Global Pulse

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  • A sari for Mars: Outfit worn by Indian ‘rocket woman’ at US museum

    A sari for Mars: Outfit worn by Indian ‘rocket woman’ at US museum

    A garment deeply tied to one of India’s most groundbreaking space milestones is now a featured exhibit at one of the world’s most prestigious science museums, bringing the story of women in global space exploration to tens of thousands of annual visitors.

    Nandini Harinath, a leading Indian space scientist who served as Deputy Operations Director for the Mangalyaan mission—India’s first ever attempt to place a spacecraft in Martian orbit—donned a vibrant red and blue silk sari, a gift from her father, on what she calls the most critical day of the entire project. That day, 1 December 2013, Harinath and her team at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) gathered in the mission control room to execute the trans-Mars injection maneuver, pushing the Mangalyaan probe out of Earth’s orbit and onto its 300-month journey to the Red Planet. In a 2016 interview, Harinath described the moment as a do-or-die juncture: every decision the team made that day would determine whether the years of work that went into the mission would end in success or failure. To Harinath, saris have always been her go-to attire for major professional moments and events where she represents India’s space program, making this silk piece the natural choice for the mission’s most high-stakes day.

    Mangalyaan successfully entered Martian orbit in September 2014, cementing India’s place in history as just the fourth national or geopolitical entity to accomplish the feat. When a photograph of sari-clad women from ISRO celebrating the mission’s success went viral across global social media, it upended long-held stereotypes that framed aerospace engineering and space science as male-dominated fields in India. While ISRO later clarified that the women pictured were administrative staff, the agency also emphasized that multiple female scientists, including Harinath, held core roles on the mission and were present in the control room for the critical injection maneuver.

    That viral image caught the attention of Matt Shindell, curator of space history at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., who found the story of India’s “Rocket Women” deeply compelling. In 2020, Shindell reached out to Harinath via email to discuss adding an artifact tied to the Mangalyaan mission to the Smithsonian’s collections. After discussing what object could best capture the spirit of the mission and Harinath’s role in it, the pair settled on the iconic sari she wore that day in 2013.

    Once the sari and its matching blue blouse arrived at the museum, a textile conservator even turned to YouTube tutorials to learn how to properly drape the traditional garment for display on a museum mannequin. Shindell draws a parallel between Harinath’s sari and another iconic artifact in the museum’s collection: the flight vest worn by NASA Flight Control Chief Gene Kranz during the 1970 Apollo 13 mission, when he led the emergency operations that brought the imperiled crew safely back to Earth. Both garments are tangible reminders of the human decision-makers who stood at the center of historic space milestones, rather than just the technology that made those milestones possible.

    While the Smithsonian already holds a small number of Indian artifacts in its collections, most are tied to India’s air force or commercial aviation industry, and the museum counts a 2007 commemorative silver tray ISRO presented to science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke for his 90th birthday among its existing ISRO-related holdings. Harinath’s sari marks the first artifact from India added to the museum’s interplanetary science collection, and it is also the first sari of any kind in the museum’s permanent holdings.

    Today, the sari is on display in the museum’s “Futures in Space” gallery, positioned directly alongside the iconic blue t-shirt worn by Sally Ride when she became the first American woman to travel to space on the 1983 Space Shuttle mission. The exhibit is also surrounded by space-themed toys, games, and movie posters, all curated to engage visitors with recent developments in space exploration and spark conversation about the future of human activity beyond Earth.

    Shindell explains that the “Futures in Space” exhibit is designed to prompt visitors to grapple with core questions about modern space exploration: Who gets to participate in space travel? What drives nations and individuals to explore beyond our planet? What will we do once we reach other celestial bodies? For Shindell, Harinath’s sari answers these questions in two powerful ways. First, it stands as a symbol of national pride for India and the remarkable success of the country’s growing, cost-effective space program. Second, it carries a deeply personal, inspiring story that Shindell hopes will encourage more young women around the world to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. The exhibit includes an interactive touchscreen that allows visitors to learn more about Harinath, the Mangalyaan mission, and the role of women in global space exploration.

    Shindell says he is delighted by the public response to the new addition, calling the sari a fantastic asset to the museum’s collection that brings a fresh, important perspective to the story of modern space exploration.

