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A newly released United Nations report is sounding the alarm on the rapidly expanding global illegal drug trade, revealing that cocaine production and methamphetamine seizures have both reached record levels.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s annual World Drug Report, cocaine production climbed to approximately 4,100 metric tons of pure product in 2024 — the most recent year with available data. That figure represents a fourfold increase over the past decade. Meanwhile, methamphetamine seizures point to production growing at a rate of about 13% per year.

The agency’s executive director, Monica Juma, expressed serious concern about the changing drug landscape. “We have seen an unprecedented spike in new types of drugs on the market, and worryingly, some are more potent or dangerous than before,” she said in an official statement.

Part of what’s driving the shift is a dramatic drop in heroin availability. After the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan — historically the world’s dominant opium supplier — and banned opium production in 2023, the supply of heroin, which is made from opium, fell sharply and has not recovered.

That void appears to be getting filled, at least in part, by powerful synthetic opioids. The UNODC noted a significant rise in reports of new synthetic opioids in 2024, including fentanyls and even more dangerous substances known as nitazenes, particularly in Europe.

“Instances of new psychoactive substance synthetic opioids reported in early warning systems increased in 2023 and 2024 across most regions, but most prominently in Europe, Oceania and Africa, suggesting a recent diversification by market actors,” the report stated.

The report also highlighted regional differences in how the fentanyl crisis is evolving. “North America, where fentanyl has largely displaced heroin, reported around a 10% increase in the number of new psychoactive substance synthetic opioids identified in 2024 from the previous year, while that number rose by more than 80% in Europe and by 150% in Oceania,” it noted.

On the cocaine front, both supply and demand continued to climb, while the drug’s purity increased and its street price dropped. Researchers also found shifts in how and where cocaine is being used.

“Qualitative research conducted in 2024 indicates an expansion of cocaine use to social settings beyond the nightlife scene and its integration into daily routines, together with an upsurge in ‘crack’ cocaine use among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups and a shift from heroin use to ‘crack’ cocaine use,” the report said.

Data tracking individuals seeking treatment for drug dependency strongly points to a rise in crack cocaine use across Western and Central Europe that began as far back as 2015, the report added.

Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen Marine announced Friday that one of its cargo vessels was struck by an unknown object in waters off Oman, though the ship has since safely cleared the Strait of Hormuz.

In a filing with the Taiwan stock exchange, the company disclosed that the starboard side of the bridge aboard the Ever Lovely — a vessel owned by its Singapore-based subsidiary — was hit by an unidentified object approximately 3.6 nautical miles off Oman’s Khawr Naiwah. The incident occurred a day before Friday’s announcement.

A crew inspection following the strike revealed damage in the area surrounding the bridge windows. However, the company confirmed that all crew members, the vessel itself, and its cargo are unharmed.

Evergreen Marine stated that the ship’s main engine and navigation systems are functioning normally and that there are no concerns about the vessel’s ability to remain seaworthy. The Ever Lovely has since exited the Strait of Hormuz without further incident.

The company also noted that the ship had been traveling along the recommended route provided by the British navy agency UKMTO while transiting the strait.

UKMTO had previously reported on Thursday that a cargo vessel had indicated a suspected attack as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz near the Omani coastline.

Montenegrin police, working alongside the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, have arrested an Iranian national suspected of carrying out cyberattacks that caused an estimated $3.4 billion in damage to U.S. infrastructure, according to officials in Montenegro.

The suspect, a 39-year-old man holding both Iranian and Turkish citizenship, is being sought by the Southern District Court in New York. He faces charges that include conspiracy to commit computer fraud, hacking, and identity theft.

Authorities say he was taken into custody in Kotor, a coastal resort town along the Adriatic Sea. Montenegro’s police directorate confirmed the arrest on Thursday.

In an official statement, police said that “from 2013 onward, … he carried out massive hacking attacks … targeting more than 150 universities in the United States, causing damage estimated at over $3.4 billion.”

The stolen data and access to compromised university accounts were reportedly used for the benefit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as other Iranian institutions, including universities, police said.

The case is now expected to go before a High Court judge in Montenegro’s capital city of Podgorica, where extradition proceedings will take place.

The FBI had not responded to requests for comment at the time of this report.

Iran and the IRGC have a well-documented history of state-sponsored cyber operations aimed at the United States. In April, U.S. cybersecurity, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies issued a warning about a growing wave of Iranian hacking campaigns targeting critical American infrastructure.

High in the Swiss Alps at the Great St. Bernard Pass, the iconic dogs that share its name still roam the same rugged mountain terrain their ancestors walked for centuries — once searching for travelers trapped under heavy snowfall.

Meanwhile, down in the valley below, a one-of-a-kind living museum dedicated to Switzerland’s national dog has just celebrated its first anniversary.

Barryland, located in Martigny, Switzerland, is the only museum in the world devoted exclusively to St. Bernard dogs. Since opening last summer after outgrowing a much smaller facility, it has drawn more than 130,000 visitors. Guests can observe live grooming and physical therapy sessions, experience the historic mountain pass through augmented reality, and dive deep into the breed’s remarkable story.

“We have a lot of demand and interest for this breed and this whole history and patrimony,” said Barryland director Mélanie Glassey-Roth. “So we decided to create a new park, a big one.”

Perched at 2,469 meters — roughly 8,100 feet — above sea level along the border between Switzerland and Italy, the Great St. Bernard Pass ranks among the country’s highest and most dangerous mountain crossings.

Large mountain dogs have called the pass home since the mid-1600s. They originally served as guard dogs, then became companions, and eventually developed a remarkable natural ability to locate hikers lost in snow and dense fog — a talent unlike anything the Alpine region had ever seen.

The breed takes its name from the Great St. Bernard Hospice, established in 1050 by Bernard de Montjoux — the archdeacon of Aosta and a future saint — as a safe haven for pilgrims and merchants braving the perilous crossing. The dogs became essential to that mission, and by the early 1800s, soldiers who traveled with Napoleon Bonaparte’s army through the pass helped spread the breed’s legendary reputation across Europe.

The most celebrated of all the St. Bernards was Barry the First, who is traditionally credited with rescuing more than 40 people during his time at the hospice between 1800 and 1812. In honor of his legacy, the Barry Foundation — which oversees the breeding program — always keeps a male dog named Barry.

Today, the foundation employs 21 keepers who look after 32 dogs, with approximately 20 purebred puppies born each year. Because modern St. Bernards have grown too large to be airlifted by helicopter, they no longer participate in mountain rescues. Smaller breeds like Australian shepherds have taken over that role, though some St. Bernards remain on the pass to carry on the tradition.

The foundation’s dogs consume roughly 10 metric tons — about 22,046 pounds — of dry food annually. Each summer, they roam the mountain snowfields before making the 40-kilometer (25-mile) journey back down winding roads to their kennels at Barryland.

“We get to see them born, and we get to see them grow up, and then become mothers, and we get to accompany them through all those different challenges in life,” said keeper Alexandra Piatti. “We are their guide, so we can help them with socialization and educate them, and really be by their side for their whole lives.”

So far in 2025, the foundation reports that its dogs have completed 609 community visits to hospitals, care homes, schools, and prisons throughout Switzerland.

Keeper Déborah Dini sums up the responsibility of caring for such historically significant animals simply and warmly.

“We perpetuate the tradition,” she said. “We take care of them. We love them.”

LONDON — NATO’s number two military leader is calling on member nations to use an upcoming summit in Turkey as an opportunity to demonstrate unity, pledge stronger defense spending, and reaffirm the alliance’s backing of Ukraine.

Air Chief Marshal Sir John Stringer, NATO’s deputy supreme allied commander in Europe, sat down with The Associated Press in London less than two weeks ahead of the high-stakes Ankara summit scheduled for July 7-8. The gathering will serve as a major test of cohesion for the 77-year-old alliance.

The run-up to the summit has been marked by mixed signals from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has at times threatened to withdraw from NATO, pushed to annex Greenland, and offered flattering remarks toward Russian President Vladimir Putin. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth added to the tension last week by criticizing NATO allies for not allowing the use of their bases to strike Iran, while also announcing an unexpected six-month review of American military forces stationed in Europe.

Adding to the turbulence, government ministers in the United Kingdom have stepped down, citing concerns that the country’s military spending plans are insufficient to keep Britain secure.

Stringer, a senior British air force officer, acknowledged the alliance is going through a difficult stretch. “Are we in one of those moments at the moment? Yes, we are,” he said during an interview at a military conference in London, where AP also spoke with other senior European military leaders about their expectations for the summit.

