One year ago, a landmark bilateral conference hosted by an Ankara-based Turkish think tank brought Indian and Turkish experts and officials together for the first time, opening with a wave of cautious optimism. Attendees on both sides leaned into shared historical bonds, recalling India’s early support for Turkey’s War of Independence, and even celebrated linguistic commonalities between the two nations, including overlapping terms like *hava* (meaning air) and *kısmet* (meaning fate). The gathering was explicitly designed to reignite closer cooperation between the two major emerging economies, which had managed to grow bilateral trade for years despite long-standing political friction rooted in conflicting geopolitical alliances. The core tension stemmed from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s close partnership with Pakistan and the broader Muslim world, which clashed with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s deepening strategic alignment with Israel. By all accounts, the conference was a striking success – but that success stoked immediate regional friction: multiple sources confirm Pakistani officials expressed frustration at being sidelined and not consulted ahead of the event.
标签： Asia
亚洲
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UAE’s ruling al-Nayhan family receives tens of millions in EU farming subsidies
A new joint investigation by independent climate and energy investigative outlet DeSmog, alongside European news partners El Diario and G4Media, has uncovered that the ruling royal family of the United Arab Emirates, the Al-Nahyan family, has collected more than €71 million ($84 million) in European Union agricultural subsidies over the past six years for farmland holdings across Romania, Italy and Spain. The investigation, which analyzed six years of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) beneficiary data between 2019 and 2024, traced 110 separate subsidy payments to a complex network of companies and subsidiaries controlled directly by the Al-Nahyan family and Abu Dhabi’s flagship sovereign holding firm ADQ.
The Al-Nahyan family ranks as the second wealthiest royal family in the world, with a combined estimated net worth exceeding $320 billion, built almost entirely on the UAE’s massive untapped oil and natural gas reserves. The CAP, the EU’s flagship agricultural support program, distributes roughly $64 billion in annual payments to support European farmers and rural development, accounting for nearly one-third of the EU’s entire total annual budget. Industry analysts have long raised concerns that large shares of these public funds end up in the hands of wealthy foreign investors rather than small, local European agricultural operations, a finding this new investigation reinforces.
The single largest subsidy haul uncovered by the investigation went to Romanian agribusiness firm Agricost, which operates the largest contiguous individual farm in the European Union, spanning 57,000 hectares — an area five times larger than the city of Paris. DeSmog’s analysis confirms that the vast imbalance in CAP distribution heavily favors large landowners: in 2024 alone, Agricost received more than $10 million in direct CAP payments, a sum more than 1,600 times higher than the average annual subsidy collected by a typical small EU farm.
Over the past 15 years, the UAE has accelerated a global campaign of agricultural land acquisition, purchasing hundreds of thousands of hectares of fertile farmland across Africa, South America and Europe. Today, the UAE controls roughly 960,000 hectares of agricultural land worldwide, a push driven by the country’s urgent domestic food security needs. The Gulf nation’s harsh climate, characterized by extreme high temperatures, widespread chronic water scarcity, and nutrient-poor sandy soils, makes large-scale domestic crop production nearly unfeasible, leaving the country dependent on imports for as much as 90 percent of its total food supply.
This global land grab has also sparked geopolitical controversy, with many analysts linking the UAE’s push for agricultural resources to its controversial involvement in the ongoing Sudan conflict, where Abu Dhabi backs the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group that has been widely accused of perpetrating genocide against civilian populations. The UAE already holds extensive agricultural holdings in Sudan: UAE’s largest listed firm International Holding Company (IHC) and Jenaan Investment operate more than 50,000 hectares of farmland in the country, while the massive Abu Hamad agricultural project, a joint venture between IHC and Sudan’s largest private firm Dal Group, controls an additional 162,000 hectares of cultivated land. The project is paired with a newly built Red Sea shipping terminal, Abu Amama Port, constructed and operated by Abu Dhabi-based AD Ports Group to facilitate export of Sudanese agricultural produce.
Within the EU, the Al-Nahyan family’s agricultural expansion is structured through three core holding companies based in Spain, Italy and Romania. Agricost, the giant Romanian farm operation, was acquired by leading UAE agribusiness group Al Dahra in 2018 for an estimated €230 million ($270 million). Al Dahra was originally founded by Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, brother of UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, before ADQ purchased a 50 percent stake in the firm in 2020. While full public details of Al Dahra’s current ownership structure are not available, DeSmog confirms the firm remains closely linked to members of the Al-Nahyan family: its board is chaired by Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with his son Zayed bin Hamdan Al Nahyan — who is married to President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s daughter — also holding a key leadership role.
