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  • Trump administration sanctions all Iranian airlines in aviation crackdown

    Trump administration sanctions all Iranian airlines in aviation crackdown

    On a Tuesday announcement, the Trump administration rolled out a new round of punitive measures targeting 27 Iranian air carriers, part of a broader campaign to block the Tehran government from moving weapons, military personnel and undeclared illicit cargo, according to an official statement released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

    This new action forms the core of Operation Economic Outcast, an expanded sanctions initiative that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says is designed to cut off Iran’s access to the interconnected global economy. The United States first imposed sanctions on a major Iranian commercial airline, Mahan Air, back in 2011, marking the start of this targeted pressure campaign on Iran’s aviation sector.

    “Let this be a warning to anyone doing business with Iran’s remaining airlines, all of which we sanctioned today: You are at risk of being cut off from the global financial system,” Bessent stated during Tuesday’s press briefing. Among the newly sanctioned carriers are prominent Iranian aviation operators including Ava Airlines, Fly Persia, and Mehr Airways.

    In total, the Treasury added 36 distinct entities and individuals to its blacklist. Beyond the air carriers, the designation also covers what the department describes as covert front companies, foreign-based intermediaries, and deceptive transshipment networks that Iran leverages to acquire U.S.-manufactured aircraft and sensitive aviation technology. Notable non-Iranian entities named include the United Arab Emirates-based ECT Aviation Support LLC, its Egyptian chief executive Ibrahim Ali Mohamed Mohamed Mahran, and Turkey-based logistics firm Sky Phoenix.

    To back up the new sanctions, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a global advisory calling on financial institutions worldwide to flag transactions linked to procurement networks that support Iran’s aviation industry. Meanwhile, the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control moved to suspend existing authorizations that previously allowed non-U.S. airlines to operate routes or use U.S.-built aircraft that eventually enter Iranian airspace. The change is expected to complicate travel for Iranian Americans with family based in Iran and cuts off the Tehran government from collecting critical overflight fees from international carriers.

    The Treasury emphasized its broad enforcement scope: “Any person that assists Iran’s aviation sector, from the provision of general sales agent services through to support to Iran’s covert aircraft procurement schemes, will be held accountable.” All sanctioned individuals and entities will have any U.S.-based assets frozen, lose access to the U.S.-dominated global banking system, and face prohibitions on any transactions with U.S. persons and permanent residents.

    This latest round of sanctions builds on an initiative Bessent launched just one month prior, when he announced a new sweeping pressure campaign targeting Iran and its international partners, aimed at what he called the “asphyxiation of this regime” amid rising tensions over the Strait of Hormuz. Speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C., Bessent framed the pressure as a stark choice for Iranian leadership: “Iran now faces a very clear choice, with only two paths before them: complete global isolation and a subsistence economy, or a path back to normalcy with an opportunity to rejoin the global economy.”

    To date, the Trump administration has consistently tightened sanctions on Iran since its first term starting in 2017, and no concrete details have been released on how “a path to normalcy” would be structured or what concessions would be required from Tehran. Bessent made clear the goal of the new operation is to eliminate all alternatives for the Iranian regime: “We are launching Operation Economic Outcast to foreclose every other option available to the Iranian regime. America is no longer managing the Iranian threat. We are ending it.”

    Bessent added that the Treasury has taken what he calls a “zero-leakage approach” to mapping Iranian sanctions evasion networks, saying officials have mapped every node, facilitator, and network Iran has used to smuggle oil and bypass existing international restrictions. He also confirmed that President Donald Trump has already held phone calls with global heads of state, issuing specific requests for those countries to end all commercial and diplomatic interactions with the Iranian regime, though he declined to name the countries involved.

    When pressed by reporters on why the sanctions are not being enforced with immediate effect globally, Bessent pushed back on the idea of immediate universal implementation, asking: “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” He explained that all countries have been given a clear timeline to wind down the activities identified by U.S. officials, and added: “If they do not take action, we will do so unilaterally through Treasury authorities.”

    This report was originally prepared by independent outlet Middle East Eye, which specializes in original coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa, and broader global affairs related to the region.

  • Singaporean man pleads guilty in US to massive crypto heist

    Singaporean man pleads guilty in US to massive crypto heist

    In a landmark cybercrime case that exposes the growing global threat of digital asset theft, a 22-year-old Singaporean national named Malone Lam has entered a guilty plea to a racketeering conspiracy charge in a U.S. federal court. The charge stems from Lam’s role as the ringleader of one of the largest cryptocurrency heists in recent history, which saw the group steal roughly $245 million worth of bitcoin from hundreds of victims across the globe.

    According to official documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the transnational criminal conspiracy operated from no later than October 2023 through at least May 2025. Lam assembled a network of co-conspirators spread across four U.S. states — California, Connecticut, New York, and Florida — as well as multiple countries outside the United States, with the group first connecting through popular online gaming platforms. Operating under multiple aliases including Anne Hathaway, $$$, and King Greavy, Lam structured the enterprise, targeted potential victims, and assigned specialized roles to each member of the ring, prosecutors confirmed.

    The criminal group used a mix of sophisticated cyber deception and physical burglary to steal digital assets, the DOJ says. Conspirators tricked victims into handing over sensitive account credentials through phishing and social engineering schemes, and in some cases carried out residential break-ins to steal private keys required to access cryptocurrency wallets. Once they gained control, the group drained the wallets and transferred the stolen bitcoin to accounts they controlled.

