This split would create an acute dilemma for major U.S. allies including Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, and the Philippines, all of which already face severe economic strain from Gulf region market upheaval. Choosing to pay tariffs in yuan would draw these nations closer to Beijing, reinforcing China’s narrative as a stable, reliable alternative economic partner to the U.S. This shift also mirrors a similar policy Russia adopted in 2025, when it began requiring yuan payments for its oil exports.

    While it remains far too early to declare that Iran’s tariffs will trigger full-scale de-dollarization of the global economy, the move represents a clear step toward eroding the dollar’s decades-long global primacy. Any shift away from the dollar by major energy-importing nations directly reduces financial and political dependence on the U.S., while accelerating Beijing’s efforts to fully internationalize the yuan.

    Current global economic trends already point to this gradual shift: for the first time since 1996, global central banks now hold more gold in their reserve portfolios than U.S. government debt securities. BRICS bloc members including China, India, and Brazil have all cut their holdings of U.S. assets throughout 2025, as the group works to reduce its dependence on Western financial systems.

    Taken together, Iran’s yuan-denominated Strait of Hormuz tariffs mark another clear milestone in the emergence of a multipolar global order, where U.S. preeminence can no longer be taken for granted. While this shift could grant greater strategic flexibility to nations large and small seeking alternatives to U.S.-led global governance, it also introduces a new era of uncertainty for global energy markets and international economic cooperation.

  • Mandelson: How decades of influence secured role as Starmer’s man in Washington

    Mandelson: How decades of influence secured role as Starmer’s man in Washington

    What began as a controversial diplomatic appointment has erupted into one of the most damaging political scandals to hit the United Kingdom’s new Labour government, exposing decades of factional infighting, opaque corporate ties, and institutional failure at the highest levels of the party.

    At the center of the crisis is Peter Mandelson, a veteran Labour strategist hand-picked by Keir Starmer’s inner circle to serve as the UK’s ambassador to the United States — the first political appointee to the role in nearly 50 years. The appointment quickly collapsed after the unsealed Epstein files confirmed long-rumored close, long-standing ties between Mandelson and the late convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson resigned from his ambassadorship in February, and was later arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations he leaked confidential market-sensitive government information to Epstein.

    Multiple senior figures have already stepped down or been ousted in the wake of the scandal. Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s former chief of staff and widely recognized as the architect of his rise from Labour leader to prime minister, resigned in February after acknowledging he made a “serious mistake” in pushing for Mandelson’s appointment. Senior Foreign Office civil servant Olly Robbins was fired after he was blamed for failing to alert Starmer that Mandelson had failed his mandatory security vetting. Further down the chain, Josh Simons, a former leader of the centre-left think tank Labour Together and a newly appointed Cabinet Office minister, resigned amid claims he paid a public relations firm to surveil investigative journalists probing the scandal.

    Both McSweeney and Robbins have appeared before parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee to answer questions about the broken due diligence process that allowed Mandelson to take office without proper screening. Revelations from the hearing have deepened public anger: while Robbins confirmed Starmer was never told about the failed vetting, records show Mandelson was named as ambassador before the vetting process even began. What is more, his close relationship with Epstein was already widely reported in public, and Mandelson had previously been forced to resign from two different cabinet posts over separate misconduct incidents — all information that was available to party leadership before the appointment.

    Testimony and new reporting have also pulled back the curtain on the long-running project that brought Starmer to power, with Mandelson and McSweeney at its core. Labour Together, the think tank once led by McSweeney, was the driving force behind a campaign to oust former left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, install Starmer as party leader, and permanently marginalize the party’s left wing. Between 2017 and 2020, the campaign received roughly £730,000 in undeclared donations, resulting in a £14,000 fine for the Labour Party from the Electoral Commission.

    Long before that campaign, Mandelson had already shaped decades of Labour’s modern history. He served as the party’s communications director under Neil Kinnock in the 1980s, where he led the party’s “modernization” shift away from traditional socialist policies toward a pro-corporate agenda aligned with global capitalism. He was a key behind-the-scenes architect of Tony Blair’s successful 1994 leadership campaign, working secretly to rally support for Blair against other candidates. In 2017, he openly admitted he worked “every day” to undermine Corbyn’s leadership of the party.

