Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Malawians repatriated from South Africa amid xenophobia concerns

    Malawians repatriated from South Africa amid xenophobia concerns

    Escalating xenophobic tensions and targeted violence against foreign migrants in South Africa’s Western Cape province have triggered a wave of coordinated repatriation efforts led by several African nations, with hundreds of foreign nationals already returning to their home countries and more evacuations scheduled in the coming days.

    The unrest began in Mossel Bay, a coastal city in Western Cape, where violent attacks targeting undocumented migrants left two Mozambican citizens dead last week. Eyewitness and local reports documented systematic door-to-door intimidation of foreign-born residents, forcing hundreds of non-South African nationals to flee their homes and seek emergency shelter in temporary camps set up across the area.

    Among those displaced are 150 Malawian migrants, who are set to cross the border into Malawi by road on Monday, according to an official statement released by Malawi’s government in Lilongwe. The Malawian group is just one cohort of hundreds of foreign nationals that have left South Africa following the recent surge in violence. Local anti-migrant activist groups have ramped up pressure in recent weeks, issuing a public deadline of June 30 for all undocumented migrants to leave South Africa.

    The violence has prompted cross-regional diplomatic response, with Ghana, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe all launching official repatriation operations to bring their endangered citizens home. Zimbabwean state media confirmed that 74 Zimbabwean migrants arrived back in their home country on Sunday, after government-organized transport evacuated them from Mossel Bay in the wake of the attacks.

    Ghana has already completed two large-scale evacuation movements: a repatriation flight from Johannesburg carried nearly 300 Ghanaians at the end of May, and an additional 680 citizens reached the capital Accra over the past weekend. Nigeria, meanwhile, has adjusted its evacuation timeline: the first flight scheduled to carry 270 Nigerian nationals out of Johannesburg on Monday has been pushed back to Wednesday due to unexpected logistical challenges, according to foreign affairs spokesperson Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa.

    Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has authorized five total evacuation flights to bring vulnerable citizens home, and authorities have extended registration and screening for affected migrants through Wednesday to process all eligible applicants. As of press time, more than 500 Nigerians have already completed screening and received approval for repatriation as part of the federal government’s emergency response to the crisis.

    In an attempt to de-escalate rising national tensions, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Sunday, announcing a new package of policy measures intended to crack down on undocumented migration. However, the president also firmly condemned vigilante violence and anti-foreigner sentiment, emphasizing that South Africa has no tolerance for discrimination. “There is no space for xenophobia, racism, sexism, Afrophobia or any other forms of intolerance” in the country, Ramaphosa stated.

    The ongoing violence and mass displacement have highlighted longstanding tensions around migration and economic inequality in South Africa, with regional governments stepping in to protect their citizens as unrest continues ahead of the anti-migrant deadline set for the end of June.

  • Israel, Iran trade fire for first time since truce

    Israel, Iran trade fire for first time since truce

    After two months of a fragile ceasefire that held across the Middle East, fresh violence has erupted between Israel and Iran, marking the first direct exchange of attacks since the truce took hold in April and throwing long-running diplomatic efforts to end the regional war into severe jeopardy. The escalation, which has already drawn in other regional actors and sent global energy markets swinging upward, unfolded against a backdrop of mounting tensions sparked by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh district, a stronghold of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

    The sequence of violence began on Sunday, when the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the Israeli military had targeted a militant command center in the Beirut suburb, in retaliation for a earlier missile and drone attack by Hezbollah on two Israeli army barracks along the northern border. Lebanon’s national health ministry reported the strike left two people dead and another 20 injured, triggering immediate condemnation and a vow of revenge from Iran.

    Shortly after, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a wave of missiles at two key Israeli air bases, Nevatim Air Base and Tel Nof Air Base, framing the strike as a justified response to what it called “Zionist regime aggression.” The Israeli military announced it had launched counter-strikes against Iranian defense installations located across multiple regions of Iran, saying it had successfully dismantled key defensive capabilities. Air raid sirens wailed across Israeli cities from Jerusalem to Netanya, with AFP correspondents in the region reporting repeated explosions as Israeli defense systems worked to intercept incoming Iranian missiles. As of Monday, no casualties have been reported on either side of the exchange.

