Global Pulse

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  • UN chief denounces Russia, Ukraine for civilian deaths

    UN chief denounces Russia, Ukraine for civilian deaths

    After more than four years of full-scale conflict between Russia and Ukraine, a sharp escalation in long-range mutual strikes has pushed civilian casualty numbers to new highs, prompting the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to publicly condemn attacks on population centers on both sides and call for an immediate end to violations of international humanitarian law.

    The cycle of violence accelerated this week. On Wednesday, a Russian ballistic missile strike hit a commercial warehouse complex on the outskirts of Kyiv, killing at least 17 people and destroying storage facilities held by multiple retail operators. The attack was widely interpreted as a direct retaliation for repeated Ukrainian strikes on assets linked to Wildberries, the Russian e-commerce giant often called “Russia’s Amazon” that has emerged as a recent target for Ukrainian forces.

    Overnight into Thursday, Ukraine launched one of its deepest cross-border drone attacks of the war, striking two key Russian oil refineries located hundreds of kilometers from the front lines. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that targets were hit in the Yaroslavl region, 700 kilometers from the conflict zone, and Bashkortostan, 1,300 kilometers inland from the front. The governor of Yaroslavl called the assault the “most massive” drone attack on the region since the war began, with Russian defense officials reporting that 92 of more than 600 total Ukrainian drones downed overnight were shot down over the region. A drone also struck a Wildberries logistics center in Russia’s Tver region, extending Ukraine’s recent campaign against the e-commerce firm.

    Russian forces responded quickly to the Ukrainian attack with new strikes across Ukrainian territory. Overnight strikes killed two civilians at a train station in Lozova, located in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. In the Black Sea off Ukraine’s Odesa coast, a Russian strike hit a commercial cargo vessel carrying Ukrainian grain, leaving one crew member dead, according to Odesa’s regional governor. Kyiv’s air defense forces were unable to intercept any of the Russian missiles launched in this wave of attacks, intensifying Zelensky’s urgent pleas for additional air defense supplies from Western allies.

    Speaking through his spokesperson Farhan Haq on Thursday, Guterres highlighted the alarming pattern of escalating strikes on populated areas that has driven the rising civilian death toll. “Attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure are a clear violation of international humanitarian law, and must stop immediately,” Haq told reporters. Zelensky framed Ukraine’s deep strikes into Russian territory as a step toward eventual negotiations, saying in a social media post alongside footage of burning Russian infrastructure that “Russia must choose peace.” But four years into the full-scale conflict, diplomatic talks remain completely stalled, with both sides continuing to ramp up the intensity of long-range attacks.

    In a parallel development announced Thursday, Zelensky will make his first visit to Serbia since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion this coming Saturday. Serbia has long been a traditional ally of Moscow and is one of the few European countries that has refused to impose sanctions on Russia over the invasion. A senior Ukrainian official told Agence France-Presse that the visit amounts to a “slap in the face for the Russians,” while Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic confirmed the official visit, noting that talks will cover both countries’ EU accession bids, as well as economic and energy cooperation. Vucic emphasized that Serbia’s current policy toward the conflict will remain unchanged “until further notice” despite Zelensky’s upcoming visit.

    Separately on Thursday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued an urgent warning over growing safety risks at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear facility. IAEA Director Rafael Grossi said that the plant has seen a sharp rise in unplanned off-site power outages, a trend that he called “deeply concerning and clearly not sustainable.” Plant personnel continue to report regular military activity and explosions close to the facility site multiple times every day, Grossi added, repeating the agency’s longstanding call for “maximum military restraint” around the plant. Located close to active front lines, the Zaporizhzhia plant has repeatedly lost external power, forcing it to rely on emergency diesel generators to maintain cooling for its nuclear reactors. The facility most recently lost off-site power briefly on Tuesday, though the cause of the outage remains unconfirmed as of Thursday.

  • UK: Dozens of MPs urge Shabana Mahmood not to block evacuation from Gaza

    UK: Dozens of MPs urge Shabana Mahmood not to block evacuation from Gaza

    A cross-party coalition of more than 85 Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom has sounded the alarm over allegations that the UK government is halting the evacuation of dozens of vulnerable Palestinian women and children from conflict-ravaged Gaza, penning an official letter to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to demand urgent action. The correspondence, organized by Labour MP Kim Johnson and sent Thursday, draws attention to a months-long administrative freeze that has left eligible families trapped in a war zone, separated from loved ones already residing in the UK.

    The crisis traces back to September 2024, when the Home Office paused all new refugee family reunion applications to draft stricter replacement regulations. Five months on, those new rules have yet to be published, leaving pre-suspension applicants – many of whom are Gaza-based families waiting to join immediate family members already settled in Britain – in legal limbo, with their journeys to safety completely blocked.

