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‘It will never cover what’s authentic’: African music industry weighs up AI risks and rewards

Last July, the Nigerian singer-songwriter Fave found herself caught up in a viral moment: an unauthorised version of a track featuring an AI choir had been released, quickly becoming an internet sensation. To get ahead of the situation, she recorded her own remix that integrated the AI-assisted song and added it to her discography. “In my view, [that] was smart and very business aware,” Oyinkansola Fawehinmi, a Lagos-based entertainment lawyer, observed a few months later. “She essentially reclaimed the ‘AI version’ and released it as her own official expression.” Many of Africa’s music markets are seen as particularly vulnerable to the threat of AI-generated music plagiarising the work of real-life artists, due to comparatively weak legal frameworks around intellectual property protection. There are similar fears over the wider deepfake market. On Monday, South Africa withdrew the draft of its national AI policy after revelations, ironically, of AI-generated citations within it. AI was the focus of the Atlantic Music Expo held this month in Cape Verde, one of the few African states with a dedicated AI policy. Benito Lopes, the expo’s director since 2024, said the discussions were meant to give performers “more knowledge to explore [AI] the best way without losing their human identity and their creativity”. For the country’s culture minister, Augusto Jorge de Albuquerque Veiga, who has a goal of making Cape Verde “a hub of world culture, especially in music”, the priority is ensuring local artists get the financial support to eke out a living in today’s world. “You have to work with it, not to be eaten by it,” Veiga told the Guardian. “I think that AI will never cover what’s authentic … AI is the present already, so we have to discuss this and find ways to work with AI for the country, for the culture and for the future.” Given that the culture ministry’s budget, at $6m, is less than 1% of the national budget, Veiga has been lobbying to get allocations to the sector from Cape Verde’s tourism tax and has created diaspora bonds targeting the large diaspora spread across places such as Boston and Lisbon. The expo, which precedes the Kriol jazz festival, has long sought to be a bridge between Africa, Europe and the Americas but also emphasises the place of live music and human interaction in an era of synthetic sounds. The veteran Bissau-Guinean singer Patche di Rima, who performed on the last day, said: “I am glad to be here … an artist without media and networking is nothing.” Most delegates highlighted how AI-driven tools for mixing, mastering and data-driven marketing offered a way for indie artists with shoestring budgets to compete globally. Entrepreneurs working in the sector were keen to stress that AI was not a replacement for talent. José Moura, a co-founder of Sona, an AI startup that helps artists use text prompts to polish songs, said the technology could empower artists in the global south to extend their reach without compromising the uniqueness of the music. “Homogenisation happens when the tool doesn’t know where you’re from,” he said. “Unlike conventional AI that trains on global averages, Sona is built on local music, governed by local artists, so when it amplifies your sound, it amplifies exactly what makes it yours. It’s the opposite of erasure … artists decide what gets preserved before the AI touches anything.” Sambaiana, a seven-woman ensemble from Brazil, gave their first performance outside their home country at the expo. For the group – a rarity in the male-dominated samba genre – it was a chance to plug in to a new but familiar world. “We feel honoured to represent the Brazilian music style,” said Ju Moraes, the lead singer. “We recognise ourselves here, the energy, the people, the culture and even the architectures are very similar to Bahia.” Rayra Mayara, a vocalist who also plays the four-stringed cavaquinho, said technology was no match for the emotion of being on stage. “We are seven women and no technology can substitute the feeling we give when we play, sing and talk about our daily lives,” she said. “AI can complement the production process but it is not as a substitute to the human.”

