Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Germany charges alleged Iranian agent for scouting out Jewish figures with a view to attacks

    Germany charges alleged Iranian agent for scouting out Jewish figures with a view to attacks

    BERLIN – German federal prosecutors announced Thursday that two men have been formally charged with espionage and attempted murder conspiracy, alleging the pair were directed by an Iranian intelligence agency to collect intelligence on prominent German Jewish and pro-Israel figures ahead of planned deadly attacks.

    In accordance with German privacy regulations, the first defendant, a Danish national arrested last June in Danish territory, is only publicly identified as Ali S. His alleged accomplice, an Afghan national named Tawab M., was taken into custody in Denmark this past November. Prosecutors confirmed that the indictment was officially filed with the Hamburg State Court on May 7 this year.

    Court documents and official statements outline the full scope of the alleged plot: Ali S. stands accused of operating as a covert agent for the Intelligence Organization of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), maintaining direct and regular contact with the IRGC’s elite Quds Force – the branch of the Iranian military responsible for extraterritorial operations. By early 2025, the defendant received explicit orders to surveil and gather detailed operational information on four high-priority targets.

    The named targets include Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany – the country’s largest umbrella organization representing Jewish communities – and Volker Beck, a former veteran German lawmaker and current head of the German-Israeli Society. The plot also targeted two unnamed Jewish grocery store owners based in Berlin. German prosecutors emphasized in their official statement that all surveillance activities were explicitly carried out to prepare for upcoming assassination attacks and arson operations on German soil.

    Investigators add that Ali S. conducted pre-attack reconnaissance of multiple locations across Berlin throughout 2024, and actively worked to recruit additional co-conspirators to carry out the violent plot. By May 2025, he had established contact with Tawab M., who allegedly agreed to source a firearm for an unnamed third party and coordinate that individual’s attempt to assassinate Beck.

    Following Ali S.’s arrest last year, German officials immediately summoned Iran’s ambassador to Berlin to the German Foreign Ministry to address the allegations. At that time, the Iranian Embassy in Berlin issued a formal rejection of the claims, dismissing them as “unfounded and dangerous allegations” of a planned attack against Jewish targets in Germany.

  • Air France, Airbus guilty of manslaughter in 2009 Paris-Rio crash: French court

    Air France, Airbus guilty of manslaughter in 2009 Paris-Rio crash: French court

    Fourteen years after one of the deadliest aviation disasters in French history, Paris’s appellate court has delivered a landmark ruling holding both Air France and aircraft manufacturer Airbus criminally responsible for the 2009 crash of Flight AF447 that claimed 228 lives.

    On June 1, 2009, the Airbus A330 operated by Air France was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when a catastrophic sequence of failures unfolded over the mid-Atlantic. During a storm, ice crystals blocked the plane’s pitot tubes—small instruments critical for measuring airspeed. The malfunction triggered cockpit alarms and automatically disengaged the autopilot system. Confused by incorrect speed readings, the flight crew mistakenly put the aircraft into a steep climb that induced an unrecoverable stall, sending the jet plummeting into the ocean. There were no survivors among the 216 passengers and 12 crew members, with victims hailing from more than 30 countries, including 72 French nationals and 58 Brazilians.

    The case wound through France’s legal system for more than a decade, after a lower court acquitted both companies of involuntary manslaughter charges in 2023. That initial verdict sparked widespread outrage from families of the victims, who spent years pushing for accountability. Thursday’s appellate ruling overturned the lower court’s decision, finding the two companies solely and fully liable for the tragedy, and ordering each to pay the maximum possible fine for corporate involuntary manslaughter: 225,000 euros, or approximately $261,000.

