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JERUSALEM – The rising costs of a floating pier off the coast of the embattled Gaza Strip – said to be aimed at enabling shipments of humanitarian aid to reach the civilian population trapped in the central and northern parts of the Palestinian enclave – has stoked controversy after it was revealed this week that the project will cost the U.S. upward of $320 million. 

On Tuesday, the U.S. Central Command posted photographs on X of the pier under construction by U.S. soldiers in the Mediterranean Sea, saying that the hulking metal platform "will support USAID and other humanitarian partners who will receive and deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza." 

However, some have questioned the effectiveness of the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) pier after the Pentagon revealed on Monday that the estimated cost would nearly double the original estimate of $180 million. It also said the project will only be in use temporarily, for a period of three months. 

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In a statement on X, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., called the project "ill-conceived," writing that "the cost has not just risen. It has exploded." 

"This dangerous effort with marginal benefit will now cost American taxpayers at least $320 million to operate the pier for only 90 days," he wrote. "How much will taxpayers be on the hook once – or if – the pier is finally constructed? For every day this mission continues, the price tag goes up and so does the level of risk for the 1,000 deployed troops within range of Hamas’ rockets." 

"During the State of the Union address, President Biden announced that he has directed the U.S. military to undertake an emergency mission to establish a maritime corridor and temporary pier in Gaza, working in partnership with like-minded countries and partners, to allow assistance to flow by sea directly into Gaza, as part of a sustained effort to increase U.S. aid coming into Gaza by land, air, and sea," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

"This temporary pier will bring much-needed assistance into Gaza, but I want to be clear: this work is in addition to our other, ongoing efforts to continue sustaining and expanding assistance going in by land," the spokesperson said. 

According to a Guardian report, aid will arrive at the pier in commercial ships sailing from Cyprus. From there, pallets will be loaded on to trucks, which will then travel on smaller ships that will transport them to a floating two-lane causeway leading to the shore. The first shipment is expected to arrive next week.

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Slated to process up to 2 million meals a day for the people in Gaza, the Pentagon said, the project has also raised concerns about security, particularly for U.S. troops who will remain off the coast aboard aircraft carriers. 

Responding to a question posed by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla, during the House Armed Services FY25 budget hearing on Tuesday, regarding the possibility of threats facing the roughly 1,000 U.S. servicemen and women working to construct the pier, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said they would all be armed and, if attacked from Gaza, they would "have the right to return fire to protect themselves."

Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, told Fox News Digital that the big question was who would operate the pier once the construction process was complete. 

"Once the pier is constructed, U.S. soldiers will not remain there and the pier will be operated by others," he said, adding that there was a lingering danger that Hamas, the Islamist terror group whose brutal Oct. 7 terror attack sparked a full-scale war with Israel, would try to sabotage the project if it were allowed to remain intact. 

"As long as Hamas still exists, as long as they are still in power in some parts of Gaza or able to operate militarily, they will not enable this to operate unless it is put directly under their control," Michael said. "If the Americans give the Qataris the authority to operate the pier, that means it will really be Hamas who operates the pier via a local company," he claimed.

Michael noted that the pier project directly contradicts another U.S. goal relating to the seven-month-old war in Gaza: bringing about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. 

According to reports this week, the U.S. is hopeful Hamas, which still controls the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, will agree to the terms of a newly drafted ceasefire agreement to release some of the 133 hostages it kidnapped during its Oct. 7 attacks in exchange for Israeli troops withdrawing from all or most of the territory, as well as the release of hundreds of Palestinian terrorists being held in Israeli jails. 

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"U.S. pressure on Israel to accept all of Hamas’ demands could mean that the IDF will not be there to secure the pier, on the other hand, the U.S. expects the IDF to secure the pier once it is ready – how will those two concepts work together?" Michael said. 

"If the IDF is there to protect the pier, that means they will need to be there to secure the transfer of the humanitarian aid from the ships to the pier; then to the trucks and then to escort the trucks to distribution centers and help secure the distribution inside the Gaza Strip," he added. "Ultimately, that means having a permanent IDF presence on Gaza soil."

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) international spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told the media over the weekend that the JLOTS project was extremely complicated, not only because it is located in a war zone, but also because of the amounts of aid that would be entering Gaza. 

"This is not a simple operation, and the IDF is involved in many parts of it," he said, adding that Israel was "very committed" to the effort and that it would come as an addition to the sharp increase in aid that has been entering Gaza via the land and the air over the past few weeks. 

"The aid will be checked in Cyprus, same as they have been checked everywhere," said Shoshani, referring to Israel’s security operations at crossings from Egypt into Gaza and also from Jordan into the West Bank and then to Gaza. 

"I don’t know how they plan to convert this in the long term, but the provision of approved and screened aide by an allied European country is a major step up from relying on Egypt to handle this task," Jonathan Schanzer, the senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, told Fox News Digital.

"If the Cypriot channel can be institutionalized, and the Egyptian border can be secured both above and below ground, this could prevent the re-arming of Hamas for years to come," he said, adding, "If this can be solidified and made permanent, it would be a net benefit for the entire region."

South Korea is considering sharing advanced military technology with the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia through the so-called AUKUS partnership, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said.

Shin said the possibility was discussed during two days of meetings between South Korea and Australia’s defense and foreign ministers that ended in the Australian city of Melbourne on Wednesday.

The United States and the United Kingdom agreed in 2021 to provide Australia with a fleet of submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology under the AUKUS agreement to counter a growing military presence from China. AUKUS is an acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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The countries could become involved in cooperation on a wider range of security technologies including artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and hypersonic systems through what is known as AUKUS Pillar 2.

Shin welcomed South Korea's invitation from the three AUKUS partners.

"We do welcome that AUKUS members are considering Korea as an AUKUS Pillar 2 partner and Korea’s defense science and technology capabilities will contribute to the peace and stability of the development of AUKUS Pillar 2 and regional peace," Shin said through a translator.

