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  • Homes and bridges swept away as fresh floods hit Nepal

    Homes and bridges swept away as fresh floods hit Nepal

    Nepal’s Himalayan landscape, long a source of natural beauty but also recurring risk, has been hit by a new flash disaster: a sudden surge of the Budhi Gandaki River in central Gorkha district that has washed away entire residential complexes, destroyed critical infrastructure, and displaced hundreds, just two months after the Himalayan nation faced one of its worst flood events in recent history.

    According to Nepal’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, Sunday’s flood, which struck as local communities gathered to mark the first day of Dashain, the country’s most important cultural holiday, damaged over 200 homes, disrupted the lives of more than 650 people, swept away roughly a dozen residential structures and multiple suspension bridges, and inflicted significant damage to an under-construction hydropower project, carrying off key construction equipment.

    In a dramatic captured video of the event, raging brown floodwaters surge down a narrow valley, pulling the entire multi-building complex into the current within seconds. In just a few hours, water levels at one monitoring point rose from 2 meters to nearly 8.5 meters, before hydrological monitoring infrastructure on the river was itself swept away – cutting off official data flow from the site, according to Binod Parajuli, a government-employed meteorologist.

    As of the latest updates, official teams have rescued 95 people stranded along the riverbank, including nine foreign nationals. While no fatalities have been confirmed, five people remain unaccounted for, and multiple remote settlements have been completely cut off from road access, leaving air travel as the only way to reach affected areas. Nepal’s Army has mobilized four helicopters to support search and rescue operations for the missing and deliver emergency aid to isolated communities.

    For local residents, the sudden disaster has upended holiday plans and left widespread fear and uncertainty. Ganesh Karki, a resident of the Gorkha district’s Jagatbagar settlement, recalled waking to an early morning flood warning and fleeing with neighbors to higher ground in a nearby forest 500 meters uphill. “We never imagined a flood of this size,” Karki said. “The water surged for about 15 minutes and then stopped repeatedly throughout the morning. We are afraid to return home at night.” Hundreds of displaced families are now in urgent need of safe shelter and access to basic food, water and medical supplies, with no clear timeline for when they can return to their land.

    The root cause of the latest flash flood remains under investigation. The most widely discussed hypotheses point to either a temporary landslide blockage of the Budhi Gandaki or one of its upstream tributaries that eventually burst, or a small ice avalanche in the upper Himalayan reaches of the river basin, which some local residents have reported witnessing. Experts have noted that while this flood’s debris flow is smaller and slower-moving than the devastating August event that killed more than 1,400 people and left thousands missing along Nepal’s northern border with Tibet, it adds another layer of trauma for communities that have barely begun to recover from the earlier catastrophe.

    The August disaster was triggered by a rock and ice avalanche near Nepal’s 7,234-meter Lantang Lirung mountain peak, which sent a catastrophic flood surging down the river system connected to the Budhi Gandaki. Save the Children, which has deployed an emergency response team to the Gorkha district, warned that repeated disasters have pushed already vulnerable children into severe distress. “Children’s lives have been ripped apart in an instant yet again,” said Tara Chettry, the charity’s Nepal country director. “We are yet to see the full scale of the damage, but they may have lost their homes, schools and communities. Many children in Gorkha will still be in shock and distress after the mega floods in August, barely having a chance to get back on their feet.”

    Nepal’s position in the seismically active, glaciated Himalayas makes it inherently prone to natural disasters ranging from earthquakes to landslides and seasonal floods. But a growing body of research and expert analysis points to climate change as a key amplifying factor: rising global temperatures are accelerating glacial melt in the Himalayas, increasing the frequency of glacial lake outbursts, ice avalanches, and unexpected flash floods that catch communities off guard, leaving low-altitude settlements increasingly vulnerable to repeated, catastrophic events. In response to the latest disaster, Nepali authorities have maintained a nationwide high alert for further flood and landslide events as the country enters its post-monsoon season.

  • Documents falsified to evade tax on Abramovich’s wealth, BBC finds

    Documents falsified to evade tax on Abramovich’s wealth, BBC finds

    A years-long collaborative journalistic investigation has uncovered explosive new evidence detailing a scheme to falsify thousands of financial documents to help Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich hide more than $10 billion in wealth and evade millions in taxes, the BBC’s Panorama program has revealed. The probe, conducted as part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ Cyprus Confidential project, pulls from a massive leak of internal financial records spanning 1995 to 2022, linked to a network of Abramovich-connected offshore companies administered out of Cyprus.

    The investigation uncovers that global accounting giant Deloitte’s Cyprus division played a central role in the scheme, working closely with Limassol-based corporate services firm MeritServus — which Deloitte owned until 2005, and maintained close ties to after the split — to manage Abramovich’s sprawling global fortune. Three separate instances of backdated and falsified paperwork are laid out in the leaked files, all designed to evade new transparency rules and hide assets from tax authorities.