    The conflict quickly expanded to other parts of the region: Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement announced its own missile attack on Israel — the first such strike since early April — and reimposed a total ban on Israeli shipping transiting the Red Sea, reviving the threat of widespread disruption to one of the world’s busiest and most economically critical maritime trade routes. The strike that hit an Iranian petrochemical complex in the exchange also compounded existing energy market jitters.

    Iran has directly blamed the United States for enabling the resumption of hostilities, arguing that Israel would not launch any major military action without prior American coordination. “No one believes that the Zionist regime would carry out any action without prior coordination and cooperation with the United States,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters in Tehran during a press conference attended by AFP. “It is perfectly natural that the diplomatic process initiated to put an end to this imposed war would be affected.” Even so, Baqaei confirmed that diplomatic consultations would continue despite the renewed fighting. Iran’s parliament speaker and chief nuclear negotiator with Washington, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, went further, saying the U.S. had given a “green light” for the Beirut strike and declaring all American and Israeli assets around the world to be legitimate military targets.

    The renewed violence came as the U.S. continued efforts to push both sides toward a permanent peace deal, more than three months after the regional war erupted from joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly pushed for a negotiated end to the conflict, issued an urgent call for restraint from both sides. In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump pushed back against suggestions that Netanyahu set the pace of policy, saying “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn’t call the shots.” Speaking to Fox News later, he urged Iran to de-escalate, saying “What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the table and make a deal.”

    Global powers have widely called for an immediate de-escalation. European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas urged both sides to set aside hostilities and return to negotiations. China also issued a statement calling for restraint, with foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian noting that “resuming hostilities is not in any party’s interest.”

    For ordinary Iranians, the return of open conflict has compounded weeks of economic and personal uncertainty, already worsened by Iran’s ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — the critical global chokepoint for 20% of the world’s daily oil trade — that has driven up prices across the country. The fresh outbreak of fighting sent global crude prices surging more than 5% on Monday, as investors priced in the growing risk that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed indefinitely. “I really have gone numb,” 32-year-old fitness trainer Elaheh from the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz told AFP. “Daily life? It’s a joke. Everything is horrible. We only try to survive,” she said, pointing to skyrocketing living costs.

    Even amid the fighting, limited diplomatic activity continues. Over the weekend, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi traveled to Tehran to deliver what he described as a “special letter” to Iran’s Supreme Leader, according to Iranian state media. A Pakistani official confirmed Naqvi has since returned to Islamabad, and Iran says diplomatic consultations mediated by Pakistan are continuing even as open hostilities resume with Israel.

  • At least 19 dead after major earthquake strikes southern Philippines

    At least 19 dead after major earthquake strikes southern Philippines

    A powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit off the coast of Mindanao island in the southern Philippines has left at least 19 people dead and more than 130 injured, according to initial local official reports. The deadly seismic event struck at 7:37 a.m. local time on Monday, equal to 23:37 GMT on Sunday, sending shockwaves across the region and prompting emergency tsunami warnings across four nations: the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, and Australia. Most of these alerts were lifted within hours of the initial quake.

    Visual documentation circulating on social media and shared by local outlets captured the devastating force of the quake, showing multiple structures reduced to rubble. One widely circulated clip shows a local Jollibee fast-food outlet in a southern Philippine city completely crumbled, a striking image that has underscored the quake’s destructive power. Initial casualty counts, compiled by local authorities, list injuries across three hard-hit provinces — South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Sarangani — as well as General Santos city, the major urban center closest to the quake’s epicenter. These preliminary numbers are still undergoing formal verification by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), the national body that formalizes disaster casualty statistics by aggregating data from police, local governments, and relief organizations, a process that typically takes roughly 24 hours to complete.

