Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Two killed in Kenya protests over US Ebola centre: rights group

    Two killed in Kenya protests over US Ebola centre: rights group

    Tensions over a proposed U.S.-built Ebola quarantine facility for American citizens in Kenya boiled over into deadly violence this week, leaving at least two people dead amid widespread public anger over the project, a regional human rights group has confirmed. The unrest has thrown the future of the planned site into question, after Kenya’s High Court ordered an immediate pause to construction and implementation amid mounting legal and public pushback.

    The facility, constructed on Laikipia Air Base in central Kenya roughly 200 kilometers from the capital Nairobi, was scheduled to open last week. Developed with U.S. backing, the site was designed to hold up to 50 people for quarantine, with all operations to be managed by U.S. medical personnel. Its stated purpose was to isolate American travelers arriving from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is currently grappling with a large, ongoing Ebola outbreak that has been declared a major public health emergency. In addition to building the facility, the U.S. State Department announced last week it would allocate $13.5 million to support Kenya’s broader national Ebola preparedness and response initiatives.

    Despite the public health framing of the project, it sparked immediate public outrage across Kenya. Many Kenyans argued that allowing the U.S. to operate a quarantine center for potentially Ebola-exposed patients on Kenyan soil posed an unacceptable public health risk to local communities, particularly since Kenya has not recorded any confirmed Ebola cases to date despite rigorous screening of incoming travelers. Neighboring Uganda has recorded 15 confirmed cases and one death from the current outbreak, stoking regional anxiety about the virus’s spread.

    Violent protests erupted near the Laikipia facility on Monday, with local media footage showing clashes between demonstrators and security forces. Police deployed tear gas to disperse the crowd of protesters, who had gathered to oppose the center. Hussein Khalid, a leader with Kenyan human rights organization VOCAL Africa, announced via a post on X Tuesday that a 27-year-old man had been shot and killed during the clashes, dying instantly at the protest site. Khalid told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that a second fatality had also been confirmed, though the identity of the second victim was still being finalized as of Tuesday. Kenyan police have so far declined to confirm the two deaths when contacted by AFP.

    As unrest grew, Kenyan President William Ruto issued a public defense of the project this week, seeking to calm public fears. In a post on X Tuesday, Ruto argued that the U.S. facility was “neither unique nor exceptional” and instead framed it as one component of Kenya’s broader national Ebola preparedness infrastructure. Ruto added that the facility would “serve the people of Kenya and our friends, including the Americans,” and told the public, “We are a responsible government. We know what we are doing. So people should relax.”

    The legal challenge to the facility, filed by Kenyan human rights organization Katiba Institute, resulted in a major win for opponents this week. The Kenyan High Court extended an existing temporary halt to the project on Tuesday, and ordered the Kenyan government to disclose all formal agreements related to the facility within seven days, increasing transparency around the controversial deal.

    On Tuesday, a new wave of peaceful demonstrations unfolded in central Nairobi. Protesters wore white protective medical gear, carried a mock coffin marked with the word “Ebola,” and held signs reading “Reject Ebola in Kenya” to demand the project be scrapped entirely.

    The current Ebola outbreak in the DRC has grown significantly since it was first declared in mid-May. The World Health Organization (WHO) updated its case count Tuesday, confirming 321 total confirmed cases and 48 deaths linked to the outbreak. So far, one U.S. citizen – a medical missionary working in the DRC – has contracted Ebola during the outbreak; he was evacuated from the region and is currently receiving treatment in Germany.

    The controversial quarantine plan has also drawn criticism from U.S. political leaders. Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee criticized the initiative in a post on X, arguing that the U.S. government should take responsibility for repatriating and treating American citizens exposed to Ebola rather than outsourcing that responsibility to a foreign government.

  • Houthis and Al-Shabaab conspiring to choke Red Sea routes

    Houthis and Al-Shabaab conspiring to choke Red Sea routes

    Stretching between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden basin stands as one of the world’s most critical maritime trade arteries, carrying nearly 30% of all global container traffic between Asia and Europe via the Suez Canal. What was once already a region roiled by decades of conflict is now facing a new and alarming threat: two ideologically opposed militant organizations are quietly forging opportunistic cooperative ties, sharing military expertise and equipment that risk expanding instability far beyond their existing borders.

