Global Pulse

作者： admin

  • US carries out first known strike on alleged drug boat since Maduro’s capture

    US carries out first known strike on alleged drug boat since Maduro’s capture

    In a significant escalation of its counter-narcotics operations, the United States military has confirmed conducting a lethal strike against a suspected drug trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean. This operation, executed on Friday, represents the first such action since the high-profile raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

    According to U.S. Southern Command’s official statement released through social media channels, the targeted boat was actively engaged in narco-trafficking operations. The military operation resulted in two fatalities with one individual surviving the attack. Search and rescue procedures were immediately initiated for the survivor through coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard.

    Accompanying visual evidence depicts a maritime vessel navigating through open waters before being engulfed in explosive flames. This development occurs amid intensified U.S. military focus on intercepting sanctioned oil tankers with connections to Venezuela, following the Trump administration’s audacious operation to apprehend President Maduro and transfer him to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.

    The previous maritime strikes occurred in late December when military forces targeted five alleged drug-smuggling boats over a 48-hour period, resulting in eight casualties with numerous individuals abandoning vessels. The Coast Guard subsequently suspended its search operations days after these engagements.

    President Donald Trump has consistently defended these military operations, asserting their critical effectiveness in disrupting narcotics transportation routes through Caribbean and eastern Pacific corridors. During recent remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump claimed unprecedented success, stating: “We’ve stopped — virtually stopped almost 100% of all drugs coming in by water.”

    Meanwhile, Maduro had previously characterized U.S. military actions as politically motivated attempts to remove him from power, allegations that gained renewed attention following the January 3rd large-scale strike in Caracas that resulted in his capture and extradition to the United States.

  • Israeli soldier’s videos show continued demolitions in Gaza after ceasefire

    Israeli soldier’s videos show continued demolitions in Gaza after ceasefire

    New evidence has emerged through social media posts by an Israeli soldier documenting the continued demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip, occurring more than 100 days after the implementation of a ceasefire agreement. Middle East Eye has verified and analyzed three separate videos uploaded in late December by a soldier operating under the private Instagram account name Ariel Ashkenazi.

    One video, dated December 25th, was geolocated to the northern Gaza area of Beit Hanoun, showing extensive demolition operations. Subsequent posts on December 26th and 28th featured additional footage of destruction activities. The videos contained concerning captions, with two using the phrase ‘Aliyah Bet’ – a historical reference to illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine between 1921 and 1948. Another video carried the caption ‘the power of the Spartan,’ evoking imagery of brutal strength and enemy elimination.

    This terminology aligns with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s September statement urging Israel to prepare to become a ‘super Sparta,’ referencing ancient Greek warfare tactics against Persia.

    The documented demolitions have occurred on both sides of the so-called ‘yellow line’ established by Israeli forces following the October ceasefire. This ceasefire was intended to conclude over two years of intense conflict in Gaza that resulted in approximately 71,000 Palestinian fatalities and the destruction of nearly 90% of the territory’s infrastructure.

    Despite the ceasefire agreement, reports indicate Israeli forces have killed at least 477 individuals and wounded more than 1,300 others since its implementation. According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, Israeli forces have committed at least 1,300 ceasefire violations, including approximately 200 incidents involving structural demolitions, 430 cases of gunfire directed at civilians, 66 incursions into residential areas, and more than 600 strikes.

    Throughout the Gaza conflict, Israeli soldiers have extensively recorded themselves engaging in activities that international experts suggest may constitute war crimes. Documented footage shows soldiers celebrating while detonating civilian structures including homes, universities, and mosques. Other videos reveal disturbing conduct including soldiers forcing bound and blindfolded prisoners to deliver humiliating messages, looting money from Palestinian homes, destroying humanitarian aid parcels with military bulldozers, and burning educational facilities while singing inflammatory songs. Additional content shows soldiers posing in women’s underwear taken from Palestinian residences.

  • Is China quietly winning the AI race?

    Is China quietly winning the AI race?

    In a significant shift within the artificial intelligence landscape, major U.S. technology firms are increasingly integrating Chinese-developed AI models into their core operations, challenging the long-standing dominance of American AI laboratories. Pinterest, the visual discovery platform with hundreds of millions of monthly users, has emerged as a prominent case study in this technological transformation.

    The San Francisco-based company has been experimenting with Chinese AI architectures, including the DeepSeek R-1 model launched in January 2025, to enhance its recommendation systems and shopping assistant capabilities. According to CEO Bill Ready, this strategic implementation has effectively transformed Pinterest into an AI-powered commerce platform, with the ‘DeepSeek moment’ representing a pivotal breakthrough in open-source AI development.

