Global Pulse

分类： world

  • UN mission in Afghanistan confirms death toll of 13 civilians in Pakistani airstrikes

    UN mission in Afghanistan confirms death toll of 13 civilians in Pakistani airstrikes

    Fresh cross-border violence has shattered a rare month-long lull in hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan, after the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed Thursday that 13 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in Pakistani airstrikes carried out in eastern Afghanistan a day earlier. The UN’s official count matches the casualty figures released Wednesday by Afghan government authorities, whose initial claims Pakistan quickly dismissed as false propaganda.

    According to UNAMA’s public post on social media platform X, the airstrikes conducted overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday left 13 civilians dead and another 10 injured, with the vast majority of casualties being children and women. The mission has renewed its urgent call for immediate steps to de-escalate tensions between the two neighboring states, calling for a permanent ceasefire, guaranteed protection for civilian populations, the reopening of long-closed border crossings to allow critical humanitarian aid to flow, and direct diplomatic dialogue to resolve long-standing bilateral disputes.

    The shared border between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been fully closed for months, a closure that has crippled cross-border trade and passenger transportation, leaving thousands of travelers stranded on both sides of the frontier. The latest clash comes after a period of heightened confrontation dating back to February of this year, when Islamabad officially declared it was in an “open war” with Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government. That declaration followed a retaliatory Afghan attack on Pakistani positions in response to an earlier Pakistani airstrike inside Afghan territory. Since February, hundreds of people have been killed in repeated clashes along the border, and multiple rounds of international mediation have failed to broker a lasting ceasefire that can hold.

    The root of the current bilateral dispute lies in Pakistan’s longstanding accusation that the Afghan government harbors militants responsible for high-casualty attacks inside Pakistan, most notably the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban). The TTP is organizationally separate from but closely aligned to the Afghan Taliban, which seized control of Afghanistan in 2021 following the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces from the country. Kabul has consistently denied Pakistan’s accusations that it provides safe haven to anti-Pakistan militants.

    Pakistan has defended its latest round of airstrikes, confirming that it carried out the strikes along the border Wednesday specifically to target militant training camps and hideouts. Speaking at a weekly press briefing in Islamabad Thursday, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi explained that the strikes were launched in response to a recent string of militant attacks inside Pakistani territory. “We carried out these strikes to target safe havens, masterminds and planners belonging to Fitna al-Khawarij,” Andrabi stated, using the official term the Pakistani government uses to refer to the TTP and other militant groups operating against the state. “We acted on credible intelligence, and there was selective targeting of their hideouts.”

    Andrabi added that the safety and security of Pakistani citizens remains the government’s top national priority, and counterterrorism operations against militant hideouts will continue. “We continue to undertake military strikes with precision and accuracy, eliminating terrorist hideouts,” he said. When asked directly about UNAMA’s civilian casualty report, Andrabi declined to issue an immediate official comment, noting that Pakistani authorities would first need to review the full UN document. He did, however, question the methodology UNAMA used to document and confirm the casualty figures. “What is their methodology for measuring that? Our strikes were precise and targeted at the hideouts and camps of these terrorists,” he said.

    Most of the fighting between the two states has been concentrated along the shared border, but Pakistan has previously launched airstrikes deeper inside Afghan territory, including one strike in March that hit a drug-treatment center in Kabul. Afghan officials claimed that strike killed more than 400 people, a death toll Pakistan has repeatedly disputed, maintaining the strike targeted an insurgent ammunition depot and did not intentionally target civilians.

    Wednesday’s airstrikes came months after China brokered and hosted peace talks between delegations from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Following the talks, Beijing announced that both sides had agreed to avoid further escalation of tensions and work toward a negotiated solution to their disputes. Pakistani authorities say China and other neutral friendly countries continue to encourage both sides to negotiate a durable peace agreement, though progress has yet to materialize after the latest outbreak of violence.

  • First group of Nigerians returns home after anti-immigration protests in South Africa

    First group of Nigerians returns home after anti-immigration protests in South Africa

    JOHANNESBURG and LAGOS — In a move that underscores deepening tensions over immigration and xenophobic violence across Southern Africa, the first planeload of Nigerian citizens touched down in Lagos on Thursday, the start of a government-ordered repatriation effort for people fleeing deadly anti-foreign unrest in South Africa.

    Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the incoming flight carried 262 returning passengers plus three government officials. Prior to the arrival, authorities had announced that more than 1,000 Nigerians residing in South Africa had already registered to take advantage of the voluntary repatriation program, which was launched after a wave of violent anti-immigration demonstrations swept across parts of South Africa starting in April.

