Global Pulse

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  • The chaotic saga of Kanye West’s planned Russian concerts

    The chaotic saga of Kanye West’s planned Russian concerts

    The planned pair of concerts by American rap icon Kanye West, who performs under the stage name Ye, in Russia has devolved into a chaotic public saga marked by venue withdrawals, internal government division, and widespread public confusion, leaving the future of the shows completely up in the air.

    West, who has been banned from performing in multiple European countries over a history of virulent antisemitic statements and public praise for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, would be the most high-profile Western musician to perform in Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in 2022. For factions within the Russian government, the concerts have emerged as a potential opportunity to push back against widespread narratives that Russia has become culturally and politically isolated in the wake of the war, leading some officials to openly support the shows moving forward.

    However, the controversy surrounding West’s past statements has sparked fierce pushback from other political leaders, particularly given the history of Nazi Germany’s brutal siege of Saint Petersburg—originally scheduled as the host city for the October 10 and 11 shows. Initially, the events were advertised by Moscow-based promoter Say Agency as taking place at Saint Petersburg’s Gazprom Arena, which even shared promotional posts for the concerts on its official Telegram channel. Just one week after the announcement, however, the stadium backed out entirely, issuing a statement that it had “not signed any contracts to lease the stadium for the event,” leaving both promoters and ticket buyers shocked.

    Ticket sales for the shows saw extraordinary early demand: entry-level tickets priced between roughly $100 sold out within hours of going on sale, with premium tickets reaching as high as nearly $2,000. Russian state media reports that more than 100,000 tickets have already been sold, and the venue’s withdrawal sparked immediate anger from fans who had already purchased entry, with many demanding immediate refunds on social media. “Give the people their money back, you clowns,” one user commented on Gazprom Arena’s official Telegram post announcing the withdrawal.

    Promoter Say Agency has pushed back against claims that the concerts are fully cancelled, saying only that it is actively working to find an alternative venue and asking fans to wait for an official update. Local Saint Petersburg outlet Fontanka reports that the decision to pull the venue booking did not originate with the stadium itself, but came from senior federal officials in Moscow, with the outlet citing anonymous sources saying “the concert had not been approved by all the necessary authorities” before being called off via a single high-level phone call.

    Outlets including business news outlet RBK have confirmed that intense debates over whether West should be allowed to perform are ongoing within the Kremlin and Russia’s presidential administration. The fault lines of these debates reportedly fall along generational lines: younger political and media officials, including leadership at Gazprom Media, are said to support allowing the concerts to proceed, while older, more established officials remain deeply skeptical.

    The controversy around West’s past statements runs particularly deep in Russia. The rapper has openly expressed admiration for Hitler on multiple occasions, infamously declaring his “love” for the Nazi leader during a 2022 interview with far-right broadcaster Alex Jones. While West issued a public apology for his past antisemitic comments in 2023 and published a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal in January 2024 attributing his past harmful remarks to his bipolar disorder diagnosis, many Russian public figures remain opposed to his appearance.

    Among the critics is Ekaterina Mizulina, head of Russia’s influential internet safety watchdog, who has pointed out that Saint Petersburg suffered a devastating 900-day siege by Nazi forces during World War II that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, calling West an “admirer of Adolf Hitler” in her criticism of the planned shows. Even some political figures who have opposed banning West have condemned his past actions: lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, best known as the architect of Russia’s controversial LGBTQ propaganda restrictions, called West’s past statements “vile, obscene things” but argued against barring him from performing.

    In the week since Gazprom Arena withdrew, multiple alternative venues across Russia have stepped forward to offer to host the controversial shows. Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, the largest sports venue in Russia by capacity, confirmed its chief executive has said the venue would “consider” hosting the concerts if approached by promoters. Even a 1,500-capacity arena at a medieval-themed museum near the southern Russian town of Anapa has offered to host, with museum head Vladimir Vladimirov telling state news agency RIA “we have a wonderful arena here… Everyone will fit.”

    Large-scale concerts by A-list Western musicians have become extremely rare in Russia following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with a small handful of mainstream artists including Jason Derulo and Flo Rida having performed in the country since the war began. West himself has had multiple planned shows cancelled across Europe and North America in recent years following his public antisemitic and pro-Nazi comments, and the rapper has not yet issued any public statement on the current controversy surrounding his Russian concerts. According to Fontanka’s reporting, West has already received a multi-million dollar down payment for the planned Saint Petersburg dates, adding further financial stakes to the ongoing uncertainty.

