AAWSAT APPLE NEWS

Author: Asharq Al-awsat Staff

  • US Consumer Inflation Expected to Have Increased Further in April Amid Iran War

    US Consumer Inflation Expected to Have Increased Further in April Amid Iran War

    US consumer prices likely rose at a solid pace for a second straight month in April, which would result in the largest annual increase in inflation in more than 2-1/2 years and further bolster expectations the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates unchanged for a while.

    The Consumer Price Index report from the Labor Department on Tuesday is also expected to show an acceleration in the monthly underlying inflation rate, though that would be because of a one-time adjustment to rent measures after last year’s shutdown of the federal government prevented data collection.

    It would follow on the heels of news last week of a bigger-than-anticipated increase in nonfarm payrolls in April.

    The US-Israeli war with Iran has driven oil prices higher, immediately reflected in higher costs for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

    Economists believe the second-round effects would be felt in the months ahead. Financial markets expect the US central bank to keep rates unchanged into 2027.

    Back-to-back strong inflation readings would escalate political risk for President Donald Trump and his Republican party ahead of November’s midterm elections.

    Trump won ‌re-election in 2024 in ‌large part because of his promise to reduce inflation, but Americans have soured on his handling ‌of ⁠the economy and ⁠many blame him for the pain at the pump.

    “People are now realizing that the pitch they got about lowering the cost of goods and services is a fairy tale,” said Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Boston College. “They were basically treading water with their nose just above the surface, now they are being pulled down below the surface. There is no air to breathe.”

    The CPI likely increased 0.6% last month after jumping 0.9% in March, a Reuters survey of economists predicted. Estimates ranged from a 0.4% gain to a 0.9% rise.

    The moderation after posting the largest increase since June 2022 was mostly mechanical, economists said. Oil prices shot above $100 a barrel in March following strikes against Iran, before pulling back to still-high levels after a ⁠ceasefire in early April.

    Gasoline prices likely accounted for most of the increase in the CPI last month ‌after a record surge in March.

    Food prices were also expected to have accelerated ‌after an unusual flat reading in March. Economists expected food prices to rise in the coming months, partly reflecting higher energy prices and fertilizer shortages amid shipping ‌disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

    ONE-TIME BOOST FROM RENTS

    In the 12 months through April, the CPI is projected to have advanced 3.7%. ‌That would be the biggest year-on-year increase since September 2023 and follow a 3.3% rise in March.

    The Fed, which tracks the Personal Consumption Expenditures price indexes for its 2% inflation target, last month left its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 3.50%-3.75% range.

    Excluding food and energy, the CPI is forecast to have risen 0.3% last month, with a greater chance of rounding up to 0.4%. The so-called core CPI gained 0.2% in March.

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics, ‌which compiles the CPI report, is expected to make a one-time adjustment to rents and owners equivalent of rent.

    The BLS splits its rent survey into six panels. Each panel is sampled ⁠every six months on a rotating ⁠basis. But because of last year’s 43-day government shutdown, no data was collected in October. The BLS used a method called carry-forward imputation for rent and OER to account for the missing data, which artificially lowered the indexes.

    “The April report will include hard data for that part of the shelter panel, which should lead to a significant catch-up effect,” said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP. “We expect that special factor to add roughly a tenth of a percent to the increase in the core this month.”

    Underlying inflation was also expected to get a lift from healthcare costs after a surprise decline in March.

    Core goods prices are expected to have been muted, with most economists saying the pass-through from tariffs was probably over. The US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s sweeping tariffs in February.

    “It’s unlikely that retailers will pass on savings they are now seeing following the decline in the effective tariff rate in February, after the Supreme Court’s ruling, but the pressure to raise prices further has eased,” said Samuel Tombs, chief US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

    Core CPI inflation is expected to have increased 2.7% year-on-year in April after rising 2.6% in March. Some economists were dismissive of core CPI inflation.

    “The problem is that the average person, the working people, they don’t live in core CPI,” said Sung Won Sohn, a finance and economics professor at Loyola Marymount University. “They live in higher gasoline prices, they live in higher grocery prices, and they are getting hurt.”

