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  • Khadijah Farrakhan, ‘First Lady’ of Nation of Islam, dies aged 90

    Khadijah Farrakhan, ‘First Lady’ of Nation of Islam, dies aged 90

    The Nation of Islam, one of the most influential Black religious and political movements in the United States, is mourning the passing of Khadijah Farrakhan, the long-time wife of the organization’s leader Louis Farrakhan. She died on June 27 at the age of 90, leaving behind a 70-plus-year legacy of service to the movement’s mission of Black self-reliance.

    Affectionately known to followers as “Mother Khadijah,” she was far more than the spouse of the Nation’s leader — she was a foundational figure in the movement’s modern history. A formal statement released by the Shura Executive Council confirmed her passing, writing, “The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan with deep sadness yet with profound gratitude to Allah informs you that his beloved wife of 72 years, the First Lady of the Nation of Islam, Mother Khadijah has returned to Allah (may Allah be pleased).” The Farrakhan family has long been based in Chicago, where the Nation of Islam’s historic headquarters, Mosque Maryam, stands on the city’s South Side.

    Born Betsy Ross, Khadijah married Louis Eugene Walcott — who would later become Louis Farrakhan — in Boston on September 12, 1953. Two years after their wedding, both she and her husband converted to Islam, after Louis was invited to join the movement by legendary civil rights and religious leader Malcolm X. Over the course of their 72-year marriage, the couple raised nine children together.

    A commanding, respected leader in her own right, Khadijah made her own mark on the movement’s public advocacy. In 1997, two years after Louis Farrakhan organized the landmark Million Man March in Washington D.C., she took the stage at the Million Woman March in Philadelphia to address a crowd of thousands of Black women. In her memorable address, she argued, “A nation can rise no higher than its women,” adding, “We focus on women but cannot lose sight that we must rise as a family – men, women and children.”

    To contextualize Khadijah Farrakhan’s decades-long contribution, it is necessary to trace the origins of the Nation of Islam itself. The movement was founded in 1930 by Wallace D Fard Muhammad, a traveling salesman who began preaching to Black communities in Detroit’s segregated neighborhoods. Fard Muhammad’s core mission was to “teach the downtrodden and defenseless Black people a thorough knowledge of God and of themselves,” blending Islamic teachings with a radical ethos of economic self-determination for Black Americans, and encouraging followers to cast off the names and cultural practices imposed during chattel slavery.

    After facing repeated arrests and death threats from Detroit police over his teachings, Fard Muhammad disappeared, and his protégé Elijah Muhammad took over leadership of the movement, relocating its headquarters to Chicago. Under Elijah Muhammad’s direction, the Nation of Islam grew from a small congregation meeting in a rented storefront into a robust, interconnected network of independent Black-led institutions, including schools, a national newspaper, farms, and local businesses. This autonomous economic infrastructure grew from a core conviction: that Black prosperity must be built and seized by the community, rather than begged from the U.S. establishment.

    The movement’s message of empowerment spread rapidly in the mid-20th century. Malcolm X joined the Nation in 1952, and his charismatic advocacy helped swell the movement’s membership to roughly 300,000 within a decade. When legendary boxer Muhammad Ali converted to the Nation of Islam in 1964, the movement gained global media attention and expanded its reach.

    After Elijah Muhammad’s death in 1975, his son Wallace led a major restructuring of the organization, aligning it with mainstream Sunni Islam and abandoning the Nation’s historic Black nationalist infrastructure. Louis Farrakhan rejected this shift, splitting from the restructured organization in 1977 to rebuild the Nation of Islam in Chicago and revive its core mission of Black economic self-determination. It was this reborn, unapologetically independent movement that Khadijah Farrakhan nurtured and supported for more than 45 years.

    In the days following her passing, memorial arrangements have been announced. Khadijah Farrakhan will lie in state on Wednesday and Thursday at Mosque Maryam, the Nation of Islam’s National Center in Chicago, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. A formal funeral service will be held at the same location on Friday at 11 a.m.

  • CPJ board member removed as it undertakes review of journalists killed in Gaza

    CPJ board member removed as it undertakes review of journalists killed in Gaza

    In a bombshell revelation shared on social media platform X Monday, Nika Soon-Shiong, publisher of independent outlet Drop Site News, announced she has been ousted from the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) — a move that comes directly after she publicly challenged the organization’s controversial decision to strip dozens of Palestinian journalists from its official count of media workers killed in Gaza.

    Soon-Shiong posted the announcement alongside the full text of the internal email she sent to fellow board members outlining her concerns, writing simply: “I have been informed that I’m no longer a member of the Committee to Protect Journalists board.”

    When contacted for comment by Middle East Eye, CPJ offered a vague response in an emailed statement, claiming only that Soon-Shiong’s five-year board term was not set to expire until June 2026, declining to address whether her removal was tied to the ongoing internal review of its Gaza casualty database that she opposed.

    The conflict stems from CPJ’s announcement last week that it would launch a full review of its Gaza casualty list, after the militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad published obituaries identifying 20 people previously listed by CPJ as journalists as combatants. Those 20 names were immediately removed from CPJ’s count, dropping its official total of journalists killed in Gaza to 209, far below the 270+ confirmed by the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. The full review is expected to conclude next month.

