Global Pulse

分类： politics

  • Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino addresses National Press Club amid superannuation call

    Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino addresses National Press Club amid superannuation call

    Australia’s Albanese government has firmly rejected two high-profile changes to the nation’s superannuation system pushed by One Nation: raising the mandatory employer superannuation guarantee from 12% to 15%, and expanding early access to retirement savings to help households cope with the ongoing cost of living crisis. The policy clash comes on the heels of the high-profile 2025 collapse of two major industry superannuation funds, Shield and First Guardian Master Funds, which has left roughly A$1 billion in member savings in limbo.

    Addressing the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino described the collapse of the two funds as a deeply troubling event that has upended the financial security of thousands of Australian households. Speaking to ABC Radio National Breakfast ahead of the address, Mulino detailed the harm inflicted by the failure: nearly 12,000 individual fund members and their families have lost large portions of their retirement savings, with some losing their entire accumulated balances. He condemned what he called “predatory and inappropriate” industry practices that led to the collapse.

    Despite calls from crossbench lawmakers to revisit legislated increases to the superannuation guarantee, Mulino ruled out any plans to lift the mandatory rate from its current 12% to the proposed 15%. He noted that reaching the 12% benchmark required decades of sustained effort from successive Labor governments, which fought intense opposition from conservative parties to secure the current framework. Mulino argued the 12% guarantee, applied consistently across a worker’s entire career, will deliver robust retirement balances for millions of Australians, with results already visible in the national super system.

    Beyond individual financial security, Mulino emphasized that the current 12% guarantee delivers major systemic benefits, easing long-term fiscal pressure on Australia’s public pension system. Official data and long-term projections already bear out this impact, he said, while also providing individual workers with an extra layer of financial safety in retirement that cannot be replicated by public benefits alone. “That is a very important and strong part of our system,” Mulino added.

    The government’s firm rejection of reform comes as One Nation steps up pressure to loosen access rules for superannuation, framing expanded early withdrawal as a solution to soaring household costs driven by the cost of living crisis. One Nation treasury spokesman Barnaby Joyce argued that superannuation savings are private property, not a collective national asset, and that households facing financial hardship deserve simpler, broader access to their own funds.

    “When you need access to your money because you can’t pay your groceries, or you’re going to get booted out of your house, that it’s not as arduous as what it’s been made,” Joyce told News24. Pushing back against criticism that early withdrawals would erode long-term retirement savings by breaking compound interest growth, Joyce noted that losing a home to eviction or foreclosure carries far greater long-term financial costs for vulnerable households. He added that there should be no overly restrictive limits on what Australians can use early super withdrawals for, arguing that covering emergency housing costs like rent is a perfectly legitimate use of a person’s own savings.

    Joyce also launched a scathing attack on the Albanese government for its rejection of One Nation’s proposal, repeating prior criticisms of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to question the government’s credibility, and insisting the party has no intention of abolishing the superannuation system entirely. The debate over superannuation policy is set to intensify in coming weeks as the government faces ongoing pressure to address cost of living pressures across the country, with more details expected to emerge as the discussion develops.

  • South Korea says the South Korean and US militaries have agreed to shorten their drills

    South Korea says the South Korean and US militaries have agreed to shorten their drills

    In a move that has sent ripples through Northeast Asian security dynamics, South Korean government officials confirmed Wednesday that the joint military exercises between South Korean and United States forces will be cut short, a change implemented at Washington’s formal request. This adjustment comes just days after former U.S. President Donald Trump issued a directive to downsize the long-planned drills.

    The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield summer drills kicked off on Monday morning, originally scheduled to run for 11 days through August 27. The drills were already slated for adjustment immediately after Trump ordered the U.S. Secretary of Defense to enact “substantial” cuts to the exercise program. In explaining his decision, Trump pointed to two key factors: what he described as a productive, positive personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and South Korea’s decision not to participate in the U.S.-led military conflict against Iran.

