Global Pulse

标签： Asia

亚洲

  • Iran strikes US bases across region after American attack kills 18, including children

    Iran strikes US bases across region after American attack kills 18, including children

    A major escalation of conflict has erupted across the Middle East after Iran launched coordinated missile and drone attacks against multiple United States military facilities in the region, a retaliatory move following deadly US airstrikes that killed 18 people on Iranian soil earlier this week.

    Among the casualties of the US strikes was a family gathering in the village of Kuhestak, located near the southern coastal city of Sirik, where at least four civilians—including two children attending a wedding—were killed. The strike has sparked widespread outrage across Iran, with top political and military leaders condemning the attack as an unprovoked act of aggression against innocent civilians.

    Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed it carried out the multi-site retaliatory operation, targeting US positions in three regional countries. First, in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region, Iranian missiles and drones destroyed a US maintenance facility, weapons storage warehouses, and the guidance system of an American surveillance aerostat, according to state-run Iranian news agency IRNA.

    The strikes extended further into the Arabian Peninsula, hitting two key US military bases in the United Arab Emirates: Al Dhafra Air Base and Al Minhad Air Base. The IRGC stated that dozens of Iranian army kamikaze drones targeted radar systems and core US personnel positions at both installations, noting that Al Dhafra serves as a primary operational hub for US military air operations, reconnaissance, and surveillance missions across the region.

    A third strike targeted Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, hitting the headquarters and official residence of the US commander stationed at the facility. The IRGC reported that the attack ignited a blaze in a drone hangar and launch infrastructure that the US has used to carry out strikes on Iran, destroying multiple American drones in the process.

    Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, announced in a report broadcast by state broadcaster IRIB that the retaliatory strikes inflicted heavy damage on US military infrastructure, weapons, and equipment. He added that a “significant number” of American commanders and service members were killed or wounded in the attacks, though this claim has not yet been independently verified. Zolfaghari stressed that offensive operations against US forces will continue until Washington faces consequences for its actions, warning that any future US strikes will trigger “heavier, broader and more destructive” Iranian responses. He also cautioned that regional countries that host and assist US military operations will be held responsible for any resulting fallout.

    Top Iranian political and military figures have sharpened their rhetoric in the wake of the civilian deaths. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf issued a scathing rebuke of Washington, labeling US forces “Satan” in a post on the social platform X. “If a power acts like Satan, picks targets like Satan, and kills like Satan, it’s Satan,” he wrote. IRGC political deputy General Yadollah Javani called on regional governments to expel US forces from their national territories, specifically warning Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan that any facility used to launch attacks against Iran will become a legitimate target for Iranian strikes.

    In response to the attacks, Bahrain confirmed its air defense systems intercepted incoming Iranian drones after authorities ordered residents to seek shelter across the country. Separately, the IRGC announced that two commercial oil tankers hit sea mines and became disabled while attempting to traverse the Strait of Hormuz, after US operatives directed the vessels onto what Tehran calls an “illegal route.” The IRGC noted it had previously warned shipping companies of the dangers of using the unapproved passage, adding that additional penalties will soon be imposed on companies that ignore official guidance and cooperate with the US.

    The sharp escalation of hostilities has sent shockwaves through global energy markets, as investors fear new disruptions to oil supplies and a slide into open direct conflict between the two countries. Brent crude prices climbed above $95 per barrel in immediate trading following the attacks.

    US President Donald Trump rejected widespread speculation that Washington is seeking to push Iran back into nuclear negotiations, writing on his social platform Truth Social that he prefers the current US strategic position, which he claims gives the US “almost total control of the Hormuz Strait” and has left Iran’s economy “totally collapsing.” He added that Iran was “playing out the inevitable” before asking, “When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?”

    In a separate, unrelated development, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier arrived in Thailand for a five-day port call after more than 200 consecutive days deployed at sea. The extended deployment has been marked by reports of worsening onboard conditions and growing concerns over the mental health of the carrier’s sailors. Thousands of US personnel will stay near the coastal resort city of Pattaya, a destination widely known for its nightlife industry, for the duration of the port visit.

  • Xi’s Egypt visit hints at China’s larger African vision

    Xi’s Egypt visit hints at China’s larger African vision

    Ten years after his last state visit to Egypt, Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Cairo, marking a new chapter in China’s evolving engagement across the Middle East and Africa. For decades, China’s policy in the Middle East has centered on Gulf energy supplies, robust trade ties with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and careful diplomatic balancing between Iran and Arab states. These relationships remain critical to Beijing’s regional strategy, but President Xi’s visit underscores a deliberate shift: China is expanding its footprint west and south, positioning Egypt as a strategic gateway to African markets, infrastructure networks, and political influence.

    Ahead of the presidential visit, China deployed J-16 fighter jets, aerial refueling tankers, and early-warning aircraft on a 6,000-kilometer journey to Egypt for the second iteration of the “Eagles of Civilization” joint military exercise. While some observers frame this deployment as evidence that China seeks to displace the United States as the dominant security power in the region, that claim overstates current realities. Washington maintains extensive military basing, command infrastructure, and formal defense alliances that Beijing has yet to build, and Egypt continues to integrate military equipment from the U.S., France, Russia, and China simultaneously.

    Rather than seeking to replace existing security arrangements, China is building a targeted, durable network of economic, technological, and limited security partnerships that do not require Egypt to abandon its other longstanding allies. The geographic core of this network is clustered around the Suez Canal, just east of Cairo. What began as Chinese construction contracts has evolved into a full-fledged manufacturing hub: by the end of 2025, the China-Egypt TEDA industrial zone in Ain Sokhna was home to nearly 200 companies, attracted over $3.8 billion in foreign direct investment, and created approximately 10,000 local jobs, according to data released earlier this year.

