A suspected hantavirus outbreak aboard an international cruise ship traveling between Argentina and Cape Verde has resulted in three fatalities, triggering global public health scrutiny over how the typically rodent-borne pathogen spreads in enclosed passenger settings. The World Health Organization (WHO) has formally confirmed one case of the potentially lethal virus so far, while moving quickly to reassure global populations that the overall public risk remains low. Even with this official assessment, the unusual cluster of illnesses on the vessel has reignited longstanding questions about whether hantaviruses can spread from person to person in closed environments. Virginie Sauvage, who leads France’s National Reference Centre for Hantaviruses, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that genetic sequencing of the virus strain involved will be the critical next step to unpack what occurred during the voyage.
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Israeli MP calls for ‘conquest, expulsion, settlement’ as she tours Gaza boundary
Against a backdrop of growing speculation that Israel is preparing to restart large-scale military operations in Gaza, a senior far-right Israeli lawmaker has reignited controversy with extreme new calls for the full occupation of the Gaza Strip and the forced expulsion of its civilian population, framing the move as the sole path to long-term Israeli security.
Limor Son Har-Melech, a parliament member from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, made the remarks in a social media post on X Sunday following an official inspection tour of communities along the Gaza-Israel border. In the post, which included photos and video from her tour, she argued that Israel remains trapped in what she called a failed strategic framework for Gaza, and that there is no substitute for military conquest, mass displacement of local residents, and the establishment of new Jewish settlements across the enclave.
“Any other solution is unfeasible and will bring upon us the next massacre,” she wrote. Son Har-Melech also emphasized that Israel has no choice but to seize full control of the Netzarim Corridor, a strategic strip of land that splits Gaza into separate northern and southern zones, and to build a permanent chain of Israeli settlements along the route.
This latest statement is far from an outlier for the hardline politician, who has a long track record of incendiary rhetoric targeting Palestinians. In previous public remarks, she has praised an Israeli citizen convicted of murdering three members of a Palestinian family, and backed a group of Israeli prison staff accused of sexually assaulting Palestinian detainees, falsely claiming the officers were framed. Son Har-Melech has also organized and participated in multiple public events advocating for Israeli resettlement of occupied Palestinian territories, including a conference hosted inside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, that explicitly called for the expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza and laid out detailed plans for Jewish settlement construction in the enclave.
Son Har-Melech’s comments come as Israeli military leaders are pushing for an immediate resumption of offensive operations in Gaza, according to reporting from Israeli Army Radio. The outlet cited senior defense officials who argue that the current moment presents a unique and optimal window to defeat Hamas, the governing group of Gaza. Planners have already finalized military blueprints for the renewed offensive, Army Radio reported, with only a final sign-off from Israel’s top political leadership required to launch hostilities.
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War in the Middle East: latest developments
Tensions across the Middle East have surged dramatically in the last 24 hours, with a series of interconnected clashes, competing claims from Tehran and Washington, and spillover violence hitting regional states that has sent global energy markets into a sharp upward swing. The escalation centers on the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical chokepoint for global oil supplies, where U.S. and Iranian forces have exchanged hostile actions and conflicting accounts of what unfolded.
Admiral Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, confirmed to reporters that American military forces destroyed six small Iranian boats that posed a direct threat to commercial shipping moving through the strategic waterway. The operation, carried out by U.S. Apache and Seahawk helicopters, was paired with a successful defense against a barrage of projectiles: all missiles and drones launched by Iranian forces at both U.S. Navy vessels and nearby commercial shipping were intercepted and neutralized, Cooper said.
Iran has quickly and categorically rejected the U.S. claims. A statement from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards dismissed the assertion that any Iranian boats were sunk as entirely false. The Guards also pushed back on a separate U.S. announcement that two U.S.-flagged merchant vessels had passed through the strait under American military escort, calling that report “baseless and completely false” in a Telegram statement and denying any commercial ships had transited the waterway following the clashes.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, commenting on the situation on his Truth Social platform, sought to downplay the severity of the escalation. He acknowledged that Iran had fired on vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz after U.S. warships entered the area, but claimed that only a South Korean vessel suffered any damage, with no other harm reported as of his statement.
