Author: Admin

KYIV, Ukraine — A massive Russian military assault on Ukraine on Monday left a trail of destruction, including a devastating fire at one of the nation’s most cherished religious sites and the deaths of rescue workers responding to the attacks.

The Dormition Cathedral at Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra — a sprawling monastic complex known for its golden domes and commonly referred to as the Monastery of the Caves — was engulfed in flames and thick smoke. Associated Press photographers on the scene captured images of firefighters working to contain the blaze while members of the clergy watched helplessly or rushed to remove valuable items from the historic, centuries-old complex.

In the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the Russian strikes proved fatal for rescue workers who had responded to the scene. Meanwhile, in Kyiv, the country’s capital, many residents were wounded and others sought safety by taking shelter underground as the attacks continued.

This report is based on a photo gallery assembled by Associated Press photo editors documenting the destruction across Ukraine.

HONG KONG — Hong Kong took a politically significant step Monday, opening a public consultation period for its first-ever five-year development plan — a move that draws the territory closer to the way mainland China manages its economy.

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Janice Tse told reporters that mainland China launched its own 15th five-year plan covering 2026 to 2030 this year. Hong Kong has historically taken pride in keeping government involvement in the economy to a minimum, even as it has looked to Beijing for broader direction.

Tse said Hong Kong’s plan will work in step with China’s national development strategy while still maintaining the city’s free-market principles.

“Aligning with the national 15th five-year plan does not replace the free market,” she said. “Rather, it channels a clear vision and strategic planning through major policies, and that allows the market to develop more stably and clearly.”

The consultation window runs for two months, during which residents can share their thoughts through a dedicated website, by email, or by sending letters. The government also plans to hold events to gather input from residents, lawmakers, and industry representatives. Officials hope to unveil a finalized plan during the third quarter of the year.

According to Tse, the plan will reinforce Hong Kong’s role as a global hub for finance, shipping, and trade.

Among the proposals, officials want to speed up development of the Northern Metropolis — a large-scale project aimed at building a technology center and university town near the mainland Chinese tech city of Shenzhen, just across the border.

The plan also looks to deepen Hong Kong’s involvement in the Greater Bay Area, Beijing’s initiative to create an integrated economic and business zone that includes Hong Kong, Macao, and nine other mainland cities.

Hong Kong leader John Lee said on June 9 that the five-year plan would better blend what he called a “capable government” with “an efficient market,” with the government taking a leading role in boosting the market’s competitiveness. Lee added that the plan would help residents identify personal development opportunities and make business planning easier.

A Beijing official overseeing Hong Kong and Macao affairs was expected to visit the city Tuesday for a two-day trip focused on reviewing the territory’s alignment with the national 2026–2030 plan and progress on the Northern Metropolis project.

John Burns, a politics and public administration professor at the University of Hong Kong, acknowledged that the city had previously put itself at a disadvantage by lacking strategic planning. However, he was skeptical about the consultation process, noting that public consultations in Hong Kong have long lost credibility because officials rarely change direction based on public feedback.

“This is the government selling its notion of a local five-year plan to the community that dovetails with central government priorities,” Burns said, also pointing out that the consultation document lacks specific targets or timelines.

Since Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, the former colony has grown increasingly tied to the mainland through economic links, cultural connections, and shared transportation and border infrastructure.

Although Hong Kong maintains its own government, legislature, and court system under Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework, China’s influence over the territory has grown considerably in recent years.

After widespread anti-government protests erupted in 2019, Beijing enacted a national security law that Hong Kong authorities say was needed to restore stability. Critics say the law has effectively crushed all political opposition. Many prominent activists have been imprisoned under it, and the city’s legislature is now dominated by politicians loyal to Beijing following a sweeping overhaul of the electoral system.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s defense minister announced Monday that the country has no intention of pulling back from territory it has captured in Lebanon, a stance that could complicate an interim agreement reached just hours earlier between the United States and Iran.

The U.S.-Iran deal includes provisions to open the Strait of Hormuz and extend a fragile ceasefire, though full details were not immediately made public. Iran indicated it would not begin carrying out the agreement until a formal signing ceremony, which key mediator Pakistan said is scheduled to take place Friday in Switzerland.

Even before the ink could dry, the agreement faced significant obstacles. Israel continued its military operations against the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon — including airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday — nearly derailing the negotiations. Israel joined the United States in launching the war on February 28.

In Israel’s first official response following the deal’s announcement, Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that Israel intends to remain in the territories it controls in Lebanon, Syria, and the Gaza Strip “indefinitely.” Iran has made halting Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon a condition tied to the interim agreement.

Katz went further, warning that if Iran retaliates against Israel for its strikes in Lebanon, Israel would respond with “great force.”

Over the past two and a half years, Israel has taken control of areas across Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria totaling roughly 1,000 square kilometers — approximately 386 square miles — a stretch of land slightly smaller than New York City.

The U.S.-Iran deal gives both sides just 60 days to reach an agreement on what to do with Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium and its broader nuclear program. Resolving those same issues took years during Tehran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers. U.S. President Donald Trump walked away from that deal during his first term in office, setting in motion the chain of events that eventually led to the current conflict.

Trump took to social media to celebrate the agreement, writing “Congratulations to all!” as he marked his 80th birthday Sunday with a UFC cage match event at the White House. He also wrote that he was authorizing “the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz” and “the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade,” which had been imposed in response to Iran’s control of the critical shipping route. He later clarified that the strait would not reopen until Friday’s signing.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, confirmed the deal on state television but echoed that implementation would not begin until the formal signing on Friday. He noted the agreement came out of talks that also involved Qatar, another mediator in the negotiations.

Pakistan was the first country to publicly announce the deal. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said “both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” and noted that mediators would facilitate meetings this week to “lay the foundation for the technical talks.”

Two senior Pakistani officials, speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said broader negotiations on issues such as Iran’s nuclear program would continue over the following 60 days, with the possibility of extending that timeline if needed.

Iranian state television, citing the secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council, reported that hostilities on all fronts “will end immediately and permanently beginning tonight” and that the U.S. naval blockade “will be terminated immediately and in full.”

Qatari mediators departed Tehran after 17 hours of negotiations, according to an official familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the talks. Separate preparatory meetings with each party are expected to take place in Doha this week.

It remained unclear who from Iran would sign the agreement on Friday. U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that the White House was still working out the details of who would attend, saying, “I certainly plan to be there, but it’s possible the president himself could be there.”

Concern was already surfacing among some Republicans. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who referred to Vance as “the architect of the deal,” posted online: “I am somewhat concerned that Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming.”

Governments across the globe are cracking down on children’s use of social media, with an increasing number of countries passing laws or proposing new rules to limit how young people interact with platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

AUSTRALIA

Australia made history in December by becoming the first nation in the world to ban social media for anyone under the age of 16. The law, which took effect December 10, 2025, is considered one of the strictest tech regulations anywhere. Platforms that don’t comply could be hit with fines reaching A$49.5 million — roughly $34.9 million in U.S. dollars.

BRITAIN

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on June 15 that Britain is on track to approve a similar ban on social media for children under 16 before Christmas, with the rules expected to go into effect around Spring 2027. Starmer also issued a warning on June 8 that tech giants operating in Britain must take action to prevent children from sharing nude images on their devices — or face laws requiring them to do so. Under the proposed plan, companies like Apple and Google would need to build or turn on tools that detect and block nude images for minors. Adults would still be able to access such content through an age verification process.

CHINA

China’s internet regulator has already rolled out what it calls a “minor mode” system, which imposes device-level restrictions and app-specific rules that limit screen time based on a child’s age.

DENMARK

Denmark announced in November that it would ban social media for children under 15, though parents would have the option to grant access to certain platforms for kids as young as 13.

FRANCE

France’s National Assembly voted in January to ban children under 15 from social media, driven by growing alarm over cyberbullying and mental health dangers. The legislation still needs to clear the Senate before returning to the lower house for a final vote.

GERMANY

In Germany, children between the ages of 13 and 16 may use social media only with parental approval. However, child safety advocates argue the current controls don’t go far enough.

GREECE

A senior Greek government source told Reuters on February 3 that the country is “very close” to announcing a ban on social media for children under 15.

INDIA

India’s chief economic adviser called for age restrictions on social media platforms in January, describing them as “predatory” in the way they keep users hooked. The comments came just two days after the tourist state of Goa said it was considering restrictions similar to those in Australia.

ITALY

Italian law currently requires children under 14 to have parental consent before creating a social media account, while those 14 and older can sign up without it.

MALAYSIA

Malaysia’s communications regulator announced on June 1 that the country has started blocking anyone under 16 from registering accounts on social media platforms.

NORWAY

The Norwegian government put forward a proposal in 2024 to raise the age at which children can independently agree to social media terms of service — from 13 to 15. Parents would still be allowed to give consent on behalf of younger children. The government is also working on legislation to set a firm minimum age of 15 for social media use.

POLAND

Poland’s ruling party announced on February 27 that it is crafting legislation to ban social media for children under 15 and to require platforms to handle age verification themselves.

SLOVENIA

Deputy Prime Minister Matej Arcon said on February 6 that Slovenia is working on a law that would bar children under 15 from accessing social media.

SPAIN

Spain’s Digital Transformation Minister Oscar Lopez told Reuters in May that the country will move forward with new rules to make social networks and artificial intelligence safer, despite heavy lobbying from the tech industry. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had announced in February that Spain would prohibit social media access for anyone under 16, with platforms required to put age verification systems in place.

SWEDEN

A government-appointed commission recommended on June 2 that Sweden set a minimum age of 15 for social media use. Investigator Lisa Englund Krafft, speaking at a news conference alongside Social Affairs and Public Health Minister Jakob Forssmed, said the ban could be structured so that platforms bear responsibility for verifying users’ ages.

TURKEY

Turkey’s parliament passed a law on April 24 banning children under 15 from social media and introducing new regulations for digital platforms, including companies that make game software.

UNITED STATES

In the U.S., a bill aimed at pushing social media companies to better protect young users cleared a major hurdle on May 12 when Republican Senator Ted Cruz announced his support. Cruz said he would back the Kids Online Safety Act, which would require social media companies to “exercise reasonable care” when designing features that could harm minors. This legislation is separate from the long-standing Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which already prohibits companies from collecting personal data from children under 13 without parental approval. While several individual states have passed laws requiring parental consent for minors to use social media, those laws have faced legal challenges on free speech grounds.

