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  • ‘I am trapped here’: Gulf-based Nepali workers agonise as devastating floods ravage home

    ‘I am trapped here’: Gulf-based Nepali workers agonise as devastating floods ravage home

    Beneath Dubai’s scorching midday sun, 32-year-old Hari Krishna kneels to lay bricks for an upscale residential development. But his mind is 2,000 miles away, wandering the waterlogged mud and splintered debris that was once his home in Nepal’s Bhote Khosi-Trishuli corridor.

    For seven straight days, this construction worker — who sends the vast majority of his earnings back to his family in Nepal — has dedicated every free second to frantically dialing relatives through the messaging app IMO and refreshing local news streams on his cracked smartphone screen. In late August, catastrophic flash floods tore through Nuwakot, Krishna’s home district, leaving a trail of destruction that has reshaped hundreds of communities across the country. As of this reporting, the disaster has claimed at least 1,399 lives nationwide, with nearly 5,400 people still unaccounted for. Floodwaters swept away bridges, paved roads, and entire hillside villages, and for Krishna’s family, the damage was total: their home, all their personal belongings, savings, jewelry, and a livestock shed holding their cows and goats were all washed away. With their farmland left ruined by the disaster, Krishna says any future for the family through agriculture is now impossible. Worse still, the flood claimed the life of his 67-year-old grandfather in Bidur Municipality, where the family resides.

    “I had planned to come home for Dashain, but now that dream is gone with my grandfather,” Krishna told Middle East Eye, his voice shaking as he described the devastating loss his family has endured. “Right now, my relatives are sleeping in a government relief camp, terrified that another landslide could hit at any moment, while they try to arrange my grandfather’s funeral.”

    Krishna requested emergency leave from his supervisor to return home, but the barriers to travel feel insurmountable. He cannot afford the cost of a last-minute flight, and even if he could, all road access to his remote village has been completely destroyed by floodwaters. “I wish I had been home and died in the flood with them instead of being stuck here, helpless,” he said.

    Krishna’s desperate situation is far from unique. Hundreds of thousands of Nepali migrants work across the Gulf Cooperation Council states, building the gleaming skyscrapers and iconic skylines of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia that draw global attention. As Nepal confronts one of the worst climate-driven disasters in its modern history, the entire weight of the country’s reconstruction will fall disproportionately on the shoulders of these migrant workers. Nepal’s economy is deeply dependent on its diaspora: remittances make up roughly one-third of the nation’s total gross domestic product, and data from Nepal Rastra Bank shows that 40 percent of all Nepali remittances come from Gulf nations.

    United Nations agencies including the International Labour Organisation have long highlighted how systemic crises lay bare the extreme vulnerability of these migrant workers. Across every stage of their migration journey, Nepali laborers face persistent hazards, from withheld wages to extremely limited access to basic healthcare. Rameshwar Nepal, an investigator for Equidem, a global human and labor rights nonprofit coordinating disaster relief for affected workers and their families from Kathmandu, explained that most migrant workers are desperate to return home after the disaster, but logistical and regulatory barriers trap them thousands of miles from their loved ones.

    “While their families and communities are living through total devastation back home, they are stuck here in the Gulf,” he said. “All they want is to get home, be with their relatives, confirm who is safe, and see the damage to their homes and property with their own eyes.”

    Even when workers can secure permission to travel and scrape together flight fare, deep uncertainty hangs over their ability to return to their Gulf-based jobs after the crisis. “They have no way of knowing if they will be allowed to re-enter the country after leaving, if their employers will approve leave, or even if they can take unpaid leave, which most are forced to consider,” Nepal explained. Beyond immediate travel concerns, workers fear the long-term damage to their livelihoods: after losing everything back home, these jobs are their only lifeline, and they cannot afford to risk losing them by leaving.

    Nepal added that the Gulf’s restrictive labor sponsorship framework, known as the kafala system, worsens this crisis of mobility, drawing a parallel to the mass stranding of migrant workers during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns. “The kafala system systematically strips migrant workers of their freedom of movement, and that cruelty becomes impossible to ignore during crises like this,” he said. “We saw exactly this same situation in 2020: workers were desperate to get home to their families, but they were blocked from leaving. It’s an inherently inhumane system.”

    Thirty-seven-year-old Shiva Ujjwal, a Nepali driver based in Qatar, is living this nightmare. For the past three years, he has shuttled workers from sprawling labor camps on Doha’s outskirts to office parks and construction sites across the Qatari capital. Ujjwal was starting his pre-dawn shift when the floods hit, and before he could check social media for updates, fellow workers broke the news to him. When he finally got permission to use his phone, every call he made failed: floodwaters had destroyed regional communication networks entirely.

    “My heart felt like it was breaking when I saw the first videos of the damage online,” Ujjwal recalled. “I knew from the scale of the flood that my house was almost certainly gone, but all I could think about was whether my family was alive.”

    While Ujjwal’s wife, children, and parents managed to escape to safety before the flood hit, nine of his extended relatives were killed, and dozens more from his small village are still missing. “My family ran for their lives with nothing — they didn’t have time to grab identity documents, money, or any of our valuables,” he said. “We lost every single thing we owned in less than five seconds, that flood hit faster than a bullet.”

