World

Scottish National Party (SNP) leader John Swinney was re-elected as Scotland’s first minister on Tuesday after three rounds of voting in the Scottish Parliament.

Swinney secured 56 votes, defeating candidates from five opposition parties, and is set to be formally appointed through a Royal Warrant issued by King Charles and sworn in on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Scottish Parliament after his electoral success, Swinney vowed to be “a first minister for all of Scotland.”

A member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999, Swinney has led Scotland’s government since 2024, after taking over as SNP leader.

The SNP won 58 of 129 seats in the Holyrood elections held on May 7, remaining the largest party but falling short of the 65 seats required for a majority.

Source: Xinhua

Africa’s top health agency has declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern Ituri province.

Around 246 cases and 65 deaths have been reported, mainly in the gold-mining towns of Mongwalu and Rwampara, said the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa).

Its statement on Friday added that it was convening a meeting with DR Congo, Uganda, South Sudan and other international partners to discuss response efforts and cross-border surveillance.

Ebola was first discovered in 1976 in what is now DR Congo, and is thought to have spread from bats. This is the 17th outbreak of the deadly viral disease in the country.

It is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, causing severe bleeding and organ failure.

Early symptoms include fever, muscle pain, fatigue, headache and sore throat. There is no cure for Ebola.

Preliminary tests conducted at the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) in the capital, Kinshasa, have detected the virus in 13 of 20 samples analysed, following consultations with DR Congo’s Ministry of Health and National Public Institute.

Of the 65 deaths, four were reported among lab-confirmed cases, CDC Africa said.

Additional suspected cases have also been reported in Ituri’s provincial capital, Bunia, with laboratory confirmation pending.

The Congolese government has not yet officially declared an outbreak. A staffer told the BBC a press conference was expected later on Friday.

Ituri has been under military rule since 2021, with the civilian authority replaced by a military general in an attempt to neutralise dozens of armed groups which have operated in the area for many years. These include the Allied Democratic Forced (ADF), affiliated to the Islamic State group.

Around 50,000 people have died from the virus in different African countries over the past 50 years.

DR Congo’s deadliest outbreak was between 2018 and 2020, during which nearly 2,300 people died.

Last year, 45 people died after an outbreak in the central Kasai province.

Source: BBC

A 33-year-old tourist from Tamil Nadu died after getting caught in a tussle between two captive elephants at Dubare Elephant Camp in Kodagu district on Monday, officials said.

The tourist, J Tulasi, had arrived at the district a day earlier with her husband and son, said a senior official familiar with the matter.

The incident occurred at around noon, when tourists gathered near a lake to watch two elephants, Marthanda and Kanjan, as they were being taken for a bath as part of their daily routine.

The official said that the tussle began after Marthanda suddenly brushed against Kanjan. Despite efforts by mahouts M Ghose and Vijay Kumar to control them, Kanjan charged at Marthanda and rammed him. As Marthanda lost balance and fell, the woman became trapped underneath the elephant and died. She was killed on the spot, they added.

“The elephant (Kanjan) was not in musth,” said deputy range forest officer Ranjan K.

Musth refers to a periodic hormonal secretion that causes increased aggression in male elephants.

The body was later shifted to the Kushalnagar taluk government hospital for a post-mortem examination and was subsequently returned to the woman’s family, said officials.

Meanwhile, state forest minister Eshwar Khandre ordered officials to frame a Standard Operating Procedure for visitor safety at elephant camps throughout the state. He also ordered a thorough probe into the matter. “Visitors should stand at least 100 feet away while watching elephants being bathed. Under no circumstances should tourists be allowed to approach elephants for selfies, photographs or bathing activities. Tourists should also not be allowed to feed elephants items such as bananas, jaggery, sugarcane or any other food by hand,” he said.

Forest officers reached the camp soon after the incident and initiated an inquiry, they said.

Dubare Elephant Camp is among Karnataka’s better-known wildlife tourism attractions and regularly draws visitors to observe elephant training and bathing activities.

(Hindustan Times)

US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met Thursday in Beijing for a high-stakes summit, with trade and the Iran war expected to dominate the agenda.

