Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Why and how is US blockading Iranian ports in Strait of Hormuz?

    Why and how is US blockading Iranian ports in Strait of Hormuz?

    Tensions in the Persian Gulf region have escalated sharply after the Trump administration launched a full naval blockade of maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports earlier this month, an operation that has already resulted in the interception and seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel.

    In a public statement over the weekend, former President Trump confirmed that U.S. naval forces intercepted the cargo ship Touska in the Gulf of Oman, marking the first publicly disclosed seizure under the new blockade policy. U.S. Central Command (Centcom) later released footage showing U.S. Marine Corps rappelling from a military helicopter onto the deck of the intercepted vessel, confirming the boarding operation. This account contradicted an earlier social media post from Trump that claimed U.S. forces had disabled the ship by blowing a hole in its engine room.

    The blockade was implemented just weeks after bilateral negotiations between U.S. and Iranian representatives failed to reach a permanent peace agreement to end the conflict that began on February 28. A temporary two-week ceasefire is currently in effect, but the new naval move has thrown that truce into serious question. Washington’s stated goal for the blockade is to cut off two key sources of Iranian revenue: the transit fees Tehran was charging ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz after it closed the waterway in response to U.S.-Israeli strikes, and Iran’s critical oil export revenue. Trump framed the policy as an effort to force open the strategically vital strait, telling Fox News that the U.S. would not allow Iran to control access based on political preference, and that the ultimate goal is to restore free, unregulated passage for all vessels through the channel.

    Under the terms of the current blockade, the U.S. Navy has said that only non-Iranian commercial traffic will be allowed to transit the Strait of Hormuz, and all ships carrying humanitarian aid including food and medical supplies will be permitted to pass after inspection. Centcom has confirmed that more than 12 warships and over 100 fighter and surveillance aircraft are assigned to the blockade operation. Satellite imagery analyzed by BBC Verify on April 11 placed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group at the eastern edge of the Gulf of Oman, approximately 200 kilometers off Iran’s southern coast – the closest the nuclear-powered carrier has been positioned to the Persian Gulf since the conflict began. Two guided-missile destroyers, part of the carrier’s escort group, were also spotted in the area. Military analysts note that U.S. forces are unlikely to position major warships close to Iran’s shore to avoid exposure to Iranian missile and drone attacks, so interceptions will mostly take place in international waters of the Gulf of Oman and northern Indian Ocean after ships leave Iranian ports.

    International reaction to the blockade has been deeply divided, and the legality of the operation remains a point of fierce debate among legal experts. Iran has immediately condemned the move as an act of “state-sponsored piracy” and threatened to retaliate against Persian Gulf Arab states that support the operation by targeting their coastal port infrastructure. The International Maritime Organization, the United Nations body governing global maritime affairs, has stated that no nation has a legal right to block shipping in an international strait, with Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez telling the BBC that even amid active conflict, there is no basis in international law to restrict transit through a key international navigation lane. However, Donald Rothwell, a leading professor of international law at the Australian National University, argues that under existing laws of naval warfare, the U.S. as a belligerent party in the conflict has the legal right to impose a blockade on enemy ports.

    The blockade has already had tangible impacts on commercial shipping in the region. Centcom confirmed that as of mid-April, six merchant vessels linked to Iran have been ordered to turn around and return to Iranian ports, and ship tracking data analyzed by BBC Verify shows at least two Iran-linked vessels have altered course after transiting the Strait of Hormuz, consistent with U.S. orders. Many shipping companies have also begun using location spoofing to disguise the position of their vessels to avoid interception.

    The strategic context for the current standoff dates back to earlier this month, when Iran announced it would reopen the Strait of Hormuz following a U.S.-brokered 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. But Trump quickly announced the U.S. blockade would remain in place until a final comprehensive peace deal is reached, prompting Iran to reverse course and close the strait once again. Prior to the U.S. blockade, Iran continued to export oil through the closed strait, cashing in on skyrocketing global oil prices driven by the closure of the waterway, which carries roughly 20% of the world’s daily energy shipments. March 2026 marked Iran’s fifth-largest month for oil exports in the past 18 months. Approximately 82% of all fossil fuel exports leaving the Strait of Hormuz are bound for Asian markets, with China purchasing an estimated 90% of Iran’s current oil exports. Beijing has already labeled the U.S. blockade “dangerous” and “irresponsible”, and analysts widely view the policy as an effort to pressure China to take a more active role in pushing Iran toward a peace deal.

    The potential consequences of a prolonged blockade are severe for both regional security and the global economy. Leading security analysts, including BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, have highlighted two major risks: a further surge in already elevated global oil and gas prices, and the collapse of the current 14-day ceasefire, which would reignite full-scale conflict between the U.S. and Iran and put neighboring Gulf states including Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia at direct risk of escalation. The International Monetary Fund warned this week that a prolonged conflict and sustained high energy prices could push the global economy into recession, with the United Kingdom forecast to suffer the worst impact among all advanced economies. For Iranian civilians, the blockade also raises serious food security concerns, as Iran relies heavily on imported grain and wheat to feed its population.