  • Ebola outbreak in Central Africa could reach 20,000 cases without strong public health measures

    Ebola outbreak in Central Africa could reach 20,000 cases without strong public health measures

    The ongoing Ebola outbreak in Central Africa currently centered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo could surge to as many as 20,000 cases or more, a new analysis from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned. The final size of the epidemic will depend entirely on how rapidly response teams can identify and isolate infected people to slow chains of transmission, health officials confirmed Friday.

    The CDC released projections from multiple computer-generated scenarios, which forecast a wide range of possible case counts spanning from 10,000 to more than 20,000 total infections. If the worst-case projection holds, the outbreak would come close to matching the deadliest Ebola epidemic in recorded history: the 2014–2016 West Africa outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people and infected over 28,000.

    Speaking at a press briefing for reporters, CDC Ebola response incident manager Dr. Satish Pillai emphasized that aggressive public health intervention is the only way to avoid large-scale spread. “Without strong public health interventions, the modeling work suggests an outbreak of that scale is possible,” Pillai said.

    Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center, noted that the new projections confirm long-held concerns among infectious disease experts. “This modeling affirms what we have worried about since the beginning: This outbreak is following a dangerous trajectory if more is not done to stop the spread of Ebola,” she said. However, she also cautioned against overreliance on the exact numerical forecasts, noting that outbreak projections are notoriously difficult to get right with limited real-time data. “I wouldn’t read too much into the specific numbers. It’s really hard to make an accurate projection when you have limited data,” Nuzzo added.

    As of Friday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded roughly 400 confirmed Ebola cases and 63 confirmed deaths from the current outbreak. Experts widely agree that the actual caseload is higher, as many infections have likely gone undiagnosed and unreported in conflict-impacted regions.

    The current outbreak is driven by the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, a strain for which no approved targeted treatments or specific vaccines exist currently. The virus spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids including blood, vomit, and semen, and the disease has a high mortality rate. The World Health Organization designated the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the agency’s highest alert level, in May 2024. Retrospective analysis suggests community transmission may have begun as early as February, but initial testing incorrectly targeted a different Ebola strain, delaying a coordinated response.

    Response efforts have been severely hampered by ongoing armed instability in eastern DRC. The region is facing active conflict between the Congolese government and Rwanda-backed M23 rebel forces, alongside attacks from the Allied Democratic Force, a group affiliated with the Islamic State. Widespread violence has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes, disrupting public health outreach and contact tracing efforts.

    Despite the alarming projections for the outbreak in Central Africa, both Nuzzo and the CDC have assessed that the risk of large-scale community spread of Ebola in the United States remains very low. “I don’t think it’s a scenario that it’s going to come here and spread broadly,” Nuzzo told reporters earlier this week, a conclusion the CDC echoed in its Friday publication.

    The low U.S. risk stems in part from new travel restrictions implemented by the U.S. government: entry is banned for non-U.S. citizens and non-green card holders who have traveled to the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan in the 21 days prior to their attempted entry. U.S. passport holders returning from those three countries are required to undergo mandatory health screening and enter through one of four designated U.S. airports to monitor for potential symptoms.

    The CDC’s latest modeling framework tested a range of variables to generate its projections, including undiagnosed past infections and variation in how quickly response teams can isolate new cases. Under a scenario where roughly 50 people had died by late May and only 20% of infected people were successfully isolated before spreading the virus, most simulations forecast at least 20,000 cases and 4,000 deaths over a three-month period. Pillai noted that the actual current rate of successful isolation is believed to fall on the lower end of the range modeled by the agency.

    If response teams can scale up isolation efforts to reach 50% or 70% of infected people quickly, the CDC projects total cases would drop to roughly 10,000. At the same time, officials warned that if the true death toll from late May was higher than currently confirmed, final case counts could end up even higher than the worst current projections.

    It is not the first time the CDC has released high-profile Ebola outbreak modeling: during the 2014 West Africa epidemic, the agency projected a worst-case scenario of up to 1.4 million infections if no interventions were implemented, a forecast that ended up being more than 50 times higher than the actual final caseload. That experience has shaped the agency’s current approach to framing projections as possible scenarios rather than definitive predictions, officials noted.

