Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Two new California wildfires seen from space

    Two new California wildfires seen from space

    Two massive, entirely uncontained wildfires are tearing across Southern California, with satellite imagery from NASA laying bare the alarming scope of the blazes that have forced tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes. The first, named the Sandy Fire, sparked early Monday morning near Simi Valley, a city located just northwest of Los Angeles, according to California Governor Gavin Newsom.

    Local satellite captures taken shortly after noon on Monday show a thick, towering plume of dark smoke billowing thousands of feet into the atmosphere just south of the city limits. As of Tuesday morning, firefighting operations are in full swing: 750 frontline firefighters are backed by specialized night-flying water-dropping helicopters, which allow crews to target dangerous hotspots even after the sun sets, a critical capability that slows the fire’s spread when ground crews can no longer operate.

    Initial investigation into the cause of the Sandy Fire points to a mechanical accident, local law enforcement confirmed. The Simi Valley Police Department received reports that a person operating a tractor struck a rock, creating a spark that ignited dry vegetation and quickly grew into the raging inferno now sprawling across 1,364 acres (550 hectares) of land. As of Tuesday, no portion of the fire has been brought under containment, and data from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) shows active burn hotspots shifted steadily southward overnight into Tuesday.

    The mass evacuation order issued for the region covers more than 10,000 homes across Simi Valley and its adjacent communities, with an additional 3,500 homes placed under mandatory evacuation warning that extends into neighboring Los Angeles County. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass stressed that city officials do not currently forecast the blaze will reach Los Angeles proper, but warnings were issued as a proactive precaution “out of an abundance of caution.” A spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection noted that unseasonably strong high winds on Monday morning fanned the fire’s rapid spread, though wind speeds dropped significantly later in the day, giving crews a small window of opportunity to gain ground.

    In response to the ongoing emergency, the Simi Valley Unified School District canceled all classes across every campus in the district for Tuesday, as multiple schools were being used as emergency evacuation shelters for displaced residents. This outbreak of wildfire comes just 16 months after a devastating series of fast-moving blazes ripped through the Los Angeles area in January 2025, killing roughly 30 people and destroying more than 10,000 structures, a disaster that left a lasting mark on the region’s emergency preparedness frameworks.

    A second, far larger wildfire is also burning uncontained dozens of miles off the Southern California coast on Santa Rosa Island, part of the protected Channel Islands National Park. US National Park Service officials confirmed the fire has already charred 14,600 acres (6,000 hectares) of the island, with satellite imagery confirming the blaze has pushed northeast over the weekend and is now spreading deeper into the island’s interior.

    First reported to authorities on Friday, the Santa Rosa Island fire remained 0% contained as of Monday evening. At least 70 firefighters alongside trained park rangers have been deployed to battle the remote blaze, working under challenging conditions with limited access to the island’s rugged terrain. In a separate operation linked to the fire, the US Coast Guard confirmed it successfully rescued a 67-year-old man who was stranded along the island’s shoreline, though details on the man’s condition have not yet been released.

    Santa Rosa Island is the second-largest of the five Channel Islands located off Southern California’s coast. It is almost entirely uninhabited by permanent human residents, but it hosts one of the most unique and biodiverse ecosystems in the continental United States, home to dozens of rare and endemic plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth. Conservation experts are already sounding alarms about the potential long-term impact of the massive burn on the island’s fragile native habitats.

  • Kyiv holds a funeral for 2 young sisters killed by a Russian missile strike

    Kyiv holds a funeral for 2 young sisters killed by a Russian missile strike

    In the shadow of St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, a sacred space long used by Kyiv residents to honor fallen soldiers and prominent lives lost to Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion, an unusual and devastating scene unfolded Tuesday. Where coffins of grown military personnel usually lie, two small white caskets stood side by side, holding the bodies of 12-year-old Liubava Yakovlieva and 17-year-old Vira Yakovlieva. The sisters were among 24 civilians killed when a Russian missile slammed into their Kyiv apartment building on May 14, trapping them under collapsed concrete. Their mother Tetiana is now the only surviving member of her family: her husband Yevhen, a Ukrainian soldier, died in combat on the front line three years prior.

    Dozens of children, the two girls’ classmates from local schools, filed through the monastery dressed in all black, leaning on one another for support as they said their final goodbyes. Buckets placed at the foot of the coffins quickly overflowed with bouquets, with more floral tributes spread across the stone floor. Photos propped on the caskets showed the blond sisters, Liubava full of childlike energy and Vira wearing her signature glasses. Grown mourners and children alike wept openly through the service; standing among the crowd were several of Yevhen’s former brothers-in-arms, who came to pay their respects to the entire fallen family.

