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‘It’s a powder keg’: Romania leads EU measles cases as vaccination rates collapse

By 10am on a spring day, the corridor of the clinic in the Transylvanian town of Săcele was already crowded with parents and children. They were all waiting to see Dr Mirela Csabai, one of just seven general practitioners serving a population of more than 30,000. Most of the cases that morning were routine: colds, checkups, chronic conditions. The calm, however, is recent. In 2024, a measles epidemic tore through this community and left one unvaccinated toddler dead. “As long as vaccination rates remain low, it’s a powder keg,” says Csabai. “Once an epidemic starts, it is already too late to vaccinate. We need to act now.” Romania is facing the worst measles crisis in the EU. The country has had four epidemics of the illness since 2005, each separated by only a few years of fragile calm. Between 2023 and 2025, it recorded more than 35,000 cases and at least 30 deaths, most of them infants too young to be vaccinated, infected by older, unvaccinated children. About 87% of all measles cases in the EU were reported in Romania in 2024; the next most affected country, Italy, recorded just over 1,000. Measles can cause serious complications, especially in children and infants, who can develop pneumonia and in some cases encephalitis. The crisis has a single, measurable root: a collapse in vaccination. The first dose for the MMR vaccine is recommended at between 14 and 18 months, and while coverage rises to 81% by the later age (from just 47.4% at 14 months), it still falls well short of the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity. Uptake of the second dose at five is just over 60% nationally and as low as 20% in some communities, according to the National Institute of Public Health. Romania’s MMR rate stood above the European average of 93% in 2010 but has been falling ever since, a decline that accelerated after the Covid-19 pandemic. “It’s absolutely insufficient for measles,” says Dr Aurora Stanescu, an epidemiologist at the institute. “A firm political commitment to limit the number of deaths is necessary. This is a national security issue.” Casandra Stoica, 25, entered Csabai’s consultation room with three of her children. Two of her older daughters, now aged five and eight, contracted measles during the 2024 outbreak, when Brașov county became the hardest hit in Romania, recording the highest number of cases and four child deaths. There was no space at the local hospital at the time so Stoica had to travel to a neighbouring county to find care. “I got scared when the girls fell ill and now I want to vaccinate them all,” she says. But even when parents are convinced, access remains a barrier. Stoica is part of Romania’s Roma community and lives with her husband and four children in two rooms with no access to running water or electricity. These precarious conditions make it difficult for her to attend appointments or keep up with vaccination schedules. “The decision not to vaccinate doesn’t always come from the parents,” says Gabriela Alexandrescu, a country director for Save the Children. The organisation sounded the alarm in early March, saying Romania was facing “its worst vaccination crisis in decades”. The causes, Alexandrescu says, are also structural: poverty, medical deserts and GPs without the time or resources to counsel hesitant families. Vaccination is not mandatory in Romania. In 2015, responsibility for administering vaccines was shifted exclusively to GPs, increasing bureaucracy and piling pressure on to an already stretched system. At the same time, school nurses – who had provided a crucial safety net for children who missed their scheduled jabs – were not allowed to administer vaccines any more. At the Săcele clinic, Dr Simona Codreanu tends to more than 3,000 patients and sees more than 50 a day. “The majority of children get vaccinated at birth, but then they never return for the full schedule,” she says, flipping through charts in which children over five have barely a couple of vaccines recorded. One of her patients died during the last epidemic after contracting measles from an unvaccinated sibling. Dr Mihai Negrea, an epidemiologist from Târgu Mureș, another county seriously hit in 2024, says structural bottlenecks and an over-reliance on GPs are slowing vaccination efforts. Under current rules, only general practitioners are reimbursed by the state for administering vaccines. Other doctors must complete additional certification and often pay out of pocket for supplies. “The main cause is not just anti-vaccine views but bad management of the system,” he says. “By the time you manage to get your child vaccinated, it can take a month with all the paperwork – and parents can change their minds.” When vaccination becomes difficult to access, delayed or bogged down in red tape, rates inevitably drop, he explains, even when parents want to protect their children. Negrea’s prescription is practical: community vaccination centres and expanding the right to vaccinate to other doctors, rather than a system in which a single family doctor is expected to cover vaccination needs for thousands of families. Yet if the system is broken, it is also true that fear has found fertile ground within it. Across Romania, closed online groups have become spaces where anxieties are shared and amplified by mothers who are for or against the MMR vaccine. The Guardian spoke to half a dozen mothers who had decided to stop the vaccination schedule or not vaccinate their children at all against measles. Laura, 36, decided not to give her child the second MMR dose after the first jab, driven by fears about a link to autism – a claim that has been comprehensively debunked and for which there is no scientific evidence. “I’m not anti-vaccines, but I have fears around the MMR vaccine and most of all I’m put off by doctors not explaining things and not taking responsibility for side-effects,” she says. Some parents find their way back. Nicoleta Dima did not immunise her child with the MMR vaccine until the age of six, held back by fears of allergic reactions that she now recognises were unfounded. “My fear was largely fuelled from the outside,” she says. “I realised just how manipulated we are, and that I had effectively trapped myself in an unfounded fear. I realised that every unvaccinated child contributes to these epidemics.” In Bucharest, at the Matei Balș National Institute, the country’s leading infectious disease hospital, wards that were full during last year’s outbreak are now quiet. During the 2024 epidemic, the most severe cases in the country came to this hospital. There were five deaths from measles complications in Bucharest during the epidemic. Dr Gabriel Lăzăroiu-Nistor, an infectious disease doctor at the hospital, says the respite will not last. With vaccination rates so low, he expects another serious outbreak soon. “We must not forget our empathy and patience to explain to patients,” he says. “There’s a small minority who are firmly anti-vaccine, but the rest are undecided.” That distinction – between the committed refusers and the uncertain, anxious middle – is the one that most animates the doctors working on the frontline. Back in Săcele, Csabai saw Maria Olescu, 31, who vaccinated her first two children on schedule until the normal side-effects frightened her into stopping before the second dose. She has refused further vaccines since then, also partly because of influence from her religious community. “We don’t cut ties with parents who choose not to vaccinate their children, because that means we lose them for ever,” says Csabai. She tries to earn their trust by treating their other health issues and hopes they will vaccinate in time before the next epidemic comes through. “It is sad and regrettable that we still have children dying of measles,” Csabai says. “It hurts to see children suffer from preventable diseases. I think it’s our fault as doctors first: we have to earn their trust and we have to break the cycle.”