Japan is also moving toward formal talks to become part of AUKUS Pillar 2’s technology development and sharing.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles welcomed South Korean efforts to build on its relationship with Japan, which along with Australia, the United States and India form a security dialogue known as the Quad.

"We see this is a very, very positive step forward in the strategic landscape of the region and represents a huge opportunity for Australia to engage with both Korea and Japan," Marles told reporters.

"Korea and Australia are working together to uphold the rules-based order within our region and, in fact, within the world," Marles added.

A section of a highway collapsed early Wednesday in southern China, sending cars tumbling and leaving at least 24 people dead, according to state media.

Eighteen cars fell down a slope after a 58.7-foot long section of the highway collapsed, according to a statement from authorities in Meizhou city in Guangdong province. The incident occurred around 2 a.m.

The death toll had risen to 24 by Wednesday afternoon, according to China's official Xinhua News agency.

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Parts of Guangdong province has seen record rains and flooding in the past two weeks, as well as hail. Some villages in Meizhou had flooded in early April, and the city had seen heavy rains in recent days.

Witnesses told local media they heard a loud noise and saw a hole open up several meters wide behind them after driving past the section of the road just before it collapsed.

Video and photos in local media showed smoke and fire at the scene, with highway rails slanting downward into the flames. A pile of blackened cars could also be seen on the slope leading down from the highway.

The ground beneath the highway appeared to have caved in, along with the section of the road that had broken off.

Rescue workers have taken 30 people to the hospital, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Dozens of people have been arrested in Georgia after police in the capital used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters who rallied outside Parliament to protest a controversial bill which they argue limits media freedom.

Georgia's Interior Ministry said 63 people were arrested Tuesday while they took part in a demonstration in Tbilisi. Levan Khabeishvili, an opposition MP, posted a picture of himself on his social media accounts with a bloodied face and heavy bruising. Members of his party said he had been assaulted by police.

Those arrested were taking part in the latest in a series of protests against a bill which would require media and non-commercial organizations to register as "pursuing the interests of a foreign power" if they get more than 20% of their funding from abroad.

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The protesters have denounced it as "the Russian law" because Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatize independent news media and organizations critical of the Kremlin.

It is similar to a bill that the ruling Georgian Dream party proposed and then withdrew under pressure last year after large street protests.

If the bill is adopted, protesters are concerned that it will allow the authorities to more heavily control the media space as well as derailing integration with the EU after Georgia was granted candidate status in December 2023.

"We do not want the Soviet regime that our parents have experienced," Kato Salukvadze, a protester, told The Associated Press, adding, "I think that everyone should be in the streets and say no to the Russian law and yes to Europe."

Police moved to break up the protest late Tuesday after demonstrators tried to block the entrances to Parliament in order to prevent lawmakers from leaving.

Georgia's Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze said at a briefing Wednesday that the protesters and leaders of the opposition party were "constantly committing violence." Darakhvelidze alleged that Khabeishvili, the opposition MP, broke through a police cordon and was injured while "he resisted."

Giorgi Vashadze, another opposition politician, said Georgians have the right to peaceful protest and that the behavior of the ruling party and law enforcement agencies is "completely illegal."

Earlier this month, the parliament endorsed the bill on its first reading despite the protests. Debate will continue Wednesday as part of the bill's second reading. It must pass three readings before it can be adopted.

Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili has harshly criticized the bill and vowed to veto it if it is passed by parliament. The ruling party, however, can override her veto and then the parliament speaker can sign it into law.

An aquarium in South Africa is stretched beyond capacity after more than 500 baby sea turtles were washed up on beaches by a rare and powerful storm and rescued by members of the public.

The little turtles are mostly endangered loggerheads and should be cruising the ocean. Most of them instead will spend the first few months of their lives in newly built plastic tanks at the Turtle Conservation Center at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town. The aquarium is rehabilitating around 400 of the roughly 530 sick and injured turtles that were brought in, while sending the rest to two other aquariums to spread the load.

Baby turtles have to fend for themselves from the moment they hatch on beaches and make their way to the ocean.

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In South Africa, loggerheads hatch on the northeast coast on the far side of the country from Cape Town. These turtles were likely sucked in by the warm Indian Ocean Agulhas Current, carried around the tip of South Africa and spat out in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Town.

That's fairly common, said Talitha Noble-Trull, the head of the Turtle Conservation Center. She's in charge of treating the new arrivals.

What isn't normal is the powerful storm that recently hit the Cape Town area, leaving hundreds of baby turtles needing help.

The conservation center usually receives a few to maybe 100 stranded young turtles in the three to four months after hatching season. It has a normal capacity of 150 turtles.

"What we haven’t seen before is over 500 turtles in two weeks, which is what the last little bit of time has brought us," Noble-Trull said. "My budgeting plans for the year have really gone out the window."

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She estimated that each turtle will cost $500 to get back to full strength before being released into the warmer Indian Ocean in a few months. The Turtle Conservation Center has brought in a small army of volunteers to help the aquarium's full-time staff care for them.

The turtles are ranked according to how sick they are, with some needing intensive care due to injuries, malnutrition or infection. A number is written on each shell to identify them.

While the storm was a major shock to the turtles, who are vulnerable to extreme weather and climate change, it has given Noble-Trull and other conservationists a valuable insight into another increasingly common danger.

Many of the turtles had ingested small pieces of plastic, which exited their systems after they arrived at the aquarium. Noble-Trull has a tray of plastic pieces collected in just one day, some as big as a fingernail.

The conservation team normally wouldn't see that amount of evidence of plastic pollution in the ocean.

Turtles spend almost all their lives in the ocean, apart from when they're born and when females return to shore to lay eggs. Because of that, they're "ocean indicators," Noble-Trull said.

