Tehran delivered a new proposal for peace talks with the United States via Pakistan, Iranian state media reported on Friday, with US President Donald Trump saying that he was “not satisfied” with what had been put forth.

Though the United States and Iran have suspended hostilities since an April 8 ceasefire, the two countries remain at odds over a range of issues, including Iran’s nuclear ambitions and control over the Strait of Hormuz, and they have yet to agree to a second meeting, following a brief ​summit of senior officials in Islamabad last month.

Trump’s comments on Friday indicated the deadlock ‌over the two-month-old war is likely to persist.

He also conveyed to the US Congress his stance that the hostilities had “terminated” following a ceasefire with Iran as the deadline to get Congress’s approval for the war arrived.

Trump ‘not happy’

The text of Iran’s new proposal was handed to Islamabad on Thursday evening, the IRNA news agency reported on Friday.

Hours later, Trump spoke to reporters at the White House, saying, “At this moment, I’m not satisfied with what they’re offering.”

The US president said that the Iranian leadership was “disjointed”, “had a lot of problems” and “were not getting along with each other”.

“But we have just had a conversation with Iran. But I will say I am not happy,” he said.

Asked why he was unsatisfied with the Iranian offer, Trump said: “They’re asking for things that I can’t agree.” He gave no details.

The White House also declined to provide details on the proposal, but news site Axios reported that US envoy Steve Witkoff had submitted amendments reintroducing Tehran’s nuclear programme into talks.

The changes reportedly include demands that Iran not move enriched uranium from bombed sites or resume activity there during negotiations.

Trump said Iran had “made strides” in negotiations, but added that there was “tremendous discord” in the Islamic republic’s leadership and warned: “I’m not sure if they ever get there.”

Trump was asked what he would do if there was no deal but refused to say whether he would launch more strikes.

“Do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever — or do we want to try and make a deal? I mean, those are the options,” he said.

Trump added that he would “prefer not” to launch a huge offensive but added: “That’s the option: do we want to go in there heavy and just blast them away or do we want to do something?”

Addressing a rally in Florida, Trump again spoke on the matter.

“They’re not coming through with the kind of deal that we have to have, and we’re going to get this thing done properly,” Trump said. “We’re not going to leave early and have the problem arise.”

At the White House, he repeated his prediction that oil and gas prices would fall when the war ends.

Trump also said he had “great respect” for Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir.

For his part, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country was ready to pursue diplomacy if the United States changed what he called its “excessive approach, threatening rhetoric and provocative actions.”

However, Araghchi added in a post on his Telegram channel that “Iran’s armed forces remained ready to defend the country against ​any threat.”

On Thursday, Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said diplomacy to end the US-Iran conflict was continuing, with Islamabad maintaining its role as a facilitator between the two sides despite an apparent impasse in talks.

Negotiations between Washington and Tehran remain stalled, with both holding firm positions even as a fragile ceasefire continues. The truce, initially brokered by Pakistan in April, has been extended to allow space for diplomacy, but officials acknowledge that the process faces serious sticking points.

Last month, Pakistan hosted the first high-level contact between Iran and the US in decades and mediated those meetings. However, with challenges in convening a second round, Islamabad has shifted back to its role as a facilitator and go-between.

War Powers deadline

Trump also argued on Friday that a ceasefire with Iran had “terminated” hostilities, as he sought to bolster his argument that he did not need lawmakers’ permission to continue the conflict.

In a letter to ‌congressional leaders on Friday, the deadline to come to Congress about the war, Trump said there had been no exchange of fire with Iran since the ceasefire. “The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated,” he said.

Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, a US president can wage military action for only 60 days before ending it, asking Congress for ​authorization or seeking a 30-day extension due to “unavoidable military necessity regarding the safety of United States Armed Forces” while withdrawing forces.

The US president formally notified Congress of the US-Israeli war on Iran 48 hours after the first airstrikes two months ago, starting the 60-day clock that ends ​on May 1.

As the date approached, congressional aides and analysts said they expected the Republican president to sidestep the deadline. A senior Trump administration official had said on Thursday ​the administration’s view was that the War Powers law deadline did not apply.

