Global Pulse

标签： Asia

亚洲

  • Sri Lanka closes some schools as heavy rains trigger floods and mudslides, killing 5

    Sri Lanka closes some schools as heavy rains trigger floods and mudslides, killing 5

    Five people have been confirmed dead and three injured after intense monsoon rains unleashed catastrophic floods and mudslides across Sri Lanka, prompting emergency authorities to shut down schools in the island nation’s mountainous tea-growing heartland this Tuesday. The downpour, which has hammered the country for 48 consecutive hours, has left a trail of destruction, submerging residential neighborhoods, agricultural fields and critical transport links, according to official updates. The Disaster Management Center (DMC), Sri Lanka’s government-led emergency response agency, reports that the worst damage is concentrated in the island’s central highland zone.

    DMC spokesperson Pradeep Kodippili confirmed that the five fatalities all occurred when mudslides crashed into two separate residential properties in the central region. Along with the three injured, two additional residents remain unaccounted for as of Tuesday’s update. Preliminary damage assessments show that 129 homes have been partially or fully destroyed by the extreme weather, and more than 1,900 displaced residents have been evacuated to emergency safety shelters across the affected area.

    In response to the crisis, the Sri Lankan government has deployed both navy and army personnel to carry out search and rescue operations for residents trapped by floodwaters and mudflows. Local broadcaster Hiru TV released on-the-ground footage showing service members and civilian volunteers pulling trapped residents out of inundated homes, as teams work to clear hazards ahead of expected additional rain. Footage from other local outlets also documented blocked arterial roads in central Sri Lanka, where boulders dislodged by mudslides, mud deposits and downed power poles have cut off access to multiple hard-hit communities.

    This latest natural disaster comes as Sri Lanka is still grappling with the long-term recovery from the catastrophic damage inflicted by Cyclone Ditwa in November 2023. That storm killed nearly 640 people, displaced more than two million across the island, and caused an estimated $4.1 billion in infrastructure and property damage. Sri Lanka’s Central Province, which is currently bearing the brunt of the current flood and mudslide crisis, was also the worst-hit region during the November cyclone, and the national government has faced persistent challenges funding full reconstruction of damaged roads, railways and housing in the area.

    For Sri Lanka, flood and mudslide events are an annual hazard that repeatedly threaten lives and livelihoods across the island. The country’s central hill regions are particularly vulnerable to deadly mudslides during the monsoon season, when heavy saturated soil gives way on steep slopes, while low-lying coastal and riverine areas face widespread flooding. These seasonal events routinely force thousands of residents to abandon their homes each year, putting repeated strain on the nation’s already stretched emergency response infrastructure.

  • How India’s Gen Z movement of ‘Cockroaches’ dented Modi’s political image

    How India’s Gen Z movement of ‘Cockroaches’ dented Modi’s political image

    NEW DELHI — For weeks, a raucous cohort of young Indian activists gathered under a deliberately absurd, unapologetically provocative banner: the Cockroach Janta Party. Wielding hand-painted signs mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his administration, this grassroots movement achieved what few opposition groups have managed in Modi’s more than 12 years in power: it forced the resignation of a sitting cabinet minister.

    Widely regarded as one of the most dominant Indian prime ministers in modern history, Modi has built a public persona of unassailable, decisive leadership, with his government almost never backing down in the face of public pressure. But the late resignation of former Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stands as a striking exception, political analysts say, one that lays bare two shifting dynamics in Indian politics: the growing clout of India’s under-25 population, which makes up nearly half the nation, and the rising power of digital-first grassroots organizing.

    “This particular round has ended in a very important defeat for Mr. Modi,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a prominent political analyst and author of a biography of Modi. He added that the concession has shattered the widespread climate of fear that critics say the Modi administration has cultivated to suppress dissent. “The threshold of fear has been broken. People are no longer scared to go and step out and protest,” Mukhopadhyay noted.

    The movement began as a small, satirical push in May with one clear, uncompromising demand: Pradhan’s resignation over widespread leaks of high-stakes examination papers, outcomes of which can make or break a young Indian’s career prospects. Fueled by young, urban Indians who organized across social media platforms before taking their demands to the streets, the protests quickly expanded beyond the initial exam leak controversy. They evolved into a broader call for governmental accountability, tapping into deep-seated public frustration over sky-high youth unemployment, lack of administrative transparency, and what activists see as the erosion of independence for India’s public institutions.

    Mukhopadhyay emphasized that this marks the first time a student-led grassroots movement has maintained enough momentum to force the government to meet its core demand, without any backing from established mainstream political parties. “Each one had their own little grievance about life not taking them anywhere,” he explained of the protestors.

    While it remains unclear whether this mass youth energy can be translated into electoral gains against Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), movement leaders frame their success as proof that public pressure still holds weight in Indian democracy.

    “An arrogant government which did not blink for 12 years was forced to blink when the youth united,” said Saurav Das, a spokesperson for the Cockroach Janta Party. Das reiterated that the movement has no plans to reorganize as a formal political party, instead aiming to operate as an independent public watchdog. “We want to remain a pressure group,” he said.

