As golden dawn spills across the Indian Ocean, gentle waves curl onto powdery shorelines and palm fronds sway in salt-kissed breezes — this is the Mogadishu that 23-year-old local tour guide Sucdi Abdul Fattah Abdul Khader is determined to show the world, a stark counterpoint to the widespread international image of the Somali capital defined by suicide bombings and armed insurgency. Part of a small but fast-growing cohort of local tourism pioneers, Sucdi curates immersive itineraries that bypass stereotypical conflict-focused narratives to showcase the coastal city’s hidden natural treasures, layered historical heritage, and vibrant living culture. Her signature route leads visitors first to Jazeera Beach, a sun-dappled coastal escape where guests swim in turquoise waters before venturing to nearby wind-sculpted sand dunes that many travelers compare to the Sahara Desert. The tours extend far beyond scenic views, however: Sucdi also escorts groups through bustling waterfront fish markets brimming with diverse marine species harvested from Somalia’s 3,000-kilometre mainland Indian Ocean coastline — the longest of any country on continental Africa — and through historic neighbourhoods that bear the distinct marks of Mogadishu’s centuries-long legacy as a thriving Indian Ocean trade hub, with layered cultural influences from its former Ottoman and Italian administrations. Visitors are also invited to savour authentic Somali cuisine, from spiced samosas and tender camel meat to fragrant traditional spiced tea. For most first-time guests, who arrive carrying decades of media narratives framing Somalia as a zone of unrelenting insecurity, the experience is revelatory. “Nearly every guest is stunned by how lush the landscape is, and how genuinely warm and welcoming local communities are,” Sucdi explains, noting that the vibrant, unrivalled diversity of fresh seafood at the city’s fish markets consistently ranks as one of the most memorable stops for international visitors. Guiding runs deep in Sucdi’s family: her father spent more than 30 years leading foreign journalists, photographers, and cross-border visitors across Somalia, and he introduced her to the trade nearly three years ago. What began as a casual hobby quickly evolved into a passionate life calling, and today she collaborates alongside her father and a small team of fellow local guides, building on his decades of on-ground expertise while leveraging social media to reach a global audience that has long written Somalia off as unvisitable. She regularly shares short, vivid tour clips on TikTok to offer viewers around the world a window into corners of Mogadishu they never imagined they could see, and is currently developing English-language content to expand her reach to non-Somali speaking international audiences. Tourism remains a nascent, underdeveloped sector in Somalia, with only a tiny handful of registered tour guides operating in Mogadishu, and the industry follows a distinctly seasonal pattern. Even so, 2024 has brought unprecedented encouraging growth: according to official data from Somalia’s national tourism department, roughly 10,000 international tourists visited the country in 2024, marking a 50% year-on-year increase from 2023. While five guests per week is still considered a major milestone for local operators, Sucdi remains optimistic that visitor numbers will continue to climb steadily. Significant barriers remain, however. Decades of civil war followed the 1991 collapse of Somalia’s central government, leaving swathes of Mogadishu’s city centre reduced to rubble, public infrastructure in tatters, and millions of residents displaced. Even after Islamist militant group al-Shabab withdrew from most of the capital in 2011 and a new federal government was established in 2012, the legacy of conflict lingers, and sporadic security incidents persist alongside ubiquitous city checkpoints. Still, the post-2012 era has spurred a dramatic, ongoing transformation: returning members of the global Somali diaspora, local entrepreneurs, and domestic investors have fuelled a widespread construction boom, with new hotels, restaurants, commercial spaces, and residential complexes rapidly reshaping the capital into a fast-growing regional commercial hub. For international visitors who arrive with preconceived fears rooted in decades of negative media coverage, the on-ground reality defies nearly all their expectations. American travel content creator Chris Reese, who documents his journeys under the brand Authentic Travelling, first visited Mogadishu alone a year ago and enjoyed the experience so thoroughly that he returned shortly after with a group of friends who had seen clips from his first trip on social media. “If you only consumed mainstream news coverage about Somalia, you would never dare step foot here — that’s all I saw before my first visit, endless headlines about violence,” he says. “But the moment I arrived, I realized there is an entire, beautiful side of this country that never makes the news. The tropical coastal scenery, the laid-back local vibe, the incredible food — it’s unlike anywhere else I’ve travelled. The stark, photogenic desert dunes are barely a 30-minute drive from the city centre, which feels almost surreal.” Romanian long-haul traveller Mihaela Patap, who crossed into Somalia from neighbouring Ethiopia, was equally enchanted by her first few hours in Mogadishu, having already explored the iconic sand dunes and stretched out on the Indian Ocean shoreline. “The desert is breathtaking, the beaches are pristine, and I have not felt the slightest hint of danger — everyone I meet is incredibly kind and warm,” she explains. A seasoned global explorer who intentionally avoids pre-conceived judgments about new destinations, Patap says she plans to share her photos and positive experiences widely on social media to encourage other travellers to consider visiting Somalia. For Sucdi, every new guest represents a chance to rewrite the global narrative of her home. As a young woman working in a local tourism sector that has almost no female operators, she is breaking long-standing social norms while carrying forward her family’s multi-generational legacy. “Somalia still has a very long path ahead before tourism becomes a major economic pillar,” she acknowledges. “But every tour I lead gives one more person the chance to see our stunning landscapes, our rich culture, and our generous people — far beyond the narrow, one-dimensional headlines about explosions and conflict that the rest of the world has seen for so long.”
