Back at the White House, Donald Trump again belittled Iran’s military capabilities, referring to the conflict as a “mini war” and suggesting that the US should’ve seized Iran’s ships rather than blowing them up.
Access to mifepristone, the FDA-approved medication used to end pregnancy, could become severely limited following a ruling from a US appeals court on Friday, which temporarily blocked the drug from being dispensed through the mail. The decision is for now the most sweeping threat to abortion access since the supreme court rolled back abortion rights in 2022, said Kelly Baden, vice-president at the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy group. “If allowed to stand, it would severely restrict access to mifepristone in every state, including those where abortion is broadly legal and where voters have acted to protect abortion rights,” she said. The so-called “abortion pill” is part of a two-drug regimen backed by decades of evidence for its efficacy and safety, and is used in the majority of abortions in the US. Usage has risen in recent years, especially in the aftermath of the 2022 ruling from the supreme court that overturned federal protections for the right to an abortion. In the year after that decision, the FDA formally modified its regulations to allow the drug to be prescribed online, expanding its use even in states where abortion care was being constricted. The drug has become a key target for the anti-abortion movement, and a series of lawsuits have challenged the drug’s initial approval in 2000 and the subsequent rules making it easier to obtain. Friday’s ruling came in response to a Louisiana lawsuit against the FDA. The state sought to pause distribution of the drug through the mail while the litigation proceeds. A conservative three-judge panel of the fifth US circuit court of appeals in New Orleans agreed with Louisiana that the FDA had failed to justify eliminating the in-person dispensing requirement. The ruling was hailed by Louisiana’s Republican attorney general, Liz Murrill, who in a statement said she would “look forward to continuing to defend women and babies as this case continues”. Meanwhile, with the FDA now under Trump, the agency has opened a review of the medication. Once this analysis is completed, officials at the agency said, they will determine if changes to its regulations are warranted. Reproductive rights advocates have voiced concerns that the review could further limit mifepristone’s use, despite the evidence supporting its safety. Developed in France in the 1980s, mifepristone is used around the world and is authorized in 96 countries. Its use is backed by roughly four decades of peer-reviewed research, according to a 2025 brief written by public health experts at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Anti-abortion politicians have just made it much harder for people everywhere in the country to get a medication that abortion and miscarriage patients have been safely using for more than 25 years,” Julia Kaye, a senior staff attorney for the Reproductive Freedom Project of the ACLU, said in a statement. “Louisiana’s legal attack on mifepristone shamelessly packaged lies and propaganda as an excuse to restrict abortion – and the fifth circuit rubber-stamped it.” Use of mifepristone has enabled abortions to continue in states that have enacted bans, including 9,350 provided via telehealth in Louisiana in 2025, according to Guttmacher. This ruling, however, will have a far wider impact. “The decision is a stunning and deeply alarming development,” Baden said. “Reimposing medically unnecessary in-person dispensing requirements for mifepristone will send shock waves of chaos and confusion across the country and dramatically upend patients’ ability to obtain abortion care. Reuters contributed reporting
The US has launched Donald Trump’s operation to open a route through the strait of Hormuz for hundreds of ships trapped with their crews in the Gulf, in a move that brought the region back to the brink of full-scale war as Iran sought to reassert its blockade. The US operation, which got under way on Monday after being announced as “Project Freedom” by Trump on Sunday night on his social media site, dramatically raised the stakes in a conflict that had been in a month-long period of uneasy limbo. Speaking hours after the operation began, the head of US Central Command, (Centcom), Adm Brad Cooper, said that US forces had destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted both Iranian cruise missiles and drones. He “strongly advised” Iranian forces to remain clear of US military assets in the region, which include guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 land- and sea-based aircraft, drones and 15,000 troops. Iran swiftly denied the claim. On a day of successive claims and counter-claims, it also denied Centcom’s assertion that two US-flagged merchant vessels had “successfully transited” the strait, while US navy guided-missile destroyers had crossed in the opposite