    The unexpected success of the movement has already forced strategic adjustments within the BJP. In the weeks following the protests, Modi has increasingly appeared in short, vertical short-form videos tailored for Instagram and other platforms popular with young Indian voters. The party has expanded its youth outreach through targeted digital campaigns, with some sitting lawmakers even adopting Gen Z slang in public appearances, including speeches on the floor of Parliament. This shift comes in sharp contrast to the movement’s early days, when Modi and his allies dismissed the protests as a trivial, insignificant fringe movement. As crowds grew and momentum built, however, the government was forced to acknowledge the movement’s growing influence.

    Following Pradhan’s resignation, Modi has also made public gestures toward reconciliation, saying he forgives those who mocked him — a clear outreach effort to win back alienated young voters. For Mukhopadhyay, the movement’s most lasting impact is that it has permanently damaged the carefully cultivated image of Modi as a leader immune to public pressure.

    “That image of Mr. Modi is heavily tarnished,” he said. Not all reactions have been conciliatory, however: hardline BJP supporters online have moved to identify protestors and dox their personal information to intimidate activists into stepping back.

    Solidarity protests popped up in cities across India, with supporters sending food and essential supplies to demonstrators camped in New Delhi who participated in extended hunger strikes to draw attention to their cause. Opposition leaders, human rights activists, and even several Bollywood celebrities have publicly backed the movement, helping spread its message far beyond the original protest camps.

    For Neha Bora, a student leader who took part in the New Delhi hunger strike, the movement’s success proves ordinary citizens still have the power to hold powerful leaders accountable. “If they (ministers) do not serve the people of this country, no matter what cabinet minister they are, they will be brought down from their seats,” she said.

  • Drone strike on North Darfur court kills at least 35, rights group says

    Drone strike on North Darfur court kills at least 35, rights group says

    Sudan’s ongoing civil conflict entered a new phase of deadly escalation on Sunday, when a drone strike attributed to the country’s national army hit a customary court in the North Darfur village of al-Zawiya Ghara, claiming at least 35 lives and leaving multiple others wounded. Al-Zawiya Ghara is among the dozens of rural settlements across North Darfur currently held by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the powerful paramilitary group that has fought the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for control of the country since April 2023. According to the Emergency Lawyers Group, a civilian watchdog that tracks violence against non-combatants in Sudan, all fatalities and casualties were people located inside the court building or in its immediate surrounding area when the attack unfolded. Local tribal and community leaders were gathered for an official meeting inside the court at the time of the strike, which saw the drone launch at least four separate missiles directly at the structure. Sudanese outlet Sudan Tribune confirmed that the death toll includes two senior RSF field commanders, four tribal elders, and traditional leaders from the Mahameed branch of the Rizeigat ethnic group.

    Sunday’s targeted strike comes as the SAF has ramped up drone operations across the Darfur region in recent weeks. The military push follows a string of major SAF victories over RSF forces in North Kordofan, and aims to chip away at RSF control of Darfur by weakening the paramilitary’s command positions and supply lines. In the wake of the attack, the Sudan Founding Coalition (Tasis), a political bloc largely dominated by RSF-aligned figures, formally blamed the SAF for the civilian deaths. Ahmed Tugod Lisan, a spokesperson for Tasis, speaking to Sudan Tribune, called for an independent international investigation into the strike to hold all responsible parties legally accountable. The Emergency Lawyers Group has joined the call for a full probe, and condemned the deliberate targeting of the court, describing attacks on civilian populations and civilian infrastructure as a flagrant and grave violation of binding international humanitarian law. In a formal statement, the group added that drone strikes targeting populated civilian areas and public gatherings have become increasingly common in Sudan’s conflict, drastically raising the daily safety risks for millions of ordinary Sudanese trapped in war zones.

    This attack is the latest development in a three-year-long civil conflict that has seen both the SAF and the RSF accused of widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity. A United Nations fact-finding mission concluded that the RSF’s 2025 siege of el-Fasher, one of Darfur’s largest urban centers, carried all the hallmarks of genocide. The RSF has also been repeatedly accused of carrying out drone strikes that kill and maim civilians across Sudan over the course of the war.

    The al-Zawiya Ghara strike also follows a landmark judicial ruling earlier in July that marked the first conviction of top RSF leadership since the war began. An anti-terrorism and state crimes court based in Port Sudan, which is held by the SAF, sentenced RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (widely known as Hemedti) and 15 other senior RSF figures to death in absentia. The court convicted the group on multiple charges including their roles in the 2023 assassination of West Darfur Governor Khamis Abdullah Abakar, as well as broader charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes, illegal warfare, and genocide committed in the West Darfur capital of el-Geneina.

