Global Pulse

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  • Africa’s male midwives are rare but increasing in the fight against pregnancy deaths

    Africa’s male midwives are rare but increasing in the fight against pregnancy deaths

    On a crisp, cold morning in the mountainous Southern African kingdom of Lesotho, Ntlhane Sehloho slung his backpack stuffed with critical medical gear over his shoulders and set off on a three-hour trek along winding, unpaved gravel roads. His destination: Mpharane Health Center, a small clinic tucked into a remote valley that serves scattered rural communities with limited access to advanced care.

    Sehloho occupies a role once almost unheard of in this part of the world: he is a male midwife. When he stepped through the clinic’s doors on this particular morning, a group of waiting women exhaled in relief — some expecting their first child, others balancing fussy infants on their backs, all seeking the routine prenatal and postnatal care Sehloho has provided for 20 years.

    For generations, midwifery has been strictly regarded as women’s work in Lesotho’s largely conservative society. But facing one of the world’s worst maternal mortality crises, the country has launched an urgent push to recruit more men into the profession, upending long-held cultural norms to save lives. According to United Nations data, Lesotho records roughly 530 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births — a rate more than two and a half times the global average of 200.

    This crisis is not unique to Lesotho. Sub-Saharan Africa, the world’s fastest-growing region, accounts for 70% of all global maternal deaths, with roughly 180,000 pregnancy-related fatalities recorded across the continent each year. Severe staffing shortages in remote rural clinics, where most of Lesotho’s population lives, have only worsened the crisis. With just over 2 million people nationwide, the country’s rural health posts are chronically understaffed, leaving thousands of pregnant women without access to skilled care during childbirth.

    Global health bodies have sounded the alarm for years over this shortage. World Health Organization data estimates that men make up less than 1% of the global midwifery workforce. Both the WHO and UNICEF have called for expanding recruitment to all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, to close gaping gaps in emergency obstetric care.

    Sehloho is one of an estimated 300 male midwives now practicing across Lesotho — a milestone that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. The Lesotho government does not track midwifery data by gender, so an exact count is not available, but recruitment efforts over the past two decades have steadily grown the share of men in the field. Sehloho never set out to become a midwife: as a high-achieving student, he originally planned to work as a nurse, driven by childhood memories of preventable tragedy in his rural home village.

    “Our village was far away from the health facility, so most pregnant women delivered at home. We were still young, we were not supposed to see that, as some were dying,” he recalled. “I didn’t understand how far they had to travel just to get care.”

    After he finished his nursing training, Lesotho’s health authorities encouraged Sehloho and other male nursing graduates to pursue additional midwifery training, part of a targeted strategy to expand care access to underserved rural areas. The strategy has already delivered measurable results: UNICEF data shows that 92% of births in Lesotho now are attended by a trained health provider, up from a far lower share just two decades ago.

    Lesotho’s government says the core goal is saving lives, and that gender should never stand in the way of that mission. “I think the system and the community is starting to slowly accept that gender should not matter when it comes to this issue of delivery,” explained Dr. Llang Maama, acting director of health services at Lesotho’s Ministry of Health. She acknowledged that a small number of patients still report discomfort with male midwives, and the health system formally accommodates those requests when possible. “But in the urgency of childbirth, there isn’t always time to choose,” Maama added.

    For Sehloho, acceptance comes down to building trust, one patient at a time. A talkative, quick-witted provider, he makes a point of putting pregnant women at ease from their very first prenatal visit, often sharing his own background growing up in a rural Lesotho community and highlighting his 20 years of experience delivering babies. “We are a very cultural and traditional African society,” he said.

    Blandina Motaung, a representative for the United Nations Population Fund, which partners closely with Lesotho’s midwifery community, said public reactions to male midwives remain mixed, but many patients are surprised by the unique strengths men bring to the role. Many patients report that male midwives tend to be more gentle and less strict than their female counterparts during consultations, she said. During prenatal checks, Sehloho routinely pauses after taking blood pressure or measuring fetal progress to ask patients if they are comfortable, a small habit that has won him loyalty among the community he serves.

    Motaung noted that while most female midwives have personal experience with childbirth, men’s lack of that firsthand experience often makes them more attentive to small changes and warning signs that can signal complications. “For the men, because they have not been through the process, they become more vigilant and more attentive to the nitty gritties, and that in itself improves the quality of care that they provide,” she explained.

    Patients across the country are slowly adapting to the new norm. Mpolokeng Mafereka, a 21-year-old patient at Mpharane Health Center, said she still prefers care from a female provider, but has grown accustomed to seeing Sehloho when he is the only clinician available. “I’m used to being treated by women,” she said.

    But 21-year-old Bonolo Tebello, another patient at the clinic, said she has never had concerns about seeing a male midwife. “I’m happy to be treated by a male because they still provide the same level of care,” she said. “Even when one arrives late for a check-up, they just treat you like any other person who arrived on time.”

