The old order is dead. We just don’t know what will replace it. As Henry Kissinger reminded us in his 2014 book World Order, “no truly global order has ever existed”. After US President Donald Trump’s erratic actions, the gloves are off. American comedians and Iranian Lego cartoons tell us all we need to know about the demise of the old order. If the unipolar order is not viable, and America is abandoning the multilateral order and the rules of the game it created after World War II, what are...

There is an “almost zero” chance that the Dutch man linked to the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship contracted the disease in the Argentine port of Ushuaia, a provincial health official said on Friday. Juan Petrina, director of epidemiology for Tierra del Fuego province, where Ushuaia is located, told reporters that his assessment was based on the virus’s incubation period, among other factors. The Dutch man and his wife, both of whom died of the virus, boarded the Hondius in...

US President ⁠Donald Trump’s administration is nearing a US$400 million settlement with TikTok to resolve an ongoing lawsuit over alleged child-privacy violations, ABC News reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The White House declined to comment, referring questions to the Justice Department, ‌which did not immediately comment. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment. ABC said the settlement monies would be used to fund Trump’s “beautification” projects in...

US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a three-day ceasefire and a prisoner exchange following US-mediated talks, saying negotiations to end the war were continuing and “we are getting closer and closer every day”. “I am pleased to announce that there will be a THREE DAY CEASEFIRE (May 9th, 10th, and 11th) in the War between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump posted on social media. “The Celebration in Russia is for Victory Day, but likewise in Ukraine,...

The United States will host two days of intensive talks between Israel and Lebanon next week in a renewed push for a broader peace and security arrangement, according to a US State Department statement released on Friday. The talks, scheduled for May 14 and 15, will build on a previous round held on April 23 that Washington said was led personally by US President Donald Trump. In the statement, the US said Israeli and Lebanese delegations would engage in “detailed discussions” aimed at advancing...

Two new suspected cases of hantavirus were ⁠reported on Friday, one in Spain and the other on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, as experts race to contain an outbreak that began on a luxury cruise ship. The announcements in locations thousands of kilometres apart will fuel concern about a cluster of cases so far associated with three deaths – though the World Health Organization has repeatedly said the risk to the wider public is low and the virus does not transmit easily. A...

US employment rose more than expected in April, while the unemployment rate remained steady, government data showed, with the world’s largest economy firming recent labour market gains but analysts warning of underlying weakness. “Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 115,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3 per cent,” the US Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) said. The gains mainly came in the healthcare, transport and warehousing and retail trade sectors. US job...

China’s shipping giants are bracing for a harsh new reality of persistent global volatility, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz shifts from being a problem of transit delays to a hard volume shock. With the crucial energy corridor still paralysed as the US-Israel war on Iran drags on with no clear end in sight, China’s state-backed shipping majors are doubling down on long-term contracts and creating new multimodal routes in an attempt to hedge against future shocks. Cosco Shipping Holdings,...

The Pentagon has begun releasing new files on UFOs, saying members of the public can draw their own conclusions on “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP). Besides the Pentagon, the effort is led by the White House, the director of national intelligence, the Energy Department, Nasa and the FBI. The Pentagon said on Friday in a social media post that while past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Donald Trump “is focused on providing maximum...

The clock is ticking: the European Union has about two years to decide if it is willing to make the sacrifices and take the risks necessary to become the economic and political power it envisions itself to be. The EU’s proposed Industrial Accelerator and Cyber Security acts are up for negotiation within the bloc’s policymaking bodies. In around two years’ time, we will know their final form. Beijing has two years to influence this: that work has already started with carrots – proposals for a...

Passengers aboard a cruise ship affected by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will start being flown to their countries of origin after the vessel arrives in the Canary Islands on Sunday, the Spanish government said on Friday. The MV Hondius is scheduled to reach the port of Granadilla on the island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, on Sunday morning, cabinet minister Angel Victor Torres told journalists. “That same day, we will have planes available and will be able to start getting these...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Friday to stay in office to “deliver change” after his Labour Party suffered heavy losses in the English local election and parliamentary votes in Scotland and Wales, deepening doubts over his ability to govern. Just under two years after winning a landslide national election, Starmer saw voters punish his Labour government, dealing it a blow in some of its traditional strongholds in former industrial regions in central and northern England. The main...