Global Pulse

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  • China’s first batch of quake relief supplies arrives in Venezuela

    China’s first batch of quake relief supplies arrives in Venezuela

    On July 6, 2026, the first batch of emergency humanitarian earthquake relief supplies donated by the Chinese government touched down at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, a city located just outside Venezuela’s capital Caracas. The delivery was formally received at the airport by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil and Lan Hu, China’s Ambassador to Venezuela.

    This shipment comes after a devastating seismic event that struck Venezuela in late June. On the night of June 24, the country was hit by the most powerful earthquakes recorded in over 100 years: two major tremors measuring above magnitude 7 struck just 60 seconds apart. As of the latest update, the disaster has claimed the lives of 3,342 people and left 16,740 others injured, leaving thousands of residents homeless and in urgent need of basic emergency support.

    In his remarks at the airport, Foreign Minister Gil extended sincere gratitude to the Chinese government and its leadership on behalf of the entire Venezuelan people. He noted that China has maintained continuous, close coordination with Venezuelan authorities from the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes, and the arrival of these supplies marks a concrete manifestation of this solidarity. The current shipment includes critical emergency provisions such as temporary shelter tents and power generators, assets that are desperately needed to support thousands of Venezuelans who lost their homes and access to basic infrastructure in the disaster.

    Beyond the official government donation, Gil highlighted the rapid, grassroots response from the local Chinese community and Chinese-funded enterprises operating in Venezuela. He explained that these groups have been actively involved in rescue and relief operations since the earliest hours of the disaster, providing assistance to displaced residents and supporting frontline emergency teams. Gil described these on-the-ground acts of support as deeply moving, noting that the Venezuelan people have clearly seen the tangible solidarity extended by China, and that these shared efforts have further deepened the long-standing friendship between the two nations.

    Gil also emphasized that the timely delivery of relief supplies underscores the enduring nature of the all-weather strategic partnership that binds China and Venezuela, demonstrating how the two countries stand together in times of crisis.

  • Canada selects Germany’s ThyssenKrupp to build submarine fleet as it boosts NATO spending

    Canada selects Germany’s ThyssenKrupp to build submarine fleet as it boosts NATO spending

    TORONTO – In a landmark move that reshapes Canada’s defense capabilities and aligns with its new pledges to ramp up NATO-aligned military spending, the Canadian government announced Monday that Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) has been chosen as the preferred supplier for a planned fleet of up to 12 new conventionally powered submarines. Marking the largest military procurement initiative in Canadian history, the decision comes just days before Prime Minister Mark Carney’s attendance at this week’s NATO summit, where alliance leaders are set to face growing pressure to back pledges for higher defense investment with concrete, actionable policy plans.

  • World Cup 2026: Fifa ‘crossed a red line’ after decision to overturn ban for US striker’s red card

    World Cup 2026: Fifa ‘crossed a red line’ after decision to overturn ban for US striker’s red card

    The global football community has been thrown into uproar after Fifa’s stunning weekend announcement that U.S. striker Folarin Balogun will be cleared to compete in the United States’ upcoming World Cup match against Belgium, defying the standard automatic one-match suspension that follows a straight red card. Balogun received his sending-off during the U.S.’s previous fixture against Bosnia and Herzegovina, a punishment that under normal tournament rules would automatically bench him for the next round.

    Historically, overturning a straight red card suspension is almost unheard of: Fifa’s official disciplinary code explicitly prohibits appeals for immediate red card dismissals, and only one similar exception has ever been recorded, dating back to 1962 when automatic suspensions were not yet codified in tournament rules. This unprecedented decision comes after days of high-level lobbying from senior U.S. officials, according to reporting from American news outlet Politico. Within minutes of Balogun’s red card being issued, White House and U.S. soccer leadership launched a coordinated push to reverse the call: Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House Fifa World Cup Task Force, joined by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and senior United States Soccer Federation officials, spent four days lobbying Fifa leadership to change the ruling. Multiple reports have also confirmed that former U.S. President Donald Trump made personal phone calls directly to Fifa President Gianni Infantino to press for the suspension to be lifted.

    Fifa has defended its reversal by citing Article 27 of its disciplinary framework, a bylaw that grants the governing body broad authority to suspend any pre-existing disciplinary measures. But the move has drawn fierce condemnation from football governing bodies, current and former leaders, pundits and fans worldwide, who universally accuse Fifa of caving to political pressure and granting preferential treatment to the U.S. tournament host.

    The Belgian Football Association, whose team stands to directly lose out from the decision, issued an official statement saying it was “astonished” by the ruling, noting that it directly contradicts core provisions of the World Cup’s disciplinary code that mandate automatic one-match suspensions for red card recipients. Though Belgium was granted the right to appeal the decision on Monday, it was given only a matter of hours on the same day to submit its challenge, a timeline critics have called intentionally restrictive.

    European football governing body Uefa also released a scathing rebuke of the decision, saying Fifa had “crossed a red line.” In its official statement, Uefa emphasized that football’s integrity depends on consistent, enforceable rules, noting that the automatic one-match suspension for a red card is not a discretionary call: “When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined,” the statement read.

