标签： Asia

A fragile regional ceasefire between Iran and Israel has collapsed into open tit-for-tat missile exchanges, prompting outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump to issue urgent public and private calls for an immediate end to hostilities amid growing global alarm over wider conflict.

In a public post to his Truth Social platform over the weekend, Trump stressed that the two nations “must immediately stop ‘shooting’”, as cross-border attacks reignited long-simmered tensions that a fragile April ceasefire had temporarily paused. The escalation comes even as the Trump administration has pursued behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to lock in a new peace deal, with the president directly pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on retaliatory strikes, according to senior U.S. administration sources.

The current cycle of violence was triggered Saturday when Israeli warplanes struck Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing at least two people and wounding 20 more. In a deliberate, proportional response, Iran launched a barrage of missile strikes toward northern Israel on Sunday, fulfilling long-stated pledges to retaliate for attacks on Iranian interests and allied assets. Despite Trump’s last-minute phone call urging Netanyahu to stand down to save faltering peace negotiations, Israel launched its own wave of counter-strikes against targets inside Iran.

A senior anonymous U.S. official outlined that Trump told Netanyahu during the Sunday call that Washington was “close to doing something good in terms of a deal”. The official added that Netanyahu initially pushed back against the request before offering a tentative, non-binding agreement to hold fire, and confirmed the Trump administration never issued “the green light” for Israel’s strike on the Lebanese capital. Ahead of the call, Trump had already publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the Beirut attack, telling Fox News he was “not happy” about the strike on Lebanon’s capital. In separate comments to the Financial Times, Trump also claimed Netanyahu would have “no choice” but to accept a negotiated deal with Iran, asserting that “I call the shots” on regional diplomacy.

The failed diplomatic push has drawn sharp criticism from political opponents in Washington. U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy argued that the new wave of cross-border attacks compounds what he called Trump’s diplomatic “humiliation”, marking a clear failure of the administration’s efforts to constrain Israeli military action.

Iran has meanwhile formally pinned responsibility for the escalation on the United States, in comments carried by the country’s state-run Tasnim news agency. Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei noted that Washington is a signatory to the April 8 ceasefire agreement, saying “Whatever happens in the region… the direct responsibility of the United States is established, and it will also bear responsibility for the consequences of any escalation.” He added that the original negotiation framework was intended to end broader hostilities against Iran and resolve the ongoing conflict in Lebanon as core components of the ceasefire deal.

On Monday, multiple reports from Iran’s official IRNA news agency confirmed widespread “powerful explosions” were heard across key Iranian cities including Tehran, Isfahan, and Tabriz. Israeli military officials confirmed they had targeted military sites across western and central Iran, including a strike on a major petrochemical facility in the port city of Mahshahr. To date, neither side has released official casualty figures from the latest exchange of strikes, though emergency management and hospital systems in both countries have activated full response protocols to prepare for the risk of prolonged open hostilities.

In response to Israel’s strikes, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a coordinated retaliatory operation codenamed “Operation Nasr”. The IRGC announced its aerospace division fired precision missiles at two key Israeli air bases: Nevatim Air Base and Tel Nof Air Base, saying the operation was launched in response to earlier Israeli strikes on Iranian radar installations across multiple locations. This marked the first major direct Iranian attack on Israeli territory since the April ceasefire came into force. Israeli air defense systems reported intercepting roughly 10 incoming missiles bound for northern Israel, with no casualties reported on the Israeli side as of Monday morning.

In an official statement, the IRGC noted the operation was the first phase of a broader retaliatory campaign, added that the strike was dedicated to fallen Iranian service members killed during the previous year’s 12-day war, and carried out under the alternate code name “Ya Heydar Karrar”. The group stressed all of its combat units remain at full operational readiness to respond to any further escalation, warning that additional strikes will follow if Israel continues its military campaign across the region.

A fresh wave of Israeli military operations across the Gaza Strip has left at least 13 Palestinians dead, including children, a teenage fisherman, and police officers, in violence that spans from Sunday to Monday, according to Palestinian official reports and local media. The death toll breaks down to nine fatalities recorded on Sunday, with four additional lives lost on the second day of attacks.