作者： admin
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Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña impeached and arrested
In a historic turn of events that has sent shockwaves through Paraguay’s political and financial systems, sitting President Santiago Peña has been formally removed from office via a landslide senate impeachment vote and placed under house arrest, in the wake of the sudden collapse of domestic digital lender Ueno Bank earlier this week. The decisive legislative action unfolded on Friday, with 44 out of 45 sitting senators – including multiple members of Peña’s own ruling party – voting to endorse impeachment charges, while only one legislator was recorded absent from the session. This move came barely 24 hours after Peña publicly announced he was prepared to tender his voluntary resignation to de-escalate the spiralling public unrest triggered by the bank’s failure. Lawmakers opted to pursue formal impeachment proceedings instead of accepting his resignation, a deliberate choice that stripped Peña of the lifelong Senate seat and blanket legal immunity that Paraguayan law extends to all former heads of state. The impeachment filing levelled a sweeping set of allegations against Peña, including unreported conflicts of interest stemming from his undisclosed shareholdings in the parent company of Ueno Bank, a position he only divested from within the last 12 months; deliberate manipulation of financial regulatory oversight to shield the failing institution; unlawful diversion of public pension funds to prop up the bank; and coordinated institutional cover-up in collusion with senior officials at Paraguay’s central bank. Prosecutor Silvia Margarita Gonzalez Vester confirmed that Peña is scheduled to appear for formal questioning on Saturday to face additional criminal counts of breach of public trust, influence peddling, and large-scale misappropriation of public funds. The collapse of Ueno Bank, which was seized by Paraguayan central bank regulators earlier this week, has left more than 3 million ordinary citizens – over half of the nation’s total population – completely locked out of their personal savings and mandatory pension accounts. The widespread loss of access to critical household funds has sparked days of large-scale, often tense public demonstrations, with crowds gathering in their thousands in the capital city of Asunción to demand accountability and full restitution. Following the impeachment vote, Senate President Basilio Núñez formally declared Peña guilty of gross dereliction of duty, paving the way for Vice-President Pedro Alliana to be immediately sworn in as the country’s interim head of state, who will serve out the remainder of the presidential term through to 2028. In his first public address to the nation after taking office, Alliana issued a direct pledge to affected citizens: “Compatriots who are now going through a difficult time as a result of the financial collapse will be fully compensated.” Senior opposition Senator Rafael Filizzola framed the crisis as an unprecedented blow to the nation’s democratic institutions, stating, “We are facing the biggest corruption scandal in our democratic history – a tremendous blow to the state, to private citizens, and to the country’s credibility and image.” Independent political and legal analysts have noted that the removal of Peña from office and the revocation of his immunity clears the path for full, formal criminal prosecution over his alleged role in the bank’s collapse. Peña’s legal defence team, led by lawyer Ricardo Preda, has pushed back aggressively against all the charges, dismissing the entire case as a “reckless accusation” that is “irresponsible and opportunistic”, driven by political manoeuvring rather than verifiable evidence. In a pre-emptive national televised address delivered on Thursday, before the impeachment vote was tabled, Peña offered a public apology to the Paraguayan public, stating, “it was never my intention to betray the trust you placed in me.”
