Global Pulse

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  • Austria beats Latvia for 3rd straight win at ice hockey worlds, Norway shuts out Italy

    Austria beats Latvia for 3rd straight win at ice hockey worlds, Norway shuts out Italy

    The 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship continued its group stage action on Tuesday, delivering two compelling matchups split between host venues in Zurich and Fribourg. In the day’s opening contest in Zurich, Austria notched its third consecutive win, a 3-1 defeat of Latvia that pulls it even on points with co-leaders Switzerland and Finland at the top of the tightly contested Group A standings.

    The game remained scoreless through the first period, before Tim Harnisch broke the deadlock in the second frame to put Austria ahead 1-0 heading into the final stanza. Latvia responded quickly after the break, when captain and tournament breakout star Rudolfs Balcers netted his fourth goal of the competition — a mark that still leads all players at the championship — to draw the sides level.
    The deadlock held only briefly, as Austria capitalized on a power play opportunity minutes later. Benjamin Nissner buried the go-ahead goal to restore his side’s lead, and with Latvia pulling their goaltender in the final minutes to search for an equalizer, Vinzenz Rohrer sealed the three points with an empty-net goal to lock in the 3-1 final score.

    Across the tournament in Group B, hosted in Fribourg, Norway earned a dominant 4-0 shutout victory over Italy, marking the second win and second clean sheet for the Nordic side. All four of Norway’s goals came from different scorers: Eskild Bakke Olsen, Noah Steen, Christian Kaasastul and Tinus Luc Koblar each found the back of the net once. Norwegian goaltender Henrik Haukeland turned away all 30 shots on goal he faced to preserve the shutout. For Italy, a promoted side making its first appearance in the top division of the world championship in recent years, the result leaves the team still searching for its first point of the tournament.

    Two more group stage games are scheduled to take place later the same day: Britain will face off against Hungary in Zurich, while Slovakia clashes with Slovenia in Fribourg to round out Tuesday’s match schedule.

  • How Palantir is becoming embedded in major newsroom operations

    How Palantir is becoming embedded in major newsroom operations

    Palantir Technologies has long stood as one of the most polarizing technology firms in the modern digital age. Boasting a client roster that includes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Army, and law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies across multiple European nations, the company has drawn global backlash for its ongoing technology supply agreement with the Israeli military amid the latter’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza that has been widely accused of constituting genocide.

    Despite growing international scrutiny over Palantir’s documented ties to alleged human rights violations and accusations of complicity in Israeli war crimes, a number of major global media organizations have maintained active, deep-rooted partnerships with the controversial firm. Among these partners is German publishing giant Axel Springer, the current parent company of prominent British newspaper The Telegraph, which also owns well-known outlets including Politico, Business Insider, Bild and Welt.

    Axel Springer currently integrates Palantir’s core Foundry software across all of its global publishing operations. Palantir has publicly stated that Axel Springer leverages Foundry to unify disparate data sets from its dozens of individual publications and multiple revenue streams, enabling the creation of what the tech firm describes as “a more agile, data-driven publishing organisation” that can adapt more quickly to changing consumer habits and evolving audience preferences. Per Palantir’s own description, Foundry gives Axel Springer granular, actionable insights into reader behavior, advertising campaign performance, and the effectiveness of its subscription business models.

    But the ties between Axel Springer and Palantir extend far beyond a standard commercial technology partnership. Between 2018 and 2019, Palantir CEO Alexander Karp held a seat on the German publisher’s supervisory board. The personal connection between Karp and Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner dates back decades, with the pair first meeting “at a party during Döpfner’s university days,” according to public records.

    Close links also extend to Döpfner’s son, Moritz Döpfner, who previously served as chief of staff at Thiel Capital, the private investment firm founded by Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel. German business publication Manager Magazin has reported that Thiel later invested approximately $50 million in seed funding into a venture capital fund launched by Moritz Döpfner. Focus Online, another prominent German outlet, has additionally documented that Thiel committed several million dollars in funding to a new European defense startup after being introduced to the project by Moritz Döpfner.
    That startup, Stark Defence, positions itself as “a technology-oriented defence company that delivers the systems Europe and NATO need now.” It markets its unmanned weapons systems as “AI-enabled, software-defined, and ready for affordable production at scale.”

