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Maybe overkill, new sanctions show Trump hope for Xi help on Iran

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Maybe overkill, new sanctions show Trump hope for Xi help on Iran

The United States has sanctioned a new group of mainland China- and Hong Kong-linked companies and individuals accused of helping Iran secure drone materials and missile-related components, raising fresh tensions days before US President Donald Trump’s state visit to China.

The US Treasury Department said on May 8 that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had targeted 10 individuals and companies across the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe under its “Economic Fury” campaign against Iran.

The campaign is aimed at disrupting networks that Washington says help Iran’s military secure weapons and raw materials for Shahed-series unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic missiles. The US State Department simultaneously designated four entities over their links to Iran’s conventional arms activities.

The China- and Hong Kong-related designations fall into several broad categories:

  • Aerospace-grade materials: Hitex Insulation Ningbo Co Ltd and its legal representative Li Genping were accused of supplying, or trying to supply, millions of dollars’ worth of carbon fiber, honeycomb fabric and other aerospace-grade materials to Iran-linked Pishgam Electronic Safeh Company.
  • Procurement support: Yushita Shanghai International Trade Co Ltd, AE International Trade Co Ltd of Hong Kong and HK Hesin Industry Co Ltd were accused of supporting procurement efforts for the Center for Progress and Development of Iran (CPDI), the latest name of the US-designated Center for Innovation and Technology Cooperation (CITC).
  • Weapons-related financing: Mustad Ltd was accused of helping facilitate financial transactions tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ procurement of millions of dollars’ worth of weapons.
  • Satellite imagery: Meentropy Technology Hangzhou Co Ltd (MizarVision) and The Earth Eye Co (Beijing Mumei Starry Sky Technology Co Ltd) were accused of providing satellite imagery support for Iranian military activity.

The sanctions against the two Chinese satellite-imagery firms came against the backdrop of an earlier satellite allegation that Beijing had denied.

Citing leaked Iranian military documents, the Financial Times reported on April 15 that Iran had secretly acquired a Chinese-built satellite known as TEE-01B, giving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Force a new capability to target US military bases across the Middle East. The satellite was launched from China and later acquired by Iran in late 2024.

The May 8 sanctions did not cover other recent reports about alleged China-to-Iran missile-fuel shipments. The Washington Post reported in early March that two cargo ships owned by a sanctioned Iranian shipping company had left a Chinese chemical-storage port carrying suspected rocket-fuel precursor materials and were heading toward Iran. 

The Telegraph reported on April 3 that five vessels carrying sodium perchlorate, a precursor used in solid-fuel rocket propellant, were identified at or near Iranian ports. The reported quantity was said to be enough for hundreds of ballistic missiles. 

Trump’s visit to Beijing

On April 24, the OFAC sanctioned Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co Ltd for allegedly buying Iranian crude, while also targeting about 40 shipping firms and vessels accused of moving Iranian oil through a shadow fleet. 

The May 8 action goes farther because it alleges support for Iran’s weapons supply chain, not just its oil revenue. That makes the case more sensitive after Trump warned on April 8 that any country supplying military weapons to Iran would face a 50% tariff on all goods sold to the US, with “no exclusions or exemptions.” 

The timing has sharpened the political signal. Trump is due to visit China from Wednesday to Friday for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Iran, Taiwan, trade and export controls are expected to be among the most sensitive items on the agenda.

On Monday, Beijing confirmed for the first time Trump’s upcoming trip to China.

“This will be the first visit to China by a US president in almost nine years. President Xi will have in-depth exchanges of views with President Trump on major issues concerning China-US relations and world peace and development,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Guo Jiakun said in a regular media briefing on Monday. 

Guo said heads-of-state diplomacy was important in guiding China-US relations, adding that Beijing was ready to work with Washington to expand cooperation, manage differences and provide more stability in a volatile world.

But some Chinese commentators said the sanctions had cast a shadow over the summit.

“The US seems to believe that, with Trump’s China visit already scheduled, it can add sanctions to increase its bargaining chips, whether China is happy about it or not,” says a Shandong-based columnist using the pen name “Xiaoliu.” 

“However, China’s swift and forceful legal countermeasures, together with Iran’s confident response, show that the other side does not intend to follow Washington’s script,” she writes, referring to the countermeasures as Beijing’s recent move to forbid local firms and banks from enforcing the US sanctions against Chinese “teapot” refiners. 

“Sanctions and counter-sanctions have become a normalized tool in the China-US contest,” she says. “At such a sensitive moment, Washington’s decision to play this card again raises a question: is this a clever calculation or an arrogant misjudgment that could backfire? When Trump’s plane lands in Beijing, will the shadow created by these sanctions hang over the negotiating table?”

“This is not the first time the US has taken such unilateral action on the eve of high-level exchanges,” says a Guangdong-based writer surnamed Chen. “Before past bilateral meetings, Washington has often used sanctions or tough rhetoric to create leverage. This time, using Iran-related issues to sanction Chinese entities reflects the same game-playing mentality.”

He says this approach will not achieve its intended purpose and will instead damage the foundation of mutual trust. If Washington really wants to use the visit to improve bilateral relations, he adds, it should show sincerity rather than apply pressure in its talks.

The sanctions come as Washington and Beijing are exploring a possible trade package for the summit. Reuters reported on May 7 that the two sides are working on a proposed Board of Trade mechanism to identify products that could expand bilateral commerce without weakening national security or critical supply chains – including possible Chinese purchases of US crops, Boeing aircraft and American energy such as coal, oil and natural gas.

Whether Trump can secure Chinese commitments to buy more US products could affect Republican efforts to retain control of the House and Senate in the November midterm elections, according to some observers.

