Global Pulse

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  • The looks turning heads on the Met Gala carpet

    The looks turning heads on the Met Gala carpet

    The most anticipated evening on the global fashion calendar has officially kicked off in New York City, as A-list celebrities, industry icons, and boundary-breaking creators gather for the 2026 Met Gala, the annual fundraising gala for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. This year’s event centers on the creative theme ‘Costume Art’, which challenges attendees to lean into lavish, whimsical design that blurs the line between clothing and fine art — a framework that has turned the iconic red carpet into a moving gallery of one-of-a-kind sartorial works.

    Helmed by an exceptionally high-profile group of co-chairs, the 2026 gala counts global music superstar Beyoncé, award-winning screen actor Nicole Kidman, five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, and Vogue Global Editorial Director Anna Wintour among its leadership, with Lauren Sánchez Bezos, wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, serving as an honorary chair. The evening opened with a showstopping performance from Broadway favorite Joshua Henry, who brought the iconic steps of the Met to life with a rendition of Whitney Houston’s *I Wanna Dance With Somebody*, backed by a full band and ensemble of dancers. The steps themselves were transformed for the night, decked out to resemble weathered moss-covered bricks set within a sprawling, lush garden to match the evening’s artistic tone.

    As guests began arriving, a steady stream of imaginative, theme-aligned looks emerged from the red carpet. Longtime Met Gala staple Anna Wintour led the way in a custom, feather-adorned Chanel creation that leaned into the event’s whimsical mandate. Co-chair Nicole Kidman stepped out alongside her daughter Sunday Rose in a striking floor-length red beaded column gown also from Chanel, while fellow co-chair Venus Williams turned heads in a glittering black gown paired with an opulent silver neckpiece encrusted with fine jewels.

    Lauren Sánchez Bezos made a particularly art-historical statement in her Schiaparelli gown, which directly references one of the most famous (and once controversial) portraits in art history: John Singer Sargent’s *Madame X*. Content creator Emma Chamberlain leaned fully into the theme in a multicolored Mugler gown by Miguel Castro Freitas designed to mimic the texture and composition of a fine art painting. Actor Cara Delevingne opted for a clever deceptive design from Ralph Lauren: a deceptively simple silhouette from the front that revealed dramatic sheer detailing when she turned, creating a striking visual effect on the garden-themed steps.

    This year’s gala also marks a groundbreaking milestone for disability representation: for the first time in the event’s history, a wheelchair user named Philip has attended the invitation-only gathering. Speaking to Vogue ahead of his arrival, Philip reflected on the historic moment, noting that for decades, disabled people were entirely shut out of representation at major fashion events. “For so long, disabled people were not represented anywhere. The thought of even being able to exist at an event like this… nobody even went there. To go from that to now, somehow finding myself there – I can’t say how blessed and honored I feel attending,” he shared.

    Disability advocate and writer Sinéad Burke also returned to the gala, stepping out in a structured black corseted gown with flowing dramatic sleeve embellishments. Other standout looks included actress Chase Sui Wonders’ diamond-encrusted pale lavender gown, *Girls* creator Lena Dunham’s vivid red Valentino gown made from feathers and sequins — a piece directly inspired by Artemisia Gentileschi’s Renaissance masterpiece *Judith Slaying Holofernes*, with details meant to evoke the painting’s dramatic depiction of blood from the Assyrian general’s neck. Pop musician Charli XCX deviated from her signature bright pink aesthetic to wear a sleek sophisticated black Saint Laurent gown with floral front detailing, while boundary-pushing artist Doja Cat wore a classically Grecian-inspired Saint Laurent silhouette crafted from an unexpected unconventional material: silicone. Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka brought two distinct looks from designer Robert Wun, arriving in a white outer layer that she removed to reveal a deep maroon open-back lace-up gown underneath.

    As the evening unfolds, new red carpet arrivals and unexpected fashion moments continue to emerge, with updates rolling out across fashion and entertainment platforms throughout the night.

  • US strikes Iranian fast boats as Iran attacks UAE oil facility

    US strikes Iranian fast boats as Iran attacks UAE oil facility

    Tensions in the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz reignited dramatically on Monday, as conflicting claims of military strikes, ship attacks and port damage plunged the already volatile Persian Gulf region into a fresh crisis, just weeks after a fragile US-Iran ceasefire took hold.

    The waterway, which carries roughly 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, has remained effectively closed to commercial traffic since February, when joint US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran prompted Tehran to block all transit. A ceasefire agreed in early April paused Iranian drone and missile attacks on Gulf states including the United Arab Emirates, but the waterway stayed largely blocked amid a separate US blockade on Iranian ports, leaving an estimated 2,000 vessels and 20,000 seafarers stranded in the Gulf.

    On Sunday, US President Donald Trump launched what he dubbed ‘Project Freedom’, an initiative to escort stranded neutral ships out of the blocked strait. He announced on Monday that US military forces had destroyed seven Iranian fast-attack boats in the waterway, using helicopter strikes to clear a path for transiting vessels. ‘It’s all they have left,’ the president stated of the small craft. The US military later confirmed that Navy destroyers had already escorted US-flagged commercial ships through the channel earlier that day.

