Global Pulse

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  • Four people die trying to board boat in Channel crossing attempt

    Four people die trying to board boat in Channel crossing attempt

    A deadly incident on the northern coast of France has left four migrants dead after dangerous currents swept them away as they attempted to board a smuggling vessel bound for the United Kingdom across the English Channel, local authorities confirmed Thursday. The fatal event unfolded off the shore of Saint-Etienne-au-Mont, located south of Boulogne-sur-Mer in the Pas-de-Calais region, between the Ecault and Équihen-Plage beaches, an area increasingly used by people smuggling gangs to avoid law enforcement patrols.

    Officials from the Pas-de-Calais prefecture told reporters that the four deceased—two men and two women—had already ventured a significant distance into the water when the strong local currents pulled them under. The death toll remains classified as provisional as of Thursday’s update. In the aftermath of the incident, rescue teams launched a large-scale response operation that got underway at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time, right after dawn, and included specialist diving firefighter units deployed to the scene. A total of 38 people were pulled from the water, three of whom required emergency medical care. Two children were transported to a local hospital as a safety precaution, while the smuggling vessel that was meant to carry the group continued its journey toward the UK with roughly 30 passengers still on board.

    This tragedy pushes the total number of confirmed migrant deaths linked to Channel crossing attempts this year to six, according to data from the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, which recorded two earlier fatalities in 2026. Recent weeks have seen a sharp uptick in attempted crossings, driven by unusually calm sea conditions that smuggling gangs exploit to launch their perilous voyages. The incident comes on the heels of reports that French authorities rejected a new proposal from UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood that would have allowed British Border Force vessels to operate in French territorial waters to intercept and turn back small migrant boats.

    Political reactions to the tragedy have highlighted deep divides over how to address the ongoing Channel crossing crisis. Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp blamed the ruling Labour government’s approach for the loss of life, arguing that weak border enforcement has created incentives for smugglers to continue operating. “Crossing the Channel on often faulty and defective dinghies is immensely dangerous and puts lives at risk,” Philp said. “Labour’s weak approach which allows these crossings to continue is causing lives to be lost, and their unwillingness to take decisive action on illegal immigration is fuelling this crisis. Stopping the crossings requires more than disruption on the beaches. It requires the swift removal of those who enter illegally so the incentive to make these dangerous journeys disappears.”

    By contrast, refugee advocacy groups have framed the tragedy as a consequence of insufficient safe and legal pathways for migration to the UK. Imran Hussain, director of external affairs at the UK’s Refugee Council, argued that policing alone cannot stop dangerous crossings. “A lack of safe routes to the UK has left people feeling they have no other choice to rebuild their lives,” Hussain said. “Policing the Channel alone is not enough to prevent dangerous crossings. The government should work closely with our European neighbours to share responsibility and create more safe pathways for people to come to the UK without taking dangerous journeys.”

    Officially, a UK government spokesperson said officials were “deeply saddened” by the deaths, noting that every fatality in the Channel is a preventable tragedy. “Every death in the Channel is a tragedy and a stark reminder of the dangers posed by criminal gangs exploiting vulnerable people for profit,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue working relentlessly with the French and our partners overseas to prevent these perilous journeys.” The UK Home Office has been approached for additional comment on the incident and the rejected interception proposal.

    Long-term data shows that overall small boat arrivals have fallen slightly year-over-year in 2026, even as smuggling gangs have adapted their tactics to evade patrols. Over the full year of 2025, more than 41,000 people arrived in the UK via small boat crossings, marking a three-year trend of growing activity. Between January 1 and April 8 this year, 5,062 people completed the crossing, a 30% drop from the 7,228 recorded during the same period in 2025.

    To avoid detection by coastal patrols, smuggling networks have recently shifted to a new “water taxi” tactic, where larger smuggling vessels are launched from hidden locations dozens of kilometers from traditional departure points. These vessels then cruise along the coast to pick up groups of migrants who wait for them in shallow water out of sight of land-based police, rather than assembling and inflating boats on public beaches near patrol routes.

  • Hawaii doctor found guilty of trying to kill wife on hike

    Hawaii doctor found guilty of trying to kill wife on hike

    On Wednesday, a Hawaii jury delivered a guilty verdict for a Maui physician in a high-profile domestic violence case that unfolded on a popular hiking trail one year prior. Following more than eight hours of closed-door deliberation, the 12-member panel found 47-year-old anesthesiologist Gerhardt Konig guilty of attempted manslaughter, rejecting the more severe charge of attempted murder that prosecutors had pushed for throughout the trial.

