Global Pulse

标签： Asia

亚洲

  • Indonesian students protest government policies as economic pressures grow

    Indonesian students protest government policies as economic pressures grow

    Amid growing economic strain that has squeezed household budgets across Southeast Asia’s largest democracy, hundreds of university students took to the streets of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on Friday to deliver a clear message to the administration of President Prabowo Subianto: rein in soaring prices and roll back costly, controversial public spending programs.

    Organized by a national student coalition, the demonstration drew roughly 1,500 participants, most clad in their institutions’ signature yellow university jackets, who gathered following weekly Friday prayers with plans to march to the iconic Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, a historic gathering point for public demonstrations in central Jakarta. Security forces, however, moved quickly to impede the group’s progress, blocking key arterial routes leading to the Indonesian presidential palace — the traditional end point for most major Jakarta protests — and diverting crowds away from central government hubs. In total, more than 6,000 combined police and military personnel were deployed across the capital to manage the demonstration.

    Protesters anchored their grievances in the rapidly rising cost of living, a crisis they trace largely to global oil price shocks triggered by the U.S.-Iran conflict that has driven up domestic fuel prices across Indonesia. Compounding these economic pressures, the Indonesian rupiah has faced severe downward pressure on global currency markets, hitting an all-time low of 18,000 rupiah to the U.S. dollar earlier this month, further inflating prices for imported goods and basic necessities.

    The rally organizers laid out five core demands for the Prabowo administration, starting with immediate cuts to what they label wasteful and excessive state spending. Top of their list for rollback are two flagship government programs: a widely publicized free nutritious meal initiative and a national rural revitalization scheme. The free meals program, which carries an annual price tag of 268 trillion rupiah (equivalent to roughly $15 billion) for 2024 alone, was originally designed to tackle widespread poverty and childhood malnutrition. But the initiative has been plunged into scandal in recent weeks, after Prabowo dismissed the program’s national director amid a sweeping high-level corruption investigation that has already resulted in multiple arrests of senior nutrition agency officials.

    Beyond economic demands, protest leaders also called for an end to what they describe as the expanding role of the military in civilian governance — a shift they warn poses a direct threat to Indonesia’s young democratic institutions, which only transitioned away from authoritarian rule in 1998.

    Yatalathof Ma’shum Imawan, chair of the student organization that coordinated the Jakarta rally, accused the Prabowo administration of refusing to confront the severity of the country’s ongoing economic crisis. “The government is in denial about the current situation,” Imawan told reporters on site. “We urge Prabowo to have the courage to acknowledge his mistake and stop denying it.”

    Friday’s protest is one of the largest coordinated student mobilizations the country has seen since major nationwide demonstrations erupted last August. That wave of unrest saw thousands of Indonesians take to streets across the archipelago, with violent clashes between protesters and security forces leaving at least 13 people dead. Friday’s action was not limited to the capital: parallel demonstrations were also held in the West Java city of Bandung and in Pontianak, a major urban center on Indonesia’s Borneo island, showing growing discontent with economic policy among young people across the country.

  • A Myanmar rights group urges FIFA to drop Mytel’s World Cup rights over connections to military

    A Myanmar rights group urges FIFA to drop Mytel’s World Cup rights over connections to military

    BANGKOK, Thailand – A prominent Myanmar human rights advocacy organization is calling on global soccer governing body FIFA to scrap a controversial decision that awarded exclusive 2026 FIFA World Cup broadcast rights in Myanmar to a US-sanctioned telecommunication firm directly tied to the country’s military junta, which seized power in a 2021 coup.

    Justice For Myanmar confirmed to the Associated Press on Friday that the group only became aware of FIFA’s deal this week, after Mytel – the state-linked telecom at the center of the dispute – rolled out a local advertising blitz promoting its World Cup streaming and broadcast coverage.

    As one of Myanmar’s four major cellular service providers, Mytel operates as a joint venture between the Myanmar military and Viettel, a Vietnamese telecom firm controlled by Vietnam’s national military. Founded in 2018, the company generates consistent revenue that flows directly to Myanmar’s ruling junta, making it a top target for anti-coup activists and the subject of a widespread ongoing consumer boycott across the country.

    Myanmar has been locked in a devastating civil conflict since the military ousted the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi five years ago. Junta forces are now battling a broad coalition of long-running ethnic minority militias and newly formed pro-democracy armed groups that oppose military rule.

    “FIFA should immediately revoke Mytel’s media rights, uphold human rights and stop undermining sanctions,” said Yadanar Maung, spokesperson for Justice For Myanmar.

