Global Pulse

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  • More die of suspected Ebola as WHO warns that numbers will rise further

    More die of suspected Ebola as WHO warns that numbers will rise further

    The World Health Organization has formally categorized the ongoing Ebola outbreak centered in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), though it stopped short of classifying the event as a pandemic, the organization’s director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced Wednesday.

    As of the latest update, global health officials have confirmed 51 Ebola cases across DR Congo, with an additional two confirmed infections recorded in neighboring Uganda – both of which are linked to travelers who entered the country from the outbreak zone in DR Congo. In total, the WHO is tracking more than 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths across the region, with Dr. Ghebreyesus confirming that official case counts are projected to climb in the coming weeks, due to inherent lags in laboratory testing and viral detection.

    Genetic sequencing has identified the outbreak as caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a variant that has not circulated widely for more than 10 years. Speaking to reporters at the WHO’s Geneva headquarters, Dr. Ghebreyesus noted that epidemiological tracing suggests the outbreak likely began circulating undetected for roughly two months before it was officially detected. The first documented case was a nurse who developed Ebola symptoms and died in late April in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province – the current epicenter of the outbreak. The nurse’s remains were later transported to Mongwalu, one of two hard-hit gold-mining communities where the majority of confirmed cases have been documented.

    Confirmed cases in DR Congo are concentrated in two eastern provinces: Ituri, where four local administrative areas (Mongwalu, Bunia, Rwampara and Nyakunde) have reported transmissions, and North Kivu, where cases have been recorded in Butembo and Goma, eastern DR Congo’s largest urban center that is partially controlled by armed rebel groups. The two Ugandan confirmed cases, both detected in the capital Kampala, have direct travel history to the outbreak zone in DR Congo.

    “We know the actual scale of the epidemic in DRC is much larger than the current confirmed case count,” Dr. Ghebreyesus told reporters. Following a Tuesday meeting of the WHO’s independent emergency committee, the global body reaffirmed its assessment that the outbreak carries high risk at national and regional levels, but remains low risk at the global stage, and does not qualify as a pandemic emergency.

    This marks the 17th Ebola outbreak that DR Congo has responded to since the virus was first identified, but the Bundibugyo variant presents unique public health challenges. The strain has only caused two previous recorded outbreaks globally, with a historical mortality rate of roughly 33 percent among confirmed infected patients. Unlike the more common Zaire Ebola strain that DR Congo has repeatedly responded to, there is no widely approved vaccine or targeted antiviral treatment for Bundibugyo Ebola. Health officials note that experimental vaccines for the variant are still in development, though existing vaccines approved for the Zaire strain may offer some cross-protection for exposed individuals.

    Compounding response efforts, the eastern region of DR Congo has been plagued by decades of armed conflict and political instability, which limits access for international response teams and makes contact tracing and patient care far more difficult to implement effectively.

  • Families of Beirut strike victims vow to fight for justice

    Families of Beirut strike victims vow to fight for justice

    In the shadow of a shattered nine-story residential building in central Beirut’s upscale Tallet al-Khayat district, two childhood neighbors bound by shared grief have made a solemn promise: they will not rest until those responsible for the death of their families are held accountable. The April 8 Israeli airstrike that reduced their family home to rubble came just hours after a U.S.-Iran ceasefire was announced, part of a broad wave of air attacks across Lebanon that killed over 350 people on a day now etched into Lebanese collective memory as Black Wednesday.

    Wael Sabbagh, a 52-year-old businessman based in Mexico, lost his mother Afaf and brother Hassan in the attack. Ghida Krisht, a 41-year-old aid worker based in another Beirut neighborhood that was also hit that day, saw her parents – 70-year-old renowned poet Khatoun Salma and 72-year-old Mohammed – and a relative who had fled earlier bombardment in southern Lebanon’s Tyre killed alongside them. For decades, their families had lived in the quiet building, believing they were far enough from conflict zones to be safe.

    Sabbagh first learned of the strike through social media, scrolling through footage of destroyed buildings until he made the devastating confirmation that his childhood home had been targeted. “I lost my mother, my brother, my home, my childhood,” he told reporters, smoking one cigarette after another as he stood amid concrete rubble and splintered wood. “Nine people were killed in this building. They get talked about as if they were just statistics, but each of them was a loved one, a whole life cut short.”