    Axel Springer’s partnership with Palantir also aligns with the publishing giant’s longstanding public stance of unwavering support for Israel. In an official press release issued October 9, 2023, just two days after the 7 October attacks, the company stated: “Axel Springer stands in unconditional solidarity with the State of Israel.” This commitment is formally embedded in Axel Springer’s core corporate principles: one of the five central tenets of its corporate constitution reads, “We support the right of the State of Israel to exist and reject all forms of antisemitism.”
    Döpfner reaffirmed this position at a World Jewish Congress event in May 2026, stating: “I’m a goy [non-Jew] and I’m a Zionist. With all my heart, out of conviction, and with passion. We all shall be Zionists.”

    Palantir and the Israeli government formally announced a strategic partnership in January 2024, three months after Israel launched its military operation in Gaza. At the time of the announcement, Palantir Executive Vice President Josh Harris told Bloomberg that “both parties agreed to harness Palantir’s advanced technology in support of war-related missions” that would “significantly aid the Israeli Ministry of Defense.”

    The full scope of Palantir’s technology offerings to Israel remains undisclosed, but the company has built a broad portfolio of AI-powered military tools, including its flagship Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), which Palantir says enables faster, more data-informed decision making for frontline military forces. Multiple independent reports have also linked Palantir’s Maven Smart System to Israeli military operations in Gaza. The Maven system aggregates and analyzes battlefield imagery, surveillance data, logistics information and intelligence to identify potential targets for strikes. In a December 2025 interview, Karp confirmed that Maven had been deployed in Ukraine as well as “in recent operations in the Middle East.” The Washington Post reported in March 2026 that both the U.S. and Israel used the Maven system during their joint war on Iran.
    Karp has also openly acknowledged that Palantir’s technology is used to carry out lethal strikes. Responding to accusations in April 2025 that the company’s systems were complicit in the deaths of Palestinians, Karp stated: “Mostly terrorists, that’s true.”

    Axel Springer has declined to respond to inquiries from Middle East Eye regarding its collaboration with Palantir.

    Beyond Axel Springer, another major European media firm, Swiss publisher Ringier – which owns dozens of media and entertainment brands across Europe and Africa – has maintained a partnership with Palantir since 2018. Like Axel Springer, Ringier’s leadership shares deep personal and professional ties with Palantir’s executive team: both Karp and Ringier CEO Marc Walder are involved in Digitalswitzerland, a leading Swiss digital innovation initiative that Walder founded in 2015 and has led as president ever since, with Palantir listed as a core member organization.

    Per information posted on Ringier’s official website, the publisher uses Palantir’s Foundry software to “drive Ringier’s digital transformation and accelerate the transition to a data-driven, global media company.” Palantir also confirms that in addition to newsroom uses, Ringier leverages Foundry to boost performance across the advertising departments of all its media properties. In May 2024, several months after Palantir announced its strategic defense partnership with Israel, Ringier published its 2023 annual report revealing that the company had expanded its partnership, launching a five-year agreement to adopt Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform. The report notes that AIP helps Ringier “improve relevant content and better understand user preferences” by integrating and processing large volumes of user and content data, while also enabling “precise targeting and optimization of advertising strategies.”
    Ringier has gone beyond just adopting Palantir’s technology, hiring a dedicated in-house Palantir expert. Last winter, the publisher posted a job opening for a “Platform Engineer (Palantir Foundry),” framing the role as “central to the stability, security, and evolution” of Ringier’s enterprise Palantir Foundry and AIP infrastructure. The job posting outlined responsibilities including platform administration, implementing data governance frameworks, collaborating directly with Palantir’s technical teams, and building and maintaining automated monitoring and alert systems using Foundry’s application programming interface. When contacted by Middle East Eye for comment on the partnership, Ringier Chief Communications Officer Johanna Walser said only: “We have communicated the nature of our collaboration with Palantir via press release. Beyond that, there is nothing further to comment.”

    Most recently, U.S.-based Fox News Media announced its own partnership with Palantir to develop a custom suite of AI tools for its newsroom, working alongside the outlet’s journalists, according to an Axios report quoting Fox News Digital President and Editor-in-Chief Porter Berry. The collaboration has produced three custom tools that Palantir engineers have integrated directly into the digital newsroom’s daily workflow. One tool is designed to help reporters quickly get up to speed on fast-developing breaking stories, a second fact-checks articles for errors and ensures alignment with Fox News’ internal style guide, and the third analyzes audience engagement to provide insights for optimizing story performance. Fox News Media has also declined to respond to requests for comment on the partnership.

