news

ASML occupies a critical position in the global semiconductor supply chain as the sole producer of extreme ultraviolet lithography systems. These machines are essential for manufacturing the most advanced chips used in artificial intelligence applications. As demand for AI computing has surged, driven by data centre expansion and high performance processing needs, the semiconductor industry has entered a new investment cycle focused on capacity growth.

Strong earnings and upgraded forecast

ASML reported first quarter earnings that exceeded expectations and raised its 2026 revenue outlook to between 36 billion and 40 billion euros. This revision signals stronger than anticipated order inflows and reinforces the scale of demand emerging from the AI sector.

The company’s performance reflects a broader trend in which chip demand is outpacing supply. According to CEO Christophe Fouquet, customers are accelerating expansion plans well beyond the near term, indicating confidence in sustained AI driven growth.

ASML as a strategic enabler of AI growth

Investors increasingly view ASML as a foundational player in the AI ecosystem rather than a conventional manufacturer. Its tools are used by leading chipmakers such as TSMC, which produces advanced processors for firms like Nvidia and Apple.

This positioning places ASML at the upstream end of the value chain. Instead of competing in chip design or production, it supplies the essential infrastructure that enables both. As a result, its growth is tied to the entire semiconductor sector rather than any single company.

Supply constraints and industrial limits

Despite strong demand, structural constraints remain significant. Semiconductor fabrication plants require years to build and involve complex global supply chains. ASML itself faces production bottlenecks due to the precision and cost of its machines, which can reach hundreds of millions of dollars per unit.

Even with plans to increase shipments of its leading systems in 2026 and 2027, capacity expansion is gradual. This creates a persistent imbalance where demand continues to exceed supply, reinforcing pricing power across the industry.

Geopolitical and regulatory risks

A key uncertainty for ASML lies in export controls, particularly regarding sales to China. Proposed restrictions in the United States, including the MATCH Act, could limit the company’s ability to supply Chinese customers. Currently, China represents a significant portion of ASML’s revenue.

However, the global shortage of advanced chips may mitigate this risk. Reduced access to one market could be offset by demand from others, especially as countries and companies compete to secure semiconductor supply chains.

Market response and valuation concerns

ASML’s share price has risen sharply, reflecting investor optimism around AI driven growth. The company is often described as a “picks and shovels” investment, benefiting from the broader expansion of the industry regardless of which firms dominate end products.

At the same time, analysts caution that valuations are elevated. The current pricing assumes sustained high growth, leaving limited room for setbacks related to supply constraints or regulatory changes.

Analysis

The upgrade in ASML’s forecast highlights a structural shift rather than a temporary cycle. AI is not only increasing demand for chips but also reshaping the entire semiconductor value chain. ASML’s monopoly in EUV technology gives it a unique strategic advantage, effectively making it a gatekeeper for next generation chip production.

However, this dominance also exposes the company to geopolitical pressures and operational challenges. The interplay between technological leadership, supply limitations, and regulatory dynamics will determine whether current growth trajectories can be maintained.

ASML’s stronger outlook underscores the depth of the AI driven semiconductor boom. While demand momentum remains robust, the company operates within a constrained and politically sensitive environment. Its future performance will depend on balancing rapid industry expansion with the physical and geopolitical limits shaping the global chip ecosystem.

With information from Reuters.

Italy has suspended the renewal of a 20-year-long defence agreement with Israel, following recent tensions between the two countries after the Italian government accused Israeli forces of firing warning shots at a convoy of Italian peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Release of Mahdieh Esfandiari comes a week after Iran released two French citizens held on espionage charges.

Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari has returned home after being held in France for more than a year as part of what appears to be an exchange of detainees between the countries.

Iran’s state television reported on Wednesday that the “rights activist”, sentenced to one year in prison after making online comments supportive of Palestine and the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that prompted the genocidal war on Gaza, had returned to Iran.

The University of Lyon graduate, who had been living in France since 2018, where she worked as a translator, was arrested in February last year on charges of promoting “terrorism”, and released on bail in October.

“I think it’s clear for everyone that there is no freedom of speech, at least not in France where I was. The court’s ruling was very unjust,” Esfandiari told state television in a Wednesday broadcast.

Esfandiari’s release comes a week after French citizens Cecile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72, arrived in France after being held for more than three years in Iran.