New security framework

The regional security argument has gained traction as the US-Iran ceasefire remains fragile. On April 8, Washington and Tehran agreed to a two-week ceasefire mediated by Pakistan, which was later extended while negotiations continued. However, after several rounds of direct and indirect talks via Pakistan, Trump has still not secured what Washington wants most: the removal or firm neutralization of Iran’s enriched-uranium stockpile.

On April 23, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi in Beijing. Wang said China and Iran had supported each other in recent years, deepened political trust, expanded practical cooperation and worked together against unilateralism and bullying, making the strategic significance of their ties more prominent. 

On May 6, Wang met Araghchi again, where the Iranian side briefed China on the latest Iran-US negotiations and Tehran’s next steps.

Araghchi said political crises could not be solved by military means and that Iran would defend its sovereignty and dignity while continuing to seek a comprehensive and lasting solution through peaceful negotiations. He said Iran trusted China’s role in preventing further escalation and looked forward to Beijing continuing to promote peace.

“China is a trustworthy strategic partner of Iran,” Wang told Araghchi during the meeting. “China is willing to consolidate and deepen political mutual trust with Iran, maintain and strengthen high-level exchanges, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, and continue to advance the China-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership.”

“Before Araghchi left for Beijing on May 5, the US had gotten ready to respond,” writes Jiangsu-based writer Jingting Guoji, who uses a pen name. “If China and Iran had reached a military deal, Washington could have quickly moved to intercept weapons shipments, expand sanctions or pressure China through its allies. But Araghchi was smart. He did not ask China for weapons. He asked China to help build a new security framework in the Middle East.”

“Iran showed diplomatic wisdom by not falling into the ‘military confrontation’ trap set by the US,” he says. “Instead, it dealt with Washington at the political and diplomatic level, using the balance among major powers to win greater strategic space.”

He says Wang’s response showed China’s attitude and determination in supporting a new security framework for the Middle East.

China has, in recent years, promoted a new Middle East security framework as part of its wider regional diplomacy. The idea involves balancing relations with major regional powers, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, rather than relying on a US-led security order.

“Pakistan played a clever move by using its role as intermediary to mislead the Trump administration,” Hong Kong-based pro-Beijing news outlet Flamingwheels said in a commentary. 

It said Pakistan, in late April, passed the Territorial Transit Goods Ordinance 2026 to open six dedicated land routes for third-country goods to move through Pakistan into Iran, bringing new logistics activity and economic benefits to local communities. It also said that the new land routes would give the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Gwadar port a new strategic role at a moment of crisis.  

Chinese media reports said the US military blockade of Iranian ports had continued for nearly a month, but China could still send about 100 to 150 containers to Iran by rail per week. The trains depart from Xi’an and travel through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan before reaching Tehran, although the volume is only about 5% of what Iran could have received by sea before the blockade. 

Read: Trump-Xi summit set to weigh Iran oil, Taiwan and US exports

Follow Jeff Pao on X at @jeffpao3

EU Approves Sanctions on Israeli Settlers and Hamas Leaders After Hungary Drops Veto

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EU Approves Sanctions on Israeli Settlers and Hamas Leaders After Hungary Drops Veto


European Union foreign ministers approved sanctions Monday against certain Israeli settlers and groups associated with violence in the West Bank and senior Hamas figures after Hungary’s new government lifted a previous veto that had blocked the measures for months.

The sanctions include asset freezes and travel bans targeting seven Israeli settlers or entities as well as multiple Hamas leaders.

Although the names of individuals and organizations were not yet released, the sanctions did not include Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, according to the Guardian. The two ministers were sanctioned by the United Kingdom last June over what Britain described as “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities.”

The sanctions still require technical and legal procedures before formal implementation.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, “Extremisms and violence carry consequences,” while also noting continuing divisions within the bloc over broader economic measures against Israeli settlements.

“We had discussions on the trade issues, limiting trade with the illegal Israeli settlements,” Kallas told reporters after the meeting. “There was a call by many member states to take this forward, so we will continue to work with the Commission on presenting proposals.”

According to the material, France and Sweden supported additional measures including restrictions on trade with settlements, while proposals such as suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement remained divisive among member states.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar criticized the sanctions decision, calling it “arbitrary and political.”

“Israel has stood, stands, and will continue to stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland,” Saar wrote on X.

Michael Jackson’s Secret Family Making Chilling New Claims

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Michael Jackson’s Secret Family Making Chilling New Claims


More than 15 years after Michael Jackson’s death, a family once known as the singer’s “second family” is making shocking new allegations that are once again throwing the King of Pop’s legacy into turmoil.

In a disturbing television interview that aired on 60 Minutes Australia, the Cascio siblings — Eddie, Dominic, Aldo and Marie-Nicole Cascio — accused Jackson of years of manipulation, grooming, and sexual abuse they claim began when they were children.

The emotional sit-down comes just months after the siblings filed a lawsuit against Jackson’s estate, reigniting one of the most controversial chapters surrounding the late music icon.

The Cascio family first met Jackson back in the 1980s, when the superstar allegedly became extremely close with them. What started as excitement over befriending one of the most famous men in the world quickly turned dark, according to the siblings.

“When you have the biggest celebrity on the planet wanting to be part of your family, you don’t think something evil could happen,” Dominic claimed during the interview.

The siblings said Jackson showered the family with gifts, vacations, and endless attention. But behind the scenes, they now allege the singer was slowly gaining control over them emotionally and psychologically.

Eddie Cascio claimed the alleged abuse began when he was just 11 years old while traveling with Jackson during the Dangerous tour in the early 1990s.

