Global Pulse

分类： world

  • 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.

  • How one German artist’s remembrance stones turn Berlin sidewalks into Holocaust memorials

    How one German artist’s remembrance stones turn Berlin sidewalks into Holocaust memorials

    On a gray, rainy spring afternoon in central Berlin, 78-year-old German artist Gunter Demnig knelt to press a palm-sized polished brass plaque into the cracked sidewalk of a busy intersection. Engraved with short, unflinching details, the stone honors Johanna Berger: born 1893, resided at this address, deported November 17, 1941, murdered eight days later.

    Once Demnig brushed sand away from the four plaques marking Berger, her husband, and their two sons, a dozen of the family’s descendants stepped forward from the crowd of onlookers. They laid down crisp white roses at the site and recited Kaddish, the ancient Jewish prayer for the dead, as rush-hour traffic rumbled past just feet away. These small, sunken memorials are known as Stolpersteine — German for “stumbling blocks” — a name that references their ability to make passersby literally and figuratively pause in their tracks.

    Thirty years have passed since Demnig laid the very first Stolperstein in Berlin. Today, more than 11,000 of these memorials dot the German capital’s sidewalks, with a total of 126,000 installed across Germany and 31 other European nations. Unlike large, centralized Holocaust memorials that draw intentional visitors, Demnig’s project brings memory directly into daily life: embedded in pavement outside former homes of victims, the shiny brass squares force commuters, shoppers, and children to stop, bend down, and confront the history that unfolded in the very neighborhood they inhabit. It is not uncommon to see young children leaning in to read the inscriptions and ask their parents to explain who the people named on the stones were, and why they are honored there.

    In an interview with the Associated Press Wednesday, Demnig explained the core vision that has driven his work for three decades: “My basic idea behind this was that wherever in Europe the German Wehrmacht, the SS, the Gestapo, and their local collaborators committed murders or carried out deportations, symbolic stones should be placed there.”

    For many families of Holocaust victims, these small stones serve a purpose no other memorial can fill. Most victims of the Nazi genocide were killed in concentration camps, their bodies disposed of in mass graves or crematoria, leaving no place for surviving relatives to mourn. That is why relatives travel from across the globe to attend each stonelaying ceremony. “The Stolpersteine are some kind of substitute for the missing gravestones,” explained Michael Tischler, 72-year-old Berlin resident and great-nephew of Johanna Berger, who lost multiple family members to the Holocaust. “I think this brings the family history to a certain conclusion, or at least a provisional one.”

    Beyond bringing solace to grieving families, the Stolpersteine project has grown into a grassroots movement that unites local neighborhoods, schools, and religious communities in researching Nazi-era history. Young and old volunteers alike dive into city archives and pore over yellowed resident lists to trace where victims of Nazi persecution — including Jews, Roma, LGBTQ+ people, political dissidents, and disabled people — once lived. Once a victim’s former residence is confirmed, the community organizes a public laying ceremony and commits to polishing the brass plaque regularly to keep its shine, ensuring the inscription remains legible for years to come.

    Wednesday, a group of 10th graders from Berlin’s Friedrich-Bergius-Schule joined a second stonelaying ceremony on Stierstraße, a street once home to a dense Jewish community. The three new stones added for the Krein family — Michael, Maria, and their daughter Dalila — brought the street’s total count of Stolpersteine to 62. While Maria escaped to the United States and Dalila fled to British Mandate Palestine, Michael Krein, a professional musician, died as a forced laborer under Nazi rule in Berlin in 1940.

    Sixteen-year-old student Sibilla Ehrlich watched as violinists played a slow, solemn melody and elderly neighbors shared stories of the Krein family’s lives before the Nazi regime. “It is just so horrible, all this the hatred of others,” she said. “I keep thinking: what if this had been my family.”

    Before the Nazis seized power in 1933, Berlin was home to the largest Jewish community in Germany, with roughly 160,500 Jewish residents. By the end of World War II in 1945, emigration and systematic extermination had reduced that number to just 7,000. Overall, an estimated 6 million European Jews and millions of other marginalized groups were murdered in the Holocaust.