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  • In a Trial Pitting Him Against Elon Musk, Nobody Has More to Lose Than OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

    In a Trial Pitting Him Against Elon Musk, Nobody Has More to Lose Than OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

    In a trial featuring a clash between Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, neither of the tech titans has emerged as an overly sympathetic character. But nobody has more to lose than Altman, who is expected to take the stand this week to defend himself.

    Already, testimony about Altman’s turbulent tenure at the ChatGPT maker has become prime fodder for internet jokes. One piece of evidence that has inspired countless memes was a text exchange between Altman and a company officer, Mira Murati, in 2023 during his short-lived ouster as CEO, when Altman asked if things were moving “directionally good or bad” and she wrote back: “Sam this is very bad.”

    Musk, the world’s richest man, is seeking Altman’s second ouster from the company leadership as part of a civil lawsuit accusing him of betraying their shared vision for OpenAI. Since its start as a nonprofit funded primarily by Musk, Open AI has evolved into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.

    Even if Musk loses, the trial has invited further scrutiny of Altman’s leadership at a pivotal time for the company and its competition with Musk’s own AI firm and another rival, Anthropic, formed by a group of seven ex-OpenAI leaders. All three firms are moving toward planned initial public offerings that are expected to be some of the largest ever.

    A jury that’s already heard about Altman’s character from a parade of his former allies and adversaries will ultimately decide the verdict. But the repercussions could reverberate widely.

    “This is not looking good for any of them and I think that that’s a little bit unfortunate for the AI industry at a time when the public perception of AI is quite negative and seems to be getting worse,” said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute.

    Musk warned Altman would be one of America’s ‘most hated’ men

    The lawsuit accuses Altman and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, of double-crossing Musk by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be an altruistic steward of a revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges they shifted into a moneymaking mode behind his back.

    Shortly before the trial began, Musk abandoned a bid for damages for himself and instead is seeking an unspecified amount of money to be paid to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI’s charitable arm. In a text exchange with Brockman proposing a possible settlement, Musk warned that Brockman and Altman “will be the most hated men in America” as a result of the trial.

    While Musk, the head of SpaceX, Tesla and a slew of other companies, was well known by the San Francisco Bay Area jury pool, fewer knew who Altman was before the start of the trial, even if they were familiar with ChatGPT.

    As the trial has played out in a federal courtroom in Oakland, California over the last two weeks, jurors have heard from witnesses including OpenAI ex-board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley, who spoke about the decision to fire Altman in 2023 before they were themselves ousted from the board of directors when Altman returned to his role.

    In video testimony last week, Toner said a starting point for the decision to oust Altman was when OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, a respected AI scientist, reached out to confide some of his own concerns.

    “A phrase we used was ‘a pattern of behavior,’ so no one single cause,” Toner said. “The pattern of behavior related to his honesty and candor, his resistance of board oversight.”

    Sutskever was instrumental in the unsuccessful attempt to oust Altman but later said he regretted his role in the shakeup. In his own testimony Monday, Sutskever confirmed that he wrote a 2023 memo to OpenAI’s board that characterized Altman as pitting his executives against one another and exhibiting a “consistent pattern of lying” that was causing a loss of trust and productivity.

    Sutskever said Altman’s behavior contributed to an environment that was “not conducive” to the company’s goals, including its mission to safely build artificial general intelligence. He said he later backtracked and supported Altman’s reinstatement because he was concerned about what would happen to a company he worked hard to create and “cared very much about.”

    “I felt that, had I not done this, the company would have been destroyed, and I felt that this was a Hail Mary,” he testified.

    OpenAI begins presenting its side

    The trial has carried risks also for Musk, who is pursuing an initial public offering this summer for his rocket ship maker, SpaceX, which could make him the world’s first trillionaire. Among the witnesses has been Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member who served as a conduit between Musk and OpenAI’s leaders and also didn’t disclose that Musk was the father of her two young twins, according to trial testimony.

    Not until midday Monday, on the third week of the trial, did OpenAI begin calling its own witnesses, starting with Bret Taylor, the current chair of OpenAI’s board who painted a more positive portrait of Altman’s leadership.

    “I think Sam has done a great job as CEO,” Taylor said. “He’s been forthright with me and the other board members.”

