Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Dozens of Nigerian fishermen feared dead after Chad air strikes on Boko Haram

    Dozens of Nigerian fishermen feared dead after Chad air strikes on Boko Haram

    A devastating incident in the volatile Lake Chad basin has left dozens of Nigerian fishermen feared killed after Chadian military forces launched retaliatory air raids targeting Boko Haram militants in the shared transboundary region, a top local fishing industry leader has confirmed to the BBC.

    Abubakar Gamandi Usman, who heads the Lake Chad Basin Fisheries Association of Nigeria, confirmed that dozens of union members remain unaccounted for following the strikes, with his preliminary death estimate placing the toll at more than 40. While no casualties have been officially recovered or identified to date, Usman says two distinct fatal scenarios have emerged: some fishermen were directly hit by the air strikes, while others drowned when their overloaded vessels capsized as they fled the attack in panic.

    Officials from both the Chadian and Nigerian governments have not yet released an official statement or responded to requests for comment on the civilian casualties. However, Chad’s presidency confirmed over the weekend that it had conducted intensive retaliatory air strikes against Boko Haram strongholds in the region. In a public announcement posted to its official Facebook page, the presidency explained the operation was launched in response to two unprovoked Boko Haram attacks targeting Chadian military outposts near Lake Chad on the previous Monday and Wednesday. Those militant assaults left at least 24 Chadian soldiers and two senior generals dead, according to local reports.

    The Lake Chad basin is a vast ecologically and economically critical region of interconnected waterways and swampland, shared across the borders of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon. For more than a decade, the area has served as a primary operational hub and stronghold for the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, as well as its splinter rival faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

    Usman explained to the BBC that after attacking Chadian security forces, Boko Haram fighters retreated to remote archipelago positions they use as bases — islands that are also permanently inhabited by artisanal fishing communities who depend on the lake for their livelihoods. When Chadian warplanes entered the airspace above the islands starting Friday, widespread chaos erupted, with both militants and local fishermen scrambling to evacuate the area at the same time.

    Search and recovery operations for missing fishermen have proceeded at a frustratingly slow pace, Usman added, hampered by the lake’s extreme depth in the targeted area and critical logistical constraints. Most functioning canoes and watercraft in the region are controlled by Boko Haram, leaving local communities with limited resources to launch search missions. Even before the strike, Usman noted, Boko Haram effectively controls all access to the lake’s most productive fishing grounds, regulating transport of fishermen between their villages, fishing sites and regional fish markets, and collecting regular illegal taxes from working fishermen operating in the area.

    Security analysts note that the Lake Chad region has seen a sharp escalation in militant activity in recent months, with a rising tide of attacks on regional security forces, mass kidnappings of local civilians, and cross-border raids on settled communities.

    This is not the first time Chadian military counter-terrorism operations have been accused of causing mass civilian casualties among fishing communities. In October 2024, Chadian air strikes targeting Boko Haram positions on Lake Chad’s Tilma Island were also reported to have killed dozens of Nigerian fishermen who were working in the area. Nigerian federal authorities have so far not released any public comment on allegations that civilian fishermen were caught in the crossfire of this latest counter-terrorism operation.

  • Indigenous Amazon groups urge the UN to curb organized crime, not militarize territories

    Indigenous Amazon groups urge the UN to curb organized crime, not militarize territories

    BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – Indigenous collectives spanning the Amazon basin and Latin America are set to deliver a formal letter to the United Nations on Monday, sounding the alarm that transnational organized criminal networks—engaged in illegal mining, drug trafficking, and unregulated logging—are fueling deadly violence and speeding up irreversible environmental destruction across Indigenous rainforest territories. In a key policy demand, the groups are pushing global leaders to reject the heavy-handed militarized crackdowns that many regional governments have deployed to address the crisis, arguing these measures do more harm than good to Indigenous communities.

    The open letter, addressed to all UN member states and specialized agencies including the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, details how criminal syndicates are expanding their control across large swathes of the Amazon and other Indigenous-held lands across Latin America, putting at risk local communities, fragile ecosystems, and traditional Indigenous self-governance structures. Signatories emphasize that the spread of these illegal activities is eroding centuries-old Indigenous governance systems, while directly threatening the communities that have long served as the most effective stewards of one of the planet’s most biologically diverse regions.

    The appeal arrives at a moment when Amazonian Indigenous communities increasingly find themselves trapped between two advancing forces: expanding criminal operations and heavy state security deployments. Over the past decade, illegal gold extraction, unlicensed logging, and drug trafficking routes have pushed deeper into the remote rainforests of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador, leaving a trail of violence, toxic mercury pollution, and widespread deforestation in their wake.

    International human rights organizations and independent UN experts have repeatedly warned of a sharp rise in targeted attacks against Indigenous leaders and environmental defenders, tied directly to disputes over land access, natural resources, and control of illicit regional economies. Data from advocacy group Global Witness shows that between 2012 and 2024, at least 2,253 land and environmental defenders have been killed or disappeared globally, with Latin America accounting for more than 80% of these deadly cases. Many of these attacks occur in the Amazon, and rights groups note that the vast majority of these killings never result in prosecutions or convictions—one recent high-profile example is the 2023 murder of Indigenous defender Quinto Inuma Alvarado in Peru, who repeatedly spoke out against illegal logging and drug trafficking in his territory; five men are currently on trial for his killing, a rare case that has reached the courts.

