Global Pulse

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  • US long-term borrowing costs ease after government steps in

    US long-term borrowing costs ease after government steps in

    On Wednesday, long-term borrowing costs across the United States pulled back following a policy adjustment from the US Treasury Department, which announced a significant expansion of its debt buyback program. The intervention comes just one day after 30-year Treasury bond yields hit 5.34% – the highest recorded level in nearly two decades.

    Bond yields, which represent the effective long-term borrowing cost for both public and private sectors, have far-reaching ripple effects across the entire US economy. Beyond raising interest expenses for the federal government and large corporations, elevated yields directly push up consumer borrowing costs for critical products including 30-year fixed mortgages, auto loans, and credit card balances.

    Several interconnected factors have driven the recent sharp surge in long-term bond yields. Escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran have pushed global crude oil prices higher, stoking renewed investor anxiety over persistent inflation. Compounding these inflation concerns are market jitters over the expanding size of US government debt, as well as the massive capital outflows from private markets toward technology firms pouring billions into artificial intelligence research and development – a sector where the timeline and scale of projected returns remain highly uncertain.

    In a public statement, the Treasury clarified that its expanded buyback program is designed to deliver greater liquidity support to the long-term bond market. The department will double its monthly buyback operations from the previous $2 billion level to $4 billion, with the new policy taking effect from September 9 through November 4. Immediately following the announcement, 30-year bond yields retreated to 5.18%, marking a notable near-term easing of borrowing costs.

    John Canavan, lead analyst at Oxford Economics, framed the policy shift as a targeted effort to alleviate acute pressure on long-term borrowing markets, which have been squeezed by three key headwinds: rising energy prices, persistent inflation risk, and a glut of new debt issuance from both sovereign and corporate borrowers globally. However, Canavan struck a cautious note, arguing that the modest increase in buyback volumes is unlikely to deliver sustained long-term relief, given the massive total size of outstanding US Treasury debt.

    Rene Albrecht, senior analyst at German financial institution DZ Bank, noted that long-term yields sustained above 5% pose broad economic pain for both the public and private sectors, giving the US government strong incentive to intervene. Albrecht also pointed to the upcoming midterm elections, just three months away, as an unspoken political driver for the policy move.

    Unlike many other advanced economies such as the United Kingdom, the US mortgage market is dominated by long-term fixed-rate products. Current data from housing finance firm Freddie Mac puts the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 6.67%. While this marks a notable rise from recent years, it remains below the 7.7% average recorded in 2023.

    Alongside the Treasury’s announcement, the Federal Reserve released minutes from its most recent monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, revealing that inflation concerns have deepened among central bank policymakers. The minutes noted that several meeting participants supported raising the benchmark interest rate at the last gathering. Despite this internal division, the Federal Reserve chose to hold its key policy rate steady in the 3.50%-3.75% range for the fifth consecutive policy meeting.

    Market analysts broadly expect the Federal Reserve to keep rates unchanged again at its September policy meeting, following recent economic data that showed a modest softening of inflation and an unexpected contraction in private sector payrolls during July.

  • Watch: Trump leads tour of White House helipad construction site

    Watch: Trump leads tour of White House helipad construction site

    In a move that underscores the high-stakes logistics of upcoming high-level diplomacy between the United States and China, former President Donald Trump has led an on-site tour of the ongoing construction work to upgrade the White House helipad. The project, which is already moving forward at an accelerated pace, is being fast-tracked to meet a critical deadline: the planned state visit to Washington by Chinese President Xi Jinping, scheduled for late September.

    Diplomatic visits of this caliber require rigorous infrastructure planning and security preparations, and the upgrade to the White House helipad is a key component of these pre-visit arrangements. The expedited construction timeline reflects the significance that the U.S. administration has placed on hosting the high-level Chinese delegation, with logistics teams working to ensure all facilities meet the strict security and protocol standards required for a head-of-state visit. Trump’s personal presence at the construction site tour draws additional attention to the meticulous preparations underway ahead of what is expected to be one of the most high-profile international diplomatic engagements of the year.

  • 81-year-old confesses to German cold case murder of US tourist in 1994

    81-year-old confesses to German cold case murder of US tourist in 1994

    For nearly three decades, the violent killing of a young American tourist in western Germany remained one of the country’s most high-profile unsolved cold cases. That chapter of mystery closed this week, when an 82-year-old German man publicly admitted to the 1994 murder of 24-year-old Amy Lopez, a Texas native who was traveling across Europe when she died.

    Lopez was last seen alive in September 1994, making her way along a steep hiking path toward Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, a iconic historic site in the city of Koblenz. Just two hours after she was spotted heading to the landmark, her body was discovered at the scene. Prosecutors lay out that the attacker encountered Lopez by chance on her route to the fortress, then lured her into a hidden, isolated space below the structure called the General von Aster room, named for a 19th-century Prussian military leader. There, they allege, he sexually assaulted her and stabbed her nine times, killing her with what prosecutors call base motives driven by sexual desire.

