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Middle East crisis live: US war on Iran has cost around $29bn, Pentagon says

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Donald Trump said that he plans to talk to Chinese president Xi Jinping about the US’s ongoing war in Iran but downplayed its importance, saying: “We’re going to have a long talk about it. I think he’s been relatively good, to be honest with you.” He went to add: “We have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control.” The high-stakes trip comes amid calls from secretary of state Marco Rubio and treasury secretary Scott Bessent towards Beijing to intervene and help reopen the Hormuz strait. In addition to 20% of the world’s crude oil flowing through the strait prior to the war, half of China’s crude oil passes through the critical chokehold.

WHO head tells countries to prepare for more hantavirus cases

The head of the World Health Organization has told countries to prepare for more hantavirus cases as authorities in Paris said a French woman who contracted the virus onboard the MV Hondius had the most severe form of the disease and had been put on a ventilator. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked Spain for the “compassion and solidarity” it had shown by taking in the stricken cruise ship and urged authorities to follow the WHO’s advice and recommendations, which include a 42-day quarantine and constant monitoring of high-risk contacts. “At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak, but of course the situation could change and, given the long incubation period of the virus, it’s possible we might see more cases in the coming weeks,” he told a press conference in Madrid on Tuesday. The MV Hondius, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, found itself at the centre of the outbreak after three passengers – a Dutch couple and a German national – died from the virus. Although usually spread by wild rodents, hantavirus can be transmitted person-to-person in rare cases of close contact. The WHO has so far confirmed nine cases of the Andes variant of the virus, among them a French woman and a US national who tested positive after being evacuated from the ship. Health officials in Paris said late on Tuesday that the French patient had been moved to intensive care with “the most severe form of cardiopulmonary presentation”. Dr Xavier Lescure told reporters the 65-year old had pre-existing conditions, but gave no further details. “She is on an artificial lung and a blood bypass to allow her, we hope, to get through this stage,” he said. The Spanish health ministry said that one of the 14 Spaniards evacuated from the ship and put in quarantine at a military hospital in Madrid had tested positive for hantavirus and was showing symptoms. “The patient who tested provisionally positive yesterday has been confirmed positive for hantavirus,” it said in a statement. “The patient presented with a low-grade fever and mild respiratory symptoms yesterday, but is currently stable and shows no evident clinical deterioration.” Tedros, who was speaking alongside Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said more cases were likely to appear because of the degree of interaction between the passengers onboard the ship before the alarm was raised and the first case confirmed in a passenger on 2 May. “We would expect more cases because, as you may remember, the index case – the first case in the ship – was on 6 April … [and] there was a lot of interaction, actually, with the passengers. And as you know, the incubation period is also six to eight weeks. “So because of the interaction while they were still in the ship – especially before they started taking some infectious prevention measures – because of the interaction, we would expect more cases because of some of what happened during the travel.” Tedros said individual countries were now responsible for their citizens after the evacuation, adding: “I hope they will take care of the patients and the passengers, helping them and also protecting their citizens as well. That’s what we expect.” The WHO chief also paid tribute to the Spanish government and the people of Spain for responding to the plight of those onboard the ship after authorities in Cape Verde refused it permission to dock. More than 120 passengers and crew members were evacuated from Tenerife in a carefully coordinated operation on Sunday and Monday. “I’d like to thank Spain and, especially, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, for the outstanding leadership and coordination,” he said. “I know this is a model – and I hope other countries also learn from this – not just the obligation part but the compassion and solidarity that Spain has shown.” In a “divided and divisive world”, he added, “kindness and taking care of each other” were important. Sánchez echoed the sentiment, saying: “This world doesn’t need more selfishness, nor more fear. What it needs is countries that show solidarity and want to move forward.” The prime minister also offered his condolences once again to the family of a Guardia Civil officer who died of a heart attack while taking part in the evacuation on Sunday. Despite objections from the regional government of the Canary Islands, Spain’s central government allowed the MV Hondius to anchor in port in Tenerife – and then, briefly, to dock – as it oversaw the evacuation operation. France’s health minister, Stéphanie Rist, said on Tuesday that while it wasn’t currently clear whether the hantavirus strain involved in the outbreak may have mutated, officials were “rather reassured”. Rist told the National Assembly: “There are things … we do not know about this virus. We do not yet have the complete sequencing of the virus, which allows us to say with certainty today, even if we are rather reassured to date … that this virus has not yet mutated.” The final planes carrying passengers and crew left the Canary Islands on Monday night and arrived in the Netherlands early on Tuesday. Dutch authorities said all 26 passengers onboard the first evacuation flight had tested negative for the virus. Two more repatriation flights landed later in the Netherlands, carrying 28 more evacuees who will also undergo quarantine. A Dutch hospital quarantined a dozen members of staff on Tuesday after urine and blood from a patient with hantavirus were handled without using the necessary protocols. The 12 people would be quarantined for six weeks, a spokesperson for the Radboudumc hospital in Nijmegen said, adding that the infection risk was very low and patient care continued uninterrupted. The MV Hondius, which refuelled and restocked in Tenerife, is now sailing back to port in Rotterdam with a crew of 25 as well as a doctor and nurse. Reuters contributed to this report

