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Legislators representing more than a dozen African nations have pledged to introduce new bills targeting LGBT rights, following a conference held in Accra, Ghana that drew together self-described “pro-family” advocates from both Africa and Europe.

The African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty convened in Accra from June 3 through June 6 — just one week after Ghana’s parliament approved one of Africa’s strictest anti-LGBT measures, a bill that criminalizes the promotion of LGBT identity.

The conference reflects a growing movement toward more restrictive laws affecting LGBT people across parts of Africa. Participants noted that conservative figures in the United States and Europe have been encouraging this trend, and that it has gained new energy since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Several attendees said they viewed Trump’s presidency as an opening to advance their goals, noting that his administration — unlike those of Barack Obama and Joe Biden — does not include LGBT rights as a component of its foreign policy agenda.

Ghana’s Parliament Speaker Alban Bagbin addressed the gathering in his opening remarks, urging attendees to take action when they returned home. “When you return to your respective capitals, let the resolutions we adopt here not gather dust in the archives of our secretariats. Let them be translated into active bills, robust budgetary allocations, and rigorous oversight,” he said.

He continued: “Go home and tell your people that their representatives have resolved to protect the sanctuaries of their homes, the heritage of their ancestors, and the sovereignty of their nations.”

Currently, more than half of Africa’s 54 countries have laws criminalizing same-sex sexual acts. Nations including Uganda and Senegal have gone further in recent years by passing laws that also criminalize the “promotion” of LGBT identity — the same step Ghana’s lawmakers took in late May.

Conference organizers said representatives from 20 countries attended the event, which was held at Ghana’s parliament building. It remains unclear how many of those attendees plan to introduce new legislation based on what was discussed.

Reuters spoke with five participants and reviewed more than 100 pages of conference presentations. The news agency was unable to determine the extent to which foreign activists shaped the conference agenda, nor did it find evidence of foreign funding.

Sharon Slater, president of the U.S.-based conservative organization Family Watch International, has participated in previous versions of the conference held in Uganda. She told Reuters she was invited to this year’s event but chose not to attend.

Among the speakers was Henk Jan van Schothorst, the Dutch executive director of the advocacy group Christian Council International, who urged African governments to resist pressure to prohibit so-called conversion therapy — a practice aimed at changing gay people’s sexual orientation. “These policies are not only reserved for the Netherlands and for Europe. They are coming to Africa,” he said of such bans, characterizing them as “ideological colonisation” by Western nations.

In a separate presentation, Kenyan doctor Wahome Ngare offered definitions that described homosexuality and transgender identity in terms of childhood sexual abuse.

The conference wrapped up with lawmakers approving an “African Charter on Family, Sovereignty and Values,” a document that had been drafted during earlier meetings held in Uganda. The 32-page charter calls on governments to withdraw from international treaties or agreements — including those at the United Nations and with foreign donors — that are viewed as promoting “the LGBT agenda,” abortion, or sex education that does not focus on abstinence.

The charter also calls on signatory nations to pass domestic laws that “safeguard African culture and cultural values.” Lawmakers from 18 of the 20 represented countries voted to approve it.

Public health officials have raised concerns about the consequences of anti-LGBT legislation, warning that such laws can drive LGBT individuals underground. This is particularly concerning for men who have sex with men, a group that already faces higher HIV rates than the general population. Reuters reported in April that HIV patients in Senegal were visiting treatment centers less frequently amid a surge in arrests tied to that country’s new law.

In Ghana, the ongoing legislative debate has already created a climate of fear among LGBT residents. “I constantly self-censor, hide, watch my back. That’s not safety, that’s survival,” said an African photographer who has long lived in Accra. “So yes, leaving has crossed my mind. That breaks my heart because Ghana is my home.”

Reuters reported in March that the U.S. “pro-family” group MassResistance had been in communication with activists in Ghana who supported the bill, as well as those backing Senegal’s new law.

Ghana’s bill is currently awaiting approval from President John Dramani Mahama, who had previously indicated he would sign such legislation but has more recently cited procedural concerns. A coalition of more than 100 African civil society organizations has called on Mahama to reject the bill, warning that the government risked allowing “external actors with resources and reach to shape its domestic legislation.”

The U.S. State Department has stated that Trump’s approach to foreign aid ensures taxpayer money is not “wasted on divisive social and gender issues.”

At the Accra conference, Ugandan former lawmaker Sarah Opendi welcomed the change in direction from Washington. “Let us first thank the American people for voting for President Trump. The conversation in America today is different,” she said.

Afghan forces conducted air strikes against Islamist militant hideouts situated in two provinces of Pakistan, according to Afghanistan’s Taliban-led defense ministry, which announced the action in a post on X on Friday.

The ministry stated that the targeted locations had been used to plan and organize attacks directed at Afghan territory.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham took a significant step toward his goal of replacing fellow Labour member Keir Starmer as Britain’s prime minister after winning a parliamentary seat on Friday.

His commanding victory — capturing 54.8% of the vote — has reinforced the belief among some members of the ruling Labour Party that Burnham is the only figure capable of defeating Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party in a future national election.

That sentiment has led some within the party to discuss the possibility of a smooth, uncontested transition, in which Starmer would step aside voluntarily rather than face a drawn-out leadership battle.

Roughly a quarter of Starmer’s fellow lawmakers have called on the prime minister to step down following Labour’s worst local election performance by a governing party in more than 30 years — a defeat largely attributed to a wave of support for Farage’s anti-immigration movement.

Burnham has publicly stated he intends to enter any leadership race and is currently considered the leading candidate to succeed Starmer. However, his supporters are still working through the details of when and how to mount a formal challenge.

Former health minister Wes Streeting has also indicated he has sufficient lawmaker support to enter a leadership contest.

Here is a look at the possible routes Burnham could take to replace Starmer:

Starmer Agrees to a Peaceful Transfer of Power

One scenario involves Burnham simply inheriting the leadership without a fight. A number of Labour politicians have encouraged Starmer to publicly outline a timeline for his exit rather than waiting for — and then competing in — a formal leadership election. A contested race, they warn, could harm the party if candidates resort to personal attacks.

If Starmer chose not to run, and Burnham secured enough parliamentary backing while other potential candidates fell short, Burnham would ascend to the prime ministership. Some lawmakers have also floated the idea that Streeting could be offered a high-ranking position — such as finance minister — in a future Burnham government, in exchange for staying out of the race.

Burnham Moves Quickly to Formally Challenge Starmer

Burnham is set to be sworn into parliament next week, which would allow him to officially challenge Starmer. Under Labour Party rules, only members of parliament are eligible to lead the government.

The party’s rules for removing a sitting leader are strict. Rather than simply expressing a lack of confidence in the current leader, challengers must rally behind specific candidates. Any contender must gather support from at least 20% of the party’s lawmakers in the House of Commons — currently equivalent to 81 members, including the challenger.

If Burnham opts to act quickly, he would likely need to declare his challenge before parliament enters its summer recess on July 16, when lawmakers return to their home constituencies for work and holidays.

Starmer holds the automatic right to compete in any leadership contest and has said he plans to do so. Once candidates collect backing from local party branches and trade unions, party members would cast the deciding votes. The entire process could span two to three months.

Burnham Holds Off Until After Summer

Alternatively, Burnham could wait until after the summer recess before making his move. That delay would allow him to focus on supporting the Labour candidate in the upcoming Greater Manchester mayoral election, expected around the end of July.

The extra time would also give Burnham an opportunity to strengthen ties with Labour lawmakers — particularly those who entered parliament after he departed in 2017. A Starmer ally, housing minister Steve Reed, suggested in the wake of the by-election that Labour’s immediate priority should be winning the Greater Manchester mayoralty.

A Different Politician Kicks Off the Contest

There is also the possibility that someone other than Burnham triggers a leadership challenge, with Burnham then choosing to enter the race.

Streeting, who resigned from his role as health minister in May, has suggested Starmer should reflect on his future over the coming weekend. If the prime minister fails to lay out a plan for his exit, Streeting has signaled he is ready to mount a challenge in the near term.

Should Starmer and Streeting both run against Burnham in a vote among Labour members, current polling indicates Burnham would come out on top.

China is ramping up oversight of indium shipments, and buyers around the world are growing worried that the obscure but important metal could soon be added to Beijing’s growing list of export restrictions.

Indium is a byproduct of zinc refining that is widely used in displays and solder. More critically, it serves as the raw material for indium phosphide, which is used to manufacture high-speed optical chips that power next-generation AI data centers. China accounts for nearly 70% of global indium production, giving it enormous influence over the supply of the material.

Beijing already placed indium phosphide on its export control list in February 2025. Those restrictions have created enough of an obstacle for data center development that the CEO of an Nvidia-backed chipmaker called Coherent traveled to Beijing alongside President Donald Trump in May specifically to address the issue.

While indium metal itself has not yet been added to the export control list, two buyers told Reuters they have experienced heightened scrutiny from Chinese customs officials. A European buyer said that, for the first time this year, they were asked to provide information about end users — including where those customers were located.

A major buyer based in North America described the situation as “tense,” saying that approvals that once came through the same day now take several days. That buyer attributed the delays to increased examination of paperwork, though they had not been asked to provide additional end-user information.

China’s Ministry of Commerce did not respond to a request for comment, as the inquiry came during a public holiday. All buyers who spoke with Reuters asked not to be identified, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

The increased scrutiny is not being experienced uniformly. Two additional buyers told Reuters they had heard about the tighter checks but had not encountered them personally. As of now, no shipments have been confirmed as blocked.

Still, there is growing unease within the small indium industry that these developments may signal tighter controls ahead. End-user disclosure requirements, used by China and other countries with export control systems, help governments map global supply chains and identify potential pressure points.

Indium has already been flagged as a potential vulnerability for the United States. The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency issued a request for proposals earlier this year to stockpile as much as 403 tons of the material over a three-year period.

