Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Iran warns ‘not even started’ in Hormuz

    Iran warns ‘not even started’ in Hormuz

    Tensions in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz have reignited sharply in recent days, bringing the Middle East back to the brink of broader conflict just weeks after a ceasefire paused a two-month-old war sparked by U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. The fresh wave of clashes has sent shockwaves through global energy markets and drawn urgent calls for de-escalation from world powers.

    After U.S. forces engaged with Iranian vessels near the strait — a chokepoint through which roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil supplies pass — a top Iranian official issued a stark warning to Washington that Tehran has not yet unleashed its full force in the ongoing standoff. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker and chief nuclear negotiator, wrote in a post on X that the current status quo is already untenable for the United States, emphasizing that “we have not even started yet.” Ghalibaf added that the U.S. and its allies have undermined shipping security in the region, and that Tehran will never cede control of the strait, predicting that Washington’s “malign presence will diminish.”

    The latest clashes unfolded on Monday, when the U.S. military announced that its Apache attack and Seahawk helicopters had struck six Iranian boats that it said posed a threat to commercial shipping in the area. U.S. forces also intercepted and repelled incoming Iranian missiles and drones, the Pentagon confirmed. Separately, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported fresh Iranian attacks on its territory, including a strike on an energy facility in the emirate of Fujairah and a drone attack on a tanker owned by the UAE’s state oil giant ADNOC. UAE authorities said four cruise missiles were launched in the attack: three were shot down by air defenses, while the fourth fell into the Persian Gulf. The UAE condemned the strikes as “a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable transgression” of international law.

    Iran has pushed back on the U.S. account of the sea clashes, denying that any of its military vessels were damaged in the U.S. airstrikes. Tehran did, however, accuse Washington of killing five civilian passengers on boats operating near the strait. For the attacks on the UAE, an Iranian military spokesperson told state media that Tehran had no pre-planned agenda to target Emirati energy infrastructure, placing full blame on the U.S. for provoking the strikes. “What happened was the product of the U.S. military’s adventurism to create a passage for ships to illegally pass through the forbidden passages of the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. military must be held accountable for it,” the spokesperson said.

    The renewed tensions follow an announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump, who unveiled a plan to escort neutral countries’ ships through the Gulf in a bid to break Tehran’s de facto blockade of the strait. Trump’s initiative, dubbed “Project Freedom,” has already seen its first successful transit: Danish shipping giant Maersk confirmed on Tuesday that one of its commercial vessels had passed through the strait under U.S. military escort. Despite this small milestone, the latest clashes have upended a weeks-long ceasefire that paused the broader war that began more than two months ago when U.S.-Israeli forces launched strikes on Iran.

    That ceasefire had already failed to stop low-level clashes along other fronts, including the Israel-Lebanon border where Israel continues exchanges of fire with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. An Israeli military official confirmed on Monday that the Israel Defense Forces remains on high alert, closely monitoring developments around the strait after the U.S. downed Iranian missiles and drones. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun also reaffirmed this week that a security agreement and full halt to Israeli strikes are required before any planned meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a meeting Washington has pushed for to de-escalate the Lebanese front. Israeli and Lebanese officials held two landmark direct talks in Washington last month, the first such negotiations in decades, after Hezbollah opened a new front in the war on March 2, triggering heavy Israeli strikes and a limited ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

    The sharp escalation in the Strait of Hormuz has already delivered a major blow to the global economy, which has been reeling from the impact of months of conflict. Crude oil prices surged on Monday in response to the tensions, driven by fears that the strait could remain closed to large-scale commercial traffic, dragging global energy costs even higher. Global stock markets sank on Tuesday as investor confidence eroded, extending losses driven by months of volatility tied to the Middle East conflict. Soaring consumer energy prices triggered by the war have already caused widespread economic hardship across the world, and the fresh crisis has created significant political challenges for Trump just months ahead of U.S. midterm elections.

    U.S. European allies have also sounded the alarm over the crisis, warning that prolonged closure of the strait will cause deep economic damage to their own economies. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X that “these attacks are unacceptable,” noting that “security in the Gulf region has direct consequences for Europe.” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz joined French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in calling on Iran to return to diplomatic negotiations, saying Tehran must “stop holding the region and the world hostage.” Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, also issued a statement on Tuesday calling for intensive diplomatic efforts “to reach a political solution” to the standoff.

    Despite widespread international calls for dialogue, negotiations between Washington and Tehran remain completely deadlocked. To date, only one round of direct peace talks has been held, with no breakthroughs on core issues including the future of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s broader regional security demands. With both sides digging in and exchanging deadly fire, the international community is bracing for a further escalation that could drag the entire Middle East back into full-scale war, with cascading consequences for the global economy and millions of people around the world.