    In her internal email, Soon-Shiong questioned the entire premise of the review, noting CPJ had failed to establish clear objectives, a defined scope of work, or a public assessment of the institutional risks of revisiting the fundamental question of who qualifies as a journalist for protection. At the core of her criticism is the organization’s decision to single out Palestinian journalists for removal based on affiliations, while applying a double standard to journalists with links to the Israeli military.

    Soon-Shiong explicitly tied the push for the review to a hit piece published May 27 by the right-wing U.S. outlet Washington Free Beacon by reporter Adam Kredo, who has a long track record of targeting pro-Palestinian and pro-Muslim voices. Kredo’s article attacked the CPJ board for what it claimed was widespread anti-Israel sentiment, calling out Soon-Shiong and Nobel Prize-winning Filipino journalist Maria Ressa by name as “virulent anti-Israel voices” for publicly labeling Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a genocide and comparing its actions to those of Nazi Germany. Soon-Shiong wrote that the proposal to exclude journalists based on “behaviors and activities” or affiliation with “state-backed propaganda outlets, militant- and designated terror-affiliated organizations” emerged directly from the criticisms Kredo leveled in that article.

    “Accusations of terrorism are widespread and politically motivated to discredit journalists and political opponents,” Soon-Shiong wrote in the email. “I appreciated the Board’s dismissal of the article… [but] because baseless accusations will become more common, not less, CPJ must strive to rise above the fray. Reopening the question of ‘who is a journalist’ carries profound implications for the individuals CPJ protects and for the organizations with which they are affiliated. It’s a betrayal to our colleagues in Gaza who have faced the deadliest conflict for journalists ever recorded.”

    Weeks before Soon-Shiong’s removal, prominent Palestinian journalist Mohammed el-Kurd, Palestine correspondent for *The Nation*, warned of CPJ’s plans in a post on X. Citing anonymous sources inside the organization, el-Kurd said CPJ planned to formally revise its definition of a journalist to exclude Palestinian and Lebanese journalists working for state-funded outlets — while explicitly allowing Israeli, American, and Ukrainian journalists employed by state-funded outlets or embedded with national militaries to keep their recognized status.

    For mainstream U.S. and Canadian media outlets, CPJ’s casualty count has long been the default source for the number of journalists killed in Gaza, with most outlets declining to cite local Palestinian organizations or the Gaza Health Ministry’s official totals. That reliance makes CPJ’s review all the more consequential for public understanding of the unprecedented danger Gaza journalists face.

    In her criticisms of the review, Soon-Shiong pushed back on the organization’s unequal application of its new standards, asking why only Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad affiliations were being targeted for scrutiny. She noted that Israeli forces have been widely accused of war crimes in Gaza, and multiple U.S. journalists working for major mainstream outlets employ reporters who serve in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

    “What should happen to outlets like The Atlantic, LA Times, or BBC where editors served in the IDF directly?” Soon-Shiong asked. “CPJ cannot credibly position itself as an objective judge of who is a legitimate journalist and what merits protection.”

    In its response to Middle East Eye, CPJ denied changing its longstanding methodology, which it says applies uniformly across all global conflict zones, and claimed it has not altered how it classifies journalists. “Our long-standing policy is to include journalists working for state-backed media and those working with media organizations affiliated with militant groups provided they are not engaging in combat or inciting violence in a manner likely to have imminent effect. This is consistent with international humanitarian law,” the organization said. “If we determine an individual was an active combatant or incited imminent violence then they would be removed from our list regardless of their outlet’s affiliation.”

    Soon-Shiong, who is the daughter of Los Angeles Times billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, joined the CPJ board in 2021 and took over leadership of Drop Site News last year. Founded by veteran investigative journalists Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim, Drop Site News has gained recognition for its in-depth, on-the-ground coverage of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and Palestinian politics that is largely missing from mainstream U.S. media, including rare wide-ranging interviews with Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials.

  • O Tsinghua – the long and winding road leads me to your door

    O Tsinghua – the long and winding road leads me to your door

    Opening with a lyrical verse from The Beatles’ *The Long and Winding Road*, this personal narrative weaves together the curious biology of steelhead trout, a cross-cultural educational journey, and the centuries-long pattern of Fujianese diaspora migration to tell a story of unexpected belonging and success.

    To biologists, *Oncorhynchus mykiss* is a species of fish defined by remarkable adaptability. Some members of the species, known as resident rainbow trout, spend their entire lives in the small rivers and streams where they hatch. Feeding on insects, snails, and leeches, these homebound fish grow to modest sizes, boasting delicate mottled olive-green backs, silvery flanks, and a soft pink stripe along their sides. They are a favorite among fly fishermen, who relish the quiet challenge of coaxing these cunning, beautiful trout to bite a carefully presented dry fly or nymph.

    But for other *Oncorhynchus mykiss*, the call of the open ocean proves irresistible. These anadromous variants, called steelhead, leave their birth streams as juveniles and venture into the open ocean to feed. Exposed to rich supplies of baitfish and krill, their growth explodes exponentially: anabolic hormones trigger a full physical transformation, their flesh turns a deep blood-red from krill carotenoids, and their bodies mature into large, powerful fish with gunmetal-gray backs and chrome bellies. By the time they return to freshwater to spawn, they resemble salmon in every meaningful way, prized by anglers for their brutal, acrobatic fights that test skill and endurance. This dual nature of *Oncorhynchus mykiss* – a single species that can choose between two entirely distinct life paths – becomes a powerful metaphor for the journey at the heart of this story.

