WASHINGTON: The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Friday it has detected a second case of a dangerous livestock pest whose flesh-eating larvae can kill cattle. The new incidence of so-called New World screwworm (NWS) was detected in a calf in south Texas about 5.5 miles (10 km) from the first one, which was reported on Thursday, the department said on X. The outbreak has triggered a race to keep the pest from spreading. The NWS fly was thought to be eradicated in the United States in 1966. But Florida experienced an outbreak in 2016 that primarily impacted deer and was eliminated the following year, according to the department. The fly has remained present in South America and, in recent years, has moved northward. The first of these new cases, detected near the border with Mexico, has raised alarm among ranchers, particularly those who raise cattle. The flies lay their eggs in open wounds or mucous membranes of warm-blooded animals, where they hatch into larvae and feed on flesh. Left untreated, the infestation can be deadly, and the parasites can quickly spread. The pest can also affect wild animals, pets, and even people. Texas has established a 12-mile (20-kilometer) quarantine zone, meaning all warm-blooded animals, including pets, must be inspected before leaving the zone. The fly had been eradicated in the US thanks in large part to dropping millions of sterile flies to mate with wild females. US officials said some four million sterile flies are now being released weekly from the sky, and that some four million more in the pupae stage were being deployed in ground release chambers. A USDA study last year estimated a screwworm resurgence in Texas could cost the state&#39;s economy $1.8 billion.

An aerial view of a cow on a field on May 28, 2026, in Luling, Texas (AFP/file)

Americas

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Friday it has detected a second case of a dangerous livestock pest whose flesh-eating larvae can kill cattle.

US reports second case of dangerous livestock pest

WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday announced the approval of a $1.5 billion sale of MH-60R helicopters and related equipment to New Zealand. &quot;The proposed sale will improve New Zealand&#39;s capability to meet current and future warfare threats by providing greater security for its critical infrastructure,&quot; the US State Department said in a statement. &quot;New Zealand will use the enhanced capability to strengthen its homeland defense,&quot; it added. The State Department said in a separate statement that it had approved a $69 million sale of MK 54 torpedoes to New Zealand. The State Department has notified Congress about the proposed sales, which still need to be approved by lawmakers.

The hearing was held to examine the State Department's budget request for fiscal year 2027. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Kevin Dietsch / NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

Australasia

The United States Department of State confirms the approval of a $1.5 billion sale of MH-60R helicopters and related equipment to New Zealand.