Beyond the direct U.S.-Iran confrontation, spillover attacks have been reported across the Gulf region. The United Arab Emirates confirmed it was targeted by Iranian strikes, including an attack on the key Fujairah energy infrastructure hub that left three Indian nationals wounded. The UAE Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes as a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable violation of the country’s sovereignty, noting that it reserves the full right to respond to the aggression. A senior Iranian military official denied the claim, saying Iran had no plans to attack the UAE.
Neighboring Oman also reported casualties from an attack on a coastal residential building in Bukha, a town located along the Strait of Hormuz. Oman’s state news agency confirmed two expatriate workers suffered moderate injuries in the strike, with four additional vehicles damaged in the incident.
The sudden escalation has already roiled global energy markets, as nearly 20% of global oil supplies pass through the Strait of Hormuz annually. The Brent crude contract for July delivery jumped more than 5% within minutes of news of the clashes breaking, reflecting widespread investor concern over potential disruptions to global oil supplies.
The United States has confirmed that it deployed destroyers to the Gulf to carry out escort missions for commercial shipping transiting the strait. Following that deployment, Iranian state television reported that the Iranian Navy launched cruise missiles, rockets, and combat drones near the U.S. vessels after firing multiple warning shots.
Tensions also remain high along the Israel-Lebanon border, where a fragile ceasefire that has held since mid-April is facing new strains. Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group, announced that its fighters had engaged in heavy clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon near the border. The clash followed an attempted advance by Israeli forces near the town of Deir Seryan, located inside an Israeli-declared “yellow line” zone where Lebanese residents have been ordered not to return. Israeli military officials confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces remain on high alert and are closely monitoring all developments across the region following the U.S.-Iran confrontation.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has pushed back on U.S. calls for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that any such summit can only take place after a comprehensive security deal is reached and all Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory end. Aoun’s office added that the current moment is not appropriate for any meeting between the two leaders, given the ongoing volatility.
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Mali junta leader names himself defence minister after predecessor killed
Mali, the West African nation grappling with a decade-long Islamist insurgency, has entered a new phase of political and security upheaval after a devastating large-scale coordinated attack by an insurgent alliance left its sitting defense minister dead and triggered a major cabinet shakeup.
The violence that unfolded across the country starting on April 25 marked one of the most sweeping insurgent offensives in recent years. Residents of towns and cities from the northern desert regions to areas near the capital Bamako awoke that morning to the sound of sustained gunfire and explosions, as two disparate armed groups — the separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist organization — launched synchronized raids targeting military and government positions across the country.
Among the highest-profile casualties of the offensive was Sadio Camara, Mali’s then-defense minister, who died in a suicide truck bombing targeting his residence just outside Bamako. More than a week after the initial attacks began, the country remains mired in a spiraling security crisis that has called into question the capability of Mali’s ruling military government to contain the decade-long insurgency.
In an official decree broadcast on Malian state television Monday, junta leader General Assimi Goïta announced he would step into the vacant defense minister role to lead the government’s counter-insurgency response. General Oumar Diarra, the Malian army chief of staff, was appointed to support Goïta as a delegate minister, according to the announcement.
Goïta, who first seized power in a 2020 military coup, initially rose to prominence on a promise to resolve Mali’s long-running security crisis and restore stability to the conflict-torn nation. But the recent offensive has delivered a major blow to the junta’s credibility: the coordinated attacks forced Malian government forces and their Russian allied fighters to withdraw from Kidal, a key strategic city in northern Mali, a retreat that has fueled widespread public and international skepticism about the government’s military hold on the country.
In the days following the offensive, Malian authorities have moved to crack down on alleged internal complicity in the attacks. Over the weekend, security services announced the arrest of a group of active and retired Malian soldiers suspected of providing support to the insurgents. The public prosecutor for a Bamako military court confirmed that an ongoing investigation has confirmed links between both serving and former military personnel and the planning and execution of the April 25 raids.
