Global Pulse

博客

  • ‘Everybody is terrorised’: El-Fasher population drops to just seven percent of last year’s high, Amnesty says

    ‘Everybody is terrorised’: El-Fasher population drops to just seven percent of last year’s high, Amnesty says

    In a damning new investigative report released Friday, Amnesty International has revealed that El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, has lost over 90% of its pre-raid population, just one full year after the Emirati-backed breakaway Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the southwestern Darfur city. Once a critical safe haven hosting more than 1 million displaced civilians, per 2025 estimates from Sudan’s federal government and on-the-ground humanitarian groups, the city now holds barely 70,000 remaining residents.

    Documented over two months of rigorous field research, human rights investigators collected firsthand, anonymized testimony from 25 civilian witnesses: 19 current and former El Fasher residents, plus 6 frontline humanitarian workers. Seventeen of the interviewed survivors had been detained in RSF-run makeshift facilities, with 15 of the group fleeing the city between July and August 2026. The testimonies paint a harrowing portrait of unrelenting abuse: unlawful extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, systematic torture, pervasive surveillance, and targeted ethnic persecution have become normalized across all areas of RSF-held El Fasher, casting a suffocating blanket of terror over the remaining civilian population.

    Multiple survivors shared graphic accounts of unprovoked violence in RSF detention sites, many of which repurposed local public schools to hold hundreds of captives at a time. 29-year-old Modathir, a member of the targeted Zaghawa ethnic group who escaped an RSF prison, described arbitrary execution as a constant threat: “Torture is permanent in every RSF detention site. They execute people just for glancing at them the wrong way. If you fall asleep, they get angry and kill you, saying they will give you the permanent rest you supposedly wanted.” 38-year-old Hatim, from the Berti ethnic group, was detained in spring 2026 when he returned to El Fasher to retrieve personal belongings, despite still recovering from a serious shrapnel wound to his jaw. Held for four months alongside roughly 300 other detainees in a repurposed school, he was beaten repeatedly when he tried to escape, including direct blows to his unhealed injury, before succeeding on his third attempt. 33-year-old Zaghawa survivor Mamoun explained that captives were selected for abuse at random, with no formal process: “They drag people out of cells whenever they want, accuse you of siding with the Sudanese Joint Forces or regular army, and beat you until you pass out. Sometimes I was assaulted four times in a single day, depending entirely on the mood of the guard on duty.”

    Detention facilities that housed women, children, and elderly or wounded captives also suffered catastrophic rates of malnutrition, with ethnic slurs and dehumanizing treatment directed specifically at members of marginalized Darfuri groups. A 45-year-old Zaghawa woman identified as Haram for protection said RSF fighters routinely targeted women from her community with racial slurs referencing enslavement, while forcing captives to perform unlawful unpaid forced labor in violation of international humanitarian law.

    Amnesty International confirmed it formally reached out to RSF leadership on October 9 to share its preliminary findings and request a formal response, but received no communication of any kind from the paramilitary group. Even as a small handful of humanitarian organizations have been permitted limited re-entry to El Fasher as of September 2026, witnesses reported that all staff movements are closely monitored, no private conversations with residents are allowed, and all aid activities are overseen by RSF forces, who ban photography, independent interviews, and unregulated civilian interactions with aid teams. “Everyone is watched so closely that no one dares speak freely,” one local resident told investigators. “No one feels safe at all.”

    The widespread atrocities in El Fasher form part of a broader, years-long pattern of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the RSF across Darfur, Amnesty’s report concludes, enabled by unimpeded arms flows from the United Arab Emirates that have continued despite a longstanding UN Darfur weapons embargo. Since Sudan’s civil war escalated in April 2023 following the collapse of a fragile power-sharing agreement between the RSF and Sudan’s regular armed forces, the conflict has claimed more than 150,000 lives, displaced 10 million people internally, and pushed an additional 4 million to seek refuge across international borders. Out of Sudan’s total 52 million population, more than 21 million now face life-threatening acute food and water shortages.

    Human rights advocates note that the lack of meaningful diplomatic pressure to curb UAE arms shipments to the RSF has been exacerbated by the Trump administration’s reluctance to confront its Emirati ally, even as its appointed African affairs envoy Massad Boulos previously signaled support for a negotiated path to peace earlier in 2026, with no visible progress in recent months. The ongoing diplomatic campaign of UAE Assistant Minister for Political Affairs Lana Nusseibeh for the position of next UN Secretary General has also raised concerns among Sudan advocacy groups that the UAE faces limited international accountability for its role in fueling the Sudanese conflict.

    In its formal set of demands, Amnesty International has called on the RSF to immediately release all arbitrarily detained civilians, end all acts of torture, extrajudicial killing and forced labor across its territory, and grant full unobstructed humanitarian access to El Fasher. The organization further urged all global states to immediately halt all arms transfers to every party to the Sudanese conflict, specifically to end all weapons sales to the UAE until the country ceases its violations of the UN Darfur arms embargo, and called on the UN Security Council to expand the existing Darfur weapons embargo to cover the entire territory of Sudan. The longstanding Amnesty campaign also renewed its call for an immediate nationwide ceasefire and the urgent deployment of a dedicated international civilian protection force to shield vulnerable populations across Sudan from ongoing violence.

