Author: Admin

Three high-ranking commanders within Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been identified in a newly released report by Amnesty International, which accuses them of directing war crimes during the siege and takeover of el-Fasher, a city in North Darfur, last October.

The report was unveiled Wednesday in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya. At the launch event, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard stated that the Rapid Support Forces — known as the RSF — carried out crimes against humanity and acts of ethnic cleansing during the assault. Callamard called for an immediate ceasefire and urged the deployment of a United Nations protection force to keep civilians safe.

The RSF’s capture of el-Fasher in October 2025 resulted in more than 6,000 deaths over a span of just three days — an assault that United Nations experts described as bearing the “hallmarks of genocide.”

As part of its investigation, Amnesty International reviewed nine videos. The footage allegedly showed one RSF commander executing civilians, a second torturing detainees, and a third giving orders to torture prisoners.

Callamard outlined a sweeping list of crimes she said the RSF committed, including murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, other forms of sexual violence, enslavement, extermination, and persecution. She urged world leaders to step in and put an end to attacks on civilians that she said continue “unhindered.”

“It also requires strengthening accountability by ensuring sufficient support for all existing accountability mechanisms for Sudan, including the International Criminal Court, and U.N. and African Union-backed fact-finding missions. Commanders identified in this report should be investigated and, where there is sufficient admissible evidence, prosecuted,” Callamard said.

The RSF has not issued any response to the Amnesty International report. The rights organization said it sent the findings to the paramilitary group’s leader, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, last month but received no reply.

The conflict in Sudan began in April 2023, stemming from long-standing tensions between the country’s military and the RSF. Since then, the war has claimed the lives of at least 59,000 people, forced roughly 13 million people from their homes, and driven large portions of the country into famine. More than 30 million people are currently in need of humanitarian aid.

LONDON (AP) — Two British police officers are facing a potential gross misconduct investigation after they placed handcuffs on and arrested an 18-year-old who had been stabbed and was dying, the Independent Office for Police Conduct announced Wednesday.

The officers, who belong to the Hampshire Constabulary, were the first to respond to the scene in December 2025 after Henry Nowak was stabbed in the southern England coastal city of Southampton. The man who killed him, Vickrum Digwa, who is Sikh, gave officers a false account, claiming he had been the victim of a racist attack carried out by Nowak, who was white.

Body camera footage captured Nowak’s final moments, showing him in handcuffs telling the responding officers that he had been stabbed and was unable to breathe. The video sparked significant public outrage after it became widely known.

The police conduct office stated that the two officers “may have potentially breached the professional behavior standards of duties and responsibilities, use of force, and discreditable conduct.”

Derrick Campbell, the director of engagement at the IOPC, noted that the investigation “does not necessarily mean that disciplinary proceedings will follow. At the end of our investigation, we will decide whether any officers should face disciplinary proceedings.”

The watchdog agency is also examining whether race or religion influenced the officers’ decision-making during the incident. Far-right activists and politicians later used Nowak’s death to push claims that the justice system is biased against white people.

Following the conviction of Digwa, 23, for murder last month — for which he was sentenced to a minimum of 21 years in prison — violence broke out in Southampton.

The world-renowned Calgary Stampede opened its gates Friday, but the festive atmosphere is being overshadowed by a growing movement to separate Alberta from Canada — a debate that is stirring up conflict at rodeos and summer events throughout the oil-rich province.

In October, Alberta residents will cast ballots in a non-binding referendum asking whether the province should begin the constitutionally required legal steps toward eventually holding a binding independence vote. It marks the first time any Canadian province outside of Quebec has ever brought such a question to the public.

The tension has already disrupted some events. In the central Alberta town of Sundre, organizers called off an annual rodeo parade after they chose to ban a pro-independence float from participating — a decision that triggered what organizers described as a wave of hostile messages online. The organizers did not respond to a request for comment.

At the Ponoka Stampede, a booth set up by Alberta separatists under a “let’s talk” banner drew both curious visitors and frustrated attendees who simply wanted to enjoy a beloved summer tradition without the political noise.

“I’m getting tired of hearing about it because it’s just causing a lot of people to be stressed or angry with each other for no reason,” said Leanne Brown, a retired police officer who was at the Ponoka event, located roughly 150 kilometers — about 93 miles — northeast of Sundre. “It’s a little too much all of the time.”

Not everyone shared that frustration. Chris Parsons, 44, who works in the oil and gas industry and backs Alberta independence, said he was pleased to see separatists represented both in a parade and at a fairground booth alongside the rodeo.

“Maybe they — the federal government — will take us a little bit more seriously,” Parsons said.

An Ipsos poll conducted in early June found that support for Alberta independence has dropped 10 percentage points since January. Just 19% of voters now say they support the province starting the process to leave the Canadian federation.

The October 19 referendum question will not directly trigger a split from Canada. Rather, it will ask voters whether the Alberta government should initiate the legal steps required by the constitution before any future binding independence vote could take place.

Supporters of separation have long expressed frustration with the environmental policies advanced under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, arguing those policies damaged Alberta’s oil and gas sector.

Trudeau’s successor, Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney, has been working to address some of those concerns through a federal-provincial agreement designed to help Alberta expand its energy industry. Carney confirmed he will attend this year’s Calgary Stampede. Speaking to reporters last week, he declared that Canada “is the greatest country in the world.”

“We’re not perfect, we can get better, but Canada’s worth fighting for. And standing up for Canada and supporting Canada is important,” Carney said. Carney, who largely grew up in Edmonton — Alberta’s provincial capital — previously led the Bank of England in 2016 when Britain held its referendum to leave the European Union. He has referred to the vote being pursued by Alberta’s right-wing provincial government as a “dangerous bluff.”

Officials in Ottawa are also concerned that the referendum could undermine Carney’s efforts to present a unified Canadian position during the upcoming renegotiation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. Carney is scheduled to be in Alberta on Wednesday for Canada Day celebrations.

The Calgary Stampede is far more than a rodeo — it’s a 10-day celebration of Western Canadian culture drawing people from across the country and around the world. The event, Alberta’s largest tourist attraction, features chuckwagon racing, pancake breakfasts, live concerts, and what is billed as the world’s largest outdoor rodeo. It’s a tradition that brings together people from all walks of life, from young children to top business executives.

Politicians from across the political spectrum routinely attend the Stampede and other Alberta summer events, which serve as major networking opportunities.

Neither those pushing for independence nor those advocating for a united Canada will have a float in the official Calgary Stampede parade this year — applications closed back in February, according to a Stampede spokeswoman. However, many unofficial Stampede-related events are organized by community groups and politicians. The spokeswoman noted that the Stampede remains focused on “bringing people together through Western hospitality and community spirit.”

American and Iranian officials sat down for technical negotiations in Doha, Qatar on Wednesday, working toward a durable ceasefire and an agreement on how ships will move through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a source with direct knowledge of the discussions and an Iranian official.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to meet with Qatar’s prime minister — who is serving as a mediator alongside Pakistan — to help set the stage for the negotiations. However, neither Kushner nor Witkoff participated directly in the talks themselves, the source said.

The negotiations are rooted in a 14-point interim agreement that was signed last month. That accord was intended to bring a halt to the conflict that erupted following U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and launch a 60-day window for negotiating a permanent peace arrangement.

Despite that framework, the two nations have publicly disagreed over what the interim deal actually means, and that tension has fueled a series of back-and-forth military strikes over the past week.

Two senior Iranian sources said Wednesday that Iran is firmly committed to gaining international recognition of its authority over the strait, including the right to collect fees from vessels entering or leaving the Gulf — by force if necessary.

Shipping through the strait has partially resumed. Before the war broke out, the waterway handled roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas trade.

The Doha talks are organized into sessions involving lead negotiators and subject-matter specialists, the source familiar with the proceedings said. Discussions began Tuesday night and were still ongoing Wednesday, according to the Iranian official.

Iran has publicly identified two top priorities: reaching an agreement on management of the Strait of Hormuz and securing the release of $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets. The Iranian official confirmed those two issues are the focus of the current round of talks. The U.S., for its part, has stated its primary goal is ensuring ships can move freely through the strait.

Iran’s state media reported Wednesday that a foreign container ship ran aground in the Strait of Hormuz after drifting into shallow waters outside the shipping lane designated by Iranian authorities.

Vandana Hari, founder of oil market analysis firm Vanda Insights, described the situation in the strait as incomplete: “Hormuz continues to reopen but it’s patchy, unpredictable, and not fully transparent.”

The war has had wide-ranging consequences, including Iranian attacks on Gulf states that host U.S. military installations, thousands of deaths — primarily in Iran and Lebanon — and a significant rise in oil and fuel costs.

President Trump is also facing political pressure to limit the economic damage from the conflict ahead of November’s midterm elections, which will decide which party controls Congress. In Iran, the country’s theocratic government survived the war but is dealing with public anger over a badly damaged economy.

Oil prices, which already dropped sharply during the second quarter of the year, fell by more than 1% on Wednesday.

The interim agreement also addresses a separate but related conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. The U.S. has supported a parallel set of negotiations between Israel and Lebanon’s government, which produced a security framework. However, Hezbollah has rejected that framework, and analysts caution it could cement Israel’s ongoing presence in southern Lebanon.

Diplomatic activity surrounding Lebanon was described as intense in the period leading up to Tuesday evening, according to the source with knowledge of the broader talks.

