Global Pulse

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  • Pilot warned Amazon cargo plane going too fast before deadly crash, data shows

    Pilot warned Amazon cargo plane going too fast before deadly crash, data shows

    On a Sunday in Miami, Florida, a fatal crash involving an Amazon Prime Air cargo plane has yielded new critical details from recently released flight data, shedding light on the chaotic final moments before the aircraft overshot a runway and killed five people. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is leading the ongoing investigation into the incident that also left five others injured, published an update containing the aircraft’s flight data and a summary of cockpit communications between the two pilots.

    According to the NTSB’s findings, one pilot repeatedly alerted the other that the Boeing 767-300 was traveling at excessive speed as it approached the runway for landing. Despite multiple warnings and the activation of an altitude alarm, investigators noted the second pilot did not provide consistent verbal responses to the cautions. Recorded data shows the jet touched down at 158 knots, equal to 292 kilometers per hour, a landing speed aviation experts have characterized as being at the high end of safe operating ranges.

    In the final minutes of the flight, two automated safety alarms triggered in the cockpit: first, a repeated “sink rate, sink rate” callout that warns pilots of an unsafe rate of descent, followed by a “too low terrain” alert, which notifies the crew that the aircraft is flying dangerously close to the ground without proper landing configuration. The NTSB’s release also included data on wing flap deployment, a key system that helps reduce aircraft speed and enable a gentle, controlled landing.

    Pablo Rojas, an aviation attorney speaking to CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. partner, noted that without access to the full unedited cockpit recording, it is impossible to draw definitive conclusions about what led to the inconsistent responses between the pilots. Even so, Rojas said the released details confirm the landing attempt was essentially doomed from an early stage. He added that the flap deployment data raises additional questions: the flaps were extended much later in the approach sequence than standard procedure, a delay Rojas suggested may have been a reaction to the crew already aware the plane was moving far too fast for a safe landing.

    After overshooting the end of the runway, the aircraft, operating as Amazon Prime Air Flight 7598, crashed through ground support equipment on the airfield before striking a white Ford van carrying a five-person plane-cleaning crew. The jet continued off airport property, crashing through a perimeter fence and colliding with a Toyota Corolla before coming to a stop roughly 394 meters, or 1,300 feet, beyond the runway threshold. All five people in the van were killed in the crash and subsequent fire; Miami authorities released the victims’ identities earlier this week, naming them as 55-year-old Rolando Aleman Leon, 53-year-old Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 75-year-old Julio C Pineda, 53-year-old Carlos Acosta Fajardo, and 47-year-old Javierkys Reyes Quevedo. The NTSB’s investigation remains ongoing as investigators work to piece together the full sequence of events that led to the crash.

  • More than 20 children feared dead in DR Congo school fire

    More than 20 children feared dead in DR Congo school fire

    A devastating fire that swept through two educational facilities in rebel-held Bukavu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, triggered a fatal stampede that has left at least 24 schoolchildren feared dead, a senior local official has confirmed. The blaze, which also destroyed hundreds of adjacent residential structures, has raised grim expectations that the final death count will climb higher in the densely populated Kadutu commune where the incident occurred.

    Beyond the confirmed school fatalities, multiple adult casualties have also been reported in the disaster. Injured survivors have been transferred to nearby medical facilities, where on-site footage shows injured children lying in pain on hospital floors, reflecting the overwhelming strain on local care systems. Graphic images circulating across social media platforms show young children motionless on the ground near the charred site of the schools.

    As of the latest update, the main fire has been contained, but plumes of smoke still rise from the smouldering rubble and twisted corrugated metal that once made up the school buildings and surrounding homes. The cause of the blaze remains unconfirmed at this time, with an estimated 300 nearby houses completely destroyed in the spread of the fire.

    Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province and a heavily populated hillside city in the DRC, has been under the control of M23 rebels since February 2023. Rebel-appointed local authorities announced they are currently conducting on-site assessments of the disaster, and plan to release a preliminary official death toll by this evening.

    The DRC’s national government based in Kinshasa has also publicly addressed the tragedy, releasing a statement on the social platform X that did not disclose specific casualty numbers. “The Ministry of National Education and New Citizenship expressed deep sorrow over the deadly fire,” the statement read. “With several lives lost and many injured, the toll remains provisional. The minister offered condolences, affirmed solidarity with families, and ordered assessments of affected schools to ensure learning continuity.”

