The Ministry of Housing and Municipalities will host two public town hall meetings in June to discuss a number of proposed affordable housing development projects and gather feedback from residents and stakeholders.
Minister of Housing and Municipalities, the Hon. Zane DeSilva, JP, MP, stated, “Addressing Bermuda’s housing challenges requires meaningful engagement with the communities we serve. These town hall meetings will provide an opportunity for residents to learn more about the proposed affordable housing developments, ask questions, and share their feedback. We encourage members of the public to attend and participate in these important discussions as we continue working to increase access to quality, affordable housing across Bermuda.”
The meetings form part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to transparency, community engagement, and the delivery of sustainable housing solutions to meet Bermuda’s growing housing needs.
During each session, Ministry representatives and technical officers will provide an overview of the proposed developments, including:
• The purpose and objectives of each housing project • Proposed site plans and development features • Project timelines and anticipated next steps • Opportunities for community feedback and input • Questions and concerns raised by residents and stakeholders
Both upcoming meetings, running from 6:30 to 8:00 PM, will feature a presentation and question-and-answer session regarding proposed affordable housing projects. The first meeting takes place on Thursday, 11 June at Open Door Christian Assembly at 22 Tommy Fox Road, St. Davids, and will focus on the Tommy Fox Road and Channel House developments. The second will be held on Tuesday, 16 June at Mount Zion AME Church Hall at 2 Mount Zion Lane, Southampton, and will highlight the Victoria Place II, Dr. Cann Park II, and Albert Row projects.
The Ministry encourages residents of the affected communities, neighbouring areas, and all interested members of the public to attend these important discussions and contribute to the future of affordable housing in Bermuda.
The Ministry of Justice can confirm that a threatening telephone call was received earlier in the day on Thursday, 4 June at the Westgate Correctional Facility.
The threat relates to the safety of staff at the facility. The matter is being treated with the utmost seriousness and was immediately reported to the Bermuda Police Service. A formal statement has also been provided to assist with the Police investigation.
In response to the incident, appropriate precautionary measures have been put in place at the facility.
A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said the safety and well-being of correctional officers, staff, inmates and all persons at the facility remains a priority.
As this is now a Police matter, no further details will be provided at this time.
Statement from the Hon. Marc Bean JP on the Passing of Sir John Swan
Today, I join Bermudians in mourning the passing of Sir John Swan.
Upon assuming the role of Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Progressive Labour Party, Sir John reached out and invited to meet with him. I accepted that invitation with gratitude, not fully appreciating at the time how meaningful that conversation would become.
During our meeting, Sir John offered me a simple yet profound piece of advice. He said that for Bermuda to mature and advance, we must never view politics as a winner-take-all, zero-sum game. At the time, I understood the words, but It was only through the years that followed, that I came to fully appreciate the wisdom behind them.
That moment revealed something important about Sir John. Beyond the titles, accomplishments, and public recognition was a man who genuinely cared about Bermuda and its future. He understood that while political parties may differ, our ultimate responsibility is to the people and to the country we all share. In a political environment that too often rewards division, he chose instead to offer guidance, perspective, and encouragement.
Sir John belonged to a generation of leaders who helped shape modern Bermuda. His contributions to our country are well documented and will rightly be remembered. Yet today, my thoughts are not focused solely on the former Premier and international statesman. They are with the family, friends, and loved ones who have lost a father, grandfather, colleague, mentor, and friend.
On behalf of the Free Democratic Movement, I extend heartfelt condolences to Sir John’s family and to all Bermudians saddened by his passing. We give thanks for his life, his service, and his enduring commitment to this Island.
As we reflect on his passing, may we also reflect on the lesson he shared with me years ago: that Bermuda advances not when one side wins and another loses, but when we remember that we are all stewards of the same country and servants of the same people.
May Sir John Swan rest in eternal peace, and may his family find comfort in the knowledge that his life’s work helped shape Bermuda’s journey and touched countless lives along the way.
Bermudian actor Nicholas Christopher stars alongside internationally renowned performer Lea Michele in the production of Chess in New York City
Full statement from the Ministry of Tourism & Transport, Culture & Sport:
On Tuesday, June 2, Minister of Tourism & Transport, Culture & Sport, the Hon. Owen Darrell, JP, MP, attended the Broadway revival of Chess in New York in his official capacity, following an invitation to support Bermudian actor Nicholas Christopher, who stars alongside internationally renowned performer Lea Michele in the production.
