Global Pulse

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  • Anguish of Colombian brother at rubble of building being searched for earthquake survivors

    Anguish of Colombian brother at rubble of building being searched for earthquake survivors

    On August 10, a devastating magnitude 7.4 earthquake ripped through southwestern Colombia, leaving a trail of destruction and death that stands as the worst seismic disaster the country has faced this century, according to the nation’s National Geological Service. Among the hardest-hit areas is Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city home to more than two million residents, where the four-story Torres del Limonar apartment building in the southern Capri neighborhood crumbled to the ground, becoming a grim symbol of the tragedy that has unfolded across the region.

    By the count of Cali Mayor Alejandro Éder, the earthquake has killed at least 95 people across the city, with an estimated 25 people still trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed structures as of Monday night. Torres del Limonar is one of more than 50 buildings that collapsed in the quake, and while neighboring properties escaped the same fate, suffering only minor cracks, the site itself is now a jagged mountain of shattered concrete, where half-buried mattresses, broken furniture and personal belongings poke through the debris under the unforgiving scorching tropical sun.

    For Efraín Gallego, every passing minute brings a agonizing mix of renewed hope and crushing disappointment. His 80-year-old brother and brother’s wife were both buried when the building gave way, and despite the emotion that cracks his voice and leaves him pausing to swallow hard and regain his composure as he speaks, he refuses to give up on finding his brother alive. “You feel such deep anguish,” Gallego told BBC News Mundo at the collapse site. “Every time there is an alert about someone being alive, hope is reborn that we will find him.”

    More than 100 people have gathered at the site, waiting for updates on missing loved ones. Many are too shaken to speak, visibly drained by grief and uncertainty. Some sleep exhausted on the sidewalk or on couches pulled into the street, while others huddle together in shade to lean on one another for support as hours stretch on and anxiety mounts.

    A multi-team response of professional rescuers, military personnel, firefighters, paramedics, humanitarian workers and hundreds of civilian volunteers has been working around the clock to clear debris and reach potential survivors. To cut through the noise of excavators, hammers and saws, workers regularly pause operations and raise their hands in a universal signal for complete silence, calling out into the rubble: “Silence! We are firefighters. If you can hear us, shout or make any noise.” Each pause brings a held breath for waiting family members, but more often than not, no sound comes from below.

    While official counts remain fluid amid the chaotic response, rescuers confirm they have pulled at least 10 survivors from the rubble of Torres del Limonar since the collapse, with local media reporting six survivors extracted in the hours after the disaster, including an infant just a few months old. As of Tuesday morning, rescue team member James Velasco told reporters that at least two trapped people had been detected alive, with crews digging narrow access tunnels to reach them. One survivor is currently trapped with a leg pinned under debris, Velasco added.

    For veteran rescuers like Velasco, there remains cautious reason to hold out hope. “In the past I have participated in operations where we have pulled out survivors after seven days trapped,” he said. “Those who are meant to survive, survive. Nothing is written.”

    A large part of the on-site response has been driven by ordinary Cali residents who have stepped up as volunteers, a collaboration Gallego was quick to highlight amid his own anguish. “We must mention all the people who have come to help with water, supplies, tools, equipment; there is a lot of collaboration. Volunteers are plentiful,” he said.

    Nineteen-year-old Alejandro Mahecha is one of those volunteers. After surviving the quake unharmed with his family and working through the initial shock, he headed to the Torres del Limonar site at first light to pitch in. “The earthquake affected my city and the homes of people I know. I came to this site because there has been a lot of talk about this building and the need for help here,” Mahecha explained. Working alongside friends, he helps clear debris, haul fresh water to exhausted rescue teams and clear streets to speed up evacuation efforts.

    To speed up rescue operations, Mayor Éder has implemented a nighttime curfew around disaster sites, allowing crews to work uninterrupted. As of Tuesday morning, search and extraction efforts were continuing non-stop, even as waiting families confront the growing weight of uncertainty.

  • Ma’a Nonu thrills Kings Park with a solo haka for the Sharks against the All Blacks

    Ma’a Nonu thrills Kings Park with a solo haka for the Sharks against the All Blacks

    DURBAN, South Africa – For decades, South African rugby sides have relished the intensity of facing New Zealand’s iconic pre-match haka challenge, but none had ever responded with a haka of their own – until Tuesday. That historic moment came courtesy of 44-year-old former All Black center Ma’a Nonu, who delivered a memorable solo haka ahead of a tour match between his new side the Sharks and his old national team, a contest New Zealand ultimately won by a commanding 54-0 score on a rain-soaked pitch at Durban’s Kings Park.