    The zone already produces fiberglass, electrical machinery, consumer appliances, and industrial chemicals, with a large-scale tire manufacturing facility set to launch phased production in the near future. Cairo has also prioritized attracting investment in solar cells, battery manufacturing, and electric vehicle production, aligning with global clean energy transitions. This industrial base offers China a strategic advantage that its Gulf partnerships alone cannot provide: a permanent manufacturing foothold in Africa, positioned directly along the shortest maritime trade route connecting Asian production centers to European consumer markets. Egypt’s membership in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) also grants Chinese firms operating here access to integrated commercial networks across the Arab world and the entire African continent.

    Chinese companies based in the Suez zone are not just geographically closer to sub-Saharan African markets; they can also leverage the cross-continental trade networks that Cairo has spent decades building, which Egypt now aims to expand under the AfCFTA framework. For Egypt, the partnership brings equally tangible benefits. Cairo is grappling with urgent needs for foreign currency inflows, job creation, and expanded export capacity, and it has long sought to address a lopsided trade balance with China. In 2025, China was Egypt’s largest non-oil trading partner, but official data shows Chinese exports to Egypt reached $19.9 billion, while Egyptian exports to China totaled just $819 million – a stark imbalance that Cairo is eager to correct.

    A growing total volume of trade does not automatically translate to a healthier, more mutually beneficial bilateral relationship. The long-term success of the partnership will hinge on whether local Egyptian suppliers are integrated into supply chains, whether Egyptian exporters gain greater access to the huge Chinese market, and whether the partnership restructures Egypt’s economy rather than just increasing its import dependency. Technology transfer is emerging as the next critical test of this dynamic. Chinese tech giant Huawei has submitted a bid to build artificial intelligence data centers for the Egyptian government using 2,008 Ascend chips, while the U.S. State Department has coordinated a rival proposal backed by Nvidia, AMD, and Microsoft. As President Xi arrives in Cairo, this tender has turned Egypt into the site of an open competition between the two superpowers’ competing technology ecosystems.

    Huawei has already outlined a 12-month construction timeline for its proposal, while the U.S.-backed consortium is expected to offer more advanced chips and access to a deeper global software ecosystem. For Egypt, this competitive dynamic puts Cairo in a uniquely advantageous position to negotiate favorable terms, as both blocs are eager to secure a foothold in the market. This pragmatic flexibility defines Egypt’s approach to military and diplomatic engagement more broadly: its air force operates American F-16s, French Rafales, and Russian MiG-29s, and now adds joint training with Chinese aircraft to its portfolio. Egypt joined the BRICS bloc last year and has deepened ties with Beijing, but it still receives substantial annual military assistance from Washington and maintains strong economic links with Europe and the Gulf states.

    This flexible approach works to China’s advantage as well. Beijing’s low-profile, non-intrusive model of engagement allows it to deepen its regional presence without taking on the burdens of addressing every regional crisis, from the ongoing conflict in Gaza to security challenges in the Red Sea. Chinese firms can expand industrial capacity, sell cutting-edge technology, and strengthen defense cooperation, while Cairo retains primary responsibility for local security and regional mediation efforts.

    That said, there are clear limits to the current scale of cooperation. While the TEDA industrial zone has created jobs and expanded production, Egypt’s trade imbalance with China remains stark. If Beijing is to frame this relationship as a model development partnership, it will need to ensure that more economic value is retained locally within Egypt. The joint military exercises also need to be kept in perspective: they offer Chinese pilots valuable operational experience in the region and give Egypt another option for security partnership, but they do not signal an imminent replacement of the existing regional security order.

    China’s overall military and security presence in the Middle East remains far smaller than that of the United States. Chinese commercial shipping and companies still rely on the freedom of navigation provided by the U.S.-led regional security architecture – a system that Beijing has often criticized, but has not yet put forward a viable alternative to replace.

    For these reasons, the true significance of Xi Jinping’s visit will not be measured in the warmth of public diplomatic statements, but in the tangible outcomes that emerge after the visit concludes. New factories will only deliver long-term benefit if they support the growth of local Egyptian supply chains. Technology agreements will only be meaningful if Egyptian workers and institutions are trained to operate, maintain, and govern these systems. Expanded bilateral trade will only benefit both sides if Egyptian exports to China grow significantly alongside Chinese exports to Egypt.

    While the Gulf region will remain central to China’s Middle East strategy for the foreseeable future, Egypt offers Beijing an unprecedented gateway into the broader African continent. For Cairo, this strategic position allows it to negotiate more favorable investment terms that align with its own economic development goals. Once the visit ends, the real test will be how much of this expanding partnership is ultimately built, managed, and owned by Egyptians themselves.

  • BBC visits village swept away by deadly floods

    BBC visits village swept away by deadly floods

    In the wake of catastrophic flash floods that have erased an entire rural community from the map in South Asia, a BBC correspondent has documented the raw human suffering unfolding amid ongoing search and rescue efforts. Azadeh Moshiri, the BBC’s South Asia correspondent, traveled to the disaster zone to speak with survivors still grappling with unthinkable loss after the floodwaters swept through their settlement. One local resident, who asked to speak on condition of anonymity to share his grief, told the reporter that he has been stuck in limbo for days, still waiting for recovery teams to retrieve the body of his wife, who was swept away when the flood hit the village. The disaster, which has already been marked as deadly by regional authorities, left no part of the small settlement untouched; entire homes, infrastructure, and community spaces were destroyed by the surging water. Rescue teams have been working around the clock to reach remote affected areas, but challenging terrain and lingering flood hazards have slowed progress, leaving many grieving families like this man’s waiting for answers and closure. The visit to the destroyed village shines a stark light on the human cost of extreme weather events that have grown more frequent and severe across South Asia in recent years.

  • The world banned landmines and cluster munitions. Can it stop killer AI before it is too late?

    The world banned landmines and cluster munitions. Can it stop killer AI before it is too late?

    For centuries, armed conflict has retained one core human element: the final decision over who lives and who dies has rested with a human being. A frontline soldier could choose to wound rather than kill an exposed opponent; a military pilot could question flawed intelligence and abort a strike that would harm innocent people. But rapid advances in artificial intelligence and weapons technology are erasing that critical human check on lethal force, as fully autonomous weapons systems move from concept to battlefield deployment.