Mr. Christopher, the son of Ed Christopher, Bermuda’s Town Crier, has emerged as one of Broadway’s most celebrated performers and this year earned nominations for the Tony Awards, Drama Desk Awards, Drama League Awards and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his leading role in Chess.
“Watching Nicholas lead a major Broadway production was a proud moment for Bermuda,” said Minister Darrell. “His talent, dedication and achievements serve as an inspiration to young Bermudians and demonstrate that our people can excel at the highest levels of the performing arts.”
Minister Darrell noted that Christopher’s recognition among Broadway’s top award nominees places him in the company of the theatre industry’s most accomplished artists.
He added that it is especially important for young Bermudians to see that someone from Bermuda can rise to the highest levels of an internationally competitive profession, reinforcing that extraordinary opportunities can begin with Bermudian talent and ambition.
The Bermuda Progressive Labour Party joins all of Bermuda in expressing our condolences on the passing of Sir John Swan, KBE, JP, former Premier of Bermuda and National Hero.
Sir John served in public office for more than two decades, including thirteen years as Premier — the longest tenure of any Premier in Bermuda’s history. Across those years, he was committed to the service of Bermuda and its people.
We mourn a man who answered the call of public service and gave much of his life to it.
To his children — Alison, Amanda, and Nicholas — and to all of Bermuda who mourn his passing, we extend our deepest condolences. We wish the Swan family comfort and strength during this difficult time.
Enlargement has risen up the EU agenda due to Russia’s war against Ukraine
International News via Reuters:
The European Union must show it is willing and able to take in new members, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday as the bloc’s leaders gathered with Western Balkan counterparts hoping to join in the coming years.
Enlargement has risen up the EU agenda due to Russia’s war against Ukraine, with Kyiv keen to join the bloc to anchor itself in Europe’s political mainstream and EU officials declaring that the union should expand to reduce the influence of foreign powers in its neighbourhood.
But the process of joining is usually long and complex, involving years of negotiations and legal reforms, with approval of all 27 current EU members required to complete each step.
“The European Union has to show that it is capable of enlarging and willing to enlarge and we want to discuss that here,” Merz told reporters at the summit in the Montenegrin coastal town of Tivat.
“There are, of course, a whole range of questions that we must answer, that we must answer together, but above all else, it must be clear that this part of Europe belongs within the European Union’s future,” Merz added.
“The fact that we have not admitted any new members for 13 years now shows that there have also been shortcomings on the part of the European Union.”
Six Western Balkan countries want to join the EU – Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Kosovo – but are at different stages of the accession process.
Montenegro, with a population of just 630,000, is widely considered the frontrunner and would be relatively easy to absorb into the EU, a bloc of 450 million people.
But even Montenegro faces obstacles, including related to justice and corruption, and many see its goal of joining by 2028 as very ambitious.
On the eve of the summit, Germany and France proposed giving aspiring EU members more opportunities to join EU programmes and access the single market before joining the bloc.
Merz last month also suggested Ukraine could be granted a new status of “associate member” that would allow Ukrainian officials to take part in EU summits and ministerial meetings – but not vote in them – as an interim step towards full membership.
Reporting by Ivana Sekularac and Andreas Rinke; Writing by Andrew Gray; Editing by Kirsten Donovan
Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s Tisza party, which ended right-wing leader Viktor Orban’s 16-year rule in an April 12 election landslide, has said it would stop issuing visas to workers from outside the European Union from June
International News via Reuters:
Hungary’s government will stop issuing worker visas to employees from the Philippines, Georgia and Armenia from Friday, a government spokeswoman said, calling the move a first step towards regulating the inflow of guest workers.
• Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s Tisza party, which ended right-wing leader Viktor Orban’s 16-year rule in an April 12 election landslide, has said it would stop issuing visas to workers from outside the European Union from June.
• Government to tighten employment opportunities for guest workers over what it says are concerns they are pushing down local salaries, spokeswoman Vanda Szondi told a media briefing.
• Foreign workers account for just 2% of Hungary’s workforce based on official statistics, but some sectors, like services and manufacturing, are heavily reliant on foreign workers.
• Government to change decree allowing manpower companies to import workers in a simplified procedure from the Philippines, Georgia and Armenia as of Friday.
• Employees already present can still apply for an extension, while requests already submitted would be assessed.
• Government calls reforms a first step in a planned long-term solution.