“That’s when everything changed,” he alleged, claiming Jackson began touching him inappropriately before things escalated further over time.

Eddie tearfully claimed the alleged abuse became frequent and left him emotionally shattered for years.

“At the end of the day, he was the monster, not us,” he said during the interview.

Dominic Cascio also accused Jackson of inappropriate behavior, alleging the singer manipulated him into believing disturbing acts were signs of affection and love.

Meanwhile, sister Marie-Nicole claimed Jackson exposed her to inappropriate sexual behavior and even allegedly gave her prescription pills when she was only 11 years old.

Youngest sibling Aldo made some of the most heartbreaking accusations of all, claiming he was abused while still too young to even understand what was happening.

“I thought it was love,” he claimed.

The siblings also alleged Jackson constantly warned them not to tell anyone, allegedly telling them their family would be destroyed if the truth ever came out.

One of the most painful moments came when Aldo recalled his mother once asking if Jackson was harming him. According to Aldo, he repeated exactly what Jackson had allegedly “trained” him to say.

The accusations have once again sparked fierce debate online, where Jackson’s legacy remains deeply divisive years after his death in 2009.

Jackson’s estate is aggressively denying every allegation.

Attorney Marty Singer blasted the claims as nothing more than a “money grab,” arguing the accusations surfaced years after Jackson’s death because he can no longer defend himself in court.

“Sadly, in death just as in life, Michael Jackson remains a target because of his fame and success,” Singer said in a statement.

The explosive interview is already sending shockwaves through social media and the entertainment world, with many longtime fans struggling to reconcile the disturbing allegations with Jackson’s legendary status as one of music’s biggest stars.

Passengers from hantavirus ship arrive in US; 3 people in biocontainment

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Passengers from hantavirus ship arrive in US; 3 people in biocontainment

The cruise ship rocked by an unprecedented Andes hantavirus outbreak arrived in the Canary Islands off the coast of Tenerife Island over the weekend and is being evacuated. At least one new case has been identified amid the disembarkment.

As of Monday morning, officials for the World Health Organization reported that the last of the passengers of the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to be evacuated today. Thirty crew will remain on board and see the ship back to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Prior to the evacuation there were 147 people on board.

All of those evacuated from the ship are being transported off the island on specially arranged repatriation flights, not commercial flights. The evacuations and flights are being coordinated by Spanish authorities as well as the WHO and other national health officials.

Amid the evacuations, one new case has been definitively identified in a French citizen who tested positive on the journey home. That brings the outbreak tally to nine cases. Of those cases, three deaths had previously been reported, including a Dutch couple and a German woman.

US passengers

There may be a 10th case in a US passenger; US health officials reported that a person tested “mildly positive” after being evacuated from the ship. But for now, the WHO is reporting that as “inconclusive” testing and is awaiting confirmation before updating the case count.

The information about that possible US case came on Sunday from a statement on social media by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The statement incorrectly said that federal and state officials had transported 17 American citizens who were on board the ship back to the US on a non-commercial flight. The repatriated US passengers were flown to Omaha, Nebraska, where the federal government has its only National Quarantine Unit on the campus of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The Nebraska Medical Center also houses a National Biocontainment Unit.

In a press briefing in Omaha on Monday morning, federal and Nebraska officials corrected the HHS statement, saying that the US has repatriated 18—not 17—people, which includes 17 US citizens and one person who is a dual British/US citizen. The passengers range in age from late 20s to late 70s–early 80s.

On the flight to Omaha, two were flown in special biocontainment units “out of an abundance of caution.” That includes the one person who tested “mildly positive,” and a second person who had symptoms. For now, the definition of symptoms is “liberal,” including anything as minor as nasal congestion, officials said in the press briefing.

Three people in US biocontainment

Of the 18 people, 15 (including the dual citizen) are asymptomatic and in the quarantine unit.

The person with the “mildly positive” test is being housed in the Nebraska biocontainment unit. That person is said to be asymptomatic for now. In the press briefing, officials offered only vague answers as to what they meant by “mildly positive.” But, they are likely referring to the cycle threshold (Ct value) for the real-time PCR test used to detect snippets of hantavirus genetic material to confirm an infection. The test does repeated cycles to try to amplify specific snippets of genetic material that may be present. A test is generally considered negative if there’s no clear signal after 40 cycles. But it’s not a precise cutoff, and faint signals that appear after 35 or more cycles may be seen as ambiguous—possibly an early or late infection when little virus genetic material is present, or possibly just contamination.

The remaining two passengers are a couple traveling together, one of whom is the person previously identified as having symptoms. They have been moved to a biocontainment unit together at Emory University in Atlanta. The reason for the move is to ensure that the biocontainment unit in Nebraska—which has a small capacity to isolate hantavirus cases—can reserve space in the event that any of the 15 in quarantine develop an infection, officials explained in the press briefing.

The quarantine period for those exposed to hantavirus is 42 days from their exposure date. The 18 people will be monitored carefully for the life-threatening infection, with the 15 in quarantine undergoing detailed risk assessments. Depending on various factors, some in the quarantine unit may be able to return home before the 42-day period. These factors include, among many things, their assessed exposure and risk levels as well as their access to care at home. People who develop hantavirus infections require high-level care. Thus, if people do not live close to health facilities with intensive care units or advanced life-support technology, namely ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), they would likely be advised to stay in Omaha.

Transmission risk

Andes hantavirus is a rare infection in humans, and the vast majority of cases are acquired via exposure to rodents or inhaling particles from their droppings, urine, or bodily fluids. However, the Andes virus is the only hantavirus known to, in even rarer cases, spread from human to human, which appears to have been the case on the Hondius. Rodents have not been reported on the ship.

