World News

Israeli Chef Hails First-Ever Michelin Guide Listing for Kosher Restaurant   

Israeli-owned Mutra in North Miami has become the first kosher restaurant to receive a Michelin star, earning one of the culinary industry’s highest honors less than two years after opening its doors.  

The restaurant, led by Israeli-born chef Raz Shabtai, opened in February 2025. Shabtai, who is originally from Jerusalem, received the distinction as Michelin inspectors recognized the restaurant’s approach to kosher dining.  

According to the Michelin Guide, the selection came as a surprise because kosher cuisine by definition excludes some ingredients commonly found in fine dining. The guide nevertheless praised Mutra for its interpretation of kosher food, citing its ability to create a broad range of rich and distinctive flavors while adhering to a strict farm-to-table philosophy.  

Inspectors also highlighted the restaurant’s dining experience, noting its communal atmosphere, where guests are seated around a bar and offered a variety of dishes.  

Shabtai marked the achievement in a post on Instagram, sharing a video from the announcement.  

“First, thank you, God. For every blessing, every challenge, and for giving me the strength to keep going when the road seemed impossible.”  

He also paid tribute to the restaurant staff.  

“To my team – this honor belongs to you. Every long day, every late night, every sacrifice, every detail, every plate. Your passion and dedication turned a dream into reality. I am forever grateful to walk this journey beside you.”  

Addressing customers and supporters, he added: “To our guests, friends, and supporters – thank you for believing in us and allowing us to share our story through food.”  

Shabtai also reflected on the inspiration behind the restaurant’s name. In a separate post, he said Mutra was named after his grandmother.  

“The woman who raised me. The woman whose love, strength, and values shaped the person I am today. I named this restaurant after you so that your spirit would live on through every guest we welcome and every dish we serve. This moment carries your name, your legacy, and your love.”  

The award marks a milestone for kosher dining in the Michelin Guide.  

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May 22-28, 2026

Clowns partook in their national day in Lima, Peru. Ruins of homes remain five months after an attack by dissidents of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in Buenos Aires, Cauca, Colombia. In the world of sport, Cruz Azul won the Mexican soccer league against city rivals Pumas.

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This gallery was curated by photo editor Leslie Mazoch based in Mexico City.

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AP photography: https://apnews.com/photography

AP News on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will hold a commemorative summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia in June, the Philippines’ top diplomat said Friday.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro said in a post on X that she and her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, spoke on the phone about ASEAN’s to be held in the Russian city of Kazan.

The Russian Embassy in Manila said that ahead of the June 17 to 18 summit, Lavrov and Lazaro discussed “the prospects of expanding Russia’s strategic partnership” with ASEAN.

Aside from the Philippines, ASEAN members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam.

Most ASEAN state members voted to support a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Russia for its Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine, but the regional bloc has maintained relations with Moscow as a “dialogue partner” and engaged Russian officials in annual top-level meetings.

Some of ASEAN’s diverse states have been perceived to be aligned with the United States, like Washington’s treaty ally the Philippines, which currently holds the association’s yearly rotating presidency. Other members have heavy trade and security engagements with China and Russia. Vietnam and Laos abstained from the UN General Assembly resolution concerning the attack on Ukraine.

Several ASEAN members, including the Philippines Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, have either imported or expressed interest in purchasing Russian crude oil after global fuel prices soared after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will attend the summit with Putin, a Philippine government official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for lack of authority to discuss the matter publicly.

It remains to be seen whether Singapore’s leader would attend. The wealthy island nation condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and imposed sanctions.

The leader of Myanmar, which currently coordinates ASEAN’s relations with Russia, will likely not be allowed to attend. ASEAN has prohibited Myanmar’s leaders from attending top-level meetings including annual summits with Asian and Western countries, after Myanmar’s army forcibly ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government in 2021, sparking a civil war. Lower-level career diplomats have been allowed to attend.

ASEAN leaders proposed a five-point peace plan in 2021 demanding an immediate end to fighting and hostilities, but Myanmar’s government has failed to end the violence or foster dialogue.

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Facing a battlefield stalemate in Ukraine and growing war fatigue among Russians, President Vladimir Putin appears ready to try to change the narrative around the conflict.