    Four years ago, the author, a Fujianese diaspora native, made an unconventional and widely questioned choice: he encouraged his son, Han Feizi Junior, a student at an English-dominant international school in Hong Kong, to apply to Tsinghua University, with no backup plan. At the time, this decision stood far outside the norm for graduates of Han’s school, who almost universally pursued degrees at Western institutions from Ivy League schools to Oxbridge. Mainland Chinese universities, even Tsinghua – one of the most prestigious in the country – were rarely considered by Hong Kong international school graduates.

    Critics and concerned family friends were quick to question the plan: Han’s Mandarin was only functional, his academic profile fit the mold of a typical Western university applicant, and non-gaokao international and diaspora students at top mainland universities often carried a stigma of being less prepared than their peers who survived the gaokao, China’s grueling national college entrance exam. Many Han’s age applying to Tsinghua from Hong Kong were recent transplants from the mainland, with native-level Mandarin and academic foundations built in the mainland system. But the author saw the choice as an opportunity: Han would not only earn a degree in computer science, he would gain fluency in Mandarin and a first-hand understanding of modern Chinese society – a rare combination of skills in an increasingly interconnected world. Even the author, though, concedes he was partially guessing at the outcome, with no clear idea of what lay ahead for his son.

    The journey did not start smoothly. After two weeks of COVID-19 quarantine, Han’s mother dropped him off at Tsinghua’s gates, and his first year was marked by struggle. The family feared they had made a catastrophic mistake. But gradually, things shifted: Han’s Mandarin improved in leaps and bounds, he grew accustomed to the academic rhythm of Tsinghua, he formed close personal relationships, and he began to lean into his strengths – strong organizational skills and disciplined time management – that set him apart. Professors welcomed him into their research labs, he published his first academic paper in an artificial intelligence conference, and by his senior year, he moved across campus with the confidence of any long-time student.

    This past June 27, Han Feizi Junior graduated from Tsinghua University with a degree in computer science. The experiment worked far better than even the author had hoped. Far from the stigma that sometimes follows non-gaokao admits, Han gained everything the author promised: he achieved functional fluency in Mandarin and a deep, lived understanding of Chinese culture, exactly as the author predicted. He leaves as a perfectly bilingual, bicultural graduate with a strong quantitative background and proven research experience – exactly the rare, in-demand talent the author dreamed he would become, even if Han has no interest in following his father into investment banking.

    The author goes on to draw a parallel between the anadromous life cycle of steelhead and the centuries-long migration pattern of the Fujianese people. One of China’s most widely dispersed diaspora communities, Fujianese can be found across every corner of the globe, from running small-town Chinese takeout restaurants in the United States to leading massive multinational business networks across Southeast Asia. But many have followed the anadromous path: leaving their adopted homes to return to their Chinese roots, just as steelhead return to their birth streams to spawn. The author’s own family carries this tradition: his great-grandfather, a patriarch, returned to Fujian from Indonesia after World War II to help rebuild the country, following in the footsteps of iconic Fujianese returnee Tan Kah Kee, founder of Xiamen University. Later generations left China again to build lives abroad, and now the great-grandson has returned to study at one of China’s top universities – part of a growing wave of diaspora youth choosing mainland higher education.

    Closing the narrative, the author echoes two iconic meditations on paths home. Paul McCartney’s verse reminds readers that the long and winding road always leads back to where you belong, while Lu Xun’s famous observation on hope and roads notes that roads do not exist until many people walk them, turning an untrodden path into a clear way forward. For this anadromous graduate, and for a growing number of diaspora youth, the road to Tsinghua – once little-traveled – has become a well-worn path to success and belonging.

  • Chinese tycoon sentenced to 30 years in US jail

    Chinese tycoon sentenced to 30 years in US jail

    A once-prominent Chinese property billionaire who built a new public profile as a vocal critic of the Chinese government after fleeing to the United States has received a 30-year federal prison sentence for orchestrating a decade-long billion-dollar criminal fraud conspiracy.

    Guo Wengui, also known by his aliases Miles Guo and Ho Wan Kwok, fled China for the U.S. in 2017 while facing domestic corruption investigations linked to his real estate empire. Once in the U.S., he rebranded himself as an opposition figure, cultivated a large, loyal online following among overseas Chinese communities, and forged high-profile connections with anti-China political figures including former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon.

    After a lengthy trial, Guo was convicted on multiple felony counts: racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering. Prosecutors laid out that between 2018 and 2023, Guo raised more than $1 billion from his thousands of trusting followers through fake investment projects and fraudulent cryptocurrency ventures. Instead of using the funds for political advocacy or legitimate business activities as he promised, the prosecution proved Guo diverted nearly all of the money to sustain an extravagant personal lifestyle, including a 50,000-square-foot luxury mansion, a $1 million custom Lamborghini, and a $37 million private yacht.

    The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in a Manhattan federal courtroom, which was filled with Guo’s supporters during the proceeding. In her remarks, Judge Torres emphasized that Guo deliberately exploited the specific beliefs of his supporters, many of whom were seeking political change in China, to line his own pockets.

    Speaking to reporters after the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Sean S. Buckley reinforced the core message of the ruling. “Rather than being satisfied with the many legitimate opportunities afforded to him, Guo exploited the trust that thousands had placed in him for his own greed,” Buckley said. “Today’s sentence shows that fame and wealth do not place you above the law, and that fraudsters who victimise families to enrich themselves will be met with significant consequences.”

