PARIS (AP) — The leaders of France and the U.K. will gather dozens of countries — but not the United States — on Friday to push forward plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil route choked off by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

The Paris meeting is part of attempts by sidelined nations to ease the impact of a conflict they didn’t start and haven’t joined, but that has sent the global economy reeling. After the war started on Feb. 28, Iran effectively shut the narrow strait though which a fifth of the world’s oil usually passes.

The U.S. is not part of the planning for what has been branded the Strait of Hormuz Maritime Freedom of Navigation Initiative. In a post on X ahead of Friday’s conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said the mission to provide security for shipping through the strait would be “strictly defensive,” limited to non-belligerent countries and deployed “when security conditions allow.”

Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have spearheaded international efforts to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran, which Starmer has accused of “holding the world’s economy to ransom.” U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a retaliatory American blockade of Iranian ports has raised the economic jeopardy even higher.

“The unconditional and immediate reopening of the Strait is a global responsibility, and we need to act to get global energy and trade flowing freely again,” Starmer said before the meeting.

France and Britain also have led military planning meetings, in an echo of the “coalition of the willing” assembled to provide security for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire in that war.

French military spokesman Col. Guillaume Vernet said Thursday that the mission is still “in construction.”

Macron’s office said participants will contribute “each according to its capabilities,” stressing options to ensure safe passage through the strait will depend on the security situation after a lasting ceasefire.

“What matters is that ship operators have all the means at their disposal to be sure their vessels will not be hit if they pass through the strait. That may require intelligence, mine-clearing capabilities, military escorts, communication procedures with coastal states, etc.,” an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the French presidency’s customary practices.

Sidharth Kaushal, a research fellow in sea power at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said mine-clearing and creating a warning system for maritime threats were more likely roles for the coalition than warships escorting commercial tankers though the strait.

“You need huge numbers of vessels for that sort of thing, which nobody has,” he said.

Iran expert Ellie Geranmayeh, deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said mine-clearing is an area where European countries and their partners could play a role.

“They would be a better party to do this than the United States, because once you have U.S. military doing this and lingering on Iranian shores, it creates a potential arena for Iran and the U.S. to have miscalculations and get back into a sort of military tension,” she said.

Britain has discussed using mine-hunting drones, deployed from the ship RFA Lyme Bay, for a Hormuz mission.

The war has highlighted the shrunken state of the Royal Navy, which has deployed just one major warship, destroyer HMS Dragon, to the eastern Mediterranean. France, which has the European Union’s most powerful military, has sent its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the region, alongside a helicopter carrier and several frigates.

More than 40 nations have taken part in diplomatic or military meetings led by France and the U.K. in recent weeks, though fewer are likely to commit military resources.

Macron’s office said about 30 countries are to attend Friday’s talks, including some from the Middle East and Asia. The list has not been disclosed. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni are expected to attend in person, with others joining by video.

The operation is partly a response to Trump, who has berated allies for failing to join the war and said reopening the strait is not America’s job. The president has called allies “cowards,” said NATO “wasn’t there when we needed them” and telling Britain: “You don’t even have a navy.”

“I imagine there’ll be some desire on the part of many European states, and potentially Canada, to demonstrate the ability to provide security in a way that’s distinct from if not completely separate from the U.S. and which also demonstrates a capacity for independent action,” Kaushal said.

“How many states actually have spare capacity to offer to this is a pretty open question.”

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Lawless reported from London.

April 10–16, 2026

A baby monkey named Yuji, with a stuffed dog as a surrogate mom, stole hearts in Guadalajara, Mexico. Peruvians took to the polls to elect their ninth president in 10 years. In Colina, Chile, pilgrims on horseback took part in the Quasimodo Feast, a procession held the Sunday following Easter, accompanying priests giving communion to the poor.

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This gallery was curated by photo editor Jon Orbach, based in Mexico City.

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AP photography: https://apnews.com/photography

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews

ATLANTA (AP) — Four years ago, Democrat Stacey Abrams commanded the spotlight with her campaign for Georgia governor, dumping millions of dollars into the race as the media followed her every move.

