Global Pulse

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  • Wall Street’s record-setting run halts as AI stocks slump and oil prices rise

    Wall Street’s record-setting run halts as AI stocks slump and oil prices rise

    After a weeks-long stretch of record-setting gains that pushed major U.S. benchmarks to all-time highs, Wall Street’s rally came to an abrupt halt on Tuesday, dragged down by a sudden pullback in red-hot artificial intelligence stocks and growing market jitters over spiking oil prices fueled by the ongoing conflict with Iran.

    The day’s trading ended with a mixed picture across major indexes. The benchmark S&P 500 pulled back 0.2% from the record high it notched a day earlier, dropping 11.88 points to close at 7,400.96. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average bucked the downward trend, adding 56.09 points, or 0.1%, to finish at 49,760.56. It was the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite that bore the brunt of the selling, sinking 0.7% or 185.92 points to close at 26,088.20, retreating from its own recent all-time peak.

    The steepest losses were concentrated among the semiconductor manufacturers and AI-linked equities that have posted explosive gains through 2026, riding the global AI boom to triple-digit year-to-date returns. Intel led the downturn, slumping 6.8% after its share price had already surged more than 200% so far this year. Micron Technology, which entered Tuesday with a nearly 180% gain for 2026, dropped 3.6%, while AI-focused firm CoreWeave fell 6.1%, trimming its year-to-date gain to 60%.

    This pullback in AI stocks actually originated in Asian markets earlier in the trading day. South Korea’s Kospi index tumbled 2.3% down from its own all-time high, as investors reacted to fears that the South Korean government could redistribute excess windfall profits earned by domestic AI companies directly to citizens.

    A second major headwind weighed on U.S. markets on Tuesday: a sharp new jump in global crude oil prices, driven by growing fears that the ongoing conflict with Iran will become protracted and disrupt global energy supplies. Brent crude, the global benchmark, climbed 3.4% to settle at $107.77 per barrel, up from roughly $70 per barrel before the conflict began. The rally came as a fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire grows increasingly tenuous, and the ongoing war has effectively blocked all oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global energy trade, leaving millions of barrels of crude stuck in the Persian Gulf unable to reach customers worldwide.

    The rapid run-up in oil prices pushed U.S. inflation higher last month by a larger margin than most economists had projected, according to government data released Tuesday. Even when stripping out volatile gasoline and food costs, core price acceleration outpaced expert forecasts in April, extending a streak of discouraging inflation data. Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management, noted that higher tariffs and unseasonable bad weather have also contributed to upward pressure on consumer prices.

    In response to the hotter-than-expected inflation report, Treasury yields moved higher in the bond market after an early period of volatile whipsaw trading. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.45%, up from 4.42% late Monday, and remains well above the 3.97% level it traded at before the Iran conflict began. Rising yields signal that investors now expect the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher for longer to bring inflation back under control.

    The U.S. central bank has already delayed any planned interest rate cuts in recent months, as it waits to assess how the Iran war and the Trump administration’s new tariffs will impact inflation trends. Lower interest rates can stimulate economic growth, but they also tend to worsen inflationary pressures. Following Tuesday’s inflation data, traders still overwhelmingly expect the Fed to hold interest rates steady through the end of the year, but CME Group data now shows investors see a better than one-in-three chance that the central bank will actually raise rates by December. Higher interest rates typically put downward pressure on stock valuations while also slowing overall economic growth.

    Even with rising yields, spiking oil prices, and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty tied to the Iran conflict, the U.S. stock market has remained surprisingly resilient in recent weeks, driven largely by better-than-expected corporate earnings across most sectors. Zebra Technologies was the latest S&P 500 firm to top analyst profit forecasts on Tuesday; the company, which helps businesses digitize and automate workflows through barcode scanners and other technology, saw its stock jump 11.4%, and it also released a full-year profit forecast that beat analyst expectations.

    Not all earnings reports were positive, however. Athletic apparel brand Under Armour sank 17% after reporting a larger quarterly loss than analysts had projected. CEO Kevin Plank said the company is moving forward with a plan to “reset the business and restore the discipline required to operate as a best-in-class brand.”

    Outside of earnings, dealmaking news also moved individual stocks. Video game retailer GameStop fell 3.5% after e-commerce platform eBay rejected GameStop’s unsolicited buyout offer, calling the bid “neither credible nor attractive.” eBay noted that GameStop had failed to explain how it would finance the acquisition of the much larger firm, and eBay’s own stock rose 2.1% following the announcement. Homebuilder Beazer Homes USA also fell 7.3% after rejecting an unsolicited takeover bid from Dream Finders Homes, saying that the firm repeatedly undervalued Beazer in its offers, with the latest bid coming in lower than previous proposals. Dream Finders’ stock dropped 13.4% following the news.

    Global markets broadly followed the downward trend on Tuesday, with most major indexes across Europe and Asia closing lower. Along with South Korea’s 2.3% drop, Germany’s DAX fell 1.6% and France’s CAC 40 lost 0.9%, two of the steepest declines outside of Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was a rare outlier, closing 0.5% higher. AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed reporting to this article.