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With Stephen Miller pick, Trump readies for a battle
Just days after the Republican Party suffered a crushing, widespread defeat in the 2026 US midterm elections, where Democratic candidates secured majorities across key congressional chambers, President Donald Trump made a public gesture suggesting he was open to cross-party collaboration with the newly empowered Democratic caucuses on Capitol Hill. That tentative olive branch was swiftly cast aside on Friday, when Trump formally announced the promotion of Stephen Miller, his fiercely partisan, long-serving political operative, to the critical post of White House chief of staff, ousting the widely respected, operationally steady Susie Wiles from the top role. Miller, who has stood by Trump’s political orbit since the earliest days of his 2016 presidential campaign, framed his new appointment as a call to uncompromising action in a post on social platform X, writing, “The mission now is more clear than ever: Fight with all of our soul to support our president and defend this magnificent republic,” adding that he was deeply humbled by the president’s trust in him. As the highest-ranking administrative role in the West Wing, the White House chief of staff serves as the president’s primary gatekeeper, the lead architect of the administration’s daily policy and legislative agenda, and the administration’s top point person for negotiations with congressional leaders, industry stakeholders and external political groups. Trump defended his pick to reporters shortly after sharing the news on his own Truth Social platform, noting, “Stephen Miller’s been with me since the beginning. He gets it.” A defining figure behind the Trump administration’s notoriously aggressive immigration enforcement framework, Miller spearheaded sweeping expansions of federal funding for nationwide border and interior deportation operations. He drew widespread public backlash in 2025 when he labeled Alex Pretti, a civilian fatally shot by federal immigration agents during a large-scale deportation operation in Minneapolis, a “domestic terrorist” and “assassin”, before later walking back the remarks to note that federal officers on the scene may not have followed official operating protocols. He has also been cited as a central architect of recent controversial US military interventions in Venezuela, as well as counter-narcotics operations across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, moves that human rights advocates and legal experts have repeatedly condemned as unaccountable extrajudicial actions. Prior to his initial 2016 campaign role as a lead strategist and fiery opening speaker at Trump’s packed, high-energy campaign rallies, Miller built a reputation as a no-holds-barred conservative partisan. He was one of the very few senior aides who remained in the White House for the full duration of Trump’s first term, stayed unflinchingly loyal through the 2020 post-election push to overturn the presidential vote results, and returned to a senior portfolio in the second Trump administration as deputy chief of staff for policy. His predecessor Susie Wiles, who co-managed Trump’s successful 2024 re-election bid, was widely regarded as a calm, disciplined operational leader who had largely avoided the chaotic staffing shakeups, impulsive policy pivots and inter-staff personality clashes that defined large swathes of Trump’s first term in office. Over recent months, however, Trump’s confidence in Wiles steadily eroded as his administration’s public approval ratings dipped, a downward trajectory that culminated in the devastating midterm rout this week. Reports that close associates in Wiles’ professional circle had secured high-paying consulting roles by leveraging their proximity to the White House further frayed their working relationship. The appointment of such a polarizing partisan to the administration’s top administrative post poses a steep barrier to any meaningful cross-party collaboration with the newly Democratic-controlled Congress. Miller is reviled by nearly all Democratic lawmakers, and faces significant criticism from a faction of moderate Republicans as well. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a searing rebuke of the appointment on X, writing, “Stephen Miller is a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands. His presence in government should be eradicated like a malignant tumor.” Earlier in 2026, Miller drew fierce pushback from Democratic Party leadership when he publicly highlighted James Talarico, the newly nominated Democratic candidate for Texas’s US Senate seat, as the party’s “first transgender Senate candidate”, prompting a blunt, profanity-laced official Democratic social media response ordering him to stop speaking on the matter. Talarico went on to win his Senate race in this week’s midterms, and will now be a sitting member of the upper chamber that Miller will be tasked with negotiating with — a dynamic made even more fraught by post-election polling showing 58% of US voters believe the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies have “gone too far”, and that Hispanic voters swung heavily toward Democratic candidates across the country. Even Vice President JD Vance, widely viewed as the early front-runner for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, suggested in a post-midterm social media reflection on Wednesday that the party should adjust its immigration enforcement priorities to focus more heavily on penalizing businesses that hire undocumented workers, a policy shift that now appears highly unlikely under Miller’s leadership at the White House. Prominent moderate Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is set to retire at the end of the current congressional session, has been an outspoken critic of Miller, dismissing him as “incompetent” and the “architect of some of the dumbest proposals from the Trump White House”. Other members of the Republican caucus, however, have celebrated the appointment. Utah Senator Mike Lee posted a glowing endorsement on X, writing, “Stephen Miller has been a true conservative warrior since his days as a Senate staffer, a staunch defender of law and order against illegal invasions and leftist lawlessness, and a steadfast fighter for President Trump for over a decade.” With congressional Democratic leaders already vowing to launch sweeping new oversight investigations into the Trump administration’s second-term activities, Trump’s selection of a combative, unapologetically partisan operative for the chief of staff role makes clear he is preparing for a period of all-out political confrontation, rather than the cross-party cooperation he initially hinted at in the immediate aftermath of the midterm losses.
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An Indian film that nobody would release is finally a hit – 18 awards later
After spending two years trapped in distribution limbo, the poignant 111-minute Uttarakhand-set drama *Pyre* has emerged as a surprise cultural sensation across India, drawing tearful standing ovations from theatergoers and rave endorsements from top Bollywood talent. Helmed by veteran television journalist turned filmmaker Vinod Kapri, the production centers on Bubu and Aama – the local Uttarakhandi terms for grandfather and grandmother – played by first-time, non-professional leads Padam Singh, Kapri’s retired army uncle, and Heera Devi, a widowed village farmer who spent decades raising her children through agricultural labor, grass cutting, and buffalo rearing.