    Insiders close to the process have confirmed that Mandelson’s appointment was entirely McSweeney’s initiative, with Starmer barely involved. One anonymous civil service source told Middle East Eye that Starmer cannot publicly admit this reality “because it shows him to be impotent.” McSweeney himself testified that he viewed Mandelson as a trusted “confidante” on political strategy, and just days before Mandelson was forced to resign as ambassador, he was spotted inside Downing Street advising on Starmer’s first major cabinet reshuffle, which removed dozens of soft-left figures from senior roles. McSweeney claimed Mandelson’s recommendations for the reshuffle were not ultimately adopted, however.

    The scandal has also shone a harsh light on Labour’s close ties to controversial corporate interests. In 2010, Mandelson co-founded the global lobbying firm Global Counsel, which counts U.S. spy-tech giant Palantir among its major clients. Palantir currently provides the technology that Israel uses to carry out military operations in Gaza, and already holds a £480 million contract to manage sensitive National Health Service patient data in the UK. Just weeks before Mandelson’s resignation, he accompanied Starmer on a visit to Palantir’s Washington headquarters. Shortly after that visit, the UK Ministry of Defence awarded Palantir a new £240 million contract without any open competition. No meeting minutes have been published, and full unredacted copies of the contract have not been released despite repeated Freedom of Information requests.

    The controversy has expanded further in recent days: last week, a man was arrested on suspicion of stealing and selling McSweeney’s personal phone, raising fears that critical text messages related to Mandelson’s appointment could be destroyed or lost. Another of Starmer’s close aides, Matthew Doyle, who was connected to Mandelson and McSweeney, was suspended from the Labour whip in the House of Lords after it emerged he had campaigned on behalf of a friend charged with possessing child indecent images. Just last month, four Labour activists were charged with vote rigging in Croydon, adding to a string of allegations of internal party corruption.

    Critics across the party are now demanding a full independent public inquiry into the entire affair, arguing the scope of the scandal extends far beyond Mandelson’s ties to Epstein. Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was ousted by the Starmer-aligned faction, told Middle East Eye that “the scandal is bigger than Mandelson.” He noted that most of Labour Together’s donors and backers have no connection to the labour movement’s traditional socialist mission, and sought to redirect Labour toward a model of corporate interests, privatization, and patronage that Mandelson long embodied.

    Left-wing Labour MP Apsana Begum, who has herself been targeted by the Starmer leadership and suspended from the party whip for over a year for opposing the two-child benefit cap, echoed the call for inquiry. She said that the no-bid Palantir contract and lack of transparency around the Starmer-Mandelson meeting raise fundamental questions about accountability in the new government, and argued that the prime minister will ultimately be forced to step down. “Regardless of when this happens, there does need to be a full and independent investigation into the actions of Labour Together,” she said.

    Investigative journalist Paul Holden, whose book *The Fraud* details the origins of the Labour Together project, has condemned the parliamentary inquiry into the scandal as deeply flawed. He told Middle East Eye that the select committee was “plainly unprepared” for the hearings, committed basic errors in questioning, failed to follow up on obvious lines of enquiry, and allowed McSweeney to avoid accountability for omissions and misleading testimony. Holden argues this failure exposes a broader institutional breakdown, where no one has been held responsible for actions that reshaped the entire Labour Party.

    Holden added that McSweeney “built his political career on misdirection and dishonesty,” a pattern that has defined Starmer’s leadership. He noted that Starmer ran for leader positioning himself as “Corbynism without Corbyn,” but abandoned all 10 of his progressive campaign pledges once he took control of the party. “Labour puts way more effort into investigating a left-wing person on social media than on Peter Mandelson’s entire political career,” Holden said.

    That pattern of targeting left-wing figures has been widely documented. Jamie Driscoll, the former left-wing mayor of North of Tyne, was barred from standing for re-election after he appeared at an event with pro-Palestinian filmmaker Ken Loach, who was expelled from the party after Starmer took office. Driscoll told MEE that the party admitted he had not been accused of wrongdoing and had done a good job as mayor, but changed party rules to allow the National Executive Committee to block his candidacy anyway. He said the right-wing faction that installed Starmer “smeared and lied to undermine people who were socialists and social democrats as opposed to red Tories and neoliberals” because it was politically useful.

