Global Pulse

分类： politics

  • Germany’s Merz attacks AfD in stormy debate after far-right election win

    Germany’s Merz attacks AfD in stormy debate after far-right election win

    The political landscape of Germany shifted dramatically this week, following a landmark electoral upset that has reignited fierce ideological battles in the country’s federal parliament. Just days after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) secured a sweeping victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt — capturing nearly 44% of the popular vote, while Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) saw its support cut in half to just 17.2% — Merz and AfD leader Alice Weidel faced off in their first high-stakes parliamentary debate since the election result.

    In a charged address to the Bundestag, Merz launched a scathing attack on the AfD, labeling the party a fundamental “destructive force” for German democracy and society. His sharpest criticism targeted the AfD’s flagship “remigration” policy, a hardline agenda that prioritizes mass deportations of irregular migrants and has been repeatedly flagged by Germany’s domestic intelligence service, which already classifies the Saxony-Anhalt AfD branch as a confirmed right-wing extremist movement. Merz argued that the policy would strip Germany of one-sixth of its skilled labor force, many of whom have migrant backgrounds. He called the proposal “nothing other than ethnic cleansing in the skilled trades, based on skin color and national origin.”

    Weidel, who opened the debate, struck back at Merz’s three-party coalition government with center-left Social Democrats, framing the Saxony-Anhalt result as a clear public rejection of the administration’s agenda. She told assembled MPs that voters had delivered a definitive verdict: Merz’s government was a complete failure, and its time in power had run its course. She blamed mass, unregulated migration for rising public insecurity, citing repeated incidents of knife violence in public spaces including trains and transit stations. Weidel also accused the coalition of driving Germany’s national finances toward bankruptcy, noting that the CDU had been “pulverized” at the polls in the eastern state.

    The debate quickly descended into chaos, with repeated heckling from AfD MPs that grew so disruptive that Bundestag President Julia Klöckner was forced to intervene, threatening to expel unruly members from the chamber. “We are not on a football pitch,” she warned.

    Beyond the acrimonious verbal exchange, the election result has upended decades of political convention in post-World War II Germany. No far-right party has held executive power in any of Germany’s 16 federal states since 1945, and the AfD fell three seats short of an outright parliamentary majority in Saxony-Anhalt, leaving the path to forming a state government unclear. The party has already begun exploring coalition options, opening talks that could see it govern with the left-wing populist BSW, while local AfD officials have even floated the possibility of working with Merz’s CDU — if the mainstream party abandons its longstanding “firewall” policy that bans any formal cooperation with the far-right.

    Merz rejected that prospect outright, dismissing the AfD’s claims of a mandate and accusing the party of breaking its pre-election promise to only govern if it won an outright majority. He also criticized the AfD for its pro-Russia stance, arguing that the party’s foreign policy positions actively harm German national interests, and warned that its remigration agenda would cripple core public and private services: if the policy was implemented, Merz said, not a single care home, hospital, or restaurant would be able to function normally. While he acknowledged that targeted deportations of undocumented migrants are a necessary policy, Merz stressed that the government maintains a critical distinction between people who contribute to German prosperity and those without legal permanent residency.

    Internationally, the AfD’s historic gains have already drawn high-profile praise from former U.S. President Donald Trump, who hailed the outcome as a victory for global populism. Trump linked the result to widespread public anger over what he called “absolutely horrible immigration rules and regulations” in Germany. Merz, for his part, acknowledged that the result represents a “seismic” shift that has permanently altered the country’s political terrain.

  • Colombia’s new president loosens gun control rules

    Colombia’s new president loosens gun control rules

    Just three months after winning the Colombian presidential election on a hardline anti-crime platform, President Abelardo de la Espriella has followed through on a polarizing campaign pledge by signing a executive decree rolling back long-standing restrictions on the public carry of legally owned firearms. The new order lifts a 10-year-old suspension that required even permit-holding gun owners to obtain extra, case-by-case approval before carrying their registered weapons outside the home.

    The original restriction was first introduced in December 2015 by then-president Juan Manuel Santos as a short-term temporary security measure for the Christmas and New Year holiday season. What was meant to be a brief adjustment, however, was extended annually by three successive presidents from across Colombia’s political divide: conservative Iván Duque, and left-wing Gustavo Petro, turning an emergency measure into a decade-long policy.

    Speaking at the signing ceremony, de la Espriella pushed back against criticism of the move, framing the policy shift as a matter of principle for his administration. “It is unjust that criminals are fully armed while law-abiding citizens are stripped of the right to defend themselves,” he stated, adding, “A man’s word is his honor, and I have honor — that is why I keep my campaign promises.” The president also emphasized that the new decree does not open the door to unregulated gun ownership, noting that strict background checks and permit requirements for gun ownership will remain fully in place. He argued the change merely removes a permanent restriction that was never intended to be permanent in the first place.