‘A defeat for Putin’: Ukrainians hope Magyar’s victory will mark new era with Hungary

Like many Ukrainians, Oleh Kupchak was delighted when Péter Magyar won Hungary’s election last weekend, ending Viktor Orbán’s 16-year grip on power. “We were euphoric. Everyone was following the results closely. There were toasts,” said Kupchak, who has visited Budapest several times. “We didn’t love Orbán,” he added. Ukraine celebrated Orbán’s landslide defeat in a series of jokes and memes. Several likened him to the Star Wars character Jabba the Hut, and shared an image of Orbán fleeing from a drone. Others portrayed him sitting on a bench in Russia, alongside Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin former president Viktor Yanukovych, and his exiled Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad. The widespread joy that greeted the ousting of Orbán and his Fidesz party was hardly surprising. Hungary’s outgoing prime minister – the Kremlin’s biggest and most disruptive supporter inside the EU – ran a vociferously anti-Ukrainian election campaign. He accused Kyiv of plotting to sabotage key energy installations, and of threatening him and his family with physical violence. Recently Kyiv’s already brittle relations with Budapest had descended into open hostility. In late January a Russian drone set fire to the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia. Orbán claimed Volodymyr Zelenskyy was deliberately delaying repairs, causing a fuel shortage in Hungary, in order to damage Fidesz’s re-election chances. In the run-up to the poll, Hungarian voters encountered billboards showing Zelenskyy begging for money from the EU. Other posters featured photos of Ukraine’s president next to Magyar. The opposition leader and his Tisza party were accused of trying to drag Hungary into the fighting in Ukraine, and being a part of a Brussels-backed “pro-war lobby”. Ukrainian politicians and analysts welcomed Magyar’s victory, but downplayed expectations of a quick thaw in relations between the two previously embittered countries. Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of the foreign affairs committee in Ukraine’s parliament, said he felt “cautiously optimistic”. “A unique window of opportunity is now opening up for Ukrainian-Hungarian relations,” he told the Guardian. Merezhko interpreted Hungary’s election results as “on the whole a win for Ukraine”, since they represented “a strategic defeat for Putin”. “Putin had hoped to form an anti-Ukrainian coalition in Europe led by Orbán, which would also include Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Putin’s plan has failed. Without Orbán in power, such a coalition will not form,” he said. Magyar is expected to lift Orbán’s veto on €90bn in EU aid to Ukraine, once his government is sworn in early next month. Kyiv badly needs the money. Hungary is also expected to drop its opposition to new sanctions against Russia. With Orbán gone, Brussels will unlock EU funds earmarked for Hungary suspended because of democratic backsliding. Merezhko described Hungary’s new leader as more “constructively minded” than his pro-Russian predecessor and “not anti-European”. The deputy, however, warned that all bilateral issues could not be resolved “automatically and quickly”. “Magyar now needs to show Europe that his policy will not be a continuation of Orbán’s. And here, the issue of Ukraine is key,” he said. One potential dispute is over Ukraine’s EU accession. Magyar has said he would not oppose Kyiv joining the bloc, but rejects fast-track membership for Ukraine, and says the issue should be put to a referendum. Another is the status of Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian minority. The small community in the western Zakarpattia region has long been a source of tension, exploited – Kyiv says – by a cynical Orbán. Last month Budapest impounded two Ukrainian armoured bank vehicles carrying millions of euros as well as bars of gold. Orbán had unlawfully seized the funds, Merezhko said, in a provocative scandal. “A very significant step, and a clear sign of Magyar’s willingness to engage in dialogue, would be for him to return the Ukrainian funds,” he added. Last weekend Zelenskyy sent a message of congratulation to Magyar and his Tisza party. “It is important when a constructive approach prevails,” he noted, adding that Ukraine had always sought good neighbourly relations with “everyone in Europe”. Ukraine was ready to develop “cooperation with Hungary” and to meet and work with its new government, he said. In contrast to the Trump administration, Magyar has stated Ukraine is a victim of Russia’s invasion and should not be forced to hand over its territory. In July 2024 he travelled to Kyiv, shortly after Moscow bombed the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital. He paid tribute to Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war and handed over humanitarian aid and a donation. However, Ukrainian commentators think Magyar should not be seen as a friend or booster. “Magyar is not a pro-Ukrainian politician. He is pro-Hungarian,” Serhiy Sydorenko, the editor of the European Pravda newspaper, wrote this week. He suggested Zelenskyy would reluctantly complete repairs to the Druzhba pipeline, allowing limited Russian oil exports to resume to Hungary, as a gesture of political goodwill. Other observers said Hungarian society had grown used to anti-Ukrainian narratives, after 16 years of Orbán propaganda, and would take time to change its views. “We can’t expect something very liberal from the reformist government,” said Marianna Prysiazhniuk, a political analyst with the Democratic Initiatives Foundation in Kyiv. She added: “What we’ve witnessed in Hungary is the reconsolidation of power.” Prysiazhniuk believes Zelenskyy should behave “very delicately” towards Budapest, taking into account its “internal context”. “We shouldn’t expect Magyar to shout: ‘Glory to Ukraine’. The priority is for Hungary to become a reliable European partner,” she said. The two leaders are likely to hold talks next month in Romania at a meeting of the “Bucharest Nine”, a gathering of Nato’s formerly communist east European member states. Kupchak, meanwhile, said he had driven several times to Hungary from his home in Lviv. It was a day-long journey via the Chop border crossing, through the scenic foothills of the Carpathian mountains. “In my opinion the Hungarians have a bit of an imperial mentality, similar to the Russians. It’s a hangover from the Austro-Hungarian empire. We hope that under Magyar this changes,” he said.

