Global Pulse

分类： world

  • US cut to South Africa’s HIV response could cost lives, UNAids chief warns

    US cut to South Africa’s HIV response could cost lives, UNAids chief warns

    A looming public health crisis is building in South Africa after the Trump administration confirmed it would draw down all United States HIV and AIDS funding to the country, a move that the head of the UN’s leading HIV agency warns will put countless lives at risk and undo decades of critical progress.

    Speaking to reporters on the eve of a high-level UN meeting focused on global HIV response efforts, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima issued an urgent plea to Washington to reverse course and pursue a planned phase-out of funding instead of an abrupt withdrawal. “Please do not take money away because you are taking lives away,” Byanyima stressed, adding that the sudden cut to life-saving programs puts the most vulnerable populations directly in harm’s way.

    For decades, the U.S. President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has poured approximately $400 million annually into South Africa’s national HIV response, covering around 17% of the country’s total HIV programming budget. While South Africa has built domestic capacity to supply antiretroviral HIV drugs independent of U.S. funding, PEPFAR resources have anchored a wide range of prevention programs that have slowed transmission dramatically across the country, which is home to more than 8 million people living with HIV — the highest national caseload globally.

    Byanyima warned that eliminating this core contribution risks reversing all the gains the global public health community has made against the epidemic in South Africa over the past two decades. She also noted that financing cuts to global HIV assistance are not isolated to the U.S., calling on all UN member states to uphold their commitment to protecting the human rights of people living with HIV.

    The funding withdrawal is tied to rising diplomatic tensions between the Trump administration and the South African government. U.S. officials confirmed the phased drawdown last week, citing Pretoria’s failure to meet Washington’s policy demands, specifically over unsubstantiated claims that the South African government has failed to protect the white-minority Afrikaner community. The Trump administration has previously pushed widely discredited claims of a “white genocide” in South Africa, and has condemned the country’s Black Economic Empowerment policy, which Pretoria has defended as a necessary correction to deep economic inequality rooted in the apartheid era. South African officials reject all accusations of discriminatory policy against minority groups.

    While South Africa’s health ministry says it has not received formal notification of the funding cut, it noted that the country has been developing a national HIV self-reliance plan for years to reduce dependence on international aid. Even so, public health experts warn that an abrupt end to U.S. funding would leave a crippling gap in prevention programming that South Africa’s domestic budget cannot fill overnight.

    Byanyima emphasized that the U.S. has long been the world’s largest contributor to global HIV response efforts, and expressed hope that Washington would reconsider its decision to withdraw PEPFAR funding from South Africa. “Taking it away is taking life-saving support from the most vulnerable people, so that is sad and I would like the United States to reconsider their position,” she said.

  • Thai woman faces a Myanmar court in an immigration trial tied to US diplomat’s killing

    Thai woman faces a Myanmar court in an immigration trial tied to US diplomat’s killing

    BANGKOK – In a high-profile case unfolding under Myanmar’s military-led administration, a Thai citizen has made her second court appearance this week, facing an initial immigration charge tied to the alleged murder of her former American diplomat husband earlier this year.

    Pavinee Suparivisarn was found connected to the May killing of the U.S. diplomatic official, whose identity has still not been made public by authorities. While a murder charge carrying the maximum penalty of death is already filed against her, Myanmar’s judicial system is moving forward first with the separate immigration violation charge. Under local law, this charge can be applied to any foreign national who commits a criminal offense within Myanmar’s borders, carrying a sentence of between six months and five years in prison if convicted.

    Tuesday’s hearing at Yangon’s Kamayut Township Court saw three prosecution witnesses – including two immigration officials – give testimony, according to a legal professional familiar with the case who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The source cited fear of retaliation from Myanmar’s ruling military junta as the reason for withholding their name. They added that Pavinee was accompanied by two court-appointed legal representatives, but no additional details on the proceeding were available, and it remains unclear whether the defendant has formally entered a plea to the charge.

    An official from the Kamayut Township Immigration and Population Department independently confirmed that witness testimony was held during the hearing, but also declined to share further details, speaking anonymously as they were not granted permission to engage with international media.