    For decades, the case went without a breakthrough, despite ongoing interest from local authorities. It was not until last year that advances in forensic science and a renewed investigative push broke the case open. Four years ago, improved DNA testing allowed investigators to isolate a genetic trace from skin fragments left on Lopez’s trousers, a clue that had not been detectable with older technology. Last year, Koblenz law enforcement launched a dedicated cold-case task force to reexamine the killing, launched repeated public appeals for information, and even featured the unsolved crime on a popular national German television program focused on unclosed cases.

    While the television broadcast generated dozens of new leads, the critical break came when investigators began collecting voluntary saliva samples from local residents to cross-check against the DNA trace. That effort led to the arrest of Hans S., then 50 at the time of the killing, who was taken into custody at a local retirement home in February 2024. German privacy laws prohibit releasing the suspect’s full surname to the public.

    According to the defendant’s defense attorney, Hans S. chose to provide a voluntary saliva sample because the 32-year-old case had “weighed heavily” on him, and he sought resolution for the long-unresolved crime. Investigators confirmed the DNA recovered from the victim’s clothing matched Hans S.’s sample perfectly. Notably, the suspect had already been convicted of a separate sexual offense in 1999, but at that time, investigators did not have the solid DNA evidence needed to connect him to Lopez’s killing.

    On the first day of his trial this week, the packed courtroom reflected the lasting notoriety of the case in the Koblenz region. The defendant entered the room using a walking frame. When his defense counsel confirmed that Hans S. admitted to committing the murder, the presiding judge asked him to verify the statement directly, and the defendant responded simply, “Yes.”

    Prosecutors have commissioned a psychiatric expert analysis, which already concluded that Hans S. was fully criminally responsible for his actions at the time of the killing. A final formal ruling on criminal responsibility will be delivered at the end of the trial, however. The defendant now faces a mandatory life sentence in prison, and a final verdict is expected to be handed down by the court early next month.

  • A triple crisis: Earthquake takes a heavy toll on Colombia’s impoverished and neglected region

    A triple crisis: Earthquake takes a heavy toll on Colombia’s impoverished and neglected region

    One week after a catastrophic 7.4-magnitude earthquake centered in Colombia’s western, historically marginalized department of Choco left a trail of death and displacement, survivors and aid organizations are grappling with the immense challenge of recovering from a disaster that amplified the region’s long-standing inequities.

    For 66-year-old Quibdo-based math teacher Ismael Arias, a routine early trip to the local market last August 10 was the only thing that spared him from the same fate as the two-story home he spent years building and decades paying off. The structure, constructed with his modest teacher’s wages, crumbled entirely when the tremors struck.

    “Even if I am helped, I don’t think I will get enough,” Arias shared from temporary shelter at a relative’s home, where he and his partner have stayed since the quake. “It’s not the same. You don’t have the freedom there that you get in your own house.”

    Updated official death toll released by Colombia’s central government this week confirms the disaster has killed at least 312 people and destroyed 29,000 residential structures. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates 69,000 Choco residents — roughly 10 percent of the region’s total population of 600,000 — have been displaced or otherwise affected by the quake. Most of the region’s population identifies as Afro-Colombian or Indigenous, and Choco has remained one of Colombia’s most underfunded and overlooked regions for generations.

    Luis Mora, representative of the United Nations Population Fund in Colombia, summarized the overlapping emergency facing the region: “We are facing a triple crisis. You have the humanitarian crisis caused by the earthquake, now joining the under development crisis and the crisis caused by armed conflict in this territory.”

    Long before the earthquake struck, Choco struggled with systemic challenges that have made recovery far harder than it would be in better-resourced parts of the country. Covered mostly by steep mountains and dense Amazon-adjacent rainforest, Choco is connected to the rest of Colombia by just two unstable, poorly maintained roads. More than 650 kilometers of Pacific coastline lacks any overland road connections to the region’s interior, leaving most remote communities accessible only by air or river travel — routes that become treacherous during bad weather. For decades, armed rebel groups have also battled for control of illegal mining operations and drug trafficking corridors across large parts of Choco, forcing civilian displacement and imposing arbitrary lockdowns that cut off local families from their farmland and livelihoods for days at a time.

    Critical public services were already on the brink of collapse before the disaster. More than 200 schools across the region sustained damage in the quake, and widespread lack of reliable high-speed internet rules out the option of shifting to remote learning for displaced students. The region’s only public hospital, located in the capital Quibdo, was ill-equipped to handle the surge of earthquake-related injuries.

    Cristian Maturana, a physician at the Quibdo public hospital, explained that in the immediate aftermath of the tremors, the emergency room was overwhelmed with patients suffering broken bones and crush injuries. Thirty-six patients with severe multiple fractures had to be airlifted to a larger, better-resourced hospital in Medellin, the capital of neighboring Antioquia, because Quibdo’s hospital lacked sufficient staff and specialized equipment to treat them. A power surge after the quake also damaged the facility’s only refrigerator for storing blood donations, halting all blood transfusion procedures for days until a replacement was donated over the weekend by a group of Bogota-based oncologists.

