Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Israeli soldier pictured desecrating Virgin Mary statue in Lebanon

    Israeli soldier pictured desecrating Virgin Mary statue in Lebanon

    A new controversy has emerged over conduct by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, after a widely circulated video showing an Israeli soldier desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary in the Christian village of Debel has prompted a formal military inquiry. Though the photograph of the incident was first shared publicly on Wednesday, Israeli military investigators confirm the act took place several weeks ago in the village, which sits just five kilometers from the Israeli border and six kilometers northwest of the Lebanese Christian town of Ain Ebel.

    In an official statement following the viral spread of the footage, the Israeli military noted that it has already identified the soldier responsible, and confirmed disciplinary action will be issued once the investigation concludes. The service emphasized that it views the incident with severe seriousness, stressing that the soldier’s actions stand in complete opposition to the ethical standards and values the military requires of all its personnel. “The incident will be investigated, and command measures against the soldier will be taken in accordance with the findings,” the military’s statement read. It also added that the Israeli military upholds respect for freedom of religion and worship, along with holy sites and religious symbols belonging to all faiths and communities, and maintains that it has no intent to damage civilian infrastructure, including religious structures or sacred symbols.

    This latest incident is not an isolated event in Debel: just one month prior, another Israeli soldier used a jackhammer to destroy a statue of Jesus on a cross in the same village. Images of that earlier act of vandalism sparked immediate widespread outrage across social media, even drawing condemnation from prominent conservative allies of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a sarcastic remark on the social platform X in response to the images, writing, “’Our greatest ally’ that takes billions of our tax dollars and weapons every year.” Fellow former Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz called the vandalism “horrific.” In response to that earlier incident, the Israeli military announced it had discharged the soldier who destroyed the statue, along with a second soldier who filmed the act, and sentenced both to 30 days of military prison. More recently, additional footage from Debel has documented Israeli military excavators destroying civilian solar panels, an act that is also currently under military review.

    The Debel incidents are part of a growing string of attacks on Christian religious sites across southern Lebanon, according to religious organizations. Last week, a French Catholic charity L’Oeuvre d’Orient issued a formal condemnation of Israeli forces after they demolished a convent run by the Salvatorian Sisters, a Greek Catholic order, in the Lebanese village of Yaroun. In its statement, the organization said, “L’Oeuvre d’Orient strongly condemns this deliberate act of destruction against a place of worship, as well as the systematic demolition of homes in southern Lebanon aimed at preventing the return of civilian populations.” The charity added that the convent demolition fits into a broader pattern of targeting Christian heritage, noting that multiple Christian sanctuaries, including Melkite churches in Yaroun and Derdghaya—both officially protected as part of Lebanon’s national heritage—were destroyed during 2024 hostilities.

    Attacks against Christian communities and individuals have also intensified in occupied Palestinian territories, according to recent reports. Last week in occupied East Jerusalem, a 48-year-old nun was physically assaulted by an Israeli civilian near the Cenacle on Mount Zion, requiring medical care for facial injuries sustained in the attack. Religious authorities have also faced repeated restrictions on worship: Israeli police recently blocked Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and other clergy from holding the traditional Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, only partially reversing the access ban after widespread international pressure.

    A 2025 report from the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue has documented a dramatic spike in anti-Christian incidents across the region, describing a “continued and expanding pattern of intimidation and aggression.” The center recorded 155 separate incidents in 2025 alone: the total includes 61 physical assaults, 52 attacks on church-owned property, 28 cases of religious harassment, and 14 instances of vandalism against religious signage. Researchers warn that the documented count represents only the “tip of the iceberg,” with many more incidents going unreported.

    These developments come even as Israel maintains ongoing military activity in Lebanon despite an April 17 ceasefire agreement that was meant to end over six weeks of open conflict. Since large-scale hostilities began on March 2, more than 2,600 people have been killed in the fighting, and over 8,000 more have been wounded.

  • Rwandan singer dies as he was being released from prison

    Rwandan singer dies as he was being released from prison

    The sudden death of 48-year-old Rwandan singer, academic and government critic Aimable Karasira on the cusp of his prison release in Kigali has triggered deep controversy and demands for a transparent, independent investigation into the circumstances of his passing. According to official statements from the Rwanda Correctional Service (RCS), Karasira suffered a fatal overdose of his prescription medication while being escorted out of prison Wednesday afternoon, between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. He was rushed to Nyarugenge Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. RCS spokesperson Hillary Sengabo confirmed that Karasira had been living with chronic conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure, and unaddressed mental health struggles, and announced that an official post-mortem examination would be conducted to determine the exact cause of death.

