Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Inside a huge compound on Thailand-Cambodia border where 10,000 workers scammed people globally

    Inside a huge compound on Thailand-Cambodia border where 10,000 workers scammed people globally

    In the border town of O’Smach straddling Thailand and Cambodia, a recently seized illicit operation laid bare the staggering, industrial-scale expansion of transnational cyber scam networks that have exploded across Southeast Asia in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic.

    For a journalist who has tracked the rise of these criminal compounds for years from a base in the region, and visited multiple scam centers before, the size of the O’Smach Resort complex—seized by Thailand’s military during a December border conflict with Cambodia—still defied prior expectations. Covering roughly 197 acres, an area equal to 150 full-sized American football fields, it dwarfed every other scam facility the reporter had previously observed.

    Thailand’s military organized a guided media tour of the seized compound this week, revealing the full scope of the well-established criminal operation that once operated from the site. Thai officials stated they seized the territory after Cambodian actors used the complex as a base for cross-border attacks during the December dispute.

    The compound, bearing the innocuous name O’Smach Resort, is linked to Cambodian politician Ly Yong Phat, who is already sanctioned by the United States for documented human rights abuses tied to the same site. While it remains unconfirmed whether ongoing expansion work at the complex is also tied to Ly, visible signs of new construction are scattered across the self-contained facility: stacks of unused bricks and idle construction cranes dot the landscape, indicating the criminal network was actively growing its operations before the seizure.

    Inside the complex, the infrastructure is built explicitly to support large-scale coordinated fraud. In total, the site holds 157 separate structures. Twenty-nine of these are dedicated office buildings for scam operating companies, while the rest include mass worker dormitories, luxury staff apartments, and even three-story private villas for senior criminal leaders. Thai military estimates suggest at least 10,000 people resided and worked within the compound at the height of its operation. To accommodate the majority Chinese workforce that ran the scams, the compound even hosts a range of regional Chinese dining options, from spicy Hunan dishes and southern Chinese Shaxian delicacies to Sichuan-style hot and sour rice noodles.

    During the tour, reporters were led to a four-story office building where scammers specifically targeted American victims. The office was left largely intact after the seizure: half-eaten snacks remained on desks, and every workstation held detailed scam scripts and notes written in Chinese. American SIM cards were scattered across surfaces, confirming the operation’s direct targeting of United States consumers.

    One of the recovered scripts illustrates the sophisticated, long-con tactics scammers use to manipulate victims. The 24-page document builds out an elaborate backstory for a fake female persona named Mila, who is framed as a successful trader with huge earnings from gold options trading. The script goes far beyond basic financial fraud framing: it adds deeply personal details, including the death of Mila’s husband from leukemia when their daughter was an infant, childhood bullying, and a move to South Africa to live with her uncle as a teenager. These manufactured emotional details are designed to build trust with targets over weeks or months before scammers move to steal their money.

    The revelation of this massive single compound lines up with broader estimates from global authorities. The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights currently estimates that roughly 300,000 people are trapped in the scam industry across Southeast Asia, many of them coerced into committing fraud against victims worldwide. Newly released FBI data this week underscores the staggering human cost for one major target market: U.S. consumers lost nearly $21 billion to all types of scams in 2023 alone.

    While both Thailand and Cambodia have made public pledges to crack down on cross-border cyber scam operations, senior Thai officials emphasized that the problem is fundamentally global in scope, and cannot be solved by two neighboring countries acting alone. “Every country of the world has to join together to solve this problem. We cannot do it alone with Cambodia and Thailand,” stated Air Chief Marshal Prapas Sornchaidee, one of the senior military officials leading the media tour.

    Recent regional developments signal growing momentum to address the crisis: Cambodia has recently advanced new legislation that would impose penalties as severe as life imprisonment for operators of illicit scam centers, and multiple countries have already extradited high-profile scam suspects back to their home jurisdictions to face charges. Still, the discovery of a 10,000-person fully operational scam compound near the Thai-Cambodian border makes clear that transnational criminal networks have already built a far larger infrastructure than many global leaders had previously acknowledged.

