Geopolitical Shifts and Economic Adjustmentsactive

Trump announced the three-day halt in fighting, which coincides with Russia’s Victory Day celebrations.

Argentine farmers are collecting a bumper soybean crop forecast to be 48.6 million metric tons, according to the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange. Leer más

Russia celebrates Victory Day pursuant to the Federal Law "On Days of Military Glory and Memorable Dates of Russia" signed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin on March 13, 1995

The two foreign ministers agreed to stay in touch and continue coordinating the approaches off all the parties concerned to efforts toward finding ways to a lasting and sustainable settlement

Anti-French sentiment has been running high in some former French colonies.

Ukraine managed to restore 711 megawatts of electricity generation capacity in April as part of its ongoing repair campaign.

President Donald Trump has changed his approach as he tries to end the war against Iran: reopen the Strait of Hormuz at all costs and leave thorny negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs until later.

Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Jaime Harrison on Friday responded to MS NOW host Jen Psaki after she accused him of seeking a "deputy president" role. Psaki made the remark in an interview on the "Nobody Knows Anything" podcast, where she said Harrison thought he would "have a seat at the policy-making table"...

US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a three-day ceasefire and a prisoner exchange following US-mediated talks, saying negotiations to end the war were continuing and “we are getting closer and closer every day”. “I am pleased to announce that there will be a THREE DAY CEASEFIRE (May 9th, 10th, and 11th) in the War between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump posted on social media. “The Celebration in Russia is for Victory Day, but likewise in Ukraine,...

The police in Greenland are investigating the case of a lone man from Las Vegas who goes by Cliff. Locals said he had offered money to Greenlanders to join the United States.

White House border czar Tom Homan on Thursday said he's "sure" Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have detained U.S. citizens, "but we don't deport them." Homan told reporters outside the White House that U.S. citizens have "nothing to fear." "We deport people that are going to be deportable," he continued. "We arrest people that…

BEIRUT – The Islamist group Hezbollah launched a missile attack on an Israeli military base on Friday, while new Israeli operations in southern Lebanon resulted in five deaths, despite the purported ceasefire that has been in effect between the parties since April 17th. Hezbollah, a close ally of Iran, stated that its missiles targeted a base south of the Israeli city of Nahariya "in response to the violation of the ceasefire by the Israeli enemy, the attacks on the southern suburbs of Beirut, and the attacks that affected villages and civilians in southern Lebanon" launched this week. Air raid sirens had previously sounded in several cities in northern Israel, according to the Israeli military, which stated that it had intercepted one rocket and that the rest fell in open areas without causing casualties. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Toura, near the port of Tyre, resulted in four deaths and eight injuries. The National News Agency (NAA), a state-owned media outlet, reported another airstrike near the village of Kfar Chouba, in the southeast of the country, in which a paramedic from the Lebanese Civil Defense was killed. Evacuation Alert The attacks occurred hours after the Israeli military spokesman, speaking in Arabic, issued an evacuation alert for residents of six villages in the province of Tyre, including Toura. Since April 17th…

President Donald Trump said Friday that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a three-day ceasefire and prisoner exchange mediated by the United States, the latest twist in the yearslong conflict that has seen other pauses quickly fall apart. The temporary ceasefire will stretch from Saturday to Monday to facilitate the transfers of 2,000 Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war, Trump said on social media. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy quickly signaled his support, thanking Trump for helping coordinate the agreement, and said he hopes Trump will ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin upholds the ceasefire. “I thank the President of the United States and his team for their productive diplomatic involvement,” Zelenskyy said. “We expect the United States to ensure that the Russian side fulfills these agreements.” Trump celebrated the announcement of the ceasefire, and held out hope that the temporary truce reflects a step towards a permanent end to the four-year war. “Talks are continuing on ending this Major Conflict, the biggest since World War II, and we are getting closer and closer every day,” Trump said on Truth Social. Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of violating past ceasefire agreements on multiple occasions. Russia declared a brief ceasefire to commemorate Orthodox Easter in April, which allowed the two countries to exchange 175 prisoners of war. But both sides claimed the other launched attacks during the ceasefire window. Zelenskyy had declared a unilateral ceasefire on Tuesday, but said Russia launched air and ground assaults that day. In response, Zelenskyy said he no longer felt the need to honor the unilateral ceasefire declared by Russia ahead of Saturday’s Victory Day parade, which commemorates the Soviet Union’s role in defeating the Nazis in World War II. Russia had threatened to launch a “retaliatory, massive missile strike” on Kyiv if Ukraine attacked Russia during Saturday’s holiday, the Russian defense ministry said. Trump said in his statement the request for a ceasefire originated from him — an indication of the president’s continued influence on the war even as he has yet to deliver the permanent agreement to end the war he has long desired. Ukraine recently dispatched its top negotiator to the United States for talks with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, POLITICO reported earlier this week.