    Multiple key institutions connected to the case have declined all requests for comment. This includes the investigation team leading the murder probe, the prison where Pavinee is believed to be detained, and the court itself. Under current rules in Myanmar, independent journalists are barred from observing open court proceedings, leaving little public visibility into the progression of the case. It is also still unknown how long the immigration trial will run, or when the separate murder trial – which could result in a 10-year prison sentence or capital punishment – will begin.

    The killing took place on May 11 at the Sakura Residence & Hotel, a Yangon accommodation located just 1.5 kilometers from the U.S. Embassy, a popular venue for international diplomats, business executives and foreign visitors. According to the legal source, the deceased diplomat was found dead at the property with multiple stab wounds to the head and neck. The U.S. State Department has publicly confirmed the death of the American official but has declined to release any additional details, including the victim’s full identity.

    Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed it is providing consular support to Pavinee, consistent with standard consular practices for Thai nationals facing legal proceedings overseas, but has also refused to share further details on the case.

    The proceeding comes against a volatile backdrop in Myanmar, which has been locked in widespread civil conflict since the military seized power in a 2021 coup that ousted the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Since the coup, junta authorities have severely restricted press freedom, limited public access to judicial proceedings, and rarely engage with independent international media.

  • Niger becomes the third country to leave the International Criminal Court

    Niger becomes the third country to leave the International Criminal Court

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands — In a formal step that underscores growing rejection of international judicial oversight among West Africa’s military-ruled states, Niger has officially initiated its departure from the International Criminal Court, leveling accusations that the Hague-based institution practices systemic selective justice.

    The West African nation delivered an official withdrawal notification to the United Nations on Monday, activating the one-year departure process outlined in the ICC’s founding legal document, the Rome Statute. The notification letter, released publicly through UN channels, voiced disillusionment with the court, which was established to deliver accountability for the world’s worst atrocities. “While the court had raised great hopes among peoples who cherish peace and justice, it has been misused and exploited,” the document read.

    Niger’s exit was not unexpected: the country joined Mali and Burkina Faso in announcing their collective intent to withdraw from the court last year. All three nations have undergone seismic political shifts since 2020, when Mali’s military first seized power. In Niger’s case, a 2023 coup overthrew the country’s democratically elected civilian government, installing a nationalist military junta that has cut ties with long-time Western and regional partners and forged new strategic alliances with actors including Russia — a country whose leader, Vladimir Putin, currently faces an ICC-issued arrest warrant over the forced deportation of Ukrainian children during Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

    Niger’s completed departure will make it the third sovereign state to formally exit the ICC, following prior withdrawals by Burundi and the Philippines. Only Hungary launched a similar exit process last year, but the country reversed its decision following a national election that saw anti-withdrawal forces take power.

    ICC officials responded to Niger’s announcement with measured disappointment, emphasizing that the court’s core mission relies on collective global participation. “We regret any decision to depart from the collective effort to end impunity for the most serious international crimes,” the court said in an official statement following the notification.

    Under the terms of the Rome Statute, Niger’s withdrawal will not take full effect until one year after the UN received the official notification. Importantly, the ICC will retain full jurisdiction over any crimes committed on Nigerien territory before the withdrawal enters into force.

    Niger’s exit comes as the country faces escalating security instability linked to jihadi insurgent groups operating across the Sahel region. Earlier this month, a brazen armed attack on Niamey’s main international airport — a critical strategic hub that houses the military junta’s air force base, its fleet of drones and combat aircraft, and the headquarters of a new regional security alliance between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso — left more than 30 people dead. The assault marked the second major attack on the airport this year, part of a growing trend of insurgent groups expanding their operations from rural border areas to major urban centers across the Sahel.

  • Drowning deaths soar in France as Europe buckles in peak of heatwave

    Drowning deaths soar in France as Europe buckles in peak of heatwave

    A crippling early-summer heatwave is sweeping across Western and Southern Europe, bringing record-shattering temperatures, triggering public health emergencies, and leaving dozens dead across multiple nations, with France bearing the brunt of the deadly crisis so far.

    French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu confirmed that 40 heat-related deaths have been recorded across the country since last Thursday, a large share of which are drowning fatalities linked to desperate attempts to cool off in unpatrolled waterways. As Paris recently reopened the popular Canal Saint-Martin for public bathing, government officials have issued urgent warnings about the catastrophic risks of swimming in unsupervised areas, a threat amplified by extreme heat.