    Activists and humanitarian organizations warn that these unregulated systems already are causing catastrophic civilian harm, with early deployment examples linked to the ongoing conflict between the US, Israel and Iran. AI-powered targeting tools were first fielded by Israel during its military campaign in Gaza, and have since been used in strikes across Iran, with data showing more than 1,000 targeted hits in the conflict’s first 24 hours – a pace of attack that military analysts say is only possible with automated targeting systems.

    For more than a decade, the global advocacy coalition Stop Killer Robots has led the push to head off this unregulated new era of warfare, lobbying national governments to adopt an international ban on weapons that can select and engage targets without any form of human oversight. Nicole van Rooijen, the coalition’s executive director, explained to Middle East Eye that the core danger of these systems comes from their core design: built specifically to kill, they eliminate the checks and balances that human decision-makers bring to the battlefield, and their deadly output is entirely dependent on the quality of data fed into their algorithms.

    A stark example of this risk, van Rooijen noted, is the February 28 US airstrike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, Iran. The strike killed 156 people, 120 of whom were children, making it the deadliest single attack of the entire conflict. Preliminary investigations point to outdated and inaccurate intelligence fed into an AI targeting system as the root cause of the civilian massacre. “It is false promises of being more accurate, more precise, yet the results are worse, not for their militaries but for civilians on the ground. They pay the brunt of it,” van Rooijen said. She added that without ground troops to verify target identities in volatile conflict zones, algorithmic errors become almost inevitable.

    Beyond flawed intelligence, the fundamental accuracy of AI targeting is deeply questionable. Independent specialists who study AI integration into military operations estimate that these systems have a reliability rate of just 25 to 50 percent – even in the best-case scenarios, a failure rate that van Rooijen compares to the indiscriminate damage of carpet bombing. A second critical risk is that autonomous weapons drastically lower the political barrier to declaring war, since nations no longer need to risk their own soldiers’ lives to launch an attack. “No one wants to see their soldiers die on foreign land, so that calls for some restraint. You think twice about sending your own people,” van Rooijen said. “If it is all automated, you can just send machines. Israel and the US have been threatening Iran for decades, but never actually went through with it, and I do not think it is a coincidence… it gives you a false sense that you can do it quickly… and come back a winner.”

    Compounding these dangers is the complete lack of global governance for the technology. To date, there is no internationally agreed definition of what constitutes a fully autonomous weapons system, and no binding treaty regulating their development, testing, trade or deployment. This regulatory vacuum has created what van Rooijen calls a “free for all” arms race, where large technology corporations can profit from the development of deadly tools at the expense of civilian lives. She points out that even civilian products like new cars or commercial airplanes have far more regulatory safety guardrails than AI integrated into military kill chains.

    Human rights campaigners say there is clear historical precedent for banning dangerous weapons before they become a normalized part of warfare, pointing to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions that prohibited the widely harmful weapons. Bonnie Docherty, senior arms advisor at Human Rights Watch (HRW) and a key negotiator of the cluster munitions treaty, says the campaign for autonomous weapons regulation follows the same core humanitarian principle: preventing unnecessary human suffering caused by unaccountable weaponry.

    For Docherty, the most fundamental objection to autonomous weapons is an ethical one: machines can never grasp the inherent value of a human life, so delegating life-or-death decisions to algorithms is morally unacceptable. “An autonomous weapon system is a machine and a machine cannot truly understand the value of a human life,” she explained. “To give that machine the power to kill… is ethically inappropriate. Whoever is taking a life should be able to understand the significance of it.”

    HRW research has also confirmed that autonomous weapons systems can replicate and amplify existing algorithmic biases, with lethal consequences for marginalized groups. “We looked at the discrimination front and particularly at race, gender and disability,” Docherty said. “For example, on the disability front, artificial intelligence may have trouble distinguishing a cane from a gun.”

    Major military powers including the US, Israel, Russia and China have so far resisted regulation, arguing that existing international humanitarian law is sufficient to govern the new technology – an argument Docherty says is identical to the one used by opponents of the cluster munitions ban two decades ago. She noted that what broke the deadlock on cluster munitions was Israel’s widespread use of the weapons in southern Lebanon in 2006, which left thousands of unexploded submunitions scattered across civilian land that continue to kill and maim local residents to this day. “I feel like I am having a deja vu,” Docherty said. “A lot of these arguments, you could just plug in the same weapons system.”

    In recent weeks, global institutional leaders have ramped up pressure for action. The United Nations Secretary-General and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have reissued their call for a binding international treaty governing autonomous weapons, three years after they first set a 2026 deadline for nations to agree on new rules. Now, leaders warn that the 2026 deadline is no longer feasible, and the world is rapidly approaching an irreversible moral red line.

    The ICRC believes that increasingly advanced autonomous capabilities are already being integrated into weapons across multiple active conflicts, used for both defensive and offensive operations even in densely populated civilian areas. While formal verification of battlefield use remains difficult, ICRC legal adviser Georgia Hinds says the trend of growing integration is clear, ranging from cutting-edge state military systems to cheap commercial off-the-shelf technologies that are being adapted for combat.”While it is very hard for us to verify… we are seeing this increasing integration of autonomy into weapons in many conflicts, from sophisticated military capabilities down to more commercial off-the-shelf systems that are being adapted,” Hinds told Middle East Eye.

    A critical upcoming opportunity for action will come in November, when national governments gather in Geneva for the Seventh Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), the five-yearly global meeting on conventional arms regulation. For years, the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems has been drafting a regulatory framework that would ban the most dangerous fully autonomous systems and place restrictions on others. The group’s final working session is taking place this week, with its draft text set to go before the full November conference.

