Neither side offered any specifics about the state of negotiations on Saturday, days before a fragile ceasefire in the US-Israeli war against Iran is set to expire.

The war, now in its eighth week, has killed thousands, spread to Israeli attacks in Lebanon and sent oil prices surging because of the de facto closure of the Strait, which before the war carried one-fifth of the world’s oil shipments.

IRAN’S REVERSAL ON VITAL STRAIT
“We have had progress but there is still a big distance between us,” Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told state media, referring to talks last weekend. “There are some issues on which we insist… They also have red lines. But these issues could be just one or two.”

Mr. Trump said the US was having “very good conversations” but gave no other details.

Tehran reversed course on Saturday to reassert control over the Strait, again closing the energy chokepoint and adding fresh uncertainty to the war, which the US and Israel launched on Feb. 28.

Iran said it was responding to a continued US blockade of Iranian ports, calling it a violation of the ceasefire, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said Iran’s navy was ready to inflict “new bitter defeats” on its enemies. Mr. Trump called the move “blackmail” even as he praised the talks.

On Friday, Iran had announced the temporary reopening of the Strait of Hormuz following a separate US-brokered 10-day ceasefire agreement on Thursday between Israel and Lebanon.

Mr. Trump defended the US blockade and threatened “to start dropping bombs again” unless the countries reached a long-term deal before the ceasefire expires on Wednesday.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said Tehran’s control over the Strait included demanding the payment of costs related to security, safety and environmental protection services, state media said.

VESSELS REPORT GUNFIRE
Concern remained after at least two vessels reported being attacked on Saturday while trying to transit the waterway. India summoned the Iranian ambassador in New Delhi and expressed deep concern that two Indian-flagged ships had come under fire in the Strait, the government said.

US Central Command said American forces were enforcing a maritime blockade of Iran but did not comment on the latest Iranian actions.

Tehran’s reversal raised the risk that oil and gas shipments through the Strait could remain disrupted just as Mr. Trump weighs whether to extend the ceasefire.

When American and Iranian negotiators met last weekend in Islamabad, the US proposed a 20-year suspension of all Iranian nuclear activity, while Iran suggested a halt of three to five years, according to people familiar with the proposals.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said no date had been set for the next round of negotiations, adding that a framework of understanding must be agreed first.

Mr. Trump had said on Friday there could be talks this weekend and that the two sides were “very close to making a deal.”

There were no signs on Saturday of preparations for new talks in the Pakistani capital, where the highest-level US-Iran negotiations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution ended without agreement last weekend.

Senior national security aides gathered at the White House on Saturday morning. Mr. Trump later went to the Trump National Golf Club with top envoy Steve Witkoff, one of his Iran negotiators.

Pressure for a way out of the war has mounted as Mr. Trump’s fellow Republicans defend narrow majorities in Congress in the November midterm elections with US gasoline prices high, inflation rising and his own approval ratings down.

Oil prices CLc1, LCOc1 fell about 10% and global stocks jumped on Friday on the prospect of marine traffic resuming through the Strait. But hundreds of vessels and about 20,000 seafarers remain stranded in the Gulf awaiting passage through the waterway, shipping sources said. — Reuters

Pyongyang’s intense missile activity — this was the fourth such launch this month and the seventh of the year — is meant to display its self-defense capabilities while gaining international leverage, some experts said.

“The missile launches may be a way of showing that — unlike Iran — we have self-defense capabilities,” said South Korean former presidential security adviser Kim Ki-jung.

“The North also appears to be exerting pressure preemptively and make a show of force before engaging in dialogue with the United States and South Korea,” he said.

IRAN WAR, TRUMP VISIT LOOM OVER LAUNCHES
The seven-week-old US-Israeli war against Iran, which has one aim the curbing of Tehran’s nuclear program, could reinforce Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, experts and former South Korean officials say.

US President Donald J. Trump, preparing for a summit in China next month, and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung have repeatedly expressed interest in holding talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. There are no publicly known plans for any meetings.

Mr. Lee recently conveyed regret to the North for drone incursions from the South, receiving rare praise from Pyongyang.

Sunday’s missiles were fired from near the city of Sinpo on North Korea’s east coast toward the sea around 6:10 a.m. (2110 GMT on Saturday) and flew about 140 kilometers (km) (90 miles), South Korea’s military said in a statement.

Japan’s government posted on social media that the missiles were believed to have fallen near the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, and no incursion into Japan’s exclusive economic zone had been confirmed.

South Korea’s presidential Blue House convened an emergency security meeting, calling the launches a provocation that violated United Nations Security Council resolutions, according to media reports. It urged Pyongyang to “stop the provocative acts.”

It was not clear what kind of ballistic missiles were fired, but Sinpo has submarines and equipment for test-firing submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The North last fired a ballistic missile from a submarine in May 2022, and it flew as far as 600 km (370 miles).

North Korea has made “very serious” advances in its ability to turn out nuclear weapons, with the probable addition of a new uranium enrichment facility, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday.

In late March, North Korean leader Kim said Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear-armed state was irreversible and expanding a “self-defensive nuclear deterrent” was essential to national security. — Reuters

The race’s inaugural edition last year was riddled with mishaps, and most robots were unable to finish. Last year’s champion robot recorded a time of 2 hours 40 minutes, more than double the time of the human winner of the conventional race.

This year’s contrast was stark. Not only had the number of participating teams increased from 20 to more than 100, but several robot frontrunners were noticeably faster than professional athletes, beating the human winners by more than 10 minutes.