Kohler and Paris were arrested by Iranian authorities in May 2022 but were freed in November last year, after more than three years in prison on espionage charges that their families vehemently deny.

They were taken by French diplomats to France’s mission in Tehran, where they lived under house arrest until their full release on April 7. Upon their release, they were driven from Iran to neighbouring Azerbaijan before taking a flight to Paris.

President Emmanuel Macron’s office said their release was the outcome of a “long-term effort”, but talks accelerated in recent weeks due to pressure from the US-Israel war on Iran, giving a sense of urgency to the situation.

While an exchange was not explicitly acknowledged by France, Iran’s state-run agency IRNA had previously said Tehran reached an agreement with Paris for the release of the French citizens in exchange for Esfandiari.

At the end of every farming season, farmers across Kwapre, an agrarian community in Hong Local Government Area (LGA) of Adamawa State in northeastern Nigeria, come together to mark an annual event. Known for their guinea corn farming, the men in Kwapre take turns harvesting each other’s farms. A date is fixed for each farmer, and the rest join him on the farm. While the men work, a set of drummers line up behind them, and the women scatter across the field, singing and dancing to the melody of the talking drum.

Harvest season here was always a farming festival that held the community together for generations. It was the celebration of a bountiful harvest, and after every farmer’s crop had been harvested, the whole community came together to drink and make merry. The festival, however, would later stop as insurgency and violence steadily eroded the safety and cohesion of the community.

Buba Baba, a farmer who used to live in Kwapre, remembers the festival with nostalgia. 

“We were living well. We had an abundant food supply, and our families were well taken care of,” he recounted. 

Everything changed in 2014. The insurgency in the region intensified. The Boko Haram terror group peaked and began spreading its influence across Borno State through sustained attacks and by asserting control over captured communities. From Bama in Borno to Sambisa Forest, the group pushed into hinterland settlements, imposing its rule in areas under its control while terrorising those beyond it.

This influence extended across border communities, cutting through the edges of Borno and spilling into northern Adamawa. Violence moved easily through these indistinguishable boundaries, reaching rural communities in Adamawa. Places like Kwapre, Shuwari, Kaya, and several localities across Madagali, Hong, and Michika LGAs fell within the terror group’s reach. Across these local governments, communities faced the threat of displacement from their land and the loss of their ancestral culture, a fate that soon reached Kwapre. 

That same year, terrorists invaded the community. The annual farming festival became inconsistent over the years and eventually stopped when the once-vibrant area was finally completely abandoned in 2025. 

The violence that broke ties 

Buba is among the over 200,000 persons who have been displaced by Boko Haram in Adamawa State, with most of them from Michika and Madagali local government areas.

He told HumAngle that Boko Haram first attacked his community in 2014, and residents fled the area. After a year, the locals returned, but the terrorists kept storming the area at intervals. Some left for good, while others, like Buba, stayed behind, clinging to their ancestral inheritance and hoping that the violence would end. 

“We go back when everything is calm and flee when the conflict starts again, but by 2025, we have all left, and there is currently no one in Kwapre,” Buba said. 

Boko Haram has been displacing residents in Adamawa since 2014. About 40 people were killed after the terrorists attacked seven villages in Michika and its environs in 2014. In 2016, the group invaded the Kuda Kaya village of Madagali LGA and killed 24 people during indiscriminate shooting. 

In 2019, Boko Haram struck again, but some of them were killed in Madagali after they tried to infiltrate a military camp. However, one soldier and a civilian were killed. In 2020, Kirchinga village in Madagali was attacked after the insurgents stormed the area. Houses were razed and shops looted, causing residents to flee. 

Other attacks were unreported. Data from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) shows that a total of 665 individuals from 133 households were displaced from their communities in Madagali by a non-state armed group in June 2022. 

Chinapi Agara, a resident of Garaha, another community in Hong, told HumAngle that when the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram breakaway group, attacked a military base in the area in February, communities within Garaha had experienced a surge in kidnappings in the last few years, which had forced many to flee. 

“Lots of communities like Kwapre, Gabba, and Lar have been completely displaced,” he said. Chinapi’s relative died from a stray bullet during the attack. 