    Before moving to Qatar three years ago, Ujjwal worked in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and he spent more than a decade slowly building his family’s home in Nepal one floor at a time, funding each phase with the modest wages he earned working abroad. Those earnings, while not lavish, were enough to keep his family fed and housed. Now, all that years of work is gone, and he is forced to start over from nothing. “We lost all our property in less than five seconds by a single hit of a live-bullet-type flood,” Ujjwal said.

    His supervisor has agreed to let him return to Nepal on unpaid leave, but the weeks of total communication blackout at the start of the crisis have left deep emotional scars, and the distance weighs on him constantly. “It’s impossible to relax here when my family is stuck in a relief camp,” he said. “I have to think about how I’m going to build a new home for them all over again. I show up to work every day, but my mind is back home with them. My body is here, but I am not.”

    Across the Gulf, the Nepali diaspora has mobilized quickly to respond to the crisis. Grassroots fundraising campaigns circulate widely on WhatsApp groups, where workers pool whatever small savings they can spare to ship emergency relief to the hardest-hit districts. But for workers like Krishna and Ujjwal, even the most generous financial support cannot replace being home with their families during this devastating time.

  • Will – and can – the Iranian people revolt over the costs of war?

    Will – and can – the Iranian people revolt over the costs of war?

    Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has recently uncovered new details about a covert U.S. economic campaign targeting Iran, revealing that its actual focus differs sharply from the official public narrative. In new reporting shared as context for an analysis from Asia Times, Hersh notes that the U.S. Treasury’s Operation Economic Outcast, framed as a measure targeting Iran’s ruling ayatollahs when announced by Secretary Scott Bessent, is instead designed to pressure ordinary rank-and-file members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

    The IRGC, one of Iran’s most powerful institutional actors, controls an estimated half of the country’s total state-held economic assets, including key sectors like oil and gas production and foreign trade, according to Hersh’s reporting. U.S. officials involved in the operation told Hersh their core strategy is to choke off funding flowing through the global financial system to the IRGC, with the end goal of eroding troop loyalty and weakening organizational morale enough to enable a popular overthrow of the Iranian government without triggering large-scale violent repression by the IRGC.

    Hersh cited an anonymous U.S. official claiming the IRGC is already facing severe funding shortages. A well-placed Israeli source further told Hersh that many low-ranking IRGC members have gone months with little to no pay, with some forced to beg neighbors for food to support their families. Citing input from U.S. officials, Hersh added that most IRGC rank-and-file are not ideologically committed religious hardliners, but rather work for personal income, making them vulnerable to financial pressure. Current intelligence, including satellite imagery, confirms widespread fuel shortages across Iran, with motorists facing daily waits at gas stations and purchase limits of just five liters per vehicle, due in part to Iran’s limited domestic gasoline refining capacity. With the country already reeling from widespread shortages of food, clean water, jobs, and fuel, U.S. strategists believe a public street revolution could gain traction even without covert American or Israeli support, as a cash-strapped IRGC would be unwilling to mass-violently suppress protests.

    Against this high-stakes geopolitical backdrop, University of Sydney researchers Hamideh Khaleghi Mohammadi and Ali Abbasi unpack how this escalating economic pressure is playing out for ordinary Iranians, documented from the ground up by Iranian social media users.

    Long before Operation Economic Outcast launched on August 24, Iran was already grappling with a severe, cascading economic crisis. Decades of international sanctions, disrupted trade, restricted oil exports, and longstanding domestic economic mismanagement left the country on the brink. Recent official data cited by Reuters places Iran’s 12-month average inflation rate at 69.9%, with food, beverage, and tobacco inflation surging past 128% — nearly double the overall rate. Iran’s national currency, the rial, has plummeted to a record low, trading at more than 2.2 million rial to one U.S. dollar, up from roughly 1 million rial per dollar just one year prior. Official figures also lay bare the yawning gap between income and basic needs: the average monthly salary in Iran equals roughly $125 USD, while the minimum cost of basic household necessities totals around $450 USD per month.

    While these official statistics paint a grim picture, they fail to capture the day-to-day human experience of living through hyperinflation and economic collapse — a gap Iranian social media users are filling by creating an unofficial, bottom-up archive of national hardship. A widespread trend sees users sharing side-by-side comparisons of what a fixed amount of Iranian currency could purchase one or two years ago versus what it can buy today, using everyday goods from washing machines to bags of groceries and snack chips to illustrate the rapid collapse of purchasing power.

    Other posts focus on current realities: users photograph supermarket receipts, capture images of half-empty store shelves, and list once-common household products that have now become unaffordable for most families. While academic economic indicators and government inflation data provide aggregate numbers, these social media posts convey the granular, personal experience of economic crisis: which items have disappeared from regular shopping baskets, what goods families have substituted with cheaper alternatives, which necessary purchases are being delayed indefinitely, and what products are now treated as unobtainable luxuries.

