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  • Trump vows to declare Strait of Hormuz a US territory

    Trump vows to declare Strait of Hormuz a US territory

    On a recent Friday appearance before a crowd in Long Island, former U.S. President Donald Trump reignited global geopolitical anxiety with a startling announcement: following what he claimed would be an imminent defeat of Iran, he intends to formally designate the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz as a territory of the United States.

    The provocative comment comes against a tense existing backdrop: for five months, Iran has restricted commercial vessel traffic through the strait, a response to what Tehran frames as an illegal joint military campaign led by the U.S. and Israel. This disruption to global energy shipping has already sent fuel prices soaring worldwide, exacerbating economic pressures that have drawn sharp criticism of Trump’s economic stewardship. Just 48 hours before Trump’s announcement, new inflation data confirmed what one economic analyst describes as “Trump’s catastrophic mismanagement of our economy,” a judgment that underscores the deep domestic fallout from his aggressive foreign policy toward Iran.

    During the Long Island event, Trump attempted to downplay growing public anger over rising energy costs, claiming his administration would “bring the prices way down.” He doubled down on his confrontation with Tehran, asserting that Iran is “being very badly defeated” and that the territorial designation would follow swiftly on the heels of military victory.

    Critics across the political spectrum have swiftly condemned the remark, with many dismissing it as yet another outlandish falsehood from a president long known for misleading public statements. On the social platform X, Democratic Representative Ted Lieu of California mocked the announcement with a sarcastic quip: “Awesome! And the Easter Bunny is real.”

    Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council, pointed out the hollow nature of Trump’s jingoistic threat, noting that most U.S. military bases positioned near the strait have already been effectively evacuated due to the persistent threat of Iranian drone and missile attacks. Progressive political commentator Kyle Kulinski went even further, calling for Trump’s immediate removal from office and prosecution, labeling him “a completely unhinged lunatic, and a sadistic violent menace to the world.”

    Trump has pushed back against criticism, acknowledging that gasoline prices have surged as a direct result of his administration’s war with Iran but defending the policy as a necessary national security measure. He argued that American consumers are paying slightly higher prices to prevent Iran — which he calls the “No. 1 state sponsor of terror” — from developing a nuclear weapon. “I’ll never apologize. I did the right thing,” he stated.

    Trump’s territorial threat comes just days before a month-long bilateral ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is set to expire this coming Monday. A senior anonymous White House official told Politico that the current situation along the conflict line remains “static,” and that the administration has not discussed extending the truce. “What matters is if Iran wants to come to the table and agree to a deal. Right now, they haven’t done that,” the official said.

    The Associated Press reported Friday that the Trump administration is currently expanding diplomatic outreach to a wider group of nations in an effort to build international pressure on Tehran. Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, told the outlet that the international community is unified in calling for de-escalation: “everyone is just urging both sides to stop this reckless game of chicken.”

    This latest provocation fits a pattern of aggressive unilateral actions taken by Trump during his second term. In addition to launching military action against Iran in February, the administration ordered an invasion of Venezuela in January to abduct the country’s sitting president. Trump has also issued verbal threats against a host of other nations, including Canada, Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, and has previously claimed U.S. claims to Greenland. He has further threatened to seize control of the Panama Canal, and authorized military strikes that have killed hundreds of people aboard vessels alleged to be engaged in drug smuggling.

  • Myanmar says over 300,000 Rohingya refugees verified for repatriation as exodus enters ninth year

    Myanmar says over 300,000 Rohingya refugees verified for repatriation as exodus enters ninth year

    Eight years on from the 2017 violence that pushed hundreds of thousands of Rohingya across Myanmar’s border into Bangladesh, the junta-backed government in Naypyidaw has publicly announced it is prepared to accept the return of more than 300,000 Rohingya refugees once regional security conditions stabilize. The confirmation, released in an official statement from Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the weekend, marks the first formal update to the long-stalled repatriation process in years, even as ongoing armed conflict across Rakhine State leaves any large-scale return unlikely in the near term.