  • Sudan’s military accuses Ethiopia of drone attacks, recalls its ambassador

    Sudan’s military accuses Ethiopia of drone attacks, recalls its ambassador

    In a sharp escalation of cross-border tensions between two neighboring East African nations, Sudan has formally recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia and publicly accused Addis Ababa of orchestrating a series of recent drone strikes targeting key Sudanese sites, including the capital Khartoum’s international airport. The announcement, made during a press conference on Tuesday, marks one of the most serious diplomatic rifts between the two countries in years, unfolding against the backdrop of Sudan’s 13-month civil conflict between the national military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.

  • What we know about Trump’s ‘Project Freedom’ in Strait of Hormuz

    What we know about Trump’s ‘Project Freedom’ in Strait of Hormuz

    The strategic Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy chokepoint that carries roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, has been largely closed to commercial traffic since the United States and Israel launched air strikes against Iran. Tehran responded to the attacks by shutting down the waterway, leaving thousands of vessels and their crews stranded in the Gulf. In response to international requests to free the trapped ships, U.S. President Donald Trump has launched what he has named “Project Freedom,” a mission that threatens to reignite open hostilities between the two nations.

    In a Sunday post on his Truth Social platform, Trump stated that leaders from nations across the globe had reached out to the U.S. for assistance, noting that the trapped ships belonged to neutral, uninvolved parties that had become innocent victims of the escalating conflict. Under the new operation, the U.S. military will guide trapped vessels safely out of the restricted waters around the strait. Trump framed the mission as a purely humanitarian gesture, arguing it would benefit not just global shipping interests and Middle Eastern nations, but Iran itself. He pointed to growing urgent concerns: many stranded vessels are running critically low on food and other essential supplies required to keep large crews healthy and maintain sanitary living conditions on board.

    Iran has pushed back sharply against the U.S. initiative, however. Iranian officials maintain that the country retains full sovereign control over the Strait of Hormuz, and have issued blunt threats to attack any foreign military force that attempts to enter or approach the waterway, specifically naming the U.S. military as an aggressive target. Senior Iranian commander Maj Gen Ali Abdollahi emphasized that all safe passage through the strait must be coordinated directly with Iran under all circumstances. A day after Trump’s announcement, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the U.S. mission, writing on X that “events in Hormuz make clear that there’s no military solution to a political crisis,” and adding, “Project Freedom is Project Deadlock.”

    The scale of the humanitarian and economic crisis is substantial. The International Maritime Organisation, the United Nations body that regulates global commercial shipping, estimates that roughly 2,000 vessels and 20,000 sailors have been trapped in the Gulf since the outbreak of hostilities. Concern has risen rapidly over dwindling essential supplies and the growing negative impact of the blockade on the physical and mental health of stranded crew members.

    U.S. Central Command (Centcom) has deployed a large military contingent to support the operation, including guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multiple advanced unmanned platforms, and 15,000 active service members. In a public briefing, Centcom commander Adm Brad Cooper confirmed that attack helicopters assigned to the mission had already sunk six small Iranian boats that were targeting unarmed civilian vessels. Cooper warned that U.S. forces will open fire on any Iranian craft deemed to be interfering with the mission to reopen the waterway.

    Few concrete details have been released about the full scope and long-term structure of the operation, though Cooper confirmed that the ultimate goal is to reestablish a fully operational two-way shipping lane through the strait. The mission’s ambiguous framework has sparked debate over its risks: if the operation only provides navigational information and advice to crews, it would do little to mitigate Iran’s explicit threats to attack transiting vessels. If the U.S. proceeds with full military escort for all trapped ships, however, that would almost certainly lead to direct open military confrontation between the two nations. Cooper has only stated that the operation includes a broader defensive package than would be required for simple escort duty.

    Mick Mulroy, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East and a veteran of both the U.S. Marine Corps and the CIA’s paramilitary division, told the BBC he believes Project Freedom will focus on providing air cover and defense against Iranian missile and drone attacks, rather than direct physical escort of commercial vessels through the strait. Even so, Mulroy cautioned that there is no guarantee the operation will succeed in restoring free commercial navigation. “The question is whether ships will trust their ability to get through without being attacked, and more importantly, the insurance company,” he explained. “If not, the effort will not have the impact we hoped.”

    On Monday afternoon, Centcom confirmed that U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers had already transited the Strait of Hormuz as part of Project Freedom, adding that American forces were actively working to restore commercial shipping transit but provided no further operational details. The command also announced that as an initial milestone, two U.S.-flagged commercial merchant vessels had successfully passed through the strait and were continuing on their voyages safely, though it declined to release the identity of the ships. Global shipping giant Maersk later confirmed that one of its own vessels had exited the Gulf with U.S. military accompaniment. Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has directly denied any vessels have been allowed to pass through the strait.

