Global Pulse

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  • A year of grief and waiting: What remains when a plane falls from the sky

    A year of grief and waiting: What remains when a plane falls from the sky

    Nearly 12 months have passed since Air India Flight AI171, traveling from Ahmedabad to London, plummeted to the ground just 60 seconds after departing last June, leaving only one survivor among the 242 passengers and crew on board and claiming 19 additional lives on the ground. For Imtiyaz Ali, the disaster did not just take his elder brother Javed, Javed’s wife Mariam, and their two young children – it fractured the quiet rhythm of his entire family’s existence in Mumbai.

    When a reporter first reached out to Imtiyaz to request an interview, the pair planned to meet at the family’s Mumbai home. Hours later, Imtiyaz requested a location change: a dimly lit downtown business hotel. He explained why after they sat down: the family home has never felt the same since Javed and his family died. Though Javed built his life and career in the UK, like so many members of the Indian diaspora, he returned to Mumbai regularly to visit his mother and siblings. The space still holds his presence, Imtiyaz says – a quiet, unshakeable reminder of what is gone that ordinary daily routines cannot mend. His 70-something mother Farida Bano puts it more plainly: Javed is with her everywhere, day and night.

    The tragedy unfolded just days after the entire family gathered to celebrate Eid, what would be their final holiday together. In the chaotic, stunned aftermath of the crash, the family made the agonizing decision to shield Farida, a long-time heart patient, from the full truth. Air India officials and medical providers warned that the shock could trigger a fatal heart attack, so the news was broken in slow, painful fragments. First, they told her there had been an accident, and Mariam and the children were injured. When she pressed for news of Javed, Imtiyaz lied: they were all fine, he told her. But Farida knew something was wrong. Javed never went two days without calling her, she said. She could not sleep, consumed by worry over where her son was.

    Relatives eventually flew her to Ahmedabad under the false pretense of visiting an unwell family member. The moment she walked into the hotel room where the family had gathered, she knew the worst had happened. Imtiyaz told her outright: the plane had crashed, and Javed was gone.

    Over the past year, the grief has never lifted, woven into every ordinary moment of the family’s life. Farida still refers to Javed in the present tense, his favorite meals still appear at the dinner table, and family conversations still pause automatically where Javed would have spoken. The grief has taken a tangible physical toll: in September, Farida’s heart condition worsened dramatically, requiring doctors to insert three additional stents, bringing her total to five. Medical professionals confirmed that stress has aggravated her underlying heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. When she cries for her lost son, Imtiyaz says, her blood sugar spikes immediately.

    Alongside unending grief, Imtiyaz carries growing frustration with Air India and its parent company the Tata Group. For months, he says, the family has pushed for regular updates on the crash investigation, the return of Javed and his family’s personal belongings, and the medical support officials initially promised. Most requests have been met with vague, delayed responses, and meaningful action only came after sustained media attention and public pressure, he claims. It took months for doctors arranged through Tata’s assistance program to even assess Farida’s condition. “We trusted them,” Imtiyaz says. “We thought they would stand with us.” The BBC has reached out to Air India for a response to the family’s allegations, but has not received a comment as of this reporting.

    Under international aviation regulations, investigators are expected to release their final report on the crash within 12 months of the disaster, with an interim assessment published just one month after the crash. But for the families of the 241 victims, the 12-month wait for answers has stretched into an agonizing limbo. What happened in the final moments of the flight? Why did the aircraft lose thrust mid-ascent? Was the disaster caused by human error, mechanical failure, or another unforeseen factor? None of these core questions have been resolved. “We live in a modern country,” Imtiyaz asks. “Why must we wait a year for answers?”

    For the Ali family, the tragedy cut short a future the brothers had spent years building. After years living and working in the UK, Javed and Imtiyaz had begun planning to launch a joint business in Dubai, a new chapter that would have let the brothers build their lives closer together. “Right before the best part of life began, he was gone,” Imtiyaz says, staring at his hands.

    For Farida, no final report can ease her loss. “Can any report bring my son back?” she asks quietly. Her grief lives in small, sharp memories: the merry dinner the night before Javed left for Ahmedabad, the long visit from her grandchildren who hugged her so tightly they did not want to leave, the way Javed fussed over her during his final trip, insisting she buy 15 new outfits. When he spent his last night in Mumbai, he slept with his head in her lap, promising he would be back soon. Every evening, as Mumbai’s summer heat softens, she makes the slow, difficult trip to the graveyard, carrying his favorite foods – mutton stew, fried fish, ripe mangoes – packed as if he is still waiting for her to visit. She lowers herself carefully, her heart stents making even small movements painful, and speaks to him: “Look, I am here, my son. I came to see you.” When the airline finally returned Javed’s damaged suitcase months ago, no one in the family has had the strength to open it. It sits tucked away, untouched.

    For months, Imtiyaz threw himself into the search for answers, writing endless emails to officials, hiring legal representation, and obsessing over every detail of the investigation. Relatives even sent him to Dubai to get him away from the stress, but panic attacks followed. “Sometimes I wake up shaking,” he says. “I feel like I’m back there – hearing the news for the first time.” He clung to the belief that the final investigation report would bring him closure, that knowing what happened would let him begin to heal.

