Global Pulse

分类： world

  • This principal in Nepal evacuated 900 students before flooding swept away their school

    This principal in Nepal evacuated 900 students before flooding swept away their school

    In the mountain-fringed Trishuli Valley of north-central Nepal, a routine school morning turned into a race against catastrophe last week, when warnings of an oncoming glacial outburst flood reached Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School. Rajendra Dawadi, a veteran teacher who had spent both his student and teaching career at the institution, was mid-lesson when the school’s accountant burst into his classroom with the first urgent alert of rising waters that were tearing through settlements downstream.

    Successive warnings piled in quickly: a second alert from a teacher’s phone call, followed by a panicked parent arriving to collect their child. With no official confirmation of the danger and minutes to spare, Dawadi did not hesitate. He immediately sounded the school bell, ordered every student and staff member on campus to evacuate toward the elevated hills nearby, and coordinated with bus drivers to divert incoming student transports to safer ground.

    One full bus of students had already reached the new bridge leading to the school when Dawadi ordered it to turn back. Barely moments after the bus cleared the span, the adjacent old bridge collapsed into the churning flood. As Dawadi followed the last of the evacuees up the nearby hillside, the murky, debris-choked waters rose rapidly behind him. From their vantage point on the safe slope, he watched the three-story school building—an institution that had shaped his entire life—get swallowed whole by a torrent of water, mud, and boulders. Tragically, two members of the school staff were caught in the flood and remain unaccounted for.

    The disaster that unfolded across Nepal and southern China was triggered by a glacial lake collapse in the Himalayas, a catastrophic event that has now claimed more than 900 lives and left more than 4,700 people missing across both regions. At Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School, which enrolled 1,643 students total, at least 900 children were on campus when the first warning hit. Every single one of those students survived, a miracle directly credited to Dawadi’s split-second decision to evacuate.

    The scale of the loss hits close to home for Dawadi, who earned his own education at the school before returning to teach there for years. “I have no words. I got education from that school. And I gave education at that school,” he told the Associated Press.

    The destruction of Tribhuvan Trishuli is far from an isolated tragedy. Across northern Nepal, the flash floods have displaced thousands of children from their learning spaces, derailing their academic progress and raising alarms that thousands could miss months of school. International children’s charity Save the Children estimates that at least 69 schools across the region have been completely destroyed, putting nearly 19,000 students’ access to education at severe risk.

    In the aftermath of the disaster, Dawadi’s fast, calm response has been widely celebrated as an act of extraordinary heroism. When he returned to the school’s riverfront site days after the flood, waiting parents wrapped him in hugs, tears in their eyes as they thanked him for saving their children’s lives. “Their parents hugged me, they cried with me. They were emotional,” he recalled.

    Fourteen-year-old student Suvina Tamang, one of the evacuated children, confirmed that the entire school building was swept away just minutes after the evacuation was completed. “I will thank him when I see him for saving my life,” she said.

    Despite the widespread praise, Dawadi rejects the label of hero. For the long-time educator, evacuating his students was simply a basic responsibility. Now, he says, the most pressing needs go beyond the immediate celebration of survival: displaced students require urgent psychological support to process the trauma of the disaster, and learning must resume as quickly as possible, even if classes have to be held in temporary facilities.

    His clear message to the Nepalese government is straightforward: prioritize rebuilding destroyed schools, and get children back to the classroom as soon as possible.

  • Singapore diplomat, Myanmar activist and Bangladeshi aid giver win Magsaysay awards

    Singapore diplomat, Myanmar activist and Bangladeshi aid giver win Magsaysay awards

    MANILA, Philippines — Three remarkable Asian leaders — a veteran Singaporean diplomat who shepherded the creation of the world’s foundational oceans governance framework, a Myanmar pro-democracy activist risking his life to expose military atrocities, and a Bangladeshi social innovator lifting marginalized communities out of poverty — have been named this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award recipients, the award foundation announced Monday.