    The violent incident dates back to March 2025, when Konig and his wife Arielle traveled from Maui to Oahu to celebrate Arielle’s birthday. The couple had been navigating ongoing marital strain after Konig discovered flirtatious text messages exchanged between Arielle and a male coworker, a detail that became central to the case’s narrative.
    According to Arielle Konig’s testimony, the confrontation escalated suddenly on the Pali Puka Trail, a rugged hiking route known for its steep cliffside overlooks. She told the court her husband first shoved her toward the edge of a cliff, then attempted to stab her with a syringe, before bludgeoning her in the head with a large rock. Arielle testified she believed Konig intended to knock her unconscious to complete the fatal push over the cliff, leaving her body to be discovered days later as an accidental hiking death. She ultimately suffered what medical records describe as “severe complex scalp lacerations” from the attack.
    Two passing hikers who stumbled on the mid-confrontation corroborated key parts of Arielle’s account during the trial, telling jurors they clearly saw Konig striking Arielle with the rock while her face was covered in blood. Prosecutors also introduced damning testimony from Konig’s 20-year-old son, who told the court his father admitted to him during a post-incident FaceTime call that “my stepmom had been cheating on him, and that he tried to kill her,” according to CBS News, the U.S. partner to the BBC.
    When law enforcement officers arrived at the scene, Konig fled into the surrounding rugged terrain, triggering a multi-hour manhunt before he was taken into police custody.
    Throughout the trial, Konig maintained his innocence, arguing that Arielle had attacked him first and that all his actions were in self-defense. But the jury ultimately sided with the prosecution’s narrative, opting for the lesser conviction of attempted manslaughter rather than attempted murder.
    Speaking to NBC News after the verdict was issued, the jury foreperson explained the panel’s decision: jurors agreed Konig had acted out of extreme mental and emotional disturbance sparked by the revelation of his wife’s affair, and “we didn’t feel the evidence would uphold the fact that he intended on murdering her.”
    As the court clerk read the guilty verdict, reporters observed Konig closing his eyes, bowing his head, and eventually covering his face with his hand. Konig now faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in state prison, with his formal sentencing scheduled for August 13. His defense team has already confirmed they plan to appeal the jury’s verdict to a higher court.

  • The winner of Trump’s Iran war? Iran

    The winner of Trump’s Iran war? Iran

    Thirty-nine days into the 2026 joint military campaign waged by the United States and Israel against Iran, US President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire on April 7. The truce was negotiated through Pakistani mediation, built on a 10-point peace framework initially proposed by Iran itself. When assessing the outcome of the conflict, analysts frame Iran’s success not as a decisive knockout blow, but as a remarkable demonstration of resilience: emerging standing after 12 grueling rounds against a far heavier opponent, a result that qualifies as victory by any reasonable measure.

    The core strategic goal of the US-Israeli campaign was to decapitate Iran’s ruling government, a mission that ended in complete failure. Though top Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated alongside members of his family, Iran’s 88-member clerical Assembly of Experts swiftly installed his son Mojtaba Khamenei as his successor, maintaining unbroken institutional continuity. Other high-profile assassinations, including that of Iran’s civilian defense minister and pragmatic centrist National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, are widely categorized as war crimes. Following these losses, President Masoud Pezeshkian appointed IRGC General Majid Ebnelreza as acting defense minister, and hardline former IRGC commander Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr stepped into Larijani’s national security role. In a stark unintended consequence, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu effectively executed an accidental internal coup that removed Iran’s moderate pragmatic leadership and replaced them with uncompromising far-right hardliners.

    When the conflict began, Iran was already diplomatically isolated, facing international backlash following a violent crackdown on mass anti-government protests that left thousands dead. But the extreme brutality and widespread war crimes committed by US and Israeli forces shifted global public and official sentiment, leaving many countries at minimum rhetorically supportive of Iran, and uniformly opposed to the unprovoked invasion. In the conflict’s aftermath, Israel has been left a global pariah. While the United States’ sheer economic and military power insulates it from full pariah status, its global standing has plummeted dramatically, and it can expect far less international cooperation in the coming years.

    Iran inflicted staggering damage on 13 US military bases spread across the Middle East, most of which are now largely destroyed, with total estimated damages reaching roughly $1 billion. Using low-cost, readily available drones, Iranian forces took out hundreds of millions of dollars worth of advanced radar installations in Kuwait and neighboring states, blinding US air defenses and clearing the way for deadly missile barrages, including a high-impact strike on Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility. The conflict delivered a clear, global lesson: hosting US military bases no longer provides security for host nations—it instead exposes them to catastrophic military risk.

