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  • Crunch Clasico as Barca look to pounce on Real unrest

    Crunch Clasico as Barca look to pounce on Real unrest

    El Clasico, the most anticipated fixture in Spanish football, is never just another 90 minutes of action. But this Sunday’s Nou Camp meeting between Barcelona and Real Madrid carries far higher stakes than most, as the Catalan side stands just one result away from securing back-to-back domestic titles, while Real enters the clash mired in damaging internal conflict.

    Barcelona holds an 11-point advantage at the top of the La Liga table heading into the fixture. A win or even a draw on home soil will formally seal their second consecutive championship, capping a season of near-total dominance across Spain’s top flight. For head coach Hansi Flick’s squad, the build-up to the match has been marked by calm confidence, with the club framing its camp as a unified push to claim the title in front of its own supporters.

    The narrative around Real Madrid, by contrast, has been dominated by off-pitch chaos rather than on-pitch preparation. A dressing-room altercation between star midfielders Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni earlier this week has thrown the club into crisis, leaving Valverde sidelined for El Clasico with concussion symptoms and resulting in a 500,000 euro fine for both players after an internal investigation.

    Tchouameni returned to training Friday and is available for selection, but interim head coach Alvaro Arbeloa refused to confirm whether the French international will start. Addressing reporters at his pre-match press conference Saturday, Arbeloa attempted to downplay the severity of the incident, noting that internal disputes are not unprecedented in elite football. The 43-year-old, who took over the role in January following Xabi Alonso’s departure, even recalled a well-documented 2007 incident from his time at Liverpool, where Craig Bellamy confronted John Arne Riise with a golf club during a training camp dispute.

    “These are situations that have always happened, although I’m certainly not justifying it,” Arbeloa told reporters. “It was an incident and we were unfortunate that Fede ended up with a gash. It was more bad luck than anything else. What happens in the Real Madrid dressing room should stay in the Real Madrid dressing room, and that’s what hurts me the most. The players have acknowledged their mistake, expressed their regret and asked for forgiveness. That’s enough for me. If you want to blame someone, here I am.”

    Arbeloa’s position at the club is already precarious, with Spanish media linking high-profile candidates including Jose Mourinho to the permanent head coach role for next season. Pressure is also mounting on long-time Real president Florentino Perez, who has overseen a turbulent two-year stretch that has seen three different managers in charge and no major trophy won. The upcoming permanent head coach appointment is widely seen as one of the most critical decisions of Perez’s 20-plus year presidency, as the club works to rebuild stability and competitiveness after a messy season. Arbeloa, however, defended the 79-year-old, arguing no leader is better positioned to turn the club’s fortunes around.

    “There is no-one more prepared than Florentino Perez to turn this situation around,” he said. “I remember how the club was before his arrival. He is the president with the most titles in Real Madrid history and he brought the club back to where it belongs. We all have to fight together.”

    Despite the off-pitch chaos, Arbeloa insisted his squad remains focused on claiming three points Sunday. “We face the Clasico with the ambition to do things well and go to win,” he added.

    Over at Barcelona’s training ground, the mood has been strikingly different. The club has shared multiple upbeat updates from training throughout the week, featuring photos and videos of relaxed, connected players, with one social media post describing the squad as “One big family”. Flick echoed that unified tone in his pre-match press conference, saying his side is eager to secure the title at home in front of their supporters.

    “We want to win our second title in a row. I think it’s amazing. It’s not normal here in Spain,” Flick said. “We are very clear in how we want to play. We want to win this at home. The fans are supporting us. This is why the Clasico is so important for everyone. We are here because we have played a fantastic season as a team and this is what I want to see tomorrow. The tension is very high. Everyone in the world is watching, but in the end it’s about us. We want to play as a team and a unit.”

    Asked for his reaction to Real Madrid’s dressing-room dispute, Flick downplayed the news, saying such incidents are not unique to any club. “Things like this happen all over the world, so I don’t think it’s something exclusive to Real Madrid,” he said. “Was I surprised? Maybe a little, but in the end I don’t really care, because it’s not my club and not my team, so I shouldn’t be thinking about it.” He added that the key to Barcelona’s success this season has been the squad’s shared focus and internal unity: “The most important thing in this club is that we are all going in the same direction. When something happens, we respond together. In football and in life, these things can happen, but you have to manage them.”

    Flick did reserve praise for Real star Kylian Mbappe when asked about the French forward, describing him as “one of the best players in the world” and highlighting his exceptional finishing quality in the penalty area.

    The first El Clasico of this campaign, played back in October at the Santiago Bernabeu, ended in a 2-1 win for Real, when the title race was still wide open and the club was under different management with far less public internal tension. This time around, the stakes could not be clearer: Barcelona can lift the trophy on home soil just 90 minutes after kickoff, while Real is only playing to delay the inevitable and preserve its season’s pride.

    A victory would also put Barcelona on course to match La Liga’s all-time record of 100 points in a single season, moving the Catalan side to 91 points with just three matches remaining. The 100-point mark has only been hit twice before – by Mourinho’s Real Madrid in 2011-12, and Tito Vilanova’s Barcelona a year later – and no side has reached the milestone since. For Flick’s dominant squad, matching that record would be the final confirmation of their status as the best team in Spain this season. But before that history can be written, they must first get past their biggest rivals on Sunday.

