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BERLIN — The head of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party is pushing for a resumption of Russian energy imports, arguing that cutting ties with Moscow has crippled the German economy and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Alice Weidel, the AfD’s leader, told Reuters that Germany must abandon its boycott of Russian oil and gas to revive an economy that has been struggling since sanctions were imposed following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“Cheap energy from Russia was the secret of the success of ‘Made in Germany’. We need it back,” Weidel said. “The loss of this energy has set us back years. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost. It has made us dependent on the United States, which sells us energy at far higher prices.”

Before sanctions took effect, Russia provided more than a third of Germany’s crude oil imports and over half of its natural gas supply. The situation worsened further when the undersea Nord Stream pipeline was destroyed by explosions in September 2022, sending energy costs soaring and leaving German industry reeling.

The economic fallout continues to weigh heavily on Germany. Car manufacturer Volkswagen is reportedly weighing cuts of up to 100,000 positions as the industrial sector remains in a prolonged slump.

Weidel’s remarks come ahead of September elections in two eastern German states — Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern — where the AfD currently leads in polling. She described those contests as crucial stepping stones toward national leadership.

“Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are decisive milestones,” Weidel said. “If we win in Saxony-Anhalt, then Mecklenburg-Vorpommern will probably follow. I can see the AfD in the chancellery either by the next elections or the ones after.”

If the AfD gains control of those state governments, the party would use that power to challenge Berlin’s immigration policies, which the AfD considers overly generous and a financial burden on local governments. It would also disrupt Germany’s tradition of broad coalition governance and give the AfD a significant foothold toward national rule.

Mainstream parties, including the Christian Democrats led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, have refused to work with the AfD. An AfD victory in Saxony-Anhalt would put pressure on what political observers have called a “firewall” — the agreement among established parties to keep the AfD out of governing coalitions.

The AfD’s pro-Russia message may carry particular weight in eastern Germany, a region that was under Soviet control until the fall of the Berlin Wall more than 35 years ago. Many residents there hold a more favorable view of Russia and are skeptical of the United States.

Weidel’s statements follow a recent visit to Russia by senior AfD lawmaker Markus Frohnmaier, who met with Alexei Miller, the chief of Russian energy company Gazprom, and called for the Nord Stream pipeline to be reopened. Frohnmaier pushed back against criticism of the trip, noting that American investors were reportedly exploring the possibility of reviving the Nord Stream route.

“We have to be careful in Germany that we don’t miss the window of opportunity to get back into the Russian market,” Frohnmaier said. “Mr. Miller said it would take a three-month timeframe for the gas supply to be resumed.”

Not everyone is receptive to the AfD’s position. Roderich Kiesewetter, a lawmaker from the Christian Democrats, accused the AfD of distorting public debate with its stance on Russia.

“The romanticisation of Russia is being used by the AfD, in particular with an eye on the upcoming elections in eastern Germany,” Kiesewetter said.

Weidel rejected characterizations of her party as extremist — a label applied by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency last year — insisting the AfD represents ordinary citizens.

“The way we see ourselves and the way our political rivals judge us, are miles apart,” she said. “People describe us as far-right. In truth, we are a party for the regular person. We will not turn everything on its head if we get into power.”

BELGRADE, Serbia — The story of Feliks the eagle reads more like a Hollywood thriller than a nature documentary — complete with poachers, illegal smugglers, and dangerous border crossings under cover of darkness.

The one-year-old eastern imperial eagle, native to Serbia, took his first migratory flight in August, heading toward the Middle East. What followed was a harrowing journey that ended with his capture by poachers, his sale on the illegal wildlife market, and an extraordinary rescue mission to bring him back home.

Feliks made it back to Serbia safely last week, but his ordeal has cast a harsh spotlight on the booming illegal animal trade and the relentless efforts of wildlife advocates fighting against it.

“It’s getting worse year after year, season after season, day after day,” said Michel Sawan, the head of the Lebanese Association for Migratory Birds, who was central to Feliks’s rescue. “We can actually barely believe … the mission was done successfully.”

The eastern imperial eagle is a striking bird of prey, capable of reaching a wingspan of up to 2 meters — roughly 6 feet. The species is protected in Serbia, where the population had fallen to just a single breeding pair in 2017 before recovering through the dedicated efforts of the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia, known as BPSSS.

As a prized member of the eagle population’s new generation, Feliks was fitted with a leg ring and a small backpack-style transmitter before departing last August, according to Uros Stojiljkovic of the BPSSS.

“Everything seemed normal,” Stojiljkovic said. “We didn’t dream all this would happen.”

Feliks flew southeast from Serbia, crossing through North Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey. His tracking signal went dark in late October somewhere over Syria.

“We hoped this was because there was a problem with the transmitter or something,” Stojiljkovic said.

Weeks later, Sawan delivered troubling news: Feliks had been caught by poachers who use various methods to trap migratory birds, including placing water in the desert as bait, shooting them, using nets, or even chasing them down with motorcycles.

“When Feliks was caught at first, it was posted on many WhatsApp groups for selling wild birds illegally trapped in Syria,” Sawan said. “I started my phone calls with people I know in Syria and we were able to reach out for Feliks.”

Paying smugglers for his return was never an option, but Sawan refused to abandon the effort. Feliks was sold to a buyer in Lebanon, then resold back into Syria, before Sawan was able to secure him through a network of trusted contacts. Getting the eagle across the border into Lebanon proved difficult due to ongoing fighting in the region and bad weather conditions.

Ultimately, a group of refugees carried Feliks across the Nahr al-Kabir river — the northern border between Syria and Lebanon — hidden inside a potato sack. “It was crazy,” Sawan said.