    The repatriation effort has already sparked a public disagreement between the two African nations. South African officials assert that all the Nigerians processed for return were staying in the country without valid immigration documentation, a direct contradiction of Nigerian officials’ framing that the evacuees are escaping life-threatening xenophobic attacks. As of Thursday, Nigerian officials had not issued any formal response to the South African claim in response to inquiries from the Associated Press.

    The current unrest stems from long-simmering frictions between native South African workers and foreign migrants. Since April, recurring anti-immigration protests have escalated into targeted attacks on foreign-owned businesses and foreign residents, with demonstrators arguing that migrant workers are taking scarce job opportunities from local South African citizens. South African national authorities have publicly condemned the violence as explicitly xenophobic, though the attacks have continued to prompt panic among foreign communities across the country.

    Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu said the repatriation order came directly from the Nigerian presidency, authorizing the “evacuation of imperiled Nigerian citizens who consider their lives at risk by continued stay in South Africa.” In a public address to people preparing to return home, the minister emphasized that personal safety far outweighs material loss: “The price of your peace, and the safety of your children is worth any sacrifices you have to make, or any assets you have to leave behind when fleeing a conflict zone or hate-infused environment.”

    Nigeria is not the first African nation to organize large-scale repatriation from South Africa amid the current wave of unrest. Ghana previously evacuated roughly 1,000 of its own citizens from South Africa, and South African officials similarly noted that most of the returning Ghanaians were undocumented. Liberia has also raised urgent alarms over the safety of its citizens living in South Africa, with local media quoting President Joseph Boakai as saying the Liberian government is prepared to take all necessary steps, including arranging similar repatriation flights for any Liberians who wish to return.

    In a further development that complicates cross-border relations, South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs has announced that all Nigerians processed for repatriation will face a five-year ban on re-entering the country. To date, the department says 586 Nigerians have completed processing for repatriation after being found to lack valid immigration status, with the next group of returnees scheduled to depart for Nigeria on Monday.

    South African Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber explained that the Nigerian High Commission issued emergency travel documentation for the returnees, after which they were formally declared “undesirable persons” barred from re-entry for a half-decade. “Foreign nationals must ensure that their immigration status remains compliant with South African immigration laws at all times and to regularize their stay,” Schreiber said.

    Associated Press reporter Mogomotsi Magome contributed on-the-ground reporting from Johannesburg for this story.

  • Nigeria evacuates citizens from South Africa as anti-migrant sentiment rises

    Nigeria evacuates citizens from South Africa as anti-migrant sentiment rises

    A wave of mounting anti-migrant hostility across South Africa has pushed multiple African nations to organize emergency repatriations of their citizens, leaving thousands of migrant households living in constant fear of xenophobic attacks.

    Nigeria is the most recent country to launch this evacuation effort. The first charter flight carrying 268 Nigerian nationals departed Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport early Thursday and touched down safely in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub. This flight is the first of planned operations to bring home roughly 1,000 Nigerians who have registered with the Nigerian consulate in South Africa to request repatriation. Neighboring states including Ghana, Zimbabwe and Malawi have already completed similar evacuation flights ahead of a controversial 30 June deadline set by anti-migrant campaigners for all undocumented migrants to leave the country.

    The roots of the current crisis stretch back to 1994, when the end of apartheid-era white-minority rule opened South Africa’s borders to thousands of economic migrants from across the continent, who arrived seeking greater economic opportunity and a higher quality of life. But decades of stagnant growth have left South Africa grappling with an official unemployment rate that exceeds 32%, creating fertile ground for resentment toward foreign-born workers. In recent months, anti-migrant protests have swept through major urban centers, and targeted xenophobic assaults have left multiple migrants dead, forcing many to flee their homes and communities.

    One Nigerian repatriate, Justin, who had lived in South Africa for 26 years after moving there in 1998, described the constant fear that drove his decision to leave. “I’m leaving because of the conditions they’ve given us here. They say we must leave on or before 30th June. And because of the way they are killing people, killing our brothers, so I’m not safe,” he told reporters at Johannesburg’s main airport. Justin shared that he had already survived one attack, escaping a violent assault on a public taxi by fleeing without his phone or personal belongings. “They call us names and say you must leave this country. When we tried to beg them, they started insulting us,” he added.

    Authorities have yet to release an official death toll for recent xenophobic violence. South African police have confirmed that two Mozambican men were killed in the Western Cape province earlier this month, but have not publicly linked the killings to xenophobic motives. Mozambican officials, however, have pushed back on this account, asserting that the number of fatalities among their citizens is far higher, and that all deaths are directly tied to anti-migrant hostility.

