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US strikes Iran, Tehran hits back with attack on American air base
The United States struck southern Iran on Thursday, drawing retaliation from Tehran against a US military base, in the most serious clashes since an April ceasefire began. The fighting, which drew in US ally Kuwait, threatened to jettison a fragile diplomatic push to forge a peace agreement and open the Strait of Hormuz, which has become a key point of contention in efforts to formally end the war. The fresh fighting appeared to begin when Iranian forces fired at four ships attempting to cross the Strait, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Thursday. US forces launched strikes that hit a ground control station in the southern port area of Bandar Abbas, a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP, prompting swift response by Iran. "Following this morning's aggression by the invading US military against a location on the outskirts of Bandar Abbas Airport using aerial projectiles, the American air base that served as the source of the attack was targeted at 4:50am (0120 GMT)," the Iran Revolutionary Guards said, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB. The Guards did not provide details on the location of the base, though Kuwait's military said its air defences were responding to an "enemy" attack on Thursday. France 24, May 28

Half a million Russians killed in Ukraine war, says GCHQ chief
Almost half a million Russian soldiers have been killed since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the head of GCHQ. Anne Keast-Butler, director of the government’s listening post, said the figures were based on “new intelligence” as she gave an inaugural annual lecture on Wednesday. She said President Putin was “going backwards on the battlefield” despite more than four years of attritional warfare. The Russian economy is shrinking and the deficit ballooning. Russia is paying a huge price for minimal gains on the battlefield, losing more soldiers than it can recruit, according to Ukraine. The Times, May 27

Chip stocks race towards biggest gains since dotcom era on AI demand
Semiconductor stocks have made their best start to a year since the dotcom bubble at the turn of the millennium as enthusiasm for AI and relentless demand for hardware power a historic Wall Street rally. A roughly 75 per cent gain since the start of the year has left the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks 30 of the world’s biggest US-listed chip manufacturers, on track for its largest annual return since 1999, according to Bloomberg data. The index has gained more than $5tn in market value over the past two months - about 1.5 times the value of the UK’s flagship FTSE 100 index - on the back of increasingly optimistic bets on chip manufacturers’ future earnings. Prices for the chips that underpin AI, as well as the manufacturing equipment required to fill new chip factories around the world, have surged as suppliers struggle to match soaring demand from Silicon Valley giants. Meta, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft have together set aside $725bn to spend on the data centres and physical equipment needed to power the AI era this year. Financial Times, May 28

Australia sues US giant 3M over 'forever chemicals' in firefighting foam
The Australian government is suing US manufacturing giant 3M for AU$2bn in damages (US$1.4bn; £1.1bn) over its alleged use of toxic "forever chemicals" in firefighting foam that contaminated dozens of defence bases across the country. It is the largest legal claim ever brought by the government, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said, as it seeks to recoup the "substantial costs" in dealing with the chemicals - known as PFAS - at 28 locations. It claims 3M withheld and misrepresented details about the foam and its environmental impact, assuring them it was safe, despite knowing otherwise. In response, 3M said it has never made PFAS in Australia and stopped selling the foam there 20 years ago. In announcing the legal action on Thursday, Rowland said the government was committed to holding 3M and 3M Australia to account "for the economic and environmental harms associated with PFAS contamination". "This misconduct has contributed to substantial costs for defence and the Australian taxpayer, including over $1bn to date to investigate, remediate and mitigate PFAS contamination at defence estate sites," she said. "Make no mistake, this legal action against 3M is significant." PFAS - also known as per- and poly-fluoroaklyl substances - are known for their water-resistant and non-stick properties and can be found in firefighting foams, mobile phones, clothing and non-stick cooking pans. BBC news, May 28

Britain ‘sleepwalking into a food crisis’ without urgent action, experts say
Britain is “sleepwalking into a food crisis” caused by extreme weather, inflation and the impacts of the Iran war - and the government is failing to take the threat seriously, food experts have said. Farmers are facing severe strain from the current heatwave following a dry spring, with many crops likely to yield less as temperatures rise beyond their tolerance. Livestock are also suffering heat stress and there is a rising risk of wildfires. Economic losses are likely to be measured in the hundreds of millions of pounds. Food prices were already on track to be 50 per cent higher this November than they were five years ago, and the current weather - with more heatwaves likely to follow in the summer, when temperatures could top 40C - is adding to the inflationary pressure. Even if the Iran war is resolved soon, fuel and fertiliser prices will stay high until the supply crunch through the strait of Hormuz can be eased. Last week, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, floated the idea of voluntary price caps on staple foods, but was knocked back by supermarkets and opposition parties. A group of food experts have written to ministers this week calling for the national food strategy to be updated to take account of the risks and prepare the UK for a future of higher temperatures and more severe weather. The Guardian, May 28

UK risks ‘lost generation’ without more jobs for young people
UK ministers risk creating a “lost generation” unless employers are given more incentives to take on young people, and public services including schools and the welfare system are reformed, according to an official review. Most of the almost 1mn young people not in education, employment or training have never had a job as they drift further from the labour market, former cabinet minister Alan Milburn will say on Thursday. Rising mental ill health and the decline of Saturday jobs mean that those aged between 16 and 24 are less ready for work than in the past, Milburn’s report will say. “Detachment is no longer temporary. For too many young people it is becoming permanent. We are at risk of a lost generation,” Milburn will say. The report was commissioned by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to find ways to reverse a rise in numbers, which now stand at 957,000. It will warn that entry-level roles have fallen sharply and young people are finding it harder to climb on the jobs ladder, with apprenticeship starts among young people down 35 per cent over the past decade. Financial Times, May 27