    Guo has consistently maintained his innocence throughout the legal process, claiming all raised funds were dedicated to his political activism work. His legal team has not yet announced whether they will appeal the conviction and sentence.

  • Warming climate, pollution and unplanned growth push Kashmir’s lakes toward disappearance

    Warming climate, pollution and unplanned growth push Kashmir’s lakes toward disappearance

    Against the snow-capped backdrop of the Himalayan mountains, the iconic shikara wooden boats glide gracefully across Srinagar’s Dal Lake each morning, a postcard-perfect image that has drawn tourists to Indian-controlled Kashmir for generations. But behind this picturesque facade, one of South Asia’s most celebrated natural landmarks is quietly dying — and it is far from alone. A toxic combination of unregulated pollution, unplanned residential and agricultural encroachment, invasive vegetation, and climate-driven warming is pushing Dal Lake and hundreds of Kashmir’s other natural lakes toward irreversible collapse, with devastating consequences for local ecosystems, livelihoods, and the region’s core tourism economy.

    Official government data underscores the scale of the crisis. A 2025 Indian government analysis found that since 1967, 315 of Kashmir’s 697 recorded natural lakes have vanished entirely, while another 203 have shrunk dramatically in surface area. Dozens of water bodies once mapped as full-year lakes have been reduced to shallow seasonal marshes, and many have been completely paved over or converted to farmland to accommodate the region’s growing population.

    Dal Lake, which anchors Srinagar’s tourism sector and has long been the cultural heart of Kashmir, is among the fortunate few: it receives consistent, funded restoration attention from local authorities, a luxury most other Kashmir lakes do not get. Even so, the work of keeping the lake clear of choking invasive weeds and accumulated waste is a grueling, seemingly futile battle for the frontline workers tasked with its protection.

    “We are afraid to touch the water with bare hands,” explained Ghulam Rasool, a weed cleaner employed by the local Lake Conservation and Management Authority (LCMA), during an on-site interview in May 2026. “Whenever we need to clean something by hand, we wear gloves, because without them our hands quickly develop painful allergies. Sometimes it feels impossible to keep up. Sewage drains flow directly into the lake, and water streams coming down from the mountains bring all kinds of waste — diapers, plastic bottles, every sort of garbage you can imagine.”

    Every day, dozens of cleaners like Rasool work alongside heavy excavators to pull tons of weeds and solid waste from Dal Lake’s waters, with mounds of cleared debris visible along the lake’s shoreline. The root of the invasive weed problem, LCMA officials explain, lies in the untreated human waste that still flows into the lake. While more than 75% of Srinagar’s population is connected to a municipal sewage treatment system, thousands of unregulated homes built along the lake’s banks remain unconnected, flushing nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich waste directly into the water that fuels explosive invasive weed growth.

    Encroachment by residential construction and agricultural land has also chipped away at Dal Lake’s boundaries for decades. Where open water once stretched, small farm plots and illegal structures connected by rickety wooden footbridges are now commonplace, with cattle grazing openly on reclaimed land that was once part of the lake. The same pattern plays out across nearly every major lake in the region, including Wular Lake, Kashmir’s largest freshwater body located 40 miles northwest of Srinagar.

    Climate change has supercharged this slow decline, scientists warn. The Himalayan region is warming at a rate faster than the global average, amplified by the region’s high elevation. This rapid warming has triggered earlier spring snowmelt, reduced overall winter snowfall, and brought more frequent extreme rainfall events, all of which disrupt the steady flow of water that feeds Kashmir’s lakes. Glacial melt has also increased the volume of sediment carried downstream into lakes, filling them in faster and reducing their overall depth over time.

    “While glacial melt can deliver a short-term increase in water flow, over the long term it erodes the natural water storage system that sustains rivers and lakes through dry summer months,” noted Sher Muhammad, a glaciologist with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, based in Kathmandu. Irrfan Rashid, an environmental scientist at the University of Kashmir, added that climate change has upended nearly every core sector of Kashmir’s economy. “It has impacted hydropower generation, tourism, and even our high-value apple and saffron farms, all hit by erratic extreme weather in recent years,” he said.

    For fishing communities that have relied on Kashmir’s lakes for centuries, the damage is already catastrophic. At Wular Lake, which historically acted as a natural flood buffer for the Jhelum River, 45-year-old fisherman Abdul Rasheed says his daily income has plummeted from roughly 1,000 rupees ($11) per day just a decade ago to just 100 to 200 rupees ($1 to $2) per full night of fishing. The lake has grown so shallow that navigating fishing boats through dense patches of invasive vegetation is nearly impossible, and decades of encroachment have reduced its total surface area by 45% since 1907, according to a 2007 analysis by conservation group Wetlands International. The same report warned that Wular’s degradation increases flood risk across the entire Kashmir Valley, because the lake can no longer absorb excess overflow from the Jhelum during monsoon season.

    “Now even a skilled fisherman comes home with no more than 1 kilogram of fish, when a novice could catch 4 kilograms when I was young,” said 55-year-old veteran Wular fisher Bashir Ahmed. Most local fishers, he added, doubt future generations will be able to make a living from the lake at all.

    Local authorities acknowledge that the crisis demands far more funding and coordinated action than what is currently allocated, but say they are working with existing resources to slow degradation. The LCMA, established in 1997, brings together civil engineers, ecologists, forest officials, and law enforcement to address encroachment and pollution, but systemic change requires broader policy action and public buy-in to save Kashmir’s iconic lakes.