    The peace he had been searching for came not from a formal report, but from an old audio message from Javed, shared by his elder sister a few weeks after the funeral. Recorded shortly before the crash, the message describes a strange dream Javed had: two angels came to him, bathed him in the sweet scent of roses, before saying they had come to take him away. When he woke up, Javed said in the recording, he could still smell the fragrance.

    In Islamic tradition, a death accompanied by such premonitions is often interpreted as a sign of an honoured, peaceful passing. After the funeral, relatives told Imtiyaz this, but he could not find comfort in the words at the time. Hearing Javed’s own voice describing the dream changed everything. “This was the answer I needed,” he says. “He is at peace.”

    As the call to prayer drifted through Mumbai’s humid evening air, Imtiyaz reflected on the year that has passed. The official investigation will eventually answer the technical questions of how the crash happened. But for Imtiyaz and his family, the work of learning to live with their loss has already begun, guided not by a government report, but by a 30-second voice note from the brother they lost. “There are some questions,” he says, “that only the dead can answer.”

  • Secret tunnels and unregistered workers: China’s coal mine disaster is a reminder of darker days

    Secret tunnels and unregistered workers: China’s coal mine disaster is a reminder of darker days

    For generations, coal mining in China has been synonymous with deadly risk, a reality etched into local lore in Shanxi province – the beating heart of the nation’s coal industry. For decades, a common saying in the region warned that no one would descend into a coal pit unless they had no other choice, with miners widely described as trading their lives for a paycheck, staking their survival on each shift underground, where gas explosions, floods, and shaft collapses lurked around every unmarked turn. Over the past 15 years, sweeping national safety reforms had drastically reduced fatalities and pushed the industry’s lethal legacy into the rearview mirror for most Chinese citizens. That collective sense of progress was shattered on May 22, when a massive methane explosion tore through the Liushenyu coal mine in central Shanxi, leaving 82 miners dead and more than 120 others injured. The disaster is China’s deadliest coal mining accident in over 15 years, and it arrives at a pivotal moment: as Beijing pursues an ambitious transition to renewable energy, the tragedy serves as a brutal reminder that the country remains tied to an industry that has claimed tens of thousands of lives over the past half-century.

    Multiple accounts from current and former workers paint a picture of flagrant, long-unaddressed safety failures at the mine. Chen, a former Liushenyu miner who spent two years at the operation, told the BBC that everyone in the area knew the site was a high-methane mine with a complex, criss-crossing network of unregulated tunnels and unrecorded working faces. For him, the disaster was not an unexpected tragedy – it was only a matter of time. One survivor recalled the chaos of the blast to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, describing how the explosion’s shockwave knocked all workers to the ground, choking the tunnels with thick, blinding dust that left disoriented survivors scrambling for the exit for more than 10 minutes. Rescue efforts concluded with no remaining hope of finding survivors, and authorities have launched a full investigation into the cause of the blast.

    Industry experts note that most coal mine explosions are triggered when accumulated methane or coal dust comes into contact with an ignition source, and even in inherently risky underground environments, fatal accidents are almost always tied to preventable human failures: inadequate management oversight, broken safety protocols, and systemic non-compliance with regulations. Hong Chen, a professor at Jiangnan University’s Institute for National Security and Green Development, emphasized that modern Chinese coal mine safety systems are fully capable of preventing catastrophic explosions with proper safeguards. Speaking to the BBC, he stated clearly: “Based on the coal mine safety management and technical systems we have in place today, this accident should not have happened.”

    Initial official investigations confirm that Liushenyu, a privately operated mine run by the Tongzhou Group, committed serious, ongoing illegal violations, though authorities have not yet released a full public breakdown of their findings. The BBC has been unable to reach Tongzhou Group for comment, and the company has not issued any response to the allegations. State media reports have uncovered a pattern of deliberate violations that put workers at extreme risk: on the day of the blast, only half of the miners working underground were officially registered; most workers were barred from carrying mandatory location tracking devices; the operation included unapproved secret tunnels, and an inaccurate site blueprint that slowed rescue efforts. One current worker told Chinese outlet Lengshan Record that the company banned tracking devices specifically to hide their illegal mining of unapproved coal seams, noting “Wearing trackers would expose it.”

    Public records also confirm that the Liushenyu mine was flagged for severe safety hazards as early as 2024, when it was added to a high-risk watchlist published by the Chinese National Mine Safety Administration. The following year, Tongzhou Group was fined twice for repeated safety violations at the site. In the wake of the disaster, authorities have placed all senior management of Tongzhou Group under investigative control and suspended operations at all of the company’s other mining holdings.

    The Liushenyu tragedy comes after decades of dramatic progress in coal mine safety across China. Since 1990, annual coal mining fatalities have fallen by more than 90%, even as total coal output has more than doubled. The transformation followed sweeping national reforms: tighter regulatory oversight, mandatory gas monitoring infrastructure, clearer accountability for mine operators, and the closure of thousands of unregulated small-scale private mines. Mechanization and automation have also reduced the number of workers required underground, aligning with the industry’s modern safety mantra: “Fewer people, more safety; no people, absolute safety,” according to Professor Hong Chen.

