Global Pulse

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  • White House pushed satellite firm to withhold images of Iran war

    White House pushed satellite firm to withhold images of Iran war

    Leading commercial satellite imagery provider Planet Labs has announced it will implement an indefinite hold on all new satellite imagery covering Iran and neighboring regions where the escalating conflict involving the United States and Israel is unfolding, in direct compliance with a request from the Trump administration. The move restricts access to a critical source of visual intelligence that has been relied on by major news organizations, independent journalists, and human rights monitors to document conflict developments on the ground.

    In an email notification sent to journalists who regularly use Planet Labs’ imagery to cover tit-for-tat strikes between US, Israeli and Iranian forces Saturday, the firm confirmed it is shifting to a heavily restricted managed access framework going forward. Under the new policy, any imagery release will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, with approval only granted for what the company defines as urgent, mission-critical needs or explicit cases of public interest.

    The censorship order applies to all imagery and data collected from March 9 onward. This is not the first restriction the company has imposed on coverage of the region: previously, Planet Labs implemented a mandatory 14-day delay on imagery releases, framed as a measure to prevent the data from being “leveraged by adversarial actors.”

    The restriction has drawn immediate criticism from media and transparency advocates, who warn it will severely limit independent coverage of the conflict. Evan Hill, a veteran reporter with The Washington Post, noted that Planet Labs ranks among the most important US-based commercial satellite providers, with its imagery serving as a core information source for the vast majority of global media outlets covering the conflict. The new indefinite hold will cut off that vital flow of visual information for independent observers.

    The policy change comes at a sensitive moment for US military operations: recent US intelligence assessments have concluded that Iran’s military capabilities have exceeded initial American expectations, contradicting public claims from the Pentagon that joint US-Israeli bombing has severely degraded Iran’s missile stockpiles. Multiple intelligence assessments indicate Iran has retained a large share of its operational missiles and mobile launch platforms, undercutting official US narratives of military progress.

    Human rights and campaign groups have framed the imagery restriction as a deliberate effort to cover up civilian harm and military setbacks. Sarah Wilkinson, a United Kingdom-based human rights campaigner, argued that the censorship of war imagery is explicitly intended to hide the truth of what is happening on the ground from the global public. Mark Ames, a podcast host and independent commentator, sardonically framed the White House request as a telling indication that the Trump administration’s conflict in Iran is facing significant challenges.

    The policy change coincided with a series of escalatory threats from former President Donald Trump over the weekend. Trump warned that this coming Tuesday would be what he called “Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one,” announcing expanded strikes on Iran’s civilian infrastructure unless Tehran agreed to meet US demands for a negotiated settlement by Monday.

    Already, recent joint strikes have caused significant civilian and infrastructure damage. A major Iranian bridge was destroyed in US strikes Saturday, while Israeli forces bombed a large petrochemical complex, sending toxic pollution into the adjacent populated city and killing at least 13 people across the two attacks. A projectile that landed near the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant also killed one person, sparking widespread alarm over the risk of a catastrophic nuclear incident. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that a large-scale attack on the facility could trigger a nuclear accident with generational devastating public health consequences.

    Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, pointed out that the restriction of satellite imagery directly serves the goal of hiding the full scale of US and Israeli bombing campaigns from independent scrutiny, saying “will make it much more difficult to monitor US-Israeli bombing there, which seems to be the point.”

    In a separate related development over the weekend, Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces had destroyed all closed-circuit security cameras surrounding the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) headquarters in southern Lebanon. The incident comes amid rising tensions for UN peacekeepers in the region: three UNIFIL personnel were wounded in a blast Friday, and multiple peacekeepers have been killed since early March, with several of those deaths attributed to Israeli fire.

  • Hungary’s Orbán has long annoyed the European Union. Now some hope he faces defeat

    Hungary’s Orbán has long annoyed the European Union. Now some hope he faces defeat