    Commercial shipping data shows that prior to the conflict, roughly 3,000 vessels transited the strait each month; that number has dropped to just a handful per day during the current hostilities, triggering a major fuel crisis across energy-dependent Asia. Many Asian governments have already implemented emergency measures to conserve fuel, including ordering remote work, shortening the national work week, declaring public holidays and closing universities early. The UK government has confirmed that British forces will not participate in enforcing the blockade, though Royal Navy minesweepers and anti-drone assets will continue routine patrols in the region. Trump has said other nations will join the blockade effort but has not named any contributing countries, and claimed that NATO has offered assistance to clear mines the U.S. accuses Iran of laying in the strait, with the goal of reopening the waterway to full traffic in the near term.

  • Iran says it won’t negotiate with ‘erratic’ Trump

    Iran says it won’t negotiate with ‘erratic’ Trump

    A rapidly unfolding crisis in the Persian Gulf’s strategic Strait of Hormuz has sent global shockwaves, after a series of escalatory moves from both the United States and Iran have pushed regional security and global energy supplies to the breaking point. What began with incendiary rhetoric from US President Donald Trump has now devolved into armed confrontation at sea and a complete breakdown of planned diplomatic negotiations, raising grave fears of a broader regional war.

    On Sunday, Trump opened the week with an extreme public threat against Iran: if Tehran refused to sign a new US-brokered deal, he warned, “the whole country is going to get blown up.” Minutes later, conflicting claims emerged over a maritime confrontation in the Gulf of Oman. According to Trump’s account, US forces opened fire on an Iranian-flagged vessel, which he claimed ignored repeated warnings before being seized and disabled during operations to enforce a US naval blockade on Iranian ports. Iran’s account directly contradicts this narrative: state media affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says IRGC forces repelled US troops and forced them to retreat from Hormuz waters following the clash.

    The maritime incident is the latest flashpoint in a crisis that erupted after Trump unilaterally announced plans for a new round of talks set to take place Monday in Islamabad, Pakistan, saying the US delegation would be led by Vice President JD Vance, senior advisor Jared Kushner, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Iran’s official government news agency IRNA swiftly refuted the announcement, calling the claim of planned talks “not true” and dismissing it as “a media game and part of the blame game to pressure Iran.”

    Iran’s position has long been clear: it will not enter negotiations with the US while the naval blockade of its ports remains in place, a measure Tehran considers a direct violation of the temporary ceasefire agreed between the two nations earlier this month. When Trump confirmed the blockade would continue, Iran acted Saturday to close all shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, just one day after reopening the route following a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel.

    An anonymous senior Iranian official familiar with Tehran’s internal decision-making told Drop Site News that the collapse of talks stems from what Iranian leaders see as Washington’s unworkable approach to diplomacy. “Washington’s excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade” have convinced Iran to pull back its negotiating team, the official explained. While Iran remains open to a future agreement that would secure its right to enrich uranium, deliver meaningful sanctions relief, and establish a long-term non-aggression pact, Trump’s erratic leadership and maximalist demands – including the full surrender of all Iranian enriched uranium – have destroyed any trust that he could be a reliable negotiating partner.

    “Our assessment is that Trump effectively lacks both a coherent plan and the capacity to secure even a temporary agreement,” the official said, adding that Trump’s decisions are consistently shaped by daily Israeli security and political input. The official also noted that during the first round of Islamabad talks that produced the earlier two-week ceasefire, Iran explicitly warned the US delegation that public threats to destroy “Iranian civilization” would not be tolerated. Even before Sunday’s new threat, Iran had refused to commit to another round of talks.

    Should Trump choose to continue military escalation rather than pursue good-faith diplomacy, the official warned, Iran will suspend all diplomatic channels indefinitely and prepare to impose far greater costs on US interests across the region. “Tehran is prepared for a long war,” the official added.

    Tehran-based political analyst Mohammed Sani confirmed that Iran has used the two-week ceasefire to dramatically upgrade its military readiness. “The Americans have been bringing in more troops and equipment to prepare to attack, but the Iranians have also not been resting during these two weeks of ceasefire,” Sani told Drop Site News. “They have been preparing, repairing the underground missile cities, bringing in new air defenses, missiles, and drones. Iran is at a high standard of readiness right now. If there is another round of negotiations sometime later in the future, after another round of American attacks against Iran fail, the Iranian conditions for peace will be much tougher.”

    Foreign policy experts say Trump’s reliance on coercive threats is self-defeating, pushing Iran further from the negotiating table even as the president claims he wants an exit from the conflict that has already triggered economic upheaval and dragged down his already low approval ratings. Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, noted that Trump has prioritized public optics of victory over tangible diplomatic progress. “Due to poor discipline, Trump ends up prioritizing the optics of victory over actually getting a deal,” Parsi said Sunday. “Instead of using deescalatory signals from Iran to get closer to a deal, he declares victory and seeks Iran’s humiliation, and by that, he undermines his own diplomacy.”

