Global Pulse

作者： admin

  • Zelenskyy urges more international pressure on Russia over civilian deaths

    Zelenskyy urges more international pressure on Russia over civilian deaths

    As Russia’s sustained aerial assault on Ukrainian civilian settlements intensifies ahead of the winter season, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has publicly criticized the international community for failing to adopt stronger measures against Moscow, warning that unpunished attacks will only embolden Russian aggression.

    More than four years after Russia first launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the country has faced a sharp escalation in missile and drone strikes targeting populated areas. Late last month, Russian forces launched a seven-day campaign of around-the-clock bombardment against Kyiv, marking the most intense sustained attack on the capital since the start of the invasion. Ukrainian officials confirm these relentless strikes have continued into the current month, with the explicit strategic goal of breaking Ukrainian civilian morale.

    To date, existing international economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation efforts have failed to force Russia to end its invasion. Speaking on social media Wednesday, Zelenskyy emphasized that the global response to daily attacks that claim civilian lives has been woefully inadequate. “Unfortunately, there has been too little response from the international community to these strikes, which are taking people’s lives practically every day,” he said. “But a response is needed — Moscow must not go into the winter believing that it can get away with missile and drone terror without consequences.”

    The human cost of the escalating attacks is staggering. United Nations data confirms that July saw more Ukrainian civilian casualties than any month since March 2022, with 437 civilians killed and over 2,600 wounded. Since the invasion began, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has recorded more than 16,800 civilian deaths and over 51,000 injuries across the country.

    The latest wave of attacks overnight into Wednesday reflected this ongoing brutality. Russian forces launched a combined strike involving ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones across six Ukrainian regions, killing at least two civilians and wounding seven more. In Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, a drone strike damaged the 11th floor of a 22-story residential apartment building, igniting a blaze on the 12th floor that left four people wounded. Olha Smal, a 62-year-old resident of the 12th floor, described the chaotic impact of the blast: the shock wave threw her across her kitchen, one of her bedrooms caught fire, and smoke quickly filled her home. Her pregnant neighbor was among those injured. “You live one day at a time. You don’t know what will happen to you tomorrow, or even what will happen today,” Smal told The Associated Press. “It’s very, very hard.”

    Russian defense officials have attempted to frame all strikes as targeting military-related infrastructure, claiming the Kyiv attack hit a drone factory warehouse, with additional strikes on logistical sites in the southern port city of Mykolaiv, port fuel reservoirs, and a regional electric substation. The ministry also claimed strikes on a cargo ship carrying military aid bound for Odesa and logistical facilities at Ukraine’s Starokozache border crossing with Moldova. Ukrainian authorities confirmed the border strike killed two civilians.

    In response to Russia’s ongoing bombardment of civilian areas, Zelenskyy confirmed Ukraine is carrying out daily long-range counterstrikes against Russian infrastructure deep within Russian territory. The latest wave of Ukrainian counterattacks targeted the Novorossiysk naval base, a key Black Sea Fleet hub located in Russia’s Krasnodar region. According to Zelenskyy, the strike hit multiple critical sites, including an oil loading terminal, military port infrastructure, and Russian warships equipped with cruise missiles. Ukraine’s General Staff noted the base serves as a primary maintenance and logistical support center for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

    Regional Russian governor Veniamin Kondratyev confirmed the drone attack on Novorossiysk left four people dead — including one child — and 29 others wounded. Russian defense officials reported that their air defense systems downed 596 Ukrainian drones between late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

  • N Korea has built two-storey uranium enrichment facility, says watchdog

    N Korea has built two-storey uranium enrichment facility, says watchdog

    For more than a decade, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been barred from placing inspectors on the ground in North Korea, forcing the global nuclear watchdog to rely on satellite surveillance, open-source intelligence, and state media disclosures to track the country’s atomic activities. Its latest assessment, released in late August 2026, paints a clear picture of accelerating expansion: North Korea has completed construction of a new two-story uranium enrichment facility at its key Yongbyon nuclear complex, and has begun operations at an expanded annex at a second enrichment site near the capital Pyongyang.

