Global Pulse

作者： admin

  • CIA warned of threat of ‘explosive airplane’ years before 9/11, documents show

    CIA warned of threat of ‘explosive airplane’ years before 9/11, documents show

    To mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and reshaped global counterterrorism policy, the Central Intelligence Agency has declassified and released 71 previously top-secret President’s Daily Briefs (PDBs) spanning from early 1998 through the day after the 2001 attacks. Of these documents, 69 have never been disclosed to the public before, offering a rare, unvarnished look at what U.S. presidents were told about rising al-Qaeda threats years before the hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and a rural Pennsylvania field.

    President’s Daily Briefs are the U.S. intelligence community’s most sensitive classified assessments, crafted exclusively to sit atop sitting presidents’ desks with the agency’s highest-confidence threat analysis. Typically, these documents remain sealed for 40 to 50 years after their creation, making the early release for the 25th anniversary a notable departure from standard classification protocol. Many of the released documents remain heavily redacted to protect ongoing intelligence methods and sources, but the unredacted portions paint a clear picture of mounting alarm across both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations over Osama bin Laden’s expanding network and its stated intent to strike inside the United States.

    The declassified records confirm that repeated, explicit warnings of a potential large-scale attack on U.S. soil were delivered to presidential leadership three full years before 9/11. In a September 10, 1998 briefing—just weeks after al-Qaeda suicide bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people and triggered U.S. cruise missile retaliation against al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked targets in Afghanistan and Sudan—a CIA analyst directly warned that bin Laden’s network “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a U.S. city.” The briefing also identified the U.S. homeland as bin Laden’s preferred strike zone, with Washington, D.C. flagged as a prime target.

    A subsequent briefing dated August 28, 1998, just 21 days after the East Africa embassy bombings and eight days after the U.S. retaliatory strikes, further warned that al-Qaeda’s core network remained fully operational despite the American attacks, and that bin Laden was actively “considering attacks in the U.S.” While the independent 9/11 Commission’s 2004 official investigation had previously noted that U.S. intelligence suspected al-Qaeda might use aircraft in an attack, the newly released briefs confirm for the first time that this specific warning was included in material delivered to President Clinton.

    The only post-attack briefing in the release was delivered to the White House at 4:00 a.m. on September 12, 2001, fewer than 20 hours after the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The assessment confirmed that “mounting evidence” pointed to al-Qaeda affiliates across Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf having advance knowledge that an attack was imminent. A partially redacted section of the brief adds that the full plot was “widely known” within global extremist circles. The document also notes that bin Laden may have relocated to Kabul from his base near Kandahar after clashing with Taliban leadership over the attack plan, while then-Taliban leader Mullah Omar evacuated his family from Kandahar immediately in the hours after the attacks. Less than a month after 9/11, the U.S. and its coalition partners invaded Afghanistan to dismantle al-Qaeda and remove the Taliban from power.

    CIA Director John Ratcliffe framed the release in an official statement released alongside the documents, noting that “Twenty-five years ago, the 9/11 attacks struck a blow to our nation, but they did not break us.” He added that “Generations of C.I.A. officers have since dedicated their careers to securing justice for our fallen Americans and ensuring Al Qaeda would never again harm our country.”

    The declassified material aligns with the 9/11 Commission’s final core finding: while U.S. intelligence repeatedly flagged the high risk of an al-Qaeda attack on U.S. soil across two presidential administrations, analysts lacked specific details on the exact timing, target locations, and full scale of the plot that would become the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil in modern history.

  • UK sanctions on Israeli settlements include those in Syria’s Golan Heights

    UK sanctions on Israeli settlements include those in Syria’s Golan Heights

    In a significant clarification of its new Middle East policy, the British government has confirmed that its sweeping sanctions targeting illegal Israeli settlements will cover communities in the occupied Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, in addition to those in the occupied West Bank, multiple government sources confirmed to Middle East Eye Thursday evening.

    The announcement comes two days after London formally declared Israel’s long-running occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and unveiled the landmark package of restrictions, but left open a key ambiguity: whether settlements in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau seized by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, would be included in the measures. The lack of initial clarity prompted advocacy groups focused on international law to push for the UK to extend the ban to all illegally occupied territory.