But there is little of that energy so far in 2026. Even though Democrats may have a better shot at winning, there is far less attention and money as their candidates compete for the nomination in next month’s primary.

Their struggles raise the possibility that the Democrats could miss another chance to win the Georgia governor’s office for the first time since 1998.

National Democrats say they are not going to let that happen. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who leads the Democratic Governors Association, said Georgia is “in play” and the money will be there for the party’s eventual nominee.

“We’re going to make sure the Democratic candidate in Georgia has the funding they need to compete,” Beshear told The Associated Press on Saturday as he visited Atlanta to keynote a party dinner.

While Republicans have flooded the state with nearly $100 million in advertising, Democrats have spent only $1.24 million. Most observers believe no Democrat will win a majority in the rapidly approaching May 19 primary, prolonging the party’s uncertainty.

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms could be headed toward a June 16 runoff, thanks to superior name identification and being the only Black woman running in a party that has historically relied on support from Black women. But the scramble for a second spot appears wide-open, with likely contenders including former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former state Sen. Jason Esteves and former state labor commissioner and CEO of suburban DeKalb County Mike Thurmond.

On the Republican side, health care billionaire Rick Jackson has already spent or pledged $50 million toward his bid, twice as much as any previous primary candidate for Georgia governor. There is also Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump; Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; and Attorney General Chris Carr.

It is a contrast to 2022, when Abrams outraised Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. She ended up losing the race, her second defeat to Kemp.

But Democrats say they are not worried this year even if they are outspent.

“I’ll still win,” Bottoms said after a campaign event Monday, echoing other Democrats who say money can’t paper over voter discontent with Republicans.

She argues that she is a “battle-tested leader” who gained national experience in President Joe Biden’s administration. Like other Democrats, she cites expanding health care, affordable housing and better education as among her top issues.

“When given the opportunity to lead, I led on behalf of not just the city of Atlanta, but people across the state, and I am ready to go and fight for all of our communities to make Georgia a better place for our children,” Bottoms said Wednesday.

The Democratic race doesn’t feature notable policy splits along the lines of the progressive-moderate fissures that have opened around the country. It is not even a clear-cut contrast on style like in the Texas Senate primary that James Talarico won over Jasmine Crockett. Only Esteves, who started nearly unknown statewide, has been willing to attack the other candidates.

The noncombative nature of the other candidates was on display Wednesday night in a televised debate that included only Bottoms, Duncan and Thurmond. Duncan made only the most oblique criticisms of Bottoms’ record as mayor. After Thurmond blamed Duncan for supporting a bill allowing people to carry guns more widely, he said in a postdebate interview that the criticism wasn’t aimed at Duncan directly.

Esteves is banking on a late surge to propel him to the runoff. He has spent about $1 million on a burst of advertising, the only significant spending by any Democrat thus far. The 42-year-old, who has a Puerto Rican father and a Black mother, argues he can build the “multiracial, multigenerational coalition” needed to win the young and diverse electorate in Georgia.

He often references his experience as a middle school teacher and small business owner in addition to his time as a lawyer, school board member and state senator.

“A lot of the challenges that Georgians are facing, I am facing in real time,” Esteves said in a Wednesday interview. “They’re looking for someone who not only wants to solve their issues, but can identify personally with their issues.”

Esteves is the only Democrat attacking Bottoms on how she managed crime, disorder and the COVID pandemic as mayor before her surprise decision not to seek a second term.

“The fact that she did not run for reelection confirmed people’s belief that when the going gets tough, she stepped out on the city,” Esteves said.

Bottoms defends her stewardship and says she declined to run again “based on what was best for me personally and my family.”

Esteves has also repeatedly taken aim at Duncan, saying Duncan “oversaw some of the passage of the worst bills” while lieutenant governor, including Georgia’s ban on abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected. Although dozens of state lawmakers are backing Esteves, his top surrogate has been Shanette Williams, the mother of Amber Nicole Thurman, a woman who died in a suburban Atlanta hospital in 2022 after taking abortion pills and developing an infection.

