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The White House confirmed late Thursday that Vice President JD Vance has scrapped his scheduled trip to Switzerland, where he was expected to attend a formal signing ceremony for a memorandum of understanding (MoU) designed to bring an end to the conflict with Iran.

The decision came just hours after Vance appeared at a White House press conference and left the door open on his travel plans. Despite earlier reports that a ceremony had been set for Friday in Geneva, Vance told reporters Thursday, “My plan is to go to Switzerland,” while acknowledging he did not know “exactly when.”

He also indicated that technical-level negotiations were expected to begin over the weekend, saying, “We think these technical negotiations are going to start sometime this weekend — that’s still the plan — but that could change.”

Earlier in the week, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced that Pakistan would host the Switzerland ceremony to mark the agreement and formally launch those negotiations. Friday’s planned event was meant to serve as a ceremonial signing and the official kickoff of the talks.

President Donald Trump had already digitally signed the MoU on Wednesday in Versailles. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also signed the document. Whether Vance’s trip will be rescheduled remains unclear.

The White House announcement came as violence continued in Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces reported that four of its soldiers, including a battalion commander, were killed by a Hezbollah drone in southern Lebanon. The military said it then carried out retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah targets.

At Thursday’s press conference, Vance took aim at Israel’s military strategy and its resistance to the MoU, which includes provisions that would restrict Israel’s ability to strike Hezbollah and respond to attacks.

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

Directing his remarks at Israeli critics of the agreement, Vance added: “I guess my response to them would be: What is your exact proposal? You’re a country of nine million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.” Notably, Vance misstated Israel’s population — the actual figure is approximately 10 million.

President Trump also weighed in on Israel’s military actions in Lebanon during the G7 conference, telling reporters: “We have a little dispute over Lebanon. I say, ‘You can do a little softer touch, Bibi. You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah.’”

MOSCOW — Russia signaled Friday that it is prepared to engage in conversations with European nations, but made clear it will not be pressured into negotiations on anyone else’s terms.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said practical reasoning alone demands such dialogue, given what he described as an “enormous number” of complicated matters that need to be addressed. However, he stressed that Europe must rethink how it approaches Russia before any meaningful exchange can happen.

“The Europeans have a very serious misconception: They assume that negotiations with Russia must be conducted from a position of strength and based on Russia’s weakness. This is the biggest mistake… Such talk will lead nowhere,” Peskov told reporters.

He went further, adding: “Does this stem from European incompetence, misinformation, or stupidity? We don’t know for sure, but it’s a fact.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously indicated a willingness to speak with European governments, but has insisted they must initiate contact, since it was they who severed ties. The EU has now imposed 20 separate rounds of sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

EUROPE SHIFTS ITS POSITION

For more than a year, European nations largely stepped back from direct engagement with Russia, leaving U.S. President Donald Trump to take the lead in attempting to negotiate a resolution to the conflict. That posture appears to be changing.

The office of European Council President Antonio Costa made “brief contacts at diplomatic level” with the Kremlin over recent weeks in order to “open communication channels,” according to an EU official who spoke Wednesday.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker told the Financial Times in an interview released Thursday that the EU should capitalize on the current “momentum” surrounding Ukraine peace discussions to push forward with efforts to restart direct talks with Putin.

Peskov echoed Russia’s conditional willingness, saying Moscow would engage if the other side came ready for genuine conversation — “not to engage in moralising or, especially, to issue ultimatums.”

Costa’s outreach, however, exposed fault lines within the EU. At a summit of EU leaders held in Brussels, some member states said the initiative had not been coordinated with them and argued the bloc should instead focus on increasing pressure on Russia.

UKRAINE DRONE STRIKES HIT MOSCOW AREA

Ukraine has claimed it is gaining the upper hand in the war through an intensified wave of drone strikes targeting locations deep within Russia, including ports, oil refineries, and other critical infrastructure. Russia disputes this characterization and says it will continue fighting until its goals are met — with or without a diplomatic resolution.

The governor of the Moscow region announced Friday that an eight-year-old girl had been killed in a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack that struck the capital and surrounding areas the previous day. The assault, involving hundreds of drones, ignited a major oil refinery in southeast Moscow for the second time in just three days.

“Indeed, drone attacks continue. Appropriate measures are being taken to mitigate the consequences,” Peskov acknowledged.

When asked whether Putin had watched footage of the burning refinery, Peskov deflected, telling reporters they should instead look at images from Ukrainian cities struck by Russian forces.

“These strikes will continue,” he added.

LONDON — A commanding special election win by Andy Burnham on Friday has triggered a political chain reaction that could soon bring down Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the man who led the Labour Party back to power less than two years ago after a 14-year absence from government.

Burnham is widely considered the top contender to succeed Starmer, particularly after his overwhelming performance in the Makerfield seat in northwest England. Even as Labour has struggled with poor poll numbers and significant losses in recent local elections, Burnham managed to defy the political odds in a major way.

The 56-year-old not only fended off the challenge from the anti-immigration Reform UK party, but he dramatically boosted Labour’s vote share to nearly 55%. That’s especially striking given that at local elections just last month, Reform UK captured virtually every seat within the Makerfield constituency.