    This latest disaster comes just one week after a separate fatal fire incident in Kinshasa, where multiple residents died in a stampede during a fire at a wedding banquet hall. In response to that earlier tragedy, the Kinshasa government has already mandated strict new public safety protocols and deployed inspection teams across the country to enforce safety standards at all public gathering venues.

  • Washington Spirit sign Luvanga – but is it a record deal?

    Washington Spirit sign Luvanga – but is it a record deal?

    One of the most promising young strikers in global women’s football has made history with a high-profile move to the United States National Women’s Soccer League. Tanzanian forward Clara Luvanga has officially completed a transfer from Saudi Arabian top-flight side Al-Nassr to the Washington Spirit, a deal that is already being called one of the most expensive in the history of women’s club football.

    While the NWSL franchise has not publicly released the exact transfer fee, multiple unsourced reports have pegged the move at $2.3 million, or approximately 1.7 million British pounds. If this figure holds true, it would push Luvanga past the previous reported record for a women’s transfer: the £1.4 million London City Lionesses paid Paris Saint-Germain for France international Grace Geyoro in 2024. That fee has never been officially confirmed, a common reality in the women’s game, where transfer valuations are rarely disclosed publicly. A senior insider close to the deal has confirmed to BBC Sport that regardless of the unconfirmed number, the transfer ranks among the top five most expensive signings in women’s football history. The Washington Spirit declined to provide any official comment on the transfer fee when contacted by reporters.

    The 21-year-old forward has put pen to paper on a contract that will keep her with the Spirit through the conclusion of the 2029 NWSL season. With this transfer, she also makes history as the first Tanzanian player, male or female, to compete in the NWSL, marking a groundbreaking milestone for football from the East African nation.

    Luvanga’s prolific run of form during her three seasons at Al-Nassr made her one of the most sought-after young forwards in global football. During her tenure with the Saudi side, she won the Saudi Women’s Premier League title in every season she played, alongside lifting the Saudi Women’s Cup, Saudi Women’s Super Cup, and the West Asian Football Federation Women’s Clubs Championship. Last season alone, she claimed the league’s golden boot after scoring an extraordinary 24 goals in just 14 appearances, a strike rate that drew attention from top clubs across Europe and North America.

    The Washington Spirit shares ownership with London City Lionesses, owned by business leader Michele Kang, who made a string of high-profile signings at the English club during the most recent summer transfer window, including the addition of two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas from Barcelona. Luvanga’s path to the NWSL has been remarkably rapid, with the young striker climbing from youth football in her native Tanzania to one of the most competitive leagues in the world in less than three years.

    A product of the youth academy at Tanzanian top-flight side Yanga Princess, Luvanga earned her first move overseas in August 2023, signing for Spanish club DUX Logrono. Her stay in Spain was short, however, as Al-Nassr, the Saudi club that counts global men’s star Cristiano Ronaldo among its roster, recruited her just two months later. That move proved transformative for her career, turning her into one of the most recognizable rising stars in women’s football. Luvanga has previously spoken about modeling her work ethic after Ronaldo, who she got the chance to meet during her time at the Saudi club. “The focus and determination that he has, when you look at his life, I wish to live like that,” she told BBC Sport Africa in 2025.

    Off the pitch, former teammates remember Luvanga for more than just her goalscoring ability. Sara Khalid Al-Dossary, her former Al-Nassr goalkeeper, told reporters that beyond her talent on the pitch, the young forward is a beloved teammate and a skilled dancer.

    Speaking after her transfer was confirmed, Luvanga expressed excitement for the new challenge in the United States. “I am very excited to join the Washington Spirit and to take on this new challenge in the NWSL,” she said. “I know I am arriving with the season already under way, but I’m really excited to play in a new league and a new country.”

    Washington Spirit sporting director James Hocken framed the signing as a major boost for the club as it pushes toward the end of the regular season and upcoming playoffs. “Clara adds an exciting new dimension to our attack as we head toward the play-offs,” Hocken said. “Despite her young age, she has demonstrated the ability to score goals in different ways and has the profile to be very successful in this league.”

    The transfer also marks a major milestone for the growth of Tanzanian women’s football, with Luvanga becoming the first player from the country to compete in the NWSL. She will join a large contingent of African talent already on the Spirit’s roster, which now counts seven full African internationals. While Luvanga has already earned massive success at the club level, she has yet to replicate that form on the senior international stage, with fitness issues limiting her appearances for Tanzania during the last two Women’s Africa Cup of Nations cycles. All 12 of her international goals to date have come at youth level: 10 for the Tanzanian U-17 side and two for the U-20 national team, with her senior debut coming in 2024.