  • Cambodia claims it has wiped out online scam compounds after a sweeping crackdown

    Cambodia claims it has wiped out online scam compounds after a sweeping crackdown

    For years, Cambodia has drawn global condemnation as one of the world’s primary hubs for large-scale transnational online scam operations, criminal enterprises that have bilked billions of dollars from victims across the globe while fueling rampant human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Now, the Cambodian government is making a bold assertion: it has completely cleared its territory of the notorious fortified compounds that hosted these illegal activities.

    The announcement came Friday in an official statement from Cambodia’s Ad-Hoc Commission for Combating Online Scams (CCOS), which detailed the agency’s progress at a closed-door briefing held Thursday. The meeting, led by CCOS chair and Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, was attended by roughly 50 representatives from foreign diplomatic missions and international organizations monitoring the crackdown.

    According to the statement, the declaration of total eradication follows a months-long aggressive enforcement campaign that included strict legal action against perpetrators, criminal networks, and corrupt public officials found to be complicit in the scams, alongside the formal establishment of a comprehensive national cybersecurity legal framework to prevent a resurgence of the criminal activity.

    Chhay Sinarith outlined key metrics of the government’s crackdown, noting that between July 2025 and August 20, 2026, Cambodian law enforcement opened investigations into 793 suspected scam locations, conducted raids on 624 sites, and took nearly 30,000 suspects from 39 different nationalities into custody. Authorities also rescued and deported 58,266 foreign nationals who had been trapped in the compounds, he said, while 3,477 criminal suspects from 29 nationalities were arrested and remanded into pre-trial detention.

    The high-profile campaign scored two major wins with the arrest and extradition of two alleged scam kingpins: Chen Zhi and Li Xiong, influential Chinese businessmen who had previously obtained Cambodian citizenship. The pair were taken into custody earlier this year and extradited to face charges in their home country.

    The government’s push to eliminate the scam operations was also backed by legislative action: in March, Cambodian lawmakers unanimously passed a new anti-scam law that carries maximum penalties of life imprisonment for convicted organizers, fulfilling a prior government pledge to shutter all scam compounds by the end of April.

    Despite these sweeping claims of success, independent analysts and anti-trafficking organizations that have long tracked Cambodia’s scam networks are not fully convinced. The criminal operations, which have been linked to an estimated $88.3 billion to $114.1 billion in global losses in 2025 alone according to a July report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, are notorious for combining financial fraud with grotesque human rights abuses. Thousands of foreign nationals are lured to Cambodia with false promises of legitimate jobs, then forced into near-slavery to run “romance scams”, cryptocurrency fraud, and other schemes targeting victims worldwide.

    Mark Taylor, an independent international anti-trafficking consultant and former head of an anti-trafficking program in Cambodia, cast sharp doubt on the government’s announcement in comments to the Associated Press. “The strong confidence placed in the government’s assertion that all scamming operations in Cambodia have been eradicated is severely misplaced,” Taylor said, adding that “there are credible indicators that significant scamming operations continue and that recruitment of foreign workers into Cambodia for scamming work continues.”

    Vietnam-based anti-trafficking group Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation struck a more cautious tone, acknowledging tangible progress while stopping short of confirming full eradication. “There is no doubt that some of Cambodia’s criminal compounds used for online scamming have closed,” said Michael Brosowski, the organization’s founder and strategic director. Brosowski noted that his group has seen a drastic drop in calls for help from people trafficked into Cambodian scam compounds, though those calls have not ceased entirely. “We hope that the Cambodian government will keep its commitment to close down these compounds and give greater protection to victims of this crime,” he added.

  • Violence breaks out in Ceuta as migrant crisis continues

    Violence breaks out in Ceuta as migrant crisis continues

    One month after a historic mass migration event that saw over 72,000 people cross into Ceuta — Spain’s North African exclave bordering Morocco — the tense standoff between long-term local residents and the remaining stranded migrants has boiled over into open violence, exposing deep rifts in Spanish national politics and reigniting a long-running territorial dispute between Madrid and Rabat.

    On 30 and 31 July, tens of thousands of migrants, most of whom swam around a reinforced border fence to enter Ceuta from Moroccan territory, staged the largest single mass crossing at the Spanish-Moroccan border in modern history. Ceuta’s mayor confirms that at least 100 migrants lost their lives during the dangerous crossing. While the vast majority of arrivals returned to Morocco within hours of entering the exclave, several thousand — including a large number of unaccompanied children — have remained in Ceuta, sleeping rough on public beaches and city streets with limited access to basic services.

    Anti-migrant demonstrations that began earlier this month initially stayed largely peaceful, but growing frustration over public safety strains and pressure on local public services has pushed protests toward increasing violence. On Thursday, dozens of local residents blocked Red Cross aid workers from distributing food and clean water to the stranded migrants. Following the blockade, a group of demonstrators set fire to informal migrant encampments on Trampolín Beach, the primary site where migrants have been sheltering, and violent clashes broke out between protesters and local police.