He described summits as “highly political events” that serve as a demonstration of an organization’s unity, noting it would be unusual if decades of NATO expansion hadn’t produced some turbulence along the way.

Trump has long pushed European allies to take greater responsibility for their own defense, and with the notable exception of Spain, most member nations have responded with an unprecedented increase in military spending.

Maj. Gen. Indrek Sirel, a commander in Estonia’s armed forces, said Europe must strengthen its own militaries while also helping Ukraine chip away at Russia’s military capabilities, given Russia’s growing threat to the continent.

Brig. Gen. Jyri Raitasalo of Finland — which shares NATO’s longest border with Russia — put it bluntly: “Europe as a whole has a lot to do in order to be credible against Russia.”

Stringer said European nations are making investments to build a “really credible force,” pointing to examples like some countries quadrupling their production of 155 mm artillery shells. He said the summit will address ramping up production at a scale the alliance hasn’t seen in decades.

The results of Hegseth’s six-month force review will largely determine how quickly European nations must take over their own security responsibilities. Earlier this month, the U.S. military in Europe indicated that Washington would be pulling back some capabilities and expecting allies to fill those gaps.

While the Trump administration has maintained that troop reductions were long planned and coordinated with allies, Sirel said it remains unclear exactly how U.S. forces will be positioned in the Baltic states, including their role in deterring Russia along NATO’s eastern flank.

Sirel said he remained “confident” in a continued U.S. presence, while acknowledging that Estonia’s military is preparing to adapt quickly to sudden changes.

Stringer said replacing U.S. long-range strike and surveillance capabilities would be difficult, but expressed confidence that allies could bridge the gap — not necessarily with identical equipment, but through a “cocktail” of mixed capabilities. He noted that while only the U.S. operates B1 and B52 bombers, the loss of those assets could theoretically be offset by missiles fired from ground, sea, and smaller aircraft platforms.

NATO allies were caught off guard in May when Trump announced plans to send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland just weeks after ordering a similar number withdrawn from Europe.

Raitasalo, who serves as Finland’s military logistics chief, said such abrupt shifts are problematic because military planning depends on long-term strategy. “If you change your mind, or change your plan, every week or every month or even every year, you will not get very good results,” he said. He added that allies need to make firm commitments of actual capabilities rather than simply promising spending targets.

Sweden’s army chief, Maj. Gen. Jonny Lindfors, said a successful summit outcome would be “a common picture of how to realign when it comes to deterrence and defense.” He said he hopes for at least an outline — if not a clear vision — of how defense responsibilities should be redistributed, so that he can understand what “NATO 3.0 is starting to look like.”

British Defense Secretary John Healey resigned earlier this month alongside another minister, stating that the government was neither willing nor able to commit the resources Britain needs to “defend the country at this time of rising threats.” At last year’s NATO summit, members agreed to spend 3.5% of their gross domestic product on core defense, and the U.K. committed to hitting that target by 2035. However, Healey said the proposed defense investment plan would only bring spending to 2.68% of GDP by 2030.

The new defense secretary, Dan Jarvis, has pledged that Britain will honor its commitments, and the British government has agreed to publish its spending plan.

Stringer said the U.K. is “as beholden” as any other member to having a credible path to the 3.5% target by the time of the summit. He warned that Britain cannot rely on its reputation for strategic leadership within NATO alone, and must back that up with actual “forces and resources.”

At last year’s summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte managed to keep Trump engaged by framing the meeting as a major win for his push to get allies to spend more. Stringer said this year’s summit must demonstrate “cohesion and unity” among all 32 members, while also featuring honest conversations and credible action plans.

Raitasalo said the meeting must go beyond the usual “communiques, roadmaps and action plans” and show deterrence through real action. He warned that if NATO members fail to turn promises into deeds, the “credibility” of the entire alliance is on the line.

PARIS (AP) — A record-breaking heat wave descended on Paris this week, forcing the city’s elite fashion houses into a frantic scramble to keep guests comfortable — handing out ice packs, deploying mist machines, and serving chilled water on silver trays.

Despite those efforts, many venues remained stifling. Water supplies ran low, and air conditioning was either nonexistent or simply not up to the task.

And yet, the models kept walking — wearing leather, neoprene, and wool.

That striking contradiction defined Paris Fashion Week Men’s, where an extreme heat wave transformed a spring-summer showcase into a real-world question: Can the luxury fashion world dress — or even behave — in ways appropriate for the warming planet it often claims to care about?

“I honestly thought I was going to pass out,” said Ben Freeman, a London-based fashion critic originally from Australia.

Several attendees seated in the front row suggested that Paris may need to rethink the timing of fashion week altogether if climate change continues to produce more frequent and severe heat waves.

“I don’t know how the models did it this week in some of the leather and knit coats,” said Thomas Levy, a 24-year-old fashion student who spoke outside one of the shows. “The heat rarely seems to make it into the clothes. It shows up in the sets like at waterfalls and mist machines and ice packs.”

Throughout the week, designers largely treated the heat as a problem of hospitality, staging, or scheduling — almost never as a challenge for the clothing itself.

Attendees received cold towels, ice packs, and bottled water. Stage sets featured waves, fog, and cooling mist. Show times were pushed earlier in the day, with punctuality reframed as a safety measure against the heat.

Dior shifted its Wednesday show from 2:30 in the afternoon to 9 in the morning, but the heat still took its toll. Water was in short supply, there was no air conditioning, and some guests appeared to be feeling unwell.

Jonathan Anderson offered one of the more climate-conscious design responses with sheer silk-chiffon tailoring — but other collections leaned into heavy knits that seemed better suited for cooler climates than a Paris June.

“The calendar does not make any sense,” Anderson told reporters, pointing to disrupted delivery schedules and a shifting business model that has left the fashion calendar out of step with both actual weather patterns and the way luxury clothing is now sold.

These shows are labeled spring-summer, but the collections are far more complex than simple warm-weather wear.

Luxury lines are designed for worldwide markets, with deliveries staggered across months and customers who often spend the hottest parts of the year in air-conditioned environments. For many buyers, a wool coat purchased in June is not a seasonal oddity — it’s a deliberate choice.

At Saint Laurent, models moved through billowing clouds of vapor produced by a fog installation by artist Fujiko Nakaya inside the Bourse de Commerce, transforming heat into a visual experience rather than a problem to escape. Designer Anthony Vaccarello stripped down his tailoring to unlined jackets and soft, pale looks — lighter, he told reporters, because of the heat — before dialing the temperature back up with leather briefs, choker scarves, bare legs, and transparent shoes fogged with condensation.

The collection wasn’t a concession to summer — it was Saint Laurent’s own interpretation of it: cooler in construction, bolder in attitude.

At Louis Vuitton, designer Pharrell Williams sent models emerging from a massive artificial wave onto sand. Even so, the wetsuits were neoprene and the coats were cashmere and fur.

Issey Miyake’s IM Men label offered one of the week’s most practical responses. The show, titled “In Praise of Bamboo Shadows,” greeted guests with ice packs at the entrance, then showcased garments made from bamboo-thread fabrics blended with organic cotton and light nylon, featuring shadowy prints. The silhouettes were designed to hang away from the body, treating circulating air as part of the design concept rather than something the venue alone had to provide.

At Ami, designer Alexandre Mattiussi stated the obvious while standing next to an industrial fan — “Paris is burning” — and dressed the moment like a Parisian simply living through it: loose shorts, relaxed washed trench coats, and “I Love Paris” T-shirts.

Rick Owens came perhaps closest to making heat itself the central theme. He moved his Thursday show to an earlier time slot due to the heat, then sent models through mist at the Palais de Tokyo wearing garments with small fans built inside them. One prominent fashion critic described the show as “a metaphor for climate catastrophe.”

Pascal Morand, who leads France’s Haute Couture and Fashion Federation, said organizers were adhering to the French government’s official heat-wave response plan.

“We are conscious of the challenges and very attentive to preserving the Fashion Week experience in this context of structural change,” he told the Associated Press.

Fashion wasn’t the only Paris institution feeling the strain. The Louvre museum cut its operating hours during the heat wave, acknowledging that its historic building “remains vulnerable and is not sufficiently adapted to climate change.”

That vulnerability feeds into a broader French debate over air conditioning, which remains widely viewed with suspicion across much of Europe — seen by many as wasteful or environmentally irresponsible.

Fashion week became a glamorous version of the same challenge facing France as a whole: how to keep public events, workplaces, and cultural spectacles functioning in heat the country was never designed to handle — without simply filling every building with air conditioning.