    In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued a public statement confirming that national government agencies were coordinating a unified disaster response. “The national government is moving and we will not leave Mindanao behind,” Marcos assured the public. The quake coincided with the first day of the new Philippine school year, prompting Marcos to order an immediate suspension of classes across all affected regions. Footage from a primary school in Davao Occidental province captured the terrifying experience of students during the quake: dozens of children can be seen crouching on open ground as the earth shook beneath them, while a corrugated metal shelter collapsed behind the group. The school later confirmed that no students or staff were injured in the incident.

    As of Tuesday morning, more than 130 aftershocks have been recorded across the region, with magnitudes ranging from a minor 1.3 up to a significant 6.7. In Sarangani, the coastal province closest to the epicenter, the initial quake knocked out power grids and mobile communication networks for several hours, though services have since been restored for most residents.

    General Santos, the largest city near the quake’s origin, holds two major claims to fame: it is widely known as the tuna capital of the Philippines, and it is also the hometown of legendary world boxing champion turned politician Manny Pacquiao.

    The Philippines lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region where seismic activity is extremely common. While most seismic events in the country are minor and cause little to no damage, large deadly quakes are a recurring hazard. In September 2023, a magnitude 6.9 quake struck the central Visayas region, killing more than 70 people.

    Immediately after the Monday quake, Japanese authorities issued an urgent warning for potential one-meter tsunami waves along the country’s coasts. By later Monday, only minor waves had been recorded: a small surge of a few centimeters hit southern Okinawa prefecture, and a 20-centimeter wave was measured in the distant Ogasawara Islands. Minor tsunami surges, ranging from a few centimeters to 1.4 meters, were also recorded along coastlines of Indonesia, Palau, and the Philippines.

  • As Ukraine fights off Russia’s invasion, some regions see a rise in premature births

    As Ukraine fights off Russia’s invasion, some regions see a rise in premature births

    In the frontline-adjacent Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, Marharyta Nekhoroshyva knows all too well the dual terror of raising a child in a war zone. When her son Mark was born at just 26 weeks gestation, weighing a mere 940 grams, Nekhoroshyva — a self-described non-believer — found herself praying desperately for his survival. Now nine months old, Mark is active, but he lives with chronic respiratory conditions that require frequent hospitalizations. What makes her struggle even heavier is that she bears it alone: her husband is on the front lines fighting Russian forces, and Russian missile and glide bomb strikes are a constant threat that has left local hospitals boarding up windows to mitigate blast damage.

    Mark’s story is far from unique. Three years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, official United Nations data and independent scientific research have confirmed a stark, alarming trend: while the total number of births across Ukraine has fallen sharply due to mass displacement, wartime emigration and economic uncertainty, the share of babies born prematurely (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) has jumped dramatically, almost doubling in some of the regions closest to active combat.

    Data compiled by the U.N. tracks the sharp escalation across hard-hit regions: in southern Ukraine’s Kherson, where frontline combat and regular strikes on civilian infrastructure have devastated communities, the preterm birth rate climbed from 5.4% in pre-war 2019 to 9.8% in 2025. In neighboring Zaporizhzhia, another frontline southern region, the rate rose from 5.7% to 7.6% over the same period. Even in Poltava, a northeastern region further from active ground combat but regularly targeted by Russian airstrikes, the rate grew from 7.7% to 9.8% between 2019 and 2025.

    Medical experts explain that while multiple factors contribute to preterm birth, the unrelenting psychological and physical stress of living through a full-scale invasion is a key driver of this upward trend. Dr. Andrew Weeks, a professor of international maternal healthcare at the University of Liverpool, notes that existing research has long linked prolonged psychological strain to elevated preterm birth risk, particularly because stress can increase vulnerability to infections — a well-documented trigger for premature labor. Access to timely, appropriate diagnosis and treatment for these infections is often severely limited in war zones, further pushing up risk. Beyond premature births, the U.N. Population Fund has also recorded increases in emergency cesarean sections and other life-threatening pregnancy complications across Ukraine. Isaac Hurskin, a spokesperson for the fund, says the data makes the connection clear: acute wartime stress directly correlates to poor pregnancy outcomes.