    “These have been tough days,” Maturana said, noting that outside support from across Colombia and the international community “has been crucial.” Currently, the emergency room operates at twice its intended capacity, with patients receiving care on stretchers and chairs lined up in hospital hallways. While donations of antibiotics, bandages, and blood pressure monitors have filled some gaps, the facility still faces critical shortages of wheelchairs and additional beds. “These seem like basic things,” Maturana said. “But they are items we have long had shortages of.”

    Local humanitarian groups have worked to deliver aid to hard-to-reach communities, relying on donated flight time from private aircraft owners to bypass the impassable road network. Camilo Prieto, a doctor with the Colombian Environmental Movement humanitarian organization, said his group has delivered more than two tons of medical supplies, including portable electrocardiogram and ultrasound machines, to affected areas, flying aid to remote towns via helicopter and small plane. “By land it would be very difficult,” Prieto explained.

    UNFPA, for its part, has prioritized supporting women and girls in emergency shelters, distributing personal hygiene kits and establishing dedicated safe spaces for female survivors in temporary accommodation sites. High-profile support has also emerged: global pop star Shakira, who is Colombian, recently made a surprise visit to earthquake-impacted areas and pledged to fund the rebuilding of damaged Choco schools. Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has also visited the region twice since the disaster, announcing a sweeping recovery plan that includes billions of dollars in new infrastructure investment, targeted job creation programs, rental subsidies for homeless families, and a dedicated government oversight position to lead recovery efforts.

    Colombia’s national statistics agency DANE confirms Choco already held the country’s highest unemployment rate in 2024, with a per capita GDP of just $3,500 — one quarter of the per capita income of the capital Bogota. Wiston Mosquera, the Roman Catholic bishop of the Quibdo diocese and a lifelong Choco resident, said he hopes the global attention brought by the earthquake will finally force action on the region’s decades of structural neglect. “We are decades behind the rest of Colombia’s regions,” Mosquera said, pointing to persistent gaps in healthcare, transportation, and power access that predate the disaster.

    But many local survivors remain skeptical of government promises, echoing the region’s long history of broken pledges for investment. For Arias, who took out bank loans totaling roughly $32,000 to build his now-destroyed home, rebuilding is all but out of reach on a teacher’s salary, even with proposed government subsidies. He is far from alone: thousands of homeless survivors across Choco face an uncertain future, as aid groups race to address an emergency that has deepened the Choco region’s decades-long struggle for equity and basic services.

  • Canada and US say they are finalising a trade deal, but details remain murky

    Canada and US say they are finalising a trade deal, but details remain murky

    After days of intensive negotiations and a last-minute pause to threatened tariffs, Canada and the United States have reached a tentative framework for a new bilateral trade deal, hailed by leaders on both sides as a landmark win for North American economic ties. The breakthrough comes after the Trump administration suspended a planned wave of 50% tariffs on a broad swathe of Canadian goods that was scheduled to take effect Wednesday, pushing negotiations across the finish line just as the deadline loomed.

    US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have both publicly touted the tentative agreement as a success for their respective national economies. Trump told reporters the deal will deliver major benefits to American farmers and manufacturers, noting that Canada has agreed to eliminate tariffs on a range of US agricultural products — though he declined to name which specific sectors will gain access. When asked whether the US would reciprocate by rolling back some of its existing tariffs on Canadian imports, Trump confirmed the US would ease tariffs “by a little bit.”

    Carney, in a post on X Wednesday, congratulated negotiating teams led by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc for the “significant progress” they achieved after more than a week of marathon talks in Washington. The tentative deal will lock in “the best terms” for Canada’s most critical strategic sectors and bring much-needed certainty to the long-strained bilateral trading relationship, Carney added.

    Speaking to reporters shortly after a 45-minute negotiating session with LeBlanc, Greer said US officials are “very happy” with the outcome of the latest talks. He confirmed the agreement eliminates a number of longstanding trade frictions that have complicated US-Canada trade relations for years. “We feel confident that we’ve reached an agreement that will not only continue to protect American workers, American jobs, American supply chains, but really strengthen the North American economy,” Greer said, adding that he will brief Congress and US industry stakeholders on the full details of the deal in the near future.

    LeBlanc, whose team has been stationed in Washington for more than a week to rush a deal before the tariff deadline, moved to reassure domestic audiences that one of Canada’s most sensitive agricultural policies remains untouched. When asked whether the deal included major concessions on dairy access that would undermine Canada’s supply management system — which governs production quotas, fixed pricing, and import limits for dairy, eggs, and poultry — LeBlanc confirmed the program will remain “entirely intact.”