    Criticism has also poured in from across the football and political spheres on social media, with many figures highlighting the glaring double standard of Fifa’s decision. Former Fifa President Sepp Blatter weighed in on X, writing, “Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies… Football must never become a playground for political power.” Analysts and fans have also pointed out that Fifa has previously suspended entire national federations, including Nepal’s, for government interference in football operations — a policy that appears to have been set aside for the U.S. this time.

    Many social media users have also called out perceived favoritism toward the host nation. A Reddit commentator noted that the rarity of red card reversals has long acted as a level playing field for all teams, so making an exception for the U.S. can only be interpreted as preferential treatment. Former professional footballer Yannick Bolasie drew attention to double standards across global confederations, writing, “All I’ll say is if this was AFCON and they let a man play after he got a red card, the nonsense being said would be crazy.”

    Even some American commentators and fans have acknowledged the problematic nature of the decision. Political commentator and former Obama administration spokesperson Tommy Vietor noted, “As a fan, I am obviously overjoyed that Balogun will get to play,” but added that “it will make the rest of the world feel like the tournament was rigged.”

    The controversy has also spilled over into broader political critiques of the Trump administration. One social media commentator highlighted that Trump recently attempted to eliminate birthright citizenship at the U.S. Supreme Court — the very policy that grants Balogun, born in the United States, his American citizenship and eligibility to play for the U.S. national team. Geopolitical analyst Bruno Macaes further connected the decision to broader questions of Fifa’s political ethics, referencing ongoing global criticism of Fifa’s decision to allow Israel’s football association to remain in international competition despite accusations of genocide in Gaza.

    Trump, for his part, praised Fifa’s ruling in a post on his Truth Social platform. British media personality Piers Morgan has called the incident “the biggest story, and potential scandal, of the World Cup.” Middle East Eye has reached out to both the White House and Fifa for additional comment on the reports of political lobbying and the controversial reversal.

  • Alexandra Eala provides a ‘ray of hope’ for the Philippines despite Wimbledon exit

    Alexandra Eala provides a ‘ray of hope’ for the Philippines despite Wimbledon exit

    LONDON — For 21-year-old Filipina tennis star Alexandra Eala, the 2025 Wimbledon Championships ended one round short of her first Grand Slam quarterfinal berth, but her historic run at the sport’s most prestigious grass-court tournament has already cemented her status as a trailblazer for Philippine tennis and a source of national pride.

    Eala’s Cinderella run at the All England Club delivered one of the tournament’s biggest upsets earlier in the draw, when she ousted defending champion Iga Swiatek in an electrifying third-round clash. Her run came to a close on Monday on Centre Court, however, as Italy’s Jasmine Paolini outlasted her in a tense three-set battle, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

    The result did little to dim the celebration of Eala’s achievement among Filipino fans, who packed watch parties across her home country and turned out in force to cheer her on in London. For the global Filipino community, Eala’s breakthrough transcends the final scoreboard.

    “She’s like a ray of hope for the Philippines,” Roberto Ocampo Jr., a London-based Filipino nurse and tennis fan who attended Eala’s match against Paolini, told reporters. “Especially at her age. She made history. That’s one thing that we can tell to the next generation.”

    As the Women’s Tennis Association confirmed, Eala’s run to the fourth round marks a historic first for Philippine tennis: she is the first player from the country to reach the last 16 of a Grand Slam singles tournament in the Open Era. This milestone comes just one year after Eala suffered a first-round exit in her 2024 Wimbledon debut, highlighting her rapid rise through the professional ranks.

    A left-handed player who trained during her teenage years at Spain’s renowned Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy, Eala has drawn inspiration from other legendary Filipino athletes who paved the way for her success. Early in the tournament, she recalled growing up watching boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, whose bouts turned into national holidays across the Philippines, where communities would gather to watch and employers would give workers time off to cheer him on.

    She also name-checked two other modern Filipino sporting greats as inspiration: weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, the country’s first Olympic gold medalist, and gymnast Carlos Yulo, who won two Olympic gold medals at the 2024 Paris Games and returned home to a hero’s welcome with pledges of cash, property and other national honors.

    Like many Filipino sports fans, Ocampo hopes Eala’s breakthrough will open new doors for young aspiring tennis players across the Philippines, where access to the sport remains limited for many low-income communities. “This kind of sport (many) are not privileged enough to hold a tennis racket,” Ocampo said. “There’s so many kids back home, they have the talent. They need the opportunity.”

    Off the court, Eala’s star power has grown exponentially during the tournament. She met Catherine, Princess of Wales, and posed for a widely shared photo with the royal patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. A viral action shot of Eala diving to reach a wide shot during her upset win over Swiatek has even been memed across social media, with fans editing a superhero cape onto the young star to dub her “Super Eala.” The Philippine Embassy in the United Kingdom has closely tracked her progress throughout the tournament, sharing regular updates and public messages of congratulations to her on official channels.

    Eala herself has framed the historic run as a key step in her long-term career, rather than a final destination. Reflecting on her loss to Paolini, she acknowledged that uncharacteristic issues with her serve held her back on the day, but framed the result as a normal part of professional sport.