    The Thursday violence came just hours after Spanish authorities arrested 12 migrants on charges of stone-throwing against a Spanish military vehicle. The attack shattered the vehicle’s windows and left all four military personnel inside injured. That same morning, local media received multiple reports of civilian vigilante groups patrolling city streets to hunt down and chase migrants. Multiple journalists and media crews covering the unrest have also reported being threatened by demonstrators.

    The crisis has put the national Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez under intense fire from opposition parties, who accuse the administration of failing to manage the emergency effectively. Ceuta’s conservative mayor Juan Jesús Vivas, a member of the center-right opposition People’s Party (PP), framed the unrest as a consequence of unaddressed pressure on the exclave’s residents, telling Spanish broadcaster Antena 3 that “this is a city which has been under pressure, which has the right to normality,” adding that “the dignity of Spain is a stake right now in Ceuta.”

    Sánchez’s government has hit back at opposition criticism, blaming right-wing parties for stoking public division and anti-migrant sentiment to score political points. In a statement to a congressional committee, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska noted that “we have heard during these weeks rhetoric and comments that contribute to the stigmatisation of immigrants and which feed social division at a moment when what we need is responsibility and statesmanship.”

    A far-right Vox Party lawmaker, José María Figaredo, is currently under investigation for a potential hate crime following comments he made shortly after the mass crossing, when he called for migrants to be “hunted down, one by one.” PP congressmember Javier Celaya, who represents Ceuta, doubled down on opposition rhetoric Friday, arguing that “the [government] treats the invaders as victims when the real victims are us, the people of Ceuta.”

    Local frustrations have been amplified by the national government’s recent plan to relocate stranded migrants from beach encampments into underused public buildings, including local sports centers, to process asylum claims in an orderly fashion and return those ineligible for protection to Morocco. Vivas and many local residents oppose the plan, citing concerns that relocation would move migrants into densely populated residential areas, worsening perceived public safety risks.

    Earlier this week, the national government took over central management of the crisis from local authorities, after widespread criticism of its initial slow response to the emergency. Defense Minister Margarita Robles issued a public apology to Ceuta residents who “may have felt, or who even still feel, abandoned or not sufficiently cared,” as the administration unveiled plans to overhaul Spain’s outdated national immigration laws. On Friday, all political parties represented in Ceuta’s local assembly signed a joint statement condemning the recent wave of violence.

    Beyond the domestic unrest, the crisis has also reignited longstanding geopolitical tensions between Spain and Morocco. Right-wing and far-left politicians in Spain have accused Morocco of orchestrating the mass crossing to exert political pressure on Madrid, pointing to past instances where Morocco has adjusted border enforcement to advance its political claims. Prime Minister Sánchez and his Socialist Party reject that accusation, framing Morocco as a reliable diplomatic partner that facilitated the immediate return of most migrants after the crossing.

    Morocco has reaffirmed its longstanding territorial claim to both Ceuta and its sister autonomous exclave Melilla, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Spanish government. Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares told congressional leaders that he “roundly rejected” Morocco’s claims, stating clearly: “I don’t speak about, nor have I spoken about, nor are we going to speak about Spain’s territorial integrity with Morocco or with anyone else.”

  • Watch: Puppy rescued from drain using a bucket and cheese

    Watch: Puppy rescued from drain using a bucket and cheese

    A charming tale of compassion and quick thinking has emerged from Florida, where a young puppy trapped in a narrow underground drain was saved in an unconventional rescue operation that relied on two simple tools: a common bucket and a tasty wedge of cheese.

    According to official details released by the Tampa Police Department, the rescue unfolded after local residents spotted the stranded puppy and called authorities for help. First responders faced a tricky challenge: the confined space of the drain made it difficult to reach the frightened animal directly. Instead of relying on heavy equipment that could risk harming the puppy, the rescue team crafted a simple, gentle solution. They lowered a bucket baited with cheese into the drain, relying on the puppy’s hunger to coax it into the container. The plan worked perfectly: the curious, hungry puppy climbed into the bucket, and responders were able to lift it safely to the surface unharmed.

    Following the successful rescue, the puppy was taken into the care of local animal control services, where it received a quick health check and was placed up for adoption. Unlike many stray animals that wait weeks or even months for a loving home, this lucky puppy did not wait long. Tampa Police confirmed that shortly after it was taken into the system, a new adoptive family stepped forward to give the young dog a permanent, loving home.

