Leaders meeting on the Philippine island of Cebu stressed the urgency of a joint approach beyond the oil-sharing pact for the region that depends heavily on oil imports, making it particularly exposed to the unprecedented energy supply disruption caused by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos said on Friday members were "frustrated" by the years-long failure to successfully implement the bloc's five-point peace plan, suggesting a "fine-tuning" was in order.

The MV Hondius has been at the centre of an international health scare since May 2, when the United Nations' health agency was informed that three passengers had died and the suspected cause was hantavirus.

Trump and the pontiff have been at odds over US immigration enforcement and the US-Israeli war against Iran.

The standoff between President Donald Trump's administration and the global entertainment conglomerate is the first crisis facing Walt Disney’s new CEO Josh D’Amaro.

The nine nuclear-armed states – Russia, the US, France, the UK, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – possessed 12,241 nuclear warheads as of January 2025, SIPRI reported.

Americans on both sides of the political divide are prone to outlandish conspiracy theories, as many turn to partisan influencers for information amid mistrust of mainstream media, researchers say.

The ministry said that the husband-and-wife couple arrived in Argentina on November 27, then traveled to Chile and Uruguay before returning to Argentina on March 27 to board the MV Hondius on April 1.

A cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will reach the Spanish island of Tenerife "within three days", with the evacuation of passengers to start from May 11, Spain said Wednesday.

The Pentagon announced the 5,000-troop reduction on Friday, but Trump told reporters Saturday "we're going to cut way down, and we're cutting a lot further than 5,000." He did not elaborate.  

The Pentagon's announcement of the troop withdrawal follows a spat between US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday that Iran was "humiliating" Washington at the negotiating table.

Sporadic clashes continued on Friday between Iranian forces and US vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, as reported by Iranian media.

US President Donald Trump predicted a swift end to the war with Iran as Tehran considered a US peace proposal that sources said would formally end the conflict while leaving unresolved key US demands that Iran suspend its nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.