    The first scheme came in 2006, when Cyprus introduced a new law requiring public disclosure of company accounts. The regulation threatened to reveal $672 million in luxury assets held by Abramovich’s Cypriot firm Amiscan Investments, including a chateau in the south of France, a country estate in West Sussex, a London luxury flat, private jets, helicopters, and superyachts such as the $147.5 million Pelorus. To avoid disclosure, Abramovich’s associates and MeritServus planned to transfer the assets to a parent company in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), a jurisdiction with strict financial secrecy rules. Crucially, the team backdated the transfer paperwork by three years to make it appear the move had taken place in 2003, well before the transparency law went into effect. Deloitte Cyprus reviewed the falsified documents, approved them as “adequate,” and signed off on the 2003 Amiscan accounts that removed all trace of the $672 million in luxury assets, leaving the company listed with just $75,000 in holdings.

    A second scheme targeted tax obligations for another of Abramovich’s Cypriot firms, Kravin Investments, which held nearly $2 billion in cash earning significant interest income in 2003. Under Cypriot law, the company owed tax on that interest to local authorities. Internal emails show that in August 2005, MeritServus outlined a plan developed in a meeting with Deloitte that would require changing 2003 and 2004 financial statements to backdate a false ownership structure. The falsified records claimed Kravin merely held the funds on behalf of its BVI parent company, meaning Kravin was not the legal owner of the cash and owed no tax on the interest. Deloitte explicitly noted in a September 2005 email that “certain changes will have to be made to the accounts (bank account balances, interest income, profit and loss account)” to accommodate the backdated changes, confirming the firm’s direct involvement in altering financial records to cut the company’s tax bill.

    The third scheme involved a $10 billion fortune held by Abramovich’s Cypriot company Electus Investments. To hide this massive holding from public disclosure, MeritServus created an identically named company in the BVI, then backdated paperwork to falsely claim full beneficial ownership of the $10 billion had been transferred to the secret BVI firm in 2003. When the Cypriot Electus’ accounts were made public, it only listed $145,000 in assets, effectively making Abramovich’s billions disappear from public record.

    Legal and accounting experts have called the scheme one of the most blatant examples of tax evasion they have seen. Andrew Mitchell KC, a leading financial services law barrister, told the investigation the arrangement was “straightforward” tax evasion, adding “it couldn’t be more blatant.” He noted that if the scheme had been carried out in the UK, tax authorities would almost certainly pursue criminal prosecution. Lord Sikka, an accounting professor at the University of Sheffield, described the falsification of transaction dates and filing of misleading accounts as a “violation of a statutory duty” and “pretty scandalous.”

    For nearly 20 years, Abramovich was the most high-profile Russian oligarch in the United Kingdom, after purchasing Chelsea Football Club in 2003 and overseeing the club’s most successful trophy-winning run. But following Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UK sanctioned Abramovich over his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, forcing him to sell the club. He is currently believed to be residing in Turkey, which has not imposed sanctions on him, while £5.4 billion of his assets remain frozen in Jersey, where a four-year criminal investigation into his finances is ongoing. He has denied all wrongdoing in the Jersey probe, calling it politically motivated.

    In response to the new allegations, Abramovich’s legal team denies any claims of tax evasion or deliberate wealth concealment. They note he had no knowledge, authorization, or involvement in the falsification of any documents, and argue that relying on professional advice from licensed advisers was entirely legitimate, adding he was not involved in day-to-day operations of the offshore companies. Deloitte Cyprus stated it “acts in compliance with applicable laws” and declined to comment on the specific allegations, noting the documents in question are more than 20 years old and no longer in the firm’s possession. MeritServus has already ceased operations following the Cyprus Confidential leak.

    The findings have sparked broader questions about the role of Western professional services firms in enabling corrupt wealth management and tax evasion for politically connected oligarchs. Vladimir Milov, a former Russian deputy energy minister who now opposes the Kremlin, noted that for every wealthy corrupt oligarch from a non-Western country, there is an entire industry of Western financial, legal, and PR providers willing to accept large fees to whitewash reputations and conceal illicit wealth. Cypriot MP Christos Christofides said that if the allegations of tax evasion are proven, authorities must recover the unpaid taxes and hold all responsible parties accountable under Cypriot law.

  • Iconic Australian band Powderfinger announce first tour in 17 years

    Iconic Australian band Powderfinger announce first tour in 17 years

    Seventeen years after calling it quits, one of Australia’s most cherished rock acts, Powderfinger, has lifted the curtain on a full national comeback tour that has sent shockwaves of excitement through the country’s music scene.

