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WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. military has destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted Iranian cruise missiles and drones fired by Tehran as the U.S. launches an operation to free up shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of Central Command, said on Monday.

Cooper said he “strongly advised” Iranian forces to remain clear of U.S. military assets as it launches the operation. He said a U.S. blockade of Iran, which prevents ships from going to Iran or departing Iranian territory, also remains in effect and was exceeding expectations.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees AliEditing by Nick Zieminski)

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By James Mackenzie

BERLIN, May 4 (Reuters) – Chancellor Friedrich Merz marks a year in office this week facing the biggest crisis with Washington in decades, after President Donald Trump said he would hit European auto imports with 25% tariffs and pull thousands of troops out of Germany.

The moves, announced on Friday after Trump reacted angrily to criticism by Merz of U.S. strategy in the Iran war, underline the break in transatlantic relations that has become increasingly apparent in Trump’s second term and add to an array of problems now facing the German leader.

“We can see what’s going on with Donald Trump and the U.S., and that this is having an impact. We can see that China is getting stronger and stronger,” Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, Merz’s deputy and the head of his Social Democrat coalition partners, told Reuters.

“We can see that Europe isn’t strong enough. In this regard, a great deal depends on Germany.”

MERZ’S CONSERVATIVES TRAILING IN OPINION POLLS

After two years of recession, a timid recovery risks being extinguished by the energy shock from the Iran conflict, a promised package of tax, welfare and health reforms has been overshadowed by coalition wrangling.

Merz’s freewheeling communication style, which he himself acknowledges is sometimes impulsive, has also irritated voters.

Already squeezed by stifling competition from China, carmakers, the backbone of Germany’s industrial base, now face a spike in tariffs from 15% to 25% from one of their most important export markets.

In an interview with German public television on Sunday, Merz, who was sworn into office on May 6 last year, acknowledged public doubts, reflected in opinion polls that now put the far-right Alternative for Germany ahead of his conservatives as the country’s most popular party.

“The doubts are growing. Not about me, but about the coalition,” he said.

For much of his first year, Merz has made up for discontent at home with a relatively assured performance abroad, for a while enjoying a reputation as one of the few European leaders to establish a good personal relationship with Trump.

“He has strengthened key relationships, particularly with France and Poland, and has secured European influence in the context of the war in Ukraine through forums such as the E3,” said Oliver Lembcke, a political scientist at Ruhr University Bochum, adding that Merz’s main problem was at home.

“In domestic policy, he’s fallen short of expectations – particularly when it comes to leadership.”

A fluent English speaker, Merz continues to believe in the U.S. alliance, which he has sought to preserve while Germany rebuilds its own depleted armed forces after decades of neglect.

With the war in Ukraine still raging on the European Union’s doorstep, he has also moved carefully to try to persuade Trump not to turn against Kyiv entirely. 

But he has repeatedly warned that the era of relying on U.S. forces to protect Europe is over and has become increasingly critical of the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, refusing to send German forces to help clear the strategic Strait of Hormuz until fighting stops and a full international mission is agreed.

MUCH DEPENDS ON GERMANY

The events of the past week, however, have made clear how fine a line there is to tread with a U.S. administration that has made no secret of its disdain for Europe’s leaders, even those like Merz or Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who were once praised by Trump.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius downplayed the significance of Trump’s decision to withdraw at least 5,000 troops from Germany and withhold the planned deployment of Tomahawk cruise missiles, saying at the weekend that the move came as no surprise.

Merz denied that the decision was prompted by his remark to students last week that the U.S. had no exit strategy in Iran and was being “humiliated”, despite Trump’s angry social media attacks on the chancellor he once called a friend.

Such communication snags have marked Merz’s year in office, including when he sparked outrage last year by suggesting that migration had altered the appearance of German towns.

But Trump’s impatience with Europe has been abundantly clear throughout his time in office, notably since Vice President JD Vance’s stinging attack at last year’s Munich Security Conference.

“I think that just sped things up, but it wasn’t what set it off,” said Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee from Merz’s conservative CDU party. He said scrapping a Biden-era plan to deploy a U.S. battalion with long-range Tomahawk missiles was more serious for Germany.

“That undermines our deterrent. And it undermines trust in the U.S. And that is the real bad news,” he said.