Trump said he considered the War Powers law unconstitutional. Both Republican and Democratic presidents have contended the measure violated the Constitution because it sets limits on the president’s powers as commander-in-chief. Legal experts say the matter has not been decided by the courts.

“We had a ceasefire, so that ​gives you additional time,” Trump said during his talk at the White House on Friday.

Congressional Democrats, who have tried repeatedly to pass War Powers legislation ​that would force Trump to end the war or come to Congress for authorisation, dismissed that characterisation, saying there was nothing in the 1973 law allowing for a ceasefire.

They ‌also said ⁠that the continuing deployment of US ships blockading Iranian oil exports was evidence of continuing hostility, not a ceasefire.

“After 60 days of conflict, President Trump still does not have a strategy or way out for this poorly planned war,“ Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement calling the deadline “a clear legal threshold” for Trump to act.

In his letter to Congress, Trump acknowledged that the conflict may not be ​resolved. He said Iran still poses ​a “significant” threat to the United States ⁠and its armed forces.

India raised on Friday the prices of commercial liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and jet fuel for international airlines, according to a state-run energy firm, as supply pressures from the Middle East war mount.

The South Asian nation is heavily dependent on imported energy, including for roughly 60 per cent of its LPG, the fuel used for cooking by a vast section of its population, the largest in the world.

As imports have been disrupted since the Middle East war began in late February, New Delhi has moved to ensure households and essential sectors remain adequately supplied, leaving many restaurants, manufacturers and power plants in the lurch.

The government has maintained that India faces no overall fuel shortage.

“Prices of bulk and commercial LPG cylinders have been revised,” the state-run Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), the country’s leading energy marketing company, said.

IOCL’s price chart shows an increase of 993 rupees ($10.50) in the price of a 19 kilogramme LPG cylinder meant for commercial use.

That amounts to a nearly 48pc rise in the capital New Delhi. Local levies mean rates vary across cities.

The sharp hike will hit restaurants particularly hard, with many already scaling back operations during the Middle East war.

The oil company said that the price of jet fuel for international airline operations has also “been adjusted upward”.

Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) has gone up by around 5pc in Delhi, according to IOCL’s catalogue.

Across much of India, an energy crunch caused by the Iran war has prompted long queues for cooking gas cylinders. That’s not a problem for Gauri Devi.

On a stove with blue flames, she flips a chapati flatbread, burning biogas produced from cow dung — an alternative fuel helping ease pressure on supplies.

“It cooks everything,” the 25-year-old said in her courtyard kitchen in Nekpur, a village in Uttar Pradesh, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) from New Delhi.

“If the pressure goes down, we let it rest for half an hour and it works again.” India consumes more than 30 million tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) annually, importing over half its needs.

The government insists there is no shortage of cooking gas, but supply delays, panic buying and black marketeers have created long queues for cylinders.

However, since the 1980s, India has also promoted biogas as a low-cost rural energy source, subsidising more than five million “digester” units that convert farm waste into methane for cooking, and nitrogen-rich slurry for fertiliser.

For Gauri, it requires mixing a couple of buckets of dung with water, then pouring the mixture into a car-sized underground tank topped with a storage balloon.

It provides a piped methane supply so regular that she only uses an LPG cylinder for emergencies or large gatherings.

The biogas works for everything — “vegetables, tea, lentils”, she said.

‘Black gold’

The residual slurry is later spread on fields as fertiliser. It has better nitrogen availability for plants compared with raw dung, farmers say.

“The manure is so good,” said farmer Pramod Singh, who installed a larger unit in 2025, enough for six people, fuelled by 30-45 kilogrammes of dung daily from four cows.

And he said the slurry fertiliser is particularly valuable at a time when global supplies of artificial fertilisers have been hit by trade disruptions due to the war.

“The real benefit is not just the gas — that is like a bonus,” local farmer leader Pritam Singh said.

“The slurry is ‘black gold’.”

More than 45 per cent of India’s 1.4bn people rely on farming, and the country has one of the largest cattle populations.

India — the world’s most populous nation and third-largest fossil fuel polluter — has pushed large-scale biogas production to achieve a goal of carbon neutrality by 2070.

The government last year required that biogas account for at least one percent of liquid gas fuelling both vehicles and for domestic use— rising to five per cent by 2028.