Duncan is best known for opposing Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. He has spent the past year apologizing for his Republican past and argues he is the only Democrat who can win over enough moderate voters to give his new party a win. In recent weeks, Duncan has begun to pick up some endorsements from moderate Democrats and unions.

“I don’t want to only earn your vote, I want to earn your trust,” Duncan said in Wednesday night’s debate.

Thurmond calls himself a “throwback” and says his experience in state and local government, including leading the state child welfare agency, serving as labor commissioner and helping to bail out the DeKalb County school district as superintendent, would let him move quickly to enact Democratic priorities.

“I have a track record of service to the people of Georgia, and I believe this election would turn not on promises, but on performance,” Thurmond said in an interview after Wednesday’s debate.

He has been trying to knit together a coalition of rural voters and older Democrats. Among those backing him are Roy Barnes, the last Democratic governor, and Andrew Young, the former mayor of Atlanta and one of the last surviving leaders of the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The man accused of killing Charlie Kirk wants a judge to ban cameras from the courtroom and says live broadcasts of the prosecution are violating his right to a fair trial.

Tyler Robinson is due in court Friday as his attorneys press their claims that biased coverage is tainting potential jurors in his aggravated murder case.

Among numerous examples cited was a New York Post story they say suggested Robinson confessed to Kirk’s killing during a courtroom conversation on Dec. 11, in his first appearance after being charged. The conversation with his attorneys was inaudible, but the story cited a “lip reading analysis” to support its claim that Robinson said, “I think about the shooting daily.”

“The predominant purpose being served by the live stream coverage has not been the educational reporting of the court proceedings, but rather advertising profit, sensationalism, political agendas, and, most prominently, the vilification of Mr. Robinson,” his attorneys wrote in their request to bar cameras.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for Robinson should he be convicted in the Sept. 10 shooting of the conservative activist, who was addressing a crowd of thousands on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem.

Robinson, who turned 23 on Thursday, has not yet entered a plea.

Media sensationalism around the case has cut both ways. In a March 30 headline, the U.K.-based Daily Mail reported the bullet that killed Kirk “did NOT match” a rifle allegedly used by Robinson. The story was based on an inconclusive, preliminary finding by ballistics experts and led to speculation about Robinson’s possible exoneration. The FBI is running additional tests, according to court documents.

Media organizations, prosecutors and Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, want the court to allow cameras. They argue the best way to guard against the misinformation and conspiracy theories that concern Robinson’s defense team is to make the process transparent.

Yet livestreaming by media outlets already has tested the patience of Judge Tony Graf.

During the December hearing, Graf briefly stopped the livestream and ordered the camera relocated after it showed the defendant’s shackles in violation of a courtroom decorum order.

Then, a January hearing was interrupted when Robinson’s attorneys said close-up shots of Robinson being livestreamed by a local television station could again lead to claims based on lip reading. That, too, was a violation of Graf’s decorum order. The judge ordered the camera operator not to film Robinson for the remainder of the hearing.

Mike Judd, a lawyer for a coalition of media organizations including The Associated Press that have been fighting to preserve access, said Graf so far has focused on whether his rules inside the courtroom are being followed, not what the media is saying outside of court.

“The court can do all of that in order to try to control what gets fed into that media ecosystem,” Judd said. “You reduce the likelihood of somebody publishing things that you think may be of potentially biasing concern later on.”

Policies on cameras and livestreaming vary among states, and many including Utah give judges discretion over whether to allow cameras. Cameras are generally prohibited in federal courts.

“There’s Supreme Court precedent that says courts generally need to be open to the public, but that’s not an absolute right,” said University of Utah law professor Teneille Brown. “Even if they allow public access, that does not equal a right to broadcast or record.”

Robinson’s attorneys are seeking to delay his May preliminary hearing, when prosecutors must show that they have enough evidence to proceed to a trial.

