Global Pulse

分类： politics

  • Trump signs order to create voter eligibility lists, restrict mail ballots

    Trump signs order to create voter eligibility lists, restrict mail ballots

    Less than 24 hours after the formal signing ceremony held in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., a new executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at overhauling core parts of the nation’s election administration has ignited immediate political and legal firestorm across the country. Dated March 31, 2026, the directive marks the second major executive action Trump has taken to reshape voting procedures since he returned to office, following a 2025 order that was largely blocked by federal courts.

    Under the terms of the new order, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is mandated to work in direct partnership with the Social Security Administration to assemble comprehensive, state-by-state rosters of voters who have been formally confirmed as U.S. citizens aged 18 and older, the minimum voting age in the country. Once compiled, these national voter eligibility lists will be turned over to state-level election authorities for use in verifying who is eligible to cast ballots in federal elections.

    Beyond creating centralized eligibility rolls, the order also imposes new restrictions on mail-in and absentee voting, a method of voting that has been the subject of fierce partisan debate in U.S. politics for years. The U.S. Postal Service is instructed to only deliver ballot packages to voters whose names appear on the state-approved eligibility lists compiled under the new federal framework. Additionally, all election mail will be required to use official, pre-marked envelopes with tracking barcodes to monitor delivery and confirm receipt by election officials.

    The move has triggered swift pushback from legal experts, election administrators, voting rights advocates and Democratic party officials, nearly all of whom question the foundational legality of the order. Under the U.S. Constitution, authority over the administration of federal, state and local elections is primarily granted to individual state governments, with limited rule-setting power reserved for Congress. Legal analysts widely agree that the executive order oversteps federal authority granted under the Constitution, making it vulnerable to being struck down by the courts.

    Within hours of the order being signed, voting rights organizations and Democratic leaders from multiple states announced they would immediately file legal challenges to block the directive from taking effect. This latest effort to alter election rules follows a similar executive order Trump issued in 2025, which sought to tighten voter registration requirements and stop the counting of ballots that arrive after Election Day. Courts ultimately blocked key provisions of that 2025 order, a precedent that opponents of the new directive say suggests a similar outcome is likely this time around.