    Global attention is now fixed on the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical chokepoints for global energy supplies, with market and diplomatic observers bracing for further escalation as both sides maintain hardline positions.

  • Israeli soldier filmed smashing Jesus statue in Lebanon

    Israeli soldier filmed smashing Jesus statue in Lebanon

    A widely circulated image posted to social media Sunday has ignited international anger after appearing to show an Israeli soldier using a jackhammer to destroy a crucifix statue of Jesus in a Christian village in southern Lebanon. The incident comes just days after a ceasefire took effect Friday, ending Israel’s military offensive launched against Lebanon on March 2 that has left much of the southern part of the country under Israeli occupation.

    According to local Christian community leaders, the statue stood in Debel, a majority Maronite Christian village positioned roughly six kilometers northwest of Ain Ebel and just five kilometers from the Israeli border town of Shtula. Officials with Debel’s municipal government confirmed the statue was located within the village when contacted by Agence France-Presse, though they stopped short of verifying the extent of damage shown in the photo.

    The image quickly spread across major social platforms, drawing condemnation from unexpected quarters, including prominent former allies of former US President Donald Trump aligned with the MAGA movement. Former Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has broken ranks with Trump in recent months over his handling of the Epstein files and his support for Israel’s push for conflict with Iran, shared the image sarcastically on platform X. She wrote, “’Our greatest ally’ that takes billions of our tax dollars and weapons every year,” a sharp rebuke of the decades-long US policy of robust military and financial aid to Israel.

    Fellow former Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz echoed the criticism, calling the scene captured in the image simply “horrific.” Political analysts note this public backlash from key MAGA figures threatens to erode Israel’s standing among one of its most loyal support bases in the United States: white evangelical Christian voters, who have long backed Israel as a core part of their ideological beliefs.

    Regional commentator Muhammad Shehada highlighted the hypocrisy he sees in the incident, captioning the viral post “’Judeo-Christian values’ in Israel” — a direct reference to the framing Israeli leaders often use to win support from Western audiences by highlighting shared cultural values with Europe and the United States.

    This incident is not an isolated case, rights observers and religious leaders emphasize. Over recent years, Christian communities living in Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank have faced a steadily rising tide of anti-Christian attacks, ranging from routine street harassment to the deliberate destruction of religious sites and symbols. Clergy report multiple instances of being spat on and physically assaulted by extremist groups, while churches, cemeteries and other Christian landmarks have been repeatedly vandalized. Most of these attacks have been tied to ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups, religious nationalist extremists and Israeli settlers in occupied territories, and human rights groups say the vast majority of these incidents have gone unpunished. Israeli police have repeatedly been accused of failing to intervene to stop attacks or hold perpetrators accountable.

    In response to growing outcry over the viral image, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson did not explicitly dispute the photo’s authenticity. In a post on X, the spokesperson said that “If this photo is indeed real and recent,” then the actions shown do not align with the Israeli military’s official values.

    This report was originally published by Middle East Eye, an outlet that provides independent, on-the-ground coverage of the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding regions.

  • New Zealand declares state of emergency in Wellington as floods hit

    New Zealand declares state of emergency in Wellington as floods hit

    Just one week after Cyclone Vainau swept through New Zealand’s North Island, the region is facing another extreme weather disaster: record-breaking torrential rain that has triggered catastrophic flash flooding and widespread landslides, prompting official authorities to declare a full state of emergency across the capital city of Wellington.

    Viral footage circulated across social and online platforms has captured the full scale of the destruction: passenger vehicles are fully submerged in swollen floodwaters, mature trees have been ripped from the ground by surging currents, and multiple residential properties have sustained severe damage after being hit by debris-heavy landslides. According to Wellington Mayor Andrew Little, the capital saw an unprecedented 77 millimeters (3 inches) of rainfall fall in less than 60 minutes on Monday, a rainfall rate that overwhelmed local drainage systems far beyond their design capacity.

    In the wake of the downpour, local emergency management officials have issued urgent guidance for Wellington residents: stay indoors and shelter in place as additional rain is projected to continue over the next 36 hours. All non-essential travel has been strongly discouraged, and residents living in low-lying or historically flood-prone neighborhoods have been advised to relocate to the homes of friends or family members for a minimum of 24 hours to avoid risk.

    Disruptions to daily life have been widespread across the region. Multiple commercial flights in and out of Wellington International Airport have been canceled, and dozens of local schools have closed their campuses to protect students and staff from hazardous travel conditions. More than 12 local residents have already been evacuated from high-risk areas, and emergency teams are currently searching for a 60-year-old man who was reported missing in Wellington’s Karori suburb. As of the latest update, no fatalities have been confirmed.

    Little described the ongoing unfolding crisis in a video posted to his official Facebook page, noting “The wild weather continues. We’ve had flooding, slips and evacuations… The flooding has been strong enough to move cars, and many manhole covers have been lifted” by the force of the surging water. To support residents displaced by the disaster, the Wellington City Mission has been activated as an official emergency shelter for anyone in need of a safe place to stay amid the ongoing bad weather.