With his return to Parliament after nearly a decade away — during which he served as the widely popular mayor of Greater Manchester — Burnham is now positioned to mount a direct challenge to the struggling Starmer for both the Labour leadership and the country’s top office. While he has stopped short of formally declaring his intentions, his words leave little doubt about where his ambitions lie.

Burnham framed his win as “the change moment” and said he and his supporters hoped to “lay out a new path” for Britain.

“I think we need in this country right now for people to feel a sense of hope that there is something better to work towards on the horizon,” he said.

The next scheduled national election in the UK isn’t required until 2029, but British political rules allow a party to swap out its leader — and therefore its prime minister — without triggering a nationwide vote.

Here’s how a leadership change could unfold:

Despite Starmer’s repeated insistence that he would fight any challenge to his position, he may soon conclude that he would lose a leadership vote — a deeply humbling outcome for a man who delivered a landslide Labour victory in July 2024. Starmer now ranks among the most unpopular prime ministers in modern British history, battered by a series of policy stumbles and controversies. Chief among them was his widely criticized decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to Washington, despite Mandelson’s connections to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Reports suggest that members of his own Cabinet may inform him this weekend that his position is no longer tenable and that resigning would be better both for him and for the Labour Party.

If Starmer chose to leave office right away, the Cabinet and Labour’s governing body would likely select a temporary leader to serve as prime minister — someone not expected to compete in the full leadership race. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has been mentioned as someone who could fill that role.

Another option would be for Starmer to announce he plans to step down at a future point, such as the party’s annual conference scheduled for September.

Burnham is expected to enter any leadership contest that follows. The bigger question is who else might join the race. Wes Streeting, who stepped down as health secretary last month, has signaled he intends to run. Other names being floated include Starmer’s former deputy Angela Rayner, who resigned last year over an unpaid property tax matter, and Al Carns, who left his post as armed forces minister last week over disagreements with Starmer’s defense spending plans.

A significant faction within Labour is pushing for no one to challenge Burnham at all, hoping he could walk into 10 Downing Street this summer, ahead of the party conference.

On Friday, Starmer found himself in the awkward position of publicly congratulating Burnham — knowing full well the victory only intensifies scrutiny of his own leadership.

The prime minister confirmed he had not yet spoken with Burnham but made clear he has no intention of stepping aside.

“Yes, I will run, I will stand,” Starmer said when asked whether he would contest a leadership challenge. “I’ve said repeatedly I’m not going to walk away from that.”

Under Labour’s rules, if a formal challenge is mounted, Starmer would automatically appear on the ballot. Any challenger would need to secure the support of at least one-fifth of Labour’s House of Commons lawmakers — that’s 81 members. Candidates who clear that bar would then need backing from either 5% of local party branches or at least three affiliated organizations, such as trade unions or cooperative societies.

Eligible party members and affiliates would then vote using a ranked-choice system, with the winner being the first candidate to surpass 50% of the vote. King Charles III would then formally invite that person to become prime minister and build a new government.

If a full contest takes place, the process could take three to four months, with the party holding town hall events before ballots are opened to its membership.

BRUSSELS — Just hours after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly criticized NATO allies and announced a Pentagon review of their performance, leaders of numerous European nations were already going through their own checklist of security progress — covering many of the same issues Hegseth raised.

In many ways, Hegseth was telling the Europeans what they already know.

The European agenda included increased defense spending, investment in military production industries, lessons drawn from the ongoing war in Ukraine, and the development or purchase of drones, air defense systems, and long-range weapons.

At a summit that wrapped up Friday, European leaders discussed how to best deploy joint European Union funding, eliminate bureaucratic obstacles to speed up procurement, improve “military mobility” for faster troop and equipment deployment, and upgrade ports and airports.

“Europe’s defense readiness must be decisively ramped up by 2030,” they reaffirmed — a goal they have been working toward since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Intelligence agencies have cautioned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could order military action elsewhere in Europe before the decade is out, particularly if he manages to defeat Ukraine. European nations have also accused Russia of carrying out acts of sabotage and spreading disinformation across the continent.

Roughly two-thirds of European Union member countries are also NATO members, and the unpredictability of the Trump administration has pushed them to accelerate their own independent efforts. Hegseth’s announced review was simply the most recent unexpected development.

Hegseth does not regularly attend NATO meetings, and he departed Thursday’s gathering of defense ministers before it concluded. Still, his first major address to the alliance in February 2025 and his follow-up appearance this week left a strong impression.

On Thursday, he branded NATO a “paper-tiger,” called allies “shameful,” and declared that “too many failed” a test set by President Donald Trump — who had sought use of European bases to launch strikes against Iran.

He also criticized allies for emphasizing “gender equity and climate change” and attacked their immigration policies.

Hegseth then gave NATO members six months to demonstrate improvement before a Pentagon performance review that would tie the continued presence of American forces in Europe — and U.S. financial contributions to NATO — to whether he judges them to be doing enough.

“It’s protection racket framing that undermines NATO solidarity, trust in the U.S. commitment to NATO, and, ultimately, U.S. security interests,” said Rachel Ellehuus, Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute think-tank.

The specifics of what the review will actually examine remain unclear.

“It will be designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe,” Hegseth said. “Some countries will fail and others will pass with flying colors.”