    “I understand that’s part of the job. I don’t think I’m going to be playing the best tennis of my life every single day,” Eala said. “But I have days like that. Everyone has days where they don’t play their best tennis.”

    The 21-year-old, who notched her first big WTA breakthrough earlier this year by reaching the semifinals of the 2025 Miami Open, said she leaves Wimbledon proud of her performance and focused on continuing her upward trajectory. “I’m really proud of how I handled things. I just have to kind of move forward and continue with my progress.”

    Eala has long said she hopes to serve as a role model for young kids across the Philippines who dream of competing in professional tennis, and her 2025 Wimbledon run has already turned that goal into reality for a new generation of aspiring athletes.

  • Israel’s death towers: Gaza civilians killed by remote attacks during ceasefire

    Israel’s death towers: Gaza civilians killed by remote attacks during ceasefire

    In the final stretch of joyful wedding preparations for his daughter, 43-year-old Khalil al-Masri had every reason to smile. Less than two weeks before the ceremony, he traveled with his eldest son to Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood to finalize payment and confirm the reservation for his daughter’s dream wedding dress. With that task complete, the pair stopped at a nearby confectionery to mark the happy occasion, joining two friends for a seat at an outdoor table. What came next was a senseless, sudden tragedy: a live bullet tore through Masri’s skull, leaving him unconscious as his son and friends stared on in terror.

    Rushed to Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital for emergency care, Masri, a father of seven, succumbed to his fatal wound on June 14. His brother Mahmoud al-Masri described the jarring turn of fate in an interview with Middle East Eye. “It was a complete shock. He was very happy and laughing with his friends. He ordered a dessert, but the bullet penetrated his head before the order was served,” Mahmoud said. “The wedding was turned into a funeral.”

    Captured on the sweet shop’s entrance surveillance footage, Masri’s killing is far from an isolated incident. The deadly shooting unfolded against a backdrop of steadily escalating Israeli fire targeting Palestinian civilians across multiple regions of the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, even as the event is framed as occurring under a ceasefire agreement. While the exact source of the bullet has not been officially confirmed, Mahmoud says the gunfire originated from the east, pointing to two likely sources: an Israeli surveillance quadcopter operating in the area minutes before the shooting, or an Israeli military “lifter” – a fortified watchtower fitted with heavy machine guns – positioned roughly 1.7 kilometers away in the contested Yellow Zone.

    The Yellow Zone is an area Israel was required to withdraw from as part of the second phase of an earlier ceasefire deal, after occupying it in the agreement’s first stage. To date, Israel has refused to cede control of the territory, and now holds more than 60 percent of the entire Gaza Strip. Deployed at 23 separate locations across the eastern Gaza Yellow Zone, per data from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, these military lifters elevate weapons and surveillance hardware to extend visual range and enable open fire across large civilian-populated areas.

    The same day Masri was killed, at least five more Palestinians were hit by Israeli fire in another central Gaza City neighborhood. Among them was 19-year-old university student Muhammed Abu Hassira, who was walking home from the gym along al-Wehda Street when Israeli forces opened fire. Just like Masri’s case, witnesses could not confirm whether the fatal shot came from a quadcopter or a military watchtower.

    Khaled al-Tarshawi, Abu Hassira’s uncle, recounted the teen’s final moments to Middle East Eye. “Muhammed was on his way home from the gym at around 7pm, he was on al-Wehda Street when the Israeli occupation suddenly opened fire, hitting him and other pedestrians. He and four or five others collapsed to the ground,” al-Tarshawi said. “He was shot in the abdomen. People rushed to carry him and the other wounded to the hospital. He was transported on the seat of a wheelchair because there were no vehicles. Doctors tried to save him, but by the time he arrived, he had already lost a significant amount of blood.”

    Abu Hassira had just wrapped up his second semester studying engineering at a Gaza university, having earned his high school diploma and enrolled despite the ongoing conflict. “He was intelligent, patient, and always devoted to his parents. His mother was devastated when she received the news, but his father was even more heartbroken. Muhammed was his eldest and most beloved son,” al-Tarshawi said. “Muhammed survived the devastating Israeli attacks throughout the two and a half years of the genocide and refused to leave Gaza City. He refused to evacuate to the south and managed to stay alive during the worst periods of the genocide. But he was killed during the ceasefire by a quadcopter or a lifter.”

    Fatal Israeli fire has continued through all avenues of daily life in Gaza in the months following the October 2023 ceasefire agreement. In addition to watchtower sniper fire and quadcopter strikes, Israeli tanks and ground snipers deployed within the Yellow Zone have repeatedly opened fire on pedestrians and displaced families’ makeshift shelters in areas formally labeled “safe zones,” leaving dozens dead and injured over the past eight months.