Cruise ships—where a mix of people from various places live in confined settings with communal facilities—are known to enable wide and rapid spread of viruses. While this is the first time an Andes virus outbreak with likely human-to-human transmission has occurred on a ship, no other features of the outbreak appear out of line with what’s known about the virus’s spread or disease. The virus transmits human-to-human amid close, prolonged contact with a symptomatic case. The virus is generally not known to transmit easily or from asymptomatic people. For more information about the outbreak and Andes virus, check out our explainer.

In addition to the 18 people returned to the US this weekend, six other American passengers on the Hondius had disembarked the ship in April before the outbreak was identified. They are being monitored by state health officials.

France says no to rushing EU budget negotiations before elections

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France says no to rushing EU budget negotiations before elections


France has signalled that it is unwilling to rush negotiations on the European Union’s next long-term budget simply to secure an agreement before the politically sensitive year of 2027, when several key member states, including France, are expected to head to the polls.

Speaking on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting in Nicosia, French Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad insisted that Paris would not accept what he described as “artificial deadlines” aimed at accelerating talks on the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), which will cover the period between 2028 and 2034.

“Our only priority is to have a good budget,” Haddad said, underlining that France’s focus remains on securing a financial package that protects strategic European interests rather than concluding negotiations quickly.

The comments come amid mounting pressure from several European leaders to secure a political agreement before the end of 2026. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Council President António Costa have both urged member states to finalise the framework early in order to avoid the uncertainty that could arise from elections across Europe in 2027.

The concern is particularly acute in France, where the far-right National Rally could potentially gain power in the presidential elections scheduled for April 2027. The party has previously advocated reducing France’s contributions to the EU budget and scaling back military support for Ukraine, positions that could complicate delicate negotiations among member states.

Despite concerns over possible political disruption, Haddad argued that there was still enough time to conclude negotiations in the latter half of 2027 if necessary. He stressed that securing a strong and resilient budget was more important than reaching a rapid compromise. France is particularly keen on preserving strong agricultural subsidies and introducing new EU-wide revenue streams to finance future spending priorities.

The issue is further complicated by the fact that Italy, Spain and Poland are also expected to hold national elections in 2027, raising fears that changes in government across multiple member states could reshape negotiating positions midway through the process.

Poland nevertheless voiced support for moving quickly. Deputy Foreign Minister Ignacy Niemczycki said an early agreement would allow technical preparations and sectoral programmes to begin sooner, although he acknowledged that the quality of the agreement remained the priority.

The European Commission has proposed a budget package worth around €1.8 trillion, alongside an additional €166 billion earmarked for repaying joint EU debt accumulated during the Covid-19 pandemic. The proposed budget would fund key priorities including agriculture, competitiveness, defence, migration and support for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament last week adopted its negotiating position on the next long-term budget, calling for a significantly more ambitious financial framework than the one proposed by the Commission. MEPs backed an increase of roughly 10%, arguing that the EU cannot meet growing demands in areas such as defence, competitiveness and support for Ukraine while maintaining traditional policies like agriculture and cohesion spending without additional funding. Parliament also insisted that repayments linked to the post-pandemic recovery fund should remain outside the main budget ceilings to avoid reducing funding for existing programmes.

via Politico

New Orleans wants to fix its Mardi Gras mess. So why is the trash pile still growing?

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New Orleans wants to fix its Mardi Gras mess. So why is the trash pile still growing?

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and Verite News, a nonprofit news organization with a mission to produce in-depth journalism in underserved communities in the New Orleans area. 

When cleaning crews dug deep into New Orleans’ clogged drains in 2018, they pulled up leaves, mud — and 46 tons of Mardi Gras beads. 

The sheer magnitude of waste accumulated over decades of Carnivals — and its impact on the flood-prone city’s drainage system — shocked many residents and city officials. 

“Once you hear a number like that, there’s no going back,” then-Public Works director Dani Galloway said at the time. “So we’ve got to do better.”

But nearly a decade later, New Orleans is generating more Mardi Gras garbage than ever. During the roughly five weeks of this year’s Carnival season, crews collected 1,363 tons of beaded necklaces, beer cans, plastic cups, and other refuse along the city’s parade routes — a 24 percent increase from the year before and the highest total on record. The trash tonnage is the equivalent of 741 cars. In New Orleans terms, it’s roughly the weight of the Steamboat Natchez or more than 1 million king cakes.  

Mardi Gras revelers are leaving behind more trash than ever

Tons of trash collected from New Orleans parade routes, 2011–2026

“To see the waste go up that much, it’s just absurd,” said Brett Davis, founder of Grounds Krewe, a nonprofit group trying to make Mardi Gras more sustainable through recycling and waste reduction efforts. 

It’s a century-old tradition for riders on parade floats to shower crowds with beaded necklaces, toys, and other items — collectively known as “throws.” Most are cheap plastic trinkets. The beads are often laden with toxic chemicals, including unsafe levels of lead. Many throws are dropped moments after they’re caught, then crushed under feet and eventually swept up and hauled to landfills. 

City officials initially blamed the rise in rubbish on the popularity of this year’s festivities, which ran from January 6 to February 17 and included more than 30 float parades. An estimated 2.2 million people visited downtown New Orleans during the Carnival season, about 10 percent more than in 2025, according to the Downtown Development District, which drew on data from location analytics company Placer.ai.

“The increase from last year was directly associated with the larger crowds,” Matt Torri, the city’s sanitation director, told the City Council in March. “Anybody who was out at this year’s parades definitely took note that there seemed to be more people enjoying the Carnival season, which is great for the city.”