  • Peter Magyar, the former Orban ally vying for power in Hungary

    Peter Magyar, the former Orban ally vying for power in Hungary

    As Hungary gears up for its 12 April parliamentary elections, the political landscape of the Central European nation has been upended by a surprising challenger whose rapid rise has sent shockwaves through Viktor Orban’s long-dominant ruling party. Forty-five-year-old Peter Magyar, a one-time insider within Orban’s Fidesz party who only entered full opposition politics two years ago, now stands as the most serious threat to Orban’s 16 consecutive years in power since the prime minister first won office in 2010. Opinion polls currently place Magyar within striking distance of an election victory.\n\nMagyar’s campaign has been defined by relentless energy and a urgent, nationally rooted message. Borrowing his original slogan “Now or Never” from a 19th-century Hungarian revolutionary poet’s rallying cry for national independence, he has condensed the message to just “Now” on campaign materials, crossing out the “or Never” to amplify the sense that this is Hungary’s critical moment for change. Over the course of the campaign, he has crisscrossed every corner of the country, with plans to visit all 106 of Hungary’s parliamentary constituencies, delivering up to six public speeches a day. Over more than two years of grassroots organizing, he has built a robust support base even in the small towns and rural villages that have long been Fidesz’s strongest electoral strongholds. In 2024, he completed a 300-kilometer walk from Budapest to the Romanian border, framing the journey as an effort to “reunite” a divided nation and win over disillusioned traditional Fidesz voters.\n\nMagyar’s break from the party he once belonged to did not come out of nowhere, but it was accelerated by a high-profile 2024 political scandal that brought down two of Fidesz’s top female leaders. Before February 2024, Magyar was deeply embedded in the Fidesz political machine: he joined the party as a university student in 2002, married rising Fidesz star Judit Varga (who would later become Hungary’s justice minister), and held a series of key positions, including a diplomatic posting to Hungary’s permanent mission in Brussels, leadership of Fidesz’s European Parliament negotiating team, and board seats on multiple state-owned enterprises.\n\nThe scandal that shattered Fidesz’s ranks erupted when Hungarian President Katalin Novak granted a pardon to an official who helped cover up systemic sexual abuse at a state-run children’s home. Public outrage forced Novak to resign, and Varga – who had co-signed the pardon as justice minister and was slated to lead Fidesz’s 2024 European election campaign – was also forced to step down, ending her rising political career within the party. With his ex-wife pushed out of Fidesz and their marriage having already ended in 2023, Magyar made a bombshell move: he appeared live on a leading pro-opposition YouTube channel Partizán to publicly renounce the Fidesz leadership. The interview, watched by more than a million viewers in a country of just 9.6 million people, instantly went viral.\n\n”Everyone warned me against it – friends, family, people I’ve known for years,” Magyar told the host during the interview. “I’ve been inside this system, inside this circle, for a very long time.” In a subsequent Facebook post, he declared he would no longer remain part of a system where top leaders hid behind female subordinates to take the blame for their mistakes. Speaking to the BBC after the interview, Magyar noted that his disillusionment with Fidesz had grown gradually over years: “The Fidesz we see today is very, very different from the one I joined in 2002. For a long time, I accepted the argument that holding power required the compromises they made. But 2024 became the turning point.” He also acknowledged he feared for the future of his three children after making the leap into opposition, but said the need for change outweighed those personal risks.\n\nA month after his viral interview, on Hungary’s 15 March national holiday marking the 1848 revolution against Habsburg rule, Magyar cemented his status as the leading opposition voice. While Orban delivered a fiery speech from Budapest’s National Museum attacking the European Union and calling for Hungary to “occupy Brussels,” Magyar addressed a crowd of an estimated 10,000 supporters, accusing Fidesz of widespread systemic corruption and economic mismanagement. He used the event to announce the formation of his new political movement, later taking over a small dormant party called Tisza to qualify for elections. He further escalated his attacks by releasing a secretly recorded 2023 conversation with his ex-wife that referenced a high-profile corruption trial, a move that drew condemnation from Varga, who accused him of abuse – a charge Magyar has repeatedly denied. Orban’s inner circle has attacked Magyar as a traitor who betrayed his family first, then his country, framing him as a proxy for Brussels. Orban himself has downplayed the challenge, dismissing Magyar simply as “someone who left Fidesz.”\n\nDespite the attacks, Magyar’s political momentum proved unstoppable. In the 2024 European Parliament elections, Tisza won 29.6% of the national vote and seven seats, finishing behind Fidesz’s 44.8% but demonstrating that Magyar could draw significant support away from the ruling party. By autumn 2024, Tisza had pulled ahead of Fidesz in national opinion polls. During commemorations of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising last year, Magyar led a rival march to Orban’s, directly challenging the prime minister’s long-standing close ties to the Kremlin. He pointedly asked Orban, who rose to political prominence calling for Soviet troops to withdraw from Hungary in 1989: “Mr. Prime Minister, why won’t you say ‘Russians go home’ any more?” He accused Orban of betraying the legacy of 1956 to remain what he called “the Kremlin’s most loyal ally,” pushing back against Orban’s framing of Tisza as a “warmonger” movement carrying out a “Brussels war agenda.”\n\nA key factor in Magyar’s rise is his positioning as a non-liberal alternative to Orban, unlike the fragmented liberal opposition that repeatedly failed to unseat the prime minister in previous elections. Magyar has openly criticized the old liberal opposition, dismissing former Socialist leader Ferenc Gyurcsany as no better than Orban, and has systematically consolidated anti-Orban support under his own banner. He has also directly confronted the pro-Orban media outlets that dominate Hungary’s media landscape, going public early this year to reveal an alleged Russian-style smear and honey-trap campaign targeting him.\n\nMagyar announced that intelligence operatives had leaked surveillance footage implying he had used drugs during a private meeting with an ex-girlfriend. He pre-empted the leak by acknowledging he had consensual sex with the woman but denied any drug use, calling the incident a set-up by state security services. He subsequently passed multiple drug tests to prove his innocence, and none of the corruption or personal scandals that Orban’s camp has leveled against him have damaged his public support to date.\n\nAs a former insider, Magyar argues he has a unique advantage over Orban: he knows the ruling party’s tactics and vulnerabilities intimately. “I know them, I know their tricks, and I know they are terrified,” he told reporters. For Hungarians, he says, this election is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change the course of the country after 16 years of Orban’s rule. \n\nOn policy, Magyar has centered his campaign on promises to root out systemic corruption, revitalize Hungary’s stagnant economy, reach out to the country’s marginalized Roma community, and unlock billions of euros in frozen EU development funds that have been withheld due to Brussels’ concerns over rule of law erosion under Orban. For his part, Orban has campaigned on framing Magyar as a puppet of the EU and Kyiv, positioning himself as the champion of national sovereignty and a “real party of peace” amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

  • Key suspect in cross-border gambling, fraud syndicate repatriated from Cambodia to China

    Key suspect in cross-border gambling, fraud syndicate repatriated from Cambodia to China

    China’s Ministry of Public Security confirmed on Wednesday that a high-profile key figure connected to a large transnational criminal network focused on illegal gambling and telecom fraud has been successfully sent back to Chinese territory from Cambodia. The suspect, identified as Li Xiong, is considered a core member of the operation that victimized countless individuals through illegal financial scams and unregulated gambling activities, according to official statements.