Marxists and monarchists: the group hoping to unite Iran’s exiled opposition

“It’s an exercise that is necessary and frankly has been missing for the past 47 years,” said Mehrdad Marty Youssefiani, a founding member of a new group seeking to act as an umbrella for Iran’s disparate exiled opposition. The Iran Freedom Congress – which includes republicans and monarchists, Marxists, right and centre – met for the first time last month in London, aiming to create an ethnically diverse “platform for coordination, dialogue, and cooperation between Iranian pro-democracy and pluralist individuals, parties, institutions, and organisations”. Since the conference, the body has been given a legal entity, and elections for a chief executive are under way. It does not claim to be a government in waiting, or a new political party. “We cannot claim from exile to return after 47 years and run a country which is by and large foreign to those that have not been there for 50 years,” said Youssefiani, who until 2018 was an adviser to Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former shah. “The patronage or help must come to those inside Iran who are capable of moving the needle.” He said the group had a “responsibility to break out of the classic pitfalls of exile politics by creating a pluralist movement to help the democratic forces inside the country”. The bloody crackdown on anti-regime protests at the start of this year was the catalyst for many of its now members. “After the shock of thousands [being] slaughtered in January … the moment came when we said: ‘Enough is enough,’” Youssefiani said. “At the time the threat of war was looming. We just saw our boys and girls killed and we equally share the blame, or the shame of this. For too long there was a lack of imagination, there was only classic exile politics, an inability to get along. It was a terrible failure.” Funding for the group has largely come from Majid Zamani, the founder of investment company Kian Capital, who was previously jailed in Iran for his support of the Green Movement in 2009. Former political prisoners and longstanding opposition intellectuals have all been involved. The political breadth of the congress can either be seen as mature pluralism or a source of incoherence. The group rejected sending an invitation to Pahlavi – and, due to divisions, decided to take no position on the US-Israeli attack. Middle East Eye published emails showing pro-Israeli lobbyists were active around the group, unknown to the organisers, and Youssefiani works for the Middle East Forum, an Israeli-sympathetic thinktank in Washington. The congress has to navigate between the movement surrounding Pahlavi, which sees him as a future leader, and the rhetoric and actions of the US president, Donald Trump. “Arms will not bring democratic change, as we have seen, and we worry about what is the end goal of the war,” said Youssefian. “No one has defined what is peace, and this is where our problem is. Personally I am enormously concerned by the war, since the outcome was not thought through. There were those that thought they could chop off the head of the snake, and all would fall into place, but that misunderstands Iran.” He said Trump’s threat that a “whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again” was disastrous in that it forced the people closer to a regime they despised. “When 90 million Iranians hear these words, they see them as a threat to their existence, not to their government,” he said. The sight of some in the diaspora celebrating the bombing had caused incalculable political damage, he added. “The war has gone on so long we worry the impact on civil society – that campaign of civil disobedience – has been severely crippled,” he said. “So if the regime survives, there may be no appetite for reform, or the regime will have no choice but to use the heavy hand of repression. One thing is for sure: there has been no regime change.” Youssefian said he was not ruling out any outcome in Iran so long as it was democratically reached. However, he clearly feels concerned with the brand of Pahlavi, his former colleague, and the way in which the monarchist movement has been positioned, saying Pahlavi had neglected strategic nuance while some of his followers had displayed a “blind acceptance” of Trumpian rhetoric. “One assumed, when Pahlavi offered with great confidence that more than 100,000 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and uniformed asset had defected to him and would rise up, he offered hope and confidence to Iranians inside Iran,” he said. “I remain devastated not to have seen any evidence of that, and so thousands of mourning families, if not already, will ask: what went wrong? Who misinformed whom? “I cannot know the answer because I don’t know the details. And yes, it’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, but every word of advice, position and tweet of a sovereign matters.” Will the regime crumble if the pressure continues? “The difficulty in Iran today is that those who own and control the guns also own and control the butter,” said Youssefian. “The IRGC own and control billion-dollar enterprises. If there is a defeat, these people are not going to go to Paris or London. Their wealth, power and assets and their ideology is deeply rooted in Iran’s ground.” He said regime change would require the regime to have lost legitimacy, the repression machine to weaken and an inclusive plural movement inside Iran to emerge that could credibly replace the regime. “All we can do is help in this process.”

From Jakarta to Manila, south-east Asia turns to Russia to plug fuel, fertiliser gaps caused by Iran war