But a Verite News analysis of annual attendance and city cleanup records shows no clear relationship between crowds and trash levels. Overall, Mardi Gras waste tonnage has trended upward over the past decade, regardless of the year-to-year changes in attendance. The Mardi Gras season in 2020, for instance, drew more people — about 2.4 million — but produced roughly 241 fewer tons of garbage than in 2026.

In the early 2010s, trash tonnage hovered around 880 tons. It spiked in 2017, surpassing 1,320 tons, and has not fallen below 1,000 tons since. The only exception was 2021, when no trash was recorded because the city canceled parades and most Carnival festivities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Carnival trash hit a record even as attendance lagged behind 2020 levels

Downtown attendance vs. city-wide trash collection during Mardi Gras, 2020–2026

Attendance (downtown)

Trash (city-wide, tons)

Since 2020, when the Downtown Development District began tracking visits in the Central Business and Warehouse districts, annual attendance has stayed within a relatively tight range, between 1.9 million and 2.4 million. Still, the trash tally has swung wildly, indicating that other factors are at play. The development district doesn’t track citywide visits, but its annual downtown tally is considered the most accurate indication of Carnival attendance. 

The office of Mayor Helena Moreno and the city’s sanitation department did not respond to requests for comment. 

Parade trash remains a problem for the city’s drainage system. After the infamous bead blockage of 2018, the city began installing temporary filter contraptions, known as “gutter buddies,” at catch basins along parade routes, but conservation groups say the outfalls still spew more litter into canals and Lake Pontchartrain during the Carnival season.

The upswing in trash is occurring alongside a seemingly contradictory trend of waste reduction. In recent years, many parade organizations, called krewes, have cut back on plastic beads and other “junk” throws. They’ve opted for higher-value items like socks, baseball caps, wooden cooking spoons, and metal drinking cups. 

Grounds Krewe and other groups have also expanded their recycling efforts. They set set up stations to collect bottles, cans, and reusable throws, and some volunteers even pick through the parade debris for recyclable items. This year, the groups diverted about 28 tons from landfills. That’s despite the city pulling back its support for recycling this year because of budget concerns. Even if the city government spent the $200,000 it initially earmarked for recycling, “it’s not going to reverse the 24 percent gain” in waste, Davis said.  

There was some hope that the volume of throws would be curbed by rising prices for beads and other trinkets, a result of higher inflation and President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs on imports from China, where most beads are made. Some parade-goers said they noticed the change, taking to social media to complain about stingier krewes.

“We are really perplexed,” Davis said. “All that is happening, with people throwing fewer beads and a lot of krewes switching to higher-quality throws, but waste is still going upward.” 

The swelling tonnage may have less to do with the throwers and more with the catchers. Davis and some city leaders say parade-goers are setting up earlier, staying longer, and bringing even more of the comforts of home: folding chairs, canopy tents, coolers, grills, and wagonloads of food. They’re also chaining together walls of ladders, erecting scaffolding, installing portable toilets, and plunking down generators and old sofas. As the season ends, many of these items are broken, dirty, or too much of a hassle to haul home. 

These abandoned items, which can range in weight from 5 pounds for a folding chair to 300 pounds for a couch, are an increasingly heavy lift for cleanup crews, City Council President JP Morrell said.

“The reality is that they get their use out of this stuff, and then it becomes a tremendous amount of debris that our workers have to deal with because these people had no intention of ever picking this stuff up,” he said. “It goes towards a sense of abject entitlement — that our entire city exists to serve other people’s whims.”

people walk alongside a street covered in colorful plastic beads and trash

Discarded Mardi Gras beads and trash cover a street after 2014 Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, Louisiana. Gerald Herbert / AP Photo

Many of these gear-laden revelers are territorial, roping off patches of sidewalk or spreading tarps across grassy street medians, known locally as neutral grounds. These public-space appropriators have come to be known as the “Krewe of Chad,” after the name, spraypainted across a large patch of grass, went viral in 2013. 

These “Chadders,” as Morrell calls them, appear emboldened by the recent ebb in the enforcement of the city’s parade rules. Officially, early birds aren’t supposed to set up until four hours before a parade starts, but this rule is regularly flaunted. In 2024, the list of banned items grew to include many of the things that have become commonplace — tents, tarps, and viewing platforms among them. A crackdown that year, which included the seizure of truckloads of encampment gear, appeared to briefly change behavior, Davis said. 

But last year, the city announced it would scale back enforcement and prioritize security after a terror attack on New Year’s Day killed 14 people on Bourbon Street. 

Enforcement was further scaled back by the city’s current budget crisis. Amid layoffs and other cutbacks aimed at reducing a $220 million deficit, Morrell admitted that efforts to clear Carnival encampments would be “spotty.”

“How are they going to enforce it? Well, to be honest, we’re hard up for cash,” Morrell said on an Instagram post in early February. He stressed that police and other city departments would “do their best,” but enforcement wouldn’t be as “robust as it could be.”

Torri, the sanitation director, said the city had the capacity to clear large items on just one day before the final cleanup on Fat Tuesday. “Mardi Gras Day was a major undertaking,” he told the council in March. Crews started working at 8 a.m. and didn’t finish until 1 a.m. “It’s a full day of cleaning because of everything that people have brought. Tarps, ladders, tents, coolers, grills are left because they’re disposable things that were only intended to last the weeks of Mardi Gras.”

Davis predicted the trend toward fewer but better throws will continue, and his organization will keep pushing for more reuse and recycling. But, he added, the policies meant to curb parade encampments — and the waste they leave behind — are only as effective as their enforcement.