    Johnson, in comments to independent outlet Middle East Eye, emphasized that family reunification is far more than a bureaucratic procedure for families surviving the catastrophic violence in Gaza. “Family reunification should never be treated as a political bargaining chip,” she said. “For families enduring the horrors of Gaza, it is a lifeline – often the only hope of safety and the chance to hold their loved ones again.” She went on to argue that unnecessary administrative delay is indefensible in the face of mass trauma, adding, “At a time of unimaginable loss and trauma, the very least we should be doing is ensuring those with a legal right to be together are not torn apart by needless Home Office obstruction. We cannot allow bureaucracy to stand in the way of humanity.”

    Signatories to the letter stretch across the UK political spectrum, including high-profile Labour MPs such as Diane Abbott, John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Abtisam Mohamed and Diane Abbott, all three Green Party Westminster MPs, multiple members of the Parliamentary Independent Alliance, and several MPs from the Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party.

    The letter outlines serious allegations of discriminatory treatment against Palestinian applicants. It notes that the Foreign Office has already given approval for many UK-based Palestinians to evacuate their family members from Gaza, but the Home Office has repeatedly refused to issue the required travel documentation needed to complete the journey. In some cases, the Home Office has even launched legal challenges to block entry – a harsher approach than that applied to refugee families from other global conflict zones seeking reunion, the letter claims.

    MPs also highlighted that the government’s pledged medical evacuation scheme, which promised to bring 300 seriously ill Palestinian children in need of life-saving treatment from Gaza to the UK, has still not delivered on its commitments. They highlighted the specific case of two teenage evacuees, 12-year-old Mahmoud Mansi and 15-year-old Obaida Atwan, who met former Prime Minister Keir Starmer in December 2024. At that meeting, Starmer publicly promised to use all his power to help the boys reunite with their remaining family still trapped in Gaza. As of this week, the families have received no update on their applications, more than four months after the meeting.

    The letter lays out two clear demands for Mahmood: first, to urgently restart the family reunification process for eligible Palestinian applicants and coordinate with Foreign Office counterparts to facilitate the immediate evacuation of all people already approved for entry to the UK; second, to revise Home Office policy to ensure Palestinian applicants from Gaza receive equal treatment to refugees from other regions applying for family reunion visas. Middle East Eye confirmed it has reached out to the Home Office requesting a formal response to the allegations and demands.

    This intervention comes amid growing internal pressure on the Starmer administration over its approach to the Gaza conflict. Earlier this month, leading Labour figure Andy Burnham publicly apologized for his party’s early response to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, shortly before he took office as prime minister. “I know many people feel that at the start of Israel’s military action in Gaza, my party didn’t get it right, and I am sorry about that. The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better,” Burnham said. He described the “unbearable suffering” in Gaza as a “scar on our collective conscience” and called for greater diplomatic pressure on the Israeli government to end its expanding occupation of Gaza territory.

    This pressure also comes amid revelations of UK military involvement in the region: declassified records confirm the UK carried out hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza during the military campaign, sharing intelligence with Israeli forces, a move the government has insisted was solely for hostage rescue operations. The Starmer administration has taken some limited steps toward accountability, imposing a partial arms embargo on Israel in 2024 and formally recognizing Palestinian statehood last September.

  • Iran: Trump says he’d rather make deal than ‘kill people’ amid reports of weapons shortages

    Iran: Trump says he’d rather make deal than ‘kill people’ amid reports of weapons shortages

    Volatility has surged across the Middle East this week, as overlapping diplomatic and military developments create a fragile security landscape spanning from the Persian Gulf to the Eastern Mediterranean. The most consequential shift came from U.S. President Donald Trump, who announced Wednesday evening during a Las Vegas public event that Washington is currently engaged in direct talks with Iran, and that the administration prioritizes a negotiated agreement over new large-scale military action against Tehran.

    Trump surprised attendees by revealing that the U.S. had finalized plans for what he called “the biggest attack since World War II” before Iranian leadership requested negotiations. “I would rather make a deal with Iran because I don’t want to kill people,” he stated, while doubling down on his long-held policy that Iran will never be permitted to develop a nuclear weapon under his administration.

    Trump’s announcement comes amid conflicting reports surrounding severe munitions shortages within the U.S. military, which multiple anonymous sources have tied to the decision to halt planned large-scale strikes against Iran. The Washington Post first reported last week that Trump confronted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a cabinet meeting over the unaddressed critical deficit in key weapons stockpiles, which had been depleted by ongoing conflict with Iran. According to sources familiar with the exchange, Hegseth pushed back against criticism and placed blame on Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, accusing him of failing to keep the president fully informed about the true state of U.S. munitions reserves.