    According to the IAEA’s findings, the newly completed building at Yongbyon is engineered to accommodate up to 28 centrifuge cascades — the core equipment used to enrich uranium, a key material for manufacturing nuclear warheads. The report ties construction of this facility to a high-profile public event in North Korea: leader Kim Jong Un presided over the inauguration of a new nuclear materials production factory in early June, a visit that was covered in state media. During the event, Kim publicly praised the “greatly expanded production capacity” of the site, noting that the upgrade would open the door for “carrying out larger plans” for the country’s nuclear program.

    Beyond Yongbyon, the IAEA also confirmed that operations have resumed at an expanded annex at the Kangson enrichment facility, located just outside Pyongyang. Initial construction of the annex began in 2024, and satellite imagery shows active operations at the site starting as early as January 2026. These developments align with a preliminary assessment the IAEA released in April 2026, which warned that North Korea appeared to be actively ramping up its capacity to produce nuclear bomb materials at Yongbyon.

    IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has emphasized that the ongoing expansion of North Korea’s nuclear program and continued production of weapons-grade nuclear material is a matter of “serious concern” for the international community. “The continuation and further development of the DPRK’s nuclear programme are clear violations of relevant UN Security Council resolutions and are deeply regrettable,” Grossi said in an official statement earlier this month.

    The new revelations come as a diplomatic overture from South Korea hangs in the balance. In August 2026, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung proposed formal talks with North Korea to officially end the decades-long Korean War, with the talks framed as a potential platform to negotiate “effective ways to halt the advancement of the North’s nuclear capabilities”. As of the IAEA’s report, North Korea has not issued any public response to Lee’s proposal.

    North Korea first formally declared itself a nuclear-armed state in 2022, and has repeatedly reiterated its commitment to retaining its nuclear arsenal, vowing never to relinquish its weapons. Current independent estimates suggest North Korea already holds dozens of nuclear warheads, and Lee told the BBC last year that Pyongyang is producing an additional 15 to 20 warheads annually. Lee has previously stated he would support a negotiated freeze on North Korean nuclear production brokered between the U.S. and Kim.

  • Zhang Ziyu towers in her World Cup debut as 7-foot-3 sensation hopes to get China to quarterfinals

    Zhang Ziyu towers in her World Cup debut as 7-foot-3 sensation hopes to get China to quarterfinals

    BERLIN — The 2024 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup has already become the breakout stage for a new global talent, as 19-year-old Chinese center Zhang Ziyu has turned heads across the tournament even before posting a career-defining performance. Standing an imposing 7-foot-3, the teenager draws eyes every time she steps onto the court, and she will lead China into a do-or-die qualification clash against Puerto Rico on Wednesday, where a win will punch the team’s ticket to the event’s quarterfinals.

    Zhang first grabbed global social media attention during China’s opening pool play matchup against the United States, when a candid clip of her sharing a lighthearted conversation with U.S. star Paige Bueckers went viral across multiple platforms. Bueckers opened up about the exchange in an interview with the Associated Press, framing the moment as nothing but friendly back-and-forth between competitors. “It was just banter, friendly banter. I was trying to figure out how much English she knew, to see how much trash talk she’d understand if I said anything,” Bueckers explained with a smile. “I told her I was going to block her shot, and she just looked at me like she couldn’t believe it. I don’t know if she didn’t catch what I said, or just couldn’t believe I’d say that to her. It was all just fun and games for me.”

    Despite only logging eight minutes of play in China’s closing pool play victory over Italy, Zhang put up an efficient eight points and pulled down three rebounds, forcing the entire Italian squad to overhaul their game plan on both ends of the floor while she was on the court. Italian starting center Olbis Andre acknowledged that matching up against Zhang presented an unprecedented challenge that most players never face in regular competition. “For sure it’s weird because it’s something not usual, and it’s also challenging because you have to defend a type of player you don’t go up against every single day,” Andre said. “We played well in some stretches, worse in others, but it’s a learning experience we’re going to take forward.”

    Throughout the tournament, Zhang has declined to speak with media, walking through the mixed interview zone with either a smile or a bow, which complies with tournament rules that do not require player media availability. The teenager only picked up basketball when she was 10 or 11 years old, and only committed to training full-time seriously over the past 12 to 18 months. To accelerate her development, the Chinese national team hired April Sykes, a former Rutgers University standout with years of coaching experience, as a skills development coach to work with Zhang.