UAE’s secret attack on Iran risks drawing Gulf states into the war

The risk of some Gulf states becoming embroiled in a direct war with Iran has risen after it was reported the United Arab Emirates had secretly launched a major attack on Iran during the conflict. In addition, Kuwait has said that at least four members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been captured trying to carry out “terrorist attacks” on the Kuwaiti-owned Bubiyan Island, the largest island in the Kuwaiti coastal chain. The UAE assault on Iran, which was undertaken as retaliation for Iranian attacks on its facilities, included a strike on Iran’s Lazan Island just before the 7 April ceasefire was announced, the Wall Street Journal reported. The news is likely to make the UAE an even clearer target for Iran if the ceasefire is abandoned and the US and Iran restart the conflict. Donald Trump said on Monday the ceasefire was hanging by a thread due to Iran’s failure to make the concessions he is seeking over its nuclear programme. On Tuesday, the Pentagon said the cost of the war with Iran had risen to nearly $29bn – about $4bn higher than the previous Pentagon estimate given two weeks ago. In the earlier fighting that began on 28 February the UAE had been selected as a target for missile and drone strikes by Iran. It was disproportionately attacked partly due to the severe diplomatic hostility to Iran expressed by its rulers. The Wall Street Journal report gave details of how that diplomatic hostility extended to military hostility, pointing to images that allegedly showed French Mirage fighter jets and Chinese Wing Long drones (both used by the UAE) operating in Iran. The UAE had hinted around that time that it wanted to mount reprisal operations, and not just defend its oil and port installations. Iran at the time also accused the UAE and Kuwait of being involved in the attacks. The UAE has still so far failed to persuade Qatar or Saudi Arabia to do more to counter Iranian attacks or the blockade in the strait of Hormuz that Tehran views as a necessary retaliation to the US attacks. Iran’s intelligence assessment has always been that some Gulf states had allowed their airspace or US bases to be used by American forces to attack Iran. Europeans, including UK air forces, have also protected Gulf states, but that has largely been sold to domestic audiences as a necessary step to protect neutral Gulf allies that wanted to stay out of the conflict. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said Israel had sent Iron Dome batteries and personnel to improve UAE defences. The divisions within Gulf states – notably between Saudi Arabia and the UAE – have in private been focused on whether Arab anger at Iran’s attacks should extend to military reprisals, or whether that will produce a level of Iranian hostility that might threaten the delicate diplomatic relationships between the Gulf states. Explaining the Saudi position Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi Arabian ambassador to the US, insisted in an Arab News article this week that Saudi restraint had been wise. He wrote “if the Israeli plan succeeded in igniting war between us and Iran, the region would be transformed into a state of devastation and destruction, and Israel would succeed in imposing its will on the region, remaining the sole actor in our surroundings”. If Saudi Arabia entered an all-out war today, oil facilities on the eastern coast would be destroyed, desalination plants would be struck, the hajj would be catastrophically affected, and Vision 2030 projects would grind to a halt, it was suggested. Kuwaiti press published the names of four IRGC commanders that had tried to infiltrate Bubiyan Island on a fishing boat in an incident earlier this month. Iranian media has not reported the episode yet, but the UAE issued a statement expressing solidarity with Kuwait in trying to fend off IRGC “hostile and terrorist acts”. The Iranian ambassador to Kuwait was summoned by the foreign ministry to hear Kuwait’s anger at an attack on its armed forces. Some of the Kuwaiti reporting highlighted a Chinese rather than US presence on the island. The UAE anger towards Iran partly reflects longstanding ideological differences, including the UAE’s willingness to sign the Abraham Accords normalising relations with Israel, but also a belief that the Emirates had been unjustly singled out for disruption by Iran due to those links with Israel. The disruption to the UAE it was confirmed includes the near two-year closure of the UAE’s biggest gas plant due to Iranian attacks last month. The owner, Adnoc Gas, said the plant would not be fully repaired until next year. The aim is to restore the complex’s processing capacity to 80% by the end of 2026, with full capacity achieved in 2027, the company said on Tuesday. But the UAE stance has also served to build new diplomatic allliances in the Middle East. Pakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Asif, hailed the quartet of nations that were avoiding conflict with Iran. “All the circumstances in the region are leading to an alliance that brings together Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.” The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, expressing one of the quartet’s most fundamental beliefs, warning against “Israeli expansionism”, which “remains the number one challenge to stability, security in our region”. He added: “What the Gulf is going through should not lead to losing focus on Gaza. “Expansionism in Gaza, Beirut, the West Bank and Syria has cost many lives and forced many more to flee home. Regional countries and the international community should be more sensitive about this issue,” he said. Iran held talks with Oman on Tuesday about its plans to reorganise the administration of shipping passing through the strait of Hormuz, including by charging for services to shipping companies.