    This May 8 marks 81 years since the Allied powers defeated Nazi Germany and liberated its concentration camps. As the anniversary approaches, many Germans have grown increasingly concerned that the lessons of the Holocaust are at risk of being forgotten, as far-right extremist parties gain political influence and antisemitic harassment and violence rise across the country.

    Tischler shares these worries about his nation’s future, but he says the Stolpersteine project offers a small, persistent source of hope. “I hope that these Stolpersteine will still give some people pause for thought,” he said.

  • Mount Everest season opens late, with climbers undeterred by huge ice block and high travel costs

    Mount Everest season opens late, with climbers undeterred by huge ice block and high travel costs

    Every spring, Mount Everest draws hundreds of ambitious mountaineers to its slopes, drawn by the challenge of conquering the world’s highest peak. This year is no exception: even with a looming threat of a collapsing massive ice block, soaring expedition expenses and increased government permit fees, around 820 total climbers and experienced Nepali Sherpa guides are gathered at Everest’s 5,300-meter base camp, preparing for their ascent during the narrow annual window of favorable spring weather.

    Climbers began arriving at base camp last month, but progress up the mountain stalled for more than two weeks due to a giant unstable ice formation, called a serac, that hangs directly over the Khumbu Icefall — the treacherous first section of the route to the summit, located just above base camp. This constantly shifting glacier is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous segments of any Everest ascent, dotted with deep hidden crevasses and massive overhanging ice blocks that can reach the size of 10-story buildings.

    Each year, a specialized team of veteran Nepali guides known as “icefall doctors” — deployed by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) — clears and secures the route, installing fixed ropes and aluminum ladders across gaping crevasses. The team typically completes this critical work by mid-April, but unpredictable glacial shifts this year delayed the route opening until April 29. Even after opening the path, SPCC issued an urgent warning to all climbing teams: the oversized serac carries multiple deep cracks and could collapse at any moment, requiring extreme caution from all who pass. The newly carved route still passes directly beneath the unstable ice formation, as the serac is too large to avoid entirely.

    Veteran mountain guide Lukas Furtenbach, who is leading an expedition of 40 international climbers supported by 101 guides and Sherpas, called the serac a tangible, unavoidable danger. “Anyone who says they’re not concerned is either inexperienced or not paying attention,” Furtenbach told reporters from base camp. He noted that this year’s route is more technically complex and more exposed to falling ice than the 2023 path, with glacial melt forcing the trail into a precarious alignment directly under unstable glacial features. To mitigate risk, Furtenbach’s team has cut the weight each climber carries through the icefall, limited the time climbers spend in the hazard zone, restricted crossings to carefully timed windows, and delegated risk assessment only to the most seasoned Sherpa guides.

    Other leading expedition operators echo the call for caution. Ang Tshering Sherpa, a senior leader of Kathmandu-based Asian Trekking, explained that timing crossings reduces risk: early morning travel is safer because freezing temperatures lock the ice in place, while warmer afternoon temperatures increase melt and the risk of falling ice debris. “It is very necessary to be cautious this year,” he emphasized.

    The hazard comes amid a grim history of deadly serac accidents on the Khumbu Icefall: a collapsing serac triggered a massive avalanche in 2014 that killed 16 Nepali climbing guides and support workers. The increased glacial instability this year aligns with broader scientific warnings about accelerating Himalayan glacial melt driven by climate change. In 2023, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres visited Nepal’s glacial mountains and warned that Himalayan glaciers are melting at a devastating, unprecedented rate that poses severe risks to mountain communities and mountaineers alike.

    Despite the multiple risks and growing costs, climber turnout remains strong this spring climbing season. Ang Tshering Sherpa noted that while conflicts including the Iran war and rising global travel prices have reduced the number of climbers from Western nations such as the U.S. and Western Europe, this drop has been offset by a sharp increase in climbing participation from Asian mountaineers. This season also sees all climbing attempts concentrated on Nepal’s southern side of the mountain: Everest straddles the Nepal-China border, but China has closed its northern route to foreign climbers for 2024, directing all summit attempts to Nepal.

    Since the first recorded successful ascent by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953, thousands of mountaineers have reached Everest’s 8,849-meter summit, and the draw of the world’s highest peak remains undiminished, even in the face of growing climate-driven risks.