    According to estimates from Spanish daily newspaper El País, the policy change will impact approximately 700,000 Colombians who already hold valid carry permits for firearms. Moving forward, these permit holders will be allowed to carry their registered firearms outside their homes as long as their permits remain active and up to date.

    The announcement has drawn sharp criticism from opposition lawmakers. Ariel Ávila, a senator with the left-leaning Green Alliance Party, condemned the decree as a “serious mistake.” Ávila warned that legally held firearms will ultimately be diverted to criminal networks, arguing that only official state security forces should hold the authority to carry firearms in public as the guarantors of citizen safety, creating an ethical contradiction in the new policy.

    De la Espriella has rejected claims that the reform will undermine public safety. He countered that his administration is already aggressively targeting illegal gun possession, with security forces having seized more than 15,000 unregistered firearms so far in 2026. Most of these seized weapons, he said, were linked to breakaway factions of the former FARC rebel group and the powerful Gulf Clan transnational criminal gang, the primary sources of organized violence in the country.

  • Debt piles up for young Argentines, testing support for President Milei

    Debt piles up for young Argentines, testing support for President Milei

    BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — At 18, Martín Taborda stepped into the Faculty of Law at Argentina’s iconic University of Buenos Aires, carrying his family’s hope that he would become the first member of his household to earn a university degree. Just two years later, that ambition has collapsed under the weight of growing economic hardship.

    Unemployed and carrying $1,300 in outstanding debt, Taborda can no longer cover even the basic costs of his education: the daily bus fare from his working-class suburb to the central campus, and the textbooks required for his courses. This struggle plays out even at UBA, a tuition-free public institution that has lifted generations of working-class Argentines into the middle class.

    Taborda’s story is far from unique. Data from the Center for City Studies, an Argentine non-profit that analyzes central bank economic data, shows that nearly half of Argentina’s 45 million residents currently hold outstanding debt, with more than 5 million borrowers behind on their monthly payments. Borrowers under the age of 25 face the highest delinquency rate of any age demographic, hitting 37.6% of all young borrowers.

    “There is barely any work available for anyone in this country right now,” Taborda explained. He originally took out a $100 equivalent loan via a popular digital mobile payment app in 2024 to cover school expenses, but compound interest on missed payments swelled his balance to 10 times the original borrowed amount. Forced to depend on friends and family to get by, he described the emotional toll: “You start to feel like a parasite.”

    This growing crisis of household survival debt has emerged as a major political challenge for President Javier Milei, eroding support among the young voters who were key to his 2023 election victory, and handing Argentina’s fragmented opposition an opening to mobilize disillusioned voters ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

    Opposition lawmakers have called a special congressional session this Wednesday to debate emergency legislation, including proposals to cap predatory lending interest rates and create structured frameworks to help struggling borrowers renegotiate their outstanding balances. Labor unions and grassroots debtor advocacy groups have planned a public protest outside Congress during the debate, a direct challenge to the core principles of Milei’s radical free-market economic agenda. The shift in voter concern comes even as Milei can claim a major policy win in taming decades-high runaway inflation, with voters now prioritizing urgent struggles over jobs, stagnant wages, and household affordability.

    In their legislative proposal, left-wing lawmaker Nicolás del Caño and co-sponsors framed the bill as a necessary response to a national emergency, writing, “Households took on debt just to survive, and now they cannot repay it.”

    Milei has flatly rejected calls for government intervention, arguing that unpaid debts are a private matter between individual borrowers and lending institutions, not a symptom of broader systemic economic failure. Economy Minister Luis Caputo recently told reporters that private banks have already agreed to loosen repayment terms for struggling borrowers, but added, “We shouldn’t confuse empathy with public policy.”

    On a recent weekday afternoon, Taborda joined a group of several dozen fellow University of Buenos Aires students in an economics department classroom for a confidential support group focused on the emotional and financial toll of unmanageable student and household debt. The meeting follows the anonymity-centered structure of Alcoholics Anonymous, designed to reduce the stigma around debt distress. When the moderator asked for a show of hands on three key questions — who had bought groceries on installment payment plans, who had borrowed via digital apps to cover basic needs, and who had taken out new debt to pay off old loans — the vast majority of attendees raised their hands.

    Since taking office in late 2023 on a promise to dismantle Argentina’s decades-long discredited political and economic establishment, Milei has delivered on his core promise of cutting runaway inflation. He slashed the federal budget deficit and brought annual inflation down from a peak of 289% in early 2024 to roughly 34% by July 2025. This new macroeconomic stability has encouraged private banks to expand lending, but steep government cuts to long-standing subsidies for gas, electricity, and public transportation have driven utility and transit costs far faster than household incomes can keep up, forcing millions of Argentines to borrow just to cover daily basic needs.