direction, travelling westwards, and had begun patrolling the Gulf. Speaking at a press conference as the standoff became more volatile and dangerous, Trump downplayed tensions, saying Iran had “taken some shots” but had caused no harm apart from damage to a South Korean cargo vessel, which reported an unexplained explosion and fire. “Other than the South Korean Ship, there has been, at this moment, no damage going through the Strait,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform as oil prices jumped over the renewed hostilities. In an interview on Monday, however, the US president heightened fears of a fresh escalation. Trump told Fox News that Iran would be “blown off the face of the Earth” if it attacks US vessels carrying out Project Freedom, while also claiming that the regime had become “much more malleable” in peace negotiations. Iran, where military central command had warned that any US naval vessel approaching the strait would be fired on, earlier claimed to have hit a US frigate in the area with two missiles. Late on Sunday, after Trump’s announcement, a tanker reported having been hit by “unknown projectiles”. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) later said an oil tanker operated by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the MV Barakah had come under Iranian drone attack off the coast of Oman. No one was injured, it said. The UAE defence ministry said it had intercepted three missiles fired from Iran over its territorial waters, with a fourth one crashing into the sea. More than 850 ships are estimated to have been trapped in the Gulf since the US and Israel launched their attack on Iran on 28 February. Iran imposed a blockade on foreign shipping using the strait of Hormuz soon afterwards and Trump imposed a counter-blockade of ships using Iranian ports on 13 April. A Pakistani-brokered ceasefire, announced by Trump in early April, stopped hostilities but failed to open the strait. An estimated 20,000 sailors are stuck on the tankers, bulk carriers, container ships and other vessels, and there are growing concerns for their welfare. The operation launched by the US does not involve military escorts but aims to provide coordination and guidance for commercial shipping along a southern route through the strait, mostly through Omani territorial waters. Shipping executives responded cautiously to the move, amid uncertainty over how or if it would work. Richard Hext, the chair of Vanmar Shipping and the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, pointed out that Iran had previously declared that unapproved transit of the strait would be considered a “violation of the ceasefire” agreed last month. “Under these circumstances we should be cautious,” Hext told CNN. International response was also circumspect. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the only way to reopen the strait of Hormuz was “a coordinated reopening by the United States and Iran”. Macron, speaking at a meeting of European leaders in Armenia, added: “We are not going to take part in any military operation in a framework that to me seems unclear.” Announcing the project on Truth Social, Trump said the US had been approached by countries for help in getting their ships out of the strait, and that it would use its “best efforts” to do so. Giving no details on how this would be achieved, the president presented it as a humanitarian gesture “on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran”. “I have told my Representatives to inform them that we will use best efforts to get their Ships and Crews safely out of the Strait. In all cases, they said they will not be returning until the area becomes safe for navigation, and everything else,” Trump said. He added: “If, in any way, this humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully.” On Monday morning, a US-led military organisation, the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC), said the US had established an “enhanced security area” south of the established prewar shipping lanes through the strait. The route would take ships through Omani territorial waters, the JMIC said, and owing to high anticipated traffic, ship operators were told to coordinate with Omani authorities by radio. Ships were advised to avoid navigating in or close to the usual shipping lanes which “should be considered extremely hazardous due the presence of mines that have not been fully surveyed and mitigated”. Iran’s military command insisted that ships passing must coordinate with them. “We will manage the security of the strait of Hormuz with all might, and inform all commercial ships and tankers to refrain from any attempt to transit without the coordination of the Iranian armed forces stationed in the strait of Hormuz in order not to jeopardise their security,” Maj Gen Ali Abdollahi said, according to Mehr news agency. Earlier, Abdollahi had said Iran would attack “any foreign armed force” that tried to approach or enter the strait, “especially, the aggressive US army”.