    Raphael Hoetmer, Western Amazon Program Director at Amazon Watch, an advocacy group that supports Indigenous rights and environmental protection, told the Associated Press that the letter reflects a sharp escalation in urgency among Indigenous organizations as criminal threats spread across the region. “More and more Indigenous Peoples are experiencing the violence and impacts of illicit economies in their territories, so it is higher on the agenda,” Hoetmer explained in a written statement. “Even four years ago this was not a central topic for most of our partners, but now it is one of the central topics for the wide majority.”

    Hoetmer added that the growing control of organized crime is reshaping daily life across most of the Amazon basin, with consequences that extend far beyond the region. “The expansion and control of organized crime and violent conflict is taking over more and more of the Amazon, becoming a risk to their ways of living and to the global climate,” he said.

    Of all the illegal activities plaguing the region, unregulated small-scale gold mining has emerged as one of the most damaging drivers of deforestation and toxic contamination, with mercury from mining operations leaching into rivers and food chains across large parts of the Amazon. Armed criminal groups and trafficking networks have also moved to seize control of strategic river transport routes and resource-rich Indigenous lands, creating an interconnected criminal ecosystem where different illegal activities reinforce one another.

    “Drug trafficking in the Amazon often connects with illegal mining, logging and land grabbing — a criminal ecosystem where environmental degradation disproportionately impacts local populations and Indigenous people,” explained Jeremy Douglas, Deputy Director of Operations for UNODC, in pre-written comments to AP. Douglas noted that addressing the crisis requires a targeted approach: “Pushing back requires territorial protection, prioritizing environmental crimes, and cooperation against transnational organized crime networks active across the Amazon.” At the time of sharing his comments, UNODC had not yet received the Indigenous organizations’ letter, and the agency noted that Douglas’s comments did not constitute an endorsement of the document’s contents. UNODC added that its regional offices across Latin America are already collaborating with Indigenous communities and national governments to strengthen territorial protections and crack down on environmental crimes linked to organized crime networks. The AP did not receive a response from the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues requests for comment ahead of publication.

    The letter bears the signatures of nearly every major Indigenous organization across the Amazon, including the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA), Brazil’s national Indigenous umbrella group APIB, Peru’s leading Indigenous organization AIDESEP, and Ecuador’s CONAIE, alongside dozens of regional Indigenous federations and global advocacy groups.

    Ercilia Castañeda, vice president of CONAIE, Ecuador’s largest Indigenous organization, pointed out that regional governments have increasingly responded to rising organized crime and illegal mining with widespread militarization, a strategy that has consistently failed to resolve the crisis for Indigenous communities. “Militarization has not provided answers,” Castañeda said. Instead, she explained, militarized deployments have forced many Indigenous communities from their traditional lands, leaving residents living in constant fear and suffering long-term psychological harm. “It has affected their relationship with the land, with the water, with sacred sites, with their spiritual life,” she said. “We are talking about a deterioration of the identity and life of Indigenous peoples.”

    Herlín Odicio, vice president of Organización Regional AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU), which represents Indigenous communities in Peru’s Ucayali Amazon region, said criminal groups have adapted their operating strategies in recent years to maintain control of Indigenous territories. “Organized crime in Indigenous territories has changed its strategies significantly,” Odicio said in a phone interview with AP. “They no longer make direct threats. Now they use other strategies.” Odicio explained that criminal networks are increasingly infiltrating local political structures and election campaigns to entrench their influence and continue operating with impunity. He added that the expansion of organized crime has exploited deep existing inequalities in Indigenous communities, where widespread poverty and a persistent lack of basic state services leave many young people vulnerable to recruitment into illegal activities. “They recruit young people to work as ‘mochileros,’” he said, referring to low-level couriers who transport drugs and illegal supplies across remote rainforest terrain. “Then, in the end, when they no longer want them or do not want to pay them, they kill them.” Odicio also warned of a growing crisis of sexual exploitation of Indigenous girls in communities and border areas controlled by criminal groups, with some victims as young as 13 or 14.

    In the letter, Indigenous organizations warn that government responses focused exclusively on military force are likely to worsen conditions for Indigenous communities if they fail to recognize formal Indigenous territorial rights and legitimate traditional self-governance systems. “In light of this situation, it is essential that responses to organized crime and illicit economies do not translate into new processes of militarization, criminalization, or the subordination of Indigenous governance systems,” the letter states.

    The groups are calling on the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to launch a formal, dedicated study on the impact of organized crime and illicit economies in Indigenous territories, and are urging all UN agencies to center Indigenous perspectives when developing regional anti-crime and anti-corruption policies. Castañeda reiterated that the stakes of inaction could not be higher for Indigenous peoples across the Amazon: “We are talking about a deterioration of the identity and life of Indigenous peoples.”

    This reporting on climate and the environment by The Associated Press is supported by funding from multiple private foundations. AP retains full editorial control over all content. More information on AP’s ethical standards for philanthropic partnerships, a full list of supporters, and funded coverage areas is available at AP.org.

  • EU imposes sanctions over helping Russia abduct thousands of Ukrainian children

    EU imposes sanctions over helping Russia abduct thousands of Ukrainian children

    BRUSSELS – In a coordinated action condemning the mass forced displacement of Ukrainian minors, the European Union rolled out a new round of restrictive measures on Monday, targeting 16 individuals and seven facilities tied to Russia’s alleged campaign of abducting tens of thousands of Ukrainian children.