The European Union has sounded the alarm to countries in south-east Asia, urging them not to turn to Russia for oil supplies as they try to cope with widespread fuel shortages caused by the Middle East conflict. After meeting foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast ‌Asian ⁠Nations (Asean) in Brunei on Tuesday, the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called on the region to see the “big picture”, saying the purchase of Russian oil would enable the country to continue the Ukraine war. But across the region, which relies heavily on the Middle East for energy and fertiliser, those warnings appear to be falling on deaf ears, as countries line up to do deals with Moscow. Indonesia announced last week it will import up to 150m barrels of Russian crude, after President Prabowo Subianto met Vladimir ⁠Putin in Moscow. The Philippines, a US ally, received its first shipment of Russian crude oil in five years in March. Thailand is reportedly negotiating with Russia to buy fertiliser, while Vietnam signed a deal with Russia before the war to build a nuclear power plant, an agreement that has now taken on greater urgency. For Russia, the crisis has already delivered a windfall. Soaring energy prices and a temporary waiver allowing countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil at sea, has provided multi-billion dollar profits, and buttressed its claims that western attempts to isolate it internationally have failed. The flurry of deals has also prompted questions about whether the Middle East conflict might provide an opening for Russia to deepen its ties across south-east Asia. From Jakarta to Hanoi, polling suggests Russia and its leader are generally favourably viewed. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has had limited impact on public opinion, surveys suggests. A 2024 poll published by the Economist found that for two countries in the region – Indonesia and Vietnam – more than 50% of respondents wanted Russia to win the war. A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found 64% of Indonesians held a favourable view of Russia, compared with 48% for the US. “Putin is seen as the strong man standing up to the west, and a defender of traditional values. That macho image goes down pretty well in a lot of countries in the region,” said Ian Storey, from Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, who has researched the Kremlin’s pivot to the region. Russia has longstanding ties with communist-run countries such as Vietnam and Laos. It is also seen as a Muslim-friendly country, because of its support for Palestine, said Storey, who added that the Chechnyan wars, and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, have been largely forgotten. Lacking the same economic and military clout of the US and China, however, analysts say there are limits to Russia’s ability to broaden its influence in the region. Russia’s increased dependence on China has the potential to give some countries that have maritime disputes with China pause, particularly when it comes to military procurement. The US decision to pause sanctions on Russian oil shipments was introduced in March in an effort to increase the supply in the global market. The waiver was extended for 30 days in mid-April after pressure on Washington from Asian countries such as the Philippines and India. Whether the US chooses to extend it again could affect many Asian countries appetite to continue buying Russian oil. But nuclear energy is one area where Russia might hope to make inroads. “This crisis has made countries reassess their relations with other countries and recalibrate. And they’ll be looking at things like energy sovereignty, diversification, and renewables,” said Storey. Russia, a major player in the global nuclear power industry, has already signed contracts with Myanmar and Vietnam for the provision of nuclear power. However, there are other countries competing with Moscow for such partnerships. Ultimately, the Middle East war has given Russia the opportunity to “promote itself as a reliable and stable partner of south-east Asia, particularly when it comes to food and energy security,” said Storey. Recent energy deals carry symbolic importance for both sides. For Indonesia, such agreements underline a policy of non-alignment. “Indonesia wants affirmation of status from Moscow and send a signal to the western world and to the US that it won’t do its bidding,” said professor Leszek Buszynski of the Australian National University’s strategic and defence studies centre. They also serve to counter domestic criticism of policies that have lent further toward the US, including president Prabowo’s controversial decision to join Trump’s Board of Peace. Russia, in turn, values Indonesia’s voice in international forums – such as the UN, G20, and Brics – where it has supported the narrative that the war in Ukraine is “the western world’s problem”, Buszynski said. A joint commemorative summit will be held between Russia and Asean in Kazan in June to mark 35 years of relations. Even if nothing substantial is agreed, adds Storey, it will provide proof that Russia still has friends abroad: “It’s essentially a huge photo opportunity for Putin.”

‘Coming home’: kiwi enter parliament for first time as New Zealand marks conservation win