    This repatriation marks a significant milestone in China’s ongoing coordinated crackdown on cross-border organized crime, which has increasingly targeted criminal syndicates that operate across international borders to avoid domestic law enforcement. Criminal networks involved in transnational fraud and illegal gambling have long posed major threats to public safety and financial stability both in China and neighboring Southeast Asian nations, prompting bilateral law enforcement cooperation to dismantle these operations and bring fugitive suspects to justice.

    The handover of Li Xiong underscores the growing collaborative relationship between Chinese and Cambodian law enforcement agencies in addressing shared transnational security challenges. For years, these criminal syndicates have exploited gaps in cross-border regulation to run large-scale scams that steal billions of yuan from Chinese residents and global victims annually, making coordinated repatriation efforts a critical component of regional anti-crime initiatives.

    This operation aligns with China’s broader national strategy to combat transnational telecommunications fraud, online gambling, and other cross-border criminal activities that harm public interests. Chinese law enforcement officials have repeatedly emphasized that the country will continue to work with international partners to track down fugitive criminal suspects operating overseas, ensuring that no offenders can evade justice by fleeing beyond national borders.

  • Trump underestimated Iran’s resilience, gutting his exit options

    Trump underestimated Iran’s resilience, gutting his exit options

    One month into the military conflict launched by the United States and Israel against Iran, the two nations have yet to articulate a clear, coherent justification for their offensive, outline measurable strategic objectives, or lay out a viable exit strategy—even as they continue to claim steady military progress on the battlefield. What was supposed to be a quick, decisive campaign has instead dragged the entire Middle East into an avoidable, open-ended confrontation, after Iran mounted a far stronger coordinated response than Washington and Tel Aviv ever anticipated.

    When former U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greenlit the offensive, they fundamentally misjudged both the ideological cohesion of Iran’s ruling system and its decades-built defensive capacity. They never expected Tehran to respond with a level of preparedness unmatched in the regime’s modern history: launching coordinated strikes against U.S. military installations across the Persian Gulf, dealing heavy blows to Israeli civilian and military infrastructure, and partially or fully closing the Strait of Hormuz—triggering global oil and gas shortages that have already sent shockwaves through the world economy.

    Driven by an overreliance on overwhelming military superiority, the U.S. and Israeli leadership bet that air and sea power would force Iran’s Islamic government to surrender quickly, clearing the way for a pro-Western regime change led by the Iranian people. That outcome has not materialized, and now a clear military victory grows more out of reach by the day. For Trump, the only viable path forward is a sharp pivot to diplomacy—and pressure on Netanyahu to follow suit.

    ### The Roots of Iran’s Unexpected Resilience

    Before the outbreak of war, Iran’s ruling regime faced steep headwinds: intense domestic pressure and widespread international condemnation following its violent crackdown on mass public protests that left thousands of Iranians dead. It was also reeling from Israel’s systematic weakening of its key regional proxies, particularly Hamas and Hezbollah, and the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s long-standing allied regime in Syria.

    Even as Tehran remained distrustful of Trump’s administration, it had agreed to re-enter negotiations over its contentious nuclear program, with a widely reported breakthrough on the horizon. Omani mediators announced in late February that a final deal was within reach, before the U.S.-Israeli offensive derailed the process. Far from crippling the regime, the unprovoked invasion gave Iran’s government an opening to showcase the defensive resilience it had spent 40 years building.

    Iran’s governing, security, and command structures were explicitly designed to withstand the loss of top leaders and commanders. The regime proved this endurance during the 1980s, when it survived internal dissent, an eight-year full-scale war with Iraq, decades of U.S. containment, and open hostility from most of its regional neighbors. It has outlasted widespread public discontent, theocratic governance frictions, and repeated policy failures, thanks to three core structural strengths: deep ideological commitment to revolutionary Islamism among Iran’s large Shia population, a rare combination of ideological rigidity and pragmatic policy flexibility, and a deeply entrenched, dedicated security, intelligence, and administrative bureaucracy whose own survival is tied directly to the regime’s survival.

    While many Iranians have long pushed for political change at home, the vast majority remain deeply proud of their nation’s millennia-old cultural and civilizational heritage, and uniformly reject foreign aggression, occupation, and humiliation of their country. This nationalist sentiment is what has driven widespread popular rallying around the regime, a pattern that repeats throughout Iranian history when the nation faces external attack.