    Presided over by special judge Mohamed al-Amin, the trial centered largely on the assassination of Governor Abakar, who was killed just one day after he publicly condemned RSF shelling of the el-Jamarik neighborhood in el-Geneina. Circulated online video footage shows RSF soldiers mutilating Abakar’s body after his killing, but the paramilitary group has consistently denied any involvement in the assassination, instead shifting blame to the SAF. Human Rights Watch released a 2024 investigation concluding that the violence carried out in el-Geneina by RSF and allied militias amounted to ethnic cleansing, and likely meets the international legal definition of genocide, targeting the Masalit people and other non-Arab communities in the region. A June 2023 report from Middle East Eye estimated that roughly 1,500 people were killed in el-Geneina in the first two months of the war alone. The violence forced tens of thousands of Masalit residents to flee el-Geneina and West Darfur on foot, seeking safety across the Sudan-Chad border in eastern Chad.

    Among the convicted defendants are Hemedti’s two brothers: Abdel Rahim Hamdan Dagalo, the RSF’s deputy leader, and Algoney Hamdan Daglo Musa, commonly known as al-Qoni. The court also convicted Abdel Rahman Juma Barkallah, the top RSF commander for West Darfur, and al-Tijani al-Tahir Karshoum, the former deputy governor of West Darfur. The ruling held Hemedti directly legally responsible for directing the genocide of the Masalit people and orchestrating the siege of el-Geneina, citing evidence of systematic destruction and looting of civilian property, as well as deliberate targeted attacks on non-combatants, residential neighborhoods, schools, and places of worship. Abdel Rahim Dagalo was convicted of co-organizing the el-Geneina siege, mass civilian displacement, and the genocide of the Masalit community, while Qoni was found liable for facilitating the siege. Barkallah was held responsible for leading frontline RSF troops during coordinated systematic assaults on Masalit residential areas. In addition to the death sentences, the court ordered the full confiscation of all RSF-linked assets across SAF-held territory, and instructed Sudanese authorities to request Interpol red notices to facilitate the arrest and extradition of all convicted figures who remain at large.

  • Three lions die in zoo as Japan battles extreme heat

    Three lions die in zoo as Japan battles extreme heat

    As Japan grapples with record-shattering summer heat that has threatened both human and animal life, three female lions at Tokyo’s Tama Zoological Park have died within a single week from suspected heat-related illness, zoo officials have confirmed.

    Autopsies conducted on the three big cats—aged 3, 11, and 15 years old respectively—revealed widespread systemic dehydration and multiple organ failure, clinical signs that point directly to extreme heat stress as the primary cause of death. The zoo notes that full, official cause-of-death reports will not be finalized until all additional toxicology and pathology testing is complete.

    The sequence of deaths began in late July, after a sudden mid-July temperature surge across Japan. Mugi, the 3-year-old female, first displayed a loss of appetite on July 19, and lost the ability to stand the following day. Despite rapid intervention from zoo staff, who implemented cooling measures including enhanced ventilation, access to extra cool water, subcutaneous fluid therapy, liver support, and vitamin treatments, Mugi died on July 28. Eleven-year-old Ichigo passed away just three days later on July 31, and 15-year-old Luena, the oldest of the three, died the following Sunday.

    The deaths mark an unprecedented crisis for the 70-year-old lion program at Tama Zoo. “This is the first time we’ve experienced anything like this. Last year was also hot, but none of our lions fell ill like this,” zoo representative Miwa Kosaka told the BBC.

    As of the zoo’s latest public statement, three additional lions—two males and one female—remain unwell and unable to stand, though staff are continuing around-the-clock care with fluid therapy, medication, and nutritional support. Kosaka confirmed that some of these affected animals have already started showing signs of improvement. Four other lions have fully recovered from mild heat-related symptoms, while six lions remained in good health throughout the heat event. All surviving lions have now been moved to restricted, off-exhibit enclosures fitted with portable air conditioning units and heavy-duty industrial fans to help them regulate their body temperatures.

    Veterinary experts say two key factors combined to put the lions at severe risk. Hideaki Karaki, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Tokyo, explained that unlike humans who cool down through sweating, lions regulate their body temperature by breathing deeply to expel moisture from their respiratory tracts. When that moisture evaporates, it lowers their core temperature—but Japan’s characteristic high summer humidity blocks that evaporation process, leaving lions unable to cool themselves effectively. The sudden mid-July temperature spike also gave the animals no time to gradually acclimate to rising heat, compounding the risk, Karaki added.

    Tama Zoo, located in western Tokyo, is home to roughly 260 different animal species, and its lion breeding and exhibition program is one of its most iconic attractions, dating back to 1964. The zoo long offered a popular safari-style bus tour that let visitors observe lions roaming their large open enclosures, but that service and the public lion exhibit were suspended last month after the sudden heatwave triggered widespread illness among the pride.

    The lion deaths come as Japan faces a public health emergency from this summer’s extreme heat. So far this season, more than 43,000 people across the country have been hospitalized for heatstroke. The Japanese government has issued nationwide heat warnings and urged residents to take aggressive cooling measures, even launching a campaign to encourage office workers to swap formal business wear for lighter, more breathable clothing to avoid overheating.

