Jeepney driver unions have been demanding fare increases to help cover the burden, with one last week organising a 'strike' that few drivers could afford to join

Struggling German carmaker Volkswagen is in talks with defence firms to repurpose a plant in northern Germany for the production of military transport equipment, the firm's boss said Friday. 

Europe's biggest auto manufacturer is battling a crisis due to factors ranging from a stuttering shift to electric cars and fierce Chinese competition, and the 10-brand Volkswagen Group is in the process of cutting 50,000 jobs by 2030. 

As part of the savings plans, car production is due to end at a factory in the city of Osnabrueck, and the group has been exploring other uses for it.  

"We are in contact with various defence companies," Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume said at a congress organised by the FAZ newspaper in Frankfurt. 

"This could also be a solution for Osnabrueck," he added.

The Financial Times reported this week Volkswagen is in talks with Israel's Rafael Advanced Defence Systems to switch production at VW's Osnabrueck plant to make components for the Iron Dome air defence system, including heavy-duty trucks and electricity generators but not the projectiles themselves.

Volkswagen could benefit from the expansion into the defence sector, which is booming as Europe re-arms. That could help offset losses at its carmaking business, with profits last year at their lowest for almost a decade.

Blume however insisted that Volkswagen was "not concerned with weapons systems". 

"The Volkswagen company's activities in the defence sector would rather focus on military transport, because that is our core competence."

Volkswagen's Osnabrueck site currently employs about 2,300 people making the T-Roc Cabriolet as well as the Cayman and Boxster for sister brand Porsche.

The agreement to wind down production there was part of an agreement struck with unions at the end of 2024. 

Asked about the FT report earlier this week, a government spokesman declined to comment directly. 

But he noted that "the automotive industry is undergoing a transformation and faces intense international competition." 

"We naturally welcome initiatives that secure jobs in Germany."

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(The Center Square) – Republican leaders are leaning into President Donald Trump, an affordability agenda and a midterm convention to maintain control of Congress heading into the 2026 midterm elections.

The Center Square spoke exclusively on Thursday with Republican National Committee chair Joe Guters about the party’s priorities in the midterm elections. He highlighted endorsements by Trump and an affordability-focused agenda as key aspects of campaigns to retain congressional control in the midterm elections.

Guters said Trump’s endorsement is key in races across the country that are tightly contested.

“That presidential endorsement is a big deal,” Guters told The Center Square. “We have superior resources, and then we have the best messaging that we could possibly have.”

Recent polling suggests voters are not satisfied with the affordability claims Trump is touting across the country. The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, found that 53% of registered voters believed the country was heading in the wrong direction.

Within the poll, 37% of voters said inflation and price increases was one of their main concerns, followed closely by 28% of voters who said they were also concerned about jobs and the economy. Across partisan lines, voters expressed concern about these issues with 40% of Independents, 37% of Republicans and 35% of Democrats highlighting inflation and price increases among the top issues.

Already, Trump has visited battleground states and districts from North Carolina, Georgia and Texas to drum up GOP support. Additionally, Guters pointed to the Republican’s planned midterm convention as a way to increase support and give candidates more exposure before the November elections.

“We’ll be going down and doing things that have never happened before,” Guters said. “A midterm convention where we could showcase all the great things that the President has done.”

Guters predecessor, Michael Whatley, is part of the fight to hold Republican’s congressional majorities. Whatley is running for U.S. Senate in North Carolina against former Gov. Roy Cooper.

At the end of 2025, Cooper had more than $12.3 million in cash on hand compared to Whatley with $3.2 million, The Center Square reported based on filings with the Federal Elections Commission.

RNC officials have scouted out Dallas as a possible location for the midterm convention, according to reports. RNC officials told The Center Square a location for the convention has not officially been determined.

Guters pointed out, in the history of the country, the opposition party typically wins control of Congress after a presidential election. However, he said he is determined to counter that trend.

“We have a real opportunity to defy history because of the messaging, the messenger, the president being wildly popular and his issues being popular,” Guters said. “We’re going to follow his lead all the way to victory in November."

Iran has warned the United States about attempting to seize any of its strategic islands in the Gulf -- a move that President Donald Trump is reported to be mulling. AFP looks at potential targets.