    Grant Rumley, a Middle East security expert who advised both the Biden and Trump White Houses between 2018 and 2021, noted that securing safe passage for all 2,000 trapped vessels would be an extraordinarily difficult challenge. He argued that achieving that goal would likely require a more aggressive, large-scale kinetic military operation, a outcome he views as increasingly probable. “I think that the general consensus is that a resumption of hostilities is a question of when,” he said. “Not if.”

    Within hours of the operation’s launch on Monday, the Iranian military claimed it had opened fire on American and Israeli enemy destroyers, saying U.S. forces had ignored multiple warnings. Centcom immediately denied Iranian claims that one of its warships had been hit by two Iranian missiles. According to Centcom’s account, Iran fired cruise missiles at both U.S. warships and U.S.-flagged commercial vessels, and deployed drones and small speed boats to attack commercial shipping. In a subsequent Truth Social post, Trump confirmed that Iran had fired on uninvolved commercial vessels, prompting the U.S. strikes on Iranian small boats.

    The United Arab Emirates, a key U.S. Gulf ally that has faced repeated Iranian attacks during the ongoing conflict, confirmed that a tanker owned by its state-owned national oil company Adnoc was targeted by two drones while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The UAE foreign ministry reported no crew injuries in the attack, and confirmed that at least three incoming missiles were successfully intercepted. Trump also added in his post that a suspected missile strike had hit a South Korean cargo vessel anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, in waters adjacent to the UAE.

  • Moment Indonesian river overflows from heavy rain

    Moment Indonesian river overflows from heavy rain

    On May 4, severe heavy rain triggered a destructive river overflow in Bogor, a regency located in Indonesia’s West Java province, leaving a popular outdoor glamping facility completely ruined by fast-moving floodwaters.

    Local reports confirm that the swelling river, pushed far beyond its banks by hours of intense downpour, unleashed a raging torrent that swept through the glamping site. The rushing water damaged infrastructure, destroyed luxury camping units, and forced any visitors or staff present to evacuate quickly. As of initial reports, no official casualties have been confirmed, but the facility has suffered extensive, irreversible damage that will take months to repair.

    Bogor, which sits in a low-lying region near Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, is no stranger to seasonal flooding. The country’s tropical monsoon climate regularly brings intense rainfall between November and May, increasing the risk of river overflows and flash floods across low-lying and rural areas. This latest flood event comes as climate scientists have warned that rising global temperatures are intensifying extreme weather events across Southeast Asia, leading to more frequent and severe bouts of heavy rainfall and flooding that threaten communities, tourism infrastructure, and local livelihoods.

    The glamping facility, which catered to nature-focused tourists looking for a luxury outdoor experience near Bogor’s popular forest and mountain attractions, was a popular weekend getaway for both domestic and international visitors. Local tourism officials have noted that the destruction of the site will have a short-term negative impact on the area’s small tourism-dependent businesses, which have only recently recovered from pandemic-related travel restrictions.

  • Armenia hosts a historic EU summit as it charts a course away from Russia

    Armenia hosts a historic EU summit as it charts a course away from Russia

    On Tuesday, the Armenian capital of Yerevan played host to an unprecedented event: the first-ever bilateral summit between the South Caucasus nation and the European Union. This milestone comes on the heels of the eighth gathering of the European Political Community (EPC), which brought dozens of senior European leaders to Yerevan just one day earlier, where discussions centered on pressing European security challenges and escalating tensions linked to the Israel-Iran conflict.

    The back-to-back high-profile meetings put a public spotlight on Armenia’s deliberate diplomatic reorientation toward the West, a shift that has accelerated after bitter tensions with its long-standing strategic partner Russia. Relations between Moscow and Yerevan collapsed into open friction in 2023, when neighboring Azerbaijan reclaimed full control over the disputed Karabakh region, ending 30 years of separatist rule by ethnic Armenian forces.

    In the wake of Azerbaijan’s military operation, Armenian leaders publicly accused Russian peacekeepers—stationed in Karabakh for decades to enforce a ceasefire—of failing to intervene to stop the advance. With Moscow already bogged down in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian officials rejected the accusations, arguing their peacekeeping contingent never received a mandate to engage in active combat. For regional analysts, the Karabakh conflict laid bare Russia’s waning reliability as a security guarantor for Armenia.

    “This conflict was a belated demonstration that Russia is dangerously unreliable as a partner,” explained Richard Giragosian, director of the Yerevan-based Regional Studies Center, in an interview with the Associated Press.