He said the process might last “up to six months, could be less,” and would involve U.S. military commanders, members of Congress, and the allies themselves.

Hegseth also said that American contributions to the shared NATO budget — which funds its headquarters and other facilities — would be tied to ally performance. “Where other allies do not spend with urgency, our dues contributions will go down,” he said.

Speaking to reporters at Brussels airport before departing, he added that the review would also look at “where is the right place for basing. Where can we make sure we have access and overflight when we need it, so that America is properly postured on the continent.”

NATO itself played no direct role in the Iran conflict, though it did work to protect alliance territory from potential attack.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he could not yet explain what Hegseth’s review would involve.

“There’s still no clarity on exactly what the outcome will be, because that will depend on the review. So, we’ll see what happens,” Rutte said, adding that “wherever we can be helpful, we will be helpful.” Rutte is expected to travel to Washington next week, where he may learn more.

From Rutte’s perspective, European allies and Canada are making solid progress, even if more can always be done.

“What we are seeing is staggering amounts of money coming in,” he told reporters. “Europe and Canada are spending in 2025 more than $90 billion extra compared to 2024, which is almost a 20% increase in defense spending.”

That additional funding must now be converted into actual military equipment, weapons, and ammunition.

At last year’s summit, allies agreed to raise their defense budgets to match the United States as a share of gross domestic product. President Trump left that meeting satisfied, describing his NATO counterparts as a “nice group of people.” But the new review casts a shadow over the alliance’s next summit, scheduled for July 7-8 in Turkey.

Despite the tension, senior European military officers have taken on more command roles within NATO, and U.S. allies have stepped up to lead the effort to channel arms and money into Ukraine as the Trump administration has pulled back.

Some European nations and Canada are also spending billions to purchase critical air defense systems from the United States, which they then donate to Ukraine — a conflict they view as an existential threat to Europe as a whole.

By most measures, it is difficult to identify what more the allies could be doing or doing faster — unless the expectation is that they provide unrestricted access to their airspace and military bases for American military operations beyond Europe.

Ellehuus, a former senior U.S. advisor at NATO, argued that decisions about troop positioning “should be driven by detailed threat assessments, operational requirements, and military planning – not used as a form of reward, punishment or revenge.”

“Such framing undermines allies while they’re actively trying to solve the problem and telegraphs to adversaries that U.S. security commitments have a price tag,” she said.

TUBARA/JUAN DE ACOSTA, COLOMBIA — At first look, these two side-by-side towns along Colombia’s hot and humid Caribbean coast seem nearly identical. Single-story houses with rocking chairs on their porches surround town plazas, and locals plan their errands to dodge the brutal midday sun. Mango trees shade the streets where children meander home from school.

Yet Tubara and Juan de Acosta — both located near the port city of Barranquilla — are sharply split when it comes to Sunday’s presidential election, which places two very different visions for Colombia’s future head to head.

In Juan de Acosta, where murders and extortion have surged alongside rising drug trafficking activity along its coastline, right-wing candidate Abelardo De La Espriella earned 55% of the vote in the first round. He has promised a firm hand against armed groups and criminal organizations.

Just next door, Tubara threw its support behind leftist senator Ivan Cepeda, giving him just under 60% of their votes. His message centered on expanding social programs, including reforms to healthcare, pensions, and education.

De La Espriella, a 47-year-old lawyer and businessman with no prior experience in politics, has leaned heavily into military-style imagery and language throughout his campaign. He calls himself “the Tiger,” labels his political movement “Defenders of the Homeland,” and salutes at campaign rallies and in promotional materials — despite never having served in the armed forces.

His tough-on-crime stance gave him a lead of several percentage points over Cepeda in the first round, and more recent polling shows him eight points ahead heading into the runoff.

For residents of Juan de Acosta, the rise in violence feels foreign to their community. Nicanor Alba, who was trimming and bagging pork ribs for customers at his butcher stand near the town plaza, described the toll extortion has taken.

“You set up your business and tomorrow they come and say ‘if you don’t give us 50,000, 30,000 or 40,000 (pesos), it’s over,’” said Alba, whose own brother was killed five years ago.

He said multiple friends and neighbors have been targeted by extortion on more than one occasion, and that recent homicide numbers left him stunned.

“That had never been seen before in Juan de Acosta, it’s a bunch of people,” said the butcher, who intends to cast his vote for De La Espriella.

The town’s location — with road access to Colombia’s interior and a stretch of coastline — has turned it into what authorities describe as a “strategic point” for drug smugglers, according to Colonel Eddy Sanchez, the police commander for Atlantico province.

Two criminal organizations — Los Pepes and Los Costenos — have long been active in the area, including in drug sales, Sanchez said. More recently, the country’s largest criminal gang, the Clan del Golfo, has also moved in.

“The Clan del Golfo uses this municipality as a platform to reach maritime areas and, using speedboats, ship drugs abroad,” Sanchez said.

“Of course, that leads to issues of violence,” he added, though he noted that murders have dropped from 15 in 2025 to just 2 so far in 2026, returning to the town’s historical average. Police have classified 14 of last year’s killings as contract murders.

Tubara, meanwhile, recorded no murders in 2025 and only one so far in 2026, Sanchez said.