    “This is an insult to the many people of Myanmar who have given their lives resisting a brutal and illegal junta, who have been boycotting Mytel, and a slap in the face to Myanmar football fans,” Maung added. “FIFA needs to right this now.”

    As of press time, Mytel has not responded to multiple requests for comment, including phone calls, voicemail messages, and emailed inquiries. FIFA also has not issued an immediate response to requests for comment on the controversy.

    FIFA opened a public tender for Myanmar World Cup media rights in September 2025, and ultimately selected Mytel as its exclusive rights holder for the country. Last year, the U.S. Department of Commerce added Mytel to its roster of sanctioned Myanmar entities, citing that the firm’s “actions and activities that are contrary to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.”

    At the time of the sanction designation, the Commerce Department noted Mytel was added for “providing surveillance services and financial support to Burma’s military regime, enabling the regime to carry out human rights abuses through the tracking and identification of target individuals and groups.” The U.S. and other global bodies have also imposed separate sanctions on the Myanmar Economic Corporation, the military-owned parent firm of Mytel.

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup is currently hosted across Canada, Mexico, and the United States, with group stage and knockout matches running through mid-July. While Myanmar did not qualify for the 2026 tournament, soccer holds the title of the most popular sport in the country, and marquee events like the World Cup – as well as top European club competitions – draw massive television and online viewership. Top international sides including Brazil, England, Argentina, Portugal, and Germany count huge bases of passionate fans among Myanmar’s soccer community.

  • Australia coach Popovic signs contract extension ahead of Socceroos’ opener at World Cup

    Australia coach Popovic signs contract extension ahead of Socceroos’ opener at World Cup

    On the eve of Australia’s opening 2026 FIFA World Cup Group D clash with Turkey, Football Australia has announced a major vote of confidence in men’s national team head coach Tony Popovic: a contract extension that will keep him at the helm through the start of 2027.

    The 52-year-old manager, a former Socceroos player himself, only took the position in September 2024, but quickly guided the Australian side through a successful qualification campaign that booked their spot in the expanded 48-team World Cup tournament. Under the new terms of the deal, Popovic will also lead Australia through the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, scheduled to be held across Saudi Arabia in January and early February of that year.

    Speaking ahead of his side’s first World Cup group stage match Saturday, Popovic emphasized that his full focus remains on the tournament at hand, rather than the new contract. “I’m proud to lead my country into a World Cup, but most importantly, I want to ensure that our team is fully prepared and focused on our group matches against Turkey, the United States, and Paraguay,” he said, outlining the three tough opponents Australia will face in the opening round of the competition.

    The contract extension announcement comes amid significant anticipation for the Socceroos’ World Cup run, with fans and governing body officials alike signaling approval of Popovic’s early work rebuilding the national squad following his appointment last year.

  • US scholar with history of activism in Myanmar arrested in China on suspicion of espionage

    US scholar with history of activism in Myanmar arrested in China on suspicion of espionage

    In a development that adds new friction to already strained U.S.-China relations, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Friday that an American scholar specializing in Myanmar studies and Chinese foreign policy has been taken into custody on suspicion of endangering national security through espionage activities.

    The detained academic, Min Zin, stands accused of coordinating spying operations that threaten China’s core national interests, ministry spokesperson Lin Jian confirmed in an official statement. This arrest is highly unusual; Beijing rarely publicly detains and charges U.S. citizens with national security violations, making the case a notable flashpoint just one month after a high-profile meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, a meeting billed as a step toward resetting the two countries’ turbulent diplomatic ties.

    Details of Min Zin’s disappearance first emerged from a Burmese activist familiar with the scholar, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity over fears of retaliation and arrest by Chinese authorities. The activist confirmed Min Zin vanished on June 3 shortly after arriving in Kunming, the capital of China’s southwest Yunnan Province, to attend an academic conference. This trip was not out of the ordinary for Min Zin, the source added, noting the scholar had made multiple prior visits to China without incident over the course of his research career.

    A former key figure in Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, Min Zin first rose to prominence as a student organizer during the 1988 nationwide uprising against Myanmar’s military junta, which was violently crushed by state security forces. After the crackdown, Min Zin fled Myanmar and eventually was granted political asylum in the United States. Contrary to some early unconfirmed reports, the activist who spoke to reporters emphasized Min Zin has not engaged in direct on-the-ground political activism for years, focusing his work almost entirely on academic research and policy analysis.