Russian ship that sank near Spain may have been carrying nuclear reactors to North Korea

A Russian cargo ship that suffered a series of mysterious explosions before eventually sinking off the south-east coast of Spain 17 months ago may have been carrying nuclear submarine reactors destined for North Korea, according to reports. The Ursa Major, a 142-metre-long, Russian-flagged ship owned by the state-linked Oboronlogistics company, was purportedly sailing from St Petersburg to Vladivostok in the far east of Russia when it sank 62 nautical miles off the coast of Murcia a little before midnight on 23 December 2024. Eleven hours earlier, Spain’s maritime rescue and security service, Sasemar, had dispatched a helicopter, a fast rescue boat, and a tugboat to the Ursa Major, which put out a distress call at 12.53pm. Other vessels in the area noted that the Russian vessel, which had slowed dramatically over the previous 24 hours, was listing badly and saw its crew abandoning ship. The crew members told rescuers that there had been three explosions in the ship’s engine room. Spanish attempts to assist the Ursa Major were curtailed at 8.07pm that evening when a Russian warship arrived, took over operations and ordered the two Sasemar boats to withdraw to a distance of two nautical miles. According to a Spanish government document that was released three months ago in response to parliamentary questions over the incident, the Russian warship then launched flares over the Ursa Major. A report in the Murcia newspaper La Verdad said the flares could have been deployed to blind the infrared channels of the intelligence satellites that were monitoring the incident. A CNN investigation into the sinking of the vessel noted that “four similar seismic signatures … the pattern of which resembled underwater mines or overground quarry blasts” were heard just after the flares were fired. By 11.20pm, the Ursa Major had sunk and now lies at a depth of 2,500 metres. Two crew members are thought to have died in the initial explosions, while 14 were rescued. Although the vessel was officially transporting “non-dangerous merchandise” – including 129 shipping containers, two cranes, and two large maintenance hole covers – its route and sinking raised the suspicions of the Spanish authorities. Under questioning, the captain of the Ursa Major eventually told Spanish investigators that the “manhole covers” onboard his ship were “nuclear reactor components similar to those used by submarines”, but that no nuclear fuel was being transported. Investigators had also noticed two huge blue containers – each estimated to weigh about 65 tonnes – on the stern of the ship in satellite photographs. “These would therefore be two loads almost impossible to transport along the winding roads of Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan between the two cities served by the Ursa Major,” said the report in La Verdad. “That mysterious undeclared cargo would certainly justify a voyage of more than 15,000km by sea between St Petersburg and Vladivostok.” A source familiar with the investigation told CNN that the Russian captain believed he would be diverted to the North Korean port of Rason to deliver the two reactors. While the incident remains a mystery, CNN suggested the sinking of the Ursa Major “may mark a rare and high-stakes intervention by a western military to prevent Russia from sending an upgrade in nuclear technology to a key ally, North Korea”. The network noted that the Russian ship set sail just two months after the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, had sent troops to assist with Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. CNN and La Verdad reported that a 50cm by 50cm hole found in the vessel’s hull – with the damaged metal facing inwards – could have been made by a super-fast weapon known as a supercavitating torpedo. “Only the United States, a few Nato allies, Russia and Iran are believed to have this kind of high-speed torpedo, which fires air ahead of the weapon to reduce the drag of the water,” said CNN. “The source familiar with the [Spanish] investigation said it concluded the use of such a device would fit with the size of the hole in the Ursa Major’s hull, and that it could have made a noiseless impact resulting in the sudden slowing of the boat on 22 December.” CNN said there had been a “flurry of recent military activity” around the ship’s remains, with US nuclear “sniffer” aircraft overflying the scene twice in the past year, and a Russian spy ship setting off four further explosions in the wreckage a week after it sank. A report by Oboronlogistics claimed that the Ursa Major fell prey to what it termed “a targeted terrorist attack”. Spain’s interior, foreign and defence ministries have been contacted for comment.