Shuwari in Kirchinga, under the Madagali LGA of Adamawa State, is one community that has been deserted following insurgents’ attacks in the area. Despite the recurring attacks in the last decade, locals stayed back, but in February, the entire village was deserted after Boko Haram stormed the area and opened fire on locals. HumAngle learned that 21 people were killed, including the Shuwari community leader. 

Bitrus Peter, a resident of Kirchinga, told HumAngle that this was not the first Boko Haram attack in the area. “Since we came back from displacement in 2015, we have been facing this challenge. Sometimes, they give a break of a year or two and then return,” he said.  

Gambo Stephen, a survivor of the February attack in Shuwari who has since fled the area, told HumAngle that residents have now been scattered across various places.

Back in Shuwari, Gambo owned a barbing salon that brought in a modest income to support his wife and four children. “I opened the shop immediately after I was done with my tertiary education, and for years, it helped me to provide for my family,” he noted. 

On February 24, when Boko Haram raided Shuwari, Gambo’s salon was burnt to the ground alongside other houses and properties in the area. “I narrowly escaped because five people who were running with me were all shot dead,” Gambo said. 

‘Geographically threatened’

These localities around Kirchinga are geographically at risk of cultural loss.

Kirchinga town itself is a border settlement between Adamawa and Borno states. It lies along the banks of a large river that sustains a livelihood built around fishing. Even with seasonal drying of the water, satellite imagery shows stretches of low-lying land between the levelled terrain,  supporting farming during the dry season.  

Beyond this, the area serves as a pathway between Borno and Adamawa, with a road tracing the river’s path and linking a chain of localities. Agricultural fields, water sources, and this road network connect these settlements across the local government area through markets and other primary commercial activities. 

The land around the settlement dwarfs it. The road sustains movement and exchange, but along that same path is the spread of insurgent influence.

Zooming out from Kirchinga through satellite imagery reveals the other settlements facing similar patterns of displacement and abandonment. To the north lies Bikiti. While its layout differs from Kirchinga, the parallels are clear in the vast cultivation fields surrounding the settlement. Alongside these are a mix of swampy wetlands and local streams, supporting a range of ecosystem services, from farming to aquatic life and small game. 

Beyond this lies a large stretch of uninhabited land, many times larger than the settlement itself, composed almost entirely of cultivated fields. Further out, this landscape opens into forested areas that connect toward Sambisa Forest, long associated with insurgent strongholds.

Though these places differ in their satellite layouts, their cultural identities are evident from above. Whether through farming, fishing, hunting or trade, the patterns on the land reflect the life of the people who lived there. These are the same patterns that begin to disappear as displacement takes hold.

Kuda Kaya, another such settlement, offers another case in point. Located northeast of Kirchinga, it has become known for both attacks and displacement. 

It is a small settlement, easy to miss at a wider satellite scale. Within its tight layout are key structures: a primary school, a health post, and an administrative building, surrounded by clusters of homes. The settlement itself is heavily vegetated, with tree cover rising to roof level. Beyond this, shorter grasslands spread into cultivated fields, intersected by small streams. While hunting may not be the dominant activity, the landscape supports tree crops and grain farming.

The intent behind settlement patterns becomes clear when looking at historical imagery, even as far back as 2004, available on Google Earth. The ancestral communities chose flat terrain near rivers or streams, or large forest areas, settling in compact clusters while using the surrounding land for food production.

At present, signs of abandonment are not always as obvious as in parts of Borno or Benue in the country’s North Central. Some of these communities endured repeated attacks, with residents returning each time. But over time, the strain of persistent insecurity led to wider displacement and, in most recent cases, total abandonment.

In a few years, many of these buildings will begin to collapse. Roofs will give way, and some structures will be burned, patterns already observed across abandoned communities affected by insurgency in Nigeria. What will also become visible is the absence of farming. Recent imagery already shows early signs of neglect across what were once actively cultivated lands. 

The same likely extends to the rivers. While satellite imagery cannot fully capture changes in aquatic life, the absence of regular human activity around these waters will affect both the ecosystem and the human systems tied to it, similar to what has been observed in parts of the Lake Chad region.

Zooming further out shows northern Adamawa marked by these border communities, many of which are now within displacement hotspots.

Today, many of their residents live in resettled communities and displacement camps still active across the region, some farther away, removed from the cultural heritage their ancestral lands once provided. They adapt to the host communities, the only available way for them. They can no longer point to land and trace ownership or inheritance. Even when they take up familiar activities like farming, fishing, or hunting, they remain outsiders for a time.

