Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Pakistan’s interior minister is in Tehran as the US downs more Iranian drones over Hormuz

    Pakistan’s interior minister is in Tehran as the US downs more Iranian drones over Hormuz

    Diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the months-long Middle East conflict gained new momentum Sunday, as Pakistan’s top interior official arrived in Tehran to broker renewed negotiations between Iran and the United States — even as U.S. forces downed two additional Iranian drones threatening international shipping in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. This mediation push comes as the U.S. administration ramps up pressure on Iran to reach a comprehensive agreement that would end the broader regional conflict, which has roiled global energy markets and pushed vulnerable food-importing nations to the brink of a widespread hunger crisis. While a preliminary ceasefire for the main Iran-Israel-U.S. conflict took hold April 8, negotiators have yet to lock in a permanent end to hostilities, leaving the region on edge.

    According to Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi is carrying a formal message from Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir to Iran’s newly installed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. Khamenei, who assumed leadership after his father was killed in the opening day of the U.S.-Israeli bombardment campaign against Iran on February 28, has not appeared in public since taking power. Official Iranian media confirmed Naqvi held introductory talks with Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni Saturday evening, followed by a separate meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi Sunday morning. No details of the message’s content have been released publicly.

    Pakistani authorities have confirmed Islamabad is leading a regional mediation bloc with backing from Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt, working to bridge longstanding gaps between Washington and Tehran. The coalition’s core goals are to reduce cross-border and maritime tensions and secure the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical chokepoint for global oil and liquefied natural gas exports. The ongoing closure of the strait has already sent energy prices soaring worldwide, triggering widespread economic disruption.

    Even as diplomatic efforts move forward in Tehran, the fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has failed to hold, threatening to scuttle broader regional peace talks. Hezbollah has publicly rejected the U.S.-mediated deal reached last week in Washington, demanding that any ceasefire in Lebanon be tied to broader negotiations between Iran and the U.S. to end the overall conflict.

    Over the weekend, the Israeli military launched a series of airstrikes across southern Lebanon, targeting more than 150 alleged Hezbollah military positions including rocket launch pads and command and control centers. Early Sunday, Israeli defense systems intercepted five projectiles fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, with all unexploded ordnance landing in unpopulated open areas. While Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for the projectile launches, the group confirmed it carried out targeted attacks on Israeli military personnel deployed in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military confirmed two of its soldiers were killed in Saturday’s clashes in the border region.

    Israeli forces currently occupy large swathes of southern Lebanon as part of their latest ground offensive. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces national elections later this year, has insisted he will continue the offensive until Hezbollah is permanently removed as a threat to Israel’s northern border. Iran has repeatedly stated that any lasting regional truce must include an end to hostilities in Lebanon.

    In a parallel development, Lebanese Army Commander General Rodolphe Haikal traveled to Pakistan Saturday at the invitation of Pakistan’s army chief. The Lebanese military has not released any details on the purpose of the visit, nor confirmed whether it is tied to Pakistan’s ongoing mediation efforts between Washington and Tehran.

    In the Persian Gulf, hostilities continued over the weekend: the U.S. military confirmed it shot down two Iranian drones Sunday, following a larger exchange of fire Saturday that saw Tehran launch missiles and drones targeting U.S. assets in the region. In response to Saturday’s attacks, U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites along the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command confirmed the downed drones posed an immediate threat to commercial and military maritime traffic transiting the strait.

    IRNA reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed Saturday’s attacks targeted two key U.S. positions: the Ali Al Salem Air Base that hosts U.S. forces in Kuwait, and the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain. The U.S. military confirmed there were no casualties among American personnel in Saturday’s attacks. Earlier this month, an Iranian drone strike heavily damaged the main passenger terminal at Kuwait International Airport, killing one person and injuring dozens more.

    The U.S. has maintained a strict naval blockade of Iranian ports in response to Iran’s control of the strait. The spike in global energy prices triggered by the closure of the corridor has created significant political headwinds for President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections.