    Nonu, who earned 104 caps for New Zealand between 2003 and 2015, has continued his professional playing career across global club competitions well into his mid-40s. Just one week before the high-profile clash, the Sharks announced the signing of Nonu on a role focused on mentoring and developing the franchise’s young emerging talent. However, a growing injury crisis among the Sharks’ matchday squad left the side short of replacements, prompting management to ask the veteran to step onto the bench for the historic fixture – the Sharks’ first match against the All Blacks in 30 years.

    Initially, Nonu was hesitant to accept the call-up. He worried that inserting himself into the matchday squad would overshadow the occasion for the rest of his Sharks teammates, who were preparing to make their own history against the world-famous side. But he ultimately relented to help the franchise fill out their matchday numbers, explaining to South African broadcaster SuperSport: “I thought it would be rude to say no. I thought I would put the boots on and try to help the team really.”

    In the lead-up to the match, Nonu consulted with two former All Black teammates now serving on New Zealand’s coaching staff, Tana Umaga and Tamati Ellison, about his plan to respond to the All Blacks’ haka with one of his own. He framed the decision as an act of respect for both his current side and his roots, saying: “Out of respect for our team and on behalf of myself and my family, I thought it was the right thing to do, to answer the boys and the All Blacks.”

    After the national anthems concluded and the All Blacks finished their traditional haka performance, Nonu stepped forward alone, with the rest of the Sharks squad lined up behind him, and the All Blacks positioned across the halfway line. He performed Kapa o Pango – the haka most commonly used by the All Blacks in modern matches – drawing initial silence from the damp crowd that quickly swelled into loud, warm cheers. When he finished, he nodded respectfully toward the All Blacks side, where most players nodded back in acknowledgment. Only two current All Blacks squad members, Codie Taylor and Beauden Barrett, were part of New Zealand’s national side when Nonu last played for the team.

    Reflecting on the moment after the match, Nonu called the experience a profound honor. “It was such a privilege and an honor, and to do the haka, showing my respect on behalf of my family to the team I love,” he said.

    Nonu got his minutes on the pitch in the final quarter of the one-sided contest, marking his first ever appearance against his former national team. His first touch of the ball came in a hard collision with All Blacks flyhalf Ruben Love – who was not yet born when Nonu made his debut for New Zealand in 2003. “I got 20 minutes. I tried my best. It was great to see the (New Zealand) boys,” he said.

    The All Blacks pulled away to secure a lopsided victory after scoring a string of tries in the final 30 minutes, leaving Nonu playing catch-up for much of his time on the pitch. He was quick to praise his former side, adding: “The All Blacks opened up in the last 30 minutes and I was chasing my tail. Credit to them, they’re improving, and all the best to the brothers for the next game.”

  • Watch: Severe storms overturn vehicle and trigger flooding in Ohio

    Watch: Severe storms overturn vehicle and trigger flooding in Ohio

    A devastating outbreak of severe storms has swept across parts of Ohio, leaving a trail of destruction that includes flipped vehicles, widespread flash flooding, and at least one confirmed human fatality. Local emergency management officials have issued urgent warnings, urging residents across the state to make immediate preparations for a new round of intense storm activity that is projected to hit over the coming days.

    Footage captured from impacted areas shows the full force of the extreme weather: multiple vehicles were flipped onto their roofs by powerful wind gusts, while low-lying neighborhoods and roadside corridors quickly became submerged under rushing floodwater after hours of heavy, unrelenting rainfall. First responder teams have already been deployed across hard-hit regions to conduct rescue operations, clear blocked roadways, and assess the full scope of property damage.

    Officials have not yet released detailed information about the victim who lost their life in the storm event, but have emphasized that dangerous conditions will persist as additional weather systems move into the region. Residents in flood-prone and high-risk zones have been advised to stock up on emergency supplies, monitor official weather alerts closely, and follow evacuation orders immediately if issued by local authorities. The National Weather Service has also noted that the ongoing pattern of unstable atmospheric conditions across the Midwest creates a high risk of repeated severe thunderstorms, flash flooding, and damaging wind events through the end of the week.

  • US says helicopter fired missiles to disable ship breaking Iran blockade

    US says helicopter fired missiles to disable ship breaking Iran blockade

    Escalating tensions in the Middle East have taken two sharp new turns this week, as the United States Central Command (Centcom) confirmed it carried out a missile strike on a commercial cargo ship attempting to violate Washington’s ongoing blockade of Iranian ports, while an Iran-backed militant group in Yemen launched the first deadly attack on shipping in the Red Sea since regional hostilities erupted earlier this year.