    The newly sanctioned individuals span senior Russian government representatives, military officers overseeing youth training programs, and directors of children’s facilities operating in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. Among the named targets is Lilya Shvetsova, head of the so-called “Red Carnation” children’s camp in occupied Crimea. EU regulatory documents outline that Shvetsova oversaw deliberate programming designed to reshape the political and ideological identities of detained Ukrainian children, aligning with broader efforts to force assimilation of the minors.

    The seven additional sanctioned entities are institutions suspected of running coercive ideological indoctrination programs for abducted children, or providing military training to the minors for service in Russian armed forces or pro-Moscow separatist militias active inside Ukraine. All sanctioned individuals and groups face immediate asset freezes across EU member states and strict bans on entering or traveling through the bloc.

    With this latest update, the total number of individuals and entities placed under EU sanctions for involvement in the child abduction campaign now exceeds 130. EU authorities justify the measures by noting the targeted actors are “responsible for actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine,” a framing that aligns with the bloc’s longstanding position on Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in early 2022.

    Since the invasion began, Ukrainian and international authorities have documented that an estimated 20,500 Ukrainian children have been unlawfully deported to Russia or forcibly transferred to Russian-held territories in eastern Ukraine. Multiple investigations confirm that most of these children are systematically stripped of their Ukrainian cultural and national identities, issued Russian citizenship documents, and placed for adoption by Russian families. Others are funneled into state-run camps for forced ideological reeducation or military training ahead of deployment.

    Addressing her fellow EU foreign ministers in Brussels ahead of the sanctions endorsement, Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže emphasized the gravity of the campaign. “Russia is trying to erase their identity,” Braže stated. “When you look at the Genocide Convention, it’s one of the features of the genocide crime. So, it’s very serious.”

    The forced deportation of Ukrainian children is already the subject of an international arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, which named Russian President Vladimir Putin as personally responsible for the war crime in its 2023 warrant. Despite ongoing diplomatic and legal pressure, progress on returning the abducted minors has been slow: only roughly 2,200 children have been successfully repatriated to date. International aid workers note that the process of locating, identifying, and bringing children home remains extraordinarily challenging: children taken at very young ages often have little memory of their original families, and physical and identifying details shift dramatically over just a few years, making matches difficult. Even after repatriation, many children face social and integration hurdles in returning to Ukrainian life.

    Monday’s sanctions announcement coincided with a major diplomatic gathering hosted by the EU and Canada in Brussels, bringing together the 47-member International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children. The coalition’s core goals are to ramp up collective diplomatic pressure on Moscow to end the abduction campaign, and coordinate global support for the painstaking work of tracing, verifying, and repatriating displaced minors.

    Speaking ahead of the coalition meeting, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos framed the child abduction campaign as one of the most egregious atrocities of the ongoing war. “War has really many faces, but stealing the children is really one of the most horrific,” Kos said. “We should stop this, and Russia should pay.”

  • Portrait looted by Nazis found in home of Dutch SS leader’s descendants

    Portrait looted by Nazis found in home of Dutch SS leader’s descendants

    Eighty years after it was stolen from a prominent Jewish art collector by Nazi occupiers, a long-missing looted painting has been recovered in the Netherlands, after a descendant of the family that held it for generations chose to come forward in an act of accountability. Renowned Dutch art detective Arthur Brand, who has built his career tracking down stolen Nazi-era art, has revealed the details of this extraordinary case: *Portrait of a Young Girl*, a work by early 20th century Dutch artist Toon Kelder, was discovered in the residence of descendants of Hendrik Seyffardt, a notorious Dutch Nazi collaborator.

    The painting was originally part of the vast, celebrated collection of Jacques Goudstikker, a leading Jewish art dealer based in the Netherlands. When Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940, Goudstikker fled the country for his life, but died mid-escape, leaving behind more than 1,000 works of art that were quickly seized by Nazi plunderers. Most of Goudstikker’s collection was dispersed, sold off at auction after being looted.

    The case came to Brand’s attention when a man, who discovered he was a direct descendant of Seyffardt, reached out through an intermediary. Seyffardt was a high-ranking Dutch military officer who commanded a volunteer Waffen-SS unit fighting for Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front, before being assassinated by Dutch resistance fighters in 1943. The descendant told Brand he was disgusted upon learning his family had held the looted artwork for decades, and decided to act to return it to its rightful owners. When he confronted his grandmother about the painting, she acknowledged its provenance openly: she told him it had been acquired during the war, that it was looted Jewish property stolen from Goudstikker, and that it was unsellable, instructing him to keep the secret, Brand confirmed.

    In statements to Dutch media, the family, who changed their surname after World War Two ended, has confirmed they held the painting for generations, but maintain they had no knowledge of its true origins until recently. The descendant told De Telegraaf, a major Dutch newspaper, that he feels deep shame and believes the work belongs with Goudstikker’s surviving heirs. His grandmother echoed that position in her own statement, saying she inherited the painting from her mother and now understands why Goudstikker’s family wants it returned.

