分类： world

Steve Rosenberg: Lasting image of Russia’s economic forum is plume of smoke over St Petersburg

The 2026 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia’s flagship annual economic and diplomatic event, opened and closed this week against a backdrop of unexpected conflict and high-stakes diplomatic drama that overshadowed the carefully curated image of economic resilience the Kremlin sought to project.

On Wednesday, the opening day of the forum, a massive plume of thick black smoke rose high above the St. Petersburg skyline, visible to every delegate arriving at the city’s waterfront expo center. The smoke came from a Ukrainian drone strike that hit unspecified infrastructure in the area, local officials confirmed, marking a dramatic incursion deep into Russian territory that coincided with the forum’s high-profile sessions. A second drone attack hit the region on the forum’s closing day, amplifying the sense of ongoing vulnerability.

Even amid the chaos of the strikes, the forum played host to the kind of surreal, symbolic moments that underscored the disconnect between the curated narrative inside the conference halls and reality outside. Walking the exhibition floor, attendees encountered a performer dressed as Koshchei the Deathless, the immortal villain from Russian folklore, performing street magic for passersby — pulling coins from thin air, reassembling broken glasses, and generating puffs of smoke from his fingertips. “Russians are unpredictable people,” the performer told onlookers. “We do things no one expects.”

The most shocking unexpected development of the week came not from a street magician, however, but from Kyiv. Shortly after the first drone strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky published an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin that included a taunting critique of Russia’s battlefield setbacks and Putin’s age, before extending an offer to meet for face-to-face peace negotiations in a neutral third country.

Putin’s response was anything but unpredictable. The Kremlin leader, who has repeatedly rejected direct talks with Zelensky since the full-scale invasion began, dismissed the offer out of hand, criticizing the letter’s tone as “rude.” “It’s not the author of the letter I need to respond to,” Putin said during his plenary address at SPIEF. “It’s our soldiers on the frontline… I say to them: keep at it, brothers!” The comment made clear that Putin has no intention of ending the war on any terms other than Russia’s full compliance with his original demands.

In his address to assembled delegates, Putin stuck to a familiar script, projecting unwavering confidence and projecting strength. “There are wars and sanctions. But the economy is developing,” he claimed. “Everything is stable.” Inside the conference hall, surrounded by supportive business owners, allied foreign dignitaries, and government officials, the performance held together. Outside the bubble of the forum, however, a different picture emerges.

Russia has now been at war for five years, sustaining massive battlefield casualties that have strained both the country’s military and its domestic population. Ukrainian long-range drones now regularly strike targets hundreds of kilometers inside Russia’s borders, including major cities far from the front lines. When the outlet asked senior Russian officials about the war and its trajectory, nearly all fell back on pre-approved Kremlin talking points. When asked whether the five-year-long conflict would end soon, Alexander Zhukov, deputy speaker of Russia’s lower parliament the Duma, simply replied: “I can only respond in the words of our president. He said this situation must be resolved soon.”

Economically, the country is far from the stable, growing powerhouse Putin described. While outright collapse has not materialized, as many Western analysts initially predicted, ongoing sanctions and war spending have created significant strain across most sectors. Growth has stalled, and many independent Russian economists warn of broad stagnation and even decline in key industries. The war continues to suck up massive amounts of both human capital and federal budget resources. During a recent reporting trip to Russia’s Lipetsk region, small business owners described ongoing struggles to stay operational amid restricted access to global markets and supply chain disruptions.

Even some pro-business Russian figures acknowledged the headwinds. “Interest rates are a bit too high,” Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy for foreign investment, admitted in an interview on the SPIEF sidelines. “We believe rates should be lower to attract more investments.” Still, Dmitriev pushed back on critics, arguing that “Russia’s economy has proved resilient over the last five years: something that many Western analysts believed was impossible.” A small number of domestic businesses have even found new openings amid the shifts: as international travel has become difficult and unwelcoming for most Russians, domestic tourism has grown, prompting new investment in domestic resort and tourist infrastructure.

Unlike the stage magician performing at the forum, the Kremlin cannot conjure new revenue out of thin air to close growing budget gaps created by war spending. It did, however, manage to attract a high-profile American guest that it leveraged for PR. Rodney Mims Cook Jr, chair of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts who is overseeing the controversial renovation of the White House State Ballroom, brought a personal greeting from former U.S. President Donald Trump to Putin. Russian state media trumpeted his visit as the first official U.S. delegation to attend SPIEF in a decade. But the U.S. State Department quickly distanced itself from the visit: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was unaware of any official U.S. delegation attending the event, and noted the attendees were not high-ranking government officials.