    In an official statement released this week, Centcom announced that an MH-60 military helicopter launched two Hellfire missiles at the Panama-flagged bulk carrier M/V Vela Nova on Tuesday, targeting the vessel’s engine room as it traversed the Gulf of Oman. The strike was carried out after the ship’s civilian crew disregarded multiple repeated warnings from U.S. naval forces deployed in the region, according to Centcom. Following the attack, the vessel abandoned its course and is no longer en route to an Iranian port, the command confirmed.

    The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports remains in full force, months after a regional war erupted between Israel, backed by the U.S., and Iran, which began on February 28. Diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire and end the conflict have so far failed to produce a lasting agreement. After the latest ceasefire collapsed in June, direct exchanges of fire between U.S. and Iranian forces have become an almost daily occurrence in the Gulf. Centcom’s update on Tuesday noted that since the blockade was implemented, as of August 11, U.S. forces have redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting to bypass the restrictions, disabled three non-compliant ships, and boarded two others to enforce the order.

    Iran has responded aggressively to the U.S.-led blockade and the ongoing war, launching retaliatory strikes against Israel and U.S. allied states across the Gulf region. Most critically, Tehran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most vital chokepoint for global energy supplies. Before the outbreak of hostilities, roughly 20% of the world’s total oil and liquefied natural gas shipments transited the strait daily. Since the closure, global energy markets have seen extreme and ongoing price volatility, with costs swinging wildly in response to every new development in the conflict. International mediators from multiple neutral nations have spent months attempting to negotiate a deal to reopen the waterway, but no breakthrough has been achieved to date. Iran has not yet issued any public comment on the Tuesday strike against the Vela Nova.

    In a separate but connected development Tuesday, the internationally recognized government of Yemen announced that six people were killed and 10 others injured in an attack carried out by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement on a cargo ship transiting the Red Sea. The Houthi group quickly claimed responsibility for the strike, stating that the targeted vessel was carrying military equipment bound for Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the region. This attack marks the first time the Houthi movement has caused fatalities in a shipping attack in the Red Sea since the regional war began in February, raising new fears that hostilities will spread beyond the Gulf and disrupt another critical global shipping lane.

  • Inside the Secret Service ‘shell game’ to hide US presidents in plain sight

    Inside the Secret Service ‘shell game’ to hide US presidents in plain sight

    In early July, following the NATO summit hosted in Ankara, Turkey, a dramatic and little-known security maneuver unfolded that has now drawn fresh attention to the lengths U.S. Secret Service agents go to protect the sitting American president. On July 8, Donald Trump boarded the iconic Boeing 747 Air Force One in full view of broadcast cameras, but by the time the aircraft departed Turkish airspace, the president was nowhere on board. According to multiple security and intelligence sources, Trump was secretly smuggled off the plane via an on-board catering truck before departure, and transferred to a smaller C-32A – the military-modified variant of the Boeing 757 – which then carried him to RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom. The passengers who remained on the original Air Force One were unknowing decoys, with no advance indication that the president had already left the aircraft.

    This extraordinary aircraft switch is far from a one-off security trick, experts on presidential protection explain. Deception has long been a core pillar of U.S. Secret Service operations designed to confuse potential adversaries targeting the commander-in-chief. “That’s very common,” noted Ronald Kessler, an acclaimed author who has extensively covered the Secret Service’s operations and history. “There’s a long history of strategies to mislead anybody who might be trying to harm the president.”

    Smaller-scale deception tactics are already a routine part of presidential travel, even within the United States. Robert McDonald, a retired senior Secret Service agent who served on presidential protection details during the George W. Bush administration, explained that decoy assets are integrated into nearly every presidential movement. For example, presidential motorcades – which often include more than 30 security, support, press and emergency vehicles – almost always carry two identical “Beasts”, the heavily armored presidential limousine. One carries the president, while the second acts as a decoy, and the two frequently switch positions out of public view, such as under highway overpasses or in tunnel sections. “It’s what we call a shell game,” McDonald explained. “Even when we traveled from Washington D.C. to Joint Base Andrews, those two limousines would change position out of sight of anyone outside the motorcade. Different things are used to mix up the bad guy.” The order of vehicles in the motorcade is also regularly shuffled en route to obscure the president’s location from potential threats.