    According to United Nations expert panels and U.S. intelligence assessments, Yemen’s Houthi insurgency (officially the Ansar Allah movement, which controls large swathes of northern Yemen and maintains the capacity to disrupt Red Sea shipping) and Somalia’s Al-Shabaab—widely recognized as al-Qaeda’s most powerful active affiliate—have been exchanging logistical and military support, despite the absence of a formal binding alliance. The two groups hold starkly opposing ideological views: the Houthis adhere to Zaydi Shiism, while Al-Shabaab follows a hardline anti-Shia Sunni extremist doctrine. Yet shared strategic and material interests have overcome these divides, marking a worrying new shift in regional security dynamics.

    First reports of emerging cooperation between the two groups surfaced in 2024, when the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen issued an official warning over growing arms trafficking across the shared waters between Somalia and Yemen—two nations that have been mired in continuous conflict since 1991 and 2014 respectively. The panel later expanded its warning to note deepening logistical and operational coordination between the militant organizations.

    Accounts suggest Houthi leaders have made direct trips to Somalia to establish working relationships with Al-Shabaab commanders, while cross-border criminal smuggling networks long active in the region have also acted as intermediaries to facilitate these connections. Illicit trafficking of weapons, goods and people has flourished along the ungoverned coasts of the Horn of Africa and Yemen for decades, providing a ready infrastructure for underground cooperation.

    For both groups, the partnership serves clear strategic goals. The Houthis aim to expand their regional influence and diversify their revenue streams, while Al-Shabaab seeks to bolster its outdated military arsenal with more advanced capabilities. Per UN documentation, Al-Shabaab militants have already received training in Houthi-controlled Yemeni territory on drone operation and the manufacturing of advanced improvised explosive devices. The Houthis have also reportedly supplied Al-Shabaab with armed drones—weapons the Houthis have used extensively to target commercial and military shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden between 2023 and 2025—and Al-Shabaab has additionally requested guided missiles from its Yemeni partners.

    Up to this point, Al-Shabaab has only used drones for surveillance and intelligence gathering. The acquisition of armed offensive drones would transform the group’s operational capacity, allowing it to carry out deadlier attacks against the already overstretched Somali national army and its international backers, both within Somalia and across regional borders. The United Nations has warned this expansion could allow Al-Shabaab to extend its reach far beyond Somali territory, further destabilizing the already fragile Horn of Africa region.

    Al-Shabaab’s growing power comes after nearly two decades of gradual expansion across Somalia. Emerging in the mid-2000s, the group has carved out control over large areas of central and southern Somalia, outlasting multiple international counterinsurgency campaigns. Its resilience is rooted in longstanding political, military and economic failures of the Western-backed Somali federal government, which has failed to unify fragmented regional forces and consolidate authority across the country. Al-Shabaab has successfully exploited violent rivalries between the federal army and regional militias seeking greater autonomy, expanding its influence as political divisions deepen in Mogadishu.

    International forces have also struggled to contain the group. African Union troops deployed to support the Somali government have faced persistent setbacks, and U.S. counterterrorism airstrikes—hit a record high in 2025—have done little to roll back Al-Shabaab’s territorial control, even as they weakened the smaller Islamic State affiliate in northern Somalia (which is also suspected of maintaining informal links to the Houthis).

    Currently, Somali security forces, backed by U.S. support, are preparing a new major offensive, codenamed Operation Onkod (Thunder), targeting Al-Shabaab in coastal areas west of the autonomous northern Puntland region, following a successful earlier campaign against the local Islamic State faction. Al-Shabaab has already begun reinforcing its positions in the area in anticipation of the assault.

    The growing cooperation between the Houthis and Al-Shabaab carries severe risks for global trade and regional security. While current cooperative activity remains limited, it could eventually push increased instability into the Gulf of Aden, already roiled by Houthi attacks on commercial shipping carried out in support of Palestinians since 2023. Those previous attacks already diverted international naval resources and contributed to a resurgence of pirate activity off the Somali coast, which has only partially abated. A stronger Al-Shabaab controlling northern Somali coastal territory, paired with ongoing Houthi aggression, could create a sustained arc of instability across the entire Red Sea corridor.