    Driscoll recalled Mandelson openly saying he opposed giving party members control of the party, and wanted to end Labour’s reliance on member and trade union donations — because those groups generally oppose serving the interests of private corporations like Palantir. That shift toward corporate influence has been evident since Starmer took power: during the 2023 Labour conference, businesses could pay £2,500 for a private meal and direct access to Starmer, who has already declared more free gifts and hospitality than any other major UK party leader in recent years. Just months into the new government, major Labour donor Ian Corfield was forced to resign from his civil service role as an adviser to Chancellor Rachel Reeves amid widespread accusations of cronyism.

    In response to the scandal, Mandelson has called his long friendship with Epstein a “terrible mistake” and apologized to the victims of Epstein’s abuse, claiming he had “no exposure to the criminal aspects” of Epstein’s activities. Neither Starmer, McSweeney, nor Labour Together have responded to requests for comment on the full scope of the revelations.

  • UAE sends Trump’s Board of Peace ‘$100m’ for training of new Gaza police force

    UAE sends Trump’s Board of Peace ‘$100m’ for training of new Gaza police force

    The United Arab Emirates has transferred $100 million to the US-backed Board of Peace to fund the training of a new Palestinian police unit earmarked for deployment in the Gaza Strip, The Times of Israel reported in a story citing anonymous diplomatic sources. This single contribution marks the largest individual donation the transitional governance body has received to date, coming after nine initial board members pledged a combined $7 billion, and the United States added an additional $10 billion in commitments during an international donor conference held in February.

    Per details shared by a senior U.S. official and a Middle Eastern diplomat, new police recruits will undergo training in neighboring Egypt and Jordan, while a private Emirati security firm has been contracted to build out the full force, which is planned to number roughly 27,000 serving officers. Earlier reporting from the same outlet quoted an anonymous Arab diplomat, who confirmed that former Palestinian civil servants who held roles in Gaza prior to the current conflict will be eligible to apply to join the new force, though all candidates must pass a strict vetting process carried out by Israel’s internal security agency before receiving final approval.

    The ongoing violence against Palestinian security personnel in Gaza has persisted even after a ceasefire agreement was reached in October. In the most recently documented violation of the truce on Wednesday, a high-ranking officer with the Palestinian interior ministry was killed in an Israeli strike. Since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, at least 837 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, pushing the total death toll from Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to at least 72,619, a figure widely cited in regional humanitarian and political reporting.

    Ali Shaath, the Palestinian technocrat tapped to lead the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) — the interim technocratic governing body set up to oversee Gaza’s transition — confirmed that recruitment for the new police service is already active across the Strip. Speaking at the February donor conference, Shaath emphasized the urgent need for the force, noting that much of Gaza lies in catastrophic ruin, with widespread destruction leaving acute unmet humanitarian needs and fragile public security. “Large parts of [the] Gaza Strip are severely damaged. Destroyed, actually. Humanitarian needs are acute. Law and order remain fragile. This is not [a] normal operating environment… which is precisely why discipline and prioritisation matter,” Shaath stated. The new police force will operate under the direct oversight of the NCAG.

    The initiative aligns with a 20-point plan released by former U.S. President Donald Trump in September that outlines a framework for ending the current war in Gaza. Under that plan, Washington will partner with Arab and international stakeholders to establish a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) that will deploy to the Strip, and work in tandem with the newly trained Palestinian police force.

    Amid continuing Israeli strikes on Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, noted in late March that “the truce is holding despite challenges.” Mladenov also confirmed that the NCAG has been formally established and has already “made progress on vetting thousands of civilian police candidates.”

    “The National Committee exercises authority solely on an interim basis. The end state is a reformed Palestinian Authority capable of governing Gaza and the West Bank, and ultimately a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood,” Mladenov explained. He added that the Palestinian security force, operating under the interim national committee’s authority, will enable the dismantling of all armed factions in Gaza and the consolidation of all weapons under a single civilian governing authority.