    The same logic applies to air travel: Marine One, the presidential helicopter, almost always travels in a formation of three identical craft, with the helicopters switching positions mid-flight to prevent hostile actors from identifying which craft carries the president. For high-risk international trips, far more elaborate deception plans are prepped and can be activated at a moment’s notice.

    Paul Eckloff, another former Secret Service agent, told BBC World Service’s *Newshour* that while full aircraft switches are not a daily occurrence, they are a permanent contingency option for executive protection teams. “When the president travels to war zones, there are frequently tactics and techniques used to create doubt in an adversary of which aircraft or which movement that he’s going to make,” he said.

    This tactic has a well-documented history in high-stakes presidential travel. In March 2000, then-President Bill Clinton flew from India to Islamabad, Pakistan, aboard an unmarked executive jet, which landed only after a decoy jet painted with full Air Force One markings touched down first. Three years later, the White House publicly announced that George W. Bush would spend Thanksgiving at his Texas ranch, only for the president to arrive secretly in Baghdad aboard a blacked-out Air Force One. More recently, in 2023, Joe Biden was quietly transported into Ukraine with only a skeleton press contingent of one reporter and one photographer, with the full details of the trip kept secret until he was safely on the ground. In all three cases, reporters aware of the plan agreed to hold their reporting until the operation was complete to protect the president’s safety.

    To date, the exact nature of the threat that prompted the Ankara deception remains undisclosed. The Secret Service has declined to comment on the incident, while the White House has neither confirmed nor denied the maneuver, only stating that it “uses every tool available to protect the president.”

    Security experts note that while comprehensive contingency plans are drafted for every presidential trip, the Secret Service maintains the flexibility to improvise tactics when new intelligence emerges, particularly when traveling abroad. According to McDonald, the decision to deploy such an extraordinary measure indicates that the threat was deemed serious by multiple U.S. security agencies. “That tells me that the threat level in Turkey was relatively substantial and quite high,” he said. “The president’s staff, the Secret Service and the White House Military Office were almost certainly immediately alerted, got together in a room, reviewed the intelligence, and put together a plan to negate the threat.”

    That assessment is shared by Marc Polymeropoulos, a 26-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency who oversaw clandestine operations across the globe and served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The key part of this is the nature of the threat, and what was so severe that the Secret Service would put forth such a deception operation,” he said. Polymeropoulos raised one key unresolved question: whether U.S. intelligence and government officials had a duty to warn the passengers who remained on the decoy Air Force One of the potential threat. “Let’s say the plane was blown out of the sky, and we knew about it,” he said. “If we know a terrorist group is going to attack a target, we warn relevant parties to prevent civilian casualties. That precedent raises questions about this case.”

    It remains unclear just how much danger the passengers on the original Air Force One faced, or if they faced any danger at all. Reporters on board the decoy aircraft noted that they were repeatedly instructed to keep their window blinds closed – a measure McDonald says is not unusual, and was intended to protect all passengers on the flight. “A large plane flying overhead where somebody could see it, with the shades up and windows illuminated, could tell somebody that it’s a particular type of aircraft,” he explained. “I appreciate the need for transparency, but [the passengers] are also part of the movement. We’ve got to make sure that you and everybody gets home safe.”

    McDonald added that the Secret Service is under no legal obligation to disclose potential threats or detail active protection operations to the public or even to non-cleared passengers, with any decision to release information resting with the White House and other senior agencies. “The Secret Service is not in the business of public relations,” he said. “We’re very good at keeping secrets, as our name says. Everybody doesn’t need to know everything.”

  • Saudi defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan sparks UAE backlash

    Saudi defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan sparks UAE backlash

    A landmark collective defense agreement signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan has triggered an unprecedented public dispute between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, exposing long-simmering divisions over regional security strategy within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

    Dated August 7, 2026, the accord — officially named the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement — enshrines a core mutual defense principle: any armed aggression against one of the three signatory states will be considered an attack on all three. While the pact was framed by Riyadh as a step to broaden regional deterrence capabilities, it has drawn sharp pushback from prominent Emirati public figures, who challenge Saudi Arabia’s choice to build a new security architecture outside the GCC framework.

    The GCC, founded in 1981, is a 6-nation regional bloc consisting of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, all energy-rich Gulf monarchies that have long coordinated on political, economic, and security matters. Leading the Emirati criticism is Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a respected political analyst and former senior advisor to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed. In a series of public posts on X, Abdulla questioned the strategic rationale behind the trilateral pact, arguing that prioritizing a broader regional partnership over deepening intra-GCC cooperation was a misstep.