  • WHO chief reassures Tenerife residents ahead of hantavirus cruise ship arrival

    WHO chief reassures Tenerife residents ahead of hantavirus cruise ship arrival

    Tensions are running high on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife this weekend, as public health authorities and local emergency services finalize strict containment protocols for the imminent arrival of the MV Hondius — a Dutch cruise vessel grappling with a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has already claimed three lives.

    As residents voiced deep anxiety, with lingering trauma from the 2020 COVID-19 cruise ship outbreaks still fresh for many, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus delivered a direct public message to ease community fears, stressing that this event poses far lower public health risk than the coronavirus pandemic.

    “I know you are worried,” Tedros told Tenerife residents in a public address Saturday. “I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another Covid. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low.”

    Six confirmed cases of hantavirus have been linked to the voyage, which originated in South America. Three passengers have died from the infection to date: the first fatality was recorded on April 11, a second on May 2, and a 69-year-old Dutch passenger who disembarked in St. Helena on April 24 died in South Africa two days later. Two infected British passengers are currently receiving care in the Netherlands and South Africa, while a third Briton is undergoing treatment for a suspected case on the remote Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, where the ship made a mid-April stopover.

    The MV Hondius is scheduled to dock at Granadilla Port between 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. GMT Sunday, Spanish Health Minister Mónica García confirmed at a press briefing Saturday. The decision to allow the vessel to dock in Tenerife has been deeply controversial: regional president Fernando Clavijo has openly opposed the move, questioning why the vessel could not complete its outbreak response at its previous stop in Cape Verde. Far-right Spanish party Vox has attacked the national central government over the call, and local protests have broken out across the island in recent days. In contrast, Tedros praised Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for the decision, framing it as “an act of solidarity and moral duty,” noting that Tenerife was selected specifically for its robust medical infrastructure, emergency response capacity, and ability to facilitate safe repatriation of passengers.

    To eliminate any risk of community spread, Spanish authorities have put in place a rigorous set of containment measures. All passengers will remain quarantined aboard the vessel while initial health screenings are conducted, and no one will be permitted to disembark until a repatriation flight is waiting on the island’s tarmac to carry them directly back to their home countries. Repatriation flights are arranged for passengers from the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, Belgium, and Ireland, with Spanish passengers prioritized for disembarkation and repatriation.

    All people who interact with passengers during transfer — including bus drivers and logistics staff — will be required to wear FFP2 masks, and passengers will only be permitted to bring a small, sealed bag of essential items such as identification documents, mobile devices and chargers, and basic personal necessities when disembarking. Notably, the body of the passenger who died aboard the vessel will not be unloaded in the Canary Islands; the ship will continue onward to the Netherlands after repatriations are complete, where the remains and personal belongings will be disinfected before being removed.

    Health experts explain that hantaviruses are most commonly carried by wild rodents, and the strain detected in this outbreak — the Andes strain — can spread between humans, a mode of transmission that has raised targeted concerns. All infected passengers are believed to have contracted the virus during pre-voyage travel through Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, where they visited areas with populations of rodent species known to carry the pathogen, Tedros confirmed. As of this publication, the exact origin of the outbreak remains unclear, and public health teams have not yet confirmed whether any additional crew or asymptomatic passengers have been exposed to the virus. A WHO expert is already aboard the vessel to monitor conditions, and Tedros has announced he will travel to Tenerife personally to observe the response operation first-hand. Symptoms of hantavirus infection range from mild flu-like effects including fever, muscle aches, fatigue, and abdominal pain to severe respiratory distress in advanced cases.

  • Experts wonder ‘Where is the CDC?’ as a hantavirus outbreak unfolds on a cruise ship

    Experts wonder ‘Where is the CDC?’ as a hantavirus outbreak unfolds on a cruise ship

    A high-profile hantavirus outbreak aboard a South Atlantic cruise ship is sparking widespread criticism of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with public health experts warning the agency’s absence from the frontline response signals a dangerous erosion of its once-legendary global leadership in infectious disease management.

    The outbreak first emerged in early April, when a 70-year-old Dutch passenger developed a fatal febrile illness during a voyage traveling from Argentina to Antarctica. His death was followed by two more fatalities — his wife and a German passenger — and hantavirus was formally confirmed as the causative pathogen on May 2. The World Health Organization formally classified the cluster as an outbreak days later, with roughly two dozen U.S. citizens on board the vessel: seven disembarked last month, while 17 remain on the ship currently docked in the Canary Islands.

    Unlike past international public health emergencies, where the CDC stepped in immediately as a core partner to the WHO leading on-site investigations, risk communication and passenger coordination, this outbreak has been almost entirely managed by global health bodies and foreign authorities. Multiple leading public health experts say the CDC’s delayed, low-profile response represents a stark departure from its decades-long reputation as the world’s preeminent public health agency.

    “The CDC is not even a player,” stated Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University expert in global public health law. “I’ve never seen that before.” Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, called the outbreak a critical test of U.S. preparedness for emerging biological threats — one the country is failing. “This is a sentinel event that speaks to how well the country is prepared for a disease threat. And right now, I’m very sorry to say that we are not prepared,” she explained.

