Global Pulse

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  • UK mosques attacked once every five days in last year, amid rising Islamophobia

    UK mosques attacked once every five days in last year, amid rising Islamophobia

    Fresh official monitoring data has uncovered a disturbing pattern of targeted violence and hostility against Muslim places of worship across the United Kingdom, with an average of one attack on a mosque recorded every five days over the past 12 months. The surge in anti-Muslim vitriol has sparked sharp criticism from Muslim community leaders, who argue the national government has failed to address the growing crisis with the urgency it demands.

    The British Muslim Trust (BMT), the government’s official partner tasked with tracking and addressing anti-Muslim hatred, documented more than 70 separate attacks against mosques across the UK in the last year. These incidents span a wide spectrum of hate-fueled activity, ranging from physical violence, intimidation, and vandalism that damages community property, to in-person harassment, harmful hate speech, and sustained online abuse targeting worshippers and mosque leadership.

    Geographic analysis of the data shows three regions bear the brunt of these attacks: London, Greater Manchester, and the West Midlands. London recorded nine distinct incidents targeting mosques, while one Birmingham-based mosque was attacked three separate times within a single 12-month window.

    These localized attacks on places of worship align with broader national trends of rising anti-Muslim hostility. Official Home Office statistics confirm that recorded anti-Muslim hate crimes across England and Wales jumped 19% in the 12-month period ending March 2025. The total number of reported offences rose from 2,690 in the year ending March 2024 to 3,190 just one year later, marking one of the sharpest annual increases in recent years.

    Akeela Ahmed, chief executive officer of the BMT, emphasized the steady upward trajectory of these attacks and called for more decisive government action. “We are seeing a steady rise in the number of attacks against mosques, and we believe the government should be doing everything it can to help mosques protect themselves,” Ahmed said.

    In response to growing pressure, the UK government has committed up to £40 million (equivalent to $53 million) to fund security upgrades for mosques, Muslim faith schools, and Muslim community centers across the 2026-2027 funding cycle. Eligible sites can apply for grants to cover costs for critical security infrastructure including CCTV systems, intruder alarms, perimeter fencing, and on-site security personnel.

    However, BMT leaders say the program has been crippled by systemic issues that leave vulnerable communities exposed. Bureaucratic red tape, unmotivated refusals of well-founded security concerns, and processing delays that can stretch as long as 18 months have left many at-risk sites without the protection they need. Current government guidance requires applicants to submit extensive, concrete evidence that they face an imminent threat to qualify for funding.

    Ahmed argued that the requirement for specific threat evidence ignores the inherent risk Muslim places of worship face in the current hostile climate. “A mosque is vulnerable purely because it’s a mosque. Currently, they’re waiting for months while living in fear of another attack because of the backlog. In many cases, police aren’t even responding to low-level incidents, leaving people frightened and vulnerable,” she explained.

    Ahmed’s warning comes on the heels of a string of high-profile, alarming incidents across the UK that underscore the growing threat. In Northern Ireland, anti-Islam activists constructed a replica mosque and placed it on a large loyalist bonfire in a deliberate act of provocation. Earlier this month, a 14-year-old boy appeared in court charged with offences linked to extreme right-wing terrorism after police uncovered an alleged plot to attack two mosques in south London.

    Compounding these concerns, new joint research from the BMT and think tank British Future found that one in six British adults view the country’s growing Muslim population as a “foundational threat to UK culture”, reflecting the deep-seated anti-Muslim prejudice driving the rise in hate crime.

  • Prosecution of Palestine Action barrister has left lawyers ‘uncertain and scared’

    Prosecution of Palestine Action barrister has left lawyers ‘uncertain and scared’

    A high-profile contempt of court prosecution targeting a top human rights barrister in the United Kingdom is already creating widespread anxiety across the country’s criminal bar, senior legal leaders have warned. The case centers on Rajiv Menon KC, who represented six activists from the pro-Palestinian advocacy group Palestine Action earlier this year. The activists stood trial on accusations of inflicting criminal damage to weapons stored at an Israeli-owned arms manufacturing facility located outside Bristol.

    The allegations against Menon stem from his closing speech delivered in January at the end of the activists’ trial. Trial judge Mr Justice Johnson had explicitly barred the defense team from referencing the jury’s long-standing right to issue an acquittal based on personal conscience. Menon stands accused of violating that judicial direction by raising the issue during his final address to the jury.