    The entire rescue was captured on camera, and the footage has quickly spread across social media, drawing warm reactions from animal lovers around the region. The story serves as a reminder of how simple problem-solving and a commitment to helping vulnerable animals can turn a dangerous situation into a happy ending.

  • ‘Not sorry’: Israeli officer who killed international aid workers in Gaza justifies strike

    ‘Not sorry’: Israeli officer who killed international aid workers in Gaza justifies strike

    Nearly two years after a targeted Israeli drone strike in Gaza killed seven humanitarian aid workers with the global non-profit World Central Kitchen, the Israeli army officer who personally authorized the attack has publicly defended his actions and stated he feels no remorse for the deaths. In a recorded interview with Australia’s public broadcaster ABC conducted in October 2025, Colonel Nochi Mendel, who commanded the April 1, 2024 operation that struck the WCK aid convoy, confirmed he stood firmly by the order he issued.

    The fatal strike claimed the lives of aid workers from five nations: Palestine, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Poland, triggering international outcry in its immediate aftermath. Mendel, who was removed from his position as chief of staff of the Israeli military’s elite Nahal infantry brigade shortly after the incident, acknowledged full responsibility for the strike in the interview. “I’m the commander, and I’m the one who gave the order to carry out the operation. I didn’t run away from the situation. I said I gave the order; don’t look for anyone else,” he told reporters. While Mendel admitted he had not intended to kill the WCK team, he doubled down on his stance, adding: “I’m not sorry for what I did.”

    Within the Israeli military’s own post-attack investigation, the strike was concluded to have been the product of multiple cascading failures, including serious breaches of the IDF’s own rules of engagement and standard operating procedures. Earlier this year, however, the Israeli military announced it would not launch any criminal investigation into the incident, a decision that drew immediate and fierce condemnation from the three Western nations whose citizens were killed: the UK, Canada, and Australia. In a joint public statement, the three nations described the decision as “shameful”, noting that the Israeli military had failed to offer any substantive explanation for its refusal to pursue criminal accountability. The countries also emphasized that the announcement, made on World Humanitarian Day, was “particularly egregious”. “The victims of this incident and their families deserve justice and accountability, and we will continue to seek answers on their behalf,” the statement read.

    In his interview, Mendel sought to deflect blame for the fatal incident, blaming what he claimed were mistakes on WCK’s part and the inherent operational complexity of military activity in Gaza for the deaths. He repeated the unsubstantiated claim that WCK workers and Hamas operatives had been intermingled in the area on the night of the strike, going further to accuse the humanitarian organization of lacking neutrality. “So the WCK, too – unfortunately, they aren’t really a neutral organisation. Not really an organisation you can say is innocent and completely clean,” he said. “It had ties to Hamas,” he added.

    World Central Kitchen has forcefully rejected Mendel’s allegations as baseless and defamatory. A WCK spokesperson told ABC that the claims represent the latest effort to shift blame away from the Israeli military’s own failures in the strike. “The individual making these slanderous claims has no credibility. He was directly involved in the decisions that led to the 1 April strikes and was immediately removed from his post for serious failures and breaches of standard operating procedure,” the spokesperson said. The organization reaffirmed its demand for full accountability, stating: “We demand truth and justice for our seven colleagues who were killed, through a full, independent investigation into the attack.”

  • The missing in Nepal-Tibet flash floods

    The missing in Nepal-Tibet flash floods

    Devastating flash floods and landslides that hit the remote Nepal-Tibet border region have left a massive trail of destruction, with updated official figures released Friday showing the number of people unaccounted for has surged dramatically to more than 2,400, and at least 584 lives have been confirmed lost. Disaster response officials warn that these casualty numbers are expected to shift further in the coming days, a common scenario in the chaotic aftermath of large-scale natural disasters when search and rescue operations are still ongoing.

    Breaking down the latest data from authorities on both sides of the border, Nepal’s national disaster management agency raised its count of missing people on Nepal’s side of the border to 1,924 on Friday. The previous day, Chinese authorities reported 558 people missing on the Tibet side of the border, and no updated figures were released by Beijing on Friday. Combining the two sets of data brings the confirmed total of missing people across the entire affected border region to at least 2,482, representing an increase of more than 1,000 in just 24 hours.

    A large share of the missing are foreign nationals, including international tourists and cross-border workers. On Friday, Nepal’s disaster agency recorded 517 foreigners still unaccounted for on its territory. Adding the 260 foreigners reported missing by Chinese officials on the Tibet side on Thursday, the total number of foreign missing across the region reaches at least 777.