Among the most recent deadly incidents, an Israeli airstrike launched early Monday hit temporary displacement tents in the al-Mawasi region of southern Gaza, a area that has been repeatedly labeled a “safe zone” for displaced Palestinians by Israeli authorities, claiming the lives of two civilian residents. A separate strike in the densely populated northern town of Jabalia killed two more people, one of whom was a child.

The rising death toll also includes 14-year-old Hadeel Ayman Jundiya, who succumbed to critical injuries she sustained in earlier Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City on Sunday. In the central Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, four civilians were killed when Israeli forces targeted a vehicle carrying civilians near Palestine Square.

Off the central Gaza coast near Deir al-Balah, Israeli naval forces opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats, killing 15-year-old fisherman Muhammad Musa Abu Giab, who had headed out to sea to provide food for his family. In a social media post confirming the teenager’s death, journalist Ramy Abdu highlighted the deadly reality of daily life in Gaza: even searching for basic sustenance has become a death sentence. Zakaria Bakr, coordinator of the Union of Fishermen’s Committees in Gaza, added that Israeli naval forces also detained multiple other fishermen working in the area during the same incident.

In southern Gaza’s Khan Younis district, an Israeli strike on a Palestinian police checkpoint located west of the city killed five officers.

Parallel to the ongoing military violence, the Israeli Coordination and Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the body that manages Israeli activities in Gaza and the West Bank, announced Sunday that the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing—Gaza’s primary entry point for humanitarian aid deliveries—would be closed following renewed cross-border conflict with Iran. The border crossing was reportedly reopened on Monday morning, but persistent concerns remain that escalating regional hostilities could once again cut off critical aid flows into the blockaded enclave.

This latest disruption to aid access comes months into a humanitarian crisis that has already left Gaza desperately short of nearly all essential supplies. Even after a US-brokered ceasefire agreement was signed in October 2024, which aimed to end two years of large-scale Israeli military operations in Gaza by halting offensive attacks and scaling up humanitarian aid deliveries, Israel has consistently violated the terms of the truce. Under the agreement, Israel was required to allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza daily, but in practice, only an average of 200 trucks have entered each day.

For months, United Nations agencies, international human rights organizations, and Palestinian residents have sounded the alarm over catastrophic shortages of food, clean drinking water, fuel, medical medication, and other basic necessities. Even during the formal ceasefire period, Israeli forces have continued to carry out targeted airstrikes and ground operations across Gaza, with the Palestinian Ministry of Health recording at least 970 Palestinian deaths since the truce took effect. Violence has intensified steadily in recent weeks, with 119 Palestinians killed in the month of May alone.

Since the start of large-scale Israeli military operations in Gaza in October 2023, nearly 73,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. Thousands more remain unaccounted for, trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings across the enclave, with little hope of recovery efforts amid ongoing access restrictions and bombing.

Lying along the Pacific Ocean’s geologically active “Ring of Fire,” the Philippines faces constant, heightened seismic risk, ranking among the most earthquake-prone nations on Earth. Over the past seven years, a series of powerful tremors have shaken islands across the archipelago, leaving widespread death, destruction, and displacement in their wake. This timeline outlines the most significant seismic events to impact the country in recent years, from 2019 through the projected 2026 event.

The first major event on record in this roundup dates to December 15, 2019, when a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Davao del Sur on the southern island of Mindanao. The tremor claimed 13 lives, and it stood out as the fourth quake measuring above magnitude 6 to hit Mindanao in just two months that year.

Nearly three years later, on July 27, 2022, a 7.0-magnitude quake hit Luzon, the Philippines’ largest and northernmost main island. The event killed 11 people across the region.

In November 2023, Mindanao was hit again: a 6.7-magnitude offshore tremor struck the island’s coast, leaving nine people dead, according to the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. The quake triggered structural damage across affected areas, including collapsing ceilings in busy shopping malls and sparking dangerous landslides.

Less than a month after that November 2023 event, on December 2, 2023, a far stronger 7.6-magnitude quake struck off Mindanao’s coast. The midnight temblor sent panicked local villagers fleeing their homes for higher ground, and the disaster claimed at least three lives.