    Against the backdrop of open regional tensions between Iran, the United States and Israel that began in February 2024, the Houthis have already amplified destabilizing activity across the waterway. With the global economy already vulnerable to supply chain disruptions through strategic chokepoints like the nearby Strait of Hormuz, any further escalation in the Red Sea could have far-reaching economic consequences for markets worldwide.

    This analysis is based on research by Brendon Novel, a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of Montreal specializing in Horn of Africa and Red Sea security dynamics.

  • South Africa police investigate killing of two Mozambican men

    South Africa police investigate killing of two Mozambican men

    On Tuesday, South African police confirmed the deaths of two Mozambican citizens killed over the weekend in Mossel Bay, opening a formal homicide investigation that has deepened a public dispute with Maputo over rising xenophobic violence in the country. The two victims, aged 27 and 43, were killed on Saturday, just one day after a separate outbreak of unrest in the Western Cape province.

    In an official statement, Mozambique’s government has alleged that five of its nationals were killed in targeted xenophobic attacks, with an additional 800 Mozambican citizens victimized during violent unrest that broke out on Friday in the KwaNonqaba settlement. Following the violence, 300 Mozambicans crossed the border back to their home country on Saturday, with another 500 expected to follow in the coming days. Tragically, two people died in a road accident during this mass evacuation. South African law enforcement has not confirmed any xenophobic motive for the two confirmed deaths, saying the investigation is still ongoing, and noted that they released the updated details to “set the record straight” amid conflicting public claims.

    The violence comes amid a months-long surge in anti-foreigner sentiment across South Africa, driven by grassroots protests demanding stricter immigration enforcement. Demonstrators, led by advocacy group March and March, argue that undocumented migrants strain public services and contribute to rising crime rates. The group has issued an unofficial deadline for all undocumented immigrants to leave the country by 30 June, with protests ramping up ahead of local elections scheduled for later this year.

    The Friday unrest in KwaNonqaba saw widespread arson that left more than 50 informal shacks destroyed. Police have arrested five people in connection with that arson attack. In a separate, unrelated incident, an 18-year-old South African man was stabbed to death during an apparent botched robbery early Sunday, with no arrests made in that case as of Tuesday.

    Officially, South Africa is home to more than 3 million documented foreign nationals, making up roughly 5% of the country’s total population. Government figures do not account for the estimated millions more who reside in the country without formal documentation. Xenophobic violence has been a persistent systemic issue in South Africa for decades, with periodic deadly outbreaks targeting foreign communities.

    In response to the rising unrest, multiple neighboring and African nations have issued travel warnings advising their citizens in South Africa to exercise heightened caution. Countries including Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe have all issued public alerts. Earlier this year, Ghana completed an evacuation of hundreds of its citizens from South Africa citing growing safety risks. While South Africa’s national government has formally condemned criminal acts directed at foreign nationals, police have stopped short of confirming that recent violence constitutes organized xenophobic attacks.

  • BBC at New Jersey ICE detention centre as curfew enforced

    BBC at New Jersey ICE detention centre as curfew enforced

    Tensions have erupted at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in New Jersey, leading local authorities to enact a restricted curfew following violent confrontations between demonstration participants and law enforcement officers. A BBC correspondent, Nada Tawfik, is on the ground at Delaney Hall, the detention facility at the center of the unrest, to report on the unfolding situation.

    The curfew order covers a half-mile radius surrounding the compound, restricting public movement within the zone in an effort to de-escalate the conflict that broke out between protesters and police. The standoff at the facility comes amid long-running national debate over immigration enforcement practices and conditions in ICE detention centers across the United States, which has drawn repeated protests from advocacy groups in recent years.

    BBC’s on-site reporting comes as local officials work to restore order to the area after the clashes, with observers watching closely to see how the situation develops in the coming hours. The curfew remains in effect as authorities work to prevent further unrest around the detention center.

  • UN warns world to prepare for El Nino extreme weather

    UN warns world to prepare for El Nino extreme weather

    Global weather authorities have sounded a clear alarm: the climate phenomenon El Nino is increasingly likely to develop in the coming months, bringing heightened risks of extreme weather that could compound decades of human-caused global warming. In its latest quarterly update on El Nino and its cooling counterpart La Nina, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced Tuesday that there is an 80% probability of El Nino forming between June and August 2024, with that likelihood climbing to near or above 90% by November. Most climate models also project the event will be at least moderate, and possibly reach strong intensity.