To ramp up counter-insurgency operations, Mali has partnered with military forces from neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso to launch joint air strikes against the insurgent alliance. Officials from Niger confirmed that the coordinated cross-border operation began just hours after the initial insurgent attacks were launched. All three Sahel nations are currently led by military governments, and together they formed the Alliance of Sahel States in recent years after expelling French counter-insurgency troops, the former colonial power that had deployed to the region to combat the insurgency. The three governments instead turned to Russian military fighters to support their counter-insurgency campaigns.
Despite this shift in military partnerships, the insurgency has continued to expand across the Sahel region. Large swathes of territory in all three countries remain outside of government control, and coordinated attacks on military and civilian targets have become increasingly frequent, leaving local populations trapped between ongoing violence and ineffective government security provision.
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Smart borders, military gates and land seizures: How Israel is encroaching in southern Syria
Two years after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, a comprehensive new report from Syrian monitoring group the Sijil Centre has laid bare the full scale of Israel’s systematic military incursion and territorial expansion across southern Syria, documenting more than 1,600 violations of Syrian sovereignty between August 2024 and May 2026. The report, shared exclusively with Middle East Eye, reveals a sharp escalation of Israeli activity following the 2025 US-Israel war on Iran, with March 2026 alone seeing a record 321 military operations, 121 aerial strikes and the detention of 41 Syrian civilians.
Israel’s steady encroachment into Syria began within hours of Assad’s government collapsing on 8 December 2024, when Israeli ground forces crossed the 1974 ceasefire line in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to seize the UN-monitored buffer zone between the two countries. This marked the first major breach of the ceasefire line by Israeli ground forces since the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Within 48 hours of Assad’s fall, Israeli troops had seized 350 square kilometers of Syrian territory stretching from Mount Hermon in the north to the Yarmouk Basin in southern Daraa province. Simultaneously, Israeli fighter jets carried out more than 350 air strikes across multiple Syrian provinces, destroying dozens of Syrian military aircraft, air defense systems and weapons stockpiles.
In the 21 months since that initial incursion, Israel has consolidated its control over the region through a expanding network of military infrastructure. Hamza Ghadban, director of the Sijil Centre, told Middle East Eye that Israel has already completed construction of nine permanent military bases in southern Syria, with a 10th currently under development. The international community has largely remained silent on this expansion, with no major diplomatic or political pushback to curb Israel’s territorial advances.
After two large-scale ground incursions into southern Daraa in March and April 2025 that resulted in deadly clashes between Israeli troops and local Syrian fighters, Ghadban said Israel shifted its strategy to what he terms “silent strangulation”: a sustained campaign of small-scale raids, cross-border incursions, and permanent checkpoint establishment. Israeli operations are concentrated in a 15-kilometer deep triangular zone running from Mount Hermon in the north to the Yarmouk Basin in the south, which Ghadban describes as the consistent “hotspot for Israeli activities in Syria.”
The report’s detailed geographic analysis finds that over 80% of all documented violations are concentrated in Quneitra governorate, making it the primary theater of Israeli operations, followed by Daraa and Rif Dimashq. Within Quneitra, central and northern rural areas see the highest intensity of incursions, driven by topography and population distribution, while southern Quneitra sees systematic targeting of sheep herders grazing near the ceasefire line. Satellite imagery collected between December 2024 and November 2025 confirms a continuous chain of fortified military outposts stretching the full length of Quneitra’s countryside, built on seized civilian and agricultural land. In Jubata al-Khashab, Israeli forces cleared 2,500 dunams of forest and farmland to build a fortified outpost that has since been expanded into a full military base. In al-Hamidiya, 16 civilian homes were demolished to make way for a new base completed in just 50 days, displacing 12 local families and turning the area into a key surveillance and control hub.
In Daraa province, Israeli operations are less frequent but more targeted, consisting primarily of selective artillery strikes and midnight raids on specific homes and individuals, rather than large-scale sweeps. Israeli forces have turned frontline Syrian villages into tactical entry corridors, with four dedicated “military gates” serving specific operational functions for armored vehicles, troop movements and heavy weapons convoys entering Syria. Ghadban explained that Israel’s end goal is to establish a continuous geographic security belt spanning the entire length of southern Syria, anchored on strategic high ground that allows full surveillance and fire control over all of southern Syria.