Dozens of multi-million dollar production plants are now in the pipeline.

But small-scale rural producers are also being rolled out – units cost around INR25,000-30,000 ($265-$318), often heavily subsidised by the government.

In a Hindu-majority nation where cows are revered and dung and urine are used in everything from floor plastering and fuel to ritual practices, it is easy to win supporters, said Pritam Singh.

He installed his first plant in 2007 and has helped put in 15 more in his village in the past year alone.

He said interest had shot up after the LPG shortages.

“People who earlier were not interested now ask how to get it,” he said.

“Once they see food being cooked and crops benefiting, they are convinced.”

‘Mini factories’

But biogas is still a small fraction of household cooking fuel, with LPG considered more convenient because companies manage the supply chain.

“Biogas plants are not just equipment; they are mini factories,” said A.R.Shukla, president of the Indian Biogas Association.

“They need organised installation, regular operation and maintenance,” he added.

“So, unless installation and upkeep are handled through community-based or cooperative enterprises, households will continue to treat biogas as secondary fuel.” And even with government support, there are barriers to uptake, including cost and space.

“We work on other people’s farms the whole day. We don’t have land for it,” said labourer Ramesh Kumar Singh, standing in a line of around 100 queueing for LPG cylinders in the nearby village of Madalpur.

“I am standing in scorching heat, hungry and thirsty,” said Mahendri, 77, who had failed to secure a cylinder for three days in a row.

Japanese police arrested a man for allegedly incinerating his dead wife at the zoo where he worked, officials and local media said Friday, following the discovery of human remains.

Police arrested Tatsuya Suzuki on Thursday evening on suspicion that he “transported the victim’s body to a tourist facility” in the northern island of Hokkaido and “destroyed it through incineration there,” a local police official told AFP.

The victim, 33-year-old Yui Suzuki, was identified by local media as his wife. Police have not said how she died.

While held in voluntary police questioning, Suzuki said he used his zoo’s incinerator —meant to dispose of waste and dead animals —to burn the woman’s body “for a few hours,” local media reported.

His confession sent police scouring the incinerator for her remains, whose partial discovery paved the way for Suzuki’s arrest, local media said.

While alive, the wife once told her relatives that her husband was threatening to “burn you until no trace of you will be left”, public broadcaster NHK said, citing investigative sources.

The gruesome case forced the Asahiyama Zoo, a popular tourist attraction closed since early last month as part of regular maintenance ahead of the summer season, to delay its reopening scheduled for Wednesday.

On Friday, the zoo resumed business, with officials bowing to visitors and apologising for the trouble caused.

“The zoo is in an extremely difficult situation at the moment,” Hirosuke Imazu, mayor of Asahikawa City, which operates the facility, said, according to NHK.

“But we would like to turn your support into our energy, and convey the beautiful lives of our animals,” he said.

China’s foreign minister on Thursday urged the United States to maintain “stability” between the two powers and warned that Taiwan posed the biggest risk, weeks before President Donald Trump visits Beijing.

In a call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Beijing and Washington should “safeguard the hard-won stability” in China-US relations, China’s foreign ministry said.

The talks also discussed the Middle East, where China has been a key partner of Tehran but has largely kept its distance after Trump joined Israel in attacking Iran, sending global oil prices spiralling.

A State Department official confirmed the phone call and said it was to arrange Trump’s trip but did not give further details.

Trump is scheduled to visit China on May 14-15 to see President Xi Jinping — the Republican billionaire’s first trip to the rival power since returning to the White House in January 2025.

During Trump’s first year back in office, Washington and Beijing clashed over trade and tariffs until a truce was declared in October, when Trump and Xi met in South Korea.

“Both sides should safeguard the hard-won stability, prepare well for key high-level interactions, expand areas of cooperation” and manage their differences, Wang told Rubio, according to a readout from the Chinese foreign ministry.

While ties have “generally remained stable” under Trump and Xi, Wang “emphasised that the Taiwan issue concerns China’s core interests and is the biggest risk point in China-US relations”, it said.

Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification and is sharply critical of US military assistance to the self-ruled island and its support of Taipei on the international stage.

“The United States must honor its commitments and make the right choices, opening new perspectives for bilateral cooperation and do its part to promote world peace,” Wang said.