    The core sticking points that dominated negotiations align with longstanding priorities from both countries. Canada has pushed for the US to roll back or eliminate existing tariffs on its key exports including steel, aluminum, automobiles and softwood lumber. For its part, Washington has demanded several key concessions from Ottawa: the removal of Canada’s remaining retaliatory tariffs on American automobiles, expanded access to Canada’s dairy market for US cheese producers, and the elimination of the ban on US alcohol sales that most Canadian provinces implemented last year in retaliation for earlier Trump-era tariffs.

    Public opinion in Canada remains sharply divided over how far Ottawa should go to reach a deal. Recent polling from Leger shows 56% of Canadian respondents favor a hardline negotiating approach, and a majority would oppose the Carney government making significant concessions to the US to avoid new tariffs. However, business groups on both sides of the border have repeatedly pressured negotiators to reach a deal, warning that new tariffs would inflict broad economic harm on two of the world’s largest trading partners, who share more than $2 billion in daily bilateral trade.

    As of Wednesday, many key details of the tentative agreement remain undisclosed: the full scope of policy changes, the specific concessions each side has agreed to, and the remaining outstanding issues that still need to be resolved before the deal can be finalized have not been made public. The threatened 50% tariffs have only been paused until the weekend, giving negotiators a narrow window to iron out the final details of the agreement.

  • After three years apart, a Gaza father returns to his wife – and six death certificates

    After three years apart, a Gaza father returns to his wife – and six death certificates

    For nearly three years, Ahmed al-Siqali, a Palestinian father of seven, dreaded the day he would step back into the Gaza Strip. Just one week before the outbreak of full-scale conflict in October 2023, he had crossed out of the besieged enclave to take a construction job in Israel, a routine move for thousands of Palestinian laborers who relied on Israeli work permits to support their families. When border crossings closed immediately after hostilities began, al-Siqali found himself stranded in the occupied West Bank, cut off from his wife and children for more than two years. That separation turned to unthinkable tragedy in December 2023, when an Israeli airstrike flattened the Gaza City home where his family was sheltering, killing six of his seven children. Only his daughter Rosan survived alongside his wife Hayat. When Israeli forces finally detained him during a West Bank raid last month and deported him back to Gaza weeks later, al-Siqali stepped into a homecoming no parent should ever face.

    Before October 7 2023, cross-border work was a common livelihood for Palestinian men from Gaza. Under a permit system run by Israeli authorities, thousands traveled regularly to Israel for jobs in construction, agriculture and services, sending earnings home to build better futures for their families. Al-Siqali had walked that same path: he had even purchased a new home near the Mediterranean coast in northern Gaza, fulfilling a long-held dream of his children to live steps from the beach. He never imagined that his final goodbye before leaving for work would be the last time he saw six of his children alive.

    “I never imagined that the journey meant to build their future would separate our fates, leaving me unable to protect them or even say goodbye,” al-Siqali told Middle East Eye in an interview following his return. As communications across Gaza collapsed repeatedly in the first weeks of the war, reaching his family became nearly impossible. On the rare calls that connected, his children begged him to come home, repeating “We don’t want work or money. We just want you here with us.” The last successful contact came on December 8, 2023, when al-Siqali reached his wife through a rare working eSIM. In the few minutes before the line cut out, he could hear the terror in his family’s voices. Fearing the worst, he asked Hayat to write all the children’s names on their hands so they could be identified if disaster struck. Minutes after the call dropped, a relative called with the devastating news: the shelter had been bombed.

    “There are no words that can describe what I felt at that moment. It was something no human being should have to endure,” al-Siqali said. Only two-month-old Eileen, whom he had held just once before leaving Gaza, was among the dead, alongside Mohammed, Muhannad, twins Kinan and Rayan, and Basant. “What did my children do to have their dreams taken away and be killed like this?” he asked. For two years, he remained stranded in the West Bank, passing days re-watching old photos and videos of a family trip to al-Nour resort taken just days before he left. The new coastal home he had worked so hard to buy was destroyed in the fighting, leaving nothing of the future he had planned.

    His long wait for reunion ended abruptly on July 21, when Israeli forces raided the Qalqilya compound where he was staying with other displaced Gaza laborers. Al-Siqali, who had already warned his wife of the incoming soldiers, was detained along with all the workers in the building. After two weeks in Ofer Prison, he was transferred back to Gaza alongside 23 other Palestinian workers, cuffed and blindfolded for the four-hour journey to the Kerem Shalom crossing. From there, the International Committee of the Red Cross took the group to Nasser Hospital for processing.

    “As I walked towards the crossing, my legs could barely carry me. I felt as though I was about to lose consciousness,” al-Siqali recalled. “All I could think about was my incomplete reunion, the reunion I had waited so long for. It had finally come, but my family was no longer whole. Instead of my children being there to welcome me, I was welcomed by their six death certificates.”

