ROME -- U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday while visiting Rome that Iran was expected to respond later in the day to a proposal put forward by Washington, according to Italy's ANSA news agency.
"We'll see what happens, there will be a development in the next few hours. Iran is fragmented, but I really hope for a serious proposal from them," Rubio told a press briefing at the U.S. embassy in Rome. (U.S.-Italy-Iran)
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TEHRAN -- The Iranian army said Friday its naval forces have seized an "offending" oil tanker named "Ocean Koi" that sought to disrupt the country's oil exports by abusing the regional circumstances.
It said in a statement that the tanker was carrying Iran's oil and sought to harm Iran's national interests by designing a "special operation" in the Gulf of Oman. (Iran-Oil Tanker)
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SOFIA -- Former Bulgarian President Rumen Radev became the country's new prime minister on Friday after parliament approved him and his proposed Council of Ministers.
Radev, leader of the Progressive Bulgaria (PB) party, secured the post with the backing of 124 lawmakers from his party in the 240-seat parliament. Lawmakers from the second-largest bloc, GERB-UDF, abstained, while opposition parties voted against the new government. Parliament also approved the structure and composition of the cabinet. (Bulgaria-PM)
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MOSCOW -- Russia's oil and gas budget revenues fell by 38.3 percent year-on-year in the first four months of 2026, dropping to 2.298 trillion rubles (about 30.95 billion U.S. dollars), the Russian Ministry of Finance announced Friday on its website.
The decline was primarily driven by lower oil prices in preceding periods, the ministry said. In contrast, non-oil and gas revenues grew by 10.2 percent to 9.423 trillion rubles (about 126.9 billion dollars) during the same period. (Russia-Oil)
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BRUSSELS -- With El Nino conditions maturing in the coming months, April 2026 saw the second-highest sea surface temperatures on record for the extra-polar oceans, while the month ranked as the joint third-warmest April globally, the European Union's climate monitoring network reported Friday.
The average sea surface temperature of the global ocean between 60 degrees south latitude and 60 degrees north latitude reached some 21 degrees Celsius -- second only to April 2024, when the last El Nino event drove record warmth, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). (EU-Sea-Temperature) ■