    El Nino is a naturally occurring climate pattern defined by elevated surface ocean temperatures across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. It reshapes global atmospheric circulation, wind patterns, and rainfall distribution, with effects that can last 9 to 12 months, occurring every two to seven years as conditions cycle between El Nino, La Nina, and neutral phases. As of late April to mid-May 2024, WMO data shows sea surface temperatures in the key monitoring region of the central-eastern equatorial Pacific are already approaching El Nino threshold levels, with sub-surface ocean temperatures measuring more than 6°C above the long-term average. The Southern Oscillation Index, the atmospheric metric that tracks El Nino development, also aligns with the pattern’s formation.

    While WMO confirms there is no conclusive evidence that human-caused climate change increases the frequency or strength of El Nino events, the agency emphasizes that rising global temperatures amplify the phenomenon’s most dangerous impacts. A warmer baseline ocean and atmosphere already hold extra energy and moisture, creating conditions that make extreme weather events such as heatwaves and intense downpours far more likely during an El Nino event. The most recent major El Nino was a key driver pushing 2023 to become the second-hottest year on record, and 2024 to break all previous temperature records, hitting an average of 1.55°C above the pre-industrial baseline from 1850 to 1900.

    WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo stressed that the time for global preparation is now, warning the upcoming El Nino could worsen existing droughts, amplify heavy rainfall, and boost the risk of dangerous heatwaves across both land and marine ecosystems. “It will have cascading impacts,” Saulo told reporters, noting that warming tropical oceans can ripple through global trade, national economies, and human security. “That’s why this early information is so relevant and so important.” Early preparation, she added, can help climate-sensitive sectors including agriculture, water management, energy, and public health adapt to coming changes. Currently, 128 countries operate multi-hazard early warning systems, and the UN has set a target of achieving universal coverage for all nations by the end of 2027.
    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres framed the forecast as an urgent climate wake-up call in a video address. “El Nino is arriving on our doorstep,” Guterres said. “The world must treat it as the urgent climate warning it is. El Nino conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world.” Guterres added that the only meaningful response to the growing risk is scaled climate action: ending global dependence on fossil fuels, accelerating the transition to renewable energy, protecting vulnerable communities, and rolling out universal early warning systems.

    Though El Nino typically reaches its peak intensity between November and February, the associated temperature surge often emerges after the event’s peak. Forecasters expect more precise projections of the event’s timing and strength to be available next month. For the June to August period, WMO forecasts that nearly every region of the globe will see above-average temperatures, increasing the risk of overlapping extreme hazards and accelerating drought development in areas that receive reduced rainfall.

    Regional climate projections already point to specific high-risk zones: the northern Greater Horn of Africa is forecast to see below-normal rainfall during its critical June-September wet season; South Asia is projected to have below-average monsoon rainfall; and Central America is likely to face a hotter, drier than average summer. In terms of hurricane activity, El Nino’s warm Pacific waters typically fuel more intense hurricane development in the central and eastern Pacific, while suppressing storm formation in the Atlantic Ocean during the Northern Hemisphere summer.

  • Two people shot dead amid Kenya protests against US Ebola quarantine centre plan

    Two people shot dead amid Kenya protests against US Ebola quarantine centre plan

    Deadly violence has erupted in central Kenya over a controversial proposal to build a US-operated Ebola isolation facility, leaving two local residents dead and deepening public divisions over the public health and diplomatic initiative. The unrest unfolded in Nanyuki, a town adjacent to Laikipia Airbase, the planned site for the 50-bed treatment center, after hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets to oppose the project.

    According to preliminary reports, one fatality was shot near the perimeter of the airbase itself during peak protest activity. Friends transported the wounded individual to Nanyuki’s main hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries. A second victim was already deceased when military personnel brought his body to the same medical facility. To date, no senior Kenyan official has released an official statement confirming the circumstances of the deaths or assigning responsibility for the gunfire that killed the two men.

    The unrest built on growing public anger that first emerged after details of the US plan were made public. The facility is designed to treat American citizens who contract Ebola during the ongoing outbreak in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, and would be staffed entirely by US medical personnel. Kenya has not recorded any confirmed Ebola cases to date, but critics warn that bringing infected patients into the country creates unacceptable risks of cross-border transmission that could devastate local communities.

