Global Pulse

分类： world

  • India seeking to recover the body of an Everest climber known as ‘Green Boots’

    India seeking to recover the body of an Everest climber known as ‘Green Boots’

    For nearly 30 years, a set of human remains marked by a pair of vivid green climbing boots has stood as one of the most grimly recognizable landmarks on Mount Everest’s northeast ridge, guiding thousands of climbers through the harsh terrain of the mountain’s deadly 8,000-plus meter “death zone”. Now, nearly three decades after the climber died in one of Everest’s deadliest recorded disasters, Indian authorities have launched the first formal steps to bring his remains down from the world’s highest peak.

    The climber widely known as “Green Boots” is believed by Indian officials to be Dorje Morup, a member of an Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) expedition that attempted to summit Everest in May 1996. That storm season would go down in mountaineering history as one of the deadliest ever on the peak: when severe weather rolled in over the summit as Morup’s team neared the top, three members of the six-person ITBP expedition chose to turn back, while Morup and two other colleagues pushed on to complete their ascent. All three ITBP climbers ultimately lost their lives in the blizzard, which claimed a total of eight lives across multiple independent expeditions on the mountain that season.

    Ever since 1996, Morup’s remains have rested in a sheltered cave in the death zone – the area above 8,000 meters where oxygen levels are too low to sustain human life for extended periods – taking their nickname from the bright green mountaineering boots the climber wore. For decades, passing climbers on the popular northeast route have used the remains as a key visual marker to gauge their progress toward the summit. Unlike many other bodies left on Everest, “Green Boots” has become a widely known part of the mountain’s climbing lore, referenced in countless expedition accounts and mountaineering histories.

    The ITBP, India’s paramilitary force that manages border security along the Indo-Tibetan border, has now begun the procurement process to hire specialized high-altitude recovery teams to retrieve the remains from the northern route, which lies on the Tibetan side of Everest controlled by Chinese authorities. The recovery effort still faces steep barriers: all access to the northern side of the mountain is tightly regulated by Chinese officials, who have not yet issued any public comment on India’s recovery plan, and closed the entire mountain to foreign climbers for the 2026 spring climbing season without offering a public explanation. Without official Chinese approval, the operation cannot move forward.

    Industry experts note that even with approval, the mission will be one of extreme danger. Body recovery operations in Everest’s death zone are notoriously high-risk: helicopters cannot land or even hover safely at that altitude, forcing recovery teams to carry remains down steep, icy slopes on foot. Teams face constant threats of avalanches, sudden severe weather storms, and life-threatening altitude sickness caused by the extremely low oxygen levels above 8,000 meters. Of the nearly 350 people who have died climbing Everest since the first successful summit in 1953, the majority of their bodies remain on the mountain’s slopes – the high cost and extreme risk of recovery operations make bringing most remains down unfeasible.

    Pemba Sherpa, founder of Kathmandu-based adventure outfitter Xtreme Climbers Treks and Expedition, called the recovery logistically possible but heavily dependent on regulatory approval. “It is not impossible to retrieve the body from Everest, but the first challenge is getting permission from the Chinese officials and then only can they proceed to bring the body down,” Sherpa explained. As of the latest update, it remains unclear whether the recovery team will be made up of Indian, Nepali, or Chinese specialists, and no timeline for the operation has been announced, as planners wait for both regulatory approval and a window of favorable climbing weather on the peak.

  • Couple caned for kissing on TikTok in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province

    Couple caned for kissing on TikTok in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province

    In Indonesia’s only province that enforces a formal version of Islamic Sharia law, a young couple has received public corporal punishment after a viral TikTok livestream of them kissing resulted in conviction for violating local religious morality regulations. The sentence was carried out Thursday on a public stage in Bustanussalatin City Park, Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, where at least 100 onlookers gathered to watch as masked, robed officials administered 21 strokes of a rattan cane to each person.

    The couple — a 22-year-old man and 25-year-old woman — were taken into custody by Sharia authorities in April, roughly two months after their Feb. 27 in-car livestream circulated widely across social media and triggered formal complaints to local officials. Originally, the Sharia court had sentenced each defendant to 25 lashes, but the punishment was reduced by four strokes to account for the four months the pair spent in pre-sentencing detention. As part of the court ruling, the mobile phone and USB drive storing the original livestream footage were seized and ordered destroyed as evidence of the violation. Thursday’s caning was not an isolated event: four additional Aceh residents were also publicly punished the same day for convictions of online gambling and adultery.

    Aceh’s right to enforce Sharia law was granted by Indonesia’s secular national government in 2006, as a key component of a peace agreement designed to end decades of violent separatist conflict in the province. In 2015, regional authorities expanded the scope of the law to apply to non-Muslim residents, who make up roughly 1 percent of Aceh’s total population. Under the regional regulatory framework, morality offenses can carry penalties of up to 100 lashes. The punishment is also routinely applied for violations ranging from gambling and alcohol consumption to immodest clothing for women and failure to attend Friday prayers for men.