Bosnia and Herzegovina left vulnerable by policy clash with US, representative says

The UN high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina has warned about the possible destruction of the multi-ethnic state after he was forced to resign in a policy clash with the US, seemingly complicated by the commercial interests of a firm linked to Donald Trump Jr that is seeking to make investments in the region. The German Christian Democrat politician Christian Schmidt spoke at a scheduled meeting with the UN security council in New York on Tuesday, where he warned about the fragility of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has made clear he believes his post should be maintained, saying he will stay on until his successor is appointed. The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, already locked in a clash with Trump over the Iran war and the reduction of US troops stationed in Germany, has been unable to protect Schmidt from US pressure. The role of the UN high representative was established as part of the 1995 Dayton peace agreement that ended a three-year ethnic war in which more than 100,000 people were killed. It was given wide powers for the interpretation of the agreement, including amending laws, but is subject to the decisions of a 55-strong multinational governing board. Schmidt has served as high representative for five years, but his appointment has always been opposed by Russia and the largely autonomous Republika Srpska, the Serb-run part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has clashed with the former Republika Srpska president Milorad Dodik, a close ally of Vladimir Putin who attended the 9 May Moscow Victory Day parade, and whom he disqualified from office for six months for failing to comply with his decisions. Dodik was until last year subject to US sanctions but, in a reversal not coordinated with the EU, they were lifted, in a move that signalled a shifting US approach to the western Balkans. There is no sign that Dodik has dropped his secessionist views. Schmidt had acted against Dodik after the Republika Srpska national assembly voted to disregard the decisions of the Bosnian constitutional court. Since the end of the three-year war in 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina has consisted of two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, mainly inhabited by Bosniaks and Croats, and the Republika Srpska, primarily inhabited by Serbs. Schmidt told the security council: “The persistent denial of the multi-ethnic character of the entities, particularly within Republika Srpska, has evolved into systematic exclusion.” He said it was “deeply concerning that narratives portraying Bosnia [and] Herzegovina as a stage for a so-called clash of civilisations have re-emerged”, and he singled out Dodic for using explicitly secessionist terms. Dodik welcomed Schmidt’s resignation on Sunday. “He leaves Bosnia and Herzegovina the same way he arrived: with no legitimacy, no UN security council decision and no backing from international law,” he wrote. The former leaders of Republika Srpska have been accused of slowly starving state institutions of cash in an attempt to break up the state. Diplomats fear the US will call either for the post of high representative to be abolished or for its preferred choice to be appointed. The EU will resist the post’s abolition. The UK on Tuesday reiterated its “support for a fully empowered high representative as the cornerstone of civilian implementation of Dayton” and said Bosnia and Herzegovina’s future “cannot be held hostage by divisive politics”. Schmidt’s resignation comes against the backdrop of a US-based firm, AAFS Infrastructure and Energy, winning a $1.5bn (£1.1bn) contract to build a pipeline from the Croatian coast into Bosnia through which US liquified natural gas would flow. Incorporated in November last year, it is fronted by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Jesse Binnall, and Joe Flynn, the brother of Trump’s former national security adviser in Trump’s first term, Michael Flynn, who resigned over unauthorised discussions with Russian officials over lifting US sanctions. The contract was awarded without a tender after approval from the Bosnian parliament and has been criticised by the EU as possibly jeopardising Bosnia’s plan to join the bloc. The EU and the former Biden administration had urged Bosnia to end its dependence on Russian energy supplied via Serbia through an extension of a pipeline from Turkey, the Turkstream pipeline. But the manner in which the AAFS contract was awarded, and the support for the pipeline from Dodik, has raised questions about the involvement of Trump’s allies. According to his entry in the US lobby register, Michael Flynn’s duties include connecting Dodik with “decision-makers and influential figures in Washington”. The Gold Institute for International Strategy, run by Flynn, has also announced plans to host a European Economic and Security Summit at the end of May in Banja Luka, the main city of Republika Srpska. In April Donald Trump Jr, who runs the family business empire, visited Banja Luka, appearing to be looking for investment opportunities in a region rich in critical minerals. Binnall has said the pipeline is a “priority” for the Trump administration. Asked about the EU’s intervention, he said: “AAFS will never lose sight of what truly matters in this project: delivering energy security and fostering economic development for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are committed to working closely with all relevant authorities to develop the infrastructure needed to make this vision a reality.”