Iran says strait of Hormuz ‘completely open’ but sounds warning on US blockade

Iran’s foreign minister has said that the strait of Hormuz is now fully open to commercial vessels, reinforcing hopes for an eventual end to the war in the Middle East and sending oil prices tumbling despite analysts’ warnings that there will be no immediate widespread resumption of passage through the vital waterway. In a barrage of social media posts, Donald Trump claimed on Friday that Iran had agreed never to close the strategic waterway again, hailing “A GREAT AND BRILLIANT DAY FOR THE WORLD!” However, Abbas Araghchi’s pledge was given only qualified support by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has reinforced its already powerful authority in Tehran during the war. Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, later warned that if the US blockade continued, “the strait of Hormuz will not remain open”. Whether the strait was open or closed and the regulations governing it “will be determined by the field, not by social media”, Ghalibaf added, in a swipe at the US president. Trump also said that Iran had agreed to indefinitely suspend its nuclear programme, and would not receive any frozen funds from the US. In an interview with Bloomberg, he said that talks over a deal to end the war would “probably” be held this weekend. Separately, the US president told Reuters that Washington would work with Iran to recover its enriched uranium, which he referred to as “nuclear dust” that would be retrieved at “a nice leisurely pace” and moved to the US. Iranian authorities made no immediate comment on the claim, but Tehran has long asserted that its right to enrich uranium inside the country is sacrosanct. When asked about a report that the US was considering a $20bn cash for uranium deal, Trump said: “It’s totally false. No money is changing hands.” Araghchi statement that the strait was “declared completely open” came as a new 10-day truce in Lebanon entered its first full day, partly pausing fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah Islamist militant movement and offering a fragile relief in parts of the country after weeks of relentless Israeli airstrikes that have killed hundreds of civilians. Trump said that Israel would cease attacks on Lebanon, claiming: “They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the U.S.A.” Minutes before that post, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, uploaded a video to his official YouTube page declaring that Israel was not done yet with Hezbollah. He said: “We have not yet finished the job. There are things we plan to do to address the remaining rocket threat and the drone threat.” Soon after, reports emerged that an Israeli drone strike had killed one person in southern Lebanon. The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, insisted that the IDF was not withdrawing from the country and that military action could resume. Iranian state television quoted a senior military official saying commercial vessels would be allowed to travel through the strait of Hormuz but only along a determined route and with the permission of the IRGC navy. The US blockade of Iranian ports and shipping will remain in place for the moment, Trump said, and few vessels are likely to risk passage through the strait in such uncertain circumstances, meaning any return to normality is still distant. “The naval blockade will remain in full force and effect as it pertains to Iran, only, until such time as our transaction with Iran is 100% complete,” the US president posted on his Truth Social network, adding that “this process should go very quickly”. On Friday the US treasury department allowed further purchases of sanctioned Russian oil loaded on vessels until 16 May, extending an original 30-day waiver that expired on 11 April. Trump’s administration has been seeking to control global energy prices that have shot higher during the war. The extension comes two days after the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said Washington would not be renewing the waiver that allowed countries to purchase Russian oil without facing US sanctions. In Paris, representatives of about 40 countries met at a conference chaired jointly by France and the UK for discussions on an international plan to secure the strait, which carried around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies before the conflict. The strait’s closure by Iran shortly after the conflict began has spiked the price of oil, fuelled inflation and threatens a deep economic crisis that could trigger recessions around the world. French president Emmanuel Macron said Araghchi’s statement was welcome, and urged the “full, unconditional reopening by all the parties”. Keir Starmer, the UK’s prime minister, said any proposal to reopen the strait needed to be “lasting and workable”. Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, welcomed Iran’s announcement on the strait but said the situation remained “fragile”. He added: “This was positive news that we received last night. We hope that it holds, but what we know is that the impact will be long lasting.” Trump, however, said that he had rebuffed an offer from Nato to help and told them to stay away unless they want to load up ships with oil. “They were useless when needed, a Paper Tiger!” he posted on social media, before thanking Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Qatar. Shipping industry associations said they were reviewing the situation. “We are currently verifying the recent announcement related to the reopening of the strait of Hormuz, in terms of its compliance with freedom of navigation for all merchant vessels and secure passage,” Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of UN shipping agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said. Regional diplomats have engaged in a frantic push in recent days to prevent a return to violence between Iran, Israel and the US. The current ceasefire with Iran declared by Donald Trump earlier this month is set to expire on Tuesday. Field Marshal Asim Munir, the army chief of Pakistan, which has emerged as a key mediator, is in Tehran to carry forward negotiations for a more durable peace. Tahir Andrabi, Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said at a news briefing on Thursday that “peace in Lebanon and cessation of armed attacks in Lebanon are essential for peace talks”. In Lebanon, there were widespread celebrations at the fragile ceasefire. In Beirut, cars with mattresses stacked on their roofs passed cheering crowds who congratulated the displaced people on their return home. Cars blasted pro-Hezbollah music and waved the yellow flags of the group, claiming victory. The mass return to the south came despite continued occupation of a swath of Lebanese territory by the Israeli army and warnings from the Israeli military spokesperson not to head south of the Litani river. Hezbollah, the Lebanese army, and the speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, Nabih Berri, all put out statements urging residents of south Lebanon to wait before going home. Few appeared to heed the advice, with vast queues forming in front of ruined bridges over the Litani. Israel had bombed the only remaining intact bridge – the Qasmiyeh bridge, which leads into the southern Lebanese city of Tyre – just hours before the ceasefire. The war in Iran spilled over into Lebanon when Hezbollah launched missile attacks on 2 March against Israel in solidarity with Tehran, triggering a ferocious Israeli response, including a ground invasion into southern Lebanon. It came 15 months after the last major conflict between the two sides. The terms of the ceasefire return Lebanon to a status quo very similar to the period after the previous November 2024 ceasefire. Like that deal, it allows Israel the “right to take all necessary measures in self-defence, at any time” in Lebanon, despite the supposed end to hostilities. Mairav Zonszein, senior Israel analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the ceasefire had left residents of northern Israel “seething”. “Netanyahu grasping for a workable narrative, as the majority of Israelis support continuing the war. This, despite the fact that the Israeli military has cast doubt on its ability to disarm Hezbollah through military force alone,” Zonszein said. An end to Israel’s war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking the current ceasefire deal with strikes on Lebanon. Israel said that deal did not cover Lebanon. The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US service members have also been killed.