The statement from the Chinese ministry said Wang and Rubio had “exchanged views” on the situation in the Middle East, without offering further details.

Taiwan’s economy expanded at its fastest pace in nearly 39 years thanks to robust demand for artificial intelligence technology, data showed Thursday, despite concerns over the Middle East crisis.

The island is a global powerhouse in the manufacturing of semiconductor chips, which power AI, and its economy has been growing at a fast clip in recent years.

But the Iran war has raised concerns about the potential impact on the economy, particularly the critical chips sector, owing to Taiwan’s almost total reliance on energy imports to keep the lights on and production lines running.

Gross domestic product expanded 13.7 percent on-year in the first quarter of 2026, the fastest pace since the second quarter of 1987, according to the statistics agency.

It was also better than the 11.3 percent forecast in a survey by Bloomberg News, and a pick-up from the 12.7 percent recorded in the previous three months.

See also: Taiwan’s TSMC logs net profit jump on AI boom

“The rapid expansion of AI applications has sharply boosted demand for computing power, which in turn has driven strong export momentum for products in AI infrastructure–related supply chains,” said Chiang Hsin-yi, an official at the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.

She added that the impact from the Middle East war “doesn’t seem that evident at this point”, although some data for March “is not that complete yet”.

Taipei has sought to limit the economic impact of the Iran war by absorbing most of the increase in fuel prices, while also ensuring the island has a secure supply of LNG and oil, much of which comes from the Middle East.

Wendell Huang, chief financial officer of chip titan TSMC, said this month that the company did not expect the war to impact its supply of key chipmaking materials such as helium and hydrogen in the near term.

TSMC is the biggest contract maker of microchips that are used in everything from Apple iPhones to Nvidia’s processors.

Nevertheless, Taiwan’s “consumption likely slowed” and “investment probably fell” in the first quarter as sentiment was hurt by the conflict, Bloomberg reported before the data was released.

The export-driven economy grew 8.6 percent in 2025, its fastest pace in 15 years, but is expected to expand 3.5 percent this year.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei declared on Thursday that the United States had suffered a shameful defeat, defiantly rejecting a warning from President Donald Trump that an economically punishing US naval blockade could be enforced for months to come.

“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” said Khamenei in the message read on state television.

The message by Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public since his appointment on March 9 as Iran’s new supreme leader, came on the annual national celebration of “Persian Gulf” day in Iran.

Khamenei became the supreme leader after the US and Israel launched a massive campaign of strikes on Iran on February 28, assassinating his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In his Thursday message, he said US bases in the region “lack even the capacity to ensure their own security, let alone provide any hope of securing their allies.”

He hailed what he called Iran’s “new legal framework and management” of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key energy chokepoint, as a means to bring “comfort and progress” for countries in the region.

The strait has become a major flashpoint since the outbreak of the Middle East war, with Iran allowing only a trickle of ships to pass through the waterway.

Khamenei, in his message, predicted a bright future for the Gulf without the US and condemned what he described as “outsiders”, saying those who interfere from thousands of kilometres away “have no place there except at the bottom of its waters”.

“The record of repeated invasions by European and American foreigners —the insecurities, damages, and multiple threats they have imposed on the region’s countries — reflects only a fraction of the malicious schemes of global oppressors against the peoples of the Persian Gulf,” the message read.

He also lauded the people of Iran, who he said “consider all national capacities — identity, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial, and advanced technologies from nano and bio to nuclear and missile — as their national capital”.

Earlier on Thursday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian had said a US naval blockade imposed in retaliation against Iran’s action in Hormuz was “doomed to fail”.

Pezeshkian added that such measures would “not only fail to enhance regional security, but are in fact a source of tension and a disruption to lasting stability in the Persian Gulf”.

Other figures have also struck a tone of defiance, with Navy Commander Shahram Irani signalling that Iran will deploy “in the very near future” naval weaponry which it has recently developed.

China’s factory activity grew for a second straight month in April, official data showed Thursday, showing resilience despite surging energy prices and shipping disruption caused by the war in the Middle East.

The manufacturing purchasing manager’s index –- a key measure of industrial activity — was 50.3 in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), above the 50-point mark that divides expansion and contraction.

