Global Pulse

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  • Trump branded ‘crazy’ over apocalyptic Iran threats

    Trump branded ‘crazy’ over apocalyptic Iran threats

    For U.S. President Donald Trump, incendiary, provocative rhetoric has long been a political trademark. But his recent menacing threats to erase the entirety of Iranian civilization have crossed unprecedented lines, sparking widespread condemnation and urgent questions from across the political spectrum — even among his former allies — about his mental fitness to hold the highest office in the country.

    The 79-year-old Republican, the oldest elected president in U.S. history, has escalated his fiery apocalyptic language amid growing frustration over Iran’s refusal to negotiate a new deal to de-escalate ongoing tensions in the Middle East. A string of erratic, often profanity-laced posts on his personal Truth Social platform has pushed demands for his removal from office, even from conservatives who once backed his agenda.

    The latest crisis centers on a self-imposed Tuesday deadline Trump set for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global chokepoint for oil shipping that accounts for nearly a fifth of the world’s daily petroleum trade. Twelve hours ahead of the deadline, Trump issued a chilling warning on Truth Social: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

    Days earlier, on Easter Sunday, he issued an even more crass ultimatum: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.” The following day, at the White House Easter Egg Roll — a family-friendly annual event surrounded by hundreds of children, the First Lady, and a costumed Easter Bunny — Trump doubled down on his aggressive stance, dismissing concerns that targeting Iranian civilian infrastructure and power plants would qualify as a war crime.

    As global anxiety spread over what the scope of his threatened action could be, the White House was forced to publicly deny speculation that Trump was preparing to use nuclear weapons, a rumor amplified by comments from Vice President JD Vance, who referenced “tools in our toolkit that we so far haven’t decided to use.”

    Longtime observers of Trump’s negotiating style note that he has historically relied on extreme, maximalist opening positions to pressure opponents into concessions, a tactic he honed during his decades as a real estate developer. Many analysts suspect the current threat follows this familiar pattern. “He does seem a bit more unhinged than in the past,” Peter Loge, director of George Washington University’s School of Media, told Agence France-Presse. “But this feels to me like a broader pattern of Trump bluster. My guess is as we approach one more deadline in a long series of deadlines, the president will declare victory, say I drove Iran to the bargaining table, I’ll give them two more weeks. Then we’ll see this movie again in a couple of weeks.”

    Even by Trump’s well-documented outspoken standards, his recent remarks have been labeled as distinctly unpresidential, and criticism has poured in from across the political divide. Hard-right former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who split with Trump last year, condemned the threats on X, writing, “We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness.” Greene is among a group of former loyalists who have joined Democrats in calling for Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, a constitutional provision that allows for the transfer of power if a president is deemed unfit to govern due to physical or mental incapacity.

    Other prominent conservative voices have echoed the alarm. Right-wing media host Tucker Carlson called Trump’s Easter Sunday comments the “first step toward nuclear war.” Former White House press secretary Anthony Scaramucci labeled Trump a “crazy person” and publicly called for his removal from office. Even prominent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones asked on his *INFO WARS* program, “How do we 25th Amendment his ass?” For their part, former Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz simply stated, “the President has lost his mind.”

    When pressed on the growing concerns about his mental state by an Agence France-Presse reporter during a White House briefing Monday, Trump brushed off the criticism. “I haven’t heard that,” he said, responding to questions about whether his mental state should be examined following his inflammatory remarks. “But if that’s the case, you’re going to have to have more people like me.”

    The world now waits to see whether Trump will follow through on his threats when his deadline expires, or back down from the extreme position, a path he has taken repeatedly after similar high-stakes standoffs throughout his political career.

  • Former Sichuan vice-governor indicted for bribery

    Former Sichuan vice-governor indicted for bribery

    China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced Tuesday that Ye Hanbing, the former vice-governor of southwest China’s Sichuan province and former director of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department, has been formally indicted on charges of taking bribes.

    The corruption case against Ye was first investigated and closed by the National Commission of Supervision, China’s top anti-graft watchdog, before being transferred to procuratorial organs for review and formal prosecution. Following the investigation, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate approved Ye’s arrest on suspicion of bribery, and issued a designation that the Fifth Branch of the Chongqing People’s Procuratorate would handle the prosecution proceedings. That prosecuting body recently filed a formal public criminal case with the Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate People’s Court, opening the next phase of the legal process.