    At an online gathering of senior legal professionals organized in support of Menon this week, Criminal Bar Association chair Riel Karmy-Jones KC confirmed that the case has already altered the daily work of defense barristers across the UK. “Lawyers are already changing their speeches or being told to change them,” Karmy-Jones told attendees. She emphasized that the uncertainty created by the prosecution cannot be dismissed, noting that criminal barristers now face growing anxiety over the limits of what they can say while representing their clients. “People at the criminal bar have become uncertain and scared of what they can and can’t say, scared that somehow they might be, at the end of a trial where they have faithfully represented their client themselves, facing a charge of criminal contempt,” she added.

    The legal process around the case has already faced major procedural pushback. In May, the Court of Appeal ruled that Johnson had acted unlawfully when he directly referred the contempt allegations against Menon to the High Court. The three-judge panel made clear that Johnson was required to either rule on the matter himself during the original trial or pass the case to the UK attorney general for review. Despite that ruling, Johnson refused both options after a subsequent hearing last month, and again referred the case to a separate High Court judge, stating he had concluded Menon “has a case to answer in contempt” and that opening formal proceedings “is in the public interest.” In late June, High Court Justice Nicklin ruled there was “sufficient material to justify the institution of contempt proceedings” against Menon, clearing the way for a formal hearing.

    Pete Weatherby KC, who chaired the pro-Menon online meeting, questioned the judge’s decision to bypass the attorney general. “If there was a case to answer, so serious that the public interest pointed toward prosecution, it should obviously have been referred to the AG, and I cannot begin to imagine why the judge thought otherwise,” Weatherby said.

    Menon is scheduled to appear for his contempt hearing next week. The barrister confirmed he filed an appeal to push for a delay on Monday, but the trial judge notified him shortly before this week’s support meeting that the hearing date would not be rescheduled. Menon told attendees that his legal team had now filed an urgent appeal to the Court of Appeal to challenge the ruling.

    Senior legal figures have levied harsh criticism at the handling of the case, arguing it undermines core principles of the UK justice system. Henry Blaxland KC called the prosecution’s active involvement in pushing for contempt proceedings “disturbing,” noting that the case was initiated via a prosecution submission to the judge. Blaxland argued the move amounts to an “abuse of prosecutorial power.” “If something has happened in the face of the court, it is for the judge to decide whether or not his or her order has been ignored,” Blaxland explained. “The prosecution may raise concerns, but to positively advocate for proceedings to be taken, it seems to me that a line has been overstepped. By initiating these proceedings, the trust between the prosecution and defence has been fundamentally betrayed, it has been broken.”

    Raju Bhatt, founder of leading public interest and human rights law firm Bhatt Murphy, went further, arguing that the rule of law itself has been violated not by Menon, but by senior judicial figures. Bhatt referenced the Court of Appeal’s earlier ruling that found two senior judges – Johnson and the initially assigned Justice Edis – had exceeded their legal authority. Bhatt also argued the entire proceedings against Menon are rooted in “fear that the jury might do the right thing” by acquitting the Palestine Action activists.

    Liz Davies KC, who attended the online support gathering, told Middle East Eye that roughly 800 people joined the event, including hundreds of lawyers, sitting politicians, and representatives from non-governmental organizations. Davies added that the overwhelming consensus among attendees was deep respect for Menon and widespread shock over the prosecution he now faces. “The unifying message was the extraordinary regard in which Rajiv is held, and the shock that we all have at what is happening to him,” Davies said.

  • Toll from landslide in southwestern China rises to 11 dead, with 50 people still missing

    Toll from landslide in southwestern China rises to 11 dead, with 50 people still missing

    A week after a devastating landslide struck Pengshui County in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, rescue teams have recovered three more bodies from the mountain of debris, pushing the confirmed death toll to 11 while 50 people remain unaccounted for, local Chinese authorities announced Thursday.

    The massive slope collapse, which occurred last Friday, buried over 10 residential buildings in the mountainous county, leaving 10 people injured in its immediate aftermath. Eight fatalities were pulled from the rubble in the first 48 hours after the disaster, and the latest recovery operations have added three more names to the list of the dead.

    Despite ongoing search operations, local government officials confirmed in an official statement that no signs of life have been detected in recent days, after repeated attempts to locate trapped survivors across the disaster site.

    Pengshui County, located in southeastern Chongqing along the city’s borders with Hubei and Guizhou provinces, has posed extraordinary hurdles for first responders. The landslide deposited an enormous volume of rocky debris, including dozens of massive boulders that have blocked access to large sections of the impact zone.