It remains unclear exactly what troops will be withdrawn from the 40,000 U.S. forces stationed in Germany and how that will affect some of the biggest U.S. military facilities outside the United States, including the sprawling Ramstein air base.

Although polls show Trump is deeply unpopular in Germany and public opinion overwhelmingly backs staying out of the war with Iran, the presence of U.S. troops has become a fixture for Germans in the western part of the country.

In Landstuhl, home to one of the biggest U.S. military hospitals, local resident Maria Raftopoulo said relationships between locals and U.S. personnel had been deep over the years. 

“And even though there are fewer Americans now, they still provide jobs, they still rent, they contribute to the region doing as well as it does.”

(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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By Parisa Hafezi and Jacob Bogage

DUBAI/DORAL, Florida, May 4 (Reuters) – A tanker reported being hit by unknown projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime security organisation said on Monday, shortly after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would start helping free ships stranded in the Gulf by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Trump provided few details about the plan, which he said would start on Monday to aid ships and their crews that have been “locked up” in the vital waterway and are running low on food and other supplies. 

“We have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site.

Hundreds of ships and as many as 20,000 seafarers have been unable to transit the strait during the conflict, according to the International Maritime Organization.

U.S. Central Command said it would support the effort with 15,000 U.S. military personnel, more than 100 land and sea-based aircraft along with warships and drones. The operation aims to “restore freedom of navigation for commercial shipping” through the strait, CENTCOM said in a statement. 

“Our support for this defensive mission is essential to regional security and the global economy as we also maintain the naval blockade,” Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, said in a statement.

Soon after Trump’s comments, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said a tanker had reported being hit by unknown projectiles in the Strait.

UKMTO said all crew were reported safe in the incident, which occurred 78 nautical miles north of Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates.

Iran has been blocking nearly all shipping from the Gulf apart from its own for more than two months, sending energy prices soaring. Some vessels attempting to transit the Strait have reported being fired on, and Iran seized several other ships. Last month, the U.S. imposed its own blockade of ships from Iranian ports.

The Trump administration has been seeking help from other countries to form an international coalition to secure shipping in the strait. CENTCOM said the latest effort would combine “diplomatic action with military coordination.”

It was not immediately clear which countries the U.S. operation would aid or how the operation would work. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump threatened that any interference with the U.S. operation would “have to be dealt with forcefully.” 

Iran said on Sunday it had received a U.S. response to its latest offer for peace talks a day after Trump said he would probably reject the Iranian proposal because “they have not paid a big enough price.”

Trump, responding to shouted questions from reporters, said on Sunday evening that talks were going “very well” without elaborating. 

IRAN REVIEWING U.S. RESPONSE ON PEACE PROPOSAL

Iranian state media reported that Washington had conveyed its response to Iran’s 14-point proposal via Pakistan, and that Tehran was now reviewing it. There was no immediate confirmation from Washington or Islamabad of the U.S. response.

“At this stage, we do not have nuclear negotiations,” state media quoted Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying, an apparent reference to Iran’s proposal to set aside talks on nuclear issues until after the war has ended and the foes have agreed to lift opposing blockades of Gulf shipping.

On Saturday, Trump said he had yet to review the exact wording of the Iranian peace proposal, but that he was likely to reject it.

The United States and Israel suspended their bombing campaign against Iran four weeks ago, and U.S. and Iranian officials held one round of talks. But attempts to set up further meetings have so far failed.

IRAN’S PROPOSAL VS WASHINGTON’S DEMANDS

The proposal to delay talks on nuclear issues until a later phase would appear at odds with Washington’s repeated demand that Iran accept stringent restrictions on its nuclear program before the war can end. 

Washington wants Tehran to give up its stockpile of more than 400 kg (900 pounds) of highly enriched uranium, which the United States says could be used to make a bomb. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful although it is willing to discuss some curbs in return for the lifting of sanctions. It had accepted such curbs in a 2015 deal that Trump abandoned.

While saying repeatedly he is in no hurry, Trump is under domestic pressure to break Iran’s hold on the Strait of Hormuz, which has choked off 20% of the world’s oil and gas supplies and pushed up U.S. gasoline prices. Trump’s Republican Party faces the risk of a voter backlash over higher prices in midterm congressional elections in November.