"Little bits of soft plastic, little bits of hard plastic are floating all along the oceans and turtles are eating them. So, for us it’s very important to be collecting and capturing this data. Because these turtles are coming at us with a message. They’re not telling us. They’re shouting it at us. That our oceans are not a safe place for turtles."

The Biden administration has allowed billions in sanctions waivers that benefit Iran, with estimated billions more in unsanctioned oil sales, which allows the Iranian government to continue diverting money to its drone factories and funding proxy groups, an expert told Fox News Digital. 

"What happens when you end up releasing that money is that it goes into the general funds, which can then be used in lots of different ways," Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), explained. 

"If they are using the sanctions relief to fund their general budget, then ultimately [they] are to the benefit of the IRGC because the IRGC partakes in that regular budget," Schanzer said, noting the Biden administration has often argued that any waivers do not ultimately and directly benefit the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

"Let me put it this way: There is no way to do it without ultimately benefiting the regime and its ultimate objective, which is to fund its malign activities abroad," Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury noted.

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A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the Biden administration "has not lifted a single sanction on Iran. Rather, we continue to increase pressure." 

"Our extensive sanctions on Iran remain in place, and we continue to enforce them," the spokesperson said. "Over the last three years, the U.S. has sanctioned over 600 individuals and entities connected to the full range of Iran’s problematic and dangerous behaviors, UAV and missile proliferation, terrorism, terrorist financing and other forms of illicit trade, horrific human rights abuses and support for proxy terrorist groups." 

"We have even seen the regime fail to meet its own revenue expectations as it struggles to evade our sanctions and find illicit buyers for its oil," the spokesperson said, not commenting on the fact Iran does find buyers for its oil. The spokesperson insisted that the U.S. sanctions, in combination with "Iran’s economy and regime mismanagement," have brought the country’s currency "to the lowest it has ever been against the U.S. dollar." 

A second State Department spokesperson reiterated the fact that the sanctions waiver allowing Iraq to buy electricity from Iran has been renewed 21 times since the Trump administration first issued the waiver in 2018 and that "any notion" that money goes to Iran due to the waivers "is false and misleading." 

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"We have been in ongoing engagement with allies and partners, including at the G-7 and with the EU, on ways to increase pressure on Iran," the second spokesperson said. 

A Fox News Digital analysis, in combination with the FDD’s research, determined that Iran has received between $16 billion and $20 billion in sanctions waivers, with billions more gained through the sale of Iranian oil, which the U.S. has sanctioned but has not managed to totally prevent due to a mixture of lax government oversight and more sophisticated evasion methods. 

That includes a $10 billion sanctions waiver so Iraq can trade to obtain electricity from Iran, a $6 billion sanctions waiver agreed for South Korea to transfer money in exchange for the release of five Americans and $3.8 billion gained through the sale of petrochemicals in order to dodge a Trump-era sanction. 

The U.S. State Department in March came under fire for resuming a sanctions waiver, which had been renewed since the Trump administration first issued the waiver in 2018. Some experts estimated the waiver as having a valuation of around $10 billion for Iran. 

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That waiver particularly allowed for the transfer of funds between Iran and Iraq so that Iraq, which remains a U.S. ally, could continue to use electricity imported from Iran – but critics saw it merely as another easement on sanctions against Iran. 

"None of this money goes to the mullahs. None of this money goes into Tehran. The sanctions relief that is provided actually goes to vendors that provide humanitarian assistance to the Iranian people," White House national security advisor John Kirby told reporters at the time. 

"Not only do the Iraqi people not suffer because of this, the Iranian people aren't going to suffer because of this," Kirby added. "That allows for Iraq to be able to work its way off of Iranian energy so that they can keep the lights on."

Schanzer countered the administration’s argument by noting that "as soon as [money] hits the system, it is going to be diverted or used in a cynical way," even taking what humanitarian aid gets into the country through third-party vendors and reselling it to the civilian population, effectively laundering the assistance into money. 

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"When we talk about dual-use goods or even things that they need in order to feed their fighters things along those lines, it is a consistently cynical diversion scheme," Schanzer said. "Whether we're talking about Iran itself or we're talking about Iran's proxies."

"When the administration was saying that we shouldn't be putting sanctions on the Houthis because it would ultimately block humanitarian assistance from getting into Yemen – guess what?" Schanzer continued. "When that humanitarian assistance gets to Yemen, who benefits? The people that control the territory in question, which right now a large chunk of Yemen is controlled by the Houthis." 

The New York Times in February published the results of an investigation that determined Iran had managed to sell "oil worth billions of dollars" thanks to "a significant gap in U.S. oversight." Shipping vessels owned by shell companies and using "spoofing" methods to hide their location made dozens of trips throughout 2023 to ferry Iran’s oil under the sanctions. 

The lack of a total crackdown on Iran’s oil shipments has led a significant number of experts to argue that the Biden administration may have started willfully turning a blind eye to Iran’s activities – partially since the surge in oil sales is clear and evident.

Javier Blas, a long-time energy and commodities reporter, wrote in a Bloomberg op-ed that "the conspiracy theorist inside me says the White House has turned a blind eye to the Iranian sales because it’s more worried about inflation … not only has Iran boosted oil production, but its exports have surged even more because it’s been able to sell a large chunk of the crude it was forced to put in the past into storage, both onshore and into tankers turned into floating storage facilities." 

Iran’s growing cooperation with China also plays a significant role in how the country has managed to dodge sanctions, according to Foreign Policy, which cited a 25-year economic cooperation agreement the two countries agreed to in March 2021, as well as Iran’s decision to join the Beijing-led BRICS economic bloc, which gives Iran access to other currencies and trading options. 

"There’s no question that Russia, China and others are working to provide assistance to the Iranians," Schanzer claimed. "We know this to be the case, but, with the Russians and Chinese, it’s often done in trade or in arms purchases, oil … if they get remuneration in rubles or in RMB (Chinese Yuan) in trade surplus where they can cash in for other products that’s not the same as dollars, and it’s not the same as some of the goods that will come through American channels." 