Authorities in South Africa arrested more than 900 individuals during anti-migrant protests that took place on Tuesday, according to a senior police official who spoke out on Wednesday.

The large-scale arrests came as demonstrations against migrants swept through the country, prompting a significant law enforcement response.

Several people lost their lives Wednesday morning when a fire broke out at a ten-story apartment building in Antwerp, Belgium, according to local police.

Firefighters received an emergency call at 9:53 a.m. local time — 7:53 a.m. GMT — reporting a “raging fire” on the eighth floor of the building, which is located in Antwerp’s Linkeroever neighborhood, police announced on their website.

The apartment block was home to more than 200 residents, all of whom were evacuated from the building. Police confirmed that in addition to the fatalities, several people sustained injuries in the incident.

Fire crews from multiple districts converged on the scene to battle the blaze.

Authorities issued a public safety warning to people living near the building, stating: “We ask local residents affected by the smoke to close windows and doors and, if necessary, switch off ventilation.”

Authorities in Greece say five people were hospitalized after three firebomb attacks struck apartment buildings in the northern city of Thessaloniki early Wednesday, with the attacks apparently aimed at the homes of members of the country’s ruling conservative New Democracy party.

All three incidents occurred between 4 a.m. and 4:45 a.m., with attackers using makeshift explosive devices constructed from camping gas canisters. Police said all five injuries resulted from the final attack of the three, during which vehicles including cars and motorcycles were set on fire.

Among the vehicles destroyed was one reportedly belonging to a New Democracy parliamentary candidate. That candidate sustained burn injuries, and her mother was admitted to intensive care with burns as well, according to police. Three additional residents of the apartment building were treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation.

Attacks by shadowy militant groups in Greece against politicians, law enforcement, and other authority figures are not uncommon. The vast majority result only in property damage with no casualties.

The latest attacks follow a similar incident in July 2025, when a bomb went off outside the Thessaloniki home of the president of Greece’s prison guards association. That official was not hurt, though two bystanders sustained minor injuries from broken glass. In June 2024, a police officer stationed outside a top judge’s home in Athens was wounded in a gasoline bomb attack.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian state television reported Wednesday that a foreign container ship ran aground in the Strait of Hormuz after the vessel failed to follow the route Iran has designated for ships passing through the waterway. No additional details about the ship were immediately provided.

The report appeared designed to reinforce Iran’s assertions of authority over the strait — a waterway long recognized internationally as open passage, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas flowed during peacetime, following the U.S.-Iran war.

The news broke as U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, were in Doha, Qatar, for discussions aimed at bringing the conflict to a permanent close.

Technical-level diplomatic talks got underway Wednesday in Qatar, according to two regional officials who requested anonymity to speak about the closed-door sessions. Negotiators are working to hammer out specifics that would allow top leaders to finalize a deal, though major sticking points remain — particularly regarding the strait and Lebanon.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge that the negotiations had begun.

Under an interim agreement, Iran and the United States agreed to allow ships to pass through the strait without fees for 60 days. However, Tehran has insisted it must control vessel routes and eventually collect passage fees — a demand that breaks with longstanding practice. The U.S. and numerous Gulf Arab nations have rejected the fee arrangement. An attempt by Oman and a United Nations agency to establish an alternative route near Oman’s coastline triggered attacks across the Middle East last weekend, underscoring how volatile the situation remains.

Iranian state TV reported that the grounded ship

Two people died from suffocation while taking part in World Cup celebrations in Mexico City, according to the capital’s health secretariat, which announced the news in the early hours of Wednesday.

A road bridge linking North Korea and Russia is not expected to open in the near future, according to U.S. think tank 38 North, after satellite images revealed that facilities on the Russian side of the crossing remain unfinished.

The 850-meter bridge — roughly 2,789 feet long — will connect to Russia’s highway system and would mark the first-ever road link between the two nations. The project was agreed upon during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Pyongyang in June 2024. Russia’s embassy in Pyongyang had announced in April that the crossing would open on June 19.

Analysts have noted that the bridge could eventually boost logistics activity between the two countries by more than 40%, while also helping North Korea lessen its significant dependence on China by strengthening economic ties with Russia.

In a report released Tuesday, 38 North said satellite imagery shows the bridge spanning the Tumen River appears to be finished, and North Korea’s border facilities are mostly complete. However, the think tank said significant work remains on the Russian side before the crossing can begin operating.

According to 38 North, the North Korean side already features a large warehouse, a parking lot, paved roads, and what appears to be a finished frontier post. By contrast, Russia’s probable customs complex is far less developed and is expected to be at least three times larger when complete.

Russia’s transport ministry declined to offer any comment on the matter. The North Korean embassy in Moscow had not responded to a request for comment at the time of reporting.

The bridge has come to represent the growing relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang. The two nations have grown increasingly close in recent years, largely through military cooperation tied to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine — a relationship that has drawn concern from both the United States and South Korea.

Doo Jin-ho, who leads the Eurasia Center at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy in Seoul, said the bridge had originally been expected to open before the end of the year. He said the accelerated June target appeared to have been more of a political gesture — essentially a symbolic “gift” — rather than a realistic deadline.

Russia and North Korea held a ceremony in April to mark the physical connection of the bridge. Russia’s transport ministry has said the crossing is designed to handle as many as 300 vehicles and 2,850 people per day.

Doo said the delay is not likely to cause any immediate economic harm, but it does raise questions about how well Moscow and Pyongyang are coordinating their efforts.

“The issue is more about trust and symbolism than economic impact,” he said.

LAHORE, Pakistan — Grief-stricken families and community members came together Wednesday in the Pakistani city of Lahore to lay to rest 14 young students who lost their lives when the roof of a tutoring center gave way the day before.

Authorities are now investigating whether negligence tied to ongoing construction at the building was responsible for the deadly collapse. Eight other children who were injured in the incident remain hospitalized in stable condition.

Both residents in the area and early police findings suggest the tutoring center had been operating out of an older building. Investigators believe the unfinished second-floor roof may have given way due to shoddy construction work.

Senior police official Kamran Faisal confirmed that at least two individuals had been taken into custody, including the owner of the building, as investigators work to establish who bears responsibility. Faisal said negligence on the part of the owner and construction workers appears to be at the root of the disaster.

“We are still investigating to determine exactly whose negligence resulted in this tragic incident,” Faisal said.

Funeral prayers for the victims, all of whom were 14 years old or younger, began before sunrise and carried on into Wednesday morning. The majority of the children were laid to rest in a nearby cemetery, though some families chose to transport their loved ones to their hometowns for burial.

Overnight, ambulances carried the children’s remains back to their families in Kahna, a neighborhood on the edge of Lahore. As the bodies arrived home, the sound of wailing filled the streets. Mothers and female relatives kept vigil beside the children through the night, while classmates and friends stood nearby, visibly overcome with sorrow.

Among those attending the Wednesday morning funerals was Mohammad Ashfaq, a laborer who lost both his 7-year-old son and his nephew in the collapse.

“I cannot express my pain and grief in words,” Ashfaq said, weeping, as family members tried to offer him comfort.

Not far away, Muhammad Farooq mourned the death of his young daughter.

“Yesterday she went to her tuition class at around 4 p.m.,” Farooq recalled. “Around 4:45 p.m., my family called me and said the roof of the tuition center had collapsed. They told me many children were trapped under the debris. Fourteen children were killed, and the injured were taken to the hospital.”

Local resident Mohammad Tahir described how neighbors rushed to help before emergency responders could arrive.

“Rescuers arrived quickly, but before they reached us, neighbors rushed in with shovels and even dug through the debris with their bare hands,” Tahir said. “We also pulled children from the rubble, but many could not be saved.”

Building collapses are not uncommon in Pakistan, where construction regulations are frequently ignored and structures are often built using substandard materials in an effort to cut costs.

For many in the community, grief has given way to anger. Residents have placed blame on the tutoring center’s owner for holding classes in what they say was a deteriorating, unsafe building, even as construction was underway, and they are calling for those responsible to face serious consequences.

“We don’t know whose funeral to attend first or whose home to visit first to offer condolences,” Tahir said.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping used a high-profile address Wednesday to hold up his country’s swift industrialization as an alternative path forward for developing nations, projecting a sense of growing confidence both domestically and on the global stage.

Xi, now 14 years into his leadership, pointed out that China accomplished in just a few decades what took Western nations centuries to achieve.

“We advocate the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, providing Chinese wisdom, Chinese solutions and Chinese strength for addressing major issues facing humanity,” he said during an event celebrating the 105th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party.

China has long pushed back against U.S. dominance in global affairs. While Beijing has said it does not seek to replace the existing world order, it wants to reshape it to better reflect the interests of developing countries. Xi’s government went toe-to-toe with the U.S. last year, ultimately pressuring President Donald Trump to roll back import tariffs that had been placed on Chinese goods.

Xi told the audience that the world has entered a new era of instability and change, with humanity standing at a critical turning point. He renewed earlier commitments to build a new kind of international relationship aimed at fostering global peace and development.

The speech, delivered at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, echoed many of the same themes Xi raised at the party’s 100th anniversary celebration in 2021 — among them, the importance of a powerful military and the goal of bringing Taiwan under Chinese rule.

Xi stressed the need to accelerate the military’s development to reach world-class status, while keeping the armed forces firmly under Communist Party control. In recent years, a number of high-ranking generals have been ousted as part of an anti-corruption campaign, which many observers also view as an effort to ensure loyalty within the military ranks.