    The Brisbane-bred outfit first confirmed their long-rumored reunion to fans last week, and on Monday they shared full details of the run, which is set to launch in September 2025. The tour will open with four consecutive sold-out-style opening nights in the band’s hometown, before moving on to 14 additional stops across major Australian cities including Cairns, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne. What sets this tour apart from conventional runs is that every show will be hosted inside a purpose-built, stadium-scale big-top tent, a unique setup that promises an intimate yet massive live experience for attendees.

    In an official statement announcing the schedule, the band members said they are “absolutely ecstatic” to step back onto a stage together after nearly two decades apart. “For years, fans and promoters have thrown countless ideas around for us to get back on tour, but it never quite lined up for every one of us, and it never felt like the right moment,” the statement read. “That’s changed now, and we couldn’t be more ready to do this.”

    The band also expressed their deep gratitude for the enduring support they’ve received in the years since their breakup, noting that their fanbase has grown far beyond the listeners who followed them during their active run. “We’ve always been so thankful that long-time fans have stuck with us all these years, but we’ve also gained so many new fans who have never gotten the chance to see us play live,” they said. “Time and time again, people tell us our music is tied up in their most precious, happy memories. We’re heading out on this road to spread a little more of that joy across the country, alongside some of Australia’s most beloved established acts and exciting emerging talent. We can’t wait to build brand new memories with every single person who comes out.”

    Mirroring the tour scheduling strategy that worked well for British rock band Oasis during their 2024 world comeback tour, all Powderfinger shows will be held exclusively on Friday and Saturday nights, allowing both the band and fans to accommodate work and personal schedules. As of the announcement, no international tour dates outside of Australia have been revealed, leaving international fans waiting for further updates.

    During their original run as an active band, Powderfinger dropped seven full-length studio albums, cementing their legacy as one of the most influential acts in Australian rock history. Their 2000 release *Odyssey Number Five* holds a particularly iconic spot in the country’s music canon: in 2011, listeners of ABC’s national youth music station Triple J voted it the greatest Australian album of all time. The album’s lead single, *My Happiness*, claimed the sixth spot on Triple J’s 2025 ranking of the 100 greatest Australian songs of all time. Other fan-favorite hits from the band’s catalog include *On My Mind*, *These Days* and *Sunsets*, all of which remain staples on Australian rock radio decades after their release.

    Since the band’s original split in 2008, members have pursued their own individual career paths within the music industry. Frontman Bernard Fanning has built a successful solo career, releasing multiple well-received solo albums and touring regularly across Australia. Bassist John Collins has stayed rooted in Brisbane’s live music scene, opening two of the city’s largest and most popular live music venues that continue to host both local and international acts today.

  • Trump faces growing backlash over plans to import diesel from Russia

    Trump faces growing backlash over plans to import diesel from Russia

    Global energy markets have been roiled by soaring fuel prices ever since the outbreak of hostilities between the US-Israel alliance and Iran in late February, a conflict that has severely disrupted crude oil supplies – the foundational input for gasoline and diesel – and put intense inflationary pressure on consumers worldwide. Against this volatile backdrop, US President Donald Trump has found himself at the center of a growing political firestorm over a last-minute deal to import large volumes of diesel from Russia, a move that contradicts his own administration’s recent sanctions policy and has drawn condemnation from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

  • American ranchers wrestle with soaring costs – and their loyalty to Trump

    American ranchers wrestle with soaring costs – and their loyalty to Trump

    Nebraska’s rolling green hills, dotted with grain silos, feedlots, and thousands of grazing cattle, are at the center of a growing political and economic crisis for the state’s iconic cattle ranching industry. A perfect storm of natural disaster, global conflict, trade policy, and tariffs has left producers across the state reeling from soaring costs and collapsing cattle prices, opening cracks in the solid Republican support that President Donald Trump has long enjoyed in this deeply red agricultural heartland.

    For Yvette Mannon, a 63-year-old rancher who bought her Nebraska property in 2002 after a career in banking, the cascade of crises began early this year. In April, a devastating wildfire ripped across 1,600 acres of her grazing land, destroying 13 miles of fencing. While her 300-head herd escaped unharmed, the aftermath brought immediate, crippling unexpected costs. Steel prices, inflated by years of Trump administration tariffs, hit record highs, pushing fencing replacement costs to more than $300,000. With grazing land destroyed, Mannon has been forced to deliver hay to her cattle daily, at a time when diesel prices have spiked more than 40% year-over-year amid the ongoing Iran War.