    Over the course of the conspiracy, Lam and his associates laundered the stolen funds and spent the proceeds on an extravagant lifestyle of luxury. Court records and evidence released by U.S. authorities show the group spent as much as $500,000 per outing on high-end nightclub trips, where they threw tens of thousands of dollars worth of Hermes Birkin handbags into crowds of partygoers. They also purchased a collection of high-performance supercars, with individual vehicle values ranging from $100,000 to $3.8 million, alongside luxury watches priced as high as $500,000, designer clothing, and long-term luxury home rentals in elite U.S. destinations including Los Angeles, the Hamptons, and Miami. The group also splurged on private jet travel and hired a dedicated team of private security to protect their operation. U.S. law enforcement has released public photos showing Lam partying with large stacks of cash at a Miami nightclub in September 2024, alongside images of the exotic car fleet purchased with stolen funds.

    Following his guilty plea entered on Tuesday, Lam now faces a maximum possible prison sentence of 20 years behind bars. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has not yet scheduled a formal sentencing hearing for the defendant. In a statement following the plea, U.S. Attorney Pirro emphasized that the DOJ’s commitment to combating transnational cybercrime remains unwavering. “If you build a cybercrime empire, we will find you, dismantle your operation, and hold you accountable,” Pirro said. She added that Lam “led an international network that preyed on victims through deception, invaded their privacy, and stole hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.”

    The case marks one of the highest-profile cryptocurrency theft prosecutions in recent years, highlighting how cross-border criminal networks are increasingly targeting unregulated digital assets, and the challenges international law enforcement faces in tracking and apprehending the perpetrators of these digital crimes.

  • Records reveal Cuny investments in weapons firms supplying Israel

    Records reveal Cuny investments in weapons firms supplying Israel

    After a years-long campaign by pro-Palestinian student and faculty organizers, newly released financial records from the City University of New York (CUNY) have confirmed the public university system holds more than $715,000 in investments in major weapons manufacturers that supply military equipment and technology to the Israeli military. The disclosures, which came via a court-ordered settlement following a freedom of information lawsuit, mark a rare instance of a U.S. university publicly confirming such holdings, a detail most higher education institutions have long kept hidden from public view.

    The records, obtained by two campus advocacy groups — CUNY4Palestine and CUNY Law Students for Justice in Palestine (CUNY Law SJP) — reveal CUNY’s investment portfolio includes stakes in six major defense and military technology firms: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Palantir, Elbit Systems, and General Dynamics. All six firms openly maintain active supply contracts with the Israeli army. A breakdown of 2025 holdings shows CUNY holds more than $319,000 in Boeing stock, roughly $65,300 in Lockheed Martin stock, $141,200 in Raytheon stock, and nearly $189,350 in Palantir stock — figures that activists say exceeded their initial expectations.

    Pro-Palestinian organizers have long flagged the specific role each firm plays in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which launched after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on southern Israel. To date, the conflict has left more than 250,000 Palestinians in Gaza killed or injured and reduced much of the enclave to rubble. Activists note Boeing produces F-15 fighter jets, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, and bunker-buster bombs that have been used in strikes across Gaza, Lebanon, and other regional conflict zones; Lockheed Martin and Raytheon manufacture the missiles and munitions deployed by Israeli ground and air forces; and Palantir provides surveillance and data management technology that the Israeli military relies on for targeting operations.

    In a joint statement released this week, the two advocacy groups argued CUNY’s financial ties to these firms make the university directly complicit in what they call the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza. A CUNY faculty organizer, speaking through the groups, extended that criticism further, saying the investments also make CUNY complicit in broader imperialist violence across West Asia and the Global South, as well as in what they describe as fascist border enforcement carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    The release of the records follows years of organizing and transparency demands from pro-Palestinian groups on CUNY’s campuses. CUNY was one of the first U.S. universities to join the wave of Gaza solidarity encampments that spread across higher education institutions in April 2024, starting at Columbia University, where protesters demanded administrations disclose and divest from companies supplying Israel. Though ties between U.S. academia and the defense sector have long been an open secret, most universities have refused to release detailed breakdowns of their investment holdings to the public.

    In 2024, after the escalation of conflict in Gaza, CUNY4Palestine and CUNY Law SJP filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to force CUNY leadership to release full details of its defense industry investments. When university administrators refused to turn over the records, activists and a student plaintiff filed a lawsuit — Sarah Southey v. City University of New York — to compel disclosure. The case reached a settlement in mid-August that required CUNY to release all investment records dating back to July 2023.

    Veronica Salama, senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, which supported the lawsuit, noted that while the disclosure marks a win for transparency, it is unacceptable that legal action was required to get public information from a taxpayer-funded institution. “While we’re grateful that the largest, urban public university in the country will finally disclose its investment records, it is outrageous that our client had to file this lawsuit in the first place,” Salama said in a statement.

    On Wednesday afternoon, campaigners planned a press conference outside New York City Hall to lay out the full details of the disclosures to the public. Activists say the released records are only the first part of a larger body of investment data, framing the $715,000 figure as “just the tip of the iceberg.” They have vowed to continue their campaign until CUNY divests all holdings from arms firms and redirects that funding toward institutional and community programs that serve public good. “As we declared during CUNY’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment: we will not stop, we will not rest until our tax and tuition dollars are divested from death and destruction and reinvested in life-sustaining institutions and practices! We demand CUNY live up to its name as a ‘People’s University!’” the groups’ statement read.

