War in the Middle East: latest developments

French drinks giant Pernod Ricard said Thursday that talks to buy Brown-Forman, the US owner of Jack Daniel's whiskey, were continuing after reports of a rival American offer by Sazerac.

Pernod unveiled in March talks for a "merger of equals" to create a global spirits leader built around their flagship brands, including Absolut Vodka and Jameson whiskey.

But the company declined to comment directly on reports of a rival Brown-Forman offer from the US spirits group Sazerac, during its presentation of quarterly sales to end-March.

"Discussions are ongoing, so at this stage, I have no further comments to make, "Helene de Tissot, Pernod's vice president for finance, said during a conference call with analysts. 

"As stated, we did not intend to communicate further until either an agreement is reached or discussions are terminated," she added. 

Contacted by AFP, both Brown-Forman and Sazerac declined to comment. 

Pernod and Brown-Forman confirmed their talks in March, saying they aimed for a "merger of equals" to combine Brown-Forman's iconic brands with its own distribution strength and exposure to higher-growth markets.

Their merger would create a major industry force as alcohol consumption weakens worldwide.

The discussions come as the alcohol sector faces a difficult global environment, with consumption falling among younger drinkers and new tariffs -- particularly in the United States -- hurting major producers.

Pernod reported Thursday a 14.6 percent drop in sales for its financial third quarter to end-March, to 1.95 billion euros ($2.3 billion)

The group was hit by lower sales to China and the United States amid trade wars that have ratcheted up tariffs, as well as a strong euro that makes Pernod brands more expensive on global markets. 

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The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Pope praised by peer -

Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, the new leader of the world's Anglicans, hailed Pope Leo XIV's "courageous call" for peace following a war of words with US President Donald Trump.

"I stand with my brother in Christ, His Holiness Pope XIV, in his courageous call for a kingdom of peace. As innocent people are killed and displaced, families torn apart, and futures destroyed, the human cost of war is incalculable," Mullally said.

- Israel warning -

Israel's defence minister warned Iran against rejecting a US proposal focused on renouncing "nuclear armament" and vowed to stage "even more painful" strikes on new targets if it did so.

"Iran is standing at a historic crossroads: one path is renouncing the ways of terror and nuclear armament... in line with the US proposal, the other leads to an abyss," Israel Katz said. 

"If the Iranian regime chooses the second path, it will quickly discover there are even more painful targets than those we have already struck," he said. 

- Pakistan, Iran meet -

Pakistan's powerful army chief met Iran's parliament speaker in Tehran, Iranian state television said.

There were no further details on the contents of the latest meeting, which came a day after Asim Munir arrived in Tehran with his delegation, bringing what Iranian state television described as a message from the United States.

- Exports through Hormuz collapse -

Iran was the top exporter of commodities through the Strait of Hormuz in March, as shipments from other countries fell off a cliff with Tehran's blockade of the vital waterway, data by analytics firm Kpler showed.

Shipments by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Qatar dropped by at least 96 percent each in March compared to the previous 12 months' average, according to Kpler. 

Iran's shipments did also fall -- but by only 26 percent, the data showed. 

- US warning on blockade -

The United States will blockade Iranian ports for "as long as it takes," US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, threatening renewed strikes if Tehran does not make a deal.

"If Iran chooses poorly, then they will have a blockade and bombs dropping on infrastructure, power and energy," Hegseth said.

US forces began blockading Iranian ports at 1400 GMT on Monday after peace talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement the previous day.

- UK preparing for shortages -

UK government officials have drawn up contingency plans for possible food shortages caused by a scarcity of carbon dioxide if the Strait of Hormuz remains severely disrupted, a report said.

A secret government analysis envisaged shortages of CO2, which is critical to the food industry, unless Iran and the United States reach an agreement to open the vital waterway, The Times daily reported.

Officials had been working through a "reasonable worst-case scenario" in an event codenamed "Exercise Turnstone", it said.

- Key bridge, road destroyed -

The Israeli military destroyed a key bridge in southern Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

"Enemy aircraft carried out two consecutive strikes on the Qasmieh bridge, the last bridge between the Tyre and Sidon regions, completely destroying it," the NNA said.