    Mass demonstrations first organized on Monday saw hundreds of protesters block major thoroughfares through Nanyuki and set burning tires across roads to draw attention to their opposition. In response, police deployed tear gas to clear the crowds and disperse the gathering. The controversy has already made its way through Kenya’s judicial system: last week, a local rights group filed a lawsuit arguing that the facility poses “grave and imminent risks” to Kenyan public health, prompting the High Court to issue an initial order halting all work on the project.

    In his first public comments on the dispute Monday evening, Kenyan President William Ruto defended his decision to approve the plan. Ruto framed the initiative as a gesture of long-standing friendship between Kenya and the United States, telling reporters that “When President [Donald] Trump asked Kenya to support them by having a centre in Laikipia Airbase I gave the ok because it was an agreement with friends who have walked with Kenya for 30, 40 years.” He added that the Kenyan government had “deployed every arsenal” to safeguard the country from Ebola risks, and urged opposition politicians not to politicize what he called a critically important public health matter. “We are a responsible government. We know what we are doing,” Ruto said.

    Despite the president’s defense of the plan, the High Court doubled down on its suspension on Tuesday, extending the pause on construction and opening and ordering the national government to release full documentation detailing the terms and specifications of the proposed facility. Even with the court order in place, however, independent observers and local experts confirm that military aircraft have continued making regular trips in and out of Laikipia Airbase, indicating that preparatory work for the center is still ongoing.

    The proposal has drawn widespread opposition from key Kenyan public health and accountability groups, including Kenya’s national doctors’ union and independent government watchdogs. Both groups reiterate that bringing Ebola patients into Kenya, even for treatment at a secured military facility, creates an unnecessary and avoidable risk of infection for local populations that the government has not adequately addressed.

  • Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire after Trump announcement

    Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire after Trump announcement

    Just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a surprise bilateral ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, heavy fighting erupted across the Israel-Lebanon border on Tuesday, derailing hopes for a quick end to months of escalating violence.

    The sudden resumption of hostilities came as both sides remained publicly divided over the terms of the deal Trump claimed to have brokered. Per Lebanese official sources, the draft agreement outlines that Hezbollah would halt all cross-border fire into northern Israel, while Israel would end its airstrikes on southern Beirut – a decades-long stronghold of the militant movement. The Lebanese presidency issued an official statement confirming the terms, noting that negotiators would work to expand the truce to cover all Lebanese territory, and the Lebanese embassy in Washington earlier claimed Hezbollah had accepted the U.S. proposal. However, the militant group has never issued an official confirmation of its acceptance of the deal.

    Trump doubled down on his ceasefire push in a post to his Truth Social platform, saying he “hopefully” the two sides would end their conflict “for ETERNITY!” He also claimed that no Israeli troops would enter Beirut, and that any Israeli forces en route to the capital had already been turned back, following what he called a “very productive” call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But unconfirmed reporting from Axios contradicted this public posture, revealing that Trump privately called Netanyahu “fucking crazy” in off-air remarks, accusing the Israeli leader of putting planned peace talks between the U.S. and Iran at risk. Trump also claimed he held a productive call with Hezbollah representatives through intermediaries, saying both sides had agreed to a full halt to hostilities.

    The renewed violence erupted against a backdrop of months of escalating conflict that has already pushed the region to the brink of a wider war. Following the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Hezbollah opened its front against Israel on March 2, launching widespread rocket attacks. In recent weeks, Israeli forces mounted their deepest ground incursion into Lebanese territory in more than two decades, carrying out waves of heavy aerial bombardment across southern Lebanon and issuing explicit threats to strike southern Beirut’s densely populated suburbs. That threat sent thousands of local residents fleeing the area this week, with massive traffic jams clogging routes leading out of the suburbs toward central Beirut, according to on-the-ground reporting from Agence France-Presse.

    By Tuesday afternoon, multiple official sources confirmed that hostilities had resumed. The Israeli military announced its air defense systems intercepted two projectiles launched from Lebanon into northern Israel, shortly after the Lebanese National News Agency reported fresh Israeli airstrikes targeting multiple locations in southern Lebanon. Netanyahu confirmed in his call with Trump that Israel would continue to strike terrorist targets in Beirut if Hezbollah did not end its attacks on Israeli towns and civilians.