    Located at the intersection of Israel, Syria and southern Lebanon, the Golan Heights holds enormous strategic significance, with high elevation that allows forces stationed there to monitor activity across much of the northern Middle East. Israel captured the territory in 1967 and unilaterally annexed it just a few years later, a move that has never received formal recognition from the broader international community. United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, adopted in the wake of the 1967 war, explicitly calls on Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights and all other occupied territories captured during the conflict, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Today, roughly 20,000 Israeli settlers reside in the Golan, alongside an estimated 26,000 native Syrian Druze inhabitants who retain their Syrian national identity.

    UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband laid out the scope of the new policy when he announced it earlier this week, stating that the British public does not support enabling illegal occupation by allowing settlement-produced goods to be sold in UK retail spaces. “I do not believe the British people want us supporting the occupation by accepting products from settlements in our shops and supermarkets, so I can announce today that we will introduce an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories,” Miliband said Tuesday.

    The new framework will operate as a comprehensive sanctions regime, with narrow carve-outs for religious activities that require cross-border access. Beyond the import ban on settlement goods, the UK will target specific companies and private individuals that provide key support for settlement expansion, including construction services, infrastructure financing, and real estate development for new settlement communities. “To those who finance or facilitate illegal settlements, let me say this: you will face the full force of UK sanctions,” Miliband added. “Settlements are illegal. They should not be promoted in our country.”

    The UK’s policy shift is not an isolated action: 11 other nations, including Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, joined London in a joint statement released Tuesday. The signatory countries confirmed they intend to implement their own national restrictions on trade with illegal settlements, support broader European Union-level trade restrictions, or are actively evaluating such measures in line with their own domestic legislative and regulatory processes.

    Israel has already responded with punitive measures of its own. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced that Israel would implement reciprocal sanctions, including closing the British consulate in East Jerusalem and banning entry to 11 sitting British members of parliament.

  • No military solution to conflict in Yemen, Eritrean foreign minister says

    No military solution to conflict in Yemen, Eritrean foreign minister says

    Positioned directly across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from Yemen, Eritrea—an East African nation with 700 miles of strategic Red Sea coastline—has publicly stated that the years-long conflict in Yemen can never be resolved through military means, and that no foreign power will ever succeed in bringing the Yemeni people under control.

    In an exclusive interview with Middle East Eye conducted from Eritrea’s capital Asmara, Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh emphasized that Yemen must be given an opportunity to build lasting peace, noting that military action will not deliver the stability the region desperately needs.

    Saleh’s comments come amid a dramatic shift in regional power dynamics: a rapid, sweeping Houthi offensive along Yemen’s Red Sea coast has left the group in full control of all Yemeni coastal territory opposite Eritrea and Djibouti, including a number of strategically vital islands in the strait. This territorial gain has upended long-standing calculations around Red Sea navigation and regional security.

    One of the most pressing open questions for global trade and regional governance centers on how freedom of navigation through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait—one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints, connecting the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean via the Red Sea—will be managed moving forward. Saleh noted that all coastal states bordering the waterway should have a voice in determining its future governance, but that the current fragmented political landscape in Yemen creates a major barrier to collective action. Today, Yemen lacks a single cohesive, unified central government that can exercise full control over its territory, a reality Saleh made clear complicates every decision related to the strait. “Yemen is non-existent. The official government has no control. There is no ‘Yemen’,” he told MEE in the interview.

    The Bab el-Mandeb Strait has been a major global shipping and trade route for millennia, and it remains one of the most heavily used maritime corridors for global commerce today. With that strategic importance comes intense global interest, and Eritrea — which sits just 20 nautical miles from Yemen at the strait’s narrowest point alongside Djibouti — recognizes its unique responsibility, Saleh said. “Eritrea is in a very strategic position. We have a responsibility to safeguard the Red Sea to be a safe passage for all,” he stated.