    Today, Min Zin leads the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar (ISP Myanmar), an independent think tank he founded that produces regular research on cross-border trade and Chinese foreign policy toward Myanmar, which shares a long southwestern border with China. The think tank has maintained open, regular exchange programs with peer research institutions in China for years, and has published widely discussed analysis on topics ranging from rare earth mineral trade flows from Myanmar to China to infrastructure investment projects along the bilateral border. Beyond his think tank work, Min Zin is also a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, one of the top U.S. academic programs for Southeast Asian studies.

    Global human rights advocacy organization Amnesty International has already issued an urgent public call for Chinese authorities to release Min Zin immediately, citing deep alarm over the circumstances of his detainment and the vague national security charges against him. “The opaque circumstances around Min Zin’s unexplained disappearance and subsequent arrest are deeply disturbing, and the espionage accusation against a respected academic is extremely concerning,” said Joe Freeman, a senior Myanmar researcher at Amnesty International.

    The arrest comes at a delicate moment for U.S.-China relations, even after the leaders’ meeting in Beijing last month. Both countries have been engaged in tit-for-tat detentions of foreign citizens on national security grounds in recent years, and incidents like this often escalate diplomatic friction at a time when the two powers are already at odds over trade, regional security, and human rights policy.

  • ‘I will come home safely’: Indian sailor’s last words to wife before a US strike killed him

    ‘I will come home safely’: Indian sailor’s last words to wife before a US strike killed him

    # Three Indian Sailors Killed In U.S. Gulf Of Oman Strike Leave Grieving Families Waiting For Answers

    For Patnala Bhargavi, what should have been a month of quiet celebration to mark 15 years of marriage has instead become a period of overwhelming grief. Her husband, 15-year veteran marine engineer Patnala Suresh, was one of three Indian crew members killed this week when the United States military struck the oil tanker MT Settebello in waters near the Gulf of Oman.

    The U.S. operation was framed as part of Washington’s ongoing enforcement of a blockade against Iran-linked maritime activity. U.S. Central Command confirmed the strike, stating that the tanker ignored multiple official warnings and was found to be carrying Iranian oil. This narrative has been forcefully rejected by the MT Settebello’s management, which says the vessel had no ties to Iran and received no advance warning before the attack. Twenty-one of the 24 crew members on board were rescued alive after the strike.

    Across India, the deaths of the three sailors have sent shockwaves through coastal and inland communities alike, where seafarers often take on dangerous overseas jobs to support their extended families back home. Beyond private grief, loved ones are united in their demands: a full accounting of the strike that killed their family members, and the swift repatriation of the sailors’ remains for funeral rites.

    India’s federal government has already moved to respond to the incident. Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal confirmed in a post on the social platform X that work is underway to coordinate the return of the sailors’ bodies, calling the deaths a “profound loss” for India’s large maritime workforce. New Delhi has also taken formal diplomatic action: it summoned a senior U.S. diplomatic official to lodge a strong official protest, and called for an immediate end to strikes targeting commercial shipping vessels in the already tense Gulf region.

    But for the families grappling with sudden loss, the details of geopolitical maneuvering feel distant and abstract. Their pain is rooted in broken promises and unfulfilled plans.

    Bhargavi still holds onto the last words her husband shared with her before contact was lost. “There have been attacks in this area and some people have been killed,” Suresh told her, “But don’t worry about me. I’ll come home safely, and we’ll celebrate our anniversary properly.”

    Now, surrounded by photos of Suresh, the couple’s two young sons, and the two nieces Suresh helped raise after Bhargavi’s older sister and brother-in-law passed away, the 39-year-old widow struggles to reconcile that promise with the new reality of life without her husband, who was the family’s only source of income.

    Suresh had built a 15-year career at sea, working his way up to chief engineer, a role that entitled him to six months of paid leave annually. His father Ramakrishna says Suresh rarely took the full time off, drawn to his work and committed to providing for his family. For years, the family adapted to his long absences: Bhargavi and Suresh spoke every few days over video call, often with other crew members popping in to say hello. But starting June 5, calls became patchy, and stopped entirely by June 9.

    Bhargavi initially assumed the issue was just spotty maritime connectivity. But after two days of silence, news of the strike reached her family. At first, they clung to hope that there had been a mistake, and that Suresh would turn up alive among the rescued crew. That hope faded quickly; on Thursday, the tanker’s management confirmed Suresh was killed instantly when the strike hit, as he was conducting a routine inspection of a faulty generator in the engine room. Centcom, the U.S. military command for the region, has released footage it claims shows the damage to the tanker’s engine room from the strike.

    The family is now calling on the Indian government to provide urgent financial support to help them raise and educate the four children who depended entirely on Suresh’s income. “The entire family depended on his income. Now I don’t know how I’ll educate or raise the children,” Bhargavi says.