    Syracuse University professor Shubha Ghosh, an expert in business and technology law, said regardless of the outcome of the case, he has doubts about Altman staying on as CEO of OpenAI in the long run.

    “A lot this of might depend upon a testimony,” he said. “And I don’t know what he’s going to say or how he’s gonna say it. But even like the best case, movie theater type performance, with all the music playing and whatnot, I don’t see him coming off as a fairly strong leader, especially (since) this case has gone this far.”

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  • Global Fire Outbreaks Hit Record High as ‘Unprecedented’ Heat Extremes Loom, Scientists Say

    Global Fire Outbreaks Hit Record High as ‘Unprecedented’ Heat Extremes Loom, Scientists Say

    Climate change has driven record-breaking outbreaks of fire in Africa, Asia and elsewhere this year, with conditions expected to get worse as the northern hemisphere’s summer approaches and El Nino weather patterns kick in, scientists warned on Tuesday.

    Fires from January to April have already caused unprecedented levels of damage, burning more than 150 million hectares (370.66 million acres) of land, 20% more than the previous record, according to data compiled by World Weather Attribution, a research group that studies the role played by global warming in extreme weather events.

    The researchers said temperature records ‌could be broken this ‌year, causing widespread drought as well as fires, with ‌the impact ⁠of human-induced climate ⁠change compounded by an especially strong “El Nino” effect.

    “Whilst in many parts of the world the global fire season has yet to heat up, this rapid start, in combination with the forecast El Nino, means that we’re looking at a particularly severe year materializing,” said Theodore Keeping, a wildfire expert at Imperial College London and part of the WWA group.

    As much as 85 million hectares of land have burned in Africa so far ⁠this year, 23% more than the previous record of ‌69 million hectares, he said.

    The unusually high fire ‌activity in Africa is being driven by rapid shifts from extremely wet to extremely dry conditions, he ‌said.

    High rainfall produced more grass during the previous growing season, creating an abundance ‌of fuel to feed the drought- and heat-induced savannah fires of the last few months.

    EL NINO CONDITIONS DUE THIS MONTH

    Asian fires have burned as much as 44 million hectares of land so far this year, nearly 40% more than the previous record year of 2014, ‌with India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and China among the worst hit, Keeping said.

    He warned that wildfire risks could worsen later ⁠this year, with El ⁠Nino increasing the likelihood of severe heat and drought in Australia, Canada, the United States and the Amazon rainforest.

    “The likelihood of harmful extreme fires potentially could be the highest we’ve seen in recent history if a strong El Nino does develop,” he said. El Nino weather conditions, caused by the warming of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, are expected to start in May, the World Meteorological Organization said last month.

    It could cause droughts in Australia, Indonesia and parts of southern Asia as well as flooding in other regions, and may drive up temperatures, the UN agency warned.

    “If there is a strong El Nino later this year, there is a serious risk that the effect of climate change and El Nino … will result in unprecedented weather extremes,” said Friederike Otto, climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-founder of World Weather Attribution.

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  • UN: Over 370 Afghan Civilians Killed in Pakistan Conflict in Three Months

    UN: Over 370 Afghan Civilians Killed in Pakistan Conflict in Three Months

    At least 372 Afghan civilians were killed in conflict between government forces and Pakistan in the first three months of the year, the United Nations reported on Tuesday, with more than half the deaths attributed to airstrikes on a drug rehab facility in Kabul.

    Relations between Islamabad and Kabul have been fraught since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, and exploded into what Pakistan’s defense minister called “open war” in February.

    Islamabad accuses the Afghan Taliban government of sheltering militants behind a surge in attacks — particularly the Pakistan Taliban, who have waged a violent campaign for years.

    Afghan officials deny the charge and counter that Pakistan harbors hostile groups and does not respect its sovereignty.

    “Between 1 January and 31 March 2026, UNAMA documented a total of 372 civilians killed and 397 injured as a result of cross-border armed violence” between Afghanistan’s security forces and Pakistani military forces, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

    In a written response to the report, Islamabad said 130 Pakistani civilians and security personnel were killed since the beginning of this year.

    On Monday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry summoned Kabul’s top envoy to Islamabad, saying a suicide attack that killed 15 people, mostly police officers, at the weekend was “masterminded by terrorists residing in Afghanistan”.