    This reporting was supported by private foundation funding for AP’s climate and environmental coverage, with the AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • Les Mills, the New Zealand Olympian who founded a chain of gyms, dies at 91

    Les Mills, the New Zealand Olympian who founded a chain of gyms, dies at 91

    WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The global fitness and sporting community is mourning the loss of Les Mills, the legendary New Zealand Olympian, former Auckland mayor and founder of the eponymous worldwide fitness brand, who passed away peacefully on Monday at the age of 91. No specific cause of death was shared in the official announcement posted to the company’s website.

    Born in Auckland in 1934, Mills first discovered his passion for competitive sport at age 11, when he entered his first athletics event — a running race at a local community park. His athletic talent would carry him to compete for New Zealand in discus and shot put across four consecutive Olympic Games, and he claimed a total of five medals throughout his appearances at the Commonwealth Games. One of his most notable athletic achievements came at the 1966 Kingston Commonwealth Games, where he took home gold in the discus event. A year later, he set a New Zealand national shot put record of 19.81 meters that would stand unbroken for 44 years.

    After an athletics scholarship brought him to the United States in the mid-20th century, Mills witnessed the rapid expansion of the emerging fitness industry and returned home inspired to launch his own gym facility. He opened the first Les Mills gym in Auckland in 1968, growing the domestic chain to 12 locations across New Zealand over the decades. Later, his son Phillip Mills expanded the brand globally, launching Les Mills International, which offers signature group fitness classes including the wildly popular BodyPump and BodyCombat programs. Today, these classes are taught by certified instructors in more than 100 countries around the world, cementing the Les Mills name as a household brand in global fitness.

    Beyond athletics and fitness, Mills also left his mark on public service. He served as mayor of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest and most populous city, for two terms from 1990 to 1998. After retiring from competitive sports, he worked as a coach and sporting administrator across multiple disciplines, including track and field, weightlifting, and football. From 1974 to 1976, he served as national sports director for Papua New Guinea, where he helped build new athletic infrastructure and train local coaching staff across the Pacific island nation.

    In a statement following his father’s passing, Phillip Mills reflected on his legacy: “Dad was immensely strong, driven, and always cared deeply for the less advantaged. He left a lasting impression on everyone he met, and his spirit lives on in gym workouts around the world, continuing to help people fall in love with fitness.”

    Mills was predeceased by his wife Colleen in 2005. He is survived by his two children Phillip and Donna, daughter-in-law Jackie, four grandchildren, and multiple great-grandchildren.

  • Why $20 durians are now being sold at half price – or given away for free

    Why $20 durians are now being sold at half price – or given away for free

    In the bustling eastern Singapore township of Tampines, a queue stretching two full blocks wraps around the popular Durian Ninja fruit stall nearly every day. Since mid-June, the stall has given away 600 kilograms of free durian daily—two whole fruits per customer—an extraordinary promotional generosity made possible by a historic oversupply of the pungent, spiky fruit across the border in Malaysia.

    Malaysia, the world’s leading producer of premium durian varieties, typically harvests roughly 550,000 tonnes of durian annually. But 2026 has brought an unforeseen “durian tsunami”: a perfect storm of maturing new plantations and ideal growing conditions that flooded global and regional markets, crashing wholesale and retail prices across the board. For fruit lovers across Southeast Asia, the price collapse is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to indulge in high-quality durian at a fraction of usual costs. Sixty-nine-year-old Cherng, waiting in the Singapore queue, told the BBC he and his family now eat durian almost every day, accessing top-grade fruit for close to 50% less than they paid in previous seasons. Consumers across both Malaysia and Singapore are flocking to stalls offering steep discounts and occasional free giveaways, snapping up the surplus as quickly as vendors can unload it.

    However, the windfall for consumers has turned into an economic crisis for Malaysian durian farmers. The current glut is the end result of a decade-long durian boom driven by surging demand from China, particularly for premium varieties like buttery, bittersweet Musang King—often nicknamed the “Hermès of durians” for its high market value and cult following among Chinese consumers. At the height of the boom, thousands of growers cleared existing rubber and oil palm plantations to plant new durian orchards, betting on continuing high returns. Now, a decade later, those newly planted trees have all reached maturity at the same time, flooding the market with a volume of fruit far outstripping current demand.

    The price collapse has been staggering. Last December, Raub-based farm owner Lu Yuee Thing sold his Musang King durian to retailers for an average of 13.50 Malaysian ringgit ($3.30) per kilogram. This month, he says he can only command half that price. Johor-based farmer Han Sing Keng has cut his Musang King prices by nearly a third, selling the premium fruit for just 50 ringgit per kilogram, and has turned to growing bananas to offset lost income. Many lower-quality, ungraded durians from new plantations are flooding local markets at rock-bottom prices, dragging down the value of higher-grade product: many of these cheap, unripe or inconsistent quality fruits are labeled as Musang King despite failing to meet export quality standards, undercutting established producers. Some premium varieties like Black Thorn have also seen steep price cuts, while unbranded local “kampung durians” are selling for barely enough to cover harvesting costs.

    Many producers were already reeling from unpredictable weather before the glut hit. Durian cultivation requires very specific weather conditions at different growth stages: pollination is easily disrupted by unseasonal heavy rain or wind, trees need a month of hot weather to flower successfully, and cool temperatures for a high-quality harvest. Malaysia’s varied geography left growers unevenly impacted, with some regions facing poor harvests from bad weather even as others produced above-average yields. The combination of poor production outcomes for some and massive oversupply across the industry created a catastrophic double blow for small-scale producers.