WARSAW — Polish special services are on alert for possible Russian sabotage efforts aimed at stoking conflict between Poland and Ukraine, according to the minister responsible for overseeing those services, Tomasz Siemoniak, who spoke to RMF FM Radio on Wednesday.

The relationship between Poland and Ukraine has grown strained following a decision by Polish President Karol Nawrocki to revoke Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Poland’s top state honor. The move stemmed from a dispute over Ukraine naming a military unit after insurgents held responsible for the killing of Polish civilians during World War Two.

Siemoniak noted that Russian disinformation campaigns targeting Poland have picked up significantly in recent weeks, with automated accounts and paid trolls working to amplify disagreements and shape public opinion online.

“Russia’s dream, the dream of the Russian services, was and is the greatest possible tension between Poland and Ukraine,” Siemoniak stated.

When asked whether Russia might go as far as staging an attack on Ukrainians living in Poland to further inflame public sentiment, Siemoniak said such a scenario was entirely believable.

“We observe the interest of people who are commissioned by Russian services in various facilities which are important from the Polish-Ukrainian point of view,” he said.

Siemoniak clarified that this surveillance-like interest goes beyond military bases and critical infrastructure. It also extends to humanitarian aid organizations and other locations tied to cooperation between the two nations.

He stressed that no specific plot has been identified as imminent, but that Polish authorities must stay ahead of any Russian attempt to take advantage of the current friction between the two neighboring countries.

On a broader level, Siemoniak said intelligence agencies across the Western alliance are worried about the threat of Russian hybrid attacks — and potentially even direct physical strikes — against Poland and the Baltic states.

“Russia has an arsenal of such actions and… they are preparing them,” he said. “We have to take into account various possibilities.”

Myanmar’s new government is planning to restart a deeply controversial $3.6 billion dam project at Myitsone in the country’s northern Kachin state, with a target of completing the work within approximately eight years, according to two sources familiar with remarks made by Khet Htein Nan, the region’s top administrator.

The push to revive the project follows a trip last month by junta chief-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing to China, which has long championed the massive hydropower development in the war-ravaged country’s northernmost province.

Htet Paing Htoo, a member of the Kachin State parliament, told Reuters that the long-dormant construction effort is about to get underway. “It will begin shortly,” he said, referring to work that was suspended in 2011 after an unusually strong wave of public protest against what would have been Myanmar’s largest hydropower project. “An official announcement will be released. The president himself has already stated that it will be restarted.”

The 2011 halt frustrated China, but widespread resentment toward Beijing’s heavy influence in Myanmar — combined with environmental worries about flooding an area roughly the size of Singapore — ultimately won out over plans to export 90% of the dam’s 6 gigawatts of electricity output to China. That generating capacity would place Myitsone among Southeast Asia’s biggest hydropower projects, though it would still fall well short of China’s Three Gorges Dam, which has an installed capacity of 22.5 gigawatts.

A spokeswoman for the presidential office confirmed that restarting the dam was part of discussions during Min Aung Hlaing’s China visit. She noted the project could supply more than half of the 10 gigawatts of electricity that a country facing serious power shortages desperately needs. The spokeswoman, Khaing Khaing Soe, said the government is carefully weighing concerns about flooding and the displacement of local communities. “We are analysing these matters in detail, evaluating the extent of the benefits versus the negative impacts, to strike a balance,” she said on Tuesday.

Khet Htein Nan’s office and China’s foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The two sources who described the administrator’s remarks asked not to be identified, as those discussions were held privately.

If the Myitsone dam moves forward, the price tag could be dramatically higher than originally projected. Based on the International Renewable Energy Agency’s most recent average construction cost estimate of $1,914 per kilowatt for Asian hydropower projects outside China and India, a revived Myitsone dam could run as high as $11.5 billion — more than three times its 2009 price.

Three officials, including the Kachin State lawmaker, confirmed that Min Aung Hlaing’s government — which came to power in April following a widely criticized election won by a military-aligned political party — is actively working to bring the project back to life. The effort comes against the backdrop of an ongoing civil war sparked by the military’s 2021 coup, in which Min Aung Hlaing’s forces overthrew the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who had herself opposed the Myitsone dam.

In Myitkyina, the state capital located about 37 kilometers (23 miles) from the dam site, Khet Htein Nan has made clear in private conversations that the government is determined to move forward, the two sources said. At a June 23 discussion on the dam, the chief minister reportedly told attendees that China is now prepared to address environmental concerns using new technology. “They will use technology to ensure it can withstand such risks,” one source quoted the minister as saying. “There is nothing to worry about.”

Those assurances come as concerns about seismic risk have grown. A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck central Myanmar last March and killed thousands has heightened fears about building a massive dam in a geologically unstable region. The proposed structure would stand 152 meters (500 feet) tall and span 152 meters (500 feet) wide at the point where the Mali and Nmai rivers meet.

A third source with direct knowledge of internal government discussions cited the chief minister’s remarks at a June 22 meeting, where he reportedly described the Myitsone project as a potential “historic achievement.” That source added: “The chief minister mentioned that China fully supports and encourages the resumption of the Myitsone project.”

Reuters was unable to determine whether Myanmar’s original arrangement — which called for sending most of the dam’s electricity to China — had been revised.

Meanwhile, the government has been working to build public support in areas now under military control. Following a visit to Myitkyina in April by the former deputy military chief, at least 26 public meetings were held across Kachin State in favor of the project, according to two members of a government-backed committee. “What we want is to provide the public with accurate information and allow them to make their own decisions,” said committee member Naw Khon.

Despite those efforts, resistance remains strong. A coalition of 49 civil society organizations recently called for the project to be abandoned entirely. In a joint statement issued on May 5, the groups declared: “It offers no benefits to the public and will only result in the severe destruction and loss of people’s lives, homes, and property.”

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — Angelica Mundrain has spent six agonizing days waiting for the heavy equipment necessary to recover the bodies of her son, niece, and nephew, who remain buried beneath the crushed remains of her beachfront apartment building. Massive concrete slabs and mangled metal are all that stand between her and her family — and the machinery needed to move it has not come.

She is not alone. Across the northern state of La Guaira, earthquake survivors are asking the same desperate question: Who is actually in charge?

Venezuela’s government, which has long portrayed itself as a protector of its people, has failed to live up to that image when it mattered most, according to many survivors. The powerful back-to-back earthquakes on June 24 have exposed deep failures within the ruling party — now led by acting President Delcy Rodriguez — after 27 years in power.

“We’ve been abandoned,” Mundrain said Tuesday, seated in a chair on the street in front of the ruins of the 11-story building she once called home. “We feel helpless. What we have seen is a lack of organization, a lack of empathy, a lack of everything.”

In the critical first 72 hours following the disaster — which brought down apartment buildings, restaurants, pharmacies, hotels, and convenience stores throughout La Guaira state, Caracas, and surrounding areas — the government’s visible presence on the ground was largely limited to directing traffic. Police officers, intelligence agents, and military personnel were stationed at intersections while the search for survivors was left largely to ordinary citizens.

Civilians, many working on their own and some alongside foreign rescue teams, combed through rubble looking for loved ones. Ambulances sat trapped in miles-long traffic jams. Hospitals were overwhelmed, understaffed, and lacking basic supplies. Emergency responders showed up with little or no equipment.

A week after the earthquakes, residents of coastal communities in La Guaira credited most of the rescues and body recoveries to fellow Venezuelans and international teams equipped with thermal cameras, sound detection technology, and trained search dogs. Many noted that while these groups worked tirelessly, Venezuelan government personnel in uniform stood by and watched — and in some cases, posed for photos.

Tulane University professor David Smilde, who has spent three decades studying Venezuela, said the disaster has made painfully clear that the country’s government is fundamentally broken. He connected the earthquake response failures to the stunning January 3rd capture of then-President Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces — describing both as signs of a state that “was not able to defend itself at all.”

“It also can’t do anything like get started with digging people out,” Smilde said, adding that the situation should be deeply concerning for Rodriguez, who was sworn in after Maduro was removed from power and taken to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

Smilde attributed the poor response to the mass exodus of workers from the public sector, driven by extremely low wages and widespread corruption — including thousands of people who remain on the government payroll but have not actually worked in months or even years. He said a functioning government would have clearly defined roles and emergency protocols already in place.

“It’s like trying to have a baseball team with three people on the field. You’re not sure who’s going to be the pitcher, who’s going to be catching, and who’s going to be outfielder,” he said, describing the government’s lack of coordination.

Wealth and political connections also shaped which victims received attention. One collapsed building drew heavy police and military presence — and residents quickly figured out why. Officers from a neighboring state were searching for a captain, while military students and national guard members were looking for a major general.

A telescopic crane — exactly the kind of equipment Mundrain desperately needs — sat parked for hours outside that building. The families of well-connected residents were able to rent it. Mundrain cannot afford to do the same.

“I think that if there were someone in a position of authority in each of these apartments, there would be a well-oiled machine working like they have in other residences,” she said, gesturing toward her destroyed building.

Frustration over the response has boiled over into confrontations. In one incident at a collapsed public housing building, residents blocked traffic to prevent a government-provided excavator from leaving the site and physically pulled the operator out of the cab to stop it from going.

Venezuelan authorities have confirmed that 1,943 people died and more than 10,500 were injured in the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that struck on June 24. Thousands more remain unaccounted for.