    The disclosures are also drawing new scrutiny to CUNY leadership and the crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests on its campuses. While high-profile encampments at Ivy League institutions like Harvard and Princeton drew widespread national and international media attention, CUNY’s protest movement has received far less coverage. Organizers and analysts argue that makes the new revelations even more significant: as the nation’s largest urban public university serving a working-class, majority minority student body across New York City, CUNY’s investment decisions carry unique public weight.

    Critics are also pointing to the political ties of CUNY’s top investment leadership. William C. Thompson, who currently chairs CUNY’s board executive committee and investment subcommittee — a post he has held since 2016 — was reappointed to a six-year term in June 2023 by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a well-known staunch supporter of Israel. CUNY has not yet responded to requests for comment from media outlets including Middle East Eye, which first reported on the disclosures.

  • Hong Kong’s first post-colonial leader dies aged 89

    Hong Kong’s first post-colonial leader dies aged 89

    Tung Chee-hwa, the trailblazing first chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after the 1997 handover that ended over 150 years of British colonial rule, has passed away at the age of 89. According to local Hong Kong media reports, he died on Tuesday night with his family at his side.

    Born in Shanghai in 1937, Tung built a diverse life trajectory spanning global business and historic public service. After earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, he relocated to the United States, where he spent nearly a decade working for industrial giant General Electric. He returned to Asia and settled in Hong Kong in 1969 to join his family’s prominent shipping enterprise, Orient Overseas, and assumed leadership of the conglomerate in 1979 following his father’s passing.

    Tung’s entry into formal politics came in 1992, when he was appointed to the executive council of Chris Patten, the final British governor of Hong Kong. Despite limited prior electoral political experience, Tung was widely identified as Beijing’s preferred candidate to lead the newly returned Hong Kong, a signal cemented by a high-profile 1996 handshake with then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin at a Beijing reception that was captured by global photographers. This backing came amid longstanding ties to the mainland: in the mid-1980s, Chinese state-owned banks stepped in to rescue Tung’s family shipping business during a global industry downturn, cementing his reputation as a loyal ally of Beijing.

    When the handover was finalized in July 1997, Tung officially took office, succeeding Patten to become the first leader of Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty. His tenure was immediately tested by cascading crises that shaped his administration. Just months after taking office, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis sent Hong Kong’s property market into a steep nosedive, straining household finances and public confidence. His administration later faced two major public health emergencies: a multi-year bird flu outbreak between 1997 and 2002, followed by the 2003 SARS epidemic that killed hundreds in the city and brought daily life to a standstill.

    The most significant political challenge of Tung’s tenure came in July 2003, during his second term, when an estimated half a million Hong Kong residents marched in mass protests against a proposed local national security law that opponents warned would erode civil liberties and the city’s promised high degree of autonomy. In response to widespread public outcry, Tung’s administration shelved the draft legislation. The unrest, combined with other pressures, contributed to Tung’s early departure from office in March 2005. While Tung cited declining personal health as the reason for his resignation, many outside observers have long speculated that he was pressured to step down by Beijing authorities. A national security law for Hong Kong was ultimately imposed directly by Beijing in 2020; the measure has been defended by Chinese and Hong Kong authorities as critical to upholding national security and social stability, but decried by critics as a move that has dismantled Hong Kong’s civil freedoms and created a pervasive climate of political fear.

    After leaving office, Tung remained out of the public eye for most of his later years. His last confirmed public appearance was in July 2021, at an event marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. Just months after that event, Tung underwent heart surgery, according to local reporting.

    In an official statement following his death, Tung’s office remembered him as a leader deeply devoted to the country and its people. “His noble character and integrity will live on forever in our hearts,” the statement read. He is survived by his wife and three children.

  • ‘We share the goal of stability’: Rubio remarks restrained as western allies sanction Israel

    ‘We share the goal of stability’: Rubio remarks restrained as western allies sanction Israel

    On Tuesday, in a striking break from long-standing Western alignment on Israeli-Palestinian policy, the United Kingdom, France, and Canada announced a coordinated package of unprecedented punitive measures targeting Israel, drawing an immediate split with the United States over how to address escalating tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

    During a press briefing while traveling in Colombia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a restrained tone, confirming that Washington would not align with the new actions taken by its allies. “We were made aware that they were going to make this decision,” Rubio told reporters. “We heard their argument as to why, but look, we share the goal of stability. We don’t want to see some uptick in violence or an uptick in conflict or tensions in the West Bank at a very tenuous time. In the region, there’s always tenuous times.”

    A Bloomberg report published Tuesday cited unnamed UK diplomatic sources who privately told their US counterparts ahead of the announcement that the new sanctions are largely symbolic and unlikely to deliver tangible economic or political impact on Israel. As part of the coordinated declaration, the three Western nations formally recognized claims of ethnic cleansing being carried out against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, but notably excluded Gaza from this designation. As of this reporting, Gaza has seen more than 73,000 Palestinian fatalities since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on southern Israel, and the besieged enclave is widely described as a decimated wasteland, with Israeli air strikes continuing despite a nearly year-old ceasefire agreement.

    Building on a 2024 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, the UK, France, and Canada also formally declared Israel’s long-standing occupation of Palestinian territory illegal, but again, the joint statement did not address Israel’s 19-year blockade of the Gaza Strip. The concrete measures announced include comprehensive economic sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and an immediate ban on new arms licenses that would support the Israeli occupation. Independent critics have already noted that these restrictions are easily circumvented through supply chain rerouting and product relabeling, echoing the earlier private assessment from UK diplomats.