Set in a remote, roadless, electricity-free Himalayan hamlet, the narrative traces the quiet 65-year companionship of elderly couple Padam Singh and Tulsi, who have spent 28 years waiting for their only son Hariya to return home from Mumbai, where he migrated in search of stable work. Their long period of anticipation surges with new urgency when a letter arrives bearing Hariya’s promised return date, but as the few remaining local families gradually depart for urban opportunities, the couple is left increasingly isolated in the vast, unforgiving mountain landscape. When a departing neighbor warns them they will soon have no one left to carry their bodies down the steep slopes for a proper funeral, Padam Singh builds two adjacent funeral pyres directly outside their small home, to ensure they will never be separated even in death. While the story grapples with heavy, timely themes – including mass outmigration that has turned hundreds of Himalayan settlements into ghost villages, and worsening climate change that has made local weather patterns far harsher and less predictable – the film is laced with gentle, warm humor, framing the couple’s constant playful bickering as their unique, decades-tested love language.
Kapri, a Uttarakhand native, first conceived the project in 2018 after encountering an 84-year-old local man in the scenic hill town of Munsiyari, whose deeply lined face and quiet devotion to his elderly wife left a lasting impression. The original plan to film the real-life couple was abandoned after a week of shooting, as the pair could not adapt to performing for a camera. Kapri then approached iconic Bollywood acting couple Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah for the lead roles, but the pair turned down the part out of respect for the story’s regional authenticity, noting they could not fully embody the lived experiences of Uttarakhand’s rural elderly population. The final casting of two local villagers, who had never faced a camera before, ended up becoming one of the film’s greatest strengths, drawing widespread praise from Indian cinema’s most respected figures, including Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher. When Shah finally watched the finished film, he tearfully embraced lead actor Padam Singh, telling him he could never have delivered such a raw, authentic performance even across seven lifetimes.
*Pyre* earned 18 international film festival awards throughout 2024, including three best feature honors and 12 audience choice best film prizes, but struggled to secure a theatrical distribution deal for two full years, with major streaming OTT platforms also rejecting the project. It only reached cinemas on October 30 via a modest 70-screen release funded by a supportive producer friend of Kapri’s, but explosive positive word of mouth quickly drove surging ticket demand, prompting theater operators to expand screenings nationwide. Audiences have flooded social media with clips of viewers exiting screenings in tears, noting the story has not moved them this deeply in decades. Many attendees approach the two lead actors at public events to hug them or touch their feet, sharing that the film reminds them of their own elderly parents and grandparents waiting alone in hometowns they left behind for work.
Both non-professional leads admit they initially feared performing on camera, worrying they would forget lines and face judgment from their families and local communities. Now basking in nationwide acclaim, the pair have used their new platform to call on India’s younger generation not to abandon their rural ancestral lands, and to urge state and federal policymakers to expand local education and employment opportunities in rural Himalayan regions, so families no longer have to separate by migrating thousands of kilometers for work. As Heera Devi observes, the film’s widespread resonance stems from its unflinching realism: “Across villages in India, the elderly are left alone. No one’s children stay home anymore, and all parents wait endlessly for visits from their sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren. That quiet loneliness is something no one can escape.”
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Rights groups condemn Bahrain’s largest mass trial of Shia clerics in history
Manama, Bahrain – The Gulf Arab kingdom of Bahrain is on the cusp of convening the largest mass trial targeting Shia religious leaders in its modern history, as human rights organizations raise urgent alarms over systemic due process violations, including claims that judicial authorities have extracted confessions through physical coercion and torture. A local national court is scheduled to issue formal verdicts this Sunday for 69 total defendants, 60 of whom are practicing Shia clerics, who face a sweeping slate of charges: affiliation with a purported terrorist organization, conspiring to overthrow the country’s constitutional ruling system, and disseminating Iran’s official political ideology within Bahraini borders. Documented testimony collected by the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) details a catalogue of severe abuses inflicted on the detained group during pre-trial detention, including being forced to stand for extended hours on end, being kept blindfolded and handcuffed for days at a time, prolonged intentional sleep deprivation, and repeated threats of physical harm, sexual violence directed at both the detainees and their immediate family members. Multiple detainees also reported that interrogators explicitly threatened to revoke their Bahraini citizenship and forcibly deport them if they refused to confess to the alleged charges. One 62-year-old prominent Shia cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Saeed Al-Taitoon, shared with independent investigators that he was held blindfolded and physically restrained for seven consecutive days, forced to remain standing even as he suffered from severe urinary bleeding and painful kidney stones, and was actively denied access to life-saving surgical care for his condition. A second 57-year-old cleric, Sayed Moosa Jawad Alwedaie, stated that interrogators beat him repeatedly, subjected