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International organizations warned that the escalating hunger crisis in South Sudan will push 7.8 million people into high levels of acute food insecurity between April and July 2026.The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated in their latest Integrated Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report that this figure represents 56 percent of the total population and is among the highest levels of acute food insecurity currently recorded globally.The report explained that 73,300 people are facing the “catastrophe” phase (Phase 5 of the IPC, the most severe level of acute food insecurity), adding that this figure represents a staggering 160 percent increase compared to previous estimates.It also noted that 2.5 million people are living in the “emergency” phase (Phase 4 of the IPC), while 5.3 million people are living in the “crisis” phase (Phase 3 of the IPC).The three UN agencies stated that this crisis is exacerbated by escalating conflicts, mass displacement, economic decline, climate shocks, flooding, and below-normal agricultural production levels, which contribute to reduced food availability and limit families’ ability to access sufficient food.The IPC report is a global initiative involving UN agencies, regional partners, and aid organizations. It classifies food insecurity into five phases, with famine being the most severe. Source link
Donald Trump’s picture will soon appear in some US passports, officials said Tuesday, shattering another norm as the president aggressively puts his personal stamp on government institutions. The State Department, following reports by Fox News and The Bulwark, confirmed it would offer a limited-edition passport to mark this year’s 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence. The articles included two images set to appear inside the passports, one of Trump’s official photo imposed over the Declaration of Independence, with his signature — in gold — underneath.The second showed a historic painting of the US Founding Fathers. “As the United States celebrates America’s 250th anniversary in July, the State Department is preparing to release a limited number of specially designed US passports to commemorate this historic occasion,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said on X, linking to the Fox News piece. Another State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Trump-themed passports would only be available in Washington “for as long as there is availability” and at no additional cost.It was not immediately clear if passport applicants could refuse the special edition. There are few modern precedents anywhere in the world, let alone in a democracy, of sitting leaders’ pictures appearing in passports, with most countries preferring to depict historical imagery or nature.Current US passports depict multiple scenes from the country’s history such as the Moon landing along with historic sites such as the Statue of Liberty. Since returning to office last year, Trump has slapped his name and image on government institutions in an unprecedented way. Several government buildings in the capital have put up banners of the president, while officials have added his name onto the Kennedy Center performing arts center and the dismantled US Institute of Peace.Last month the Treasury Department also said Trump’s signature would soon start appearing on the dollar, in another first. Britain and other Commonwealth countries feature on their currency the likeness of King Charles III, who is a head of state without direct involvement in politics. The king met with Trump on Tuesday during a state visit to Washington. Source link
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth will make his first testimony before Congress on the Mideast war Wednesday, as efforts to end the conflict stalled with the United States reportedly skeptical of Tehran’s latest offer to unblock the Strait of Hormuz.Iran has blockaded the waterway — a vital conduit for oil and gas shipments — since the start of the US-Israeli offensive two months ago, sending shockwaves through the global economy.US officials did not dispute accounts by CNN and The Wall Street Journal that US President Donald Trump was skeptical of the proposal. During a White House state dinner Tuesday, Trump told Britain’s King Charles III and other guests that Iran has been “militarily defeated.”He added that “Charles agrees with me even more than I do — we’re never going to let that opponent have a nuclear weapon.”But an Iranian army spokesman told state TV on Tuesday that “we do not consider the war to be over,” saying Tehran had “no trust in America.””We have many cards that we have not yet used… new tools and methods of fighting based on the experiences of the past two wars, which will definitely allow us to respond to the enemy more decisively” should the fighting resume, Amir Akraminia said in an interview.Efforts to end the war have stalled in recent days, with Vice President JD Vance last week preparing to fly to Pakistan for new talks but then staying home.The latest Iranian proposal, passed along by Pakistan and studied by Trump administration officials in a meeting Monday, laid out red lines including on nuclear issues and Hormuz, according to Iran’s Fars news agency. The plan would reportedly see Tehran ease its chokehold on the strait and Washington lift its retaliatory blockade on Iranian ports while broader negotiations continue, including over the thorny question of Iran’s nuclear program. Source link
