NEWS

New Delhi, India – The optics were warm: As United States Vice President JD Vance and his family visited Narendra Modi on Monday evening, the Indian prime minister showed them around his residence and gave each of the American leader’s three children a peacock feather.

But behind the smiles and hugs hovered the shadow of US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose major tariffs on Indian goods as a part of the trade war he has unleashed on the world since returning to office in January.

Vance’s four-day tour, which began on Monday, comes as the Modi government desperately tries to duck US tariffs. These “reciprocal” tariffs – including a 26 percent levy on Indian exports to the US – are currently on pause for 90 days, until July 8, for all countries except China. India, like all other countries, however, is currently being tariffed at 10 percent.

The US is India’s largest trading partner and the biggest buyer of its exports. Officials from the two countries have been engaged in intense negotiations to lock down a bilateral trade agreement that would allow them to avoid a tariff battle.

But those negotiations have prompted concerns among Indian farmers: The country has long used tariffs to shield agriculture from being swamped by products from other countries. Now, farmers critical of Modi fear that the Indian government may weaken those protections as part of a trade deal with Trump.

As Vance prepared to vacation with his family at India’s famed Taj Mahal and historic forts, dozens of farmers protesting in several villages across India burned his effigies on Monday and raised slogans: “Go back, Vance. India is not for sale!”

So, what is at stake on Vance’s maiden visit to India? How much do India and the US need each other economically? How much do they tariff each other? And what are the political challenges Modi faces in negotiating a trade deal?

What did Modi and Vance talk about?

On Monday evening, Modi received Vance along with his wife, Usha Vance, whose parents are from India, and their three children at his residence, where the leaders also separately held talks. They “reviewed and positively assessed the progress in various areas of bilateral cooperation,” Modi’s office said in a statement late at night.

The leaders “welcomed the significant progress in the negotiations for a mutually beneficial” bilateral trade agreement, the statement added, noting “continued efforts towards enhancing cooperation in energy, defence, strategic technologies and other areas”.

However, the statements did not delve into the details of the ongoing closed-door trade negotiations.

Vance’s office said in a statement that a bilateral trade agreement presents an opportunity to negotiate a new and modern one focused on promoting job creation and citizen wellbeing in both countries.

The US vice president’s visit builds on early engagement between the two governments in Trump’s second term. Modi was among the earliest leaders to meet Trump in Washington, DC in February, and Trump is expected to visit India later this year for a summit of the Quad grouping, which consists of the US, India, Japan and Australia, and is widely seen as a counter to China’s influence in the Asia Pacific region.

Randhir Jaiswal, India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, said Monday that Vance’s visit would “further deepen the India-US comprehensive global strategic partnership”.

What’s Vance’s visit really about?

While India views the US as a critical strategic partner as New Delhi increasingly battles Beijing’s clout in the Indian Ocean region, Washington, too, sees the world’s largest democracy as a counterbalance to China.

But Trump’s tariff threats have perturbed that broader convergence of interests.

During Vance’s visit, India’s efforts will be focused on expediting trade negotiations with the US, said Anil Trigunayat, a former Indian diplomat who has served in the US, “so that there is minimal damage to ongoing trade, as the US is India’s biggest trading partner”.

Yet some critics worry that the Modi government’s bet on the PM’s bonhomie with Trump – they have both described each other as friends – to resolve tariff tensions might be misplaced. Unlike China, the European Union or Canada, India has avoided responding to Trump’s threats with its own countermeasures.

“The Indian side has not shown any strength or resilience. All of the public indications have shown that they have been extremely pliable and trying to please the US government,” said Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“The US is essentially using bullying tactics to try and extract as many concessions as possible,” Ghosh told Al Jazeera. “It is very bad for India’s security and economy – and it is unacceptable.”

How much do India and the US trade with each other?

For several years, the US and China have competed for the tag of India’s largest trading partner.

In 2024, the US pipped China to the top slot: India-US bilateral trade was worth $129.2bn, per US government trade data. India-China trade was worth $127.7bn.

But trade with China primarily comprises of India importing from its larger neighbour – India imported more than $110bn worth from China and exported less than $15bn in 2024.

By contrast, India’s balance of trade is very favourable with the US, and the countries are eyeing an ambitious target of expanding their bilateral trade to $500bn by 2030.

Last year, US exports to India amounted to $41.8bn. While oils and fuels maintain a nearly 30 percent share with almost $13bn, they are followed by precious pearls and stones, amounting to $5.16bn. India also imports parts of nuclear reactors, electrical machinery and equipment, and medical instruments from the US.