    These widespread partnerships between major global newsrooms and Palantir have sparked urgent questions about editorial independence and potential conflicts of interest. While Fox News has framed its agreement as “strictly commercial,” critics have raised concerns that these close financial and institutional ties could shape editorial decision-making, particularly when it comes to coverage of Palantir, its activities, and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
    Not long after Axel Springer completed its acquisition of The Telegraph, the British newspaper published an opinion piece titled “In defence of Palantir,” followed by a second article headlined “How Palantir became the left’s favourite conspiracy target.” It remains unclear whether these pieces were connected to the broader relationship between the two firms, or whether The Telegraph has begun using Palantir’s technology following the takeover. Axel Springer, The Telegraph, and Palantir all declined to comment on the matter.

    Additional critical questions have emerged over whether newsrooms using Palantir’s platforms are unknowingly contributing to training the AI systems the company develops for military use. Fox News has stated that its agreements “are structured to prevent its AI partners from training on or otherwise exploiting its content.” Palantir, however, has not responded to repeated questions about whether, and how, it ensures that civilian uses of its technology – including its deployments at media organizations – are not repurposed to train or inform its defense-focused AI systems.

  • What we know about the San Diego mosque attack suspects

    What we know about the San Diego mosque attack suspects

    On a violent Monday that shattered the peace of a Southern California Muslim community, a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego left five people dead, including the two young suspects who died from self-inflicted wounds after the attack. Law enforcement officials have launched a full investigation into the assault, which they are treating as a likely hate crime rooted in targeted extremism, even as the full scope of the perpetrators’ planning and ideology remains under review.

    San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl has laid out a clear timeline of the tragedy that unfolded on the day of the attack. Roughly two hours before the first shots were fired at the mosque, at approximately 9:40 a.m. local time, the mother of one of the suspects contacted authorities to make an urgent report. She told police that her 17-year-old son had fled her home, stealing her firearms and her car, and warned that he was potentially suicidal and was accompanied by a friend. She also noted that he was wearing full camouflage clothing, a detail that could have allowed officers to locate the pair earlier if resources had been deployed immediately.

    Just over two hours after that initial warning, at 11:43 a.m., local emergency dispatch received the first report of an active shooter at the mosque. Responding officers arrived on the scene within four minutes, a fast response that still came too late for three men who were already fatally shot outside the building. As first responders activated active shooter protocols to secure the area, they received a second report of shots fired from a vehicle nearby: the suspects had opened fire on a local landscaper, who escaped the attack without injury.

    Less than a quarter of a mile from the mosque, officers located the suspects’ vehicle and found both young attackers — the 17-year-old and his 18-year-old accomplice — dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Authorities have not officially released the suspects’ identities to the public, though multiple major U.S. media outlets have published their names unofficially.

    The three victims of the attack, all regular community members tied to the mosque, have been formally identified by representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations San Diego (CAIR-SD). The first victim, Amin Abdullah, was a veteran security guard at the mosque and a father of eight children who had served the community for more than a decade. Chief Wahl confirmed that Abdullah’s quick, brave intervention stopped the attack from escalating into an even deadlier massacre, saying “It’s fair to say [Abdullah’s] actions were heroic. Undoubtedly, he saved lives today.”

    CAIR-SD spokesperson Tazheen Nizam paid tribute to Abdullah, describing him as a beloved, constant presence at the mosque who greeted every visitor and child with a warm smile. “Amin was loved by everybody, he stood there day after day, always smiling, welcoming everybody, welcoming the kids who came to the school,” Nizam told the BBC. “He was a shining light. He is a true hero, a martyr.”

    The two other victims were also deeply embedded in the mosque community. Nader Awad raised his children at the center, and his wife works as a teacher at the mosque’s on-site school. The third victim, Mansour Kaziha, supported the community by maintaining the mosque’s grounds and working in its on-site convenience store.

    Investigators have uncovered early evidence pointing to the attack being ideologically motivated by hate. Multiple law enforcement sources, speaking on condition of anonymity to CNN, confirmed that hate speech was found scrawled on one of the weapons used in the attack. A suicide note left by the suspects also contained writings promoting racial supremacy, the outlet reported. Chief Wahl confirmed that investigators have identified hate rhetoric as a core component of the attackers’ motivation, cementing the decision to open a hate crime investigation.

  • NATO’s top officer doesn’t expect more American drawdowns beyond the 5,000 troops Trump announced

    NATO’s top officer doesn’t expect more American drawdowns beyond the 5,000 troops Trump announced

    BRUSSELS — Amid lingering uncertainty over U.S. military posture in Europe following a surprise troop cut announcement from former President Donald Trump, America’s senior military official at NATO has moved to calm allied anxiety, confirming Tuesday that no further withdrawals are planned in the near term beyond the 5,000 troops already scheduled to leave the continent.