    As Hungarians prepare to head to the polls for national elections on April 12, the outcome carries far-reaching consequences that extend well beyond Budapest’s borders, with much of the European Union holding its breath for a shift away from the nationalist agenda of long-serving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Widely framed as a test of the bloc’s institutional resilience, the vote comes as Orbán — the EU’s longest-tenured national leader — has consistently trailed his challenger Péter Magyar in pre-election opinion polling, ending what has been a 16-year unbroken grip on power that has repeatedly strained the EU’s post-WWII governance framework.
    Magyar, Orbán’s main opposition candidate, has already told the Associated Press that a victory for his campaign would immediately prioritize repairing the fractured relationship between Hungary and the 27-nation bloc, a stark departure from the current administration’s approach that has gridlocked EU decision-making for years.
    The bloc currently faces a cascade of unprecedented threats: the growing momentum of right-wing populism across member states, ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, covert Russian sabotage operations, expanding Chinese economic influence, and a shifting U.S. administration that has upended decades of established transatlantic cooperation. Against this volatile backdrop, Orbán’s repeated use of national veto power has emerged as one of the most significant barriers to collective EU action.
    Political analysts and lawmakers argue that Orbán has leveraged his veto authority and deep institutional knowledge of the EU’s funding distribution system to entrench his domestic power, extract major concessions from the bloc, and wield outsize influence disproportionate to Hungary’s size. “He entered a club, read the rules, figured out how he can rig the rules, and then started to be a free rider and blackmail all of the other club members,” explained Dániel Hegedűs, deputy director of the Berlin-based Institute for European Politics. “The question is, how long will the club members tolerate it?”
    The current tension between Budapest and Brussels was not inevitable. When Hungary joined the EU in 2004 as part of the bloc’s largest single expansion in history, alongside nine other post-Cold War Central and Eastern European nations, widespread optimism surrounded its integration into the European project. “It didn’t start that way,” noted Jim Townsend, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
    But following a series of economic crises, Orbán rose to power by promising broad-based prosperity for all Hungarians, while building strategic alliances with conservative political forces across the bloc. Gábor Scheiring, a former Hungarian lawmaker now teaching at Georgetown University in Qatar, explained that for years Orbán maintained a contradictory position: he regularly vilified EU leadership in Brussels, often drawing unflattering comparisons to the former Soviet Union, while simultaneously collecting billions in EU development funding and resisting widespread international pressure to reverse democratic backsliding within Hungary’s borders.
    From 2014 to 2022, “Hungary was one of the biggest beneficiaries of EU funds,” Scheiring said. “Orbán could navigate the EU system really well: get all the money and get away with his political shenanigans.”
    By 2022, growing frustration over Orbán’s failure to uphold EU standards of judicial independence, press freedom, and anti-corruption safeguards prompted Brussels to freeze nearly €10 billion in allocated funding to Budapest. The rift deepened dramatically after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022: Orbán, who has long maintained close personal ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly used his veto to block EU-wide efforts to provide military and financial support to Kyiv and impose harsh economic sanctions on Moscow.
    The most high-profile standoff came in early 2024, when Orbán backed out of a December 2023 agreement to approve a €90 billion ($104 billion) support package for Ukraine, prompting a rare public rebuke from European Council President Antonio Costa, who told reporters: “Nobody can blackmail the European Union institutions.”
    Beyond the immediate standoff over Ukraine, Orbán’s persistent use of the veto has laid bare a fundamental structural flaw in the EU’s governing framework: the requirement of unanimous member state approval for all major policy decisions. Critics note that this rule has already blocked stronger collective action on other critical global issues, including the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
    German MEP Daniel Freund pointed to an internal European Parliament analysis showing that Orbán has issued more vetoes than any other national leader in the EU’s history. “It’s staggering. No one else even comes close,” Freund said. “This is the biggest design flaw in the EU that he has exposed.”
    The crisis sparked by Orbán’s governance has reignited calls for sweeping reform of the EU’s foundational treaties to build greater protections against authoritarian member states, regardless of whether Orbán wins or loses the April election. Multiple reform pathways have been proposed, but each carries significant limitations.
    The most widely discussed change would reduce the number of policy areas that require unanimous voting, allowing major measures to pass with a qualified majority of the 27 member states representing at least two-thirds of the bloc’s total population. Other proposals include tougher targeted sanctions from the European Commission against member states that violate core EU rules, and even invoking Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union — a rarely used legal mechanism that would revoke Hungary’s voting rights within bloc institutions. Invoking Article 7 requires unanimous approval from all other EU leaders, however, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has already publicly stated he would veto such a move.
    Brussels also holds an existing bargaining chip in the form of €16 billion ($18.4 billion) in allocated defense capability funding, part of a bloc-wide program to boost national defense infrastructure. Every other member state that has submitted a funding request has received approval, but Hungary’s bid remains stalled in Brussels. If Orbán secures a new term, Hegedűs argues that the EU could use this funding to extract concessions, such as lifting his veto on the Ukrainian support package. But he also warns that the strategy carries risks: “What will the EU offer in two to three or four months when the next strategic decision will come and Orbán will block again?” Hegedűs asked.
    Beyond institutional reform, Orbán’s confrontational approach has prompted a full re-evaluation of the EU’s processes for accepting new member states and monitoring compliance from existing members. Ongoing accession negotiations with Moldova, Montenegro, and Ukraine are already being reshaped by the bloc’s turbulent experience with Hungary.
    In February, European Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos noted that the 2004-2007 expansion that brought Hungary and 11 other nations into the bloc “led to a new era of stability for our continent and an impressive level of economic convergence.” But without naming Hungary specifically, she acknowledged that the experience has revealed critical gaps in oversight. “A lesson learned from 2004 is that we need to have safeguards that ensure new members stick to the rules,” Kos said. “If countries go backwards on our fundamentals, such as democracy and rule of law, the safeguards must bite. No Trojan horses.”

  • After harsh winter, Ukrainians find joy in releasing bats rescued from war

    After harsh winter, Ukrainians find joy in releasing bats rescued from war

    Under the dimming twilight sky over a Kyiv-edge nature park, a crowd of children pressed in closely around a team of volunteers. One by one, the volunteers gently unfolded cloth pouches, and small winged figures slipped out, darting into the cooling evening air. With each bat that took flight, more than 1,000 onlookers broke into cheers and applause — among them local families, off-duty Ukrainian soldiers, and dedicated bat lovers, a handful of whom showed up in creative goth-style outfits celebrating the species.