Another strike hit a road linking Beirut to the Syrian capital Damascus, NNA said. 

- Israel, Lebanon talks? -

US President Donald Trump said the leaders of Israel and Lebanon will speak on Thursday in what would be a historic first, but there was no confirmation from either side.

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun stressed the importance of a ceasefire before any talks, saying it "was a natural starting point.".

Trump's announcement comes as Washington pushes to ease hostilities following the first direct talks between the two countries in decades this week, when their ambassadors met in the US capital.

- Extra diesel -

Australia has secured more than 500,000 barrels of diesel from Brunei and South Korea, as the country looks to boost stocks hit by the Middle East war, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said

"I can announce that my government has secured an additional 100 million litres (26 million gallons) of diesel from two shipments. One from Brunei, where I was yesterday, and one from South Korea," Albanese told a news conference in Malaysia.

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Former Kansas big man Bryson Tiller will become the first men's basketball player in the longtime heated Border War rivalry to move from the Jayhawks to Missouri.

The 6-foot-11 rising redshirt sophomore announced Thursday morning that he is transferring out of the portal to Mizzou.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Trade Commission and eight states have sued three of the country’s largest advertising agencies for allegedly conspiring not to buy advertisements on websites and social media platforms that promote disfavored political viewpoints.

According to the FTC’s complaint, the advertising agencies Dentsu US, Inc., GroupM Worldwide LLC - which operates under the name WPP Media - and Publicis, Inc. agreed to use the same “brand safety” standard to avoid buying ads on websites containing “lawful but disfavored content.”

The companies have already resolved the litigation, agreeing to orders that last for 10 years and prohibit the defendants from conspiring with other advertising agencies not to buy advertising space with any “website, application, broadcaster, or publisher” based on its “news and political or social commentary content.”

Advertising agencies, whose business involves buying ad inventory for clients who want to place ads on websites and social media, develop their own brand safety standards for their clients to avoid placing ads on sites that might damage the client’s brand by, for example, placing an ad on an adult-oriented site.

Beginning in 2018, the FTC alleged, the defendants established a “brand safety floor” based on designations of websites that contain “misinformation” identified by third-party organizations like NewsGuard Technologies, Inc., Global Disinformation Index, Check My Ads and Media Matters for America. These organizations, the FTC stated, “sought to elevate concerns within the digital advertising industry about what they viewed as ‘misinformation,’ in order to deprive certain sites of the digital ad revenue they needed to survive.”

By agreeing to the same brand safety standard, the FTC claimed, the defendants eliminated an important aspect of competition between the advertising agencies.

“In a competitive market, the ad agencies would have faced strong economic incentives to capture business from their rivals by developing lower cost, higher quality, better targeted, and more innovative brand-safety tools—all to the benefit of their advertiser clients. Advertisers would also likely benefit from this competition by getting more value for their advertising budgets,” the complaint states.

In its press release, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson emphasized that “[t]he ad agencies’ brand-safety conspiracy turned competition in the market for ad-buying services on its head… The antitrust laws guarantee participation in a market free from conduct, such as economic boycotts, that distort the fundamental competitive pressures that promote lower prices, higher quality products and increased innovation.”

Chairman Ferguson was the only FTC commissioner to vote in favor of issuing the complaint. Commissioner Mark Meador was recused from the vote.

The FTC, which typically has five commissioners and no more than three from the same party as the president, currently is operating with only two. 

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas along with final orders and stipulated permanent injunctions agreed to by each of the defendants. The states of Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, Texas, Utah and West Virginia joined the complaint and final orders. 

This action is part of a broader effort by the FTC, extending back as early as May 2025, to identify companies within the advertising industry that have allegedly censored politically disfavored content.

In late May 2025, the FTC served subpoenas on 17 companies in the advertising industry to investigate “whether online advertisers and/or advertising agencies have unlawfully agreed to use certain lists promulgated by other industry participants that categorize or rate content publishers as not ‘brand suitable’ or not ‘brand safe,’ to coordinate the placement of ads.”