Prosecutors have said DNA consistent with Robinson’s was found on the trigger of the rifle, the fired cartridge casing, two unfired cartridges and a towel used to wrap the rifle. Defense attorneys note that forensic reports indicate multiple people’s DNA was found on some items, which they say requires a more complex analysis.

Robinson reportedly texted his romantic partner that he targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred,” prosecutors have said.

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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump had something urgent to address while flying back to Washington from his luxury Mar-a-Lago estate on a recent Sunday.

It wasn’t the Iran war, nor the still-going partial government shutdown over Department of Homeland Security funding. He wanted to talk about a monumental issue of a different kind, hoisting up large artist renderings of the $400 million White House ballroom he’s building, complete with hand-carved “top-of-the-line” Corinthian columns.

“I’m so busy that I don’t have time to do this. I’m fighting wars and other things,” Trump said before extensively detailing plans for “the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world.”

His divided attention has become a Democratic point of attack and a concern for some Republicans who worry he’s not spending enough time on issues that voters care most about ahead of November’s midterm races.

The contrast was on full display Thursday, when, as Trump flew to Las Vegas to discuss tax cuts for Americans earning tips, his administration was pushing ahead with plans to build a 250-foot Triumphal Arch near the Lincoln Memorial replete with a Lady Liberty-like statue and a pair of golden eagles.

The president’s ability to speak to the concerns of working people has always seemed incongruous with his biography as a billionaire real estate developer. Yet his populist policies and emphasis on the economy during his 2024 campaign helped catapult him back to the White House.

Republican strategist Rick Tyler noted that, when Trump first ran for president in 2016, his wealth was a selling point.

“While other people, like Mitt Romney, played down how rich he was, Trump was giving free helicopter rides at the Iowa State Fair,” Tyler said. “People loved it.”

Still, Trump’s preoccupation with some of the gilded trappings of the presidency, as more Americans worry about bills, has drawn accusations that he’s a modern-day Marie Antoinette.

“‘Fighting wars’ and surging gas prices, yet Trump has time to brag about his billionaire backed ballroom,” Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, responded on X to Trump’s Air Force One presentation.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential hopeful, has been more direct in comparing Trump to the last queen before the French Revolution, who has come to embody extravagant opulence — even posting an AI-generated image of Trump’s face on her body on social media.

“TRUMP ‘MARIE ANTOINETTE’ SAYS, ‘NO HEALTH CARE FOR YOU PEASANTS, BUT A BALLROOM FOR THE QUEEN!’ Newsom wrote in October 2025, at the start of a 43-day government shutdown.

Asked about opponents invoking Marie Antoinette, White House spokesman Davis Ingle said Trump “is going to go down in history as the most successful and consequential president in our lifetime.”

“His successes on behalf of the American people will be imprinted upon the fabric of America and will be felt by every other White House that comes after him,” Ingle said in a statement.

The president faced similar critiques during his first term. But lately he’s been unabashed about accusations he’s disconnected from Americans’ worries about high costs, which could leave Republicans with an uphill battle to retain control of Congress.

About two-thirds of Americans said Trump is “out of touch” with the concerns of most people in the United States today, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll from February, though the same percentage said the same about the Democratic Party.

Presidents are usually removed from voters, separated by layers of security and surrounded by adoring subordinates. In her book “Why Presidents Fail And How They Can Succeed Again,” Elaine Kamarck argues that presidents get too focused on their own political narratives rather than the public’s concerns. Yet, when it comes to Trump, “All of this stuff is frankly unique to him.”

She pointed to the ballroom as well as Trump’s other White House renovations, soon adding his signature to paper currency, and renaming the Kennedy Center after himself.

“It’s a reflection, I think, of his own background as a businessman and somebody who made his fortune selling his name,” said Kamarck, who worked in Bill Clinton’s White House.

While Trump focuses on the ballroom and other Washington projects, some public work projects in other parts of the country have languished.

Joe Meyer, the former mayor of Covington, Kentucky, spent years pushing for critical improvements to the Brent Spence Bridge connecting his town with Cincinnati, a project listed as a top federal priority dating back to Trump’s first administration.