    U.S. Lieutenant General Alex Grynkewich’s public clarification comes two weeks after Trump’s uncoordinated announcement of the drawdown caught NATO alliance leaders off guard, breaking long-standing agreements between Washington and its partners to coordinate all major military adjustments in Europe to prevent dangerous security gaps. The announcement followed a heated public dispute between Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who publicly criticized U.S. strategy amid the ongoing Iran conflict, saying Washington had been “humiliated” by Iranian leadership and lacked a clear plan for the war. The criticism triggered sharp anger from Trump, leading to widespread speculation that the troop cuts were intended as a punitive measure against Berlin.

    In the weeks after Trump’s announcement, the Pentagon clarified that the 5,000 troop reduction would not involve recalling service members already permanently stationed in Europe. Instead, the drawdown will be implemented by canceling planned rotational deployments: roughly 4,000 soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team will no longer deploy to Poland as scheduled, and a planned deployment of 1,000 long-range missile and rocket specialists to Germany will be scrapped. Specific logistics for the adjusted deployment schedule are still being finalized by military planners.

    Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a gathering of senior military leaders from NATO’s 32 member states at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters, Grynkewich stated clearly, “It will be 5,000 troops coming out of Europe. It’s all that I’m expecting in the near term.”

    Before his press briefing, Grynkewich said he held discussions with frontline military commanders from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland — NATO member states that share direct borders with Russia and Ukraine, and have been the most vocal about maintaining strong allied deterrence on the alliance’s eastern flank. The talks covered revised force posture options and adjustments to military capabilities in the region.

    The general emphasized that the 5,000-person drawdown would not weaken European security or NATO’s deterrence posture against Russian aggression. However, he also warned allies that additional redeployments of U.S. troops should be expected in the coming years, framing the shift as a natural progression as European allies build up their own independent defense capacity. “Over the long term, we absolutely should expect additional redeployments as Europe continues to build capability and capacity and step up to provide more of the conventional defense of Europe,” Grynkewich explained. He added that the adjustment will be a gradual, multi-year process, and that “We’re going to stay well-synchronized with our allies moving forward.”

    Compared to the roughly 80,000 U.S. military personnel currently stationed across Europe, the 5,000-person cut is relatively small, and the scale of the reduction has not sparked major alarm among NATO allies. What has caused concern among partners, however, is the lack of prior coordination for the announcement, as well as the widespread perception that the cuts are a punitive measure targeting Germany over its public criticism of Trump’s Iran policy.