    After being contacted, Brand launched a thorough investigation to verify the painting’s provenance. He found an old label on the back of the canvas and the number 92 etched into the work’s frame. Cross-referencing this mark with archival records from a 1940 auction where hundreds of pieces from Goudstikker’s looted collection were sold, Brand found a matching entry: lot number 92 was listed as *Portrait of a Young Girl* by Toon Kelder. Brand’s investigation suggests the painting was originally seized by Hermann Goering, one of the most powerful Nazi leaders and an avid art plunderer, after Goudstikker fled the Netherlands. It was then sold at the 1940 auction to Seyffardt, and passed down through the family ever since.

    Brand confirmed he reached out to legal representatives for Goudstikker’s heirs, who verified that Goudstikker once owned six works by Toon Kelder, all of which were included in that 1940 auction of looted art. For Brand, a seasoned investigator who has recovered dozens of Nazi-looted works from major institutions including the Louvre and the Dutch Royal Collection, this case stands out as one of the most remarkable of his career. “This is stunning, the most bizarre case of my entire career,” he told the BBC. “But discovering a painting from the famous Goudstikker collection, in the possession of the heirs of a notorious and famous Dutch Waffen-SS general, truly tops everything.” He noted that while the current generation of the family bears no personal responsibility for Seyffardt’s wartime crimes, they kept the painting for decades when they could have done the right thing and returned it voluntarily.

    This recovery draws parallels to another high-profile case involving Goudstikker’s looted collection, when an Italian Renaissance masterpiece by Giuseppe Ghislandi, also stolen by the Nazis from Goudstikker, was spotted on an Argentine real estate website, hanging in a home once owned by a senior Nazi official who fled to South America after the war. Authorities launched a raid to recover the work, but it had been removed before police arrived, and remains missing to this day.

    This new recovery marks another small step toward correcting the widespread art theft carried out by the Nazi regime during World War Two, and highlights how even 80 years later, looted works are still being traced and returned to the families of their original owners.

  • Nazi-looted portrait found in home of Dutch SS leader’s family: art sleuth

    Nazi-looted portrait found in home of Dutch SS leader’s family: art sleuth

    Dutch art investigator Arthur Brand, globally recognized for cracking high-profile stolen art cases, revealed a groundbreaking discovery Monday: a long-lost painting looted by the Nazis from the iconic Goudstikker collection has been found in the possession of the descendants of one of the Netherlands’ most infamous Nazi collaborators. The work, *Portrait of a Young Girl* by 20th-century Dutch artist Toon Kelder, is believed to have hung unnoticed on the walls of the Seyffardt family home for more than 75 years, in what Brand calls the most extraordinary case of his entire career.

    The discovery echoes a 2025 global headlines-making find, where another Nazi-plundered piece from the Goudstikker collection was uncovered in an Argentine property listing, reigniting global interest in the hundreds of artworks still missing from the legendary collection. Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Jewish art dealer based in Amsterdam, fled the Netherlands for England in 1940 as Nazi forces invaded, leaving his entire 1,300-piece collection behind. Top Nazi official Hermann Göring seized the entire collection within months, dispersing many works at public auctions later that year.

    The current case was set in motion when an anonymous descendant of Hendrik Seyffardt reached out to Brand with two startling revelations: he came from a line of high-ranking Nazi collaborators, and his family had kept the stolen artwork for generations. The anonymous man told investigators he spotted the painting hanging in the hallway of Seyffardt’s granddaughter. Hendrik Seyffardt, who led a Dutch volunteer Waffen-SS unit deployed to the Eastern Front, was the highest-profile Dutch collaborator assassinated by Dutch resistance fighters in 1943. His death made the front page of *The New York Times*, and the Nazi regime held a state-funded funeral in The Netherlands’ capital The Hague, where Adolf Hitler personally sent a wreath to honor his death.

    Brand’s investigation confirmed the artwork’s provenance: the painting bears an original Goudstikker collection label on its back, and the number 92 is carved directly into its frame. Cross-referencing with archives from the 1940 Nazi auction of looted Goudstikker works matched the number and description to Kelder’s portrait. Brand concluded Seyffardt acquired the piece at that auction, and it was passed down through his family over the decades. According to testimony from the anonymous descendant, Seyffardt’s granddaughter acknowledged the painting was stolen Jewish property, noting it was “unsellable” and instructing family members to keep its existence secret. But the anonymous descendant, who says he feels deep shame over the family’s connection to the stolen work, pushed to make the story public, telling Dutch daily *De Telegraaf* “the painting should be returned to the heirs of Goudstikker.”

    Seyffardt’s granddaughter has pushed back against claims she knew the work was looted, telling the outlet she inherited the piece from her mother and did not know of its stolen origins. “Now that you confront me like this, I understand that Goudstikker’s heirs want the painting back. I didn’t know that,” she said.

    Lawyers representing the Goudstikker heirs have already confirmed the artwork was looted and formally demanded its return. But legal avenues for recovery are limited: the theft falls far outside the Netherlands’ statute of limitations, leaving police with no authority to seize the piece. The Dutch Restitution Committee, the national body that advises on the return of Nazi-looted art, also lacks the legal power to compel private individuals to surrender stolen works. The anonymous descendant has chosen public exposure as the best path forward to pressure the family to return the portrait to its rightful owners.