When five kiwi were presented to a crowd of 300 people gathered inside the banquet hall of New Zealand’s parliament, there was an awe-struck intake of breath. As handlers moved through the group, cradling the whiskery birds, people looked on, spellbound. Some grew teary, and one boy, who noticed a soft brown feather drift to the floor, scooped it up, as his mother urged him to keep it safe. New Zealand may be saturated with images of its treasured national bird but it is rare to see one in the flesh and this was the first time kiwi had ever set foot in parliament. The event on Tuesday night, which included politicians, children, iwi (tribes) and environmental groups, marked the culmination of a project – six years in the making – to redevelop a kiwi population in Wellington’s wilds, after a more than 100-year absence. “This is our manu [birds] coming home to the place they have inhabited for millions of years but which they had a brief exile from,” says Paul Ward, the founder of Capital Kiwi Project, a community initiative that in 2022 set out to reintroduce kiwi to the city. The fluffy and flightless kiwi is one of the most vulnerable birds in New Zealand. Roughly 12 million kiwi once roamed the country, but introduced predators and habitat loss has driven those numbers to worrying lows – 70,000 at the last estimate. “Kiwi have been a part of who we are and our sense of identity as long as people have been here,” says Ward. “If we are honest with ourselves, we haven’t honoured the koha [gift] of that relationship.” Conservation efforts are starting, slowly, to boost kiwi numbers. In Wellington, the Capital Kiwi Project is leading the charge. ‘We can restore biodiversity’ The first cohort of 11 kiwi were released into a vast sweep of hilly farmland in Mākara, 25 minutes west of Wellington’s centre in November 2022. Another 232 have followed in the years since and have produced dozens of chicks. The project was required to achieve a 30% chick survival rate to meet the terms of its Department of Conservation permit. It has greatly outstripped this goal, with an unprecedented 90% chick survival rate. The seven kiwi brought to parliament – five of which were shown to the crowd – are the last cohort to be introduced, bringing the total number of birds released into Wellington’s wilds to 250. Wellington now has the largest population of people living alongside wild kiwi in the world. Mākara residents hear kiwi in their gardens at night, mountain bikers have encountered them on their tracks and kiwi have been spotted in suburbs far from where they were released. The project has been hugely significant for the capital, the Wellington mayor, Andrew Little, tells the Guardian. “It’s demonstrating that even for a concentrated urban environment like Wellington city, we can restore biodiversity.” The project has proved so successful because of the community’s enthusiastic buy-in, Ward says. “Arguably there have been more Wellingtonians involved in this [project] than were extras in Lord of the Rings,” he tells the crowd, which generates a hearty laugh. More than 100 landowners gave permission for the project to install 4,600 stoat traps across the bird’s new 24,000ha habitat – making it the largest intensive stoat-trapping network of its kind in the country – while schools, iwi, volunteers, mountain-bikers, and more have contributed to the project through trapping, advocacy and fundraising. Iwi and sanctuaries across the island, meanwhile, have gifted birds to the project. “It’s a network of traps, but it is a network of relationships … and what that has enabled is the restoration of a taonga [treasured] species to that landscape,” Ward says. Following the event, the kiwi were transported up to Terawhiti station – one of the country’s oldest and largest sheep stations on the Mākara coast – to be released. On the expansive ridges overlooking the Cook Strait, under a soft mist and the whirr of wind turbines, the kiwi poked their long needle-like beaks out of their boxes, and with some gentle encouragement skipped out into the inky night. Just as a hush had descended on the banquet hall, now too did the smaller crowd fall quiet, taking in for a moment the pleasure of watching kiwi embark on a new life in the wild, and reflecting on the magnitude of the project. “That work to return kiwi is a shared purpose that is extremely powerful,” Ward says. “What’s incredibly satisfying about tonight is that it’s working, it’s showing what’s possible when people work together.”

Ukraine war briefing: More woe for Russian oil as Tuapse refinery hit again

A Ukrainian drone attack has caused another major fire at the Russian oil refinery in the city of Tuapse – the third attack on the Black Sea port in less than two weeks. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, condemned it as a “strike against civilian infrastructure” but Kyiv says the campaign is designed to disrupt Russia’s oil industry and slash revenues that help Moscow fund the war – making such facilities a legitimate target in war. In this strike, dense black smoke again rose from the direction of the Tuapse refinery, which has annual production capacity of about 12m tonnes. The refinery halted production on 16 April because of drone damage to the port that made it impossible to ship its production, industry sources told Reuters. The head of the Tuapse district, Sergei Boyko, on Tuesday ordered people living near the refinery to evacuate by bus to a local school. After an attack on 20 April, black rain fell on the town and a popular beach resort, leaving an oily residue. Putin has sent an emergencies minister to Tuapse. King Charles has given a speech to the US Congress in which he made pointed reference to the defence of Ukraine, write Chris Stein and Caroline Davies. Charles said: “In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when Nato invoked article five for the first time, and the UN security council was united in the face of terror, we answered the call together – as our people have done so for more than a century, shoulder to shoulder, through two world wars, the cold war, Afghanistan, and moments that have defined our shared security. Today, Mr Speaker, that same, unyielding resolve is needed for the defence of Ukraine and her most courageous people. It is needed in order to secure a truly just and lasting peace.” Last week, the king’s son Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, visited Kyiv and urged “American leadership” to honour its obligations in the Ukrainian conflict because the US was one of the countries that convinced post-Soviet Ukraine to give up nuclear weapons in exchange for security commitments. Trump rebuffed those comments, saying Harry “is not speaking for the UK”, but will find it more difficult to dismiss remarks by the king, of whom he is an avid fan. The acting US ambassador to Ukraine will step down from her post after less than a year in the job, the state department has said, amid a lull in US-brokered efforts to achieve a ceasefire and end Russia’s invasion. The Financial Times, quoting unnamed sources, said Julie Davis had grown frustrated with Donald Trump over his lack of support for Ukraine – her predecessor left for the same reason – but the state department said she was simply retiring from the department. The Hungarian election winner, Péter Magyar, has proposed a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, to discuss minority rights of ethnic Hungarians in western Ukraine. Magyar does not share defeated rival Viktor Orbán’s overt hostility towards Ukraine and support for Russia, but still opposes fast-track Ukrainian membership of the EU and says Kyiv’s treatment of ethnic Hungarians in western Ukraine will be key to rebuilding ties. Orbán was accused of exaggerating and distorting the extent of grievances between Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian population and the Kyiv government. Ethnic Hungarians are among those fighting for Ukraine against Russia. They include the head of Ukraine’s drone force.