  • Australian MP’s condition improves after alleged car attack

    Australian MP’s condition improves after alleged car attack

    Veteran Australian federal lawmaker Helen Haines has recorded a notable uptick in her medical status nearly one week after a targeted car ramming incident outside her regional electorate office in Wangaratta, northeast Victoria, according to an official update from Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital on Saturday morning. The 65-year-old independent parliamentarian, who was airlifted to the major metropolitan trauma center immediately following the Monday attack, has moved from previously listed critical condition to serious but stable, marking the first positive shift in her clinical trajectory since the assault.
    Authorities have classified the incident as a deliberate targeted attack: the suspect, 43-year-old Brendan Nugent, is alleged to have driven a Toyota LandCruiser directly into Haines as she stood outside her local constituency office. Haines, a former nurse and midwife who first won her federal seat in 2019 and is widely recognized for her advocacy for more ambitious national climate action, required emergency double leg amputation to address life-threatening injuries sustained in the collision.
    Nugent was taken into custody by local law enforcement within seconds of the incident, and has since made a first appearance before a local court to answer three preliminary charges: dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, and harming a Commonwealth public official. Investigators from Victoria Police, working in partnership with the Australian Federal Police, have indicated additional charges including attempted murder may be filed as the probe progresses. The suspect’s legal representative confirmed in court filings that Nugent lives with documented mental health concerns, but declined to share further contextual details about his condition.
    Notably, members of Nugent’s immediate family have publicly stated they have shared a longstanding, friendly personal relationship with Haines for years, a detail that has deepened the sense of shock rippling through the tight-knit rural community of Wangaratta in the wake of the violence. Investigators have yet to identify a clear motive for the alleged attack, and are currently evaluating whether substance abuse or unregulated medication use may have contributed to the events of that day.
    In a public statement issued three days after the attack, Haines’ husband Phil Haines told reporters that while the “horrendous, unthinkable incident” left his wife with catastrophic physical wounds, her mental fortitude and characteristic resolve remained unshaken. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the attack in a broadcast interview shortly after it unfolded, framing the assault as a troubling symptom of a broader deterioration in Australian public discourse, noting that national political dialogue had seen a worrying “rise in temperature” in recent years, marked by excessive hostile rhetoric and a sharp decline in constructive, respectful debate.

  • ‘Escalation is coming’: Middle East on edge as new Israeli-US attack on Iran looms

    ‘Escalation is coming’: Middle East on edge as new Israeli-US attack on Iran looms

    Across the Middle East, US diplomatic personnel are actively making contingency arrangements to evacuate embassy staff, while Israeli fighter jets have ramped up regular patrols along Iran’s border. Multiple Arab and US officials operating in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity to Middle East Eye, uniformly convey that a resumption of joint US and Israeli military strikes against Iran is no longer a matter of if, but when. The tense calculus comes as Iranian authorities have explicitly warned of retaliatory strikes targeting trillions of dollars in US-linked data centers, artificial intelligence facilities, critical energy installations and major airports across the Gulf, laying the groundwork for a widely anticipated second phase of the ongoing regional conflict.

    Aaron David Miller, a seasoned former Middle East negotiator who served under both Republican and Democratic US administrations, confirmed the trajectory of escalation in comments to MEE. “An escalation is coming. Whether it’s before the US midterms or after is not relevant. The purpose of the escalation is clear,” he stated. Direct, large-scale hostilities between US and Iranian forces were temporarily halted after a fragile ceasefire agreed in April, but a 14-point Memorandum of Understanding signed by both sides in June to pave the way for a long-term settlement was never implemented. The landmark deal was widely perceived to include extensive concessions to Iran that the Trump administration finds politically unacceptable, creating an uncrossable impasse.

    “There is a foundational gap, galactic in scope, that can’t be bridged. The Iranians are not going to change their position on the Strait of Hormuz, the nuclear issue or the Houthis to the extent that Trump needs in order to spin a win,” Miller explained. Senior envoys representing the Trump administration are now actively laying the operational groundwork for a return to full-scale military conflict. “We are going to have to keep working at this to make sure there’s a regime change eventually,” noted prominent Republican Senator Rick Scott, a close Trump ally, during a Thursday interview with Fox News.

    Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the United Nations, told the Financial Times that the White House has fully prepared for a prolonged, drawn-out conflict in the region. “The president and the US Navy can maintain this blockade [on Iranian ports] for the foreseeable future,” he remarked in a Friday-released interview. What began in February as a US-led military campaign framed as an operation to neutralize Iran’s nuclear program has gradually evolved into a sweeping, zero-sum battle for geopolitical dominance across the Middle East. Current flashpoints include Iran’s push to impose transit fees on all commercial vessels passing through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, with months of tit-for-tat strikes between US and Iranian forces in the waterway. The sweeping US naval blockade on Iranian ports has crippled Iran’s domestic economy, while Iranian retaliatory attacks on commercial shipping have sent global maritime freight rates skyrocketing: at least 27 separate vessel attacks were recorded in the current month alone, marking the highest monthly total since March.

    The deepening bilateral tensions have also shattered a separate ceasefire in Yemen, where fierce fighting has reignited between Iran-aligned Houthi militants and the Saudi-backed internationally recognized Yemeni government. Geopolitical and regional affairs analysts largely agree that a return to full-scale war appears all but inevitable, as the current unstable status quo satisfies neither the Trump administration nor Tehran, while neither side perceives itself as militarily or politically weak enough to make the concessions required to reach a negotiated settlement.