    Among the ruins, the two grieving relatives have recovered small, devastating mementos of the lives lost. Sabbagh found a dented metal bracelet that belonged to his brother Hassan, who wore it the day he died; it took rescuers three full days to identify his brother’s remains, and Sabbagh now wears the bracelet on his own wrist. He also pulled a crumpled scrap of his mother’s bedspread, chunks of the family dining table, and a intact red sofa cushion from the debris, and later used a crane to reach a half-damaged upper floor and retrieve his mother’s photo album. Krisht, meanwhile, found her mother’s purse, holding the last poem Salma ever wrote by hand.

    Krisht recounted the agonizing hours after she learned of the strike: she called her parents repeatedly, only to get no answer. When she finally reached the site, rescuers would not let her see her parents’ disfigured remains – she identified them only by her mother’s signature red nail polish on her hand.

    Now, Sabbagh and Krisht are building a comprehensive legal case to pursue accountability through international justice channels, a path only one other person has taken so far this year: French-Lebanese artist Ali Cherri, who launched legal action in France after his parents were killed in an earlier 2024 Israeli strike on a Beirut residential building. The pair acknowledge the road ahead will be long and fraught with barriers, noting that hundreds of other victim families lack the financial resources, connections, or emotional capacity to pursue legal action.

    “We do have a voice, we are connected, and we are emotionally strong enough, despite everything we have lost, to demand accountability,” Sabbagh said. Krisht added: “We want to gather all the testimonies and evidence we can to document this and build a complete case. We cannot be silent about what happened. We want to pursue international justice and be an example for other families who have lost loved ones.”

    Israeli military officials stated shortly after the strike that they had targeted a Hezbollah commander in Beirut, later identifying the target as Ali Yusuf Harshi, who they claimed was the personal secretary and nephew of Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem. Hezbollah has never confirmed Harshi’s death. Sabbagh insists the building held no weapons, no military assets, and no political activity, giving no justification for the attack that killed nine civilians.

    The full casualty list from the Tallet al-Khayat strike tells the story of unintended civilian harm that has marked the months-long conflict: on the third floor, an elderly man, his son, and their Ethiopian housekeeper were killed. The pair shared a surname with Harshi, the target Israel claimed to have killed. The building’s owner, who lived on the eighth floor, was also killed. Krisht’s family and Sabbagh’s died on the sixth and seventh floors respectively, far from any alleged target location.

    Since cross-border conflict between Israel and Hezbollah reignited on March 2, Lebanese official data puts the total death toll from Israeli attacks at more than 3,000 people. For Sabbagh and Krisht, every step they take through the ruins of their family home, every memento they recover, and every piece of evidence they collect for their legal case is a step toward honoring the people they lost – and demanding that the world does not forget what happened here.

  • Lithuania’s leaders take shelter during drone air alert

    Lithuania’s leaders take shelter during drone air alert

    A sudden air drone warning brought the Lithuanian capital Vilnius to a complete standstill on Tuesday, forcing top government officials including the president and prime minister to evacuate to emergency shelters, marking the latest in a growing string of unplanned drone incursions across the Baltic NATO member states that has escalated regional security tensions.

    Following the activation of the air alert, which instructed all Vilnius residents to immediately seek safe cover, President Gitanas Nauseda and Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene were escorted to designated emergency shelters. Local media reports confirmed that the evacuation order was also extended to Lithuania’s national parliament, the Seimas, where lawmakers and parliamentary staff were led to reinforced basement shelter facilities.

    All commercial air traffic into and out of Vilnius was suspended immediately, while surface travel via roads and national rail networks was also temporarily halted across the affected region. The alert was eventually lifted after several hours of emergency response operations, but uncertainty remains over the origin and responsible party for the unauthorized air incursion.

    Lithuania’s national crisis management center clarified early in the alert process that the warning was triggered after a drone was spotted flying toward Lithuanian territory from neighboring Belarus, though officials emphasized that the drone’s origin had not been definitively confirmed at that time. After deploying NATO fighter jets to intercept and neutralize the incoming drone, Lithuanian military officials later confirmed that the aircraft were unable to locate the target.

    Tuesday’s incident follows closely on the heels of a similar event in Estonia, where NATO air defense forces shot down an unidentified drone over Estonian territory just one day prior. Estonian authorities suspect the drone was originally a Ukrainian projectile that was knocked off its intended course by Russian electronic warfare interference. Ukraine has since issued an apology to Estonia and the broader Baltic community for the unintended incursion, accusing Russia of deliberately jamming and redirecting drones that were targeting legitimate military objectives inside Russian territory.