    Most US military personnel were forced to evacuate their destroyed bases and relocate to local civilian hotels. Thanks to Iran’s extensive and effective intelligence network across the Gulf, many of these hotels were subsequently targeted by drone strikes. Multiple US personnel arrived back in Washington D.C. with nothing but the clothes on their backs, receiving little to no support from US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The future of US military basing across the Gulf is now an open question, with regional leaders re-evaluating the costs of hosting American forces. Even the continued presence of US troops in Iraq is uncertain, as Iraqi Shiite factions openly aligned with Iran supported Tehran throughout the conflict.

    Strict Israeli military censorship has obscured the full scale of damage sustained by the country, but confirmed strikes have hit the Haifa oil refinery, as well as key military and intelligence research facilities. Netanyahu drastically overestimated the effectiveness of Israel’s air defense interceptor systems. Thousands of Israeli civilians have been displaced from their homes and forced to sleep in bomb shelters, and Israel is burning through its interceptor stockpiles far faster than Iran is exhausting its ballistic missile arsenal. If the conflict resumes, Israel would quickly face a situation where it is completely exposed to Iranian strikes. Already, stocks of Israel’s advanced Arrow interceptors are so depleted that the military has been forced to allow missiles targeting low-population areas to hit their targets, rather than waste limited interceptors. For these reasons, it is Israel that pushed for the current ceasefire, making it clear that Israel lost the conflict on points.

    Beyond military resilience, Iran emerges from the war with stronger economic prospects than it had entering it. Before the conflict, Iran’s oil revenue was limited by US sanctions. Now, Trump has been forced to lift sanctions on Iranian petroleum exports, and there is little chance they can be reimposed in the tight 2026 global energy market. The conflict has also given Iran the leverage to impose new tolls on commercial shipping passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has proven it can use cheap drone strikes to disable oil and LNG tankers that refuse to pay, and building a 100% effective anti-drone defense system is prohibitively expensive for shipping companies and regional powers. Insurers also require full protection, which no existing defense system can guarantee. Threatening to strike Iranian oil infrastructure to force Iran to abandon the tolls is no deterrent: any attack on Iranian rigs would be met with retaliatory strikes on Saudi, UAE, Bahraini, and Kuwaiti oil facilities, which would cripple global energy supplies entirely. Iran already demonstrated this capability during the conflict, damaging Kuwaiti oil fields, striking a major Saudi petrochemical complex in Jubail, and knocking out 17% of Qatar’s total LNG production capacity at Ras Laffan. Combined, Iran’s new oil export access and Hormuz tolls are projected to deliver annual revenue multiple times higher than pre-war export earnings to China alone.

    The conflict has, of course, inflicted devastating human and infrastructural damage on Iran. The 39-day campaign killed an estimated 3,600 Iranians, including at least 1,665 civilians – among them at least 200 children and 200 women – and wounded roughly 20,000 more. Israel has claimed the death toll is as high as 6,000, but that is widely dismissed as exaggerated wartime boasting from Netanyahu and Hegseth. Key Iranian research institutions, university programs, steel mills, petrochemical complexes, and other critical infrastructure have been destroyed, but analysts widely expect these can be rebuilt with covert support from Russia and China, both of which have a clear strategic interest in maintaining a strong Iran capable of countering US and Israeli power in the region.

    The US Department of Defense claims it deployed 26 aircraft types, four land-based missile systems, and six sea-based weapons systems to strike roughly 13,000 targets inside Iran. Human rights observers note that many of these targets were civilian infrastructure, marking strikes that would qualify as war crimes of the same kind that led to the prosecution of German and Japanese military leaders after World War II. Independent analysts have not been able to separate US strikes from Israeli strikes, leading to questions about whether the 13,000 target figure counts joint US-Israeli strikes. US military outlet *The Stars and Stripes* reported that CENTCOM stated strikes targeted Iranian command and control centers, IRGC headquarters, intelligence sites, missile launchers, drone batteries, and anti-ship and anti-air installations, in addition to a major bridge near Tehran, and weapons manufacturing warehouses and bunkers.

    Despite the extensive bombing campaign, Iran never lost command and control over its military and government. While roughly 1,200 IRGC personnel and officers were killed, the force has between 125,000 and 190,000 active personnel, and there was no shortage of qualified leaders to step into vacant roles. Iran also maintains a 400,000-strong conventional army, plus an additional 400,000 to 800,000 Basij militia members. The chain of command remained unbroken, with lower-ranking officers promoted to fill senior vacancies without any collapse of military order. Strikes on IRGC, police, and Basij facilities have not weakened the Islamic Republic government in any measurable way; in fact, these institutions gained greater domestic legitimacy by successfully resisting foreign invasion.

