The European Union is to push Monday (May 11, 2026) for a revival of ties with Syria as it looks to bolster the war-ravaged country, with an eye on prospects for Syrian migrants in Europe to one day return home.

The bloc’s Foreign Ministers will meet in Brussels with Syrian top diplomat Asaad al-Shaibani to kick off a high-level “political dialogue” 18 months after the ouster of strongman Bashar al-Assad.

An EU official said the aim was to back reconstruction of the country devastated by more than a decade of civil war that sent millions fleeing abroad, and where “the reality on the ground is still appalling”.

Some 13 million Syrians — nearly half the population — depend on food assistance, the official said. Needs are enormous, and the EU has already pledged 620 million euros ($730 million) in aid for the 2026-2027 period.

But Syria’s stability also interests many EU countries because its nationals have made up the lion’s share of asylum-seekers in the bloc over a decade — and there is a push for large numbers to eventually go back home.

“We need the Syrian transitional government to succeed in bringing stability to the country, because that’s in our interest,” said one EU diplomat.

Several deals in cards

The 27-nation bloc launched a new chapter with Syria after Mr. Assad was swept from power in December 2024.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen promised after meeting President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus in January that Europe would “do everything it can” to support Syria’s recovery.

Last month, the commission proposed that EU states fully reactivate the bloc’s cooperation agreement with Syria — a step expected to be approved on Monday (May 11).

The deal — abolishing duties on imports of most industrial products from Syria — was partially suspended in 2011 when Mr. Assad ruthlessly cracked down on protests at the start of the civil war.

Before, Syria-EU trade had peaked at more than seven billion euros ($9.1 billion at the 2010 exchange rate) in 2010. By 2023, EU imports from the country had dwindled to 103 million euros, while European exports to Syria stood at 265 million euros.

Looking ahead, the EU wants a more ambitious association agreement, similar to those struck with other countries in the region such as Egypt, Israel and Lebanon — though officials say that goal remains a way off.

In the meantime, the EU wants to facilitate access to financing for Syrians — crucial to revive the economy — and to support farmers, for example with irrigation pumps.

It is also on track to sign a deal to rehabilitate a major hospital in the western Homs region.

Voluntary returns

On the sensitive matter of Syrian migrant returns, Germany — home to the EU’s largest Syrian diaspora at more than a million — is on the front line.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has embraced tougher migration policies as he seeks to counter the far right — and he triggered a backlash by declaring during a visit by Syria’s president last month that he hoped 80% of Syrian refugees would return home within three years.

He later clarified this was a figure put forward by Mr. Sharaa himself. Danish authorities have been outspoken in pushing for Syrians to go home.

But at the EU level there is no question of forcing Syrians to leave, a European official said. There is a consensus that the conditions are not ready for large-scale voluntary returns, said Julien Barnes-Dacey, Middle East and North Africa director at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“Most Europeans are cognisant of the reality that for the moment conditions on the ground are not improving fast enough, particularly in the economic sphere, to persuade Syrians to pack up their lives in Europe and head home,” he said.

An EU official said the focus was “working on stability, on Syria’s economic recovery — because that really is the path for people to be able to go home in sustainable conditions.”

But the commission also wants to establish a “straight and regular dialogue” on returns with Damascus, the official added, saying the matter “will obviously feature” in Monday’s (May 11) talks.

Six bodies were ​found on Sunday (May 10, 2026) in ‌a train boxcar in ​Laredo, Texas, according ⁠to police.

A Union Pacific worker discovered them in ‌a train yard at a remote location ‌near the Mexican ‌border, ⁠and police and firefighters ⁠later confirmed they had died, said Laredo Police Investigator ​Joe Baeza.

Police ‌have not determined how they died, Mr. Baeza said. The investigation is ongoing, ‌he said.

There were ​no survivors, he said.

Police did not ⁠say where the individuals were from.