    Karasira was no stranger to public life in Rwanda before his arrest in 2021. A trained computer scientist, he worked for years as a lecturer at the University of Rwanda until his dismissal, a move the university framed as a response to “disciplinary faults” rather than retaliation for his outspoken anti-government views. He rose to wider prominence through his popular YouTube channel Ukuri Mbona, which translates to “The Truth As I See It,” where he regularly published criticism of President Paul Kagame and the long-ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party. He also appeared as a guest commentator on other independent platforms, drawing a large audience of Rwandans seeking alternative perspectives to the government’s official narrative.

    In 2025, Karasira was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of inciting ethnic division, after a Rwandan high court acquitted him of more serious counts including inciting public disorder, genocide justification and genocide denial. This release, planned for earlier this week, would have been the first step in his return to public life after five years behind bars.

    The official account of Karasira’s death has been immediately met with skepticism from opposition figures, human rights activists, and other critics of the Kagame government, who have pointed to a long pattern of suspicious deaths involving detained government opponents in Rwanda. Denise Zaneza, a Rwandan human rights activist based in Belgium, wrote in a public post on X that the timing of Karasira’s death — just as he was set to regain his freedom after years of detention — raised urgent, unaddressed questions. Citing Rwanda’s well-documented history of political repression, lack of judicial transparency, and a string of suspicious deaths of dissidents in custody, Zaneza called for an international independent investigation to uncover the truth of what happened.
    “After years of persecution and imprisonment, the authorities announce your death just as you were supposed to regain your freedom,” Zaneza wrote, praising Karasira for his courage to speak openly about experiences that many Rwandans are too afraid to share publicly. Karasira, an ethnic Tutsi who lost his parents in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, broke with the RPF’s official narrative of the genocide by publicly blaming RPF fighters for his family’s killings, claiming the rebel group suspected his family of sharing intelligence with the opposing Hutu regime. The RPF, which was founded by current President Paul Kagame and other Tutsi exiles to overthrow the Hutu government that orchestrated the 1994 genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 mostly Tutsi people, has dismissed these claims. The Rwandan government has pursued a policy of national reconciliation that discourages public discussion of ethnic identity, asking citizens to identify simply as Rwandan rather than along ethnic lines, and has a widely recognized reputation for cracking down on all forms of political dissent.

    This is not the first time a high-profile Rwandan dissident and genocide survivor has died in state custody under suspicious circumstances. In 2020, gospel singer and prominent government critic Kizito Mihigo was found dead in his prison cell; Rwandan authorities ruled his death a suicide, a conclusion that was also rejected by independent rights advocates. The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called on Rwandan authorities to open independent investigations into the suspicious deaths, disappearances, and arbitrary detentions of opposition members, journalists, civil society leaders, and government critics, following the 2021 arrests of Karasira and other outspoken dissidents. To date, no high-level Rwandan official has been held accountable for the deaths of detained opponents, a reality that has fueled ongoing distrust of official government accounts.

  • Novelist JM Coetzee declines to attend Jerusalem writers festival over ‘genocidal campaign in Gaza’

    Novelist JM Coetzee declines to attend Jerusalem writers festival over ‘genocidal campaign in Gaza’

    One of the world’s most decorated literary figures has sparked international debate after confirming he will skip a major Israeli literary festival, citing profound moral objection to what he terms Israel’s “genocidal campaign” in the Gaza Strip.

    John Maxwell Coetzee, the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature winner and two-time Booker Prize recipient, outlined his decision in a private November letter to Julia Fermentto-Tzaisler, artistic director of the Jerusalem International Writers Festival, a copy of which was obtained by The Guardian. In the correspondence, the South African-born writer made an unusual public break from his long-held position as a self-identified supporter of Israel, explaining that the current actions of the Israeli state and widespread public backing for the campaign make his attendance impossible.

    “For the past two years the state of Israel has been conducting a genocidal campaign in Gaza that has been vastly disproportionate to the murderous provocation of 7 October 2023,” Coetzee wrote in the letter. He added that the military campaign waged by the Israel Defense Forces has retained the enthusiastic backing of the vast majority of Israeli citizens. “For this reason it is not possible for any considerable sector of Israeli society, including its intellectual and arts community, to claim that it should not share in the blame for the atrocities in Gaza,” he emphasized.