    To overcome these obstacles, search teams have deployed heavy construction equipment and aerial drone technology to map the area and clear rubble. Crews have also carried out controlled blasts to break down oversized boulders into manageable fragments, a necessary step to continue the painstaking search for missing residents. Rescue leaders have emphasized that the scale and composition of the collapsed material make the entire operation exceptionally challenging, with teams working around the clock to advance through the debris field.

  • Israeli lawmakers lead mass Al-Aqsa Mosque raid

    Israeli lawmakers lead mass Al-Aqsa Mosque raid

    On Thursday, a large-scale incursion into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem was led by senior Israeli government officials and lawmakers, with thousands of ultranationalist Israelis entering the sacred Islamic site under heavy armed police protection, in a move that has sharply escalated regional tensions.

    Prior to the entry of Israeli groups, Israeli security forces had blocked hundreds of Palestinian worshippers from reaching the mosque for pre-dawn prayers, forcing many faithful to hold prayer services in adjacent streets outside the complex. By 10 a.m. local time, the Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs confirmed that at least 2,300 Israelis had entered the mosque’s courtyards, with the incursion expected to continue through midday.

    Among the high-profile participants were Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, and Amit Halevi, a sitting legislator from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party. The incursion was timed to coincide with Tisha B’Av, a Jewish fast day that marks the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. Ultranationalist Jewish groups that advocate for the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque to build a Third Jewish Temple on the site had organized the mass action, originally setting a target of 5,000 participants.

    Witnesses on the ground documented participants violating longstanding site rules: they raised Israeli flags across the mosque courtyards, held Jewish prayer services, danced and sang, and even erected a temporary shade tent — all acts explicitly prohibited under the decades-old status quo agreement that governs the site.

    The Palestinian Endowment Ministry issued a scathing condemnation of the incursion, calling it a “blatant incursion” led by senior Israeli political figures that represents a gross violation of the site’s Islamic sanctity and a direct attack on the historical and legal status quo at Al-Aqsa. “The entire 144-dunam Al-Aqsa Mosque complex is the exclusive, indivisible right of the Muslim world alone,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that “these provocative actions, carried out at the highest levels of the occupying government, are intended to ignite a religious war across the entire region.”

    The status quo, a decades-old arrangement recognized by the international community, designates the entire Al-Aqsa compound as an exclusively Islamic holy site, with full administrative authority over access, worship, maintenance and excavations held by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, the Muslim religious trust that manages the site. However, since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, it has gradually eroded this agreement, seizing control of entry access from the Waqf and facilitating regular daily incursions by ultranationalist Israelis. In recent years, these incursions have grown dramatically in size, drawing tens of thousands of Israeli participants annually.

    The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate noted that Israeli authorities relaxed group size restrictions for Thursday’s incursion, allowing groups of up to 150 people to enter at once, compared to the usual cap of around 30. Over the past decade, Israeli officials have also increasingly permitted Jewish prayer and flag displays inside the compound, actions that directly contravene the status quo.

    Days before the incursion, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, senior Al-Aqsa preacher and former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, warned that Israeli authorities were deliberately exploiting Jewish religious holidays to escalate provocative actions aimed at permanently changing the status of the holy site. He noted that officials have increasingly turned these occasions into opportunities to organize large-scale incursions involving cabinet ministers, senior officials and members of Israel’s parliament, in a bid to normalize the violations and grant them political legitimacy. The incursion proceeded amid widespread silence from the international community and major Islamic organizations, as highlighted in local Palestinian reporting on the event.

  • A decade in, Studio Ghibli Fest keeps growing as new generations flock to ‘Totoro,’ ‘Ponyo’ and more

    A decade in, Studio Ghibli Fest keeps growing as new generations flock to ‘Totoro,’ ‘Ponyo’ and more

    For Amanda Mendoza VanCleave, the annual arrival of Studio Ghibli Fest is a date she marks on her calendar without fail. For 10 years, this recurring program of theatrical rereleases of beloved Studio Ghibli animated films has grown into a treasured intergenerational tradition for VanCleave, her 3-year-old daughter, and her mother Araceli, who make a point of catching every rereleased title on the big screen at their local Austin, Texas cinema.

    VanCleave laughs recalling her daughter’s excited reaction to the opening Totoro title card of *My Neighbor Totoro* — an unplanned outburst that drew gentle laughter from the entire theater. Though the family first discovered Ghibli’s catalog on the streaming platform HBO Max, their annual theater outings have become a beloved shared ritual. During a recent screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s 1988 classic, the trio even attended in matching Totoro pajamas. “It’s been our thing: us three girls together,” VanCleave says.