On Tuesday, rescue teams continued pulling some survivors from the debris, giving grieving families a fragile reason for hope — even as the odds of finding anyone alive grew slimmer with each passing hour. Experts note that the first 48 to 72 hours after a disaster are the most critical for rescue efforts, though survival is possible longer if victims have access to food and water.

Electrician Daniel Castillo managed to rescue his mother and son from their second-floor apartment in a collapsed public housing building in La Guaira just hours after the earthquakes hit. His brother’s body remained inside for another full day before he could reach him.

On Tuesday, Castillo stood in line to receive a free bag of hygiene supplies — including toilet paper and soap — distributed from a tent run by the Venezuelan armed forces. He had harsh words for the government’s handling of the crisis.

“You see the guards, and their uniforms are spotless, not dirty at all,” Castillo said, drawing a sharp contrast between the immaculate appearance of Venezuela’s National Guard members and the dust-caked clothing of civilians and foreign rescuers who have been digging through rubble for days. “The government did nothing.”

Two people have lost their lives after a wildfire swept through a forested settlement in northern Greece, according to the country’s fire brigade.

The blaze ignited in bushland on Tuesday afternoon and rapidly spread, driven by powerful winds, until it consumed a home near the village of Liti — located roughly 25 kilometers, or about 16 miles, from the northern city of Thessaloniki. Local media reported on the destruction.

Firefighters working to extinguish the flames discovered the body of a man near the house, and upon entering the structure, found a second victim inside. A woman who sustained burn injuries was pulled to safety from the same location.

Before the fire reached the settlement, authorities had ordered residents to evacuate and directed them to gather at a nearby playing field.

Greece, along with other nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea, is considered one of the world’s most vulnerable regions for wildfires. Scientists point to a rapidly warming climate as the driving force behind increasingly destructive fire seasons during hot, dry summers.

A Spanish law designed to provide reparations by offering citizenship to descendants of exiled nationals has ignited a fierce political debate, with conservative and far-right opposition leaders accusing the Socialist-led government of engineering a new voter base ahead of next year’s elections.

According to government figures, at least 544,722 people have been granted citizenship under the law, which was passed in 2022. Of those, 306,000 have signed up on the electoral roll. Roughly 650,000 additional applications are still waiting to be processed.

This week, right-wing politicians leveled accusations — without presenting any evidence — that the Socialists were meddling in applications from countries where residents were less likely to vote for them, and strategically placing new voters in competitive districts to gain a few additional parliamentary seats. The far-right party Vox went further on Tuesday, calling for a complete suspension of all mail-in ballots cast from outside Spain.

The accusations echo rhetoric used by Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and U.S. President Donald Trump, both of whom made claims about rigged elections ahead of major votes. The controversy comes at a difficult moment for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who faces mounting pressure to call early elections before August 2027 amid a stalled parliament and corruption scandals involving people close to him.

Current polling indicates the conservative People’s Party, known as the PP, is on track to win the most votes in the next election but would need support from Vox to form a government.

PP leader Alberto Nuñez Feijoo made his position clear during a Monday radio appearance, saying: “Since the numbers don’t add up for [Sanchez] with the current voters, he’s going to see if manufacturing voters will.”

Spain’s government fired back, calling Feijoo’s remarks “profoundly irresponsible” and pointing out that the government has no authority over where newly naturalized citizens choose to register. The application window for citizenship under the law closed last October.

Officials also criticized opposition figures for blurring the lines between the citizenship law and a separate three-month amnesty program, which offers legal residency to undocumented migrants but does not grant citizenship or voting rights. Vox had claimed that program was also a secret effort to reshape the country’s electorate.

The law in question, known as the “Democratic Memory” law, expands on a 2007 measure that gave citizenship to the grandchildren of approximately half a million people who fled Spain during the 1936-39 civil war and the dictatorship of Francisco Franco that followed, as well as first-generation descendants of Spaniards living abroad.

In 2022, the Sanchez government broadened those rights to include the adult children of people who received citizenship under the 2007 law, descendants of individuals persecuted for their sexual orientation or beliefs, and women who lost their Spanish citizenship as a result of marrying foreign nationals during the Franco years.

Spain is not alone in this practice — Italy, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, and several other European nations also extend citizenship to descendants of their nationals living abroad, including grandchildren, regardless of the country’s political history.

Despite the political tension, overseas voter participation remains relatively low. Only 9% of Spain’s diaspora, which numbers around 2.3 million, cast ballots in the 2023 election. While votes from abroad have trended toward the Socialists in some regional contests this year, the party has suffered significant losses domestically.

A mysterious crash involving a small aircraft that struck Beijing’s tallest building has sent shockwaves through China’s low-altitude aviation industry and exposed troubling gaps in the country’s airspace safety systems.

The single-engine, two-seat light sport aircraft struck the 108-story CITIC Tower at 5:55 p.m. local time on June 26, according to district authorities in Beijing’s Chaoyang district. The pilot was killed and 13 other people at the scene were injured. The pilot’s identity has not been released.

In the aftermath, at least one Beijing-based company offering scenic flight services has shut down its tours, and a provider in the eastern city of Qingdao has also halted operations.

Beijing Capital Helicopter told Reuters that a broad pause was underway. “There has been a nationwide suspension because of the security incident in Beijing,” the company said, adding that it had no timeline for when services would restart. “It could take one or two months. We are also waiting for the official notification.”

Qingdao Hengyi General Aviation also cited control measures as the reason for its suspension, saying it was uncertain when those restrictions might be lifted.

Reuters reached out to some of the more than 100,000 companies operating in China’s low-altitude aviation sector and found widespread confusion on the ground, with many awaiting formal guidance from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, known as the CAAC. The agency has not responded to requests for comment.

Not all operators suspended services. Hongyan General Aviation, which runs flights in Sichuan, Guangdong, and Xinjiang, said its flight training and experience-flight programs were continuing as normal. An aviation school in central Hubei province also said it was accepting bookings.

Beijing district officials confirmed an investigation is underway but did not name the pilot or identify the building in their statement, which was later reposted by the state-run Beijing Daily. Major national outlets, including Xinhua news agency and China Central Television, have not covered the incident. Online discussion of the crash has since been removed from Chinese social media platforms.

Witnesses told Reuters that bystanders near the CITIC Tower on the day of the crash were ordered by police to erase any photos or videos from their mobile phones.

Aviation experts say the crash raises serious concerns. It remains unclear how the aircraft was able to fly into an area bordering a permanent no-fly zone that covers offices of China’s central government and the ruling Communist Party.

Flight tracking data from Flightradar24, reviewed by Reuters, showed that a Hainan Airlines Airbus A330 jet traveling from Urumqi suddenly stopped its descent toward Beijing Capital International Airport and climbed to a higher altitude around the time of the crash, after its flight path crossed with that of the small twin-seat aircraft. The passenger jet landed safely about 30 minutes later. Hainan Airlines did not respond to a request for comment.

Keith Tonkin, managing director of the Australia-based consultancy Aviation Projects, said the incident reveals a significant vulnerability. “Without knowing a lot of detail, the incident exposes a gap in the ability of aviation and defence authorities to prevent such an incident, whether intentional or otherwise,” he said. “There may be specific measures in place in Beijing of which we are unaware, in which case there will be some concern about their effectiveness.”

Under Chinese regulations, all flights — including non-airline general aviation — must receive prior approval. Operators are required to submit detailed flight plans to flight-control authorities by 3 p.m. the day before takeoff, and flying over urban areas is generally prohibited under Chinese civil aviation law.

Tonkin added that the crash will likely force a closer look at how China balances the growth of its low-altitude economy with public safety. “The incident will no doubt result in even more careful consideration of how to realise the value of the low-altitude economy while managing the low but real risk of an aircraft either intentionally or accidentally flying into a building or other high-value infrastructure,” he said.

The CAAC has previously projected that China’s low-altitude economy — which covers both manned and unmanned aviation at lower elevations — could grow into a 3.5 trillion yuan (approximately $516 billion) market by 2035.

Russia’s top defense official personally signed off on a secret military training program in China last year, with at least four generals from both countries directly involved, according to two European officials and classified documents reviewed by Reuters.

The officials said the participation of such high-level figures in training connected to the Ukraine war underscores how significant this cooperation is to both Moscow and Beijing — even as China continues to deny the program ever happened.

A classified Russian document reviewed by Reuters referenced an internal directive issued by Defence Minister Andrei Belousov in August 2025. According to that document, a Russian armed forces delegation traveled to China to take part in training exercises at People’s Liberation Army facilities, in accordance with Belousov’s order.

Radiological, Biological, and Chemical Warfare Instruction

Among the training sessions described in the documents was a three-week course held at a military facility in Beijing in November, focused on protection against radiological, chemical, and biological threats. Images and descriptions in two separate reports showed Russian soldiers receiving instruction from a Chinese trainer, examining a model nuclear reactor, and learning about “chemical reconnaissance,” “radiation reconnaissance,” and how to shield ventilation systems from contamination.

One of the European officials noted that including this type of warfare training highlighted the strategic depth of the exchanges, calling the subject matter especially sensitive within military circles.

Neither Russia’s nor China’s defense ministries responded to requests for comment. China’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying its position on the Ukraine conflict has not changed, adding that “the relevant allegations are entirely unfounded.”