    Human rights advocates have strongly condemned the practice, labeling public caning a clear violation of fundamental human rights standards. Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, noted that while the couple’s public kiss may be seen as inappropriate for a platform accessed by audiences of all ages, including children, corporal punishment and imprisonment remain wildly excessive responses. “It is cruel, inhumane and degrading to human dignity,” Hamid explained, pointing out that Indonesia has formally ratified an international convention requiring the elimination of cruel and unusual punishment.

    But the punishment has drawn support from some local Aceh residents who attended the public event. Aini Nadhirah, a 22-year-old Banda Aceh resident who was in the audience, argued that the public punishment serves a necessary educational purpose. “In my opinion, this caning is entirely justified because it serves as a warning to other Aceh residents to be more careful when using social media,” Nadhirah said. “It also raises awareness that such actions are unacceptable, thereby educating the public.”

  • Bus crash in South Africa’s Western Cape leaves 16 dead and 20 injured

    Bus crash in South Africa’s Western Cape leaves 16 dead and 20 injured

    JOHANNESBURG – A devastating early-morning road accident has left 16 people dead and 20 more wounded after a passenger bus bound for South Africa’s Eastern Cape province overturned on Thursday, marking the second deadly bus crash in the country in just seven days. The vehicle was carrying 78 travelers when it departed Cape Town, a major coastal hub in Western Cape, en route to the small town of Idutywa in Eastern Cape. Simon Zwane, spokesperson for South Africa’s Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), outlined the early sequence of events leading to the tragedy: the bus driver reportedly swerved to avoid a head-on collision with an oncoming delivery van, which caused the driver to lose full control of the bus before it rolled over. Initial preliminary assessments placed the death toll at nine, but on-site investigations completed by emergency responders later updated the fatality count to 16, confirming the full scale of the disaster. All 20 injured passengers have been transferred to a public hospital in Worcester, a town located roughly 120 kilometers, or 75 miles, northeast of Cape Town, for urgent medical care. Notably, 43 uninjured passengers on board declined any medical evaluation or treatment after the crash. Zwane confirmed that a full joint probe into the root causes of the accident is currently underway, led by both the RTMC and the South African Police Service to rule out any additional contributing factors beyond the initial account of the collision avoidance maneuver. This latest tragedy comes on the heels of another fatal bus crash just one day prior, on Wednesday, when a bus carrying Malawian travelers to the Beitbridge border crossing in Limpopo province overturned, killing the bus driver. In the wake of back-to-back deadly incidents, road safety authorities have issued urgent warnings to all motorists across South Africa to exercise extreme caution during the country’s winter months. Winter weather conditions frequently create hazardous driving conditions across South African road networks, with thick fog, agricultural smoke, hidden black ice on pavement, and severely reduced visibility significantly raising crash risks for passenger and commercial vehicles alike.

  • At least 13 killed in large-scale Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv

    At least 13 killed in large-scale Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv

    In a devastating escalation of hostilities that followed a pre-emptive warning from Ukrainian leadership, Russian forces unleashed a massive combined drone and missile assault on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv overnight, leaving at least 13 people dead and dozens more injured.

    The attack came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued an urgent alert that Russia was gearing up for a “massive” strike, prompting widespread precaution across the capital. Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, confirmed that children were among the casualties, calling out Russian forces for deliberately targeting populated civilian areas. “The enemy is once again deliberately targeting residential areas and killing civilians,” Tkachenko stated early Thursday.

    According to Ukraine’s air force, the assault included 74 missiles and 496 drones, with the vast majority of the ordinance directed at Kyiv. While Ukrainian air defense systems successfully intercepted and shot down most of the incoming weapons, 25 ballistic missiles and 12 drones penetrated the defensive layer, striking 33 separate locations across the city.
    On-the-ground reporting from a BBC team in Kyiv documented non-stop explosions throughout the night. By 3:30 a.m. local time, 10 major blasts had been confirmed, with a large blaze raging in the city center and multiple smaller fires visible in outlying districts. Tracer rounds from air defense units lit up the night sky repeatedly, each followed by the thunder of exploding ordinance.

    Daylight on Thursday revealed the full scope of the damage: a deep crater left by a direct impact, smoldering destroyed vehicles, collapsed building facades, and scattered debris across residential neighborhoods. Multiple fires broke out across the city, with critical damage recorded at a local ambulance station that left one person in critical condition. Firefighters worked through the night to contain a large fire that destroyed a hotel on one of Kyiv’s central boulevards.

    Ukraine’s state emergency service confirmed the death toll of 13, with more than 30 additional people injured. So far, 34 people have been pulled from the rubble of damaged structures, with search and rescue operations ongoing at multiple hit sites, including a high-rise apartment building and residential homes in southeastern Kyiv. As emergency services continue to battle remaining blazes and recover victims, thousands of Kyiv residents spent the night sheltering in underground metro stations when air raid sirens sounded across the city.