  • Algeria to sever diplomatic ties with UAE

    Algeria to sever diplomatic ties with UAE

    In a major shift in North African and Gulf diplomatic relations, Algeria has formally announced it is severing all diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates, citing repeated “provocative and hostile actions” from the Gulf nation that have become intolerable. According to an official statement released by Algeria’s foreign ministry and circulated by state media outlets, Algeria made repeated efforts to engage with Emirati authorities and warned of severe outcomes stemming from what Algiers describes as “regrettable and unjustified behavior” from Abu Dhabi. The statement confirms that all diplomatic avenues to preserve the bilateral relationship have been exhausted, justifying the decision to end formal ties. In line with the order, the UAE’s ambassador to Algeria was summoned to the foreign ministry headquarters this week, where he was formally notified of the decision and given a 48-hour window to leave Algerian territory. While the official announcement did not outline specific incidents that prompted the split, observers have traced the growing rift between the two nations back to years of clashing stances on high-stakes regional issues. The most significant point of contention revolves around divergent positions on the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords, which saw the UAE and Morocco — Algeria’s long-time regional rival — normalize formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Algeria has firmly rejected any normalization of ties with Israel, putting it at sharp ideological odds with Abu Dhabi. A second core dispute centers on the decades-long sovereignty conflict over Western Sahara. The UAE has publicly backed Morocco’s territorial claim to the region, while Algeria has long provided political and material support to the Polisario Front, the movement fighting for an independent Sahrawi state in the territory. As of yet, the UAE has not issued an official direct response to Algeria’s announcement. However, Anwar Gargash, diplomatic advisor to the UAE president, addressed the situation in a post on the social platform X, without explicitly naming Algeria. Gargash emphasized that productive diplomatic relations are founded on rational dialogue, transparent interests and mutual clarity, rather than “riddles and signals that require decoding.” He added that successful diplomacy relies on intentional management of competing interests and differences, noting that “ambiguity is not a policy, and noise does not compensate for the absence of vision.” The split marks the most significant escalation in tensions between the two countries, highlighting how competing regional priorities continue to reshape diplomatic alliances across the Middle East and North Africa.

  • 9/11: What happened and how many people died in September 11 attacks?

    9/11: What happened and how many people died in September 11 attacks?

    This September, the United States will mark a somber milestone: the 25th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack ever carried out on American soil, the September 11, 2001 attacks. A full schedule of commemorative events is set to open across the country this Friday, honoring the thousands of lives lost forever on that clear Tuesday morning.

    The coordinated attacks, carried out by 19 hijackers affiliated with the Islamist extremist network al-Qaeda, unfolded in less than two hours that day, leaving shock and devastation across the U.S. Northeast. Four commercial passenger jets traveling over the eastern United States were seized simultaneously by small groups of hijackers, who repurposed the large aircraft into lethal, guided weapons targeting iconic American landmarks.

    Two of the hijacked planes were deliberately flown into the 110-story Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, with the second impact hitting 17 minutes after the first. Intense infernos ignited across the upper floors of the skyscrapers, trapping hundreds of people above the crash sites and shrouding New York City in thick, toxic smoke. By mid-morning, both towers had collapsed into massive plumes of dust and debris, leaving a gaping hole in the city’s skyline and collective consciousness.

    A third plane crashed into the western facade of the Pentagon, the U.S. military’s sprawling headquarters located just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth jet, whose hijackers reportedly intended to target the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, crashed into a rural field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew fought back against the attackers, preventing further loss of life in the nation’s capital.

    When the dust settled, the final death toll stood at 2,977 people, not including the 19 hijackers who carried out the plot. All 246 passengers and crew across the four planes were killed, 125 people died at the Pentagon, and 2,606 perished at the World Trade Center – either in the collapse itself or from long-term injuries and illnesses related to the attack. Victims ranged in age from two-year-old Christine Lee Hanson, the youngest, to 82-year-old Robert Norton, the oldest, both of whom were passengers on the hijacked flights. Citizens of 77 different nations were counted among the dead, and 441 first responders from New York City made the ultimate sacrifice responding to the attack.