    Then, in August, the Trump administration dropped another bombshell: it would allow 300,000 metric tons of duty-free foreign beef imports to lower domestic consumer prices. The announcement came just weeks before the annual September-November window when most U.S. calves are weaned and sold, and the domestic cattle market collapsed instantly. For Mannon, a Trump voter, the policy felt like a direct contradiction of the president’s “Buy American” and “Make America Great Again” messaging. “It just felt like a betrayal,” she says.

    Mannon is far from alone. Ranchers and farmers across Nebraska say they are being squeezed from every direction. Long-term challenges including persistent drought and already historically low cattle herds have been exacerbated by federal policies that have sent operational costs soaring and disrupted volatile cattle markets. The ongoing Iran War has driven up prices for diesel and fertilizer, two non-negotiable daily inputs for agricultural operations. Trump-era tariffs have pushed up costs for steel, lumber, machinery repairs, and new equipment. And trade decisions from duty-free beef imports to opening the southern border to Mexican cattle have turned a predictable market downswing into a crisis for many producers, who are now losing hundreds of dollars for every head of cattle they sell.

    “All of this hit cattle markets, as a whole, negatively,” explains James Mitchell, an assistant professor and agricultural economist at the University of Arkansas. Mitchell notes that the cattle industry operates on 10 to 12-year cycles, with a recent multiyear period of strong profits driven by low supply and high demand. But right now, the market is firmly in a downswing, and policy decisions have amplified that downturn exponentially.

    Near Lexington, Nebraska, Jake Wolfinger and his wife built a successful 5,500-head cattle feedlot from a dilapidated property they bought in 2010, a testament to their hard work in a tough industry. But Wolfinger never planned for the overlapping crises of the Iran War, tariffs, and foreign beef imports. Where he once sold cattle for $240 per hundredweight, the price has now dropped to $225. That 15-dollar drop adds up to hundreds of dollars in losses per head, on top of sky-high diesel bills that see some of his equipment go through 400-gallon tanks every single day. A Trump voter who supported the president for his conservative direction on national issues, Wolfinger says he is frustrated by what he sees as unnecessary federal interference in the beef market. “People need to stay the hell out of farmers’ business, because it’s harvest time,” he says.

    Not all producers blame the Trump administration for their struggles. Near Callaway, 54-year-old Duane Kimball, who displays a large Trump banner on his machinery shed, acknowledges that daily cost increases are painful, and that many producers have been forced to go back to banks to increase their lines of credit to keep operations afloat. But he argues that burdensome regulations, rising machinery costs, and inflated input prices are long-term trends that predated the current administration. “To pin that on this administration, I don’t think is a fair assessment,” he says.

    For Jim Jenkins, a third-generation rancher whose family has worked their land for more than 150 years, the frustration boils over into open criticism. An outspoken Trump critic who never voted for the president, Jenkins says he initially hoped Trump would govern as a practical business-minded leader, but has been disappointed at every turn. He has personally felt the squeeze of higher costs for everything from barbed wire to fence posts, and says constant policy uncertainty is one of the most damaging parts of the current environment. “Those are the things that keep you up at night,” the 69-year-old says, after publishing an op-ed in an Omaha newspaper decrying policies that harm Nebraska agriculture.

    Even among loyal Trump supporters, there is acknowledgment that the president’s approach to policy can be impulsive. “We’ve all known this about Trump. He just kind of could be a little ‘shoot, fire, aim,’” Wolfinger says. “I wish you could, you know, put the gun back and holster it and then think about it.” Even so, most long-time Republican voters still stand by the president, drawn to his stances on social issues like abortion and his commitments to cutting government waste. “There’s a lot of other issues besides agriculture,” says retired farmer Don Batie, a former Trump supporter who now says he cannot back the president again. Batie, who had to abandon his decades-long dream of passing his 400-acre corn and soybean farm to his daughter after collapsing corn prices and persistent high costs made the operation unviable, says he has seen a quiet shift across the state: many lifelong Republicans are stepping away from Trump, even if they still vote for other GOP candidates.

    That shifting sentiment is already playing out in Nebraska’s upcoming Senate race, where independent candidate Dan Osborn is running surprisingly strong against Trump-backed Republican incumbent Pete Ricketts, a sign that discontent is bubbling up ahead of the midterms. State and national Republican leaders have not ignored the frustration. In recent weeks, both President Trump and Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen have announced new relief policies targeted at lowering fuel costs for struggling farmers and ranchers.

    Still, even amid the political and economic turmoil, Nebraska’s ranching industry continues its daily work. At weekly cattle auctions, buyers in cowboy hats and plaid still gather to buy and sell calves, and multi-generational ranches keep operating regardless of political battles. As Mannon puts it, reflecting the quiet resilience of agricultural communities across the country: “People in agriculture are eternal optimists. Otherwise we wouldn’t get in it.”