    This reporting is part of AP News’ Africa Pulse series, supported by a grant from the Gates Foundation. The Associated Press maintains full editorial control over all funded content.

  • USS Abraham Lincoln sails past Singapore on its way home from Middle East

    USS Abraham Lincoln sails past Singapore on its way home from Middle East

    Early on Sunday morning, the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln made its passage through waters adjacent to Singapore, beginning the final leg of its journey back to the United States following an intensive, months-long operational deployment to the Middle East. AP journalists positioned on the Indonesian island of Batam, which sits opposite Singapore across the Singapore Strait, visually confirmed the massive warship’s transit shortly after 1 a.m. local time, capturing the vessel as it sailed along the busy international waterway. Scheduled next for the supercarrier is a scheduled port call in Thailand, a stop arranged to give the crew much-needed time ashore before they complete their trip home to their home base in the U.S.

    As one of the U.S. Navy’s largest and most capable frontline warships, the Lincoln was deployed to the region to support U.S. military operations focused on Iran. During this deployment, the vessel set an unconventional record: it spent more than 250 consecutive days at sea without making a scheduled port call, a stretch far longer than typical Navy deployments. This unprecedented extended time on operations has sparked growing public and official concern over the welfare of the ship’s crew, with multiple reports emerging that document worsening mental health outcomes among sailors, as well as persistent shortages of critical supplies ranging from fresh food to basic hygiene products.

    Thai government officials have publicly confirmed the upcoming port visit, noting that the stop is explicitly intended to allow the crew rest and recovery after their grueling deployment, before the vessel continues on to its return to the United States.

  • WhatsApp chat used to send cash for crime and extremism

    WhatsApp chat used to send cash for crime and extremism

    A cross-border investigation led by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which includes the BBC, has exposed a massive underground money transfer network that leveraged WhatsApp and the centuries-old hawala system to move hundreds of millions of euros in untraceable funds to criminal and extremist groups across the globe. The network, which included a 532-member chat called “Traders of Greater Europe”, moved money across international borders, including to major British cities London and Birmingham, and even sent payments from Brussels to Islamic State (IS) militants operating in Syria. The investigation also linked similar unregulated hawala systems to widespread people smuggling, drug trafficking, and other transnational organized criminal activities across the continent.

    The chat log, which held more than 82,000 messages exchanged between February and December 2022, was first discovered on the personal phone of a convicted Brussels-based network leader by Belgian investigating magistrate Vincent Guerra. What began as a narrow probe into terrorist financing quickly expanded to reveal a global operation of unparalleled scale. Guerra described the total volume of transactions documented in the chat as “staggering”, noting that the network’s reach extended across the entire planet. He called the discovery of the full chat “hitting the jackpot” that unlocked access to the inner operations of a shadow financial system that operates entirely outside of government oversight.

    The network relied on the hawala system, a trust-based money transfer mechanism that operates without formal electronic records or physical cross-border movement of cash. Under the system, two geographically separate brokers (called hawaladars) reach an agreement: one accepts cash from a sender, and the other pays out the equivalent sum minus a commission to the intended recipient, with all outstanding balances settled between the brokers at a later date. While hawala is often used legally to support remittances from migrant workers to family members in regions with limited formal banking access, it has also become a critical tool for criminals seeking to avoid the anti-money laundering checks built into the mainstream SWIFT international banking system, which requires banks to flag and report suspicious large transactions.

    The “Traders of Greater Europe” chat was restricted to transactions of 5000 euros or more, with most transfers being far larger. Authorities stress that not all chat participants were aware of or involved in handling illicit funds. Hawala is currently banned in most European Union member states, but remains legal in the United Kingdom as long as brokers register with His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

    The cache of chat messages was obtained by the EBU following a 2024 Belgian court conviction of six money launderers connected to the network, including Abu Adam, the Brussels head of the operation, and his deputy Abu Ahmed. The investigation into the pair began when authorities uncovered evidence they had transferred funds to IS to help the wives of militants escape detention camps in northeastern Syria. When Abu Adam was arrested, investigators found not only the WhatsApp chat on his phone but also 6,000 photos of 5-euro banknotes (with visible serial numbers, which are used as unique transaction identifiers in hawala operations) and 6,000 photos of identity documents. Guerra said these records indicate Abu Adam alone processed at least 12,000 transactions, describing the operation as fully professional criminal enterprise operating at a scale “we could never have imagined”, adding that the hawaladars operate effectively as unregulated bankers for transnational criminal groups.