    Campaigners and humanitarian experts are optimistic that the conference can approve a move to formal negotiations for a full legally binding treaty, a step that has been 13 years in the making. “It really would not take much now to convert that into a binding instrument,” Hinds said. “In November, the decision needs to be taken to move to formal negotiations. Rolling over discussions that have now been ongoing for nearly 13 years in the group of governmental experts is not acceptable. There is really only one option in November for us.”

    If governments approve the move to formal negotiations, a final treaty could be finalized in just a matter of months, most likely as an additional protocol under the existing CCW framework. But Hinds cautions that the path forward is not guaranteed, and even if progress is delayed at the conference, campaigners will continue pushing for action through alternative pathways.

    The core goal, Hinds emphasized, is to regulate the technology before it spreads too widely to control. As autonomous weapons become more common, cheap commercial systems become easier for non-state armed groups to adapt for lethal use, falling outside the scope of existing regulatory and accountability mechanisms. “The [more] opportunity for these systems to proliferate, the easier it becomes to adapt a commercially available system… it is also likely to be used by non-state actors who fall outside of those more regulated investigation mechanisms,” Hinds said. “All of these things again increase accountability concerns for me. So yes, I think it’s a big risk.”

  • China presses the US for answers after a man dies hours after entering ICE custody

    China presses the US for answers after a man dies hours after entering ICE custody

    The death of a 51-year-old Chinese national in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in the U.S. commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands has drawn a formal demand for accountability from Chinese authorities, and has reignited long-simmering worries about the safety of immigrant detainees held by U.S. border agencies.

    According to official statements from ICE, the detainee, identified as Lianyong Wei, passed away on August 23 at a Saipan hospital, just two days after he was first arrested by local law enforcement. Wei was taken into custody by the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Public Safety on August 21 on criminal charges connected to an alleged assault on a family of five in their residence. The following day, ICE assumed custody of Wei as he awaited deportation proceedings.

    ICE officials confirmed that on the morning of August 23, a routine cell check by a guard at the Saipan detention facility found Wei unresponsive. He was immediately transported to a local hospital emergency department, where clinical teams attempted life-saving interventions before pronouncing him dead. The agency has confirmed that the exact cause of his death remains under active investigation.

    Records from ICE show Wei first entered the Northern Mariana Islands in February 2019 on a 14-week authorized stay. U.S. immigration authorities initiated formal deportation proceedings against him in July 2026, and his next immigration hearing was scheduled to take place in the current month.

    Following notification of Wei’s death, the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles issued an official statement outlining its formal demands to U.S. authorities. “We have expressed serious concerns to the relevant U.S. authorities over this incident and required a timely and thorough investigation into the cause of Mr. Wei’s death, notification of the findings, measures to prevent any recurrence of similar incidents, and assistance to the family of the deceased in handling the aftermath,” the consulate said.

    Associated Press tracking of detainee deaths shows Wei is at minimum the fifth Chinese national to die while in ICE or U.S. Border Patrol custody since March 2025. Of the four prior deaths, two have been officially ruled suicides, while the remaining two were attributed to pre-existing or acute medical complications.

    Wei’s death comes amid a broader spike in detainee fatalities that has alarmed public health researchers, immigrant rights advocates, and foreign governments. Since President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office in January 2025, at least 57 immigrants held in ICE custody have died, a mortality rate that has drawn widespread criticism from watchdog groups.

    A key unanswered question surrounding this latest death is whether Wei received the mandatory medical intake screening that ICE policies promise all detainees within their first 12 hours of being taken into agency custody. Medical and public health experts have repeatedly emphasized that comprehensive, timely intake screenings are a critical first step to preventing preventable deaths in detention facilities.

    Another point of public scrutiny is the length of time it took ICE to publicly confirm Wei’s death. Local authorities in the Northern Mariana Islands first announced the fatal incident on August 24, more than a full week before ICE released its own formal statement. The agency’s own internal guidelines require public announcements of detainee deaths within two business days of the incident.

    The Saipan ICE detention facility, where Wei was held, is a small facility that averages just 18 detainees in custody on any given day in 2026, per ICE public data. The entire Northern Mariana Islands is home to a total population of roughly 50,000 people.

    In the wake of Wei’s death, Anthony Torres, commissioner of corrections for the Northern Mariana Islands, confirmed that local officials are launching an internal review. “Following this incident, the Department is reviewing relevant procedures and will implement any necessary corrective actions to strengthen prevention and response measures,” Torres said in a formal statement.

  • ‘It’s hard to balance emotions and professionalism’ says Nepal rescuer

    ‘It’s hard to balance emotions and professionalism’ says Nepal rescuer

    For rescue professionals working in the aftermath of disasters and missing person cases, the line between compassion for desperate families and strict professional detachment often blurs. This struggle is laid bare by Bibek Khadka, a helicopter pilot with years of experience in rescue operations across Nepal’s rugged and often hazardous terrain. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Khadka shared the constant emotional weight he carries as families of missing loved ones flood his communications with urgent pleas for help.

  • Turkey’s relations with Russia, China don’t mean turning its back on the West, Erdogan says

    Turkey’s relations with Russia, China don’t mean turning its back on the West, Erdogan says

    Fresh off attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit hosted in Kyrgyzstan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a clear diplomatic reassurance Wednesday: Turkey’s push to strengthen economic and political ties with Eastern powers will not come at the cost of its relationship with the Western bloc. In on-the-record remarks to reporters traveling aboard his presidential aircraft en route back to Istanbul, Erdogan pushed back against speculation that Turkey’s ambition to gain full membership in the growing Eurasian security and economic bloc signals a strategic turn away from the West.

    “Turkey’s membership perspective in the organization does not mean a break from a bloc or turning our backs on the West,” the president emphasized, directly addressing widespread geopolitical analysis that frames Turkey’s deepening engagement with the SCO as a shift in its longstanding foreign policy alignment.

