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Spain Denies Port of Call to Ship Carrying Arms to Israel

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares speaks to the media, on the day of a meeting to discuss the post-Brexit future of Gibraltar, at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, April 12, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares speaks to the media, on the day of a meeting to discuss the post-Brexit future of Gibraltar, at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, April 12, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Spain Denies Port of Call to Ship Carrying Arms to Israel

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares speaks to the media, on the day of a meeting to discuss the post-Brexit future of Gibraltar, at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, April 12, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares speaks to the media, on the day of a meeting to discuss the post-Brexit future of Gibraltar, at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, April 12, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Spain has refused permission for a ship carrying arms to Israel to dock at a Spanish port, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said.

"This is the first time we have done this because it is the first time we have detected a ship carrying a shipment of arms to Israel that wants to call at a Spanish port," he told reporters in Brussels.

"This will be a consistent policy with any ship carrying arms to Israel that wants to call at Spanish ports. The foreign ministry will systematically reject such stopovers for one obvious reason. The Middle East does not need more weapons, it needs more peace," he added, AFP reported.

The Spanish minister did not provide details on the ship but Transport Minister Oscar Puente said it was the Marianne Danica which had requested permission to call at the southeastern port of Cartagena on May 21.

El Pais newspaper said the Danish-flagged ship is carrying 27 tonnes of explosive material from Madras in India to the port of Haifa in Israel.

The announcement that permission had been denied comes amid a row between Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialists and his coalition partners, the hard-left Sumar party, over another ship, the Borkum, which is due to dock in Cartagena on Friday.

Pro-Palestinian groups say the Borkum is carrying arms to Israel, prompting Sumar to demand that it be turned away. But Puente said the Borkum was transporting military material to the Czech Republic, not Israel.

Spain has been one of Europe's most critical voices about Israel's Gaza offensive and is working to rally other European capitals behind the idea of recognizing a Palestinian state.

Spain halted arms sales to Israel after it launched a military onslaught against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

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World

Trump Calls Iran Conflict ‘Small Potatoes’ and Defends Vance’s Position That It’s Not a ‘War’

US President Donald Trump attends an event to sign executive orders related to beef, in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, DC, US, September 4, 2026. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump attends an event to sign executive orders related to beef, in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, DC, US, September 4, 2026. (Reuters)
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Trump Calls Iran Conflict ‘Small Potatoes’ and Defends Vance’s Position That It’s Not a ‘War’

US President Donald Trump attends an event to sign executive orders related to beef, in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, DC, US, September 4, 2026. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump attends an event to sign executive orders related to beef, in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, DC, US, September 4, 2026. (Reuters)

President Donald Trump on Friday said the conflict in Iran is “small potatoes” as he defended Vice President JD Vance for asserting that months of on-and-off attacks in the Middle East are not a “war.”

Asked during an Oval Office exchange about Vance’s comments made a day earlier, Trump said US strikes on Iran are now “intermittent” and “a lot of people don’t call it a war." The conflict has cost US taxpayers more than $37.5 billion and left 18 US service members dead.

“I can understand what he’s saying,” said Trump. He added: “I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing."

Vance, during a White House press briefing Thursday, rejected the use of the word “war” to describe the US fighting with Iran and steered clear of predicting that the six-month-old conflict would be over by November’s midterm elections, in which Republicans are trying to hang on to their narrow majorities in Congress.

“I wouldn’t call it a war,” Vance said after being asked about whether the fighting could end before voters cast their ballots in the Nov. 3 elections. “Right now, there is no active shooting.”

Vance’s assertion came even as Iran fired at Kuwait on Thursday in retaliation for rounds of US strikes on Iran earlier in the week.

Trump in Friday's exchange with reporters added that the US death toll in the Iran conflict is relatively lower than some other recent US wars. The US and Israel have only carried out air strikes in the Iran war, which began Feb. 28, and have not deployed troops into the country.

“We did Venezuela and we did this. In Venezuela, we lost nobody,” said Trump, referring to the January US military operation to seize former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and spirit him to New York City to face federal drug trafficking charges. “And this, we lost 18 people. And, in Vietnam we lost 100,000 people. And in other conflicts, we lost tens of thousands of people.”

A total of 58,220 members of the US armed forces died during the Vietnam War, according to records from the US National Archives.

Pressed by a reporter on describing the conflict as “small potatoes" when 18 US service members have been killed, Trump responded by reiterating his argument that the conflict — one that he said at the outset of the war would last a matter of weeks — has led to the defanging of Iran's nuclear program.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did you probably wouldn’t be standing here,” Trump said.

World

UN Approves Resolution in Support of Map that Shows Africa's True Size

FILE PHOTO: A vendor sells a map of Africa along the streets of Bujumbura, Burundi April 24, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A vendor sells a map of Africa along the streets of Bujumbura, Burundi April 24, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo
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UN Approves Resolution in Support of Map that Shows Africa's True Size

FILE PHOTO: A vendor sells a map of Africa along the streets of Bujumbura, Burundi April 24, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A vendor sells a map of Africa along the streets of Bujumbura, Burundi April 24, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo

The United Nations on Friday voted for a shift away from the 16th-century Mercator global map towards one more accurately reflecting countries' true size, a resolution sponsored by African states to counter perceptions that the continent is peripheral.