    Several other board member nations — including Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Albania — have also pledged military personnel to join the international stabilization force that will coordinate with the local Palestinian police service.

    The UAE’s $100 million donation comes months after Abu Dhabi drafted plans in February to construct a new administrative compound for Palestinian use in the section of Gaza already under Israeli military occupation. That proposal has already stoked regional tensions, putting the UAE at odds with other regional powers and multiple Palestinian groups, who argue the plan amounts to a de facto partition of Gaza, a outcome they strongly oppose.

    This reporting comes from Middle East Eye, a outlet that provides independent, on-the-ground coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa, and surrounding regions.

  • Three dead after volcano erupts on Indonesian island

    Three dead after volcano erupts on Indonesian island

    On a Friday morning in Indonesia, a sudden eruption of the active Mount Dukono volcano claimed three lives, turning a routine early morning hike into a fatal tragedy that has sparked new debates about public risk perception and enforcement of volcanic safety regulations.

    The 1,335-meter volcano, located on Indonesia’s North Maluku island, erupted at 07:41 local time, sending a towering column of volcanic ash 10 kilometers into the sky. Footage captured from the scene shows thick plumes of ash and rocky debris continuing to spew from the volcano’s crater long after the initial blast. Among the hikers on the mountain that morning were 20 people who had ignored repeated official warnings against climbing the volcano: 18 Singaporean and Indonesian hikers, and two local porters. Three members of that group — two Singaporean citizens and one local resident from nearby Ternate — were killed by the eruption.

    Search and rescue teams were deployed immediately to extract the remaining hikers. Most of the surviving group members were safely evacuated and transported to local hospitals to receive treatment for eruption-related injuries. The two porters from the original group stayed behind on the mountain to help rescuers navigate the terrain and locate the victims’ remains, which are trapped at higher elevations. As of Friday afternoon, body recovery efforts have been blocked by ongoing volcanic activity, rough, uneven terrain, and repeated explosive blasts from the crater. Aldy Salabia, a local resident assisting with rescue operations, told BBC Indonesian that from the team’s staging shelter, continuous ejection of ash and rock material was clearly visible.

    Eyewitness accounts from other hikers on the mountain that morning have added context to the tragedy. A local guide who escaped unscathed with his two clients told reporters he had detected warning signs of an impending eruption days earlier. “When Dukono hasn’t erupted for a few days, you have to be careful,” he explained, noting that he spotted deep tremors just before the blast and immediately fled downslope with his guests. As he descended, he said, he saw dozens of other hikers still lingering at the summit — including one group at the edge of the crater itself, and another 50 meters away filming footage with a drone.

    Mount Dukono has had more than 200 recorded eruptive events since March 2025, and has maintained a Level 2 alert status on Indonesia’s four-tier volcanic warning system for an extended period, a classification that signals elevated activity and requires strict caution. Since December 2024, Indonesian volcanic authorities have officially banned all tourism and climbing activity within a 4-kilometer radius of the main crater, citing constant risks of flying rock, ash fall, lava flows and sudden explosive eruptions. Officials say these warnings were widely shared across social media platforms and posted on large banners at all trail entrances, but many climbers continue to disregard the restrictions.

    Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, Barsanas, has launched an investigation into the incident, noting that initial reviews suggest possible negligence by tourism operators or individual guides who led groups up the mountain despite the known risks. “The government is continuing to gather information to establish a complete account of the incident,” a Barsanas spokesperson said.

    Disaster experts say the tragedy exposes a growing, dangerous misperception of volcanic risk among tourists fueled by social media content. Dr Daryono, a member of the Indonesian Association of Disaster Experts, told the BBC that active volcanoes should never be treated as routine tourist destinations. “Dukono is a mountain with almost continuous eruptive activity, so any violation of the danger zone carries a fatal risk,” he said. He added that social media has warped public understanding of the danger: users only see content from influencers and climbers who successfully summit and return unharmed, while the constant, lethal risks of volcanic activity are pushed out of public view. “The real danger remains and could emerge at any time in the form of ejections of incandescent material, thick ashfall, volcanic gas, or sudden explosive eruptions,” he warned.