Beyond direct military incursions, the report documents a systematic campaign of environmental damage targeting agricultural and grazing lands near the buffer zone, which Ghadban labels “environmental genocide.” Since January 2026, Israeli aircraft have sprayed unidentified chemical substances across more than 65 kilometers of land along the 1974 ceasefire line. Within days of spraying, vast stretches of vegetation withered, damaging an estimated 3,500 dunams of pasture land and 1,500 dunams of woodland in southern Quneitra alone. Agriculture and livestock herding are the primary livelihoods for local communities, leaving hundreds of families directly impacted. Ghadban said the spraying is a deliberate tactic to force civilian displacement by destroying local income sources. While Syria’s Ministry of Agriculture did not find acute toxicity in tests, it did not identify the chemicals used. The tactic mirrors spraying along the Israel-Lebanon border, where the substance used was confirmed as glyphosate, a herbicide classified by the World Health Organization as probably carcinogenic to humans.
Israel is also moving forward with major long-term infrastructure projects to formalize its control over the expanded border area. In early 2026, the Israeli government announced a $1.7 billion plan to build the 500-kilometer “Eastern Border Security Barrier”, a continuous fortified line running from the southern Golan Heights to the Samar Dunes north of Eilat on Israel’s southern tip. Israel claims the project includes $80 million in contracts for demining with U.S. technology firm Ondas Holdings and its Israeli subsidiary 4M Defence, but the Sijil Centre analysis concludes demining is merely a cover for building an AI-powered “smart border” equipped with sensor networks, military drones and ground-based autonomous robots. Ghadban noted that the topographical changes and scale of equipment deployed far exceed what is required for demining, indicating the technology is intended for permanent long-term border security.
The new smart barrier is being integrated with the long-planned Sufa 53 military road running parallel to the ceasefire line in Quneitra, which Israel began constructing in 2022. Together, the two projects form a permanent fortified corridor under the command of the newly created 96th “Gilad” Division, tasked with securing the tri-border region where Israel, Syria and Jordan meet. Ghadban linked the project to Israeli plans to expand Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights: in April 2026, the Israeli cabinet approved legislation to bring an additional 3,000 Israeli settlers to the Golan by 2030, centered on expanding the main settlement of Katzrin.
Israeli officials have become increasingly open about their long-term territorial ambitions in Syria. Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a leading settlement advocate, stated in April 2026 that Israel will formally annex the Mount Hermon strategic summit and the buffer zone at minimum, expanding Israeli borders alongside similar territorial gains in Gaza and Lebanon. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz doubled down on this stance, declaring Israel “will not move a millimetre from Syria.”
For local Syrian communities affected by the incursions, little has changed from the era of Assad rule, the report finds. The marginalized southern border regions received almost no state support under Hafez and Bashar al-Assad, and the new post-Assad Syrian government has yet to provide any meaningful support, compensation or formal engagement with affected communities. The only exception was a brief visit by Syrian officials and small-scale infrastructure repairs after a 17-year-old boy was killed in an Israeli strike in April 2026, a step Ghadban notes “hasn’t happened at all before.” Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ibrahim Olabi, has formally raised the issue with the UN Security Council, accusing Israeli forces of terrorizing civilians, carrying out enforced disappearances, home raids and ongoing territorial encroachments in the buffer zone.
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Two dead as car ploughs into crowd in Germany’s Leipzig
On a bustling Monday in eastern Germany, a violent incident has left the nation reeling: a car drove into a crowd of pedestrians on a central Leipzig street, claiming at least two lives and wounding multiple other people, local law enforcement and emergency authorities confirmed.
This attack marks the latest in a string of high-profile car-ramming attacks that have shaken German public life over the past decade, following similar incidents in Berlin, Munich, and most recently Magdeburg just months prior. In this new event, the suspect driver was taken into custody shortly after the vehicle careened off a central city square and onto Grimmaische Street, a busy pedestrian corridor in Leipzig’s historic old town. The tree-lined thoroughfare is lined with popular shops and centuries-old buildings, located steps away from some of the city’s most famous cultural and tourist landmarks.