One recipient was NewsGuard, which the FTC’s recent complaint described as a “ratings agency that ranks the reliability of media outlets.” NewsGuard’s reliability ratings were among those allegedly used by the advertising agencies to set the “brand safety floor” at the heart of the FTC’s complaint.

NewsGuard, represented by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, petitioned the FTC to quash the subpoena arguing that it represented “unconstitutional retaliation against NewsGuard based on its protected First Amendment activities” and included overbroad demands for “sensitive subscriber information, customer communications, and internal deliberative materials” in violation of the First and Fourth amendments.

In its petition, NewsGuard asserted that it had been the target of a campaign by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, who in a November 2024 letter “alleged that NewsGuard was part of a ‘censorship cartel’ alongside major technology companies and that NewsGuard ‘leverag[es] its partnerships with advertising agencies to effectively censor[] targeted outlets’” and claimed that the “incoming Trump Administration would investigate and take action against NewsGuard.”

In the wake of Carr’s statements, according to NewsGuard, President Trump appointed Ferguson and Carr to their respective chairmanships at the FTC and FCC.

The FTC denied NewsGuard’s petition to quash the subpoena in March and ordered it to comply by April 9. Again, Chairman Ferguson was the only commissioner voting to deny the petition as Commissioner Meador was recused.

The complaint against Dentsu, WPP Media and Publicis is not the first action brought against the industry by the FTC.

In June 2025, the FTC sued to stop the merger of the third- and fourth-largest advertising agencies in the U.S., Omnicom Group, Inc. and The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc., alleging that the combination would increase the likelihood of collusion among the remaining agencies. 

Omnicom and IPG agreed to a consent decree that allowed the merger to proceed on the condition that the companies agree not to enter into “any agreement or practice that would steer advertising dollars away from publishers based on their political or ideological viewpoints.”

Iran was the top exporter of commodities through the Strait of Hormuz in March, as shipments from other countries fell off a cliff with Tehran's blockade of the vital waterway, data by analytics firm Kpler showed.

Iran is usually the fifth largest exporter of commodities -- goods such as crude oil and other petroleum products, liquified natural gas (LNG), and dry bulk including fertilisers -- through the strait.

But shipments by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Qatar dropped by at least 96 percent each in March compared to the previous 12 months' average, according to Kpler. 

Iran's shipments did also fall -- but by only 26 percent, the data showed. 

Tehran's forces choked off the strait after Iran was attacked by the United States and Israel on February 28. Since then it has allowed only a trickle of ships to pass through.

Around a fifth of the world's crude oil and LNG normally passes through the strait, and Tehran's paralysing of it ignited fears of a global energy crisis, with Asian countries in particular impacted in recent weeks.

A US blockade of Iranian ports has appeared to further curb traffic of the trade route already paralysed by Iranian forces in recent days. 

Bahrain and Kuwait did not ship any commodities through the strait in March. 

Qatar, normally a major LNG supplier, exported just 45,000 tonnes of butane and propane through the strait in March, and no LNG. 

Crude oil made up 81 percent of Iran’s exports through the Strait of Hormuz last month, up from 62 percent on average from March 2025 to February 2026. 

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Lawsuits over climate change in California will be on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether they can be pursued.

San Francisco Judge Ethan Schulman Tuesday issued a stay of the litigation, finding it would “be in the interests of justice” to do so while the Supreme Court makes its decision in Boulder’s lawsuit against Suncor.

Dozens of lawsuits brought by government officials who hired private lawyers on contingency fees have been filed through the years, though only Hawaii’s and Colorado’s supreme courts have let them progress past Big Oil’s motions to dismiss. Most recently, the Maryland Supreme Court affirmed dismissals of cases by Annapolis and Baltimore, finding they “cannot be seriously contemplated.”

Though they make claims for public nuisance and violations of consumer protection laws, defendants and the Trump administration assert they are improper attempts to influence the international energy market. State judges in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New York, Maryland and New Jersey have agreed.