    In their joint statement, the three nations framed the actions as a necessary step to preserve the internationally backed two-state solution, a framework that has been increasingly sidelined in recent years. “One year ago, we recognised the State of Palestine. The time has come to take further action to uphold our commitment to protect the two-state solution, our interests and to stand up for our values, before it is too late,” the statement read. This move comes despite a complete lack of public support for a two-state solution within Israeli political circles, extending even to the main opposition bloc that is widely expected to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in upcoming October national elections. The US has also effectively abandoned its decades-long official support for a two-state solution under current President Donald Trump.

    The joint statement reaffirmed that the three allies remain firmly committed to Israel’s security. “In taking this coordinated action, we reiterate our desire for a close and productive partnership with Israel, our enduring support for the Israeli people and our unwavering commitment to Israel’s security,” they added. Even so, the announcement drew fierce condemnation from pro-Israel American politicians even before it was made public. Earlier this week, as rumors of the impending declaration began to circulate, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee wrote on the social platform X that the British government had “lost it” and was driven by “Jew hate”. Florida Republican Congressman Randy Fine, a well-known anti-Muslim voice in Congress, similarly warned on X that Florida is one of the UK’s largest trading partners, and that what he called the allies’ “vanity project in support of Muslim terror could cost them billions of dollars” in bilateral trade.

    Reactions to the sanctions have been deeply divided among advocacy groups and policy analysts. Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the global Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement advocating for Palestinian rights, described the new measures as “largely performative and ineffective”. He added that the UK’s focus on allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza does not end its complicity in the ongoing conflict, noting that Israel has fully integrated the occupied territories’ economy into its own, making any differentiation between Israeli and settlement goods functionally impossible for enforcing import bans.

    In Washington DC, J Street, a pro-Israel advocacy group that has long supported a two-state solution, praised UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband’s public video announcement of the new measures. “Note to American leaders and those seeking future roles: this is what leadership on this issue looks like today,” J Street CEO Jeremy Ben-Ami wrote in response. However, Robert Satloff, head of the staunchly pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy, called the announcement a “sad day” on X, and slammed Miliband for simultaneously denouncing antisemitism while advancing what he called “anti-Israel policies”. Satloff argued that singling Israel out for this type of targeted treatment inherently aligns with the antisemitism that Miliband publicly condemned. This matches a long-standing pattern from the Israeli government, which routinely labels any criticism of its policies as antisemitism, regardless of whether the criticism stems from United Nations resolutions, foreign government policy, or even cultural expression.

    In Canada, the advocacy group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East welcomed Ottawa’s participation in the sanctions, calling it a “victory for the Palestine solidarity movement and everyone who wants Canadian trade policy to uphold human rights and international law”. Yara Shoufani, the organization’s president, noted that for years Canada has enabled illegal trade with Israeli settlement businesses, even extending economic benefits through the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement. “This announcement marks the first time that Israel will face material, economic consequences for its blatant violations of international law,” Shoufani said. Conversely, Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Canada, strongly condemned the Canadian government’s decision, arguing that Ottawa abandoned an independent foreign policy aligned with its own strategic interests to follow the UK’s lead, a move he claimed was driven by domestic political calculations to appease extreme elements of Canadian society. Shack added that the sanctions would do nothing to advance political reform or demilitarization in Palestinian territories.

    In response to the allied announcement, the Israeli government has already launched retaliatory diplomatic measures: it has announced the closure of the British consulate in Jerusalem, imposed a travel ban on a dozen sitting British lawmakers, and expelled the British Support Team that trains security forces for the Palestinian Authority (PA). A progressive US think tank, A New Policy, founded by two former Biden administration officials who resigned in protest over Washington’s unconditional support for Israel, noted that this Israeli retaliation will ultimately harm US security objectives in the region, since the British Support Team operated under the umbrella of the US Security Coordinator (USSC) mission. That mission works closely with the Israeli military to maintain the level of stability that Israel demands in the occupied West Bank, and the British team provided critical on-the-ground intelligence for the USSC.

    To offset any potential backlash for targeting Israel, the UK government also included a package of expanded sanctions on Iran as part of Tuesday’s announcement, adding new trade restrictions on Iranian shipping and aviation. This move aligned with simultaneous action from the US Treasury Department, which announced sanctions on 36 individuals and entities accused of supporting Iran’s aviation sector through covert front companies, foreign intermediaries, and deceptive shipping routes that Iran uses to obtain US-origin aircraft and sensitive technology.

  • Families’ interest in their kids’ education is falling around the globe as scores drop, test shows

    Families’ interest in their kids’ education is falling around the globe as scores drop, test shows

    The 2023 round of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the world’s most comprehensive standardized evaluation of 15-year-olds’ academic proficiency, has delivered a stark warning to education systems across high-income economies: average scores in core subjects of math, reading, and science have hit their lowest point in the program’s 20+ year history.

    Organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the 2023 assessment drew more than 760,000 participants across dozens of nations, with results published this week confirming widespread declines. Even in the United States, which placed within the global top 15 for science, reading, and the new computational problem-solving category, scores for reading and math have fallen to their lowest level since PISA launched in the early 2000s — a trend that was only masked slightly by broader declines across other developed nations. Researchers also note the U.S. results should be interpreted with caution, as the country failed to meet the study’s required sample size standards for participating schools and students.