  • Bahamas police search for US woman who reportedly fell off boat

    Bahamas police search for US woman who reportedly fell off boat

    A massive cross-agency search operation is ongoing in the Abaco Islands of the Bahamas after an American tourist disappeared overboard from a small recreational dinghy over the weekend, local law enforcement confirmed.

    The missing person has been identified as Lynette Hooker, a resident of Michigan, who was on a holiday in the Caribbean island nation alongside her husband, also a United States citizen. According to official statements from the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the incident unfolded around 7:30 p.m. local time Saturday, when the couple set out from Hope Town bound for Elbow Cay aboard an 8-foot hard-bottom dinghy. Hooker’s husband told first responders that his wife fell from the bouncing vessel when it hit uneven water, and was quickly pulled out to open sea by strong local currents. Critically, the woman took the dinghy’s engine keys with her when she fell overboard, leaving her husband stranded without power to navigate or pursue.

    Without functioning propulsion, the husband was forced to paddle the unpowered small boat to shore, a journey that took more than eight hours. He only reached the Marsh Harbour Boat Yard around 4 a.m. local time Sunday, where he immediately alerted on-site staff, who in turn contacted Bahamian law enforcement to launch the search. Hope Town Volunteer Fire and Rescue Chief Troy Pritchard confirmed to CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. news partner, that the woman was ejected violently from the small craft, a common hazard in choppy coastal waters around the island chain.

    In an official social media statement, the Royal Bahamas Police Force announced it had launched a full investigation into the disappearance, and that multiple partner agencies had joined the search effort. Alongside Bahamian national police and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, U.S. diplomatic and law enforcement counterparts as well as local volunteer rescue groups are contributing assets and personnel to the operation, police confirmed.

    The incident comes nearly 13 months after the U.S. State Department issued a public travel advisory explicitly warning U.S. travelers of deadly boating risks across the Bahamas. The March 2025 advisory noted that the island nation does not tightly regulate recreational boating activity, a gap in oversight that has already led to multiple preventable injuries and fatalities for visitors in recent years.

  • One gunman killed and two injured in shooting at Israeli consulate in Istanbul

    One gunman killed and two injured in shooting at Israeli consulate in Istanbul

    In a brazen daylight attack that has sent shockwaves across Turkey, a shootout near the Israeli consulate in Istanbul’s central Besiktas business district left one suspected gunman dead and two others wounded, with two police officers also sustaining non-life-threatening injuries in the confrontation. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the incident as an unforgivable act of terrorism, vowing to prevent such attacks from eroding public confidence in the country.
    Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci confirmed early details of the attack, noting that the two responding police officers only suffered minor injuries: one was grazed in the ear and the other shot in the leg, with neither facing critical health risks. Investigative updates show the three attackers traveled to Istanbul from the northern Turkish city of Izmit using a rented vehicle, and two of the three suspects are biological brothers.
    The killed gunman has been identified by the interior ministry as Yunus E.S., who authorities say has confirmed links to a terrorist group that exploits religious ideology. Turkish officials widely understand this reference to point to the Islamic State (IS) group, though no militant organization has yet released a statement claiming responsibility for the attempted assault.
    Early initial reports from law enforcement incorrectly stated two attackers had been killed, but Istanbul Governor Davut Gul later issued an official clarification confirming only one attacker died in the shootout. The two wounded suspects, identified as Onur Ç and Enes Ç, remain in custody as interrogations continue. Governor Gul added that the attackers carried out the assault using a combination of rifles and handguns.
    In a key contextual detail, the attack unfolded at a consulate that has sat empty for two and a half years. No Israeli diplomatic personnel have been stationed in Turkey since relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv deteriorated sharply over the ongoing Gaza war, and Gul confirmed no Israeli staff were present on site during the incident.
    Social media footage captured the chaotic scene of the attack, showing the moment one armed suspect was shot down by responding police officers. One witness quoted by Reuters described sustained, loud gunfire that continued for 15 to 20 minutes across the busy central district. In the hours after the shootout, heavy police reinforcements flooded the area, with multiple police vans deployed and the entire block cordoned off while forensic teams processed the crime scene.
    Authorities have confirmed that extensive digital communications between the three suspects were uncovered during initial evidence collection, and Turkey’s justice ministry has launched a full formal investigation to unpack the full plot and any potential wider networks connected to the attack. Addressing the nation, Erdogan struck a firm tone, insisting that “We will not allow the climate of trust in Turkey to be damaged by such vile and timed provocations as today’s.”