    The roots of the current Rohingya refugee crisis stretch back decades, but the most catastrophic displacement began in August 2017. Following coordinated attacks on military outposts by a Rohingya insurgent faction, Myanmar’s military launched a large-scale counterinsurgency crackdown across northern Rakhine State. The brutal, coordinated operation forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee their homes for neighboring Bangladesh, where they joined an estimated 200,000 other Rohingya who had been displaced by earlier waves of state-led violence dating back to the 1970s. The operation’s scale and brutality drew global condemnation, with the United Nations and multiple world governments accusing Myanmar’s military of carrying out ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Rohingya population.

    Successive Myanmar governments have long refused to grant the Rohingya official status as one of the country’s 135 recognized ethnic minorities, instead labeling them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and referring to them exclusively as “Bengalis.” Under the current repatriation verification process, the statement explains that authorities have cross-checked 426,545 of the 828,824 names on the refugee roster provided by the Bangladeshi government as of the end of July. Of those screened, 308,797 have been confirmed as former residents of Rakhine State who are eligible for return. An additional 113,507 applicants could not be verified through Myanmar’s existing records, while 4,241 screened people were flagged for alleged links to what the ministry called “terrorist activities.”

    The foreign ministry’s statement reaffirmed that the government will continue bilateral coordination with Bangladesh to facilitate the safe return of all verified former Rohingya residents, but only once security across Rakhine State improves. The statement also pushed back on widespread accounts that more than 1 million Rohingya have been displaced from Rakhine since 2017, claiming that just over 540,000 people crossed into Bangladesh following the 2017 violence, with roughly 200,000 Rohingya remaining in northern Rakhine State.

    Plans for organized repatriation first took shape in 2018, when Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement to launch a two-year structured return process. But those plans collapsed entirely after the 2021 military coup that ousted the elected civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The coup triggered widespread armed resistance across the country, and security in Rakhine State has deteriorated sharply since 2023, when renewed clashes broke out between the military and the ethnic Arakan Army, which has seized control of most of Rakhine’s territory over the past three years. The latest round of fighting has forced thousands more Rohingya to flee Rakhine for Bangladesh and other neighboring regions in search of safety.

    For the hundreds of thousands of refugees still trapped in overcrowded Bangladeshi camps, conditions have grown increasingly desperate in recent years. Cuts to international aid, persistent overcrowding, lack of access to livelihoods and healthcare, and the complete absence of a safe path to return have pushed growing numbers of refugees to attempt dangerous unauthorized sea crossings to Malaysia and Indonesia on overcrowded, unseaworthy boats.

    Earlier this year, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that Myanmar had agreed to repatriate 5,000 Rohingya currently residing in Malaysia as part of a regional repatriation initiative. But a senior official from Myanmar’s foreign ministry later clarified to the Associated Press that the plan only applied to verified Myanmar nationals being held in Malaysian immigration detention centers, and rejected claims that the government would accept the return of Rohingya refugees outside that narrow framework.

  • Exhausted health workers in Congo struggle to keep up as Ebola outpaces contact tracing

    Exhausted health workers in Congo struggle to keep up as Ebola outpaces contact tracing

    In the conflict-wracked eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, community health teams led by workers like Gédéon Banga Ngbape wage a daily uphill battle to contain the country’s fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record. Every dawn, Ngbape and his surveillance crew spread across communities in Nizi, one of the outbreak’s hardest-hit health zones in Ituri province, chasing down alerts of suspected cases, tracking contacts of infected people, and rushing symptomatic residents to care before the virus can jump to new hosts. But this critical frontline work is being undermined by gaps that have left responders racing to catch up to a virus that is already outpacing their efforts.

    Latest government data confirms the scale of the crisis: more than 4,700 confirmed cases have been recorded, with over 2,200 deaths. This death toll was accumulated nearly three times faster than the 2014-2016 West African Ebola epidemic, the previous deadliest on record which killed more than 11,000 people over two years. “We are chasing the virus; the virus is ahead of us,” Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa, acknowledged this week, echoing a widespread sentiment among responders.