    Court documents from the prosecution detail the full scope of Ye’s alleged misconduct, spanning decades of his career in senior public security roles across two Chinese provinces. Prosecutors claim that Ye abused his authority in a series of senior positions, ranging from his earlier roles as head of the public security administration corps under the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department, chief of the Wenzhou Public Security Bureau, deputy head of the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department, and chief of the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau, to his final posts as vice-governor of Sichuan and head of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department. Across these roles, he is accused of improperly securing benefits for various individuals and entities in exchange for illegal acceptance of large sums of money and valuable assets. Prosecutors note that the total amount of bribes involved in the case is categorized as especially huge, which carries severe criminal penalties under Chinese law, and argue that Ye must be held fully legally accountable for his bribery offenses.

    A 60-year-old native of Zhejiang province, Ye began his professional career in 1982 and joined the Communist Party of China in 1985. He spent more than four decades working within China’s public security system, climbing the ranks to senior leadership roles over his career. In July 2000, he was promoted to lead the public security administration corps of the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department, followed by an appointment as head of the Wenzhou Public Security Bureau in March 2009. He rose to deputy head of the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department in January 2012, and took over as chief of the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau two years later.

    In 2018, Ye was transferred to Sichuan to take up the dual senior posts of vice-governor of the province and director of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department. He held these positions until May 2025, when anti-graft investigators launched a formal investigation into his suspected violations of discipline and law. By November 2025, following the completion of the internal disciplinary investigation, Ye was expelled from the Communist Party of China and removed from all his public positions, clearing the way for criminal prosecution.

  • Donald Trump Jr. criticizes the European Union during a trip to Bosnia

    Donald Trump Jr. criticizes the European Union during a trip to Bosnia

    On a high-profile trip to the Serb-dominated region of Bosnia-Herzegovina this Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of sitting U.S. President Donald Trump, delivered a sharp rebuke of the European Union’s liberal policy agenda, warning that the bloc’s current trajectory will drive a deep and lasting schism between its Eastern and Western member states.

    Speaking at a business forum hosted in Banja Luka, the de facto capital of Republika Srpska — the autonomous Serb-majority entity within Bosnia-Herzegovina — Trump Jr. claimed that top global leaders across banking, finance, technology and artificial intelligence uniformly view the EU’s current direction as fundamentally troubled. In comments recorded by local public broadcaster RTRS, he argued that widespread business concerns over EU policy can only be resolved if European leaders step back from their own restrictive approach to economic and social governance.

    Regional political observers have framed the visit as a significant boost to Republika Srpska’s separatist leadership, even as the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo clarified in an email to the Associated Press that Trump Jr.’s trip was conducted in a strictly private capacity. The region’s top political figures have long been open admirers of both Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the visit aligns with a broader pattern of outreach by the Trump administration to nationalist and Euroskeptic leaders across Central and Eastern Europe.

    Just days ahead of a contentious national election in Hungary, U.S. Vice President JD Vance is simultaneously touring the country to publicly back the reelection campaign of nationalist incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close ally of long-time Republika Srpska leader Milorad Dodik. Responding to the coordinated trips, Dodik — who previously served as president of the entity and remains its most powerful politician — wrote on social media platform X that the two visits mark a meaningful policy shift for the Trump administration, highlighting its new focus on Central Europe and the protection of Christian communities in the region.

    During his Banja Luka remarks, Trump Jr. doubled down on his criticism of Western European social policy, praising Eastern European nations for retaining a strong work ethic largely uncorrupted by what he derided as “woke nonsense” that he claims has acted as a parasitic force on Western European political culture. He expanded on his prediction of EU division, stating the schism is already emerging between a small bloc of Eastern European nations that still uphold common sense policy and a Western Europe that has abandoned pragmatic political discourse.

    Dodik has spent years pushing for Republika Srpska to secede from the broader Bosnian state, which is shared with a Muslim-majority Bosniak entity and a Croat-governed region. His separatist agenda traces back to the 1992-1995 Bosnian ethnic war, which left more than 100,000 people dead and was sparked by Serb efforts to break away from the newly independent state to form a contiguous Serb nation. The conflict ended with a U.S.-brokered peace accord that preserved Bosnia’s territorial integrity while granting broad autonomy to Republika Srpska.

    In 2022, the prior Biden administration imposed economic sanctions on Dodik and dozens of linked individuals and companies over his destabilizing separatist actions, but those penalties were lifted by the Trump administration last year. The Trump White House has a long track record of criticizing the European Union, particularly over trade policy and restrictive EU regulations on the technology sector, and anti-EU rhetoric from the administration has intensified in recent months amid the ongoing Iran conflict.

