Global Pulse

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  • Australia to crack down on gambling ads after years of criticism

    Australia to crack down on gambling ads after years of criticism

    Australia, which holds the unenviable title of the world’s highest per capita gambling losses, has finally introduced long-awaited regulations on gambling advertising after years of mounting public pressure for change. While the new package of measures imposes stricter limits on where and when gambling promotions can run, and who is allowed to feature in them, it stops short of the full industry-wide ban that had secured cross-party political support and backing from dozens of community and public health organizations across the country.

    The proposed restrictions faced fierce opposition ahead of their announcement from powerful domestic gambling agencies, major media outlets, and national sports organizations, all of which warned that a full ban would trigger a catastrophic collapse in their annual revenue streams. The push for comprehensive reform dates back more than 1,000 days, when a federal parliamentary inquiry into gambling harm recommended Australia follow the lead of nations including Italy, Belgium and Spain, which have implemented full or near-total bans on gambling advertising.

    Speaking at the National Press Club on Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended his government’s approach, framing the partial restrictions as a measured compromise that strikes the right balance for the nation. “Letting adults have a punt if they want to, but making sure our children don’t see betting ads everywhere they look,” Albanese said of the policy’s core goal.

    The full slate of reforms is set to take effect from January 1 next year, and includes a series of targeted restrictions across broadcast, digital and physical platforms: TV gambling advertisements will be capped at three spots per hour between 6 a.m. and 8:30 p.m., with a complete ban on promotions during all live sports broadcasts in that same window; radio gambling ads will be prohibited during school drop-off and pick-up hours to reduce child exposure; celebrities and professional athletes will be banned from appearing in any gambling marketing; online platform gambling ads will only be allowed for logged-in users over 18 who have explicitly opted in to seeing promotions; all gambling advertising will be outlawed in live sports venues, and from the uniforms of players and game officials.

    Beyond advertising restrictions, the government also announced a wider crackdown on unregulated illegal offshore gambling sites, and will ban additional forms of online gambling including online Keno and digital platforms designed to mimic physical poker machines.

    Almost immediately after the reforms were unveiled, the policy drew backlash from both the gambling industry and reform advocates, leaving neither side satisfied with the final outcome. For industry groups, the new rules go too far, with leaders warning of widespread economic harm.

    Kai Cantwell, chief executive of Responsible Wagering Australia, the national peak body for domestic betting agencies, called the new measures “draconian” and claimed they set a “dangerous precedent” for regulation of other consumer industries. “Today it’s gambling advertising, tomorrow it’s alcohol, then it’s sugary drinks, fast food, critical minerals and who knows what else comes next,” Cantwell said in an official statement. He added that the government had caught the sector off guard, noting the industry supports 30,000 Australian jobs and provides major funding for domestic sports, horse racing and broadcast industries.

    A spokesperson for Sportsbet, one of Australia’s largest betting operators, said the company was concerned that the “overly blunt” restrictions could have unintended consequences that ultimately increase harm, including pushing more Australian gamblers to use unregulated illegal offshore betting platforms that are not subject to the same rules. The spokesperson added that Sportsbet had already recognized shifting community attitudes toward gambling advertising and taken proactive steps to limit harmful promotion on its own.

    On the other side of the debate, public health and gambling reform advocates say the reforms do not go nearly far enough to protect vulnerable communities and children from exposure to gambling marketing. Reverend Tim Costello, a leading voice for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, which has pushed for a full ban across broadcast and digital platforms as well as the creation of a dedicated national industry regulator, drew a comparison to tobacco regulation to criticize the partial cap on ads. “Imagine three cigarette ads per hour,” Costello said. “Australian children deserve to grow up in a country that puts their wellbeing before corporate profits.”

    Julian Rait, vice-president of the Australian Medical Association, echoed that criticism in a statement, arguing that “partial bans do not work.” “Anything less than a comprehensive ban will continue to expose Australians – especially children – to relentless gambling promotion,” Rait said.

  • Danish warship sunk by Nelson’s British fleet discovered after 225 years

    Danish warship sunk by Nelson’s British fleet discovered after 225 years

    On the 225th anniversary of one of the most pivotal naval battles of the Napoleonic era, marine archaeologists from Denmark’s Viking Ship Museum have announced a landmark discovery: the wreck of the Danish flagship *Dannebroge*, sunk by British forces under Admiral Horatio Nelson during the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen, has been located on the seabed of Copenhagen Harbor.

    The conflict that claimed the *Dannebroge* was rooted in 19th century European geopolitics. Denmark had joined the League of Armed Neutrality, an alliance of Northern European powers including Russia, Prussia and Sweden, that sought to protect neutral shipping from British blockades during the Napoleonic Wars. To prevent the Danish navy from falling under French control, Nelson led a British fleet in a surprise attack on the Danish blockade positioned outside Copenhagen Harbor on April 2, 1801. The brutal, hours-long clash killed and wounded thousands of combatants, and remains remembered as one of Nelson’s most famous military victories. It was during this battle that Nelson, who had lost vision in his right eye decades earlier, allegedly ignored a recall order from his superior, famously remarking, “I have only one eye, I have a right to be blind sometimes” — an anecdote that gave rise to the enduring idiom “to turn a blind eye.”