    Nepal’s national tourism board released separate tracking data on Friday, which puts the number of tourists of all nationalities out of contact at 622, 473 of whom are international visitors. The board also confirmed that 121 tourists stranded by the disaster have already been pulled to safety, though a full unified count of all rescued people, including local residents and foreign workers, has not yet been released to the public.

    Across the entire affected area, the confirmed death toll now stands at 584: 579 fatalities recorded by Nepali authorities, and five reported by China.

    On Nepal’s side of the border, the tourism board counts 149 Nepali tourists among the 622 unaccounted for, though the national disaster agency lists a lower figure of 127. As of Friday, the full number of local non-tourist residents still missing across Nepal’s affected districts remains unclear, but informal estimates from officials suggest the figure runs into the hundreds.

    Multiple countries have now confirmed that their citizens are among the missing. China’s foreign ministry confirmed Thursday that nearly 100 Chinese nationals are unaccounted for in Nepal; Nepal’s tourism board separately reports eight Chinese missing, with 16 already rescued. These numbers do not include the 558 people missing on the Chinese side of the border.

    India has 98 citizens missing in Nepal, with 85 already rescued, according to Nepal’s latest tourism board data. U.S. officials reported Thursday that 90 American citizens were missing, with three rescued and no confirmed U.S. fatalities; Nepal’s tourism board now puts the number of U.S. missing at 65, with two rescued.

    Ukraine has 61 citizens missing in Nepal per Friday’s Nepali data, though Ukraine’s foreign ministry pegged the number at 56 as of Thursday evening. Other countries with large numbers of citizens unaccounted for include Malaysia (51), Australia (39 per Australian officials, 35 per Nepali data), the United Kingdom (33), Latvia (29), and Canada (25 per Nepal, 30 across both Nepal and Tibet per Canadian officials). Nine South Koreans, nine Singaporeans, nine Russians, eight Germans and smaller groups from dozens of other nations are also missing, with multiple countries reporting that a small number of their citizens have already been rescued.

    Not all missing foreign nationals have had their nationalities publicly broken down: the 260 foreigners missing on the Chinese side of the border have not been sorted by nationality, and the nationalities of non-tourist missing people in Nepal also have not been released publicly. Search and rescue operations are continuing across the hard-hit border region, with teams working to reach remote cut-off areas to locate survivors and recover bodies.

  • UN agency warns of 17,000 children in urgent need of assistance as aid reaches some Nepal survivors

    UN agency warns of 17,000 children in urgent need of assistance as aid reaches some Nepal survivors

    Friday marked the first day that life-saving humanitarian aid reached vulnerable communities in Nepal, after catastrophic flash floods tore through the rugged mountainous border zone between Nepal and China. As rescue crews continue to clear mud and debris to reach cut-off areas, the full scale of the disaster is slowly coming into focus, leaving thousands displaced and seeking safety in makeshift relief camps run by the Nepali army.

    In Nuwakot, one of the hardest-hit districts located just a short distance from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, entire villages were erased by surging floodwaters in less than an hour. What was not swept away remains blanketed in thick sediment and mud: fragments of a local golden temple poke through the sand, while the carcass of a drowned buffalo lies abandoned in the open. Survivors who lost their homes have initially gathered in roadside tea shops, waiting for evacuation and assistance.

    The international humanitarian community has warned of widespread urgent needs in the wake of the disaster. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirms that at least 17,000 children require immediate life-saving support, with 18 schools completely destroyed and another 20 damaged beyond immediate use. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that more than 93,000 people have been impacted by the floods, all facing severe shortages of food, shelter and basic supplies.

    Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority announced Friday that the number of people listed as missing has doubled to nearly 2,000, as search teams continue to recover bodies and survey damaged areas. A total of 14,829 security personnel have been deployed to lead search and rescue operations, with drones used to scan hard-to-reach, high-risk areas that are too dangerous for ground teams to access.

    Rescued people are transported by helicopter to Maithali Barrack, a former military training facility in Nuwakot that has been converted into a main relief camp and emergency shelter. Helicopters rotate constantly between the camp and flood zones, bringing in new survivors and critical supplies, while anxious family members line the barbed wire perimeter of the camp, waiting for word of loved ones.

    An army medic, speaking on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, confirmed that those receiving medical care at the camp include local residents, foreign tourists and Chinese workers pulled from the flood zone. Severe medical cases, such as a pregnant woman who went into labor at the camp, are immediately airlifted to fully equipped hospitals in nearby urban centers.

    Minors separated from their families during the chaos of the floods are housed separately at the camp, with staff working around the clock to reunite them with relatives. For many families, however, the camp has become a site of mourning: bodies recovered from flood zones are stored behind colored tarps as workers wait for relatives to identify them.