  • Afghanistan says peace talks held in China to end fighting with Pakistan have been constructive

    Afghanistan says peace talks held in China to end fighting with Pakistan have been constructive

    Months of deadly cross-border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan that have killed hundreds, displaced tens of thousands, and sparked global alarm have moved toward diplomatic resolution, with Afghanistan confirming that recently concluded peace talks hosted in China have yielded productive, constructive discussions. The negotiations, which opened in early April in Urumqi, a city in western China, were arranged at Beijing’s invitation to de-escalate a conflict that reignited in February, ending a previous Qatari-brokered ceasefire reached the previous October. This latest round of fighting has been the most intense between the two neighboring South Asian nations in recent years.

    The scale of the humanitarian damage from the clashes has become increasingly clear. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed via a post on social media platform X Tuesday that the conflict has forced more than 94,000 people from their homes. Since fighting flared in February, roughly 100,000 residents in two Afghan districts near the shared border have been completely cut off from basic services and outside aid, with no safe passage for evacuation or supply deliveries. Tensions reached a devastating peak in mid-March, when a Pakistani airstrike targeted a facility in Kabul that Afghan authorities identified as a drug treatment center. Kabul’s officials claimed the strike killed more than 400 people, a toll Pakistan rejected, arguing its operation targeted legitimate military infrastructure.

    The international community has grown increasingly concerned about the instability, particularly given the border region’s long-standing history of hosting transnational militant groups including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. The core dispute driving the ongoing clashes centers on long-running Pakistani allegations that the Afghan Taliban administration, which seized control of Afghanistan in 2021 following the U.S.-led military withdrawal, provides safe haven to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban militant group that carries out frequent deadly attacks inside Pakistan. The TTP is organizationally separate from the Afghan Taliban but maintains close allied ties to the ruling group in Kabul, which has repeatedly denied Pakistani claims that it harbors TTP fighters. At the height of the current conflict, Pakistan formally declared it was waging “open war” against militant positions inside Afghanistan, and has conducted multiple cross-border airstrikes, including strikes near the Afghan capital.

    Even as diplomatic talks proceeded in Urumqi, Kabul continued to accuse Pakistan of carrying out repeated cross-border shelling that killed and injured Afghan civilians. Pakistan has not yet issued an official response to these latest allegations. Zia Ahmad Takal, deputy spokesman for Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry, announced via a post on X Tuesday that his country’s foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met separately with China’s ambassador to Afghanistan this week. During the meeting, Muttaqi formally thanked Beijing for organizing and hosting the negotiation, as well as extending gratitude to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates for their earlier mediation work between the two sides. Takal added that Muttaqi acknowledged the productive, constructive dialogue that had occurred so far in the China-hosted talks, and expressed hope that small disagreements over interpretation would not block further progress toward a lasting ceasefire. To date, official public comments on the negotiations have been scarce, as the talks are being held between mid-level delegations from both nations.

    Meanwhile, Pakistan’s top military leadership reaffirmed its hardline stance on counterterrorism operations this week. During a high-level commanders’ meeting chaired by Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, senior military officials vowed to continue ongoing counterterrorism sweeps until what they described as “militant safe havens” are eliminated and “the use of Afghan territory against Pakistan” ends. The military’s official statement from the meeting noted that commanders reviewed the full scope of Pakistan’s current internal and external security landscape. It added that “terrorist proxies” operating on behalf of “external sponsors,” along with all of their facilitators, will be pursued and eliminated “relentlessly and without exception.”

    The resurgence of large-scale fighting in February broke a ceasefire that had been brokered by Qatar back in October 2023, when an earlier round of cross-border clashes killed dozens of people, including soldiers, civilians, and suspected militants. This cycle of violence followed a familiar pattern: Afghan forces launched cross-border retaliatory attacks after Pakistan conducted airstrikes inside Afghan territory earlier this year, triggering the full-scale escalation that has drawn international attention to the volatile border region.