    As the Danish flagship and Nelson’s primary target, the 48-meter *Dannebroge* commanded by Commodore Olfert Fischer bore the brunt of the British attack. Cannon fire shredded its upper deck, and incendiary shells sparked an uncontrollable blaze. “When a cannonball hits a ship, it’s not the cannonball that does the most damage to the crew, it’s wooden splinters flying everywhere, very much like grenade debris,” explained Morten Johansen, head of maritime archaeology at the Viking Ship Museum, describing the nightmare conditions for sailors on board. The badly damaged vessel drifted northward in the harbor before eventually exploding, with historical records noting the blast produced a deafening roar heard across the entire city of Copenhagen.

    For more than two centuries, the exact location of the wreck remained a mystery. That changed when archaeologists launched targeted surveys of the area late last year, zeroing in on a site that aligned with historical accounts of the *Dannebroge*’s final resting position, 15 meters below the water’s surface. Working in thick seabed sediment with near-zero visibility, the team has already confirmed the wreck’s identity: the dimensions of recovered wooden fragments match 19th century ship schematics, and dendrochronological dating, which uses tree rings to date wood, confirms the timber matches the period when the *Dannebroge* was built. So far, divers have recovered two intact cannons, military uniforms, metal insignia, footwear, glass bottles, ceramic fragments, basketry, and even a partial human lower jawbone, likely belonging to one of the 19 *Dannebroge* crew members still unaccounted for after the battle.

    Working at the site is a grueling challenge. Silt stirred up by divers’ movements keeps the water in near-complete darkness. “Sometimes you can’t see anything, and then you really have to just feel your way, look with your fingers instead of with your eyes,” said Marie Jonsson, a diver and maritime archaeologist on the project. Even more pressing is the race against time: the wreck site lies in the footprint of Lynetteholm, a massive planned coastal housing and development project scheduled to begin construction on the site in the near future, with completion targeted for 2070. The months-long underwater excavation is being rushed to recover as much of the wreck and its artifacts as possible before construction begins.

    For Denmark, the discovery of the *Dannebroge* is far more than a archaeological find: the 1801 battle is deeply woven into the country’s national identity. “It’s a big part of the Danish national feeling,” Johansen noted. While the battle has been extensively documented by historians for more than two centuries, much of what is known comes from secondhand accounts from outside observers. Archaeologists believe the wreck holds untold new details about what life was really like for sailors caught in the brutal fighting, and may uncover long-lost personal stories of the men who served on the flagship. “There are bottles, there are ceramics, and even pieces of basketry,” Jonsson said. “You get closer to the people onboard.” The Associated Press was the only international news outlet granted exclusive access to the excavation site.

  • Post-mortem indicates New Zealand rugby player who died by suspected suicide had CTE

    Post-mortem indicates New Zealand rugby player who died by suspected suicide had CTE

    WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Post-mortem analysis has confirmed that former professional New Zealand rugby player Shane Christie, who died of suspected suicide in August 2023 at age 39, was living with high-stage chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain condition tied to repeated head impacts and concussions. Coroner Ian Telford announced the official diagnosis during a preliminary public hearing into Christie’s death this Thursday.

    CTE is a progressive disorder that gradually damages brain tissue, triggering a range of disabling symptoms including dramatic mood swings, impulsive decision-making, and clinical depression. Unlike most neurodegenerative conditions, a definitive CTE diagnosis can only be made after death, through post-mortem examination of brain tissue.

    A former representative player for the New Zealand Māori rugby side, Christie built a professional career playing Super Rugby for two top New Zealand franchises, the Crusaders and Highlanders. He was forced to retire from the sport in 2018, after years of accumulated symptoms from repeated concussions sustained during his playing career. Long before his death, Christie suspected he had developed CTE, and became a vocal advocate for greater public and institutional understanding of the condition following the 2020 suspected suicide of his friend and fellow professional rugby player Billy Guyton.

    Both Guyton and Christie donated their brains to the University of Auckland’s Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank, a leading research facility studying neurodegenerative conditions linked to contact sports. The diagnosis of advanced CTE was confirmed by Dr. Clinton Turner, a pathologist attached to the brain bank program. Coroner Telford noted that while the pathological diagnosis is confirmed, the official cause of Christie’s death will be finalized through the full coronial inquiry process.

    CTE has long been associated with adverse long-term outcomes and deaths among athletes in multiple high-impact contact sports, including the U.S. National Football League, professional hockey, and soccer. Following the public announcement of Christie’s diagnosis, New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Lancaster reaffirmed the governing body’s commitment to addressing CTE risks. The organization officially recognizes the confirmed link between repeated head impacts in rugby and the development of CTE, and takes the public health threat of the condition extremely seriously.

    “New Zealand Rugby acknowledges the CTE pathology results for Shane Christie confirmed by The Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank. We also acknowledge and respect the role of the coroner to determine the nature of any inquiry they may hold examining the cause and circumstances of Shane’s passing,” Lancaster said in a statement to local media. “We share the concerns about the potential long-term effects of repeated head knocks in rugby and support the need for ongoing research into this issue.”

    Close friends and family of Christie shared that the former player always intended for his post-mortem diagnosis to be made public. His goal was to raise global awareness of CTE symptoms and risks, to support current athletes living with undiagnosed or unaddressed impacts of repeated head injuries.