President Emmanuel Macron’s government has leaned, as much of France has, toward solutions like shade, better insulation, and urban tree planting.

Europe is warming faster than any other continent, with cities built largely of stone and largely without air conditioning.

“Paris Fashion Week is the canary in the mine,” Freeman said.

From sports to tourism to construction, industries built around fixed schedules and outdoor audiences are being forced to adapt to heat that arrives earlier, lingers longer, and reaches higher temperatures than before.

Paris Fashion Week — outdoor, fixed in time, and watched by the world — became one of the most visible tests yet of that new reality.

In cities across northern Venezuela, desperate residents worked side by side Thursday to dig through collapsed buildings in search of missing family members and neighbors, one day after two powerful earthquakes struck the region and left a trail of death and destruction.

The official death toll climbed to approximately 235 by late Thursday, with at least 4,300 people reported injured, according to Venezuela’s Health Minister Carlos Alvarado, who spoke to state media. Authorities expect those numbers to rise, as thousands of people remain unaccounted for and rescue operations continue around the clock.

The two earthquakes — measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude — hit Wednesday evening and rank among the most powerful to strike Venezuela in over a century. The tremors were felt across a wide stretch of the region.

Rescuers pulled survivors from the wreckage covered in dust and blood, including children and animals. Venezuelan state television broadcast dramatic footage of the rescue efforts, including one scene where a woman was pinned beneath a concrete slab with only her bare foot visible before rescuers were able to pull her out alive. However, government-organized search teams were largely absent from areas outside the capital Caracas in the early hours following the disaster.

The coastal area of La Guaira, located north of Caracas, bore some of the worst damage and the highest casualty counts. Venezuela’s primary international airport, situated in that region, was forced to close because of structural damage, making it harder to bring in outside assistance.

By Thursday morning, stunned residents surveyed a landscape of gutted buildings, furniture dangling from broken windows, and helicopters sweeping overhead. Entire structures had been flattened and roads split open by the force of the quakes.

Families plastered walls with missing-person flyers bearing photographs of loved ones, while others passed around handwritten lists of names. Venezuelans living abroad struggled to reach relatives back home as phone service across the country was severely disrupted.

In central Caracas, hundreds of people spent the night in parks, parking lots, and other open areas, too afraid to return to their homes.

Dayana Delgado, a mother of three, demanded to know where the heavy machinery that government officials had promised was, saying it was ordinary residents who were doing the digging through collapsed structures.

BEIJING — Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tarique Rahman sat down with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Chinese capital on Friday, making a direct appeal for China to help shrink the trade gap between the two countries, broaden the range of Bangladeshi goods exported to China, and back key development initiatives in Bangladesh.

The meeting came during a three-day visit to China that began Wednesday — Rahman’s first trip to the country since he took office as prime minister in February.

Bangladesh has been working to strengthen its relationship with China, one of its biggest trading partners and a major source of development funding.

The trip also carries significant diplomatic weight. Rahman is working to maintain balanced relationships with both Beijing and New Delhi. His predecessor, Sheikh Hasina, was widely regarded as having closer ties to India. While relations between Dhaka and New Delhi have improved under Rahman’s leadership, tensions remain, including disagreements over border issues.

During his meeting with Xi, Rahman made the case that China could help reduce Bangladesh’s trade deficit by allowing more Bangladeshi products into its market.

“We request China to consider import our fresh mangoes, jackfruit, guava, aquatic products, raw leather, jute products and pharmaceutical products,” Rahman said, according to a media pool report.

He also stressed that Bangladesh needs China’s assistance in “implementing our major signature projects and upgrading and modernisation of our existing industrial units.”

Bangladesh became part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2016, a large-scale infrastructure and development program championed by Xi that aims to link Asia, Africa, and Europe.

In response, China indicated it is prepared to work with Bangladesh on importing more quality Bangladeshi products, encouraging Chinese companies to invest there, and growing cooperation in areas like new energy, the digital economy, and artificial intelligence, according to a statement from the Chinese government.

Earlier in the visit, Rahman met with Premier Li Qiang on Thursday, where the two sides signed several cooperation agreements aimed at strengthening bilateral ties, state media reported.

Bangladesh currently owes China $6.2 billion, according to World Bank figures. The Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has provided an additional $2.3 billion in loans. By comparison, India has lent its neighbor $1.6 billion.

Chinese companies have also invested $7.7 billion in Bangladesh, roughly half of it in the country’s energy sector, according to data from the American Enterprise Institute think tank.

However, China has grown more selective about where it puts its financing dollars, said Chim Lee, a senior analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit in Beijing.

“Not least because it tends to be looking for key logistics corridors these days that can be scaled up, and Bangladesh is a bit tricky because it just doesn’t provide the same kind of corridor as say Central Asia or Myanmar,” Lee said.

Saudi Aramco has restarted oil loading operations at its Ras Tanura terminal along the Gulf coast, ending a near four-month shutdown, according to shipping data from LSEG released Friday.

The data indicates two Very Large Crude Carriers — each with a capacity of 2 million barrels of oil — were actively taking on crude at the terminal, with a third vessel waiting in the area.

Attempts to reach Saudi Aramco for comment outside of business hours were unsuccessful.

According to the shipping data, the last time the company loaded a cargo from the Ras Tanura port was March 8, when a shipment was sent to China. After that, Saudi Aramco was forced to redirect all of its exports through the Red Sea port of Yanbu, after Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — during its war with the U.S. and Israel — cut off access to the Gulf for shipping vessels.

With the United States and Iran having reached an interim agreement to bring the war to a halt, energy producers across the Middle East have been increasing both their output and their export activity.

Australia’s prime minister said Friday he wants to ensure the nation’s ban on social media for children is as robust as possible, following a new study showing the world’s first such law has done little to curb teen use in its first six months.

The government intends to put the legislation through rigorous testing. The law prohibits platforms such as Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube from creating accounts for anyone under the age of 16.

“What we want to do is to make sure that the laws are as strong as possible and that they will withstand any legal challenges which are made,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Albanese added that a major priority would be ensuring the eSafety Commission — the country’s internet watchdog — has enough authority to carry out its responsibilities. He did not elaborate on what specific actions the government plans to take, and the regulator declined to offer any comment.

The Australian experiment is being closely followed by nations around the world that are grappling with concerns about the mental and physical wellbeing of young people. Britain, for instance, announced this month that it plans to go even further, extending similar restrictions to gaming and live-streaming platforms as well.

The eSafety Commission and Communications Minister Anika Wells have indicated they are preparing legal action against several platforms. Companies found to have systematically failed to enforce the ban could face fines of up to A$49.5 million, or roughly $34 million U.S.

Reddit has filed a High Court challenge against the ban, with preliminary hearings still underway. The company was not immediately reachable for comment Friday.

When the ban took effect last December, early reports suggested millions of accounts had been shut down. However, parents and researchers have since noted that teen social media habits appear largely unchanged.

A study published this week in the British Medical Journal found that 85% of Australians between the ages of 12 and 15 were still active on social media three months after the ban went into effect. The research was based on a study of 408 adolescents.

According to the paper, two-thirds of underage users got around the restrictions by either claiming to be older than 16 or submitting a selfie that the platform accepted as proof of being over the age limit.

“Despite the intent of the (ban) to delay access to social media platforms and reduce the potential for online harms, little evidence was found of immediate substantive reductions in reported social media use by adolescents,” the study concluded.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally watched a series of major weapons tests and demanded that his military build up what he called a “deadly and destructive offensive posture,” according to North Korea’s state-run media on Friday. The announcement came just days after the country put its first naval destroyer into service.

The move fits a broader pattern of Kim pushing to expand both nuclear and conventional military power while refusing to engage in diplomatic talks with South Korea or the United States.

Thursday’s tests were designed to measure the destructive power of a “special mission” warhead fitted to a tactical ballistic missile, an upgraded multiple rocket launch system, and the accuracy of shells fired at extended range from a self-propelled gun-howitzer, according to the official Korean Central News Agency, known as KCNA.

KCNA reported that Kim said the test results demonstrated technological advancement in efforts to shift the military’s fire posture along the southern border — a statement widely understood to mean the weapons systems are intended to strike targets in South Korea, including American military installations located there.

Kim described his country’s self-defense policy as one that aims to build “the deadly and destructive offensive posture to make no enemy dare to confront.” He added, “To make the enemies feel constant uneasiness and fear is just an important aspect of the exercise of war deterrent.”