“It’s a territorial dispute, where some gangs are trying to enter the municipality while others are trying to push them out to fully control local drug trafficking,” said Oscar Andres Arteta, Juan de Acosta’s interior secretary, adding that local government and police are working together to combat extortion.

Juan Gabriel Coronel, 42, who sells meat, ice cream, and dry goods at a small shop in Juan de Acosta, also plans to vote for De La Espriella in hopes of curbing crime — but he has personal health concerns weighing on him as well.

“I had a liver transplant 17 years ago and have never been denied my medication in that time,” said Coronel, who is a client of a healthcare provider the government took over in 2024 due to alleged care failures. For the past six months, he said, he has been paying for his medication out of his own pocket.

On the other side of the ballot, Cepeda, 63 and the son of a murdered communist leader, swept all but one Caribbean province in the first round among a field of 13 candidates.

To win the runoff, he will need to grow his numbers in those coastal provinces and in the capital, Bogota, according to Luis Fernando Trejos, a political science professor at the Universidad del Norte. Trejos estimates Cepeda needs between 2.5 million and 3 million additional votes to pull off a victory.

De La Espriella, who outpaced Cepeda by roughly 700,000 votes in the first round, will also need to expand his support. More than 41 million Colombians are eligible to cast ballots, but fewer than 24 million participated in the first round.

Both candidates have lined up backing from influential political figures along the coast, Trejos noted. De La Espriella has made a point of highlighting that he grew up in the inland Caribbean city of Monteria. His campaign billboards show his tiger persona wearing a Barranquilla soccer jersey with the message: “Abelardo is coastal like you. … Coastal votes coastal.”

He has also accused Cepeda’s campaign of planning a large-scale vote-buying effort on the coast — a claim Cepeda’s team has firmly rejected.

In Tubara, Cepeda supporters have been actively working to drive up voter turnout. Clara Algarin, a clinical psychologist and former city councilor, told Reuters she has been coordinating transportation for voters who were unable to reach polling stations during the first round.

Algarin expressed admiration for the current leftist president’s expansion of free public university education and a 230,000 peso (about $66) monthly state pension he created for people who were unable to save for retirement — including her own mother.

“My mother worked as a domestic servant from the age of 16. She never had the possibility of being paid a pension before,” Algarin said.

Her husband, Javier Gomez, operates a bakery — its porch decorated with a bright Cepeda campaign banner. He said he was glad to pay his employee the 23% minimum wage increase for this year that the current president put in place.

“The work that (the employee) does deserves the payment of a living wage,” Gomez said while taking a break from packaging fresh bread.

A preliminary agreement between the United States and Iran has been signed, marking a potential step toward ending hostilities and beginning talks on a more comprehensive deal.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was photographed holding the memorandum of understanding shortly after it was signed, with the image released by the Islamic Republic News Agency. The signing took place in Tehran in the early hours of Thursday.

The agreement was signed by President Trump and represents an early-stage framework intended to lay the groundwork for broader negotiations between the two countries.

While the signing signals a diplomatic opening, officials and analysts note that considerable obstacles remain before any permanent or wide-ranging peace arrangement can be finalized between Washington and Tehran.

BEIJING (AP) — Vibrant dragon boat races, lion dances, and festive gatherings filled communities across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan on Friday as people celebrated the Dragon Boat Festival.

The holiday stretches back more than 2,000 years and, while best known for its athletic competitions, has deep roots in Chinese history and ancient beliefs surrounding health, protection, and living in harmony with nature.

“The Dragon Boat Festival is probably the richest and most diverse of all traditional Chinese festivals,” said Liu Xiaofeng, a history professor at Tsinghua University. “Across different regions, people developed a wide variety of traditions based on ideas connected to the summer solstice and the balance of yin and yang.”

Central to the festival’s story is the ancient poet Qu Yuan, who according to legend took his own life by drowning more than two millennia ago. The tradition of dragon boat racing grew from tales of people rushing out onto the water to search for him and tossing rice into the river to keep fish from consuming his body.

In Beijing, a three-day competition features men’s, women’s, and mixed-team races at distances of 100, 200, and 500 meters. Competitors from Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, and Guangdong are taking part in the weekend-long event.

Crews moved their paddles in perfect unison, guided by the thundering beat of onboard drummers, as each boat drove hard toward the finish line while crowds of spectators cheered from the banks.

Many others followed the action from home, enjoying the holiday with family over “zongzi” — a traditional sticky rice dish prepared for the occasion.

The 2026 Beijing festivities are scheduled to run through June 21 at the city’s Grand Canal.

“The competition helped strengthen our team spirit,” said Li Maoshan, one of Friday’s race participants. “It also gave us an opportunity to demonstrate the spirit of perseverance and hard work.”

In Hong Kong, participants added a playful touch to the races by wearing costumes, including a cartoon depiction of Ne Zha, a figure from Chinese Taoist tradition.

The British Bar Standards Board announced Friday that it has placed an interim suspension on Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor who was already suspended by the court itself on June 8 following sexual misconduct allegations.

The British legal regulatory body stated that under its Enforcement Regulations, the interim suspension must be reviewed by an Interim Suspension Panel at a formal hearing within the next four weeks. The board confirmed the suspension took effect immediately upon the announcement.

