Global Pulse

分类： politics

  • Andy Burnham set to take over as new British PM

    Andy Burnham set to take over as new British PM

    Fifty-six-year-old Andy Burnham will formally step into the role of British Prime Minister on Monday, marking the seventh person to hold the office in just 10 years, taking the reins of a nation grappling with a stacked in-tray of deeply entrenched challenges that have already derailed multiple predecessors, with very limited time to leave a lasting impact on the country.

    His ascension comes just two years after outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer led the Labour Party to a landslide general election victory, ending 14 consecutive years of Conservative rule. Starmer, whose time in Downing Street ended when he announced his resignation as both prime minister and Labour Party leader in late June, brought down by a cascade of scandals, repeated missteps and unpopular policy reversals that eroded public trust and left his government deeply unpopular.

    The formal handover of power will follow longstanding British constitutional protocol. Starmer will first travel to Buckingham Palace to officially submit his resignation to King Charles III, before delivering a final farewell address outside 10 Downing Street. Immediately after that, Burnham will make his own trip to the palace, where the king will formally ask him to form a new government. Shortly after the audience, he will deliver his maiden speech as prime minister from the steps of 10 Downing Street.

    According to statements from Burnham’s inner circle, his first speech will lay out his core policy priorities: rebuilding public faith in national government, easing economic pressures amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, delivering sustained economic growth, and devolving more political power from London to regional communities across the country. The address will frame the moment as one of “reflection and resolution,” with Burnham expected to emphasize that the country must be honest about the scale of the challenges it faces. An announcement of senior cabinet appointments is also scheduled for Monday, with political observers and the public particularly focused on who will replace Rachel Reeves as finance minister.

    A former Member of Parliament between 2001 and 2017, who served as a junior minister in the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Burnham most recently served as the popular Mayor of Greater Manchester, earning him the nickname the “King of the North” for his strong regional profile and advocacy for northern England. He only returned to the House of Commons as an MP four weeks ago, and was fast-tracked into the Labour leadership by party MPs, who see him as the party’s best bet to counter rising support for Nigel Farage’s right-wing, anti-immigration Reform UK party.

    Deputy Labour Leader Lucy Powell defended Burnham’s qualifications in a Sunday interview with BBC Television, noting that his years of governing outside London’s central political bubble gave him unique insight into the “bigger, bolder” policy changes needed to deliver on the pledges Labour made in its 2024 election manifesto. Powell said Burnham’s core goal is to radically rewrite Britain’s over-centralized political system and overhaul an economic model that has prioritized the interests of powerful, well-connected groups over the needs of ordinary working people. “It’s about giving ordinary people security in work, security in their home, a home they can afford and live in a community that they can feel proud of and knowing that their children are going to have opportunity for the future,” Powell explained.

    Burnham faces an immediate stack of urgent policy challenges. A sluggish domestic economy, persistently high government borrowing costs, a rapidly growing national welfare bill, and the ongoing crisis of irregular migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats—all of which have helped fuel Reform UK’s rising popularity. Adding to these domestic pressures are unpredictable global energy prices driven by tensions between the United States and Iran, and potential policy volatility stemming from Donald Trump’s volatile leadership in the White House that could roil global markets and international relations during Burnham’s premiership.

    Compounding his challenges, the new prime minister operates with very limited room for policy maneuvering, bound by strict fiscal rules that require balancing government spending against tax revenue, in the context of slow growth and extremely high levels of national public debt. With the next general election scheduled for 2029, just three years away, current polling puts Reform UK on track to win a majority, leaving Burnham with a very narrow window to turn the party’s fortunes around. Burnham himself framed his takeover of the party and government as Labour’s “last chance” to get it right during remarks to supporters last Friday.

    Critics have long argued that Starmer’s Labour government was woefully underprepared to take power when it won office in July 2024, a weakness that contributed to its collapse in popularity just two years later. While Burnham has repeatedly insisted he has a clear “plan” to address Britain’s problems, his rapid ascension to the leadership has raised questions among political analysts about how he will deliver on his ambitious promises, given the constraints he faces.

    In his first policy announcement since becoming Labour leader, Burnham announced on Saturday that he would scrap Starmer’s flagship nationwide digital ID scheme, a program that was projected to cost £1.8 billion over three years. A spokesperson for the new prime minister said the funding and administrative resources allocated to the scheme would instead be redirected “to where it’s most needed, such as helping with the cost of living”, aligning with his core priority of easing pressure on hard-pressed British households.