    Since the 2023 Karabakh offensive, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government has moved aggressively to deepen institutional and economic ties with the EU, a strategic shift that Brussels has enthusiastically embraced. Speaking at Monday’s EPC gathering, European Council President Antonio Costa praised Pashinyan for “the courageous political decisions he has taken to bring Armenia closer to the European Union,” adding that “the direction of travel is unmistakable.” Costa stressed that strengthening Armenian democracy and countering external interference and disinformation remained a top priority for the bloc.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also highlighted Armenia’s growing strategic importance to European trade and connectivity, noting that Yerevan plays a key role in European supply chains “specifically on the connectivity to the South Caucasus and Central Asia.”

    Over the past 18 months, Armenia has taken a series of concrete steps to align with Western institutions, moving far beyond rhetorical commitments. In 2023, Yerevan joined the International Criminal Court (ICC), a decision that drew sharp condemnation from Moscow, which labeled the move an “unfriendly step.” The ICC has an active arrest warrant outstanding for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of personal responsibility for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children during the ongoing war. In 2024, Armenia froze its participation in the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Moscow-led military bloc designed for collective defense in the post-Soviet space. Earlier this year, the Armenian parliament passed a formal resolution enshrining the country’s official ambition to acquire full EU membership.

    Unlike the post-Soviet space, where the United States has often led Western engagement, Giragosian noted that it is the EU, not Washington, that has moved to fill the geopolitical vacuum left by Russia’s declining influence in Yerevan. “EU engagement is much more prudent and much more productive than the U.S. becoming involved, simply because European engagement is less provocative to Russia over the longer term,” he explained.

    Even as it pursues closer ties with Brussels, Armenia has been careful to avoid a complete break with Moscow, for the moment retaining its membership in the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a single market bloc that also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Putin has publicly warned Yerevan that it cannot maintain membership in both blocs long-term, pointing out that Armenia currently receives heavily subsidized Russian natural gas priced far below European market rates. Pashinyan has acknowledged the eventual incompatibility of dual membership but has argued that Yerevan can continue to combine EEU membership with deepening cooperation with the EU for the foreseeable future.

    While Tuesday’s summit is not expected to immediately grant Armenia official EU candidate status, Giragosian framed the gathering as a deliberate step to deepen the already established EU-Armenia partnership, which has been governed by the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement that came fully into force in 2021. He added that the event’s greatest significance is symbolic: it sends a clear message to Moscow of Yerevan’s new geopolitical direction.

    Despite the symbolic weight of the summit, concrete deliverables are still expected, including new EU financing for domestic Armenian reforms and additional military assistance through the European Peace Facility, the bloc’s primary fund for supporting Ukraine’s defense. The EU has already operated a long-standing monitoring mission along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan, and a new mission targeting hybrid threats was recently approved by Brussels.

    For Pashinyan, who has held office since 2018 and faces critical parliamentary elections in June, the high-profile international gathering also delivers clear domestic political benefits, boosting his profile as a reliable leader for pro-Western voters. Giragosian noted that Pashinyan’s government is widely expected to retain power, as the fragmented Armenian opposition has failed to put forward a credible alternative policy platform.

    Giragosian also pushed back against common framing of Armenia’s foreign policy as a simple “pivot” from Russia to the West, arguing that Yerevan is pursuing a far more nuanced strategy. “Armenia is also pivoting beyond the black and white zero-sum game paradigm,” he said, pointing to Yerevan’s expanding diplomatic and economic ties to major Asian powers including Japan, South Korea and China. “This is not about replacing Russia with the West. This is much more innovative, much more sophisticated.”

    The summit takes place against a backdrop of heightened tensions between Brussels and Baku, as Azerbaijan has pushed back against recent European criticism of its treatment of ethnic Armenians. Last week, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry summoned the EU ambassador to Baku to protest a recent European Parliament resolution that demanded the release of all Armenian prisoners of war and criticized human rights conditions for remaining ethnic Armenians in Karabakh. In response, Azerbaijani lawmakers voted to suspend all formal cooperation with the European Parliament.

    Addressing the EPC via video link, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused European parliamentary bodies of “double standards” after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) imposed sanctions on Azerbaijan’s official delegation to the body.

    In Yerevan, small-scale protests unfolded outside the EPC summit venue, which was surrounded by heavy security. Demonstrators carried photographs of Armenian prisoners still being held in Azerbaijan, criticizing European leaders for prioritizing diplomatic relations over pressing for the detainees’ release. Aram Sargsyan, leader of Armenia’s Democratic Party and a prominent opposition figure, told local media that European officials were using the summit to signal support for Pashinyan ahead of the June election while “forgetting about the Armenians in prison in Azerbaijan.”