Unlike last year, nearly half of the robot entrants navigated the tougher terrain autonomously instead of being directed by remote control during the 21-kilometer (13-mile) race. The robots and 12,000 men and women ran in parallel tracks to avoid collisions.

The winning robot, developed by Chinese smartphone brand Honor, finished the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, several minutes faster than the half-marathon world record set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon last month.

Teams from Honor, a Huawei spin-off, took the three podium spots, all self-navigated and posting world-record-beating times. Du Xiaodi, an Honor engineer on the winning team, said its robot was in development for a year, fitted with legs 90 to 95 centimeters (35 to 37 inches) long to mimic elite human runners and liquid cooling technology used in its smartphones.

Mr. Du said the sector remained in a nascent phase, but he was confident humanoids would eventually reshape many industries, including manufacturing.

“Running faster may not seem meaningful at first, but it enables technology transfer, for example, into structural reliability and cooling, and eventually industrial applications,” Mr. Du said.

ROBOTICS IMPROVEMENTS
Spectators largely viewed the variety of humanoids of different sizes and gaits on display as evidence of China’s improvements in robotics.

“The humanoid robots’ running posture I saw was really quite impressive… considering that AI (artificial intelligence) has only been developing for a short time, I’m already very impressed that it can achieve this level of performance,” said Chu Tianqi, a 23-year-old engineering student at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

“The future will definitely be an AI era. If people don’t know how to use AI now, especially if some are still resistant to it, they will definitely become obsolete,” he said.

Another spectator, 11-year-old schoolboy Guo Yukun, said after watching the race, he was inspired to pursue a university degree in robotics in the future.

Mr. Guo said he takes regular classes in robotics theory and programming at his elite Beijing school and is part of his school’s team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, a global programming competition for high schoolers.

ECONOMICALLY VIABLE APPLICATIONS
While economically viable applications of humanoid robots mostly remain in a trial phase, the half-marathon’s showcasing of these machines’ physical prowess highlights their potential to reshape everything from dangerous jobs to battlefield combat.

However, Chinese robotics firms are still struggling to develop the AI software that would enable humanoids to match the efficiency of human factory workers.

Experts said the skills on display during the half-marathon, while entertaining, do not translate to the widespread commercialization of humanoid robots in industrial settings, where manual dexterity, real-world perception and capabilities beyond small-scale, repetitive tasks are crucial.

China is seeking to become a global powerhouse in this frontier industry, and it has enacted a wide range of policies from subsidies to infrastructure projects to cultivate local firms.

The country’s most-watched TV show, the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala, in February showcased China’s push to dominate humanoid robots and the future of manufacturing.

That included a lengthy martial arts demonstration where over a dozen Unitree humanoids performed sophisticated fight sequences waving swords, poles and nunchucks in close proximity to human children performers. — Reuters

The Vatican is expecting about 600,000 to fill streets around Japoma Stadium to be part of the celebration and hear an address from the pope, who has become outspoken on war and inequality and drawn the ire of US President Donald Trump.

Amid a heavy security presence, Cameroonians began filing into the stadium on Thursday, staying there overnight so they could witness Leo’s homily in person.

Leo, the first US pope, on Thursday criticized leaders who spend billions on wars and, in unusually forceful remarks in Cameroon, said the world was “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants”.

Leo was due to land in Douala around 9:55 a.m. (0855 GMT), after a one-hour flight by plane from Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital. He will spend about four hours in Douala, where he will also visit a Catholic hospital, before returning to Yaounde.

On a 10-day tour across Africa, the pontiff has also decried violations of international law by “neocolonial” world powers and said “the whims of the rich and powerful” threaten peace.

Cameroon, an oil- and cocoa-producing country, faces grave security challenges, including a simmering Anglophone conflict in which thousands of people have been killed since 2017.

Crowds greeting the pope on his visit have been enthusiastic, lining the streets along his routes and wearing colorful fabrics featuring images of his face.

Bishop Léopold Bayemi Matjei called Leo’s visit “a moment of great joy” and said he hoped it meant God would bless Cameroon.

“Our country needs a lot of blessing, a powerful blessing, so that hope will come to rise again,” said the bishop, who leads the Church in Obala, about an hour north of Yaounde. — Reuters

Ms. Suu Kyi, 80, was serving a 27-year sentence for a litany of offenses her allies said were politically motivated to keep her at bay, ranging from incitement and corruption to election fraud and violating a state secrets law.

The sentence has been cut by one-sixth, but it remains unclear whether the Nobel Peace Prize winner will be allowed to serve the rest of her sentence under house arrest, the lawyer said.

The wildly popular Ms. Suu Kyi, who had dismissed the charges against her as “absurd”, has not been seen in public since the end of her marathon trials, and her whereabouts have been unknown.

Earlier, state media reported that President Min Aung Hlaing approved an amnesty for 4,335 prisoners, the third such move in the past six months. Amnesties typically take place in Myanmar each year to mark Independence Day in January and New Year in April.

Among the prisoners freed was Win Myint, who served as president from 2018 until the 2021 military coup.

Win Myint, an ally of Ms. Suu Kyi, was “granted a pardon and the reduction of his remaining sentences under specified conditions”, state broadcaster MRTV said.

A spokesperson for the military-backed government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 2021 coup against Win Myint and Ms. Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government was led by Min Aung Hlaing. It plunged the Southeast Asian country into a nationwide civil war that continues to rage.