    The Associated Press’ health and science coverage receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with the AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • Why are devastating mice plagues happening in Australia?

    Why are devastating mice plagues happening in Australia?

    Across vast swathes of Australian agricultural land, a rapidly escalating mice plague is unleashing unprecedented chaos, leaving growers and local communities scrambling to contain the damage. The prolific rodents have overrun farmlands, consuming and destroying standing crops ready for harvest, and have pushed past the boundaries of rural properties to invade residential homes, nesting in walls, contaminating food supplies and damaging infrastructure. For small and medium-scale farmers already grappling with volatile weather patterns and fluctuating market prices, the financial impact of this outbreak has been catastrophic. Early estimates indicate individual operations are facing losses that climb into hundreds of thousands of dollars, covering destroyed crops, pest control measures and property repairs. Agricultural experts point to a combination of ideal breeding conditions – including a wet growing season that provided abundant food sources and mild winter temperatures that boosted rodent survival rates – as the core trigger for the current exponential population growth. As state agricultural departments roll out emergency control measures, many rural communities remain on high alert, with the full extent of the damage still being assessed.

  • ‘Long road’: Daughters of elderly couple speak out after alleged NSW home invasion

    ‘Long road’: Daughters of elderly couple speak out after alleged NSW home invasion

    A quiet rural community in northern New South Wales is reeling from a shocking early-morning violent incident that left a well-known retired couple critically injured, in what police have described as an unprovoked alleged home invasion. The attack unfolded just after 12:15 a.m. on Thursday at the Torrington property of 75-year-old Keith Blessing and his wife Dianne, who was stabbed in the chest during the assault. Keith suffered a deep slash wound across his stomach, but managed to place an emergency call to triple-zero after the initial attack before the alleged suspect attempted to re-enter the property.

    Keith, a licensed firearms holder, made the decision to use his weapon to stop the alleged attacker, 34-year-old Joshua Dylan Trethewey, who was subsequently taken into custody at Armidale Hospital while receiving treatment for a non-fatal gunshot wound, with police stationed around the clock at his bedside.

    Following the attack, the injured couple were airlifted to Gold Coast University Hospital, where they remain in a critical but stable condition as they begin what their family describes as a long and arduous recovery journey. On Friday, the couple’s daughter Kathy Blessing spoke publicly on behalf of her family, thanking community members and local responders for the outpouring of support that has helped the family cope with the trauma.

    “It has been comforting to know we have the support of the wider community. We’re very proud of our parents and their bravery. They’re recovering in the hospital here, getting excellent care. We have a long road ahead,” Kathy Blessing said in a prepared statement. She added that the entire family has been deeply traumatized by the incident, noting “no family should ever have to go through this,” and requested privacy moving forward after this, their only public comment.

    Law enforcement has echoed the family’s praise for Keith Blessing’s quick action under extreme duress. Detective Superintendent Chris McKinnon told reporters Thursday that the 75-year-old’s self-defense response was “quite impressive” given the severity of his injuries. “He certainly did his best obviously under very difficult circumstances to defend himself and his partner,” McKinnon said.

    Trethewey has been hit with two felony charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to murder. He appeared via video link before the Bail Division court on Thursday, where bail was refused, and he remains in police custody at Armidale Hospital while receiving ongoing medical care. Early investigative work has confirmed that Trethewey had no prior connection to the Blessing family, a detail that has amplified the shock of the attack for the tiny, close-knit Torrington community where the retired couple are widely known.

  • US stocks slump as fears over Big Tech shake Wall Street

    US stocks slump as fears over Big Tech shake Wall Street

    U.S. equity markets endured a dramatic downturn on Friday, with the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite posting its steepest single-day decline since April 2025. The sudden selloff was triggered by a far stronger-than-expected April U.S. jobs report, which amplified growing investor anxiety that the stellar market gains recorded through the first half of 2026 may have become unsustainable.