Khan, who is 56 years old, has denied the allegations that have been brought against him.

TOKYO — Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Friday that a vessel owned by a Japanese company, with three Japanese crew members aboard, has safely made its way through the Strait of Hormuz and out of the Gulf region.

The ship had been stranded in the Gulf as a result of the Iran war. According to the ministry, Japanese officials worked directly with Iran to arrange the vessel’s safe passage. The tanker is now headed back to Japan.

The vessel is identified as a Liberian-flagged crude oil tanker belonging to Japan’s Kyoei Tanker company.

With this ship’s departure, Japan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that all Japan-linked vessels with Japanese crew members on board have now successfully left the Gulf.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi addressed the situation on social media platform X, stating: “Following the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran, the government will continue making every diplomatic effort to ensure that free and safe navigation of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz resumes promptly.”

Despite this development, Prime Minister Takaichi noted that 37 vessels with ties to Japan are still waiting for clearance to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

LONDON (AP) — Andy Burnham has spent his career navigating the corridors of British political power, and now he has his sights set on the very top — the prime minister’s office at 10 Downing Street.

The 56-year-old presents himself as a down-to-earth northerner who favors T-shirts over suits, enjoys a game of soccer in his free time, and has been known to take the decks at DJ competitions spinning tracks from the 1990s. But beneath that casual image lies a seasoned political operator with decades of experience at the highest levels of British government.

Burnham is widely expected to mount a challenge against Prime Minister Keir Starmer following his victory in a special parliamentary election — a result he described as a “turning point” for politics in the United Kingdom.

He grew up in a part of northwest England situated between Liverpool and Manchester, the son of a British Telecom engineer and a receptionist. He joined the Labour Party during his teenage years, went on to study at Cambridge University, and first entered Parliament in 2001.

Over the next fifteen years as a lawmaker, he climbed the political ladder under Prime Minister Tony Blair and later served in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Cabinet from 2007 to 2010.

He made two unsuccessful bids for the Labour Party leadership — in 2010 and again in 2015 — before stepping away from Westminster entirely to pursue the mayoralty of Manchester.

It was in that role that he earned the nickname “King of the North,” a reference inspired by the television series “Game of Thrones” that reflects both his fierce advocacy for his home region and his openly ambitious political outlook.

The title gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Burnham publicly clashed with Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson over what he characterized as a “London-centric” response to the health crisis.

Since taking charge of Greater Manchester in 2017, Burnham has overseen a dramatic transformation of the region — a city historically tied to the Industrial Revolution. The city center has experienced a building boom, with skyscrapers rising on former industrial land. He also unified a fragmented public transit system under public ownership, rebranding it as the Bee Network and expanding its services.

Within the Labour Party, he is seen as sitting to the left of Starmer, which plays well with party members. He is also regarded as one of the party’s most effective communicators — a stark contrast to the more rigid public speaking style he displayed during his earlier leadership campaigns. Today he comes across as relaxed and approachable.

Three successive mayoral election wins, combined with his strong showing in the Makerfield by-election — where he soundly defeated the candidate from the anti-immigration party Reform UK — have reinforced his reputation as someone who can win. Many within Labour are hoping he can help reverse the sharp drop in the party’s popularity that has occurred in the two years since Starmer led them to a landslide general election victory.

Burnham is now promising to take what he calls “Manchesterism” to a national level — a governing philosophy centered on investing in communities that have long been overlooked by decision-makers in London, and prioritizing people and place over party politics.

“What we’ve built in Greater Manchester needs to go national,” he said during the campaign. “I know what it is to turn places around.”

Not everyone is convinced. Critics argue that his policy platform lacks specifics and sidesteps difficult questions — particularly around how his proposals would be funded. They also point out that governing an entire nation of 70 million people is a fundamentally different challenge from leading a city region of 3 million.

Even so, Burnham enters this next chapter with considerable momentum behind him as he positions himself for a potential run at Britain’s highest office.

One week into the World Cup, international visitors are flooding social media with wide-eyed reactions to the quirks of everyday American life — and the posts are going viral.

From free soda refills to oversized dogs and the ongoing debate over what truly counts as great barbecue, tourists from around the globe are sharing their genuine surprise and delight at experiences that most Americans take for granted.

One visitor from Japan described bread at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Dallas as “insanely good,” capturing the kind of unexpected enthusiasm that has characterized many of these social media moments.

The cultural discovery happening at gas stations, chain restaurants, and roadside stops across the country has provided a lighthearted backdrop to what is otherwise a tense moment in U.S. foreign relations, with Washington currently navigating strained ties with a number of its longtime allies.

Massive travel destinations like Buc-ee’s — the sprawling Texas-based travel center chain — have become unlikely tourist attractions for World Cup visitors experiencing American road culture for the first time.

Social media posts from fans visiting for the tournament reflect a genuine curiosity about American daily life, with many expressing that the country surprised them in ways they did not anticipate before arriving.

Australian authorities announced Friday that the country has found its first suspected case of H5N1 bird flu on the mainland, discovered in a remote corner of the nation’s southwest.

A brown skua — a type of migratory seabird — was discovered in Western Australia’s Cape Le Grand National Park and tested positive for avian influenza. Additional testing is underway to identify the exact strain, according to state Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis.