DeSmog’s investigation also found that Al Dahra has acquired multiple agricultural operations across Spain since 2012, controlling more than 8,000 hectares of Spanish farmland that collected more than €5 million in CAP subsidies between 2015 and 2024. Both the Spanish and Romanian farm operations grow alfalfa and other animal feed crops, with the vast majority of produce destined for export, including shipment to the Gulf. Al Dahra holds a long-term government contract to supply animal feed to the UAE, which supports the country’s fast-growing domestic dairy sector. In 2022, ADQ also acquired major global fruit producer Unifrutti for an estimated $830 million. DeSmog’s analysis found that Unifrutti’s Italian farm holdings received at least €186,000 in CAP subsidies in the three years following the acquisition.
Neither the Al-Nahyan family nor any of the companies named in the investigation responded to multiple requests for comment from DeSmog, with ADQ formally declining to issue a statement.
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Bahrain expels three MPs after they voted against royal decree on citizenship oversight
In a sweeping move that has drawn sharp condemnation from human rights advocates, Bahrain’s lower parliamentary body has stripped three elected lawmakers of their seats over a single dissenting vote against a royal order that erodes judicial checks on citizenship revocation decisions. The expulsion comes amid a sweeping domestic security crackdown tied to recent cross-border hostilities linked to the US-Israeli war in the region.
The unanimous vote to revoke the parliamentary memberships of Abdulnabi Salman, Mamdooh al-Saleh and Mahdi al-Shuwaik passed during a Thursday morning sitting of the Council of Representatives. The three legislators were targeted specifically for their opposition votes during an April 28 debate over the two-year-old royal decree, which reclassifies all citizenship-related matters as “sovereign issues” and removes all existing judicial oversight over such decisions. Under the new framework, individuals who have their citizenship revoked lose all right to file legal challenges or appeals against the ruling.
During the initial parliamentary vote on the decree, 33 legislators backed the measure, three were absent, and three abstained, leaving the three dissenters isolated as targets for retaliation. Over the week leading up to the expulsion vote, the three lawmakers faced mounting public criticism, even from King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who directly addressed their dissent in rare public remarks that included a veiled threat of deportation. The king accused the trio of siding with “traitors” and demanded they issue a public apology “or to join those they chose to align with, who have left the country or been expelled.”
The king’s reference was to a mass citizenship revocation carried out last month, when Bahraini authorities stripped 69 people of their nationality over unproven allegations of sympathizing with Iran amid regional tensions. The list of those affected includes not only people accused of threatening national security, but also their dependent family members – including minor children – a policy that the expelled lawmakers openly condemned during the April 28 debate.
Speaking in opposition to the royal decree, Abdulnabi Salman argued that independent judicial oversight was a non-negotiable requirement to “achieve justice and a sense of fairness and trust.” He rejected the policy of collective punishment that has accompanied the recent mass revocations, noting “It is true that whoever harms this country must be punished, but punishments must not be collective, God forbid, or be taken as reactions, because the matter relates to the fate, future, and trust of the people in the system and the judiciary.” Mamdooh al-Saleh echoed these concerns, questioning why innocent family members should suffer for the alleged actions of a single relative: “What is the fault of the children and the grandchildren? They may have no guilt; they did not participate in their father’s crime or mistake.”
Human rights campaigners warn the expulsion of the three lawmakers sets a dangerous precedent for political dissent in the kingdom. Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, a researcher with the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), called the development deeply worrying. “It sets a dangerous precedent that if you cast a vote in a way perceived by the Bahraini king or government as upsetting, then the consequences on you will be quite harrowing,” Alwadaei told Middle East Eye. “You could even face losing your nationality and being deported.”
Andrew McIntosh, a policy advisor with Salam for Democracy and Human Rights, added that the purge will have devastating long-term impacts on incremental reform efforts in Bahrain. “We’ve seen political movements boycotting elections since 2014, claiming the Council of Representatives has no real power. That sentiment is now growing,” McIntosh explained. “Discontent and deprived of democratic channels to express their grievances and advocate for change, Bahrain is likely to become more polarised and militant. This is the opposite of what the government hopes to achieve.”
The mass citizenship revocation and parliamentary expulsion come against a backdrop of heightened regional tensions, after Iran launched a massive drone and missile attack on Gulf states including Bahrain in retaliation for the US-Israeli war that began in late February. The attack left at least three Bahrainis dead and dozens more wounded, from both direct impacts and falling interception debris. In response to the attack, Bahraini authorities launched a sweeping domestic crackdown on suspected dissidents. BIRD has documented more than 200 arrests since the crackdown began, though researchers note the actual number of detentions is likely higher due to unreported enforced disappearances. Arrests have targeted both peaceful protesters and social media users who shared footage of the Iranian attack.