  • New funding transforms lives by expanding electricity access across Africa

    New funding transforms lives by expanding electricity access across Africa

    Deep in the pre-dawn darkness of Nairobi’s dense informal settlement of Mathare, Agnes Mbesa reaches up to flick on a single bare bulb suspended from her corrugated tin roof. Just a few years ago, the mother of three would have relied on a dim, smoke-choked kerosene lamp to navigate her small home. Today, electricity not only illuminates her living space but powers the small neighborhood shop she runs from her front veranda, transforming her ability to earn a living.

    “Before we had power, we had to shut down the shop as soon as dusk fell — it was just too dark to work,” Mbesa explained. “Now customers stop by even late into the evening, and I can bring in extra income that I never could before.”

    Hundreds of kilometers away in the lakeside village of Sori, in western Kenya, fisherman Samuel Oketch shares this story of transformation. When a community solar mini-grid was installed to serve his remote settlement, Oketch invested in a electric freezer to store his daily catch. Previously, he was forced to sell all his fish immediately at cut-rate prices to middlemen who controlled cold storage. Today, his catch can be preserved and transported to higher-value markets in larger nearby towns, cutting out exploitative brokers and boosting his household income.

    “These small, quiet changes add up to everything,” Oketch said. “Electricity opens up choices we never had before. Now my wife can sell our fish directly, without being ripped off by the brokers who used to hold all the power with their freezers.”

    The firsthand accounts from Mbesa and Oketch put a human face on a decades-long global push to expand energy access across Africa, where hundreds of millions of people still live without reliable power. Right now, more than 730 million people across the globe lack access to any electricity at all, and nearly 80% of that population lives in Africa. Widespread energy poverty holds back progress across every sector of development: it limits access to modern health care, stifles educational opportunity, blocks digital connectivity, and stunts the creation of small businesses and formal jobs.

    To accelerate progress toward universal energy access, major international institutions and philanthropic organizations have announced billions in new financing for renewable energy projects across sub-Saharan Africa, unveiled in coordinated actions this March. The European Investment Bank committed more than $1.15 billion to support a range of projects, including utility-scale hydropower, wind and solar farms, and expansion of both national and community-level power grids.

    “This funding represents Europe’s unwavering commitment to deliver cleaner, more affordable, and more reliable energy to hundreds of millions of people across Africa,” said European Investment Bank President Nadia Calviño.

    The Rockefeller Foundation followed that announcement with a pledge of an additional $10 million in investment, made public during the Africa Energy Indaba conference in Cape Town, South Africa. The funding will be deployed in partnership with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to strengthen national electrification strategies and support policy reforms that expand private and community-led energy solutions across at least 15 African nations.

    “African governments are leading the transformation of their own energy sectors, committing to national energy compacts and investing in homegrown solutions that meet their people’s needs,” said William Asiko, senior vice president at the Rockefeller Foundation.

    These new investments fold into the broader Mission 300 initiative, led jointly by the World Bank and the African Development Bank. The ambitious campaign set a target to connect 300 million people across sub-Saharan Africa to electricity by 2030, relying on a mix of national grid expansion and decentralized solutions like community mini-grids and household-level off-grid solar systems.

    For most of sub-Saharan Africa, national power grids are often overstretched, unreliable, and do not reach many remote and low-income communities. That gap has turned decentralized mini-grids into a fast-growing and effective alternative. These small, community-managed systems, most often powered by solar or hybrid renewable sources, generate and distribute power locally, eliminating the need for costly large-scale transmission infrastructure to reach isolated areas.

    Off-grid systems, by contrast, operate independently at the household level, with affordable stand-alone solar kits that give individual families access to power even when they are located far from any centralized infrastructure. These solutions have become critical for closing electricity gaps in the rural and informal settlement communities that are most often left behind by national grid expansion.

    To hit the 2030 target, Mission 300 is providing tailored support to countries across the continent: governments in Malawi and Liberia receive technical assistance to refine their national energy plans, expand transmission networks, and improve the reliability and efficiency of power distribution. In Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Senegal, the initiative provides local currency financing and pooled procurement support to drive down costs and speed up project deployment.

    Andrew Herscowitz, CEO of the Mission 300 Accelerator at RF Catalytic Capital, warned that scaling access to meet the 2030 goal will require sustained long-term financing and strengthened local implementation capacity, including improved impact monitoring and better aligned policy support to speed up new connections.

    “Energy access is the foundational key that unlocks human potential and broad-based economic development,” Herscowitz noted.

    Kenya, one of the early beneficiaries of Mission 300 funding, has already seen dramatic gains under the initiative. Since 2017, the country has received support from the World Bank, African Development Bank and partner organizations for its Last Mile Connectivity program, which targets households located near existing grid infrastructure — particularly those in rural areas and informal urban settlements — as the country works toward universal electricity access by 2030.

    The results have been staggering: national rural electricity access jumped from less than 7% in 2010 to roughly 68% in 2023. Across eastern and southern Africa, where only 48% of the total population and just 26% of rural residents currently have access to power, World Bank programs aim to expand access across up to 20 countries over the next seven years through a portfolio of renewable energy projects.

    Mbesa, the Mathare shopkeeper, received her grid connection in 2021 through the Last Mile Connectivity Project, which covered the standard $115 connection fee for eligible low-income households and small businesses located near existing transformers. In remote communities like Oketch’s village, which lies far beyond the reach of the national grid, the program has supported the deployment of off-grid solutions including solar mini-grids and stand-alone household systems.