  • In Brazil’s capital, Indigenous leaders rally as land disputes and mining pressures grow

    In Brazil’s capital, Indigenous leaders rally as land disputes and mining pressures grow

    In the heart of Brazil’s capital Brasilia, thousands of Indigenous representatives from 200 distinct communities across the nation gathered this Tuesday for the 22nd iteration of the Free Land Encampment, the country’s largest annual Indigenous mobilization. Marching along the Esplanade of the Ministries toward Three Powers Square — the central district housing Brazil’s presidential palace, Congress, and Supreme Court — demonstrators came together to push back against the encroachment of corporate agribusiness, logging, and mining projects on their constitutionally protected ancestral territories.

    Organized under this year’s theme “Our future is not for sale, and the answer is us,” the gathering coincides with a rising tide of land-related violence and tension across Brazil, including ongoing violent disputes targeting the Pataxo people in Bahia state and widespread unrest in the Amazon basin over the past several months. An estimated 7,000 attendees began arriving in Brasilia over the weekend, setting up camp in an open-air cultural space and holding preliminary assemblies to align their shared demands ahead of the main march. When Indigenous leaders asked the assembled crowd whether they were satisfied with the federal government’s progress on demarcating Indigenous land, and with the actions of Congress and the Supreme Court, every question drew a resounding chorus of “no.”

    The march also places direct pressure on President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist leader who campaigned on a platform of strengthening Indigenous land rights and environmental protection after four years of rollbacks under his predecessor, but has drawn sharp criticism for moving forward with oil exploration and other resource extraction projects that contradict those core promises. With Lula widely expected to run for re-election this October, Indigenous leaders say they are demanding a seat at the table for policy decisions that shape the future of their communities.

    “Congress, the Supreme Court, and the president make decisions about our lives without ever hearing our voices,” explained Alessandra Korap, a Munduruku Indigenous leader and 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize winner, as she joined the march. “They often consult one or a handful of Indigenous people and claim we all agree to a new waterway, a railroad, or a mining project. When we stand united like this, no one can speak for us — we are here to deliver our own message.”

    The mobilization follows a string of recent actions across the Amazon that have yielded mixed results for Indigenous communities. In February, thousands of protesters including Korap held 33 days of demonstrations outside a Cargill facility in Para state, successfully pushing Lula to revoke a decree that would have allowed private concessions for Amazonian waterways. Just weeks earlier, however, a federal court approved licensing for a massive Canadian-led gold mining project operated by Belo Sun in Para, prompting months of continuous Indigenous-led protests in the state capital of Altamira.

    As demonstrators marched on Tuesday, dressed in traditional headdresses and cultural body paint and chanting unified calls for land sovereignty, movement leaders emphasized that even with incremental gains under the Lula administration, Indigenous rights remain under growing threat from agribusiness, mining, and energy interests that dominate national politics. Dinamam Tuxá, executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, noted that Brazil’s current political and economic context demands sustained, unified action from Indigenous communities. “Lawmakers have already advanced multiple bills that would weaken constitutional protections for our lands and reinterpret long-standing land rights to open more territories to extraction,” Tuxá explained. “With global demand for oil, gas, and critical minerals rising, these economic interests are putting unprecedented pressure on our territories.”

    The contradiction at the heart of Lula’s policy agenda remains a central point of tension for the movement. Lula was invited to attend the Free Land Encampment, but had not confirmed his attendance as of Monday afternoon. While members of his administration, including Indigenous Peoples Minister Eloy Terena, have confirmed they will participate in policy hearings during the week-long gathering, Lula has continued to argue that economic development and environmental conservation can coexist, even as he approves new extraction projects opposed by Indigenous and environmental groups.

