EU nears approval of Ukraine loan after Hungary pipeline row

Lebanese town official Sharif Badreddine begged his youngest son not to leave to fight for Hezbollah against Israel in the country's south, but as the tearful father buried his child he could not hide a sense of pride.

In the face of a government push to disarm the movement, its supporters call on a long-held enmity with Israel, deep religious beliefs and backing from Iran to justify their sons' sacrifice in the group's latest war that has killed thousands in Lebanon. 

"Before he left, I told him, 'Don't go, the situation is bad,'" Badreddine, 67, told AFP.

But his son Ahmad, who was in his twenties with two children, insisted, leaving his father no choice but to accept his death as a necessary sacrifice for his homeland, where Israel has launched several invasions since the 1970s.

"I am proud of him. He was martyred on the front lines. This is an honour for me," said the grieving father, who last saw his son six weeks ago.

"He was defending me, all of southern Lebanon, and all of Lebanon."

As the father buried his son alongside 13 others, including two rescuers, in southern Lebanon's Kfar Sir, a 10-day truce agreed between Israel and Lebanon that began on Friday had brought some calm to the area.

Israel conducted huge strikes across Lebanon, including Kfar Sir, and invaded the south after Hezbollah entered the Middle East war in support of its backer Iran on March 2, killing more than 2,400 people according to Lebanese authorities.

The ceasefire allowed displaced residents of the town, which sits 15 kilometres (nine miles) north of Israel's border, to return and mourn the 14 men, some killed in Israeli strikes and others in clashes with invading troops.

"These young men did us proud. They forced the Israelis to retreat. The Israelis were unable to achieve their goals," said father-of-five Badreddine, one of the few who remained in the town.

If his other son decided to fight, he said he would hold his head "high thanks to him too".

- 'The last inch' -

Faces in the crowd were filled with gloom and sadness as mourners waited for the Hezbollah-organised ceremony to begin.

The men's pictures were hung around the town, and when their coffins draped in Hezbollah's yellow flags reached its square, women in black ululated, wept and threw roses and rice from balconies.

Amena al-Shami stood looking at her son Hassain Sheaito's coffin, weeping while women hugged her.

"He defended our pride, our dignity, and our honour. He sacrificed himself and offered himself up on the border," she said while holding up his picture. 

"I still have two young men to offer as well."

The scene showed the entrenched support of Hezbollah that remains in southern towns despite the government banning the group's military activities at the beginning of March, shortly after the start of the war.

Hezbollah has not officially mourned the fighters it lost in more than six weeks of war, but mass funerals have been held by relatives in southern towns like Kfar Sir.

The truce came after unprecedented direct talks between Lebanon and Israel in Washington ahead of future negotiations, which Hezbollah and its supporters are strongly opposed to.

Shami called the talks "cowardice" and said the group's fighters remained unbowed despite being squeezed by the government and Israel.

"We will continue on this path to liberate the last inch of Lebanon," she said.

- 'Honoured' -

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told AFP on Monday that thousands of young men are "demanding to join the ranks" of the group to fight Israel's invasion, indicative of the fierce belief among its supporters.

Following the ceasefire, the Israeli army said it had established a "yellow line" in southern Lebanon.

It encompasses dozens of villages and is reminiscent of Israel's occupation of a 20-kilometre-deep strip of land along the border until 2000.

Hezbollah has vowed to break the line through "resistance".

Sitting on a chair in Kfar Sir's square, teary-eyed Haydar Sbeiti, 68, talks about his engineer son, Mahmoud, killed by Israel in the war.

"We have been on this path for a long time," he said. "He chose this path from a young age, and I encouraged him. I am honoured to be the father of a martyr."

He said he had three other sons who were defiant and ready to join the fight against Israel. 

"We are all ready to sacrifice ourselves for Lebanon, its people, and the resistance."