    Long-running cross-border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan escalated in October last year, leaving dozens dead, but after subsiding, they resumed at the end of February.

    The UN mission, which has a mandate to monitor civilian casualties only in Afghanistan, said its report was based on checks with three independent sources.

    The latest three-month figure is higher than any toll for the period recorded by UNAMA since 2011.

    According to the report, 13 women, 46 children (31 boys and 16 girls) and 313 men were killed in Afghanistan between January 1 and March 31.

    – NGO worker killed –

    “The leading cause of civilian casualties was airstrikes (64 percent) with the remaining caused by indirect cross-border firing” and one “targeted killing” of an NGO worker, the UN said.

    The high proportion of men was attributed to the March 16 strikes on a Kabul drug treatment hospital which admitted only male patients. At least 269 people were killed and 122 wounded.

    Many bodies “could not be identified because they were reduced to dismembered body parts”, while others were unrecognizable “due to extensive burns”, the report said.

    “The real figure may be significantly higher,” the UN added.

    The Taliban government reported more than 400 civilians killed in that incident.

    In a written response included in the report, Pakistan insisted “no hospital, drug rehabilitation center, or civilian facility was targeted”.

    “Pakistan’s actions were directed solely against terrorist and military infrastructure,” Islamabad said.

    The UN mission urged Afghan authorities to “compile a record of the missing” from the hospital strike to help their relatives find answers about their fate.

    UNAMA also called on the warring parties to respect international law by refraining from targeting health facilities or from firing shells or grenades into areas populated by civilians.

    The report recounted the death of a female Afghan employee of an NGO in Nuristan on March 19 during the Eid al-Fitr holiday — even though a ceasefire had been agreed a day earlier.

    As she tried to return home with her husband and three children, “Pakistani military forces began firing at their vehicle”, the UN said.

    They stepped out of the car to cross the river and reach a safer area when “the NGO worker was shot in her right side and fell into the water and drowned with her three-year-old son”.

    Since talks in early April in China, Pakistan and Afghanistan have committed to avoiding any escalation, according to Beijing.

    Incidents have decreased without stopping entirely.

    On April 27, seven civilians were killed and 85 wounded by shelling that hit, among other places, a university in Asadabad, according to Afghan authorities. 

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  • Russia, Ukraine Resume Strikes as Truce Expires, One Dead

    Russia, Ukraine Resume Strikes as Truce Expires, One Dead

    Russia resumed strikes on Ukraine as a three-day truce expired on Tuesday, attacking the capital with drones and killing one person in the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian authorities said.

    The Russian military meanwhile said it had shot down 27 Ukrainian drones after the ceasefire expired.

    US President Donald Trump had announced the truce on Friday, hours before Russia’s World War II victory celebrations, saying he hoped it would mark “the beginning of the end” of the four-year-old conflict.

    But even before it expired, the two countries had traded accusations of attacks on civilians that violated the truce.

    As the ceasefire ended on Tuesday, Kyiv came under drone attacks, according to Ukrainian authorities.

    “Enemy UAVs are currently over Kyiv. Please stay safe until the alert is cleared,” the head of the capital’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, posted on Telegram.

    The alert siren was the first confirmed in the capital since Friday, before the ceasefire came into force.

    Kyiv’s regional military administration told residents to remain in shelters and said its air defenses could be operating in the area.

    Russian strikes in eastern Ukraine killed one person and wounded at least four others, regional military authorities said.

    The strikes killed a man and wounded a woman in the area of Synelnykove in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the head of the regional military administration Oleksandr Ganzha posted on Telegram.

    He added three others were wounded in strikes elsewhere in Dnipropetrovsk.

    On the Russian side, “air defense duty assets intercepted and destroyed 27 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles” over the Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov regions from midnight to 7:00 am Moscow time (2100 to 0400 GMT), Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement.

    – ‘No silence at front’ –

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had said Monday that fighting with Russia was ongoing despite the truce, accusing Moscow of not wanting to end the war started by President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

    “Today there was no silence at the front, there was fighting. We have recorded all of this,” Zelensky said in his daily address in the final hours of the truce.

    Zelensky also said it was “clear that the war in Iran is now drawing the most attention from America”.