    Sixty-two-year-old Chanda Lal Chitrakar, a local tea shop owner who survived the disaster by fleeing to higher ground, shared his account of the morning the flood hit. Having lived through severe flooding the previous year, he initially downplayed the government warning messages sent to his phone, only closing his shop’s doors and windows instead of evacuating. After less than an hour, he saw a massive wall of water rushing down from the surrounding hills, so tall it obscured the top of the area’s tallest tree. He fled to a high hill behind the local police station with nothing but the clothes on his back and his phone, only able to breathe easily once he reached the summit.

    One local school in Nuwakot has been repurposed as a temporary aid distribution hub, where nongovernmental organizations have been handing out critical supplies including solar panels, clothing and basic hygiene products. For Kanchi Nepali, a flood survivor who lost everything, the small donation she received was life-changing. “What I’ve been given today is worth more than a million,” she said. “I have no food, no shelter, no utensils to cook with. Only my body survived.”

    This reporting on climate and environmental disaster is supported by multiple private foundations, with The Associated Press retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • Norway mourns King Harald as Haakon VIII ascends throne

    Norway mourns King Harald as Haakon VIII ascends throne

    Norway has entered a period of national mourning following the peaceful death of its long-reigning and widely adored King Harald V at the age of 89, who passed away early Friday morning at Oslo’s Rikshospitalet while receiving treatment for a rare blood disorder he had been suffering from for a week. Within hours of the official announcement of his death, thousands of mourners streamed to the gates of the Royal Palace in Oslo, laying bouquets of flowers, national flags, and handwritten tributes, including a lit candle inscribed with the simple word “thanks” that captured the collective gratitude of the nation. Many in the crowd openly wept, sharing personal stories of connection to the monarch who was widely known as the “people’s king” for his approachable, empathetic leadership.

    Immediately after the official confirmation of his father’s passing, 53-year-old Haakon VIII convened an extraordinary meeting of the Council of State with senior government ministers. Following the gathering, the new monarch confirmed he would retain the Norwegian royal family’s centuries-old motto “All for Norway” during his reign. Haakon’s wife Mette-Marit is now formally recognized as Queen, while his 22-year-old daughter Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra stands next in the line of succession, a position secured by a 1990 change to Norway’s succession laws that granted equal inheritance rights to firstborn female heirs. Ingrid Alexandra stood beside her father during Friday’s official meeting, marking her first public appearance in her new formal role as heir apparent.

    Tributes to King Harald V have poured in from across Norway and the globe. European royal houses, including Britain’s King Charles III – who shares a second-cousin familial tie with Harald through his mother Queen Elizabeth II – joined heads of state, political leaders, and public figures in honoring his decades of service. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who laid a floral tribute at the palace and signed the official book of condolences after meeting the new king, emphasized that the entire country was “united in grief and gratitude.” In a televised national address, Støre noted that Harald’s legacy of steady, inclusive leadership would endure, extending particular sympathy to Queen Sonja, who was set to celebrate her 58th wedding anniversary with Harald on the day after his death.

    Public figures across Norwegian society have also shared their remembrances. Star national footballer Erling Haaland, who met Harald at the palace earlier this summer following Norway’s performance at the FIFA World Cup, posted a public tribute on Instagram thanking the late king for “everything you meant to Norway.” For many Norwegians, including new residents and immigrants, Harald’s ability to make all members of society feel welcome defined his legacy. “He made us feel at home and he made us feel loved. So he was like a grandfather that I never had,” Biteya Terfassa, an Ethiopian-born Oslo resident, told reporters outside the palace Friday.

    In a formal military tribute to the late king, the Norwegian Armed Forces fired a 21-gun salute at noon from Akershus Fortress in central Oslo. Later on Friday, a formal procession carried Harald’s remains from Rikshospitalet’s chapel to the Royal Palace, ahead of a formal funeral that has not yet been scheduled. Norway’s official period of national mourning will remain in place until the day of the funeral, with all flags across the country flying at half-mast, public portraits of the king displayed, and moments of silence held at all official and professional events. All non-essential work-related social gatherings have been canceled or postponed, including the planned wedding of Oslo Mayor Anne Lindboe, who rescheduled her own ceremony to honor the mourning period.

    Haakon VIII assumes the throne at an unusually challenging juncture for the Norwegian royal family, which has faced a series of high-profile scandals and health crises over the past year. Earlier this year, Queen Mette-Marit faced intense public scrutiny after revelations emerged of a three-year friendship with disgraced convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, for which she issued a public apology. Later in 2026, she underwent a life-saving lung transplant to treat pulmonary fibrosis, a condition she has lived with since 2018. Medical officials have stated she will not be deemed medically stable until 2027, meaning the new king must balance his demanding new official duties with ongoing care and support for his wife.