Federal funds for improvements were approved under President Joe Biden but held up by a Trump-ordered review. Work is now finally set to begin later this year, though delays will likely limit design options and slow the project, Meyer said.

“The ballroom is Washington inside-baseball,” Meyer said. “The bridge is just a wreck. It’s frustration that we’ve been dealing with forever.”

Trumpeting new tax deductions for tips, Trump staged ordering McDonald’s to the Oval Office — which he has crammed with gold flourishes — and tipped the grandmother making the delivery $100. When she described large medical bills from her husband’s cancer treatments, Trump said she should bring him to an upcoming UFC fight on the White House lawn.

When hundreds of farmers were invited to the White House for an agricultural policy speech, they stood on the South Lawn beside a tractor that had been painted gold. It drizzled, but Trump stayed dry, addressing them from a covered second-floor balcony.

“You don’t mind rain,” the president told the farmers below.

He then flew to Miami for a conference of Saudi investors who, the president noted, were too rich to be impressed by U.S. families scrounging to save up $5,000.

“I know they’re looking like, ‘What the hell is $5,000?’” Trump joked. “Their shoes cost them more than $5,000.”

When asked in February, meanwhile, for his message to young people wanting to buy a home, Trump replied: “Save a little longer. Wait a little longer.”

Members of the Cabinet have also fed the perception that Trump’s promised “ Golden Age ” may not be arriving for everyone. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. advised Americans to buy liver instead of beef.

“If you go and buy a steak, it’s still pretty expensive. But if you buy the cheaper cuts, it’s great meat. And it is very, very affordable. Or liver, or, you know, all these alternatives,” he told podcast host Joe Rogan.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said people could still afford meals consisting of “a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla and one other thing.”

The White House has sought to show that Trump is attuned to voter concerns by sending the president to politically competitive parts of the country to trumpet his efforts to lower costs. But Trump has stepped on the message by insisting that affordability concerns are a Democratic “hoax.”

Texas-based Republican consultant Brendan Steinhauser said he thinks that Trump “can kind of get away with” building a ballroom because voters have come to expect that from him as a brash dealmaker and businessman.

But Steinhauser said he worries that dramatic increases in gas prices and a potentially weakening economy could resonate with voters. Ahead of the midterms, Steinhauser said, Democrats could score points “trying to make it more about Trump and his oligarch friends.”

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Associated Press writers Linley Sanders in Washington and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

For the skinny British musician, it was an unassuming trip to visit his sister’s family in September 1963 in Benton, Illinois.

He went camping. He jammed with local musicians. He drank root beer delivered on roller skates. He shopped for records. He bought a guitar. Then he went home.

The next time people in Benton saw George Harrison, it was with 73 million others who tuned in to watch his band, the Beatles, make their U.S. debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” about four months later. The British Invasion, which changed popular music and American culture, was underway.

Now, the house where Harrison and his brother Peter stayed in Benton, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of St. Louis, is for sale.

You’ll forgive Beatles fans if they’re worried about its future. In 1995, the house at 113 McCann Street had a date with the wrecking ball. Activists, including Harrison’s sister, Louise Harrison Caldwell, who had moved away in the late 1960s, stepped in to save it.

Previously known for hosting the state’s last public hanging in 1928, Benton, population 6,700, was built on Southern Illinois’ rich veins of coal. Louise Caldwell moved to town when her husband, a mining engineer, got a job in what was then a thriving industry.

The house they chose is a five-bedroom bungalow built in 1935 with a brick facade across its wide front porch.

In the mid-1990s, a state agency bought the house from a subsequent owner with plans to flatten it for parking. Mega-fan Robert Bartel of Springfield, a Beatles author and documentarian, alerted the media and Fab Four loyalists.

Local investors repurchased it from the state and opened the Hard Day’s Nite Bed and Breakfast, featuring the couch Harrison traded guitar licks on and stacks of other loaned Beatles memorabilia, including a bevy from Bartel.

