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How China’s BYD saw its $1bn Turkey EV plant deal unravel

Two years ago, a sprawling 1.6 million-square-meter plot of land in Turkey’s Manisa province was positioned to become the cornerstone of Ankara’s ambition to turn the country into one of Europe’s leading electric vehicle manufacturing hubs. Today, that same site remains untouched, overgrown with wild grass and untouched by construction crews. What was once hailed as a transformative deal between the Turkish government and Chinese EV giant BYD has collapsed into a high-stakes diplomatic and economic standoff, raising questions about Sino-Turkish relations, Chinese investment strategy in Europe, and Turkey’s aspirations for a slice of the global EV supply chain.

In July 2024, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took to the global stage to announce Ankara’s landmark achievement: securing a $1 billion investment from BYD, the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles. Under the terms of the agreement, BYD pledged to build a state-of-the-art production facility capable of rolling out 150,000 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles annually, alongside a dedicated research and development center focused on advancing sustainable mobility technologies. The project was targeted to begin full production by the end of 2026, with projections that it would create up to 5,000 direct local jobs. Turkish officials celebrated the deal as a major win, cementing the country’s position as a competitive manufacturing base for global automotive players.

Just months later, however, those plans have been put on indefinite hold. In a recent interview with Reuters, Stella Li, BYD’s executive vice president, confirmed that the company has paused all preparatory work on the Manisa plant, and is refocusing its European expansion priorities. “Hungary is the number one priority right now,” Li stated, adding that the company’s next focus will be scouting locations for a second European facility – with Turkey currently off the immediate agenda.

The shift in BYD’s plans has dealt a major blow to the Turkish government, which moved aggressively to court the EV maker long before breaking ground on the project. To entice BYD to choose Turkey over competing European locations, Ankara granted the company generous, upfront tax breaks on all its domestic vehicle sales, even before construction commenced. Those incentives paid off quickly for BYD: combined with a new aggressive market entry strategy, the company’s Turkish sales skyrocketed to more than 45,000 units in 2025. Independent experts estimate that BYD has already pocketed between $500 million and $1 billion in extra profits from the Turkish market as a direct result of the preferential tax treatment.

Ankara has responded with threats of retaliation. In February, Turkish Industry Minister Fatih Kacir announced that the government could impose sanctions and heavy monetary fines on BYD for violating the terms of the original investment agreement. While Turkish media reports have suggested penalties could reach as high as $1 billion, sources close to the Turkish government familiar with the negotiations tell Middle East Eye that this figure is widely seen as unrealistic in Ankara. Even if maximum fines are imposed, experts add, the penalties are unlikely to recoup all of the lost tax revenue that Ankara has forfeited to date, though any fine would still represent a substantial penalty for the company.

To understand how the deal unraveled, it is necessary to look back at the longstanding structural tensions that undermined the project from its earliest days. Even immediately after the agreement was signed between BYD and Ankara, China’s Ministry of Commerce issued a quiet directive to more than a dozen major Chinese domestic automakers: cutting-edge electric vehicle technology should remain based in China. The directive specifically named Turkey and India as high-risk markets, requiring any Chinese carmaker planning investment in the two countries to first seek approval from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the regulator that oversees the country’s EV sector, as well as the Chinese embassy in Ankara. Sources in Ankara say that order immediately drained momentum from BYD’s investment plans.

China’s longstanding caution about deep investment in Turkey stems from two persistent bilateral disputes that have shaped relations for decades. First, Chinese officials have never forgotten Ankara’s 2015 last-minute cancellation of a $3.4 billion deal to purchase Chinese air defense systems, a move that came after intense diplomatic pressure from the United States. Beijing continues to cite the episode as proof that Turkey is an unreliable strategic partner.

Second, the status of the Uyghur population has long been a thorn in the side of Sino-Turkish relations. Uyghurs are an ethnically Turkic group, with an estimated 12 million living in China’s Xinjiang region, and many in Turkey view them as cultural kin. While the Turkish government has largely avoided public criticism of China’s policies in Xinjiang – even as international human rights organizations characterize Beijing’s actions as genocide – Beijing has still pushed Ankara for greater concessions on the issue.

Many analysts initially believed the BYD deal had been unlocked after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s high-profile visit to Xinjiang in June 2024, a trip that fulfilled a years-long Chinese goal of showcasing what it frames as normal, stable life for Uyghurs in the region. But sources now indicate that Beijing’s demands went much further: among unmet requirements was the deportation of Uyghur political leaders who have sought refuge in Turkey, a step that would cross a hard domestic political red line for any Turkish government, carrying enormous political cost.