    The tone of these posts varies dramatically across the platform. Some users express anger and despair over their lost purchasing power, while others use dark humor and memes to cope with the relentless rise in prices. Some posts call for boycotts, mass protests, and collective action against the government, while others frame the hardship as an unavoidable wartime condition and urge followers to practice endurance. Despite these divergent voices and political outlooks, all posts are united by their focus on grounding national economic crisis in everyday life.

    Iranian government officials have not denied the severity of the current strain. Central Bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati has acknowledged that managing household livelihoods has become extraordinarily difficult, while parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has named inflation, unemployment, and currency instability as three of the government’s most pressing major challenges.

    For researchers Mohammadi and Abbasi, these grassroots social media posts carry long-term historical significance beyond documenting the current crisis. Official economic records will capture inflation rates, exchange rate fluctuations, and aggregate spending data for future historians, but the unedited, personal accounts shared on social media will preserve how ordinary Iranians actually experienced this period of crisis. Decades from now, the full economic history of this era will be written not only from government spreadsheets and inflation charts, but also from the receipts, shelf photos, memes, and images of shrinking shopping baskets that Iranians chose to capture and share with the world.

  • Royal family rift after popular TV news presenter chosen to succeed Ugandan king

    Royal family rift after popular TV news presenter chosen to succeed Ugandan king

    A heated public succession dispute has fractured Uganda’s centuries-old Tooro Kingdom just days before the scheduled burial of its former ruler, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV – the world’s youngest reigning monarch before his death last month at age 34.

    King Oyo, who held the cultural throne for more than 30 years, passed away while receiving cancer treatment in the United States. His remains were repatriated to Uganda on Friday, and thousands of mourners are expected to gather this weekend for his interment at the royal tombs near the kingdom’s capital, Fort Portal, in western Uganda.

    The conflict emerged after royal clan elders, acting through the kingdom’s official succession committee, named 56-year-old Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma – a popular news anchor for state-owned broadcaster UBC and a cousin of the late king – as the next Omukama, the traditional title for Tooro’s monarch. The committee confirmed that 19 of its members signed the resolution selecting Kijanangoma, a grandson of former Tooro king George David Rukidi III, after a process of extensive consultation and due diligence. UK-based Prince George Desmond Kamurasi was first considered for the role but declined due to existing commitments, the panel added.

    Clan leaders argue they hold the customary authority to select a suitable heir from the Babiito royal dynastic clan, a system that differs from rigid hereditary succession frameworks like Britain’s. They reject claims that Oyo’s undisclosed son qualifies as heir, noting that Tooro tradition requires any royal candidate to be formally presented to clan elders and undergo ceremonial preparation before being recognized for the throne – steps that were never completed for the boy.

    But the late king’s immediate family has flatly rejected the clan’s decision, saying Oyo left a 2022 will that explicitly named his young son, whose identity has never been made public, as his rightful successor. Princess Ruth Komuntale, Oyo’s sister, has led the opposition, accusing elders of sowing “confusion and turmoil” while the family is still in mourning. “My brother did leave behind an heir to the throne, and that was very clearly stated,” she said, noting the late king left clear alternative succession instructions if his son could not assume the role – a position backed by senior royal Princess Elizabeth Bagaaya.

    The late king’s mother, Queen Best Kemigisa, has further escalated the situation by claiming the royal family is effectively under house arrest. She says royal guards were removed from the palace and replaced by army soldiers, who have restricted the family’s movement and blocked visitors. In an emotional appeal, Kemigisa called on military leadership and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to allow the family to bury their son in peace, urging factions to put succession talks on hold until after the funeral. “I appeal to those fighting over the throne: please, there will be time for all of that. Let us grieve and bury my son King Oyo,” she said.

    Notably, President Museveni was the first to publicly confirm the existence of Oyo’s son shortly after the monarch’s death, saying he had been informed of the boy by Queen Kemigisa. No additional details about the child have been released, and he was never publicly presented as heir before Oyo’s death.

    Tooro is one of five traditional kingdoms recognized by the Ugandan government. The institutions were abolished by the central government in 1967, but were restored in the 1990s under Museveni’s leadership. While Tooro’s monarch holds no formal political power, they remain a highly influential cultural figure for communities in western Uganda.

    It remains unclear when a formal enthronement ceremony will be held, even for Kijanangoma, who was selected by the clan. The succession committee has said any coronation will follow all traditional Tooro customs, but the ongoing family dispute casts deep uncertainty over the kingdom’s future leadership.

  • The rock guitarist whose killing shocked India’s north-east

    The rock guitarist whose killing shocked India’s north-east

    The tragic homecoming of Chongtham Vikram Singh to his native Manipur last week was nothing like any of his loved ones ever imagined. When his old friend Dhiren Sadokpam arrived at Imphal’s airport to greet him, the 54-year-old renowned musician did not step off the passenger plane. His remains arrived in the cargo hold, sealed inside a steel shipping container.

    Three days before that somber reception, Singh had been beaten to death outside his residential apartment in southeast Delhi. The circumstances of his killing have stirred nationwide grief, anger, and a long-simmering conversation about systemic targeting and discrimination faced by people from India’s northeastern states living in the national capital.