US extends waiver allowing countries to buy Russian oil – as it happened

We’re wrapping up this live coverage of Middle East news for the moment but you can see our last full report here, and below is a recap of the latest developments. Thanks for joining us. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi announced the strait of Hormuz was “completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire” between Iran and the US, which expires on Wednesday. Donald Trump hailed Friday’s move as a “brilliant day for the world” but said the US naval blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place. He also said Iran had agreed to never close the strait again, but that has not been verified. Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said later that the Hormuz strait “will not remain open” if the US blockade continued and that Trump had made multiple false claims on Friday. World leaders welcomed Iran’s announcement on the reopening, with UN chief António Guterres calling the move “a step in the right direction” and urging “the full restoration of international navigational rights and freedoms in the Strait of Hormuz, respected by everyone.” Oil prices tumbled after Iran’s Hormuz announcement amid hopes that energy supplies could resume after nearly two months of disruption. Brent crude – the benchmark for oil traded globally – plunged below $90 a barrel, a 10% fall. Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron said the reopening must become permanent. The British prime minister and the French president on Friday co-chaired a virtual summit of about 50 countries on the issue. Amid the Israel-Lebanon truce, Trump said the US “prohibited” Israel from bombing Lebanon. Minutes before Trump’s post on social media, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu uploaded a video address declaring that Israel was not done yet with Hezbollah. The Lebanese army alleged “a number of violations” of the ceasefire by Israel on Friday morning, as thousands of displaced families began making their way home to southern Lebanon. A cruise ship successfully transited the strait of Hormuz on Friday, making it the first passenger vessel to make it through since the war began, according to ship tracking service MarineTraffic. But there remained uncertainty over how quickly shipping might return to normal, with some vessels observed making unsuccessful attempts cross the strait on Friday before turning back. Trump said Iran’s enriched uranium would be brought to the US, also claiming the US and Tehran would work together to recover the uranium but denying reports the US was considering a $20bn cash for uranium deal. “No money is changing hands,” he told Reuters. The Trump administration issued a waiver permitting countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products at sea for about a month, seeking to control soaring global energy prices. The UK will make “a wide-ranging military contribution” to an international mission to protect shipping in the strait of Hormuz, the UK ambassador to the US, Christian Turner, said in Washington The UN children’s agency said it was “outraged” after two truck drivers it contracted to deliver clean water to families in Gaza were killed by Israeli fire.

