Global Pulse

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  • Watch: Hikers airlifted to safety after flash flooding hits Grand Canyon

    Watch: Hikers airlifted to safety after flash flooding hits Grand Canyon

    A sudden flash flood has swept through popular hiking terrain in the Grand Canyon, triggering an urgent emergency response that saw multiple stranded hikers airlifted to safety by rescue teams, according to updates from the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). In the aftermath of the fast-moving natural disaster, agency officials confirmed Tuesday that more than two dozen individuals remain missing or unaccounted for, leaving rescue crews working against the clock to locate and assess the status of every visitor in the affected region.

    Flash floods are an ever-present, unpredictable danger in the Grand Canyon’s narrow slot canyons and low-lying hiking trails, where heavy rainfall miles away can trigger sudden surges of fast-moving water without warning for visitors on the ground. The NPS has not yet released additional details on the exact location of the flood, the number of hikers successfully rescued, or the timeline of the ongoing search operation, but agency representatives confirmed that search and rescue teams have been deployed across the impacted area to conduct door-to-door checks of trailheads, campgrounds, and popular overlooks to cross-reference visitor logs and identify who remains unaccounted for.

    Footage shared from the scene shows rescue helicopters hovering above swollen, churning floodwaters to pluck trapped hikers from ledges and high ground that was cut off by rising water, a high-stakes operation that showcases the risks outdoor enthusiasts face when visiting the iconic national park during monsoon season. Local emergency management officials have urged all recent visitors to the Grand Canyon to contact park authorities to confirm their safety, as the search effort continues to account for everyone in the area impacted by the flash flood.

  • Fernandes treble inspires Man Utd rout, Chelsea beat Brighton in thriller

    Fernandes treble inspires Man Utd rout, Chelsea beat Brighton in thriller

    On the second matchweek of the new Premier League season, two dramatic encounters headlined Sunday’s slate of action, with Manchester United and Chelsea securing hard-fought, high-scoring wins to bounce back or extend impressive early momentum.

    For Manchester United, the match marked a critical opportunity to redeem themselves after a humiliating 2-0 opening-weekend defeat to Hull at the hands of newly promoted Ipswich Town, who visited Old Trafford full of confidence after a solid start to their top-flight return. That confidence translated into an early lead for the visitors: in the 29th minute, Ipswich defender Leif Davis unleashed a strike that ricocheted off the crossbar and into the back of the net, putting Michael Carrick’s side on track for what would have been a second embarrassing early-season loss for United.

    But United captain Bruno Fernandes turned the game on its head with a virtuoso, hat-trick performance that secured a final 5-2 scoreline and put United back on track in the new campaign. The turnaround began in the 40th minute, when a slip from Ipswich’s Marcelino Nunez let Matheus Cunha find Fernandes unmarked, who buried a clinical finish past the Ipswich keeper. United claimed the lead in the 56th minute, when Ipswich defender Jacob Greaves deflected Harry Maguire’s shot into his own net; Ipswich’s appeals for a handball against Maguire were rejected by VAR, extending United’s momentum. Five minutes later, Greaves’ difficult half turned to disaster when he fouled Cunha inside the box, conceding a penalty that Fernandes coolly slotted home to extend United’s lead. Fernandes sealed his treble in the 68th minute, sweeping home a close-range finish after shots from Kobbie Mainoo and Bryan Mbeumo were blocked by the Ipswich defense. This marked Fernandes’ second Premier League hat-trick for United, his first since a 2019 treble against Leeds United. Fernandes was not done contributing: in the 82nd minute, his perfectly weighted pass set up Mbeumo for a looping lob that clipped the crossbar and dropped over the line to make it 5-1. A late stoppage-time tap-in from Chuba Akpom was only a minor consolation for Ipswich, who fell to their first defeat since earning promotion back to the Premier League.

    Across London at Stamford Bridge, new Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso extended his perfect start to life in charge with a chaotic 4-3 win over Brighton & Hove Albion, keeping the Blues unbeaten through their opening two matches. Alonso’s tenure kicked off with a 3-2 opening-weekend win over Fulham, and key attackers from that victory stepped up again against Brighton: Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer both found the net, while Morgan Rogers set up winger Pedro Neto for the Blues’ second goal as they held off a late Brighton rally.