    Widely recognized as Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Awards were established in 1958 to honor individuals across the continent who demonstrate extraordinary greatness of spirit through selfless service to the public good. The award is named for Ramon Magsaysay, a beloved Philippine president who died in a 1957 plane crash. This year’s laureates will be formally recognized during a November 15 ceremony at Manila’s Metropolitan Theatre, where each will receive a commemorative medallion, an inscribed certificate, and an undisclosed monetary prize.

    At 88 years old, Singaporean lawyer and diplomat Tommy Koh earns the award for his decades of work advancing international dialogue and the rule of law. His most landmark achievement came when he presided over the 1982 United Nations conference that brought more than 150 nations together to adopt the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) — a framework widely described as the “constitution for the oceans.”

    The awards foundation noted that UNCLOS carries enormous global significance: it codified clear definitions of territorial waters, outlined sovereign economic rights for coastal states, and established binding mechanisms to resolve maritime disputes. The convention served as the legal foundation for a 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling in The Hague that invalidated China’s broad territorial claims in the South China Sea. The arbitration case was brought by the Philippines in 2013, but Beijing refused to participate in the proceedings and has continued to reject and defy the ruling. Multiple countries, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei, alongside Taiwan, have held competing territorial claims in the strategically critical waterway for decades, leading to ongoing regional tensions.

    “Through his steadfast faith in dialogue, the rule of law and international cooperation, he has helped make peaceful coexistence possible in a world of unequal power,” the foundation wrote of Koh’s work.

    The second laureate, 61-year-old Myanmar activist Bo Kyi, is honored for his unyielding advocacy for democracy and human rights in the face of military rule, a mission that has already cost him seven years of imprisonment across two arrests. Bo Kyi has been a vocal voice demanding the release of all political prisoners detained by Myanmar’s junta, including ousted former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and has organized critical fundraising to support detainees and their families.

    In 2000, Bo Kyi joined with other former political prisoners to found the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an organization that has become a leading global watchdog documenting political repression by Myanmar’s military. The group maintains detailed records of political imprisonment, amplifies the stories of detainees and their families to the international community, and provides ongoing direct support to those affected by the junta’s crackdowns on dissent.

    Rounding out this year’s cohort is 67-year-old Runa Khan, a former Bangladeshi teacher recognized for her decades-long commitment to empowering her country’s most vulnerable populations. Born into a privileged, upper-class family, Khan began her career of service in 1979 teaching children from low-income communities. In 2002, she founded the nonprofit organization Friendship Bangladesh to address the overlapping challenges facing the country’s poorest residents, including climate change impacts, lack of access to education, gender inequality, limited economic opportunity, and systemic social exclusion.

    Today, Khan’s organization has grown into one of Bangladesh’s largest grassroots development nonprofits, employing more than 7,500 people across the country. It operates an extensive healthcare network that includes seven floating hospital ships, two land-based hospitals, and 550 mobile clinics that bring care to remote, climate-vulnerable coastal and riverine communities that lack access to formal medical services. Beyond healthcare, Friendship Bangladesh expands educational access for marginalized children, supports women’s economic empowerment, and helps low-income households build sustainable livelihoods that can withstand the effects of a changing climate.

    “In her hands, privilege became not an entitlement, but a responsibility; not a family legacy to protect, but a gift to be shared so that others, too, might have the chance to live with hope, opportunity and dignity,” the foundation said of Khan’s work.

  • Russia cements its role as Africa junta protector after helping quell Niger’s mutiny

    Russia cements its role as Africa junta protector after helping quell Niger’s mutiny

    A weekend mutiny by renegade soldiers marked the gravest internal challenge to Niger’s ruling junta since its 2023 coup, a crisis that ended only after Russian paramilitary forces stepped in to subdue the uprising, according to regional analysts and diplomatic sources.

    The mutiny, staged largely by young service members, unfolded at the strategic Base 101 near Niamey’s international airport, where the insurgent soldiers took fellow troops hostage. Gunfire from the unrest reached within seven kilometers of the presidential palace, sparking a 24-hour standoff that could have toppled the junta before outside intervention, analysts note. It was presidential guard troops backed by Russia’s Africa Corps, a paramilitary group under direct command of Moscow’s defense ministry, that ultimately quelled the uprising.