State media also reported that the special mission warhead is specifically designed for “inflicting fatal damage on major targets including airfields, ports and power facilities of the enemy.”

Earlier this week on Tuesday, North Korea officially commissioned the Choe Hyon, a 5,000-ton destroyer that Kim described as a symbol of his nation’s expanding naval and nuclear strength. It is considered the most advanced warship in North Korea’s fleet.

Kim’s military buildup has accelerated since high-stakes diplomatic negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019. Since then, he has focused on growing both his nuclear and missile programs while also investing in more sophisticated conventional weapons.

In response to Trump’s repeated attempts to restart diplomatic conversations, Kim has indicated that talks could happen — but only if the United States drops its requirement that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons as a condition for negotiations. Kim has also taken an increasingly hostile stance toward South Korea, labeling it his country’s “principal enemy” and constructing additional military infrastructure along the heavily fortified border between the two nations.

In recent years, Kim has also expanded North Korea’s international relationships, most notably by deepening ties with Russia in support of its ongoing war in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping traveled to North Korea for his first visit in seven years, where he met with Kim.

SEOUL — South Korea is moving aggressively to build up its drone warfare capabilities, with plans to train half a million so-called “drone warriors” and purchase more than 20,000 low-cost, expendable drones, according to the country’s Defence Ministry, which announced the initiative on Friday.

Beyond those acquisitions, the South Korean military intends to manufacture 110,000 drones between now and 2029, with the goal of distributing them across various military units. Officials described the effort as part of a larger strategy to strengthen the country’s unmanned systems and better position its forces against the threat posed by North Korea.

TOKYO — Fresh economic data released Friday shows that core inflation in Japan’s capital city gained momentum in June, reflecting growing price pressures tied to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The numbers are expected to be closely examined by the Bank of Japan when its board meets next month for a quarterly review of the country’s growth and price outlooks.

Tokyo’s core consumer price index — a measure that leaves out costs for volatile fresh food items — climbed 1.6% in June compared to the same month a year ago. That marks an increase from the 1.3% rise recorded in May and matched what analysts had predicted.

A separate index that removes both fresh food and fuel costs, which the Bank of Japan monitors closely as a more reliable indicator of underlying inflation trends, rose 1.9% in June, up from 1.6% in May.

The conflict in the Middle East has made it more difficult for the Bank of Japan to determine when and how quickly to raise interest rates. Higher energy prices are pushing inflation upward while at the same time putting strain on an economy that relies heavily on imported oil.

Earlier this month, the Bank of Japan raised interest rates to their highest level in 31 years — a significant move in its effort to return to more normal monetary policy. The bank signaled it could tighten rates further as it works to manage the inflationary effects of the energy shock stemming from the Iran war.

The Russian-appointed governor overseeing the occupied portion of Ukraine’s Kherson region announced early Friday that electricity had been completely or partially cut off throughout the area, which borders Crimea. Governor Vladimir Saldo made the announcement via Telegram but offered no additional details about the cause or extent of the outages.

In Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city — which Russia seized and annexed in 2014 — authorities have been deliberately limiting power distribution to prevent the already-stressed electrical grid from being overwhelmed. Those restrictions followed a series of Ukrainian drone attacks that have also triggered a fuel shortage in the region.

The situation in Crimea is worsening on multiple fronts. The Russian-installed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, announced Thursday that train service to the peninsula will be gradually scaled back. Crimea is a popular warm-weather destination for Russian tourists during the summer months. Aksyonov had previously ordered the closure of children’s summer camps on the peninsula.

Aksyonov also confirmed that one person died Thursday in a drone strike near the crossing point between Crimea and the Russian-held section of the Kherson region.

Starlink, the satellite-based internet service that operates under Elon Musk’s SpaceX, announced Thursday that it will waive service charges for its Venezuelan customers for an entire month following two earthquakes that struck the South American nation.

Beyond the free service offer, the company stated it is moving quickly to get equipment on the ground. In a post on X, Starlink said it is working to “rapidly deploy Starlink terminals and restore connectivity to the hardest-hit areas.”

For Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, the challenge facing Israel starts long before any vote is cast or report is published. It begins, he says, with the culture inside the United Nations itself.

“I remind myself every time I walk in the UN that I’m entering a dystopian universe, not unlike 1984, as described by George Orwell, where there’s doublethink and doublespeak, and the truth is often erased and rewritten,” Neuer told The Media Line in Jerusalem.

More than two and a half years after the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, a growing number of Israeli officials, legal advocates, policy researchers, former military figures, and Christian supporters of Israel are describing the country’s diplomatic and legal exposure as a battlefront of its own. At the JNS International Policy Summit held in Jerusalem this week, speakers repeatedly returned to a central theme: Israel’s military struggle is now deeply connected to a parallel contest playing out in the UN, the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Western university campuses, and social media — all arenas where the language of legitimacy is being fought over.

The concern, as summit speakers framed it, goes beyond simple criticism of Israel. The argument is that international institutions, legal bodies, and public narratives can feed into each other — transforming reports into headlines, headlines into political pressure, and political pressure into court filings, mandates, and boycotts.

Asher Fredman, executive director of the Misgav Institute of National Security, asked what was driving what he described as “this campaign of accusations against Israel, claims against Israel, legal steps against Israel.” His conclusion was direct: “The United Nations is a central engine and catalyst of this campaign,” Fredman told The Media Line. He argued that too many policymakers still view the UN as a venue for symbolic gestures rather than as a system that actively shapes budgets, mandates, commissions, and legitimacy itself.

That analysis forms the foundation of a Misgav Institute report co-authored by Fredman and former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, which calls on the United States to move away from attempting to reform the UN and instead adopt a strategy of “Disengage, Withdraw, and Replace.”

Fredman said Washington should stop automatically funding UN operations and instead support only those functions that clearly benefit American interests. He also argued that Israel has made a comparable error by focusing heavily on bilateral relationships while treating UN votes as little more than diplomatic theater. “People don’t understand that the UN is actually really important, because the UN often gets to the very core legitimacy of a country, and that leads to legal proceedings, that leads to boycotts, that leads to blacklists,” he said.

The same concern emerged most sharply during the summit’s legal discussions, where a central strategic question was whether Israel should continue fighting within international institutions or concentrate more energy on challenging those institutions’ authority from the outside. That debate has grown more urgent since the ICC issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, while Israel has continued to contest the court’s jurisdiction over its actions.

International lawyer Ron Soffer described the ICC as “a strategic threat to the State of Israel” — noting that, unlike UN bodies that issue condemnations, the ICC can pursue actual arrest warrants. Alan Baker, a former Israeli ambassador to Canada who participated in the Rome Statute negotiations, said Israel’s decision to stay out of the court had been the right call. “We didn’t make a mistake,” he said.

Others at the summit argued that Israel and its supporters should stop expecting legal arguments alone to carry the day. “The ICC is not a court, it does not function as a court, and we can have the cleverest legal arguments. It will not help,” said Eugene Kontorovich, professor of law and director of the Center for the Middle East and International Law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. He contended that pressure and sanctions would prove more effective than persuasion.

Not everyone agreed with that position. Yael Vias Gvirsman, founder and CEO of October 7 Justice Without Borders — which represents hundreds of direct victims of the October 7 attacks before courts including the ICC — argued that Israel should not surrender the legal arena to its opponents. The question, she said, is not whether the ICC is inherently good or bad, but “what place we choose to fill in this space.”

That disagreement extended to the International Court of Justice, where South Africa’s genocide case against Israel remains in its written phase. In May 2026, the court set November 22, 2027, as the deadline for South Africa to submit its reply to Israel’s written pleading.

Kontorovich called the South Africa case “a legal October 7th” and warned that because Israel accepted ICJ jurisdiction under the Genocide Convention, the court now has a platform that could be invoked in every future Israeli military conflict. Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel Charitable Trust, countered that disengagement cannot be the only answer. “We can say, until we’re blue in the face, that its advisory opinions are not binding,” Turner said — but without Israel and its allies presenting facts before the court, the world will never hear the rebuttal.

Vias Gvirsman took the same view on the ICJ, arguing that Israel should use precedent and evidence to challenge South Africa’s case. “If we want to respect ourselves, we have a good case; let’s bring it to the court,” she said.

The debate became most concrete around the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, known as UNRWA. In the United States, efforts to hold the agency legally accountable have already hit a wall: a federal district court in New York ruled in 2025 that UNRWA, as a subsidiary organ of the UN, enjoys immunity in American courts and dismissed the case against it. Israel, meanwhile, has separately pursued domestic legislation to strip the agency of that immunity within its own borders.