    The EBU investigation uncovered evidence of parallel criminal hawala networks operating across multiple European countries. A former insider in these networks, speaking anonymously under the pseudonym Frank, told reporters he had personally handled hundreds of millions of euros in illicit transactions. He described his first exposure to the system at a small office outside Rotterdam, where couriers delivered more than 1 million euros in cash in less than 90 minutes. Frank noted that the network facilitates far more than just money laundering, saying “it’s about the financing of terror. It’s about drug trafficking. It’s about prostitution and all sorts of other crap.”

    Investigations in Austria have further highlighted the brutal human cost of these unregulated networks. A probe by ORF, an Austrian public broadcaster and EBU member, uncovered a large-scale hawala hub operating out of a busy central Vienna kebab restaurant that was used to process payments for people smuggling operations. Two Syrian brothers running the hub were convicted last year of human trafficking, torture, and rape after they abused a courier who claimed he had been robbed of 350,000 euros in network funds. The pair were sentenced to 18 and 8 years in prison respectively.

    Earlier this year, Austrian police and Europol dismantled another people smuggling ring funded via hawala that authorities estimate smuggled 100,000 migrants into the European Union over an 18-month period. Gerald Tatzgern, who leads human trafficking investigations for Austria’s Criminal Intelligence Service, explained that criminal networks routinely use torture against migrants who cannot pay smuggling fees, then distribute videos of the abuse to the migrants’ families to extort additional payments, which are processed through the hawala system to avoid detection. “Videos of the torture are then sent to the families, saying that if they don’t send another 1,000 euros or several thousand euros, then the person concerned – your son, your brother, your father – will suffer,” Tatzgern said.

    Quentin Mugg, a police commander and Europol liaison officer who has led multiple anti-money laundering probes, called the unregulated hawala system “the primary money-laundering channel for organised crime”. He noted that criminal hawaladars will process any transaction regardless of its source or purpose, saying: “Whether the money comes from migrant smuggling, human trafficking, pimping, a grandmother’s savings sent as a birthday present to her son, or a Malian working in France who wants to support his family, [the hawaladars] couldn’t care less. And they’ll apply their rates.”

  • Guinea-Bissau votes in a referendum to grant expanded presidential powers ahead of election

    Guinea-Bissau votes in a referendum to grant expanded presidential powers ahead of election

    Nearly a year after a military takeover plunged West Africa’s only Portuguese-speaking nation deeper into regional democratic backsliding, Guinea-Bissau opened polling stations Sunday for a high-stakes constitutional referendum that will shape the balance of power ahead of December’s planned general election — a vote billed by military leaders as the final step back to civilian rule.

    The current military junta seized control of the small nation of 2.2 million people in November 2023, following a bitterly contested presidential election where both incumbent former President Umaro Sissoco Embaló and opposition challenger Fernando Dias claimed victory. The coup was widely dismissed by African regional leaders as a staged power transfer; skeptics have long argued that Embaló struck a deal to step aside peacefully after projecting he would lose the official vote count, leaving the military in control of the transition process.

    At the center of Sunday’s vote is a new draft constitution crafted by the military-appointed National Transitional Council. If approved by voters, the charter would expand executive authority granted to the presidency, cut the size of the national parliament from 102 seats to 65, and explicitly cement the president’s supremacy over the office of prime minister.

    Military leaders frame the changes as a long-overdue fix for the chronic political instability that has plagued Guinea-Bissau since it gained independence from Portugal in 1973. “In a community, there is only one leader. No community or village can have two leaders,” General Tomás Djassi, head of Guinea-Bissau’s armed forces, explained in defense of the reforms. “We revised the constitution to avoid constant conflict between the president of the republic and the prime minister. We clarified the law and helped the public understand that the president of the republic is the national symbol, elected directly by the people.”

    The junta argues that a smaller legislature will streamline legislative debate and eliminate gridlock, while clearer separation of authority between the presidency and prime minister’s office will end the power struggles that have repeatedly toppled governments over the past five decades.

    But opposition groups have rejected the framing, and have organized a widespread boycott of the referendum, warning that the changes are little more than a power grab designed to cement military influence through an allied executive. The reforms, they argue, systematically weaken the office of prime minister, subordinate the national legislature and independent political parties, and erase the will voters expressed in last year’s disputed election — creating exactly the kind of deep political division the junta claims it is trying to fix.

    “This constitution significantly weakens the Prime Minister and the government, subordinates the National People’s Assembly and political parties, and devalues—or even ignores the popular will expressed at the polls, carrying all the attendant risks of political and social division and tension,” said Muniro Conté, spokesperson for the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, one of the nation’s largest opposition blocs.

    Public sentiment toward the referendum reflects deep division and widespread confusion across the country. Roughly 915,000 voters are registered to cast ballots, but polling data suggests most registered voters do not view constitutional change as a pressing priority, and many remain unfamiliar with the full text of the proposed reforms.