    Russia’s ambassador to Niger, Viktor Voropayev, confirmed to Russian state media that Niger’s government had requested support from the Russian force, and that the mutineers were fully neutralized as a direct result of the Africa Corps’ involvement. As of press time, Nigerien official authorities have not released any public statement on the event.

    Regional security analysts emphasize that the mutiny hung in the balance for hours: the mutineers were both large in number and highly determined, making the outcome uncertain until Russian forces joined the fight. This intervention marks the second time in 2024 that the Africa Corps has stepped in to defend junta-held power centers across the Sahel, the arid, conflict-plagued region south of the Sahara Desert. In May, the same Russian force helped put down large-scale coordinated attacks by jihadi insurgents in junta-led Mali.

    In a region long labeled the global epicenter of terrorist activity, the Africa Corps’ core mission diverges from counterterrorism, argues Wassim Nasr, a senior research fellow at the New York-based Soufan Center think tank. “Fighting jihadis comes as a second priority for the Africa Corps, but the first priority is to sustain regimes, and they are succeeding in this,” Nasr explained.

    The current dynamic in the Sahel stems from a sweeping political shift over the past two years. Military juntas that seized power on promises to fix widespread security failures across Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso cut ties with long-time Western security partners and turned to Moscow for support. The countries first welcomed the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group private mercenary force, before Wagner was reorganized into the Africa Corps following the death of its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2023.

    Estimates of how many Russian military personnel are deployed across the three Sahel junta states vary widely, ranging from 1,700 to 2,000 troops, with an additional 1,000 Wagner personnel stationed in the Central African Republic. As Moscow competes with Washington, European capitals and Beijing for expanding influence across the African continent, these security partnerships have allowed Russia to build footholds across economic, political and security sectors.

    Beverly Ochieng, a Sahel-focused security analyst at global risk consultancy Control Risks, notes that the current arrangement of counterinsurgency support, military hardware shipments and parallel economic deals is heavily tied to the ruling juntas in all three states. Even with limited resources to allocate to the region, Ochieng explains, Russia has mastered the balance of diplomacy, counterinsurgency action and geopolitical positioning to frame itself as a reliable, all-weather partner for African governments. Nasr echoed that assessment, noting the model of partnering through the Africa Corps is low-cost, high-reward for Moscow.

    While Russian support has cemented the juntas’ hold on power, the broader security situation across the Sahel continues to deteriorate. Armed insurgent groups increasingly target populated urban centers as they compete for territory and influence, putting civilian populations at growing risk. Niamey’s airport, the site of this weekend’s mutiny, has already been targeted twice by jihadi groups in 2024: an attack by al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin in June killed 11 soldiers and two civilians, while a January strike by the Islamic State Sahel Province targeted high-value military drone assets stationed at the base.

    Analysts warn that recurring threats to junta rule, like last weekend’s mutiny, will push the ruling military governments to prioritize their own survival over broad public security, worsening the humanitarian and stability crisis across the region. The Senegal-based Timbuktu Institute for Peace Studies pointed out that the mutiny and subsequent Russian intervention exposes how deeply vulnerable the junta’s regime is, as its stability now rests almost entirely on Moscow’s support.

    “The intervention of an external partner to help contain an internal crisis raises a central question: how far can the pursuit of strategic autonomy go when it is accompanied by a growing dependence on Moscow?” the institute wrote in an analysis of the crisis.

    Still, the successful intervention to prop up Niger’s junta could strengthen Russia’s appeal to other sympathetic governments across the continent, according to Nathaniel Powell, a West Africa analyst at Oxford Analytica. “Having a foreign anti-coup force has advantages in that they have no local interests that could compete for their loyalty, and might be seen to be militarily superior to national military formations, thus deterring potential coup-makers,” Powell explained.

    Moscow has publicly framed its engagement in the Sahel as counterterrorism support: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated recently that the country stands ready to help African nations defeat terrorist insurgencies. But analysts note that most African governments will remain cautious about partnering with the Africa Corps, due to the force’s well-documented history of human rights abuses across the regions where it operates.