One North American buyer said they believed the new reporting requirements were “a precursor to restrictions or outright bans on exports.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has quietly built a network of secret cells inside Iraq, designed to launch attacks against Gulf nations that host American military forces — and to do so without being traced back to established Iranian-backed militia groups, according to eight Iraqi sources who spoke with Reuters.

Between April 20 and May 17, three or four of these cells — each made up of roughly 10 highly trained Iraqi Shi’ite fighters — carried out at least seven drone strikes launched from remote desert areas near the southern Iraqi cities of Basra and Samawa. The targets included sites in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, according to three of those sources.

Some members of these new cells were recruited from the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of hardline Shi’ite factions with thousands of fighters. However, the newly formed groups operate completely outside that coalition’s chain of command, answering directly to the IRGC instead. That information came from a group of sources that included two Iraqi military officials, one security official, and five local militia commanders.

The creation of these cells — which had not been publicly reported before — signals a change in how the IRGC operates. The five militia commanders said the shift reflects Iran’s effort to maintain its regional influence at a time when its network of armed proxy groups has been significantly weakened and its own military and financial resources are stretched thin.

Iraq, a country with a Shi’ite Muslim majority, is home to numerous militias, many of which have strong ties to Tehran. These groups have long been central to Iran’s regional “Axis of Resistance,” a network that extends from Gaza and Lebanon to Yemen and Iraq.

Factions operating under the Islamic Resistance in Iraq banner have claimed credit for dozens of drone and rocket attacks on American assets in the country since the U.S. and Israel struck Iran on February 28, drawing deadly retaliatory airstrikes in response. But there has been no large-scale mobilization of Iran’s proxy forces within Iraq’s borders.

Several influential Shi’ite factions have been signaling since last year that they are prepared to lay down their weapons and shift their focus to domestic politics, in part to avoid a deepening confrontation with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. According to retired Iraqi army general Jasim al-Bahadli and two lawmakers from the Shi’ite governing alliance, that trend may have pushed the IRGC to form groups it could control directly.

Two of those factions — Asaib Ahl al-Haq and the Imam Ali Brigades — announced this month that they would begin turning over their weapons to Iraqi state authorities, following repeated warnings from the U.S. to Baghdad to dismantle armed groups operating on its soil.

“The newer groups established by the IRGC appear smaller, more ideologically hardened and more tightly controlled, reflecting Iran’s need to conserve resources amid economic strain,” said Bahadli, who is recognized as an expert on Shi’ite armed groups.

The revelations come as the U.S. and Iranian presidents signed an interim agreement Wednesday to halt the ongoing war, with further negotiations planned on thorny issues including the future of Tehran’s nuclear program. However, Iranian officials have made clear that their support for what they call “resistance groups” is not on the table, and the agreement does not address that issue.

Iran’s foreign ministry and its missions to the United Nations in New York and Geneva did not respond to detailed questions submitted for this story.

The U.S. State Department repeated its call for Iraq’s government to take immediate steps to “dismantle all the tools of Iran’s destabilizing activities in Iraq,” specifically naming the IRGC and Iran-aligned militias.

At a meeting held Monday, Iraq’s new prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, and U.S. envoy Tom Barrack discussed Iraqi plans to pursue “the complete disarmament and disbandment of all armed groups” outside Iraqi state control and to guarantee that “Iraqi territory cannot be used by any side to threaten regional peace,” according to a joint statement released following the meeting.

Zaidi’s military spokesman, Sabah al-Numan, declined to comment on the story. Kuwait’s information ministry, the Saudi government communications office, and the UAE foreign ministry also did not respond to requests for comment.

The broader conflict has taken a heavy toll on the world’s most vital energy-producing region, disrupting oil supplies and fueling inflation. Tehran responded to U.S.-Israeli bombing campaigns by effectively shutting down the Strait of Hormuz — a critical waterway through which approximately one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas trade flows — and unleashing a widespread campaign of drone and missile attacks against neighboring Gulf states.

The newly emerged Iraqi groups, often operating under unfamiliar names with little public presence, were responsible for at least three drone attacks targeting Kuwait, two aimed at Saudi Arabia, and two directed at the UAE, according to three Iraqi security sources. Their information came from human intelligence, intercepted communications, and physical evidence recovered from launch sites.

Among the targets were Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base, where U.S. forces are stationed, and a military terminal at Kuwait’s international airport, the sources said, though they offered no further details. The strikes aimed at Saudi Arabia and the UAE were intercepted before reaching their targets, the sources said, though they could not confirm what the intended targets were.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm these accounts.

Iraqi officials said the IRGC deliberately turned to these new cells to maintain plausible deniability, shield the country’s main Iran-backed groups from scrutiny, and reduce American pressure on Baghdad to disarm them.

Iraqi security forces have limited knowledge of these groups but are actively working to map out their command structures in an effort to prevent future attacks. The groups are said to include elite fighters with specialized skills in drone operations and communications.

Iran invested decades and billions of dollars building its regional alliance network, which has been badly damaged since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel has conducted sustained military operations against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, while the Houthi movement in Yemen has faced U.S. and British airstrikes. The fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 cut off a key supply route for Iraqi militias and further isolated Tehran.

Rather than maintaining a large, well-funded network of militia groups in Iraq, Iran now appears to be betting on a smaller number of “more radicalized cadres willing to operate with leaner financial support, prioritising loyalty, deniability and operational impact over mass recruitment,” Bahadli said.

The situation represents an early and significant test for Prime Minister Zaidi, who took office last month after U.S. pressure on the dominant Shi’ite political alliance to block the return of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has close ties to Iran. Baghdad has long tried to balance its relationships with both Washington and Tehran — a difficult act that became even harder during the war.

Attacks launched from Iraqi soil also threaten to unravel Baghdad’s careful efforts to repair ties with wealthy Gulf neighbors, relationships that were badly damaged when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 but had begun to improve in recent years. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE all summoned Iraq’s ambassadors in April to formally protest the strikes.

Iraqi authorities are also investigating whether a new group was behind a May 17 drone attack that sparked a fire at the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant. Saudi Arabia reported intercepting three drones that entered its airspace from Iraq that same day — an attack Iraqi officials attributed to one of the newly formed cells.

Zaidi publicly condemned both attacks, calling them criminal acts, and pledged to conduct a joint investigation with both Gulf countries to determine whether Iraqi territory was used to carry them out. His spokesman, Numan, did not respond to questions about where that investigation currently stands.

MELBOURNE, Australia — A third person has been charged in connection with the arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue that Australian officials allege was orchestrated by Iran.

According to a police statement, the newly charged suspect is a 20-year-old man who was among three masked individuals who broke into the Adass Israel Synagogue in the early morning hours of December 6, 2024. The group reportedly soaked the inside of the building with flammable liquid before setting it on fire. The blaze caused extensive damage to the synagogue, and one worshipper suffered minor injuries.

The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team — a combined force of federal and state police working alongside an intelligence agency — filed the charges against the man, whose identity has not been released. He was charged while already being held in a Melbourne jail on separate, unrelated offenses, which police declined to specify.

His two co-defendants were arrested last year. Giovanni Laulu, 21, was taken into custody in July, followed by Younes Ali Younes, 20, who was arrested the following month.

Australia’s Prime Minister last year publicly accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guard of being behind both the synagogue fire and a separate arson attack on a Sydney kosher restaurant called Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, which occurred roughly two months earlier.

The director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the country’s primary domestic intelligence agency, stated that the Revolutionary Guard relied on a “complex web of proxies to hide its involvement” in both antisemitic attacks.

In response, Iran’s ambassador to Australia and three other Iranian diplomats were expelled from the country. Iran has denied the allegations made by Australian officials.

Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Crozier told reporters Friday that investigators are continuing to work with international partners as the probe moves forward. Authorities are also looking into whether the three alleged arsonists had any knowledge of who ordered the attack.

“They may not actually be aware of the people who are directing or the principals of these investigations. That remains a key line of inquiry for us,” Crozier said.

Victoria Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Paul O’Halloran said the local Jewish community was notified of the third arrest before it was announced publicly.

“Our heart goes out to them. Again, this brings back this terrible incident,” O’Halloran said. “People deserve the right to feel safe and be safe in their community and particularly at their place of worship. Today’s charges are a strong testament to this,” he added.

The latest suspect is expected to make his first court appearance on the new charges next week.

Separately, the Australian government has launched a public inquiry into a growing wave of antisemitism across the country, which includes the fatal shooting of 15 people when two gunmen opened fire on a Sydney Hanukkah gathering in December.

Hopes for a durable end to the Middle East conflict dimmed Thursday when Switzerland confirmed that planned peace negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials would not go forward, after Vice President JD Vance canceled his trip to Geneva.

“The logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement Thursday night, noting that Vance and the U.S. delegation had been prepared to leave as soon as final arrangements were confirmed.

Switzerland’s foreign ministry confirmed the talks — which had been scheduled to take place at the mountaintop resort of Burgenstock — would not happen, though officials offered no explanation for the cancellation.

Iran had not immediately responded to the development. Earlier, Tehran had signaled it was prepared to begin technical discussions following Wednesday’s 14-point accord, which extended a fragile ceasefire by a minimum of 60 days.

Before Vance made his Thursday announcement, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Iranian negotiators wanted to first see evidence that the U.S. was following through on the interim agreement before committing to send a delegation to Geneva.

U.S. officials had planned to hold a formal signing ceremony in Switzerland for the agreement, but Iran’s foreign ministry dismissed the idea as unnecessary, pointing out that both nations’ presidents had already signed the pact.

The war, which began February 28 with U.S. and Israeli air strikes against Iran, has now claimed at least 7,000 lives, driven energy prices sharply higher, and rattled financial markets around the world.

Israel Keeps Fighting

Israel, which was excluded from the peace negotiations, has kept its distance from the U.S.-Iran agreement and continued its military campaign against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group operating in Lebanon — raising further questions about whether the deal will hold.

Back in Washington, some Republican allies of President Donald Trump in Congress questioned whether he gave away too much to bring the conflict to a close, particularly with midterm elections approaching in November and the war widely unpopular among Americans.