Ukraine war briefing: Russia seeking to bring Belarus back into the war, says Zelenskyy

Infrastructure preparations suggest Russia is again trying to involve its ally Belarus in the war, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday. The Ukrainian president made his remarks, posted on Telegram, in response to what he said was an intelligence report issued by Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi. “According to intelligence, road construction in areas leading to Ukraine and the establishment of artillery positions are going on in the Belarusian border area,” Zelenskyy wrote. “We believe that Russia will once again try to involve Belarus in its war.” He said Ukraine had issued instructions to warn the Belarusian leadership of “Ukraine’s readiness to defend its land and independence”. Zelenskyy also said intelligence showed that Russia was “attempting ... to carry out a regrouping of forces - most likely to compensate for a shortage of personnel”. “In this regard, it becomes more evident why the armed forces increased their activity on the territory of Belarus.” He did not provide further evidence. Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, one of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, allowed his territory to be used for part of Russia’s February 2022 invasion. Zelenskyy said Kyiv’s wartime experience in the Black Sea could help to ensure freedom of navigation in the strait of Hormuz. “Decisions made regarding Hormuz now will determine how other aggressive actors perceive the possibility of creating problems in other straits and on other fronts,” he said in remarks to a video conference attended by 50 countries and chaired by France and Britain. “We need to be as specific and clear as possible so that in six months we don’t find ourselves in the same situation as in Gaza, where much still needs to be done.” Zelenskyy, whose remarks appeared on the Telegram messaging app, said that in the course of four years of war with Russia, Ukraine had “already carried out a very similar mission in the Black Sea”. He said: “Russia also attempted to blockade our sea and we have experience in escorting merchant vessels, demining, defending against air attacks and the overall coordination of such operations.” Ukraine, he said, had sent specialists throughout the Middle East to help countries benefit from its experience in defending against Russian drones, many designed in Iran. “We can also contribute to maritime security,” Zelenskyy said. Ukraine has clinched security cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and says it is in talks with Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain. A fire broke out at an oil terminal in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region, prompting a large firefighting operation, the region’s emergency operational headquarters said early on Saturday. Officials said 224 firefighters and 56 vehicles were battling the blaze at the terminal in Tikhoretsk, north-east of the region’s main town, Krasnodar. No casualties were reported and there was no indication as to what may have caused the fire. Syskyi said this week that Ukrainian forces were seeking to reduce Russia’s offensive capabilities by keeping up a high pace of strikes on military, defence-industrial and other facilities. In March, Ukraine struck 76 such targets including 15 facilities in the oil-refining industry, the top commander said. Serbia’s Russian-owned NIS oil company has secured a 60-day sanctions waiver from the US. The waiver will allow NIS, which operates Serbia’s only oil refinery, to continue importing crude oil until the sale of the Russian majority stake to Hungary’s MOL. The previous one-month waiver expired on Friday. The US imposed sanctions on NIS in October last year as part of wider measures targeting Russia’s energy sector over the war in Ukraine, and demanded divestment of Gazprom Neft and Gazprom, its Russian majority owners. Serbian energy minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic called the latest move a sign of progress in the negotiations on the change of ownership between the Hungarian MOL and the Russian Gazprom Neft.

Inside smoky shelters, a fast-paced, illegal card game has taken off in Solomon Islands