The geographic shift may not always be extreme, but the separation from their roots is. The connection is severed, even when practices are carried into new environments. For those displaced, especially across generations or into prolonged uncertainty, that break becomes harder to repair. It is reinforced by the trauma of the violence that forced them out.

Some still hold on to the hope of return. Others are already preparing to move on, regardless of what becomes of home.

Resettlement 

When the terrorists returned to Kwapre in 2025, Buba faced a near-death experience, and that was the last straw. He fled with his wife and five children alongside other community members when the village was being set ablaze. 

“I left home empty,” he stated, adding that his family didn’t flee with any belongings. 

Buba moved into Hong town, where he settled with his family. With each passing day, he remembered home, but he knew it would be unwise to return. It’s been about a year since Buba resettled in Hong town. He describes the last couple of months as hell. 

“We are suffering, and since I was born, I have never suffered like this,” he said. Buba is unsure of his exact age, but is estimated to be in his 50s. “We have to pay for house rent, and there is no money to do so. We are always pleading with the landlord. We are also managing food supply,”  he lamented. 

Back at Kwapre, Buba had his own house. As a full-time farmer, he said his harvest was always bountiful, and his family was always cared for, but now, they even struggle to feed themselves. He currently works as a labourer on a construction site. His task is to fill up trucks with sand and transport them, but the wage barely covers his family’s needs. Since he has been a farmer all his life, Buba acquired a plot of land in his new area so he could cultivate crops, keep some, and sell the rest to augment his income from his labouring job. 

“I cultivated last year, but it was destroyed by cattle, and I couldn’t get even a bag of maize during the harvest,” he said. 

While he considers himself lucky to be alive, Buba says life has taken a difficult turn. “I can’t even pay my children’s school fees. I registered them in a school here in Hong town but they have just been sent back home,” he said. 

After making it out of Shuwari, Gambo travelled to Yola, the capital of Adamawa State, and settled in an old secondary school in Saminaka, a neighbourhood in the city. 

“I didn’t leave with anything because they burnt everything, so someone gave me a student mattress to lie on,” he said. 

After taking shelter at the school, he was able to phone his wife, who had made it out safely with his four children. 

“They are currently staying with her relatives in Madagali town,” he said. 

Gambo feels his family is better off without him because he has nothing to offer them. 

“Thank God for relatives because they do buy things and give them, and also some friends. If I had left home with some of my valuables, I would have started a business, but I don’t have anything on me. They (Boko Haram) also burnt my farm produce, slaughtered all my cattle alongside others in the village,” he said. 

If the violence ever ceases and peace is permanently restored, Gambo said he would never return to Shuwari, for he had seen enough. 

“My friends died there, and it’s only God that protected me, especially my wife and children,” he said. 

Gambo told HumAngle that the community is completely deserted and that his main concern right now is raising capital to start a business at his new location in Saminaka. If things somehow get better, he would send for his family to join him. 

In 2025, HumAngle reported how many displaced persons from Adamawa are stuck in displacement camps for about a decade because their hometowns remain unsafe. 

Ghost towns

While he has not kept in touch with anyone from his community since he fled, Buba fears that the name ‘Kwapre’ will be erased from history, as the once-lively village now lies empty and silent. He wished things were different. He dreams of a time when the terrorists will stop invading the area, and his people will return and carry on with their regular lives. He looks forward to the annual harvest festival, but he believes his aspirations are not enough to hold water. 

“People from Kwapre have been scattered across different regions. It’s even difficult to keep in touch with close relatives,” Buba said. 

But if the violence ceases and peace is permanently restored, Buba said he will return home even if it means he will be the only one living there. At least, he’ll have his house, his large farmlands and grains filled in his store. His children won’t go hungry, and he won’t have to labour day and night. 

However, some questions linger in his mind: When will the violence end, and even if it does, will Kwapre be the same again?

According to Gambo, the fact that he misses Shuwari can’t be denied. It was the only home he had known all his life. “We used to celebrate together when we were in the village. We lived peacefully, but when the insurgency started, everything crumbled,” he said.

While he misses the community that has stood by him his whole life, Gambo has made up his mind: he is done with Shuwari.