    ### A War of Attrition No Side Can Win Quickly

    Fully aware it cannot match the conventional firepower of the U.S. and Israeli militaries, Iran has deployed a creative, asymmetrical “mosaic defense” strategy tailored to exploit the weaknesses of its adversaries. This approach includes targeting vulnerable U.S. bases across the Persian Gulf with precision drones and missiles, and decentralizing command structures to ensure leadership can be quickly replaced if top officials are killed in strikes.

    Tehran has also received critical external support: Russia and China have supplied dual-use technologies and maintained oil import revenues to keep Iran’s economy functioning, and multiple intelligence reports confirm Russia has shared real-time intelligence on the location of U.S. assets in the region. Even with their capabilities degraded, Iran’s regional proxies remain active and capable of opening new fronts: Hezbollah has launched sustained attacks on northern Israel, while Yemeni Houthis have joined the conflict and are preparing to disrupt commercial shipping through the Red Sea.

    Taken together, these factors add up to a clear reality: the Iranian government is committed to denying the U.S. and Israel any form of victory, at any cost. What began as a planned quick strike has devolved into a prolonged war of endurance with no clear military end in sight.

    ### Negotiated Settlement is the Only Path Forward

    It remains impossible to predict how long all three parties will sustain the conflict, but current conditions have drastically narrowed the window for a diplomatic resolution. Iran has shown no willingness to surrender core demands, and the U.S. and Israel remain deeply divided over their end goals for the war.

    For Trump, domestic political pressure may force a shift toward compromise: with war mounting economic and human costs, and his poll numbers sliding ahead of critical midterm elections, he may well settle for a deal that freezes Iran’s nuclear program and reopens the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping. Netanyahu, by contrast, remains unflinching in his maximalist goals: he is determined to destroy the Islamic government and permanently cripple Iran’s status as a regional power.

    What has become increasingly clear after a month of fighting is that a military conclusion to the conflict is effectively impossible. The only sustainable path forward is a negotiated settlement. The responsibility to force Netanyahu into line and lead diplomatic efforts will fall to Trump, and many analysts already agree that no matter how the war ultimately ends, Iran has already emerged as the de facto winner in the conflict.

  • Iran war economic shocks will last ‘months’, says Australia’s PM

    Iran war economic shocks will last ‘months’, says Australia’s PM

    In an uncommon televised national address delivered Wednesday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has delivered a stark warning to citizens: the economic fallout from the ongoing Middle East conflict involving Iran will ripple through Australian households for months to come. The rare national address, a format reserved for defining moments of national and international crisis — most recently deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and prior to that during the 2008 global financial crisis — comes amid unprecedented volatility in global fuel markets triggered by the conflict and the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

    Albanese emphasized that while Australia is not a direct participant in the hostilities, all Australians are already bearing the cost of the conflict through skyrocketing fuel prices. The conflict has caused the single largest spike in petrol and diesel prices on record, with cost-of-living pressures already hitting household budgets across the country. Around 20% of the world’s total oil and natural gas supplies pass through the Strait of Hormuz, making its effective blockade a critical disruption to global energy markets. Countries across the globe, Australia included, have recorded sharp jumps in fuel prices in recent weeks, prompting governments to roll out emergency measures to stabilize supplies.

    The Prime Minister acknowledged that the weeks and months ahead will bring financial hardship for many Australian families, and made clear that no federal government can fully insulate the country from these sweeping global economic pressures. The warning comes after reports of panic buying at petrol stations across the country, which left multiple retailers dry of fuel, and follows earlier efforts from Albanese to calm public anxiety.

    In response to the crisis, the Australian government has unveiled a package of temporary emergency measures designed to ease immediate cost burdens for consumers and businesses. The plan includes a 50% cut to the national fuel excise tax and a three-month suspension of road user charges for heavy commercial vehicles. To strengthen domestic supply chains, officials are also working to boost domestic fuel stockpiles and increase imports through regional alliances under a newly finalized National Fuel Security Plan.

    Alongside government action, Albanese called on all Australians to do their part to conserve fuel supplies, particularly for essential industries that rely on steady energy access to function. He urged residents to avoid unnecessary fuel use, and encouraged people to switch to public transport for daily commutes where possible. While calling for voluntary conservation, the Prime Minister also reassured the public that there is no need to disrupt daily life, urging Australians to go forward with planned Easter holiday travel as scheduled. “You should go about your business and your life, as normal,” he said, adding: “Enjoy your Easter. If you’re hitting the road, don’t take more fuel than you need — just fill up like you normally would. Think of others in your community, in the bush and in critical industries. And over coming weeks, if you can switch to catching the train or bus or tram to work, do so.”

    Closing the address, Albanese struck a unifying tone, framing the challenge as one that Australia can overcome through collective action and mutual support, echoing the national resilience that has seen the country through past crises. “We will deal with these global challenges, the Australian way,” he said. “Working together — and looking after each other. As we always have.”