    Climate scientists have repeatedly warned that summer temperatures across Japan are rising faster than the global average, with an increasing number of “extreme hot days” defined as days with highs exceeding 40°C becoming a regular annual occurrence, bringing growing risks to both human and wildlife populations.

  • Asian shares mostly dip after US stocks rally

    Asian shares mostly dip after US stocks rally

    On Tuesday, most major Asian stock markets finished the trading session in negative territory, even as a strong rally unfolded on Wall Street one day earlier, driven by falling global oil prices that calmed persistent investor concerns over rising inflation. The downturn across much of Asia came as regional market participants continued to assess the long-term implications of the recent coordinated currency intervention carried out jointly by the United States and Japan to shore up the weakening Japanese yen.

    Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.6% to close at 63,369.85, as the U.S. dollar edged slightly higher against the yen, rising to 157.63 yen from 157.18 yen in previous trading. The euro saw barely any movement against the dollar, holding at $1.1511 compared to $1.1514 from the prior session. Before the joint intervention, the dollar had traded as high as the 160-yen mark, a level that triggered policymakers’ action to reverse the yen’s steep decline.

    Market analysts remain divided over the long-term effectiveness of the intervention, with many pointing out that the action fails to address the core economic drivers behind the yen’s slump, including divergent inflation trends, a wide gap in interest rates between the U.S. and Japan, and the relative uneven strength of the two nations’ economies.

    A research report from BMI, a division of Fitch Solutions, noted that a coordinated intervention backed by the United States carries far greater symbolic signaling power than an intervention carried out by Tokyo alone. The report added that the public pledge of additional future action is likely to make currency speculators pause before betting further against the yen, but any large-scale sustained contribution from U.S. authorities will probably be limited in scope.

    Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at global financial services firm Ebury, offered a more optimistic take, arguing that the latest joint intervention signals a genuine shift in monetary policy stances rather than just a one-off defensive move. He called the development “historic and meaningful” for the yen, adding that it materially improves confidence in his firm’s prediction that the yen will see moderate gains in coming months.

    Across other regional markets, South Korea’s Kospi index ticked down by less than 0.1% to 6,254.76. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 bucked the regional downtrend, climbing 1.2% to close at 9,128.60. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.5% to 25,881.99, while mainland China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2% to 3,802.61.

    On Monday, U.S. stocks notched strong gains after easing oil prices helped ease investor fears that inflation would accelerate further. The broad S&P 500 jumped 1.5%, ending the day just 0.1% below the all-time record it set earlier this summer. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which tracks 30 large U.S. corporations, gained 693 points or 1.3% to hit a new all-time closing high, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 2.1%.

    In early Asian energy trading on Tuesday, benchmark U.S. crude added 50 cents to reach $80.84 a barrel. Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil pricing, rose 63 cents to $84.40 a barrel. A day earlier, Brent prices fell after former U.S. President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that he would delay planned military strikes against Iran, following urging from regional allies. Over the past month, Brent crude prices swung wildly between $72 and $102 a barrel, as market sentiment shifted back and forth over escalating tensions in the Middle East and uncertainty around when oil tankers would be able to resume safe transit through the Persian Gulf to deliver crude to global markets.

    The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 4.68% from 4.75% recorded late Friday, but it remains well above the 3.97% level seen before the outbreak of military tensions with Iran.

  • Japan says combat drones key to adapting to new warfare as tension rises in the region

    Japan says combat drones key to adapting to new warfare as tension rises in the region

    In a landmark cabinet-approved policy announcement released Tuesday, the Japanese government has outlined a sweeping shift in national defense strategy, calling for urgent adaptation to modern combat tactics centered on drone and artificial intelligence technology — lessons drawn from ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East — alongside a major expansion of the country’s domestic defense industrial base. The 598-page annual defense policy paper also reaffirms Japan’s position that China represents the nation’s greatest long-term strategic challenge, amid growing alarm over Beijing’s expanding military activity in the Pacific Ocean.

    Over the past decade, Japan has steadily ramped up its military capabilities and defense spending, particularly along its southwestern island chain. It has already begun deploying long-range cruise missiles to establish a credible deterrent against what Japanese officials frame as increasingly assertive Chinese military moves, including growing tensions over the Taiwan Strait, where China claims sovereignty over the self-governing island.

    Drawn directly from Ukraine’s widespread use of inexpensive combat drones to counter much larger invading forces, the new strategy frames adaptation to “new modes of warfare” as a non-negotiable national security priority. With nations across the globe racing to advance drone combat capabilities, Tokyo has placed top priority on developing domestically produced combat drones for coastal defense, designed to operate in tandem with the country’s new long-range missile deployments.

    Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi emphasized the urgency of the program, noting that rapid development is the core of the initiative. Japan’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency has already shortlisted four domestic drone manufacturers from a pool of 38 applicants for an accelerated development track. The selected prototypes will undergo sea testing by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force in early August ahead of a final production selection. Major industrial players have already joined the push: just last Friday, industrial giant Toshiba announced a partnership with domestic startup Pro Drone to co-develop combat drone systems.