Beyond bilateral tensions, shifting European trade policy further undermined the appeal of a Turkish manufacturing base for BYD. Last year, the European Union began drafting new “Made in Europe” legislation that would exclude vehicles produced in Turkey from large public procurement contracts across the bloc. That directly threatens one of Turkey’s core competitive advantages for automotive manufacturing: its decades-old customs union with the EU, which allows tariff-free access to the single market for goods produced in Turkey.

Multiple senior European officials confirmed to Middle East Eye last year that the bloc’s explicit goal is to restrict access to the European market for Chinese-made EVs assembled in Turkey by Chinese firms. “No doubt, we will take absolutely necessary steps and produce regulation to force China not to use Turkey as only an assembly line but actually develop and produce components,” one senior European official explained. Turkish political lobbyists working on the file say this EU pressure was a major factor pushing BYD to reconsider the investment. A longstanding observer of Sino-Turkish relations added that BYD can instead manufacture vehicles in Hungary – which holds full EU membership – and export them to Turkey without facing steep tariffs, thanks to Turkey’s existing customs arrangements with the EU. That makes a Hungarian base far more commercially advantageous than a Turkish one for accessing both the EU and Turkish markets.

In a final blow to the deal, Beijing demanded additional sweeping concessions from Ankara to move the project forward. In April, Jin Xin, vice minister for foreign affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, held talks with Turkish officials where he raised Beijing’s concerns about Turkey’s volatile economic conditions. According to a source familiar with the discussion, Jin requested additional measures to shield Chinese companies from the impact of Turkish foreign exchange fluctuations, and called for even more extensive tax breaks for BYD beyond the incentives already granted. He also pushed Ankara to speed up and simplify work visa processes for Chinese workers and executives that would be based in Turkey for the project.

Jin also told Turkish officials that Beijing was pressuring BYD to move forward with the Manisa plant, but claimed the government’s ability to force the private firm to comply was limited. That argument found little purchase in Ankara, with insiders dismissing it as a hollow gesture. “They basically tossed us aside,” one Turkish official involved in the talks told MEE.

Today, the empty Manisa site stands as a visible reminder of the risks global carmakers and host governments face as the global EV industry reshapes supply chains, and as great power competition reshapes trade and investment patterns across Europe and the Middle East.

10 6 月, 2026
Israel ’emptying’ Al-Aqsa facilities to undermine Waqf, watchdog warns

A Jerusalem-focused Palestinian monitoring organization has sounded the alarm over Israel’s forced takeover of four key facilities within the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, framing the move as part of a widening campaign to undermine the Jordanian-backed Islamic Waqf that administers the holy site. In a public statement released Tuesday, the Al-Quds International Institution detailed that Israeli authorities have targeted the sites under what the group calls fabricated security justifications. Over the past several months, Israeli forces have raided each location, broken off original door locks, and blocked attempts by Waqf staff to install new locks, leaving the premises unsecured. Any individual attempting to access the facilities has been forcibly removed, with Israeli officials claiming the spaces were previously used for activities that pose a risk to public security. The four seized facilities are strategically positioned at each of the four corners of the sprawling 144,000-square-meter Al-Aqsa compound, a detail the Al-Quds International Institution says confirms the action was premeditated rather than accidental. The sites are: the Dome of Imam al-Ghazali, situated above the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall along the complex’s eastern wall; Dar al-Hadith al-Sharif, located in the compound’s northeastern quadrant; Qubbat Sulayman, an open-air domed shrine opposite King Faisal Gate; and Qubbat Musa, which stands near Bab al-Silsila, also known as the Chain Gate. The monitoring group warns that clearing the Waqf out of these sites could open the door for Israeli law enforcement to expand their control over all landmarks and facilities across Al-Aqsa, ultimately allowing Israel to establish itself as the de facto governing body at the site in place of the Waqf. Al-Aqsa Mosque, which ranks among the holiest sites in global Islam, is located in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem. Its walled compound hosts dozens of religious sites, including shrines, prayer halls, religious schools, and open courtyards. For decades, an internationally recognized status quo agreement has held that the Al-Aqsa complex is to be exclusively administered and maintained by Muslim religious institutions. Since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, this administrative responsibility has been held by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, a body appointed by the Jordanian government. In recent years, however, the Waqf has faced growing pressure from Israeli measures designed to limit its authority and expand Israeli control over the site. Waqf officials have repeatedly reported to regional outlet Middle East Eye that Israeli restrictions have made it far more difficult for staff to enter the compound and complete routine maintenance and repair work. The Al-Quds International Institution emphasized that the latest seizure of the four facilities must be understood as part of a longer pattern of Israeli actions at Al-Aqsa, warning the move is a gradual step toward taking over the sites entirely and shutting down Waqf operations within the compound. “The consequences of these measures extend far beyond their already dangerous immediate effects,” the organization said in its statement. The group has called on Jordan to develop a comprehensive, serious strategy to defend Al-Aqsa and halt the erosion of its long-standing custodial role, noting that formal statements of condemnation alone are not enough to reverse the current trend. It also urged all Arab and Muslim-majority nations to acknowledge what it describes as an existential threat to Al-Aqsa Mosque and take on greater collective responsibility for protecting the site. The announcement comes just one month after Middle East Eye (MEE) published an exclusive report revealing that the United States and Israel have been quietly working to strip Jordan of its historic custodianship over Al-Aqsa. Multiple unnamed sources told MEE that the two countries are pushing for a new management arrangement that would align control of the revered Muslim site more closely with Israeli policy goals, effectively sidelining the Waqf from its core administrative duties. The United States has publicly denied the existence of such a plan.