    For Mbesa, the tangible impact of that connection is impossible to overstate. The small bulb above her shop has extended her working hours, and the electricity has let her children study after dark instead of stopping when the sun goes down.

    “Electricity changes everything,” she said. “Once you have it, life finally starts moving forward.”

    —
    The Associated Press receives philanthropic funding for its climate and environmental coverage, but retains full editorial control over all independent content. AP’s standards for partnership with philanthropic organizations, a full list of supporters, and details of funded coverage areas are available at AP.org.

  • Starmer to host 35-nation talks on Strait of Hormuz – without US

    Starmer to host 35-nation talks on Strait of Hormuz – without US

    A growing transatlantic crisis has erupted over the US-led war on Iran, with major European allies rejecting Washington’s demands to join the conflict and pushing forward independent diplomatic efforts to resolve the closure of the critical Strait of Hormuz. The rift has escalated to the highest levels, with US President Donald Trump openly lambasting European allies for their refusal to back the conflict, threatening to withdraw the United States from the 75-year-old NATO alliance, while the United Kingdom has moved forward with a landmark diplomatic summit excluding the US to de-escalate the crisis.

    On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that London would host talks bringing together 35 nations to pursue a diplomatic solution to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic chokepoint through which roughly one-quarter of the world’s global oil supplies transit. The initiative builds on earlier joint efforts by the UK and France to secure unimpeded safe passage for commercial shipping in the waterway, which has been closed amid the ongoing conflict. Starmer emphasized that the gathered nations will collaborate to evaluate every viable diplomatic and political pathway to restore freedom of navigation, secure the release of trapped vessels and seafarers, and restart the flow of critical global commodities through the strait.

    Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps pushed back on the same day, reaffirming that the strait will remain closed to what it describes as the “enemies of this nation,” and asserting full, unchallenged control over the waterway. This statement contradicts repeated claims from Trump that a negotiated end to the war is imminent.

    Trump’s aggressive rhetoric toward Europe began a day earlier, when he launched a blistering tirade against European leaders who have refused to join the US-Israeli war on Iran. He called European leaders “cowards,” told them to “go get your own oil,” and warned that the US would no longer come to their defense, stating “you will have to start learning how to fight for yourselves, because the US won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.”

    These remarks came amid confirmed reports that multiple major European nations have restricted access for US military aircraft involved in the Iran campaign to their airspace and military bases. On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s socialist government, which has publicly condemned the war as illegal, formally closed Spanish airspace to all US aircraft participating in operations against Iran. Italy has also followed suit, labeling the conflict illegal and denying US warplanes permission to refuel and stage from the key Sigonella air base in Sicily. France, meanwhile, issued a formal denial of Trump’s claims that it had blocked US military overflights of its territory.

    In a revealing development, The Telegraph reported Wednesday that Trump is actively considering a full US withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, describing the alliance as nothing more than a “paper tiger” in comments to the British outlet. Secretary of State Marco Rubio amplified this position in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity Tuesday evening, arguing that the alliance must be fundamentally reevaluated. “If now we have reached a point where the NATO alliance means that we can’t use those bases, that in fact we can no longer use those bases to defend America’s interests, then NATO is a one-way street,” Rubio added.

    Founded in 1949 to counter Soviet influence in Europe, NATO faces an unprecedented existential crisis from Trump’s threats. Any US withdrawal would require congressional approval, a high bar after lawmakers passed 2023 legislation explicitly requiring congressional consent for any US exit from the alliance, a measure directly drafted in response to Trump’s earlier threats to leave the pact.

    Starmer, responding to Trump’s comments on NATO, reaffirmed the UK’s unwavering commitment to the alliance during a Wednesday press conference. “NATO is the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen,” the Labour leader said. “It has kept us safe for many decades.”

    “Whatever the pressure on me and others, whatever the noise, I’m going to act in the British national interest,” Starmer continued. “And that’s why I have been absolutely clear that this is not our war, and we’re not going to get dragged into it. But I’m equally clear that when it comes to defense and security, and our economic future, we have to have closer ties with Europe.”

    Critics have pushed back on Starmer’s claim that the UK is not a participant in the conflict, pointing out that his government continues to allow US forces to use British military bases to launch strikes against Iran. UK Green Party leader Zack Polanski has called on Starmer to demonstrate genuine leadership by ending all British involvement in the war and canceling King Charles III’s upcoming state visit to the United States.

    This is not the first time NATO has faced deep internal rifts over US military action. In 1986, France, Italy and Spain denied US overflight access for Ronald Reagan’s bombing of Libya, and a far deeper split opened in 2003 over George W. Bush’s illegal regime-change war in Iraq, which split European allies between participating and opposing nations. Anti-war critics have long argued that NATO has been obsolete since the end of the Cold War 35 years ago, and that its expansion eastward helped provoke Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while supporters maintain the alliance has been the foundation of post-WWII European peace and prosperity.

    Starmer’s call for closer alignment with Europe comes a decade after the UK’s 2016 Brexit referendum, amid growing public regret over the decision to leave the European Union. A September 2025 poll by Best for Britain found more than 60% of respondents now view Brexit as a mistake, with only 11% calling the departure a success.