    Ukrainian officials have issued an urgent appeal to international allies for greater support. Foreign Ministry official Andriy Sybiha called on partner nations to supply additional air defense systems, noting that Ukraine requires more than just verbal condemnation of the attack. “We need not only words of condemnation but concrete action to stop Russian terror,” Sybiha said, also calling for expanded international sanctions against Russia. Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, described the attack in a social media post: “Another horrific night for the residents of the city, who were forced to spend it in shelters. Fires and the destruction of civilian infrastructure and residential buildings in several districts of the city.”

    This strike marks the first large-scale combined missile and drone assault on Ukraine by Russia in more than two weeks. Russia’s Ministry of Defense has justified the attack, claiming it targeted energy and defense infrastructure in retaliation for recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian power facilities stretching from Moscow to the Black Sea. Russian media reported that the attack also hit Ukrainian military bases in central and eastern Ukraine. Notably, the strikes came after Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare admission that his country is facing widespread fuel shortages.

    Zelensky, who cut short an official visit to Dublin after receiving intelligence of the planned assault, urged Ukrainian civilians to remain vigilant. “I urge our people to be especially careful, to protect themselves, their children, and, of course, their families,” he said, adding that Putin had been preparing the massive strike for some time.

    The overnight attack comes amid shifting momentum on the ground. Russian forces recently advanced into Kostyantynivka, one of Ukraine’s last remaining strongholds in the eastern Donbas region; a full Russian capture of the city would open a pathway for Moscow to seize control of the entire Donbas. On the other hand, Ukrainian commanders report that their forces have recaptured more territory in 2025 than they have lost, and have successfully disrupted critical Russian supply lines connecting the Russian border to occupied Crimea. The broader ground war has remained largely deadlocked for months, with both sides’ troops entrenched in fixed positions. Currently, Russia occupies roughly one-fifth of Ukraine’s total territory, most of which was seized in the opening months of the full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.

  • Singapore seizes $42m mansion over Nvidia chip smuggling

    Singapore seizes $42m mansion over Nvidia chip smuggling

    In a landmark enforcement action targeting illegal tech trade circumventing U.S. export controls, Singaporean authorities have seized a high-end luxury residence allegedly purchased with millions in illicit proceeds from a smuggling ring trafficking restricted Nvidia artificial intelligence chips. Announced by police on Wednesday, the seizure marks one of the most high-profile busts in a ongoing cross-border crackdown on unauthorized semiconductor shipments.

    The property, situated just a short walk from Singapore’s iconic Botanic Gardens in one of the land-scarce city-state’s most exclusive residential districts, last sold for 55 million Singapore dollars, equal to approximately $42.5 million U.S. or £32 million. Investigators confirmed that at least 38 million Singapore dollars — around two-thirds of the total purchase price — was traced to criminal earnings from the illegal trade operation. A court order has already been enacted to freeze the asset, blocking any sale or transfer of the property while the investigation proceeds.

    The case centers on Wei Zhaolun, also known as Alan Wei, chief executive of Singapore-based tech firm Aperia Group, which specializes in selling servers and enterprise tech hardware. Wei faces formal money laundering charges for his alleged role in funneling illegal proceeds into the home purchase. In addition to the luxury residence, authorities have seized roughly 1 million Singapore dollars in cash held in linked bank accounts.

    Since the investigation launched in February 2025, a total of four individuals have been charged with fraud and other criminal offenses connected to the scheme. The ring allegedly placed orders for servers equipped with advanced, export-restricted Nvidia chips from global tech suppliers, including Dell, Super Micro Computer and Asus, under false pretenses — claiming the equipment would be used by legitimate local companies. Authorities have not publicly disclosed the final destination of the diverted servers, though the U.S. Department of Justice has previously identified Singapore as a common transit hub for illicit shipments bound for China. The BBC has reached out to Aperia Group, Dell, Super Micro Computer and Asus for comment on the case, with no response available as of yet.

    Notably, the operation also marks the first time Singaporean authorities have pursued charges against corporate entities linked to this type of illicit trade. Alongside the individual defendants, Singapore-based firm Luxuriate Your Life and three subsidiary companies under the Aperia Group umbrella also face criminal charges. Attempts by the BBC to contact Luxuriate Your Life for comment have been unsuccessful.

    If convicted on the multiple fraud charges they face, the four individual defendants could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. Singaporean police emphasized their unwavering commitment to rooting out this type of criminal activity, stating that the force maintains a strict zero-tolerance stance toward such offenses. Officials added that aggressive enforcement is critical to protecting Singapore’s reputation as a secure, trusted global business hub.

    The bust comes as part of a years-long joint crackdown between Singapore and the United States on illegal shipments of advanced Nvidia semiconductors. Washington first implemented broad export restrictions on the chips in 2022, citing national security concerns over their potential use by the Chinese military for advanced military technology development. As of 2025, Singaporean authorities confirmed they had identified multiple suspected shipments of restricted servers transiting the country. While the U.S. has since approved limited sales of some Nvidia chip models to China under strict regulatory conditions, enforcement against illegal unauthorized shipments remains a top priority for both nations.