  • The Nigerian army frees 360 abducted people in northeastern Borno state

    The Nigerian army frees 360 abducted people in northeastern Borno state

    ABUJA, Nigeria – In a significant blow to jihadist insurgency in Nigeria’s restive northeast, the Nigerian Army announced Sunday that it has freed 360 people held captive by the militant group Boko Haram in southern Borno State. The liberation operation targeted the Mandara Mountains, a rugged terrain long recognized as one of the extremist organization’s key entrenched strongholds.

    Among the freed hostages were dozens of children, all abducted from scattered civilian communities across Borno State, according to an official statement from the military. Army spokesperson Haruna Sani confirmed that two infants died from exhaustion after the rescue, their health already broken by the harsh conditions of prolonged captivity and the difficult crossing of mountainous terrain during extraction efforts.

    “All remaining rescued abductees have been successfully evacuated to secured locations, where they are receiving urgent medical care and targeted humanitarian support,” Sani said, framing the operation as a major operational victory that delivers a crippling blow to the terrorist network.

    Nigeria has grappled with a worsening, multi-layered security crisis for more than a decade, particularly across its northern regions. Long-standing insurgency by Boko Haram and its splinter faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) – which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group – has been compounded by widespread kidnappings for ransom, illegal mining operations, and attacks on civilian communities by armed gangs that have stretched state security resources thin.

    Just one month prior, Nigerian forces partnered with the United States military to carry out a joint offensive that killed 175 ISWAP fighters, marking another high-profile win against the insurgency. Data from the United Nations estimates that more than 10 years of extremist unrest in northeast Nigeria has killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions more from their homes.

    Despite repeated public pledges from President Bola Tinubu’s administration to curb insecurity and protect Nigerian citizens, independent security analysts continue to argue that the federal government has fallen short of deploying the resources and strategic action needed to resolve the long-running crisis.

  • Over 1.2 million people attend Pope’s mass in Madrid

    Over 1.2 million people attend Pope’s mass in Madrid

    On the second day of his seven-day national tour, Pope Leo XIV drew a crowd of more than 1.2 million worshippers and visitors to central Madrid Sunday, where he led an open-air mass calling for a revitalization of Catholic faith across the traditionally Catholic European nation.

    Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia joined the throngs of devotees who packed Cibeles Square and its surrounding streets, waving both Spanish and Vatican flags, for a service rich in centuries of religious tradition. In his homily, the pontiff urged Spaniards to reject framing religion as a static relic of history, urging them instead to engage with it as a living, enduring guide for modern life. “Spaniards should not look at religion as a museum of the past to be visited, but a school of faith from which to draw even today,” Pope Leo told the assembled crowd.

    Spain has long been regarded as a core stronghold of Catholicism in Western Europe, but like many of its regional neighbors, it has seen a sharp decline in regular religious observance in recent decades. A survey released last month by Spain’s autonomous government research body the Centre for Sociological Research found that just 56 percent of Spaniards now identify as Catholic, a dramatic drop from the 90 percent figure recorded in the 1970s.

    Authorities and event organizers mounted a massive logistical and security operation to manage the historic gathering. After the conclusion of the mass, Pope Leo led a traditional procession along a route lined with white and yellow carnations, the official colors of the Vatican flag, matching the turnout estimates that pegged attendance at more than 1.2 million in the square and surrounding areas.

    Attendees from across the globe shared perspectives on the pontiff’s visit, with many highlighting his message of unity amid growing global and domestic division. Nico Aldeanueva, a 28-year-old traveler from Philadelphia, United States, described the pope as a unifying voice at a time of fractured discourse across political, social and cultural lines. “We have, it seems like, never-ending conflict and for the time being here you get to hit pause and get to enjoy the moment and feel the faith,” Aldeanueva said.