    The same unanswered questions and raw grief hang over the families of the other two killed sailors, hundreds of kilometers from Visakhapatnam. In India’s northern Himachal Pradesh state, Hamirpur district, the family of 23-year-old Aditya Sharma, an only son, is demanding answers of their own.

    “I want my son’s body to be returned to us. We should also be told what happened in his final moments,” Aditya’s father Rajesh Sharma told BBC Hindi. Rajesh Sharma also questioned the outcome of the rescue operation: “The others were rescued, so why couldn’t these three be saved?”

    More than 1,000 kilometers away, in Deoria district of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, 35-year-old Shivanand Chaurasia’s family is dealing with the same sudden loss. A skilled fitter, Chaurasia had left home eight months earlier to take up a contract with a foreign shipping firm. “We spoke to him the night before last. He told us everything was fine,” his father Ramji Chaurasia told Indian news agency ANI. “Now we have been told that he is no more.”

    Like Bhargavi, both families say their only priority right now is bringing their loved ones home for a proper burial. The geopolitical tensions that led to the strike are irrelevant to them; what matters is getting to see their sons, husbands and providers one last time, and getting clarity on how they died.

  • Disaster drills helped prevent more deaths when powerful quake hit the southern Philippines

    Disaster drills helped prevent more deaths when powerful quake hit the southern Philippines

    Five days after a 7.8 magnitude offshore earthquake — one of the most powerful seismic events to hit the Philippines in 50 years — struck the country’s southern region, local officials are crediting regular, long-running disaster preparedness drills with preventing a far worse human toll. As of Friday, official counts put the death toll at 55, with 31 people still unaccounted for, nearly 1,120 injured, and more than 45,000 residents displaced from their homes. Half of those displaced remain in temporary emergency shelters, after the quake damaged over 12,600 residential structures across rural farming communities and urban centers alike.

    Weeks of ongoing strong aftershocks have left many survivors too traumatized to return to their damaged properties, even after initial safety inspections. In the days following the quake, user-generated footage posted to social media has captured the chaos of the shaking, showing horrified crowds watching small structures crumble, and public flag-raising ceremonies thrown into disarray as the ground shifted. The quake struck on the first school day after the summer holiday break, putting student responses to the emergency in the spotlight.

    Multiple videos show students screaming in panic as the ground shook, but many remained orderly outside school buildings, following long-practiced emergency protocols: some stood still, others crouched and covered their heads with their hands, as teachers worked to calm panicked groups and guide responses. One video posted to Facebook has gone viral, racking up millions of views; it shows dozens of elementary students crying and screaming while seated in an open, tree-lined school yard, where the visible swaying of the ground threw the children off balance. A nearby tin storage shed collapsed moments after the shaking started with a loud crash, sending a handful of students running, though teachers quickly guided them back to their assigned safe positions. Remarkably, the Malita-based grade school in Davao Occidental province where the footage was recorded reported zero injuries from the quake.

    “This incident serves as a reminder of the importance of earthquake preparedness and the value of regular disaster response drills,” the Mahayahay Elementary School said in an official statement following the event.

    Teresito Bacolcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), confirmed Friday that consistent public education and regular emergency drills over many years helped communities across the affected region anticipate and respond correctly to the extreme seismic event, a rare powerful quake for the archipelago in modern history. He added that additional good fortune played a role: the quake struck at 7:37 a.m. local time, just minutes before most workers and students were set to enter indoor offices and classrooms, when people would have been at higher risk of injury from falling debris or structural collapse.

    “It’s good that our efforts to educate people on what to do when earthquakes hit somehow paid off,” Bacolcol told the Associated Press. However, he also raised urgent concerns about the structural failures of several buildings that he said should have withstood the quake’s force if national building code construction standards had been properly followed during construction.

    Ednar Dayanghirang, regional director of the Philippines’ Office of Civil Defense for the 5 million-person affected region, noted that preparedness measures reduced fatalities in multiple critical ways, most notably by preventing deadly crowd stampedes that often occur during mass public emergencies. “We required all school principals to take one-day courses on incident management, then they appointed disaster-response teams among teachers to deal with earthquakes, tsunamis,” Dayanghircsang said. “They listened and they learned.”

    Located along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped arc of active seismic faults that circles the Pacific Ocean basin, the Philippines ranks among the most disaster-prone nations on Earth, regularly facing major earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tropical storms. Years of repeated disaster events have pushed the national government to invest heavily in public disaster preparedness training, a choice that officials now confirm saved hundreds if not thousands of lives during this month’s powerful quake.