  • Iran war, Myanmar crisis and South China Sea rifts under the spotlight in ASEAN ministerial talks

    Iran war, Myanmar crisis and South China Sea rifts under the spotlight in ASEAN ministerial talks

    MANILA, Philippines — Top foreign policy leaders from across Southeast Asia are gathering in the Philippine capital this week for annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) talks, joined by senior diplomatic representatives from major global powers including the United States, China, Russia, and the European Union. With renewed large-scale hostilities roiling the Middle East emerging as one of the most urgent threats to global stability, the bloc’s diplomats are set to signal grave concern over escalating tensions in their first formal joint session Tuesday.

    This year, the Philippines holds the rotating chairmanship of the 11-member ASEAN bloc, and will host three full days of diplomatic negotiations and high-level meetings. Confirmed attendees include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Ukraine’s top diplomat Andrii Sybiha has received an invitation to a Friday ceremony marking the 1976 ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, but will not take part in the core working meetings that Lavrov and Rubio will attend. As of the opening of the talks, no formal or informal meetings between Rubio, Lavrov, or Sybiha have been scheduled, according to official statements.

    Two anonymous Southeast Asian diplomatic sources confirmed to reporters that ASEAN foreign ministers will deliberate on the escalating cross-border hostilities between the United States and Iran, which have already spilled into neighboring Middle Eastern states and stoked widespread fears of a full-scale regional war. Following closed-door deliberations, the bloc will release a joint statement voicing alarm at the rapidly shifting security situation and calling on both Washington and Tehran to de-escalate and resume diplomatic negotiations, the sources added.

    The ongoing conflict has already disrupted critical commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic maritime chokepoint through which approximately 20 percent of the world’s total oil supplies passed before the latest outbreak of fighting. For Southeast Asia — a dynamic, densely populated region home to more than 680 million people that depends heavily on imported Middle Eastern energy — the conflict has already delivered severe economic shocks. Disruptions to global energy supplies and sharp price volatility have hit the region hard, prompting Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to declare a national energy emergency back in March. The declaration was aimed at securing consistent access to fuel, food, and other essential commodities, while cracking down on hoarding and price gouging.

    Beyond the immediate humanitarian and economic fallout from the Iran conflict, the crisis has sparked quiet unease across the Asia-Pacific: Washington’s deployment of additional military resources to the Middle East has diverted attention and capacity from long-standing U.S. priorities in the Indo-Pacific, including countering what regional powers describe as increasingly aggressive Chinese actions in the disputed South China Sea and around Taiwan. The Trump administration has previously made formal commitments to deter Chinese expansion in the region, leading to questions about whether those commitments will be weakened by the Middle East crisis. Rubio’s attendance at the Manila talks is designed specifically to reaffirm U.S. commitments to the region. “The secretary’s visit advances a clear U.S. priority: a free and open Indo-Pacific that delivers safety, security and prosperity for the region and for the American people,” State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott told reporters from Washington.

    On the sidelines of the formal ASEAN meetings, Rubio is also scheduled to take part in a gathering of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, better known as the Quad. The bloc, established in 2007, counts the U.S., India, Japan, and Australia as members, and is widely viewed as a core pillar of American strategy to counter growing Chinese influence across the Indo-Pacific. Beijing has repeatedly criticized the bloc as an American-led initiative designed to contain China’s rise as a global power.

    Alongside the major international conflicts on the agenda, ASEAN foreign ministers are facing growing pressure to make tangible progress on long-simmering regional disputes, most notably the ongoing civil war in Myanmar and overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea. Myanmar has been mired in conflict since the country’s military seized power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a 2021 coup. Data from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent human rights monitoring organization, shows that more than 8,100 people have been killed in fighting across the country, while nearly 22,500 political detainees remain in custody.