    Anti-migrant protesters have centered their rhetoric on the claim that migrants are responsible for South Africa’s crippling unemployment and strained public services, from public schools to public hospitals. But Nigeria’s Consul General in South Africa, Ninikanwa Okey-Uche, rejected this narrative, arguing that migrants are being unfairly scapegoated for systemic government failures. “Migrants made up less than 10% of South Africa’s population, and could not be blamed for broken systems in education, health care, policing, unemployment,” she told the BBC. “They are not and cannot be the problem. So, migrants are basically being scapegoated.”

    Okey-Uche also noted that while all of the repatriated Nigerians were classified as undocumented by South African authorities, delays and backlogs in South Africa’s immigration application process have left many migrants without legal status through no fault of their own. She added that South African officials have failed to take meaningful action to crack down on organizers of xenophobic violence, even though many of these leaders are well known to law enforcement. “There are a lot of top South African politicians who have spoken up against what’s happening, saying it’s absolutely wrong. But down on the street, we need to see arrests. We know the people in charge, they’re not hiding. They’ve caused mayhem in people’s lives, but they’re walking free, some of them are running for election,” Okey-Uche said.

    The rising tensions come as South Africa prepares for nationwide local government elections in November, and many political analysts have observed that opportunistic politicians have elevated migration to a divisive wedge issue to mobilize voters. Last week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the unrest in a national televised speech, announcing a new package of policy measures targeting undocumented migration. The new rules include criminal penalties for employers that hire undocumented workers, the creation of special dedicated courts to speed up deportation proceedings, and the development of a national biometric identity database intended to reduce identity theft. Even as he cracked down on unauthorized migration, Ramaphosa warned South Africans against vigilante violence, urging citizens not to take the law into their own hands by targeting people suspected of being in the country illegally.

    As the 30 June campaign deadline approaches, more African countries are expected to organize additional repatriation flights to extract their vulnerable citizens from the escalating violence, while the South African government faces growing international pressure to rein in xenophobic attacks and protect migrant communities within its borders.

  • A mass funeral is held for 22 Pakistani soldiers who died in a helicopter crash in Kashmir

    A mass funeral is held for 22 Pakistani soldiers who died in a helicopter crash in Kashmir

    On Thursday, Pakistani officials confirmed that rescuers have recovered the remains of all 22 service members who were on board a military helicopter that crashed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir one day earlier, bringing a tragic end to search operations and verifying that there were no survivors from the incident. Senior political and military leaders joined a mass funeral service for the fallen troops in the regional capital of Muzaffarabad, where the crash took place.

    Initial assessments from Pakistan’s military indicate that the crash was likely caused by a technical malfunction, though a full formal investigation is still ongoing to pinpoint the exact root cause of the accident. An Associated Press journalist on site at the funeral counted 22 coffins, each covered with the national flag of Pakistan, honoring the deceased personnel.

    Witnesses and local administrative officials confirmed that all remains were pulled from the heavily charred wreckage of the downed aircraft. Two unnamed security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they lacked authorization to share details publicly, confirmed the ranks of the deceased include one colonel and two majors.

    The helicopter was en route to deploy personnel for security assignments ahead of a planned protest march on Muzaffarabad organized by the Joint Awami Action Committee, an alliance of regional groups that was recently banned by authorities. To date, however, officials have not found or announced any link between the planned protest action and the crash itself.

    Regional tensions have been elevated across Pakistan-administered Kashmir since earlier that weekend, when members of another outlawed extremist group carried out targeted attacks against police and security forces, leaving four law enforcement officers dead. In response to the rising unrest, Pakistan has deployed additional security detachments across the region to maintain public order.

    Military aviation accidents are not an uncommon occurrence in Pakistan, where rugged mountain terrain and challenging weather conditions often increase operational risks for military flights. In a separate incident just months prior in September 2024, an army helicopter conducting a routine training flight crashed in the mountainous northern region of the country, killing all five people on board — two pilots and three technical crew members.

  • Iran warns Mideast truce ‘practically meaningless’ after US strikes

    Iran warns Mideast truce ‘practically meaningless’ after US strikes

    A new cycle of tit-for-tat military strikes between the United States and Iran has collapsed months of fragile ceasefire efforts in the Middle East, pushing the region to the brink of a wider full-scale conflict and raising alarm over global energy security at the Strait of Hormuz.