  • Ukraine is a global surrogacy hub – but that could be about to end

    Ukraine is a global surrogacy hub – but that could be about to end

    Six months into her pregnancy, 22-year-old Karina Tarasenko carries an embryo created from the egg and sperm of a Chinese couple, a path she never would have chosen if war had not destroyed her life. A native of Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city that became one of the bloodiest frontlines of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Karina lost her home at 17. She and her partner fled to Kyiv, where they found themselves trapped in chronic unemployment, unable to make ends meet for their 18-month-old daughter. The breaking point came during a routine grocery trip, when Karina barely had enough cash to cover basic staples of bread and baby nappies. In that moment, she made the decision to become a paid commercial surrogate.

    Today, Karina lives on Kyiv’s outskirts in an apartment provided by her surrogacy clinic, carrying a baby girl for the overseas couple. She is set to earn £12,500 ($17,000) for the pregnancy – nearly double Ukraine’s average annual salary – with most of the payout due after she gives birth. Her pay was originally set at £15,500 ($21,000), but a contractual clause reduced the amount after one of the twins she was initially carrying died. Though she felt anger and disappointment in the early days of her decision, Karina has now made long-term plans: she intends to carry as many surrogate pregnancies as her body will allow, saving every penny to finally buy a permanent home of her own, something unthinkable for her family without the income surrogacy provides.

    Karina’s story is far from unique in post-invasion Ukraine. Long established as the world’s second-largest commercial surrogacy hub after the United States, the industry saw a sharp dip when the war first broke out, but experts tell the BBC it has now nearly rebounded to pre-conflict levels. The combination of mass unemployment, plummeting GDP, and soaring inflation has left thousands of low-income Ukrainian women desperate for stable income, creating a growing pool of potential surrogates for clinics that primarily serve overseas intended parents – who make up 95% of the industry’s client base.

    But that status quo is at risk of being upended. Ukraine’s parliament is currently debating a new bill that would impose sweeping new regulations on the surrogacy sector and effectively bar all foreign intended parents from accessing services, a proposal that already holds widespread support among lawmakers. Critics of the unregulated industry argue it reduces human reproduction to a commercial commodity and exploits vulnerable women pushed into the work by war-related poverty. Supporters of the ban also point to Ukraine’s collapsing national birthrate following the invasion, arguing that the country should not facilitate surrogate pregnancies for foreigners when native population growth is at a historic low.

    Women’s rights activist Maria Dmytrieva, who opposes all surrogacy on ethical grounds, says the proposed legislation does not go far enough. She argues that war has exponentially increased the number of desperate women in the country, and clinics deliberately target this vulnerability to supply low-cost surrogate babies to wealthy Western couples. Dmytrieva points to problematic advertising campaigns that explicitly leverage the widespread economic hardship of war to recruit surrogates: an AI-generated advert from January 2024 showed a woman choosing between heating fuel and new clothes for her children, a direct appeal to the struggles millions of Ukrainians face daily. In 2021, Ukraine’s largest surrogacy clinic, BioTexCom Centre for Human Reproduction, drew widespread condemnation for running a “Black Friday sale” on its surrogacy packages.

    When questioned by the BBC about whether these adverts were unethical, BioTexCom defended the campaigns, noting they successfully raised awareness of the opportunity for women seeking work. The clinic has faced far more serious scrutiny than problematic advertising, however: in 2018, Ukrainian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into BioTexCom CEO Albert Tochilovsky and two former staff members, on suspicion of human trafficking and other offences. Prosecutors say the pre-trial investigation was suspended to allow for international cooperation and information gathering from overseas, but have not released further details. BioTexCom and Tochilovsky categorically deny all allegations, claiming the investigation stems from a DNA mismatch between one set of intended parents and a baby that occurred during sperm collection in another country, for which the clinic bears no responsibility. The clinic argues it operates fully within the law, provides a valuable service to people struggling with infertility, and offers legal income, free medical care, housing, and food to surrogate mothers.