    This public health crisis risks deepening Ukraine’s already severe demographic crisis. Hurskin notes that Ukraine’s national fertility rate has plummeted to roughly one child per woman, one of the lowest rates in the world and far below the 2.1 replacement rate needed to sustain a stable population.

    Providing life-sustaining care to these fragile preterm infants is an extraordinary challenge amid constant conflict. At Zaporizhzhia’s maternity hospital neonatal intensive care unit, a 30-week gestational newborn weighing just 700 grams — well below the World Health Organization’s 2,500 gram threshold for low birth weight — lies in a temperature-controlled incubator, sustained by IV nutrients, medication and a mechanical ventilator. A blanket is draped over the incubator to protect the baby’s developing eyes from harsh ward lighting. Dr. Andrii Lobanov, head of neonatology at Zaporizhzhia’s children’s hospital, explains that even minor missteps in care, such as improper oxygen level management, can cause permanent damage like blindness. Many preterm infants require lifelong care for respiratory, neurological, developmental or immune system conditions, placing a massive financial strain on Ukraine’s war-budgeted healthcare system.

    “It is very expensive and of course a country in a war situation has to decide what it’s going to spend on, so hospital services invariably get hit. Both literally and metaphorically,” Weeks said.

    Air raid sirens are now a constant background presence in neonatal intensive care units across frontline regions. When alerts sound, doctors do not evacuate the most fragile infants to underground shelters: moving the incubator-bound newborns would be far more dangerous than remaining in place, and sirens sound too frequently to halt care every time. Dr. Nataliia Bohuslavska, head of the neonatal unit at Zaporizhzhia’s maternity hospital, who has worked at the facility for 26 years and was born there herself, recalls a recent typical day: it began with incoming missile alerts, and by afternoon a Russian glide bomb had struck a local commercial district, killing 12 civilians. Through it all, care continued: doctors performed two cesarean sections, delivered a full-term infant, and treated a 42-year-old woman who suffered a miscarriage after witnessing the airstrike. The next day, a black mourning flag hung at the hospital entrance.

    Bohuslavska knows every mother on her ward personally, aware of their fears and their unique struggles. Many, like Nekhoroshyva, are going through the experience alone while their partners fight on the front lines. For some, the trauma goes even deeper: when a mother calls to report her husband has been killed in combat, Bohuslavska’s only promise is that the hospital team will stand by her. “We have to support her constantly, so that even in the midst of this terrible loss, she can find the strength to give new life a chance and save her baby,” she said.

    Not all stories end in despair, however. For Mariia Skladan, who was told her rare liver disease made conception almost impossible, the birth of her daughter Elina at 26 weeks in January was already a miracle. After five months of intensive care, Elina grew to a healthy 3.5 kilograms, and doctors cleared her for discharge. When Skladan walked out of the hospital with her daughter, her family waited outside with flowers, and Skladan wept tears of joy. “If there’s a war, what does it mean? Not to live?” she said. “You want to keep going.” But even this small victory was fragile: just one day after going home, Elina was readmitted to intensive care after contracting a viral infection, a reminder that the fight for these preterm infants is never over.

  • Australia urges de-escalation after Israel, Iran exchange fire days after ceasefire takes effect

    Australia urges de-escalation after Israel, Iran exchange fire days after ceasefire takes effect

    A fragile, recently brokered ceasefire in the Middle East has collapsed into a dangerous new cycle of cross-border violence, drawing sharp international response as Australia pushes all parties to return to dialogue and avoid full-scale regional war. The latest escalation traces back to an Israeli airstrike carried out Sunday, local time, on the Dahieh neighborhood of southern Beirut, Lebanon. The attack killed two civilians and injured at least 20 more, multiple sources confirmed, with children among those harmed.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu framed the Beirut strike as a retaliatory action against Hezbollah, the Iran-aligned militant group that has been engaged in cross-border skirmishes with Israel for months. He said the attack was a direct response to recent rocket fire launched from Hezbollah positions into Israeli territory.

