Yemen’s ex-president Hadi dies in Saudi Arabia
Yemen’s former president Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi has died in Saudi Arabia, a source in the Yemeni presidency told AFP.
Hadi, who was in his eighties, “died in the Saudi capital following a sudden health crisis”, the source said, requesting anonymity.
Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in 2015 when civil war erupted between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who had forced the government from the capital Sanaa, and a Saudi-led coalition.
Iran and US trade air strikes after Trump dismisses report of Hormuz deal
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard targeted a US airbase after the US military carried out what a Washington official said were strikes on an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz, hours after President Donald Trump rejected a report he was close to a compromise deal with Tehran.
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Oil prices on the rise again as US-Iran fighting escalates
Benchmark prices for crude oil rose as Iran said it targeted a US airbase in response to American air strikes. Commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which had slightly ticked up in previous days, dwindled down to almost nothing again.
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Lebanon says 11 dead, including 2 children, in Israeli strikes on south
Dollar likely to weaken over long-term due to US fiscal dynamics
The dollar will likely weaken over the long-term given concerns over elevated US debt levels, the EMEA CEO of JPMorgan Asset Management said.
The dollar, the world’s No.1 reserve currency, has risen roughly 1.8 percent since the start of the Iran war in late February given its safe-haven credentials.
“The hegemony of the US Treasury is still alive and well … but we look at the fiscal balance and trade and the ability to pay back that debt,” said Patrick Thomson, CEO EMEA at JPMorgan Asset Management at a panel at an ICMA conference in London.
“There is an argument to say over the long term the US dollar will weaken. The dynamic of the fiscal position in the US is creating that level of debt that is not sustainable in the long run,” said Thomson.
Israel kills chief of Hamas armed wing in Gaza strike
Israel said on Wednesday it had killed the new head of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, Mohammed Odeh, after killing his predecessor earlier this month despite an ongoing ceasefire.
Since Hamas’s October 2023 attack, Israel has systematically targeted the group’s leaders, both in Gaza and across the region.
Gaza remains gripped by daily violence, with both the Israeli military and Hamas accusing one another of violating the truce in effect since October 10.
Iran expects FIFA to facilitate multi-entry visa to US for team
Iran’s football federation expects FIFA to facilitate multiple-entry visas for the US for the Iranian national team ahead of the 2026 World Cup, its president said in a video broadcast by Iranian media.
“FIFA is expected to deliver a multiple-entry visa so that the players can enter (the United States) and return (to Mexico),” federation president Mehdi Taj said.
Known as “Team Melli”, the Iranian squad had initially planned to base itself in Tucson in Arizona during the tournament, but later moved its training camp to Tijuana in Mexico, which will co-host the World Cup alongside the US and Canada.
Taj previously said the move was intended to avoid complications related to US visas and to allow the squad to travel directly to Mexico aboard Iran Air flights.
UN adds Israel to blacklist of perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict zones
The UN has added Israel to its blacklist of perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict zones. A decision strongly criticized by Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, who revealed the decision on X, stating that the global organization had made a “political decision” by adding Israel to the list.
“This is a political decision! Disconnected from the facts and reality,” he wrote, adding that Israel provided evidence to refute the UN reports.
Israeli strikes kill at least 8 in Lebanon’s fourth largest city
The Israeli military pounded Lebanon’s fourth largest city, killing at least eight people in its ongoing military escalation against the Hezbollah group ahead of crucial talks in Washington.
Several others were injured in the strikes, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
The intensification comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion in the Israeli military’s attacks in Lebanon.
Lebanese and Israeli military officials are set to hold their first security talks on Friday in the US capital. The talks have extended a nominal ceasefire that went into effect April 17, although the attacks have since intensified.
Iran condemns US ceasefire violations after strikes in south
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned what it called violations by the US after its strikes on the southern port city of Bandar Abbas and expressed solidarity with Oman after President Donald Trump threatened to “blow them up”.