Beijing maintains it is neutral in the conflict and portrays itself as a potential peace broker.

A Reuters report published last month, drawing on European intelligence sources and military documents, revealed that China trained roughly 200 Russian military personnel in November, some of whom have since been deployed to Ukraine. The Kremlin declined to address that report directly but criticized what it called “false information” coming from Western outlets.

On June 15, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas stated that Brussels had independently confirmed through its own channels that the training occurred and was evaluating what steps to take next. Beijing dismissed her remarks as “nothing but smears.”

EU Weighs Its Response

European nations, which have viewed Russia as their primary security concern since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, have grown increasingly uneasy as relations between Moscow and Beijing have deepened. China is the world’s second-largest economy and a major trading partner for the EU.

Within the 27-member bloc, private discussions are focused on whether additional measures are warranted in response to the training, balanced against the economic ties that have long defined the EU’s relationship with China. The EU has already sanctioned Chinese companies it says are helping to fuel Russia’s war effort.

A third official based in Brussels told Reuters that the bloc needs to stop seeing China primarily as a trade partner and instead focus on what Kallas described as its role as a “decisive enabler of Russia’s war.”

Both European officials, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the matter, identified the signatories of a July 2 agreement that laid the groundwork for the training as Russian Major General Rustam Khusainov and Chinese Senior Colonel Sun Dayun.

Andrei Kartapolov, a senior member of Russia’s parliament who chairs its defense committee, told Russian outlet RTVI that the training reports were “complete nonsense” and insisted Russia’s military had nothing to gain from China in that regard.

China’s Limited Combat Experience Noted

Russia has amassed substantial battlefield experience over more than four years of fighting in Ukraine, while China — despite having a large and technologically sophisticated military — has not engaged in armed conflict in decades.

Internal Russian military documents reviewed by Reuters offered assessments of both the strengths and shortcomings of the training program. One report covering training conducted in Nanjing praised the quality of equipment, the use of simulators, and the instructors’ strong theoretical knowledge, while also specifically pointing out China’s absence of real combat experience.

Additional documents named three generals who participated in the program. One Russian military document included a full roster of all participants across every course — listing rank, date of birth, organizational affiliation, and security clearance level for each individual, including senior officers.

Colonel General Rustam Muradov, deputy commander-in-chief of Russia’s ground forces, led the Russian delegation, according to the participant list and a second military document. That second document also indicated that Chinese Major General Li Jinsun, who heads the PLA’s Military Academy of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence, was present at the opening of one of the courses. Russian Major General Vitaly Gerasimov participated in a course held in Bengbu, according to the roster.

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey is pulling out all the stops ahead of next month’s NATO summit, flooding its capital with tens of thousands of police officers, activating air defense systems, and banning public events — all while critics raise concerns about restrictions on free speech and the right to assemble.

The sweeping preparations are designed not only to protect the gathering but also to signal Turkey’s strength and reaffirm its dedication to the alliance, even as the country has frequently been viewed as a difficult partner within NATO.

On July 7 and 8, heads of state from all 32 NATO member countries are set to meet in the Turkish capital, including U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump’s past threats to pull the United States out of NATO and reduce American troop deployments have raised serious questions about the alliance’s direction going forward.

As part of its preparations, Turkey has opened a brand-new VIP airport — converted from a former military airfield — built specifically to receive NATO leaders arriving for the summit.

Key topics on the agenda include how much member nations are spending on defense and what role the U.S. will play in the alliance moving forward. Much of the conversation is expected to focus on rebuilding unity after Trump criticized allies for not backing U.S.-led military action against Iran and efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Fatih Ceylan, a former Turkish ambassador to NATO and security analyst at the Ankara Policy Center, offered a measured outlook on what the summit might accomplish. “The important aspect of the meeting is to what extent the rift between the United States and Europe can be healed or narrowed during the summit,” he said. “We should not expect miracles, but nonetheless if there is a convergence of ideas emphasizing the importance of NATO, that should be seen as a success.”

Turkey’s position as the host nation appears to have been a deciding factor in getting Trump to attend. The U.S. president has a well-known personal relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House, Trump put it plainly: “Well, except for the fact that it was being held in Turkey by President Erdogan, I don’t think I would have gone to it.”

In the lead-up to the summit, Erdogan has portrayed Turkey as a dependable ally that consistently takes on responsibility along NATO’s southeastern flank. He has said Turkey is working to make sure the Ankara Summit “will stand as a reference point in NATO’s history.”

Turkey has been a NATO member since 1952 and fields the alliance’s second-largest military force after the United States. The country also has a rapidly expanding defense industry and sits at a strategically vital crossroads between Europe, the Middle East, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus region.

Despite that, Turkey has frequently charted its own course, frustrating fellow alliance members. It has refused to join sanctions against Russia, clashed with Greece, and purchased Russian missile defense systems — a decision that got Turkey kicked out of the U.S.-led F-35 fighter jet program in 2019. Turkey also held up Finland and Sweden’s bids to join NATO until it received concessions on counterterrorism cooperation and arms export restrictions, and it previously blocked the appointments of NATO chiefs in 2009 and 2024 until its demands were met.

At the same time, Turkey’s willingness to act independently has allowed it to serve as a mediator in international conflicts — most notably by brokering a 2022 agreement to move grain through the Black Sea between Ukraine and Russia, and by supporting recent efforts to bring the war in Iran to an end.

Turkey has also had its own frustrations with NATO allies, particularly over what it viewed as a lack of solidarity from the alliance following a failed coup attempt in 2016, and over arms sales restrictions placed on Turkey after it intervened militarily in Syria.

Murat Aslan, an analyst at the Ankara-based SETA think tank, said Turkey developed a habit of acting on its own due to its complicated history with both the United States and Europe — and noted that Europe itself is now discussing its own “strategic autonomy” from the U.S. He said Turkey could serve as a model for how to balance independence with alliance commitments as NATO navigates tensions between Washington and European capitals.

More recently, Turkey has moved closer to the NATO fold. During the war with Iran, alliance missile defenses intercepted four Iranian missiles that struck Turkish territory, highlighting the value of NATO membership. In the weeks before the summit, Italy and Germany each deployed air defense systems to Turkey in response to rising threats.

Hamish Kinnear, principal Middle East and North Africa analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft, described Turkey’s current position in a written analysis: “Turkey wishes to distinguish itself as a foreign policy actor that is independent of NATO and the West. While Turkey is not abandoning its balancing approach, it is tilting closer to the West, primarily because of NATO.”

Inside Ankara, residents are bracing for major disruptions. Strict access controls will be placed on several of the city’s main roads, around airports, the presidential complex where the summit will be held, and around hotels housing foreign delegations. The restrictions will significantly affect daily life in a city of nearly 6 million people.

The newly opened Ankara Airport — built from a former military airfield with expanded runways — is expected to continue operating as a VIP facility after the summit wraps up and will not be open to the general public, officials have said. According to the newspaper Cumhuriyet, building facades along the route from the new airport have been freshly painted as part of a city beautification effort.

While Ankara has dealt with terrorist attacks in the past and is accustomed to heightened security, the measures being put in place for this summit appear to go well beyond what is typical. Authorities have banned demonstrations, concerts, and graduation ceremonies during the summit period, and non-essential government workers have been given leave to help reduce congestion in the city.

More than 200 people suspected of ties to extremist organizations — including the Islamic State — have been detained, authorities confirmed. Media reports indicated that some activists, lawyers, and at least one academic were swept up in the detentions.

A Turkish court has also ordered websites critical of NATO and the summit to be blocked, citing security and public order concerns, according to Engelli Web, a site that monitors internet censorship in Turkey. Additionally, several journalists from Turkish opposition-leaning news outlets were denied press credentials to cover the summit, drawing sharp criticism from media freedom organizations.

Namik Tan, a former Turkish ambassador who now serves as a legislator with Turkey’s main opposition party, was blunt in his assessment: “In the history of the organization, we have never witnessed security measures as stringent and suffocating in a host city for a summit as we are seeing this time in Ankara.”

For some Ankara residents, the restrictions are hitting close to home — literally. Personal trainer Selin Karakoc said she was relieved to learn her July 5 wedding falls just before the restrictions take effect. “Ours could be one of the last weddings in Ankara that week,” she joked.

Ukraine is calling on its European Union partners to redirect €6.6 billion — roughly $7.5 billion — from a bloc fund known as the European Peace Facility toward military support for the country.

Ukrainian officials say the timing is critical, describing the current moment as a six-to-nine month “window of opportunity” on the battlefield that they hope to take full advantage of with increased allied backing.

In a letter reviewed by Reuters, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov outlined the scope of the country’s military funding needs. He noted that Ukraine’s total defense requirements for the current year are estimated at approximately €136 billion, with Ukraine’s own national budget expected to contribute around €53 billion of that total.

TAIPEI — Taiwanese vessels operating off the island’s eastern shoreline have been directed to refuse any attempts by Chinese coast guard ships to board or inspect them, a top Taiwanese official announced Wednesday. Taiwan’s coast guard stands ready to physically step in and block such encounters if they occur.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as part of its own territory, deployed coast guard vessels into the waters east of Taiwan last month. Beijing described the mission as a “special maritime traffic law-enforcement operation,” a move that drew sharp criticism from Taipei.

According to Chinese officials, the patrol was triggered by a joint announcement from Japan and the Philippines that the two countries would begin formal discussions about their shared maritime boundaries — a development Beijing interpreted as encroaching on waters it considers Chinese near Taiwan.