In that US litigation, Joseph H. Tipograph of Heideman Nudelman and Kalik argued that UNRWA is “not a refugee agency” in the traditional sense because, in his view, it perpetuates refugee status across multiple generations. “If UNRWA is immune, it can do what it wants,” Tipograph said.

A parallel effort has unfolded in Israel. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, founder of Shurat HaDin, said her organization pushed for legislation removing UNRWA’s immunity in Israel after representing the family of a victim whose body, she said, was transported into Gaza by UNRWA officials using a UNRWA vehicle. When the attorney general later filed a position in court, Darshan-Leitner said, the new Israeli law had already narrowed the space for argument. The attorney general’s position, as Darshan-Leitner described it, was that her “hands are tied” because Israeli law no longer recognizes UNRWA’s immunity in that case.

For Neuer, UNRWA sits at the heart of the broader UN problem. He argued that the agency has evolved into an institution that keeps the conflict alive through education, employment, and a political narrative centered on the right of return. UN Watch reports issued over the past two years allege deep Hamas infiltration of UNRWA staff unions and schools. UNRWA has rejected the broader allegation that it knowingly enables terrorism, saying it acts on neutrality violations when evidence is provided. “If we want to have peace in this region, de-radicalization begins and ends with UNRWA,” Neuer said.

Neuer also addressed the question of the UN’s future leadership. While arguing that the next secretary-general will have limited impact — because what he sees as anti-Israel machinery is embedded in mandates, bureaucratic culture, and member-state politics — he singled out former UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet for criticism. “She already was the UN Human Rights Chief, and she had a very poor record,” he said, arguing she gave China, Russia, and other authoritarian governments too much latitude. More broadly, he said the UN should operate more like an emergency room performing triage, adding, “We don’t need a UN if all they’re going to do is appease dictatorships. We need someone, we think, to speak out for victims, especially in non-democracies.”

Israeli leaders echoed those themes. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar framed the challenge in diplomatic terms, saying Israel must push back against language that transforms accusations into accepted political categories while simultaneously building new alliances. Referring to a European commissioner who had labeled Israel an apartheid state, Sa’ar said such language could not be treated as routine criticism. “We also, as a country, must draw red lines,” he said. At the same time, he argued Israel cannot devote all of its energy to “blocking initiatives against Israel,” and pointed to new Israeli embassies, efforts to expand the number of embassies located in Jerusalem, and what he described as his ministry’s “Latin America year” in 2026 as examples of proactive diplomacy.

President Isaac Herzog called on Israel to “employ truth to counter the bias, distortions, and double standards spread constantly in the media, online, and across the halls of the United Nations.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu framed the effort as another dimension of a long war, calling the battle against delegitimization and antisemitism the “Eighth Front” and declaring, “We will fight on the Eighth Front as well.”

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee delivered his message in the language of faith and history. After outlining President Donald Trump’s stance on Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, Huckabee described the US-Israel alliance as rooted in something deeper than modern politics, saying America is tied “more to Mount Sinai than it is to Athens or Rome.”

At a separate Christian-Israel Alliance Forum chaired by Josh Reinstein, president of the Israel Allies Foundation, the focus shifted from courts and UN agencies to faith networks, media outreach, and public advocacy. Troy Miller, president and CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters, said the issue is “not just about a battle that’s anti-Semitic or anti-Zionism,” but part of a broader struggle over Western civilization, Christian persecution, and the values that will shape the international order. “If we end up divided and fighting this separately, we’re going to fail,” he said.

Sagiv Asulin, a former senior Mossad officer and expert on influence operations and strategic perception at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, put the challenge in starker terms. Israel, he said, is winning militarily on many fronts but “losing terribly” in the arena of public perception and information warfare. After October 7, he said, he found himself thinking not just about that day but about “the paradigm of October 8th” — how quickly anti-Israel demonstrations and narratives appeared on Western campuses and streets.

The media dimension was addressed directly by Katie Huch, creative director at New Beginnings Church and Larry Huch Ministries, who said younger audiences are being shaped by platforms where anti-Israel content vastly outnumbers pro-Israel content. “Social media is a problem, but it’s also a tool, and we can use it to our advantage,” she said, calling for both digital engagement and efforts to bring young Christians to Israel firsthand.

David Parsons, senior vice president and spokesman for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, made the same case through the lens of tourism and public diplomacy. “Christians come and leave as goodwill ambassadors of this country,” he said.

Military and political voices pushed the argument further. Col. Richard Kemp said Israel cannot expect to win the information war when audiences begin from the assumption that Israel is illegitimate. Jonathan Conricus, a former Israel Defense Forces international spokesman, said Israel has invested far too little in the information space. “If you leave a vacuum for your enemy, he will populate it,” Conricus said.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was perhaps the bluntest voice on the subject. Israel, he said, has allowed its public image in the United States to deteriorate and cannot count indefinitely on the personal goodwill of any single president. “If Israel were a PR firm, I definitely would not hire us,” Bennett said.

Even Neuer, one of the summit’s sharpest critics of the UN, acknowledged that Israel can damage its own cause. While he said UN bias against Israel persists regardless of which government is in power, he specifically called out inflammatory rhetoric by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as counterproductive. When Israeli ministers use language that appears to celebrate suffering, he said, “you lose almost all of your friends.”

For Fredman, the path forward involves concrete steps: linking bilateral relationships to multilateral behavior, conditioning UN funding, exposing hostile networks, and dramatically increasing investment in strategic communications. “Israel for years has not only been greatly under-investing in its strategic communications and public diplomacy, but on the level of creating people-to-people ties and cooperation with civil society, it has not received resources,” he said.

For Vias Gvirsman, any strategy must also preserve moral boundaries. In her closing remarks, she described law as a form of power — but power that must reflect “sanctity of life” and “human dignity.” The question, she said, is “how do we fight a battle we cannot lose” without surrendering identity and values in the process.

That tension may well define Israel’s next chapter. Its leaders say the country has shifted the military balance against Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. Its lawyers, advocates, and supporters argue that the institutional battle remains far harder to win. In the UN, the ICC, the ICJ, and the broader court of public opinion, Israel is working not only to defeat individual accusations but to prevent those accusations from becoming the standard language through which governments, courts, and media evaluate it.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is preparing to bring a resolution before the Israeli government at an upcoming cabinet meeting that would formally recognize the Armenian Genocide — an official acknowledgment of the systematic mass killings of the Armenian people during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

The resolution puts forward the position that Israel carries both a moral and historical responsibility to recognize the genocide and to stand against any efforts to deny, downplay, or distort what happened.

According to the explanatory text attached to the resolution, the genocide began in April 1915 when hundreds of Armenian intellectuals, community leaders, and educated professionals were arrested, deported, and killed in Constantinople. Ottoman authorities then launched a broader campaign against the wider Armenian population — drafting men into forced labor before executing them, while women, children, and elderly civilians were driven from their homes and forced on death marches toward the Syrian desert. Along the way, victims were subjected to mass murder, rape, deliberate starvation, and dehydration.

The resolution’s supporting text estimates that approximately 1.5 million people lost their lives, and that the campaign wiped out a cultural and historical legacy that had been present across Anatolia for thousands of years.

The proposal also points to ongoing organized efforts to deny or minimize the genocide, singling out what it describes as the manipulative rewriting of history books — primarily by Turkey — despite what it calls extensive and unequivocal historical documentation of the events.

As of now, 32 countries have formally recognized the Armenian Genocide through parliamentary resolutions, legislation, or official declarations, according to the proposal.

Beyond simply recognizing the genocide, the resolution calls on Israel to actively condemn all attempts to obscure, minimize, or deny the atrocities carried out against the Armenian people.

Should the Israeli government vote to approve the measure, it would then be forwarded to the Knesset for additional consideration and approval.

The US military announced Wednesday that an airstrike in northwestern Syria took out a senior commander within the Islamic State, known as ISIS, as part of continued operations targeting armed groups believed to be planning attacks on Americans and US interests abroad.

US Central Command, known as CENTCOM, confirmed its forces conducted the strike on June 19, resulting in the death of Ali Husayn al-Ulaywi. Officials described the operation as part of a sustained campaign to disrupt and eliminate terrorist threats aimed at Americans both overseas and on US soil.

In a post on X, CENTCOM stated: “CENTCOM and our partners remain committed to rooting out remaining remnants of ISIS to ensure its enduring defeat. We will continue to defend the U.S. homeland, our service members, and allies and partners across the region.”