    This is not Coetzee’s first connection to high-profile cultural events in Jerusalem: in 1987, he traveled to the city to accept the prestigious Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society. During that appearance, he delivered a widely noted speech calling for an urgent end to apartheid in his native South Africa. Today, multiple human rights organizations categorize the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories as a system of apartheid, a framing Coetzee appears to align with in his current stance.

    “Long-time supporters of Israel have turned away in revulsion at the actions of the Israeli military,” Coetzee wrote. “It will take many years for Israel to clear its name, assuming that it wishes to do so, and to re-establish itself in the international community.”

    Coetzee’s high-profile boycott comes amid a shifting military landscape in the region, according to recent Israeli reporting. Last week, Israel’s Army Radio revealed that Israeli forces have expanded their territorial control across Gaza to nearly 60 percent of the enclave, even amid a formally declared ceasefire. Senior military officials told the broadcaster that the Israeli military is pushing aggressively to resume full-scale hostilities, arguing that the current moment presents an optimal opportunity to dismantle Hamas. Operational plans for renewed offensive attacks have already been finalized, the report added, with a final go-ahead waiting only for approval from Israel’s top political leadership. Military leaders have also pulled back troop presence from southern Lebanon to reposition key brigades in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, indicating a looming shift in military focus.

    The current nominal ceasefire was brokered by the United States earlier this year, with the stated goal of halting Israeli offensive operations and opening corridors for life-saving humanitarian aid to enter the blockaded Gaza Strip. But the ceasefire has been repeatedly violated by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which records that at least 832 Palestinians have been killed in near-daily Israeli shelling since the truce took effect.

    Restrictions on the entry of food, medicine, and essential infrastructure equipment have only worsened catastrophic conditions for Gaza’s population of roughly two million displaced people, fueling widespread hunger, the rapid spread of preventable disease, and a humanitarian catastrophe that has drawn global condemnation. Since the resumption of large-scale Israeli hostilities in October 2023, more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, per local health authorities, with thousands more still missing and trapped under the rubble of destroyed residential and civilian infrastructure.

    Coetzee’s decision is one of the highest-profile cultural boycotts of Israeli institutions since the current conflict escalated, joining a growing wave of artists, academics, and writers who have canceled appearances in Israel to protest military policy in Gaza.

  • Rosenberg: Russia’s Victory Day parade with no tanks a sign Ukraine war not going to plan

    Rosenberg: Russia’s Victory Day parade with no tanks a sign Ukraine war not going to plan

    Moscow’s iconic Red Square is blanketed in symbols of celebration this week, with giant crimson banners emblazoned with the word *Pobeda* – Victory – hanging over its cobblestones, digital screens flashing the same national rallying cry, and interactive art installations drawing crowds of locals snapping selfies with the iconic word. Behind metal barricades sealing off the central parade route, uniformed soldiers run through final rehearsals for Russia’s most sacred national holiday: the annual May 9 parade commemorating the Soviet Union’s 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany. For nearly a quarter century under Vladimir Putin, this date has grown into the beating heart of Russian national identity, a cornerstone of the country’s ideological framework that ties modern Russia directly to the sacrifices and triumph of the Great Patriotic War.

    But this year, a historic shift is underway: for the first time in nearly 20 years, the parade will proceed without its most dramatic centerpiece – heavy military hardware. No battle tanks, no intercontinental ballistic missiles, no armored fighting vehicles will roll across Red Square this year. Only marching infantry will take part, in a dramatic scaling back of the traditional event that experts and analysts say offers a clear window into the current reality of Russia’s more than four-year-long full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    The reasoning offered by Russian officials is straightforward: the country’s military equipment is already committed elsewhere. “Our tanks are busy right now,” ruling party MP Yevgeny Popov explained in an on-the-record interview. “They are fighting. We need them more on the battlefield than on Red Square.” When pressed on the fact that after more than four years of war, Russia has failed to achieve its original invasion goals and the parade cutback is widely seen as a sign of weakness, Popov pushed back, blaming Western and Ukrainian military support for the decision. “What other choice do we have? Nato countries, Ukraine and Great Britain’s weapons, your king and your prime minister, are threatening us.”