    This series of incidents has deepened security instability across the Baltic region, which is home to three NATO member states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Just last week, the prime minister of Latvia resigned amid a major political crisis sparked by the straying of two Ukraine-bound drones into Latvian territory, where they hit an unoccupied oil storage facility earlier this month. Similar accidental incursions were recorded in both Estonia and Latvia back in March, following a consistent pattern of disruptions tied to the ongoing Ukraine war.

    Russia has repeatedly accused the three Baltic states of allowing Ukraine to use their national air corridors to launch strikes on targets inside Russian territory, a claim that has been flatly rejected by all three governments in Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius. In recent weeks, Ukraine has stepped up the frequency of its drone and missile attacks against Russian infrastructure, with a focus on oil and gas facilities located close to the Baltic border, raising the risk of additional cross-border incidents.

    On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s state-run news agency TASS that the Russian military is maintaining close surveillance of all drone incursions into Baltic airspace and is currently developing a formal, appropriate response to the ongoing series of events. As regional tensions continue to climb in the wake of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, NATO’s eastern flank faces growing uncertainty over how to mitigate the risk of unintended spillover from the ongoing conflict.

  • EU overcomes fierce internal debate to agree on tariff deal with the US

    EU overcomes fierce internal debate to agree on tariff deal with the US

    BRUSSELS – After marathon late-night negotiations to resolve bitter internal divisions, the European Union has formally signed off on a landmark tariff agreement with the United States that caps duties on most EU exports at 15%, narrowly averting a full-scale transatlantic trade war that was set to trigger ahead of President Donald Trump’s July 4 deadline.

    The path to final approval was far from smooth, with heated clashes between lawmakers and bloc leaders threatening to derail the hard-won agreement that governs more than $1 trillion in annual transatlantic goods and services trade between two of the world’s largest economic powers, both currently grappling with economic spillover from the ongoing conflict in Iran.

    The framework for the deal was first laid out 12 months prior, when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met Trump at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland to strike an initial handshake agreement, capping months of tense bargaining that followed the Trump administration’s sweeping global tariff offensive. That initial agreement sparked months of further technical negotiations between Washington and Brussels, even as European criticism of the deal surged after Trump made an unexpected public threat to seize control of Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory. Trump has since walked back that threat, at least temporarily.

    Following intense trilogue negotiations between the European Parliament, European Council, and European Commission that stretched into an “intensive night” of five hours of talks, the deal secured final EU approval. European trade chief Maroš Šefčovič announced the breakthrough after negotiations concluded, noting that once formally adopted by the full parliament in the coming weeks, the agreement “will reinforce stability in EU-U.S. trade and open the door even wider to constructive cooperation on many issues of strategic importance.”

    In a social media statement confirming the outcome, the EU executive branch reaffirmed its commitment to the deal, writing “A deal is a deal, and the EU honours its commitments.”

    Under the terms of the agreement, most European exports to the U.S. will be subject to a maximum 15% tariff, while U.S. industrial goods entering the EU will see tariffs eliminated entirely. While the arrangement raises the average tariff rate on covered goods from the previous 4.8%, creating added costs for consumers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, analysts credit the new framework with delivering long-term policy certainty that helped Europe avoid a projected recession in 2023.

    Amid skyrocketing energy and commodity prices driven by the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid Middle East tensions, and persistent high inflation and interest rates on both sides of the Atlantic, supporters of the deal argue that resolving long-running transatlantic trade tensions is a critical step toward shoring up global economic stability. The American Chamber of Commerce in Brussels shared that view in a post-approval statement, saying it was “relieved” to see the EU reach internal consensus. “The trilogue agreement is a sign that the EU is honouring its commitments under the deal,” the group said, adding that the approval will let both sides “move beyond tariffs” to address pressing shared challenges such as critical supply chain resilience.

    European lawmakers successfully pushed to add binding safeguard provisions to the final text that will allow the bloc to take swift retaliatory action if the U.S. backtracks on its commitments under the deal, according to Bernard Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee. “If there is something going wrong, of course, we are self-confident to act on that,” Lange said.

    Even with the deal now cleared through all EU internal processes, significant uncertainty remains about its future, amid growing concerns in Europe that the White House lacks clear legal authority to uphold the agreement. A series of recent U.S. court rulings have undermined the legal basis Trump used to impose the original tariffs in question. This year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the legal authority Trump relied on to enact the tariffs, forcing the administration to find alternative legal justifications for existing duties and move forward with new levies to replace lost tariff revenue. Just months ago, a U.S. federal court ruled that Trump had exceeded the tariff authority granted to the presidency by Congress, ruling that the administration’s new replacement tariffs were “invalid” and “unauthorized by law.”