Past instances ‌of multiple deaths in trains and tractor trailers not far from the U.S.-Mexico border have involved migrants, including ‌a 2022 incident in which ​53 were found dead in an abandoned ⁠truck with malfunctioning air ⁠conditioning on the outskirts of San Antonio.

U.S. President Donald Trump had planned to arrive in Beijing in late March with a sense of swagger, on the back of what he thought would be two spectacular and swift regime changes in Iran and Venezuela.

Instead, as Mr. Trump on Wednesday lands in the Chinese capital, his hosts are debating the limits of American power and what “a declining U.S.” may mean for China’s ambitions.

The “three Ts” – trade, Taiwan and technology – are likely to garner attention during talks between Mr. Trump and President Xi Jinping set for Thursday (May 14, 2026) and Friday (May 15, 2026). During the three-day trip, Mr. Trump will visit the Temple of Heaven in Beijing and attend what was described as a lavish state banquet.

For Mr. Trump, progress on trade — including securing Chinese commitments to step up imports, especially in agricultural products, and greater access to critical minerals — is a priority. He will also look to pressure China to use its influence on Iran, U.S. officials said.

Mr. Xi will be looking for a reiteration of U.S. commitments on Taiwan and easing of export controls, particularly for advanced semi-conductors that China needs. Both sides are also expected to discuss Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an area of cooperation.

‘Stabilising anchor’

For both, some stability in ties is a shared objective. “I’m sure Taiwan will be a topic of conversation. It always is,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on May 5. “The Chinese understand our position on that topic; we understand theirs. And I think…both countries understand that it is in neither one of our interests to see anything destabilised happen in that part of the world. We don’t need any destabilising events to occur with regards to Taiwan or anywhere in the Indo-Pacific. And I think that’s to the mutual benefit of both the U.S. and the Chinese.”

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi similarly emphasised stability in an April 30 phone call with Mr. Rubio, saying meetings between the two leaders had been a “stabilising anchor” for the relationship. He called on both sides to “expand cooperation and manage differences, and explore the building of a strategic, constructive, and stable China-U.S. relationship.” He added that “the Taiwan question bears on China’s core interests and is the biggest risk in China-U.S. relations.”

Days before the visit, Mr. Wang hosted Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, saying Beijing “supports Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty and security” and that the “international community shares a common concern about restoring normal and safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz”.

Mr. Wang in his remarks did not criticise the U.S. for the war, as he might have ordinarily done, underlining Beijing’s keenness to set the stage for a visit that it has placed huge importance on. For Mr. Xi, hosting Mr. Trump, regardless of the outcome, is in some sense a success in itself, bringing with it valuable optics showcasing China, to the domestic audience, as a global power.

At the same time, for observers in Beijing, the visit comes at a time when the Iran crisis has only deepened their long-held perceptions of U.S. decline – views that acquired wide traction in the decade following the global financial crisis. “U.S. influence is increasingly contested,” as Peking University’s Wang Dong put it to The Hindu. “And its ability to impose outcomes unilaterally is declining.”

Long-term patience

A period of “intensified structural competition alongside constrained pragmatism” is how a briefing paper from two scholars, published on the eve of the visit by Tsinghua University’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, described the future of the relationship.

A “competitive U.S. stance” on technology and supply chains was here to stay for the long term, it warned, but added that for the U.S., economic and domestic pressures would for any government “restrict comprehensive decoupling”.

Looking to the future, the paper said China needed to strengthen its relations with other major powers and continue its focus on innovation of key technologies as a response to U.S. policy. “China,” it concluded, “needs strategic resolve and long-term patience.”

Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium must be “taken out” before the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran can be considered over, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an American broadcaster Sunday (May 10, 2026).

Also Read | Iran-Israel war LIVE

“It’s not over, because there’s still nuclear material — enriched uranium — that has to be taken out of Iran. There are still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled,” Mr. Netanyahu said in an interview that aired Sunday (May 10, 2026) on the CBS News program “60 Minutes.”

“You go in and you take it out,” the Israeli leader said when asked how the uranium could be removed.

Mr. Netanyahu said U.S. President Donald Trump had a similar position.