    Just 24 hours after the killings of Masri and Abu Hassira, 13-year-old Amir al-Bashiti was killed by an Israeli bullet inside his family’s displaced person tent in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. His father Emad al-Bashiti said the bullet, which likely came from an Israeli tank, struck the boy just moments after he came inside for the night. “It was around midnight and he was playing with his cousins and friends outside the tent. I called on him to come in and sleep and I wish I didn’t,” Emad said. “He came in carrying his blanket and told me ‘I want to tell you what happened’. At the time, there were sounds of Israeli tanks moving and some gunfire close to the camp. I told him to sit down and go to sleep because there were shootings. He insisted on telling me the story before he went to sleep.”

    Before Amir could finish sharing his story, the explosive bullet tore through his head and exited his neck, killing him instantly in front of his entire family. “It wasn’t a normal bullet, it was an explosive one. I heard it explode after it penetrated his head,” Emad recalled. “He fell on the ground and vomited blood. I held his hand but he was unconscious. By the time I carried him and rushed outside to reach the hospital, he was already dead.” Amir and his family had been displaced from Rafah and had sought shelter in Khan Younis’ Batn al-Samin, a zone designated as safe for displaced people that now hosts tens of thousands of fleeing Palestinians.

    In recent weeks, the targeting of Palestinian civilians has expanded far beyond the contested Yellow Zone, with deadly strikes hitting even areas marked as safe under the ceasefire framework. On a single Friday in June, one Palestinian child was killed and two members of the Totah family wounded when an Israeli quadcopter dropped an explosive on the group as they collected water east of Gaza City. Another Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire the same day east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

    Official data confirms the scope of the ongoing bloodshed: since the ceasefire agreement took effect in October 2024, at least 1,072 Palestinians have been killed and 3,463 more injured across the Gaza Strip. Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed at least 73,098 people in Gaza, with thousands more still missing and presumed dead under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

    For families like the al-Bashitis, the term “ceasefire” bears no relation to the reality on the ground. “Whoever calls this a ceasefire is overlooking what is actually happening on the ground. It is not a ceasefire, it is continued fire,” Emad al-Bashiti said.

  • Mbappe condemns racist posts from Paraguay senator

    Mbappe condemns racist posts from Paraguay senator

    In the wake of Paraguay’s last-16 World Cup exit at the hands of France, a firestorm of controversy has erupted over targeted racist remarks against French superstar forward Kylian Mbappe, drawing sharp condemnation from both the player and the French Football Federation (FFF).

    Celeste Amarilla, a senator representing Paraguay’s Liberal Radical Party, took to social platform X to share mocking comments about Mbappe’s ethnic origin and educational background after France secured a narrow victory over the South American side. Mbappe, who scored the winning penalty in the match to punch France’s ticket to the quarter-finals, delivered a blistering public rebuke of the senator’s words.

    Calling Amarilla a despicable figure completely unfit for public office, Mbappe emphasized that the senator does not represent the values of Paraguay itself — a nation whose players fought with honor and passion across the entire 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament. He argued that Amarilla’s reckless, open racism has overshadowed the historic achievements of the Paraguayan squad, turning global attention instead to the bigoted comments of an incompetent politician who has tarnished her country’s global reputation. Mbappe made clear he would not stand by to allow hatred and racism to spread unchallenged on the world stage.

    The FFF has echoed Mbappe’s condemnation, announcing it will move forward with filing criminal charges against Amarilla, describing her remarks as utterly abhorrent and unacceptable. In an official statement, the governing body stressed that such comments are both criminal and morally reprehensible, requiring legal prosecution regardless of jurisdiction. The FFF has formally referred the matter to public prosecutors to initiate legal proceedings, noting that these racist insults target not just Mbappe, but the entire French nation represented by the national team. “These remarks bring shame upon those who make them and those who disseminate them,” the statement added.

    Mbappe’s decisive penalty against Paraguay capped another strong tournament performance for the French forward, who entered the quarter-final stage of the 2026 World Cup tied as the tournament’s leading goal scorer with seven goals, level alongside Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Norway’s Erling Haaland. France was set to face Morocco in their quarter-final fixture in Boston just four days after the knockout win over Paraguay.

    Amarilla’s comments are not an isolated incident, either: ahead of the France-Paraguay tie, former Paraguay goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert drew widespread criticism for his own racist comment, claiming the Paraguayan side was facing “a squad from Africa.” That remark also drew a fierce response from FFF president Philippe Diallo, who labeled Chilavert a disgrace to the sport. “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the racist remarks made by Jose Luis Chilavert against the French national team, which undermine the values of respect, fraternity, and diversity in our football,” Diallo said. “If he was once a great goalkeeper, this man has now fallen into disgrace.”

  • Trump, Turkey and Nato: What’s at stake at the Ankara summit?

    Trump, Turkey and Nato: What’s at stake at the Ankara summit?

    A pivotal NATO summit convening this week in Ankara, Turkey, stands poised to reshape the 75-year-old transatlantic alliance’s strategic direction, as leaders gather to address a planned drawdown of United States military forces in Europe and chart a course for the bloc’s next evolution, dubbed NATO 3.0.