    Bosnia-Herzegovina currently holds official candidate status for EU membership, and the 27-nation bloc remains the country’s largest trading partner, the single biggest source of foreign direct investment, and the leading provider of international financial assistance to the country.

  • Deliveroo orders to Paris address cited in tax residency case against former France midfielder Nasri

    Deliveroo orders to Paris address cited in tax residency case against former France midfielder Nasri

    PARIS – Retired French professional footballer Samir Nasri, who previously played for Premier League side Manchester City and the French men’s national team, is at the center of a high-stakes French tax dispute, where his legal team is pushing back against claims he owes millions in unpaid back taxes – with the delivery platform Deliveroo’s meal orders at the heart of the disagreement.

    French tax authorities argue that the 38-year-old former midfielder qualifies as a tax resident of France, not the United Arab Emirates where he says he has established his permanent home with his family. According to court documents, officials estimate Nasri could owe more than €5.5 million (equal to roughly $6.3 million) in unpaid income and wealth taxes covering the period from 2018 through 2025.

    Earlier this year in March, a Paris court granted authorities permission to temporarily seize a portion of Nasri’s assets as a guarantee for any potential future tax repayment. The court’s ruling supporting this action cited Deliveroo food delivery orders sent to one of Nasri’s Paris addresses and airline travel records as key evidence to back up the tax residency claim. Court documents further allege that between 2021 and 2023, Nasri spent 487 days total in France, compared to just 226 days in the UAE, and that he placed 212 separate Deliveroo orders to his Paris address in 2022 alone.

    Nasri’s lead legal counsel, Jean-Noël Sanchez, is aggressively appealing the asset seizure ruling and has publicly rejected the tax authority’s entire case. In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanchez stressed that the alleged €5.5 million debt is entirely “imaginary,” and warned that the core question of whether Nasri actually owes any back taxes could take years to resolve through the French legal system.

    Sanchez emphasized that Nasri is a law-abiding French citizen who already properly files tax returns and pays all required taxes on revenue he earns from activity within France. He further explained that Nasri currently resides full-time in Dubai with his partner and their son, who is enrolled in school in the UAE, meaning he does not maintain primary residency in France. The lawyer also pushed back specifically against the use of Deliveroo data to prove residency, noting that authorities have not confirmed that Nasri personally placed any of the 212 orders in question.

    “Did his mother place orders, his sister, his brother, his friends?” Sanchez asked. “The administration might today believe that it’s on solid ground in saying that he lives in France but it will have to prove that. And that is not going to be proven by the 212 Deliveroos.”

    Sanchez also argued that Nasri is being unfairly targeted as part of a broader crackdown on French citizens who have relocated to the UAE, adding that he is particularly frustrated by the case because the fundamental legal principle of presumption of innocence is being violated in his client’s treatment.

    Nasri, a retired attacking midfielder, had a decorated club career that also included stints with Marseille, Arsenal, and several other European clubs, and earned 41 caps for the French men’s national team during his playing days.

  • Tianjin University festival blends blossoms with innovation

    Tianjin University festival blends blossoms with innovation

    Against the backdrop of blooming crabapple blossoms across campus, Tianjin University’s annual Crabapple Blossom Festival has undergone a striking transformation, evolving from a traditional cultural celebration into a multifaceted open campus event that weaves together technological展示, higher education outreach, cultural engagement and career development support.

    This year’s event stood out for its central highlight: a large-scale public exhibition showcasing inventive, student-led innovation projects that span multiple high-tech fields. Among the standout works on display were an intelligent inspection robot designed specifically to assess and preserve historic architecture, filling a gap in precision maintenance for cultural heritage sites, and an integrated unmanned inspection platform capable of operating across land, sea and air environments for industrial and scientific monitoring purposes.

    To deepen public engagement with its academic work, the university opened all 16 of its research and science education bases to community visitors and prospective students. The open bases offered a full suite of interactive activities, including guided lab tours, live technical demonstrations, and public lectures covering cutting-edge disciplines from synthetic biology and smart grid technology to marine science, giving attendees a rare first-hand look at frontier academic research.