    Before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Yevhen was known across his community as a gifted home cook, an enthusiastic fisherman, and a handyman who could fix almost anything for neighbors and friends. When Russian forces crossed Ukraine’s border, he immediately enlisted in the Ukrainian military, and was killed in action near the village of Dibrova in the Luhansk region in April 2023. Now, the war that took his life has reached the rest of his family, leaving his wife with no surviving kin.

    Footage captured by Current Time, a project operated by Radio Liberty, shows Tetiana speaking to rescuers in the immediate aftermath of the May 14 strike, as workers sifted through the rubble of her home searching for any sign of her daughters. “I already lost their father, my husband, a defender of Ukraine,” she told reporters at the scene. “I don’t know if they are alive or if they have already gone to be with their father. To say this is very painful tells you nothing. You cannot understand the weight unless you have felt it yourself.”

    Dmytro Koval, who taught Vira painting and drawing at a Kyiv art college, remembered the teen as an exceptional student: strong-willed, unafraid to share her unique perspective, and deeply kind to her peers. When news of her death reached the campus, the entire community was left reeling from shock. “When death comes for people you saw and talked to just yesterday, it is always very hard, unspeakably hard,” Koval said at the funeral. “We must not live on illusions, on empty dreams, on hopes for some negotiations that will fix everything, because our neighbors are not oriented toward peace.”

    Family friend Tetiana Osipova, who served alongside Yevhen in the military and accompanied his body home after his death, said 12-year-old Liubava defied expectations: she appeared small and delicate on the outside, but carried an inner strength that matched her older sister’s. Osipova added that the two girls struggled for years to process the loss of their father, and that on the day of the strike, she stood by Tetiana’s side as rescuers searched the rubble.

    Today, Osipova said, Tetiana carries a grief no parent should ever know: she is no longer a wife, and no longer a mother. But despite the unthinkable loss, her friend remains determined to find the strength to honor the memories of her husband and daughters, and to carry on their legacy. “This is an unnatural order of things, when parents bury their children,” Efrem Khomiak, the priest leading the funeral service, told the gathered crowd of mourners. “This funeral, this grief, this tragedy, it is not only your family’s. It belongs to all of Ukraine. Because we are all bound together in this war.”

  • Ukraine war widow buries her daughters killed by Russia

    Ukraine war widow buries her daughters killed by Russia

    Five days after a devastating Russian missile strike reduced her Kyiv apartment block to rubble, Tetiana Yakovlieva laid her two daughters to rest on Tuesday, adding another devastating chapter to the human cost of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022.

    Yakovlieva already knew the pain of war: her husband had volunteered to fight for Ukraine shortly after the 2022 invasion and died in combat three years prior. When the Kh-101 cruise missile struck her family’s nine-story building in a leafy Kyiv neighborhood last week, she waited for hours alongside rescue teams, clinging to the faint hope that her 12-year-old daughter Vira and 17-year-old daughter Liubava would be pulled alive from the debris. When the dust settled, that hope faded, and the grim work of recovering the girls’ bodies began.

    “It’s so painful — these words won’t mean anything to you until you feel it yourself,” Yakovlieva told local reporters at the strike site, still reeling from shock amid the rubble of her home.

    By Tuesday, the mother, ashen-faced and hunched in grief, stood before two closed coffins inside Kyiv’s gold-domed Saint Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral, where a priest led a funeral mass for the girls. Surrounded by mourners dressed in black, many weeping, clutching flowers, and leaning on one another for support, the priest acknowledged that no words could ease the weight of losing children so young.

    “No words of compassion can ease this pain of loss, this burden of great suffering, when one must bury young people,” he told the gathered crowd. “This is a tragedy not only for your family, it is a tragedy for our entire Ukrainian state today.”

    As the service unfolded, air raid sirens warning of new Russian attacks echoed across Kyiv, a constant reminder of the ongoing violence that claimed the sisters’ lives. The girls are among 24 civilians killed in the early Thursday strike, which marked the deadliest Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital so far this year, part of a massive barrage that included 56 missiles and 675 combat drones launched at targets across Ukraine.

    Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko confirmed the strike that killed the sisters was almost certainly carried out by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile, which detonated on the building’s ground floor. The blast buckled the apartment block’s foundations, causing a progressive collapse that crushed multiple floors above. Ukrainian defense analysts estimate each of these missiles costs the Russian government approximately $1.2 million.