Appearing before lawmakers in parliament, Hsieh Ching-chin, the deputy head of Taiwan’s Coast Guard, laid out how ships should respond if confronted. He said vessels should alert Taiwan’s Coast Guard and “not respond to the so-called boarding inspections” carried out by Chinese ships.

Hsieh went further, stating: “If the situation is urgent, Coast Guard vessels will sail between the two ships to separate them,” referring to Taiwanese vessels facing Chinese pressure.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not reply when asked for a response. Beijing has consistently maintained that the waters surrounding Taiwan are Chinese and that Taipei holds no sovereign authority of its own.

Hsieh also addressed situations involving foreign-flagged vessels within Taiwan’s waters, saying that “in order to defend our national sovereignty and maintain order in our waters, we will intervene” if China attempts to assert authority there. He was direct in his conclusion: “In our waters, China has no jurisdiction.”

During last month’s Chinese patrol, neither side reported any actual boarding attempts. However, Taiwan accused the Chinese coast guard ships of “harassing” commercial vessels by demanding information about where they came from and where they were headed, while asserting Chinese jurisdiction over the area.

This is not the first time such tensions have arisen. In 2024, Chinese coast guard personnel briefly boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat near Taiwan-controlled islands located close to China’s coastline.

China’s growing patrol activity off Taiwan’s eastern coast has raised concerns from the United States, Britain, France, and Germany.

Myanmar’s leader Min Aung Hlaing, who recently shifted from heading the country’s military government to serving as president, is expected to travel to Laos within the next few days, according to state media reports released Wednesday. The upcoming trip will be his first official visit to a fellow member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations since assuming his new civilian role.

The journey comes roughly four months after Min Aung Hlaing completed a carefully orchestrated move from military ruler to president. He has previously traveled to Myanmar’s large neighboring countries, India and China, but this will be his first visit to an ASEAN nation in his new capacity.

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that Min Aung Hlaing accepted an invitation from Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith and will be accompanied by his spouse along with a group of senior cabinet ministers and government officials. The newspaper did not provide specific dates for the visit.

The 11-nation ASEAN bloc declined to recognize the outcome of Myanmar’s three-phase elections held in December and January. Those elections barred major opposition groups from participating and resulted in a landslide win for a military-aligned political party.

Despite that stance, ASEAN member nations have increasingly sought to re-engage with Myanmar following the elections. The foreign ministers of Malaysia and Thailand have both made separate trips to Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, in recent months.

Min Aung Hlaing first seized power in February 2021 through a coup that ousted an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. That takeover sparked widespread protests that eventually grew into a brutal civil war, which continues to this day.

In the immediate aftermath of the coup, ASEAN attempted — without success — to broker peace through a framework called the “five-point consensus.” The bloc also banned Myanmar’s military leadership from attending its regional summits, leaving Min Aung Hlaing largely shut out diplomatically until last year. Following his election win, he stated that rebuilding ties with ASEAN was among his government’s top priorities.

Richard Horsey, a senior Asia advisor at the International Crisis Group, offered this assessment of the upcoming visit: “A state visit to Laos represents the clearest break yet with the diplomatic quarantine that ASEAN imposed on Naypyitaw after the coup.”

Horsey added, “That inevitably weakens the political force of the five-point consensus, and means that the shrinking number of ASEAN states still arguing against normalisation will find it increasingly difficult to hold the line.”

KABUL/QUETTA, Pakistan — Afghanistan’s Taliban government announced Tuesday that it carried out airstrikes against targets inside Pakistan, while Pakistani officials reported that their forces intercepted and destroyed four primitive drones over the southern province of Balochistan, a region rich in natural resources.

Tuesday’s confrontation marks the most recent episode in a string of armed clashes between the two neighboring South Asian countries.

Afghanistan’s defense ministry stated that its forces struck what it identified as an ISIS facility in the town of Saranan, located in Pakistan’s border province of Balochistan, along with additional targets in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Pakistan’s military released a statement saying the drones were detected immediately and taken down. Local provincial authorities confirmed the drone incident, noting that one of the drones was spotted near a government school in Saranan. Officials reported that two people suffered injuries in the attack.

Afghanistan does not operate fighter jets, but is believed to have at least six aircraft and 23 helicopters, according to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which is based in London. Taliban forces are also known to operate drones, which have previously been used in confrontations with Pakistan.

Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of sheltering militant groups it holds responsible for planning attacks on Pakistani soil. The Afghan Taliban rejects those accusations, arguing that militancy within Pakistan is that country’s own internal issue.

The latest exchange follows deadly Pakistani airstrikes conducted Monday along the Afghan border, which killed at least 28 civilians and left 49 others injured. Pakistan described those strikes as retaliation for what it called “terrorist attacks” carried out on its territory.

The deteriorating relationship between the two countries — once considered allies — has resulted in hundreds of deaths so far this year. Diplomatic efforts led by China to reduce tensions have not yet produced any breakthroughs.

Five years ago, the West came dangerously close to a major diplomatic rupture with NATO ally Turkey when 10 ambassadors jointly demanded the release of a man they considered a political prisoner — a move that so enraged President Tayyip Erdogan that he threatened to expel them from the country.

After two tense days in 2021, both sides pulled back from the edge. The U.S., French, German, Canadian and other envoys issued statements aimed at smoothing things over, and Erdogan declared they would exercise more caution going forward.

And that is exactly what they have done.

In the years since — and particularly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine left European nations feeling strategically vulnerable — Western governments have largely stopped publicly challenging Turkey’s track record on rights and civil liberties. Instead, they have focused on deepening security relationships with the regionally powerful nation, which is also a major arms exporter.

That diplomatic shift will be front and center when the leaders of all 32 NATO member nations gather in Ankara on July 7 and 8 for a major summit.

According to Western and Turkish diplomats involved in planning the event, the leaders are not anticipated to speak out against an extraordinary legal offensive targeting Turkey’s primary opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP). That crackdown has included the imprisonment of the party’s presidential candidate, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who is widely regarded as Erdogan’s chief political rival.

Some critics of Erdogan’s government argue that the West’s relative quiet is giving the government room to slide further toward authoritarianism, while leaving Turkey’s opposition isolated and abandoning NATO’s core commitments to democracy and the rule of law.

“It remains important for the West to continue to comment on the degradation of democratic institutions in Turkey because the course is not irrevocably set, Turkey is not beyond the pale,” said David Satterfield, a former U.S. ambassador to Ankara.

“It’s important that Turks hear others talking about their system in this way,” Satterfield, who now serves as director of the Baker Institute for Public Policy, told Reuters.

Erdogan’s office did not respond when asked for a reaction to those views.

Satterfield pushed back against the idea that speaking up about human rights in Turkey had damaged the core working relationship between the U.S. and Turkey. He also said that the approach taken during President Donald Trump’s second term — avoiding talk of democratic values altogether — had not actually improved relations either.

Satterfield was among the 10 Western ambassadors whom Erdogan briefly moved to declare “persona non grata” in 2021, after they collectively called for the release of jailed philanthropist Osman Kavala. The ambassadors said his case was doing harm to Turkish democracy.

Kavala has now been imprisoned for nearly nine years and faces a potential life sentence on charges that he attempted to overthrow the government — allegations he denies. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that he and others involved in the case should be freed, citing insufficient evidence, and concluded that his continued detention is meant to silence him.

Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, which has held power for 23 years, dismisses criticism of its democratic record and rejects any notion that the courts are being used for political purposes, maintaining that the judiciary operates independently.

Over the past two years, hundreds of elected CHP officials and members have been imprisoned and the party’s leader has been removed from his position — actions the CHP describes as a judicial coup.

Ahead of the NATO summit, rights organizations have raised alarms about additional restrictions. Dozens of journalists from independent Turkish media have been denied press credentials to cover the event, and authorities have detained more than 200 people, citing security concerns.

Erdogan’s office declined to comment on the denied media accreditations. NATO said it looks to the host country for guidance on such matters. When asked whether the alliance intends to raise human rights issues at the summit, a NATO official pointed to a previous statement on the accreditation matter, noting that in-person press coverage was considered very important. The U.S. embassy in Ankara did not immediately respond to questions about any change in its approach toward Turkey.

Few Western governments have spoken out about the crackdown on the CHP. Some Western diplomats argue that open criticism of Ankara accomplishes little in terms of slowing democratic backsliding, and say they prefer to raise concerns through private channels with Turkish officials.

The summit will mark Trump’s first visit to Turkey as president. He is also expected to hold a one-on-one meeting with Erdogan, whom he has repeatedly referred to as a friend — a reflection of what observers describe as the warmest U.S.-Turkish relationship in years.

Turkey is hoping the summit will showcase unity within the alliance and open doors to expanded defense industry partnerships. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte indicated that deals worth tens of billions of dollars would be announced at the gathering.

Alliance members increasingly view Turkey — which fields NATO’s second-largest military and is a top exporter of armed drones — as a critical barrier against Russian aggression along the alliance’s southeastern edge. That elevated status comes despite some past friction, including Turkey’s delay of Sweden and Finland’s membership bids between 2022 and 2023, and its relatively friendly ties with Moscow.