    The match included a milestone for Chelsea: goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez made his league debut for the club just hours after completing his transfer from Aston Villa, becoming the first player over the age of 30 to start a Premier League match for Chelsea in more than two years. Notably, Martinez’ Argentina international teammate Enzo Fernandez was left out of the matchday squad, as a potential transfer to Manchester City remains on the table ahead of Tuesday’s close of the winter transfer window.

    Unlike last weekend, when Brighton raced to a 4-0 first-half lead over Aston Villa, Chelsea jumped out to a blistering 3-0 lead inside 35 minutes against the Seagulls. Midfielder Romeo Lavia opened the scoring, pouncing on a defensive mix-up between Brighton keeper Bart Verbruggen and midfielder Mats Wieffer to poke home from a corner. Neto then turned home Rogers’ pinpoint cross to double the lead, before Pedro finished off a blistering counter-attack that started inside Chelsea’s own penalty area to make it three. Brighton got on the scoresheet shortly after, when Malick Yalcouye beat new Chelsea keeper Martinez with a blistering volley. Just after the hour mark, Joao Pedro accidentally turned Pascal Gross’ cross into his own net to cut Chelsea’s lead to 3-2, setting up a tense final half hour. But Cole Palmer produced a moment of individual magic to restore the Blues’ two-goal lead: after a solo run across the face of the Brighton defense, he curled a stunning effort from outside the box into the bottom corner, sparking wild celebrations from Alonso on the touchline. A late stoppage-time header from Gross was only a consolation for Brighton, leaving Chelsea with six points from two opening matches, joining Manchester City and Hull as the only teams to claim maximum points so far this season.

    In other Sunday Premier League action, Brentford looked set to join that group of unbeaten sides when Kevin Schade scored an audacious early flick to take the lead away to Leeds United. But Dominic Calvert-Lewin turned home Lukas Nmecha’s driven cross late in the match to salvage a 1-1 draw, keeping Leeds’ unbeaten start to the new campaign intact. In the only other top-flight match of the day, Sunderland earned their first three points of the season with a 1-0 home win over Fulham, with Wilson Isidor scoring the game-winning goal with 15 minutes left to play.

  • South Africa accuses Israel of violating ICJ’s legally binding provisional measures

    South Africa accuses Israel of violating ICJ’s legally binding provisional measures

    More than two and a half years after launching its landmark genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa has upped the ante in its global legal and diplomatic campaign, formally accusing Israel of systematic non-compliance with the court’s binding provisional measures designed to protect Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. In an official statement released by the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Pretoria charged that Israel’s deliberate refusal to abide by three separate provisional orders issued by the UN’s highest court for state disputes undermines the court’s legal authority and has deepened the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza.

    The three provisional measures, issued by the ICJ in 2024, outline clear mandatory obligations for Israel: to halt all acts that could qualify as genocide, end incitement to genocidal violence against Palestinians, withdraw all military forces from the southern Gazan city of Rafah, and open unimpeded routes for life-saving humanitarian aid and basic services to reach the 2 million people trapped in Gaza. The ICJ also required Israel to submit regular public reports detailing steps it has taken to comply with the orders, a requirement Israel fulfilled formally in February 2024, but South Africa argues the substance of the orders has been ignored entirely.

    To back its accusation of non-compliance, the South African government submitted a comprehensive evidence dossier earlier this month to the ICJ’s special committee of judges tasked with monitoring enforcement of provisional measures. Under the court’s Article 11 of Internal Judicial Practice, this committee reviews all submitted evidence from involved parties and recommends potential next steps to the full ICJ bench.

    South Africa’s dossier lays out staggering, updated casualty and harm figures through August 2026. Since the outbreak of hostilities on 7 October 2023, at least 73,407 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations across Gaza, with another 174,335 wounded. These figures amount to more than 10 percent of Gaza’s entire pre-conflict population. The submission further details that roughly 46,000 survivors, many of them children, live with permanent, severe disabilities including amputations, traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord damage caused by the conflict. Even after a nominal ceasefire was announced, the dossier notes, Israeli forces continue to kill an average of one Palestinian child per day. Worsening conditions in Gaza’s shrinking, overcrowded displacement enclaves have also driven a more than three-fold increase in Palestinian miscarriage rates since the start of 2026, according to the evidence.