    Reporters from Agence France-Presse who visited the strike site in the immediate aftermath saw emergency workers pulling dead and wounded survivors from the rubble on stretchers, while bystanders — including classmates of the two sisters — waited anxiously for word of missing loved ones.

    At the funeral, mourners who knew the girls spoke of the senseless cruelty of their deaths. “It’s hard to say anything when children are killed. Especially children when they were sleeping. It’s barbarity,” Natalia, a woman whose own son was killed alongside Yakovlieva’s husband, told AFP. Olga, an art teacher who taught 12-year-old Vira to draw, remembered both sisters as talented, outgoing young women, describing their deaths as “an inexpressible pain.”

    In the hours after the mass strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to social media to condemn the attack, saying Russia “deliberately destroys lives” and calling on Kyiv’s international allies to increase pressure on Moscow to bring an end to the full-scale invasion. “It is Ukraine that is defending Europe and the world so that such strikes, in which children are killed, do not spread further,” he added.

    The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed that its forces only target military infrastructure in Ukraine and denies intentionally striking civilian targets. But the deaths of Vira and Liubava bring the official confirmed number of Ukrainian children killed since the 2022 invasion to at least 704, according to Ukrainian police data. Thousands more children have been wounded or remain missing in the three years of war.

    Before the procession carried the girls’ coffins to the cemetery for burial, the priest reminded mourners that the sisters’ names, Vira and Liubava, translate to “faith” and “love” in Ukrainian. He told the gathered crowd the girls were now in a place beyond the reach of conflict. “In a place where there is no war, no pain, no grief, no suffering, no sighing, but eternal blessed life,” he said.

  • NATO jet shoots down what’s believed to be a Ukrainian drone over Estonia

    NATO jet shoots down what’s believed to be a Ukrainian drone over Estonia

    On Tuesday, a NATO air policing F-16 fighter jet operated by Romania intercepted and shot down an unidentified aerial object later confirmed to most likely be a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia, according to Estonian national authorities, intensifying already simmering cross-border tensions tied to Ukraine’s expanding long-range drone campaign against Russia.

    Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told the Associated Press that the decision to engage the drone was based on its observed flight path, adding that preliminary assessments indicate the unmanned aircraft was originally intended to strike a target inside Russian territory. This incident marks the latest in a growing series of accidental incursions into NATO territory by Ukrainian drones targeting Russia, a pattern Western officials broadly attribute to extensive Russian electronic jamming operations that alter the course of incoming unmanned weapons.

    In the wake of the incident, Ukraine issued a formal apology for the unintended incursion. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi announced via a post on X that Ukraine apologizes to Estonia and all Baltic allies for the accidental incident, adding that joint expert teams from Ukraine and Estonia are already developing new protocols to prevent similar events from occurring in the future. Pevkur confirmed that Estonian officials have repeatedly urged Ukraine to adjust flight trajectories for drone strikes on Russia to keep them as far from NATO territory as possible.

    Russia has seized on the incident to issue stark warnings of retaliation. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claimed in a Tuesday statement that Ukraine is preparing to launch drone strikes against Russian targets from the territory of Baltic NATO member states, alleging that Ukrainian military personnel have already deployed to Latvia. The statement warned that NATO membership would not shield Baltic states from what it called “just retribution”, noting that modern intelligence systems can accurately pinpoint the origin of any drone launch.

    Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs immediately refuted Russia’s claims, posting on X that Moscow’s assertions about Latvia allowing third parties to use its territory or airspace for attacks on Russia are entirely false. Tensions around stray drone incursions have already had concrete political fallout in the region: just last week, the entire Latvian government collapsed after Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš resigned, triggered when the defense minister was forced to step down over his handling of multiple suspected Ukrainian drone incidents and his party pulled out of the ruling coalition.

    While Estonia reaffirmed its unwavering support for Ukraine’s right to defend itself against Russian invasion, it also moved quickly to clarify its position on cross-border operations. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna stated in an official release that Ukraine retains full legitimate right to target Russian military assets, but emphasized that Estonia has never granted permission for its airspace to be used for offensive strikes against Russia. Echoing the assessment of other Western officials, Tsahkna tied the accidental incursion directly to Russian electronic jamming efforts that divert Ukrainian drones off their intended courses.