  • BBC reports from valley devastated by Nepal flood

    BBC reports from valley devastated by Nepal flood

    One of the world’s most recognized public broadcasters, the BBC, has deployed a reporting team to deliver on-the-ground coverage from a Nepalese valley left reeling in the wake of catastrophic flash flooding. The reporting team is currently stationed in Sano Barkhu, a small mountain village positioned on a high ridge overlooking the hard-hit town of Syfrubesi. From this vantage point, the crew is capturing first-hand footage and witness accounts that lay bare the full scale of the disaster that has entirely leveled the community below.

    What was once a bustling valley town has been reduced to ruins after floodwaters surged through the region, wiping out homes, infrastructure, and critical services in their path. Local residents who survived the disaster have been left displaced, many having lost family members, personal property, and their entire livelihoods to the rushing waters. The BBC’s live reporting from the site is bringing global attention to the crisis, shining a light on the immediate humanitarian needs of affected communities and the long-term challenges of recovery in one of South Asia’s most disaster-prone regions. Early reports from the ground indicate that emergency response teams are still working to reach cut-off areas, with many remote communities like those surrounding Syfrubesi facing significant delays in receiving food, medical aid, and shelter support.

  • Russia’s jet-powered drones bring empty Kyiv supermarket shelves and rattle Ukrainians

    Russia’s jet-powered drones bring empty Kyiv supermarket shelves and rattle Ukrainians

    Five straight days of unrelenting Russian aerial bombardment have pounded Kyiv and surrounding communities in central Ukraine, leaving civilian supply chains shattered and the population grappling with the growing threat of jet-powered drone strikes as the war enters its fifth year. The intensification of Moscow’s air campaign, which has ramped up significantly in recent months, has upended daily life across the Kyiv region, with near-constant air raid alerts disrupting work, school, and basic routines.

    Over the weekend alone, between Thursday and Sunday, Russian forces launched nearly 1,500 drones across Ukrainian territory, approximately 800 of which are the fast, hard-to-intercept jet-powered variants that Ukrainian defense officials say have created a pressing new challenge. A devastating Saturday strike killed at least 38 civilians, marking the deadliest single Russian attack on Ukraine so far this year, following two major July assaults that claimed nearly 50 civilian lives.

    Local military officials confirmed that Monday’s strikes hit multiple warehouse facilities in the Kyiv suburbs of Brovary and Boryspil, wounding four people. Repeated targeting of food storage and distribution hubs has stripped shelves bare at supermarkets across the capital region, stoking widespread public anxiety over potential food shortages. To calm growing panic, Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, released a public statement Monday reassuring residents that Ukraine will avoid mass hunger. Beskrestnov urged the public to disregard spread rumors and disinformation, noting that domestic producers and retailers are actively restructuring supply routes to compensate for destroyed infrastructure, and European allies have pledged to step in to cover any gaps in food supplies if needed.

    As the academic year was set to begin Tuesday across Ukraine, many parents remained uncertain whether to send children back to in-person classes. While all Ukrainian schools are required to maintain functional air raid shelters and offer remote learning options, the persistent threat of attacks has left many families hesitant to resume normal on-campus activities.

    In a social media address Sunday evening, Zelenskyy outlined Russia’s evolving strategy, saying Moscow’s core goal is to erode the resolve of the Ukrainian people over time. “Right now, Russia’s tactic is to wear down Ukraine and Ukrainians — first and foremost, our people,” he said. The Ukrainian leader also acknowledged that the growing volume of fast jet-powered drones deployed by Russia has stretched existing Ukrainian air defenses thin. Currently, Ukrainian combat aircraft are the primary line of defense against these drones, but Kyiv is racing to develop more effective counter-technology.

    Zelenskyy announced that four domestic Ukrainian companies have developed prototype interceptor drones designed to counter Russian jet-powered drones, with one company delivering particularly promising results. He did not share additional technical details on the systems under development.