    “It’s not something to be taken lightly, going swimming in unsupervised areas during a heatwave,” French Sports and Youth Minister Marina Ferrari told national radio, noting that far too many people underestimate the dangers of unregulated swimming spots while overheated. The fatal toll includes a 13-year-old non-swimmer who died while swimming with her family in the River Seine over the weekend, a young professional footballer left in critical condition after being rescued from a banned section of the Rhône near Lyon, and six swimming-related deaths across Germany between Friday and Sunday, where the German Lifesaving Association (DLRG) reported many victims overestimated their swimming ability in cold, fast-moving water. Two young children, aged two and four, also died of heat exposure after being left in a parked car in the southern French city of Carpentras on Monday.

    The unprecedented heat has broken long-standing national temperature records in France: the country recorded its hottest June day on record this past Monday, followed by its warmest overnight low ever recorded, with an average minimum temperature of 21.6°C across the country, according to national weather service Météo France. More than half of France remains under the highest-level red heat alert, as temperatures continue to stress critical national infrastructure. On Monday night, the Golfech nuclear power plant in southwestern France was forced to fully shut down after water temperatures in the cooling River Garonne rose to the legal maximum limit of 28°C, which French regulation prohibits cooling water from exceeding.

    France is not alone in facing the crisis. Neighboring Spain and Italy, alongside Germany, are also grappling with extreme conditions that experts confirm are part of a long-term trend driven by climate change. Spain is currently in its third consecutive day of national extreme heat, with red heat alerts active across southern Andalusia and northern regions of Cantabria and the Basque Country. Temperatures are forecast to peak above 40°C in multiple areas, with Aemet, Spain’s national weather service, projecting highs could reach 44°C in rural areas near Córdoba on Tuesday. On Monday, 101 of Aemet’s 828 monitoring stations hit 40°C or higher, with a high of 45°C recorded in Andújar.

    Spanish climate experts confirm that early-summer heatwaves are becoming far more frequent, a trend aligned with broader climate change patterns. “There is evidence that heatwaves are now taking place more frequently at the start of summer than in previous decades,” Aemet climatologist Rubén del Campo told Spanish media. Data from the service underscores this shift: between 2000 and 2025, 10 June heatwaves were recorded on mainland Spain, compared to just two in the 25 years before 2000. Researchers note Spain is more exposed to accelerating climate impacts than nearly any other European country.

    In Italy, authorities have issued red heat alerts for 15 major cities, including Rome, Milan, Florence, Turin and Venice. The highest-level alert warns that extreme heat poses health risks even to healthy adults, not just vulnerable groups such as the elderly and people with chronic illness. In response to the crisis, the Italian government has reactivated emergency labor protections that ban outdoor farm and construction work during the hottest hours of the day. The policy also allows businesses that pause operations due to dangerous heat to access state-backed furlough payments for affected workers.

    In Germany, temperatures are expected to climb as high as 40°C in western and southwestern regions by the end of the week, adding to the six swimming deaths already recorded over the weekend. Officials across the continent are continuing to urge residents to take extreme precautions, avoid unregulated swimming, and check on vulnerable neighbors as the heatwave continues to peak across the region.

  • Armed group in Nigeria kills at least 20 people and exchanges gunfire with police

    Armed group in Nigeria kills at least 20 people and exchanges gunfire with police

    Fresh reports from Nigeria confirm that a deadly armed attack on a rural community in the country’s north-central Plateau State has claimed at least 20 lives, police authorities confirmed Monday. The violent incident unfolded Sunday in Kawel, a small community located within Bokkos Local Government Area, according to an official statement released by Plateau State police spokesperson Alfred Alabo.

    Responding to emergency calls about the attack, law enforcement personnel were deployed to the scene rapidly, where they engaged the unidentified assailants in an exchange of gunfire. The shootout ultimately forced the attackers to withdraw from the area, Alabo confirmed. As of Monday, no suspects have been taken into custody, and no militant or armed organization has issued a claim of responsibility for the killing.