    Within hours of the Lebanese strike, Iran launched three sequential waves of missile attacks targeting northern Israel. The Israeli military reported that all incoming Iranian projectiles were successfully intercepted by its air defense systems, with no fatalities recorded from the assault. That exchange, however, quickly expanded further: by early Monday local time, multiple explosions were reported across major Iranian population centers, including the capital Tehran, as well as the key economic hubs of Isfahan and Tabriz. The Israeli military later issued an official statement confirming it had targeted “military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime” in central and western regions of the country. Separately, Al Jazeera Arabic also reported fresh explosions audible across multiple locations in Lebanon, deepening fears of a widening conflict that has already displaced a fifth of Lebanon’s entire population since fighting escalated in February.

    The ongoing crisis has already had devastating humanitarian consequences for Lebanon. Since Hezbollah launched rocket attacks into northern Israel in early March – days after a joint US-Israeli strike on Iran opened the current phase of conflict – the small Mediterranean nation has been dragged fully into the regional war. Independent United Nations human rights experts have raised alarming allegations that Israel’s widespread evacuation orders, paired with the systematic destruction of residential housing that displaced residents would otherwise return to, may amount to ethnic cleansing of Shiite communities in southern Lebanon.

    In response to the rapidly deteriorating situation, top Australian officials have issued clear calls for an immediate end to hostilities. Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy described the sudden escalation just days after a US-brokered ceasefire was agreed to as “incredibly unhelpful” in comments to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday. He reiterated Australia’s longstanding position that all parties must step back from confrontation to protect both regional stability and the global economy.

    “ We want the ceasefire to hold and a long term peace to be negotiated and agreed to so that the Strait of Hormuz can be reopened and resources can flow to and from that region,” Conroy said. “That’s critical to the global economy. And, all parties need to take a breath, de-escalate and find a solution to what’s occurring there.” Conroy acknowledged that the existing ceasefire remains extremely fragile, but emphasized that a negotiated end to conflict is in the interest of the entire global community. “It’s in the interest of the entire globe and the sooner this conflict gets resolved the better,” he added.

    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese echoed Conroy’s call for de-escalation, but stood firm on his earlier decision to back US and Israeli actions when the current conflict broke out in February. “Iran can’t be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. That was the position that we took. That’s the right position,” Albanese said. “We’ve called for a de-escalation. We’ve called for a clear exit plan out of this and we’ve done that consistently for a long period of time. This needs to conclude.”

    Internationally, the US has also pushed for restraint: Reuters reported, citing an unnamed Israeli official, that US President Donald Trump spoke with Netanyahu to urge caution in responding to Iran’s initial retaliatory strike. Despite that diplomatic pressure, the latest wave of attacks has already pushed the region closer to full-scale conflict than it has been in weeks, leaving global leaders scrambling to prevent a wider war that would carry catastrophic humanitarian and economic consequences.

  • Ten dead after migrant boat capsizes near Malta, Italian coastguard says

    Ten dead after migrant boat capsizes near Malta, Italian coastguard says

    A deadly maritime disaster has unfolded off the coast of Malta, where an overloaded vessel carrying migrants capsized, leaving at least 10 people dead and dozens more rescued, according to statements from Italy’s coast guard. The ill-fated boat, which departed from Libya’s northern coastline, was carrying approximately 60 migrants when it overturned in the Central Mediterranean, one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes.

    After the vessel capsized left multiple people struggling in open water, Maltese authorities formally requested assistance from Italian search and rescue teams to respond to the emergency. An Italian coastal patrol craft was immediately deployed to the incident site, where it joined a nearby fishing vessel that had arrived first on the scene. By the time initial rescue efforts wrapped up, the fishing boat had pulled around 48 surviving migrants from the water, authorities confirmed.

    As of Sunday afternoon, search operations were still active across the area, with rescue teams working to locate any additional passengers who may still be missing amid rough open waters.

    This latest tragedy underscores the persistent human cost of irregular migration across the Central Mediterranean. Data from the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) shows that at least 827 people have already lost their lives attempting this dangerous crossing in 2023 alone. Last year, the total death toll for the route, which stretches from North African departure points to destinations in Italy and Malta, surpassed 1,330, cementing its status as one of the deadliest migration corridors on Earth.