    Beyond targeting food infrastructure, Russia has doubled down on a campaign to disable Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of the approaching winter. On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry explicitly warned that it would carry out “massive strikes” against Ukrainian energy facilities, a tactic Moscow used in previous winters to leave civilians without heat or running water. Overnight Monday, a large Russian drone attack hit the northern Chernihiv region, which shares a border with Russia, damaging an energy facility, according to Viacheslav Chaus, head of the region’s military administration. Chaus did not release further details on the extent of the damage.

    Ukraine has in turn stepped up cross-border attacks on Russian infrastructure to try to shift the burden of war to ordinary Russian civilians. In recent weeks, Ukrainian strikes have targeted major Russian online retail platforms and oil processing facilities, creating limited shortages for everyday Russians that have not resulted in the same level of civilian casualties seen in Ukraine.

    On Monday, Russian officials reported that their air defense forces shot down 239 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions, the occupied Crimean Peninsula, and Black Sea waters overnight. Separately, acting regional governor Alexander Shuvayev confirmed that a Ukrainian missile strike on the border city of Belgorod Sunday evening killed three civilians.

    This reporting was contributed by the Associated Press, with Hatton filing from Lisbon, Portugal, and Elise Morton adding reporting from London. Full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war is available on the AP News hub.

  • Survivors of Cypriot ferry disaster describe terror and panic aboard sinking ship

    Survivors of Cypriot ferry disaster describe terror and panic aboard sinking ship

    Just hours after a passenger ferry capsized in waters off the breakaway Turkish Cypriot coast, leaving at least eight people dead and 18 others unaccounted for, survivors shared harrowing firsthand accounts of chaos and panic as they fought to escape the sinking vessel on Monday.

    The incident unfolded Sunday afternoon, when the ship carrying 267 passengers and crew departed Kyrenia – also called Girne in Turkish – the main northern Cypriot port, bound for the Turkish coastal town of Tasucu. Roughly 7.5 kilometers from the Cypriot shore, the vessel suddenly began to list and take on water after passengers reported hearing a series of loud bangs originating from lower decks. It ultimately capsized, triggering a massive cross-border rescue operation involving Turkish coast guard vessels, military assets, and local first responders from northern Cyprus.

    Serkan Kunduraci, one of the passengers who survived by climbing through a cracked window to escape the sinking hull, described scenes of utter despair unfolding in the frigid water to Turkey’s DHA news agency. “I saw people who couldn’t swim drown right in front of me,” he said. “Some people were too panicked to even grab a life jacket, others jumped straight into the sea out of blind fear. We tried to pull an elderly man to safety, but we couldn’t reach him in time – he drowned too. We watched whole families, young boys and little girls, drown out in the open water.”

    Kunduraci added that the crew initially downplayed the severity of the issue after inspecting the leak, telling passengers the problem was nothing more than a loose gasket. By the time the evacuation order was issued, widespread panic had already broken out. He explained that the captain attempted to steer the listing vessel back to Kyrenia port, but the tilt only grew steeper as more water flooded the hull. “There was screaming everywhere, and dozens of people were trapped in the rear of the ship, blocked by piles of other passengers who couldn’t get out,” Kunduraci said. “The people crushed underneath never made it out.”

    Another survivor, Deniz Ozpolat, echoed those accounts of chaos, noting that crowds rushed the exits before anyone could issue clear directions. “We tried to get to the exit, but there was already a massive crush of people,” he told DHA. “We couldn’t find any life jackets, and at first the doors were shut on us, trapping us inside. When they finally opened, we jumped into the water. The ship tilted sharply and went down not long after. We had to break windows to pull other people out, and we saw whole families with small children stranded out in the water.”

    Local rescuer Muhammed Ozcelik, who operates a nearby water sports company and was among the first responders to reach the capsized vessel, said his crew pushed their small boat far past its safe capacity to pull as many survivors from the water as possible. “We tried to do everything we could, more than we were able to,” Ozcelik said. “People were begging to be pulled aboard, shouting ‘take me too’, but our boat was already past capacity. We still took on as many as we could – everyone was fighting just to stay alive.”

    Footage broadcast on Turkish media outlets showed survivors clad in bright orange life vests standing on the overturned hull of the ferry, which is owned by Turkish maritime operator Filo Denizcilik, waiting for rescue. Many survivors were later brought to shore aboard small local pleasure craft that joined the rescue effort.