    Sykes spent several months training Zhang earlier this year, and described the young star as an exceptionally quick learner who is eager to improve. Off the court, Sykes says Zhang has a playful personality that surprises many fans who only see her imposing on-court presence. “She’s funny, likes to play video games, she’s a total jokester,” Sykes said from Atlanta, where she has been watching every one of China’s tournament games. “She’s just a kid, though. A lot of people assume she’s 24 or 25, but she’s literally still a teenager.”

    Sykes said she felt an enormous sense of pride recently when Zhang hit a left-handed jump shot during a game — a technique the pair worked on extensively during their training sessions together. “That literally made my entire day,” Sykes said. “People don’t understand how much progress she’s made in such a short window of time.”

    Zhang’s Chinese national teammate Han Xu, who currently plays in the WNBA for the New York Liberty, echoed that praise, saying Zhang is fully prepared to handle the attention of the global basketball stage. “This World Cup is the perfect moment for her, for the whole world to get to know who she is,” Han said. “I’m so excited to get to play alongside her again.”

  • Family of slain teen call for death penalty in D4vd trial

    Family of slain teen call for death penalty in D4vd trial

    A high-profile criminal case centered on rising singer David Anthony Burke, professionally known as D4vd, has taken new turns as the family of his alleged 14-year-old victim pushes for the ultimate punishment and moves forward with a parallel civil lawsuit.

    The case first emerged in September 2025, when the dismembered remains of Celeste Rivas Hernandez were discovered inside the trunk of a Tesla vehicle registered to an address linked to Burke. The 14-year-old’s killing has shaken Southern California and drawn nationwide media attention, as the defendant built a growing career in the music industry before his arrest.

    Hernandez’s family has made clear their stance in recent public statements: if a jury finds Burke guilty of murder, they are calling for him to receive the death penalty. California has held a temporary moratorium on executions for years, but that has not dimmed the family’s demand for the harshest possible sentence. In a statement released Monday, September 2026, which would have marked Hernandez’s 16th birthday, the family described Burke as a remorseless person who inflicted unfathomable pain on their family and their daughter. “If the death penalty were activated, it would be perfect for this kind of human being, devoid of feelings and emptiness inside, and without conscience, who only caused pain to our daughter, our family, and the world that supports our precious daughter,” the statement read, released via the family’s legal team.

    Alongside their call for capital punishment in the criminal case, Hernandez’s parents, Mercedes Martinez and Jesus Rivas, have filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Burke in Los Angeles Superior Court. The court filing mirrors many of the claims laid out by prosecutors in the ongoing criminal matter, adding additional allegations against the singer’s professional and personal circle.

    The suit lays out a timeline of the pair’s relationship, alleging the two first connected in November 2023, when Hernandez was just 13 years old. Over the following 16 months, the parents claim, the pair exchanged nearly 10,000 text messages and engaged in repeated sexual encounters. The court documents argue that Burke, a full-grown adult at the time, held inappropriate power and influence over the minor victim, isolating her from outside support. According to the allegations, Burke killed Hernandez at his Hollywood Hills residence after she threatened to expose their secret relationship, sending him a message that read, “I will end ur career and ur life.” The suit brings claims of wrongful death, false imprisonment, and childhood sexual assault, and seeks financial compensation to cover the victim’s burial and funeral costs, among other damages.

    Notably, the civil suit does not name only Burke as a defendant. It also names several of the singer’s business entities, his managers, his mother, and his live-in security guard, alleging that these individuals enabled Burke’s actions, helped isolate Hernandez, and facilitated the conditions that allowed the abuse and killing to occur. Representatives for Burke’s management firm Mogul Vision and his finance manager have previously stated they had no knowledge of the relationship between Burke and Hernandez, according to reporting from the Los Angeles Times.

    The criminal case against Burke has already cleared a major procedural hurdle. Back in July 2026, a judge ruled that there was sufficient probable cause for the case to move forward to a criminal trial on the murder charge. At that time, district attorney officials confirmed they were still weighing whether to formally pursue a death sentence in the case.