  • RSF committed crimes against humanity in Sudan’s el-Fasher, Amnesty says

    RSF committed crimes against humanity in Sudan’s el-Fasher, Amnesty says

    On Wednesday, global human rights advocacy group Amnesty International published a damning new report confirming that Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has carried out crimes against humanity and systematic ethnic cleansing during its 18-month siege of el-Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state. These findings add to a growing body of evidence collected over the past year documenting widespread atrocities committed by the paramilitary group during the conflict, aligning with prior image and video analysis conducted by Middle East Eye.

    Amnesty Secretary General Agnes Callamard described the report’s grim conclusions as “a stain on the conscience of humanity”, emphasizing that children were not incidental casualties of the violence — they were deliberately targeted on a mass scale. In a formal statement, she detailed that children across the region have been killed, injured, sexually assaulted, abducted, and forcibly conscripted into fighting ranks. The organization’s investigation drew on first-hand testimonies from 247 people, most of whom directly witnessed or survived abuses in North Darfur, a region bordering both Libya and Chad.

    The investigation confirms that non-Arab communities, particularly the Zaghawa ethnic group, were intentionally singled out for attack. Researchers documented pervasive use of ethnic slurs and dehumanizing language, including the term “falangay” which references historical slavery, during RSF offensives. After residents fled their settlements, RSF fighters systematically burned villages to eliminate any possibility of return — a deliberate tactic that Amnesty classified as consistent with the legal definition of ethnic cleansing.

    Nine men who were held in the Mina al-Bari detention center on el-Fasher’s eastern outskirts between mid-2024 and early 2025 shared particularly harrowing accounts of abuse. Held for up to five months in sealed shipping containers, the detainees described lethal conditions with stifling heat and almost no circulating air that left many struggling to breathe. One detainee recalled, “My body was drying out completely, other people as well as myself lost consciousness. [The RSF] thought we had died, so they just threw us out of the container. After a while, they realized we were still alive. They tortured us again and took us back inside the container.”

    The report explicitly names three senior RSF leaders it holds responsible for serious violations of international law. The group’s top commander Al-Fateh Abdullah Idris, better known by his alias Abu Lulu, was identified after video evidence emerged showing him executing captive civilians. Two other senior officers linked to atrocities at the Mina al-Bari facility — Major General Gedo Hamdan Ahmed Mohamed (alias Abu Shouk) and Lieutenant Colonel Abbas Khater Bakhit — are also accused of systematic torture of detainees.

    Amnesty’s report calls for two urgent, concrete actions from the global community: an immediate nationwide ceasefire to end hostilities across Sudan, and the deployment of a dedicated independent international security force to protect vulnerable civilian populations in conflict zones. Callamard pushed back against the international community’s pattern of empty rhetorical condemnation, arguing that meaningful action has been blocked by policy choices from wealthy nations. She specifically cited cuts to humanitarian aid for Sudan implemented after the return of the Trump administration to U.S. power, as well as ongoing attacks on multilateral accountability mechanisms including the United Nations and International Criminal Court (ICC), which have faced escalating threats and U.S. sanctions targeting their officials.

    The ongoing conflict in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023 between the RSF and the official Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), has already spawned the world’s largest unbroken humanitarian and displacement crisis, according to a recent statement from non-profit advocacy group Refugees International. During the el-Fasher siege that ran from May 2024 to October 2025, widespread famine took hold of the city, forcing starving families to consume ambaz — a peanut oil production byproduct normally reserved for animal feed, the report confirmed.

    The RSF traces its origins to the Janjaweed militias that carried out a well-documented genocide in Darfur more than 20 years ago. The group has long relied on external backing: multiple independent investigations have confirmed that the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which maintains close political and security ties to the RSF, has supplied consistent weapons and logistical support to the paramilitary throughout the current war. Despite official Emirati denials, extensive reporting from Middle East Eye — drawing on satellite imagery, flight and ship tracking data, weapons serial numbers, and on-the-ground sources across the region — has repeatedly verified this ongoing supply of military aid. U.S. policy has indirectly enabled this support: since the war began, successive U.S. administrations have continued to authorize weapons sales to the UAE, which hosts the critical U.S. Al-Dhafra Air Base and has built close ties to the Trump family.

    Earlier in 2025, a bipartisan bill introduced by Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen — crafted to cut off unintended U.S. support for the RSF after intelligence sharing from the prior Biden administration — was blocked by Senate Republicans six months after its introduction. The block came immediately after RSF forces seized full control of el-Fasher and overran Sudanese military outposts in the city. More recently, Sudan’s ambassador to the U.S. Mohamed Abdalla Idris has called on the Trump administration to formally designate the RSF as a terrorist organization to enable sweeping sanctions, pointing to the group’s extreme violence. “Boko Haram was designated. Al-Qaeda was designated. IS was designated… why not the Janjaweed? What the Janjaweed are doing is far even worse than what some of those organisations have done,” he argued.