The US, meanwhile, is India’s biggest export market. Indian exports to the US totalled $87.4bn in 2024. Pearls, electrical machinery, and pharmaceutical products lead India’s export products.

India also exports organic chemicals, textile articles, steel and apparel to the US.

The US trade deficit with India stands at $45.7bn in 2024, in New Delhi’s favour. That is small compared with the US trade deficit with China – $295bn last year. Still, India ranks 10th among countries that the US has the largest trade deficits with.

What has Trump accused India of?

As Trump has engaged in an all-out trade war with China, the US president has also railed repeatedly against India, describing it as a “tariff abuser” and “tariff king”. Trump insists that many countries – including China and India – have cheated the US, gaming globalisation to sell the US much more than they buy from it and using tariffs to achieve this goal.

In a joint news conference during Modi’s Washington visit in February, Trump noted that India has “been very strong on tariffs”. “It’s very hard to sell into India because they have trade barriers, very strong tariffs,” he said.

He repeated that allegation in public, at least three times, in March. “India charges us massive tariffs, massive, you can’t even sell anything into India. It’s almost, it’s almost restrictive. It is restrictive. We do very little business inside,” Trump said.

He did, however, concede that the Indian government was accommodating some of his concerns.

“They’ve agreed, by the way, they want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody’s finally exposing them for what they’ve done,” Trump said.

How high are India’s tariffs on US goods?

Indeed, as Trump said, India has already offered some concessions to the US in recent weeks, slashing tariffs on luxury goods like bourbon – down from 150 to 100 percent – and high-end motorcycle brands like Harley Davidson – from 50 to 40 percent.

But even with those cuts, current tariff rates remain very high – and much higher than the tariffs that Indian goods face in the US.

While bourbon has received some relief, all other imported alcohol is still tariffed at 150 percent. The duty on premium cars and motorcycles can go up to 125 percent, and agricultural products like walnuts face a 100 percent tariff.

India’s average tariff rate is 17 percent, compared with 3.3 percent by the US, as per a report by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).

“The most striking difference is in the agriculture sector, where India’s tariffs are notably higher,” ICRIER said in the February report.

The simple average tariff rate that India imposes on agricultural imports is 39 percent, according to ICRIER – pointing to the country’s protectionist policies. By contrast, the Indian think tank found, “the US maintains relatively low agricultural tariffs.” The simple average tariff rate that the US charges on agricultural imports is 4 percent.

The gulf is wide in other sectors, too.

US pharmaceutical exports to India face a 10.9 percent tariff. By contrast, Indian pharma products face a tiny 0.01 percent tariff while entering the US.

US electronics exports to India are taxed at 7.64 percent, while Indian electronics exports to the US face a mere 0.41 percent tariff. ​

How are India-US tariff negotiations shaping up?

So far, the early tariff cuts on bourbon and high-end motorbikes have helped India signal to the US that it is open to negotiations on lifting levies further.

Now, talks are on, and on Monday, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said a first phase of a trade deal with the US could be ready by the end of the year.

But it is unclear if that timeline will work for Trump, whose 90-day respite ends in July. Trump’s coercive approach, said trade economist Biswajit Dhar, is not conducive to diplomacy.

“Trump doesn’t want rules in trade,” said Dhar, describing the US president’s approach as “laws of the jungle”.

“India has to ensure that it’s a win-win situation. We cannot have Trump have his say,” he said.

Trigunayat, the retired diplomat who has participated in several multi-national trade treaties, said it was important for the Modi government to be transparent, during negotiations, about its political limitations.

“It is very important to put your cards on the table and explain your domestic situation,” he said. “On an international level, we start with a maximalist position. And then they come somewhere in between.”

“But we always must safeguard our citizens’ needs.”

And nowhere is that conundrum sharper than in agriculture.

Can India slash agriculture tariffs?

In the last five decades, India has transitioned from a food-deficit nation to a food-surplus one and has become a leading exporter of agricultural products. For instance, India accounts for 40 percent of global rice exports.

But India has kept tariffs high to safeguard its farmers from imports that might otherwise flood domestic markets – nearly half of India’s population is dependent on farming or the agricultural sector.

India also exports shrimp, vegetable extracts, castor oil, and black pepper; in turn, the US sends walnuts, apples, almonds, and pistachios.

Now, the US wants to balance that equation and has pressured India to reduce tariffs so that its farm products can enter the world’s most populous nation more easily.

That prospect has many Indian farmers on edge.

“We are completely kept in the dark about these trade negotiations – there is no transparency; and in a federal setup like India, how can the government function like this?” said Vijoo Krishnan, general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), India’s oldest farmers’ union that is leading the protests against Vance’s visit. The AIKS is the farmers’ wing of the Communist Party of India, which is part of the national opposition.