    In recent weeks, Burke has made changes to his legal team. He has split from his high-profile celebrity defense attorney and is now represented by a public defender, with the case scheduled for a next court hearing on October 19, 2026. The full criminal trial has been pushed back to 2027. Burke has entered a formal plea of not guilty to all criminal charges against him.

    Deputy public defender Walid Kandeel, Burke’s current legal representative, noted that Burke has the right to a vigorous defense that carefully examines all evidence and takes his specific circumstances into account. “We are committed to providing him with that defence,” Kandeel said. His office has not yet issued any formal comment in response to the newly filed civil lawsuit.

  • Debt piles up for young Argentines, testing support for President Milei

    Debt piles up for young Argentines, testing support for President Milei

    BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — At 18, Martín Taborda stepped into the Faculty of Law at Argentina’s iconic University of Buenos Aires, carrying his family’s hope that he would become the first member of his household to earn a university degree. Just two years later, that ambition has collapsed under the weight of growing economic hardship.

    Unemployed and carrying $1,300 in outstanding debt, Taborda can no longer cover even the basic costs of his education: the daily bus fare from his working-class suburb to the central campus, and the textbooks required for his courses. This struggle plays out even at UBA, a tuition-free public institution that has lifted generations of working-class Argentines into the middle class.

    Taborda’s story is far from unique. Data from the Center for City Studies, an Argentine non-profit that analyzes central bank economic data, shows that nearly half of Argentina’s 45 million residents currently hold outstanding debt, with more than 5 million borrowers behind on their monthly payments. Borrowers under the age of 25 face the highest delinquency rate of any age demographic, hitting 37.6% of all young borrowers.

    “There is barely any work available for anyone in this country right now,” Taborda explained. He originally took out a $100 equivalent loan via a popular digital mobile payment app in 2024 to cover school expenses, but compound interest on missed payments swelled his balance to 10 times the original borrowed amount. Forced to depend on friends and family to get by, he described the emotional toll: “You start to feel like a parasite.”

    This growing crisis of household survival debt has emerged as a major political challenge for President Javier Milei, eroding support among the young voters who were key to his 2023 election victory, and handing Argentina’s fragmented opposition an opening to mobilize disillusioned voters ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

    Opposition lawmakers have called a special congressional session this Wednesday to debate emergency legislation, including proposals to cap predatory lending interest rates and create structured frameworks to help struggling borrowers renegotiate their outstanding balances. Labor unions and grassroots debtor advocacy groups have planned a public protest outside Congress during the debate, a direct challenge to the core principles of Milei’s radical free-market economic agenda. The shift in voter concern comes even as Milei can claim a major policy win in taming decades-high runaway inflation, with voters now prioritizing urgent struggles over jobs, stagnant wages, and household affordability.

    In their legislative proposal, left-wing lawmaker Nicolás del Caño and co-sponsors framed the bill as a necessary response to a national emergency, writing, “Households took on debt just to survive, and now they cannot repay it.”

    Milei has flatly rejected calls for government intervention, arguing that unpaid debts are a private matter between individual borrowers and lending institutions, not a symptom of broader systemic economic failure. Economy Minister Luis Caputo recently told reporters that private banks have already agreed to loosen repayment terms for struggling borrowers, but added, “We shouldn’t confuse empathy with public policy.”

    On a recent weekday afternoon, Taborda joined a group of several dozen fellow University of Buenos Aires students in an economics department classroom for a confidential support group focused on the emotional and financial toll of unmanageable student and household debt. The meeting follows the anonymity-centered structure of Alcoholics Anonymous, designed to reduce the stigma around debt distress. When the moderator asked for a show of hands on three key questions — who had bought groceries on installment payment plans, who had borrowed via digital apps to cover basic needs, and who had taken out new debt to pay off old loans — the vast majority of attendees raised their hands.

    Since taking office in late 2023 on a promise to dismantle Argentina’s decades-long discredited political and economic establishment, Milei has delivered on his core promise of cutting runaway inflation. He slashed the federal budget deficit and brought annual inflation down from a peak of 289% in early 2024 to roughly 34% by July 2025. This new macroeconomic stability has encouraged private banks to expand lending, but steep government cuts to long-standing subsidies for gas, electricity, and public transportation have driven utility and transit costs far faster than household incomes can keep up, forcing millions of Argentines to borrow just to cover daily basic needs.