Wandering the forum’s exhibition halls, one of the most striking installations was a giant “nevalyashka” — the traditional Russian roly-poly tumbler doll that wobbles when pushed but never falls over. The installation perfectly summed up the narrative Russian authorities want to project to the world: that despite five years of war and sweeping international sanctions, Russia remains standing, cannot be knocked off balance, and will outlast its opponents. It is a deliberately defiant image. But for foreign investors looking for stable, long-term opportunities to put capital to work, the constant wobbling that comes from ongoing conflict and geopolitical isolation is unlikely to make for an appealing sales pitch.

6 6 月, 2026
Israeli soldier kills seven-month-old Palestinian baby, then walks away

On the very day he turned seven months old, a Palestinian baby named Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed by Israeli soldiers who opened fire on his family’s vehicle in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, despite the car coming to a full stop as ordered. The fatal shooting has added new outrage to longstanding accusations of systemic impunity for Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians in the region.

The infant was traveling in the vehicle Friday afternoon alongside his parents, 11-year-old brother, and grandmother Ferial Abu Haikal when the encounter unfolded. Speaking to reporters after the shooting, Ferial Abu Haikal recalled that the family immediately halted their car upon spotting Israeli military personnel positioned along the road. Initially, the family assumed the gunfire they heard was a series of warning shots, but the reality quickly turned devastating. One bullet tore through the baby’s face and exited the back of his skull before becoming lodged in his mother’s cheek, she said.

The child’s mother remained unaware of her son’s death until Saturday morning, as family members concealed the news to protect her health, fearing the severe shock of the loss would worsen her injury. Sam’s father, Fahd Abu Haikal, a lecturer at Bethlehem University, shared a chilling account of the encounter with Israeli outlet Haaretz, confirming he fully complied with the soldier’s order to stop. “The soldier signalled me to stop. I brought the car to a complete halt and raised my hands on the steering wheel. Immediately afterwards, they opened fire on the vehicle,” he said.

Fahd Abu Haikal emphasized there was no room for confusion over who was inside the vehicle. The shooting soldier stood just 10 meters from the car, it was broad daylight, and the windows had no tinting, leaving the entire family clearly visible. “You can’t say he didn’t see that it was a family,” he noted. Unlike a formal, marked checkpoint, the soldiers were simply positioned on the open street, he added, and he followed their instructions to stop without hesitation moments before the shooting began.

Speaking at Sam’s funeral on Saturday, the grieving father described how the Israeli unit withdrew immediately after the shooting and left the scene without any explanation or attempt to assist. “The car was completely stationary when he shot at us, it wasn’t moving at all. A 7 months old infant killed in cold blood. He didn’t deserve this,” he said. He has demanded full accountability for the killing, stating he will not abandon his fight for justice. “I demand and expect, if there is any conscience, any law, any morality, that the soldier who fired the shots will be held accountable for his actions. This case must not be closed without an investigation and without accountability. At the very least, I do not intend to give up,” he added.

In response to inquiries about the incident, an Israeli military spokesperson only stated that “the incident is under review.” This vague update comes amid a stark backdrop of rising violence in the West Bank: the United Nations reported last month that Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the start of the Gaza conflict in October 2023, at least 240 of whom are children.

Widespread impunity for these killings is well documented by Israeli human rights groups. Yesh Din, an Israeli organization tracking military misconduct, found that between 2016 and 2024, fewer than 1 percent of 2,427 complaints of Palestinian abuse against Israeli soldiers resulted in indictments. Few service members ever face punishment for violent acts against Palestinian civilians, a pattern that has fueled ongoing anger across the occupied territories.

6 6 月, 2026
Pope to lead huge Madrid mass on day two of Spain visit

Nearly 14 years after the last papal state visit to Spain, Pope Leo XIV has launched a week-long tour of the majority-Catholic European nation, with the event’s centerpiece — an open-air Mass in downtown Madrid expected to draw more than one million worshippers — scheduled for Sunday, the second day of his trip.

Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia are set to join the throngs of devotees gathering at Madrid’s iconic Cibeles Square, where attendees will face warm temperatures for the historic service. Local authorities have rolled out an unprecedented logistical and security operation to accommodate the massive crowd, including constructing a custom main stage, installing seven giant display screens and 608 loudspeakers, placing 2,300 public restrooms and 10 water stations, and erecting over 8,000 safety barriers along the event route.

Following the Mass, Pope Leo will lead a multi-hundred-meter procession from Cibeles Square along Madrid’s famous Gran Via commercial boulevard before returning to the starting point. Organizers have decorated the entire procession route with an intricate floral carpet featuring more than 30,000 carnations, chosen in yellow and white to match the Vatican flag’s official colors. After the ceremony, crowds of excited pilgrims — who have traveled to Madrid from across Spain and beyond — are expected to line the streets of central Madrid for a second consecutive day, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Pope as he travels along the route in his popemobile.

The papal visit comes as long-running trends of declining traditional religious observance have reshaped Spanish society, mirroring shifts seen across most of Western Europe over the past decades. On Sunday evening, the Pope will meet with prominent figures from Spain’s cultural, athletic, and economic sectors at a local venue, in an initiative designed to build constructive dialogue between religious faith and contemporary secular civil society.

The visit officially kicked off on Saturday, when 500,000 attendees, most of them young people, gathered for an overnight prayer vigil with Pope Leo outside Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. An opening ceremonial reception was held at Madrid’s Royal Palace earlier that day, where the Pope used his opening address to call on global societies to reject what he termed “polarising narratives” and “sterile simplifications” that divide communities. He also offered public praise to Spain for what he called the nation’s “active commitment to peace and solidarity among peoples,” a reference that comes as Spain’s current left-wing government has clashed with Pope Leo’s native United States and Israel over policy regarding ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

Looking ahead to the rest of the week-long trip, Pope Leo will travel to Barcelona on Tuesday and Wednesday, where his key scheduled duty is blessing the newly completed tower of the Sagrada Familia basilica. The finished construction has earned the iconic UNESCO site the title of the world’s tallest church. The tour will conclude with a focus on the global migration crisis during visits to the Canary Islands on Thursday and Friday. The archipelago has become a major entry point for irregular migrants traveling from North Africa, with thousands of people dying in Atlantic crossing attempts each year while trying to reach European territory.

6 6 月, 2026
‘It was either killed or be killed’ – ongoing nightmares of an ex-child soldier in Somalia

Nearly 20 years after Somalia’s capital Mogadishu was plunged into a new chapter of brutal civil conflict, 34-year-old shopkeeper Yusuf Ali still carries the unspoken psychological scars of his experience as a child combatant. While the city’s physical landscape has slowly rebuilt in recent years, almost no formal support exists for survivors like Ali, who carry intergenerational trauma from decades of near-constant war.

Ali’s story is rooted in decades of instability that began long before he picked up a weapon. When former President Siad Barre’s regime collapsed in 1991, Somalia fractured into chaotic clan warfare that left the country without a functional central government. Just one year after Ali was born, his father was killed in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, the infamous clash that saw Somali fighters down two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters and kill 18 American service members. Growing up fatherless in the impoverished northern Mogadishu district of Huriwaa, Ali was shaped by the violence that surrounded him from childhood.

A turning point came in June 2006, when the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), a coalition of Sharia courts, seized control of Mogadishu and brought a fleeting period of stability after years of clan conflict. For Western policymakers, however, the UIC marked the first major advance of political Islam in Africa after the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on the U.S. Washington accused the group of having ties to al-Qaeda, and viewed its rise as a direct security threat. The UIC’s youth military wing, al-Shabab, would go on to become one of the globe’s most persistent militant insurgent groups.

Six months after the UIC took power, a U.S.-backed Ethiopian military invasion launched to oust the Islamist government, with American drones providing surveillance and air support. The invasion was deeply unpopular across Somalia, sparking a fierce armed resistance that united al-Shabab and a coalition of insurgent splinter groups called the Muqawama, or Resistance. By the spring of 2007, heavy fighting had intensified, with artillery and air strikes targeting densely populated civilian neighborhoods suspected of sheltering insurgents.

Ali recalls the night a barrage of shells hit his neighborhood, striking a nearby home and killing a young girl around his age. “Our house shook and I felt like the soil under my feet had moved. I’ve seen death, but nothing prepared me for that night,” he told reporters. His family fled to Elasha Biyaha, a sprawling informal settlement northwest of Mogadishu that became a refuge for hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians.