The crackdown has already resulted in one death in custody: 32-year-old Mohamed al-Mosawi, who disappeared along with several friends in the wake of the attack. Photographs of al-Mosawi’s corpse obtained by Middle East Eye show extensive bruising across his face and body, sparking widespread public anger and allegations that he was tortured to death during interrogation. In response to public outcry, Bahraini investigators have charged one intelligence officer with assault in connection with al-Mosawi’s death.
Campaigners also note that many of the 69 people stripped of citizenship last month were never arrested, interrogated, or formally notified of the specific allegations against them, leaving them with no path to contest the decision even before the royal decree stripped judicial oversight. Last week, six regional Arab governments including Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates released joint statements expressing solidarity with Bahrain and backing the kingdom’s recent domestic security measures.
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Iran weaponizes petroyuan in war reparations push
After weeks of escalating tensions and blockades between Iran and the United States at the Strait of Hormuz, this strategically critical narrow waterway has emerged as a defining battleground that could reshape the future of global energy markets and international economic power dynamics. While the U.S. has deployed military escorts for commercial vessels passing through the passage, the military posturing masks a far deeper, long-term transformation unfolding in Persian Gulf energy security.
Beyond the competing bids by Iran and the U.S. to control the global flow of oil, natural gas, helium, and fertilizers exiting the region, a second major disruption has already hit global oil markets: key U.S. ally the United Arab Emirates has formally withdrawn from OPEC, a move widely regarded as a significant blow to the oil cartel’s cohesion and influence.
Against this volatile backdrop, Iran has unveiled plans to introduce new tariffs for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, framing the charges as reparations for damage inflicted by recent regional conflict. Analysts estimate these annual tariffs could generate between $40 billion and $50 billion in revenue for Tehran, providing a much-needed buffer to soften the impact of long-standing U.S. economic sanctions.
The most geostrategically significant detail of the proposed tariff regime is its currency requirement: all charges must be denominated in Chinese yuan, rather than the U.S. dollar. This policy, which already sees informal payments from ships bound for China, India, and Japan, with Iran’s parliament currently working to formalize the framework, could dramatically redraw regional and global power balances. Tehran has also added cryptocurrency as an accepted payment method to expand flexibility. For Iran, the policy is explicitly designed to deepen economic and political ties with Beijing.
To understand the far-reaching implications of this move, it is necessary to revisit the 50-year history of the petrodollar system that has underpinned U.S. global economic dominance since the 1970s. The system was established when Washington struck a deal with Saudi Arabia: the U.S. would provide military protection, and in exchange, Saudi Arabia would price all of its oil exports exclusively in U.S. dollars. The framework quickly spread across all OPEC member states, becoming the global standard for international oil trade. This arrangement cemented the U.S. dollar’s position as the world’s primary reserve currency, a core pillar of U.S. geopolitical power.
Under the petrodollar system, oil-exporting nations accumulate large dollar surpluses from energy sales, most of which are then recycled back into U.S. government securities, equities, and Western sovereign wealth funds. This system finances U.S. budget deficits, keeps Washington’s borrowing costs low, and grants the U.S. substantial financial leverage over oil-producing nations and global markets at large.
If Iran’s yuan-denominated tariff regime takes root, leading economist Antonio Bhardwaj notes that it could set in motion the systematic erosion of the petrodollar system, while establishing the petroyuan as a credible, institutionally embedded alternative for settling global energy transactions. International relations analyst Pakizah Parveen warns the policy could also split the global oil market into two distinct blocs: shipments from nations compliant with Iran’s rules will transact in yuan through the Strait of Hormuz, while non-compliant parties will face sharply higher costs for dollar-denominated oil cargoes.
This split would create an acute dilemma for major U.S. allies including Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, and the Philippines, all of which already face severe economic strain from Gulf region market upheaval. Choosing to pay tariffs in yuan would draw these nations closer to Beijing, reinforcing China’s narrative as a stable, reliable alternative economic partner to the U.S. This shift also mirrors a similar policy Russia adopted in 2025, when it began requiring yuan payments for its oil exports.
While it remains far too early to declare that Iran’s tariffs will trigger full-scale de-dollarization of the global economy, the move represents a clear step toward eroding the dollar’s decades-long global primacy. Any shift away from the dollar by major energy-importing nations directly reduces financial and political dependence on the U.S., while accelerating Beijing’s efforts to fully internationalize the yuan.
Current global economic trends already point to this gradual shift: for the first time since 1996, global central banks now hold more gold in their reserve portfolios than U.S. government debt securities. BRICS bloc members including China, India, and Brazil have all cut their holdings of U.S. assets throughout 2025, as the group works to reduce its dependence on Western financial systems.
Taken together, Iran’s yuan-denominated Strait of Hormuz tariffs mark another clear milestone in the emergence of a multipolar global order, where U.S. preeminence can no longer be taken for granted. While this shift could grant greater strategic flexibility to nations large and small seeking alternatives to U.S.-led global governance, it also introduces a new era of uncertainty for global energy markets and international economic cooperation.