  • Deadly China plane crash was caused by fuel cut-off, says report

    Deadly China plane crash was caused by fuel cut-off, says report

    Three and a half years after the deadliest Chinese aviation disaster in decades, newly released U.S. investigation data has shed fresh light on the 2022 crash of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735, which claimed all 132 lives on board when the Boeing 737 plummeted into a hillside in southern China.

    According to data obtained by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) via a Freedom of Information Act request, fuel flow to both of the jet’s engines was intentionally cut while the aircraft was cruising at 29,000 feet, a finding that lends credibility to unconfirmed theories that the crash was deliberate. The data, pulled from one of the plane’s recovered black boxes that was sent to the NTSB’s Washington D.C. lab for analysis, confirms that both engine fuel control switches were manually moved to the “cut-off” position, after which the engines’ rotational speeds dropped sharply.

    Fuel switches are purpose-built cockpit controls designed to regulate the flow of jet fuel into the engines, used almost exclusively by flight crew to start engines during pre-flight preparation or shut them down after landing. No mechanical malfunction is known to automatically shift both fully functional fuel switches into the cut-off position during cruise flight.

    The timeline of the disaster, recorded by independent flight tracking service FlightRadar24, aligns with the new data: on March 21, 2022, the flight departed Kunming, Yunnan’s provincial capital, on a routine scheduled domestic trip to Guangzhou, southern China’s major trade hub. After more than an hour of uneventful flight, the aircraft suddenly entered an uncontrolled, rapid descent. In just two minutes and 15 seconds, it dropped from a cruising altitude of 29,100 feet to under 10,000 feet, with its final recorded altitude logged at 3,225 feet at 14:22 local time. Air traffic controllers made repeated attempts to contact the flight crew during the descent but received no response.

    China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA), which is leading the official investigation into the crash, has yet to publish a final public report, justifying the delay on grounds of national security concerns. Shortly after the crash, CAA officials confirmed that the flight crew held valid operating licenses, had passed required pre-flight health checks, and were properly rested, ruling out basic fatigue or certification issues. When media speculation emerged that the crash was an act of pilot suicide, the CAA issued an official denial, stating that such baseless rumors misled the public and disrupted the ongoing investigation.

    As the aircraft was manufactured by American aerospace firm Boeing, the NTSB was granted authority to assign a senior investigator to assist the Chinese-led probe, a standard arrangement for international aviation accident investigations. Prior to the release of the NTSB data, the disaster’s cause had remained a subject of global speculation, with possible causes ranging from structural failure and mid-air collision to pilot error and deliberate action. The new NTSB findings are the first official verified data to publicly support the deliberate action theory, though Chinese authorities have not yet commented on the newly released information.

    China has seen dramatic improvements in commercial aviation safety over the past three decades, with fatal air crashes remaining extremely rare. The 2022 MU5735 crash was the deadliest air disaster to occur in Chinese airspace since 1992.

  • Trouble in paradise: Colombia tourist jewel plagued by violence

    Trouble in paradise: Colombia tourist jewel plagued by violence

    Nestled along Colombia’s Caribbean coast, where snow-capped Andean peaks drop abruptly into vivid turquoise waters, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and adjacent Tayrona National Park stand as the crown jewels of the country’s booming tourism sector. Drawing millions of travelers annually drawn to untouched jungle hiking trails, powdery white-sand shores, and the ancient Lost City— a pre-Columbian archaeological site older than Peru’s iconic Machu Picchu— the region has become a cornerstone of Colombia’s global rebranding as a top travel destination. But behind the postcard-perfect scenery lies a dangerous undercurrent: armed non-state groups control large swathes of the area, extorting local businesses, terrorizing Indigenous communities, and fueling environmental destruction that threatens both people and the region’s ecological heritage.

    The 2016 historic peace deal between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ended 52 years of civil conflict and opened the door to a tourism boom that has lifted local economies across the country. For the Sierra Nevada region, that deal left a power vacuum that was quickly filled by the Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada (ACSN), a faction of former paramilitaries founded by a commander later extradited to the U.S. Today, the group— whose members are commonly nicknamed “Conquistadores” by locals— controls key cocaine trafficking corridors running through the park, runs illegal gold mining operations, and generates massive revenue through systematic extortion.

    Local businesses from hotels to tour bus operators are forced to hand over a cut of their earnings to the ACSN, and Indigenous communities that have lived on the land for millennia are not spared. Indigenous artisans sell handwoven hammocks and textiles to thousands of passing tourists, but a share of every sale goes to the armed group. For the Kogui people, who consider the Sierra Nevada “the heart of the world,” the constant intimidation has created a climate of fear. “We are afraid and anxious about the future,” Atanasio Moscote, the Kogui governor, told AFP during an interview deep within the park.