    Gregory Brew, a leading energy and Iran specialist at global geopolitical consultancy Eurasia Group, noted that both the Trump administration and Iranian leadership are closely monitoring fluctuations in the global oil market, drawing vastly different strategic conclusions from recent trends. Data published this week by energy analytics firm Kpler shows that total Middle East oil and petroleum product exports rebounded to pre-February war levels last week, though experts caution the figures are skewed by a short-term surge in shipments. The increased export volumes stem almost entirely from US-aligned Gulf nations, while Iran’s own oil exports remain severely constrained by the enforced US naval blockade. Saudi Arabia has expanded exports via a newly operational Red Sea pipeline that circumvents the Houthi-controlled Bab el-Mandeb strait, routing crude directly to Mediterranean markets. Other Gulf states with coastlines on the Strait of Hormuz now rely on a shuttle transfer system, in which small state-owned vessels ferry crude out to much larger tankers waiting safely in the Gulf of Oman, with the US Navy providing armed escort at significant operational cost.

    Despite the rise in regional export volumes, global energy prices have not fallen. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, has surged 43% since the June MoU was signed, while global diesel prices have climbed roughly 35%, and gasoline prices have risen by just under 10%. Iran’s domestic economy is clearly under severe strain, with official September inflation figures hitting a staggering 90%, but Brew points out that Iranian leadership remains convinced it can outlast the Trump administration through another round of intensified hostilities. “If the US is watching export volumes in Hormuz, the Iranians are watching price. And they are pretty confident they can withstand pressure over a longer period of time than Trump can,” Brew told MEE. “In a context where the US and Israel are bombing Iran again directly, we are certain to see more aggressive Iranian strikes on energy infrastructure. The US will also have fewer resources to manage this escort system,” he added, predicting global energy prices will remain elevated for the foreseeable future.

    In the lead-up to the original US-Israeli strike on Iran in February, multiple Gulf states launched an intense last-minute lobbying campaign to prevent the military operation from moving forward. During the initial phase of the war, Saudi Arabia and the UAE joined US forces in launching strikes against Iranian targets, but Riyadh later pivoted to support diplomatic mediation efforts, and Reuters reported the UAE paid Tehran significant sums to secure a pledge that Iran would halt attacks on Emirati territory. For the anticipated second round of conflict, analysts note that Gulf states will struggle to maintain any meaningful strategic relevance, even as they find themselves on the front line of anticipated Iranian retaliatory strikes. Following the February 2024 attacks on Iran, Gulf states endured thousands of drone and missile assaults originating from Iranian territory.

    “From the Gulf perspective, this is going to be devastating,” said Abdullah Baabood, a prominent Omani academic and international relations expert. “Already we see serious economic problems in the Gulf.” Recent reporting from Asharq Bloomberg indicates Bahrain is poised to receive a UAE-led financial bailout to prop up its rapidly depleting foreign currency reserves. Qatar’s economy contracted 15% year-on-year in the most recent quarter, the IMF projects the UAE’s economy will shrink by 4% this year, and Saudi Arabia was forced to cancel its flagship annual international investment conference due to persistent Houthi security threats. “The Gulf is hostage to a crisis that has no end,” Baabood observed. “Qatar is trying to mediate. Oman has been pushed aside by Trump. The UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are very quiet. They just don’t know what to do. They can’t read Trump.”

    “Other than Israel, no one has real interest in a serious continuation of the war,” noted Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian foreign minister and current vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The growing expectations of renewed major hostilities coincide with the upcoming Israeli general elections scheduled for next week. In his recent public endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump dramatically raised the stakes for fresh military action against Iran, stating he intended to assist Israel to “finish the job” against Iran “unless they change their ways rapidly.” Analysts note that the military campaign against Iran remains broadly popular among the Israeli public, meaning a resumption of large-scale fighting could deliver significant political benefits to Netanyahu ahead of the vote, or help him retain his position as prime minister even if election results are inconclusive.

    Baabood acknowledged that there is no question the US and Israeli militaries possess the capability to inflict catastrophic damage on Iran’s civilian and military infrastructure, but emphasized that the Islamic Republic retains the capacity to inflict significant, painful harm on Gulf state targets. In an interview with Dropsite News earlier this week, Major General Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, left no ambiguity about Tehran’s intent to target Gulf energy facilities the moment US forces resume hostilities. “If the US strategy is to prolong the war while using neighbouring countries’ energy infrastructure to offset the pressure arising from Hormuz and maintain the blockade of Iran, those governments should not assume they can participate in economic warfare against Iran without putting themselves at risk,” he warned.

    One of the most critical unresolved variables ahead of a second round of conflict is the ability of Gulf state defense systems to fend off Iranian drone and missile attacks that could send global energy prices spiraling even higher. A September report from the US Department of State Inspector General confirmed that the US military is facing “strategic inventory shortfalls” of key precision munitions, and MEE previously reported in March that US stockpiles of critical interceptor missiles were already depleted, a situation that has only worsened following months of high-intensity military operations across the region. The Trump administration has repeatedly and publicly denied that it is facing any munitions shortages. The Gulf states’ acute vulnerability to Iranian drone capabilities has been laid bare by a recent wave of Houthi attacks on Saudi territory: the kingdom has been reeling from repeated strikes targeting major airports and high-profile energy sites, with Saudi authorities confirming at least 21 people, including religious pilgrims, have been killed in Houthi attacks on Saudi airports since the start of October. A September attack attributed to Iran-aligned Iraqi militias also targeted the kingdom’s critical East-West Pipeline.

