Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Cubans protest after third nationwide power cut this year

    Cubans protest after third nationwide power cut this year

    On Tuesday evening, spontaneous public demonstrations broke out across multiple Cuban communities, with furious residents banging pots and pans and lighting refuse ablaze to voice their frustration over a fresh nationwide power outage that has left large swathes of the island without electricity. This act of public dissent, rare in a country where open opposition to the ruling Communist government is commonly met with lengthy prison sentences, reflects the growing public anger over the island’s ongoing energy crisis that has dragged on for months.

    The root of Cuba’s energy shortage traces back to long-standing fuel scarcity, a crisis that has been sharply worsened by stringent US sanctions and a de facto oil blockade on the island. Even residents who own backup generators are often left unable to operate them, as there is no fuel available to power the units amid ongoing shortages.

    This latest unplanned outage, which occurred on Monday, marks the third nationwide blackout Cuba has experienced in 2026. It comes on top of pre-planned rolling blackouts that the Cuban government has implemented to conserve the country’s dwindling fuel supplies. In hard-hit rural regions, communities have been left without power for as long as 70 consecutive hours during scheduled outages, while urban centers face planned cuts that can stretch up to 30 hours at a time. As of Tuesday evening local time, the state-owned national electricity company had not released any explanation for what caused this latest unplanned full-grid outage. One of the hardest-hit areas that remained without power Tuesday was Santiago de Cuba, the country’s second-largest city. While Cuban officials announced that power service had been restored to most of the country by Tuesday, residents in still-dark neighborhoods took to the streets shouting demands to “turn on the lights!”

    Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has publicly acknowledged that discontent is spreading across the island. In an interview with Puerto Rico-based Spanish-language weekly Claridad, he admitted that the widespread hardships facing ordinary Cubans have fueled frustration. “There are shortages of transport, food, medicines, there are lengthy power cuts lasting more than 20 hours, that causes dissatisfaction, nobody can be happy, the people are suffering,” Díaz-Canel told reporters. However, the president placed full blame for the crisis on the United States, urging angry Cubans to direct their protest toward the US government instead of his own. “People bang pots, some with more anger than others. I say: direct your pot-banging towards our northern neighbours, who are the ones behind these power cuts,” he added.

    The United States has rejected this blame, with US Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz placing full responsibility for the outage and the broader crisis squarely on the Cuban government during a Tuesday address to the UN General Assembly. Waltz called on the Cuban government to “change your ways and turn the lights back on for your people,” and claimed that “there always seems to be enough power for the Cuban dictatorship.”

    Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez countered by accusing the US of waging “multi-dimensional, non-conventional warfare” against the Cuban government and people, which he said has “become ever more cruel” over the past seven months.

    Decades of already strained US-Cuba relations have deteriorated sharply since the start of 2026, after US President Donald Trump labeled the Cuban government a national security threat to the United States. Tensions spiked further in January, after US forces seized former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — a close ally of Havana — leading Trump to publicly speculate that Cuba was “ready to fall.”

    In the months following Maduro’s ousting, the Trump administration imposed sweeping new sanctions on Cuba, enacted the effective oil blockade that has crippled the country’s energy sector, and threatened to impose punitive tariffs on any third-party country that supplies fuel to Havana. The US also recently filed murder charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro, who remains an influential political figure on the island at the age of 95.

    Despite the very public exchange of accusations and escalating tensions, officials from both countries have confirmed that private negotiations have been ongoing in recent weeks. Rodríguez said Tuesday that the secret talks have so far “show no progress,” but confirmed that Cuba remains open “to dialogue based on mutual respect and non-interference in Cuba’s internal affairs.”

  • Trump says end of conflict ‘much closer’

    Trump says end of conflict ‘much closer’

    Five years into the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire have advanced further than most observers acknowledge, bringing a long-awaited end to the war within closer reach than ever before.

    Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump outlined that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have expressed a shared desire to conclude the conflict, with active negotiations already underway to finalize a path forward. “I think we are getting much closer than people realize,” he stated. “We’re in talks, and we’ll see if we can get it ended.”