  • South Africa court rules impeachment proceedings against president should not have been blocked

    South Africa court rules impeachment proceedings against president should not have been blocked

    In a landmark judicial decision that has upended South Africa’s political landscape, the country’s Constitutional Court has ruled that parliament acted unconstitutionally when it blocked efforts to initiate impeachment proceedings against sitting President Cyril Ramaphosa back in 2022. The ruling directly responds to a legal challenge launched by opposition parties, who argued that the 2022 parliamentary vote to halt impeachment violated the core separation of powers enshrined in South Africa’s constitution.

    The entire controversy traces back to a 2020 burglary at Ramaphosa’s private farm in rural South Africa, where intruders stole more than $500,000 in undeclared cash that had been stashed inside a sofa at the property. Following the incident, an independent panel of senior legal experts assembled by parliament concluded that there was sufficient credible evidence to open an impeachment inquiry, finding that Ramaphosa may need to answer to allegations of misconduct related to the unreported cash.

    Critics of the president have raised persistent questions about the origin of the large sum of hidden money, demanding full transparency over how the funds were acquired and why they were not properly disclosed per South African ethics rules for public officials. Ramaphosa has repeatedly and forcefully denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that he has violated no laws or ethical codes during his time in office.

    In 2022, when impeachment proceedings were first brought to a parliamentary vote, Ramaphosa’s long-governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), held an absolute majority in the chamber. That majority allowed the ANC to block the impeachment push from moving forward. However, the political calculus shifted dramatically following South Africa’s 2024 general election, where the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid, leaving it reliant on fragile coalition agreements to retain power.

    With the Constitutional Court’s latest ruling clearing the legal path for a new impeachment vote, the coming parliamentary vote will be a critical test for Ramaphosa’s presidency, with the outcome potentially reshaping the future of South African politics.

  • Pope celebrates first anniversary of election with visit to Pompeii to pray at shrine

    Pope celebrates first anniversary of election with visit to Pompeii to pray at shrine

    POMPEII, Italy – On the first anniversary of his historic election as the first American-born pope, Pope Leo XIV traveled to the ancient Roman city of Pompeii on Friday to mark the occasion with quiet prayer and commemoration of a beloved Marian feast day that aligned perfectly with the start of his pontificate.

    Flying by helicopter to the archaeological hub near Naples, the pontificate dedicated his full day visit to honoring the Feast of Our Lady of Pompeii, a date that also carries historic meaning for the global Catholic Church: it was on this same day in 1876 that the cornerstone was laid for the city’s iconic sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

    Nestled steps away from the ongoing excavations of Pompeii, the Roman town that was entirely buried under volcanic ash and gas when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, the sanctuary draws a different crowd than the ancient ruins that welcome millions of tourists annually. For decades, it has been a major pilgrimage site for Catholics, particularly those devoted to the rosary prayer tradition.

    Standing before crowds of gathered faithful ahead of celebrating Mass inside the sanctuary, Pope Leo shared his reflections on the meaningful occasion, saying, “What a beautiful day, how many blessings the Lord wanted to give to all of us. I feel I am the first blessed to be able to come here to the sanctuary of the Madonna on the day of her feast and on this anniversary.”

    This Pompeii pilgrimage marks the opening of a months-long series of day trips Pope Leo will take across the Italian peninsula over the coming weeks. The journey comes as the Bishop of Rome, who hails from the United States as former Cardinal Robert Prevost, deepens his connection to the Italian national church he serves as its symbolic head.

    The pope’s pontificate was literally launched with a prayer centered on this very feast day. On the night of his election, when he first stepped out onto the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to be introduced to the world, Pope Leo immediately referenced the Feast of Our Lady of Pompeii before leading crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square in a public prayer for his new papacy. That night, he emphasized Mary’s constant presence for believers, saying, “Mary, the mother of Christ, always wants to walk at our side, to remain close to us, to help us with her intercession and her love.” He asked the crowd to join him in praying for grace for his new mission, for the global church, and for peace across the world.