    Sixty-four-year-old Ana Milagros, a local attendee waving a Vatican flag, called the U.S.-born pontiff approachable and sincere, noting his efforts to bridge deep divides across Spanish politics, society and the economy. “The pope is trying with this visit… to help all of us,” she said.

    The Sunday mass marked the second day of Pope Leo’s week-long visit to Spain. On Saturday, an estimated 500,000 people, the vast majority young worshippers, gathered with the pope outside Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu stadium for an overnight prayer vigil. The tour opened with an official ceremonial reception at Madrid’s Royal Palace, where Pope Leo called for an end to divisive rhetoric and oversimplified public discourse, while praising Spain’s left-wing government for its commitment to global peace and cross-national solidarity amid heightened geopolitical tensions between the government, his native United States and Israel over ongoing Middle East conflicts.

    Later Sunday, the pope is scheduled to meet leading figures from Spanish culture, sport and business at a local arena to foster ongoing dialogue between Catholic faith and modern civil society. On Tuesday and Wednesday, he will travel to Barcelona, where a key highlight of his visit will be the blessing of the newly completed tower of the Sagrada Familia basilica, a construction that officially makes the site the tallest church in the world. The tour will conclude with a focus on global migration during stops in the Canary Islands Thursday and Friday, a major arrival point for irregular migrants crossing the Atlantic, where thousands of people have died attempting to reach European shores.

  • Huge crowds throng Madrid streets for Pope’s open-air mass

    Huge crowds throng Madrid streets for Pope’s open-air mass

    On the second day of his landmark official visit to Spain — the first papal trip to the country in 15 years — Pope Leo XIV drew an estimated 1.2 million pilgrims and well-wishers to the streets of Madrid Sunday for an open-air mass at the iconic Plaza de Cibeles, Vatican officials confirmed. Among the thousands of congregants gathered in the central square were Spain’s reigning monarchs, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, who formally welcomed the pontiff to the Royal Palace during opening ceremonies on Saturday. As Pope Leo processed through central Madrid ahead of the service, massive crowds lined the route, waving Vatican and Spanish flags, shouting blessings, and tossing flower petals in his path, with local authorities deploying a large-scale security operation to oversee the event and the subsequent procession through the city center. The Chicago-born pontiff’s visit comes amid growing global attention to his firm anti-war stances, which have already drawn public criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump. On Saturday, during his initial welcome, Pope Leo highlighted Spain’s vocal opposition to ongoing global conflicts and its policy of support for migrant communities, praising the nation’s consistent commitment to upholding international law. That position aligns with recent high-profile diplomatic clashes between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s socialist government and the Trump administration over the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, as well as disputes between Madrid and Tel Aviv over the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Even before Sunday’s mass, large crowds turned out across Madrid to greet the pontiff on Saturday. Later that evening, an estimated 500,000 attendees — the vast majority of them young people — joined Pope Leo for a hours-long prayer vigil near Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium that extended into the night. Addressing the gathered youth, the pontiff issued a stirring call to action: “In the face of the emptiness of indifference and compliance, before the violence of war and lies, you must be the sparks of a new humanity.” Beyond the public masses and processions, Pope Leo’s itinerary includes two unprecedented and highly anticipated events: an address to the full Spanish parliament, marking a rare papal address to a national legislative body in Europe, and a closed meeting with survivors of clerical sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Later this week, the Pope will travel to the Canary Islands alongside Prime Minister Sánchez to hold a memorial honoring thousands of migrants who have lost their lives while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach European shores.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Israeli soldier kills seven-month-old Palestinian baby, then walks away

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Pope to lead huge Madrid mass on day two of Spain visit

    Pope to lead huge Madrid mass on day two of Spain visit

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • ‘It was either killed or be killed’ – ongoing nightmares of an ex-child soldier in Somalia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Pope Leo begins Spain visit with praise for government

    Pope Leo begins Spain visit with praise for government

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Iran’s nightly pro-government rallies reveal both unity and deep divisions

    Iran’s nightly pro-government rallies reveal both unity and deep divisions

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