    According to official police accounts and statements from Singh’s family, the confrontation began late one Sunday night. A group of men had gathered outside Singh’s apartment building, drinking loudly and creating a public disturbance. Singh went downstairs to object to the commotion, a choice that would turn fatal. His wife, Joshna Chongtham, told reporters that after the initial confrontation, Singh retreated back to the family’s upper-floor apartment – but the group pursued him, launching a brutal assault right outside his door.

    Hours after the attack, Singh began complaining of severe breathlessness. His 20-year-old son rushed him to a local hospital, where he died in the early hours of the following morning. In the days since the killing, Delhi police have arrested seven adult men and one minor in connection with the crime, and investigators say they are still working to piece together the full sequence of events that led to Singh’s death.

    While law enforcement officials have stated they have not uncovered any evidence to support claims of a racially motivated attack, the killing has reignited longstanding fears among Delhi’s northeastern community, whose members have documented decades of unaddressed racial abuse, harassment, and violent attacks in the capital. Northeastern community organizations have already held public protests across the city, demanding a fully independent and impartial investigation into the killing to ensure no detail is overlooked. In a public statement days after her husband’s death, Joshna emphasized that the family was not seeking vengeance – only accountability. “We are not seeking revenge. We are seeking justice,” she said. “He had a name, a family and a life that mattered.”

    Beyond the national conversation about community safety, Singh’s death has also pulled back the curtain on a remarkable 40-year career in music that shaped generations of performers in Manipur and beyond. Born into a creative family, Singh was immersed in music from early childhood: his mother, Chongtham Kamala, was a celebrated Manipuri vocalist who sang for the region’s first feature-length Manipuri-language film, *Matamgi Manipur*. As a young boy, he accompanied his mother to recording sessions at All India Radio, and by his early teens, he had auditioned himself, earning a spot as a child artist performing on the accordion.

    As he grew older, Singh’s love expanded to stringed instruments, first mastering Hawaiian and Spanish guitar before moving to the electric guitar. By the mid-1980s, when homemade cassette tapes brought Western rock and heavy metal thousands of miles across the country to Imphal, Singh was at the center of the city’s burgeoning grassroots rock scene. Young musicians across the capital scrounged together what equipment they could – cheap, locally built amplifiers, modified sound systems, and guitars turned up to full volume – to experiment with the new sound. Singh, then a student at Don Bosco School, would often skip study periods to watch local bands perform, later recalling those early days as “sweet and innocent” moments that set him on a lifelong path in rock.

    It was in 1987 that Sadokpam first met Singh, as the two young men waited at an interstate bus terminal to leave Imphal for college in Shillong. Sadokpam remembered Singh as a quiet, boyishly energetic young man who preferred to spend hours alone in his room, practicing until he had mastered every note of a new composition. Singh went on to play in a series of foundational Manipuri rock bands: first Ultra Vires, where he honed his experimental style, then Phoenix, one of the most celebrated groups of Manipur’s early rock era that retained a loyal following decades after its peak. By the time he joined Eastern Dark, Sadokpam recalled, Singh’s connection to his instrument was so complete that he could make the six strings “cry and sing”.

    In the early 1990s, Singh spent two years studying at the historic Calcutta School of Music, where he deepened his knowledge of Western classical music and developed a new passion for jazz. From that point on, his repertoire spanned genres: rock, blues, jazz, fusion, and classical, blending styles into a signature sound all his own. By the 2000s, Singh had settled permanently in Delhi, where he built a life centered on performing live and teaching the next generation of musicians. In 2010, he reconnected with an old friend to form his final band, Fubar Ghetto, a group that centered improvisation and played everything from jazz to rock across Delhi’s live music circuit, performing at universities, clubs, cultural festivals, the National School of Drama, and even the Czech Embassy.

    Singh never chased mainstream fame. Instead, he built a quiet, enduring legacy as a generous working musician and mentor, beloved by his students, peers, and audiences. Those who knew him consistently remember him as a gentle, kind person who cared more about lifting up other musicians than seeking recognition for himself. Sachidananda Angom, a former guitar student of Singh’s, called him “always kind, helpful” and noted that he “could really light up a room”. Mame Khan, a popular Rajasthani folk singer who toured and performed with Singh for several years, described him to *The Indian Express* as “a really kind and lovely person” who never picked fights with anyone.

    For Sadokpam, who reconnected with Singh in middle age after losing touch for 20 years, the last memory he holds is of a 2019 dinner at Singh’s Delhi home, where Singh picked up his guitar, played for his old friend, and talked excitedly about his current students. When Sadokpam left that night, Singh asked him to visit again soon, and Sadokpam promised he would. “I never made it back,” he said.

  • Watch: Is Trump’s $5,000 election pledge legal?

    Watch: Is Trump’s $5,000 election pledge legal?