    While the financial penalties are widely viewed as symbolic, the conviction carries severe reputational consequences for both Air France, France’s national flag carrier, and Airbus, Europe’s largest aerospace manufacturer. Throughout the legal proceedings, both firms had denied criminal wrongdoing, framing the crash as a case of pilot error. In arguments during the eight-week appeal trial held between September and December 2024, lead prosecutor Rodolphe Juy-Birmann delivered a scathing rebuke of the companies’ conduct in the years following the disaster. “Nothing has come of it — not a single word of sincere comfort,” he said, dismissing the companies’ aggressive legal defense as “indecency.”

    Lawyers representing victim families argued that both entities had prior knowledge of potential pitot tube failure risks on the A330 model, but failed to take appropriate corrective action. The court’s ruling backed those claims, faulting Airbus for underestimating the severity of known sensor issues and failing to clearly communicate the risks to operating flight crews. For its part, Air France was found negligent for failing to develop and deliver specialized pilot training to handle emergencies caused by pitot tube icing, a shortcoming that left crew unprepared when the crisis unfolded. In court statements during the trial, Airbus counsel Christophe Cail reiterated the company’s commitment to a “zero accident” safety standard, while Air France representative Pascal Weil admitted the carrier had opted not to implement high-altitude emergency training for this scenario, saying “we sincerely believed it was unnecessary” at the time.

    Both companies have not yet announced whether they will challenge the appellate ruling in further legal proceedings. For the families of the 228 victims, the conviction marks a long-awaited turning point in their 15-year fight for official recognition of the corporate negligence that led to the disaster.

  • Deadly DR Congo Ebola outbreak spreads to M23-held South Kivu

    Deadly DR Congo Ebola outbreak spreads to M23-held South Kivu

    A catastrophic development in the ongoing Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen the deadly virus cross into a new contested region, dealing a major blow to already strained international response efforts. On Thursday, a spokesman for the Rwanda-backed M23 militia confirmed that the first confirmed Ebola case has been recorded in South Kivu, an eastern province largely under the armed group’s control.

    The current outbreak, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has already designated as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, has been consistently undermined by decades of persistent conflict in the DRC’s mineral-rich eastern region, where ongoing military clashes between the Congolese national army and M23 have carved the territory into fragmented, hard-to-access zones. Backed by Rwandan military support, M23 has seized large swathes of eastern DRC since early 2025, establishing a parallel governing administration separate from the national government in Kinshasa — but the group has never before been forced to coordinate a response to a large-scale, high-mortality epidemic like Ebola.

    Since the 1970s, Ebola has claimed more than 15,000 lives across the African continent. According to M23’s spokesperson, the confirmed case in South Kivu involves a 28-year-old man who traveled to Bukavu, the province’s capital that fell to M23 control in February 2025, from Kisangani, the major urban hub of neighboring Tshopo province. No cases linked to the current outbreak had previously been recorded in either South Kivu or Tshopo. Tragically, the patient died before official diagnostic testing could be completed, the spokesman added. As of publication, Congolese national health authorities have not released any official comment on the new case.

    The WHO reports that this outbreak is the 17th recorded Ebola event in the DRC, a central African nation of more than 100 million people. To date, the outbreak has been linked to nearly 600 probable cases, with more than 139 suspected deaths recorded. The epidemic’s epicenter remains in northeastern Ituri province, where most cases have emerged in remote areas plagued by a tangled network of competing armed groups that restrict aid access. Prior to this confirmation, cases had only been recorded in Ituri, North Kivu, and neighboring Uganda.

    Widespread access barriers have complicated the public health response: because most affected areas are cut off by conflict, few patient samples can be transported to certified laboratories for testing, meaning most official counts rely on suspected rather than laboratory-confirmed cases. Both North and South Kivu are now split by active front lines between Congolese government forces and M23 and its Rwandan backers. The critical international airport in Goma, North Kivu’s capital, which previously served as the main hub for airlifting emergency medical aid into eastern DRC, has been closed since M23 seized the city in January 2025.