him to electric shock torture, and left him naked and exposed in his cell for extended periods. A coalition of 20 leading global human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, has issued a joint public appeal to Bahraini governing authorities, demanding the immediate release of all individuals arbitrarily detained in the sweep, the full dismissal of all charges rooted in peaceful, lawful religious practice, and a fully transparent, independent investigation into every verified allegation of mistreatment and torture against the detainees. This upcoming trial is the latest flashpoint in long-running international scrutiny of Bahrain’s ruling Sunni monarchy, which has faced consistent global condemnation for its widespread crackdown on the country’s 2011 Arab Spring-era pro-democracy movement. For more than a decade, the kingdom’s ruling establishment has repeatedly targeted religious leaders from Bahrain’s large Shia majority population, routinely framing them as having secret operational ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Recent regional geopolitical tensions, sparked by the outbreak of open conflict between the United States and Israel against Iran, followed by a series of Iranian retaliatory strikes targeting U.S.-aligned Gulf states including Bahrain, have prompted a sharp new wave of domestic repression against individuals suspected of having any ties to Tehran. To date, 69 Bahraini citizens of Iranian heritage have already had their legal citizenship formally revoked as part of this expanded security campaign. Tariq Al Hassan, director of Bahrain’s internal state security agency, defended the government’s actions in a Friday interview with Reuters, stating that the ongoing crackdown is designed to counter “an ideology that demands obedience to Iran’s leadership above Bahrain’s sovereign authority.” Critics of the government’s campaign, however, argue that the high-profile mass trial is a thinly veiled new effort to crush all remaining peaceful political dissent across the kingdom. Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, advocacy director at BIRD, characterized the upcoming mass trial as a direct “attack on the faith and identity of Bahrain’s Shia community” and one of the “ugliest forms of persecution” the Bahraini state has carried out since the 2011 pro-democracy uprising. “When allegations of torture are brushed aside and defendants are denied a meaningful opportunity to challenge the evidence against them, the judiciary becomes an instrument of persecution,” Alwadaei noted in a public statement. “This mockery of justice must end. It will leave lasting wounds and deepen divisions across the country.”
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Leaked UN report ‘establishes conclusively’ that UAE hired Colombian mercenaries for Sudan’s RSF
A strictly confidential quarterly update from the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan, submitted to the UN Security Council last week and obtained exclusively by Middle East Eye (MEE), delivers irrefutable, conclusive evidence that the United Arab Emirates orchestrated the deployment of Colombian mercenary fighters to back Sudan’s abusive Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The investigation traces the elaborate recruitment, training and transit network managed by GSSG, a UAE-headquartered security firm with documented direct ties to Emirati state institutions, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Presidential Affairs. The mercenaries were first trained at facilities across the UAE in Abu Dhabi, Ghayathi and al-Wathba, as well as at the UAE-subsidized Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) base in Bosaso, Somalia – a semi-autonomous territory where Emirati proxies hold de facto control. The fighters were then ferried into Sudan via a multi-stop route spanning Libya, Somalia and Chad, all regions where Emirati-aligned armed groups hold large swathes of territory. Additional arms and logistical supplies for the RSF moved overland through Haftar-controlled eastern Libya, Ethiopia, and the UAE-linked breakaway Somali regions of Puntland and Somaliland.
The report confirms the Colombian mercenaries played a pivotal operational role in RSF’s 500-day siege and subsequent capture of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, in October 2024, providing critical drone operation support, artillery expertise and frontline infantry backing. Multiple eyewitness and victim accounts collected by MEE confirm that during the el-Fasher offensive, RSF forces carried out widespread atrocities including mass rape, summary executions, civilian extortion and even forced blood extraction from detained people. Both the UN and United States have previously formally designated the RSF as responsible for perpetrating genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region.
All implicated parties, including the UAE, have publicly denied any wrongdoing. In an official letter included in the leaked confidential report, the UAE formally stated it rejects all allegations of misconduct related to the Sudan conflict and claims it takes reports of mercenary activity very seriously, though it did not respond to MEE’s formal request for comment on the new conclusive evidence. Unlike prior partial disclosures of Emirati involvement, this fully documented, fourth quarterly panel report is far more difficult for Abu Dhabi to dismiss.
The emergence of this damning verified evidence of Emirati interference in Sudan’s 19-month civil war lands directly in the middle of the high-stakes race to replace outgoing UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as the UAE’s former long-serving female permanent UN representative Lana Nusseibeh is actively campaigning for the top global diplomatic post. Sudan’s ambassador to the UK, Babiker al-Siddig al-Amin, warned MEE that Nusseibeh’s candidacy must not be used to whitewash Abu Dhabi’s documented support for the genocidal RSF, stating that actors with Sudanese civilian blood on their hands should not lead global governance institutions, and that her election would represent a catastrophic blow to the UN’s institutional credibility.