  • French prosecutors summon Elon Musk over allegations of child abuse images and deepfakes on X

    French prosecutors summon Elon Musk over allegations of child abuse images and deepfakes on X

    PARIS — French law enforcement has called on Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest individual, to appear in Paris this week for voluntary questioning as part of a sprawling investigation into serious misconduct allegations tied to his social media platform X. The probe covers a range of damaging content hosted on the platform, from child sexual abuse material to Holocaust-denying output from X’s integrated AI chatbot Grok.

    Alongside Musk, former X CEO Linda Yaccarino has also been summoned for a voluntary interview. Multiple other X employees are scheduled to give witness testimony throughout the week, confirmed by the office of the Paris prosecutor. Yaccarino led X from May 2023 through July 2025, and both she and Musk are being questioned in their capacities as top platform executives during the period covered by the investigation. As of Monday morning, it remains unclear whether the two executives will comply with the summons. A representative for X declined to respond to media inquiries from the Associated Press, and eMed, Yaccarino’s current employer, also did not answer a press request for comment.

    The investigation traces its origins back to January 2025, when the Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit first opened the case following allegations from a French lawmaker claiming X’s biased algorithms improperly manipulated automated data processing systems. The scope of the probe expanded dramatically after disturbing content emerged from Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot built by Musk’s xAI and accessible exclusively via X. The chatbot prompted global outrage earlier this year when it generated hundreds of non-consensual sexually explicit deepfake images in response to user requests. It later drew further condemnation for a widely shared French-language post that repeated classic Holocaust denial tropes, falsely claiming the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau were built for typhus disinfection rather than mass murder. Grok later walked back the claim, deleting the post and acknowledging that historical evidence confirms Zyklon B was used to kill more than 1 million people at the camp.

    Today, investigators are examining multiple formal allegations, including complicity in the distribution and possession of child sexual exploitation imagery, spread of non-consensual explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity, and algorithmic manipulation as part of an organized criminal scheme.

    In a statement, prosecutors noted that the voluntary interviews are designed to let senior leaders lay out their side of the story and outline any compliance changes they intend to adopt. “At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach, with the ultimate objective of ensuring that platform X complies with French law, insofar as it operates within the national territory,” the statement read. When asked whether Musk would face legal consequences for failing to appear, prosecutors declined to comment.

    The investigation has already sparked cross-Atlantic tension. In March, French prosecutors notified two top U.S. agencies — the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission — of a separate bombshell allegation: the controversy surrounding Grok’s explicit deepfake output may have been intentionally orchestrated to inflate the valuations of X and xAI ahead of a planned 2026 public listing of the merged SpaceX-xAI entity. Prosecutors noted the scheme was alleged to have been launched at a time when X was facing declining market momentum.

    That request for U.S. cooperation has been rejected, according to the *Wall Street Journal*. The U.S. Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs sent a two-page letter to French authorities last week stating it would not facilitate the investigation, accusing France of misusing its legal system to interfere in U.S. business operations. The letter, quoted by the *Wall Street Journal*, argued that the French probe “seeks to use the criminal legal system in France to regulate a public square for the free expression of ideas and opinions in a manner contrary to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.” It added that France’s request for assistance “constitute[s] an effort to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform.” French judicial officials have not issued any public response to the U.S. rejection.

    Adding another layer to the legal pressure on X, press freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) recently filed an additional complaint against the platform with Paris’s cybercrime prosecution unit. The new complaint targets X’s content moderation policies that RSF says enable widespread disinformation to spread unchecked, in violation of the public’s right to access accurate information. “Disinformation campaigns are flooding X, some of which have accumulated several hundred thousand views. Although the staff at Elon Musk’s platform are well aware of the situation, this has not stopped them from responding to RSF’s repeated alerts with automated refusals to remove the content in question,” the group said in a statement. “This is a deliberate policy instated by X, and it is incompatible with the public’s right to reliable information.”

  • US funding helps Cyprus upgrade military bases for its role as a regional safe haven

    US funding helps Cyprus upgrade military bases for its role as a regional safe haven

    In the strategically vital eastern Mediterranean, the island nation of Cyprus is undertaking a major upgrade of its core military infrastructure, backed by U.S. taxpayer funding, to solidify its growing role as a secure evacuation hub and humanitarian logistics center for conflict-plagued regions of the Middle East.

    The Associated Press secured rare exclusive access to the restricted military sites, where National Guard spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Paris Samoutis outlined the scope of the improvements. Located just 229 kilometers off the coast of Lebanon, Cyprus’ primary Evangelos Florakis Naval Base will gain a new heliport financed by U.S. European Command. The facility is engineered to accommodate large heavy-lift rotorcraft such as Chinook transport helicopters, designed to streamline the evacuation of civilians and displaced people out of active conflict zones. Beyond the heliport, the naval base will also see extensive renovations to its port infrastructure, allowing it to berth larger vessels including frigates that bring advanced radar and missile-based air defense capabilities to protect incoming and outgoing humanitarian missions.