    In an official statement released this week, South Korea’s defense command confirmed that the ongoing combined exercises will now wrap up on Friday, a significant reduction from the original timeline. Beyond cutting the overall length of the main drills, the two allied nations have also reached an agreement to scale back the scope of several joint field training components that were part of the scheduled exercise package.

    The sudden downsizing of the exercises has drawn sharp scrutiny from defense analysts across the globe. A large number of regional security experts have warned that Trump’s last-minute order risks eroding the combined combat readiness that U.S. and South Korean forces have built up through decades of regular joint training. In the long term, they argue, repeated adjustments of this nature could weaken the foundation of the bilateral security alliance that has anchored Northeast Asian security for over 60 years.

    As of Wednesday, North Korean officials had not issued a direct public response to Trump’s decision to scale back the drills. However, earlier the same day, the country’s official state news agency released a strongly worded denunciation of the U.S.-South Korean exercise as a whole, labeling the drills “frantic” and “extremely dangerous.” The statement included a formal vow that North Korea would work to completely thwart what it called the hostile actions of its regional rivals.

  • Republican Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly to face off in race to replace Ron DeSantis

    Republican Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly to face off in race to replace Ron DeSantis

    As the United States gears up for the November general elections that will determine control of Congress, primary voting has wrapped up across three key states, with projected results already painting a clearer picture of the upcoming battles for statewide and federal offices.

    In Florida, America’s third most populous state, major projections from leading national media outlets including CNN and The Associated Press point to Republican U.S. Representative Byron Donalds and former Republican turned Democratic candidate David Jolly emerging as the winners of their respective gubernatorial primaries. With roughly 89% of all ballots counted, the two candidates are now set to face off in November’s general election to fill the seat being vacated by term-limited incumbent Governor Ron DeSantis.

    Donalds, a high-profile conservative Congressman, secured the critical endorsement of former President Donald Trump ahead of the primary. He outpaced a crowded Republican field that included right-wing challenger James Fishback, who drew notable attention from young conservative voters through his provocative public statements and aggressive social media-focused campaign strategy. For Democrats, the path to the general election has been far less straightforward: the party has not held the Florida governor’s mansion since 1999, and Jolly, a well-known Trump critic who left the Republican Party to run as a Democrat, had to defeat multiple primary opponents including state legislator Dotie Joseph and criminal justice reform advocate Evelyn Castillo-Bach to claim the projected nomination.

    Beyond the governor’s race, Florida voters also cast ballots in primaries for U.S. Senate and all of the state’s U.S. House seats. In the Senate race, Republican incumbent Ashley Moody is seeking her first full term after being appointed to fill the vacancy left by Marco Rubio, who stepped down to become U.S. Secretary of State. On the Democratic side, the primary has exposed ongoing intraparty divides between progressive and moderate factions: state Representative Angie Nixon is running as the progressive standard-bearer, while Alex Vindman — the former White House official who testified during Trump’s first impeachment inquiry in 2019 before being fired from the National Security Council — is positioning himself as the moderate alternative.

    One of the most closely watched House contests in the state played out in Florida’s 7th Congressional District, where political newcomer Ryan Elijah has been projected to defeat incumbent Republican Congressman Cory Mills in the GOP primary. The race drew national attention after Mills was hit with a House Ethics Committee investigation and public allegations of domestic abuse, which he has repeatedly denied. Even sitting Governor DeSantis, a fellow Republican, opted to distance himself from Mills, declining to issue an endorsement ahead of the primary.