    The hotter-than-forecast employment data reignited concerns that the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep benchmark interest rates elevated for an extended period, particularly as persistent inflation continues to hold above the central bank’s target. By the closing bell, the Nasdaq had tumbled more than 4%, the broad-market S&P 500 shed 2.6% of its value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 1.35%. All three major U.S. indexes finished the week in negative territory.

    The selloff extended beyond traditional equities to digital assets, as investors raced to offload exposure to higher-risk assets across all sectors. Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, suffered a sharp double-digit drop alongside the stock market downturn. Market analysts emphasized that the sudden pullback underscores the profound impact of investor expectations around interest rates: while a robust labor market is typically viewed as a positive signal for economic health, it also rules out imminent rate cuts that equity markets have priced in over recent months.

    “Friday’s jobs report was potentially ‘too good’ for markets, especially against the current backdrop of stubbornly high inflation,” explained David Doyle, head of economics at global financial services firm Macquarie Group. He noted that the stronger-than-expected data has increased the probability of additional interest rate hikes from the Fed before the end of the year, a shift that directly sparked the widespread selloff. Investors who had been holding out for rate cuts starting as early as the third quarter were forced to rapidly reprice their portfolios and adjust their outlook.

    Contrary to some initial reporting, Friday’s downturn did not signal a broad, full-scale global market panic. Instead, the move represented a deliberate rotation by investors away from overinflated technology stocks, which some market watchers have compared to the overvalued dotcom sector that crashed dramatically in the early 2000s. Large institutional investment funds pulled billions of dollars out of artificial intelligence and semiconductor companies, which have seen their share prices skyrocket over the past two years amid the global AI boom.

    Rather than exiting the market entirely, investors reallocated capital to traditionally defensive, stable assets. Defensive sectors including healthcare, regulated utilities, and consumer staples — household names like food conglomerate Kraft Heinz and beverage giant Keurig Dr Pepper — all recorded gains on Friday as traders sought shelter from volatility. The sharp pullback also highlights the structural vulnerability of today’s U.S. stock market: a small handful of mega-cap technology firms now make up such a large share of total market capitalization that even a small shift in investor sentiment can drag the entire market lower.

    In response to the market downturn, former U.S. President Donald Trump pushed back against the negative market reaction to the solid jobs report. He argued that policymakers and market participants place “too much emphasis” on persistent inflation. “I hope the market starts to learn that when you have good numbers the market should go up not down,” Trump added.

    Looking ahead to next week, the intersection of technology and policy will take center stage in U.S. markets. Trump has invited a group of the nation’s top AI industry executives to the White House to discuss a sweeping new proposal: the U.S. federal government would take direct public ownership stakes in leading AI firms. Trump has stated that the policy would reshape public perceptions of artificial intelligence and allow ordinary Americans to directly “benefit from the success of AI.”

  • British PM criticizes Vance over comments about UK teen’s stabbing death

    British PM criticizes Vance over comments about UK teen’s stabbing death

    A deadly stabbing case in southern Britain has sparked a sharp diplomatic and political clash after a top United States official inserted inflammatory rhetoric into the domestic tragedy, drawing public rebuke from 10 Downing Street.

    The tragedy dates back to December, when 18-year-old university student Henry Nowak was stabbed to death in Southampton by 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa. Digwa, who used an 8-inch (21-centimeter) Sikh dagger in the attack, falsely told responding police officers that Nowak — a white British man — had carried out a racist assault against him. In a tragic procedural misstep, officers initially treated the fatally wounded Nowak as a suspect before recognizing his critical injury and attempting emergency resuscitation. This week, Digwa, a British Sikh, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years.

    Despite the fact that both the victim and perpetrator are British citizens, anti-immigration and far-right groups in the UK have seized on the case to advance their divisive political agenda. Last week, a demonstration organized around the killing that drew far-right figures turned violent, with protesters pelting Southampton police officers with chairs, metal cans, rocks and flares.

    The conflict escalated this week when U.S. Vice President JD Vance weighed in with incendiary comments on social platform X. Vance called for “righteous anger” over Nowak’s murder, and baselessly linked the killing to what he called a “mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it.” The U.S. State Department doubled down on the divisive framing a day earlier, echoing unsubstantiated far-right claims of “two-tier” policing in the UK — an assertion that the justice system intentionally discriminates against white people — and framing the case as a “glaring symptom of civilizational decline.”