Min Aung Hlaing was elected president on April 3 following polls in December and January during which the opposition was stifled and largely absent. Critics and Western governments dismissed the vote as a sham designed to entrench military rule behind a democratic facade. — Reuters

Iran has largely closed the strait to ships other than its own since the start of US-Israeli air strikes on February 28. On Monday, Washington imposed a blockade on ships entering or leaving Iranian ports.

US President Donald Trump has called on other countries to help enforce the blockade and has criticized NATO allies for not doing so.

Britain, France and others say joining the blockade would amount to entering the war, but they have said they would be willing to help keep the strait open once there is a lasting ceasefire or the conflict ends.

The initiative being discussed does not for now include the United States or Iran, though European diplomats said any realistic mission would ultimately need to be coordinated with both. Washington will be briefed on the outcome of the talks.

SAFETY OF STRANDED SEAFARERS
According to a note sent to invited nations, the aim of the meeting is to reaffirm full diplomatic support for unfettered freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and the need to respect international law.

The meeting will also address economic challenges facing the shipping industry and the safety of more than 20,000 stranded seafarers and trapped commercial vessels.

It will also outline preparations for the deployment – when conditions are met – of a strictly defensive multinational military mission to ensure freedom of navigation.

A chair’s statement is expected at the end of the meeting to give a more tangible sense of what such a mission could entail, although it is not expected to spell out what specific countries might contribute.

RESOURCES WILL DEPEND ON SITUATION, OFFICIAL SAYS
President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will attend the meeting in Paris, while officials from across Europe, Asia and the Middle East will join by video conference.

China has been invited, although it was not clear whether it will take part.

Several diplomats said the mission might never materialize if the situation in Hormuz returned to normal.

Others said shipping companies and insurers could seek such a deployment during a transitional phase to provide reassurance.

“It can involve intelligence sharing, mine-clearance capabilities, military escorts, information procedures with neighboring countries and more,” a senior French official briefing reporters said.

“The objective is clear, and the resources deployed will naturally depend on the situation.”

Britain said Friday’s talks would feed directly into a multinational military planning meeting next week. — Reuters

Mr. Trump said Iran had offered not to possess nuclear weapons for more than 20 years. Tehran’s nuclear ambitions were a sticking point at talks in Islamabad last weekend.

“We’re going to see what happens. But I think we’re very close to making a deal with Iran,” he told reporters outside the White House.

Hours later at an event in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mr. Trump went further, saying the war “should be ending pretty soon.”

The war with Iran, which began on February 28 with a US-Israeli attack, has killed thousands and sent oil prices surging, creating a major political headache for the US president.

If the Lebanon ceasefire clears the way for a broader peace deal with Iran, it would be a significant win for the Trump administration, which has struggled so far to reopen the strategically important Strait of Hormuz and block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon.

Celebratory gunfire rang out across parts of Beirut as the clock struck midnight on Thursday, the time the ceasefire was set to go into effect. For around half an hour, the sound of explosions from rockets fired in celebration could also be heard, witnesses said.

But the pause in hostilities remained fragile.

The Lebanese Army said early on Friday that Israel committed violations of the ceasefire after it took effect, including the intermittent shelling of several southern Lebanese villages.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which had said earlier that its forces remained deployed in the area. In a post on X, Arabic-language military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the deployment was in response to what he described as continued Hezbollah militant activity.

Hezbollah released a lengthy statement detailing what it described as its military operations against Israel throughout Thursday, which showed that its last attack came at 11:50 p.m. local time, 10 minutes before the ceasefire took effect.

Mr. Trump later issued a social media post urging Hezbollah to respect the ceasefire.

“I hope Hezbollah acts nicely and well during this important period of time. It will be an GREAT moment for them if they do. No more killing. Must finally have PEACE!” he said.

FURTHER ISRAEL-LEBANON TALKS PLANNED
Mr. Trump said in his earlier remarks to reporters that he thought the US had a chance of a deal with Iran.

“And if that happens, oil goes way down, prices go way down, inflation goes way down, and … much more importantly than even that, you won’t have a nuclear holocaust,” he said.

The president said he was not sure a two-week ceasefire agreed with Iran last week would need to be extended beyond next week, adding that Tehran wanted to make a deal.

“We have a very good relationship with Iran right now, as hard as it is to believe. And I think it’s a combination of about four weeks of bombing, and a very powerful blockade.”

Conflict between Israel and the Iran-aligned Lebanese group Hezbollah was reignited by the US-Israeli war with Iran. Hezbollah opened fire in support of Tehran on March 2, prompting an Israeli offensive in Lebanon 15 months after their last major conflict.

Mr. Trump said he had held “excellent conversations” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and planned to invite them both to the White House for “meaningful talks”.

He said later that the White House meeting could take place over the next week or two, and that if an Iran deal was reached and signed in Islamabad, he might travel there for the occasion.

Mr. Trump said he had directed US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine to work with Israel and Lebanon to achieve lasting peace.

Iran welcomed the ceasefire in Lebanon, saying it was part of an understanding reached with the United States and mediated by Pakistan, Iranian media reported, citing a statement by a Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

SIGNS OF POSSIBLE COMPROMISE ON NUCLEAR ISSUES
Closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply flows, has caused the worst oil price shock in history and forced the International Monetary Fund to downgrade its outlook for the global economy, warning prolonged conflict could push the world to the brink of recession.

At last weekend’s talks, the US proposed a 20-year suspension of all nuclear activity by Iran – an apparent concession from longstanding demands for a permanent ban. Tehran suggested a halt of three to five years, according to people familiar with the proposals.

Washington has pressed for any highly enriched uranium (HEU) to be removed from Iran. Tehran has demanded that international sanctions against it be lifted.