    Brand, who has been nicknamed the “Indiana Jones of the Art World” for his track record of recovering high-value stolen art, said this find outstrips any other discovery in his career. He has previously recovered Nazi-looted works from major institutions including the Louvre and the Dutch Royal Collection, but said “discovering a painting from the famous Goudstikker collection, in the possession of the heirs of a notorious Dutch Waffen-SS general, truly tops everything.”

  • Filmmakers slam BBC after Gaza documentary wins award despite being dropped

    Filmmakers slam BBC after Gaza documentary wins award despite being dropped

    On Sunday evening at the British Academy Television Awards, a hard-hitting documentary about Israeli attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system delivered a double blow: it took home one of the night’s most prestigious honors, and used its moment in the spotlight to publicly condemn the BBC for shelving the project. The film, *Gaza: Doctors Under Attack*, was originally commissioned and funded by the UK’s public broadcaster before being pulled from broadcast schedules just months before its planned release in June 2023. It went on to air on rival network Channel 4, which stepped in to back the project after the BBC’s decision to drop it, and ultimately won the BAFTA for Best Current Affairs Programme.

    Accepting the award on the team’s behalf, journalist and documentary presenter Ramita Navai did not hold back in calling out the BBC’s choice to censor the work. “The BBC paid for this documentary but refused to show it,” Navai told the ceremony audience. “But we refused to be silenced and censored. We thank Channel 4 for stepping up and showing this film.”

    The content of the award-winning film has made its censorship controversy understandable to many observers, as it pulls back the curtain on one of the most sensitive and widely debated aspects of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza: the systematic targeting of the enclave’s crippled healthcare system. The documentary opens with graphic footage recovered from the mobile phone of a Palestinian medic killed by Israeli gunfire, immediately centering the narrative on the toll of attacks on medical workers and infrastructure. In the film, Navai argues that “Israel has been killing the very people trying to keep [Gaza’s] healthcare system alive.”

    Throughout the documentary, the production team highlights repeated official claims from the Israeli military about its operations in Gaza, systematically noting that the military has failed to provide tangible evidence to back up many of its key assertions. This narrative framing directly challenges longstanding justifications for Israeli attacks on Gaza hospitals, strikes that have been repeatedly condemned by international human rights organizations as clear violations of international humanitarian law.

    When the BBC first pulled the documentary weeks ahead of its planned broadcast, the public broadcaster cited concerns over the work’s compliance with its internal impartiality rules. Deborah Turness, who served as head of BBC News and Current Affairs at the time of the decision, pointed to alleged problematic social media activity from one of the journalists involved in the project, and criticized language Navai used in a radio interview as inconsistent with the BBC’s impartiality standards.

    The BAFTA victory amplified the criticism of the BBC’s decision, with the documentary’s executive producer Ben de Pear doubling down on the rebuke during his acceptance remarks. De Pear directly referenced the BBC’s role as the official broadcaster of the BAFTA ceremony, asking in a pointed jab: “Given you dropped the film, will you drop us from the BAFTA screening?”

    The confrontation has brought renewed attention to growing accusations that the BBC has systematically censored and sidelined Palestinian perspectives throughout the current war in Gaza, while giving disproportionate platform to Israeli official narratives. In a previous defense of its decision to drop *Gaza: Doctors Under Attack*, the BBC argued that it had worked closely with the documentary team to develop the project, but ultimately concluded that airing the film’s documentation of alleged Israeli crimes would risk creating a public perception of partiality. The broadcaster also acknowledged disappointment over the outcome, saying “We want to thank the doctors and contributors and we are sorry we could not tell their stories. The BBC will continue to cover events in Gaza impartially.”

    The BAFTA win for the censored documentary has ignited fresh debate across the UK about media balance, press freedom, and the ethics of covering the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with advocates for Palestinian rights pointing to the award as validation of the film’s urgent, unflinching reporting.

  • Trump and Xi are set to meet. Where do US-China tariffs stand?

    Trump and Xi are set to meet. Where do US-China tariffs stand?

    The decades-long dance of economic competition and cooperation between the world’s two largest economies is set to enter a critical new phase this week, as Beijing officially confirms U.S. President Donald Trump will travel to China for a high-stakes meeting with President Xi Jinping from May 13 to 15. This summit marks the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to China in nearly 10 years, arriving at a make-or-break moment for bilateral relations that ripple across global supply chains, financial markets, and international security. Trump will be accompanied by C-suite executives from top American corporations including Boeing, Citigroup, and Qualcomm, with many industry analysts expecting major new bilateral business deals to be announced during the trip. Beyond commercial agreements, the meeting stands as the most significant test yet of the fragile trade truce struck between Washington and Beijing last October.

    The roots of the current trade standoff stretch back to Trump’s first 2016 presidential campaign, when he won office on a pledge to rewrite unfair trade terms for the United States and bring hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs back to American soil. In 2018, just a year into his first term, he followed through on that promise by imposing sweeping tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports, a move that most global trade analysts mark as the official start of the modern U.S.-China trade war. That same year, Trump extended tariffs to other major U.S. trading partners, including Mexico, Canada, and the European Union, arguing that all had exploited unfair trade practices to gain an edge over American workers.