    Beyond tactical military advantages, domestic drone development also addresses a pressing demographic challenge facing Japan’s armed forces. Uncrewed weapon systems can help offset the steady decline in active-duty service members, a consequence of Japan’s decades-long population shrinkage. Still, experts warn that building a fully indigenous combat drone industry poses significant hurdles: Japan’s commercial civilian drone market is currently dominated by Chinese imports, requiring major investment to build domestic supply chains and manufacturing capacity from scratch.

    Beyond drone development, the policy paper highlights growing Japanese concern over security threats across multiple regional fronts. Alongside China’s expanding Pacific presence, it cites growing joint military operations between China and Russia near Japanese territory — including coordinated bomber flights and naval maneuvers — as a severe threat to national security. It also labels North Korea’s accelerated missile development program, including its work on hypersonic weapons, plus Pyongyang’s deepening military ties with Moscow amid its invasion of Ukraine, as an “increasingly serious and pressing threat” to regional stability.

    The document details multiple recent incidents that have heightened Japanese security concerns, including a December 2023 incident where Chinese fighter jets operating near southwestern Japan during aircraft carrier drills locked their targeting radars on Japanese aircraft — a move widely viewed as a preliminary step to launching a missile strike. In June 2024, two Chinese aircraft carriers were spotted near Japan’s Iwo Jima for the first time, a deployment that triggered deep alarm in Tokyo over Beijing’s ability to project military power far from its own coast, into the Pacific and disputed areas of the East China Sea. Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing rose sharply late last year after senior Japanese politician Sanae Takaichi stated that a Chinese military attack on Taiwan could meet the criteria for Japan to invoke its collective self-defense right and deploy military force.

    A central pillar of the new strategy is a major push to strengthen Japan’s domestic defense industry, a sector that has remained underdeveloped for decades due to the country’s post-World War II pacifist constitution and long-standing restrictions on arms development and exports. The Japanese government is already expanding funding for defense-focused startups and research into dual-use technologies that can be adapted from commercial to military applications. Officials note that while many large established Japanese companies have historically avoided involvement with lethal weapons programs, a growing number of domestic startups are pursuing opportunities to convert commercial technologies for military use.

    A landmark policy shift last year that scrapped Japan’s decades-long ban on lethal weapons exports is already unlocking new growth for the sector, Koizumi explained. Allowing international technology transfers, joint development, and export of Japanese-built weapons not only strengthens the domestic defense industrial base but also deepens security partnerships with allied nations, the defense minister added, noting that his international travel has increasingly included efforts to advance Japanese arms export deals.

    In recent months, Japan has already secured several major international defense agreements, including a deal for joint development and transfer of 11 upgraded Mogami-class frigates to Australia. Tokyo is currently negotiating a similar partnership with New Zealand, and has already finalized a deal to sell retired Japanese destroyers to the Philippines.

  • Israel pitched advanced drones to UAE, leaked emails reveal: Report

    Israel pitched advanced drones to UAE, leaked emails reveal: Report

    Fresh details of a secret arms deal negotiation between the United Arab Emirates and Israel have come to light, following a leak of internal emails from Israel’s largest defense contractor, Elbit Systems. The correspondence, published for the first time by Haaretz and Drop Site News, lays bare how Abu Dhabi accelerated push for the purchase of Israeli intelligence and surveillance drones just weeks after a deadly cross-border attack by Yemen’s Houthi movement in early 2022.

    The hacked emails, which cover a period from 2021 through the start of 2023, outline early discussions between Elbit Systems and UAE parties over a package of Israeli defense technology. The proposed deal includes Hermes 900 reconnaissance drones, SkyEye wide-area surveillance sensors, ground control infrastructure, as well as personnel training and long-term logistical support. According to the leaked documents, the entire transaction was reclassified as an “urgent priority” immediately after the January 17, 2022 Houthi missile and drone assault on Abu Dhabi that targeted key infrastructure including oil tanker facilities and Abu Dhabi International Airport.

    The cache of executive emails was obtained by Handala, an anonymous online hacking group that open-source intelligence researchers claim has ties to the Iranian government. Both Haaretz and Drop Site News independently verified the authenticity of the documents before publishing their reporting. Initial projections valued the core drone deal at $154 million, with optional system upgrades pushing the total projected contract value to $225 million. To date, the leaked correspondence offers no confirmation on whether the ordered drones and systems have been delivered to the UAE.

    To understand the scope of the technology on offer, the SkyEye surveillance system integrates high-resolution electro-optical cameras that allow aircraft to capture vast swathes of territory in real time. Footage captured by the system can be reviewed from multiple vantage points, enabling operators to trace moving objects and personnel back to their point of origin. The Hermes 900, Elbit’s flagship medium-altitude long-endurance drone, is designed for advanced reconnaissance and surveillance missions, with a maximum payload capacity of 990 pounds. Multiple defense industry reports note the platform can also be configured to carry up to eight surface-to-air missiles for offensive operations.