    The downing comes amid a steady escalation of Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign against Russian infrastructure. As Ukraine’s domestic drone production capacity and technical sophistication have improved in recent months, Kyiv has ramped up strikes on key Russian energy facilities and military arms factories located hundreds of miles inside Russian territory. Just two days before the Estonia incident, Russian authorities reported that one of the largest Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian soil killed at least four people, three of them in areas surrounding Moscow, and wounded a dozen more.

    Long-range drone attacks have become a defining feature of the Russia-Ukraine war, now entering its fifth year since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. For NATO member Baltic states, which have been among the most vocal supporters of Ukraine’s war effort, these accidental incursions have created a tricky diplomatic and security balancing act, stoking internal political tensions while drawing aggressive saber-rattling from Moscow.

  • Israeli forces intercept the remaining activist flotilla vessels headed for Gaza

    Israeli forces intercept the remaining activist flotilla vessels headed for Gaza

    In a major escalation of tensions over Israel’s two-decade blockade of the Gaza Strip, Israeli military forces completed the interception of all remaining vessels from the Global Sumud Flotilla, an international activist mission organized to challenge the long-running naval closure and draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian crisis facing Gaza’s nearly 2 million residents. The interdiction, carried out in international waters hundreds of kilometers off Gaza’s Mediterranean coast, has triggered widespread international condemnation and sharp diplomatic divisions over the operation.

    The flotilla, which departed from Turkish ports last week, launched the multi-vessel mission to draw global attention to severe shortages of basic necessities in Gaza, including housing, food, and life-saving medical supplies. Israeli forces began halting flotilla vessels roughly 268 kilometers from Gaza’s coastline on Monday, when they intercepted and detained crews from approximately 41 boats off the coast of Cyprus. By Tuesday, all remaining vessels had been stopped.

    Live streaming footage broadcast on the Global Sumud Flotilla’s official website showed armed Israeli soldiers boarding detained vessels, with unarmed activists wearing life vests complying by raising their hands. Soldiers proceeded to disable and destroy cameras mounted on the boats to document the mission. Flotilla organizers allege that Israeli troops fired rubber bullets at five of the intercepted boats, causing material damage to the vessels. The incident prompted Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to call for an urgent investigation into Israel’s use of force during the operation.

    In the aftermath of the interceptions, the Global Sumud Flotilla confirmed that hundreds of activists from more than 40 countries are being forcibly transported by Israeli vessels to an undisclosed port. The detained cohort includes more than a dozen Irish citizens, among them the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin has publicly condemned the interception of civilian boats in international waters as “absolutely unacceptable.”

    The activist organization has issued urgent warnings about the well-being of detained crew members, pointing to testimonies from activists held during an earlier Israeli interception of a Gaza aid mission on April 30. Those accounts detailed repeated patterns of torture, severe physical abuse, and invasive sexual violence inflicted by Israeli forces during detention – allegations that Israeli officials have outright denied. The flotilla is demanding the immediate, unconditional release of all its detained participants, alongside the liberation of more than 9,000 Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel, and has called on global leaders to pressure Israel to meet these demands.

    International reaction to the interception has been deeply divided. Turkey and the Palestinian group Hamas have labeled the operation an act of open piracy in international waters. Italy, Spain, and Indonesia have all joined calls for Israel to immediately release all detained activists and guarantee their physical safety. In contrast, the U.S. Treasury Department has announced new sanctions against four European activists who were aboard the flotilla, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent characterizing the mission’s participants as “pro-terror.”

    Israeli officials have dismissed the entire flotilla initiative as “a provocation for the sake of provocation,” arguing that the vessels carried only a symbolic amount of aid and had no genuine intention of delivering humanitarian assistance to Gaza. The Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian access to Gaza claims that sufficient aid is already entering the territory, noting that around 600 trucks of assistance cross into Gaza daily, a volume it says matches pre-war levels. However, this official account directly contradicts data published by the United Nations World Food Programme, which recorded a dramatic drop in humanitarian and commercial truck entries into Gaza during March, following the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Iran. The WFP data shows an average of only 112 trucks entered Gaza per day that month.

    One Italian activist, Daniele Gallina, avoided detention after he and six other crew members diverted their sailboat to a Cypriot port due to unplanned technical issues. In an interview with the Associated Press, Gallina emphasized that the mission’s purpose extended far beyond delivering aid. “What matters is not only the aid itself, important as it is, but the structural change it represents. It is also about challenging the collaboration of our own governments with these policies,” he said. Gallina rejected Israeli claims that the flotilla was a provocative act, noting that the entire mission was “entirely pacifist” and carried no weapons. He added that Israel’s response to the civilian mission underscores the open disregard for international law targeting peaceful humanitarian efforts. Despite the interception of the entire flotilla, Gallina said activists remain fully determined to continue their campaign “until Gaza is reached.”