EUROPEAN UNION

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on May 12 that the EU will pursue stronger protections for children against harmful social media features. She said the Commission plans to target “addictive and harmful design practices” through its upcoming Digital Fairness Act, expected to be formally proposed later this year, while an expert panel works on recommendations. The European Parliament had already passed a resolution in November calling for an EU-wide ban on social media access for children under 16 without parental consent, and an outright ban for those under 13.

TECH INDUSTRY

Major social media platforms — including TikTok, Facebook, and Snapchat — say users must be at least 13 years old to create an account. But child safety advocates say these measures fall far short, and official data from several European countries shows that large numbers of children under 13 already have active social media profiles.

MOSCOW — Russia is pushing back against accusations that it struck one of Kyiv’s most historically significant religious sites, claiming instead that a U.S.-manufactured Patriot air defense missile was responsible for damaging the Pechersk Lavra monastery.

The UNESCO World Heritage-listed monastery caught fire overnight Monday during what officials described as the most intense Russian aerial assault on the Ukrainian capital in two weeks. While Russia maintained its forces targeted drone production facilities and hit those targets successfully, Ukraine and numerous Western nations placed the blame squarely on Russian forces for the attack on the monastery.

Russia’s Defence Ministry went further, suggesting the Patriot missile may have malfunctioned due to expired munitions supplied by Western allies to Ukraine.

“The armed forces of the Russian Federation do not plan or carry out strikes against civilian infrastructure,” the Defence Ministry stated.

The ministry elaborated in its official statement: “According to confirmed reports, the complex of buildings at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was struck by a missile from the American Patriot air defence system. One possible reason for the malfunction of this system could be that Western countries supplied the Kyiv regime with missiles that had expired.”

PARIS — The president of the European Central Bank expressed optimism Monday over a newly reached ceasefire agreement with Iran, describing the development as welcome news — particularly given its potential to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping.

Speaking on France Culture radio, the ECB president said, “If this news is confirmed by developments in the coming days and the signing of a memorandum of understanding … it is good news. We can only welcome it.”

Still, she urged caution, noting that “we have not yet finished the story,” and that “the whole question of uranium enrichment remains to be debated, agreed and concluded in the form of an agreement.”

Both U.S. and Iranian officials confirmed they had reached a preliminary agreement to bring an end to hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global oil transport. The announcement sent oil prices dropping, though the future of Tehran’s nuclear program remains subject to further negotiations.

An Oslo court handed down a guilty verdict Monday against the stepson of Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, convicting him on two counts of rape along with additional criminal charges and sentencing him to four years behind bars.

Marius Borg Hoiby, 29, became part of the Norwegian royal family when his mother, Mette-Marit, wed Crown Prince Haakon in 2001. He has maintained his innocence on the most serious accusations brought against him, including the rape charges, and retains the right to challenge the court’s decision through an appeal.

BEIJING — Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing touched down in Beijing on Monday, beginning a five-day state visit at the invitation of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to Chinese state media. The trip marks his first journey to the world’s second-largest economy since taking on the role of civilian president.

Min Aung Hlaing, 69, was the driving force behind a 2021 military coup that toppled Myanmar’s democratic government, plunging the country into civil war and triggering a broad wave of international sanctions. Earlier this April, he was chosen as president by a parliament filled largely with loyalists to the military.

His transition from top military commander to civilian head of state has effectively cemented his grip on power — a shift that brought an end to roughly a decade of fragile democratic progress and pushed foreign investors out of what had once been considered one of Asia’s most promising emerging economies.

During his time in Beijing this week, Min Aung Hlaing is scheduled to sit down with Xi Jinping. He will also hold meetings with Premier Li Qiang and Zhao Leji, who rank as China’s second and third most powerful officials, respectively.

Ahead of the visit, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry offered warm words about the bilateral relationship. “China and Myanmar have stood together through thick and thin, looked out for each other and forged solidarity and cooperation, promoting China-Myanmar relations to achieve considerable progress,” the spokesperson said.

China is not the first nation Min Aung Hlaing has visited since assuming the presidency. In late May, he made a five-day trip to India — a country that shares a lengthy and loosely monitored border with Myanmar — as part of his administration’s wider effort to rebuild international ties after years of diplomatic and economic isolation stemming from global sanctions.

The Trump administration’s ambitious plan to reshape how critical minerals are priced and traded is encountering significant resistance — both from allied nations and from within the American mining industry itself — as G7 leaders gather in France for high-stakes talks.

The idea was first floated by U.S. Vice President JD Vance back in February. The goal is to create a Western trading bloc that would help reduce dependence on China, which has become the world’s dominant minerals producer by operating at a loss and keeping prices artificially low. Those minerals — including cobalt, lithium, and nickel — are essential building blocks for semiconductors, computer servers, military hardware, and countless other products.

By flooding markets with cheap minerals, China has made it nearly impossible for Western mining companies to compete, stunting new development and forcing some businesses to shut down entirely — a strategy Beijing has deployed in other industries as well.

The proposed trading bloc would look at price supports, market standards, government subsidies, or guaranteed purchase agreements to prop up production across multiple countries. Vance suggested the measures could be backed by “adjustable tariffs to uphold pricing integrity.”

Currently, many of the specialty minerals vital to technology and defense are traded with little transparency and are effectively priced according to Chinese market rates, which dominate globally due to China’s outsized production share.

Since Vance’s announcement, G7 member nations have privately pushed back against U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and have grown lukewarm toward a pricing approach derived from a Pentagon artificial intelligence model, according to three sources who spoke with Reuters.

European officials say the main sticking points include who would absorb the cost of paying a premium for minerals, how far along the supply chain those subsidies would reach, and how the overall governance structure would function.

On the domestic front, the U.S. mining industry is far from unified. More than 230 public submissions sent to Greer’s office — from miners, refiners, and their customers — reveal deep disagreements about what direction the U.S. should push its allies to take.

Analysts and consultants say the stakes are enormous. More than a dozen experts told Reuters that the outcome of these negotiations could reshape global minerals markets for years.

“It is a very hard thing to do, and I’m happy I’m not the one doing it,” said Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes, a minerals investor who previously managed the U.S. Department of Energy’s batteries and critical minerals portfolio under former President Joe Biden.

A draft U.S. proposal has been built around an AI-based pricing program developed by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA. Called the Open Price Exploration for National Security, or OPEN, the program attempts to calculate what a metal should cost based on labor, processing, and other real expenses — while stripping out the effects of alleged Chinese market manipulation. That draft has been delivered to the White House and the National Security Council, and U.S. representatives are expected to brief G7 allies on it during the current meeting, according to a U.S. official.

But European allies have so far resisted the idea of using a pricing system developed in Washington, with one source pointing to concerns that it would give the U.S. too much influence over the bloc’s pricing decisions.

Another source said Europeans are pushing for a broader set of tools and what they described as “agile governance” to allow flexibility depending on the specific mineral and its supply chain.

“For Europe, it would be better to have a price index based on real deals in the European market. The question is whether we can make these opaque pricing mechanisms more transparent, more market-driven, and less prone to manipulation,” said Nicola Beer, who oversees minerals financing at the EU-controlled European Investment Bank. “Different parts of supply chains and products across sectors are shaped by very different pricing mechanisms, which adds to the complexity.”

As a potential alternative, an EU-funded agency called EIT RawMaterials is collaborating with digital platform Metalshub to develop pricing indexes that operate independently of Chinese government-driven pricing. Those indexes could eventually include the United States, Australia, Canada, and Britain.

European and industry officials say they want more time to study the long-term effects of price supports rather than rushing into quick commitments — a stance that puts them at odds with the faster-moving American side.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is resisting a French proposal to establish a permanent administrative secretariat within either the International Energy Agency or the OECD to track G7 critical minerals efforts as leadership rotates among member nations.

Canada and France — which currently holds the G7 presidency — are pushing for a trading bloc led by the full G7, while the United States prefers to bypass multilateral negotiations in favor of swift bilateral deals that could later be expanded, according to three sources familiar with the discussions.

“What we’re trying to do is take some of these approaches and turn them into an agreement,” Greer told reporters in early June at an OECD ministerial meeting in Paris. He added that the U.S. would use price supports “to protect production of critical minerals and derivative products. … We want to phase it in. … If other countries want to join us in that, they’re welcome to do that.”

Washington is aiming to present a proposal for binding bilateral agreements to Japan and the European Union before the end of June, two sources said. The first such agreement could cover five to ten minerals, including heavy rare earths, antimony, graphite, and tungsten — all of which are currently subject to Chinese export bans or restrictions.

Back home, the corporate world is equally divided. While submissions to Greer’s office broadly agree that the trading bloc should target niche minerals rather than widely traded metals like copper, and should also address downstream products such as cell phones and laptops, there is significant disagreement over how prices should be regulated.

Several major companies and mining trade groups have come out against price-setting. Divergent recommendations came from General Motors, recycler Umicore, platinum miner Sibanye Stillwater, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and rare earths company MP Materials, among others.

“There’s nervousness from all sides about what to do and how different actions could affect different parts of the supply chain,” said Blake Harden, a managing director focused on trade policy at the EY consultancy.

The National Mining Association advised Greer to avoid heavy price-fixing and instead focus on tax credits and other financial incentives. “While market interventions such as pricing mechanisms may play a role in certain circumstances, incentive-based approaches … are better suited to addressing challenges facing the domestic mining industry,” said Rich Nolan, the trade group’s CEO.

A metals analyst at the WoodMac consultancy, James Willoughby, summed up the current state of affairs bluntly: “There’s a very mixed message coming out of the U.S. right now on battery metals.”

DURBAN, South Africa — Princess Adjei was just a toddler when her family moved from Ghana to South Africa. By the time she was 33, she had built an entire life there — completing all of her schooling, making local friends, and even learning Zulu, the dominant language of the eastern port city of Durban. She had rarely thought of herself as a foreigner.

In November, Adjei opened a hair salon in central Durban, pouring 50,000 rand — more than $3,000 — into renovating the space just a few months later in February. Then, on May 18, everything changed.

Protesters taking part in an anti-migrant march broke into her shop and stripped it bare. Suddenly, people she had known for years were telling her to go back “home” — to a country she had visited only once in her life.

“They took everything,” Adjei said, standing amid shattered mirrors and broken chairs in her ransacked salon. “Those were hair pieces I was selling here. There were acrylic nails, six hair dryers, a range of shampoos. All gone.”

Adjei is among scores of victims caught up in a surge of attacks targeting African foreign nationals. An anti-immigration movement has accused these migrants of living in South Africa without authorization — yet many hold legal documents and have spent decades building their lives there.