    Beyond the immediate need for equipment at the front, Russian officials have also justified the scaled-back event citing rising domestic security threats. In the weeks leading up to May 9, Ukraine has stepped up long-range strikes deep inside Russian territory, bringing the war closer to Moscow than ever before. Just days before the parade, a drone managed to penetrate Moscow’s layered air defense systems and strike a luxury high-rise apartment building located just six kilometers from the Kremlin. While no fatalities were reported, the strike caused extensive damage to an upper floor of the building. A separate long-range missile and drone assault on the central Russian city of Cheboksary left two civilians dead and more than 30 others wounded.

    Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has framed the parade cutback as a necessary response to what he calls a “terrorist threat” from Ukraine. In a sharp warning to Kyiv, Russia’s defense ministry has threatened an overwhelming retaliatory response, promising a “massive missile strike” on central Kyiv if Ukraine launches any attacks on Moscow during the May 9 holiday.

    On side streets near Red Square, public opinion on the absence of military hardware is divided, reflecting growing undercurrents of war fatigue across the country. Many Russians acknowledge the safety argument, but express discomfort with what the cutback signals to the world. “There is a safety issue,” said Muscovite Sergei. “But parading our military hardware shows our strength on the world stage. Perhaps we should be displaying something.” Another local, Yulia, added: “I understand it would be foolish to showcase hardware in case something happens during the parade. On the other hand, this means that we are afraid of something. And that’s not great, either.” For Vladimir, another resident, the change is just a pragmatic response to shifting circumstances. “The parade, of course, is a symbol. But if circumstances don’t allow it to take place in full, we’ll have to wait a year for that.”

    Analysts note that the scaled-back parade is itself a powerful symbol of the current state of the war: more than four years after Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the conflict has already outlasted the entire four-year duration of the Soviet Union’s war against Nazi Germany, and a definitive Russian victory remains out of reach.

    The shifting dynamic is also leaving its mark on Putin’s domestic standing. Recent polling, even from state-run Russian agencies, shows a gradual decline in the president’s approval rating. Late last year, Putin made frequent public appearances in military fatigues, projecting confidence as he met with top generals to discuss the war. In 2026, the “Commander-in-Chief” public persona has been far less visible. Conversations with ordinary Russians reveal growing fatigue with the ongoing conflict, rising anxiety over soaring cost of living, and widespread anger over repeated state-mandated internet restrictions implemented across the country in recent months.

    Russian authorities have announced new mobile internet restrictions for central Moscow on Victory Day, framing the move as a necessary security measure to prevent drone attacks and sabotage. The restrictions mirror similar digital shutdowns that have been imposed in dozens of Russian cities and towns over the past year. When asked about the widespread public anger over the shutdowns, Popov dismissed the criticism: “It’s not your business, with all respect, what we are doing with our internet. It would be better to be with no internet than to be killed by a Ukrainian missile or drone.”

    While the central Red Square parade has been scaled back, commemorations of the 1945 victory are still taking place across every region of Russia. Outside Moscow, in the upscale village of Rublyovo, schoolchildren gathered at the local Great Patriotic War memorial to lay red carnations in honor of the 27 million Soviet citizens who lost their lives in the conflict. Standing guard at the memorial were two masked combat veterans who recently returned from fighting in Ukraine, what the Kremlin still calls a “special military operation.” One of the veterans compared the current conflict to the 1941-1945 war against Nazi Germany. When pressed on the key difference – that in 1941 the Soviet Union was invaded, while in 2022 Russia launched an invasion of its neighbor – the veteran simply replied, “Russia is a country of victors. It always was and always will be.”

    Yet even as the rhetoric of victory remains central to national messaging, four years into the full-scale invasion, that victory remains elusive for Russia on the battlefield.

  • Portugal and Italy will not suspend digital border checks for Brits

    Portugal and Italy will not suspend digital border checks for Brits

    As the European Union grapples with growing travel disruption stemming from its new border management framework, the European Commission has officially confirmed that Portugal and Italy have no plans to waive new mandatory biometric screening requirements for British citizens entering the Schengen Zone.

    The confirmation comes on the heels of unsubstantiated media speculation that the two Southern European nations would follow Greece’s lead, which quietly suspended the new fingerprint and facial scan checks for UK nationals earlier this spring in a bid to avoid crippling summer travel gridlock. Neither Portuguese nor Italian officials had publicly confirmed the rumors prior to the Commission’s statement.