    In previous eras of high inflation in Argentina, regular wage increases tied to rising prices gradually reduced the real burden of fixed loan payments. Today, slower inflation means far smaller annual pay adjustments, while sky-high borrowing costs remain in place as part of the government’s tight monetary policy designed to keep inflation in check. Digital mobile payment apps, which have become the primary lending source for low-income and young Argentines, require far less paperwork than traditional banks but charge exorbitant interest rates — often reaching three digits annually — to offset higher default risk.

    Vanesa Bittoco, a spokesperson for grassroots advocacy group Organized Debtors, which campaigns for flexible repayment plans tied to borrower incomes, explained how the nature of household borrowing has shifted dramatically in Argentina: “There was a time when people took out loans to buy a house, an apartment, a car. Now people take out loans to buy food to make it to the end of the month.”

    At the students’ debt support meeting, attendees described feeling trapped, deeply ashamed, and increasingly hopeless about their long-term futures. This psychological distress extends far beyond university campuses: data from the University of Buenos Aires’ Applied Social Psychology Observatory shows that more than 80% of adults surveyed in Buenos Aires and its surrounding suburbs in April 2025 reported that ongoing economic crisis had severely harmed their mental well-being.

    Political analysts warn that the growing household debt crisis could significantly erode Milei’s support among young voters as he campaigns for a second term in the 2027 presidential election, now just 14 months away.

    “Clearly, the current economic model is hitting young people much harder than other segments of the Argentine population,” said Ana Iparraguirre, a public opinion consultant and partner at Washington-based global strategy firm GBAO. “If this crisis continues, Milei is putting his reelection at risk with the same electorate that helped him win office.”

    Milei has shown little sympathy for struggling borrowers, publicly blaming the surge in delinquencies on irresponsible consumer spending. “They bought TVs to watch the World Cup and figured they’d decide later whether to pay,” he told a gathering of investors in the port city of Rosario last month. “Well, now they haven’t paid.”

    The debt crisis comes as Milei’s overall national approval rating has already dropped sharply. A recent nationally representative online poll of 1,500 respondents conducted by prominent Argentine pollster Zuban Córdoba put Milei’s job approval at just 33%, down from 49% in December 2025. A majority of respondents reported that they are worse off financially today than they were when Milei first took office. The poll, fielded from July 22 to 26, 2025, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

    For advocates like Bittoco, the government will be forced to act to address the crisis: “They’re going to have to provide a solution. Otherwise, they’re the ones who will have a problem.”

  • German far-right party taunts chancellor after its election triumph. He says it won’t win a majority

    German far-right party taunts chancellor after its election triumph. He says it won’t win a majority

    BERLIN – A historic electoral upset by Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has escalated into a fierce public confrontation in the federal parliament, deepening political turbulence just weeks ahead of two more key regional votes.

    Last Sunday, the AfD secured its largest-ever electoral victory in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, delivering a crippling blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which saw its voter support cut roughly in half. The outcome has cemented the AfD’s rising momentum across eastern Germany, exposing widespread public discontent with Germany’s struggling national coalition government and its failure to reverse years of sluggish economic growth. Unlike the party’s early focus centered almost exclusively on restricting immigration, analysts note the AfD has successfully broadened its appeal to tap into voter anger over a wide range of unaddressed policy failures.

    Opening the annual federal budget debate on Wednesday, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel used the upset victory to openly taunt Merz, declaring that Saxony-Anhalt’s voters did not merely punish the CDU – they “pulverized” the party. Weidel argued that Merz’s administration had completely failed to grasp the message sent by voters, adding that “your time has run out anyway. Citizens want a change of policy and they will get it.” She predicted upcoming national elections would deliver a clear governing mandate to the AfD, and pushed back against Merz’s criticism of the party’s Russia and Ukraine stance, accusing the chancellor of escalating unnecessary confrontation with Moscow to distract from his own government’s poor performance.

    A combative Merz pushed back sharply against Weidel’s taunts, acknowledging the AfD’s “remarkable” result but noting the party fell just short of the absolute majority it had campaigned for in Saxony-Anhalt. The chancellor insisted the far-right party would never secure a national governing majority, dismissing it as a “destructive force” that poses a fundamental threat to Germany’s democratic and foreign policy commitments.

    Merz zeroed in on the AfD’s longstanding opposition to military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, and its call to lift international sanctions on Russia. He accused the party of a “grotesque inversion of perpetrator and victim” in the war, noting it openly aligns with Russia even after German authorities blamed Moscow for a recent attempted drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport. The chancellor also condemned the AfD’s inflammatory “remigration” policy, which calls for mass deportations of foreign-born residents. Merz argued the term is nothing less than a coded reference to ethnic cleansing based on ancestry and skin color, warning that implementing the policy would collapse critical sectors of Germany’s economy including healthcare, hospitality and elder care. While Merz confirmed his governing coalition supports expanding deportations for undocumented residents with no legal right to stay, he drew a clear line between that policy and the AfD’s blanket call for forced expulsion.