    Additional controversy has come from Marius Borg Høiby, Mette-Marit’s son from a previous relationship, who was raised as part of the royal family after Haakon married Mette-Marit. In June, Høiby was convicted of rape and multiple related offenses, and sentenced to four years in prison, a ruling he is currently appealing. Though Høiby holds no formal royal title, his high profile within the royal household has drawn sustained negative attention to the family.

    Despite King Harald V retaining high personal approval ratings until his death, polling published earlier this year by Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten found public support for the monarchy itself has fallen from 72% in 2024 to 54% currently. Still, royal analysts interviewed by the BBC noted that Haakon VIII is widely viewed as a respected, hard-working public figure, and expressed confidence that he can steady the institution and navigate the current challenges facing his family and reign.

  • United Nations talks in Mongolia expose growing drought crisis as climate impacts worsen

    United Nations talks in Mongolia expose growing drought crisis as climate impacts worsen

    ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia — After 12 days of intensive negotiations, delegates from nearly 200 nations concluded the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) biennial summit Friday, leaving the Mongolian capital with landmark funding commitments for land restoration but without resolving a years-long deadlock over a proposed global legally binding drought pact.
    The summit convened amid growing alarm over accelerating land degradation across the globe: UNCCD data confirms 40 percent of the world’s total land area is already degraded, a crisis that erodes soil fertility, disrupts water storage, and threatens the livelihoods of billions of people. Yasmine Fouad, executive secretary of the UNCCD, told reporters that drought, amplified by rising global temperatures, is spreading to regions once considered low-risk for dry conditions, growing more frequent, intense and prolonged than at any point in recorded history.
    Experts at the conference emphasized a underrecognized link between land health and drought resilience: unlike the common framing of drought as purely a product of insufficient rainfall, modern research shows pre-existing land degradation drastically worsens dry period impacts. Healthy, well-managed soil acts as a natural water reservoir, absorbing and retaining moisture to sustain crops, grasslands and ecosystems through extended dry spells. Degraded soils, by contrast, shed water rapidly, lose agricultural productivity, and leave communities far more vulnerable to erratic rainfall and rising temperatures. This interconnectedness means water management cannot be separated from land health, Fouad noted, arguing that sustainable water systems depend entirely on healthy, productive soils.
    This interconnectedness is particularly critical for global food security, said Joao Campari, global leader for food and agriculture at WWF International. Treating land and water as separate policy issues ignores the basic requirements for stable food production, Campari explained: without access to both healthy land and reliable water, agricultural systems cannot function. The pressure on global land resources is set to intensify dramatically in coming decades: UN projections show the world will need to produce 50 percent more food by 2050 than it did in 2012 to feed a growing population. But expanding agricultural production by clearing natural grasslands and savannas only worsens land degradation, releases stored carbon from soils into the atmosphere, and reduces landscapes’ ability to store water. Land degradation also amplifies the frequency and severity of sand and dust storms, Fouad added: while these storms travel across continents through the air, their origins lie in unsustainable land management that leaves topsoil exposed. Restoring native vegetation and improving land management practices keeps soil anchored and reduces the intensity of these events.
    Despite the deadlock on the drought agreement, the summit delivered tangible progress on funding for land restoration efforts. Delegates launched a new global rangelands initiative backed by $1.2 billion across 45 targeted projects, and the Asian Development Bank announced an additional $2 billion to combat land degradation across the Asia-Pacific region. Rangelands—which include grasslands, savannas, and other grazing lands that support pastoral communities—cover 54 percent of the Earth’s total land surface and sustain roughly 2 billion people globally. Campari warned that these ecosystems are being converted to other land uses at four times the rate of the world’s forests, and hold twice as much carbon in their soils as is currently present in the atmosphere. Clearing these lands for agricultural expansion releases massive volumes of greenhouse gases even when few trees are cut, he added, making their protection critical to both climate and food security goals.
    Even with new pledges, global land restoration efforts face a massive annual funding gap. UN estimates show $355 billion in annual investment is required through 2030 to meet existing global land restoration commitments, but current annual investment totals only $77 billion, leaving a $278 billion shortfall. Private capital contributes just 6 percent of current global investment in land restoration, and most existing national drought plans lack the funding needed to turn early warning systems, sustainable water management and adaptive agriculture into on-the-ground action. While 70 countries now maintain national drought plans, up from just three in 2013, most remain unimplemented due to lack of resources. To address this gap, summit participants announced a new Drought Resilience Investment Facility, designed to mobilize up to $400 million in combined public and private capital for projects focused on water security, sustainable agriculture, nature-based solutions and land restoration.
    Negotiators left Ulaanbaatar agreeing to defer a decision on the proposed legally binding global drought agreement until the next UNCCD summit, scheduled to take place in Egypt in two years—a delay that marks the second consecutive deferral of the decision. But many stakeholders rejected calls to wait for a formal global agreement to act. “We cannot wait for COP18 for solutions,” said Esther Penunia, secretary general of the Asian Farmers Association. “We know we have solutions and we can do them as long as we have the necessary resources.”
    Fouad echoed that call, urging governments to shift from planning to investment, and to create inclusive national platforms that bring private companies, local communities, women and young people into the process of developing projects and attracting financing to address land degradation and drought resilience.
    This reporting is part of AP’s ongoing global climate and environment coverage, which receives philanthropic funding from private foundations, with AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • Fed has ‘work to do’ if price rises don’t ease for Americans, Warsh says