“Having the krewes throw less is great, but what’s really heavy is a couch and all the stuff people brought out in wheelbarrows,” Davis said. “Unless we have police out there and the trucks to haul it away, this kind of behavior creeps back. And that’s what we’re seeing now.” 

Trump’s coming kowtow to Chinese dictator he admires and envies

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When American and Chinese presidents meet, it is usually the upstart China that is desperate to be treated as an equal by the world’s pre-eminent superpower. Yet on May 14 when Donald Trump flies to Beijing for the first of four meetings planned this year with President Xi Jinping, he will be the one in the weaker position.

This is partly because of Trump’s undisguised admiration for authoritarian leaders. But mainly it is because he will arrive needing China’s help in bringing his war with Iran to a close.

This summit was originally billed as being the moment when Trump and Xi would turn the truce they declared in their trade war last October into a more permanent agreement. The battle of import tariffs on each other’s products would not end in anything like free trade but would at least be replaced by some sort of stability, close to the current level estimated by the Peterson Institute for International Economics of an average 47.5% American tax on Chinese imports and a 31.9% Chinese tax on imports from America.

Yet although trade and economics will still play a prominent role in the Beijing meeting, and will likely lead to some sort of agreement over a new dispute-resolution mechanism between the two countries, it will not be the most important issue under discussion. That issue will be Iran: how to handle Iran’s nuclear-weapons and uranium-enrichment program and how to achieve an agreement between the warring parties that can allow oil tankers and other shipping to pass freely through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow body of water between Iran and Oman that is currently being blockaded by both Iran and the United States.

The Beijing summit was originally supposed to take place in mid-April but was postponed at Trump’s request because of his Iran war. It seemed possible that, in the few days before the Xi-Trump meeting, the Iranians and Americans might come to an interim agreement on the basis of the peace plans put forward by both countries. That would have owed much to Trump’s desire to fly to Beijing without the shadow of war hanging over him. But Trump has rejected the Iranian proposal.

In any case, a long-term solution will rely upon an agreement by both sides with China, for China is the only major power that is both a partner of the Iranians and capable of overseeing a nuclear agreement.

Unlike its strategic partner, Russia, China has been reluctant to intervene overtly and directly in foreign conflicts. It is supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine, but has so far avoided getting directly involved, in either military or diplomatic terms. The same is true of Iran’s war with America and Israel.

China has assisted the Iranian regime by continuing to buy Iranian oil and other commodities, insofar as they have been attainable. But it has also encouraged another of its partners, Pakistan, to act as a mediator between Iran and the United States. Even more notably, on May 6 it welcomed Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on a visit to Beijing. Araghchi was certainly not there as a tourist.

It would not be in China’s interest to embarrass Trump by making a big show of its role in bringing an end to a war that the American president began more than two months ago. As China is by far the world’s biggest importer of oil, it shares an interest with America, Europe and the rest of the world in opening up Hormuz and getting the price of oil back down to pre-war levels. Displaying a willingness to collaborate over restricting the spread of nuclear weapons would also help burnish China’s claimed credentials as a force for peace and stability, credentials that have been severely damaged by its support for Russia in Ukraine.

The hope must be that this positive role, and the leverage over Trump that it provides, does not make Xi Jinping overconfident. Taiwan is the country that stands to lose the most from an overconfident Xi, either through his being emboldened enough to attempt an invasion or a coercive blockade or through his persuading a grateful Trump to weaken US support for Taiwan’s autonomy.

In truth, Xi is unlikely to attempt an invasion or blockade, for the examples of Russia in Ukraine and America in Iran have displayed clearly the costs and risks of military adventurism. China’s better hope is to wait until Taiwan’s next presidential election in January 2028, which could bring to power someone more favorable to China or at least more manipulable than the pro-independence figures who have run Taiwan for the past decade.

He is likelier to press Trump to reduce America’s sales of weapons to Taiwan as an unstated quid pro quo for helping with Iran.

The oddity of this supposed summit of the giants in Beijing is that neither country is in fact in a strong position. One of the most enduring propaganda messages throughout Xi’s 13 years as his country’s leader has been the claim that America is declining while China is rising. In economic terms, this is plainly not true: China’s annual GDP peaked at 77% of America’s in 2021 but has since fallen back to only a little over 60%.

The once-widespread predictions that it would soon overtake the United States have been quietly abandoned as China’s economy has been weakened by a property crash and demographic decline, and America’s has powered ahead thanks to technology investment. Now, it would take a collapse of the US dollar and a big rise in China’s currency to make it plausible that China could overtake America at any time in the next few decades, or possibly ever.

Meanwhile, one of the ironies of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan is that in strategic and geopolitical terms he has done more than any American president in living memory to make the Chinese message of decline look as if it could come true. He has done his best to destroy or damage the security alliances in Europe and Asia on which America has depended for the past 80 years. He has made America less attractive to international scientists and other talented emigrants and has alienated populations all around the world that were previously favorable to the United States.

Most important, however, is the fact that although the war Trump started in Iran on February 28th displayed American military prowess it also displayed the country’s strategic weaknesses. America has shown that it is currently unable to produce enough of its impressively sophisticated weapons to last for more than a few weeks in an intense conflict. And, above all, American overconfidence leads it to start wars that it does not know how to finish.

When overconfidence is attached to strategic incompetence the result is disastrous. We should all keep that in mind when we see Presidents Xi and Trump parading proudly in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing next week, or indeed when watching reruns of Vladimir Putin’s May 9 “Victory Parade” in Moscow. All three of our nuclear superpowers show the same dangerous mix.