    Regional diplomats have outlined two core strategic implications of the Houthi advance: First, control of the strait gives Iran greater diplomatic and military leverage over the United States and Gulf Arab states. Second, the territorial gain puts commercial transiting vessels within range of basic Houthi artillery, putting the group in a position to demand tolls for passage through the waterway. Prior to the offensive, MEE reporting indicates the Houthis already demanded fees from Saudi Arabia for transit.

    With the Houthis now controlling the Arabian Peninsula side of the strait, Eritrea’s Red Sea coastline has grown even more critical to global shipping networks. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), coastal nations can claim up to 12 nautical miles of territorial water, and while international law enshrines the right of free transit through international straits, some legal experts note that littoral states retain the right to charge legitimate fees for services like pilotage, infrastructure maintenance, and environmental protection.

    When asked whether Eritrea planned to follow recent discussions of transit tolls in other strategic waterways like the Strait of Hormuz, Saleh pushed back on assumptions. “This is a new idea, a new concept. Because Iran raised it [in the Strait of Hormuz] doesn’t mean Eritrea will ask,” he said. That said, Saleh reaffirmed the need for collective dialogue between all coastal states to formalize rules that protect free passage for all vessels. “[But] there should be a discussion among littoral states and a decision how to ensure free passage. If Yemen is non-existent, we can’t speak with it now about these issues,” he added.

    Another senior Eritrean official, who spoke to MEE on condition of anonymity, echoed the foreign ministry’s stance on Yemen and expanded on Eritrea’s view of broader regional tensions. The official noted that Eritrea understands the security of the Red Sea is inherently tied to the ongoing escalating confrontation between the United States, Israel and Iran. “The Bab el-Mandeb and Strait of Hormuz are together,” the official said, framing the two strategic chokepoints as interconnected nodes in a single regional security architecture. Echoing Saleh’s comments on foreign intervention, the official added that no external power—whether from inside the Middle East or beyond—will ever be able to subdue the Yemeni people through military force.

  • ‘Never, ever forget’ – America marks 25th anniversary of 9/11 attacks

    ‘Never, ever forget’ – America marks 25th anniversary of 9/11 attacks

    A quarter of a century after the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, communities across the United States and around the world gathered Friday to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, reflecting on lingering grief, unfulfilled justice demands, and the long-term health toll that continues to claim lives decades later.

    Across three key attack sites, the nation’s highest political leaders joined survivors and bereaved families to mark the somber milestone. At the Pentagon, one of the four targets hit by hijacked planes that morning, sitting President Donald Trump led a formal commemoration alongside current cabinet members and Condoleezza Rice, who served as Secretary of State in the aftermath of the attacks. In his remarks, Trump tied the post-9/11 global fight against terrorism to his administration’s ongoing standoff with Iran, reaffirming a hardline pledge: “The Islamic Republic will never, ever have a nuclear weapon.” Echoing a core promise of every 9/11 commemoration, he added, “Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago. We will never, ever forget. That’s why we fight today.”

    At the ground zero memorial in lower Manhattan, built where the Twin Towers once stood, Vice President JD Vance joined an unprecedented gathering: all four living former U.S. presidents — George W. Bush, who held the presidency during the 2001 attacks, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden — alongside their respective first ladies. For nearly four hours, family members took turns reading the full roll of nearly 3,000 victims killed in the attacks, a ritual that has become the centerpiece of the annual memorial.

    In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, hundreds gathered at the Flight 93 National Memorial, where the fourth hijacked plane crashed after passengers revolted against the hijackers, preventing an attack on the U.S. Capitol that morning. A silent tribute was held at the site’s Wall of Names, honoring the 40 passengers and crew who died.

    For the first time in the 25 years of commemorations, this year’s memorial included a new, somber addition: a seventh bell toll, following the six traditional bells that mark the timelines of each plane crash and the collapse of the Twin Towers. The seventh bell pays tribute to the thousands of people who have since died from 9/11-related illnesses, most commonly cancers caused by exposure to toxic dust and smoke from the collapsing World Trade Center. U.S. health officials estimate that these secondary deaths have now outnumbered the nearly 3,000 people killed in the immediate attacks by more than three to one — a grim reminder of the attack’s long shadow that continues to affect communities.