“I won’t go back because the village is on the border of Sambisa Forest,” he said. 

Studies have shown that the Boko Haram insurgency in Adamawa, which targets communities near the Sambisa Forest, has caused several communities within the Northern Senatorial District of the state to vanish. Madagali, Michika and Hong local governments specifically have the highest number of abandoned communities as attacks continue to intensify. From 2023 to 2025, villages in Kwapre, Zah, Kinging, Mubang, and Dabna in the Hong local government, with a combined population of over 10,000, were said to have been massively displaced, with many residents fleeing to safer towns. 

Sini Peter, the youth leader of Kirchinga community in Madagali, told HumAngle that a lot of cultural festivals have stopped due to Boko Haram’s consistent attacks in the area. 

The Yawal festival, the most popular cultural event in the area, was held annually in the middle of the year and is no longer held. 

“A grass would be tied to a guinea corn stem, which is a year old, and we would go out early in the morning, around 3 a.m., to chant,” Sini recalls how the festival used to be held. 

The Yawal festival was so significant to the Kirchinga people that the ritual had to be completed before locals could carry out their daily activities. The chants were traditional songs believed to ward off death from the community and were sung every morning on the day of the festival. Locals were always eager to participate in the ritual and sing the song until terrorists started invading the area.

However, they no longer believe in the ritual’s efficacy or mark the festival, according to Sini. “Boko Haram attacks made death a normal thing to us today,” he said. 

According to the youth leader, the February attack on Shuwari, which had caused residents to flee the area completely, shows a broader displacement pattern across Madagali communities that have been affected in the area. 

“Villages like Imirsa, Madukufam, Balgi and Yafa, which are bordering Kirchinga, are empty due to the Boko Haram issues,” he said, adding that the terrorists have been looting properties like roofing sheets in some of these communities from time to time. 

While many have deserted these areas for good, including Kirchinga town, Sini is among those who stayed behind. “I know that wherever a Marghi man goes, he will remember home because he will not enjoy anywhere like home. Even with the killings, we don’t have anywhere like Kirchinga,” he stated. 

Speaking on the security situation in the area, he noted that the security architecture in Kirchinga is very poor. “What should be done is not done because fear is all over us, including the security personnel,” he said. 

When Ahmadu Fintiri, the governor of Adamawa State, visited the area following the attack in Shuwari, he vowed to secure the area, but Sini fears the promise will not translate into action. 

“There are people trained now; they are called Forest Guards, and when the attacks happen, they do not have arms, but after the governor left, they were given AK-47s, but when they want to go for duty, they have to go to Shuwa to get the arms and return them after duty,” Sini said. 

He explained that this strategy might not work, as the forest guards spend over ₦1,000 daily to obtain and return arms in Shuwa, as protocol demands. 

It’s been a month since people treaded the Shuwari path, and with the community now completely deserted, Gambo fears that his children might never know their ancestral homes or experience the cultural heritage that once united their people. 

What’s left of the ghost towns?

The analysis of satellite imagery from 2013 to 2025 across 14 communities in Adamawa State, using specialised satellite sensors (Landsat/Sentinel), shows environmental change linked to abandonment and displacement. When fields are left uncultivated, the land does not simply freeze in time. In some areas, weeds overtake cultivation, while in others, the soil and greenery collapse, leaving the land barren. 

In communities like Larh and Dabna, the data shows a steady increase in shrubs and bushes. In recent times, peak vegetation values in Larh have risen by nearly 12 per cent, as weeds are left unattended in places where farmlands used to be. 

The seasonal variation has also increased, indicating that the lands now support vegetation growth in response to rainfall rather than following a stable, cultivated rhythm. Mubang and Banga show similar trends, with significant growth in peak farmland weed growth over the same period. The land is reclaiming itself in a chaotic, unregulated way, with invasive, fast-growing plants dominating.

On the other hand, several communities tell a different story. Kirchinga and Kopa have experienced dramatic declines in greenness, with vegetation dropping by 27 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively. These are areas where abandonment appears to have compounded other pressures, such as erosion, burning, or neglect, leaving the soil exposed and vulnerable. 

