World
Russian tanker drifting in the Mediterranean Sea may explode
By Anka Kir
Published on
The Russian gas carrier Arctic Metagaz, damaged by a series of explosions, has been drifting uncontrollably in the Mediterranean Sea for nearly two weeks, causing growing alarm among coastal states and environmental activists.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Moscow claims that the vessel, which belongs to an authorised “shadow fleet”, was attacked by Ukrainian maritime drones. Kiev has not commented on these claims.
Aerial photos taken after the attack show a giant breach several dozen metres wide near the waterline. The scale of the destruction was so great that Libyan authorities mistakenly declared the ship a wreck on 4 March.
Hull damage and crew evacuation
The huge 277-metre tanker, its hull blackened by fire, lost control after explosions on 3 March, when 30 crew members – mostly Russian and Filipino nationals – were forced to abandon ship.
According to Russian reports, pops continue to be heard on board, gas emissions have been recorded, roll has increased, and localised fires have broken out in some compartments. At the time of the crew evacuation, 450 tonnes of fuel oil, 250 tonnes of diesel fuel and significant volumes of natural gas remained in the tanks, which significantly increases the risk of an emergency development up to explosion.
Environmental risks and Europe’s response
AFP footage taken on Sunday shows the vessel about 50 nautical miles southwest of Malta, with the tanker’s stern and sides visibly blackened by the fire.
Environmentalists have labelled the Arctic Metagaz a “floating time bomb” and warned that a leak or explosion could cause long-term damage to one of the Mediterranean’s most biodiversity-rich areas. Experts note that the damaged hull and ongoing internal processes make the situation unpredictable.
Leading environmental NGO WWF emphasised that possible contamination may have consequences for years to come.
European governments are also concerned about the situation: Italy, France and seven other EU countries have sent a joint appeal to the European Commission, warning of an “immediate and serious danger” to the region.
Legal uncertainty
The vessel is drifting between Malta and the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Linosa while remaining in international waters, complicating the question of who should take responsibility for intervening.
Rescue teams are already in Malta, ready for possible intervention if the ship approaches the country’s territorial waters. However, the question of who exactly should act remains a matter of diplomatic dispute.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow controls the situation as a flag state, but emphasised that international norms place responsibility for preventing environmental damage on coastal states.
While it is being discussed who exactly should take decisive action, the Arctic Metagaz continues its uncontrolled drift and the risk of a serious environmental incident remains high.
World
Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei ‘misfunctioning,’ not controlling regime: sources
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is little more than an “empty entity” who is not at the helm of the regime, according to Israeli national security sources.
The son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a targeted Israeli strike on Feb. 28, is also linked to what officials describe as a “misfunctioning” regime.
“The new leader is an empty entity,” Kobi Michael, a defense analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital.
TRUMP VOWS TO HIT IRAN ‘VERY HARD’ AFTER OBLITERATING NEARLY ’90 PERCENT’ OF REGIME MISSILES
“Mojtaba Khamenei does not appear in public, but we also have reliable information that he does not control or lead the regime or what has been left of the regime.
“The current Iranian leadership is broken, confused and is almost misfunctioning.”
A mourner holds a poster depicting Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, the successor to his late father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, as supreme leader, during the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign in Tehran, Iran, March 11, 2026. (Vahid Salemi/AP Photo)
Mojtaba reportedly escaped death by minutes when his father was killed Feb. 28, leaving the compound for a walk shortly before an Israeli missile strike, according to leaked audio accessed by The Telegraph.
The audio, reportedly from a March 12 meeting, revealed details about the strikes that also took out several members of the Khamenei family.
Mazaher Hosseini, head of protocol for Khamenei’s office, is supposedly heard in the audio telling senior leaders that Mojtaba sustained “a minor injury to his leg.”
Since being named supreme leader, Mojtaba has not made one public appearance. Instead, a message by him was read on Iranian state TV, warning of continued strikes and urging Gulf nations to shut down U.S. bases.
ISRAEL KILLS IRANIAN INTELLIGENCE MINISTER WHO SURVIVED INITIAL STRIKE, OFFICIAL SAYS
Iranian Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani, a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who commands Basij forces (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File; Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images, File)
Other reports claimed Mojtaba was in critical condition or even in a coma, though Iranian officials have insisted that the new supreme leader is in good health.
Mojtaba Khamenei vowed revenge Wednesday after the killing of senior security official Ali Larijani in an Israeli strike.
“Such acts of terror only reflect the enemies’ hostility and will strengthen the resolve of the Islamic nation. Undoubtedly, justice will be served,” the statement said.
Larijani, one of Iran’s top security figures, was killed after Israeli intelligence reportedly located him and other officials on the outskirts of Tehran.
Other senior figures have also been killed in recent strikes, including Basij militia leader Gholamreza Soleimani, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“This is not a new phase, but a continuing effort and a very successful and impressive one and a crucial component of the strategy meant to weaken the Iranian regime,” Michael said of the continued strikes at regime figures.
“This is to the degree that it will not be able to reconstitute itself and/or to become again a severe threat and destabilizing player in the broader Middle East.”
US-SANCTIONED MOJTABA KHAMENEI NAMED IRAN’S NEXT SUPREME LEADER AFTER FATHER’S DEATH: REPORTS
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One Wednesday, March 18, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)
After the opening U.S.-Israeli strikes, President Donald Trump told the Iranian people that their “moment of freedom” was at hand.