    The three-day summit in Kyrgyzstan’s Cholpon-Ata provided a high-profile stage for Erdogan to hold a closed-door bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where the pair advanced talks on expanded nuclear energy collaboration between the two nations. Beyond energy cooperation, the two leaders aligned on their shared top priority for the ongoing war in Ukraine: an urgent end to hostilities through peaceful negotiation. Since the full-scale Russian invasion began in February 2022, Turkey has carved out a unique diplomatic niche, maintaining open, constructive ties with both Moscow and Kyiv while positioning itself as a key neutral mediator for global and regional security.

    A core focal point of Erdogan and Putin’s discussion was maritime security in the Black Sea, a strategic waterway where civilian commercial shipping has faced a sharp rise in attacks since Russia exited the landmark Black Sea Grain Initiative last year. Erdogan stressed that the ongoing instability threatens to reignite a global food security crisis, echoing warnings from global food security bodies that new disruptions to grain shipments from major exporter Ukraine would hit vulnerable populations in low-income regions hardest.

    “There is a need for a mechanism that will permanently ensure the safety of commercial maritime transport in the Black Sea,” Erdogan said. The president added that a durable security framework would be “beneficial” to prevent a “resurgence of the grain crisis” that pushed millions of food-insecure people deeper into hunger in 2022 and 2023.

    It was Turkey that led the 2022 brokering of the original grain deal, alongside the United Nations, which unlocked Ukrainian Black Sea ports to allow export of millions of tons of grain and sunflower oil, while also removing barriers to Russian exports of food and fertilizer. The agreement, which proved critical to stabilizing global food prices and preventing widespread hunger across Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, collapsed in July 2023 when Russia withdrew from the pact over unmet demands related to its own agricultural exports.

    Founded in 2001 as a Eurasian security and cooperation bloc, the SCO currently counts 10 full member states: Russia, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Belarus. The expanding bloc has increasingly been framed by geopolitical analysts as a counterweight to U.S.-led global institutional frameworks, though its core policy priorities and collective action mechanisms remain relatively undefined to date. Erdogan reaffirmed Wednesday that Ankara remains fully committed to its long-held goal of attaining full SCO membership, as Turkey continues to pursue a multi-directional foreign policy that balances longstanding ties to NATO and the European Union with growing economic and security partnerships across Eurasia.

  • Faisal Islam: Why bond market wildfire is keeping world leaders up at night

    Faisal Islam: Why bond market wildfire is keeping world leaders up at night

    Global bond markets are experiencing unprecedented turbulence, with sovereign borrowing costs climbing to levels not seen in decades, driven by a confluence of geopolitical, corporate, and policy-driven factors that are reshaping the fundamental dynamics of government lending markets. This summer has delivered an unambiguous message to nations worldwide: access to capital will come at a steeper price than many had anticipated.

    The immediate catalyst for the current market unrest can be traced to ongoing disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and a resurgence of armed conflict between the United States and Iran. These geopolitical frictions have sent energy prices soaring, stoked persistent global inflation, and forced markets to price in extended periods of elevated interest rates across the world’s largest advanced economies. Earlier in the year, many market participants held optimistic assumptions that Middle East tensions would de-escalate ahead of November U.S. midterm elections, with expectations that U.S. President Donald Trump would prioritize resolving the conflict before voters went to the polls. That optimistic outlook has proven unfounded, leaving markets adjusting to a new normal of sustained high energy prices, a long-running unresolved crisis in the Persian Gulf, and prolonged inflationary pressure that locks in higher interest rates for the foreseeable future.

    But geopolitical friction is only one piece of the broader story transforming bond markets. A far more structural shift stems from surging global demand for borrowed capital that extends far beyond government borrowing. Large technology sector giants have increasingly turned to global bond markets to raise hundreds of billions of dollars to fund massive investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure, particularly data centers designed to support next-generation AI models. This year alone, U.S. tech hyperscalers including Google, Amazon, and Meta have issued more than $219 billion (£162 billion) in new debt, with nearly one-third of that borrowing denominated in non-U.S. currencies including British sterling. For context, the total debt issued by these firms in all of 2025 was just $93 billion, and annual borrowing averaged less than $40 billion per year in the years prior to the AI investment boom. Some industry analysts forecast that total tech sector bond issuance could reach $400 to $500 billion by the end of 2026. This flood of corporate borrowing has intensified competition for capital in global bond markets, directly driving up borrowing costs for sovereign governments.

    Across East Asia, another major economy is contributing to the shifting landscape of global capital flows: Japan. Japan carries the highest sovereign debt-to-GDP ratio of any major advanced economy, while also holding the position of the largest single foreign lender to the U.S. federal government. Until recently, the Bank of Japan maintained its benchmark interest rate at near-zero levels, but gradual rate hikes to combat domestic inflation have pushed Japanese government bond yields to 30-year highs. The steady depreciation of the Japanese yen has further complicated market dynamics, but the underlying takeaway is clear: long-standing patterns of global capital movement are undergoing a permanent shift.

    Beyond supply and demand shifts and geopolitical shocks, the single most impactful factor pushing up sovereign borrowing costs is market assessment of the credibility of major nations’ borrowing and fiscal plans. Contrary to some popular narratives, the increase in yields is not driven by widespread fears of sovereign default among major economies. Instead, it reflects a straightforward market pricing rule: if a nation seeks to increase its borrowing without outlining a credible long-term fiscal plan, particularly when questions linger about the stability of its governing institutions, investors will demand a higher premium to hold its debt.

    Prominent leading economists differ on which factor is most driving the current bond market rout. Prominent market analyst Mohamed el-Erian identifies the surge in AI-related corporate borrowing as the most impactful new factor reshaping competitive dynamics in bond markets. Meanwhile, Lord Jim O’Neill, a former UK Treasury minister and leading economic commentator, argues that recent volatility is primarily rooted in uncertainty around U.S. fiscal policy, particularly the U.S. government’s uncoordinated efforts to calm surging Treasury yields.