    The muted CDC role comes after 16 months of restructuring under the second Trump administration, which has already withdrawn the U.S. from the World Health Organization, restricted CDC scientists from communicating with international colleagues at multiple points, and cut thousands of roles across the agency — including specialists working in its ship sanitation program. The administration has pivoted away from multilateral global health coordination, instead pursuing a network of one-on-one bilateral public health agreements with individual nations, which it says will advance American innovation in global health. To date, roughly 30 such agreements have been finalized.

    HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has framed current agency reforms as an effort to “restore the CDC’s focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.” But experts argue the current hantavirus response exposes the flaws in this new approach.

    Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center, noted that hantavirus poses minimal broader risk, as it does not spread easily between humans — the only reason the current situation has not spiraled out of control. Even so, she argues the agency’s response lays bare its weakened current state. “This situation just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now,” Nuzzo said.

    The CDC has not remained completely silent on the outbreak. Earlier this week, the agency released a brief statement calling the risk to the U.S. general public “extremely low” and framing the U.S. as “the world’s leader in global health security.” Nuzzo pushed back on that messaging, arguing it failed to meet core public health communication standards: “Not only was that not helpful, it actually does damage because a core principle of public health communications is humility.”

    Acting CDC Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya posted on social media that the agency is sharing technical expertise, coordinating with domestic and international stakeholders, and monitoring the health of all U.S. passengers in preparation for medical support. Arizona state officials confirmed this week that one asymptomatic, non-contagious U.S. passenger who disembarked earlier has already returned to the state, with notification coming via the CDC. WHO officials also confirmed the agency has shared basic technical data related to the pathogen.

    For the most part, however, federal health officials have declined interview requests and remained tight-lipped, with key updates emerging only through anonymous leaks. It was not until Friday evening that the CDC officially confirmed it would deploy a small response team to the Canary Islands to meet the ship, with a second team prepping at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska to receive evacuated U.S. passengers at a dedicated quarantine facility.

    Experts have drawn a sharp contrast between this slow response and the CDC’s aggressive action during the 2020 Diamond Princess COVID-19 outbreak, another large cruise ship outbreak off the coast of Japan. At that time, the CDC immediately deployed on-site personnel, led evacuation efforts for U.S. passengers, managed quarantine protocols, shared viral genetic data, coordinated closely with the WHO and Japanese authorities, held regular public briefings, and published rapid research that became the global reference for COVID-19 transmission on cruise ships.

    While the overall Diamond Princess response did draw criticism for failing to stop the virus’s global spread, former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden and other experts note that the agency was actively engaged from day one. “The CDC was right on top of it, very visible, very active in trying to manage and contain it,” Gostin said, contrasting that with the current delayed, subdued response. He added that the administration’s bilateral approach to global health cannot replace multilateral coordination: “You can’t possibly cover a global health crisis by doing one-on-one deals with countries here and there.”

  • Rosenberg: Scaled-back Victory Parade in Moscow’s Red Square

    Rosenberg: Scaled-back Victory Parade in Moscow’s Red Square

    In a marked departure from tradition, Moscow’s iconic Red Square played host to a significantly scaled-back Victory Day Parade this year, according to analysis from the BBC’s senior Russia correspondent, who reported on the ground from the Russian capital.

    Annual Victory Day celebrations mark the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, and for decades, the event has been defined by elaborate military displays, thousands of marching troops, fleets of armored vehicles rolling across Red Square’s cobblestones, and flyovers by Russian air force jets that draw tens of thousands of spectators and global media attention. This year, however, the public event unfolded in an unprecedentedly subdued atmosphere.

    The BBC’s Russia editor, who has covered Victory Day events in Moscow for years, noted that the usual crowds of onlookers lining the streets leading to Red Square were absent, and the scope of military hardware on display was dramatically reduced compared to previous years. Many traditional fanfare elements that have long been central to the celebration were cut from the official program, leading to a far quieter observance than the nation has come to expect.

    Local authorities had announced adjustments to the event weeks earlier, citing security concerns as the primary reason for the scaled-back format. The muted celebration has drawn international attention, as analysts point to it as a visible reflection of shifting priorities and current security dynamics facing Russia amid ongoing regional tensions.

  • Iran warns the US against attacks on its oil tankers and other ships but ceasefire appears to hold

    Iran warns the US against attacks on its oil tankers and other ships but ceasefire appears to hold

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Just one month into a tentative ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, regional tensions are reigniting, with competing military escalations and high-stakes diplomatic negotiations unfolding across the Persian Gulf. In a stark public warning issued Saturday by the naval branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, any offensive targeting Iranian commercial and oil vessels will trigger a devastating retaliatory strike against both U.S. military bases in the region and enemy shipping, the force confirmed.