    In a formal public statement released Friday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office firmly condemned Vance’s remarks, accusing the U.S. vice president of attempting to interfere in British democratic processes and stoke sectarian division on UK streets. “The Nowak family are grieving after Henry’s horrific murder. They have said they do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We should be respecting their wishes,” the Downing Street statement read. “Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances. That is who we are as a country.”

    Ed Davey, leader of the UK’s centrist opposition Liberal Democrats, joined the condemnation, arguing that all British leaders must reject efforts to politicize Nowak’s death for partisan gain, regardless of whether those attempts come from U.S. Make America Great Again-aligned politicians like Vance or their far-right allies in the UK. Hard-right UK figures including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage have already amplified the unsubstantiated “two-tier policing” claim, which British officials note has no backing in national crime or policing statistics.

    The victim’s own family has repeatedly pushed back against attempts to co-opt the tragedy for political gain. Mark Nowak, Henry’s father, has emphasized that the killing is not a story about racism or religious division, echoing the family’s wish that his son’s death be used to push for safer public spaces rather than fuel more hatred and societal rift. Currently, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the UK’s independent watchdog for police misconduct, is conducting a formal investigation into the initial response by Southampton officers to the stabbing.

  • India called on to arrest Israeli reservist holidaying in country

    India called on to arrest Israeli reservist holidaying in country

    A Brussels-based non-governmental organization has launched a formal legal push to force Indian authorities to detain an Israeli army reservist accused of committing war crimes in Gaza during his holiday in the country’s northern Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh.

    The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) submitted an urgent legal complaint on Tuesday to three key Indian bodies: national police, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the country’s immigration bureau. The filing names the suspect as Eitan Gilboa, a member of the Israel Defense Forces’ 271st Combat Engineering Battalion who is currently traveling in India.

    In the complaint and a public statement accompanying it, HRF detailed its months-long investigation into Gilboa’s actions during the ongoing military campaign in Gaza. The organization alleges that Gilboa directly took part in and publicly celebrated the systematic leveling of entire residential neighborhoods in Gaza as an act of collective retaliation against Palestinian civilians. These actions, HRF argues, qualify as explicit war crimes under India’s 1960 Geneva Conventions Act.

    To back its claims, HRF points to social media content originally shared by Gilboa’s mother, which captures multiple instances of the reservist participating in and commemorating the destruction of civilian infrastructure across southern Gaza, including in the heavily bombed areas of Khan Younis and Rafah.

    The legal filing emphasizes that as a signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention, India carries a binding international legal obligation to hunt for and prosecute any individual accused of grave breaches of the treaty, regardless of their nationality. This requirement is laid out explicitly in Article 146 of the convention.

    HRF has laid out three clear demands for Indian officials: immediately take Gilboa into custody, file a formal First Information Report (FIR) to open a criminal investigation into the allegations, and if arrest is not pursued, order the reservist’s immediate deportation from Indian territory.

    “Eitan Gilboa is not a tourist. He is a war criminal currently enjoying the hospitality of India while fleeing the consequences of his crimes,” HRF director Dyab Abou Jahjah, a prominent Lebanese political activist, said in a statement. “India must not allow Indian soil to become a safe haven for those who celebrate the destruction of civilian lives,” he added.

    Local Indian activist Shrishti Khanna, speaking to independent outlet Middle East Eye, noted that mass tourism from Israeli veterans to Himachal Pradesh is a decades-long trend, with thousands of former and active Israeli military personnel vacationing in the state since the 1980s. Khanna argued that the current complaint exposes a long-standing pattern of complicity by the Indian government, one that has deepened dramatically under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. Modi has overseen increasingly close political, military and ideological alignment with Israel, Khanna said, resulting in Israeli occupying forces being treated as harmless holidaymakers rather than potential suspects requiring scrutiny and legal accountability.

    Khanna added that she does not expect Indian authorities to actually move forward with an arrest and prosecution, but said that “even if no action is taken, the complaint itself will create a permanent public record of India’s position on this issue.”