Trump had previously vowed he would only end the war with Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.”

However, the memorandum he signed with Iran instead offers the country relief from economic sanctions, unfreezes tens of billions of dollars in assets, and grants immediate U.S. waivers allowing Iran to export oil.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei claimed Trump had signed the agreement “out of desperation” and suggested that upcoming discussions over Iran’s nuclear program — one of Trump’s stated justifications for going to war — would be far from straightforward.

“If the American side wants to be too demanding, we will not accept it,” Khamenei said in a statement.

The agreement gives negotiators 60 days to reach a resolution on Iran’s nuclear program, with the possibility of an extension, and establishes a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran along with additional financial incentives. Vance indicated Washington would also push to place limits on Iran’s long-range missile capabilities.

The financial toll of the war also drew renewed attention, as the U.S. defense department informed lawmakers it required $80 billion to cover war-related costs and certain other expenses, according to the Wall Street Journal.

When the U.S. and Israel launched the conflict nearly four months ago, Trump stated his goal was to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities so the country could never develop such weapons. He also sought to eliminate Tehran’s ability to strike neighboring nations, cut off its support for anti-Israel militant groups in the region, and create conditions for Iranians to overthrow their government.

None of those goals had been achieved when Trump signed the agreement. In it, Iran reiterated its longstanding claim — one doubted by multiple U.S. administrations — that it does not seek to acquire or build nuclear weapons.

Iran also agreed to on-site “down blending” of its highly enriched uranium stockpile and to International Atomic Energy Agency inspections as a Non-Proliferation Treaty member, though it rejected Trump’s demand that the material be removed from Iranian soil.

U.S. officials maintain the ongoing negotiations could still produce a strong agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, potentially surpassing a 2015 deal between Iran, the United States, and other nations that Trump abandoned during his first term. Critics, however, argue Iran now holds a stronger hand — having survived an attack by a superpower, demonstrated its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, and secured valuable financial sanctions waivers.

Iran has stated it will continue to exercise control over the Strait of Hormuz in partnership with neighboring Oman, and intends to charge ships service fees that did not exist before the war — though not during the 60-day negotiating window.

Oil prices edged lower Friday as the prospect of increased supply improved after tankers began moving again through the reopening Strait, which had carried nearly one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas before the war began.

In Lebanon, where more than one million people have been displaced by the fighting, fresh Israeli strikes on Friday killed at least 15 people, according to the state news agency NNA. Israel said the strikes targeted Hezbollah positions.

The continued fighting raised questions about how far Trump would go to pressure his wartime ally to stand down from an offensive he has pledged to end. The agreement calls for the “permanent termination” of the war in Lebanon, but Israel has said it has no plans to withdraw, and has released a new map depicting an expanded occupation zone.

Trump has grown openly critical of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, creating one of the most significant rifts between the two countries in decades.

The transport workshop at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in eastern Ukraine was struck by a wave of drone attacks late on June 18 and continuing into the overnight hours, according to the Russian-installed management overseeing the facility.

Officials said at least 14 separate drone strikes were recorded during the assault. The attack ignited a fire in one portion of the facility, and several buildings sustained damage as a result.

Despite the scale of the attack, no casualties were reported. However, management cautioned that a complete picture of the destruction has not yet been possible to determine, citing the ongoing risk of additional strikes in the area.

MANCHESTER, England — Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham made a name for himself in 2020 when he publicly clashed with the Conservative government over what he called inadequate compensation tied to strict COVID-19 restrictions in his region. That standoff not only earned him widespread admiration across northern England but also restored his standing on the national political stage.

Now, at age 56, Burnham has secured a seat in parliament representing the Makerfield area and is hoping to leverage his unusual level of public popularity into becoming Britain’s seventh prime minister in just ten years.

However, political insiders warn that the bold, confrontational style he used so effectively against the central government in London would collide with a harsh reality if he actually took the top job. Britain’s finances are stretched thin, and the money needed to support his still-developing policy agenda may be just as hard to come by now as it was six years ago.

Four senior members of the governing Labour Party say Burnham would inherit the same difficult landscape facing current Prime Minister Keir Starmer — sluggish economic growth, the rise of populist political movements, a continuing cost-of-living squeeze, and budget constraints that leave little flexibility.

Tom Watson, a former deputy leader of Labour, made the point plainly in a recent Substack post, urging the party to pause before launching a leadership race. He wrote that the party should “acknowledge the structural problems” any incoming leader would face.

“Changing leader will not magic away low growth, the cost of Brexit, higher defence spending, rising welfare costs, broken public services, the politics of migration, the cost of net zero or the tax choices now closing in on the government,” Watson wrote.

One senior Labour lawmaker cautioned this week that without a sharp and well-defined agenda focused on boosting growth, along with the courage to follow through, Burnham risks stumbling just as Starmer has — a leader whose approval numbers rank among the lowest of any British prime minister.

Burnham, who has spent his career in politics, has so far offered only glimpses of what his leadership platform might look like. He could potentially become prime minister either through a formal Labour leadership contest or through direct endorsement by Labour lawmakers — a path many in the party seem to prefer.

After winning his parliamentary seat and fending off a challenge from the populist Reform UK party, led by veteran Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, Burnham declared it was time to steer the country back onto the “right path” and transform the way politics is done.

“Everyone can feel that the country isn’t where it should be,” he said in a victory speech that was briefly interrupted by other candidates from Makerfield. “Tonight could just could be the turning point.”

During his Makerfield campaign, Burnham walked a careful line — staying connected to local concerns in the former coal-mining community while avoiding the appearance of being more interested in national ambitions than in the people he was asking to represent.

Having spent time living near the area, Burnham spoke with detailed knowledge of a region he says has been neglected since the decline of its industrial base some 40 years ago. Official figures, however, place the area in the middle of national rankings when it comes to income deprivation, though it does lag behind on employment and health measures.

His tenure as Greater Manchester mayor — a role he took on in 2017 after growing frustrated with what he described as London-dominated politics, and following two unsuccessful bids for the Labour leadership in 2010 and 2015 — gives the clearest picture of what kind of leader he might be.

The moment that truly elevated his national profile came during his 2020 dispute with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson over pandemic restrictions. When television cameras captured Burnham publicly rejecting Johnson’s offer of £22 million in compensation — just a third of what Burnham called the “bare minimum” needed — it cemented his image as a “King of the North” willing to stand up to an overreaching central government.

Burnham describes his political philosophy today as “more ‘place first’ rather than ‘party first’” and is a vocal advocate for shifting power away from London to local communities. He argues that giving regions direct control over things like utilities and transportation would allow people to shape their own futures.

But some of his statements on financial policy have unsettled observers. Labour has committed to balancing day-to-day spending with tax revenues by the 2029-30 fiscal year. Yet last September, Burnham said Britain needed to move “beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets” — a remark that briefly pushed up government borrowing costs as markets interpreted it as a signal he would increase spending and debt. He has since said his words were taken out of context.

Investors were also rattled when Burnham floated the idea of compensating women who received lower pension payments after the retirement age was raised — a move that could cost billions — and suggested reducing student loan repayments.

He has since backed away from those positions, but has pledged to maintain the triple lock, a policy guaranteeing annual state pension increases tied to the highest of inflation, wage growth, or 2.5% — a commitment that costs the government treasury billions each year. He has also promised to raise defence spending without hiking taxes, and says he will reform the welfare system to get more people into employment rather than cutting benefits directly.

Some in the financial world are skeptical that the numbers work.

“I think he’ll just spend more, and I think he’ll do some tax increases,” said David Zahn, head of European fixed income at Franklin Templeton. “I am concerned (the fiscal rules) won’t be adhered to. It’s very clear the UK needs to spend a lot more on defence, but it’s not clear where that money will come from.”

For now, investors are taking a wait-and-see approach. Gordon Shannon, a partner at bond investment firm TwentyFour, said Burnham is currently “demonstrating that he gets … that his behaviour is going to be constrained by the bond markets.”

Whether that restraint holds — and who Burnham surrounds himself with — will only become clear if and when he walks through the door of 10 Downing Street.

During the week of June 12-18, 2026, Mexico etched its name in World Cup history by becoming the first team to punch a ticket to the tournament’s knockout round, defeating South Korea by a score of 1-0. Adding a bit of charm to the celebration, a duck named Merlín has been embraced as the squad’s beloved team mascot.

On the political front in South America, Peru’s presidential runoff election results are slowly trickling in. Conservative candidate Keiko Fujimori currently holds the lead over progressive challenger Roberto Sánchez as vote counting continues.

Neighboring Colombia is also bracing for a high-stakes presidential runoff of its own. The deeply divided nation is preparing to head to the polls in a tight contest pitting a progressive against a conservative outsider for the country’s top office.

The photo gallery highlighting these events was put together by photo editor Anita Baca, who is based in Mexico City.

Israel’s military announced Friday that its forces launched strikes on targets across southern Lebanon overnight, while Hezbollah described the fighting in the region as intense.

Lebanon’s government-run National News Agency reported that at least 16 people lost their lives in the Israeli airstrikes.

The military action unfolded as scheduled negotiations in Switzerland between the United States and Iran — aimed at reaching a lasting end to the Iran war — were put on hold.

A central point of contention in those talks has been Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanon and its ongoing military pressure against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia.

Israel has maintained that it must keep its hold on the territory and retain the ability to freely engage Hezbollah, citing the group’s repeated attacks launched into northern Israel.

The postponement followed a report from Al-Mayadeen, a pan-Arab satellite network with political ties to Hezbollah, that Iran had chosen to delay dispatching its delegation to Switzerland in response to Israel’s continued military operations in Lebanon.

TURRE, Spain — This month marks ten years since Britain held its historic referendum on leaving the European Union, and for one Liverpool man, that anniversary came with a life-changing decision. Daniel Northover, 53, packed up his life and moved to Turre, a small Andalusian town of about 4,500 people in southern Spain, to live full-time with his 80-year-old mother Carole.