    While an estimated 17,400 people were inside the two towers when the first plane struck, no one above the impact zone in the North Tower survived. In the South Tower, 18 people managed to escape from floors above the impact zone before the building collapsed. The long-term health toll of the attack has been staggering: thousands of survivors, first responders, and nearby residents have developed chronic illnesses linked to exposure to toxic dust and smoke from the towers’ collapse, and to date, these secondary health complications have claimed more than three times the number of lives lost in the original attack.

    The plot to carry out the 9/11 attacks was masterminded by al-Qaeda, the extremist network led by Osama bin Laden, which operated from a base in Afghanistan. The group’s ideological leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an engineer who had studied in the United States and fought in Afghanistan during the 1980s, was the architect of the attack, and he helped recruit and train the hijackers, several of whom completed flight training inside the U.S. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, like bin Laden, with two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon.

    Within weeks of the attacks, then-U.S. President George W. Bush launched an international coalition invasion of Afghanistan with two core goals: dismantle al-Qaeda and capture or kill bin Laden. The manhunt for the al-Qaeda leader stretched on for a decade: it was not until 2011 that U.S. special operations forces located and killed bin Laden during a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had been captured years earlier, during a 2003 raid in Pakistan.

    After his arrest, Mohammed was held for three years in secret CIA detention facilities, where U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee investigations confirmed he was subjected to brutal interrogation tactics. He was later transferred to the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has remained in custody ever since. Legal proceedings to try Mohammed and three co-defendants for their role in the 9/11 attacks have dragged on for more than a decade, delayed by disputes over the admissibility of evidence obtained through coercive interrogation. A 2025 plea deal that would have seen Mohammed and two other co-accused plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty – receiving life without parole instead – was scrapped in July 2025 after federal officials objected to the agreement. The trial is now scheduled to begin in June 2028.

    Nearly 20 years after the U.S.-led invasion, American troops completed their full withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2022, a move that sparked widespread concern that al-Qaeda – which still operates today, with its strongest presence in Sub-Saharan Africa and residual membership inside Afghanistan – could rebuild its operational capacity and launch new large-scale attacks.

    The 9/11 attacks triggered lasting changes to global security and infrastructure in the decades that followed. Governments around the world enacted sweeping reforms to tighten commercial aviation security. In the U.S., the attacks led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, tasked with preventing future terrorist attacks, and the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees security protocols at all American airports.

    Cleanup operations at the World Trade Center site, known widely as Ground Zero, took more than eight months to complete. Today, the site has been reborn: a permanent memorial and museum honoring the victims sits at the foot of the new World Trade Center complex, anchored by One World Trade Center – also called the Freedom Tower. Standing at 1,776 feet, the skyscraper rises 400 feet higher than the original North Tower it replaces, a symbol of resilience and renewal. Reconstruction of the damaged section of the Pentagon was completed in less than a year, with military staff back in their offices by August 2002.

  • Drone display recreates the Twin Towers over New York City

    Drone display recreates the Twin Towers over New York City

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  • ‘I am trapped here’: Gulf-based Nepali workers agonise as devastating floods ravage home

    ‘I am trapped here’: Gulf-based Nepali workers agonise as devastating floods ravage home

    Beneath Dubai’s scorching midday sun, 32-year-old Hari Krishna kneels to lay bricks for an upscale residential development. But his mind is 2,000 miles away, wandering the waterlogged mud and splintered debris that was once his home in Nepal’s Bhote Khosi-Trishuli corridor.

    For seven straight days, this construction worker — who sends the vast majority of his earnings back to his family in Nepal — has dedicated every free second to frantically dialing relatives through the messaging app IMO and refreshing local news streams on his cracked smartphone screen. In late August, catastrophic flash floods tore through Nuwakot, Krishna’s home district, leaving a trail of destruction that has reshaped hundreds of communities across the country. As of this reporting, the disaster has claimed at least 1,399 lives nationwide, with nearly 5,400 people still unaccounted for. Floodwaters swept away bridges, paved roads, and entire hillside villages, and for Krishna’s family, the damage was total: their home, all their personal belongings, savings, jewelry, and a livestock shed holding their cows and goats were all washed away. With their farmland left ruined by the disaster, Krishna says any future for the family through agriculture is now impossible. Worse still, the flood claimed the life of his 67-year-old grandfather in Bidur Municipality, where the family resides.

    “I had planned to come home for Dashain, but now that dream is gone with my grandfather,” Krishna told Middle East Eye, his voice shaking as he described the devastating loss his family has endured. “Right now, my relatives are sleeping in a government relief camp, terrified that another landslide could hit at any moment, while they try to arrange my grandfather’s funeral.”

