Category: World

Britain’s jobs market weakened in April as employers cut back on permanent recruitment while turning to temporary staff to manage uncertainty, rising business costs and disruption linked to the Iran conflict. Permanent staff placements fell at the sharpest pace since January, reversing part of the improvement seen earlier in the year. The permanent placements index dropped to 47.5 in April from 49.2 in March, staying below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction. Temporary hiring moved in the opposite direction,

France will add €710 million in targeted aid to help households and businesses absorb higher energy costs, as the war in Iran keeps fuel prices elevated and tests the government’s fiscal restraint. Budget Minister David Amiel said the new measures would lift total support for consumers and affected sectors to nearly €1.2 billion, while the government seeks to avoid broad tax cuts that would deepen pressure on public finances. The package is designed to cushion lower-income households, fuel-dependent workers and exposed

Washington is testing rival artificial intelligence models across a small group of Defence Department power users as it seeks a workable replacement for Anthropic’s Claude, deepening a high-stakes contest over military AI, supplier risk and control of advanced software inside classified US systems. The review involves 25 heavy users of AI tools inside the Pentagon, with officials comparing how competing models respond to identical tasks and how results change when prompts are tailored to each system. Early findings show wide variation

Mexico’s sovereign credit rating has been cut to the last rung of investment grade, placing fresh pressure on President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration as investors weigh rising debt, sluggish growth and the continuing fiscal burden of Petróleos Mexicanos. Moody’s Ratings lowered Mexico’s long-term local and foreign-currency issuer and senior unsecured ratings to Baa3 from Baa2, while changing the outlook to stable from negative. The move leaves Latin America’s second-largest economy just one notch above speculative grade, a position that could raise borrowing

Caracas has become an unlikely stop for financiers, oil executives and restructuring advisers as Venezuela’s attempt to reopen its economy turns a once-quiet luxury hotel into a meeting point for dealmaking. The Cayena, a boutique property in the capital’s La Castellana district where rooms start at about $400 a night, spent much of its 13 years operating in a market cut off by sanctions, political conflict and economic collapse. Its occupancy rate stood at just 21 per cent last year, a

Afreximbank’s partnership with Plot Enterprise Ghana is placing cocoa processing, rural employment and African creative exports at the centre of a wider push to keep more value from the continent’s resources within local economies. The collaboration, highlighted through the bank’s impact programming, links Ghana’s cocoa belt to global markets at a time when volatile cocoa prices, climate shocks and financing strains are reshaping one of West Africa’s most important agricultural sectors. Plot Enterprise, based in Takoradi in Ghana’s Western Region, processes

President Donald Trump has put a planned attack on Iran on hold after Gulf leaders urged Washington to allow negotiations more time, while warning that the US military remains ready for a “full, large scale assault” if no acceptable deal is reached. The decision marks a critical pause in a confrontation that has drawn the US, Iran, Israel and Gulf states into one of the most volatile security crises in the region this year. Trump said the strike had been scheduled

Washington announced a $1.776 billion compensation fund for people who claim they were unfairly investigated or prosecuted, opening a politically charged new phase in President Donald Trump’s campaign against what his administration calls government “weaponisation”. The Justice Department said the Anti-Weaponization Fund would be created as part of a deal resolving Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the unauthorised leak of his tax records. Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization

A chance photograph taken on a remote Queensland property has returned Ptilotus senarius to scientific view after 58 years without a confirmed record, turning a plant long treated as presumed extinct into a live test case for smartphone-powered biodiversity discovery. The small, slender shrub, a member of the Amaranthaceae family, had not been collected since 1967 and was known only from preserved herbarium specimens before horticulturalist and bird bander Aaron Bean photographed an unusual plant in June 2025 while working on

Mineral Resources will restart operations at its wholly owned Bald Hill lithium mine in Western Australia, moving to bring back production after an 18-month shutdown as stronger prices revive confidence across parts of the battery metals sector. The Perth-based diversified miner said site activity will begin ramping up in late May, with crushing and mining operations scheduled to start in June and first spodumene concentrate production expected from July. The first shipment from the Port of Esperance is expected in the