In the past few hours, the U.S. Department of Defense announced the declassification of government files regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) on its website. Following the announcement, a ufologist and director of the Commission for the Study of the UFO Phenomenon of the Argentine Republic (CEFORA), explained in an interview with LN+, the significance of the new U.S. measure. "This initial batch includes many files from the FBI, NASA, but primarily from the FBI, which even mentions Argentine cases from the past, and now these are being officially confirmed with this quite substantial officialization," she emphasized. The United States declassified documents about UFOs. Regarding the declassification of the UFO phenomenon in Argentina, the specialist stated: "We have already achieved more than 10 declassifications, including the most well-known case, the Polanco incident of July 31, 1995, which involved an Aerolíneas Argentinas plane that, upon landing in Bariloche, was accompanied by a UFO, and the power went out. Since then, we have been participating in international campaigns." To explain the relevance of this event, she emphasized: "Initially, it is to evaluate and validate, because in these files we find not only records from 1947, as in Argentina. In the case of the power outage in Bariloche, it allowed us to work with the local electricity company, and at that time we were able to evaluate the situation, and the diagnosis was conclusive." "It's...

Parents will soon receive hundreds of free diapers before leaving the hospital under a new program aimed at alleviating expenses California families welcoming newborns will soon receive hundreds of free diapers before leaving the hospital under a first-in-the-country program announced Friday by the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom. During the program’s first year, it will be offered at about 65 to 75 hospitals that handle about a quarter of births in the state and largely serve low-income patients, Newsom’s office said. The initiative will expand to more hospitals statewide, though the governor’s office did not say how many. The state has partnered with nonprofit Baby2Baby to manufacture the diapers under the label “Golden State Start”. Continue reading...

California will become the first state to provide free diapers to newborns starting this summer under a new program announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday.  Under the “Golden State Start” initiative, every newborn in the state will receive 400 diapers when they are discharged from participating hospitals.  “The big problem defined universally in…

The Prime Minister: "Everyone is defending their own interests." The U.S. Secretary: "The decision on troop deployment rests with President Trump."

The Trump administration is preparing to order US agencies to partner with artificial intelligence companies to protect networks from AI-enabled cyber attacks, though the directive would stop short of requiring government approval for cutting-edge models, according to people familiar with the matter.

Britain's prime minister is under pressure to quit after huge losses in local elections.

U. S. President Donald Trump has said that a three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine will be in effect from May 9 to 11.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has faced criticism over his leadership of the agency that oversees vaccine and drug approvals.

Bloomberg News examines the major moves and turning points of Jerome Powell’s tenure as Federal Reserve Chair. (Source: Bloomberg)

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is weakened by disastrous results for his Labour Party in Thursday's elections. In Wales, a Labour stronghold for a century, the party only finished fourth, while the main winner, Reform UK, has established a local base.

President Donald Trump plans to fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, following months of chaos at one of the country’s most important health agencies, according to a person familiar with the matter. Jeff Mason has more. (Source: Bloomberg)

“Wild Swans,” a best-selling 1991 memoir, told the story of a stoic mother holding her family together amid torture and imprisonment under Mao’s regime.

The regime struggled for years with its messaging. Now it has found its voice through Lego-style videos and memes.

President Trump said Friday that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a three-day ceasefire over the weekend, which includes a prisoner swap. The ceasefire will last from May 9-11, Trump wrote on Truth Social. The pause in fighting is for Russia’s Victory Day celebrations. “The Celebration in Russia is for Victory Day but, likewise, in…

The Bank of Canada this week pointed out a lack of capacity at the country's main marine terminals, a situation that policymakers say threatens to undermine efforts to diversify trade.

Long before electric mobility became a global trend, BMW was already exploring the future of the automotive industry. It was 1972 when the German company surprised the world with the 1602 Elektro-Antrieb, its first fully electric vehicle, developed based on the classic 02 Series and used as a support vehicle during the Munich Olympics. Today, 54 years after that milestone, the German company not only remembers the origins of its electric journey but also reaffirms its leadership in the development of sustainable technologies worldwide. The BMW 1602 electric was a proposal that was ahead of its time. Painted in a striking orange color, it maintained the aesthetics of the gasoline-powered versions almost intact, differentiating itself only by the absence of an exhaust pipe. Under its bodywork, it housed a Bosch direct current motor that produced 43 horsepower and, even at that time, already incorporated a regenerative energy system during braking, a technology that is now fundamental in modern electric vehicles. The model used twelve Varta lead-acid batteries, weighing approximately 350 kilograms, which allowed it to reach a top speed of 100 km/h and accelerate from 0 to 50 km/h in just eight seconds. Its range was around 30 kilometers in the city and could be doubled on the highway, figures that are modest by today's standards, but revolutionary for the early 1970s. The…