    Krishna requested emergency leave from his supervisor to return home, but the barriers to travel feel insurmountable. He cannot afford the cost of a last-minute flight, and even if he could, all road access to his remote village has been completely destroyed by floodwaters. “I wish I had been home and died in the flood with them instead of being stuck here, helpless,” he said.

    Krishna’s desperate situation is far from unique. Hundreds of thousands of Nepali migrants work across the Gulf Cooperation Council states, building the gleaming skyscrapers and iconic skylines of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia that draw global attention. As Nepal confronts one of the worst climate-driven disasters in its modern history, the entire weight of the country’s reconstruction will fall disproportionately on the shoulders of these migrant workers. Nepal’s economy is deeply dependent on its diaspora: remittances make up roughly one-third of the nation’s total gross domestic product, and data from Nepal Rastra Bank shows that 40 percent of all Nepali remittances come from Gulf nations.

    United Nations agencies including the International Labour Organisation have long highlighted how systemic crises lay bare the extreme vulnerability of these migrant workers. Across every stage of their migration journey, Nepali laborers face persistent hazards, from withheld wages to extremely limited access to basic healthcare. Rameshwar Nepal, an investigator for Equidem, a global human and labor rights nonprofit coordinating disaster relief for affected workers and their families from Kathmandu, explained that most migrant workers are desperate to return home after the disaster, but logistical and regulatory barriers trap them thousands of miles from their loved ones.

    “While their families and communities are living through total devastation back home, they are stuck here in the Gulf,” he said. “All they want is to get home, be with their relatives, confirm who is safe, and see the damage to their homes and property with their own eyes.”

    Even when workers can secure permission to travel and scrape together flight fare, deep uncertainty hangs over their ability to return to their Gulf-based jobs after the crisis. “They have no way of knowing if they will be allowed to re-enter the country after leaving, if their employers will approve leave, or even if they can take unpaid leave, which most are forced to consider,” Nepal explained. Beyond immediate travel concerns, workers fear the long-term damage to their livelihoods: after losing everything back home, these jobs are their only lifeline, and they cannot afford to risk losing them by leaving.

    Nepal added that the Gulf’s restrictive labor sponsorship framework, known as the kafala system, worsens this crisis of mobility, drawing a parallel to the mass stranding of migrant workers during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns. “The kafala system systematically strips migrant workers of their freedom of movement, and that cruelty becomes impossible to ignore during crises like this,” he said. “We saw exactly this same situation in 2020: workers were desperate to get home to their families, but they were blocked from leaving. It’s an inherently inhumane system.”

    Thirty-seven-year-old Shiva Ujjwal, a Nepali driver based in Qatar, is living this nightmare. For the past three years, he has shuttled workers from sprawling labor camps on Doha’s outskirts to office parks and construction sites across the Qatari capital. Ujjwal was starting his pre-dawn shift when the floods hit, and before he could check social media for updates, fellow workers broke the news to him. When he finally got permission to use his phone, every call he made failed: floodwaters had destroyed regional communication networks entirely.

    “My heart felt like it was breaking when I saw the first videos of the damage online,” Ujjwal recalled. “I knew from the scale of the flood that my house was almost certainly gone, but all I could think about was whether my family was alive.”

    While Ujjwal’s wife, children, and parents managed to escape to safety before the flood hit, nine of his extended relatives were killed, and dozens more from his small village are still missing. “My family ran for their lives with nothing — they didn’t have time to grab identity documents, money, or any of our valuables,” he said. “We lost every single thing we owned in less than five seconds, that flood hit faster than a bullet.”

    Before moving to Qatar three years ago, Ujjwal worked in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and he spent more than a decade slowly building his family’s home in Nepal one floor at a time, funding each phase with the modest wages he earned working abroad. Those earnings, while not lavish, were enough to keep his family fed and housed. Now, all that years of work is gone, and he is forced to start over from nothing. “We lost all our property in less than five seconds by a single hit of a live-bullet-type flood,” Ujjwal said.

    His supervisor has agreed to let him return to Nepal on unpaid leave, but the weeks of total communication blackout at the start of the crisis have left deep emotional scars, and the distance weighs on him constantly. “It’s impossible to relax here when my family is stuck in a relief camp,” he said. “I have to think about how I’m going to build a new home for them all over again. I show up to work every day, but my mind is back home with them. My body is here, but I am not.”