“The Modi government has been sliding in a direction of free trade and slashing import duties – and if it includes the farming sector, then we are doomed,” he said, arguing that an Indian farmer would not be able to compete with Western counterparts, who are “much richer”.

Indian farmers have already once shown their political might to Modi: Huge protests forced the prime minister to withdraw three controversial farm laws in 2021.

“The protests and rolling back the laws were a humiliating defeat for the Modi government – they are taking revenge on the farmers by pushing them under the bus now [through a trade deal with Trump],” claimed Krishnan.

Any tariff waivers on agricultural imports would need to be weighed against the risks they might pose to the livelihood of millions of Indian farmers, cautioned Dhar, the trade economist.

“If we bow to the US demands in negotiations, it is going to create a whole lot of economic,  social and political problems for the government,” Dhar said. “They cannot really afford to risk the lives of millions of Indians.”

US president calls latest controversy over defence chief’s handling of military information a ‘waste of time’.

United States President Donald Trump has backed his defence chief following reports he shared sensitive military information in a second Signal group chat, branding the latest controversy about the top Pentagon official a “waste of time”.

Trump’s backing of US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Monday came after multiple media outlets reported that the defence chief had shared details about planned bombing raids on Yemen in a group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer.

The reports have reignited scrutiny of Hegseth’s leadership, following revelations last month that he shared details about upcoming air strikes on Houthi rebels in a Signal group chat that the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine had been mistakenly added to.

“Here we go again. Just a waste of time,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“He is doing a great job.”

“Ask the Houthis how he’s doing,” Trump added.

Trump also suggested that Hegseth, a former US Army National Guard officer and Fox News host, was the victim of “disgruntled employees”, after several of his former aides, including his former press secretary, John Ullyot, publicly criticised him.

In an op-ed published on Sunday, Ullyot, one of four defence officials that Hegseth fired or asked to resign in the last week, wrote that the Pentagon was in “disarray” and “total chaos” under the secretary’s leadership.

“They just bring up stories,” Trump said.

“I guess it sounds like disgruntled employees. You know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that’s what he’s doing. So you don’t always have friends when you do that.”

Hegseth also hit out at the criticisms, accusing the media of using former employees with grievances “to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations”.

Numerous Democratic lawmakers, including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, have called on Hegseth to resign or be fired over the controversy.

Republicans, with the exception of Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska – who has called for Hegseth’s removal – have either remained silent or rallied to his defence.

“It seems like the leak investigation at the Pentagon needs to continue to find these latest leakers,” Republican Senator Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on X.

“Secretary Hegseth is busy implementing President Trump’s America First agenda, while these leakers are trying to undermine them both. Shameful.”

Detroit Pistons end their NBA-record, 15-game postseason losing streak with a road victory against the New York Knicks in their Eastern Conference playoff series.

The Detroit Pistons snapped their NBA-record 15-game playoff losing streak with a 100-94 victory over the New York Knicks to level their Eastern Conference first-round series at one game apiece.

Detroit’s Cade Cunningham scored 33 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and Dennis Schroder added 20 points off the bench, including a go-ahead three-pointer with 55.7 seconds left, as the Pistons thwarted the Knicks’ fourth quarter rally on Monday.

The Pistons, in the playoffs for the first time since 2019, notched their first playoff victory since Game 4 of the 2008 Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics.

Two days after the Knicks authored a 21-0 scoring run to rally in Game 1, the Pistons were pushed to the finish in a fast-paced, physical encounter at Madison Square Garden.

They led by as many as 15 in the third quarter, but the Knicks had cut the deficit to eight going into the final period.

New York star Jalen Brunson scored 14 of his 37 points in the fourth and fed Josh Hart for a dunk that tied it at 94-94 with 1:15 to play.

But Schroder answered immediately, drilling a three-pointer that put the Pistons ahead for good.

The Knicks came up empty on three straight possessions, while Schroder and Jalen Duren connected at the free throw line to seal Detroit’s win.

Detroit’s Tobias Harris scored 15 points and pulled down 13 rebounds, and Duren had 12 points and 13 boards.

Mikal Bridges scored 19 for the Knicks as Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby were held to 10 apiece.

“We did what we were supposed to do. And that was it,” said Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff, whose team hosts Game 3 on Thursday. “To win a game on the road to get home court was what we came here for.

“So we approached it with a businesslike mentality, learned from the fourth quarter the other night. But we just did what we were supposed to do.”