    US President Donald Trump is set to join alliance heads of state and government in the Turkish capital, where tensions are already expected to emerge over negotiations to shrink America’s long-standing military footprint on the continent. Ahead of the high-stakes gathering, Turkish authorities have launched a sweeping effort to spruce up Ankara: city workers have planted thousands of decorative flowers, resurfaced damaged arterial roads, and erected large fabric banners to cover aging, poorly maintained structures that line major summit routes. Starting Tuesday, the city will implement a two-day partial lockdown to secure the event, and security officials have detained dozens of people they identify as potential protest organizers, including members of left-wing groups, environmental activists, and pro-Palestinian demonstrators, to prevent unplanned disruptions described by officials as “public nuisances.”

    For the Turkish government, the summit represents far more than a security meeting: it is a high-profile global marketing opportunity to tie Turkey’s booming domestic defense industry to Western supply chains and highlight the country’s growing industrial capabilities. Turkey has rapidly expanded its defense manufacturing footprint in recent years, emerging as a leading global exporter of armed drones, advanced ammunition, and naval vessels, with defense exports projected to hit $10 billion in 2025. Ankara’s existing alignment with NATO’s industrial standards also positions the country to capitalize on any expansion of the alliance’s European defense output, a factor that has softened criticism from Western allies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly hardline crackdown on domestic political opposition. European leaders have opted to set aside concerns over democratic backsliding in Turkey in exchange for Ankara’s commitment to contribute troops from NATO’s second-largest standing military (second only to the United States) and help jumpstart a continent-wide revival of European defense production.

    The summit’s central agenda item revolves around the alliance’s new strategic framework, already labeled NATO 3.0 by alliance insiders. The concept builds on two prior eras of alliance adaptation: the post-Cold War restructuring that defined the original NATO 1.0, and the shift to counter-terrorism readiness that followed the September 11 attacks, known as NATO 2.0. The updated framework prioritizes three core goals: upgrading allied military capabilities, modernizing cross-bloc defense industrial infrastructure, and redistributing the burden of collective defense as the United States reorients its global military focus toward countering China.

    The Pentagon has already announced a six-month review to determine which conventional forces, aircraft, and capabilities it will withdraw from European bases. While the full details of the drawdown have not been made public, anonymous military sources shared specifics with Reuters outlining steep cuts to US assets allocated to NATO: the number of F-15 and F-15E fighter jets available to the alliance will drop by a third to 99, the fleet of MQ-4 and MQ-9 Reaper surveillance and strike drones will be halved to 12, KC-135 and KC-46 refueling aircraft will be reduced from 79 to 63, and only one strategic bomber and one aircraft carrier will be assigned to NATO operations, down from the prior commitment of two each.

    Despite the reductions, NATO’s top commander, US Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich, confirmed last week that European allies have already moved to fill nearly all the capability gaps left by the US drawdown. Multiple European diplomats told Middle East Eye that the summit will formalize a strengthening of NATO’s European pillar, with member states set to pledge deeper industrial cooperation, expanded weapons production, and increased operational commitments to the alliance.

    Long-time European affairs journalist Guldener Sonumut, based in Turkey, notes that the shift will require structural changes to NATO’s command architecture. As the US steps back from conventional defense responsibilities, those roles will increasingly fall to European allies and Canada, while Washington retains control over strategic command and core planning functions. “This will require changes in Nato’s command structure, with the US retaining strategic command and planning leadership while Europeans take on more operational responsibilities,” Sonumut wrote in a weekend column.

    The summit also marks a turning point for the alliance’s defense industrial cooperation. NATO’s long-standing Standardisation Agreements (Stanag) are expected to remain the central governing framework for allied military equipment, a move that blocks the European Union from developing separate, standalone defense standards. The outcome is a major win for Turkey’s growing defense sector, which already designs and manufactures all its military hardware to meet NATO Stanag requirements. A dedicated defense-industry forum will be held on the summit’s opening day, where dozens of multinational defense cooperation agreements are set to be signed, covering sectors from multidomain operational capabilities to space-based intelligence gathering.

    Yahya Bostan, a columnist for Turkish daily Yeni Safak, argued last week that years of debate between Turkey and European powers over Ankara’s place in a post-US drawdown European security architecture have ended with a clear consensus: Turkey’s role remains firmly within the NATO alliance. Instead of building a new independent security framework, Bostan says European nations will instead increase defense spending and deepen collaboration under the NATO umbrella alongside Turkey.

    On the nuclear security front, analysts expect the US to reaffirm its role as the alliance’s primary nuclear security guarantor, potentially expanding the number of NATO member states allowed to host dual-capable weapons systems — platforms that can deploy both conventional and nuclear warheads. Currently, only five NATO allies, including Turkey, are permitted to host such systems, and Finland’s parliament has already passed legislation to approve hosting the weapons, clearing the way for its inclusion in the expanded scheme.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte framed the summit’s collaborative vision in a joint op-ed published over the weekend in *The Economist*. “This is a true endeavour on both sides of the Atlantic. Our defences are unmatched when we leverage assets, expertise and innovative capabilities from California to Kyiv, Copenhagen to Warsaw, Oslo to Ankara,” they wrote. “The only way to get there is through co-operation: combining the efforts of countries and industries, allies and partners.” Off the record, European diplomats have already acknowledged Erdogan’s key role in convincing Trump to attend the summit in Ankara, and say they are counting on the Turkish leader to reinforce the value of continued US engagement with the alliance for the Trump administration.