Sleeping on the Streets

With her salon destroyed and no income to pay rent, Adjei moved out of her central Durban apartment. She and her 14-year-old son now sleep under a blanket on the sidewalk alongside roughly 200 other displaced migrants. The group has set up camp outside the local office of the government’s Department of Home Affairs, hoping officials can verify their legal residency status.

Elsewhere, other African migrants have fled into the mountains and onto open land to escape violence that has claimed at least five lives and created a serious diplomatic rift between South Africa and neighboring countries on the continent.

Reuters spoke with a dozen migrants in Durban, four of whom had lived in South Africa since childhood.

The organization behind the protests, March and March, denies that its movement is driven by xenophobia.

“Xenophobia applies to those people who come to a country illegally and make people from that country feel uncomfortable,” said Jacinta Ngobese, the founder of March and March, in an interview in Durban.

Ngobese argued that her group has actually helped protect migrants by channeling South Africans’ frustration toward the government rather than toward foreigners. Even so, the group’s demonstrations have repeatedly coincided with outbreaks of violence, including the looting of shops owned by foreign nationals and the destruction of homes.

“We are not responsible for the violence,” Ngobese said. “If we were violent, we would have been arrested.”

Police Response Questioned

Some arrests were made after protesters killed five Mozambicans last month and in connection with other incidents. However, law enforcement responses have been largely rare.

Following the unrest in Durban, around 200 migrants camped outside the central police station seeking safety. Four of those migrants — including Adjei — told Reuters that police first took them to a homeless shelter, then to a market warehouse, but they were turned away from both locations by people already there.

The next day, police reportedly ordered them to disperse and later fired rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at the group, according to the four migrants and some local media outlets.

“They told us to look for another shelter,” said Tchomba Kasongo, a Congolese refugee who walked with a limp and showed a bullet wound scar on his leg. The displaced migrants now live under the shadow of a June 30 deadline that protesters have issued, demanding all “illegal” migrants leave the country.

Durban police spokesperson Booysie Zungu denied the allegations. “We never tear gassed anyone, we never fired on anyone,” he told Reuters. When informed about the attack on Adjei’s salon and other anti-migrant incidents, he responded, “We don’t have cases of that nature reported. They must open a case.”

A spokesperson for Durban’s mayor declined to offer any comment.

Old Friends Turn Away

After discovering her salon in ruins, Adjei returned to her apartment and ran into a South African neighbor she had considered a close friend — someone with whom she had often chatted in the hallway and shared tea. He was now scowling at her, demanding to know when she planned to leave.

It was the third time in her life that Adjei had experienced South Africa’s periodic eruptions of xenophobic hostility. The first came in 2008, when classmates who had never previously shown any interest in her background began bullying her during a wave of protests.

Not all South African friends have turned away. Wivene Bahati, a 25-year-old Congolese refugee who has lived in South Africa since 2011 and now sleeps on the curb near Adjei, said a former classmate reached out after the latest violence.

“She felt bad. She asked me is everything ok?” Bahati told Reuters.

Analysts say migrants are frequently viewed as competitors for jobs and public services, making them easy targets when economic hardship sets in or government services break down. Anti-migrant sentiment often intensifies around election periods as some politicians tap into the issue for popular support — South Africa has local elections scheduled by November.

Thamsanqa Ntuli, the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal province, where Durban is the principal city, pushes back against the idea that politics is driving the xenophobia, placing the blame instead on illegal immigration.

“We agree with the entire society when they say: ‘government, you should have started to manage migration properly … a long time ago,’” Ntuli told Reuters.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A well-known Cambodian opposition figure stepped out of his Supreme Court hearing Monday to a roaring crowd of supporters, expressing his hope that judges would throw out his incitement conviction and allow him to return to political life.

Rong Chhun, who serves as a top adviser to the Nation Power Party, was convicted last year of stirring up social unrest after he met with villagers who had been displaced by government construction projects. Many observers viewed the conviction as part of a broader pattern of legal actions taken by Prime Minister Hun Manet’s government to suppress dissent.

The 56-year-old received a four-year prison sentence and was prohibited from participating in elections — both as a candidate and as a voter. During his original trial, he maintained his innocence, arguing that he had done nothing more than post photographs of himself with the villagers along with written comments on Facebook.

As he exited the morning hearing, approximately 300 supporters greeted him with chants of “Drop the charges, release Rong Chhun!” and held signs calling for his release.

He addressed the crowd, saying that given the tensions between Cambodia and neighboring Thailand, a difficult economy, and other national challenges, his goal is to foster “national reconciliation and national unity” among Cambodia’s 17 million citizens.

“I hope the court will grant me freedom and justice so that I can continue to practice politics in the future,” he told supporters.

Police officers numbering in the dozens were stationed behind barricades on roads leading to the courthouse. Rong Chhun made his way to the hearing on foot, accompanied by supporters that included both local and international human rights advocates.

“We are not worried about going to prison,” he said. “We are willing to sacrifice everything and we are determined to use the resources our parents gave us to invest so that Cambodia can achieve true freedom and democracy.”

Incitement charges are a tool that Cambodian authorities have repeatedly used to target political opponents.

This is not Rong Chhun’s first brush with such accusations. In 2021, he was sentenced to two years on incitement charges after being accused of spreading false information about Cambodia’s border with Vietnam following meetings with farmers in that region. An appeals court later released him that same year.

Cambodia’s government maintains that it upholds the rule of law within an electoral democracy. However, political parties that have posed serious challenges to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party have repeatedly been dissolved by courts, while their leaders have faced imprisonment or harassment.

For nearly four decades, former Prime Minister Hun Sen led Cambodia under what critics described as autocratic rule, drawing widespread condemnation for human rights abuses including the suppression of free speech and freedom of association. His son, Hun Manet, who was educated in the United States, took over in August 2023, but signs of political reform have been scarce.

On Monday, Tim Ratha made a journey of several hours from Siem Reap province in the north to the capital to show her support for Rong Chhun.

“He has devoted everything to us, he had no wife, no children,” the 55-year-old vegetable vendor told The Associated Press.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to deliver its verdict on June 19.

Hong Kong’s top official, John Lee, brushed aside questions about whether he plans to run for a second term, according to a report published Monday by the South China Morning Post. Instead, Lee said his attention is firmly on getting more done during his final year in the role.

In an interview with the Post, Lee offered a familiar political phrase when pressed on the subject: “A year is a long time in politics.” Rather than addressing the possibility of another five-year term, he steered the conversation toward ensuring stable and consistent governance.

Lee, who previously served as a police officer and as Hong Kong’s security chief, assumed leadership of the territory in 2022. He took charge following the disruptions of the COVID pandemic and widespread anti-government demonstrations that prompted Beijing to enact a far-reaching National Security Law.

When the Post asked directly whether he was gearing up for a second term set to begin in July of next year, Lee responded: “I don’t think I should consider this question now. I mean, time will come when I see.”

His administration is currently concentrating on policy consistency, with the city preparing to release its first-ever five-year plan before the close of 2026. The move is part of a broader effort to bring Hong Kong’s policymaking more in line with how decisions are made on the Chinese mainland.

Under Lee’s leadership, Hong Kong’s economy has shown signs of recovery. However, his administration has also faced serious criticism in the wake of last November’s Wang Fuk Court fire, a blaze that claimed 168 lives, displaced thousands of residents, and stands as the deadliest fire the city has seen in decades.

American and Iranian officials announced Sunday that they have reached a preliminary agreement to end their war and restore access to the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global oil and gas shipments that Iran has effectively shut down for months. While the deal is still a framework, it represents the most significant step yet toward resolving a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and rattled energy markets since U.S. and Israeli forces first struck Iran back in February.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the news on his Truth Social platform around 5:30 p.m. Washington time on Sunday. “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” he wrote. His post followed a separate announcement from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif — whose country served as a mediator — who confirmed a deal had been reached early Monday local time.

The formal signing of the memorandum of understanding is scheduled for Friday in Switzerland. The full terms of the agreement were not immediately made public.

Sharif stated on X that the pact calls for “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretariat echoed that, saying all military operations — including those in Lebanon — would permanently cease beginning Monday night.

Lebanon has been a sticking point throughout negotiations, with Israel and Hezbollah continuing to exchange attacks despite calls from Trump and others to stand down. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said a broader agreement would be worked out during a 60-day ceasefire window, which would also include the possibility of sanctions relief for Iran. The future of Iran’s nuclear program — another deeply contentious issue — is also expected to be part of those upcoming discussions, according to sources who previously spoke with Reuters.

Israel, which has maintained it was not part of the U.S.-Iran talks, had not publicly responded to the announcement at the time of this report.

Trump said the Strait of Hormuz would reopen by Friday and confirmed he had ordered an end to the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” he wrote.

Markets responded quickly. Brent crude futures dropped 4% in early Monday trading, while Asian stock markets surged. “The lack of details especially on freedom of shipping is a concern but not one that should constrain markets today as the surge in risk appetite plays out,” said Sean Callow, a senior FX analyst at ITC Markets.

Former State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, who served under the Biden administration, argued that Trump had made meaningful concessions to Iran just to return to the situation that existed before the war began. “We have no assurances the nuclear program will ever be addressed, but Iran has shown the world it can take the global economy hostage and get something from the U.S. in return,” Miller said.

The conflict, which began when U.S. and Israeli forces attacked Iran on February 28, has resulted in thousands of deaths — mostly in Iran and Lebanon. Iran has struck Israel and Gulf states that host U.S. military bases, while also blockading the Strait of Hormuz and driving up global energy costs. American forces responded by blockading Iranian ports.

The war has become a growing political problem for Trump and Republican members of Congress, with polls showing Americans increasingly frustrated by climbing gas prices ahead of November’s midterm elections. At the same time, Trump has faced pressure from within his own party to ensure Iran’s nuclear program is fully dismantled.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent advocate for a tough stance on Iran, offered cautious praise for the deal. “Under our law, any nuclear deal with Iran will be sent to Congress for review and a vote,” he said. “Congratulations to all in getting us to this point.” Graham added that he would be “watching closely” the upcoming negotiations over Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

During his first term, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 multilateral agreement — negotiated under Democratic President Barack Obama — that had lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear activities, including international inspections. In the years since, Iran has significantly increased its uranium enrichment, producing more than 400 kilograms — roughly 900 pounds — of material at close to weapons-grade purity. The fate of that stockpile is expected to be a central issue in the next phase of talks.

The deal was finalized even as Israel carried out a strike on Lebanon on Sunday, drawing condemnation from both Iran and Trump. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has clashed with Trump over U.S. demands that Israel scale back its military activity in Lebanon to allow the Iran negotiations to move forward. Israel has insisted it will maintain freedom to operate in Lebanon, while Iran has demanded a full ceasefire there as a core condition.