  • Secrecy surrounds UK foreign secretary’s Middle East talks with Tony Blair

    Secrecy surrounds UK foreign secretary’s Middle East talks with Tony Blair

    A newly unearthed revelation from independent outlet Middle East Eye has thrown the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) into fresh controversy over government accountability, after confirmation that no official records were retained of a December meeting between Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and former prime minister Tony Blair focused on Middle East affairs. The unminuted meeting occurred at a pivotal moment: Blair was actively lobbying on behalf of U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial Gaza Board of Peace, a body that has sparked global backlash for its structure and mandate. Details of the 4 December gathering first emerged in FCDO documents published on the UK government’s official website in March, but the absence of any documentation of the discussion had not been previously reported. In response to a freedom of information (FOI) request from Middle East Eye, the FCDO confirmed that not only were no meeting minutes created, but there are also no surviving records of pre-meeting briefing materials prepared for Cooper, nor any internal or external correspondence related to scheduling the encounter. The controversy comes against a backdrop of longstanding scrutiny of Blair’s decades-long role in Middle East policy. Blair, who led the UK into the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, was appointed as a founding member of Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace in September 2025, with his role formally confirmed in January 2026. Internal EU meeting minutes obtained by investigative outlet Follow the Money in February show that just 11 days after the Cooper-Blair meeting, lobbyists from Blair’s own Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) pushed EU officials to formally join the board. The Trump-led body, which grants the U.S. president lifetime chairman status and sweeping authority over post-conflict Gaza, has no Palestinian representatives on its executive committee — a flaw that has drawn widespread condemnation from global rights groups. To date, 28 world leaders have joined the board, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who currently faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Gaza. The UK has publicly rejected membership, with Cooper citing concerns over Trump’s decision to include Russian President Vladimir Putin on the board’s executive committee. “We won’t be one of the signatories today, because this is about a legal treaty that raises much broader issues, and we do also have concerns about President Putin being part of something which is talking about peace, when we have still not seen any signs from Putin that there will be a commitment to peace in Ukraine,” Cooper stated publicly on 22 January. Tensions between Cooper and Blair have already surfaced in public: in March, Blair publicly criticized the UK government for hesitating to back full U.S.-Israeli military action against Iran, and Cooper pushed back by referencing the lessons of the 2003 Iraq war. “I also think, having been a minister in the last Labour government, it is important to learn lessons for what went wrong in Iraq … and recognising that all of our decisions need to be about what is right for British citizens,” she told the BBC. Blair has already faced intense scrutiny over his institute’s past involvement in Middle East planning. TBI, which has received massive funding from billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, previously drew widespread condemnation for its so-called “Gaza Riviera” development plan, which critics argued effectively condoned the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people from the territory. Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, argues that policymakers have long given Blair unearned credibility on Middle East issues despite a consistent track record of failure. “Among many policymakers there’s still this sense that he should be respected because he spent so much time working on the Middle East, rather than a sober assessment of his dire record when dealing with it,” Doyle said. “In terms of the Middle East, it has just been one failure after another for Blair. He is a man who is entrenched in the palace views of the uber-elites of the Middle East, with very little sense of the real trends going on there.” Transparency experts have echoed those concerns, warning that the absence of records for such a high-stakes meeting is unacceptable. Sam Raphael, professor of International Relations and Human Rights at the University of Westminster and director of government transparency research group Unredacted, called the missing documentation “deeply concerning.” “The lack of minutes and other official records in relation to the Foreign Secretary’s meeting – especially with an individual as controversial and consequential for the Middle East, and with such labyrinthine personal interests – is deeply concerning,” Raphael said. This is not the first time the FCDO has faced public criticism over poor record-keeping and lack of transparency. Just last week, Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) condemned the department for failing to maintain adequate meeting records during its review of the appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the U.S. in December 2024. Raphael noted that the Cooper-Blair meeting perfectly exemplifies the systemic failure the ISC already flagged. “The ISC found that ‘the FCDO stands out as a department failing to produce a necessary audit trail for discussions and decisions,’” Raphael said. “The ISC found this to be ‘unacceptable’, and the Cooper-Blair case is a clear and flagrant example of this.” Adding a layer of historical irony to the controversy, the UK’s freedom of information laws — which enabled this revelation — were introduced by Blair’s own government in 2000. Blair later named the legislation one of his biggest political regrets in his 2010 memoir, and declassified government files released in 2024 revealed he encouraged cabinet ministers to use disposable Post-it notes for official business during his premiership to avoid mandatory public disclosures. Both the FCDO and the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change have been contacted for comment on the latest revelations, and have not yet issued a response.

  • Thailand cuts visa-free stay period for more than 90 countries including UK

    Thailand cuts visa-free stay period for more than 90 countries including UK

    One of Southeast Asia’s most popular tourist destinations, Thailand, has announced a major shakeup of its entry rules for international visitors, ending the sweeping 60-day visa-free exemption that has been in place for travelers from 93 countries since July 2024. That policy was introduced as a core government initiative to reignite the country’s critical tourism sector after it was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but just a year after implementation, officials have approved plans to roll back the broad exemption and replace it with a customized, country-by-country system that tailors maximum allowed stays based on reciprocal agreements between Thailand and individual nations.

    The Thai government cited two key drivers for the policy reversal: growing national security concerns tied to a string of high-profile arrests of foreign nationals linked to transnational crime, and widespread confusion created by overlapping multiple visa exemption rules that left many travelers unsure of their entry eligibility. In recent months, Thai law enforcement has detained dozens of foreign citizens for a range of illegal activities, from drug smuggling and sex trafficking to unauthorized employment. High-profile cases have included UK nationals charged with moving illicit substances, and a raid on an unlicensed international school in Bangkok in April this year that resulted in the arrest of 10 foreign teachers working without valid work permits.

    Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul confirmed the change, noting that a policy review found the original 60-day exemption needed adjustments “to be more suitable for the current situation, both in terms of the economy and national security.” Under the new framework, most travelers that previously qualified for the 60-day entry — including citizens of major source markets such as Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom — will only be allowed to stay visa-free for up to 30 days. Travelers hoping to stay longer than that window will be required to apply for an official visa in advance of their trip. A small number of nationalities will receive adjusted exemption periods, either shorter or longer than the 30-day standard, aligned with existing reciprocal travel agreements between Thailand and their home countries.

    The new rules will officially go into effect 15 days after they are published in the Royal Gazette, Thailand’s official publication for all legal and regulatory announcements. Thai foreign ministry officials added that the overhaul will eliminate conflicting overlapping exemption terms that previously created unnecessary confusion for international visitors planning trips to the country.