Two Iranian sources said there were signs of a compromise emerging on the HEU stockpile, with Tehran considering shipping part, but not all, of it out of the country, something it had previously ruled out.

A diplomatic source said the key Pakistani mediator, Army chief Asim Munir, arrived in Tehran on Wednesday and had made a breakthrough on “sticky issues”, although Tehran said the fate of its nuclear program had not been resolved. Mr. Trump has said the accord would open the Strait of Hormuz.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Mr. Munir’s trip had led to greater hopes for a second round of talks and an extension of the ceasefire, but said fundamental differences remain over the nuclear program.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said troops were poised to restart combat operations if a deal was not reached.

A Pakistani security source told Reuters that Washington was offering to lift sanctions and unfreeze billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian assets to secure a deal.

However, the source added that Iran would open the strait only if a permanent ceasefire is reached and there are United Nations guarantees that the US and Israel will not attack again in the future. — Reuters

The move paves the way for a full IMF assessment of Venezuela’s economy for the first time in some 20 years and could eventually unlock billions of dollars in funding via frozen special drawing rights.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement that the Fund, guided by the views of a majority of its members, was now dealing with Venezuela’s government under the administration of the South American nation’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez.

The World Bank Group also issued a statement announcing it was resuming dealings with Venezuela’s government under Ms. Rodríguez. Its last loan, the statement said, was in 2005.

Neither Venezuela’s information ministry nor its central bank immediately responded to requests for comment.

The resumption of a formal relationship comes after US President Donald Trump’s administration in January ousted President Nicolas Maduro in a raid on Caracas. Since then, Washington has been working with Ms. Rodríguez and is looking to expand the US presence in Venezuela’s oil and mining sectors.

DEBT RESTRUCTURING AND SHORT-TERM FUNDING HOPES
JPMorgan has estimated that Venezuela’s special drawing rights, assets that are available to countries with engagement with the IMF, are worth $5 billion.

Investors have bet big on Venezuela’s bonds in hopes that the change in government can enable a debt restructuring. Analysts estimate that Venezuela has about $60 billion of defaulted bonds outstanding, but total external debt is pegged at roughly $150 billion to $170 billion.

The IMF last month said it was beginning to re-engage with Venezuela, starting by collecting basic data and assessing the economy after years of gaps. But a full sovereign restructuring is typically underpinned by a new IMF lending program – and the data that comes with it regarding what level of debt is sustainable for a country. — Reuters

The war was the biggest of three key topics discussed by the finance ministers and central bank governors of the world’s richest democracies on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington.

They also discussed continued support for Ukraine and developing alternative supply chains to China for rare earths and critical minerals.

“The conclusion was unanimous: it is urgent to limit the cost to the global economy of an enduring conflict. G7 members reaffirmed the pressing need to move toward a lasting peace,” the statement said.

“More than ever, coordination among G7 members remains key to addressing the economic and energy impacts of the crisis. G7 members are particularly vigilant about the direct and indirect effects on the most vulnerable states.”

French Finance Minister Roland Lescure told reporters earlier on Thursday that G7 countries had to be ready to act to mitigate the economic and inflation risks caused by the war’s energy and supply shocks.

With G7 backing, the International Energy Agency last month released a record amount of oil from strategic reserves to help counter the cut-off in supplies from Gulf countries through the Strait of Hormuz.

“We need to make sure that we understand where the balance of risks is tilting in the next few weeks,” Mr. Lescure said after the meetings of the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors on Wednesday and Thursday.

“We are meeting again in a month’s time in Paris and we want to make sure that we monitor the situation, we evaluate the impact and that if we need to act, as we did with releasing inventories a few weeks back, we will,” Mr. Lescure added.

He also said it was important to ensure free transit for ships through the Strait of Hormuz, adding that G7 ministers agreed that vessels should not have to “pay one dollar” to Iran to pass through the international waterway.

France holds this year’s presidency of the G7, which also includes the US, Canada, Japan, Britain, Germany, and Italy.

Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau added that G7 central banks also pledged to take steps necessary to prevent the Iran war’s energy and commodity shock from becoming embedded into core inflation second- and third-round price impacts.

“We will act, without hesitation, if and when necessary, but we are not in a rush mode. We need to have more data” about the impact of the price shocks.

AID FOR UKRAINE
Mr. Lescure said the G7 finance leaders, meeting for the first time in person this year, also vowed to continue to aid Ukraine, including helping it prepare for next winter after a difficult winter this year with constant Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

“Ukraine should never be a collateral damage of the current war in Iran,” Mr. Lescure said. “Russia mustn’t be getting benefits from what’s happening in Iran.”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who skipped the G7 meeting on critical minerals on Thursday, said on Wednesday that he would not renew a 30-day temporary waiver of sanctions on Russian oil stranded at sea. The waiver, which expired on April 11, was meant to ease price pressures by releasing more oil into global markets.

The French statement said the discussion focused on Ukraine’s economic reforms under its $8 billion IMF program, the need to keep up economic pressure on Russia, meeting Ukraine’s energy needs, and actively contributing to the repair of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s confinement arch.

The G7 finance leaders also discussed joint efforts to create alternative supply chains for rare earths and other critical minerals to reduce their countries’ dependency on China, the world’s dominant supplier. Mr. Lescure said the group would keep working on “very concrete steps” that could be presented to a G7 leaders meeting in June in the French Alpine spa town of Evian-les-Bains. — Reuters

Israel’s cabinet met on Wednesday to discuss a possible ceasefire in neighboring Lebanon, a senior Israeli official said, more than six weeks into its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah. Two senior Lebanese officials said they had been briefed that efforts were underway for a ceasefire but had no further details on how long it would last or when it would be announced.