    Beyond casualties, South Africa’s statement accuses Israel of widespread, systemic abuse against detained Palestinians. The document notes that Israeli authorities have arbitrarily detained and forcibly deported thousands of Palestinians to Israeli prisons and detention facilities, where detainees routinely face torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment that violates international law. Pretoria also charged that Israel is actively working to conceal evidence of its actions by targeting and killing local Palestinian journalists, barring access for all foreign media outlets, and blocking UN-mandated independent investigative bodies from entering the besieged territory.

    South Africa’s legal action carries historic weight: it was the first UN member state to formally file a genocide case against Israel at the ICJ, launching the proceeding in December 2023. The August 2026 evidence dossier is the latest step in a sustained diplomatic and legal push by Pretoria to force global action. South Africa previously submitted multiple detailed evidence dossiers to the United Nations Security Council in May 2024, February 2025 and September 2025, urging all UN member states to uphold their obligations under international law and intervene to stop the violence. It also submitted separate dossiers focused on Israel’s deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war to the UN General Assembly and the UN Economic and Social Council in October 2025, requesting urgent intervention under Article VIII of the Genocide Convention.

    DIRCO emphasized in its statement that the ICJ’s provisional orders are not merely advisory—they carry full binding legal weight under international law for Israel. Beyond Israel’s obligations, the department noted that the entire international community has a collective legal obligation under the Genocide Convention to take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of genocide. The statement also stressed that upholding the provisional measures is critical not only to protect Palestinian rights, but also to preserve the integrity of the international justice system and the ICJ’s own legitimacy, ensuring the court can issue a meaningful final ruling without the rights it is tasked with defending being destroyed before a decision is reached.

    Leading Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq has welcomed South Africa’s latest submission, calling on the ICJ to take immediate proactive action, including issuing new expanded provisional measures if necessary. “As the genocide continues, we call on the Court to act propio motu, including through additional Provisional Measures Orders,” the organization said in a statement responding to the submission.

  • Russia says it helped to repel Niger attempted coup

    Russia says it helped to repel Niger attempted coup

    In the early hours of Saturday, the capital city of Niger, Niamey, was rocked by the sound of explosions and sustained gunfire as an attempted coup unfolded. Key strategic sites, including the presidential palace and a major military airbase, found themselves at the center of the violence. Within hours, the ruling government of Niger announced that the rebellion had been successfully put down. On Sunday, Russia’s foreign ministry made a public confirmation that its military personnel, part of the African Corps under the Russian Ministry of Defence, played a direct role in assisting Nigerien forces to quash the uprising.

    Moscow further stated that it will maintain its security support for Niger in the country’s ongoing campaign against extremist groups, and emphasized that full control of the situation has now been restored to the legitimate government led by President Gen Abdourahmane Tiani. Over recent years, Russia’s African Corps has emerged as a critical security ally for a number of military-led administrations across the Sahel region, where governments have faced persistent challenges in containing years-long jihadist insurgencies.

    The Alliance of Sahel States, a regional bloc made up of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, has condemned the attempted coup, labeling it as a destabilizing act of betrayal carried out by a rogue faction of soldiers. As of Sunday, Niger’s authorities have not released details on the size of the mutinous faction or the number of casualties sustained during the violence. Gen Tiani, who took power last year after ousting the country’s democratically elected leader and was sworn in as president shortly after, has yet to make any public statement addressing the coup attempt.

    Footage broadcast on Niger’s state television showed multiple alleged mutineers in custody of the country’s Presidential Guard, confirming that a number of arrests have been made. According to Niger Press Agency, commercial activity across Niamey had returned to normal by Sunday, with petrol stations, retail shops and other businesses resuming operations after the unrest. Public gatherings in central Niamey also saw dozens of government supporters rallying to back the country’s security forces and Tiani’s administration.

    The site of the initial attack, Air Base 101, is integrated into the Diori Hamani international airport complex. The base hosts Nigerien military aircraft and drone fleets, as well as a counter-terrorism unit operated by the Alliance of Sahel States. Multiple international military contingents, including Russian and Italian personnel, are also stationed at the facility, Reuters reporting confirms.