  • South Korea and Indonesia expand cooperation on defense and energy as Mideast war disrupts markets

    South Korea and Indonesia expand cooperation on defense and energy as Mideast war disrupts markets

    Against a backdrop of growing global instability triggered by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, South Korea and Indonesia have committed to elevating their bilateral strategic partnership, announcing a sweeping set of agreements to deepen collaboration across defense manufacturing, advanced technology, and critical supply chains during a Wednesday summit in Seoul, South Korea’s presidential administration confirmed.

    The high-level meeting brought together South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in the South Korean capital, where the two leaders put their signature to a joint communiqué outlining plans for expanded economic integration and continued joint work on major defense development initiatives. These collaborative projects span multiple high-priority defense sectors, including the co-development of fighter jets, training aircraft platforms, and advanced anti-tank missile systems.

    Beyond defense cooperation, the two nations have also moved to strengthen coordination around energy, critical minerals, and key resource supply chains. President Lee emphasized that Indonesia has emerged as an irreplaceable partner for South Korea in securing stable energy supplies at a time when global energy markets face widespread disruption from the Middle East conflict. Indonesia serves as a critical source of natural gas and coal for South Korea’s energy network, and under the new agreement, South Korean importers will take delivery of approximately 820,000 tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Indonesia this year alone. This volume of LNG is sufficient to operate all of South Korea’s gas-fired power generation facilities at full capacity for roughly 12 days, providing a substantial buffer against potential market volatility.

    Both leaders also voiced their satisfaction with the progress of the KF-21 supersonic fighter jet program, South Korea’s flagship indigenous defense development project. Launched in 2015, the initiative has counted Indonesia as a core international partner from its earliest stages. Last week marked a major milestone for the program, with the first completed KF-21 aircraft officially rolled off the production line. Multiple industry reports indicate that South Korea has plans to export 16 of the completed fighter jets to Indonesia once full production scales up, cementing the long-term collaborative framework for the project.

  • Chile’s new President José Antonio Kast brings openly religious views to a changing country

    Chile’s new President José Antonio Kast brings openly religious views to a changing country

    When Chile’s newly inaugurated President José Antonio Kast took office on March 11, he cemented the latest chapter of a growing rightward political shift across Latin America — and brought open, devout religious conservatism to the forefront of the region’s most secular major nation.

    The 60-year-old former lawmaker, a father of nine and practicing Catholic deeply embedded in the international Schoenstatt apostolic movement, has built his political brand around unapologetic conservative values that have put progressive advocacy groups on high alert. Kast, who first ran for president in 2021 and lost to Gabriel Boric, secured a 58% majority in his 2025 campaign by centering pledges to crack down on rising crime and deport undocumented immigrants. But his long-held positions on social issues — opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage, and even the sale of emergency contraception dating back to 2009 — have defined concerns about what his presidency will mean for marginalized groups and social progress in Chile.

    Kast’s ascent dovetails with a broader regional trend that has brought conservative leaders including El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Argentina’s Javier Milei to power in recent years, each riding popular discontent with established left-leaning governance to advance agendas focused on security and economic restructuring. Kast’s policy alignment also overlaps in key areas with that of former U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration openly welcomed his electoral victory.

    To understand how Kast’s faith intersects with his politics, it is necessary to first contextualize Chile’s shifting religious landscape. Across Latin America, Catholic affiliation has plummeted over the past three decades: a 2024 Latinobarómetro report found the regional share of Catholics fell from 80% in 1995 to just 54% in 2024. In Chile, the shift is even starker: only 45% of the population identifies as Catholic today, while 37% claim no religious affiliation and 12% identify as Protestant.

    Luis Bahamondes, a religion scholar at the University of Chile, explained that the Catholic Church, once one of Chile’s most trusted institutions in the 1990s, saw public confidence collapse amid widespread social transformation and a string of high-profile sexual abuse scandals. “It became one of the most questioned institutions and one of the least trusted,” Bahamondes noted. Still, he added, conservative social values rooted in religious tradition remain deeply embedded in Chilean culture. Chile was the last Latin American nation to legalize divorce, doing so only in 2004, and resistance to comprehensive school sex education persists today. “There are still concepts that resonate strongly in Chilean society — such as family and marriage — which carry a strong religious weight,” Bahamondes said. “There is often talk of a crisis of Catholicism, but what is in crisis is the institution, not the belief itself.”