    Bacar Camará, a high school teacher in the capital Bissau, announced he would boycott the vote entirely, arguing the transitional government should prioritize national reconciliation over restructuring power ahead of the planned general election. “The transitional government should focus on creating conditions for better understanding and reconciliation among Guineans,” he said. Other voters who plan to cast ballots say they will reject the charter, simply because they do not have enough information to support it.

    “I’ll go vote on Sunday. However, I’ll vote ‘no’ because — honestly, and I think this is the case for many other citizens — I don’t know this new Constitution well, so I can’t vote ‘yes’,” said Bissau resident Carolina Djeme.

    Independent political analysts share the opposition’s core criticism, noting that the unelected transitional government lacks the democratic legitimacy to rewrite the national constitution. “The fundamental question is: Who drafted this Constitution, and on whose behalf? To protect which interests or institutions? Who stands to benefit from this Constitution?” asked Paulino Quadé, a prominent Guinean political analyst.

    For West Africa, the referendum comes at a moment of deepening democratic crisis. Last year’s coup in Guinea-Bissau added the country to a growing list of nations in the region now under military rule, extending a trend that began with the 2020 coup in Mali and has since spread to Burkina Faso, Niger, and Gabon.

    Guinea-Bissau’s long history of political instability is well-documented: since independence in 1973, the country has weathered more than a dozen successful and attempted coups, with a failed coup attempt recorded just one month before last November’s successful takeover. While the World Bank ranks the country as having the highest per capita share of natural wealth in West Africa, more than half of its 2.2 million residents live in extreme poverty. Experts also widely note that the country’s strategic location between Latin America and Europe has made it a major transshipment hub for international drug trafficking, an illicit trade that has funded political corruption and fueled repeated power grabs for decades.

  • Rescuers dig into tunnel as missing toll from Nepal, China flood over 3,000

    Rescuers dig into tunnel as missing toll from Nepal, China flood over 3,000

    Rescue teams across Nepal and southern Tibet continued their life-or-death search operation Sunday, struggling through thick, sticky mud and the ever-present threat of new flood surges to locate victims of a catastrophic flash flood triggered by a glacial collapse that swallowed entire Himalayan villages earlier last week.

    The latest joint death toll from both countries stands at 750 confirmed fatalities, with 3,044 people still unaccounted for as of Sunday. Reports indicate that some bodies may have been carried downstream by the powerful torrent as far as northern India, where local officials have already recovered seven bodies believed to be flood victims from transboundary rivers.

    The disaster struck the remote China-Nepal border on Wednesday morning, when a massive glacial fracture sent a 10-story-high wall of mixed water, ice, and rock debris rushing downstream through mountain valleys, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed. China’s official state news agency Xinhua clarified that the collapse originated on the southern slope of Nepal’s Lirung Peak, triggering an ice-rock avalanche that quickly morphed into a massive debris flow. The destructive surge traveled more than 20 kilometers before slamming into Gyirong Port, a key border crossing between China and Nepal, devastating communities and energy infrastructure along its path.

    In Nepal, one of the most high-stakes rescue efforts is underway at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric project, where multiple workers are believed to be trapped inside an under-construction tunnel. After days of digging, engineering teams managed to insert a pipe into the blocked passage, and rescuers have already begun pumping oxygen to potential survivors, Nepal’s Home Minister Sudan Gurung announced in an official statement. However, ongoing rainfall and swelling river levels have slowed progress, with national disaster authorities ordering all rescue teams to prioritize safety amid unstable conditions.

    The region is a hub for large-scale hydropower development, and 933 of the missing in Nepal are workers at various energy infrastructure projects, according to official records. Among the unaccounted for are 589 foreign nationals, including trekkers and Hindu pilgrims traveling to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash. The Isha Foundation, an Indian spiritual organization led by guru Sadhguru, confirmed Saturday that 80 of its members were on a group trip in the affected area, and the organization said there were no hopeful signs of survival for the group near the border immigration checkpoint.

    For survivors who escaped the initial flood, the aftermath has been devastating, with many left homeless and waiting anxiously for news of missing loved ones. “All the settlements near the river were swept away. There is nothing left,” said Buddhi Ram Dangol, a resident of Nepal’s Nuwakot district, speaking to AFP. At an army-run rescue coordination hub in Bidur, dozens of relatives gathered outside a base wall covered in lists of rescued survivors, scanning the pages for any trace of their family members. “I have come here looking for my son,” said Kalka Sharda, her voice thick with desperation.

    The disaster has also sparked a global humanitarian response, with multiple countries and international organizations stepping forward to provide emergency aid. The U.S. and Canada have each committed $3.6 million in assistance to Nepal, while the UK has pledged $6.8 million. The UN has released $2.5 million in emergency funding, and the European Union promised $2.3 million Friday. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has allocated more than $1 million for immediate response and launched a global emergency appeal for $31 million to support long-term relief efforts.