Militants and Tuareg separatists were advancing in northern Mali yesterday, three days after launching unprecedented attacks against the ruling junta, in what the government’s Russian allies said remained a “difficult” situation. The attacks were the largest in nearly 15 years and saw two former foes — insurgents and Tuareg separatists — join forces against the military junta and its Russian paramilitary backers, analysts say. Defence Minister Sadio Camara — seen as the mastermind behind the junta’s pivot to Russia — was killed in two days of fierce fighting between the army and Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) allied with the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM). Russia’s defence ministry said yesterday that the rebels, who have captured a key town in the mostly desert north, were “regrouping” and the situation “remains difficult”.The fighting saw “attempts made to seize key facilities in the capital, Bamako — first and foremost, the presidential palace”, the ministry said. It confirmed that mercenaries from Russia’s Africa Corps, controlled by the government in Moscow and sent to back up the Malian junta, had been forced to withdraw from the northern town of Kidal, now under the armed groups’ control. The Kremlin, separately, said it urgently wanted peace and stability in Mali, which has battled more than a decade of violence and other conflict.Abandoned and withdrawn The large-scale attacks at the weekend raise questions about the junta’s ability to tackle the armed groups, despite its insistence that its strategy, foreign partnerships and increased military efforts have stemmed the threat. The notable absence of Goita, who seized power in 2020 pledging to combat the militants, has prompted uncertainty about the future of the country’s military leaders.A Malian security source told AFP that Goita was not taking any risks for “security reasons”. “The military leadership is currently drawing lessons from the prevailing situation,” an elected official in Bamako said on condition of anonymity.In a sign of the high tensions in the west African nation, the army has abandoned several positions in the northern Gao region, local sources told AFP yesterday. Gao is the army’s second-largest military stronghold after Kati, a garrison town near Bamako which is home to several senior junta officials and was targeted in the weekend attacks.“The military have abandoned their position in Labbezanga, near the Niger border. They have withdrawn to Ansogo,” a local politician told AFP on condition of anonymity. As well as Kati, the simultaneous weekend attacks targeted the towns of Kidal and Gao in the north, and Sevare in the centre.Two loud blasts were heard late on Monday near the airport on the outskirts of Bamako, an AFP journalist said.The cause of the blasts could not immediately be identified. “It wasn’t an exchange of gunfire and the explosions were coming from the area of Base 101 at the airport,” a resident told AFP.Diversion? The attacks near the centres of Malian power have been seen by some analysts as a diversion to seize Kidal.Kidal, a pro-independence stronghold, was controlled by Tuareg rebel groups for years before being retaken in November 2023 in an army offensive, supported by Russian mercenaries from Africa Corps’ predecessor, the Wagner Group. Central Mali, where Mopti is located, was also targeted and the security situation remained unclear yesterday.The attacks are reminiscent of a crisis that rocked Mali in 2012, when Tuareg rebels joined forces with jihadists to capture strategic hubs in the vast, remote north. That offensive was repelled by forces from former colonial ruler France, who have since left the Sahel country.The alliance between the militants and Tuareg rebels eventually unravelled when they turned on each other and the jihadists drove the Tuareg separatists out.The latest attacks are the result of a new alliance forged a year ago.Although the two groups have different goals, according to experts, they are united against a common enemy — the military junta that has ruled since 2020 and its Russian paramilitary backers.A Source link