    Fed has ‘work to do’ if price rises don’t ease for Americans, Warsh says

    The annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, a high-profile gathering that draws central bankers, senior government officials, and leading academics from across the globe to debate pressing economic challenges, kicked off this week with a stark warning from the newly appointed leader of the U.S. Federal Reserve about persistent inflationary pressures.

    Kevin Warsh, who was tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the central bank in May, used his first keynote address at the Wyoming-based conference to lay out his policy stance, noting that while summer inflation readings came in better than many forecasters had projected, the data has not yet shown that underlying cost-of-living pressures have meaningfully improved for U.S. households.

    Warsh emphasized that with annual inflation still running well above the Fed’s long-standing 2% target – the latest official data puts 12-month price growth at 3.4% as of July – the central bank’s top priority right now must be taming rising prices. “Here is my standard: We must be confident that underlying inflation is moving to our objective, clearly and at sufficient speed. Otherwise, we have work to do,” he told attendees.

    While Warsh explicitly cautioned that his remarks should not be interpreted as binding forward guidance for future rate decisions, his comments have immediately shifted market expectations for the Fed’s upcoming September 15-16 policy meeting, where officials will set the federal funds rate. In addition to signaling that further tightening remains on the table if inflation does not cool fast enough, Warsh also argued that the Fed’s post-2008 practice of providing explicit forward guidance on future rate moves has outlived its usefulness.

    “Oversharing policy deliberations and overcommitting to future decisions can lead markets, businesses, and households astray,” he said, adding that the practice also limits the Fed’s “freedom to make the right calls when it’s time to decide.”

    The Fed has held interest rates steady at a range of 3.5% to 3.75% for five consecutive meetings through July, as officials balanced inflation concerns against broader economic uncertainty. Persistent tensions between the U.S. and Iran have driven a sharp surge in global oil prices in recent months, keeping upward pressure on energy and broader consumer costs.

    Following Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech, CME Group data shows that bond and interest rate markets have sharply increased their bets on a September rate hike. Analysts at Capital Economics noted that Warsh delivered a “far clearer – and hawkish – message” than expected, leaving the door open to an earlier rate increase than markets had previously priced in.

    “Hikes are not guaranteed, but Warsh is now at least suggesting he is on board with them if economic growth remains strong and monthly core Personal Consumption Expenditures price growth remains a bit too firm,” the firm’s analysts wrote in a note to clients.

    Rate hikes work to cool inflation by raising borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, encouraging lower spending that in turn eases upward pressure on prices. While higher rates deliver better returns for savings accounts, they also push up costs for mortgages, auto loans, and credit card debt, and increase the interest payments the U.S. government owes on its national debt.

    In a development that underscores the growing fiscal pressure facing the U.S., rising interest payments have now pushed the total national debt past the $40 trillion mark, more than doubling over the past decade across both the Trump and Biden administrations. Data from the Congress Joint Economic Committee shows the debt is growing at a staggering rate of roughly $90,000 per second, or $7.8 billion per day.

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently announced a plan to buy back more government debt in an effort to lower overall borrowing costs, but market optimism around the measure faded quickly after the announcement.

    The Fed’s September rate decision will also carry significant political weight, as the U.S. approaches upcoming mid-term elections, with voters across the country already listing affordability and rising living costs as one of their top policy concerns. President Trump, who appointed Warsh to lead the Fed, has a well-documented history of criticizing previous Fed chair Jerome Powell, repeatedly pressing for steep rate cuts and arguing that rate hikes hold back U.S. economic growth. Analysts and political observers will be closely watching Trump’s reaction to whatever decision the Fed makes next month.