US ambassador to Ukraine appointed by Trump steps down after less than a year in the job

The acting US ambassador to Ukraine will step down from her post after less than a year in the job, the state department has said, amid a lull in US-brokered efforts to achieve a ceasefire and end Russia’s invasion. Julie Davis had grown frustrated with president Donald Trump over his lack of support for Ukraine, the Financial Times reported, quoting unnamed sources. The state department denied any such disagreements took place and said she was retiring. Trump has been pressuring Kyiv to reach a peace deal with Russia, saying the country could cede territory to secure an agreement. The president has so far has failed to bring the war to an end through ceasefire talks which have now largely stalled as Washington has concentrated its focus on the Iran war. “It is false to suggest Ambassador Davis is resigning ‘over differences with Donald Trump,’” state department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said. “She will continue to proudly advance President Trump’s policies until she officially departs Kyiv in June 2026 and retires from the department,” he said. Davis, the top US embassy official is the charge d’affaires but not a Senate-confirmed ambassador. She has also been serving as the US ambassador to Cyprus since 2023, operating a dual role during her time in Kyiv. She was named by the Trump administration in May last year after her predecessor, fellow career diplomat Bridget Brink, stepped down. Brink, who had been appointed by then President Joe Biden and is now running as a Democrat for Congress, said that she had grown alarmed by Trump’s “appeasement” of Russia and how he “put pressure on the victim, Ukraine.” Since assuming office in January 2025, Trump has repeatedly assigned blame to Ukraine for Russia’s invasion of the country more than four years ago and has had a tumultuous relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. With Agence France-Presse and Reuters

Deaths projected to outnumber births in UK every year from 2026

Deaths are projected to outnumber births in the UK every year from 2026 and the population is expected to grow at a slower rate over the next few decades than previously reported, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). About 1.7 million people are projected to join the population between 2024 and 2034, pushing the total up 2.5% from 69.3 million to 71 million, before it starts to decrease in the mid-2050s. This is smaller than the increase included in ONS figures published last year, which projected a rise of 3 million over the same period and the population jumping 4.3% to a total of 72.2 million by 2034. The projections have been revised downwards to reflect the recent sharp fall in net migration, as well as lower fertility rates in the future. James Robards, ONS head of household and population projections, said: “Our latest projections indicate slower population growth than previously projected. “This is mainly due to lower migration assumptions – reflective of the recent steep fall in net migration – and lower fertility assumptions. At the UK level, the population is projected to peak in the 2050s before decreasing.” The projections are not forecasts nor predictions and are based on current and past trends. UK population growth is projected to slow even further during the 2030s and 2040s, before peaking at 72.5 million in 2054 and then going into decline, dropping to 72.1 million by 2064 and 71.4 million in 2074. Previous projections suggested the population would continue to grow until 2096. Net migration, the difference between the number of people moving long-term to the country and the number leaving, is expected to be the only driver of population growth in the UK over the next few decades. Net migration to the UK stood at an estimated 204,000 in the year to June 2025, down 69% from 649,000 in the previous 12 months. An additional 2.2 million people are projected to be added to the population through net migration in the 10 years to 2034, while natural change will see 450,000 more deaths than births, resulting in the overall growth projection for this period of 1.7 million. The ONS figures suggest the population will peak at different times in the four countries of the UK. While England is projected to have a peak of 62.1 million people in 2056, the peak is likely to come much sooner elsewhere, arriving in 2035 in Wales (3.2 million), 2033 in Scotland (5.6 million) and 2031 in Northern Ireland (1.9 million). The total projected growth in the UK population in the 25 years from 2024 to 2049 is 3.1 million, or an increase of 4.5%. This is notably lower than the growth in the preceding 25 years, from 1999 to 2024, when the population grew by an estimated 10.6 million, or a rise of 18.1%. The figures also reflect the ongoing shift in the age structure of the UK population. The number of people of pensionable age is projected to rise from 12.4 million to 14.2 million by 2034, when it will account for one in five of the total population. In contrast, children under the age of 16 will make up a smaller proportion of the population, down from 12.6 million (18.2% of the total) to 11 million (15.5%). By the time the UK population is projected to peak in 2054, pensioners will account for 22% of the total and under-16s will make up 14.5%. Maike Currie, vice-president of personal finance at financial institution PensionBee, said: “The UK’s demographic dividend is turning into a deepening demographic drag. For the pension system, this means fewer future workers supporting more retirees. “With earlier figures showing a third of those leaving the UK are aged 16 to 34, the pension system faces a double hit: fewer contributors and more retirees, putting real strain on the state pension and long-term investment flows.”