  • Cannes Film Festival opens, grappling with AI and Hollywood

    Cannes Film Festival opens, grappling with AI and Hollywood

    The iconic Croisette coastline of Cannes rolled out its legendary red carpet on Tuesday for the launch of one of the film industry’s most anticipated annual events, the Cannes Film Festival. This year’s gathering comes at a pivotal moment for global cinema, as organizers and attendees grapple with two defining industry tensions: the rapid, disruptive rise of artificial intelligence and the unprecedented absence of major Hollywood studios from the official lineup.

    In the festival’s flagship competition, 22 standout features from across the globe are competing for the coveted Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest honor for best film. Last year’s award went to Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s politically charged work *It Was Just an Accident*, capping a memorable edition of the event. But much of the conversation leading up to this year’s opening has centered on off-screen issues that are reshaping the future of filmmaking, rather than the slate of competing movies themselves.

    Cannes’ top leader Thierry Fremaux made his stance on artificial intelligence clear during a pre-festival press conference on Monday, aligning the event firmly with creative workers whose livelihoods are increasingly threatened by unregulated AI adoption. The technology has already driven growing job losses for dubbing artists and translation professionals, while screenwriters and performers across the industry warn that AI could erase entire career pathways. “What is certain… is that here in Cannes, we stand with the artists, we stand with the screenwriters and we stand with everyone in these professions, with actors and voice actors alike,” Fremaux asserted. He even floated a radical proposal for future festivals: labeling films in a similar vein to organic food and wine, with a special marker that reads “this film has been made without artificial intelligence” to signal transparency for audiences and creators.

    Despite this firm stance, the festival sparked mild controversy with an announcement on Monday: it has signed a multi-year sponsorship agreement with Meta, the social media and technology giant that is also a major investor in cutting-edge AI development. The Meta tie-in intersects directly with this year’s AI debate, thanks to a high-profile documentary screening at the festival from Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh collaborated with Meta to create AI-generated footage of late Beatles icon John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono for his new film *John Lennon: The Last Interview*, bringing the ethics of AI use in creative work directly into the festival’s spotlight.

    AI has already roiled the global film industry in recent years: the technology was the core sticking point behind the 2023 Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes that shut down most major productions for months, as creative workers warned that unregulated AI would erode royalties, job security, and creative control. In February of this year, thousands of French performers and filmmakers signed an open letter warning that AI tools are “plundering” creative talent across the industry, describing the technology as a “devouring hydra” that threatens to upend traditional creative work.

    Beyond the AI debate, this year’s festival also faces a noticeable gap: nearly all major Hollywood studios have opted not to premiere big-budget blockbusters at the event, a break from longstanding tradition. Soderbergh is one of the few high-profile American filmmakers in attendance, with A-list directors like Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan — who organizers had hoped would attend — absent from the official program. The trend also played out at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, where no major U.S. studios brought major premieres, leaving industry analysts questioning why leading studios like Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery are stepping back from major European film events.

    Fremaux pushed back against concerns about Hollywood’s absence, noting that the gap stems from temporary scheduling shifts and ongoing industry turmoil rather than a permanent split. “I really hope that the studios come back,” he said Monday. He also emphasized that American cinema remains well-represented in this year’s main competition, with two high-profile U.S. productions in the running: James Gray’s *Paper Tiger*, starring A-listers Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, and Ira Sachs’ *The Man I Love*, featuring Academy Award winner Rami Malek.

    Audiences and celebrity watchers will still no shortage of big-name star power on the red carpet this year. In a last-minute addition to the lineup, the festival will host a reunion cast for the 25th anniversary of the blockbuster hit *The Fast and the Furious*, with franchise stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster set to attend a special anniversary screening on Wednesday. Hollywood legend John Travolta will also bring star power to the event, with the premiere of his directorial debut *Propeller One-Way Night Coach*, a story following a young boy’s adventure during the “golden age of aviation.”

    The festival officially kicked off with an opening screening of the French feature *The Electric Kiss*, with main competition screenings set to begin Wednesday. This year’s jury is led by South Korean director Park Chan-wook, marking the first time a Korean filmmaker has held the role of jury head. “I cannot help but feel a sense of emotion, realising that for the first time a Korean has become the head of the jury,” Park told AFP Monday on the ground in Cannes. “The moment has finally come.” The jury also includes Hollywood icon Demi Moore and other leading industry figures from across the globe, who will deliberate over the 22 competition films before awarding the Palme d’Or at the festival’s closing ceremony.

  • Eurovision song competition starts with the first semifinal after boycott over Israel

    Eurovision song competition starts with the first semifinal after boycott over Israel

    As the curtains rise on the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna starting Tuesday, the iconic over-the-top European pop music celebration finds itself overshadowed by deep political division, centered on the debate over Israel’s inclusion in this year’s competition.

    For a week leading up to the first semifinal, the Austrian capital has been decked in the contest’s signature branding, with heart motifs lining city streets and banners bearing this year’s official motto, “United by Music.” Thirty-five national acts have gathered to compete for the coveted continental musical crown, but five countries — Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland — have already pulled out in a coordinated boycott of Israel’s participation.