    In previous eras of high inflation in Argentina, regular wage increases tied to rising prices gradually reduced the real burden of fixed loan payments. Today, slower inflation means far smaller annual pay adjustments, while sky-high borrowing costs remain in place as part of the government’s tight monetary policy designed to keep inflation in check. Digital mobile payment apps, which have become the primary lending source for low-income and young Argentines, require far less paperwork than traditional banks but charge exorbitant interest rates — often reaching three digits annually — to offset higher default risk.

    Vanesa Bittoco, a spokesperson for grassroots advocacy group Organized Debtors, which campaigns for flexible repayment plans tied to borrower incomes, explained how the nature of household borrowing has shifted dramatically in Argentina: “There was a time when people took out loans to buy a house, an apartment, a car. Now people take out loans to buy food to make it to the end of the month.”

    At the students’ debt support meeting, attendees described feeling trapped, deeply ashamed, and increasingly hopeless about their long-term futures. This psychological distress extends far beyond university campuses: data from the University of Buenos Aires’ Applied Social Psychology Observatory shows that more than 80% of adults surveyed in Buenos Aires and its surrounding suburbs in April 2025 reported that ongoing economic crisis had severely harmed their mental well-being.

    Political analysts warn that the growing household debt crisis could significantly erode Milei’s support among young voters as he campaigns for a second term in the 2027 presidential election, now just 14 months away.

    “Clearly, the current economic model is hitting young people much harder than other segments of the Argentine population,” said Ana Iparraguirre, a public opinion consultant and partner at Washington-based global strategy firm GBAO. “If this crisis continues, Milei is putting his reelection at risk with the same electorate that helped him win office.”

    Milei has shown little sympathy for struggling borrowers, publicly blaming the surge in delinquencies on irresponsible consumer spending. “They bought TVs to watch the World Cup and figured they’d decide later whether to pay,” he told a gathering of investors in the port city of Rosario last month. “Well, now they haven’t paid.”

    The debt crisis comes as Milei’s overall national approval rating has already dropped sharply. A recent nationally representative online poll of 1,500 respondents conducted by prominent Argentine pollster Zuban Córdoba put Milei’s job approval at just 33%, down from 49% in December 2025. A majority of respondents reported that they are worse off financially today than they were when Milei first took office. The poll, fielded from July 22 to 26, 2025, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

    For advocates like Bittoco, the government will be forced to act to address the crisis: “They’re going to have to provide a solution. Otherwise, they’re the ones who will have a problem.”

  • Sinkhole appears outside Malibu home thought to belong to Nicolas Cage

    Sinkhole appears outside Malibu home thought to belong to Nicolas Cage

    A sudden geological collapse has disrupted a prime stretch of Malibu coastline, after a sinkhole opened up and swallowed most of the driveway leading to a beachfront home widely reported to belong to Hollywood star Nicolas Cage. Local law enforcement and public works officials confirmed the incident unfolded early Tuesday morning, when the pavement under the residential access road gave way without warning, leaving a large, gaping cavity in its place. No injuries have been reported in connection with the collapse, as the sinkhole formed far enough from the main residential structure to avoid immediate damage to the home itself. Coastal geologists note that Malibu’s eroding cliffside and beachfront terrain has long been at heightened risk of sudden ground collapse, particularly as shifting sand and soil under developed properties are weakened by tidal erosion and seasonal weather shifts. Local authorities have cordoned off the area around the sinkhole to prevent trespassing and assess the full extent of the ground instability, with geotechnical teams expected to conduct a full site survey this week to determine next steps for repairs and mitigation. As of Wednesday, representatives for Cage have not yet issued a public comment confirming ownership of the property or addressing the impact of the sinkhole collapse.

  • Nicolas Cage’s driveway collapses as sinkhole opens up at his Malibu home

    Nicolas Cage’s driveway collapses as sinkhole opens up at his Malibu home

    A massive 30-foot by 30-foot sinkhole has swallowed the driveway of a Malibu property owned by Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage, marking one of the most visible aftermaths of Tropical Storm Marie’s destructive pass along Southern California’s coastline.