    Following the attack, local authorities have moved forward with processing the victims’ remains. Alabo noted that the bodies of those killed have already been turned over to their next of kin for burial, after family members requested to forgo formal autopsies.

    Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang has ordered an immediate coordinated response to support affected residents, according to a statement from the governor’s spokesperson Joyce Ramnap. Mutfwang directed state emergency management and humanitarian assistance agencies to deploy all available resources to provide urgent relief, support, and aid to survivors and the families of the deceased.

    The attack is the latest episode of recurring intercommunal and insurgent-linked violence that has plagued central and northern Nigeria for years. According to United Nations data, a long-running insurgency centered in Nigeria’s northeast has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced millions from their homes since the conflict began. Armed criminal gangs have also maintained a persistent presence across the country’s northwest and north-central regions, carrying out frequent attacks on civilian communities. This killing marks the second deadly assault in Plateau State that has left 20 people dead so far this year: a nighttime raid on the Gari Ya Waye community in March also claimed 20 lives.

  • A red alert over France, and heat that may rewrite the record books

    A red alert over France, and heat that may rewrite the record books

    PARIS – Millions of French residents endured another sweltering, sleepless night this Tuesday, waking soaked in perspiration as a record-shattering early-summer heat wave blankets nearly the entire nation, pushing temperatures to unprecedented levels and triggering widespread public safety concerns.

    France’s national meteorological agency Meteo France has activated the highest-level red heat wave alert for 54 of the country’s administrative departments, with temperatures staying at dangerously high levels around the clock – offering little to no reprieve even after sunset. Unlike many comparable wealthy nations, France lacks broad residential and public access to air conditioning, leaving communities vulnerable to the unrelenting heat. As of Tuesday, at least 20 drowning deaths have been recorded since the start of the weekend, many linked to people seeking relief from soaring temperatures in bodies of water. Daily high temperatures are forecast to climb above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across most populated areas through at least the end of the week, and meteorologists warn that all-time national temperature records for any time of year could be broken in the coming days.

    The intensity of this event, which arrived unusually early in the summer season, has drawn immediate comparisons to the catastrophic August 2003 heat wave that killed an estimated 15,000 people across France – most of them elderly residents living in uncooled apartment buildings and long-term care facilities. In the wake of that 2003 disaster, France implemented a national heat watch and early warning system, but infrastructure gaps including the lack of widespread air conditioning still leave millions at risk.

    This heat wave comes as climate scientists repeatedly warn that human-caused climate change is driving a steady increase in the frequency and severity of extreme heat events across the globe. The United Nations’ climate agency projects that the next five years will see more all-time heat records broken around the world. Europe, in particular, is warming faster than any other continent, with average temperatures rising twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

    Just this month, the World Health Organization’s European regional office released a report finding that over the past four years, more than 200,000 excess deaths across Europe have been linked to heat-related causes. The vast majority of these fatalities are preventable with proper preparedness and public health action. Prolonged exposure to above-average temperatures can lead to heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke, particularly for vulnerable groups including the elderly, people with pre-existing health conditions, and unhoused populations. The EU climate monitoring service confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded globally, and Europe marked its second-highest number of high-risk heat stress days on record that year.

    Scientists emphasize that climate change will continue to amplify heat and drought conditions across the continent, with southeastern Europe facing the highest risk of severe health impacts and devastating wildfires in coming years.

  • Lebanon tries to find a place on the map

    Lebanon tries to find a place on the map

    Against the backdrop of ongoing high-stakes Middle East peace negotiations, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun is mounting a urgent campaign to center his nation’s interests, pushing back against the tendency of global and regional powers to treat Lebanon as a secondary bargaining chip in their broader conflicts. For weeks, Aoun has grown increasingly frustrated as both Iran and the United States frame Lebanon as a peripheral theater in their escalating geopolitical rivalry, leaving the country’s sovereignty and security hanging in the balance. For Iran, backing its proxy ally Hezbollah through military aid and diplomatic protection serves as a core pillar of its claim to regional power status. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament, recently reinforced this position, declaring that “the efforts of Lebanon’s brave fighters and the powerful diplomacy of Iran will guarantee the sovereignty and territorial integrity of beloved Lebanon.”