    A further major blow to US and Israeli claims of success is the widespread use of Iranian decoys. Many strikes that the coalition counted as destroyed missile launchers, drones, and weapons facilities actually hit nothing more than cleverly disguised decoys made of cheap materials that inflicted no real harm to Iran’s military capacity. When the war began, Iran held roughly 2,500 ballistic missiles. After 39 days of fighting, an estimated 1,000 missiles remain intact – a figure that already accounts for the thousand or more missiles Iran fired at Israel and Gulf targets during the conflict. Since eliminating Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal was a core war goal for the coalition, this outcome marks another clear failure; only half of Iran’s launchers were destroyed, leaving the country with a robust second-strike deterrent capability. Iran also still retains tens of thousands of Shahed drones, its low-cost weapon of choice for asymmetric strikes.

    While the war is a pyrrhic victory for Iran in some respects – it has suffered extensive human and industrial losses, and gained new hostile neighbors among Gulf states – it still qualifies as a clear victory. The government remains standing, the coalition’s core strategic goals all ended in failure, and Iran leaves the conflict with greater economic and strategic leverage than it held before the first strike.

  • Amazon to end support for older Kindles, prompting user outcry

    Amazon to end support for older Kindles, prompting user outcry

    Starting May 20, 2026, Amazon will permanently cease software and connectivity support for all Kindle and Kindle Fire devices released in 2012 or earlier, a policy change that has left thousands of long-time device owners angry and concerned over planned obsolescence and unnecessary electronic waste.

    In direct email notifications sent to affected customers recently, the e-commerce and tech giant thanked users for their loyalty over decades, but confirmed that older models would no longer receive any future updates, nor would they retain access to the Kindle Store. This means owners of affected devices — which include iconic early models such as the 2007 first-generation Kindle, 2011’s Kindle Touch, and the first line of Kindle Fire tablets, as well as the 2012 first-generation Kindle Paperwhite — will no longer be able to purchase, borrow, or download new e-books to their devices.

    Already downloaded e-books will remain accessible for offline reading on the outdated hardware, and users will still be able to access their full Kindle Library via Amazon’s mobile and desktop reading apps. Amazon has also issued a critical warning: completing a factory reset on any affected device will render it completely unusable, as the device will be unable to reconnected to Amazon servers to restore content or core functionality.

    To ease the transition, Amazon says it has offered exclusive discounts on newer Kindle models to active users of the affected devices. Still, the announcement has drawn sharp criticism from long-time customers who argue their older devices still work perfectly well for their core purpose of displaying e-books. Many took to social media platform X to voice their frustration, with one user noting their 2013 Kindle Touch functioned flawlessly and had only recently been used to purchase a new book before the announcement. Others pointed out that basic e-readers require minimal updates, questioning why Amazon needed to cut off support entirely for devices that serve their core function with no performance issues. Kay Aaronricks, a 46-year-old Kindle owner from the UK, told reporters she felt unexpected grief at the thought of losing full use of her 14-year-old device, which has become a staple of her work and travel routine.

    “I love paper books like anyone does, but the Kindle is more practical,” Aaronricks said, adding she is also concerned about the embedded advertising that comes standard on many of Amazon’s lower-priced newer Kindles. For her, the ad-free reading experience of her older device is a key part of the enjoyment, allowing her to disconnect from marketing and digital distractions that dominate daily life.

    Industry analysts have offered mixed perspectives on Amazon’s decision. Paolo Pescatore, a veteran tech industry analyst, noted that the move is understandable from security and operational support standpoints. These devices were designed more than 14 years ago, he explained, for a different era of digital services, and their aging hardware cannot support modern, more resource-intensive connectivity and security features. Maintaining ongoing support for such a small, declining user base would require disproportionate time and resources that Amazon cannot justify long-term. Still, Pescatore acknowledged that cutting off access to the Kindle Store will turn fully functional devices into limited offline-only tools, a disappointing outcome for attached users.

    Critics of the policy frame it as a clear example of planned obsolescence that will generate unnecessary electronic waste. Ugo Vallauri, co-director of the Restart Project, a non-profit that advocates for electronic device repair and extended product lifecycles, said manufacturers have a long history of framing the phase-out of older devices as a push toward better performance, but that argument does not hold water for devices that still work as intended.

    “However, that’s hardly a good reason for soft-bricking millions of still functioning devices,” Vallauri said. While Amazon notes that the change only impacts around 3% of its active Kindle user base, independent estimates suggest that this could add up to 2 million devices being rendered prematurely obsolete. Vallauri calculated that this would generate more than 624 tons of additional e-waste, as many users will discard their still-functional devices rather than keep them as limited offline readers.

