Important Takeaways:
- Houthis launch attacks on 3 ships, 2 US destroyers in nearby seas, group says
- Its attacks have forced shippers to re-route cargo to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa and stoked fears of the Israel-Hamas war spreading and destabilizing the Middle East.
- Earlier, the Houthis said on Monday they launched attacks on three ships in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, and two US destroyers in the Red Sea.
- The group, which describes its attacks as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s war in Gaza, said the ships were the Larego Desert and the MSC Mechela in the Indian Ocean, and the Minerva Lisa in the Red Sea. It did not name the destroyers.
- There was no immediate confirmation from shipping companies or the US military of any attacks in those areas.
- The Houthis’ military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, did not specify when the attacks took place, but said in a televised speech the group had used missiles against the ships and drones against the US destroyers.
- The United States and Britain have carried out strikes against Houthi targets in retaliation for their attacks on vessels.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Ukrainian government praised France’s “determination” for sending military advisors to the country, saying it hoped Paris making the first move would encourage other Western partners to deploy troops too.
- A months-long drama over French President Emmanuel Macron’s apparently intractable desire to deploy French soldiers directly to Ukraine appears to be approaching the point of action, as Ukraine reveals it has now legally cleared the way for foreign troops to arrive.
- Ukraine’s new Commander in Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi and the nation’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov had talks with their French counterpart Defense Minister Sebastien Lecorne, they said on Sunday, underlining how they welcomed French troops and appealed to the country for more equipment and ammunition to be donated.
- France’s Macron faced a barrage of criticism from fellow NATO leaders over going public with his views on sending troops to Ukraine, but despite the furor has restated that position dozens of times since. Earlier this month, Macron said he would not “rule anything out”, stating his view that: “If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe”.
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Important Takeaways:
- Vets who served at top-secret Area 52 suffering from serious illnesses and can’t get health insurance
- Air Force veterans who served at top-secret nuclear testing site Area 52 in Nevada say they are being denied health care after their time at the base left them riddled with tumors and other ailments.
- Mark Ely, 63, said he is grappling with a litany of health problems from his assignment 40 years ago inspecting secretly obtained Soviet fighter jets stored in hidden hangars at the Tonopah Test Range, also known as Area 52, CBS News reported.
- “It scarred my lungs. I got cysts on my liver. … I started having lipomas, tumors inside my body I had to remove. My lining in my bladder was shed,” he told CBS.
- Even though a 1975 federal environmental assessment confirmed the presence of toxic radioactive material at the site, Ely said he is unable to get health coverage because his time at Area 52 — which he spent under an NDA — is not on his official service record.
- In the 1975 report, the government reasoned that stopping work at Area 52 was “against the national interest” and that the ultimate “costs … are small and reasonable for the benefits received.”
- “There’s a slogan that people say: ‘Deny, deny until you die.’ Kind of true here,” Ely said.
- He has spent eight years looking for other veterans who worked at the site, and told CBS he came across “all kinds of cancers.”
- While other government employees who were stationed in the area — mostly from the Department of Energy — have received $25.7 billion in federal assistance, Air Force vets like Ely and Crete don’t qualify for that aid because their time at the base is not on record, and they cannot prove they were there.
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Important Takeaways:
- The World Health Organization’s (W.H.O.) drive to seal a global pandemic treaty will conclude Friday after weeks of closed-door talks in Geneva, Switzerland.
- Critics have already accused the organization of bureaucratic overreach in pushing to seize control of how the world responds to any future pandemic along the lines of the coronavirus outbreak.
- The main disputes revolve around issues of access and equity: access to pathogens detected within countries, and access to pandemic-fighting products such as vaccines derived from that knowledge.
- Other tricky topics are sustainable financing, pathogen surveillance, supply chains, and the equitable distribution of not only tests, treatments and jabs, but also the means to produce them.
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Important Takeaways:
- Authorities in the South Pacific Island nation have not confirmed the death toll, which was reported by Australian media, and which villagers said could be much higher.
- The landslide reportedly hit Kaokalam village in Enga province, about 370 miles northwest of the capital, Port Moresby, at roughly 3 a.m.
- “We are sending in disaster officials, PNG Defense Force, and the Department of Works and Highways to … start relief work, recovery of bodies, and reconstruction of infrastructure,” Prime Minister James Marape said.
- The landslide blocked the road between Porgera and the village, she said, raising concerns about the town’s supply of fuel and goods.
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Important Takeaways:
- China has issued elaborate media statements showing Taiwan being surrounded by forces from its military, the People’s Liberation Army. A new video on Friday showed animated Chinese forces approaching from all sides and Taiwan being enclosed within a circular target area while simulated missiles hit key population and military targets.
- Despite that, there was little sign of concern among Taiwan’s 23 million people, who have lived under threat of Chinese invasion since the two sides split during a civil war in 1949.
- The defense ministry said it tracked 49 Chinese warplanes and 19 navy vessels, as well as coast guard vessels, and that 35 of the planes flew across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, the de facto boundary between the two sides, over a 24-hour period from Thursday to Friday.
- The Pentagon said the United States was “monitoring very closely” the joint Chinese drills. It said Beijing’s actions “are reckless, risk escalation, and erode longstanding norms that have maintained regional peace and stability for decades.”
- Washington is legally bound to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and considers all threats to the island a matter of “grave concern.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Judges at the top United Nations court ordered Israel to halt its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and withdraw from the enclave, in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide, citing “immense risk” to the Palestinian population.
- While orders are legally binding, the court has no police to enforce them.
- South Africa’s lawyers had asked the ICJ in The Hague last week to impose emergency measures, saying Israel’s attacks on Rafah must be stopped to ensure the survival of the Palestinian people.
- The ICJ has also ordered Israel to report back to the court within one month over its progress in applying measures ordered by the institution.
- Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich said “Those who demand that the State of Israel stop the war, demand that it decree itself to cease to exist. We will not agree to that,”
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Important Takeaways:
- The helicopter carrying Iran’s late President Ebrahim Raisi caught fire soon after it crashed into a mountain and there was no sign it was attacked, state media reported, citing the military’s crash investigators.
- The first statement on the crash did not lay blame but said more details would come after further investigation.
- The crash Sunday killed Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and six other people.
- The general staff’s statement said the communications between the control tower and the crew of the helicopter before the crash contained nothing suspicious.
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Important Takeaways:
- Two abortion medications will become controlled substances in Louisiana after state lawmakers voted Thursday to send a bill to Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk.
- A person in Louisiana caught with mifepristone or misoprostol without a prescription could face up to 10 years in prison.
- Louisiana, which has one of the country’s highest maternal mortality rates, will be the first state to classify the medications as Schedule IV drugs.
- Vice President Kamala Harris called the bill “unconscionable” on X when it cleared the state House of Representatives on Tuesday.
- “Let’s be clear,” she wrote, “Donald Trump did this.”
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Important Takeaways:
- The highest tornado threat on Friday will be in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa
- On Thursday, there were 21 reported tornadoes in North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas combined.
- Over Memorial Day weekend, the severe weather will continue from the Plains into the Ohio Valley.
- On Saturday, the highest threat for tornadoes will be in Kansas and Oklahoma.
- On Sunday, cities in the bull’s-eye for tornadoes will be St. Louis, Missouri; Louisville, Kentucky; and Indianapolis.
- The heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — could approach or surpass 110 degrees.
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