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report. 

An internationally backed court in the Central African Republic issued an international arrest warrant Tuesday for the country’s exiled former President François Bozizé for human rights abuses from 2009 to 2013, a spokesperson said.

The Special Criminal Court was set up in the capital, Bangui, to try war crimes and other human rights abuses committed during the coups and violence that the country has experienced since 2003.

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Court spokesperson Gervais Bodagy Laoulé said the warrant was for crimes committed under Bozizé's leadership in a civilian prison and at a military training center in the city of Bossembélém where many people were tortured and killed.

The warrant covers crimes from 2009 to 2013 by the presidential guard and other security forces, Laoulé said.

Bozizé current lives in exile in Guinea-Bissau, where that country's President Umaro Sissoco Embaló told the Associated Press that he had not received any request from Bangui about the arrest warrant, and that the country’s laws do not allow for extradition.

Ibrahim Nour, whose father was tortured and killed in the infamous Bossembélé prison, welcomed the arrest warrant.

"Justice may be slow, but it will eventually catch up with the executioners. That’s why I welcome the arrest warrant for the men who killed my father, and for whom we are waiting for explanations so that we can begin to mourn," Nour said.

The court was created in 2015, but took several years to begin operating. Human Rights Watch has described its creation as a landmark to advance justice for victims of serious crimes.

Patryk Labuda, an expert in international criminal law at the Polish Academy of Sciences, told the AP that the warrant issued Tuesday sends a message about the court’s intention to prosecute wrongdoing by the state.

"This arrest warrant is certainly one of the most high profile developments in the 5 years the court has operated," Labuda said.

Bozizé seized power in a coup in 2003, and was ousted by predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels a decade later. That led to a civil war between the rebels and mostly Christian militias marked by sectarian violence atrocities and the forced use of child soliders.

Both the U.S. and the United Nations targeted Bozizé with sanctions for fueling the violence.

The U.N., which has a peacekeeping mission in the country, estimates the fighting has killed thousands and displaced over a million people, or one-fifth of the population. In 2019, a peace deal was reached between the government and 14 armed groups, but fighting continues.

About 10,000 children are still fighting alongside armed groups in Central African Republic more than a decade after civil war broke out, the government said earlier this year.

"It’s a great day for us victims to learn that François Bozizé is the target of an international arrest warrant," said Audrey Yamalé, a member of the Association of Victims of the 2013 Crisis. "But let’s not stop there. We would like Guinea Bissau to cooperate in his extradition."

The top U.N. court rejected on Tuesday a request by Nicaragua to order Germany to halt military and other aid to Israel and renew funding to the U.N. aid agency in Gaza.

The International Court of Justice said that legal conditions for making such an order weren't met and ruled against the request in a 15-1 vote, effectively siding with Germany, which told judges that it's barely exporting any arms to Israel.

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However, the 16-judge panel declined to throw out the case altogether, as Germany had requested. The court will still hear arguments from both sides on the merits of Nicaragua’s case, which alleges that, by giving support to Israel, Germany failed to prevent genocide in Gaza. The case will likely take months or years.

The court "remains deeply concerned about the catastrophic living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip," said Nawaf Salam, the court's president.

He added that the court "considers it particularly important to remind all states of their international obligations relating to the transfer of arms to parties to an armed conflict, in order to avoid the risk that such arms might be used" to violate international law.

The reading of the decision lasted less than 20 minutes.

The German Foreign Office welcomed the ruling in a post on X.

"Germany is not a party to the conflict in the Middle East — on the contrary: we are working day and night for a two-state solution," the ministry said. "We are the largest donor of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. We are working to ensure that aid reaches the people in Gaza."

But it added that Israel has the right to defend itself and said more than 100 hostages are still being held by Hamas, "which is abusing the people of Gaza as shields."

The court noted that Germany had granted only four export licenses to Israel for weapons of war since the start of the conflict, two for training ammunition and one for test purposes, as well as one consignment of "3,000 portable anti-tank weapons."

Nicaragua, a longstanding ally of the Palestinians, alleges that Germany is enabling genocide by sending arms and other support to Israel. The head of Nicaragua’s legal team, Carlos Jose Argüello Gómez, told reporters at the court that his country would press ahead with its legal arguments.

Israel, which isn't a party to the case between Nicaragua and Germany, strongly denies that its assault on Gaza amounts to acts of genocide.

Nicaragua’s government noted that at least the court had reminded "all states of their international obligations with respect to the transfer of arms to Israel, including Germany."

"No state can say that it is unaware of its obligations with respect to the genocide in Gaza and other violations of international law," the government’s statement said.

Nicaragua’s case is the latest legal bid by a country with historic ties to the Palestinian people to stop Israel’s offensive.

Late last year, South Africa accused Israel of genocide at the court. The cases come as Israel's allies face growing calls to stop supplying it with weapons, and as some, including Germany, have grown more critical of the war.

The court also rejected Nicaragua's request for Germany to be ordered to reinstate direct funding to the U.N. aid agency in Gaza.

Israel says it is acting in self-defense after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people.

Since Israel launched its offensive, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Its toll doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it has said women and children make up the majority of the dead.

Israel blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because the militants fight in dense, residential areas. The military says it has killed more than 12,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Germany has been a staunch supporter of Israel for decades. Berlin, however, has gradually shifted its tone as civilian casualties in Gaza have soared, becoming increasingly critical of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and speaking out against a ground offensive in Rafah.

In the case brought by South Africa, the ICJ ordered Israel in January to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and acts of genocide in Gaza. In March, the court issued new provisional measures ordering Israel to take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where experts say a famine is imminent.

Meanwhile, a separate investigation by another international court — the International Criminal Court — is also worrying Israeli officials.