    The Pompeii sanctuary is forever tied to St. Bartolo Longo, the founder who built the basilica and is widely venerated across Italy for his lifelong charitable outreach to orphans, prisoners, and other marginalized communities. In a full-circle moment for the site, the late Pope Francis approved the miracle required for Longo’s canonization from his hospital room just weeks before Francis’s death, and Pope Leo formally canonized Longo as a saint last October.

    Pope Leo opened his visit on Friday by meeting with sick and disabled people supported by a charitable center affiliated with the sanctuary, a site that was named a pontifical basilica in 1901 by Pope Leo XIII, the current pope’s namesake. In his opening remarks, he retraced Longo’s work in the region, recalling that when Longo first arrived in the Pompeii valley, “he found a land plagued by great poverty, inhabited by a few very poor farmers, and ravaged by malaria and bandits.”

    Yet despite the harsh conditions, Longo “was able to see, however, the face of Christ in everyone: in the great and the small, and especially in the orphans and the children of prisoners, to whom he made the beating of God’s heart felt through his tenderness,” the pope added.

    Thousands of cheering Italian faithful lined the pope’s route, with many reporting they had waited since the middle of the night to catch a glimpse of the new pontiff. Many attendees made clear they were paying close attention to the recent public disagreement between Pope Leo and U.S. President Donald Trump over the escalating conflict in Iran, and they expressed strong approval of the pope’s response.

    “He doesn’t let anyone intimidate him. Look at the recent issues with Trump,” said Rita Borriello, a resident of nearby Torre del Greco. After Trump publicly criticized the pope, Leo “simply answered, ‘I preach the Gospel’. I see him as a very humble pope, very close to us, a pope who entered in our hearts.”

    Reporter Nicole Winfield contributed reporting from Rome. This coverage of religion comes via the Associated Press’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding provided by Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP retains full editorial responsibility for all content.

  • Japan confirms year’s first fatal bear attack, two more suspected

    Japan confirms year’s first fatal bear attack, two more suspected

    Just months after Japan recorded its deadliest year on record for human-bear conflicts, the East Asian nation has officially confirmed its first fatal bear attack of 2026, with two additional suspicious deaths under investigation that experts link to hungry bears emerging from winter hibernation. The 2025 crisis, which saw a staggering 13 fatal bear attacks and more than 200 injured people—more than double the previous annual record of six deaths—sparked national alarm, forcing the Japanese government to deploy military troops to assist with trapping and culling aggressive animals that wandered deep into human-populated areas. Incidents ranged from bears roaming near schools and breaking into residential homes to rampaging through supermarket aisles and wandering through popular hot spring resort districts, bringing the long-simmering human-wildlife conflict to the forefront of national public discourse.

    According to Japan’s Ministry of the Environment, the first confirmed fatality of 2026 was a 55-year-old woman whose body was discovered on April 21 in Iwate Prefecture, a rural region in northern Japan’s Tohoku area. Police confirmed to AFP that two additional sets of human remains have been recovered this week: one found Thursday in another part of Iwate, and a second recovered Tuesday in a Yamagata Prefecture forest. While police have not officially ruled on the cause of death, local media and wildlife experts have linked both deaths to bear attacks.

    Public broadcaster NHK identified one of the two deceased as 69-year-old Chiyoko Kumagai, who went missing after traveling to a mountain forest to harvest edible wild plants, a popular seasonal activity in rural Japan. After launching a large search operation Thursday around the forest where Kumagai’s parked car was found, rescuers located her body shortly after 8 a.m. local time. NHK reported that Kumagai suffered extensive claw injuries to her face and head consistent with a bear attack, and local officials confirmed that licensed hunters would begin increased patrols of the high-risk area starting Friday.

    Wildlife scientists have traced the steady rise in bear conflicts across Japan to a combination of interconnected environmental and demographic shifts. A 2025 Japanese government survey found that the national brown bear population has doubled over the past 30 years to roughly 12,000 individuals, while the population of Asian black bears—responsible for the vast majority of attacks on humans, and common across most of Honshu, Japan’s largest main island—has grown to 42,000. Experts note that warming temperatures have boosted food supplies for bears, including acorns, deer, and wild boar, creating ideal conditions for population growth even as rural human populations decline.