    Tensions are running high in Vienna, where multiple pro-Palestinian demonstrations are scheduled throughout the contest week, prompting a massive security deployment. Austrian law enforcement from across the country have been reassigned to the capital, with additional operational support from neighboring German police forces. The heightened security posture also comes in the wake of a recent terror plot revelation: just last month, a 21-year-old Austrian man pled guilty to plotting an attack on a 2024 Taylor Swift concert in Vienna after pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group. Sylvia Mayer, head of Austria’s domestic intelligence service DSN, warned that the current terror threat level remains elevated, with risks posed both by Islamist extremist networks and groups affiliated with Iran.

    Israeli representative Noam Bettan is among the 15 acts set to take the stage at the Wiener Stadthalle arena for Tuesday’s first semifinal, where he will perform his ballad “Michelle” to compete for a spot in Saturday’s grand final. Bettan is aiming to secure Israel a second consecutive final berth after the country took second place in last year’s contest. Like 2024 Israeli competitor Yuval Raphael, Bettan has already prepared for potential hostile reception, training to continue his performance even if audiences boo him. The top 10 vote-getters from Tuesday’s semifinal will advance to the final, joining the 10 qualifiers from Thursday’s second semifinal. Automatic final spots are reserved for the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy — the contest’s largest financial backers — as well as 2024 winner Austria, which qualifies automatically as this year’s host.

    Heading into the competition, Finland is the clear bookmakers’ favorite to take the crown, with high-energy entry “Liekinheitin” (“Flamethrower”) performed by violinist Linda Lampenius and pop vocalist Pete Parkkonen. Other notable acts in Tuesday’s semifinal include Greek contender Akylas with fan-favorite party rap track “Ferto” (“Bring It”), Portuguese vocal group Bandidos do Cante with the soulful ballad “Rosa,” and San Marino representative Senhit’s upbeat party anthem “Superstar,” which features a surprise guest spot from Culture Club icon Boy George.

    Long known as a space for playful, and occasionally sharp, national rivalries, Eurovision has increasingly struggled to insulate itself from geopolitics in recent years. In 2022, Russia was expelled from the competition immediately following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The 2024 contest in Malmo, Sweden, and last year’s event in Basel, Switzerland, both saw large pro-Palestinian protests calling for Israel’s expulsion over its military campaign in Gaza against Hamas, alongside allegations of rule-breaking coordinated marketing efforts to secure votes for Israeli contestants.

    After the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the governing body of Eurovision, rejected demands to remove Israel from this year’s lineup, the five boycotting nations announced their non-participation last December. In response to widespread vote-rigging allegations from past contests, the EBU has implemented stricter voting rules for this year’s event, cutting the maximum number of votes per person in half to 10 and adding new safeguards to detect and block “suspicious or coordinated voting activity.”

    Despite the ongoing controversy and public divisions, Eurovision historian Dean Vuletic, author of *Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest*, says he is confident the long-running competition will navigate this latest challenge, just as it has overcome countless past crises. “We’ll see demonstrations, but we’ll also see a lot of colorful events going on which will really represent what Eurovision is about, which is bringing Europeans together,” Vuletic explained. “If you look at the history of Eurovision, it’s gone through so many crises, so many political challenges, so many geopolitical changes in Europe, and it’s always managed to survive.”

  • Trump and Xi appear intent on keeping deep differences over Iran war from overshadowing China summit

    Trump and Xi appear intent on keeping deep differences over Iran war from overshadowing China summit

    As U.S. President Donald Trump departs Washington for Beijing this Tuesday to hold a critically important bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the diplomatic landscape ahead of the summit is already marked by carefully calibrated expectations and unresolved frictions over the two-month-old Middle East conflict that has closed the Strait of Hormuz.

    For weeks, the Trump administration has mounted a diplomatic push to convince Beijing to deploy its massive economic leverage as the world’s top importer of Iranian oil to pressure Tehran into accepting Washington’s terms to end the conflict, or at minimum to reopen the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of global crude oil shipments passed before the war began. That push has so far failed to deliver tangible shifts in China’s posture, forcing the White House to temper expectations ahead of the meeting.

    Trump’s own public framing of China’s role has been inconsistent: he has alternately criticized Beijing for failing to do more to align Iran with U.S. objectives, while also acknowledging that Xi’s government helped de-escalate tensions last month when it nudged Iran back to the ceasefire negotiating table after talks collapsed. Faced with this stalemate, the administration has made the deliberate choice not to let disagreements over Iran derail progress on other core priorities in the complex U.S.-China relationship, from long-simmering trade disputes to Chinese cooperation on blocking the export of illegal fentanyl precursors to the United States.

    “We don’t want this to be something that derails the broader relationship or the agreements that might come out of our meeting in Beijing,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Bloomberg Television last week, confirming the administration’s strategic prioritization of broader bilateral goals over immediate progress on Iran.

    The run-up to the summit has been marked by new friction, however: the U.S. has imposed new sanctions on Chinese entities tied to Iran just days before Trump’s arrival. The State Department announced sanctions Friday on four entities, including three China-based firms, accusing them of providing sensitive satellite imagery that supports Iranian military strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East. This action followed earlier Treasury Department sanctions targeting Chinese oil refineries and shippers accused of purchasing Iranian crude, cutting the targeted companies off from the U.S. financial system and penalizing any third parties that conduct business with them.