    The comments came just days after Trump held separate phone calls with both heads of state over the weekend, including an 85-minute conversation with Putin on the U.S. Fourth of July holiday. A Kremlin aide confirmed that Trump used the call to present new proposals aimed at advancing peace negotiations. Trump added that his administration has maintained open lines of communication with both Moscow and Kyiv, and that ending the conflict will be a top priority at the upcoming NATO summit, where he is scheduled to hold one-on-one talks with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the gathering in Ankara. A senior U.S. official told Reuters that the bilateral meeting will center on launching a renewed diplomatic push to end the war, with Trump expected to follow up the discussion with another conversation with Putin to build on any progress.

    While the Kremlin has struck a cautious tone, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noting that Moscow has not observed any shifts in the U.S. position on conflict resolution, Zelenskyy offered a more optimistic assessment in an interview with the *Financial Times*. The Ukrainian president argued that Trump’s outlook has been updated by recent Ukrainian military gains on the battlefield, noting that “President Trump wants to be where there’s success.”

    Even as diplomatic momentum builds, however, the conflict has seen a sharp new escalation in military operations over the past 48 hours. Overnight Monday into Tuesday, Ukraine launched the largest drone attack on Moscow in more than two years, dispatching over 430 unmanned aerial vehicles toward the Russian capital. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin confirmed in a social media post Tuesday that most of the drones were intercepted and destroyed by Russian air defense systems at long range before they could reach the city center, with only 36 UAVs downed near Moscow’s outer limits. No casualties or major infrastructure damage were reported in the attack.

    A day earlier, Ukrainian military forces announced they had carried out targeted strikes on three Russian oil refineries, including Russia’s largest refinery located in Omsk, more than 2,400 kilometers inside Russian territory. The strikes also hit two “shadow fleet” commercial vessels operating in the Sea of Azov.

    Russia responded to the Ukrainian attacks with a massive retaliatory strike on Kyiv and surrounding areas, using a combination of long-range precision weapons launched from air, land, and sea platforms alongside drone strikes. Ukrainian emergency services confirmed that the attack left at least 24 civilians dead and dozens more injured, with multiple residential high-rise buildings destroyed in two central Kyiv districts. Search and rescue operations were still ongoing as of Monday evening to recover survivors from the rubble.

    The conflicting developments—optimistic diplomatic signals on one hand, and intensifying military violence on the other—set the stage for high-stakes discussions at the NATO summit this week, as global leaders weigh new efforts to bring the drawn-out conflict to a close.

  • Russian attacks kill 3 across Ukraine, strikes Kyiv for second consecutive night

    Russian attacks kill 3 across Ukraine, strikes Kyiv for second consecutive night

    A wave of coordinated overnight missile and drone attacks between Russia and Ukraine has left at least four people dead and dozens more injured, escalating the ongoing aerial conflict that has stretched Ukrainian air defense capabilities to their limit.

    The violence began shortly after midnight Wednesday, when multiple powerful explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv for the second consecutive night. In an unusual reversal of standard attack patterns, the blasts were heard before Ukrainian authorities issued a mandatory air raid alert — a timing that denied civilians critical minutes to reach protected shelter. One civilian woman was killed in the Kyiv strikes, and two additional residents were wounded, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv city administration. The assault damaged multiple administrative buildings, warehouse facilities, a city garage complex, and several public trams, Tkachenko confirmed.

    In Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, two additional civilians were killed and 20 more suffered injuries in a barrage of Russian overnight strikes, Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported. A further two civilians were wounded in Zaporizhzhia after a Russian guided bomb hit residential areas, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said, bringing the total confirmed Ukrainian death toll from the Russian attacks to three.

    Ukraine’s Air Force released a detailed breakdown of the Russian assault, noting that Russian forces launched 169 long-range attack drones and seven missiles — including five ballistic missiles — at targets across Ukraine overnight. While Ukrainian air defense crews shot down or jammed 139 of the deployed drones, and two Russian anti-radar missiles failed to reach their intended targets, all five ballistic missiles and 20 remaining drones successfully hit locations across 15 different Ukrainian sites. The outcome underscores the persistent pressure that large-scale Russian aerial barrages place on Ukraine’s overstretched air defense networks, which rely on Western-supplied interceptors that are often in short supply.