    This push for safety has run parallel to China’s global-leading effort to transition to green energy, a core priority laid out in the country’s latest Five-Year Plan. Beijing has set a target to double national clean energy capacity by 2035 and reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2060, with massive solar and wind farms already constructed across the Tibetan Plateau and the deserts of Xinjiang, planned to send low-carbon power to China’s largest southern and western megacities. Coal’s share of China’s energy mix has shrunk gradually: coal-fired power generation declined for the first time in a decade last year, and industry profits fell 41.8% year-over-year, according to official data.

    Even with this transition, China remains the world’s largest coal producer, accounting for just over half of global coal output in 2024, with 4.8 billion tonnes produced. Beijing has long framed coal as the “ballast stone” of national energy security, a reliable buffer against volatile global energy markets. That logic was validated most recently after the Iran war disrupted shipments through the Strait of Hormuz: when many other Asian economies faced severe oil price shocks, China’s stable coal supply insulated its economy from the worst impacts.

    “China’s green energy push has not made coal disappear; it has changed coal’s role,” explained Roc Shi, a professor of energy and environmental economics at the University of Technology Sydney. “Coal is moving from being the engine of growth toward being a backstop for energy security and power system reliability.”

    For the people of Shanxi, which contributes nearly 30% of China’s total coal output, coal remains more than an energy source – it is an economic lifeline for communities with few other employment options. “I’ll keep doing this job, because in our county, apart from work at the mines, it’s hard to find anything else. Otherwise you have to leave home and go somewhere else,” one electrician who works above ground at a local mine told the BBC. After hearing news of the Liushenyu blast, he said his mind went completely blank. Another local worker summed up the frustration of mining communities: “Ordinary people’s lives are wretched.”

    Even with the well-known risks, former Liushenyu miner Chen notes that mining will always draw workers who have no other options to support their families. “Miners all work voluntarily” to put food on the table, he said. The Chinese government has vowed to hold all responsible parties fully accountable for the Liushenyu disaster, but for Chen and other local miners, any accountability measures come too late. “The state attaches great importance to it. But can the miners who died come back to life?” he asked.

  • Israel kills Palestinian worker as he climbed West Bank separation wall

    Israel kills Palestinian worker as he climbed West Bank separation wall

    On a Sunday afternoon in the occupied West Bank, a 27-year-old Palestinian worker named Imad Haroun Ishtayeh lost his life after Israeli soldiers opened fire on him as he climbed the Israeli-built separation wall. Ishtayeh, a native of Salem village near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, was attempting to cross into Jerusalem to find informal employment to support his struggling family.

    The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that the bullet struck Ishtayeh in the thigh, severing a critical artery near al-Ram, a town located just north of Jerusalem. Mobile phone footage captured by other workers on the scene shows multiple men carrying the injured man down from a ladder propped against the barrier before an ambulance rushed him to a nearby hospital for emergency care. Despite urgent surgical intervention to repair the damaged artery, medical teams were unable to save Ishtayeh, and he was soon pronounced dead.

    In an interview with Middle East Eye, Nasser Ishtayeh, Imad’s cousin, shared details of the young man’s life and final days. He explained that Imad had previously owned and operated a small poultry shop in his home village, but the crippling economic crisis across the occupied Palestinian territories forced him to shut the business down two years earlier. Ishtayeh had not attempted to cross the barrier for work in two years, but mounting financial pressure pushed him to try again: he made an unsuccessful attempt on Saturday, and was shot dead when he tried again the following afternoon.

    Describing his cousin, Nasser called Imad a warm, kind-hearted man who was known for his sense of humor and constant willingness to help neighbors. “Everyone in the village loved him so much that they rushed to the hospital in Ramallah as soon as they heard he had been shot,” Nasser said. Imad was one of three brothers, and his father was undergoing ongoing cancer treatment that left the family already strained financially. He had recently finished construction on a new home and was planning to become engaged, with hopes of decorating the house alongside his future fiancée to pick out every detail of their new life together. That dream was never realized.

    Palestinian labor leaders say Ishtayeh’s death is far from an isolated incident. According to Shaher Saad, head of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, Imad is the fifth Palestinian worker killed by Israeli forces so far in 2024 while attempting to cross the controversial barrier to access work. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, 2023, that death toll has climbed to 52 workers killed en route to jobs inside Israel and occupied East Jerusalem.

    Abdul Hadi Abu Taha, a member of the federation’s general secretariat, told Middle East Eye that the targeting of Palestinian workers seeking employment is a systematic campaign, directly tied to policies enacted by far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Abu Taha explained that Ben Gvir has explicitly relaxed rules of engagement, allowing Israeli security forces to target Palestinians who cross without permits in search of work. “The targeting of Palestinian workers is real and ongoing. The Israeli army and police raid workplaces, assault them, imprison many, and shoot them. Some have even been killed after being severely beaten,” Abu Taha said, adding that soldiers have received formal orders to shoot any worker attempting to climb the separation wall in the al-Ram area.

    Data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) underscores the scale of the crisis: the organization has recorded more than 290 Palestinian workers injured while attempting to cross the barrier to reach jobs in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem. Following the October 7 outbreak of war, Israeli authorities canceled or suspended the vast majority of existing work permits for Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza, a decision that has stripped hundreds of thousands of people of their primary source of income and plunged already vulnerable families deeper into poverty.