  • Mourning and celebration collide as Iran, US both claim victory

    Mourning and celebration collide as Iran, US both claim victory

    In a striking convergence of historical moments, two defining global events unfolded in the same week: the long-awaited burial of Iran’s slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the United States’ 250th anniversary of national independence. Against a backdrop of a fragile 60-day ceasefire that paused a bitter US-Israeli initiated war to open negotiations for a permanent peace deal, both sides have leveraged their respective commemorative events to lay claim to victory in the conflict.

    Khamenei was deliberately targeted and killed in a US-Israeli airstrike on the very first day of the war, February 28. Islamic tradition requires prompt burial of the deceased, often within a day of death, but Khamenei’s remains were preserved for more than four months. Sustained US-Israeli bombardment across Iran made large-scale public commemorative gatherings impossible, forcing Iranian authorities to delay the farewell ceremony until the security environment allowed for a fitting tribute.

    Iran’s Islamic government aimed to push back against the invading force before holding a formal, elaborate state burial. An intermittent ceasefire took effect on April 8, which could have allowed for an earlier service – an event that would have carried the same level of security risk as the ceremony held this week, making the deliberate timing clear.

    The alignment of Khamenei’s burial with the US’ high-profile independence jubilee is no random coincidence, according to regional analysts. While some dismiss the overlap as accidental, a far more plausible reading frames the timing as a calculated move by Iran’s leadership to draw global attention away from the US celebration and assert the Islamic Republic’s continued relevance on the world stage.

    Iran’s new post-Khamenei leadership, headed by Khamenei’s son Mujtaba – who has remained out of public view after reportedly being wounded in the strike that killed his father – was fully aware of months of public planning for the US anniversary. US President Donald Trump, who partnered with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch the offensive against Iran, has spent months hyping the 250th independence celebration, promising to showcase what he calls America’s “Golden Age”. He used the event to once again formally claim total victory in the war against Iran.

    The evidence strongly suggests Tehran deliberately scheduled Khamenei’s burial to counter the US festivities. Iranian officials choreographed the mourning events to draw mass public participation and welcome dozens of foreign political and religious delegations from allied and friendly nations across the globe, a turnout that overshadowed much of the US celebration.

    The ceremony also honored Khamenei’s four decades of uncompromising rule as a marja, a leading source of emulation within the Shia Islamic religious hierarchy. Beyond honoring the late leader, the overlapping events sent a series of clear messages to both domestic and international audiences:
    – The Islamic Republic has survived a full-scale foreign invasion and emerged more unified and stronger than it was before the outbreak of war
    – The Iranian regime is far less unpopular and internationally isolated than the US and Israel, its main adversaries, have repeatedly claimed
    – The republic retains the resilience and capability to defend itself against both internal unrest and foreign military aggression
    – The Iranian government remains steadfast in its opposition to its enemies, and positions itself as the ultimate victor in the recent conflict

    The massive public turnout for mourning processions and the large number of foreign delegations in attendance even caught US leadership off guard: Trump had previously claimed that the Iranian people “hated” the former supreme leader, and did not anticipate the scale of public and international support on display.

    Going forward, Khamenei will be enshrined in Iranian history as a transformative religious authority, political thinker, and leader who built the Islamic Republic into a formidable, defensible regional power. While the Islamic system remains firmly entrenched in Iran, observers warn that urgent structural reform remains an unaddressed priority. Widespread public demands for expanded political and social freedoms, and improved economic living conditions, have not faded – instead, these grievances simmer beneath the surface of post-war unity.

    Uncertainty also hangs over the ongoing US-Iran negotiations, and the future political and economic trajectory of the country. If the two sides manage to reach a lasting comprehensive settlement that resolves core disputes – including Iran’s nuclear program, security in the Strait of Hormuz, the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, the lifting of international sanctions, the unfreezing of Iranian sovereign assets, and the reintegration of Iran’s economy into the global market – it would create space for the Iranian government to address longstanding public demands.

    Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian and National Assembly Speaker Bagher Ghalibaf have both publicly signaled a willingness to pursue reform and change. However, the most powerful political actor to watch remains the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which gained additional influence after the war thanks to its new control over the Strait of Hormuz, granting the group expanded veto power over major domestic and foreign policy decisions.

    For the moment, both Tehran and Washington can each claim a symbolic victory from their dueling, simultaneously held commemorative events. But the permanent agreement that negotiators work toward in the coming weeks will carry profound, long-lasting consequences for both nations, and for global security and stability.

    This analysis is from Amin Saikal, emeritus professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the Australian National University, The University of Western Australia, and Victoria University.