    Internal correspondence shows that just two months after the 2022 Houthi attack, a senior leader from the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s arms development directorate traveled to Abu Dhabi to present a formal proposal for the Hermes 900 sale. The proposal framed the drones as a critical operational solution to extend cross-border surveillance capabilities, specifically to detect incoming missile and drone launches before they reach UAE territory.

    The emerging drone deal negotiations come against a backdrop of rapidly warming bilateral defense ties between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi, which date back to the 2020 Abraham Accords. Brokered by the first Trump administration, the normalization agreement between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco was explicitly positioned as a framework to deepen security and defense cooperation across the region. This new leak confirms long-held analyst assessments that cutting-edge Israeli defense technology has been a key driver of growing security partnerships between Israel and Gulf Arab states.

    Beyond the core Hermes 900 and SkyEye package, the emails also include passing references to two additional Elbit Systems products: the SkyStriker loitering munition – more commonly known as a “suicide drone” – and the smaller Hermes 650 reconnaissance drone. Today, the UAE stands as one of Israel’s closest partners in the Arab and Muslim world, and has joined Israel and the United States in a series of coordinated military strikes targeting Iranian assets across the Middle East in recent months. As early as May of this year, Middle East Eye first reported that Israel and the UAE had launched a joint defense investment fund to develop and acquire new advanced weapons systems, amid escalating regional tensions with Iran.

  • Pentagon is emailing military experts and asking best way to ‘punish’ Iran: Report

    Pentagon is emailing military experts and asking best way to ‘punish’ Iran: Report

    The Trump administration finds itself mired in a diplomatic and military quagmire of its own making over Iran, with new revelations showing the U.S. military is actively crowdsourcing innovative strategies from defense experts to break the prolonged stalemate and force Tehran into a deal favorable to President Donald Trump.

    According to a Monday report from CNN, a recent email circulated by an intelligence officer within U.S. Central Command (Centcom) explicitly called for “new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran”, a signal that senior defense officials never anticipated the ongoing conflict would stretch on for as long as it has. While a Centcom spokesperson pushed back on framing the move as unusual, noting the command has a long track record of pursuing innovative problem-solving, the public request for outside ideas underscores the lack of a clear path forward for the White House.

    The intermittent, tit-for-tat military escalation between the U.S., Israel and Iran that began in late February has triggered cascading global consequences. In response to the hostilities, Iran moved to close off shipping access through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint that carries roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil supplies. The closure sent global energy prices soaring, a development that has directly hit the economic interests of Trump’s core voter base ahead of any potential election.

    Amid growing regional pressure to de-escalate, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman emphasized in a Sunday phone call with Trump the urgent need for dialogue to cool tensions, urging all parties to prioritize a truce that would open the door for negotiated diplomatic solutions.

    The situation has been further muddled by conflicting public statements over the status of talks. Last Saturday, Trump announced he had called off planned military strikes against Iran and claimed negotiations between Washington and Tehran would officially kick off on Monday. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump argued that Iran had clear motivation to negotiate: “Obviously, they don’t want to be attacked. Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon.”

    But Iranian officials have flatly denied Trump’s claim that bilateral talks are underway. Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, clarified during a press briefing that Tehran is currently holding only “constructive” discussions with Oman, focused on establishing new secure shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz. “We are not currently negotiating with the United States. Our negotiations are with Oman to secure passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” Baghaei stated. He added that the status quo in the strait will remain in place as long as the U.S. maintains its naval blockade of Iranian ports, and urged both regional and international powers to respond to Iran’s responsible diplomatic outreach with a constructive approach.

  • Jack Letts appeals for repatriations from Iraq in ‘out of the blue’ phone call to parents

    Jack Letts appeals for repatriations from Iraq in ‘out of the blue’ phone call to parents

    Nine years after the last direct conversation with their son, the parents of Jack Letts – a British-born Canadian man who traveled to Islamic State (IS) controlled Syrian territory as an 18-year-old in 2014 – have opened up about the chaotic mix of shock, relief, and lingering frustration that followed an unexpected phone call from their son, who is currently detained in Iraq.

    Sally Lane, Jack’s mother, told Middle East Eye she believes the unexpected three-minute call, which took place last month, signals growing pressure from Iraqi authorities to push Western governments to repatriate their citizens who are held on alleged IS links. The call came entirely without warning: Lane nearly ignored the unfamiliar call, but answered after recognizing the Iraqi country code, only to hear her son’s voice greet her with a simple “Hello Mum.”

    “It was very short and he said there were a million things he wanted to say to me. The good thing is he sounded perfectly sane and normal,” Lane shared in her interview.

    Lane is convinced Iraqi authorities facilitated the call, amid mounting frustration from Baghdad that Western nations including Canada and the United Kingdom have refused to take back responsibility for their nationals detained over suspected IS ties. Jack conveyed a clear message to his parents: Iraqi officials have made clear they do not want to continue holding these foreign detainees, and are pushing for their repatriation to their home countries before any legal proceedings begin. He told his mother that an Iraqi legal delegation had already met with Canadian detainees days earlier to deliver this same demand. John Letts, Jack’s father, confirmed he received an identical brief call from his son carrying the same message, quoting Jack as saying “The Iraqis don’t want us here and the Iraqis are desperate to send us back.”