The ICC inquiry was launched in 2021 into possible war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian militants going back to the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. The investigation is also looking at Israel’s construction of settlements in occupied territory that the Palestinians want for a future state. Israeli officials in recent days have expressed concern about possible arrest warrants upcoming in that case.

A Portuguese-flagged container ship came under attack by a drone in the far reaches of the Arabian Sea, corresponding with a claim by Yemen's Houthi rebels that they assaulted the ship there, authorities said Tuesday.

The attack on the MSC Orion, occurring some 375 miles off the coast of Yemen, appeared to be the first confirmed deep-sea assault claimed by the Houthis since they began targeting ships in November. It suggests the Houthis — or potentially their main benefactor Iran — may have the ability to strike into the distances of the Indian Ocean as the rebels previously threatened in their ongoing campaign over Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

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The attack happened last Friday, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center, which operates as part of the U.S.-led Combined Maritime Forces in the Mideast. After the attack, the crew discovered debris apparently from a drone on board, the center said.

The ship "sustained only minor damage and all crew on board are safe," the center said. Ship-tracking satellite data analyzed by The Associated Press put the container ship, bound for Salalah, Oman, in the area of the attack on Saturday.

The MSC Orion has been associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime, which is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group. It was operating on behalf of the Mediterranean Shipping Co., a Naples, Italy-based firm. Zodiac referred questions to MSC, which did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The Joint Maritime Information Center assesses "that MSC Orion was likely targeted due to (its) perceived Israeli affiliation," the center said in a report.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for Yemen's Houthi rebels, claimed the attack on the Orion early Tuesday. He did not explain why it took the rebels days to acknowledge the attack.

The attack immediately raised questions about how the Houthis could have carried out an assault hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the shores of Yemen on a moving target. Their primary area of attack so far has been in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connect the two waterways key for international trade. Those are close to Yemen's shoreline — unlike the site of the MSC Orion attack.

The Houthis are not known to operate an expeditionary naval fleet, nor do they have access to satellites or other sophisticated means of controlling long-distance drones.

Iran, which has been supplying the Shiite rebels in their yearslong war in Yemen, has been assessed by the West and experts to have been behind at least one complex attack claimed by the Houthis — the 2019 attack on Saudi Arabia's oil fields that temporarily halved the kingdom's energy production. Iran also routinely operates military vessels in the Arabian Sea and just seized the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries and its crew just before its unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel on April 13.

Iranian state media uniformly reported the Houthis' claim of carrying out the attack on the Orion. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.

The Houthis say their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are aimed at pressuring Israel to end its war against Hamas in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.

The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat.

Houthi attacks had dropped in recent weeks as the rebels were targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen.

Buy the rebels have renewed their attacks in the past week. On Tuesday, the rebels released footage of their drone attack on the Cyclades, a Malta-flagged, Greece-owned bulk carrier, the day before. The footage appeared to show a Samad bomb-carrying drone, believed to have been supplied to the Houthis by Iran, being used in the attack.

The Houthis on Saturday also claimed they shot down another of the U.S. military’s MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft. The U.S. military acknowledged the drone crashed, but said an investigation was ongoing.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of pieces of ammunition have gone missing from two military bases in the South American country.

In a brief statement, Petro said that an inspection this month by the army found that hundreds of thousands of bullets, thousands of grenades and 37 anti-tank missiles were stolen from a military base in the center of the country and another near the Caribbean coast.

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF COLOMBIANS PROTEST AGAINST LEFTIST PRESIDENT'S AGENDA

Petro, the country's first left-wing president, said the ammunition might have ended up in the hands of Colombian rebel groups, or may have been sold illegally to criminal groups overseas, including Haitian gangs.

"The only way to explain these missing items is that there are networks made up of people within the armed forces who are involved in the illegal arms trade," Petro said.

Petro said that inspections of military bases would continue in order to "separate the armed forces from any type of criminal organization."

The investigation comes as Colombia resumes fighting in the southwest of the country against the FARC-EMC a rebel group that broke off from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia after it signed a peace deal with the government in 2016.

Petro has launched peace talks with some of the nation’s remaining rebel groups since he was elected into office in 2022. But while in some areas of the country fighting between the government and rebel groups has decreased, critics of the Petro administration have said that these groups continue to extort and kidnap civilians. They say that cease-fires linked to the peace talks have helped rebels strengthen their positions and gain more influence over communities.

Tunisia’s main opposition coalition said Tuesday it won’t take part in the North African country’s upcoming presidential election unless President Kais Saied’s political opponents are freed and judicial independence is restored.

More than 20 political opponents have been charged or imprisoned since Saied consolidated power in 2021 by suspending parliament and rewriting the country’s constitution. Voters weary of political and economic turmoil approved his constitutional changes in a 2021 referendum with low turnout.

Saied is widely expected to run in the presidential election, likely to take place in September or October. It is unclear if anyone will challenge him.

19 BODIES RECOVERED OFF THE COAST OF TUNISIA AFTER MIGRANTS ATTEMPTED TO CROSS THE MEDITERRANEAN TO EUROPE

The National Salvation Front, a coalition of the main opposition parties including once-powerful Islamist movement Ennahdha, expressed concern that the election wouldn’t be fair, and laid out its conditions for presenting a candidate.

They include freeing imprisoned politicians, allowing Ennahdha’s headquarters to reopen, guaranteeing the neutrality and independence of the electoral commission and restoring the independence of the judicial system, according to National Salvation Front president Ahmed Nejib Chebbi.

Ennahdha’s headquarters were shut down a year ago, and its leader Rached Ghannouchi – a former parliament speaker – was sentenced to 15 months in prison on charges of glorifying terrorism. His supporters say the charge is politically driven.

Under the constitutional changes Saied introduced, the president can appoint members of the electoral authority as well as magistrates.

Tunisia's earlier charter had been seen as a model for democracies in the region.