  • Major quake off Philippines kills one, triggers tsunami warnings

    Major quake off Philippines kills one, triggers tsunami warnings

    A massive 7.8-magnitude offshore earthquake has jolted the southern Philippines, leaving at least one person dead, multiple structures destroyed, and triggering urgent tsunami warnings across Southeast Asia and the Pacific region early Monday. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recorded the tremor hitting just 24 kilometers west of Sarangani province on Mindanao island, prompting immediate emergency responses from national authorities across multiple countries.

    Initial casualty reports confirm one fatality and four people injured, though local law enforcement notes that these figures remain preliminary as rescue operations are still ongoing. “As of now, there is one reported death and four injured. This is only an initial report,” Master Sergeant Robert Dagon of General Santos City police told Agence France-Presse. “A number of buildings collapsed,” he added. “Many buildings were affected, but I cannot enumerate them now because we are busy with ongoing rescues.”

    Social media videos verified by AFP show widespread structural damage in the hardest-hit areas: a local shopping center housing a popular Jollibee fast-food outlet was completely reduced to rubble, while an unoccupied school building crumpled from the force of the quake in a separate location. Audio captured on one video shows panicked onlookers shouting as structures collapsed around them.

    Just two hours after the initial major quake, USGS recorded a strong 6.1-magnitude aftershock in the same affected area, adding to risks for residents and emergency response teams. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an urgent advisory warning that hazardous tsunami waves could reach coastlines of the Philippines, Indonesia, Palau, Taiwan, and Papua New Guinea within three hours of the initial tremor.

    Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos swiftly moved to suspend all school classes in affected regions of Mindanao and issued a direct order for coastal residents to evacuate immediately. “Move to higher ground now. Do not wait,” he emphasized in public remarks. “Your life is more important than anything left behind.” The country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council noted that casualty and damage reports were still being consolidated as of Monday afternoon.

    Indonesia’s national disaster agency also issued evacuation orders for coastal areas in North Sulawesi’s capital Manado, northern Gorontalo province, and the Sangihe Islands, instructing local officials to guide residents in an orderly evacuation to higher elevation. Separately, Japanese authorities issued a tsunami advisory for large stretches of the country’s Pacific coast, projecting waves of up to one meter could arrive starting at 0230 GMT Monday.

    The Philippines sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches across the Pacific basin from Japan through Southeast Asia, meaning strong earthquakes are a frequent occurrence for the archipelago nation. In October 2023, two large quakes measuring 7.4 and 6.7 magnitude struck eastern Mindanao, killing at least eight people. Just months before that, a 6.9-magnitude quake hit Cebu province in the central Philippines, leaving 76 people dead and destroying or damaging more than 72,000 structures, according to official government data.

  • Israel says it has struck Iran after taking missile fire

    Israel says it has struck Iran after taking missile fire

    In a dramatic escalation that has sent shockwaves across the Middle East, Israel launched early-morning airstrikes on Monday targeting military sites across central and western Iran, a direct retaliatory strike against Tehran’s recent missile attack that has pushed the region closer to a full-scale regional war.

    Multiple explosions were reported across several major Iranian cities, including Isfahan, Karaj, Tabriz and the capital Tehran, according to Iranian state media, which did not immediately release further details on casualties or damage. A local witness in Tehran confirmed hearing at least one large explosion west of the capital. In the immediate aftermath of the strikes, Iranian authorities closed the airspace surrounding Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s busiest and most strategically important international air hub, while still withholding information on what infrastructure or targets were hit. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard confirmed that Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles to carry out the morning assault, but offered no additional context on the attack’s outcomes.

    In an official statement released as the strikes commenced, the Israeli military confirmed its action: “A short while ago, the Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran.” The military declined to elaborate further on the scope of the operation.