    Tourism has long functioned as one of the foundational pillars of Thailand’s national economy, drawing nearly 40 million international visitors in pre-pandemic 2019 before global border closures sent arrivals plummeting. The sector has only steadily rebuilt over the past two years, with official data showing nearly 12 million international travelers have already entered the country in 2025 as of the latest count, putting the recovery on solid but still incomplete footing compared to pre-COVID volumes.

  • US, Iran trade threats but Trump says Tehran wants peace deal

    US, Iran trade threats but Trump says Tehran wants peace deal

    The escalating standoff between the United States and Iran has entered a tense new chapter, with the two nations trading sharp military threats even as fragile, Pakistan-mediated diplomatic efforts continue to search for a path to peace. In a dramatic announcement from the White House on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump revealed he had halted a planned major US military strike against Iran just one hour before it was set to launch, and warned that new attacks could resume within days if no deal is reached.

    The conflict between the two nations, which first erupted on February 28, has been in a fragile ceasefire since April 8. Trump told reporters that he agreed to delay the assault at the request of Gulf regional leaders, who told him serious negotiations were already underway. “You know how it is to negotiate with a country where you’re beating them badly. They come to the table, they’re begging to make a deal,” Trump said. He added that he remains hopeful a new conflict can be avoided, but did not rule out a major new strike: “I hope we don’t have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit. I’m not sure yet.”

    Trump set a loose deadline of two to three days, potentially stretching into early next week, for parties to reach an agreement, and said he has ordered the US military to remain on standby for a full-scale large-scale assault if talks collapse. The US leader has repeatedly signaled he wants to exit the conflict, which has become a significant political liability. Iran’s continued control of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical global energy chokepoints, has sent oil prices soaring, raising costs for American consumers and roiling global energy markets.

    Iran quickly hit back at Trump’s threats. Army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia warned that if the US resumes offensive military action, Iran will open “new fronts” against American interests across the region. Akraminia added that Iran’s military has used the weeks-long ceasefire period to significantly strengthen its combat capabilities. Senior Iranian diplomat Kazem Gharibabadi dismissed Trump’s framing on social media platform X, writing that the US leader was absurdly “calling a ‘threat’ a ‘chance for peace’.”

    Thus far, only one round of negotiations has been held between Tehran and Washington since the ceasefire went into effect, and it ended without any breakthrough agreement. Iran has repeatedly rejected US terms, while maintaining its core demands: the full release of billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen overseas, the permanent lifting of decades-long US economic sanctions, and payment of war reparations for damage inflicted during the conflict.

    Details of the latest US proposal, released by Iranian state media, show deep divides remain between the two sides. Iran’s Fars news agency described the US offer as having “excessive” terms and containing no meaningful US concessions. The five-point US draft includes demands that Iran shutter all but one of its nuclear facilities and transfer its entire stockpile of highly enriched uranium to US control, while refusing to release even 25 percent of frozen Iranian assets or commit to any war reparations, the report said. However, Iranian news outlet Tasnim later reported that the US did make one small concession: agreeing to waive oil sanctions on Iran while formal negotiations are ongoing.

    The rising tensions have spilled over to other nations in the Persian Gulf. The United Arab Emirates’ defense ministry confirmed Tuesday that a recent drone attack on the country’s Barakah nuclear power plant, carried out on May 17, 2026, was launched from Iraqi territory. Senior Emirati officials have previously pointed to Iran or its regional proxy groups, which Tehran supports and have launched repeated attacks on Gulf states throughout the conflict, as the culprits. Iran has also ramped up other regional military pressure: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s ideological military arm, announced Monday it would require permits for all international fiber-optic internet cables that pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a move that could disrupt global digital communications. The IRGC also said it struck US- and Israel-linked militant groups in Iran’s Kurdistan province near the Iraqi border, claiming the groups were attempting to smuggle American weapons into Iranian territory.

    Qatar, another major target of Iranian military action during the conflict, has called for more time for diplomatic efforts. Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said Doha believes that the Pakistani-mediated negotiation process needs additional time to make progress. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has confirmed that indirect talks between Tehran and Washington are continuing through Pakistan as a mediator, and said Iran has clearly communicated its core concerns to the US side.

    Despite the mutual threats, both sides have left the door open to continued talks, leaving the region in a tense waiting game as the Trump deadline approaches.