After Carole’s husband passed away last summer, Northover and his sister had been taking turns flying back and forth to Spain to look after her. Carole suffered multiple strokes and is no longer able to cook, clean, or dress herself without assistance.

The back-and-forth arrangement eventually became impossible to maintain. Under current rules, non-EU citizens are only permitted to stay within the EU for 90 days out of every 180 without a visa. Northover, who works as a project manager for local councils and charities, did not qualify for a work visa. And visas designed to allow someone to care for a dependent family member are only available when it is the British citizen themselves who requires the care — not the other way around.

A senior official with the European Commission told Reuters that cases where the absence of a family caregiver would force an elderly Withdrawal Agreement beneficiary out of their host country are reviewed individually. In all other situations, standard immigration rules apply.

Northover’s sister applied for a family reunification visa and was turned down. With no other options available, Northover and his partner sold their home to fund a so-called “non-lucrative” visa — a permit that allows them to live in Spain but prohibits them from holding a job. They are now Carole’s full-time caregivers.

“The way the withdrawal agreement was written means we’ve had to give up our lives and careers,” Northover said.

Carole, sitting in her wheelchair in the Spanish sunshine beside her son, expressed her frustration directly. “The agreement was terrible. They didn’t think it through,” she said, shaking her fist. “I’m so ashamed I’ve caused [my children] this stress.”

The Northover family’s experience is far from unique. Tens of thousands of British retirees living in Spain have aging or ill parents, and their families are scrambling to figure out how to provide care across international borders.

Britain voted 52% to 48% on June 23, 2016, to exit the EU after more than 40 years of membership. That decision ended the automatic right of British citizens to live and work freely across EU member states.

Spain is home to the largest British population in the EU — approximately 266,000 people according to official figures — and that community is growing older rapidly. Spanish data shows the number of British residents over the age of 75 climbed from 36,000 in July 2016 to more than 51,000 at the beginning of last year.

Sally Myburgh, a British resident of Malaga who runs a Facebook group helping people navigate life in Spain after Brexit, said she regularly sees families dealing with exactly this kind of situation. “This is a recurring problem that isn’t going to go away,” she said.

She noted that the common response — that these retirees should simply return to England — ignores a painful reality. “The attitude is they should just go back to England… but these people are at the end of their lives,” Myburgh said. “This is their home.”

The number of British residents in Spain has stayed relatively steady since the Brexit vote, with roughly a third of them being pensioners. Many are settled in towns along the Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol coastlines. Spain’s social care system does offer in-home assistance to qualifying residents, but even for those with the most severe needs — classified as having a “total loss of autonomy” — support is capped at 94 hours per month, or roughly three hours per day.

Neal Anderson, a welfare officer with the charity Help at Home Costa Blanca, which supports elderly British residents in the region, said returning to the UK is an unrealistic option for people who have spent decades building a life in Spain and have no community or property waiting for them back home.

Northover echoed that concern for his mother’s wellbeing. “My mum is 80. A major upheaval is distressing. Uprooting her to a place she doesn’t know with people she doesn’t know… it could kill her,” he said, adding that even if she made it through the move, getting her registered in Britain’s already-strained social care system could take months.

Carole, who voted to remain in the EU, put it simply: “I can’t imagine living [in the UK] now… I love Spain… This is home. Everyone knows me here.”

European Union leaders are bracing for a heated showdown on Friday over the bloc’s next long-term spending plan, after an initial compromise proposal drew fire from both the countries that fund the budget and those that rely on it most.

The EU budget serves as the financial backbone for a wide range of programs across the 27-member bloc — from agricultural support and efforts to raise living standards in poorer regions, to research initiatives and student exchange programs. The European Commission has put forward a proposal calling for a €2 trillion ($2.3 trillion) budget covering the years 2028 through 2034.

The structure of the EU budget means wealthier member nations contribute more than they receive, while lower-income countries get back more than they put in. Every seven years, these two camps engage in intense negotiations to reach the unanimous agreement required to pass a budget.

A first compromise attempt, drafted last week by the Cypriot EU presidency, trimmed the Commission’s original proposal by 2% — a cut that proved too deep for some nations and not nearly deep enough for others.

The compromise also shifted funding within the budget toward agriculture and programs aimed at equalizing living standards across the bloc, while pulling back support for research and innovation. That shift frustrated countries working to keep pace with the industrial sectors of China and the United States.

The Netherlands, which pays more into the EU budget than it receives, pushed back on the proposal, saying it leaned too heavily on traditional spending areas like farming and regional development rather than addressing newer priorities such as defense and modernization.

Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten made the country’s position clear on Thursday, stating: “The proposal currently on the table is really not good enough for the Netherlands.”

Spain, which receives slightly more from the budget than it contributes, took the opposite stance — arguing the budget was too small and that spending on farmers and regional development needed to be increased to account for inflation.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was equally blunt, saying: “The proposal … is even more inadequate than the one initially proposed by the European Commission, and we therefore certainly do not agree with it at all.”

Time is becoming a factor. While EU governments are legally required to finalize the 2028-2034 budget by the end of 2027, upcoming elections in France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Greece, Estonia, Finland, and Slovakia next year have created pressure to reach a deal by the close of 2026 — before those campaigns can complicate the negotiations.

One key piece of the puzzle involves finding new sources of revenue for the EU that wouldn’t come directly from member countries’ national budgets. This could help ease the financial burden on net contributors while still meeting the spending expectations of net beneficiaries.

Several options are being floated, though each faces support from some countries and opposition from others. These include directing a portion of the revenue that EU governments earn from selling carbon emissions permits to companies, as well as a share of taxes on imported goods made in countries with weaker climate policies than the EU.

Additional ideas on the table include a tax on uncollected electronic waste, a portion of tobacco excise duties, and a yearly flat-rate contribution from large corporations that operate and sell within the EU.

Further proposals under consideration include levies on extreme wealth, digital services, online gambling, and capital gains from cryptocurrency assets.

Leaders are not expected to make final decisions on these revenue options at Friday’s meeting, but their expressed preferences will guide the incoming Irish EU presidency as it prepares a new compromise proposal ahead of October.

Gulf airlines are quietly making a comeback, with flight numbers across the region climbing back toward where they were before the Iran conflict began earlier this year.

Data from Flightradar24.com shows that major Gulf carriers have collectively recovered to roughly 82% of the flight volume they operated on February 27 — the day before the war started. Gulf Air and Kuwait Airways have actually surpassed that pre-war benchmark in recent days, topping 100% of their earlier levels.

The three largest carriers — Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad — are now operating at or near 90% of their pre-conflict flight totals. That marks a dramatic turnaround for Etihad and Qatar Airways, which had both dropped to just 40-50% of normal operations only a month ago. Emirates has maintained comparatively stronger numbers throughout the conflict.

The outlook for the industry brightened further after the United States and Iran signed an interim agreement on Wednesday to end the nearly four-month conflict. The two sides are expected to meet again Friday to work out the details of implementing the ceasefire deal.

James Halstead, managing partner at Aviation Strategy, said a full end to hostilities would allow the region’s airspace to reopen entirely, letting carriers resume normal operations. “If it gets back to normal, I just see them acting as normal, coming back in full force,” Halstead said.

Throughout the conflict, drone attacks repeatedly forced Gulf-bound flights to reroute, creating serious safety concerns for passengers and crew and funneling air traffic through only a small number of approved corridors. European and Asian carriers have largely suspended service to the region, with many travel warnings still in effect.

Australia did ease its travel advisory for several Middle Eastern countries this week, a positive sign for the region’s major transit hubs. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), however, has kept its warning in place. EASA told Reuters it will factor in the latest developments when it reviews its conflict-zone advisory, which runs through June 24, but noted it was still “too early to determine whether the observed de-escalation will result in a sustained reduction of risks to civil aviation.”

The Gulf region has invested heavily in recent years to build itself into a global hub for travel and tourism, pouring money into hotels, airports, and major events. A full reopening of its skies would give a significant boost to those economies.

Emirates CEO Tim Clark told Reuters last week that the airline’s priority is reassuring travelers about safety and reliability. Flightradar24.com data places the Dubai-based carrier at 86% of its pre-conflict flight volume. Etihad is also trying to attract visitors by offering complimentary medical travel insurance for trips to Abu Dhabi from July through December.

Breaking down individual airline recovery figures: Gulf Air and Etihad are both at 93% of their February levels, Kuwait Airways is at 86%, and Qatar Airways has reached 87%. Air Arabia and Flydubai are lagging behind, at 75% and 57% of pre-war levels, respectively.

The ripple effects of the conflict have spread far beyond the Gulf. Jet fuel prices spiked significantly — though they are now declining — squeezing airlines that did not have fuel cost protections in place. Flight schedules across Europe and Asia were thrown into disarray, and airlines were forced to store aircraft or operate lengthy repositioning flights just to move planes where they were needed.

The International Air Transport Association, which represents more than 370 airlines responsible for about 85% of all global air traffic, slashed its profit forecast for the industry this month. The group now projects a combined net profit of $23 billion for 2026 — far below its earlier estimate of roughly $41 billion and a sharp drop from the $45 billion earned in 2025.

BOGOTA, Colombia — Approximately 100 Colombian guerrilla dissidents laid down their weapons Thursday in a formal ceremony, marking a significant step in their gradual transition back to civilian life under an ongoing peace process with President Gustavo Petro’s government.

Wearing military-style camouflage uniforms, members of the National Coordinating Committee of the Bolivarian Army placed their arms on a table during the ceremony held in the department of Putumayo, a region that shares a border with Ecuador. The group is a breakaway faction of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly known as FARC.

With their weapons surrendered, the former fighters will move into a temporary resettlement zone where authorities plan to help them gradually reintegrate into civilian society. According to a government statement, the dissidents “will have their freedom restricted and will be under the control and supervision” of officials during this period.