    On the island’s southwestern coast, the Andreas Papandreou Air Base will undergo expansion to add a new aircraft apron. This dedicated space will cut turnaround times for refueling and maintenance of dozens of heavy-lift military transport aircraft, which ferry personnel and emergency equipment to support regional humanitarian response operations. A regional wildfire coordination center, designed to assist neighboring Middle Eastern nations in combating large-scale seasonal blazes, is also set to open at the air base next month.

    While exact total project costs have not been publicly released as final cost assessments are still ongoing, the U.S. has already committed 500,000 euros ($588,000) to develop the detailed expansion plan for the air base. Construction on both projects is scheduled to break ground next year, as part of a broader multi-site infrastructure upgrade initiative across Cyprus’ military facilities. The U.S. funding is explicitly earmarked to help Cyprus scale up its capacity to handle large-scale humanitarian crisis response operations.

    This deepened security cooperation between Washington and Nicosia would have been unthinkable a decade ago. For decades, Cyprus maintained a strict policy of non-alignment in global geopolitics, but it has gradually shifted its diplomatic orientation firmly toward the West. That shift accelerated after President Nikos Christodoulides, an American-educated leader, took office in 2023. Under his administration, diplomatic outreach to the U.S. reached unprecedented levels, resulting in the end of a decades-long U.S. arms embargo on Cyprus and opening new doors for bilateral economic opportunity.

    Christodoulides has consistently leveraged Cyprus’ unique geographic location to make the case to European Union and U.S. leaders that the island is the ideal hub for Western diplomatic, economic, and humanitarian engagement with the volatile Middle East. “As a conscientious and responsible partner, Cyprus remains a credible and safe harbor,” Christodoulides stated in a December address.

    For years, the U.S. military relied on the two British sovereign base areas that the U.K. retained on Cyprus after the island gained independence from colonial rule in 1960. However, that arrangement was upended in early March, when a Shahed drone—confirmed by Cypriot officials to have been launched from Lebanon—struck an aircraft hangar at RAF Akrotiri, the first drone attack on EU territory tied to the wider Iran-Israel regional conflict. The upgrades to Cyprus’ own national military installations now provide Washington and other Western partners with alternative, sovereign infrastructure to support regional operations.

    Cyprus has already built a proven track record of facilitating humanitarian and evacuation operations in recent years. In April 2023, it served as a primary transit point for the repatriation of third-country nationals fleeing the conflict in Sudan. When regional tensions escalated following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025, Cyprus again acted as a safe way station for foreign nationals leaving Israel and for Israelis stranded abroad to return home. In 2024, the island launched the Amalthea maritime corridor, which delivered thousands of tons of emergency humanitarian aid to war-torn Gaza—first directly, then via the Israeli port of Ashdod.

    Dozens of EU member states and other nations have already pre-positioned civilian personnel, military units, helicopters, and fixed-wing aircraft in Cyprus to support potential future evacuation operations for their citizens. In 2024, the U.S. deployed a marine contingent and a fleet of V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft to Cyprus’ Paphos Air Base specifically to assist with evacuation operations out of Lebanon.

    A core red line has remained clear from the Cypriot government: all use of the upgraded military installations will be restricted exclusively to humanitarian operations, and will never be used for offensive military action. Echoing President Christodoulides’ core governing mantra for the island’s regional role, Samoutis emphasized: “Cyprus remains part of the solution, not the problem.”

  • North Korea uses cluster bombs in latest missile test: KCNA

    North Korea uses cluster bombs in latest missile test: KCNA

    In a recent series of provocative military moves that have stoked regional tensions, North Korea has officially confirmed it carried out a test of short-range ballistic missiles fitted with cluster munition warheads over the weekend, with leader Kim Jong Un personally overseeing the exercise. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang’s official state mouthpiece, released details of the Sunday test on Monday, marking the latest in a steady stream of weapons trials conducted by the nuclear-armed East Asian nation in recent months. According to KCNA’s official statement, the drill was designed to evaluate the performance and destructive power of both cluster bomb warheads and fragmentation mine warheads integrated into the country’s domestically developed tactical ballistic missile system. This test follows just weeks after a string of other weapons assessments, including launches of longer-range ballistic missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles, and additional trials of cluster munition technology.

    The weekend test focused specifically on the Hwasongpho-11 Ra, a surface-to-surface tactical short-range ballistic missile developed by Pyongyang. KCNA reported that five missile projectiles were launched toward a target zone surrounding an island located roughly 136 kilometers (85 miles) from the original launch site. The warheads successfully covered an impact area ranging from 12.5 to 13 hectares with what the agency described as “very high density,” fully demonstrating the system’s operational combat capacity. Kim Jong Un expressed high satisfaction with the outcome of the test, noting that the advancement of cluster bomb warhead technology will dramatically strengthen North Korea’s military capabilities both for high-precision strikes and large-scale high-density attacks against designated enemy target zones.