• Some of Hungary’s largest foreign investors have said a complete halt to the inflow of guest workers would hit companies and the wider economy.
Reporting by Gergely Szakacs, Editing by William Maclean
A Romanian Navy official’s hand was caught in a V-BAT propeller on May 12 during a Shield AI training exercise on a boat off the Texas coast – severing two of her fingers and fracturing a third
International News via Reuters:
A year ago, Ryan Tseng, the head of U.S. defense tech startup Shield AI, announced his company had turned a new page.
After a gory incident that partially severed a U.S. Navy official’s fingers during a test of its V-BAT drone, Shield AI had addressed safety concerns with new landing gear and warning stickers near the propeller. “(The) aircraft is, tip to tail, just a radically better airplane,” Tseng told Forbes last year.
Now it’s happened again.
A Romanian Navy official’s hand was caught in a V-BAT propeller on May 12 during a Shield AI training exercise on a boat off the Texas coast – severing two of her fingers and fracturing a third, a spokesperson for Romania’s Ministry of National Defence told Reuters.
The incident, which has not previously been reported, comes as Shield AI struggles to overcome years of technical hitches and safety concerns with its V-BAT, according to interviews with 21 former employees, industry executives and investors, and a Reuters review of a whistleblower complaint, a lawsuit related to hostile work environments and company presentations.
Reuters found that the V-BAT has crashed more than 50 times over the past 18 months, that several staff who raised safety concerns were dismissed and that a Cessna plane with a Shield AI employee and his child aboard had to take evasive action to avoid a mid-air collision with a V-BAT.
Shield AI also allegedly obscured technical flaws with its V-BAT, which costs about $1 million, to help land military sales, according to a previously unreported whistleblower complaint filed in May to the Department of Labor’s Office of Administrative Law Judges and reviewed by Reuters.
Shield AI acquired the V-BAT, a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft designed for military uses, when it bought Martin UAV in 2021.
The company didn’t make Tseng, or Gary Steele, who replaced Tseng as CEO last year, available for an interview. In a statement to Reuters, Shield AI said it had a strong safety record and defended the performance of its drones, saying “operational mishaps are common” for a drone like V-BAT.
“V-BAT remains one of the most operationally proven VTOL aircraft in service today,” the company said, adding that the drone had accumulated 18,000 flight hours since 2019.
Shield AI said the May 12 incident was caused by “a violation of established safety procedures, not from a product defect”, without disclosing the specific violation.
Romania’s defence ministry said it was investigating the incident and that it would be premature to draw conclusions regarding fault or whether the incident could have been prevented.
The Romanian official, whose identity hasn’t been disclosed, had operations to reattach her fingers on May 12 and May 16 at the University Medical Center New Orleans. Her condition deteriorated and she was sent to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, where she remained as of May 25, the ministry said in a statement, without providing further medical details.
Romania’s Naval Forces, which signed a $30 million agreement with Shield AI last year for the V-BAT, said the contract remained in effect.
SHIELD AI VALUED AT $12.7 BILLION
Shield AI, which was valued at $12.7 billion in a March funding round co-led by JPMorgan, has emerged as one of Silicon Valley’s largest defense tech bets, positioning itself as a key provider of drones and autonomous software to rearm the Pentagon as wars rage in Ukraine and the Middle East, and as tensions grow with China over Taiwan.
In February, U.S. Vice President JD Vance was touring Armenia when he was shown the latest V-BAT model, which had just been sold under Washington’s first arms sales to the country.
“Holy shit. Look at this thing!” Vance said in a video posted on LinkedIn, circling the drone in a gilded hall. “It’s going to do great things for you guys.”
Other drone startups have faced setbacks as they race to deliver nascent technology to the battlefield. Reuters has previously reported that other drone companies have suffered after crashes, and a series of U.S. Navy autonomous vessel tests went awry when unmanned boats smashed into one another.
But Shield AI had a “Silicon Valley mindset, that ‘fake it ’til you make it’,” said Jacob Miller, a former product manager who filed the whistleblower complaint in which he alleged he was fired after raising air-safety concerns. That philosophy, he said, is “being applied to equipment that can cause severe immediate harm to people and war fighters”.
Miller also filed a lawsuit against Shield AI and senior director Trey Lindsey in May alleging he was fired after raising safety concerns.