    Beijing has pushed back forcefully against the sanctions, labeling them “illegal unilateral pressure.” For the first time since it was enacted in 2021, China has activated its blocking statute, which prohibits all Chinese entities from recognizing or complying with the U.S. sanctions measures.

    From Beijing’s perspective, China has already taken measured diplomatic steps to support de-escalation. Publicly, Beijing says it seeks an immediate end to the conflict, and it has worked behind the scenes to support Pakistan’s efforts to broker a peace deal. According to Ahmed Aboudouh, a Middle East and China expert at London-based think tank Chatham House, Beijing has also sent quiet signals of disapproval to Iran over its decision to close the strait, as well as to the U.S. over its naval blockade of Iranian shipping.

    “They are very cautious, risk-averse, and they don’t want to be involved in anything that would drag them into something that they don’t consider their problem,” Aboudouh explained of China’s restrained approach.

    Days ahead of the summit, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Beijing, where Wang explicitly defended Iran’s sovereign right to develop civilian nuclear energy. Xi has also offered implicit criticism of U.S. policy in the conflict, arguing that upholding international rule of law must be a global priority, adding that rules “must not be selectively applied or disregarded,” and the world must not be allowed to revert “to the law of the jungle.”

    Despite the open frictions over Iran and new sanctions, both sides have made clear they are invested in avoiding a full breakdown of bilateral ties, and both are eager to protect the fragile trade truce reached last October to avert a return to the full-scale tariff war that rattled global markets last year.

    On the eve of his departure, Trump downplayed disagreements with Beijing over the conflict, telling reporters that Xi also wants to see the Strait of Hormuz reopened. “He’d like to see it get done,” Trump said of the Chinese leader.

    Analysts note that Xi also has strong incentives to compartmentalize the Iran dispute to avoid damaging other core Chinese interests. China relies on the Strait of Hormuz for roughly half of its crude oil imports and nearly one-third of its liquefied natural gas imports, according to Chinese customs data, meaning the closure directly harms China’s energy security. Beijing is also keen to avoid further deterioration of U.S.-China ties that would add new headwinds to China’s already slowing economy.

    “I think for Xi, a win is continued stability without surrender,” said Craig Singleton, senior director for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ China program. “He wants the summit to validate China’s superpower status, preserve the tariff predictability, and to reaffirm that Washington has to deal with Beijing on Beijing’s terms.”

    This is not the first time tensions over the conflict have threatened the recent relative stability in U.S.-China relations. The U.S. government says China has long supported Iran’s ballistic missile program through exports of dual-use components that can be used in missile production. Last month, Trump threatened to impose a 50% broad tariff on Chinese goods after reports emerged that Beijing planned to ship new air defense systems to Iran, but he backed away from the threat almost immediately after saying he received written assurance from Xi that no weapons would be delivered to Tehran. Days later, Trump made the cryptic claim that the U.S. Navy had intercepted a Chinese vessel carrying a “gift” for Iran, though he has never offered further details to clarify the statement.

    “There have been moments where it seemed like it was going to spill over,” said Patricia Kim, co-leader of the Assessing China Project at the Brookings Institution. “But I think, again, the two sides are pretty invested in not allowing this to destabilize the broader relationship.”

    Top Trump administration officials have argued that the conflict and strait closure actually damage China and its regional neighbors far more than the United States, which is far less dependent on Middle Eastern energy exports than it once was. “China is an export-driven economy. That means they depend on other countries to buy from them,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters last week, arguing that reopening the waterway is clearly in Beijing’s own interest. “You can’t buy from them if you can’t ship it there, and you can’t buy from them if your economy is being destroyed by what Iran is doing.”

    Even so, China has shown no willingness to wade deeper into the conflict or openly align with U.S. policy, a dynamic that suggests little progress on the issue is likely to emerge from this week’s summit. “It will be difficult to get the Chinese deeply involved under any circumstances,” said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy Secretary of State during the Biden administration and chairman of The Asia Group. “They will want to be careful because they can see political quicksand as well as the next guy.”

    Reporting for this article was contributed by Associated Press writers Didi Tang in Washington, Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and David Rising in Bangkok.

  • What if we killed all mosquitoes?

    What if we killed all mosquitoes?

    Often overlooked for larger, more intimidating predators, the tiny mosquito stands as humanity’s deadliest natural enemy. Each year, this tiny blood-sucking insect claims an estimated 760,000 human lives — a toll far higher than that of lions, snakes, or even humans themselves, which rank a distant second in annual global deaths caused by animal species, data from research outlet Our World in Data shows.

    Mosquitoes are responsible for spreading 17% of all infectious diseases globally, including life-threatening conditions such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya and Zika. As human-caused climate change continues to raise global temperatures, mosquito populations are expanding their ranges into previously uninhabited regions, and longer warm seasons extend their active periods each year, spurring growing concern that these insects could fuel catastrophic new public health crises in the coming decades.

    Against this backdrop, a critical question has emerged for the global scientific community: can humanity safely eliminate the most dangerous mosquito species to stop the spread of disease, and what would be the environmental costs of such a move?