    All three members of the Alliance of Sahel States — Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso — are currently under military rule. In recent years, all three nations have cut security and diplomatic ties with Western partners and significantly deepened their political and military cooperation with Moscow. Despite this strategic shift, large-scale jihadist violence remains rampant across all three countries, with insurgent groups carrying out regular attacks on civilian and military targets.

    Saturday’s mutiny lays bare the multiple challenges facing Tiani’s government: beyond the persistent external threat of jihadist insurgency, the administration now faces clear evidence of discontent within its own military ranks. Notably, Air Base 101, the site where the mutiny began, has already been targeted twice by jihadist groups this year alone — first by an affiliate of the Islamic State, and later by a faction linked to al-Qaeda.

    In the wake of the failed coup, Nigerien security officials have confirmed that they have stepped up patrols across key strategic sites in Niamey, including the main entrance to Diori Hamani Airport and the presidential pavilion, to prevent further unrest.

  • Head teacher evacuated 900 children minutes before Nepal floods hit school

    Head teacher evacuated 900 children minutes before Nepal floods hit school

    The deadliest flash floods to hit Nepal in recent memory have claimed hundreds of lives and left thousands missing, but a single quick decision by a local school principal has turned what could have been a mass tragedy into a story of survival.

    Rajendra Dawadi, head of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nepal’s Nuwakot district, spoke exclusively to the BBC about the fateful morning that saw him evacuate his entire student body just 10 minutes before raging floodwaters swallowed the school campus.

    At 09:10 local time, Dawadi received four consecutive warning calls about an impending flood surge down the Trishuli River. Minutes later, a parent arrived at the school in a panic to pick up his daughter, confirming the gravity of the threat. Recognizing that parental panic only comes with extreme cause, Dawadi did not hesitate: he ordered an immediate evacuation, directing all 900 students to run for higher ground and diverting student buses that had just entered the flood zone to turn back to safety.

    “If we had waited just 10 more minutes, none of us – students and staff alike – would be here to tell this story,” Dawadi said in the interview. “I decided that even if the flood never came, the worst outcome would be losing one day of classes. Saving lives was the only priority that mattered.”

    Dawadi’s split-second call proved to be life-saving. Within 10 minutes of the evacuation, mud and debris buried the entire school building. A hostel just 100 meters from the riverbank was engulfed instantly, and the local bazaar surrounding the school was completely swept away.

    Sixteen-year-old student Yunisha Amatya, one of the pupils who escaped, recalled the chaotic final moments before the flood hit. Many students initially underestimated the danger, pausing to wait for classmates attending a mid-morning math lesson, and one pupil even fainted from shock when the evacuation was announced.

    Yunisha and her friends scrambled up a steep hillside through a narrow escape path at the back of the school. “I escaped by just 10 seconds,” she said. “My friends had to help me climb uphill. Right in front of me, the entire bazaar washed away. People who tried to escape through the lower river route were swept away, I saw it happen.”

    After reaching temporary safety a few hundred meters uphill, the group trekked to a nearby village. Cut off by washed-out roads and damaged transport links, they were stranded for two nights before rescue teams reached them. Both Dawadi and Yunisha, who live across the river from the school, were eventually airlifted to their home villages.

    The hours after the flood were an agonizing wait for Yunisha’s family. Her father Yubaraj Amatya rushed to the school as soon as news of the disaster broke, only to find the Trishuli Bazaar already gone. Convinced his daughter had been killed, he continued calling her phone for nearly an hour with no answer. When the call finally connected, he and the relatives with him broke down in tears of relief.

    “For three days we waited, barely sleeping,” said Yunisha’s mother Sabina Kumari Shrestha. “When we saw her walk through the door, the relief was overwhelming. We can’t ask for anything more than that.”

    While the family is overjoyed at Yunisha’s survival, the disaster has left new uncertainties. With her school destroyed, Yunisha says she worries about continuing her education, and grieves the prospect of leaving her old friends behind if she is forced to transfer to a new campus.

    As Nepal begins the long process of recovering from the disaster, which has so far killed at least 794 people and left 2,426 others unaccounted for, Dawadi says the tragedy highlights gaps in local early warning systems. He added that louder, more widespread alerts – including public sirens and standardized evacuation notifications – could help entire communities respond faster to future flood threats. Still, the headteacher says he remains proud of the outcome his quick decision enabled: hundreds of children got to go home to their families, when a slower reaction would have ended in catastrophe.