    What is driving this global slump in academic performance? OECD officials point to two interconnected factors: declining parental engagement in children’s learning, and unregulated overuse of digital and artificial intelligence tools in and out of the classroom.

    An accompanying student survey paired with PISA assessments found that nearly every high-income country recorded a drop in family investment in education between 2018 (the last full PISA round) and 2023, with the sharpest disengagement observed among boys. This disengagement is measured by how frequently parents discuss schoolwork with their children or actively participate in their learning progress. Andreas Schleicher, director of the OECD’s education and skills division, notes that many parents have shifted their perspective from active co-participants in education to passive clients of school systems.

    The performance gap tied to parental engagement is substantial. Even after adjusting for socioeconomic differences between students, teenagers who reported that a family member asks about their daily school experience at least once a week scored 35 points higher on the PISA science assessment than peers with less engaged families. That gap is equivalent to more than a year and a half of additional learning.

    Digital distraction is the second major contributor to falling scores. More than one in four students across high-income countries reported that classmates are distracted by personal digital devices in most or every science class. Data confirms that nations with strict school policies governing cellphone use see significantly lower distraction rates. When it comes to leisure use of digital devices, the link between heavy use and lower test scores is clear, Schleicher says, though the picture is more mixed for educational digital use: students who used edtech for 2 to 3 hours per day during school saw small score gains, but performance drops sharply once use exceeds that threshold.

    For artificial intelligence tools, the pattern mirrors that of general digital technology. Half of all students in developed economies now use AI chatbots for learning at least once a week, but the assessment found that higher AI use correlates with lower overall test scores, with students who never use chatbots outperforming their peers who use these tools regularly. That said, some nations have found a balanced, effective approach to integrating AI into learning: in China, Japan, Singapore, and Estonia, AI is used to support — not replace — teacher-led instruction. Schleicher highlighted one example from a Chinese elementary school, where students practice traditional ink calligraphy, and teachers use AI to scan and analyze student work to deliver personalized feedback on handwriting improvement — blending traditional teaching methods with AI-powered support, rather than letting technology lead classroom activity.

    Top performing spots in the 2023 PISA rankings were once again dominated by East Asian economies. Mainland China (with four provinces, Hong Kong, and Macao participating), Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea took the highest overall marks, with Estonia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand also ranking among the top performers. Fewer than 10% of students in top-ranked East Asian nations reported classroom digital distraction, a fraction of the rate seen in North America and Western Europe. In the four participating Chinese provinces, nearly 100% of students scored at or above the baseline proficiency level for math and reading, compared to just 65% for math and 74% for reading in the U.S.

    Education experts warn that the growing gap in academic performance between the U.S. and top-performing East Asian systems carries major long-term geopolitical implications. “To win a technological race, you need the people with the science and the technology and the reading capabilities,” said Tracey Burns, chief of global strategy and research at the National Center for Education and the Economy, an organization that studies high-performing education systems worldwide.

  • Meta continues to run ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India – report

    Meta continues to run ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India – report

    A bombshell new investigation from a U.S.-based non-profit accountability group has uncovered that hundreds of paid advertisements featuring artificial intelligence-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) operated on Meta’s two flagship platforms, Facebook and Instagram, over a 10-month monitoring period – with dozens of the problematic ads slipping through content moderation even after an official government order in India targeting such harmful content.

    The Washington-headquartered Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a research arm of the non-profit Campaign for Accountability that works to hold big tech firms accountable for harmful content, published its findings on Tuesday, documenting 332 confirmed CSAM-laden ads across both platforms. The overwhelming majority of these ads – 274 out of 332 – were detected in August of this year, spread across six regions including the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Australia and India. Roughly one-quarter of all the problematic ads, 84 total, ran in India alone. Shockingly, 78 of those Indian ads were published after the Indian government issued a formal order two months prior demanding Meta remove all CSAM-related content and ads from Instagram, a directive that came on the heels of an earlier investigative report from BBC Eye that first exposed CSAM paid ads active on the platform for Indian users.

    The report details a deeply disturbing pattern behind how these ads operate: nearly all start with a legitimate photograph of a real child, which is then manipulated using AI deepfake technology to generate graphic sexual content as the ad plays. In one high-profile case documented by TTP, images of a minor member of a European royal family were stolen and altered to create CSAM for an ad. TTP also shared one example of an Indian ad that featured an AI-animated preteen girl performing a graphic sex act, paired with a voiceover claiming the service offered unrestricted access to real AI-generated content of this nature. According to TTP’s research, this single ad was posted across more than 50 different user accounts in India over a two-week period in August.

    Beyond the initial discovery, TTP confirmed that more than a dozen additional CSAM ads remained live on Meta’s platforms even after the research group formally alerted Meta to their presence. This includes 11 ads that ran in India as recently as September 1 and 2, weeks after TTP shared its preliminary findings with the company. When TTP tested Meta’s own in-platform ad reporting system for 55 of the 84 Indian CSAM ads it identified, the results were alarming: 43 of the reported ads were reviewed by Meta’s automated moderation and deemed to not violate the company’s advertising standards. Only 11 were confirmed removed, with one ad still awaiting a response from Meta at the time of the report. Once TTP reached out directly to Meta’s communications team with its full findings, all flagged ads were ultimately removed.