In the displacement camp, anti-invasion rhetoric from local mosque sermons fired up young people, who were told to defend their country from what were labeled “Gaalo” – the Somali term for non-Muslim infidels. Drawn by the call to resistance, 16-year-old Ali joined the Muqawama, where former army commanders trained him in small arms and hit-and-run ambush tactics. He soon found himself back on the streets of Mogadishu, fighting unpaid in brutal urban combat against Ethiopian troops and allied soldiers from the U.N.-recognized transitional Somali government.

“Street by street, from windows and doorways, we were firing on Ethiopian soldiers and the Somali soldiers with them,” Ali said. “It was either killed or be killed – and this was a cause we were willing to die for.” For two years, much of Mogadishu was reduced to rubble, as all warring parties faced growing international accusations of war crimes. Growing international pressure eventually forced Ethiopian troops to withdraw in 2009, but the Islamist movement fractured into competing factions, with former allies turning on one another.

Ali found himself at a crossroads. Disillusioned by the infighting, and urged by his family to build a new life, he was smuggled across the border to South Africa to live with an uncle, where he worked in his uncle’s shop for five years. A wave of deadly xenophobic attacks targeting foreign-owned businesses eventually drove him back to Mogadishu in the early 2010s.

When Ali returned, he found a capital that had made tangible progress: a functioning international airport, paved roads, new restaurants, and street lighting that made once-dangerous neighborhoods safe after dark. But political instability remained rampant. Al-Shabab had reemerged as a powerful hardline militant group controlling large swathes of rural southern Somalia, where it imposed a strict interpretation of Sharia law, banned music, and enforced restrictive gendered dress codes. The group maintained a sprawling network of spies within Mogadishu, carrying out regular targeted assassinations of government officials and international workers. “No-one trusted each other. No-one dared to speak about politics publicly. Your own neighbours could be spying on you and you wouldn’t even know it,” Ali said.

Today, Ali is married with a 4-year-old son, and runs his own shop in his childhood neighborhood of Huriwaa, once a major al-Shabab stronghold. But reminders of his time as a child soldier are everywhere. He still passes the homes where he fired weapons during street battles, and wonders if the current residents know of the blood that was once shed there. He has never received any form of counseling or mental health support for his trauma – and he is far from alone. Many other former child soldiers he knows have developed drug addictions to cope with their pain, with no access to treatment.

“In Somalia, we don’t talk about our problems,” Ali explained. “I try to find peace through prayer. We pray and keep things to ourselves. This is the culture here and is the reason why many people are hurting but most don’t realise it.”

Human rights experts warn that widespread untreated trauma is a silent, pervasive crisis across Somalia. “The normalisation of violence in some areas means that trauma often goes unrecognised and untreated, making it a silent but pervasive crisis,” said Ilyas Adam, a human rights legal consultant with the Coalition of Somali Human Rights Defenders. “When trauma is normalised, oftentimes individuals do not recognise their need for help. Complicating matters are the cultural barriers, where mental health is not openly discussed.” Adam noted that untreated post-traumatic stress disorder can have long-term debilitating impacts, including chronic mental illness, social exclusion, stigma, and an increased risk that survivors will be re-recruited into armed groups.

Global health data confirms Somalia’s catastrophic lack of mental health infrastructure. A 2021 World Health Organization report found that community-based mental health services were almost non-existent across the country, and as of 2023, the entire nation of 18 million people had just 82 trained mental health professionals.

Worse still, the recruitment of child soldiers continues across Somalia decades after Ali first took up arms. The United Nations recorded more than 2,800 cases of child recruitment by armed groups between 2021 and 2024. While the vast majority of these cases are attributed to al-Shabab, the U.N. also documented 101 cases of recruitment by Somali government forces. Mursal Khalif, a member of parliament and head of the Ministry of Defence’s Child Protection Unit, said anti-recruitment efforts still face resistance, with some Somalis viewing such initiatives as a foreign “Western agenda.” Still, Khalif noted that slow progress is being made, including new vocational training programs designed to help former child soldiers build sustainable livelihoods.

