Hegseth blasts ‘feckless and defeatist’ questioning of Iran war cost
· France 2430/04/2026 - 02:05
US seeks new coalition to get ships moving again in Hormuz, WSJ reports
The United States is asking other countries to join a new international coalition that would enable ships to navigate the Strait of Hormuz after traffic through the waterway stalled, the Wall Street Journal reported
on Wednesday.
The proposed coalition, dubbed the "Maritime Freedom Construct", would share information, coordinate diplomatically and help enforce sanctions, the Journal said, citing an internal State Department cable.
30/04/2026 - 01:30
USS Ford aircraft carrier heading home
The world’s largest aircraft carrier had been at sea for more than 300 days, including participating in the war against Iran and capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The Ford will be leaving the Middle East in the coming days and returning to its home port in Virginia in mid-May, according to two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive military movements.
The ship broke the US record this month for the longest post-Vietnam War deployment, a nearly 10-month span after leaving Naval Station Norfolk in June.
30/04/2026 - 00:00
Request for FIFA President Gianni Infantino to be given a police escort is denied by Canadian police
A request for FIFA President Gianni Infantino to be given a police escort while in Vancouver, British Columbia, for FIFA meetings has been denied, the Vancouver Police Department said Wednesday.
"Formal motorcades where traffic is stopped are reserved for heads of state," Deputy Chief Don Chapman said in a statement.
"As the FIFA executive do not meet Internationally Protected Person (IPP) standards that would warrant such an escort (closing roads, intersections, not adhering to traffic devices, etc.), the request was declined," Chapman said.
30/04/2026 - 00:00
Canada says IRGC officials banned as Iran officials skip FIFA event
Officials with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are banned from Canada, the country's government said on Wednesday after Iranian football federation officials arrived at Toronto airport and decided to immediately return home, citing their treatment by immigration officials.
29/04/2026 - 22:46
Israel begins intercepting Gaza aid ships far from shores, army radio says
Israel has begun taking control of aid ships bound for Gaza far from Israeli shores, Israeli army radio cited an Israeli source as saying.
The report did not specify the number of vessels involved or their exact location.
On April 12, a second flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza sailed from the Spanish port of Barcelona, aiming to try to break the Israeli blockade.
29/04/2026 - 21:37
Iran officials leave Canada before FIFA Congress over airport 'insult', Iranian media reports
Top Iranian football officials have left Canada before the start of the FIFA Congress because of the behaviour of officials during immigration checks at Toronto's international airport, according to Iranian media.
The global football body's gathering of member nation representatives will be held this week in Vancouver, the British Columbia city which is also hosting seven matches in the World Cup that Canada will co-host with the US and Mexico this summer.
The Iranian football federation (FFIRI) president, secretary general and deputy secretary general "returned to Turkey on the first flight due to the inappropriate behaviour of the immigration officials at the airport and the insult to one of the most honourable organs of the Iranian Armed Forces", several outlets reported, without providing further details.
In 2024, Canada designated Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) a terror group, barring its members from entering the country.
The Iranian federation's president Mehdi Taj is a former IRGC member.
The Iranian reports said the officials had travelled to Canada with "official visas" before turning around.
Doubts have risen over the Iranian team's attendance at the World Cup because of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
29/04/2026 - 20:37
Israel police arrest man suspected of attacking French nun in Jerusalem
Israel's police say they have arrested a man suspected of assaulting a French nun in Jerusalem the previous day, amid a rise in attacks targeting Christians in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"The suspect, a 36-year-old male, was identified and subsequently arrested by police," the force said in a statement, adding it viewed with "utmost severity" any violent act "driven by potentially racist motives and directed toward members of the clergy".
Footage shared by police showed bruises on the right side of the nun's face.
Father Olivier Poquillon, director of Jerusalem's French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, said the 48-year-old nun was a researcher at the institution and does not wish to speak publicly.
"Yesterday, around 17:45 (1445 GMT) ... she felt someone come up behind her and throw her with full force onto a rock," Poquillon said, describing Tuesday's attack.
"While the sister was on the ground, the man began to kick her repeatedly," he said.
The assault occurred in front of the Cenacle, a building on Jerusalem's Mount Zion considered holy to both Christians and Jews, the latter of whom regard it as the burial place of the biblical figure King David.
29/04/2026 - 19:24
Israel military chief visits south Lebanon, vows strikes beyond 'Yellow Line'
Israel's military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir vowed to strike Hezbollah targets north of the Litani River and beyond the so-called "Yellow Line" during a visit to south Lebanon on Wednesday.
"Any threat, anywhere, against our communities or our forces – including beyond the Yellow Line and north of the Litani – will be eliminated," Zamir said, according to a military statement issued after his visit to troops stationed within Israel's security zone in southern Lebanon.
29/04/2026 - 19:06
In Lebanon, 'the ceasefire is not the end of the war'
The situation in Lebanon "remains very delicate" despite a US-brokered ceasefire, Tommaso Della Longa, spokesman at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) tells FRANCE 24.
Israel has continued striking Lebanon and its troops are occupying a strip of the south, destroying homes they describe as Hezbollah infrastructure. Hezbollah, meanwhile, has kept up its attacks against Israeli troops in Lebanon and on northern Israel. The continuing hostilities have caused the displacement of 1.2 million people.
“The ceasefire is not the end of the war," explained Della Longa. "We’re looking at a level of complexity and an overlapping of crises" in Lebanon.
29/04/2026 - 18:55
Attacks on hospitals and medics rising, driven by Middle East conflict, says WHO
Attacks on healthcare facilities and staff are increasing globally, with a notable uptick recorded since the recent conflict in the Middle East began, said the World Health Organization.