  • Along the river, before the fall: China pre-Renaissance city life

    Along the river, before the fall: China pre-Renaissance city life

    What begins as a seemingly tranquil snapshot of 12th-century Chinese urban life opens with a moment of unspoken tension: a heavy commercial river barge drifting toward an arched stone bridge, its crew shouting commands, ropes straining under tension, and a tall mast still in the process of being lowered as onlookers crowd the banks and railings, holding their breath. This opening moment, tucked at the heart of Zhang Zeduan’s iconic handscroll *Along the River During the Qingming Festival*, is far more than a decorative detail—it is the key to unlocking the work’s enduring, layered meaning, one that challenges common assumptions about one of China’s most celebrated cultural treasures.

    Housed today in Beijing’s Palace Museum, the Beijing scroll is widely recognized by scholars as the oldest surviving complete version of the Qingming Shanghe Tu composition. Historians broadly attribute the original work to Zhang, a Northern Song dynasty artist active in the early 12th century, who set out to capture daily life along the Bian River cutting through Kaifeng, the dynasty’s prosperous capital.

    To place this work in global context, the early 12th century was a period when nearly all high art in Western Europe centered on religious themes, from the Romanesque masonry of Durham Cathedral (under construction between 1093 and 1133) to the sacred metalwork of Ireland’s 1123 Cross of Cong. Gothic art, the first major shift toward more secular naturalism in Western art, would not emerge for another three decades, when the chevet of Saint-Denis was finally consecrated. It is this contrast that makes Zhang’s masterpiece so radical: when Western art prioritized divine salvation as its central subject, Zhang centered an entire living, breathing city.

    Commonly dubbed “China’s Mona Lisa” for Western audiences, the comparison falls flat. Where the Mona Lisa revolves around one individual’s quiet mystery, the Qingming Scroll is a living portrait of a complete urban ecosystem, mapping everything from the city’s semi-rural outskirts to its crowded commercial core, all anchored by the tense near-disaster at the central bridge. Its modern feel does not stem from its depictions of ancient architecture or costumes—it emerges from the work’s unflinching focus on logistics: the invisible systems that keep a great city alive.

    The Bian River is no decorative landscape feature; it is the capital’s lifeline. Grain, tax goods, and everyday supplies flowed into Kaifeng along its waters, moving from boat to cart to porter to shop stall in an unbroken rhythm of movement. Zhang’s genius lies in capturing that prosperity is not a static state of wealth—it is a constant, fragile process: loading, unloading, pulling, steering, buying, selling, navigating. Even the iconic arched bridge is more than a picturesque landmark; it is a pressure point where every part of the city’s interconnected system converges. Under its arch, the near collision of the barge condenses the core challenge of any great pre-modern metropolis: too many people, too much commerce, and almost no margin for error.

    This reading of the scroll as a subtle portrait of urban fragility, not just celebration, has been advanced by Chinese scholars including Palace Museum researcher Yu Hui. Yu argues that the work is laced with quiet signs of systemic unease that casual observers miss: an unmanned fire-watch tower, negligent slow-moving officials, weak city defenses, and commercial development encroaching on public space. Whether one accepts every element of this interpretation, it is impossible to view the scroll as a simple, flattering panegyric to imperial prosperity once these details are spotted. Zhang does not condemn the Northern Song state; he observes it too closely to merely glorify it.

    One easily overlooked detail elevates the scroll from a masterpiece of social observation to a critical document of global technical history: the yaolu, or yuloh, a specialized Chinese stern sculling oar. Most Western viewers fix their attention on the crowd and the endangered boat, missing the large oar mounted at the vessel’s stern. Unlike traditional rowing oars that lift repeatedly from the water, or simple steering oars, the yuloh operates with a steady lateral, push-pull motion that delivers continuous thrust and precise navigation, even in narrow, crowded waterways.

    Historical records make this detail particularly significant. While Western vessels used basic steering and rowing oars in antiquity, the earliest written record of a stern sculling oar for propulsion in English dates to the 14th century, per both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster. By contrast, visual evidence of the Chinese yaolu dates back to at least the 10th century, centuries before the first Western written record, and the technology was widely documented as a mature system by medieval Chinese scholars and artists. That Zhang could seamlessly include the yuloh in his composition, as a routine, unremarked tool of river transport, proves that the technology was already standard for moving large craft through Kaifeng’s crowded waterways by the 12th century—a level of nautical innovation that is often overlooked in modern analysis of the work.

    For the scroll, the yuloh is more than a technical detail: it is evidence that Northern Song prosperity depended not just on poetry, politics, or markets, but on the skilled, uncelebrated labor of workers who kept the city’s supply lines moving. What makes Zhang’s approach so innovative is that he never treats technology as a separate, labeled diagram. He embeds it in daily life, where indispensable tools belong—doing their work quietly, without fanfare.

    Another radical choice that sets the scroll apart from medieval art across cultures is its rejection of power as a central subject. There is no emperor, no imperial palace, no grand ceremony, no divine mandate on display. Instead, civilization is revealed through the ordinary acts of ordinary people: a herder driving livestock, a vendor arranging his goods, a doctor seeing patients, a porter carrying a heavy load, a fortune-teller meeting with anxious imperial examinees, a crew of boatman fighting to avoid a collision. Zhang captures the full spectrum of Song society, from gentry and officials to beggars and homeless children, recording (not erasing) social hierarchy while capturing all lives in equal motion.