    The AfD’s landmark victory has already drawn international attention and praise from far-right actors across the globe. Far-right nationalist parties across Europe have celebrated the result, and former U.S. President Donald Trump highlighted the upset in a post Tuesday to his Truth Social platform. Though he did not name the AfD explicitly, Trump wrote that “the Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night. They finally got tired of the absolutely horrible Immigration rules and regulations which have hurt Germany so badly. THEY ARE ON THE RISE, and not going to take it anymore!”

    The political showdown comes as Germany prepares for two more regional elections on September 20, to be held in Berlin and the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Polling has long shown the CDU is deeply unpopular in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, while the AfD already holds strong support in the state, raising fears among mainstream parties of another far-right upset that would further erode the CDU’s standing nationally.

  • ‘Stolen valor’: Trump’s 9/11 story draws scorn as fabrication

    ‘Stolen valor’: Trump’s 9/11 story draws scorn as fabrication

    As the United States prepares for annual September 11 remembrance events, two overlapping political controversies have erupted, centered on conflicting reactions to two figures’ involvement in this week’s memorial activities. While Republican leaders have rushed to condemn New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s planned attendance at 9/11 commemorations solely on the basis of his Muslim faith, former U.S. President Donald Trump has ignited widespread public fury after repeating a deeply dubious, seemingly invented account of personal heroism during the 2001 terrorist attack aftermath.

    Trump shared the elaborate tale during an appearance Tuesday before an audience that included more than 100 first responders. He claimed that shortly after the attack, he traveled to Ground Zero and brought a crew of his own construction workers to assist in recovery efforts. According to Trump’s account, he found himself in danger when the U.S. Steel Building (now renamed One Liberty Plaza), which was widely feared at the time could collapse, began to creak heavily. He recalled that two large firefighters, convinced the structure was about to fall, grabbed him under the arms, lifted him off the ground, and carried him to safety, despite his protest that he could run on his own. “This is not easy to do. I’m big,” Trump added of the anecdote.

    This is not the first time Trump has shared variations of this story; he first told a version of the claim during his 2016 presidential campaign, and has repeatedly asserted he was on site at Ground Zero in the immediate hours after the attack. But nearly every detail of the new account contradicts public records and testimony from first responders who actually led recovery operations at Ground Zero.

    Trump’s own words from the day of the attack undermine his current claims. On September 11, 2001, he told WWOR-TV he was watching the attack unfold from his Trump Tower office, located four miles from the World Trade Center, and infamously and incorrectly boasted that he now owned the tallest building in lower Manhattan after the twin towers collapsed. While documentation confirms he was a few blocks from Ground Zero on September 13, 2001, his long-running claims that he deployed 100 construction workers to the site and personally assisted in recovery efforts have been repeatedly debunked.

    In 2019, Richard Alles, a New York City Fire Department battalion chief who arrived on scene just 20 minutes after the second tower collapsed and spent months working on recovery, told fact-checking outlet PolitiFact he had never heard of any Trump construction crew assisting at Ground Zero. “I was there for several months—I have no knowledge of his being down there,” Alles said. He added that all recovery work was directly overseen by police, fire, and emergency command, and a crew of 100 workers would have left a clear paper and on-site record. No record of such a deployment has ever emerged.

    Neither of the two firefighters who supposedly carried Trump to safety has ever publicly confirmed the incident, which Trump also never mentioned in any interviews in the weeks and years immediately after the attack. Outlets including The Associated Press and The Washington Post have repeatedly requested evidence to back up Trump’s 9/11 claims, and have never received a response.

    This fabricated anecdote is far from Trump’s first false claim related to the 9/11 attacks. He has previously falsely claimed he saw thousands of Muslim residents in Jersey City cheering as the towers fell, and that he personally predicted the attack in one of his books. He also misled the public about his charitable giving to 9/11 victims: he publicly pledged $10,000 to a 2001 recovery fund that the New York City comptroller later confirmed was never donated, and only gave $100,000 to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum more than 15 years after the attack. A 2016 New York Daily News investigation also found that Trump’s business empire received $150,000 in post-9/11 disaster relief meant for affected businesses, claiming the funds for lost rent, cleanup, and repairs despite his later assertion the money was compensation for letting victims shelter in his 40 Wall Street property.