    These global market shifts have particularly acute implications for the United Kingdom. Decades of persistent political instability, including repeated turnover in prime minister and chancellor roles, frequent policy U-turns, and the repeated failure to deliver on promised major structural economic reforms, have already led investors to price in a significant stability premium on UK gilts (British government bonds). Ahead of the latest general election, opposition Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer centered his economic strategy on delivering steady, incremental reform and policy stability to convince markets to lower UK borrowing costs. Many market participants were caught off guard when the Labour government, despite holding a landslide parliamentary majority, failed to push through proposed cuts to the UK’s welfare spending, adding further volatility to the UK gilt market.

    There are nascent positive signals in the UK’s underlying economic performance: UK economic growth has outpaced peer advanced economies through the first three quarters of 2026, even in the face of sustained elevated energy prices, and consumer confidence metrics have bounced back from earlier downturns. Prime Minister Burnham has sought to build on these tentative green shoots to drive broader economic recovery. However, the ongoing global bond market rout has raised serious new questions about the coherence and granularity of Burnham’s wider economic policy agenda. His campaign pledges of “more public control” of key economic sectors and expanded support for households struggling with the cost of living are widely interpreted as signaling increased government spending, a policy direction that has already alienated potential private investors looking at UK assets.
    Lord O’Neill, who previously served as an economic adviser to Prime Minister Burnham, recently stated that the prime minister’s upcoming 10-year economic plan, scheduled for release in November, must include clear commitments to address excessive public spending. Lord O’Neill argues that demonstrating decisive action to reform the state pension system and welfare spending will give the government fiscal space to pursue its prioritized infrastructure investment agenda. As global interest rates continue to climb, the difficult trade-offs facing the UK prime minister have only grown more challenging.

  • Scams in the US are at a record high. Yet most victims get no help and some end up losing even more

    Scams in the US are at a record high. Yet most victims get no help and some end up losing even more

    Grief opened the door for fraud in Simon’s life, after 43 years of marriage to his wife ended with her death. Overwhelmed by loneliness, he turned to online platforms searching for connection, just like thousands of other grieving widows and widowers across the United States. It took only a short time for him to connect with a woman calling herself Emily — a relationship that ended not with the companionship he craved, but with $800,000 stolen from his savings. What followed made the initial loss even worse.

    Simon was left on the hook for $185,000 in loans he had taken out to send the scammer, plus tens of thousands in unexpected taxes on retirement funds he had withdrawn and lost. When he reached out to local police and the FBI to report the crime, his report went nowhere. He was then targeted by a second scammer, who demanded even more money in exchange for arranging help from the Secret Service to recover his lost funds.

    Simon’s story is far from an anomaly. A joint investigation by The Associated Press and FRONTLINE has uncovered the full scale of a national crisis: scam targeting U.S. consumers has surged to all-time highs, inflicting hundreds of billions of dollars in annual losses, while systemic gaps in regulation, law enforcement response and government support leave victims with little to no recourse, and often facing further financial and emotional harm after the initial theft.

    New exclusive polling from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research confirms that nearly all Americans — 98% — have been targeted by scammers in some form, with many facing daily attempts. Three in 10 survey respondents have already lost money or sensitive personal information to fraudulent schemes. In interviews with 58 scam victims across the U.S., ranging in age from 32 to 90 and spanning every income bracket and racial group, the investigation found that victimization rarely ends when the scammer cuts off contact.

    Many victims told reporters that they faced stigma and mockery from friends and family, aggressive collection pressure from banks and lenders, unexpected tax bills, dismissive treatment from law enforcement, and inaction from a federal government that most Americans count on to protect them. “What happens after the scam might even be worse than the scam itself,” explained Erin West, a former prosecutor and founder of Operation Shamrock, a nonprofit that supports online scam victims. “It’s a travesty.”

    The investigation even managed to trace the stolen funds from Simon’s case, using leaked documents and public cryptocurrency wallet data. The trail led directly to a large, notorious scam compound in Myanmar, a hub for transnational criminal networks that steal billions from global victims every year. Simon was shocked to see the fake profile “Emily” used, alongside hundreds of pages of his private conversations that he had assumed were encrypted. “What a fool I was,” he told reporters, requesting to keep his full name private out of overwhelming shame. Much of the Myanmar compound has since been destroyed by local authorities, but criminal operations simply relocated to new secret sites, and Simon has not recovered a cent of his stolen money.

    “(The police) told me right away that, you know, ‘You have to kiss that money goodbye,’” he said, fighting back tears. “Already I experienced something very bad and now I have to pay for the consequences on top of it, and see my money evaporate all over again. You lose two ways.”

    ## Scams Have Become an Industrial-Scale Global Industry

    Official data underscores the staggering growth of scam activity in the U.S. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission recorded a record $15.9 billion in reported losses from scams, a 25% jump from the year before. Regulators and investigators widely agree that this official number is a massive undercount, since most victims are too embarrassed to come forward and report their losses. The FTC estimates that real total losses for 2024 are closer to $200 billion — equal to $550 million stolen from U.S. consumers every single day.

    Two technological shifts have supercharged this growth: breakthrough advances in artificial intelligence, and the rising popularity of cryptocurrency. AI has allowed scammers to operate at a scale and level of sophistication that was unthinkable a decade ago, enabling them to create convincing fake profiles, generate personalized phishing content, and even mimic the voices of loved ones to trick victims out of money. Cryptocurrency, the most common payment method for many modern scams, is a digital asset that is extremely difficult to trace, allowing criminals to move stolen funds across borders without leaving a clear paper trail.

    No demographic is immune: the 58 victims interviewed by AP and FRONTLINE included doctors, IT specialists, academics with advanced degrees, and working-class people struggling to cover monthly bills. Individual losses ranged from a few thousand dollars to $4 million. All respondents reported feeling isolated and disoriented after the scam, and most said they felt abandoned by authorities when they tried to report the crime. Multiple victims said they had considered suicide, and two disclosed that they had attempted to take their own lives.

    Only one of the 58 victims interviewed managed to recover any of her lost funds, through a rare legal settlement with her bank, not through law enforcement action against the scammers.