In Ali’s home neighborhood of Huriwaa, however, almost no support services have reached residents. Government officials and international aid workers rarely enter the area, and only do so under heavy armed security. Every evening, as the call to prayer rings out from the local mosque – the site of a 2008 Ethiopian raid that abducted 41 children suspected of being insurgent trainees – Ali is reminded of the cycle of violence that has defined his entire life. Even now, two decades after the 2006 invasion, conflict continues: just this week, government forces and opposition fighters exchanged gunfire in Mogadishu during a dispute over delayed national elections, and more foreign countries have troops deployed in Somalia than at any point in the past 30 years. “The fighting is still ongoing, people are suffering and two decades later, more countries than ever before have troops deployed in Somalia,” Ali observed.

6 6 月, 2026
Pope Leo begins Spain visit with praise for government

Pope Leo XIV has launched his first official papal visit to Spain, opening the trip with public praise for the Spanish government’s commitment to peace, international law, and support for displaced migrants, against a backdrop of growing political and global tensions. In a formal welcome ceremony hosted at Madrid’s Royal Palace alongside King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, the Chicago-born pontiff highlighted Spain’s long-standing “active commitment to peace and solidarity among peoples,” specifically commending the administration of socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for its “faithful adherence to international law and multilateralism.”

The endorsement comes as Sanchez has already engaged in high-profile public clashes with former U.S. President Donald Trump over policy toward Iran, and with the Israeli government over the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Pope Leo, who has himself faced repeated harsh criticism from Trump for his outspoken anti-war stances, acknowledged that his unwavering message of peace faces pushback in today’s divided political climate. “At present unfortunately strikes some as naive and others as confrontational,” he told assembled guests, “but [it] should instead be welcomed by those who do not shut themselves off in preconceived ideologies.”

Over the course of his seven-day tour, the pope will prioritize two of the most polarizing and pressing issues facing Spain and the global Catholic Church: addressing long-running clerical sexual abuse scandals within the Church, and advocating for more humane policies toward irregular migration. He is scheduled to hold private meetings with survivors of clergy abuse, engage with migrant advocacy organizations, and make history by becoming the first pope to deliver an address before the Spanish parliament. A large-scale prayer vigil expected to draw roughly 400,000 predominantly young attendees is also planned for Saturday near Real Madrid’s iconic Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.

Even before arriving in Madrid, Pope Leon emphasized the urgency of addressing decades of unaccounted abuse, describing the ongoing crisis as “an open wound” that the Church cannot ignore. In a reflection of shifting attitudes toward the scandal, King Felipe publicly praised the pope’s approach to the issue Saturday, highlighting his “clarity and firmness” as “essential in the process of healing and reparation of the damage inflicted.”

The conversation around abuse accountability in Spain has gained new momentum in recent years. Earlier this year in March, Sanchez’s government and the Spanish Catholic Church finalized a landmark agreement to provide financial compensation to thousands of survivors, after years of widespread public outrage over religious leaders’ repeated failures to investigate and address claims of abuse. A 2023 inquiry conducted by Spain’s national ombudsman’s office estimated that roughly 1.1% of the Spanish population — equivalent to 440,000 people — have experienced sexual abuse at the hands of clergy or Church-affiliated individuals, a figure the Church has formally contested.

On migration, the pope’s visible focus during the visit is widely interpreted as a show of public support for Sanchez’s progressive government, which has carved out a policy stance sharply different from most other European nations. Immigration remains a deeply divisive political issue in Spain, but the current left-wing administration has pushed forward an ambitious plan to grant legal status to approximately 500,000 undocumented migrants currently residing in the country, allowing them to access formal employment and social integration. Later in the tour, the pope will join Sanchez in the Canary Islands to hold a memorial for the more than 9,000 migrants who have died attempting to cross the Atlantic to reach Europe, according to estimates from Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras. Data shows that nearly 47,000 irregular migrants arrived in the Canary Islands in 2024 alone.

In a moment of lighthearted levity amid the weighty policy and social agenda, Pope Leo responded to a reporter’s question on the flight to Madrid about whether he supports Spanish football giants Barcelona or Real Madrid. Displaying characteristic diplomatic skill, he first told reporters the pope supports all teams — then added with a nod to his roots, “But Prevost is for Real Madrid,” referencing his birth name, Robert Francis Prevost.

6 6 月, 2026
Iran’s nightly pro-government rallies reveal both unity and deep divisions

Amid the ongoing conflict between an alliance of the United States and Israel and Iran that began in late February, nearly nightly pro-government rallies held across major Iranian cities have exposed deep rifts within Iranian society, bridging old political divides for some while fueling frustration and internal factional tension for others. These public demonstrations, which launched in mid-March, draw crowds to central squares of major urban centers, where participants wave Iranian national flags, chant anti-US and anti-Israel slogans, and occupy public streets for hours on end. The gatherings have persisted through a national internet blackout, continuing even after partial restrictions on connectivity were lifted, and have drawn a diverse cross-section of attendees with competing motivations for participating.