US approves $1.5B sale of helicopters to New Zealand

HONG KONG: Stocks sank Thursday after a disappointing forecast by chip giant Broadcom stoked concerns about the AI trade, while stronger-than-expected US data compounded speculation that the Federal Reserve could hike interest rates. Fresh Iranian attacks and a lack of progress in peace talks with the United States added to the downbeat mood, though oil prices dived on news of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. Regional equity markets tracked a retreat on Wall Street, where tech firms, the drivers of a global surge to record highs in recent years, took a hit after Broadcom&#39;s estimated chip revenue for the third quarter came in below expectations. The outlook revived concerns that the eye-watering sums that companies have invested in the AI sector may have been overdone and that valuations are overblown. Investment giant Ray Dalio warned on Wednesday that the boom, which has seen Nvidia&#39;s capitalization top $5 trillion, could turn into a bubble that will pop. &quot;All great technology changes produce bubbles,&quot; he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. &quot;Nobody can get it exactly right. You have to either spend a ton of money to capture your market share and don&#39;t worry about whether it&#39;s too much or not, or you don&#39;t spend enough money and you lose your market share.&quot; After Wall Street&#39;s retreat, also fueled by profit-taking, stock markets in Asia fell, with tech-rich Tokyo and Seoul, which have led gains this year, among the hardest hit, shedding around two percent. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Wellington and Taipei were also well down. Jakarta tumbled more than 1% and is at its lowest level since 2021 as the Indonesian rupiah plunged to a record low amid worries about the country&#39;s economy. Traders were also spooked by figures showing that US companies added the most jobs last month since the start of last year, despite rising energy prices. That came days before a closely watched non-farm payrolls report on Friday. Speculation is rising that a strong reading, which would compound the war-fueled spike in inflation, could put more pressure on the Fed to hike rates. &quot;For traders ... strong growth is no longer the uncomplicated gift it once was,&quot; wrote Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management. &quot;The market spent much of the past year trading as though rate cuts were perpetually just around the corner. Instead, the combination of resilient employment, firm activity data, and elevated energy prices is increasingly forcing investors to contemplate the opposite outcome. &quot;After months of head-scratching, traders finally appear to be accepting that a hawkish Federal Reserve, combined with an increasingly hawkish global central-bank backdrop, looks far more like a tightening cycle than a cutting cycle.&quot; The Middle East crisis continued to weigh, with Iran&#39;s foreign minister saying &quot;no tangible progress&quot; had been made in negotiations with the United States to end the war. Meanwhile, Iran targeted the US&#39;s main naval base in the region, located in Bahrain, and the Ali Al-Salem airbase in Kuwait, adding to worries about their fragile truce. At least one person was killed in a separate strike on Kuwait&#39;s civilian airport that caused significant damage and forced a suspension of flights for a few hours. However, President Donald Trump struck an upbeat tone, telling reporters at the White House: &quot;I hear the negotiation itself is going very well, actually.&nbsp;It could happen ... over the weekend.&quot; Still, Israel and Lebanon agreed Wednesday to implement a ceasefire &quot;contingent on a complete cessation&quot; of fire by Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah as well as the evacuation of its operatives from southern Lebanon. The announcement followed US-led talks in Washington, and the two sides will meet for more talks later this month, &quot;with a view toward reaching a comprehensive agreement&quot;. Both main crude contracts, which have jumped back towards $100 this week, sank by more than 1%. Key figures at around 0230 GMT&nbsp;West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.1% at $94.97 a barrel Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.2% at $96.60 a barrel Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.9% at 67,101.83 (break) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.1% at 25,343.34 Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.5% at 4,065.59 Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1609 from $1.1599 on Wednesday Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3424 from $1.3420 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 159.89 yen from 160.07 yen Euro/pound: UP at 86.47 pence from 86.43 pence New York - DOW: DOWN 1.2% at 50,687.07 (close) London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4% at 10,332.30 (close)

An electronic quotation board displays the Nikkei 225 stock prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on June 1, 2026. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)

Business

Global stock markets fell as weak AI-sector outlooks, strong US economic data fueling interest-rate hike fears, and escalating Middle East tensions rattled investors, despite lower oil prices following an Israel-Lebanon ceasefire announcement.

Stocks drop on AI, rate hike worries as Lebanon deal hits oil

WASHINGTON: The US Trade Representative on Tuesday proposed new duties targeting 60 economies for alleged failures to act against forced labor, as the Trump administration seeks to rebuild its tariff agenda after legal setbacks. The proposed tariffs range from 10% to 12.5%, according to a government filing, and they will undergo a public comment period before a final decision is made. The move comes months after Washington launched investigations into trading partners, including China, the European Union, and Japan. The probes looked into whether they took action against the import of goods made with forced labor, and if this impacted US commerce. On Tuesday, the USTR said that 54 of the economies &quot;failed to impose and effectively enforce a forced labor import prohibition.&quot; This group includes China, Vietnam, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. &quot;The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable,&quot; USTR Jamieson Greer said in a statement. &quot;This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field,&quot; he added. But the proposed tariffs come with various exemptions, such as beef, coffee, and certain fruits and nuts. Goods from Canada and Mexico that comply with a North American free trade pact will also be exempt -- as will certain textiles and apparel. The public is invited to provide written comments by July 6, and the USTR will subsequently hold hearings. After the Supreme Court struck down a swath of President Donald Trump&#39;s tariffs in February, US officials launched the new trade probes as steps toward imposing more lasting duties. Apart from the investigations on forced labor, the US trade envoy also started probes into excess industrial capacity.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) talks to reporters outside his office at the beginning of the legislative week at the U.S. Capitol on June 01, 2026, in Washington, DC. (AFP)

The move comes months after Washington launched investigations into trading partners, including China, the European Union, and Japan.