    Waiting for him at the hospital was Hayat, who had spent two weeks without any word of al-Siqali’s fate after his arrest. The 36-year-old mother, who survived the airstrike with physical wounds and crippling grief, said her mind froze when the bus pulled in. “My heart pounded, and I wanted to fly to him, yet I didn’t know how to face him without our six children,” she said. When al-Siqali walked toward her, their three-year-awaited reunion was held in silence, broken only by shared tears. Hayat whispered the words that had weighed on her through months of displacement: “Forgive me. I couldn’t protect what you entrusted to me.”

    Today, the small surviving family lives in a makeshift tent in al-Mawasi, a displacement camp in southern Gaza. UN data shows that more than 90% of all buildings across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the start of the conflict, forcing nearly 1.9 million Palestinians from their homes. More than 800,000 displaced people live in makeshift tent settlements that offer almost no protection from extreme summer heat, disease and harsh weather. Al-Siqali, once a skilled construction worker, now struggles to adjust to the primitive conditions of camp life, with no work to turn to in a completely collapsed local economy.

    Most days, he lies on a thin foam mattress in the tent, scrolling through the photos of his six children saved on his phone. Their six death certificates rest beside him. “This is all I have left of them,” he repeats. According to United Nations figures, more than 21,000 children have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank since the start of the war, with thousands more still missing and presumed dead, turning al-Siqali’s story of grief into one of thousands for Palestinian families across the region.

  • Death toll in mine collapse in Central African Republic rises to more than 100

    Death toll in mine collapse in Central African Republic rises to more than 100

    BANGUI, Central African Republic — Two local sources directly involved in response operations confirmed Wednesday that the confirmed death toll from a catastrophic gold mine collapse in western Central African Republic has climbed past 100, with fatalities expected to rise further as search and recovery efforts continue.

    The disaster struck at an unregulated, low-capacity artisanal gold mine on Tuesday morning in the rural village of Zamboye, located in Nana-Mambere prefecture just a short distance from Central African Republic’s border with Cameroon.

    Gervais Ganagoroh, a local Red Cross volunteer participating in on-the-ground relief work, reported that alongside the rising number of fatalities, multiple miners who escaped the initial collapse are currently in critical condition with severe injuries. Local youth council member Bertrand Be Yangué, who is also assisting in recovery operations, added that the final death count will likely grow, as dozens of people remain unaccounted for and dozens more are still trapped beneath tons of collapsed rock and rubble.

    Yangué told reporters that the chances of pulling any remaining trapped miners out alive are extremely slim. “Finding them alive would be a miracle,” he said. “We are saddened and heartbroken to see young men and women perish after coming to the mines to save their families from despair.”

    In the wake of the incident, judicial authorities have launched a formal investigation. The prosecutor for the Baboua sub-prefecture court released an official statement confirming the probe, which will focus on identifying the root cause of the collapse, confirming the identities of all victims, holding accountable any parties responsible for operating the unregulated mining site, and pursuing potential criminal charges where negligence or illegal activity is found.

    Local footage captured at the disaster site in the hours after the collapse paints a grim picture: mud-caked miners, most of them young adults, worked frantically to pull bodies from the deep open pit. Dozens of other people connected to the mine gathered across the large site, with many crying out for additional help to reach trapped loved ones.

    Collapses at unregulated small-scale mines are a recurring tragedy across Central African Republic. It is estimated that thousands of local residents rely on artisanal gold extraction for their livelihoods, driven by widespread poverty and a lack of alternative work opportunities. These small operations almost never provide workers with basic safety equipment or structural protections, a reality that has turned the trade into one of the country’s deadliest informal sectors.

  • Trump nominates aide Heidi Overton to lead US Food and Drug Administration

    Trump nominates aide Heidi Overton to lead US Food and Drug Administration

    Former U.S. President Donald Trump has selected Dr. Heidi Overton, a senior domestic policy advisor serving in his White House, as his nominee to head the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If the U.S. Senate votes to confirm her appointment, Overton will step into the role vacated by former FDA commissioner Marty Makary, who resigned from the post in May following public disagreements with the White House over the public safety risks of flavored vaping products.

    In a public post shared to his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Trump lavished praise on his nominee, calling Overton a “rockstar” within his administration. He emphasized that she has built a reputation for tackling the nation’s most intractable policy challenges and delivering practical solutions aligned with the administration’s priorities for the country.

    Overton, who regularly briefs the president on domestic health policy matters, made headlines earlier this month during an Oval Office announcement focused on rolling back the number of mandatory childhood vaccinations. During that event, she delivered sharp criticism of so-called “blue states” led by Democratic governors and legislatures, urging these jurisdictions to adopt the White House’s new framework, which she described as the “gold standard” for vaccination policy.

    Should she secure confirmation, Overton will inherit a broad set of core responsibilities at the FDA, ranging from verifying the safety and effectiveness of all prescription medications sold in the U.S. to overseeing federal regulation of tobacco and nicotine products. Like most senior health officials in the second Trump administration, Overton is a staunch ally of the White House’s “Make America Healthy Again” policy movement.