    “Had I waited to dismiss school after our first class, nothing would be left but a ringing bell at 9:30,” he said.

  • Nasa launches powerful new space telescope to explore mysteries of the Universe

    Nasa launches powerful new space telescope to explore mysteries of the Universe

    On a historic Sunday morning at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, NASA’s revolutionary next-generation astronomical observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, has successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, marking the start of a mission poised to transform humanity’s understanding of the cosmos. Roughly 30 minutes after liftoff, the telescope separated cleanly from the launch vehicle and began its 100-day cruise toward its permanent observing position, a gravitationally stable orbital vantage point located approximately one million miles from Earth — the same halo orbit occupied by the 2021-launched James Webb Space Telescope.
    Named for NASA’s pioneering first chief astronomer and the agency’s earliest female executive, Nancy Grace Roman (1925–2018), the observatory honors a trailblazer widely known as the “Mother of Hubble” for her critical work securing congressional approval for the iconic Hubble Space Telescope in the 1960s. Roman herself later highlighted the discovery of dark energy as Hubble’s most compelling finding, making the new next-generation telescope a fitting continuation of her legacy.
    Boasting cutting-edge optical technology, the Roman Telescope features a panoramic field of view at least 100 times wider than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, which has operated in low Earth orbit roughly 300 miles above Earth’s surface since 1990. Even compared to James Webb, Roman offers far broader cosmic coverage, enabling it to capture sweeping, high-resolution surveys of the sky that were impossible with earlier observatories. The mission has a planned five-year primary science operation period, with provisions to extend operations to a full decade.
    NASA officials outlined the telescope’s ambitious science objectives, which range from solving one of physics’ greatest puzzles — the nature of dark energy and dark matter — to discovering and characterizing thousands of new exoplanets orbiting stars outside our solar system. Scientists estimate that invisible dark matter and dark energy together make up roughly 95% of the total mass-energy of the universe: dark matter acts as an invisible gravitational glue holding galaxies together, while dark energy is the poorly understood repulsive force driving the accelerating expansion of the universe. Beyond cosmology, Roman will map billions of galaxies across cosmic time, study the growth and behavior of supermassive black holes, and even conduct observations of objects within our own solar system.
    One of the mission’s most anticipated contributions is advancing the search for habitable worlds beyond our solar system. “One of our main goals at NASA is answering the question: are we alone in the universe?” Nicky Fox, a NASA administrator, told reporters at a post-launch news conference Sunday. “With Roman, we are going to make this giant leap forward… that is going to allow us to look at these distant, distant worlds and start to really resolve the atmosphere around them to let us know: could they be habitable?” Fox added that the mission is expected to discover tens of thousands, and potentially as many as 100,000, new exoplanets, drastically expanding the current catalog of known worlds outside our solar system.
    Marking the milestone, former U.S. President Donald Trump joined the mission’s post-launch news conference via phone call to congratulate the team of scientists and engineers behind the decades-long project. “You’re the hottest in space, and we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. So let’s keep it all going. You’re a big part of it,” Trump told the assembled team.
    NASA officials say that once Roman reaches its orbital vantage point and completes initial on-orbit instrument calibration, it will begin delivering its first full science data, opening an unprecedented new window into the origins and evolution of the universe. “Roman is going to change the way we look at the universe,” Fox emphasized, echoing the widespread expectation that the mission will deliver paradigm-shifting discoveries that reshape modern astronomy.

  • AP Exclusive: US coaches Polish forces in a drone-focused drill based on lessons from Ukraine

    AP Exclusive: US coaches Polish forces in a drone-focused drill based on lessons from Ukraine

    Deep in the Bavarian alpine countryside of southern Germany, under a rain-soaked, moonless sky, a team of Polish special forces slipped out of a dilapidated mock church structure on Friday. Silently advancing toward the distant tree line, with rugged hills rising behind them, the unit began the first ever Ukraine-inspired special operations exercise hosted by U.S. Army Green Berets for a NATO ally.

    Developed just months ago and modeled directly on the real-world combat challenges Ukrainian forces have faced in their 4.5-year war against Russian invasion, the drill is designed to test elite troops’ ability to infiltrate enemy lines, cross hundreds of kilometers of contested territory, and execute a precision drone strike on a high-value enemy target. Originally created for U.S. special operations units, this exercise has only been run twice before in 2025, both times by separate Green Beret teams, making Poland’s participation a landmark step for NATO collective military training.