    In a statement following the strikes, Russia’s Ministry of Defense confirmed its forces targeted Ukrainian arms industry infrastructure in Kyiv, saying the strikes hit a plant producing components for Flamingo cruise missiles and a facility responsible for assembling mid- and long-range attack drones.

    The violence was not limited to Ukrainian territory, as reciprocal drone strikes from Ukraine hit multiple locations across Russia overnight, leaving one dead and several more injured. In the Saratov region, Governor Roman Busargin confirmed a Ukrainian drone attack killed one civilian and damaged unspecified industrial infrastructure. Multiple other industrial sites were damaged in Nizhnekamsk, where Mayor Radmir Belyayev reported several people suffered injuries but declined to name the specific facilities impacted.

    In Russia’s Rostov region, two empty oil tankers anchored in Taganrog Bay were hit and damaged by Ukrainian drones, regional governor Yuri Slyusar confirmed. Two crew members were injured in the attack, and the crew of one of the damaged vessels was evacuated as a safety precaution. Slyusar added that no oil spill occurred, as both tankers were traveling empty en route to the port of Rostov-on-Don. Russian air defense systems intercepted and downed 415 Ukrainian drones between late Tuesday and early Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

    The latest round of cross-border attacks comes amid a months-long escalation of Russian aerial campaigns targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, industrial sites, and population centers, as Ukraine steps up its own long-range drone strikes on Russian territory to disrupt military supply chains and industrial production supporting the Russian war effort.

  • Iraq’s holy cities host funeral processions for Khamenei

    Iraq’s holy cities host funeral processions for Khamenei

    Crowds of mourners packed the boulevards of Iraq’s holy city of Najaf on Wednesday to honor the passing of Iran’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, as his casket was paraded through the city ahead of final burial in Iran later this week.

    Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli strike on February 28, alongside several of his relatives, triggering a new wave of open conflict across the Middle East. Iran has planned a six-day sequence of national funeral ceremonies to consolidate national unity and project regional strength in the aftermath of the attack, with a full day of events dedicated to neighboring Iraq, a major Shia-majority state with deep religious and political ties to Tehran.

    The Najaf processions unfolded as fresh fighting erupted between the United States and Iran in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, further dimming already faint hopes for a negotiated ceasefire to end the escalating regional conflict. The US military announced it had targeted dozens of Iranian positions in retaliation for Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels in the strait; shortly after, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed it had struck US military installations in Bahrain and Kuwait in response.

    Senior Iraqi political leaders and government officials received Khamenei’s remains at Najaf International Airport on Tuesday night, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and one of the late leader’s sons in attendance at the handover. Iraqi authorities declared Wednesday a national public holiday to allow residents to participate in the commemorations, with processions kicking off at 6 a.m. local time.

    Thousands of security personnel were deployed across the city to manage the swelling crowds, as thousands of mourners pushed toward the truck carrying Khamenei’s casket to touch the wooden surface, on its route toward the Shrine of Imam Ali — one of Shia Islam’s most sacred sites. Dozens of senior Shia clerics waited at the shrine to lead prayers over the casket before it was transported north to the city of Karbala for a second public procession. Khamenei’s final burial is scheduled for Thursday in his native northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad.

    While Khamenei’s eldest son Mostafa was present at the airport handover, his successor Mojtaba Khamenei — appointed supreme leader just days after his father’s killing — has not made any public appearances since taking the role, releasing only written statements to communicate with supporters.

    Many mourners traveled for hours across Iraq to participate in the processions. Mohammed al-Bayati, a 30-year-old Iraqi who made the trip to Najaf, called the event “an opportunity not to be missed to participate in the funeral of the person who challenged the power of America and Israel.”

    As the center of global Shia religious scholarship and home to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq’s highest-ranking Shia religious authority, Najaf holds unique spiritual significance for Shia Muslims worldwide. Many of the faith’s most senior clerics, including Khamenei’s predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, have studied, taught, or lived in the city’s historic seminaries.