    Recent judicial action has added new urgency to the movement’s demands. In February, Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino ordered Congress to pass formal legislation regulating mining activity on Indigenous territories within two years. In his ruling, Dino acknowledged that illegal mining is already widespread on Indigenous lands, carried out with pervasive violence and disregard for environmental protections, and affirmed that the Cinta Larga people, whose territory spans the Amazonian states of Mato Grosso and Rondonia, retain the right to conduct mining on their own land if they comply with environmental rules and secure broad community approval. Under current Brazilian law, all mining and mineral exploration on Indigenous territory requires congressional approval in addition to community consultation.

    But legal and environmental advocates warn that a Congress dominated by agribusiness and pro-extraction lawmakers will almost certainly draft legislation that undermines Indigenous sovereignty. Renata Vieira, a lawyer with the non-profit Instituto Socioambiental, called the push to open Indigenous territories to formal mining one of the most severe threats facing Indigenous communities in modern Brazil. “Any legislation coming out of this current Congress will be deeply harmful to Indigenous rights,” Vieira said.

    Beyond the immediate fight for Indigenous sovereignty, the protection of Indigenous territories is widely recognized by climate scientists as one of the most effective strategies to curb Amazon deforestation. The Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, acts as a critical global carbon sink that regulates global climate patterns, and researchers warn that continued large-scale forest loss could accelerate dangerous levels of global warming. Data from 2022 collected by MapBiomas, a network of non-profit land-use tracking organizations, underscores the impact of Indigenous stewardship: over 30 years, Indigenous territories lost just 1% of their native vegetation, compared to a 20% loss on private land across Brazil.

  • Ringleader of suspected human trafficking network arrested in Ethiopia

    Ringleader of suspected human trafficking network arrested in Ethiopia

    In a landmark cross-border law enforcement operation, Ethiopian federal police have announced the capture of Yetbarek Dawit, the man accused of leading a brutal transnational human trafficking network that preyed on thousands of migration hopefuls across East Africa for nearly eight years. Dawit, who has not yet issued a public response to the allegations against him, was apprehended alongside nine suspected accomplices in Shire, a northern town located in Ethiopia’s Tigray region near the borders of Eritrea and Sudan. None of the 10 detainees have been formally charged in court as of the latest updates.

    Authorities allege that since 2018, Dawit’s criminal organization lured more than 3,000 primarily young migrants from six East African nations — Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan — with false promises of safe passage to Europe via Libya. Once the migrants arrived in Libya, the network confined them in five purpose-built detention warehouses run by Dawit, where they systematically subjected captives to extreme violence and abuse to extort additional ransom payments from their families back home.

    Investigative testimonies collected from more than 100 survivors and their families spanning six countries (Ethiopia, Libya, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada) have linked the network to the deaths of over 100 migrants and the sexual abuse of more than 50 women. Survivor accounts detail horrific conditions inside the warehouses: captives who could not meet ransom demands were fed only once daily, and endured torture methods including beatings with rubber clubs, wooden sticks and electric wires, prolonged chaining of hands and feet, and burns from melted plastic dripped onto their skin. Women held captive were systematically subjected to sexual violence that left lasting physical and psychological trauma, authorities confirmed.

    Law enforcement officials note that Dawit, who is wanted by law enforcement agencies across multiple countries, used a network of aliases to evade capture for years: he went by “Adhanom” in Sudan, “Ahmed” in Djibouti and Somalia, “Munir” in Kenya, and “Kibrom” in Sweden and other European nations. Investigators ultimately combined advanced tracking technology, witness testimonies, and cross-border collaboration to pinpoint his location in Shire. Following the arrest, authorities froze all bank accounts linked to Dawit and his co-conspirators, and seized all real estate and assets tied to the criminal group.

    The successful operation was the culmination of a complex, months-long cross-border investigation led in partnership with the Regional Operational Centre (Rock), an East African anti-smuggling initiative funded by the European Union that was created specifically to disrupt transnational human smuggling and trafficking networks operating in the region. Official arrest photos of the suspects — seven men and three women — have been publicly shared on the Ethiopian Federal Police official Facebook page. Following their capture in Tigray, all 10 suspects were transferred to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa on Monday for ongoing judicial processing. Ethiopian police estimate the criminal network generated more than $19 million (roughly £14 million) in illicit profits from its years of trafficking and extortion activities.