He looks likely to sharply escalate the Russian aerial attacks on the Ukrainian capital in the hope it will shore up his sagging domestic approval ratings and persuade an increasingly pessimistic audience at home that Moscow is winning the war, now in its fifth year.

Russia’s warning to carry out “consistent and systematic” missile strikes on Kyiv, accompanied by a call for evacuating foreign embassies from the capital, signals Putin’s intention to expand Russia’s barrage despite the heavy costs and potential international outrage.

Massive drills of Russia’s nuclear forces earlier this month and a series of belligerent statements from Moscow warning Kyiv’s European allies about possible retaliation for what the Kremlin cast as their involvement in Ukrainian drone attacks have underlined Putin’s intention to up the ante.

After a series of gains last year, Russia’s advances along the over 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line have ground to a near halt recently, and Ukraine’s armed forces have launched successful counterstrikes and reclaimed some ground.

“The character of the war is shifting in favor of Ukrainian forces, at least for now,” the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in a recent analysis. “Russian forces’ rates of advances are stagnating while Ukrainian forces are employing novel tactics and operational concepts in efforts to break out of positional warfare.”

The battlefield gridlock undermines Putin’s declared goal of quickly capturing the eastern Donetsk region still under Ukrainian control. Kyiv has rejected his demands to withdraw from the region as a condition for a ceasefire.

At the same time, Ukraine has significantly expanded its long-range strikes on Russian energy facilities and arms factories, inflicting increasing damage.

Putin scaled down the annual May 9 Victory Day parade, fearing Ukrainian drone strikes. Days later, a massive drone attack on Moscow’s suburbs killed three and showed that even the densely protected capital isn’t fully immune from assault, shattering Kremlin efforts to cast the conflict as something distant that doesn’t affect ordinary Russians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attacks were “significantly changing the situation — and, more broadly, the world’s perception of Russia’s war.”

Acknowledging the growing threat of Ukraine’s deep strikes, Russian lawmakers this week approved a bill that says the country’s banks should bear the cost of installing drone-jamming systems on their premises, rather than rely on the military.

“From Russia’s perspective, these attacks are just going to get worse,” said Thomas Withington of the Royal United Services Institute in London. He added that Ukraine’s increasingly audacious drone attacks were “exacting not only a political but an economic cost in Russia.”

Russia’s economy has stagnated as the initial boost from massive military spending has petered out. The government has raised taxes and increased domestic borrowing to keep the budget deficit under control. And even though the U.S. war in Iran has meant windfall oil revenues for Russia, fundamental economic challenges remain.

Putin is expected to play down the negative dynamics at next week’s international economic forum in St. Petersburg, an annual event intended to showcase Russia’s achievements.

Nigel Gould-Davies of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said in an analysis that “war-fueled high prices of capital, labor and goods, as well as rising taxes, have begun to depress the civilian sectors,” resulting in “a dual economy of overheated military output and civilian stagnation.”

While Russia has relied on volunteer soldiers to fight the war, offering them comparatively high wages and other benefits, Gould-Davies argued that “there are signs that this incentive may no longer be working effectively, and that Russia has begun to lose more troops than it can recruit.”

To sustain the war, the Kremlin will have to forcibly mobilize human and material resources, requiring it to “curtail the last remaining post-Soviet market freedoms, labor freedom, and freedom of movement,” he said.

In a sign of brewing discontent, some social media influencers previously loyal to the Kremlin have started to openly criticize government policies.

A move by authorities to restrict cellphone internet and block popular messaging apps has upset daily routines for millions, causing open grumbling. Natalya Kasperskaya, a prominent IT entrepreneur and a staunch Kremlin supporter, harshly criticized the shutdowns and attempts to block virtual private networks, warning that they cause massive damage to the tech sector.

Tatyana Stanovaya, a Russia expert who founded the R.Politik newsletter focused on Kremlin politics, noted the spreading Ukrainian drone attacks along with mobile internet shutdowns and rising taxes have eroded Putin’s standing. While he faces no immediate threats to his rule, “the gradual fading of Putin’s credibility is real,” she said.

In early spring, Russian opinion polls, including one by a government-run pollster, recorded a dip in Putin’s approval ratings, although they rose slightly in May in the state-controlled poll after the organization changed its methodology to include face-to-face interviews. Many observers believe the numbers may be inflated amid a widespread crackdown on dissent.