Leonard dominates Nuggets

Kawhi Leonard scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the visiting Los Angeles Clippers beat the Denver Nuggets 105-102 on Monday to level their Western Conference first-round playoff series at one win apiece.

Denver’s Christian Braun and Nikola Jokic missed three-point attempts to end the game. Jokic wound up with a triple-double.

James Harden added 18 points, Ivica Zubac contributed 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Norman Powell scored 13 points for Los Angeles.

Leonard, 33, bounced back from a seven-turnover performance in the opener on Saturday, a 112-110 Denver win in overtime. He hit his first six shots on Monday, missed a pull-up jumper early in the second quarter and did not miss again until early in the fourth.

“Tough fight,” Leonard said postgame on TNT. “This is what the playoffs are about.”

The best-of-seven series shifts to California for Game 3 on Thursday in Inglewood.

US stocks and the dollar have dropped sharply as United States President Donald Trump’s attacks on the chief of the US central bank shake investors’ confidence in the world’s top economy.

The benchmark S&P 500 fell 2.36 percent on Monday, one of the steepest one-day declines of the year.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2.55 percent, dragging the index down nearly 18 percent from its position at the start of the year.

The dollar fell to a three-year low, at one point weakening to 97.923 against a basket of major currencies.

US government bonds also fell as investors sold off the traditional safe-haven assets, with the yield on 10-year Treasury notes rising above 4.4 percent.

Asian markets opened broadly lower on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and Taiwan’s TAIEX down about 0.8 percent, 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, as of 02:00 GMT.

The steep losses came as Trump renewed his attacks on US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, branding the central bank boss a “major loser” and “Mr Too Late” on social media for not moving faster to cut interest rates.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to replace Powell, saying last week that his termination “cannot come fast enough”.

On Friday, Kevin Hassett, Trump’s top economic adviser, said the administration was studying the possibility of removing Powell, whose term runs until May next year.

Since announcing its most recent cut to its benchmark interest rate in December, the Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee has expressed caution about lowering rates further in the near term amid concerns that Trump’s sweeping tariffs will stoke inflation.

Powell warned in a speech last week that the tariffs could leave the US economy grappling with weak growth, rising unemployment and higher inflation all at once, putting the central bank’s dual goals of maximum employment and stable prices in “tension”.

“We know from experience in the United States and many other countries that politicians are tempted to ease monetary policy while they are in office because the initial effects are to increase growth and employment. Only later, perhaps when they have left office, does the higher inflation show up,” Joseph E Gagnon, a senior fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Al Jazeera.

“Markets understand this and are worried that President Trump may try to undo the Fed’s longstanding protection against political interference.”

Powell, who was nominated by Trump in 2017 and tapped to serve another four-year term by former US President Joe Biden, has said he would not resign if asked and insisted that he can only be removed for malfeasance.

Under a US Supreme Court ruling handed down in 1935, the executive branch is prohibited from dismissing the heads of independent federal agencies such as the Federal Reserve except for “cause”.

The Trump administration, which has taken aim at numerous established norms, is seeking to overturn the 90-year-old precedent in a Supreme Court case related to its dismissal of the heads of the Merit Systems Protection Board and the National Labor Relations Board.

Any move to dismiss Powell would almost certainly send shockwaves through financial markets, given the more than century-old principle that the Federal Reserve should set interest rates free from political considerations.

On Monday, Austan Goolsbee, the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, warned that any effort to undermine the independence of the central bank would have negative ramifications for the economy.

“When there is interference over the long run, it’s going to mean higher inflation,” Goolsbee said in an interview with CNBC, without commenting directly on Trump’s attacks on Powell.

“It’s going to mean worse growth and higher unemployment.”

Gagnon said the financial markets were reacting to the “greater probability of presidential interference” with the Federal Reserve.

“More generally, investors will be less interested in holding investments in the United States if they believe the Fed will not be independent in the future because that means the US economy will not perform as well in the future as in the past,” he said.

The Israeli army has described its killing of 15 emergency workers in Gaza and burying them and their vehicles as a “professional error”.

The bodies of 14 humanitarian workers were found in a mass grave along with their crushed vehicles a week after coming under Israeli fire in late March. One body had been found a few days before.

The army said it had “shrouded” the bodies with cloth and sand to protect them until humanitarian organisations could retrieve them.

Israel had blocked access to the site for days, later insisting it was not an attempt to cover up the attack.

Here’s what to know about the attack, Israel’s claims and how the investigation stacks up against other evidence:

What happened to the emergency workers and vehicles in Gaza?