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Germany's Friedrich Merz addressed a major climate policy gathering on Wednesday by stressing the need to unshackle industry from harmful regulations, including by reworking the EU's carbon trading scheme.

"Climate protection must not endanger the industrial base in Germany and in our countries," the German chancellor told the Petersburg Climate Dialogue in Berlin.

"A transformation that leads to deindustrialisation will not find acceptance among the people. And it will eventually hamper innovation," Merz added.

Merz, a conservative, has prioritised boosting Germany's stagnant economy and protecting the country's large industrial base since taking office last year.

Merz has repeatedly stressed that Germany will stick to its climate targets -- including achieving carbon neutrality by 2045 -- though his government has come under fire from environmental groups for dialing back green energy policies.

The annual Petersburg Climate Dialogue is aimed at spurring international climate policy negotiations ahead of the annual UN Climate Change Conference (COP). COP31 will be held in November in Turkey.

On Wednesday, Merz contended that for climate policy "real progress depends on a strong partnership with industry -- it is there where the innovations and new technologies shaping our future are created".

Merz and several other EU leaders have demanded an overhaul to Europe's flagship ETS carbon market scheme that would reduce costs for industry.

An update to the ETS rules "with a clear focus on maintaining competitiveness" is needed to make the scheme "fit for the future", Merz said Wednesday.

Established in 2005 and intended to address climate change, the ETS system caps greenhouse-gas emissions but creates a market for companies to trade allowances -- a system that requires heavy polluters to buy permits.

Critics, including many German industrial leaders, argue that the system drives up energy costs and makes it harder for European companies to compete on global markets.

Countries still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, such as Poland and the Czech Republic, have long been leading this opposition.

In February, Germany, France and Italy called for an ETS reform, arguing that it would boost the EU's industrial competitiveness.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni even called for its suspension in early March, citing the shock to energy prices from the US-Israeli war on Iran.

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Workers streamed into the British capital by foot, bike and bus Wednesday as strike action on the London Underground train network disrupted services.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) walked out from 12:00pm (1100GMT) on Tuesday for 24 hours over plans by Transport for London (TfL) to condense the working week into four days.

They will strike again for 24 hours from midday on Thursday, causing disruption to services for the rest of the week.

The strike resulted in services on London Underground being suspended or part suspended with severe delays on other parts of the network, according to TfL.

Services on airport links such as the Gatwick Express and Heathrow Express were not affected, the operators said on their websites.

Eurostar services to France, Belgium and The Netherlands were also operating as normal.

The RMT union says TfL bosses informed it last week that it would go ahead with the four-day week despite drivers rejecting the working arrangement in two referendums.

Other issues include shift length and changes to annual leave were also in dispute, said RMT official Jared Wood.

Claire Mann, TfL's chief operating officer, however, said the changes to the working week were not being imposed.

"The changes would be voluntary, there would be no reduction in contractual hours and those who wish to continue a five-day working week pattern would be able to do so," she said.

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Silhouetted against the light on stage in 1990, David Bowie belts out a deafening rendition of "Rebel Rebel" as a rapturous audience claps along with arms raised.

Rewind to 1973 and the iconic star is on stage at London's Hammersmith Odeon singing "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" in his last show as Ziggy Stardust.

A decade after Bowie died in 2016 in New York at the age of 69, these are just some of the spellbinding moments captured in a new immersive, multi-media feature at London's Lightroom venue which opened Wednesday.

The show features Bowie performing live, including previously unseen footage, alongside rarely heard interviews.

It is the latest project dedicated to the singer, widely considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

At the "cathedral-like" Lightroom, images and footage are projected on to 11-metre (36-feet) high screens on all four walls as well as the floor.

Combined with a 360-degree sound system it's ideal for conveying Bowie's "genius as a live performer" and creating a sense of being there in the audience, according to writer and director Mark Grimmer.

"It's a social event. It's a crowd of people, you're there with other human beings," Grimmer told AFP.