    Background to the current confrontation dates back nearly 20 years. Israel imposed a naval blockade on Gaza after Hamas took control of the territory in 2007, and significantly tightened the restriction following the October 7, 2023, attacks led by Hamas on southern Israel that killed approximately 1,200 people and saw more than 250 people taken hostage. Israeli authorities justify the blockade as a necessary security measure to prevent weapons from reaching Hamas. Critics across the globe argue that the blockade amounts to unlawful collective punishment of Gaza’s entire civilian population. Egypt, which controls the only land border crossing into Gaza not administered by Israel, has also imposed severe restrictions on movement in and out of the territory.

    According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, which is run by Hamas but staffed by medical professionals whose detailed casualty records are widely viewed as reliable by the international community, Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 72,700 people since the offensive began. The ministry does not publish a breakdown of casualties between civilians and combatants. The latest interception comes as global attention remains focused on efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, following months of devastating conflict.

    The report was filed from Nicosia, Cyprus, by correspondent Hadjicostis, with additional reporting contributions from Associated Press journalists Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece, Giada Zampano in Rome, and Fatima Hussein in Washington, D.C.

  • Anti-government demonstrators and police clash in Bolivia

    Anti-government demonstrators and police clash in Bolivia

    Weeks of growing political tension in Bolivia boiled over into new violence this week, as anti-government demonstrators clashed directly with state law enforcement officers amid escalating calls for the country’s sitting president to step down.

    The unrest, which has gripped the Andean nation for multiple weeks, has already strained public order and eroded public confidence in the country’s executive leadership. Protesters, drawn from a range of civic and opposition groups across Bolivia, have maintained consistent demands for presidential resignation, pushing their movement into a critical new phase that saw direct confrontation with police on the streets.

    While additional details on injuries, arrests, or the scale of the latest clashes are still emerging, the escalation of conflict marks a dangerous turning point in the country’s ongoing political crisis. The standoff has drawn quiet international attention, as regional observers monitor developments for further signs of political breakdown or efforts to de-escalate the standoff. For Bolivians, the continued unrest means deepened uncertainty over the country’s political future, with no clear path to resolution between the protesting movement and the incumbent administration.

  • Irish leaders condemn Israel’s detention of president’s sister

    Irish leaders condemn Israel’s detention of president’s sister

    In a sharp rebuke of Israeli military action in international waters, Ireland’s top political leaders have decried the detention of 12 Irish citizens who were part of a humanitarian aid convoy bound for Gaza, calling the move illegal, unacceptable, and a violation of international law.

    The interception, carried out early Monday by Israeli forces, targeted the Global Sumud Flotilla, a 60-vessel collective organized to deliver critical aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza amid a lingering humanitarian crisis. Flotilla organizers confirmed that Israeli commandos boarded and seized 10 of the convoy’s boats while the group was operating in international waters. Among the detained Irish citizens is Dr. Margaret Connolly, the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly.

    Speaking publicly about the incident, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Ireland’s head of government, emphasized that the aid mission was rooted in a legitimate effort to draw global attention to the catastrophic humanitarian situation unfolding in Gaza. “In the first instance, what happened is absolutely unacceptable and is wrong,” Martin stated, adding that participants had every right to engage in peaceful protest for the cause. The Irish government, he confirmed, will escalate the issue to the European Union to push for collective international action.

    Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris went further, labeling Israel’s actions outright illegal. “My heart goes out to President Connolly and her family, and indeed all of the families of those detained,” Harris said, noting that the Irish government, opposition, and global observers have repeatedly condemned Israeli policy in Gaza, yet Israel has consistently ignored international condemnation. “That’s why I think it’s important that we look at the actions that can be taken,” he added.

    For her part, President Catherine Connolly — currently on a scheduled three-day official visit to the United Kingdom — described the news of her sister’s detention as “quite upsetting.” While she expressed deep pride in her sister’s commitment to the humanitarian cause, she made clear that she is consumed by worry for her safety.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the interception, framing the operation as a necessary measure to counter what he called a “malicious plan” to break the blockade Israel has imposed on Hamas, the governing group in Gaza. The Israeli foreign ministry also pushed back against the need for the flotilla, claiming that Gaza is already “flooded with aid,” asserting that more than 1.5 million tonnes of aid and thousands of tonnes of medical supplies have entered the enclave over the past seven months.