A highly decorated Emirati diplomat with close ties to the UAE ruling elite, Nusseibeh is a Cambridge and SOAS University of London graduate who previously served as UN General Assembly vice president, head of the UN Women executive board, and twice as Security Council president. She was a key architect of the UAE’s 2020 normalization of diplomatic relations with Israel. For years, she has rejected press reports detailing Emirati involvement in the Sudan war, and when pressed recently on her ability to remain impartial on Sudan-related issues if elected secretary-general, she stopped short of directly addressing Emirati support for the RSF, only stating that she would back full accountability for RSF atrocities and support all UN fact-finding mechanisms.
While Nusseibeh currently trails Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan in informal straw polling for the position, her candidacy has gained significant momentum due to the UAE’s extensive economic and diplomatic leverage over the UN Security Council’s five veto-wielding P5 members. Abu Dhabi has pledged $1.4 trillion in long-term investments to the United States, billions of euros in economic commitments to France alongside hosting a permanent French military base and a Louvre museum branch, and poured tens of billions of pounds into the United Kingdom’s economy, including major stakes in the city of Manchester and ownership of the iconic Manchester City Football Club by Emirati Vice President Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. China is the UAE’s largest global trading partner, while Russia has relied heavily on Dubai and Abu Dhabi networks to circumvent Western sanctions imposed after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Multiple diplomatic sources confirmed to MEE that the US, UK, France and Russia are all leaning toward backing Nusseibeh’s bid, with only China remaining opposed. Unconfirmed prior claims that International Rescue Committee head David Miliband had lobbied his brother, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, to support Nusseibeh’s candidacy were formally denied by the IRC, while the UK Foreign Office stated it would only evaluate all candidates on merit and would not publicly comment on individual hopefuls. Prior tensions between the UK and UAE over Sudan-related diplomatic stances came to light last year, when Abu Dhabi cancelled scheduled meetings with British ministers and forced a mid-flight turnaround of a visiting UK government aircraft after London declined to defend the UAE at a UN Security Council session on the Sudan war.
This latest confidential UN report follows a prior panel document earlier this year that also outlined UAE links to RSF mercenary deployments, which was blocked from public release for months by Bahrain, a close Emirati ally and non-permanent Security Council member. Investigations by AI safety firm Anthropic also confirmed with high confidence last September that the UAE ran a coordinated influence operation targeting UN Sudan experts and independent critics of its role in the conflict. The New York Times also recently revealed that GSSG, the security firm that deployed the Colombian mercenaries, was founded by a senior official in the Emirati presidential office. -
Cornell faculty pass no confidence vote over leadership’s handling of Jane Doe allegations
Ithaca, New York – In a historic rebuke of senior leadership at Cornell University, the Ivy League institution’s Faculty Senate has formally passed a motion of no confidence in the central administration’s capacity to address what academic staff describe as a long-running, systemic campus sexual assault crisis. The vote, held Friday, passed by a narrow margin of 75 to 50, marking a rare public show of dissent from faculty at the upstate New York elite university. The resolution, adopted by the body that represents all tenured and tenure-track teaching staff, stops short of laying out specific procedural missteps or formal corrective demands, but explicitly states that the senate has no faith in current leadership to meaningfully resolve ongoing gaps in how the institution responds to reports of sexual violence. The symbolic vote carries no binding authority, as the Faculty Senate lacks the institutional power to remove the university’s senior administrative team, including long-serving president Michael Kotlikoff. The motion follows high-profile legal action filed by a former Cornell student, identified publicly only under the pseudonym Jane Doe, who alleges she was the victim of a gang rape at the campus Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024. Doe has named both the university and the fraternity as defendants in her civil suit, and claims that during a meeting with President Kotlikoff after she reported the attack, he questioned why she waited several weeks to come forward with her account. Cornell’s leadership has publicly pushed back against this specific allegation, stating that Doe’s description of Kotlikoff’s reaction to her disclosure is factually incorrect. All seven individuals accused of involvement in the alleged assault have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing when contacted by CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. reporting partner, and to date no criminal charges have been filed against any of the group. Public and internal backlash against Cornell’s leadership has intensified steadily since Doe first filed her lawsuit in September. Initial reports confirm Doe notified campus law enforcement immediately after the alleged incident took place, but the local district attorney’s office declined to pursue criminal charges at that time. After initially mounting a full defense of its existing disciplinary processes for sexual misconduct cases, the university has since acknowledged that its response to Doe’s specific case fell well below required standards. Cornell has already contracted a former U.S. state attorney general to lead a fully independent external review of the institution’s handling of the matter, and recently rolled out sweeping interim reforms, including a temporary campus-wide ban on all fraternity social parties, to address community concerns. Doe’s legal representative, attorney Thomas Giuffra, released a formal statement praising the faculty’s decision following the vote results. “We have full confidence the Faculty Senate did not reach this conclusion lightly, and weighed every piece of available evidence related to Cornell’s longstanding failure to tackle the scourge of campus sexual assault,” Giuffra noted. “We are hopeful this vote marks a meaningful step toward creating a safer, more supportive environment for every member of the Cornell community, and ensuring survivors receive the care and respect they deserve.” Parallel to the university’s internal review, New York State Attorney General Letitia James has launched a separate criminal investigation into the alleged 2024 assault to determine if formal charges against the accused parties are warranted. Earlier this week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced an additional layer of oversight, directing New York State Police to take primary jurisdiction over all future reports of sexual offenses filed on Cornell’s campus, removing the cases from the purview of local campus police.