Tunisia built a widely praised but shaky democracy after unleashing Arab Spring popular uprisings across the region in 2011. Its economic woes have deepened in recent years, and it is now a major jumping off point for migrants from Tunisia and elsewhere in Africa who take dangerous boat journeys toward Europe.

Armed men burst into a hospital in central Mexico on Tuesday and killed a patient who was being treated for a previous gunshot wound, authorities said.

Prosecutors in the state of Morelos, just south of Mexico City, said the attack occurred early Tuesday in the city of Cuernavaca, the state's capital.

AMLO CALLS GANGS, CARTELS 'RESPECTFUL PEOPLE' WHO 'RESPECT THE CITIZENRY'

The killers made their way into an intensive care unit and shot the patient to death. They fled after the attack. The victim was a 23-year-old man who had been admitted Saturday for a gunshot wound.

Killings inside hospitals are infrequent but not unknown in Mexico.

A day earlier, local media reported that an assailant disguised as a doctor had tried unsuccessfully to kill a patient with an injection at a hospital in the northern state of Sinaloa.

In 2023, hitmen stormed a hospital in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa in a bid to kill a patient. But they clashed with other gunmen already inside, sparking a gun battle that left four people dead, including a doctor apparently caught in the crossfire.

Gangs in Mexico have been known to try to finish off wounded rivals by attacks in hospitals or ambulances. In 2021, two paramedics were murdered while transporting a patient in the violence-plagued northern state of Zacatecas.

Two grandparents and their infant grandchild were killed on a highway east of Toronto when a van being chased by police crashed while going the wrong way, causing a six-vehicle collision, Canadian police said Tuesday.

CANADIAN POLICE SAY 9 PEOPLE WILL BE CHARGED AFTER $20 MILLION WORTH OF GOLD WAS STOLEN LAST YEAR FROM AIRPORT

The chase late Monday was triggered by an alleged liquor store robbery, and the crash also left the suspect in the chased van dead, police said.

The two grandparents, aged 55 and 60, and their infant grandchild were killed, and an additional person was injured and taken to a hospital, police spokeswoman Monica Hudon of the Special Investigations Unit, or SIU, told a news conference Tuesday.

The unit investigates any time a police officer has been involved in a serious injury or death.

Hudon said the SIU's investigation was in "early stages," and would look into whether police officers were authorized to continue chasing the suspected van onto the highway.

She also said police were still confirming the number of victims in the crash.

Two men have been charged with cutting down the popular 150-year-old Sycamore Gap tree that toppled over on Hadrian's Wall last year in northern England, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Daniel Graham, 38, and Adam Carruthers, 31, were charged with causing criminal damage and damaging the wall built in A.D. 122 by Emperor Hadrian to guard the northwest frontier of the Roman Empire.

BANKSY'S LONDON TREE MURAL COVERED IN PLASTIC, FENCED OFF AFTER APPARENT VANDALISM

They were ordered to appear in Newcastle Magistrates’ Court on May 15.

The sycamore's majestic canopy between two hills made it a popular subject for landscape photographers. It became a destination on the path along the wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, after being featured in Kevin Costner’s 1991 film "Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves."

The nighttime felling caused widespread outrage as police tried to find the culprits behind what they called a deliberate act of vandalism.

Northumbria Police Superintendent Kevin Waring called it "an incredibly sad day" when the tree was found. A hiker who was among the first people to see it lying on the ground expressed shock.

"It’s basically the iconic picture that everyone wants to see," Alison Hawkins said at the time. "You can forgive nature doing it, but you can’t forgive that."

Graham and Carruthers were arrested in October and released on bail. It took authorities more than six months to bring charges against them.

Det. Chief Inspector Rebecca Fenney said she recognized "the strength of feeling in the local community and further afield" but cautioned people against speculation or comment that could affect the criminal case.

The National Trust, which owns the land where the tree stood, said it will take up to three years to see if new growth sprouts from the sycamore's stump.

The trust removed the tree and was hopeful that about a third of the seeds and cuttings it collected could later be planted.

The number of Syrian refugees leaving Lebanon is likely to keep rising as donors cut back on aid, the head of the U.N.'s migration agency warned Tuesday, as pressure builds over their arrival on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization for Migration, said that around 3,000 Syrians have left Lebanon since January, compared to 4,500 for the whole of last year. Many of them have headed to Cyprus, about 110 miles away.

CYPRUS' PRESIDENT CALLS ON EU TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST INFLUX OF SYRIAN REFUGEES FROM LEBANON

In response, Cyprus suspended the processing of asylum applications by Syrian nationals earlier this month due to the large numbers. Cypriot authorities have reportedly dispatched police patrol vessels just outside Lebanese territorial waters to thwart refugee boats trying to head to Cyprus.

Pope told The Associated Press that governments are cutting aid funding to agencies working with people who have fled Syria, which has been ravaged by civil war for over 13 years, and that this is making things worse. At the same time, some Lebanese communities are getting tired of hosting them.

"My concern is that we will see it become increasingly difficult for Syrians to stay safely in Lebanon. And when people cannot stay safely in one place, they do what every human being will do, is look where they can go," Pope said.

"The numbers are ticking up," she said. "Lebanon is becoming a less hospitable place for them to stay."

Asked why aid to Syrian refugees is being cut, Pope said: "Because the number of conflicts has gone up, because the Syrian populations have been displaced now for almost 10 years, because the assumptions are we can’t continue to fund Syrians when we have increasing numbers of people from different parts of the world."

The Cypriot government says a crumbling Lebanese economy, coupled with uncertainty brought on by the Israeli-Hamas war and recent tit-for-tat strikes between Israel and Lebanon, has resulted in a huge number of boats overloaded with migrants – almost all Syrians – reaching the island.

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen are due in Beirut on Thursday to discuss a possible aid package.

The town of Fujikawaguchiko has had enough of tourists.

Known for a number of scenic photo spots that offer a near-perfect shot of Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji, the town on Tuesday began constructing a large black screen on a stretch of a sidewalk to block the view of the mountain. The reason: misbehaving foreign tourists.