    The mass release on Saturday was one of dozens of similar events held across Ukraine to mark the arrival of spring. Hundreds of bats set free that evening had been pulled from war-ravaged regions in eastern Ukraine, where ongoing conflict has shattered the natural and man-made habitats the tiny mammals depend on for survival. Organized by the Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center, the event is part of the charity’s years-long work to protect the nation’s bat populations, all 28 native species of which are classified as protected endangered animals in Ukraine.

    “For our organization, this work is non-negotiable. These animals are on the national red list of endangered species, and preserving their populations is a critical responsibility,” explained Anastasiia Vovk, one of the center’s volunteers.

    For the attendees who gathered on Saturday, the event offered far more than a wildlife conservation update. After a brutal winter defined by subzero temperatures, repeated Russian drone and missile strikes, and widespread, crippling power outages that upended daily life across Kyiv, the release was a rare, welcome chance to gather as a community and enjoy a casual family outing.

    Children, many decked out in custom bat-themed T-shirts and hats, watched intently as volunteers used tweezers to feed the rescued bats mealworms ahead of their release, and some young attendees even got the chance to slip on protective gloves and hold the small mammals themselves before they flew off.

    Oleksii Beliaiev, a 54-year-old Kyiv resident who attended the event with his family, summed up the mood of the crowd. “Life goes on despite the war,” he said. “The war is the main thing right now for all of us, but there has to be space for other things that matter too.” Beliaiev, who runs a small local printing business, also splits his time volunteering for Ukrainian army support projects.

    The conflict has not only displaced millions of Ukrainians — it has also forced thousands of wild animals from their natural habitats, conservationists explain. Shelling that destroys buildings and natural landforms has wiped out critical bat roosts, and repeated shockwaves from explosions disorient and stress the small mammals, often with fatal consequences.

    Alona Shulenko, who led Saturday’s release event, explained that winter disturbance poses an especially deadly risk. “In winter, bats hibernate to conserve energy through the cold months. If they are woken early by explosions or habitat destruction, they burn through their stored energy far too quickly and almost always die,” Shulenko said. “They also reproduce very slowly, with only one or two offspring per year, so populations recover extremely slowly after losses.”

    As their natural hibernation sites continue to be destroyed by the war, more and more bats have moved into Ukrainian cities, taking shelter in wall cracks, building crevices and residential balconies. But ongoing construction, repair work and further destruction of damaged urban structures has led to whole colonies being killed, Shulenko added.

    All native bat species in Ukraine are insectivores that play a critical role in managing local pest populations, and the nation sits along a key migration route for bat populations moving between eastern and western Europe. Since its founding, the Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center has rescued more than 30,000 bats across the country, including 4,000 just last winter alone.

    Even amid the chaos of full-scale war, the center’s team has continued their critical work. “We are all living in wartime, and everyone has their own struggle to get through each day,” Shulenko said. “But we are doing what we know best, what we are called to do. If we stop our work, thousands of bats will die, and that is a loss we cannot afford.”

  • Tailors and dressmakers retire their pincushions as US demand for skilled sewers grows

    Tailors and dressmakers retire their pincushions as US demand for skilled sewers grows

    NEW YORK — Inside Kil Bae’s compact Manhattan one-man shop 85 Custom Tailor, the 63-year-old artisan leans over his sewing machine, carefully hemming a custom dress, when a new request interrupts his work: a customer is ready to pay $280 to alter a $20 vintage Tommy Hilfiger reversible bomber jacket he picked up from a local thrift store. For Bae, this price disparity, once unheard of, has become an increasingly common source of revenue that keeps his small business running today.

    Bae, who began honing his tailoring craft at 17 in his native South Korea, examines the cotton jacket, pins its seams, and moves around his client with the focused precision of a sculptor shaping raw marble. He is just one of thousands of aging professional tailors, sewers and dressmakers across the United States: the entire trade is shrinking as veteran artisans retire, even as consumer demand for custom alteration work surges to multi-year highs.

    Fashion industry analysts trace this new wave of demand to shifting consumer attitudes and changing health trends. A generation of shoppers raised on low-cost disposable fast fashion are now turning to skilled tailors to refine mass-produced ready-to-wear pieces, add one-of-a-kind personal touches to off-the-rack garments, breathe new life into thrifted secondhand finds, and extend the lifespan of their existing wardrobes. Beyond that, Bae notes that the rising popularity of weight-loss medications including Wegovy and Zepbound has driven a sharp increase in requests for resized waistbands, tapered sleeves and other body-altering adjustments to existing clothing.

    Unlike many traditional skilled trades, tailoring has a unique advantage that will protect it from technological disruption, Bae argues: “I recommend this job to young people because this one cannot be AI’d. Artificial intelligence has automated pattern making, but it cannot replicate the handcrafted nuance a tailor brings to every job. Every body is different, every shape is unique. AI can’t copy that kind of personalization. If I close this shop today, I can walk out and find another tailor job tomorrow.”

    Even with that stability, however, the trade has failed to attract enough new entry-level workers to replace the generation of artisans set to retire in the coming decade. The trend mirrors labor gaps seen in other hands-on skilled trades from custom engraving to musical instrument repair, where decades of under-recruitment have left widespread workforce shortages.