Mr. Trump said talks between leaders of both countries would take place on Thursday, without providing details.

Ending the fighting in Lebanon was a key sticking point in earlier peace talks, along with how to deal with Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

US and Iranian officials were weighing a return to Pakistan for further talks as early as the coming weekend, after negotiations ended on Sunday without a breakthrough. Pakistan’s army chief and key figure in the mediation, Field Marshal Asim Munir, arrived in Tehran on Wednesday to try to prevent a renewal of the conflict.

“We feel good about the prospects of a deal,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a news conference on Wednesday, calling conversations mediated by Pakistan “productive and ongoing.” She denied reports that the US had formally requested an extension of a two-week ceasefire agreed by the two sides on April 8.

More in-person talks had not yet been confirmed but would likely take place in Pakistan again, Ms. Leavitt said.

Pakistan’s military confirmed Mr. Munir had arrived in Tehran. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Mr. Munir, who had mediated the last round of talks, would seek “to narrow gaps” between the two sides.

Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said talks needed to recognize Iran’s rights, interests and dignity to be fruitful.

“But if it continues, as it usually does, relying on deception and, in fact, on a lack of commitment and failure to adhere to agreements and set terms, then it naturally cannot succeed,” he said during a pro-government rally in Tehran.

SOME INVESTORS REMAIN SKEPTICAL
The talks last weekend broke down without an agreement to end the war, which Mr. Trump began alongside Israel on Feb. 28, triggering Iranian attacks on Iran’s Gulf neighbors as well as reigniting the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. Thousands of people have been killed, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, while soaring energy costs have rattled investors and policymakers around the world.

Stock markets have rallied strongly in recent days on expectations of a swift resolution to the fighting, with indices on Wall Street hitting record highs on Wednesday as crude oil prices steadied.

“While there are hopes for de-escalation, many investors remain skeptical, given that US-Iran talks have repeatedly broken down even after appearing to make progress,” said Toshitaka Tazawa, an analyst at Fujitomi Securities.

ECONOMIC PRESSURE ON IRAN
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted that China’s purchase of Iranian oil would “pause” given a US blockade on vessels calling at Iranian ports. He said the US could impose secondary sanctions on countries that purchase Iranian crude.

The US Treasury had warned two Chinese banks not to process Iranian money or face sanctions, he said, without naming the banks. China previously bought more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil.

Mr. Trump said on Wednesday he had told Chinese President Xi Jinping not to give Iran weapons, which Mr. Xi had said he wasn’t. Mr. Trump also said that China was very happy he was “permanently opening” the Strait of Hormuz.

“I am doing it for them, also — And the World,” he wrote on social media, adding: “President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks.”

The war has led Iran to effectively shut the Strait — a vital artery for global crude and gas shipments — to ships other than its own, sharply reducing exports from the Gulf and leaving energy importers scrambling for alternative supplies.

IRAN COULD ALLOW TRAFFIC ON OMANI SIDE OF STRAIT
Iran’s joint military command warned it would halt trade flows in the Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the Red Sea — which connects to the Suez Canal — if the US blockade continued.

Iran could consider allowing ships to sail freely through the Omani side of the Strait without risk of attack as part of proposals it has offered in negotiations with the US, providing a deal is clinched to prevent renewed conflict, a source briefed by Tehran said.

Mr. Trump has also threatened to escalate if the war resumes.

“We could take out every one of their bridges in one hour. We could take out every one of their power plants, electric power plants, in one hour. We don’t want to do that… so we’ll see what happens,” he told Fox Business Network.

Iran’s nuclear ambitions were a key sticking point at last weekend’s talks. The US proposed a 20-year suspension of all nuclear activity by Iran — an apparent concession from longstanding demands for a permanent ban — while Tehran suggested a halt of three to five years, according to people familiar with the proposals.

Washington has also pressed for any enriched nuclear material to be removed from Iran, while Tehran has demanded that international sanctions against it be lifted.

One source involved in the talks said back-channel discussions had made progress in narrowing gaps, bringing the two sides closer to a deal that could be presented at a new round of talks. — Reuters

He died on Wednesday, according to a post on his LinkedIn page attributed to his spokeswoman, Kylie Wong. John Ninia, a partner at Mobius Investments, said he died in Singapore.

In more than 30 years with Franklin Templeton Investments, officially Franklin Resources, Inc., Mr. Mobius became an evangelist for money-making opportunities in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. In a crowd of investing advisers, he was distinctive in part for his impeccably shaved head, which inspired the nickname Bald Eagle.

Hired in 1987 by John Templeton, a pioneer in leading American investors to companies abroad, Mr. Mobius started one of the first mutual funds dedicated to rapidly developing new markets. He oversaw the Templeton Emerging Markets Group until 2016, was lead manager of its flagship Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust until 2015 and retired in January 2018.

From 1989 until his retirement, the closed-end fund returned 13.4% a year on average, according to Morningstar Direct. From 2001, when the MSCI Emerging Markets Index was introduced, the Templeton fund beat that benchmark by 1.9% a year on average, according to Morningstar.

“Mark Mobius is to emerging market investing what Colonel Sanders is to fried chicken,” Peter Douglas, a principal at the Singapore chapter of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association, said when Mr. Mobius stepped aside as portfolio manager. “He is the icon of the industry and has been the global cheerleader of emerging markets.”