  • Japan’s struggling flagship H3 rocket returns to flight with the debut of a low-cost variant

    Japan’s struggling flagship H3 rocket returns to flight with the debut of a low-cost variant

    Japan’s long-troubled next-generation flagship H3 rocket has notched a pivotal victory for the country’s commercial space ambitions, as its new low-cost variant successfully completed its debut flight and reached its targeted orbital destination on Friday.

    Lifting off from the Tanegashima Space Center, located on a remote island in southwestern Japan, the mission unfolded without incident during live broadcast coverage from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Confirmations from the agency indicate that the rocket’s second stage properly inserted itself into the planned orbit, and all six small research satellites carried onboard — developed by Japanese universities and independent research institutions — successfully separated from the launch vehicle as scheduled.

    Friday’s flight marked the first operational deployment of the H3’s new 30 configuration, a cost-optimized variant fitted with three liquid-fueled LE-9 main engines and no supplemental solid rocket boosters. Designed as the most affordable option in the H3 product line, this new variant is one of three modular configurations engineered to meet diverse payload demands from commercial and government customers around the globe, boosting the rocket series’ competitiveness in a crowded global launch market.

    This successful flight comes after two costly early failures that grounded the H3 program for the better part of a year, and delivered a much-needed win for the program that was built to replace Japan’s workhorse H-2A rocket — a launch vehicle that boasted an almost unbroken record of successful missions over its decades of service. The H3 program’s core mandate is to deliver dramatic cost reductions that let Japan compete in a global launch market currently dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has upended the industry with its low-cost reusable rocket technology. For Japanese policymakers and space industry leaders, a reliable, commercially competitive domestic launch capability is viewed as a critical strategic asset for both the nation’s long-term space exploration plans and national security.

    The H3’s development has been marked by early setbacks. During its maiden flight in March 2023, the rocket failed to ignite its second-stage engine, forcing a planned destruction of the vehicle mid-flight. A second attempt in December 2023 successfully launched, but a second-stage malfunction left the rocket unable to insert its navigation satellite payload into the correct orbit, resulting in another total mission failure. The rocket has remained grounded while engineers investigated and corrected the flaws that caused those failures, and a third consecutive failure on Friday would have delivered a devastating setback to Japan’s upcoming space initiatives — including the country’s planned 2028 robotic Mars exploration mission. Japan’s other small-lift rocket program, the Epsilon S, has also faced delays after a test firing accident in early 2024.

    Co-developed by JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the H3 program aims to eventually reach a cadence of six to eight launches per year once the design is fully mature and operational. Friday’s successful debut of the low-cost 30 configuration puts the program back on track to meet that goal, opening the door for future commercial and scientific missions.

  • Trump says ‘settlement’ reached to end war on Iran

    Trump says ‘settlement’ reached to end war on Iran

    On Thursday, both the United States and Iran sent optimistic signals that a breakthrough had been reached in ceasefire negotiations aimed at ending ongoing open hostilities, with top leaders from both sides hinting a formal agreement could be finalized as early as the coming weekend.

    Speaking to reporters from the Oval Office, former US President Donald Trump announced that a broad framework to end the conflict and open the door to wider comprehensive negotiations was nearly complete. “We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran,” Trump stated, adding that once final documentation is wrapped up over the next few days, a signing ceremony will likely be held, potentially on European soil. Trump also confirmed he plans to send Vice President JD Vance to represent the US in his absence, noting “I won’t be able to be there, but JD Vance will.”

    The announcement comes amid a well-documented pattern for Trump: the president has repeatedly claimed a deal with Iran was imminent in recent months, only for high expectations to collapse and armed clashes to reignite shortly after. Even so, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency offered a similarly upbeat assessment Thursday, reporting that the text of the agreement accepted by the US has already been approved by Iranian negotiating teams, and Tehran is highly likely to formalize the deal in the coming days, though no official formal response has been released to the public yet.

    Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also weighed in through a muted official statement that acknowledged a tentative agreement was taking shape. “President Trump spoke this evening with Prime Minister Netanyahu about the emerging memorandum of understanding with Iran for entry into negotiations,” the statement read. While Israel is not a direct signatory to the preliminary ceasefire document, the statement added, Netanyahu expressed gratitude for Trump’s commitment that any final long-term agreement will include strict provisions: the removal of all existing Iranian enriched nuclear material, the dismantling of Iran’s uranium enrichment infrastructure, caps on Iranian ballistic missile production, and a full end to Iran’s financial and military support for regional armed proxies that Israel has labeled terrorist organizations.

