Browsing: Gaming
The US administration announced an extension of its waiver allowing foreign-flagged vessels to transport goods between domestic ports for 90 days, aiming to facilitate the movement of oil and fertilizers amid supply disruptions caused by the war on Iran.White House Press Secretary Taylor Rogers said during a press briefing that new data collected since the initial waiver showed that significantly larger quantities of supplies had reached US ports more quickly. She noted that the extension would help ensure the continued availability of essential energy products, industrial materials, and agricultural supplies.She affirmed that Donald Trump had extended the waiver for foreign-flagged ships for 90 days, after it was due to expire on May 17, pushing it forward by three months until mid-August. Source link
The US administration announced it has frozen digital assets worth $344 million that it says were linked to Iran.Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent said on X that the move was part of Washington’s efforts to increase pressure on Tehran amid disruptions to energy supplies caused by the war in the Middle East. He affirmed that the Treasury Department would continue to systematically undermine Iran’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds.He noted that his department had imposed sanctions on several digital wallets linked to Iran, leading to the freezing of these funds. Source link
Japan’s government plans to release additional volumes from its national oil reserves starting May 1, as part of efforts to stabilize energy supplies amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.According to Kyodo News, the government had already begun releasing stockpiled oil last month following concerns over supply stability triggered by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The move is aimed at securing alternative sources and mitigating potential disruptions.Tokyo previously announced the release of reserves sufficient to cover 30 days of domestic consumption from late March. This will be followed by an additional release equivalent to 20 days of consumption beginning in early May, with implementation scheduled to start on May 1.The total volume of crude oil to be released is estimated at 5.8 million kiloliters, stored across 10 facilities nationwide. The oil will be sold to four major wholesalers under optional contracts valued at approximately 540 billion yen (around $3.4 billion). It will then be refined into gasoline and other petroleum products for supply to the domestic market.In a related development, the government said a shipment of US crude oil — secured through alternative procurement measures amid rising tensions linked to Iran — is expected to arrive in Japan for the first time on Sunday. Source link
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez downplayed the likelihood of the suspension of his country’s NATO membership, saying he had no concerns about media reports suggesting that discussions were taking place in the United States over a possible suspension as a retaliatory measure for Spain’s opposition to the war against Iran.Responding to questions about reports that Washington had discussed suspending Spain’s participation in positions of responsibility within NATO, during his attendance at a European Union leaders’ summit in Nicosia, Sanchez said that Spain was a reliable partner within NATO and fulfills its commitments, adding that there was no cause for concern. He added that Spain does not act based on media reports or emails, but rather on official documents and positions formally announced by the US government.It is worth noting that Sanchez opposed the US-Israeli war in the Middle East. His firm stance has caused significant dissatisfaction for US President Donald Trump, who criticized Madrid for refusing to allow the use of its military bases to carry out airstrikes, even threatening to halt any trade between the two countries. Source link
Britain’s Defence Secretary John Healey is shown mine countermeasure equipment during a ‘Strait of Hormuz Military Planning Conference’ Thursday. (AFP) Britain and France Thursday voiced hope that military plans to secure the Strait of Hormuz were coming together and would succeed in restoring trade flows through the vital passage.At a two-day meeting in London, military planners discussed the practicalities of a multinational mission led by the UK and France to protect navigation in the key waterway following a sustainable ceasefire, top defence officials said.The aim is to form a “defensive, multinational mission that will strengthen the confidence of commercial shipping, and, if necessary, clear mines and protect vessels when the hostilities end”, British defence minister John Healey said.The British ministry said the meeting involved more than 44 countries from every continent.Healey and French counterpart Catherine Vautrin said in a joint statement they were “confident that real progress can be made”.”International trade, energy, and economic stability for all our nations depend on freedom of navigation” in the strait, Healey told those attending.He called for “practical military plans”, saying “millions of people” were relying on a successful outcome from the meeting.”We can’t let them down,” he said.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said more than a dozen countries have agreed to participate in the mission to free up navigation in Hormuz.Iran said on Wednesday it would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz as long as the United States continued to blockade Iranian ports.While strikes around the region have mostly stopped since the start of a ceasefire, the US and Iran have continued to exert pressure around the trade route.Before the war started on February 28, about a fifth of the world’s oil was shipped through the Strait. Related Story Source link