    That disconnect between institutional Catholicism and persistent personal belief is exactly where Kast’s connection to the Schoenstatt movement resonates. Founded in Germany in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, Schoenstatt is a Catholic apostolic movement centered on devotion to the Virgin Mary, which first arrived in Chile’s coastal city of Valparaíso in 1947. The movement has since expanded across the country, building more than 20 shrines and counting roughly 10,000 followers, including Kast and his wife.

    Rev. Gonzalo Illanes, director of the Schoenstatt movement in Chile, emphasized that the group is not a political organization, but rather a faith formation community built on three core pillars: personal spiritual development, the integration of faith into daily life, and devotion to the Virgin Mary. While the movement shares Kast’s position that life must be protected from conception to natural death, it remains committed to open dialogue with those who hold different views, Illanes said. “Schoenstatt, like the Catholic Church, is not a political movement but a space for formation, faith and transcendence,” he explained. “The challenge is how to move forward. Not to stop talking.”

    For Kast’s supporters, his open faith is a key source of confidence, not a cause for concern. Jorge Herrera, a Schoenstatt member and Catholic who voted for Kast, called the new president a capable leader with a clear plan for Chile that the country desperately needed. “He’s a president who gives me a lot of confidence,” Herrera said. “I share his values.” He echoed Schoenstatt’s core belief that every person has a unique divine mission, and noted that while he aligns with Kast’s anti-abortion stance, it was the president’s broader economic and security vision that won his support.

    Kast’s appeal even extends to conservative circles beyond Chile’s borders. In Mexico, where a left-leaning national government has overseen abortion decriminalization in more than half of the country’s states, conservative activists see Kast as a welcome model. “It gives me confidence that he publicly acknowledges being inspired by a Christian faith,” said Rodrigo Iván Cortés, president of a Mexican conservative advocacy group. “That does not mean that he wants to impose his faith on others, but simply that he professes it.”

    But for progressive and rights advocacy groups, Kast’s inauguration brings well-founded fears of gradual erosion of hard-won social rights. Unlike Argentina’s Milei, who immediately implemented sweeping rollbacks such as a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, Kast is not expected to reverse existing policies overnight. But researchers warn that a slowdown in progress, weakening of supportive public policies, and growing legitimacy for anti-rights rhetoric could still cause lasting harm.

    “There are valid reasons for concern, though not necessarily for an immediate rollback as seen with Milei,” said Cristian González Cabrera, an LGBTQ-rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The risk with Kast could be more gradual: slowing progress, weakening public policies and legitimizing anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.”

    For reproductive rights advocates, early signals from Kast’s administration are already worrying. One of his first actions in office was a 3% across-the-board budget cut, and his new cabinet includes openly religious leaders heading the women’s and health ministries. Catalina Calderón, chief advocacy officer at the Women’s Equality Center, pointed to recent cuts to social and reproductive rights programs under Milei in Argentina as a warning sign for Chile. “Across the region, we have seen that when leaders from the political wing to which Kast belongs take office, one of the first things that happens is a rollback of individual rights and women’s rights,” Calderón said. “How that [religious] vision could shape the administration is something that should be watched closely.”

  • India has begun its long-delayed population census. Here’s why it matters

    India has begun its long-delayed population census. Here’s why it matters

    NEW DELHI – Nearly three years after its originally scheduled launch, India has kicked off the world’s most extensive national population enumeration exercise, a sweeping data-gathering effort that stands to reshape everything from targeted social welfare programming to legislative representation across the South Asian nation.

    The 2011 national census pegged India’s population at 1.21 billion. Updated demographic estimates now place the country’s total population above 1.4 billion, confirming India as the world’s most populous nation, a title held by China for decades. Planners initially scheduled the new enumeration for 2021, but public health risks from the COVID-19 pandemic and unforeseen logistical hurdles forced a multi-year postponement.

    The massive counting effort is being rolled out in two distinct phases across India’s diverse 28 states and eight union territories. The first phase, which launched this week, will run through September, with field enumerators spending roughly four weeks in every local administrative area to document housing infrastructure, residential conditions and access to basic public utilities. Unlike past paper-only censuses, this year’s exercise combines traditional door-to-door in-person surveys with a new digital self-reporting option: residents can submit their information via a multilingual smartphone app that integrates satellite mapping technology to improve geographic accuracy.

    The second phase, scheduled to run from September through the first of April next year, will collect far more granular demographic and socioeconomic data, including religious affiliation and caste identity. In total, more than 3 million trained government workers will be deployed across the country over the 12-month enumeration period. For comparison, the 2011 census relied on roughly 2.7 million enumerators to collect data from more than 240 million households nationwide.

    A defining and highly anticipated feature of this new census is the expanded caste enumeration planned for the second phase. For the first time in independent India’s history, the government will attempt to count all caste groups across the country, going far beyond the limited enumeration of historically marginalized communities that has been standard since 1951.