    Negotiations on the Russia-Ukraine war have so far led nowhere, and have been largely sidelined by the Iran conflict — though Trump’s ceasefire announcement had raised some hope that US-led talks to end Russia’s invasion could be resumed.

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  • Dollar Rises on Fading Hopes of Middle East Peace Deal

    Dollar Rises on Fading Hopes of Middle East Peace Deal

    The US dollar strengthened broadly on Tuesday as talks to end the war in the Middle East showed no signs of progress, pushing oil prices higher and worrying investors that interest rates may need to stay higher to tackle inflationary pressures.

    Investors now fear that the ceasefire that has been in place since April 7 could be in danger and hostilities could resume in the conflict, which began at the end of February, killing thousands and halting vital energy flows.

    With the crucial Strait of Hormuz staying largely closed, Brent crude futures were up 0.6% at $104.88 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate was at $98.93 per barrel, up 0.89% on the day.

    US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was “on life support” after the latest back and forth on a proposal to end the war ‌made clear the ‌two sides were still far apart on a number of issues.

    The currency ‌market ⁠was in a ⁠risk-off mood, with focus shifting to Trump’s visit to China later this week, as well as the US inflation report due later in the day. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is also in Asia for meetings in Japan and South Korea.

    The euro weakened 0.24% to $1.1754, while sterling last bought $1.3575, down 0.26% on the day. The dollar index , which measures the US currency against six others, was at 98.17, up 0.2%.

    The dollar initially benefited from safe haven flows when the war first broke out but has since given up much of those gains and remains choppy on ⁠shaky prospects of a peace deal and a ceasefire that appears to be ‌hanging by a thread.

    Christopher Wong, currency strategist at OCBC, said ‌Trump’s rejection of Iran’s response to the US peace proposal has kept markets cautious and helped to put a floor ‌under the dollar.

    “Still, USD gains were contained, suggesting markets are not yet treating the latest headlines as ‌a full risk-off shock,” Wong said, noting a formal breakdown in diplomatic discussions or fresh military escalation could bring a bigger reaction.

    INFLATION DATA TAKES THE STAGE

    The spotlight will be on a US inflation report, which is forecast to show consumer prices rose 0.6% last month after jumping 0.9% in March, according to a Reuters survey of economists. Estimates ranged from a ‌0.4% gain to a 0.9% rise.

    The data will reinforce the view that the Federal Reserve is likely to keep interest rates unchanged in the ⁠near term. Traders have priced ⁠out the prospect of rate cuts for the year compared to the two cuts expected before the Iran war broke out.

    “The risk is that core inflation is stronger than consensus expectations because of spillover from energy prices to other prices such as airfares and food,” said Sarah Hammoud, currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

    “An upside surprise to US core inflation will push up US interest rates and the dollar.”

    Meanwhile, the Japanese yen was choppy at 157.12 per US dollar as traders weighed comments from Bessent and his Japanese counterpart, Satsuki Katayama, after their meeting in Tokyo.

    The US and Japan maintain “constant and robust” coordination in tackling undesirable, excessively volatile currency moves, Bessent said.

    The remarks suggest Washington broadly consents to Japan’s recent round of yen-buying intervention aimed at propping up its sagging currency, which is inflicting pain on the economy by pushing up import costs.

    The risk-sensitive Australian dollar was 0.27% lower at $0.723 ahead of the federal budget release, while the New Zealand dollar eased 0.17% to $0.59531. Bitcoin was last down 0.65% at $81,272.

    The firmer dollar cast a shadow on emerging market currencies with the Indonesian rupiah and Indian rupee hitting new all-time lows.

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  • New Zealand Moves to Halt Lawsuits over Climate Damage

    New Zealand Moves to Halt Lawsuits over Climate Damage

    New Zealand will change the law to prevent lawsuits that seek to hold companies liable for “climate change damage” linked to greenhouse gas emissions, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said on Tuesday.

    Goldsmith cited a lawsuit launched by Indigenous Maori climate activist Michael Smith, who is seeking to hold six prominent New Zealand companies responsible for environmental harms linked to climate change.

    He said such cases were “creating uncertainty in business confidence”.