The strike comes as ISIS has announced a new phase of operations inside Syria, specifically targeting the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The group has claimed credit for a string of attacks since February. Last year, President al-Sharaa’s government joined the US-led coalition working to combat ISIS.

Most recently, ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack near the city of Manbij, located in Syria’s northeastern Aleppo province, this past Saturday.

At the peak of its strength during the Syrian civil war roughly a decade ago, ISIS controlled approximately a quarter or more of Syrian territory before being pushed out by the US-led coalition.

In a separate announcement, CENTCOM said Cooper is scheduled to travel to Israel on Thursday. The visit coincides with ongoing US-brokered negotiations between Israel and Lebanon. Cooper is expected to sit down with IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and Defense Minister Israel Katz. Discussions are anticipated to focus on strategic coordination regarding Iran, security developments along Israel’s northern border, and the ongoing situation involving Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Two senior American officials told The Wall Street Journal that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out an attack on a Singapore-registered merchant ship as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday.

The vessel was traveling near the coast of Oman when it came under attack — just hours after Iran’s paramilitary naval force had put out a warning telling commercial ships to stay out of shipping lanes in the strategic waterway unless they had received explicit authorization from Tehran.

The ship took a hit to its bridge — the area aboard that houses navigation, communications, and command operations. UK Maritime Trade Operations confirmed the bridge sustained structural damage but reported that no crew members were injured in the incident.

The attack is being viewed as a significant challenge to a US-Iran deal reached in mid-June, which included commitments from both governments to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to international maritime traffic. According to The Wall Street Journal, the White House declined to offer any comment on the attack.

Iran’s warning to merchant vessels came just hours before the ship was struck. Tehran had specifically directed ships to avoid unauthorized transit routes through the strait — meaning any passage not cleared by the Iranian government.

Over the weekend, Iran had already closed the Strait of Hormuz after demanding a halt to Israeli military operations in Lebanon. The most recent attack took place in spite of the agreement’s requirement that the waterway remain accessible to international shipping.

The International Maritime Organization confirmed that the Singapore-flagged cargo vessel targeted in the attack was not part of any evacuation program.

Before the regional conflict that erupted this spring, the Strait of Hormuz served as a transit corridor for roughly 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas shipments. Disruptions to shipping through the passage have historically caused significant swings in global energy prices.

Venezuela was struck by an unusual back-to-back earthquake event on Wednesday, claiming the lives of at least 188 people and leaving more than 200 others trapped beneath rubble. Thousands more have been reported missing, and over 1,500 people have been injured. Officials fear the death toll will continue to climb.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, two powerful earthquakes — measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude — struck just 39 seconds apart along the San Sebastian fault on Venezuela’s northern coast. They rank among the strongest earthquakes to hit the South American country in over 100 years.

The first quake, a 7.2-magnitude foreshock, struck west of Morón on the Caribbean coast, roughly 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of the capital, Caracas, at a depth of 22 kilometers (about 14 miles). The second, a 7.5-magnitude mainshock, was centered about 16 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of Morón at a shallower depth of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles).

The U.S. Geological Survey described the pair as a seismic “doublet” — two earthquakes that are similar in magnitude, timing, and location. Both resulted from shallow strike-slip faulting near the boundary where the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates meet.

Some of the worst damage occurred in La Guaira, a coastal area north of Caracas. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez described the city as a “disaster zone” and confirmed that rescue teams from across Venezuela have been deployed there. La Guaira sits approximately 165 kilometers (103 miles) east of the 7.5-magnitude quake’s epicenter, where dozens of buildings have collapsed.

Rescue workers and civilians worked side by side to pull survivors from concrete debris, many of them covered in dust and blood. Families gathered in tears outside the wreckage of their homes. Desperate relatives posted missing-person flyers and shared handwritten lists of names in search of loved ones still unaccounted for.

The destruction extended well beyond La Guaira. Buildings in downtown Caracas were damaged, and evacuations were reported as far away as Brazil’s Amazon region, approximately 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from the epicenter. Hundreds of Caracas residents spent the night outdoors in parks and parking lots after losing power and cellphone service. Venezuela’s main airport in Caracas was damaged and shut down, subway service was suspended, and natural gas supplies were cut off. Schools will be closed for several days, as the buildings are being repurposed as shelters and donation centers.

Rodríguez announced the government would establish a $200 million reconstruction fund to help repair damaged hospitals and homes.

The earthquake disaster adds to an already difficult situation for Rodríguez, the former vice president who assumed office in January after the U.S. captured former President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are currently jailed in New York City while awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges. Rodríguez took over a nation already grappling with more than a decade of economic instability. Her leadership has drawn criticism from both those who reject her political movement’s legitimacy and some loyalists who have questioned her handling of the government and her closer ties with the United States.

On Thursday, the U.S. announced it would send two specialized urban search and rescue teams to Venezuela and provide $150 million in aid through nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The United Nations also said international rescue teams were expected to begin arriving within hours. Qatar and Mexico are among the other nations sending assistance.

Venezuelan communities in the United States have been quickly organizing donation drives. More than 770,000 Venezuelans currently live in the U.S., with large populations concentrated in Florida, Texas, and Utah.

Iran has once again put ships on notice: pass through the Strait of Hormuz without permission from Tehran, and face the consequences. The warning came even as ongoing negotiations aim to resolve the regional conflict and a United Nations-backed effort begins moving vessels that had been stuck during the fighting.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the ideological branch of the country’s military, issued a formal statement Thursday declaring that the only permitted route through the strategic waterway is one that Iran itself has designated.

“The only authorized route for passage through the Strait of Hormuz is the route announced by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Revolutionary Guards stated, adding that any ship crossing without that authorization would be “unacceptable and extremely dangerous.”

The Guards also took aim at a separate route through the strait that they said had been announced by “certain authorities,” rejecting it as illegitimate.

The warning came after a spokesperson for a United Nations shipping agency confirmed that vessels previously trapped by the conflict had begun moving through the Strait of Hormuz. The International Maritime Organization said the operation — which took months to plan and only began rolling out during the ceasefire — is designed to allow hundreds of ships carrying approximately 11,000 sailors stranded in the Gulf to safely pass through.

Adding another layer of tension, Iran has signaled its intention to charge what it calls “maritime service fees” — not tolls, it insists — for ships transiting the strait. That idea drew a sharp rebuke from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who addressed the matter at a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting held in Bahrain.

“International waterways do not belong to any nation state. This is a foundational principle in the world today, without which the world would be in total chaos,” Rubio said.

He went further, warning of the global implications of allowing such fees to stand: “If in fact we accepted that you can charge money to use an international waterway because it happens to be near your territorial space, well then this will spread throughout the world like a contagion.”

Rubio added that while the Trump administration remains committed to reaching a resolution through a signed memorandum of understanding, it is not willing to accept peace “at any price” — and will not tolerate fees being imposed on ships using the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait is a narrow passage between Iran and the Gulf states that serves as a critical chokepoint for global energy supplies, with approximately 20% of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas passing through it under normal conditions.

Venezuelan communities across the United States sprang into action Thursday, organizing donation drives after a pair of catastrophic earthquakes tore through their home country, leaving at least 188 people dead and hundreds more injured.

Oscar Torres, along with thousands of others, spent the past 24 hours glued to a WhatsApp group that keeps Venezuelan expatriates connected with their families back home. Torres lives in Doral, Florida — a city just outside Miami that holds the largest concentration of Venezuelans in the entire country.

“Already this morning, I was looking at the group in Doral and everybody’s pitching in — money, medicine, water. First, necessity items,” said Torres, a sales manager who relocated from Venezuela to the U.S. back in 1995. “They’re talking about making the first shipment ASAP.”

The back-to-back quakes — measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude — struck Wednesday night and caused significant destruction to Venezuela’s primary airport in the capital city of Caracas. That damage could seriously delay getting emergency supplies into the country. The two earthquakes rank among the most powerful Venezuela has experienced in over 100 years.

Images from the disaster zone showed injured children, animals, and civilians covered in dust and blood being pulled from the wreckage of collapsed concrete structures.

Beyond the confirmed dead and injured, thousands of additional people are unaccounted for, leaving relatives living in the U.S. frantically trying to get updates. More than 770,000 Venezuelans currently reside in the United States, with large populations concentrated in Florida, Texas, and Utah.

In the Houston area, which is home to a sizeable Venezuelan community, residents turned to Facebook groups and other social media platforms to spread the word about local drop-off locations for donations. Items in high demand include first aid and medical supplies such as gauze, bandages, antiseptics, disposable gloves, face masks, syringes, thermometers, and blood pressure monitors.