    Beyond technology and culture, the festival also prioritized student career development, hosting a large-scale career planning carnival that drew more than 4,000 participating students. To equip young people with modern job search tools, the event provided free access to AI-powered resume optimization and mock interview platforms, alongside one-on-one career consultation sessions with industry experts and university career advisors.

  • The Masters has players from 23 countries. The world ranking is one reason for the global growth

    The Masters has players from 23 countries. The world ranking is one reason for the global growth

    AUGUSTA, Ga. — During this year’s Masters week, two-time champion Bernhard Langer found himself reflecting on a legacy far broader than his own decorated career: the 40th anniversary of the world golf ranking system, which made its official debut at the 1986 Masters. Now 68, Langer was not just a spectator to this shift — he stood at the very top of that inaugural ranking.

    The origins of the ranking stretch back to 1968, when IMG founder Mark McCormack first compiled an informal list of the world’s top professional golfers for his annual *World of Professional Golf* publication. The R&A later took notice of the list while revising qualification criteria for the British Open, leading to the system’s formal launch as the Sony Ranking on April 6, 1986, on the eve of that year’s Masters. The headline of that week’s announcement told a clear story: Europeans dominated the top of the new global order. Langer claimed the No. 1 spot, with Spanish legend Seve Ballesteros and Scotland’s Sandy Lyle close behind at second and third. American great Tom Watson sat at fourth, while 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus — widely written off as past his prime — ranked 33rd. By the end of that 1986 Masters, Nicklaus had defied all expectations to claim his sixth green jacket and 18th professional major, a moment that remains one of the sport’s most iconic upsets.

    For Langer and his fellow international golfers, the ranking filled a longstanding gap in the sport. Before the system existed, top non-American players were routinely locked out of elite events like the Masters, U.S. Open and PGA Championship, with only a handful of spots reserved for international competitors. Langer, for example, had to win the European Tour money list just to earn a Masters invitation, even as Europe produced a growing cohort of world-class talent that far outnumbered the limited access spots.

    “Only two or three of us got in,” Langer recalled in an interview under the historic oak tree beside Augusta National’s clubhouse. “And we had more than one good golfer.”

    The original system was far from flawless. Even today, experts debate how to fairly compare performances across tours of differing strength — whether a runner-up finish at a lower-tier event on the Japan Golf Tour can be accurately measured against a 15th-place finish at the Masters, for example. But even its critics acknowledge the launch of the Sony Ranking was a transformative starting point that reshaped professional golf in ways no one could have predicted in 1986.

    Today, the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) — the successor to the Sony Ranking, rebranded when the major global tours and four major championships formed a governing board in 1997 — is a foundational part of qualification for every elite major championship. The Masters and British Open invite the top 50 ranked players, the U.S. Open extends invitations to the top 60, and the PGA Championship opens its field to all players inside the top 100. Now the OWGR incorporates 25 global tours, with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf the most recent addition, a move that has sparked ongoing debate about whether LIV events should receive more ranking points than the current allocation to the top 10 finishers, alongside long-running discussions over whether the PGA Tour is over-weighted in the current calculation system.

    Despite these ongoing debates, one fact is undisputed: the OWGR broke down the long-standing barriers that sidelined international golfers behind the American golf establishment. Between 1926 and 1993, only three foreign-born players won the U.S. Open. Since South Africa’s Ernie Els claimed the title in 1994, 13 of the last 32 U.S. Open champions have come from outside the United States. In 2008, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington became the first European to win the PGA Championship in 78 years. This shift was not because international players suddenly got better — it was because they finally got the opportunities to compete at the highest level, a shift that began with the creation of the official world ranking.

    This shift was already visible in the 1980s, when European teams began their era of dominance in the Ryder Cup. For Langer, who held the No. 1 ranking for just three weeks after the inaugural list was released, the ranking’s greatest impact is not its effect on his personal legacy, but the doors it opened for future generations of global golfers. In the seven years before the official ranking launched, Ballesteros, Langer and Lyle combined to win six major championships, proving that European golf could compete at the highest level. The ranking gave those players the formal recognition that forced major championships to expand their international fields.

    “That helped open it up, especially in the majors, to some international golfers who Americans never heard of or didn’t know much about,” Langer said. “It was an important step in the right direction. Was it perfect? Maybe not. But it was a good way to get the best field.”