    Amnesty’s new findings build on a UN report released just last month that attributed 87 percent of all verified conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan over the past three years to RSF fighters, their affiliates, and allied Arab militias. That UN report confirmed that rape, gang rape, and sexual slavery have been used systematically as weapons of war by the RSF, warning that ongoing impunity for these crimes risks locking generations of Sudanese into repeated cycles of violence.

    A joint investigation published Monday by Lighthouse Reports, Sudan War Monitor, and Evident added further context on external support for the RSF, confirming that the paramilitary’s fighters are still being trained to use UAE-supplied weapons at five military camps across Libya, run by Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), which continues to partner with the UAE to support the RSF despite regional pressure. RSF defectors and LAAF sources confirmed the camps also provide logistical support including fuel and pickup trucks for the group. On the same day the joint investigation was published, a broad coalition of human rights and legal organizations filed an official request with the ICC calling for an investigation into alleged aiding and abetting of atrocity crimes in Darfur by high-level officials from the UAE and other neighboring Sudanese states.

  • The US deported them to Venezuela – hours later earthquakes struck

    The US deported them to Venezuela – hours later earthquakes struck

    A chain of catastrophic events has left dozens of recently deported Venezuelans unaccounted for, after a pair of powerful earthquakes struck the country just hours after they arrived on a U.S. deportation flight, leaving hundreds dead and thousands displaced. Among the missing is 23-year-old Abelardo Rincón, who built a stable new life in Georgia over six years: he worked at a local car dealership, married, and was eagerly awaiting the birth of his first daughter. That future was cut short when U.S. immigration authorities detained him as part of a national immigration enforcement push, before putting him on a June deportation flight carrying more than 140 Venezuelan deportees.

    Rincón landed in Venezuela on June 24, and while still in government custody, he managed to place a call to his family back in Atlanta, telling them he was being housed at a coastal hotel in La Guaira alongside the other flight passengers. Just hours after that call, twin earthquakes tore through central and coastal Venezuela. Official counts put the death toll at over 2,200, with more than 10,000 injured; United Nations data estimates as many as 50,000 people are still missing across the disaster zone. Rincón and dozens of other deportees from that flight, designated Flight 164, are among those unaccounted for, leaving their already fractured families reeling from a cascade of unthinkable loss: arrest, forced separation from their lives in the U.S., deportation, and now disappearance in a catastrophic natural disaster.

    When contacted by the BBC for comment on the cases, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees immigration enforcement agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), issued a generic statement that provided no specific details about Rincón or other passengers on the flight. “This flight safely reached Venezuela and all illegal aliens on board were returned home,” a DHS spokesperson said Tuesday. “When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for them.” It remains unclear whether the deportees were removed for illegal border crossing or other immigration violations. Venezuelan authorities have set up public information hotlines for disaster inquiries, but widespread infrastructure damage has left information extremely scarce in the days after the quakes.

    All 140-plus passengers on Flight 164, which included 19 women and seven children, underwent medical screening and processing after landing, then were placed in Hotel Santuario La Llanada in La Guaira, one of the regions hit hardest by the earthquakes. The coastal city suffered widespread building collapses and massive destruction, reducing the hotel where the deportees stayed to rubble. Many of the returnees managed to contact their families to announce they had landed safely, only for the disaster to strike before families could process the news of their return.

    Jose Rincón, Abelardo’s grandfather, told BBC Mundo he has examined more than 200 bodies across morgues in Caracas, still searching for any trace of his grandson. He attempted to reach the collapsed hotel site to search for himself, but Venezuelan authorities blocked access, telling him there were no survivors left at the location. “If we could just see what we need to see — if I could see the rubble, I’d be satisfied — but days have gone by and I still haven’t found him, alive or dead… So what am I supposed to do?” the grandfather said.

    Another passenger, 35-year-old Darwin Eliecer Serrano Lopez, called his cousin at 5:32 a.m. local time to tell his family he had returned to Venezuela after four years living in the U.S. The first earthquake struck less than 30 minutes later. Serrano Lopez had been detained in Chicago and held in four separate detention centers before being placed on the deportation flight, relatives said. After nearly a week of fruitless searching, his cousin Paola Chacón said the family has resigned itself to the likelihood he did not survive. “So many days have passed… we aren’t getting any answers,” she said, adding that the family will not leave the search effort until they can bring his body home for burial.

    Mildrey Sarazo, Serrano Lopez’s wife, had not seen her husband in three years, and as of earlier this week had not told their two daughters, ages 9 and 15, what has happened. “He didn’t want to come back yet” from the U.S., she said, adding that the family only wants confirmation and the chance to lay their loved one to rest. “We want to bury our relatives. We want them to hand him over so we can identify him and be certain.”

    The family of 28-year-old Daniel Alejandro Nunez, another Flight 164 passenger who called his mother shortly after landing, is also grappling with conflicting reports and no clear answers. “We’ve searched for him in hospitals, in morgues – everywhere,” his stepfather Jose Alejandro Abache told BBC Mundo. For families already torn apart by years of separation due to immigration status, the potential loss of their loved ones immediately after their forced return to Venezuela is an unthinkable tragedy.