  • Mourners killed by Kenya police at ex-PM’s national farewell not part of violence, BBC finds

    Mourners killed by Kenya police at ex-PM’s national farewell not part of violence, BBC finds

    It has been 12 months since three Kenyan mourners were shot dead by police during a national state farewell for iconic former prime minister Raila Odinga, and a months-long investigation by BBC Africa Eye has upended the official narrative around the deadly incident.

    Odinga, Kenya’s longest-serving opposition leader and one of the nation’s most consequential political figures, died at the age of 80 in October 2024 while receiving medical treatment in India. His death sparked an unprecedented outpouring of national grief, with thousands of Kenyans gathering to welcome his repatriated body at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The funeral event was originally scheduled to host Odinga’s lying-in-state at Kenya’s parliament building, but an unexpected surge in crowd size and fears of a potential security breach forced organizers to relocate the memorial to Kasarani Stadium at the eleventh hour. Officials later acknowledged they had barely any time to secure the 48,000-capacity venue, leaving thousands of unvetted mourners to stream into the stands and onto the pitch without checks.

    On the day of the memorial, 16 October 2024, mourners waited for hours in 30-degree Celsius heat with no functioning public address system to share updates. Tensions eventually boiled over in a small section near the VIP pavilion, where a group of attendees began throwing objects at police guarding the restricted area. As the crowd pushed toward the VIP section, officers opened fire with live ammunition. While most of the crowd across the stadium remained peaceful, three attendees were killed. Officials initially claimed the deceased were involved in the clash that triggered the gunfire.

    But after reviewing more than 1,500 pieces of footage and photos from inside the stadium, and interviewing surviving family members of the victims, BBC Africa Eye has confirmed the three killed were nowhere near the confrontation. Forensic geolocation analysis places 40-year-old chef and father of seven Evans Kiche roughly 60 meters from the scuffle, where he suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head. The other two victims – 36-year-old father of three Vincent Ogutu and 42-year-old Jidah Burka – were in the opposite stands, at least 160 meters away from the unrest, on the opposite side of the stadium. Autopsy reports confirm Ogutu was killed by a gunshot to the chest, while Burka suffered a fatal wound to the head.

    Further analysis of footage tracked the shooters to a group of eight unmarked tactical officers, clad in military camouflage with covered faces and no visible unit insignia. Their uniforms, positioning and pre-shooting security protocols match the profile of the elite police unit assigned to protect Kenya’s sitting president and senior VIPs. At least three officers from this presidential protection unit fired their weapons during the incident, the BBC confirmed. While the outlet cannot definitively link specific bullets to each victim, it says the evidence strongly suggests the fatal shots came from this elite unit. The BBC also found no evidence that the objects thrown by the crowd included stones, contradicting official claims – video does confirm plastic chairs were thrown, however.

    For Yvonne Akinyi, Ogutu’s widow, the finding offers little comfort, but answers the lingering questions that have haunted her for a year. Ogutu never planned to attend the memorial: he was in central Nairobi with friends when the group decided to join the crowd heading to the stadium on a whim. Within hours, he was dead, leaving Akinyi a young widow with three orphaned children. “The people we look to protect us, these are the people that cause us this pain,” Akinyi told the BBC. “There were so many people at Kasarani, why him? It leaves a hole deep inside that never goes away, even when I try to be strong for my children.”

    Kenya’s Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen has defended police actions, telling the BBC officers showed “restrained” response to the unrest. He argued officers had worked nonstop for hours, were reassigned to the new venue at the last minute, and operated under extreme pressure, making split-second, on-the-ground judgment calls. “I don’t think anybody in command ordered officers to open fire; it was the judgment of the officer in the moment,” Murkomen said. He added that the independent police oversight body, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), is still conducting its own probe, and the government will take appropriate legal action once those findings are released.

    One year on, however, no officer has been held accountable for the three deaths, and IPOA did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment on the Africa Eye investigation. The Kenya National Police Service acknowledged in a statement to the BBC that the incident has been a major learning experience for the force, adding that the lessons from the shooting will drive more professional, responsible use of force in future public events.

    The families of the three victims continue to wait for accountability, as the investigation exposes deep gaps in Kenyan police accountability and crowd control protocols for high-profile national events.

  • Dozens of gold prospectors killed in strikes on Egypt-Sudan border, rights group says

    Dozens of gold prospectors killed in strikes on Egypt-Sudan border, rights group says

    A deadly air strike targeting civilian gold prospectors in a remote border area of Sudan has left at least 72 people dead, according to a regional human rights organization.

    Khartoum-based rights group Emergency Lawyers confirmed that military jets struck informal artisanal miners at a busy gold mining location in Sudan’s Red Sea State on Saturday. As of Monday morning, neither Egypt’s government nor Sudan’s de facto ruling administration has issued a public response to the allegations of the attack.