“Putin is losing his magic,” Alexander Baunov of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center wrote in a commentary. “Power remains undivided in his hands, but its spell is fading. Even loyalists complain about the mounting restrictions and repression, and once-upbeat businesspeople are now despondent.”

Citing a May 22 Ukrainian drone attack on a college dormitory in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine that Moscow said killed 21 people, Putin ordered a massive missile strike on Kyiv and its surrounding region. Sunday’s barrage that involved Russia’s new hypersonic Oreshnik missile killed two, injured scores of others and destroyed or damaged many buildings.

On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow will launch “consistent and systematic” strikes on Kyiv to target drone-making facilities and “decision-making centers.” It urged foreign diplomats to leave the capital — a demand rejected by Ukraine’s allies.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to warn him of the coming strikes and push for the evacuation of its diplomats.

“The danger in all of these wars as they continue and then they go on is that they always have the threat of escalation, of spreading into something new,” Rubio told reporters after the call.

The Iran war has effectively put U.S. mediation efforts in Ukraine on hold and drained American missile arsenals, delaying the delivery of U.S.-made Patriot missiles that Ukraine desperately needs to fend off Russian attacks.

Moscow-based military analyst Sergei Poletaev said Russia sees the shortage of air defense assets in Kyiv as an opportunity.

“Kyiv’s air defenses have been exhausted enough to make a massive attack efficient,” he said in a recent commentary.

Accompanying the declared blitz on Kyiv, Russia issued a barrage of threats aimed at Ukraine’s European allies.

The Defense Ministry published a list of facilities in Europe that it said were involved in manufacturing drones and their components for Ukraine. And Moscow’s Foreign Intelligence Service warned the Baltic nations that their NATO membership won’t protect them from Moscow’s retaliation if they allow Ukraine to launch attacks from their territory. Those allies have denounced Moscow’s claims.

“We are actually very, very close to direct military confrontation,” said Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s envoy to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

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By Danial Azhar

KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 (Reuters) – Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is under growing pressure from a wave of defections to a new party set up by a former protege, analysts and lawmakers said, ahead of an election that could take place as early as this year. 

Anwar came to power in November 2022 after more than two decades as an opposition leader campaigning against corruption.

While his premiership has restored political stability in Malaysia, it has been marked by renewed scrutiny of his pledge to tackle graft, concerns over the slow progress of institutional reforms, and mounting tensions and defections within the ruling alliance. 

Rafizi Ramli, a former economic minister once seen as Anwar’s potential successor, announced earlier this month he would quit the premier’s People’s Justice Party (PKR), vacate his parliamentary seat and take over the little-known Malaysia United Party, or Bersama. 

The party has received more than 18,000 membership applications, about a third of them from former PKR members, it said.

While the PKR defectors have mostly been rank-and-file members or local party officers – the law prevents members of parliament from changing party while in office – the numbers are raising doubts about Anwar’s ability to hold on to power if growing fractures within the ruling alliance force him into a snap election.

Hassan Abdul Karim, a PKR lawmaker and longtime Anwar supporter, said in a social media post on Thursday he had given up trying to stop members from jumping ship because the leaders had failed to listen to their concerns. While he still believed in PKR, the party was now “hurt, wounded and critically injured,” he wrote.  

Bersama could see significant electoral support from fence sitters, young people, and voters who prioritise the economy, Hassan separately told Reuters.

“If more PKR members of parliament who support Rafizi leave the party, Anwar will lose legitimacy as prime minister,” he said. 

Anwar’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

PKR secretary-general Fuziah Salleh, who is also a deputy minister, told Reuters there was “no noticeable exodus of members leaving PKR to join Bersama”.   

Government spokesperson and PKR information chief Fahmi Fadzil this week also downplayed reports of an exodus from the party, saying 5,000 people had joined in the past two months and its total membership was more than one million.

CLOUDY POLITICAL OUTLOOK

The resignations do not pose an immediate threat to Anwar’s premiership, as he still has a majority in parliament. 

However, the division within PKR would hamper the party’s chances of electoral gains and dampen Anwar’s prospects of a second term as prime minister, said University of Nottingham Asia political analyst Bridget Welsh. 

“Equally important, are perceptions of how Anwar is managing his own party, as problems within PKR do not reflect well,” she said. 