    Local eyewitness accounts reveal that the ground began showing signs of instability as early as Monday, when an 8-foot depression was first spotted on the property. Nearby residents told local media that at the initial stage, the property’s owners did not view the issue as overly serious, anticipating a quick, straightforward repair. But that mild concern quickly escalated into a full-scale emergency when the ground gave way entirely in the early hours of Tuesday, expanding the small depression into a gaping 30-foot crater that engulfed most of the paved driveway.

    The collapse triggered an emergency response after a gas line was damaged in the shift. First responders arrived quickly to contain the incident, and Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) later confirmed that the leak had been fully secured. No injuries have been reported from the incident, according to initial official reports.

    The sinkhole, which sits on a coastal stretch of Malibu, has already been impacted by ongoing coastal erosion: AFP reporters on the scene noted that ocean waves now lap directly into the crater, flowing in and out beneath the support stanchions that hold up the hillside home. Traffic control cones have been placed around the unstable site to keep bystanders away.

    The damage comes on the heels of days of heavy rain and powerful high surf driven by Tropical Storm Marie, which weakened from hurricane status as it moved along the Southern California coast. Though the storm remained well offshore, it still dumped significant rainfall and sent damaging waves pounding against erodible coastal bluffs in Malibu. Local city officials have since declared at least five homes on the same street unsafe for occupancy, warning that the widespread ground collapse has severely restricted emergency access and left large sections of the roadway impassable.

    The property, purchased by Cage in 2024 shortly after the original sale was finalized, per reporting from the *New York Times*, is one of the actor’s Southern California residences. Cage, a 1996 Academy Award winner for his leading role in *Leaving Las Vegas*, is renowned for his decades-long career spanning iconic films including *Face/Off*, *Gone in 60 Seconds*, *Con Air*, and more recent critically acclaimed projects like *Pig* and *The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent*. The BBC has reached out to Cage’s representatives for additional comment on the incident, and no statement has been released as of yet.

  • Suspected measles cases kill nearly 1,000 as Bangladesh struggles to contain outbreak

    Suspected measles cases kill nearly 1,000 as Bangladesh struggles to contain outbreak

    In a overcrowded pediatric ward in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, 8-month-old Rojatun Jannat Ramisa fights for every breath, her small body wracked by the effects of measles. Beside her bed, her helpless parents watch, their hopes pinned on scarce medical care after traveling hundreds of kilometers for specialized treatment. Ramisa is far from alone: she is one of tens of thousands of children falling ill during a catastrophic measles outbreak that has claimed hundreds of young lives, after years of disruptions to the nation’s routine childhood immunization efforts left a large gap in population protection.

    Ramisa’s mother, Ranu Akhter, recalled the alarming scale of the crisis she witnessed at her local district hospital before being referred to Dhaka Shishu Hospital, the country’s leading specialized children’s facility. “Fourteen days ago, when we were at the district hospital, every other child being treated alongside my daughter had the same telltale signs: red rashes covering their bodies, painful sores in their mouths, and raging fevers,” Akhter told the Associated Press. “It was then I understood just how far this outbreak has spread.”

    As of this week, the crisis has grown steadily worse: official data from Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Health Services puts the death toll from suspected measles cases at 999 since January 1, 2025. Since the outbreak began accelerating in March, the Ministry of Health has recorded more than 166,000 suspected infections across the country, with just under 20,000 cases confirmed by laboratory testing. The outbreak first triggered alarm in March, when more than 100 children died in less than four weeks, prompting authorities to launch an emergency response.

    In partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Gavi vaccine alliance, the Bangladeshi government rolled out a mass emergency vaccination campaign starting in March. The effort initially targeted children between 6 months and 5 years of age, the group most vulnerable to severe measles complications, before expanding in phased stages to cover all at-risk communities nationwide.

    Public health experts emphasize that measles is an extremely contagious airborne pathogen that causes high fever, respiratory distress, and a distinctive full-body rash. While many cases are mild, the disease can trigger life-threatening complications including pneumonia, brain swelling, and organ damage, particularly in infants and young children. Two doses of the measles vaccine provide robust, long-lasting protection, but public health protocols require 95% of a population to be fully immunized to achieve herd immunity — a threshold that stops transmission and protects people who cannot be vaccinated, including infants too young for the shot and immunocompromised individuals.