    The Associated Press was granted rare, unrestricted access to the 3,000-square-kilometer training complex at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center Hohenfels, located roughly an hour southeast of Nuremberg. The multi-day scenario places Polish special forces against a U.S. Army airborne infantry unit cast in the role of enemy forces, which parachuted into the restricted training area to establish a fortified front line. If Polish troops successfully slip past the defensive line, they must traverse 100 kilometers of mixed terrain—including working German farms, populated villages, private and government surveillance cameras, and a mid-sized civilian town—to reach a second training site in Grafenwoehr, where they will destroy a simulated strategic target.

    Every element of the drill is designed to replicate the risks of operating behind enemy lines, just as Ukrainian forces do in Russian-occupied territory. Unaware local German civilians act as an unscripted test of the special forces’ ability to blend into civilian populations: if troops are spotted and residents report suspicious activity to police, that intelligence is passed to opposing forces to track down the infiltrating team. “This is supposed to be Russia, and you’re going to stand out in Russia,” a senior enlisted special operations instructor told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity per U.S. military policy that prohibits public identification of special forces personnel. In prior iterations of the exercise, Green Beret trainees removed their military uniforms specifically to practice blending into civilian areas without being spotted.

    Opposing forces also deploy a fleet of more than 100 surveillance drones to hunt for the infiltrating team. If the Polish unit is detected, the scenario assumes that the full “Russian arsenal” would target their position, and opposing forces can dispatch canine-trained military police patrols or redirect additional drones to intercept the team, with troops marked as captured or killed if caught, just as in live combat.

    U.S. instructors emphasize that every aspect of the exercise draws directly on combat lessons emerging from the war in Ukraine. “We’re using lessons learned from Ukraine,” a Green Beret officer assigned to the training complex explained. “All of those effects that we’re seeing either Russia or Ukraine having to overcome — we’re doing our best to replicate.”

    The drill shines a spotlight on a growing push across U.S. and NATO military circles to adapt to modern drone warfare tactics, which have been pioneered and refined by Ukrainian forces throughout their defense against Russia. It also underscores the deepening military collaboration between the U.S., NATO allies, and Ukraine to prepare for potential future Russian aggression, even as the Trump administration’s ongoing force review for European deployments has created uncertainty around future U.S. troop levels, with repeated signals of potential drawdowns. Just this week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Moscow to issue a formal warning to Russian leadership against any direct military attack on NATO territory, The Wall Street Journal reported.

    Three Western officials, speaking anonymously Friday to discuss sensitive intelligence, confirmed that while Russian leadership seeks to avoid open direct confrontation with NATO, Moscow maintains the capability and intent to carry out large-scale sabotage and cyberattacks against NATO member states. This heightened tension has spurred growing interest across the alliance in Ukraine’s battlefield expertise. Training organizers told the AP they expect to run the exercise several times annually, and anticipate that most, if not all, of NATO’s 32 member states will request to send special forces units to train.

    Interest in Ukraine’s drone warfare knowledge extends far beyond NATO: In March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that his country was already assisting five nations in the Middle East and Gulf region countering Iranian drone attacks, while multiple U.S. and European countries have also requested Ukrainian support for modernizing their own military tactics. The need for this updated training has been underscored by a recent rise in mysterious drone incursions across Europe: earlier this month, two unidentified drones were spotted over a German military base, and an explosive-laden drone was recovered at a major German cargo airport.

    Despite broad consensus on the value of modern drone warfare training, the message around alliance collaboration has been muddled in recent weeks. President Trump’s repeated shifts on plans for drawing down U.S. troops in Europe have sown confusion among NATO allies, and last week the U.S. Army’s top leadership disbanded a specialized elite drone warfare unit, a move that has sparked debate among military planners.

  • At least seven die in ferry capsize off Northern Cyprus; 23 missing

    At least seven die in ferry capsize off Northern Cyprus; 23 missing

    A devastating maritime disaster has unfolded off the coast of Northern Cyprus, where a passenger ferry carrying hundreds of people capsized and sank on Sunday, leaving at least seven dead and 23 others unaccounted for as multi-agency rescue teams continue search operations, local and Turkish officials have confirmed.