    U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data underscores the scale of the decline. Almost two years ago, the agency counted fewer than 17,000 tailors, custom sewers and dressmakers working at formal business establishments across the country — a 30% drop from 10 years earlier. When including self-employed artisans and workers in private households, the median age for all tailors and sewers hit 54 in 2024 — 12 years higher than the median age for the entire U.S. employed workforce.

    Industry experts point to pay and working conditions as the key barriers drawing young people to the trade. The mean annual wage for tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers was $44,050 as of May 2024, according to BLS calculations, far below the $68,000 average annual income for all U.S. workers. The job also requires hours of hunched, detail-focused work that takes a significant physical toll over a career. Most modern fashion education programs also prioritize training for mass industrial production rather than hands-on custom craft work, says Scott Carnz, provost at LIM College, a New York-based institution that offers fashion business degrees: “Most of fashion training is really aimed at mass production, not spending time in a shop handmaking a garment. The work is also tedious.”

    Despite the overall decline in the total workforce, online job postings for tailors have stayed remarkably stable in recent years, says Cory Stahle, a labor economist with Indeed’s research division. Between February 2020 and February 2024, advertised tailor openings dropped by just 2%, compared to a nearly 30% drop in marketing and software development postings over the same period. “There is a kind of craftsmanship here that I think is an important piece that we can’t ignore,” Stahle, who specializes in U.S. labor market analysis, said.

    For more than a century, immigrant workers have been the backbone of America’s custom garment and tailoring trade. Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, says an analysis of recent U.S. census data finds roughly 40% of all tailors, dressmakers and sewers are foreign-born, with the largest shares hailing from Mexico, South Korea, Vietnam and China.

    To address the deepening labor shortage, industry and education leaders have begun partnering to cultivate a new generation of master tailors. Nordstrom, North America’s largest employer of tailoring and alteration specialists, has teamed up with New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) to launch a nine-week intensive training program focused on advanced sewing and alteration techniques.

    “Customarily, tailoring has never been part of the American skill set,” said Michael Harrell, an FIT instructor and Broadway costume builder who teaches the program. The course received more than 200 applications for its inaugural 15-student cohort, which began coursework in October 2023 and graduated with completion certificates in February 2024, according to Jacqueline Jenkins, executive director of FIT’s Center for Continuing and Professional Studies. The hands-on curriculum is designed specifically to prepare graduates for full-time roles at Nordstrom, which employs 1,500 alteration and tailoring specialists across its luxury department store locations to handle everything from basic jean hemming and rip repair to custom suit fitting and evening gown reworking. So far, 10 graduates from the first cohort have already been hired by Nordstrom or are in the final stages of the hiring process, said Marco Esquivel, Nordstrom’s director of alterations. “We owe it to the broader industry to ensure that this is an art form that exists for years and years to come, and continues to serve customers both within our walls as well as outside,” Esquivel said.

    Other major retail brands are also expanding their custom tailoring services to match growing consumer demand. Brooks Brothers, the iconic American luxury menswear brand that has offered custom garments since the 1800s, launched a test of bespoke women’s tailoring at five locations in 2023. This year, the brand rolled out the service to 40 additional stores, with pricing starting at $165 for custom shirts and $1,398 for custom suits.

    Back at Bae’s Manhattan shop, 33-year-old client Jonathan Reiss confirms he is certain he wants to move forward with the $280 alteration of his $20 thrifted jacket. Reiss says he plans to wear the jacket regularly, and has shifted away from the fast fashion habits of his younger years: “I think I fell victim to buying cheap stuff, and then you realize it just falls apart or shrinks or it just doesn’t last long.”

    Like many veteran tailors, Bae has struggled to find a successor to carry on his craft. He tried to persuade his son, now 34, to learn the trade, but his son left a career in tech to open his own bagel shop. “Young people. They just want to find a job in computers,” Bae said. “I think that’s too boring. I think this is very interesting. Every time, I am drawing in my head. I am like an artist.”

    Bae got his start training under his older sister and brother at their custom apparel shop outside Seoul, South Korea. After five years of apprenticeship, he moved to Seoul to work on custom orders and designer samples for major domestic brands. He later relocated to the New York City area, where he worked as a pattern maker for iconic design houses including Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan. He opened his first own shop in Connecticut in 2011, but was forced to close the location after a decade when the COVID-19 pandemic gutted local small business revenue. He reopened at his current Manhattan address a year later, and now works with three specialized sewing machines: a basic all-purpose model, a heavy-duty machine for thick materials like denim and leather, and an overlock machine to finish raw fabric edges.

    For now, Bae says he plans to keep working as long as his hands stay steady enough to handle the fine work of tailoring: “I’m always learning,” he said.

  • Saudi oasis town adjusts to life in the firing line

    Saudi oasis town adjusts to life in the firing line

    Nestled in central Saudi Arabia, the tranquil oasis town of Al-Kharj has long been a beloved escape. For generations, overstretched residents of nearby Riyadh have flocked here to unwind, drawn by its lush palm-lined avenues, world-famous sweet dates, and green agricultural landscapes that stand out dramatically against the kingdom’s endless expanses of arid desert. Today, however, this once-peaceful retreat finds itself at the heart of escalating regional conflict, its quiet daily routine disrupted by the constant threat of incoming projectiles.