    The most critical flaw in the response lies in the broken surveillance system, the backbone of any successful outbreak containment. Between 60 and 70 percent of new infections are now being detected in people who were never flagged as close contacts of confirmed cases, meaning health workers only identify infections after patients have already circulated in communities and exposed others to the virus. “If surveillance does not work well, the entire response suffers,” Ngbape said. “Surveillance is the engine of a response.”

    Frontline workers bear the brunt of these systemic failures, working grueling hours for little pay and lacking even basic protective supplies. Ngbape’s team handles an average of 60 to 70 alerts daily, with shifts that often stretch from 8 a.m. to midnight, followed by additional planning for the next day’s work. “I feel really tired, but what matters to me is always being of service to the community,” Ngbape said.

    Community health worker Ana Ndroy Kasime, who conducts door-to-door education and case reporting in Nizi, says teams lack essential protective gear including boots and hospital-grade disinfectant, forcing workers to purchase supplies out of their own meager salaries. Kasime, who earns roughly $50 per month for her high-risk work, calls the compensation totally inadequate for the demands of the job.

    Widespread labor unrest has further crippled response efforts. On Thursday, health workers at the Nizi Treatment Center launched a strike and temporarily shut down the facility after going more than three months without pay. Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called on the Congolese government to immediately disburse back wages, noting funding is already available and paying frontline workers is a core government responsibility. The government has defended the delays, saying it is cleaning up payrolls that were inflated with fake names and transitioning from cash payments to digital mobile money transfers. While community health workers like Kasime have received their salaries, she warns that delayed pay for other response staff puts the entire outbreak response at risk. “They are making sacrifices and taking risks,” she said. “If these workers decide to stop working, the epidemic will spread further into the population.”

    Compounding these challenges is the unique danger posed by the current strain of the virus: this outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo Ebola variant, for which no approved vaccines or specific treatments exist, though clinical trials are currently underway. Eastern Congo’s long-running instability also creates insurmountable barriers to contact tracing: dozens of rebel and militia groups, including the Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces, operate across Ituri province, forcing many aid and health workers to flee remote outbreak hotspots for the relative safety of the provincial capital Bunia. As of mid-July, local health authorities have recorded at least a dozen attacks on health facilities and response workers, fueled in part by widespread misinformation claiming Ebola does not exist and anger over public health bans on traditional funeral gatherings, a known driver of Ebola transmission.

    Frequent population movement, driven by artisanal mining and people fleeing conflict, also makes it nearly impossible for teams to track exposed contacts before they develop symptoms. Many remote areas are cut off by poorly maintained or impassable roads, and insecurity restricts where responders can safely travel, leaving entire communities without any surveillance coverage. Ngbape notes that cooperation from local residents in Nizi has improved in recent weeks as communities have become more familiar with his team’s work, and widespread concealment of cases is not a major issue in the area. Still, population movement and limited transportation leave many contacts unaccounted for.

    Despite exhaustion from endless long hours and constant resource shortages, Ngbape says he has no intention of stepping back. Maintaining surveillance, he argues, is the only way to stop small clusters of infection from growing into large, uncontrolled community transmission. For him, the mission remains clear: “I am here to save the lives of the population.”

    In a small bright spot for the response, United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher announced Friday an additional $30.5 million in emergency funding to scale up Ebola response efforts in the country. The outbreak has already spread to six of Congo’s provinces, according to recent official reports. This reporting was supported by a grant from the Gates Foundation to the Associated Press for global health and development coverage in Africa, with the AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • India wins toss and opts to bat in 1st test against Sri Lanka

    India wins toss and opts to bat in 1st test against Sri Lanka

    GALLE, SRI LANKA – On a landmark Saturday for both international cricket and the competing nations, India’s stand-in captain Shubman Gill won the pre-match coin toss and immediately announced his side would bat first in the opening fixture of a two-Test series against Sri Lanka at Galle International Stadium.