    The escalating tensions come as conflicting claims emerged this week over a potential ceasefire. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Wednesday claiming Iran “has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!” — a claim immediately denied by official Iranian media. Trump doubled down on his hardline position, echoing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s mantra that the US is “negotiating with bombs,” stating: “We will consider [a ceasefire] when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”

    The human cost of the 33-day US-Israeli bombing campaign has been steep. Iranian officials confirm nearly 2,000 Iranians have been killed. A coalition of international human rights groups reported Friday that nearly 1,500 of those killed were civilians, including 217 children. A large share of these civilian deaths came from a late February US cruise missile strike on a girls’ school in Minab that killed approximately 175 people.

  • US assures UN of support but stresses reform needed to ‘exceed’ potential

    US assures UN of support but stresses reform needed to ‘exceed’ potential

    During a Wednesday press briefing with reporters in Washington D.C., a senior Trump administration official tasked with United Nations reform laid out the White House’s stance on the global body, confirming that President Donald Trump still endorses the UN’s core founding missions while pushing for sweeping changes to help the institution exceed its long-unrealized potential.

    This positioning comes amid well-documented friction between the Trump White House and the UN, after the administration cut U.S. funding earlier this year to several UN-affiliated bodies, including the UN Register of Conventional Arms and the Global Counterterrorism Forum — initiatives that have traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support across successive U.S. administrations. The Trump administration also implemented further withdrawals from UN-led climate action programs, building on its first-term policy of pulling out of the Paris Agreement.

    Jeff Bartos, the U.S. Ambassador for UN Management and Reform — a political appointee confirmed to the post in July with no prior formal diplomatic experience — emphasized that the administration’s reform push aligns with the president’s core belief that the UN holds untapped potential. “It’s our responsibility, under the president’s leadership, to help the UN reach and exceed that potential,” Bartos told Middle East Eye in response to a question during the briefing.

    As a partial gesture of commitment to the institution, Bartos confirmed the administration has disbursed $159 million toward the UN’s regular assessed budget, alongside an additional $2 billion in pooled funding for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. However, the full financial picture remains deeply strained: when Trump took office 15 months ago, Washington halted all scheduled payments to the UN, leaving the institution — which relies heavily on U.S. contributions to operate — facing a severe liquidity crisis with more than $3.5 billion in unpaid U.S. arrears. This backlog is not unique to the current Trump term; the prior Biden administration also accumulated significant unpaid dues during its time in office.

    UN Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly warned that the institution risks total financial collapse if the U.S. does not resolve its outstanding arrears.

    Bartos pushed back on criticism of the funding hold, saying his team has worked “very, very effectively” with UN leadership and other member states to advance targeted reforms within the UN Secretariat, the administrative body that oversees the institution’s daily operations. The core of the U.S. reform agenda, he argued, is refocusing the UN on its foundational mission of global peace and security, with major changes proposed for long-running peacekeeping operations.

    “The idea that missions can go on for 20, 30, 40, 50, even 70 years is unacceptable,” Bartos said. He argued all new and existing peacekeeping deployments must include clear strategic objectives, measurable performance milestones, and a predefined exit strategy to prevent open-ended, costly missions that outlive their purpose.

    One immediate cost-saving reform the administration is pushing changes the way the UN reimburses member states for peacekeeping equipment. Bartos explained the new policy would end reimbursement for unused gear, a shift projected to save the institution tens of millions of dollars annually. “We’re deeply grateful to the countries and the troops who serve in these missions, but we can’t keep paying for equipment that isn’t being used,” he noted.

    Bartos recently returned from a field visit to peacekeeping operations in the Central African Republic, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he said he was impressed by the leadership quality of on-the-ground mission command. He even raised questions about the UN’s processes for selecting senior peacekeeping leadership during the trip.

    His positive on-the-ground assessment comes amid heightened scrutiny of UN peacekeeping, however. Just days before the briefing, three UN peacekeepers were killed amid Israel’s escalating ground invasion of southern Lebanon. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Israeli officials have repeatedly expressed open hostility toward the UN as an institution, which has repeatedly accused Israel of violating international law in multiple regional conflicts and ongoing military operations in the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have also deliberately targeted UN facilities in Gaza during its ongoing military campaign, killing multiple UN civilian staff based in the enclave.

    When questioned about the Trump administration’s pledge to crack down on what it calls “anti-Israel bias” within the UN system, Bartos launched a sharp attack on Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who was sanctioned by the U.S. after she labeled Israel’s military assault on Gaza a genocide and published a report naming U.S. corporations allegedly complicit in potential war crimes. Bartos did not name Albanese explicitly during his comments.

    “The UN has this remarkable global brand on the humanitarian side, but it’s doing an incredible disservice — almost like self-sabotage — to allow this type of unaccountable special rapporteur to run around wreaking havoc and spewing hatred,” Bartos said. “I strongly encourage UN leadership to finally put an end to this poison that others are injecting into what is otherwise a remarkable achievement for the institution on the humanitarian side.”

    Looking ahead to the upcoming election of a new UN Secretary-General later this year, Bartos said the U.S. is open to considering all candidate nominations, as long as they commit to implementing the broad package of reforms Washington is pushing. However, recent developments suggest one leading candidate could face a U.S. veto.

    In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio obtained by development outlet Devex, Republican members of Congress urged the Trump administration to use its Security Council veto power to block the candidacy of former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. Lawmakers cited Bachelet’s long-held pro-choice position on abortion rights and her failure to confront China over the treatment of the Uyghur minority — an issue the first Trump administration labeled a genocide in 2020. This is not the first time the U.S. and Israel have sought to block Bachelet from a senior UN role; the two countries unsuccessfully tried to block her confirmation as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2018. Last month, Bachelet lost the support of her home country after Chile’s new right-wing president, José Antonio Kast — an open admirer of Trump who was endorsed by him during his election campaign — withdrew Chile’s backing for her bid.