    That narrative directly contradicts recent assessments from the United Nations, which warned last week that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains catastrophic despite an October 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The UN report highlighted that more than 2.1 million Palestinians — the vast majority of Gaza’s total population — have been displaced from their homes, with most forced to shelter in overcrowded tents or badly damaged buildings with no access to safer alternatives. Basic services remain severely compromised: clean water access is inconsistent, waste management systems are non-functional, and public health risks linked to unsanitary conditions and pest infestations continue to grow.

    The current conflict traces its origins back to the October 7, 2023, attack led by Hamas on southern Israel, which killed approximately 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Israel’s subsequent large-scale military campaign in Gaza has left more than 72,770 people dead in the enclave, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

  • Libyan detention facility head known as ‘Angel of Death’ faces International Criminal Court

    Libyan detention facility head known as ‘Angel of Death’ faces International Criminal Court

    In a landmark proceeding marking the International Criminal Court’s first case involving a Libyan national, pretrial hearings got underway this week in The Hague for a former senior prison commander charged with gross violations of international law. Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri, 47, faces 17 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes for atrocities allegedly carried out at Tripoli’s notoriously violent Mitiga prison between 2015 and 2020, years after the fall and killing of long-time Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi plunged the North African nation into widespread lawlessness.

    Deputy ICC Prosecutor Nazhat Khan laid out the grim details of the allegations in her opening statement to judges this Tuesday. Citing testimony from nearly 1,000 documented victims connected to the case, Khan told the court that detainees dubbed El Hishri the “Angel of Death” for his pattern of brutal violence against people held at the facility. According to the charges, El Hishri served as a senior commander at the prison and oversaw the facility’s women’s section, where systematic sexual violence was endemic. Prosecutors further allege that El Hishri routinely carried a loaded firearm and deliberately shot detained people in the legs and knees to inflict permanent harm. He stands accused of personally carrying out murders and rapes inside the prison, in some cases committing these violent acts in front of victims’ own children. Photographs from the opening hearing showed El Hishri, dressed in a blue suit and matching tie, maintaining a blank expression as prosecutors detailed the charges against him.

    Khan emphasized to the court that the atrocities documented at Mitiga were not isolated abuses by rogue low-level guards, but actions linked to the facility’s command structure, where El Hishri held a senior leadership role. This week’s proceeding is not a full trial; rather, it is a pretrial hearing that allows ICC prosecutors to present a full outline of their evidence to the judges. Following the conclusion of the hearing, the panel of judges will have 60 days to review the prosecution’s case and determine whether there is sufficient credible evidence to proceed with a full public trial.

    El Hishri was taken into custody by German law enforcement in July this year on a previously sealed ICC arrest warrant, and was extradited to the Netherlands to face the charges this past December. His case is poised to become the first trial of a Libyan suspect at the ICC, a process that originates from a 2011 United Nations Security Council mandate that ordered the court to open an investigation into crimes committed in Libya as the uprising against Gadhafi unfolded. The ICC issued an immediate arrest warrant for Gadhafi in 2011, but rebel forces killed the former dictator before he could be apprehended and transferred to The Hague for prosecution.

    To date, the court has active open arrest warrants for nine additional Libyan suspects accused of grave crimes, including one of Gadhafi’s surviving sons. The ICC’s effort to hold perpetrators accountable for crimes in Libya has faced repeated setbacks in recent years, most recently in January when Italian authorities arrested one of the wanted suspects—Ossama Anjiem, also known as Ossama al-Masri, who was also charged with atrocities at Mitiga prison—only to release him on a procedural technicality. That decision sparked widespread outrage from global human rights advocates who have pushed for full accountability for crimes committed in Libya in the decade following Gadhafi’s ousting.

  • Kenya suspends strike after transport paralysis over high fuel prices

    Kenya suspends strike after transport paralysis over high fuel prices

    Just 48 hours after a disruptive nationwide strike over skyrocketing fuel prices brought major Kenyan urban centers to a complete halt, public transport operators have agreed to pause industrial action through next Tuesday to allow for expanded negotiations with the national government. The walkout, which was sparked by a record-breaking fuel price increase tied to Middle East geopolitical instability, left a trail of violence and disruption in its opening days, killing at least four people, injuring 30 more, and leading to more than 700 arrests across the country, according to official Kenyan government figures.