    The current round of unrest traces back to a three-month conflict that erupted on February 28, when a joint strike operation by the U.S. and Israel targeted Iranian positions. A ceasefire agreement brokered in April paused large-scale hostilities, but attempts to negotiate a permanent peace deal have repeatedly stalled. Sporadic cross-fire has kept the truce on the edge of collapse for weeks, until the latest escalation that broke the fragile calm.

    The latest confrontation began Wednesday, when U.S. President Donald Trump—who had repeatedly claimed a peace deal with Iran was within reach—accused Tehran of “playing us for suckers” and warned it would face consequences. Hours later, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed it launched a second consecutive day of strikes early Thursday, deploying dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles to hit Iranian surveillance, communications, and air defense facilities across the country. Iranian state media reported multiple explosions across southern Iran, with at least three civilians wounded in Tehran province.

    Tehran quickly responded with what its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps called a “punitive operation.” Iran targeted a U.S. military base in Jordan, while multiple Gulf states reported incoming hostile fire. Jordan’s military announced it shot down 20 Iranian missiles, and Kuwait’s air defense forces engaged and intercepted unidentified aerial targets. In Bahrain, which hosts a major U.S. naval base, falling debris from the attacks injured an 11-year-old girl and damaged multiple residential properties and vehicles, with Bahrain condemning the attack as “sinful Iranian aggression.”

    In the wake of the U.S. strikes, Iran’s foreign ministry issued a sharp rebuke, stating that the illegal U.S. attacks are not only a blatant violation of international law and Iranian sovereignty, but have also rendered the April truce “practically meaningless.” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down on Washington’s hardline stance, telling reporters that if ordered by President Trump, “we’ll negotiate with bombs.” He also confirmed the strikes could extend into a third consecutive night, promising future attacks would be strong and unambiguous. Fox News reported Trump threatened that if Iran refuses to accept U.S. peace terms, “We’ll bomb the S out of them tomorrow night.” Iranian officials quickly denied Fox’s report that Iranian leadership had called Trump directly amid the bombing, calling the claim completely false.

    The escalation has also put global energy supplies at direct risk. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard aerospace force commander Majid Mousavi warned in a social media post that if the U.S. makes the Strait of Hormuz—one of the world’s most critical chokepoints for global oil and natural gas transport—unsafe, “We will make the region hell for you.” Iranian military officials claimed the waterway is now “completely closed” and all commercial vessel traffic would be targeted, and confirmed Iranian forces had already struck two civilian ships attempting to transit the strait. CENTCOM pushed back on the claim, stating late Thursday that commercial shipping continued to move through the strait normally.

    The escalation has already claimed civilian lives beyond Iran and the Gulf. On Thursday, India’s shipping minister confirmed that three Indian civilian sailors were killed Wednesday when the U.S. struck the commercial vessel MT Settebello off the coast of Oman. India’s foreign ministry summoned a senior U.S. diplomat in New Delhi to lodge a formal strong protest over the incident.

    Despite the sharp escalation, regional mediators have not abandoned diplomatic efforts. A Qatari delegation was actually in Tehran holding talks when the U.S. strikes began, with a diplomatic source confirming the discussions were held “in coordination with the United States.” The Qatari team only departed Tehran after talks that extended into the early hours of Thursday morning. Pakistan, which co-mediates talks alongside Qatar and hosted the first round of direct negotiations between the two sides, said it has not completely lost hope for a negotiated solution. Still, Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi acknowledged that “It is hard to be an optimist in the new exchange of hostilities.”

    International powers have called for an immediate de-escalation. Saudi Arabia, which faced Iranian attacks earlier in the conflict, issued a statement Thursday calling for renewed negotiations under the mediation of Pakistan and Qatar. China, Iran’s largest crude oil customer, also urged an immediate end to all military operations. “We call on relevant parties to immediately cease military operations, respond to the mediation efforts of relevant countries, and achieve a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday.

  • Nearly 118 million people were displaced by conflict and persecution last year, UN says

    Nearly 118 million people were displaced by conflict and persecution last year, UN says

    In its 2025 annual Global Trends Report released Thursday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has delivered a mixed update on the global forced displacement crisis: for the first time in 10 years, the total number of people displaced by conflict, violence and persecution has declined — yet the overall figure remains at a devastatingly high level that demands urgent global action.

    By the end of 2025, the global count of forcibly displaced people stood at 117.8 million, encompassing refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other groups requiring international protection. Tarek Abou Chabake, UNHCR’s chief statistician, outlined two key drivers behind the historic drop: a rise in the number of people returning to their regions of origin, and growing numbers of refugees gaining citizenship in their host countries. Even with this milestone decline, UNHCR leadership stressed that the scale of displacement is far too high to ignore, with ongoing conflicts continuing to uproot millions of vulnerable people globally.