The first of two major 2025 seismic events struck on September 30, when a 6.9-magnitude quake hit Bogo City in the central Philippine province of Cebu. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology confirmed the local Bogo Bay fault line that caused the quake had been dormant for more than 400 years, catching communities completely off guard. Striking at a shallow depth in the middle of the night while most residents were asleep, this rare seismic event became one of the most devastating to hit the central Philippines in more than a decade, killing at least 72 people, injuring hundreds, and destroying infrastructure across a wide area.

Just under two weeks later, on October 10, 2025, southern Mindanao was hit by two powerful offshore earthquakes separated by only a few hours. The first 7.4-magnitude tremor killed seven people, while the subsequent 6.8-magnitude aftershock was severe enough to prompt local authorities to issue an immediate regional tsunami warning.

The most recent event on the timeline is projected for June 8, 2026, when a 7.8-magnitude offshore earthquake will strike off Mindanao’s southern coast. The disaster is expected to kill at least 32 people and trigger small tsunami waves that will reach parts of the country’s shoreline.

Less than three years after the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan amid the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces, new reports of arbitrary detentions of women in the western city of Herat have reignited global condemnation of the hardline government’s sweeping gender restrictions, with the United Nations formally flagging serious human rights risks over the incident.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) first issued its warning on the social platform X on Sunday night, confirming that the recent wave of arrests and detentions in Herat has sparked “serious human rights concerns.” In its statement, the mission reminded Afghanistan’s de facto ruling authorities that all Afghans, regardless of gender, are guaranteed the right to freedom of movement and equal treatment under international human rights law. This is not the first time UNAMA has raised alarm over such detentions: the mission similarly condemned arbitrary arrests of women for dress code non-compliance in Kabul last year, though the de facto government rejected those claims as well.

While UNAMA has not released specific details on the latest incident to the public, an anonymous human rights monitor, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on sharing information with external media, confirmed Monday that independent observers have verified at least 16 detentions across Herat since the previous Friday. The list of detainees reportedly includes a pregnant woman, all held exclusively over allegations that they failed to comply with the Taliban’s strict public dress regulations for women.

The crackdown followed a formal notification issued just days earlier: on Friday, Herat mosque imams delivered announcements during weekly Friday prayers on behalf of Afghanistan’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the governing body tasked with enforcing the Taliban’s strict social rules. The announcement reminded local women that they are prohibited from leaving their homes unless they wear mandatory hijab, and the detentions began within hours of the public notice, according to the monitor.

The Afghan virtue and vice ministry has pushed back against the claims, dismissing all reports of mass arrests as “unfounded rumors” in an official statement. At the same time, the ministry reaffirmed its commitment to enforcing the dress rules, noting that “hijab is a divine command, a law that we are obliged to implement.” Under current Taliban regulations, women in public must wear a full hijab that covers the entire body, plus a face covering that leaves only the eyes exposed. In response to the rule, many Afghan women have adopted COVID-style face masks as a practical way to meet the face covering requirement while going about daily life.

Since retaking full control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban government has implemented a series of increasingly draconian restrictions targeting women and girls across every sphere of public life. Beyond the strict public dress code, these rules include a total ban on secondary and university education for girls and women, severe restrictions that bar women from nearly all professions outside of a small number of sectors like healthcare and education, and additional limits on women’s access to public spaces including parks, gyms and beauty salons. The sweeping restrictions have been widely condemned by the international community and human rights organizations, which have repeatedly called on the Taliban to reverse the policies that have systematically excluded half of Afghanistan’s population from public life.

A sudden seismic event sent tremors through Digos City, Philippines, forcing panicked schoolchildren to scramble for safety as the ground shifted beneath their feet. Audio captured in the immediate moments of the quake captures the audible fear of young students, with screams ringing out across school grounds as the shaking intensified. In the wake of the natural disaster, local school authorities have released a statement confirming that despite the widespread alarm among students and staff, no injuries were reported among the school community. Emergency response teams have yet to release full details on the magnitude of the earthquake or any structural damage to the campus, but the quick evacuation protocols put in place by school officials are credited with keeping all children out of harm’s way. The incident comes as the Philippines, which sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, regularly experiences seismic activity, and schools across the archipelago maintain regular earthquake drills to prepare students for just such events.