    Multiple U.S. outlets have since corroborated the severity of the stockpile shortfall. CNN reported Wednesday, citing three unnamed defense sources, that the Pentagon’s stock of critical air defense interceptors has dropped to dangerously low levels following months of combat operations against Iran. The outlet confirmed that roughly 80 percent of the U.S. military’s pre-war THAAD anti-missile inventory has been expended, while half of all Patriot air defense interceptors have been used since the opening of hostilities. One senior defense source added that “virtually all” of the military’s most accurate long-range surface-to-air weapons have been deployed and exhausted in the same period.

    The White House has forcefully denied all reports of a munitions crisis. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the Washington Post story as “100 percent fake news” and said Trump retains “the utmost confidence” in Hegseth. Trump doubled down on this pushback in posts to his social media platform Truth Social, insisting that the U.S. military maintains massive stockpiles of key munitions and that domestic weapons manufacturing is expanding at historic rates. “The US has massive amounts of ‘munitions’, especially of certain types,” he wrote, adding that large volumes of new weapons are being produced and shipped to the Middle East “as needed”. He also claimed that “Defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history”, before threatening harsh action against officials who leaked information about the stockpile issue, writing: “‘Leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down… long term jail sentences will be sought.”

    Simultaneously, violence has intensified along the Lebanon-Israel border even as U.S.-brokered peace negotiations enter their third day in Rome, marking the seventh round of talks to de-escalate the months-long conflict. Lebanon’s health ministry confirmed Thursday that an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Burj Shemali left eight people wounded. The attack followed a broader escalation of Israeli operations across southern Lebanon, including what Lebanese state media called a “wide-scale aggression” targeting the coastal city of Tyre. The Tyre strikes wounded four people, forced their evacuation to nearby hospitals, and displaced dozens of local residents from their homes.

    The current diplomatic push is deadlocked on core demands: Lebanese negotiators are insisting that Israel end all cross-border bombardment and withdraw its forces from roughly 60 Lebanese villages and towns that Israeli forces occupied during a ground offensive launched in March. Israeli negotiators, by contrast, are demanding that the Lebanese military fully disarm and dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure across southern Lebanon. Israeli military and political leaders have signaled they are prepared to escalate operations if talks do not deliver their desired outcome. Israel’s public broadcaster reported Thursday that the military’s response to alleged Hezbollah border violations “has not ended”, and that sensitive offensive operations are ongoing. Israeli Channel 12 also reported that senior military commanders are asking the country’s political leadership to approve a “stronger and more decisive” military campaign across southern Lebanon.

    In a separate incident in the Persian Gulf early Thursday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported that a commercial tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz recorded two explosions approximately nine nautical miles southeast of the Omani village of Kumzar. The advisory confirmed that the vessel and all crew members escaped unharmed, and no leaks or environmental damage have been detected. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most critical chokepoints for global energy supplies, with roughly 20 percent of the world’s daily oil consumption passing through the waterway.

  • TikTok star Sydney Towle, who shared her cancer journey online, dies aged 26

    TikTok star Sydney Towle, who shared her cancer journey online, dies aged 26

    Sydney Towle, a beloved 26-year-old social media creator who turned her personal journey with a rare and aggressive cancer into a global platform for awareness and hope, has passed away from complications of her long-standing illness. Her family confirmed her death in an announcement posted across her social media channels Thursday, revealing that cholangiocarcinoma — the rare bile duct cancer she fought for nearly three years — had spread to multiple organs across her body.

    In a joint TikTok video posted alongside their mother, Towle’s brother Austin shared that the young influencer died peacefully, just days after she was transferred to hospice care for end-of-life support. At the time of her death, Towle, who resided in New York City, had built a community of more than 1.2 million followers across TikTok and Instagram, where she openly documented every step of her experience as a young person navigating chemotherapy, treatment setbacks, and the messy, beautiful complexity of living with a terminal diagnosis.

    In a formal statement shared after her passing, Towle’s family emphasized how proud they were of her relentless fight and her choice to open her life to the public. “She wanted to raise awareness for rare cancers and was passionate about promoting self-advocacy,” the statement read. “We will continue her legacy and honour her in every way we can.”

    News of Towle’s death sparked an outpouring of grief and tribute across her social platforms, with thousands of followers leaving messages of gratitude for her transparency and celebrating the impact she had on their own lives. Many shared how her unflinching honesty about cancer changed their perspective on their own struggles, while others sent condolences to her family for their loss.

    Towle’s journey with advanced cancer was marked by consistent courage and unshakable optimism, even in the face of devastating prognosis updates. In May of this year, she shared a series of videos from her hospital bed, revealing that her cancer had spread to her peritoneum — the thin membrane that lines the abdomen and protects internal organs. In a widely viewed video posted May 19, she sat beside her mother and shared that her longtime oncologist had decided to stop active treatment and recommended she transition to end-of-life care. Refusing to surrender, Towle announced she would switch to a new specialist and continue her fight.