    Iran has issued outright denials of all US claims, rejecting that any of its fast boats were targeted or sunk. Iranian officials also dismissed Washington’s assertion that it had escorted ships through the strait as ‘entirely false’, and countered that its own military had fired warning shots at a passing US warship – a claim the US military immediately denied. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the US initiative, arguing that ‘events in the strait make clear that there’s no military solution to a political crisis,’ adding that ‘Project Freedom is Project Deadlock.’

    The first major breakthrough for the US operation came when global shipping giant Maersk confirmed that one of its US-flagged vessels, the Alliance Fairfax, which had been stranded in the Gulf since late February, had successfully exited the strait under US military escort. The company noted that the transit was completed without any harm to the 20+ crew on board, and all personnel remain safe. Maersk said the US government had reached out to offer the military escort, which the firm accepted.

    Even as the first US-escorted ship exited the waterway, multiple attacks on vessels and infrastructure were reported across the region, raising fears of a full resumption of open conflict. The UAE’s foreign ministry confirmed that a tanker owned by its state-run energy giant Adnoc was struck in the strait. South Korean officials also reported an explosion on one of its vessels anchored off the UAE coast.

    UAE air defense forces also intercepted a large barrage of incoming fire, shooting down 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles, and four drones. One unblocked projectile impacted near the Fujairah Oil Port – the UAE’s largest oil storage and shipping facility, located on the country’s east coast outside the Strait of Hormuz. The strike sparked a large blaze at the terminal and left three people injured. The UAE condemned the assault as a ‘dangerous escalation’ and said it reserved the right to take retaliatory action. An unnamed Iranian military official, quoted by Iranian state television, denied that Iran had any plans to target the UAE.

    The unrest sent global energy markets spiking on Monday: benchmark Brent crude prices jumped more than 5% in intraday trading to push past $115 per barrel, as traders reacted to fears of disrupted supplies. Fujairah has emerged as a critical alternative export route since the strait closed, with a pipeline from Abu Dhabi’s inland oil fields delivering crude to the port for loading onto tankers, allowing limited exports to continue despite the blockade.

    Additional unrest was reported elsewhere along the strait: Omani state media reported that two people were injured when a residential building in the coastal town of Bukha was targeted in an attack. Neighboring Qatar, a key regional Gulf state, issued a statement condemning the attack on the Adnoc tanker and calling for the ‘unconditional reopening’ of the Strait of Hormuz to resume global commercial shipping.

    The escalation comes amid growing international pressure to resolve the months-long blockade, which has created a growing humanitarian crisis for stranded seafarers. International shipping groups have raised urgent concerns about dwindling food and medical supplies on board stuck vessels, as well as deteriorating physical and mental health for thousands of crew members trapped at sea. Trump has framed Project Freedom as a humanitarian mission, saying the US was responding to requests from nations around the world to free ‘merely neutral and innocent bystander’ ships locked in the Gulf. He has threatened to use additional force if any actor interferes with the evacuation operation, but has not laid out a clear long-term plan to reopen the strait to full commercial traffic.

  • She was an award-winning Broadway star – but still struggled to land roles

    She was an award-winning Broadway star – but still struggled to land roles

    Thirty-five years ago, a young Filipina performer named Lea Salonga stepped onto the Broadway stage and made history, winning a Tony Award for her breathtaking lead performance in *Miss Saigon*. What many do not know, however, is that even after this career-defining win, systemic barriers kept her from chasing the next opportunity. In a candid interview with the BBC, Salonga opened up about the rampant anti-Asian bias that defined her early years in Western theater: agents would submit her for auditions, only for casting teams to reject her out of hand, citing her ethnicity as the reason. “They were unable to imagine someone like me playing those roles,” she recalled.

    Today, that kind of outright exclusion feels almost unthinkable. We live in an era where K-pop powerhouses BTS and Blackpink top global music charts, Asian-led hits like *Shōgun* and *Squid Game* dominate major awards ceremonies, and Asian-led projects draw sold-out crowds on Broadway. For Salonga, who has since cemented her status as a global Broadway icon and national treasure in the Philippines, this sea change has been decades in the making.

    Even as a Tony-winning performer, Salonga’s path to the next landmark role of her career was only possible through the support of insider advocates. The opportunity to play Eponine in the long-running hit *Les Misérables* came to her without an audition, thanks to the producers of *Miss Saigon*, who also backed the iconic musical. Salonga made history as the first Asian actor to land a principal role in the production, but she remembers the casting being framed internally as little more than a low-stakes experiment.

    “When I was cast, the show had already run for five years, and January is usually a slow ticket season, so producers felt there was minimal risk,” she explained. At the time, she was the only person of color in the entire company, and the production openly questioned whether casting an Asian actor in a traditionally white role was just a publicity stunt. “Is this going to work? If it works, the reward would be great,” was the general attitude, she said.

    Stepping into that role was an experience Salonga describes as “incredibly stressful” — far more nerve-wracking than *Miss Saigon*, where she played an Asian character that fit casting expectations. “With *Les Mis*, it’s like, we’re going to cast this Asian chick in this show — and there’s never been an Asian in this show,” she said. Yet even amid the pressure, she understood the magnitude of what that breakthrough meant for future generations: “It meant that anyone who had their sights on Eponine could play it. Because if I could do it — then anyone else could, regardless of ethnic background.”