    Ning Leng, a policy researcher at Georgetown University, notes that the 2018 tariffs came as a major shock to Chinese policymakers, who had not anticipated Trump would follow through on his campaign threats. At the time, China’s economy was far more dependent on export sales to the U.S. market, which served as a critical lifeline for millions of Chinese manufacturing jobs. The tariffs added additional strain to long-running structural challenges already weighing on China’s economy, including sluggish domestic consumer spending, elevated youth unemployment, and a years-long property sector crisis. Ning explained, “It’s harder for one country to withstand a trade war with another that it has a trade surplus with,” highlighting the particular vulnerability China faced in the early stages of the conflict.

    When Joe Biden took office in 2021, he opted to maintain the pressure on Beijing, choosing not to roll back any of Trump’s existing China tariffs. The Biden administration shared the bipartisan Washington consensus that maintaining trade pressure was necessary to curb China’s technological and economic expansion, Ning said. Beyond keeping existing tariffs in place, Biden introduced sweeping new restrictions on Chinese firms: tech giant Huawei was effectively barred from the U.S. market over national security concerns, TikTok was forced to separate its U.S. operations from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, and heavy new tariffs effectively blocked Chinese electric vehicle imports from accessing the U.S. market.

    Tang Heiwai, an economist at the University of Hong Kong, argues that contrary to popular perception, the Biden administration was actually more protectionist on China than Trump’s first term. “We often think that Trump is tough on China, but there is an argument to say that Biden was even more protectionist than Trump was,” Tang noted.

    After winning re-election and returning to the White House in 2025, Trump doubled down on his hardline tariff policy against China. He first imposed a 20% tariff on Chinese goods, accusing Beijing of failing to crack down on the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals into the United States. On what the Trump administration dubbed “Liberation Day,” he raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 34%, pushing total U.S. duties on Chinese goods to among the highest levels applied to any U.S. trading partner.

    The sweeping new tariffs triggered immediate tit-for-tat retaliation from Beijing, which imposed new duties on U.S. agricultural goods, directly targeting the American farm sector that forms one of Trump’s core political voter bases. But Trump’s tariff push hit an unexpected hurdle: China’s near-global monopoly on rare earth mineral supplies, which are critical inputs for everything from consumer smartphones to military fighter jets. With hundreds of major American industries dependent on Chinese rare earth exports, the Trump administration was forced to open negotiations for a truce.

    The breakthrough came during a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Xi at Gimhae Air Base in South Korea last October. In the deal struck at that meeting, Beijing agreed to suspend temporary rare earth export controls implemented in retaliation for the new U.S. tariffs, a win that the White House framed as a major diplomatic victory for Trump. The agreement also saw China commit to immediately resume large-scale purchases of U.S. agricultural products, a key priority for the Trump administration. In exchange, Washington rolled back a portion of the tariffs imposed on China over the fentanyl dispute, paused planned reciprocal tariff increases, and relaxed restrictions on sales of advanced semiconductors to China (though restrictions on the most cutting-edge chip technology remain in place).

    While that meeting produced an indefinite truce, negotiators on both sides failed to reach a permanent, comprehensive resolution to the core trade disputes that sparked the war. Tang notes that China’s economic model, which relies on heavy investment in manufacturing production, leaves Chinese firms heavily dependent on export sales due to persistently weak domestic consumer spending. “There’s no single country as big as [the U.S.] as a consumer market,” Tang explained, meaning China cannot afford to walk away from access to the American market entirely.

    That said, Beijing enters this week’s summit from a far stronger negotiating position than it held just a few years ago. As trade ties with the U.S. weakened over the past decade, China has aggressively expanded trade relationships with new partners across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, pushing its total annual export volumes to record highs. Beijing has also poured billions of dollars into domestic research and development in advanced robotics and domestic semiconductor manufacturing, aiming to cut its long-term reliance on Western technology from firms like Nvidia.

    For the Trump administration, key priorities for the summit are expected to include pushing Beijing to increase purchases of U.S. goods from strategically important sectors, including soybeans and commercial aircraft parts. But Trump enters the meeting facing major domestic political and legal headwinds for his trade agenda: just weeks before the summit, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs as unconstitutional. Trump has since imposed a temporary 10% across-the-board tariff on all global imports using an alternate trade law, and launched a new investigation into alleged unfair trade practices by China and other major trading partners. Just last week, a U.S. trade court ruled that this new temporary global tariff was also unjustified, opening the door to additional legal challenges that could undermine Trump’s trade policy agenda.

    Beyond trade, the ongoing war in Iran is expected to be a major topic of discussion during the Beijing summit. So far, China has weathered the economic fallout of the conflict far better than many of its regional neighbors, thanks to its own domestic oil production and its long-term reliance on Russian crude imports, which insulate it from global energy price volatility. Even though China is Iran’s largest single purchaser of crude oil, those factors have softened the blow of the war on China’s economy. However, as the conflict drags on, it has begun to put increasing pressure on Chinese growth, prompting senior Beijing officials to pledge new measures to protect the country’s energy security and global supply chain links, according to global security analysts.

    Both Washington and Beijing share a core incentive to bring the Iran war to a swift end, but the two countries hold starkly differing policy positions on Iran’s future and regional security more broadly. The entire world will be watching closely this week to see if the two global powers can bridge their divides and move past years of escalating trade and geopolitical tension.

  • Asia braces for a second wave of energy shocks from the Iran war

    Asia braces for a second wave of energy shocks from the Iran war

    Weeks after the outbreak of the Iran war, the emergency short-term energy mitigation measures that Asian governments rolled out to counter sudden supply shocks are already running out of steam, and a far more damaging second wave of economic fallout is now spreading across the region, according to analysts and official data.

