Reports surfaced that Iran is limiting ships to 15 per day through the Strait—carrying 20% of global oil—and demanding up to $2 million per vessel or $1 per barrel in cryptocurrency or yuan. The U.S president posted on social media demanding they halt immediately, as oil prices rise on fears of disruptions. Tensions rise with Iran rejecting nuclear curbs, ceasefire disputes over Lebanon, and ongoing Israeli strikes on Hezbollah, while talks push on in Islamabad for full access and sanctions relief.

A transgender darts player said she’s “not done fighting” after the sport’s governing body enacted rules barring transgender women from women’s tournaments. Noa-Lynn van Leuven of the Netherlands spoke out Thursday when the Darts Regulation Authority’s new policy took effect. “Apparently, I just got retired — not by choice, but because I’m no longer allowed to compete,” Van Leuven said in a video on her Instagram account. The 29-year-old van Leuven had competed in the Women’s Series of the Professional Darts Corporation. In 2024, she became the first transgender woman to play at the PDC World Darts Championship. “I’ve worked...

Taiwan’s opposition leader met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, the first such encounter in over a decade, with both sides affirming the need for maintaining peace around the self-ruled island island China claims as its territory. Both Xi and Cheng Li-wun, the head of the Beijing-friendly Kuomingtang Party, reiterated they wanted to move toward a peaceful reunification of Taiwan and the mainland, though it remains unclear how they would achieve it. China hasn’t ruled out the use of force and has stepped up its military exercises around Taiwan, sending warships and fighter...

South Korea’s justice minister has pledged to expand access to judicial remedies for victims of state-led abuses, including foreign adoptees whose adoptions were marred by widespread fraud under previous military governments. Using unusually strong language for a senior South Korean official, Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho said the country’s past adoptions amounted to “forced child trafficking” and that the government will largely refrain from appealing rulings in cases brought by victims seeking compensation for government wrongdoing. Jung spoke Thursday in a roundtable interview with selected journalists. Hundreds of Korean adoptees in the West have already requested that their cases be investigated...

First lady Melania Trump is denying ties to Jeffrey Epstein and knowledge of his sex crimes, saying Thursday that the “stories are completely false” and calling accusations that she was somehow involved “smears about me.” Reading an extraordinary statement at the White House, Melania Trump said she and her attorneys were fighting back against “unfound and baseless lies” in regards to her connections to the late financier, a convicted sex offender who leveraged connections to the rich, powerful and famous to recruit his victims and cover up his crimes. “The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to...

A drone strike on a town in Sudan’s Darfur region hit a wedding party, killing at least 30 civilians, including women and children, the United Nations said Thursday. Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N.’s secretary-general, said during a briefing that the wedding ceremony was in the town of Kutum in North Darfur. The strike is the latest in an intensifying dronefare between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who have been at war since April 2023. The nearly three-year conflict in Sudan killed more than 40,000 people, according to U.N. figures, but aid groups say the true number...

Voters in the small Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti cast ballots for president on Friday, with longtime leader Ismaïl Omar Guelleh expected to secure a sixth term in office after lawmakers scrapped presidential age limits last year. Guelleh, 78, has ruled the country of about 1 million for more than two decades. The results of the 2021 election showed him winning nearly 99% of the vote. He faces a single challenger, Mohamed Farah Samatar, a former ruling party member, in a race analysts say offers little genuine competition. Opposition groups frequently boycott elections, citing restrictions on political freedoms. Critics...