    On the U.S. side, the Trump administration has shown clear dismissal of Lebanon’s specific national concerns. While former President Donald Trump has expressed casual unease over Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese territory, he has done little to advance Lebanon’s demands for Israeli withdrawal. Most recently, Vice President J.D. Vance, who is leading U.S. peace talks with Iran, publicly chided Israel last Sunday amid continued bombing runs, arguing that the country “can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem” but stopped short of endorsing Lebanon’s core demands.

    This sidelining of Lebanon has spurred Aoun to deliver a blunt, unapologetic rebuke to both foreign powers. He has openly demanded that Iran end its military intervention in Lebanon through its support for Hezbollah, stating sharply: “It is not your country, it is our country. You are not trying to help us. It is the Lebanese who are paying the price for your own interests, and our interests do not coincide with yours. We are tired and we want to live in peace.” After receiving a weekend phone call from Vance updating him on planned U.S.-Iran negotiations, Aoun pushed back against the idea of external powers cutting deals over Lebanon’s head, noting: “We welcome any assistance to end the war, but we distinguish between assistance and interference in internal affairs. We are a sovereign country and no one negotiates on our behalf.”

    This week, Aoun is moving forward with a new round of diplomatic engagement: Lebanese envoys are set to travel to Washington on June 22 for direct talks with Israeli representatives, with two non-negotiable priorities: the full disarmament of Hezbollah and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory. But the proposal has already met a hard rejection from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who announced on Monday that his government has given the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) full autonomy to operate in southern Lebanon. “Our fighters in southern Lebanon have full freedom of action to thwart any direct or emerging threat to them or to the residents of the North [of Israel],” Netanyahu said. “The IDF has no restrictions in this regard.”

    These talks mark the fourth round of negotiations ordered by the Trump administration this year. Israel has put forward its own proposal, calling on the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah, with the IDF retaining an indefinite military presence in southern Lebanon to enforce the deal if Hezbollah resists. Aoun has decried this framework as deeply unrealistic, arguing that the Lebanese military is severely under-trained and under-equipped to take on the well-armed militant group. Compounding this challenge is the country’s sectarian demographics: roughly 40% of Lebanese army personnel are Shiite, and Aoun warns it is highly unlikely they would take up arms against the Shiite-aligned Hezbollah. “Any controversial domestic issue in Lebanon can only be approached through conciliatory, non-confrontational dialogue and communication. If not, we will lead Lebanon to ruin,” Aoun warned. “We can’t let the country descend into another civil war.”

    These fears are rooted in decades of unresolved conflict and failed attempts to rein in Hezbollah’s power. In the early 1980s, a government order to the military to crack down on Muslim militias led to mass desertions and refusals to obey commands from Shiite service members. In 2008, the government attempted to dismantle a secret Hezbollah communications network in southern Lebanon and block the group’s use of Beirut International Airport as a covert weapons transit point from Iran. In response, Hezbollah and its allied militias seized control of majority-Sunni downtown West Beirut, forcing the government to fully back down.

    Hezbollah leaders have already issued sharp threats in response to Aoun’s current push. Senior Hezbollah figure Mahmoud Qamati warned that “a confrontation with the political authority is inevitable after the war” and vowed that Lebanese officials engaging with Israel “would pay the price for their betrayal.” Current Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem added that any effort to disarm the group would trigger a “serious crisis” that would leave “no life in Lebanon.”

    Lebanon’s long-running sectarian power-sharing system, established under Ottoman and French colonial rule and retained after independence in 1945, has amplified these internal tensions. The system allocates the presidency to a Christian, the prime minister role to a Sunni Muslim, and the parliamentary speaker position to a Shiite Muslim, with all bureaucratic posts and parliamentary representation divided along confessional lines, including guaranteed representation for the 6% Druze minority. While designed to reduce sectarian conflict, the system has instead entrenched religious-political rivalries that have repeatedly erupted into violence over decades.

    Foreign intervention has further destabilized the country. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon to expel the Palestine Liberation Organization, which had its headquarters in Beirut, and to install Christian leader Bashir Gemayel as president in the hopes he would sign a permanent peace treaty with Israel. That plan collapsed after Syria organized Gemayel’s assassination, and guerrilla forces pushed Israeli troops back into southern Lebanon, where they remained for 18 years of occupation.