    In 2021, ASEAN leaders agreed to a five-point peace plan designed to end the violence, but the framework has failed to deliver progress, largely due to non-compliance from Myanmar’s military junta. In response, ASEAN imposed a ban on junta leaders and the country’s top foreign policy official from attending the bloc’s top-level meetings, a ban that remains in place for this week’s Manila gathering. In an effort to break the years-long deadlocked, ASEAN diplomats led by Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro — who also serves as this year’s ASEAN special envoy for Myanmar — held a historic meeting with Myanmar’s top diplomat in Bangkok earlier this month, the first such engagement between the bloc and a junta representative in five years. During that meeting, ASEAN leaders reiterated calls for an immediate de-escalation of violence and renewed efforts to launch inclusive dialogue between all warring factions. A day after the Bangkok meeting, Lazaro and Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow held consultations with high-level representatives of Myanmar’s ethnic armed opposition groups in the Thai resort city of Pattaya.

    Human rights organizations have sharply criticized the decision to meet junta foreign minister Tin Maung Swe, arguing that the move effectively reverses ASEAN’s long-standing ban on engaging senior junta officials and rewards military leaders without securing any concrete concessions toward peace. Lazaro pushed back against those criticisms, stressing that the engagement did not represent a departure from the bloc’s 2021 five-point consensus. “The path to peace can only be obtained through resolute diplomacy with all parties to the conflict,” she said.

    On the South China Sea, ASEAN ministers will hold formal talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to advance negotiations on a long-planned code of conduct, a binding agreement designed to prevent the region’s overlapping territorial disputes from escalating into open conflict. Territorial claims in the strategically vital waters are split between China, Taiwan, and four ASEAN member states: Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. In recent years, armed confrontations between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces have become increasingly frequent, raising tensions across the region.

  • Aust kicks off huge military drills in Darwin amid China tensions

    Aust kicks off huge military drills in Darwin amid China tensions

    Two weeks after China tested a nuclear-capable missile in the South Pacific, Australia has kicked off its largest-ever Indo-Pacific air combat exercise, bringing together a broad coalition of regional and global military partners to demonstrate collective commitment to regional security. The event, known as Exercise Pitch Black, was officially opened by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday in Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory. Over the next three weeks, the drills will bring together 100 aircraft and thousands of military personnel from Australia and 20 partner nations, including major regional players the United States, Japan and Indonesia.

    According to an official statement from the Australian government, the core objective of the exercise is to deepen collaborative ties between allied and partner militaries by building operational interoperability through rigorous, realistic, high-end combat training. Albanese emphasized in his opening remarks that Australia maximizes its strategic strength when working hand-in-hand with regional and global partners. “Exercise Pitch Black strengthens those partnerships and demonstrates Australia’s commitment to working closely across our region to support peace, stability and security,” the prime minister said. He added that Pitch Black, which has been hosted by the Northern Territory for more than four decades, serves as another reminder of the territory’s central role to Australia’s national defense architecture and its broader regional engagement.

    China’s earlier missile test sent ripples of political concern across the Pacific. The launch came just hours after Australia and Fiji signed a new mutual defense agreement, a pact that Canberra has indicated could be expanded to other Pacific island nations in the future. Beijing has characterized the test as routine military activity, in line with standard training protocols. However, many governments and independent analysts have framed the launch as a deliberate show of force designed to project influence amid intensifying strategic competition between China and Western-aligned powers in the region. The test also drew near-universal condemnation from across the Pacific, including from several Pacific Island countries that have historically maintained closer diplomatic and economic ties to Beijing.

    Australian officials have framed the timing of the large-scale air exercise as a demonstration of coordinated resolve in response to the test. Canberra has argued that the missile launch underscores the urgent need for regional defense agreements such as the newly signed Australia-Fiji pact. Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles, who also attended the opening ceremony for Pitch Black, stated publicly that China’s test was an intentional “message” to Australia about its expanding nuclear capabilities. Marles went on to describe Pitch Black as one of the most complex and strategically significant air exercises held across the Indo-Pacific. “Through this exercise, our Air Force is showcasing Australia’s ability to bring together partners from the region and beyond to enhance interoperability and deepen defence co-operation,” Marles said.

  • JD Vance announces birth of baby boy with wife Usha

    JD Vance announces birth of baby boy with wife Usha

    In a joyful personal announcement shared via social media, sitting United States Vice President JD Vance has revealed that he and his wife Usha Vance have welcomed their fourth child, a baby boy named Alec Neel Vance. According to Vance’s official statement, the newborn arrived on Sunday morning, and both mother and child are currently in good health and high spirits.