    Studio Ghibli’s ability to inspire fierce, enduring fandom is widely known, but its consistent theatrical draw decades after its films’ initial releases is unparalleled in global cinema. Every year, audiences ranging from lifelong Ghibli devotees to young first-time viewers flock to cinemas for Ghibli Fest, which runs across select dates from June through October each year. What began as a small retrospective series has evolved into an annual cinematic marathon, turning timeless titles like *My Neighbor Totoro*, *Spirited Away*, and *Ponyo* into permanent theatrical mainstays rather than one-off rereleases.

    When GKids, Studio Ghibli’s North American distributor, partnered with Fathom Events to launch the formal Ghibli Fest in 2017, five films generated $5 million in total ticket sales. What has surprised industry insiders is that the event’s growth has only accelerated since Ghibli’s full catalog became available to stream on HBO Max in 2020 — the last three consecutive years have been the festival’s highest-grossing on record.

    “I’d be lying if I thought the program when we conceived it would be going as long as it has,” says Dave Jesteadt, president of GKids. “It does defy conventional wisdom. We keep waiting for the year that people tire of going to the films, but that’s not what’s happening. Every single year, we see records being set. The grosses are going up, not down.”

    2024 has marked the festival’s most successful year to date: 14 titles have grossed $16.4 million in ticket sales, up from $10.6 million for eight films in 2023. Already this year, *Ponyo* and *My Neighbor Totoro* each sold out five-day theatrical runs that were added to meet overwhelming fan demand. Shannah Miller, Fathom Events’ vice president of marketing, says audience demand has pushed the festival to expand its reach dramatically over the years. “When we started, I think our theatrical footprint was about 640 locations. This year, we’re crossing over 1,100 locations. We started with two, maybe three playdates for a particular title, but due to fan demand, we have five-day runs for some titles.”

    When GKids first acquired distribution rights to the full Ghibli library in 2011, the Japanese animation studio emphasized how critical theatrical screenings were to its creative vision. Early retrospectives were limited to small arthouse cinemas in major cities, but Ghibli Fest brought the films to mainstream multiplexes across the U.S., introducing a new generation of young viewers to animated storytelling outside of Disney’s offerings. “One of the worst things that can happen to classics is that they’re perceived as classics and kept in amber,” Jesteadt says. “We wanted to move to a nationwide celebration that really treated these as equivalent to any new Hollywood film.”

    As overall U.S. moviegoing attendance has risen more than 10% in 2024, theater chains have increasingly leaned on classic film rereleases to fill gaps in release schedules and boost attendance on slow weekdays. Ghibli Fest paved the way for this repertory trend years ago, and its long-term work has cultivated an entirely new generation of Ghibli fans: while older audiences often first fell in love with Miyazaki’s 2001 Oscar-winning masterpiece *Spirited Away*, many younger viewers now discover the studio through lighter, whimsical titles like *Ponyo* or *Howl’s Moving Castle*.

    When Ghibli’s catalog launched on streaming in 2020, industry observers predicted theatrical attendance would decline. Instead, streaming introduced Ghibli to millions of new viewers who then sought out the experience of seeing the films on the big screen for the first time.

    The 2024 Ghibli Fest lineup continues through October, with upcoming screenings including *Tales of Earthsea*, *Only Yesterday*, a 40th-anniversary presentation of 1986’s *Castle in the Sky*, a 4K remaster of *Princess Mononoke*, and a 25th-anniversary run of *Spirited Away*. While occasional Ghibli rereleases happen in other countries, the annual Ghibli Fest phenomenon is unique to the U.S.

    “We are equally in awe of and proud of what we’re building and the opportunity to celebrate instead of all the doom and gloom, ‘Is theater dead?’ conversations,” Miller says. “We have a different story to tell with Studio Ghibli.”

    Outside of Ghibli Fest, Studio Ghibli’s cultural dominance continues to grow: Los Angeles’ Academy Museum is currently hosting a new special exhibit dedicated to *Ponyo*, and legendary Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi is touring a concert series of the studio’s most famous scores, including a seven-night residency at New York’s Radio City Music Hall this August. But for fans, nothing compares to seeing the films on the big screen.

    Angela Lector, a 27-year-old lifelong Ghibli fan, has attended festival screenings in costume as *Howl’s Moving Castle*’s protagonist Sophie and connected with Japanese film students at a showing of *Princess Mononoke*. “Being in the theater is so much more fun than being on HBO Max,” Lector says. “Being in your home, you can make your own popcorn and cuddle up with your dog. But being in the theater you can actually talk to people you don’t know about the movie.”