    Thousands of miles away on the opposite coast, Alaska held its own competitive Senate primary, where the race gained unusual attention from an unexpected source: a little-known challenger who shared the incumbent’s name. Incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan was forced to compete against Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a little-known candidate who shared nearly the same name. Despite legal efforts to remove the namesake challenger from the ballot, both candidates appeared on the primary ballot, differentiated only by the incumbent’s “incumbent” label and the challenger’s “Jr.” suffix. Political analysts have noted that even with the clear labeling, the identical name could siphon off enough votes from the sitting senator to shake up the race in a state with a small overall voting population. Under Alaska’s election rules, the top four vote-getters regardless of party affiliation advance to the November general election, and Democrats are banking on their candidate, incumbent U.S. Representative Mary Peltola, to flip the seat and help the party take control of the U.S. Senate.

    Further inland in Wyoming, a deeply red state where the outcome of the Republican primary is widely seen as a predictor of the November general election result, voters are choosing a new governor after incumbent Mark Gordon hit his term limit. Three Republican candidates — Megan Degenfelder, Eric Barlow, and Brent Bien — are competing for the GOP nomination, while Democrat Kenneth Casner is running unopposed for his party’s spot on the general election ballot. Voters are also selecting a new U.S. Senator following the announced retirement of incumbent Cynthia Lummis, with former President Trump throwing his weight behind Republican U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman for the open seat.

  • Turkey rejects Israeli claims after strike on Syria air base

    Turkey rejects Israeli claims after strike on Syria air base

    A recent Israeli strike on a Syrian air base in the northwestern province of Idlib has sparked a sharp diplomatic rebuke from Turkey and exposed growing rifts between Israel and the United States over the future of post-Assad Syria. The incident, which US officials have publicly attributed to Israel, marks a significant escalation of Israeli military activity in Syria just months after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s long-ruling government, and has further inflamed long-simmering tensions between Ankara and Jerusalem.

    After more than 24 hours of official silence following the strike, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement defending the action, framing it as a response to an impending security threat. The statement claimed that Israel and Syria had maintained an informal status quo on security arrangements, which Syria was set to violate by allowing Turkish military forces to deploy to the Abu Duhur air base near Aleppo. “Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings,” the statement read, stopping short of explicitly confirming Israeli responsibility for the attack.

    Turkey, which has been a key backer of Syria’s new transitional government led by former jihadist commander Ahmed al-Sharaa, rejected the Israeli claims outright in an official statement released Wednesday and carried by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu News Agency. Ankara slammed the allegations as a cynical attempt to justify an illegal attack that violates Syria’s fundamental sovereignty and territorial integrity. “The frivolous allegations put forward by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office aim to legitimize Israel’s unlawful airstrikes targeting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Turkish government statement said.

    The strike also represents an unusual open defiance of the United States, which has moved to support Sharaa’s new administration as it works to consolidate control across Syria after Assad’s ouster in December 2024. Tom Barrack, the US envoy for Syria and ambassador to Ankara who has close personal business ties to US President Donald Trump, confirmed Israel’s role in the attack in a post on X Tuesday. Barrack called the strike an “unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability” and urged all parties to prioritize diplomatic dialogue over further military action. “We encourage all parties to prioritise logical discourse over further military incidents,” he wrote.

    Since Assad’s government fell to Turkish-backed Islamist opposition forces led by Sharaa, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes across Syrian territory, stepping up a long-running campaign targeting what it says are Iranian-aligned militant assets in the country. Israel has also deployed troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the occupied Golan Heights that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces since the 1974 disengagement agreement, and has carried out regular ground incursions deeper into Syrian territory. This most recent strike penetrated much further north into Syria than Israel’s typical limited security zone operations near the Golan, a move widely interpreted as Israel seeking to exploit the chaos of Syria’s political transition to advance its own strategic interests before the new government can consolidate power.

    Syrian state media, citing a military source, reported that Israeli aircraft carried out eight separate strikes targeting the base’s runway, causing significant damage to infrastructure but no reported casualties. A security source speaking to AFP confirmed that the Abu Duhur facility had been non-operational since 2012 and is currently secured by forces aligned with Syria’s new defense ministry. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a prominent war monitor, reported that the strikes followed a recent visit by a Turkish military delegation to the airfield as part of international efforts to reactivate the facility for security operations.