Trump spoke with Netanyahu by phone on Sunday to update him on the progress toward a peace deal, according to Israel’s N12 news outlet, citing a senior official. In a separate interview with the New York Times, Trump described Netanyahu as “a very difficult guy” and suggested the Israeli leader should be grateful to him for protecting Israel from a nuclear-armed Iran.

World leaders outside the region welcomed the news. Britain, Germany, France, and Italy issued a joint statement saying they were ready to lift sanctions on Iran in response to “clear, verifiable steps” to limit its nuclear program. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “We are clear that toll-free freedom of navigation must now be restored in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran must never have a nuclear weapon.”

Before the deal was publicly announced, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that under the draft terms, the U.S. would agree to release $25 billion in frozen Iranian assets — though the Trump administration had previously said any such release would only happen once Iran met specific conditions. A U.S. official, also speaking before the announcement, said the agreement would ultimately lead to the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, with its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to be destroyed and removed. The Iranian official, however, said the draft would allow Iran — which denies pursuing a nuclear weapon — to dilute its enriched uranium within its own borders.

The United States and Iran have reached an interim agreement aimed at ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. A signing ceremony is scheduled for Friday in Switzerland, though previous announcements have collapsed before, and the precise contents of the deal were still being disputed as of Monday.

Below is a look at the long and complicated history of tensions surrounding Iran’s nuclear program:

1967 — Iran receives the Tehran Research Reactor, provided by the United States through the “Atoms for Peace” initiative.

1979 — Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a U.S. ally who was gravely ill, flees Iran amid a wave of popular uprisings. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, and the Islamic Revolution brings him to power. Student protesters storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, launching a hostage crisis that would last 444 days. Iran’s nuclear ambitions stall under pressure from the international community.

August 2002 — Western intelligence agencies and an Iranian opposition group expose Iran’s secret nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz.

June 2003 — Britain, France, and Germany begin diplomatic engagement with Iran on nuclear matters.

October 2003 — Facing international pressure, Iran halts its uranium enrichment activities.

February 2006 — Following the rise of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran declares it will resume uranium enrichment. Britain, France, and Germany withdraw from the stalled negotiations.

June 2009 — Iran holds a contested presidential election in which Ahmadinejad is declared the winner despite widespread fraud allegations. The result sparks protests known as the Green Movement, which are met with a violent government crackdown.

October 2009 — Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. and Iran quietly establish a secret back-channel for communications through the sultanate of Oman.

July 2012 — American and Iranian officials hold secret, in-person meetings in Oman.

July 2015 — World powers and Iran announce a sweeping, long-term nuclear agreement that restricts Iran’s uranium enrichment in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

May 8, 2018 — President Donald Trump pulls the U.S. out of the nuclear agreement on his own authority, calling it the “worst deal ever.” He promises to negotiate better terms that would also address Iran’s missile program and its backing of regional militias — but those talks never materialize during his first term.

May 8, 2019 — Iran announces it will begin stepping back from the nuclear accord. A string of regional attacks on land and at sea, attributed to Tehran, follows.

Jan. 3, 2020 — A U.S. drone strike in Baghdad kills Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the man widely credited with building Tehran’s network of proxy forces across the Middle East.

Jan. 8, 2020 — Iran retaliates for Soleimani’s death by firing a volley of missiles at military installations in Iraq housing thousands of American and Iraqi troops. More than 100 U.S. service members sustain traumatic brain injuries, according to the Pentagon. While Iran braced for a counterstrike, its Revolutionary Guard mistakenly shoots down a Ukrainian passenger aircraft shortly after it departs Tehran’s international airport, reportedly confusing it for a U.S. cruise missile. All 176 people aboard are killed.

July 2, 2020 — A mysterious blast destroys a centrifuge manufacturing plant at Iran’s Natanz nuclear site. Iran points the finger at Israel.

April 6, 2021 — Iran and the U.S., now under President Joe Biden, begin indirect talks in Vienna on how to revive the nuclear agreement. Those discussions, along with separate talks between Tehran and European countries, ultimately fail to produce a deal.

April 11, 2021 — Natanz is struck again in a second attack within a year, also believed to have been carried out by Israel.

April 16, 2021 — Iran begins enriching uranium to 60% purity — the highest level it has ever achieved and just one technical step below the 90% threshold considered weapons-grade.

Feb. 24, 2022 — Russia launches a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. Over time, Moscow turns to Iran for bomb-carrying drones and missiles to use in the conflict.

July 17, 2022 — An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Kamal Kharrazi, publicly states that Iran has the technical ability to build a nuclear weapon but has not yet decided whether to do so.

Oct. 7, 2023 — Hamas militants from Gaza launch a devastating attack on Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, triggering the most intense fighting ever seen between Israel and Hamas. Iran, which has provided weapons to Hamas, backs the militants. Tensions across the region escalate sharply.

Nov. 19, 2023 — Yemen’s Houthi rebels, long backed by Iran, seize the vessel Galaxy Leader, kicking off months of attacks on ships moving through the Red Sea corridor. The U.S. Navy describes the campaign as the most intense combat it has faced since World War II — tactics that echo those previously used by Iran.

April 14, 2024 — Iran carries out an unprecedented direct assault on Israel, launching more than 300 missiles and attack drones. Israel, working alongside a U.S.-led coalition, intercepts the majority of the incoming fire.

April 19, 2024 — A suspected Israeli strike damages an air defense system near an airport in Isfahan, Iran.

July 31, 2024 — Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is killed in Tehran while attending the inauguration of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel later claims responsibility for the assassination.

Sept. 27, 2024 — An Israeli airstrike in Lebanon kills Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Oct. 1, 2024 — Iran launches a second direct missile attack on Israel, though a U.S.-led coalition and Israeli forces shoot down most of the projectiles.

Oct. 16, 2024 — Israel kills Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza Strip.

Oct. 26, 2024 — Israel publicly strikes Iran for the first time, targeting air defense systems and locations tied to Iran’s missile program.

Jan. 20, 2025 — Trump is sworn in for his second term as president.

Feb. 7, 2025 — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismisses proposed talks with the U.S., calling them “not intelligent, wise or honorable.”

March 7, 2025 — Trump reveals he sent a letter directly to Khamenei proposing a new nuclear agreement.

March 15, 2025 — Trump orders heavy airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, the last remaining members of Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” still capable of launching daily attacks.

April 7, 2025 — Trump announces that the U.S. and Iran will hold direct talks in Oman. Iran characterizes the planned discussions as indirect talks.

April 12, 2025 — The first round of U.S.-Iran talks takes place in Oman, wrapping up with a commitment to hold additional sessions after U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi briefly spoke with one another.

April 19, 2025 — A second round of talks between the two countries is held in Rome.

April 26, 2025 — The U.S. and Iran meet in Oman for a third round of negotiations, this time including expert-level discussions for the first time.

May 11, 2025 — A fourth round of negotiations takes place in Oman, ahead of Trump’s planned trip to the Middle East.

May 23, 2025 — The two sides gather in Rome for a fifth round of talks. Oman says the session produced “some but not conclusive progress.”

June 9, 2025 — Iran signals it will not accept a U.S. proposal regarding its nuclear program.

June 12, 2025 — The Board of Governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency formally finds Iran in violation of its nuclear obligations. In response, Iran announces it has constructed and will activate a third nuclear enrichment facility.

June 13, 2025 — Israel launches a military campaign against Iran. Over the following 12 days, Israeli forces strike nuclear and military installations, as well as other government facilities.

June 22, 2025 — The United States enters the conflict, striking three Iranian nuclear sites.

June 23, 2025 — Iran responds to the U.S. strikes by attacking a military base in Qatar used by American forces, causing limited damage.

June 24, 2025 — Trump announces a ceasefire in the war.

July 25, 2025 — Iranian and European diplomats convene in Istanbul for talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

Aug. 8, 2025 — France, Germany, and the United Kingdom send Iran a formal letter warning that U.N. sanctions will be reimposed if there is no “satisfactory solution” to the nuclear standoff by August 31.

Aug. 28, 2025 — France, Germany, and the United Kingdom announce they have formally initiated the process to “snapback” U.N. sanctions against Iran.

Sept. 9, 2025 — Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency reach an agreement on potentially beginning inspections, though questions about how it would be carried out remain unanswered.

Sept. 19, 2025 — The U.N. Security Council declines to block the “snapback” sanctions on Iran.

Sept. 26, 2025 — The U.N. Security Council rejects a last-ditch effort by China and Russia to halt the “snapback” process.

Sept. 28, 2025 — The United Nations reimplements “snapback” sanctions on Iran, barring any eleventh-hour diplomatic breakthrough.

Dec. 28, 2025 — Protests erupt in two major markets in central Tehran after the Iranian rial plummets to a record low of 1.42 million rials to one U.S. dollar, intensifying inflation and driving up the cost of food and everyday goods.

Jan. 3, 2026 — Khamenei declares that “rioters must be put in their place,” a statement widely interpreted as authorization for security forces to crack down more forcefully on the demonstrations.

Jan. 8, 2026 — After a call to action from Iran’s exiled crown prince, crowds take to the streets and shout from their windows in nationwide protests. The government shuts down the internet and blocks international phone calls to isolate the country. A subsequent security crackdown results in thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of arrests.

Jan. 13, 2026 — Trump announces he has canceled any planned meetings with Iranian officials and vows that unspecified “help is on its way.”

Jan. 26, 2026 — The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and three accompanying warships arrive in the Middle East as Trump’s threats of military action intensify.

Feb. 3, 2026 — A U.S. Navy fighter jet shoots down an Iranian drone as it approaches the Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. Iranian fast-attack vessels attempt to intercept a U.S.-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Feb. 6, 2026 — Iran and the U.S. hold indirect nuclear talks in Oman, with the head of the U.S. military’s Central Command also in attendance.

Feb. 17, 2026 — Iran and the U.S. hold discussions in Geneva while Tehran announces it has temporarily closed the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow passage at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which one-fifth of all globally traded oil flows.

Feb. 26, 2026 — Another round of talks takes place in Geneva as the United States assembles the largest concentration of warplanes and aircraft in the Middle East in decades.

Feb. 28, 2026 — Israel and the United States launch a joint military campaign against Iran, with Khamenei killed in the opening moments of the conflict.

March 9, 2026 — Iran designates Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late supreme leader, as the country’s new paramount ruler.

April 7, 2026 — A fragile ceasefire in the Iran war is announced, with negotiations set to continue. Israel is not part of the talks.

April 8, 2026 — Israel unleashes a massive bombardment on Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, killing more than 300 people in a 10-minute assault.