    Before joining the administration, Overton served as chief policy officer at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative Washington D.C.-based think tank closely aligned with Trump’s policy agenda. A well-known opponent of abortion rights, she has previously labeled abortion “corrosive” to women’s health and has repeatedly called on the FDA to tighten restrictions and crack down on medication abortion access.

    Continuing his endorsement on Truth Social, Trump argued that Overton’s leadership is urgently needed at the agency to maintain the United States’ global position as a leader in scientific discovery and medical innovation. He added that Overton is “smart and respected by all” and that her tenure at the FDA would continue the administration’s commitment to putting “America First” and building a healthier nation.

    Industry and political sources familiar with the selection process have confirmed that Overton is Trump’s third pick for the FDA commissioner role, after the president’s first two choices — acting FDA head Kyle Diamantas and former Republican Congressman Brad Wenstrup — withdrew from consideration. Her nomination comes at a fraught moment for federal public health policy: the administration is already facing widespread criticism over its slow response to a national cyclospora parasite outbreak, and conservative activists are ramping up pressure on the FDA to restrict access to abortion medications.

    A native of the southwest, Overton earned her medical degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and went on to complete postgraduate public health training at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

  • Explainer: Have European countries been involved in the US-Israeli war on Iran?

    Explainer: Have European countries been involved in the US-Israeli war on Iran?