“We are taking the suspected case of H5 bird flu seriously,” Jarvis said. “If this is confirmed H5 bird incursion, there will be a rapid and coordinated national response.”

The highly aggressive H5 strain of bird flu has been spreading through wild bird and mammal populations since 2021, resulting in the deaths of millions of animals. It has also made its way into poultry and dairy farm operations and has infected some agricultural workers.

Until now, Australia stood alone as the only continent without a confirmed mainland case of the deadly strain. H5 was previously confirmed on Heard Island, an Australian sub-Antarctic territory, in late 2025.

In anticipation of the virus potentially reaching its shores, Australia has spent recent years strengthening biosecurity measures at farms, monitoring shorebirds for signs of disease, vaccinating at-risk species, and running response simulations.

“While, if confirmed, this would obviously be a very concerning development, Australia has spent the past few years preparing for this likelihood,” Environment Minister Murray Watt said in a statement.

Jarvis said results confirming whether the deceased brown skua was infected with H5 bird flu are expected by Saturday. She also noted that a second sick bird — a giant petrel — was found in the same location and is also being tested for influenza.

Wayne Boardman, a wildlife veterinarian and associate professor at Adelaide University, expressed deep concern about the potential impact on Australia’s native animals.

“This strain of bird flu has caused huge die-offs of birds and sea mammals,” he said.

“My concerns are that if the H5N1 avian flu virus is confirmed, it will pose a huge risk to some of our more endangered shorebirds, some of our coastal raptors, and our precious, unique, endemic and endangered Australian sea lions, whose population is precarious,” Boardman added.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung announced Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump has agreed to give serious thought to a gradual, phased strategy for addressing North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs — one that focuses on immediate containment while keeping complete denuclearization as the ultimate long-term goal.

Lee made the announcement at a press briefing after returning home from France, where he spoke with Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit. According to Lee, Trump indicated it was “time to pay attention” to North Korea and seemed eager to restart direct dialogue with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, though he expressed frustration about how to move forward.

“Without giving up on denuclearisation, I explained that we should go step by step — short term, medium term and long term — rather than immediately,” Lee told reporters.

Lee described the short-term priorities as preventing North Korea from producing additional nuclear material, transferring weapons or materials to other countries, and advancing its intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities further.

In response, Trump said the approach “could be one way” and indicated he would think carefully about it, according to Lee.

Lee also conveyed to Trump that relying solely on sanctions and pressure would not be enough to resolve the standoff, noting that North Korea already appears to possess a significant number of nuclear weapons and is continuing to produce enough nuclear material to build roughly 10 to 20 more each year.

Lee added that North Korea’s ICBM technology is approaching its final stage of development, including the ability to re-enter the atmosphere, and that military cooperation between North Korea and Russia in the Ukraine war has significantly weakened the impact of international sanctions.

Trump held historic face-to-face meetings with Kim Jong Un during his first term in office, but their second summit — held in Hanoi in 2019 — fell apart over disagreements on denuclearization steps and the easing of sanctions. Since then, North Korea has taken a more hardened stance, declaring its nuclear status permanent and non-negotiable.

Shipbuilding also came up during the conversation. Lee said Trump asked whether South Korea could quickly construct 10 U.S. warships. “I said of course it was possible and that we would do our best,” Lee said. South Korea has already committed to $150 billion in shipbuilding investments in the United States, led by South Korean companies, as part of a trade agreement with Washington.

Lee noted that he sat beside Trump for roughly 90 minutes during a G7 dinner, which he said allowed for more in-depth conversation than a formal summit setting typically permits.

Over the course of his 10-day European trip, Lee attended the G7 summit and held both formal and informal meetings with multiple world leaders, including Trump, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

In a separate development, Lee said that during a visit to the Vatican, he asked Pope Leo to consider traveling to the Demilitarized Zone — the buffer strip separating North and South Korea — and, if circumstances allowed, to North Korea itself. Lee said the pontiff responded that he would actively consider and pursue the idea.

JERUSALEM — A young Israeli man who endured sexual abuse during two years of captivity in Gaza is now speaking out, hoping his story will give strength to other survivors of similar trauma — including those in active conflict zones — ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 25, was among the approximately 250 people taken hostage when Palestinian militants carried out the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. He remained in captivity for two years before being released.

During a conversation Sunday in Jerusalem with Israel’s first lady Michal Herzog, Gilboa-Dalal explained his motivation for going public. “I feel like I have a mission to spread to the world, to use my voice and empower other victims of sexual assaults,” he said. “I want people who have been through those experiences to know that they’re not alone.”

The Associated Press notes that it does not typically name individuals who report sexual assault unless they have chosen to come forward on their own.

The United Nations reports that sexual violence tied to armed conflict is increasing globally, with documented cases more than doubling in 2025. Both state and non-state actors are increasingly using it as a weapon of war, a means of torture, and a tool of political repression.

The issue has become deeply politicized in Israel and the Palestinian territories since the Oct. 7 attacks. Human rights organizations and the U.N. have investigated allegations of widespread rape during the initial Hamas assault. More recently, the U.N. said it has verified multiple incidents of conflict-related sexual violence — “including as a form of torture” — carried out by Israeli military and security forces against Palestinian men and women in Gaza and the West Bank, allegations Israel denies.

