Global Pulse

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  • 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.

  • Questions remain over Vieira deal amid Senegal uncertainty

    Questions remain over Vieira deal amid Senegal uncertainty

    Senegal’s search for a new head coach of its men’s national football team, the Teranga Lions, has ended with the tentative selection of legendary former French midfielder Patrick Vieira – but multiple overlapping off-field crises have cast deep doubt over whether the 50-year-old will ever officially take charge. The Senegal Football Federation (FSF) confirmed Vieira had been unanimously approved at a Monday board meeting to fill the vacancy left by the sacked Pape Thiaw, beating out competing candidates including former Netherlands star Patrick Kluivert, ex-France coach Patrice Carteron, and former Senegal internationals Habib Beye and Oumar Daf. However, no contract has been signed, no official introduction date has been set, and negotiations over administrative and contractual terms remain ongoing. The situation is further complicated by unresolved friction over Thiaw’s dismissal: the former coach was fired after Senegal’s round of 16 exit at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but the Senegalese government – which provides full funding for the national team – never formally approved the decision. Thiaw is currently pursuing claims for nearly $815,000 in unpaid wages and contractual bonuses, leaving a financial cloud hanging over the role. Compounding the FSF’s internal chaos, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is set to deliver a ruling by Friday on a legal challenge to the 2023 election of the current FSF leadership, a dispute that has dragged on for more than a year. With the FSF board lacking government backing and public support, and facing the potential that CAS could invalidate its leadership entirely, the federation still faced urgent pressure to fill the vacant coaching post: Senegal is scheduled to kick off its 2027 Africa Cup of Nations Group J qualifying campaign with an away fixture against Mozambique on September 23, followed just days later by a match against Ethiopia. If CAS rules the current FSF administration illegitimate, Vieira’s entire appointment could be thrown out. Beyond the institutional chaos, Vieira brings his own mixed track record to the role. One of the most decorated midfielders of the modern era, Vieira enjoyed a legendary playing career that included three Premier League titles and four FA Cups with Arsenal, 107 caps for France, and winner’s medals at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and 2000 UEFA European Championship. Born in Dakar in 1976 to a Gabonese father and Cape Verdean mother, Vieira lived in Senegal until he was 8 years old before moving to France, and never cut his ties to his country of birth. Most notably, he was a key early investor in the Diambars Institute, one of Africa’s top youth football academies that has produced stars including Idrissa Gana Gueye, Bamba Dieng and Abdoulaye Seck – players who formed the core of Senegal’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations title runs in 2021 and 2023. Ironically, Vieira’s only ever on-pitch meeting with Senegal as a player came in the opening match of the 2002 World Cup, when the defending champion French side suffered a famous 1-0 upset defeat to the Teranga Lions, led that day by current coaching predecessor Pape Thiaw and captain Aliou Cisse. While Vieira’s playing legacy is unrivaled, his managerial career has yet to match that success. He began his top-flight coaching career in 2016 with MLS side New York City FC, guiding the club to two consecutive playoff berths but falling in the conference semi-finals both times, including a lopsided 7-0 aggregate loss to Toronto FC. He next moved to Ligue 1 side Nice, earning two consecutive mid-table top-half finishes before being sacked in December 2020. He then took over at Premier League club Crystal Palace in 2021, earning praise for his attacking playing style and leading the side to a 12th place league finish and an FA Cup semi-final appearance in his first season. But a 11-match winless league run in the 2022-2023 season saw him sacked in March 2023, with the club three points above the relegation zone. A subsequent spell at Ligue 1’s Strasbourg ended in a mid-table finish, and his most recent job at Serie A’s Genoa ended in a November 2024 mutual departure, with the club winless and sitting at the bottom of the league table. For Vieira, a potential appointment to lead Senegal would be a full-circle return to his birth country, but it would also come at the end of one of the most successful eras in Senegalese football history. After winning their first ever AFCON title in 2022, the Teranga Lions claimed a second consecutive title in January 2024, though that trophy remains the subject of a CAS dispute after Thiaw pulled his team off the pitch in protest of a controversial late penalty awarded to host Morocco. The squad now faces a transition period, with a new generation of young talent waiting to step into the void left by veteran stars including Sadio Mane, Kalidou Koulibaly, Edouard Mendy and Idrissa Gana Gueye. Whether Vieira will ever get the chance to lead that transition remains very much up in the air, as multiple legal and contractual battles play out in the coming days.

  • Trump says will meet North Korea’s Kim later this year

    Trump says will meet North Korea’s Kim later this year

    In a surprising on-the-record briefing with reporters Wednesday, former and current U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed plans to hold a long-awaited meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before the end of 2026, marking the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders since Trump began his second presidential term. The confirmation came as Trump answered questions from journalists during a walking tour of a newly constructed helipad on the White House grounds, offering little additional logistical detail beyond his basic commitment to the summit.