- Kharg - 

A strip of scrubland located in the northern Gulf, about 30 kilometres from the coast, Kharg is home to Iran’s largest oil terminal, which accounts for around 90 percent of its crude exports, according to a recent note from the American bank JP Morgan. 

In mid-March it was targeted by US airstrikes.

Trump described it as a "crown jewel" for Iran and maintained that every military target on the island had been "totally obliterated", but energy infrastructure was left unharmed.  

Kharg experienced major development during Iran's oil boom in the 1960s and 1970s because much of the coastline on the mainland was too shallow to accommodate supertankers. 

Tehran has since looked to diversify its export capabilities, including by opening the Jask terminal on its southwestern coast in the Gulf of Oman in 2021, but Kharg remains "a critical vulnerability" for Iran, JP Morgan said. 

"It is a cornerstone of Iran's economy and a major source of revenue for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards," JP Morgan added, referring to Iran's well-resourced ideological army. 

According to expert Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow of the Washington Institute think tank, carrying out a military operation would be "very difficult" on an island almost entirely covered with oil infrastructure, pipelines and storage tanks, 

"The United States Military can take out Kharg Island at any time if the President gives the order," the White House said in a statement last week.  

- Larak - 

This small island occupies a particularly strategic position at the narrowest point of the Strait of Hormuz, the key shipping route that Iran has choked shut. 

A site for Iranian oil exports since 1987, it also hosts an Iranian military base. 

It has come to prominence recently and been dubbed "Tehran's tollbooth" -- a stopping-off point for the handful of vessels that Iran has approved to exit or enter the Gulf.

Ships using this route must pay a substantial fee, according to maritime data company Lloyd's List Intelligence, which invented its nickname. 

- Qeshm -

The largest island in the Gulf, Qeshm stretches for around one hundred kilometres across the Strait of Hormuz, dominating the entrance to the Gulf. 

It is a popular tourist destination for Iranians thanks to its rare UNESCO-listed rock formations, turquoise waters, mangroves and relaxed atmosphere. 

"Qeshm used to be a very poor island, and it's only in the past few years, thanks to tourism, that the economy here has started to come alive," a resident there told AFP in a recent interview.

But it is also heavily militarised, analysts say, including strike capabilities that could be used against shipping in the Gulf or invading US troops.

Iran accused the United States of attacking a desalination plant on Qeshm on March 7 in what it called a "blatant and desperate crime". 

- Disputed islands - 

Iran claims three disputed islets — Lesser Tunb, Greater Tunb and Abu Musa — in the middle of the Gulf, which are also claimed by the United Arab Emirates. 

Along with another islet, Siri, "these islands have been fortified, turned into mini-fortresses with anti-ship missiles", Pierre Razoux from the France-based Mediterranean Foundation for Strategic Studies told AFP recently.

Tehran has stationed contingents of the Revolutionary Guards' naval forces there, which in 2025 deployed new missile systems capable of targeting nearby "enemy bases, ships and equipment", Iranian media reported at the time. 

If these islets were "controlled by the United States, it would prevent the Iranians from using them for offensive purposes against maritime traffic," Razoux said.

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© Agence France-Presse

Nearly a month into the Middle East war, Lebanon is facing a deepening humanitarian crisis that now risks teetering over into a catastrophe, the United Nations refugee agency warned Friday.

Since March 2, more than a million people -- one in five residents -- have been forced to flee their homes, said the UNHCR.

With the numbers continuing to rise, "it is really a deepening humanitarian crisis that we here on the ground are seeing in Lebanon," said Karolina Lindholm Billing, the agency's representative in the country.

"The situation remains extremely worrying and the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe... is real," she told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Beirut.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Tehran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"More than 136,000 displaced people are staying in 660 collective shelters, most of them schools, filled far beyond capacity," she said, describing limited access to sanitation, while older people were struggling to sleep on classroom floors.

"Even in displacement, people no longer feel safe," she said.

"Families live in constant fear, and the psychological toll, particularly on children, will last far beyond the current conflict."

- 'Multiple crises' -

In southern Lebanon, Israel's destruction of key bridges has left more than 150,000 people isolated and severely limited humanitarian access, said Lindholm Billing.

UNHCR is appealing for more than $60 million to scale up its response, and warned that needs were rising faster than resources.