    Survivors also shared their harrowing firsthand accounts of the morning to mark the milestone. Janice Brooks, who had moved to New York just two weeks before the attacks to start a new job on the 84th floor of the South Tower, described the chaos and terror that unfolded after the first plane hit the North Tower. As she began evacuating, the second hijacked plane slammed into her tower: “There was an almighty thud. I heard one of those horror film screams as a woman was hit by debris. When I looked up, there was a big gaping hole where my office should have been.” Today, Brooks joins thousands of survivors and family members who return to ground zero every year to honor those who did not escape.

    The 25th anniversary also brought renewed calls for accountability from family members of victims. Terry Strada, a 9/11 widow and national chair of 9/11 Families United, used her live-broadcast remarks to criticize the U.S. government’s failure to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its alleged role in the attacks. “How can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?” Strada asked, drawing loud applause from the gathered crowd. While a majority of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden — who planned the attacks — came from a prominent Saudi family, the 2004 9/11 Commission Report officially cleared the Saudi government of any involvement, a conclusion that many victim families continue to dispute to this day. Saudi officials have repeatedly denied any connection to the attacks.

    Beyond U.S. borders, memorial events were held in major cities across the globe to honor the hundreds of foreign nationals killed in the attacks, and to stand in solidarity with the United States. In London, the UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband and U.S. Ambassador Warren Stephens joined a formal tribute at Buckingham Palace, with additional commemoration events held at Lloyd’s of London. The Toronto Stock Exchange held its own memorial for colleagues lost in the attacks. In Milan, Italy, a group of Italian and American firefighters held a symbolic stair climb at the Galfa Tower, climbing 110 floors up and down to match the number of stories in each of the original Twin Towers, honoring the hundreds of first responders who died rushing into the burning towers to save others.

    Twenty-five years on, the commemorations remain anchored in the core promise that has defined the annual ritual: that the lives lost on September 11, 2001, will never be forgotten.

  • ‘We will never, ever forget’ – Americans remember 9/11 on 25th anniversary

    ‘We will never, ever forget’ – Americans remember 9/11 on 25th anniversary

    A quarter-century after one of the deadliest terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, Americans from across the country came together on Saturday to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, pausing to honor the nearly 3,000 lives lost and reaffirming the collective promise that those killed will never be forgotten.

    Commemorative events were held at the three primary sites forever altered by the 2001 attacks: Lower Manhattan’s National September 11 Memorial, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense at the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the Flight 93 National Memorial in the rural hills near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Family members of victims, current and former public officials, first responders, and ordinary citizens joined each gathering, sharing quiet moments of reflection, reading the names of those who perished, and laying wreaths to honor their memory.

    At the New York memorial, which is built around the footprints of the fallen Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the sound of bagpipes echoed through lower Manhattan as relatives took turns calling out the names of loved ones. Many left flowers, handwritten notes, and small personal mementos at the bronze parapets that line the memorial pools, carrying on a tradition that has persisted for 25 years. At the Pentagon, service members and defense officials joined in a solemn remembrance ceremony, paying tribute to the 184 people killed when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building. In Shanksville, attendees gathered at the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93, where passengers and crew fought back against hijackers, preventing the plane from reaching its intended target in Washington and costing all 40 on board their lives.

    Across all three events, speakers and attendees echoed a shared sentiment: that the memory of those lost on September 11, 2001, remains undimmed after 25 years, and the nation will forever hold their stories close. “We will never, ever forget,” was the refrain repeated by countless participants, tying together the grief, resilience, and national unity that has defined the annual remembrance for a generation.

  • Zack Polanski urges investigation into Israeli settlement-linked sponsor of Bayeux Tapestry exhibition

    Zack Polanski urges investigation into Israeli settlement-linked sponsor of Bayeux Tapestry exhibition

    A growing political firestorm has erupted in the United Kingdom over the primary sponsorship of the British Museum’s newly opened Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, after revelations that the Belarus-born billionaire backing the show with an estimated £5 million donation has ties to an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. Opposition figures are now demanding the newly seated Labour government make good on its recent pledges to crack down on activity enabling illegal settlements by launching a formal probe into the sponsorship.