    A full list of affected devices includes: 1st Generation Kindle (2007), Kindle DX and DX Graphite (2009, 2010), Kindle Keyboard (2010), Kindle 4 (2011), Kindle Touch (2011), Kindle 5 (2012), 1st Generation Kindle Paperwhite (2012), 1st Generation Kindle Fire (2011), 2nd Generation Kindle Fire (2012), Kindle Fire HD 7 (2012), and Kindle Fire HD 8.9 (2012).

  • Has US achieved its war objectives in Iran?

    Has US achieved its war objectives in Iran?

    In the weeks following joint US-Israeli military strikes on Iran, a fierce battle over how the war’s trajectory is framed has unfolded inside the very heart of US military command: the Pentagon. As a reporter embedded in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s press briefings since the conflict’s first days, one pattern has been impossible to miss: the former Army National Guard Major and ex-Fox News pundit has brought a distinctly televised, theatrical style to the podium, from his initial laying out of US war aims through the most recent briefing announcing a fragile two-week ceasefire.

    Hegseth’s briefings have been unapologetically boastful affairs, centered on celebrating overt displays of American military dominance. Just this Wednesday, he declared the US had secured a “capital V military victory”, and in an earlier briefing, he characterized the campaign as delivering unrelenting “death and destruction from the sky all day long”. But peeling back this public messaging to uncover the real progress of the war, its human and financial toll, and its long-term strategic consequences demands far deeper scrutiny. With the already fragile ceasefire facing repeated tests, critical questions remain: what tangible gains has the US actually secured, and what costs have already been incurred to reach this point?

    US President Donald Trump’s core stated war objective has long been stripping Iran of any capacity to develop a nuclear weapon – a goal Iran has repeatedly denied ever pursuing. For years prior to the current conflict, this objective was pursued through US-led diplomatic negotiations, but Trump ultimately rejected the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Obama-brokered nuclear deal with Iran, arguing it was too lenient on Tehran.

    In his first term, Trump withdrew the US from the agreement and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran, which had been in full compliance with the deal’s terms at the time. That move marked a clear choice to abandon diplomacy in favor of coercive force, a pattern that continued with the US assassination of top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Qasem Soleimani. For years, this pattern of alternating between tentative diplomatic outreach and sudden military action with Tehran ultimately culminated in the outbreak of the current war.

    Today, even with the tentative ceasefire holding for the moment, there is little concrete evidence that Trump has achieved meaningful progress on his core nuclear goal. Last June, Trump claimed Iran’s nuclear infrastructure had already been “obliterated” by bombing raids on key sites at Isfahan, Fordow, and Natanz. But five additional weeks of open conflict later, Iran still retains its stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium, which is reported to be stored in gas cylinders hidden under rubble at targeted sites.

    Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog, warned in the third week of the war that military action would never resolve the international community’s concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. While Trump has stated the US will now work with Iran to extract and remove all hidden nuclear material, Tehran has remained defiant on the issue. The question will now take center stage at upcoming US-Iran negotiations set to be held in Islamabad, and analysts warn that the attack has left Iran’s leadership even more distrustful of the US – and potentially more determined than ever to pursue a nuclear deterrent to fend off future American attacks.

    When Trump first announced the war in a pre-recorded social media video from his Mar-a-Lago estate, a second stated objective was regime change in Tehran: he called on the Iranian people to overthrow their government once US-Israeli bombing concluded. Within days, he doubled down, demanding the regime’s “unconditional surrender” – a demand that has not been met. While Israeli strikes have killed senior Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Khamenei’s son Mojtaba has already been named as his successor, leaving the regime structure intact.

    Trump has claimed the new Iranian leadership is less “radicalised and far more intelligent” than its predecessor, and has expressed hope he can replicate the outcome of his 2020s intervention in Venezuela, where US forces captured President Nicholas Maduro and installed a US-aligned government in Caracas. So far, there is no indication that any such shift in power is imminent in Tehran.

    On the topic of Iran’s conventional military arsenal, senior Trump administration officials have claimed the US has “obliterated” Iran’s missiles, drone fleets, launch facilities, arms factories, and naval forces. But leaked US intelligence assessments have disputed that claim, suggesting Iran still retains roughly half of its pre-war missile and drone stockpiles. The BBC has not been able to independently verify either side’s claims.

    Regardless of the status of Iran’s arsenal, it is clear the Trump administration’s stated war goals have shifted dramatically since the conflict began, and the core objective of regime change has yet to materialize. The human cost for the US has already been steep: 13 American service members have been killed in action, and hundreds more have been wounded. The war has also drained US military stockpiles at an unprecedented rate, with thousands of precision munitions including large numbers of Tomahawk cruise missiles expended, putting the daily cost of the operation at more than $1 billion.