    Again, the contrast with iconic medieval Western works is striking. The 70-meter Bayeux Tapestry, one of Europe’s greatest secular medieval works, tells the story of conquest, royal succession, and war. Zhang’s scroll centers a completely different kind of drama: not the seizure of a kingdom, but the daily work of keeping a city alive. One celebrates the making of political power; the other exposes the quiet pressure that sits beneath every period of national prosperity.

    What adds a final layer of humility to the work is the near-complete disappearance of its creator. Unlike Renaissance masters such as Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo, who left behind detailed biographies and cultivated personal reputations, almost nothing is known for certain about Zhang Zeduan’s life. He vanishes almost entirely into the city he painted, leaving only his work to speak for him. The painter is gone, but the city he captured remains—not the physical Kaifeng, which was transformed and damaged by centuries of history, but the city as a universal idea: a living structure built on movement, labor, commerce, and constant risk.

    The later history of the work only deepens its meaning. Over the centuries, *Qingming Shanghe Tu* became one of the most copied and reimagined subjects in Chinese art, with roughly 100 different versions held in museums and private collections across the world. Later copies, particularly those produced during the Qing dynasty, often revised Zhang’s original to make the city cleaner, more orderly, more festive, and more palatable to imperial audiences. Where Zhang’s original exposes the strain and vulnerability beneath prosperity, copies flatter by erasing those tensions. This tradition of revision is no footnote—it is part of the work’s legacy, revealing how different generations have chosen to frame the idea of urban prosperity.

    Zhang’s original endures precisely because it refuses to settle for surface celebration. It does not only show a prosperous capital; it asks a question that remains urgent centuries later: what has to go right for prosperity to hold together? A mast must be lowered on time, a boat must be guided safely under a bridge, supplies must reach market, roads must stay passable, watchtowers must be guarded, officials must do their jobs, goods must keep moving, and citizens must trust that the city will function when they wake each morning.

    It is this universal question that lets the scroll speak across cultural divides. It is unmistakeably a product of 12th-century China, but its core subject is universal. Every great city, from medieval Kaifeng to modern New York, London, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, relies on the same fragile miracle: millions of independent individual actions held together just tightly enough to feel like order. The Qingming Scroll endures not because it shows a perfect world, but because it shows a living one—allowing us to see civilization before it becomes history: crowded, ingenious, commercial, anxious, beautiful, vulnerable, and unaware that the future is already approaching from beyond the frame.

  • Czech Republic’s final World Cup squad includes 17-year-old Hugo Sochůrek

    Czech Republic’s final World Cup squad includes 17-year-old Hugo Sochůrek

    Teenage sensation Hugo Sochůrek has capped off a breakthrough weekend by earning a spot in the Czech Republic’s final 26-man squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, becoming the youngest player to ever represent the Czech senior men’s national team during a warm-up fixture against Kosovo just hours before the roster was finalized.

    The 17-year-old Sparta Prague midfielder came off the bench in Sunday’s 2-1 Czech victory over Kosovo, a warm-up test that double as the final evaluation opportunity for head coach Miroslav Koubek. Following the final whistle, the 74-year-old veteran coach trimmed his initial 29-player preliminary list down to the tournament-compliant 26, cutting three hopefuls who missed out on the trip to North America: FC Cincinnati midfielder Pavel Bucha, Mladá Boleslav forward Christophe Kabongo and Viktoria Plzeň midfielder Tomáš Ladra. Calling the difficult final cuts “probably the worst moment of my coaching career,” Koubek acknowledged the emotional weight of eliminating players who had come close to reaching the sport’s biggest stage.

    In a major boost for the Czech side, attacking midfielder Adam Hložek of Hoffenheim marked his return to international action — his first cap for the national team since June — with a goal, after spending months sidelined with persistent calf and foot injuries. The 23-year-old, who has now notched five goals in 42 international appearances, brings much-needed attacking depth to a roster looking to make an impact on their first World Cup return in 20 years.

    In a surprising roster call, Koubek also included two Slavia Prague players who were suspended by their club for the remainder of the domestic season and placed on the transfer list over disciplinary issues: forward Tomáš Chorý and defender David Douděra, both of whom will get the chance to resurrect their careers on the global stage.

    The full roster, anchored by established Czech mainstays including Lyon midfielder Pavel Šulc, Bayer Leverkusen striker Patrik Schick and West Ham United star Tomáš Souček, will depart for the United States later on Sunday to complete their final preparation. Their final pre-tournament friendly is scheduled for June 4 against Guatemala in New Jersey, before the team sets up their tournament base in Mansfield, Texas.

    The Czech Republic, who qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 2006, enter Group A of the tri-nation tournament co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. They will kick off their World Cup campaign against South Korea in Guadalajara, Mexico on June 11, before facing South Africa in Atlanta on June 18 and closing out group play against hosts Mexico in Mexico City on June 25.