    The severity of the crisis has prompted emergency action from Malaysian authorities. The Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority has introduced emergency support measures, including purchasing durian from smallholder farmers at a guaranteed base price to protect their incomes, with officials hoping market prices will stabilize within the next few weeks. Industry leaders are also pursuing long-term changes to build a more sustainable sector. Edwyn Chiang Kyn Hoe, secretary general of the Malaysia International Durian Industry Development Association, says the group’s goal is to build a premium Malaysian durian industry that competes on quality, authenticity and geographic origin rather than rock-bottom prices. The association is currently organizing trade events in China to connect Malaysian exporters with Chinese importers, expanding market access to absorb the current surplus and strengthen the industry for future growth.

    In the meantime, vendors on both sides of the border are turning to creative promotions to move their overflowing stock. A stall in Pahang, Malaysia went viral online for its “all-you-can-fit” promotion, where customers can fill an entire sack with durian for just 100 ringgit ($24). In Singapore, Durian Ninja owner Kee Eng Chai frames his daily free giveaway as a community gesture, noting that all free durian is claimed within one to two hours, while remaining portions sell for as little as S$1 ($0.74) each. Kee also hopes the low prices will draw a new generation of consumers—he notes his current customer base is mostly older Singaporeans, and the promotion is an opportunity to encourage younger people to explore different durian varieties.

  • Japan faces heartbreak again as Brazil scores late to end another World Cup run in the round of 32

    Japan faces heartbreak again as Brazil scores late to end another World Cup run in the round of 32

    HOUSTON — For the third consecutive World Cup, Japan’s men’s national team exited the knockout round in devastating fashion, falling 2-1 to five-time tournament champion Brazil after a late Gabriel Martinelli goal in stoppage time sealed their elimination. Monday’s defeat extends the Samurai Blue’s decades-long hunt for their first ever knockout stage win at the World Cup, marking the fifth time the side has squandered a lead in a knockout match to exit the tournament.

    Japan got off to a dream start against the global powerhouse, taking a 1-0 lead in the 29th minute through a strike from Kaishu Sano. Brazil responded just past the hour mark, as star midfielder Casemiro nodded home a equalizing header in the 56th minute, setting the stage for a tense final stretch. With the match poised to go to extra time, Martinelli netted the decisive winning goal deep into injury time, sending Japan packing once again. Japan goalkeeper Zion Suzuki turned in an impressive performance against Brazil, recording four saves, but declined to speak to reporters after the final whistle.

    This exit follows a painful pattern for Japanese football at the sport’s biggest global stage. At the 2022 Qatar World Cup, Japan held an early lead against Croatia in the round of 16 before being eliminated on penalty kicks. Four years prior, in 2018, Japan infamously held a 2-0 lead over Belgium in the second half of their round of 16 match, only to concede three late goals, including a game-winner in stoppage time, to crash out of the tournament. Even with this latest devastating loss, Japan head coach Hajime Moriyasu remained focused on future progress, framing the pain of the defeat as a foundation for future success.

    “While we fell short of our goal this tournament, we can set our sights on the next World Cup, and the one beyond that,” Moriyasu said, speaking through a translator after the match. “That is the goal we will continue to work toward. I do not expect history to be kind to us for this result, but if we keep pushing past these disappointing moments, the day will come when our history changes.”

    Brazil have historically dominated Japan in head-to-head matchups, with Japan holding only one win in 15 total meetings between the two sides — a single friendly victory in October of last year. Despite this losing trend, Moriyasu emphasized that the competitive gap between Japan and the world’s top teams is narrowing rapidly.

    “Brazil is one of the best teams in the world, and we are clearly approaching their level,” Moriyasu said. “We have to use what we learned from the defeat in Qatar four years ago and lift our play to the next level.”

    After the final whistle, Moriyasu told his players to hold onto the sharp frustration of the loss, and use that feeling to fuel their growth in coming years. He also took full accountability for the result, saying: “Winning the World Cup was our shared dream and goal, and we could not reach it. As head coach, I told the players I am truly sorry that I was not able to lead this team to the level we needed to achieve that goal.”

    Back in Japan, the heart-breaking defeat did little to dim fan enthusiasm for the team’s performance. Hundreds of fans gathered at a public viewing site near Tokyo Tower to watch the match, which kicked off in the early hours of local time, ending around 4 a.m. Many supporters said they left inspired by Japan’s fight against a elite opponent.

    “I want to thank the players for never giving up, no matter how tough the situation got,” said fan Miyu Hashiguchi after the match. “They gave me the courage to take on my own challenges in life.”

    Twenty-year-old student Ryutaro Mori noted that even in defeat, putting the first goal on the scoreboard against a higher-ranked side like Brazil marked a major milestone for Japanese football. “That means a lot for our country,” Mori said.

    Alessandro Libri, an AP video journalist based in Tokyo, contributed reporting to this article.

  • Israel finds new breakaway allies in Bosnia’s Serbs

    Israel finds new breakaway allies in Bosnia’s Serbs

    Against a backdrop of plummeting global standing sparked by its military actions in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, Israel has been pursuing new diplomatic partnerships with self-declared breakaway regions across the globe in a bid to shore up international recognition and weaken coordinated global pushback against its policies. The newest such alliance is taking shape with Republika Srpska, the Serb-led separatist entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to regional and international analysts who spoke to Middle East Eye.