    Nearly six months into the US-Israeli military assault on Iran that began in late February, Europe finds itself deeply divided over its involvement, caught between widespread public opposition to the conflict and intense diplomatic and economic pressure from Washington to back the war effort. On March 16, European Union top diplomat Kaja Kallas framed the conflict clearly: “This is not Europe’s war.” The comment underscored widespread discomfort across the continent, where the conflict has already sent fuel prices skyrocketing and drawn sharp public condemnation for documented civilian casualties in Iran. With only a small handful of European leaders openly endorsing the campaign, the degree of quiet and implicit involvement varies sharply from nation to nation. Adding to the pressure, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose new tariffs on uncooperative European states and even floated a potential full US withdrawal from the NATO defensive alliance if allies refuse to align with the war. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has pushed back against narratives of European non-participation, revealing in June that European states have cleared takeoff access for between 4,000 and 5,000 US warplanes operating against Iran from the dozens of American military bases permanently hosted across European territory. Meanwhile, Iranian retaliatory strikes targeting Western military facilities in the Gulf have pulled the United Kingdom and France deeper into the conflict against their initial plans. As stalled peace talks offer no near-term path to a ceasefire, independent outlet Middle East Eye has broken down the divergent positions of European nations, from full-throated support to outright opposition. The United Kingdom, which has long emphasized its special transatlantic relationship with Washington, has offered the most substantial backing for the Iran campaign of any European power. In the opening days of the assault, then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer initially rejected US requests to use American-leased bases on UK territory for bombing runs, creating an immediate public rift with Trump. However, Starmer reversed course on March 1, authorizing US operations against Iranian missile sites from UK-based facilities, framing the move as serving a “specific and limited defensive purpose.” This authorization cleared the way for US heavy bombers to deploy from both Diego Garcia – the joint US-UK base in the Indian Ocean’s Chagos Islands – and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, the only US-leased base in Europe with a runway long enough to accommodate the heavy bombers used in strikes on Iran. Other UK bases leased to the US, including Suffolk’s RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath, have also supported the war effort by servicing F-35 stealth jets and refueling combat aircraft operating over Iran. Beyond hosting US operations, the UK has leveraged its own network of military outposts across the Middle East to launch independent strikes on Iranian drones, and has repositioned warships, fighter aircraft and advanced air defense systems in the Gulf region. UK officials maintain these actions fall under “collective self-defense” for its regional allies, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. This policy has been fully maintained by new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who approved additional US strike operations from UK bases immediately after taking office in July. In retaliation for the UK’s involvement, Iran has designated all US-utilized UK bases as legitimate military targets. Iran launched missile attacks against UK bases in Iraq, Qatar and the UAE, and carried out an unsuccessful missile strike against Diego Garcia in March. A drone also struck the UK’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus that same month, though British officials have declined to confirm Iranian responsibility for the attack. Across the Channel, French President Emmanuel Macron has similarly framed any French military involvement as “strictly defensive.” On March 3, Macron publicly condemned the opening wave of US-Israeli strikes on Iran as a violation of international law, saying Paris could not endorse the offensive. Despite this public criticism, France has allowed US military support aircraft to land and refuel at its Istres and Avord air bases. Senior French military commanders insist they have received “full guarantees” that these aircraft are not directly involved in offensive strike missions against Iran. France was nevertheless dragged into direct military positioning after its Abu Dhabi base, Camp de la Paix, which hosts more than 750 French personnel, was hit by an Iranian drone strike in March, prompting Paris to deploy additional fighter jets to patrol UAE airspace. Both Washington and Jerusalem have accused France of obstructing the war effort, pointing to Paris’s decision to block munitions flights bound for Israel from transiting French airspace. Trump labeled France “very unhelpful” in a March 31 post on his Truth Social platform, and Israel retaliated by announcing a full boycott of the French arms industry. Early in the conflict, Macron led negotiations for a European-led escort mission for commercial container ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, but the proposal never moved forward despite France repositioning several naval vessels to the region. Paris later offered to assist Iran with mine clearance in the strait, a proposal Tehran rejected for violating the terms of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding. Among all European nations, Spain has taken the clearest and most uncompromising stance against the US-Israeli war. “The position of the government of Spain can be summed up in four words: no to the war,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a national televised address on March 4, just days after the assault began. “You can’t respond to one illegality with another because that’s how humanity’s great disasters begin,” he added. From the conflict’s opening hours, Sanchez made clear Spain would not grant the US permission to use its two American bases – the Rota naval base and the Morón air base – for any war-related operations. On March 30, Spain went a step further than any other European nation, closing its entire airspace to all US military aircraft, including refueling tankers. Spain’s opposition has drawn fierce pushback from Trump, who has called the country “terrible” and “unfriendly.” The US president imposed new punitive tariffs on Spanish imports in June and threatened to cut off all bilateral trade with the country in July. This is not the first time Trump has clashed with Madrid; he has previously called for Spain to be expelled from NATO over its relatively low military spending, and has criticized Spain’s repeated condemnation of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Germany, which hosts more US military personnel than any country outside the United States – with over 36,000 active troops stationed across dozens of bases dating back to the end of World War II – has maintained a deliberately ambiguous stance. The most critical of these facilities is Ramstein Air Base, the largest US Air Force installation outside the US and home to US European Command headquarters. The full scope of Ramstein’s role in the Iran war remains classified, but the base has long served as a key coordination hub for US drone strikes and bombing campaigns in past Middle Eastern conflicts. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a conservative leader with longstanding close ties to both Washington and Jerusalem, drew widespread condemnation from German human rights groups when he refused to condemn the initial US-Israeli strikes or the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Instead, in a March 1 statement, Merz said: “Together with the United States and Israel, we share the goal of ending the terror of these regimes.” But Merz later shifted his tone, sparking outrage in Washington when he said on April 27 that the US was being “humiliated by the Iranian leadership” in ongoing ceasefire negotiations. Trump responded by calling Merz’s performance as chancellor “terrible” and announced on May 1 that he would withdraw 5,000 US troops from Germany in retaliation. Italy, which hosts more than 12,000 US troops across dozens of domestic bases, has also walked a fine line, balancing widespread domestic public opposition to the war against Iran against longstanding security ties with Washington. In July, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pushed back against NATO Secretary General Rutte’s claim that Italy had allowed roughly 500 US aircraft to use its bases during the war, insisting none of the aircraft had been used for offensive combat missions. “We will not participate in attacks against Iran,” Meloni told attendees at the July 8 NATO summit in Ankara. “We have had a very clear line from the beginning of the conflict.” Meloni faced domestic criticism in March after the US military posted public videos of US military helicopters conducting training flights over Sicily. A procedural dispute later led Italy to temporarily block US aircraft from landing at Sicily’s Sigonella air base. Though Meloni had close ties to Trump in prior years, relations between Rome and Washington have deteriorated sharply over Italy’s war stance. “Italy has not been any help to us,” Trump said on May 1, shortly after threatening to withdraw all US troops from the country. Meloni’s government, which had been a staunch supporter of Israel during its military campaign in Gaza, also announced in April that it would not renew its 2003 bilateral defense pact with Israel. The decision came just days after Israeli forces opened fire on Italian peacekeepers serving with a UN convoy in Lebanon. Since the conflict began in February, Greece has repeatedly stated it is not a participant in the war on Iran, and its involvement remains limited to minor logistical support. The only significant exception came in March, when Greece allowed the US Navy’s USS Gerald R. Ford – the world’s largest aircraft carrier, which played a key role in the opening days of the Iran war – to dock for repairs at Souda Naval Base on Crete, the only deepwater port in the Mediterranean large enough to accommodate the 100,000-ton warship. Greek military personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia also shot down Iranian drones targeting the kingdom in March, a deployment that dates back to 2021, when Athens positioned air defense squadrons in the kingdom to protect its energy imports from the Gulf. Bulgaria, which shares a regional neighborhood with Iran separated only by Turkey, has granted the US full permission to use its domestic military bases throughout the conflict. Like many other European leaders, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev has insisted the bases “categorically” will not be used for offensive US operations, claiming American activities are limited to radar operations and refueling. The decision has drawn sharp warnings from Iran, with foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei stating on July 27 that Bulgaria will “bear responsibility for the dangerous decision.” Trump, by contrast, has publicly praised Bulgaria’s stance, writing on Truth Social the same day: “Thank you, Prime Minister Radev! Bulgaria stands with Trump and supports the deployment of a US Air Force base despite Iran’s threats.” Romania, a NATO member that hosts roughly 1,000 US troops, approved US use of its strategically positioned Black Sea bases for Iran-related missions in March. Romanian President Nicușor Dan has maintained that all US activities in the country are limited to a “strict defensive role.” The decision came after the US announced it would reduce troop numbers in Romania in October, stoking widespread anxiety in Bucharest about the reliability of US security support in the event of an attack from neighboring Russia. Middle East Eye is an independent outlet providing unrivaled original reporting and analysis on the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding regions.