    Unconfirmed reporting from The Wall Street Journal has since shed light on potential timing, indicating the meeting could be scheduled to align with Trump’s already planned November trip to China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit, a convenient arrangement that would avoid adding a separate, high-stakes diplomatic journey to the president’s already packed fall schedule.

    In a striking departure from the vague, generalized assessments of North Korea’s nuclear program that have become standard for sitting U.S. presidents, Trump offered an unusually specific count of Pyongyang’s atomic stockpile, stating that Kim currently holds 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons. The president went on to acknowledge that the proliferation of North Korea’s nuclear program should never have been allowed to progress to its current state, a comment that implicitly criticizes the policy choices of previous administrations. Even so, he emphasized that the current reality of North Korea’s nuclear status cannot be ignored, and framed his longstanding personal rapport with Kim as a unique asset for U.S. diplomacy.

    The announcement of the planned meeting comes at a particularly fraught moment for U.S. foreign policy, as Trump is currently leading active military operations against Iran, a campaign he has explicitly justified on the grounds of blocking Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons. Trump defended the apparent contradiction of pursuing diplomacy with a nuclear-armed North Korea while waging war to stop Iran from acquiring the same capability, arguing that the two scenarios are fundamentally separate. “I can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And I know Kim Jong Un very well, and he’s going to be fine,” Trump told reporters, drawing a clear distinction between his approach to the two nations rooted in his personal relationship with the North Korean leader.

    Wednesday’s confirmation is the latest in a series of steps Trump has taken to reset U.S. engagement with North Korea. Just two days prior, the president issued an order scaling back what he described as “inappropriate and hostile” joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, a decision he explicitly tied to his “good relationship” with Kim. The two leaders held three historic summits during Trump’s first term in office, a period of unprecedented personal diplomacy that included Trump’s famous remark that the two had “fell in love” after exchanging a series of what he called “beautiful letters.” No meeting has taken place since Trump returned to the White House for his second term, though in recent weeks the president has dropped increasing hints that behind-the-scenes communications have resumed. When pressed Wednesday, however, he declined to explicitly confirm whether letter exchanges between the two leaders are currently ongoing.

    The report of renewed communication drew a measured response from Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un and one of the North Korean regime’s most prominent senior officials. Speaking Wednesday, she stated that she was “unaware” of any reported correspondence between her brother and President Trump, but nonetheless noted that diplomatic ties between the two leaders remain “excellent,” leaving the door open for future high-level engagement.

  • Two detained after French influencer’s scorched body found in vineyard

    Two detained after French influencer’s scorched body found in vineyard

    A shocking murder case has rocked southern France, after authorities officially confirmed that a burned body found in a local vineyard belongs to 29-year-old French social media influencer Sonia Bellina, with two men already taken into custody in connection with the killing.

    The case first emerged on August 12, when a local farmer made the grim discovery: a charred body abandoned between rows of grapevines in Saint-Gilles, a small village located near the city of Nîmes. Law enforcement immediately launched a formal murder probe, but for several days, investigators could only confirm that the remains belonged to a young woman, requiring additional forensic testing to pinpoint a positive identification. Over the following week, Bellina’s name spread rapidly across social media and French news outlets, with her family and an anonymous woman claiming to be her sister publicly stating they were certain the remains were Bellina’s long before official confirmation.

    Cécile Gensac, the chief prosecutor for Nîmes, released an official statement on Wednesday confirming that DNA testing and cross-investigative work had formally verified Bellina’s identity. She noted that the influencer’s name had already been widely circulated in public discourse over the prior 48 hours ahead of the official announcement. At the time of her death, Bellina was visiting family in southern France, just one month ahead of her upcoming 30th birthday. She had built a following of roughly 260,000 followers on the short-video platform TikTok.

    Gensac confirmed that two men had been placed into police custody on Wednesday, citing substantial evidence linking the pair to either direct or indirect involvement in Bellina’s death. No further details about the suspects, their connection to the influencer, or a potential motive have been released to the public as the investigation remains active.

    Mourad Battikh, the legal representative for Bellina’s family, has described the killing as a murder of uncommon brutality, telling broadcaster RTL that Bellina’s body was discarded in the vineyard like common garbage. Even before official identification, the case sparked widespread speculation and unfounded rumors across social media platforms, which have added immense strain to the grieving family. In an interview with local outlet Midi Libre, the anonymous woman claiming to be Bellina’s sister said the family has been subjected to unconscionable harassment, including hurtful online comments claiming Bellina deserved her violent death.

    Battikh has issued a firm warning that the legal team will not tolerate any defamatory or harmful online content about Bellina or her family, noting that all published statements will be reviewed, and inappropriate posts will be reported to authorities as appropriate. In a formal press statement, Battikh emphasized that the Bellina family is navigating an unspeakably traumatic ordeal. “They request respect for their privacy and their grief and will not be making any further statements,” he added.