    After the Najaf ceremonies conclude, Khamenei’s remains will travel 60 kilometers north to Karbala, home to the shrines of Imam Hussein and his brother Abbas — another pair of the faith’s most revered figures. The seventh-century death of Imam Hussein in battle remains the defining event of Shia history, drawing millions of pilgrims to Karbala and Najaf every year. Banners hung across Karbala ahead of the procession read “we bid you farewell” and “the one who humiliated America,” alongside large portraits of the late leader. Hundreds of volunteer stalls along the procession routes in both cities offer free food and water to mourning attendees.

    The spiritual and political bond between Iran and Iraq runs deep for the two Shia-majority nations, though the relationship has shifted dramatically over the past four decades. Esmail Qaani, head of the IRGC’s Quds Force, told Iranian state media that the extensive preparations for the funeral by Iraqi authorities and civilians “show the depth of the spiritual bond between the two great nations of Iraq and Iran to the whole world.”

    Ties between the two countries were openly hostile during the 1980s, when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein — who violently repressed Iraq’s Shia majority — launched a brutal eight-year war against the newly formed Islamic Republic of Iran. But after Saddam was ousted from power in the 2003 US-led invasion, and Shia-dominated governments rose to rule in Baghdad, the two states formed a close strategic alliance. Today, Iran wields significant influence over Iraqi politics and backs a network of armed factions within the country, many of which joined the regional war after Khamenei’s killing by launching attacks on US targets inside Iraq.

    Haidar Jaafar, a mourner who traveled from the southern Iraqi city of Basra to attend the procession, predicted millions would turn out to honor Khamenei. “Even those who do not align with Iran, just because he was killed by Israeli-American hands,” he explained, would come to pay their respects.

  • US strikes target Iranian military boats

    US strikes target Iranian military boats

    Tensions in the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz have spiked sharply after the United States executed targeted strikes against Iranian military boats, in a direct retaliatory move following recent attacks on three commercial oil tankers transiting the key waterway.

    The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage that connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea, handles roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil consumption, making it one of the most geopolitically important maritime chokepoints on the planet. Any disruption to shipping through this corridor has the potential to send global energy prices soaring and escalate long-running tensions between the U.S. and Iran into a broader regional conflict.

    According to initial official confirmations, the U.S. military launched the strikes after three oil tankers came under attack while moving through the strait, a waterway that Iran has long claimed partial sovereignty over, and where it has frequently seized or attacked commercial shipping in recent years amid rising tensions with Western powers. U.S. officials have framed the operation as a proportional response intended to deter further attacks on commercial maritime traffic, which is protected under international maritime law to move freely through global waterways.

    The incident comes amid more than a decade of escalating friction between Washington and Tehran, over Iran’s nuclear program, its regional military influence through proxy groups, and disputes over international trade sanctions. Global leaders have already begun calling for immediate de-escalation, warning that any further military confrontation in the Persian Gulf could have catastrophic consequences for global energy markets and regional security.

    At this early stage, there has been no official confirmation of casualties or damage to the Iranian vessels from the strikes, and Iran has not yet issued an official public response to the U.S. operation. International shipping companies have already announced they are temporarily rerouting some vessels away from the Strait of Hormuz as a precaution, raising concerns about near-term disruptions to global oil supplies.

  • Russian fuel shortages bite – but will Putin change tack in Ukraine war?

    Russian fuel shortages bite – but will Putin change tack in Ukraine war?

    Across Russia, even in the resource-rich capital of Moscow, a severe fuel crisis has brought the far-reaching consequences of the ongoing Ukraine conflict directly to ordinary citizens’ daily lives. A day of travel through Moscow’s streets reveals a consistent scene: lengthy queues of passenger cars and heavy goods vehicles snake out from nearly every operating petrol station, while any forecourt without a line has already run dry and closed its gates.

    For a country that ranks among the world’s top crude oil producers, this widespread shortage of gasoline and diesel has come as a shock to many residents. Even in the nation’s wealthiest, most well-supplied capital, federal and local authorities have failed to maintain steady fuel distribution for motorists. Among those waiting in lines, the prevailing mood is frustration rather than open rage, though quiet anxiety over future supplies simmers beneath the surface.