    Journalist Ron Filipkowski, who first highlighted the latest false anecdote, framed the story as a new instance of what he calls Trump’s “stolen valor,” noting he was stunned by the level of detail in the invented tale. “I know he’s lied about his non-role in 9/11 rescue and recovery before, but never this level of detail,” Filipkowski said. “Trump could have made the ceremony with 9/11 first responders today about the many heroes who died attempting to rescue people and others who risked their lives and long-term health. But instead, he created a fictitious event featuring himself, who did nothing, as the hero of 9/11.”

    Critics have also highlighted a glaring double standard at play among Republican leaders, who have expressed public outrage over Mamdani’s planned attendance at Friday’s memorial events. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is among the top Republicans criticizing Mamdani’s participation, solely because of the mayor’s Muslim faith. Observers have pointed out that the same figures who claim offense at Mamdani’s involvement have remained silent on Trump’s fabricated story.

    “The people mad about the Mayor of New York attending the 9/11 event must be ENRAGED that Trump just lied about being at ground zero on 9/11,” Tim Fullerton, a former digital strategist for the Obama administration, wrote on X. “This is all about honoring the victims and not just to score points. Right???”

    The controversy comes as Mamdani this week released roughly 170,000 pages of public records showing that Giuliani’s mayoral administration deliberately misled New Yorkers about the severity of toxic air quality near Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attack, a decision that exposed thousands of first responders and recovery workers to dangerous long-term health risks.

  • UK, France, Canada move to ban imports from Israeli settlements

    UK, France, Canada move to ban imports from Israeli settlements

    On Tuesday, three major Western nations — the United Kingdom, France, and Canada — announced coordinated action to ban imports of goods and restrict selected services originating from illegal Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, where Palestinian communities have faced escalating levels of violence, displacement, and death at the hands of Israeli settlers and military forces under the explicit backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government.

    Addressing the House of Commons, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband framed the move as a rejection of international inaction, stating, “Today, we refuse to be bystanders to further suffering and to the destruction of the two-state solution.” Miliband pointed directly to the Israeli government’s recent greenlighting of new settlement construction projects that would displace entire Palestinian communities, cutting a swathe of settlements between East Jerusalem and the broader West Bank that carves the heart out of any contiguous future Palestinian state.

    Miliband delivered what is being characterized as the UK government’s sharpest rebuke of Israeli policy in the West Bank to date, saying, “Let’s be clear what this means: the creation of a set of facts on the ground to make the two-state solution unviable.” He added, “The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank – perpetrated by settler terrorists. And all too often the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and worse, members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians.”

    Under the new measures, the UK will target entities and individuals that provide key supporting services for settlement expansion, including construction, infrastructure development, financing, and real estate services, with penalties for any actors that fund or enable the growth of illegal settlements. Miliband confirmed the sanctions regime will be fully implemented within six to nine months.

    Miliband emphasized the UK was not acting unilaterally, confirming that France and Canada are joining the initiative to ban settlement goods imports, alongside a growing bloc of European nations that includes the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, and Norway, all of which have either already implemented bans or are in the process of rolling them out.

    French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot explained his nation’s decision in a social media post, noting the West Bank is “on the brink of explosion” due to “unchecked expansion of colonization in violation of international law, surge in violence perpetrated by extremist settlers against Palestinians, acts of terror denounced by the Israeli authorities themselves.” Barrot added, “France cannot, through its trade, support a situation that threatens the security of Israelis and Palestinians alike, as well as peace and stability in the region. Europe must uphold the same imperative.”

    The coordinated announcement was backed by a joint statement released Tuesday by the foreign ministers of 12 nations: the UK, France, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. The statement warned the West Bank is “rapidly deteriorating amid unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for the E1 settlement project” — a highly contentious planned settlement bloc that would further fragment Palestinian territory.

    The 12 ministers confirmed their “intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements which are illegal under international law, or that they are actively considering these and other measures, in accordance with their national procedures.” The statement added that the three lead nations welcome prior action taken by Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium, and will move forward with national bans on trade in goods produced in illegal settlements. It also called on the Israeli government to “immediately halt the expansion of settlements and civilian administrative powers, ensure accountability for settler violence, and investigate allegations against Israeli forces.”

    Human rights and pro-Palestinian advocacy groups have broadly welcomed the new measures, though many argue the bans represent only an initial step that must be followed by far broader action to confront Israel’s illegal annexation efforts in the West Bank and alleged crimes against humanity across Palestinian territories, including the besieged and war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

    Nick Dearden, director of UK-based advocacy organization Global Justice Now, noted the announcement followed years of grassroots organizing by campaigners and Palestinian activists. “Today’s announcement is the result of many years of work by campaigners and Palestinians themselves fighting to end severe injustice,” Dearden said. “We know this move will be very popular in Britain. But it must be just the beginning. How can we cooperate with a military guilty of the most serious abuses of international law? How can we trade with a country that stands accused of genocide at the world’s highest court?”

    Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the global Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, characterized the UK’s sanctions as largely symbolic, but acknowledged the move reflects growing public pressure on Western governments to take action. Barghouti noted that under International Court of Justice rulings, the UK is legally required to end all complicity with the State of Israel’s illegal occupation, not just target activities linked to settlements. “While Miliband says, ‘We will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution,’ he has not said how the UK will stop its active contribution to the Israeli-US led destruction of the international legal system and the drive towards a might-makes-right order,” Barghouti added.

    Israeli and U.S. officials issued furious pushback against the new measures. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s extremist national security minister, called for the permanent closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem, while Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded the expulsion of the British ambassador to Israel.

    Mike Huckabee, the conservative U.S. ambassador to Israel, labeled the UK’s trade ban “discrimination against the Jewish people” and suggested individual U.S. states, including Florida, could implement retaliatory trade measures against the UK. Florida Republican Congressman Randy Fine, a hardline pro-Israel lawmaker, echoed that threat, noting Florida is one of the UK’s largest U.S. trading partners and signaling the state could move to boycott British goods in response.

  • Norway to bid final farewell to King Harald V with funeral attended by royalty and dignitaries

    Norway to bid final farewell to King Harald V with funeral attended by royalty and dignitaries

    OSLO, Norway — On Wednesday, Norway gathered to lay to rest one of its most beloved modern monarchs, King Harald V, in a state funeral drawing royalty, heads of state, and senior officials from across the globe. The ceremony capped a week of national mourning for the 89-year-old ruler, who died on August 28 and left behind a 35-year legacy of institutional modernization that cemented the monarchy’s place in Norwegian public life.

    King Harald, who stood as Europe’s oldest serving monarch at the time of his death, broke with a growing trend among older European royals by declining to abdicate the throne during his lifetime. Just days after his passing, his son Haakon VIII immediately succeeded to the crown and took a formal oath of allegiance to Norway’s constitution in a ceremony held in parliament last week, securing a smooth transition of constitutional power.

    In the hours leading up to Wednesday’s funeral service, preparations unfolded across central Oslo in a display of solemn military pageantry. Norwegian soldiers, standard-bearers carrying the national flag, and a military marching band formed up along a broad city boulevard adorned with Norwegian flags, stepping in time to steady drumbeats and the rhythmic clatter of horses’ hooves. Additional troops were posted outside the Royal Palace, where thousands of well-wishers had already turned out to lay flowers in tribute, creating a dense, vibrant floral memorial to the late king.

    Across the country, Norwegians organized to make the historic event accessible to all members of the public. Public broadcaster NRK confirmed that hundreds of churches, public libraries, cultural centers, and municipal government buildings had installed large public screens to broadcast the funeral ceremony for those unable to travel to Oslo. Mass crowds converged on the capital for the service, prompting local authorities to close the entire downtown area to motor vehicles and electric scooters; police also issued public guidance banning bicycles, umbrellas, and sharp objects from the event area for security reasons.

    In the days leading up to the funeral, more than 46,000 Norwegians queued for hours to pay their respects as the king’s coffin lay in state in the Royal Palace chapel. Over the weekend, wait times to pass the casket stretched to seven hours at their peak, a testament to the widespread affection and respect Norwegians held for their long-serving monarch.

    The guest list for Wednesday’s ceremony reflected the deep family and diplomatic ties the Norwegian royal house maintains with royal and state institutions across the globe. Attending dignitaries included reigning monarchs from Sweden, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Jordan, alongside heir to the British throne Prince William and Japan’s Crown Prince Akishino. Multiple European presidents also joined the service, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in attendance — a visit that included a pre-funeral meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on Tuesday to discuss ongoing developments in the war in Ukraine. The United States was represented by Allison Hooker, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

    The formal funeral service inside Oslo Cathedral will open with a nationwide minute of silence, followed by eulogies delivered by Norway’s parliament speaker and prime minister. A multifaith candle-lighting ceremony, featuring representatives from religious communities across the country, will also be held as part of the service.

    While the Norwegian government has not designated the funeral as an official national holiday, it has encouraged individual schools and employers to permit students and staff to watch the proceedings, with guidance that all noisy public activity should be paused for the duration of the ceremony.

    Following the cathedral service, King Harald’s coffin will be carried in a formal procession to the royal chapel at Akershus Castle, the centuries-old resting place of the late king’s royal ancestors. After a private ceremony for the Norwegian royal family, joined by visiting foreign dignitaries and senior Norwegian government officials, the coffin will be interred in the castle’s royal crypt.