    Not all Iranian outlets echoed the optimistic tone, however. Tasnim News Agency, a media outlet closely aligned with Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), pushed back against Trump’s announcement, pointing to his history of unfulfilled deal claims. “Until Iran announces the matter of a potential understanding, any news from Trump on this subject should be regarded as his previous messages,” the outlet noted in its coverage.

    Trump doubled down on his prediction regardless, repeating his claim that the final agreement will guarantee “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon” — though he offered no specific details on the enforcement mechanisms that would make that guarantee binding. He also highlighted one key immediate outcome of the deal: the full reopening of the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s global oil supplies pass daily. “The whole Middle East is happy, and long beyond the Middle East,” Trump added.

    Thursday’s dramatic shift in tone capped a day of whiplash changes in US policy toward Iran. Early in the day, Trump threatened to seize Iran’s key Kharg Island oil export terminal, only to walk back the threat hours later, claiming the American public “don’t have the stomach” for a large-scale land invasion of Iran.

    Iranian leaders issued sharp, direct warnings in response to Trump’s initial threat of escalation. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker and chief nuclear negotiator, warned that “Wrong strategies and impulsive decisions will reset the entire board for the worse, explode energy infrastructure and markets and create an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years.” General Ali Abdollahi, commander of the Iranian military’s central headquarters, echoed that warning, adding that any US attack “will receive a harsher response than before, and the flames of war, in addition to creating insecurity in the region, will become more widespread and far-reaching.”

    Shortly after the warnings, Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social to formally walk back his threat of offensive strikes. “Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have…cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran,” Trump wrote. He added that “all parties involved” in the talks — including Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt and other regional stakeholders — had already agreed to the final terms of the tentative ceasefire.

    The optimistic breakthrough comes after days of escalating cross-border fire between the US and Iran, even after a fragile temporary ceasefire agreed to in April. Iran has responded to US strikes on maritime vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on Iranian land forces by targeting US regional Arab allies, including Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan. On Thursday, Kuwaiti officials confirmed that an Iranian strike on its territory earlier that day caused multiple injuries and damaged airport radar systems, forcing a temporary closure of Kuwait’s airspace. The New York Times also reported Wednesday that US forces had bombed civilian water storage facilities in southern Iran — attacks that are widely classified as potential war crimes under established international law.

    Despite the public escalation, behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts have been moving at a rapid pace to de-escalate tensions this week. According to Reuters, Qatari mediators traveled to Tehran on Wednesday to finalize the text of the US-Iran ceasefire agreement. Bloomberg also reported that the United Arab Emirates dispatched senior diplomats to hold direct talks with top Iranian officials this week to lower tensions. A Gulf diplomat told Middle East Eye that regional governments believe the talks were held in Tehran, citing open-source flight tracking data on X that showed an Emirati government aircraft, regularly used to carry senior officials, landing in the Iranian capital earlier this week. Middle East Eye also reported this week that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to travel to the Gulf region in the coming days, with stops planned in Bahrain, the UAE and Kuwait — a trip that would almost certainly be canceled if hostilities were set to resume.

    If the ceasefire is signed, the tentative agreement is structured as a temporary 60-day truce, designed to give both sides time to negotiate a broader, long-term deal addressing two core sticking points: Iran’s nuclear program and the status of the Strait of Hormuz, which has been the site of competing blockades imposed by both Iran and the US in recent weeks. According to Axios, a outlet with close ties to the Trump administration that has previously incorrectly predicted an imminent deal multiple times, the final text still requires formal approval from Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. The negotiated text narrows longstanding differences on two key issues: a mechanism to unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets held in foreign banks and clear parameters for the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to global commercial shipping.

  • Hwang In-beom sparks South Korea’s 2-1 comeback win over the Czech Republic at the World Cup

    Hwang In-beom sparks South Korea’s 2-1 comeback win over the Czech Republic at the World Cup

    GUADALAJARA, Mexico — In a second Group A fixture of the 2026 FIFA World Cup held on Thursday night at Guadalajara Stadium, South Korea pulled off a gritty 2-1 comeback victory over the Czech Republic, anchored by a standout performance from Feyenoord midfielder Hwang In-beom, who notched one goal and set up the match-winning strike.

    Both sides struggled to find rhythm through a sleepy first 45 minutes, drawing boos from the crowd as they headed to the locker room for halftime. The deadlock finally broke in the 59th minute, when Czech captain Ladislav Krejci nodded a header into the net off a long throw-in launched into the penalty area, putting the Central European side ahead.