For the show, Grimmer and co-director Tom Wexler ploughed through countless hours of footage in the vast Bowie archive.

Highlights of "David Bowie: You're Not Alone" include the star's Hammersmith Odeon performance.

The concert famously featured in the DA Pennebaker film "Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture" (1983) which saw Bowie kill off the Ziggy persona.

- Icon and human being - 

Another highlight is a 1978 performance of "Heroes" at London's Earl's Court when Bowie "was really at the peak of his power," Grimmer said. 

Other footage includes Bowie at Live Aid in 1985 and performing "Starman" on the BBC chart programme Top of the Pops in 1972 dressed in a typically outlandish rainbow jumpsuit and boots.

Intercut with the footage is plenty of Bowie in his own words.

The singer, who had his first major hit with "Space Oddity" in 1969, describes the bleakness of his London childhood and his search for "colour, exhilaration" and a "way out".

"I think one of the things that we wanted to do is to give an insight into Bowie the human being, as well as Bowie the icon," said Grimmer.

After listening to some of the many interviews he gave, what emerged was a "very humorous and self-deprecating" character, he added.

Bowie laughs as he describes himself as an "unlikely" rock star, compares himself to an "emperor penguin" and admits to a burning curiosity about everything in life "except country and western (music), of course".

Grimmer also focuses on Bowie's creative process which saw him endlessly reinvent himself.

- 'Float on life' -

Essentially a "shy person", Bowie, whose birth name was David Jones, struggled with performing on stage in the early years.

To overcome his inhibitions he would immerse himself in the characters he created such as the androgynous alien rock star Ziggy Stardust sent to Earth before an apocalypse.

When all the "theatrics" were removed, Bowie said he was basically a writer who gravitated towards the isolated and freakish "not regular guys".

"I'm a writer, that's what I do," he said.

The hour-long show, which runs until at least October, features some 40 tracks by Bowie who sold at least 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime.

Reflecting on the ageing process, it draws to a close with him talking about his belief in an "energy form".

"You float on life when you get older, you're not quite sure which way up it all is, which is not uncomfortable."

"I'm quite happy in chaos," he added, concluding that "life and the universe" was "really untidy".

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(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled in favor of an injured service member who sued a military contractor for negligence in a war zone. 

The case, Hencley v. Fluor Corporation, focuses on service member Winston Hencley, who was injured in a 2016 suicide bombing in Afghanistan. The bomber was an Afghan worker under the Fluor Corporation, a military contractor. 

Hencley argued the Fluor Corporation neglected to uphold its duties by allowing the bomber to be employed by the corporation. Lawyers for the Fluor argued that it could be sued due to its responsibility to the federal government as a military contractor. 

The justices rejected the military contractor's arguments. Justice Clarence Thomas, in the court's majority opinion, said the Constitution did not support the military contractor's arguments. 

"Although the Constitution gives Congress and the President broad war powers, that assignment has never been understood to bar all war-related tort suits," Thomas wrote in the court's majority opinion. 

Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts dissented from the majority opinion. The justices argued that state court judges should not be afforded the opportunity to decide litigation against contractors involved in a war zone situation. 

"This state-law tort case is preempted by the Constitution’s grant of war powers exclusively to the Federal Government," Alito wrote in the court's dissenting opinion. 

Boeing reported a small quarterly loss Wednesday following an uptick in commercial plane deliveries as the aerospace giant pointed to progress on a turnaround after a long period of stumbles.

After two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 and other safety woes, Boeing replaced leadership in 2024 with Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg, who has sought to restore credibility with regulators and customers through a tighter focus on line operations and safety.

The US aircraft manufacturer reported a loss of $90 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared with a loss of $123 million in the year-ago period. 

Shares rose following the better-than-expected results, which included a 14 percent jump in revenues to $22.2 billion. 