    Recent high-level diplomatic activity has underscored this growing alignment. Zeljka Cvijanovic, the Serb representative to Bosnia’s tripartite collective presidency, just concluded a week-long working visit to Israel, where she held closed-door and public meetings with top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. The encounter immediately ignited widespread controversy across Bosnia: photos released from the meeting showed Cvijanovic standing alongside Netanyahu with only the flag of Republika Srpska and the Israeli flag displayed, with no official Bosnian state flag present. Republika Srpska, like Somaliland — another breakaway region that has recently secured formal Israeli recognition — has long sought full international sovereign status separate from Bosnia.

    Cvijanovic’s ruling party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), has led a decades-long campaign to pull the majority-Serb entity, which controls nearly half of Bosnia’s total territory, out of the Bosnian state. In response to the meeting’s protocol breaches and what Sarajevo frames as a violation of Bosnia’s territorial sovereignty, Bosnian Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic formally submitted a diplomatic protest note to the Israeli government.

    This recent meeting is far from an isolated encounter: cooperation between Israeli leaders and Republika Srpska’s separatist leadership has accelerated sharply in recent months. In March 2025, Netanyahu hosted then-Republika Srpska president Milorad Dodik for talks in Jerusalem, and the pair met again earlier this year, months before Dodik was removed from his post in June 2025.

    Political analysts say both sides have clear strategic calculations driving the growing partnership. For Republika Srpska’s leadership, Israel is seen as a valuable gateway to influential political networks in Washington, particularly through pro-Israel lobbying groups that hold significant sway in U.S. politics. “They perceive Israel and its lobby groups as a gateway to the White House,” explained Vuk Vuksanovic, a political analyst and lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Vuksanovic noted that Dodik’s previous outreach through channels linked to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has already yielded tangible results: in October, the U.S. lifted long-standing sanctions that had been imposed on Dodik and dozens of his associates since 2017, over charges of corruption and efforts to undermine the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the Bosnian War.

    Dodik, who has pushed for secession for 20 years, has long maintained close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but Vuksanovic said that in recent years, Washington under Trump and Israel have overtaken Russia as the entity’s most important international partner. While full independence for Republika Srpska remains unlikely, Vuksanovic noted that separatist leaders believe building ties to outside powers will give them greater room to maneuver politically and advance their secessionist goals over time.

    For Israel, the alignment is explicitly designed to undermine European unity on the question of Palestine, as global anger grows over Israel’s military campaigns in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. “The whole world is angry at how [Israel’s] government has handled Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. There is a strong degree of antipathy towards Israel, so they are always looking for people who are willing to communicate with Israel, to show that they are not fully isolated,” Vuksanovic said. This strategy is not limited to the Balkans: last year, Israel became the first country in the world to formally recognize Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, and the two sides have held multiple rounds of talks on economic and security cooperation.

    During her visit, Cvijanovic publicly reiterated her opposition to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu, and told Israeli media that she and her delegation “unequivocally support [Israel’s] right to self-defense.” In a post on social media following the meeting, Saar noted that the pair had discussed “the need to safeguard the Christian minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina” — a claim that many observers have dismissed as unfounded. Christians make up roughly half of Bosnia’s total population, and the country’s constitution enshrines the three major ethnic groups — Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats — as equal constituent peoples, with no group legally classified as a minority. Observers also note that false claims of threats to Christian communities in Bosnia were a core part of the nationalist propaganda that preceded the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.

    Denijal Jegic, an assistant professor at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, argued that the two entities share deep ideological and historical parallels, as both have faced growing international scrutiny and isolation. “Republika Srpska and Israel are natural allies… both entities were built on ethnic cleansing and their identities are constructed on supremacist concepts,” Jegic said. “Both entities’ existence depends on narratives of ethno-nationalism and self-segregation.” As international courts have confirmed, Serb forces committed genocide against Bosniak Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995, and carried out widespread war crimes against non-Serb populations across Bosnia between 1992 and 1995 as part of a campaign to create an ethnically homogeneous “Greater Serbia”. The Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war divided Bosnia into two semi-autonomous entities: the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Serb-led Republika Srpska, leaving the central state with limited sovereign power. Jegic noted that this weak institutional structure makes it easy for Israel to expand its influence in the country.

    Historical records show that this partnership between Israel and Serb nationalists dates back decades: declassified documents confirm that the Israeli government provided weapons and military training to Serb forces during the 1990s Bosnian War. Formal diplomatic ties between Republika Srpska and Israel stretch back at least 15 years: in 2011, then-Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman made multiple visits to meet Dodik in Bosnia, both for official talks and private travel. That same year, Dodik used his position as the Serb member of the Bosnian presidency to block Bosnia from voting in favor of Palestine’s bid for United Nations membership.