    Complicating the crisis further, no licensed vaccines or specific clinical treatments exist for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola that is driving the current outbreak. While the WHO assesses the outbreak risk as very high for the DRC and the broader central African region, it classifies the risk of a global pandemic as low. The response effort is also being stretched by deep funding cuts to major humanitarian organizations, driven in large part by sweeping U.S. foreign aid reductions implemented after U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office. One of Trump’s first actions upon resuming the presidency was to withdraw the United States from the WHO, an agency he repeatedly criticized for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Dozens of vehicles burnt as Mali jihadists enforce blockade

    Dozens of vehicles burnt as Mali jihadists enforce blockade

    An escalating insurgent blockade targeting Mali’s capital Bamako has entered a more dangerous phase, with jihadist fighters aligned with al-Qaeda burning dozens of civilian and commercial vehicles on key arteries leading into the city, multiple verified sources confirm.

    The destruction, which took place on a major roadway roughly 45 kilometers west of the capital, was captured on video by witnesses traveling through the area. Independent analysis by BBC Verify confirmed the footage was authentic: analysts cross-referenced two distinct roadside structures with recent satellite imagery to confirm the location, and ruled out artificial manipulation of the video. Complementary verification came from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), a satellite platform designed to detect surface heat sources, which recorded a significant heat signature matching the attack site on Tuesday.

    Footage of the incident shows the charred, smoldering wreckage of more than a dozen vehicles, including commercial fuel tankers, passenger minibuses, and cargo trucks. Crucially, there have been no reports of civilian casualties in this latest attack: witnesses report militants ordered all drivers and passengers to exit their vehicles before setting them alight.

    This attack is part of a broader, year-long campaign by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist group that has waged a fuel blockade on Bamako to cripple the West African nation’s ruling military junta. The group dramatically tightened the blockade last month, following coordinated large-scale attacks across multiple Malian cities that killed the country’s defense minister, Sadio Camara, in a suicide truck bombing targeting his residence near the capital.

    As a landlocked nation, Mali relies entirely on overland fuel shipments from neighboring coastal states including Senegal and Ivory Coast to keep its economy running and civilian services operational. Since the blockade began last year, JNIM militants have kidnapped transport workers and destroyed more than 100 fuel trucks on major national highways. While military escorts have allowed a limited number of fuel convoys to reach the capital, persistent attacks have created a sustained national fuel crisis. Just before this latest incident, government officials had signaled the crisis was beginning to ease, raising hopes for a return to normalcy.

    The current Malian government is led by General Assimi Goïta, who first seized power in a 2020 coup. Goïta rose to power on a promise to stamp out the country’s years-long Islamist insurgency and restore security across national territory. In January of this year, he appointed Brigadier General Famouké Camara to lead a new specialized counter-blockade operation aimed at breaking JNIM’s grip on key supply routes. Despite this new initiative, attacks on fuel convoys have continued unabated.

    When the military junta first took power five years ago, it enjoyed broad popular support from Malians frustrated by the government’s failure to contain a growing insurgency that grew out of a 2012 Tuareg separatist rebellion in northern Mali, which was later co-opted by JNIM and other Islamist militant groups. Despite receiving military backing from Russian mercenary forces, the junta has failed to roll back insurgent gains, leaving large swathes of northern and eastern Mali effectively ungovernable.

    Security analysts say the blockade is a deliberate strategic move by JNIM: by cutting off fuel supplies to the capital, the group aims to choke off Mali’s already fragile economy and erode public confidence in the ruling military leadership, whose core mandate has been resolving the country’s security crisis. The BBC has reached out to Mali’s transitional government for official comment on the latest attack, but has not yet received a response.

  • Nigeria’s anti-drug agency shut down large meth laboratory in a raid

    Nigeria’s anti-drug agency shut down large meth laboratory in a raid

    In a landmark blow against international organized crime, Nigeria’s premier anti-narcotics enforcement body announced the dismantling of a cross-border drug syndicate with links to both Nigerian and Mexican criminal networks operating in the country’s southwest. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) revealed Wednesday evening that its specialized tactical operations team successfully neutralized an industrial-scale secret drug production facility hidden within a remote forest region of Ijebu, located in Ogun State. Ogun State shares a direct border with Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and commercial hub, making the syndicate’s proximity to a major population and transportation center a particularly alarming threat.