LONDON — Britain’s electoral map is being redrawn once again by Nigel Farage. His Reform UK insurgency is fracturing politics — and Keir Starmer is emerging the biggest loser of it all. But even as the right prospers, left-wing populists in the Green Party are also making big gains off the back of the prime minister’s unpopularity. All in all, a chaotic picture is being painted as votes are counted in elections for a swathe of English councils as well as devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales. Here are the five key takeaways from Thursday’s elections. 1. Fragmentation across the board The one thing Labour knows is that it’s hemorrhaging popularity. But what nobody will agree on is the remedy. That’s because Starmer is losing votes in every direction. In Brexit-voting regions Reform has been the benefactor. But in progressive urban hubs the Greens have made gains. And in some cities the mix is even more complex. Just look at the north-east English Newcastle-upon-Tyne for one. Labour lost to Reform and the Greens in near equal numbers in every ward they contested. Not only will that pincer effect lead to Labour infighting about how to restore their chances, it will add to a sense of disorientation for the electorate. 2. Labour has no heartlands Wales has been red for more than 100 years. Now Labour’s on course for near wipeout there, as the left-wing Welsh nationalists in Plaid Cymru and Reform sweep the board. It was so bad in Wales that Eluned Morgan, the Labour leader there and the serving first minister, didn’t even win her seat. The “red wall” that formed Labour’s core in northern England and the Midlands is plumping for Farage’s party. Scotland has refused to return, instead extending 19 years of Scottish National Party rule. Then there are major inroads for the rejuvenated left-wing Greens in London, where they have already won the mayoralties in Hackney and Lewisham and are on course for big gains in councillors. If Labour could be sure of anything in recent decades, it was that progressives in the capital would vote for them. That is no longer the case. 3. Even Labour bigshots stare down barrel of defeat To judge how bad the elections are for the party in charge, just look at which MPs have just seen their local councillors ousted en masse. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has seen Labour lose control of Leeds. In Wigan, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy watched all 22 seats Labour was defending go to Reform. Farage’s party also won Sunderland, which is Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson’s back yard. Keir Starmer’s Camden constituency was narrowly held by Labour — but his party shed swathes of support to the Greens and Liberal Democrats. Then potential leadership challenger Angela Rayner will also be uncertain of her prospects in a general election. Reform won 18 of 19 seats available in Tameside. 4. A trickle of calls for Starmer to go … but the dam hasn’t broken (yet) As of Friday evening, more than 10 Labour MPs had either called for Starmer to either outright go, or demand his departure unless there’s urgent overhaul of the government. Louise Haigh, the influential co-chair of the soft-left Tribune caucus, was first to make the veiled call for Starmer to go. That was couched in the language of being necessary unless there is “significant and urgent change,” a phrasing echoed by Anneliese Midgley to POLITICO. So far no ministers have publicly called for a change of leadership and with numbers being as low as they are right now Downing Street will be hoping this doesn’t represent the breaking of the dam. 5. Reform triumphs — but the Tories aren’t dead For all of Reform’s successes and Nigel Farage’s cries of a “truly historic shift in British politics,” this was no runaway victory for his party. Sky News’ extrapolation from the results to estimate national share actually projected Reform’s support as being down on last year. Farage has long threatened to replace the Conservatives. But that hasn’t quite happened yet. Kemi Badenoch’s party — still the official opposition in the U. K. — won Westminster council from Labour, nudged the party out of control in Wandsworth and managed to hold onto the Fareham area represented by one of Farage’s most high-profile defectors from the Tories, Suella Braverman. There’s no doubt that Farage is the big winner of the day, but his opponents shouldn’t believe all is lost.

India, Pakistan, Ukraine, North Korea, Iran: The military revolution has also impacted the nuclear weapon debate, notably with the end of transparency and new announcements of increases to global arsenals, including in France.

The Trump administration must make the release of American hostages in Iran a publicly stated condition of any negotiated agreement, and ensure that Iran never again uses the detention of U. S. nationals as a bargaining chip.

President Donald Trump plans to fire Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, following months of chaos at one of the country’s most important health agencies, according to a person familiar with the matter.

This exchange was mentioned at a briefing with the Russian Security Council

The Prime Minister's party has also lost Wales. The Green Party, the Liberal Democrats, and the independence movement performed well.

The slick, captured in satellite images near Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, has raised concerns about the condition of Iran’s oil infrastructure.