    “Congratulations on the establishment of this alliance, but strengthening Gulf military and political cooperation and unifying the Gulf house is far more important than investing in regional military and political cooperation that includes countries whose credibility and ability to confront the Iranian-Israeli threat are not taken seriously,” Abdulla wrote. He also pressed the three signatories on a core question of alliance-building, asking, “One of the conditions for the success of any alliance is identifying the common enemy. So who is the enemy for the countries of this alliance?”

    Abdulla’s public critique drew an immediate and firm rebuttal from Saudi officials and commentators. Saudi Prince Abdulrahman bin Musaid pushed back directly against Abdulla’s claims, framing the new agreement as an exercise of Saudi Arabia’s inherent national sovereignty. “What is the problem, Doctor, if it is an alliance, a treaty, an agreement, or under any title?” the prince wrote on X. “How can this conflict with unifying the Gulf house? Is it not the right of any state to make agreements with any state or states according to what it sees as achieving its interests?”

    Fahad al-Arabi al-Harthi, chairman of the Saudi-based Asbar Centre for Studies and Research, further clarified Riyadh’s position, rejecting the characterization of the Mecca agreement as a bloc targeted at any specific nation or regional actor. He emphasized that the pact was not structured around a shared enemy, but rather focused on building collective defensive and deterrent capacity to safeguard regional security and stability against any potential threat from any origin.

    Other Saudi social media users took a more confrontational tone, pointing to the UAE’s own independent foreign policy moves that bypassed GCC coordination, most notably the 2020 Abraham Accords that normalized the UAE’s diplomatic relations with Israel. “I wonder, did the UAE inform and notify the Gulf states before its alliance with the Zionist entity?” one Saudi commenter asked.

    As the public debate escalated, Abdulla doubled down on his position, sharing a post widely interpreted as a rejection of broader pan-Arab or pan-Islamic alliances in favor of a strict, homeland-first approach to national interest. “He whose sect is more important than his homeland, there is no safety for him… He whose nation, Arab or Islamic, is more important than his homeland, there is no safety for him,” Abdulla wrote. “Belonging, loyalty, and sincerity are for the homeland alone, with no partner.”

    That post drew a sharp response from Abdulaziz al-Tuwaijri, former head of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Isesco), who alluded directly to the UAE’s diplomatic ties with Israel in his reply: “Anyone who betrays and collaborates with the Zionists will never find security.”

    In a follow-up tweet, al-Tuwaijri also called out the inconsistency of the UAE’s criticism, pointing to the UAE’s own bilateral defense agreement with India and its extensive security cooperation with Israel — partnerships the UAE has pursued independently without similar scrutiny from within the GCC. He closed his post with a pointed Arabic proverb, “those who have shame are dead,” a rebuke implying that critics of the Saudi-led pact lack the moral standing to question Riyadh’s strategic choices.

    The public clash marks a rare breakdown in the usually discrete diplomatic culture of Gulf monarchies, where internal disagreements are rarely aired publicly. The dispute highlights growing rifts over how Gulf states should navigate shifting regional power dynamics, with differing visions on whether security cooperation should remain centered within the GCC or expand to extra-regional and non-GCC actors.

  • Israeli settler who took part in brutal assault on Palestinians released from house arrest

    Israeli settler who took part in brutal assault on Palestinians released from house arrest

    A Israeli settler implicated in a brutal pre-dawn assault on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank that left multiple residents injured and humiliated has been released from house arrest, the Israeli military confirmed in a public statement issued Monday.

    Tal Yinon Dardik, who is alleged to have participated in the March 13 attack on the small Palestinian community of Khirbet Humsa, will no longer be confined to his place of residence, but is required to check in at a local police station twice a day under the terms of the court ruling that cleared his release.

    The decision to end Dardik’s house arrest followed a ruling by the Jerusalem District Court that the original terms of his detention were unworkable. Dardik had been held under house arrest at his mother-in-law’s home in Adei Ad, a Israeli settlement located in the central West Bank, but the court found the arrangement unsustainable after Dardik’s mother-in-law refused to continue hosting him.

    Dardik has become a cause célèbre for Israeli settler activist groups and right-wing political figures, who mounted a sustained public campaign to push for his release. He has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack, which unfolded when dozens of masked settlers stormed Khirbet Humsa before sunrise, targeting multiple Palestinian residents including women, children and elderly people in a coordinated assault that left dozens traumatized.