Boeing's first-quarter 2026 results included an uptick in commercial plane deliveries as well as revenue growth in global services and defense, space & security, where Boeing secured a new agreements with the US Pentagon.

The latest results, which also noted the company's "record" backlog of $695 billion in orders, did not contain unexpected cost-overruns or other one-time special items that have dented profits in several previous quarters.

Executives are working to secure approval from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulators for production increases on the 737 MAX and its other best-selling jet, the 787 Dreamliner.

Ortberg said the move to raise 737 MAX production to 42 per month from 38 had gone smoothly. 

"All of our key metrics look good," Ortberg told CNBC. "The production system is very stable, and we're hearing very good things about the quality of the airplanes from our customers."

Boeing also expects the jump in 737 MAX output from 42 to 47 per month to be fairly straightforward. But Ortberg has previously said going higher than 47 will require improvements in the supply chain and the building of additional manufacturing capacity at its plant in Washington state. 

The company, which faces a similar dynamic in ramping up output of the Dreamliner, also said it was on track with efforts to win FAA certification for new 737 MAX models and the 777x, which has been delayed multiple times.

Boeing expects certification of the 737 MAX this year, while commercial deliveries on the 777X are expected to commence in 2027. 

Ortberg confirmed existing timetables, telling CNBC he is "very pleased" with progress on the certifications.

- US defense boost -

Ortberg cited NASA's Artemis II mission as a positive for the company. The US space agency's expedition set a record for a human crew traveling the furthest away from Earth.

President Donald Trump's administration earlier this week unveiled a $1.5 trillion budget request for the Pentagon, a 42 percent increase as the agency prosecutes the war against Iran.

Boeing has "been investing heavily in our facilities to expand capability" in line with Trump administration priorities, Ortberg said. "We expect that that budget is going to allow us to increase our growth plan."

Ortberg said the war had disrupted operations of major airline clients in the Middle East but that there had been no order cancelations.

"This is a long-cycle business, they need the aircraft," he told CNBC.

Shares of Boeing rose 4.1 percent in early trading.

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(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments on a case to determine immigrant parole in the United States.

The case, Blanche v. Lau, focuses on a Chinese national who was a lawful permanent resident in the United States. In 2012, Muk Choi Lau was charged with trademark counterfeiting in New Jersey and fled the country.

Lau eventually returned to the U.S. and an immigration officer admitted him on parole. Once he returned, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began removal proceedings for the Chinese national.

According to the 1990 Immigration and Nationality Act, an immigrant admitted on parole is required to prove that they are admissible into the United States.

The justices will argue over whether the government had to establish clear evidence when Lau returned to the United States that he had committed a crime or if his later conviction proved that point. The justices will also likely decide how much authority federal courts have when reviewing parole determinations.

Lawyers for Lau argued that the United States cannot use charges of a crime to make a determination on how an immigrant can enter the United States.

“No one thinks that a pending criminal charge is clear and convincing evidence that the defendant committed the charged crime,” lawyers for Lau wrote. “To the contrary, criminal charges are not evidence at all.”

The Trump administration argued that Lau was subject to removal at any time because he was admitted on parole by an immigration officer.

“The government was able to prove his inadmissibility by offering his state-court conviction for trademark counterfeiting,” lawyers for the administration wrote to the high court.

The justices will debate whether it is the responsibility of the government or an immigrant to prove admissibility into the United States.

James Rogers, senior counsel at America First Legal, said the court’s decision could have a significant impact on the use of parole for immigrants entering the United States. The Center for Immigration Studies estimated the Biden administration granted parole for 2.86 million people.

“The parole statute is supposed to only allow a narrow exception where a DHS officer is allowed to admit aliens on a case-by-case basis if the DHS officer determines that there’s a significant humanitarian need or significant national benefit to letting the alien in,” Rogers said.

He said the justices largely expand or contract legal requirements for allowing an immigrant into the country on parole.