Togo led the initiative to further the African Union campaign to limit use of the Mercator map, which distorts the relative size of land masses by expanding those nearer the poles. It makes Greenland appear roughly the same size ⁠as Africa, though Africa ⁠is about 14 times larger.

"A fair world begins with a fair map," Togo's Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told Reuters ahead of Friday's vote.

The resolution promotes the Equal Earth projection, which more accurately portrays the size of the continents.

It is not legally binding and it "in no way challenges the use of the Mercator projection for maritime and aerial navigation, for which it remains fully suited," the Togolese ministry ⁠said in a statement.

The resolution passed in the UN General Assembly by a vote of 164 to 1 with 6 abstentions.

The United States, the only country to vote against the resolution, said it promoted an "ideological agenda" and was a distraction from the "genuine problems of international peace, prosperity or good relations".

The Mercator map remains widely used in classrooms, but Togo hopes to change its school geography materials by the end of the year, Dussey told Reuters.

"Togo will be the first country to change our own geography books," Dussey said.

"In the classroom, we need to change it ⁠to give an ⁠example to all the countries in the world."

Togo will press other governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to move away from the centuries-old Mercator projection, Dussey said, adding that Equal Earth offers "the best perception" of the world.

Togo plans to meet African Union member states and supporters from other regions within the next six months to agree on how to promote wider adoption, Dussey said.

Dussey said the discussion about next steps would need to include companies operating mapping, GPS and other location-based technologies.

Dussey linked the campaign to adopt the map to wider African efforts to confront colonial-era legacies, while saying it was not an attack on Europe or any other civilization.

The Mercator map's widespread use is a consequence of colonization, he said.

"The world is changing. Africa also is changing."

World

Philippine VP is Ordered Arrested for Threats Against the President

FILE -Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte gestures as she speaks during a press conference in Manila, Philippines on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Basilio Sepe, File)
FILE -Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte gestures as she speaks during a press conference in Manila, Philippines on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Basilio Sepe, File)
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Philippine VP is Ordered Arrested for Threats Against the President

FILE -Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte gestures as she speaks during a press conference in Manila, Philippines on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Basilio Sepe, File)
FILE -Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte gestures as she speaks during a press conference in Manila, Philippines on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Basilio Sepe, File)

A Philippine court ordered the arrest of Vice President Sara Duterte on Friday over charges that she publicly threatened to have the president and two other people assassinated.

Duterte was already impeached by the House of Representatives in May on the same charges as well as alleged financial anomalies, The Associated Press reported. Her troubles are part of a high-stakes political showdown pitting her against her rival, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. A conviction could derail her plans to seek the presidency in 2028, when Marcos' six-year term ends.

A lawyer of the vice president, who has denied the charges, suggested she will post bail to avoid detention while facing trial by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court.

“She has no intention of evading the law and will continue to exercise all her legal remedies,” Paul Lawrence Lim said in a statement, without elaborating.

The charges stem from a threat made by Duterte in a 2024 online news conference to have Marcos, his wife and then-House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez killed by an assassin if she herself was killed, as their political disputes escalated. The vice president then warned that her threat wasn’t a joke.

She later said she wasn’t threatening Marcos but was expressing concern for her own safety. Her remarks set off a criminal investigation and national security concerns.

Marcos and Duterte were running mates in the 2022 elections in a whirlwind alliance that combined the vote-getting power of two of the country’s most formidable political dynasties, but the union rapidly fell apart.

The vice president is the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos’ predecessor. Rodrigo Duterte was arrested last year on orders of the International Criminal Court and detained in The Hague, where he is scheduled to face trial over alleged crimes against humanity on Nov. 30.

The charges are in connection with brutal anti-drugs crackdowns that left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead while Duterte was in power. He has denied authorizing extrajudicial killings but repeatedly threatened suspects with death while in office.

Last May, the House of Representatives, which is dominated by Marcos’ allies, voted overwhelmingly to impeach the vice president over alleged unexplained wealth, misuse of confidential state funds and her threats against Marcos, his wife and Romualdez.

The Philippine Senate, acting as an impeachment court, opened her televised trial in July.

If convicted of the charges, Duterte may be permanently disqualified from holding public office and will prohibit her from seeking the presidency in 2028.

Marcos and the Dutertes have contrasting geopolitical leanings. Marcos has expanded defense engagements with the United States, his country’s treaty ally, as his administration stood up to China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea.

Rodrigo Duterte had nurtured cozy ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin while threatening to sever ties with Washington. The vice president has come under fire for not condemning China’s assaults, including with the use of powerful water cannons, against Filipino forces and fishermen in the disputed waters.