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi attend a meeting at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library in Saint Petersburg, yesterday. (Reuters) Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday praised the Iranian people for battling to stay independent in the face of US and Israeli pressure and said Moscow would do all it could to help Tehran. Russia has offered to mediate to try to help restore calm to the Middle East following US and Israeli strikes, which Moscow has strongly condemned. It has also repeatedly offered to store Iran’s enriched uranium as a way of defusing tensions, a proposal spurned by the US. “We see how courageously and heroically the Iranian people are fighting for their independence and sovereignty,” Putin told Araghchi, saying he hoped they could get through what he called a “difficult period” and that peace would prevail. “For our part, we will do everything that serves your interests and the interests of all the peoples of the region to ensure that peace is achieved as quickly as possible,” said Putin.Putin received Araghchi in the presidential library in Russia’s former imperial capital St Petersburg as sources from mediator Pakistan said work had not halted to bridge gaps between the US and Iran. Putin said he received a message from Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, last week, and asked Araghchi to convey to him that Russia intended to continue its strategic partnership with Tehran. That 20-year agreement was sealed last year. Russia is building two new nuclear units at Bushehr — the site of Iran’s only nuclear power plant — and Iran has supplied Russia with Shahed drones for use against Ukraine, the production of which Moscow has since localised. Araghchi, who said he wanted to brief Putin on the situation around his country, thanked Putin for Moscow’s support.“It has also been proven to all that Iran has friends and allies, such as the Russian Federation, who stand by Iran precisely in difficult times,” he said.Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said that Moscow wanted to see the US and Iran continue negotiations. There should be no return to military action, he added, something he said was not in anyone’s interests. Source…
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party strengthened its position in parliament’s upper house after seven opposition lawmakers joined it, a parliamentary list showed yesterday, a shift that could ease the government’s passage of legislation. All seven defectors are from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by one of Modi’s most high-profile critics, Arvind Kejriwal. The party governs the northern state of Punjab and previously ran the national capital territory of Delhi. The defections leave the AAP with just three seats in the Rajya Sabha house, while Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party now has 113 members, 10 short of a simple majority in the 245-member chamber. Modi’s broader National Democratic Alliance coalition holds about 140 seats in the house, also known as the Council of States. Rajya Sabha members are elected for six-year terms by elected members of state legislatures and federal territories with legislatures, using a proportional representation system. Modi’s coalition rules 19 of India’s 28 states and two of its three federal territories with legislatures. The defectors include former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh and Raghav Chadha, the de facto leader of the group who gained prominence by raising middle-class concerns such as the high cost of food at airports.Chadha accused the party of being run by “corrupt and compromised” people. The AAP said the defectors were being opportunistic. All but one of the former AAP members were elected from Punjab, where state polls are due next year and Modi’s party has never won a majority on its own. Several other AAP leaders, including Kejriwal, have faced court cases over corruption allegations. A New Delhi court in February declined to proceed with a trial against Kejriwal and other party colleagues in one such case, which the AAP has described as politically motivated. The matter is now before a higher court. Source link
Nigeria’s giant Dangote refinery is benefiting from record margins for producing jet fuel that it is mostly selling abroad, while the domestic airlines it also supplies have threatened to stop flying because of the surge in fuel prices. The refinery, the largest on the continent, was built to turn Africa’s biggest oil producing country into a net exporter of refined products, end Nigeria’s reliance on fuel imports, and shield its economy from global energy shocks. It became fully operational at the start of this year and is producing at its maximum capacity of 650,000 barrels per day. That has improved local fuel availability but domestic fuel prices are still among the highest in Africa as Nigeria’s market is fully deregulated, meaning fuel prices are not subsidised by the government as they are in most African countries. The issue is further complicated by the state oil company’s long-standing debt repayment agreements that mean Dangote has to import most of its crude oil, making it easier to balance its books if it sells abroad.Industry body the Airline Operators of Nigeria said prices, taking logistics and storage costs into account, have climbed to 3,300 naira ($2.44) per litre, nearly triple the level in February before the start of the Iran war. Nigeria’s energy regulator said Dangote was selling jet fuel at 1,879 naira ($1.39) per litre, little changed from imported fuel prices of about 1,900 naira ($1.41) per litre delivered to Lagos earlier this