The group’s leader, Geovany Andrés Rojas, addressed the ceremony remotely from jail, where he has been held since being captured last year while the group was already engaged in peace negotiations. “We laid down the iron rifle because we understand that words are a more powerful weapon,” he said.

Rojas was arrested in connection with an Interpol Red Notice related to drug trafficking charges in the United States. He acknowledged Thursday that his capture shook the confidence of rank-and-file members but said it did not derail the broader peace dialogue.

President Petro, himself a former rebel and Colombia’s first progressive president, has been pursuing negotiations with various dissident factions as part of his flagship “total peace” initiative, which runs simultaneous peace talks with multiple armed groups. That broader effort has largely fallen short of its goals.

The dissident groups are made up of factions that rejected the landmark peace agreement signed a decade ago between the Colombian government and FARC, which was once considered Latin America’s oldest guerrilla organization. A 2025 report by the Ideas for Peace Foundation, a think tank focused on Colombia’s internal conflict, estimates the country still has approximately 27,000 illegally armed group members.

Just last week, President Petro put a monitoring system in place for the temporary relocation zone and ordered a halt to offensive military and special police operations so the dissidents could safely enter the designated area.

A fire broke out Friday morning at an elementary school in central Tokyo, but all approximately 300 students and teachers inside were either evacuated or rescued, according to officials.

The Tokyo Fire Department reported that the blaze started near a music room on the top floor of the four-story Takinogawa No. 3 Elementary School, igniting late in the morning hours.

Rescue crews pulled one teacher and a number of students from the building. Those individuals sustained injuries that were not considered life-threatening, fire department officials confirmed.

News cameras captured thick black smoke pouring from windows on the building’s fourth floor as firefighters worked to bring the fire under control. Dozens of fire trucks were sent to the scene to assist with the response.

Everyone else who had been inside the school at the time of the fire made it out on their own, gathering at a nearby park. Officials confirmed that no one remained trapped inside the building.

Investigators have not yet determined what sparked the fire, and the cause remains under investigation.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia’s highest court ruled Friday to confirm the incitement conviction of a well-known opposition figure, while suspending the remaining portion of his prison sentence — a decision that keeps him out of jail but effectively sidelines him from politics for years to come.

The ruling targeted Rong Chhun, a senior adviser to the Nation Power Party, and drew an angry response from supporters who had gathered outside the Supreme Court building in the capital, Phnom Penh.

Rong Chhun, who is 56 years old, was convicted last year of stirring up social unrest following meetings he held with villagers who had been displaced by government construction projects. Many observers viewed the case as part of a broader pattern of legal actions used by the government of Prime Minister Hun Manet to silence dissent and criticism.

According to his attorney, Em Chantha, who spoke with reporters after the ruling, Rong Chhun will be prohibited from participating in politics in any capacity for the next five years — including being barred from voting or running for office. He will also be forbidden from leaving the country for three years, which represents the remaining time on his original four-year sentence. He had remained free throughout the appeals process.

Because rulings from Cambodia’s Supreme Court are considered final, Rong Chhun indicated he and his legal team would carefully review the verdict to determine whether there might be grounds to seek a pardon from Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni.

Efforts to quickly launch high-level talks between the United States and Iran ran into trouble just two days after a landmark agreement was signed — a deal that opens a 60-day window to negotiate a lasting understanding on Iran’s nuclear program and restore oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to prewar levels.

Vice President JD Vance had been set to board an overnight flight Friday to travel to a mountainside resort in the small Swiss village of Obbürgen, where he was expected to begin technical negotiations with Iranian counterparts.

His staff and a group of journalists had already assembled at Joint Base Andrews near Washington in preparation for the departure. Dozens of White House officials, advance team members, and additional media personnel were also on the ground in Switzerland awaiting Vance’s arrival.

Then, without warning, the trip was scrapped Thursday evening — at least for now.

The White House released a statement saying Vance — who was chosen by President Donald Trump to lead the negotiations — and his team were ready to talk, but that final arrangements could not be completed, and the vice president would be staying in Washington.

“The logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable,” the statement read.

The cancellation came after Al-Mayadeen, a Pan-Arab satellite network politically aligned with the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, reported that Iran was postponing the arrival of its delegation to Switzerland in response to Israel’s continuing military campaign in Lebanon.

Earlier Thursday, Vance had hinted at the uncertain situation when he told reporters at a White House briefing that he wasn’t sure whether the talks would happen that weekend.

“Our plan is to go to Switzerland, I don’t know exactly when,” Vance told reporters. “We think these technical negotiations start sometime this weekend. That’s still the plan. But that could change.”

Shortly after Vance addressed reporters, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei publicly backed direct negotiations with the U.S. in a brief statement delivered through state media. The move appeared to signal to Iran’s leadership that it was acceptable to proceed with an initial round of talks.

“It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy’s opinion,” Khamenei said in the statement.

The message seemed designed to give Khamenei — who was seriously injured in the February 28 U.S. strike that killed his father — some political flexibility. Hard-line factions within the Iranian government, including Khamenei’s father, have long resisted direct dialogue with Washington, particularly after Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement during his first term — a deal that had been negotiated under Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration.

For the White House, the statement appeared to open a path for the negotiations to begin.

Vance had originally been expected to travel to Switzerland to sign the agreement at an official ceremony. Instead, Trump signed the document Wednesday at a high-profile dinner at the Palace of Versailles with French President Emmanuel Macron, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed it separately.

The agreement specifies that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium — believed to be buried beneath the rubble created by U.S. military strikes last year that targeted key Iranian nuclear facilities — must at minimum be diluted under international oversight. The deal also states that Iran shall not acquire or develop nuclear weapons, a commitment Iran has made before. However, a number of other obligations still need to be negotiated.

Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East Program at Defense Priorities in Washington, said Iran would be entering the talks with a degree of confidence, having effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz and triggered significant global economic consequences. She said the U.S. is now “essentially trying to negotiate our way back to the prewar status quo.”

Neil Quilliam, an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Program at the Chatham House think tank, said Iran’s leadership feels “buoyant” and believes it holds the upper hand. He said the supreme leader’s endorsement of the talks “sends a very strong signal domestically: ‘We’re now on an equal footing with the U.S.’”

“‘Trump has gone from calling for regime change on Feb. 28 to this: Now they’re going to sit down with us directly and talk about these big issues,’” Quilliam said, describing how Iranian leaders view the situation. “So it’s intended more for the domestic audience, and telling them: ‘We are firmly in control of this. There can be no protests, no revolution: We are a new regime and we’re staying put.’”

President Trump’s own tone has also shifted noticeably in recent weeks.

For much of the conflict, Trump insisted that the financial burden on Americans mattered less to him than eliminating Iran’s nuclear threat. He drew criticism from some fellow Republicans when he suggested that the war’s potential effect on November’s midterm elections was not a concern of his.

But this week, at the G7 summit in Evian-Les-Bains, France, Trump acknowledged for the first time that continuing the war could have produced “economic catastrophe” and revealed that oil reserves were projected to run out in roughly four weeks.

“And the one president I did not want to be was the late, great Herbert Hoover,” Trump said, invoking the 31st president whose tenure became synonymous with the Great Depression.

For Vance, widely considered a likely contender for the 2028 presidential race, the outcome of these negotiations could carry major consequences for his political future.

Skepticism toward foreign military entanglements has been a defining feature of Vance’s political identity. Yet he now finds himself as the primary advocate for brokering an end to Trump’s conflict — one that Democrats have broadly dismissed as a misguided venture. Some hawkish Republicans are also alarmed that Trump is supporting a settlement that could funnel billions of dollars into Iran’s hands.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday he is worried the deal “negotiates away the victories” achieved through the U.S. air campaign against Iran, and that parts of it are “completely out of step” with Trump’s stated objectives.

Trump previously attacked Obama harshly over the 2015 nuclear agreement, arguing it failed to prevent Iran from moving closer to building a weapon and directed billions of dollars to the Islamic Republic. In 2018, Trump exited that deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which had also been signed by Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the European Union.

Trump has pushed back on comparisons to that earlier agreement, saying he “negotiated from strength” following a major military campaign, and arguing that Obama had essentially paid Iran without receiving meaningful concessions.

Wicker expressed particular concern over a $300 billion reconstruction and economic development fund for Iran referenced in the 14-point agreement, saying it “would make Iran’s payoff under Obama’s 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison.” Trump and Vance have both stated that no American taxpayer funds would be directed to such a fund, and that any money would be contingent on concessions and reforms from Tehran.

Ukrainian drone manufacturers are setting their sights on Asia, pursuing new defense partnerships with Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines as tensions over China’s posture toward Taiwan continue to drive up military spending across the region.

The CEO of UFORCE, a Ukrainian company that produces attack drones, traveled to Tokyo in April to present a proposal to Japanese officials and defense industry representatives. His pitch: manufacture thousands of Ukrainian-designed drones to protect Japan and its allies.

Just days before that visit, American forces had used UFORCE waterborne drones to destroy a vessel during a classified military exercise conducted where the South China Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. The company’s Magura surface drone has also spent years effectively blocking portions of the Black Sea from Russian naval activity.

Although East Asia’s maritime landscape differs significantly from the Black Sea, UFORCE CEO Oleg Rogynskyy told Reuters that “the impact is extremely similar.”

The details of those Tokyo meetings had not been previously made public. They represent part of a broader campaign by Ukrainian defense firms to capitalize on a wave of military investment by U.S. allies in Asia who are looking to counter an increasingly bold China and prevent a military conflict over Taiwan. Reuters gathered information from 20 individuals, including defense industry figures and officials from both Ukraine and Japan.

Ukraine’s reputation as a leader in drone warfare — a capability that has helped the country hold its own against Russia for more than four years despite being outmatched in conventional military power — has become a major selling point. Kyiv has already translated that battlefield experience into diplomatic and defense agreements in Europe and the Middle East. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated in February that Ukraine was “ready to open up our technologies” — including sea drones — to Japan.