"Lebanon was already facing multiple crises, and this massive displacement is adding immense pressure on families and services," Lindholm Billing said.

"Again and again, people tell me the same thing: they simply want to go home."

The World Health Organization has sent a first humanitarian convoy overland to Lebanon, which has now reached Syria.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the Lebanese Red Cross was distributing aid to households, including blankets, mattresses, meals, bread and safe drinking water.

IFRC spokesman Tommaso Della Longa said the LRC was the main ambulance service provider and had now implemented an emergency blood transfusion plan to maintain an uninterrupted blood supply for hospitals.

"Between March 2 and 23, LRC teams conducted 2,754 ambulance missions and 11 urban search and rescue operations," he said.

Ine LRC volunteer had been killed and several others wounded during ambulance missions, Della Longa added.

"Staff and volunteers are working under extreme pressure while ensuring both their personal safety and the safe evacuation of injured individuals," he said.

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Iran's foreign minister on Friday branded a deadly strike on an Iranian school on the first day of the Middle East war as a "calculated" US assault.

Abbas Araghchi said "more than 175 students and teachers were slaughtered in cold blood" in a "calculated, phased assault" in the February 28 strike on an Iranian elementary school in Minab. 

At an urgent debate in the United Nations Human Rights Council focused on the strike, he described it in his video address as "a war crime and a crime against humanity, one that demands unequivocal condemnation by all, and unambiguous accountability for the culprits".

UN rights chief Volker Turk meanwhile told the council the bombing evoked "visceral horror", insisting on the need for "justice".

Mohaddeseh Falahat, the mother of two children killed in the attack, also spoke to the council by video.

Calling on the diplomats in Geneva "not to let this tragedy be forgotten", she added: "No mother is prepared to hear the words: 'Your child is not coming back'."

- 'Deliberate and intentional' -

The attack happened on the day the United States and Israel launched the war with attacks across Iran. In retaliation, Tehran struck targets in Israel and Gulf nations.

A US Tomahawk cruise missile hit the elementary school due to a targeting mistake, according to the preliminary findings of a US military investigation reported by The New York Times.

The newspaper said the US military had been bombing an adjacent Iranian base, of which the school building was formerly a part. The target coordinates were set using outdated data, the paper reported.

US President Donald Trump intially suggested that Iran itself may have been responsible -- despite Iran not having Tomahawk missiles.

UN rights chief Turk insisted that "the onus is on those who carried out the attack to investigate it promptly, impartially, transparently and thoroughly".

"Senior US officials have said the strike is under investigation," he said in a video address, calling for Washington to swiftly conclude the probe and make the findings public.

Araghchi did not wait for the results of the probe to attribute blame.

"At a time when the American-Israeli aggressors, in their own assertions, possess the most advanced technologies, and the highest-precision military and data systems, no one can believe that the attack on the school was anything other than deliberate and intentional," he told the council.

- 'Atrocity' -

"This atrocity cannot be justified, cannot be concealed, and must not be met with silence and indifference," the minister said.

"The United States' contradictory remarks aimed at justifying their crime could not, in any manner, elude their responsibility." 

Friday's discussion, held at the request of Iran, China and Cuba, marked the second urgent debate before the rights council this week focused on the war in the Middle East.

On Wednesday, a debate requested by Bahrain on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Jordan, ended with the 47-member rights council adopting by consensus a resolution condemning Iran's "egregious attacks" on its Gulf neighbours, calling for swift "reparation" to all victims of its strikes.

No draft resolution was discussed during Friday's debate, but countries lined up to condemn the school strike and the Middle East war more broadly.

Chinese ambassador Jia Guide slammed the United States and Israel for launching their attacks on Iran "without authorisation of the Security Council, which is the root cause of this tragedy".

Cuban ambassador Rodolfo Benitez Verson called for "an independent and impartial investigation" into the school strike, which he labelled a "war crime".

The United States and Israel have both disengaged from the council, and did not speak during the debate.

Turk and several countries also raised the issue of Tehran's reported growing crackdown on rights at home since the start of the conflict.

"The people of Iran are caught between conflict and repression," the UN rights chief warned.

"War does not reduce the responsibility of the Iranian authorities to abide by their human rights obligations," he added.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is hoping the war in the Middle East will shift the focus from his "crimes" in Ukraine, the German foreign minister said on Friday.