    This series carries high stakes for both teams, as every result earns critical ranking points toward qualification for the 2027 ICC World Test Championship final. Entering the match, India holds fifth position in the standings, while host Sri Lanka sits just one spot below in sixth, leaving both sides desperate for a strong performance to keep their title hopes alive.

    The match carries extra historical significance beyond the championship race: Saturday coincides with India’s 80th Independence Day celebration, and the contest marks the 600th Test match in India’s centuries-long international cricket history. For the venue, Galle International Stadium is hosting its 50th Test match, adding another layer of milestone context to the opening fixture.

    Local conditions are expected to shape the match’s trajectory. Pitch analysts predict batting-friendly conditions for the opening two days of play, with spin gradually becoming the dominant factor as the surface wears on across five days of play. That trend has shaped both teams’ selection strategies, with spin bowlers featuring heavily in both lineups.

    Host Sri Lanka built its side around a spin-heavy attack, selecting just two fast bowlers alongside four specialist spinners. The squad includes captain Dhananjaya de Silva and left-arm spinner Sonal Dinusha, while 25-year-old off-spinner Keshara Nuwantha is set to make his long-awaited Test debut for the national side. Sri Lanka’s full starting lineup is: Lahiru Udara, Nishan Madushka, Dinesh Chandimal, Kamindu Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva (captain), Sonal Dinusha, Niroshan Dickwella, Keshara Nuwantha, Prabath Jayasuriya, Lahiru Kumara, and Asitha Fernando.

    India stuck with the same bowling combination it used in its most recent Test against Afghanistan in June, fielding three spinners and two pace bowlers. All three of India’s spinners are left-arm specialists: Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and Manav Suthar. India was forced to adjust its batting lineup following two key injury withdrawals: pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out with a knee injury, while young batter Sai Sudharsan was sidelined by a stress fracture. Devdutt Padikkal was named as Sudharsan’s replacement in the starting lineup. India’s full starting lineup is: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna.

  • US has lost roughly 25 percent of its Reaper drones in Iran war: Report

    US has lost roughly 25 percent of its Reaper drones in Iran war: Report

    A new report published Friday by *The Washington Post* has revealed that U.S. military operations against Iran have resulted in the destruction or extreme depletion of roughly $1.3 billion worth of American MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles, accounting for approximately one quarter of the United States’ pre-conflict Reaper fleet. The findings directly contradict public claims made by former President Donald Trump and his senior administration officials, who repeatedly asserted that Iran’s integrated air defense networks had been completely eliminated. The Post’s count of lost drones marks a small but notable increase from earlier reporting by Bloomberg in May, which estimated that drone losses made up 20% of the pre-conflict U.S. inventory. Manufactured by General Atomics, individual MQ-9 Reaper drones carry a price tag between $30 million and $50 million, with the final cost determined by the platform’s specific sensor, radar, and weapons configurations. As outlined by U.S. Air Force documentation, the Reaper operates as a high-altitude intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platform that also supports precision targeted strike missions. It is capable of being armed with both Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guided bombs, but its operational profile leaves it uniquely vulnerable to defensive fire: the Reaper flies at slow speeds and relatively low altitudes, making it an easy target for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as Iranian-aligned allied groups based in Iraq and Yemen. MQ-9 Reapers are regularly deployed over the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically critical global chokepoint that has become a central flashpoint in ongoing tensions and open conflict between the United States and Iran. Trump has repeatedly described his administration’s military posture in the waterway as a “wall of steel” naval blockade designed to cut off Iranian maritime activity. The Reaper drone losses are far from an isolated incident: the aircraft is just one entry on a growing list of advanced U.S. weapons systems and munitions that have seen severe stockpile drawdowns throughout the conflict with Iran. Already, the Pentagon has laid out plans to phase out the existing Reaper fleet, replacing it with a new generation of lower-cost armed surveillance drones engineered to operate in coordinated swarms against enemy targets. Beyond unmanned platforms, the U.S. has also drained its stockpiles of advanced long-range standoff munitions. To date, U.S. forces have fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles and over 1,000 Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor missiles during operations. The Trump administration has publicly rejected all reports that the conflict has created critical weapons stock shortages for the U.S. military. Even so, the administration has submitted a request to Congress for more than $67 billion in emergency supplementary funding. This request would cover unplanned operational costs incurred by the Department of Defense during the conflict, codenamed Operation Epic Fury, and fund replenishment of depleted weapons stockpiles. Internal tensions over the munitions shortage have already spilled into top administration circles: during a Cabinet meeting held on August 6, Trump confronted then-Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directly over the critical stock shortfall, acknowledging that the shortage was a core factor behind the administration’s decision to pause large-scale offensive strikes against Iran. This article was originally distributed by Middle East Eye, an outlet that provides independent, on-the-ground coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa, and broader surrounding region.