    The conflict has already spilled over into the region’s most famous tourist attraction. In February, the Colombian government shut down Tayrona National Park— a UNESCO World Heritage Site home to Colombia’s best-preserved dry tropical forest and one of its most biodiverse coral reef systems— for more than two weeks after ACSN fighters issued threats against park rangers. Authorities say the group pressured the Indigenous Wayuu people, who reside within the park’s boundaries, to resist government crackdowns on illegal logging, another lucrative criminal activity damaging the region’s fragile ecosystems.

    Park rangers who patrol the protected area risk their lives daily to conserve the region’s unique natural heritage. “Our presence in every corner, in every area, is vital to conserve, maintain and monitor the resources we have,” explained 31-year-old ranger Yeiner Hernandez during a patrol accompanied by AFP reporters.

    Ten years after FARC completed its disarmament, the ACSN remains the dominant armed force in the Santa Marta region, but new violence has erupted in recent months. Colombia’s largest criminal drug cartel, the Gulf Clan, has moved in to seize control of trafficking routes and illegal operations, sparking deadly clashes between the two groups that have trapped Indigenous communities in the crossfire. Many of these communities maintain their traditional way of life, speaking their native languages and relying on subsistence farming rather than integration into Colombian mainstream society, leaving them particularly vulnerable to violence. “Indigenous people who don’t speak Spanish, and who live off their crops and their traditional knowledge, are being caught in the middle,” said Luis Salcedo, governor of the Arhuaco people, another Indigenous group based in the Sierra Nevada.

    The persistence of armed control and extortion in the region has become a major political flashpoint ahead of Colombia’s upcoming presidential election, with the first round of voting scheduled to begin May 31. Current left-wing President Gustavo Petro, the country’s first modern leftist head of state, made the “Total Peace” initiative his signature policy, aiming to negotiate disarmament for all of the country’s armed groups. Four years after the campaign launched, the ACSN still holds unchallenged power over the Sierra Nevada, and the initiative has failed to curb the group’s activities, according to researcher Norma Vera. Extortion has become a central campaign issue, with official Defense Ministry data showing more than 46,000 extortion complaints have been filed nationwide since 2022.

    For local tourism leaders, the ongoing violence and criminal activity pose a critical threat to Colombia’s still-nascent tourism sector, which has only recently recovered from decades of conflict-driven negative global attention. Omar Garcia, president of the hotel association for Santa Marta, the main gateway city to the Sierra Nevada parks, warned that persistent security risks will deter travelers from visiting. “Any news affecting the image (of a destination) and visitor safety makes tourists think twice,” he said.

  • UAE says missile and drone strikes launched from Iran

    UAE says missile and drone strikes launched from Iran

    Just one month after agreeing to a fragile ceasefire with the United States, Iran has dramatically escalated tensions across the Persian Gulf by launching a coordinated barrage of missiles and drones against the United Arab Emirates, marking the first major assault on a Gulf Cooperation Council state in the post-ceasefire era. The large-scale attack has triggered immediate warnings from Abu Dhabi that it reserves the right to launch retaliatory action, stoking fears of a wider regional conflict.

    In an official statement released following the assault, the UAE’s foreign ministry condemned the operation as a reckless and unacceptable escalation that directly undermines the sovereignty, security and territorial stability of the country. “These attacks represent a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable transgression, posing a direct threat to the state’s security, stability, and the safety of its territories,” the statement read, confirming that the Emirates would exercise its full legitimate right to respond to the unprovoked aggression.

    The assault unfolded shortly after the United States unveiled a new maritime security plan to escort commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the critical chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s global oil supplies pass daily. Iranian state-run Fars News Agency initially claimed that Iranian military forces had struck a U.S. warship with two anti-ship missiles while the vessel was traversing the strategic waterway. That claim was swiftly rejected by then-U.S. President Donald Trump, who clarified Monday that only a South Korean-flagged vessel had been damaged in the incident. Trump added that U.S. forces had destroyed seven Iranian fast-attack craft operating in the area, a statement that Tehran quickly denied. U.S. Central Command also issued a formal rebuttal of Fars News’ report of a struck American warship.

    According to the UAE’s defense ministry, at least four cruise missiles were launched toward Emirati territory from Iranian soil. The country’s integrated air defense systems intercepted and destroyed three of the incoming projectiles, while the fourth missile impacted harmlessly in the open waters of the Gulf. A separate drone attack, however, ignited a blaze at an energy facility located in Fujairah, the UAE’s critical Indian Ocean port that serves as a key export hub for Emirati oil that avoids passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

    Local civil defense teams were deployed to the site within minutes of the attack. “Fujairah Civil Defence teams immediately responded to the incident and are continuing their efforts to control it,” the Fujairah media office confirmed in an update. Three Indian nationals working at the facility sustained moderate injuries in the strike, the Emirati federal government confirmed.