    Beyond regulatory and ethical concerns, the industry also grapples with the ongoing issue of abandoned children. Under Ukrainian law, intended parents are legally responsible for a child after birth, and abandonment is illegal. But cross-border enforcement is extremely difficult, and stories of unclaimed children have fueled calls for reform. Five-year-old Wei, who was born prematurely in 2021 and suffered severe permanent brain damage, is one such case. Arranged through BioTexCom, the pregnancy was commissioned by a couple from Southeast Asia, who abandoned the child after learning about his disability. Neither the couple, who disappeared and could not be recontacted by authorities or the clinic, nor Wei’s surrogate mother, who had no legal obligation to care for him under Ukrainian law, stepped forward to take him.

    Today, Wei lives in a state-run residential home for disabled children in Kyiv, where he requires 24-hour care: he cannot sit up on his own, hold his head up, or see clearly. While BioTexCom’s CEO has called Wei’s case a tragedy and said the clinic accepts partial responsibility for abandoned children, there is no legal requirement for clinics to contribute to the cost of caring for unclaimed surrogacy babies, and BioTexCom has not provided any financial support for Wei. Children with disabilities as severe as Wei’s are almost never adopted: 15 families have reviewed Wei’s adoption file to date, and none have expressed interest in welcoming him. Valeria Soruchan, a Health Ministry official supporting the new bill, says “a lot” of surrogacy-born children are left abandoned in state care, though the government does not track exact numbers. Soruchan says she is not inherently opposed to surrogacy, but supports the foreign ban to address the industry’s current lack of oversight.

    Despite the criticism and calls for reform, supporters of Ukraine’s commercial surrogacy industry argue it can deliver life-changing benefits for all parties involved. London-based couple Himatraj and Rajvir Bajwa spent five years struggling to conceive, including two failed rounds of IVF, before turning to Ukrainian surrogacy. Rajvir, 38, lives with severe endometriosis and multiple sclerosis, both of which drastically reduced her chances of carrying a child. The couple ruled out surrogacy in the UK, where only altruistic surrogacy (which allows only reimbursement of expenses, no payment to the surrogate) is legal, and where surrogates retain legal parental rights until a formal parental order is issued. Fearing uncertainty around legal ownership, they turned to Ukraine, attracted by the formal, organised structure of the industry and much lower costs: they paid £65,000 ($87,770) through BioTexCom, less than 60% of the average cost of surrogacy in the United States, which can exceed $150,000.

    The couple created an embryo in London via IVF, shipped it to Kyiv for implantation, and returned to Ukraine for the birth in June 2023, just months after Russia had launched widespread bombing campaigns targeting the capital. Delays in processing UK paperwork for their son’s passport forced the couple to spend the first three months of their baby’s life shuttling in and out of Kyiv bomb shelters. “It was scary and surreal,” Rajvir recalled. The pair finally returned to the UK in late August 2023, and will soon celebrate their son’s first birthday. For the Bajwas, the experience was entirely positive: they met their surrogate, brought her gifts, and reject claims that Ukrainian surrogates are exploited. “They gave us something we never thought possible – they’ve made us a family,” Himatraj said, noting that the work is a voluntary choice that provides critical income for women who need it. The couple oppose the proposed Ukrainian ban, saying it would cut off a path to parenthood for thousands of infertile couples around the world.

    For Karina, who was initially courted by BioTexCom but chose another clinic after finding BioTexCom’s service cold and impersonal, the argument of exploitation misses the mark. “No-one is forcing us. This is my body, my decision… I’ll get my reward for giving them happiness,” she says. The proposed ban would destroy her plans to buy a home, she adds, and she is hopeful the legislation will not pass. As she rests her hand on her pregnant stomach, she says of the baby girl she carries: “I know this is not my child, but I love her. I talk to her. When she kicks, I tell her that her parents are waiting for her. I just hope she has a good life.”

  • Russia is ramping up its attempts to kill opponents in Europe, intelligence officials say

    Russia is ramping up its attempts to kill opponents in Europe, intelligence officials say

    For Russian opposition activist Vladimir Osechkin, even routine daily tasks like dropping his children at school or picking up groceries require a call to local law enforcement. Since 2022, he has lived under constant French police protection after authorities concluded the Kremlin was plotting to kill him, and new unsealed court documents obtained exclusively by the Associated Press reveal how close that plot came to execution.