    Shortly after Israel’s airstrikes, alerts were triggered across multiple locations. In Israel, air raid sirens sounded after the military confirmed a missile had been launched from Yemen toward Israeli territory, though no casualties or damage have been reported by Israeli rescue services. The missile launch comes from territory controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthi rebel movement, which has launched intermittent strikes against Israel since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war but has not yet been drawn into direct, large-scale conflict between Iran and Israel. The Houthi movement has not yet claimed responsibility for the launch, a delay that is consistent with the group’s past pattern of waiting hours or days to acknowledge attacks.

    Across the border in Saudi Arabia, missile warning sirens activated in Al Kharj governorate, the location of Prince Sultan Air Base which hosts U.S. military personnel. Saudi state media later confirmed that the missile threat had passed, offering no further details on the incident.

    The Israeli strike directly contradicts public and private appeals for restraint from U.S. leadership. A senior anonymous U.S. official revealed Sunday that former President Donald Trump, in a private call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urged Netanyahu to delay any retaliation against Iran following Tehran’s missile strike. The official claimed Trump believed he had successfully convinced Netanyahu to hold off on immediate action, saying “Trump got Bibi to hold off for the time being.” No immediate comment was issued by Netanyahu’s office in response to the claim, and the White House has not responded to requests for comment on whether Monday’s strike was coordinated with U.S. officials.

    In multiple public comments before the airstrike, Trump made clear his opposition to immediate escalation. Speaking to Fox News, Trump stated he wanted Iran to cease missile fire and return to diplomatic negotiations, and added that Israel’s Sunday airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs were not coordinated with the U.S., saying “I’m not happy about it.” In a pre-strike interview with the Financial Times, Trump went further, claiming he sets the terms for Israel’s military campaign in the region. “He won’t have any choice,” Trump said in the phone interview. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He (Netanyahu) doesn’t call the shots.”

    The current escalation comes after weeks of rising tensions that have derailed fragile ceasefire negotiations. Diplomatic talks between Iran and the U.S. focused on de-escalating the broader regional war have been stalled for days by ongoing fighting between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah. Israeli forces have advanced into southern Lebanon, seizing territory the country has not controlled in 25 years, amplifying fears that the conflict would widen beyond Gaza and Lebanon. The cycle of violence that led to Monday’s strike began Sunday, when Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Beirut; Iran retaliated with its own missile strike against Israel, setting the stage for the current escalation.

  • A 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocks the southern Philippines, causing some damage and a tsunami warning

    A 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocks the southern Philippines, causing some damage and a tsunami warning

    In the early hours of Monday, a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked parts of the southern Philippines, leaving infrastructure damaged, cutting power supplies, and prompting urgent tsunami warnings for coastal zones across multiple regional nations. The seismic event has put emergency response teams on high alert, though no confirmed fatalities or injuries have been released in the immediate aftermath.

    According to data from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), the earthquake’s epicenter was located 13 kilometers southwest of General Santos, a major coastal commercial hub on the island of Mindanao that is home to more than 700,000 residents and renowned for its large-scale tuna processing industry. The agency recorded the quake hitting at 7:37 a.m. local time at a depth of 10 kilometers. The U.S. Geological Survey offered a slightly different depth measurement of 55 kilometers, a common discrepancy between agencies in the immediate hours following large seismic events. In the wake of the initial quake, aftershocks reaching as high as magnitude 6.5 were recorded by the U.S. body.

    Widespread damage has already been reported in General Santos, including the partial collapse of a four-story small commercial building that housed a provincial branch of Manila-based DZRH radio station. Station representatives confirmed that all on-site staff fled to the ground floor safely and escaped without injury, but uncertainty remains over whether any other people were trapped in the rubble, as the quake struck before standard office hours when most workers had not yet arrived.

    Immediately following the seismic event, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) issued a series of regional alerts. The center warned that tsunami waves as high as 3 meters could impact sections of the Philippine coastline, while surges of up to 1 meter were possible for coastal areas of Indonesia and Malaysia. Smaller, non-destructive sea level changes were flagged for Taiwan, Japan, Guam, Papua New Guinea, and multiple small island nations and territories across the western Pacific. The PTWC explicitly confirmed that Hawaii faced no tsunami threat from the quake. As of Tuesday local time, Indonesia’s meteorological agencies have already recorded minor tsunami surges of up to 18 centimeters along coastlines in North Sulawesi and North Maluku provinces, where residents also reported feeling clear tremors from the main quake.

