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Indian Navy Shadowing Bulk Carrier Likely Taken by Somali Pirates in Arabian Sea

This handout photo made available by India's Press Information Bureau shows the Maltese-flagged MV Ruen. (Press Information Bureau via AP)
This handout photo made available by India's Press Information Bureau shows the Maltese-flagged MV Ruen. (Press Information Bureau via AP)
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Indian Navy Shadowing Bulk Carrier Likely Taken by Somali Pirates in Arabian Sea

This handout photo made available by India's Press Information Bureau shows the Maltese-flagged MV Ruen. (Press Information Bureau via AP)
This handout photo made available by India's Press Information Bureau shows the Maltese-flagged MV Ruen. (Press Information Bureau via AP)

The Indian Navy said Saturday that it is shadowing a bulk carrier that was boarded by unknown attackers — likely Somali pirates — in the Arabian Sea.

The Maltese-flagged MV Ruen, with a crew of 18, had sent a Mayday message on the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations portal on Thursday indicating that six unknown people had boarded the vessel, the Indian Navy said in its statement.

The navy responded to the distress call by sending its anti-piracy patrol warship and maritime patrol aircraft to locate and assist the vessel, it added.

The aircraft overflew the hijacked vessel early Friday and has since been continuously monitoring the movement of the vessel, which the Indian Navy said was headed toward the coast of Somalia. It added that its warship, which was deployed in the Gulf of Aden for anti-piracy patrols, also intercepted the carrier early on Saturday.

The Ruen, which is managed by Bulgarian shipping company Navibulgar, was off the Yemeni island of Socotra when it was boarded on Thursday, the private intelligence firm Ambrey and the UKMTO said. Bulgarian authorities said the ship’s crew were nationals of Angola, Bulgaria and Myanmar.

“The necessary steps have been taken to pass the information on to all foreign partners and institutions that we will count on to provide assistance,” Bulgarian Foreign Minister Maria Gabriel told reporters Friday.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault. However, suspicion immediately fell on pirates from Somalia. Their activity has dropped in recent years. Somali piracy had dropped in recent years, but there has been growing concern it could resume amid the political uncertainty in the country and wider chaos in the region that has included attacks on shipping by the Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen.

On Friday, the UKMTO issued a warning to shippers saying the security manager for the Ruen “believes the crew no longer has control of the vessel.”

The European Union’s anti-piracy force in the region said the Spanish frigate Victoria was on its way to intercept the “alleged pirate-hijacked vessel.”

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World

Report: Ukraine to Take Measures Against Israel if Grain Ship Docks

View of Mount Carmel city and port of Haifa in northern Israel. (AFP)
View of Mount Carmel city and port of Haifa in northern Israel. (AFP)
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Report: Ukraine to Take Measures Against Israel if Grain Ship Docks

View of Mount Carmel city and port of Haifa in northern Israel. (AFP)
View of Mount Carmel city and port of Haifa in northern Israel. (AFP)

Israel ‌risks a diplomatic and legal response from Kyiv if it allows a vessel carrying grain from Russian-occupied Ukraine to dock at the port of Haifa, a Ukrainian diplomatic source told Reuters on Monday.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported earlier that the vessel Panormitis, which ‌it said was ‌carrying grain from ‌occupied Ukrainian ⁠territory that Kyiv ⁠regards as stolen, was waiting for permission to berth in Haifa.

"If this ship and its cargo isn't rejected, we reserve the right to deploy a ⁠full suite of diplomatic and ‌international legal responses," ‌the Ukrainian source said on ‌condition of anonymity.

Israel's foreign ministry did ‌not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Haaretz reported on Sunday that four shipments of grain from occupied Ukraine ‌had already been unloaded in Israel this year.

"The ⁠practice ⁠of laundering stolen goods is unacceptable, and Israel has essentially shrugged off our demands regarding the previous vessel," the source said.

The source added Kyiv was tracking the vessel, warning that allowing it to dock would have consequences for bilateral relations between Ukraine and Israel.

World

‘Looming’ Risk of Nuclear Arms Race, UN Proliferation Meeting Hears

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to delegates during a meeting on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at UN headquarters in New York City, US, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to delegates during a meeting on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at UN headquarters in New York City, US, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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‘Looming’ Risk of Nuclear Arms Race, UN Proliferation Meeting Hears

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to delegates during a meeting on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at UN headquarters in New York City, US, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to delegates during a meeting on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at UN headquarters in New York City, US, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)

Signatories of the landmark nuclear non-proliferation treaty began a meeting at the UN on Monday as fears of a renewed arms race escalate, with atomic powers once again at loggerheads over safeguards.

In 2022, during the last review of the treaty considered the cornerstone of non-proliferation, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned humanity was "one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation."

On Monday he warned "the drivers" of nuclear weapons proliferation were accelerating.

"For too long, the Treaty has been eroding. Commitments remain unfulfilled. Trust and credibility are wearing thin. The drivers of proliferation are accelerating. We need to breathe life into the Treaty once more," Guterres said in opening remarks.