    Nepal’s already fragile economy, which has been under significant pressure in recent years, lacks the resources to handle a disaster of this scale. Nepali Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal estimated that the total reconstruction cost could reach “billions of dollars,” and he has made an urgent appeal for specialized international support. Key needs include heavy-lift drones and location technology to find trapped survivors, forensic testing kits to identify recovered bodies, and freezer units to store remains, as bodies submerged in warm river water decompose at an accelerated rate.

    One ongoing secondary risk has complicated rescue operations on both sides of the border: the flood created massive natural dams of debris that formed new unstable lakes, one of which threatened to burst and trigger a second catastrophic flood. In Tibet’s hardest-hit Gyirong County, Chinese authorities temporarily paused rescue operations over the weekend due to this risk. But late Saturday, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported that the lake had begun draining naturally and had been “essentially drained,” according to the country’s Ministry of Water Resources. More than 2,100 rescuers have been deployed to the Gyirong area, including over 500 working in the most devastated zones, Xinhua reported, and authorities have already evacuated 555 stranded tourists and 499 Chinese residents from affected areas.

    As of Sunday, official data from Nepal puts the national death toll at 734, with 2,498 people still missing. Across the border in Tibet, 16 people have been confirmed dead and 546 remain unaccounted for, per Chinese official reports.

    UN climate chief Simon Stiell called the disaster a devastating wake-up call for the international community. “The sudden glacial collapse and flash flood is a devastating reminder of how fragile these mountain environments can be,” he said in a statement, highlighting the growing risk of glacial disasters driven by global climate change in Himalayan regions.

    Officials from both China and Nepal confirmed that the two countries’ foreign ministers held a telephone conversation Saturday to coordinate response efforts, agreeing to share real-time satellite imagery and hydrological data to monitor ongoing flood risks and support rescue operations.

  • Nepal warns of more possible floods as communities grapple with devastation

    Nepal warns of more possible floods as communities grapple with devastation

    DHADING, Nepal – Fresh fears of additional catastrophic flooding are spreading across northern Nepal on Sunday, after disaster management authorities issued an urgent alert for at-risk communities following a sudden rise in water levels along the Bhotekoshi River. The warning comes days after catastrophic flash floods that have already claimed hundreds of lives and left thousands unaccounted for across the cross-border mountain region spanning Nepal and China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.

    Throughout Sunday morning, emergency flood alert notifications were pushed to mobile phones across vulnerable districts, even as search and rescue teams worked to clear debris from the Prithivi Highway — Nepal’s critical transport artery that links the capital Kathmandu to the regions hardest hit by Wednesday’s disaster. In the riverside town of Galchhi, dozens of local residents have clustered on the elevated deck of a nearby bridge to escape low-lying flood zones, watching as churning, sediment-choked water roars past. Onlookers pointed to massive boulders tumbled downstream by the earlier flood surge, while safety officials blew warning whistles to clear people from a narrow suspension bridge spanning the swollen river, fearing it could be swept away.

    The destructive power of the initial flood is visible along every stretch of the riverbank. Entire homes, passenger vehicles and farm tractors now jutt out from thick, grey-brown mud that has buried whole villages in the worst-affected zones. Terraced rice paddies that line the river have been damaged by landslides, with large sections of the fertile farmland collapsing into the rushing water. Multiple spans — large concrete bridges and small pedestrian suspension bridges alike — have been destroyed by the surge, cutting off isolated communities and trapping residents on both sides of the river.

    As of Sunday’s latest official updates, the combined death toll across Nepal and Tibet has climbed to 750, with more than 3,000 people still reported missing. Nepal’s national disaster management agency confirmed 734 deaths in the country, alongside 2,498 unaccounted-for residents. On the Chinese side of the border, authorities have recorded 16 deaths and 546 missing people, a group that includes more than 100 Nepali citizens and travelers from more than a dozen other countries.

    Dharam Raj Uprety, chief executive of Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, told the Associated Press that the new flood warning was issued after Chinese officials notified Nepalese authorities of increased water flow in the river’s upstream section. But for local residents in already affected communities, the steady stream of alerts has brought persistent disruption and exhaustion. Local resident Govind Shrestha described the relentless cycle of evacuations, saying that warnings often force families to flee to higher ground repeatedly, sometimes in the middle of the night amid ongoing rain.

    “It’s really difficult for me. I have a 72-year-old father and 70-year-old mom. I must carry them and I am exhausted. It’s going on like this for those who are still alive,” Shrestha said. Sattan Singh Tamang, a 47-year-old worker who was near a local bridge when Wednesday’s flood hit, noted that the destroyed bridges have split communities, leaving families and neighbors trapped on opposite sides of the river. “Those that are there are now stuck there. Those who are here are stuck here. It’s going to be very difficult,” Tamang said.