    That legal cloud also hangs over long-threatened new tariffs on EU passenger and commercial vehicles that Trump has teased on social media, where he has also accused the EU of failing to uphold its end of the deal without providing specific evidence of non-compliance.

    With the EU having completed its domestic approval process, the ball is now in Washington’s court to respond, Lange said. “That’s, of course, a big question mark. I have not my crystal ball here with me,” he added.

  • US groups urge investigation into child safety and spending on Roblox

    US groups urge investigation into child safety and spending on Roblox

    Two leading U.S. child safety advocacy groups have lodged a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), calling for a full investigation into popular gaming platform Roblox over what they describe as unfair and deceptive business practices that put children as young as five at risk. The filing, submitted Wednesday by Fairplay and the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation, outlines three core areas of concern: predatory in-game monetization, manipulative engagement-focused design, and insufficient safeguards that leave minors vulnerable to unwanted contact from strangers.

    At the heart of the complaint is Roblox’s complex in-game economy built around its virtual currency, Robux. Users purchase Robux with real-world money to unlock in-game access, avatar customizations, upgrades and other digital items. The advocacy groups argue that the layered system of virtual currency makes it nearly impossible for young children to grasp the actual real-world cost of the items they are buying, a vulnerability that has led to extreme cases of overspending. One parent included in the filing reported that their 10-year-old daughter racked up more than $7,000 in charges over just two months, even after the family put purchase limits in place.

    The complaint also calls out what advocates label “engagement-maximising” design choices intentionally built to keep children playing for extended periods. These include daily login reward streaks that incentivize consistent use, and social comparison systems that publicly display other players’ rare and expensive virtual possessions, pushing children to spend to keep up with peers. The groups additionally highlight chance-based reward systems such as loot boxes, which they argue function like gambling mechanics that minors lack the developmental maturity to understand. All of these features, the complaint argues, intentionally exploit children’s known developmental vulnerabilities around impulse control and peer pressure.

    Communication features on the platform represent another major point of concern. Even after Roblox implemented new safety controls, the complaint alleges that text and voice chat functions still expose underage users to inappropriate content and unsolicited contact from adult strangers. Researchers testing the platform using under-13 accounts reported encountering sexual references and abusive language within minutes of joining certain public games, and the filing references documented cases of child grooming and exploitation occurring on the platform.

    Roblox has forcefully rejected all of the claims laid out in the complaint. In a statement, a company representative said the platform was “built for fun and connection, not short-term engagement,” noting that the company already maintains clear policies banning both actual and simulated gambling, as well as strict rules governing paid random items. The company emphasized that the vast majority of games on Roblox are free to play, and users are under no obligation to purchase Robux. According to company data, only 1.4% of Roblox’s 132 million daily active users made any purchases on the platform during the first quarter of 2026.

    In response to previous criticism over child safety protections, Roblox has already introduced new measures: it now blocks chat between children and adult users who are not connected through parent-approved friend links, and uses automated age-estimation technology to assign minors to age-appropriate accounts with restricted features. But these changes have failed to ease the concerns of campaigners and many parents, who still worry about excessive screen time and unregulated spending by minors on the platform.

    Industry observers echoed the skepticism around Roblox’s incremental changes. Drew Benvie, CEO of social media consultancy Battenhall and founder of youth safety nonprofit Raise, noted that young digital-native users are often able to bypass basic age-based safety controls with little effort. “What’s needed is greater user and parental awareness of the impact social features in games can have on children, as well as wide scale legislative changes to address addictive or problematic features, not just the digital sticking plaster of age limits,” Benvie said.

    The complaint comes as Roblox continues to see explosive revenue growth: company figures show it generated $4.9 billion in revenue in 2025, a 36% jump from the previous year. The FTC has not yet publicly confirmed whether it will launch a formal investigation into the claims. This action comes amid a broader wave of regulatory scrutiny into how large social media and gaming platforms protect minor users and generate revenue from young audiences. Following a successful California lawsuit that held Meta and YouTube liable for knowingly designing addictive platform features, legal and regulatory experts expect more platforms to face increased scrutiny over manipulative engagement design tactics such as infinite scroll and auto-play.