RESCUERS FIND BODY ON JAPAN’S MOUNT FUJI AFTER SEARCHING FOR MOUNTAINEER WHO FELL DURING LIVESTREAM

"Kawaguchiko is a town built on tourism, and I welcome many visitors, and the town welcomes them too, but there are many things about their manners that are worrying," said Michie Motomochi, owner of a cafe serving Japanese sweets "ohagi," near the soon-to-be-blocked photo spot.

Motomochi mentioned littering, crossing the road with busy traffic, ignoring traffic lights, trespassing into private properties. She isn't unhappy though — 80% of her customers are foreign visitors whose numbers have surged after a pandemic hiatus that kept Japan closed for about two years.

Her neighborhood suddenly became a popular spot about two years ago, apparently after a photo taken in a particular angle showing Mount Fuji in the background, as if sitting atop a local convenience store, became a social media sensation known as "Mt. Fuji Lawson," town officials say.

The mostly foreign tourists have since crowded the small area, triggering a wave of concerns and complaints from residents about visitors blocking the narrow sidewalk, taking photos on the busy road or walking into neighbors’ properties, officials said.

In Europe, concerns over tourists overcrowding historic cities led Venice last week to launch a pilot program to charge day-trippers a $5.35 entry fee. Authorities hope it will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Fujikawaguchiko has tried other methods: signs urging visitors not to run into the road and to use the designated crosswalk in English, Chinese, Thai and Korean, and even hiring a security guard as crowd control. None worked.

The black mesh net, when completed in mid-May, will be 8.2 feet high and 65.6 feet long, and will almost completely block the view of Mount Fuji, officials said.

Dozens of tourists gathered Tuesday taking photos even though Mount Fuji was not in sight due to cloudy weather.

Anthony Hok, from France, thought the screen was an overreaction. "Too big solution for subject not as big, even if tourists are making trouble. Doesn't look right to me," he said. The 26-year-old suggested setting up road barriers for safety instead of blocking views for pictures.

But Helen Pull, a 34-year-old visitor from the U.K., was sympathetic to the local concern. While traveling in Japan in the past few weeks, she has seen tourism "really ramped up here in Japan from what we've seen."

"I can see why people who live and work here might want to do something about that," she said, noting many were taking pictures even when the mountain was not in the view. "That's the power of the social media."

Foreign visitors have flocked to Japan since the pandemic border restrictions were lifted, in part due to the weaker yen.

Last year, Japan had more than 25 million visitors, and the number this year is expected to surpass nearly 32 million, a record from 2019, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. And the government wants more tourists.

While the booming tourism has helped the industry, it has triggered complaints from residents in popular tourist destinations, such as Kyoto and Kamakura. In Kyoto, a famous geisha district recently decided to close some private-property alleys.

Locals are uncertain about what to do.

Motomochi said she cannot imagine how the black screen can help control the flow of people on the narrow pedestrian walk and the road next to it.

Yoshihiko Ogawa, who runs a more than half-century-old rice shop in the Fujikawaguchiko area, said the overcrowding worsened in the past few months, with tourists gathering from around 4-5 a.m. and talking loudly. He sometimes struggles to get his car in and out of garage.

"We’ve never thought we'd face a situation like this," Ogawa said, adding he is unsure what the solution might be. "I suppose we all just need to get use to it."

A World Health Organization official said on Tuesday there was a risk of H5N1 bird flu virus spreading to cows in other countries beyond the United States through migratory birds.

U.S. officials are seeking to verify the safety of milk and meat after confirming the H5N1 virus in 34 dairy cattle herds in nine states since late March, and in one person in Texas.

"With the virus carried around the world by migratory birds, certainly there is a risk for cows in other countries to be getting infected," said Wenqing Zhang, head of WHO's Global Influenza Programme at a news briefing in Geneva.

AMID BIRD FLU SPREAD, EXPERTS REVEAL IF IT'S SAFE TO DRINK MILK: 'INDIRECT CONCERN'

She reiterated that the U.N. agency deems the overall public health risk posed by the virus to be low but urged vigilance.

Asked to evaluate U.S. transparency on the outbreak so far, Zhang said the global body had received regular updates and praised a decision to share the virus genetic sequence early.

"I do think the collaboration with U.S. CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the information we've received so far enables us to monitor the situation and to update the preparedness measures," she said.

Chinese coast guard ships fired water cannons at two Philippine patrol vessels Tuesday near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, damaging both in the latest flare-up in an increasingly tense territorial conflict.

There were no immediate reports of injuries in the incident off Scarborough Shoal, one of two hotly disputed areas where confrontations between China and the Philippines have flared on and off since last year.

A Philippine coast guard ship and an accompanying fisheries vessel were patrolling the waters off Scarborough Shoal when four Chinese coast guard ships, backed by six suspected militia ships, executed dangerous blocking maneuvers, Philippine coast guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said.

PHILIPPINES ISSUES 'STRONGEST PROTEST' AFTER CHINESE WATER CANNON ASSAULT ON NAVY BOAT

A Chinese coast guard ship used a water cannon against the fisheries vessel, the BRP Bankaw, and two other Chinese coast guard ships hit the Philippine coast guard ship, the BRP Bagacay, simultaneously from both sides, damaging part of its deck railing and a canopy, Tarriela added.

"China's coast guard and maritime militia vessels harassed, blocked and rammed vessels of the Philippine coast guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources," a Philippine government task force dealing with the territorial disputes said.

The Philippine fisheries vessel sustained damages, including to its electrical, navigation and radio systems, the task force said. A number of journalists who were invited to join the patrol witnessed the hostilities, it added.

"China's latest illegal and irresponsible behavior highlights its egregious disregard for the Philippines' lawful exercise of its rights and entitlements in our own Exclusive Economic Zone," the task force said.