    The latest clash also comes as the fourth round of U.S.-hosted direct negotiations between Israeli and Lebanese military delegations is set to open this Wednesday, following preliminary security talks held last week. A previous truce brokered in April has been almost entirely ignored, with both sides accusing each other of daily violations that justify retaliatory strikes. The human cost of the conflict has mounted sharply: Lebanon’s health ministry reports that at least 3,433 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Lebanon since March 2, while the Israeli military confirmed two additional soldier deaths in southern Lebanon this week, bringing the total Israeli military fatalities to 27 since the start of the current escalation.

    International actors have moved quickly to call for restraint. Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, released a statement urging all parties to respect a cessation of hostilities. In a confidential report to the UN Security Council obtained by AFP, Guterres also recommended that the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeping mission have its mandate extended when it expires at the end of the year, warning that a withdrawal would create a dangerous security vacuum. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also issued a statement Tuesday saying nothing could justify Israeli forces maintaining their presence deep inside Lebanese territory, a reference to Israel’s seizure of the strategic Beaufort Castle (locally called Qalaat al-Chakif) over the weekend. The castle, which holds commanding views over most of southern Lebanon, was used as an Israeli military base during Israel’s 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000.

    Tehran, which has long provided financial and military support to Hezbollah, has insisted that Lebanon must be included in any final peace deal between Iran and the U.S. But Iran’s state-owned Tasnim News Agency reported this week that Tehran has suspended all diplomatic talks with Washington in response to Israel’s ongoing offensive in Lebanon, raising new doubts about the prospect of a wider regional de-escalation. For ordinary residents caught in the crossfire, the cycle of hope and violence has become a familiar pattern. Hadi, a 24-year-old resident of southern Beirut, told AFP he had dared to hope for a period of stability after Trump’s announcement, but “that feeling did not last long.”

  • Russian attack on Ukraine kills at least 11 and traps others in damaged buildings

    Russian attack on Ukraine kills at least 11 and traps others in damaged buildings

    In a devastating large-scale overnight assault that unfolded across multiple regions of Ukraine on Tuesday, Russian strikes launched with a mix of missiles and drones have claimed at least 11 civilian lives and left dozens more injured, with multiple people still trapped beneath the rubble of destroyed residential buildings, Ukrainian emergency authorities confirmed Wednesday.

    In Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, the attack left four residents dead and 58 people wounded — three of whom are children — the State Emergency Service of Ukraine announced in an official Telegram post. The assault damaged residential buildings and critical civilian infrastructure across eight of the capital’s administrative districts, sowing destruction across large swathes of the city.

    The violence was not confined to the capital: strikes also hit targets across other Ukrainian regions. In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian projectiles struck the city of Dnipro, killing six people and wounding 36 more. In a deadly secondary strike that targeted first responders who had already arrived at the scene to rescue survivors, one rescue worker was killed, emergency officials confirmed. In Dnipro, the attack destroyed a two-story residential building and caused partial collapse of a four-story apartment block, leaving multiple people trapped under the rubble of the larger structure.

    Witnesses reported the sound of nonstop explosions echoing across the region from overnight into the early hours of Wednesday morning. Kyiv had been on high alert for days ahead of this assault, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued repeated public warnings that Russia was gearing up for a renewed large-scale offensive against civilian targets. The president had urged all residents to stay vigilant and move to designated shelters immediately when air raid sirens sound.

    Across Kyiv’s hardest-hit districts, destruction is widespread. In Podilskyi district, the upper floors of a nine-story residential building suffered major partial damage, trapping multiple people in the collapsed debris. As of early Wednesday morning, rescue operations were still ongoing, with first responders continuing their search for survivors even while the air raid alert stayed active across the capital. In the Solomianskyi district, two large residential buildings — a 20-story and a 24-story structure — both sustained significant damage from the strikes.

    For weeks, senior Ukrainian officials have ramped up diplomatic pressure on the country’s Western allies to deliver additional advanced air defense systems and interceptors to counter the persistent Russian missile and drone campaign against civilian and infrastructure targets. While Ukrainian air defenses have managed to successfully intercept a large share of Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia in these attacks, the country’s defensive networks still face a critical, unaddressed vulnerability when countering Russian ballistic missiles, which are far faster and harder to intercept.