    Norway’s monarchy traces its unbroken lineage back to King Harald Fairhair, who unified the country in the 9th century. When Norway regained full independence from Sweden in 1905, a national referendum saw three-quarters of voters endorse the restoration of the monarchy as the country’s constitutional form of head of state. Today, the Norwegian royal family maintains close blood ties to most other European royal houses: both King Harald and his successor King Haakon are direct descendants of Britain’s Queen Victoria, sharing that lineage with King Charles III of the United Kingdom and King Felipe VI of Spain.

    While the modern Norwegian monarchy holds a largely ceremonial role, with full governing power vested in the country’s elected parliament and government, the institution remains a key soft power asset, helping to promote Norway’s global profile as one of the world’s wealthiest and most stable Scandinavian nations.

  • Trump administration sanctions all Iranian airlines in aviation crackdown

    Trump administration sanctions all Iranian airlines in aviation crackdown

    On a Tuesday announcement, the Trump administration rolled out a new round of punitive measures targeting 27 Iranian air carriers, part of a broader campaign to block the Tehran government from moving weapons, military personnel and undeclared illicit cargo, according to an official statement released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

    This new action forms the core of Operation Economic Outcast, an expanded sanctions initiative that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says is designed to cut off Iran’s access to the interconnected global economy. The United States first imposed sanctions on a major Iranian commercial airline, Mahan Air, back in 2011, marking the start of this targeted pressure campaign on Iran’s aviation sector.

    “Let this be a warning to anyone doing business with Iran’s remaining airlines, all of which we sanctioned today: You are at risk of being cut off from the global financial system,” Bessent stated during Tuesday’s press briefing. Among the newly sanctioned carriers are prominent Iranian aviation operators including Ava Airlines, Fly Persia, and Mehr Airways.

    In total, the Treasury added 36 distinct entities and individuals to its blacklist. Beyond the air carriers, the designation also covers what the department describes as covert front companies, foreign-based intermediaries, and deceptive transshipment networks that Iran leverages to acquire U.S.-manufactured aircraft and sensitive aviation technology. Notable non-Iranian entities named include the United Arab Emirates-based ECT Aviation Support LLC, its Egyptian chief executive Ibrahim Ali Mohamed Mohamed Mahran, and Turkey-based logistics firm Sky Phoenix.

    To back up the new sanctions, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a global advisory calling on financial institutions worldwide to flag transactions linked to procurement networks that support Iran’s aviation industry. Meanwhile, the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control moved to suspend existing authorizations that previously allowed non-U.S. airlines to operate routes or use U.S.-built aircraft that eventually enter Iranian airspace. The change is expected to complicate travel for Iranian Americans with family based in Iran and cuts off the Tehran government from collecting critical overflight fees from international carriers.

    The Treasury emphasized its broad enforcement scope: “Any person that assists Iran’s aviation sector, from the provision of general sales agent services through to support to Iran’s covert aircraft procurement schemes, will be held accountable.” All sanctioned individuals and entities will have any U.S.-based assets frozen, lose access to the U.S.-dominated global banking system, and face prohibitions on any transactions with U.S. persons and permanent residents.

    This latest round of sanctions builds on an initiative Bessent launched just one month prior, when he announced a new sweeping pressure campaign targeting Iran and its international partners, aimed at what he called the “asphyxiation of this regime” amid rising tensions over the Strait of Hormuz. Speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C., Bessent framed the pressure as a stark choice for Iranian leadership: “Iran now faces a very clear choice, with only two paths before them: complete global isolation and a subsistence economy, or a path back to normalcy with an opportunity to rejoin the global economy.”

    To date, the Trump administration has consistently tightened sanctions on Iran since its first term starting in 2017, and no concrete details have been released on how “a path to normalcy” would be structured or what concessions would be required from Tehran. Bessent made clear the goal of the new operation is to eliminate all alternatives for the Iranian regime: “We are launching Operation Economic Outcast to foreclose every other option available to the Iranian regime. America is no longer managing the Iranian threat. We are ending it.”

    Bessent added that the Treasury has taken what he calls a “zero-leakage approach” to mapping Iranian sanctions evasion networks, saying officials have mapped every node, facilitator, and network Iran has used to smuggle oil and bypass existing international restrictions. He also confirmed that President Donald Trump has already held phone calls with global heads of state, issuing specific requests for those countries to end all commercial and diplomatic interactions with the Iranian regime, though he declined to name the countries involved.

    When pressed by reporters on why the sanctions are not being enforced with immediate effect globally, Bessent pushed back on the idea of immediate universal implementation, asking: “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” He explained that all countries have been given a clear timeline to wind down the activities identified by U.S. officials, and added: “If they do not take action, we will do so unilaterally through Treasury authorities.”

    This report was originally prepared by independent outlet Middle East Eye, which specializes in original coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa, and broader global affairs related to the region.