  • Immigrants seeking asylum are ordered to countries they’ve never been to, but end up stuck in limbo

    Immigrants seeking asylum are ordered to countries they’ve never been to, but end up stuck in limbo

    Across the United States, thousands of asylum seekers who built stable lives while waiting for their claims to be adjudicated now face an unprecedented and uncertain future, after receiving sudden deportation orders to distant nations they have no connection to. From an Afghan refugee who fled Taliban rule and resettled in upstate New York to a Cuban restaurant worker in Texas arrested following a minor traffic collision, the impacted migrants come from every corner of the globe. A Mauritanian resident of Michigan was ordered to Uganda; a Venezuelan mother in Ohio faces removal to Ecuador; dozens of Bolivian, Ecuadorian, and other migrants have been sent to Honduras.

    Advocacy group Mobile Pathways, which advocates for full transparency in U.S. immigration proceedings, confirms these cases are part of a far larger policy push: more than 13,000 legally residing asylum seekers have received so-called third-country deportation orders, sending them to nations where nearly all have no familial, cultural, or social ties. Yet despite the Biden White House’s aggressive push to expand immigrant expulsions, very few of these orders have actually been carried out. Instead, thousands of migrants are trapped in a sprawling immigration limbo: they cannot argue their asylum claims in U.S. courts, have lost their legal right to work, and live in constant fear of being suddenly detained and deported to a country they have never even visited.

    Immigration rights advocates say this uncertainty is no accident. According to Cassandra Charles, senior staff attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, which has challenged the mass third-country deportation policy, the administration’s core goal is to instill widespread fear in migrant communities. The threat of removal to an unfamiliar, potentially dangerous nation, Charles argues, is designed to pressure asylum seekers to abandon their claims and voluntarily return to their home countries — even if those home countries put their lives at risk.

    In mid-March, an internal shift was revealed. An email from top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) legal leaders to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) field attorneys, obtained by The Associated Press, ordered a halt to new third-country deportation motions in asylum cases. No explanation was provided for the order, which has not been publicly released, and DHS declined repeated requests to confirm whether the pause is permanent. All existing deportation cases, however, are moving forward, leaving thousands still in legal purgatory.

    One Guatemalan asylum-seeker, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation, described the crippling fear her case has sparked. In 2024, she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with her 4-year-old daughter after being held captive and repeatedly sexually assaulted by gang members, later discovering she was pregnant from one of her attacks. She had regained hope after arriving in the U.S., she said — until an ICE attorney requested her deportation not to her home country of Guatemala, but to one of three distant nations: Ecuador, Honduras, or Uganda. She had never even heard of Ecuador or Uganda before her hearing, she said. “When I arrived in this country, I was filled with hope again and I thanked God for being alive,” she said, tears in her eyes. “When I think about having to go to those other countries, I panic because I hear they are violent and dangerous.”

    The third-country deportation push first launched last summer, when ICE attorneys — who act as prosecutors in the U.S. immigration court system — received instructions to file “pretermission” motions that terminate asylum claims and clear the way for removal to third nations. Sarah Mehta, an immigration policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, notes that these motions do not argue that the migrant does not have a valid asylum claim — they simply seek to dismiss the entire case and remove the person to another country entirely. The pace of orders accelerated sharply in October, after a precedent-setting ruling from the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals. The three-judge panel, two of whom were appointed by former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and one a holdover from the first Trump administration, ruled that asylum seekers could be removed to any third nation the U.S. State Department certifies will not persecute or torture them. The ruling cleared legal barriers to the policy, and the administration rapidly expanded the practice.

    Mobile Pathways data shows more than 13,000 asylum seekers have now had their cases canceled and received third-country deportation orders. More than half of these orders target Honduras, Ecuador, or Uganda, with the remainder spread across more than 30 other nations. Theoretically, deported migrants are allowed to pursue asylum claims in the receiving third countries, though many of these nations have underfunded, barely functional asylum systems that can barely handle their own existing claims backlogs.

    Despite the thousands of orders, actual deportations have been far rarer than the administration anticipated. Rights groups Refugees International and Human Rights First’s Third Country Deportation Watch tracker estimates that fewer than 100 of the 13,000 ordered migrants have actually been deported. In a statement to the AP, a DHS spokesperson defended the policy, framing the third-country arrangements, known as Asylum Cooperative Agreements, as “lawful bilateral arrangements that allow illegal aliens seeking asylum in the United States to pursue protection in a partner country that has agreed to fairly adjudicate their claims.” The spokesperson added that DHS is “using every lawful tool available to address the backlog and abuse of the asylum system,” pointing to the roughly 2 million pending asylum cases clogging the U.S. immigration court system.

    But the policy has hit unforeseen logistical, legal, and diplomatic barriers that have slowed deportations to a crawl. For example, Mobile Pathways data shows thousands of migrants have been ordered deported to Honduras, but the bilateral agreement between Washington and Tegucigalopa only allows the Central American nation to accept 10 such deportees per month over a 24-month period. Even more striking, dozens of migrants ordered deported to Honduras do not speak Spanish — the country’s official language — with native languages ranging from English to Uzbek to French.