    The warning came 24 hours after U.S. forces intercepted two Iranian oil tankers attempting to break Washington’s blockade of Iranian ports, a move that has cast significant doubt over the durability of the month-long truce that U.S. officials continue to insist remains in effect. As tensions mount, Bahrain – the small Persian Gulf island nation that hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and regional headquarters – announced the arrest of 41 individuals it claims are connected to an Iran-aligned network linked to the Revolutionary Guard.
    According to Bahrain’s interior ministry, investigations have confirmed the group maintained direct communication with the Revolutionary Guard and was raising funds to transfer back to Iran to support what it describes as terrorist activities. The Sunni-ruled monarchy, which is home to a majority Shiite population like Iran, has long faced accusations from international human rights groups that it weaponizes regional tensions between Washington and Tehran to crack down on domestic political dissent.
    Iran has issued a sharp rebuke to Bahrain over its actions. Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, warned in a social media post that aligning with U.S.-backed initiatives will carry severe long-term consequences. “The Strait of Hormuz is a vital global energy lifeline; do not risk closing it off to yourselves forever,” Azizi said.
    Since the U.S. and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran on February 28, Tehran has largely blocked access to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which nearly 20% of global oil supplies transit daily. The closure triggered an immediate spike in global fuel prices and sent shockwaves through international financial markets. In response, the U.S. imposed its own naval blockade of Iranian ports, with U.S. Central Command confirming Saturday that its forces have turned away 58 commercial vessels and disabled four ships since the blockade went into effect on April 13.

    As regional powers and global actors work to de-escalate, Western nations are already positioning military assets to secure the strait once a lasting truce is reached. Britain’s defense ministry announced Saturday it is deploying the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon to the Middle East to preposition for a future multinational mission protecting commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz once hostilities cease. The destroyer will prepare to join a U.K.- and French-led international security initiative, after France announced earlier this week it is moving its full aircraft carrier strike group to the Red Sea in preparation. The two countries have coordinated talks with more than 30 nations to build a coalition to reestablish freedom of navigation in the strait, but have emphasized the mission will not launch until a sustainable ceasefire is in place and the global maritime industry can be assured of safe passage.

    Diplomatic efforts to cement a lasting peace deal are continuing around the clock, with multiple global mediators working to bridge gaps between Washington and Tehran. U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated his threat to resume full-scale bombing campaigns against Iran if Tehran rejects Washington’s proposal, which calls for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and rolling back Iran’s disputed nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions. On Friday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei dismissed U.S. pressure tactics, telling state-run news agency IRNA that Iran is not paying attention to arbitrary American deadlines.
    Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed his government has been holding continuous talks with both U.S. and Iranian officials to extend the current ceasefire and reach a permanent negotiated settlement. Both Russia and Saudi Arabia have publicly called for intensified diplomatic efforts to reach a sustainable, long-term agreement to end the conflict, according to Russia’s foreign ministry. Russian President Vladimir Putin also confirmed that Moscow’s longstanding proposal – to transport Iran’s enriched uranium out of the country to build trust and facilitate negotiations – remains on the table. Putin explained the plan would put all of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile under the full oversight of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, allowing the international community to verify the size and location of Iran’s nuclear materials. Egypt and Qatar’s top diplomats also reaffirmed in a recent phone call that diplomacy is the only viable path to resolving the conflict.

    Amid all the diplomatic and military activity, one key figure remains out of public view: Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard publicly since the war began. The lack of public appearances has sparked widespread speculation about his health and status. On Friday, a senior Iranian official close to the office of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – Mojtaba’s father, who was killed in the opening days of the U.S.-Israeli offensive – told a pro-government gathering that the new supreme leader is in full good health and will appear public once his recovery is complete. Mazaher Hosseini confirmed Mojtaba sustained knee and back injuries in the opening bombardment, but said those wounds have largely healed.
    The Associated Press contributed reporting from Cairo and London to this article.

  • What to know about British elections that hammered Starmer’s Labour Party

    What to know about British elections that hammered Starmer’s Labour Party

    LONDON – Just 18 months after Keir Starmer’s centre-left Labour Party swept to power ending 14 years of Conservative rule, the British prime minister is fighting for his political future after a catastrophic showing in the UK’s 2025 local and regional elections. The final vote counts, certified Saturday, delivered a string of humiliating defeats for Labour: the party lost more than 1,000 local council seats across England, and was ousted from government in Wales after holding power there for 27 consecutive years. Meanwhile, hard-right anti-immigration party Reform UK, led by veteran nationalist figure Nigel Farage, secured a historic breakthrough, picking up nearly 1,300 seats across England, claiming second place in Wales and making unexpected inroads in Scotland. The elections were widely framed as an informal midterm referendum on Starmer’s leadership, and the final outcome delivered a clear, unforgiving rejection from voters that has sent shockwaves through Westminster. Below are the five most critical lessons emerging from the poll results.

    ## Starmer’s leadership is hanging by a thread
    Despite the overwhelming rejection at the polls, Starmer has repeatedly rejected calls to step down, arguing that his resignation would plunge the UK into unnecessary political instability. So far, the prime minister has avoided an immediate open challenge to his leadership: most senior cabinet members have issued public statements of support, and the party’s most high-profile potential contenders – including Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former deputy leader Angela Rayner and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham – have all remained publicly silent on any leadership bid. But pressure is building quickly from within the Labour parliamentary party: a growing number of backbench lawmakers are now calling on Starmer to announce a formal timeline for his departure before the end of 2025. Under UK political rules, parties can replace a sitting prime minister mid-term without triggering an early general election, making a leadership transition logistically possible. “There has to be a timetable,” veteran Labour MP Clive Betts told the BBC, while fellow legislator Tony Vaughan called for an “orderly transition of leadership.” To demonstrate a quick shift in direction, Starmer announced two senior appointments Saturday, bringing veteran figures from previous Labour governments back into senior roles: former prime minister Gordon Brown was named a special envoy for global finance, and former deputy leader Harriet Harman was appointed as an advisor on women and gender equity. Starmer is set to deliver a major policy speech Monday in a bid to rebuild momentum, ahead of the government’s upcoming legislative agenda announcement, which will be delivered by King Charles III at the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday.