    “Usha and the baby are happy and healthy, and our kids are overjoyed to meet their little brother,” Vance wrote in his post. He also extended a special note of gratitude to the military medical team and support staff at Washington D.C.’s Walter Reed Medical Center, who provided care throughout the birth process.

    News agency the Associated Press notes this occasion carries unique historical significance: Alec’s birth marks the first time a sitting vice president has welcomed a new child while in office in more than 150 years, a milestone that sets Vance’s family apart in modern U.S. political history.

    Alec joins the Vance family’s three older children: 9-year-old Ewan, 6-year-old Vivek, and 4-year-old Mirabel. The couple first crossed paths in 2010 while they were both students at Yale Law School, where they bonded over participation in a discussion group focused on social shifts in the United States.

    Usha Vance, born Usha Chilukuri, has a unique multicultural background: she was raised in working-class suburban San Diego, California, to parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Andhra Pradesh, India. Her father works as a mechanical engineer, while her mother is a molecular biologist. Last year, the entire Vance family traveled to India on an official visit, where they were photographed publicly as a family of five ahead of Alec’s arrival.

    Beyond this personal milestone, the birth aligns with a key policy priority Vance has championed throughout his time in the Trump administration. The vice president has emerged as one of the most prominent voices in the administration advocating for policy measures to encourage higher birth rates across the United States, framing falling fertility rates as a critical long-term challenge for the country’s economic and social future.

  • India’s Cockroach protesters set to march to parliament

    India’s Cockroach protesters set to march to parliament

    A mass protest movement demanding sweeping education reforms in India is moving forward with a scheduled march to the country’s parliament on Monday, after authorities forcibly removed a prominent hunger-striking activist from the demonstration site over the weekend, spurring escalating tensions between protesters and the ruling government.

    The movement is led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a grassroots group that first launched as a satirical online movement in May to push back against widespread exam paper leaks and systemic irregularities in India’s education system. Founded by Abhijeet Dipke, the group has rapidly gained a massive national following, with thousands of protesters – who refer to themselves as “cockroaches” – having maintained a continuous month-long sit-in at Delhi’s historic Jantar Mantar observatory.

    The demonstration gained national attention after well-known activist and educator Sonam Wangchuk joined the cause, launching a 21-day hunger strike in solidarity with the CJP. Through the scorching Delhi summer heat, Wangchuk sustained himself only on salt and water, losing more than 9 kilograms and suffering severe physical pain. Despite his declining health, he vowed to join the planned parliament march, even joking to supporters that if he died during the fast, his ghost would still join the protest.

    That vow was cut short on Saturday morning, when dozens of local police and paramilitary forces raided Wangchuk’s stage at the protest site. Officers covered the activist with bedsheets to shield the removal from public view, pushed back crowd members who attempted to intervene, and transported him via ambulance to Delhi’s government-run Safdarjung Hospital for medical care. Wangchuk has refused to end his hunger strike even in hospital care, according to his wife Gitanjali Angmo. In an update Sunday, Angmo outlined a clear condition for ending the fast: sitting political leaders must meet with Wangchuk at the hospital and commit to making education accountability a top priority during the upcoming parliamentary session.

    The forced removal did not derail the protest, however. CJP founder Dipke reaffirmed Sunday that the planned march to parliament will proceed as scheduled on July 20, and launched an indefinite hunger strike of his own Saturday to replace Wangchuk at the protest site. “If they think that taking Wangchuk away will end this movement, they are mistaken,” Dipke said in a statement. “We will remain here, and will march to parliament on 20 July.” Thousands of people from across the country have already confirmed they will join the march in solidarity with the reform movement.

    The CJP’s protests were sparked by a string of high-profile exam cancellations tied to confirmed paper leaks. In May, a critical national medical entrance exam – taken by nearly 2.28 million aspirants – was scrapped after a leak was confirmed. A retest was held June 21, but according to family reports, more than 20 affected candidates have died by suicide in the wake of the disruption to their academic and career plans.

    Protesters initially put forward two core demands: the cancellation of compromised exams and the resignation of India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who they argue must take moral accountability for the systemic failures that allowed the leaks to occur. Pradhan has previously dismissed the CJP and its supporters as “the B-team of disruptive elements,” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s central government has refused to open any dialogue with the movement. Following Saturday’s forced removal of Wangchuk, the CJP escalated its demands, now calling for Prime Minister Modi’s resignation. Dipke called the government’s action a “despicable act” that merits the prime minister stepping down.