    It was in this occupied southern Lebanon, the heartland of Lebanon’s Shiite population, that Hezbollah emerged with backing from Iran and Syria. After 18 years of failed efforts to subdue the group, Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000. Rather than disbanding, Hezbollah reframed its mission around “liberating” the small contested Sheba Farms territory on the edge of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, after Syria asserted Lebanon had a legitimate claim to the area.

    Since 2000, frequent border clashes and periodic full-scale wars have broken out between Israel and Hezbollah. Iran has since elevated the group’s role as the vanguard of its “axis of resistance,” a regional coalition that also includes Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen, positioning Hezbollah as the “forward defense” of Iran’s regional interests. As the U.S. moves forward with planned negotiations with Iran, the core question hanging over Lebanon’s future remains: can any U.S.-Iran deal resolve the Hezbollah issue, and finally deliver the sovereign peace Aoun and the Lebanese people have long demanded?

  • Australia’s coal and gas exports violate our human rights, group says in new UN case

    Australia’s coal and gas exports violate our human rights, group says in new UN case

    A small but determined cohort of Australian climate activists and affected residents has made global legal history by bringing a human rights complaint against the Australian government to the United Nations, arguing that its ongoing support for coal and gas exports violates their fundamental rights to life, safety and cultural survival. This case marks the first formal legal challenge brought before an international body since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a landmark 2025 ruling that opened the door for nations to hold each other legally accountable for climate change harm.

    Australia ranks among the world’s top five coal and gas exporters, and the 10 claimants argue that the federal government’s continued approval and subsidization of new fossil fuel projects directly exacerbates the extreme weather events that have already upended their lives. From catastrophic bushfires to unprecedented river floods, deadly heatwaves, coastal sea level rise and toxic water contamination, claimants say the government’s failure to rein in fossil fuel pollution has put their health, safety and cultural heritage in immediate danger.

    One of the most prominent voices among the claimants is Dr. Barry Traill, a respected wildlife ecologist and veteran volunteer firefighter who has witnessed the escalating intensity of Australian wildfires firsthand. Traill’s perspective on climate risk changed forever in 2009, when a group of his well-prepared, experienced friends lost their lives in the devastating Black Saturday bushfires that tore through Victoria, killing 173 people overall. “That deeply changed me,” Traill explained. “It became clear that the old rules around fires and survival no longer applied.” A decade later, Traill served on the frontlines of the 2019 Black Summer megafires that burned more than 18 million hectares of land across eastern Australia, an experience that convinced him climate change is not a distant future threat. “It is already killing people and hurting lives, landscapes and communities across Australia,” he said. “Continuing to allow coal and gas companies to increase pollution, while people face worsening disasters, is a profound failure of responsibility.”

    Brendon Donohue, another claimant who lives with blindness and mobility impairments, described how he was trapped alone in his Brisbane apartment for 10 days during the catastrophic 2022 Queensland floods that damaged the region’s power grid. When the floodwaters knocked out electricity to his building, elevators, intercom systems and ground-floor exits all became unusable, leaving Donohue unable to escape or call for emergency help. “Because I live with blindness and mobility challenges, climate impacts affect me differently and can make everyday life much harder to navigate safely,” he said, highlighting how vulnerable disabled people are to worsening climate disasters.

    For lead claimant Professor Anne Poelina, an Indigenous elder and academic from Western Australia’s remote Kimberley region, the case is as much about protecting cultural survival as it is about personal safety. Poelina and her community were displaced from their traditional lands along the Fitzroy River – one of Western Australia’s most ecologically and culturally significant waterways – after catastrophic flooding hit the region in 2023. “When the river is healthy, our people are healthy, when the river suffers, our people suffer,” Poelina said. She warned that ongoing climate-driven disruption to their connection to country threatens to erase irreplaceable Indigenous knowledge that has been passed down through generations through direct, on-land experience. “What concerns me most is the intergenerational loss of cultural knowledge,” she said. “So much of our knowledge is not written down, but passed on by being physically present on the land.”