    Regional security analysts point out that the 136-kilometer confirmed range of the tested missile system places both South Korea’s capital Seoul and major United States military installations across the Korean Peninsula well within Pyongyang’s striking range. Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Seoul-based Korea Institute for National Unification, explained that this new weapons platform is intended to fill a critical capability gap between North Korea’s existing multiple rocket launcher systems and its longer-range short-range ballistic missile arsenal. Yang Moo-jin, a professor of Korean studies at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies, highlighted a notable shift from previous weapons tests: frontline corps commanders, rather than just weapons development researchers, were invited to observe the latest trial. Yang said this shift strongly indicates the system is approaching full operational deployment, and would be capable of being launched directly from forward-deployed positions against targets in South Korea and at U.S. military bases across the region.

    The United States maintains roughly 28,000 active-duty troops in South Korea as part of its long-standing security commitment to defend the South against potential Northern aggression. South Korea’s military first detected the launches on Sunday from the Sinpo area along North Korea’s eastern coast, and quickly issued a formal condemnation of the test. In an official statement, South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said the country is maintaining a “firm combined defense posture” alongside the United States, and pledged an “overwhelming response” to any future provocation from the North. The statement called on Pyongyang to immediately end its series of successive missile tests that have sharply escalated regional tensions, and urged North Korea to engage constructively with the South Korean government’s ongoing diplomatic efforts to build lasting peace on the peninsula.

    Security analysts widely interpret the latest test as a clear signal that Pyongyang has rejected recent overtures from Seoul to repair long-strained inter-Korean relations. Earlier this year, Seoul issued an expression of regret over unauthorized civilian drone incursions into North Korean airspace in January, a gesture Pyongyang initially appeared open to before reversing course and once again labeling South Korea as its “most hostile” enemy. North Korea has long been subject to sweeping United Nations sanctions that ban all development of nuclear weapons and prohibit any work on ballistic missile technology, restrictions Pyongyang has openly and repeatedly violated in recent years as it expands its military arsenal.

    The latest missile test comes just weeks after another high-profile military exercise in April, when Kim Jong Un oversaw tests of strategic cruise missiles launched from a North Korean navy warship. Official photos from that April trial showed Kim observing the launches surrounded by top military officials. The cruise missile tests were conducted from the Choe Hyon, one of North Korea’s two newly commissioned 5,000-ton destroyers, both of which entered service last year. According to South Korean military sources, Pyongyang is currently constructing two additional 5,000-ton destroyers to expand its naval fleet. This month, a South Korean lawmaker cited recent satellite imagery collected by a U.S.-based private intelligence firm, claiming North Korea is “accelerating the modernization of its naval forces with support from Russian military assistance.” Observers widely believe North Korea has supplied thousands of artillery shells and ground troop support to Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and in return is receiving advanced military technology and expertise from Moscow to advance its own weapons development programs. Notably, neither North nor South Korea has signed the 2008 Oslo Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty that bans the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of the controversial weapons, which scatter submunitions across wide areas and often leave unexploded ordnance that poses long-term risks to civilian populations.

  • San Francisco delegation visits Shanghai, strengthens cultural and tourism ties

    San Francisco delegation visits Shanghai, strengthens cultural and tourism ties

    Almost half a century after Shanghai and San Francisco formally established their sister city relationship, a high-level delegation led by San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie touched down in Shanghai on April 19, kicking off a two-day visit focused on expanding bilateral collaboration in culture, science and tourism across the Pacific.

    This trip arrives as the latest milestone in the 46-year-long exchange between the two major global metropolises, building on decades of uninterrupted dialogue and people-to-people connection to open new chapters of partnership. The itinerary began with a stop at the 146-year-old Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, where delegation members gained firsthand insight into the century-long development and evolution of symphonic music in China.

    Following the orchestra visit, the group toured three more iconic Shanghai institutions: the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the Shanghai Natural History Museum (a subsidiary branch of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum), and the Shanghai Grand Opera House. By the end of the first day of the visit, three landmark memorandums of understanding (MOUs) had been signed to formalize new cooperative frameworks. The agreements pair the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum with the California Academy of Sciences, and the Shanghai Grand Opera House with San Francisco Opera, laying the groundwork for long-term exchange across art, science and education.

    Speaking on the visit, Lurie emphasized the enduring strength of the two cities’ nearly 50-year partnership. “Our cities share a partnership that is nearly five decades strong. It is a dialogue that has never stopped,” he said. “We are building on that foundation and investing in a future where science, education and sustainability remain at the center of our partnership.”

    David Stull, president of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, noted that both cities share a natural alignment in their forward-thinking, innovative identities. “When people are excited about new ideas, they gravitate to others who are excited about new ideas. San Francisco and Shanghai have always shared that spirit of imagination, innovation and the spirit of the future,” he explained.

    Beyond institutional collaborations, the delegation also took part in a joint tourism promotion event held at Xintiandi, Shanghai’s bustling cultural and commercial hub in Huangpu District. The initiative, launched in partnership by United Airlines and San Francisco International Airport, is designed to drive two-way travel by highlighting the one-of-a-kind attractions and immersive cultural experiences that each city offers.