    Relations between Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have deteriorated sharply in recent years, reaching new lows amid Israel’s devastating military offensive in Gaza that Erdogan has repeatedly and vociferously condemned. While Turkey was the first Muslim-majority nation to formally recognize Israel and remains a NATO ally of the United States, ideological differences and competing regional interests have driven a deep wedge between Ankara and Jerusalem in recent years. Tensions spilled into Israeli domestic politics ahead of October’s national elections, when Netanyahu’s Likud party ran campaign billboards that pictured Erdogan alongside Naim Qassem, the leader of Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, framing the two as foreign actors pushing for Netanyahu’s electoral defeat.

    Syria’s transitional government joined Turkey in condemning the attack, releasing a statement that labeled the strike “an unjustified act of aggression” and called on the UN Security Council to take formal action to hold Israel accountable. The foreign ministry stressed that Syria’s new administration has exercised deliberate restraint since taking power, working to consolidate domestic stability and avoid regional escalation that could derail its political transition.

    Interestingly, despite rising cross-border tensions, Israeli officials and representatives of Syria’s new government have already held multiple rounds of direct bilateral talks, and the two sides have agreed to establish a formal intelligence-sharing mechanism. But core territorial disputes remain unresolved. Last month, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani demanded an unconditional full withdrawal of Israeli forces from all Syrian territory occupied since 1974, warning that the continued Israeli presence beyond the 1974 disengagement line poses a direct threat to regional security. Just one week later, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reaffirmed that Israel has no plans to withdraw its forces from Syrian territory, cementing the status quo of occupation.

    During a high-profile visit to Damascus last month, UN Secretary-General António Guterres echoed the global majority position, stating that all violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are unacceptable and must end, and explicitly reaffirmed that the Golan Heights is internationally recognized Syrian territory. Israel captured the majority of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and later formally annexed the territory, a move that has never been recognized by the vast majority of the international community.

  • The Indian activist jailed after taking on a luxury hotel plan

    The Indian activist jailed after taking on a luxury hotel plan

    In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, a long-serving community rights activist centered on the Kaziranga National Park region remains behind bars, after state authorities blocked his court-ordered release and invoked a controversial sweeping security law to detain him indefinitely without trial. The case has thrown a spotlight on a simmering conflict between conservation, development, and indigenous land rights around one of the world’s most celebrated wildlife protected areas.

    Forty-year-old Pranab Doley, a well-known local activist who has spent decades advocating for communities living on the edge of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, was arrested in late June, just weeks after he joined a public demonstration against a proposed five-star luxury hotel project on park-adjacent land. On July 29, a local court granted bail to Doley and four other co-accused protesters. When Doley’s father and legal counsel arrived at the prison on July 30 to escort him home, they were turned away: the Assam state government had triggered the National Security Act (NSA), a decades-old legislation that permits authorities to hold individuals for extended periods without formal trial, to block his release.

    Official detention orders reviewed by the BBC justify Doley’s ongoing detention by referencing 13 criminal cases filed against the activist dating back to 2017, citing a pattern of alleged unlawful assembly, intimidation, public obstruction, and even violence. The order also raises questions about the source of funding for Doley’s international travel and alleges suspicious cross-border financial transactions. But Doley’s legal team and supporters reject these claims, arguing that most of the decades-old cases have already been resolved, with only two remaining open at the time of his latest arrest – both of which Doley openly disclosed in his official affidavit when he ran as an independent candidate in Assam’s 2024 state legislative assembly elections, an election he ultimately lost.

    “He is an activist who fights for people’s rights,” Doley’s lawyer Mrityunjoy Pegu told the BBC. “That is why the police had registered some cases against him.” Critics of the detention argue the state has deployed a draconian law to silence opposition to a high-profile development project, sparking widespread anger across regional human rights circles.