    Al-Kharj’s proximity to the sprawling Prince Sultan Air Base, a critical military installation that once hosted U.S. command operations during the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has put the town directly in the line of fire. Following the joint U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran that launched on February 28, Tehran has launched repeated waves of attacks targeting Gulf states it accuses of enabling American military operations. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has openly claimed that Saudi Arabia hosts advanced U.S. fighter jets including F-35s and F-16s at Prince Sultan, alongside refueling and storage infrastructure, making the base a priority target.

    Last month, multiple U.S. media outlets confirmed that at least a dozen American service members were wounded in an Iranian attack on the base. While Iranian officials have publicly claimed they destroyed a high-value advanced surveillance aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars, additional reports confirm several U.S. aerial refueling tankers also sustained damage in the strike.

    For Al-Kharj’s 350,000 residents, the conflict has already spilled into civilian life. The town recorded Saudi Arabia’s first civilian casualties from the current wave of tensions on March 8, when two migrant workers were killed after a projectile crashed into a residential neighborhood. Just last week, two local residents were injured when debris from an intercepted drone fell onto three private homes, and a separate incident damaged six additional properties, according to official Saudi statements.

    Despite the repeated strikes and growing risk, however, most Al-Kharj residents have maintained remarkable stoicism, adapting their daily routines rather than succumbing to panic. “We hear the loud booms of missile interceptions, but we rarely spot anything in the sky,” 66-year-old local Abdullah told AFP, requesting only his first name be published due to strict Saudi security sensitivity. Speaking after afternoon prayers at his neighborhood mosque, Abdullah noted: “This is all very new for Al-Kharj, but life goes on as normal — there’s no panic, no change to how we live.”

    Government worker Turki, who also only shared his first name, explained that while the town’s newfound place in global headlines has led friends and family across the country to check in constantly, daily public life continues uninterrupted. During a recent lunch rush at a local popular restaurant, AFP observed diners scrolling through war updates on their phones between bites of traditional rice and meat dishes, a small routine adaptation that underscores how residents have integrated the new risk into everyday life.

    Even younger residents, who openly acknowledge their fear, refuse to alter their daily schedules. Twenty-one-year-old student Batool, sipping coffee at a downtown cafe, admitted: “I would be lying if I said I’m not afraid when I hear the explosions, or when I heard about the foreign workers who died. But I’m not letting fear change how I live. As you can see, I’m still studying outside, my routine hasn’t shifted at all because of the war.”

    While AFP observed no heavy deployment of additional security forces around the town despite the regular strikes, residents confirm the threat is always lingering. Mobile phones regularly receive alert warnings of incoming attacks, and concerns about the next barrage never fully fade.

    The presence of U.S. forces at Prince Sultan Air Base carries long-standing geopolitical weight. American troops first withdrew from the base in the early 2000s, after decades of controversy: conservative factions of Saudi society have long viewed foreign military presence on the soil of Islam’s two holiest sites as a religious insult, a grievance infamously cited by Osama bin Laden as a core justification for the September 11 attacks. U.S. forces only returned to the base in 2019 under a new bilateral agreement between Washington and Riyadh, with initial reports indicating hundreds of personnel would be stationed there.

  • Sputtering Arsenal face test of character in Sporting clash

    Sputtering Arsenal face test of character in Sporting clash

    For Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, a season brimming with historic ambition has hit its first major bump in the road, and the club now faces a defining moment of truth as it travels to Portugal to take on Sporting CP in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. Fresh off two devastating back-to-back defeats that have punctured the Gunners’ dream of an unprecedented domestic and European quadruple, Arteta has called on his shell-shocked squad to turn the pressure into an opportunity to prove their mental grit.

    The crisis of confidence sparked on Saturday, when second-tier Southampton dumped Arsenal out of the FA Cup quarter-finals with a stunning 2-1 upset. That result came just a fortnight after Arteta’s side fell to a 2-0 loss to Manchester City in the League Cup final, wiping out Arsenal’s two remaining domestic cup hopes and ending their chase of a historic four-trophy haul. The pair of defeats mark the first time this season that Arsenal have dropped consecutive matches, with only four other losses recorded across all competitions to this point. For long-suffering Arsenal fans, who have waited 22 years for a Premier League title and not lifted a major trophy since the 2020 FA Cup, the slump has triggered widespread soul-searching, with renewed doubts over whether this squad can finally end the club’s long silverware drought.

    Despite the sudden setback, Arteta remains steadfast in his belief that his side can navigate the mounting pressure. Arsenal still hold a comfortable nine-point lead over second-place Manchester City at the top of the Premier League, and enter the tie against Sporting as clear favorites to advance to the Champions League semi-finals. The Gunners also have prior form on their side, having routed Sporting 5-1 in the 2022-23 Champions League group stage, a result many in the camp are leaning on for confidence ahead of Tuesday’s clash.

    “This is the first challenging period we’ve faced all season, but this is why we play the game,” Arteta told reporters ahead of the match. “You don’t get to win the biggest trophies without facing moments like this. Compared to what other clubs go through, this is nothing. It’s time to stand up and perform the way we have all season.”