    The spillover from the attack extended to neighboring Oman, where local authorities reported two people were injured after a strike targeted a residential building in Bukha. The town of Bukha, which lends its name to the surrounding Omani province, sits in an Omani exclave along the Gulf coast, just northwest of the Emirate of Fujairah, putting it in the direct path of projectiles launched toward the UAE.

    Monday’s coordinated strikes have upended the tentative de-escalation that followed last month’s U.S.-Iran ceasefire, with regional powers already moving to reinforce military positions and issue diplomatic condemnations. The incident also underscores the persistent volatility of the Gulf region, even amid diplomatic efforts to reduce the risk of open conflict between Iran and Western-aligned Gulf states.

  • Criminal complaint filed against Norwegian politicians over complicity in Gaza genocide

    Criminal complaint filed against Norwegian politicians over complicity in Gaza genocide

    A landmark legal development has put four of Norway’s most senior current and former political leaders under formal criminal investigation over allegations they aided and abetted genocide in Gaza through their oversight of the country’s $2.2 trillion sovereign wealth fund. The complaint, filed by Norwegian activist groups, alleges the officials violated domestic Norwegian laws that integrate provisions of the Rome Statute banning genocide by allowing the Government Pension Fund of Norway (GPFG)—the world’s largest single sovereign investor—to maintain holdings in firms linked to Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

    Named in the primary complaint brought by Grandmothers Against Genocide (Grag) are sitting Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, current Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, former Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, and former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who also previously served as Norway’s finance minister. A complementary complaint submitted by the Palestine Committee of Norway adds two more senior figures: GPFG Chief Executive Nicolai Tangen and Ida Wolden Bache, governor of Norway’s central bank, which manages the fund.

    In a reversal of an earlier dismissal, documents obtained exclusively by Middle East Eye confirm that Norway’s Prosecuting Authority has formally ordered the country’s national criminal investigation unit, Kripos, to open a full probe into the allegations. Prosecutors have also instructed Kripos to formally notify all respondents named in the complaint of the pending investigation.

    The case centers on the GPFG’s controversial investment strategy related to firms operating in or linked to Israel. In 2025, the fund divested from 23 Israeli companies over documented violations of its internal ethical investment guidelines, a decision that drew fierce public backlash from the United States, with State Department officials stating they were “very troubled” by the move. Despite that divestment, the fund retained stakes in 29 other Israeli firms, and continues to hold shares in major multinational arms manufacturers including Leonardo and ThyssenKrupp—both of which supply military equipment directly to the Israel Defense Forces, which has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the outbreak of hostilities in October 2023, according to Gazan health authorities.

    A parliamentary push for full, blanket divestment from all companies linked to Israeli war crimes was defeated in the Norwegian Storting (parliament) in June of last year, after the governing Labour Party joined conservative opposition parties to reject the proposal. Months earlier, United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese had written directly to Stoltenberg warning that the fund’s ongoing holdings put Norway at risk of violating binding international law.

    Activists behind the complaint say the investigation is long overdue and would set a critical precedent for holding elected officials accountable for mass atrocities abroad. Kirsti Maehle, co-founder of Grag, argued that prosecuting responsible officials would establish a clear guiding principle for Norwegian representatives who have thus far ignored the suffering of Palestinian civilians. “They sit in our parliament, the Storting, and vote in favour of the investments. That amounts to voting to contribute to crimes against humanity, which is absolutely outrageous,” Maehle stated.

    Legal analysis backing the complaint, prepared in a personal capacity by Terje Einarsen, a law professor at the University of Bergen, notes that explicit intent to enable atrocities is not required to establish legal liability under Norwegian law. Einarsen told Middle East Eye that senior Norwegian government leaders have almost certainly been aware of the core crimes committed in Gaza and the role that fund-invested companies play in enabling those abuses. “They may thus be legally responsible for aiding and abetting one or more crimes,” Einarsen explained.

    Complaints have also been bolstered by a 118-page independent academic report from the group Historians for Palestine, published in June 2024, which documents the GPFG’s holdings in firms linked to human rights violations and war crimes. The report was submitted alongside the criminal complaint as key evidence. Co-author Pal Nygaard, a professor of economic history at the Norwegian Business School, emphasized that continuing these investments directly reinforces impunity for Israel. “It is important that the fund follows its own ethical guidelines and acts as a truly responsible investor, and that means divesting from all companies that contribute to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, their apartheid system, and their genocide,” Nygaard said. He added, “The continued investments in companies that actively contribute to Israel’s violation of international law equals accepting these mass atrocities. In the end, it is the politicians who designed this system for responsible investments, and they are then also ultimately responsible for ensuring that the fund and its Council on Ethics manage the fund’s investments accordingly.”