    More than 30 years later, that breakthrough has come full circle during the 2026 Singapore run of *Les Misérables The Arena Spectacular*, where Salonga now performs alongside 28-year-old Nathania Ong — the current actress playing Eponine, and the first Singaporean to ever take on the role on London’s West End. Watching Ong from backstage as she prepares for her own performance, Salonga says it’s clear the experiment she joined all those years ago worked. “It makes me think that the experiment worked. And it’s something I’m very proud to have participated in. And now it’s time for the next generation of actors to step up,” she joked.

    Ong grew up watching trailblazers like Salonga break barriers, but says she did not immediately grasp the historic weight of her own casting. “I didn’t even realize what a big deal it was to have gotten the part,” she shared. “It took a few months before I was like… I’ve made it. I’ve actually done something with this.” While she credits Salonga for opening doors for all BIPOC performers, she notes that the fight for equal representation has evolved — but is far from over. Today, the struggle is no longer just about getting a foot in the audition room: it’s about being recognized for your talent, not just hired to check a diversity box. “The thing with going for parts as an East Asian is that sometimes we struggle with the idea of: ‘Have we been hired to meet a diversity quota, or are we actually being hired because we’re good at our jobs?’” she said.

    For Salonga, the biggest and most exciting shift extends beyond casting of traditional Western roles: Asian creators are now writing and headlining their own stories, rather than just fitting into narratives crafted by others. She points to the recent Tony-winning success of *Maybe Happy Ending*, the South Korean musical that earned the country its first ever Tony Award, as a perfect example of this new era. “Seeing a show like that…winning so many awards… tells me that if something is just so good that it cannot be ignored, it will be seen,” she said. When she was a young performer, she never could have imagined a story so inherently Asian earning such widespread acclaim on Broadway, and she notes how transformative that representation is for young Asian artists growing up today. “I think for a lot of young people to be able to see somebody that looks like them up on that stage… is incredible. I think there was a generation of Asians who wanted to do this but didn’t have that representation upon which they could reflect themselves,” she said. “I’m so glad that I am now getting to see it because now my son gets to see it.”

    Salonga is also a self-described huge fan of BTS, whose global dominance she calls a landmark moment for Asian artists. She sees a familiar weight in the pressure the band carries, recalling the expectation she felt as a young performer breaking out on the global stage: “When you head to the West End and you have to be excellent or you will let 75 million people down [the population of the Philippines], that’s a lot to put on your shoulders. The responsibility is heavy,” she said. “That’s also why I appreciate BTS so much because it’s like, here you go, the weight of all of Asia is now on your shoulders.”

    The momentum for authentic Asian storytelling extends far beyond Broadway, Salonga adds, pointing to her own upcoming project: a DreamWorks animated film entirely rooted in Philippine folklore, a project she never thought possible earlier in her career. “An animated film that is based on my culture… I’d never thought I’d see something like that in my lifetime,” she said.

    When asked what her 18-year-old self would make of how far the industry has come, Salonga says the younger version of herself would be incredulous — but also inspired to know there is a space for Asian talent. “Incredibly shocked, but I think also inspired to know… that there is a space for me,” she said. “You know, you can push us to the margins – but we’re just going to centre ourselves.”

  • Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni settle lawsuit over It Ends With Us film

    Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni settle lawsuit over It Ends With Us film

    One of Hollywood’s most closely watched entertainment industry legal disputes has reached an 11th-hour resolution, with actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni announcing a settlement in their opposing lawsuits tied to the 2024 hit film *It Ends With Us* just two weeks before their scheduled civil trial was set to begin in New York.

    The legal conflict first erupted in December 2024, when Lively — who led the cast of the Colleen Hoover book adaptation as protagonist Lily Bloom — filed suit against Baldoni, her co-star and the film’s director, and his production company Wayfarer Studios. Lively’s original legal filing alleged sexual harassment on set, coordinated retaliation after she raised complaints about unsafe working conditions, and a targeted smear campaign that used social media manipulation and friendly media outlets to undermine her public reputation.
    Baldoni immediately denied all claims against him and launched a multi-party countersuit, naming Lively, her husband actor Ryan Reynolds, her publicist, and even *The New York Times* for reporting Lively’s accusations. He claimed Lively had fabricated the harassment narrative to “steal” the film from his production company and threatened to scrap promotional work to force contractual changes.

    Last month, a New York judge significantly narrowed the scope of the legal battle, dismissing 10 of the 13 claims in Lively’s original suit — including the core allegations of harassment and defamation — leaving only three active claims: breach of contract, retaliation, and aiding and abetting retaliation. The same judge threw out all of Baldoni’s countersuit, ruling that his legal team had failed to prove Lively’s contractual negotiations amounted to wrongful extortion rather than protected labor renegotiation.

    Both parties confirmed the settlement in a joint statement issued to media on Monday, ending months of public drama that pulled in A-list celebrities including Taylor Swift (whose private text exchanges with Lively about the on-set conflict were entered as evidence) and forced both Lively and Reynolds to prepare for trial testimony.