• March 23: About 4am (01:00 GMT), a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance was dispatched to join an earlier one helping people injured in an Israeli air strike in Rafah’s al-Hashaashin area.
• Contact was lost with it, and the first ambulance went back out to find it about 5am. The paramedics radioed back that they could see casualties on the ground on the way to Tal as-Sultan, another area in southern Gaza.
• Two more ambulances were dispatched along with a firetruck and other emergency vehicles. They came under Israeli gunfire for more than five minutes. Minutes later, soldiers also fired at a United Nations car that stopped at the scene. The PRCS lost contact with its team.
• March 24: The Israeli military blocked access to the site of the attacks.
• March 27-28: United Nations and Palestinian officials gain limited access to the area, recovering the vehicles and bodies of a Gaza Civil Defence member.
• March 30: The bodies of five Civil Defence responders, a UN employee and eight PRCS workers are found in a shallow grave. A ninth PRCS worker, Assaad al-Nassasra, is being held by Israel, PRCS confirmed later. In total, Israel killed 15 emergency workers in the attack.

What did video evidence show?

A video found on the phone of slain paramedic Rifaat Radwan shows the team’s final moments.

The video, filmed from inside one of the last two ambulances to head out, shows a firetruck and ambulances driving ahead through the night.

All vehicles were clearly identified with emergency lights flashing.

The vehicles stopped when they see an ambulance and bodies by the roadside, and first responders in reflective uniforms exit the vehicles. Moments later, intense gunfire erupts.

As the gunfire continues, Radwan can be heard asking his mother for forgiveness and reciting the Islamic declaration of faith, the Shahada, before he dies.

What did the Israeli investigation say?

After a review, the Israeli military described the killings as “professional failures” and a “misunderstanding”. Nobody has been charged.

It dismissed a deputy commander for “providing an incomplete report” and reprimanded a commanding officer.

Major General Yoav Har-Even, who conducted the review, said two responders were killed in an initial incident, 12 people were killed in a second shooting and another person was killed in a third incident.

“The fire in the first two incidents resulted from an operational misunderstanding by the troops, who believed they faced a tangible threat from enemy forces. The third incident involved a breach of orders during a combat setting,” the military statement said.

Troops bulldozed over the bodies and their mangled vehicles, but the investigation said that was not an attempt to conceal the attack.

The Military Advocate General’s Corps, meant to be an independent body under Israel’s attorney general and Supreme Court, can now decide whether to file civil charges.

How did Israel explain shooting the ambulances?

The investigative report said soldiers did not recognise the ambulances due to “poor night visibility” and because flashing lights are less visible on night-vision drones and goggles.

It also blamed the now-dismissed deputy commander, saying he mistakenly thought the ambulance was being used by Hamas and opened fire first.

Israel has tried to justify previous attacks on protected entities by saying Hamas hides among civilians and uses ambulances to carry out operations.

Har-Even told reporters that one of the humanitarian workers at the scene was questioned over suspected Hamas links. The man, Munther Abed, was released the next day.

Before the video of the attack was found, Israel’s military had said the ambulances had been “advancing suspiciously” towards its soldiers “without headlights or emergency signals”.

How did Israel explain shooting uniformed medics?

The first responders were “in their uniforms, still wearing gloves” when they were killed, said Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Palestinian territory.

Gaza Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said several team members were found with their hands and feet bound and bullet wounds to the head and torso, indicating they were executed at close range after being identified as humanitarian workers.

Without offering proof, the Israeli investigative report said six of those killed were “Hamas members” although no Palestinian fighters were reported found in the mass grave.

Har-Even told reporters that no paramedic was armed and no weapons were found in any vehicle.

An Israeli military official said the bodies had been covered “in sand and cloth” to preserve them until their retrieval could be coordinated with international organisations.

The army also said it has found “no evidence to support claims of execution” and “such claims are blood libels and false accusations against [Israeli] soldiers”.

How thoroughly does Israel investigate itself?

Human rights groups and international legal experts said Israel’s self-reviews often lack independence and transparency.

Israel said it reviews its military’s conduct through internal probes led by its military advocate general, who decides whether to pursue criminal investigations.

But the military has a track record of denying wrongdoing, contradicting itself or blaming low-ranking individuals without broader repercussions for the armed forces.

In 2022, it claimed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Palestinian fire until several media investigations debunked that. Israel later admitted it may have shot her “accidentally” but ruled out a criminal probe.

In January, the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor defended seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, citing Israel’s failure to genuinely investigate allegations of war crimes.

How have critics responded?

The PRCS and the Israeli rights organisation Breaking the Silence have rejected the findings of the Israeli probe.

“It is incomprehensible why the occupation soldiers buried the bodies of the paramedics,” PRCS President Younis al-Khatib told Al Araby TV.