Many of the collection sites are located in Katy, a suburb roughly 30 miles west of downtown Houston that has earned the nickname “Katyzuela” due to its high number of Venezuelan residents. Local resident Daniel Arenas translated a Spanish-language social media post into English and shared it Thursday on his LinkedIn page in hopes of reaching donors across the greater Houston area.

“I came to this country ten years ago, built a life here, but my heart is still in Venezuela,” Arenas said. “It’s devastating what’s happening over there. They don’t have the resources to handle this.”

Arenas, who works as a maritime industry consultant, said his wife has been deeply worried about her aunt, who lives in a high-rise apartment in Caracas. The aunt sent a distressed message on WhatsApp shortly after the earthquakes struck.

“She was crying and screaming and saying she was in pain but not sure from where,” Arenas recalled. “She said she lost everything. She was desperate.”

Arenas said his wife was eventually able to make contact with her aunt.

Back in Florida, local officials in Doral and various advocacy organizations used social media and press conferences to call on the public to contribute aid.

Torres said he plans to donate money to the relief efforts. He still has uncles and cousins living in Caracas and Valencia, another Venezuelan city that suffered heavy damage. He said some of his relatives were hurt while evacuating buildings during the quakes.

“Their homes are destroyed and a few buildings have collapsed,” Torres said. “Thankfully, I don’t know anyone who passed away.”

Israel’s national emergency medical organization, Magen David Adom, chose to mark National Paramedic Day on Thursday by shining a spotlight on one of its own — 20-year-old Druze paramedic Ghadir Saleh, a young woman whose life took an unexpected turn from concert stages to ambulance calls.

Saleh grew up in the northern Druze city of Maghar and is now a volunteer on Magen David Adom Mobile Intensive Care Units, a role she stepped into after finishing the organization’s paramedic training program through her National Service.

Before emergency medicine became her focus, music was her world. She began playing the violin at age nine and went on to represent Israel in multiple international delegations. After finishing high school, she gave back by teaching violin to at-risk youth and children on the autism spectrum through the Ministry of Education.

Her path toward a musical career began to shift after a doctor recommended she ease the physical demands on her hands. But an earlier experience had already planted the seed for a different calling.

“I’ve been playing since I was nine years old. I represented Israel on several international delegations around the world, and I never imagined I would pursue anything other than music,” Saleh said.

A serious accident when she was 16 years old proved to be another turning point. Watching those around her struggle to respond — not even knowing to call 101, MDA’s emergency hotline — left a lasting impression during her long recovery.

“When I was injured in the accident, the people around me didn’t know how to help. They didn’t even know they should call 101, MDA’s emergency hotline. Throughout my recovery, which involved countless hospital visits and medical examinations, I kept thinking about how important it is to know what to do in situations like that,” she said.

Saleh went on to enroll in MDA’s intensive paramedic training course, which she described as both rigorous and transformative — helping her grow not just as a medical professional, but as a person.

She now responds to emergencies on mobile intensive care units across Israel and says she has been met with overwhelming support from her family and the broader Druze community.

“I want to help people and save lives. The Druze community is known for being traditional, but in the end, it doesn’t matter what religion I am or what religion my patient is. It’s about one person helping another,” she said.

While Saleh still picks up her violin from time to time, she says emergency medicine has given her a deeper sense of purpose. Serving others and her country, she added, has become the most fulfilling chapter of her life so far.

The standoff over the Strait of Hormuz has shifted away from military confrontation and into the realm of diplomatic language — where the precise meaning of a few carefully chosen words could determine who ultimately controls one of the globe’s most vital shipping corridors.

At the center of the dispute is not an outright toll provision, but a collection of ambiguous phrases: a “no charge” clause covering 60 days in a US-Iran memorandum, references to “maritime services” and “associated costs” in a joint statement between Oman and Iran, and Washington’s firm position that the strait cannot become a passage requiring permission from any single nation.

Following talks in Muscat that included Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman, and Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, Oman and Iran released a joint statement backing the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between Washington and Tehran. The statement identified Oman and Iran as the two coastal nations bordering the Strait of Hormuz, called for safe passage consistent with international law, and underscored both nations’ sovereignty over their territorial waters.

The statement’s most contentious section announced that Oman and Iran would continue discussions through a joint foreign ministry working group aimed at reaching an agreement on the future management of navigation through the strait, the services to be offered, and the costs connected to those services. The two countries also said they would seek input from other coastal nations in the region.

Notably, the statement never uses the word “tolls.” However, by referencing services and costs, it opens the door to debate over where a toll ends and a maritime service charge, safety fee, or administrative cost begins.

The US-Iran memorandum, as described by a senior US official and published by Arab Center Washington DC, takes a similarly cautious approach. It states that Iran will make its “best efforts” to ensure safe passage for commercial ships “with no charge, for 60 days only,” traveling between the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman in either direction. It also calls for Iran to engage in dialogue with Oman to define future administration and maritime services in the strait, in coordination with other Gulf coastal states and in accordance with international law.

The three parties are reading these documents very differently. Washington interprets “no charge” to mean no tolls, no fees, no insurance costs, and no Iranian-run payment system. Tehran appears to view the language as leaving space for future negotiations over maritime services and their associated costs. Oman’s position is more balanced, weaving together safe passage, international law, coastal-state sovereignty, regional consultation, and a working group process.

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, cautioned against reading the Oman-Iran discussions as an immediate decision to charge ships for passage.

“Unlike some reporting, they are not announcing that they will collect tolls,” Parsi told The Media Line. He said the two countries were instead laying the groundwork for “future navigation” of the strait and the “services” to be provided, along with the cost of those services.

In Parsi’s assessment, the Oman-Iran statement signals negotiations over how the strait will be governed once the 60-day window closes — not an immediate imposition of charges. He also pointed out that the statement calls for consultations with other coastal states, suggesting an effort to make management of the strait “a regional affair” rather than something handled solely by Iran and Oman.

The legal framing carries significant political weight. A unilateral Iranian charge on vessels transiting Hormuz would be viewed in Washington as a direct challenge to freedom of navigation. But a regional maritime safety framework involving Oman, Iran, and other Gulf coastal states gives Tehran a more defensible position — framing the discussion as one about sovereignty, safety, and administration rather than coercive control. US officials remain concerned that even this softer approach could allow Iran to use its geographic position as leverage.

US Department of State adviser Willian I., who asked to be identified only by first name and last initial, said the conflicting accounts reflect deliberate political messaging rather than simple diplomatic misunderstanding.

“What we’re seeing isn’t confusion, it’s two governments performing for two different domestic and international audiences at the same time. Iran has to prove to its own hard-liners, especially the Revolutionary Guard, that it didn’t capitulate. Washington has to prove to its own public that it won, that the strait is open, and that the pressure campaign worked. Both narratives can’t be fully true simultaneously, so we get contradictory statements almost daily, and that gap is where disinformation thrives,” Willian I. told The Media Line.

The same text is being used to serve different political purposes. Washington wants to present the arrangement as evidence that the strait is reopening without tolls or Iranian conditions attached. Tehran, on the other hand, needs to avoid looking like it accepted a US-dictated framework or gave up its claim to a role in managing the waterway.

That leaves the most difficult question for a later date: who, if anyone, will have the authority to attach costs to passage through Hormuz once the 60-day period ends.

Willian I. acknowledged that a formal assurance on tolls exists, but warned against treating it as politically permanent.

“On the tolls, I can say this with confidence: Iran has given a direct, head-of-state-level assurance that there will be no toll. That commitment exists. But you have to separate the official channel from the fake news; there’s a faction within the IRGC actively spreading conflicting signals to undermine the negotiations, and Iranian positions on this have shifted quickly before. So the guarantee is real, but it’s fragile, and it would be naive to treat any single statement from Tehran as final,” he said.

That assessment aligns with the US government’s public position that Iran has assured Washington it is not pursuing tolls or other charges. Still, the practical details remain unsettled. The documents do not define what qualifies as a “service,” who provides it, who sets the price, whether payments would be voluntary or mandatory, or whether any payment mechanism would involve Iranian-linked institutions or security forces.

The longer-term challenge is political and strategic, not just financial. The Strait of Hormuz is not an ordinary shipping lane. It is a narrow chokepoint through which a significant portion of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows. Even modest uncertainty over transit rights, naval authority, registration requirements, insurance obligations, or administrative fees can ripple out to affect shipping markets, energy prices, and military positioning across the Gulf region.