    The ill-fated vessel departed from the Northern Cypriot port of Kyrenia (Girne in Turkish) bound for the Turkish mainland port of Tasucu, and overturned just 6.5 kilometers (four miles) from shore mere minutes after setting sail. By the evening, the ferry had settled completely on the seabed at a depth of 514 meters (1,686 feet), according to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Transport Minister Erhan Arikli.

    Investigators have not yet confirmed the root cause of the disaster, but one rescued passenger has given a chilling firsthand account of an explosion moments before the ferry capsized. The 50-something unnamed survivor, who spent 90 minutes adrift in open water before being pulled out, told local TRNC television that a blast erupted in the bow of the vessel before it rolled over. “The front part exploded, they tried to turn around. And the side windows blew out. The boat starting taking on water,” he recalled. He added that many passengers were trapped below decks as water rushed in, and claimed the ship’s captain was among the first to abandon the vessel without coordinating an evacuation. Photographs broadcast on Turkish television showed survivors clinging to the upturned orange hull of the ferry while waiting for rescue, all wearing life vests.

    Official counts confirm the ferry was carrying 267 people in total. As of the latest update, 172 people have been rescued from the water. Of those survivors, 161 have been transported to local hospitals for evaluation and treatment, while 76 have already been released and returned to their families, Arikli told Turkish public broadcaster TRT.

    A large-scale rescue operation has been mobilized in response to the incident, drawing resources from both Northern Cyprus and Turkey. Private civilian boats were first on the scene to pull survivors from the water, and they have been joined by six Turkish naval vessels, a military helicopter and additional emergency response teams. Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz confirmed via the social platform X that Ankara is providing all necessary support for search and rescue efforts. “All necessary preparations are being made for a swift response from rescue and health services,” the TRNC’s health ministry said in a statement, adding that all hospitals across the territory had been placed on high alert to receive casualties.

    Addressing the disaster during a public appearance on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said search efforts for the 23 missing people were continuing nonstop. “We hope to receive positive news from these efforts,” he added. Erdogan is scheduled to travel to Northern Cyprus on Monday for a pre-planned meeting with newly elected TRNC President Tufan Erhurmann, in what will be his first visit to the territory since 2023.

    The TRNC, a self-declared independent state that controls the northern third of divided Cyprus, is recognized only by Turkey. The island has been split since 1974, when Turkish forces occupied the northern region in response to a Greek Cypriot coup backed by Athens that aimed to unite the island with Greece. Today, regular sea and air routes connect the TRNC directly to Turkey, the only country that maintains formal diplomatic relations with the territory.

  • Saved by a lunch break: Nepal floods destroyed many schools, but students at this school survived

    Saved by a lunch break: Nepal floods destroyed many schools, but students at this school survived

    DHADING, Nepal — When catastrophic flash floods roared through central Nepal last Wednesday, the small mountain district of Dhading stood among the hardest-hit regions. What could have been a devastating tragedy for a local school, however, turned into a story of extraordinary luck and quick thinking, as nearly all of its students escaped the rising waters unharmed.

    For the group of children who survived, a routine daily break proved to be the difference between life and death. The first group of pupils had already left their classroom for lunch when the floodwaters began approaching the school grounds. Other students, still seated in their classrooms, were ushered out immediately by alert teachers who spotted the oncoming disaster, ordering pupils to abandon their personal belongings and evacuate to higher ground immediately.

    “The teachers told them, ‘There is a flood, leave your bags and lunch boxes behind,’” recalled Lakshmi Shrestha, mother of one student at the school. “That quick decision is the only reason our children are alive today.”

    Four days after the flood struck, Shrestha joined dozens of other grieving but relieved parents and children as they returned to the destroyed school compound on Sunday, sifting through the mud and wreckage to recover what little could be saved. Family representatives confirmed that the vast majority of the school’s students survived the disaster, a small miracle amid widespread loss of life across the country.

    Walking through the destroyed campus leaves no doubt of the flood’s power. Thick layers of muddy brown and gray sediment coat every surface: wooden classroom benches, concrete walls, and waterlogged notebooks alike. The open school courtyard is completely filled with silt and debris, and dark water lines streaked across interior walls show how rapidly the floodwaters rose, reaching several meters high in mere minutes. Small mud-caked backpacks, many still strung with colorful key chains that hint at their young owners, are piled across benches and floors, waiting to be claimed by their families.