    In April 2025, a four-man team of Russian nationals staked out Osechkin’s home in the southwestern French seaside resort of Biarritz for hours, capturing detailed photos and video of the property as pre-operational surveillance for a planned assassination, the documents confirm. This is not an isolated incident: Osechkin recalls years earlier, a telltale red dot, consistent with a firearm’s laser sight, appeared on the interior wall of his residence, an early warning of the danger closing in.

    Osechkin’s case is just one thread in a far broader pattern of targeted violence and plots stretching across the European continent. Over the past two years alone, European security officials have disrupted multiple planned attacks: Lithuanian authorities foiled two separate assassination plots last year targeting a pro-Ukraine Lithuanian citizen and a Russian opposition activist; German security services broke up two plots, one aimed at the chief executive of a German arms manufacturer supplying Kyiv and another targeting a senior Ukrainian military official; Polish authorities arrested a suspect in 2024 over a plan to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a visit to the country; and that same year, a defected Russian helicopter pilot was shot and killed in Spain, with Russian intelligence operatives identified as the prime suspects.

    Three senior Western intelligence officials from separate countries confirmed to AP that what was once a sporadic program to eliminate Kremlin opponents abroad has exploded into a systematic, widely expanded campaign of targeted killings following Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters, all three officials agreed that Russian security services have grown dramatically bolder in their selection of targets, expanding beyond the traditional list of defectors and double agents to include opposition activists, independent regional campaigners, and even foreign citizens who openly support Ukraine’s war effort. One senior European intelligence official stressed that the campaign is not random: “There is political authorization.”

    Intelligence analysts, senior counterterrorism officials, and Lithuanian prosecutors link this stepped-up campaign to Russia’s broader asymmetric war against European nations that back Ukraine. Since the invasion began, AP has mapped more than 191 confirmed acts of sabotage, arson, and disruptive attacks across Europe that Western officials attribute to Russian actors. In most of these incidents, Russian intelligence relies on low-cost local proxies rather than deploying its own trained officers — a model Moscow has now adapted for its assassination campaign, according to court documents and official briefings.

    When contacted by AP for comment on the reports, Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment, saying he saw “no need” to address the claims. Russian officials have consistently denied any involvement in targeted killings of opponents abroad.

    Digging into the details of the plot against Osechkin, court records show three of the four detained suspects traveled to Biarritz specifically to surveil the activist, with the explicit goal of killing Osechkin to intimidate all anti-Kremlin opponents residing in France. All four suspects were born in Russia’s Dagestan region; one has a long record of violent criminal convictions, while another told investigators he fled Russia after being arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) to avoid being forcibly conscripted and deployed to fight in Ukraine. Osechkin, who founded a prominent human rights organization focused on exposing abuse in Russia’s prison system, said threats against him escalated sharply after he expanded his work to document Russian war crimes in Ukraine and help Russian soldiers defect to avoid combat. He relocated to France in 2015 and entered police protection in 2022 after intelligence confirmed his life was in immediate danger. “If it weren’t for them, I probably would have been killed,” Osechkin told AP.

    Half a continent away in Lithuania, another target, Ruslan Gabbasov, an activist campaigning for independence for Russia’s Bashkortostan region, survived a 2025 plot after a lucky discovery. Gabbasov found an Apple AirTag tracking device hidden on the undercarriage of his car in February 2025. Lithuanian police left the device in place and tracked the surveillance team back to their network. Weeks later, as Gabbasov attended a national independence day celebration with his wife and five-year-old son, police called and warned him not to return home. The next day, investigators told him a gunman had been waiting outside his residence overnight, ready to kill him on his return. Lithuanian authorities offered Gabbasov a chance to enter witness protection: to change his name, relocate, and abandon his political activism entirely. He refused, noting that he is seen as a leading voice for independence aspirations in his resource-rich home region, which has sent thousands of men to fight in Ukraine. “I can’t betray them all by simply disappearing, especially out of fear,” Gabbasov said. “If I stop my work or hide, that’s exactly what the Kremlin wants — that’s their win.”

    Lithuanian pro-Ukraine activist Valdas Bartkevičius was also offered the same deal after authorities uncovered a plot to plant a bomb in his home mailbox in March 2025. He also rejected going into hiding, saying that withdrawing from public life would amount to “social death.” Bartkevičius, who has gained attention for his high-profile anti-Russia actions, including a protest at a Soviet war memorial, said he will not stop his work fundraising for Ukraine’s military.