Shuwari and Yaza have also lost nearly one-fifth of their peak greenness over the same period. Unlike Larh or Dabna, these communities are not witnessing vigorous shrub growth. Instead, the land shows signs of degradation, with both peak greenness and seasonal variability shrinking, suggesting that vegetation’s capacity to recover is weakening. 

This has long-term implications for returnees. The data highlights a dual response to abandonment. In some areas, the absence of farming has allowed nature to fill the gaps, though not always in ways that benefit local livelihoods. In others, the land deteriorates quickly once cultivation stops, leaving behind increasingly unproductive expanses. 

These two observed outcomes will shape the future of the homes should locals return. 

Javokhir Sindarov wins the Candidates Tournament with ⁠a round ⁠to spare and will face India’s Gukesh next.

Uzbek grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov has clinched victory in the chess Candidates Tournament with ⁠a round ⁠to spare, drawing with Dutchman Anish Giri to set up a World Championship match against India’s Gukesh Dommaraju.

The 20-year-old stormed ⁠through the event in Cyprus on Tuesday, winning six of his 13 games and losing none in a dominant performance never seen at the Candidates.

Sindarov moved to ⁠9.5 points, two clear of second-placed Giri on 7.5, after the Dutchman failed to convert a winning position against China’s Wei Yi in the previous round.

“It was the hardest week in my life. I even slept really bad the last ‌few days. I am very happy to finish this tournament with a win,” Sindarov said after his win.

The tournament had been seen as a possible last opportunity for the old guard to mount another challenge for the world title, but Americans Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura never seriously threatened.

Gukesh won the title in 2024, defeating China’s Ding Liren in the 14th and ⁠final game of their match. Ding had himself become ⁠champion by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi after Magnus Carlsen, the five-times champion who remains world number one, relinquished the crown, citing a lack of motivation.

“I do not want to think a lot ⁠about the upcoming World Championship match right now. I know it will be a very hard match,” Sindarov said.

“Gukesh ⁠has an experience of playing at this level. ⁠But I have a very good team. I have a lot to work on, and I will work a lot for this and take my chances.”

While Sindarov’s breakthrough and the broader rise ‌of a younger generation are likely to prompt new speculation about a Carlsen comeback, the Norwegian has said he has no intention of returning to ‌the ‌classical World Championship cycle.

A precise date and a venue for the World Championship match have yet to be announced.

Mérida, April 14, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) appointed Larry Devoe as the new Attorney General and Eglée González Lobato as the Ombudswoman during an ordinary session on Thursday, April 9.

The appointments were the result of a parliamentary selection process in the wake of the resignations of Tarek William Saab and Alfredo Ruiz, who previously held the positions, in February. The new officials will assume their roles immediately.

The National Assembly finalized the appointments following the review of a list of 71 candidates for Attorney General and 61 for Ombudsman. According to official reports, the selection focused on technical and academic backgrounds, while multiple deputies spoke of the need to select “consensus” candidates.

Devoe is a lawyer who has held various legal and diplomatic positions within the Venezuelan government, having served as the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Council. In recent years, he represented Venezuela before the United Nations (UN) and the Organization of American States (OAS) on human rights matters.

Devoe had taken over the Attorney General post on an interim basis following Saab’s resignation. Saab had served as the country’s top prosecutor since 2017. Following his appointment and swearing-in, Devoe used his official channels to vow that his office would be committed to “defending human rights” and “protecting our people.”

For her part, new Ombudswoman González is also an attorney and a university professor specializing in Administrative Law at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV).

She served as the Director of the UCV’s Democracy and Elections Chair and has worked as an institutional and electoral analyst. The parliamentary nominations committee highlighted González’s academic background and experience in human rights as primary factors for her selection to replace Ruiz.

Devoe and González were ratified on the posts with the approval of 275 of 285 National Assembly deputies, receiving the endorsement of the ruling Socialist Party (PSUV) and allies, as well as part of the opposition.

González, who has been identified as representing a sector of the moderate opposition, was proposed by David Uzcátegui from the Fuerza Vecinal party. Devoe’s candidacy was put forward by the PSUV.

Addressing the chamber, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez emphasized the importance of reaching political agreements and “respecting differences.”

The right-wing Libertad faction opposed the appointments, with legislator Henri Falcón stating that the appointees did not meet “autonomy and democratic plurality” criteria.

“In the past, the institutions have been used as politically partial spaces and ideological trenches,” stressed Falcón, a former presidential candidate.