    Across the Gulf, the Nepali diaspora has mobilized quickly to respond to the crisis. Grassroots fundraising campaigns circulate widely on WhatsApp groups, where workers pool whatever small savings they can spare to ship emergency relief to the hardest-hit districts. But for workers like Krishna and Ujjwal, even the most generous financial support cannot replace being home with their families during this devastating time.

  • Russia to open more cultural centres in Africa as it seeks to broaden influence

    Russia to open more cultural centres in Africa as it seeks to broaden influence

    Russia is moving beyond its established military and security partnerships in Africa to deepen cross-continental connections through a major expansion of its cultural and educational outreach network, known as ‘Russian Houses’. According to Russia’s state humanitarian agency Rossotrudnichestvo, these centers are designed to advance Russian language learning, educational cooperation, scientific exchange, and cultural engagement across the continent, while supporting a wide range of community and institutional projects.

    Currently, 16 Russian Houses already operate across Africa, with concentrations in key Russian partner states including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. Of the 11 new Russian Houses scheduled to open globally, eight will be located on the African continent, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. The remaining three new sites will be established in Armenia and Thailand.

    This expansion of soft power programming comes amid Russia’s growing security footprint in West Africa, where the state-aligned African Corps – the paramilitary force that replaced the Wagner Group’s mercenary operations – has become a central security partner for a number of military-led governments battling jihadist insurgencies. The ruling juntas of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso explicitly turned to Russian security support after cutting ties with their former colonial ruler France, prompting the withdrawal of French counter-insurgency forces and the conclusion of the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in Mali in December 2023.

    Recent months have also brought growing attention to the presence of African combatants in the Russia-Ukraine war. Kenya has recorded one of the highest numbers of recruited African fighters, with Nairobi accusing private employment agencies of luring Kenyan men with promises of legitimate work in Russia before redirecting them to frontline combat roles. While Russia has maintained that all foreign volunteers join of their own free will in full compliance with domestic law, it reached an agreement with Kenya in March to halt the deployment of Kenyan recruits to Ukrainian front lines.

    Rossotrudnichestvo officials frame the expansion of Russian Houses as a deliberate strategy to build sustainable, long-term people-to-people and institutional ties between Russia and African nations, complementing existing security and economic cooperation. The agency is restructuring its programming to increase engagement intensity and strengthen oversight, with a focus on delivering tangible outcomes for African partner states. “We’re significantly changing the programme itself. We’re increasing the intensity of our work and the level of oversight,” Igor Chaika, head of Rossotrudnichestvo, said in a statement.

    Chaika emphasized that the new tailored educational programming will align with local development priorities. “We must focus on who the country needs. If it needs doctors, we should train doctors; if it needs specialists in other fields, we should train those specialists,” he explained. He added that the agency prioritizes encouraging foreign students who study in Russia to return to their home countries after completing their training, so they can apply their new skills to drive domestic economic growth.

    To support the network expansion, Rossotrudnichestvo has signed a cooperation agreement with the Association for Economic Cooperation with African Countries (AECAS), a Russia-Africa trade and business networking organization established by President Vladimir Putin in 2020. The new initiative also includes a micro-grant program launching in 2027 to fund educational, cultural, scientific, technological, and youth-led projects hosted by Russian Houses abroad. Rossotrudnichestvo aims to build a “full-fledged international network” by strengthening partnerships with local organizations to operate the centers, noting that demand for Russian Houses has risen even in countries where Russian state institutions face political restrictions on their activities.

  • Drug use may have begun 25,000 years ago in Indonesia, research finds

    Drug use may have begun 25,000 years ago in Indonesia, research finds

    A groundbreaking archaeological study has upended long-held scientific assumptions about the origins of human psychoactive substance use, uncovering evidence that ancient foraging communities in what is now Indonesia were consuming mind-altering betel nuts more than 25,000 years ago – making this the earliest documented case of drug use anywhere on Earth.

    Led by a team of researchers from Australia’s Griffith University, the new study published in the journal *Science Advances* centers on a rare set of human skeletal remains recovered from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Two sets of forager remains were analyzed: one dated to between 25,000 and 16,000 years before present, and a second more recent specimen dating to between 7,600 and 6,300 years ago. What caught the researchers’ immediate attention was a highly unusual pattern of dental wear on both sets of remains: deep, distinct rounded grooves carved across the surfaces of the teeth.