He said evidence such as the video proved “the falsehood of the occupation’s narrative”, adding that the Israeli army communicated with the paramedics before killing them.

Calls for more aid, support for police amid surge in violence in the Caribbean nation since the end of last year.

Haiti is approaching a “point of no return” as it struggles to respond to escalating gang violence, the top United Nations official in the country has said.

Maria Isabel Salvador, the UN special representative to the Caribbean nation, delivered the warning to the UN Security Council on Monday.

“As gang violence continues to spread to new areas of the country, Haitians experience growing levels of vulnerability and increasing scepticism about the ability of the state to respond to their needs,” Salvador said.

“Haiti could face total chaos,” she said, adding that aid and support for the international force deployed to stem rampant gang violence was desperately needed to avoid that fate.

“I urge you to remain engaged and answer the urgent needs of the country and its people,” she said.

The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti faces severe political instability, with swaths of the country under the control of rival armed gangs who carry out widespread murders, rapes and kidnappings.

Salvador cited cholera outbreaks and gender-based violence alongside a deteriorating security situation.

Most recently, Salvador said, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, freeing more than 500 prisoners during the assault. It was the fifth prison break in under a year and “part of a deliberate effort to entrench dominance, dismantle institutions and instil fear”, she said.

Armed gangs have also been increasingly battling for control of the capital, Port-au-Prince, with violence intensifying as rival gangs attempt to establish new territories, she said.

Meanwhile, a Kenyan-led force authorised by the UN has failed to push back the gangs since the deployment began in June of last year. The mission has about 1,000 police officers from six countries, short of the 2,500 originally planned.

Kenya’s national security adviser, Monica Juma, told the council in a video briefing from Nairobi that the force has entered “a decisive phase of its operation” where gangs are coordinating operations and attacking people and strategic installations, and targeting the political establishment.

While the Haitian police and the multinational force have launched intensive anti-gang operations and achieved some notable progress, especially in securing critical infrastructure, she said a significant gap exists.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also warned that further international support was “required immediately to allow the national police to prevent the capital slipping closer to the brink”, according to an unpublished report seen by the AFP news agency.

The report detailed the surge in violence, with the UN recording 2,660 homicides in the three months since December 2024 – a 41.3 percent increase over the previous quarter.

But the report also pointed to a high civilian toll in efforts to counter the gangs.

During the period, anti-gang operations resulted in 702 people killed, with 21 percent estimated to be innocent civilians, the report said.

There was also an alarming increase in gender-based violence, with 347 incidents reported in the five months to February 2025, according to the UN data.

Collective rape was the most common violation, accounting for 61 percent of cases.

Iran says it will brief China this week in advance of a third round of talks with the United States on its nuclear programme, as Iranian officials separately accused Israel of seeking to “undermine and disrupt the diplomatic process”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will visit Beijing on Tuesday to discuss the latest talks with the administration of US President Donald Trump on the country’s nuclear programme, spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Monday.

The trip echoes “consultations” Iran held with Russia last week, before the second round of direct US-Iran talks was held over the weekend. A third round of talks between Araghchi and US envoy Steve Witkoff is scheduled to take place in Oman on Saturday.

Araghchi has previously said Tehran always closely consults with its allies, Russia and China, over the nuclear issue.

“It is natural that we will consult and brief China over the latest developments in Iran-US indirect talks,” Baqaei said.

Russia and China, both nuclear-armed powers, were signatories to a now-defunct 2015 deal between Iran, the US and several Western countries intended to defuse tensions around Tehran’s nuclear programme.

The 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), from which Trump withdrew in 2018, saw Tehran curtail its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

The US and Israel have accused Iran of seeking to use the programme to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran has staunchly denied the claim, saying the programme is for civilian purposes.

On Monday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed close ties between Beijing and Tehran, but did not confirm the Iranian minister’s planned visit.

“China and Iran have maintained exchanges and contacts at all levels and in various fields. With regard to the specific visit mentioned, I have no information to offer at the moment,” Guo Jiakun, spokesperson for the ministry, said.

Strengthened alliance

Israel’s war in Gaza has seen Iran pull closer to Russia and China. Recent diplomatic moves surrounding the US-Iran talks have further underscored the strengthened ties.

Araghchi met his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, last week, just before his second round of negotiations with Witkoff.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off on a 20-year strategic partnership treaty agreed earlier this year with his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian.

Meanwhile, Iran’s already fraught relations with Israel and its “ironclad” ally, the US, have nosedived amid the war. Since taking office, Trump has reinstated a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Tehran, while repeatedly threatening military action if a new nuclear deal is not reached.