    TTP’s investigation also uncovered that a large share of the problematic ads were placed through Meta’s official third-party ad reseller partners based in China. These resellers are responsible for moving billions of dollars in Chinese advertising onto Meta’s platforms annually, and none responded to TTP’s requests for comment on their role in approving and distributing the CSAM ads. Nearly all 332 ads documented by TTP directed users to AI-powered image and video generation apps, most developed by Chinese creators. The ads use CSAM to implicitly market that these tools can be used to create or access illegal child sexual exploitation content, a use case that Meta explicitly bans in its platform policies. Meta’s policies already prohibit the promotion of so-called “nudify” apps that create non-consensual fake nude or explicit content, but the CSAM ads still evaded detection.

    In response to queries from the BBC about the TTP report, Meta issued a statement reaffirming that it does not tolerate any form of child exploitation, whether involving real or AI-generated content. Meta representatives argued that criminal actors constantly shift their tactics to evade content detection systems, which is why the company continuously updates and strengthens its detection and enforcement workflows. The company also noted that it has built layered automated defenses designed to block violating ads before they go live, and ongoing monitoring catches content that may slip through initial screening. Meta claimed that most of the flagged ads had already been removed before TTP’s report, that the vast majority received fewer than 200 impressions each, and that total ad spend across all 332 CSAM ads amounted to less than $5,000. Meta also reiterated that it complies with all legal requirements to report confirmed child exploitation content to the U.S.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the global central clearinghouse for CSAM reporting.

    However, child protection advocates in India argue that Meta’s current reporting and enforcement framework falls far short of what is required under Indian law. Just Rights for Children, a national network of more than 250 Indian child protection organizations, has already filed a public interest petition with India’s Supreme Court citing the earlier BBC investigation, asking the court to issue formal mandates requiring social media platforms to proactively identify CSAM and report all violators directly to Indian law enforcement agencies. Bhuwan Ribhu, founder of Just Rights for Children, accused major social media firms of openly flouting Indian child protection laws by failing to report CSAM content to domestic law enforcement as required.

    Top Indian law enforcement officials echo these concerns, noting that the cross-platform nature of CSAM distribution creates unique enforcement challenges. Shikha Goel, director of the Cyber Security Bureau in the Indian state of Telangana, explained that bad actors can easily shift operations between different platforms to avoid detection, making it far harder to apprehend those responsible for distributing CSAM. Goel added that many in law enforcement hope the Indian government will issue new, clearer directives to social media intermediaries during upcoming negotiations to address this gap.

    The latest findings come after an earlier BBC investigation that also uncovered CSAM paid ads on Instagram directing users to the messaging platform Telegram, where CSAM could be purchased for as little as 99 Indian rupees (approximately $1.05). Telegram has previously stated that it uses a combination of automated moderation and human reviewers to combat CSAM, and claims it has virtually eliminated all public distribution of CSAM on its platform.

    The TTP investigation adds new scrutiny to Meta’s automated ad moderation system, which requires all ads to pass automated screening before they are published to users. Meta has previously acknowledged that no content moderation system is perfect, and that determined criminal actors consistently work to exploit gaps in platform defenses, including ad approval workflows.

  • Israel bans 11 British MPs and announces closure of UK consulate in East Jerusalem

    Israel bans 11 British MPs and announces closure of UK consulate in East Jerusalem

    A major diplomatic rift has erupted between the United Kingdom and Israel after London formally recognized the illegality of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory and imposed sweeping sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, prompting immediate counter-sanctions from Jerusalem.

    On Tuesday, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced the landmark policy shift in parliament, confirming that the British government now aligns with the 2024 International Court of Justice advisory opinion, which ruled Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful. Miliband added that London officially recognizes ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank carried out by extremist Israeli settlers, noting that the Israeli government has repeatedly failed to intervene, and in many cases, facilitated forced displacement of local populations.

    Alongside the formal recognition, the UK introduced comprehensive sanctions targeting Israeli settlements and a full ban on all arms licenses and exports that could materially support Israel’s illegal occupation. The announcement quickly drew international backing: 11 other nations including Canada, France, Spain, and Sweden joined the UK in a joint statement committing to introduce national trade restrictions on settlement goods or explore such measures under their domestic legal frameworks. Both France and Canada have already confirmed they will implement bans on settlement goods on Wednesday, a step widely viewed as a key diplomatic win for the UK’s new policy.

    Within hours of Miliband’s announcement, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar unveiled a package of retaliatory measures targeting the UK. In a televised address Tuesday afternoon, Saar stated Israel would shut down the UK consulate in occupied East Jerusalem, expel all British representatives from the US-led International Gaza Support Center (IGSC) — a body established to monitor the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas — and end all British training programs for Palestinian security forces.

    Saar also announced a travel ban barring 11 British Members of Parliament from entering Israeli territory. The list of banned politicians includes former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, independent MP Zarah Sultana, six current Labour MPs (Naz Shah, Diane Abbott, John McDonnell, Richard Burgon), and all three serving Green Party MPs (Carla Denyer, Adrian Ramsay, Ellie Chowns) alongside two additional Green Party figures Sian Berry and Hannah Spencer. A separate ban was also issued for Fahad Ansari, a British lawyer who led legal efforts to reverse Hamas’ designation as a terrorist organization in UK courts.