The renewal of the Attorney General and Ombudsman’s Office coincides with the processing of thousands of amnesty requests currently under review by judicial authorities. According to the National Assembly, the Amnesty Law approved in February has benefited more than 8,000 beneficiaries in less than two months.

“The economy is the most important thing”

Parliamentary leader Jorge Rodríguez stressed the importance of “dialogue” among different political factions and working to “strengthen” state institutions in a recent interview with Spanish daily El País.

“We are rapidly pushing for changes so that people feel the country’s democratic institutions are functioning properly,” he stated.

When asked about the possibility of holding elections, Rodríguez argued that the country’s economy is “the most important thing right now.”

Since January, the Venezuelan legislature has fast-tracked a number of important new laws with support from the acting Delcy Rodríguez administration, including pro-business reforms to the country’s hydrocarbon and mining frameworks.

“The Venezuelan economy needs to gain enough momentum so that the population feels this entire process was worth it,” he added, in reference to the January 3 US bombings and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro which Rodríguez described as a “traumatic event.”

The Venezuelan official went on to argue that “there is much work to be done” ahead of an eventual electoral process, including the selection of an electoral authority that all political organizations can “trust.”

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Police in France have arrested students at Sorbonne University, Sciences Po and Paris-Saclay University during a sit-in against a controversial anti-Semitism bill that could outlaw criticism of Israel. Lawmakers are set to vote on the ‘Yadan law’, named after a pro-Israel French MP who sponsored the bill, on April 16.

Roelf Meyer will replace the South African ambassador who was expelled from the US by President Donald Trump in 2025.

South Africa has appointed Roelf Meyer, who helped negotiate the end of white minority rule in his country in the 1990s, as the next ambassador to the United States, according to local media.

Meyer’s appointment is seen as a sign that Pretoria is aiming to improve its relations with Washington following a “turbulent year”, according to the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

South Africa has gone without diplomatic representation in Washington, DC, since March 2025, when US President Donald Trump expelled Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool for his criticism of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

Posting on social media at the time, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Rasool of being a “race-baiting politician” who hates the US and Trump.

Rubio’s post linked to a story by US conservative news site Breitbart that reported on a talk Rasool gave on a webinar organised by a South African think tank. Rasool had spoken in academic terms of the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity and equity programmes, as well as immigration, and mentioned the possibility of a future US where white people would no longer be in the majority.

Trump last year also issued an executive order freezing most foreign assistance to South Africa amid the country’s legal action at the International Court of Justice over Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the passage of a controversial South African law aimed at correcting historic racial disparities in land ownership.

Tensions escalated further when Trump then launched a refugee programme for white South Africans, whom the US president claims face government-led persecution in their home country.

Meyer, 78, is a seasoned negotiator with experience working under pressure. As a member of South Africa’s white Afrikaans minority, he once served as a minister under the apartheid Nationalist Party government.

He rose to prominence in the 1990s, during the final days of apartheid, as the Nationalist Party held talks with the African National Congress (ANC) to end segregation and white minority rule. The talks paved the way for South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994.

As the chief negotiator, Ralph had become acquainted with South Africa’s current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who was then an ANC negotiator.

Meyer himself later joined the ANC in 2006.

He is set to take up the post as US ambassador once all protocols are complete in Washington, DC, according to Ramaphosa’s office.

A day into the U.S.-imposed military blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, several ships have apparently transited the narrow waterway, including at least two that reportedly had previously stopped at Iranian ports. However, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is pushing back against claims that vessels ran the blockade. As we noted yesterday, CENTCOM said the maritime exclusion operation would be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.”

Meanwhile, there are indications that the U.S. and Iran may continue seeking a diplomatic offramp to the crisis, which began Feb. 28 when America and Israel began bombarding the Islamic Republic. We will discuss that in greater detail later in this story.

Christianna, a Liberia-flagged cargo ship, “exited the Persian Gulf through the strait on Monday night, after leaving the Iranian port city of Bandar Imam Khomeini,” The New York Times reported, citing the global trade intelligence firm Kpler. It said the ship was not carrying any cargo.