Keir Starmer has said the benefit of joining the European Union’s £78bn loan scheme for Ukraine “outweighs the cost” as he argued the continent must move at pace to bolster its own defence. The prime minister, who said the UK’s involvement in the recovery loan plan would also help create jobs at home, acknowledged that tensions were high between Donald Trump and Europe, particularly over military issues. With European leaders concerned over the US president’s waning interest in the Ukraine war, Starmer used a meeting of the European Political Community in Armenia to begin negotiations to participate in the EU scheme. “The benefit there outweighs the cost. But more generally, it is important that we see our future as a closer relationship with the EU that’s in our national interest,” Starmer told reporters at the summit. He also used the trip to continue his push for closer ties with the bloc on defence, security and the economy, and to make the case for his reset with Brussels to UK voters before difficult local elections this week. As the Nato military alliance comes under intense pressure from Trump’s threats amid a difference in stances on the war in Iran, Starmer said: “We cannot deny that some of the alliances that we have come to rely on are not in the place we would want them to be. “There is more tension in the alliances than there should be and it’s very important that we therefore face up to this as a group of countries together.” If the UK’s effort to join the EU’s £78bn recovery loan scheme for Ukraine is successful, British defence firms would be able to provide equipment for Kyiv in return for a financial contribution of up to £400m, expected to come from the £3bn already ringfenced for Ukraine. But the EU expects the UK to go further in contributing to its budgets, in return for further access to its markets, after Starmer called for “deeper economic integration”. Brussels has also called for a permanent mechanism for an “appropriate financial contribution” from the UK for more access, with deals already struck with the EU on food and under way for energy as part of the government’s reset. At the summit in Armenia, the prime minister and the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, agreed to start talks on UK participation in an EU innovation fund and to be “ambitious” at this summer’s UK-EU summit. European leaders agreed in March that the UK would have to pay into European structural and investment funds (ESIFs) for the first time since Brexit if it wanted to participate in the EU’s single market for electricity. It said this financial contribution should “appropriately reflect the relative size of the UK’s economy and the proportion of the internal market in which the UK aims to participate”. Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister, accepted the UK was willing to make a financial contribution, arguing the principle was already well established, but suggested a reported figure of £1bn a year was incorrect. “It’s about judging whether in particular areas, it represents our national interest, and value for money with the UK taxpayers. The approach I’ve used the last few years, I’ll continue to,” he told LBC radio. The Cabinet Office is conducting an audit of which sectors could most benefit from further integration, with cars, chemicals and pharmaceuticals seen as a priority. In an interview with the Observer at the weekend, Starmer underlined his wish to negotiate closer links with the EU at the next “reset” summit this summer, saying the world had changed since the Brexit vote. “It [Brexit] has damaged our economy and there’s no doubt in my mind where the national interest lies,” he said. “Britain must be at the heart of a stronger Europe on defence, on security, on energy, and on our economy.”
Narendra Modi’s party has won a resounding election victory in West Bengal, a state which had been a rare opposition stronghold, expanding his unrivalled consolidation of power across the country. It is the first time that the Indian prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has won assembly elections in West Bengal, a large and politically significant state in eastern India. Over the past 15 years, the state had been ruled by Trinamool Congress (TMC), a key opposition party, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, their female chief minister. Banerjee had been one of the most outspoken critics of Modi and his religious nationalist agenda over his 12 years in power. But in a result that will have significant implications for India’s political landscape and deal another demoralising blow to the already weakened opposition, the BJP looked set to win more than 205 out of 294 seats in Bengal’s state assembly, a landmark majority. Modi said in a statement the West Bengal assembly elections “will be remembered forever. People’s power has prevailed and BJP’s politics of good governance has triumphed. I bow to each and every person of West Bengal.” The victory in West Bengal, which had been a longstanding ambition for the BJP, furthers the Hindu nationalist party’s unfettered control over state and central governments in India, as it expands its influence over the eastern part of the country. Since Modi became prime minister in 2014, the BJP’s dominance over politics, and the reach of its political agenda, which seeks to remake India into a Hindu rather than secular country, has continued to grow; while the opposition has been fractured and divided by infighting. On Monday, the BJP was also re-elected in the eastern state of Assam, giving the party power in 20 out of 28 states. The result followed a highly controversial exercise by the BJP government to revise West Bengal’s electoral roll, under the guise of “purging” it of illegal voters. As a result of the project, called a special intensive revision (SIR), more than 2.7 million voters were removed from the vote register. Analysis showed that Muslims and other minorities – who traditionally do not support the BJP – were disproportionately targeted. Many had not been allowed to challenge their expulsion in time for the polls. Critics and TMC leaders alleged the SIR exercise was an attempt by the BJP to skew the election in their favour, which was denied by the government. Rahul Verma, a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi, said the BJP’s win in West Bengal was the culmination of a “seven-year project” by the party leadership and cadre. He cited anti-incumbency and a strong dissatisfaction with TMC, and its interference in daily life, as a critical factor that lost it votes. He said BJP had run a much smoother campaign than in previous years, when it had previously been criticised as “outsiders” who threatened the Bengali cultural and linguistic identity. “The BJP had a strong and well organised presence in West Bengal and Modi is seen as a charismatic leader,” said Verma. “This kind of result also wouldn’t have happened without a consolidation of the Hindu vote.” For Verma, the outcome signalled that while the SIR exercise was unlikely to have swung the whole vote for the BJP, it nonetheless played “a marginal but still important role in these results”. Monday’s victories for the BJP in West Bengal, Assam and the small territory of Puducherry signal a return to the strong political momentum claimed by the party before the 2024 general election, when it lost its outright majority in parliament. It also dealt a further blow to the Indian National Congress, the main opposition party, which faced further losses and had two of its allied opposition parties removed from power. “Looking back at 2024, it now seems like that was a temporary setback to BJP,” said Verma. “They are returned to their dominant position. With every successive defeat, there is much more pressure mounting on the opposition; while the BJP looks even more invincible.” Nonetheless, analysts emphasised the BJP could still face a volatile future, as the economic impact of the Iran war and resulting energy crisis continues to mount, with issues of mass unemployment remaining unresolved. Monday’s results also made it clear that southern India remains one opposition stronghold that the BJP has yet to successfully penetrate. In Kerala, which has a long history of electing leftwing governments, the Congress party defeated the Communist-led alliance for the first time in a decade; while the BJP made small gains. In a big electoral shock in Tamil Nadu, political newcomer and former film star C Joseph Vijay and his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam party became the first new political outfit to gain power in the state for almost 50 years.
Medics are scrambling to evacuate two people from a luxury cruise ship stranded off the coast of Cape Verde, after a suspected outbreak of a rare respiratory virus killed three people, left three others seriously ill and forced nearly 150 people from across the world to isolate onboard. The plight of the MV Hondius, which set off in March from southern Argentina carrying 149 people from 23 countries, emerged late on Sunday after the World Health Organization said it was investigating a suspected outbreak of hantavirus, a disease primarily found in rodents. The UN health agency linked the rare disease to the deaths of three people, including a married couple from the Netherlands and a German national, and blamed it for making at least two others on the ship seriously ill and sending a 69-year-old British tourist to intensive care in South Africa. On Monday, a US travel blogger on the ship said the most difficult part was the question over what would come next for those onboard. “We’re not just headlines: we are people,” Jake Rosmarin said as he fought back tears in a video posted to social media. “People with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home. There’s a lot of uncertainty, and that’s the hardest part.” The cruise ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said the first passenger, a Dutch national, had died on 11 April and that the cause of death had not been determined onboard. “On 24 April, this passenger was disembarked on St Helena, with his wife accompanying the repatriation,” it said in a statement. Days later, the company said it had been informed that a woman, also a Dutch national, had become unwell and later died. Officials in South Africa said the woman, 69, collapsed at an airport in the country as she was trying to return to the Netherlands. She later died at a nearby hospital. On 27 April, another person on the MV Hondius, a British national, became seriously ill and had to be evacuated to South Africa. He remains in intensive care in Johannesburg, where he is in critical but stable condition. “A variant of hantavirus has been identified in this patient,” the company said. Another passenger, a German national, died on 2 May, of a cause “not yet … established”. Two crew members, of British and Dutch nationality, had acute respiratory symptoms, one mild and one severe, and both required urgent medical care, the company said. It noted that hantavirus infections, which are usually spread by infected rodents’ urine or faeces and can lead to severe respiratory illness and death, had not been confirmed in the two crew members. “Nor has it been established that the virus is connected to the three deaths associated with this voyage,” it said. “The exact cause and any possible connection are being investigated.” Oceanwide Expeditions said almost 150 people of 23 nationalities had been onboard the ship. While it did not specify which cruise the passengers were on, the company’s website suggests it offers 33-night or 43-night “Atlantic Odyssey” cruises on the 107-metre-long (351ft) Hondius. Departing from Argentina, the tours travel through Antarctica and stop off at some of the world’s most remote islands. The ship is currently anchored off the coast of Cape Verde, with passengers informed of what happened. “Strict precautionary measures are in process onboard, including