    Technical leadership at Pinterest reveals compelling advantages driving this adoption. Chief Technology Officer Matt Madrigal reported that open-source techniques employed from Chinese models demonstrate 30% greater accuracy than leading off-the-shelf alternatives while reducing operational costs by up to ninety percent compared to proprietary systems from U.S. developers like OpenAI.

    This trend extends well beyond Pinterest’s operations. Across the Fortune 500 landscape, Chinese AI models are gaining substantial traction. Airbnb has incorporated Alibaba’s Qwen model extensively to power its AI customer service infrastructure, with CEO Brian Chesky citing superior performance, speed, and cost-effectiveness as decisive factors.

    Hugging Face, the premier platform for AI model distribution, provides further evidence of this market shift. Product lead Jeff Boudier noted that Chinese models consistently dominate the platform’s trending rankings, with some weeks featuring four out of the top five training models originating from Chinese laboratories. In September, Alibaba’s Qwen surpassed Meta’s Llama to become the most downloaded large language model family on the platform.

    The competitive landscape has evolved rapidly since Meta’s release of its open-source Llama models in 2023, which initially established industry standards for bespoke applications. However, the underwhelming reception of Llama 4 and Meta’s subsequent collaboration with Alibaba, Google, and OpenAI for training new models signals a fundamental restructuring of AI development alliances.

    According to a recent Stanford University analysis, Chinese AI models have not only caught up but potentially surpassed their global counterparts in both capability metrics and user adoption rates. This development coincides with increased pressure on U.S. firms like OpenAI to prioritize revenue generation and profitability, potentially creating strategic openings for Chinese technological advancement in the open-source domain.

    Former UK deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg observed the paradoxical nature of this competition, noting that China appears to be democratizing AI technology more effectively than Western democracies despite their different governance models. The Stanford report further suggests that substantial government support has contributed significantly to China’s open-source AI achievements, while U.S. companies face increasing commercial pressures that may influence their development priorities.

  • Watch: Empty shelves and road preparations as US readies for winter storm

    Watch: Empty shelves and road preparations as US readies for winter storm

    A formidable winter storm system is poised to unleash severe weather across vast portions of the United States, prompting urgent preparatory actions from millions of citizens. Meteorological authorities have issued grave warnings, indicating that over 160 million individuals, nearly half the nation’s population, are projected to confront perilous conditions characterized by heavy snowfall, significant ice accumulation from freezing rain, and dangerously low temperatures.

    In anticipation of the severe weather event, residents in affected regions have engaged in widespread stockpiling of essential supplies. Reports from numerous grocery stores depict a familiar scene of crisis preparation, with shelves once holding bread, milk, eggs, and bottled water now largely barren. This consumer behavior reflects deeply ingrained protocols for winter emergency readiness across many American communities.

    Simultaneously, transportation departments and municipal workers are executing comprehensive road treatment strategies. Crews are preemptively applying brine and salt mixtures to major highways and secondary roads in an effort to prevent ice bonding to pavement surfaces. Officials are strongly advising against all non-essential travel once the storm commences, warning that whiteout conditions and treacherous ice may render roads impassable.

    The impending storm’s significant magnitude underscores the substantial challenges that extreme weather events pose to public infrastructure and safety systems. The coordinated response between government agencies and civilian preparation highlights the ongoing adaptation to increasingly volatile winter weather patterns affecting populated areas.

  • UAE offers condolences to Tunisia over victims of deadly floods

    UAE offers condolences to Tunisia over victims of deadly floods

    The United Arab Emirates has formally expressed its profound condolences and solidarity with the Republic of Tunisia in the wake of devastating floods that have claimed multiple lives and caused extensive damage. Through an official statement released by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UAE conveyed its deepest sympathies to the families of the victims and the Tunisian people, alongside wishes for a swift recovery to all those injured.

    The catastrophe unfolded as torrential rains, described by the National Institute of Meteorology as the heaviest in over seven decades, battered the North African nation beginning Monday night. The relentless downpour continued through Tuesday night, with residual showers persisting into Wednesday, leading to widespread school and business closures and severe disruptions to transportation networks.

    Official reports confirm a death toll of at least five individuals. Four fatalities occurred in the town of Moknine within the Monastir governorate, while a fifth was reported in Nabeul. Furthermore, local media outlets have reported four fishermen as missing after one colleague was successfully rescued in the coastal town of Teboulba, south of Monastir.

    Tunisian emergency services have been engaged in a large-scale response effort. The civil defence agency reported that its teams have rescued approximately 350 people trapped by rapidly rising floodwaters since the onset of the crisis. Khalil Mechri, a spokesman for the civil defence, indicated that while the intensity of the severe weather has subsided, a high state of alert remains in effect across affected regions.

    Visual evidence from AFP and social media platforms depicts scenes of severe inundation, with homes and roadways submerged and vehicles left stranded. The regions of Monastir, Nabeul, and greater Tunis were among the hardest hit. President Kais Saied visited several affected areas, including Moknine and Teboulba, to assess the damage firsthand.