    The strike entered its second day on Tuesday when the tentative deal to suspend action was announced. Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen confirmed that the breakthrough followed closed-door consultations between senior government officials and public transport sector representatives. Per the agreement, high-level negotiations addressing the core demands of the transport operators will be convened within the coming seven days.

    Edwin Mukabane, national chairman of the Federation of Public Transport Sector, emphasized that the suspension of the strike is not a sign of satisfaction with current government actions, but a deliberate choice to give diplomatic negotiations a fair shot. “If this is not taken seriously within the seven days, the strike will be back on,” Mukabane warned in a press statement following the talks.

    Well into Tuesday morning, key arterial roads across the capital Nairobi remained largely empty, with most businesses shuttered and schools keeping their doors closed following the unrest. Mirroring the conditions seen on Monday, thousands of ordinary Kenyans were forced to walk long distances to reach work, medical appointments, and other essential destinations, though a small fraction of public transport operators had resumed limited services on select routes by midday. Heavily armed police patrols were deployed across high-traffic areas of the capital to maintain public order, following reports that protesters had blocked key intersections and highways over the 48-hour period. Law enforcement officials have publicly urged all demonstrators to avoid violence, specifically warning against looting and the destruction of public and private property. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations confirmed that probes into Monday’s violent clashes are ongoing, with dozens of arrested suspects already arraigned in local courts.

    The violence has drawn sharp criticism from Kenyan human rights groups. Vocal Africa, a prominent Kenyan civil rights organization, has publicly denounced what it calls “the use of lethal force by law enforcement” against peaceful demonstrators. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), a state-funded human rights oversight body, has joined the call for immediate independent investigations into the violence and property destruction that unfolded during the strike, while urging police commanders to mandate strict restraint among deployed officers.

    In contrast to the lingering disruption in Nairobi, coastal tourist hub Mombasa had already returned to a near-normal state by Tuesday, with most public transport services back in operation.

    The current unrest traces back to a record fuel price hike that hit consumers earlier this month. Early talks between government and transport representatives held on Monday produced a preliminary concession: Energy Minister Opiyo Wandayi announced an agreement to cut the price of diesel, which had surged to a historic high of 242 Kenyan shillings ($1.80 USD, £1.40 GBP) per liter. The national energy regulator subsequently implemented a 10-shilling per liter cut to diesel prices, leaving petrol prices unchanged at 214 shillings per liter.

    That reduction fell far short of the transport sector’s demands, however, prompting operators to continue the strike following Monday’s initial meeting. After a follow-up negotiating session held Tuesday morning, Wandayi said the government remains committed to addressing the struggles of ordinary Kenyan fuel consumers and thanked transport leaders for agreeing to pause the strike. Transport operators are pushing for a total 46-shilling per liter cut to fuel prices, which would bring costs back to levels seen before the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Iran that began on 28 February.

    Like many sub-Saharan African nations, Kenya relies almost entirely on imported fuel from Gulf Cooperation Council states, whose production and export routes have been severely disrupted by the ongoing regional conflict. Though a ceasefire has been agreed to by both parties, the Strait of Hormuz — the chokepoint through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily global oil supply transits — remains blocked, keeping global energy prices elevated. Last month, the Kenyan government already attempted to ease consumer pressure by cutting value-added tax on fuel from 16% to 8%, a reduction that will remain in place through July. But critics say the move has not been enough to offset the broader price increases driven by the Middle East conflict, leading to the widespread industrial action.

  • Victim or enabler? Epstein girlfriend who could face questions despite plea deal

    Victim or enabler? Epstein girlfriend who could face questions despite plea deal

    For nearly a decade after Jeffrey Epstein’s death in prison while awaiting sex trafficking charges, one of his closest partners has remained out of the public eye – but new scrutiny of court documents, private emails and first-hand accounts is pulling Nadia Marcinko into the center of ongoing questions about Epstein’s criminal network.

    Marcinko, a former Slovakian model who trained as a professional pilot, was Epstein’s primary romantic partner for seven years following the end of his sexual relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, newly analyzed correspondence from Epstein’s personal files confirms. Their connection began in 2003, when 18-year-old Marcinko, then working for a modeling agency run by Epstein’s close associate Jean-Luc Brunel, was introduced to the 50-year-old financier at a New York birthday party. Brunel arranged Marcinko’s U.S. visa, and Epstein funded Brunel’s agency to the tune of $1 million, creating an immediate power imbalance that would shape their entire relationship.