Former Japanese defense minister Itsunori Onodera, who continues to hold significant influence as a lawmaker, said he welcomed Ukraine’s outreach. Japan needs equipment “that is actually demonstrating effective power,” he told Reuters.

Ukrainian firms including UFORCE, Skyeton, and General Cherry are looking for manufacturing partners in Japan, which recently lifted longstanding restrictions on arms exports. Japan’s military has hosted at least one previously undisclosed demonstration of drone technology from Ukrainian firm Swarmer. However, three people involved in broader discussions between Japanese officials and Ukrainian companies described those conversations as still in early, exploratory stages.

Japan’s defense ministry declined to discuss its interactions with Ukrainian drone producers but said Tokyo was “examining all possible options to ensure acquisition of equipment needed for Japan’s ‘new way of warfare.’”

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has cautioned that Tokyo could find itself drawn into a conflict involving Taiwan. China has refused to rule out using military force to bring Taiwan under its control and routinely conducts military exercises near the self-governing island.

Executives from three Ukrainian companies and a drone industry association said they are also exploring potential business with Taiwan, though they acknowledged being careful given that Ukraine does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with the island, which China claims as part of its territory.

The United States is legally obligated to help Taiwan defend itself. Admiral Samuel Paparo, the top American military commander in the region, said in 2024 that drones would be central to any military response in a conflict scenario, describing how they could generate an “unmanned hellscape” that would give the U.S. and its partners time to respond.

Naval analyst Bryan Clark of the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said drones will also be essential to fill defensive gaps along the chain of islands stretching from Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines. The U.S. drone exercise in April was conducted near Itbayat, a Philippine island located roughly 100 miles south of Taiwan, according to UFORCE and U.S. military sources.

A spokesperson for U.S. Pacific Command did not directly address questions about Ukraine’s efforts to build drone partnerships in Asia but confirmed it had met with Ukrainian drone manufacturers “to discuss how Black Sea operations could apply to the Indo-Pacific.”

Japan launched a major defense expansion in 2022, motivated in part by fears that the war in Ukraine could serve as a blueprint for conflict in East Asia. That buildup gained momentum when the hawkish Takaichi took office late last year, pushing Japanese companies to increase weapons production, including unmanned systems. Many of Japan’s defense manufacturers have historically been reluctant to enter the arms trade due to concerns about their reputations, particularly given their commercial ties to China.

Tokyo has set aside nearly $2 billion for drone systems in this year’s defense budget and aims to produce 80,000 drones annually by the end of the decade — a massive jump from the roughly 1,000 manufactured in 2024, according to the Japan UAV Association. Still, that figure falls well short of the 7 million drones Ukraine is targeting for production this year.

General Cherry, a Ukrainian company specializing in kamikaze drones, is among those seeking Japanese manufacturing partners. Co-founder Stanislav Gryshyn told Reuters during a recent Tokyo trip — where he attended a drone exhibition, held meetings with potential partners, and networked with Japanese government officials at a Ukrainian embassy event — that “Japan is the best way to the Asian market.”

Skyeton, whose long-range surveillance drones it says could help monitor Japan’s more than 14,000 islands, also conducted meetings in Japan last year.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the Philippines, Yuliia Fediv, told Reuters that Kyiv has been in discussions with Manila about drone technology cooperation. Ukrainian drone executives said any drones sold to the Philippines would likely be produced in Japan due to its stronger manufacturing capabilities. The Philippines, which has been involved in a series of escalating maritime standoffs with China, is already a significant customer of Japanese defense equipment. Fediv declined to provide further details, and the Philippines defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Swarmer president Alex Fink told Reuters that his company — a U.S.-listed Ukrainian drone software firm — has conducted demonstrations for a unit of Japan’s military. A late April test involved using Swarmer’s artificial intelligence software to coordinate a group of drones on a seek-and-destroy mission in Japan. Fink said the demonstration was arranged through Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten, whose billionaire founder Hiroshi ‘Mickey’ Mikitani has been one of Japan’s most outspoken advocates for Ukraine. Rakuten declined to comment on the demonstration but confirmed it is supporting Swarmer’s expansion in Japan.

Ukrainian companies are also working to reduce their reliance on Chinese-made drone components by sourcing parts from friendlier markets in East Asia. China manufactures many drone components and has placed some limits on their export, but similar parts are also produced in Japan and Taiwan, both of which host numerous suppliers of cameras, microelectronics, and related technology.

In May, the Ukrainian drone industry association IRON brought a delegation of roughly a dozen members to Taichung, a major industrial center in Taiwan, to connect with local suppliers. IRON chief executive Volodymyr Cherniuk said the primary goal was to help Ukrainian firms identify component suppliers. Reuters is the first to report the details of that gathering.

In at least one case, the relationship goes further: Elson Zhang of Jiin Ming Industry, one of the participating Taiwanese companies, told Reuters his firm is involved in an early-stage project with a Ukrainian partner to develop a drone that could potentially be sold back to Taiwan. He declined to identify the Ukrainian company.

Cherniuk said he plans to lead a delegation of IRON members to Tokyo later this year to seek Japanese production partners. “We would be happy for our drones to protect any country from invasion,” he said. “We know the best how it feels.”

A fire broke out at an elementary school in northern Tokyo on Friday, prompting a full evacuation of the building, according to Japanese media reports.

The fire ignited in the music room on the fourth floor of Takinogawa Daisan Elementary School. At the time, approximately 300 students and staff members were inside the building, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.

NHK reported that several students suffered injuries due to smoke inhalation as a result of the blaze.

LONDON (AP) — Andy Burnham, the widely popular Greater Manchester mayor representing the Labour Party, has secured victory in a special parliamentary election — a win that places him in direct position to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for control of the party.

Burnham defeated Rob Kenyon, a candidate from the anti-immigration party Reform UK, in the Makerfield constituency in northwest England.

The win solidifies Burnham’s standing as the frontrunner to succeed Starmer at the helm of both the Labour Party and the country. Burnham has earned strong support not only from within Labour’s ranks but also from the broader voting public.

WASHINGTON — The White House announced Thursday night that Vice President JD Vance has postponed a scheduled trip to Switzerland, where he was expected to lead another round of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. The delay has raised fresh questions about the future of the tentative peace agreement.

Officials said Vance’s team had been prepared to depart but held back, citing difficult logistics surrounding the talks. The announcement came after Al-Mayadeen, a pan-Arab satellite channel with political ties to the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, reported that Iran was pulling back its own delegation from Switzerland due to Israel’s continued military campaign in Lebanon.

The postponement followed news that the U.S. had lifted its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, allowing oil tankers to once again move freely through the critical waterway after months of being shut out. However, the initial agreement has faced sharp backlash from some corners of the U.S., including a handful of congressional Republicans who believe Washington gave up too much — pointing to sanctions relief and a potential $300 billion rebuilding fund as major concessions to Iran.

Earlier Thursday, Vance made the relatively uncommon move of appearing at the White House to publicly defend the deal. He argued that while the agreement does include concessions, Iran must first meet U.S. demands before receiving any economic benefits.

“As they dial up their good behavior, we can dial up the economic relief,” Vance said. “If they dial down their good behavior, we can turn it off.”

Vance had already acknowledged during those remarks that the timing of his Switzerland trip was uncertain — and the postponement has made that timeline even murkier.

A top Trump administration envoy separately briefed U.S. lawmakers in a closed session, telling them that Iran plans to invite the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency to inspect its nuclear facilities. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei also appeared to give his blessing to direct negotiations going forward.

“It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy’s opinion,” Khamenei said in a statement distributed through state media.

The statement marked Khamenei’s first public response to the agreement and was seen as a notable shift in Iran’s position. Hard-liners, particularly Khamenei’s father — the previous supreme leader — have long resisted direct talks, especially since the U.S. withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. The current supreme leader has not appeared publicly since sustaining injuries in a strike at the outset of the war.

Lawmakers Briefed on UN Inspections

Under the terms of the agreement, Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium must be diluted under international oversight at minimum. The deal also states that Iran shall not acquire or develop nuclear weapons — a pledge it has made in the past.

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff briefed congressional leaders and members of national security committees, telling them Iran will invite the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect its nuclear sites and begin identifying the locations of its enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under rubble.

Details from Witkoff’s private briefing were shared with The Associated Press by two people with knowledge of the conversation, who requested anonymity in order to discuss the closed-door meeting.

White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said the agreement requires Iran to “commit to renounce their nuclear ambitions in writing.” The IAEA did not respond when asked for comment.

Witkoff told lawmakers the deal with Iran did not include any hidden side agreements, though he acknowledged a side letter was drafted between Tehran and the IAEA formally extending the inspection invitation. He said the letter to IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi would allow him to bring U.S. nuclear inspectors into Tehran.

Vance Defends Deal, Issues Warning to Israel

Earlier in the day, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also postponed a planned visit to Switzerland, where Pakistani officials had originally intended to host a ceremonial signing event. Two senior officials, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the situation, said that visit was called off because both Iran and the U.S. had already signed the agreement.

President Donald Trump signed the initial agreement with Iran on Wednesday during a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles. The deal is designed to take effect immediately and extends a ceasefire while giving both sides 60 days to work out broader terms on more complex issues.

Vance, who was initially personally skeptical about the U.S. going to war with Iran, has become an increasingly prominent face of the administration’s handling of the conflict and has been vocal in defending the deal.

At Thursday’s White House appearance, he brushed off criticism about the confusing rollout of the initial agreement. “I don’t think our public messaging has been chaotic,” he said.

He also issued a pointed warning to Israel, which has been pushing the U.S. to take a tougher line against Iran and carried out attacks on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon throughout the war — including just before the ceasefire extension deal was finalized. Those strikes complicated peace efforts.

Trump “is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” Vance said. “And he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower.”

Shipping Begins to Resume

Trump said he signed the agreement to prevent what he called “economic catastrophe” for the United States, after the war sent oil prices soaring, rattled financial markets, and stoked inflation. The deal helped push gas prices down and lifted stock markets — though those gains could be at risk depending on how the next phase of U.S.-Iran negotiations unfolds.