    Even through the most grueling rounds of treatment, Towle refused to let cancer define her joy. She regularly posted lighthearted, uplifting content of herself dancing, getting ready for outings, and spending time with friends, choosing to focus on the small, happy moments that make life meaningful. Just weeks before her death, she checked a long-held dream off her bucket list: she walked the runway as a model at Miami Swim Week, featuring a swimsuit look for The Chemo Club x Post Swim show.

    Towle was also celebrated for her openness about the physical changes that came with her treatment, often sharing unedited photos of her abdomen where a hepatic artery pump was implanted to deliver targeted chemotherapy. “I have only recently started seeing the resilience and beauty in this body,” she wrote alongside swimsuit photos posted last year. “Scars that remind me of how far I’ve come. And I’m reminded that dreams only end when you allow them.”

    Beyond her own journey, she was passionate about driving progress in cancer research, often organizing fundraisers with her community. “Rich in life because my friends choose to spend a Saturday fundraising for cancer research,” she shared in a March post. In another post from 2023, she offered a message of perspective that resonated with thousands of followers: “Go get a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, watch your favourite movie, remember that life is good and bad things happen sometimes but that doesn’t make it a bad life.”

  • How Ukraine is taking the war ‘deeper’ into Russia

    How Ukraine is taking the war ‘deeper’ into Russia

    Over recent weeks, the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia has entered a new phase, as Ukrainian offensive operations have pushed the scope of war deeper into Russian territory by focusing on critical infrastructure that underpins Moscow’s military and economic capacity. Multiple targeted strikes have hit key nodes of Russia’s military supply chains, which are responsible for moving ammunition, equipment, and troop reinforcements to frontline positions. Additionally, critical economic assets, including energy infrastructure, logistics hubs, and industrial facilities that support Russia’s war effort, have also been struck.

    This shift in strategy marks a notable departure from earlier phases of the conflict, when most Ukrainian defensive and offensive operations were concentrated within its internationally recognized borders. By extending strikes into Russia itself, Ukrainian military planners aim to disrupt the flow of resources that sustain Russia’s invasion force, increase pressure on Moscow’s political and military leadership, and expose vulnerabilities in the Russian rear that have long been considered secure.

    Military analysts note that this strategy has already created significant logistical challenges for Russian command, forcing them to reroute supply lines and divert defensive resources away from frontline areas to protect critical domestic infrastructure. At the same time, the development has raised international concerns about the potential for the conflict to escalate further, drawing neighboring countries into broader hostilities and increasing the risk of unintended confrontations between nuclear-armed powers. While Ukrainian officials frame the strikes as a legitimate act of self-defense against an unprovoked invasion, Russian authorities have condemned the attacks as acts of terrorism and have pledged retaliatory measures against Ukrainian infrastructure.

  • South Korea space agency shares Moon images after SpaceX rocket debris crash

    South Korea space agency shares Moon images after SpaceX rocket debris crash

    On Wednesday, a discarded upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket made an unplanned, high-speed crash into the lunar surface, and South Korea’s national space body has now released unprecedented imagery capturing the event. The Korean AeroSpace Administration (KASA) obtained new shots of the impact site from its Danuri lunar orbiter, pairing the post-crash photographs with earlier clear images of the same section of the Moon to document the collision’s effect. According to KASA’s official timing, the debris made contact with the Moon at approximately 06:35 GMT. SpaceX has publicly confirmed that the impact was never part of the mission’s original design.

    This incident is the end of an 18-month uncontrolled drift for the 4,000-kilogram empty rocket stage, roughly the volume of a five-story building. The Falcon 9 launch that left the stage adrift took place from Cape Canaveral, Florida in January 2025, with the rocket’s core mission being to deliver two lunar landers toward their lunar trajectory. After completing the burn that sent the landers out of Earth’s orbit on their moon-bound path, the spent upper stage was left drifting in a wide looping orbit that crossed between Earth and the Moon. Over a year and a half, cumulative subtle gravitational pulls from the Earth, Moon, and Sun, combined with faint pressure from solar radiation, gradually altered the stage’s orbit. Astronomers tracking the debris calculated months ago that these small incremental shifts would eventually send the object crashing into the Moon at a projected speed of around 8,700 kilometers per hour (5,400 miles per hour), matching the final impact.

    Even for dedicated amateur astronomers working with advanced professional-grade telescopes, the brief, faint flash generated by the collision was nearly impossible to detect, as the impact occurred during daylight hours for most populated regions of the globe. That has left large institutional observatories, including KASA’s orbiting lunar research platform, to collect and analyze the only usable data from the event. While the crash posed zero risk to human life or infrastructure on Earth, it has reignited longstanding concerns among astronomy and space experts about the growing crisis of uncontrolled space debris.