Western allies are now signaling they have “given up on values to an extent and prefer a transactional relationship … knowing that Turkey is indispensable for the defence of Europe,” said Karol Wasilewski, head of Turkey, Caucasus and Central Asia at the Warsaw-based Center for Eastern Studies. He added that Ankara recognizes that any Western criticism — including over the opposition crackdown — will be muted and “won’t translate into actions.”

Frustration is mounting at gas stations across Russia as months of Ukrainian drone strikes against oil refineries have ignited fires, disrupted production, and left drivers waiting in lines that stretch for hours along roadsides.

Fuel rationing has been put in place across many parts of the country, with videos circulating on social media showing angry drivers confronting empty pumps and sticker shock at rising prices. The situation grew so dire in the Siberian city of Irkutsk that the mayor ordered portable toilets placed outside gas stations to serve those stuck waiting in line.

For a nation that ranks among the world’s top energy producers, the crisis is without precedent — and it has brought the reality of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine home to everyday citizens in a way few other developments in the now five-year conflict have managed.

The situation prompted an unusual public acknowledgment from President Vladimir Putin, who admitted that “problems persist for both motorists and businesses” and that “there are still queues at petrol stations, and finding the right grade of petrol isn’t always easy.”

Putin maintained that the shortages are “not critical” and “temporary,” but that message appeared to offer little comfort to at least one Moscow driver waiting in line. Even the Russian capital — typically shielded from economic hardships more than the rest of the country — has not been spared.

“I think the situation is not very good,” the motorist told The Associated Press on Monday, the day following Putin’s televised comments. “They say one thing on television, and in reality it’s another. … People are queueing everywhere,” the man added, choosing not to give his name due to safety concerns.

A tally by the AP identified more than 50 reported Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, fuel depots, terminals, and related infrastructure — including on the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula — since late March. Some facilities have been hit repeatedly; a refinery in the Black Sea town of Tuapse was struck four separate times in just over two weeks.

The cumulative damage has taken a serious toll on Russian fuel output. In June, Russia processed crude oil at a rate of 3.95 million barrels per day — a 25% drop compared to the same period a year earlier and the lowest level in more than two decades, according to Gary Peach, an oil markets analyst at Energy Intelligence. “The outages are extraordinary,” he said.

Gasoline production has dropped 17%, falling from 1.03 million barrels per day to 850,000 — well below what Russia needs to meet domestic demand. The country exports very little of its gasoline supply.

Roughly one-third of Russia’s oil refining capacity is currently out of service, according to Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd. Consultancy. He noted that because refineries do not publicly disclose the full extent of damage, his estimate is based on industry sources and anecdotal reports.

“It comes at a very critical time for the Russian economy, in that the agriculture season, particularly the harvest season, is now starting to ratchet up,” driving demand even higher, Weafer said.

Ukrainian officials have characterized the strikes as part of a deliberate strategy to pressure Moscow into ending the war by disrupting military logistics, cutting supply lines, and weakening Russia’s ability to launch attacks along the front lines. Kyiv has also specifically targeted Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014 in a move that most of the world does not recognize. Earlier strikes forced authorities in Crimea to implement fuel rationing in May and eventually halt civilian sales altogether for several weeks, before limited sales later resumed in the city of Sevastopol.

Ukraine has also launched significant drone attacks on Russia’s two largest cities. A June 3 strike on an oil terminal in St. Petersburg sent thick black smoke into the sky just as Putin was preparing to host his annual economic forum aimed at drawing foreign investment. On June 18, a similar dark cloud rose from the Moscow Oil Refinery on the edge of the capital, with oily black droplets reported falling in the area.

By late June, some form of fuel rationing had been reported in more than half of Russia’s regions. Some areas placed hard limits on all gas stations, while others saw fuel chains cap how much a driver could purchase at one time.

Government officials blamed hoarding and panic-buying, urging drivers to refuel only when necessary. Gasoline and aviation fuel exports have been restricted, and authorities were also weighing a ban on diesel exports. The possibility of importing fuel was under consideration, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying talks with certain countries were “underway” — a step he described as “aimed at reducing panic-buying.”

The shortages have spread to distant Russian regions where no drone attacks have occurred. Viktor Shkurenko, a retail store owner in the Omsk region, called a newly announced limit of 40 liters — roughly 10.5 gallons — per vehicle “unexpected.”

“Nothing was bombed here. We have the biggest oil refinery in Siberia right here, and it gave us confidence that this fuel crisis won’t come to us,” he said, voicing concern about the potential impact on his businesses. As of Saturday, however, he said his company had not yet experienced any difficulty refueling its vehicles.

In the Siberian region of Zabayakalye, east of Lake Baikal, media reports indicated that a garbage collection service suspended pickups and some bus routes were reduced. Beyond ordering portable toilets at gas stations, the city of Irkutsk also raised public transit fares as of Wednesday, citing increased fuel costs.

Pavel Kharitonenko, acting head of the Irkutsk branch of the opposition Yabloko party, told AP he has found it easier to simply walk or take public transportation. “I don’t have the fuel, and I don’t want to queue at gas stations,” he said. He noted that the Irkutsk region, which is home to a Rosneft oil refinery, has been experiencing severe shortages for several days with lines continuing to grow.

Putin stated that Russia’s gasoline stockpiles are only 4% lower than they were a year ago. Analyst Weafer says that “reportedly, there are good supplies of fuel around the country. The problem is it’s in the wrong place.” Getting those supplies redistributed to regions in need is a massive logistical challenge in a country as large as Russia. “There should be enough, but it will take several weeks to get it from where it is to where it’s needed,” Weafer said. “It’s just a huge logistics operation to do that.”

Repairing the damaged refineries is also a complicated matter. Ukraine’s strikes have destroyed specialized equipment that is typically imported, making repairs slow and costly as Russia attempts to find replacements while evading international sanctions. “They manage to get these things up and running, not necessarily at full capacity,” said Peach. “But the extent of the damage this time is so extensive that they won’t get back to winter levels of refining this summer.”

Some facilities may not be worth fixing at all until a ceasefire or armistice is reached, Peach added, since they would likely “get knocked down again.” The Moscow Oil Refinery — which supplied 40% of the fuel used in the capital and surrounding area — is expected to take at least three months to repair, according to Weafer. Barring further attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, he estimated the shortage will likely persist “probably throughout the summer” as agricultural demand remains elevated through September.

JERUSALEM (AP) — It was described as the deadliest strike of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, and most of those who died were children. Yet more than 120 days later, the full truth of what happened remains buried under a cloud of incomplete information and political maneuvering.

Since at least one American missile struck an Iranian primary school on February 28, the Trump administration has neither formally accepted responsibility nor publicly released the results of a Pentagon inquiry into the bombing. A U.S. official familiar with the matter, speaking anonymously because the investigation is ongoing, told the Associated Press that the military had evidence almost immediately that the school had been hit.

The AP pieced together an account of the attack using open-source data, video footage, human rights documentation, and interviews with researchers and civilians both inside and outside Iran. The reconstruction revealed previously unknown details about the bombing in Minab — including the range of backgrounds of the children who were killed.

A lack of information from the Pentagon, combined with Iran’s government using the tragedy for its own political messaging, has made independent reporting extremely difficult. Families of the victims have been left without answers. Key questions — such as exactly how many munitions struck the school and a complete list of those who died — remain unresolved.

When asked about the incident last week, President Donald Trump said he had not read the Pentagon’s report and had seen nothing convincing him that the U.S. was responsible.

“I don’t know that they’re ever going to solve that problem in terms of whose fault was it, because there were missiles flying all over the place,” he said. “I don’t think it was us.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to the AP’s request for comment.

The AP’s reporting drew on conversations with U.S. officials, Iranian human rights workers, a Minab resident, an international representative of the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Union, and researchers from major international rights organizations. Many of those interviewed requested anonymity out of concern for their safety and the safety of those they spoke with.

The morning of Saturday, February 28 was clear and bright over Minab, a city in southeastern Iran located roughly 16 miles from the Strait of Hormuz. It was Ramadan and a regular school day in Iran.

Students filed into the Shajareh Tayyebeh school — a name that translates from Farsi as “Good Tree” — passing colorful murals in the schoolyard before settling into classrooms with brightly painted desks, boys and girls in separate areas.

The school was one of more than 30 bearing the same name, established to serve children from families connected to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard or other state institutions, according to Shiva Amelirad, the international union representative who taught in Iran for 18 years and has maintained contact with people in Minab.

While most Iranian schools operate under the Islamic Republic’s general guidelines, the Shajareh Tayyebeh schools were more deliberately designed to instill and reinforce the Guard’s ideology, Amelirad said. She was quick to add, however, that children are civilians no matter their family backgrounds, and that “any attack targeting a school is unequivocally condemnable.”

Satellite imagery and open-source mapping reviewed by the AP showed the school sat within the same walled compound as a Guard base. It had once been part of that base before being separated and converted into a school more than a decade ago.

While some students were children of Guard officers stationed at the nearby base, others were local children from Minab — a city with a predominantly Sunni Baluch population, an ethnic minority that frequently faces repression from the Iranian government, according to the Balochistan Human Rights Group.

Hundreds of students were believed to be inside the building when teachers and administrators learned that bombs had begun falling on Tehran at around 9:40 a.m. School officials decided to send the children home early and began calling parents on landlines to come pick up their kids, according to two people who spoke with the AP. An independent conflict-tracking organization called Airwars, based in London, also documented that parents were summoned to retrieve their children.

At 10:15 a.m., Iran’s state media issued an advisory closing schools across the country.