“Pausing wasteful and nonsensical claims that 50 US states and their subdivisions should set global climate policy through lawsuits is a victory for common sense and reliable energy,” said Theodore Boutrous, Jr. of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, who represents Chevron.

The cases consolidated in San Francisco include the State of California’s, San Mateo County’s, Marin County’s, Oakland’s, Imperial Beach’s, Santa Cruz’s, Richmond’s and San Francisco’s.

Jackpot-seeking lawyers crafted their complaints to claim companies like Exxon tricked the public into using fossil fuels. They were also designed to stay out of federal court, where the energy industry could have mounted an even stronger defense.

But state court judges have found the cases seek to regulate emissions standards – the job of federal regulators. In February, the Supreme Court granted Suncor’s petition to review the Boulder case, in which its motion to dismiss was denied.

Amicus briefs in the case have poured in, urging the justices to rule on key issues persisting in the more than 30 climate lawsuits. A ruling for the energy industry is likely to close the other lawsuits around the country.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall led a group of 26 states that said Boulder is trying to “assert a power with no analogue in our Nation’s history and no place in our federalism.”

Republicans in Congress also filed a brief, complaining the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling created a patchwork of state and local regulations for a market that is supposed to be overseen by federal authorities.

And the Trump administration, which has issued an executive order forbidding any new cases and is battling the attorneys general of Michigan and Hawaii in court, submitted its thoughts last year, saying Boulder is attempting to impose new rules that would go far beyond the borders of Colorado.

“If, as the Colorado Supreme Court held, those theories are consistent with federal law, then every locality in the country could sue essentially anyone in the world for contributing to global climate change,” that brief says.

(The Center Square) – The U.S. military is prepared to strike Iran's energy infrastructure if it does not agree to a peace deal, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday. 

"If Iran chooses poorly, they will have a blockade and bombs dropping on infrastructure, power and energy," Hegseth said.

Hegseth spoke to reporters alongside chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine and Admiral Brad Cooper with an update on the U.S. blockade in the Strait of Hormuz as negotiators settle on a peace deal. 

The U.S. blockade on Iranian ports went into effect on Monday. Caine said more than 10,000 sailors marines, and airmen using ships, planes and helicopters are enforcing the blockade. 

The military fires warning shots to any vessel that approaches the blockade and leaves open the possibility that ships could be boarded. So far, no ship has been boarded by the U.S. military. U.S. forces have turned away 13 vessels as part of the blockade, Caine said. 

"Any ship that would cross the blockade would result in our sailors executing pre-planned tactics designed to bring the force to that ship, if need be, board the ship and and take her over," Caine said. 

Hegseth issued a warning to Iran during the news conference. He criticized the Islamic Republic for having degraded military capabilities. 

"You have no defense industry, no ability to replenish your offensive or defensive capabilities. You only have what you have. You know that. And we know that you can move things around, but you can't actually rebuild. You can dig out for now, but you can't reconstitute. But we can," he said.

Caine clarified that the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz is only targeted to ships entering or exiting Iranian ports, regardless of nationality. 

"The U.S. action is a blockade of Iran's coastline, not a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz," Caine said. 

Hegseth called on allied nations in Europe and Asia to aid the U.S. in its blockade on Iranian ports. He did not name a specific nation. Hegseth and President Donald Trump have been critical of the United Kingdom and France for not providing military support in the conflict. 

"We should live in a world where other countries can defend waterways, not just the United States Navy," Hegseth said. "Other allies need to invest in their capabilities so they can project power and do basic tasks like clearing a strait."

Pope Leo XIV condemned "an endless cycle of destabilisation and death" on a visit Thursday to a "bloodstained" region of Cameroon that has been gripped by an English-speaking separatist conflict for nearly a decade.

"Those who rob your land of its resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilisation and death," the pontiff said in a message of peace in the northwestern city of Bamenda, the epicentre of the insurgency.

Under military escort, the US-born pope arrived at Saint Joseph's Cathedral in a vehicle with bulletproof windows, blessing the joyful crowds which had gathered to greet him.