    Saar dismissed the UK’s boycott of settlement goods as “despicable”, doubling down on Israel’s long-standing claim of full sovereignty over all of Jerusalem. “A united Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, will always remain the capital of Israel and is under its full sovereignty,” he said. “We will also take additional retaliatory measures based on our discretion. The message to any government that seeks to harm us is clear: Those who act against Israel, Israel will act against them, and they will lose their influence and relevance in the region.”

    This is not the first time Israel has removed Western nations from the IGSC over settlement trade bans. Israel recently expelled Dutch representatives from the body after the Netherlands implemented its own restriction on settlement goods, and expelled Spanish delegates earlier this year over what it called Madrid’s “obsessive anti-Israel bias”.

    Responding to the entry ban, a spokesperson for the UK Green Party rejected Israeli pressure and reaffirmed the party’s support for Palestinian rights. “We will not be bullied into silence by the Israeli government. We are proud of our MPs for standing up for Palestinian rights and demanding an end to British complicity in genocide and illegal occupation,” the spokesperson said. “These threats only strengthen our resolve. The British government must stand firm and follow these overdue restrictions with a full arms embargo and wide-ranging sanctions.”

    The latest diplomatic escalation marks a historic turning point in Western policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as a growing bloc of industrialized nations moves beyond rhetorical criticism of Israeli settlements to implement concrete economic and diplomatic measures to oppose the illegal occupation.

  • ‘Standing up for freedom’: British politicians react to UK sanctions on Israeli settlements

    ‘Standing up for freedom’: British politicians react to UK sanctions on Israeli settlements

    The United Kingdom government’s landmark announcement of sweeping sanctions targeting illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank has triggered a wave of divided reactions across British political circles, with cross-party praise balanced by fierce opposition and calls for bolder action. Alongside the sanctions package, the UK government formally recognized the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, declared Israel’s long-running occupation of Palestinian territory illegal under international law, and implemented a full ban on arms licenses and all other exports that materially support the ongoing occupation. The move gained immediate international reinforcement, as both France and Canada confirmed they would also introduce bans on trade with goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements, a development that has been framed as a key diplomatic win for Downing Street.

    Debate over the new measures dominated parliamentary discussions on Tuesday, where political factions split sharply over the policy. Shadow Foreign Secretary Tom Tugendhat emerged as a leading critic from the opposition benches, arguing that the government had unnecessarily oversimplified the region’s long-standing complex conflict by framing the issue in unnuanced terms. “This isn’t about Israel alone and it certainly isn’t about reducing the complexity of the region to a single sentence. Sadly, the government is in the process of doing just that,” Tugendhat told parliament. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband pushed back immediately, challenging Tugendhat’s contradictory stance on the two-state solution: “The underlying problem of his position is this: he supports the two-state solution with great vigour. He believes in the two-state solution. He sees the two-state solution being destroyed before our eyes. And I’m afraid his prescription is to do nothing about it.”

    Not all Conservative MPs lined up against the policy, however. Edward Leigh, the long-serving Father of the House and a senior figure in Conservative Friends of Israel, broke ranks to publicly back the government’s actions. “What is happening in the West Bank is absolutely violent and egregious. It is worse than stopping the two-state solution, it is ethnic cleansing,” Leigh said. “I am proud to say, as the longest-serving member of the Conservative Friends of Israel, that I absolutely and fully support what he is doing today, because it is about standing up for freedom, for morality, and justice of all people in this world.”

    Labour lawmakers broadly supported the new measures, with many long-time campaigners for Palestinian rights hailing the announcement as a historic turning point. Abtisam Mohamed, a Foreign Affairs Committee member who has led calls for a trade ban on settlement goods, praised the decision and pressed the government on its stance regarding the International Criminal Court’s existing arrest warrants against senior Israeli ministers. Miliband confirmed the government “absolutely” backs the ICC’s judicial work, in a further rebuke to Israeli and international opposition to the court’s investigations. Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George joked that aside from “Netanyahu’s fan club”, the entire House of Commons supported the government’s move, while senior Labour MP Naz Shah called the announcement a moment of British leadership, saying “today Britain has led” and that she was “proud of the government”.

    While welcoming the sanctions as a long-overdue step, smaller parties and independent figures argued the measures do not go far enough to meet the UK’s international legal obligations. Green Party Foreign Spokesperson Ellie Chowns said her party had long campaigned for such action and supported the announcement, but added that continuing military and intelligence cooperation with Israel amid ongoing civilian harm in Gaza and the West Bank remained a “shameful failure” to uphold international law. Chowns called for a full two-way arms embargo, broader sanctions on officials behind settlement expansion, an end to all intelligence and military cooperation, and withdrawal from the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement, noting that existing F-35 component exports through international supply chains must also be halted.

    Former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf echoed those calls, describing the announcement as a “significant step in the right direction” but urging the government to end all arms supplies to Israel, including components for the F-35 program. Yousaf also called for expanded sanctions on Israeli ministers pushing annexation, and for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who is subject to an ICC arrest warrant – to be declared persona non grata in the UK. He warned that Downing Street would face intense pressure from Washington and the Israeli government to reverse course, saying “the prime minister and foreign secretary must hold their nerve.” Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn went further, calling on the government to end all trade and military cooperation that sustains Israel’s unlawful presence, recognize the genocide in Gaza, and launch a public inquiry into British complicity in the conflict.

    The most vehement opposition came from Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice, who launched an inflammatory attack claiming the government was “anti-Jew” and that the sanctions would embolden antisemitic hate crime across the UK. Tice posted on X, referring to the administration as a “hard left, anti Jew Burnham Govt”, referencing Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who took office in July.