    Even after the ranking system was adopted, breaking into the elite circuit remained a challenge for European players. For decades, the PGA Tour — still home to the deepest field of talent in the sport — required non-members to play a minimum of 15 events per year to earn full tour membership, compared to just 11 events required by the European Tour. Top global players who also competed in events in Japan and Australia struggled with the relentless travel schedule, a far cry from the private jet travel that defines the modern game. Langer recalled that 11 top European players once asked then-PGA Commissioner Deane Beman to lower the requirement to 12 events, and he refused to compromise. Today, that restrictive barrier is a distant memory as the sport has become far more globalized.

    London-based mathematician Tony Greer, who spent decades refining the ranking’s calculation model, originally designed the system to weight events by tier, with the four majors receiving the highest value, followed by top-tier PGA Tour and European Tour events, and down to smaller regional tours. The system has evolved over the decades: it shifted from a three-year rolling calculation to a two-year system in 1995, and recently updated its strength-of-field calculation to include all competing players, rather than only the top 200.

    Four decades after that inaugural ranking, current world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler sits atop the OWGR, having held the top spot for 185 weeks to date — a total that trails only all-time greats Tiger Woods (683 weeks) and Greg Norman (331 weeks). The current top 10 is evenly split between five American and five European players, all of whom hold PGA Tour membership. The most tangible proof of the ranking’s impact can be seen in the Masters field itself: this year’s 91-man field draws players from 23 countries, compared to just 11 countries represented in the 88-man field the week the ranking launched in 1986.

  • Yunnan introduces measures to advance campus soccer and event economy

    Yunnan introduces measures to advance campus soccer and event economy

    Southwest China’s Yunnan province has launched a comprehensive 20-measure policy framework to accelerate the development of football, with a dual focus on nurturing grassroots youth talent through campus programs and leveraging the sport to unlock new consumption and economic growth opportunities.

    Released officially by the provincial government, the new policy integrates structured youth talent cultivation with market-oriented expansion, centering its core strategy on two key pillars: campus football development and the cultivation of a robust sports event economy.

    To back up the policy targets, Yunnan will ramp up targeted financial investment, allocating dedicated funding to build out standardized youth training systems, expand inclusive campus football programs, support high-potential talent development, and establish regionally influential branded football competitions.

    Primary and secondary educational institutions across the province sit at the core of the strategy. All public and private primary and secondary schools are mandated to integrate football into their standard physical education curricula and after-school activity offerings, while expanding intramural training and inter-class competitive events. Schools designated as football-focused institutions face stricter requirements: they must reserve dedicated funding for football development, construct at least one standard football pitch, allocate no less than one-third of total PE class time to football training and education, form official school football teams, guarantee at least three organized training sessions per week for team members, and host full-format annual campus football leagues.

    Beyond campus development, the policy places strong emphasis on growing the football-driven event economy through market-oriented mechanisms. Provincial and local authorities are encouraging event organizers to attract commercial sponsorships and social capital investment, while diversifying revenue streams through advertising partnerships, ticketing operations, and broadcasting right licensing.

    To amplify economic benefits, Yunnan will also deepen integration between football events and the province’s booming tourism sector, promoting football-themed travel packages and incorporating high-profile matches into the provincial government’s ongoing “A Many-Splendored Life in Yunnan” promotional campaign, which showcases the region’s diverse cultural and recreational offerings to domestic and international visitors.

    In addition to programmatic and policy changes, the province plans to carry out systematic upgrades to key supporting infrastructure, including existing football stadiums, inter- and intra-city transport networks, and local accommodation and hospitality services. These improvements are designed to enhance the experience for both participating athletes and visiting spectators, laying the groundwork for broader long-term economic and social development tied to the sports sector.

  • Tracking recent US-Israeli strikes on Iranian infrastructure

    Tracking recent US-Israeli strikes on Iranian infrastructure

    The ongoing military conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran has escalated dramatically in recent weeks, after US President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum demanding Tehran reach an acceptable negotiated settlement by Tuesday night, or face widespread targeting of key civilian infrastructure across the country. In stark, incendiary rhetoric, Trump publicly threatened to bomb Iranian infrastructure “back to the Stone Ages”, specifying that bridges and power plants would be primary targets. In a social media post published Tuesday, he went further, warning that an entire civilization would be lost if no agreement was reached by his self-imposed deadline.