As the school day ends in Honiara, *Irene, a 43-year-old teacher in a floral dress with a yellow daisy in her bun, steps on to a minibus. After 10 minutes, Irene gets off the bus, walks down an alley, and enters a damp, smoky shelter. Plastic tables fill the space and playing cards are scattered on the floor. Irene has stopped by a hidden gambling table in a western suburb of Honiara to play Pass, a street card game gaining popularity in the Solomon Islands capital. There are dozens of these games dotted across the city, with new sites appearing regularly. Authorities are trying to stamp out the games as Solomon Islanders – young, old, low-income or salaried professionals – are drawn to Pass for their chance at a big payout, while risking big losses. Dealers attract players by shouting out the price of the bet: “$20 down!” Players are dealt seven cards, and the dealer tables a number six card. The first player must put down a five or a seven, and the pattern continues, with each player having to play the next sequential card. If they can’t, they yell “pass!” The first person to get rid of all their cards wins. The winner collects the pot each round, save for one bet held as the dealer’s fee. With up to 30 rounds per hour, large sums are won or lost in minutes. “I don’t have money left but I’ve asked the kids to run me some,” Irene tells the Guardian, after losing several hands in a row. The single mother discourages her three children from playing. “Gambling is a bad thing. Sometimes, other people who don’t have money steal from mothers,” she says, while closely watching the cards being dealt. “I don’t want my kids to play.” But Irene has no plans to give up because, she says, her livelihood depends on it. Despite the evening’s losses, she was up SBD$500 ($62; £45) for the week, a sum that nearly matches her $600 teacher’s salary. Irene typifies those flocking to play Pass. Earning a meagre income in the formal economy, she sees it as a way to make enough money to support her family. Facing a lack of opportunities, many young Solomon Islanders see the game as a way to get ahead. *Ben is the 19-year-old dealer on Irene’s table. He started dealing Pass as a 15-year-old to cover his school fees. He earns SBD$500 a week. For his boss, Pass is much more lucrative. “We make SBD$12,000 per week on this table,” says 29-year-old *Gordon, who supplies cigarettes and betel nut, a local intoxicant, at no charge to his loyal gamblers. Collectively, his three tables turn over SBD$30,000 each week. For others, like *Madlyn, 29, Pass is a social game. She plays every night at the same table. “I just won!” she proclaims, as the setting sun beams across the table, before receiving a packet of cigarettes and two meals wrapped in aluminium foil. Phillip Subu, a prominent youth advocate, sees Pass as a symptom of Solomon Islands’ deep economic malaise. “It’s getting out of hand because a lot of people here in Honiara don’t have employment. The biggest cause is unemployment,” Subu says. “It is part of people’s survival. When it connects to survival, it is quite hard to remove it.” Solomon Islands’ official unemployment statistics are patchy. But the degree of youth unemployment in Honiara is often between 12 and 15%. As young people flock to Honiara for jobs, they often find none, forcing them towards informal employment, crime and now Pass. Business owners, too, see Pass as a smart way to supplement income. A small table in the backstreets of a suburb in eastern Honiara was opened in February 2026 by *John and *Piwen, a married couple who are shopkeepers. John says his gamblers “play to pay for cash power”, the local electricity bill. Their dealers are all local women. “These ladies do the dealing, they do this [to pay] for food and for bills. They collect more money than public servants,” says John. There is a giddy energy among the gamblers when the Guardian visits. “When the police come here, we might run away,” one gambler laughed. But those fears appear unlikely to be realised. When Pass emerged, the Royal Solomon Islands police porce (RSIPF) worked hard to stop