    “Their film *It Ends With Us* is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life,” the statement read. “Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors – and all survivors – is a goal that we stand behind.”
    The joint statement acknowledged the strain of the litigation process, adding: “We acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms Lively deserved to be heard. We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments.”
    The statement concluded by noting that both parties “hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace.”

    In the weeks after the judge’s ruling on dismissed claims, Lively had framed her legal action as a stand for safer workplaces in Hollywood. “The last thing I wanted in my life was a lawsuit, but I brought this case because of the pervasive RETALIATION I faced, and continue to, for privately and professionally asking for a safe working environment for myself and others,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “I hope the Court’s decision shows others that, as unfathomably painful as it is, you can speak up.” Her attorney added at the time that Lively had already succeeded in exposing Hollywood’s coordinated “smear machine,” noting that other women targeted by the same tactics had already begun holding those responsible accountable.

    *It Ends With Us*, based on Hoover’s bestselling novel, centers on a young woman who survived childhood domestic abuse and finds herself trapped in an abusive relationship as an adult, aligning the film’s core theme with Lively’s public focus on safe work environments throughout the litigation.

  • Trump’s Hormuz ‘protection’ seeks ‘pretext for escalation’: Iran

    Trump’s Hormuz ‘protection’ seeks ‘pretext for escalation’: Iran

    Tensions have escalated sharply in the Persian Gulf after former U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a new U.S. military-led initiative to escort stranded commercial vessels through the closed Strait of Hormuz, a move Iranian officials have decried as a deliberate provocation designed to trigger conflict and justify expanded military aggression against the Islamic Republic.

    The plan, branded “Project Freedom” and scheduled to launch Monday, was first announced by Trump on his social media platform Truth Social, and later confirmed by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). In his announcement, Trump framed the operation as a humanitarian gesture, stating his administration had notified nations with ships trapped in the key waterway that U.S. forces would safely guide vessels out of Iranian restricted areas so they could resume commercial activity. CENTCOM later released detailed force deployments for the mission: it will include guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned surveillance and combat systems, and a contingent of 15,000 active-duty service members. The command also noted the operation will be backed by a new cross-agency international coordination framework called the Maritime Freedom Construct, which pairs diplomatic outreach with military coordination to bolster maritime security in the strait.

    Iran, which closed the strategically critical strait in response to the U.S.-Israeli war and the Trump administration’s naval blockade of the country, has issued a firm, unified rejection of the plan. An anonymous senior Iranian official told independent outlet Drop Site that Trump’s proposal is engineered to goad Iran into firing the first shot, creating a false pretext for military escalation. The official stressed that any commercial vessel attempting to traverse restricted transit routes without prior coordination with Iranian authorities will be intercepted immediately by Iranian security forces. Should U.S. military vessels intervene to disrupt these interceptions, the official added, Iran will respond with immediate, proportional force. The official also noted that U.S. warships are currently positioned far from the restricted transit corridor, meaning Iran would engage non-compliant commercial vessels long before they could reach American assets, accusing Trump of leveraging civilian ships as political pawns in his domestic and geopolitical agenda.

    Ebrahim Azizi, chair of the Iranian Parliament’s national security commission, echoed the criticism, warning that any U.S. interference in Iran’s new maritime regulatory framework for the Strait of Hormuz constitutes a direct violation of the ceasefire brokered earlier this April. He dismissed Trump’s initiative outright, stating that the strategically vital waterway cannot be governed by “delusional posts” on social media.

    The escalation over the strait comes as both sides navigate fragile, indirect negotiations to end the three-month-long war. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei confirmed Sunday that Tehran is currently reviewing the U.S. government’s response to Iran’s 14-point peace proposal, which was shared via Pakistani intermediation. Baghaei clarified that the proposal is exclusively focused on ending immediate hostilities, and that no nuclear-related negotiations are currently underway, despite repeated claims from Trump and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that halting Iran’s purported nuclear weapons program is a core U.S. war aim. Iran has long denied pursuing nuclear weapons, and U.S. intelligence assessments have repeatedly concluded Iran does not maintain an active nuclear weapons program as described by U.S. officials. Trump has already cast doubt on the proposal’s viability, writing on social media Saturday that he cannot imagine the plan being acceptable, claiming Iran has not paid a sufficient price for its actions over the past 47 years.

    The exact details of the 14-point proposal remain publicly unconfirmed, but foreign policy analysts have offered preliminary assessments. Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, argued Sunday that the proposal represents an unstated push for a broad grand bargain to resolve the 47-year history of U.S.-Iran hostility, rather than just a temporary ceasefire. Parsi noted the plan implicitly calls for both sides to restrain their regional proxies, including Israel and Hezbollah, an approach that could align with Trump’s known negotiating instincts.

    Domestically, the war has become a growing political liability for Trump. A new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released Friday found that 61% of U.S. voters view Trump’s decision to launch the war as a mistake, while 66% disapprove of his handling of the conflict. The poll also recorded Trump’s lowest presidential approval rating to date.