    Mike Nakornkhet, director of San Francisco International Airport, framed the Chinese market as a core growth priority for the airport, pointing to strong existing travel volumes. “If you look at the numbers in 2025, we had 700,000 passengers travel between China and San Francisco — that’s 23 weekly flights to four destinations in China. So it’s a very important market for us,” he said. “We really see China as a growing market for us. There’s a lot of leisure and business travel demand.”

    The first day of the visit wrapped up with a celebratory evening cruise along the Huangpu River, where delegates joined a special reception to commemorate the 46th anniversary of the Shanghai-San Francisco sister city relationship. The delegation continued its schedule of meetings and tours in Shanghai on Monday, with additional discussions focused on expanding future collaborative projects across sectors.

  • Israel vows to level homes in Lebanon, counter threats with ‘full force’

    Israel vows to level homes in Lebanon, counter threats with ‘full force’

    A fragile 10-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah that halted weeks of deadly cross-border fighting has done little to ease tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border, after Israel announced Sunday it had ordered its military to operate with “full force” and demolish structures it claims are used by the militant group. The ceasefire, which went into effect Friday following the first high-level talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials in decades, has split displaced southern Lebanese residents: some have rushed home to retrieve belongings and rebuild, while others remain wary of the truce’s durability and have chosen to stay away.

    On the ground, Agence France-Presse correspondents across southern Lebanon have documented disparate scenes of returning life and lingering destruction. In the village of Dibbine, one resident inspected blast damage to his property, with rubble of already destroyed buildings lining nearby streets. In Srifa, returnees unloaded household goods including mattresses and a washing machine from vehicles as they moved back into their homes. In other border communities, however, some residents only returned to collect personal items before heading back to safer areas further north.

    Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed Sunday that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had issued explicit orders to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to maintain aggressive operations even during the ceasefire. “We have instructed the army to act with full force, both on the ground and from the air, including during the ceasefire, in order to protect our soldiers in Lebanon from any threat,” Katz said. He added that the military had been ordered to destroy any booby-trapped structures or roads, and raze border-area homes that Israel claims function as Hezbollah outposts.

    Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Sunday that Israeli forces were already carrying out these demolition orders across multiple hard-hit border towns. One day after carrying out initial demolitions in Bint Jbeil, a site of intense pre-ceasefire fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah, the NNA said Israel was “still destroying what remains of houses” in the town. Additional demolitions by detonation were reported in Mais al-Jabal and Deir Seryan, while the border town of Kunin came under Israeli artillery shelling Sunday.

    Last Saturday, the IDF announced it had established a “Yellow Line” security buffer in southern Lebanon, a framework identical to the barrier separating Israeli-held and Hamas-controlled territory in Gaza. On Sunday, the military released an official map marking this new “forward defence line” and a red-zoned area spanning the entire length of the border, where it says operations will continue to dismantle Hezbollah military infrastructure and eliminate threats to northern Israeli communities. Hours after publishing the map, the IDF confirmed it had killed an armed man it described as a terrorist who crossed the designated buffer line.

    The ongoing Israeli operations have drawn sharp international condemnation. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan denounced the actions Sunday as an example of “Israeli expansionism” into Lebanese territory. Since the conflict erupted on March 2, it has killed nearly 2,300 people in Lebanon and displaced more than one million, making the fragile truce a much-watched development for regional stability.

    Diplomatic efforts to solidify the ceasefire and support Lebanese territorial integrity are moving forward this week. On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron will host Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Paris, a meeting the Élysée Palace says is intended to demonstrate France’s commitment to Lebanon’s sovereignty. Macron will also push Lebanese authorities to hold accountable those responsible for a Saturday attack on UNIFIL peacekeepers that killed one French soldier, Florian Montorio, and wounded three others. Both France and UNIFIL have blamed Hezbollah for the attack, which the group has denied. Montorio was honored posthumously with UN and Lebanese Army medals at a memorial service held at Beirut’s international airport, in recognition of his service to peacekeeping in southern Lebanon.

    Following his Paris meeting, Salam will travel to Luxembourg on Tuesday to meet with European Union foreign policy chiefs. In a small sign of returning normalcy, Lebanon’s military announced Sunday it had reopened a key road connecting the city of Nabatiyeh to the Khardali region, and partially reopened the Burj Rahal-Tyre bridge in southern Lebanon. Access to much of the south has been severely constrained since the conflict began, after Israeli airstrikes destroyed multiple crossings over the Litani River, which sits roughly 30 kilometers from the Lebanese-Israeli border.

  • ‘They told me he was dead’: Children born near army base learn truth about UK soldier dads

    ‘They told me he was dead’: Children born near army base learn truth about UK soldier dads

    For decades, hundreds of children born near the British Army Training Unit in Kenya (Batuk) have grown up without answers about their paternal heritage, many left in poverty, socially ostracized, and told their British military fathers were deceased. Now, an unprecedented cross-border legal and genetic initiative has identified 20 missing fathers, secured paternity confirmation for 12 cases through the UK’s highest Family Court, and unlocked life-changing access to British citizenship and child support for dozens of Kenyan people.