    The new Entry-Exit System (EES), the EU’s digital overhaul of border processing, requires all short-term visitors from outside the European Union and European Economic Area to register their biometric data every time they enter or exit the Schengen free travel area. First launched in October last year, the system was scheduled to reach full operational capacity by April 10 of this year. While EU officials maintain the platform has largely performed as intended, widespread traveler accounts of multi-hour delays at border checkpoints have proliferated in recent months, with UK passengers disproportionately affected. In dozens of documented cases, delayed passengers have missed departing and connecting flights entirely.

    One high-profile incident last month left more than 100 EasyJet passengers stranded in Milan’s Linate Airport after they missed their flight back to Manchester, caught in what the carrier called “unacceptable” passport processing queues. A separate incident at Milan’s Bergamo Airport saw a plane full of Ryanair passengers bound for Manchester also miss their departure due to EES-related backlogs, the airline confirmed.

    In response to these mounting disruptions, Greek border authorities quietly stopped conducting mandatory biometric checks for UK citizens, despite the Greek government’s public claim that it had “successfully started the full operation of the Entry-Exit System.” The Commission confirmed this week that it has opened discussions with Greek officials to clarify the country’s deviation from EU rules and remind national governments of the bloc’s existing regulatory framework. Under current EES rules, temporary, limited suspensions of screening are permitted at specific border crossings only during exceptional circumstances, but blanket exemptions for entire nationalities over extended time frames are explicitly prohibited.

    The Commission added that it remains in regular communication with all EU member states, including Portugal and Italy, to coordinate EES implementation. “The Portuguese and Italian authorities confirmed that they do not intend to exempt any nationality,” a Commission spokesperson said in an official statement.

    The ongoing EES-related travel chaos comes as global airlines already face cascading headwinds, including skyrocketing jet fuel prices and widespread uncertainty over fuel supply security heading into the peak summer travel season. Global carriers have already cut more than 13,000 scheduled flights for May, accounting for roughly 1% of all planned global air travel for the month. Despite the mounting disruptions, UK officials have urged holidaymakers not to cancel or alter their existing travel plans, noting that the UK faces no current fuel shortage and that government contingency plans are in place to address emerging issues.

  • South Africa condemns ‘fake videos’ of alleged xenophobic attacks

    South Africa condemns ‘fake videos’ of alleged xenophobic attacks

    Across major urban centers of South Africa, thousands of demonstrators have gathered in recent days to stage coordinated protests against undocumented immigration, a demonstration of public frustration that has ignited sharp diplomatic friction between Pretoria and several other African nations. The unrest stems from circulating online video footage, first shared roughly two weeks ago, that appears to capture vigilante groups targeting and harassing individuals they identify as undocumented migrants. One widely shared clip reportedly shows a Ghanaian national being confronted over his immigration status and ordered to return to “fix his own country.”

    In response to the outcry that followed the spread of the footage, South African officials have pushed back forcefully, condemning what they describe as manipulated and false visual content designed to damage the country’s global standing. During a press briefing Thursday following a weekly cabinet meeting, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters that the discredited clips and images serve a deliberate purpose: to undermine South Africa’s international reputation and derail its regional agenda focused on advancing a more integrated, prosperous Africa. Ntshavheni clarified that while South Africans hold a constitutional right to protest the growing challenges of uncontrolled illegal immigration, the violence that marred past anti-immigration demonstrations will not be tolerated. She also stressed that there are no targeted xenophobic attacks currently occurring in the country, noting that any violence against foreign nationals can be attributed to general criminal activity that law enforcement is already addressing, not organized xenophobic aggression.

    Presidential spokesperson for Cyril Ramaphosa echoed this position earlier this week, emphasizing that South Africa remains a welcoming nation, and its people are open and warm, rejecting all attempts to label the country or its population as inherently xenophobic. Ntshavheni added that South Africa has “nothing to hide” regarding the current situation and is committed to transparency with regional partners.

    Unlike previous waves of anti-immigrant unrest that included deadly attacks and looting of foreign-owned businesses, the current wave of protests has remained largely peaceful, with no official reports of widespread violence against undocumented migrants or attacks on foreign-owned properties. South African protesters argue that high levels of undocumented immigration have placed unsustainable pressure on domestic access to jobs, affordable housing, and public safety, driving the recent demonstrations.