    Analysts have noted that Iran’s current strategy, which includes closing the Strait of Hormuz to disrupt global energy and commodity trade, aligns directly with a long-documented asymmetric warfare doctrine developed by Iran’s military leadership. Archival footage from the 1990s, recently shared online by journalist Séamus Malekafzali, featured late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Hossein Salami — who was killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike last year — outlining the doctrine for IRGC staff. Salami argued that while direct conflict with the U.S. is possible, victory is achievable if Iran can shift fighting to terrain that neutralizes U.S. military advantages and exploits U.S. weaknesses. Geopolitical analysts paraphrase the doctrine as focusing on drawing out conflict to raise economic costs and fuel domestic political turmoil in the U.S., eroding its political will to sustain military engagement.

    This approach is already visible in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that carries roughly 25% of global seaborne oil trade and one-third of the world’s seaborne fertilizer trade annually. Harrison Mann, a fellow with the advocacy group Win Without War, explained the dynamic during a Sunday CNN appearance, noting that Iran is able to inflict meaningful economic pain on the U.S. and its allies through this form of economic warfare, a pressure campaign that will be unsustainable for Trump over the long term.

    Project Freedom has drawn immediate backing from hardline U.S. Iran war supporters, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading Republican advocate for military action against Tehran. Graham said he fully endorses Trump’s decision, stating that while he supports a diplomatic end to the conflict, it is past time to reestablish freedom of navigation in the strait and respond forcefully to Iran if it continues what Graham described as “terrorizing the world.”

  • Dolly Parton cancels Las Vegas residency over health issues

    Dolly Parton cancels Las Vegas residency over health issues

    Beloved 80-year-old country music legend Dolly Parton has announced the full cancellation of her upcoming Las Vegas residency, as she continues to receive medical treatment for a long-standing battle with kidney stones. The news marks a second shift to Parton’s performance plans, after she initially pushed back the six-show run originally scheduled for December 2025 at Caesars Palace’s iconic Colosseum Theatre to September 2026, citing unaddressed health challenges at that time.

    In an upbeat, candid announcement shared across her official social media channels on Monday, Parton assured fans that she is making steady progress in her recovery. “I’ve been responding really well to meds and treatments and improving every day,” she wrote in a written statement. “I’ve still got some healing to do, but I am on my way!”

    In a accompanying video message, the Grammy-winning star leaned into her signature warm humor to frame the decision, noting that she could not reasonably prepare for the physical demands of a high-energy live show in her current condition. “I can’t be dizzy carrying around banjos, guitars and such on 5-inch heels – and you know that I’m going to be wearing them,” Parton joked. “Not to mention, all those heavy rhinestone outfits, the big hair, my big… uh, personality.”

    Parton emphasized that she needs additional time to regain the full physical stamina required for a major stage residency, and expressed sincere regret to fans who had already purchased tickets for the run. “I am truly sorry that I’m going to miss all of you that had tickets to see me in Las Vegas. Well, you get on to Vegas, and you have a big time… And I’ll see you somewhere down the line,” she said.

    Despite the cancellation of the Las Vegas shows, Parton remains actively engaged in a range of professional projects. She confirmed that she is still recording new music, producing music videos, making regular visits to her popular Dollywood theme park, developing a original Broadway musical, and moving forward with plans to open a new museum and hotel in Nashville by the end of 2026.

    One of the most decorated and recognizable figures in modern music, Parton has built a decades-long career spanning country, pop, and rock, earning 10 Grammy Awards and a 2022 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. She is globally known for timeless crossover hits including *Coat of Many Colors*, *I Will Always Love You*, *9 to 5*, and *Jolene*. The canceled Las Vegas residency was set to be her first extended performance run on the Las Vegas Strip since the 1990s, when she shared the stage with her *Islands In The Stream* duet partner and longtime collaborator Kenny Rogers.

  • ‘Elephant in the room’ Trump looms over European attempt at unity

    ‘Elephant in the room’ Trump looms over European attempt at unity

    The shadow of U.S. President Donald Trump hung heavily over this week’s European Political Community (EPC) summit in Yerevan, Armenia, even as leaders stopped short of naming him directly during closed and open discussions. For attendees at the gathering, which brought together dozens of heads of state and government from across the continent, growing American disengagement from European security was the unmissable issue driving urgent talks of European strategic self-reliance.

    Addressing delegates on the opening day of the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron framed Europe’s decades-long over-dependence on Washington’s security guarantees as the “elephant in the room” that leaders could no longer afford to ignore. The gathering, which is structured as a less formal alternative to rigid institutional EU summits, was convened to address three core priorities: strengthening energy security across the continent, defending democratic institutions, and sustaining military and economic support for Ukraine amid its third year of defending against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

    The summit also marked a milestone for host nation Armenia, which will hold its first ever formal direct negotiation session with the European Union on Tuesday, a step that underscores the country’s accelerating westward political alignment. The move has already drawn sharp criticism from neighboring Russia, which has long viewed the South Caucasus nation as part of its traditional sphere of influence.

    Recent policy moves from the Trump White House have amplified the urgency of European calls for greater defense autonomy. Trump’s recent announcement that he will withdraw 5,000 U.S. troops and long-range deterrent missiles from bases in Germany — missiles deployed by predecessor Joe Biden explicitly to counter potential Russian aggression — has deepened European concerns about Washington’s commitment to regional security. Tensions rose further after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was unable to attend the Yerevan summit, publicly criticized Trump’s military campaign against Iran as strategically unmoored. Trump hit back, dismissing Merz as ineffective, and German officials have since scrambled to de-escalate the public rift.

    NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who has long pursued a strategy of diplomatic outreach to Trump, acknowledged that alliance leaders are well aware of the U.S. president’s longstanding frustration with European defense spending levels, which he has repeatedly criticized as insufficient. “We have heard his frustrations,” Rutte told reporters on the sidelines of the summit.

    Beyond frictions with Washington, European leaders also confront a cascade of overlapping global challenges that threaten regional stability. The ongoing military conflict between the U.S.-Israel bloc and Iran, and the subsequent disruption to global oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, has sent ongoing economic ripples across Europe that continue to strain energy markets and economic growth. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine grinds on, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky using his address to the summit to urge allies to maintain unwavering pressure on the Kremlin ahead of a key decision point this summer.

    “This summer will be a moment when Vladimir Putin decides what to do next,” Zelensky told delegates. “We must push him toward diplomacy. Russia can’t afford new military equipment, which makes clear they are not as strong as they once projected to be.”

    The summit also signaled a notable shift in post-Brexit relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union, under new UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Starmer, who acknowledged that European alliances “are not where we want them to be” in comments widely interpreted as a reference to shifting U.S. policy, again called on European nations to accelerate efforts to strengthen their own defense capabilities. He has also made little secret of his ambition to deepen cooperation and even policy alignment with the bloc, a sharp break from the hardline Eurosceptic approach of his recent predecessors.

    Currently, the UK is in active negotiations to join an EU-led €90 billion (£78 billion) loan framework designed to provide long-term economic and military support to Ukraine. The UK has been one of Ukraine’s most steadfast allies since Russia’s 2022 invasion, but the move marks a growing shift toward coordinating that support through European institutional frameworks. Starmer defended the negotiations, noting that the agreement would deliver tangible benefits to both Kyiv and British workers. “It’s of great benefit to Ukraine, but also the jobs it’ll create in the United Kingdom,” he said. He declined to comment on media reports that the EU is demanding the UK pay roughly £1 billion ($1.3 billion) annually as part of a broader reset in bilateral relations, a demand that aligns with longstanding expert arguments that the UK must pay for access to European single market benefits.

    Experts and leaders alike acknowledge that forging genuine European strategic autonomy — freeing the continent from dependence on U.S. military power and the potential political leverage that comes with it — will be a decades-long project. For now, the bloc’s core hope is that incremental progress on developing independent European military capabilities will ease Trump’s frustrations, and keep Washington at least partially aligned with European interests as the continent confronts a growing array of interconnected security and economic challenges.

  • Israel killing Palestinians ‘like we haven’t since 1967’, top commander says

    Israel killing Palestinians ‘like we haven’t since 1967’, top commander says

    Leaked closed-door comments from the head of Israeli military forces in the occupied West Bank have laid bare the staggering scale of Palestinian fatalities under current operational policies, with the commander admitting killings have reached a level unmatched since the 1967 Six-Day War, Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz has reported.

    Major General Avi Bluth, a West Bank settler who took command of the Israeli Army’s Central Command in 2024, made the explosive remarks during a closed forum, where he also defended relaxed rules of engagement that grant troops broad permission to open fire on unarmed Palestinian civilians. In a striking admission of systemic bias, Bluth confirmed that Israeli troops operate a discriminatory policy: Jewish Israelis who throw stones at security forces are never targeted with lethal force, while Palestinians who carry out the same actions are shot to kill.

    Claiming credit for the high death toll, Bluth stated that over a three-year period, Israeli forces had killed 1,500 people he labeled as “terrorists” — a term his command applies broadly to Palestinian individuals. Puzzling over the absence of large-scale popular unrest against Israeli occupation, he said, “So how is there no intifada? Why aren’t they taking to the streets? Why is the Palestinian public indifferent? Why are there no disturbances?” He went on to attribute the lack of mass uprisings to the deterrence created by the harsh crackdown, arguing, “The Arabs understand that ‘if someone rises to kill you, kill him first’ is part of the rules of the Middle East, and therefore we are killing like we have not killed since 1967.”

    Official data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) backs up the severity of the current surge in fatalities: since October 7, 2023 alone, Israeli forces have killed 1,081 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, including at least 235 children. Bluth explicitly linked the rising death toll to his own orders, which removed previous restrictions on soldiers opening fire on civilians. He detailed one policy that permits troops to shoot Palestinian people attempting to cross the West Bank separation barrier from the knee down, saying, “Today, there are many ‘limping memorials’ in Palestinian villages of those who tried to infiltrate and got hit, so there is a price that is paid.”

    When pressed on the double standard applied to Jewish and Palestinian stone-throwers, Bluth cited “sociological implications” as the reason his forces do not target Israelis engaging in the same activity he frames as terrorism for Palestinians. He confirmed that in 2025 alone, Israeli forces killed 42 Palestinians accused of throwing stones. When shown footage of extremist Israeli settlers throwing stones at troops, he pointed to a single incident in which two masked Israelis were shot, noting that the incident sparked a massive public outcry that would prevent similar action going forward.