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Razor-tight Mississippi Senate race sparks ballot battle – could there be a recount?
A fiercely contested U.S. Senate race in Mississippi has devolved into a high-stakes standoff between Democratic and Republican campaigns, as remaining uncounted ballots hold the power to upend nearly 40 years of uninterrupted Republican control over the state’s U.S. Senate seats. As of Friday, 97% of all ballots cast have been tallied, with Democratic candidate Scott Colom carrying a narrow roughly 2,500-vote lead over incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, who has held the seat since 2018. State officials confirm that at least 3,600 mail-in absentee ballots are still awaiting processing, with state rules permitting these ballots to be counted as long as they bore an election-day postmark and arrive by November 10. An undetermined volume of provisional, or affidavit, ballots — cast by voters who lacked required identification at polling sites and have until November 10 to resolve ID verification issues — also remain uncounted, though Mississippi Republican Party leadership claims as many as 20,000 total outstanding ballots may be left to tabulate. Both campaigns have assembled large legal teams and deployed observers across the state to oversee the remaining count, with pre-emptive legal maneuvering already underway. Hyde-Smith’s legal team has issued formal requests to all 82 of Mississippi’s county election offices to segregate all provisional ballots from standard and absentee ballots, and preserve all associated processing records as potential evidence for pending legal action. Colom’s campaign has pushed back aggressively against this request, arguing it has no basis under existing state law, and could enable the improper tracing of individual ballots back to specific voters in direct violation of state ballot secrecy protections. University of Mississippi law professor Ronald Rychlak, an expert on state election law, notes that while Mississippi statutes grant candidates the right to examine ballot materials within 12 days of local vote canvassing, no existing rule mandates the blanket segregation of all accepted provisional ballots, validating the Democrats’ concerns over potential privacy breaches. Uniquely among U.S. states, Mississippi has no formal, codified process for triggering a recount, even in extremely tight contests where vote margins are razor thin. Unlike most U.S. states, which have automatic recount triggers for close races or formal administrative pathways for candidates to request a manual recount, Mississippi’s election dispute resolution is left almost entirely to the discretion of state court judges. While post-election ballot box examinations permitted under state law could ultimately lead to a court-ordered recount, historical data from across the U.S. shows that successful recounts that reverse an initial election outcome are extraordinarily rare: only 3 out of 37 statewide full recounts conducted nationwide since 2000 have overturned a preliminary result. The stakes of the ongoing count extend far beyond Mississippi’s state lines: a Colom victory would elevate him as the first Black U.S. senator elected in Mississippi since 1875, and the first Democrat to hold a U.S. Senate seat from the state since 1982, while also reshaping the final size of the Democratic caucus majority in the U.S. Senate. In a worst-case scenario for both campaigns, a prolonged unresolved dispute could eventually escalate to federal level, as Article I of the U.S. Constitution grants the U.S. Senate full authority to act as the final arbiter of the election, returns, and qualifications of its own members. With the state’s November 13 vote certification deadline fast approaching, pressure is mounting on local election officials to process all remaining ballots in a timely, transparent manner to avoid prolonged legal gridlock.