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Mandelson: How decades of influence secured role as Starmer’s man in Washington
What began as a controversial diplomatic appointment has erupted into one of the most damaging political scandals to hit the United Kingdom’s new Labour government, exposing decades of factional infighting, opaque corporate ties, and institutional failure at the highest levels of the party.
At the center of the crisis is Peter Mandelson, a veteran Labour strategist hand-picked by Keir Starmer’s inner circle to serve as the UK’s ambassador to the United States — the first political appointee to the role in nearly 50 years. The appointment quickly collapsed after the unsealed Epstein files confirmed long-rumored close, long-standing ties between Mandelson and the late convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson resigned from his ambassadorship in February, and was later arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations he leaked confidential market-sensitive government information to Epstein.
Multiple senior figures have already stepped down or been ousted in the wake of the scandal. Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s former chief of staff and widely recognized as the architect of his rise from Labour leader to prime minister, resigned in February after acknowledging he made a “serious mistake” in pushing for Mandelson’s appointment. Senior Foreign Office civil servant Olly Robbins was fired after he was blamed for failing to alert Starmer that Mandelson had failed his mandatory security vetting. Further down the chain, Josh Simons, a former leader of the centre-left think tank Labour Together and a newly appointed Cabinet Office minister, resigned amid claims he paid a public relations firm to surveil investigative journalists probing the scandal.
Both McSweeney and Robbins have appeared before parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee to answer questions about the broken due diligence process that allowed Mandelson to take office without proper screening. Revelations from the hearing have deepened public anger: while Robbins confirmed Starmer was never told about the failed vetting, records show Mandelson was named as ambassador before the vetting process even began. What is more, his close relationship with Epstein was already widely reported in public, and Mandelson had previously been forced to resign from two different cabinet posts over separate misconduct incidents — all information that was available to party leadership before the appointment.
Testimony and new reporting have also pulled back the curtain on the long-running project that brought Starmer to power, with Mandelson and McSweeney at its core. Labour Together, the think tank once led by McSweeney, was the driving force behind a campaign to oust former left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, install Starmer as party leader, and permanently marginalize the party’s left wing. Between 2017 and 2020, the campaign received roughly £730,000 in undeclared donations, resulting in a £14,000 fine for the Labour Party from the Electoral Commission.
Long before that campaign, Mandelson had already shaped decades of Labour’s modern history. He served as the party’s communications director under Neil Kinnock in the 1980s, where he led the party’s “modernization” shift away from traditional socialist policies toward a pro-corporate agenda aligned with global capitalism. He was a key behind-the-scenes architect of Tony Blair’s successful 1994 leadership campaign, working secretly to rally support for Blair against other candidates. In 2017, he openly admitted he worked “every day” to undermine Corbyn’s leadership of the party.
Insiders close to the process have confirmed that Mandelson’s appointment was entirely McSweeney’s initiative, with Starmer barely involved. One anonymous civil service source told Middle East Eye that Starmer cannot publicly admit this reality “because it shows him to be impotent.” McSweeney himself testified that he viewed Mandelson as a trusted “confidante” on political strategy, and just days before Mandelson was forced to resign as ambassador, he was spotted inside Downing Street advising on Starmer’s first major cabinet reshuffle, which removed dozens of soft-left figures from senior roles. McSweeney claimed Mandelson’s recommendations for the reshuffle were not ultimately adopted, however.
The scandal has also shone a harsh light on Labour’s close ties to controversial corporate interests. In 2010, Mandelson co-founded the global lobbying firm Global Counsel, which counts U.S. spy-tech giant Palantir among its major clients. Palantir currently provides the technology that Israel uses to carry out military operations in Gaza, and already holds a £480 million contract to manage sensitive National Health Service patient data in the UK. Just weeks before Mandelson’s resignation, he accompanied Starmer on a visit to Palantir’s Washington headquarters. Shortly after that visit, the UK Ministry of Defence awarded Palantir a new £240 million contract without any open competition. No meeting minutes have been published, and full unredacted copies of the contract have not been released despite repeated Freedom of Information requests.
The controversy has expanded further in recent days: last week, a man was arrested on suspicion of stealing and selling McSweeney’s personal phone, raising fears that critical text messages related to Mandelson’s appointment could be destroyed or lost. Another of Starmer’s close aides, Matthew Doyle, who was connected to Mandelson and McSweeney, was suspended from the Labour whip in the House of Lords after it emerged he had campaigned on behalf of a friend charged with possessing child indecent images. Just last month, four Labour activists were charged with vote rigging in Croydon, adding to a string of allegations of internal party corruption.