Singing, blowing horns and making music, people waved Vatican and Cameroonian flags while dressed in traditional outfits bearing the pope's image.

Cameroon's two anglophone regions have suffered almost a decade of armed violence following attempts to secede from the rest of the mostly French-speaking central African country.

Conflict erupted after President Paul Biya, who has ruled the central African country since 1982, violently put down peaceful demonstrations in 2016 by English speakers who felt marginalised.

Civilians have been targeted with killings and kidnappings. At least 6,000 people have been killed since 2016, according to the United Nations.

In a solemn speech, Leo, who arrived in Cameroon on Wednesday on the second leg of a landmark African tour, condemned those who manipulate religion and the name of God "for their own military, economic and political gain".

Separatists who have been imprisoned called via their lawyer, Joseph Awah Fru, for talks under the aegis of the Vatican "to discuss the root causes of the conflict with the participation of the UN".

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(The Center Square) – Action by North Carolina’s General Assembly has changed the timing for medical malpractice, and enough evidence to ask a jury to resolve contested facts favor Prisha Mosley, her lawyer tells The Center Square.

North Carolina’s Court of Appeals received the 73-page appeal brief on Monday. Friend of the court briefs are due this coming Monday, and defendants will have the opportunity to file responses within 30 to 60 days. Plaintiffs will get final say, and a three-judge panel will either make a decision or opt for a hearing.

Josh Payne, of Birmingham from the Campbell, Miller, Payne firm headquartered in Dallas, told The Center Square on Wednesday lawmakers opened one door – medical malpractice – for appeal with last year’s change in a statute of limitations. For the other pivot point of the case – fraud and negligence – Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin didn’t write an opinion, leaving Payne to deliver on appeal plenty of facts as evidence that “a disputed question for a jury to resolve” would not be in doubt.

“The judge is not there to determine judgment,” Payne said of the August ruling. “He’s there to determine if we presented enough evidence that shows at least a disputed question for a jury to resolve – a disputed fact which calls for a jury trial.

“We go point by point by point and explain we have presented enough evidence. There’s plenty to pick through.”

Compensatory and punitive damages to the maximum extent allowable are sought in the prayer for relief. The complaint also requests treble damages and attorney's fees, meaning the defendants pay three times the amount of actual damages sustained by the plaintiff.

In other words, the eight defendants could collectively be facing more than the $2 million awarded earlier this year in a similar health care lawsuit in New York's Westchester County.

Mosley moved to North Carolina in third grade, at about age 7. Big Rapids, Mich., is now home for the 28-year-old and her son, he with the bassinet gifted by Mosley’s good friends Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan.

As a teen, Mosley and her parents were part of the growing trend to transition from female to male. She started testosterone at 17, had surgery at 18, and like many in the five to 10 years later range, had regret.

“That’s how long it takes to see the catastrophic results,” Mosley told The Center Square in a November interview.

Payne doesn’t say Ervin was wrong on his first point. Prevent Sexual Exploitation/Women and Minors, known also as House Bill 805, defines male and female in part, codifying second-term Republican President Donald Trump’s executive order, and increased the statute of limitations to 10 years for those seeking justice for harm from gender transition.

“The General Assembly in North Carolina, they passed a law after the judge initially ruled in the case that her medical practice claim was untimely,” Payne said. “The General Assembly came in passing a law extending time to sue and made it retroactive. By its terms, it applies. The judge declined to follow that law. He said he had a discretion not to follow it because the case had been going on for some time.

“We are arguing in the appeal brief, no, he doesn’t have discretion to ignore the law. The Legislature makes the law and the courts apply the law. That’s our primary argument.”

The veto override of first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein was on July 29. The statute of limitations section of the law became effective immediately.

Irvin, in his Aug. 25 ruling, wrote in part, “North Carolina’s appellate courts have affirmed a trial court’s exercise of its discretion in cases where proposed amendments would have injected a new legal theory into a case after a vast amount of discovery had been conducted or when the amendment would significantly alter the legal issues presented in the case.”

The second area concerns the defendants' claims of fraud and misleading conduct.