    As the United States gears up for critical November midterm elections, a bold campaign promise from former President Donald Trump has ignited fierce debate over both its feasibility and legal standing. Trump has publicly stated that every American household would receive a $5,000 payout – equivalent to roughly £3,700 in British currency – should Republican candidates secure majority control of Congress in the upcoming election cycle.

    The pledge, announced in public remarks that quickly spread across national media platforms, has prompted election watchdogs and legal analysts to launch immediate examinations of whether the promise complies with existing federal campaign finance laws and executive branch regulations. Legal experts have raised key questions about the authority of a president or congressional majority to unilaterally implement such a broad, universal cash disbursement, noting that all federal spending must go through formal congressional appropriation processes that place checks on executive action.

    Political opponents have already labeled the pledge as an irresponsible appeal to voters that violates ethical standards for campaign rhetoric, arguing that promising direct cash payments in exchange for electoral support crosses legal boundaries. Meanwhile, allies of Trump have pushed back, framing the promise as a bold policy vision that reflects the former president’s commitment to delivering economic relief to working American families, asserting that it falls well within the bounds of legitimate campaign discourse.

    As voters head to the polls in just a few months, the scrutiny over this pledge is expected to intensify, with legal challenges and public debates set to shape how the promise is perceived by electorate across the country.

  • Trump says every adult American would get $5,000 if Republicans win midterms

    Trump says every adult American would get $5,000 if Republicans win midterms

    As the 2026 U.S. midterm elections enter their final stretch, former President Donald Trump has sent shockwaves through the nation’s political landscape with a bold, highly contested campaign promise: if the Republican Party secures control of both chambers of Congress in the November vote, every adult American citizen will receive a one-time $5,000 payout, dubbed the “Trump Dividend.”

    The proposal was first announced during the first ever in-term Republican National Convention held in Dallas, Texas, where a cheering crowd of party loyalists greeted the announcement with raucous applause. The plan would require an estimated $1.3 trillion in federal government spending, based on the roughly 270 million adults currently living in the United States. In his remarks, Trump mandated that all funds must be spent domestically, barring spending in foreign nations including Canada, China, and Germany, but offered no further framework for how the requirement would be enforced, nor did he outline how the massive payout would be funded or what legislative steps he would take to move the plan forward.

    This is not the first time Trump has floated direct cash payouts to voters. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he previously proposed $2,000 stimulus checks funded by incoming tariff revenues, echoing a similar pledge made by Democratic Senate candidates in Georgia during the 2020 runoff elections, where the party promised identical $2,000 relief payments in exchange for winning Senate control.

    Even before the details of the plan could be fleshed out, political opponents and policy analysts have raised a flurry of questions about the proposal’s feasibility, legality, and political ethics. The Democratic Party has already rejected the pledge as an empty political stunt designed to buy votes with no basis in practical policy. Legal experts remain divided on whether the promise violates federal election rules: federal statutes prohibit direct payments intended to influence voter behavior, but many analysts argue the pledge could be framed as a tax cut proposal, which falls within legal bounds, and is protected as political speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

    The announcement comes as the Trump administration faces mounting pressure over ongoing economic instability tied to a months-long conflict with Iran that began in February. After the U.S. and Israel launched military operations against Iran, Tehran retaliated by blocking all commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global chokepoint through which roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil and liquefied natural gas supplies transit. The blockage has triggered volatile global oil price swings and driven sustained domestic inflation across the U.S., eroding household purchasing power and creating political friction for Trump within his own party.

    Earlier this week, Trump acknowledged the economic pain ahead for Americans, telling supporters that oil prices would not stabilize and the conflict with Iran would not conclude until after the November midterm elections. He has argued that short-term economic hardship is a necessary tradeoff to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, a framing he repeated during the Dallas convention. Even with that justification, the $5,000 dividend proposal is widely seen as an effort to shore up voter support amid anger over rising costs, as Republicans fight to hold or expand their congressional majorities ahead of the 2028 presidential election cycle.

  • What we know about the fatal Philippines ferry fire

    What we know about the fatal Philippines ferry fire

    A devastating fire that broke out on a passenger ferry traveling from the Philippine mainland to a well-known tourist destination has left dozens unaccounted for, triggering a large-scale urgent search operation across the affected waters. As of the latest updates, rescue teams have been deployed across the search area to locate 86 missing passengers and crew members who remain unreachable after the blaze swept through the vessel.

    The incident unfolded on a busy inter-island route that connects central Philippine population centers to one of the country’s top leisure spots, which typically sees consistent passenger traffic both from local commuters and international visitors. While initial details about the exact cause of the fire are still under investigation, local coast guard and emergency management agencies have mobilized all available resources, including coast guard cutters, small rescue boats, and aerial surveillance assets to speed up the search effort.

    Local authorities have confirmed that the fire was contained quickly after the ferry sent out a distress signal, but the rapid spread of smoke and flames left many people unable to evacuate in time. Multiple survivors have already been pulled from the water by passing commercial vessels and first responders, but the search for the missing continues around the clock as hopes narrow for finding more survivors amid rough sea conditions reported in the area.