The bed-and-breakfast closed in 2010. Benton resident Grady Adams has since operated it as regular bed-and-bath apartments but now wants to sell, listing it for $105,000. Brian Calcaterra, Benton’s director of economic development, suggested the city draft an ordinance to protect the house from demolition by a new owner, but Benton Mayor Lee Messersmith said the city council has not discussed the matter.

“Of course, if it doesn’t get demo’d, I would prefer that,” Adams said.

Whether there’s interest — or energy — to return the McCann Street house to its Beatles glory is up for debate.

Jim Kirkpatrick of Creal Springs, author of “Before He Was Fab,” a recollection of Harrison’s visit which has been optioned for a movie, has had at least one encouraging conversation with someone considering purchase.

Benton business owner Robert Rea, a historian who helped save the Beatles house three decades ago, said the obsession has faded.

“When we did this (in 1995), the world went crazy because they thought, ‘George is going to come, he’s going to save the house,’” Rea said. “And I’m just being honest with you, maybe I’m missing it or something, but that momentum is not here.”

Harrison’s trip was perhaps the last time the musician could enjoy obscurity. He camped in Shawnee National Forest. He sat in with a popular local group when they played a nearby Veterans of Foreign Wars hall. The band’s leader took him to a drive-in restaurant with carhops on skates, where he guzzled root beer for the first time.

At a record store on Benton’s downtown square, Harrison bought a pile of vinyl. Included was James Ray’s R&B single, “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You,” Harrison’s 1987 cover of which went to No. 1.

He also bought a Rickenbacker 425 guitar like the one bandmate John Lennon had. Harrison played the guitar a month later when the Beatles recorded “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” It sold at auction in 2014 for $675,000.

One day during Harrison’s visit, he and Caldwell dropped by WFRX radio, where then-17-year-old Marcia Schafer Raubach had a Saturday afternoon teen program. Harrison gave her a copy of “She Loves You,” which he told her had just hit the top of the British charts.

Raubach interviewed Harrison on the air, the first for a Beatle in America, and played the 45, which she still has. She said it sounded different than the songs American teens were then punching up on jukeboxes. But it didn’t make an impression on her audience.

Despite his longish hair in a land of crew cuts, Raubach found Harrison, dressed in a crisp white shirt, jeans and sandals, “very clean cut, he was personable and mannerly and they call him the ‘quiet Beatle’ — well, he was.”

“If I had known what they were going to become, I would have handled that differently,” Raubach, now 79, said. “It’s still amazing that he even came here and that I met him. I think he really liked Southern Illinois.”

Harrison never returned to Benton, though, dying in 2001 at 58. Caldwell was 91 when she died in 2023.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — The government-owned corporation that delivers mail in Canada is taking steps to stop home delivery.

Canada Post is initiating talks with 13 communities to begin converting about 136,000 addresses from door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes, a standalone unit with designated space for each of the multiple residences it serves. It is the first step in a move that will end home delivery for about 4 million addresses over the next five years.

“It’s a process that can take six to nine months from beginning to end,” Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton said in an interview. “Nothing will happen right away.”

Hamilton said Canada Post will work with city planners and neighborhoods to determine the best locations for community mailboxes.

Hamilton said of the 17.6 million addresses Canada Post currently serves, 75% already have some form of centralized delivery. Some people use community mailboxes or a post office box, while others live in an apartment or condominium.

Hamilton said eliminating home delivery would save Canada Post about CDN $400 million (US$291.96 million) a year.

It has been facing staggering financial losses. Canada Post said in November its losses in the first nine months of 2025 topped CDN$1 billion (US$73 million).

Hamilton said Canada Post would not lay off workers due to the delivery changes. “This will reduce the number of letter carriers. They will have work, but it will be elsewhere,” he said.

Canada Post currently employs around 60,000 people.

The process to end home delivery is beginning after meetings with union officials, the corporation said in a statement.

Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers will begin voting Monday on whether to ratify new contract agreements with the national mail carrier.

They have been without a new contract since November 2023, and the union has staged two nationwide strikes and a series of other disruptions during contract negotiations.