  • Dozens killed as Angola flood death toll rises

    Dozens killed as Angola flood death toll rises

    Torrential downpours sweeping across Angola have triggered catastrophic flooding that has claimed dozens of lives, displaced tens of thousands of residents, and caused widespread destruction of critical infrastructure across multiple regions of the southern African nation.

    As of the latest official updates from Angola’s Civil Protection and Fire Service (SPCB), the disaster has already left at least 29 people confirmed dead in the hardest-hit areas: the capital city of Luanda and the central provincial hub of Benguela. Of these confirmed fatalities, 23 were recorded in Benguela, with another six lives lost in Luanda. An additional 17 people have been injured by flood-related hazards, ranging from collapsed structures to falling debris. Local broadcaster Radio Solidária has since added four more fatalities recorded in Cuanza-Sul province, pushing the total national death toll to 33.

    More than 34,000 people across the country have been directly impacted by the disaster, with thousands forced to evacuate their damaged or destroyed homes. Widespread flood damage has extended beyond residential properties to cripple key public infrastructure: roadways have been washed out, bridges damaged, and utility lines toppled by floodwaters and saturated soil. A particularly critical disruption occurred when a pillar of the Hâlo River bridge collapsed, cutting off the primary transportation link between Benguela and Huambo provinces, complicating emergency response efforts in the region.

    Angolan President João Lourenço has publicly mourned the lives lost to the disaster, emphasizing that the nation is now in a urgent “race against the clock” to locate missing residents, extract trapped people from flood zones, and deliver urgent medical care and emergency aid to all those affected. In an official statement from the presidency, Lourenço confirmed that extensive damage has been done to housing, transportation networks, and core public utilities including potable water systems. He added that all relevant state agencies have been fully mobilized to coordinate relief efforts and deliver support to displaced and affected residents.

    While intense seasonal rainfall is a common occurrence across southern Africa during the annual rainy season, the frequency and severity of deadly flood events has grown in recent years. Neighboring countries Namibia and Zambia have both experienced fatal flood disasters in recent years, and Angola itself faced a similarly catastrophic flood event in 2023, when severe flooding across 15 of the nation’s 18 provinces killed 30 people and impacted more than 116,000 Angolan residents.

  • Chilean woman accused of Pinochet-era kidnaps loses extradition battle

    Chilean woman accused of Pinochet-era kidnaps loses extradition battle

    After 12 years of drawn-out legal challenges, a 72-year-old Chilean woman accused of grave human rights abuses under former dictator Augusto Pinochet has failed to block her extradition from Australia, clearing the way for her to face trial for crimes committed nearly half a century ago.

    Adriana Rivas, who has lived in Australia’s Sydney suburb of Bondi since 1978 where she worked as a domestic cleaner and nanny, has long denied involvement in the enforced disappearance and torture of seven left-wing dissidents during Pinochet’s 1973 to 1990 military rule. Before resettling in Australia, Rivas served as the personal secretary to Manuel Contreras, the head of Pinochet’s notoriously brutal secret police force, the National Intelligence Directorate, widely known by its Spanish acronym DINA.

    Human rights campaigners and relatives of the regime’s victims have spent decades pushing for Rivas to face justice. DINA was created immediately after Pinochet seized power in a 1973 military coup specifically to hunt down and eliminate political opponents of the new dictatorship. Over its years of operation, the agency carried out thousands of abductions, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and systematic acts of torture, before being replaced by another equally violent military intelligence unit, the CNI.

    Chilean authorities first took Rivas into custody when she returned to her home country for a visit in 2006, but she was released on bail and returned to Australia before proceedings could advance. The Chilean government formally filed an extradition request with Australian officials in 2014, alleging that Rivas was an active DINA operative who directly participated in the 1976 abduction of Víctor Díaz, secretary-general of the Chilean Communist Party, and six other party members. Among the seven missing victims was 29-year-old Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza, who was pregnant at the time of her abduction. All seven are widely presumed to have been killed while in DINA custody, and Chilean extradition documents accuse Rivas of serving as a guard and taking on operational roles during the detainees’ capture. Multiple witnesses interviewed for a documentary have labeled Rivas one of DINA’s most brutal torturers and a key member of the Lautaro Brigade, an elite hit squad tasked with eliminating the leadership of Chile’s underground communist movement. The documentary was directed by Rivas’ own niece, Lissette Orozco, who spent five years investigating her aunt’s past, and the film premiered at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival.