Vance said more than 12.5 million barrels of oil moved through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday night, adding that the U.S. easing its blockade of Iran represents “honoring our end of the early part of the agreement on the military side.”

U.S. Central Command said American warships “will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to, obeyed and in full force and effect.”

Iranian state media reported that shipping had “normalized” at Iran’s southern ports, though it noted the strait remains under Iranian military supervision and ships still need to coordinate before passing through.

According to maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence, major shipping companies began moving vessels through the strait after the agreement was signed. Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade said it was the first time in 110 days that ships owned by large companies were transiting the strait, after effectively being stuck since February.

An interim agreement between the United States and Iran transformed the Group of Seven summit in Évian from a showcase of Western unity into a largely American diplomatic moment. Washington presented the deal as a framework to end hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz — and in doing so, it appeared to take the wind out of any European-led maritime operation. But the fundamental question remains unanswered: Can the strait be reopened in a way that is safe, lasting, and acceptable to commercial shipping operators, insurers, Gulf nations, and European governments?

In the lead-up to and during the summit, European leaders had floated the idea of taking a maritime role in the strait, potentially including mine-clearing operations, vessel escorts, and efforts to restore freedom of navigation. The motivation was both strategic and economic. The Strait of Hormuz is not just a regional bottleneck — it is a global one. Any extended disruption there would ripple outward, driving up oil prices, shipping costs, insurance rates, and inflation well beyond the Middle East.

The US-Iran memorandum, however, shifted the focus. Rather than a European-backed operation moving toward action, attention turned to whether Washington and Tehran had found a formula to reopen the waterway without requiring a foreign naval force as the central enforcement mechanism.

A US State Department adviser for Middle East affairs named Willian, who attended the G7 and asked to be identified only by his first name, said the European maritime option had already been passed by.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance took aim at Israel’s military strategy Thursday, telling the country it cannot simply eliminate its way through every national security challenge it faces — and he stood firmly behind President Donald Trump’s stance that Iran should be allowed to hold onto some of its ballistic missiles.

The comments came as Vance pushed back against Israeli opposition to a memorandum of understanding, or MoU, that President Trump signed digitally on Wednesday night while in Versailles. The agreement was reached between Washington and Tehran.

In an interview with The New York Times, Vance described Israel’s reaction to the deal as a “freakout” driven by distrust of the United States.

“I find this whole freakout in Israel a little bit odd because I think that it comes from a place of mistrust, and I think that America has earned the trust of that region of the world,” Vance said.

He went on to say: “We’ve done a very good job by that particular country, and that particular government, and I think that the idea that we’ve made a terrible deal is not supported by the facts, but just doesn’t make any sense if you consider the broad length of the relationship.”

Vance made clear the U.S. plans to move forward with the agreement regardless of Israeli objections, even as Israel has fought alongside the United States in the ongoing conflict. He labeled Israeli anxiety over concessions to Iran — including potential sanctions relief — as a “weird panic,” insisting any benefits extended to Tehran would be tied to Iran’s “behavior.”

“There is this weird panic almost in the Israeli system that I’ve picked up on where they assume that everything that is contemplated that is good for Iran will happen — but that will happen without the Iranians changing any behavior. And I just don’t know why anybody would think that’s true,” Vance said.

Vance noted that while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refrained from directly attacking the MoU, other Israeli officials — including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — have sharply condemned the deal.

“It’s clear that large segments of the Israeli political system and population are very sensitive about this deal,” Vance said. “But I also think they’re picking up on some misinformation about the deal and running with it and sort of panicking about it.”

Directly addressing Israeli critics, Vance challenged them to offer an alternative plan. “I guess my response to them would be: What is your exact proposal? You’re a country of nine million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.” — though it should be noted that Vance misstated Israel’s population; the actual figure is approximately 10 million.

At a separate press conference, Vance also backed up President Trump’s Wednesday comment that Iran has the right to keep a portion of its ballistic missile arsenal. He appeared to draw a parallel between Iran’s self-defense rights and those of Israel.

“All the president said yesterday is that, of course, regional countries don’t give up the right of self-defense,” Vance explained. “Israel doesn’t give up the right of self-defense if Hezbollah fires rockets or drones at Israel. You can’t tell the country, whether Israel or Iran, they’re not allowed to have any self-defense.”

Vance acknowledged that Israel had already significantly degraded Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities, and argued the MoU would block Iran from developing “the kind of missiles that can broadly threaten the entire world.”

“As part of the final deal, what we want to see is Iran not funding regional instability, funding regional terrorism, and of course, [not] trying to rebuild their nuclear weapons program,” he added.

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund Danantara is quickly becoming the centerpiece of President Prabowo Subianto’s nationalist economic agenda, but questions are mounting about whether the organization can actually deliver on its expanding list of responsibilities.

Last month, Prabowo stunned global markets with an announcement that Indonesia would begin centralizing exports of key commodities — starting with coal, palm oil, and ferroalloys. In a passionate address to parliament, he framed the move as essential government intervention to end what he described as decades of exploitation of the nation’s vast natural resources.

Rather than assigning this task to existing government agencies, Prabowo created a new unit within Danantara called Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia, or DSI. The fund reports directly to the president, and the move signaled its growing importance in the country’s economic decision-making.

Yose Rizal Damuri, executive director and economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, offered a pointed critique of the arrangement. “It’s increasingly clear that all its functions are decided based on politics, whether for political purposes or to meet political promises,” he said. “Instead of improving state institutions, he created a new body and is giving it new roles.”

Within days of that announcement, another presidential decree established a development investment arm inside Danantara with access to state budget funding. Three people with knowledge of the internal discussions — who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly — said this arm is expected to focus on projects considered nationally important, even if they generate limited commercial returns. One of those sources indicated it could play a role in a revived national car initiative, another of Prabowo’s policy pledges.

Danantara and the presidential palace did not respond to requests for comment.

The fund was launched in early 2025 with a mandate to oversee roughly $900 billion in state assets spread across 1,000 companies, using dividends to generate investment returns. It was originally billed as Indonesia’s answer to Singapore’s state investment company Temasek — commercially driven and free from political influence.

That original vision now appears to be evolving significantly. Economists writing in the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies described Danantara as “at once a sovereign wealth fund, a development bank and a public service provider.” The fund has already been pulled into tariff negotiations with Washington and efforts to stabilize a domestic stock market downturn.

Its project portfolio is strikingly diverse, spanning investments in chicken farms, support for the president’s struggling free school meals program, and hotel development in Mecca for Indonesian pilgrims.

Sandra Sahelangi, a senior adviser at corporate consultancy Flint Global, said a fund with such a broad mandate could still maintain credibility — but only if it produces results and remains shielded from day-to-day political pressures. “The breadth by itself is not unprecedented, but it does sit on the outer edge of what international investors are accustomed to underwriting in a single entity,” she said, adding that investors would expect a clear boundary between commercial investments and policy-driven tasks.

Transparency remains a significant concern. Danantara has not yet released a financial report ahead of an end-of-June deadline, with fund officials citing the time needed to consolidate data across all its units. Tabita Diela, a researcher at the Center of Economic and Law Studies, said the absence of publicly available information makes it nearly impossible to evaluate the fund’s operational capabilities. Her organization and other think tanks have joined forces to create a monitoring platform for Danantara’s projects and funding in light of limited disclosure.

The gap between the fund’s growing responsibilities and its actual capacity was on clear display with the DSI commodity export announcement. Regulations issued after the president’s speech require DSI to handle commodity exports beginning next year — a task analysts say would demand major investments and new infrastructure. Yet at the time of the announcement, the unit had just one employee: its chief executive. A Danantara official confirmed on May 31 that DSI had begun recruiting staff with commodities expertise.

In meetings with industry associations, DSI has since walked back its initially ambitious role, citing significant capital requirements and business risks, according to meeting minutes reviewed by Reuters. Whether those assurances will lead to revised regulations remains unclear.

On the financing front, a Danantara unit raised $1.5 billion in its first U.S. dollar bond offering last week. The fund described the oversubscribed sale as evidence of strong investor confidence. However, a banking source familiar with the transaction offered a more tempered explanation — investors were drawn by the bonds’ higher returns compared to Indonesian government debt while carrying similar state-backed exposure, not necessarily as an endorsement of Danantara’s operational track record.

Prabowo, speaking at the World Economic Forum in January, insisted Danantara was built with strong oversight and meets the best international governance standards. At the fund’s first anniversary event on March 11, he warned officials he would not tolerate falsified data, overly optimistic updates, or manipulated reports.

UNITED NATIONS — A newly released United Nations report has documented a record-breaking number of violations against children caught in conflict zones around the world last year, with government forces surpassing armed groups as the leading perpetrators for the first time in three decades of U.N. tracking.

The annual report from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres identified 38,558 total violations — a fourth consecutive yearly increase — affecting 24,174 children. About one-third of those children were girls, and thousands experienced more than one type of violation. The abuses ranged from killings and sexual violence to abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals, and blocking humanitarian aid from reaching children in need.

A blacklist included in the report names government forces from eight countries and 67 armed groups operating across 16 countries and territories.

“The scale and persistence of these violations demand more than acknowledgment — they demand resolve,” said Vanessa Frazier, the U.N. special representative for children in armed conflict, in an analysis accompanying the report.

Frazier called on all 193 U.N. member nations to face the report’s findings head-on and “recognize that protecting children is not an aspiration but an obligation, and that the decisions taken today will shape the futures they may or may not live to claim.”

Heading the 2025 blacklist is the Israeli military and its security forces, which were linked to 12,445 violations. Congo followed with 4,114, and Myanmar, Somalia, and armed groups in Nigeria each recorded more than 2,000 violations. Government forces from Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Russia’s military operating in Ukraine were also included on the blacklist.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — the groups responsible for the October 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel that killed roughly 1,200 people, the majority of them civilians, and triggered the war in Gaza — also appear on the blacklist. The U.N. attributed 326 grave violations to Israeli settlers last year, and Guterres cautioned that settlers could be added to the blacklist if such attacks continue.