    Zack Polanski, leader of the UK Green Party, was the first to publicly call for the investigation, following reporting by independent outlet Middle East Eye that exposed Igor Tulchinsky’s November 2025 unveiling of a therapeutic yurt at a new community resilience center in Efrat. The settlement, which is home to roughly 12,000 Israeli settlers, was constructed on land seized from four Palestinian villages and is currently subject to UK sanctions over its illegal status under international law.

    Tulchinsky was named as the primary funder of the yurt project, which serves the Gush Etzion bloc of illegal Israeli settlements located 12 kilometers southeast of Jerusalem. He opened the facility alongside Efrat mayor Dovi Shefler, and publicly dedicated the space to “Israel’s brave warriors and their families,” according to on-the-ground reports.

    This is not the first controversy over billionaire access and donations tied to pro-Israel causes at the British Museum in recent weeks. Just last month, The Guardian revealed the museum granted a private pre-opening view of the Bayeux Tapestry to Peter Thiel, the U.S. billionaire founder of Palantir, a defense technology firm that supplies cutting-edge artificial intelligence and data analysis tools to the Israeli military.

    Polanski framed the call for investigation as a test of the Labour government’s commitment to its new policy on Israeli settlements. “If the Labour government wants to get beyond symbolism and new rhetoric, it must investigate whether this is a breach of the sanctions it announced this week,” he told Middle East Eye. He added that the revelation of Tulchinsky’s sponsorship follows close on the heels of the Thiel controversy, noting “we now learn of the sponsorship of another billionaire who’s been involved in supporting what the Labour government has itself now finally described as ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.”

    Just days before the exhibition opened to the public on Thursday, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband made a landmark policy announcement: his government formally recognizes the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory as illegal, and confirms that ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is underway in the occupied West Bank. Miliband announced sweeping new sanctions on all Israeli settlements, alongside a full ban on arms licenses and any exports that “materially contribute to the occupation.” He explicitly warned that any individual or entity funding or facilitating illegal settlements would face the full consequences of UK sanctions, stating “settlements are illegal. They should not be promoted in our country.”

    Tulchinsky was not shy about his ties to Israel and support for its military, even before the revelations of his settlement project. In a March 2025 interview with the *Jerusalem Post*, he confirmed he has provided financial support to the Israeli military since the October 7 2023 Hamas attacks and the outbreak of the Gaza war, and noted he makes regular visits to the country. More recently, Middle East Eye revealed this week that Tulchinsky runs an Israel-based defense technology venture capital fund headed by a recently retired Israeli army commander who has championed the use of remote-controlled combat vehicles in Gaza. One international rights group has labeled these vehicles a “direct tool for committing genocide,” linking them to the destruction of entire residential neighborhoods and irreplaceable cultural heritage sites in Gaza and Lebanon.

    Tulchinsky attended the exhibition’s official opening reception last week alongside high-profile UK and French figures, including King Charles III, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (corrected per original context: Andy Burnham as referenced in original) and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. A portrait of Tulchinsky painted by prominent artist Jonathan Yeo is set to hang in the British Museum for the full run of the exhibition, with Yeo describing Tulchinsky as an extraordinary person and brilliant mind who was a privilege to paint.

    Neither Downing Street, the Foreign Office, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the British Museum, nor Tulchinsky’s investment firm WorldQuant have issued formal responses to repeated requests for comment on the controversy. The DCMS noted that while the British Museum receives public funding through the department, it operates independently of government, and all sponsorship decisions are the responsibility of its board of trustees. The Efrat Development Foundation has confirmed Tulchinsky is a donor to the community center project, but said he contributed through an unnamed third-party organization and declined to share further details about the scope or nature of his support.