As of early official updates, key details surrounding the attack remain unconfirmed. Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung told reporters that authorities have not yet established a clear motive for the violence, and have not released public information about the background of the perpetrator. Both Jung and local police have confirmed the fatality count stands at two. Local fire chief Axel Schuh added that at least two of the wounded are in critical condition, while an additional 20 people sustained minor injuries in the incident.
Law enforcement officials confirmed the driver was arrested without further confrontation, noting that there is no ongoing threat to the public stemming from the attack. Authorities also shared that the driver brought the vehicle to a stop on his own accord before being taken into custody.
Television footage from the scene shows a white passenger car with severe damage to its front end and windshield, with the entire street cordoned off by law enforcement. Scores of emergency response vehicles, including police cruisers, fire trucks, and ambulances, surrounded the crash site, with two medical helicopters also deployed to airlift critically wounded victims to local hospitals.
The attack comes against a longer backdrop of repeated vehicle ramming attacks that have reshaped German security and political discourse over the past eight years. The first major modern incident occurred in December 2016, when a Tunisian man motivated by jihadist ideology drove a hijacked truck into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 13 people and injuring dozens more.
More recently, a string of high-profile attacks has kept the issue at the top of public concern. In 2024, a Saudi man with documented anti-Islam views drove into a crowded Magdeburg Christmas market, killing six people and wounding more than 300. Just two months ago in February 2025, an Afghan driver rammed his vehicle into a public march in central Munich, killing a mother and her young daughter and injuring roughly 30 other attendees.
These attacks have coincided with growing tensions around immigration in German society, which first flared after a massive influx of migrants and refugees to the country in 2015. The issues of border security and immigration control have risen to the top of national political debate, a shift that has contributed to a significant surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in recent years.
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Three Russian diplomats expelled from Austria over spying accusations
In a sharp escalation of diplomatic tensions between Vienna and Moscow, Austria has ordered the expulsion of three Russian diplomats over allegations of unauthorized espionage activity carried out from official Russian diplomatic sites within the country. The expelled personnel have already departed Austrian territory, according to top government officials.
Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger confirmed that the intelligence gathering operation relied on an extensive network of surveillance antennas, described as a “forest of antennas,” installed across the rooftops of Russian diplomatic properties — including the main Russian embassy in central Vienna and a separate Russian diplomatic compound outside the capital. Initial reporting by Austria’s national public broadcaster ORF, which was later formally verified by the Austrian foreign ministry, first brought the existence of the antenna network to public attention.
Long a source of friction for Austrian domestic intelligence agencies, the antennas have enabled Russian operatives to intercept satellite internet data from a wide range of organizations, including multiple international bodies based in Vienna, ORF reported. In an official statement shared with the BBC, Meinl-Reisinger framed the expulsion as a decisive break from past policy under Austria’s new governing coalition. “Espionage is a security issue for Austria,” she said. “We have brought about a change of course in this government and are taking decisive action against it. We have made this clear to the Russian side, particularly with regard to the forest of antennas at the Russian embassy.” The foreign minister added that the misuse of diplomatic immunity to conduct spying operations was completely unacceptable under international norms.
The Russian embassy in Vienna has rejected the Austrian allegations in strong terms, denouncing the expulsion as an unjustified, politically motivated move that Moscow will not let go unanswered. “We regard this latest unfriendly move by the Austrian authorities as entirely unjustified, purely politically motivated and categorically unacceptable,” the embassy said in a formal statement. “Moscow will undoubtedly respond harshly to these completely ill-considered actions on the part of the Austrian side.”
This latest incident comes amid a growing string of Russian espionage accusations across Central Europe, affecting both Austria and neighboring Germany. In January 2026, Vienna launched the highest-profile Austrian spy trial in decades, when former Austrian intelligence official Egisto Ott went on trial on charges that he passed classified information to Russian intelligence operatives and fugitive former Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek in exchange for payment. Ott’s legal team has vigorously denied all allegations, and the trial remains ongoing as of this reporting.