Partly based in Singapore, Mr. Mobius traveled 250 to 300 days a year in a Gulfstream IV private jet, visiting factories and distributors in remote corners of the globe to identify investment opportunities.

“What was unique about him was that he really rolled up his sleeves and got into where the opportunities were,” Wall Street veteran Ed Yardeni said in a Bloomberg Television interview, calling him a “giant” in the global investment community. “Because of his leadership on that, I think we saw that investing in emerging markets has caught on.”

Mr. Mobius correctly predicted the start of a bull market that began in 2009, snapped up bargains during the Asian financial crisis after Thailand floated its currency in 1997 and bought Russian stocks as panic selling took hold in Russia in 1998. He was also one of the first institutional investors to identify Africa as a promising frontier market, setting up the Templeton Africa Fund in 2012.

‘KICKING THE TIRES’
“I believe in getting out and kicking the tires,” he wrote in 2015. “I would rather see with my own eyes what’s happening in a company or country. Lies can be as revealing as truth, if you know what the cues are.”

Just last month, via his Substack column, he shared his thoughts on the war in Iran and its impact on equity markets.

Mr. Mobius founded London-based Mobius Capital Partners in 2018 and oversaw actively managed funds investing in emerging market equities. He left there in late 2023 but continued to seek out investing opportunities, setting up a new venture in Dubai, where he had lived for three years.

Franklin Resources, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is based in San Mateo, California. It acquired Mr. Templeton’s investment firm — Templeton, Galbraith & Hansberger Ltd. — in 1992 to create Franklin Templeton Investments.

Joseph Bernhard Mark Mobius was born on Aug. 17, 1936, in Bellmore, on New York’s Long Island. His German father, Paul Mobius, was a ship’s cook and baker. His mother, the former Maria Louisa Colon, was Puerto Rican. With his two brothers, Hans and Paul, Mr. Mobius grew up with German and Spanish spoken at home.

In 1955, Mr. Mobius received a scholarship to study dramatic arts at Boston University and worked as a pianist in a nightclub to help pay for his education. He earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and a master’s in communications.

STUDIED IN KYOTO
He successfully applied for a scholarship to learn Japanese culture and the Japanese language in Kyoto, triggering his desire to live and work in Asia. After earning a PhD in political science and economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 1964, he took a job with International Research Associates, conducting surveys and other consumer research in Thailand and Korea for a year each.

He ended up in Hong Kong, where he started his own industrial research consulting firm. One project — a report on the Hong Kong stock market — was his entre into securities analysis. His Yul Brynner hairstyle, as he described it, was conceived at this time after a fire in his apartment damaged his hair, and he shaved the rest off, according to his 1997 memoir.

He was hired by Vickers Da Costa, a UK stock brokerage, to start a Taiwanese fund management company, International Investment Trust. He traveled to the Bahamas to present investment opportunities to Mr. Templeton, who in 1986 asked if he would be interested in running an emerging markets fund. The following year they raised $100 million in capital, listed their fund on the New York Stock Exchange and opened a small office in Hong Kong for Mr. Mobius and two Chinese analysts. They began investing in six places: Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Mexico and Thailand.

“You must remember, in those days, most countries did not welcome foreign investment,” Mr. Mobius recalled in a 2022 interview with Barry Ritholz for Bloomberg’s Masters in Business podcast series. “They were also either socialist or communist like China and Russia. Eastern Europe was out of the question, of course. So we had only six markets in which to invest, and then we started expanding. Gradually, markets opened up. And eventually we were investing in something like 70 different countries around the world.”

1987 CRASH
After losing a third of his fund’s value in the October 1987 stock market crash during his first year with Mr. Templeton, Mr. Mobius diversified to other markets including Argentina, Mexico, Indonesia and Russia.

Mr. Mobius wrote more than a dozen books on investing and economics, including The Investor’s Guide to Emerging Markets (1994) and Passport to Profits (1999). He shared rules and aphorisms including, “if you see the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s too late to buy.”

In 1999, he was tapped to serve on the World Bank’s Global Corporate Governance Forum as a co-chairman of a task force on investor responsibility.

Mr. Mobius never married. In Passport to Profits, he wrote that there were costs and benefits to being a “full-time nomad — an endangered species I’ve long admired for their fierce independence, their refusal to abide by conventional norms, their desperate desire for freedom.”

“Though some people probably pity me for having no home, no family, no domestic life to speak of,” he wrote, “my somewhat eccentric lifestyle offers untold opportunities for variety, stimulation and creativity.” — Bloomberg

The conflict has sent global oil prices up to near $100 a barrel, sharpening the focus on Asia’s reliance on energy supplies from the Gulf. Thailand is among the most exposed, with the Middle East (ME) supplying nearly half of its oil and gas, according to Krungsri Research.

With public debt on the brink of eclipsing the government’s self-imposed 70% ceiling and an economy that was already in deflation before the war, Bangkok’s challenge is far more acute than most of its neighbors.

The setback came just as the stars seemed to be aligning for Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, with investors rushing into Thailand again for the first time in years.

Foreigners bought $1.7 billion worth of Thai stocks in February, LSEG data showed. Mr. Charnvirakul’s resounding victory in February ushered in hopes of political stability and long-awaited economic reforms in a country that had lurched through years of turmoil and uncertainty.

But when the Iran war broke out at the end of February, foreign investors pulled back sharply, with an $823-million net sell-off in equities in March, while bond outflows hit $705 million, the largest combined outflow since October 2024.