    South Korea responded eight minutes later, with Hwang producing a clever piece of skill to fake out two Czech defenders, create space, and slot home the equalizer. The Feyenoord playmaker continued his impact in the 80th minute, whipping a pinpoint cross from the right flank that forward Oh Hyeon-gyu converted to put the Asian side ahead for good.

    The match had hundreds of empty seats scattered across the 45,664-capacity venue, with an official attendance announced at 44,985 that included FIFA President Gianni Infantino in attendance. After the final whistle, the South Korean squad traveled to the stands behind one of the goals to celebrate with their traveling supporters, posing for a commemorative photo with the fan group.

    Star forward Son Heung-min, making his fourth consecutive World Cup appearance, entered the match just one goal away from becoming South Korea’s all-time leading World Cup goalscorer and the highest-scoring Asian player in tournament history. The 33-year-old Los Angeles FC winger, formerly of Tottenham Hotspur, entered Thursday’s contest with three career World Cup goals across three prior editions, but could not add to his tally: he sent a first-half attempt wide of the post and saw a close-range second-half shot stopped by the Czech goalkeeper.

    The Czechs thought they had reclaimed the lead in the 77th minute off another set piece, but Tomas Soucek’s header was ruled out for offside. The 38th-ranked Czech Republic, making their first World Cup appearance since 2006, outmatched in possession by 25th-ranked South Korea, which carved out the majority of clear scoring chances throughout the match but failed to convert in the opening half.

    Following the match, South Korean head coach Hong Myung-bo emphasized the character his side showed to fight back from a one-goal deficit. “It was our first game and a very difficult one,” Hong said. “The win itself makes me happy, but what’s even more positive is that our boys won by not giving up. I knew that we were more than capable of winning, so at 1-1, I told the boys to keep playing the way we’ve been playing.”

    This result marks a historic milestone for South Korea: it is their first opening World Cup match win since a 2010 victory over Greece in South Africa, and their third consecutive win against a European opponent at the tournament, following upsets over Germany in 2018 and Portugal in 2022. The side is making its 11th consecutive World Cup appearance — 12th overall — more than any other Asian nation. Their best tournament finish remains a fourth-place finish when they co-hosted the 2002 World Cup alongside Japan; they have not advanced past the Round of 16 in every edition since that run.

    Czech manager Miroslav Koubek acknowledged the result after the match, admitting that the stronger side won on the night, while noting that small errors derailed his team’s bid for a positive result. “We played very well, it could have been a draw and we could have won as well,” Koubek said.

    In the other Group A match held on Thursday, co-host Mexico kicked off its World Cup campaign with a 2-0 win over South Africa in Mexico City.

  • Beijing reins in Alibaba, JD.com over destructive 618 price cuts

    Beijing reins in Alibaba, JD.com over destructive 618 price cuts

    In the lead-up to China’s annual high-stakes 618 mid-year shopping festival, shares of the country’s largest e-commerce firms dropped sharply on Thursday, after Beijing’s top municipal market regulator summoned five major online platforms to address allegations of deceptive and unfair promotional practices.

    Leading the sell-off, Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed stock fell 5.4% to close at HK$107.40 (US$13.8), while rival JD.com declined 2.9% to HK$108.9. PDD Holdings, the parent company of domestic platform Pinduoduo and global shopping app Temu, also recorded losses during early trading on the Nasdaq exchange.

    The Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation named the five platforms under investigation as Taobao (owned by Alibaba), JD.com, Pinduoduo, Douyin and Xiaohongshu, citing multiple confirmed violations: misleading promotional claims, opaque operating rules, and inadequate disclosure of third-party seller information. The action marks the latest step in a months-long nationwide campaign to curb what Chinese regulators describe as cutthroat “rat race” competition that erodes fair market conditions.

    Regulators specifically flagged that many platforms failed to post the full terms of subsidy and consumer voucher campaigns in visible locations for shoppers. In multiple cases, platforms did not disclose how much total funding was allocated for promotions, or how costs were split between platforms and participating merchants. “Platforms must shift from competing on subsidies and prices to competing on innovation and service,” the administration stated in its public notice. Pinduoduo was additionally cited for including unilateral clauses in its business terms that shielded the platform from legal liability in product quality disputes, a practice that violates mandatory Chinese consumer protection regulations.

    The regulator has ordered all five platforms to immediately revise their 618 promotional rules to meet compliance standards, and confirmed ongoing monitoring of the platforms’ activities throughout the shopping event. This most recent summons is not an isolated action: regulators first gathered 17 major e-commerce platforms on May 25 to outline a full set of prohibited practices ahead of 618, and launched the first wave of the crackdown back in March, when 12 major platforms including Ctrip, Meituan, Douyin and Kuaishou were summoned over earlier violations.