    Even for parents who left empty-handed, the survival of their children outweighs any material loss. Kopila Mizar, another mother whose child escaped unharmed, could not locate her son’s backpack during Sunday’s search, but she remained upbeat about the outcome. “My son is alive, that is my biggest happiness,” she said simply.

    This small school is far from the only educational institution impacted by the disaster. According to global nonprofit Save the Children, at least 69 schools across Nepal’s flood-ravaged districts have been fully destroyed or severely damaged, disrupting access to education for nearly 19,000 children. The organization warned that this number is almost certain to rise in coming days, as rescue and recovery teams reach more remote cut-off communities that have been unreachable since the floods hit.

    In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the Nepali government ordered all schools and universities across affected regions to close for three days, pausing all scheduled university examinations as well. With national weather services continuing to issue flood warnings urging communities to evacuate to higher, safer ground, it remains unclear when normal classes will be able to resume across the hardest-hit areas.

    As of Sunday, Nepal’s national disaster management agency confirmed that the national death toll from the floods and accompanying landslides has climbed to 788, with an additional 2,502 people still reported missing across the country. Across the border in southern Tibet, Chinese authorities have reported 16 deaths and 546 people missing. Among the missing are hundreds of citizens from more than a dozen countries, who were in the Himalayan region for work, trekking, or pilgrimage to a sacred mountain peak. Chinese state media confirmed Sunday that 261 foreigners are currently missing in Tibet, including more than 100 Nepali citizens and dozens of people from other nations around the world.

  • At least six die in ferry capsize off Northern Cyprus

    At least six die in ferry capsize off Northern Cyprus

    A passenger ferry carrying hundreds of people capsized shortly after leaving the Northern Cypriot port of Kyrenia early Sunday, leaving at least six passengers dead and triggering a large-scale cross-border search and rescue operation between Turkey and the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

    Preliminary casualty figures shared with Turkish media by Unal Ustel, prime minister of the TRNC, confirm six fatalities so far. Ustel told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu News Agency that the vessel was carrying 267 total passengers and crew when it overturned almost immediately after departing for the southern Turkish port of Tasucu. As of Sunday afternoon, 172 people had been pulled from the Mediterranean waters alive, with rescue teams continuing efforts to locate and evacuate the remaining people on board.

    Ali Murat Basceri, Turkey’s ambassador to Nicosia, independently confirmed the deaths in an interview with Turkish public broadcaster TRT, though he declined to share a specific toll. In his remarks, Basceri noted that the large majority of the 259 recorded passengers had already been pulled from the water by rescue teams.

    Footage broadcast across multiple Turkish television outlets on Sunday shows the fully overturned ferry floating off the coast, with dozens of survivors clinging to the orange inverted hull while wearing life vests. Multiple civilian and official rescue vessels were deployed to the scene, with witnesses reporting calm, sunny conditions at the time of the incident. As of Sunday, officials have not released any details on what caused the vessel to capsize.

    The TRNC, a self-declared state that controls the northern third of divided Cyprus, is recognized exclusively by the international community by Turkey. The island has been split along political lines since 1974, when Turkey deployed military forces to northern Cyprus in response to a Greek nationalist coup backed by the Athens government that sought to annex the entire island to Greece. Today, regular air and sea passenger routes connect the TRNC directly to Turkey.

    Local emergency authorities have activated full response protocols to handle the disaster. “All necessary preparations are being made for a swift response from rescue and health services,” the TRNC Ministry of Health said in an official statement Sunday, adding that all hospitals across the territory had been placed on high alert to receive injured survivors and provide emergency care as needed.

    Turkey, which provides political, economic and logistical support to the TRNC, has mobilized its own resources to support the operation. Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz announced via the social platform X Sunday that the Turkish government was providing all necessary assistance to the search and rescue effort.

    The disaster comes just one day before a planned visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the TRNC, scheduled for Monday. The trip will mark Erdogan’s first visit to the territory since 2023, and is intended to hold talks with newly elected TRNC President Tufan Erhurman, who won the territory’s presidential election last October.