Responding to Miller’s allegations, the Shield AI spokesperson said the company could not comment on ongoing litigation: “We believe these claims lack merit, and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against this attack on Shield AI and its mission.”
Lindsey didn’t respond to a comment request.
DRONE CRASHES MOUNT UP
Shield AI was founded in 2015 by Ryan Tseng – a tech entrepreneur who sold a phone-charging company to Qualcomm – and his brother Brandon, a former Navy SEAL. The firm was among the first venture-backed startups seeking to loosen the grip on major Pentagon contracts long held by so-called prime contractors such as Lockheed Martin and RTX.
But alongside its meteoric growth, including V-BAT sales to more than half a dozen foreign militaries, Shield AI’s drone has struggled with persistent behind-the-scenes failures.
In the past 18 months, more than 50 of about 200 upgraded V-BATs managed by Shield AI as part of its internal fleet have been destroyed in crashes during testing or training, a high failure rate, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
During a NATO-led event in Portugal in September showcasing unmanned military systems, a V-BAT crash-landed on a runway, according to a person familiar with the event and two videos seen by Reuters.
In February, Shield AI announced it was pausing flights for several weeks to determine the causes of a particularly bad spate of crashes – including one that ignited a grass fire in Texas that burned more than 40 acres before it was extinguished, according to fire records, interviews with emergency crews and two people familiar with the matter.
Shield AI did not comment on Reuters reporting on the crashes involving its internal fleet but said that its customers had experienced only 10 “operational mishaps” since early 2025, when it upgraded the V-BAT. The company did not elaborate on the incidents.
WHISTLEBLOWER: SHIELD AI HID MISHAPS FROM CUSTOMERS
When technical shortfalls emerged, the company took steps to obscure them from military customers, according to Miller’s whistleblower complaint. During one test, Shield AI told the Greek military that a V-BAT was flying autonomously when in fact it was being piloted manually, the complaint alleged.
In addition, Miller said Shield AI falsified or scrubbed data in mishap reports, which are generated and reviewed internally after each crash, to “create a falsely favorable narrative” about V-BAT performance, according to his complaint.
He alleged the revised data was used to help secure contracts with Naval Air Systems Command as well as Greece, Japan, Norway, Taiwan and Ukraine. Ukraine declined to comment. The other militaries and NAVAIR did not respond to inquiries.
At times, some Shield AI employees were concerned by the company’s approach to safety.
In July, Shield AI employees were testing a new capability allowing V-BAT drones to detect and avoid other aircraft. Two employees flew near the drone in a Cessna as part of the test – but had to steer the propeller plane out of the way to avoid a potential crash after realizing the drone had failed to detect the small aircraft, according to two people with knowledge of the incident. The young son of one of the employees was also in the Cessna at the time, the people said.
At least three employees who raised safety concerns in the past 18 months were fired, or have left the company, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Last year, law firm Littler Mendelson was hired by Shield AI to investigate claims of a hostile work environment and concerns raised about air safety, according to a person with knowledge of the matter and Miller. Reuters could not determine the findings of the investigation.
Littler Mendelson did not respond to a comment request.
X-BAT PENTAGON CONTRACT
Shield AI is now marketing its X-BAT, a newer, larger drone which is expected to cost about $30 million and is designed to fly alongside fighter jets as a “loyal wingman”.
The company was recently awarded a contract by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit for the X-BAT, a Pentagon spokesperson said. The award has not previously been reported.
In an April pitch deck seen by Reuters, Shield AI had requested $500 million from the Pentagon to help develop four X-BAT prototypes by 2029, along with company investment to cover the total cost of $1.3 billion. Reuters could not determine the ultimate value of the contract. The Pentagon spokesperson declined to provide further details.
The X-BAT is expected to use the same flight controls as the V-BAT, according to a presentation to the Indian government in April last year reviewed by Reuters.
Asked whether the Pentagon was concerned about X-BAT’s reliance on V-BAT technology, the spokesperson said: “We recognize that risk is inherent to technology development and innovation, viewing it as a critical learning process essential to fulfilling our Department’s mandate to embrace risk, break things, and deliver capabilities at speed and scale.”
Reporting by David Jeans; Editing by Joe Brock and David Clarke
Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who ousted veteran nationalist leader Viktor Orban in an April election, secured the release of 16.4 billion euros ($19.1 billion) last month on promises to scrap Orban reforms deemed by the EU to have harmed democracy
International News via Reuters:
Hungary’s government will submit to parliament next week anti-corruption legislation needed to release billions of euros worth of suspended European Union funding, Transport and Investment Minister David Vitezy said on Friday.
Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who ousted veteran nationalist leader Viktor Orban in an April election, secured the release of 16.4 billion euros ($19.1 billion) last month on promises to scrap Orban reforms deemed by the EU to have harmed democracy.
Hungary’s forint currency and bond markets have rallied strongly on Magyar’s pro-EU pivot and his pledge to prepare the country for adoption of the euro by the end of this decade.
“This will be a comprehensive anti-corruption bill that also improves the transparency of Hungarian public life,” Vitezy told reporters. “This represents the rule-of-law criteria that will allow us to bring the EU funds home.”
He said the legislation would enable Hungary to tap up to 10 billion euros from the EU’s pandemic recovery fund to finance transport and renewable energy projects, as well as funds to support small businesses and rental housing construction.
TRANSPARENCY
The reforms will boost the powers of Hungary’s Integrity Authority, an anti-graft watchdog, and create more transparency in the asset declarations of public officials, with any omissions punishable by up to two years in jail, Vitezy said.
He said the government would inject some 3.5 billion euros of EU recovery funds into the state development bank MFB to help finance some of these projects and avoid any loss of funding ahead of an end-August cut-off date.
Hungary will also be able to offset 2.6 billion euros worth of investments previously drawn from its own resources with EU funding, Vitezy said, boosting the government’s room for manoeuvre with the budget following a surge in the deficit driven by heavy pre-election spending under Orban.
Vitezy said some 4.2 billion euros of EU cohesion money would be used to finance investments in railways and transport infrastructure, while another 2.2 billion suspended over an erosion of academic freedoms would be spent on higher education.
($1 = 0.8593 euros)
Reporting by Gergely Szakacs and Paweł FlorkiewiczEditing by Gareth Jones
The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has resulted in 344 confirmed cases of the disease and 60 deaths, according to the World Health Organization
International News via Reuters:
Most of the 13 U.S. treatment centers in a government-funded hospital network for severe infectious diseases are ready to handle patients, including those with Ebola if needed, representatives from the hospitals said this week.
The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has resulted in 344 confirmed cases of the disease and 60 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. So far, one American confirmed to have Ebola has been treated in Germany.
The U.S. State Department has said that U.S. citizens exposed to the virus but with no symptoms would be quarantined in Kenya at a facility it’s building and vowed to keep the U.S. free of travelers with Ebola.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told Reuters on Wednesday the U.S. network is ready if needed for outbreak response.
Public health experts have increased calls for the government to bring any sick Americans home for treatment, with protests at the Kenya site leading to at least two deaths. A Kenyan court has also ordered a block to the construction.
The U.S. has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on preparing its health system to be able to handle Ebola patients since the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, including funding the network of 13 treatment centers.
AT LEAST 9 OF 13 CENTERS READY TO GO
Reuters reached out to the 13 hospitals and universities around the country that are part of the program called the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center, nine of which confirmed they are able to receive patients who have been exposed to Ebola.
The network includes well-known sites such as the University of Nebraska and Emory University in Atlanta, which recently housed Americans exposed to hantavirus on a cruise, as well as others like Bellevue Hospital in New York and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Emory and three other hospitals did not respond to requests for comment.
“The United States’ investment in preparedness… remains a critical component of national health security,” Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for HHS, said.
Hospitals “stand ready to safely evaluate, isolate, and treat patients with high-consequence infectious diseases while supporting ongoing response efforts,” she said.
INVESTMENT AFTER 2014 OUTBREAK
In the 2014 West Africa outbreak, the U.S. brought several Ebola patients back to be treated domestically. The following year, HHS received around $260 million in funding for Ebola preparedness and response activities in support of the regional treatment network.
Recently, HHS has provided $21 million a year in funding to the group, which has continued in 2026.
The facilities are required to be able to take care of at least two patients with exposure to a contagious viral hemorrhagic fever like Ebola. The facilities are required to train their personnel quarterly, and have lab testing capabilities and personal protective equipment on hand.
The U.S. CDC has dozens of employees in the DRC and has said it plans to send members of the Public Health Service Corps to staff the Kenya site. Americans also volunteer there for international relief organizations.
Healthcare officials in the U.S., including former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials, argued in an open letter earlier this week that building the new facility in Kenya would raise serious health risks compared with medical repatriation to fully staffed and prepared U.S. facilities.