    While US officials maintain that unmatched American military skill and cutting-edge technology allowed the air campaign to finish ahead of schedule, forcing Iran into the ceasefire, the political cost at home has already started to mount. Consistent public polling shows only a minority of American voters approve of the conflict, and support in Congress has broken down almost entirely along partisan lines, with most Republicans backing Trump. But in recent days, a growing number of GOP lawmakers have publicly denounced Trump’s unfiltered social media threat to “destroy a whole civilization”, breaking with the president’s position.

    The rift has extended deep into Trump’s own MAGA base: high-profile movement figures including popular podcaster and journalist Tucker Carlson have openly split with Trump over the war. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once one of Trump’s most vocal supporters and a prominent MAGA leader who has since broken with the president, issued a scathing rebuke over the weekend as Trump escalated threats to destroy additional Iranian civilian infrastructure. “This is not making America great again, this is evil,” she said. So far, there is little sign these intra-Republican fractures will heal ahead of the November midterm elections.

    Democrats, meanwhile, have uniformly condemned Trump’s increasingly inflammatory threats and his repeated insults of longstanding US allies. They have also demanded answers about an alleged US missile strike on a school in the Iranian town of Minab on the first day of the war, which local reports say killed at least 168 people, 110 of them children. If confirmed, the strike would rank among the deadliest incidents of civilian casualties from a US attack in the Middle East in a generation. The Pentagon says it is investigating the incident, but nearly six weeks after the attack, no findings have been released to the public.

    This week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers went so far as to call on Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from power over his handling of the conflict. The White House has pushed back against all criticism, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt arguing that Trump’s hardline rhetoric forced Iran to agree to the ceasefire, and that “Never underestimate President Trump’s ability to successfully advance America’s interests and broker peace.”

    A definitive public verdict on the war may come from American voters in November. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, triggered by Iran’s response to the war, has already driven up gasoline and diesel prices across the US, and analysts predict those higher energy costs will soon push up grocery prices, stoking voter anger over inflation that is already expected to make this year’s midterm elections a tough fight for Trump’s Republican Party. If voter discontent over the war and its economic fallout continues to grow, Republicans could lose control of the House of Representatives and even the Senate – a heavy political price for the conflict.

    Trump has already been forced to shift priorities to address the growing economic crisis: when the war began, the Strait of Hormuz was fully open, but now his top war goal has become reopening the key global oil chokepoint after Iran seized control of it. Trump has flip-flopped repeatedly on his strategy for reopening the strait: he first called on US allies to contribute to military action to reopen it, then claimed the US did not need any allied support, then reversed course again to ask for help, before dismissing longstanding allies as “cowards” for declining to join the campaign.

    The conflict has also exacerbated already deep rifts within the NATO alliance, which had already been strained by Trump’s prior territorial claims on Greenland. Trump has stepped up his public attacks on the alliance, which declined to formally join the war effort. After a recent White House meeting with Trump, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte acknowledged only that the conversation had been “very frank”, a sign of continuing tension. European allies have already started taking steps to reduce their strategic and economic dependence on what they now view as an unpredictable and unreliable US security guarantor, a shift that analysts say creates major strategic and economic opportunities for China – a development that has sparked deep alarm among Trump’s critics in Washington.

    Today, the full human, political, economic, and strategic costs of the five-week war remain uncounted. If the current fragile ceasefire collapses or upcoming negotiations fail to produce a durable settlement, those costs could grow far steeper in the months ahead.

  • Russian tourists flock to Heihe’s bustling morning market

    Russian tourists flock to Heihe’s bustling morning market

    As early spring temperatures climb across Northeast China, one of the region’s most unique cross-border public spaces — the famous international outdoor morning market in Heihe’s Aihui District, Heilongjiang Province — has roared back to life, drawing crowds of both local residents and visitors from across the Sino-Russian border.

    Nestled along the Chinese side of the China-Russia border, this open-air morning market has long been a beloved community hub for local people, who gather here daily to catch up with neighbors, stock up on groceries, and grab casual early-morning meals. In recent years, however, it has also emerged as an unexpected top attraction for Russian tourists, who now arrive in organized tour groups to browse stalls, hunt for bargains, and experience authentic local Chinese daily life.

    Wandering the tree-lined market lanes, visitors are greeted by the rich, savory aroma of freshly cooked local street food, alongside neatly stacked piles of seasonal fresh produce and neatly displayed rows of affordable daily necessities. For the local community, the market remains the go-to “vegetable basket” that meets most residents’ daily household needs. For cross-border exchange, it also serves as a dynamic, on-the-ground showcase of the deepening integration of Sino-Russian trade, people-to-people bonds and cultural tourism.