    Hannah White, a senior lawyer with Environmental Justice Australia representing the claimants, told reporters that the complaint argues Australia’s responsibility for climate harm extends far beyond its borders. The group is asking the UN Human Rights Committee to formally rule that the Australian government’s policy of continuing to approve and subsidize fossil fuel exports, without a comprehensive plan to cut emissions and protect communities from climate harm, violates international human rights law. While any ruling from the UN Human Rights Committee is not legally binding, it carries significant global moral and political weight, and Australia would be expected to issue an official response to the finding.

    The case comes just under a year after the ICJ – the United Nations’ highest court for cross-border disputes – issued a landmark ruling affirming that nations can be held legally liable for transboundary climate harm caused by their greenhouse gas emissions, including historic emissions that have accumulated in the atmosphere over decades. The BBC has reached out to Australia’s Environment Minister Murray Watt for comment on the new complaint, but has not yet received a response.

  • From ‘The Lion’ to ‘The Tiger’: Conservative Trump allies gain ground in Latin America

    From ‘The Lion’ to ‘The Tiger’: Conservative Trump allies gain ground in Latin America

    Across Latin America, a sharp political realignment toward conservative leadership has accelerated in recent years, with a Trump-endorsed outsider now on the cusp of winning Colombia’s top office to become the latest addition to the region’s new conservative wave. As of Monday, with nearly all ballots counted, Abelardo de la Espriella — a lawyer and business owner nicknamed “The Tiger” — held a roughly 1 percentage point lead, equivalent to 251,000 votes, over his progressive rival Iván Cepeda. While official results have not yet been formalized and Cepeda has launched a challenge to the outcome, independent analysts widely agree the review is unlikely to overturn de la Espriella’s lead.

    De la Espriella built his campaign around a hardline public safety platform, echoing the tough-on-crime agenda that has propelled many recent conservative wins across the region. Key pledges include scrapping ongoing peace negotiations with remaining Colombian rebel factions and constructing large-scale mega-prisons modeled after the controversial facilities built in El Salvador to mass-incarcerate gang members. His campaign received a high-profile endorsement from former U.S. President Donald Trump, who framed de la Espriella as the only candidate capable of reestablishing widespread law and order across Colombia.

    De la Espriella’s projected victory fits into a clear pattern of conservative and right-wing candidates securing presidential power across Latin America over the past two years:

    ### Argentina: Libertarian Conservative Milei Cuts Inflation Amid Austerity Backlash
    In November 2023, Argentine voters elected Javier Milei, a libertarian economist and media commentator nicknamed “The Lion,” on a promise to dismantle decades of state-led economic policy and tame the country’s crippling hyperinflation. Milei defeated the long-dominant Peronist progressive movement, and immediately enacted sweeping austerity measures after taking office: he halted central bank money printing to finance government deficits, cut thousands of civil service positions, paused public infrastructure investment, and rolled back subsidies for household utility costs. The policies have delivered on their core inflation goal, cutting annual price growth from 211% in 2023 to 32% in 2025, but have drawn widespread criticism for eroding living standards for working-class and public sector Argentines.

    ### Ecuador: Pro-Military Conservative Noboa Retains Power Amid Security Criticism
    In April 2025, Ecuadoran voters handed incumbent conservative Daniel Noboa, heir to one of the country’s wealthiest business families, a full four-year term, with the candidate securing 56% of the vote. Noboa has centered his tenure on expanding the military’s role in combating powerful drug gangs that have seized control of coastal port cities and trafficking routes. While the policy has been popular with security-focused voters, it has failed to deliver a meaningful reduction in national homicide rates, and has drawn international condemnation over documented human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings of suspected gang members. Noboa has deepened security cooperation with the U.S., launching joint anti-trafficking military operations, though his push to reopen a permanent U.S. military base on Ecuadoran territory was rejected by voters in a 2024 referendum.

    ### Honduras: National Party Conservative Asfura Narrowly Wins With U.S. Backing
    Nasry Asfura, a real estate developer and former mayor representing Honduras’ center-right National Party, claimed a narrow presidential win in 2024, beating his closest challenger by less than 1 percentage point. Asfura’s party includes former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of drug trafficking charges in the U.S. before receiving a presidential pardon from Donald Trump. Trump openly endorsed Asfura’s campaign, threatening to cut U.S. aid to the small Central American nation if Asfura was not elected. Since taking office in early 2025, Asfura’s government has honored a new deportation agreement with the U.S., accepting dozens of deportees originally from third countries (most predominantly Guatemala) that were expelled from the U.S.