In addition, Elpis, a methanol carrier, “traversed the strait roughly around the time that the U.S. blockade began, according to ship-tracking data,” the newspaper added, “Kpler said that the vessel had been at the Iranian port of Bushehr. The United States had placed sanctions on the ship last year under an earlier name, Chamtang, over its connections to the Iranian oil trade.”

The killings mark the fourth US deadly strike in the past four days on vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The US military has killed four more people in its fourth deadly attack on vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean over the past four days.

US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced the attack in a social media post on Tuesday, alongside a video that showed a stationary boat with outboard engines being hit by a missile and exploding into a huge ball of flames.

SOUTHCOM, which is responsible for US military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, claimed that the four people killed were “narco-terrorists”, but provided no evidence to support its claims.

Justification for the lethal attack, according to SOUTHCOM, was due to intelligence – details of which were not provided – that confirmed that “the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations”.

The latest killing of people on board vessels in international waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean brings the overall death toll to at least 175 since early September, when US President Donald Trump ordered the attacks to stop what the White House claims are Latin American cartels transporting drugs to the US.

Tuesday’s killings came after two people were killed in a US strike on Monday, and five people were killed in two separate strikes on Saturday, also in the eastern Pacific.

The Associated Press news agency reported that the US coastguard has suspended a search for one survivor from the two attacks reported on Saturday.

International legal experts and rights groups say the US military campaign amounts to “extrajudicial killings” in international waters and that the attacks have targeted civilian fishing boats.

Legal experts have said that if some vessels were involved in drug trafficking, those on board should face the law, rather than deadly attacks.

Critics have also questioned the effectiveness of the US military operation in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses in the US, which Trump has used to justify his campaign, is typically trafficked to the US over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.

After the first direct talks in decades, Israel and Lebanon have agreed to begin ongoing negotiations for the ‘security of both countries’. Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna explains why US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sees this ‘milestone’ meeting as just the ‘start of the process’.

US president says second round of talks could be held in Pakistan as blockade of Iranian ports continues.

At least nine people have been arrested following the stampede, including police officers and ministry employees.

Haiti has begun three days of national mourning, following a deadly stampede at the Citadelle Laferriere in the northern part of the country.

At least 25 people were killed in the crush that formed at the entrance of the popular tourist site on Saturday, with some visitors pressing to exit while others pushed to enter.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Culture and Communication announced that two government officials were fired in the aftermath of the stampede.

One, a director with the Institute for the Preservation of National Heritage, was accused of “serious negligence”. The other, who served in the Ministry of Culture and Communication, was criticised for “biased passivity”.

“The Ministry of Culture and Communication, without going into the details of the criminal investigation, believes that the tragedy at La Citadelle is the result of administrative negligence,” it said in a statement.

The government, it added, “will fully assume its responsibilities”, as the event “must outrage the public conscience”.

The tragedy marks one of several crises the Haitian government is facing as it approaches its first round of general elections later this year.

Already, nine suspects have been arrested in connection with the deadly stampede, including five police officers and two employees from the Institute for the Preservation of National Heritage.

The crush of people took place as a local DJ held an event at the citadel, a 19th-century fortress commissioned after the Haitian Revolution, when Haiti’s enslaved population overthrew French colonial rule.

Since its construction, the citadel has become a symbol of Haitian sovereignty.

But the stampede on Saturday was exacerbated by stormy weather conditions, as rain pummelled northern Haiti and participants at the event ran for cover.

Elsewhere in the country, approximately 12 people died due to the heavy downpours, and at least 900 homes and one hospital have been flooded.

The Haitian government has also been grappling with the threat of gang violence, particularly since the assassination of then-President Jovenel Moise in 2021.

His death left a power vacuum in the government that criminal networks have sought to exploit. Federal elections have been repeatedly postponed for much of the last decade.

Earlier this month, a United Nations-backed Gang Suppression Force began to arrive in the country to help address the violence.

From March 2025 through mid-January of this year, the UN has counted at least 5,519 gang-related deaths in Haiti. Roughly 16,000 people have been killed since 2022, and more than 1.5 million have been displaced.

Authorities called for more aid on Tuesday, as the violence continued. In the Marigot commune, seven people were killed and a police station was burned in an overnight gang attack.

Marigot Mayor Rene Danneau described the victims as informants who helped the police. He called on Haiti’s government to step in.

“We are asking the prime minister to take all necessary measures,” he told Radio Television Caraibes.