Republican Tennessee state Rep. Todd Warner arrives to the House chamber for a special session of the legislature to redraw congressional voting maps on May 7, 2026, in Nashville. Photo: George Walker IV/AP The ink had barely dried on the Supreme Court’s ruling to gut the Voting Rights Act when Republican lawmakers raced to deliver on the barely veiled promises of the court’s decision: the decimation of Black political power and a revival of Jim Crow-era racist voter suppression. In Tennessee on Thursday, Gov. Lee signed a bill that repealed a half-century-old law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting, and then the overwhelmingly Republican legislature passed new redistricting maps that eliminate the state’s only Black-majority district. The 9th Congressional District, also Tennessee’s only reliable Democratic seat, will be carved into three — purposefully redrawn for each piece to have a white-majority and Republican-leaning electorate. The votes of Memphis’s 63 percent Black population will be diluted to near irrelevance; the entire state will be handed to Republicans. With the right-wing justices’ blessing, Republican lawmakers can now enact segregationist gerrymandering. No one can act surprised. This was the predicted outcome of the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision, which decimated Section 2 of the embattled Voting Rights Act, a provision that had protected minority voters from redistricting. With the right-wing justices’ blessing, Republican lawmakers can now enact segregationist gerrymandering and reestablish the pre-civil-rights-era status quo ante. It stands to reason that Republicans are not representing the interests of Black Tennesseans, some 17 percent of the population, overwhelmingly Democrats. These residents only have one representative in Washington, Rep. Steve Cohen — the lone Democrat among the state’s nine congressional seats. That is the seat being eliminated by the new maps passed by Tennessee’s largely white legislature. The situation is already one in which Black working-class interests are hardly represented — and nor would greater Black representation in the state necessarily ensure the delivery of racial justice and the economic justice it requires. The point is that Black disenfranchisement both reflects and produces conditions of white supremacist rule, wherein greater anti-Black oppression is assured. “These maps are racist tools of white supremacy, at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J. Trump,” said Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson at the Tennessee statehouse on Thursday. Pearson, a progressive activist and one of the state’s few Black representatives, is running for a seat in Congress and was neck and neck in polling for his August primary against Cohen, the 76-year-old incumbent. The redrawn maps would likely foreclose his chance to represent South Memphis in Washington. Pearson called the gerrymandered maps a “political lynching” that “set our state back over 150 years.” Trump’s Larger Project Trump, who is historically unpopular, has every reason to push his GOP to use newly unconstrained gerrymandering capacities in advance of the midterms. Right-wing redistricting efforts go beyond a scramble for November, though, and sit within a larger project of white supremacist backlash. Like in Tennessee, Republicans in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina all called special legislative sessions — as explicitly ordered by Trump — to push new redistricting maps that will decimate majority-Black districts and deliver congressional seats to Republicans. Related The Supreme Court Ends Multiracial Democracy as We Know It According to the cynical rationale of the Supreme Court conservatives, such maps would not violate what’s left of the Voting Rights Act, because the GOP is not openly describing their gerrymander as targeting Black voters. “The more racist you are as a party, the more insulated you are from Voting Rights Act liability under this decision,” Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School, told Bolts Magazine about the Callais ruling. “If there were a party called the Klan party, right now, it would trigger an awful lot of nonwhite opposition based on the party’s platform. But this opinion says, you have to set the party’s platform entirely aside to figure out if there’s been any damage based on race. So the more you can tie the two together, the more insulated you are.” In short, as Levitt put it, “the most racist partisan gerrymandering is going to be the most immune from a VRA challenge.” Tennessee Republicans proved precisely this point on Thursday. Striding into the statehouse to disenfranchise Black voters, Republican state Rep. Todd Warner wore a giant Trump 2024 flag as a cape. Striding into the statehouse to disenfranchise Black voters, Republican state Rep. Todd Warner wore a giant Trump 2024 flag. As other states follow Tennessee’s example, the consequences of Callais could see the largest-ever drop in the number of Black lawmakers in Congress. The previous record was set, NPR reported, in the post-Reconstruction backlash, by the Congress that began in 1877 with four fewer House districts represented by Black lawmakers than the previous session. In response to racist Republican gerrymandering, Democrats can play their own game of redistricting — but there’s a reason the Callais decision is understood as a gift to Republicans. “The states controlled by Republicans where there are majority-minority districts have no internal constraint on how much they can screw over Black voters, because Black voters are not voting for that party,” Pamela Karlan, law professor at Stanford University and co-director of Stanford’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, told Slate. Democrats could expand a small number of safe seats in New York and California, for example, by eliminating minority voter districts. As Karlan noted, however, this would be politically unpalatable because “the politics of the state are not going to look favorably on that, and the Democrats in those states depend on Black and Latino voters in statewide races.” According to Karlan, in this race to the bottom, Republican-led election fixing will not be addressed without a different Congress, a different president, and a powerful political movement to hold politicians accountable. “Voters have to first build a political movement around this that makes elected officials afraid to do this,” she said. Meanwhile, Democratic redistricting efforts in Virginia were dealt a blow on Friday, when they were struck down by the state’s Supreme Court. Voters had approved in a referendum to redraw the state’s congressional map, but the court’s ruling hands Republicans a fierce electoral advantage. After Thursday’s vote, Tennessee Democratic state Rep. Justin Jones burned a paper Confederate flag in the statehouse rotunda, surrounded by protesters who had gathered to decry the racist gerrymandering. “We saw a time like this, in this building before,” Jones told his fellow lawmakers earlier this week during the unprecedented redistricting special session. “If you study Reconstruction. We had Black lawmakers after the Civil War, then from the end of the 1800s to the 1960s, we had no Black folks here” — meaning the statehouse. On Thursday afternoon, the NAACP’s Tennessee chapter filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the new congressional map, which is likely to be the first of several legal efforts against the rushed, conniving, and unrepentantly racist gerrymander. The post Tennessee GOP Moves to Decimate Black Voting Power After Supreme Court’s Blessing of Jim Crow appeared first on The Intercept.

