WORLD

TEHRAN | Xinhua |  The United States and Iran have received a peace plan aimed at ending hostilities, but Tehran has rejected reopening the Strait of Hormuz immediately, Reuters reported Monday. The move comes after U.S. President Donald Trump warned of dire consequences if a deal was not reached by …

  What disruption  at Bab el-Mandeb and the Red Sea could mean for the world economy   COMMENT | FLAVIO MACAU | If you’d never heard of the Strait of Hormuz before, you probably have by now. Iran’s effective closure of the waterway, which usually carries about 20% of the world’s …

JERUSALEM | Xinhua | U.S. President Donald Trump told Israeli media Channel 12 on Sunday that the United States is engaged in “deep” negotiations with Iran to secure a ceasefire, while stressing that Washington will not “leave in the middle” of the conflict. Trump said his administration is maintaining contacts …

VIENNA | Xinhua |  The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, on Sunday decided to increase oil output by 206,000 barrels per day in May, according to an OPEC statement. The decision was announced following a virtual meeting attended by Saudi Arabia, Russia, …

ROME, ITALY | TASS | Pope Leo XIV said domination is “entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ” following calls by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to pray for the victory of American troops “in the name of Jesus Christ.” “We know that throughout history, mission has not infrequently been …

LOS ANGELES | Xinhua | NASA’s Artemis II Moon mission lifted off Wednesday from the U.S. state of Florida, carrying four astronauts on the first crewed flight around the Moon in more than 50 years. The Space Launch System rocket, with the Orion spacecraft on top, launched from NASA’s Kennedy …

BEIJING | Xinhua |  China will step up efforts to empower traditional industries with artificial intelligence (AI) across all sectors and assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their digital transformation, an expert said. Zhang Xiaoyan, deputy director of the China Center for Information Industry Development, made the remarks during …

TEHRAN, IRAN | Xinhua | Iran has rejected a U.S. proposal for a 48-hour ceasefire, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Friday. The proposal was delivered to Iran through a “friendly” country on Thursday, Fars quoted an informed source as saying. The source added that Washington has stepped up …

BEIJING, CHINA | Xinhua | With U.S.-Israel joint military strikes on Iran entering the fifth week with no clear path to resolution, the economic aftershocks are spreading far beyond the Middle East. What began as a geopolitical flashpoint has evolved into a systemic economic shock, reverberating through energy markets, industrial …

WASHINGTON | Xinhua |  While saying the United States is “nearing completion” of its core objectives in Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday night threatened to hit Iran “extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” a timeline he has recently set for ending the monthlong war. “I …