    To start, experts note that a global eradication campaign would not need to target the more than 3,500 known mosquito species. Out of this entire diversity, only around 100 species actually bite humans, and just five species are responsible for roughly 95% of all mosquito-borne human infections, according to Hilary Ranson, a leading vector biologist at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, in an interview with AFP.

    On balance, Ranson argues that the loss of these five high-risk species could be easily tolerated, given the enormous harm they inflict globally, from hundreds of thousands of annual deaths to crippling long-term economic damage in affected regions. Dan Peach, a mosquito entomologist at the University of Georgia, shares this broad perspective but stresses that more research is needed to fully compare the risks and benefits of eradication against alternative disease control strategies.

    Ranson explains that the five disease-carrying mosquito species have evolved to be extremely closely tied to human habitats, feeding on people and breeding in areas close to human settlements. This close association means eradicating these specific species would not cause major disruption to broader global ecosystems, she argues. In their absence, other genetically similar, non-lethal mosquito species would likely quickly fill the vacant ecological niche left behind.

    Peach, however, cautions that the scientific community still lacks a full understanding of the ecological role of most mosquito species, so it is impossible to be completely certain of the outcome of eradication. Even with this knowledge gap, he notes that it is reasonable to acknowledge the uncertainty and still move forward with controlled research and testing. Mosquitoes do play measurable roles in ecosystems: they transfer nutrients from their aquatic larval habitats to terrestrial food webs, serve as a key food source for fish, birds, insects and other animals, and contribute to pollination of some plant species, though the extent of this pollination role remains poorly understood and varies widely between species, Peach adds.

    Ranson also acknowledges the legitimate ethical debate around the concept of human-driven “specicide” — the intentional extinction of an entire species — but points out that human activity is already unintentionally driving the extinction of thousands of species globally every year.

    For researchers pursuing targeted elimination of dangerous mosquito populations, two leading technological strategies are currently under development and testing. The most high-profile new approach is gene drive technology, a genetic engineering tool that modifies organisms to ensure a desired trait is passed down to nearly all offspring, rather than the roughly 50% inheritance seen in natural reproduction.

    In laboratory trials, scientists used gene drive to modify female Anopheles gambiae — the primary mosquito species that spreads malaria — to be infertile, and the modification wiped out an entire lab population of the insects in just a few generations. Target Malaria, a non-profit research project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has already begun conducting field trials of the technology in several African nations. However, the project suffered a major setback last year when Burkina Faso’s military-led government suspended testing in the country, after the work faced criticism from local civil society groups and became a target of widespread disinformation campaigns.

    A second, more established strategy involves infecting Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the primary spreaders of dengue, with the naturally occurring bacteria Wolbachia. The bacteria can either crash local mosquito populations or simply reduce the insects’ ability to transmit the dengue virus to humans, leading to an alternative approach: instead of killing the mosquitoes, can we simply make them harmless to people?

    Research published last year found that when sterile, Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes were released in the Brazilian city of Niteroi, local dengue cases dropped by 89% compared to previous years. Today, more than 16 million people across 15 countries are protected by this approach, with no recorded negative ecological or public health consequences, according to Scott O’Neill, founder of the World Mosquito Program, speaking to AFP.

    Other projects are also working on alternative genetic approaches: the Transmission Zero initiative is working to use gene drive technology not to eradicate Anopheles gambiae, but to modify the species so it can no longer spread the malaria parasite at all. Laboratory research published in *Nature* late last year found the project is making significant progress toward this goal, with the team planning to launch its first in-country field trial in 2030.

    Even with these technological advances, the Burkina Faso setback highlighted a key requirement for success: any new mosquito control technology must have sustained political support and local buy-in from the communities and nations where it is tested, according to Dickson Wilson Lwetoijera, a researcher at Tanzania’s Ifakara Health Institute.

    Experts warn that there is no single “magic bullet” to solve the threat of mosquito-borne diseases. Ranson argues that rather than relying solely on high-tech solutions, most of which are funded by the Gates Foundation, the global community needs to pursue a more holistic, multifaceted approach to reducing disease burden. This includes expanding access to affordable diagnosis, treatment, improved housing and more effective vaccines for people in high-burden countries.

    Over the past year, however, sweeping cuts to foreign aid from Western nations have threatened the significant progress made against mosquito-borne diseases over the last two decades, humanitarian organizations have warned, putting hundreds of thousands of lives at renewed risk.

  • Ceasefire on ‘life support’, Trump says, as he rejects ‘stupid’ Iranian peace offer

    Ceasefire on ‘life support’, Trump says, as he rejects ‘stupid’ Iranian peace offer

    On a tense Monday at the White House, former U.S. President Donald Trump launched a sharp public rejection of a recently tabled peace proposal from Iran, dismissing the plan as “stupid garbage” and warning that the month-long ceasefire between U.S.-Israeli forces and Iran that has held since early April is barely clinging to survival. Despite the harsh rhetoric, however, Trump left a narrow door open to eventual diplomacy, noting that despite multiple rounds of on-again off-again negotiations, a final negotiated settlement remains within reach.

    “I think it’s very possible. I’ve had a deal with them four or five times; they change their mind,” Trump told reporters, accusing Iran’s senior leadership of acting in bad faith and labeling the regime “very dishonorable.”