    Opposition political parties have widely condemned the government’s handling of the protest, describing the forced removal of Wangchuk as “shocking coercive state violence” and “an assault on democracy.” In recent days, growing pressure from opposition leaders and civil society groups has pushed the government to engage with the protest, with many public figures visiting the Jantar Mantar sit-in to affirm that the protesters’ demands for education reform are legitimate and require a government response.

    Heavy security deployments, including scores of police and paramilitary personnel, are already in place across central Delhi ahead of Monday’s planned march, as the country braces for a major showdown between the reform movement and the ruling government.

  • ICC’s Khan probe ‘reduced to political referendum’, Palestinian rights groups warn

    ICC’s Khan probe ‘reduced to political referendum’, Palestinian rights groups warn

    A coalition of leading Palestinian human rights organizations has issued a stark warning about deep procedural flaws and growing political interference in the disciplinary process against suspended International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, just days before the court’s 125-member Assembly of States Parties (ASP) votes on whether to remove him from office. In a joint public statement released Friday by the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) — an umbrella group counting Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Addameer among its members — the coalition stressed it is not taking sides on the merits of the misconduct allegations against Khan or the prosecutor’s defense. Instead, it is sounding the alarm that systemic failures in the proceeding violate fundamental human rights protections and mark a dangerous departure from the rule of law that threatens the ICC’s core institutional independence.

    The coalition argues the disciplinary process has devolved into a political referendum driven by the competing national interests of individual ASP member states. “It is impossible to extricate such national interests from the political impact of the Chief Prosecutor’s decisions made in the various situations currently before the ICC,” the statement reads, noting that this political capture opens the door to widespread overreach that risks eroding the court’s credibility as an impartial arbiter of international justice.

    The controversial proceeding stems from unproven allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against Khan in April 2024, a claim Khan has repeatedly and vehemently denied. The ASP’s executive governing body, the Bureau, suspended Khan from his post on June 8 after a majority of its 21 members voted to label his actions “serious misconduct.” PHROC’s criticism centers heavily on the Bureau’s rejection of the findings of an independent three-judge panel the Bureau itself appointed to review a United Nations investigation into the claims. In a unanimous March ruling, the panel concluded the evidence presented did not meet the ICC’s strict “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard to prove misconduct, noting the probe produced only conflicting testimonies and largely hearsay-based evidence. No independent legal body, PHROC emphasizes, has formally found the facts of the investigation amount to serious misconduct or a major breach of the prosecutor’s official duties — yet the Bureau’s contrary finding deliberately side-stepped the panel’s binding legal conclusions.

    PHROC also pushes back against the Bureau’s unsubstantiated claim that Khan engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with the complainant, enabled by an asymmetric power dynamic. The coalition notes that neither Khan nor the accuser has ever corroborated this framing, and the Bureau’s ruling failed to establish the non-consensual sexual misconduct that formed the core of the original complaint. “The Bureau, as a political body composed of diplomats, does not have the independence, impartiality or legal expertise to make assessments on the legal characterisation of conduct, nor did it enjoy the same timeframe as the ad hoc Panel to independently examine the two reports and 5,000-pages of evidence,” the statement adds.

    Further drawing condemnation is the Bureau’s last-minute rushed change to voting procedures, which PHROC says was designed to lower the bar for Khan’s removal. Previously, the process required a two-thirds majority vote to first confirm serious misconduct, followed by a separate vote requiring 63 member state votes to remove the prosecutor. The Bureau rewrote the rules to combine these steps into a single vote, eliminating the higher two-thirds threshold for a misconduct finding. According to PHROC, this procedural change dismantles critical checks and balances on the Bureau’s political decision-making, clearing a path for removal that would have otherwise been impossible to achieve.

    The coalition directly ties the push to oust Khan to a broader, coordinated campaign by the United States, its allies, and Israel to undermine the ICC’s ongoing investigation into war crimes committed during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Following Khan’s May 2024 decision to request arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on war crimes charges, the U.S. imposed retaliatory sanctions on the prosecutor, later expanding the measures to target two ICC deputy prosecutors, eight ICC judges, the United Nations special rapporteur on Palestine, and multiple Palestinian rights groups that provided evidence for the Gaza investigation.