    The damage has also wiped out critical local infrastructure: buildings and businesses that survived the initial flood surge remain without power on Sunday, as downed power poles and tangled utility lines lie half-buried in flood sediment. While most of the Prithivi Highway, which carries all key supplies of food, fuel and other essential goods to Kathmandu from across the country, has been reopened for traffic, significant stretches still face major repair challenges, leaving supply chains at risk of disruption.

    AP writers Aijaz Hussain in New Delhi and Shristi Kafle in Kathmandu contributed reporting to this article. The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations, with AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • Iceland EU referendum on a knife edge as counting continues

    Iceland EU referendum on a knife edge as counting continues

    Iceland’s historic public vote on restarting European Union membership negotiations remains too close to call Saturday, with early partial counts showing the two opposing sides separated by a razor-thin margin of just 435 ballots. As counting continues across the small North Atlantic island nation, the tight result has underscored how deeply divided Icelanders remain on the question of deepening their integration with the EU after more than a decade of frozen accession talks.\n\nWith 153,197 of the 270,000 eligible ballots counted so far, public broadcaster RUV reports that 50.1% of voters have rejected the proposal to resume negotiations, while 49.9% have voiced support for moving forward. The outcome will not be confirmed until all remaining ballots are processed, leaving the country waiting for a final result in one of the most closely watched political events in Iceland’s recent history.\n\nThe snap referendum, originally scheduled to take place no later than 2027 under Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir’s centre-left administration, was moved forward amid growing international security tensions across the North Atlantic. These tensions include Russian military’s increased maritime activity near Iceland’s territorial waters and repeated public interest from former U.S. President Donald Trump in acquiring the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, which sits close to Iceland.\n\nHowever, far from security concerns driving public debate, the core of the campaign has centered on the future of Iceland’s $4 billion fishing and marine industry, which accounts for nearly 40% of the country’s total export revenue. Opponents of restarting talks have repeatedly warned that joining the EU would require Iceland to cede partial control of its lucrative exclusive fishing grounds under the bloc’s Common Fisheries Policy, a policy that many Icelandic fishers and industry leaders argue would threaten the country’s most economically vital sector.\n\nIceland first launched its EU accession process back in 2009, in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis that collapsed Iceland’s entire domestic banking system and plunged the country into a deep recession. At the time, joining the EU was widely seen as a path to economic stability and deeper integration with European markets. By 2013, accession talks were well advanced when a Eurosceptic government won national elections and immediately paused negotiations, with fishing rights emerging as the single biggest sticking point that remains unresolved today.\n\nCurrently, Iceland already participates in two key EU frameworks: it is a full member of the EU single market for goods and services and part of the Schengen Area, which eliminates border checks between participating European countries. If voters approve resuming talks and a final accession deal is reached, Iceland would join the EU customs union and eventually adopt the euro as its national currency.\n\nAfter casting her vote in the capital city of Reykjavik on Saturday, Prime Minister Frostadóttir emphasized that the referendum itself represents a key milestone for Icelandic democracy, regardless of the final result. “This is a great day, we’ve been waiting for this for years to be able to have a vote,” she told reporters, adding that her administration will continue its governing agenda no matter which way the result falls.\n\nVoters were asked a direct question on the ballot: “Should Iceland resume accession negotiations with the European Union?” Importantly, a Yes vote would not finalize Iceland’s EU membership; instead, it would only authorize the government to begin negotiating an accession treaty, which would then need to be put to a second public referendum for final approval. Similarly, a No vote would not permanently close the door to EU membership, leaving the possibility open for future governments to revisit the question.\n\nBeyond the dominant economic and fishing debates, security considerations did play a role in campaign discourse. Iceland is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) but maintains no standing military of its own, relying entirely on alliance allies for national defense. The country has been a strong backer of Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, and Icelandic officials have grown increasingly concerned over Russian military activity near the island in recent years. Trump’s repeated comments about seeking control of Greenland have also added to regional security anxieties that influenced the decision to hold the referendum earlier than planned.\n\nAs counting continues, the entire country is on edge waiting for a final result that will shape Iceland’s political and economic trajectory for decades to come.

  • Educators keep 9/11 memory alive for next generation, 25 years on

    Educators keep 9/11 memory alive for next generation, 25 years on

    A quarter-century has passed since the catastrophic September 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people across New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania, but a growing network of educators, volunteer groups, and charitable organizations are racing to preserve the legacy of the tragedy for a generation of American young people born long after the planes struck. Today’s teenagers and younger children have no personal memory of the deadliest attack on U.S. soil, and systemic gaps in national education standards have left many of them with incomplete or fragmented knowledge of the day that reshaped modern U.S. history.