    “Continuing the war will only bring more difficulties to countries in the Gulf, and it’s clear it will not result in regime change in Iran. Meanwhile, Trump is suffering domestically because of rising fuel and food prices” across the US, Muasher noted. But Miller, now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argues that Trump may face far fewer constraints on military action than most observers assume, particularly given his lingering frustration that Iran derailed his original plans for a quick, decisive military victory earlier this year. “There is no cost-benefit analysis because Donald Trump is going to be OK. He may lose the House and maybe the Senate in midterms, but he will be OK. His family will be OK. He will build his presidential library,” Miller said. “Trump’s urgency to end this thing is not evident. There is no accountability. Where is the pain for Donald Trump?”

  • Woman, 65, becomes second patient to die of Ebola in Kenya

    Woman, 65, becomes second patient to die of Ebola in Kenya

    Kenya’s Ministry of Health has confirmed the country’s second Ebola-related fatality, marking a critical update to its first ever recorded outbreak of the viral disease. The 65-year-old deceased woman was an immediate close family contact of the outbreak’s first victim, a Congolese traveller who arrived in Nairobi after seeking treatment at multiple medical facilities across the Democratic Republic of Congo in September, and died on 5 October. The latest fatality had been placed under mandatory quarantine when she first developed symptoms on 13 October, health authorities verified. At present, seven additional Ebola patients are receiving dedicated care across two specialized isolation facilities in the country: three are remaining relatives of the initial index case, three are frontline healthcare workers, and one is a hospital cleaning staff member. The health ministry has stressed that all confirmed cases belong to a single, contained transmission cluster, with zero verified evidence of widespread community spread to date. This outbreak is part of a broader regional crisis that has claimed over 4,000 lives across Africa since Ebola resurfaced in the DRC in May, making it the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in global history. The strain circulating in this cluster is the rare Bundibugyo variant, for which no fully approved vaccine or targeted therapeutic treatment is yet available, though multiple clinical trials are currently ongoing. The International Rescue Committee, which has been collaborating with regional governments to curb transmission, warns that Kenya faces sustained, elevated risk of new imported cases given the DRC’s tally of more than 9,500 total infections. In response, Kenyan authorities have rolled out strict, multi-layered cross-border screening protocols covering travellers arriving from 10 high-risk nations: the DRC, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Zambia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. All inbound passengers from these countries must complete a digital health surveillance form prior to boarding their flights, and present a corresponding QR code to port health officials for verification upon arrival, while all aircraft originating in the high-risk zones are subject to enhanced disinfection and public health checks. Domestically, the government has launched a widespread public awareness campaign to educate residents on Ebola’s transmission risks, urging prompt reporting of any suspected symptoms and immediate medical care-seeking, alongside guidance on core preventive measures including frequent handwashing and avoiding unprotected close contact with visibly ill individuals. The U.S. State Department has issued an official travel advisory warning its citizens against non-essential travel to Kenya, while neighbouring states including Uganda, Ethiopia, and Somalia have activated their own national public health alert systems to prepare for potential imported cases. In a separate related development, Nigerian Health Minister Professor Ali Pate announced that the single confirmed Ebola case recorded in Nigeria appears to be genetically linked to the strain circulating in Kenya. Pate noted that there is no current evidence that the Kenyan index case travelled to Nigeria directly, though additional confirmatory testing is still underway to clarify transmission links. Investigators are exploring whether Nigeria’s single patient and Kenya’s first deceased case crossed paths at Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport earlier in October, as both are confirmed to have transited through the facility.