For the first time this year, the U.N. added Israel’s armed and security forces to a list of parties “credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict.” Hamas had already appeared on that list.

In 2024, the U.N.’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, stated she “found clear and convincing information” that some hostages were subjected to rape and “sexualized torture.” However, a more recent U.N. report said it was “not able to verify” public claims made by former hostages about abuse by their Palestinian captors, citing what it described as Israel’s refusal to allow U.N. investigators access to conduct their own inquiries.

Gilboa-Dalal addressed that finding directly during Sunday’s conversation, expressing frustration with the U.N. “They have no right to say what happened or what didn’t happen, I was there, not them,” he said.

He is among at least six released hostages who have publicly described experiencing sexual assault while held captive. Gilboa-Dalal first went public with his account in an interview with Israeli media last November, roughly a month after his release.

He described two separate incidents of abuse that occurred more than a year into his captivity. At the time, he said he was physically depleted — having spent most of his imprisonment in a cramped underground cell shared with three other hostages, where they were either starved or given spoiled food and denied the ability to move freely or bathe. He said he was naked and blindfolded during both assaults, and that his captor threatened to kill him if he ever disclosed what had happened, beating him and pressing a knife to his throat and a gun to his head.

“He could do whatever he wanted. I was so weak, and he was so strong,” Gilboa-Dalal said. He added that because the hostages were under constant watch, he did not tell his fellow captives what had happened until just before one of them was released during a temporary ceasefire in February 2025.

Today, Gilboa-Dalal says he is focused on healing and reconnecting with his family. He is also working on a book and an anime script based on his experiences.

He expressed concern that other survivors of sexual violence may be struggling in silence, burdened by self-blame. “They may think, ‘maybe it’s my fault maybe I could have done something different,’” he said. “But it wasn’t my fault and it wasn’t any of the victims’ fault.”

TOKYO — The Bank of Japan announced Friday that its governor, Kazuo Ueda, has been released from the hospital after a two-week medical stay.

According to a statement from the central bank, Ueda plans to return to the office on Tuesday and will continue receiving treatment for roughly two additional weeks.

The 74-year-old had been hospitalized for treatment of an infected liver cyst. His absence caused him to miss the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting on Tuesday, during which the central bank voted to raise interest rates to their highest level in 31 years.

PARIS — France’s foreign minister made clear Friday that his country intends to have a say in any nuclear agreement reached with Iran, warning that Paris will not sign off on lifting United Nations sanctions unless it is satisfied with the final terms.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, speaking to broadcaster franceinfo, noted that France holds veto power as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. He stressed that regional stability cannot be achieved unless ongoing U.S. talks with Iran also address the country’s ballistic missile program and its backing of proxy forces in the region.

“The return for major concessions that will be asked of Iran is the lifting of sanctions, sanctions that were taken at the United Nations,” Barrot said. “France is a permanent member of the United Nations (Security Council) so as was the case 10 years ago, France will have to give its approval for the sanctions to be lifted.”

Earlier this week, the United States and Iran agreed to enter a 60-day negotiating period focused on Iran’s nuclear program, with the understanding that any final deal would need to be approved by the Security Council.

European nations have expressed concern that the current U.S. negotiating team may lack the experience needed to lock down a strong nuclear agreement or tackle Iran’s missile activities during the next phase of talks — potentially leading to a prolonged diplomatic standoff.

France, Britain, and Germany are seeking a seat at the table as negotiations move forward, having been largely excluded from recent diplomatic efforts. The three countries first became involved in Iran’s nuclear issue back in 2003 and later partnered with then-U.S. President Barack Obama to craft a 2015 agreement that curbed Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been openly critical of that earlier accord, which he withdrew the United States from during his first term in office.

Barrot reinforced France’s position, saying: “Our objective is to get major concessions from the Iranian regime, a radical change in posture. And we will have our word to say, because as a member of the UNSC it will be necessarily linked to the resolution of this crisis.”

At least 18 people lost their lives in Israeli airstrikes targeting southern Lebanon on Friday, Lebanon’s health ministry reported, while Israel’s military announced that four of its soldiers were also killed — marking one of the most deadly single incidents since the current wave of fighting escalated.

Lebanon’s health ministry said that heavy airstrikes beginning around midnight severely hampered rescue and evacuation operations in the region. Officials reported a preliminary count of 18 dead and 33 wounded, with that number expected to climb as the situation developed.

Residents and Lebanese media outlets reported that airstrikes and shelling struck multiple towns in the Nabatieh district throughout the night and into the early morning hours of Friday. Lebanon’s state news agency NNA described the bombardment as among the heaviest seen in the area in recent weeks.

The Israeli military said its strikes were aimed at what it characterized as Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure spread across several parts of southern Lebanon. Israel said the attacks were carried out in response to what it called repeated ceasefire violations by the Iran-backed group.

Hezbollah claimed its fighters ambushed an Israeli force near Ali al-Taher hill in southern Lebanon, saying they destroyed three Merkava tanks using guided missiles and struck troops with rocket and artillery fire. The group indicated that fighting was still ongoing at the time of the report.