    Unlike core historical events that are embedded in standardized national curricula, there is no federally mandated framework for teaching 9/11 across the United States. Only a small number of U.S. states require 9/11 education, resulting in an uneven patchwork of instruction that varies widely from district to district. To close this gap, independent volunteers, frontline teachers, and nonprofits have stepped forward to lead targeted educational initiatives that bring the tragedy to life far beyond textbook pages.

    One of the most prominent efforts is centered at Wantagh High School, a Long Island institution whose local community lost 12 residents in the 2001 attacks. For years, school leaders noted that students learned about 9/11 the same way they studied World War II or the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack: as a distant historical event that occurred before their lifetimes. Wantagh High Principal Paul Guzzone explains that classroom lectures and online videos can never match the impact of a first-hand visit to the site where the Twin Towers once stood. “You can’t compare the experience of visiting the site with just hearing stories in the classroom or seeing videos online,” the 41-year-old principal said.

    That hands-on impact resonated deeply with 17-year-old Max Avena, who visited the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum on a school trip organized through the initiative. Though Avena grew up hearing stories from close family friends who served as first responders during the attack, he said the on-site visit left him speechless and fundamentally changed his understanding of the tragedy. “You never really realize how real it is, and how the feeling is, until you’re on site in the memorial,” he told reporters.

    To cover the cost of annual student trips to the downtown Manhattan memorial, the Gary Sinise Foundation — a charitable organization best known for its work supporting veterans and first responders — stepped in to fund the visits, later expanding its support to include on-campus memorial projects and expanded educational programming. The foundation already ran a well-regarded World War II education initiative that brought Wantagh students to a New Orleans museum, so expanding to 9/11 education was a natural next step.

    James Ravella, the foundation’s executive vice president, noted that even many new teachers graduating from U.S. colleges today have no personal memory of the 9/11 attacks, making structured outside support even more critical. “It just kind of makes it important that we tell this story and educate as many people as we can, while we can, and while [survivors and first responders] are here,” Ravella said. Guzzone echoed this concern, adding that first-hand, lived memory of the attacks fades a little more each year. Beyond its Wantagh partnership, the foundation now runs professional development programs for teachers in collaboration with the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum, and organizes student trips to both the Pentagon attack site and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where passengers and crew overtook hijackers en route to the U.S. Capitol, crashing the plane and killing all on board.

    For younger elementary school students, organizers have developed age-appropriate digital educational resources to introduce core concepts of the tragedy, sacrifice, and memory. One example is “OOPA’s World of Words,” an online video series created in partnership with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) that teaches basic vocabulary tied to 9/11 — including words like “anniversary,” “emergency,” “hero,” “memory,” and “service” — to children as young as five. The five-part series features first-hand accounts from people touched by the attacks, including an 11-year-old girl whose grandfather was a first responder at the Pentagon.

    Series creator Rupa Mehta, a teacher who plays the titular character OOPA, said she was inspired to launch the project after seeing a young child interviewed on the news on a 9/11 anniversary. The girl expressed deep sadness that her school did not teach about the attacks, saying she felt her family’s legacy of sacrifice had been ignored. “It was in that moment… I thought that we could lend a hand and be a powerful potential partner,” Mehta said. NFFF chief executive Victor Stagnaro noted that the digital resource will remain accessible “for generations to come,” allowing 9/11 first responders to share their stories with their grandchildren while they are still able to do so.

  • Canada installs large Lake Ontario sign in latest jab at US

    Canada installs large Lake Ontario sign in latest jab at US

    A fresh diplomatic and political standoff has erupted between Canada and the United States after U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order unilaterally renaming the shared Great Lake, Lake Ontario, to “Lake America” — triggering a fiery response from top Canadian officials led by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

    Ford, the head of government for the Canadian province that shares its name with the iconic waterway, hit back at Trump’s provocative move over the weekend by unveiling a massive, permanent sign along the Canadian shoreline of the lake emblazoned with the defiant message: “Lake Ontario. Now and Always.” In remarks delivered directly in front of the newly installed sign, Ford made clear that Canada would not back down on the long-standing name. “Long before President Trump, this lake was called Lake Ontario. Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said, adding that Trump’s action was driven by retaliation for Canada’s refusal to back down in trade negotiations.

    The dispute comes on the heels of collapsed bilateral trade talks that have already sparked a new trade war: after the talks fell apart, the U.S. imposed a steep 50% tariff on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, and Canada has pledged to implement “dollar for dollar” reciprocal counter-tariffs starting next month.

    When signing the executive order Thursday, Trump claimed the name change would take effect immediately. While the U.S. president holds broad authority over how domestic geographic features are recognized within U.S. borders, no international regulation requires other sovereign nations to adopt U.S.-imposed names for shared waterways. Canadian officials across all levels of government have uniformly rejected Trump’s order as invalid and meaningless.