    New Zealand would change the law to “prevent findings of liability” for “climate change damage or harm caused by greenhouse gas emissions”, Goldsmith said.

    “The courts are not the right place to resolve claims of harm from climate change, and tort law is not well-suited to respond to a problem like climate change which involves a range of complex environmental, economic and social factors,” Goldsmith said.

    Tort law deals with civil cases in which people seek compensation for harmful or negligent actions.

    Climate activist Smith said the government’s announcement was “an affront to democracy”.

    “If parliament can cancel a live court case, then no legal claim is secure at all, once it becomes politically inconvenient,” he told national broadcaster Radio New Zealand.

    Smith’s case named some of New Zealand’s biggest and best-known companies, including dairy farming giant Fonterra.

    The laws are all but certain to pass parliament, given New Zealand’s ruling coalition holds a majority of seats.

    Climate targets

    New Zealand’s right-leaning government has unraveled a string of environmentally friendly policies since coming to power in 2023.

    It has cancelled a clean car discount incentivizing electric vehicle uptake, reversed a ban on oil and gas exploration, and begun a fast-track scheme for mining permits.

    From South Korea to Germany, a growing body of litigation around the world is pushing courts to take climate change more seriously.

    New Zealand is currently facing a separate legal challenge over its emissions targets.

    In January 2025, the government said it aimed to reduce carbon emissions by 51 percent from 2005 levels by 2035.

    The target was barely changed from a 50-percent cut targeted for 2030.

    Lawyers for Climate Action and the Environmental Law Initiative took Climate Change Minister Simon Watts to court in March, arguing the government was not doing enough.

    New Zealand’s goal, enshrined in law, is to have net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, excluding methane produced by waste and agriculture.

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  • Planes with Hantavirus Cruise Passengers Land in the Netherlands; Hospital Quarantines 12

    Planes with Hantavirus Cruise Passengers Land in the Netherlands; Hospital Quarantines 12

    Two planes with 28 passengers from ‌the MV Hondius cruise ship, which was hit by a hantavirus outbreak, landed in the Netherlands on Tuesday and a Dutch hospital treating a hantavirus patient quarantined 12 staffers in a preventative measure.

    The planes landed at Eindhoven Airport shortly after midnight, carrying eight Dutch nationals. Other passengers of different nationalities will continue on to their home countries from the Netherlands, authorities previously said.

    The Dutch hospital staff members were placed into preventive quarantine for six weeks after blood and urine were handled without updated and more strict protocols, the Radboudumc hospital in the city of Nijmegen ‌said, adding ‌that the infection risk is very low and patient ‌care ⁠continues uninterrupted.

    Radboudumc admitted ⁠a Hondius passenger infected with hantavirus on May 7.

    “We will carefully investigate the course of events to learn from this so that it can be prevented in the future,” said Bertine Lahuis, the chair of the hospital’s executive board.

    Meanwhile, the Hondius set sail for the Netherlands late on Monday evening with 25 crew as well as a ⁠doctor and a nurse. All passengers have disembarked the ‌ship. It is expected to arrive in ‌the Netherlands by May 17, ship owner Oceanwide Expeditions said.

    Three people – a Dutch ‌couple and a German national – have died since the start of ‌the outbreak on the ship, which is usually spread by wild rodents but can also be transmitted person-to-person in rare cases of close contact.

    The World Health Organization on Monday said there were now seven confirmed cases of the ‌Andes strain of the hantavirus and two other suspected cases – one person who died before being tested, and ⁠one on ⁠Tristan da Cunha, a remote South Atlantic island where there were no tests available.

    The confirmed cases include a French passenger, who tested positive after the ship docked in the Canary Islands on Sunday. French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Monday said the passenger was in stable condition after her health had briefly worsened.

    “Our compatriot who tested positive for Hantavirus is still in intensive care in a stable condition,” he said.

    One of 14 Spaniards quarantining at a military hospital in Madrid has tested positive for the virus, the Spanish Health Ministry said in a statement on Monday evening, adding that the patient presented no symptoms and further tests were being done before a definitive result was announced.

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  • A Cannes Film Festival Light on Hollywood but Not Lacking in Star Power Kicks off in France

    A Cannes Film Festival Light on Hollywood but Not Lacking in Star Power Kicks off in France

    The red carpet has been rolled out at the 79th Cannes Film Festival in the South of France.