    Caste, an ancient hierarchical social system deeply rooted across much of Indian society, particularly within Hindu communities, continues to shape social standing, access to education, economic opportunity, and eligibility for government-mandated affirmative action programs today. Hundreds of distinct caste groups are defined by traditional occupation and socioeconomic status across the country, but modern India has never held a full national enumeration of these groups, leaving policymakers working with outdated, incomplete data. The last full national caste count conducted through a census took place in 1931, when India was still under British colonial rule. Since India’s first post-independence census in 1951, national enumerators have only counted Dalits (Scheduled Castes) and Adivasis (Scheduled Tribes), the two most disadvantaged groups that are legally entitled to targeted government welfare and reservation benefits.

    Successive national governments have resisted calls for a full caste enumeration for decades, with opponents arguing that a full count could exacerbate existing social divisions and fuel inter-caste unrest. But growing grassroots pressure from lower-caste advocacy groups pushed the current government to approve the expanded count for the 2021 (now 2024) enumeration.

    Beyond caste data, the aggregate population numbers collected through the census carry far-reaching implications for India’s political landscape. Census data forms the foundational dataset for distributing national funding for welfare programs and designing a wide range of public policies, from infrastructure development to public health planning. It will also almost certainly trigger a nationwide redrawing of India’s legislative electoral map, as the number of seats allocated to each state in the lower house of Parliament and state legislative assemblies is adjusted to reflect recent population growth. This redistricting will intersect with a 2023 national law that reserves one-third of all legislative seats for women, meaning any expansion in total seats will directly increase the number of positions reserved for female representatives across all levels of government.

  • ‘Go take your oil:’ Nato fissure erupts over Iran as allies brush off US

    ‘Go take your oil:’ Nato fissure erupts over Iran as allies brush off US

    The ongoing US-Israeli military campaign against Iran has opened a deep and widening breach between the United States and its longstanding NATO allies, with multiple member states rejecting American requests for military access, basing rights, and defensive assets even as the Trump administration casts new uncertainty over its commitment to the alliance’s core mutual defense pledge.

    Multiple European capitals have now publicly pushed back against Washington’s demands. Spain has barred US military aircraft bound for Iran-related operations from entering its airspace, according to official statements. Leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera also reported that Rome has denied landing access to US military aircraft en route to the Middle East at a key Sicilian base, a striking move given Italy’s right-leaning government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, traditionally aligned with US foreign policy goals.

    Poland, a central European nation that has stood as one of Washington’s most reliable NATO allies since the end of the Cold War and where former President Trump retains broad popular support amid the country’s powerful right-wing populist movement, also issued a public denial on Tuesday. Warsaw rejected claims it had agreed to redeploy its Patriot air defense systems to the Middle East, confirming it turned down an informal request from the Trump administration for the assets.

    While Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a leftist leader, publicly opposed the US-Israeli war from its earliest days, the scope of refusals spanning ideologically diverse governments makes clear that Washington’s diplomatic isolation on the conflict is accelerating.

    Trump amplified transatlantic tensions in a post on the social platform X on Tuesday, calling out major European powers for their refusal to back the campaign. He revealed that France, which has long maintained an independent foreign policy agenda in the Middle East, has also denied US aircraft carrying military equipment to Israel permission to transit its airspace. He also publicly criticized the United Kingdom for declining to join the war effort, ending his post with a blunt warning: “The USA will remember !!!”

    The combative posture has been echoed across the Trump administration. When asked about growing alliance tensions, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declined to explicitly commit to NATO’s Article 5, the foundational clause that states an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all, instead deferring any judgment on the commitment to Trump.

    Hegseth defended the US-led campaign against Iran, arguing the operation was launched “on behalf of the free world” and allies whose missile capabilities faced threats from Tehran. “When we ask for additional assistance or simple access, basing and overflight, we get questions or roadblocks or hesitations,” he told reporters.

    But that framing stands in stark contrast to how NATO allies view the conflict, according to Ian Lesser, vice president of the German Marshall Fund in the United States, who spoke to Middle East Eye. “There is a basic concern that Europe is being asked to contribute to and approve of operations they had no role in shaping and a strategy they had no role in shaping,” Lesser explained.

    “This war is both unpopular among the public and, in some cases, the elite, and it could take a direction that European allies can’t shape. That’s not a good recipe for cooperation,” he added.

    Tehran has responded to the US-Israeli offensive with a large-scale retaliatory campaign, launching thousands of missiles and drones targeting Israel and Arab Gulf states. While Iranian strikes on Gulf territory have specifically targeted US military bases with precision, Tehran has also attacked civilian infrastructure and energy facilities in the region in retaliation for similar Israeli strikes on Iranian targets.