    PHROC traces this pattern of interference back years, noting that several current Bureau member states challenged the ICC’s jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories in 2020, and the United Kingdom launched a formal legal challenge to Khan’s 2024 arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. Most recently, Israel cited leaked details from the misconduct investigation in a November 2025 court filing asking that Khan be disqualified from leading the Gaza war crimes probe.

    The coalition warns there is a clear and present danger that Israel and its political allies have already compromised the disciplinary process through political interference in bodies like the Bureau. “There is a very serious risk that State Parties will again prioritise their national interests and support for Israeli impunity over any genuine care or concern for either the interests of the complainant, the Prosecutor, or for the integrity of the Court,” the statement reads. The ongoing process, which launched in late 2024, has failed all parties involved, PHROC concludes, and stands to cause irreversible, far-reaching damage to both the ICC and the global project of international criminal justice. The ASP is scheduled to hold its special vote on Khan’s removal at United Nations headquarters in New York on July 24.

  • US launches strikes to ‘punish’ Iran after troops killed

    US launches strikes to ‘punish’ Iran after troops killed

    Fresh large-scale military clashes have erupted across the Middle East just one month after a preliminary ceasefire agreement was reached, plunging the region back into escalating conflict following the deaths of two United States service members in a cross-border attack.

    The cycle of violence reignited Friday, when US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that two American troops were killed and a third remains missing during Iranian drone and ballistic missile strikes targeting US positions in Jordan. These fatalities push the total number of confirmed US military deaths to 16 since the United States and Israel launched open hostilities against Iranian targets on February 28.

    In response to the Jordan attack, the US launched its eighth consecutive night of airstrikes against Iranian positions on Sunday, with operations explicitly targeting units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that Washington blames for the troop deaths. A US Central Command statement confirmed the strikes were ordered to “swiftly punish” IRGC forces for the attack on American personnel.

    Tensions escalated further on Sunday when Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization accused the US of launching an illegal attack on an under-construction nuclear power plant in southwestern Iran. The agency said American forces struck the Darkhovin facility with multiple projectiles, marking an unprecedented escalation that puts critical Iranian nuclear infrastructure in the crosshairs.

    Tehran moved quickly to retaliate for the US airstrikes, confirming it launched drone attacks against two US military bases stationed in Kuwait. Iranian military officials said the strikes hit an ammunition depot at Camp Udairi and damaged Patriot radar and air surveillance systems at Ali Al Salem Air Base. The retaliatory action came in response to more than a week of intensifying US-led strikes that Tehran says have hit civilian and military infrastructure across Iran, including airports, railway stations and critical bridges.

    Clashes spilled over into neighboring countries over the weekend. Air raid sirens sounded across Jordan, where Israeli and Jordanian defense forces intercepted an Iranian missile bound for the Red Sea port city of Aqaba. The US embassy in Amman had previously issued an urgent warning to American citizens of a specific, credible threat targeting Aqaba’s port and airport infrastructure. In Kuwait, the national electricity ministry reported a second consecutive day of attacks on a combined power and desalination plant, which sparked a large blaze at the facility. Bahrain’s military also announced it had intercepted and destroyed a wave of Iranian drones, accusing Tehran of deliberately targeting civilian population centers.

    The current round of hostilities is centered on the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic global chokepoint through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil supplies pass. Fighting first reignited after Iran launched attacks on commercial shipping transiting the waterway, before Tehran closed the strait entirely following the outbreak of open war. Control of the strait has become Tehran’s key leverage in negotiations with Washington, which reimposed a full blockade of Iranian ports earlier this week. On Sunday, IRGC forces announced they had intercepted two of four commercial ships that attempted to violate the closure of the strait, claiming the vessels were acting with American support to disrupt Iranian control of the waterway. The other two ships abandoned their transit attempt after the interception, per IRGC statements.

    The rising violence has officially killed the preliminary ceasefire deal signed just one month ago, which was designed to end the open hostilities between the two sides. International mediation efforts have so far failed to pull Tehran and Washington back from the brink of full-scale war.

    Iran’s top leadership has issued firm vows to escalate retaliation in the coming days if US strikes continue. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who assumed power after his father was killed in the opening US-Israeli strikes in February, pledged Saturday to deliver an “unforgettable lesson” to American forces. Senior military advisor Major General Mohsen Rezaei warned Tehran would resume full-scale offensive operations if US attacks continue, while top Iranian military commander Ali Abdollahi reiterated Sunday that any further American aggression will be met with a “decisive and devastating response.”