    This incident is not the first time Cairo has been accused of launching lethal strikes against gold prospectors along Egypt’s southern border with Sudan, as part of a broader campaign to curb cross-border illegal activity. Emergency Lawyers emphasized in a Sunday statement that these repeated alleged incursions violate Sudan’s territorial sovereignty, while also exposing the inability of Sudan’s current leadership to exert control over its border regions.

    “The intentional targeting of unarmed, civilian prospectors directly contravenes international humanitarian law and the fundamental human right to life,” the group stated. “These actions may meet the legal definition of war crimes.” The organization added that the current death toll is considered provisional, and the final number of fatalities could climb as search and recovery efforts continue.

    The Paris-based independent publication Sudan Tribune, which has long covered Sudanese affairs, reported that the actual death toll could be far higher than the figure shared by Emergency Lawyers. The outlet spoke with a survivor of Saturday’s attack, who confirmed that dozens more people were wounded in the strikes.

    Eyewitness accounts shared with the newspaper detail that the assault began around 6:00 a.m. local time (4:00 a.m. GMT). The attacking aircraft launched more than five missiles directly at the makeshift miner encampments in the Shamal al-Wadi area, reducing the camps and active excavation pits to rubble while workers were still inside the pits.

    This latest incident follows similar allegations reported in June, when Sudanese sources claimed Egyptian forces deployed drones and artillery to target artisanal mining sites in this same border region, killing multiple prospectors. Prior to that June incident, Egyptian border guards had been involved in repeated lower-level confrontations, including burning miners’ excavation equipment, destroying temporary makeshift shelters, and firing live rounds to disperse workers from the border zone.

    Shortly after the June allegations surfaced, Egypt’s border authority confirmed that it had launched a large-scale joint security operation with the Egyptian military along the shared border with Sudan. The stated goal of the operation was to disrupt three key cross-border criminal activities: illegal migration, drug trafficking, and unauthorized gold mining.

    For its part, Sudan’s de facto leadership launched an official investigation into the alleged June strikes, which were reported to have killed dozens of civilian prospectors at that time.

    Gold mining has become a flashpoint for rising cross-border tensions between the two nations in recent years, particularly amid Sudan’s ongoing civil conflict that broke out in 2023. The widespread instability caused by the civil war has led to a massive surge in unregulated artisanal gold mining across the country. This informal mining practice relies on basic hand tools, is done without official government permits, and disproportionately takes place in remote, ungoverned border regions.

    Many of the most gold-rich deposits in the area are located along the unpatrolled, porous border between Sudan and Egypt, in terrain that has long been used for cross-border smuggling routes. Unregulated gold extracted by artisanal miners is often trafficked across these borders through existing smuggling networks. In June alone, Egypt’s border forces announced they had seized 86 tonnes of illegally mined gold ore along with hundreds of pieces of unauthorized prospecting equipment.

    Unregulated artisanal mining has continued to operate uninterrupted in Sudan’s active conflict zones, and there are widespread reports that smuggled Sudanese gold generates critical revenue for armed opposition groups operating in the border regions. This has created growing concern in Cairo that large volumes of illicit Sudanese gold are entering the Egyptian market, undercutting legal, regulated domestic gold trade.

    A correction was issued by the original reporting outlet on October 12, clarifying that the strike location was misidentified as River Nile state in early reports, and has been corrected to Red Sea state.

  • Orangutans released back into Borneo forest after devastating fires

    Orangutans released back into Borneo forest after devastating fires

    On the Indonesian island of Borneo, eight critically endangered orangutans that survived a devastating season of intensified wildfires have successfully been reintroduced to a protected natural reserve, marking a small victory for conservation efforts amid growing threats to the great apes’ survival. The group of released primates includes three adult females, three infant offspring, and two adult males, all of which were rescued over the course of late summer 2024 when out-of-control blazes destroyed large swathes of their native forest habitat.

    The release, which coincided with ongoing conservation work led by International Animal Rescue Indonesia (IAR Indonesia, locally referred to as Yiari) in partnership with Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry, took place on Friday in a protected reserve in Borneo’s western region. This release follows a broader rescue operation that pulled 46 orangutans out of fire-stricken areas across Borneo between August and September, when this year’s dry season blazes reached their peak.

    While seasonal wildfires are a recurring natural event in Indonesia’s annual climate cycle, 2024’s fires were far more severe and widespread than average. Climate scientists have linked this intensification to the current strong El Niño event, a Pacific ocean warming pattern that alters global weather systems and amplifies drought and heat conditions across Southeast Asia. This year’s El Niño ranks as the most intense ever recorded, and experts warn its disruptive climate impacts will persist into 2025.