Oil prices zig-zagged between negative and positive territory yesterday as traders weighed supply disruptions against the potential restart of peace talks between the US and Iran that could help limit those disruptions. Prices rose 2% earlier in the day on fears of renewed military escalation in the region after Iran released footage on Thursday of commandos boarding a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, and as progress stalled on re-opening the key waterway.Crude futures then pulled back after Reuters reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was expected to arrive in Islamabad late on Friday to discuss proposals for resuming peace talks with the US after talks collapsed earlier this week.Prices fell further after CNN reported that US President Donald Trump was sending special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan for talks with Iran’s foreign minister. “The (Strait of Hormuz) disruption has created a complex logistical challenge that will take time to resolve …. Clearing this backlog will take weeks, as vessels are sequenced through ports that are themselves operating under constrained conditions,” said Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen in a note.Brent crude futures were down 58 cents, or 0.6%, at $104.49, and US West Texas Intermediate futures were down $2.31, or around 2.1%, to $93.54. “Traders are liquidating length ahead of an unusually unpredictable weekend and will readjust their positions Sunday night based on Iranian developments,” said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM.For the week, Brent is up about 16% and WTI 11%, the second-largest weekly gains since the war began. Navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried about a fifth of global oil output, remains effectively blocked. Iran’s capture of two cargo ships highlighted Washington’s difficulties in trying to control the passage.Only five ships, including an Iranian oil products tanker, have moved through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, shipping data showed. – Reuters Source link
An internal Pentagon email outlines options for the United States to punish NATO allies it believes failed to support U.S. operations in the war with Iran, including suspending Spain from the alliance and reviewing the U.S. position on Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands, a U.S. official told Reuters.The policy options are detailed in a note prepared by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy adviser, who expressed frustration at some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant the United States access, basing and overflight rights – known as ABO – for the Iran war, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the email.Colby wrote that ABO is “just the absolute baseline for NATO,” according to the official, who added that the options were circulating at high levels in the Pentagon.One option in the email envisions suspending “difficult” countries from important or prestigious positions at NATO, the official said.President Donald Trump has harshly criticized NATO allies for not sending their navies to help open the Strait of Hormuz, which was closed to global shipping following the start of the air war on February 28.He has also declared he is considering withdrawing from the alliance.”Wouldn’t you if you were me?” Trump asked Reuters in an April 1 interview, in response to a question about whether the U.S. pulling out of NATO was a possibility.But the email does not suggest that the United States do so, the official said. It also does not propose closing bases in Europe.The official declined to say whether the options included a widely expected U.S. drawdown of some forces from Europe, however.Asked for comment on the email, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson responded: “As President Trump has said, despite everything that the United States has done for our NATO allies, they were not there for us.”The War Department will ensure that the President has credible options to ensure that our allies are no longer a paper tiger and instead do their part. We have no further comment on any internal deliberations to that effect,” Wilson said.TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SEES EUROPEAN ‘SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT’The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has raised serious questions about the future of the 76-year-old bloc and provoked unprecedented concern that the U.S. might not come to the aid of European allies should they be attacked, analysts and diplomats say.Britain, France and others say that joining the U.S. naval blockade would amount to entering the war, but that they would be willing to help keep the strait open once there was a lasting ceasefire or the conflict ended.But Trump administration officials have stressed that NATO cannot be a one-way street.They have expressed frustration with Spain, where the Socialist leadership said it would not allow its bases or airspace to be used to attack Iran. The United States has two important military bases in Spain: Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base.The policy options outlined in the email would be intended to send a strong signal to NATO allies with the goal of “decreasing the sense of entitlement on the part of the Europeans,” the official said, summarizing the email.The option to suspend Spain from the alliance would have a limited effect on U.S. military operations but a significant symbolic impact, the email argues.The official did not disclose how the United States might pursue suspending Spain from the alliance, and Reuters could not immediately determine whether there was an existing mechanism at NATO to do so.”We do not work off emails. We work off official documents and government positions, in this case of the United States,” Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez said when asked about the report ahead of a meeting of European Union leaders in Cyprus to discuss topics including NATO’s mutual assistance clause.POSITION ON FALKLAND ISLANDS COULD BE RECONSIDEREDThe memo also includes an option to consider reassessing U.S. diplomatic support for longstanding European “imperial possessions,” such as the Falkland Islands near Argentina.The State Department’s website states that the islands are administered by the United Kingdom but are still claimed by Argentina, whose libertarian President Javier Milei is a Trump ally.Milei was upbeat about the prospects.”We are doing everything humanly possible so that the Argentine Malvinas, the islands, the entire territory return to the hands of Argentina,” Milei said in a radio interview he posted on his X account on Friday.”We’re making progress like never before.”Britain and Argentina fought a brief war in 1982 over the islands after Argentina made a failed bid to take them. Some 650 Argentine soldiers and 255 British troops died before Argentina surrendered.A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the sovereignty of the islands rests with Britain.”Sovereignty rests with the UK and the islands’ right to self-determination is paramount. It’s been our consistent position and will remain the case,” the spokesperson told reporters on Friday.Trump has repeatedly insulted Starmer, calling him cowardly because of his unwillingness to join the U.S. war with Iran, saying he was “No Winston Churchill” and describing Britain’s aircraft carriers as “toys.”Britain initially did not grant a request from the U.S. to allow its aircraft to attack Iran from two British bases, but later agreed to allow defensive missions aimed at protecting residents of the region, including British citizens, amid Iranian retaliation.Addressing reporters at the Pentagon earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “a lot has been laid bare” by the war with Iran, noting that Iran’s longer-range missiles cannot hit the United States but can reach Europe.”We get questions, or roadblocks, or hesitations … You don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them,” Hegseth said. Source link