  • Three Canadian off-duty officers arrested in Spain over ‘serious’ allegations

    Three Canadian off-duty officers arrested in Spain over ‘serious’ allegations

    A high-profile incident involving three Canadian law enforcement officers has sparked scrutiny after the group was criminally charged during a personal vacation in Barcelona, Spain, Toronto Police Service has confirmed. In an official emailed statement to the BBC, Toronto police acknowledged that the accusations against the trio are severe in nature. One of the three officers has already returned to Canada and has been placed on administrative suspension immediately pending the outcome of the legal process. The remaining two officers are set to return to Canada in the coming days, and will also be suspended as soon as they re-enter the country, according to department officials.

    Toronto Police have declined to release the identities of the three officers, noting that no further comment will be provided while the cases work through the Spanish judicial system. Initial reporting from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), citing sources within Spanish law enforcement, indicates the charges center on acts of violence. The BBC has reached out to local Spanish authorities to request additional context and comment on the case, but has not yet received a response.

    Beyond confirming the officers’ employment with Toronto Police and that the trip was strictly personal leisure travel with no official law enforcement mandate, the department has released few additional details. More specific reporting from CBC outlines the individual charges: two of the three officers face counts of sexual assault and assault that resulted in bodily injury, while the third officer is charged with assaulting a public authority agent. The alleged incident is reported to have taken place inside a Barcelona taxi and involved a sex worker, according to Canadian media accounts.

    Spanish law enforcement took two of the officers into custody on May 13, Canadian media sources confirm. The third officer was arrested days later following a police chase in the coastal resort city of Palma de Mallorca, located on the Balearic Islands off Spain’s eastern coast. All three officers made their initial court appearance in Spain on May 15.

  • UK trade minister hopes Britain will rejoin EU ‘in my lifetime’

    UK trade minister hopes Britain will rejoin EU ‘in my lifetime’

    Almost a decade after the United Kingdom’s narrow 2016 vote to leave the European Union, the long-dormant debate over Brexit has exploded back into British political life, with a senior cabinet minister adding his voice to growing calls for the country to ultimately rejoin the bloc.

    Speaking to Agence France-Presse during a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg for talks with legislators on strengthening post-Brexit bilateral ties, British Trade Secretary Chris Bryant made the unprecedented remark that he hopes to see Britain readmitted as a full EU member during his lifetime. The 64-year-old minister, who admitted that his “heart broke on the night of the Brexit vote”, went further than Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s current official stance. Starmer, whose Labour Party has sought to carve out a middle ground on the issue, has pushed for incremental alignment with the EU but has stopped short of backing a new membership application or a return to the European single market.

    Bryant’s comments came on the heels of a high-profile call from outgoing Health Secretary Wes Streeting, one of Starmer’s potential successors as Labour leader, who publicly backed rejoining over the weekend. The dual statements have thrown the divisive Brexit issue back to the center of British politics at a moment of severe instability for Starmer’s government. Fresh off of disappointing local election results for Labour earlier this month, dozens of the party’s Members of Parliament have publicly called on Starmer to step down, creating open leadership turmoil just two years into Labour’s current term of office.

    In his interview, Bryant did not shy away from the economic costs of Brexit, which he argued have created massive headwinds for the UK. Pointing to official data showing that more than 16,000 British firms have ceased exporting to the European single market since the split, he described Brexit as “an own goal for us”. While the Labour government has prioritized expanding trade partnerships with third countries ranging from South Korea to Turkey to Switzerland, Bryant emphasized that the EU still accounts for 47 percent of the UK’s total trade — a volume no other combination of partners can match. “That’s what we need to get right,” he added.

    The minister also acknowledged that any path to rejoining remains a long-term prospect, conceding, “We’re not going to be doing that this summer.” But he rejected the idea that the current domestic political upheaval would derail the UK’s gradual push for a reset of relations with Brussels. Confident in the long-term trajectory, Bryant noted that Labour’s current parliamentary mandate runs through 2029, and argued that any future Labour government — whether led by Starmer or a successor — would prioritize deeper integration with the EU.

    Pro-EU forces have gained new momentum in recent months amid shifting global dynamics. As former US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy has injected deep uncertainty into long-standing transatlantic alliances, pressure has grown for the UK to rebuild closer institutional ties with the EU. London and Brussels are already scheduled to hold their second bilateral summit this coming summer, building on the May 2025 meeting that delivered tangible progress: a new agreement to deepen defense and security cooperation, and a rollback of post-Brexit frictions on food trade.

    Not surprisingly, the new calls for rejoining have already drawn fierce pushback from prominent Brexit supporters. Nigel Farage, the face of the 2016 Leave campaign and now leader of the hard-right, anti-immigration Reform UK party, has already attacked Streeting’s comments, accusing him of seeking to “drag” the country back into the EU against the 2016 result. The reemergence of the Brexit issue sets the stage for a bitter new domestic political fight that could reshape the trajectory of UK-EU relations for years to come.