    When the conflict first disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical energy chokepoint that carries roughly a third of global seaborne oil to Asian markets, regional capitals moved quickly to contain the damage. Emergency policies included mandatory energy conservation, reallocating limited natural gas supplies away from industrial uses to prioritize household needs, and drawing down strategic petroleum reserves to temporarily bridge supply gaps. But all these interventions were designed under the core assumption that the conflict would be short-lived, allowing energy shipments through the strait to quickly resume. That optimistic scenario has yet to materialize.

    With no diplomatic or military resolution in sight, the fuel crisis is now rippling through every corner of regional economies. Airfares, maritime shipping costs and household utility bills are climbing sharply, eroding consumer purchasing power and putting already fragile post-pandemic growth at risk. The United Nations Development Programme estimates that as many as 8.8 million people across the Asia-Pacific could be pushed into extreme poverty by the conflict, which could cause a total of $299 billion in cumulative economic losses across the region.

    “The countries with the weakest capacity to respond, and the low-income consumers who can least absorb extra costs, are the first to bear the brunt of this crisis,” explained Samantha Gross, a energy security expert at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

    Most Asian nations drafted their 202X national budgets based on a forecast that Brent crude would average roughly $70 per barrel, with widespread fuel subsidies put in place to keep consumer prices stable. The conflict has sent benchmark crude soaring to peaks near $120 per barrel, creating an intractable fiscal dilemma for governments across the region.

    As Ahmad Rafdi Endut, an independent energy analyst based in Kuala Lumpur, puts it: Governments are forced to choose between two unappealing options. Either maintain expensive subsidies that will rapidly drain public finances, or roll back those support measures and pass steep price increases on to households, which carries major risk of public unrest.

    Case studies across the region illustrate how deep the crisis has become. In India, the world’s top rice exporter, early policy decisions to redirect fuel supplies to prioritize cooking gas access for 330 million low-income households have left fertilizer manufacturers with insufficient feedstock. Combined with already sky-high fertilizer prices and forecasts for weak monsoon rains amid an El Niño event, the disruption poses a major threat to the nation’s agricultural sector and food security. To date, New Delhi has relied on broad energy subsidies to shield its 1.4 billion people from price hikes, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently called on citizens to cut back on international travel, work from home where possible, shift to public transport, and reduce fertilizer use to conserve energy and preserve foreign currency reserves.

    The Philippines introduced a four-day workweek to cut national fuel consumption and rolled out targeted subsidies for low-income households, but credit rating agency Fitch Ratings notes that most consumers still face far higher energy costs, which has already slowed business activity in major urban centers like Manila. Thailand was forced to scrap its diesel price cap less than a month after the conflict began when its subsidy budget ran out, and is now cutting spending on other public programs to offset higher oil costs while trying to keep its deficit under control. Vietnam extended a suspension of fuel taxes to cap domestic prices, but jet fuel shortages have forced airlines to cut the number of flights, hitting a tourism sector that makes up nearly 8% of the nation’s gross domestic product. “Business is not good right now. There are already fewer tourists,” said Nguyen Manh Thang, a tour guide based in Hanoi.

    For lower-income, cash-strapped economies like Pakistan and Bangladesh, the crisis is even more severe. Both nations have been forced to purchase spot market oil and gas at current inflated, volatile prices instead of locking in lower rates through long-term supply contracts, sending import costs soaring and putting massive additional pressure on their already depleted foreign exchange reserves.

    Endut warns that once existing subsidy budgets are exhausted and inflation begins to accelerate, many regional economies could face what he calls a “fiscal time bomb” that threatens both fiscal stability and social order.

    Experts emphasize that even when the conflict eventually ends, Asian economies will not see immediate relief. Samantha Gross of Brookings notes that global oil and gas trade will not bounce back overnight. Restarting idled production capacity, repairing any damaged energy infrastructure, and organizing new shipments from the Middle East to Asian end markets will take weeks, if not months, to complete.

    While Europe will face a similar wave of disruption, analysts say it will arrive roughly four weeks behind the impact hitting Asia. U.S. consumers are also feeling the strain of spiking gasoline prices, but Henning Gloystein, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group consultancy, says Southeast Asia is currently the “biggest pain point” of the global energy crisis. “This fuel shortage situation is going to get worse before it gets better,” he warned.

    The spillover extends far beyond Asia: higher energy and import costs are straining government budgets, widening fiscal deficits and driving up inflation across Africa, while growth projections have already been downgraded for Latin America and the Caribbean due to the ongoing disruptions. Ted Krantz, CEO of global supply chain risk management firm Interos.ai, warns that the complex overlapping disruptions to global supply chains will continue to create broader economic headwinds for months to come.

    The crisis has also laid bare the fragility of Asia’s fast-growing middle class, according to Maria Monica Wihardja, a fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute based in Singapore. Millions of people who recently moved out of poverty now face the risk of sliding back into lower income brackets, and the energy shock will reshape Southeast Asian economies for years to come, altering labor market dynamics and long-term energy planning.

    In response to the crisis, regional governments have already begun debating and implementing long-term structural adjustments, including diversifying fossil fuel supply sources, scaling up nuclear energy development, and accelerating the deployment of renewable energy sources like solar power.