    The sponsorship controversy adds to a series of ongoing challenges facing the British Museum, which has already faced calls from cross-party MPs for an investigation into the alleged removal of references to Palestine from several of its public galleries. Kim Johnson, a Labour MP and leading parliamentary campaigner for stronger UK action on Israeli violations of international law, warned that a clear pattern of problematic decision-making is emerging at the institution. “First, Palestine is scrubbed from displays following political pressure. Now we learn the British Museum has accepted significant funding from someone reported to have funded a settlement project in the illegally occupied West Bank,” Johnson said. “The British Museum should be preserving history, not allowing political interests or money to shape whose history is told – or whose actions are legitimised. Is this really who our national cultural institutions should be taking money from?”

    In response to earlier claims about removed references to Palestine, the British Museum released a statement denying any intentional removal, noting that it continues to use the term Palestine across a range of historic and contemporary gallery displays. To date, no further response has been issued to address the latest calls for an investigation into Tulchinsky’s sponsorship.

  • Lollipops containing €500k of cocaine seized at airport

    Lollipops containing €500k of cocaine seized at airport

    In a major drug bust at one of Ireland’s busiest international travel hubs, law enforcement and customs officials have seized roughly 5 kilograms of cocaine concealed inside lollipops in a passenger’s checked luggage. The operation, carried out jointly by Ireland’s national police force, An Garda Síochána, and officers from the Irish Revenue Commissioners, unfolded at Dublin Airport this Thursday, when routine screening and a subsequent targeted search of baggage turned up the illicit narcotics stashed inside sealed bags of commercially packaged confectionery.

    Following the initial discovery of the cocaine, Gardaí launched immediate follow-up searches connected to the suspect. Those additional searches uncovered more contraband: around €16,000 (equivalent to approximately £13,700) in undeclared cash, plus a second batch of controlled drugs estimated to hold a street value of €14,500, or £12,500.

    A man in his 60s, who was taken into custody immediately after the seizure at the airport, was formally charged with drug trafficking offenses in connection with the incident. He made his first court appearance before a judge on the following Friday morning. Irish Revenue officials documented the unusual smuggling attempt by photographing the lollipop packages laced with cocaine after the seizure, providing clear evidence of the inventive method traffickers attempted to use to bypass airport security and customs checks.

  • Surrogate who refused abortion over heart defect takes custody battle to US Supreme Court

    Surrogate who refused abortion over heart defect takes custody battle to US Supreme Court

    A high-stakes legal battle over custody of a newborn with a life-threatening congenital heart defect has landed before the U.S. Supreme Court, after a gestational surrogate refused the intended parents’ request to terminate the pregnancy and carried the child to term against their wishes.

    McKenna West, the surrogate involved in the case, has filed an emergency appeal asking the nation’s highest court to overturn a lower California court ruling that granted full parental rights to Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar, the California couple who contracted her to carry their child. The conflict erupted after a 20-week prenatal scan revealed the fetus had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a severe condition that leaves the left side of the heart underdeveloped and unable to effectively pump blood throughout the body. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that while multiple surgeries can extend survival, the condition is not curable and often leads to lifelong health complications.

    After receiving the diagnosis, Ahmed and Gilkar asked West to undergo an abortion. Rather than comply, West—who has received public backing from multiple Republican officials—relocated to Texas, a state where abortion access is heavily restricted, and gave birth to the baby last month. Following her move, Texas’ Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton stepped into the case, securing an emergency court order that required the infant to receive all medical treatment within Texas, and the newborn underwent surgery shortly after birth.

    In her Supreme Court filing, West stated she rejected the abortion request after reviewing potential treatment options for the child, saying she could not terminate what she calls “this precious baby.” She argues that the intended biological parents should not be granted custody because of their original request to terminate the pregnancy, claiming they would withhold the necessary ongoing medical care the child needs and potentially place him in hospice care without her intervention. West also says that without the Supreme Court’s involvement, she will be cut off entirely from updates on the child’s health status.

    The California couple has pushed back against West’s claims, with court records showing Gilkar telling a previous hearing that the child—who they have named Rumi—is “our child” and “the love of our lives.” They accuse West of traveling to Texas without any advance notice, cutting off their access to the infant’s medical records and blocking their ability to make decisions about his care. Lower courts have issued conflicting rulings: a California court already awarded full parental rights to Ahmed and Gilkar, while a Texas court issued a restraining order barring West from contacting or seeing the child. As of the latest update, attorneys for the couple confirmed Rumi remains in critical condition, with doctors monitoring him for potential post-surgery complications. The BBC has reached out to legal representatives for Ahmed and Gilkar to request additional comment on the appeal.