A resident of one of the affected communities said losing her home mail delivery wouldn’t be an issue.

“It won’t actually bother me at all,” said Liane Beadon, 44, who lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia, and works remotely from home. “I think it’s a smart move in order to preserve having mail delivery and keeping costs low for Canadians.”

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Sleep on a long-haul flight in economy class has always been a fantasy for many travelers. Air New Zealand will soon offer a solution that involves climbing into a triple-tier bunk bed wearing special socks.

The airline will soon open bookings for four-hour stints in the Skynest sleep pods and says they will be the first lie-flat beds for budget air travelers. Fliers will get cozy with their fellow passengers, however, so crumbs, strong perfumes and bedsharing are forbidden.

The curtained berths will be available to economy and premium economy fliers on the airline’s new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft from November. The planes will service the Auckland to New York route, which is one of the world’s longest commercial flights and leaves economy passengers sitting upright for a marathon 16 to 18 hours.

Instead, travelers will have the option of a pre-booked four-hour spot in a curtained pod, with costs starting from 495 New Zealand dollars ($291) on top of the price of their economy tickets. But use of the six pods, arranged in a triple-bunk style layout between cabins, will put fliers in close proximity to others, prompting the airline to publish etiquette notes.

Passengers must refrain from snacking in the pods, which can’t be used by children or any additional visitors.

“That means solo snoozes only please, no musical nests or tag-teaming,” Air New Zealand’s website says. For those worried about cleanliness, the airline assures travelers that the pillows, blankets and sheets supplied “are all refreshed” between four-hour naps.

Fliers are also required to change into specially provided socks to enter the pod, fasten their seatbelts over their blankets and forgo dousing themselves in any smelly “perfumes or potions.” Passengers will be woken by a gentle change in lighting at the end of their four-hour stint in the bunk – or by a flight attendant, possibly less gently, if they don’t rouse in time.

Each berth is about the length of a regular bed — 80 inches or 203 cm — but the pods don’t leave headroom for sitting up and access “requires bending, kneeling, crawling, or climbing into the space,” the aircraft’s website says. The bunks are 25 inches (64 cm) wide at shoulder height, tapering to 16 inches (41 cm) at the foot of the beds.

Seats or couches that convert into beds in the sky aren’t a new offering for business and first class travelers, but Air New Zealand believes its lie-flat bunks for economy travelers will be a world first.

The offering from New Zealand’s national carrier is the latest from airlines seeking to sell seat upgrades and other add-ons to economy travelers. Air New Zealand first announced the economy beds were in development in 2020.

The airline has increased fares and cut some domestic flights from its schedule in response to increased jet fuel costs during the war in the Middle East. In March, it suspended its earnings outlook due to fuel price volatility and warned that more changes to its routes were possible.

But on one of its longest flights, travelers might finally get some shut-eye — although they should expect snoring, for which earplugs are provided, the airline said.

“Statistically, someone’s going to do it,” Air New Zealand’s website reads. “It might be you.”

By Sophie Kiderlin and Dhara Ranasinghe

LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) – The war in the Middle East is the latest reminder of how commodities are reshaping the geopolitical landscape, leaving currencies from Norway, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand well placed to outperform larger rivals.

These commodity currencies – so called due to their close correlation to the fortunes of their countries’ main export commodities – include two of the best performers among 10 developed market economies: the Norwegian crown and Australian, or Aussie, dollar.

Both are up over 7% versus the U.S. dollar for the year so far as the war creates the worst global energy disruption in history with knock-on effects for economies worldwide.

And some investors see potential for even bigger gains as an increasingly fragmented global order accelerated by the United States’ go-it-alone shift and the rise of China drives nations to prioritise energy security and secure commodities essential to the AI-buildout and green transition.

Manish Kabra, multi-asset strategist at Societe Generale, noted a “big disconnect” between the relative underperformance of commodity currencies and a booming index of commodities in recent years, leaving the currencies ample room to rally.

He said one shift he has made since the start of the conflict in the Middle East was to reduce exposure to the euro and increase exposure to the four commodity currencies on an equal-weighted basis.