6 6 月, 2026
Israeli strike kills three Lebanese soldiers

Just days after Lebanese and Israeli negotiators announced a new conditional ceasefire during US-mediated talks in Washington, an Israeli airstrike on a military vehicle in southern Lebanon has left three Lebanese army personnel dead, throwing already fragile diplomatic efforts into further doubt, Lebanon’s military confirmed Saturday.

The deadly incident marks the latest breakdown in a months-long conflict that began when Tehran-aligned armed group Hezbollah launched missile attacks against Israel in March, dragging Lebanon into the broader ongoing Middle East war. In response, Israel launched a cross-border ground and air operation aimed at eliminating Hezbollah’s presence in southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s government has committed to eventually disarming Hezbollah, but has strongly condemned Israel’s incursion, accusing Israeli forces of using scorched-earth tactics to force civilian populations to flee southern Lebanese communities.

According to the Lebanese military statement, the attack killed two officers and one enlisted soldier when their vehicle was hit on the highway linking the towns of Khardali and Nabatieh. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) responded to the incident by saying the targeted vehicle had been moving in a suspicious manner within an active combat zone, an area where the IDF had already ordered civilian evacuations ahead of military operations. The IDF emphasized that its campaign targets only Hezbollah, which it designates a terrorist organization, not official Lebanese state military forces, and confirmed that it is conducting an internal review of the strike.

Hezbollah has condemned the attack as a “heinous crime”, and lashed out at the Lebanese government, accusing it of exposing the nation to bloodshed through what it called “complete surrender to the enemy’s demands” reached during the Washington talks.

This latest violence comes amid a long history of unfulfilled ceasefire agreements between the two sides. A previous truce between Israel and Hezbollah was meant to enter into force on April 17, but it was never fully implemented, with both sides routinely accusing one another of violations and justifying their own attacks as responses to the opposing side’s breaches of the truce terms.

The new conditional truce announced by envoys this week would require Hezbollah to cease all cross-border fire, withdraw its fighters from areas near the Israeli-Lebanese border, and allow the Lebanese army to deploy to new “pilot zones” in the region where it would exercise full security control. However, Hezbollah has already rejected the deal, demanding a complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from what it considers Lebanese territory before any agreement can take hold.

The Lebanese army issued a fierce condemnation of Saturday’s strike, saying that “the continuation of the deliberate and repeated brutal Israeli aggression… is aimed at thwarting all efforts to reach a solution”. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun joined in the denunciation, calling the attack a “flagrant violation of Lebanese sovereignty… despite Lebanon’s efforts in the Washington negotiations to put an end to the continued Israeli aggression that goes unchecked.”

On the same day as the strike, Israel issued updated evacuation orders for five villages across southern and eastern Lebanon, ordering all remaining residents to relocate north of the Zahrani River. Lebanese state media also reported multiple additional Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon over the course of Saturday. In response, Hezbollah announced that it had carried out its own attack targeting Israeli troops.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel launched its large-scale military campaign in response to Hezbollah’s March incursion. Iran has repeatedly insisted that Lebanon must be included in any broader ceasefire agreement it reaches with the United States to end the wider regional war. However, in a CNN interview aired Friday, President Aoun pushed back against Iranian interference in Lebanese affairs, saying “It’s not your country, it’s our country. It’s not your job to interfere into our country.” He added, “They are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with the United States. It’s unacceptable. The majority of the Lebanese people are fed up with war.”

6 6 月, 2026
Ukraine fires wave of drones at Russia on last day of key forum

In a major escalation of cross-border drone warfare, Ukraine launched a wave of hundreds of drone attacks against Russian territory early Saturday, timed to coincide with the closing day of Russia’s high-profile Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The strikes left one civilian dead, sparked a large blaze at a southern Russian oil depot, and marked the second Ukrainian assault on the Saint Petersburg area in less than a week.

6 6 月, 2026
Taipei Zoo welcomes a pair of red pandas from China, first in over a decade

In a rare moment of cross-strait exchange amid sustained elevated tensions, Taipei City Zoo in the capital of Taiwan welcomed two endangered red pandas from mainland China this Saturday. This transfer marks the first official animal exchange between the two sides in more than 10 years, breaking a long lull in wildlife cooperation.