    NDLEA officials confirmed that this operation marks the largest single drug interdiction in Nigeria’s recorded history. During the targeted raid, enforcement officers apprehended seven core members of the cartel: four Nigerian citizens and three Mexican nationals. Three additional suspects linked to the network were taken into custody in subsequent sweep operations carried out in the days following the initial raid.

    Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa, director-general of NDLEA, emphasized that the criminal network posed an unprecedented danger to Nigeria beyond simple drug trafficking. “This network did not just traffic drugs; they were actively manufacturing industrial-scale quantities of highly lethal illicit substances right on our soil, threatening the national security and public health of Nigeria,” Marwa stated in the agency’s official announcement.

    Authorities confirmed that the operation yielded a massive haul of contraband: more than 2.4 tons of drug chemicals and finished methamphetamine, with an estimated street value of 480 billion naira, equivalent to roughly $363 million. Two vehicles used by the syndicate to transport materials and finished product were also seized as evidence.

    The takedown aligns with longstanding warnings from global drug control bodies about growing criminal activity in West and Central Africa. For years, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has highlighted that the region has become a global hotspot for both illicit drug production and transnational trafficking, driven largely by weak border security, widespread porous border crossings, and systemic corruption that allows criminal networks to operate with relative impunity.

  • Ukraine says its drones hit another refinery deep inside Russia as long-range strikes escalate

    Ukraine says its drones hit another refinery deep inside Russia as long-range strikes escalate

    In the latest escalation of Kyiv’s long-range campaign targeting Moscow’s war-critical energy infrastructure, Ukrainian drones struck a major Russian oil refinery deep inside Russian territory overnight, triggering a large blaze that sent thick plumes of black smoke billowing across the sky, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Thursday. The targeted facility is the Syzran oil refinery, operated by Russian state-owned energy giant Rosneft, located more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the Ukrainian border, Zelenskyy announced via social media alongside footage capturing the post-attack scene. Independent verification of the strike and the published video has not yet been possible, but regional authorities have confirmed two fatalities from Ukrainian drone activity in Syzran. Samara Region Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev made the announcement of the two deaths, though he did not explicitly reference the refinery strike, while Russia’s independent Astra news outlet was the first Russian source to confirm the refinery was the intended target.

    This attack marks the second consecutive day of Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian refinery assets, part of a rapidly expanding, almost daily campaign that targets the oil infrastructure that generates a substantial share of revenue funding Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year. The strike also underscores a dramatic shift in Ukraine’s military capabilities: where Kyiv once relied almost entirely on pleas for large-scale foreign military assistance at the start of the invasion, it has now developed advanced domestic drone and missile technology that extends its mid- and long-range strike capacity far beyond what was thought possible just months ago. Today, Ukrainian military expertise and domestic weaponry are in demand from other countries, marking a full reversal of Kyiv’s early wartime position.

    Zelenskyy confirmed in a Wednesday evening social media update that Kyiv’s long-range operational plan for May is moving forward largely as scheduled. “The key targets are Russian oil refineries, storage facilities, and other infrastructure tied to these oil revenues,” he stated.

    The growing frequency and range of these strikes, some reaching as far as 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) inside Russian borders, are delivering a dual blow to the Kremlin. Combined with existing international sanctions that have already squeezed Russia’s economy, the strikes are cutting into critical oil revenue that funds Moscow’s war effort. They have also stoked growing insecurity among the Russian public over the war, adding mounting political pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts note that the expanded strike capacity has also directly supported frontline progress for Ukrainian forces.