isolation measures, hygiene protocols and medical monitoring,” said Oceanwide Expeditions. The vessel had asked to dock at a port in Cape Verde but on Monday health authorities in the country said they would not authorise its docking “with the aim of protecting national public health”. Instead they said they were in contact with authorities in the Netherlands and the UK about the Dutch-flagged ship. “This coordination has enabled a swift, safe and technically appropriate response, ensuring the clinical monitoring of patients and the preparation of all necessary precautionary measures, including a possible medical evacuation by air via air ambulance for patients under observation,” they added. Oceanwide Expeditions said it was considering sailing to Spain’s Canary Islands, potentially Las Palmas or Tenerife, where further medical screening and handling could take place. The company said it was working with Dutch authorities to organise the repatriation of the two crew members. “The body of the deceased individual is also planned to be included in this repatriation, along with a guest closely associated with the deceased,” it said, noting that the accompanying guest was “not symptomatic”. It said the repatriation relied on several authorities working together. “This repatriation depends on many factors, including the authorisation and support of local Cape Verdean health authorities for the transfer of individuals requiring medical attention from MV Hondius.” The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), which is assisting with the situation, said the source of the infection remained unclear. “You could imagine, for example, that rats on board the ship transmitted the virus,” a spokesperson told Reuters. “But another possibility is that during a stop somewhere in South America, people were infected, for instance via mice, and became ill that way. That all still needs to be investigated.” On Monday, the WHO said the risk to the wider public remained low and that there was no need for panic or travel restrictions. “To date, one case of hantavirus infection has been laboratory confirmed, and there are five additional suspected cases,” it said in an earlier statement on Sunday. South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases was carrying out contact tracing in and around Johannesburg in order to assess whether people had been exposed to the infected passengers. The UK’s Foreign Office said it was closely monitoring reports of the suspected outbreak. “We are in touch with the cruise company and local authorities,” it said. While it is rare, hantavirus infections can spread between people, according to the WHO. The family of viruses made headlines last year after the actor Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died following a hantavirus infection in New Mexico. In 2019, a hantavirus outbreak in southern Argentina killed at least nine people. As officials raced to halt the spread of the disease, a judge ordered dozens of residents of a remote town to stay in their homes for 30 days, according to the Associated Press.
My husband, Graham Findlay, who has died aged 68 of cancer, was a disability rights activist and housing policy expert. He most recently worked as co-production lead at the charity Scope, responsible for encouraging greater participation by disabled people in the design and construction of housing, workplaces and consumer products. The idea of inclusive design was one of Graham’s main preoccupations, and he was a champion of disabled people becoming the “architects of their own lives”. Over the years he promoted that goal in roles at Disability Wales and the Chartered Institute of Housing, as well as with his own consultancy. Born in Walmer, Kent, Graham was the son of Ronald, head of the common market section of the National Coal Board, and Josephine (nee Osmond Jones), a matron at the South London hospital for women. From the age of 10 he suffered from dystonia, a painful neurological movement disorder that caused severe spasms in his neck and torso and impaired his speech. After attending Woolverstone Hall in Suffolk, a London county council boarding school, Graham went to Southwark sixth form college and then became a trainee journalist in 1975 at the Deeson press agency in London. In 1977 he left that job to take a degree in cultural and media studies at the Polytechnic of Wales (now the University of South Wales), where he graduated with a distinction before undertaking postgraduate studies in critical theory at Cardiff University (1983-84). Looking for a job in higher education administration or local government, Graham found that his academic references were met with hesitancy by prospective employers wary of his dystonia. Refusal of employment on grounds of disability was permissible in the mid-1980s, and the experience reframed Graham’s views, fuelling in him a desire to bring about change. After spending several years as the co-owner of a bookshop in Cardiff, he gained a social work qualification at Cardiff University in 1990, allowing him to become a probation officer at Mid Glamorgan county council (1990-91), then a project officer at Barnardo’s (1991-95) and a manager at the Cardiff Housing Access Project. He subsequently moved to Disability Wales as a senior policy officer (1999-2009) before a switch to the Chartered Institute of Housing as its programme manager, responsible for positive action for disability. He left n 2014, setting up a consultancy, Findlay Equality Services, which he ran in parallel with his work at Scope, coaching and mentoring disabled people in the workplace – until ill-health led him to stop all work in 2025. Scope’s Graham Findlay Purple Pioneer award, given to those who have made significant strides in advancing disability equality, was named after him following his death. We met at the Polytechnic of Wales as students and were married in 2002 after 20 years together. Graham is survived by me and our three children, Pearl, Evan and Bryn.