  • ‘Flaming flog’: Wild moment barefoot Aussie catches alleged fuel thief in the act, chases them off barefoot

    ‘Flaming flog’: Wild moment barefoot Aussie catches alleged fuel thief in the act, chases them off barefoot

    In a dramatic late-night incident captured on home surveillance cameras, a vigilant Gold Coast resident chased off an alleged fuel thief from his business property while responding barefoot to the crime, with the viral footage now being used to help police identify the suspect.

    James Longstaff, a 23-year-old who works out of Molendinar, was up working on an overnight video editing project around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday when he happened to check his live CCTV feed. What he spotted at first looked like a suspicious figure loitering near his work truck parked outside the building, but a closer look confirmed his worst fears: the stranger was actively siphoning diesel from the vehicle’s tank.

    Instead of waiting for police or backing away from the confrontation, Longstaff acted on instinct. Grabbing only his phone, he rushed straight out of his business and onto the street to confront the would-be thief—never stopping to put on shoes. The viral footage he later posted to his Instagram account shows him approaching the truck as the suspect scrambled into their waiting ute and attempted to make a quick escape.

    As the ute pulled away, Longstaff can be heard shouting in disbelief at the thief, who left the siphon pump hanging on the side of the road, leaking spilled diesel onto the pavement. In a moment of dry, dark humor after the suspect fled, Longstaff joked that he had ended up with a free new pump, before calling the alleged culprit a “flog”.

    In a surprising twist, the suspect apparently circled back to the area just minutes after the first confrontation, only to flee a second time when Longstaff ran back outside to confront them again.

    Speaking to 7News after the incident, Longstaff said his response was purely impulsive. “It was just a one-second response really. I was like ‘screw this guy’,” he explained. He also noted that the rising cost of fuel, which has created widespread financial strain for motorists and businesses across Australia, makes targeted fuel theft even more unfair to hardworking owners. Longstaff uploaded the footage to social media with one clear goal: to help local police track down and identify the alleged thief, who remains at large. As of Thursday, the video has been viewed thousands of times, drawing widespread attention to the late-night encounter.

  • Risk of Ebola spread is high locally but low globally, WHO says

    Risk of Ebola spread is high locally but low globally, WHO says

    BUNIA, Democratic Republic of the Congo — A growing Ebola outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring Uganda carries high transmission risks at national and regional levels, while the global threat remains low, the World Health Organization confirmed Wednesday.

    The updated risk assessment comes as response teams race to contain an outbreak that has already claimed 134 suspected lives, and WHO’s DRC mission lead warned the epidemic could persist for at least two more months even as aid operations scale up.

    The WHO previously designated the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), a status that demands a coordinated, global collective response to curb spread. On Tuesday, the agency already raised alarm over the outbreak’s alarming growth trajectory and rapid transmission pace.

    Health experts and frontline aid workers note the outbreak has been marked by critical early setbacks: the rare Bundibugyo strain spread undetected for weeks after the first recorded fatality, as authorities initially tested for more common Ebola variants and returned negative results. Currently, no officially approved treatments or licensed vaccines exist specifically for the Bundibugyo strain, leaving response teams with limited targeted tools. Local residents already grappling with long-running instability report sharp price hikes for basic protective supplies, including face masks and disinfectants, as demand surges.

    As of Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed 51 confirmed cases across DRC’s conflict-affected Ituri and North Kivu provinces, plus two additional confirmed cases in Uganda. There are also nearly 600 additional suspected cases and deaths, and Tedros warned case counts will continue to climb in the coming weeks. “We know that the scale of the epidemic is much larger,” he stated, adding that upward revisions to case numbers are expected as surveillance expands.

    Multiple structural challenges continue to hamper containment efforts. The first recorded death from the current outbreak was recorded in Bunia on April 24, but official confirmation of the strain took weeks. The victim’s body was repatriated to Mongbwalu, a populous gold-mining region that has since become the outbreak’s epicenter, a delay that DRC Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba confirmed directly fueled the epidemic’s escalation. To date, response teams have not yet identified the index case (patient zero) of the outbreak, WHO’s DRC lead Dr. Anne Ancia confirmed.

    Beyond detection delays, large cross-border population movements in the region and a long-running pre-existing humanitarian crisis have complicated response work. Large swathes of eastern DRC remain controlled by armed rebel groups, blocking aid teams from accessing high-risk areas. Dr. Ancia added that recent funding cuts have also severely undermined the work of frontline humanitarian organizations, stretching already thin resources even thinner.