    Unal Ustel, prime minister of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus – a breakaway entity recognized only by Turkey – announced late Sunday that a full formal investigation into the disaster has been launched, and all eight crew members of the ferry have been taken into custody. “Every single detail of this incident will be probed thoroughly,” Ustel said. “Even the smallest act of negligence will be uncovered, and anyone found responsible for what happened will face consequences.”

    Ustel added that Turkish authorities were providing full support for the ongoing search and recovery operation for the 18 missing passengers, and described the incident as the deadliest maritime disaster in the recorded history of Cyprus. This disaster comes amid the long-standing division of the island of Cyprus, which has been split along ethnic lines since a 1974 Turkish invasion. Turkish Cypriots declared independence in 1983, and Turkey maintains a deployment of more than 35,000 troops in the northern region.

  • Rescue efforts continue on both sides of Nepal-Tibet border

    Rescue efforts continue on both sides of Nepal-Tibet border

    In the wake of devastating flash floods that have swept across the shared border region between Nepal and China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, coordinated rescue operations are accelerating on both sides, as emergency responders race against time to locate missing people trapped by the disaster.

    On the Tibetan side of the border, specially trained search-and-rescue canines have been deployed to comb through waterlogged terrain, mudslides, and debris-strewn areas in a persistent hunt for flood victims. The challenging topography of the Himalayan border region, combined with lingering flood-related hazards, has complicated search efforts, but teams have continued operations around the clock to maximize the chance of finding survivors.

    Meanwhile, in Nepal, emergency management officials and response teams have worked nonstop through the night at a hydropower plant located near the border, where official counts indicate hundreds of people remain unaccounted for following the flood surge. The disaster, which struck without much warning, swept through infrastructure and residential areas along the border, leaving widespread disruption and a trail of missing persons that has stretched local response capacity.

    Cross-border communication has remained active as both sides coordinate to address the aftermath of the flood event, with additional resources being mobilized to support the ongoing search and rescue missions.

  • Rescue efforts intensify after Nepal-Tibet flooding as deaths climb past 900

    Rescue efforts intensify after Nepal-Tibet flooding as deaths climb past 900

    A catastrophic glacial collapse in the high Himalayas has triggered devastating flash floods that have claimed at least 900 lives and left more than 4,700 people unaccounted for across southern Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, with international rescue teams joining local emergency responders in scaled-up search operations.

    Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet, spokesperson for the Nepali Army, confirmed that search and rescue operations are ongoing across flood-stricken hill communities, riverside settlements and isolated lowland areas, where many residents and travelers remain stranded by fast-moving floodwaters.

    Among the most urgent rescue missions are operations to reach dozens of construction and maintenance workers trapped in incomplete and active hydropower plant tunnels beneath flood-damaged mountain slopes. Multiple foreign specialized rescue teams have deployed alongside local emergency crews to access the blocked, waterlogged tunnels, with officials confirming that at least 90 people remain trapped across multiple hydropower sites.

    Updated data released Monday by Nepal’s national disaster management agency puts the country’s confirmed death toll at 903, with 4,247 people still listed as missing. That missing count includes 592 foreign nationals who were in the region for trekking, work or tourism when the floods hit. On the Chinese side, official data reported Sunday recorded 1 confirmed deaths, with 546 people still unaccounted for. Chinese state media reports add that 261 of the missing in Tibet are foreign nationals, including more than 100 Nepali citizens.

    The disaster unfolded Wednesday when a massive bedrock collapse occurred beneath a high-altitude Himalayan glacier, dragging a large section of the frozen ice sheet down the mountain with it. Analysis of satellite imagery by glaciologists and geoscientists confirms the scale of the collapse was so large that it registered as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event on global monitoring networks.

    The sudden collapse released a massive surge of rock, debris and melted glacial water that rushed down into the river valleys below. The unprecedented torrent of water and debris overwhelmed riverbanks, swept away entire buildings, destroyed critical bridge infrastructure, and scoured entire settlements from valley floors as it moved through both Tibet and Nepal, leaving widespread destruction and loss of life in its path.