    Yekaterina, one motorist stuck in a queue, acknowledged widespread panic driven by fears of total fuel depletion, but expressed hope that restructuring distribution networks would resolve the issue. Elmar, another driver planning a long-distance trip to Dagestan, complained of skyrocketing prices and hours wasted waiting to refuel, saying he now doubts whether he can safely make the journey by car. When asked to identify who was responsible for the crisis, he offered a knowing, cautious smile, noting that open criticism of leadership is not something most Russians feel comfortable sharing in public. Valery, meanwhile, pointed to both systemic unpreparedness and Ukrainian missile strikes on energy infrastructure as contributing factors, saying it is absurd for a major oil-producing nation to face such widespread shortages, and expressed hope for a quick resolution to the chaos.

    The roots of the crisis stretch back to escalating Ukrainian drone and missile strikes targeting Russian oil refineries deep within Russian territory, including facilities within striking distance of Moscow. These strikes have disrupted domestic refining capacity, leaving the country unable to meet even baseline domestic fuel demand. The situation has been exacerbated by internet restrictions that limit the spread of real-time information about fuel availability, allowing panic to spread faster than accurate updates.

    Social media platforms are flooded with user-posted images of queues stretching for miles, and reports of violent scuffles between frustrated drivers have become common. In the Black Sea coastal resort of Anapa, local Cossack units have been deployed to maintain order at crowded petrol stations. Fuel rationing is now in place across most regions, many areas have banned the use of portable jerry cans to prevent bulk hoarding, a Siberian mayor has arranged for portable toilets to be installed for drivers waiting multiple hours in lines, and local governments have been forced to cut back on public bus routes and municipal rubbish collection due to fuel shortages. Farmers across the country are already warning that the crisis could derail the critical summer harvest, threatening food security as well as energy supplies.

    The shift in public mood is already visible in independent and state-run polling. Independent pollster Levada Center recorded a drop in President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating to roughly 74%, while the share of Russians who believe the country is moving in the right direction fell 9 percentage points to just 52% between May and July. Last week, Gallup reported that Russian pessimism about the national economy has hit a 20-year high, with 60% of respondents saying local economic conditions are worsening. Even state-run polling firm VCIOM recorded a 3.4 percentage point drop in public trust in Putin over one week, falling to 73%.

    In Kyiv, military and political strategists are counting on this growing public frustration to build enough domestic pressure to force the Kremlin to enter peace negotiations. That expectation is shared by some NATO leaders gathering in Ankara, who are watching the economic turmoil closely for signs of political cracks in the Kremlin.

    The Kremlin has not ignored the growing discontent. Putin publicly addressed the shortage on state-run television, acknowledging that Ukrainian strikes have “obviously created problems” but insisting the situation is not critical. Even as he downplays the severity, authorities have moved quickly to mitigate the crisis: they have ramped up fuel imports, introduced price subsidies to cap rising costs, and authorized the sale of lower-grade fuel that many experts warn could damage vehicle engines.

    Analysts are divided on whether the fuel crisis will shift the Kremlin’s strategic course on the war. Christopher Weafer, head of regional consultancy Macro Advisory, called the shortage a potential “game-changer” for Russian economic growth, noting that “the costs of the conflict are rising. While the full impact from the fuel crisis will not be seen in the statistics until July, the likelihood of lasting crisis has significantly dimmed the growth prospects for the remaining part of the year.”

    Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at The New School in New York, argues that Western hopes for public pressure forcing Putin to the negotiating table are misplaced. “The more pressure he feels, the more likely he would act aggressively and repressively,” she explained. “I think it is serious, but the Western expectation that Russians are going to just take down the regime is very far-fetched.” She added that while many Russians feel anger and desperation, there is also widespread resignation to the current situation, making broad public opposition unlikely.

    All current indicators suggest Putin is doubling down on his military strategy rather than backing down. Last Friday, he was filmed meeting with frontline commanders in military fatigues, where he claimed ongoing victories on the front line and pledged to seize additional Ukrainian territory. “The Russian Armed Forces continue to confidently hold the strategic initiative in the special military operation zone,” he stated. He also ordered commanders to analyze the involvement of Ukraine’s European allies in what he calls “real combat actions” that are prolonging the conflict, saying the analysis would inform future decision-making. The vague, charged statement has raised alarm in diplomatic and military circles, leaving Western capitals questioning what escalation Putin may pursue next.