“I’m not going to talk about military means, but the president, what President Trump has said to me — ‘I want to go in there.’”

However, Mr. Netanyahu’s statement was in contrast to Mr. Trump’s public position.

The 79-year-old Republican is under increasing domestic pressure to end the Iran war and he insists that Tehran’s nuclear program has been contained.

In an interview aired Sunday (May 10, 2026) but apparently recorded earlier, Mr. Trump said Iran was “militarily defeated” and he insisted the uranium could be removed “whenever we want.”

“We’ll get that at some point, whenever we want. We’ll have it surveilled,” he told independent television journalist Sharyl Attkisson.

“If anybody got near the place we will know about it and we’ll blow them up.”

Asked by CBS how the uranium stockpiles could be removed from Iran, Mr. Netanyahu said he would prefer an agreement.

“I think it can be done physically. That’s not the problem. If you have an agreement and you go in and you take it out, why not? That’s the best way.”

Pressed on whether there are military options to seize the hidden uranium, Mr. Netanyahu said he would not discuss such possibilities — or a timetable.

‘Wean ourselves’ off U.S. aid

Israel remains a dedicated American ally, but Mr. Netanyahu said he has told Mr. Trump that he wants U.S. tax dollars committed to Israel, currently at $3.8 billion annually, to drop to “zero” — and sooner rather than later.

“I think that it’s time that we wean ourselves from the remaining military support” from the Pentagon, he added. “Let’s start now, and do it over the next decade.”

In addition to the unresolved uranium stockpile issue, Mr. Netanyahu said there were several other war aims that had yet to be accomplished.

“There’s still proxies that Iran supports, their ballistic missiles that they still want to produce. Now, we’ve degraded a lot of it, but all that is still there and there’s work to be done.”

Mr. Netanyahu also acknowledged that he knew Beijing was assisting Iran.

“China gives a certain amount of support (to Iran), and particular components of missile manufacturing,” the Israeli leader noted. “But I can’t say more than that.”

He also spoke of optimism about how a toppled Iranian regime could mean “the end of Hezbollah,” as well as Hamas and the Houthis, “because the whole scaffolding of the terrorist proxy network that Iran built collapses if the regime in Iran collapses.”

But he stopped short of predicting such a downfall of Iran’s regime. “Is it possible? Yes. Is it guaranteed? No.”

American passengers evacuated from a cruise ship struck by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will not necessarily be quarantined, a top U.S. health official said on Sunday (May 10, 2026).

Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), also urged the U.S. public to remain calm about the hantavirus, saying: “This is not Covid.”

The United States announced on Friday (May 8) that it would organise a repatriation flight for the 17 Americans aboard the MV Hondius, where three passengers have died and others have fallen sick. The ship has arrived in Spain’s Canary Islands.

The U.S. passengers, all of whom are asymptomatic, will be taken to a specialised centre in the rural state of Nebraska, but will not necessarily be quarantined there, Mr. Bhattacharya told CNN’s “State of the Union” news program on Sunday (May 10).

“We’re going to interview them and assess them for risk. If they have been in close contact with somebody who was symptomatic,” he said.

The biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre was activated ahead of the arrivals, with passengers “expected to land in Omaha early Monday (May 11) morning,” spokesperson Kayla Thomas said in a statement.

“One passenger will be transported to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit upon arrival,” Mr. Thomas said, because the person “tested positive for the virus but does not have symptoms.”

The other passengers will go to the National Quarantine Unit for assessment and monitoring, Mr. Thomas added.

Following this assessment and depending on the estimated risk, passengers will be allowed “to stay in Nebraska if they’d like, or if they want to go back home, and their home situation allows it, to safely drive them home without exposing other people on the way,” Mr. Bhattacharya said.

In either case, passengers will remain under observation by health authorities for several weeks to ensure they do not develop symptoms, he said, as happened with seven other Americans who left the ship earlier in the journey.

