Deepens

• SoftBank announced a deepened push into AI through a new venture involving OpenAI, targeting enterprise applications in the US market. • The move comes as rival venture capital firms increase funding for AI startups, intensifying competition for talent and tech. • This investment bolsters SoftBank's position in the booming US AI sector, potentially accelerating model deployments.

Motorists are forced to queue up to six hours for fuel or pay more on the black market, while farmers lack fuel to operate machinery and harvest crops.

• Egypt has convened an emergency regional summit with Ethiopia, Sudan, and other Nile Basin nations to address water allocation disputes intensified by Sudan's ongoing civil war and dam infrastructure threats. • The summit, held in Cairo on Friday, focused on protecting the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Blue Nile water flows during heightened regional conflict; negotiations remain deadlocked. • US officials are monitoring the summit closely, concerned that water scarcity could fuel refugee crises across the Horn of Africa and destabilize a critical US partner region.

• The World Food Programme declared a humanitarian emergency in Ethiopia's Somali and Afar regions Friday, warning that sustained drought has destroyed crops and livestock herds, leaving 9.4 million people facing acute food insecurity. • Local authorities reported a 60% crop failure compared to last year; malnutrition rates among children under five have climbed to 18%, approaching famine thresholds, WFP spokesperson stated. • The organization called for immediate international funding to deliver emergency rations and establish feeding centers, noting that conflict in neighboring regions has already strained Ethiopia's humanitarian response capacity.

• Israeli and Egyptian officials held talks in Cairo on April 18 to discuss a potential ceasefire agreement brokered by Qatari mediators, marking the first substantive negotiation in three weeks following escalated border tensions. • Gaza's health ministry reports 1.8 million people face acute food insecurity, with humanitarian organizations warning of disease outbreaks; the UN humanitarian coordinator called the situation "the worst in two years." • Both sides remain divided over prisoner exchanges and Israeli military withdrawal timelines, though preliminary frameworks for a phased 90-day truce have been proposed.

Donors exceed funding target at Berlin conference but prospects for ceasefire remain distantMore than £1bn (€1.15bn) has been pledged for war-ravaged Sudan at a conference in Berlin, eclipsing the funding target organisers had set to help mitigate the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.The financial commitments made on Wednesday will also help offset a chronic humanitarian funding shortfall in a country devastated by three years of conflict, where two-thirds of its population – 34m people – require assistance. Continue reading...

• The UN World Food Programme reported on April 9 that active combat in Sudan's Khartoum and West Darfur states has suspended humanitarian operations, cutting off food assistance to approximately 9 million internally displaced persons and vulnerable civilians. • The World Health Organization documented a 40% spike in cholera cases across eastern Sudan refugee camps over the past two weeks, with only five functioning water treatment facilities operational across the country. • International NGOs warn of imminent famine conditions by mid-May if logistics corridors remain blocked, with donor nations unable to guarantee protection for aid workers amid ongoing violence.

• Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz and destroy oil tankers in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes on its oil infrastructure, creating unprecedented pressure on global oil supplies. • The world's oil supply is now under intensifying pressure, with the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz representing a critical chokepoint for international energy commerce. • President Trump is calling on U.S. allies to deploy warships to maintain the strait's openness, with 2,200 Marines and a quick reaction force being deployed aboard three Navy amphibious ships.

There is little sign of imminent regime change in Iran as its blockade of strait of Hormuz shocks global economyFew doubt that in the first days of the new war in the Middle East, the initiative belonged to the US and its ally Israel. Now it seems less sure, however.Mohsen Rezaee, a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, on Sunday said “the end of the war is in our hands” and called for the withdrawal of Washington’s forces from the Gulf and compensation for all damage caused by the assault. Continue reading...