    The full final 26-man Czech Republic squad is as follows:
    Goalkeepers: Lukáš Horníček (Braga), Matěj Kovář (PSV Eindhoven), Jindřich Staněk (Slavia Prague)
    Defenders: Vladimír Coufal (Hoffenheim), David Douděra (Slavia Prague), Tomáš Holeš (Slavia Prague), Robin Hranáč (Hoffenheim), Štěpán Chaloupek (Slavia Prague), David Jurásek (Slavia Prague), Ladislav Krejčí (Wolverhampton), Jaroslav Zelený (Sparta Prague), David Zima (Slavia Prague)
    Midfielders: Lukáš Červ (Viktoria Plzeň), Vladimír Darida (Hradec Králové), Lukáš Provod (Slavia Prague), Michal Sadílek (Slavia Prague), Hugo Sochůrek (Sparta Prague), Alexandr Sojka (Viktoria Plzeň), Tomáš Souček (West Ham), Pavel Šulc (Lyon), Denis Višinský (Viktoria Plzeň)
    Forwards: Tomáš Chorý (Slavia Prague), Adam Hložek (Hoffenheim), Mojmír Chytil (Slavia Prague), Jan Kuchta (Sparta Prague), Patrik Schick (Bayer Leverkusen)

  • Workstation dedicated to Nobel laureate unveiled at CQUPT

    Workstation dedicated to Nobel laureate unveiled at CQUPT

    On May 29, 2026, a landmark academic and industry collaboration took center stage in Southwest China’s Chongqing, as the inauguration ceremony for the Robert C. Merton Nobel Laureate Workstation was held at the Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications (CQUPT). The new initiative brings together leading academic expertise, pioneering technical strengths, and industry practice to advance innovation at the intersection of financial theory and digital technology.

    Robert C. Merton, the 1997 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, is a globally respected pioneer whose work reshaped modern financial scholarship. A member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and longtime professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Merton is widely recognized as a foundational figure in modern financial theory, earning the informal title of the “Father of Options Pricing” for his transformative contributions to the field.

    Speaking at the inauguration event, Merton shared his excitement for the collaborative project, emphasizing his commitment to bridging advanced research and real-world problem solving. “I’m looking forward to being a part of that and helping to see that happen here in western China, and beyond,” he said, expressing his anticipation of leveraging cutting-edge science and technology to tackle pressing practical challenges in the financial sector.

    The workstation is a tripartite partnership between CQUPT, Merton himself, and Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co., combining the strengths of academia, world-leading scholarship, and private industry to create a new hub for innovation. For CQUPT, a leading Chinese institution renowned as the birthplace of digital communication in China with more than 70 years of specialized experience in information and communication technology, the collaboration represents a strategic alignment of institutional strengths. The university’s pioneering work in granular computing theory has already earned significant global recognition, laying a solid foundation for integrating digital innovation with financial research.

    Li Lin, Party secretary of CQUPT, outlined the institution’s vision for the new workstation at the ceremony. “We will use this workstation as an opportunity to further integrate Professor Merton’s cutting-edge financial theories with our university’s strengths in disciplines like artificial intelligence,” Li stated. He added that the initiative will foster the development of a specialized talent hub for digital finance and an open platform for international academic dialogue, strengthen cross-border scholarly exchange and cooperation, deepen the integration of academic education and industrial practice, and contribute targeted expertise to the development of Chongqing’s ambition as a major financial center in Western China.

    Following the official unveiling of the workstation, a formal appointment ceremony was held. Merton was named an Honorary Professor of CQUPT, while Azita Sharif, a key member of Merton’s research team and a bioethics researcher at Harvard Medical School, was appointed as a Visiting Professor at the university.

    To coincide with the inauguration, CQUPT also hosted the Symposium on AI-Empowered Western Financial Center Construction, which brought together scholars and industry leaders to explore critical topics at the intersection of AI, finance, and regional development. The symposium featured keynote addresses from leading voices: Merton presented on the journey “From Finance Theory to Financial Innovation Practice”; CQUPT Professor Xia Shuyin shared research on “Granular Ball Computing Theory and Its Driven Merton Economic Theoretical Model”; and Liu Yi, Chief Information Officer of Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co., outlined the company’s “Exploration and Practice of AI-Enabled Financial Consumer Protection.”

    The launch of the workstation marks a key milestone in advancing digital finance innovation in Western China, creating new pathways for cross-sector collaboration between global academic expertise and domestic technological and industrial capabilities.

  • Syria says missing chess champion’s six children likely killed under Assad

    Syria says missing chess champion’s six children likely killed under Assad

    More than 12 years after a prominent Syrian dissident and her entire family vanished during a regime raid in Damascus, Syria’s official National Commission for Missing Persons has confirmed that her six children were killed by armed factions loyal to former President Bashar al-Assad shortly after their 2013 abduction.

    Rania al-Abbasi, a dual Syrian and Arab national chess champion and practicing dentist, was a well-known public critic of the Assad government before her detention. In March 2013, forces loyal to the then-ruling Assad regime stormed her Damascus family home, taking Abbasi, her husband Abdul-Rahman Yasin, and their six children — ranging in age from 2 to 10 years old at the time — into custody. The entire family disappeared without a trace in the years that followed, becoming one of the most high-profile symbols of the widespread forced disappearances that marked Assad’s 50-year rule over Syria.