  • Lebanon-Israel military talks in US end without a breakthrough

    Lebanon-Israel military talks in US end without a breakthrough

    Closed-door diplomatic negotiations between senior Lebanese and Israeli representatives, convened this week at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, wrapped up without any substantive progress on core outstanding disputes, independent regional news outlet The New Arab confirmed Thursday via anonymous sources close to the talks.
    Held under U.S. auspices, the latest round of discussions unfolded against a backdrop of sustained Israeli military operations across Lebanese territory throughout the current month, including targeted airstrikes and deliberate home demolitions in the southern districts of Nabatieh, Bint Jbeil, and Sidon. Multiple sources with direct knowledge of the proceedings reported that Israeli negotiating teams took uncompromising, rigid stances across all agenda items, while Lebanese delegates maintained a firm, non-negotiable position that all security and de-escalation measures between the two nations must follow a fully reciprocal framework.
    Notably, the U.S.-funded Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) has formally rejected any proposal for direct military-to-military coordination with Israeli counterparts, pushing instead for a neutral third-party verification system administered jointly by the United Nations and key international partners including France.
    The current cross-border conflict traces its origins to October 2023, when Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel triggered widespread regional unrest, prompting near-continuous Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese territory. A November 2024 ceasefire negotiated by the outgoing Biden administration failed to meaningfully reduce Israeli military activity, as Israeli officials insisted their operations were necessary to target Hezbollah leadership and alleged weapons stockpiles across Lebanon, including sites located in the capital Beirut.
    A dramatic escalation of Israeli military actions materialized earlier this year, when Israel launched a full-scale ground invasion and seized control of large swathes of southern and eastern Lebanese territory. The pace of violence accelerated further after the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated military operations against Iran on February 28, a move that prompted Hezbollah to launch defensive strikes on Israeli targets in support of its Iranian ally. Since that date, Israeli military actions in Lebanon have killed over 4,300 Lebanese civilians and combatants alike, and displaced more than 1 million people across the country.
    A core top priority for Lebanese negotiating teams throughout all recent talks has been securing a binding, clear timeline for the safe return of all internally displaced Lebanese people to their homes, a demand that has seen zero actionable progress since the U.S.-brokered trilateral framework was formally agreed to by Lebanese, Israeli, and U.S. representatives in June of this year. That landmark framework followed five prior rounds of talks hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, culminating in a widely publicized, billed-as-historic signing ceremony on June 26. At the event, Rubio characterized the agreement as merely “the beginning of the beginning” of a longer peace process, and announced two separate U.S. funding commitments: $100 million in humanitarian assistance to be distributed in coordination with the United Nations for conflict-affected communities, with no explicit clarification on whether the funds would serve only Lebanese populations or also cover northern Israeli border towns, plus an additional $30 million in reimbursements for the Lebanese Armed Forces earmarked by the Trump administration.
    The 26 June framework established a U.S.-facilitated Military Coordination Group for Lebanon, but the so-called “pilot zones” from which Israel had pledged to withdraw its troops to allow the LAF to assume full security control have not been expanded in any capacity since July. Israeli officials have justified the frozen withdrawal process by claiming the LAF lacks the operational capacity to disarm Hezbollah fighters operating in the region.
    Critically, Hezbollah — the U.S.-designated terrorist group that serves as the most powerful armed faction in Lebanon, with military capabilities vastly exceeding those of the U.S.-backed LAF — was excluded entirely from the formal negotiation track. Formed in the 1980s to resist Israel’s longstanding illegal occupation of Lebanese territory, Hezbollah has refused to engage in direct bilateral talks with Israel, though unconfirmed reports indicate the group has maintained discrete backchannel communications with the Trump administration. Hezbollah leadership has repeatedly stated it will not agree to any disarmament measures as long as Israel continues to pose an active military threat to Lebanese sovereignty, especially amid growing public rhetoric from Israeli policymakers openly discussing plans to formally expand Israel’s national borders northward into Lebanese territory.

  • Netanyahu’s full West Bank lockdown called collective punishment

    Netanyahu’s full West Bank lockdown called collective punishment

    Following a deadly Friday gun skirmish in the illegally occupied West Bank that left two Palestinians dead and at least five Israeli soldiers wounded, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued immediate directives to the Israel Defense Forces to enforce a full lockdown on the city of Hebron, and to mobilize forces in preparation for a territory-wide full lockdown across the occupied West Bank. The announcement came shortly after Netanyahu convened an emergency security cabinet session alongside his senior military advisory team, after which he released a public social media statement blaming the Palestinian political and military faction Hamas for orchestrating the deadly exchange, claiming the group was plotting a large-scale offensive targeting innocent civilian populations. While Netanyahu asserted that security forces had uncovered substantial caches of weapons and ammunition in the aftermath of the clash, he declined to share specific details corroborating the alleged planned major attack. Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who arrived at the scene of the shooting shortly after the violence unfolded, issued even more aggressive public remarks, stating that a sweeping full-scale military operation modeled after past campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon would soon be launched across the occupied West Bank, which he referred to by the settler-facing nomenclature “Judea and Samaria” to target individuals he labeled as terrorists. Smotrich went further to publicly call for the full dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, the semi-autonomous governing body for parts of the occupied territories, and announced that orders to demolish Palestinian residential structures in the vicinity of Friday’s clash would be executed within one hour, with additional demolition operations set to continue through the rest of the day. In response to the Israeli government’s sweeping new punitive measures, Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, condemned the planned territory-wide West Bank closure as a blatant act of collective punishment that violates longstanding international humanitarian law. Barghouti warned that Netanyahu’s administration was laying the groundwork for ethnic cleansing of entire residential neighborhoods in Hebron, framing the policy shift as a dangerous, unprecedented escalation of Israel’s long-running forced displacement campaigns against Palestinian communities, and urged the global community to intervene immediately to hold Israeli officials accountable and prevent mass displacement. Yariv Oppenheimer, a former director of the anti-settlement group Peace Now and current project director at the Geneva Institute, echoed these concerns in an interview with Al-Jazeera, noting that the already volatile occupied West Bank, which has seen surging settler violence and near-daily Israeli Defense Force incursions into Palestinian communities for months, was on the brink of far greater unrest. Oppenheimer argued that Israeli political leaders were exploiting the fatal gun battle as a public justification to ramp up military control over Palestinian population centers, predicting a wave of punitive actions including widespread home demolitions, extended curfews, mass arbitrary arrests by IDF troops, and revenge attacks by extremist Israeli settler factions that would push the region into far deeper crisis.

  • Are California voters about to impose ‘world’s first’ tax on billionaires?

    Are California voters about to impose ‘world’s first’ tax on billionaires?