    A particularly harmful secondary burden for many victims is unexpected tax debt. Under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, made permanent in 2025, personal financial losses from most common scams are no longer eligible for tax deductions. For many victims who drained tax-deferred retirement accounts to send money to scammers, that means the Internal Revenue Service still demands they pay income tax on money that was stolen from them.

    Retired nurse Susan Bivins was tricked into draining her entire retirement savings to send more than $200,000 to a scammer pretending to be a federal law enforcement agent. After local police and the FBI declined to act on her case, she received a tax bill for $80,000. “I wanted to drive off a cliff,” she said. “I didn’t know how I was going to live.” Bivins was forced to sell her home and move into a small one-bedroom apartment, and she continues to pay off her tax debt by selling handmade quilts she sews.

    Financial institutions often compound the harm, as well. Many banks blame scam victims for authorizing the transfers, rather than recognizing them as crime victims, and will freeze or close accounts, demand immediate repayment of loans, and charge steep legal fees. Debra Fox, a Colorado resident who lost $58,000 to a romance scam, said a representative at her local bank told her she would be held fully liable for any fraudulent activity linked to her accounts and forced to cover all associated legal costs. For 48 hours after the meeting, she was in shock, terrified that the small amount of savings she had left would be seized. “I thought, I have no control over this process,” she said. “The crime was horrific enough… but it’s what happened next that was really unbelievable to me.”

    Under current U.S. law, financial institutions are rarely held liable for transactions that customers themselves authorize, even if the authorization was obtained through fraud. One rare exception is California’s elder financial abuse laws, which allowed 83-year-old Alice Lin to recover a portion of her stolen savings after a lawsuit against her bank, JPMorgan Chase. After her husband died, Lin was targeted by a scammer posing as a fellow widower, who convinced her to withdraw $720,000 in life savings to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms. Lin sued the bank for failing to flag the large, unusual transfers and protect an elderly customer, and the bank agreed to an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum.

    Ari Redford, global head of policy at blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, explained that modern scams have become fully industrialized, with large criminal networks running dozens of different schemes simultaneously. Lin’s scammers, for example, took in at least $800 million from victims between January 2022 and September 2024, TRM data shows. “We have not built out systems in the U.S. in many respects to not only alert victims but to really do restitution in a meaningful way,” Redford said.

    ## Global Models Offer Clear Paths Forward That the U.S. Has Not Adopted

    While the U.S. government has only recently begun to address the scam crisis, many other developed nations have already implemented far-reaching regulations to hold companies accountable and compensate victims. The AP-FRONTLINE investigation found that the U.S. lags behind peer nations in three key areas: requiring financial institutions and social media platforms to take responsibility for preventing fraud, holding bad actors accountable for unregulated cryptocurrency activity, and providing support for victims after a scam occurs.

    Eight in 10 Americans across the political spectrum agree that the federal government is not doing enough to protect consumers from scams, a recent Gallup survey found. A majority of respondents to the AP-NORC poll also said that financial institutions, technology and social media companies, and the federal government all share responsibility for preventing scam activity.

    Since late 2024, U.K. financial services firms have been required to reimburse customers who are tricked into sending money to scammers, creating a strong financial incentive for banks to invest in robust fraud prevention. The European Union has also implemented new rules that hold financial institutions liable for stolen funds if they fail to put adequate fraud protections in place, and the EU’s 2022 Digital Services Act requires social media platforms to quickly remove reported scam content and implement systemic changes to reduce online fraud. In the U.K., trained social workers are often sent to the homes of scam victims to provide support for the emotional trauma of fraud, a practice that eliminates the common stigma of blaming victims.

    “You wouldn’t ever say to a victim, ‘Why did you fall for a mugging? Why did you fall for a burglary?’” explained Louise Baxter, a member of the U.K. Home Office Joint Fraud Task Force. “It’s secondary victimization, from a law enforcement perspective and a societal perspective.”

    Australia and Singapore have gone even further. Australia’s new regulations require financial institutions, telecom companies, and digital platforms to prevent scams, and allow regulators to fine companies or force them to compensate victims if they fail to act. Singapore has the strictest framework in the world: under its Shared Responsibility Framework, banks and telecom companies must reimburse victims of phishing scams if they failed to implement required security safeguards. A 2024 anti-scam law allows Singaporean police to temporarily freeze suspicious transfers from potential victims, and staff from banks and e-commerce platforms work side-by-side with police in the country’s national anti-scam center.

    In the U.S., by contrast, regulatory action remains piecemeal, and broad legal protections shield social media companies from liability for scam content posted on their platforms. Victims are almost never reimbursed if they willingly authorized a transfer, even if they were tricked by a sophisticated criminal.

    Regulation of cryptocurrency also remains far weaker in the U.S. than in most other developed nations. China has banned all unregulated crypto-related business activity, while the EU requires mandatory licensing, strict consumer protections, and public disclosures for crypto firms. While the Trump administration has supported some limited crypto regulation, it has also moved to roll back aggressive enforcement to promote innovation. The GENIUS Act, signed into law by President Trump last year to regulate certain crypto sectors, does not require crypto companies to return stolen funds to scam victims — a gap that consumer advocates, prosecutors, and many lawmakers have openly criticized.

    Law enforcement officials note that tracing, freezing, and recovering stolen crypto is extremely difficult, because traditional institutional banking safeguards do not apply to digital assets. Unlike bank deposits, crypto is not backed by federal deposit insurance, and transfers can be done without verifying the identity of the people involved. Most major crypto exchanges are registered offshore, outside the reach of U.S. law.