Speaking on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Baqaei accused Israel of trying to disrupt the nascent negotiations to open the way for military action.

In comments carried by the AFP news agency, he declared that Israel is behind efforts from a “kind of coalition” to “undermine and disrupt the diplomatic process”.

“Alongside it are a series of warmongering currents in the United States and figures from different factions,” the spokesman said.

Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.

His statement came a day after The New York Times reported that Trump had dissuaded Israel from striking Iran’s nuclear sites in the short term, saying Washington wanted to prioritise diplomatic talks.

‘Consultations must continue’

Baqaei added that “consultations must continue” with countries that were party to the JCPOA.

Iran has gradually breached the terms of the treaty since Trump abandoned it, most notably by enriching uranium to levels higher than those laid out in the deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has enriched uranium to 60 percent, close to the 90 percent level needed to manufacture weapons. The JCPOA had restricted it to 3.67 percent, the level of enrichment needed for civilian power.

Speaking last week, Witkoff sent mixed messages on what level Washington is seeking. He initially said in an interview that Tehran needed to reduce its uranium enrichment to the 3.67 percent limit, but later clarified that the US wants Iran to end its enrichment programme.

Residential buildings among structures targeted in paramilitary attack on city of el-Fasher, activists say.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have again attacked el-Fasher city in the western Darfur region of Sudan, killing more than 30 people, an activist group has said.

The attack by the RSF and allied militias is the latest deadly offensive on the area, the last stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the war-torn region.

The Resistance Committees in el-Fasher said dozens of other people were wounded in the Sunday attack, which involved “heavy artillery shelling”. The RSF renewed the assault on Monday, shelling residential buildings and open markets, according to the activist group, which tracks the war.

No new casualties were immediately reported. The RSF did not immediately respond to the claims.

For over a year, the RSF has sought to wrest control of el-Fasher, located more than 800km (500 miles) southwest of the capital, Khartoum, from the SAF, launching regular attacks on the city and two major famine-hit camps for displaced people on its outskirts.

However, observers say attacks have intensified in recent months as the RSF suffered battlefield setbacks in Khartoum and other urban areas in the county’s east and centre.

El-Fasher is estimated to be home to more than one million people, including hundreds of thousands of those displaced by the fighting.

Aid ‘dangerously restricted’

The latest violence comes less than a week after a two-day attack by the RSF and its allied militias on e-Fasher, as well as the nearby Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps for internally displaced people, killed more than 400 people, according to the United Nations.

The attack forced up to 400,000 people to flee the Zamzam camp, Sudan’s largest, which has become inaccessible to aid workers, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

On Monday, the UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher described the situation in the region as “horrifying”.

He said he had spoken by phone with both SAF general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF second in command general Abdelrahim Dagalo, who committed to giving “full access to get aid in”.

International aid agencies have long warned that a full-scale RSF assault on el-Fasher could lead to devastating urban warfare and a new wave of mass displacement.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has described the situation as “hell on earth” for at least 825,000 children trapped in and around el-Fasher.

The UN also warned of a catastrophic humanitarian situation.

“The humanitarian community in Sudan is facing critical and intensifying operational challenges in North Darfur,” Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN’s resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said on Sunday.

She added that “despite repeated appeals, humanitarian access to el-Fasher and surrounding areas remains dangerously restricted”, warning that the lack of access was increasing “the vulnerability of hundreds of thousands of people”.

Nkweta-Salami called for UN and NGO actors to be granted “immediate and sustained access to these areas to ensure life-saving support can be delivered safely and at scale”.

Meanwhile, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has called for aid airdrops into the city in the face of access restrictions.

Sudan’s brutal civil war began on April 15, 2023, after a tenuous power-sharing agreement between SAF General al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, fell apart.

To date, more than 24,000 people have been killed in the fighting, according to the UN, although activists say the number is likely far higher.

Millions more have been displaced.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Vatican publishes death certificate, Pope’s request to be buried at Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome.

Pope Francis died of a cerebral stroke and irreversible heart failure, Vatican doctor Andrea Arcangeli has said in a death certificate.

The certificate released on Monday for the 88-year-old pontiff said the pope had fallen into a coma before his death earlier in the day.

Pope Francis died of “cerebral stroke, coma, irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse”, the death certificate said. It added the religious leader diead at 7:35am local (0535 GMT) in his apartment at the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican.

Pope Francis had suffered various ailments during his 12-year papacy, with severe complications in recent weeks following a bout of double pneumonia for which he spent 38 days at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.