Ukraine's Defense Forces struck an oil refinery and a drone storage warehouse inside Russia overnight on May 8, as well as the "Luhanska" oil depot and air defense facilities in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory.

The US said it expects Iran to respond to its latest proposal to end their war imminently, as clashes in the Strait of Hormuz threatened to further fracture a monthlong ceasefire.

In a few weeks, a new World Cup will begin. North America 2026 is notable for being held in three host countries. Therefore, FIFA is preparing opening ceremonies for each of the first matches that will take place in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. According to reports in the American press, FIFA has prepared a diverse lineup of artists who will perform in each country, and Chilean artists will also be featured. In Canada, Michael Bublé, Alanis Morissette, and Alessia Cara are scheduled to perform before the match between the Canadian national team and Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 12 in Toronto. On the same day, the United States will make its debut against Paraguay in Los Angeles. Katy Perry will be the main performer there. The performances of the rapper Future and the American artist of Bangladeshi origin, Sanjoy, are also confirmed. Lisa, the Thai rapper and singer who rose to fame with the South Korean girl group Blackpink, has also been hired by FIFA. Furthermore, Paraguay, the United States' opponent, will be represented by the Paraguayan artist Marilina Bogado. In Mexico, before the Mexican national team's debut against South Africa on June 11, Maná, Alejandro Fernández, and Belinda are scheduled to perform. Also expected to appear are the Colombian J Balvin, the Brazilian Anitta, the Venezuelan Danny Ocean, and Vegedream from France…

Referendum approving party’s plan to redraw congressional map is overturned by judges

ROME — U. S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared himself “a strong supporter of NATO” after talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday, as political friction between the two allies brews. The Italian leader described her meeting with Rubio to reporters as a”productive” and “frank” discussion “between two nations that both understand how necessary it is for each to defend their national interests,” signaling disagreements on some issues. The secretary of state’s meetings with the PM and her Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, come amid rising tensions between Rome and Washington after U. S. President Donald Trump threatened the EU with higher tariffs and hinted at withdrawing U. S. forces from Italy and Spain over what he sees as insufficient European support for the war in Iran. According to Italian media, Rubio said he had not raised the issue of troop withdrawals directly with Meloni, but added that “some European countries … have refused to allow us to use those bases in a very serious emergency,” which “has created some unnecessary risks” for the United States. Ultimately, though, removing American soldiers from European bases is “a decision for the president to make,” he concluded. Tajani stressed the importance of maintaining a strong American presence in Europe. “For us, an American presence in Europe is important to strengthen NATO,” he said, adding that “a strong commitment from Europeans is also important from this point of view, something Europeans are already doing.” The atmosphere during the visit was notably warmer than in recent weeks. Rubio spoke partly in Spanish during the meetings, joking that the language was “very similar” to Italian. He also said he had been trying to learn Italian himself, but that his subscription to language app Babbel had expired. Tajani, in an effort to appease the U. S. administration, repeated Italy’s pledge of support for a naval mission in the Strait of Hormuz once a lasting ceasefire between the United States and Iran is in place. He will join Defense Minister Guido Crosetto to brief the Italian parliament next week on the matter — lawmakers must approve any deployment before Italian naval vessels can leave port. The White House has been pressing European allies for stronger backing over the Iran conflict, while Meloni has described the war as “illegal.” The prime minister needs to preserve the country’s strategic relationship with Washington while navigating growing domestic opposition to both the conflict and Trump himself, particularly as rising energy prices and inflation begin to weigh on Italian households.

The state secretary also acknowledged that the United States and its allies should understand that American resources are not unlimited.

With all this global uncertainty, how can Keir Starmer maintain Labour’s position? Bloomberg Opinion columnist Rosa Prince explains. (Source: Bloomberg)

China’s international arbitration efforts have made significant progress, but more work is needed to attract foreign parties to arbitrate in China amid US-China rivalry, according to arbitrators and law scholars. China’s newly revised Arbitration Law took effect in March, marking the most significant overhaul of the country’s commercial dispute framework since 1994, in a move to promote cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to develop into international arbitration centres, competing...

Since the start of the day, Russian forces have attacked the positions of Ukraine's Defense Forces 52 times. The enemy is concentrating its main efforts on the Pokrovsk direction.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov reaffirmed Russia’s steadfast position on the Iranian issue

A voting system created when two parties dominated is being tested by the rise of newer competitors.