  • Russian strikes destroy 12 million books ahead of Ukraine’s first week back at school

    Russian strikes destroy 12 million books ahead of Ukraine’s first week back at school

    A wave of coordinated Russian missile and drone attacks across Ukraine has targeted critical publishing infrastructure and iconic cultural heritage sites, leaving a trail of destruction that Ukrainian officials describe as a deliberate campaign to erase national identity.

    On the outskirts of Kyiv, the charred, twisted wreckage of a major printing press offers a stark example of the damage. The facility was weeks away from delivering 1.3 million textbooks – 10% of Ukraine’s total annual schoolbook supply – when a Russian missile struck overnight amid a production ramp-up for the new academic year. Among the ash and rubble, a single scorched page from an English textbook survives as a haunting symbol: it reads, “My name is William, I’m from the UK. My grandmother lives in Nottingham. It’s a beautiful city.”

    No materials have been salvaged from the site. Pages that escaped the fire were left waterlogged by firefighting efforts or damaged by exposure after the roof collapsed. Viktoria Haidai, commercial director of Ukrainian publisher Konvi, called the attacks a calculated strategy against Ukrainian statehood. “Over the past two months, some of the largest publishing houses have lost their logistics warehouses, where very large quantities of books were stored,” she explained. “The Russians are also destroying printing houses in an attempt to erase Ukraine as a nation. But frankly they will not succeed.”

    Across the country, the scope of destruction to the publishing sector is staggering. Recent attacks have hit more than 35 publishing facilities, destroying 12 million finished books – accounting for one-third of all books printed in Ukraine so far this year, according to local media reports. The damage is not limited to new publications: Kyiv’s historic Pochaina second-hand book market, a beloved cultural gathering spot, was also struck, wiping out hundreds of independent vendor stalls and thousands of rare, out-of-print volumes.

    Even before the embers cooled at the market, 28-year-old book blogger Liliya Velyka was sifting through the rubble, searching for anything she could rescue. Clutching a waterlogged science fiction novel, she summed up the grief of many Ukrainians: “Books are saving us and losing this is like losing our hearts.”

    This campaign against cultural infrastructure extends far beyond the publishing sector. Museums, art galleries, film studios, public libraries, and opera houses across Ukraine have sustained damage in the attacks. One of the highest-profile targets is Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a sprawling medieval monastery complex and one of Ukraine’s most significant cultural landmarks, which was hit in a June drone attack. While religious artifacts were moved to safety ahead of the strike, a large portion of the Dormition Cathedral’s roof caught fire, damaging the structure’s iconic golden domes. Repair estimates put the cost at $11.2 million, with work expected to take two years to complete.

    The monastery complex, which also houses Ukraine’s Museum of Books and Printing, was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1990, and marked as a World Heritage Site in Danger in September 2023. During recent celebrations marking the 975th anniversary of the monastery’s founding, UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany expressed profound sorrow over the damage and condemned the attacks. “UNESCO firmly condemns all attacks against cultural property protected under international law,” he told assembled dignitaries, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

    Ukraine’s Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna drew a clear connection between military attacks on Ukraine and the deliberate targeting of cultural sites. “This is an existential war, so Russia wants to destroy us as a nation, to erase us as a nation, like Ukrainians do not exist and have never existed,” she said during a tour of the damaged cathedral with El-Enany. “That’s why Russia targets our cultural heritage, the symbols of our presence here for a long time. They understand that it’s very important for us because we protect our identity, we protect our culture, and Russia wants to ruin everything that it cannot appropriate.”

    As of the latest reports, Berezhna confirmed that Russian forces have damaged more than 1,900 individual Ukrainian heritage sites and over 2,000 cultural institutions. To mitigate ongoing losses, the Ukrainian government has accelerated digitization efforts to preserve art, literature, and educational content, ensuring children can still access learning materials even as physical book stockpiles are destroyed. Industry leaders warn that the entire Ukrainian publishing sector is at risk of collapse without urgent international support.