    As one of the world’s most concentrated hubs of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, California is globally synonymous with sun-drenched coastal mega-mansions, A-list celebrity enclaves, and Silicon Valley’s tech titans. Now, the state’s electorate is set to cast a historic vote on Proposition 40, a ballot measure that would impose a one-off 5% tax on the total net worth of every billionaire residing in the state, with the explicit goal of raising $100 billion to offset crippling federal cuts to California’s public healthcare system.
    Crafted as a direct response to sweeping federal tax and spending reductions enacted under the Donald Trump administration, the policy is framed by its backers as a targeted, stopgap solution to prevent a near-term collapse of state healthcare services while long-term sustainable funding frameworks are developed. Proponents, including the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, argue the measure ensures the state’s 200+ billionaires pay their fair share to address glaring structural inequities: California boasts the world’s fourth-largest standalone economy, outstripping the entire gross domestic products of India and the United Kingdom, yet simultaneously hosts the nation’s largest unhoused population and one of the widest wealth gaps in the U.S.
    Francesco Trebbi, a leading public policy scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, emphasizes the unprecedented nature of the initiative: “This is the first ever U.S. billionaire tax, a wealth levy targeting the absolute top tier of the wealth distribution, designed to begin narrowing California’s stark wealth disparity.” Public polling underscores broad public appetite for action on inequality, with 72% of California residents surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California agreeing the wealth gap is widening and state authorities must take aggressive steps to mitigate it. High-profile supporters include Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, philanthropist and former California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer, and progressive U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who has campaigned across the state framing the measure as a long-overdue check on unaccountable billionaire power, comparing unregulated elite wealth to 19th-century monarchical excess.
    Yet the landmark proposal has ignited ferocious pushback from a cross-section of stakeholders, ranging from tech billionaires to the state’s outgoing liberal governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom has publicly warned the policy risks triggering a mass exodus of the state’s ultra-wealthy residents, eroding the state’s critical income tax revenue base that funds core public services. The Los Angeles Times reports Google co-founder Sergey Brin has poured more than $100 million into political organizations backing competing ballot measures intended to block Proposition 40 entirely. Citing international precedent, Dr. Kristian Niemietz, head of political economy at the Institute of Economic Affairs, argues wealth taxes are functionally counterproductive: once widespread across Europe, such levies now only persist in Spain, Norway and Switzerland, plagued by crippling administrative burdens, suppressed investment, and mass capital flight. He points to 2022 data from Norway showing a wealth tax hike prompted more super-rich residents to leave the country than in the preceding 13 years combined, while Swiss research found a 0.1 percentage point increase in wealth tax rates reduced total taxable wealth by 3.5%.
    Even ahead of the January 1, 2026, retroactive residency cutoff for the proposed tax, at least six California billionaires have already relocated out of state to avoid the levy, including Google co-founders Brin and Larry Page, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, and Los Angeles-based Hankey Group founder Don Hankey, who noted he has created thousands of in-state jobs and ran a profit-sharing program for his employees, yet still felt unwelcome by the policy. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose estimated $200 billion net worth could leave him on the hook for a $12.5 billion tax bill if the measure passes, has received a special expanded stock compensation package from Meta’s board to incentivize him to keep his primary residence in California, where the social media firm is headquartered. DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang, with a $1.6 billion net worth, has publicly dismissed the proposal as “stupid” and stated he is actively planning a potential exit from the state.
    With a September joint poll from Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and the Los Angeles Times showing 45% of likely voters supporting the measure, 42% opposing it, and 13% still undecided, the race is a statistical dead heat. California is not the only U.S. West Coast state weighing a levy on extreme wealth: Washington state voters are concurrently considering a separate ballot initiative that would impose a 9.9% tax on annual personal income exceeding $1 million. Analysts note the outcome of California’s Proposition 40 will set a precedent for nationwide wealth policy, as U.S. income inequality currently sits at its highest level in more than three decades, with the top 1% of households holding nearly 32% of all national wealth as of the third quarter of 2025.

  • Ruins of Limoges city hall a symbol of France divided by national protests

    Ruins of Limoges city hall a symbol of France divided by national protests

    Exactly seven days after violent unrest during France’s nationwide wave of demonstrations left Limoges’ iconic 19th-century town hall reduced to a charred, fire-ravaged shell, the tight-knit porcelain-making city is caught in a moment of collective grief and fierce political division. For Guillaume Guérin, the conservative mayor who only took office six months ago, the past week has been the most searing of his young tenure: standing beside the blackened, still structurally fragile stone facade of the once-grand municipal building, he recalls breaking down in tears when he first witnessed the full scale of the damage, as the building’s beloved wooden clock spire crumbled into roaring live flames in front of onlookers last Saturday. The viral footage of the spire’s collapse sparked immediate national outrage, a reaction Guérin describes as entirely legitimate and understandable, calling the incident not just a local loss for Limoges but a “historical tragedy for all of France.”

    Two men, aged 66 and 34, have been taken into police custody in connection with the arson, with regional prosecutors confirming both suspects have documented ties to radical left-wing activist networks. Guérin has publicly noted that while he received a personal message of solidarity from U.S. Vice President JD Vance, he has not heard any direct outreach from Emmanuel Macron, France’s sitting outgoing president. The mayor warns that the destruction of the landmark municipal building will leave a tangible mark on the country’s upcoming presidential election, scheduled in six months’ time, arguing “this country is not doing well at all.”

    The fire that destroyed the city’s most recognizable architectural symbol is the most explosive flashpoint yet of weeks of rolling, youth-led national protests that began as narrow demonstrations over dilapidated high school infrastructure, but quickly snowballed into a broader mass outcry over skyrocketing living costs, stagnant wages and widespread public frustration with a paralyzed centrist national government. The administration, led by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, holds no stable working majority in the National Assembly, is grappling with one of the largest fiscal deficits in the European Union, and has offered few actionable policy solutions to address public discontent ahead of the election. Lecornu traveled to Limoges on Friday evening to survey the damage, as national authorities moved to ban public demonstrations in multiple urban centers, deploy additional riot police across high-risk areas, and impose strict local restrictions in Limoges including an overnight curfew and a ban on public gatherings larger than 10 people in the city center.