    Weeks of coordinated airstrikes carried out by US and Israeli forces have already left a trail of destruction across Iran, with a growing share of damage concentrated on critical infrastructure that supports the daily lives of ordinary Iranian citizens. Fact-checking and verification team BBC Verify has independently confirmed that in the 14 days leading up to this report, strikes have hit at least two major steel production facilities, three highway bridges, and a key pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. The escalation has drawn sharp condemnation from senior Democratic lawmakers in the US Congress and top United Nations officials, who have repeatedly warned that the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure could violate international law and qualify as war crimes. Trump rejected these concerns outright during a White House press briefing on Monday, dismissing all criticism of the airstrike campaign.

    One of the deadliest recent attacks took place last Thursday, when US warplanes struck an under-construction bridge in the central Iranian city of Karaj. Local Iranian authorities confirmed the strike killed at least 13 civilians, with multiple additional people injured. Footage verified by BBC Verify shows two separate impact craters on the structure, which now has a large gaping hole in its central span, with construction cranes still standing on either side of the destroyed section. President Trump later republished verified footage of the strike to his social media platform, writing that Iran’s “biggest bridge comes tumbling down, never to be used again” and teasing that far more strikes would follow in coming days.

    Iran’s critical steel production sector, a cornerstone of the country’s non-oil economy, has been among the hardest hit by the campaign. On March 27, verified footage captured thick plumes of smoke rising from the Isfahan Mobarakeh Steel Company, Iran’s largest single steel producer, forcing an immediate full suspension of all operations. Industry data linked to the company shows the facility exported roughly $860 million worth of steel between March 2025 and January 2026. Satellite imagery also confirms extensive damage at Khuzestan Steel Company, Iran’s second-largest steel manufacturer, with local officials estimating repairs could take up to 12 full months to complete.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed the coordinated strikes have disabled approximately 70% of Iran’s total steel production capacity. Arman Mahmoudian, a research fellow at the University of South Florida’s Global and National Security Institute, warned the damage will have severe, long-lasting ripple effects across Iran’s entire economy. “Steel is a cornerstone of Iran’s non-oil economic capacity,” Mahmoudian explained. “If Israeli strikes have indeed dismantled around 70% of Iran’s steel production capacity, this would place nearly 20 million tons of output at risk, potentially affecting around 3–3.5% of Iran’s GDP.”

    The strikes have also expanded into Iran’s pharmaceutical sector, raising alarm about the future of the country’s public health system. On March 31, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson confirmed the military carried out a strike on the Tofigh Daru Research & Engineering Company, one of Iran’s largest domestic producers of anesthetics and life-saving cancer medications. The IDF claimed the facility was transferring chemical substances, including fentanyl, for use in chemical weapons research and development, but the BBC has not been able to independently verify this allegation. While pharmaceutical production makes up a small share of Iran’s overall GDP, Mahmoudian noted that targeting the sector directly undermines civilian access to critical medication and threatens the domestic medical independence Iran has built over decades. Iranian state media has previously claimed more than 90% of all pharmaceuticals used in the country are produced domestically, a figure BBC Verify has not been able to confirm.

    In addition to industrial and medical infrastructure, educational and religious sites have also suffered extensive damage in recent strikes, verified imagery and footage confirms. On Saturday, photos show debris scattered across the campus of Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University, with entire sections of a main campus building destroyed following a reported airstrike. Images also confirm damage to buildings at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology after strikes targeted the capital on Monday. In the central city of Zanjan, a strike levelled large portions of the city’s Husseinya Mosque, destroying an on-site clinic and public library and killing two civilians, local officials confirmed.

    On Tuesday, the IDF announced it had bombed 10 key segments of Iran’s national railway network. Verified footage from Aminabad village in central Iran shows a major railway bridge collapsed after the attack, while a separate verified video from the Iranian Red Crescent shows paramedics evacuating an injured civilian from a railway corridor near Karaj, though the exact cause of their injuries has not been confirmed. A railway worker based in Tehran who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity expressed widespread frustration among civilian workers over the attacks. “I’m really angry,” the worker said. “Everything is falling apart.” Ahead of Tuesday’s railway strikes, the IDF issued a Farsi-language warning to Iranian civilians on social media, advising them to avoid all travel and stay away from trains and railway corridors, citing risks to civilian life.

    The latest wave of strikes follows a broader pattern of attacks on civilian infrastructure since the US-Israeli bombing campaign began in late February. Last month, BBC Verify revealed that a UNESCO World Heritage Site, multiple schools, and a civilian hospital were among the sites damaged in earlier bombing runs.