    For Haidai, the survival of publishing is non-negotiable for preserving Ukrainian identity. “The word is everything,” she said at the bombed-out Kyiv printing plant. “It is our development, our culture, and our historical heritage that is passed down from generation to generation.”

    The targeting of cultural sites aligns with long-standing Russian rhetoric questioning the legitimacy of an independent Ukrainian state and culture. In a 2021 essay, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Russians and Ukrainians were “one people” and rejected the idea of a distinct Ukrainian national identity.

    In response to requests for comment from the BBC, the Russian Embassy in the UK shifted blame to the Ukrainian government, claiming that Ukraine had already damaged its own cultural heritage by dismantling Soviet-era monuments and renaming streets. The embassy also repeated a common Russian claim that cultural sites have been used to conceal military equipment. The Kremlin has consistently denied deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure throughout five years of full-scale invasion, despite widespread documentation of missile and drone strikes on residential neighborhoods, public services, and cultural sites across Ukraine.

  • Leaders of China, Russia and India are among heads of state meeting to counter US influence

    Leaders of China, Russia and India are among heads of state meeting to counter US influence

    The capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, is this week hosting the high-profile Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which has drawn heads of state from major global powers including China, Russia, and India, as observers frame the bloc as a growing counterweight to long-standing Western-dominated global governance structures.

    The summit’s agenda includes formal plenary sessions and a packed slate of bilateral meetings on its sidelines. Among the most anticipated talks are a Monday meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, followed by discussions between Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian scheduled for Tuesday, the date of the bloc’s official main summit sessions.

    For two key member states facing intense geopolitical friction with the West, the gathering offers a critical opportunity to deepen ties with other non-Western nations. Russia is now four and a half years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while Iran has been engaged in open conflict with the U.S. and Israel for six months; both view the SCO platform as a space to strengthen economic and political alignment with partners across the Global East and Global South.

    Founded in 2001 by China, Russia and four Central Asian republics as a regional security dialogue forum, the SCO has expanded dramatically in size and geopolitical clout over the past 24 years, even as its core institutional mandates and public profile remain relatively underdefined outside member states. Today, the bloc counts 10 full member states: China, Russia, India, Iran, Pakistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, with dozens more countries holding formal dialogue partner status.

    Alongside Russia, China has positioned the SCO as a viable alternative to Western-led multilateral blocs such as the G7, making active pushes over the past decade to expand the organization’s geographic reach and policy scope, while pledging billions in development and financial assistance to member and partner states. Last week, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the bloc has successfully “explored a new path for regional cooperation,” with Beijing consistently advancing a vision for a multipolar alternative global order with Moscow’s backing.

    Despite the framing of the SCO as a unified counterweight to Western influence, analysts emphasize that the bloc remains far from a cohesive political or military alliance, with deep-seated divergent interests and long-running disagreements between many of its core members.

    For India, which shares tense border relations with China and has a long-standing territorial and geopolitical rivalry with fellow member Pakistan, experts frame the summit as more an exercise in strategic signaling than a venue for groundbreaking substantive outcomes.

    Dinakar Peri, a security studies fellow at Carnegie India, explained that the SCO’s real value for New Delhi lies in giving India a seat at the table in a region increasingly defined by great power competition. “While it may not entirely shape the agenda, it gives New Delhi a first-hand view of the region and allows it to hedge its position with others,” Peri noted, adding that membership lets India protect its core interests, track shifting geopolitical trends, and project itself as a reliable regional stakeholder.

    Turkey, which has held SCO dialogue partner status since 2012, is also using the summit to advance its long-held goal of full membership. For Ankara, SCO membership fits into a long-running strategy of balanced foreign policy: it maintains long-standing institutional ties to the West as a NATO member, while seeking to expand its political and economic influence across Eurasia. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly reiterated his push for full permanent membership, a move that comes as Turkey’s decades-long bid to join the European Union remains effectively stalled, even as the country retains a close 1995 trade deal with the bloc. The meeting’s reporting was supported by contributions from correspondents Andrew Wilks in Istanbul, Huizhong Wu in Bangkok, and Aijaz Hussain in New Delhi.