    To date, Lithuanian prosecutors have charged 13 people from at least seven countries in connection with the two plots against Gabbasov and Bartkevičius, part of a group of at least 20 suspects detained, charged, or identified across Europe in assassination-linked cases over the past 12 months. Prosecutors confirm the suspects were acting on direct orders from Russian military intelligence, and many have ties to Russian organized crime networks that have also been linked to arson and espionage plots across the European Union.

    Security analysts say the shift to using proxies stems from a major change after the 2018 poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England. That attack, which the UK government proved was carried out by Russian military intelligence officers, prompted Western nations to expel more than 300 Russian diplomats, most of whom were covert intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover. That mass expulsion made it far riskier and more difficult for Russian intelligence officers to operate openly on European territory, according to Cmdr. Dominic Murphy, former head of counterterrorism at London’s Metropolitan Police and lead investigator on the Skripal case.

    While most publicly reported plots since 2022 have been foiled by European security services, one senior Western intelligence official noted that proxy operatives are generally less skilled and less resourced than trained Russian intelligence officers, which contributes to the higher rate of failed attacks. Even so, the official explained, the plots achieve key Russian goals even when they fail: they intimidate opponents into self-censorship, force European law enforcement to devote massive ongoing resources to protecting potential targets, and signal the Kremlin’s willingness to punish dissent anywhere in the world.

    Pointing to the 2024 killing of defector Maxim Kuzminov in Spain, who was publicly threatened by masked Russian servicemen on state-controlled television before his death, the official said it is clear that when the Kremlin prioritizes a target, it can still carry out an assassination in Europe despite the increased security pressure. For this reason, potential targets will never be fully safe, the official warned: “Even if you thwart an operation once, you still need to be ready in case they strike again.”

  • Southeast Asian leaders will reaffirm core values in veiled Mideast war rebuke

    Southeast Asian leaders will reaffirm core values in veiled Mideast war rebuke

    As Southeast Asian heads of state prepare to gather for their annual regional summit in Cebu, the Philippines on Friday, a leaked draft declaration obtained by the Associated Press shows the bloc is set to adopt a sweeping contingency plan that prioritizes international law, national sovereignty, and unobstructed navigation – a move widely interpreted as a quiet pushback against the escalating Middle East conflict that has sent ripple effects across the globe.

    The 11-nation bloc, which admitted East Timor as its 11th full member in October 2024, will formally approve the plan during the gathering hosted by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., this year’s ASEAN chair. Marcos has already scrapped the lavish ceremonial traditions that typically accompany the summit, a choice made to acknowledge the harsh global economic headwinds hitting regional communities.

    Beyond upholding core international principles, the plan outlines concrete crisis mitigation measures to address energy shortages and other cross-border disruptions triggered by the ongoing Middle East war. The summit’s core agenda centers on three critical priorities: shoring up regional energy security, stabilizing food supply chains, and protecting the more than 1 million Southeast Asian workers and seafarers currently based in the conflict zone. Already, two Filipino workers and an uncounted number of other Southeast Asian nationals have been killed in the fighting, forcing thousands of migrant workers to evacuate back to their home countries with government assistance.

    Southeast Asia, a dynamic 680 million-person region with robust economic growth, already grapples with a host of persistent security flash points: decades-old territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a five-year devastating civil war in Myanmar, and a recent deadly border clash between Thailand and Cambodia. Even so, regional leaders have singled out the Middle East conflict as an urgent outsized threat, due to its far-reaching global economic fallout and direct risk to regional citizens.

    The Asian Development Bank sounded an early alarm in March, roughly one month after hostilities broke out in the Middle East, warning that prolonged disruption to regional energy supplies could curb economic growth and drive up inflation across Asia and the Pacific. The bloc relies heavily on Middle Eastern oil and gas exports to power its industrial and consumer economies, leaving it extremely vulnerable to supply chain disruptions and shipping lane blockages.

    The draft declaration reaffirms ASEAN’s commitment to upholding foundational rules-based order, stating: “We emphasized the importance of upholding international law and ensuring that regional cooperation remains anchored in dialogue, trust and respect for sovereignty.” It goes on to commit the bloc to maintaining “open, transparent and predictable markets as well as secure and open sea lanes, and ensure freedom of navigation, the safe, unimpeded and continuous transit passage of vessels and aircraft in straits used for international navigation.”