    According to insider sources from Whitehall, Tuesday’s announcement marks the start of a fundamental shift in UK foreign policy towards the region, with further measures expected in the coming months. Burnham has not spoken to Netanyahu since becoming prime minister, and it was confirmed that he briefed U.S. President Donald Trump on his plans for sanctions during a call on Monday afternoon. The announcement represents an unusually bold break from U.S. policy, as Downing Street pushed ahead with the measures despite private appeals from Washington to abandon the plan. With France and Canada joining the UK in implementing new restrictions on settlement trade, the coordinated action by three of the U.S.’s closest historical allies is being widely perceived as a major diplomatic rebuke of Washington’s long-standing pro-Israel policy in the Middle East, and is expected to ramp up international pressure on Israel to halt its ongoing expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

  • Sanctions on Israeli settlements: Here’s what Europe is saying and doing

    Sanctions on Israeli settlements: Here’s what Europe is saying and doing

    A coordinated diplomatic push led by the United Kingdom has sent tensions between Israel and multiple European states soaring, after 12 European nations unveiled plans this week for new national sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move that has already triggered sharp retaliation from the Israeli government.

    The landmark announcement on Tuesday followed months of growing international outcry over escalating violent attacks on Palestinian communities by Israeli settlers and the ongoing expansion of illegal settlement infrastructure under the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It also comes more than two years after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a formal 2024 ruling confirming that Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank violate international law, a decision that has provided the legal foundation for many nations’ restrictive measures.

    Speaking to the UK Parliament as the coordinated measures were revealed, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband used unusually sharp rhetoric for a senior Western government minister, stating that the sanctions were introduced in response to the ongoing “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank perpetrated by settler terrorists”. Miliband further accused the Netanyahu administration of deliberately turning a blind eye to the forced displacement of Palestinian residents, noting that more than 450,000 Israeli settlers currently reside in the occupied territory. The UK’s new package of measures, among the strictest national policies adopted to date, targets the import of settlement-produced goods, restricts investment in settlement-based businesses and real estate, and bans the promotion of settlement-based services. Miliband emphasized that the action targets the Israeli government, not the Israeli people.

    Shortly after the UK’s announcement, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot confirmed Paris would adopt matching restrictions. “France cannot, through its trade, support a situation that threatens the security of Israelis and Palestinians alike,” Barrot said in an official statement. Before this week, France had only imposed sanctions on approximately 50 individual extremist settlers and unapproved outpost organizations, rather than a broad trade ban. Barrot has repeatedly called for a full EU-wide ban on settlement goods, drawing a direct comparison to the bloc’s immediate trade restrictions on Crimea after Russia’s 2014 annexation, arguing the same standard must be applied to illegal Israeli settlements. “The settlements are illegal. It is not normal that the European Union can support this trade,” he stated earlier this month.

    The 12 signatory nations — the UK, France, Spain, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Portugal — released a joint statement confirming their commitment to either implement national trade restrictions on settlement goods or actively support binding EU-wide restrictions, in line with each country’s domestic legislative processes.

    Many of the signatory nations have already moved forward with national restrictions ahead of this week’s joint announcement. Spain, one of the most vocal European critics of Israeli policy under Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s centre-left government, implemented a full ban on settlement imports in September 2025, requiring all goods from Israel and the occupied territories to disclose their origin postcode and imposing penalties for non-compliance. Madrid has also adopted broader restrictive measures, including an arms embargo on Israel, restrictions on military-related vessels and aircraft using Spanish infrastructure, and formal recognition of Palestinian statehood, moves that have severely strained bilateral ties with Israel and triggered trade tariffs from the United States.

    Ireland implemented its own partial ban on settlement goods in July 2026, after a 2018 proposal was watered down amid political and economic pressure. The Netherlands will bring its three-year ban on settlement goods into force on September 22, and Belgium’s cabinet approved a full import ban earlier this summer ahead of final parliamentary review. Norway tabled a full trade and services ban in June, with public consultation on the proposal closing mid-September, while Iceland joined South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel earlier this year.

    Still, a number of nations have signaled they prefer to wait for collective EU action rather than impose unilateral measures. Sweden, Denmark, and Finland all confirmed they would only move forward with restrictions as part of a coordinated bloc-wide policy, despite signing Tuesday’s joint statement. This divide mirrors long-standing deadlock within the European Union over a proposed bloc-wide ban on settlement goods, which has stalled for months due to opposition from key member states Germany and Italy. Neither country joined Tuesday’s joint declaration, though Germany has repeatedly stated it opposes settlement expansion as a violation of international law and is currently facing its own ICJ case over its continued arms sales to Israel. Right-wing-led Austria has also opposed EU-wide measures, while Slovenia’s new conservative government reversed a 2025 national import ban and other anti-Israel sanctions shortly after taking office in June, a move that earned warm praise from Tel Aviv.

    Israeli officials have responded to the new sanctions with swift and aggressive retaliation. In the wake of the UK’s announcement, Israel closed the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem, expelled British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center, and issued entry bans for 11 non-governmental British members of parliament. Tensions between London and Tel Aviv had already risen sharply last month, after Netanyahu sparked outrage in the UK Parliament by labeling the country the “Islamic Republic of Britain”. Bilateral relations between Israel and other European capitals, including the Netherlands and Spain, have already deteriorated sharply in recent months following the adoption of individual national measures.