    Local populations across Gulf states are already bracing for prolonged conflict. Kuwaiti authorities confirmed Iranian strikes have hit critical civilian infrastructure, and residents have begun stockpiling essential goods amid fears of disrupted supply chains. “The demand for water and canned goods has increased since this morning amid fears that services or supply chains will be affected,” 61-year-old Kuwait City resident Hassan Rayan told reporters.

    As of Sunday, Iranian health officials confirmed 50 civilians and combatants have been killed and more than 500 injured since the latest round of fighting broke out, with casualty numbers expected to rise as airstrikes continue across the region.

  • Cuban dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara goes into exile in US

    Cuban dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara goes into exile in US

    After serving five years behind bars in Cuba, one of the Caribbean nation’s most high-profile government critics has arrived in the United States to begin a life in exile. Thirty-eight-year-old Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara heads the San Isidro Movement (SIM), a collective of artists, independent journalists, and intellectuals that has spent years organizing grassroots campaigns for expanded freedom of expression and democratic governance in Cuba, a one-party communist state.

    Otero Alcántara was first taken into custody in 2021, amid the largest anti-government demonstrations Cuba had seen in more than 30 years. For his entire sentence, he was incarcerated at the maximum-security Guanajay prison facility on the outskirts of Havana. In the days leading up to his departure, his location remained undisclosed as Cuban officials processed his release while U.S. authorities reviewed and approved his parole application.

    When he stepped out into the public terminal at Miami International Airport, Otero Alcántara was met by a crowd of cheering supporters who sang the Cuban national anthem in welcome. The dissident held up his hand, curving his thumb and forefinger to form the shape of the letter L – a well-known anti-government symbol that stands for “Libertad,” the Spanish word for freedom. Speaking to reporters shortly after his arrival, Otero Alcántara made clear his criticism of the Cuban government would not end with his exile. “I believe the dictatorship has to end, and the Castro dynasty has to end, as well,” he said. “Because as long as there is a Castro in power, there will be corruption.”

    Cuban authorities have long alleged that the San Isidro Movement receives direct funding from the U.S. government and operates as a front to destabilize the Cuban state – claims the movement and its members uniformly reject. SIM organizers say their members are routinely targeted by Cuban security forces, with many subjected to arbitrary detainment and harassment for their activism.

    The 2021 protests that led to Otero Alcántara’s arrest saw hundreds of demonstrators taken into custody across the island, and the case of the dissident leader and his SIM colleague Maykel Castillo, a musician better known by his stage name Osorbo who is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence, has been a persistent flashpoint in diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana.

    Tensions between the two nations have spiked sharply in recent months under the current U.S. administration, which has imposed a full oil blockade on Cuba, expanded sweeping economic sanctions, and issued open threats of potential military intervention. Just last week, CBS News, the U.S. news partner of the BBC, reported that Pentagon officials had held internal briefings reviewing potential military options for action against Cuba, though the report emphasized that the discussions did not indicate a final decision to launch an operation had been made.

    The U.S. oil blockade has deepened an already severe national fuel crisis on the island, pushing Cuban communities to face extended daily power blackouts and worsening widespread food shortages. In May, the U.S. further escalated hostilities by issuing an unprecedented murder indictment against former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, connected to the 1996 downing of two private aircraft operated by a Cuban exile group, an incident that killed four people. The indictment drew immediate condemnation from both Russia and China, which reject U.S. interference in Cuban sovereign affairs.

    Economic strain from the ongoing sanctions has also hit Cuba’s critical tourism sector hard. Official data from Cuba’s National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) shows that fewer than 360,000 international tourists visited the island in the first five months of 2026, a nearly 60% drop from the same period in 2025. In comments following Otero Alcántara’s release, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio doubled down on Washington’s stance, calling the Cuban government’s 2021 crackdown on protesters a reminder of “the unique misery and evil that is innate to the communist system.” He added that Otero Alcántara’s only offense was “refusing to stay silent and using his art to demand the basic freedoms everyday Cubans have been denied for almost seven decades.” U.S. officials have repeatedly stated that a peaceful negotiated agreement with Cuba is unlikely under current conditions.