The next general election is not due until early 2028, but Anwar said earlier this month he would consider calling a snap poll if internal divisions continued to widen within his administration. 

   Frustration has grown among the premier’s reformist allies over the government’s response to a scandal at the anti-graft agency, while ruling bloc partners have sometimes clashed over different approaches to tackling ethnic and religious issues in the multi-racial, Muslim-majority country.

Two lawmakers told Reuters in March national elections could be called as early as July to coincide with several state polls expected in coming months.

“We believe that a political party must practise the values of reform and democracy that it proclaims to the people. Unfortunately, we no longer see these principles being practised consistently in PKR today,” 21 local PKR members said in a joint statement on Monday announcing their immediate departure from the party.

Several regional PKR leaders also resigned this month in similar fashion, with one saying Rafizi’s Bersama represented a continuation of PKR’s original ideals. 

(Reporting by Danial Azhar; Editing by Kate Mayberry)

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By Greg Torode, Laurie Chen and Vijdan Mohammad Kawoosa

May 29 (Reuters) – In a remote Chinese desert, a vast military complex is taking shape that some security scholars say appears built to ensure no American first strike on China’s nuclear arsenal could reliably knock out Beijing’s ability to hit back.

China’s nuclear missiles can already reach any city in the United States. Now, satellite images reviewed by Reuters show Beijing is building a sprawling web of launch pads, bunkers and communications nodes near the isolated nuclear silos that hold the Chinese military’s longest-range missiles.

The images reveal more than 80 pads for possible use by China’s expanding fleet of mobile missile launchers and air-defense batteries. They also show facilities that may serve electronic warfare, satellite communications and command operations, according to three security analysts, who assessed the imagery for Reuters.

(View the story on Reuters.com: )

The scale of the construction, which hasn’t been previously reported, points to a sweeping expansion of hardened infrastructure designed to protect and operate China’s land-based nuclear forces. Taken together, the network signals a significant upgrade in Beijing’s efforts to ensure second-strike capability, underscoring intensifying nuclear competition with the United States as tensions rise over issues such as Taiwan’s sovereignty.

“We can see this infrastructure is being built on a grand scale, covering thousands of square kilometers of desert beyond the silo fields,” said Alexander Neill, an adjunct fellow at Hawaii’s Pacific Forum think tank. Depending on the precise capabilities, he said, “we’re looking at a very considerable enhancement and diversification of China’s strategic nuclear deterrent.”

The ability to protect its desert silos is key to China’s stated goal of forging a minimal but credible nuclear deterrent — a policy grounded in the capacity to retaliate if it is struck first. While the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) can fire nuclear weapons from submarines and aircraft, the silo fields in the northwestern Xinjiang region and Gansu province are the core of its nuclear forces.

China’s nuclear build-up is among the most scrutinized facets of President Xi Jinping’s military modernization because of what some foreign diplomats describe as Beijing’s lack of transparency and failed efforts by the United States to engage the Chinese leadership on its evolving nuclear capabilities and intentions.

A cornerstone of China’s doctrine is its “no first use” policy, meaning its forces wouldn’t initiate a nuclear exchange. But some senior Western diplomats and analysts say China would possibly resort to nuclear coercion to limit outside involvement in a conflict over Taiwan.

Xi this month warned U.S. President Donald Trump that mishandling of their countries’ disagreements over Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, could lead them to a “dangerous place.” Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claim.

China’s defense ministry didn’t respond to questions about its nuclear program and the developments revealed in the satellite imagery. The Pentagon said it wouldn’t comment on intelligence-related matters.

OCTAGONS IN THE DESERT

The new desert infrastructure is centered on two octagon-shaped installations built over the past six years in eastern Xinjiang. Both are southwest of the Hami nuclear silo fields – one is about 140 kilometers away, the other some 230 kilometers.

Satellite images show the octagon structures contain housing for personnel and large military vehicles. They are flanked by armored bunkers and fortified weapons-storage areas, as well as airfields and railheads that link the octagons to the Hami silos.

Exercises involving large military vehicles occurred around the northern octagon this month and during April, the images show. Also evident in recent images are large tents and what two analysts said appear to be camouflaged launch sites cut into the desert, some with air-defense missile batteries.