A two-week ceasefire this month has spurred hopes of a resolution and led to a sharp rally in Thai stocks and the baht, but investors are cautious about the country’s vulnerability if oil prices remain elevated.

“The risk remains (that) markets remain complacent about the long-term impact from energy shock and that higher fuel costs hit consumption and disrupt exports and tourism, two key drivers of the Thai economy,” said Daniel Tan, a portfolio manager at Grasshopper Asset Management.

Khoi Vu, an ASEAN equity strategist at JPMorgan, said his bank is still cautious on Thai equities, noting that while political stability had begun to brighten the outlook before the Middle East conflict, the energy shock is a near-term headwind.

“As the energy shock has yet to fully materialize, we believe the market has yet to price in significant growth impact,” he said.

LIMITED POLICY OPTIONS AHEAD
With the fragile ceasefire in mind, analysts and investors warn Thailand faces another difficult year.

Unlike many of its peers in the region, Thailand’s exposure runs deeper than just fuel costs as over half of annual power output comes from gas, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports are accounting for an increasing share of generation.

Thailand’s conundrum is that its economy has struggled to gain traction, growing just 2.4% last year and lagging peers, while inflation dropped for 12 straight months, triggering a rate cut from the central bank in February before the war.

“There’s a broad consensus among investors that Thailand is in a policy bind,” said Gary Tan, a Singapore-based portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments.

“The central bank has limited room to hike without derailing the recovery, but little urgency or space to ease, which leaves policy restrictive by default,” said Mr. Tan, who is underweight on Thailand.

Every one baht rise in fuel prices cuts economic growth by 2 basis points, according to state planning agency estimates, underlining why Bangkok is reluctant to increase subsidies.

“Higher oil prices could weigh on consumption, the current account and the baht, while also complicating the disinflation path and potentially limiting how much further rates can fall,” said Nattanont Arunyakananda, investment manager of Thai equities at Aberdeen Investments.

The war has upended Thailand’s inflation picture, with average inflation projected to rise as much as 3.5% this year depending on how the conflict unfolds, a stark turnaround from a 0.54% contraction in the first quarter.

Thailand has limited ammunition to address its economic problems, Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said on Friday.

SLIDING BAHT TAKING THE HEAT
The currency has emerged as the pressure valve, with the Thai baht sliding about 2.8% since the war broke out, though it has clawed back some of the losses since the ceasefire was announced last week.

Regional rivals, the Philippine peso and the Indonesian rupiah, are at record lows, but the baht’s strong performance in 2025 when it gained 9%, is likely to help provide Thailand some buffer and more room to weaken, analysts say.

Still, Thailand is walking a tightrope, having to pick and choose where to step in. It has ruled out fuel subsidies for now, but will absorb higher costs to keep electricity tariffs largely unchanged ahead of the summer.

Fiscal worries are compounding the pressure, with public debt at 66% of gross domestic product — just shy of the 70% ceiling — and investors worry that the government may need to raise it. The government so far has said it does not plan to raise the ceiling.

“If the shock extends beyond April, it stops being just a headline issue and starts feeding into day-to-day operations,” Aberdeen’s Mr. Arunyakananda said. — Reuters

Free admission to Britain’s national museums and galleries was introduced in 2001 by former Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair in a bid to make culture more accessible to all.

Last month, the UK government said it would work with the museum sector to explore the potential benefits of charging international visitors at national museums, including how this could support the arts sector. It would provide an update of the consultation before the end of the year, it said.

However, the proposal is facing backlash amid growing calls worldwide for artifacts to be sent back to their communities or countries of origin.

Although some efforts have been made to confront the longstanding issue, artifacts as well as human remains taken during the colonial era are still held in various museums across Europe. Some longstanding claims for artifacts involving the British Museum include Greece’s Parthenon Sculptures, known as Elgin Marbles, and Nigeria’s Benin Bronzes.

The British Museum has previously said that the strength of its collection lies in enabling millions of visitors to understand the world’s cultures and how they are interconnected.

ENTRY FEES ADD TO ONGOING INEQUALITIES
Ghana, which has some of its regalia and other artefacts in British institutions, said charging foreign visitors to view such objects raises issues of “fairness,” particularly where restitution discussions remain ongoing, Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa told Reuters.

The proposal, if implemented, would be “unethical,” said Eric Phillips, vice-chair of the Caribbean Community’s reparations commission, a bloc of 15 member states including Jamaica and Barbados.

“Why should we have to pay to see our heritage?” Mr. Phillips said.

Arley Gill, chairman of Grenada’s national reparations committee, said the priority should be to return the artifacts to their “rightful owners.”

Open Restitution Africa (ORA) said Africans and others already face barriers to accessing artefacts taken from their countries and held in Western museums, including visa requirements and travel costs.

“Introducing entry fees further compounds these inequalities,” ORA said.

Meanwhile, the US-based non-profit Restitution Study Group said a fee exemption for such visitors would be a “meaningful gesture.”

The government declined to comment on the criticism. — Reuters

The Lebanon conflict spiraled out of the US-Israeli war with Iran, with the Iran-backed Hezbollah opening fire in support of Tehran on March 2, prompting an Israeli offensive in Lebanon just 15 months after the last major conflict.

The Israeli security cabinet convened late on Wednesday to discuss a possible ceasefire in Lebanon.

“Peace in Lebanon is essential for (Iran) peace talks,” Tahir Andrabi, spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, said.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said he was “trying to get a little breathing room” between Israel and Lebanon.

“It has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years. It will happen tomorrow. Nice!” Mr. Trump wrote in the post published before midnight on Wednesday, Washington time. The post did not give any further details.