According to the CDC, “people are generally only contagious when they exhibit symptoms.” Mr. Bhattacharya said the same protocol was followed during a 2018 outbreak “of this exact strain of the hantavirus,” which was successfully contained.

Responding to criticism that there has been limited communication from U.S. health authorities about the hantavirus risk — six years after the Covid-19 pandemic — he said the situations were not comparable.

“If the threat level were higher, then we would have obviously reacted differently,” Mr. Bhattacharya said. “This is not Covid,” he said. “We shouldn’t be panicking when the evidence doesn’t warrant it.”

U.S. President Donald Trump will pay an official visit to China from May 13 to 15 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced on Monday (May 11, 2026).

This will be the first visit to China by a U.S. president in almost nine years.

The visit comes in the midst of a prolonged U.S.-Israel war on Iran, a crisis over the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz causing a global energy crisis and the increasing tensions between the two countries over a host of issues, including Taiwan.

On Sunday (May 10, 2026), U.S. principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said Mr. Trump would arrive in Beijing on Wednesday (May 13, 2026) evening for what she described as a “visit of tremendous symbolic significance”.

According to Ms. Kelly, the U.S. leader will attend a welcome ceremony and a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping on Thursday (May 14, 2026), followed by a visit to the Temple of Heaven and a state banquet, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

The two leaders will meet again on Friday (May 15, 2026) for a bilateral tea and working lunch, she said, adding that the U.S. planned to host the Chinese leader for a reciprocal visit later this year.

Both sides announced on Sunday (May 10, 2026) that Vice-Premier He Lifeng will travel to South Korea for trade talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on May 12 and 13 in the final round of negotiations before Mr. Trump’s visit.

Mr. Trump’s visit is also taking place amid expectations of a trade deal over tariffs between the top two economies clamped by the U.S. president.

The talks would be “guided by the important consensus” reached between the two heads of state at their meeting in Busan, South Korea, and in previous phone calls and address “economic and trade issues of mutual concern”, a Chinese Commerce Ministry statement said.

The remains of a U.S. soldier who went missing during military exercises in Morocco a week ago were recovered in the Atlantic Ocean, the army said on Sunday (May 10, 2026). Military teams were still searching for a second missing soldier.

The remains were those of 1st Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., a 14A Air Defence Artillery officer who was one of two U.S. soldiers who fell off a cliff during a recreational hike in Morocco while off duty. He was 27 years old.

The two were reported missing May 2 after participating in African Lion, an annual multinational military exercise held in Morocco.

“A Moroccan military search team found the Soldier in the water along the shoreline at approximately 8:55 a.m. local time, on May 9, within roughly one mile of where both Soldiers reportedly entered the ocean,” U.S. Army Europe and Africa said in a statement.

The two went missing around 9 p.m. near the Cap Draa Training Area outside Tan-Tan, a terrain characterised by mountains, desert and semidesert plains, according to the Moroccan military.

Their disappearance triggered a search-and-rescue operation involving more than 600 personnel from the United States, Morocco and other military partners. The operation deployed frigates, vessels, helicopters and drones.

Search efforts will continue for the missing second soldier, a U.S. defence official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as they were not allowed to speak publicly on the issue.

The official said a U.S. contingent remained in Morocco after the war games ended Friday (May 8) to provide command and control and to continue search and rescue operations.

Mr. Key was assigned to Charlie Battery, 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defence Artillery Regiment, 10th Army Air and Missile Defence Command, the army said. His decorations include the Army Achievement Medal and Army Service Ribbon.

He entered military service in 2023 as an officer candidate and earned his commission through Officer Candidate School in 2024 as an Air Defence Artillery officer. He later completed the Basic Officer Leader Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, according to the statement.

African Lion 26 is a U.S.-led exercise launched in April across four countries — Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal — with more than 7,000 personnel from over 30 nations. Since 2004, it has been the largest U.S. joint military exercise in Africa.

In 2012, two US Marines were killed and two others injured during a helicopter crash in Morocco’s southern city of Agadir while taking part in the exercises.