    To address the lack of targeted vaccines, DRC’s national biomedical research institute expects imminent shipments of an experimental broad-spectrum Ebola vaccine developed by Oxford University researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom. “We will administer the vaccine and see who develops the disease,” explained Jean-Jacques Muyembe, leading virus expert at the institute, outlining the trial protocol for the unapproved product.

    The United States has also committed additional support: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday that the Trump administration will prioritize funding for 50 new emergency clinics in affected regions, building on the $13 million Washington has already allocated to the response, with more funding to come.

    On the ground in Bunia, where the first fatality was recorded, daily life has partially continued: schools and churches remained open Wednesday, though many residents now wear face masks in public. Still, supply shortages have sent prices skyrocketing: local residents report that a bottle of disinfectant that previously cost 2,500 Congolese francs now retails for as much as 10,000 francs ($4.4), and masks have become nearly impossible to source at any price. “It’s truly sad and painful because we’ve already been through a security crisis, and now Ebola is here too,” said Bunia resident Justin Ndasi. “We have to protect ourselves to avoid this epidemic.”

    Frontline medical groups say local health infrastructure is already overwhelmed. Trish Newport, emergency program manager for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said her team identified multiple suspected cases over the weekend at Bunia’s Salama Hospital, which lacks any dedicated Ebola isolation ward. When they tried to transfer patients to other facilities, every available bed was already occupied. “Every health facility they called said, ‘We’re full of suspects cases. We don’t have any space.’ This gives you a vision of how crazy it is right now,” Newport said.

    In Mongbwalu, the outbreak’s epicenter, the border with Uganda remains open and commercial gold mining operations continue, according to local civil society leader Chérubin Kuku Ndilawa. While widespread panic has not taken hold, with residents continuing daily routines, community awareness efforts are just starting to scale up. Ndilawa added that a lack of basic public health infrastructure, including handwashing stations in high-traffic public areas, continues to hinder containment work. At Mongbwalu General Hospital, former director Dr. Didier Pay reported the facility is currently caring for around 30 confirmed Ebola patients, and a local medical technology student died from the virus Wednesday morning.

    AP writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Wilson McMakin in Dakar contributed reporting to this article. AP’s global health and development coverage in Africa is supported by funding from the Gates Foundation; the AP maintains full editorial control over all content.

  • Iran Guards warn of war beyond Mideast as Trump repeats threats

    Iran Guards warn of war beyond Mideast as Trump repeats threats

    Tensions between Washington and Tehran have reignited this week, as top Iranian security officials issued a stark warning that any resumption of U.S.-Israeli military aggression would trigger a conflict that spills far beyond the Middle East. The new bellicose rhetoric comes just days after former President Donald Trump doubled down on threats of fresh military strikes against Iran if no negotiated settlement is reached, marking the latest volley in a war of words that has replaced open fighting since an April 8 ceasefire.

    The brief open conflict between the two nations sent shockwaves through global energy markets, disrupting trade and driving up fuel prices worldwide. While neither side appears eager to return to full-scale combat, the ceasefire that paused active fighting has failed to resolve core disputes, leaving diplomatic negotiations led by Pakistani mediators as the only active path toward a lasting formal end to hostilities.

    Trump, who has faced growing domestic pressure over surging U.S. energy costs tied to the conflict, doubled down on his hardline stance during remarks on Tuesday. Framing the current negotiating dynamic as one of U.S. dominance, he claimed Iran is desperate to reach an agreement because of battlefield losses. “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 while he preferred to avoid renewed conflict, he remained open to ordering another major military strike if no acceptable deal materializes — a threat he has issued multiple times in recent weeks without following through.

    Even as diplomatic efforts continue, top U.S. officials have kept military pressure in the public discourse. On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance told reporters that while “a lot of good progress is being made” in talks, the U.S. military remains “locked and loaded” and ready to act if needed.

    Iran’s Revolutionary Guards hit back with a forceful warning of their own in an official statement published Wednesday on their Sepah News website. The statement said that if U.S.-Israeli aggression against Iran resumes, a long-threatened regional war will this time spread far beyond Middle Eastern borders, and promised “devastating blows” to defeat attacking forces. “The American-Zionist enemy… must know that despite the offensive carried out against us using the full capabilities of the world’s two most expensive armies, we have not deployed the full power of the Islamic revolution,” the statement read.

    Diplomatic activity has ramped up in recent days as Pakistan works to keep negotiations on track. Iran’s official news agency IRNA, citing anonymous diplomatic sources, confirmed Wednesday that Pakistan’s interior minister will travel to Tehran for talks this week — his second visit to the Iranian capital in less than a week.

