World News

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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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s latest proposal to the United States calls for issues between the countries to be resolved within 30 days and aims to end the war rather than extend the ceasefire, according to Iran’s state-linked media.

President Donald Trump on Saturday said he was reviewing a new Iranian proposal but expressed doubt it would lead to a deal, adding on social media that “they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years” since the Islamic Revolution there.

Iran’s 14-point proposal, a rebuttal to a U.S. nine-point plan, also calls for the U.S. lifting sanctions on Iran, ending the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, withdrawing forces from the region and ceasing all hostilities, including Israel’s operations in Lebanon, according to the semiofficial Nour News and Tasnim agencies, which have close ties to Iran’s security organizations.

There was no mention, however, of Iran’s nuclear program and its enriched uranium, long the central issue in tensions with the U.S. and one that Tehran would rather address later.

Iran sent its reply via Pakistan, which hosted face-to-face talks last month between Iran and the United States.

Pakistan’s prime minister, foreign minister and army chief continue to push negotiations and encourage the U.S. and Iran to speak directly, according to two officials in Pakistan who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The fragile three-week ceasefire appears to be holding, though Trump on Saturday told journalists that further strikes remained a possibility.

Also on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke with Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who oversaw previous rounds of talks between the U.S. and Iran before the war.

Trump has offered a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where about a fifth of the world’s trade in oil and natural gas typically passes, along with fertilizer badly needed by farmers around the world. Iran’s grip on the strait, imposed during the war, has shaken global markets.

Iran’s deputy parliament speaker on Sunday said Tehran “will not back down from our position on the Strait of Hormuz, and it will not return to its prewar conditions.” Ali Nikzad, who has no decision-making power in parliament, spoke while visiting port facilities on strategic Larak Island, near the narrowest part of the strait.

“The Strait of Hormuz belongs to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Nikzad said, and reiterated Iran’s position that any ship not associated with the U.S. or Israel will be able to pass after paying a toll.

The U.S. has warned shipping companies they could face sanctions for paying Iran in any form, including digital assets, to pass safely.

Iran effectively closed the strait by attacking and threatening ships after the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28. Tehran has offered some ships safe passage via routes closer to its shore, charging fees at times.

The U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports since April 13 is depriving Tehran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy.

On Sunday, the second day of Iran’s working week, the rial weakened further against the U.S. dollar.

In Tehran’s Ferdowsi Street, the capital’s main currency exchange hub, the dollar was trading at 1,840,000 rials. Analysts say there is a strong possibility the currency will slip further in the coming days.

The rial was trading at 1.3 million to the dollar in December, a record low at the time, and triggered widespread protests over the worsening economy. Markets in Tehran remain unstable, with prices of some goods rising daily.

According to reports in Iranian media, several factories have not renewed contracts for workers after the Iranian new year in March, and significant numbers have lost their jobs.

Yousef Pezeshkian, the son and adviser of President Masoud Pezeshkian, wrote on Telegram that both the United States and Iran see themselves as the winner of the war and are unwilling to back down.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Saturday urged Iran to immediately transfer imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi for medical treatment in Tehran after her health sharply deteriorated.

The committee said it was in touch with Mohammadi’s family and lawyer, and that the 2023 laureate’s life remains at risk without treatment by her medical team in Tehran.

Mohammadi fainted twice in prison on Friday in the northwestern city of Zanjan, her foundation said, and was admitted to a local hospital. Her lawyers have said she is believed to have suffered a heart attack in late March.

Mohammadi, a rights lawyer, was arrested in December during a visit to the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad and sentenced to seven more years in prison.

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Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

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May 3 (Reuters) – The Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Sunday that a drone had targeted its external radiation control laboratory.

There were no reported injuries and it was not yet known if the strike damaged the lab, which is located outside the nuclear power plant’s perimeter, according to the IAEA.

An IAEA team at the site has requested access to the lab, Director General Rafael Grossi said, reiterating that any attacks near nuclear sites can pose nuclear safety risks.

(Reporting by Angela Christy in BengaluruEditing by Peter Graff)

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