    Now 30, Letts first traveled to IS-held Syria and Iraq in 2014 when he turned 18. Three years later, as IS territorial control collapsed, he was captured by Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria, and was stripped of his British citizenship shortly after detention – a common measure taken against UK citizens who traveled to Syria during the civil war. For nearly a decade, Letts has been held without charge alongside hundreds of other suspected IS affiliates. Prior to last month’s calls, his parents had only received sporadic, limited updates on his condition and location, with the last direct communication via voice message shortly after his 2017 capture. In a 2024 interview, after a Canadian media crew located him in a Syrian prison, Letts denied ever being an IS member, though he noted he could not share full details while still in detention.

    In January of this year, Letts was one of more than 5,000 former detainees held in northeastern Syria transferred to Iraqi custody in a US-supported operation, part of the handover of security control from regional Kurdish authorities to Syria’s central government. Data from Iraq’s Ministry of Justice, reviewed by Middle East Eye, shows that more than 3,500 of the transferred detainees are Syrian, with dozens of other Western citizens among the group: at least five Canadians, 10 Britons, 27 Germans, and 13 Australians. Larger cohorts come from Arab nations including 187 from Morocco, 116 from Egypt, and 68 from Saudi Arabia, as well as 130 from Russia and 165 from Turkmenistan.

    Today, Letts is held in a foreign national detention facility run by Iraq’s Directorate for General Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism, located near Al-Karkh Central Prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. While Canada has previously repatriated female citizens and children held in Syrian displacement camps for families of IS affiliates, it has refused to repatriate male detainees on national security grounds. Since the transfer to Iraq earlier this year, Canadian embassy officials have visited Letts and other Canadian detainees, and facilitated the exchange of letters and photos between detainees and their families. But the Canadian government continues to reject calls for repatriation, advising families to hire Iraqi-based legal representation for their relatives.

    “The Canadian government has said that they can’t interfere in the judicial affairs of another country,” Lane explained. “They’ve just said you need to get a lawyer, either somebody appointed by the Iraqi court, or an international lawyer who is approved by the Iraqi Bar Association.”

    Legal experts and global human rights organizations have raised urgent alarms over the fate of foreign detainees transferred to Iraq, who face potential trials in Iraqi courts for alleged offenses committed in Syria after a decade of detention conditions widely condemned as unlawful. In February, Human Rights Watch warned that detainees transferred to Iraq face severe risks including enforced disappearance, unfair trials, torture, ill-treatment, and even violation of the right to life, due to well-documented failures of due process in Iraqi counterterrorism cases.

    Prominent human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith told Middle East Eye that prosecuting these detainees in Iraq for crimes not committed on Iraqi soil is “legal nonsense.” He argued that any accused individuals should face trial in their home countries, noting that most have already spent nearly 10 years imprisoned in what he described as “pretty barbarous conditions.”

    John Letts accuses the Canadian government of “hiding behind words” to avoid repatriation, pointing out that Ottawa’s position has not shifted even after the transfer to Iraq. When his son was held in Syria, Canada routinely refused to provide consular assistance to Letts and other detainees on the grounds that it had no diplomatic representation in the country during the civil war. “In practical terms, nothing has actually changed. The Canadian position is still no repatriations,” John Letts said. He remains deeply concerned about his son’s treatment in Iraqi custody, and even during the brief three-minute call, Jack shared the names of two fellow detainees he said were in urgent need of legal help before the line cut out. “He sounded together, but the bittersweetness is that you know he’s had a terrible time and that terrible time is still continuing,” John Letts added.

    Both of Letts’s parents say they plan to travel to Iraq in the near future to visit their son in detention. Middle East Eye has reached out to both Canadian and Iraqi foreign ministries for comment on the case.

  • Why keeping youth discontent in check remains Indian PM Modi’s biggest challenge

    Why keeping youth discontent in check remains Indian PM Modi’s biggest challenge

    Last month, widespread street protests led by India’s Gen Z over repeated incidents of standardized entrance exam leaks forced the resignation of then-Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. While the resignation allowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration to defuse an immediate political crisis, analysts warn that simmering youth discontent over systemic failures in education and employment will remain a persistent, long-term challenge for the government. In the immediate aftermath of Pradhan’s departure, Modi moved quickly to implement immediate, visible reforms: he established fast-track courts to prosecute individuals accused of orchestrating exam leaks, and tapped Nandan Nilekani, a prominent Indian tech billionaire, to lead a national initiative to overhaul the country’s flawed examination system. But experts agree that these targeted steps are not enough to address the deep-seated anxiety gripping India’s young population, who have grown increasingly frustrated with a system that fails to deliver quality education pathways to stable, productive livelihoods.