    The proposed hotel project, first announced in 2023 as a public-private partnership between the Assam government and the Saraf Group, is being developed by Juniper Hotels with backing from Hyatt, the U.S.-based global hospitality brand. State officials frame the 10-acre development as an economic boon for the region, arguing it will attract high-spending international tourists, generate local employment, and bring much-needed infrastructure investment to the Kaziranga area, which is globally renowned as a conservation success story for the endangered one-horned rhinoceros.

    But dozens of local farming families say the project will displace them from land their families have cultivated for generations. While the Assam district administration claims the full project site is government-owned land, protesting residents push back against this narrative, noting that state officials have collected land revenue from their families for decades. Geeta Gwala, one of the residents who has challenged the land acquisition in court, says her family has held formal tax receipts for their 2.81-acre plot dating all the way back to 1956. A court-ordered land boundary demarcation to resolve the ownership dispute had been scheduled for June 24, but has yet to be completed, according to Gwala.

    Deputy Commissioner Biswajit Phukan, the top local district official, clarified that the government has not seized land already formally registered to protesting families, and that while some residents may have informally cultivated portions of the project site, the land was never legally allocated to them. He added that the administration has offered financial compensation, alternative land to eligible residents, and job skills training to support local people affected by the project. Phukan declined to comment directly on Doley’s detention, noting that the administration does not wish to prejudice ongoing legal proceedings, and said the government remains “extremely sensitive” to local community concerns.

    For Doley, the debate over the hotel project is not an abstract policy dispute – it is rooted in decades of personal experience with the complex tensions between conservation, flooding, and land rights along the Brahmaputra River floodplains where Kaziranga is located. Growing up in a small farming family near the park, Doley saw his own village displaced multiple times by recurring river erosion and annual flooding, a common issue in the region where shifting riverbanks render official land records outdated far faster than bureaucratic systems can update them. Even today, Doley’s own parents do not hold formal legal title to the land they live on.

    He also witnessed first-hand the conflict between wildlife conservation and local communities: when annual monsoons flood Kaziranga, rhinos, tigers, and elephants flee to higher ground on adjacent farmland, destroying crops and sometimes triggering deadly encounters between people and animals. These experiences shaped Doley’s core belief: that conservation of Kaziranga’s unique ecosystem cannot be separated from protecting the land rights of the communities that have lived alongside the park for generations.

    Doley first rose to prominence as an activist challenging alleged extrajudicial killings of suspected poachers within Kaziranga, before expanding his work to address forced evictions, unfair land acquisition, and inadequate compensation for displaced local families. Last year, he brought these demands to the global stage, speaking at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva to urge governments and corporations to prioritize indigenous community rights when pursuing development projects.

    The tensions over the hotel project boiled over on June 28, when Doley joined a peaceful protest at the construction site. Police allege that protesters entered the project area, damaged construction equipment, and attacked law enforcement officers, naming Doley as the crowd’s primary instigator. Doley’s organization, the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee, denies these claims, arguing that police initiated violence against peaceful demonstrators and that Doley was never involved in any confrontation.

    The judge who granted bail to Doley and four other co-defendants largely backed the activists’ account, finding that available video footage contradicted many of the prosecution’s key claims. While the footage showed minor pushing and shoving between protesters and police, it showed no evidence of a direct attack on officers or any attempt to set construction machinery on fire, as police had alleged. The judge’s ruling noted that Doley was captured on camera speaking with officials to seek a negotiated resolution to the dispute, and acknowledged that while some officers were injured, the protest stemmed from legitimate concerns about environmental harm and community impacts. The ruling concluded: “True public order is achieved not by silencing the affected, but by listening to them.”

    Despite the court’s bail order, Doley remains in detention under the National Security Act, as his legal team works to challenge the government’s action. For supporters, his detention has become a flashpoint for the broader fight over who gets to benefit from development and conservation around one of India’s most iconic protected areas – and Doley now waits for the justice he spent years fighting for on behalf of others.