Against the backdrop of expanding cultural and educational cooperation between China and the United Arab Emirates, young Emirati students are turning their growing fascination with Chinese language, culture and innovation into concrete ambitions to build their futures in China, and to serve as bridges for bilateral friendship.

These sincere aspirations took center stage on Saturday at the 2026 regional final of the Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition, hosted at Zayed University’s Dubai campus. Twenty-two contestants drawn from primary, secondary and higher education institutions across the UAE gathered to share how engaging with Chinese language and culture has transformed their personal outlooks and life trajectories.

One standout participant was 17-year-old Ali Bilal Masood Ali Aldhuhoori, a soon-to-graduate student from Saif Bin Hamad Boys’ High School in Fujairah. Aldhuhoori previously joined a short-term exchange program in Shanghai, where he immersed himself in traditional Chinese culture and gained first-hand insight into China’s world-leading advances in artificial intelligence. That experience taught him the unique power of combining language proficiency with technological expertise, reshaping his long-term career and education goals.

“For me, Mandarin is far more than just a foreign language — it is a clear path to my future,” Aldhuhoori explained. “I have a firm goal: to pursue further study in China, combine academic learning with hands-on social practice, and achieve my personal Chinese Dream.” During the competition, he showcased his deep appreciation for traditional Chinese culture by reciting several classic ancient Chinese poems, noting that the concise, evocative verses have opened entirely new intellectual and cultural horizons for him. “By learning Mandarin and understanding Chinese poetry, I get to see the whole world through China’s perspective,” he said. Following his competition appearance, he expressed hope that his participation would inspire younger Emiratis to master Mandarin and seize every opportunity to visit China, echoing an ancient Chinese proverb that encourages both extensive reading and broad travel.

Another top performer was Khadija Sultan Alkhoori, a middle school student from Abu Dhabi, who claimed first place in the middle school division. She wowed judges and audiences with a smooth, cohesive tai chi performance delivered in a traditional red training uniform, paired with near-fluent Mandarin that earned her hearty applause. Khadija’s ultimate goal is to travel to China to study traditional Chinese medicine, a dream that has the full support of her entire family.

“I am extremely proud of my daughter’s outstanding achievement here today,” said her father Sultan, an IT engineer who has traveled to both Shanghai and Chengdu. “Learning Mandarin has opened up far broader prospects for her future. China has such a long, profound cultural heritage and incredible modernization achievements that I got to see firsthand during my visits. I hope Khadija will keep advancing her Mandarin skills, dive deeper into Chinese culture, and grow up to be a true friendship envoy for exchanges between the UAE and China.”

The growing enthusiasm for Chinese language learning among young Emiratis did not emerge by accident: it is the result of years of structured bilateral cooperation rooted in shared goodwill. Back in July 2019, in the presence of senior leaders from both nations, the UAE launched the “Hundred Schools Project”, a landmark Chinese language education initiative. Since its launch, the program has introduced Mandarin courses to more than 170 UAE schools, reaching over 71,000 students across the country.

“In recent years, China and the UAE have achieved fruitful outcomes in people-to-people exchanges and educational collaboration,” noted Zeng Jixin, China’s Ambassador to the UAE. “Known as the top global event for international Chinese language education, Chinese Bridge acts not just as a linguistic bridge, but as a bond connecting different civilizations and linking people’s hearts. I hope all the contestants here will become long-term inheritors and guardians of China-UAE friendship.”

2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the Chinese Bridge program, which was created and is organized by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation under China’s Ministry of Education, with support from Chinese embassies and Confucius Institutes around the globe. Zayed University’s Confucius Institute has hosted the UAE’s preliminary and final rounds of the competition for nine consecutive years, with more than 2,500 participants aged 4 to 30 taking part over that period.

Michael Allen, Provost and Chief Academic Officer of Zayed University, emphasized the lasting value of the competition for bilateral relations. “Language connects people, and cultural exchange strengthens friendship,” Allen said. “Chinese Bridge is not only a stage for students to showcase their Chinese proficiency and cultural talents, but also a critical link that boosts mutual understanding, facilitates people-to-people interaction, and deepens friendship between the United Arab Emirates and China.”