"Putin is cynically hoping that the escalation in the Middle East will divert our attention from his crimes in Ukraine," Johann Wadephul said during a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in France. 

"This calculation must not succeed," he said, warning that any compromising on Ukraine's defence capabilities would "play into Putin's hands".

Echoing a major theme at the two days of talks of G7 ministers outside Paris, Wadephul said the international community needed to work even closer together as it was now dealing with two wars in which Russia and Iran were cooperating.

The talks were also attended by Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

"We can see very clearly how closely the two conflicts are linked. Russia is clearly supporting Iran with information about potential targets," said Wadephul.

A day earlier, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had accused Russia of supplying Iran with intelligence to "kill Americans" in the Middle East as well as supplying drones.

"We need to strengthen our unity. Given that Iran and Russia are working together in the closest way, we must stand even closer together," Wadephul added.

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(The Center Square) – The U.S. Senate agreed to fund the Department of Homeland Security early Friday, without including funds for ICE and Border Patrol. 

The Senate passed the funding bill by a voice vote, where Senators say "Aye" or "Nay" to pass legislation and the chair determines the outcome based on volume of responses. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has gone without funding since Feb. 14. Republicans and Democrats have negotiated back and forth for weeks. President Donald Trump on Thursday offered to sign an order that would pay Transportation Security Administration officers as wait times at major airports stretched. 

"We can get at least some of the government opened up again and then we'll go from there," said Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. "Obviously, we'll still have some work ahead of us."

Throughout the shutdown, Democrats asked for a DHS funding bill that did not include Border Patrol or ICE, in order to further negotiations. Democrats have asked to rein in enforcement policies conducted by ICe and Border Patrol. 

"In the wake of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Senate Democrats were clear," Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. "No blank check for lawless ICE and Border Patrol."

Remaining funding for ICE and Border Patrol will go to a party-line reconciliation vote, where Republicans can seek to secure funding for the agencies without needing Democrat approval. 

The Senate now sends funding for FEMA, TSA, the Coast Guard, Secret Service and cybersecurity agencies to the U.S. House of Representatives. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson can either get the legislation passed through a Rules Committee vote or can call a floor vote "under suspension," meaning he would need to get a 2/3 majoirty in favor of the funding bill. 

Czech police said Friday they were investigating a firebomb attack on a Russian cultural and scientific centre in Prague.

The Russian Centre for Science and Culture opened in 1971 when former Czechoslovakia was ruled by Moscow-steered communists.

"Since Thursday evening we have been probing an attack during which someone threw several Molotov cocktails at the Russian House," police said on X.

They said they were seeking the perpetrator who is suspected of criminal mischief.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova labelled the attack as a "barbaric act" in a comment to state-run TASS news agency.

"We regard this as a terrorist attack against our Rossotrudnichestvo centre, against Russian property," added Pavel Shevtsov, deputy head of the Russian international cultural agency Rossotrudnichestvo running the centre.

"It was a planned, deliberate attack," he added.

Russian House head Igor Girenko told TASS that three out of six Molotov cocktails thrown inside the building in Prague's broader centre did not explode "by a fortunate coincidence".

The building seeks to promote Russian culture, history and language and is also frequented by  Russians living in the Czech Republic.

Prague has declined to acknowledge it as a diplomatic building to Moscow's dismay, suspecting the centre of spreading Russian propaganda.

Russia labelled the Czech Republic an "unfriendly" state in 2021, shortly before invading Ukraine in February 2022.

That year, Czech intelligence accused Moscow of being behind a series of blasts in 2014 at an ammunition depot in the eastern Czech Republic which claimed two lives.

They occurred just months after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in early 2014.

Czech intelligence said the agents who had carried out the attack were also suspected of poisoning former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018.

The announcement sparked a massive mutual expulsion of dozens of diplomats and other embassy staff.

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Germany's beleaguered state railway operator Deutsche Bahn said Friday its losses widened last year and warned passengers to brace for less-than-perfect service for years to come.

Deutsche Bahn lost 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion) in 2025, compared to a loss of 1.8 billion euros a year earlier, hit by a 1.4-billion euro blow to the value of the long-distance division, DB Fernvekhr.