    The most intractable sticking point in ongoing talks remains the status of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil and liquefied natural gas supplies. While the ceasefire halted active fighting, it has not restored full transit through the strait, leaving global markets in limbo. As countries draw down pre-conflict oil stockpiles, fears of prolonged supply disruptions and sustained high energy prices have grown, with ripple effects felt across the global economy.

    The impact of rising fuel costs is already being felt in vulnerable economies across the globe. In Kenya, which relies heavily on Gulf energy imports, public transport networks have completely shut down amid mass protests over fuel prices. Four Kenyan protesters were killed and more than 30 injured in Tuesday’s unrest, Kenyan Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen confirmed to reporters.

  • Indonesia tightens state control over exports of vital commodities

    Indonesia tightens state control over exports of vital commodities

    As one of the world’s most critical hubs for globally traded natural resources, Indonesia is embarking on a transformative policy shift that will tighten state oversight over its key commodity exports, mandating that all shipments of palm oil, thermal coal, iron alloys, and related critical minerals be handled exclusively by state-owned enterprises starting later this year.

    Speaking before Indonesia’s parliament on Wednesday, President Prabowo Subianto revealed that the nation has lost an estimated $908 billion in potential revenue over time due to systemic undervaluation of unprocessed and processed commodities sold to international buyers. He framed the widespread practice of underreporting export values to cut tax obligations as outright fraud and deception, arguing that expanded state control will direct billions in additional revenue into public government coffers to fund domestic programs and infrastructure development.

    “The core goal of this new framework is to strengthen oversight and monitoring, while cracking down on three major systemic issues: under-invoicing, abusive transfer pricing, and the illegal diversion of export proceeds,” Prabowo told lawmakers, emphasizing that the policy centers on reclaiming sovereign control over resources that belong to the Indonesian public.

    Indonesia holds an unparalleled position in global commodity markets: it is the world’s top exporter of palm oil and thermal coal, and holds the planet’s largest proven reserves of nickel—a mineral critical to manufacturing electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy storage systems that both China and the United States have actively sought to secure reliable access to. Prior to this new regulation, state-owned enterprises only managed a small fraction of the nation’s exports of these high-value commodities, according to industry analysts.

    Dinita Setyawati, a researcher at Singapore-based energy think tank Ember, noted that centralized state control will strengthen Indonesia’s hand in future bilateral and multilateral negotiations with major global powers competing for access to its resource reserves. She added that the new regulatory framework could also help address decades of unregulated overexploitation that has driven severe environmental degradation across Indonesia’s resource-rich regions—though tangible progress on this front will depend entirely on consistent, transparent implementation.

    “A core question around this policy is one of public trust,” Setyawati explained. “Corruption has long plagued Indonesia’s resource sector, and close oversight will be required to ensure the policy delivers on its promised benefits rather than being captured by special interests.”

    This latest move builds on a series of aggressive resource policy reforms the Indonesian government has rolled out in recent years. Over the past several months, authorities have carried out widespread crackdowns on unlicensed illegal mining operations across the archipelago. Since 200, the government has prioritized building out domestic refining capacity for key commodities including nickel and coal, banning exports of raw nickel ore that year to force international firms to invest in local processing infrastructure.

    Putra Adhiguna, an analyst with the Jakarta-based Energy Shift Institute, called Prabowo’s announcement the most significant step the Indonesian government has ever taken to exert direct, centralized control over the nation’s commodity sector. He explained that the new policy is also timed to address immediate fiscal pressures: increased state revenue from regulated exports will help offset budget shortfalls created by expanded consumer fuel subsidies, which the government implemented to shield households from global energy price spikes linked to ongoing geopolitical conflict in Iran.

    On the same day as Prabowo’s announcement, Indonesia’s central bank enacted a 50 basis point increase to its key benchmark interest rate, lifting it to 5.25% in a move aimed at stemming recent depreciation of the national rupiah currency against major global currencies.

    The transition to the new state-controlled export system will unfold in a phased rollout. From June through August, private commodity firms will transfer all existing import and export transaction responsibilities to approved state-owned enterprises. By September, all cross-border trade transactions between domestic Indonesian producers and international buyers will be managed exclusively by state entities, according to the government’s timeline.