    The resurgence of visitor foot traffic, especially the growing number of Russian tourists, underscores the steady recovery of cross-border tourism and small-scale trade between the two neighboring countries, turning an ordinary neighborhood market into a living symbol of bilateral friendly exchange.

  • Moscow State University of Technology joins robotics competition in Chongqing

    Moscow State University of Technology joins robotics competition in Chongqing

    A landmark cross-border educational exchange event unfolded this week in southwest China’s Chongqing, where the Chongqing Vocational Institute of Engineering welcomed a 30-member delegation of students and faculty from Russia’s Moscow State University of Technology (STANKIN) for a friendly China-Russia robotics competition on April 8. Held on a Tuesday afternoon at the institute’s China-Russia International School of Intelligent Manufacturing, the event blended competitive challenge with collaborative learning, far exceeding the scope of a traditional contest. Beyond the robotics matches, the full schedule included expert academic lectures, hands-on technical practice workshops, and guided site visits to local industry and research facilities. Through these multi-format activities, the visiting Russian delegation gained first-hand, in-depth insights into the rapid development of intelligent manufacturing in Chongqing, as well as the region’s dynamic industry-university cooperation model focused on advancing industrial robotics innovation. This robotics competition stands as a core component of a seven-day joint study tour co-organized by the two higher education institutions. Launched on April 7, the tour is designed to mark the China-Russia Year of Education, a bilateral initiative that aims to strengthen people-to-people bonds and deepen educational collaboration between the two nations. By bringing young engineering and technology talent together around a shared interest in robotics and intelligent manufacturing, the program highlights the steady deepening of educational partnerships between China and Russia, opening new doors for future joint research, student exchanges, and technological cooperation between academic institutions on both sides.

  • ‘My heart is about to explode’: BTS fans react as world tour begins

    ‘My heart is about to explode’: BTS fans react as world tour begins

    One of the biggest musical acts on the planet, global K-pop sensation BTS, has officially launched its extensive cross-continental world tour from its home country of South Korea, sending shockwaves of excitement across the entire global fan community. The opening leg of the ambitious tour, which fans have spent months eagerly awaiting, features a prominent spotlight on the group’s latest studio project, *Arirang*, blending new material with the chart-topping hits that turned the septet into a worldwide cultural phenomenon.

    For loyal supporters of the group, known collectively as the ARMY, the launch of the tour marked an emotional milestone after years of limited live performances amid global event shutdowns. Countless fans took to social media immediately following the opening concert to share their overwhelming reactions, with many expressing that their excitement was so intense it felt like “my heart is about to explode.” The combination of dynamic stage production, the group’s signature high-energy choreography, and the debut of new tracks from *Arirang* has already set a high bar for upcoming stops across North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

    Industry analysts note that this tour is expected to break multiple attendance and revenue records, cementing BTS’s status as one of the most successful touring acts in modern music. It also represents a major moment for the global live entertainment industry, demonstrating the enduring power of K-pop to draw massive, devoted audiences across every region of the world.

  • Caf president would welcome corruption investigation

    Caf president would welcome corruption investigation

    African football’s governing body, the Confederation of African Football (Caf), has been thrown into a deep credibility crisis following a controversial decision to reassign the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title, a conflict that has now put the issue of systemic corruption within the organisation under the global spotlight. In a high-profile visit to Dakar this week, Caf president Patrice Motsepe made an unprecedented statement: he fully welcomes and actively encourages any independent investigation into corrupt practices at the organisation, regardless of whether the probe is launched by a national government, international regulatory body, or any other third party.

    The controversy that triggered this moment traces back to the January 18 Afcon final held in Rabat. Senegal’s national team originally claimed a 1-0 victory over Morocco after extra time, securing what would have been their second consecutive continental title. The match was derailed by controversy, however, when referee awarded a last-minute stoppage-time penalty to Morocco. In protest, multiple Senegal players walked off the pitch, causing a 17-minute suspension of play. When the match finally resumed, Morocco striker Brahim Diaz’s penalty was saved by Senegal’s goalkeeper, and Senegal held on to win.

    Two months later, on March 17, Caf’s internal appeals board issued a shock ruling: it stripped Senegal of their title, forfeited the match and awarded the trophy to Morocco. The decision prompted immediate outcry from the Senegalese government, which formally called for a full independent corruption investigation into Caf over the ruling. Senegal has since appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), football’s highest global judicial body, and is currently awaiting a final ruling. The controversy already led to one major casualty: former Caf general secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba stepped down from his post less than two weeks after the appeals board decision, amid growing pressure over the governing body’s handling of the crisis.