    Public opinion across Limoges remains sharply split on the fire and the legitimacy of the broader protest movement. At a popular student pub in the city center, 24-year-old Alexander, wearing the traditional colorful French student faluche beret, argues that widespread systemic poverty poses a far greater crisis than the loss of a historic municipal building. His view is echoed by 19-year-old medical student Jade, who says she survives on just €300 a month for living expenses and feels her generation is completely disrespected by governing elites, noting that while the town hall fire is tragic, it is far from the most distressing outcome of the current wave of unrest. Both acknowledge that acts of random vandalism are unacceptable, but say the anger driving the protests is fully justified.

    Across the city at Limoges’ landmark Eiffel-engineered covered market, however, long-time local residents express overwhelming grief and frustration at the destruction. 63-year-old fishmonger Jean Roger Faucher, whose family has run their market stall for more than a century, married at the town hall decades earlier and says the fire left him completely stunned, adding that while he sympathizes with the protesters’ economic grievances, any demonstration that endangers local residents’ lives cannot be tolerated. 59-year-old butcher Pascale Vuylsteke, who works 100 hours a week to support her business, says she recognizes that living costs have become unmanageable for many, but struggles to accept that mass vandalism is a reasonable response.

    Limoges, a historic cradle of the 19th-century French labor movement that grew alongside its world-famous porcelain industry, now finds itself once again at the epicenter of a national political rupture. Many local residents hold out hope that the shock of losing the town hall will push the protest movement away from violent destruction and back toward constructive, peaceful debate — but with further demonstrations already scheduled and national political polarization continuing to deepen, that outcome remains far from guaranteed.

  • Student movement takes Serbia’s Vučić to the wire in neck-and-neck election

    Student movement takes Serbia’s Vučić to the wire in neck-and-neck election

    As Serbia heads to the polls for snap parliamentary elections this Sunday, a grassroots, student-born political movement known as “The Student List” has emerged as the most formidable challenge to Aleksandar Vučić and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) since the party swept into power in 2012. Placed third on the national ballot, the movement has turned a cardiologist and Novi Sad University professor, Ilija Srdanović, into its public face: the 60-something academic arrives for media interviews on a motorbike clad in a bright fluorescent yellow jacket emblazoned with pro-student slogans, a deliberate contrast to the carefully staged public image of the long-ruling political establishment.

    The origins of The Student List stretch back nearly two years to the deadly Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse that killed 16 people, a tragedy tied to a flagship infrastructure project under Vučić’s watch: the high-speed Belgrade-Budapest railway line. Outraged by allegations of systemic corruption that they say led directly to the preventable deaths, young Serbian activists launched months of sustained anti-corruption demonstrations across the country. Rejecting traditional top-down political structures, student-led assemblies at Serbia’s major universities selected 250 non-partisan candidates with no prior political experience to run for parliament, ranging from leading academics and professional athletes to economists and engineers. Srdanović, who was chosen to head the nationwide ballot, emphasizes his role as a supportive ally rather than a leader: “It is absolutely normal to stand with my students to help them in their fair struggle.” Notably, the movement has no formal hierarchy or designated prime ministerial candidate even in the event of a landslide win, a structure unprecedented in Serbia’s post-democratic transition political history.

    For Vučić, who has rotated through the top roles of deputy prime minister, prime minister and president over 12 years of unbroken SNS rule, the snap election was called after he formally stepped down from the presidency last month to run for a new term as prime minister. For years, state-aligned domestic media has cultivated his image as an unchallenged, decisive national leader, and he retains a loyal base of supporters who credit his administration with a decade of steady economic growth and sweeping nationwide infrastructure upgrades. His campaign has framed the entire student-led opposition as a foreign-funded plot designed to destabilize and dismantle the Serbian state, urging crowds at his final rallies to “always protect and defend” the nation against purported outside interference.

    Independent election observers have repeatedly flagged systemic structural advantages enjoyed by the ruling SNS, including pervasive pro-government media bias and the widespread misuse of state public resources for campaign purposes, issues formally documented by the International Election Observation Mission following the 2023 parliamentary vote. A pro-SNS encampment has operated 24/7 for the past 18 months in the central Belgrade park between the National Assembly and Presidency buildings, with repeated reports of camp residents assaulting journalists and barring ordinary citizens from the public space — a site Vučić has lauded as a “symbol of resistance” for free expression.

    On the international stage, Vučić has leaned into his long-documented balancing act between competing global powers, warning voters that a Student List victory would force Serbia to sever its long-standing close diplomatic and economic ties with Russia and China, both of which refuse to recognize Kosovo’s unilateral independence, and potentially impose EU-mandated sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine conflict. He has repeatedly attacked the opposition for refusing to give a clear public answer on their foreign policy stances, urging voters to choose a proven leader who prioritizes Serbian national interests.

    With independent public polling scarce in the final stretch of the campaign, election analysts are forecasting an extraordinarily tight race. The two sides’ closing rallies laid bare their starkly contrasting governing visions: Vučić addressed a packed Belgrade Arena as the sole featured speaker, reinforcing his brand as a singular, strong national leader, while across the Sava River, an estimated 150,000 Student List supporters packed Belgrade’s Slavija Square to hear speeches from a diverse lineup of students and non-partisan candidates. For the first time in over a decade, Serbian voters face a clear choice between a centralized, decades-long ruling administration and a decentralized, grassroots movement promising to restore core civil liberties, independent institutions and rule of law that activists argue have been systematically eroded over the SNS’s 12 years in power.