    Beyond El Niño-driven weather extremes, human land use practices have further exacerbated fire risk across Borneo. Large-scale land clearing for commercial agricultural plantations, including oil palm, rubber, and acacia operations, has replaced dense, naturally fire-resistant old-growth rainforest with open, flammable vegetation that allows blazes to spread far more quickly than they would in intact ecosystems. This habitat fragmentation has also left orangutan populations isolated in small pockets of forest, with no safe escape routes when fires break out.

    Orangutans, a species classified as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), have seen their population plummet over the past century. Data from global conservation group WWF shows that just 104,000 orangutans remain across Borneo and Sumatra, down from more than 230,000 individuals 100 years ago. Last month, the IUCN issued an urgent warning that wildfires this year have already burned through habitats that support 52% of Borneo’s remaining wild orangutan population. If current rates of climate change continue, the organization warns, a large share of the apes’ remaining range will become uninhabitable within decades.

    Each of the eight orangutans released Friday had unique stories of displacement after losing their forest homes. Among them was the family group led by Mama Nopi, whose offspring Nopi, Naufal, and Nopan were forced to take shelter in a commercial coconut and rubber plantation after fires burned through their surrounding forest in early September. With their natural food sources destroyed, the group was forced closer to human settlements, putting them at risk of conflict and starvation.

    Another rescued orangutan, Mama Lifa, and her infant were found trapped in a tiny stand of acacia trees completely surrounded by oil palm plantations. Habitat degradation from nearby fires and a total lack of accessible natural food led conservation teams to extract the pair in mid-September. The third mother-infant pair, Mama Man and her baby, had been monitored by rescuers since June as they lived in a plantation bordering a small fragment of remaining forest. When fires spread toward the area in early September, the group’s roaming range was cut off entirely, forcing an emergency evacuation before the blazes reached their location.

    The protected reserve selected for the orangutans’ reintroduction was specifically vetted to meet the species’ long-term survival needs. Unlike the fragmented, fire-prone landscapes the apes were rescued from, the reserve has abundant natural food and water sources, and is connected to larger contiguous blocks of intact forest, allowing the orangutans to range naturally and integrate with existing wild populations.

    Argitoe Ranting, a senior conservation specialist with IAR Indonesia, emphasized that the goal of the release goes beyond simply moving displaced animals out of harm’s way. “We want to ensure that rescued orangutans are not simply moved from one place to another, but actually have a chance to survive in their natural habitat,” Ranting explained. Karmele Llano Sanchez, CEO of IAR Indonesia, called the relocation of the eight orangutans a “necessary step” after their original habitats became too dangerous to support the primates.

    Conservation officials note that while this release is a positive milestone for protecting individual orangutans, it is only a temporary solution to a growing systemic threat. Without urgent action to curb climate change, end destructive land clearing, and protect remaining intact rainforest habitat across Borneo, the species faces growing risk of extinction in the wild.

  • Poland detains man suspected of planning assassination of PM Tusk

    Poland detains man suspected of planning assassination of PM Tusk

    Polish security forces have successfully disrupted a targeted assassination plot against the country’s top political leaders, resulting in the immediate detention of a suspected Polish national, officials confirmed this week.

    Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz were the intended targets of the planned attack, according to statements from Poland’s interior ministry. The plot was uncovered after the State Protection Service, the government agency tasked with protecting senior public officials, received a tip via email detailing the impending threat and promptly forwarded the intelligence to national police forces.

    After verifying the credibility of the threat information, Polish security agencies called an emergency special meeting on Sunday to coordinate a response. Official spokespersons emphasized that authorities treated the planned attack as an extremely high-stakes, lethal risk, confirming there was a strong probability the plot would have been carried out without rapid intervention.

    The suspect, a Polish citizen, was taken into custody without incident in the country’s Lower Silesia region, according to Jacek Dobrzynski, a spokesperson for the Special Services Co-ordinator. In comments following the arrest, Tusk publicly commended law enforcement and security personnel for their rapid and effective work to neutralize the threat.

    “I want to thank the police for their swift and decisive action,” Tusk said in a public statement.

    This incident comes as Tusk returns to the office of Polish prime minister for a second tenure, having taken office in 2023. Tusk previously served as prime minister from 2007 to 2014, and held the position of President of the European Council between 2014 and 2019, making him one of Europe’s most high-profile and seasoned political leaders.

  • Australia veterans shine against South Africa

    Australia veterans shine against South Africa

    DURBAN, South Africa – Day three of the opening Test between Australia and South Africa delivered a masterclass in high-pressure international cricket, as Australia’s iconic bowling attack turned a evenly poised match on its head, putting the visitors firmly in control ahead of the final two days.