That figure fell from 50.4 in March, but was ahead of a forecast of 50.1 in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

The world’s second-largest economy has been struggling with a slowdown in domestic demand and investment in recent years that has weighed on its vast manufacturing sector.

March’s figure was the highest in a year, with manufacturing activity contracting in 10 out of 11 months before that.

April’s statistics showed economic output had “maintained expansion” while manufacturing “continued to show a positive trend”, according to NBS statistician Huo Lihui.

There was strong demand for electrical and IT equipment, but weaker market activity for petroleum and coal processing, Huo said in a statement.

But manufacturers faced higher costs as the prices of raw materials rose significantly, particularly in the energy and chemical sectors, Huo said.

The data suggests Chinese producers remain resilient despite global economic disruption caused by the US-Israeli war with Iran that has seen energy prices surge and Tehran restrict access to the vital Strait of Hormuz.

“The PMI index shows the manufacturing sector has not been adversely affected by the conflict in the Middle East,” according to Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

“The monetary policy stance seems to have a marginally loosening bias, which helps to mitigate the higher energy prices,” he said in a note.

Julian Evans-Pritchard at Capital Economics added that exports and strong external demand were the main drivers.

“Soaring demand for memory chips and green tech products likely played a key role,” he said.

Despite the positive factory data, China’s non-manufacturing PMI — a gauge of activity across services and construction — slumped to 49.4 in April, down from 50.1 in March.

Business activity in the wholesale and retail sectors contracted, suggesting consumer demand remains weak.

Pakistan and 10 other countries condemned on Friday in “strongest terms” the Israeli assault on the Global Sumud Flotilla, which they said was as a peaceful civilian humanitarian initiative aimed at drawing the attention of the international community to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

A joint statement issued by the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Turkiye, Brazil, Jordan, Spain, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Colombia, Maldives, South Africa and Libya said the Israeli attacks against the vessels and the unlawful detention of humanitarian activists in international waters constituted “flagrant violations of international law and international humanitarian law”.

“The ministers are deeply concerned about the safety of the civilian activists and urge the Israeli authorities to take the necessary measures to ensure their immediate release.

“The ministers also call on the international community to fulfil their moral and legal obligations to uphold international law, protect civilians, and ensure accountability for these violations,” the statement read.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar also posted a condemnation on his X account.

211 activists ‘kidnapped’

The condemnation came after organisers of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on Thursday said Israel’s army had “kidnapped” 211 activists, including a Paris city councillor, in a raid in international waters off Greece.

Helene Coron, a spokeswoman for the French contingent of Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), told an online news conference that the operation had taken place near the Greek island of Crete, at an “unprecedented” distance from the Gaza coast.

Yasmine Scola, an activist on board the flotilla, said her colleagues had been “kidnapped” by Israel. Israel’s foreign ministry had earlier put the number of those detained at 175.

Former Jamaat-i-Islami senator Mushtaq Ahmad was also a part of the flotilla mission. But it was not immediately clear if he was among those taken into Israeli custody.

Coron said those intercepted included Paris Communist local councillor Raphaelle Primet and another 10 French nationals.

“We don’t have the information for the other nationalities, but the boats were mixed in terms of nationality, so there were crew members from all 48 delegations,” she said.

Rome, in a government statement, called for the immediate release of “all the unlawfully detained Italians”.

The organisers of the latest flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists seeking to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza announced early on Thursday that their boats had been surrounded by Israeli military ships while off the coast of Crete.

“At the time of publishing this statement (06:30am Paris time, 04:30 GMT), at least 22 of the flotilla’s 58 boats have been stormed by Israeli forces in complete violation of international law,” the GSF said in a statement.

According to an AFP verification, based on tracking data from the organisers, the boats were intercepted in the Greek exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Around 30 boats from the flotilla are still en route, most now in Greek territorial waters south of Crete, according to the same source.

Coron said the operation had taken place over 1,000 kilometres from the Gaza Strip. The longest such operation to date had been 185 kilometres in June 2025, she said.

Israel controls all entry points to Gaza, and has been accused by the United Nations and foreign NGOs of strangling the flow of goods into the territory, causing shortages since the start of the war in October 2023.