    To amplify his announcement, Trump shared multiple AI-generated videos on his social media channels over the weekend. One edited clip shows the president kicking over an existing Lake Ontario sign and replacing it with one that reads “Welcome to Lake America.” A second even more outlandish video depicts a flock of Canada geese edited to have Trump’s signature hairstyle, holding rifles and patrolling the shoreline of what the video labels the newly renamed lake.

    Ford’s public rebuke echoes a statement released earlier by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who also pushed back on the renaming. “Things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario – today and forever,” Carney insisted.

    For context, Lake Ontario is the smallest of the five North American Great Lakes, with a shoreline spanning both the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. Four of the five Great Lakes draw their names from Indigenous North American languages, including Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Erie; the fifth, Lake Superior, takes its name from an anglicized French term.

    Under the terms of Trump’s latest executive order, the U.S. Department of the Interior has 30 days to update the name in the Geographic Names Information Service, the U.S. federal government’s official database of domestic geographic names. This is not the first time Trump has unilaterally renamed a shared international body of water: shortly after returning to the White House in 2025, he issued a similar order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”

    That earlier move also sparked widespread international pushback. The Mexican government rejected the change entirely, arguing that no single nation can unilaterally rename a shared international waterway. The dispute also spilled into the private sector, leading to a legal battle between Mexico and tech giant Google, which opted to adjust its mapping platform to reflect the change for U.S. users. Currently, Google Maps displays “Gulf of America” for users located within the U.S., “Gulf of Mexico” for users in Mexico, and a combined label “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” for users in all other countries.

    The latest renaming clash has further inflamed already tense bilateral relations between the U.S. and Canada, compounding the growing trade rift that preceded the naming dispute.

  • ‘Healey eyes banks and oil tax’ and ‘X Factor comeback’

    ‘Healey eyes banks and oil tax’ and ‘X Factor comeback’

    Five days after catastrophic flash floods swept through the Nepal-Tibet border region, British Sunday newspapers have turned their focus to the growing human cost of the disaster, alongside coverage of shifting geopolitical tensions, domestic political negotiations, and a range of other headline-making stories.

    Leading the international coverage, The Observer confirms the official death toll has climbed to at least 675, with more than 3,000 people still unaccounted for across a 60-mile stretch of landscape left devastated by mud and floodwater. The newspaper’s front page features an image of distraught family members gathering to support one another as they wait for news of missing relatives. The Independent, meanwhile, centers its coverage on the agonizing uncertainty facing these waiting families, highlighting the widespread anguish that has spread through affected communities as rescue operations stretch into their fifth day.

    Turning to European geopolitics, the Mail on Sunday reveals that a senior advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued an explicit warning that Russia could launch a hybrid attack against a drone manufacturing facility located in the United Kingdom. The warning comes as tensions continue to escalate between Moscow and London over the UK’s consistent military and political support for Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

    On the domestic political front, the Sunday Times reports that Prime Minister Andy Burnham has approved a generous pay increase for train drivers operating on the high-speed London-Manchester route, a deal negotiated to head off a planned major strike. The agreement, struck with Avanti West Coast, preserves service on a line connecting London to Burnham’s former political base, where he served as mayor before taking office as prime minister.

    As Chancellor John Healey prepares to unveil his first national budget, the Sunday Telegraph understands Healey is actively considering implementing a new windfall tax targeting profitable banks and oil and gas companies. The policy is being explored to close a growing gap in the UK’s public finances, with the goal of avoiding direct tax increases for ordinary individual taxpayers.

    In entertainment news, The Sun on Sunday has broken the news that British commercial broadcaster ITV is in early discussions to revive the iconic singing competition show *The X Factor*, seven years after the conclusion of the last original UK series. The outlet adds that Simon Cowell, the show’s creator and long-time judge, is expected to return to the program if the reboot moves forward.

    Climate and health coverage from the Daily Star links this summer’s record-breaking UK heatwaves to at least 3,000 excess deaths across the country, adding a stark warning that such deadly heat events will only become more frequent and severe in coming years as climate change accelerates.

    The Sunday Express leads a story on asylum policy, reporting that migrants housed in taxpayer-funded hotels are receiving free condoms through the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). In response to the coverage, NHS England clarified that the provision is part of standard public health services offered to all people residing in the UK, including asylum seekers supported by the state.

    The Sunday Mirror publishes an investigation into a long-running maternity care scandal at Nottingham NHS Trust, where an official review found 520 mothers and infants experienced avoidable harm or death. Grieving parents have spoken out to the paper to express outrage that the trust’s former chief executive Peter Homa, who led the organization during the period of failures, now co-owns a private company that provides maternity training services to the NHS, and has earned substantial income from the business.

    Finally, the Sunday People shares positive medical news: research indicates common cholesterol-lowering medications known as statins can dramatically reduce a patient’s risk of developing dementia, a finding that offers new hope to the more than 10 million people currently taking the drug across the UK.