  • UN officials urge Western nations to engage with Afghanistan to prevent it sliding into instability

    UN officials urge Western nations to engage with Afghanistan to prevent it sliding into instability

    Two senior United Nations leaders have issued a stark warning to Western nations: continued disengagement from Afghanistan risks pushing the conflict-weary country back into widespread instability, with ripple effects that will extend far beyond its borders. The warning came during a joint visit to Afghanistan by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih and UN Development Program chief Alexander De Croo, who spoke to The Associated Press in a shared interview Tuesday. Salih, who joined the conversation via video link, emphasized that recent global policy toward Afghanistan has delivered a clear lesson: turning a blind eye to the country’s crises serves no one’s interests.

    “Despite the long list of unresolved challenges this nation faces, it is far more prudent to remain engaged, provide targeted support and back policy reforms that keep Afghanistan stable and secure,” Salih said. Without active international engagement, he added, the world risks a resurgence of instability that fuels transnational threats including drug trafficking, violent extremism, organized criminal activity and large-scale refugee displacement.

    After four decades of continuous armed conflict, Afghanistan is an impoverished nation almost entirely reliant on international aid, and it currently grapples with a cascading series of overlapping crises that compound one another: devastating natural disasters amplified by accelerating climate change, and the largest single wave of returning refugees the globe has witnessed in 70 years. “In Afghanistan, you never face just one crisis at a time,” De Croo explained to reporters. “Crises stack one on top of the other, and that layered pressure is what we see shaping daily life here right now.”

    Since 2023, nearly 6 million Afghans have been forced to return to their home country, the overwhelming majority expelled from neighboring Pakistan and Iran amid harsh government crackdowns on undocumented migrants. UN projections indicate an additional 2 million Afghans could be forced to return in 2025, placing already strained local communities under unprecedented pressure. With widespread poverty endemic across Afghanistan and acute malnutrition threatening the lives of the most vulnerable groups, most host communities already operate with barely enough resources to support their existing populations.

    Already difficult conditions have been made far worse by deep cuts to international aid, and the Taliban government’s systemic exclusion of half the country’s population: since seizing power in August 2021, following the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO troops, the Taliban has banned women and girls from accessing secondary and higher education, and barred women from working in most sectors of the economy. Afghanistan also remains largely diplomatically isolated: no Western country has extended formal recognition to the Taliban-led government, though Russia became the first major global power to grant recognition in 2025. A small crack in this isolation emerged last month, when a Taliban government delegation traveled to Brussels to hold talks with European Union officials focused on diplomatic cooperation and the repatriation of Afghans residing in European countries.

    Against this daunting backdrop, the two UN leaders acknowledged that unexpected progress has been made in key policy areas, most notably public security, anti-corruption efforts and the reduction of illicit drug production. “I would not ignore the progress that has been achieved — progress few observers would have predicted possible just five years ago,” De Croo said. He highlighted that opium production, for which Afghanistan was long the world’s largest supplier, has dropped by 95% since the Taliban government launched a national poppy eradication campaign.

    De Croo stressed that if the international community abandons Afghanistan now, the negative consequences will not be contained within the country’s borders. “If Western nations want to live in peaceful, stable societies, that goal cannot be achieved through domestic policy alone,” he explained. “Your own peace and stability depends on peace and stability in your broader neighborhood.”

    The draconian national restrictions imposed on women and girls remain the single biggest point of tension between the Taliban government and the global community. The UN leaders confirmed they raised the issue directly during meetings with Afghan officials during their visit, and both argued that constructive, sustained engagement is the only path to incremental progress on the issue. “We hope that constructive engagement will open a path forward to reform,” Salih said. “Tangible progress and inclusive policy reforms are essential to building a political system that serves all Afghans.”

    Deep cuts to international aid have already left measurable, lasting damage across the country, De Croo confirmed. Over the past 12 months alone, 422 medical facilities have been forced to shut down because of lost funding, leaving more than 3 million Afghans without access to basic primary healthcare. Earlier this year, the World Food Program announced that funding shortfalls had forced it to turn away three out of every four acutely malnourished children seeking life-saving nutritional support.