Three-day ceasefire ends with fresh wave of Russian attacks on Ukraine – as it happened

… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today! The three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine announced by president Donald Trump last week ended with a fresh wave of Russian strikes, with over 200 attack drones reported over Ukraine (10:15). The issue was among those discussion by the EU’s defence ministers at their regular meeting in Brussels (9:57). Elsewhere, The head of the World Health Organization has told countries to prepare for more hantavirus cases after the outbreak onboard the MV Hondius (10:54), and thanked Spain for the “compassion and solidarity” it had shown by taking in the stricken cruise ship and evacuating its passengers and crew (13:31). France said it has identified and is monitoring 22 contact cases of hantavirus, but saw no evidence of circulation of the virus within its territory (17:11). A Dutch hospital has quarantined 12 staff members in a preventive measure after blood and urine from a hantavirus patient were handled without observing strict protocols (15:22). In other news, The new Hungarian government, led by Péter Magyar, has been formally sworn in, with ministers refusing to have pictures taken with the country’s president, Tamás Sulyok, a loyal ally of the previous prime minister Viktor Orbán (16:31). Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany must “pull itself together” or risk being left behind in a rapidly changing world, in a speech to trade unionists on Tuesday that sparked jeers, whistles and boos (12:07). Ukrainian authorities have named Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s powerful former chief of staff as a suspect in a major corruption investigation, a move likely to pile pressure on the president’s office at a sensitive moment in the war with Russia (10:41). Finally, the Eurovision song context begins tonight (14:41). If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

What is hantavirus, and why will cruise passengers spend so long in quarantine?

Up to 150 people aboard the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius began their journey home from Spain’s Canary Islands on Monday, after an outbreak that resulted in three deaths. The World Health Organization has recommended, but not mandated, a 42-day quarantine period. Four Australians, one permanent resident and one New Zealand citizen are expected to arrive in Australia by the end of the week, where they will spend the first three weeks of that seven-week quarantine at the Centre for National Resilience in Perth. The facility was one of three built in response to the Covid-19 pandemic “to support the return of overseas travellers”. Given the Covid-style quarantine of the returning passengers, how concerned should we be? How is hantavirus spread? Hantaviruses are usually spread to humans via through contact with or inhalation of contaminated rodent faeces, urine and saliva. Rarely, transmission can occur from a bite or scratch by infected animals. Associate Prof Vinod Balasubramaniam, a molecular virologist at Monash University Malaysia, said hantaviruses “do not usually spread easily from person to person in the way that you see flu or Covid-19 does”. There are two major lineages of hantavirus: old world hantaviruses and new world hantaviruses. New world hantaviruses are found in the Americas, and usually cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The most common type in South America is the Andes virus, which is also the virus responsible for the cruise ship outbreak. Unusually for hantaviruses, human-to-human spread of the Andes virus has previously been documented. Old world hantaviruses are found in Europe and Asia – these include puumala hantavirus, Hantaan virus and Seoul virus. The hantavirus outbreak aboard MV Hondius was “an example of inter-species disease transmission which has put health and government authorities on alert”, said Dr Ariful Islam, an epidemiologist at Charles Sturt University who specialises in biosecurity and pandemic science. Could the hantavirus outbreak become the next Covid-19? “This is not another Covid,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said in a statement on Saturday. “The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low.” Islam said it was important to be mindful that the next pandemic could be around the corner, but while the hantavirus outbreak was alarming, people need not panic. “It’s not a new virus … it’s a known virus with many subtypes,” said Islam, who researches the genetic diversity of hantaviruses and their spillover risk to humans. “We know the history of host and transmission, we know the symptoms.” It was “likely not possible” for the current outbreak “to become a full-blown pandemic similar to Covid-19 or H1N1, the previous flu pandemic”, Balasubramaniam said. “The concern here is not that hantavirus is going to become like Covid or influenza.” More concerning, he said, was the illness’s high mortality rate. Fatality rates from new world hantaviruses, which cause more severe symptoms, tend to be much higher than deaths caused by the old world hantaviruses. The new world hantaviruses cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which has a fatality rate of about 40% in the Americas. There is no specific antiviral drug to treat such viruses, which are typically managed with supportive care, including oxygen, fluid management, blood pressure support and ventilation. Why is the quarantine period so long? After they arrive in Australia, the passengers who were aboard MV Hondius will spend the first three weeks of a 42-day quarantine at the Centre for National Resilience in Perth. This is due to the virus’s long incubation period – the gap between initial exposure and when symptoms first develop. “Usually when we are symptomatic, that is a clear indication of the virus successfully penetrating our immune [defences],” Balasubramaniam said “Given the incubation of the period of the Andes virus, which can be up to six weeks, it’s possible that more cases may be reported,” Tedros said on Friday.