    Matt Bothwell, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge, noted that near-Earth and cislunar space are growing increasingly crowded as commercial and government actors launch hundreds of new satellites and mission components every year. “It could feasibly be within a few decades that it’s actually quite hard to get past Earth’s orbit because space is so crowded,” Bothwell warned, highlighting the growing risk of catastrophic collisions that could render key orbital regions unusable for future missions.

    Notably, the first-stage booster from the same January 2025 Falcon 9 mission is still in active, reusable service, and is scheduled to lift off on its 18th operational flight as early as August 10. The upcoming mission will carry 29 new Starlink internet satellites to low-Earth orbit, continuing SpaceX’s routine commercial launch cadence amid the debris discussion.

  • Amanda Knox claims show she is performing at Edinburgh festival honors her murdered former flatmate

    Amanda Knox claims show she is performing at Edinburgh festival honors her murdered former flatmate

    Nearly two decades after one of the most sensational murder cases in modern European history gripped global headlines, a new controversy has erupted around American exonerated suspect Amanda Knox, ahead of the debut of her one-woman comedy show at the world’s largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Fringe.

    In 2007, 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher was found stabbed to death in the Perugia, Italy, apartment she shared with Knox, then a 20-year-old American exchange student, and two other Italian roommates. Knox and her then-new boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were arrested and tried for the murder, with Knox serving almost four years in Italian prison before an appeals court ordered her release in 2011. Italy’s highest court ultimately issued a full acquittal for both Knox and Sollecito in 2015, after Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede—whose DNA was recovered at the crime scene—was convicted of Kercher’s murder. Guede was released from prison in 2021 after completing the majority of his 16-year sentence.

    Following her return to the United States in 2011, the now 39-year-old Knox has built a career as an advocate for wrongfully convicted people, hosting a podcast with her husband and releasing a memoir *Free: My Search for Meaning* in 2023. Her new show, titled *Cartwheel*, is set to premiere Friday at the Edinburgh Fringe, running for 11 consecutive nights through the festival’s August run. The title references a long-circulated, unsubstantiated rumor that Knox did cartwheels at a local police station in the days after Kercher’s killing. Promotional materials frame the performance as a middle-aged mother’s reflection on processing decades of public scrutiny and anger over her wrongful imprisonment, at a time when half the public still believes she is guilty and the other half demands she “move on.”

    The show has drawn fierce criticism from Stephanie Kercher, the sister of the murder victim, who told the BBC she believes the production trivializes and normalizes violence against women, and should be pulled from the festival lineup. While Stephanie acknowledged Knox has every right to rebuild her life after acquittal, she argued that turning the high-profile tragedy into a comedy act is unacceptable, adding that the project opens fresh wounds for her family. She called for the festival to deny the show a public platform, a position echoed by an online petition demanding the performance’s cancellation that has gathered more than 4,400 signatures as of Thursday. The petition claims the show mocks the brutal circumstances of Kercher’s killing to turn a personal tragedy into commercial entertainment.

    Knox has pushed back forcefully against the criticism in an Instagram post shared Thursday, rejecting the claims against her show and defending its place at the Edinburgh Fringe. She argued that *Cartwheel* honors Kercher’s legacy and explicitly condemns the violence that claimed Kercher’s life and upended her own life wrongfully. The American activist also dismissed the cancellation petition, noting that signatories are calling for the removal of a production none have yet seen, based on false accusations designed to shame her into silence. She added that the Edinburgh Fringe, famous for hosting provocative, personal work across all performance genres, is the ideal space for a show that addresses such sensitive, personal topics.

  • Thousands of migrants still in Ceuta after border crisis, local leader says

    Thousands of migrants still in Ceuta after border crisis, local leader says

    Last week, a historic mass migration event unfolded across the waters separating Morocco from the Spanish North African exclave of Ceuta, when approximately 78,000 migrants crossed into Spanish territory over a 48-hour window, leaving behind a devastating humanitarian and political crisis that has rippled across the European Union. The crossing left at least 100 people dead, a toll Ceuta’s conservative leader Juan Jesús Vivas described as an “irreparable tragedy” during an address to the European Parliament this week, where he voiced profound sorrow over the loss of life and slammed the national Spanish government’s response to the emergency.

    In the days following the mass crossing, roughly 75,000 migrants have returned to Morocco, but Vivas confirmed that between 3,000 and 5,000 people remain in Ceuta, thousands of whom are unaccompanied migrant children. The Ceuta mayor-president told lawmakers that the inability of local officials to produce an exact count of remaining migrants demonstrates how severely under-resourced local authorities are to handle the ongoing crisis, adding that repeated prior warnings from local officials about an impending surge in irregular sea crossings were ignored by the national Socialist government led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Vivas personally warned Sánchez of the growing risk weeks before the influx, he said, and called the government’s eventual deployment of support late and insufficient. Even with the large-scale returns that have “considerably alleviated” pressure on the small exclave, Vivas added, Ceuta has not returned to normal, with a ongoing humanitarian emergency and persistent disruptions to public order.