    Earlier this week, Grag submitted updated evidence regarding the fund’s investments to Norway’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. Middle East Eye has reached out to the Norwegian Prime Minister’s Office, GPFG, Kripos, and the Norwegian Prosecuting Authority for comment on the investigation, and had not received a response as of publication.

  • US strikes Iranian fast boats as Iran attacks UAE oil facility

    US strikes Iranian fast boats as Iran attacks UAE oil facility

    Tensions in the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz reignited dramatically on Monday, as conflicting claims of military strikes, ship attacks and port damage plunged the already volatile Persian Gulf region into a fresh crisis, just weeks after a fragile US-Iran ceasefire took hold.

    The waterway, which carries roughly 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, has remained effectively closed to commercial traffic since February, when joint US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran prompted Tehran to block all transit. A ceasefire agreed in early April paused Iranian drone and missile attacks on Gulf states including the United Arab Emirates, but the waterway stayed largely blocked amid a separate US blockade on Iranian ports, leaving an estimated 2,000 vessels and 20,000 seafarers stranded in the Gulf.

    On Sunday, US President Donald Trump launched what he dubbed ‘Project Freedom’, an initiative to escort stranded neutral ships out of the blocked strait. He announced on Monday that US military forces had destroyed seven Iranian fast-attack boats in the waterway, using helicopter strikes to clear a path for transiting vessels. ‘It’s all they have left,’ the president stated of the small craft. The US military later confirmed that Navy destroyers had already escorted US-flagged commercial ships through the channel earlier that day.

    Iran has issued outright denials of all US claims, rejecting that any of its fast boats were targeted or sunk. Iranian officials also dismissed Washington’s assertion that it had escorted ships through the strait as ‘entirely false’, and countered that its own military had fired warning shots at a passing US warship – a claim the US military immediately denied. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the US initiative, arguing that ‘events in the strait make clear that there’s no military solution to a political crisis,’ adding that ‘Project Freedom is Project Deadlock.’

    The first major breakthrough for the US operation came when global shipping giant Maersk confirmed that one of its US-flagged vessels, the Alliance Fairfax, which had been stranded in the Gulf since late February, had successfully exited the strait under US military escort. The company noted that the transit was completed without any harm to the 20+ crew on board, and all personnel remain safe. Maersk said the US government had reached out to offer the military escort, which the firm accepted.

    Even as the first US-escorted ship exited the waterway, multiple attacks on vessels and infrastructure were reported across the region, raising fears of a full resumption of open conflict. The UAE’s foreign ministry confirmed that a tanker owned by its state-run energy giant Adnoc was struck in the strait. South Korean officials also reported an explosion on one of its vessels anchored off the UAE coast.

    UAE air defense forces also intercepted a large barrage of incoming fire, shooting down 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles, and four drones. One unblocked projectile impacted near the Fujairah Oil Port – the UAE’s largest oil storage and shipping facility, located on the country’s east coast outside the Strait of Hormuz. The strike sparked a large blaze at the terminal and left three people injured. The UAE condemned the assault as a ‘dangerous escalation’ and said it reserved the right to take retaliatory action. An unnamed Iranian military official, quoted by Iranian state television, denied that Iran had any plans to target the UAE.

    The unrest sent global energy markets spiking on Monday: benchmark Brent crude prices jumped more than 5% in intraday trading to push past $115 per barrel, as traders reacted to fears of disrupted supplies. Fujairah has emerged as a critical alternative export route since the strait closed, with a pipeline from Abu Dhabi’s inland oil fields delivering crude to the port for loading onto tankers, allowing limited exports to continue despite the blockade.

    Additional unrest was reported elsewhere along the strait: Omani state media reported that two people were injured when a residential building in the coastal town of Bukha was targeted in an attack. Neighboring Qatar, a key regional Gulf state, issued a statement condemning the attack on the Adnoc tanker and calling for the ‘unconditional reopening’ of the Strait of Hormuz to resume global commercial shipping.

    The escalation comes amid growing international pressure to resolve the months-long blockade, which has created a growing humanitarian crisis for stranded seafarers. International shipping groups have raised urgent concerns about dwindling food and medical supplies on board stuck vessels, as well as deteriorating physical and mental health for thousands of crew members trapped at sea. Trump has framed Project Freedom as a humanitarian mission, saying the US was responding to requests from nations around the world to free ‘merely neutral and innocent bystander’ ships locked in the Gulf. He has threatened to use additional force if any actor interferes with the evacuation operation, but has not laid out a clear long-term plan to reopen the strait to full commercial traffic.