    This extreme weather event highlights critical vulnerabilities in Tunisia’s urban infrastructure. Drainage and stormwater systems, often antiquated and poorly maintained, are frequently overwhelmed during heavy rainfall, a situation exacerbated by waste clogging the networks. Furthermore, rapid urbanization has reduced ground permeability, increasing surface runoff and flood risk.

    The devastating floods present a stark paradox for Tunisia, a country that has been grappling with a severe seven-year drought intensified by climate change, which has led to a critical decline in national water reserves. Neighbouring Algeria has also experienced significant rainfall and flooding, with authorities there reporting two fatalities in western regions.

  • Spain refuses to join Trump’s Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ over breach of international law

    Spain refuses to join Trump’s Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ over breach of international law

    In a significant diplomatic development, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has formally declined an invitation for his country to participate in former U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed ‘Board of Peace’ initiative. The decision, announced during a speech at EU headquarters in Brussels, reflects growing international concern about the board’s structure and objectives.

    Prime Minister Sánchez emphasized that Palestinian representation remains fundamental to any legitimate peace process, stating unequivocally that ‘The future of Palestine as a whole should be settled by Palestinians.’ This position aligns Spain with several key U.S. allies including the United Kingdom and France, all of which have expressed reservations about joining the controversial board in its current form.

    The initiative faced additional turbulence as Trump unexpectedly rescinded Canada’s invitation through a Truth Social post directed at Prime Minister Mark Carney. The public disinvitation came shortly after Carney delivered critical remarks about U.S. policy and hegemony at the World Economic Forum in Davos, though the Trump administration provided no explicit justification for the reversal.

    Conceived as an international organization aiming to ‘promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in conflict-affected regions,’ the Board of Peace has drawn scrutiny for its vague mandate and potential to undermine existing international institutions. Critics argue the board’s composition—which includes Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio—lacks appropriate Palestinian representation despite its stated focus on Gaza reconstruction.

    Notably, while the board proposes appointing a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee to oversee Gaza’s transition, no Palestinians currently sit on its executive board. This omission has raised questions about the initiative’s commitment to genuine Palestinian self-determination.

    Despite European hesitancy, several Middle Eastern nations including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, and Jordan have reportedly agreed to participate alongside Israel. The development unfolds against the tragic backdrop of more than 71,500 Palestinian casualties in Gaza since October 2023, highlighting the urgent need for credible peace mechanisms that command broad international legitimacy.

  • ‘It was brutal’: BTS fans in UAE battle queues, scramble for tickets ahead of World Tour

    ‘It was brutal’: BTS fans in UAE battle queues, scramble for tickets ahead of World Tour

    Dubai witnessed unprecedented fan fervor as BTS announced their monumental world tour, triggering a digital ticket scramble that left thousands of ARMY members empty-handed despite meticulous preparations. The seven-member K-pop phenomenon’s upcoming tour spanning 34 cities with 79 performances represents the largest such undertaking by any K-pop artist in history.

    Ticket presales launched on January 22 at 3 PM UAE time through Weverse, the official artist-fan platform that previously crashed following the tour announcement. The process required advanced ARMY membership verification and identity confirmation, yet within seconds of queue opening, over 141,000 fans were competing for approximately 40,000 available seats at the venue.

    Emirati fan Sara Albalooshi described the experience as ‘totally terrifying, but also ridiculously thrilling,’ comparing her multiple alarms to ‘a countdown to a rocket launch.’ She coordinated across countries with her sister, a doctor who rearranged shifts, and successfully secured tickets for Paris and Belgium performances after the US sale proved ‘brutal.’

    Yan Hinolan, administrator of Bangtan UAE fan club, emphasized the necessity of sleep deprivation for ticket acquisition, stating ‘no sleep or no tickets.’ Her strategic preparation included advance coordination with her bank to ensure payment processing and resulted in securing Los Angeles tickets without facing dynamic pricing thanks to BigHit’s controls.

    While many fans missed out despite hours-long digital waits, hopes remain high for Middle Eastern dates scheduled for 2027. Speculation runs particularly strong in the UAE, where BTS’s 2016 KCON performance in Abu Dhabi marked one of their earliest international appearances. The Korean Deputy Consul General in Dubai previously indicated potential future performances in the UAE, fueling anticipation among local fans who are already planning special fan projects and preparing for another ticket battle when regional dates are announced.

  • Watch: Three things to know about Trump’s Board of Peace

    Watch: Three things to know about Trump’s Board of Peace

    In a comprehensive examination of former President Donald Trump’s proposed Board of Peace initiative, the BBC’s Washington Correspondent Daniel Bush provides critical analysis regarding participating nations and the allocation mechanisms for the charter’s financial resources. This initiative, emerging during a period of complex global diplomacy, represents a significant development in international peacebuilding efforts.