10 6 月, 2026
Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestinian Bedouins, major new report finds

A landmark new investigation from Amnesty International has concluded that a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting Palestinian Bedouin communities in the occupied West Bank is not being carried out by rogue extremist actors, but directed and implemented by the Israeli state itself.

Released on Wednesday, the 150-page comprehensive report documents that Israeli state authorities are perpetrating the crime against humanity of forcible transfer through a coordinated, state-driven campaign that specifically targets Palestinian Bedouin and nomadic herding communities located in Area C of the occupied West Bank.

Area C accounts for approximately 60 percent of the entire West Bank’s total land area, and falls under full Israeli military and civilian control — a status that directly violates established international law. The report details multiple interconnected policies advanced by the Israeli government to displace local Palestinian communities: authorities have expanded access to gun licenses for civilian settlers, growing the number of armed civilians operating in the area; increased public and private funding for illegal Israeli settlements; accelerated the construction of new settlement infrastructure; and pushed forward the formal legalization of unauthorised outposts.

Under Israeli domestic law, outposts are classified as unauthorized settlements built in contravention of local regulations, yet Israeli authorities have increasingly moved to retroactively legalize these encroachments in recent years. Critically, all Israeli settlements across the entire West Bank are already deemed illegal under binding international law, a position confirmed by decades of United Nations resolutions and global legal consensus.

The investigation also uncovered that administrative control of large swathes of Area C is being progressively transferred to pro-settlement Israeli civilian bodies, while state-led initiatives to seize additional Palestinian-owned land in the region are being expanded at an unprecedented pace.

Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, emphasized the scale and intentionality of the campaign: “Over the past three and a half years Israeli authorities have accelerated a state-sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, uprooting, dispossessing and forcibly transferring Palestinian communities. This is not the work of rogue actors or what the international community has repeatedly labelled as extremist settlers, organisations or one or two ministers. What we are witnessing is deliberate, state-led annexation, in complete violation of international law unfolding before the eyes of the entire world.”

The findings come just days after a group of six Western nations — the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand and Norway — imposed sanctions on six organisations and one individual linked to illegal Israeli annexation efforts in the West Bank. In a joint statement, the countries noted that “for too long, violent settlers have been able to act with near impunity, and settlement expansion and creation of outposts continue with the support and facilitation of the Government of Israel.” The group stopped short of imposing measures against the Israeli state itself, saying it would only take that step if the Israeli government failed to “take urgent steps to address the situation on the ground.”

Callamard condemned the international community’s response to date, arguing that global powers have been either complicit in or passively tolerant of Israel’s ongoing violation of international law, as well as resolutions passed by both the UN General Assembly and UN Security Council. She called for immediate collective action: “States, particularly those with influence over Israel, including the USA, the UK, Germany, as well as Italy and other EU and Arab states, must immediately ban all trade, investment and any form of cooperation or financial assistance that contribute to Israel’s unlawful occupation, system of apartheid and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”

This report adds to growing international scrutiny of Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank, amid rising displacement of Palestinian communities and escalating violence by settlers against local residents.