    The fatal incident has once again drawn attention to maritime safety standards in the Philippines, an archipelagic nation where inter-island ferry travel is a primary mode of transportation for millions of people annually. Safety oversight officials have announced they will launch a full inquiry into the incident to identify any safety violations or procedural failures that contributed to the disaster.

  • ‘It started as a joke, a fantasy’ – F1 heads to football-obsessed Madrid

    ‘It started as a joke, a fantasy’ – F1 heads to football-obsessed Madrid

    After a 45-year absence, Formula 1 is set to make its historic return to Madrid this weekend, ending a drought that stretches back to the Spanish capital’s last grand prix in 1981. For a city and nation utterly dominated by world-class football, the arrival of F1 represents a high-stakes experiment: can one of motorsport’s biggest global brands carve out a new fanbase in a market already saturated with elite sporting spectacle, and does F1 really need another race on its already crowded European calendar?

    Madrid’s football legacy is unmatched: home to Real Madrid, the most decorated club in European football history with 15 European Cup titles and 36 La Liga crowns, and a city that has long turned out elite global talent from Zinedine Zidane and the original Galacticos era to modern superstars like Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe. Just last month, 75,000 passionate Madridistas packed the Santiago Bernabeu to roar on Mbappe’s stunning volley against Malaga, with cross-city rivals Atletico Madrid also competing at the top of La Liga. It begs the question: what room is left for another major sporting attraction in a city where football already fulfills every local sporting appetite?

    Yet local fans are far from dismissive of F1’s return. Many Madrilenos have long dreamed of a grand prix on their doorstep, with some making regular trips to Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya and overseas races to follow the sport. “It’s good for Madrid,” one local fan told BBC Sport. “This race can show Madrid’s identity beyond football, and getting more exposure on the global stage can only be a good thing. I’m not just excited – I’m curious to see how it goes.” Another local fan added: “We’ve always wanted an F1 race closer to home, so having it back is fantastic. I hope it puts Madrid more in the global spotlight. Madrid can learn a lot from F1 about hosting global events, and F1 can get a true taste of authentic Spanish culture here, unlike the more international vibe of Barcelona.”

    The new Madring circuit, built around the IFEMA exhibition precinct adjacent to Madrid-Barajas Airport, was far from an obvious choice for a grand prix. Once written off as little more than a pipe dream – even a joke – the project was spearheaded by Luis Garcia Abad, CEO of Madring and former manager to Spain’s only F1 world champion, Fernando Alonso. “An F1 grand prix is like chasing a unicorn,” Abad explained. “You spend your whole life trying to see it, and most of the time you accept it’s impossible. There’s a huge queue of cities fighting to host an F1 race, so we know they had to pick the right bid. We signed a 10-year contract, and when IFEMA first reached out to me about viability seven or eight years ago, I walked the site one morning and knew: it could work.”

    Unlike a purpose-built rural track or a tight street circuit woven through central Madrid’s historic district, the IFEMA location leverages the city’s compact size and extensive high-quality public transport network. Organizers have eliminated most private car parking, asking general admission fans to leave their vehicles at home and take public transit, while VIP guests including celebrities, sports stars and dignitaries will have access to exclusive dedicated parking adjacent to the expansive six-section VIP paddock.

    The circuit itself has already turned heads in the F1 world, thanks to its signature corner: the 26-degree banked Turn 12, dubbed La Monumental. Far steeper than the famous banked corner at Zandvoort’s Dutch Grand Prix, La Monumental cuts through a section of the venue that will feel like a small packed town on race weekend, with capacity for more than 30,000 spectators around the bend alone. It even features a dedicated VIP viewing platform perched atop the corner’s hill, sized to accommodate the King of Spain and his family. “Luis always wanted an iconic, recognizable feature for this circuit – something no one would forget,” said Carlos Jimenez, operations director for IFEMA.

    Building the new circuit came with no shortage of challenges, from laying tarmac on La Monumental’s extreme 26-degree bank to overcoming the wettest Spanish winter in two decades, which left contractors struggling to stabilize waterlogged clay soil across the site. In total, the project required 150 million euros of investment, 85 million euros of which went to the track itself. Jimenez noted that the build prioritized sustainability, with all race power coming from renewable energy and partial reuse of existing on-site buildings, while crews laid three separate layers of asphalt to address the difficult ground conditions. “Back in 2022, this whole thing sounded like a crazy idea,” Jimenez said. “But Madrid has momentum right now. It’s a vibrant city famous for football, but just like a ski resort needs apres-ski entertainment, a grand prix needs off-track attractions. Madrid’s offer is unbeatable – incredible gastronomy, fantastic mild September weather, and a nightlife that can’t be matched anywhere else.”

    Madring is a hybrid street circuit, combining modified public roads with purpose-built track sections, and drivers who have already tested the track in Formula 3 sessions have described it as one of the most intense challenges on the global F1 calendar. With narrow lanes and close retaining walls on both sides, early assessments suggest overtaking will not be easy, but Abad argues that fits F1’s modern identity. “From a driver’s perspective, this is a tough circuit,” Abad said. “Twenty-two corners, elevation changes, banked turns – it’s built to fit the latest F1 regulations. Charles Leclerc told me it’s an amazing track, and while overtaking won’t be free, these are the best drivers in the world – gladiators.”