Macron seeks allies and a foreign policy less tied to France’s colonial past at Africa summit

A French-African summit held every few years since 1973 is taking place in a non-francophone country for the first time as Emmanuel Macron tries to rebuild France’s role on the continent after setbacks in its former colonies. More than 30 heads of state and government are meeting in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, for this year’s iteration of the summit. Named Africa Forward, it is being seen by analysts as an attempt by France to court new allies. Speaking at the summit on Tuesday, the French president announced new investments and said sovereignty would be key in the new partnership that France is hoping to build with Africa. Macron said Paris would be respectful of each African country’s independence, adding that “sovereignty and autonomy is shared, and your success is our success”. France’s new strategy, according to Macron, would be based on a shared agenda and that the “days of offering assistance are behind us”. “I’d like to focus on co-investment,” he said. The leaders joined representatives of the African Union, financial institutions and the development sector to discuss themes including energy transition, peace and security and reform of the international financial architecture. The summit was preceded on Monday by networking, matchmaking and workshop events on youth, creative and cultural industries and sport. Organisers say the event represents “a paradigm shift” in the relationship between Africa and France. The Kenyan president, William Ruto, referred to sovereignty eight times in his speech. He reiterated that the days of European dependency were over for Africa in favour of mutual respect between cooperating nations. New partnerships between the African nations and France “must not be built on dependency but on sovereign equality, not on aid or charity but on mutually beneficial investment, and not on extraction or exploitation but on win-win engagements,” he said. France had for decades used a policy called Françafrique in its former colonies to maintain political, economic and military influence. But it has faced repeated setbacks in francophone countries in west and central Africa, where its relations with its former colonies have deteriorated. Coups in the region have been underpinned by anti-France sentiment, with Paris being accused of neocolonialism and of trying to influence military and other affairs. Since 2022, France has been forced to withdraw its troops from countries including Mali, Niger and Chad. Some terminated their defence agreements with Paris and others requested a military withdrawal. Mikhail Nyamweya, an international relations analyst, said holding the summit in a non-francophone country signalled that France was trying to move “beyond its old francophone comfort zone … after losing ground in its traditional sphere of influence”. He added: “France is trying to repackage its Africa policy through an anglophone diplomatic hub, and to present the relationship as broader, more economic, and less tied to its colonial past.” The summit also fits in with Ruto’s ambition to position Kenya as a reliable international partner and a convening hub. During Ruto’s term, Kenya has led a security mission in Haiti and hosted the inaugural Africa Climate Summit. Prof Macharia Munene, a history and international relations scholar, said Macron had been trying to establish himself in a global leadership role and was looking for companions in Africa. “There was a convergence of interests,” he said of Macron and Ruto. France and Kenya entered a defence agreement last year that opposition and civil society groups in the east African country have criticised, saying it compromised sovereignty and gave French soldiers legal immunity. In March, 800 French military personnel arrived in Kenya for training and security exercises. At a joint press briefing with Ruto in Nairobi on Sunday, Macron remarked on the changing dynamics for his country in west Africa, downplaying the absence from the event of leaders from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and highlighting the number of academics, artists and entrepreneurs in attendance from those countries. “We can disagree with some of these governments, but we never disagree with people. We love these people,” he said.