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Meghan’s father Thomas Markle appears in court over child sex abuse material
82-year-old Thomas Markle, father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, made a federal court appearance following his arrest on charges of possessing child sexual exploitation material, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed this week. The long-running legal process traces back to a months-long FBI investigation that targeted two Los Angeles-area storage units Markle had continuously rented since 2008, with his final rental payment submitted as recently as October 2024. When agents executed search warrants on the facilities, they recovered roughly 78 physical items including film negatives, photographic slides, and bound printed materials that investigators allege contain explicit depictions of child sexual abuse. The timeline of the alleged offenses extends back decades: witnesses positively identified Markle as the adult male featured in two of the recovered abusive images, which show a man appearing to be in his 30s or 40s, consistent with Markle’s age several decades prior to his current 82 years. Markle was taken into custody in Florida, where he had been residing in an assisted living rehabilitation facility following a recent leg amputation and multiple prior strokes. He had relocated to the Philippines in 2023 to recover from his health incidents, staying in the city of Cebu until May 2024 before moving to the U.S. state for post-surgery care. His 30-minute initial court hearing saw federal prosecutor Courtenay Derry formally outline the charges against him; Markle was escorted into the courtroom by two U.S. Marshals while using a wheelchair, dressed in casual black trousers and a plain black t-shirt. The presiding judge ordered immediate home detention at his Florida assisted living site, paired with mandatory electronic monitoring to restrict his movement, and no formal plea was entered during the proceedings. Judicial officials confirmed that a formal arraignment date in California, where the storage units were located, will be scheduled in the coming weeks. The case has also drawn scrutiny to past law enforcement handling of earlier allegations: London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed in October 2024 that it received a 2019 letter detailing multiple claims against Markle related to conduct occurring outside the United Kingdom, but instead of forwarding the materials to relevant international law enforcement bodies, the force passed the information only to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The Met has since voluntarily referred its own conduct to the Independent Office for Police Conduct for formal independent review of its decision-making. Additional investigative threads are active in the Philippines, where local law enforcement secured a warrant last month to examine four boxes of digital and physical evidence – including computers, mobile phones, hard drives, and vintage videotapes – that were recovered from Markle’s former Cebu residence and turned over to authorities by Meghan’s half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr. FBI Director Kash Patel issued a forceful public statement following the arrest, emphasizing that federal agents “moved quickly” to take Markle into custody after verifying the evidence, noting that “Mr. Markle allegedly targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions.” Patel further pledged that the Bureau would deploy every available resource to protect minor populations, stating that “any predator who targets children will have zero safe haven in this country or anywhere they try to hide.” Markle has previously publicly rejected similar allegations, dismissing them in prior statements as “sick lies.” Meghan, who has been estranged from her father since 2018 and fully cut off direct contact with him in 2023, issued a brief public statement in October when the initial allegations surfaced, noting “I am deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours, and my thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed.” Neither she nor Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, have released any additional public comments following Markle’s formal arrest and court appearance.
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‘Is this a joke?’: Centcom podcast mocked as Iran war drags on
As the U.S.-led military campaign against Iran stretches into its ninth month, with cumulative costs for American taxpayers mounting steeply to a Pentagon-estimated $47.1 billion and an additional $153 billion in excess fuel expenses for U.S. consumers per Brown University calculations, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) rolled out its first official audio production, titled *Inside Centcom*, on a Thursday in early November 2026. The 12-minute debut episode, hosted on YouTube, pairs Admiral Brad Cooper, the top U.S. commander overseeing the Iran war theater, with Fleet Master Chief Lateef Compton, leaning into a laid-back, casual conversational style that mirrors popular independent Gen Z-focused podcast formats. The pair spends significant airtime on light, trivial banter, including Cooper joking about stealing French fries from Compton’s lunch, while offering only passing, vague references to the ongoing, deeply unpopular conflict: Compton opens the episode with a throwaway line noting “it’s been a busy year,” and Cooper makes no explicit mention of the February 28, 2026 U.S. airstrike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Minab, southern Iran, the very first day of the war. That strike, per Amnesty International, killed 156 people including 120 children, with the human rights group concluding the U.S. violated international humanitarian law by failing to take all feasible precautions to shield civilian populations. UN human rights experts further stated in September 2026 that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe U.S. forces committed war crimes during the Iran campaign. The episode’s release appears to be a deliberate outreach effort targeting young American men who may be eligible for future military service in U.S.-led Middle East operations, though Centcom opted to disable public comment functions on its YouTube upload of the production. The public reception on social media platform X has been overwhelmingly scathing: the clip has amassed more than 2 million views, with users deriding the production as a “shitshow,” mocking the military for abandoning somber professional conduct for trendy podcast tropes, and sarcastically suggesting future episodes could feature celebrity guests ranging from influencer Jake Paul to pop star Nicki Minaj and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. High-profile figures across policy, journalism and veteran military circles have also condemned the move. Veteran journalist Murtaza Hussain called the production “completely undignified,” noting Cooper avoided addressing the Minab school attack that killed dozens of children and school staff. Former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence Christopher K. Mellon argued the American public has no interest in learning the personal quirks of Centcom’s top leadership, and instead expects commanders to execute their duties “somberly, professionally, and excellently.” U.S. Democratic congresswoman-elect Elaine Luria echoed the criticism, stating Cooper’s core responsibility is “to win wars, not record podcasts” and urging Centcom to “read the room.” Prominent U.S.-based Iran expert Trita Parsi quipped sarcastically that he would fully support Centcom abandoning its decades-long track record of launching needless Middle East wars to pivot entirely to full-time podcast production.