In bad news for long-suffering passengers, DB head Evelyn Palla told a press conference that the write-off resulted from expectations of a poor service stretching into the future.

"We have reassessed our future revenue forecasts, basing them on the actual state of our infrastructure," she said. "And this remains inadequate."

Long derided at home, DB made headlines abroad during the 2024 European Football Championships after fans and even players arrived at destinations hours later than planned.

Almost 40 percent of long-distance services arrived late last year -- not including trains that were cancelled, which are not counted in punctuality statistics.

Germany's government has promised to borrow and spend billions on renewing the network. 

But Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder in September pushed back a punctuality target of 70 percent for long-distance trains to 2029 from 2026.

Speaking on Friday, Palla said it would take time for the railway to improve both its financial performance and its service.

"There is a long way ahead of us," she said. "It will take at least 10 years to get German railways back into good shape. We need to recognise this reality and put it into our numbers."

Though fully-owned by the government, DB is nevertheless under pressure to boost profitability.

DB Cargo, its loss-making freight arm, is facing an EU investigation under state aid rules and the firm said in February it would cut about 6,000 jobs in Germany, equivalent to half its domestic workforce.

Without the write-off, DB's operating profit improved by over 600 million euros to 297 million euros after an operating loss in 2024.

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Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

- US, Iran talks in Pakistan? -

The United States and Iran are preparing for direct talks, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said, adding it was "expected to take place in Pakistan very soon", without revealing the source of the information. 

- G7 pressure -

G7 allies were pressing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for clarity on American plans for Iran at talks outside Paris.

The UK's foreign minister Yvette Cooper urged a "swift resolution to this conflict that restores regional stability".

- Iran turns back ships -

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had turned back three ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz, adding the route was closed to vessels travelling to and from ports linked to its "enemies".

"The movement of any vessel 'to and from' ports of origin belonging to allies and supporters of the Zionist-American enemies, to any destination and through any corridor, is prohibited," they said.

The Guards also urged civilians across the Middle East Friday to stay away from areas near US forces.

- Ukraine-Saudi deal -

Ukraine and Saudi Arabia have signed an air defence agreement during President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the kingdom facing Iranian drone attacks, two senior officials told AFP.

"The point of the agreement is that Ukraine will support them in developing all the necessary components of air defence, which they currently lack," one official said of the document which, according to another, was signed on Thursday.

- Kuwait's main port hit -

Kuwait's main commercial port was damaged in a drone attack at dawn.

The Shuwaikh port was targeted "by enemy drones, preliminary reports revealed material damage but no human casualties", the Kuwait port authority said in a statement on X.

- Iran key sites damaged -

US and Israeli strikes on Iran have damaged at least 120 museums and cultural and historic sites across the country since the start of the war, the head of Tehran city council's cultural heritage committee said.

"At least 120 museums, historical buildings and cultural sites across various provinces were directly targeted and sustained serious structural damage," said Ahmad Alavi.

- Iran warning to US soldiers -

Iran's military has warned that hotels housing US soldiers across the region would be targets.

"When all the Americans (forces) go into a hotel, then from our perspective that hotel becomes American," armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi told state television.

- School strike was 'calculated' -

Iran's foreign minister branded a deadly strike on an Iranian school on the first day of the Middle East war as a "calculated" US assault.

The February 28 strike on an elementary school in Minab in which in which "more than 175 students and teachers were slaughtered in cold blood", was a "calculated, phased assault," Abbas Araghchi said.

- UN Security Council meeting -

The UN Security Council will hold closed-door consultations on Friday to discuss attacks on Iran at Moscow's request, Russian state media reported.

"The Russian Federation has requested closed-door consultations with the UN Security Council due to the ongoing strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran, including educational and healthcare facilities," said Evgeny Uspensky, spokesman for Russia's envoy to the United Nations, according to state news agency TASS.

- Israeli strikes on Beirut -

Lebanese media reported an Israeli strike hit Beirut's southern suburbs early Friday, as AFP correspondents heard several explosions from the Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has repeatedly struck since war erupted this month.

Israel has previously issued sweeping evacuation warnings for the area, but provided no specific warning in advance of the strike on Tahouitet al-Ghadir.

- Saudi Arabia intercepts drones -

The Saudi defence ministry said it had "intercepted and destroyed" four drones over the kingdom's east.

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