Critics across the party are now demanding a full independent public inquiry into the entire affair, arguing the scope of the scandal extends far beyond Mandelson’s ties to Epstein. Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was ousted by the Starmer-aligned faction, told Middle East Eye that “the scandal is bigger than Mandelson.” He noted that most of Labour Together’s donors and backers have no connection to the labour movement’s traditional socialist mission, and sought to redirect Labour toward a model of corporate interests, privatization, and patronage that Mandelson long embodied.
Left-wing Labour MP Apsana Begum, who has herself been targeted by the Starmer leadership and suspended from the party whip for over a year for opposing the two-child benefit cap, echoed the call for inquiry. She said that the no-bid Palantir contract and lack of transparency around the Starmer-Mandelson meeting raise fundamental questions about accountability in the new government, and argued that the prime minister will ultimately be forced to step down. “Regardless of when this happens, there does need to be a full and independent investigation into the actions of Labour Together,” she said.
Investigative journalist Paul Holden, whose book *The Fraud* details the origins of the Labour Together project, has condemned the parliamentary inquiry into the scandal as deeply flawed. He told Middle East Eye that the select committee was “plainly unprepared” for the hearings, committed basic errors in questioning, failed to follow up on obvious lines of enquiry, and allowed McSweeney to avoid accountability for omissions and misleading testimony. Holden argues this failure exposes a broader institutional breakdown, where no one has been held responsible for actions that reshaped the entire Labour Party.
Holden added that McSweeney “built his political career on misdirection and dishonesty,” a pattern that has defined Starmer’s leadership. He noted that Starmer ran for leader positioning himself as “Corbynism without Corbyn,” but abandoned all 10 of his progressive campaign pledges once he took control of the party. “Labour puts way more effort into investigating a left-wing person on social media than on Peter Mandelson’s entire political career,” Holden said.
That pattern of targeting left-wing figures has been widely documented. Jamie Driscoll, the former left-wing mayor of North of Tyne, was barred from standing for re-election after he appeared at an event with pro-Palestinian filmmaker Ken Loach, who was expelled from the party after Starmer took office. Driscoll told MEE that the party admitted he had not been accused of wrongdoing and had done a good job as mayor, but changed party rules to allow the National Executive Committee to block his candidacy anyway. He said the right-wing faction that installed Starmer “smeared and lied to undermine people who were socialists and social democrats as opposed to red Tories and neoliberals” because it was politically useful.
Driscoll recalled Mandelson openly saying he opposed giving party members control of the party, and wanted to end Labour’s reliance on member and trade union donations — because those groups generally oppose serving the interests of private corporations like Palantir. That shift toward corporate influence has been evident since Starmer took power: during the 2023 Labour conference, businesses could pay £2,500 for a private meal and direct access to Starmer, who has already declared more free gifts and hospitality than any other major UK party leader in recent years. Just months into the new government, major Labour donor Ian Corfield was forced to resign from his civil service role as an adviser to Chancellor Rachel Reeves amid widespread accusations of cronyism.
In response to the scandal, Mandelson has called his long friendship with Epstein a “terrible mistake” and apologized to the victims of Epstein’s abuse, claiming he had “no exposure to the criminal aspects” of Epstein’s activities. Neither Starmer, McSweeney, nor Labour Together have responded to requests for comment on the full scope of the revelations.
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UAE sends Trump’s Board of Peace ‘$100m’ for training of new Gaza police force
The United Arab Emirates has transferred $100 million to the US-backed Board of Peace to fund the training of a new Palestinian police unit earmarked for deployment in the Gaza Strip, The Times of Israel reported in a story citing anonymous diplomatic sources. This single contribution marks the largest individual donation the transitional governance body has received to date, coming after nine initial board members pledged a combined $7 billion, and the United States added an additional $10 billion in commitments during an international donor conference held in February.
Per details shared by a senior U.S. official and a Middle Eastern diplomat, new police recruits will undergo training in neighboring Egypt and Jordan, while a private Emirati security firm has been contracted to build out the full force, which is planned to number roughly 27,000 serving officers. Earlier reporting from the same outlet quoted an anonymous Arab diplomat, who confirmed that former Palestinian civil servants who held roles in Gaza prior to the current conflict will be eligible to apply to join the new force, though all candidates must pass a strict vetting process carried out by Israel’s internal security agency before receiving final approval.
The ongoing violence against Palestinian security personnel in Gaza has persisted even after a ceasefire agreement was reached in October. In the most recently documented violation of the truce on Wednesday, a high-ranking officer with the Palestinian interior ministry was killed in an Israeli strike. Since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, at least 837 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, pushing the total death toll from Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to at least 72,619, a figure widely cited in regional humanitarian and political reporting.