    ## Reform UK claims a historic political breakthrough
    The 2025 local elections marked a turning point for Reform UK, Farage’s hard-right anti-establishment party that has positioned itself as a populist alternative to the UK’s long-dominant major parties. Running on a platform centered on aggressive anti-immigration rhetoric and anti-establishment appeals, the party flipped hundreds of council seats in working-class northern English communities – including Sunderland – that have been solid Labour strongholds for decades. It also made significant gains at the expense of the Conservative Party in traditionally right-leaning areas such as Essex, east of London. Farage hailed the results as a “historic change in British politics,” saying he was confident the voters who switched to Reform were not just casting a protest vote, but making a long-term ideological shift. “Voters who have come to us are not doing it as a short-term protest,” Farage said. The party currently holds just 8 of the 650 seats in the UK House of Commons, and it remains unclear whether it can translate this local success into gains in a future national general election.

    ## The United Kingdom’s constitutional unity faces growing pressure
    The election results also highlighted growing regional divides across the UK, with pro-independence parties set to take power in both of the country’s semi-autonomous regional governments in Scotland and Wales – though neither has placed an immediate independence referendum on their agenda. The Scottish National Party (SNP), which has held power in Edinburgh since 2007, secured another term in government, but fell short of an outright parliamentary majority, making a new independence referendum unlikely in the near term. Labour and Reform UK tied for a distant second place in the Scottish Parliament. In Wales, Plaid Cymru – the Welsh nationalist party that aims to secure full independence from the UK but has no immediate plans to hold a vote – won the most seats in the Senedd, Wales’ devolved legislature. Though it fell short of a majority, it is widely expected to form a new governing administration. Reform UK took second place, while incumbent Labour fell to a disappointing third place, with outgoing Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan losing her own seat.

    ## Economic frustrations are at the root of Labour’s collapse
    As with most sitting governments facing voter backlash, the state of the UK economy lies at the heart of Labour’s poor showing. After ending 14 years of Conservative rule marked by austerity policies and the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Starmer’s government has struggled to bring down the cost of living and stimulate growth, hampered by ongoing global economic headwinds from the war in Ukraine and escalating geopolitical tensions involving Iran. Starmer has also alienated many of the party’s core left-wing supporters with proposed cuts to welfare spending, several of which were reversed after open rebellions from Labour lawmakers. Some senior Labour figures argue that the government’s progressive achievements – including new renter protections and an increase to the national minimum wage – have been overlooked by voters, with many pinning the blame on Starmer, who has been criticized as an uninspiring leader whose tenure has been marred by repeated scandals. The most high-profile of these was his failed attempt to appoint Peter Mandelson, a longtime party insider with ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as UK ambassador to Washington. But outgoing Barnsley Council leader Stephen Houghton, whose Labour administration was ousted by Reform UK in last week’s vote, said the problem ran far deeper than Starmer’s leadership. “This has been coming for 30 years around the country, in post-industrial communities, coastal communities, that have been left behind,” Houghton said. “You can change prime ministers all day long. If you don’t change policy, it’s not going to change.”

    ## The UK’s decades-old two-party system is collapsing
    Last week’s results confirm what political analysts have warned about for years: the UK’s long-standing two-party system, dominated for more than a century by Labour and the Conservatives, is fracturing beyond repair. The Conservatives also suffered massive losses in the local elections, leaving both major parties bleeding support to smaller, ideologically driven groups. Voters now have a far broader range of options than in previous decades, including the centrist Liberal Democrats and pro-independence nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales. But the biggest gains went to populist insurgent parties: Reform UK and the Green Party. Led by self-described “eco-populist” Zack Polanski, the Greens have expanded their policy focus beyond environmental action to include social justice and support for Palestinian statehood, and the party picked up hundreds of council seats from Labour in urban centers and university towns, taking control of multiple local authorities. Tony Travers, a professor of government at the London School of Economics, said the results make it almost certain that the next UK general election, scheduled to take place by 2029, will not deliver an outright majority to any single party. “So then you’re in the world of, after the election, two or three big minority parties trying to work out how they would govern,” Travers said – an outcome that has long been considered “very un-British.”

  • Hungary’s Péter Magyar is set to be sworn in as prime minister, ending Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule

    Hungary’s Péter Magyar is set to be sworn in as prime minister, ending Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule

    BUDAPEST, Hungary — In a historic shift that reshapes Hungary’s political landscape and its role in the European Union, Péter Magyar took the oath of office as Hungary’s new prime minister Saturday, walking through the doors of Budapest’s iconic neo-Gothic Parliament building to formally close 16 years of Viktor Orbán’s nationalist-populist governance.