    Details of Iran’s 14-point proposal, which was submitted to mediators on May 10, emerged earlier via Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency. The framework includes two non-negotiable core demands: financial compensation for the widespread physical and infrastructure damage inflicted during the 40-day U.S.-Israeli military campaign against the Islamic Republic, and formal international recognition of Iran’s full sovereignty over the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 20% of global oil supplies pass daily.

    Within hours of Trump’s public remarks, the U.S. Department of the Treasury followed up with a new round of punitive measures, blacklisting 12 individuals and business entities that agency officials accuse of facilitating illicit shipments of Iranian crude oil to Chinese markets. The sanctions package, branded “Operation Economic Fury” by the Treasury, targets a network of shipping and trading firms spread across multiple global hubs to cut off revenue streams the U.S. says fund Iranian military programs, regional proxy groups, and nuclear development.

    “As Iran’s military desperately tries to regroup, [Operation] Economic Fury will continue to deprive the regime of funding for its weapons programs, terrorist proxies, and nuclear ambitions,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an official statement. “Treasury will continue to cut the Iranian regime off from the financial networks it uses to carry out terrorist acts and to destabilize the global economy.”

    The sanctioned entities include two Hong Kong-based firms, Blue Ocean Limited and Sanmu Limited, three Dubai-based operations: Ocean Allianz Shipping, Blanca Goods Wholesaler, and Universal Fortune Trading, as well as Atic Energy FZE based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, and Oman’s Zeus Logistics Group.

    Iran quickly responded to the developments, with parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf reaffirming that Iranian military forces are at full readiness to repel any new U.S. attack if hostilities resume. At the same time, Ghalibaf emphasized in a post on X that there is no path to peace outside of recognizing the core legitimate rights of the Iranian people that are laid out in the country’s 14-point proposal. Any attempt to bypass these demands will only lead to repeated failure, he warned, adding that delays from the U.S. side will only deepen the financial burden on American taxpayers.

    Seeking to pre-empt public anxiety that his rejection of Iran’s peace plan could trigger a resumption of full-scale war and a subsequent spike in global energy prices, Trump told CBS News in a separate interview Monday that he is proposing to temporarily suspend the federal gasoline tax to offer financial relief to U.S. consumers. The current federal tax stands at 18 cents per gallon (roughly 4.7 cents per liter). As of Monday, the average U.S. retail price of gasoline hit $4.55 per gallon, with much higher rates recorded in major coastal and urban centers including New York City, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles.

    The 40-day U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, which launched on February 28, has already taken a heavy toll on Trump’s domestic political standing. By late April, his national approval rating plummeted to 34 percent, the lowest point of his current term. A new Reuters-Ipsos poll released Monday shows only a marginal uptick to 36 percent. The survey also reveals deep public dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the conflict: two-thirds of respondents said Trump has failed to clearly explain to the American public why the war was launched in the first place, and a matching share reported that the conflict has already negatively impacted their personal household finances.

    This coverage is provided by Middle East Eye, an independent outlet offering in-depth reporting on the Middle East, North Africa, and surrounding regions.

  • US ‘golden generation’ raises World Cup hosts’ expectations

    US ‘golden generation’ raises World Cup hosts’ expectations

    As the 2026 FIFA World Cup approaches, co-host United States is entering the tournament with a sense of anticipation and quiet confidence rarely seen in its soccer history. Led by charismatic head coach Mauricio Pochettino, who took charge of the men’s national team in late 2024, this young, talented roster has earned widespread acclaim as America’s “golden generation” of soccer – and Pochettino is encouraging fans and players alike to believe a historic deep run is within reach.

    For decades, the United States was considered a minor player on the global soccer landscape, even as the world’s largest economic and cultural superpower. But the sport has experienced exponential growth across the country since the US last hosted the World Cup in 1994, and today’s co-hosts are far from the decorative participants they were once written off as.

    A new wave of young American talent now holds key roles at some of Europe’s most prestigious clubs. Christian Pulisic plies his trade at Serie A giant AC Milan, Weston McKennie anchors the midfield at Juventus, and captain Tyler Adams leads the line for Premier League high-flyer Bournemouth. Other standout players like Lille winger Timothy Weah have only improved their form since the 2022 Qatar World Cup, where a young US squad defied expectations to reach the round of 16 before falling to eventual runners-up the Netherlands.

    In public comments this spring, Pochettino, a veteran manager who has previously led top European sides including Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, made no secret of his ambitious goals for the tournament. “I am here because I believe that we can win,” he said. Repeating his rallying cry three times, he added: “Why not us? Why not us? Why not us? We need to really believe that we can be there.”

    Despite this optimism, significant challenges remain for the USMNT. Drawn into Group D alongside Paraguay, Australia and Turkey, the team will need to defeat elite European or South American opposition to advance deep into the knockout stages – a test that has exposed long-standing weaknesses in recent matches. Last March, the US suffered a lopsided 5-2 defeat to Belgium and a 2-0 loss to Portugal, after promising statement wins over Uruguay and Paraguay the previous year.