    The only common complaint from fans is that the festival does not include more underrated deep cuts from the Ghibli catalog; Lector for one hopes to see 1984’s *Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind*, Miyazaki’s pre-Ghibli classic, added to future lineups. “The Ghibli films are timeless. There’s something for everyone in them,” Lector says. “Everything feels human. No one is too powerful or too small.”

    That inclusive, welcoming energy extends to the audience as well. VanCleave recently noticed her daughter’s preschool classmate wearing a signature hair bow like Kiki from *Kiki’s Delivery Service*, struck up a conversation with the girl’s mother, and discovered the family also loves Ghibli. She ended up inviting them to this year’s *Ponyo* screening — which marked the young girl’s first ever trip to a movie theater. “It was cute,” VanCleave says. “The two 3-year-olds shared a recliner.”

  • Teenager Sooryavanshi blasts 50 off 18 as India cruises past Zimbabwe in T20

    Teenager Sooryavanshi blasts 50 off 18 as India cruises past Zimbabwe in T20

    In a decisive opening match of a three-game Twenty20 series held in Harare, Zimbabwe on Thursday, 15-year-old Indian cricket prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi delivered a breakout performance, smashing his first international half-century to lead India to a comfortable seven-wicket victory over the host side.

    Sooryavanshi’s explosive 50 runs came off just 18 deliveries, bringing a swift end to India’s 126-run chase before he fell to Zimbabwe seamer Richard Ngarava the very next ball. Playing at the Harare Sports Club, the teenager top-edged an attempted cut shot, leaving India at 68 for 2 wickets at the time of his dismissal. His blistering early innings had already shifted the momentum irreversibly, however, turning what looked like a competitive run chase into a straightforward task for the rest of the Indian batting lineup. By the end of the match, stand-in captain Shreyas Iyer was unbeaten in the middle as India reached 126 for 3, securing Iyer his first win as India’s T20 captain after seven previous unsuccessful outings in charge.

    Zimbabwe’s batting side posted a moderate total of 125 for 7 after 20 overs, with Indian fast bowlers Mayank Yadav and Prince Yadav each taking two wickets to restrict the host’s scoring. The match marked a key turning point for Sooryavanshi, who made history earlier this month when he replaced Sachin Tendulkar as the youngest player ever to earn a senior international cap for India. Ahead of the Zimbabwe series, the young batter had struggled to find his footing during India’s 4-0 whitewash defeat in England, where he scored just 14, 13 and 15 runs across three innings. While his strike rate of 168 over that series remained solid, his lack of big scores saw him dropped from the lineup for the final match.

    Indian selectors opted to give Sooryavanshi another start in Harare in large part due to his historic success at the same ground: during the 2025 Under-19 World Cup final against England in February, he blasted an incredible 175 runs off just 80 balls to lead India to the title. The teenager lived up to expectations on Thursday, hitting his first boundary just four balls into his innings when he launched a six over backward square leg. He went on to hit three more maximums, clearing the ropes at long-off, fine leg and long-on to keep the scoreboard ticking at a rapid pace.

    The three-match series will continue with its second fixture scheduled for this Saturday in Harare, with fans already anticipating more standout performances from the young Indian sensation.

  • Iraq emerging as an accidental Iran war winner

    Iraq emerging as an accidental Iran war winner

    In the rapidly shifting landscape of 21st-century Middle Eastern geopolitics, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has embarked on an ambitious, high-stakes diplomatic tour that underscores his country’s growing role as a critical bridge between competing global and regional powers. Fresh off a successful weeklong visit to the United States that concluded on July 19, 2026, where he held high-profile talks with President Donald Trump, al-Zaidi is set to travel next to Tehran to engage Iran’s new leadership, with additional stops planned for Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Syria in the weeks ahead.

    This U.S. trip marked the first and most strategically significant stop on al-Zaidi’s broader regional diplomatic push, which aims to shore up domestic legitimacy for his new administration, attract much-needed foreign direct investment, and elevate Iraq’s standing as a key independent actor in the Middle East. A core goal of Baghdad’s current diplomatic strategy is to nurture closer ties with Washington while preserving its long-standing cooperative relationship with Tehran, even as tensions between the two powers reignite and disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz send economic shockwaves across the region. Al-Zaidi’s government is positioning Iraq as a neutral diplomatic intermediary, and a potential future host for formal Iran-U.S. negotiations, to cement this delicate, influential role.

    The U.S. visit, which included a major high-level business summit and meetings with top American energy industry executives in Houston, was carefully structured to align with a new U.S. regional strategy that prioritizes expanded trade and investment across the Middle East, with Iraq at its center. As a close scholar of Middle Eastern geopolitics, this coordinated diplomatic push points to a profound transformation: Iraq is steadily emerging as a central strategic connector in a region increasingly defined by cross-border energy trade, infrastructure networks, and interconnected investment flows.