it. Operation Stopem Gambling was established to “to stop gambling which we know can lead to social and family problems such as domestic violence over spent money”. It led to multiple raids, including at Rove, a western suburb of Honiara, where 34 gamblers were arrested. There is, however, no record of any player being sentenced. People caught playing Pass risk a conviction and a $100 fine. Jimson Robo, an assistant commissioner for national capital and crime prevention at the RSIPF, said police were “not slowing down” their efforts to crack down on Pass. “The issue is illegal, and police are warning the public to refrain from playing Pass,” Robo told the Guardian. “Police are … attending to reported cases and making arrests, dismantling tents and tables used for the game.” Despite this, the game is proliferating. For some Solomon Islanders trying to get by, the rules don’t matter: Pass has become a lifeline, providing money and also camaraderie. “These people are my wantoks [friends],” says Irene, pointing to the table of gamblers surrounding her. *Some names have been changed

Air Canada temporarily suspends some flights to New York and other locations

Air Canada has announced a temporary suspension of flights from Toronto and Montreal to New York’s John F Kennedy airport, citing rising fuel prices. The move comes amid growing concerns that airlines worldwide may scale back services as aviation fuel costs climb in the wake of the US and Israel’s ongoing war with Iran, which entered a fragile ceasefire earlier in April. Although Iran announced on Friday that the strait of Hormuz had reopened, helping ease oil prices, fuel costs remain significantly elevated after weeks of disruption. Separately on Friday, Spirit Airlines has asked the US federal government for hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency funding to offset a surge in fuel costs, the Air Current industry website reported, citing unnamed sources. Spirit did not immediately return a request for comment. “Jet fuel prices have doubled since the start of the Iran conflict, affecting some lower profitability routes and flights which now are no longer economically feasible,” Air Canada said in a statement on Friday. “Schedule adjustments including some frequency reductions are being made in response.” The airline said flights from two of Canada’s major cities will be paused starting 1 June, with service expected to resume on 25 October. The affected routes include one flight from Montreal and three from Toronto, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported, citing an Air Canada spokesperson. “Any affected customers will be contacted with alternate travel options,” an airline spokesperson said, referring to New York’s LaGuardia airport and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty international airport. The spokesperson said Air Canada would continue flying to the LaGuardia and Newark airports “34 times daily from six cities across Canada”. Other temporary suspensions from the airline include a Salt Lake City-Toronto route, which will be halted 30 June onwards with plans to resume in 2027, as well as a delay to the launch of a service from Guadalajara, Mexico, to Montreal. The airline said it anticipated the changes would affect 1% of its overall passenger-carrying capacity. Since the US and Israel’s war with Iran began in late February, airlines have warned that rising fuel costs were beginning to weigh on bookings. The British budget airline easyJet recently said it expects a pre-tax loss of £540m-£560m for the six-month period ending in March. Australia’s flagship carrier Qantas and Virgin Australia, meanwhile, have announced ticket price increases and reductions in flight frequency. The International Energy Agency (IEA) also warned recently that Europe has only six weeks of jet fuel reserves remaining before shortages could hit. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA, attributed that to ongoing Middle East instability, adding that flight cancellations would “soon” follow if oil supplies from the region are not restored in the coming weeks.