    Rivas has consistently rejected all accusations of wrongdoing. In a 2013 interview with Australian public broadcaster SBS, she described her time working for DINA as “the best of my life,” and when asked about the widespread torture carried out by the agency, she claimed that “they had to break the people – it has happened all over the world, not only in Chile.”

    On Monday, an Australian federal judge rejected all arguments from Rivas’ legal team that the extradition request was legally invalid, bringing an end to the latest phase of her legal fight. According to local Australian media reports, Rivas still has the option to launch an appeal against the ruling before the full Federal Court, though it remains unclear whether she will be able to meet the legal requirements to proceed with an appeal.

    If Rivas does not launch a successful appeal, she will be deported back to Chile to stand trial on charges of aggravated kidnapping. Lawyers representing the families of the seven victims said relatives were overcome with joy by Monday’s ruling. The case comes amid a decades-long global push to hold surviving perpetrators of Pinochet-era human rights abuses accountable. Under Pinochet’s rule, official records confirm more than 40,000 people were subjected to political persecution, and close to 3,000 people were killed or forcibly disappeared.

  • Strait of Hormuz shipping blockade update

    Strait of Hormuz shipping blockade update

    As the Middle East conflict enters its second month following the outbreak of open hostilities between Iran and a US-Israeli coalition, the Strait of Hormuz — one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints — remains almost completely paralyzed, sending ripple effects across global energy markets. The crisis erupted on February 28, 2026, after the United States and Israel launched a sustained bombing campaign against Iranian targets, prompting Tehran to retaliate with cross-regional strikes and impose strict restrictions on commercial shipping access through the strait. In peacetime, this 21-mile waterway handles roughly 20 percent of the world’s total crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments, making any disruption a major threat to global energy security.

  • Cameroon says Russia has confirmed 16 Cameroonian soldiers died in Ukraine

    Cameroon says Russia has confirmed 16 Cameroonian soldiers died in Ukraine

    YAOUNDE, Cameroon – In an official confirmation that shines new light on the ongoing trend of African citizens being drawn into Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, Cameroon’s foreign ministry has acknowledged that 16 of its soldiers have been killed while deployed in the war zone, according to a formal notification submitted to Russia’s diplomatic mission in Yaounde this Monday. The government statement confirms that the 16 Cameroonian service members died while operating in the area designated by Moscow as its special military operations zone, and authorities have already initiated required protocols to reach out to the deceased soldiers’ next of kin. On the same day, the ministry issued a separate, public call for the families of six other Cameroonian citizens currently residing in Russia to report to its headquarters for urgent, unspecified discussions related to their loved ones, with no additional details released about the status of these six individuals. This confirmation comes 15 months after Cameroon’s top defense official ordered military commands across the country to enforce strict emergency protocols to crack down on growing numbers of active and retired Cameroonian soldiers leaving the country to enlist in foreign conflicts. The development is far from isolated. Ukrainian officials estimate that more than 1,700 African citizens have been recruited to fight alongside Russian forces, and multiple African governments have documented cases of their people being deceived into joining the war effort through false promises of high-paying jobs or specialized professional training. Just this year, an intelligence brief submitted to Kenya’s national parliament detailed that roughly 1,000 Kenyans were lured to Russia with fake job offers, only to be redirected to frontline combat positions against Ukraine. Earlier this April, Ukraine’s intelligence service announced that two Nigerian citizens had been killed in late 2023 while fighting under Russian command. A 2024 independent investigation by The Associated Press further uncovered that African women have also been targeted for deception: lured through social media advertisements marketing study and work opportunities, they were instead sent to Russian facilities to assemble attack drones intended for use against Ukrainian forces. This pattern of deceptive recruitment has put Moscow in a difficult position amid its ongoing military manpower needs in Ukraine, while leaving dozens of African families grappling with the loss or disappearance of their loved ones thousands of miles from home.