Elon Musk has signalled that SpaceX is moving towards a public listing “pretty soon”, setting the stage for what could become the largest stock market debut on record and a defining test of investor appetite for space, satellite internet and artificial intelligence businesses. Musk said he was back in Texas working on plans for the initial public offering as SpaceX prepares to open itself to public market investors after more than two decades as a closely held company. The move comes

Washington’s defence establishment is confronting a sharper supply-chain warning after President Donald Trump left Beijing claiming major trade progress, while China kept key controls on materials vital to US weapons, aircraft, satellites and advanced electronics. Trump ended his two-day visit by declaring that he had reached “fantastic trade deals” with President Xi Jinping, saying the understandings would benefit both economies. The commercial package pointed to tariff discussions, agricultural market access, aviation purchases and new bilateral boards for trade and investment. Yet

Samsung Electronics and its largest labour union will return to negotiations on Monday in a high-stakes attempt to prevent an 18-day strike that could disrupt semiconductor production, unsettle global technology supply chains and deepen pressure on South Korea’s export-led economy. The talks, to be held with government mediation, follow days of failed discussions over pay, performance bonuses and transparency in reward structures at the world’s largest memory chipmaker. The National Samsung Electronics Union has threatened to begin industrial action on May

California has barred Kars4Kids from airing its familiar vehicle-donation jingle in its current form after a court found the campaign misled donors about who benefited from their contributions. The ruling by Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian found that the long-running radio and television advertisements violated California’s false advertising and unfair competition laws by omitting material information about the charity’s mission, geographic focus and beneficiaries. Kars4Kids has 30 days from the judgment to stop non-compliant broadcasts in the state and

Health authorities are racing to contain a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern Ituri province after 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths were recorded, while Uganda confirmed a separate fatal case involving a man who had travelled from Congo. The outbreak has been reported mainly in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones, with suspected cases also under investigation in Bunia, Ituri’s provincial capital near the Ugandan border. Preliminary laboratory testing detected Ebola virus in 13 of

Health authorities have moved to contain a new Ebola virus disease outbreak in Ituri province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, triggering an urgent regional coordination meeting with Uganda, South Sudan and international response partners as concern grows over cross-border transmission. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the outbreak on Friday after investigations identified 246 suspected cases and 65 suspected deaths. Most infections have been reported in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones, while suspected cases have

Africa is losing about $5 billion a year to currency conversion costs, exposing a costly weakness in the continent’s ambition to build a seamless single market. A fresh assessment of cross-border trade barriers says limited currency convertibility remains one of the biggest obstacles facing businesses, traders and consumers across the continent. The cost arises because payments between African countries often pass through foreign currencies, mainly the dollar or the euro, before reaching their final destination. Each conversion adds fees, exchange-rate losses

Kazakhstan has ordered artificial intelligence to be introduced across all secondary schools by 2029, setting a tight first deadline for the government to design a pilot project within 17 days as President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev pushes education reform deeper into the country’s digital transformation agenda. Tokayev signed the decree on May 12, directing the government to prepare concrete proposals by June 1 for an initial pilot in secondary education. The wider national plan, covering 2026 to 2029, must be approved by July

Moscow’s Arbitration Court has ordered Euroclear to pay about €200 billion to Russia’s central bank, sharply escalating a legal confrontation over sovereign reserves immobilised in Europe since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The ruling gives Moscow a formal domestic judgment against the Brussels-based clearing house, although enforcement outside Russia is expected to face major legal and political barriers. Russia’s central bank filed the case in December 2025, seeking compensation for assets and proceeds it says it has been

Mexico’s tougher enforcement against ride-hailing pick-ups at airports is emerging as a logistical risk for football supporters weeks before the country helps open the 2026 World Cup. Authorities have stepped up action against app-based services such as Uber and DiDi in federal airport zones, reviving a long-running clash between digital platforms, airport taxi operators and transport regulators. The dispute is most visible at Mexico City International Airport, where enforcement operations and taxi protests have disrupted access roads and raised concerns over

A commercial vessel anchored off Fujairah has been taken by unauthorised personnel and steered towards Iranian territorial waters, intensifying concern over security at one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints. The incident was reported 38 nautical miles, about 70 kilometres, north-east of the UAE port of Fujairah, close to the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz. The ship was at anchor when unidentified personnel boarded it and took control, leaving maritime authorities to assess whether the episode marks a fresh