    The Board of Peace concept, championed by the Trump administration, seeks to establish a multilateral framework for conflict resolution through diplomatic and economic channels. Correspondent Bush’s investigation reveals strategic participation from key nations across different geopolitical blocs, indicating broad-based interest in this unconventional approach to international relations.

    Funding architecture for the initiative appears structured around voluntary contributions from member states, with allocations directed toward mediation resources, conflict prevention programs, and diplomatic mission support. The financial transparency mechanisms and oversight procedures remain central to understanding how effectively these resources would be utilized in practice.

    Bush’s analysis further explores how this initiative aligns with or diverges from traditional international peacekeeping frameworks, examining potential implications for global diplomatic norms and the changing landscape of international conflict resolution during the post-Trump presidency era.

  • Jury selection for Luigi Mangione trial set for September

    Jury selection for Luigi Mangione trial set for September

    Manhattan federal court has established critical timelines for the impending trial of Luigi Mangione, the individual charged with the fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024. During Friday’s proceedings, Judge Margaret Garnett announced that jury selection will commence on September 8th, though the actual trial start date hinges on a monumental decision regarding capital punishment.

    The judicial process faces a bifurcated timeline based on whether federal prosecutors secure death penalty authorization. US Attorney General Pam Bondi’s pursuit of maximum punishment could push trial proceedings to January 2027 if approved. Should the court deny capital prosecution, opening statements will begin considerably sooner on October 13th.

    Friday’s 90-minute hearing centered on contentious evidence admissibility challenges from defense attorneys. Legal representatives for Mangione contend that critical evidence—including a firearm and notebook—was unlawfully obtained during warrantless searches of his backpack following arrest at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s location. Prosecutors maintain Altoona Police Department conducted constitutionally compliant procedures during the search operation.

    Mangione, 27, maintains not guilty pleas against both federal murder charges and separate New York state accusations including second-degree murder and weapons violations. Notably, terrorism charges initially filed against the defendant have been formally dismissed. The state-level proceedings await trial date scheduling while federal courts advance with evidence resolution and trial preparation.

  • Xinjiang reports highest foreign trade growth in China

    Xinjiang reports highest foreign trade growth in China

    China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has emerged as the nation’s top-performing foreign trade hub, achieving unprecedented growth of 19.9% year-on-year in 2025. According to official data released by Urumqi Customs District, the region’s total import-export volume reached a historic 520.4 billion yuan ($74.7 billion), marking the highest growth rate among all Chinese provinces and autonomous regions.

    The export sector demonstrated particularly robust performance, surging 25% to 460.7 billion yuan, while imports experienced a moderate decline of 8.9% to 59.6 billion yuan. Over the comprehensive Five-Year Plan period from 2021 to 2025, Xinjiang’s cumulative foreign trade exceeded 1.71 trillion yuan, representing a remarkable 144.3% increase compared to the previous five-year cycle.

    Customs officials attribute this exceptional performance to strategic policy implementations throughout 2025. Deputy Director Li Qinghua highlighted that targeted measures to enhance port development and advance the China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone significantly optimized foreign trade structures. The region simultaneously accelerated smart port construction initiatives, creating a more efficient trade ecosystem.

    Xinjiang’s international trade network has expanded substantially, maintaining particularly strong economic ties with Belt and Road Initiative partner nations. Trade with these countries reached 458.4 billion yuan, constituting 88.1% of Xinjiang’s total foreign trade volume. Central Asian countries accounted for over half of this trade, while ASEAN markets witnessed explosive 98.3% growth to 67.4 billion yuan—crossing the 10% threshold of Xinjiang’s total trade for the first time.

    The region’s export composition has undergone significant transformation, with high-tech and high-value-added products driving growth. Mechanical and electrical product exports reached 186.5 billion yuan, while automobiles, automotive parts, electrical equipment, and electronic components demonstrated particularly strong performance. Advanced equipment related to new quality productive forces and green technology products including new energy vehicles and lithium batteries grew by approximately 70%.

    Agricultural exports also flourished, increasing 25.4% due to rising international demand for dried and fresh products such as walnuts and grapes.

    Private enterprises played a pivotal role in this success story, contributing 92.8% of Xinjiang’s total foreign trade volume. Their import-export value reached 482.7 billion yuan with 20.1% year-on-year growth. Notably, self-branded goods exports surged 40.3% to 52.11 billion yuan, with proprietary products accounting for significant portions of electrical equipment (33%), lithium batteries (81.1%), and textile machinery (25%) shipments.

    Chief Inspector Huang Qun confirmed that Urumqi Customs District will continue supporting private businesses through enhanced regulatory efficiency, targeted policy guidance, and responsive service improvements to sustain this growth trajectory.