Iranian media said Tehran’s 14-point proposal includes withdrawing U.S. forces from nearby areas, lifting the blockade, releasing frozen assets, paying compensation, lifting sanctions, ending the war on all fronts including Lebanon, and creating a new control mechanism for the strait.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Recent flooding during ongoing heavy rains in Kenya left 18 people dead over the past week, police said Sunday, with most of the deaths attributed to drowning.

More than 54,000 households have been affected by the flooding countrywide, with 6,000 of those being in the capital, Nairobi, according to the Interior Ministry.

Dozens of schools and hospitals across the country have flooded, and 17 roads have been cut off.

Mudslides have also forced thousands to move from the western Rift Valley area, while people living downstream of the Tana and Athi rivers have been urged to move to higher ground as water levels in the country’s hydroelectric dams rise.

The Kenya Meteorological Department has warned that enhanced rainfall is expected to continue in the first two weeks of May.

Heavy rains in the country started in March at the beginning of the rainy season and have left a trail of destruction, with more than 100 people dead by the end of March.

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By Christine Chen

SYDNEY, May 4 (Reuters) – Australia began public hearings on Monday into the Bondi Beach mass shooting in December, part of a wide-ranging national inquiry with witnesses set to give evidence on their experience of escalating antisemitism in the country.

The attack, which left 15 dead at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration, fuelled calls for tougher gun controls and more action to tackle hatred towards Jews, and followed a spate of antisemitic incidents in Australia.

Virginia Bell, a retired judge appointed to lead the Royal Commission inquiry, said the first block of public hearings would investigate the nature and prevalence of antisemitism in the country.

“The sharp spike in antisemitism that we’ve witnessed in Australia has been mirrored in other Western countries and seems clearly linked to events in the Middle East,” Bell said.

“It’s important that people understand how quickly those events can prompt ugly displays of hostility towards Jewish Australians simply because they’re Jews.”

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has received more than 5,700 submissions from the public.

Witnesses on Monday will include the daughter of a Bondi attack victim, community leaders and a Holocaust survivor. Some witnesses have also been granted anonymity due to concerns they could be subjected to “hostile attention”.

“It’s fitting that we begin by taking evidence from ordinary members of the Jewish community about their lived experience of antisemitism,” Bell said.

“We’ve received numbers of submissions from Jews describing antisemitic incidents or courses of conduct.”

The inquiry released its interim report last Thursday that advised increased security around Jewish public events and further counter-terrorism and gun reforms among 14 ​initial recommendations.

A second block of hearings later in the month will focus on the circumstances leading up to the Bondi Beach attack and issues raised in the interim report.

The commission is due to deliver its final report on December 14, exactly one year on from the Bondi Beach attack.

(Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Sonali Paul)

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May 3 (Reuters) – At least two people were killed and a further 37 were injured on Sunday after a monster truck plowed into crowds at an exhibition event in the southern Colombian city of Popayan, in the province of Cauca, the regional governor said.

Videos on social media showed a large monster truck clearing an obstacle but failing to brake in time, causing the vehicle to veer off to the side and plow into spectators.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the footage. A Popayan city official said one of the victims was a 10-year-old girl, according to Colombian newspaper El Espectador.

(Reporting by Iñigo Alexander, Editing by Tom Hogue)

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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A suspected outbreak of the rare hantavirus infection on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean killed three people, including an elderly married couple, and sickened at least three others, the World Health Organization and South Africa’s Department of Health said Sunday.

In a statement to The Associated Press, WHO said an investigation was underway but that at least one case of hantavirus had been confirmed. One of the patients was in intensive care in a South African hospital, the U.N. health agency said, and it was working with authorities to evacuate two others with symptoms from the ship.

The Dutch company that operates the cruise said the ship was now sitting off the coast of Cape Verde, an island nation off Africa’s west coast, and local authorities were assisting but had not allowed anyone to disembark. It said the two sick people onboard requiring urgent medical care were crew members.

Hantaviruses, which are found throughout the world, are a family of viruses spread mainly by contact with the urine or feces of infected rodents like rats and mice. They gained attention after the late actor Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from hantavirus infection in New Mexico last year.

Hackman died around a week later at their home from heart disease.

Hantaviruses cause two serious syndromes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a severe disease that effects the lungs, and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, a severe disease that affects the kidneys.

While rare, WHO said hantavirus infections can be spread between people. There is no specific treatment or cure, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.