    Teresito Bacolcol, head of PHIVOLCS, issued an urgent advisory for at-risk coastal populations, urging residents to evacuate immediately to elevated inland areas or higher ground to avoid potential tsunami inundation.

    This seismic event underscores the constant natural hazard risk the Philippines faces as a nation positioned along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an extensive arc of active seismic faults that circles the Pacific Basin. The archipelagic nation counts among the world’s most disaster-prone countries, regularly experiencing major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and is hit by an average of 20 typhoons and tropical storms each year.

  • Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez to visit Turkey for talks with Erdogan

    Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez to visit Turkey for talks with Erdogan

    Multiple insiders briefed on the planned itinerary have confirmed to independent outlet Middle East Eye that Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez will embark on an official visit to Turkey this coming Monday, marking a key step in the Latin American nation’s new outreach to global partners following recent political shifts.

    Sources familiar with the schedule note that the trip will include a high-stakes meeting between Rodriguez and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, scheduled to take place in Istanbul. The visit comes as an extension of Rodriguez’s ongoing regional and global tour, which has already included a week-long stop in India. During her time in New Delhi, she held extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration on expanding bilateral cooperation in energy, trade and cross-border investment, according to prior updates from the trip.

    Turkey and Venezuela have shared deep political and economic bonds for nearly a decade, a relationship rooted in mutual diplomatic support. For years, Erdogan maintained a close working relationship with former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was removed from power and taken into US custody earlier this year. Maduro is currently being held at a detention facility in New York as he faces ongoing federal criminal charges. Following Maduro’s ouster, Rodriguez assumed the interim presidency with the formal backing of US President Donald Trump, and has overseen a steady expansion of American economic interests in Venezuela, including expanded operations for US oil giant Chevron.

    The bilateral relationship between Ankara and Caracas was built on early reciprocal support. In 2016, right after a failed military coup attempt against Erdogan, Maduro was among the first global leaders to reach out and express solidarity—a gesture that laid the groundwork for years of growing cooperation. When the 2018 Venezuelan presidential election sparked controversy and the opposition-led National Assembly labeled Maduro an illegitimate leader in 2019, Erdogan publicly backed the then-president, telling him in a direct call: “Brother, you should stand firm. We are with you.”

    By 2023, bilateral trade between the two nations had climbed to nearly $1 billion, with heavy focus on the mining and gold sectors that hold major untapped potential in Venezuela. The two countries have already laid formal groundwork for expanded cooperation: in February 2024, their respective energy ministries signed two memorandums of understanding covering collaboration in oil, natural gas and mining. Later that year, Maduro confirmed that the pair had also agreed to a deal allowing Turkish firms to extract gold from fields in southern Venezuela. For years starting around 2019, Turkey imported large volumes of Venezuelan gold in exchange for exporting manufactured goods to the Latin American country, though the trade arrangement shrank over time after it drew scrutiny from US regulators.

    For years, widespread US sanctions imposed on Venezuela’s energy and mining sectors blocked further progress on these bilateral initiatives. But earlier this year, the Trump administration rolled back a portion of these restrictions, creating new openings for investment from both Turkish public and private entities in Venezuela’s key commodity sectors.

    Insiders told MEE that Rodriguez’s upcoming visit is rooted in a recognition of Turkey’s long-standing diplomatic support for Venezuela across successive administrations, and Caracas is open to deepening bilateral trade and investment through new joint projects. Sources add that Ankara is expected to prioritize discussions around expanding access to Venezuela’s lucrative oil and gold reserves during the talks. While Rodriguez’s administration has prioritized expanding US economic access, the upcoming meeting signals that Venezuela’s new government also aims to cultivate diversified economic partnerships with other global powers.