“The strategic and geopolitical focus on commodities has yet to be priced into these four commodity currencies,” Kabra said.

Lauren van Biljon, a senior portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, said she had recently moved to a long position – a bet an asset will rise in value – on Norway’s crown against sterling.

A major oil and gas producer, Norway is a linchpin of Europe’s energy security, particularly as it weans itself off Russian supplies due to the Ukraine war.

Van Biljon said the pivot to commodity currencies was one reason for the move, another being an expectation for a hawkish Norwegian central bank given rising energy costs.

Rabobank said in a note it expected the euro to weaken against the crown and favoured selling sterling against the Norwegian currency as well.

At around 9.37 per dollar, the crown is trading near its strongest levels since 2022.

Australia, Canada and Norway boast both AAA-rated sovereign debt and net energy-exporter status. This, alongside increased focus on commodities, gives investors worried about the dollar’s global status alternatives beyond the euro and yuan, analysts said.

COMMODITY RALLY A BOOST, BUT WAR’S RISKS TO GROWTH REMAIN

A new commodity order is taking shape, defined by geopolitical fragmentation, electrification, supply constraints, regionalisation of energy and materials markets, and a re-ordering of global supply chains, investment firm Ninety One said in a note published last week.

This may help explain the blistering start to the year for the broad commodity complex.

The asset class is by far the best performer so far this year, up roughly 42% versus a 6% gain last year, BofA research shows.

Oil has seen some eye-popping moves due to the Iran war and is trading below but near $100 a barrel, while copper is at six-week peaks. And although gold has retreated recently, it is still up some 50% from a year ago. 

SocGen’s Kabra said the U.S. government’s decision to include copper last November in a list of minerals it deems essential for the economy and national security shows the significance of commodities in geopolitics.

The commodity currencies are, of course, vulnerable to the same worries the war will hit economic growth that have hurt their peers, and the resurgence of the U.S. dollar as a safe haven in recent weeks has dented their appeal somewhat.

Outperformed by the U.S. dollar at the start of the war, the Canadian, New Zealand and Australian dollars are, however, recovering on ceasefire hopes.

Mining powerhouse Australia is also a major net exporter of coal and liquefied natural gas, but relies on imports for refined oil products.

“Most important in the here and now is energy independence and energy security,” said Malin Rosengren, a portfolio manager at RBC BlueBay Asset Management, noting Australia as vulnerable on this front.

“And then the second leg of that will be the medium-term growth impact, in terms of how we’re looking at the impact of commodities on FX.”

COMMODITY CURRENCIES WELL POSITIONED FOR BOTH WAR AND PEACE

Even if the Middle East conflict is resolved, energy costs are expected to stay higher for some time. Energy flows will not normalise straight away, and issues like infrastructure damage need to be addressed.

That is an opportunity to invest in commodity currencies, Van Luu, global head of solutions strategy at Russell Investments, said.

“If the oil prices are $85 to $100 instead of $65, then energy exporters in politically stable countries, if you consider Norway and Canada in that camp, should do better,” he said.

Luu said he has maintained exposure to those currencies.

No matter the outcome of current efforts to end the war, commodity currencies should remain a good bet, said Andreas Koenig, head of global FX at Europe’s largest asset manager Amundi.

While global turmoil has thrust them into the spotlight, they are also poised to benefit from a return to relative stability.

“They are still high beta currencies, and they profit from risk on,” he said.

(Reportiing by Sophie Kiderlin and Dhara Ranasinghe; Additional reporting by Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Amanda Cooper and Joe Bavier)

April 16 (Reuters) – The U.S. House Republican leadership is closing in on a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) extension with small reforms, Politico reported on Thursday, citing four people involved in the talks.

U.S. President Donald Trump called upon Republican lawmakers on Tuesday to work together to extend a law that allows American spy agencies to surveil foreigners abroad using data drawn from U.S. digital infrastructure, before the authorization expires next week.

A procedural vote is expected at approximately 12:15 a.m. Friday.

(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)