“When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take,” Trump said, suggesting the U.S. would help bring down the Iranian regime.
“At the very same time, by weakening the regime and paralyzing its capacities generally speaking and its domestic control specifically, the U.S. and Israel are facilitating the required conditions for the Iranian people to topple the regime,” Michael added.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“This is the ultimate victory in their eyes, and the route to this destination is that they are trying to increase any damage wherever they can.”
World
Video: Israel Kills Another Top Iranian Official as Tehran Retaliates
new video loaded: Israel Kills Another Top Iranian Official as Tehran Retaliates
By Axel Boada
March 18, 2026
World
Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of killing hundreds in Kabul hospital strike
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A reported airstrike on a hospital in Afghanistan that allegedly left hundreds dead is drawing growing scrutiny, not only over the strike itself but over what critics describe as a muted international response.
Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government said more than 400 people were killed and hundreds were wounded after a strike hit the Omid Hospital, a major drug rehabilitation facility in Kabul, according to Reuters. Civilians, including children, also have been killed in escalating cross-border strikes in Pakistan, The Associated Press reported.
The casualty figures have not been independently verified.
The strike comes amid a rapidly escalating military campaign between Pakistan and Afghanistan that has intensified over the past three weeks.
INDIA STEPS UP DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH THE TALIBAN AS RIVAL PAKISTAN LOSES INFLUENCE IN AFGHANISTAN
The site of a drug rehabilitation hospital that was destroyed in what the Taliban said was a Pakistani air strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 17, 2026. (Sayed Hassib/Reuters)
Cross-border airstrikes and clashes have expanded across multiple provinces, with Pakistan targeting what it says are bases of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group responsible for attacks inside Pakistan and designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. The Taliban government has accused Islamabad of violating Afghanistan’s sovereignty.
At a United Nations briefing Wednesday, a U.N. spokesperson said the conflict has now entered its third week, with widespread civilian impact. More than 115,000 people have been displaced, more than 300 shelters damaged or destroyed, and at least 25 health facilities closed or disrupted due to the fighting, according to U.N. humanitarian agencies.
Pakistan has denied targeting a hospital, saying the operation struck militant infrastructure.
“Since the beginning of this counterterrorism campaign, Pakistan has sought to defend and protect the people of Pakistan … by targeting terrorists and terrorist infrastructure that are incubated and nurtured by the Afghan Taliban,” Prime Minister’s spokesperson Mosharraf Zaidi told Fox News Digital.
PAKISTAN DECLARES ‘OPEN WAR’ ON AFGHANISTAN IN RESPONSE TO TALIBAN’S RETALIATORY STRIKES
Red Crescent volunteers carry a body of a victim, who died in what the Taliban said was a Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation hospital, in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 17, 2026. (Sayed Hassib/Reuters)
Zaidi said the strike targeted weapons and ammunition at Camp Phoenix in Kabul and insisted, “There are no civilian hospitals in Camp Phoenix,” adding that reports of a rehabilitation facility being hit may be due to “secondary explosions” from stored weapons.
The United Nations on Wednesday, two days after the attack, condemned the reported strike, with Secretary-General António Guterres, through a spokesperson, “strongly condemning” an airstrike that “reportedly resulted in the death (and) injury of civilians at a hospital,” and calling for an independent investigation.
Still, some analysts say the response does not match the scale of the incident.
“UN officials swiftly condemned U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s regime as unlawful ‘aggression’ … Yet Pakistan’s airstrike on Kabul’s Omid Hospital — killing over 400 civilians — has drawn only a belated ‘strong condemnation’ … and standard pleas for ‘de-escalation’,” Executive Director of UN Watch Hillel Neuer told Fox News Digital.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Afghan Taliban fighters patrol near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Spin Boldak, Kandahar Province, following exchanges of fire between Pakistani and Afghan forces. (Reuters/Stringer/File Photo)
“This restrained response — no personal outrage from Guterres, no emergency session naming Pakistan, and no equivalent chorus from UN rapporteurs, or agencies like WHO, UN Women, and UNICEF — reveals rank hypocrisy,” he said. “When hundreds of vulnerable Afghans die in a hospital, the UN offers measured words. Yet when the U.S. or Israel can be blamed — justifiably or not — the condemnation is immediate and overwhelming. When some victims matter far more than others, the UN reveals its cynical political agenda. This double standard doesn’t uphold human rights, it erodes them.”
Human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky echoed that criticism in a post on X, calling the strike “an absolute massacre,” while noting what he described as a lack of global outrage: “World outrage? Zero. Could barely muster p17 in the newspaper here.”
-
Oklahoma4 days agoFamily rallies around Oklahoma father after head-on crash
-
Michigan1 week agoOperation BBQ Relief helping with Southwest Michigan tornado recovery
-
Nebraska6 days agoWildfire forces immediate evacuation order for Farnam residents
-
Southeast1 week ago‘90 Day Fiancé’ alum’s boyfriend on trial for attempted murder over wild ‘Boca Bash’ accusations
-
Georgia3 days agoHow ICE plans for a detention warehouse pushed a Georgia town to fight back | CNN Politics
-
Connecticut1 week agoExclusive | Ex-CBS anchor Josh Elliott back on Connecticut dating scene after ugly Liz Cho split
-
Alaska4 days agoPolice looking for man considered ‘armed and dangerous’
-
Massachusetts1 week agoMassachusetts community colleges to launch apprenticeship degree programs – The Boston Globe