    Just a few years ago, Bangladesh had effectively controlled measles through a decades-old routine immunization program that successfully protected generations of children from a range of preventable diseases including tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, and measles. After reporting 2,410 cases in 2020, the nation saw annual cases drop to just 100 to 300 between 2021 and 2024, a public health success story that has now been upended by successive disruptions to immunization services.

    Two major events created the gap in vaccination coverage that allowed the current outbreak to take hold. First, widespread lockdowns and disruptions to healthcare access during the COVID-19 pandemic left many children without their routine scheduled shots. Then, political upheaval in 2024 derailed the nation’s quadrennial mass measles vaccination campaign, a routine effort that had previously kept coverage high.

    Atiqul Islam, a leading neonatal and child specialist at Dhaka Shishu Hospital and Institute, explained that the missed doses have created a large susceptible population of young children. “During 2021 and 2022, at the height of pandemic disruptions, many families were unable or afraid to bring their children in for routine vaccinations,” Islam said. “So now, children who are four or five years old have largely missed their required doses. That created a critical immunity gap. Even after the pandemic, during the previous interim government, many local vaccination centers reported consistent vaccine shortages that left the gap unaddressed.”

    The crisis has also become a flashpoint for political blame-games between rival factions. Bangladesh’s current elected government, led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, argues that systemic planning failures under ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and interim leader Muhammad Yunus left the country with depleted vaccine stockpiles and far below target immunization coverage. The 2024 mass vaccination campaign was directly disrupted by the mass political uprising that led to Hasina’s ouster from power in August 2024. Hasina fled into exile in India, and Yunus took over as head of an interim administration that oversaw a February 2025 election that transferred power to the current elected government. From her exile in India, Hasina has pushed back, blaming the Yunus-led interim government for the public health disaster.

    At Dhaka Shishu Hospital, where frontline clinicians have been working nonstop for six months to treat infected children, Islam says the emergency response has led to modest improvements, but progress remains far too slow to stem the death toll. Many children arrive at the hospital already suffering from severe complications including pneumonia, severe diarrhea, and encephalitis — swelling of the brain that can cause permanent damage or death. “For the past six months, we have been treating measles patients continuously, without a break,” Islam said. “Our entire team is exhausted.”

  • German far-right party taunts chancellor after its election triumph. He says it won’t win a majority

    German far-right party taunts chancellor after its election triumph. He says it won’t win a majority

    BERLIN – A historic electoral upset by Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has escalated into a fierce public confrontation in the federal parliament, deepening political turbulence just weeks ahead of two more key regional votes.

    Last Sunday, the AfD secured its largest-ever electoral victory in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, delivering a crippling blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which saw its voter support cut roughly in half. The outcome has cemented the AfD’s rising momentum across eastern Germany, exposing widespread public discontent with Germany’s struggling national coalition government and its failure to reverse years of sluggish economic growth. Unlike the party’s early focus centered almost exclusively on restricting immigration, analysts note the AfD has successfully broadened its appeal to tap into voter anger over a wide range of unaddressed policy failures.

    Opening the annual federal budget debate on Wednesday, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel used the upset victory to openly taunt Merz, declaring that Saxony-Anhalt’s voters did not merely punish the CDU – they “pulverized” the party. Weidel argued that Merz’s administration had completely failed to grasp the message sent by voters, adding that “your time has run out anyway. Citizens want a change of policy and they will get it.” She predicted upcoming national elections would deliver a clear governing mandate to the AfD, and pushed back against Merz’s criticism of the party’s Russia and Ukraine stance, accusing the chancellor of escalating unnecessary confrontation with Moscow to distract from his own government’s poor performance.

    A combative Merz pushed back sharply against Weidel’s taunts, acknowledging the AfD’s “remarkable” result but noting the party fell just short of the absolute majority it had campaigned for in Saxony-Anhalt. The chancellor insisted the far-right party would never secure a national governing majority, dismissing it as a “destructive force” that poses a fundamental threat to Germany’s democratic and foreign policy commitments.