Conflict, drought and shrinking aid will keep global hunger at critical levels in 2026, with food insecurity expected to worsen in some of the world's most fragile countries, according to the 2026 *Global Report on Food Crises.And two-thirds of people facing food crises globally last year lived in just 10 countries, with a third of them in Sudan, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), a UN-backed yearly report said yesterday.Conflict remained the main driver of acute food insecurity, according to the report, based on data from the United Nations, the European Union and humanitarian agencies.And with conflicts and climate extremes ‘likely to sustain or worsen conditions in many countries’, the outlook for 2026 is ‘bleak’, it said.’Acute food insecurity remains highly concentrated (in) 10 countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, and Yemen,’ the report said.Improvements in some countries, such as Bangladesh and Syria, were ‘almost fully offset by notable deteriorations’ in Afghanistan, DR Congo, Myanmar and Zimbabwe, it said.For the first time in the report, which is in its 10th edition, famine was confirmed in two separate contexts – in Gaza and parts of Sudan – in the same year.In total, 266mn people in 47 countries and territories faced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2025, while 1.4mn people faced catastrophic conditions in parts of Haiti, Mali, Gaza, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen.In 2025 alone, 35.5mn children worldwide were acutely malnourished, including nearly 10mn suffering from severe acute malnutrition.Looking at this year, the report said severity levels remained critical, with only Haiti expected to escape from the worst ‘catastrophic’ band thanks to a slight improvement in security and increased humanitarian aid.It also warned about the sharp decline in international aid and said the Middle East war risked aggravating existing crises by increasing the numbers of displaced in a region already hosting millions of refugees, and driving up fertiliser costs.The blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil supply route, has sent fertiliser prices soaring since they rely on oil-based inputs.’Now we're in planting season,’ Alvaro Lario, head of the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), told AFP. ‘So for sure this current food shock – both with the energy prices going up and also fertilisers going up – I think it's going to have a massive impact in terms of production.’He called for more help to small-scale farmers, for example by investing in water- and climate-resilient crops.Crises could be eased by farmers producing fertiliser locally as well as improving soil health so that less of it is needed, he added.Even before the added stress of this latest war, West Africa and the Sahel looked likely to remain under heavy pressure this year from conflict and persistent inflation, particularly in Nigeria, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.Nigeria alone is projected to see one of the largest increases in food insecurity in 2026, with 4.1mn more people expected to face acute hunger.In East Africa, failed rains across much of the Horn of Africa are expected to deepen suffering in Somalia and Kenya, where drought, insecurity, high food prices and reduced humanitarian aid are likely to drive worsening conditions.The report also warned that humanitarian and development financing for food sectors in crisis fell sharply in 2025 and is projected to decline further.Humanitarian food-sector funding is estimated to have dropped by some 39% last year from 2024 levels, while development assistance contracted by at least 15%.The IFAD is also working on boosting investment by local private sectors.’Creating the instruments and incentives for the local private sector… is a very important way of making that sustainability and that development money go a longer way,’ Lario said. Source link
Voting began Thursday in two of India’s politically key opposition-held states, with tens of millions casting ballots in West Bengal and the southern Tamil Nadu.Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling party in the national parliament, is hoping to make inroads in the opposition strongholds.In West Bengal, which has a population of over 100mn, polling opened in the first phase to elect members from 152 constituencies of the 294-seat legislative assembly.The second phase, covering the remaining 142 seats, will be held on April 29.”Nearly 36mn people are eligible to vote,” said Manoj Agarwal, the state’s chief electoral officer, adding that around 8,000 polling stations had been designated “supersensitive”.Modi’s BJP has waged an aggressive bid to dislodge West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the firebrand leader of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) which has been in power in the state since 2011.Banerjee’s party won 213 of the 294 seats in the previous election held in 2021.Paramilitary forces were deployed, with security heightened along the Bangladesh border.The campaign was marked by protests over the removal of millions of names from voter rolls during a Special Intensive Revision — meant to remove ineligible voters but which critics say is skewed against marginalised and minority communities.”We want employment in our state. We want to live with social dignity,” first-time voter Pratik Maity told AFP.Women’s safety and corruption also featured prominently during the campaign.In Tamil Nadu, which has a population of over 80mn, polling for the 234-member assembly was being conducted Thursday in a single phase, with the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) facing off against its long-time rival, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).The BJP, a junior ally of AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, has struggled to make significant electoral gains in the southern state.Results for both elections will be released on May 4.On the same day, results will also be announced for state elections in Assam and Kerala, as well as the smaller coastal territory of Puducherry. Related Story Source link
A ceremony marking the connection of the two sides of the new Russia-North Korea road bridge over the Tumen River, set to open this summer. (AFP)…