    The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted in a Wednesday assessment that Ukraine has recorded its most meaningful battlefield advances since 2024, in part enabled by Kyiv’s new long-range reach. “Ukraine’s intensified midrange strike campaign against Russian logistics, military equipment, and manpower since early 2026 has also degraded Russian forces’ ability to conduct offensive operations across the theater and has also likely supported recent Ukrainian advances,” the think tank reported.

    Concurrent with the Syzran strike, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that its air defense systems intercepted and downed 121 Ukrainian drones across multiple regions between late Wednesday and early Thursday. In the Belgorod region, which shares a direct border with Ukraine, regional governor Alexander Shuvayev reported eight people were injured in drone attacks.

    The tit-for-tat drone exchange between the two nations comes as Russia has heavily invested in its own domestic drone program, which it has used throughout the war to launch sustained barrages against Ukrainian civilian population centers. United Nations data confirms that Russian drone and missile strikes have killed more than 15,000 Ukrainian civilians to date. In the most recent overnight exchange, Ukraine’s air force announced it successfully shot down 109 of the 116 Russian drones launched against Ukrainian territory overnight. Emergency services confirmed one civilian was killed and at least six more were wounded in Russian strikes across northern, southern and eastern regions of Ukraine.

  • Tankers pass strait as truce hopes revive

    Tankers pass strait as truce hopes revive

    Fragile hopes for a diplomatic end to the months-long Middle East conflict gained new momentum this week, as multiple commercial oil tankers including two Chinese-flagged vessels loaded with a combined 4 million barrels of crude successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. The movement of these ships, which comes amid a temporary lull in hostilities between the United States and Iran, offered a small but significant signal that de-escalation could be within reach, even as both sides continued to exchange sharp military warnings.

    US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the ongoing conflict, which began on February 28, would conclude “very quickly”, while Vice President JD Vance, who has led recent US negotiating efforts with Iranian officials, told reporters that progress toward a peace agreement was advancing. Just hours before Vance’s comments, Trump revealed he had come within 60 minutes of ordering new airstrikes on Iranian targets, and gave Tehran a 48 to 72-hour window to finalize a deal to end hostilities. Vance, who previously took part in failed negotiations with Iran in Pakistan, added that US forces remain “locked and loaded” to resume large-scale military operations if no agreement is reached.

    Despite the optimistic rhetoric from senior US officials, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported Wednesday that Washington and Jerusalem have already finalized joint military planning for a potential resumption of combat against Iran, citing an anonymous senior US security official. Iran has responded swiftly to the US threats, with army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia warning that the Islamic Republic will open new military fronts against the US if American forces renew their attacks. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi pushed back against US framing of the deadline, accusing Washington of rebranding naked aggression as an opportunity for peace.

    In a provocative announcement early Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed that Iranian armed forces had become the first military in the world to shoot down a US F-35 stealth fighter jet, citing what he said was an official US report on combat aircraft losses. “With the hard-won experience and intelligence we have gained from this conflict, any return to war will bring far more surprises for our enemies,” Araghchi wrote on social media.

    The conflict has already caused unprecedented disruptions to global energy markets, blocking hundreds of tankers from departing the Persian Gulf and sending oil prices soaring for months. Beyond the two Chinese supertankers — part of a small group of Iraqi crude carriers that have exited the gulf so far this month — South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun confirmed Wednesday that a South Korean-operated tanker carrying 2 million barrels of crude is also transiting the strait in coordination with Iranian authorities. The positive signals of easing tension pulled global oil prices lower this week, with benchmark Brent crude dipping as low as $110.16 per barrel before recovering most of its losses later in the trading day.

    Trump has already extended the current truce indefinitely, and has made clear he seeks to withdraw US forces from the conflict, which has emerged as a major political liability: US consumers have faced soaring gasoline prices, and public frustration with the war has grown steadily. On Tuesday, the US Senate advanced a bipartisan war powers resolution that would force Trump to end US military operations unless he secures explicit congressional authorization for the campaign. The vote marked the first time the chamber has ever approved a measure constraining Trump’s war authority, representing a significant bipartisan rebuke of the president’s handling of the conflict. The resolution still needs to pass a majority vote in the House of Representatives before it would reach Trump’s desk for a veto, however, making its final enactment uncertain.