Gila Gamliel, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, told Israel’s Army Radio that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would “speak for the first time with the president of Lebanon after so many years of no contact between the two countries”.

A senior Lebanese official told Reuters Lebanon had no information about a call between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Mr. Netanyahu.

BEIRUT AT ODDS WITH HEZBOLLAH
The Lebanese government has been sharply at odds with Hezbollah over its decision to enter the war, having spent the last year seeking to secure the peaceful disarmament of the group founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982.

Beirut banned Hezbollah’s military activities on March 2.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s office and Mr. Aoun’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The office of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also told Reuters it had no information about contact between Lebanese and Israeli leaders.

Washington on Wednesday expressed optimism about reaching a deal to end the war with Iran. The sides agreed a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war on April 8, following mediation by Pakistan.

Israel and the US have said the campaign against Hezbollah was not part of that ceasefire, though Pakistan’s prime minister had said the truce would include Lebanon, as demanded by Iran.

FIGHTING IN KEY LEBANESE TOWN
A senior Israeli official and a senior Lebanese official said on Wednesday Mr. Netanyahu’s government was under heavy pressure from Washington to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon.

A senior US administration official said on Wednesday the Trump administration had not asked for a ceasefire, but the US president “would welcome the end of hostilities in Lebanon as part of a peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon”.

Mr. Netanyahu, in a video statement released late on Wednesday, said the Israeli military continued to strike at Hezbollah and was about to “overcome” the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, located at the border.

The senior Lebanese official said that Lebanon’s assessment was that Israel wanted to secure a victory in Bint Jbeil before diplomatic progress could be made.

The Israeli military said its troops were continuing “targeted ground operations in southern Lebanon”.

In Israel, sirens rang out warning of incoming rocket fire, sending residents of several Israeli northern towns running to bomb shelters. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Hezbollah kept up its attacks, firing rockets at two towns in Israel, the group’s al-Manar television reported.

Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors held rare talks in Washington on Tuesday.

Iran has said Lebanon must be included in any agreement to end the wider war in the Middle East, while Washington has pushed back, saying there is no link between the two sets of talks.

Hezbollah on Wednesday condemned Tuesday’s meeting in Washington, saying it would deepen the rift among Lebanese. — Reuters

Chinese green energy stocks rallied more than 10% to nearly five-year highs after the US-Israeli attacks began on February 28, before paring back some of their gains.

The conflict has sent oil prices to nearly $100 per barrel and is threatening the global economy, forcing many governments to reassess fossil fuels within the energy mix. But while markets are betting this could drive up demand for solar panels and other green energy products from China, the producers themselves are less optimistic.

The solar industry is widely seen as one of the sectors most affected by overcapacity – an endemic problem in the Chinese economy, which has fueled a record trade surplus but weighed on manufacturers’ profits and fueled diplomatic tensions.

“Prices might go up slightly, or global demand might increase a little bit, but it won’t seriously impact the overall supply-demand dynamics,” one solar industry executive said, asking – like four other executives who spoke with Reuters for this story – for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

“Some companies will make it and some won’t,” the source said. “The problem is that the capacity is still there. It hasn’t been shut down, cleared out or truly exited the market.”

As of 2025, China’s solar factories had enough capacity to cover the estimated global demand this year nearly twice over, even after taking into account the Iran war impact in its demand forecast, Morningstar estimates.

Parts of the supply chain saw further capacity expansion last year despite government and industry-led efforts to pare it back. Manufacturing capacity in polysilicon, wafers, and cells rose by 9%, 11%, and 7%, respectively, compared to 2024, according to Morningstar. Module capacity declined by 5%.

“Overcapacity is very serious and won’t be cleared in the short term,” said a sales manager at a major solar manufacturer in China. “The industry is under extreme pressure.”

CHINA’S SOLAR INDUSTRY IS IN ‘OFF-SEASON’
Two other China-based solar executives told Reuters they had not noticed any increase in demand since the Iran war started.

One reason, they said, is that buyers had front loaded orders before Beijing’s long-flagged removal of export tax rebates for the industry on April 1 – one of its measures to curb capacity.

One of the executives said his company had already shipped most of what it expected to sell in the second quarter to overseas warehouses, to get ahead of the rebate removal. Other producers had made similar moves, which meant the industry was “currently in the off-season,” the executive added.

“In April, things actually cooled off a bit, because shipments obviously had to go out before the rebate was canceled,” the other executive said.

The other reason for pessimism is that it is unclear where any surge in demand would come from. About 70% of new global solar installations were in the US, the EU, and China last year.

Tariffs and other restrictions are preventing significant sales to the United States. Reuters reported on Wednesday that China was weighing curbs on exports to the US of the most advanced equipment being used in making solar panels, a move that would expand Beijing’s export controls and further inflame tensions between the two countries.

In China, demand is actually expected to drop in the wake of last year’s renewable power pricing reforms that introduced a market-based auction mechanism and removed guaranteed returns over a coal-price benchmark, said Morningstar analyst Cheng Wang.

That leaves Europe. But Mr. Wang does not expect a repeat of the solar installation boom that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

At that time European natural gas prices rose relatively more sharply than during the current Iran war, from 60 to 70 euros per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in January 2022 to 340 euros per mmBtu by August 2022. They last traded at 43 euros per mmBtu, from around 33 euros before the Iran war.

“This time the impact is much more moderate,” Mr. Wang said of the gas prices.

“The Iran war will have only a marginally positive impact on global solar demand,” he said. “I do not expect a surge.” — Reuters