The flotilla, made up of more than 50 boats, set sail in recent weeks from Marseille in France, Barcelona in Spain and Syracuse in Italy.

Overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, the GSF said its boats had been “illegally surrounded” by Israeli vessels.

“Communications with 11 vessels have been lost,” the organisation added. The flotilla is currently off the coast of Greece, near Crete, according to the organisation’s live tracking on its website.

“Our boats were approached by military speedboats, self-identified as ‘Israel’, pointing lasers and semi-automatic assault weapons, ordering participants to the front of the boats and to get on their hands and knees,” the organisation added.

“Boat communications are being jammed, and an SOS was issued.”

A Greek coastguard source told AFP it had responded to a distress signal from the flotilla, but once its patrol boat reached the area, it was told that no assistance was required.

Meanwhile, Ahmad, in a video message posted on his X account overnight, also confirmed that the flotilla had come under attack.

“The Israeli terrorist army has captured 11 of our boats; we have been attacked in international waters by drones and the navy,” the former senator said.

He called on the international community to “wake up” and called on people to “take to the streets and raise their voice for Palestine”.

Last year, Ahmad led the Pakistani delegation on the 45-vessel GSF. However, as it approached Gaza, Israeli forces intercepted it, detaining the activists on board before deporting them. He was detained in Israel for five days before being deported to Jordan.

Activists to be taken to Greece

Hours after Ahmad’s post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X: “Well done to our Navy! I instructed them to prevent a Hamas-supporting flotilla from reaching the shores of Gaza. The mission was executed with complete success. No ship and no Hamas supporter reached our territory, and not even our territorial waters. They were turned back and will return to their countries of origin. They will continue to see Gaza on YouTube.”

Israel’s foreign minister said that dozens of activists intercepted by its military on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in international waters off Crete would be taken to Greece.

“In coordination with the Greek government, the individuals transferred from the flotilla vessels to the Israeli vessel will be disembarked on a Greek beach in the coming hours,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X, thanking Greece “for its willingness to receive the flotilla participants”.

Israel weaponising access to water in Gaza: MSF

According to a report by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Israeli authorities have used access to water as a “weapon against Palestinians, systematically depriving people in Gaza, Palestine, of water in a campaign of collective punishment”.

MSF, in a statement, said that the “deliberate denial of water from Palestinians is an integral part of Israel’s genocide”.

“After the local authorities, MSF is the largest producer and a main distributor of drinking water in Gaza, yet between May and November 2025, one in every five of our water distributions ran dry as our trucks were unable to carry sufficient water for all the people who required it,” the organisation said.

Due to the Israeli military’s displacement orders, MSF teams were unable to reach areas where it previously provided water, the statement said.

It added that around “one-third” of MSF’s requests to “bring in critical water and sanitation supplies have been rejected or left unanswered”.

“These supplies include water desalination units, pumps, chlorine and other chemicals to treat water, water tanks, insect repellent, and latrines,” it said.

MSF warned that the consequences of the deprivation could be “far-reaching on people’s health, hygiene, and dignity”.

Australia’s foreign minister said Wednesday that China has agreed to work together to facilitate exports of jet fuel, in an attempt to ease supply disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East.

The conflict and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil transits, have caused fuel prices to soar and left many Asia-Pacific nations facing an energy crisis.

China, a major exporter of jet fuel and diesel to Australia and other countries, has avoided the worst of the war’s energy impacts thanks to its vast oil stocks, but paused exports at the start of the war to protect its domestic supplies.

“I can confirm… that the Chinese government is facilitating engagement with Australian businesses on jet fuel,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters in Beijing, following talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Chinese Vice President Han Zheng.

She added that the move was “an important step, however, it is the first step”.

Earlier in the day, Wong pressed her case to Han, telling him that refineries in the Indo-Pacific region have been disproportionately affected by the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, according to an Australian foreign ministry readout.

In the talks, she called for greater reciprocity in trade, emphasizing that Australia’s steady supply of raw materials and food to China should be matched by a reliable flow of gasoline, kerosene and fertilizers back to Australia.

“I made the point that the import inputs China supplies to Australia, including jet fuel, support the Australian resources sector, which in turn helps to maintain the flow of commodities that are so important in the bilateral trading relationship,” Wong told the press conference.