    Iraq’s growing stature as a nexus for diplomacy and commerce stems from a combination of critical domestic changes and sweeping regional power shifts. The near-defeat of the Islamic State group across Iraq and the broader Middle East, paired with notable improvements in domestic security and Baghdad’s more assertive independent diplomacy, have dramatically expanded Iraq’s room for diplomatic maneuver. At the same time, the collapse of the Tehran-aligned Assad regime in Syria, the weakening of Iran’s regional proxy networks, and ongoing open confrontation between the U.S. and Iran have all amplified the strategic value of Iraq’s geographic position, state institutions, and existing cross-regional relationships. Today, as the regional balance of power is redrawn and Iran’s traditional network of influence is disrupted, Iraq has become an increasingly critical platform for military coordination, regional diplomacy, and cross-border economic connectivity.

    Against this backdrop, al-Zaida’s choice to make the U.S. his first foreign trip as prime minister underscores a broader trend: nearly every major regional and global power is currently reassessing Iraq’s strategic importance. Iran, Arab Gulf states, and China have all deepened their diplomatic and economic engagement with Baghdad in recent years, each pursuing distinct policy goals but unified in their recognition of Iraq’s unique geostrategic position.

    For Washington, this reassessment marks a clear break from the post-Iraq War framework that framed relations with Baghdad almost exclusively through the lenses of counterterrorism and military stabilization. Today, U.S. and Iraqi officials are building a far broader bilateral partnership, with new economic agreements focused on strengthening Iraq’s energy sector, modernizing its crumbling national infrastructure, and expanding private-sector investment. While security cooperation remains a core pillar of the relationship, it now serves a broader strategic goal: building a more resilient Iraqi state capable of managing competing external pressures and governing effectively across its territory.

    For Tehran, Iraq has grown even more central to its regional strategy at a time when its geopolitical position across the Middle East has weakened. Iraq provides Iran with a critical strategic buffer, deep commercial ties, and an essential land corridor connecting Iran to its remaining partners across the Levant. As Iran’s other key regional allies, including Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi movement, face growing military and political pressure, maintaining Iran’s influence in Iraq has become a top strategic priority.

    Arab Gulf states have also recalibrated their approach to Baghdad in recent years. While security concerns, particularly over Iraq’s close relationship with Iran, continue to shape their policy, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other Gulf monarchies see Iraq’s post-Islamic State trajectory as a major opportunity for expanded engagement through investment, infrastructure development, and regional economic integration. A more stable, connected Iraq can link Gulf capital, markets, and infrastructure projects to global trade networks, while reducing the risk of regional instability spilling over from Iran.

    China’s growing engagement with Iraq highlights another dimension of the country’s rising strategic importance. As Baghdad becomes an increasingly contested arena for geopolitical and commercial competition, Chinese firms face growing pressure to compete aggressively for infrastructure and energy contracts, while Beijing has stronger incentives than ever to deepen its ties to Baghdad to protect its existing regional influence. Yet China’s interests extend beyond securing market access and outcompeting other powers: a stable, economically viable Iraq serves Beijing as a reliable energy supplier and a potential hub for broader Eurasian regional connectivity. In this respect, outside of great-power competition, U.S. and Chinese interests in Iraq are broadly aligned.

    Notably, these overlapping engagements with Iraq do not fit the traditional model of zero-sum competition between rival powers or blocs. Instead, they coexist, reflecting a deliberate strategy from Baghdad to diversify its external partnerships while avoiding dangerous over-reliance on any single global power.

    What sets Iraq apart from other Middle Eastern states is not just its central geographic location, but the unique overlap of productive relationships it maintains with competing powers that few other countries in the region can match. Baghdad can engage Washington on security and energy cooperation, maintain deep political and commercial ties with Tehran, partner with Beijing on infrastructure development and trade, and collaborate with Gulf states on investment and regional connectivity. This unique position has allowed Iraq to take on the role of what analyst John Calabrese terms an “intermediary state” – a country whose influence stems from its ability to maintain connections to competing political, economic, and security networks, while shaping how those networks interact with one another.

    Iraq’s emerging role offers a clear window into the broader transformation of Middle Eastern geopolitics. While military power and traditional alliances remain central to regional influence, power increasingly flows through the cross-border systems that connect economies and societies: energy infrastructure, electricity grids, logistics corridors, financial systems, and cross-border investment relationships. Going forward, states that can shape and lead these interconnected networks will hold the greatest influence over the region’s future.