The surge in violence came one day after Israel released a map showing an expanded military control zone in southern Lebanon. Israel also indicated it would not rule out conducting operations beyond that zone, raising fresh concerns about a U.S.-brokered agreement reached on Wednesday intended to bring an end to the conflict between the U.S., Israel, and Iran.

That agreement calls for a halt to hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, and requires all parties to respect Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

A senior Israeli official said Israel is engaged in what he described as “stubborn negotiations” with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration over keeping Israeli troops positioned up to 10 kilometers — roughly 6.2 miles — inside southern Lebanon as the country continues its pursuit of Hezbollah.

Israel has refused calls to pull its forces out of southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah has continued launching attacks on Israeli positions, including strikes using explosive drones that have resulted in both deaths and injuries among Israeli troops this week.

Hopes for a lasting peace agreement between the United States and Iran took a hit Friday after Switzerland announced that scheduled talks between the two nations would not go forward as planned, and Vice President JD Vance canceled his trip to the Swiss resort of Burgenstock where the negotiations were to be held.

“The logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.

Vance and the American delegation had been prepared to leave for Switzerland as soon as final arrangements were confirmed. The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed the postponement in a statement, adding that Switzerland remains willing to host the discussions and that preparatory work at Burgenstock is ongoing.

Iran, which had signaled its readiness to begin technical discussions following Wednesday’s 14-point accord that extended a shaky ceasefire by at least 60 days, did not immediately respond to the news. Before the U.S. announcement, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Iranian negotiators first needed to see evidence that the U.S. was following through on the interim deal before any delegation would head to Switzerland.

U.S. officials had spoken of holding a formal signing ceremony for the agreement in Switzerland, but Iran’s foreign ministry pushed back on that idea, calling it unnecessary since both nations’ presidents had already signed the pact.

The conflict, which erupted on February 28 when the U.S. and Israel launched air strikes against Iran, has now claimed at least 7,000 lives, driven energy prices sharply higher, and rattled financial markets worldwide.

Israel, which was not included in the peace negotiations, has kept its distance from the U.S.-Iran agreement and continued its military operations against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon — adding further uncertainty about whether the deal will hold.

Back in Washington, some Republican allies of President Donald Trump in Congress have raised concerns that he gave away too much to bring the conflict to a close, particularly with mid-term elections approaching in November and the war broadly unpopular among Americans.

Trump had vowed as recently as March to end the war only through Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.” However, the memorandum ultimately signed with Iran offers sanctions relief, unfreezes tens of billions of dollars in Iranian assets, and grants immediate U.S. waivers allowing Iran to export oil.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said Trump had agreed to the deal “out of desperation” and warned that upcoming talks over Iran’s nuclear program — one of Trump’s stated justifications for the war — would not be straightforward. “If the American side wants to be too demanding, we will not accept it,” Khamenei said.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council also pledged to respond in kind to any violation by what it called the “untrustworthy” American side, saying it would show “no leniency” until Iran’s full rights were secured.

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

The mounting financial toll of the war also drew attention this week, with the U.S. defense department reportedly telling lawmakers it needed $80 billion to cover war costs and other expenses, according to the Wall Street Journal.

When the U.S. and Israel launched the war nearly four months ago, Trump stated his goals included dismantling Iran’s nuclear capabilities to prevent it from ever building such weapons. He also aimed to eliminate Tehran’s ability to threaten neighboring countries, cut off its support for anti-Israel militant groups in the region, and create conditions for Iranians to overthrow their theocratic government.

None of those objectives had been achieved when Trump put his signature on the agreement. In the deal, Iran restated its long-standing position — held for decades — that it does not seek to build or acquire nuclear weapons, a claim that multiple U.S. administrations have doubted. Iran also agreed to on-site “down blending” of its highly enriched uranium and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but rejected Trump’s demand that the material be removed from the country.

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

Iran has stated it will continue to exercise control over the Strait of Hormuz in partnership with neighboring Oman, and plans to charge ships service fees that did not exist before the war — though not during the 60-day negotiating period. Oil prices edged lower Friday as tankers began moving again through the reopening strait, which before the war had carried nearly one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

In Lebanon, where more than a million people have been displaced by the ongoing conflict, fresh Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 18 people, according to the state news agency NNA. Israel said the strikes were aimed at Hezbollah targets. The continued fighting raised questions about how far Trump is willing to go to pressure his wartime ally to stand down from an offensive he has now pledged to end.

While the agreement calls for the “permanent termination” of the war in Lebanon, Israel has said it has no plans to withdraw, and has instead released a new map depicting an expanded occupation zone. Trump has grown increasingly critical of Israel’s operations in Lebanon, creating one of the most significant rifts between the two countries in decades.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Starmer Agrees to a Peaceful Transfer of Power

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

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

Burnham Moves Quickly to Formally Challenge Starmer

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

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

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

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

Burnham Holds Off Until After Summer

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

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

A Different Politician Kicks Off the Contest

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reuters was unable to independently confirm these accounts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Israel Keeps Fighting

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lawmakers Briefed on UN Inspections

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

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

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

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

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

Vance Defends Deal, Issues Warning to Israel

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shipping Begins to Resume

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

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

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

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

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