Marsalek, an Austrian citizen who is wanted on fraud charges by German authorities and listed on an Interpol Red Notice, is widely accused of operating as an asset for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). He fled Europe through Austria in 2020 after the collapse of Wirecard, and is currently believed to be residing in Moscow. Just weeks after Ott’s trial began, Germany also expelled a Russian individual accused of spying and summoned the Russian ambassador to Berlin to formally protest the activity. In a public social media statement, the German foreign ministry stressed that it would not tolerate espionage on German soil, especially when conducted under the protection of diplomatic status.
Vienna’s status as a global hub for espionage stretches back decades, rooted in its Cold War history as a neutral European power located directly along the Iron Curtain, which made it an ideal listening post for both Western and Eastern bloc intelligence agencies. Today, the city hosts permanent headquarters for multiple major international bodies, including the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Most nations maintain multiple diplomatic missions in Vienna to serve these international organizations alongside their official bilateral embassies, creating a large community of diplomats who enjoy universal diplomatic immunity — a status that is frequently abused to cover unauthorized intelligence activity.
Austria’s most recent annual Report on the Protection of the Constitution identifies Vienna as “one of the last remaining locations for Russian signals intelligence in Europe.” The report notes that the extensive signals intelligence operation has directly led to the unusually large contingent of Russian diplomatic staff accredited in the capital, which currently stands at roughly 220 personnel even after multiple expulsion actions. The document also warns that ongoing Russian intelligence activity originating from Vienna has caused measurable damage to Austria’s international reputation. Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Austria has expelled a total of 14 Russian diplomatic staff in response to espionage-related incidents.
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Britney Spears pleads guilty to reckless driving after arrest
Pop icon Britney Spears has escaped custodial sentence after striking a plea deal that sees her plead guilty to a reduced lesser charge, stemming from her arrest earlier this year on suspicion of driving under the influence. The 44-year-old did not appear in person for the Ventura County court hearing held Monday, where her legal representative entered the guilty plea to a count of reckless driving involving alcohol or drugs.
The incident that led to court proceedings dates back to March 4, when law enforcement officers pulled Spears over on a Southern California highway. Authorities confirmed at the time that the singer was operating her BMW in an erratic manner at excessive speed, prompting the stop and eventual arrest on DUI suspicion.
In the immediate aftermath of her arrest, multiple reports confirmed that Spears voluntarily admitted herself to a rehabilitation facility to address underlying issues. Her public and legal teams have repeatedly characterized the highway incident as unacceptable, emphasizing the singer has taken ownership of her actions.
“Through her plea today, Britney has accepted responsibility for her conduct,” Spears’ attorney Michael Goldstein said in an official statement released after the hearing. He went on to note that the singer has already made considerable progress in implementing meaningful, positive changes in her life — a shift that directly influenced prosecutors’ decision to downgrade the charges and dismiss the original DUI allegation.
This is an ongoing developing story, with additional details expected to be released to the public in the coming days. Readers can access real-time updates by downloading the BBC News mobile application, or by following the BBC Breaking account on X for immediate breaking news alerts.
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Stars set for Met Gala, fashion’s biggest night
One of the most anticipated annual events in global fashion and culture is set to open its red carpet doors on Monday, as the Met Gala – widely hailed as the biggest night in fashion – prepares to welcome hundreds of A-list celebrities from across entertainment, sports, and design to Manhattan for its 2025 iteration. This year’s gathering centers the theme “Fashion is Art”, a conceptual framing crafted to align with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s latest flagship exhibition, simply titled “Costume Art”, which will open to the public at the iconic Manhattan venue on May 10. The exhibition will trace centuries of artistic representation of the dressed human form, drawing direct connections between sartorial craft and fine art practice.
Organized annually as a major fundraising drive for the Costume Institute, the invite-only event has evolved far beyond its origins as a small high society function since it was first launched in 1948. When Vogue’s global editorial director Anna Wintour, who has now led the event for 30 years, took over stewardship in the 1990s, she reimagined the gala as a high-profile global spectacle that blends celebrity influence, high fashion, and cultural philanthropy – turning it into a social media juggernaut where attendees compete to deliver viral, over-the-top red carpet looks that dominate headlines for days.