    Uganda, which has received hundreds of deportation orders for asylum seekers, has yet to take in a single deportee, according to a top Ugandan government official. Okello Oryem, Uganda’s minister of state for foreign affairs, told the AP that U.S. authorities have delayed deportations while conducting cost-benefit analyses, noting that small groups of one or two deportees per flight are not economically viable. “You can’t be doing one, two people at a time,” Oryem said. “Planeloads — that is the most effective way.”

    Many immigration advocates suspect the March halt to new deportation motions signals a shift in strategy, rather than an end to the policy. “Right now they haven’t been able to remove that many people,” the ACLU’s Mehta said. “I do think that will change. They’re in a hiring spree right now. They will have more planes. If they get more agreements, they’ll be able to send more people to more countries.” Until that shift, thousands of asylum seekers will remain trapped between two systems, stripped of the right to work and build lives in the U.S., with no clear timeline for when — or if — they will be sent to an unfamiliar country halfway across the world.

    The Associated Press reporting on this story included contributions from correspondents Garance Burke in San Francisco, Joshua Goodman in Miami, Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Molly A. Wallace in Chicago.

  • Magnitude 7.4 earthquake hits off Indonesia, killing one

    Magnitude 7.4 earthquake hits off Indonesia, killing one

    In the early hours of Thursday local time, a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake jolted the Molucca Sea off Indonesia’s Ternate Island, leaving one person dead and triggering panic across coastal communities in the country’s eastern region.

    The United States Geological Survey recorded the tremor striking at 6:48 a.m. local time (22:48 GMT Wednesday) at a depth of 35 kilometers, with its epicenter located roughly halfway between the Sulawesi city of Manado and the North Maluku volcanic island of Ternate. Within an hour of the initial shock, Indonesia’s national geological agency confirmed structural damage to buildings and reported multiple injuries, though full casualty and damage assessments were still ongoing in the hours after the event. At least two aftershocks measuring 5.5 and 5.2 magnitude followed the main quake, with local authorities warning residents to prepare for additional aftershocks in the coming hours and days.

    One confirmed fatality has been recorded: a 70-year-old woman in North Sulawesi who was crushed by falling building debris, according to Indonesia’s state-run national news agency Antara. A second person suffered a broken leg after jumping from a multi-story building to escape the shaking.

    The powerful tremor immediately sparked a regional tsunami warning, with the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially noting that low-lying waves less than 0.3 meters high could reach coastlines stretching from Guam and Japan to Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Taiwan. The alert was fully lifted just two hours later after no abnormal tsunami activity was detected across the region.

    For residents across eastern Indonesia, who live in one of the world’s most seismically active zones and experience frequent small tremors, the strength of Thursday’s quake stood out as unprecedented in recent memory. Multiple residents told international reporters it was the most powerful seismic event they had experienced in at least six years.

    Isvara Safitri, a journalist based in central Manado, described the scene to BBC Indonesian: “It was really strong… My head even felt dizzy. Even the roads outside the house were shaking.” In Bitung, a coastal city on Sulawesi’s northeastern shore, Yayuk Oktiani was shopping at a local market when the tremors began. “Everything started shaking. Several stores experienced power outages, and as the tremors got stronger, everyone fled,” she recalled. Oktiani immediately rushed to her child’s school, located just steps from the ocean, where chaos had already broken out. “Teachers immediately told parents to bring their children home, even though they had only just arrived,” she said.

    On Ternate Island, resident Budi Nurgianto told Agence France-Presse that the walls of his home vibrated for more than a minute, forcing him to rush outside into widespread panic. “There were many people outside… I even saw some people leaving their house without having finished their shower,” he said. At Manado’s Siloam Hospital, 69-year-old patient Admini described the frantic evacuation process. “We were sitting there drinking tea… Initially we didn’t realise it was an earthquake. And then we heard a child scream, ‘Come down, hurry up,’” he recalled. Medical staff quickly moved patients out of the hospital building, setting up makeshift treatment zones in open outdoor areas and inside parked vehicles. “Everyone was huddled together outside. Some were in wheelchairs, others were helping each other,” Admini said.

    Footage captured by search and rescue teams operating in Manado shows first responders and local residents navigating the rubble of a damaged local sports complex, where large pieces of furniture were thrown across the ground and steel support structures were bent out of shape by the force of the quake. Search and recovery operations are ongoing, with teams working to clear damaged structures and account for any residents who may still be missing.

    The Indonesian archipelago sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of intense tectonic activity that sees frequent volcanic eruptions and large earthquakes, making seismic risk preparedness a persistent priority for national authorities.