    In an update on one of the conflict’s most controversial incidents, US Central Command commander Brad Cooper told a congressional panel this week that an investigation into a deadly attack on an Iranian school that killed roughly 170 people, most of them children, on the first day of the war remains “complex”. Cooper repeated the US military’s unconfirmed claim that the school was located on the site of an Iranian cruise missile base, stopping short of accepting formal responsibility for the civilian deaths. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei dismissed the claim as a “baseless fabrication”, noting that striking an active school during operating hours amounts to a grave violation of international humanitarian law and an unambiguous war crime.

    In a separate regional development, the United Nations Security Council — including Russia — officially condemned an unclaimed drone attack on the United Arab Emirates’ Barakah Nuclear Power Plant this week. Abu Dhabi confirmed the drone originated from Iraqi territory. The unmanned aircraft struck a generator adjacent to the plant, the first operational nuclear power facility in the Arab world, on Sunday, sparking a small fire but causing no injuries or radiation leaks. The UAE Defense Ministry added Tuesday that its air defense systems intercepted and destroyed six drones launched from Iraq over the preceding 48 hours.

  • Rich nations topped $100 bn climate finance goal again in 2023, 2024: OECD

    Rich nations topped $100 bn climate finance goal again in 2023, 2024: OECD

    For the third consecutive year, high-income economies have exceeded the $100 billion annual climate finance commitment to low- and middle-income nations, new data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) confirms. Yet growing geopolitical and economic headwinds have cast serious uncertainty over whether wealthy countries can deliver on an even larger, newly agreed climate aid target, leaving vulnerable nations waiting for much-needed support to tackle the climate crisis.

    The original promise to mobilize $100 billion per year for climate action in developing countries by 2020 was a landmark commitment to address climate inequality: developing nations contribute the least to historical greenhouse gas emissions, yet bear the brunt of worsening extreme weather and need investment to shift to clean energy and adapt to climate impacts. For years, wealthy nations failed to hit the target, only hitting the mark for the first time in 2022 after an extension of the deadline to 2025. Since then, contributions have steadily grown: OECD tracking data shows total climate finance hit $115.9 billion in 2022, jumped to $132.8 billion in 2023, and rose slightly to $136.7 billion in 2024.

    Breaking down the 2024 figures reveals a shifting mix of funding sources. Public sector climate finance fell 2.6% year-over-year to $101.6 billion, but private sector contributions surged 33% to reach $35 billion. Raphael Jachnik, who led the OECD’s analysis, told AFP the dip in bilateral public funding largely reflected a return to pre-2023 trends after an unusually large one-year increase in public contributions the previous year. The OECD also noted that full data for 2025, the final year of the original $100 billion commitment, will not be available until 2027 at the earliest.

    Climate finance has been one of the most divisive issues at UN climate talks for decades, with developing nations growing increasingly frustrated by repeated delays and unmet promises from wealthy governments. At the 2024 COP29 summit held in Azerbaijan, rich nations agreed to a new collective target: $300 billion in annual climate finance by 2035. They also set a broader, less specific goal of mobilizing $1.3 trillion per year from combined public and private sources by 2035. But even this new target is widely viewed as insufficient by vulnerable developing countries, and multiple major headwinds now threaten its delivery.

    The most significant disruption comes from the United States, where climate sceptic Donald Trump returned to the presidency in 2024. Since taking office, Trump has withdrawn the US from active global climate diplomacy and made deep cuts to the country’s foreign aid programs, eliminating a core source of global climate finance. The European Union, currently the largest single contributor to international climate finance, is grappling with domestic budget pressures and has redirected large sums of public spending to military investment amid ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, leaving less fiscal space for climate aid.