10 6 月, 2026
Belfast race riots see non-white families targeted and houses torched

Overnight on Tuesday, large-scale race-fueled rioting erupted in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, leaving a trail of destruction as hundreds of masked rioters targeted properties belonging to non-white residents, migrant families, and asylum seekers. The unrest was triggered by the arrest of a 30-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker, Hadi Alodid, who holds indefinite leave to remain in the UK, hours before the violence broke out. Alodid has been charged with attempted murder in connection with a filmed knife attack on a man in a residential neighborhood, an incident many commentators have characterized as an attempted beheading.

Local law enforcement has stated that the attack itself does not appear to be terror-related, but the incident quickly became a flashpoint for anti-migrant sentiment stoked by high-profile figures far beyond Northern Ireland. On Tuesday afternoon, far-right activist Tommy Robinson — whose legal name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — and Elon Musk, the South African-born American billionaire who owns the social platform X, openly called for nationwide protests over the attack on the platform. Musk went as far as to urge repeated, large-scale public demonstrations in a post, writing: “Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!” Both Robinson and Musk shared planned protest locations across the UK on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

By Tuesday evening, the calls to action translated to extreme violence on the streets of Belfast. Rioters constructed makeshift roadblocks from street furniture to set up unauthorized checkpoints, stopping and searching passing vehicles to identify non-white people and foreign nationals. Targeted attacks focused on public council housing occupied by migrants, asylum seekers, and refugee families, with rioters setting ablaze multiple homes, private vehicles, and a local bus. A Middle Eastern-owned supermarket was also set on fire amid the chaos.

Footage from the scene captured children being evacuated from adjacent properties as fires spread across neighborhoods. Local pastor Jack McGee told the BBC that many residents were forced to flee their homes simply “because they’re black”. Jamie Corry, a resident on east Belfast’s Lendrick Road, described the rapid escalation of violence: “the cars started to explode, the doors started smoking, the windows started melting, and the next thing the house was going to go up on fire”. Rioters were filmed kicking in residential doors, smashing windows, and shouting that they were “getting foreigners out” of the area. On west Belfast’s Shankhill Road, rioters breached the door of a home where an ethnic minority woman had been spotted at a window, throwing bricks through the property’s windows. Elsewhere, rioters were seen riding motor scooters while carrying hammers and petrol-filled milk cartons.

Emergency responders including police and firefighters were forced to carry out dangerous rescue operations, pulling trapped families out of burning buildings through thick smoke and flames. Across Belfast, major streets were blocked by rioters, leaving entire neighborhoods under the control of violent crowds for hours.

The unrest was not isolated to Belfast. Anti-migrant demonstrations and related violence erupted across the United Kingdom on Tuesday night, including in London, Glasgow, and Southampton — the site of anti-migrant rioting just one week prior following the killing of a local young man. In Glasgow, approximately 300 masked men marched through city streets, with footage showing multiple clashes with passers-by and a violent attack on a delivery driver.

Political leaders across the UK have widely condemned the violence and those who incited it. On Wednesday morning, Labour Party Chair Anna Turley issued sharp criticism of Musk, calling his role in encouraging protests “appalling”. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the disorder in a statement, saying: “There is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere. It is clear that people were targeted last night because of their background and I will not tolerate it.” Michelle O’Neill, First Minister of Northern Ireland, called the actions of the rioters indefensible, noting: “Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice. This has nothing to do with community. This is outright thuggery.”

The coordinated wave of violence has sparked widespread public concern over the potential for further unrest across the UK this summer. It follows a similar period of national rioting in August 2024, when disorder spread across the country for more than a week after the killing of three young girls in Stockport.

10 6 月, 2026
Rights groups call for release of detained pro-Gaza activists in Libya

Nearly two months after 10 international pro-Palestinian activists were taken into custody by forces loyal to prominent Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya, global human rights organizations are escalating calls for their immediate and unconditional release. The activists, who hail from Spain, Poland, the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, Portugal, Tunisia and Italy, were arrested in late May while participating in the Global Sumud Convoy, a grassroots humanitarian initiative organized to deliver critical assistance to the blockaded population of the Gaza Strip.

Of the 200 activists that made up the cross-border convoy, all but 10 were forcibly deported from eastern Libyan territory following the operation by the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), Haftar’s primary military wing. In protest of their arbitrary detention and repeated denial of access to legal counsel and family communications, the 10 detainees launched a hunger strike that ran from June 1 through at least June 4, according to public statements from rights monitors.