    Breaking down the report’s key demographic and geographic data, children made up 39% of the world’s 41.6 million total refugee population in 2025. While Colombia, Germany and Turkey each hosted more than 2 million refugees, the vast majority of the global refugee population resides in low- and middle-income nations. Even with a 3% drop from 2024 levels, 5.4 million people crossed international borders in 2025 to seek safety from persecution and violence.

    A deeply concerning long-term trend highlighted in the report is the persistence of protracted displacement: seven out of every 10 refugees worldwide have lived in exile for five years or more, many trapped in overcrowded, under-resourced camps in low-income countries. “Humanitarian assistance has saved lives,” said UNHCR High Commissioner Barham Salih. “But it was never intended to sustain generations of people indefinitely.” To address this systemic issue, UNHCR has set a target to cut by half the number of refugees in protracted displacement who rely on humanitarian aid by 2035.

    IDPs make up the largest single segment of the displaced population, totaling 68.7 million globally in 2025. The ongoing conflict in Sudan drove the world’s largest single new wave of displacement, pushing 9.1 million people to flee their homes within the country. Colombia, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan follow Sudan with some of the world’s largest IDP populations.

    Looking ahead to 2026, projections offer little reason for optimism. Following the outbreak of conflict in Iran in February 2026, 3.2 million Iranians had been internally displaced by March, and an additional 1 million people were displaced within Lebanon by mid-May. “This is truly unacceptable and we must make sure this doesn’t become a new normal,” Salih emphasized.

    The report also tracked returns of displaced people in 2025: 4.4 million refugees returned to their home countries, the second-highest annual number since UNHCR began record-keeping six decades ago. Ninety percent of these returns were concentrated in just three nations: Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan. An additional 10.3 million IDPs also returned to their regions of origin last year. But Salih issued a stark warning that many returns were not voluntary, with returnees facing a lack of basic infrastructure and livable conditions to rebuild their lives. “Voluntary returns to post-conflict Syria and returns under pressure to Afghanistan are not the same thing,” he noted.

    Statelessness remains another unresolved crisis, with 4.5 million people around the world currently lacking citizenship of any nation. Myanmar’s Rohingya community make up the largest single stateless group, with most stateless people residing in Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Thailand and Myanmar. Just 46,000 stateless people gained citizenship in 2025, a tiny fraction of the total population in need of this legal status.

    Finally, the report highlighted steep cuts to global refugee resettlement: only 82,000 refugees were resettled to new host countries in 2025, down sharply from 188,000 in 2024. Salih noted that this number represents only a tiny fraction of the millions of refugees in need of resettlement, and urged national governments to expand legal pathways for refugee relocation. “Every dangerous sea crossing and every death in the desert represents a failure of the international community,” Salih said. “The human cost of the failure is measured not with statistics but with lives.”

  • Thai court sentences 2 Uyghur men to death over 2015 Bangkok bombing that killed 20

    Thai court sentences 2 Uyghur men to death over 2015 Bangkok bombing that killed 20

    Nearly nine years after a deadly bombing ripped through one of Bangkok’s most popular tourist sites, a Thai criminal court has handed down death sentences to two Chinese Uyghur men convicted over the attack that left 20 people dead and more than 120 injured. The August 17, 2015, blast targeted the Erawan Shrine, a spiritual and tourist landmark that draws large crowds of visitors from China annually. The two defendants, Yusufu Mieraili and Bilal Mohammad (also known as Adem Karadag), were taken into custody by Thai authorities just days after the explosion.

    Both men faced a sweeping array of criminal charges, including premeditated murder, attempted mass murder, and unlawful possession of explosive materials. Prosecutors told the court that evidence linking the pair to the attack includes surveillance video footage, fingerprint matches, and additional forensic evidence. The guilty verdict issued Thursday by a four-judge panel at Bangkok South Criminal Court relied on what the court called overwhelming incriminating evidence, noting that the defense failed to present credible substantive evidence to disprove the prosecution’s claims.

    Shortly after the ruling was delivered and judges exited the courtroom, Mieraili—who has learned conversational Thai while in detention—proclaimed his innocence in broken Thai, rejecting the court’s decision. “I mourn for Thailand,” he told reporters in the courtroom. “I did not receive justice … I ask Thai people to help me.” Court records show Mieraili, who also speaks English, was called on to translate trial proceedings into Uyghur for Mohammad, as only an English interpreter was provided for the proceeding. The years-long trial was repeatedly delayed due to longstanding challenges securing qualified Uyghur interpreters, a key point of criticism from rights advocates.