    All these measures are framed as a way to “preserve the unimpeded flow of essential goods, including food, energy and key inputs, in accordance with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” the draft reads. ASEAN leaders will formally affirm their shared commitment to strengthening regional resilience through coordinated action.

    Key actionable steps in the contingency plan include the potential ratification this year of a regional agreement enabling coordinated emergency fuel sharing, advancing development of an integrated regional power grid, diversifying crude oil import sources across the bloc, accelerating adoption of electric vehicles, and exploring new energy technologies including civilian nuclear power. The bloc is also drafting a dedicated ASEAN crisis communication and coordination protocol to ensure a cohesive, rapid, and unified regional response to future global and regional shocks.

  • Israeli court rejects flotilla activists’ appeal challenging detention

    Israeli court rejects flotilla activists’ appeal challenging detention

    In a decision that has drawn sharp condemnation from human rights groups and global authorities, an Israeli district court rejected an appeal Wednesday challenging the continued detention of two foreign activists seized by Israeli forces from a humanitarian flotilla heading to blockaded Gaza.

    The two detainees — Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national of Palestinian descent, and Thiago Avila, a Brazilian citizen — were among more than 30 activists traveling on an international flotilla that was intercepted last week in international waters off the coast of Greece. While all other activists on board were diverted to the Greek island of Crete and released shortly after the interception, Israeli commandos seized Abu Keshek and Avila, transferring them to Israeli territory for interrogation.

    Earlier this week, a lower Israeli court granted authorities an extension of the pair’s detention through Sunday to allow additional questioning. Defense lawyers immediately appealed that ruling to the Beersheva District Court, but the court on Wednesday ruled in full favor of the prosecution, leaving the original detention extension in place. “Today, the district court of Beersheva denied our appeal and basically accepted all of the arguments that the state or the police have represented before the court, keeping the previous decision in place,” lead defense attorney Hadeel Abu Salih told reporters.

    An AFP journalist present at the court hearing observed that the two activists, who launched a hunger strike shortly after their arrest, appeared in court with their ankles shackled. Abu Keshek, who has stopped consuming both food and water according to his legal team, appeared visibly exhausted throughout the proceeding, while Avila remained calm.

    Abu Salih and the legal team have decried the entire detention as a violation of international law, arguing that the Israeli operation was carried out without any legitimate authority in international waters. “This was an illegal arrest that took place in international waters where the activists were kidnapped by the Israeli navy,” Abu Salih said, adding that the court ruling effectively gives Israeli forces “a free hand… to do it again and again.”

    Adalah, the leading Israeli human rights organization representing the two activists, issued a statement calling Wednesday’s ruling “unlawful and unreasonable.” The group emphasized that the flotilla vessel sailed under an Italian flag, placing all people on board under exclusive Italian jurisdiction, making the Israeli abduction a violation of maritime law. Adalah also leveled allegations of mistreatment in detention, saying that Avila has been held in a consistently cold cell, and that both men are subjected to extended interrogations lasting most of the day about the flotilla and its organizers.

    Israeli authorities have denied all claims of abuse, but have not yet filed any formal criminal charges against the pair. Israeli officials have stated the pair face accusations of “assisting the enemy during wartime” and “membership in and providing services to a terrorist organization.” Israeli authorities link the two activists to the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), an organization that the United States has accused of secretly operating on behalf of Hamas, the de facto governing authority of Gaza.

    The detention has already sparked international pushback: the governments of Spain and Brazil, as well as the United Nations, have publicly called for the immediate and unconditional release of the two men. “It is not a crime to show solidarity and attempt to bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population in Gaza, who are in dire need of it,” UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said in an official statement.

    The flotilla, which departed from ports in France, Spain and Italy, was organized with the explicit goal of challenging Israel’s 16-year blockade of the Gaza Strip and delivering badly needed humanitarian supplies to the territory, which has been devastated by months of ongoing military conflict. Israel has enforced a complete land, air and sea blockade of Gaza since 2007, controlling all access points into the enclave and severely restricting the flow of food, medicine, fuel and other essential goods.