“We presented sufficient evidence with which a jury could find the defendants liable in the case,” Payne said. “The judge disagreed, and dismissed those claims, but he didn’t write an opinion explaining why. We don’t have anything to go off.

“We have very specific pieces of evidence we point to, testimony from Prisha, from defendants themselves, and it’s also parts of the medical records in the case.”

Mosley filed the lawsuit in Gaston County in July 2023. It states that at age 17, testosterone injections were started, and a double mastectomy was performed. Among the eight defendants are a plastic surgeon, two licensed counselors, and a physician.

Among the points, Payne said the mastectomy was called a breast reduction in the paperwork signed by a counselor – a point he says is misleading. On another point, Brie Klein-Fowler, according to her deposition, admitted to being aware of the concept of detransitioning including mention of a specific study.

“But she intentionally withheld that information from Prisha before the surgery,” Payne said. “We believe that’s fraudulent misconduct. It’s evidence that a reasonable jury could conclude that’s fraudulent conduct.”

The list goes on.

Irvin, in his summary judgment dismissal with prejudice, wrote in part, “The court concludes with respect to all of the motions listed above that there are no genuine issues of material fact in this case and that all of the defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”

Monday’s appeal conclusion in the case known as Mosley v. Emerson says, “The judgment below should be reversed in its entirety. Every claim was timely. Every claim dismissed at summary judgment was supported by law and evidence. And every claim dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) was properly pleaded. And the General Assembly’s commands in House Bill 805 must be obeyed.”

Rule 12(b)(6) is civil procedure allowing dismissal of a lawsuit early in the process, considered a test of legal sufficiency assuming all accusations are true.

Defendants are Dr. Eric Emerson; Piedmont Plastic Surgery and Dermatology; Klein-Fowler; Family Solutions; Shana Gordon; Tree of Life Counseling; Dr. Martha Fairbanks Perry; and Moses Cone Memorial Hospital, doing business as Cone Health.

Plaintiff listing on the litigation is Charlie Mosley, also known as Prisha Mosley, also known as Abigail Mosley.

In addition to her own relief, Mosley’s hope is the potential delivery of a second landmark win nationwide for detransitioner lawsuits. The first has already come in New York in the $2 million Fox Varian verdict.

In January, the 22-year-old won a lawsuit against medical providers that performed a double mastectomy when Varian was 16 years old in New York’s Westchester County. A jury said the standard of care was violated when the medical providers did not get informed consent and skipped psychological evaluations.

Varian’s mother, in testimony, said she gave consent based on being told her daughter would commit suicide without it.

“The system that should have been designed to protect me instead threw me to the wolves,” Mosley said in a statement released Monday by Independent Women. “My case means more to me now than ever because I’m fighting for justice not only for myself, but for thousands of other detransitioners who did not get what we were entitled to: informed consent and dignity.”

Prominent economists called Thursday for governments to introduce windfall profit taxes on energy companies who are set to reap financial benefits from the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The war has triggered a surge in prices of oil and gas which will boost the bottom lines of energy firms but is putting the pinch on consumers.

"ICRICT is calling on governments to immediately impose a windfall profits tax on the oil, gas and fertiliser sectors as both economically sound and morally imperative," said the group of economists led by Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz said in statement sent to AFP.

The surge in energy prices "disproportionately hurts ordinary workers, farmers, and fossil fuel importing nations, while a small group of large corporations and state producers accumulate windfall profits at their expense," they said.

In addition to higher fuel prices the costs of a number of other critical inputs such as fertiliser have also jumped, raising the risk of a surge in inflation throughout economies.

The economists said a windfall tax on energy and fertiliser firms would target profits made due to the impact of the conflict, not those due to innovation or entrepreneurship.

"Taxing these windfall profits will not worsen inflation; it will recapture unearned gains from corporations and resource owners and can be used to protect vulnerable populations," they wrote.

They noted that a number of countries had introduced windfall profit taxes on the energy and agribusiness sectors following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The European Commission said last week it would look into a windfall profits tax on energy companies after five member countries including Germany, Italy and Spain called for one to ease the burden of high fuel prices on consumers.

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