    Magyar’s newly formed center-right Tisza Party delivered a historic upset last month, defeating Orbán’s long-ruling Fidesz in a landslide election that sent shockwaves across Central Europe. Tisza secured a governing majority of 141 seats in the 199-seat national parliament — a result unmatched by any single party in Hungary’s post-Communist era. Orbán’s Fidesz-KDNP alliance, which held 135 seats in the previous legislature, will now occupy just 52 seats, with the far-right Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) party taking the remaining six. For the first time since Hungary established its first post-Communist parliament in 1990, Orbán will not participate in the inaugural session. Following his election defeat, Orbán announced he would step away from the prime minister’s office to focus on rebuilding his right-wing political base.

    The 45-year-old Magyar, a former insider within Orbán’s party who only launched Tisza in 2024, campaigned on a promise of radical systemic change. A core pillar of his platform is rooting out systemic official corruption, which he has repeatedly argued has stifled economic opportunity for ordinary Hungarians for more than a decade.

    To mark the end of the Orbán era, Magyar has called on Hungarians across the country to join an all-day “regime-change celebration” outside Parliament on the day of his inauguration. After delivering his oath of office at approximately 3 p.m. local time, Magyar is scheduled to address the gathered crowd to outline his administration’s early priorities. Budapest’s liberal mayor Gergely Karácsony has also organized a public celebration along the banks of the Danube River Saturday evening, inviting all Hungarians to mark the political transition. In a social media post, Karácsony framed the gathering as a tribute to Hungarians who had faced repercussions under Orbán’s rule — including dismissed teachers, targeted journalists, persecuted minority groups and marginalized religious communities. “We can finally leave this era behind us — but first, let us remember the everyday heroes and express our gratitude with a farewell to the system,” Karácsony wrote.

    Among the new administration’s most pressing foreign policy priorities is repairing Hungary’s frayed relationship with the European Union, a tie Orbán pushed to the breaking point through years of confrontational rhetoric, repeated vetoes of key EU policy decisions and a gradual geopolitical alignment with Russia. Unlocking roughly €17 billion ($20 billion) in frozen EU development funds, withheld from Hungary during Orbán’s tenure over widespread rule-of-law and corruption violations, sits at the top of Magyar’s policy agenda. The injection of funds is widely viewed as critical to jumpstarting Hungary’s stagnant economy, which has seen little to no growth over the past four years. As a tangible signal of his government’s commitment to realigning with EU institutions, Tisza officials confirmed the EU flag will be raised once again on Parliament’s facade — 11 years after Orbán’s administration ordered it removed.

    Political analysts say the election of Magyar and the collapse of Orbán’s long-standing hold on power marks a dramatic shift not just for Hungary, but for the entire European Union. For years, Orbán’s open defiance of EU norms and frequent vetoes of bloc-wide policies on climate, migration and sanctions against Russia gridlocked EU decision-making, and his exit is expected to ease long-running political tensions within the 27-member bloc.

  • Putin denounces Nato at scaled back Victory Day parade

    Putin denounces Nato at scaled back Victory Day parade

    On May 9, Russia marked its most sacred national holiday — Victory Day, commemorating the Soviet Union’s historic defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II — with a drastically modified parade on Moscow’s Red Square that reflected the ongoing realities of the four-year-plus full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For the first time in nearly 20 years, no modern military hardware rolled across the iconic square, a change framed by Russian officials as a practical response to battlefield demands and heightened security risks amid the ongoing conflict.

    The event, held under tightened security protocols prompted by concerns over potential Ukrainian drone attacks, still saw thousands of uniformed military personnel march past the reviewing stand, where Russian President Vladimir Putin was joined by a small contingent of visiting world leaders. Unlike the 2025 80th anniversary parade, which drew high-profile attendees including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, only three foreign leaders attended this year’s ceremony: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Laotian President Thongloun Sisoulith, and Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim. In a notable development, North Korean soldiers also took part in the march, a visible sign of the deepening military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.

    Putin opened his annual address by honoring the sacrifices of Soviet World War II veterans, before framing his so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine as a direct continuation of that generation’s legacy. “The great feat of the generation of victors inspires the soldiers carrying out the goals of the special military operation today,” Putin told the assembled crowd. He went on to frame the conflict as a defensive struggle against a Western-backed threat, claiming: “They are confronting an aggressive force armed and supported by the whole bloc of Nato. And despite this, our heroes move forward.”

    The Russian leader extended his praise to Russian civilians contributing to the war effort, highlighting the work of factory workers, scientists, military engineers, war correspondents, medical workers, and educators. “No matter how military tactics change, the future of the country is being provided for by the people,” he added. Following the address, traditional ceremonial cannon salutes rang out across Red Square, and a military brass band performed, before Russian state media broadcast footage of Russian soldiers deployed on the front lines in Ukraine to viewers at home.

    Across the rest of Russia, Victory Day celebrations were muted and uneven. Pre-parade events were held earlier in far-eastern cities including Vladivostok, where thousands of locals joined the traditional Immortal Regiment march, carrying portraits of relatives who fought in World War II. While some regional parades did include military vehicles, Russian state media confirmed that most were vintage World War II-era models rather than modern weapons systems. Many smaller cities and towns across the country canceled public parades and large-scale celebrations entirely amid security concerns.

    Russian officials have openly defended the decision to scale back the Moscow parade, arguing that the country’s active military equipment is needed far more on the Ukrainian front lines than in a ceremonial display. “Our tanks are busy right now. They are fighting. We need them more on the battlefield than on Red Square,” Russian MP Yevgeny Popov told the BBC earlier in the week, echoing comments from other government figures who cited the “current operational situation” as the core reason for the changes.