    Arteta has doubled down on his support for his players, rejecting any criticism of a squad that has delivered a historic nine months of consistent results. “I will defend these players more than anyone else,” he said. “They’ve put everything on the line for this club all season, and one defeat doesn’t change that. I take full responsibility for the result, and we have the most exciting phase of the season ahead of us.”

    One bright spot for Arsenal in recent weeks has been the resurgence of Swedish striker Viktor Gyokeres, who now looks set to be a key figure against his former club. After a slow start to his first season at the Emirates following his summer move from Sporting, Gyokeres has found his form in crucial moments: he scored Arsenal’s consolation equalizer against Southampton, bagged a brace in the win over Tottenham Hotspur in the north London derby, and even netted the late winner that booked Sweden’s place in the upcoming World Cup.

    The biggest cloud hanging over Arsenal heading into the tie is a growing injury crisis that threatens to derail their dual title push. Star winger Bukayo Saka and midfield enforcer Declan Rice both missed the Southampton defeat and England’s recent international friendlies, and both are racing against the clock to prove their fitness for Tuesday’s clash. Center-back Gabriel Magalhaes is also a major doubt after being forced off early against Southampton with a knee injury.

    Despite the fitness concerns, midfielder Christian Norgaard has kept an upbeat tone, echoing Arteta’s call for the squad to embrace the challenge instead of dwelling on the recent upset. “It’s okay to be frustrated, and we need to learn from what went wrong against Southampton,” Norgaard said. “But this isn’t the time to walk around with our heads down. We’ve got massive games coming up, every one of them is a chance to get back on track, and we have to look forward.”

    For a club that has come so far after years of near-misses, Tuesday’s clash in Lisbon is more than just a quarter-final tie. It is a test of whether this Arsenal side has the character to turn a rare setback into another step toward ending the club’s decades-long wait for major glory.

  • Asian shares mostly gain as focus turns to a deadline issued by President Trump on Iran

    Asian shares mostly gain as focus turns to a deadline issued by President Trump on Iran

    TOKYO – As the first full trading week of April got underway, most Asian markets that remained open for trading posted moderate gains on Monday, with investor sentiment tightly tethered to three major destabilizing factors: the ongoing armed conflict in Iran, soaring global crude oil prices, and upcoming policy statements from former U.S. President Donald Trump.

    Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 climbed 0.7% to 53,514.39 during afternoon trading, while South Korea’s Kospi index notched a 1.4% gain to reach 5,450.33. Several major regional markets remained closed for public holidays: Australian markets were shut for Easter observance, while both Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges suspended trading for a traditional Chinese holiday.

    The core source of market anxiety stems from a growing standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical chokepoints for global energy shipments. Trump has issued a deadline for Tuesday, threatening to strike Iran’s critical infrastructure hard if the Iranian government does not reverse its closure of the strait. As of Monday, there had been no indication that Iran would back down from its closure, keeping markets on edge.

    Global energy markets have been roiled by the standoff in recent weeks, with prices surging on widespread fears that the conflict in Iran will drag on longer than initially projected. Energy markets were closed on the prior Friday, so Monday marked the first trading opportunity for many investors to price in new developments. On Monday, benchmark U.S. crude edged down 42 cents to settle at $111.12 per barrel, while Brent crude, the global pricing standard for oil, gained 64 cents to hit $109.67 per barrel.

    While the United States only sources a small share of its imported oil from the Persian Gulf region, global oil pricing operates as a unified commodity market, meaning disruptions in the region ripple through to every consumer economy worldwide. Import-reliant East Asian economies are particularly exposed to the closure: resource-poor Japan, for example, imports the vast majority of its energy needs and depends heavily on unimpeded access to the Strait of Hormuz.

    To offset potential supply disruptions, regional governments have already begun rolling out contingency plans. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told lawmakers recently that Japan would release its national oil reserves and is working to establish alternative shipping routes. South Korea’s trade ministry, meanwhile, announced plans to deploy at least five vessels to Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks to set up new oil transport pathways via the Red Sea.

    “As we kick off the first full trading week of April, the word uncertainty is paramount. Last year it was centered on the impact of ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, this year it’s uncertainty surrounding the ongoing Iranian War,” explained Jay Woods, a market analyst at Freedom Capital Markets based in New York.

    U.S. stock markets were closed for Good Friday on the prior trading day and were set to reopen for regular trading on Monday. Multiple European markets also suspended trading on Friday for the Easter holiday, adding to thin trading volumes and elevated volatility across global assets.

    In foreign exchange markets, the U.S. dollar posted a tiny decline against the Japanese yen, slipping to 159.56 yen from 159.63 yen in the prior trading session. The euro, meanwhile, inched up slightly to trade at $1.1523, up from $1.1517 a day earlier.

  • US was arming Iranian dissidents through Kurds while negotiating with Tehran, Trump reveals

    US was arming Iranian dissidents through Kurds while negotiating with Tehran, Trump reveals

    On Easter Sunday, former U.S. President Donald Trump made a series of stunning, unplanned disclosures about U.S. operations targeting Iran, confirming that Washington secretly armed anti-government protesters inside the country just weeks before launching military strikes—even as American diplomatic envoys held face-to-face negotiations with senior Iranian leaders on European soil.