    Bluth’s comments have emerged against a backdrop of growing tension between his command and extremist, hilltop settler militias that routinely carry out attacks on Palestinian communities in the West Bank. These militant settlers see Bluth as too soft, claiming he has bowed to pressure from left-wing Israeli groups and the international community. Last week, Haaretz reported that Bluth had publicly labeled rising settler violence against Palestinians as “terror,” and criticized unauthorized outposts built by hilltop youth without prior military coordination. Even so, Bluth also acknowledged that the military, working in coordination with settler groups, has established roughly 150 new unauthorized outposts in Area C of the West Bank over recent years. He claimed these outposts help prevent what he calls Palestinian “terror” and block Palestinian residential expansion.

    The commander’s remarks have already sparked political backlash: Knesset Member Limor Son Har-Melech, a prominent backer of settler militias, has publicly called on Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to immediately dismiss Bluth from his post.

    Parallel to the political firestorm over Bluth’s comments, Israeli anti-settlement NGO Peace Now released a new report Sunday exposing that the Israeli government has allocated 130 million shekels (roughly $35 million) to the same settler groups responsible for frequent violence against Palestinians, under the false pretense of curbing settler violence. Official government documents frame the funding as aimed at “reducing risk situations and expanding positive responses for youth in the Judea and Samaria area” — the official Israeli terminology for the occupied West Bank. But Peace Now says the funding will in reality go toward expanding existing Israeli settlements and directing millions of public shekels to settler regional councils.

    In an official statement, Peace Now said, “The government uses every excuse to justify pouring more and more millions into settlements. This is a programme to expand settlements under the guise of combating violence.” The organization added that the government is directing most of the budget to the very groups and activities that are the primary backers of the unauthorized outposts and settler farms from which most anti-Palestinian violence originates, and called on the government to cancel the funding allocation while demanding the military and police crack down on ongoing settler violence.

    This report was originally carried by independent Middle Eastern news outlet Middle East Eye, which provides exclusive, unfiltered coverage of the Middle East and North Africa region.

  • Ukraine and Russia declare separate truces

    Ukraine and Russia declare separate truces

    In a striking escalation of rhetorical and tactical posturing amid the ongoing full-scale war, Russia and Ukraine have announced competing unilateral ceasefires, even as deadly cross-border attacks left multiple civilians dead on both sides Monday. This exchange comes as U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have stalled, with Washington redirecting its foreign policy focus to the worsening crisis in the Middle East.

    Russian authorities first announced their planned ceasefire last week via the country’s state-backed messaging platform MAX, made official Monday by the Russian Defence Ministry. The ceasefire is scheduled to run May 8 through 9, aligning with Moscow’s annual national commemoration of Victory Day, the holiday marking the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The announcement carried an explicit threat of retaliation: if Ukraine violates the truce to disrupt the 81st anniversary celebrations, Russia will carry out a massive missile strike targeting central Kyiv. The ministry also urged Kyiv civilians and foreign diplomatic staff to evacuate the capital immediately to avoid harm. Each year, Russia marks the holiday with a high-profile military parade through Moscow’s iconic Red Square.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected Moscow’s proposal as disingenuous, countering with a separate unilateral truce scheduled to take effect May 5 through 6, three days ahead of Russia’s planned pause. Zelenskyy argued that expecting Ukraine to adhere to a ceasefire to accommodate a Russian national military holiday was unreasonable, suggesting Moscow’s proposal stemmed from fear that Ukrainian drones would disrupt the Red Square celebrations. He added that as of Monday, Ukraine had not received any formal official communication from Russia outlining the terms of the proposed ceasefire that had been circulated on Russian social media.

    Alongside the ceasefire exchange, Zelenskyy made an unannounced trip to Bahrain on Monday for bilateral talks focused on expanding security cooperation, a source within the Ukrainian delegation confirmed to Agence France-Presse.

    Even as the two sides traded truce announcements, deadly violence continued across the front lines and deep inside both countries. Ukrainian officials reported that Russian strikes across Ukrainian territory killed nine civilians on Monday. A Russian ballistic missile attack on Merefa, a town located just outside Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, left seven civilians dead and dozens more injured. AFP reporters on the scene saw multiple bodies covered by blankets and sheets strewn across the town’s street, with extensive damage to local homes, shops, and civilian vehicles. A second strike in the southern Zaporizhzhia region’s village of Vilnyansk killed a married couple, a 51-year-old man and his 62-year-old wife, and wounded their 31-year-old son along with three other bystanders, regional governor Ivan Fedorov confirmed.

    Cross-border attacks also targeted Russian territory overnight. A Ukrainian drone strike killed one civilian in Russia’s Belgorod region, a border area that has faced regular attacks throughout the war, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. In addition, a Ukrainian drone crashed into a residential high-rise building in an upscale neighborhood of Moscow, Russian capital mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed.