“This can make it significantly harder in the future to challenge left-wing administrations attempts to open the borders and use parole again to let in aliens because there would be no review of those decisions in court,” Rogers said.

The world's biggest auto show opens in Beijing on Friday, as Chinese manufacturers solidify their status as industry innovators and foreign brands face ferocious competition in the country's giant car market.

Brands such as Volkswagen, Toyota and BMW once dominated in China, but have steadily lost market share to domestic firms that beat them to the electric vehicle revolution and undercut them on price.

Electric cars are also getting a boost as oil prices sent spiking by the Mideast war nudge drivers away from fossil-fuel powered models.

Dozens of carmakers will display their latest models at the 10-day exhibition in the Chinese capital, with domestic manufacturers like BYD, Xiaomi and Xpeng now at the forefront of integrating AI software and autonomous driving technology into their EVs.

Foreign brands have been "too slow to localise decision-making and product development", said Bill Russo, founder of Shanghai-based consultancy Automobility.

"The basis of competition in China has fundamentally shifted from hardware and brand to software, speed, and ecosystem integration," Russo told AFP.

Mercedes-Benz's China sales plunged 19 percent last year, while fellow German brand BMW saw sales hit their lowest level since 2017.

Volkswagen, long the largest seller in China, is battling to maintain a Chinese market share while also fending off competition at home.

The German car giant plans to cut 50,000 jobs domestically by 2030, after post-tax earnings fell 44 percent last year.

- 'Centre of gravity' –

"China is now the centre of gravity for automotive innovation, not just production," Russo said.

Foreign automakers are increasingly collaborating with local companies to keep pace with technological advances.

BMW has partnered with battery maker CATL, while Audi is using Huawei's driving assistance systems and Volkswagen is developing EVs together with Chinese brand Xpeng.

"The golden time for foreign brands has passed," said Ernan Cui, an analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics in Beijing.

"Chinese brands... are upgrading much faster."

Foreign manufacturers also face being outcompeted in other markets, as Chinese carmakers look abroad to boost profitability.

Chinese brands already control around a fifth of the auto market in Latin America, and plan to boost overseas production to 3.4 million vehicles by 2030 from 1.2 million in 2025, according to consulting firm AlixPartners.

Major players like BYD have high hopes for the Middle East and European markets, with sky-high tariffs keeping Chinese models out of the United States.

The European Union had imposed tariffs of up to 35.3 percent on EVs imported from China, but in January agreed that Chinese carmakers could accept minimum prices to sell into the bloc.

Still, BYD is building a factory in Hungary to manufacture cars for Europe, Leapmotor is due to start making EVs in Spain this year and Chery said Tuesday it wants to produce a small electric vehicle in Europe.

- Too many players -

But Chinese brands are also facing headwinds as a ferocious price war at home eats into profit margins.

"There are still too many players in the market with too much investment behind them," according to Cui.

"The losers are not quitting the market as fast as they are supposed to because they have investors' backing, local governments' backing, who do not want their existing investments to be written off," she said.

BYD logged a record 2.26 million EV sales in 2025, but net profit declined 19 percent.

Overall, Chinese passenger car sales fell 17.4 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), as the government scaled back incentives for EVs.

In that context, Chinese brands "are increasingly treating overseas markets as a strategic growth pillar rather than simply an outlet for excess capacity", Russo said.

China exported more than 2.6 million new energy vehicles -- which includes electric and hybrid autos -- last year, more than double in 2024, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. 

Meanwhile, higher oil prices caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran are reinforcing the economic incentives for EVs, which is likely to further benefit Chinese brands, according to Russo. 

Exports of Chinese electric vehicles more than doubled in March, compared to the same month last year across all manufacturers, according to the CPCA.

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Germany has learned that Russia plans to halt the flow of Kazakh oil through the Druzhba pipeline to a refinery in eastern Germany starting May 1, the energy ministry in Berlin told AFP on Wednesday.