    Despite this unprecedented opportunity, Iraq faces significant structural and geopolitical challenges that threaten to derail its bid to convert strategic connectivity into lasting national advantage. The same overlapping relationships that boost Baghdad’s value also create powerful incentives for external powers to compete for influence within Iraq’s domestic political system. While strategic connectivity offers major new sources of leverage for Baghdad, without stronger, more unified national institutions, it can also deepen dependence on foreign powers and erode Iraqi sovereignty.

    The most immediate challenge facing al-Zaidi’s government is consolidating full state authority across Iraqi territory. The prime minister’s push to bring non-state armed groups under formal government control will be a critical test of whether powerful Iran-aligned militias will be willing to give up the autonomy, political influence, and economic interests they have built up over two decades of conflict. Progress on disarmament and integration is likely to be uneven, particularly if rising regional tensions increase the value of these militias to Tehran.

    Iraq’s fractured domestic political economy presents an equally formidable obstacle. Decades of patronage networks, systemic corruption, and fragmented governance continue to limit Baghdad’s ability to implement nationwide economic reforms, attract sustained long-term foreign investment, and translate external partnerships into broad-based, inclusive economic development for Iraqi citizens. Converting Iraq’s strategic importance into lasting national strength ultimately depends as much on building domestic institutional capacity as it does on maintaining productive foreign relationships.

    External geopolitical dynamics will also continue to shape Iraq’s trajectory. Persistent deep distrust between Washington and Tehran ensures that Iraq will remain under pressure from competing powers seeking to pull Baghdad into their orbits. If the current escalation of U.S.-Iran hostilities spirals into a protracted, wider regional war, both Iraq’s ability to realize its strategic potential and the survival of the al-Zaidi government would be put at severe risk.

    Looking ahead, China is unlikely to retreat from Iraq, where it has already become a leading trading partner and major infrastructure investor. Arab Gulf states will continue to pursue closer ties to a more stable, economically integrated Iraq, while Washington will remain invested in a sovereign Iraqi partner capable of resisting destabilizing pressure and balancing Chinese influence in the region. The core challenge for Baghdad will be managing these overlapping relationships effectively, ensuring that foreign partnerships strengthen Iraqi sovereignty rather than constrain it.

  • Suspected militants kill judge, security guard in ambush in restive southwest Pakistan

    Suspected militants kill judge, security guard in ambush in restive southwest Pakistan

    A brazen militant ambush targeting a district judicial official in Pakistan’s restive southwestern province of Balochistan has left two people dead, triggering swift pledges from the country’s top military leadership to wipe out all terrorist infrastructure operating across the nation. The attack unfolded Thursday on the outskirts of Mastung district, where separatist insurgent groups have sharply ramped up violent operations targeting both security personnel and civilian authorities in recent months. According to local Mastung police chief Abdul Rauf, District Judge Abdul Hakim Kakar was en route from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, to Mastung to preside over scheduled court hearings when the ambush was carried out. Both Kakar and his assigned security guard were killed at the scene, with the assailants fleeing before security reinforcements arrived. As of Friday morning, no militant organization has issued a public claim of responsibility for the attack. Counterterrorism analysts and local law enforcement however point to long-active Baloch separatist insurgent networks as the prime suspects, particularly the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an outlawed faction that has led a years-long insurgency against the Pakistani government. The BLA was officially designated a global terrorist organization by the United States in 2019, and has carried out dozens of high-profile attacks targeting government officials, security personnel, and civilian infrastructure across Balochistan in recent years. The targeted killing of Judge Kakar drew immediate and widespread condemnation from Pakistan’s top civilian leadership. President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti all issued statements denouncing the attack, with Bugti ordering law enforcement and counterterrorism units to launch an urgent manhunt to track down and apprehend all those involved in planning and executing the ambush. The attack comes against a backdrop of intensifying clashes between Pakistani security forces and Baloch insurgent groups across the province. In recent weeks alone, security operations targeting insurgent cells have killed more than 100 alleged Baloch militants across multiple districts of Balochistan, following a string of large-scale insurgent attacks that killed dozens of security personnel and civilians. On the same day as Thursday’s ambush, Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir used a public address at a national security workshop in Rawalpindi, the country’s main garrison city, to reaffirm the military’s unwavering commitment to rooting out terrorism. “Operations against militants in Balochistan and all other parts of the country will continue until the menace of terrorism and its abettors are eliminated from Pakistan,” Munir stated, according to an official statement released by the Pakistani military. He added that coordinated, sustained operations by security forces and law enforcement agencies, supported by broad public backing, would ultimately bring lasting stability and peace to Balochistan. Munir also repeated longstanding Pakistani military accusations that foreign powers are backing proxy insurgent groups in Balochistan to foment unrest and destabilize the province, stressing that these disruptive efforts would be defeated through a “firm and decisive response” from Pakistan’s armed forces. As Pakistan’s largest and least densely populated province, Balochistan has faced decades of insurgent violence. Multiple separatist Baloch factions have waged an armed campaign against the federal government since the early 2000s, demanding greater political autonomy and control over the province’s abundant natural energy and mineral resources. In addition to separatist violence, the province has also faced repeated attacks by the Pakistani Taliban, an affiliate of the Afghan Taliban that has carried out hundreds of attacks across Pakistan in recent years.