With global geopolitical friction only heightened since the last meeting, it was unclear what the two-week gathering at UN headquarters in New York could achieve.

"We should not expect this conference to resolve the underlying strategic tensions of our time... but a balanced outcome that reaffirms core commitments and set out practical steps forward would strengthen the integrity of the NPT," said Do Hung Viet, Vietnam's UN ambassador and president of the conference.

"The success or failure of this conference will have implications way beyond these halls and way beyond these next five years, the prospects of a new nuclear arms race are looming over us," he said.

The nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), signed by almost all the countries on the planet -- with notable exceptions including Israel, India, and Pakistan -- aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to promote complete disarmament, and to encourage cooperation on civilian nuclear projects.

The nine nuclear-armed states -- Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea -- possessed 12,241 nuclear warheads in January 2025, according to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The United States and Russia hold nearly 90 percent of nuclear weapons globally and have carried out major programs to modernize them in recent years, according to SIPRI.

China has also rapidly increased its nuclear stockpile, SIPRI said, with the G7 raising the alarm Friday over Moscow and Beijing boosting their nuclear capabilities.

US President Donald Trump has indicated his intention to conduct new nuclear tests, accusing others of doing so clandestinely.

In March, France's President Emmanuel Macron announced a dramatic shift in nuclear deterrence, notably an increase in the atomic arsenal, currently numbering 290 warheads.

- 'Affront' to NPT -

"It is obvious that trust is eroding, both inside and outside the NPT," Seth Shelden of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, told AFP.

He questioned the likely outcome of the four-week summit.

Decisions on the NPT have to be agreed by consensus, with the previous two conferences failing to adopt final political declarations.

In 2015, the deadlock was largely due to opposition by Israel's arch-ally Washington to the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.

In 2022, the impasse was due mainly to Russian opposition to references to Ukraine's nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia, occupied by Moscow.

This year's summit could fall on any number of stumbling blocks.

The ongoing war in Ukraine, Iran's nuclear program and the war there, non-nuclear states' fears over proliferation and North Korea's developing arsenal could all be deal-breakers.

The United States along with its allies Britain and Australia spoke out at Iran's appointment as a conference vice president.

Washington's envoy to the meeting said conferring a leadership role on Tehran was an "affront" to countries that take the NPT "seriously."

Artificial intelligence could be a prominent issue as some countries call for all sides to keep human control over nuclear weapons.

World

UK PM Starmer Faces Vote on Possible Parliamentary Probe Over Mandelson

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech at the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) Annual Delegate Meeting at the Winter Gardens Blackpool, in Blackpool, Britain, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech at the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) Annual Delegate Meeting at the Winter Gardens Blackpool, in Blackpool, Britain, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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UK PM Starmer Faces Vote on Possible Parliamentary Probe Over Mandelson

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech at the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) Annual Delegate Meeting at the Winter Gardens Blackpool, in Blackpool, Britain, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech at the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) Annual Delegate Meeting at the Winter Gardens Blackpool, in Blackpool, Britain, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)

Britain's parliament will vote on Tuesday on a possible inquiry into Prime Minister Keir Starmer, looking at whether he misled the House of Commons over the appointment of former US ambassador Peter Mandelson.

Any such inquiry could have serious implications for Starmer's future. He has so far resisted pressure to quit over his decision to hire Mandelson, but if found to have knowingly misled parliament his position would likely become untenable.

House of Commons ‌Speaker Lindsay Hoyle ‌said he had approved a request from opposition Conservative ‌Party ⁠leader Kemi Badenoch for ⁠parliament to debate and vote on whether the Committee of Privileges should look into the matter.

Mandelson was fired by Starmer last September after his relationship with the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found to be deeper than previously known.

DOUBTS OVER PM'S JUDGMENT

That has raised doubts about Starmer's judgment in hiring him, exacerbated by the revelation that a security vetting body had described the appointment ⁠as a borderline case and that it was leaning against ‌granting clearance - a decision foreign ministry officials overruled ‌without telling the prime minister.

Starmer's center-left Labour Party has a large majority in parliament, ‌which could allow the government to instruct its lawmakers to vote down ‌the launch of an inquiry.

On Monday the government published a letter sent in September from former cabinet secretary Chris Wormald, saying he had concluded "that appropriate processes were followed in both the appointment and withdrawal" of Mandelson as ambassador.

A spokesperson from Starmer's office described ‌Badenoch's push for a vote as a "desperate political stunt" ahead of local elections due on May 7.

Hoyle said his decision ⁠to allow ⁠the vote should not be taken as an indicator of whether Starmer had done anything wrong or not.

If parliament did vote in favor of an inquiry, the committee, made up of lawmakers from the three biggest parties, would examine whether Starmer's statements on Mandelson amount to knowingly or inadvertently misleading the House of Commons.

The focus of any such inquiry would be expected to fall on Starmer's statement that due process was followed when hiring Mandelson.

The committee previously found that former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson had knowingly misled parliament over rule-breaking parties held during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Johnson had already stood down as prime minister by the time the report was published, but he resigned from parliament altogether after seeing a draft copy of the findings.