    The targeting of civilian sites has sparked intense legal debate over whether the campaign violates international humanitarian law. Professor Rachel VanLandingham, a former US military lawyer, told BBC Verify that under international law, strikes on civilian sites are only permitted in rare, limited circumstances where they provide a clear, direct military advantage. She emphasized that any military action cannot cause excessive harm to civilian civilians compared to the expected military gain.

    Independent conflict monitoring organization Acled published new data this week showing that civilian casualties have remained clustered around areas close to US-Israeli strikes on military, security, and state-linked sites, rather than spreading to widespread indiscriminate bombardment across residential neighborhoods. The organization confirmed 40 dual-use facilities, which produce both civilian and military goods, have been hit since the campaign began on February 28.

    Despite that finding, top UN officials have repeatedly raised alarms over the campaign. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric reaffirmed Monday that any attack that causes excessive incidental harm to civilian life and infrastructure is prohibited under international law. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk stated Tuesday that deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure constitutes a war crime, and all those responsible for violations will be held accountable.

    Sir Geoffrey Nice, a former prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, told the BBC’s *World at One* programme that deliberate attacks on critical civilian infrastructure such as power plants and water facilities would almost certainly qualify as disproportionate under international law. “The civilian population in any war is entitled to be properly protected and if you interfere with the basic means of life… you are at grave risk of causing completely disproportionate damage, ultimately including by starvation and disease,” Nice said.

    Addressing the mounting criticism on Monday, Trump doubled down on his position, saying he was “not worried about” allegations that his threats and strikes amount to war crimes. “You know the war crime? The war crime is allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” he added.

  • Turkey opposes Ukraine proposal to ship LNG through Bosphorus

    Turkey opposes Ukraine proposal to ship LNG through Bosphorus

    A senior Turkish government official has confirmed to Middle East Eye that Ankara is highly likely to turn down Ukraine’s renewed proposal to ship liquefied natural gas through the Bosphorus Strait off Istanbul, citing a cascade of intractable security, environmental and geopolitical concerns tied to the plan.

    The proposal, a long-debated initiative from Kyiv that was reintroduced during high-level bilateral talks in Istanbul over the weekend, calls for constructing a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) in the Black Sea and requires regular LNG tanker transits through Turkey’s strategically and ecologically sensitive Bosphorus and Dardanelles waterways. The renewed push came on the heels of a surprise one-on-one meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held in Istanbul this past Friday.

    Following the summit, Zelensky noted that the two leaders had explored concrete steps to advance joint gas infrastructure development projects and explore collaborative development of natural gas fields. However, behind closed doors, Turkish authorities have deep and unresolvable objections to the Bosphorus transit route, the senior official disclosed.

    The Bosphorus is a 31-kilometer waterway widely regarded as one of the most technically challenging shipping lanes on the planet. At its narrowest point, the strait contracts to just 700 meters, and large vessels are forced to execute sharp turns of 70 to 80 degrees or more to navigate the passage. Against this geographically constrained backdrop, large LNG carriers carry inherent major accident risks, the official argued. A single explosion from a damaged tanker would trigger catastrophic harm to civilian life and irreparable damage to the region’s centuries-old cultural heritage, impacts that Turkey cannot accept.

    “We can’t allow that,” the senior official stated plainly.

    Traffic congestion is already a persistent issue for the strait: official data shows 40,172 vessels transited the Bosphorus in 2023 alone, and adding consistent LNG traffic would only exacerbate strain on the already overloaded waterway. Beyond physical navigation risks, the ongoing security threats stemming from the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine make the proposal untenable. Just last month, a Turkish-owned crude oil tanker was struck by an unmanned surface drone in the Black Sea, only 15 nautical miles from the mouth of the Bosphorus, a reminder that attacks on commercial shipping in the area remain an immediate danger.

    Turkish officials also warn of broader long-term geopolitical spillover. Approving Ukrainian LNG transit through the Bosphorus would set a precedent that would likely push neighboring Romania and Bulgaria to follow suit, as both nations are working to diversify their natural gas supply sources away from Russian fossil fuels. This would send even more tanker traffic through the strait, and eventually open the door to requests for Russian LNG carriers to use the route as well, a scenario that would complicate Turkey’s delicate diplomatic balancing act between Kyiv, Moscow and Western allies.

    Instead of the Bosphorus transit plan, Turkey has put forward an alternative energy security proposal for Ukraine: routing imported gas through Turkey’s existing FSRU terminals located on the Aegean Sea, then moving volumes to Ukraine via overland pipelines that run through Turkey to Bulgaria and Romania. This model leverages existing infrastructure rather than opening sensitive straits to new high-risk traffic.