  • Race to find vaccines, treatments for Ebola strain behind outbreak

    Race to find vaccines, treatments for Ebola strain behind outbreak

    A rapidly worsening outbreak of a little-known Ebola strain in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has triggered an urgent global push among scientists to develop and deploy effective countermeasures that can curb the death toll and bring the crisis under control. As of this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that more than 130 people have already lost their lives to the outbreak, prompting the United States to issue a level 4 travel advisory warning all American citizens against visiting the affected regions.

    This marks the 17th Ebola outbreak recorded in the DRC, but only the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain – a variant for which no vaccines or therapeutic treatments have yet won formal regulatory approval. While no licensed options currently exist, researchers have spent years developing a number of candidate products that have yet to undergo human testing, creating a pipeline of potential solutions that could be accelerated if sufficient support is secured.

    The WHO has already begun reviewing all available candidates, including Ervebo, a widely deployed vaccine that targets the more common Zaire Ebola strain, which has been used successfully in multiple previous outbreaks. Thomas Geisbert, a virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston who contributed to the development of Ervebo, has already designed a single-dose vaccine modeled on Ervebo that targets Bundibugyo. Preclinical research in non-human primates has shown the candidate provides robust protection against the strain. However, Geisbert explained that moving from preclinical research to mass manufacturing of doses for human use is a time-consuming and costly process, and major pharmaceutical companies have long had little financial incentive to invest in the product.

    “ There hasn’t been an incentive for big pharma to jump in, because it’s not a money-maker, ” Geisbert told Agence France-Presse (AFP). He added that his research on the Bundibugyo candidate was first published back in 2013, and the project has sat dormant ever since – a pattern that mirrors his earlier work on what eventually became Ervebo. First published in 2005, Ervebo only garnered serious attention and investment during the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, which killed more than 11,300 people and became the largest Ebola outbreak in recorded history. After that outbreak began, U.S. pharmaceutical firm MSD (known as Merck in North America) was able to produce the first clinical doses in roughly nine months, and trials later confirmed the vaccine is 84% effective against the Zaire strain. Geisbert said he is optimistic that a similar accelerated timeline could produce usable doses of the Bundibugyo candidate in as little as six to seven months, if a pharmaceutical partner steps forward quickly. A spokesperson for MSD told AFP that independent data on Ervebo’s effectiveness against non-Zaire strains such as Bundibugyo remains limited, with no human data collected to date.

    As the DRC outbreak expanded this week, a new potential candidate entered the conversation: a multi-strain mRNA vaccine developed by a team of Chinese researchers, whose findings were published in the *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences* (PNAS) on Monday. The candidate leverages the mRNA platform that was widely refined and scaled during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is designed to target the three most common Ebola strains, including Bundibugyo. While Connor Bamford, a virologist at Queen’s University Belfast, praised the research effort, he noted that mRNA vaccines remain costly to produce and require strict cold-chain storage – two factors that could severely limit their deployment in low-resource regions like rural DRC. Geisbert added that the new mRNA candidate has only been tested in mice so far, and positive results in mouse models frequently fail to translate to larger animals, let alone human populations.

    Another team of researchers at the University of Oxford is also working to advance a candidate, partnering with the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, to ready a viral vector vaccine named ChAdOx1 BDBV for deployment as quickly as possible. “ We are working through the logistics at pace, ” Teresa Lambe, head of vaccine immunology at the Oxford Vaccine Group, told AFP, though she noted that no precise timeline for rollout is available yet.

    Beyond vaccines, researchers are also moving quickly to launch clinical trials for two experimental therapeutic treatments for Bundibugyo, under a trial sponsored by the WHO. Amanda Rojek, an Oxford researcher working on the trial, told *Nature* this week that the team is working around the clock to launch the trials as soon as possible, adding that the infrastructure and planning needed are already in place. One of the treatments being considered is remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral developed by U.S. firm Gilead Sciences that has already undergone human testing for the Zaire Ebola strain, though it has never been tested for Bundibugyo. Even so, Geisbert said that in vitro lab testing his team conducted found remdesivir is actually more effective against Bundibugyo than it is against Zaire. The second candidate is MBP134, a monoclonal antibody developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical that is specifically designed to target multiple Ebola species, including Bundibugyo. Geisbert, who has also tested MBP134 in preclinical research, called the drug “ fantastic, ” noting that it effectively protected non-human primates from death even when administered after infection had already set in. Any clinical trials in affected regions will require formal approval from both the DRC and Ugandan governments before they can begin.