One former CDC official who is familiar with the response effort said the Kenya quarantine plan could hinder recruiting Americans to help with the outbreak.
“People are concerned they will be abandoned by their government, and many see it as a slap in the face to have taken an oath to serve the American public and get repaid that way,” the former official said.
Reporting by Michael Erman in New Jersey; Additional reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot
The Defence Investment Plan will lay out the funding for military equipment and services to ensure the armed forces move to a state of “warfighting readiness”, but reports say it has been held up since last year by budget rows within government
International News via Reuters:
Britain is running out of time to boost its defences in response to the threat posed by recent Russian actions, the country’s military chief said on Friday, after months of delays to the country’s Defence Investment Plan.
“Russia is definitely raising the stakes and risks crossing a line,” Chief of the Defence Staff Richard Knighton told BBC Radio. “We need to spend more on defence and do it faster.”
The Defence Investment Plan will lay out the funding for military equipment and services to ensure the armed forces move to a state of “warfighting readiness”, but reports say it has been held up since last year by budget rows within government.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed on a visit to a drone factory on Friday that the plan would be published before a July 7 NATO summit, following a period of close work between government and military leaders.
“It is no exaggeration to say that we’re living in more dangerous and volatile times than at any time in my life,” Starmer said.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called on Starmer and other European leaders to spend more on defence and become less reliant on Washington for the continent’s security, is due to attend the summit.
THREATS GREATEST SINCE COLD WAR
Knighton said the risks and threats to Britain were greater than at any time since the Cold War, and the government needed to spend on defence accordingly.
“The challenge for ministers is to make those difficult trade-off decisions,” he said.
Media reports say military chiefs have warned Starmer that there is a £28 billion shortfall in funding over the next four years, and say that is behind the delay to the investment plan.
Starmer has pledged the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, aiming to lift it to 3% of national output in the next parliament, but he has been criticised for not following through on his promises.
George Robertson, who served in the 1990s as Britain’s defence secretary and then as chief of NATO, said in April that there was a gap between Starmer’s rhetoric and action and he was “not willing to make the necessary investment” in defence.
Knighton said Russia was stepping up its threat, with more incursions into British airspace and through regular “probing, challenging, testing” of defences, as well as being behind cyberattacks, sabotage and attempts to steal technology.
“We do need to step up and enhance our capability as the threats from potential adversaries grow,” he said.
Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Alex Richardson, William Maclean
The FAO Food Price Index, which measures changes in a basket of globally traded food commodities, averaged 130.8 points in May, 0.2% down from its revised April level of 131.0, but up 2.9% from a year earlier
International News via Reuters:
World food prices slipped in May from a revised April level, with vegetable oil prices falling for the first time this year while cereals and sugar jumped, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said on Friday.
The FAO Food Price Index, which measures changes in a basket of globally traded food commodities, averaged 130.8 points in May, 0.2% down from its revised April level of 131.0, but up 2.9% from a year earlier.
Despite the small downward correction for the April data, the index remained near its highest level since January 2023 and 18.4% below its March 2022 peak.
Cereal prices rose more than 2.6% on the month, with wheat up for a fourth straight month on smaller export harvest prospects, including in the United States, and higher fuel and fertiliser costs linked to the Iran conflict.
Maize prices were also supported by stronger import demand and tighter supplies in Brazil and the U.S., the agency said.
By contrast, vegetable oil prices fell 4.6% from last month, their first monthly decline this year, as lower palm and soy oil prices outweighed gains in rapeseed and sunflower oil. After rising for five consecutive months, international palm oil prices declined, reflecting expectations of weaker global import demand and uncertainty in crude oil markets.
Vegetable oil prices on average were still more than 20% above last year, as elevated energy costs following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz raised demand for biofuels made using organic materials, such as oil-rich plants.
Sugar prices jumped 7.5% from last month to 95.1 points, but remained 13.1% below their level a year ago. The increase was mainly driven by concerns over an anticipated tightening of global sugar supplies in the coming months.
In a separate cereal supply report, the FAO said it expected world cereal production – including rice in milled equivalent – to shrink 2% in 2026/27 to 2.98 billion tons.
Production of all major cereals is anticipated to decline, albeit for many from record levels reached in 2025, with the largest year-on-year decrease in percentage terms forecast for wheat and the smallest for maize and barley.
Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise
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