  • Tuchel says Foden not guaranteed a place in England’s World Cup squad

    Tuchel says Foden not guaranteed a place in England’s World Cup squad

    As England’s senior men’s national team wraps up its final pre-tournament friendly camp ahead of this summer’s World Cup, head coach Thomas Tuchel has cast uncertainty over the future of standout Manchester City attacker Phil Foden, confirming the playmaker has not locked in a place on his final squad list. Foden featured in both of England’s exhibition matches during the final selection camp, which ended with mixed results for the Three Lions: a 1-1 draw with Uruguay last Friday, followed by a surprising 1-0 home defeat to Japan at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday. The 25-year-old City talent shifted between attacking roles across the two games, lining up as a conventional number 10 against Uruguay before moving into the unconventional “false nine” position against Japan. While Tuchel praised Foden’s work ethic and performance behind the scenes during the training camp, telling reporters the player had been “excellent in camp”, he acknowledged that Foden has struggled to translate that strong form into on-pitch results during the friendlies. The German manager made clear that Foden’s place on the plane to the World Cup is far from a sure thing, saying bluntly, “Well, it’s not a guarantee that he will come.” Foden is not the only attacking talent facing an anxious waiting game. Young Chelsea attacker Cole Palmer also failed to put in a performance that would cement his selection during Tuesday’s match against Japan. With other in-form options including Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers competing for spots in the attacking midfield group, both Palmer and Foden will have to wait to learn whether they will get the call-up to the 2026 World Cup squad. This pre-tournament selection drama comes amid heightened scrutiny of Tuchel’s roster choices, as England looks to mount a strong run in the upcoming global tournament after inconsistent results in recent international outings.

  • Israeli soldiers given Temple-themed board game ahead of Passover

    Israeli soldiers given Temple-themed board game ahead of Passover

    Against a backdrop of escalating regional conflict and growing religious nationalist rhetoric within Israeli society, a group of Israeli army reservists has independently developed and distributed a Temple-themed board game to fellow service members ahead of the 2026 Passover holiday, the Israeli military has confirmed. First reported by Israeli journalist Or Kashti in a social media post on March 31, the game, titled *From Egypt to Jerusalem*, centers on a core objective: guiding players from a starting point representing Egypt across a game board dotted with religious, national, and military imagery to reach the site of the ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The game’s instructions open by inviting players to “choose a route from Egypt” and advance along the path toward Jerusalem, closing with the traditional Passover refrain “Next year in Jerusalem” that anchors the holiday’s liturgy. Passover, one of the most sacred observances in the Jewish calendar, commemorates the biblical narrative of the Israelites’ escape from enslavement in ancient Egypt to seek freedom in the land of Israel, which this year began on the evening of Wednesday last week, coinciding with the game’s distribution. As players move across the board, they land on “revival” spaces adorned with Jewish and Israeli national symbols alongside military graphics, and can draw special cards marked “miracles and heroism.” Additional gameplay challenges included whimsical but politically charged tasks such as standing on one foot to share a positive recent event for the Israeli people, and performing a skit of a phone call between the biblical Pharaoh and Iran’s president, according to details shared in Kashti’s post. The game board also bears the logo of the Har Tzion battalion in the IDF’s Jerusalem brigade, indicating formal organizational connections between the creators and the unit. But not all spaces on the board carry positive framing: other squares depict figures labeled as historical and modern enemies of Israel, ranging from ancient adversaries like the Babylonians and Crusaders to contemporary political leaders. Those named include Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, assassinated Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, a Hamas fighter, and recently killed Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The game’s text echoes another core Passover liturgical phrase: “In every generation they rise up to destroy us,” a line that has been recontextualized for modern political messaging in recent years. When contacted for comment by Middle East Eye, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson clarified that the game was not an official military initiative. “It was created by reservists on their personal initiative,” the spokesperson said, distancing the institution from the project. The emergence of this privately made military-themed religious game comes amid a well-documented rise in religious nationalist rhetoric and symbolism across Israeli society and within the military, against the backdrop of the ongoing 2025 U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran. Just one month prior, during the Jewish holiday of Purim, many Israelis framed the ongoing conflict through a religious lens, drawing parallels between the war against Iran and the biblical Purim narrative of overcoming a Persian threat to Jewish communities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has explicitly integrated Passover religious imagery into public remarks about the war against Iran. In comments last month ahead of the holiday, Netanyahu declared: “On the eve of this Festival of Freedom, Israel is stronger than ever.” He went on to rework the iconic Passover line cited in the board game: “In every generation they rise up to destroy us, and in this generation, the regime of the ayatollahs made a massive effort to annihilate us, to take over the Middle East, and to threaten the entire world,” he said, adding that the joint U.S.-Israeli assault was “crushing Iran.” He even invoked the biblical story of the ten plagues of Egypt, stating “We have dealt ten plagues upon the Axis of Evil.” At the time of reporting, the scale of the game’s distribution remains unconfirmed. The development also arrives alongside ongoing shifts in the long-standing status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, a site sacred to both Muslims (as one of Islam’s holiest sites) and Jews (who refer to it as the Temple Mount, the location of the ancient Jewish First and Second Temples). Last month, Israel extended the closure of the compound, and since far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir took office in 2022, the site has seen a sharp increase in the number of Jewish nationalist visitors and worshippers entering the complex, a practice that violates the decades-old status quo agreement, which restricts Jewish prayer at the site to preserve Muslim administrative control. The increased prominence of religious symbolism within the Israeli military also tracks back to the start of the 2023 Gaza war, with growing reports of religious nationalist messaging among active-duty soldiers. Just last month, a CNN reporting team was detained by Israeli soldiers while covering the establishment of a new unauthorized settler outpost in the Palestinian village of Tayasir in the occupied West Bank. Footage from the encounter captured one soldier openly boasting about plans to take revenge against Palestinians, while a second soldier was seen wearing a patch referencing the Jewish Messiah on his uniform – a practice the Israeli army officially banned for all service members last year. Middle East Eye, which first published this report, provides independent on-the-ground coverage of the Middle East and North Africa region.