Argentina’s city “at the end of the world” Ushuaia, the jump-off point for expeditions to the Antarctic, has been labouring under suspicion of being the source of the deadly hantavirus outbreak that killed three cruise ship passengers. The MV Hondius set sail from this spectacular Patagonian port, sandwiched between snow-capped mountains and the South Atlantic, on April 1. Five days later, a Dutch man who had travelled through South America on a birdwatching trip with his wife, developed...

Israel hammered south Lebanon with strikes on Tuesday ahead of talks between the two countries in Washington, as Beirut reported 380 people killed in Israeli attacks since an April 17 ceasefire took effect. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem vowed to turn the battlefield into “hell” for Israeli forces, and insisted his Iran-backed group’s weapons would not be up for discussion at the talks on Thursday and Friday, after the US had called for its disarmament. Israel has intensified its attacks on south...

Senior officials from China and the United States have started a new round of trade talks in Seoul, South Korea, hours ahead of US President Donald Trump’s scheduled arrival in Beijing. The delegations – led by Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent – arrived at Terminal 1 of Incheon Airport around noon on Wednesday Seoul time. The two officials had both paid courtesy calls to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in the morning. This is the seventh round of...

Vietnam’s state oil company urged the US to let a supertanker pass through an American naval blockade outside the Persian Gulf, saying the shipment is critical to the Asian country’s economy. The very large crude carrier Agios Fanourios I, managed by Athens-based Eastern Mediterranean Maritime, performed a mid-ocean U-turn on Monday at around the point where the US blockade begins. It had only just cleared the Strait of Hormuz, holding 1.99 million barrels of Iraq’s Basrah Medium crude, when it...

After the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, which almost doubled the size of the United States’ territory, US president Thomas Jefferson commissioned the legendary Lewis and Clark expedition, which surveyed new routes from the Missouri river to the Pacific coast. It also carried out work in agriculture, ethnography (with indigenous peoples) and geography. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, that was the kind of science the US government was willing to pay for – practical,...

FBI Director Kash Patel angrily lashed out at a Democratic lawmaker at a budget hearing Tuesday, calling allegations that he drinks excessively on the job and has been unreachable to his staff at times “unequivocally, categorically false”. “I will not be tarnished by baseless allegations and fraudulent statements to the media,” Patel told Senator Chris Van Hollen during a testy exchange that began when the Maryland Democrat confronted him about a recent article in The Atlantic magazine that...

US President Donald Trump’s landmark visit to China comes as the US-Iran war disrupts global energy supplies, fuels economic uncertainty and adds fresh strain to Washington-Beijing ties. In this story, part of a series examining how rivalry, interdependence and geopolitical crises are reshaping the relationship between the two powers, we explore how the countries’ standing in the world has changed – mostly to China’s benefit – since Trump’s previous trip. When US President Donald Trump unleashed...

Against the backdrop of a shifting diplomatic landscape, US President Donald Trump is set to arrive in Beijing this week for a high-stakes summit. While Washington frames the visit, delayed by the war in Iran, as a pivotal effort to rebalance ties, the bravado of maximum pressure masks a deepening domestic vulnerability. Trump’s arrival comes at a critical juncture; his administration faces multiple crises. The looming 2026 midterms have intensified pressure from a restless agricultural...

A French woman infected in the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship is critically ill and being treated with an artificial lung, a doctor at the Paris hospital caring for the sickened passenger said on Tuesday. The outbreak has now reached 11 total reported cases, nine of which have been confirmed. Three people on the cruise died, including a Dutch couple that health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America. The French passenger hospitalised in...

Beijing lashed out at Paraguay on Monday after President Santiago Pena wrapped up a four-day visit to Taiwan, branding Paraguayan leaders as willing “chess pieces” for independence forces on the self-ruled island that China claims as its own territory. Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said China “firmly opposes and condemns” the trip and urged Asuncion to “change course at an early date” and recognise the one-China principle. “The wheels of history wait for no one. Rejecting the one-China...

US President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defence shield will cost as much as US$1.2 trillion to deploy and operate, six times above current forecasts, according to a new estimate – and would still probably fail to stop an all-out attack. The new forecast from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office relies on capabilities spelled out in Trump’s January 2025 executive order unveiling the idea rather than any government plan because the administration has given no details about what the...

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi on Tuesday urged Pakistan to ramp up mediation efforts in the Iran crisis, as the war threatens to overshadow US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing. In a call with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar, Wang lauded Pakistan’s efforts in facilitating negotiations between Washington and Tehran and helping to extend the ceasefire. But he also called for Pakistan to “step up its mediation efforts to contribute to … the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and the...