    The 2026 celebrations unfolded against the backdrop of a temporary truce announced days earlier by then-U.S. President Donald Trump, after which Russia and Ukraine agreed to a three-day ceasefire covering the Victory Day holiday period. While the ceasefire largely held during parade events, both sides had already exchanged numerous accusations of widespread violations across frontline positions in the days leading up to the holiday. Kyiv had initially called for a longer indefinite truce starting May 6, a proposal Moscow did not agree to, setting the terms for the limited three-day cessation of hostilities.

  • Dozens of artists bring new life to a gigantic former ironworks on UNESCO’s world heritage list

    Dozens of artists bring new life to a gigantic former ironworks on UNESCO’s world heritage list

    In the southwestern German town of Völklingen, sitting just kilometers from the French border, a one-of-a-kind artistic collaboration has kicked off against a backdrop of industrial history. Dozens of urban creatives from 17 nations have gathered at Völklingen Ironworks — a decommissioned 19th-to-20th century iron production facility preserved as one of Europe’s most extraordinary industrial heritage sites — to launch the 2026 Urban Art Biennale, an event that continues a 15-year tradition of pairing contemporary street and graffiti art with the ironworks’ sprawling, atmospheric abandoned spaces.

    As a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1994, Völklingen Hütte holds unique global significance: it is the only fully intact integrated ironworks from the 19th and 20th centuries remaining intact across Western Europe and North America. Industrial iron production halted here in 1986, and the entire site has been preserved exactly as it stood when operations shut down, with no major new constructions added after the mid-1930s. Today, the 6-hectare (nearly 15-acre) site operates as a public museum, where visitors still navigate a maze of cold furnaces, towering chimneys, and original warning signs marking hazards like crushing risks that once faced workers.

    For event organizers and participating artists, the ironworks is far more than a novel exhibition space — it is the foundational origin of street and urban art itself. “This location is at the core of street art and graffiti art,” explained Ralf Beil, general director of the Völklingen Hütte museum. “It all began in industrial places like this. Artists love this place and they do works for the Völklinger Hütte, in the Völklinger Hütte, with the Völklinger Hütte.”

    This year’s biennale features 50 commissioned site-specific works, each tailored to the ironworks’ unique industrial character, with a deliberate rejection of commercialized art to prioritize pure, place-driven creation. Standout works range from provocative installations to large-scale interventions that play off the site’s layers of history. France-based artist Tomas Lacque has created an installation featuring a small van, a mound of tires, children’s toys, and debris coated entirely in a layer of paint. Placed in a cavernous hall that once housed active iron furnaces, the piece evokes the imagery of fossil fuel-powered transportation frozen and covered in ash, echoing the way ancient Roman Pompeii was preserved after volcanic eruption.

    Spanish artist Ampparito has intervened directly into the site’s architecture, painting the phrase “no hay nada de valor” — translated as “There is nothing of value here” — in massive white lettering across the roof of one of the ironworks’ huge industrial sheds. The work is designed to be viewed from a 148-foot (45-meter) high viewing platform, turning a structural element of the former factory into a large-scale conceptual statement.

    Other contributors include Dutch artist Boris Tellegen, better known by his artistic moniker Delta, who installed a massive black-and-green wooden sculpture that anchors and illuminates one of the ironworks’ interior halls. The France-based collective Vortex-X, which specializes in upcycling salvaged industrial materials, stretched sweeping arcs of white industrial fabric across an entire hall for their work titled *Memory in transit*, creating a dynamic installation that evokes movement and the passage of time at the dormant site.

    Participating artists have emphasized the unique tension and beauty of creating contemporary work in a space that retains the grit and memory of its working past. British artist Remi Rough, who contributed small, sharply clean and clinical paintings that intentionally contrast with the site’s weathered texture, noted the unexpected aesthetic appeal of the abandoned facility: “It’s so dusty and it’s so old, but it’s beautiful, you know, there’s beauty in decay. I think what I’ve done makes you kind of just perceive it in a bit of a different way.”

    Danish artist Anders Reventlov echoed the respect many creators hold for the site’s working history, saying he felt humbled by the opportunity to create work in a space that was once a brutal workplace. “As somebody told me … it was hell to work here. Now it’s not hell. It’s like a nice place, people walking around, there are bees, there are beautiful flowers, but yeah, we still remember the history and that’s super important.”

    Beil emphasized that the biennale’s commitment to site-specificity rules out pre-made commercial works, keeping the focus entirely on art that responds to this one-of-a-kind location. “This is an installation for the space,” he said. “This is pure art.”

    The 2026 Urban Art Biennale opens to the public on Saturday and will run through November 15, welcoming visitors to explore the intersection of contemporary urban art and 20th-century industrial heritage.

  • Chaos marks the Venice Biennale after the jury quits over Israeli and Russian participation

    Chaos marks the Venice Biennale after the jury quits over Israeli and Russian participation

    The world’s most prestigious contemporary art event, the Venice Biennale, opens its 2025 edition this Saturday, marking one of the most politically charged and chaotic iterations in the exhibition’s decades-long history. What was meant to be a celebration of global artistic vision has been upended by geopolitical conflict after the awards jury stepped down en masse to protest the inclusion of Israeli and Russian national pavilions, leaving no Golden Lion awards granted by official adjudicators. Compounding the friction, large-scale public demonstrations have been staged outside the two contested pavilions, amplifying tensions that have split the global arts community.