U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit China on the 14th and 15th of this month for a summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. This will be the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since October of last year, and discussions are expected to cover a range of issues, including economic and trade relations, the situation surrounding Taiwan, and the situation in Iran.

Maria Zakharova said the Israeli importer Tzentziper made this decision in the light of certain unnamed circumstances and offered the supplier to find another buyer on its own

President Jovenel Moïse, 53, was gunned down in his bedroom in July 2021. His killing unleashed a yearslong spiral of gang violence and mayhem in Haiti.

Hong Kong has raised HK$27.6 billion (US$3.5 billion) through a green and infrastructure bond sale to finance the Northern Metropolis and low-carbon transformation projects. The offering drew investors from more than 30 markets across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, signalling global institutional investors’ confidence in Hong Kong’s development, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said in a statement on Friday. Orders totalled about HK$239 billion, 8.6 times the offer size. The...

The Virginia Supreme Court threw out Democrats’ redistricting referendum on Friday, ruling 4-3 that it didn’t follow the proper procedures.  The decision casts aside the state’s new congressional map that would’ve given Democrats a 10-1 tilt in Virginia. Under the ruling, the 6-5 map will stay in place. “This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,”…

Former “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush on Thursday said that former reality star Spencer Pratt, a Republican running to become mayor of Los Angeles, was “relentless” in Tuesday’s debate with incumbent Mayor Karen Bass (D). Bush told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo that he was initially “suspect” of Pratt debating Bass and Los Angeles City Council member…

U. S. military actions against Iran were effective, but the president has stumbled through negotiations.

The Pentagon on Friday released a major tranche of never-before-seen files about UFOs, the latest in a series of declassifications on topics that have long captivated Americans and spawned conspiracy theories. “The Department of War is in lockstep with President [Donald] Trump to bring unprecedented transparency regarding our government’s understanding of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement. “These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves.” A new website made public Friday by the Defense Department — war.gov/UFO — is replete with a rotating carousel of black-and-white images of unidentified aerial phenomena. Viewers can sift through dozens of files containing detailed information on alleged UFO sightings. Statements from several government officials suggested this was merely the first tranche of releases, and that more UFO files would be declassified and released at a later date. Former President Barack Obama touched off the most recent round of rampant speculation about the existence of alien life when he said in a February interview that aliens are “real but I haven’t seen them.” Though Obama walked back his comments, suggesting statistically there probably is life out there but he has seen no evidence of it, Trump revealed plans to release the government’s UFO files later that month. The government has long collected information on UFOs, including through the Pentagon’s Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program study that began nearly two decades ago. While Americans regularly connect sightings to life outside of earth, experts also often suggest more terrestrial explanations, including advanced next-generation technologies from America’s geopolitical rivals. The Trump administration took no position on Friday, saying they were allowing Americans to make up their own minds. “We will remain candid about what we know to be true, what we have yet to understand, and all that remains to be discovered,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement accompanying the release. This isn’t the first major files drop carried out by the Trump administration. Trump also said he’d declassify information on other long-running American fascinations, including President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and aviator Amelia Earhart’s disappearance. But the biggest disclosure was not voluntary. Last December, the Department of Justice began releasing files related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in accordance with a law passed by Congress. The DOJ announced the release was complete in late January, the culmination of a monthslong fight over the files that revealed major fissures in the president’s MAGA coalition. The UFO files are unlikely to raise similar levels of dissent. “While past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files,” the Pentagon wrote.

Scandal over theft at his private game farm in 2020 has dogged South Africa’s president

Deeper economic cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will hinge on whether a code can be laid down to govern maritime territory and activity in the South China Sea, Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has said. “We cannot institutionalise any of those things until the code of conduct is finalised,” he told a press conference on Friday at the close of the 48th Asean summit in Cebu, when asked about aspects that held the most potential in relations between...

According to an analysis published this week, Moscow lost territory on the battlefield in April 2026 for the first time since Ukraine's bold incursion into Russia's Kursk oblast in August 2024. Moscow's losses amounted to approximately 116 square kilometers across several areas of the front line.

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett says the April jobs report should not make the Federal Reserve want to raise interest rates. He also talks about bringing down the national debt and President Trump's trip to China next week. He speaks on Bloomberg Open Interest. (Source: Bloomberg)

The Virginia Supreme Court has prevented state officials from using a new congressional map, approved by voters this year, that was expected to help Democrats gain additional seats in the US House.

France has sent back its ambassador to Algeria in a bid to ease tensions between Paris and its former North African colony. The envoy was recalled more than a year ago after relations between the two countries soured over France’s decision to back Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara.

At a New York City ballroom late last month, a crowd of hi-tech luminaries gathered at an honours ceremony. The biggest draw for the assembled tech geniuses was Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, the superstar head of one of the world’s most valuable companies, set to receive the night’s top award. In some ways, engineers have been at the centre of every industrial revolution, Huang told the crowd, from steam to electricity to information technology. But this one, artificial intelligence (AI), will be...