    Bruno del Pino, a Madrid-born F3 driver who tested the circuit, said: “It’s always on the limit, quick corners with walls right on top of you. It’s like Jeddah but even more difficult. When you first approach La Monumental, you see this steep angle going up and it feels like you’re going to fly straight off the track. Turns 10 and 11 are high speed with walls right there – a lot of drivers are going to end up kissing the barriers this weekend.”

    British F3 driver Freddie Slater went even further in his praise: “A lap around Madrid is so exhilarating, your adrenaline is just pumping the whole time. It’s one of the best tracks on the whole calendar, if not the best. It’s got real character, bumps, elevation changes – it feels a bit old-school, in the best way.”

    For Abad, the success of Madrid’s new grand prix will be defined by the fan experience – and he believes the event could point to the future of F1 as a whole. “It’s not just that Madrid needs F1 – maybe F1 needs Madrid too,” he said. “We’ve invested to create a first-class experience right in the heart of a major city, and that’s the direction the championship is heading. Our spectators are our future, and taking care of them is what matters most.” This weekend, both F1 and Madrid will find out if the 45-year wait for a Madrid grand prix was worth it.

  • Russia outpacing Ukraine’s air defences with daily use of new jet-powered drones

    Russia outpacing Ukraine’s air defences with daily use of new jet-powered drones

    An analysis of Ukrainian Air Force data conducted by BBC Verify has uncovered a significant escalation in Russia’s air campaign against Ukraine: throughout the entire month of August, Moscow launched daily strikes using its newly upgraded, high-speed jet-powered Geran drones, a weapon that Kyiv’s existing air defense systems are currently ill-equipped to counter. This marks the first recorded instance of daily attacks using these modified drones since the start of the conflict, and the growing frequency of their deployment has drawn sharp condemnation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who decried the unfolding “horror” over Ukraine’s capital and other cities across the country.

    Data shared with the BBC by Ukraine’s military illustrates the stark, rapid growth in the use of these jet-propelled munitions. Attacks climbed from just 350 in June to 1,600 in July, before surging to 2,800 in August alone. On five separate nights of August strikes, the newer jet-powered drones outnumbered Russia’s older, slower propeller-driven models that Kyiv has had more success intercepting.

    Military technology experts explain Russia’s shift to jet-powered drones as a direct response to Ukraine’s previous success in downing older, slower unmanned aerial vehicles. “The reason for turning to jet-powered drones is that they are much faster than the previous generation and it makes it much more difficult for Ukraine to intercept them,” explained Dr. Marina Miron, a specialist in military technology at King’s College London. The upgraded Geran drones can cruise at speeds exceeding 300 miles per hour, a major jump over older models that puts them well beyond the maximum speed of many of Ukraine’s existing interceptor platforms. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, some of the turbojet engines powering these new drones are sourced from China, a claim that adds a new layer of international dimension to the conflict.

    The human cost of this escalating drone campaign has already been severe. On September 1, a mass wave of attacks including these new drones left at least 12 people dead and 20 more injured, according to Zelenskyy. Six of those killed were railway workers at a targeted depot in Kyiv.

    Earlier in the conflict, Ukraine boasted a 94% interception rate for Russian long-range drones, a major success for Kyiv’s air defenses. But the introduction of high-speed jet-powered drones has upended that balance, triggering a new round of the ongoing arms race between the two nations. In mid-August, Ukrainian military intelligence deputy head Major General Vadymym Skibitskyi noted that Kyiv urgently needs new interceptor missiles designed to match the speed of these advanced drones.

    In response to the threat, four domestic Ukrainian defense companies have already begun testing domestically produced missiles capable of shooting down the upgraded Geran models, Kyiv officials confirmed. Ukraine’s new defense minister Yevhenii Khmara has issued a mandate for the firms to ramp up production to “thousands of units” as quickly as possible to close the air defense gap.

    Beyond tactical advantages, analysts point to economic incentives driving Russia’s investment in jet-powered drones. John Hardie, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a national security-focused think tank, noted that the improved speed and maneuverability of the new drones have blurred the line between low-cost unmanned drones and far more expensive traditional cruise missiles. “Long-range one-way attack drones are basically a poor man’s cruise missile,” Hardie explained. “The more you add capability to a drone, the less meaningful the distinction between the drone and a lower-end cruise missile.”

    However, independent arms research group Conflict Armament Research emphasizes that jet-powered drones are not yet on par with full-size cruise missiles. The group notes the new munitions have a shorter operational range, carry smaller explosive warheads, and remain more vulnerable to electronic jamming systems than their more costly counterparts.

    Satellite imagery further confirms that Russia is preparing to scale up its use of these drones long-term. The imagery shows Moscow has overhauled and expanded key military facilities dedicated to its war effort in Ukraine to accommodate jet drone operations, with extended rail infrastructure needed to transport the munitions visible at a newly constructed drone base in Tsymbulova, located in Russia’s Oryol region. The base, which sits roughly 175 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, includes multiple purpose-built launch sites. Before September 2024, the Oryol region was never named as a Russian drone launch site in Ukrainian Air Force reports; by August 2026, it was cited in nearly every recorded attack.