  • Pallister beats Ledecky, US sweeps relays over Australia at Pan Pacs

    Pallister beats Ledecky, US sweeps relays over Australia at Pan Pacs

    IRVINE, California — The 2026 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships delivered a night of stunning upsets, tight finishes and historic moments Friday, as Australia’s rising freestyle star Lani Pallister out-touched American legend Katie Ledecky to claim gold in the women’s 400-meter freestyle, while Team USA pulled off a historic double victory in both the men’s and women’s 4×100-meter freestyle relays.

    The night’s marquee event lost some of its pre-race buzz when 19-year-old Canadian world record holder Summer McIntosh surprisingly failed to qualify for the championship final after a misjudged preliminary swim. McIntosh, who entered the event as the overwhelming favorite, clocked a 4:08.56 in the morning heats, placing ninth and missing the final cut by more than three seconds. Taking to social media after the misstep, the Canadian accepted full responsibility, writing on her Instagram account that she had misjudged the effort required in the preliminary round. She later won the consolation ‘B’ final in 4:00.58 — a time that would have earned her a bronze medal in the championship final.

    Pallister, a 24-year-old Australian who has long cited Ledecky as her career inspiration, blazed through the first 150 meters of the final on world record pace before holding off a late charge from the American star to touch the wall in 3:58.42. Ledecky, who entered the final lap more than a second behind Pallister, closed hard but ultimately settled for silver with a time of 4:00.15. New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather rounded out the podium to take bronze.

    “It could see Katie catching me on the last 150 and that’s a very nerve-wracking feeling,” Pallister told reporters after the race. Ledecky, for her part, acknowledged she was not fully satisfied with her performance, noting “I never like being over 4 minutes in an international final, but I put together the best race I could. I thought I had a good back half, just wasn’t out quick enough.”

    The result solidifies Pallister’s status as one of Ledecky’s fiercest top rivals heading into the 2028 Olympic Games, which will be held in Los Angeles just two years from now. The Australian has been rapidly climbing the ranks of international distance freestyle, collecting medals across 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m events in recent major competitions. Earlier this week at the championships, she already claimed gold in the 200m freestyle, beating both McIntosh and Fairweather, while Ledecky took gold in the 1500m freestyle ahead of Pallister.

    “I’ve never taken my competition for granted, even when I was winning by big margins,” Ledecky said. “I just have a lot of great competition from all over the world right now.”

    Team USA delivered the crowd a pair of historic relay victories later in the session, sweeping both the men’s and women’s 4x100m freestyle events. The American women broke their own national record and the Pan Pacific championship record on the way to gold, clocking 3:29.32 to beat Australia. It marked the first time the U.S. women had defeated Australia in the event at the Pan Pacific Championships since 2017. The team of Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske and Simone Walsh saw Douglass clock the second-fastest 100m leadoff split in history at 51.69 seconds, though the standout swimmer said she left disappointed after falling just short of the world record she targeted.