    Merz zeroed in on the AfD’s longstanding opposition to military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, and its call to lift international sanctions on Russia. He accused the party of a “grotesque inversion of perpetrator and victim” in the war, noting it openly aligns with Russia even after German authorities blamed Moscow for a recent attempted drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport. The chancellor also condemned the AfD’s inflammatory “remigration” policy, which calls for mass deportations of foreign-born residents. Merz argued the term is nothing less than a coded reference to ethnic cleansing based on ancestry and skin color, warning that implementing the policy would collapse critical sectors of Germany’s economy including healthcare, hospitality and elder care. While Merz confirmed his governing coalition supports expanding deportations for undocumented residents with no legal right to stay, he drew a clear line between that policy and the AfD’s blanket call for forced expulsion.

    The AfD’s landmark victory has already drawn international attention and praise from far-right actors across the globe. Far-right nationalist parties across Europe have celebrated the result, and former U.S. President Donald Trump highlighted the upset in a post Tuesday to his Truth Social platform. Though he did not name the AfD explicitly, Trump wrote that “the Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night. They finally got tired of the absolutely horrible Immigration rules and regulations which have hurt Germany so badly. THEY ARE ON THE RISE, and not going to take it anymore!”

    The political showdown comes as Germany prepares for two more regional elections on September 20, to be held in Berlin and the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Polling has long shown the CDU is deeply unpopular in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, while the AfD already holds strong support in the state, raising fears among mainstream parties of another far-right upset that would further erode the CDU’s standing nationally.

  • Airlines scramble to dig out from tech problems that canceled 1,750 flights in the UK

    Airlines scramble to dig out from tech problems that canceled 1,750 flights in the UK

    LONDON — Days of travel chaos have hit the United Kingdom’s aviation sector after an unexpected technical failure at Britain’s national air traffic management provider forced mass flight cancellations, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and triggering growing political pressure over systemic vulnerabilities.

    The disruption first emerged on Monday, August 28, when a glitch in the core flight processing system of National Air Traffic Services (NATS) — the public-private body that oversees all UK air traffic control operations — brought flight schedules across the country to a standstill. By Wednesday, the total number of canceled flights across UK airports had surpassed 1,750, with the ripple effects of the outage expected to extend through the rest of the week as airlines work to untangle the massive backlog.

    Thousands of travelers were stuck for hours on airport tarmacos and packed into overcrowded terminal buildings on Tuesday, with many unable to reach their destinations for planned work trips, holidays, or family visits. Even after NATS confirmed it had fully resolved the technical fault late Tuesday, airlines have faced a mammoth task to reposition hundreds of aircraft that were left stranded at incorrect airports after the mass cancellations, and rebook hundreds of thousands of displaced passengers. Delays continued to ripple across UK and European flight schedules through Wednesday.

    In the wake of the disruption, top political and industry figures have demanded accountability. UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander announced Wednesday that she had summoned NATS Chief Executive Martin Rolfe to a face-to-face meeting to demand answers and assurances over future system resilience.

    “I am seeking assurances that lessons will be learned and systems that support aviation are up to the job,” Alexander stated in a public post on social platform X, making clear that the government expects full transparency over what caused the outage and how future failures will be prevented.

    Two of Europe’s biggest budget airlines, Ryanair and Wizz Air, have gone further, calling for Rolfe to step down. The outage marks the second major failure of the UK air traffic control system in just three years, a track record that carriers say signals unacceptable mismanagement of critical national infrastructure.

    Rolfe responded to the criticism Wednesday, issuing a full public apology to travelers who faced disruption while defending the overall safety and performance of the UK’s air traffic network.

    “Our job is also to make sure that people stay safe,” Rolfe told the BBC. “We never do this lightly. We only ever do it when there is an issue that cannot be resolved quickly, and we have to take action to make sure those who are flying, who are in the air at that time, are safe. And when we can restore these incredibly complex systems we do so as quickly as we can.”

    He reiterated that the UK air traffic control system remains one of the safest and most efficient in the world, even as the sector continues to deal with the aftermath of the failure. As of Wednesday afternoon, airlines were still working to clear the backlog of stranded passengers, with many travelers facing waits of 48 hours or more for rebooked flights.