    While the jury framed its protest around its stance that only nations facing International Criminal Court investigations for alleged human rights violations should be excluded from awards consideration, the move has drawn further debate, with many critics arguing the United States should have been held to the same standard. Renowned British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor, one of the most high-profile voices in the protest, summed up the widespread frustration driving the unrest: “We are pushing back against the politics of hate and war that have plagued our world for far too long.”

    In a sudden shift to an open, audience-driven selection process, visitors will now step into the jury’s role, casting votes for two top honors: best national pavilion from the 100 participating countries, and best participant in the Biennale’s central curated exhibition, titled *In Minor Keys*. Modeled after the fan-voted Eurovision Song Contest, the results will remain under wraps until the exhibition’s closing day on November 22.

    Amid the political upheaval, the 2025 Biennale carries a historic legacy: it is the first major central exhibition curated by an African woman, the late Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, who passed away one year ago before the show could be completed. Five collaborating curators stepped in to bring Kouoh’s vision to life, a vision centered on amplifying underrepresented minority perspectives from across the globe. The exhibition greets visitors with a towering, red feather-sculpted costume embroidered with glass beads, rooted in the Black Masking carnival culture of New Orleans, a tradition born from cultural practices brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans. In total, Kouoh selected 110 artists and collectives to participate, staying true to her core mission of carving out space for creators who are often sidelined by mainstream arts institutions. “She dedicated her practice to making space for every voice to shine, and that ethos runs through every corner of this exhibition,” explained co-curator Marie Helene Pereira.

    Leading the slate of nationally curated pavilions, Britain’s representative, Turner Prize-winner Lubaina Himid, brings a deeply personal exploration of immigration, belonging and what it means to build a home in an adopted country. Titled *Predicting History: Testing Translation*, the presentation features vivid, brightly colored canvases that depict couples navigating the everyday dilemmas of being a newcomer. Himid, who was born in Zanzibar and has lived in Britain for more than 70 years, broke down the core tension of one standout work: “We have two architects debating where to build. One argues that building a permanent structure would prove they have contributed to the nation’s culture. The other says no – we need to build something we can escape from if we have to leave tomorrow.”

    Off the main exhibition grounds, the Vatican has stepped in to offer visitors a quiet spiritual escape from the surrounding chaos with its pavilion, the *Mystic Garden*, installed on the grounds of the Discalced Carmelite order adjacent to Venice’s central train station. Guests wander through working vineyards, past a fruiting pomegranate tree and beds of fragrant herbs, wearing headphones that deliver a curated soundscape: reimagined compositions by 12th-century abbess, mystic and composer St. Hildegard of Bingen, reworked by contemporary artists including Brian Eno and Patti Smith. “Music helps us turn inward and connect with what Hildegard called the symphony that God placed within every life,” explained Father Ermanno Barucco, prior of the Carmelite order overseeing the installation.

    Austria’s pavilion has become one of the most talked-about presentations on the Giardini grounds thanks to its unflinching, provocative performance art, which uses unorthodox materials to critique overtourism and the commercialization of Venice. Outside the pavilion, a naked female performer hangs from a giant brass bell, acting as a human clapper that rings the instrument with every movement. Inside, another nude performer rides a Jet ski in circles inside a large water tank, a visual metaphor for Venice’s transformation into nothing more than a crowded amusement park for international tourists. In one of the exhibition’s most controversial pieces, a third nude performer breathes through a scuba regulator while submerged in a tank of filtered toilet water pulled from nearby facilities, for a project titled *Seaworld Venice*.

    Against the backdrop of calls for boycott, Israeli pavilion artist Belu-Simion Fainaru, a Romanian-born Israeli, has centered his installation on the tension between love and war, rooted in Jewish mysticism. Water drips slowly from suspended glass tubes into a central pool, pausing every cycle for exactly 42 seconds – a reference to the 42-day divine creation of the world in Jewish mystical tradition. Locks of love, similar to those placed by romantic couples on European bridges, hang across the pavilion walls, engraved with the commandment “Love thy neighbor as thyself” in Hebrew and the hopeful phrase “This too shall pass.” Fainaru pushed back against calls to exclude Israel, framing his own participation as a political act in favor of dialogue: “I oppose boycotts, and I stand for open conversation. That is my political statement. The jury’s move to exclude Israel from awards is nothing less than discrimination.”

    Closing out the slate of standout national presentations, the Estonian pavilion centers the unrecognized labor of women through a durational, living artwork. Artist Merike Estna is working on-site throughout the entire six-month run of the Biennale to complete a large-scale wall painting inside a converted former church that now operates as a community gymnasium. The layered history of the space mirrors Estna’s artistic practice, which builds deeply textured surfaces through repeated, spontaneous applications of paint over time. The daily act of painting is intentional, meant to draw attention to the underappreciated everyday work that sustains communities and the planet. Curator Natalia Sielewicz described the project as “the everyday feminism of sustaining life, of sustaining our planet.”