    Coming into this match, Australia’s modern Test side has long divided cricket observers. Critics in England insisted Australia was vulnerable during last winter’s Ashes series, despite the Aussies securing a dominant 4-1 win, while many pundits back home argue the core of the team is past its peak. Even after shock upset losses to the West Indies and Bangladesh in recent years, Australia has gone unbeaten across its last nine Test series, a testament to its enduring competitive quality.

    After rookie batter Matt Renshaw rescued Australia’s inconsistent batting line-up across the opening two days with a patient 190, it was the turn of Australia’s legendary bowling quartet – Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon – to deliver one of their signature performances, nine years after they first joined forces as a unit. The group’s relentless pressure dismantled South Africa’s batting order, dismissing the hosts for 284 in their first innings, with veteran batter Steve Smith producing two moments of individual magic in the field to cap the performance.

    Cummins finished with three wickets, while Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon chipped in with two each, silencing any lingering doubts about the group’s ability to perform against top-tier competition ahead of a tough upcoming schedule against World Test champions New Zealand, India and England.

    At the 20-over mark, South Africa sat comfortably at 82-1, with their opening partnership putting Australia’s first innings total of 390 under pressure on a good batting surface. Australia’s bowlers had been searching for early swing, and South Africa’s second-wicket pair of Aiden Markram and David Bedingham had built a steady partnership at almost 4.5 runs per over. That is when captain Cummins adjusted Australia’s strategy, reverting to the team’s proven game plan: Lyon at one end, with the quicks rotating pace at the other.

    Where 34% of deliveries from Australia’s pace attack had been full in the opening 20 overs, Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins pulled their length back after that. Between the 20th and 60th overs, only 19 full deliveries were pitched, forcing South Africa’s batters into uncomfortable shots. With easy scoring opportunities drying up, Markram and Bedingham both attempted forced back-foot drives and edged catches to the slip cordon for 37 and 49 respectively.

    Wiaan Mulder was confused by the changed line and length and popped a catch up to short leg off Cummins, while Tristan Stubbs top-edged a pull from the Australia captain to fine leg. Six overs after Stubbs’ dismissal, Marco Jansen – who had hit six fours in a quick 26 – tried to pull a shorter delivery from Hazlewood and was caught tamely at mid-off.

    Beyond the tactical adjustment from the pace bowlers, 39-year-old off-spinner Nathan Lyon delivered a masterclass of his own, bowling 19 overs at less than three runs per over. With a worn pitch offering more turn than South Africa’s spinners had enjoyed earlier in the match, Lyon posed constant threat to the hosts’ batters – and he had the benefit of Steve Smith’s exceptional fielding at slip.

    Both of Smith’s catches off Lyon – dismissing Temba Bavuma and then Kyle Verreynne – were examples of elite anticipation. Smith read both batters’ intent to play the reverse sweep, positioned himself early, and held on to close-range catches. The first was an excellent grab, but the one-handed second catch was spectacular. Lyon later praised Smith’s premeditation, saying: “He’s an absolute freak. He practices that in training. He is an incredible thinker of the game but the way he moves, premeditates, for those types of catches. There are not many people in the dressing room that would be able to pull off those two catches.”

    In between those two catches, Smith’s leaping grab at second slip off Cummins that dismissed Bedingham moved him past Joe Root to claim the record for the most Test catches by a non-wicketkeeper, with his total now standing at 223 – three clear of Root. While Smith’s catch percentage sits around 77%, below the Test average, his ability to create chances that no other fielder would even reach is unmatched.

    As a quartet, Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins and Lyon have now combined for 607 wickets in the Tests they have played together. The next most successful four-pronged bowling attack, England’s combination of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, has only managed 415 wickets across 31 Tests together.

    Former Australia bowler Jason Gillespie, commentating for ABC Radio, praised the group’s enduring quality: “Each of these players will go down as a legend of Australian cricket. Starc got hit for a few early but I didn’t mind that. Hazlewood was very good, as he always is. Cummins was hostile. He looked fresh.”

    While much has been made of Australia’s ageing core and perceived lack of succession planning, the numbers back up the group’s continued form. At 37, Starc is the oldest of the three quicks, but his average pace of 141.21km/h in 2026 is higher than any of his past three seasons, and he is generating more swing this calendar year than he has since 2015. The only real concern for Australia is keeping the group fit: Hazlewood missed all five of last winter’s Ashes Tests, and Cummins missed four. When they are all on the field together, though, they remain as dangerous as any attack in world cricket.

    At stumps on day three, Australia had reached 33-0 in their second innings, extending their overall lead to 139 runs. Even though bad light again cut play short, Australia remains well positioned to press home their advantage and secure a win across the final two days of the Test.