    One of the most severe assaults targeted 29-year-old Qusai Abu al-Kebash, who has told reporters that settlers stripped him naked, bound his arms and legs, fastened a plastic zip-tie around his genitals, and paraded him through the village in front of his family and neighbors. An American peace activist who was staying in the village at the time of the attack gave a firsthand account of the violence to Israeli newspaper Haaretz earlier this year, describing being attacked as she slept in a tent.

    “Six masked Israeli settlers armed with heavy wooden sticks swarmed me while I was asleep,” the activist recalled. “They immediately beat the three of us to the ground, smashing our faces with their fists and clubs. They zip-tied our hands and feet, and were yelling things like, ‘We are going to kill you!’” During the attack, she said, settlers pulled down Abu al-Kebash’s pants, poured cold water over him, and beat him repeatedly into the dirt. “All he could do was curl into a fetal position and scream when they beat him with their clubs,” she added.

    Multiple village residents confirmed the assault lasted roughly an hour, and estimated that as many as dozens of masked settlers took part in the incursion. A Palestinian woman who was in the village during the attack said she was beaten, dragged out of her home, had her head covering torn off and portions of her clothing ripped. “They pulled the girls out and beat them, even the little ones. They mocked us and celebrated our humiliation,” she told Haaretz. A 74-year-old resident added that three attackers beat him repeatedly on his head, hands and stomach, while another destroyed the village’s security cameras, internet router and outdoor lighting.

    The release of Dardik comes after months of political pressure from senior Israeli figures, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, who has openly criticized the original restrictions placed on Dardik and ordered government and military officials not to renew his detention. Katz visited Dardik in prison last month while Dardik was conducting a hunger strike to protest his detention. He also previously threatened to fire Major General Avi Bluth, head of the Israeli military’s Central Command, after Bluth appealed a court ruling that would have allowed Dardik to move his house arrest to a location of his choosing. Katz ultimately backed down from the threat after widespread public outcry.

    The attack is one of a sharp rising tide of settler violence targeting Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank in recent years. The International Court of Justice has repeatedly ruled that all Israeli settlements built in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem violate international law, yet more than 700,000 Israeli citizens currently reside in these illegal settlements. United Nations data shows that attacks on Palestinian herding communities like Khirbet Humsa have spiked dramatically in recent years, with at least 5,910 Palestinians internally displaced by settler violence between January 2023 and April 2024.

  • Iran says US went from demanding surrender to seeking talks as oil price rises

    Iran says US went from demanding surrender to seeking talks as oil price rises

    A months-long confrontation between Iran, the United States, and Israel has sent shockwaves through the Middle East, crippling global shipping through the critical Strait of Hormuz and pushing international oil prices sharply upward. At the center of regional debate this week, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi delivered a defiant address asserting that Tehran’s sustained resistance against the US-Israeli campaign has cemented Iran’s status as an unbreakable global power.

    Speaking during a televised press conference Tuesday, as reported by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency, Araghchi shared that international officials have repeatedly told him that Iran has defied all global expectations. “No one thought that Iran could resist America like this,” he noted, pointing out that Washington launched its campaign alongside broad backing from Israel, Western nations, and other international partners. He reminded audiences that at the opening of the conflict, the US president publicly called for Iran’s “Unconditional surrender” on social media. Two decades later, that same opposing force is now seeking diplomatic negotiations, he said.

    Araghchi’s assertive remarks were echoed in warnings from Anwar Gargash, senior diplomatic advisor to United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who cautioned Tuesday that the Middle East cannot sustain its current stalemate of “neither war nor peace.” In a post on the social platform X, Gargash argued that the region’s core priority must be a transition toward long-term, sustainable stability guided by transparent, mutually agreed international rules. The veteran Emirati diplomat stressed that any future agreement between Washington and Tehran cannot be built on “shaky foundations or arrangements detached from international law,” and called for a broad regional settlement rooted in “peaceful coexistence, respect for sovereignty, and the logic of peace.” His comments come as bilateral talks between the US and Iran remain stalled, with both sides repeatedly warning that large-scale fighting could resume at any time.

    The ongoing conflict has already inflicted severe disruption on the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most vital chokepoint for global oil and commodity trade. Data from analytics firm Kpler, cited by Reuters, shows that only six vessels transited the strait on Monday, a dramatic drop from the previous 10-day average of 11 ships. Before the outbreak of war, the waterway accommodated between 130 and 140 commercial vessels daily. The sharp decline in shipping has already triggered measurable shifts in the global energy market: by Tuesday, Brent crude climbed to nearly $90 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude crossed the $84 per barrel threshold.