Ali Shaath, the Palestinian technocrat tapped to lead the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) — the interim technocratic governing body set up to oversee Gaza’s transition — confirmed that recruitment for the new police service is already active across the Strip. Speaking at the February donor conference, Shaath emphasized the urgent need for the force, noting that much of Gaza lies in catastrophic ruin, with widespread destruction leaving acute unmet humanitarian needs and fragile public security. “Large parts of [the] Gaza Strip are severely damaged. Destroyed, actually. Humanitarian needs are acute. Law and order remain fragile. This is not [a] normal operating environment… which is precisely why discipline and prioritisation matter,” Shaath stated. The new police force will operate under the direct oversight of the NCAG.
The initiative aligns with a 20-point plan released by former U.S. President Donald Trump in September that outlines a framework for ending the current war in Gaza. Under that plan, Washington will partner with Arab and international stakeholders to establish a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) that will deploy to the Strip, and work in tandem with the newly trained Palestinian police force.
Amid continuing Israeli strikes on Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, noted in late March that “the truce is holding despite challenges.” Mladenov also confirmed that the NCAG has been formally established and has already “made progress on vetting thousands of civilian police candidates.”
“The National Committee exercises authority solely on an interim basis. The end state is a reformed Palestinian Authority capable of governing Gaza and the West Bank, and ultimately a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood,” Mladenov explained. He added that the Palestinian security force, operating under the interim national committee’s authority, will enable the dismantling of all armed factions in Gaza and the consolidation of all weapons under a single civilian governing authority.
Several other board member nations — including Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Albania — have also pledged military personnel to join the international stabilization force that will coordinate with the local Palestinian police service.
The UAE’s $100 million donation comes months after Abu Dhabi drafted plans in February to construct a new administrative compound for Palestinian use in the section of Gaza already under Israeli military occupation. That proposal has already stoked regional tensions, putting the UAE at odds with other regional powers and multiple Palestinian groups, who argue the plan amounts to a de facto partition of Gaza, a outcome they strongly oppose.
This reporting comes from Middle East Eye, a outlet that provides independent, on-the-ground coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa, and surrounding regions.
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Huge plumes of ash rise as Indonesia’s Mount Dukono erupts
A dramatic volcanic eruption at Indonesia’s Mount Dukono has sent towering plumes of ash billowing into the sky, capturing global attention after a group of hikers defied official restrictions to climb the active peak. Indonesian authorities confirmed that the small group entered the restricted volcanic zone against explicit public safety warnings, putting their lives at severe risk amid persistent geologic activity at the site.
Mount Dukono, located on the northern tip of Halmahera island in North Maluku province, has a long history of intermittent volcanic activity. Indonesian geological agencies have maintained a standing climbing ban on the volcano for years due to its regular eruptions and unstable terrain, which can trigger sudden ash falls, pyroclastic flows, and volcanic gas releases that pose fatal risks to anyone in the area.
The eruption, which produced the massive ash columns observed by local observers, comes as Indonesia continues to manage activity across its more than 120 active volcanoes. The archipelago nation sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of intense geologic activity that produces frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Authorities regularly monitor volcanic sites across the country, updating warning levels and closing access to peaks when activity increases to prevent preventable tragedies.
Local officials have not yet released updates on the status of the hikers who entered the restricted zone, nor have they confirmed whether the group was able to exit the area safely after the eruption. Search and rescue teams have been placed on standby, ready to deploy to the mountain once volcanic activity calms enough to guarantee the safety of response personnel. This incident has reignited conversations about the need for stricter enforcement of safety restrictions at Indonesia’s active volcanic sites, as unauthorized visits continue to put both hikers and first responders in danger.
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A massive 11,000-carat ruby has been unearthed in Myanmar’s war-scarred gemstone heartland
BANGKOK, Associated Press – A massive, exceptionally rare ruby has been uncovered by miners in Myanmar, marking the second-largest rough ruby ever extracted from the conflict-plagued Southeast Asian nation, according to official state media reports released Friday. Weighing in at 11,000 carats – equal to 2.2 kilograms or roughly 4.8 pounds – the gem was pulled from the ground near the famed mining town of Mogok, located in Myanmar’s upper Mandalay region. This area is the undisputed heart of the country’s multi-billion-dollar gem mining industry, which has been swept up in the intense ongoing civil war that has torn through Myanmar since the 2021 military coup.
State-owned publication *Global New Light of Myanmar* confirmed the large ruby was discovered in mid-April, just days after the country’s annual traditional New Year celebration. While the newly unearthed stone is only around half the weight of the 21,450-carat record-holding ruby found in Myanmar back in 1996, industry assessments place its market value far higher thanks to its exceptional color profile and crystalline quality. Gem experts describe the stone as having a vivid purplish-red base hue with subtle warm yellow undertones, a top-tier color grading, moderate natural transparency, and a highly reflective surface that signals premium quality.