China is set to resume exports in May with major state-owned companies applying for licenses to do so, the Financial Times reported Tuesday, citing industry sources.

Chinese authorities have not commented publicly on the matter.

During her talks with Chinese officials, Wong added: “We were able to speak frankly, as we do, about those areas of difference, including consular issues, human rights, foreign interference, and regional and international security.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called for King Charles to “return” the prized Koh-i-Noor diamond, which the British Empire took from the Indian subcontinent in the 1800s, on the third day of the monarch’s state visit on Wednesday.

Before greeting Charles and Queen Camilla at a 9/11 memorial event, Mamdani was asked what he would discuss with the king if he had the chance.

“If I was to speak to the king, separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond,” the leftist mayor said, adding that his focus would be honoring those killed in the terror attacks.

It’s unclear whether Mamdani followed through and brought up the contentious subject with Charles when the two met.

The monarch was seen laughing with Mamdani and having a brief conversation after they shook hands.

Housed in the Tower of London, the massive 106 carat stone is the star of Britain’s crown jewels, adorning the Crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

The ownership of the jewel has been contested over the centuries, passing through the hands of Mughal emperors, Iranian shahs and Sikh maharajas before the Kingdom of Punjab gave it to Queen Victoria in 1849 as part of a peace treaty.

India has repeatedly and unsuccessfully sought the return of the priceless jewel.

While there is little doubt it was mined in India, its history thereafter is a mixture of myth and fact, with several countries including Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan also laying claim to the gem.

A politician from the anti-immigration Reform UK party was quick to slam the comments as an “insult to our King.” “This beautiful diamond is currently on display in the Tower of London,” the party’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said in an X post. “That is where it will stay”.

White supremacist killer Brenton Tarrant lost on Thursday an appeal seeking to overturn his conviction and sentence for shooting dead 51 people at two New Zealand mosques in 2019, court documents showed.

The 35-year-old admitted to carrying out New Zealand’s deadliest modern day mass shooting before being sentenced to life in prison in August 2020.

He appealed to the Court of Appeal in February, saying “torturous and inhumane” detention conditions during his trial made him incapable of making rational decisions when he pleaded guilty.

“I did not have the mind frame or mental health required to be making informed decisions at that time,” Tarrant said at the time.

The panel of three judges said the court “does not accept Mr Tarrant’s evidence about his mental state.”

“There were inconsistencies in Mr Tarrant’s own evidence, and his evidence is at odds with the detailed observations of prison authorities and the assessments of mental health professionals at the time of him entering his pleas.”

The judges found Tarrant’s guilty pleas were voluntary and “he was not coerced or pressured in any way to plead guilty”.

“The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that he was not suffering any significant psychological impacts as a result of his prison conditions at the time he pleaded guilty,” the court said.

The court said Tarrant’s “proposed conviction appeal is utterly devoid of merit”.

“The facts concerning Mr Tarrant’s offending are beyond dispute. He has not identified any arguable defence, or indeed any defence known to the law.”

‘Huge relief’

Tarrant’s penalty of life imprisonment without parole was the stiffest in New Zealand history.

Armed with an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons, Tarrant attacked worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch on March 15, 2019.

He published an online manifesto before the attacks and then livestreamed the killings for 17 minutes.

His victims were all Muslim and included children, women and the elderly.

The court’s decision was complicated one week after Tarrant’s February hearing when he sought to abandon his appeal entirely.

The judges said the court received a notice of abandonment of appeal signed by Tarrant using a “self-styled moniker” but the document was thrown out because it was not dated or witnessed.

Tarrant filed a second notice later that week, again using a pseudonym, which was dated and witnessed.

He said he “no longer wishes to have a lawyer” and the appeal should not continue as “it would likely lead to a miscarriage of justice”.

Lawyers acting for the survivors and families of victims told national broadcaster RNZ the decision had been a “huge relief”.

“The law has now done its job,” they said.

“The families, and frankly all of us, will be spared the trauma of reliving the 15th of March all over again in a trial.

“It is a huge relief that the difficult and often unsupported journey families are on will not now be added to by the great burden of a new trial. It would have been unimaginably traumatic. “