    For Iran’s domestic economy, the maritime blockade imposed by the US-led coalition has created an existential economic challenge, leading top Iranian business figures to push for urgent action to end the disruption. Majid Reza Hariri, a prominent Iranian business leader, warned that Tehran cannot simply adapt to the ongoing blockade, telling local outlet Khabar Online that the restriction must be lifted by any means necessary. “Whether through negotiations, requests, threats, or even using force and starting a war again, this maritime blockade must end,” Hariri said.

    He calculated that rerouting all imports to overland transportation instead of maritime shipping would add an estimated $18 billion annually to Iran’s total import costs. To illustrate the gap, he noted that shipping a single container from China costs roughly $3,000 by sea, compared to $12,000 overland. “The worst thing that could happen today is to think we can bypass the maritime blockade and try to run the country despite it,” Hariri argued. “We must not allow our economy – or the enemy – to get used to the maritime blockade.”

    The conflict has also sparked fresh domestic political friction in the United States, where top congressional Democrat Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader, launched a sharp rebuke of former President Donald Trump’s handling of the war. Schumer accused Trump of launching an illegal conflict with no clear exit strategy, writing on X that “Donald Trump got us into an illegal war, is losing his illegal war, and has no way out of his illegal war.” He added that Trump’s “lack of strategy, discipline, and any ability to seriously negotiate is endangering our troops and raising prices for everyday Americans.”

    Separately, regional tensions expanded this week as Israel dramatically escalated military attacks on southern Lebanon, violating a US-brokered ceasefire framework reached between the two parties in June. Lebanon’s National News Agency reported intensive concentrated artillery barrages on the Ali al-Taher hills near the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh. On Monday, Israeli armored units advanced into the border towns of Zawtar el-Charqiyeh and Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh, where Israeli engineering vehicles demolished residential homes, local reports confirmed.

    Data from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) underscores the scale of the escalation: between Friday and Sunday, the force recorded 455 Israeli artillery projectiles fired into Lebanon and 97 separate violations of Lebanese airspace, marking the heaviest bombardment in months. Unifil noted that Saturday’s 229 projectiles marked “the highest single-day total since 21 June.”

    Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei issued a swift response, “strongly condemn[ing] the brutal attacks” that have killed and injured civilian residents and destroyed critical civilian infrastructure. The latest escalation comes just after the seventh round of Lebanese-Israeli diplomatic talks held in Rome, laying bare the growing gap between US-led diplomatic efforts to de-escalate and Israel’s ongoing military expansion along the Lebanese border.

  • Reserve Bank governor reveals board discussed rate hike at latest meeting

    Reserve Bank governor reveals board discussed rate hike at latest meeting

    Australian mortgage borrowers caught a brief reprieve this week, but the prospect of additional interest rate increases has re-emerged as a clear and present risk after the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest monetary policy decision. On Tuesday, the RBA board voted to keep its benchmark official cash rate steady at 4.35%, ending immediate speculation of a May hike. But accompanying remarks from RBA Governor Michele Bullock made clear that further monetary tightening remains firmly on the table as the central bank doubles down on its fight to curb persistent above-target inflation.

    In post-announcement comments, Bullock confirmed that the RBA board actively debated a rate increase at this month’s meeting — a departure from the bank’s May session, when a hike was not discussed. She emphasized that the central bank remains fully committed to taming inflation, rejecting criticism that policymakers have moved too slowly to address price pressures. “We’ve raised three times. And we raised before any other central bank did. And some others are now raising,” Bullock told reporters. “So I think we’ve demonstrated that we will react when we need to and we’re serious about it.” Crucially, she added that board members did not entertain any discussion of interest rate cuts during the session, only evaluating the case for another upward adjustment.

    Financial markets reacted swiftly to the central bank’s messaging, revising up their expected probability of a rate hike by the end of 2024 from 15% prior to the announcement to 47% by Tuesday’s market close. Even with that adjustment, however, industry analysts warn that investors are still significantly underestimating the risk of additional tightening.

    Russel Chesler, head of investments and capital markets at global asset manager VanEck, argues that current economic data leaves the RBA with a strong case to move rates higher again before the end of the cycle. “While the market is not predicting another increase to the cash rate this year, we think that the market could very well be wrong,” Chesler said. He points to the RBA’s preferred trimmed mean inflation measure, which excludes the most volatile 15% of price movements in both directions, that currently sits at 3.8% — still well above the central bank’s official 2-3% annual inflation target.