    During his Wednesday meeting with Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and senior leaders of the Senegalese Football Federation, Motsepe doubled down on his stated commitment to rooting out corruption, calling it the most destructive force across African society. “Corruption is worse than Covid and cancer,” Motsepe told reporters at a Dakar press briefing. “We have a clear duty to every football fan across the African continent. If any government or institution wants to launch an investigation, please go ahead. We will provide full and complete cooperation. In fact, I encourage you to do it.”

    Motsepe, who was re-elected for a second four-year term as Caf president in March 2024, also stressed that he would never hide evidence of wrongdoing within the organisation. “I know there have been widespread reports of deep-rooted corruption issues in Caf’s past, and we have already taken steps to intervene,” he said. “Football cannot set a bad example for young people. We cannot allow the next generation to think that corruption is the way to get ahead. Putting strong anti-corruption rules in place and enforcing them honestly is the greatest gift we can give African football.”

    Consistent with his previous public comments, Motsepe declined to comment on the ongoing Senegal-Morocco dispute that is now before Cas, noting that the governing body is legally and ethically bound to respect the court’s final decision. “You can ask me the same question 100 times, and I will give you the same answer 100 times,” he told BBC Afrique. “Cas is the highest decision-making authority in global football, and it is the obligation of Caf to wait for its ruling and implement it fully when it arrives.”

    Motsepe also addressed a separate lingering issue from the final: the imprisonment of 18 Senegalese football fans by Moroccan authorities in the wake of post-match disturbances. He confirmed that the matter is currently being handled through official diplomatic channels between the two countries, with Caf facilitating communication between the two sides.

    After concluding his meetings in Dakar, Motsepe traveled directly to Morocco on Wednesday evening. He is scheduled to meet with Moroccan Football Federation president Fouzi Lekjaa and senior Moroccan government officials on Thursday, followed by another public press conference to address the controversy.

  • Russian court criminalizes the activities of the Nobel Prize-winning rights group Memorial

    Russian court criminalizes the activities of the Nobel Prize-winning rights group Memorial

    On Thursday, Russia’s highest judicial body delivered a landmark ruling that effectively outlaws all operations of Memorial, the Nobel Peace Prize-honored human rights organization, marking the most severe escalation yet in the Kremlin’s sustained crackdown on independent civil society and opposition voices amid its ongoing military campaign in Ukraine. The ruling came following a closed-door hearing on a petition filed by Russia’s Justice Ministry, which requested that the court label the so-called “Memorial international civic movement” an extremist organization and implement a full ban on its activities across Russian territory.

    In a pre-ruling statement, Memorial representatives noted that the specific entity named in the government’s petition does not actually exist as a formal registered body in the country. Even so, the organization warned that the sweeping extremist designation would give Russian law enforcement and regulatory authorities broad legal authority to target any ongoing Memorial-linked projects, as well as persecute their participants and public supporters.

    Founded in the late 1980s during the final years of the Soviet Union, Memorial emerged as one of Russia’s oldest and most widely respected human rights organizations, built originally on a mission to preserve the memory of millions of people killed or persecuted during the Soviet Union’s era of political repression. Over decades of operation, it grew into a sprawling global network of smaller independent groups spanning Russia and dozens of other countries, expanding its mandate to document ongoing human rights abuses across the region.

    Less than a year after Moscow launched its full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Memorial was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its decades-long work advancing human rights and accountability. It shared the prize with imprisoned Belarusian pro-democracy activist Ales Bialiatski and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, another prominent regional human rights organization.

    This latest legal action is not the first attempt by Russian authorities to shut down the group. In 2021, Russian courts ordered the dissolution of Memorial’s two core Russian entities: its national human rights center and the original International Memorial. The government had already labeled the group a “foreign agent” years earlier, a regulatory designation that imposes strict government surveillance, carries a heavy public stigma, and subjected the organization to repeated crippling fines for alleged violations of Russia’s restrictive foreign agent legislation. Undeterred by the 2021 shutdown order, Memorial activists continued their work through loosely structured, decentralized projects across the country.

    In 2023, former members formally established a new International Memorial Association based in Geneva, Switzerland, to coordinate the group’s global work. Earlier this year, Russian authorities designated the new Geneva-based association “undesirable” — a legal classification that allows the government to prosecute any Russian citizen found collaborating with the group. Thursday’s extremist designation raises the stakes even further: under Russian law, participating in activities linked to an extremist organization is a criminal offense punishable by multi-year prison sentences.

    The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prestigious peace prize, pre-emptively spoke out against the Russian government’s actions in a statement released one day ahead of the ruling. The committee condemned the crackdown on Memorial as “an affront to the fundamental values of human dignity and freedom of expression” and called on Russian authorities to immediately end all forms of harassment against the organization and its members.