    Question marks also hang over the form of star forward Pulisic, who has not found the back of the net for AC Milan since December and has lost his automatic starting spot at the club. Pochettino himself recently acknowledged that none of his squad members rank among the world’s top 100 players, a comment that does little to quiet concerns over the team’s ability to compete with pre-tournament favorites such as defending champion Argentina, European champion Spain, and France.

    Pochettino has spent recent months experimenting with dynamic formations and rotating squads as he prepares to name his final tournament roster later this month, which will be drawn from three distinct talent pools. The first group is homegrown American players who have thrived at top European Champions League clubs, headlined by Pulisic, McKennie and Weah. McKennie’s influence at Juventus has become so pronounced that Pochettino recently joked the Serie A side is “Weston McKennie plus 10 players.”

    The second group is made up of diaspora and dual-national talents who have chosen to represent the US, the most notable being British-raised striker Folarin Balogun, who is expected to lead the American attack after a breakout goalscoring season with Ligue 1 side Monaco. Other dual-national key players include Dutch-born fullback Sergino Dest, English-born fullback Antonee Robinson, and German-born Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Malik Tillman.

    Finally, a small group of Major League Soccer stars, including Real Salt Lake’s Diego Luna, are expected to earn spots, in what will be widely viewed as a key test of the growing strength of America’s booming domestic top flight.

    Zooming out, the rapid progress of American men’s soccer over the past 35 years is undeniable. The USMNT failed to qualify for the World Cup for 40 straight years until 1990, and has only missed one tournament since, regularly advancing past the group stage. The team’s best modern performance came in 2002, when Bruce Arena’s side upset Portugal in the group stage, eliminated Mexico in the first knockout round, and reached the quarter-finals before falling to eventual champion Germany. Most analysts view matching that quarter-final finish as the baseline for a successful 2026 campaign on home soil.

    For Pochettino, though, the goal is to push beyond low expectations and embrace ambition. “We need to dream… Dreams inspire reality,” the coach said.

  • One man dead, multiple others trapped in massive nine-car pileup in Lakemba

    One man dead, multiple others trapped in massive nine-car pileup in Lakemba

    A devastating multi-vehicle collision in Sydney’s western suburb of Lakemba has left one man dead and multiple people trapped in wreckage, triggering widespread traffic disruption that paralyzed a key arterial road on Tuesday morning.

    Emergency responders were first dispatched to Canterbury Road just before 11:40 a.m. following initial reports of a two-car crash. When police arrived at the scene, they confirmed that the first two vehicles had collided head-to-tail, leaving both of their drivers trapped inside their damaged vehicles. Moments later, a secondary chain reaction crash occurred a short distance from the initial collision, drawing seven additional vehicles into the pileup. Authorities have confirmed the two collision events are connected, resulting in the total nine-vehicle crash.

    One man, whose identity has not yet been released to the public, was pronounced dead at the scene. All other trapped drivers were successfully extricated from their vehicles by paramedics, and have been taken to local hospitals for mandatory assessment and testing. At the height of the response operation, multiple additional people remained trapped in entangled vehicles as emergency crews worked to clear the site.

    The catastrophic crash has thrown local traffic into complete chaos, prompting authorities to close Canterbury Road between Chapel Street and Haldon Street in both directions. Emergency services, heavy tow trucks, and representatives from Transport NSW have been deployed to the site, with police managing redirected traffic flow. In an official public advisory, LiveTraffic NSW noted that ongoing police investigations at the scene are expected to take several hours to complete, urging motorists to avoid the area entirely and plan alternative routes. Light passenger vehicles are being directed through local side-street diversions, while heavy commercial vehicles have been advised to use alternate major routes including Bexley Road, the M5 Motorway, and King Georges Road.

  • Vitamins over vaccines: misinformation entrenched amid Indonesia measles surge

    Vitamins over vaccines: misinformation entrenched amid Indonesia measles surge

    Indonesia is grappling with one of the world’s worst measles outbreaks in recent years, a public health crisis fueled by plummeting childhood vaccination rates that have dropped sharply since the COVID-19 pandemic and deep-rooted misinformation spreading across social media platforms.

    For many parents like Fitri Fransiskha, a 40-year-old stay-at-home mother of four based in Banten province on the western tip of Java, fear of vaccines took root after her first child developed a mild fever following an infant tuberculosis shot. That initial anxiety was amplified by viral falsehoods circulating online that claim routine vaccines cause paralysis, developmental behavioral disorders, and even death. Instead of immunizing her children against the highly contagious, potentially fatal measles virus, Fitri relies on nutrient-dense diets and vitamin supplements to keep her family healthy. Even the ongoing surge in cases has not changed her mind.

    Fitri is far from alone. As the world’s fourth most populous nation, Indonesia has seen a steady rise in vaccine refusal among parents, even as public health officials race to contain the growing outbreak. Data from the Indonesian Paediatrics Association confirms the country now has the second-highest number of measles cases globally, outranked only by conflict-ravaged Yemen.

    Official health data underscores the severity of the crisis: in the first three months of 2026 alone, authorities recorded more than 8,000 suspected measles cases and 10 confirmed deaths. From 2024 to 2025, annual cases more than doubled to over 63,000, resulting in 69 fatalities. A January research paper published in the *Indonesian Journal of Internal Medicine* noted that measles, once on the brink of global elimination, has re-emerged as a major public health danger across Indonesia.