  • Lindsay Clancy’s trial put postpartum psychosis in the spotlight. Experts want progress to follow

    Lindsay Clancy’s trial put postpartum psychosis in the spotlight. Experts want progress to follow

    As the high-profile trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy enters its fourth week, the horrific tragedy at the center of the case has dragged a little-discussed, life-threatening maternal mental health condition into the national spotlight: postpartum psychosis. The case, which has sparked urgent conversations about gaps in maternal mental health care, is renewing calls to formally classify the condition as a distinct disorder in American psychiatry’s official diagnostic handbook.

    Clancy, who admitted to killing her three young children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan — in January 2023, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder. Her legal team argues that she was incapacitated by severe postpartum psychosis triggered after the birth of her third child, a condition that left her grappling with debilitating hallucinations and delusions. One month before the killings, Clancy explicitly told her mother Paula Musgrove and then-husband Patrick Clancy that she was experiencing intrusive thoughts of harming her children. Musgrove testified this week that her daughter repeatedly insisted the disturbing thoughts were not her own, saying “This isn’t me, I’ve never been like this before” — a claim Musgrove confirmed aligned with Clancy’s prior behavior.

    Clinical and forensic psychologist Paul Zeizel testified Wednesday that Clancy’s condition left her unable to recognize the wrongfulness of her actions or adjust her behavior to comply with the law. Prosecutors, however, argue the killings were a premeditated, intentional act. What is not debated by medical experts is the dangerous nature of postpartum psychosis, which is classified as an urgent medical emergency. Symptoms of the condition include rapid-onset mania, depression, hallucinations, and fixed false delusions that pull patients completely out of touch with reality. Experts note the condition has a distinct “waxing and waning” pattern that can lull loved ones into a false sense of security: Patrick Clancy testified that on the day of the killings, his ex-wife appeared to be having one of her best days, playing outside with the children to build a snowman. Hours later, when he returned home from picking up dinner, he found his children dead and Clancy gravely injured from a suicide attempt.

    That seemingly sudden shift is a classic hallmark of the condition, explained Jennifer Payne, a reproductive psychiatry expert at the University of Virginia. “A woman can appear fine one minute and be really ill a little bit later,” Payne said. While the exact causes of postpartum psychosis remain under-researched, experts have linked it to dramatic hormonal shifts after childbirth and a history of prior mental health conditions. In rare severe cases, between 1% and 4% of experiences with the condition result in harm or death to children or the mother, according to existing research.

    The biggest barrier to better awareness, screening, and treatment, patients and providers agree, is that postpartum psychosis is not formally recognized as a distinct disorder in the American Psychiatric Association’s *Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)* — the definitive reference guide used by clinicians, medical schools, and insurance providers across the U.S. Advocates like Veerle Bergink, professor of psychiatry and director of the Mount Sinai Women’s Mental Health Center, have spent years pushing for the condition’s inclusion, arguing that formal classification is the foundational step to advancing care.

    “You can only investigate and talk about the disease if you give the disease a name, and if it has criteria,” Bergink explained. Without formal listing in the DSM-5, the condition is often omitted from medical school curricula, fails to attract research funding, lacks a standard insurance billing code, and leaves patients without a clear pathway to care. For Meghan Cliffel, a postpartum psychosis survivor who experienced rapid-onset hallucinations and delusions eight months after giving birth to her second daughter in 2015, this lack of recognition feels like deliberate erasure.

    Clifel recalled that within 24 hours of her first symptoms, she was handcuffed to a gurney and admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where she spent 12 days receiving treatment. She recovered with a multi-pronged care plan including therapy and lithium, and later safely had a third child by starting prophylactic lithium treatment immediately after birth. Even so, her road to recovery was marked by uncertainty: unlike common conditions such as breast cancer, which offer clear, step-by-step care pathways, postpartum psychosis leaves patients fumbling for support in the dark, she said.

    Calling the lack of DSM-5 classification “bananas”, Cliffel said the Clancy trial is a critical turning point for the maternal mental health community. “We cannot be surprised when tragedy happens, and instead, we can proactively build to care for mothers and families,” she said. Experts stress that postpartum psychosis is a highly treatable condition: common interventions include mood stabilizers like lithium, antipsychotic medications, electroconvulsive therapy, and inpatient psychiatric care, and most patients fully recover with timely, appropriate intervention. Advocates now hope the attention from the Clancy trial will accelerate efforts to formalize the condition’s recognition, building a standardized care system that catches symptoms early and prevents future tragedies.