    Albert Park, chief economist at the Asian Development Bank, notes that the conflict has pushed geopolitical risk to the center of Southeast Asia’s economic outlook, and is already directly slowing regional growth. “The longer it lasts, the larger those negative effects would be,” he said.

  • ISIS-linked mother and daughter Kawsar Ahmad and Zeinab Ahmad reveal new bail effort on slavery charges

    ISIS-linked mother and daughter Kawsar Ahmad and Zeinab Ahmad reveal new bail effort on slavery charges

    In a surprising development in an Australian human trafficking and slavery case, a mother-daughter pair facing multiple slavery and crimes against humanity charges have withdrawn their immediate push for bail, just days after their arrest on arrival back in Australia from a Syrian refugee camp.

    Fifty-four-year-old Kawsar Ahmad and her 31-year-old daughter Zeinab Ahmad appeared before Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday afternoon, four days after federal officers took them into custody at Melbourne Airport last Thursday. The two Australian citizens are among 13 people – four women and nine children – repatriated to Australia from the Al Roj camp in northern Syria, where they had been held by Kurdish forces since March 2019. The camp holds relatives of people alleged to be affiliated with the ISIS terror group.

    Court documents detail that the pair traveled to Syria originally in 2014. Prosecutors allege that in June 2017, Kawsar Ahmad aided in the purchase of a 20-something-year-old Yazidi woman for $10,000 USD. Between that purchase and November 2018, both women allegedly held the victim in their home in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province, exercising full ownership over her in conditions that meet legal definitions of slavery.

    Kawsar Ahmad, who also goes by the name Kawsar Abbas, faces four separate counts covering enslavement, holding a person as a slave, exploiting a slave, and participating in slave trading – all classified as crimes against humanity under Australian law. Zeinab Ahmad, alternatively listed as Zeinab Ahmed, faces two counts of enslavement and exploitation of a slave. Arrest warrants for the two women were first issued back on February 17 this year, after authorities confirmed they planned to return to Australia after years detained overseas.

    The charges outline that the alleged conduct was carried out knowingly as part of a systematic, widespread attack targeting the civilian population in the war-torn region. Prior to Monday’s hearing, court observers had confirmed the pair’s legal team was preparing immediate bail applications to secure their release ahead of trial. But in a sudden shift, Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan told the court the defendants had withdrawn their immediate applications, instead requesting that bail hearings be scheduled at a later date next month.

    After a short adjournment, Hannan set Zeinab Ahmad’s bail hearing for June 5, and Kawsar Ahmad’s for June 16. The two defendants were supported in court by Kawsar Ahmad’s brother, Abraham Abbas, who attended in a show of family support. The repatriation of the group from Syria already sparked unrest last week, when supporters of the returning group clashed with journalists covering the arrival at Melbourne Airport.

    Under Australian law, the media is prohibited from publicly naming the Yazidi woman who is the alleged primary victim in the case. Hannan has also issued an interim suppression order blocking the identification of a second woman who will serve as a witness for the prosecution in the trial. Prosecutors confirmed on Monday that they would file an application to have this second witness designated a “special witness” under Australia’s criminal procedure rules, which would extend the lifetime ban on any publication that could reveal her identity. The witness is alleged to have also been a victim of slavery-related offenses separate from the charges against Ahmad and her daughter, but will give testimony covering her interactions with the two accused. A preliminary hearing on the special witness designation is scheduled to take place in the same court on Tuesday.

  • Turkish Airlines jet catches fire while landing at Nepal’s main airport; all passengers safe

    Turkish Airlines jet catches fire while landing at Nepal’s main airport; all passengers safe

    On a Monday morning in Kathmandu, Nepal, an unexpected emergency disrupted operations at the country’s busiest air hub: a Turkish Airlines passenger jet erupted in flames while touching down at Tribhuvan International Airport. Though the incident caused significant disruption to regional air travel, no casualties or injuries have been confirmed by local aviation authorities.

    According to airport officials, the Istanbul-originating flight landed with visible fire and thick smoke billowing from the aircraft’s right landing gear. Emergency response teams were activated immediately after the incident, and first responders successfully brought the blaze under control in a timely manner. All 277 passengers on board the Airbus A330 were safely evacuated from the aircraft without harm.

    The single active runway at Tribhuvan — Nepal’s only international gateway — was closed shortly after the emergency to allow for official investigations and clearance work. With the runway out of service, multiple incoming commercial flights bound for Kathmandu were forced to hold over alternative airspace or divert to alternate airports, leaving hundreds of passengers affected by delays across the region.

    This incident adds to Nepal’s long-running history of aviation challenges, rooted in its unique geographic and meteorological conditions. The country’s mountainous landscape creates unpredictable flying conditions, and civil aviation records show Nepal experiences a higher-than-average rate of aircraft accidents and incidents compared to global averages.

    Notably, this is not the first time a Turkish Airlines aircraft has faced an emergency during landing at Kathmandu airport. Back in 2015, another jet from the carrier skidded off a rain-slicked runway amid heavy dense fog, forcing a multi-day shutdown of the airport. Miraculously, that incident also resulted in zero reported injuries. After the aircraft was recovered from the runway, it was towed out of the airport and eventually converted into a public aviation museum.