Xi hosted a welcoming ceremony for Trump at the Great Hall of the People.

Trump arrived Wednesday evening at Beijing Capital International Airport, where he was welcomed by Vice President Han Zheng as a military band played alongside dozens of cheering youths waving flags.

It marked the first official visit to China by a sitting US president since Trump’s visit in 2017 during his previous term.

The Middle East conflict and Taiwan as well as trade and tariffs are high on the agenda.

Trump is accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth along with numerous CEOs of major US companies, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Tesla’s Elon Musk.

The US business delegation also includes Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, Cargill’s Brian Sikes, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, GE Aerospace’s Larry Culp, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, Micron’s Sanjay Mehrotra and Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon.

Trump’s son Eric Trump and his wife, Lara Trump, are also accompanying the president and disembarked from the plane shortly after him.

First lady Melania Trump is not accompanying the president, unlike in 2017, when the two were hosted by Xi and Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan.

The visit comes amid the Middle East conflict, triggered after US and Israeli forces launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, prompting retaliation against Israel and US allies in the Gulf along with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

A prolonged ceasefire is currently in effect.

China has reiterated calls for dialogue in the region, while Washington has accused Beijing of supporting Iran’s military and economic capabilities.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is set to host his “old friend” Vladimir Putin less than a week after Donald Trump’s high-profile visit, as Beijing seeks to project itself as a stable and predictable power in a world shaken by trade tensions, wars and an energy crisis.

China and Russia have cast Putin’s two-day trip this week — his 25th visit to China — as further evidence of their “all-weather” partnership, even as the West urges Beijing to pressure Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine.

While China presents itself as a peace mediator in the conflict and a neutral party, Putin says China and Russia support each other’s “core interests” as he pursues additional energy deals with the world’s second-largest economy in the face of Western sanctions.

“The Xi-Putin summit will telegraph to the world that the China-Russia strategic partnership remains the cornerstone of both countries’ foreign policies and that any attempt by the U.S. to drive a wedge between them is destined to fail,” said Ian Storey, principal fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

The visit follows Trump’s trip last week, which generated positive optics but few major commercial agreements. Xi described ⁠Sino-U.S. ties as a relationship of “strategic stability,” challenging the “strategic competition” framework associated with former U.S. President Joe Biden.

By hosting foreign leaders, China is seeking to strengthen its image as a pillar of global stability, in contrast to U.S. struggles to end the war in Ukraine and contain a separate conflict with Iran that has disrupted global energy flows.

BEIJING SEEKS TO REASSURE

During state visits, Beijing tries to reassure Western trading partners, including the U.S., about its rise as an economic and technological power while downplaying risks in their ties.

The White House said after Trump’s China visit that a consensus had been reached on issues that will enhance “stability” for global businesses and consumers.

At the same time, China’s engagement with countries such as Russia also reinforces its message that its diplomacy is consistent and not swayed by the actions of strategic partners, despite Western pressure.

“It’s unrealistic to expect Xi to put pressure on Putin to end the war in Ukraine. Xi doesn’t wield that kind of influence over Putin and in any case the Chinese understand how a defeat for Russia in Ukraine would weaken Putin’s political standing,” said Storey.

“As such, Beijing will continue to provide Moscow with diplomatic cover at the U.N., economic assistance and dual-use technologies for Russia’s armed forces,” he said.

China says it has ⁠never provided lethal weapons to either side of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and that it strictly controls exports of dual-use items.

“During the visit, the two heads of state will exchange views on cooperation across all areas of bilateral relations, as well as on international and regional issues of mutual concern,” Guo Jiakun, spokesperson at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a regular news conference on Monday.

POWER OF SIBERIA 2 PIPELINE

During Putin’s last visit in September 2025, Russia and China agreed to build the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, but have yet to agree on pricing.

Energy supply shortages linked to conflict in Iran may back Russia’s case for the pipeline as a long-term gas source. Beijing is expected, ⁠however, to stick to its diversification strategy by discussing supply deals with both Turkmenistan and Russia, said a Beijing-based industry expert.

China could agree a broad deal with Russia covering annual supply volumes and terms such as supply flexibility and seasonality, while leaving pricing open-ended, said the person, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the topic.

