US consumer prices climbed sharply again last month as the 10-week war with Iran pushed energy prices higher. The Labor Department’s consumer price index rose 3.8 per cent from April 2025, according to data released on Tuesday. On a month-to-month basis, April prices rose 0.6 per cent from March as petrol prices rose 5.4 per cent during the month; the month-over-month gain was down from 0.9 per cent increase from February to March. Labor Department figures showed that petrol prices are up more...

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Cuba was asking for help and “we are going to talk”, without providing any more detail. “No Republican ‌has ever spoken to me about Cuba, which is a failed country and only heading in one direction – down! Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk!!! In the ⁠meantime, I’m off to China!” Trump wrote on social media. Representatives for the White House and the State Department could not be immediately reached ‌for comment. Representatives for...

A Spanish passenger evacuated from the cruise ship at the centre of a hantavirus outbreak has tested positive for the virus, Spain’s health ministry announced on Tuesday as the World Health Organization said it has now confirmed 11 cases, including three people from the cruise who died. The passenger with the new confirmed case of hantavirus was in quarantine in a military hospital in Madrid, where 13 other Spanish nationals evacuated on Sunday – who all tested negative for the virus – also are...

German companies in China have grown more optimistic about the country’s economic outlook, even as the Iran war and persistent trade tensions continue to weigh on their operations, according to the German Chamber of Commerce in China. In a survey released on Tuesday, the chamber found that 37 per cent of respondents expected China’s economy to improve over the next six months. That was up 22 percentage points from last year, with only 17 per cent anticipating a deterioration – a sharp reversal...

British Prime ⁠Minister Keir Starmer defied calls to resign on Tuesday, telling ministers he would “get on with governing” despite a “destabilising” 48 hours of growing calls to set out a timetable for his departure after a drubbing in local elections. At a meeting of his cabinet, Starmer, in the top job for less than two years, repeated that, while he took responsibility for one of his Labour Party’s worst election defeats, there had been no official move to trigger a leadership contest....

Two national agencies fighting corruption in Ukraine have named Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s former chief of staff as an official suspect in a major corruption investigation. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office announced late on Monday that Andriy Yermak is suspected of an alleged 460-million-hryvnia (US$10.5 million) money-laundering scheme. The announcement coincided with, but was not connected to, the end of a three-day...

Forty years. That is how long Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been in power. The 81-year-old was sworn in on Tuesday to extend his presidency over a further five-year term that may well be his last – although not necessarily the last for the Museveni family. The president’s son and presumptive heir, army chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, oversaw days-long rehearsals of the military parade that will animate the eighth inauguration of Museveni, with Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets flying...

US President Donald Trump said a month-long ceasefire with Iran was on “massive life support” as he rejected Tehran’s response to a peace proposal. The Iranian reply was a “piece of garbage”, Trump told reporters in the White House on Monday. “I didn’t even finish reading it.” The comments helped to push the price of Brent crude oil above US$106 a barrel on Tuesday. Trump is expected to discuss the war with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a Beijing summit on Thursday, as Iran’s 10-week shutdown...

British Prime ⁠Minister Keir Starmer’s position ⁠is under serious threat after ⁠dozens of his own lawmakers called for him to set out a timetable for his departure, or resign, in the wake of heavy losses in local elections. Here’s what could happen next: Has a leadership contest been triggered? Not yet. On ‌Monday, several ministerial aides stepped down and more than 70 Labour lawmakers publicly called for Starmer’s departure after his appeal for another chance seemingly fell on deaf ears. Some...

Israeli lawmakers approved a bill on Monday setting up a special tribunal that would try and have the authority to sentence to death Palestinians convicted of taking part in the 2023 Hamas-led attack that triggered the war in Gaza. The measure passed 93-0 in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament, reflecting widespread support for punishing those found responsible for what was the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. The remaining 27 lawmakers were absent or abstained from voting. Rights groups...

European governments have rejected a suggestion by Russian President Vladimir Putin that former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could represent them in possible future talks with Moscow on the continent’s security. Putin said on Saturday he believed the war in Ukraine was coming to an end and that he would be willing to negotiate new security arrangements for Europe, with Schroeder as his ‌preferred partner. But European Union foreign ministers, attending a meeting in Brussels on Monday,...

South Korea is treading carefully in attributing blame for the strike on one of its cargo ships earlier this month, even as preliminary signs point to Iranian drones being the culprit. Seoul has surveillance footage of the incident in the early hours of May 4 – when two airborne objects struck the HMM Namu while it lay at anchor off the United Arab Emirates – but so far has said little. Observers believe the government is biding its time and waiting to deliver a verdict until after a highly...