According to the report, government forces were identified as “the main perpetrators” behind 6,266 child deaths — a 34% jump compared to the previous year — along with 7,958 injuries.

The U.N. confirmed the deaths of 2,668 Palestinian children at the hands of Israeli forces in Gaza, along with 55 Palestinian children killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. An additional 4,588 reported child deaths in Gaza and injuries to 346 Israeli children are still being verified, the report noted.

Guterres said he was “appalled by the magnitude of grave violations against children” in Palestinian territories and Israel, “gravely alarmed by the staggering increase in grave violations” carried out by Israeli forces, and “deeply alarmed at the staggering rise in attacks carried out by Israeli settlers” against children, with no one being held accountable.

The U.N. chief called on Israel to work with the United Nations to establish a time-bound plan to stop the killing and injuring of children and to end attacks on schools and hospitals.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon pushed back sharply, accusing Guterres of blurring “the fundamental distinction between a democratic state fighting for its survival and murderous terrorist organizations” such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, rather than standing in solidarity with victims of the October 7, 2023, attacks. Danon said this would define Guterres’ legacy as “one of the greatest moral failures in the history of the United Nations.”

Frazier told reporters Thursday that several factors contributed to government forces accounting for more violations this year. She pointed to “the impunity that we are seeing towards international law” and a shift in modern warfare away from open battlefields toward densely populated civilian areas, where weapons like drones and wide-area explosives cause widespread harm.

“Children were impacted while escaping fighting, seeking food, water or medical care, and navigating areas heavily contaminated by explosive remnants of war, often contributing to life-long disabilities,” Frazier said.

The U.N. also verified that 6,607 children were recruited or used in armed conflict, with the highest numbers recorded in Congo, Nigeria, Haiti, Somalia, and Colombia. Another 5,129 children were abducted, primarily in Nigeria, Congo, Somalia, Myanmar, and Mozambique. Additionally, 1,783 children were confirmed victims of rape or sexual violence, with Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and Haiti reporting the most cases.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stood before an EU summit on Thursday and made a direct appeal: the fastest way to protect Europe’s future is to put Ukraine on an accelerated path into the European Union.

In remarks posted to X as a video, Zelenskiy told summit leaders that the defense of Ukraine is actively shaping the continent’s direction. He argued that every democratic nation in Europe belongs in the EU, and declared that “Ukraine merits this because it has paid more than any other country for its right to be free, independent and…European.”

“The future of Europe – free, united and of course in peace – is being decided in our defence. That shows how unique our situation is,” Zelenskiy said.

While acknowledging that not every EU member nation would embrace a speeded-up process, he pressed forward with the idea. “The most important such step – I know that not everyone loves this – could be a fast-track path for Ukraine to join the EU,” he said.

The push comes after EU ambassadors agreed last week to move membership talks forward for both Ukraine and the former Soviet republic of Moldova. Those discussions are now underway on the first of six policy “clusters” designed to align each country’s laws and standards with those of the EU bloc.

Following the summit, the European Council released a statement welcoming the start of those accession talks and saying it “looks forward to the opening of the other clusters, in line with the merit-based approach.”

Zelenskiy also tied European security directly to continued financial support for Ukraine’s military. He said the EU and a “coalition of willing” nations backing Ukraine have the ability to build the financial tools needed to keep that support going.

In an audio message released after the summit and a separate gathering of the “Ramstein” group focused on military aid for Ukraine, Zelenskiy reiterated that his country remains open to peace negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, he urged European nations not to ease pressure on Moscow.

“Europe has to be engaged for us to have a strong position, to commit fully on sanctions without loopholes, on confiscation without exceptions and on funding Ukraine,” he said.

ATHENS, Greece — For the first time in approximately 220 years, visitors arriving at the Acropolis in Athens are getting a view of the Parthenon’s western side that appears whole and complete.

The restoration milestone was officially revealed Thursday, as workers had carefully fitted two newly crafted marble blocks into spaces that had sat empty for generations along the upper portion of the temple’s western end — the very face that greets visitors as they enter the ancient site.

The 2,500-year-old structure towers over the Greek capital and drew roughly 4.6 million visitors last year alone. Ongoing restoration work has focused on repairing the toll taken by centuries of war, weather, and looting — including the long-fractured appearance of the western facade.

Greece’s Culture Minister Lina Mendoni offered a glowing assessment of the completed work, calling the result “truly stunning.”

She explained that the two newly placed stones carry significance beyond simply closing a gap in the structure.

“They allow the unique proportions and the geometric perfection of the Parthenon’s western face to be seen once again,” she said.

Funding for this phase of the project came through a European Union program. The work is one piece of a much larger restoration initiative that first launched in 1975.

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s Communist Party has given the green light to an emergency economic package that includes free-market measures unlike anything previously seen on the island, as the country faces growing pressure from the United States.

Although the full policy document has yet to be made public, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other officials have outlined several key components of the plan.

The reforms are designed to further loosen the grip of Cuba’s centrally controlled economy, where the government has traditionally dictated what gets produced, who produces it, how goods are priced, and how national resources are distributed.

At present, only government agencies and banks are authorized to exchange currencies, though a large portion of the population turns to informal markets to do so.

New legislation has been introduced that would trim the number of government ministries from 27 down to 21 in a bid to improve efficiency.

Local municipalities would gain new powers under the proposed measures, including the ability to approve businesses operating in their areas and to manage relationships with various economic players — from state-run enterprises to cooperatives and private companies. Municipalities would also be permitted to conduct their own imports and exports and handle their own foreign-currency earnings. Cuba is home to 168 municipalities spread across 15 provinces.

Individual companies would gain greater flexibility as well, including the ability to build their own pay structures, use and distribute profits with fewer government restrictions, conduct foreign trade, and form partnerships with private businesses and cooperatives.

The scope of activities that state-owned companies are allowed to pursue would also be expanded. Cuba currently has around 2,000 state-owned enterprises.

Small and medium-sized businesses would be allowed to handle their own imports and exports directly, bypassing the state-run entities that currently manage that process and collect fees.

The package also includes incentives aimed at encouraging the import of raw materials and other inputs needed for production.

Cuba’s long-standing post-revolution rationing system, which has provided access to basic goods at government-controlled low prices, is set to be gradually phased out. Food and other products would eventually shift to market-based pricing.

Recent U.S. sanctions targeting Cuba’s business conglomerate Gaesa have led major hotel chains such as Meliá and Iberostar to suspend agreements with their Cuban partners. The new measures seek to find alternative ways to make use of the island’s largely idle infrastructure.

Díaz-Canel has indicated that both the emergency plan and the policy document drafted by the Communist Party’s Central Committee drew on lessons from China and Vietnam — two communist-governed nations that have introduced market-style economic reforms while keeping one-party political systems in place.

The rollout of these economic measures follows months of escalating U.S. pressure and diplomatic discussions between the two nations, which have involved former President Raúl Castro’s grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro.

For decades, the United States has imposed trade and travel restrictions on Cuba, pushing for the release of all political prisoners, an end to political and religious repression, and the opening of Cuba’s economy to private American investment.

The Trump administration has intensified that pressure in recent months, enacting a fuel embargo against the island and filing charges against Raúl Castro in connection with the 1996 shooting down of two civilian aircraft flown by Miami-based Cuban exiles.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian federal police carried out search and seizure operations Thursday targeting a prominent senator and personal friend of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as investigators dig deeper into a wide-ranging corruption and fraud case that has already swept up multiple politicians ahead of October’s national elections.

Authorities are scrutinizing suspicious financial transactions involving Sen. Jaques Wagner, who serves as the leader of Lula’s Workers’ Party in the Senate. The inquiry is connected to the now-defunct Banco Master and its disgraced former chief executive, Daniel Vorcaro.

Wagner marks the first high-profile ally of President Lula to be drawn into the expanding scandal, which has already caught up with presidential hopeful Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, among others. The controversy is anticipated to be a defining issue in the approaching elections.

Without identifying specific suspects, police announced they were carrying out 18 search and seizure warrants across the states of Bahia and São Paulo, as well as the Federal District, in connection with alleged crimes that could include passive corruption, active corruption, and money laundering.

Court documents signed by Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça on Wednesday — and obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday — named the suspects and authorized the searches to proceed.

According to those court documents, investigators uncovered indications that the senator may have received improper financial benefits, among them the purchase of a high-end apartment in Salvador valued at roughly 2.45 million reais, or about $470,000.

The documents also reveal that investigators are looking into whether Wagner leveraged his congressional position to advance matters favorable to Banco Master, particularly relating to payroll lending and deposit insurance regulations.

During Thursday’s operation, police seized around $50,000 in cash in Brasilia. Brazilian media reported that the money was found at a location or locations connected to Wagner.

When asked about the seized funds during an interview with Brazilian broadcaster Band on Thursday, Wagner maintained he had nothing to conceal and flatly denied ever receiving money from anyone connected to Banco Master.

The senator also pushed back against any meaningful connection to Vorcaro, the former Banco Master head who is currently behind bars. “My relationship with Daniel Vorcaro is practically nonexistent… I met Daniel only twice,” Wagner stated.

Later Thursday, Wagner’s press team issued a statement denying that the senator had ever acted on Banco Master’s behalf, asserting that the confiscated cash was obtained through legitimate means and that the Salvador apartment was never part of the senator’s personal assets.

Brazil’s Central Bank moved to shut down Banco Master — which had assets exceeding $16 billion — back in November.

Vorcaro, who sits at the heart of the investigation, was taken into custody in March and has since been attempting to negotiate a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Brazil’s federal police have estimated the total scope of the bank’s fraudulent activity at approximately 12 billion reais, equivalent to around $2.3 billion. Both the federal police and the Supreme Court continue to investigate the case.