    ### Chile: Conservative Kast Unseats Progressive Government With Hardline Immigration Stance
    In December 2024, devout Catholic conservative José Antonio Kast defeated Chile’s sitting progressive government, winning 58% of the vote to claim the presidency. Kast campaigned on widespread public anxiety over rising crime, and centered his platform on hardline restrictions on irregular migration, promising to expel undocumented migrants from Venezuela and Haiti. One of his first policy actions after taking office was expanding a fortified trench along Chile’s northern borders with Peru and Bolivia, a measure the government says will curb cross-border drug trafficking and unauthorized migration. Kast’s administration has since faced large-scale public protests over rising unemployment and sweeping budget cuts that have reduced pay and services for public sector workers.

    ### Costa Rica: Tough-On-Crime Conservative Fernández Secures Outright Win
    In February 2025, Laura Fernández — a former economy minister under outgoing conservative President Rodrigo Chaves — won Costa Rica’s presidential election outright, avoiding a runoff by securing 48% of the vote, 15 points ahead of her closest rival, and clearing the 40% vote threshold needed to skip a second round. Like de la Espriella in Colombia, Fernández ran on a hardline public safety platform, proposing a national state of exception that would allow police to arrest suspects without warrants, and planning to build a mega-prison modeled after El Salvador’s maximum-security CECOT facility. Fernández has also upheld a deportation agreement signed by her predecessor with the U.S., accepting multiple flights of third-country deportees, including a June 2025 flight carrying migrants from China, Vietnam, Colombia and Azerbaijan.

  • Explosion at Qatar gas hub leaves 54 injured and 18 missing

    Explosion at Qatar gas hub leaves 54 injured and 18 missing

    A sudden overnight explosion at Qatar’s primary liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing hub has left at least 54 people injured and 18 others unaccounted for, Qatari authorities confirmed in official statements released Monday.

    The blast took place at the Barzan plant within the Ras Laffan Industrial City, a major energy complex located approximately 80 kilometers north of the capital Doha. Qatari Interior Ministry officials characterized the incident as an “internal explosion” stemming from a technical malfunction, ruling out foul play in the initial assessment. Emergency search and rescue teams were rapidly deployed to the site immediately after the incident was reported, and operators of the facility confirmed they have successfully brought the resulting fire under control.

    In a public update, the ministry emphasized that no hazardous leakage from the facility has been detected, and there is no current threat to broader public safety in the surrounding areas. The facility is operated by QatarEnergy, the Gulf state’s state-owned national energy giant, which confirmed that all emergency protocols were activated without delay after the blast.

    Spanning 295 square kilometers — an area roughly one-third the size of New York City — Ras Laffan Industrial City is the beating heart of Qatar’s multi-billion-dollar natural gas industry, the sector that forms the foundation of the country’s national economy. The complex processes massive volumes of natural gas extracted from Qatar’s offshore North Field, one of the largest natural gas reserves on Earth, converting the raw resource into LNG, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), liquid fuels, petrochemical feedstocks and other valuable energy products for global export.

    The incident comes on the heels of severe damage the facility sustained just months earlier, in March, when Iranian missile strikes targeted sites across Gulf nations hosting U.S. military installations, in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran. Those strikes damaged two of Ras Laffan’s 14 LNG processing trains and one of its two gas-to-liquid facilities, cutting the country’s total LNG export capacity by 17% overnight. QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi explained after the attack that the disruption would take 12.8 million tonnes of annual LNG production offline for three to five years, resulting in an estimated $20 billion in lost annual revenue.

    Virtually all of Ras Laffan’s energy output is shipped to global markets via the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow strategic waterway separating Iran from Oman’s Musandam peninsula that Tehran has effectively closed in response to the ongoing U.S.-Israeli campaign. The combination of the March attack on the facility and the closure of this critical shipping chokepoint has already severely constrained Qatar’s primary export, adding new layers of uncertainty to the country’s energy sector and global natural gas markets already grappling with regional instability.