    In an official statement posted to the social platform X on Saturday, Syria’s new interior ministry confirmed that evidence gathered from multiple detained former regime operatives confirms the six children were killed by militias tied to the former Assad government. The ministry added that supporting video evidence and case files provided by the National Commission for Missing Persons have further corroborated these findings, and that search operations to recover the children’s remains are still active. Per official protocol, the surviving extended family was notified of the investigative results before any public announcement to honor their right to information and protect their privacy and dignity.

    Investigators have also named Amjad Youssef, a former Assad regime intelligence officer infamously linked to the 2013 Tadamon massacre in southern Damascus, as a directly implicated perpetrator in the children’s killings. The Tadamon massacre gained global attention in 2022 when leaked footage shot by the perpetrators themselves showed blindfolded, bound civilians — including 15 children and seven women — being led to a mass grave pit and executed one by one. The footage became irrefutable documentary proof of systemic war crimes committed under Assad’s leadership.

    Youssef was captured by current Syrian government forces during a security sweep in the Ghab Plain of rural Hama in April 2025. A recorded confession released by the interior ministry after his capture saw Youssef admit to participating in the killing of roughly 40 detainees, claiming he acted on his own direction. Hassan al-Abbasi, Rania’s brother, told media the family was able to confirm the children’s identities from footage of Youssef’s interrogation, in which the former officer falsely labeled the young children as “major financiers of terrorism”. In an interview with Al Arabiya, Hassan al-Abbasi added that the children were killed the same day they were detained, most by strangulation with plastic cables.

    The fate of Rania al-Abbasi and her husband Abdul-Rahman Yasin remains unconfirmed as of Saturday’s announcement. Human rights organizations say it is likely the couple were also killed shortly after detention, though their remains have yet to be located.

    The al-Abbasi family’s case is far from an isolated tragedy. Between the start of the 2011 Syrian uprising and the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024, tens of thousands of Syrians were detained or forcibly disappeared by regime forces. Data from the Syrian Network for Human Rights shows that between March 2011 and August 2025, more than 177,000 Syrians were forcibly disappeared, including over 4,500 children and nearly 9,000 women.

  • Israel seizes strategic castle as it expands invasion of south Lebanon

    Israel seizes strategic castle as it expands invasion of south Lebanon

    In a significant escalation of its ground campaign in southern Lebanon that defies an existing nominal ceasefire, the Israeli military announced Sunday it has seized control of the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and the strategic high ground surrounding the historic site. The takeover pushes Israeli military presence deeper into Lebanese territory, extending well beyond the “Yellow Line” demarcation zone established under a ceasefire agreement in April.

    The capture of the castle, which bears the Arabic name Qalaat al-Shaqif, comes after days of brutal close-quarters combat and heavy Israeli airstrikes on nearby villages, where infantry forces have battled Hezbollah militants across the region’s rugged terrain. Sitting just five kilometers from Nabatieh, southern Lebanon’s major population center, the medieval fortress occupies a critical vantage point that overlooks vast swathes of both southern Lebanon and northern Israel. This is not the first time Israeli forces have held the site: troops first captured Beaufort Castle during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, retaining control until Israel’s full withdrawal from the country in 2000.

    Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed he had explicitly ordered the military to widen the scope of its operations in Lebanon, cross the Litani River — which had previously served as a de facto boundary for Israeli forces — and seize control of the Beaufort Ridge. Following the castle’s capture, Katz announced Israeli troops would remain positioned at the site as part of a newly expanded Israeli “security zone” inside Lebanese territory.

    The latest territorial advance coincided with a new mass evacuation order issued by the Israeli military covering areas between the Zahrani River to the south and the Litani River to the north, a stretch of land extending roughly 40 kilometers from the Israel-Lebanon border. In a social media statement, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned: “Anyone present near Hezbollah elements, facilities, or combat means endangers their life. Any building used by Hezbollah for military purposes may become subject to targeting.” The Israeli military added in an official briefing: “A significant number of ground soldiers commenced offensive operations aimed at expanding the Forward Defense Line… The operation is currently expanding to additional areas.”

    Casualties continue to mount on both sides amid the escalating fighting. Lebanon’s health ministry reported Saturday’s Israeli strikes killed at least 16 people and injured 34 more, bringing the total death toll in Lebanon since the outbreak of hostilities in early March to 3,371, with an additional 10,129 people wounded. On the Lebanese side, Hezbollah continued to resist the advance Saturday, launching a series of attacks against targets in northern Israel and engaging Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. The militant group confirmed it was confronting Israeli forces on the outskirts of the towns Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, Yohmor al-Shaqif and Dibbine, noting Israeli troops “had not yet succeeded in taking control of the towns.”

    The Israeli military documented more than 25 projectiles fired from Lebanese territory into Israel on Saturday. Israel’s Home Front Command confirmed air raid sirens activated in the northern Israeli cities of Karmiel and Safad, marking the first time alerts have sounded in those urban centers since the April ceasefire took effect. On Sunday, the Israeli military also announced one of its soldiers had been killed a day earlier in a Hezbollah explosive drone attack, pushing the total number of Israeli troops killed in Lebanon operations since early March to 25. Hardline Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich doubled down on calls for escalated retaliation this week, demanding Israel “destroy one hundred buildings” in Lebanon for every drone strike that kills an Israeli soldier. A recent report from Israeli public broadcaster Kan found Hezbollah’s advanced drone capabilities are currently limiting 80 percent of Israeli ground assaults across southern Lebanon.

    Diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the conflict remain ongoing. Military delegations from both Israel and Lebanon held US-brokered security talks in Washington on Friday, with a new round of negotiations scheduled for next week. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam acknowledged the outcome of the diplomatic process remains uncertain, but framed negotiations as the best available path forward. “It is not guaranteed, but it is the least costly path for our country and our people,” Salam said.

  • Blast kills dozens in rebel-held village in Myanmar

    Blast kills dozens in rebel-held village in Myanmar

    A devastating accidental explosion has left at least 55 people dead and dozens injured in a small village in insurgent-controlled northern Myanmar, local sources have confirmed to the BBC. The blast struck Kaung Tat village, located in Namkham Township of Shan State just a short distance from the border with China. Among the confirmed fatalities are 25 women and 30 men, including multiple children, though some independent reports cite small variations in casualty counts.

    The area where the explosion occurred is currently administered by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic insurgent group that has been locked in prolonged, intense armed conflict with Myanmar’s ruling military junta. According to a TNLA statement, the explosion originated from stockpiled explosives stored and used for local mining and quarrying operations.

    In the wake of the blast, emergency rescue teams have been working around the clock to pull survivors from collapsed building rubble and locate missing people. Local residents described chaotic, apocalyptic scenes after the blast tore through a large residential neighborhood. Many in the village initially feared the explosion was the result of an airstrike by the ruling junta, a common threat in conflict zones across Myanmar.

    One injured resident, who shared her account on social media, escaped death by chance. She explained she had been eating noodles in her bedroom while checking her phone when the explosion hit; had she been dining in her kitchen, she would almost certainly have been killed. The woman only sustained a minor leg injury, but her home was completely destroyed in the blast.

    “People were crying, calling out for their parents,” she wrote of the immediate aftermath. “It felt as if the world had come to an end.”

    The explosion damaged hundreds of residential structures, leaving nearly an entire neighborhood uninhabitable. The survivor has raised questions about why the explosive storage facility was permitted to operate so close to a populated residential area. She said families of the victims will not accept anything less than a full, transparent explanation from local authorities for the deadly incident.

  • Rescuers say a blast at a building storing explosives in Myanmar has killed more than 45 people

    Rescuers say a blast at a building storing explosives in Myanmar has killed more than 45 people

    A massive explosion at a mining explosives storage facility in a rural village of northeastern Myanmar has claimed the lives of at least 45 people and injured dozens more, according to multiple sources including rescue workers, independent media, and official statements. The accident occurred just after midday Sunday in Kaungtup village, located in Namhkam township, a region that sits roughly three kilometers south of Myanmar’s border with China and is currently controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic armed organization that has had long-running, sporadic conflict with Myanmar’s central military government.

    By Sunday evening, first responders who reached the blast site had recovered 46 fatalities, among them six children, according to a rescue worker who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity over security concerns. All recovered remains have been moved to cremation sites, while 74 people injured in the blast have been transferred to the nearest township hospital for treatment, the source added, noting that search and recovery operations were still ongoing at the time of the interview.

    Figures from a second anonymous rescuer based in Namhkam placed the confirmed death toll at around 40, and added that more than 100 nearby residential homes suffered structural damage from the force of the blast. Local independent Myanmar media outlets, including Shan State-based online outlet Shwe Phee Myay News Agency, have reported higher death estimates ranging between 50 and 55 fatalities. The outlets have released public visual documentation of the aftermath, including photos and videos showing plumes of smoke rising from the blast site, leveled buildings, and scattered debris across the affected area.

    China’s state broadcaster CCTV also confirmed the incident, reporting that the explosion left multiple people dead and injured and caused severe damage to dozens of nearby residential structures, though the outlet did not release specific casualty numbers. Citing preliminary investigation findings, CCTV confirmed the blast originated at a location storing large volumes of industrial explosives intended for local mining operations. Chinese state media added that local administrative teams are already coordinating to distribute relief supplies, deliver emergency medical care, and resettle residents displaced by the accident.

    In an official statement posted to its Telegram channel, the TNLA confirmed that the stored explosives, specifically gelignite intended for mining and stone quarrying operations managed by the group’s economic department, were the source of the blast. The group confirmed that a full investigation into the root cause of the explosion is currently underway. Gelignite, a nitroglycerin-based explosive widely used in commercial mining and rock blasting, is known to become highly unstable over extended storage periods, particularly when storage conditions do not meet safety standards.

    The TNLA is one of three core members of the Three Brotherhood Alliance, a coalition of ethnic rebel groups that has controlled the Namhkam area since the alliance and its partner armed groups launched a large-scale offensive against Myanmar’s ruling military junta in late 2023. Ethnic armed groups across Myanmar have fought for greater regional autonomy for decades, and tensions between the TNLA and the national military remain high despite a China-mediated ceasefire agreement signed between the two sides in October 2023.

    The incident comes amid years of ongoing widespread unrest across Myanmar, which erupted after the country’s military seized control of the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 2021 coup. The coup triggered massive nationwide popular opposition, and after peaceful pro-democracy protests were violently suppressed by junta forces, many opponents of military rule took up arms against the government. Today, large swathes of Myanmar’s territory remain engulfed in active conflict between the junta and a patchwork of ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy resistance forces.