Amnesty International has confirmed that the activists are currently being held in pre-trial custody as investigators pursue charges of “unauthorized assembly.” If convicted on these counts, the campaigners could face up to six months of prison time and substantial financial fines. Mahmoud Shalaby, regional researcher for Amnesty International, issued a harsh rebuke of the detentions, describing the targeting of Gaza-focused humanitarian campaigners on what he called “bogus charges” as outright disgraceful.

“No one should be punished for undertaking peaceful humanitarian action and trying to stop human rights abuses,” Shalaby said in an official statement. He added that the LAAF must not only release the activists immediately and without preconditions, but also grant them prompt, regular access to family members, their respective consular representatives, legal teams and any necessary medical care while they remain in custody.

The detentions unfold against a backdrop of longstanding political division that has fractured Libya since the 2011 NATO-backed overthrow of longtime authoritarian ruler Muammar Gaddafi. Today, the country is split between two competing centers of power: a UN-backed unity government based in the capital Tripoli that controls western Libya, and Haftar’s self-governing administration in the east, which is backed by regional allies including the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

The Global Sumud Convoy, a land-based initiative connected to the high-profile sea flotillas that have long challenged Israel’s blockade of Gaza, was first launched by North African activists before drawing international participants. The convoy carried a substantial cache of humanitarian supplies: seven ambulances, 20 mobile housing units, 10 aid trucks, and it included among its participants medical professionals, engineers, educators and independent legal observers.

After entering the 5+5 security zone near the contested coastal city of Sirte – a buffer zone established under the terms of Libya’s October 2020 national ceasefire agreement – the group was intercepted by LAAF forces. The activists had entered the zone in hopes of negotiating safe passage to continue their journey toward Gaza.

While many participants and observers have praised the convoy’s core mission of breaking the 17-year Israeli blockade on Gaza and highlighted the organizers’ unwavering commitment to the humanitarian cause, some veteran activists who have taken part in previous Gaza solidarity initiatives argue the mission suffered from critical planning oversights that led to the current crisis.

Felipe, a 29-year-old Chilean-Palestinian activist who has participated in multiple previous sea-based Gaza flotillas, told Middle East Eye that the convoy’s leadership bore partial responsibility for the detention outcome. During the group’s two-week stay in Tripoli prior to entering eastern Libya, Felipe said it became increasingly clear that organizers had made little to no contingency plans for the risk of detentions or armed confrontation with LAAF forces.

“If we were not able to go through east Libya, we should not have kept pressuring them because we were going to shift the narrative from Israel to Libya,” Felipe explained. “We were waiting in the desert for nine days doing nothing.”

10 6 月, 2026
Israeli settlers attack Christian village as West Bank violence escalates

In a fresh escalation of ongoing settler violence across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers targeted the ancient Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh early Tuesday, setting fire to swathes of local agricultural land. Local sources confirmed no casualties were reported in the overnight incursion, which took place in areas adjacent to the village, located east of Ramallah. This attack marks the latest in a string of repeated assaults on Taybeh that has stretched over months, triggered by the construction of a new Israeli settlement on land the village has long claimed.

Taybeh is no stranger to such violence. Last year, settlers set fire to the village’s centuries-old Church of Saint George and its adjacent historic graveyard, an act that drew rare public criticism from Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel — a well-known vocal advocate for expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. Even after that rebuke, however, attacks on the majority-Christian community have continued unabated. Tuesday’s assault also included settlers opening fire on residential homes and throwing incendiary Molotov cocktails, according to on-the-ground reports shared by Middle East Eye.

Established more than 3,000 years ago during the Canaanite period, Taybeh counts roughly 1,340 residents, 90 percent of whom identify as Christian, per 2017 census data from the Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics. The village’s fertile, expansive grazing lands have long supported a local economy centered on sheep herding, but this valuable land has also drawn aggressive encroachment from Israeli settlers, who have steadily seized village territory with the explicit backing of the Israeli military.

While settler violence against Palestinian communities has been a persistent reality in the occupied West Bank for decades, experts and international bodies have documented a dramatic, unprecedented surge in attacks since the start of the 2023 Gaza war. Today, settlers carry out near-daily assaults across the region, ranging from property vandalism and arson to forced displacement of Palestinian communities and violent physical attacks, many of which involve the use of firearms.

Coinciding with Tuesday’s attack on Taybeh, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory released a landmark report detailing the sharp, sustained escalation of settler violence that has put Palestinian communities at severe risk. The commission’s investigation concludes that the Israeli government directly facilitates these attacks through a combination of direct funding, logistical support, and military protection for settlers.