    Not all passengers on the flight have been counted among the missing, however. A small number survived the collapse of the hotel, and have spoken of the surreal horror of escaping rubble in a country they had left years before. Fifty-eight-year-old Lisbeth Portillo, who was sharing a second-floor room with 16 other women when the building collapsed, told the Associated Press she saw the woman beside her fall as the structure gave way, with everyone screaming for help. “I was born again — God gave me a second chance,” she said.

    For some families, word of a loved one’s survival has come only days after the disaster, often accompanied by devastating news of permanent injury. Twenty-two-year-old Anderson Daniel Salcedo, who had lived in the U.S. for three years and sent money home to support his family, was trapped under rubble for nearly 40 hours before he was rescued, Reuters reported. By the time his family located him at a university hospital in Caracas, doctors had already amputated both of his legs. Because he had no identification on him after the collapse, hospital staff could not identify him or contact his family for days, his grandmother Marlene Lozano told Reuters. “He spent 40 hours in that hole, he didn’t have an ID, they couldn’t account for him because he had no documents. We had no way to communicate with him and didn’t know anything,” Lozano said. Even as the family grapples with the permanent change to Anderson’s life, they remain grateful he is alive. “Here we are praying, asking God to give him strength and courage. We know he won’t be the same anymore — he’s missing his legs — but we love him, just the way is.”

  • Russian attack on Ukraine shakes Kyiv for hours

    Russian attack on Ukraine shakes Kyiv for hours

    In an aggressive escalation of hostilities, Russia unleashed a large-scale combined assault involving missiles and attack drones on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv overnight Wednesday into Thursday, triggering hours of non-stop explosions that sent shockwaves across the entire city.

    According to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, the assault left at least one civilian dead and multiple others wounded, with multiple residential structures sustaining significant damage. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko later updated the casualty count, confirming at least 11 people have been injured across the capital, with one paramedic in the Shevchenkivskyi district listed in extremely critical condition. Five of the total injured were recorded in that central district alone.

    The attack, which deployed a mix of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones, impacted all 10 of Kyiv’s administrative districts spanning both banks of the Dnipro River, which cuts directly through the center of the capital. Immediately after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other senior Ukrainian officials issued initial air raid warnings about the incoming assault, thousands of Kyiv residents fled to underground metro stations to take shelter from falling debris and incoming munitions.

    Local officials have documented extensive damage across nearly every corner of the city. In the Desnianskyi district, a nine-story residential building suffered partial destruction, leaving multiple residents trapped in the rubble of the damaged structure as emergency rescue teams rushed to the scene to extract survivors. In the Holosiivskyi district, the roof of a multistory residential building caught fire following a strike. Fires also broke out in private homes in the Sviatoshynskyi and Darnytskyi districts, where falling debris left additional people trapped inside damaged buildings.

    Tkachenko confirmed that strikes also sparked fires near residential buildings at two separate sites in Kyiv’s Pecherskyi district, located close to the capital’s government and administrative core, while another fire broke out near an administrative building in the Solomianskyi district. Additional structural damage has been confirmed in the Obolonskyi and Podilskyi districts as well.

    Mayor Klitschko urged all Kyiv residents to remain in secured shelter facilities throughout the duration of the attack, describing the ongoing assault as an unrelenting, furious enemy offensive against the capital.

    This latest attack comes amid a clear intensification of Russian strikes on Kyiv over the past several weeks, a shift that coincides with Ukraine’s expanding long-range drone campaign targeting Russian military installations and critical energy infrastructure deep inside Russian territory. That Ukrainian campaign has already triggered widespread fuel shortages across parts of Russia and disrupted key military and civilian supply lines, prompting Moscow to step up pressure on the Ukrainian capital in response.

  • Apple butter, sightseeing and puppets: How UK is marking US independence milestone

    Apple butter, sightseeing and puppets: How UK is marking US independence milestone

    Two and a half centuries after the 13 British North American colonies severed their political ties to the British Crown, the United Kingdom is marking the 250th anniversary of American independence not with lingering resentment, but with a vibrant calendar of special events that highlight under-explored shared history, cross-cultural exchange, and overlapping ideological roots between the two nations.

    What might seem like an unlikely place to unpack the story of American independence is the forecourt of London’s iconic St Paul’s Cathedral. There, a little-known statue dating back to 1712, decades before the United States emerged as an independent nation, stands as an early artifact of British fascination with the North American continent: the sculpture personifies America as an Indigenous woman wearing a headdress and holding a bow and arrow, a window into how the distant territory captured the imagination of those at the heart of the British Empire, according to tour guide Mark Grant.

    Grant is one of dozens of history enthusiasts across the UK organizing commemorative programming for the semiquincentennial. His walking tours, run through the City of London Guides Lecturers Association, shine a spotlight on the little-recognized connections between London’s historic financial district, the Square Mile, and the founding of the United States. The tours draw a mixed audience of British locals and American visitors, each taking away different perspectives. For UK residents, the tour offers unexpected new trivia to layer onto the city’s already rich Roman and medieval heritage; for American guests, the experience is deeply personal, offering a side of the independence story rarely taught in U.S. classrooms.