Myanmar dominates the global ruby supply chain, producing an estimated 90% of all natural rubies traded worldwide, with most output coming from the Mogok and Mong Hsu mining regions. For decades, gemstones – whether traded through legal channels or smuggled across unregulated borders – have been one of the largest sources of state revenue in Myanmar. However, human rights advocacy groups including London-based research and policy organization Global Witness have long campaigned for international jewelers to boycott all gem imports from Myanmar, arguing that profits from the gem trade have propped up repressive military governments for generations.
The context of this discovery comes amid ongoing political and military upheaval in Myanmar. Earlier this year, the ruling military installed a new nominally civilian government following general elections that were widely dismissed as fraudulent by independent human rights organizations and domestic opposition groups. The election confirmed the continued grip on power of President Min Aung Hlaing, the army chief who led the 2021 coup that ousted the elected civilian government. In recent weeks, Min Aung Hlaing and his cabinet held a formal inspection of the giant ruby at the presidential office in the national capital of Naypyitaw.
Beyond funding the national military, gem mining revenue also acts as a core funding stream for the numerous ethnic armed groups that have waged campaigns for regional autonomy across Myanmar for more than half a century, a dynamic that has perpetuated the country’s long-running cycles of internal conflict. Security conditions across major mining regions remain deeply unstable. Mogok, the town where the new ruby was found, was captured in July 2024 by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), a guerrilla group representing the Palaung ethnic minority. Though the TNLA initially took control of and began operating the region’s mines, authority over the area was eventually transferred back to Myanmar’s national military under the terms of a China-brokered ceasefire deal reached in late 2024.
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First batch of UFO files is released as Trump urges the public to draw its own conclusions
On Friday, the U.S. Pentagon launched the first batch of long-awaited declassified documents detailing hundreds of reported sightings of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, more commonly known to the public as UFOs, capping off weeks of public teasing from former President Donald Trump that reignited widespread public fascination with unexplained aerial encounters across the globe.
The newly released trove of materials includes decades of Federal Bureau of Investigation interview transcripts, State Department diplomatic cables, NASA mission debriefing records, military sighting reports, and more than 20 video clips captured by military surveillance sensors from regions spanning the Middle East, East Asia, and North America. The documents, hosted on a new, retro-styled Pentagon website that features black-and-white historical imagery and typewriter-inspired typography, represent the first major public release ordered by congressional legislation passed in 2022.
Among the most notable accounts included in the initial release are firsthand recollections from Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who recalled spotting an unusual, moderately bright light source and a large unidentified object traveling near the Apollo 11 command module during the 1969 historic moon mission. Another 1994 State Department cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan details a joint sighting by one Tajik fighter pilot and three American observers of a brightly glowing unidentified object over Kazakhstan that executed sharp 90-degree turns, corkscrew maneuvers, and circular flight patterns at extreme speeds.
More recent reports included in the release catalog 2023 sightings across multiple regions: a UAP spotted just above the Aegean Sea that pulled off multiple 90-degree turns at roughly 80 miles per hour; a “super-hot” orb encountered by a U.S. intelligence official conducting a helicopter search that traveled 20 miles at high speed before multiple similar orbs appeared, glowing brighter and dimmer in sequence; a linear glowing object spotted by a drone pilot that vanished completely from view within 10 seconds of appearing; and a spherical object that maintained a steady speed of 483 miles per hour for seven minutes while flying over Syria, later deemed non-threatening by military analysts. A 1972 NASA photograph from the Apollo 17 mission, included in the release, shows three bright dots arranged in a triangular formation; accompanying Pentagon notes acknowledge that no consensus exists on the object’s origin, though a preliminary new analysis suggests it may be a physical craft rather than a photographic error.
The video files included in the release capture unidentified objects ranging from distant fast-moving specks to a distinct football-shaped object spotted over the East China Sea in 2022. The most recent clip, dated January 1 of this year, shows two circular glowing lights moving against a dark nighttime sky at an undisclosed North American location.
The release comes after years of gradual declassification work by the Pentagon, which established a dedicated UAP office under congressional order in 2022. The office’s 2024 public report cataloged hundreds of previously unreported UAP incidents but confirmed no evidence that any sighting represented alien technology or extraterrestrial visitation. Trump seized on the long-running public curiosity around UAPs earlier this year, promising a major mass release of previously secret documents and framing the move as a break from past administrations he accuses of hiding information from the public.
In a Friday post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: “Whereas previous Administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’ Have Fun and Enjoy!” The Trump administration has emphasized that members of the public are free to draw their own conclusions from the unredacted materials released Friday.