  • Jonathan Anderson shifts Dior buzz from Taylor Swift’s hidden wedding gown to sculptural couture

    Jonathan Anderson shifts Dior buzz from Taylor Swift’s hidden wedding gown to sculptural couture

    PARIS — When Jonathan Anderson stepped onto the Paris Couture Week circuit, the entire global fashion industry had one thing on its collective mind: the secret Dior wedding dress he created for global superstar Taylor Swift, who had just tied the knot with NFL icon Travis Kelce. Three days after Swift and Kelce exchanged vows at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden — both outfitted head-to-toe in Dior designs — Anderson kicked off couture week with a bold, art-forward haute couture collection designed to redirect the world’s gaze away from the unshared celebrity gown and toward a deeply creative, medium-bending vision.

    The high-profile commission to design Swift’s wedding dress marked a major career milestone for Anderson, the 41-year-old Northern Irish designer tapped just 12 months prior by LVMH, Dior’s parent company, to revamp the luxury house’s entire fashion portfolio. For months leading up to the private wedding, industry analysts and fashion insiders had widely predicted Swift would turn to an American label like Ralph Lauren, or British heritage brand Vivienne Westwood — a designer whose pieces the pop star has regularly worn for red carpet and public appearances. But Anderson landed the coveted gig, and the one dress the entire world wanted to view was the one he refused to reveal ahead of the collection showcase. So, on the opening Monday of couture week, he made a deliberate choice to shift the conversation to fine art.

    Anderson’s 2024 fall haute couture collection leans into the experimental aesthetic of pioneering American artist Lynda Benglis, who rose to prominence in the late 1960s for her revolutionary process of pouring raw latex across gallery floors and allowing molten metal to fold and sag into organic, unplanned shapes. For this collection, Anderson reimagined Dior’s historic Parisian workrooms as an extension of Benglis’ studio: rather than cutting and assembling fabric through traditional couture techniques, artisans pressed, knotted and bent flat textiles into bold three-dimensional forms, mirroring Benglis’ approach to reshaping malleable raw materials. The parallel is intentional: just as Benglis bends flat, rigid material into unexpected living shapes, haute couture transforms flat fabric into wearable art.

    The collection’s pieces bring this concept to vivid life. A skirt made of layered silver-foiled petals rippled with every model step, while a strapless silver lamé gown featured an oversized structural bow that anchored the fluid silhouette. Tailored trousers and blouses were finished with sharp, hand-pressed pleats that held their sculptural shape. Even Dior’s legendary signature Bar jacket — the nipped-waist design that has anchored the house’s identity since Christian Dior launched his revolutionary New Look in 1947 — got a Benglis-inspired reimagining: one iteration came in lush fern-green tweed with a frayed raw fringe, another was cut from gray houndstooth and folded into a dramatic giant bow at the waist, and a third left loose chiffon threads trailing intentionally from the hem. Other looks were constructed entirely from hand-embroidered silk flowers, and one statement gown featured a wide fan of sky-blue tulle splayed across its entire bodice. Even accessories leaned into the aesthetic: four new metallic pleated handbags were co-designed with Benglis herself.

    The opening day of the showcase unfolded against the backdrop of a summer heat wave sweeping France, with temperatures climbing above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in Paris. Dior included handheld fans with every guest invitation, and attendees cooled off with them throughout the runway show, which was held in the lush gardens of Paris’ Musee Rodin. The star-studded front row blended A-list pop culture names, fashion icons and contemporary artists, with guests including singer Sabrina Carpenter, actor Josh O’Connor, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Nick Jonas, Naomi Watts, Rebecca Ferguson and Alexa Chung.

    Despite the celebrity fanfare, Anderson’s core gambit is clear: one of the world’s oldest and most recognizable luxury fashion houses can lean into experimental, unconventional creativity rather than relying solely on its legacy or celebrity ties. Anderson is frequently compared to Matthieu Blazy, his counterpart at rival luxury house Chanel, who recently designed the wedding dress for pop star Dua Lipa earlier that month — a garment that has also not been publicly revealed. This couture season holds a unique, almost ironic distinction: two of the biggest fashion stories of the moment are wedding gowns that no member of the public has been allowed to see.

    Staying true to longstanding couture tradition, Anderson closed the show with a bridal look. The closing gown was a pale, strapless column silhouette topped with a long veil made from hand-pleated chiffon, trimmed with delicate feathered dandelions and hand-embroidered cactus flowers. It was the second wedding dress Anderson had created this week — and it remains the only one the world has been able to see and photograph.

  • No, China did not manage to avoid a crash

    No, China did not manage to avoid a crash

    For decades through the 2010s, global economic observers widely regarded China’s economy as uniquely recession-resistant. Surviving both the 2008 global financial crisis and the 2015 domestic stock market crash and capital outflow event without recording a single quarter of negative growth, the country’s macroeconomic management strategy drew widespread fascination. As early as the late 2010s, analysts noted that Beijing had developed a distinct third tool for economic stabilization beyond the conventional monetary and fiscal policies used by most Western economies.

    Standard counter-cyclical policy relies on two levers: monetary policy, which cuts interest rates to encourage private borrowing and investment, and fiscal policy, which directs government spending directly to public projects to boost employment and aggregate demand. China, however, adds a third mechanism: direct credit policy. Leveraging state control over the country’s banking system, Beijing can order state-owned banks to expand lending rapidly during downturns, then rein in credit once growth stabilizes. When extended loans eventually default, the government steps in to remove nonperforming assets from bank balance sheets, allowing the system to continue lending and supporting growth that eventually reduces the relative size of public debt.