The ministry’s spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Iran would “take all necessary measures to defend its national sovereignty” and condemned what he called “the threatening rhetoric of American officials against Iran and several regional countries.”
Euro zone bond yields rise with oil prices on Iran strikes
Euro zone bond yields rose after the US and Iran traded strikes, threatening their ceasefire agreement and pushing oil prices up around 3 percent.
Germany’s 10-year bond yield rose 2 basis points (bps) to 3.005 percent.
The two-year German bond yield, which is more sensitive to European Central Bank interest rate expectations, rose 4 bps to 2.617 percent. Yields move inversely to prices.
ECB chief economist sees persistent impact on inflation from Iran war
The energy shock caused by the Middle East conflict will likely have a persistent impact on inflation even if there is a quick solution to the war, the European Central Bank’s chief economist, Philip Lane, said.
While oil prices historically tended to revert to original levels after a burst of increases, the current episode may be different as energy costs may stay elevated with countries restocking inventory or diversifying their energy mix, he said.
“We had an overnight, fairly quick and big decline in global oil supply, which has been masked until now by inventories,” Lane said at a conference hosted by the BOJ and its think tank in Tokyo.
“Even if the initial energy shock starts to reverse, the second round (effects) will be with us for a while,” he said.
Israeli soldier killed by Hezbollah drone near Lebanon border, says military
The Israeli military said that a soldier was killed the day before by a Hezbollah drone near the Lebanon border, taking to 24 the number of its troops killed in the war with the Iran-backed group.
A military statement named her as 20-year-old Sergeant Rotem Yanai, who “fell during operational activity in northern Israel”.
It added that one reservist soldier was severely injured and another moderately so in the same incident.
The military told AFP that Yanai was killed by a Hezbollah explosive drone.
Asian shares decline and oil prices up more than $1 after US strikes on Iran
Asian shares declined following more of what the US military said were defensive strikes against Iran.
Oil prices gained more than $2 a barrel after having dropped sharply a day before. US futures inched lower.
Israel strikes Tyre after declaring ‘combat zones’ in south Lebanon
The Israeli military said it had begun new strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure around the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. Israel had previously declared all areas south of Lebanon’s Zahrani River, as “combat zones” and told residents to evacuate ahead of attacks.
US strikes Iran, drawing retaliatory attack on American base
The United States struck southern Iran, drawing retaliation from Tehran against a US military base, in the most serious clashes since an April ceasefire began.
FRANCE 24’s correspondant Reza Sayah has more from Tehran.
EU Kallas warns ‘not in anybody’s interest’ for Iran war to continue
EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas warned that it was in no one’s interest for the US war with Iran to continue, as the two sides traded fire in the worst clashes since an April ceasefire began.
“They are right now in between this very dangerous zone of war and peace, and it is not in anybody’s interest that this war continues,” Kallas told reporters at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Cyprus.
Global fuel crisis adds urgency to Cambodian push to tap $300 billion energy resources
The oil shock from the Iran conflict has created renewed urgency for Cambodia to resolve a festering maritime dispute with Thailand and unlock undersea energy resources worth $300 billion, Cambodia’s energy minister said.
Cambodia is relying on renewable energy sources including hydropower and a growing solar capacity to weather the current crisis, but its hopes for further industrialisation rest on more fossil fuel assets, Minister of Mines and Energy Keo Rottanak told Reuters in an interview.
Middle East war reshaping national energy strategies, says IEA
The Middle East war is pushing countries to open new supply routes and turn to domestic resources to tide over the world’s biggest energy crisis, the International Energy Agency said.
“We are in the midst of the largest energy security crisis the world has ever faced – and I believe this will reshape investment strategies globally, with parallels to the major changes the energy world witnessed after the oil shocks of the 1970s,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol
“We are already seeing intensified efforts by both producer and consumer countries to diversify trade routes and energy sources – such as advancing new pipelines and other supply infrastructure, on the one hand, and turning more to domestically available resources, on the other,” he added in the World Energy Investment report by the energy agency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).