Price negotiations could take years.

Xi in 2014 announced a fourth pipeline linking Turkmenistan’s giant Galkynysh gas field to northwest ⁠China, but the project has yet to be finalised due to pricing disputes and complexity involving Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, through which the pipeline transits.

China remains the largest buyer of Russian oil, including pipeline supplies and sea-borne shipments.

Despite Western sanctions on Russia’s oil exports, Chinese independent refiners are regular customers, with transactions settled largely in Chinese yuan. State oil refiners also recently resumed purchases following a brief U.S. sanction waiver.

Russia agreed in ⁠2025 to supply an additional 2.5 million metric tons of oil per year to China via Kazakhstan.

“In principle, we have reached a high degree of consensus regarding the taking of a serious — indeed, very substantial — step forward in our cooperation within the oil and gas sectors,” Putin told reporters on May 9.

“If we succeed in finalising them and bringing them to a conclusion during the visit, I will be very pleased.”

Source: Reuters

The U.S. government on Monday announced sanctions against three people and nine companies, including four based in Hong Kong and four in the United Arab Emirates, for aiding Iran’s shipment of oil to China. The ninth company is based in Oman.

The U.S. Treasury move follows sanctions announced on Friday on individuals and companies aiding Iranian purchases of weapons and components used to make drones and ballistic missiles.

It comes days before U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned meeting with Xi Jinping, where he is expected to press the Chinese leader to help resolve the standoff with Iran and reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz.

Treasury said the new designations by the Office ⁠of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) were aimed at individuals and entities that helped Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sell and ship its allotment of Iranian oil to China using a series of front companies.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration would keep using sanctions to deprive the Iranian government and military of funding for weapons, its nuclear program or support for proxies in the region.

“Treasury will continue to cut the Iranian regime off from the financial networks it uses to carry out terrorist acts and to destabilize the global economy,” Bessent said.

The State Department also announced a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of the IRGC, which is designated by Washington as a terrorist organization, and its branches.

Treasury said ⁠the IRGC relies on shell companies to arrange and receive payment for its allotment of Iranian oil shipments. It said Monday’s action builds on sanctions imposed in July 2025 on Golden Globe, a Turkey-based company that Treasury said handles hundreds of millions of dollars in IRGC oil sales annually.

The three people sanctioned by the United States work for the IRGC’s Shahid Purja’fari oil headquarters, coordinating payments through Golden Globe, Treasury said.

The companies targeted include:

• Hong ⁠Kong-based Hong Kong Blue Ocean Ltd and Hong Kong-based Hong Kong Sanmu Ltd, both of which Treasury described as cover companies that arrange the sale and shipment of Iranian oil.
• Dubai-based Ocean Allianz Shipping LLC and Sharjah-based Atic Energy FZE, which facilitated shipments of Iranian oil on five ⁠sanctioned shadow fleet tankers in 2025.
• Oman-based Zeus Logistics Group, which arranged vessels to carry Iranian oil cargoes.
• Hong Kong-based Jiandi HK Ltd, which signed a deal with the IRGC to purchase tens of millions of dollars of Iranian oil.
• Hong Kong-based Max Honor ⁠International Trade Co Ltd, which purchased millions of barrels of Iranian oil from the IRGC in 2025.
• Dubai-based Blanca Goods Wholesaler LLC.
• Dubai-based Universal Fortune Trading LLC, which Treasury said had also been used as a front company by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

Source: Reuters

A renowned Nepali Sherpa guide scaled Mount Everest for the 32nd time on Sunday, an official said, smashing his own record set last year.

Kami Rita Sherpa, 56, reached the 8,849-metre (29,032 foot) peak - the highest in the world - while guiding clients from the 14 Peaks Expedition company.

Nepal’s Department of Tourism congratulated the Sherpa for achieving the ‘‘historic milestone’‘ and for his contributions to promoting mountain tourism.

He reached the summit at 10:12 a.m. (0427 GMT) on Sunday, it said in a statement ⁠adding that a Sherpa woman, Lakhpa, 52, had made her 11th ascent to the peak, the most by a woman. Details of the climbs were not available.