    This population boom has created what experts describe as “overcrowding” in Japan’s mountainous regions, which cover roughly 80 percent of the country’s total land area. Overcrowding forces younger, bolder bears to stray beyond mountain boundaries into rural villages and towns, where many quickly develop a taste for easy access to farmed crops and cultivated fruits such as persimmons. Compounding this issue, a poor acorn and nut harvest in 2025 pushed large numbers of bears out of the mountains and into populated areas in search of food, leading to last year’s record number of conflicts. Depopulation and population aging in rural Japan have also left large swathes of former farmland abandoned, creating extra habitat for bears and expanding their range closer to remaining human settlements.

    While 2026 forecasts for natural bear food sources are more favorable, local media reports show that bear sightings this spring have already hit record levels as animals emerge hungry from hibernation. The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the number of confirmed sightings in April across Miyagi, Akita, and Fukushima prefectures was roughly four times higher than the same period in 2025. Koji Yamazaki, one of Japan’s leading bear experts and director of the Ibaraki Nature Museum, warned that Tohoku region residents must remain vigilant through the spring, despite his prediction that 2026 will ultimately see fewer conflicts than 2025’s historic high.

    “I’m not sure yet why we’re seeing this kind of unprecedented damage so early in the spring,” Yamazaki told AFP. “Given that all the incidents have occurred relatively close to settlements and the bodies have been severely damaged, I suspect a bear has eaten them.” Yamazaki added that the Tohoku region has one of the densest bear populations in the country, following 20 years of consistent population growth, and that abandoned land from depopulation and aging has only worsened the overlap between bear territory and human communities. For context, brown bears— which can grow to more than 500 kilograms and run faster than the average human—are limited almost exclusively to Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island, while smaller black bears are widespread across Honshu and linked to most deadly attacks.

  • Rubio set to meet Italy’s Meloni as both sides seek to ease frictions over Iran war

    Rubio set to meet Italy’s Meloni as both sides seek to ease frictions over Iran war

    ROME — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio launched a high-stakes diplomatic push on Friday for his second day of damage-control talks, kicking off the day’s schedule with a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The negotiations center on defusing mounting tensions between the two longstanding NATO allies over the ongoing U.S.-led conflict with Iran, alongside simmering disagreements over trade policy.

  • Family of imprisoned Chinese journalist pleads for his release over health concerns

    Family of imprisoned Chinese journalist pleads for his release over health concerns

    BANGKOK, Associated Press – In a desperate new appeal, family members of Chinese journalist Dong Yuyu and international press freedom advocates are calling for the immediate release of the 7-year-sentenced editor, whose rapidly deteriorating health has put his life at imminent risk.

    Dong, a veteran editor at Beijing-based state-owned Guangming Daily who also contributed commentary to Chinese independent outlets and The New York Times’ Chinese-language platform, was detained in 2022 during a routine lunch meeting with a Japanese diplomat in Beijing. In 2024, Chinese courts convicted him of espionage charges and handed down a seven-year prison term.

    In a public statement released Thursday, Dong’s family warned that the journalist’s current condition amounts to a de facto death sentence. According to the family’s account, Dong was admitted to a prison-run hospital in Tianjin on April 27, where medical practitioners diagnosed him with heart arrhythmia and detected a lung tumor that the family suspects is cancerous. The family added that Dong has been forced to work long hours on garment production tasks during his incarceration, with no access to adequate rest to manage his worsening health.

    Speaking from the United States, where he has waged a sustained advocacy campaign for his father’s release, Dong Yuyu’s son Dong Yifu shared that he and his grandmother are overwhelmed by grief and anxiety over the rapidly unfolding situation.

    International press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders has joined the call for action, with Aleksandra Bielakowska, an activist with the group, urging the global community to ramp up diplomatic pressure on Beijing. The organization is pushing for Beijing to grant Dong medical parole, approve his travel to an overseas medical facility for urgent treatment, and allow him to reunite with his waiting family.

    Dong’s family has pinned additional hopes on the upcoming bilateral summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, expressing optimism that world leaders will raise Dong’s case during high-level talks.