    This legal action is the latest in a series of efforts by HRF to hold alleged Israeli war criminals accountable across the globe. To date, the organization has filed more than 90 similar criminal complaints in 30 different national jurisdictions, pursuing investigations and litigation against individuals suspected of participating in war crimes against Palestinians.

    The complaint comes amid sustained international and domestic pressure on the Indian government over its long-standing military relationship with Israel. New Delhi has continued to approve and ship arms to Israel throughout the current military campaign in Gaza, a policy that has drawn widespread criticism from human rights groups and civil society activists who argue the weapons are being used to commit widespread human rights abuses against Palestinian civilians.

  • ‘Taking our jobs’: Yemeni workers lose out to lower-paid Ethiopian migrants in low-skilled sectors

    ‘Taking our jobs’: Yemeni workers lose out to lower-paid Ethiopian migrants in low-skilled sectors

    Decades of ongoing conflict have reduced Yemen, already one of the Arab world’s poorest nations, to a state of systemic economic collapse, leaving millions of citizens fighting for daily survival. For the country’s low-skilled working-age population, the challenge of securing stable employment to support families has grown even more dire amid a growing wave of transient East African migrants, who have reshaped local low-wage labor markets.

    Zahed al-Zabidi, a 30-something Yemeni native originally from conflict-battered Hodeidah governorate, knows this struggle intimately. Seven years ago, he relocated to the southern port city of Aden in search of more reliable work, leaving behind a life of inconsistent day labor that barely put food on the table for his five family members. For more than 15 years, Zabidi has made his living washing dishes and cleaning dining spaces at local restaurants – work that requires no formal education or specialized training, the only kind of employment he can access. Where he once had no trouble securing shifts, opportunity has all but dried up in recent years.

    Zabidi blames the growing competition from Ethiopian migrants passing through Yemen on their way to Gulf Cooperation Council nations. “I worked at several restaurants in Aden, but the situation gets worse every day because Ethiopian migrants are taking our jobs, and many restaurants have started hiring them,” he explained. “Ethiopian migrants are ready to work for any amount, so restaurant owners prefer them and fire us.” Zabidi once earned 130,000 Yemeni Riyals, roughly $83, per month – a sum already barely enough to cover his family’s basic needs – before he was replaced by an Ethiopian worker who accepted just 80,000 Yemeni Riyals ($51) for the same role. For Zabidi, that lower wage is impossible to accept: unlike many transient migrants, he has a family of five to support, and the reduced rate cannot cover even the most basic household expenses.

    Today, Zabidi remains out of work, traveling from restaurant to restaurant across Aden seeking any open position, with no luck. His family now survives on just bread and tea for most meals, with meat only appearing on their table when a charitable neighbor shared it during the Eid al-Fitr holiday. “It is difficult for a jobless person like me to buy good food for his family. We are only eating to survive,” Zabidi said. Now, he is planning to leave Aden to seek work on farms in Lahj governorate, where relatives already work, even though he has no prior experience in agricultural labor. “I don’t have experience in farming, but I will learn it from my relatives and try my best to work there,” he said.

    Official data underscores the scale of Zabidi’s crisis: Yemen’s national youth unemployment rate hit 32.39 percent in 2024, with the hardest impacts falling on low-skilled workers like him who rely on informal, unskilled roles. The United Nations estimates that 22.3 million Yemenis – nearly three-quarters of the country’s total population – require some form of humanitarian assistance or protection support in 2025.

    The influx of migrants that has reshaped Yemen’s labor market is part of a long-running regional migration pattern. Yemen’s strategic position on the southwestern edge of the Arabian Peninsula has made it a key transit hub for decades for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in East Africa and the Horn of Africa, most notably Ethiopia and Somalia, who seek better economic opportunity and safety in Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf states.

    According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 110,144 migrants have entered Yemen since the start of 2025, 97 percent of them Ethiopian and 3 percent Somali. More than 90 percent of these new arrivals list Saudi Arabia as their final destination, with only 10 percent planning to settle in Yemen permanently. For most, the country is nothing more than a temporary stopover as they coordinate the next leg of their dangerous journey.