US proposes new tariffs over failure to act on forced labor

WASHINGTON: A meteor crashing toward Earth exploded over the northeastern United States on Saturday, NASA said, setting off booms that echoed over the region with a blast equivalent to 300 tons of TNT. The fireball broke up over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire at 2:06 p.m. (1806 GMT), the US space agency&#39;s deputy news chief Jennifer Dooren told AFP in a statement. &quot;This fireball was not associated with any currently active meteor shower, but it was a natural object and not a re-entry of space debris or a satellite,&quot; she said. &quot;The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud booms.&quot; The meteor was traveling at 75,000 mph (more than 120,000 kph) at an altitude of 40 miles (64 km) when it broke apart, Dooren said. Area residents were alarmed by the unexpected loud booms, with social media users reporting that they were so powerful they shook houses.

Natural Disaster

 A meteor crashing toward Earth exploded over the northeastern United States, setting off booms that echoed over the region with a blast equivalent to 300 tons of TNT.

Meteor explodes over US with blast equivalent to 300 tons of TNT

GRANADILLA DE ABONA (SPAIN):&nbsp;An American national and a French woman evacuated from a cruise ship linked to a deadly hantavirus outbreak have tested positive, health officials confirmed on Monday, as an international repatriation operation continued across several countries. According to French Health Minister Stephanie Rist, the French passenger began feeling unwell on Sunday night after returning to Paris from the Dutch-flagged cruise vessel MV Hondius. Medical tests later confirmed she had contracted the virus. Meanwhile, US health authorities said one American passenger had developed mild symptoms while another tested positive for the Andes virus, the only known strain of hantavirus capable of spreading between humans. The outbreak aboard the MV Hondius has already claimed the lives of three passengers, including a Dutch couple and a German woman. Several other passengers also fell ill during the voyage. Hantavirus is a rare disease usually spread through contact with infected rodents. There is currently no vaccine or specific treatment available for the illness, which is considered endemic in parts of Argentina, where the cruise began its journey in April. Despite growing international concern, health authorities stressed that the overall risk to global public health remains low and rejected comparisons with the Covid-19 pandemic. French authorities said 22 additional contact cases involving French nationals were being monitored. These included passengers who travelled on flights between Saint Helena and Johannesburg, and between Johannesburg and Amsterdam. The Dutch woman who later died had reportedly travelled on the Johannesburg flight and briefly boarded a connecting flight to Amsterdam before being removed from the aircraft. Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said 94 people from 19 countries were evacuated from the ship on Sunday near Tenerife in Spain&rsquo;s Canary Islands. Most of the ship&rsquo;s nearly 150 passengers and crew members are expected to be repatriated through special flights to countries including Australia and the Netherlands. Passengers wearing blue medical protective suits were seen disembarking the vessel at the industrial port of Granadilla on Tenerife. The World Health Organization has recommended a 42-day quarantine period and active medical monitoring for exposed individuals. Countries have adopted different quarantine measures. Greece said one evacuee would remain in hospital isolation for 45 days, while Australia announced that six passengers would be quarantined at a special facility near Perth for at least three weeks. British authorities said 20 UK nationals from the ship would undergo testing and short-term quarantine near Liverpool. The MV Hondius departed from Ushuaia in Argentina on April 1 for a transatlantic cruise toward Cape Verde. The World Health Organization believes the first infection may have occurred before the voyage began, followed by human-to-human transmission aboard the ship. Spain on Monday said it is taking &quot;all measures&quot; to prevent hantavirus spread from those aboard the cruise ship.

Europe

An American and a French passenger tested positive after evacuation from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, prompting international quarantines and a large-scale repatriation operation across several countries.