    Despite the South African government’s reassurances, multiple African nations have raised urgent alarms over the safety of their citizens residing in the country. Ghana became the first country to escalate the issue to the African Union, submitting an official letter requesting the pan-African body open formal discussions on the matter. Ghana’s government argues that the alleged rise in xenophobic violence poses a direct threat to the safety and well-being of all Ghanaian and African citizens in South Africa, and runs counter to core shared principles of African solidarity, fraternity, and continental unity. Ghana is pushing for the AU to deploy an independent fact-finding mission to South Africa to investigate the situation on the ground.

    Nigeria has echoed Ghana’s concerns, announcing it stands ready to facilitate the repatriation of any Nigerian nationals who wish to leave South Africa amid safety fears. Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe have all issued official travel advisories to their citizens currently residing in South Africa, urging them to remain vigilant and avoid areas at high risk for potential attacks.

    As regional pressure builds, the South African government has ramped up targeted diplomatic outreach across the continent to ease growing anxiety over rising anti-immigration sentiment. The current dispute brings renewed attention to longstanding challenges around xenophobia in South Africa, where intermittent outbreaks of deadly anti-foreigner violence have occurred for decades, testing the commitment to regional integration enshrined in the African Union’s founding principles.

  • US awaits Iran response to latest deal offer

    US awaits Iran response to latest deal offer

    As Thursday dawned, the United States held its breath for Tehran’s formal response to a fresh proposed agreement designed to end the weeks-long Middle East conflict and reopen the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, the critical shipping lane that connects the Gulf to global energy markets. Growing optimism that a breakthrough could be imminent sent Asian stock markets surging and pushed oil prices sharply lower, with both global benchmarks dropping below the key $100 per barrel threshold after days of declines tied to diplomatic progress.

    The conflict, which was launched by the United States and Israel in late February, has upended regional security: Iran has retaliated with a wave of cross-region attacks and imposed a tight chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the passage that handles roughly 20 percent of the world’s daily oil and liquified natural gas trade, plus a large share of global fertilizer shipments. This disruption has sent energy prices soaring worldwide, even as diplomatic efforts gained steam in recent days.
    The diplomatic push, mediated by Pakistan and backed by Washington’s Gulf Arab allies, saw a dramatic twist earlier this week when President Donald Trump launched a brief naval operation to escort commercial ships and force open the strait, only to call off the mission within hours. He cited tangible progress in talks with Iran to justify the sudden U-turn. Multiple U.S. outlets have since shed light on the factors behind that decision: NBC News reports that Saudi Arabia, whose Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held direct talks with Trump, refused to grant U.S. forces access to its airspace and military bases for the Hormuz operation, scuttling plans for immediate military action.
    Trump told reporters on Wednesday that discussions over the prior 24 hours had been productive, saying “it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal.” He did, however, repeat his standard warning that the U.S. would resume military strikes if Tehran rejected Washington’s demands. For its part, Iran confirmed the proposal is still under internal review. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Tehran would share its final position with mediator Pakistan once it has completed internal deliberations. Axios, citing two unnamed U.S. officials, reported that both sides are nearing agreement on a short one-page memorandum of understanding that would end active hostilities and set a framework for future negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
    Inside Iran, many residents remain deeply anxious amid ongoing conflict and growing domestic repression. Speaking to AFP from the northern Iranian city of Tonekabon, 49-year-old Ali — who only gave his first name out of fear of retaliation from authorities — said “The economic situation got worse, and this government has become even more brutal.”
    Tehran has also moved to push back against Trump’s claims that Iranian leadership is fractured following the deaths of multiple senior officials in U.S. and Israeli strikes. On Thursday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed he had held a meeting with the country’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he was appointed in early March following the death of his father, Ali Khamenei, in the opening days of the war. Mojtaba Khamenei is reported to have been wounded in that same opening strike, and has only released written statements until now. In a video broadcast on Iranian state television, Pezeshkian said “What struck me most during this meeting was the vision and the humble and sincere approach of the supreme leader of the Islamic revolution.”
    Beyond the Strait of Hormuz and Iran, regional tensions remain acute in Lebanon, where an already fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was pushed to the breaking point this week. On Wednesday, Israel carried out its first airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in nearly a month, killing a senior commander from Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated in a video statement that “no terrorist is immune. Anyone who threatens the State of Israel will die because of his actions.” The following day, the Israeli military confirmed that an explosive drone attack in southern Lebanon had wounded four of its soldiers, one of them severely, a day earlier.
    Financial markets reacted strongly to the growing prospect of a diplomatic breakthrough. The Tokyo Nikkei index led a broad, strong rally across Asian stock markets, while oil prices fell by 2 percent on Thursday, adding to a roughly 10 percent decline over the prior two trading days. While energy prices remain far higher than they were before the conflict began, both international benchmark Brent Crude and U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate now sit below the symbolic $100 per barrel mark, a shift that has eased fears of sustained runaway energy inflation worldwide.