April 11, 2026 — U.S. Vice President JD Vance leads an American delegation to Islamabad, where he meets with an Iranian team headed by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. The session marks the highest-level direct contact between the two nations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. After 21 hours of talks, the parties leave without a deal.

May 31, 2026 — Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon pushes to its deepest point in more than 25 years.

June 15, 2026 — The United States and Iran reach an initial agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and further extend the fragile ceasefire in the Iran war.

BERN, Switzerland — Switzerland’s top financial crime prosecutor is sounding the alarm over outdated laws that are letting defendants in major cases run out the clock, according to the country’s attorney general.

Last month, a Swiss criminal court was forced to drop charges against a former Credit Suisse compliance executive tied to a scandal that devastated Mozambique’s economy roughly ten years ago. The money-laundering case had simply exceeded its statute of limitations.

A similar situation played out in April, when Switzerland halted a trial involving Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan’s late president Islam Karimov. She had been accused of leading a criminal organization that allegedly funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into Swiss bank accounts.

“In the end, we often have a race against time,” said Attorney General Stefan Blaettler, who has recently secured bribery convictions against commodity trading firms Trafigura and Gunvor, as well as money-laundering penalties against several banks.

Blaettler, a lawyer and former Bern cantonal police chief, made cracking down on white-collar crime a priority when he assumed office in 2022. While he has achieved some results, he continues to face obstacles rooted in regulatory gaps.

Rules that were written before the digital age allow defendants to seal evidence and contest the sharing of information with prosecutors in other countries. This delays access to massive amounts of digital data while the statute-of-limitations deadline continues to count down, Blaettler explained in a recent interview.

“People rightly ask us why our criminal proceedings sometimes take 15 years,” Blaettler said. A report from the Office of the Attorney General pointed to an investigation of Swiss private bank J. Safra Sarasin in a corruption scandal connected to Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras, in which evidence stayed sealed for more than five years before the bank was ultimately fined in 2025.

Blaettler noted that in roughly 90% of cases where defendants request evidence sealing, prosecutors are ultimately found to be in the right — but only after lengthy delays. “I find that untenable,” he said.

The Swiss government is currently weighing whether to work more closely with the European Union to speed up the seizure of digital evidence, according to the justice ministry. That initiative could help resolve the timing issues prosecutors have identified, the ministry added.

However, Swiss lawmakers have weakened recent government proposals aimed at preventing financial crime, arguing that the country must remain competitive as a global wealth management hub while rival financial centers continue to grow.

According to Public Eye, an advocacy and research organization, the political will to enforce financial crime laws has grown under Blaettler, but legislators remain unwilling to fix the legal gaps. “The right-of-centre majority in parliament is fighting tooth and nail any strengthening of the tools to combat white-collar crime, which is slowing the implementation of reforms that have long been identified,” Public Eye stated. Some reforms addressing due diligence standards for certain high-risk advisory services are set to take effect in October.

Transparency International, an anti-corruption watchdog, noted that Switzerland’s strong economy, stable currency, and political reliability continue to make it a target for financial crime. “Money launderers also seek security,” said Urs Thalmann, who leads the organization’s Swiss chapter. “We believe that only the tip of the iceberg ever reaches criminal prosecution.”

Over the past decade, Switzerland has moved away from banking secrecy practices that once drew illicit funds, and it now automatically shares client financial data with tax authorities in dozens of countries.

Blaettler said money-laundering prosecution has improved thanks to a steady flow of suspicious activity reports from Switzerland’s financial crime unit, adding that international cooperation is essential to achieving results.

Last year, Switzerland joined a trilateral anti-corruption task force with Britain and France to coordinate cross-border investigations. Blaettler noted that technical cooperation with the United States continues to function well.

“We have other cases in the pipeline that will come in the near future, either in the form of indictments or penalty orders,” he said. “I cannot say in advance how long such proceedings will take.”

PARIS — French automaker Renault Group announced Monday that it is teaming up with defense technology firm Thales to build a new military vehicle, marking another step in the company’s growing involvement in European defense initiatives.

The collaboration brings together Renault’s manufacturing expertise and Thales’s advanced secure communications technology with the goal of producing a versatile multi-mission vehicle that can be built quickly and at the best possible cost, according to the automaker.

The push for greater military capability across Europe has been driven in large part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as changes in U.S. foreign policy under President Donald Trump — both of which have prompted European nations to significantly increase their defense spending.

Renault has previously indicated it responded to requests from France’s defense ministry to get involved in military-related projects. One such effort includes a plan to manufacture aerial drones in collaboration with drone maker Turgis Gaillard.

A prototype of the newly developed vehicle, given the name 4 TROOP, was unveiled Monday at the Eurosatory defense fair being held near Paris.

Two bridges serving as key links between the Russian-held section of Ukraine’s Kherson region and the Crimean peninsula were damaged in an overnight drone attack carried out by Ukraine, according to an announcement made Monday on Telegram by Vladimir Saldo, the governor installed by Russia.

Following the strike, traffic on both bridges was suspended. The attack comes as the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula has already been grappling with a fuel supply crisis brought on by a series of intensifying strikes in the area.

A Norwegian court is scheduled to announce its verdict and sentence Monday in the rape trial of Marius Borg Høiby, the 29-year-old eldest son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit. The case has captivated Norway and is widely anticipated to result in prison time regardless of how the court rules on the most serious charges.

Høiby faces a total of 40 criminal charges, which include four counts of rape along with allegations of violence, threats, and abuse.

Prosecutors have asked Oslo District Court to impose a sentence of seven years and seven months behind bars. Defense attorneys, however, contend that Høiby should be cleared of the rape allegations entirely and receive no more than 18 months for the offenses he has already admitted to committing.

The six-week trial wrapped up in March following testimony from multiple accusers and the introduction of evidence that included messages, images, and videos recovered from Høiby’s cellphone. The rape charges involve four different women and span a period from 2018 to 2024. In each instance, the women are alleged to have been asleep or severely incapacitated at the time.

Høiby has denied the rape accusations and challenged key aspects of several other allegations. He has acknowledged committing some lesser offenses, including drug-related crimes, traffic violations, and violations of a restraining order.

The case has drawn significant international attention due to Høiby’s ties to Norway’s royal family. While he holds no royal title and carries no official responsibilities, he is the son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit from a relationship prior to her marriage to Crown Prince Haakon — the heir to Norway’s throne — and he was raised in the same household as the future king.

Public interest has grown even more intense in recent days as Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s health has declined. The crown princess suffers from pulmonary fibrosis and is currently awaiting a lung transplant. Her condition became a focal point in legal arguments over whether Høiby should be temporarily released from custody ahead of the verdict. Appeals courts ruled that he must remain detained while the judgment is pending.

The trial has also taken place against a backdrop of heightened scrutiny of the royal family, following revelations about Mette-Marit’s past connections to Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased sex offender. She has publicly apologized for the association, stating that she used poor judgment in maintaining contact with him. She has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Editor’s Note: This story includes discussion of sexual assault. If you or someone you know needs help, please call 1-800-656-4673 for the national sexual assault hotline in the U.S., or +47 800 57 000 for the helpline for victims of sexual abuse in Norway.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to unveil a social media ban targeting young teenagers on Monday, with the goal of shielding children from harmful online content and the dangers of excessive screen time.

The announcement would place the United Kingdom among a growing number of nations tightening online safety rules for minors. Australia, Canada, Brazil, and Indonesia have each introduced legislation or announced age-based restrictions on children’s social media access. France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand, and South Korea are among the countries exploring or developing similar policies.

“How we keep kids safe online is one of the biggest debates of our time,” Starmer said in a statement released Sunday. “This is a choice about whose side we’re on: families across the country, or a status quo that isn’t working.”

Starmer, who is facing calls from members of his own party to step down over concerns about his leadership, said the forthcoming announcement would represent “world-leading” action to protect children. He indicated the measures would be more restrictive than the Australian model, which bans social media for children under 16.

According to The Sunday Times, the United Kingdom would also move to restrict chatbots and certain features within gaming apps, and would establish a curfew designed to stop older teenagers from scrolling through social media late at night.

The under-16 ban would cover platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Threads, Twitch, Kick, and Reddit, the Times reported.

The decision follows a public comment period during which the government collected 116,000 responses from parents, children, and the technology industry. That figure ranks second only to the response generated by a public consultation on equal marriage back in 2012.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the overwhelming majority of those who responded favored an under-16 ban, including young people themselves. She noted, however, that a ban alone should be paired with additional measures.

“I don’t think banning social media on its own is the silver bullet solution, but I do think Australia has shown very clearly that it has a significant role to play,” Nandy told the BBC on Sunday.

The proposed ban could deepen tensions between the U.K. and the United States. The U.S. Embassy in London issued a statement warning that regulations should be narrowly tailored and must not infringe on free speech protections. The embassy also expressed concern that such rules would place added burdens on American technology companies.

Jon Crowcroft, a communications systems professor at the University of Cambridge, acknowledged that those backing social media bans have good intentions but argued the approach is likely misguided, warning that restrictions could cut children off from online resources they actually need.

“There is a real risk this will drive some users to worse sites and policing devices is close to impossible technically,” Crowcroft said. “Policing platforms is far easier, if only regulators would bother.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Trump is on his way to France to sit down with a group of world leaders who share at least one thing in common: every one of them has either been on the receiving end of Trump’s criticism or has had to navigate an uncomfortable moment with the U.S. president.

Some G7 leaders have drawn Trump’s anger for questioning his decision to go to war with Iran. Others have clashed with him over trade disputes. And the leaders of Japan and Germany have each found themselves in awkward situations after Trump made offhand remarks touching on painful chapters in their nations’ pasts.

Over three days in the French Alps, the leaders are expected to tackle the recently reached deal aimed at bringing the Iran conflict to a close, China’s trade practices, and Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. The summit also gives everyone a chance to gauge where they stand with a U.S. president who appears increasingly inclined to act alone on major world issues.

One analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Max Bergmann, compared the summit atmosphere to a holiday family dinner where “there’s an uncle you don’t quite like.”

“And no one wants to have a confrontation, even if things get quite passive-aggressive at times,” Bergmann said. “But, you know, there’s always the possibility that things might snap, and it might get rather dramatic.”

Here is a closer look at some of the more notable clashes and uncomfortable exchanges between Trump and the leaders he will be meeting with in France.

Trump has taken aim at British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the United Kingdom’s reluctance to support U.S. military strikes against Iran, the country’s immigration policies, and its approach to renewable energy.