US, French nationals from hantavirus ship test positive

WASHINGTON: American passengers evacuated from a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will not necessarily be quarantined, a top US health official said Sunday. Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), also urged the US public to remain calm about the hantavirus, saying: &quot;This is not Covid.&quot; The United States announced Friday that it would organize a repatriation flight for the 17 Americans aboard the MV Hondius, where three passengers have died and others have fallen sick. The ship has arrived in Spain&#39;s Canary Islands. The US passengers, all of whom are asymptomatic, will be taken to a specialized center in the rural state of Nebraska, but will not necessarily be quarantined there, Bhattacharya told CNN&#39;s &quot;State of the Union&quot; news program on Sunday. &quot;We&#39;re going to interview them and assess them for risk... if they have been in close contact with somebody who was symptomatic,&quot; he said. The biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center was activated ahead of the arrivals, with passengers &quot;expected to land in Omaha early Monday morning,&quot; spokesperson Kayla Thomas said in a statement. &quot;One passenger will be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit upon arrival,&quot; Thomas said, because the person &quot;tested positive for the virus but (does) not have symptoms.&quot; The other passengers will go to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring, Thomas added. Following this assessment and depending on the estimated risk, passengers will be allowed &quot;to stay in Nebraska if they&#39;d like, or if they want to go back home, and their home situation allows it, to safely drive them home without exposing other people on the way,&quot; Bhattacharya said. In either case, passengers will remain under observation for several weeks by health authorities to ensure they do not develop symptoms, he said, as happened with seven other Americans who left the ship earlier in the journey. According to the CDC, &quot;people are generally only contagious when they exhibit symptoms.&quot; Bhattacharya said the same protocol was followed during a 2018 outbreak &quot;of this exact strain of the hantavirus,&quot; which was successfully contained. Responding to criticism that there has been limited communication from US health authorities about the hantavirus risk six years after the Covid-19 pandemic he said the situations were not comparable. &quot;If the threat level were higher, then we would have obviously reacted differently,&quot; Bhattacharya said. &quot;This is not Covid,&quot; he said. &quot;We shouldn&#39;t be panicking when the evidence doesn&#39;t warrant it.&quot;

British Nationals, repatriated after a prolonged stay on a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, arrive by coach at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, north west England, on May 10, 2026, where they are expected to stay for up to 72 hours.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief says Americans evacuated from the MV Hondius after a deadly hantavirus outbreak are unlikely to face mandatory quarantine, stressing that the virus poses limited risk and 'is not Covid.'

Americans from virus-hit ship will not necessarily be quarantined: Official 

BEIRUT: More than half of Lebanon&#39;s population depends on humanitarian aid, a European Union official said on Friday, as Israel continues its attacks on the country despite a ceasefire in the two-month-long war with militant group Hezbollah. &quot;At present, more than three million people, meaning more than half of the population here in Lebanon, depend on humanitarian aid to survive,&quot; EU crisis management chief Hadja Lahbib told reporters after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Beirut. Lahbib said that since the start of the war on March 2 the 27-member bloc has provided 100 million euros in aid and sent six planes carrying humanitarian aid, with a seventh expected on Saturday. Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 2,700 people and displaced over one million since early March, according to authorities. The UN launched an emergency appeal in March for $308 million in humanitarian aid for Lebanon, but in two months it has raised just $126 million, according to UN agencies. Lahbib, who said that the ceasefire has opened &quot;a narrow window of hope&quot;, called for Hezbollah &quot;to cease its attacks and be disarmed&quot; and said that &quot;Israel must put an end to its bombardments&quot;. &quot;For a ceasefire to lead to peace, courage is needed -- political courage to address the root causes of this conflict.&quot; Israel and Lebanon are set to hold a third round of talks in Washington next week to end the war, despite Hezbollah&#39;s opposition to direct negotiations.

Middle East

More than half of Lebanon’s population depends on humanitarian aid, the EU said, as Israeli strikes continue despite a ceasefire and Washington talks seek to end the war.