“WHO is aware of and supporting a public health event involving a cruise vessel sailing in the Atlantic Ocean,” the organization said. “Detailed investigations are ongoing, including further laboratory testing, and epidemiological investigations. Medical care and support are being provided to passengers and crew. Sequencing of the virus is also ongoing.”

South Africa’s Department of Health said the ship, the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, had left Argentina around three weeks ago for a cruise that included visits to Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and other stops. It was due to ultimately head to Spain’s Canary Islands on the other side of the Atlantic.

The first victim was a 70-year-old man who died on the ship and whose body was removed in the British territory of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, the South African health department said in a statement. The man’s wife collapsed at an airport in South Africa trying to take a flight to her home country of the Netherlands, the department said. She died at a nearby hospital.

The department identified the patient in intensive care in a hospital in Johannesburg as a British national. It said that person fell ill near Ascension Island, another remote island in the Atlantic, after the ship left Saint Helena and was transferred from there to South Africa.

Around 150 tourists were onboard at the time of the outbreak, South Africa’s health department said. Several online tour operators said the Hondius, which is described as a specialist polar cruise ship, usually travels with around 70 crew members.

Oceanwide Expeditions, the company that runs the cruise, said the third victim’s body was still onboard the ship in Cape Verde and its priority was to ensure the two crew members who were ill received medical care.

“Local health authorities have visited the vessel to assess the condition of the two symptomatic individuals,” the company said. “They are yet to make a decision regarding the transfer of these individuals into medical care in Cape Verde.”

WHO said it was working with national authorities and the ship’s operators to conduct a “full public health risk assessment” and provide support for those still onboard.

South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, meanwhile, was conducting contact tracing in the Johannesburg region to identify if other people were exposed to the infected passengers in South Africa.

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VIENNA, May 3 (Reuters) – Five children aged between 10 and 14 were injured in northern Austria on Saturday evening when a “war relic” that was under their campfire exploded, police said on Sunday.

The children were part of a group visiting from another part of the same state of Upper Austria. The accident occurred in an area of the village of St Oswald bei Freistadt, where organised youth groups often camp, a spokesperson for the state police said.

After the explosion, police inspected an adjacent fire pit and found another object containing explosives that they also described as a “war relic”, and a bomb disposal unit was called to deal with it, police said in a statement.

“Investigations are currently underway to determine how war relics came to be under the campfire area,” the statement added.

The severity of the children’s injuries was not immediately clear, the police said, adding that they had been taken to a children’s hospital in the nearby city of Linz.

While World War Two-era bombs are still uncovered in Austria, particularly in the course of excavations for building work, accidents such at Saturday’s are rare.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

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May 3 (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said on Sunday that the government has evidence that a federal agent was shot during an alleged attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last weekend.

“We now can establish that a pellet that came from the buckshot from the defendant’s Mossberg pump-action shotgun was intertwined with the fiber of the vest of the Secret Service officer,” Pirro said during an appearance on CNN.

(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; editing by Scott Malone)

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ASHKELON, Israel, May 3 (Reuters) – An Israeli court has extended by two days the detention of two activists arrested aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla that was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters near Greece, their lawyer said on Sunday.

Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were detained by Israeli authorities late on Wednesday and brought to Israel, while more than 100 other pro-Palestinian activists aboard the boats were taken to the Greek island of Crete.

A court spokesperson confirmed that their remand had been extended until May 5. 

The governments of Spain and Brazil issued a joint statement on Friday calling their detention illegal.

The activists were part of a second Global Sumud flotilla, launched in an attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian assistance. The ships had set sail from Barcelona on April 12.

Israeli authorities requested a four-day extension of their arrest on suspicion of offences that include assisting the enemy during wartime, contact with a foreign agent, membership in and providing services to a terrorist organisation, and the transfer of property for a terrorist organisation, said rights group Adalah, which is assisting in the activists’ defence.

Hadeel Abu Salih, the men’s attorney, said that the two deny the allegations. Their arrest was unlawful due to a lack of jurisdiction, she told Reuters at the Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court after the hearing, adding that the mission was meant to provide aid to civilians in Gaza, not to any militant group.

Abu Salih said that Abu Keshek and Avila were subjected to violence en route to Israel and kept handcuffed and blindfolded until Thursday morning.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel’s foreign ministry had on Thursday called the flotilla organisers “professional provocateurs”.

“Israel will not allow the breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza,” it said.

(Reporting by Rami Amichay; Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Joe Bavier)

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