    Regulators have outlined five core prohibitions for this year’s 618 event: no irrational, oversized subsidy campaigns; no false or exaggerated advertising; no platform clauses that unilaterally shift all consumer dispute liability to third-party merchants; no unsolicited commercial messaging to consumers; and no failure to clearly post refund and cancellation policies for travel and accommodation bookings.

    During the March crackdown, investigators uncovered multiple harmful practices that shifted the entire cost of promotional pricing onto merchants. Taobao Flash Buy was singled out for enrolling food and beverage merchants into discount campaigns without their explicit consent, and cutting listed product prices without notifying sellers. In one documented case, a merchant’s mutton skewer and stuffed pancake set, originally priced at 19.8 yuan (US$2.74), left the merchant with just 2.58 yuan in revenue per order after platform-imposed discounts. A second merchant saw its 18-yuan order of dumplings repriced to leave just 1.25 yuan per sale, a figure far below the cost of ingredients.

    Online travel giant Ctrip was also found to have violated fair trade rules, penalizing hotels with traffic restrictions and demanding full commission for bookings that were not actually facilitated by the platform. For example, the platform classified guest extensions of stays arranged directly at a hotel front desk, or re-bookings made through other channels after cancellation, as “customer diversion” and penalized properties accordingly. Regulators ordered Ctrip to remove a proprietary price-tracking tool that monitored hotel rates across all sales channels and forced properties to match the lowest available price, a practice that squeezed merchant profit margins.

    This regulatory crackdown comes one day after the National Bureau of Statistics released May consumer inflation data that fell short of market expectations. China’s consumer price index rose 1.2% year-on-year in May, matching April’s growth rate but below analyst forecasts of 1.3%. Month-over-month, CPI dropped 0.1%, a sharp reversal from the 0.3% gain recorded in April. Weak inflation data has added to broader concerns over soft domestic consumption, with total retail sales of consumer goods growing just 1.9% year-on-year in the first four months of 2026, a steep drop from 4.7% growth in the same period of 2025. While online retail of physical goods recorded 5.7% year-on-year growth over the same period, outpacing overall retail expansion, the broader economic trend points to a slow-building deflationary spiral that Chinese policymakers have struggled to counter.

    Many industry observers and commentators have framed the regulatory crackdown as a necessary correction to a harmful market dynamic. A Xinjiang-based columnist writing under the pen name A Wen argued that public perceptions of platform subsidies as acts of corporate generosity are deeply misplaced. “Their subsidies are not generosity, but a tool for market domination,” he explained. “Platforms use them to strong-arm merchants into compliance and to lock consumers into habits that translate into long-term control. The money is never simply a platform’s to spend as it pleases. Behind every subsidy campaign is traffic manipulation, rule-setting and the financial survival of merchants.”

    He added that the industry’s obsession with low prices as the only metric of success has dragged the entire sector into a race to the bottom: “Platforms subsidize a little, merchants concede a little, consumers feel they got a deal. But no one actually profits. Established brands get squeezed into generic products, generic products get undercut by street-stall goods, and street-stall goods give way to counterfeits. The entire supply chain ends up competing on who can hold out the longest.” He described the ongoing subsidy war as a classic prisoner’s dilemma, where no single platform dares to stop offering deep cuts even as all players recognize the downward spiral is unsustainable. He noted that the current regulatory intervention is not just a warning, but a necessary step to draw a clear line between legitimate competition and destructive market attrition.

    However, some market analysts have warned that curbing aggressive discounting could carry unintended economic consequences. Consumers who have grown accustomed to deeply discounted online prices may choose to reduce overall spending rather than shift to higher-priced, higher-quality products, they argue. A pullback in online sales would further weaken China’s overall retail growth, which has already slowed sharply in recent quarters.

    The crackdown comes against a long backdrop of shifting Chinese consumer policy. After ending nearly three years of nationwide Covid-19 lockdowns in late 2022 and fully reopening the economy in 2023, China saw a 7.2% rebound in total retail sales that year, but growth has slowed steadily since. In 2024, the State Council launched a national trade-in subsidy program to encourage consumers to replace old smartphones, home appliances and automobiles, offering a 15% rebate capped at 500 yuan per eligible item. The program has been credited with supporting retail growth of 3.5% in 2024 and 3.7% in 2025, and has been extended through 2026, even as consumer confidence remains fragile amid soft household income growth.