His most pointed attack on Starmer came after the Labour leader initially refused to allow U.S. military aircraft to use a British base in the Indian Ocean for operations against Iran. Trump said of Starmer, “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” drawing an unfavorable comparison to Britain’s celebrated wartime leader.

Trump also lashed out at Starmer in the early days of the Iran conflict after the United Kingdom placed the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales on heightened readiness for a possible Middle East deployment.

“We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!” Trump posted on social media.

Trump has long complained about trade imbalances with Canada, repeatedly floats the idea of annexing Canada as the “51st state,” and has taken to calling Prime Minister Mark Carney “governor.”

His harshest words toward Canada’s leader came after Carney, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, spoke out against powerful nations using coercion against smaller ones — without naming Trump directly.

Trump fired back during his own remarks at the same event. “Canada lives because of the United States,” he said. “Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

For his part, Carney has tried to stay composed in the face of Trump’s jabs. Earlier this month, the prime minister told reporters that Trump was an “exceptionally active user of social media” and said he had no intention of responding to every post.

At an Easter lunch held at the White House in April, Trump criticized France and other NATO members for not supporting U.S. and Israeli military action against Iran. In the middle of that conversation, Trump brought up a viral video from last year that appeared to show French President Macron’s wife, Brigitte, pushing the French leader’s face away as the couple stepped off a plane during a visit to Vietnam.

Trump told those in attendance that Brigitte treats Macron “extremely badly” and joked that the French president was “still recovering from the right to the jaw.”

Macron later told reporters that he and his wife had simply been joking around and called Trump’s comments “neither elegant nor appropriate.”

Trump also frequently entertains crowds by recounting trade conversations he says he has had with Macron, impersonating the French president’s responses in an exaggerated accent. In Trump’s version of events, Macron always backs down quickly.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was once among Trump’s favorites on the world stage. In October, when world leaders gathered in Egypt for a summit on post-war Gaza, Trump lavished praise on the conservative premier, calling her “a very successful, very successful politician” and “beautiful.”

That goodwill has since evaporated. Italy declined to support the U.S. war effort against Iran, and Meloni publicly rebuked Trump for his public dispute with Pope Leo XIV over the conflict.

In remarks to Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera, Trump said of Meloni, “Do people like her? I can’t believe it.” He added: “I thought she had courage. I was wrong.”

Trump has not directed any direct criticism at Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi since she took office in October. However, comments he made during her first visit to the White House put her in an awkward spot.

When a Japanese reporter asked why the U.S. had not warned its allies in Europe and Asia before launching strikes on Iran, Trump casually brought up Pearl Harbor to explain his reasoning.

“Who knows better about surprise than Japan?” Trump said, with Takaichi standing beside him. “Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK?”

The remark caught many in Japan off guard. American presidents have long avoided blunt references to Japan’s surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii, which drew the United States into World War II, instead choosing to emphasize the strong alliance the two countries have built since the war. Takaichi, a conservative hardliner, received both praise and criticism back home for not responding to Trump’s comment, instead simply glancing toward her ministers who were seated nearby.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz triggered Trump’s anger in April when he said the United States was being “humiliated” by Iran and argued that the U.S. had entered the war without a clear strategy, making it harder to bring the conflict to an end.

Trump responded on social media the next day, telling Merz he “should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine” and “fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy.”

Shortly after, the Pentagon announced it would withdraw roughly 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany, and Trump suggested he might cut the American military presence there “a lot further.”

There was also an awkward exchange between Trump and Merz during a White House visit the chancellor made last year, on the eve of the D-Day anniversary — the date marking the Allied landings that began the liberation of Western Europe, the defeat of Nazi Germany, and the end of World War II in Europe.

Merz referenced the anniversary while arguing that the U.S. was once again positioned to help resolve a high-stakes conflict in Europe — Russia’s war against Ukraine — when Trump interrupted to say that D-Day was “not a pleasant day for you.”

Merz calmly reminded Trump that the day also marked the beginning of “the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship.”

Trump acknowledged that the chancellor had made a fair point.

Leaders from the world’s seven most powerful economies have convened Monday at the French lakeside resort of Evian-les-Bains for a high-stakes summit covering everything from the wars in Ukraine and Iran to the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and threats to global financial stability.

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE G7?

The G7 — short for Group of Seven — is an informal alliance of wealthy nations with no permanent headquarters or legal standing. Its members include the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. The European Union participates in every summit but is not counted among the core seven, since it is a 27-nation bloc rather than a single country, and therefore does not hold the rotating presidency.

Russia was brought into what was then called the G8 back in 1997, but was removed in 2014 following its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. France took over the group’s rotating presidency from Canada in 2026.

HOW DID THE G7 GET STARTED?

The group was established in the wake of the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, originally serving as a forum where the richest nations could coordinate responses to global economic crises. Together, its member countries represent a combined annual economic output of more than $50 trillion — roughly half of the entire world economy. In the 1980s, the group expanded its focus to include political matters as well.

In recent years, it has become common practice to extend invitations to other world leaders. This year’s summit includes the leaders of India, South Korea, Kenya, and Brazil, among others.

WHAT’S BEING DISCUSSED?

Ukraine

Demonstrating a unified front in support of Ukraine remains a top priority, as Russia’s war against the country enters its fifth year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for direct face-to-face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in hopes of ending the conflict. He has also pushed for European nations to take a more central role in the peace process, expressing concern that the United States is increasingly focused on the situation in Iran.

The G7’s European members are working to convince U.S. President Donald Trump that Ukraine’s military position has improved, that Europe is now carrying the bulk of the financial, military, and political support for Ukraine, and that the group should agree on a strategy for meaningful negotiations with Putin. Zelenskiy is expected to be present at Evian-les-Bains for the Ukraine discussions.

Iran

The summit is taking place just after the U.S. and Iran announced they had reached a framework agreement to end their conflict. While the deal is not set to be formally signed until Friday, G7 leaders are eager to learn the specifics — particularly how soon the critical Strait of Hormuz will reopen to international shipping. Trump has said the waterway will reopen Friday and that he has ordered an end to the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.

In the lead-up to the summit, France had been pushing for a coordinated position among G7 members and Middle Eastern partners regarding what demands could be placed on Iran concerning its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The leaders of Egypt, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates will join that conversation.

Global Economic Imbalances

France has framed the core economic problem this way: China produces too much, the United States consumes too much, and European nations invest too little. Alarm is growing in Western countries over China’s record trade surplus and its push into higher-value industries. Beijing has defended its economic policies and rejected claims that Chinese exporters receive unfair government subsidies.

France’s leader has been pushing for a cooperative approach before the European Union decides whether to take a harder line on trade with China. Since China is not at the table, no major breakthroughs are expected — though France says even getting the group to acknowledge that a problem exists would be considered a victory.

Artificial Intelligence

France has brought in roughly a dozen top technology executives — including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei — to engage in discussions about the latest AI developments and the opportunities and dangers they present. Protecting children online and building out digital infrastructure are also on the agenda, though taxing major tech companies is not.

Debt in Developing Nations

G7 leaders are expected to reaffirm their commitment to addressing the crushing debt loads carried by many developing and emerging-market countries, though it remains unclear what specific steps, if any, will follow from that pledge.

Leaders of the world’s seven wealthiest nations convened Monday at a resort along a French lake, arriving just as the United States and Iran jointly announced they had reached an early-stage agreement to bring their war to a close.

The June 15-17 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, will put the Iran situation front and center, but world leaders will also be working through other pressing matters — including the conflict in Ukraine, addressing lopsided global economic conditions, and finding sources for critical minerals that don’t rely so heavily on China.

U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Evian-les-Bains Monday for the gathering. His attendance was welcomed by French officials, particularly after Trump departed last year’s G7 summit in Canada ahead of schedule. Many fellow G7 leaders have grown increasingly cautious about the United States, as Trump’s unpredictable moves on the world stage have shaken up the Middle East, international trade, and diplomatic relationships — raising broader doubts about America’s dedication to the global framework it helped build after World War II.

During the summit, Trump is scheduled to meet with leaders from the Middle East and to hold a working session with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday. That meeting comes as Russian military progress in Ukraine has stalled and Kyiv is pushing its allies for more financial and military support.

Zelenskiy’s negotiating position has strengthened since Trump famously told him in the Oval Office last year: “You don’t have the cards.” However, Zelenskiy may find it harder to win expanded U.S. backing as Trump focuses on putting the Iran conflict behind him — a conflict that has hurt Trump’s approval ratings at home.

On the Iran deal, G7 leaders are eager to learn the specifics. A formal memorandum of understanding is scheduled to be signed this Friday in Switzerland, though the exact terms had not been publicly released. Trump announced that the Strait of Hormuz — a critical waterway for global oil and gas shipments that Iran has effectively closed off for months — would reopen Friday, and that he had directed an end to the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council released a statement saying that military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, would permanently cease beginning Monday night. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said a broader agreement would be worked out over a 60-day ceasefire window, which would include sanctions relief for Iran. Sources had previously told Reuters that Iran’s nuclear program would be part of those follow-up discussions.

The United Arab Emirates, which suffered direct harm from the war, along with key mediating nations Qatar and Egypt, have also been invited to participate in the G7 summit.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Trump on Monday. For Macron, this summit carries special significance as a diplomatic highlight of his second and final term, which ends next year. While Macron is increasingly viewed as a weakened figure within France, he still commands influence internationally — and managed to secure Trump’s agreement to attend a lavish dinner at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday.

Macron has used France’s leadership of the G7 to push for action on global economic imbalances, a topic long of interest to Washington, ahead of the United States taking over leadership of both the G20 this year and the G7 next year. France has characterized the problem as a shared one: China produces too much, the U.S. consumes too much, and Europe invests too little. Brazil, India, Kenya, and South Korea were also invited to join the conversation, and Macron has called on China to increase its domestic consumption.

French President Emmanuel Macron has chosen Evian-les-Bains, a scenic lakeside community tucked between the Alps and Lake Geneva, as the setting for this year’s gathering of leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy nations.

A Small Town With an Outsized Legacy

Situated in the Haute-Savoie region of eastern France along the southern bank of Lake Geneva — directly opposite Switzerland — Evian-les-Bains is home to fewer than 10,000 residents. Despite its small footprint, the town has long attracted visitors with its thermal springs, picturesque lakeside views, and Belle Epoque-style architecture.

The town also holds significant historical weight: it was in Evian-les-Bains that the “Evian Accords” were signed, the agreement that brought the Algerian War to a close and recognized Algeria as an independent nation.

