Newshour

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sought to reassure allies after US rowed back on plans last week to cancel long held plans to deploy 4,000 US troops to Poland and instead send an extra 5,000 troops there. The move has caused confusion amongst NATO allies.

Also in the programme: Thousands of Cubans have taken part in a state-organized protest in the capital, Havana, in support of the country's former leader, Raul Castro, who was charged with murder and other crimes in the United States this week; and Carlo Petrini who began the Slow Food movement as a protest against a McDonalds opening in Rome has died at the age of seventy six.

Photo: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets press after NATO foreign ministers meet in Helsingborg, Sweden. Credit: JOHAN NILSSON/TT/EPA/Shutterstock

The WHO has upgraded the risk from the current Ebola outbreak to "very high" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and says regionally the risk is high -- though it remains low in the rest of the world. Newshour hears from Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group which helped develop the Astra Zeneca Covid vaccine.

Also in the programme: Will Grant reports from Havana on Cuba under pressure; and how barnacles affect stationary ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

(Picture: Red Cross workers walk in a formation as they disinfect Rwampara general hospital before handling the body of a person who died of Ebola, as aid agencies intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak. Credit: Reuters)

A day after the US's indictment of former Cuban president Raul Castro, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Havana has accepted an offer of $100m in aid but that the chances of a negotiated settlement was "not high". Could the US be considering an imminent invasion of Cuba?

Also on the programme: Amid a growing number of cases, a hospital treating Ebola patients in Congo is set on fire; and the new research suggesting that Beluga whales recognise their own reflections.

(Photo: Rubio speaks to the press before boarding his plane at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida, May 21, 2026 Credit: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Pool via REUTERS)

There has been international condemnation of Israel's treatment of pro-Palestinian activists who were on board a Gaza-bound aid flotilla intercepted by Israeli naval forces.

(Photo: Activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla, aiming to reach Gaza and break Israel’s naval blockade, gather at a port before their departure in the southern Turkish resort of Marmaris, Turkey on May 14, 2026. Credit: Reuters)

The US Justice Department has indicted Cuba's former leader, Raul Castro, on criminal charges. The allegations centre on a Cuban military offensive against US civilian aircraft in 1996. The planes were operated by an organisation called Brothers to the Rescue and were searching for people who wanted to leave the island, when they were shot down by the Cuban military, which was led by Castro at the time. We get the latest from the BBC’s Cuba correspondent.

Also on the programme: Israel's far-right security minister has been condemned for taunting handcuffed Gaza flotilla activists; and we hear from the winner of this year’s International Booker Prize. 

(Photo: Cuba's former President Raul Castro watches a May Day rally in Havana, Cuba 1st May, 2025. Credit: Reuters/Norlys Perez)

Why was the Ebola outbreak able to spread so quickly? We speak to the co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response about Ebola testing shortfalls in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Also on the programme: we examine the relationship between Russia and China as Vladimir Putin fails to reach a gas pipeline deal during a visit to Beijing. Plus, we hear why the Tyrannosaurus Rex had such short arms.

(Picture: A health worker takes the temperature of an M23 rebel in Goma, North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Credit: Arlette Bashizi/Reuters)

We hear from a journalist in eastern DR Congo on how situation is becoming more and more difficult for people in the city of Goma, a major transport hub - and we speak to Tom Frieden, a leading US scientist involved in fighting the last major Ebola outbreak.

Also on the programme: An interview with former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, pardoned by Donald Trump, now in hiding in the US.

(Photo: UNICEF staff receive medical supplies from an aircraft in Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 19, 2026. Credit: REUTERS/Gradel Muyisa Mumbere)

The World Health Organisation has sent six tonnes of medical supplies to the Democratic Republic of Congo as it continues to sound the alarm over the scale of the Ebola outbreak in central Africa. We hear why the authorities are battling against the widespread local belief that symptoms are caused not by the Ebola virus, but witchcraft.

Also, a look ahead to today's primary contests in the United States with Kentucky becoming the most expensive race ever, and the former President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, tells our correspondent why he believes he was the victim of “lawfare” and “a witch-hunt” by a vindictive Biden Administration.

(Photo: Fatima Tafida, the Regional Supply Chain Lead for Emergencies at the World Health Organization's (WHO) Regional Office for Africa pastes stickers on shipment pallets as the WHO mobilises 4.7 tonnes of essential medical supplies and emergency kits to support the affected regions in response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 18 May, 2026. Credit: World Health Organization/Handout /Reuters)

A deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus is spreading in central Africa. We'll talk to a doctor with experience of both treating and contracting the disease.

A report from Ukraine's "kill-zone".

Elon Musk loses AI lawsuit against Sam Altman.

and a survivor of the Blitz on her recollections of the horrors of that bombing campaign on the UK.

An ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been declared a public health emergency of international concern. The World Health Organisation has said that the virus has spread beyond the DRC, with confirmed cases reported in neighbouring Uganda. Two other neighbours - Rwanda and South Sudan - are also now on "high alert". The current strain of Ebola is caused by the Bundibugyo virus for which there are no approved drugs or vaccines.

(Image: REUTERS/Victoire Mukenge)