    After Brian Glick lost $575,000 to a crypto scam, he spent months collecting evidence and working with the FBI to attempt to freeze his stolen funds held by crypto firm Tether. According to email exchanges shared with AP and FRONTLINE, the FBI requested that Tether freeze the funds, but the company refused. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company was unaware of Glick’s specific case, and noted that the firm has cooperated with law enforcement in hundreds of other cases, saying “there is no company, even in the banking industry, in the traditional financial industry, that is so helpful as us.” After receiving details of Glick’s case, Tether declined further comment. FBI and Secret Service officials confirmed that Tether does work closely with law enforcement, and a joint initiative between Tether, TRM Labs, and blockchain network TRON has frozen more than $450 million in illicit funds worldwide since 2024. Still, Glick has not recovered any of his money. “There are so many victims of these cybercrimes,” Glick said. “And we can’t get our money back.”

    ## Fledgling U.S. Efforts Fail to Keep Pace With Growing Crisis

    The U.S. government has begun to recognize the scope of the crisis, and has taken limited steps to address it. Congress is currently considering more than a dozen separate anti-scam bills: one proposal would create a centralized national website for scam complaints, ReportScams.gov, while another would require mandatory disclosures for deepfakes and other AI-generated content used in scams. In November, the Department of Justice launched a dedicated strike force to cut off transnational Southeast Asian scam networks from U.S. financial infrastructure, pursue criminal charges, and seize stolen funds. The Treasury has imposed sanctions on scam hubs in Southeast Asia, and local authorities in Myanmar and Cambodia have carried out high-profile raids on known scam compounds.

    The Justice Department’s strike force has announced that it has restrained $832 million in stolen cryptocurrency linked to transnational Chinese criminal networks, but a spokesperson told AP and FRONTLINE that the department cannot share details about individual seizures, where funds are being held, or how much has been returned to victims. President Trump also signed an executive order in March directing the attorney general to prioritize prosecuting scammers and develop a program to return stolen funds to victims.

    “President Trump is unleashing every available tool to stop criminal networks that exploit vulnerable Americans through cyber fraud and scams,” the White House said in a statement to AP and FRONTLINE.

    But advocates and government watchdog groups say these efforts are underfunded and fragmented, and cannot keep up with the rapid growth of scam activity. A 2025 report from the Government Accountability Office found that at least 13 different federal agencies handle different aspects of scam regulation and enforcement, with no unified national strategy. “There is no government-wide estimate of the money lost to scams, no common definition of scams, and no national strategy for combating them,” said Seto Bagdoyan, director of the GAO’s Forensic Audits and Investigative Service. He added that the current fragmented approach has resulted in a sluggish response that “falls short” of what is needed.

    Rebecca Keithley, assistant section chief of the FBI’s Financial Crimes Section who retired earlier this year, acknowledged that tens of billions of dollars flow out of the U.S. economy every year through scams. The FBI’s Operation Level Up, which proactively contacts potential victims to intervene before they send money, has stopped roughly 8,500 scams in nearly two years — a drop in the bucket compared to the total volume of incidents. The FBI receives an average of nearly 3,000 internet crime complaints every day through its IC3.gov portal, and most complaints never receive a follow-up.

    Chris Scott, an Arizona casino dealer who lost $400,000 to a dating site scammer, told reporters that she visited her local FBI office four times in person to beg for help, but was told all she could do was file a complaint through the IC3 portal. She filed the complaint, but never received any response, not even a confirmation that it had been received. Desperate for help, she hired three different companies that claimed to have connections to the FBI and promised to recover her funds, only to lose an additional $23,000 to these recovery scammers. She was forced to sell her home to cover her debts, and still pays off a $20,000 tax bill from her drained retirement account.

    “I’m just a small fish in a big pond,” Scott said. “All I wanted was to talk to someone and get help, but I’m nobody to them.”

    This report is part of an ongoing collaborative investigation between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS), including a new documentary “Scammed” premiering September 29 on PBS and streaming online.

  • Missing British trekker’s body found in Pakistan

    Missing British trekker’s body found in Pakistan

    A veteran hiker who built his life in Pakistan’s capital has been found dead after going missing during an expedition on a 4,000-meter mountain in the country’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Alexander Harris, a 30-year-old originally from Birmingham with both British and Irish citizenship, had been living in Islamabad working for the global advisory firm Adam Smith International, when he embarked on his trek to the summit of Musa Ka Musala.

    Local officials confirmed Harris set off for the climb at around 5:40 a.m. local time Saturday alongside a single hiking companion. After capturing photos at the peak, the pair began their descent, but separated after Harris pulled ahead by roughly 1 to 2 kilometers due to his faster pace. Unexpected rain rolled in as the descent continued, and Harris went missing soon after.

    Khalid Iqbal, deputy commissioner of the local district, shared that between 250 and 300 first responders, police officers and civilian volunteers launched an extensive search effort to locate the missing trekker. Rescuers deployed both on-foot search teams and drones to cover the steep, forested terrain, but heavy fog and poor visibility severely limited the effectiveness of aerial tools. After days of searching, crews located Harris’ body along a forest trail, with investigators concluding the most likely cause of death was a fatal slip and fall. Iqbal added that Harris had declined official support for the trip: local authorities and his accommodation had offered a certified guide and police security, but Harris, an experienced hiker familiar with the region, turned this assistance down. The expedition also was not registered with local authorities, per local regulations.

    A passionate outdoor enthusiast, Harris was an active trail runner and regular competitor in long-distance races across Pakistan. His employer released an official statement Sunday honoring his memory, describing him as a deeply beloved member of their team who had formed profound connections to Pakistan during his time in the country. “He cared deeply for Pakistan, its people, its nature, and learned Urdu during his time there,” the statement read. The company also extended its gratitude to the hundreds of people who participated in the search effort, noting that crews worked tirelessly through dangerous conditions including heavy rain, thick fog, and uneven steep terrain to locate Harris.

    Harris’ local running community, the Margalla Trail Runners, also mourned his loss on social media, remembering him as a passionate trail runner and extending condolences to his family and loved ones.

    Officials confirmed they are now working to repatriate Harris’ remains to his family. The UK Foreign Office has been contacted for comment on the incident, and has not yet released a public statement as of Monday.