    Veteran economist Santosh Mehrotra, author of *India Out of Work: Rethinking India’s Growth Story*, described the dual crisis facing Asia’s largest economy in comments to the BBC. “The labour market has become brutal in the last 10 years. Non-farm jobs have not been growing and real wages have stagnated,” he explained. “India has a simultaneous problem. The economy is structurally weak as a result of which demand for labour is not growing. And our education system is so poor, that it is unable to supply new labour that is employable.” For years, the Modi government has leaned on rapid GDP growth driven by large-scale public infrastructure spending to push back against criticism of India’s uneven economic expansion. But the mass youth uprisings of last month may finally force policymakers to confront the interlocking crises of failing education and soaring youth unemployment, according to policy experts. Mehrotra notes that the expansion of India’s welfare state, particularly the rollout of direct cash transfers to low-income households, signals that the government has already recognized the severity of the crisis in private — even if it has not yet articulated a comprehensive public solution. The scale of the problem, however, is enormous.

    India is home to the world’s largest youth population: more than 360 million people between the ages of 15 and 29. Over the past two decades, the country has made notable gains in expanding access to education, with enrollment rates climbing and the number of private colleges and vocational training institutes growing exponentially. Yet the 2026 *State of Working India* report from Azim Premji University confirms that the transition from classroom to the workforce remains one of the country’s most intractable social challenges, especially for young graduates. Data from the report shows that youth unemployment rates are nearly four times higher than unemployment among older workers, and far outpace global averages. Graduate unemployment has hovered between 35% and 40% for the last 25 years, but the crisis has been amplified in recent decades by India’s demographic boom and rising education attainment. In 1983, just 4% of Indians aged 20 to 29 held graduate degrees, and 13% of those graduates were out of work. By 2023, that share of young graduates jumped to 28% — and 67% of those graduates remained unemployed.

    The disconnect between growing graduate numbers and available skilled jobs lies at the heart of the crisis. While India has produced millions of new graduates annually, the expansion of the educated workforce has not been matched by a corresponding increase in graduate-level employment. Between 2004-05 and 2023, India added roughly five million new graduates to the workforce each year, but only around 2.8 million of those graduates secured any form of employment, and an even smaller share landed stable salaried roles. This mismatch has driven up unemployment and suppressed wage growth for young workers. Worse, the *State of Working India* report finds that hard work and educational ambition rarely translate to stable success today: barely 3.7% of graduates and post-graduates secure white-collar roles, and fewer than 7% land permanent salaried positions.

    Experts emphasize that this crisis cannot be fixed with short-term policy patches. Mehrotra argues that reviving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have never fully recovered from the 2016 demonetization policy that removed 86% of India’s circulating currency in four hours, and the uneven rollout of the national goods and services tax, could deliver some near-term job gains. But India needs a sweeping new industrial policy focused on revitalizing the country’s manufacturing sector to create enough jobs for its growing youth workforce, he adds. Manufacturing’s share of India’s GDP has fallen from 17% in 2015 to 14% today. Manufacturing employment declined for five years after 2015, and has only rebounded slightly to pre-decline levels in recent years. Compounding this, total agricultural employment has risen by 80 million since 2020, a trend that Mehrotra calls a clear indicator of widespread disguised unemployment. In most fast-growing industrializing economies, workers typically move out of low-productivity agricultural work into manufacturing or services; the reverse trend in India signals a deep failure of job creation.

    In recent years, the rise of artificial intelligence has added an entirely new layer of pressure to India’s job market, upending the business model of the software services industry that has been the backbone of India’s middle-class growth for three decades. A 2024 report from Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs estimates that between 8% and 12% of non-farm jobs in India are at risk of displacement by AI, and the impacts of this shift are already visible. Neeti Sharma, CEO of Team Lease Digital, one of India’s leading staffing agencies, told the BBC that IT hiring growth has slowed to single digits in recent months, while unstable contract work has become the norm and wages have remained stagnant for years. The stable knowledge-based jobs that Indian STEM graduates once took for granted are no longer available in large numbers.

    The growing frustration in the once-thriving tech sector boiled over into public view recently, when a corporate event hosted by HCL Technologies, one of India’s largest software firms, in Chennai was disrupted by hundreds of employees chanting in unison for wage increases. The protest underscored how the tech industry, once seen as a golden ticket to upward mobility, has ceased to deliver on that promise for many young workers. Sharma argues that both young workers and educational institutions need to adapt to this new reality: graduates must abandon the expectation of traditional white-collar office jobs, and post-secondary institutions must shift their focus from academic degree programs to vocational skills training, as employers increasingly prioritize demonstrated skills over formal degrees. This means that even degree-holding young Indians may need to pursue careers in skilled trades such as plumbing, electrical work, and automotive repair, rather than expecting comfortable, air-conditioned office roles.

    As leading market investor Devina Mehra observed on social platform X, this shift means that India’s current young generation can no longer take for granted that they will achieve a higher standard of living than their parents. For India, still in an early stage of economic development, stagnating earnings for a large share of the workforce could be a “disaster” — one that the Modi government will need to prioritize aggressively to avoid long-term social and political unrest.