    Because migrants only need enough income to cover immediate daily survival costs while they wait to continue north, most are willing to accept extremely low wages that Yemeni heads of household cannot afford to work for. One Ethiopian migrant, who gave his name as Ramadan, explained this dynamic in a brief interview with Middle East Eye. “We plan to reach Saudi Arabia, and while we are here, we need to eat, so we work just like anyone else,” he said. Ramadan, who has picked up basic Arabic during seven months working at an Aden restaurant, added: “I love Yemen and Yemenis, and I don’t want to make anyone unhappy. Yemenis are our brothers, and we share the same suffering.”

    Restaurant owners in Aden openly admit that they prefer to hire Ethiopian migrants for low-wage cleaning and dishwashing roles for this reason. Ali, an Aden restaurant owner who spoke to MEE on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the lower labor costs and higher willingness to work long hours make migrants the more attractive option for business owners. “The Ethiopian migrants work hard and they clean the restaurant better than some Yemenis. Moreover, they accept lower wages and don’t complain,” Ali said. “While some Yemeni workers frequently demand higher wages and require a lot of time off, that is not the case with Ethiopians, who work silently and dutifully perform any task requested of them. As a businessman, I prefer to employ Ethiopians for these roles because they work longer hours for less pay.”

    Economic analysts note that while the migrant influx exacerbates strain on low-wage Yemeni workers, it is not the root cause of the country’s unemployment crisis – that stems from the 10-year ongoing civil conflict that collapsed Yemen’s national economy. “These migrants work in cleaning, strenuous domestic labour and farming, especially Qat farming, where they accept low wages,” explained economic expert Wafeeq Saleh. “These low wages are not enough for a Yemeni to eke out a decent living for a family, creating unfair competition in the labour market between Yemeni workers and Ethiopians.”

    Saleh added that shifting cultural norms have already pushed more Yemenis into these once-shunned low-skilled roles. “There used to be a relative reluctance among Yemenis to take up cleaning jobs because it was culturally viewed as ‘shameful’, but the severe economic crisis has contributed to the fading away of this culture, and Yemenis are now in dire need of any opportunity,” he said.

    Even many Yemeni workers who have lost jobs to migrants do not oppose migrants working, but rather call for uniform wage standards that eliminate the unfair advantage low-wage transient migrants give employers. “I am not against Ethiopian migrants working, but I am against the low salaries that encourage restaurant owners to hire them,” Zabidi said. “If we received the same salary for the same working hours, restaurant owners would prefer us.”

  • Downing Street hits out at ‘people seeking to stir division’ after Vance’s Nowak post

    Downing Street hits out at ‘people seeking to stir division’ after Vance’s Nowak post

    A fierce diplomatic and political row has erupted after United States Vice President JD Vance injected inflammatory rhetoric into the highly charged case of a slain British teenager, drawing sharp rebuke from Downing Street for alleged interference in UK domestic affairs.

    Eighteen-year-old Henry Nowak was fatally stabbed in December 2024 by Vickrum Digwa as he walked home alone following a night out with friends. Digwa, who claimed the 21cm blade used in the killing was carried for his Sikh faith, was later sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years. Public outrage intensified this week after the release of police body camera footage, which showed officers handcuffing Nowak while he lay dying, after Digwa falsely told police he was the victim of a racist attack.

    The release of the footage sparked violent unrest in the southern English city of Southampton on Tuesday. Protesters threw projectiles at police officers, leaving 11 officers and one police dog injured, and resulted in two arrests. The case has already fueled domestic political tension in the UK, with opposition parties including the Conservatives and right-wing Reform UK accusing the government of enabling so-called “two-tier policing”, a claim that different communities are treated unequally by law enforcement.

    This domestic dispute escalated to an international level when Vance took to social media platform X to weigh in on the killing. In his post, Vance framed Nowak’s death as a direct consequence of what he called a “mass invasion of migrants”, arguing that the teenager would still be alive if European political leaders had “stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred”. He added that the killing was “tragic as it is enraging” and that the “only response is righteous anger”. Vance’s comments echoed a recent statement from the US State Department, which claimed that “ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline” that must be rejected across Western nations.

    Vance’s intervention is not the first high-profile foreign comment on the case. Earlier this week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer already condemned tech billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, for “trying to whip up division” after Musk shared a misleading post calling on followers to circulate the bodycam footage widely, claiming police had “kowtowed” to Digwa.