The Birthplace of a World-Famous Water Brand

Most people around the globe know Evian-les-Bains through its namesake mineral water. The water originates as rainfall and snowmelt that filters through layers of glacial moraine and alpine rock before emerging from natural springs. A French nobleman first discovered the springs in 1789, and seven years later, the town’s first thermal spa opened its doors. Commercial bottling of the water got underway in 1826.

Today, the Evian brand is owned by French company Danone, which produces approximately 6 million bottles of the mineral water every single day.

The Town Has Hosted World Leaders Before

This won’t be Evian-les-Bains’ first time on the world stage. Back in 2003, the town served as the host for a G8 summit — a time when the group still included Russia as a member. Among the leaders who attended were French President Jacques Chirac, U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The central focus of that summit was mending relationships among the allied nations following deep divisions sparked by the start of the Iraq War.

A Golfer’s Dream Destination

For U.S. President Donald Trump, who is well known for his passion for golf, the Evian-les-Bains area presents some world-class options on the course. The Evian Resort Golf Club, perched between the shores of Lake Geneva and the surrounding Alpine peaks, features the Champions Course — a venue that dates back to 1904 and annually hosts the Amundi Evian Championship.

SYDNEY — Coogee Beach in Sydney reopened its shores to the public Monday, but with significantly heightened security measures in place, following a shark attack Saturday that left a woman with life-threatening injuries.

The victim, 35 years old, was swimming roughly 30 metres — about 100 feet — from the shoreline Saturday morning when a shark estimated to be between three and four metres long attacked her. She suffered serious wounds to both arms and her lower left leg. As of Monday, she remained hospitalized in stable condition.

Authorities are urging anyone entering the water to exercise extra caution in the coming days.

“Our Lifeguards will continue JetSki patrols throughout the day, and Surf Life Saving NSW is operating a shark-spotting drone at Coogee Beach,” Randwick City Council announced in an official statement.

The council also announced plans to hold a community meeting about the incident this coming Saturday.

Coogee Beach sits just south of the world-famous Bondi Beach and is considered a defining symbol of Sydney’s beach culture. Located on the eastern edge of the city, the area is renowned for its golden sand and striking coastal cliffs, attracting millions of visitors from across the globe each year — making water safety a critical concern for local officials.

Saturday’s mauling is part of a troubling pattern of shark encounters along Australian coastlines in recent months. Just the week prior, a man lost his life after being attacked by a shark while fishing off the coast of Western Australia.

The month before that, a 39-year-old man died following a shark attack while fishing on Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef. Just ten days earlier, a 38-year-old was fatally attacked near an island off Perth in Western Australia.

In January, dozens of beaches along Australia’s east coast — including several in Sydney — were forced to close after four separate shark attacks occurred within a two-day span. Those incidents followed heavy rainfall that left the water murky, conditions believed to attract sharks while limiting their ability to see clearly.

Although shark encounters are considered statistically uncommon, a Reuters analysis of data from the Australian Shark Incident Database reveals a slow but steady increase in incidents. Over the past decade, Australia has averaged nearly 29 shark encounters per year — a notable jump from the roughly 16 incidents per year recorded during the 2000s.

The Saturday attack has also triggered a review of aerial surveillance protocols. While emergency drones were put into service Monday, Coogee Beach typically operates under strict restrictions on drone flights due to its location directly beneath the flight path serving Sydney’s airport.

New South Wales Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty addressed the situation Monday, acknowledging that it had been an especially difficult summer when it comes to shark activity. She indicated that no options were being ruled out as the state evaluates potential safety responses, though she emphasized that technology-based solutions — such as drones — would be the priority.

Some experts believe the Saturday attack was carried out by a white shark, a species classified as vulnerable and protected under environmental legislation that prohibits targeting, capturing, or killing the animal without specific authorization.

Despite those protections, the attack has reignited debate over whether a shark cull should be considered — a deeply divisive topic in Australia.

“It’s so wrong that we don’t cull sharks after attacks,” said former conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott, expressing his view in a video shared to his Facebook page.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump appears to be charting a course out of an unpopular war with Iran after approving a peace framework that could ease the global energy crisis — but experts warn the agreement comes with significant risks and leaves several of his original war goals unfulfilled.

More than three months after the United States launched military strikes against the Islamic Republic, Trump on Sunday endorsed a “memorandum of understanding” that represents the biggest step forward in peace negotiations to date. A central element of the deal is Iran’s commitment to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — a critical global shipping lane whose closure has sent energy prices soaring and contributed to higher gasoline costs for American consumers.

However, the Pakistani-brokered agreement — whose full text has not yet been made public — reportedly requires major concessions from the United States, most notably the postponement of any talks aimed at dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, which Trump had identified as a primary reason for going to war.

Trump announced the deal in a social media post on his 80th birthday, writing: “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!” Iran subsequently confirmed the agreement, which is scheduled to be formally signed on Friday, though many critical details remain unresolved.

The two countries have offered differing interpretations of the framework, which is designed to extend the existing ceasefire for 60 days while negotiators work toward a permanent end to a conflict that has sent shockwaves through global energy markets. The war has killed thousands of people, drained U.S. military resources, and weighed on Trump’s approval ratings ahead of November’s midterm elections, in which his Republican Party is fighting to hold onto control of Congress.

Trump, who ran for a second term on pledges to steer clear of foreign wars and prioritize the American economy, has portrayed the outcome as a decisive U.S. win — even as Iranian officials have made similar boasts of their own.

Yet most analysts say Trump — who at one point called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” — has been unable to achieve many of the objectives he set for the conflict. Iran’s religious government, which Trump encouraged Iranians to topple at the start of the war, remains largely in place. Leaders who stepped in after top officials were killed in joint U.S.-Israeli strikes are reportedly even more hardline than their predecessors.

Earlier demands that Iran shut down its ballistic missile program and cut ties with regional proxy forces also went unmet. Still, a U.S. official told reporters that the preliminary agreement achieves Trump’s core objectives.

The fate of Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium also remains uncertain. Trump posted on Saturday that the U.S. would retrieve the material and “downblend and destroy it,” but offered no timeline. An Iranian official said only that Iran had agreed to “dilute” the stockpile itself, with no mechanism yet in place.

Victoria Taylor, a former deputy assistant secretary of state now with the Atlantic Council think tank, offered a measured assessment of the outcome: “This deal is likely the best possible outcome to avert further conflict, but it is no better than what could have been achieved had the United States pursued diplomacy rather than war in the first place.”

Questions also remain about whether the final agreement will represent an improvement over the 2015 nuclear deal that former President Barack Obama negotiated with Iran — and which Trump walked away from in 2018 during his first term in office.

U.S. officials have said any release of frozen Iranian funds or loosening of sanctions will be done gradually and only if Tehran meets specific requirements. Iran, however, has signaled it expects some financial relief upfront — a dynamic that could expose Trump to the same criticism he directed at Obama for allegedly giving Iran economic breathing room.

Trump and his team have highlighted Iran’s stated commitment to never develop a nuclear weapon as a key achievement. But Iran had long maintained such a position, citing a religious decree issued by former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — who was killed in an airstrike at the war’s outset — that prohibited building a bomb.

While the agreement calls for Iran to lift restrictions on Strait of Hormuz shipping and for the U.S. to end its naval blockade of Iranian ports, Tehran has insisted it must retain a role in managing the waterway — a role it did not hold before the war began. Reopening the strait would essentially restore conditions to what they were before the conflict started.

Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington cautioned against viewing the strait’s reopening as a lasting solution: “Iran has demonstrated that even in a starkly weakened state, it can shut the Strait of Hormuz at will. That’s not going away.”

The war has claimed thousands of lives, primarily in Iran and Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and Iran-aligned Hezbollah militants was reignited. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed. The financial cost to the U.S. military has reached tens of billions of dollars, and weapons stockpiles have been significantly depleted. The conflict has also strained relations with European allies, who were not consulted before Trump launched the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who built a close partnership with Trump during the conflict, has said Israel will not be party to the memorandum of understanding. The two leaders clashed on Sunday over Israel’s ongoing military operations in Lebanon. Meanwhile, U.S. Gulf allies — who were themselves targeted by Iranian missile and drone attacks — have pushed for a peaceful resolution but now face the reality of a weakened Iran that still retains enough military capability to pose a threat.

A Norwegian court is set to deliver its verdict Monday in the high-profile criminal trial of Marius Borg Hoiby, 29, the stepson of Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. Hoiby faces charges of rape, domestic violence, assault, and drug possession, among other offenses — a case that has riveted the Scandinavian nation.

Hoiby became part of the Norwegian royal family when his mother, Mette-Marit, wed Crown Prince Haakon in 2001. While he has denied the most serious allegations against him, including the rape charges, he has acknowledged guilt on some of the lesser counts.

Should the Oslo district court find him guilty on every charge, prosecutors have asked that he receive a sentence of seven years and seven months behind bars. However, the court has the authority to impose a longer or shorter term than what prosecutors requested.

The trial, which stretched across seven weeks, captivated the country with revelations about Hoiby’s drug dependency, self-recorded videos of sexual encounters, and more than 800 electronic messages submitted as evidence. Testimony in court also revealed that one of the alleged rapes occurred in the basement of the crown prince’s family residence.

Ketil Raknes, an associate professor in political communication at the Kristiania University of Applied Sciences, noted that public fascination with the case stemmed in part from the sharp contrast between the seemingly flawless image of the royal family and the troubling behavior alleged in court.

The scandal has been one of several factors dragging down the monarchy’s approval ratings. It overlapped with Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s public apology for what she called “poor judgment” in maintaining ties with the late American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein following his 2008 conviction.

A Norstat poll released on February 21, while the trial was still underway, found that support for keeping the monarchy had dropped to a record low of 60%, down from 70% in January. Meanwhile, the share of Norwegians favoring a different form of government climbed from 19% to 27%. By May, however, the royal family had partially recovered in public opinion, with 64% backing the monarchy and 23% preferring a different system, according to another Norstat survey.

Raknes described the situation as a compounded crisis. “It was … a perfect crisis for the royal family because they had two crises at the same time. And they had a lot of (criticism) for the way they handled the Epstein files,” he said.

The verdict arrives at a deeply painful time for Hoiby’s mother. This month, Mette-Marit was added to the national lung transplant list after her health took a severe turn for the worse. She has been living with pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive lung disease that makes breathing increasingly difficult. Her physicians have indicated that without a successful transplant, she may have roughly one year to live.

Raknes said that news of her condition appears to be softening the tone of public commentary ahead of the verdict. “The coverage is much more sober,” he said. “People are seeing: ‘OK, this is a family who’s really struggling and this is not the time for … playing … the moral card as high as we maybe have done earlier in this case.’”