More than half of Lebanon population depends on aid: EU official

MIAMI: The first direct flight between the United States and Venezuela in seven years took off Thursday, a new sign of a thaw after Washington deposed leftist leader Nicolas Maduro. The American Airlines flight took off at 10:26 am (1426 GMT) from Miami en route to Caracas, where the United States has resumed diplomatic relations after years of tension. The first flight&#39;s manifest was dominated by officials and journalists, with senior officials from Washington set to fly to Caracas to meet the government, a prospect unthinkable just months ago. Representatives of the city of Miami, a hub for Latin Americans that sees itself as a gateway to the region, greeted passengers at the gate, as did the Venezuelan ambassador to Washington, Felix Plasencia. The flight is scheduled to land more than three hours later at Simon Bolivar Airport, better known as Maiquetia. The inaugural flights are featuring a special Venezuelan menu including corn pancakes known as cachapas and a Venezuelan-style chicken salad, according to the airline. Some 1.2 million Venezuelans live in the United States, and the thaw is expected to boost the US business presence in the South American nation, which has the world&#39;s largest proven oil reserves. But President Donald Trump has also been moving aggressively to remove Venezuelans from the United States, terminating a program that shielded migrants from deportation back to the crime-ridden nation. US forces on January 3 carried out a deadly raid in Caracas, snatching longtime US nemesis Maduro and flying him and his wife to New York to face charges of drug trafficking, which they deny. Maduro was replaced by his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, who has largely cooperated with the United States despite her ideological background. Trump has voiced satisfaction with her policies toward US companies and has tried to enforce compliance by threatening violence. Venezuela has moved to open its oil and mining sectors to private investment. Trump in turn has started an easing of sanctions on Venezuela, with measures imposed personally on Rodriguez dropped.<h2 style="line-height: 2;"> </h2><h2 style="line-height: 2;">Daily links</h2>American Airlines subsidiary Envoy Air will run the daily round-trip flight between Caracas and Miami. The company said it plans to start a second daily round-trip flight starting May 21. American Airlines, which is based in Texas and has a large network in Latin America, started flights to Venezuela in 1987 and carried the&nbsp;highest number of passengers between the two countries. It ended flights in 2019 as relations deteriorated, with the United States and other Western and Latin American nations declaring Maduro to be illegitimate after an election marred by irregularities. The State Department continues to call on Americans to reconsider travel to Venezuela due to widespread crime but in March ended its blanket warning against any travel. The new flight comes despite trouble in the aviation industry, which has been hit hard by a sharp rise in oil prices after the United States and Israel attacked Iran.

The first direct flight from the United States to Venezuela in seven years departed for Caracas on Thursday from Miami, an AFP reporter at the airport said.

First US-Venezuela direct flight in seven years leaves Miami

TEHRAN:&nbsp;Iran&#39;s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a written message on Thursday that the United States had been defeated in its war with the Islamic republic, as the Iranian leadership defied President Donald Trump&#39;s warnings of a prolonged blockade. &quot;Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world&#39;s bullies in the region, and the United States&#39; disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,&quot; said Khamenei in the message read on state television. The message by Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public since his appointment on March 9 as Iran&#39;s new supreme leader, came on the annual national celebration of &quot;Persian Gulf&quot; day in Iran. Mojtaba Khamenei became the supreme leader after the US and Israel launched a massive campaign of strikes on Iran on February 28, killing his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei. Last week, the New York Times, citing several unnamed Iranian officials, said the younger Khamenei was &quot;gravely wounded&quot; in the strikes but has remained &quot;mentally sharp.&quot; In his Thursday message, he said US bases in the region &quot;lack even the capacity to ensure their own security, let alone provide any hope of securing their allies.&quot; He hailed what he called Iran&#39;s &quot;new legal framework and management&quot; of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key energy chokepoint, as a means to bring &quot;comfort and progress&quot; for countries in the region. Bright futureThe strait has become a major flashpoint since the outbreak of the Middle East war, with Iran allowing only a trickle of ships to pass through the waterway. Last week, a senior lawmaker said Tehran has received the first revenue from tolls it imposed on the strait. Khamenei predicted a bright future for the Gulf without the United States and condemned what he described as &quot;outsiders&quot;, saying those who interfere from thousands of kilometres away &quot;have no place there except at the bottom of its waters&quot;. He also lauded the people of Iran, who he said &quot;consider all national capacities -- identity, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial, and advanced technologies from nano and bio to nuclear and missile -- as their national capital&quot;. Earlier Thursday, Iran&#39;s President Masoud Pezeshkian had said a US naval blockade imposed in retaliation against Iran&#39;s action in Hormuz was &quot;doomed to fail&quot;. Pezeshkian added that such measures would &quot;not only fail to enhance regional security, but are in fact a source of tension and a disruption to lasting stability in the Persian Gulf&quot;. Other figures have also struck a tone of defiance, with Navy Commander Shahram Irani signalling that Iran will deploy &quot;in the very near future&quot; naval weaponry which it has recently developed.

Mojtaba Khamenei says the United States has been defeated in its war with Iran, as Tehran maintains control over the Strait of Hormuz and continues to defy US pressure.

Articles tagged with "US, Israeli Strikes Against Iran"