This English original of an article first published by La Stampa in Italian translation is republished with permission. It can also be found, along with many other articles, on Bill Emmott’s Global View.

iOS, macOS, and iPadOS 26.5 updates arrive with encrypted RCS messaging and more

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iOS, macOS, and iPadOS 26.5 updates arrive with encrypted RCS messaging and more

Apple has released version 26.5 of all of its operating systems today: iOS 26.5, iPadOS 26.5, macOS 26.5, watchOS 26.5, tvOS 26.5, visionOS 26.5, and version 26.5 of the HomePod software (whew).

None of these are particularly momentous updates, which is pretty normal this late in their lifecycle, but they add a small batch of new features alongside the pile of patches outlined on Apple’s security vulnerabilities page. This is Apple’s first release to support end-to-end encryption for the RCS messaging standard, for example, which, when enabled, can give green-bubble messages some of the same security and privacy advantages that iMessage users have long enjoyed.

Encrypted RCS messaging has a “beta” label in this release, and Apple says it’s limited to a subset of supported cellular carriers. Expanded support “will roll out over time.” Encrypted chats will show up with a padlock icon in the Messages app; if you don’t see a padlock, the message isn’t encrypted, even if you’re using RCS.

Other additions in the 26.5 releases are new Pride-themed wallpapers and some of the initial work needed to support ads in the Apple Maps app. There are also a handful of smaller platform-specific additions and bug fixes, which you can find on Apple’s release notes pages (we’ve linked each in the first paragraph). Apple has been testing several changes to third-party wearable support in the EU to comply with local regulations, but those features haven’t yet been included in the public versions of those iOS updates.

These are likely to be the last major updates we get for these versions of the operating system before the next-generation versions are unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference next month.

It’s hard to say what to expect from the 27 releases, except that we’re still waiting on an updated AI-backed version of Siri that was first mentioned as part of the iOS 18 cycle in 2024, was very strongly implied to be part of the iOS 26 cycle last year, and still has not been demoed in any Apple presentations or in any software betas. Apple and Google announced that Apple would use Google’s Gemini language models to power the new Siri, but aside from vague promises to ship the feature this calendar year, Apple has kept mostly quiet about it.

Recent reporting from Bloomberg also suggests that users will be able to choose the AI models they want to use for Apple Intelligence’s writing and image-generation tools in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27.

View from Tokyo: Has Iran war changed confidence in the US?

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View from Tokyo: Has Iran war changed confidence in the US?

Originally published by Pacific Forum, this article is republished with permission.

The war on Iran waged by the US and Israel has caused multidimensional and likely irreversible tectonic shifts. At the global level, the negative effects of the war extend far beyond economic aspects such as soaring energy prices and the onset of international stagflation. This war has unnecessarily triggered a transformation in US-Russia relations, a deterioration in US-China relations, and a worsening of transatlantic ties.

Naturally, in the Indo-Pacific region, it is having a complex and ambivalent impact on the trust that US allies and friendly nations place in the United States.

Among these variables, I will examine the changes in “confidence in the US” as seen from the Indo-Pacific, particularly from Japan’s perspective, while consciously distinguishing between Japan’s mass media/researchers, and government officials – and between the US government in general and the Trump administration.

Typical criticism of the US in Japan

Winning a war requires a clear strategy, appropriate tactics, a just cause and trustworthy allies. If a country wages war in this manner, its allies’ trust in that country will remain unshaken. However, the current war with Iran lacks three of these four elements – strategy, a just cause, and allies – leaving only appropriate tactics, namely the powerful American military force. It is only natural that this war would fail to yield results.

Sure enough, confidence in the United States is rapidly declining among Japanese media and researchers.

In public opinion polls conducted by major Japanese media outlets from March to April, the percentage of respondents who “do not support” the attacks by the United States and Israel reached 75% to 86%. Moreover, the criticism is harsher than before. There is strong criticism of Mr. Trump’s “unilateral declaration of war,” and since the attack was forced through without international consensus or clear evidence of nuclear development, many are questioning the United States’ qualifications as a “leader safeguarding the international order.”

Of course, the primary reason for this is that the prolonged war has directly impacted the lives of ordinary people. As Japan’s economic losses materialize – including soaring crude oil and electricity prices due to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the sharp decline in stock prices and the value of the yen – criticism is mounting that American unilateral military actions are harming Japan’s national interests. However, these criticisms are not limited to Japan; they are likely shared across the Indo-Pacific region and around the world.

In fact, among some researchers in Japan, there are those who go beyond a simple “decline in trust” in the US to question the very nature of the alliance with the United States. Some experts have pointed out concerns that the US military’s redeployment of THAAD and Patriot missiles from South Korea and of Marine Corps personnel from Japan to prioritize its response in the Middle East will weaken deterrence against North Korea and China, creating a power vacuum in East Asia.

Furthermore, some voices point to the risk of being “dragged into” conflicts. Given the possibility that the Trump administration might make demands such as “cooperation on missile production” or “dispatching the Self-Defense Forces to the Strait of Hormuz,” there are concerns that Japan may be required to exercise its “right to collective self-defense.” Criticism of the “passive US-Japan alliance”—a recurring theme—is also resurfacing, with concerns that Japan might be forced into a situation where it has no choice but to cooperate.

Trust in ‘the US’ and trust in ‘Trump‘

The Iranian Revolution and the Second Oil Crisis occurred the year after I joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1978. Over the subsequent 27 years in my capacity as a Japanese diplomat, I personally witnessed the 1991 Gulf War, the War on Terror beginning in 2001 and the 2003 Iraq War. From my perspective, these wars in which the United States fought or was involved in in the Middle East share certain commonalities.