    For the men, Chris Guiliano, Patrick Sammon, Destin Lasco and anchor Jack Alexy held off a late push from the Australian team to claim gold in a new championship record time of 3:09.01. The mark fell just 0.77 seconds off the iconic world record of 3:08.24 set by the U.S. men’s team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics — a race remembered for Jason Lezak’s historic final leg that secured Michael Phelps’ eighth gold medal of the Games. Alexy said the long-standing world record remains a top target for the new generation of American sprinters.

    “That record has been in a lot of people’s eyes for a long time,” Alexy said. “I’m really confident we’ll get that record.”

    The night’s results also delivered a handful of other historic moments for Australia. Sam Short claimed gold in the men’s 400m freestyle, breaking a 27-year-old Pan Pacific championship record previously held by Australian legend Ian Thorpe with a time of 3:40.52. China’s Zhang Zhanshuo took silver in the event. Australia also claimed the top two spots on the podium in the men’s 100m butterfly, with Matthew Temple taking gold and Ben Armbruster silver. Regan Smith led a 1-2 American finish in the women’s 200m backstroke, clocking 2:05.55 after holding a world record pace through the first 100 meters, with teammate Claire Curzan taking silver. Japan’s Yumeki Kojima claimed gold in the men’s 200m backstroke, while China’s Tang Qianting won the women’s 50m breaststroke. Australia’s Sam Williamson took gold in the men’s 50m breaststroke in a new championship record of 26.36.

  • Bangladesh tighten grip of 1st test as Australia unravel in the field

    Bangladesh tighten grip of 1st test as Australia unravel in the field

    DARWIN, Australia – The opening Test match of Bangladesh’s two-game ‘Top End’ series against Australia has been defined by relentless visitor dominance, a trend that only strengthened through the morning session of Day Three Saturday, when half-century from all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz guided the Tigers to a 219-run first innings lead heading into lunch.

    Resuming play on Saturday at 351 for six wickets, Bangladesh steadily added 66 runs to their total before the break, reaching 417 for eight. The performance extended what has been a lopsided opening match from the first day, when hosts Australia won the toss, elected to bat, and were bowled out for just 198 by a sharp Bangladesh attack led by a six-wicket haul from Hasan Mahmud.

    Mehidy remained unbeaten at 65 runs off 152 deliveries when the session closed, capping his solid innings with a towering six off Australian all-rounder Cameron Green on the final ball of the morning. The batter brought up his half-century just 35 balls before lunch, notching five boundaries along the way to the milestone. He currently shares an unbeaten 45-run partnership with tailender Taskin Ahmed, who has compiled 12 not out at the break.

    Earlier in the session, Mehidy combined for a 46-run stand with Hasan Mahmud, who scored 14 before falling to pace bowler Josh Hazlewood. Hazlewood, making his return to Test cricket after a spell on the sidelines with injury, trapped Hasan Mahmud leg before wicket with a full, straight delivery to claim his third wicket of the innings. The seamer also removed Taijul Islam, who made 17 before Green caught the batter at gully. Hazlewood has now claimed four wickets for 86 runs in the innings, the only wicket-taker for Australia on Saturday.

    Australia’s sloppy fielding has once again undermined the hosts’ chances to claw back into the match. Dropped catches from star batters Steve Smith, Travis Head and Cameron Green on Friday halted any momentum Australia built during a brief late-day rally, allowing Bangladesh to consolidate and build an almost unassailable position in the first innings. The hosts have now been outplayed in all three facets of the game – batting, bowling and fielding – through the first two and a half days of the series opener.

    This opening Test kicks off a grueling 12-month schedule for the Australian men’s Test side, which is set to play 20 total matches across the year including away tours to South Africa, India and England. Related matches in the series have already seen Bangladesh take control from the first day, with opener Tanzid Hasan notching his maiden Test century earlier in the first innings to set the foundation for the Tigers’ big total.