    In a phone interview with Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst, Trump laid out details of the covert operation: the U.S. arranged weapons shipments to Iranian demonstrators who flooded city streets in late 2024, sparked by crippling economic hardship brought on by sweeping U.S. sanctions on Tehran. However, the secret mission ultimately went completely off plan.

    The weapons, which were routed to intended recipients through Kurdish intermediaries based in the region, never ended up in the hands of the protesters the U.S. intended to arm. Paraphrasing Trump’s account during the on-air segment, Yingst relayed the former president’s blunt assessment: “We sent them a lot of guns. We sent them through the Kurds, and the president says he thinks the Kurds kept them.”

    This on-the-record confirmation aligns with earlier unconfirmed intelligence reports that the Central Intelligence Agency had been working for months to arm Iranian Kurdish opposition groups. Trump’s remarks also line up with public comments he made in early March, when he stated it would be “wonderful” if Iranian Kurdish forces based in Iraq crossed the border to launch attacks on the Iranian government. Just days after that provocative comment, however, Trump walked back his position, adopting a far more cautious tone. “We’re very friendly with the Kurds, as you know, but we don’t want to make the war any more complex than it already is. I have ruled that out. I don’t want the Kurds going in,” he said at the time.

    Experts say the newly revealed admission makes clear that the U.S. was far more deeply involved in efforts to destabilize the sitting Iranian government than previously acknowledged—at the exact same time that U.S. diplomats were holding unofficial back-channel negotiations with Iranian representatives. The mass protests that the U.S. sought to support were ultimately crushed by Iranian security forces, with conflicting reports over casualties. Trump claimed in the interview that Iranian authorities killed more than “40,000 civilians” during the government crackdown, but no independent verification or credible evidence has emerged to back up that staggering death toll claim.

    In separate comments to Axios, Trump shared additional details about another high-stakes recent event: the successful rescue of an American F-15 aircrew member whose plane was shot down over Iranian territory the previous Friday. The downed pilot was safely recovered in the late hours of Saturday, capping off a multi-day search and extraction operation that put U.S. forces on high alert. During the mission, U.S. intelligence officials had raised concerns that the pilot’s emergency locator beacon was being used by Iranian forces as bait to lure American rescue teams into a trap.

    Trump’s inflammatory language describing Iranians during his discussion of the pilot rescue drew swift backlash from political observers and advocacy groups across the globe. Referring to ordinary Iranian citizens in his remarks to Axios, Trump claimed: “Thousands of these savages were hunting him down. Even the population was looking for him. They offered people a bonus if they captured him.” The dehumanizing language was immediately condemned as bigoted and inflammatory by critics.

  • Artemis mission headed for first lunar flyby since 1972

    Artemis mission headed for first lunar flyby since 1972

    Fifty-two years after the final Apollo mission departed the Moon’s vicinity, NASA’s groundbreaking Artemis program is on the cusp of a new era of human lunar exploration, with four international astronauts approaching the historic milestone of the first crewed lunar flyby since 1972. The four-person crew — mission commander Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover of the United States, and Jeremy Hansen representing the Canadian Space Agency — is closing in on the moment when lunar gravity will capture the Orion capsule’s trajectory, slinging it into a loop around the Moon that marks a turning point for modern deep-space human spaceflight.

    This mission is packed with unprecedented firsts that expand the face of space exploration. Koch will make history as the first woman to fly around the Moon, while Glover, a Black astronaut, will go down in textbooks as the first person of color to complete a lunar flyby. For Hansen, the mission cements his place as the first non-American astronaut to accomplish the feat. The mission’s core objectives stretch far beyond symbolic milestones, however: during their planned flyby on Monday, the crew will spend hours documenting lunar surface features, collecting critical data that will lay the groundwork for future crewed lunar landings.

    Days ahead of the planned flyby, the crew has already achieved a first in observational astronomy. Early Sunday, NASA released a new image captured by the Artemis crew showing the massive Orientale basin on the Moon’s far side, marking the first time human eyes have ever viewed the entire sprawling crater directly. The bullseye-shaped impact crater, often called the Moon’s equivalent of the Grand Canyon, had only ever been photographed by robotic orbital cameras before this mission. Speaking in a live question-and-answer session with Canadian schoolchildren from space, Koch described the crew’s excitement at the unprecedented view. “It’s very distinctive and no human eyes previously had seen this crater until today, really, when we were privileged enough to see it,” she said.

    As the capsule swings around the far side of the Moon near the end of the flyby, the crew will also get a rare front-row seat to a deep-space solar eclipse, where the Moon will pass directly between the Orion capsule and the Sun, leaving only the Sun’s wispy outer corona visible. In addition to observational work, the mission carries a critical engineering mandate: the astronauts are the first to test NASA’s new Orion Crew Survival System (OCSS) spacesuits in the actual space environment. The bright orange suits, designed to protect the crew during launch and atmospheric reentry, can also provide up to six days of breathable air in an emergency scenario. The crew will run through functional tests to assess how quickly they can don and pressurize the suits, gathering real-world performance data that cannot be replicated in ground simulations.