  • Why has Russia threatened the UK and what happens next?

    Why has Russia threatened the UK and what happens next?

    In recent weeks, rising geopolitical tensions between Russia and the United Kingdom have put global attention on the escalating confrontation over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. After UK leadership reaffirmed London’s full commitment to backing Kyiv, questions have emerged about what led Russia to issue direct threats against the British state, and what potential ramifications this standoff could have for European and global security moving forward.

    Against the backdrop of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in early 2022, the United Kingdom has consistently stood as one of Kyiv’s most vocal and material backers. From providing advanced military hardware — including long-range strike capabilities, air defense systems, and armored vehicles — to imposing sweeping economic sanctions on Russian elites and key sectors of Moscow’s economy, the UK has positioned itself at the forefront of Western support for Ukraine’s sovereignty. It is this consistent, unapologetic support that has drawn repeated pushback from the Kremlin, which has framed Western involvement in the conflict as a direct provocation against Russian national interests.

    Most recently, Downing Street reaffirmed this long-held stance, with the UK Prime Minister stating publicly that London will maintain 100 percent support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian occupation. This clear reiteration of policy has been met with a new round of threats from Moscow, which has sought to warn the UK away from continued backing of Kyiv by raising the prospect of direct retaliation, ranging from increased cyberattacks on British critical infrastructure to heightened military activity near European NATO borders.

    Looking ahead, the trajectory of this confrontation depends on multiple interconnected factors. Analysts broadly agree that the UK is unlikely to reverse its course on Ukraine support, given widespread cross-party political consensus in London that backing Kyiv is critical to preventing wider Russian aggression across Europe. At the same time, NATO as a whole has moved to bolster its eastern flank in response to increased Russian rhetoric, reducing the risk of direct military escalation between Russia and the alliance. While the threat of asymmetric action — including disinformation campaigns, cyber interference, and hybrid attacks — remains elevated, most assessments suggest that Russia is unlikely to take steps that would trigger direct Article 5 collective defense action from the full 31-member alliance.

    This latest exchange underscores the growing rift between Russia and the West over Ukraine, a divide that shows few signs of narrowing in the near term. For the UK, the commitment to Ukraine remains a core pillar of its foreign policy, even as it faces growing Russian threats that demand increased vigilance from British security and intelligence services.

  • Tracking USS Lincoln’s months-long mission as concerns about conditions grow

    Tracking USS Lincoln’s months-long mission as concerns about conditions grow

    In an unprecedented fact-checking and monitoring effort, BBC Verify has leveraged cutting-edge commercial satellite imagery to follow the movements of the USS Lincoln, a United States Navy aircraft carrier currently embarked on one of the longest extended maritime deployments in recent U.S. military history.

    The multi-month mission has sparked growing public and policy-focused concern over a range of critical issues, from the operational wear and tear on the warship itself to the physical and mental well-being of the thousands of service members deployed aboard. Unlike routine deployments that typically last between six and seven months, the USS Lincoln’s current assignment has stretched well beyond standard timelines, leaving observers questioning the strategic rationale and the toll of the extended tour.

    BBC Verify’s satellite tracking initiative offers unprecedented public visibility into the carrier’s movements across global waters, filling information gaps left by limited official U.S. Defense Department updates. As the deployment continues, questions surrounding the sustainability of the mission and the working conditions for crew members have intensified, prompting calls for greater transparency from military leadership about the carrier’s operational objectives and timeline for return to home port.

  • UN atomic watchdog says found tons of nuclear material at Syria site

    UN atomic watchdog says found tons of nuclear material at Syria site

    In a landmark development marking a new chapter of nuclear transparency in Syria, the head of the United Nations’ atomic watchdog confirmed Tuesday that international inspectors have recovered several tons of nuclear material from an undeclared site that Syria’s new administration formally reported to the agency last month.

    Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), made the announcement during an official visit to Syria, where he traveled to inspect two locations: the long-controversial Al-Kibar site in Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, and the second undeclared location where the nuclear stockpile was discovered. The announcement came just one month after Damascus notified the IAEA of the stockpile, which it says was left behind by the ousted government of former leader Bashar al-Assad.

    During a joint press conference in Damascus with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, Grossi commended the current administration for what he called a “courageous decision” to voluntarily disclose the previously unreported site. “We are talking about a few tons of nuclear material that could be put to bad use,” Grossi told reporters, adding that the IAEA would immediately bring the material under full international safeguards to eliminate any proliferation risks.

    Shaibani confirmed that Syria sent an official notification of the stockpile to the IAEA on July 17, stating that the government chose to declare the materials of its own free will as part of the legacy left by the former regime. He added that initial technical evaluations have concluded the materials do not pose an immediate active risk, and that the stockpile will remain under national Syrian ownership while adhering fully to the IAEA’s safeguard protocols.

    Grossi reaffirmed the IAEA’s commitment to overseeing the material, saying “this material will be accounted for, will be put within the international safeguards system.” He noted that IAEA and Syrian technical experts will collaborate on developing protocols for the long-term safe storage of the nuclear materials, framing the disclosure as a turning point in relations between Syria and the global non-proliferation body. “We are starting to turn a page, and turning a page does not mean forgetting the past,” he said.

    The discovery of the material draws new attention to the long-standing controversy over Syria’s former nuclear activities, centered on the Al-Kibar site in Deir Ezzor that has been shuttered for 18 years. In 2007, Israel carried out a secretive air strike that destroyed the uncompleted facility, a mission it only publicly acknowledged in 2011. A year after the strike, U.S. officials publicly accused Syria of constructing a secret nuclear reactor at the site, with alleged assistance from North Korea. The IAEA formally concluded in 2011 that the site was “very likely” a functional nuclear reactor under construction.

    Pierre Razoux, academic director of the French FMES Institute think tank, told Agence France-Presse the newly discovered material is “most likely… linked to the Syrian nuclear program, which was halted in 2007 after the Israeli raid on the Al-Kibar site.” He added that another potential origin for the stockpile could be nuclear materials that Iraq disposed of at the beginning of the 2000s following the U.S.-led invasion.

    Grossi said the find confirms the IAEA’s long-held suspicions about undeclared nuclear activities in Syria, noting that extensive excavation and investigation work is ongoing at the Deir Ezzor site. Last year, the watchdog confirmed that inspectors had detected particles of enriched uranium at the site during a 2024 inspection.

    Grossi’s high-profile visit comes one week after U.S. news outlet Axios reported that Washington and the IAEA had reached a deal to remove nuclear material from the clandestine Syrian site, following closed-door understandings with both Syria and Israel. According to the Axios report, Israeli officials had closely monitored a location dubbed “Site 99” where the Assad government was believed to have stored nuclear material leftover from the Al-Kibar project, and Israel had issued public threats to carry out a new bombing campaign on the site if the material was not secured.

  • Japan and OAS award Haiti $3M to help troubled country prepare for long-awaited elections

    Japan and OAS award Haiti $3M to help troubled country prepare for long-awaited elections

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI – In a critical push to advance democratic processes in the crisis-battered Caribbean nation, Japan and the Organization of American States (OAS) formalized an agreement Tuesday that delivers a $3 million grant to Haiti, earmarked for voter registration efforts ahead of the country’s first general election in over 10 years.

    The OAS outlined in an official statement that the funding will support two core immediate needs: updating Haiti’s outdated national voter rolls and procuring 350,000 blank national identification cards, a foundational requirement for eligible citizens to cast ballots. This intervention comes as Haiti grapples with a catastrophic wave of gang-related violence that has already displaced a record 1.5 million people across the country. Most of these displaced residents fled their homes suddenly amid armed attacks in the capital Port-au-Prince and outlying regions, leaving behind official documents including their identifying paperwork in the chaos.