“Violence by settlers is the direct outcome of Israeli policies that support, enable and protect their actions,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the UN commission, in a statement accompanying the report. “The relentless, daily assaults by Israeli settlers against Palestinians are intolerable – and must end. Israel must stop supporting this violence and ensure that its security forces safeguard the Palestinian civilian population.”

The report’s data underscores the severity of the crisis: in 2025 alone, Israeli settlers killed seven Palestinians and injured 832 more, representing a 130 percent increase in casualties compared to 2024. This deadly trend has continued into 2026, with attacks occurring on an almost daily basis. Data from the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission puts the total death toll from settler violence at 50 Palestinians since October 2023, 15 of which have occurred in the first half of 2026.

The UN commission also found that Israeli judicial and law enforcement bodies routinely grant settlers impunity for violent acts against Palestinians, enabling the cycle of violence to continue without accountability. The commission’s final recommendation calls for unified international action to pressure Israel to comply with its obligations under international law, including immediate decisive steps to dismantle illegal settlements and outposts and bring an end to settler violence permanently.

10 6 月, 2026
Scientists discover a deep whale graveyard that is teeming with life

Beneath more than 22,000 feet of frigid, pitch-black water in the southeastern Indian Ocean, researchers have made a landmark deep-sea discovery: the largest, deepest, and oldest whale necropolis ever documented, where diverse marine communities have thrived for millions of years feeding on the sunken remains of massive cetaceans.

Whale falls, as these sites are informally called, form naturally when the bodies of dead whales sink to the abyssal sea floor. What would be a grim end for the massive mammals becomes a life-sustaining oasis for deep-sea organisms, which rely on the concentrated energy and unique chemical composition of whale bones to survive in an environment where food is extremely scarce.

Lead researcher Xikun Song, a deep-sea biologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, explained that the size of whale carcasses and the unique chemical makeup of their bones are what allow these complex underwater ecosystems to develop. Song, who participated in the expedition that uncovered the site, also noted that the extreme inaccessibility of the deep ocean makes locating these rare graveyards an extraordinary challenge for marine scientists.

Over the course of multiple research dives conducted by deep-sea submersibles in 2023, the international research team mapped the full extent of the site, collected biological and fossil samples, and documented the scope of the discovery. The team identified five distinct whale carcass sites and fossils, including well-preserved whale skulls from beaked whales and baleen whales. Radiocarbon and geological dating confirmed the oldest of these remains date back more than 5.3 million years, making this the oldest confirmed whale graveyard ever found.

When the team examined the remains, they found a thriving, diverse community of marine organisms calling the whale bones home. Countless species, from brittle stars and jellyfish to tubeworms, sea cucumbers, squat lobsters, and saltwater clams, have made these sunken carcasses their feeding and breeding grounds. According to the team’s findings, published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal *Nature*, many of these organisms may represent entirely new species that have never been formally documented by science.

Outside experts not involved in the research say the find reshapes what we know about deep-sea ecosystem development. Stephen Godfrey, a paleontologist at the Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland, called the volume of specimens uncovered at the site “astounding.”

Study authors have outlined multiple factors that allowed the whale bones to remain preserved for millions of years in the deep ocean. The dense structure of large whale bones allows them to withstand degradation from bone-eating worms, while the site’s deep location protects remains from being completely buried by sediment and loose particulate matter. A thin, naturally occurring mineral coating from surrounding seawater also sealed the bones, slowing decomposition significantly over millennia.

The team has also put forward multiple hypotheses to explain why so many whale remains accumulated in this specific location. It is possible the whales were native to the region and died of natural causes, while some may have succumbed to exhaustion or illness related to deep diving. The site’s natural V-shaped geography may also have acted as a natural funnel, guiding sunken whale carcasses to this concentrated resting area over millions of years.

Researchers emphasize that discoveries like this are critical to expanding our understanding of life in Earth’s most extreme environments. Study co-author Giovanni Bianucci, a paleontologist at the University of Pisa in Italy, explained that studying these deep-sea whale graveyards helps scientists unpack how life adapts to extreme conditions: perpetual darkness, extremely low oxygen levels, and crushing water pressure thousands of times greater than what is experienced at the ocean surface.

The Associated Press’ Health and Science Department receives funding support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. AP retains sole editorial responsibility for all content.