    Turkey has already locked in a series of long-term LNG purchase agreements with U.S. energy firms to cover its own domestic demand and leave surplus volumes available for re-export to third parties including Ukraine. However, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told reporters back in December that the current interconnector pipeline linking Turkey to Bulgaria represents a major bottleneck for the alternative plan. The existing link only has capacity to carry 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year, a volume that would need to be doubled to accommodate additional supplies for Ukraine. Bayraktar added at the time that Ukrainian and Turkish state energy firms have been collaborating to resolve this capacity issue.

    Despite the disagreement over the Bosphorus route, Zelensky struck an optimistic tone about the bilateral talks in a public statement released on Monday. He described his meeting with Erdogan as “one of the most positive ever” held between the two leaders, and confirmed that Ukrainian national energy firm Naftogaz has already begun working alongside Turkish counterparts to advance all initiatives agreed during the Istanbul summit.

    “Working together with Turkey gives us energy security and logistical security,” Zelensky said. “There’s a solid foundation to take new joint steps.”

    The proposal comes as Ukraine faces a acute energy supply crisis tied to Russia’s relentless targeting of the country’s domestic energy infrastructure. Before the 2022 full-scale invasion, Ukraine met nearly all of its domestic natural gas demand through domestic production. But repeated Russian missile and drone strikes on energy facilities have cut Ukraine’s domestic gas output by roughly half, according to comments made by Ukraine’s central bank governor late last year. The production loss has forced Kyiv to scale up imports dramatically, and the country began building up stored gas reserves as early as March to prepare for the winter heating season.

    Currently, Ukraine meets most of its growing LNG import demand by bringing U.S. LNG through existing terminals in Poland and the Baltic states, as well as overland routes via Greece. Kyiv’s renewed push for the Bosphorus route is part of broader efforts to diversify import pathways and reduce reliance on existing northern routes.

  • US-Israeli strikes ‘completely destroy’ synagogue in Tehran

    US-Israeli strikes ‘completely destroy’ synagogue in Tehran

    Amid weeks of sustained Israeli and American air bombardment across Iran that has killed thousands of people, an early morning Israeli strike on the Iranian capital Tehran has completely leveled the city’s historic Rafi-Nia Synagogue, according to multiple Iranian local media reports.

    Iran’s official Mehr News Agency and reformist publication Shargh confirmed the synagogue was hit in the attack carried out on April 7, during the Jewish holy holiday of Passover. Video footage shared by local journalists and media outlets shows rescue teams sifting through the rubble of the destroyed structure, with scattered Hebrew religious liturgical texts visible among the debris. As of the latest updates, no casualties have been reported from the incident.

    Shargh noted that the Rafi-Nia Synagogue served as a central gathering place for Tehran’s Khorasan Jewish community, a group of Jewish Iranians whose families trace their roots back to Iran’s historical northeastern Khorasan region. Iran is home to the third-largest Jewish population in the Middle East, following only Israel and Turkey. A 2016 Iranian national census recorded the country’s Jewish population at just over 9,000, though many community members estimate the actual number is significantly higher. Under Iranian law, Judaism is an officially recognized and protected religion, and Tehran alone hosts roughly 30 active synagogues for the local Jewish community.

    The destruction of the synagogue comes amid a sustained campaign of cross-border strikes that began on February 28, when Israel and the United States launched ongoing bombardment across Iranian territory. Data collected by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) indicates that more than 3,600 Iranians have been killed in the attacks since they began, including at least 1,665 civilian casualties. Neither Israel nor the United States has issued an official statement confirming or commenting on the strike that hit the synagogue. Middle East Eye has reached out to the Israeli military to request comment on the incident.

    For weeks, members of Iran’s Jewish community have already expressed growing anxiety over their safety and future amid the escalating conflict. In interviews with Middle East Eye conducted in March, multiple Jewish Iranians emphasized their deep ties to the country, rejecting framing that casts them as outsiders amid rising regional tensions. “Yes, I’m Jewish. But I cannot see the country where I was born and raised as my enemy,” a 46-year-old Jewish businesswoman from Shiraz told the outlet. “I am both Jewish and Iranian. Because of that, I believe I can judge this situation without hatred. Much of the chaos we have seen in the region in recent years is connected to Netanyahu’s policies.”