The death certificate added that Francis also suffered from arterial hypertension, multiple bronchiectasis and Type 2 diabetes, ailments which had not been previously disclosed.

The Vatican also released Pope Francis’s spiritual testament – a written statement of faith – in which he said he wished to be buried in Rome’s Basilica of Saint Mary Major and not at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, unlike many of his predecessors.

The text specified Pope Francis wanted to be buried “in the ground, without particular decoration” but with the inscription of his papal name in Latin: Franciscus.

“As I sense the approaching twilight of my earthly life, and with firm hope in eternal life, I wish to set out my final wishes solely regarding the place of my burial,” read the testament, which was dated June 29, 2022.

“May the Lord grant a fitting reward to all those who have loved me and who continue to pray for me,” it said.

The United States military is ramping up its presence in Japan, Guam and Hawaii as tensions with China grow over Taiwan. A new documentary reveals how this buildup is affecting local communities. In a region that is also a staging ground for potential conflict, how are some residents pushing back?

Passengers have been forced to evacuate a Delta plane after an engine caught fire while on the tarmac at Orlando International Airport in Florida.

Video on social media shows smoke and flames rising from the right engine, and passengers exiting the aircraft down inflatable emergency slides.

Delta flight 1213 was set to depart Orlando, famous as the home of Disneyworld, for Atlanta with more than 200 people on board. There are no reports of any injuries.

“Passengers were evacuated. Aircraft Rescue & Fire Fighting team promptly responded,” the airport said in a post on social media.

The Airbus A330 was carrying 200 passengers, 10 flight attendants and two pilots, Delta said in a statement to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News.

The airline said crews evacuated the cabin when flames were seen in part of one of the plane’s two main engines.

Video apparently taken from the terminal shows passengers waiting on the tarmac with emergency vehicles parked next to the aircraft.

“We appreciate our customers’ cooperation and apologize for the experience,” Delta said.

“Nothing is more important than safety and Delta teams will work to get our customers to their final destinations as soon as possible.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said it will investigate the incident.

Agency says gangs caused $37bn in losses in Asia as they gain new footholds in Africa, South America, and Middle East.

Asian cybercrime syndicates have caused an estimated $37bn in losses in the East and Southeast Asian regions, with the United Nations warning that the reach of the criminal networks is expanding globally.

In a report released on Monday, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) detailed how Chinese and Southeast Asian gangs have been raking in tens of billions of dollars annually targeting victims in an array of cybercrimes, including fake investments, cryptocurrency, romance and other scams.

The criminal organisation have largely operated out of squalid compounds in the border areas of Myanmar, as well as in so-called “special economic zones” designed to attract foreign investment in Cambodia and Laos. They have relied on often trafficked workers forced to work in squalid compounds.

While the report said countries in East and Southeast Asia lost an estimated $37bn to cyber-fraud in 2023, there were “much larger estimated losses” worldwide.

The report warned that the networks have been spreading to South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Pacific Islands.

“We are seeing a global expansion of East and Southeast Asian organized crime groups,” said Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC acting regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

“This reflects both industry growth and a strategy to evade crackdowns in Southeast Asia,” Hofmann said.

‘Spreads like a cancer’

The report said the syndicates have established footholds in African nations, including Zambia, Angola, and Namibia, as well as Pacific island nations, including Fiji and Vanuatu.

They have also expanded their money laundering strategies, forging alliances with South American drug cartels, the Italian mafia, and Irish mobsters, according to the report.

Cryptocurrency mining – typically referring to the creation of new cryptocurrencies and the validation of transactions – has become a key tool for obscuring illicit funds, according to the report.

In one instance, in June 2023, Libyan authorities raided an illegal crypto mining operation in a militia-controlled area, arresting 50 Chinese nationals.

Recent crackdowns in Myanmar, backed by China, also freed about 7,000 trafficked workers.

However, the UN warned that while enforcement disrupts operations temporarily, the syndicates have proven adept at adapting.

“It spreads like a cancer,” said Hofmann. “Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear, they simply migrate.”

New technologies have further complicated the situation, with criminal networks operating self-contained digital ecosystems, using encrypted messaging, payment apps, and cryptocurrencies to evade law enforcement, the report said.

The UN agency further warned of “potentially irreversible spillover has taken place…leaving criminal groups free to pick, choose, and move … as needed”.

It urged countries to collaborate and intensify efforts to disrupt criminal networks’ financing.

An Israeli military investigation says “professional failures” and poor night vision led its troops to shoot dead 15 Palestinian rescue workers in Rafah on March 23. The report contradicts weeks of Israeli statements which claimed the medics posed a threat to Israeli troops.

Reuters

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