    The most pressing unaddressed issue centers on the thousands of migrant children remaining in Ceuta. Spanish authorities have confirmed that €25 million ($28.8 million) in emergency funding has been allocated to support minor migrants in the exclave, but reporting from Spanish outlet El Mundo found volunteer groups have already registered 4,860 migrant children — double the number counted in official government estimates. Local community members have stepped in to house unaccompanied children, volunteers told the outlet, but the current arrangement is unsustainable. To date, no children have been transferred to mainland Spain, according to El País, as right-wing regional authorities across the country have refused to accept the new arrivals. While a bilateral cooperation agreement with Morocco requires joint work to return migrant children to their home families, conservative leaders of Ceuta’s sister exclave Melilla have called for mainland Spain to show solidarity and accept the children instead.

    The root cause of the unprecedented mass crossing remains a matter of dispute between all parties involved. EU and Spanish leaders have pointed to the role of criminal smuggling networks spreading disinformation to encourage migrants to attempt the crossing, a narrative that follows a recent Spanish Supreme Court ruling that barred authorities from summarily returning migrants intercepted at sea trying to reach Ceuta and Melilla to Morocco. Morocco, which does not recognize Spanish sovereignty over the two North African exclaves, has blamed the court ruling itself for the crisis. An unnamed Moroccan government source told local media that the ruling “collapsed the deterrent element of the system, and the dam gave way, not under the weight of the criminals, but of a judge’s decision.”

    Vivas has gone further, framing the mass crossing as an “unequivocal attack” on Spanish territory, questioning why Moroccan border forces did not intervene to stop the thousands of swimmers from crossing. Spanish Interior Ministry officials say they are working firmly with Moroccan counterparts to prevent future irregular crossings and aim to return all remaining migrants in Ceuta to Morocco as quickly as possible. EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner has called for the bloc to use all available policy leverage, including trade and visa arrangements, to force Morocco to deepen cooperation on irregular migration. While the European Commission has commended Spain’s swift response to the crisis, which included deploying armed forces to both Ceuta and Melilla, the emergency has exposed deep rifts between EU member states over migration policy. Italy, backed by Finland and Denmark, has suspended its Schengen Area border arrangements with Spain, while the Czech Republic called for Spain’s temporary suspension from the open-border bloc — a move Prime Minister Sánchez pushed back on, noting that Ceuta is not part of the Schengen Area.

    Adding to ongoing tensions, Moroccan media is now reporting that fresh calls for a second mass crossing are circulating across social media platforms. Local news outlet Hespress documented posts and invitations to join closed WhatsApp groups for people planning new crossing attempts, paired with hashtags promoting migration to Spain in search of work. Moroccan authorities have warned that anyone promoting irregular migration faces criminal prosecution, but the new calls have amplified fears among Ceuta’s population that a second surge could overwhelm the exclave’s already stretched resources. Vivas noted that local residents already feel “sad, helpless, anxious, fearful and worried,” with widespread uncertainty over whether another mass influx will occur in the coming weeks.

  • Does Africa still back Infantino as Fifa president?

    Does Africa still back Infantino as Fifa president?

    FIFA President Gianni Infantino, whose leadership has been thrown into the global spotlight following the collapse of his controversial private stake sale plan for FIFA’s international competitions, continues to hold firm allies across the global football landscape – particularly in Africa, where dozens of lower-resource national associations have reaped tangible benefits from his decade in office.

    Infantino’s position has faced intense scrutiny since the unpopular FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal was pulled after fierce pushback from multiple regional football governing bodies. While the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has not yet released an official institutional position, a large bloc of senior African football leaders have publicly thrown their weight behind the FIFA president, with five of the seven African seats on the FIFA Council – representing Egypt, Morocco, Niger, Mauritania and Comoros – already declaring open support.

    This widespread backing across the continent traces directly to FIFA’s Forward programme, the landmark funding initiative Infantino launched in 2016 that has become a critical financial lifeline for many African federations. In regions where commercial investment and government sports funding are severely limited, the scheme has underwritten grassroots and high-performance football projects across the continent.

    ### Morocco: A Key Strategic Partner Reaffirms backing
    Morocco, one of Africa’s most high-profile modern football success stories, has built deep ties with FIFA alongside its domestic government-driven growth. The North African nation hosts FIFA’s regional African office in Rabat, has staged multiple FIFA tournaments including the Club World Cup and 2022 Women’s U-17 World Cup, and is set to co-host the 2030 men’s World Cup with Spain and Portugal.

    Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), reaffirmed his support for Infantino in the wake of the FFE proposal’s withdrawal last week. In an official statement, Lekjaa called Infantino’s choice to pull the plan “wise”, noting that the decision prioritized unity across FIFA’s 211 member associations. Senior African football executives also formally backed Infantino at a closed-door meeting held in Morocco on Wednesday, wrapping a turbulent period triggered by the failed proposal.

    ### Egypt: A Staunch Institutional Ally With Growing Expectations
    As the host nation of CAF’s headquarters, Egypt stands as one of Infantino’s most reliable institutional allies on the continent. This close partnership has been strengthened by Hany Abo Rida, a long-serving FIFA Council member and one of Africa’s most influential football administrators, who has maintained close working ties with Infantino since the latter was first elected in 2016.

    Over Infantino’s tenure, Egypt has benefited substantially from Forward programme funding, which has supported major infrastructure projects, youth talent development, coach training programs and the expansion of women’s football. Like other African member associations, the Egyptian Football Association has also received increased development grants under FIFA’s expanded investment strategy, while new and expanded regional competitions have opened up additional commercial and competitive opportunities for Egyptian clubs and national teams.

    Even as support holds firm, Egyptian football stakeholders say expectations for deeper engagement are growing. Many officials and observers argue that FIFA’s work in Africa must move beyond direct financial assistance, with greater priority placed on improving governance, increasing transparency, advancing long-term sustainable development, and granting CAF more autonomy to set the continent’s own football priorities.

    ### DR Congo: Full Public Commitment to Infantino’s Leadership
    The Congolese Football Federation (Fecofa) was among the first African bodies to praise Infantino’s decision to withdraw the FFE proposal, calling the move “wise” in an early August statement. The federation emphasized that the controversy around the abandoned plan should not overshadow Infantino’s 10-year track record of expanding football access and support, particularly for lower-resourced African nations.

    Fecofa noted that it has “greatly benefited” from FIFA’s development programs, citing major investments in local football infrastructure and grassroots growth. The statement was signed by Véron Mosengo‑Omba, who was elected Fecofa president in May 2026, ending a five-year period of institutional uncertainty that followed the 2021 resignation of Constant Omari Selemani and the 2023 appointment of a FIFA-run normalization committee. Mosengo‑Omba confirmed Fecofa’s “full support” for Infantino will extend beyond the 2027 FIFA presidential election, aligning DR Congo firmly with the FIFA leadership at a time of deep global divisions over the organisation’s future.

    ### Nigeria: Support Anchored by Critical Development Funding
    Despite widespread global backlash against Infantino’s proposal, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has also aligned with the pro-Infantino bloc. For the NFF, which has long struggled with chronic funding shortages and massive unmet infrastructure needs, Infantino’s investment-focused agenda has been difficult to reject.

    Amaju Pinnick, former NFF president and current deputy chairman of FIFA’s Men’s National Teams Competitions Committee, has argued that Infantino’s plans would deliver much-needed financial support to every member association, reducing overreliance on underfunded local governments. Nigeria qualifies for up to $8 million in current Forward programme funding, even after missing out on qualification for the last two men’s World Cup tournaments. The largest ongoing Forward project in the country is the $4.88 million redevelopment of the NFF Technical Centre in Abuja, which includes rebuilding training pitches and constructing a modern accommodation complex for all of Nigeria’s national teams.

    ### Broader African Backing and Isolated Opposition
    Across the continent, other senior political and sports leaders have added their voices to the support for Infantino. South African Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie wrote on social media platform X that Infantino “has been very good to African football”, urging the continent to avoid joining what he called a “public lynching” of the FIFA president. “We can debate his ideas but let’s not forget who has been a friend to us. Many of those calling for his head want the old status quo back too,” McKenzie wrote.

    In interviews with the BBC after the FFE proposal was made public, senior officials from Malawi and Uganda said FIFA investment has transformed football on and off the pitch across Africa, noting that this funding is irreplaceable given the severe budget constraints most African nations face. “Malawi needs money. Malawi needs stadiums, our government cannot manage to give us even $1m every year for football,” Malawi Football Association president Fleetwood Haiya told BBC Newsday. “Our government is not able to make sure that they have medical supplies in hospitals [and] at the same time to look at football.”

    Lamin Kaba Bajo, president of the Gambia Football Federation, told BBC Sport that most African federations support Infantino remaining in office and plan to back his re-election in 2027. “As far as I’m concerned, most of my colleagues are concerned, we’ll encourage him [Infantino] to stay, and we’ll do everything within our means to ensure that he is re-elected come next year, 2027,” Bajo said. “That’s my personal opinion as president of the federation, and a good number of African memberships also stand on that line. He is here to stay.”