The newly arrived pair consists of a 3-year-old male and a 2-year-old female, both of which fall under the classification of endangered species protected by international conservation frameworks. Per the zoo’s standardized health and acclimation protocols, the two animals will first complete a 30-day quarantine period to rule out any potential disease risks. After finishing quarantine, they will undergo a gradual adjustment period to adapt to Taipei’s climate and new enclosure environment before making their public debut. As of the initial observation period, the red pandas have not yet been assigned official public names.

Taipei Zoo’s on-site observation noted distinct behavioral differences between the two red pandas in their first few hours in the new habitat. The male quickly adjusted to his surroundings, immediately venturing out to explore every corner of his enclosure and willingly eating the food prepared by zookeepers. In contrast, the female displayed more reserved, cautious behavior, choosing to remain in sheltered areas and quietly observe her new environment before engaging further.

According to local Taiwanese newspaper *Taipei Times*, the last time Taipei received red pandas from a mainland Chinese zoo was 2014, when a pair was sent from a facility in Fujian Province. As a species, red pandas are native to multiple South and East Asian regions: besides China, wild populations can also be found in Nepal, Laos, Myanmar and other neighboring countries.

This transfer is part of a reciprocal exchange arrangement. As part of the agreement, Taipei City Zoo will send a pair of white-handed gibbons, another protected species, to a Shanghai zoo in return.

Cross-strait relations remain strained in recent years: Beijing claims the self-governing island of Taiwan as part of its sovereign territory, and official government-to-government contacts across the Taiwan Strait have been suspended for an extended period. Despite this standstill at the national level, lower-level city-to-city exchanges and people-to-people interactions have continued to progress, with wildlife conservation cooperation emerging as a rare area of sustained engagement.

6 6 月, 2026
Pope acknowledges stiff competition with Bad Bunny this weekend in Spain

Aboard his papal flight en route to Spain on Saturday, the first American-born pope, Leo XIV, opened up to reporters with a mix of serious reflection on his pastoral mission and lighthearted quips about unexpected cultural and sporting topics ahead of his seven-nation tour.

His arrival in Madrid this weekend coincides with two back-to-back concerts from global Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny, who is currently touring across Spain. When the pope was asked about anecdotal reports of a growing spiritual hunger among young Spanish people, he acknowledged the massive cultural draw of the Bad Bunny shows in good humor. He admitted that if young people were forced to choose between the pop star’s concert and an event with the pontiff, most would opt for the music. “If they are confronted with the question ‘Do you want to go see Bad Bunny or do you want to go to see the pope?’ I think many will see Bad Bunny,” Leo told reporters. “But I think there will also be a few here to see the pope. And that says something, you know.”

Leo, who grew up in Chicago, said he recognized that many young adults across contemporary Europe are grappling with a widespread sense of emptiness and a lack of purpose in daily life. He expressed hope that his week-long tour across Spain would help spark a new spiritual awakening, reaching those who are open to exploring faith amid the noise of modern life.

The tour, kicking off Saturday in Madrid, will next carry Leo to Barcelona before wrapping up with a stop on the Canary Islands. The pastoral trip comes at a fraught moment for Spain, which is currently deeply divided by bitter political divides and fresh scandals that have shaken both the national government and the Catholic Church in the country. Leo’s core mission for the visit is to deliver a unifying message, seeking to bridge divides in a nation where the Church carries a long and complex historical legacy in an increasingly secular society.

Beyond matters of faith and church leadership, reporters pressed Leo on two high-profile sporting topics close to his personal background. First, he was asked about a recent vote by the Chicago Bears board of directors, which gave the green light this week to move forward with plans to relocate the franchise from Chicago to a new proposed stadium in Hammond, Indiana. When asked if he had any words of comfort for heartbroken Chicago fans, the pontiff joked that the issue falls far outside his area of authority. “That’s out of my pay (scale),” he quipped.

Turning to Spanish soccer, Leo was asked to pick a side between the country’s two most iconic and bitter rivals: Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. The pope demured lightly, noting that as the universal leader of the Catholic Church, he supports all teams. But he revealed his personal allegiance ties back to his civilian life, saying “Prevost is Real Madrid” in a nod to his birth name before being elected to the papacy. He also confirmed he would throw his support behind the United States men’s national team in the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

6 6 月, 2026