  • Russian strikes rock Ukraine, killing nine and wounding dozens

    Russian strikes rock Ukraine, killing nine and wounding dozens

    Just five days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly warned that Moscow was gearing up for a large-scale new offensive across the country, a coordinated wave of Russian missile and drone attacks killed at least nine civilians and injured dozens more across Ukraine on Tuesday, local authorities confirmed. The assault marks the latest escalation in a grinding, two-year-plus full-scale invasion that has become Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, with diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire remaining completely stalled as of this report.

    Agence France-Presse reporters on the ground in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, reported hearing multiple loud explosions rip through the city early in the attack. Local officials confirmed Russia used advanced ballistic missiles for the strikes, which ignited large structural fires and knocked out electrical power for residents in multiple central and residential districts.

    Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that four residents were killed in the capital’s assault, and at least 58 more people — including two young children — were wounded. “Explosions in the city. Air defence forces are working! Stay in shelters!” Klitschko had posted in an urgent public alert minutes after the first strike. AFP journalists observed panicked residents rushing to underground bomb shelters, many carrying only small bags of belongings and blankets, while a thick column of black smoke billowed over central Kyiv.

    Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration, confirmed that all of the capital’s strikes were carried out with ballistic missiles, a weapon type that is far harder for Ukrainian air defenses to intercept than slower drones.

    The deadly assault was not limited to the capital. In the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, local regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha confirmed a separate Russian attack killed five additional people and wounded 25 others, three of whom remain in critical condition as of Tuesday evening. In Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, located just miles from the Russian border, Mayor Igor Terekhov reported 10 wounded people, including one child, from the coordinated strikes.

    In what has become a standard pattern of retaliation amid the ongoing conflict, Ukrainian drone strikes hit targets inside Russian territory hours after the Russian barrage. Alexander Khinshtein, governor of Russia’s western Kursk region which borders Ukraine, confirmed one person was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike there. Separately, a second drone sparked a large fire at an oil refinery in Krasnodar, a major southwestern Russian city, according to the facility’s operational management team via Telegram.

    The timing of Tuesday’s Russian offensive lines up exactly with warnings Zelenskyy issued last Friday. The Ukrainian leader stated at the time that Kyiv had received credible intelligence confirming Russia was preparing a new massive strike, and urged all citizens to take air raid alerts seriously. “Please pay attention to air alerts, protect your lives. Our services are working efficiently and are prepared; the Air Force and other defenders of our skies will be on duty 24/7, as always,” Zelenskyy said in his address.

    Zelenskyy has repeatedly pushed Western allies to approve and fund additional supplies of Patriot air defense systems, the only weapon Ukraine currently operates capable of reliably intercepting Russian ballistic missiles. Last week, he sent formal requests to U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress specifically asking for additional Patriot batteries to counter the growing intensity of Russian air attacks.

    In response to near-daily Russian bombardments across Ukrainian territory, Kyiv has significantly stepped up its own drone and missile strikes on Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories and targets inside mainland Russia. An Agence France-Presse analysis of official Ukrainian Air Force data found that Russia launched a record 8,150 long-range attack drones against Ukraine in May alone, a 24% increase from the total number launched in April. Ukrainian air force data indicates the country’s air defenses managed to intercept roughly 90% of all incoming Russian missiles and drones last month.

  • Israel’s Lebanon campaign: the risks of repeating failed lessons

    Israel’s Lebanon campaign: the risks of repeating failed lessons

    When Israel launched its campaign amid the ongoing war with Iran, the Netanyahu administration articulated two tightly linked strategic objectives: collapse the Islamic Republic of Iran, and eliminate the decades-long threat posed by Hezbollah to Israeli security. For 44 years, the Lebanese Shiite militia has remained a persistent menace along Israel’s northern border, and Israeli policymakers reasoned that cutting off Hezbollah’s core Iranian patron would force the group to collapse. Past efforts to disarm Hezbollah via direct military strikes and internationally backed disarmament initiatives had both fallen short, leaving this two-pronged strategy as the government’s preferred path forward.