The Iranian-flagged cargo ship Touska is seen as USS Spruance conducts its interception in the north Arabian Sea on April 19, 2026. © Centcom, via Reuters
US & Israel – Iran War Updates
Iran has vowed retaliation after a US destroyer fired on an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman late last week. The cargo ship was attempting to evade a US naval blockade. Tehran condemned the incident as “armed piracy” and warned its forces would respond soon. Oil prices rose and stock futures fell as the markets received conflicting messages about the Iran war and news that the Strait of Hormuz was closed again. As deliberations on ending the war are underway in Islamabad Pakistan, Iran has stated it is not planning to participate in new peace talks with the United States. US President Donald Trump has said the US was sending envoys to Pakistan for talks and would strike Iran unless it unconditionally accepted his terms. The setback in diplomatic talks and increased threats will prolong the war now in its eighth week, which has resulted in thousands of lost lives and created one of the most severe shocks to global energy supplies in history.
A screengrab of a video posted by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on October 29, 2025, shows the aftermath of a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean [Screengrab/US Defense Department] Al Jazeera
US Strikes in the Pacific
Last week four more people were killed in a US airstrike in the Eastern Pacific, in growing attacks on vessels over the past few months. SOUTHCOM, which is responsible for US military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, claimed that the four people killed were “narco-terrorists”, but provided no evidence to support the claims. The latest killing of people on board vessels in international waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean brings the overall death toll to at least 175. The attacks began in early September 2025, when US President Donald Trump ordered attacks to stop what was claimed to be Latin American drugboats transporting drugs to the US. International law experts, human rights groups and regional governments have accused the US administration of carrying out extrajudicial killings in international waters, which have likely targeted civilians, often fishing crews, who do not pose an immediate threat to the US.
Displaced people have been crossing into Burundi at the Kavimvira border to escape the M23 advance Image: Jospin Mwisha/AFP/Getty Images
DRC – M23 rebels humanitarian truce
The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and M23 rebels have agreed to ease aid deliveries and release prisoners, as a push to resolve the years-long conflict that has persisted despite multiple peace deals continues in Switzerland. While the two sides signed a United States-brokered peace agreement in December 2025, fighting has continued. Both sides pledged not to target civilians and to facilitate medical care for the wounded and sick as they noted progress on a protocol for humanitarian access and judicial protections.
The agreement establishes a body to track humanitarian and security developments and monitor potential ceasefire violations. It will include representatives from both the DRC government and the armed group, with support from the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). The conflict has seen thousands killed, over a million people seeking refuge abroad and twenty-one million people with-in the country in need of urgent medical, food, and other aid, representing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
Commuters walk on a platform after disembarking from a suburban train at a railway station in Mumbai, India [File: Niharika Kulkarni/Reuters]
India begins world’s largest census
With an estimated population of 1.4 billion, India, now the world’s most populous nation, is launching what is set to be the largest census ever conducted. More than three million officials will be involved in documenting the country’s huge and still growing population. The exercise will be conducted across 36 states and federally-administered territories, more than 7,000 sub-districts, over 9,700 towns and nearly 640,000 villages, Enumerators will gather data on amenities such as drinking water, lighting, sanitation, wastewater outlets, bathing and kitchen facilities, and cooking fuel. In addition, details of accessibility to the internet, television, mobile phones, vehicles and computers will be recorded. The last census in India was held 15 years ago in 2011 since the 2021 Census was delayed because of the outbreak of Covid-19. The process this time around will also include caste enumeration, allowing the counting and categorizing individuals based on their caste affiliation, a politically sensitive issue that has long been debated and absent from census taking since 1931.