    Turkey’s Climate Minister Murat Kurum, who will chair the upcoming COP31 climate summit hosted by Ankara this November, has made clear he will pressure wealthy nations to deliver on their new commitments. Speaking at a climate ministerial gathering in Copenhagen this week, Kurum said: “It is easy to say we support global climate action. But promises must be kept. I will hold donors accountable for the commitments they made under the $300 billion Baku finance goal.”

    Wealthy Western nations have pushed to expand the pool of climate finance contributors, arguing that major economies still classified as developing – including China and Saudi Arabia – should now take on a larger share of funding. Rich countries, many facing their own domestic debt and budget crises, have also pushed for the private sector to play an increasingly central role in meeting future targets.

    OECD data also shows that 36% of 2024 climate finance went to projects in Asia, making it the largest recipient region, while Africa received 31% of total contributions. In a trend that has sparked widespread criticism from developing country governments and activists, the majority of public climate finance continues to be issued as loans rather than grants: loans made up 73% of total public climate finance in 2023 and 67% in 2024. Developing nations argue that relying on loans pushes already vulnerable economies deeper into debt, at a time when they are forced to respond to a climate crisis they did little to cause.

    Mohamed Adow, director of Nairobi-based climate think tank Power Shift Africa, called the reliance on loans an outrage. “The rich world profits from the loans they provide to poor countries who are desperately trying to deal with climate change caused by the rich world. It’s a total scandal,” Adow said. “The countries least responsible for the climate crisis are being asked to take on debt to survive it.”

  • Myanmar military recaptures 2 strategic border towns from ethnic militias

    Myanmar military recaptures 2 strategic border towns from ethnic militias

    BANGKOK – In a significant shift in Myanmar’s four-year-long civil conflict, the country’s military-led junta has announced it has reclaimed control of two strategically critical border towns, one abutting India and another near Thailand, in what marks the latest gains for government forces after they regained the upper hand nationwide earlier this year.

    State-run Myanma Alinn newspaper published the announcement Thursday, confirming that Tonzang, a town in northwestern Chin State roughly 15 miles east of India’s border, fell back into army hands on Wednesday following a 10-day offensive. The publication released accompanying imagery showing junta troops posing in front of Tonzang’s main administrative buildings after the operation concluded.

    The Tonzang announcement came just one day after the state outlet confirmed the recapture of Mawtaung, a key trade gateway on Myanmar’s border with Thailand located 390 miles southeast of Yangon, the country’s most populous city. That offensive took two weeks of sustained combat to conclude, according to the junta’s official account.

    The territorial gains are the latest successes for the junta, which has reversed earlier resistance advances and seized the momentum in nationwide fighting since the middle of 2025. Analysts attribute this shift in fortunes to two key factors: China-brokered ceasefire agreements that split opposition blocs, and a controversial new conscription law that has dramatically expanded the junta’s available troop numbers.

    The announcement also comes roughly one month after junta leader Min Aung Hlaing extended a public invitation to the country’s disparate armed resistance groups to enter into a new round of peace negotiations, a proposal that has not yet drawn a formal unified response from opposition forces.

    Both Chin State and Tanintharyi Region, where Mawtaung is located, have been hotbeds of anti-junta violence since the military ousted the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in a 2021 coup. After peaceful mass protests against the coup were violently crushed with lethal force, opponents of military rule took up arms, spawning a widespread civil war that has left large swathes of the country under the de facto control of resistance and ethnic militia groups.

    Tonzang had been held by an alliance of Chin ethnic militias and local anti-junta resistance forces since May 2024, while Mawtaung was controlled by the Karen National Union (KNU), one of the oldest and largest ethnic armed opposition groups in the country, and its local allied resistance factions.

    In its official report on the Mawtaung offensive, the state newspaper stated that junta forces conducted more than 207 separate armed engagements to retake the town, recovered the bodies of 24 KNU fighters and seized caches of opposition ammunition. The report also acknowledged that a number of junta security force members were also killed in the fighting, though no exact casualty count for government troops was released.