10 6 月, 2026
Norway crown princess’s son to stay in custody before rape verdict, says court

In a high-profile legal decision that has gripped Norway and drawn new scrutiny to the country’s royal household, Oslo’s Court of Appeal has rejected a bid to release Marius Borg Høiby, the son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit, from pre-verdict custody, reversing a lower court’s ruling that would have freed him ahead of his upcoming rape trial verdict.

Høiby, 29, has been held in custody since early February 2026, when he was detained ahead of trial on 40 separate criminal charges, including four counts of rape, multiple counts of assault, violation of a restraining order, drug possession, and traffic offenses. He has consistently denied the most severe allegations, including all rape and relationship violence charges, though he has admitted to some lesser offenses. The case against Høiby first emerged in August 2024, when he was arrested at an ex-girlfriend’s apartment in Oslo’s upscale Frogner neighborhood, where a restraining order barred him from contacting her.

The release request came amid a devastating health update for Høiby’s mother, 52-year-old Crown Princess Mette-Marit, who has lived with a rare, incurable form of pulmonary fibrosis since 2018. Last week, her medical team confirmed her condition has deteriorated sharply over the past three months, placing her on a waiting list for a life-saving lung transplant. Per Norwegian transplant protocol, placement on the list indicates doctors estimate the patient has less than 12 months to live without the procedure. Pulmonary fibrosis causes progressive scarring of lung tissue, restricting breathing and oxygen flow through the bloodstream.

Høiby’s legal team argued that their client should be granted temporary release to be by his mother’s side during her health crisis. “Sitting inside when I know Mum is so sick is unbearable,” Høiby told Oslo District Court earlier this week. On Monday, the lower court sided with the defense, ruling that while there was a small risk of reoffending, Høiby had remained drug-free in custody, and continued detention would be “disproportionately intrusive.”

That ruling was quickly appealed by prosecutors, and on Wednesday the higher court rejected the release order entirely. The Court of Appeal found that the risk of Høiby reoffending and making prohibited contact with the Frogner ex-girlfriend remained “virtually unchanged” from its previous May 13 assessment, with no new evidence to justify altering his custodial status.

“We are very, very disappointed on behalf of our client. One can imagine how he feels,” Ellen Holager Andenæs, one of Høiby’s two defense attorneys, told local Norwegian media outlets after the ruling. Prosecutors have requested a seven-year and seven-month prison sentence for Høiby, and the three judges presiding over the six-week trial are set to deliver their full verdict on all 40 charges next Monday.

Though Høiby was born before Mette-Marit married Crown Prince Haakon, the heir to the Norwegian throne, and is not an official member of the royal family, he has been raised within the royal household. The ongoing legal proceeding, compounded by recently revealed details of a three-year friendship between Mette-Marit and disgraced deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has created significant public controversy and cast a shadow over the Norwegian royal institution.

The royal family has remained visible amid the dual crises: Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit visited Høiby in Oslo prison last Sunday, shortly after her transplant waiting list placement was made public. The couple’s two children, Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus, visited Høiby hours after Mette-Marit was admitted to hospital last Thursday. Høiby was granted a temporary furlough from custody on Monday to meet with his mother’s medical team at the royal family’s Skaugum estate outside Oslo.

Norway’s elderly monarchs, 89-year-old King Harald V and 88-year-old Queen Sonja, have largely stayed out of the recent crises, though during a public royal engagement on Tuesday, Queen Sonja confirmed to reporters that “the situation is serious” regarding the crown princess’s health.

10 6 月, 2026
An underground detector in China unveils its first major findings about mysterious ghost particles

NEW YORK — One of the most ambitious particle physics experiments of the decade has delivered its first groundbreaking data, bringing scientists closer to unraveling one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the universe: the nature of neutrinos, the nearly massless ‘ghost particles’ that permeate every corner of space. On Wednesday, the international collaboration behind China’s Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) published its first major findings in the journal *Nature*, marking a major milestone in global particle physics research.

Located 700 meters (2,297 feet) underground to block out interfering cosmic radiation, the massive spherical JUNO detector began its official data collection phase in August this year. The observatory was built to study neutrinos — ultra-tiny subatomic particles that originated in the Big Bang, travel close to the speed of light, and pass trillions strong through the human body every second without any measurable harm. For decades, neutrinos have baffled researchers: their near-zero mass makes them extremely difficult to detect, despite their ubiquity in the universe.

Instead of directly observing ancient cosmic neutrinos, JUNO focuses on studying antineutrinos — the antimatter counterparts of neutrinos — produced by fission reactions in two nearby operating nuclear power plants. When antineutrinos collide with particles inside the detector, the interaction generates a faint flash of light that researchers can capture and analyze to map the particles’ properties.