The existence of the octagons has been documented previously. But Reuters is the first to report the extent of the launch-pad network linked to the octagons; recent military activity around one of the facilities; and analysts’ assessments that the pads could field mobile missile launchers and electronic-warfare operations.

Five security scholars interviewed by Reuters agreed the infrastructure broadly could support China’s nuclear program, as well as other military purposes. But they cautioned that key details remain unknown — including the weapons China might deploy at the launch pads and whether the octagon structures house truck-mounted ballistic missiles or facilities for fitting nuclear warheads.

The PLA displayed nuclear-capable weapons during a parade in Beijing last September to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. These included silo-based and truck-mounted intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

U.S. officials and arms-control analysts say China is expanding and improving its nuclear weapons capabilities faster than any other nation. The latest Pentagon report on China’s military modernization says the country’s warhead production has slowed but it is on track to field 1,000 warheads by 2030. The December report estimated China is likely to have loaded 100 ICBMs across its three main silo fields.

China has also been strengthening its early-warning system, underpinned by its Huoyan-1 satellites, according to U.S. officials. The system can detect an incoming ICBM within 90 seconds of launch and alert a command center within three to four minutes, according to the Pentagon — sufficient time for China to fire its own silo-based weapons before they are hit.

‘AN EXTRAORDINARY EFFORT’

Significantly, each octagon sits at the core of a network of dirt roads and conduits that stretch far into the desert. These routes connect to the concrete pads, which are nestled among rocky outcrops and dry creekbeds.

The pads could be used to deploy mobile air-defense missiles, electronic warfare nodes or, from some of the larger ones, road-mobile ICBM launchers, three security scholars said.

Hans Kristensen, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Nuclear Information Project, said while it was difficult to conclude how the various installations would be used, “it is hard to rule anything out” given the scale of the infrastructure in such a hostile environment.

The conduits that link the pads to the octagon structures may contain fiber-optic cables for communications, Kristensen and Neill said.

At the northernmost octagon, a possible space or microwave communications facility is also under construction, three analysts said, pointing to satellite dishes and two large towers.

“Taken together, I think there is a real possibility that the octagonal structures and the strange towers are linked to C3 – command, control, and communications – as well as maintenance and storage activities related to China’s nuclear operations at the Hami ICBM silo site,” said Tong Zhao, a senior fellow in nuclear policy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

A third octagon-shaped installation south of the Lop Nur nuclear test facilities is less developed. It appears to be used as a target range: Images show pock-marked earth, damaged buildings and what analysts at Vantor, a commercial provider of satellite imagery, said are mock-ups of Western jet fighters.

The extent of the defensive network near its silos potentially sets China apart from the other major nuclear powers. The U.S. and Russia — whose warhead stockpiles and deployed weapons far exceed Beijing’s — rely on a combination of sheer numbers of silos, their relative isolation and hardened construction to deter a first strike, rather than extensive missile defense, Kristensen said.

The scale of what is emerging in China’s northwestern desert has left even seasoned analysts startled.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” Kristensen said. “It’s an extraordinary effort.”

(Reporting by Greg Torode, Laurie Chen and Vijdan Mohammad Kawoosa. Additional reporting by Reuters Visual Verification Team. Editing by David Crawshaw and Rebecca Pazos.)

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TORONTO (AP) — A Canadian man accused of selling lethal substances online to people who took them to end their own lives is expected to plead guilty Friday to 14 counts of counseling or aiding suicide, his lawyer said.

Kenneth Law is scheduled to appear in a Newmarket, Ontario, court to enter the plea and sentencing is expected to take place later. Canadian prosecutors will withdraw 14 murder charges in exchange for Law’s plea, his lawyer Matthew Gourlay said.

Police in Canada and around the world have been investigating more than 100 suicides linked to Law. All charges against him in Canadian court are related to 14 people across Ontario who were between the ages of 16 and 36.

Canadian police said Law, from the Toronto area, used a series of websites to market and sell sodium nitrite, a substance commonly used to cure meats that can be deadly if ingested.

Law is suspected of sending at least 1,200 packages to more than 40 countries with about 160 of those allegedly sent to addresses in Canada, police said. He has been in custody since his arrest at his Mississauga, Ontario, home in May 2023.

Authorities in the United States, Britain, Italy, Australia and New Zealand also have conducted investigations. British police in 2023 were investigating the deaths of 88 people who bought products from Canada-based websites allegedly offering lethal substances to people at risk of self-harm.