    As of Thursday, the KNU and other local resistance groups have not issued any immediate response to the junta’s claims, nor have they formally challenged the announcement of the recaptures. Stringent media restrictions imposed by the junta across most of Myanmar make independent on-the-ground verification of the territorial claims impossible for outside journalists and observers.

  • Tourists in Thailand plan for coming cuts to visa-free stays

    Tourists in Thailand plan for coming cuts to visa-free stays

    Thailand’s upcoming policy to shorten maximum visa-free stays for travelers from over 90 nations is already prompting concerns among visitors scattered across the country’s most popular tourist hubs, as the government moves to crack down on foreign-linked crime. The change has upended long-held travel flexibility that long-term backpackers and casual explorers have come to rely on, adding an unexpected layer of planning to trips in one of Southeast Asia’s most visited destinations. On Bangkok’s iconic Khao San Road, a magnet for budget backpackers and nightlife lovers, the announcement this week has given travelers an extra source of stress ahead of the rule change.

    Twenty-four-year-old Irish digital engineer Alex Brady, who was waiting near Tha Tian Pier for a ferry to the world-famous Wat Arun temple, said the new 30-day cap would have drastically altered his current 5-week trip across the country. Under the current policy, in place since 2022 to revive pandemic-battered tourism, visitors from eligible countries can stay visa-free for up to 60 days. That open-ended flexibility allowed Brady and his friends to travel without a rigid itinerary, with plans to explore Bangkok, travel to the diving mecca of Koh Tao, then head north to the mountainous regions of Chiang Mai and Chiang Mai. “If you’re paying for an expensive flight ticket out here, you want to spend a good amount of time out here,” Brady explained, adding that the shorter limit would really narrow what regions and attractions travelers can fit into a single visit.

    The policy shift comes as Thailand faces growing public pressure to address a string of high-profile incidents involving foreign nationals, including drug violations, public indecency, and unlicensed business operations ranging from hotels to language schools. Tourism contributes more than 10% of Thailand’s total gross domestic product, but international visitor numbers have still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, despite the government’s previous 60-day visa-free policy designed to boost longer stays and higher tourist spending. It remains unclear exactly how shorter visa-free stays will reduce rates of overstaying, illegal business activity or public offenses, and officials have not yet announced an official effective date for the new rules.

    Under the proposed framework, travelers will be allowed to extend their 30-day visa-free stay once for an additional 30 days, at the discretion of Thai immigration officials. Per year, visitors can also complete one “visa run” – a trip to a neighboring country to reset their visa status – that grants an extra 60 days of stay. After that period, visitors must exit Thailand again and re-enter on a different type of visa, such as a work, student, or retirement visa. For frequent visitors like Elin Ovrebo, who directs a study abroad program for a U.S. university and has brought student groups to Thailand for 28-day annual trips for more than a decade, the rule change will cut short her habit of extending her own stay by an extra week after students depart. While she says the change will likely mean giving up that post-trip extension, it will not stop her from continuing to bring groups to the country.

    The new rules are already shifting demand for visa run services, and industry operators say the impact could cut both ways. Eighty-year-old German traveler Anna Heindrich, for example, was waiting for a minibus outside a Bangkok shopping mall earlier this week to embark on a nearly 16-hour round trip to Laos just to reset her visa and extend her stay by two extra weeks. “I spoke with the agency and it sounded easy on paper. Not necessarily very comfortable, but easy,” she told AFP before departing. Tanya Chansuwan, manager of Bangkok Buddy, the visa run agency Heindrich booked with, says the new rules could grow her business as more travelers need to complete visa runs to extend their stays. Still, she acknowledges the added hassle could push some budget travelers to choose cheaper regional destinations like Vietnam instead of extending their time in Thailand. “It will be tougher for the clients, and some might choose to go somewhere else,” she noted.