    Lead defense attorney Chuchart Kanpai confirmed immediately after the ruling that the legal team would file an appeal, arguing that multiple critical aspects of the case were not properly considered by the court. The procedural history of the case has been fraught: the two men initially confessed to the crimes during early interrogation following their arrest, but entered formal not guilty pleas when the trial opened in 2016. The proceeding was originally held in a Thai military court before being transferred to the civilian Bangkok South Criminal Court in 2019 amid broader judicial reforms in the country. The defendants have long alleged they were subjected to mistreatment and torture while in custody to force their confessions, but the ruling Thursday stated no credible evidence of coercion or torture was presented to the court, and investigators’ conduct did not meet the definition of forced confession.

    The case has drawn international scrutiny from human rights organizations, which have repeatedly criticized the lengthy procedural delays and unfair trial practices. In 2023, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights submitted an official petition to the United Nations highlighting alleged systemic violations of the defendants’ human rights and due process, including lack of legal justification for the initial arrests and discriminatory treatment based on the men’s ethnic identity.

    Thai law enforcement named a total of 17 suspects in connection with the 2015 bombing, but only three were ever apprehended. All criminal charges against a Thai national who was initially detained in the case were dismissed in early 2024 due to a complete lack of evidence linking her to the attack. According to the official narrative presented by Thai authorities, the attack was carried out by a transnational people smuggling gang seeking revenge for a major Thai law enforcement crackdown on human trafficking operations earlier that year. The crackdown was launched after authorities discovered abandoned migrant camps in the jungle along the Thailand-Malaysia border, holding Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution in Myanmar and economic migrants from Bangladesh. Police have alleged that Mohammad left the explosive-laden backpack at the shrine, and Mieraili detonated the device minutes later.

    However, independent analysts have put forward an alternative competing theory that frames the attack as the work of Uyghur separatists, retaliating for Thailand’s forced repatriation of dozens of Uyghur asylum seekers to China just one month before the bombing, in July 2015. Many Uyghur people, who face systemic repression and restrictive governance in China’s Xinjiang region, work with smuggling networks to flee the country and seek asylum in third countries. The Erawan Shrine’s widespread popularity among Chinese tourists has been cited as additional evidence supporting the theory that the bombing carried a political motive. It is worth noting that a separate 2025 deportation of 40 Uyghur asylum seekers from Thailand to China also drew widespread condemnation from the international community.

  • Three Indian sailors killed in US strike on oil tanker

    Three Indian sailors killed in US strike on oil tanker

    In a deadly escalation of maritime tensions tied to the ongoing US-Iran conflict, three Indian crew members have been confirmed dead following a United States military strike on an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, a senior Indian federal minister has announced. This marks the second attack in less than a week by US forces against commercial vessels with Indian crews operating in the strategic waterway.

    The targeted vessel, the MT Settebello, which sails under the flag of Palau, was struck on Wednesday. US Central Command (Centcom) has published footage purporting to show the precision strike against the tanker’s engine room. According to US military accounts, the attack was launched after the Settebello’s crew repeatedly ignored orders from American forces, who accused the vessel of breaking a US blockade by attempting to carry Iranian crude oil. Of the 24 Indian nationals serving on board, 21 crew members have been safely rescued, while the three missing sailors were later confirmed killed in the operation.

    India’s federal Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal described the fatal incident as deeply unfortunate in a post on the social platform X, confirming that authorities are arranging to repatriate the three victims’ remains to India. In response to the strike, the Indian government has formally summoned the deputy chief of mission of the United States embassy in New Delhi to convey its official position. The Indian government has long maintained a public stance that all targeting of commercial civilian shipping and infrastructure in the Gulf region must end immediately.

    This attack comes just two days after another similar incident on Monday, when US forces struck a second Palau-flagged oil tanker, the Marivex, which also carried an all-Indian crew, in the Gulf of Oman. In that case, Omani military forces rescued all 24 crew members on board without reported casualties.

    The US blockade of Iranian ports was implemented after Iran effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the critical global chokepoint through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s daily oil and natural gas supplies pass, amid the ongoing open conflict between the two nations. Since the blockade was launched on April 13, Centcom says US forces have disabled eight commercial vessels and redirected 134 others that attempted to violate the restrictions.