Kami Rita was born in the same Thame village in Solukhumbu district as Tenzing Norgay. Norgay and New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary were the first to climb Everest in 1953.

Kami Rita climbed the peak for the first time in 1994 and has repeated the feat every year except in 2014, 2015 and 2020 ⁠when expeditions to Everest were closed for different reasons. He reached the summit twice in some years.

More than 8,000 people have climbed Mount Everest, many of them several times, since it was first scaled by Norgay and Hillary.

Among non-Sherpa climbers, the record is ⁠held by British guide Kenton Cool who has accomplished the feat 19 times followed by American climbers Dave Hahn and Garrett Madison with 15 climbs each. Cool and Madison ⁠are currently on Everest to improve their records.

Guiding foreign climbers to Everest and other peaks provides crucial family income to many Sherpas, natives of the ⁠Solukhumbu district where Everest is located.

Authorities have issued 492 permits to climbers for Everest for this March-May climbing season, while three Nepali climbers have died on the mountain this month.

Source: Reuters

In a tragic incident that occurred in Indonesia, at least three people were burned alive when Mount Dukono volcano erupted suddenly. 

It is being reported that about 20 hikers climbed the mountain despite the warning and no-go zone. 

Suddenly, the volcano erupted, and immediately the sky was filled with ash and smoke, resulting in the death of three people, two of whom were tourists from Singapore. 

Officials say that many foreign tourists are ignoring the danger just to create social media content.

Source: India.com

US President Donald Trump has warned Iran the "clock is ticking" as talks to bring the war to an end have stalled.

"They better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them," he wrote on his Truth Social platform. "TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!"

The message came as the president was due to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.

Iranian media meanwhile reported the US had failed to make any concrete concessions in its response to Tehran’s latest proposals to end the conflict.

A lack of compromise from Washington would lead to an "impasse in the negotiations", the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

Trump’s message echoed his threat that a "whole civilisation" would die unless Iran agreed to a deal to end the war, shortly before the ceasefire was announced in early April.

The president warned earlier this week that truce was on "massive life support" after rejecting Tehran’s demands, labelling them "totally unacceptable".

Esmail Baghaei, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, insisted they were "responsible" and "generous".

According to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, they included an immediate end to the war on all fronts - a reference to the continued Israeli attacks against Iran-supported Hezbollah in Lebanon - a halt to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, and guarantees of no further attacks on Iran.

They also reportedly included a demand for compensation for war damage and an emphasis on Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said on Sunday that Washington had set five conditions in response to Tehran’s proposal.

They reportedly included a demand that Iran keep only one nuclear site in operation and transfer its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to the US.

Trump suggested on Friday that he would accept a 20-year suspension by Iran of its nuclear programme - a major sticking point between the two countries - in what appeared to be confirmation of a shift in position away from a demand for a total end to it.

Israeli and US forces began massive air strikes on Iran on 28 February. The ceasefire meant to facilitate talks has largely been observed despite occasional exchanges of fire.

Iran has also continued to control the Strait of Hormuz, effectively closing the vital waterway through which around 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas travels.

The move, which Iran has said is in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks, has sent oil prices soaring globally.

The US, for its part, has been enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports to exert pressure on Tehran to agree to its terms.

Pakistan has been playing the role of mediator between the US and Iran, but both sides still appear to be far apart.

Source: BBC

The US military fired on an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday as US President Donald Trump intensified pressure on Tehran to reach a deal ending the war.

An American fighter jet fired several rounds at an unladen Iranian-flagged tanker attempting to sail toward an Iranian port, US Central Command said in a post on X.

Since the two sides agreed to a ceasefire on April 8, their negotiations have yielded no concrete results, and tensions have recently risen again.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said the US has had “very good talks” with Iran over the past 24 hours. He added there is “never a deadline” on when he expects Tehran to respond to a US proposal for ending the war.

Trump said that Iran has agreed to his chief demand regarding nuclear weapons, saying, “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t, and they’ve agreed to that, among other things”. However, there is no official confirmation of what Iran has or has not agreed to.