    Throughout the 2010s, this strategy relied heavily on directing new credit to the real estate sector, fueling what remains the largest property construction and price boom in modern history. That era of endless expansion came to an abrupt end in late 2021, when the default of industry giant Evergrande triggered a wave of bankruptcies and missed debt payments across the entire sector. Since then, property prices have fallen continuously, and housing construction activity has plummeted sharply, according to Bloomberg data.

    Yet official GDP growth figures never dipped below 3% even as the property crash unfolded. Mirroring its 2009 and 2015 playbook, Beijing ordered its state-controlled banking system to replace slowing real estate lending with a surge of new loans to manufacturing and industrial firms. The shift succeeded in keeping headline growth stable, leading some proponents of China’s managed market model to declare the strategy a resounding success. In a July 2026 social media post, economist Isabella M. Weber noted that many Wall Street analysts had predicted a 2008-style “Lehman moment” for China in 2021, but the bubble defused without a total financial collapse, arguing that this demonstrated an advantage of state-managed markets over unregulated free markets.

    Critics have long warned that this approach carries steep long-term costs: repeated credit-directed stimulus funnels capital to unproductive, politically favored firms, dragging down aggregate productivity growth. This pattern played out in the 2010s, when massive lending to real estate companies diverted resources from more productive sectors. Now, economists warn that the 2022-2024 wave of industrial lending could leave a lasting overhang of “zombie companies” that hoard labor and capital without generating meaningful economic output.

    Supporters of Beijing’s approach push back against these warnings, arguing that long-term costs are unproven, productivity is difficult to measure accurately, and any structural issues can be addressed later. They frame the outcome as a victory for China’s policy goals: successfully pivoting the economy away from excessive reliance on real estate development without triggering a broad economic contraction. Proponents of expanded state economic control in other countries have also held up China’s performance as evidence of the benefits of greater government intervention in markets.

    However, a closer look at labor market data and independent growth estimates tells a more complicated story. Despite official claims of continued stable growth, China did experience a sharp economic downturn following the property crash, and underlying growth remains far weaker than headline figures suggest.

    The first red flag appears in China’s labor market. In 2023, Beijing revised its methodology for calculating youth unemployment to use a narrower definition, after official figures hit record highs. Even with the methodological change, the youth unemployment trend has still moved upward. Official overall unemployment figures show only a small increase, but independent analysts note that these numbers are incomplete: they exclude migrant workers from rural areas, workers who have dropped out of the labor force, and people waiting to start new jobs. Alternative indicators, such as the non-manufacturing employment purchasing managers index, have remained consistently below pre-pandemic levels since the crash, and the migrant worker population has not grown at all since the COVID-19 pandemic. Record numbers of young people are now opting to pursue postgraduate education or civil service roles rather than entering the open job market, masking the true scale of weak labor demand.

    Even official GDP data contradicts claims that China avoided any quarterly contraction. China typically reports growth on a year-over-year basis, unlike the quarterly sequential reporting used in the U.S. and most other major economies. Official figures show that China’s economy contracted by 0.8% quarter-over-quarter in the second quarter of 2022, equal to an annualized contraction of more than 3% — a figure that was originally reported as a much steeper 9.3% contraction before being revised downward. Even official data confirms that current trend growth is roughly 2 percentage points lower than it was immediately before the pandemic.

    Numerous independent analyses suggest that even the revised official figures overstate growth, due to a long-standing practice of “smoothing” GDP numbers: official statistics understate growth in strong years and overstate it in weak years to present a more stable picture of economic performance. A 2016 academic study found that this practice has resulted in official data overstating actual growth by a substantial margin since 2002. Following the 2021 property crash, multiple independent research groups have reached similar conclusions.

    The Rhodium Group, a leading independent research firm focused on China, used alternative data sources to estimate that China’s economy actually contracted between 0.3% and 0.8% in 2022, compared to the official 3% growth figure, and grew only 1.5% to 2% in 2023, far below the official 5.2% reported. The Bank of Finland found that growth effectively stalled in 2022, and Capital Economics concluded that China did experience a full recession that year, even though growth has picked up moderately since. Adding to evidence of weak demand, China has slipped into deflation, with consumer prices falling into negative territory — a classic indicator of insufficient aggregate demand in a slowing economy.

    It is important to acknowledge that China’s credit-based stabilization policy represents a meaningful innovation in macroeconomic management that merits further study from policymakers around the world. Beijing succeeded in preventing the property crash from spiraling into a total financial collapse, a feat that many analysts once considered unlikely. Even so, triumphal claims that China has eliminated the business cycle and avoided any recessionary pain from the property bust do not hold up to scrutiny. Long-term productivity costs remain a major risk, and even in the short term, the downturn has been far deeper than official figures suggest. If China remains on a trajectory of permanently lower trend growth, the practice of smoothing official growth numbers will eventually become unsustainable, as there will not be enough strong growth in good years to offset the inflated numbers reported during downturns.