Willian I. said the toll dispute is really part of a broader argument over who holds authority in the strait.

“There’s a second, distinct issue people are conflating with the toll story: Iran and Oman are jointly exploring a future framework to administer the strait, built on the claim that those waters fall under their sovereignty. That’s a different fight, about control, not just money, and it’s one Washington will not accept, now or later. The US has made clear it will not tolerate any arrangement that lets Iran convert a strategic chokepoint into a permission-based corridor,” he said.

For Washington, that is the line it will not cross. The United States can accept de-escalation language, a temporary reopening of the strait, Omani mediation, and even a regional consultation mechanism. What it cannot accept is any arrangement that effectively gives Tehran veto power over commercial shipping or creates a payment system that acknowledges Iranian authority over transit.

The Oman-Iran statement attempts to balance those competing pressures. It invokes safe passage and freedom of navigation, but also stresses sovereignty and sovereign rights. It references international standards, but leaves undefined who will determine what services are provided and what they cost. It calls for consultations with other regional states, but starts with a bilateral Oman-Iran working group.

That structure allows Oman to function as both a mediator and a coastal state, while giving Tehran language it can use domestically to argue that it has not surrendered the strait as a strategic asset.

A similar gap between public language and unresolved implementation appears in the nuclear dimension of the US-Iran process. The framework also addresses Iran’s nuclear program, enriched material, and oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Washington has characterized the arrangement as a path toward inspections and nuclear restraint. Iranian public messaging has been more guarded, focusing on principles rather than specifics.

“Yes, Iran has agreed in principle to allow the nuclear agency to visit, that much is confirmed. What hasn’t been confirmed is any detail of how, where, or when, because those details don’t exist yet. My read is that this is a stalling tactic. Iran’s strategic objective hasn’t changed: it still wants the capability to be feared on the world stage. Fully abandoning the weapons track would be read, both internationally and by the regime’s own hard-line base, as a humiliating defeat. No Iranian government survives that politically,” Willian I. said.

The same political constraints apply to the Hormuz situation. Iran may be willing to accept language that eases immediate pressure, restores shipping traffic, and keeps negotiations going. But publicly conceding that it has no future role in the strait, no ability to shape maritime services, and no leverage over passage would be a much harder sell for a leadership trying to frame the outcome as a win rather than a retreat.

“There’s a pattern here worth naming directly: authoritarian regimes don’t publicly concede. Iran is not going to announce that it’s accepting UN inspectors unconditionally, abandoning its programs, or fully relinquishing control of the strait, even if, behind closed doors, that’s exactly the direction things are moving. No head of state admits he’s losing a war. A dictatorship admits it even less. Every public statement coming out of Tehran right now needs to be read as messaging for an internal audience first, fact second,” Willian I. said.

Even so, the language around “services” and “costs” leaves a narrow but meaningful opening for future conflict. Iran can argue it is not charging a toll but seeking compensation for safety, navigation, environmental, or administrative services. Washington can counter that any mandatory payment tied to passage is simply a toll under a different name. Oman can maintain that the matter must be resolved through international law and coastal-state consultation. Shipping companies, insurers, and Gulf nations will ultimately have to judge whether the emerging framework reduces risk or introduces a new kind of uncertainty.

The weeks ahead will reveal whether the US-Iran ceasefire framework can hold together despite the gap between public narratives and the operational details that still need to be worked out.

If the final arrangement preserves safe, open, and charge-free navigation, Washington will declare its pressure campaign a success. If it gives Iran and Oman a path to define services and costs in ways that change the practical rules of passage, Tehran will claim it turned a military crisis into a new regional governance structure.

The Strait of Hormuz is open — at least in the language of diplomatic documents. Whether it stays open in legal, commercial, and strategic terms is the question that remains unanswered.

The Israel Defense Forces has announced the accidental death of Master Sgt. (res.) Basel Sweid, 32, a reservist driver serving with the 75th Battalion. Sweid, who hailed from the Druze village of Peki’in, lost his life when his vehicle rolled over in southern Lebanon.

A second IDF soldier was moderately injured in the same incident. That soldier was transported to a hospital for care, and his family was informed of the situation.

Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of Israel’s Druze community, spoke about Sweid’s dedication, noting that he had served hundreds of days in reserve duty and viewed his military service as both a calling and an honor to protect his country.

Sheikh Tarif also described Sweid’s character beyond the battlefield. “Basel was a man of giving who volunteered for many months at the emergency operations center established by the Druze community following the massacre of Druze in Syria in July 2025,” he said.

In civilian life, Sweid had worked as an operations coordinator in the administrative management division at Rambam Health Care Campus.

In a completely separate incident, the IDF confirmed that a civilian contractor working for the Defense Ministry was killed on Wednesday inside the Gaza Strip. The contractor, identified as Raad Abu al-Qi’an of Hura, was employed by a private company performing demolition work on behalf of the Defense Ministry.

Abu al-Qi’an was operating heavy machinery when a structure unexpectedly collapsed, killing him at the scene. The IDF categorized the death as an operational accident and confirmed that his family had been notified. Both the military and the Defense Ministry offered their condolences to his loved ones.

Nearly a full day after two devastating earthquakes rocked Venezuela, survivors in the coastal city of La Guaira were still clawing through the wreckage of collapsed buildings with nothing but their hands, desperately hoping to find neighbors still alive.

“We are trying to help with what we can, but there is a lack of equipment,” said Carlos Borges, expressing frustration over the shortage of backhoes and other heavy machinery needed to move massive concrete slabs — the remains of what were once high-rise apartment buildings.

Borges and his team managed to pull three survivors from one building. Meanwhile, anxious family members gathered nearby, including a single mother waiting and hoping for news about her missing teenage son, as of Thursday morning.

Models from the U.S. Geological Survey suggested the final death toll from Wednesday’s twin quakes — which struck in and around the capital city of Caracas — could climb beyond 10,000. The government of acting President Delcy Rodriguez has so far confirmed nearly 200 fatalities and 1,520 people injured.

La Guaira, a popular beach destination and the hardest-hit city in the country, along with Moron — located near the earthquakes’ epicenter — were left largely on their own amid limited government assistance.

“Is it not possible to call in the military? Everyone come, come and pitch in. Put them in an armored vehicle and come help the people. Find tractors wherever you can,” pleaded Argenis Martinez, a La Guaira resident searching through rubble for a missing relative in the Los Corales neighborhood.

Despite a shutoff of domestic gas service, some debris caught fire overnight. Frightened residents — many with no safe place to go — gathered in the streets or stared into the ruins of destroyed buildings, searching for any sign of life.

The government reported that approximately 250 buildings had been damaged or destroyed, mostly in La Guaira. Officials said aid was on the way from Spain, the United States, Mexico, and Qatar, and called on private businesses to loan heavy equipment such as backhoes to support rescue operations.

In other parts of La Guaira, neighbors recovered two bodies from a home — one of them a young girl — while also managing to rescue a mother and her two children, injured but alive, from the wreckage of an apartment building.

Reuters journalists on the scene observed members of a colectivo — motorcycle groups aligned with the ruling party that have long faced accusations of targeting anti-government demonstrators — helping with rescue efforts at at least one location.

“My building is uninhabitable and now I have nothing. It’s just me and my son, and I have no family in the country,” said Suhayl Sarquiz, 50, who had also lost her job just a few months earlier.

Reports of looting also emerged from parts of La Guaira, where people were searching for food and water. A Reuters team witnessed looting at a minimum of two stores in the area.

The city’s Jose Maria Vargas Hospital was overwhelmed with the injured, with some patients receiving care outside the building as police worked to control access. Hospital officials declined to provide information to reporters.

“It’s a tragedy,” said Beatriz Rodriguez, 60, whose nephew had both legs amputated at the hospital after being crushed in the quakes. A six-year-old nephew was also killed.

Venezuela’s armed forces announced they are deploying field hospitals to La Guaira capable of performing emergency surgeries. A Reuters team in the city Thursday spotted a military convoy near the local stadium engaged in aid operations.

Hospitals in other affected areas were also stretched beyond their limits. At a hospital in Moron, Dr. Augusto Ramirez was working through a 24-hour emergency shift and found himself running dangerously low on even the most basic supplies.

“We need blood pressure monitors, gauze, thermometers, gloves, plaster, painkillers — everything,” Ramirez told Reuters.

Along with two other doctors and additional staff, Ramirez had treated 112 patients since the earthquakes collapsed homes and knocked out electricity and water service in the town. Nine people have died from skull fractures and other injuries — including three children.