    One of the cases at the center of this breakthrough is nine-year-old Edward, a pseudonym to protect his identity. From early childhood, Edward has faced relentless bullying over his lighter skin tone, with peers taunting him as a “British coloniser” – a reference to the United Kingdom’s 68-year colonial rule of Kenya that ended in 1963. Edward’s mother, Nasibo, a Kenyan woman who entered a relationship with a British contractor stationed at Batuk, was cast out by her family after her partner left Kenya abruptly when she was four months pregnant. She says the man promised to return, gave her an engagement ring before leaving, and never contacted her again. For years, she and Edward have lived in extreme poverty, with no way to trace the man who fathered her son. Now that paternity has been confirmed, Edward is eligible for formal child support payments, though his father has refused to share contact information, forcing legal teams to pursue court action to secure maintenance payments.

    Another story that underscores the years of misinformation surrounding these cases is 18-year-old Yvonne. Orphaned as an infant after her mother’s death, Yvonne was raised by her grandparents and told by Batuk soldiers that her British military father had died. Through genetic matching with her father’s maternal cousin, who had uploaded their DNA to the commercial genealogy platform Ancestry.com, the legal team confirmed Yvonne’s father is alive and currently residing in the UK. After ignoring five court orders to appear for paternity proceedings, he finally attended his hearing, requested a DNA test, and the results confirmed he is Yvonne’s father. Like Edward’s father, he has declined any contact with Yvonne at this time, though extended family members have expressed interest in building a relationship with her.

    Not all outcomes have involved estrangement, however. Twenty-year-old Cathy grew up believing her father, a former British soldier named Phill stationed at Batuk in 2004, was dead. Her mother Maggie told her this after Phill lost contact when his phone was stolen following a deployment change. As a teenager, Cathy tracked Phill down on Facebook, but he did not recognize her name and blocked her messages. Struggling with the loneliness of growing up without a father and lacking answers about her mixed heritage, Cathy made a suicide attempt. Meanwhile, Phill had left the military, struggled with poor mental health, and experienced homelessness after transitioning to civilian life. When paternity was confirmed through the project, Phill called the discovery a “very happy surprise.” He has already begun providing financial support to Cathy and Maggie, and the two are rebuilding their relationship, with Cathy planning to visit the UK in the near future. To date, Phill is the only confirmed father who has voluntarily provided financial support to his Kenyan child.

    The project was launched in 2024 after UK-based solicitor James Netto was approached by families in Nanyuki, the Kenyan market town 185 kilometers north of Nairobi that has hosted Batuk since the base opened in 1964. More than 5,000 British military personnel pass through the training base each year, and the facility has long been mired in controversy over allegations of abuse and misconduct. In December 2024, a two-year Kenyan parliamentary inquiry concluded that British personnel at Batuk operated within a “culture of impunity,” resulting in sexual violence, two murder allegations, widespread environmental damage, and the systemic abandonment of children fathered with local women.

    To address the longstanding issue of unacknowledged paternity, Netto partnered with Kenyan lawyer Kelvin Kubai, who runs the charity Connecting Roots Kenya to support these children, and leading genetics professor Denise Syndercombe Court. The team traveled to Kenya with hundreds of DNA testing kits, collected samples from claimants ranging in age from three to 70 years old, and cross-referenced the results against the nearly 30 million genetic profiles available on commercial genealogy platforms – a large enough dataset to make familial matches even with distant relatives. Netto says the scale and methodology of this project are unprecedented in UK legal history, and the team was stunned by how successful the process was, with matches ranging from distant cousins all the way to direct identification of the fathers themselves. To secure official contact information, the courts ordered UK government agencies including the Ministry of Defence, Department for Work and Pensions, and HM Revenue and Customs to release the identified fathers’ names and addresses.

    Netto says his team has already documented nearly 100 active cases of children born to British soldiers and contractors near Batuk, and he estimates the true number is far higher. In the 12 cases that have received formal paternity confirmation from the UK Family Court, most claimants are now eligible to apply for British citizenship, and all minors and students are eligible for court-ordered child support.

    Rejecting calls for a ban on relationships between British soldiers and local Kenyan women as inherently racist, Kubai argues the only just solution is to hold men accountable when they father children during their deployment. Netto and Kubai plan to bring dozens more cases before the UK High Court over the coming months, continuing their work to connect claimants with their heritage and secure the financial and legal rights they are owed.

    In response to questions about the allegations and the paternity project, the UK Ministry of Defence stated it “deeply regrets those issues and challenges which have arisen in relation to the UK’s defence presence in Kenya” and said it continues to take action to address concerns where possible. It noted that consensual relationships between personnel and local women do not violate MoD policy, and that the ministry does not investigate cases where no criminal allegations have been filed by local authorities. Brigadier Simon Ridgway, commanding officer of the British Army’s Collective Training Group, added that the MoD works with Kenyan children’s services to address paternity claims as they are received. The December 2024 Kenyan parliamentary inquiry has called on the Kenyan government to create formal new systems to hold Batuk soldiers accountable for child support, including mandated DNA testing and long-term psychosocial support for affected children.