The Philippine vessels pressed on with their patrol despite the Chinese coast guard’s actions, according to the Philippine coast guard. "They were not deterred and would persist in carrying out their legitimate operations to support Filipino fishermen and ensure their safety," it added.

China called its action Tuesday a "necessary measure". "The Philippines has violated China’s sovereignty with its actions," said Gan Yu, spokesperson for China’s coast guard. "It will continue to carry out actions to defend its rights in the Chinese waters according to law, and will resolutely uphold our country’s maritime rights", he insisted.

The Chinese coast guard has also re-installed a floating barrier across the entrance to the shoal’s vast fishing lagoon. The Philippine coast guard removed a similar barrier in the past to allow Filipinos to fish there.

China insists on its sovereignty over virtually all of the South China Sea, a key global trade route.

In addition to the Philippines and China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also been involved in the territorial disputes.

The increasing frequency of the skirmishes between the Philippines and China, which have injured Filipino navy personnel and damaged supply boats in the past, has sparked fears the territorial conflict could degenerate into an armed confrontation that could put China and the United States on a collision course.

The U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea but has warned that it is obligated to defend the Philippines, a longtime treaty ally, if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack including in the contested waters.

South African police were investigating Tuesday if former President Jacob Zuma's new political party forged supporters' signatures to register for national elections next month.

The MK Party, which has been highly critical of the ruling African National Congress he used to lead, has been embroiled in legal cases over whether it and Zuma are eligible to contest the May 29 national and provincial elections. They could be the most pivotal in South Africa in the last 30 years.

The MK Party had its registration last year rejected by the Independent Electoral Commission before a second attempt was successful. Zuma was ruled ineligible to stand as a candidate for Parliament because of his criminal conviction for contempt of court and prison sentence in 2021, but an appeal was successful and a final Constitutional Court ruling comes next month.

ANGER RISES OVER SOUTH AFRICA MAKING MILLIONS IN US BENEFITS WHILE COZYING UP TO IRAN, RUSSIA AND HAMAS

The new investigation into the MK Party came after a national newspaper reported Sunday that a former party official has told police there was an elaborate scheme to forge some of the 15,000 signatures required for parties to register for the elections.

The Independent Electoral Commission called for an investigation, and National Police Commissioner Gen. Fannie Masemola said Tuesday that an inquiry had been opened in Cape Town, where the forgery allegedly occurred. Masemola said the investigation would establish if there was a case for prosecutors.

Zuma rocked South African politics when he announced in December that he was joining the MK Party as its de facto leader and would be campaigning against the ANC, which he led from 2007-2017. Zuma was president of South Africa from 2009-2018 but was forced to step down by the ANC amid corruption allegations.

Zuma is accused of overseeing a period of rampant graft by some senior ANC and government officials in Africa’s most developed economy. He is currently on trial for corruption, although that case has been held up for three years by legal delays.

Since his resignation, he has been fiercely critical of President Cyril Ramaphosa, his successor as head of the country and the ANC.

Next month's election could be the most important since the ANC came to power at the end of the apartheid system of racial segregation in 1994. Numerous polls and analysts predict that the ANC could lose its parliamentary majority for the first time amid growing discontent and be forced into a coalition to stay in government.

Despite his legal troubles, Zuma remains popular in some parts of South Africa and his new MK Party is expected to take some of the ANC's vote if it's allowed to stand after the new allegations against it.

The MK Party is likely to be disqualified from the elections if it is found to have forged signatures.

Haiti’s newly installed transitional council chose former Sports Minister Fritz Belizaire as the country's prime minister Tuesday as it presses forward in its monumental task of trying to establish a stable new government amid stifling violence.

Belizaire replaces Michel Patrick Boisvert, the former minister of economy and finance who was the current interim prime minister. Belizaire is little known and even some members of the council didn't know him.

The nine-member transitional council, seven of whom have voting rights, was choosing a new prime minister and Cabinet in a bid to help quell gang violence that is choking the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond.

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More than 90,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in the span of one month, and overall, more than 360,000 people have been left homeless in recent years as gunmen raze communities in rival territories.

Belizaire had the support of four of the council's voting members.

Earlier, the council chose Edgard Leblanc Fils, a former presidential candidate, as its president. "This experience proves we are capable of negotiations," Fils said after announcing Bélizaire as the new prime minister.

The announcement of Bélizaire came as a surprise. A murmur rose through the attendees as Fils announced that four council members with voting powers had selected Bélizaire as prime minister.

HAITIAN OFFICIALS SCRAMBLE TO IMPOSE SECURITY MEASURES WITH COUNCIL INAUGURATION IMMINENT

Leslie Voltaire, one of the voting council members, told The Associated Press, "I don’t know him," when asked whether he supported Bélizaire.

Bélizaire served as Haiti's sports minister during the second presidency of René Préval from 2006 to 2011.

After the brief announcement, which was made nearly two hours after the event was supposed to start, the council went behind closed doors again to talk about their choices for Cabinet. Voltaire, however, said he didn’t expect the council to announce Cabinet selections on Tuesday.

The majority supporting Bélizaire as prime minister included Fils, the council’s new president, Smith Augustin, Louis Gérald Gilles and Emmanuel Vertilaire.

The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections some time before it disbands, which must be by February 2026.

Haitians remain divided over whether they believe a transitional government can help calm a troubled country whose capital has been under siege since gangs launched coordinated attacks that began Feb. 29.

Gang members have burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remains closed since early March and broke into Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. The country’s biggest seaport also remains largely paralyzed by gang violence.

But one thing is certain: Haitians want security. "Haitians are very impatient now. They want to see results," said Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia.

The council is expected to support the U.N.-backed deployment of a Kenyan police force to help fight gangs, although it’s unclear when that might happen.

Former Prime Minister Ariel Henry was on an official trip to the East African country when the coordinated gang attacks began, and he remains locked out of Haiti. He submitted his resignation last week.