    Patricia Windham, a tourist from Chicago, joined the tour to understand how the American Revolution was perceived in Britain at the time of the split. “You only get one side of the picture from the US,” she explained. “I think it’s important to get various perspectives from people, not just the one that you get from home, because that’s the party line.” As the tour winds through the Square Mile, it stops at sites ranging from the church where Founding Father Benjamin Franklin once worked as a printer to the former locations of 18th-century coffee houses where transatlantic merchants struck trade deals, revealing that American history runs deep in central London.

    The 1776 Declaration of Independence itself is a core focus of many UK anniversary events. At Washington Old Hall in Tyne and Wear, the ancestral family home of George Washington, local young people will perform a public reading of the foundational document on 4 July. In Bath, the American Museum & Gardens has made history as the first institution in England to display a rare, annotated original printing of the Declaration. This copy, printed the same day the Declaration was adopted in July 1776, was intercepted by British forces and sent back to London with their handwritten notes, a remarkable historical artifact that traveled across the Atlantic at a time when the Revolutionary War was already being fought.

    Beyond showcasing the rare document, the museum has invited visitors to craft their own declarations of independence, a project that has yielded thoughtful and playful responses alike, according to museum director Lucy Littlewood. “That’s producing some really lovely responses, particularly from young people about what’s important in the world,” she said. “Peace and equity are the main two themes there, but we’ve also had comments about free ice-cream for children… so lots of humorous ones as well.”

    Far from ignoring the UK’s connection to the ideological origins of American independence, many events are centered on highlighting how the revolution’s core ideas and key thinkers had deep British roots. In the East Sussex town of Lewes, a Festival of Democracy will be held on 4 July, headlined by a colorful parade inspired by the values that drove the American Revolution. Leading the procession is an 8-foot giant puppet of Thomas Paine, the English philosopher and one-time Lewes resident whose influential 1776 pamphlet arguing for American independence cemented his status as one of the nation’s founding fathers.

    Puppet creator Paul Fitzgerald, a graphic artist who goes by the professional name Polyp, designed the puppet as a skeleton to honor the mysterious fate of Paine’s remains after his death, which were lost after exhumation. He argues that the 1776 independence moment is a cause for celebration far beyond U.S. borders. “I’d see it as a part of a global movement towards people being in charge of their own lives in their own countries,” he said. Organized alongside the Thomas Paine Legacy project and the Lewes Climate Hub, Fitzgerald says the parade carries a modern message: “A democracy is something that wants to be constantly renewed.”

    Other events lean into the tangible cultural and culinary exchange that shaped both nations, tracing the movement of people, ideas, and recipes across the Atlantic. Near Omagh, Northern Ireland, the Ulster American Folk Park’s weekend programming celebrates the profound impact of Ulster migrants on the development of American culture, particularly through food. Celebrity chef Paula McIntyre, who trained in the U.S. and has hosted a BBC series on American cuisine, will lead a demonstration of classic Appalachian dishes, many of which grew from traditional food preservation techniques brought by Ulster migrants to the New World.

    “It would have been people using what they had,” McIntyre explained. “There was absolutely no waste, and I mean, there was nothing luxurious at this stage. It was all about survival.” Dishes including buttermilk, cornbread, apple butter, and pork and kale will feature in the demonstration. McIntyre also notes that culinary influence flowed both ways: Irish migrants brought whiskey distilling expertise to the U.S., refining corn-based whiskey through triple distilling techniques honed in Ireland.

    Back in London, participants on Grant’s walking tours say the deep dive into American independence history has revealed hidden layers of their own city. Peter Tidmarsh, a London local, said “It took me to a few alleys I’d never been to, I’m just amazed.” Grant, a 13-time contestant on the BBC’s quiz show *Mastermind* thanks to his encyclopedic knowledge of London, builds tours around everything from historic blue plaques and centuries-old pubs to the site of a London church that was disassembled brick-by-brick and reconstructed in Missouri. For Grant, the Square Mile is a quiet character in the American founding story, offering an unfiltered look at the transatlantic foundations of the modern U.S. “The cities [in the UK and the US] would have been the same, and so this is kind of the foundation of it all,” he said.

    Born in Australia, Grant brings a neutral perspective to the story of the 18th-century “breakup” between the colonies and the Crown, and British attendees echo that neutrality. Asked if the UK holds any lingering regret over the split, Tim Parry, a participant from Essex, joked “Well, there’s some regret. But I think we got over it.” Fellow attendee Tidmarsh agreed: “I think 250 years is long enough.”

  • Pilgrims and tourists detained in Saudi Arabia over online posts

    Pilgrims and tourists detained in Saudi Arabia over online posts

    A damning new joint investigation from human rights organizations Amnesty International and Alqst has uncovered a pattern of arbitrary detention, unfair trial practices, and harsh long prison sentences handed down to international visitors to Saudi Arabia – including religious pilgrims and tourist travelers – purely for peaceful expression on social media platforms. The report, released this week, documents at least nine confirmed cases of foreign nationals targeted for detention between July 2022 and late 2024, most hailing from Middle Eastern nations and Global South countries. Rights groups warn the actual total of those detained is far higher, hidden by Saudi Arabia’s lack of judicial transparency and widespread fear among victims and their families of retaliation for speaking out.