    Prior to his detention, Dong published commentary advocating for constitutional democracy, political liberalization, and greater government transparency – reform-minded positions that were once permitted for public discussion in Chinese media circles but have become heavily restricted and taboo in recent years under Beijing’s tightening ideological control.

  • Dozens killed in jihadist attacks on villages in central Mali

    Dozens killed in jihadist attacks on villages in central Mali

    More than a decade of rolling insurgency has reached a new brutal peak in central Mali, after coordinated simultaneous attacks on two rural villages left dozens of civilians and militiamen dead this week — marking the deadliest single assault since jihadist and separatist groups launched a nationwide coordinated offensive last month.

    The al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has officially claimed responsibility for the Wednesday night raids on the villages of Korikori and Gomossogou, located in Mali’s volatile central Mopti Region. Initial casualty counts from sources quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) put the death toll at 30, but separate accounts from diplomatic and humanitarian sources speaking to Reuters and regional security journalism collective West African Network for Peace and Security (WAMAPS) have revised the provisional number of fatalities to at least 50. Multiple residents and local sources confirm that while most victims were members of local self-defense militias, the death toll also includes teenage civilians and young children, with an unknown number of residents still unaccounted for in the wake of the assault.

    Local witnesses describe attackers entering the villages under cover of night, opening indiscriminate fire on residents, ransacking and looting residential and community structures, and setting multiple properties ablaze. A security source told AFP the attacks were carried out in retaliation for recent operations by Dan Na Ambassagou, a community-organized self-defense militia formed to counter years of persistent militant violence in central Mali.

    Mali’s military junta, led by General Assimi Goïta — who seized power in a 2020 coup — has responded to the assault with immediate counteroperations. Military officials confirmed that a “targeted strike” was launched in the attack area, with roughly a dozen jihadist fighters “neutralized” in the operation. Bandiagara Region Governor condemned the violence in an official Thursday statement, labeling the coordinated assaults “despicable and inhumane acts.” A subsequent military update clarified that nearly 10 additional “terrorist” fighters were killed and an insurgent logistical base was destroyed during further counteroffensive actions.

    The latest attack comes against a backdrop of rapidly escalating instability that has gripped Mali since April, when an alliance of jihadist militants and separatist rebels from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) launched a coordinated nationwide offensive aimed at ousting Goïta’s military regime. That opening wave of attacks included a suicide truck bombing targeting the residence of Malian Defense Minister Sadio Camara near the capital Bamako that killed the top security official. Just this week, Goïta announced he would fill the vacant defense minister post, with support from army chief of staff General Oumar Diarra.

    Speaking at a Wednesday press briefing in the capital, Malian army commander Djibrilla Maiga acknowledged that insurgent groups have been working to regroup and rearm in the weeks following the April offensive, warning that “the threat is still present” and confirming that military forces are working to disrupt further militant advances.

    Unlike previous deployments, when Mali relied on United Nations peacekeepers and French counterinsurgency forces, Goïta’s junta has partnered with the Russia-linked Africa Corps, a paramilitary force that grew out of the now-fractured Wagner Group, to combat the insurgency. Even with this support, the FLA-led offensive has forced Russian fighters to withdraw from the key northern city of Kidal, which is now fully under separatist control. The FLA has since announced plans to advance on other northern population centers and issued an explicit demand for the full withdrawal of Africa Corps forces from all Malian territory. Beyond territorial gains, insurgents have also tightened a blockade on Bamako, establishing a network of checkpoints on all major road arteries leading into the capital to cut off supply lines.

    Mali’s ongoing crisis traces its roots back to 2012, when a Tuareg separatist rebellion in northern Mali evolved into a full-scale Islamist insurgency that has since spread to central and eastern regions of the country. Today, large swathes of northern and eastern Mali remain completely outside of government control. When Goïta’s junta first seized power, it held broad popular support on a promise to end the decade-long security crisis. Following the coup, however, the new regime expelled UN peacekeeping forces and French counterinsurgency troops that had been deployed to stem the insurgency, clearing the way for the current surge in violence that has pushed the country to the brink of state collapse.