    Beyond updating voter rolls and printing ID materials, the grant will also address longstanding bottlenecks in Haiti’s civil documentation system. It will cut the growing backlog of Haitian residents waiting to receive official identification, expand access to registration services in underserved rural communities, and upgrade critical infrastructure—including power and internet connectivity—at government registration offices across the country’s decentralized regions.

    Haiti’s transitional government launched official voter registration operations last month in Port-au-Prince, where an estimated 70 percent of the capital’s territory is currently under the control of armed gang factions. The first round of the long-awaited general election is currently scheduled for December 13, but regional policy and security experts have repeatedly warned that persistent, widespread gang violence could force yet another delay to the vote.

    Haiti has operated without a sitting head of state since July 2021, when then-President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his private residence. Moïse, who took office in 2017 after winning the country’s last general election held in November 2016, has left a prolonged power vacuum that has compounded the country’s ongoing political, security and humanitarian collapse.

  • France to expel two Iranian diplomats: foreign minister

    France to expel two Iranian diplomats: foreign minister

    A deepening diplomatic rift between France and Iran escalated sharply this week, after French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot announced Tuesday that Paris would expel two Iranian diplomats stationed in France. The move comes as direct retaliation for Iran’s decision to ban two French diplomats from its Tehran embassy, a step Iran took following the brief detention of the envoys last month over allegations of improper interference in Iranian internal affairs.

    In a public post on the social platform X, Barrot confirmed that the two Iranian diplomats would be expelled from French territory in the coming days. He framed the decision as a direct response to what he called the “intolerable” treatment of the French diplomats, who were taken into custody and questioned by Iranian security officials for several hours on July 19. Barrot emphasized that the detention and interrogation constituted a blatant violation of long-established international standards of diplomatic immunity.

    The French foreign minister further alleged that the two envoys, one of whom served as France’s cultural attaché in Tehran, were subjected to severe intimidation tactics at the hands of Iran’s security services, with one diplomat reporting physical abuse during detention. Barrot argued that the attack on the diplomats was a deliberate response to France’s longstanding support for Iranian civilians, including artists, scientists and academic researchers working within the country.

    “It is precisely because France stands shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people, supporting their artists, scientists and researchers, that two French diplomats were scandalously and deliberately attacked on 19 July,” Barrot said in his statement.

    Iranian authorities have repeatedly rejected France’s claims of mistreatment, asserting that the diplomats were only held for a short period of questioning and that their actions clearly constituted interference in Iran’s domestic politics under the cover of engaging with local civil society groups. On Monday, the Iranian foreign ministry formally notified France that the two French diplomats would not be permitted to re-enter the country to resume their posts. A preliminary investigation by Iran’s intelligence ministry concluded the pair were developing a wide-ranging influence campaign aimed at undermining Iranian national sovereignty.

    The July 19 meeting that sparked the diplomatic crisis also led to the arrest of two prominent Iranian graphic artists, 46-year-old Aria Kasaei and 36-year-old Elly Naghilou, who have remained in detention since the encounter. Supporters of the artists confirmed to Agence France-Presse on Monday that the designers were arrested at Kasaei’s Tehran home while meeting with the French diplomats to discuss development of visual branding for Villa Zadig, an upcoming French-backed cultural project.

    In a formal statement, the artists’ supporters called on Iranian authorities to grant the pair access to independent legal representation and guarantee their safety and protection of fundamental human rights. The statement also noted that French diplomats witnessed part of the arrest process, and called on the French government to conduct a full investigation into the circumstances of the detention and take all necessary action to secure the artists’ safety and eventual release. Barrot did not reference the arrests of the Iranian artists in his Tuesday public statement.

    International human rights organizations have documented a growing crackdown on civil society activity across Iran since large-scale anti-government protests shook the country’s clerical leadership in January, a crackdown that has accelerated amid escalating regional tensions following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.