    An AFP analysis of data from the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) shows that April marked the first time Russia lost more territory in Ukraine than it gained since Ukraine’s 2023 summer counteroffensive. ISW data indicates Moscow ceded roughly 120 square kilometers of occupied territory between late March and April. While frontline fighting has largely reached a stalemate in recent months, relentless drone attacks on both sides have continued to claim civilian lives and damage infrastructure. Russia’s territorial advances have slowed dramatically since late 2025, as systemic communication failures within the Russian military combined with consistent Ukrainian counterattacks allowed Kyiv to secure small localized breakthroughs in Ukraine’s southeast.

    Despite these small net gains for Ukraine — the first the country has recorded in more than two years — the territorial shifts remain marginal, representing just 0.02 percent of Ukraine’s total national territory. Currently, Moscow maintains control of just over 19 percent of Ukraine. Roughly seven percent of that territory, including Crimea and large swathes of the Donbas region, was already controlled by Russia or pro-Russian separatist groups prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, with the remainder seized in the opening weeks of the 2022 invasion.

  • India’s Modi celebrates ‘record’ win in opposition-held West Bengal

    India’s Modi celebrates ‘record’ win in opposition-held West Bengal

    In a landmark political shake-up that has reshaped India’s regional electoral map, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a historic first-ever majority win in West Bengal, a state long held as an unassailable stronghold of the regional opposition All India Trinamool Congress (TMC). The final results from India’s multi-phase April-May state and territorial elections, announced Monday, delivered a series of seismic shifts across five jurisdictions, with far-reaching implications for national politics ahead of the 2029 general election.

    With vote counting completed under heavy security deployment in West Bengal, a state home to more than 100 million people, the Election Commission of India confirmed the BJP won 206 of the 294 legislative assembly seats — a record-breaking outcome that ends TMC’s 14-year consecutive rule of the state. Beyond West Bengal, the BJP also secured its third consecutive term in power in the northeastern state of Assam, and earned a place in the ruling governing coalition in the small coastal union territory of Puducherry.

    For Prime Minister Modi, 75, the surprise breakthrough in West Bengal comes as a major political boost as he navigates pressing domestic economic challenges and complex foreign policy priorities, including persistently high national unemployment and a pending bilateral trade deal with the United States, ahead of the 2029 national general election.

    Taking to social media to address the win, Modi framed the result as a victory for popular mandate and performance-focused governance. “The 2026 West Bengal Assembly Elections will be remembered forever,” he wrote. “People’s power has prevailed and BJP’s politics of good governance has triumphed. BJP’s record win in West Bengal would not be possible without the efforts and struggles of countless Karyakartas (workers) over generations.”

    Thousands of party workers and supporters poured onto the streets of Kolkata, West Bengal’s capital, to celebrate the historic win, dancing to pro-party victory anthems amid widespread jubilation. The BJP had waged an aggressive year-long campaign to unseat TMC leader Mamata Banerjee, the 71-year-old firebrand incumbent who had held power in the state since 2011. The campaign was marred by controversy over the removal of millions of names from state voter rolls: officials framed the purge as a necessary step to remove ineligible, duplicate voters, but critics argued the process disproportionately targeted marginalized and minority communities, skewing the electorate in the BJP’s favor.

    Banerjee, who herself lost her longtime Bhabanipur constituency seat to BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari by a margin of more than 15,000 votes, levelled serious allegations of electoral misconduct against the BJP and the national election body. A visibly emotional Banerjee told reporters in Kolkata, “BJP looted more than 100 seats. The Election Commission is the BJP’s commission,” before adding she would regroup and “bounce back” in future contests.

    Political analysts note the West Bengal win will significantly consolidate the BJP’s control across eastern India, cementing its status as India’s undisputed national dominant party. “It’s a tremendous victory,” said Sushila Ramaswamy, a veteran political analyst, in an interview with AFP. “It also shows the electoral machinery of the BJP, how effective and how much detailing goes into their election campaign. And it establishes the BJP as the dominant party in the country.”

    Addressing supporters and party members in the national capital Delhi, Modi called for calm and unity across all election regions, rejecting calls for retaliation against political opponents. “Today, when the BJP has won, the talk should not be of ‘revenge’, but of ‘change’,” he said. “Not of fear, but of the future.”

    The election cycle delivered another major upset in the southern industrial state of Tamil Nadu, where veteran chief minister MK Stalin, leader of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), lost his longtime Kolathur constituency seat to a little-known candidate from a newly launched political party. The debutant party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), was founded in 2024 by C. Joseph Vijay, one of Tamil cinema’s most commercially successful A-list actors, who ran on a platform prioritizing youth employment and transparent governance. TVK defeated the incumbent DMK to win a majority in the state, leaving Stalin’s party a distant second.

    Political scientist Ramu Manivanan said the Tamil Nadu result reflects growing demand for new political leadership among the state’s large youth electorate, rather than just general anti-incumbency sentiment. “This result shows that the youth want a new face. It is not just anti-incumbency,” Manivanan explained. “Vijay as an actor has a large female fan base as a cinema star. All that has influenced the outcome.”

    In the southern coastal state of Kerala, the final remaining Communist-led government in India was voted out of power after two consecutive five-year terms. A Congress party-led alliance defeated the incumbent Left Democratic Front, earning a clear governing majority. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi thanked Kerala’s voters for what he called a “truly decisive mandate” in the wake of the result.