One father who lived nearby immediately went to collect his 10-year-old son, according to a Minab resident who shared the stories of several families with the AP — details the AP cross-referenced against available lists of the dead and timelines compiled by rights groups. At the school, the father spotted two younger relatives, ages 6 and 7, waiting outside. He offered them a ride home, but they declined, saying their own father was already on his way.

He left with his son and stopped at a supermarket. Ten minutes later, he heard explosions.

Multiple munitions hit the compound, striking at least five buildings, according to the AP’s satellite imagery analysis. The school was leveled under hundreds of pounds of explosives.

The father rushed back to find a scene of devastation. Video circulated by Iranian state media showed onlookers screaming as men dug through smoldering debris pulling out bodies. The father eventually spotted two burned figures he believed were his young relatives — though he couldn’t be certain.

More people arrived. A man from a nearby Sunni village came searching for his nephew after receiving a frantic call from the boy’s mother. He found the child dead in the rubble.

Rescuers uncovered small backpacks, children’s drawings, colored pencils, and worksheets. A tiny arm was found suspended in the wreckage.

Men carried mangled limbs and torsos to the local hospital, according to the Balochistan Human Rights Group, whose staff spoke with two victim families. The AP was unable to independently confirm the exact number of munitions that hit the school, but the blast had left remains so badly damaged that many body parts were unrecognizable.

By the end of that day, hospital doctors estimated they had received at least 108 bodies, though they cautioned the number was likely an undercount, the Minab resident said. By the following day, state media was reporting roughly 150 dead. The figure soon climbed to 168.

Three days after the bombing, thousands of Iranians gathered at a roundabout in Minab for a mass funeral, standing before a podium and a large portrait of the late founder of the Islamic Republic. All parents of victims — regardless of ethnicity or religion — were required to attend, according to the Minab resident. Most women in the crowd wore the black chador, a garment standard in the Islamic Republic but not typically worn by Baluch people at funerals.

Parents were initially told they could take their children’s bodies home for private burials, the resident said. In the end, many chose to bury their children together. Drone footage circulated by state media showed workers digging a grid of small, identical, unmarked graves in an open lot.

“The state media advocated a narrative based on IRGC interest,” said Amelirad. “You can tell because they called the kids martyrs.”

As strikes continued across Iran, journalists and human rights researchers scrambled to document what was happening — but verifying details from Minab proved nearly impossible. No one had access to the site. Iranian government restrictions blocked most foreign journalists from entering the country. On the first day of the war, Iran shut down internet access, cutting off ordinary civilians from the outside world.

As fighting intensified around the Strait of Hormuz, the atmosphere in the province grew increasingly tense. All military branches were heavily deployed in the region. Families of victims feared speaking out. Reports emerged of people being detained for attempting to contact foreign media.

That left Iran’s government in control of the story.

Iran’s soccer team wore golden “#168” pins on their jackets when they arrived at the FIFA World Cup. The Iranian negotiating team pursuing a pause in the war with the U.S. called itself “Minab 168.” Pro-Iran groups produced viral videos depicting the children as animated Lego figures, mocking the United States.

“In the aftermath of the attack, Iranian authorities … exploited the suffering of victims’ families and surviving children for propaganda purposes,” Amnesty International wrote in a March report on the deaths.

Throughout all of this, no public list of the victims’ names was ever released.

With access to Iran blocked, researchers turned their focus to the question of who was responsible. Iran blamed the U.S. Trump cast doubt on American involvement and pointed the finger back at Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said only that the Pentagon was looking into it.

Internally, the U.S. military knew more than it publicly acknowledged. When reports of the school strike first emerged, the military was aware it had conducted strikes in that general area — though it took time to verify Iranian claims that a school had been hit and to formally open an investigation, said the U.S. official speaking anonymously.

It appears that while one analyst had identified the building as a school as far back as seven years ago, that finding was never adequately shared across the various intelligence and military agencies involved. As a result, the building was not recognized as a school by those selecting targets — pointing to potential systemic failures in the target review process, the official said.

A former Pentagon official, also speaking anonymously, said the bombing was a foreseeable consequence of changes made by the Trump administration — specifically, reductions in staff dedicated to minimizing civilian casualties and Defense Secretary Hegseth’s focus on military lethality.

When Hegseth took over, he significantly reduced the size of an office known as the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, which had been established by Congress in late 2022. That move halted the office’s work on maintaining “no-strike lists” — catalogues of protected locations such as hospitals, schools, churches, and mosques — said Wes Bryant, who joined the office in 2024 as Branch Chief of Civil Harm Assessments. Bryant noted that when he was at the Pentagon, it was widely understood that the list was already out of date.

In recent weeks, some progress has been made in identifying the victims. Airwars spent months reviewing open-source information and was able to confirm the names and identities of 157 people killed, including 123 children aged 13 and under, and 34 adults. Among the adults were 26 school staff members — one of whom was pregnant — and five parents, each of whom lost at least one child. Airwars estimates the death toll falls between 157 and 168, with between 95 and 111 people injured.

Whether the Pentagon’s formal findings will ever be made public remains unclear. Much of the investigative work has reportedly been completed, but the military’s Central Command, which commissioned the probe, is still reviewing the results.

Past investigations have moved faster. When a Hellfire missile killed 10 civilians in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 29, 2021, the Defense Department acknowledged responsibility and provided operational details within a month.

When asked about the Minab investigation last week, Trump said, “I don’t know that they’re ever going to solve that problem.” Hegseth said the findings would be released “when the appropriate time is right.”

Some members of Congress are still demanding answers. Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota who sits on both the Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said in a recent interview that Congress has not received adequate information about the bombing and expects a full report.

The issue, he said, “has not gone away.”

Asia’s manufacturing sector held its ground in June, as a worldwide surge in demand for artificial intelligence technology helped cushion the blow from the ongoing Iran war, according to private business surveys released Wednesday.

The findings offer some reassurance for Asian economies that depend heavily on exports, though analysts warn that energy-related price pressures stemming from the Middle East conflict could intensify in the coming months. Supply shortages and shipping delays are already stretching delivery timelines across the region.

The surveys highlight how the global wave of AI investment is fundamentally changing economic conditions across Asia. Soaring demand for computer chips, data center equipment, and other technology products is providing a significant growth engine while helping to shield the region from escalating geopolitical and trade uncertainties.

China, Japan, and South Korea all recorded factory growth in June, driven by strong orders for chips, computers, and AI-related goods. Companies also stockpiled materials in anticipation of potential shortages and price hikes linked to the Middle East situation.

China’s RatingDog General Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI, came in at 51.7 in June — marking a seventh straight month of expansion and topping the 50-point threshold that separates growth from contraction. The reading dipped slightly from 51.8 in May but surpassed analyst expectations of 51.6.

Those results echoed an official government survey released Tuesday, which also showed Chinese factory activity returning to expansion territory last month on the strength of export orders.

Yao Yu, founder of RatingDog, described the results positively: “Overall, the manufacturing sector maintained a steady expansion in June, supported by sustained new order growth, easing cost pressures and improved labour market conditions.”

Japan’s PMI climbed to 54.8 in June, up from 54.5 the previous month, marking a sixth consecutive month of expansion. New orders grew at their fastest rate in over two years. Despite the positive headline numbers, input cost inflation remained near a four-year high — a warning sign that corporate profit margins could come under pressure and broader inflation could follow.

South Korea’s factory sector also expanded for a seventh month in a row, though the pace slowed compared to May as export demand softened.

Usamah Bhatti, an economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, noted the headwinds facing manufacturers: “Firms frequently reported that rising raw material prices, alongside difficulties sourcing and receiving inputs due to delays and shortages, weighed on sector performance.”

Across other parts of Asia, factory activity largely continued to grow. The Philippines’ PMI held nearly steady at 50.9 in June compared to 50.8 in May, while Malaysia’s index climbed to 50.7 from 49.9. Taiwan and Vietnam also reported factory expansion during the month.

Powerful rainstorms have swept through Ghana, triggering widespread flooding that has claimed the lives of at least 12 people, according to the Ghana National Fire Service, which announced the death toll on Tuesday while noting that rescue efforts remain active.

Among those who lost their lives, the fire service confirmed that three were women, eight were men, and one was a child. Rescuers have pulled more than 470 people to safety so far, and officials said they would continue providing updated figures as additional casualties are confirmed.

President John Dramani Mahama said early measurements showed approximately 140 millimetres of rain had fallen on Accra — the highest rainfall total recorded in the city in several years. For context, he noted that the highest single-day rainfall recorded the previous year was roughly 56 millimetres.

Mahama attributed the extreme rainfall to shifting climate conditions, describing the event as something beyond the government’s ability to prevent.

Flooding in Accra is a recurring problem during the rainy season. Experts have long pointed to inadequate drainage systems, illegal construction along waterways, and poor urban planning as factors that consistently make the flooding worse when heavy rains arrive.

In a formal statement Tuesday, a government spokesperson announced that 300 million cedis — roughly $27 million — would be made available to support flood relief efforts.

President Mahama also directed Ghana Armed Forces and police personnel to be deployed alongside the National Disaster Management Organisation and other agencies to assist with rescue and relief work throughout the capital.

The flooding has not been limited to Ghana. Neighboring Ivory Coast has also experienced severe rainfall. While officials there have not released an official death toll, a source with ties to firefighters and the interior minister indicated that approximately 20 people have died.