    Among the most high-profile cases detailed is that of Amr Abdelfattah, a French citizen and father of three who was taken into custody in June 2024 while completing the annual Hajj pilgrimage, one of Islam’s most sacred religious obligations. Abdelfattah spent 11 months in pre-trial detention before facing trial in May 2025 on two counts: charges related to peaceful online speech, where Saudi authorities claim he “insulted” the Saudi government and expressed support for individuals previously prosecuted by the state, and a minor visa discrepancy. Rights groups note that visa irregularities of this type almost always result in only a small fine or deportation, never imprisonment. According to Abdelfattah’s wife, the entire incident stemmed from her husband falling victim to a widespread common visa scam targeting pilgrims. He has now spent two full years behind bars, where his family says he has endured repeated physical abuse at the hands of prison guards. Alqst’s investigation confirmed credible reports that Abdelfattah has been beaten by correctional officers. Like other detained foreign nationals, he faces severe restrictions on communication with his family: any discussion of his treatment, trial conditions or legal situation results in an immediate cut-off of phone calls, and he is banned from speaking French during calls – he is only permitted to communicate in Arabic, allowing full monitoring by prison authorities. “Instead of being fined and deported, he has spent two years in detention, where he has endured repeated abuse and faces additional charges over peaceful expression,” Abdelfattah’s wife told Middle East Eye. “It’s time for this ordeal to end and for our family to be reunited.”

    A second prominent case in the report involves Ahmed al-Doush, a British national who was working for Bank of America at the time of his arrest. Doush was taken into custody in August 2024 at Riyadh’s international airport as he prepared to board a flight back to the United Kingdom, after completing a family trip to Saudi Arabia with his then-pregnant wife and three young children. His detention stems from social media posts he published years before he even traveled to the kingdom. Notably, Doush had no prior history of political activism, prior reporting from Middle East Eye confirms. Since his arrest, he has been sentenced to five years in prison. His wife Amaher Nour was forced to give birth to the couple’s fourth child without any contact with her husband, just over a week before the report’s release. “Ahmed was taken from me and the children without warning or explanation. His absence has been deeply distressing to me and my children,” Nour said. “Our fourth child arrived only about a week ago and Ahmed wasn’t able to be there, I couldn’t even speak to him on the phone. My children and I just want him home as soon as possible, and seek the active support and help of the UK government to protect his rights.”

    Doush’s family has faced the same lack of transparency and communication restrictions that mark other cases. Despite repeated formal requests, Saudi authorities have refused to share court documents with Doush’s legal team in the UK or his family. Doush has told his wife that he is only permitted to discuss superficial family matters during calls; any conversation about his detention conditions, health, legal proceedings or the charges against him will result in the call being terminated and additional punishment. Most recently, the report confirms, Doush was denied all contact with his family after he spoke to his children in English during a supervised call.

    Other cases profiled in the investigation illustrate how widespread this targeting is across different types of visitors. Four of the nine documented detainees were in Saudi Arabia to complete the Hajj or Umrah pilgrimages – the two most important religious journeys in Islam – while the other five were on family tourist or personal visits. Fahd Ramadhan, a Dutch-Yemeni national, was detained arbitrarily in November 2023 and held for 18 months without ever being formally charged. Ramadhan believes his detention was triggered by social media posts expressing sympathy for a known critic of the Saudi royal family; interrogators presented him with a document listing four X (formerly Twitter) posts he had made and demanded he sign it. He was ultimately released in June 2025. One unnamed pilgrim was arrested in Mecca just hours after posting mild criticism of Saudi authorities on social media while performing Umrah; he was held without trial for 20 months before being released, even though he deleted the posts immediately after publishing them. Another visitor was detained and held for a full year before release after holding up a small sign during Umrah calling for the release of a political prisoner held in another country. In 2022, Lebanese national Haidar Slim was detained during Hajj after filming himself chanting a traditional Shia religious slogan; he was sentenced to five years in prison and a 10,000 Saudi riyal fine, only released in March 2025 after diplomatic intervention from his home government.

    The report also highlights a common exploitative practice: many detainees who do not speak Arabic have been forced to sign legal documents they cannot understand, with no translation provided, to secure coerced confessions. Nadyeen Abdulaziz, a senior representative of Alqst, called on foreign governments to step up action to protect their citizens. “Foreign governments should use the means available to them to protect the rights of their citizens and residents while abroad, including providing consular assistance and monitoring trial proceedings,” Abdulaziz said. “Governments that profess to believe in universal human rights should advocate for the release of all those arbitrarily detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression.” Middle East Eye has reached out to the Saudi embassy in London requesting comment on the report’s findings, as of publication no response has been received.