    Washington has pushed Gulf Arab states to join the offensive against Iran, and Middle East Eye was first to report that the US has secured access to King Fahd Air Base in western Saudi Arabia after Iranian drone and missile strikes damaged facilities at US bases closer to the Gulf. To bolster its Iran deployment, the Trump administration has also reallocated critical military resources, including marines and air defense systems, away from East Asia.

    For NATO allies, the conflict has already carried a steep economic cost. After Iran seized effective control of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical energy chokepoint, and implemented a new system for approving safe passage for vessels, global oil and gas prices have surged, hitting European economies particularly hard. Roughly 20 percent of the world’s total energy supplies pass through the strait, and NATO countries, which have already cut most imports of Russian energy following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, are facing unprecedented energy market volatility as a result.

    Iran’s consolidation of control over the strait has emerged as a major strategic embarrassment for the Trump administration, which has built its global superpower legitimacy on two core foundations: unwavering commitment to the NATO alliance, and guaranteed security for global energy flows out of the Persian Gulf. Tehran is now working to establish an alternative transit framework that prioritizes non-Western aligned vessels, including ships flagged by neutral countries like Pakistan and cargo carrying energy priced in Chinese renminbi instead of the US dollar, a direct challenge to Washington’s global financial and energy dominance.

    Trump has dramatically shifted his public posture on the crisis in recent days, moving from threatening to “obliterate” Iran’s entire energy grid if Tehran refused to surrender control of the strait, to stepping back and shifting responsibility to US allies. In a social media post directed at Washington’s uncooperative allies including the UK on Tuesday, Trump wrote: “Just TAKE IT. You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the USA won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”

    Analysts warn Trump’s threat to cede control of the strait to Iran is self-defeating if he eventually seeks NATO support to reimpose Western oversight of the waterway. If Tehran retains de facto control over the strait, Lesser said European allies will be forced to reconsider their entire regional security framework, and have little incentive to back the US war effort in the meantime.

    “Why would Nato countries make themselves more exposed by assisting the US war on Iran? They can probably imagine this going in a direction that allows certain traffic through Hormuz, but not all,” Lesser said, adding that European capitals also do not want to be publicly associated with a war that is deeply unpopular at home.

    In a sign that Tehran is actively encouraging NATO allies to break with Washington, Iran has publicly signaled it will reward countries that refuse to back the US campaign. The Iranian embassy in Spain said Thursday that Tehran would accommodate any request from Madrid for Spanish-flagged vessels to receive guaranteed safe passage through the strait. While Spain’s commercial shipping fleet is relatively small, the gesture carries clear symbolic weight for transatlantic relations.

  • Albanese cancels Gallipoli trip as Iran war intensifies

    Albanese cancels Gallipoli trip as Iran war intensifies

    Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has scrapped his long-awaited first Anzac Day trip to the Gallipoli battlefields in Turkey, a journey that would have marked his first attendance at the transnational commemoration since he took office, amid rapidly escalating military tensions across the Middle East following the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran. The cancellation was confirmed by Albanese himself during parliamentary question time on Wednesday, in response to a query from Deputy Opposition Leader Andrew Hastie. Though the prime minister had never formally announced the April 25 travel plans publicly, he acknowledged to the chamber that the proposal had been abandoned explicitly due to current travel conditions in Turkey. Albanese framed the decision as a responsible act of priority-setting, noting he is instead focusing on urgent ongoing matters, including active diplomatic engagement with Australia’s regional partners at a time of global instability. Hastie, who has been publicly critical of the Labor government’s response to the unfolding Iran conflict, used the question to also raise concerns over unconfirmed reports that multiple Australian government ministers have scrapped other scheduled April travel and events, and pressed the prime minister on whether the government has received official advice about delayed or canceled fuel cargo shipments bound for Australia. This cancellation breaks a pattern Albanese has maintained since taking office: he has opted to stay in Australia for Anzac Day commemorations in 2023 and 2025, and traveled to Papua New Guinea for the 2024 services, never having attended the Gallipoli Anzac Day events as prime minister before this planned trip. The prime minister’s choice comes at a moment of deep uncertainty over the trajectory of the Middle East conflict. After the joint U.S.-Israeli surprise military strike on Iran launched on February 28, which has killed more than 2,500 people across Iran, Lebanon and other regional territories, the outcome of the conflict remains far from clear. U.S. President Donald Trump has publicly suggested the conflict will wrap up within a matter of weeks, but on the ground, Israeli forces have expanded their ground invasion into Lebanon, and the country has for the first time come under direct attack from the Iran-aligned Houthi movement based in Yemen, further raising the risk of the conflict spreading across the wider Middle East.