  • Gen Zs recall first learning of ‘deeply harrowing, terrifying’ 9/11

    Gen Zs recall first learning of ‘deeply harrowing, terrifying’ 9/11

    A quarter-century has passed since the horrific September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that left nearly 3,000 people dead and reshaped the trajectory of American life forever. For most Americans who were alive at the time, the memories of that crisp autumn morning remain seared into their consciousness—they can recall exactly where they stood, what they saw, and how they felt as four hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a rural field in Pennsylvania. But for the youngest cohort of American adults, members of Generation Z born between 1997 and 2012, the attacks are not a first-hand memory, but a historical event learned about long after the smoke cleared. Their connection to 9/11 is built not on lived experience, but on the moments they first heard the story from families, teachers, and their own independent research.

    Avery Black, a 20-year-old journalism student at the University of South Carolina, told the BBC her first introduction to 9/11 came during elementary school lessons. After class, she rushed home to ask her mother about the event, and watched as her mother shared her own first-hand memory of the attacks before breaking down into tears, recounting the story of firefighters who rushed into the burning towers and never returned. Though Black was too young to fully grasp the magnitude of the tragedy as a child, two haunting details have stuck with her to this day: the iconic, devastating “falling man” photograph of a person plummeting upside down from the North Tower, and footage of then-President George W. Bush learning of the attacks while visiting a Florida elementary school.

    For 26-year-old Annie Erickson, who grew up in North Carolina, personal family stories shaped her understanding of 9/11 far more than classroom instruction. Her mother was raised in New York City, and lost a friend from her apartment building in the collapse of the twin towers. Erickson says what struck her most when learning about the attacks in school was that it was one of the only modern historical events where every teacher could share their own personal, lived memory of the day.

    Unlike many core historical events, there is no federal mandate requiring U.S. public schools to teach the history and impact of the 9/11 attacks, resulting in wildly inconsistent instruction across the country. A recent analysis from The Associated Press found that just 25 states require or expect public schools to include 9/11 in their curricula, 13 states leave instruction optional, and many states that require teaching do not provide specific curriculum guidance for educators.

    That inconsistency has left many Gen Z adults with gaps in their early knowledge of the attacks. Allegra Tashjian, now 28 and a PhD student who grew up in Wisconsin, first learned of 9/11 in first or second grade, when her teacher asked the class to name why the day was historically significant. After a classmate answered that it was the day planes crashed into the New York towers, Tashjian left class confused—she had never heard of the event at all. When she asked her mother about it that afternoon, her mother paused mid-laundry and said she had never heard of the attacks, choosing not to discuss the tragedy with her young daughter. It was only years later, when Tashjian was between 9 and 12 years old, that she gained a full understanding of the attacks through independent reading online.

    Across the board, Gen Z interviewees told the BBC that they only learned the full scope of the 9/11 attacks through their own independent research, after receiving fragmented, age-appropriate introductions from schools and families. Black, for example, did not learn the attacks were an act of terrorism until she sought out extra information on her own—an omission educators made because the concept of terrorism is difficult to explain to young children.

    Despite the lack of first-hand experience, interest in the history and legacy of 9/11 remains high among young American adults. David Schanzer, a professor at Duke University who teaches a popular course titled “9/11 & Its Aftermath,” wrote in a recent campus commentary that a decade ago, he expected student interest in the topic to fade over time, assuming he would eventually need to shift his teaching focus. Today, his course is consistently full, with dozens of students adding their names to the waitlist each semester. Schanzer argues that ongoing global instability has only made young people more curious about the attacks, which he calls the first global catastrophe of the 21st century—preceding the 2008 Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. “If you want to understand what has gone wrong over the past couple of decades it makes sense to learn about 9/11,” he wrote.