  • Britain’s posh schools are heading to India for students and profits

    Britain’s posh schools are heading to India for students and profits

    A wave of prestigious centuries-old British public private boarding schools is launching new international campuses across India, driven by shifting regulatory and market conditions in their traditional overseas expansion hubs. Earlier this year, 473-year-old Bedford School, a historic Bedfordshire institution, unveiled its first all-girls international satellite campus in Mohali, on the outskirts of Chandigarh in India’s Punjab state. Unlike the iconic Gothic central buildings that define its original UK grounds, the Mohali facility features sleek, purpose-built modern academic blocks, with a distinctive red-brick clock tower paying deliberate homage to the school’s British heritage.

    Bedford is far from the only elite UK educational institution making inroads into India. At least six long-established British fee-paying private schools, including three of the UK’s oldest educational foundations, have now established locations spanning the breadth of the nation. This cohort includes Harrow School — alma mater of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru — which opened its Bengaluru campus in 2023 in India’s Silicon Valley, a bustling hub of tech firms and startup activity. Shrewsbury School operates a site in Bhopal, central India, while Wellington College has set up operations in Pune, the western Indian city known as the “Oxford of the East” for its dense network of top-tier higher education institutions. Renowned schools including Millfield and Queen Elizabeth’s School are also in advanced stages of planning their own Indian campuses for coming years.

    The expansion surge comes as external pressures reshape the global business model for UK private schools. For more than a decade, China and Hong Kong hosted roughly half of the 151 total international satellite campuses run by 50 British private schools, serving as the primary engine of their overseas growth. However, a 2025 report from UK think tank the Private Education Policy Forum (PEPF) notes that expansion in the region has slowed sharply amid tighter regulatory oversight, rising government scrutiny and public pushback against foreign-run private institutions. A 2024 national Chinese mandate requiring all schools to integrate patriotic education across every curriculum subject further disrupted operations, leading to multiple planned new campus projects being scrapped entirely. Compounding these headwinds, the UK government’s 2024 Autumn Budget introduced a new 20% VAT levy on domestic private school fees, set to take effect January 1, 2025. Naomi Atkins, founding principal of Bedford School Mohali, explains that even UK private schools that previously had no interest in international expansion are now actively pursuing overseas markets to offset domestic revenue strains, describing many institutions as being in a “desperate situation.”

    India presents a uniquely attractive alternative market for these legacy schools. For generations, local elite boarding schools modelled on the British colonial public school system have served the country’s aristocratic and upper-class families, but the market has expanded exponentially in recent years as a fast-growing cohort of newly affluent Indian families prioritize global educational exposure for their children. Caroline Pascoe, head of Harrow Bengaluru, notes that the school’s all-through Cambridge curriculum — a globally recognized framework used across 10,000 institutions worldwide, spanning primary education all the way through to A-level qualifications — is a major draw for local families. Many parents, including Harsimran Singh Kocchar, a local education network operator who enrolled his 5-year-old daughter at Bedford Mohali, cite the schools’ stated focus on holistic character development, confidence building and equitable treatment of all students, free of the “VIP culture” that permeates many top-tier Indian private institutions, as key deciding factors. The student base also includes large numbers of non-resident Indians, both expats who have returned to India after long stints abroad and families still based in the UK or Middle East who want their children to maintain cultural ties to their Indian roots.

    The schools work to preserve their iconic British traditions while integrating local Indian customs to resonate with their student bodies. At Harrow Bengaluru, 60% of the teaching staff are international hires, students wear the signature traditional Harrow hats and uniforms, teachers are referred to as “Beaks”, pupils take part in the global cross-country running event the Long Ducker, and the classic British house system forms the backbone of campus social life. These practices are paired with local cultural elements, including daily recitals of the Indian national anthem and celebrations of major festivals such as Ganesh Chaturthi, alongside a robust roster of extracurricular programs in music, drama and sports.

    Despite these promising market conditions, operating in India has presented unforeseen challenges for the UK institutions. Almost all new campuses are launched via joint ventures with local education investors, and Atkins notes that typical revenue share margins for the British school brands have shrunk from a standard 10% in other markets to as low as 1% in some Indian partnerships. Many schools also overestimated the size of their target demographic: while India has 250 million total enrolled schoolchildren, widespread pre-existing English-language education infrastructure and a highly competitive local private school sector create far stiffer competition than in non-English-speaking markets like China, Vietnam or South Korea. India’s relatively low per capita income also limits the addressable market, as full boarding fees at top British campuses can reach £15,000 per year, a price point out of reach for the vast majority of families. Atkins notes Indian parents are far more price-sensitive than families in other Southeast Asian education markets, prompting Bedford Mohali to set its fees at roughly half the rate of competing British international schools to stay competitive.

    PEPF data shows that between 2011-12 and 2022-23, British private schools’ global satellite campuses generated a combined total of £152.4 million in cumulative profits, with that figure rising steadily year over year. However, analysts and school leaders agree that growth in India will be slow and steady rather than the explosive expansion seen previously in China. While the country’s shared colonial educational heritage and fast-expanding new wealthy class create a significant long-term opportunity for the legacy British institutions, the Indian market is unlikely to fully offset the lost revenue from China for the foreseeable future.