Middle East crisis: Trump hits back at German chancellor after Merz said Iran was ‘humiliating’ US – as it happened

Donald Trump lashed out at the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, whom he said “doesn’t know what he’s talking about” regarding Iran. It comes after an unusually outspoken Merz said on Monday that he couldn’t see what a “strategic exit” from the war would look like for the United States and said that the US was being “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership as talks between the two parties have stalled. More here. Trump also claimed without evidence in a Truth Social post that Iran has “just informed” Washington that they are in a “state of collapse”. Trump said Iran wants the US to open the strait of Hormuz “as soon as possible” as they try to “figure out” their “leadership situation”, something he said he believes is possible. Meanwhile, the US president’s approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his current term, as Americans increasingly sour on his handling of the cost of living and Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The four-day poll completed on Monday showed that only 34% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance in the White House, and the same percentage approve of his war. More on that here. But, in a big win for Trump, the United Arab Emirates announced it is quitting the Opec group of oil producers. In an unexpected move, the UAE is leaving Opec and Opec+ (which includes allies such as Russia) from 1 May, a move which could allow it – in theory – to produce more oil and gas. Trump has previously accused the organisation of “ripping off the rest of the world” by artificially inflating oil prices by holding back production. Here’s our story. Israel’s top diplomat claimed that Israel was not seeking to take territory in Lebanon, as its military presses operations in the south against Iran-backed Hezbollah despite a ceasefire. “Israel has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon. Our presence in the areas by our northern border serves one purpose: protecting our citizens,” foreign minister Gideon Saar said at a joint news conference with his Serbian counterpart Marko Đurić. His claims come as the Israeli military ordered residents of 16 towns and villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately to the Sidon area. The affected towns and villages are: Ghndouriyeh, Burj Qlawiyeh, Qlawiyeh, al-Sawana, al-Jumayjima, Safad al-Batikh, Braashit, Shaqra, Aita al-Jabal, Tibnin, al-Sultaniyya, Bir al-Sanasil, Dounin, Khirbet Silm, Salaa and Deir Qifa, according to a social media post by the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, who claimed the attacks are being launched due to Hezbollah violating the US-mediated ceasefire agreement Israel signed with the Lebanese state in mid-April. Lebanon’s minister for the environment accused Israel’s military of committing “an act of ecocide” in the foreword to a report detailing the harm done to the country’s natural resources during the invasion of 2023 to 2024. Israeli military aggression “reshaped both the physical and ecological landscape” of southern Lebanon, said the report, which does not consider the impacts of Israel’s latest barrage of attacks this spring. And a superyacht owned by Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov was able to transit the blockaded strait of Hormuz after undergoing maintenance in Dubai because neither Iran nor the United States objected, a source close to Mordashov said on Tuesday. It has been unclear how the multi-deck pleasure vessel, worth over $500 million, gained permission to sail on Saturday through the commercially important waterway at the heart of the US-Iran conflict, where traffic has been severely restricted since February, Reuters reported.