Congressional Republicans who have spent years pushing for full UAP disclosure praised the move Friday. Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett thanked Trump for keeping his campaign promise on transparency, noting that full disclosure will be a gradual process rather than a one-time release. Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna, who sent a congressional letter earlier this year demanding the release of 46 UAP videos identified by whistleblowers, confirmed Friday that those additional clips will be released by the Pentagon in the coming months.
However, independent defense and UAP experts have urged the public to approach the new files with caution, noting that most unexplained sensor readings and sightings eventually turn out to be misidentified natural phenomena or advanced human-made military technology. The Pentagon’s 2024 official report explicitly rejected widespread conspiracy theories that the U.S. government has recovered alien craft or hidden evidence of extraterrestrial life.
UAP research advocacy groups welcomed the initial release but called for further congressional action to mandate full declassification of all remaining secret UAP records. The Sol Foundation, a California-based research group focused on UAP studies, is pushing for new legislation that would require a full review of all classified materials related to non-human technologies and craft. Group representatives noted that while Friday’s release marks a positive step toward transparency, decades of government secrecy around the topic remain unaddressed, and additional disclosures will be needed to fully inform the American public.
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At least 3 hikers killed by volcano eruption on Indonesian island
JAKARTA, Indonesia – A powerful explosive eruption at Mount Dukono, one of Indonesia’s most continuously active volcanoes located on the remote island of Halmahera, has left three hikers dead and sparked an urgent ongoing rescue operation, Indonesian authorities confirmed Friday.
A group of approximately 20 hikers departed on their ascent of the 1,355-meter (4,445-foot) peak Thursday, openly defying strict public safety restrictions that have long closed the mountain to recreational climbing amid its ongoing high volcanic activity, according to North Halmahera Police Chief Erlichson Pasaribu. The group was caught off guard when the volcano erupted at 7:41 a.m. local time, sending a dense ash plume billowing roughly 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) above the crater. Indonesia’s Geological Agency recorded seismic activity from the eruption that lasted more than 16 minutes.
In a national television interview, Pasaribu confirmed the hikers were fully aware of the ban: Mount Dukono has been maintained as a restricted zone under its second-highest government alert level for volcanic risk, but the group proceeded with their climb regardless. When the eruption hit, all 20 hikers became stranded within the dangerous restricted area. Rescue teams were rapidly deployed after an emergency distress signal was detected from the mountain slopes.
As of Friday afternoon, 14 members of the group, including seven foreign nationals, have been successfully evacuated to safety, with five of those rescued sustaining non-life-threatening injuries. Three hikers – two Singaporean citizens and one Indonesian national – were pronounced dead at the scene. Search operations are still underway for the remaining missing hikers, who authorities believe are attempting to make their way down the mountain on their own.
Recovery of the three fatalities has been delayed, as recurrent after-eruptions and unstable volcanic conditions have kept rescue teams from safely reaching the impact zone. For years, Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation has prohibited all human activity within a 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) radius of Dukono’s crater, due to constant risks of flying volcanic bombs, heavy ashfall, and lethal toxic gas emissions. Officials confirmed all members of the hiking group were inside this prohibited zone when the major eruption occurred.
Pasaribu noted that despite multiple warnings posted on hiking trails and shared widely across social media platforms about the active dangers, many outdoor enthusiasts continue to sneak onto the mountain. The main driver of this risky behavior, he explained, is the growing desire among social media users to capture unique content to share online.
Indonesia, which lies along the geologically active Pacific Ring of Fire, is home to more than 120 active volcanoes across its archipelago of thousands of islands. Mount Dukono is among its most active, having experienced near-constant low-level eruptive activity since 1933. In recent months, volcanic activity at the peak has intensified significantly. According to Lana Saria, head of the Geological Agency under Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, explosive magmatic eruptions have increased sharply since late March. Between March 30 and the day of the fatal eruption, officials recorded nearly 200 separate eruptions, averaging around 95 eruptive events per day. Friday’s deadly blast ranks among the most powerful of this recent uptick in activity, Saria confirmed.
Ash clouds from the latest eruption, which range in color from pale gray to deep black, are being carried northward by regional winds, Saria said. Authorities have issued warnings that widespread ashfall could impact nearby populated areas, including the larger town of Tobelo. Ashfall poses acute respiratory health risks to local residents, and can also disrupt ground and air transportation as well as normal daily routines. Secondary hazards, including fast-moving volcanic mudflows that can travel down river channels from the volcano’s slopes during heavy rain, are also a major ongoing risk, officials added.
With volcanic activity remaining at elevated levels, government agencies have ramped up continuous monitoring of Mount Dukono. Officials have issued a renewed plea to local residents, tourists, and hiking enthusiasts to remain calm, strictly follow all official safety guidance, and avoid all restricted areas near the volcano while monitoring continues.