    Still, many Gen Z adults approach conversations about 9/11 with dark humor or deflection, a trend that has not gone unnoticed by educators. Thomas Schwartz, a professor of history and political science at Vanderbilt University, noted that in a recent class discussion, his senior students—born in 2004 and 2005—acknowledged their generation’s tendency to joke about the attacks. He added that students from the Northeast, whose parents hold direct personal memories of the tragedy, tend to be more careful about deflection, out of respect for family sensitivities.

    Erickson explains this tendency as a common coping mechanism: many young people downplay large-scale tragedies either because they cannot fully wrap their minds about the scope of the loss, or they use humor to avoid confronting the deep, persistent anxieties that events like 9/11 raise about the modern world. Even as an adult, Tashjian says she still struggles to process the scale of death from the attacks, and relies on individual personal stories to grasp the human toll of the tragedy.

    Schanzer emphasizes that learning about 9/11 remains a critical part of understanding modern America for young people who never witnessed the event. “Like most significant historical events, one can’t fully understand our world today unless you understand why 9/11 occurred and how the United States responded to it,” he said. On the 25th anniversary of the attacks, as communities gather at memorials to lay flowers and honor the lost, a new generation is continuing to build its own relationship to a tragedy that continues to shape American life decades later.

  • Pakistan says no plans for military action in Yemen after attacks on Saudi Arabia

    Pakistan says no plans for military action in Yemen after attacks on Saudi Arabia

    As Houthi forces in Yemen make rapid territorial gains across the Red Sea coast and step up attacks on Saudi Arabian infrastructure, Pakistan has clarified that it is not currently considering a military response under its newly signed trilateral joint defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The confirmation came Thursday from Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan, during his weekly press briefing for reporters.

    The landmark trilateral defence accord, which was signed just one month prior to this announcement, includes a mutual defence clause that frames any armed aggression against one of the three signatory nations as an attack against all three. Khan emphasized that while no military mobilization or intervention is under active discussion at this stage, Pakistan stands ready to uphold its commitments under the agreement if changing circumstances demand action in the future.

    “There is no such thing under discussion right now,” Khan stated, addressing press questions that arose in the wake of recent Houthi strikes on Saudi urban centers and critical energy infrastructure. He added that Pakistan would move forward with any required action only when “the time comes.”

    The broader regional context has shifted dramatically in recent months, as the long-dormant Yemeni civil war between Houthi fighters and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government reignited over the summer. Houthi forces have since advanced at a striking pace along the country’s Red Sea coastline, securing key strategic positions that put them in control of access to the critical Bab el-Mandeb shipping choke point, a major global trade route connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea.

    According to maritime security experts, this territorial advance has not only strengthened Houthi military standing but also boosted Iran’s geopolitical leverage in its ongoing standoff with the United States. “The Houthis have pulled off a military victory that puts them one step closer to being in full control of the Bab el-Mandeb,” explained Corey Ranslem, chief executive officer of maritime security firm Dryad Global, in an interview with Middle East Eye. Ranslem added that controlling the Bab el-Mandeb would be far easier for the Houthis than Iran’s efforts to exert influence over the Strait of Hormuz, noting that the U.S. maintains far fewer direct military assets in the Bab el-Mandeb region to counter Houthi control.

    In just the latest round of territorial gains, Houthi forces defeated Saudi-aligned Yemeni government forces on Thursday to seize the historic, strategically vital Red Sea port city of Mocha following days of intense fighting across the Tihama coastal plain. Arab media outlets have reported additional Houthi advances across the region in the hours after the capture of Mocha. Just days before this seizure, Houthi media released images purporting to show the wreckage of a Saudi military reconnaissance drone that was shot down over northwestern Yemen’s Hajjah province, underscoring the escalating intensity of clashes.

    Pakistan has already publicly condemned the recent Houthi attacks on Saudi territory, and has called on Iran to rein in its Yemeni allies. At the same time, Islamabad has maintained a role as a diplomatic mediator between the United States and Iran, as rising regional tensions continue to disrupt global energy supplies. Khan also confirmed Thursday that Pakistan has no current plans to expand the so-called Mecca alliance, the regional bloc of mostly Sunni Muslim nations led by Saudi Arabia, amid ongoing regional volatility.