This year’s co-chair lineup has already generated massive excitement among fans, headlined by Beyoncé, the global music superstar who is set to make her first Met Gala appearance in 10 years. She will share co-chair duties with tennis icon Venus Williams and Academy Award-winning actor Nicole Kidman. Organizers have also named a star-studded host committee led by Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello and actor Zoe Kravitz, which includes pop stars Sabrina Carpenter and Doja Cat, retired legendary ballet dancer Misty Copeland, and WNBA champion A’ja Wilson. Last year’s event broke new ground by centering the subversive cultural aesthetic of Black dandyism, marking one of the first times the gala devoted its theme to elevating men’s fashion.
However, the 2025 event has not been without public pushback. After Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos were announced as the gala’s lead sponsors and honorary co-chairs, a grassroots opposition campaign has sprung up across New York City’s streets and subway systems, with some critics calling for a boycott of what they frame as an vulgar celebration of extreme wealth inequality. The campaign is organized by “Everyone Hates Elon”, a UK-founded activist group whose spokesperson clarified that the organization targets ultra-wealthy billionaires beyond just Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest person.
For attendees and fashion fans worldwide, Monday’s event will still deliver the unrivaled star power and spectacle that has become its hallmark, with fashion industry observers already anticipating a night of boundary-pushing design and memorable red carpet moments that will shape fashion discourse for months to come.
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Iran threatens to attack US warships that enter Strait of Hormuz
Escalating cross-border tensions have thrown the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz back into the global spotlight, after Iran’s top military commander issued a stark warning that any United States naval vessel entering the waterway will face immediate armed attack. The new threat comes just days after former US President Donald Trump launched what he calls “Project Freedom”, framed as a humanitarian mission to extract commercial ships stranded in the strait amid ongoing restrictions from Tehran.
The warning, first reported by Reuters early Monday, came from Ali Abdollahi, commander of Iran’s unified military command. “We warn that any foreign armed forces, especially the aggressive US army, will be attacked if they intend to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz,” Abdollahi stated, marking the second time in days that Iranian military officials have explicitly targeted the US with this threat.
Trump, who had previously ordered a full blockade on Iranian ports and avoided deploying US naval assets into the strait over fears of retaliation, launched the new initiative Sunday. He has already issued a counter-warning to Iran, stating that any interference with the US mission will prompt a direct military response from American forces.
Stretching between Iran and Oman, the Strait of Hormuz is widely considered the world’s most vital energy chokepoint. Roughly 20% of the globe’s daily crude oil output and a fifth of global liquefied natural gas shipments pass through the narrow waterway, according to International Energy Agency data. When the strait was closed amid recent conflict, the IEA recorded the largest single supply disruption in global energy history: output fell by more than 10 million barrels of oil per day, while global LNG supplies dropped by 20%.
The sharp exchange of threats comes against a fragile backdrop of diplomatic efforts to end the ongoing US-Iran conflict, with Pakistan serving as the neutral mediator between the two sides. A ceasefire has been in place since April 8, but Iranian leadership has openly questioned the sincerity of US commitment to a lasting peace deal.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei slammed Washington on Monday for dragging out negotiations, saying US demands throughout the talks have been “excessive”. “The other side must resolve to adopt a reasonable approach and abandon excessive demands regarding Iran,” Baghaei told reporters. He also added that all nations that have participated in the conflict, both directly and indirectly, bear collective responsibility for the ongoing crisis.Many Iranian political observers, including academic Mohammad Maraandi — who is widely viewed as aligned with senior Iranian government officials — share the widespread skepticism over US intentions. Maraandi has publicly argued that the US is using diplomatic talks as a cover to rebuild its military positioning in the region ahead of a new wave of attacks on Iran.
According to reporting from Al Jazeera, Iran recently submitted a formal three-phase peace proposal to the US via Pakistani mediators, with the goal of turning the current fragile ceasefire into a permanent end to hostilities within 30 days. The core of the proposal centers on a binding regional non-aggression pact, which would require commitments from all regional actors including Israel to avoid future conflict and cement stability across the Middle East.
Under the first phase of the proposal, the Strait of Hormuz would be gradually reopened to commercial traffic in tandem with the US lifting its blockade and trade restrictions on Iranian ports. Tehran has also offered to take full responsibility for clearing sea mines from the waterway to restore safe navigation for global shipping.