  • Nigerian army rescues 7 children and 2 women abducted from an orphanage last month

    Nigerian army rescues 7 children and 2 women abducted from an orphanage last month

    ABUJA, NIGERIA – In a recent operational breakthrough announced Thursday, Nigeria’s military has recovered nine additional hostages kidnapped by armed gunmen during a raid on an unlicensed orphanage in the country’s north-central region last month. The rescue operation, carried out in a dense forest within Kogi State, brings the total number of freed captives to 22, with one child still unaccounted for following the April 26 attack.

    The assault targeted an Islamic orphanage operating without official authorization in a remote outskirts of Lokoja, Kogi’s state capital. When gunmen stormed the facility, they abducted 23 pupils in total. Local security forces managed to free 15 of the captured children immediately after the attack, leaving eight captives still held by the assailants.

    Army spokesperson Hassan Abdullahi detailed the outcome of the follow-up mission in a statement dated Wednesday, which was publicly released one day later. According to Abdullahhi, troops intercepted the hostage group in the forest and successfully rescued all nine people held there. “The rescued victims comprised five boys, two girls, and two adult females, believed to be the wives of the proprietor of the orphanage,” the statement read.

    The recovery of these nine hostages leaves one remaining pupil unaccounted for, though the official military statement did not explicitly address the outstanding missing person or provide updates on efforts to locate the child. It also did not release information on any casualties among the attacking gunmen or Nigerian security personnel during the rescue operation.

    To date, no armed organization has publicly claimed responsibility for the orphanage attack. Security analysts who track kidnapping trends in Nigeria note that targeted assaults on educational and childcare facilities have become a common tactic for criminal armed groups in the region. Schools and orphanages are seen as high-value targets because abductions of children generate widespread public and government attention, creating leverage for groups to demand and extract massive ransom payments. Over recent years, hundreds of students have been kidnapped in coordinated attacks across different regions of Nigeria, creating ongoing national security concerns.

  • Circus tackles jihadist nightmares of Burkina Faso’s children

    Circus tackles jihadist nightmares of Burkina Faso’s children

    For over a decade, brutal jihadist insurgency has torn through West Africa’s Burkina Faso, leaving a generations-long crisis in its wake: thousands of children have been murdered, kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and forcibly recruited as fighters by armed groups, per United Nations investigations. Human rights organizations have also documented widespread abuses against minors by Burkinabe government forces and allied civilian militias, a sensitive topic the performing artists have chosen not to address, given the ruling military junta’s heavy crackdown on dissent following two successive coups in 2022.

    Now, one of the country’s oldest performance troupes, Dafra Circus, is turning the silent trauma of conflict-affected children into a gripping, wordless stage production. Titled *Souffle* — French for “Breath” — the 60-minute performance uses acrobatics, mime, choreographed movement, and storytelling to capture the unspoken horror of childhoods destroyed by violence. The four-person cast brings harrowing scenes to life: one sequence depicts children juggling spent ammunition collected from battlefields; another, a traumatized performer stumbles through wobbly pirouettes and unsteady somersaults to mimic the descent into madness triggered by constant terror.

    Drawn from the real-life experiences of the troupe’s members — all of whom have been directly impacted by the violence that centers Burkina Faso — the production is more than an artistic performance, its creators say. For choreographer Jean Adolphe Sanou, *Souffle* centers on the connection between life and hope, and hope, he argues, is inherently tied to the futures of children. Artistic director Moustapha Konate, 30, explained that circus is uniquely suited to bear heavy political and social messages: the medium draws audiences in through spectacle, the beauty of movement, and feats of skill, making it easier to engage with a devastating topic that might otherwise feel too overwhelming to confront.

    “We take a clear stand against the use of children in war,” Konate emphasized. The UN’s most recent report on the conflict confirms children bear the brunt of Burkina Faso’s escalating spiral of violence, documenting more than 2,200 gross abuses against minors between 2022 and early 2024, the vast majority attributed to jihadist insurgents.