From just two months of initial data collection, the JUNO team has already produced some of the most precise measurements ever recorded of a key neutrino behavior: the phenomenon of neutrino oscillation, in which the particles shift between three distinct ‘flavors’ — electron, muon, and tau — as they travel through space. These early measurements confirm that the observatory is functioning at the sensitivity its designers projected, even earlier than many project members expected.

While the initial results have not yet settled the central question that drove the construction of JUNO — determining the exact mass ordering of the three neutrino flavors — researchers say the data proves the detector can deliver on its core promise. Physicists currently know that two of the three flavors have similar masses, while the third differs significantly, but they have not confirmed whether the outlier is lighter or heavier than the other two. Resolving this mass ordering question will reshape fundamental understandings of cosmology and the formation of the early universe.

“The initial results already demonstrate that JUNO will be able to probe the subtle differences that separate the neutrino flavors and their mass hierarchies,” explained Liangjian Wen, study co-author and member of the JUNO international collaboration. Outside physicists not involved in the research also expressed enthusiasm about the milestone. Kate Scholberg, a particle physicist at Duke University, noted that the first data release builds major excitement for future discoveries from the observatory.

JUNO’s findings will eventually be cross-checked by two other cutting-edge neutrino experiments currently under development: Japan’s Hyper-Kamiokande and the United States’ Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). Both facilities are scheduled to begin data collection within the next 10 years, using different experimental approaches to verify JUNO’s conclusions and advance global research into neutrino properties.

This reporting, produced by the Associated Press Health and Science Department, receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with the AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

10 6 月, 2026
Iran targets US bases across the Middle East after strikes near Hormuz

On Wednesday, Iran initiated a broad series of drone and missile strikes targeting multiple United States military installations scattered across the Middle East, launching the assault in direct retaliation for recent American military operations near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategically critical maritime chokepoints.

Iran’s highest joint military authority, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, confirmed the operation in an official statement distributed by the country’s state-run media outlets. The command emphasized that the attacks were a direct response to what it labeled unprovoked American aggression against targets in southern Iran. The statement also carried a stark warning to Washington: if the United States continues its military actions against Iranian soil and interests, Iran will respond with even more extensive and destructive strikes in the future.

According to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s elite military force, the operation specifically targeted the regional headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, alongside multiple US military facilities located in Kuwait and Jordan. The IRGC also claimed that the strike campaign successfully hit 21 distinct US targets across the Middle East, encompassing both key air bases and naval installations.

Footage obtained by Middle East Eye, an independent regional news outlet, showed a bright flash of light near the US military compound in Bahrain timed to coincide with the reported attacks. However, US officials have pushed back against Iran’s claims of a successful operation, downplaying any major damage or accurate hits. A senior anonymous official speaking to the Financial Times confirmed that multiple Iranian missiles and drones were launched toward targets in Bahrain and Kuwait, but stressed that there was no conclusive evidence that any of Tehran’s projectiles hit their intended objectives. The official further added that there is no proof any US facility in Jordan was damaged or struck during the assault.

This is not the first time US officials have downplayed the impact of Iranian attacks on American interests; in past incidents, initial official statements minimizing damage have later been contradicted by independent media reports revealing extensive destruction to infrastructure. Local authorities across the region offered conflicting details on the attack’s outcome. Jordanian officials confirmed that their national air defense systems successfully intercepted multiple incoming projectiles launched by Iran. Meanwhile, emergency response protocols were activated in both Bahrain and Kuwait, and air raid sirens sounded across populated areas of the Gulf states as the attack unfolded.

The Iranian strike campaign came just hours after the United States carried out what it described as defensive self-defense strikes against Iranian military infrastructure. The American strikes were launched in response to the downing of a US Apache attack helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz. Local Iranian media reported multiple explosions across sites in southern Iran, including Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas, Jask, and Sirik. The IRGC released a statement noting that the American strikes damaged a telecommunications tower in the coastal city of Sirik and destroyed two large water storage tanks at the targeted site, but inflicted no other major damage.

US defense officials clarified that the selection of targets for Wednesday’s American strikes was designed specifically to limit civilian casualties while reducing Iran’s capacity to threaten international commercial shipping and US military assets operating throughout the Gulf region. The escalating exchange of strikes has raised fresh concerns across the international community about a broader regional conflict unfolding amid already heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran.

10 6 月, 2026