    The expanding use of jet-powered drones aligns with a broader shift in Russia’s strike strategy, BBC Verify found. Moscow now carries out large, complex combined strikes involving hundreds of drones and missiles roughly once per week, a major increase from earlier in the war. RAND Corporation analyst Michael Bohnert told BBC Verify that the growth in strike size stems from Moscow’s new tactic of combining a “greater variety of munitions” — including jet-powered drones and decoy drones — alongside costly, nearly impossible-to-intercept ballistic missiles. Ukrainian military data shows Russia now deploys more than 15 times the number of drones per strike than it did four years ago at the start of the full-scale invasion.

    Bohnert added that this increasingly complex attack strategy, combined with a global shortage of advanced air defense systems capable of stopping ballistic missiles — a shortage exacerbated by regional conflicts including the U.S.-Israeli confrontation with Iran — has driven down Ukraine’s interception rates. Ukrainian Air Force data showed a steady drop in successful ballistic missile interceptions through the end of July, and in August, Kyiv halted public disclosure of interception rate figures, drawing a veil over its current defensive capabilities.

  • Five dead and 86 missing as ‘heartbreaking’ fire breaks out on Philippines ferry

    Five dead and 86 missing as ‘heartbreaking’ fire breaks out on Philippines ferry

    A devastating fire aboard a passenger ferry off the coast of the Philippines has left at least five people dead and 86 others unaccounted for, in what is shaping up to be one of the country’s worst maritime disasters in recent years, according to the Philippine Coast Guard.

    The MV June Aster, carrying 117 passengers and 17 crew members, departed Manila bound for Coron, a popular tourist destination in the western province of Palawan. The blaze ignited at 18:00 local time (10:00 GMT) on Wednesday, when the vessel was just an hour away from its final port of call, roughly four nautical miles off the coastal barangay of Turda. As of 11:00 Thursday, the fire was still burning, hampered by uncooperative conditions that have complicated rescue and extinguishing efforts.

    “Strong currents and poor weather are creating major obstacles for our response teams,” a Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson told the BBC. The fire has already pushed the ferry far off its original distress position: it has drifted more than seven nautical miles further out to sea, expanding the search area and slowing rescue operations.

    Video footage released by the coastguard Wednesday night shows the entire vessel engulfed in thick orange flames, as rescuers pull survivors from the dark surrounding water into small rescue craft. Forty-three people have been pulled from the sea so far and transferred to a local evacuation center in Turda, but details on the extent of their injuries have not yet been released. Investigators have not yet been able to interview the survivors to determine the origin of the blaze, which remains under official investigation.

    For families of the missing, the hours since the disaster have been filled with agonizing uncertainty. Anelyn Magbanua, whose husband Marlon was on the ferry returning from visiting the couple’s two school-age children in Manila, told reporters she was woken by a relative with news of the fire just hours after she had waited for him to arrive at the Coron port.

    “I couldn’t put what I’m feeling into words. I’ve been crying and praying since last night,” Magbanua said. She traveled to a local hospital in Coron to check for her husband among survivors, but he has not been located. “My two-year-old son and I are waiting outside the hospital right now. We have nothing but each other.”

    Elsewhere, Rai Garcia’s family is still waiting for word on three missing family friends: Mae Lorraine Galera-Navoa, her husband Elyzer Navoa, and their three-year-old daughter Hiraya Joy. The trio had traveled to Luzon to attend Mae’s father’s funeral, and were returning to their home in Palawan’s El Nido when the fire broke out.

    “We haven’t gotten any updates yet, so we’ve been commenting on local news threads just to get any information,” Garcia said. “We still hold out hope and pray for their safety.” Garcia’s family created an appeal poster using a photo Mae had shared with relatives from the ferry, and dozens of other anxious family members have left pleas for information on the Philippine Coast Guard’s official Facebook page, one reading simply: “Please can you find my sibling.”

    Maritime incidents are an all-too-common occurrence in the Philippines, a nation made up of more than 7,100 islands where inter-island ferries serve as the primary affordable mode of transport for both people and goods connecting remote communities that do not have air access. The country’s geographic location leaves it exposed to an average of 20 typhoons annually, with monsoon rains and severe storms regularly creating dangerous sea conditions. Past accidents have also been linked to inadequate vessel maintenance and inconsistent enforcement of maritime safety regulations.

    Just three years prior, in 2023, a ferry fire off the southwestern coast of the Philippines killed 31 people. That incident involved the MV Lady Mary Joy 3, which was traveling from Zamboanga City to Basilan Island in Mindanao. With 86 people still missing, the MV June Aster disaster is on track to become one of the deadliest maritime accidents the Philippines has seen in decades. A first responder who spoke to the BBC, one of the first on scene to transport casualties to local hospitals, called the disaster unprecedented for the Coron area, describing it as “really heartbreaking.”