  • Liquor store employee narrowly escapes leopard attack

    Liquor store employee narrowly escapes leopard attack

    A close call for a liquor store employee in a wild animal encounter that unfolded in a populated area, as the worker escaped a leopard attack with only narrow margins to spare. Local authorities have confirmed that after a tense nearly five-hour operation to contain and secure the unrestrained animal, wildlife teams successfully captured the leopard. Following the capture, wildlife officials completed the process by releasing the big cat back into its natural wild habitat, following standard animal management protocols for unexpected urban-wildlife intersections. The incident highlights growing instances of wildlife venturing into human-populated zones as habitat boundaries shift, prompting local officials to reiterate guidance for residents on how to respond safely when encountering wild animals in developed areas. No serious injuries were reported beyond the fright of the encounter, and the leopard was confirmed to be unharmed during the capture and release process.

  • Supporters across India send food via delivery apps to sustain the ‘Cockroach’ protest

    Supporters across India send food via delivery apps to sustain the ‘Cockroach’ protest

    NEW DELHI – As thousands of demonstrators hold their ground at a central New Delhi protest site, an unexpected network of grassroots support has emerged to sustain their movement: a constant flow of food ordered via online delivery apps from backers across the country. This steady stream of donated sustenance has become one of the most visible markers of the rapidly expanding public backing for the ‘Cockroach’ movement, a youth-led uprising that has grown into one of the most significant political challenges faced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration in recent years.

    What began as an outcry over repeated leaks of high-stakes entrance examinations for medical colleges and government jobs – a scandal that drove some impacted young people to suicide – the movement has evolved into a broader national call for greater government accountability. Thousands of protesters have set up a continuous sit-in at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi’s historic designated protest zone, which now serves as the epicenter of the movement. Even after a harsh police crackdown on Monday, when officers deployed tear gas and batons to block demonstrators from marching toward India’s Parliament, the remaining protesters refused to disperse. Instead, the violent response only amplified public anger, swelling the crowd beyond student circles to include young working professionals, parents and other community members sympathetic to the movement’s demands.

    To sustain the growing encampment, supporters who cannot attend the protest in person have turned to a simple but effective act of solidarity: ordering meals directly to the demonstration site through popular online food delivery platforms. Every few minutes, motorbike-riding delivery riders pull up to Jantar Mantar with bags packed with everything from homemade-style Indian curries and rice to burgers, pizza, snacks and bottled water. Volunteers collect each delivery, stack the contributions alongside other donated supplies, and distribute the food and water to protesters on the ground. Many donors have never visited the protest site personally and do not know the demonstrators they are supporting; they simply instruct delivery riders to hand their order to any protester they encounter at the camp.

    For Shakti Vashisth, a 24-year-old protester camped at Jantar Mantar, every incoming delivery is a powerful reminder that the movement’s support extends far beyond the boundaries of the protest site. “There are a lot of people that I can understand might not be able to come here, but they are sending their love,” she explained.

    The outpouring of support has been so overwhelming that protest organizers have recently been forced to ask the public to pause new food orders, as incoming donations now far outnumber the daily needs of the demonstrators camped on site. “The amount of food coming in is overwhelming. It’s difficult to even keep count,” said Bhoomi Kapoor, a volunteer coordinating food distribution at the site.

    Neg Singh, a motorbike delivery courier who has made 19 trips to the protest site, recalled one particularly massive order: 70 pizzas that required three separate riders to carry through the dense crowd, placed by a donor living in Noida, a city roughly 25 kilometers outside of New Delhi. For Singh, the constant trips to the camp have done more than add extra work to his schedule – they have pulled him into the movement as a supporter too. “We also feel deeply connected to this protest. We support it wholeheartedly,” he said.