Three people lost their lives and three others were wounded — among them a one-year-old child — after a drone strike hit the Russian city of Tula, situated south of Moscow, according to regional governor Dmitry Milyayev, who shared the news on Telegram.

The Tula region has been a repeated target of Ukrainian drone attacks. The area is home to several major industrial facilities and has seen ongoing strikes since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

NEW YORK (AP) — Sunday’s announcement of a deal to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz is welcome news, but energy experts are cautioning that relief from high oil and gasoline prices won’t come quickly.

According to energy analysts, it could be many months before energy companies are able to ramp operations back up to a level that meets global demand. They point to the slow nature of oil shipping and refining, as well as lingering concerns about the safety of traveling through the strait, as reasons why the impact won’t be felt right away.

For over three months, tankers loaded with crude oil have been stuck in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely pass through the waterway. Before the war began, roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and gasoline supply moved through that route.

Daniel Evans, global head of fuels and refining research at S&P Global Energy, said the recovery process requires patience. “It’s going to take time for people to feel comfortable and for insurance to be in place … particularly to get people on the ground to restart some of these assets,” he said.

Evans explained that stranded vessels must first clear the strait before new tankers can enter to take on cargo. “To bring a ship in, you need to be confident that you’ve got a big enough window of safety to bring it in, load it and move it out,” he added.

He also noted that oil tankers travel slowly, and the journey from the strait to distant destinations — including stops at refineries for processing — can span several months.

Another complicating factor is that some Middle Eastern producers halted oil extraction, a process called a shut-in, after running out of places to store the oil. Getting those operations going again is not a fast process.

Alan Gelder, senior vice president of refining, chemicals and oil markets at Wood Mackenzie, an analytics firm, said nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates may bounce back more quickly because they have alternate pipelines or routes that don’t rely solely on the Strait of Hormuz. However, he noted that other countries face steeper challenges. “But places like Iraq could be much more challenged because they’ve had a much bigger shut-in, their fields are more difficult … it may well take about a year before they get back,” he said.

Gelder also pointed out that investment in energy infrastructure — which can take years to show results — came to a standstill after the strait closed, meaning that restarting that financial commitment will also take time.

Daniel Sternoff, senior fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, said oil-producing nations that shut down operations won’t be eager to restart until they are confident the strait will remain stable and that any ceasefire will hold well beyond 30 to 60 days. “We don’t know what open means or what the speed of evacuation of trapped material is going to be,” he said.

U.S. and Iranian officials announced Sunday that the two nations have struck a deal to bring their war to an end. The agreement also includes lifting the American blockade of Iran and reopening the Strait of Hormuz — a move that could drive down energy costs once oil begins flowing again through the strategically vital passage.

World leaders wasted no time responding to the announcement. Britain, France, Germany, and Italy issued a joint statement as E4 nations, declaring: “Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon. We stand ready to work with the U.S., Iran and the IAEA to this end.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also weighed in, saying: “We are clear that toll-free freedom of navigation must now be restored in the Strait of Hormuz … Iran must never have a nuclear weapon.”

Four major European nations say they are prepared to remove sanctions against Iran following a recently reached agreement between the United States and Iran aimed at ending their conflict.

The United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy — collectively referred to as the E4 nations — released a joint statement on Sunday indicating their readiness to ease those economic penalties in exchange for concrete steps by Iran regarding its nuclear program.

“Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon. We stand ready to work with the US, Iran and the IAEA to this end,” the four nations’ leaders said in the statement.

The announcement signals a significant shift in international diplomacy surrounding Iran’s nuclear ambitions, with Western allies aligning their response to the broader US-Iran agreement.

One person was hurt during a Russian aerial assault on Kyiv early Monday morning, according to local Ukrainian officials who urged city residents to take cover immediately.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported on Telegram that drone debris ignited fires at several homes and vehicles across the city. He also noted that the attacks knocked out electricity in certain areas of the capital.

Tymur Tkachenko, who heads the capital’s military administration, posted separately on Telegram confirming that a high-rise apartment building had caught fire. He stated that one person sustained injuries but did not provide additional details about the victim’s condition.

Ukraine’s Air Force warned via Telegram that drones were continuing to approach Kyiv from multiple directions, and that there was also a threat of missile strikes. A Reuters reporter on the ground confirmed that explosions could be heard throughout the city.

Oil prices took a significant hit on Monday following an announcement that U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran’s deputy foreign minister have agreed to a deal that would end the fighting and restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude futures dropped $3.51, or 4.02%, settling at $83.82 per barrel as of 2203 GMT. Meanwhile, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell to $80.95 a barrel, a decline of $3.93, or 4.63%.

The agreement between Washington and Tehran signals a potential easing of tensions that had kept global energy markets on edge, with the reopening of the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz expected to allow oil shipments to flow more freely through the region.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — More than three months after fighting broke out, the United States and Iran have struck an agreement to bring the conflict to a close and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a development that could provide significant relief to the world economy.

Specifics of the agreement were not immediately disclosed. Pakistan, which played a key role as a mediator, announced that the formal signing ceremony will take place Friday in Switzerland. Unresolved matters such as Iran’s nuclear program are expected to be taken up at a later stage.

U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed the deal had been reached, announcing he had authorized an end to the American naval blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz — a blockade that had been put in place in response to Iran’s control over the critical shipping lane.

“Congratulations to all!” Trump posted on social media. “I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade.”

Prior to the announcement, the U.S. had indicated it would ease the blockade on Iranian ports as the strait reopened, and would also agree to loosen sanctions so Iran could increase oil exports and help rebuild its struggling economy.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, confirmed the agreement in an appearance on state television, though he stressed that Iran would not begin carrying out its terms until the official signing on Friday. He noted the deal came after more than 14 hours of negotiations in Tehran involving a representative from Qatar, which also served as a mediator.

Iranian state television displayed a banner reading: “US was forced to sign an agreement to end the war.”

Pakistan was the first to publicly announce the deal, doing so on a day when Israel — which had been kept out of the negotiations — carried out strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut while targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Those attacks had threatened to derail the talks.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stated that “both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” and said mediators would facilitate meetings this week to “lay the foundation for the technical talks.”

LONDON — The United Kingdom is preparing to announce major new restrictions on social media use for children under the age of 16, a move that could result in banning popular platforms and features considered too addictive for young users’ wellbeing.

Over recent years, Britain has steadily increased pressure on technology companies, pushing them to implement age verification systems, modify their recommendation algorithms, and — most recently — stop children from sharing nude images captured on mobile devices.

Now, amid rising concern about the mental health effects of excessive screen time on young people, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has decided to take things a step further. His decision came after conversations with parents and a review of evidence from Australia, which became the first nation to ban social media for under-16s last year.

Starmer, who is widely expected to face a leadership challenge in the weeks ahead, said the public rightfully demands action on this issue.

“That’s why we will call time on a system that’s failing our kids and take bold action to give every child the best possible start in life,” he said ahead of the Monday morning announcement.

According to The Guardian newspaper, Starmer is set to announce a full ban on all major social media platforms for anyone under 16. Digital products not covered by the ban — such as gaming apps — would face their own set of restrictions, including prohibitions on children communicating with strangers.

Australia led the way on this issue, becoming the first country in the world to block children under 16 from social media platforms. Starting in December, Australian users under that age were cut off from services including TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube, and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook.

In the wake of Australia’s action, a number of other countries have signaled their own intentions to regulate children’s access to social media, driven by growing alarm over the effects on young people’s health and safety.

Britain’s government conducted a broad public consultation on potential new rules, gathering input from teachers, parents, and young people themselves. Options considered included an outright ban for under-16s, as well as curfews, limits on app usage time, and restrictions on what officials have called addictive design features built into these platforms.

The consultation attracted more than 116,000 responses. Among parents who participated, over 83% said they believed the dangers of social media outweighed the advantages, and 90% expressed support for setting the minimum age for social media access at 16.

Lisa Nandy, the minister for culture and media, pointed to Australia’s experience as evidence that even an imperfect ban can shift the broader culture around children’s online habits.

“It changes the presumption, so that at the age of eight, nine, 10, 11, children aren’t presuming that they’re going to be in these spaces because all of their friends are, and that quite significantly changes the culture,” she said in an interview with BBC television.

While many parents and elected officials support a ban, some psychologists and researchers have cautioned that there is no solid evidence proving such a measure would be effective. Meanwhile, a group of school-aged children in London told reporters they had a complicated and conflicted relationship with social media technology.

DUBAI/WASHINGTON — The United States and Iran have struck a deal to bring their war to an end, with a formal signing ceremony set for Friday in Switzerland, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced early Monday on social media.

Shortly after Sharif made his announcement, President Trump confirmed the news on his Truth Social platform. “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” Trump wrote.

The agreement comes despite an Israeli military strike on Lebanon on Sunday that drew condemnation from both Iran and Trump himself.

The full terms of the deal had not been publicly released, but Sharif said the agreement calls for “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”

Multiple sources had previously told Reuters that the draft agreement would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, lift the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, and extend a ceasefire — while setting aside Iran’s nuclear program for a separate round of talks over a 60-day window.

Trump confirmed those key elements in his social media post, saying the strait would be open “toll free” and that the U.S. naval blockade would also come to an end. “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” Trump wrote.

The road to the agreement was bumpy on Sunday. Iranian negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf reacted sharply to Israel’s strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut — which Israel said targeted Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants — posting on X that the attack showed the United States lacks “the will and ability to fulfill your commitments.”

Iran’s foreign ministry held the United States responsible for the Israeli strike and warned of a “strong response.” The country’s top joint military command stated that the “finger (is) on the trigger” and was ready to fire at the “enemy’s heart.”

Trump also weighed in on the Beirut attack Sunday, writing on Truth Social: “This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran.”

Israel has stated it is not a party to the planned U.S.-Iran agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has clashed with Trump over American demands that Israel scale back its military operations in Lebanon as a condition for reaching the deal with Iran.

The fighting between Israel and Iran-aligned Hezbollah in Lebanon was reignited when the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran began in February.

A senior Iranian official had earlier told Reuters that under the draft deal’s terms, the United States would release $25 billion in frozen Iranian assets, while Iran would agree not to develop or acquire nuclear weapons. The official said Iran also agreed to preserve the existing nuclear status quo — meaning no uranium enrichment or expansion of nuclear facilities — until a final agreement is reached.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced in the early hours of Monday that the United States and Iran have come to a peace agreement following talks.

Sharif shared the news on social media platform X, stating: “Both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”

The Prime Minister also noted that a formal signing ceremony is planned for June 19 in Switzerland.