Trump’s Iran war victory boast has echoes of Bush’s ill-fated ‘mission accomplished’ claim

It lacked the triumphalist symbolism of George W Bush’s memorable – and subsequently ill-fated – appearance before the “mission accomplished” banner aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln six weeks after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But there was no mistaking the boastful claims asserted on Friday by Donald Trump after a military assault on neighbouring Iran that has, so far, lasted a similar period and which, by widespread agreement outside the Trump administration, has not gone to plan. Ahead of resumed peace talks in Islamabad and in a frenetic flurry of posts on his Truth Social network, the president all-but proclaimed unambiguous victory, insisting all the major sticking points had been ironed out in advance. “A great and brilliant day for the world,” Trump declared in his trademark block-capital letters. Above all else, the strait of Hormuz, the economically vital choke point that Iran had blocked in retaliation for being attacked, would reopen, thereby removing a near-existential threat to the global economy by allowing the 20% of world energy supplies normally routed through it to freely flow again. Post after post referred to the reopening of the strait, which Iran had targeted as a central part of its strategy of imposing pain on the international economy. Iran had removed – or was in the process of removing – the mines it had reportedly placed in the waterway as a deterrent to shipping. It had agreed, so Trump claimed, to never again use closure of the strait as a military weapon – a striking declaration, given that Iranian officials have long alluded to the sea passage as a lever of their survival strategy. It seemed a shaky justification for a victory lap, given that the strait was completely open to shipping before the war began and that Iran has now proved its ability to inflict international disruption. Moreover, according to Trump, Lebanon – now subject to a 10-day ceasefire with Israel, which has been in renewed conflict with Tehran’s longstanding Lebanese Shia proxy group, Hezbollah – was not included in the agreement. That, too, was a striking claim in view of Iran’s fixation with its regional “axis of resistance” against the west. A clue as to why Iran might have conceded such a point came in Trump’s statement that “Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer. They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the U.S.A. Enough is enough!!!”. Conspicuously absent on that point was any confirmation – or clarification – from Tehran, although the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, confirmed that the strait of Hormuz was “completely open” to commercial shipping. Trump was less effusive in spelling the goals achieved by his decision to go to war, making passing reference only to Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which the US, Israel and the west have long alleged is a precursor to building a nuclear weapon. “The U.S.A. will get all Nuclear ‘Dust,’ created by our great B2 Bombers,” he wrote. “No money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form.” Separately, he told Reuters that Iran had agreed to indefinitely suspend its nuclear programme and that it would work with Washington to recover the enriched uranium that Trump claimed to have “obliterated” in bombing raids last June. Given that Iran’s nuclear activities have been the subject to a protracted and tortuous diplomatic dispute for a quarter of a century, the claim that it had been suddenly and simply resolved seems dubious. The 2015 nuclear agreement Tehran reached with Barack Obama’s administration, and which was abrogated by Trump three years later, was years in the making, after all. In declaring that Iran now agreed to quickly surrender a right to enrich uranium, which it has long asserted was inviolable, Trump is in effect claiming to have secured at the negotiating table something which it is far from clear the US won on the battlefield. Meanwhile, the Islamic regime – far from collapsing, as Trump and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had assumed it would – is still standing and determined to do all in its power to survive, an achievement tantamount to victory for Tehran given the imbalance of military forces and the targeted killings of so many of its senior figures. Against that backdrop, how likely is it that the two sides are suddenly reconciled to each other? Peace for our time it may be. But that phrase has an unfortunate history.