    In an official statement responding to Vance’s remarks, a Downing Street spokesperson pushed back hard against the foreign interference. The spokesperson noted that the Nowak family themselves have explicitly stated they do not want Henry’s death to be exploited to fuel further division in the UK. “Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances. That is who we are as a country,” the spokesperson said, adding that Downing Street rejected “people trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division”.

    Ed Davey, leader of the UK’s centrist Liberal Democrats, echoed the condemnation, arguing that all political leaders must reject efforts to politicize Nowak’s death for partisan gain regardless of where they come from. “We all need to resist attempts like this to politicize Henry Nowak’s death and divide our country – whether they come from MAGA politicians like Vance or their cronies here in the UK,” Davey said.

  • Carlos ‘Indio’ Solari, a legend of Argentina’s rock scene, dies at 77

    Carlos ‘Indio’ Solari, a legend of Argentina’s rock scene, dies at 77

    BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentine music and counterculture icon Carlos Alberto Solari, the iconic singer-songwriter widely known by his stage nickname “El Indio” and frontman of the nation’s legendary rock group Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, passed away on Friday at the age of 77.

    Local law enforcement officials confirmed that Solari, who had lived with a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis for more than 10 years, was found unresponsive near an indoor pool at his residential property in Ituzaingó, a small town located roughly 18 miles west of the Argentine capital. Authorities have not yet released an official cause of death.

    Solari’s family shared confirmation of his passing via social media, announcing plans for a public funeral service to give fans across the country an opportunity to pay their final respects to the rock legend. Within minutes of news of his death breaking, hundreds of admirers began gathering outside his home, many bringing flowers to lay at the gate and wearing vintage band T-shirts emblazoned with Solari’s famous nickname. In a public statement shared after his death, the family wrote, “We will mourn as we deserve, listen to his songs, and above all, look out for one another, just as he taught us to do.”

    As the lead vocalist and creative driving force behind Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota — better known to generations of fans simply as “Los Redondos” — Solari grew into one of Argentina’s most defining countercultural icons. For young Argentines coming of age during the country’s fragile transition from a violent military dictatorship to a new democratic system in the 1980s — an era marked by unprecedented new freedoms alongside crippling economic instability and hyperinflation — Solari’s music became a soundtrack for a generation of disaffected young people.

    During the 1990s, when Argentina’s government under then-President Carlos Saul Menem pushed sweeping free-market policies that sparked a wave of unregulated consumerism across the country, Solari’s gritty classic rock anthems, upbeat danceable tracks and layered, cryptic lyrics gave voice to widespread frustration with capitalist excess and growing foreign cultural and economic influence. Over the band’s active years, Los Redondos released 10 full-length studio albums, and the group famously rejected deals with major record labels throughout their career to protect full creative independence over their work.

    After the band split in 2001, Solari launched a successful solo career that spanned two decades. He released five additional studio albums under his own name, blending his signature classic rock sound with new electronic influences, and continued to draw crowds of hundreds of thousands of fans to massive stadium and park shows across Argentina.

    In 2016, during a headline performance at a massive sold-out concert, Solari publicly revealed his Parkinson’s diagnosis to fans. “Mr. Parkinson is nipping at my heels. But here I am,” he told the crowd, which erupted in a long standing ovation in support of the singer. He eventually retired from touring not long after, and spoke openly in subsequent interviews about the severe, debilitating impacts of his degenerative condition.

    In the days following the news of his death, tributes have poured in from across Argentina’s political, cultural, and sports sectors. The Argentine Soccer Association noted in a statement that Solari’s music “became a popular rallying cry” that “echoed in the stands” of stadiums across the soccer-mad nation. The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, the prominent human rights group that works to locate relatives killed or disappeared during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, said Solari “inspired society as a whole to doubt, to question and to think critically.” Even former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who is currently serving a corruption conviction under house arrest, shared one of Solari’s most famous lyrics on social media — a verse popularized as a call for courageous living that reads “Just living costs you your life.”

    Solari is survived by his wife, Virginia Mones Ruiz, and their 25-year-old son, Bruno.