    Israel’s growing influence extends beyond Republika Srpska to the central Serbian government as well. In May, shortly after the two countries announced a joint program to produce combat drones, Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric formalized a new strategic partnership between Serbia and Israel during a visit to Jerusalem. Arms exports from Serbia to Israel have surged by 140 percent since October 2023, reaching $131 million by March 2026, according to reporting from Haaretz — even though Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic publicly pledged to halt all weapons exports to the region in June 2024. A decade and a half ago, Belgrade maintained a cautious neutrality, maintaining friendly ties with both Israel and Palestine, and was the only Western Balkans country to support Palestine’s upgraded non-member observer status at the UN in 2012. But in recent years, Serbia’s position has shifted sharply in Israel’s favor, as Vucic, like Dodik, has courted pro-Israel lobbying groups to build closer ties to the Trump administration. “Definitely, Belgrade has been something of a small diplomatic win for Israel, because Belgrade hasn’t fully abandoned, but has slightly toned down some of the friendliness it used to have with the Palestinians,” Vuksanovic said.

    Analysts note that Israel’s outreach in the Balkans is not limited to Serb political elites, with collaboration extending across the region, including to Albania. “The Israelis believe, like many other players in the Balkans, that Serbs and Albanians are the two most strategically consequential ethnic groups in the Balkans, being the largest, so they want to have a diplomatic foothold for both of these ethnic groups respectively,” Vuksanovic said. Deepening ties with Republika Srpska also serves another goal: putting diplomatic pressure on Turkey, which maintains close relations with the Bosnian central government, Vuksanovic added. Still, he warned that allowing the Balkans to become a proxy battleground for Middle Eastern conflicts serves no long-term good for either Bosniaks or Serbs.

  • Ben Shapiro-backed ‘propaganda’ film portrays pro-Palestine ‘terrorists’ on campus

    Ben Shapiro-backed ‘propaganda’ film portrays pro-Palestine ‘terrorists’ on campus

    A new action thriller from conservative American media outlet Daily Wire has ignited fierce online backlash just weeks after the release of its official trailer, with critics across social media and the film industry condemning the project as blatant Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian propaganda tied to rising tensions over the Israel-Gaza war.

    Produced by the right-wing media company co-founded by high-profile commentator Ben Shapiro, the film centers its plot on a deeply problematic framing that conflates pro-Palestine student activism with radical Islamic terrorism. Set on a fictional Virginia university campus, the story draws direct inspiration from the peaceful pro-Palestine encampments that spread across dozens of U.S. college campuses in 2024, where students protested institutional ties to Israeli entities accused of complicity in what many global scholars and activists describe as genocide in Gaza.

    The 2-minute trailer, posted to X in late June 2026, opens with a charged montage that weaves together unrelated footage: Fox News segments warning of domestic terror plots, remarks by Senator Marco Rubio referencing “radical Islam”, video of Islamic State executions, footage of the 9/11 attacks, and clips of real student pro-Palestine encampments. As the camera zooms out to the fictional campus, the Islamic call to prayer, the adhan, blares over campus speakers. The trailer then shows a group of students stopping mid-walk to spread mats and prostrate in prayer — a depiction that multiple Muslim commentators have pointed out includes major inaccuracies in how Islamic prayer is performed, seemingly designed for inflammatory effect rather than authentic representation.

    The film’s official logline lays bare its provocative narrative: when “radical Islamic terrorists” hijack a liberal college’s pro-Palestine encampment to impose Sharia law and execute non-Muslims (branded “infidels”), a ragtag group of conservative students, a veteran security guard, and a disgraced Delta Force operative must fight back to save the campus and protect America from within. That Delta Force lead role is filled by Jonathan Majors, the once-prominent Hollywood actor who was found guilty of third-degree assault and second-degree harassment against his ex-girlfriend in 2023. The casting marks Majors’ attempted comeback after he was dropped from high-profile Marvel Cinematic Universe projects, which cut ties to protect the franchise’s commercial standing following his conviction.

    The project is a loose follow-up to Kyle Rankin’s 2020 film *Run, Hide, Fight*, with Rankin returning as writer and director for the new installment. From the moment the trailer and plot details were made public, critics flooded social media to denounce the film’s harmful framing.

    “This is not a brave return to old-school action filmmaking. It is propaganda designed to turn every pro-Palestinian student into a potential terrorist and every Muslim into a threat… They are selling dehumanization as entertainment,” one X user wrote, summing up a common critique. Another commentator compared the work to 2010s Fox News propaganda meant to scare older voters into supporting aggressive U.S. foreign policy, while journalist Laila Al-Arian joked that the film was a clumsy attempt to distract from the humanitarian crisis in Gaza: “How to cover up a genocide. Make a cheesy over-the-top 80s style islamophobic movie with bad acting.”

    Professional film critics echoed these condemnations. Brooke Ivey Johnson of the *Metro* noted that the film’s official synopsis reads like an unedited AI-generated mashup of every current American culture war talking point. The *A.V. Club*, a leading media and culture outlet, labeled the film “brazenly propagandistic” and said it was clearly created to manufacture outrage across the political divide to draw attention.

    Compounding the controversy is the film’s official promotional poster, which depicts a man holding a knife to the throat of a young woman wearing a keffiyeh — the traditional Palestinian scarf that has become a universal symbol of pro-Palestine protests against Israeli occupation. Social media users have mocked the work as a relic of post-9/11 war on terror hysteria, with one commenter writing: “2003 called, they want their propaganda back.”

    While the overwhelming majority of public responses have been critical, the film has found support from a small cohort of anti-Muslim commentators, who have amplified its framing of Muslims as a domestic threat and echoed its calls for preparation for conflict. This alignment has deepened concerns among advocacy groups that the film will exacerbate the already growing trend of anti-Muslim sentiment and hate speech across the United States.

    As of mid-July 2026, Daily Wire has not issued an official response to the widespread backlash against the project.