Iran said on Wednesday it was reviewing the new US proposal. Multiple media reports indicated Washington and Tehran were moving toward a one-page memorandum to end the war while deferring complex issues, such as Iran’s nuclear program, to later negotiations.

US media outlet Axios first reported a proposed 14-point, one-page memorandum to end the war. CNN, citing an unnamed source familiar with the negotiations, confirmed the information. The memorandum would declare an end to the war and trigger a 30-day negotiation period on resolving critical issues including nuclear matters, unfreezing Iranian assets and future security arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran is still reviewing a US proposal and will convey its response to Pakistan — which has served as the main intermediary between the two sides — after completing its assessment, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.

Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, expressed skepticism. He described the text reported by Axios as “more of an American wish list than a reality”.

“The Americans will not gain anything in a war they are losing that they have not gained in face-to-face negotiations,” Rezaei wrote in a social media post on Wednesday.

The firing occurred following the US launch of “Project Freedom”, a military operation to guide commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which major oil and gas supplies, fertilizer and other petroleum products passed before the war.

The US launched the mission on Sunday but halted it on Tuesday, citing progress in peace talks. Trump called the operation a “humanitarian gesture”, saying other countries had asked the US to “help free up their ships, which are locked up in the Strait of Hormuz”.

Iran and some analysts have disputed the US claims. Baghaei said the waterway had been safe for international shipping before US-Israeli attacks began.

Following the halt of Project Freedom, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said in a post on X on Wednesday that safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz is possible under “new procedures”, though it did not specify what these procedures entail.

Source: ChinaDaily 

U.S. President Donald Trump departed Beijing Friday after two days of talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping that ran the gamut from Iran and Taiwan to trade, oil and Boeing.

The summit, marked by pomp, flag-waving youths and a state dinner, also included statements from either side. Xi said the U.S. and China agreed to “strategic stability” as a framework for the next three years, according to state media. Trump said China has agreed to buy U.S. oil, and will purchase 200 airplanes from Boeing, in an interview with Fox News.

The main question for the outcome of the summit will be “which of the deals the president would like to strike are ripe enough” to see through, said Ryan Fedasiuk, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “Frankly, a lot will be left on the tree to ripen further.”

Trump invited Xi to visit the White House on September 24, indicating that trade talks will extend beyond this week. Trump announced the invitation Thursday evening at the state dinner, according to a video shared by the White House.

China has yet to confirm that Xi will accept the invitation to visit, although state media on Friday noted Trump’s invitation to continue to conversation with Trump in Washington, D.C.

The two leaders could also meet around the APEC meeting in Shenzhen in November, and the G20 meeting in Florida in December.

“Looking forward, now our attention turns towards the September 24 President Xi ‘s visit to the U.S.,” said Hai Zhao, a director of international political studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state-affiliated think tank.

“This will definitely be a state visit because that’s only fair. This is a return visit for President Trump’s official state visit to China,” Zhao said, noting it’s possible Xi could travel to New York before Washington, D.C.

The United Nations General Assembly is scheduled for earlier in September in New York.

Source: CNBC

Actor-turned-politician Vijay, who made a memorable debut in politics by breaking the (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) DMK and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (AIADMK) traditional duopoly in the Tamil Nadu state, is likely to form a government as early as May 7, sources said.

The TVK emerged as the single-largest party with 108 seats in the 234-member assembly, falling short of the majority mark of 118.

Congress (which has 5 seats) has now decided to back Vijay - taking the seat count to 113. TVK insiders had told NDTV that they are counting on backing from other key DMK allies - CPI (two seats), CPM (two seats), and VCK (two seats).

While DMK won only 59 seats, Chief Minister MK Stalin lost his stronghold, Kolathur seat, to TVK. The AIADMK won 47 seats.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Tamilisai Soundarajan said Vijay’s big win in Tamil Nadu is not only an effect of a ‘Vijay wave’ but also an “anti-wave against MK Stalin, the misgovernance of the DMK, and the highly disturbed law-and-order situation”.

“Vijay has made his mark in one shot. He achieved significant numbers, even though he fell short by 10. He will receive support, and he should run a good government,” he said.

Source: NDTV