    While the Taliban launched its poppy eradication campaign shortly after taking power, De Croo noted that the sharp drop in opium production was also supported by international programs that provided alternative crop options for farming households dependent on poppy cultivation. Funding for these programs has been slashed dramatically amid broader international aid cuts, raising fears that poppy production could rebound if support is not restored. “If we cannot continue working with farmers to provide them with viable alternatives to drug production, we risk seeing the entire trade reemerge,” De Croo warned.

    Although global media and political attention has shifted away from Afghanistan in recent years, Salih noted that despite all the country’s challenges, the current moment offers a critical opening for the international community to reengage. “It is vital to remind the world that the cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of sustained engagement,” Salih said. “The truth is simple: you cannot ignore Afghanistan, and the problems that emerge in Afghanistan will not stay contained in Afghanistan.”

  • US cancels waiver allowing Iran oil sales as Gulf vessels attacked

    US cancels waiver allowing Iran oil sales as Gulf vessels attacked

    Escalating tensions in the Gulf region have triggered a major shift in US policy toward Iran, with the Trump administration announcing Tuesday it will revoke a temporary license that had eased oil sanctions on Tehran. The decision comes in direct response to a series of targeted attacks on commercial vessels operating in the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz, with both Qatar and Saudi Arabia formally blaming Iran for the incidents that have put global energy security at risk.

    The sanctions waiver, which had allowed Iran to produce, export, and ship crude oil and related petroleum products through August 21, was a core compromise in ongoing negotiations aimed at reaching a permanent ceasefire to end long-running hostilities in the Middle East. The relief had represented the primary economic incentive the US extended to encourage Iranian cooperation in peace talks, a concession that had already emerged as a major sticking point in discussions between the two sides.

    Within a window of just a few hours on Tuesday, three separate commercial tankers came under attack while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest and most vital maritime chokepoints for global energy trade. Among the damaged vessels was a Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker that was traveling off the coast of Oman when the attack occurred, according to Qatari government officials and independent maritime monitors.

    In response to the incident, Qatar’s foreign ministry issued a formal condemnation, summoning Iran’s deputy ambassador to Doha to file an official diplomatic complaint. “We demand a full explanation for this unacceptable act and call on Iran to immediately cease any practices that undermine regional security, and refrain from endangering the safety of international shipping and global energy supplies,” the ministry said in an official statement. A second, Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker was also struck in the same area of the Gulf, per announcements from the Saudi foreign ministry, which also publicly blamed Iran for the assault.

    While Iran has not issued any formal claim of responsibility for the attacks, it has been locked in a tense standoff with regional powers over shipping routes in the strait in recent days. Tehran has pushed back against the growing trend of commercial vessels bypassing Iranian territorial waters to use an alternative southern route through Omani territorial waters, a shift that has cut into Iranian revenue and leverage over regional maritime traffic.

    In comments to AFP, a senior United States official reiterated Washington’s firm stance against Tehran’s actions in the region: “Iran’s actions in the strait were wholly unacceptable to the United States and will be met with consequences.” The revocation of the sanctions waiver quickly rippled through global energy markets, with Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, surging nearly 5% in trading as investors priced in heightened geopolitical risk and potential disruptions to energy supplies.

  • Search under way for cargo plane that vanished off Pakistan coast

    Search under way for cargo plane that vanished off Pakistan coast

    A multi-agency search and rescue mission is currently active in waters off southern Pakistan after a cargo plane carrying five crew members disappeared from radar near the nation’s major port city of Karachi, national aviation authorities have confirmed.

    The incident unfolded at 21:21 local time (16:21 GMT) on Tuesday, when the Boeing 737 cargo jet experienced a rapid loss of altitude and cut off all communication with air traffic control controllers moments after reporting a critical navigation system malfunction, according to a spokesperson for the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority. The aircraft was traveling on a scheduled commercial cargo route from Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, bound for Karachi when it disappeared.

    Flight-tracking service Flightradar24’s preliminary data matches official reports, showing erratic, extreme altitude shifts on the jet’s flight path immediately before it entered the steep, uncontrolled descent that led to its disappearance.