The German subsidiary of Russia's state-owned oil company Rosneft told German regulators that the Russian energy ministry had ordered the halt, the ministry said, adding that Moscow had not confirmed the decision directly to the German government.

The move comes amid Russia's war against Ukraine and a global energy crisis sparked by the US-Israeli war against Iran, which has caused major disruptions to global oil and gas markets.

Rosneft Germany "is currently assessing the implications" of the pipeline closure for the refinery and is "utilising all available options to ensure security of supply in Germany", the ministry said.

The PCK refinery near the Polish border supplies much of the Berlin region with fuel, but the German government voiced confidence on Wednesday that the impact would be limited.

Government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said that changes in the "output from the pipeline will not significantly restrict refinery operations", although he added that officials are keeping a close eye on the availability of kerosene in particular.

The German government's "fundamental assessment of the supply situation remains unchanged at the moment", Kornelius said.

The economy ministry said "the lack of Kazakh oil deliveries to the PCK refinery does not ultimately jeopardise the security of supply of mineral oil products in Germany, even if PCK Schwedt would have to operate at a lower capacity utilisation".

A ministry spokeswoman added that the refinery has another pipeline connection to the Baltic Sea port of Rostock, allowing potential seaborne deliveries of crude oil.

The Kazahk oil is currently transported via the Druzhba pipeline, which runs through Russian territory. 

One branch of the pipeline runs through Belarus and Poland to Germany, while another branch runs through Ukraine to Hungary.

Damage to the separate Ukrainian section of the pipeline caused a major political rift between Hungary and Ukraine, with Hungary's outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban vowing to block a European Union loan for Kyiv until the pipeline is restored. 

The German government took Rosneft Germany into trusteeship in the wake of Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and European Union sanctions on the Russian energy sector.

Kazahk oil was sourced for the PCK refinery to replace Russian crude imports that had previously fed the refinery.

The German government has been searching for a new buyer to take over the Rosneft subsidiary, which is the majority owner of the refinery.

Last year, Berlin won an exemption from US sanctions against the Russian oil industry for the refinery, arguing that Rosneft Germany had been entirely "decoupled" from its parent company.

After Moscow sent its forces into Ukraine, Germany sought to take control of a swathe of Russian energy assets in the country.

It seized Russian gas firm Gazprom's subsidiary in Germany, which had been a key energy supplier before the war but slashed deliveries in apparent retaliation for Western sanctions on Moscow.

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Vietnam's top leader To Lam hosted South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Hanoi on Wednesday, announcing a dozen cooperative agreements including on tech innovation and development of nuclear power plants.  

South Korea is Vietnam's biggest source of foreign investment and one of its top trading partners, with two-way trade topping $90 billion last year.

Lee's visit showed "high political trust" between the two countries, Lam said during the meeting at the presidential palace. 

It was the second meeting in less than a year between the two Asian leaders, following Lam's visit to Seoul in August. 

Hanoi wants more South Korean investment in infrastructure, advanced electronics manufacturing, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and renewable energy.

Among the agreements signed on Wednesday was a framework for a Vietnam-South Korea "master plan on cooperation in science, technology and innovation".

Other agreements dealt with digital cooperation, intellectual property, and the development of nuclear power plants.

Lam, who became president this month in addition to Communist Party boss, is pushing a "new growth model" that prioritises digital and technological innovation as Vietnam aims to escape the "middle-income trap".

The World Bank said in its 2024 development report that countries usually hit such a "trap" when they reach around 10 percent of annual US GDP per capita, which can prove tough to move past.

Vietnam and South Korea have set a target of achieving $150 billion in bilateral trade by 2030. 

South Korean giant Samsung is Vietnam's largest foreign corporate investor, having sunk more than $23 billion into the Southeast Asian country, according to the finance ministry. 

Samsung Electronics is planning to invest another $4 billion in a chip packaging factory in northern Thai Nguyen province, according to recent reports. 

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