    Support for Infantino is not universal across Africa, however. Former Sierra Leone FA president and ex-FIFA Council member Isha Johansen was one prominent African voice to oppose the FFE plan, warning that it risked pushing excessive commercialization into African football. “What price does one have to pay in order to get to this elevated development for football in Africa?” Johansen asked, urging African football leaders to carefully consider the long-term future of the sport on the continent.

    CAF president Patrice Motsepe has also publicly praised Infantino, calling his work after this year’s World Cup “excellent” and describing him as a loyal friend to Africa in a late July statement. “He is loyal to Africa,” Motsepe said. “When people have been loyal to you, you never stab them in the back.”

    A number of prominent African football nations, including Senegal – which boasts the second-highest ranked men’s national team on the continent, behind only Morocco – have not yet issued a public position on Infantino’s leadership.

  • Jamaicans on ‘resilience’ of country as it marks first Independence Day since Hurricane Melissa

    Jamaicans on ‘resilience’ of country as it marks first Independence Day since Hurricane Melissa

    Nearly nine months after Hurricane Melissa, the strongest Caribbean storm to hit Jamaica in modern recorded history, the island nation is preparing to mark its first Independence Day since the disaster, with the global Jamaican diaspora continuing to rally behind ongoing recovery and rebuilding efforts across the country.

    Melissa left a devastating trail of destruction in its wake: dozens of lives lost, hospital roofs torn from their frames, thousands of homes reduced to rubble, and widespread power outages that cut off service to large swathes of the country for weeks. Today, visible damage still lingers in hard-hit regions, particularly popular tourist hubs like Montego Bay, where local livelihoods depend on the international visitors that have yet to return in pre-storm numbers.

    For members of the Jamaican diaspora scattered across the globe, supporting loved ones back home is far more than a post-disaster obligation—it is a deeply rooted cultural tradition. Tamani Clayton, a 19-year-old British Jamaican based in London with family remaining in Jamaica, has spent months sending emergency food, financial support, and essential goods to relatives impacted by the storm. He explained that this type of cross-ocean support is nothing new for diaspora communities. Long before Hurricane Melissa made landfall, Jamaicans living abroad regularly filled shipping barrels with clothing, groceries, and household items to send to family on the island—a practice that has only grown more urgent since the storm, and one that will continue for years to come.

    “Jamaica has always had an incredibly strong sense of community,” Clayton said. “Wherever you live, your community feels like one big extended family. That core ethos is what has held the island together through these hard months.”

    Fellow London-based British Jamaican Shaniyaa Holness-Mckenzie, 29, now regularly donates to a local charity that funds temporary housing for Jamaicans displaced by the storm. She emphasized that recovery remains far from complete, even as the nation prepares for Independence Day celebrations. It is critical, she said, for the global community to continue lifting up Jamaica instead of moving on from the disaster. “As someone living abroad, the most important work I can do right now is keep reminding people that the damage hasn’t all been fixed, there are still so many people who need ongoing support,” she explained.

    BBC Radio 1Xtra presenter Seani B, who traveled to Jamaica in recent months to assess rebuilding progress first-hand, noted that Montego Bay—one of the nation’s most vital tourism centers, famous for its hotels, beaches, nightlife and vibrant cultural offerings—suffered some of the worst damage from the storm. Nearly nine months later, he said, visiting the area was heartbreaking, as he could still see clear signs of destruction across the coastline.

    Unlike the United Kingdom, where residents can access government-backed financial support during times of crisis, Seani B explained that most Jamaicans have no formal safety net to fall back on after a disaster. With tourism still struggling to rebound, thousands of local workers who depend on visitor spending are currently out of steady work, forcing families to rely on creativity and community support to get by. But even amid widespread hardship, he said, the extraordinary resilience of the Jamaican people stood out above all else.

    This year’s Independence Day celebration, he told BBC Newsbeat, will honor more than just Jamaica’s rich culture, iconic music, and global contributions. It will also celebrate the unprecedented global solidarity that has emerged since the storm, with Jamaican diaspora communities from London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Toronto, New York, Miami, across Africa and Europe all coming together to support recovery. “Hurricane Melissa actually reminded Jamaica of that core community spirit, with neighbors helping neighbors, and entire communities lifting each other up,” Seani B said. “Every one of us has benefited from Jamaica’s culture, its music, its food and its sports—it’s only natural we all come together to help when it’s needed.”

    Holness-Mckenzie echoed that perspective, noting that celebration and recognition of ongoing struggle do not have to be mutually exclusive. “Jamaican people are so full of life, so unbreakably strong,” she said. “We can celebrate our nation this Independence Day, while still acknowledging that there is more work to be done, more people that need support to get their lives back.”

    To honor this spirit of resilience, BBC 1Xtra is airing a special Independence Day program *Resilient – A Jamaican Independence Special* on Thursday, available to stream on BBC Sounds starting at 21:00 BST.