Donald Trump’s Board of Peace fund is empty
The official fund for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is empty and the organisation is stuck in a legal and political limbo that has held up projects to rebuild Gaza. The US president described the board, which solicited $1bn “lifetime membership” fees from world leaders, as one of the “most consequential” international organisations created. Member states pledged $7bn for the board’s Gaza “relief package”, and Trump promised a further $10bn in US funding. But four months after its establishment, the board’s financial fund set up by the World Bank has received no money from donors, according to four people familiar with the matter. “Zero dollars have been deposited,” one said. Rather than use the fund administered by the World Bank, and endorsed by the UN, the board has received donations directly via its JPMorgan account, the board’s spokesperson and another person familiar with the arrangements said. While the World Bank must report on the financial position of the Gaza fund to contributors and board members, no independent transparency requirements are in place for the JPMorgan account. Financial Times, May 27

US-Israel war on Iran driving historic levels of global hunger, UN says
The continuing US-Israel war on Iran has compounded other global disasters to drive record numbers of people into hunger at a time when funding to combat famine has fallen dramatically, the head of the UN World Food Programme has said. The WFP says 363 million people around the world are now at risk of acute hunger, 45 million of them as a result of conflict in the Middle East and the consequent oil price spike. The surge in need comes against the backdrop of a cut in funding last year by a third, with the US, the largest donor by far, cutting its contribution by more than half. Carl Skau, the WFP’s acting executive director … said the huge gap between needs and funding had forced the organisation to cut programmes supporting populations in food emergencies so as to focus on those already facing catastrophic famine. “We take from the hungry to give to the starving. That’s the reality,” Skau told the Guardian. “Much of this is driven by conflict. Last year, we had two famines declared. That hasn’t happened in decades, so these are historic levels of hunger.” The two famines declared in 2025 were in Gaza and Sudan. The situation in Gaza has improved slightly since the October ceasefire, while Sudan continues to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with pockets of famine persisting in parts of Darfur and South Kordofan. The Guardian, May 27

Trump risks triggering financial crisis with Iran war, warns ECB
US President Donald Trump risks triggering a financial crisis, the European Central Bank has warned, citing his war with Iran, repeatedly changing trade policies and retreat from international co-operation. The risk of a geopolitical shock triggering a financial crisis is intensifying because of increasingly “stretched” asset valuations and doubts about the sustainability of high government debt levels, the ECB said in its twice-yearly financial stability review. The Middle East conflict, which began when the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, is putting the resilience of the financial system “to the test”, ECB vice-president Luis de Guindos wrote in his final review before stepping down at the end of May. “While the full impact of the war is unclear at this stage, the repercussions for the global economy and financial stability are becoming graver the longer it lasts,” he said. Iran said it would respond to US air strikes on Monday as mediators continued talks to extend a ceasefire agreement. Financial Times, May 27

Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon falls to lowest level since 2019
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell last year to its lowest level since 2019, according to a report published on Wednesday that will be seen as good news for leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. South America's biggest country lost 985,000 hectares (2.4 million acres) of native vegetation last year, down 20.6 percent from 2024, the MapBiomas monitoring network announced. The figure is the lowest since the network began keeping records in 2019. It notably does not include forest lost to fires, but after a record fire season in 2024, the country was relatively spared major infernos last year. France 24, May 27

Amazon’s UK tax bill rises to top £1.3bn
Amazon has said it paid more than £1.3 billion in UK taxes last year, as higher labour and business costs helped push up the total bill by at least a fifth. The online marketplace is one of the UK’s biggest employers, despite making a series of layoffs globally in recent months. The company said its taxes for 2025 increased by at least 20 per cent from more than £1 billion in 2024. The direct taxes the company must pay include corporation tax, business rates, employer national insurance and digital services tax. It is understood that a national insurance rate increase, which came into effect in April last year, helped increase the total bill, while it also paid more in corporation tax and business rates last year. The company did not pay any corporation tax in 2021 and 2022 because of the “super-deduction” tax break introduced by former Conservative chancellor Rishi Sunak, which was later reformed. The total amount of tax collected, such as VAT, which customers pay on products they buy, or the national insurance contributions of its staff, came to about £5 billion, up from £4.7 billion the previous year. The online giant employs about 75,000 people in the UK in roles such as warehouse workers, delivery drivers, and corporate and technology positions, making it one of the 10 biggest private employers. The Times, May 27

Nasa unveils next steps to build permanent Moon base
Nasa has released details of robotic landers, hopping drones and vehicles it aims to send to the Moon as part of US plans to build a lunar base. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's space company Blue Origin is one of several companies picked to build the machines. The US wants to land Americans back on the Moon before President Donald Trump leaves office in 2029. But Nasa is competing with China to return humans to the lunar surface, meaning the space agency is under pressure to appear to be winning the new space race. China is forging ahead with its own plans to land humans on the Moon by 2030. On Monday it launched its Shenzhou-23 spacecraft, sending a crew of astronauts to the country's Tiangong space station. In March, Nasa announced a $20 billion programme to construct a permanent base powered by nuclear and solar energy at the Moon's south pole by 2032. Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman said on Tuesday that the announcements mean the US will "never give up the Moon again". A base would allow the US to carry out scientific experiments, potentially mine valuable resources, and travel to Mars more easily. BBC news, May 26