    Chesler noted that Australia’s inflation pressures are broad-based and driven by domestic fundamentals, rather than temporary, one-off price shocks that the central bank can overlook. “Housing remains the biggest pressure point, rising 6.8 per cent over the year to 30 June 2024, driven by electricity prices increasing 22.4 per cent, new dwelling costs rising 5.8 per cent and rents climbing 3.6 per cent,” he explained.

    Brendan Rynne, chief economist at professional services firm KPMG, echoed Chesler’s outlook, noting that the RBA is caught in a high-stakes balancing act. The central bank aims to return inflation to its target range without triggering unnecessary harm to the country’s labour market, but Rynne pointed out that price stability remains the RBA’s core legal mandate. “On balance, we would not be surprised to see another rate increase in the coming months if inflation and labour market data remain stubbornly strong,” Rynne said.

    Upcoming economic releases are expected to play a decisive role in the RBA’s next policy moves, and analysts say new data could reinforce the case for a hike. The Albanese government’s temporary fuel tax cut, which saved motorists 32 cents per litre at the peak of 2024 petrol price surges, has already been wound back and will fully expire in August. That means upcoming consumer price index (CPI) data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics will reflect a full rebound in fuel costs, pushing headline inflation higher. Additional upward pressure comes from this year’s 6% minimum wage increase, which could feed into broader core inflation, while Australian household spending has remained far more resilient than many forecasters predicted just months ago.

    Chesler reiterated that Bullock has explicitly signaled the RBA’s willingness to make unpopular policy moves to get inflation under control. “Michelle Bullock has explicitly warned that the board remains prepared to make “difficult decisions “and implement further rate hikes if inflation fails to come down as expected,” he said. “So, there could very well be one more rate hike in this cycle.” The RBA’s next policy moves will depend heavily on two key upcoming releases: second quarter wage growth data and July CPI figures, both due for publication later this month.

  • Looking to see the solar eclipse from North America? Here’s where and when to catch a sliver

    Looking to see the solar eclipse from North America? Here’s where and when to catch a sliver

    After back-to-back blockbuster total solar eclipses that drew millions of skywatchers across North America in 2017 and 2024, the cosmic spotlight has shifted to Europe for this week’s highly anticipated celestial event.

    On Wednesday, a total solar eclipse will carve a path across parts of the Northern Hemisphere, bringing the rare phenomenon of midday darkness to regions that have not experienced totality in more than two decades. Totality will first touch down near the North Pole before tracking southeast across Greenland, Iceland, mainland Spain, and a small section of northern Portugal. At maximum duration, the total phase of the eclipse will last just a couple of minutes at any given location — far shorter than the nearly four-and-a-half-minute maximum totality that crossed North America in April 2024. Even so, this event marks the first time a total solar eclipse has been visible from continental Europe since 1999, with the next longer totality set to cross Spain, North Africa and the Middle East in August 2026.

    While the full total phase is restricted to the European path of the eclipse, skywatchers in far northern parts of the United States and Canada will still have the opportunity to view a partial eclipse, when the moon will appear to take a visible “bite” out of the sun’s surface. NASA has released detailed viewing information for major population centers across North America, outlining local start, peak, and end times, along with the expected percentage of the sun covered by the moon.

    Among the cities included in NASA’s data, St. Johns in Newfoundland and Labrador will see the most significant partial eclipse, with 53% of the sun obscured at peak, which is scheduled for 3:35 p.m. local time. Anchorage, Alaska, follows with an expected 28% coverage at 8:21 a.m. local time, while Bangor, Maine, will see 24% coverage peaking at 1:53 p.m. Montreal, Quebec, will observe an 18% partial eclipse at 1:45 p.m., with other centers seeing smaller coverage percentages: New York City at 9% (peak 1:54 p.m.), Toronto at 8% (peak 1:40 p.m.), Philadelphia at 7% (peak 1:53 p.m.), Winnipeg at 5% (peak 12:02 p.m.), Washington, D.C. at 4% (peak 1:53 p.m.), and Detroit at 3% (peak 1:36 p.m.).

    North American skywatchers waiting for another coast-to-coast total eclipse will need to be patient: the next total solar eclipse stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast of the contiguous United States will not occur until 2045. NASA reminds all skywatchers that even during a partial eclipse, looking directly at the sun without certified solar viewing glasses can cause permanent eye damage, so proper safety precautions are required for anyone planning to observe the event.

    This reporting is produced by the Associated Press Health and Science Department, which receives educational funding support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP retains full editorial control over all content.