    Indian maritime union leaders have openly criticized the US operation. Manoj Yadav, general secretary of the Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI), told local media he refuses to accept that US forces lacked clear information about the nationalities of the crews on the targeted vessels. Yadav noted that if vessels failed to comply with instructions, detaining the ships and their crews would have been a far more appropriate alternative to a lethal strike on the engine room. His union has already begun contacting the families of the deceased sailors to offer support and formal notification of their deaths.

    The deadly tanker strike comes as tensions between Washington and Tehran have reached new heights, with no sign of de-escalation on the horizon. The two nations have exchanged cross-border strikes for two straight days, severely undermining the fragile temporary ceasefire that was agreed upon back in April. On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump ramped up rhetoric against Iran, threatening to strike the country “hard” and accusing Tehran of dragging its feet on finalizing a peace agreement while playing the United States “for suckers.”

    The current full-scale conflict began on February 28, when joint strikes by the United States and Israel killed Iran’s supreme leader. Iran immediately responded with coordinated attacks against Israel and US-aligned Gulf states, leading to rapid escalation across the Middle East that drew Lebanon into open hostilities in March.

  • Pope Leo heads to Canary Islands to highlight perilous journeys of migrants

    Pope Leo heads to Canary Islands to highlight perilous journeys of migrants

    At 19 years old, Bakary Jaiju made an unthinkable choice: leave behind his young wife and infant child in the Gambia, board an overcrowded wooden dinghy, and cross the deadly Atlantic Ocean to Europe in search of a future he could never build at home. For seven terrifying days at sea, the gravity of his gamble sank in with every passing hour. Food and fresh water dwindled to almost nothing, and sleep became a luxury no one dared afford—one wrong move, and a sleeper would tumble into the churning open water.

    “I decided to go, whether I survive or I die, because I want my family to be in a good condition,” Jaiju recalled from his new home in Tenerife, where he finally landed late last year after surviving the crossing. He counts himself among the extraordinarily lucky. In the months since his arrival, hundreds of other migrants have perished attempting the same treacherous journey, their stories ending before they ever reach Europe’s shores.

    This week, the perilous plight of these migrants and the harrowing survival stories of those who make it will take center stage, as Pope Leo XIV kicks off a visit to Spain’s Canary Islands starting Thursday. The Pope’s focus on migration stands in deliberate contrast to the rising rhetoric of a migration “crisis” and “ideological invasion” that has gained traction across much of Europe.

    Recent data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees confirms that overall migrant sea arrivals to Spain have dropped sharply this year, a decline largely attributed to increased EU-funded interception operations off the coast of West Africa. Even so, thousands of desperate people continue to attempt the crossing, and hundreds continue to lose their lives to the Atlantic. During his trip to Gran Canaria and Tenerife, the Pope will push for expanded “safe and legal pathways” for migration, while calling for a deeply humane approach and a “respectful welcome” for those who have already risked everything to reach European borders. He will also honor those who never made it, dropping a wreath of flowers into the ocean off Gran Canaria to commemorate entire boatloads of migrants that vanished without a trace.

    For Jaiju, survival was only the first hurdle. The 160-person boat that carried him—including dozens of women and children—managed to evade the heightened naval patrols off the coasts of Mauritania and Senegal, only to run out of fuel hundreds of miles from shore. They were eventually spotted and rescued off the small Spanish island of El Hierro. After that, Jaiju spent three freezing, grueling months in a migrant reception camp on Tenerife, before he connected with a local integration project that helps him learn Spanish and navigate the process of securing legal residency.

    The project is the brainchild of Padre Pepe, an outgoing local parish priest who eschews a traditional clerical collar for jeans and checked shirts. He noticed a growing gap in support: local authorities only provided care for underage migrants until they turned 18, after which young people were left completely on their own. “But the streets will eat you up, young people are like carrion there,” Padre Pepe explained. Today, his Good Samaritan Foundation provides housing and vocational training for roughly 170 young migrant men, and the priest argues that local labor markets are more than capable of absorbing these workers. “The labour market could absorb all these people, there is huge demand,” he said. Questioning the increasingly hardline attitudes toward migration across the continent, he added: “It’s hard for me to understand why the human heart is so hard. If we do it well, integrate people well, there is nothing bad in it at all. Quite the contrary.”

    Jaiju’s path to legal status has been smoothed by a controversial one-time policy from Spain’s ruling Socialist government led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The administration is currently allowing hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants who arrived before December 2025 to apply for residence and work permits to regularize their status. Padre Pepe’s team is working around the clock to help as many eligible migrants as possible submit their paperwork before the application deadline closes.