Director James Cameron and The Walt Disney Company are being sued by Q'orianka Kilcher, an Indigenous actress who did not participate in Avatar, but whose face appears in the films. At least, that is the basis of the woman's claim, who asserts that Cameron "extracted her facial features and ordered his design team" to make one of the main characters, Neytiri, look like her. "One of the most powerful filmmakers in Hollywood exploited the biometric identity and cultural heritage of a young Indigenous woman to create a film franchise that broke records, without giving her credit or compensation, through a series of deliberate and non-consensual commercial acts," reads a statement from the lawsuit, which has been widely reported by American media outlets. According to Kilcher, of Peruvian origin, the director allegedly saw the actress in a commercial for the film *The New World* (2005), where she played Pocahontas, and based the character of Neytiri (played by Zoe Saldana) on her appearance. Evidence against James Cameron for using Q'orianka Kilcher's face: The statement recounts a meeting that actress Q'orianka Kilcher had with James Cameron in 2010, shortly after the release of the first *Avatar* film. There, the director gave her a framed sketch of Neytiri drawn and signed by him. In addition, there was a note that said: "Your beauty was my initial inspiration for Neytiri. It's a shame that..."

Since his election last September with an impressive result, Zack Polanski has dramatically boosted the Green Party's profile. For a long time on the fringes, the Green Party has gained over 100,000 members in just a few months, thanks to the personality of its new leader, who was still relatively unknown a year ago. Initially an actor and hypnotherapist, this 43-year-old man, who describes himself as "gay, Jewish, and vegan," entered British politics relatively late. A former activist in the radical Extinction Rebellion movement, he first joined the Liberal Democrats in 2015 and then the Greens two years later. A member of the London Assembly since 2021, he is now very popular in urban centers, among young people to whom he speaks about housing costs and the fight against unemployment, social welfare, and public services, as well as among Muslim voters. The UK's Green Party leader, Zack Polanski, has been compared to Zohran Mamdani of New York for his popular blend of environmental and socialist policies. Here's what you need to know about the leader of the Greens: [link to article] [Tweet from Al Jazeera English, May 7, 2026] His method is simple: he draws on his experience as an actor to break down the conventions of politics and dominates social media with aggressive communication. "Polanski brings a breath of fresh air because he is not seen as a conventional politician..."

On August 8th, U.S. Secretary of State Rubio, while visiting Italy, told a group of reporters, "We are hoping to receive a response from Iran today. We have not yet received it, but we expect it will arrive." This statement indicated that the U.S. anticipated receiving Iran's response to the U.S. proposal by the end of the day on August 8th.

Opinion polls before the election suggested that the right-wing anti-immigration Reform U. K. party and the center-left Plaid Cymru would battle for the top spot in Wales.

According to Ivo Daalder, since assuming the position of Secretary of State in January 2025, Marco Rubio has undertaken 18 trips abroad, spending 75 days on these assignments and visiting 31 countries.

Close relations with Israel and the United States have placed the United Arab Emirates in Iran's crosshairs as Abu Dhabi pursues a more independent foreign policy than many Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia.

Bernd Lange, the European Parliament's lead negotiator on the EU-US trade deal, has rejected pressure from Washington to expedite implementation, insisting that the bloc's democratic procedures cannot be dictated by tariff threats from President Donald Trump.

Potato-linked financial contracts have risen over 700% in a few weeks, despite a current oversupply in Europe, due to speculative trading surrounding the volatile environment caused by the Iran war.

A memorial service was held in Taiwan for Ichiro Hatta, a Japanese engineer who dedicated his efforts to the development of agriculture during the period of Japanese rule. Over 700 people, including President Lai Ching-te, attended the ceremony to honor his achievements.

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, stated this Friday that the United States appears to be avoiding, at all costs, the possibility of achieving a negotiated solution to the conflict between the two countries. He warned that, contrary to American estimates suggesting a depletion of their arsenal, Iran's missiles are "reloaded to 120%" and prepared for a full-scale resumption of hostilities. "Every time a diplomatic solution is proposed, the United States opts for a reckless military adventure," Araqchi criticized in a message posted on social media. He expressed his "bewilderment" at the attitude of the Trump administration and suggested the existence of a "saboteur," referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Is this a clumsy tactic of pressure? Or is it the result of a saboteur once again deceiving the president and leading him into another quagmire?" the Iranian Foreign Minister pondered before concluding that "whatever the causes, the result is the same: Iranians never give in to pressure, and diplomacy is always the victim." Furthermore, Araqchi asserted that all American estimates regarding a supposed decline in Iran's military capabilities are far from reality. "The CIA is wrong. Our missile inventory and launch capability are not at 75% compared to February 28th," the date when...

In Romania, the Social Democrats joined forces with the far right to bring down the pro-EU government. Elsewhere, some mainstream parties are considering deals, or already cooperating with, parties they previously saw as too radical.