Those found guilty of aiding suicide in Canada can face up to 14 years in prison, while first-degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

A New Zealand coroner found that four people who died by suicide there had ordered items online from a business associated with Law, but noted that Law’s activities are outside the jurisdiction of New Zealand courts.

It is against Canadian law to recommend suicide, although assisted suicide has been legal since 2016 for people 18 and older. Any adult with a serious illness, disease or disability may seek help in dying, but they must ask for assistance from a physician.

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BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A Russian drone that was part of an overnight attack on Ukraine crashed into an apartment building in eastern Romania, injuring two people, Romanian authorities said Friday.

In response to the crash, NATO member Romania asked the alliance for a faster transfer of anti-drone capabilities, the Foreign Ministry said, calling the drone’s flight a serious violation of international law.

The drone was tracked by radar in Romanian airspace and crashed onto the roof of a building in Galati, Romania’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. The impact was followed by a fire. Two people suffered minor injuries, and several people were evacuated.

Police and other agencies responded at the scene. Galati is on the Danube River, east of the Moldova and Ukraine borders.

The Romanian military scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and a helicopter that were authorized to engage targets, and alert messages were sent to residents of the affected areas.

Russia has been using long-range ballistic missiles and drones to damage Ukraine’s power grid and hammer cities, and Ukraine has braced for further heavy bombardments.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the incident showed that “Russia’s war of aggression has crossed yet another line.”

“A Russian drone incursion struck a densely populated area in Romania, injuring civilians,” she said in a social media post. “On EU territory.’

She added that the EU will keep strengthening security along its eastern border and was actively drafting another set of sanctions against Russia, the 21st so far.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday he was pressing the United States to provide more Patriot air defense missiles that can counter the Russian attacks.

He warned that deliveries to Ukraine are falling dangerously short as the Iran war diverts and depletes U.S. stocks. “I believe (the U.S.) must act quicker. We are being very persistent,” Zelenskyy told reporters during a visit to Sweden.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the U.N. Security Council that the escalation and intensification of attacks risks getting out of control, with “unknown and unintended consequences.” He said that more civilians have been killed in the first four months of this year than in the same period in the past three years.

Guterres called for more diplomacy, immediate de-escalation and “a full and unconditional ceasefire.”

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May 28 (Reuters) – Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing will embark on an official visit to India from May 30 to June 3, India’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, in what could be his first since he took over last month.

• During his visit to India’s capital, New Delhi, Hlaing is slated to hold discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 1.

• The former junta chief was elected president on April 3 through a parliamentary vote, formalising his grip on political power ‌in Myanmar five years after he ousted an elected government in a coup.

• He was initially scheduled to travel to India to participate in the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) Summit, but the summit was postponed last week.

• Hlaing’s visit was subsequently converted to an official visit, the Indian foreign ministry statement said.

(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Barcelona; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

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LIMASSOL, Cyprus (AP) — The European Union’s foreign policy chief said Thursday securing freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz after the Iran war ends will require more ships, including more vessels from Europe, and the expansion of a current EU naval mission.

The EU mission in the Red Sea — dubbed Aspides, from the Greek for “shield” — is comprised of three vessels that protect shipping from attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas used to pass prior to the war, sits at the southern end of the Red Sea.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said after a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers that the operational plans for Aspides may have to be amended, depending on additional requirements such as specialized vessels to clear mines from the strait.

“But it mostly needs more ships,” she said, adding that an additional vessel will join the Aspides operation, without providing any details.

The EU earlier this year extended Aspides’ mandate until the end of February 2027 with an additional 15 million euros ($17.5 million) in funding.

France and the U.K. are also mulling their own naval force to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz once hostilities end.

An EU official said the bloc was in discussions about possibly merging Operation Aspides with the Franco-British force, but much still needs to be ironed out regarding under whose authority a joint force would operate. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk publicly about the negotiations.

Shipping costs increased after the war in Iran began on Feb. 28, due to high insurance premiums. The EU official said costs were unlikely to go down for at least another year after an end to hostilities, noting that it’s now cheaper for ships to travel around the African continent than to traverse the Red Sea.

He said officials are considering offering state guarantees to shipping companies so that they reduce insurance premiums. ____ Associated Press writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.

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