Before the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran in February, attacks globally on such facilities and staff averaged about 3.7 per day, but that has now increased to 4.3, the WHO said.
The attacks include airstrikes and shelling of hospitals and clinics as well as arrests and intimidation of healthcare workers.
Since the recent conflict in the Middle East began, 50 hospitals and private healthcare centres have been closed and 16 hospitals have been damaged across the region, according to the WHO.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has repeatedly denounced the attacks and has called for accountability, highlighted the case of Lebanon where 149 attacks on healthcare have been identified.
29/04/2026 - 18:07
Iran parliament speaker says US naval blockade aims at 'internal division'
Iran's speaker of parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has emerged as a figurehead since the start of the Middle East war, has said the US naval blockade of Iran aimed to create division and "make us collapse from within".
He said US President Donald Trump "divides the country into two groups: hardliners and moderates, and then immediately talks about a naval blockade to force Iran into submission through economic pressure and internal discord", state TV reported.
"The enemy has entered a new phase and wants to activate economic pressure and internal division through naval blockade and media hype to weaken or even make us collapse from within," he said, noting that "maintaining unity" was the only solution.
29/04/2026 - 17:56
Watch: US lawmakers grill Pentagon chief Hegseth over Iran war
In one tense exchange during US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's appearance before the House Armed Services Commitee, the Pentagon chief told Democratic lawmaker Adam Smith that Iran’s nuclear facilities were obliterated in a 2025 attack by the US, prompting Smith to question the Trump administration’s reasons for starting the Iran war.
“We had to start this war, you just said 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat,” said Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. “Now you’re saying that it was completely obliterated?”
Hegseth responded by saying that Iran “had not given up their nuclear ambitions” and still had thousands of missiles.
Smith said the war “left us at exactly the same place we were before".
29/04/2026 - 17:23
Hegseth blasts 'reckless, feckless and defeatist' questioning of Iran war military cost
Democratic lawmakers confronted US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth over the costly Iran war that has been waged without congressional approval.
“You can win a whole lot of little small battles and lose the war, which is why you don’t stumble into the war in the first place," said Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the committee. "As I look at it, the strategy seems to be to use as much violence, as much threats, as much coercion as possible to bend the world to our will. I think that is a very dangerous strategy.”
The hearing before the House Armed Services Committee was being held to discuss the administration's 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defence spending to a historic $1.5 trillion.
Hegseth fired back at Democrats — and some Republican lawmakers — saying their doubts over the conflict are one of the biggest problems facing America's military operations.
“The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans," Hegseth said.
29/04/2026 - 17:07
US war in Iran has cost $25 billion so far, says Pentagon official
The war in Iran has cost the US $25 billion so far, a senior Pentagon official has told the House Armed Services Committee, providing the first official estimate of war costs.
Jules Hurst, who is performing the duties of the comptroller, told lawmakers that most of that money was for munitions.
29/04/2026 - 16:51
Hegseth says defence budget increase 'reflects the urgency of the moment'
In his remarks to the House Armed Services Committee, US Defence Pete Hegseth requested a defence budget increase.
“The president’s budget request reflects the urgency of the moment,” said Hegseth, referring to the Trump’s landmark $1.5 trillion defence budget request for fiscal year 2027.
29/04/2026 - 16:48
US head of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Caine testifies before Congress
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine is now making his introductory comments before the House Armed Services Committee.
His remarks come after Hegseth delivered his introductory statement, which featured a robust defence of US military operations in the current Middle East conflict.
29/04/2026 - 16:43
Hegseth faces Congress for the first time since the Iran war started
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing the House Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill for the first time since the Trump administration went to war with Iran.
29/04/2026 - 15:55
Dutch and British gas prices jump on reports US will extend blockade of Iranian ports
Dutch and British wholesale gas prices jumped over 5% on Wednesday after a media report that the US will extend its blockade of Iranian ports and after Iran warned of "unprecedented military action" against continued US seizures of Iran-linked vessels.
The Wall Street Journal cited US officials as saying the president had instructed aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran's ports in a bid to force Tehran to capitulate.
The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub was up 5.35% at 45.93 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $15.73/mmBtu, by 1339 GMT, ICE data showed.
The British front-month contract was up 5.16% at 114.00 pence per therm.
29/04/2026 - 15:53
Russia yet to decide on return of personnel to Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant
Russia has not yet taken a decision on whether to return its personnel to Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, Alexei Likhachev, head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Under a 20-year agreement sealed last year, Russia is building two new nuclear units at Bushehr, the site of Iran's only nuclear power plant.
29/04/2026 - 14:40
How will Saudi Arabia respond to the UAE’s exit from OPEC?
Energy experts are warning that the UAE’s decision to quit OPEC, stripping the oil cartel of its third-largest producer, will weaken its leverage over global oil supplies and prices.
Jeorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy, told FRANCE 24’s Business show that all eyes are on the Saudi Arabia following the UAE’s decision to exit OPEC.
“Are they going to remain the de facto leader of OPEC? Are they going to manage the market? Or is it going to be a free-for-all given that the UAE has left. That is the big question at the moment,” he explains.
Yesterday's key developments:
• A US official reported that President Donald Trump was unhappy with the latest Iranian proposal on resolving the two-month war, dampening hopes for a resolution of the conflict.
• The UAE said it intends to quit the oil cartel OPEC+ effective May 1, adding that it reflected its vision for “accelerated investment in domestic energy production”.
• King Charles III gave a speech to the US Congress highlighting the UK's long-standing alliance with the US, despite concerns over the war in the Middle East.