    After ruling out other common causes of dental wear, the research team linked this unique marking to the repeated practice of sucking whole betel nuts. Betel nuts, the seeds of the *Areca catechu* palm, produce well-documented psychoactive effects when consumed: users experience a mild euphoria and increased sensory alertness. Today, the substance ranks as the world’s fourth most widely used psychoactive drug, trailing only alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine in global popularity, though it remains little-known in most Western societies. Roughly 10 percent of the global population currently chews betel nut-based quid, a preparation of processed nut mixed with slaked lime and other additives that is particularly widespread across South and Southeast Asia.

    Prior to this discovery, the dominant scientific consensus held that regular human drug use only emerged after the rise of agriculture, with the earliest confirmed use dating to roughly 13,000 years ago in the form of fermented alcoholic drinks. That narrative has now been called into question by the new findings. Study lead Professor Adam Brumm argues that the old framework fails to account for the deep pre-agricultural roots of psychoactive substance use.

    To confirm their hypothesis about the dental wear pattern, the research team conducted controlled laboratory experiments. They soaked whole, unprocessed betel nuts in artificial saliva to replicate the conditions of prolonged sucking, and found that the practice releases enough of the nut’s active psychoactive compounds to produce measurable changes in brain function. While the mild effects of sucking whole betel nuts would likely have been less intense than the modern experience of chewing prepared betel quid, the team notes that the regular habit still carried significant health risks, including the potential to cause severe chronic gum disease.

    This discovery reshapes our understanding of early human cultural practices. The research team concludes that the modern tradition of betel nut chewing can trace its origins directly back to these ancient foraging communities, indicating that many common modern drug-use behaviors have much deeper evolutionary and cultural roots than previously assumed.

  • Presidential pardon for controversial monk overturned

    Presidential pardon for controversial monk overturned

    In a landmark ruling that reverberates across Sri Lanka’s political and religious landscape, the nation’s Supreme Court has invalidated a controversial presidential pardon granted to prominent hardline Buddhist monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara, mandating he serve out the remaining years of a six-year custodial sentence. The sentence was originally handed down in 2018 on charges of contempt of court and intimidation of Sanya Eknaligoda, wife of missing Sri Lankan political cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda.

    The case traces its origins back more than 15 years, when Prageeth Eknaligoda, a cartoonist renowned for his sharp criticism of government policy and systemic inequality, vanished without a trace in 2010. His work regularly targeted nationalist former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who led the country through the brutal final phase of the 26-year civil war that ended with the defeat of Tamil separatist rebels in 2009. In his cartoons, Eknaligoda shone a light on threats to press freedom, abuses of political power, and systemic social disadvantage, drawing the ire of the ruling establishment at the time.

    To this day, Prageeth Eknaligoda has never been found. His wife Sanya has spent more than a decade leading a high-profile grassroots campaign demanding answers about his disappearance, repeatedly accusing successive Sri Lankan governments of failing to conduct a thorough, transparent investigation into the case. It was during a court hearing centered on allegations that military intelligence officials abducted the cartoonist that Gnanasara interrupted proceedings to publicly defend the accused officials, triggering the 2018 contempt and intimidation conviction.

    Gnanasara never completed his six-year term. Just months into his sentence, then-president Maithripala Sirisena granted him a full presidential pardon, allowing him to walk free after serving less than 12 months behind bars. The hardline monk has long been a polarizing figure in Sri Lankan politics: he leads the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), also known as the “Buddhist Power Force,” a radical nationalist organization that has drawn international condemnation for its anti-minority rhetoric. He has maintained close political ties to the Rajapaksa political dynasty, serving as a trusted ally to Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who went on to hold the presidency from 2019 to 2022.

    This is not Gnanasara’s only recent legal trouble. In 2025, he was convicted on separate charges of insulting Islam and inciting interreligious hatred, receiving an additional nine-month prison sentence. The latest Supreme Court ruling marks a rare milestone in Sri Lankan jurisprudence: convictions of Buddhist monks are extremely uncommon in the country, and custodial sentences for members of the clergy are almost unheard of.

    The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the pardon and send Gnanasara back to prison is being closely watched by civil society groups, who say it signals a potential shift in accountability for high-profile figures linked to religious extremism and political interference in human rights cases. For Sanya Eknaligoda and other activists demanding answers about enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka’s post-civil war era, the ruling is being viewed as a rare step toward judicial accountability after years of perceived government inaction.