    Public health experts trace the crisis to widespread vaccine misinformation amplified by vocal anti-vaccine activists across popular Indonesian social platforms. A recent study from local data analytics firm Drone Emprit found anti-vaccine content on nearly all of the country’s largest social media networks, reaching a very large share of the population. Ismail Fahmi, founder of Drone Emprit, explained that while anti-vaccine advocates make up a smaller share of users, they are far more vocal and active online than pro-vaccine communities. Many popular influencers, he added, use their platforms to push unproven herbal alternatives to routine vaccination, amplifying distrust in immunization. In March, AFP’s fact-checking team debunked a widespread viral falsehood claiming that natural infection with measles provides stronger protection than approved vaccines.

    Religious concerns have also deepened vaccine hesitancy in the Muslim-majority nation, where pork products are forbidden under Islamic law. Some parents refuse vaccines because certain products contain gelatine derived from pigs, which they argue violates halal dietary rules. Yusran, a 46-year-old entrepreneur based in Makassar, South Sulawesi, has refused to vaccinate any of his five children over halal concerns, saying his children remain healthy without immunization. Even so, Indonesia’s highest Islamic authority, the Indonesian Ulema Council, issued a 2018 fatwa ruling that vaccines are permissible for protecting public health even when they contain porcine gelatine, a clarification that has failed to reach all hesitant communities.

    The combination of misinformation and religious hesitancy has done severe damage to the country’s herd immunity, the threshold of vaccination required to stop measles from spreading easily through communities. “Our herd immunity has been compromised,” explained Riris Andono Ahmad, an epidemiologist at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. Currently, only around 76% of Indonesian children receive both required doses of the measles-rubella (MR) vaccine, far below the 95% coverage needed to hit herd immunity and eradicate the virus.

    The Indonesian government has made urgent moves to reverse the trend: with a goal of eradicating measles and rubella by the end of 2026, authorities launched an emergency mass vaccination campaign in March across more than 100 regencies and cities, including MR booster shots for over 220,000 frontline health workers. The government has also partnered with leading religious organizations to spread accurate information and encourage parents to vaccinate their children. Indri Yogyaswari, the country’s director of immunization, told reporters that the campaign has already helped reduce measles transmission significantly. Even so, official health ministry data shows that infant first-dose MR vaccination coverage dropped 10 percentage points between 2024 and 2025, leaving the 2026 eradication goal well out of reach at current coverage levels.

  • Trump ally Kari Lake tapped to be US ambassador to Jamaica

    Trump ally Kari Lake tapped to be US ambassador to Jamaica

    In a series of White House personnel announcements made Monday, former President Donald Trump has tapped his close political ally Kari Lake to serve as the next United States Ambassador to Jamaica, while also nominating Cameron Hamilton to take the helm of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

    Lake, a former local television journalist who built her political profile around embracing Trump’s unsubstantiated 2020 election fraud claims, most recently led the Trump administration’s push to restructure the federally funded international broadcaster Voice of America (VOA), part of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). If the U.S. Senate confirms her nomination, the appointment will bring an end to her tenure as the top official overseeing USAGM, the agency that supervises VOA’s global operations.

    During her time at USAGM, Lake acted under a presidential executive order to initiate layoffs for hundreds of employees at the 83-year-old international broadcaster. Trump has long positioned himself as a outspoken critic of VOA, repeatedly claiming the outlet holds a systemic left-wing ideological bias. Founded in 1942, VOA currently distributes news content across the globe in nearly 50 different languages.

    Shortly after the White House made the nomination public, Lake issued a statement of gratitude on social media, emphasizing her existing familiarity with the Caribbean nation. “Jamaica is a country I know very well, full of incredible people,” she wrote, adding that if confirmed, she looks forward to advancing three core priorities: deepening the bilateral partnership between the United States and Jamaica, advancing U.S. national interests in the region, and expanding the longstanding people-to-people friendship between the two nations.

    Lake’s path to the nomination is rooted in her rise in Republican politics following a 22-year career as a anchor at a Phoenix-based Fox News affiliate. She left journalism in 2021 to launch a Republican bid for Arizona governor, a race she ultimately lost. During that campaign, she gained Trump’s backing by aggressively repeating his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was marred by widespread fraud. After her own gubernatorial defeat, she similarly refused to accept the results, filing multiple unsuccessful lawsuits to overturn the outcome and making fraud claims that led to a high-profile defamation lawsuit against her. She later mounted an unsuccessful campaign for an Arizona U.S. Senate seat before being tapped to lead VOA shortly after Trump returned to office in 2024.

    Alongside Lake’s nomination, Trump also announced his pick of Cameron Hamilton to lead FEMA, an agency that has faced significant internal turmoil in recent months. Hamilton’s return to the top FEMA post comes roughly one year after the Trump administration removed him from the same role, after he pushed back against discussions of potentially closing the agency and defended its core function. Currently, FEMA is still recovering from the fallout of a 75-day partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which concluded on April 30, and has already seen a large-scale exodus of departing employees in recent months.