month. The MiddleEastern conflict has led to unprecedented energy disruption and the risk of jet fuel shortages is pressing. Airlines around the world have hiked prices, added fuel surcharges and grounded planes. Nigerian airlines last week threatened to halt all flights, prompting the government on Thursday to approve measures including some relief on debts owed by local airlines and ordering talks to try to agree lower prices. Dangote, meanwhile, as a new, highly efficient refinery, has been able to take advantage of record margins for producing jet fuel from crude.Its profits could be even higher if it could rely on Nigerian crude and avoid almost all freight costs. State oil firm, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s joint-venture crude, however, is tied to oil-backed loans and pre-export deals. That means much of Nigeria’s roughly 1.5 mn barrels per day of production goes to paying debts to international oil majors, banks and traders. The NNPC does not disclose its obligations, but analysts estimate they amount to about 400,000 bpd. Dangote Group Vice President Davekumar Edwin said Dangote imported most of its crude from the US, as well as some from other African producers and Brazil. He did not give precise figures. He said the bulk of the 24 mn litres of jet fuel it produces daily was shipped to Europe, although he also said the refinery largely supplied the needs of Nigerian airlines, which the aviation industry estimates at about 2.1 mn litres per day. As European buyers are willing to pay a premium ahead of the peak demand summer travel season, European imports from Nigeria have averaged 78,000 to 96,000 barrels per day in April so far, data from Kpler and LSEG showed, the highest on record.Alan Gelder, senior vice president for refining, chemicals and oil markets at Wood Mackenzie, said European refiners had earned about $15 per barrel. He estimated Dangote’s margins at more than double that as a result of access to Nigerian crude and the plant’s scale and sophistication. Source link
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon have held a telephone conversation to discuss the evolving situation in the Middle East, according to officials.During the call on Tuesday, Luxon acknowledged Pakistan’s recent diplomatic efforts aimed at facilitating dialogue between the United States and Iran, as well as promoting regional stability.Sharif, for his part, briefed his New NewZealand counterpart on Islamabad’s ongoing diplomatic outreach to support de-escalation and encourage peace in the region.Both leaders emphasized the importance of diplomatic engagement in addressing tensions and maintaining stability across the Middle East. Related Story Source link
US President Donald Trump met with his top security advisers yesterday to discuss an Iranian proposal that would reportedly re-open the Strait of Hormuz as broader negotiations over the war continue, the White House said. When asked about the reported plan — which would see both Iran and the US lift their blockades ahead of further talks on the thorny issue of Tehran’s nuclear programme — spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told a White House briefing that “the proposal was being discussed.” “Only because it’s been reported, I will confirm the president has met with his national security team this morning,” she said, refusing to say if Trump would accept the proposal.Secretary of State Marco Rubio meanwhile said Iran’s stance on the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which a fifth of global oil and liquid natural gas normally transits, did not meet US demands. “If what they mean by opening the straits is, ‘yes, the straits are open as long as you co-ordinate with Iran, get our permission or we’ll blow you up and you pay us,’ that’s not opening the straits,” Rubio said in a Fox News interview. “They cannot normalise — nor can we tolerate them trying to normalise — a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway, and how much you have to pay them to use it,” he said. US outlet Axios had earlier reported that Trump would meet with his national security team to discuss an offer by Iran on re-opening the strait and postponing nuclear negotiations to a later stage.ABC News, citing two anonymous US officials, meanwhile reported that the deal fell short of Washington’s red lines.Leavitt told reporters that “the president’s red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well.” Source link
Amazon announced the successful launch of 29 new satellites as part of its satellite internet provider, Amazon Leo- formerly Project Kuiper- from Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida, using the ULA Atlas 5 rocket.The company explained that this step aims to enhance its satellite network in low Earth orbit. Through these intensive launches, Amazon seeks to accelerate the schedule for operating its high-speed Internet service and fulfill its legal obligations to operate half of its planned network before mid-2026.The project aims to deploy a constellation of 3,236 satellites to provide broadband Internet coverage globally. Related Story Source link