    After premiering to sold-out, enthusiastic crowds in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou and the troupe’s home base of Bobo-Dioulasso, the company brought *Souffle* to an international audience in mid-April at a festival in Abidjan, the economic capital of neighboring Ivory Coast. For many local attendees, the subtle, emotional performance offered a more human perspective on the conflict than sensationalized news reports. “It’s a bit more subtle, less shocking than what we see on TV, which is always scary,” 21-year-old audience member Yeli Gnougoh Coulibaly said after the show, explaining that the performance moved him deeply by making the crisis feel personal.

    For many Burkinabe audience members, the blend of traditional circus skills with dance, theater, and narrative storytelling was also a new experience, Konate noted, opening the door for wider conversations about the human cost of a conflict that rarely captures sustained global attention. Even as it confronts unspeakable trauma, the production ultimately frames its core message around resilience and the possibility of healing: as its title *Souffle* suggests, it is a reminder that the children of Burkina Faso still carry the breath of life, and the right to a hopeful future.

  • Pakistan warns of strong response to any attack on anniversary of clash with India

    Pakistan warns of strong response to any attack on anniversary of clash with India

    On the first anniversary of the 2025 four-day border conflict that pushed nuclear-armed neighbors Pakistan and India to the edge of full-scale war, Pakistan’s armed forces issued a stern warning Thursday: any future hostile action from India will be met with a far sharper, more precise response than it witnessed last year.

    The 2025 clash, which Pakistan officially labels *Marka-e-Haq* or “Battle of Truth,” was triggered by a deadly militant attack in Pahalgam, a tourist town in India-administered Kashmir. The assault left 26 people dead, most of them Hindu visitors. New Delhi immediately placed blame on Pakistan-backed militant groups, an accusation Islamabad has repeatedly rejected while calling for an independent international probe into the incident. Speaking at a joint televised press briefing featuring senior leaders from all three branches of Pakistan’s military, army spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry pointed out that one year after the Pahalgam attack, the key questions Pakistan raised about the incident still have not been addressed. He added that India rushed to assign blame to Pakistan within minutes of the shooting, without presenting any concrete evidence to back up its claim.

    In the days following the attack, India launched cross-border strikes into Pakistani territory on May 7, 2025. Pakistan responded with coordinated retaliatory action, including drone incursions, missile barrages, and artillery exchanges across the disputed Kashmir border. Dozens of civilians and military personnel were killed on both sides before a US-brokered ceasefire took effect on May 10, halting the escalation that had raised global fears of a full conflict between the two nuclear-armed states. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for negotiating the truce that prevented a wider war.

    Since the ceasefire, conflicting accounts have emerged over the scale of losses during the clash. Pakistan initially said its forces downed at least seven Indian military aircraft, including a French-built Rafale fighter jet. On Thursday, Air Vice Marshal Tariq Ghazi, Pakistan’s Deputy Chief of Air Staff (Projects), updated that figure to eight downed Indian fighter jets. Ghazi emphasized that Pakistan deliberately exercised restraint during the conflict, even though its air force held the capability to inflict far more severe damage on Indian targets. India has acknowledged unspecified military losses but has never released an official detailed account.

    Senior military leaders also outlined new details of Pakistani operations across multiple domains during the 2025 conflict. Rear Admiral Shifaat Ali, Deputy Chief of the Pakistan Naval Staff, said the Indian Navy attempted to deploy warships in the northern Arabian Sea during the fighting to target Pakistani naval infrastructure and disrupt key maritime trade routes passing through Pakistani waters. “But due to the effective strategy of the Pakistan Navy, maritime traffic in all our waterways remained uninterrupted,” Ali stated.

    Chaudhry made clear that while Pakistan does not seek out conflict or full-scale war with India, it is fully prepared to defend its territorial integrity against any future aggression. “We do not underestimate India’s military capability, but we are fully prepared to respond to any misadventure,” he said. “We are prepared; if anyone wishes to test us, they are more than welcome.” He added, “We are not seeking conflict, we are not seeking war. But we know how to defend ourselves with honor and dignity.”

    The anniversary statement comes amid decades of strained relations between India and Pakistan. The two South Asian nations have fought three full wars since gaining independence from British rule in 1947, and two of those conflicts were fought over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both countries claim in its entirety.