  • Hong Kong’s first post-colonial leader dies aged 89

    Hong Kong’s first post-colonial leader dies aged 89

    Tung Chee-hwa, the trailblazing first chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after the 1997 handover that ended over 150 years of British colonial rule, has passed away at the age of 89. According to local Hong Kong media reports, he died on Tuesday night with his family at his side.

    Born in Shanghai in 1937, Tung built a diverse life trajectory spanning global business and historic public service. After earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, he relocated to the United States, where he spent nearly a decade working for industrial giant General Electric. He returned to Asia and settled in Hong Kong in 1969 to join his family’s prominent shipping enterprise, Orient Overseas, and assumed leadership of the conglomerate in 1979 following his father’s passing.

    Tung’s entry into formal politics came in 1992, when he was appointed to the executive council of Chris Patten, the final British governor of Hong Kong. Despite limited prior electoral political experience, Tung was widely identified as Beijing’s preferred candidate to lead the newly returned Hong Kong, a signal cemented by a high-profile 1996 handshake with then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin at a Beijing reception that was captured by global photographers. This backing came amid longstanding ties to the mainland: in the mid-1980s, Chinese state-owned banks stepped in to rescue Tung’s family shipping business during a global industry downturn, cementing his reputation as a loyal ally of Beijing.

    When the handover was finalized in July 1997, Tung officially took office, succeeding Patten to become the first leader of Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty. His tenure was immediately tested by cascading crises that shaped his administration. Just months after taking office, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis sent Hong Kong’s property market into a steep nosedive, straining household finances and public confidence. His administration later faced two major public health emergencies: a multi-year bird flu outbreak between 1997 and 2002, followed by the 2003 SARS epidemic that killed hundreds in the city and brought daily life to a standstill.

    The most significant political challenge of Tung’s tenure came in July 2003, during his second term, when an estimated half a million Hong Kong residents marched in mass protests against a proposed local national security law that opponents warned would erode civil liberties and the city’s promised high degree of autonomy. In response to widespread public outcry, Tung’s administration shelved the draft legislation. The unrest, combined with other pressures, contributed to Tung’s early departure from office in March 2005. While Tung cited declining personal health as the reason for his resignation, many outside observers have long speculated that he was pressured to step down by Beijing authorities. A national security law for Hong Kong was ultimately imposed directly by Beijing in 2020; the measure has been defended by Chinese and Hong Kong authorities as critical to upholding national security and social stability, but decried by critics as a move that has dismantled Hong Kong’s civil freedoms and created a pervasive climate of political fear.

    After leaving office, Tung remained out of the public eye for most of his later years. His last confirmed public appearance was in July 2021, at an event marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. Just months after that event, Tung underwent heart surgery, according to local reporting.

    In an official statement following his death, Tung’s office remembered him as a leader deeply devoted to the country and its people. “His noble character and integrity will live on forever in our hearts,” the statement read. He is survived by his wife and three children.

  • US slaps import ban on Canadian alcohol and other goods

    US slaps import ban on Canadian alcohol and other goods

    The long-simmering trade dispute between the United States and Canada has entered a dangerous new phase, with Washington moving to implement a full ban on a range of key Canadian imports after Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs on American goods officially came into force.

    In a set of executive orders signed Tuesday, former US President Donald Trump claimed that Canada has de facto discriminated against American commercial activity, and formalized the import ban set to launch on September 29. The restricted products cover a wide swath of Canadian trade, including alcohol, dairy products and passenger and commercial motor vehicles.

    Just hours before Trump’s announcement, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a televised video address acknowledging the harsh reality of his country’s strategic shift to reduce economic dependence on its largest trading partner. “This pivot will come at a cost,” Carney told the Canadian public, as the country prepared to roll out its retaliatory measures.

    The latest escalation follows the collapse of trade negotiations between the two neighbors in late August. While officials from both sides have repeatedly stated that they remain open to reaching a new negotiated agreement, no new diplomatic talks have been scheduled to de-escalate the crisis.

    The conflict first intensified last month, when the White House imposed a steep 50% tariff on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian exports after multiple rounds of talks failed to bridge core differences. In a tit-for-tat response, Canada announced matching dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on iconic American exports including steel, apparel and furniture, which officially went into effect just after midnight on Tuesday.

    What makes this bilateral clash even more unusual is that tensions have spilled far beyond the realm of trade policy. In August, Trump drew widespread international backlash when he issued an order to rename Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes shared between the US and Canada, to “Lake America” — a decision that sparked public uproar among both Canadian citizens and many American commentators.

    This is an ongoing developing breaking news story, with additional details expected to be released in the coming hours and days. Readers can access real-time updates via the BBC News mobile application, or follow BBC Breaking News’ official account on X for instant alerts on new developments.