Officials said the group had been hiking up the active volcano despite a climbing ban.

The US Court of International Trade struck down the 10% import tax imposed on all countries on Thursday. This measure had replaced previous tariffs that the Supreme Court had ruled illegal.

Norway has announced it plans to reopen three old gas fields in the North Sea in order to boost Europe's supply. Already the largest supplier for the EU, Oslo also proposed 70 new offshore locations for oil and gas exploration. Environmental activists accuse the government of using geopolitical tensions and conflicts like the wars in Ukraine and Iran as an excuse to continue drilling for fossil fuels despite the climate crisis.

China’s health authorities have tried to address public concern about the recent hantavirus outbreak by saying there was no cause for concern. The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday that the country had recorded no human infections from the strain of the virus linked to the current outbreak. It is thought to have its origins in the Andes and the CDC said there were no natural hosts for that particular variant in China. “Hantavirus infections generally do not...

PARIS. – All the polls predicted it, but that didn't make the results of the local elections in the United Kingdom on Thursday any less painful for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party suffered a significant defeat, benefiting the anti-immigration far-right party, Reform UK. Starmer acknowledged that the results were "very difficult" and took responsibility, but ruled out resigning, as proposed not only by the Conservative opposition but also by some factions within his own party. "I am not going to resign and plunge the country into chaos," he stated in a press release. "Days like this do not diminish my determination to implement the changes I have promised," he added. These are tough results for Labour. There’s no sugarcoating it. We’ve lost brilliant Labour representatives who’ve stood up for their communities. People are still frustrated. Their lives aren’t changing fast enough. We haven’t offered enough hope or optimism for the future. I… pic.twitter.com/fX70cmFKpQ — Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) May 8, 2026 Approximately 25,000 candidates ran in these elections, which were intended to partially renew municipal councils: 5,066 councilor seats out of a total of 16,000, in 136 local authorities (32 London boroughs, 32 metropolitan boroughs, 18 unitary authorities, 6 counties, and 48 districts) and 6 directly elected mayors in England; 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament (…

On May 8, operators of the Alpha special operations center of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) carried out overnight strikes against the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez oil refinery and the Perm linear production and dispatch station.

The elections in England, Scotland, and Wales represent the most significant electoral challenge for Keir Starmer since he became prime minister in 2024.

Abbas Araghchi described the United States' actions as "reckless."

This sharpening convergence was on full display in early May, when the EU and Japan convened the 7th High-Level Economic Dialogue (HLED) in Brussels. The meeting reflected a notable hardening of language and intent. European and Japanese officials focused squarely on vulnerabilities stemming from concentrated supply chains, particularly China’s dominance in critical minerals and clean […] The post EU-Japan joining hands to break China’s supply chain grip appeared first on Asia Times.

Paris is returning its ambassador to Algeria and sending a senior envoy to ceremonies marking a colonial-era massacre in its former colony in a bid to improve frayed relations, the French presidency has announced.

The US and Iran clashed near the Strait of Hormuz, putting a fragile ceasefire under new strain. The skirmishes risk undermining talks over a US-proposed deal to permanently end the war, with Iran expected to respond soon. (Source: Bloomberg)

The Prime Minister and the U.S. Secretary of State shook hands and exchanged greetings, including kisses. Prior to that, they held a bilateral meeting with the Foreign Minister.

The United States is still awaiting a response from Iran regarding a potential agreement that would end the war, according to Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who spoke on Friday after meeting with his American counterpart, Marco Rubio, in Rome. "The Secretary said that they are waiting for a response from Iran, and we have encouraged dialogue," Tajani stated in a press conference following the meeting. The war between the United States and Iran, which began on February 28th, has now reached its one-month mark, following a fragile ceasefire agreement reached by the parties. However, tensions between the two countries escalated yesterday with a series of reciprocal attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. In this context, Washington is still hoping that Tehran will respond to a proposal to end the war and reopen the Strait. Yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that his country was continuing negotiations with Iran despite this exchange of attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. Tajani told Rubio that Italy "is in favor of any initiative that could lead to a permanent ceasefire." He also offered the American Secretary the availability of the Italian Navy to clear mines from the Strait and ensure its navigability once the area is completely pacified. "They want the agreement more than I do," U.S. President Donald Trump stated on Thursday evening that Washington is still engaged in negotiations with Iran despite the latest exchange of...

As Europe commemorates the 81st anniversary of the Allied victory over the Nazis this May 8, many in Germany are discovering long-buried family secrets. Nazi party membership lists – saved from destruction in 1945 – are now available online. In just a few clicks, the Nazi past of millions of German families is within reach.

Iraq has the fifth largest proven oil reserves in the world, estimated at 145 billion barrels, representing about 17% of total Middle Eastern reserves and around 9% of global reserves, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that U. S. President Donald Trump's envoys are expected to visit Kyiv at the turn of spring and summer.