  • Former China Development Bank president is under anti-corruption probe

    Former China Development Bank president is under anti-corruption probe

    BEIJING – China’s top anti-corruption oversight body revealed Sunday that Ouyang Weimin, the former president of the state-owned China Development Bank, is facing formal investigation over allegations of severe violations of Communist Party of China discipline and national law. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) released a brief initial statement confirming the probe, which is being carried out jointly by the CCDI and the National Commission of Supervision, with no further details on the specific allegations disclosed in the initial announcement.

    State-run publication China Daily has shared key biographical details of Ouyang’s decades-long career in public finance and government. Ouyang entered the workforce and joined the Communist Party of China in 1986, with the majority of his early professional tenure spent at the People’s Bank of China, China’s central monetary authority. He later went on to serve as vice-governor of Guangdong Province, China’s dynamic southern economic hub bordering Hong Kong, before being appointed president and deputy Communist Party secretary of the China Development Bank in 2019. He retired from the presidency of the bank in 2023.

    Established in 1994, the China Development Bank is a fully state-owned development finance institution operating under the direct supervision of China’s State Council. Per its official public mandate, the bank focuses on financing projects that support national economic growth, strategic development of key industries, and expansion of infrastructure and services in less developed regions of the country.

    Ouyang’s investigation comes amid a years-long national anti-corruption campaign launched under Chinese President Xi Jinping, which has targeted thousands of current and former officials across all levels of government, state-owned enterprises, and the People’s Liberation Army, including high-ranking generals and senior political leaders. While the campaign frames itself as a crackdown on systemic graft, external critics have argued that it also functions in part as a mechanism to remove political opponents of President Xi from positions of power.

  • Chinese company demands compensation from the UK over British Steel nationalization

    Chinese company demands compensation from the UK over British Steel nationalization

    In a formal statement released Sunday, China’s Jingye Group, the former owner of British Steel, has launched a formal challenge against the United Kingdom government, demanding financial compensation for billions in investment losses one week after the U.K. seized the historic steel manufacturer into public ownership. The dispute has escalated into a bilateral diplomatic flashpoint that risks shaking confidence in the U.K.’s reputation among global cross-border investors.

    The sequence of events that led to nationalization began in 2020, when Jingye purchased struggling British Steel out of insolvency, an acquisition the Chinese firm frames as pulling the iconic industrial brand back from the brink of collapse. Tensions flared last year, however, after Jingye warned it was considering shutting down the blast furnaces at British Steel’s Scunthorpe facility—currently the last remaining site in the U.K. that produces virgin steel from raw iron ore and other primary inputs. The British government responded by assuming full operational control of the company, a move formalized by the Department for Business and Trade on July 17. Officials framed the nationalization as a necessary step to protect 2,700 local jobs at the 130-year-old plant, which traces its industrial roots to the U.K.’s Industrial Revolution when British innovations revolutionized global steelmaking. The government added that maintaining domestic steel production is critical for national security, ensuring a steady supply of material for large public construction projects and the country’s defense sector.

    In its statement posted to China’s WeChat social platform, Jingye Group launched a scathing critique of the U.K.’s actions. The company accused the British government of offering “almost zero compensation” for its asset seizure, despite years of sustained investment and major contributions from Jingye to the British steel sector. The nationalization, the firm claimed, has damaged the British government’s global credibility, sown uncertainty among international investors, and caused severe financial harm to both Jingye’s operations and public funds held by British taxpayers. It further called on the U.K. to end its “trampling on international investment rules.”

    Jingye confirmed it has already activated negotiation procedures under the China-U.K. bilateral investment treaty, and has reserved all legal rights, including the option to pursue binding international arbitration. The firm also says it will advocate on behalf of British taxpayers to pursue legal action against both the U.K. government and former British Steel management, though it did not release further details on its planned legal strategy. A spokesperson for the U.K. government noted last week that an independent assessment will be conducted to evaluate if any compensation is owed to Jingye, with no figure or timeline publicly confirmed to date.

    The dispute drew a formal response from China’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday, which warned that how the U.K. resolves the compensation issue will directly shape how Chinese investors evaluate the British investment environment and the reliability of government commitments there. “China urges the UK to earnestly respect market principles and the spirit of contract, and find solutions on compensation and other issues acceptable to both sides,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that Beijing fully supports Chinese companies in defending their legitimate legal rights through formal legal channels.