    While the Artemis II crew will not land on the lunar surface itself, they are on track to break a 50-plus-year-old record: they will travel farther from Earth than any human in history. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman outlined the mission’s broader significance in a televised interview with CNN on Sunday, noting that the data collected on this flight is irreplaceable for upcoming Artemis missions. Over the coming day, while the crew operates on the far side of the Moon out of direct communication with Earth, they will eclipse the previous distance record, and engineers will collect vital performance data on Orion’s systems. “This is the first time astronauts have ever flown on this spacecraft before,” Isaacman said. “That’s what we’re most interested in getting data from.”

    As of Sunday, the crew had already completed a successful manual piloting demonstration and walked through their full flyby plan, reviewing all lunar surface features scheduled for analysis and photography. The data collected during this mission will be critical to preparing for Artemis III, the first crewed lunar landing scheduled for 2027, and the subsequent landing mission Artemis IV planned for 2028, Isaacman added. “The information will be pretty paramount to set up for subsequent missions,” he said, emphasizing that Artemis II is far more than a demonstration flight — it is the foundational step for NASA’s long-term goal of establishing a sustained human presence on and around the Moon.

  • Hungarians’ growing anger at living in EU’s ‘most corrupt state’

    Hungarians’ growing anger at living in EU’s ‘most corrupt state’

    As Hungary prepares for its pivotal April 12 general election, widespread public anger over systemic corruption and mounting economic hardship has put an end to 16 years of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s rule within reach, with voters increasingly rejecting the elite wealth accumulation that has defined his administration. On paper, Orban’s publicly declared assets are remarkably modest: a small cache of personal savings and a shared villa in the Hungarian capital Budapest. But a growing share of the electorate in the European Union’s most corrupt member state, per Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index, is convinced that the prime minister and his inner circle have built an opaque network of illicit wealth siphoned from public coffers.

    While Orban himself maintains a facade of humble living, multiple members of his inner circle and close family have amassed extraordinary fortunes since he returned to power in 2010. His 85-year-old father, Gyozo Orban, owns multiple construction material businesses and the historic Hatvanpuszta estate, which he has renovated into a sprawling luxury manor estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Drone footage from independent Hungarian media reveals the walled compound, located near Orban’s childhood home, boasts two swimming pools, a private wildlife park, and dozens of outbuildings. Leading Hungarian anti-corruption advocate and independent lawmaker Akos Hadhazy argues that Gyozo Orban acts merely as a front for his son’s hidden interests.

    Other close associates have also skyrocketed to wealth through public contracts, many of which receive partial funding from the EU. Orban’s son-in-law, Istvan Tiborcz, rose to prominence as one of Hungary’s most powerful entrepreneurs through his former company Elios, which secured billions in public lighting contracts across the country. The EU’s anti-fraud office OLAF eventually uncovered serious procedural irregularities in the deals, prompting Tiborcz to pivot his investments to the real estate and tourism sectors. Even more striking is the rise of Lorinc Meszaros, Orban’s childhood friend and a former plumber, who is now Hungary’s wealthiest individual with a net worth of $4.8 billion, per Forbes. Meszaros now controls a vast cross-sector empire spanning construction, energy, banking, and media, all built on a steady stream of government public contracts.

    Systemic corruption has drained an estimated 2.84 billion euros ($3.27 billion) from Hungarian public finances every year since 2016, Hadhazy told AFP, adding that graft is not a collection of isolated incidents but the core operating model of Orban’s administration. This graft has come at a steep cost for ordinary Hungarians, who have struggled for years with stagnant economic growth, sky-high inflation, and rapidly declining quality of public services. Gabor Szebenyi, an 81-year-old retired history teacher who attended a recent opposition rally, compared the current system to feudalism, saying: “It’s our money, not theirs. But they are spending it as if they were the sole owners.”

    A veteran construction contractor with 30 years of experience in the industry, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, confirmed that public procurement contracts are predetermined before bids are even submitted, despite nominal competition on paper. “Those at the bottom of the chain do the work and get paid last — sometimes months later,” he explained, adding that he is now preparing to exit the industry and sell his equipment out of frustration. “I’m so angry. While those in power lead luxurious lives and travel by private jets, small businesses are struggling to survive.”

    The corruption crisis has already had tangible diplomatic and financial consequences for Hungary. Transparency International ranks the country as the EU’s most corrupt, tied with Bulgaria, highlighting systemic risks in public procurement and limited competition for large contracts that account for 5% of Hungary’s total GDP. The Hungarian government has rejected the ranking and insists its procurement rules fully comply with EU standards, but the EU has frozen 19 billion euros ($22 billion) in allocated development funds over persistent concerns about corruption and erosion of the rule of law.

    Orban’s main challenger in the upcoming election, opposition leader Peter Magyar, has centered his campaign on tackling graft, vowing to unblock the frozen EU funds and launch full investigations into the wealth accumulation by Orban and his inner circle if he wins office. Political analyst Zoltan Ranschburg, from the Budapest-based Republikon think tank, noted that Orban’s powerful state propaganda machine has been able to deflect criticism for years, but it has lost credibility as economic conditions have worsened. For millions of Hungarians fed up with systemic graft and elite impunity, the upcoming election represents a rare chance to end more than a decade and a half of Orban’s rule.