    The policy has drawn fierce condemnation from Spanish opposition groups. The conservative Popular Party has labeled the move “irresponsible” and out of step with EU immigration frameworks, while far-right party Vox has decried it as enabling an “invasion” that will overwhelm the country’s public health system, housing market, and security infrastructure. For the Socialist government, however, the move balances humanitarian principle with practical economic reality: like much of the rest of Europe, Spain faces an aging, shrinking native population and a growing gap in available workers.

    That demand is already visible on the ground in the Canary Islands. At the Domingo Alonso Group, a car dealership and service center in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, managers struggled for months to fill open positions for bodywork painters and panel beaters, unable to recruit local workers. The company partnered with a local government scheme to hire young migrants after they age out of state care, and today the firm employs roughly 30 migrant workers. Initially, the move drew intense backlash online, with critics accusing migrants of “stealing” local jobs, said human resources manager Diana del Molino Rodriguez. “It was a really hard thing to do because immigration was not something seen as positive. Nobody was looking at migrants like persons,” she explained. Today, the program is a success: one of their workers, 19-year-old Tiene Lama from Ivory Coast, earns enough to send hundreds of euros home to his family each month. Dozens of local businesses, including major hotel chains that rely on the islands’ booming tourism industry, have now joined the scheme.

    As Pope Leo works to shift the narrative around migration toward greater compassion, a new EU migration pact is set to take effect this week that will further tighten Europe’s external border controls. The new framework is designed to make it easier to detain and deport migrants who arrive irregularly by sea. For desperate young people like Jaiju, who are already willing to risk death for a better future, policy experts say the new restrictions will do little to deter crossings. Human rights organizations warn the new rules will create new barriers for asylum seekers seeking to have their claims heard.

    The sharpest criticism of the new pact comes from local officials in the Canary Islands, where the policy will be implemented directly. “We have no-one to work in the hotels, drive our buses or work in construction; we don’t have masons or mechanics,” said Francis Candil, the Canary Islands’ deputy minister for welfare. “What we need is a real migration policy that means people from African countries don’t have to risk their lives but can come to Europe and have options for work. Instead, we have Europe trying to protect itself behind walls – and to expel people.”

  • Hong Kong customs swoop ahead of the World Cup, seizing $20M in fake goods

    Hong Kong customs swoop ahead of the World Cup, seizing $20M in fake goods

    Hours before the opening match of the 2026 joint FIFA World Cup hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, Hong Kong customs officials have announced a major bust of counterfeit merchandise, seizing more than 230,000 fake items valued at roughly $20 million. The haul includes tens of thousands of counterfeit World Cup team jerseys, alongside high-end imitation luxury goods and consumer electronics.

    The operation, which ran from late May through early June 2026, targeted smuggling networks operating out of Hong Kong’s logistics hubs. At a press briefing held on June 11, 2026, senior customs inspector Wayne Chung detailed that around 30,000 counterfeit jerseys were recovered in the seizure. Many of these fakes were high-quality replicas of premium player-issue team jerseys, which retail for far higher prices than standard fan versions due to their advanced design and performance materials. Chung noted that the craftsmanship of many fakes is so refined that casual soccer fans struggle to tell them apart from authentic merchandise.

    Investigations indicate the entire shipment of counterfeit goods was bound for international markets, with close to 80% destined for North, Central and South America — the host region for this year’s World Cup. The tournament kicked off later the same day as the press conference, with Mexico facing South Africa in the opening match. Officials believe the counterfeit jerseys were produced to meet soaring tourist and fan demand for World Cup merchandise across the Americas ahead of the tournament.

    Beyond soccer apparel, the seizure also included thousands of counterfeit non-sports goods, including imitation luxury footwear, handbags, watches, and portable audio devices. At the briefing, customs officials displayed prominent examples of the fakes, including replica Louis Vuitton handbags and imitation Rolex watches. Authorities are still working to trace the full supply chain and origins of the counterfeit products.

    As part of the multi-part enforcement operation, six suspects have been arrested. One truck driver was taken into custody at a border checkpoint connecting Hong Kong to mainland China and Macau, while five additional suspects were apprehended for their alleged role in selling the counterfeit jerseys via online retail platforms. All six suspects have since been released on bail as the investigation continues.

    Under Hong Kong’s intellectual property laws, anyone convicted of importing, exporting, distributing, selling, or holding counterfeit goods for commercial sale can face a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a fine of approximately $64,000. Officials urged consumers to purchase World Cup merchandise only from authorized retailers to avoid supporting intellectual property theft, and reminded the public that counterfeit goods often violate safety and quality standards.