  • Two people killed after 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia

    Two people killed after 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia

    In the pre-dawn hours of a recent Saturday, a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake jolted the Flores region of East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, leaving at least two people dead and widespread structural damage across the remote, mountainous island area.

    The seismic event, which struck just before 5:00 a.m. local time at a shallow depth of 15 kilometers around 1,000 kilometers from Indonesia’s popular tourist hub of Bali, sent panicked residents of Maumere — Flores’ largest population center — spilling into open streets in fear.

    One of the hardest-hit infrastructure sites was Lorens Say Port in Maumere, where dramatic eyewitness footage captured large sections of concrete breaking free from the terminal building and crashing down onto passengers waiting to board an inter-island ferry. The collapse of the ship’s gangway threw multiple waiting travelers into the surrounding sea.

    Immediately following the main quake, Indonesian officials issued a nationwide tsunami warning, prompting thousands of coastal residents to flee inland on motorbikes and foot for higher ground. The warning was later lifted after no large waves materialized, but lingering anxiety has kept many communities on edge.

    Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) confirmed the two fatalities so far are one man and one woman, though agency officials note that casualty data is still undergoing verification by on-the-ground response teams. “The victim data is still being verified and further data collection is being conducted by the field team,” the BNPB said in an official statement.

    Search and rescue teams from the country’s Basarnas disaster response agency have already deployed to Maumere to locate and extract anyone trapped in collapsed or damaged structures, but the region’s remote, mountainous terrain has slowed efforts to map the full scale of destruction. Multiple strong aftershocks have continued to rattle the area in the hours after the main quake, including one 6.1-magnitude tremor that has added to risks for residents and first responders alike.

    In a public advisory, the BNPB outlined its immediate priorities: protecting public safety, preventing additional casualties from aftershocks and secondary hazards, and completing a rapid needs assessment across the affected zone. The agency urged local residents to remain calm, stay clear of low-lying coastal areas, and avoid entering any structures that have already sustained cracks or visible structural damage. “A rapid assessment is currently underway to determine the number of casualties and the extent of the impact. We will provide that information after the data has been verified,” the statement added.

    Arnold Welianto, a resident of Talibura village in Sikka, East Nusa Tenggara, shared his firsthand account of the disaster with the BBC. Welianto said he was asleep in his home when the “very strong shaking” jolted him awake. “I was startled awake and immediately went to my child’s room,” he recalled. “Once we were outside, residents in our neighbourhood, which is located close to the shoreline, had already fled their homes and were heading toward the hills and crowding the roads, while some other residents were standing along the roadside because the sea had also receded.”

    “The water remained low for quite some time, so everyone panicked and ran – I went around to the community health centre, and the people there had already been evacuated,” Welianto added. He noted that most area residents are still choosing to stay outdoors for safety, as ongoing aftershocks have left them too afraid to return to potentially unstable homes.

  • One Nation staffer accused of impersonating progressive page to film protesters

    One Nation staffer accused of impersonating progressive page to film protesters

    An Australian political controversy is unfolding after the right-wing party One Nation was caught running a covert infiltration operation against student protesters opposing party leader Pauline Hanson, with a staffer accused of impersonating a popular progressive online page to bait demonstrators into on-camera comments.

    The controversy centers on secretly recorded footage that One Nation published across its own social media channels. The clips, which were originally shared to the platform X, show a male One Nation staffer embedded within recent student protests critical of Hanson and her party. During the interactions captured on camera, the staffer approached attendees with a provocative question: what would they do if Hanson was present at the demonstration in person.

    The most incendiary clip captures two young female protesters making extreme, violent comments in response. One protester stated she would shoot and kill Hanson if they ever met, while a second said she would slap the One Nation leader. A third young demonstrator also repeated the threat to kill Hanson.

    Following the release of the footage, One Nation quickly seized on the comments to criticize progressive political opponents. In an official statement, the party argued that what it called “the tolerant left” had abandoned the very values of open-mindedness it claims to champion, exposing deep hostility and intolerance toward opposing political views.