    The French Riviera festival beginning Tuesday will include 12 days of nonstop world premieres before culminating May 23 with the presentation of the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top honor and one of the film industry’s most prestigious awards.

    The festivities kick off with the opening-night film, “The Electric Kiss,” a French period-comedy, and the awarding of an honorary Palme d’Or to the “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson.

    What isn’t at Cannes has been as buzzed about as much as what is. Hollywood is largely absent this year.

    While blockbusters like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Elvis” have touched down at previous incarnations, studio films this year have been either scared away by the possibility of a rocky reception or by the high cost of flying in A-listers to the Cote d’Azur. The closest thing in Cannes’ slate is an anniversary celebration for “Fast & Furious.”

    Speaking to members of the press Monday, Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux said Hollywood “is reshaping” in the midst of Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

    “I hope the studio films will come back,” Frémaux said.

    Cannes has become better known for its lengthy standing ovations than its boos. This year, a long list of big-name filmmakers will have center stage.

    Among the filmmakers set to unveil new movies are Pedro Almodóvar (“Bitter Christmas”), James Gray (“Paper Tiger”), Na Hong-jin (“Hope”), Pawel Pawlikowski (“Fatherland”) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“All of a Sudden”).

    If Cannes has waned as a global launchpad for studio releases, it has grown as a breeding ground for Oscar contenders.

    Two years ago, Sean Baker’s “Anora” won the Palme in Cannes before winning best picture. Last year, Cannes selections like “Sentimental Value,” “The Secret Agent” and “It Was Just an Accident” went on to play prominent roles in awards season.

    More often than not, the specialty distributor Neon has been at the forefront of the Cannes-to-Oscars pipeline. Neon has backed the past six Palme d’Or winners, an unprecedented streak that it may be poised to extend. Neon is attached to more than a quarter of the 22 films in competition for the Palme d’Or.

    On Tuesday, the jury deciding that award and others will hold a news conference before beginning their sequestered movie watching. South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook is serving as president of the nine-member panel, along with Demi Moore, Chloé Zhao, Stellan Skarsgård and others.

    How much any of this will serve as backdrop for “The White Lotus” remains to be seen. The fourth season of Mike White’s acclaimed HBO series is based around a trip to Cannes. Last month, the show began shooting on the French Riviera.

    While Cannes may be light on big Hollywood movies, it isn’t lacking in stars. Set to appear over the next two weeks are Kristen Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Adam Driver, Javier Bardem, Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Rami Malek, Sebastian Stan, Sandra Hüller and many others.

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  • Seven Killed in Blast in Northwest Pakistan Market

    Seven Killed in Blast in Northwest Pakistan Market

    Seven people, including two police officers and five civilians, were killed and dozens wounded in a blast at a market in north-western Pakistan on Tuesday, a senior police officer said, the second deadly attack in the region in four days.

    The bomb blast – which took place in Tehsil Sarai Nawrang Bazar near ‌Bannu district ‌on the border with Afghanistan – threatens ‌to ⁠reignite tensions between ⁠the neighbors whose militaries clashed fiercely this year, Reuters said.

    Ambulances and fire vehicles have been dispatched to the scene of the blast, the agency involved in rescue activities said in a statement.

    Those with serious injuries had been rushed ⁠to hospitals in Bannu, Deputy Superintendent of ‌Police Nawrang Saeed ‌Khan said.

    Mohammad Ishaq, the medical superintendent of THQ ‌Hospital, said they had received 37 patients so ‌far and that the condition of some of them was critical.

    Visuals from the scene of the blast showed damaged shopfronts and a mangled vehicle.

    A ‌car bombing followed by an ambush at a police post in ⁠the same region ⁠killed 15 police personnel on Saturday. Pakistan blamed Afghanistan-based militants for the attack and delivered a strong protest to Kabul.

    The Afghan Taliban government said on Monday it has no comment to offer immediately.

    Pakistan has blamed Kabul for harboring militants who it says use Afghan soil to plot attacks in Pakistan. The Taliban has denied the allegations and said militancy in Pakistan is an internal problem.

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