    Prabowo reiterated that the policy is designed to unlock full value for Indonesia from its natural resource endowment. “We will optimize tax revenue, government revenue, and the overall sustainable management of our natural resources,” he said. “We refuse to accept that our nation earns the lowest possible revenue from our own resources simply because we lack the courage to manage what rightfully belongs to the Indonesian people.”

  • Residents of Lithuania’s capital told to shelter as drone alarm underlines NATO’s eastern jitters

    Residents of Lithuania’s capital told to shelter as drone alarm underlines NATO’s eastern jitters

    On a tense Wednesday in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, residents were ordered to immediately seek shelter, the country’s top political leaders were moved to secure locations, and Vilnius Airport closed its airspace for an hour after a border drone alarm triggered the first mass shelter-in-place order for a NATO and EU capital since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

    The emergency push to get people to safety came after Lithuanian military officials detected unauthorized drone activity within neighboring Belarus, a close military ally of Russia that borders eastern Lithuania. No drones were ultimately confirmed to have crossed into Lithuanian territory, but the alarm laid bare the persistent anxiety along NATO’s eastern flank over unintended incursions tied to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

    According to local reporting agency BNS, both President Gitanas Nauseda and Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene were evacuated to designated safe shelters, and an evacuation order was also issued for Lithuania’s national parliament, the Seimas. The one-hour closure of Vilnius Airport disrupted regional air travel while authorities assessed the potential threat.

    The incident is the latest in a string of cross-border drone occurrences that have stoked instability across the Baltic region in recent weeks. Just a day before the Vilnius alert, a NATO fighter jet intercepted and shot down a stray Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia. Ukraine quickly issued a formal apology for what it called an unintended incident, though it offered no further details on the drone’s original mission.

    Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys took to social media Tuesday to accuse Moscow of intentionally redirecting Ukrainian drones into Baltic airspace, then launching disinformation campaigns against the three Baltic states — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — to undermine regional cohesion. “It’s a transparent act of desperation — an attempt to sow chaos and distract from a simple reality: Ukraine is hitting Russia’s military machine hard,” Budrys wrote.

    The rising frequency of these incidents has already shaken political order in the region: just last week, Latvia’s entire ruling coalition collapsed after months of mounting tension, triggered in part by public disagreement over how to handle a series of suspected stray drone incursions from Ukrainian operations against Russia. The controversy forced the defense minister to step down after his party withdrew support, ultimately prompting the prime minister to dissolve the government.

    Speaking Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte struck a measured tone, praising the alliance’s coordinated response to recent drone events. “They have been met with a calm, decisive and proportionate response,” Rutte said. “This is exactly what we planned and prepared for,” he added, noting that all the current unrest stems directly from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    Western intelligence and diplomatic officials have generally attributed the stray incursions into NATO territory to accidental drone deviations, often worsened by Russian electronic jamming that throws Ukrainian drones off course. But Moscow has issued repeated aggressive threats, saying it will launch retaliatory strikes against any Baltic state that it accuses of hosting or complicity in Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Russian territory.

    The recent uptick in cross-border drone scares comes as both Russia and Ukraine have ramped up large-scale drone attacks against one another’s critical infrastructure. On Wednesday, Ukraine’s air force announced it had intercepted and destroyed 131 of 154 drones Russia launched in an overnight assault. Drones that penetrated Ukrainian defenses killed three civilians and wounded 18 more, including two children, according to Ukrainian officials.

    In turn, Ukraine’s continuing drone campaign against Russia’s energy sector claimed new targets overnight. Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed its drones struck a major Russian oil refinery and a key oil pipeline pumping station. Russian local media also reported a fire at a chemical plant in the southern Stavropol region following a suspected drone strike, though regional officials have not formally confirmed a direct hit.

    Amid shifting global energy markets disrupted by regional conflict, two major Western backers of Ukraine have recently adjusted sanctions on Russian oil to address growing supply shortages. The United Kingdom, one of Kyiv’s most vocal supporters, announced Wednesday it is loosening restrictions on Russian crude that is processed into diesel and jet fuel in third countries, a change driven by rising fuel prices tied to ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping chokepoint, has sparked widespread supply concerns that prompted the policy shift.

    The UK’s adjustment follows a similar move by the United States, which announced a 30-day extension of a temporary waiver allowing countries to import Russian oil that is already loaded onto tankers at sea. The extension marks another reversal of policy by the Trump administration, which previously stated it would resume full sanctions on Russian oil. The temporary sanctions waiver was first introduced in early March and extended once already in April.

    Contributions to this report were provided by Geir Moulson in Berlin, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, and Barry Hatton in Lisbon.