    Born into a stable, upper-middle-class Slovakian family, Marcinko was described by childhood classmates as deeply reserved – a “little grey mouse” who was pushed into modeling as a teenager. Within days of their first meeting, Epstein invited her to his Palm Beach mansion, then to his private Caribbean island Little St. James, and the pair quickly became constant companions. Emails show the pair marked September 17 as their relationship anniversary for years, and by 2009, Epstein acknowledged to a third party that he was “in love with nadia.”

    But the warm exchanges in their correspondence are paired with clear evidence of Epstein’s coercive, controlling behavior. He dictated every detail of Marcinko’s life, requiring her to master domestic skills, complete a fixed reading schedule, and get his approval for any item brought into their shared home, according to a 2009 email. In a heavily redacted Department of Justice document released earlier this year, Marcinko (identified by matching testimony details) told investigators Epstein controlled her weight and clothing, forced her to undergo multiple plastic surgeries, and physically abused her – including choking her and throwing her down a flight of stairs. In one archived email, Marcinko herself accuses Epstein of “abusive partner behavior.”

    A recurring theme through years of emails is Epstein’s demand that Marcinko recruit other women to satisfy his sexual desires. Marcinko complied with these requests, writing in a 2006 message: “I will do what I can, even though if this is simply about you having sex with someone else, I don’t know how it makes our relationship better. I will try to find girls whenever we are in New York.” The BBC’s review of the files found no direct evidence Marcinko ever recruited underage girls, but legal experts note that deceptive recruitment of adults for sexual exploitation can still qualify as trafficking. Even at the height of her involvement, Marcinko acknowledged her discomfort with the dynamic, writing in 2006: “Since I met you, my life revolves around you, there is nothing else I have and it makes me feel very uneasy.”

    During Epstein’s 13-month 2008-2009 prison sentence for a 2008 conviction of soliciting sex from a minor, prison records show Marcinko visited him at least 67 times. That same period, Epstein paid for her to train as a commercial pilot, a skill she pursued enthusiastically, earning multiple certifications and working toward financial independence. After Epstein’s release, their relationship intensified, with emails revealing the pair attempted to start a family together in 2009. They finally split in 2010 after a particularly violent assault, Marcinko told investigators, though she remained connected to Epstein for years afterward: she worked as a co-pilot for his private jet starting in 2012, and Epstein agreed to double her annual income from aviation work as late as 2015.

    In a striking turn, Marcinko began cooperating with the FBI’s Epstein investigation in 2018, a year before Epstein’s second arrest and death in prison. In 2022, when her U.S. visa expired, the FBI supported her application for permanent residency, stating in court filings that she had been “recruited, harbored and obtained by Jeffrey Epstein and others for purposes of a coercive sexual relationship.” Since that ruling, she has dropped out of public view, with public records linking her to a New York Zen Buddhist center as recently as 2024. Her legal team has previously stated she is a victim of Epstein’s abuse, working through trauma and plans to speak out publicly to support other survivors one day.

    Today, Marcinko finds herself facing new calls for investigation. She was one of four women granted immunity from prosecution as part of Epstein’s controversial 2008 plea deal, and while two of the other women – Sarah Kellen and Lesley Groff – are set to be questioned by U.S. congressional investigators this year, Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican member of the House Oversight Committee, has called for all four women (including Marcinko and Adriana Ross) to be probed, claiming all were complicit in the trafficking of minors.

    The case of Marcinko raises a nuanced, critical question that legal experts are still grappling with: Can a person who was a victim of coercive control also be considered an accomplice to crimes committed under that coercion? Bridgette Carr, a clinical law professor at the University of Michigan who specializes in human trafficking victim advocacy, says the key distinction lies in whether a victim was able to escape the perpetrator’s power before committing criminal acts. “The line I draw is whether the victim has ever been away from the power and control of the perpetrator,” Carr explains. “What matters is whether it’s reasonable that [the victim] would believe that that perpetrator [still] has power over them.”

    For outsiders, the full scope of the choices Marcinko made during her 15-year association with Epstein can never be fully known, but one 2012 email she sent to Epstein offers a rare glimpse into her own conflicted conscience: “I do not want to be with you, but it upsets me to see you use the same exact patterns to seduce, manipulate, and ultimately control and hurt other girls. I don’t even like them and I actually feel guilty about knowing how they will end up. I know what you are capable of and I will always be protective of you out of pure loyalty and stubbornness, but my conscience is far from clear.” The BBC reached out to Marcinko for comment for this report, and received no response.