    However, the operation has sparked major backlash over the deceptive tactics used to obtain the clips. The target of the impersonation, Toilet Paper Australia — a well-known progressive meme page with a 128,000-strong follower base on Instagram that positions itself as pro-union and critical of News Corp, the Liberal Party, and One Nation — issued a public statement distancing itself entirely from the One Nation staffer and the sting operation.

    The page emphasized in no uncertain terms that the staffer featured in One Nation’s clips has no connection to Toilet Paper Australia whatsoever. “We want to make abundantly clear: this person is not from Toilet Paper Australia. They are not affiliated with us, and they do not represent us in any capacity,” the statement read.

  • Poweful quake off Indonesia sparks mass evacuations

    Poweful quake off Indonesia sparks mass evacuations

    In the early hours of Saturday, a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake rattled the waters off Indonesia’s Flores Island, forcing thousands of residents to flee their homes in panic after national disaster authorities issued an urgent tsunami warning.

    Witnesses with Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that residents in Nagekeo Regency, the region closest to the quake’s epicenter, rushed toward higher elevation immediately after the sea pulled back from the shore — a well-documented natural precursor that often signals an incoming tsunami. Roughly an hour after the initial warning, authorities announced it had been lifted, though they maintained ongoing monitoring of sea conditions.

    According to geological data from both United States and Indonesian seismic agencies, the shallow quake originated off Flores’ north coast, approximately 68 kilometers northwest of the coastal town of Ende. In the hours after the main tremor, the region was hit by a series of strong aftershocks, including one that registered a magnitude of 6.1.

    Lukas Lotar, a 31-year-old hospital administrative employee based in the coastal town of Maumere, described the sudden chaos of the quake. “Suddenly it started to shake and I panicked,” he told AFP. “Patients also fled the hospital, the jolt was big. I saw some walls were cracked.”

    Yohanes Babo, a 56-year-old Nagekeo resident, was at a local open-air market when the ground began to move. “The shaking was strong. Thankfully, we were already outside the house,” he said. “People were panicking, running here and there. We’re evacuating for the time being… and trying to get to the hills. My family is safe. No one was harmed.”

    Indonesia’s national disaster management agency (BNPB) and the country’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) quickly issued evacuation orders for at-risk coastal regions immediately after the quake. “We strongly urge our communities along the northern coast of Flores and in the southern parts, on the southern islands and across the southern region, to carry out self-evacuation immediately,” BNPB official Abdul Muhari told local broadcaster Kompas TV. He added that residents should move at least two kilometers inland or to elevated terrain that sits more than 10 meters above sea level to avoid potential flood risk.

    BMKG earthquake and tsunami director Wijayanto — who, like many Indonesians, uses a single name — noted that early tsunami modeling showed potential for wave activity across East Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, and West Nusa Tenggara provinces. The initial alert warned of waves ranging from 0.5 meters to 3 meters, but no large dangerous waves materialized. Authorities ultimately detected minor swells between 19 and 30 centimeters, and the warning was canceled. “We have ended (the tsunami warning) but we will keep monitoring the sea level,” Wijayanto confirmed.

    On-the-ground reporting from AFP saw Maumere residents streaming toward higher ground, while local television footage showed hundreds of people in Nagekeo Regency gathering outside amid the rubble of damaged structures. As of the latest update, officials have not reported any fatalities or serious injuries from the event.

    Indonesia sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active zone that circles the Pacific basin and produces frequent seismic activity, making the country no stranger to devastating quakes and tsunamis. In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake off the coast of Sumatra triggered a massive Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people across the region, 170,000 of whom were in Indonesia. The Boxing Day disaster remains one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded modern history. In 2018, a series of powerful quakes on the holiday island of Lombok and neighboring Sumbawa killed more than 550 people over the course of several weeks. Later that same year, a 7.5-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami hit the Sulawesi city of Palu, leaving more than 4,300 people dead or unaccounted for.