    The missing plane is operated by K2 Airways, a private Pakistani cargo carrier headquartered in Karachi that was founded less than a decade ago in 2018. On Wednesday, the airline released an official statement confirming the identities of the five crew members on board, noting that the company has activated its full emergency response protocol to coordinate with national aviation officials and other government departments leading the search. “We continue to pray, earnestly, for the safety of our colleagues,” the statement read.

    Pakistan’s airport authority confirmed that both the country’s navy and air force have been deployed to the search area to aid recovery efforts, though no wreckage or signals from the plane’s black boxes have been reported as of the latest updates.

    This disappearance comes as the most significant aviation incident in Pakistan since 2020, when a domestic Pakistan International Airlines passenger flight crashed on approach to Karachi airport, leaving only two survivors out of 99 people on board. That disaster triggered widespread calls for improved aviation safety inspections and regulatory overhauls across the country’s commercial aviation sector.

  • Charges filed against Indian crime boss in assassination that strained Canada-India ties

    Charges filed against Indian crime boss in assassination that strained Canada-India ties

    On Tuesday, law enforcement authorities from three continents announced historic charges against the leader of an Indian criminal network, connecting his organization to the high-profile 2023 assassination of a prominent Sikh independence activist in Canada — a killing that already triggered a major diplomatic rift between Ottawa and New Delhi. The charges capped off a two-year cross-border investigation that has resulted in arrests for 37 alleged members of three interconnected transnational Indian crime syndicates, which authorities link to a sprawling range of criminal activity including kidnapping, racketeering, extortion, illegal firearms trafficking, drug smuggling and murder. The multi-agency operation brought together investigators from the United States, Canada and Europe, with senior officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Los Angeles Police Department, FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police sharing details of the indictments at a joint press conference. As of Tuesday’s announcement, 10 suspects remain at large: seven fugitives in the U.S., two in India and one in Europe, authorities confirmed.

    Patrick Grandy, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, told reporters the three syndicates have “fueled violence, fear and instability within the East Indian communities throughout California and abroad.” Thirty-three-year-old Lawrence Bishnoi, the leader of the primary syndicate named in the indictments, and his long-time associate Satinderjeet Singh are accused of masterminding the fatal shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside the British Columbia Sikh temple where he served as president in 2023. Bishnoi is currently in custody, but Singh remains at large.

    At the time of his death at age 45, Nijjar was one of the most high-profile leaders in the global Khalistan movement, which advocates for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland. A Canadian citizen born in India, Nijjar was actively organizing an unofficial independence referendum among the Sikh diaspora in partnership with advocacy group Sikhs For Justice, and he was actively wanted by Indian authorities, which had issued a public reward for information leading to his capture. The 2023 killing immediately escalated long-simmering diplomatic tensions between Canada and India: shortly after the shooting, then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicized “credible allegations” of Indian government involvement in Nijjar’s death, prompting both nations to expel senior diplomatic officials from each other’s countries. Tensions over Sikh separatist activism have persisted for decades: Canada hosts the largest Sikh population outside of India, and the Indian government has repeatedly criticized Canadian officials for allowing what New Delhi labels “terrorist and extremist” activism on Canadian soil.

    Indictments unsealed Tuesday allege that Bishnoi’s criminal organization “routinely targeted prominent religious, social and political leaders with violence” in exchange for large payments from unidentified clients. Beyond the Nijjar assassination, authorities detailed a pattern of illegal activity stretching across multiple continents, with syndicate members confirmed to be operating in the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Portugal and the United Kingdom. In California, investigators say syndicate members have stolen large drug shipments from rival criminal groups operating in the state, then redistributed the illicit narcotics across the U.S. and across the northern border into Canada.

    Court documents also allege that multiple defendants exploited corrupt connections with local government officials in India to target rivals and individuals suspected of cooperating with international law enforcement. In one notable case, authorities confirmed a defendant is accused of continuing to organize criminal operations while detained in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, though investigators have not yet released details on how the suspect managed to communicate undetected. As of Tuesday afternoon, no legal counsel had been publicly listed for Bishnoi.

    Senior law enforcement officials framed the sweeping operation as a landmark example of effective transnational law enforcement cooperation. “Working together, law enforcement in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia are determined to target and dismantle these criminal organizations wherever they operate,” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during Tuesday’s press conference.