Category: World

Lebanese soldiers entered Beirut’s southern suburbs and detained suspected gunmen after celebratory fire and rocket-propelled grenades were discharged during a Hezbollah funeral, an unusual assertion of state authority inside one of the group’s most sensitive urban strongholds. The operation in Kafaat followed gunfire during a procession for Hezbollah supporters killed in Israeli strikes, with residents reporting panic as bullets rang out across densely populated neighbourhoods. Army units deployed armoured patrols, set up temporary checkpoints, searched homes and seized weapons and ammunition.

  Medical teams moved to evacuate two sick people from the MV Hondius on Tuesday after a hantavirus cluster aboard the Dutch-flagged expedition cruise ship left three people dead and forced the vessel to remain off Cabo Verde while international health authorities assessed the risk to passengers, crew and ports along its planned route. The vessel, carrying 147 people, including 88 passengers and 59 crew members from 23 nationalities, has been held off Praia after authorities were alerted to a cluster of

Botswana’s beef industry is under mounting pressure as foot-and-mouth disease disrupts exports, closes key slaughter facilities and threatens rural incomes in a country where cattle remain central to household wealth, food security and national trade. Acting Minister of Lands and Agriculture Dr Edwin Dikoloti has warned that the outbreak is placing significant strain on the economy and livelihoods, with the most immediate commercial blow coming from lost access to parts of the European Union market. The disruption has affected Botswana’s ability

Chicago wheat futures advanced for a third straight session on Tuesday as drought damage across the US Plains kept traders focused on tightening prospects for the winter crop, even as forecasts for rainfall checked sharper gains. The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 0.8 per cent to $6.44-1/4 a bushel in early Asian trade, extending a rally that last week pushed prices to their highest level in two years. Soybeans edged up 0.1 per cent to $12.23-1/2

Seven hantavirus cases have been identified aboard the MV Hondius after a suspected outbreak on the expedition cruise ship left three people dead and triggered evacuation plans for about 150 passengers and crew held off Cape Verde. The World Health Organization said on Monday that two infections had been confirmed in laboratories and five other cases were suspected as of 4 May. One patient was critically ill, while three others were reporting milder symptoms. The vessel, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, had

Kenya is moving to keep more value from its minerals at home, signalling a sharper shift from raw exports towards processing, refining and manufacturing as global competition for critical minerals intensifies. President William Ruto set out the policy direction while opening the 2026 Kenya Mining Investment Conference and Expo in Nairobi, telling investors and government delegations that Kenya no longer wants to serve mainly as a supplier of unprocessed ores for industries abroad. The two-day forum brought together more than 500

Wall Street’s latest rally is being driven less by relief over geopolitics than by a force investors can measure more easily: earnings. Morgan Stanley strategists say the strength of US corporate profits, led by technology companies, is giving equities enough support to look beyond the market risks created by the Iran conflict and the disruption around the Strait of Hormuz. The bank’s team, led by Michael Wilson, has pointed to a broad improvement in earnings revisions for the S&P 500 over

Residents across Eastern Samar and nearby provinces rushed out of homes, offices and schools on Monday after a strong earthquake struck the central Philippines, shaking parts of the Visayas and renewing concern over the country’s exposure to destructive seismic activity. The quake hit at 2.09pm local time on May 4, 2026, with its epicentre traced near San Julian in Eastern Samar. Early readings placed the tremor at magnitude 6.1 and at a shallow depth of about 10 kilometres, before updated assessments

Swiss lawmakers are opening a politically charged debate in Bern that could determine how much capital UBS Group must hold after its takeover of Credit Suisse, setting the stage for a confrontation between financial stability concerns and fears over Switzerland’s competitiveness as a banking centre. A 13-member parliamentary panel is meeting on Monday to begin work on proposed changes to the Banking Act, a legislative package shaped by the collapse of Credit Suisse and the emergency rescue that left UBS as

North Korea’s Naegohyang Women’s FC is set to travel to South Korea this month for a high-profile Asian Football Confederation Women’s Champions League semi-final, creating one of the few sporting contacts between the two sides in years. The Pyongyang-based club is scheduled to face Suwon FC Women at Suwon Stadium on May 20, with the final fixed for May 23 at the same venue. The Korea Football Association has confirmed the fixture, while Seoul’s Unification Ministry has received a delegation list

Apple’s March-quarter sales climbed sharply as demand for the iPhone 17 line helped the company deliver its strongest quarterly revenue growth in more than four years, easing investor anxiety over a slower consumer electronics market and its uneven progress in artificial intelligence. The Cupertino-based group reported revenue of $111.2 billion for the fiscal second quarter ended March 28, up 17 per cent from a year earlier. Diluted earnings per share rose 22 per cent to $2.01, while net income reached $29.58

Tehran has sharpened its confrontation with Washington and Gulf shipping powers after Mojtaba Khamenei declared that the Strait of Hormuz would be “managed by new rules”, signalling Iran’s intention to tighten political and operational control over the world’s most sensitive energy corridor. Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the waterway would no longer be treated as a passage subject to what Tehran describes as foreign pressure. His remarks, carried through state media, placed

Australia’s data centre industry is moving from rapid expansion to sharper scrutiny as new forecasting shows a widening gap between announced projects and capacity likely to be delivered by 2030. A joint market intelligence initiative by Data Centres Australia and DC Byte has put operational IT capacity at about 1.4 gigawatts at the end of 2025, with the market projected to reach 3.1GW to 3.2GW by 2030. That would imply a five-year compound annual growth rate of about 17%, driven by

Conspiracy theories swept across social media after gunfire disrupted the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, turning a security emergency into another test of America’s fragile information system. The April 25 attack, which led to federal charges against 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, unfolded near the main screening area outside the ballroom where President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, senior officials, journalists and guests had gathered. Trump was not injured. A Secret Service officer was

Justice Department lawyers have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit blocking parts of President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, using language that legal critics say closely mirrors the president’s combative social media style and marks a striking departure from the department’s traditional courtroom tone. A motion filed in federal court argues that the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which brought the case, has no legal basis to obstruct the project and is driven by “Trump derangement syndrome”. The

France has set deadlines to end the use of coal, oil and fossil gas for energy, placing itself among the first major economies to publish a full fossil-fuel exit timetable as governments debate how to turn climate pledges into enforceable national plans. The roadmap, presented at the international talks in Santa Marta, Colombia, commits France to phasing out coal by 2030, oil by 2045 and fossil gas by 2050. The plan links the timetable to energy security, industrial renewal and climate

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said ships could resume passage through the Strait of Hormuz without every mine being removed, raising hopes of a faster reopening of one of the world’s most important energy corridors while leaving unresolved questions over risk, insurance and maritime security. Wright said a workable channel could be created for vessels moving in and out of the Gulf, rather than waiting for a full clearance operation across the waterway. Speaking on the sidelines of the Three

Federal prosecutors have charged a U. S. Army Special Forces master sergeant with using classified information from a military operation in Venezuela to make more than $400,000 through prediction-market bets, opening a criminal case that links national security secrecy with the expanding trade in event contracts. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, was named in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court on charges including unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government