One of these was that, before exercising military force, the US president would carefully explain to the Americans why an attack was necessary. At the very least, during the 1991 Gulf War, the 2001 War in Afghanistan, and the 2003 Iraq War, the US administrations of the time had a minimum sense of “compliance with international law.” For example, the justification for the attack on Iraq was the 1990 UN Security Council resolution authorizing “all means necessary” against Iraq (following its Kuwait invasion). This allowed the US to somehow secure the understanding and support of its allies.

Setting aside media outlets and scholars critical of the government, those currently formulating and implementing policy within the Japanese government likely still share this memory. Given this, the decline in “trust in the US” currently being debated in Japan must, strictly speaking, be analyzed by distinguishing between trust in the “Trump administration” and trust in the “US government in general.” The approaches of the two are vastly different, and the Trump administration, at the very least, lacks a “spirit of lawfulness.”

Even so, why does the Trump administration keep repeating such seemingly crude tactics? I believe the key to understanding this lies not in foreign policy, but in domestic politics. With inflation and the Epstein documents, the Trump administration has been struggling domestically for the past 16 months. Perhaps because the midterm elections are coming up in November, the Trump administration appears to be desperately trying to improve its difficult domestic situation through foreign policy. Compounding this problem is Trump’s personal behavior. Particularly since the start of his second term last January, a distinct pattern has emerged in his conduct. Namely, Trump:

  • has a tendency to speak before thinking;
  • states his “wishes” that are not necessarily factual;
  • doubles down if the other party rejects his “wishes”; and
  • if public opinion and the markets reject it, he backs down.

This pattern has been repeated time and again.

There is no way that key figures in the Japanese government are unaware of this. Compared with previous US presidents, there is no doubt that Japanese policymakers have less confidence in the “uncertainty and inconsistency of Trump’s words and actions.” However, I do not believe this decline in trust is as serious as the distrust of the US government felt by European nations.

On the contrary, it seems that Japan’s trust in the “US government in general” remains.

Japan draws a clear line

On April 27, the Nikkei reported as follows, which appears to symbolize this point:

  • On April 17, the UK and France—both members of the G7 – hosted a summit aimed at resuming navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. This is a separate framework distinct from that of the United States. The move stems from the view that the Trump administration’s “reverse blockade” may violate international law.
  • From Japan, Keiichi Ichikawa, the prime minister’s national security advisor, participated online as an observer. Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae chose not to attend.
  • Japan also did not join the statement drafted by the UK and France. The statement called for a diplomatic resolution to the issue of the Strait blockade and emphasized freedom of navigation and the rule of law. G7 members Germany, Italy, and Canada endorsed it.
  • A Japanese diplomatic official stated that the phrase “multinational mission” in the statement served as a stumbling block. This is because, to Trump, a “multinational mission” could be perceived as an attempt to establish an international order without the United States.

Why is Japan concerned about the “formation of an international order without the US?” It is self-evident when one considers Japan’s geopolitical environment. By effectively gaining control of the Strait, Iran has inadvertently acquired a “deterrent” comparable to nuclear weapons. Iran’s actions constitute a flagrant violation that fundamentally undermines the legal principle of “freedom of navigation on the high seas” enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and could potentially shake the very foundations of Japan’s existence as a maritime nation reliant on international trade.

A situation where international straits, including the Strait of Hormuz, are militarily and politically controlled by a specific country, thereby no longer guaranteeing freedom of navigation, goes beyond mere economic rationality and touches upon Japan’s core interests. In this regard, the “joint mission” by European nations is by no means sufficient to resolve this issue to begin with. Moreover, unlike European nations – which face serious alliance problems with the United States over Ukraine – it is the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, based in Yokosuka, that is effectively safeguarding the Asian nations’ sea lines of communication all the way to the Middle East.

Given this perspective, setting aside the Japanese media and some researchers, responsible policymakers within the Japanese government should view the situation as follows: despite Trump’s  unpredictability, trust in the US to make and implement the minimum policy decisions that a traditional “US government” would naturally take persists. That said, this “sense of trust” could vanish into thin air depending on Mr. Trump’s next move. We can only keep our fingers crossed and hope that this will not happen.

Kuni Miyake (kunimofa@hotmail.com) is a visiting professor of Ritsumeikan University and director and special advisor at Canon Institute for Global Studies.

EU agrees on sanctions targeting Israeli occupiers in West Bank

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EU agrees on sanctions targeting Israeli occupiers in West Bank

European Union foreign ministers agreed Monday on a new round of sanctions targeting Israeli occupiers and organizations accused of supporting illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

“It’s done! The European Union is sanctioning today the main Israeli organizations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonization of the West Bank, as well as their leaders. These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on US social media platform X.

Barrot said the EU also adopted sanctions against “the main leaders of Hamas.”

“The hope that France revived last year in New York, that of two recognized and respected States living side by side in peace and security, we will let no one undermine it,” he added.

READ: US opposes Israeli annexation of West Bank, diplomat tells UN

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also confirmed the decision, saying EU foreign ministers “gave the go-ahead to sanction Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians.”

“It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery. Extremisms and violence carry consequences,” Kallas said on X.

The decision came as EU foreign ministers gathered in Brussels for a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council.

The occupied West Bank has seen escalating violence since the start of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, including killings, arrests, home demolitions and settlement expansion, according to Palestinian officials.

At least 1,155 Palestinians have since been killed, about 11,750 injured, and nearly 22,000 arrested in the occupied West Bank, according to official Palestinian figures.

READ: 9 Israeli ministers demand police allow occupiers to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque to mark East Jerusalem occupation

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