Once safely housed at Sawan’s bird sanctuary in Beirut, the challenge of getting Feliks back to Serbia remained. That task became nearly impossible after fighting broke out in Iran in February, leading to three failed attempts to transport him home.

The breakthrough came when the Serbian military stepped in, using troops already deployed in Lebanon as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission. On June 22, Feliks finally touched down in Serbia aboard a military transport plane.

He is currently being held at a zoo in northern Serbia, where he must undergo a 21-day quarantine. BPSSS experts say he will be fitted with a new transmitter before being released back into the wild.

Over the past decade, the BPSSS has worked extensively to plant trees and install nesting platforms across the flat agricultural landscape of northern Serbia. In 2017, volunteers organized around-the-clock watches over the last remaining nesting pair to ensure their survival. A European Union-supported conservation project later helped grow the population to its current 29 breeding pairs.

Threats to the species remain significant, including accidental poisoning and collisions with electrical cables, Stojiljkovic noted.

“Feliks went full circle and came back to where he had set off,” Stojiljkovic said. “Let’s hope he won’t be bored here.”

He thought he was falling for someone named “Eliza” — and ended up losing everything he had saved. Meanwhile, halfway around the world, a young man was smuggled into a criminal compound, beaten, and forced to become “Ella” online. Though separated by thousands of miles, Chris Colocousis and Safeer Mohammed Koorimannil found themselves on opposite ends of the same ruthless global cyberscam machine.

A joint investigation by AP and FRONTLINE uncovered that American technology is woven throughout the digital supply chains connecting scammers to their victims. While most public attention has been directed at the social media platforms where victims are first contacted, the infrastructure enabling these crimes stretches much further back — from artificial intelligence tools that help create convincing fake personas, to satellite equipment that helps scammers dodge internet restrictions, to internet service providers carrying data out of the lawless border regions of Myanmar to the devices of millions of unsuspecting people worldwide.

Watchdogs note that while U.S. tech companies aren’t breaking any laws, they possess the technical ability to do more to prevent these abuses — yet face little legal, regulatory, or financial pressure to act.

For Colocousis, the trouble began when a woman reached out to him on Facebook. She had a New York phone number and claimed to work at a well-known financial firm in Atlanta. “Eliza” suggested they video chat, and when he saw her on screen — the same blonde woman from her profile photos, complete with small bags under her eyes — she seemed completely real.

Now, Colocousis, a divorced man in his 60s, has no way of knowing where “Eliza” actually is, whether he was ever speaking with a real person or an AI like ChatGPT, or even whether “she” is actually a woman. What he does know is that the $400,000 he said he “invested” at Eliza’s direction has vanished — along with the comfortable retirement he spent years building.

“I think I have a degree of PTSD from it, to be honest with you. I still wake up occasionally in the middle of the night with anxiety where it just all of a sudden hits me,” he said from his home in Massachusetts. “I really never want to leave my house.”

Colocousis said he had planned to retire within a few years, but now faces the prospect of continuing to work and possibly taking out a home equity loan to stay afloat.

“Most people react when they find out somebody was scammed, is like, how stupid could you be? Well, I’m an educated guy. You know, what is my flaw in this? My flaw is I was looking for a companionship,” he said. “I’m at peace for now being by myself.”

Koorimannil, 30, had a very different experience with the same criminal industry. According to records he managed to smuggle out to AP, the software on his computer at the Tai Chang scam compound in Myanmar allowed him to target approximately 50,000 victims from at least 17 countries in a single month. Among those targeted were a widowed tailor in Kurdistan, a pastry chef in Turkey, soldiers in Iraq, an engineer in Russia, and a building painter in Germany. Working with security nonprofit C4ADS, AP determined that the tools Koorimannil was forced to use were partly powered by American artificial intelligence models.

On a typical work shift, Koorimannil said he was managing conversations with more than 100 people across dozens of fake profiles simultaneously, all while supervisors walked the floor carrying electric batons. He said he was beaten when he failed to scam people effectively, and photographs document the red, swollen marks left on his body.

“When they came near my computer, my hands would shake and sweat,” he told AP in his native Malayalam language from his home in southern India.

At night, he said, he and his closest friend would huddle together in a single narrow bunk, too scared to sleep on their own.

Koorimannil said he ultimately paid more than $5,000 to secure his release and has since returned to work in his family’s fish business. He sometimes struggles to accept the limits of the life he was born into, but says the price of chasing something more was far too high.

“I’ve learned to stay hungry and I have learned to be patient,” he said. “I was not like this before. After coming back from Myanmar, I know how to be hungry and patient.”

This story is based on a documentary photo essay curated by AP photo editors.

A sweeping investigation conducted jointly by the Associated Press and FRONTLINE drew on tens of thousands of leaked documents, videos, and photos from scam centers, along with an in-depth analysis of how artificial intelligence is being misused at those facilities. The project also involved a close look at more than 200,000 internet connections made by devices at four scam compounds in Myanmar — all of which have been tied to entities under U.S. government sanctions. Researchers also spoke with 58 people who were defrauded and roughly three dozen individuals who worked at scam operations, representing 19 countries in total.

The AP examined a specific sample of 202,013 device connections traced to those four Myanmar compounds. The data used in the analysis was commercially available advertising technology data obtained by International Justice Mission, an anti-trafficking nonprofit organization, which then shared it with the AP. The data covers several time windows between February 2025 and January 2026.

Every entry in the dataset recorded a device’s physical location coordinates along with its IP address. The AP used a database from Scamalytics, a company specializing in fraud prevention, to determine which internet service providers were assigned those IP addresses. When results were unclear or conflicting, the AP defaulted to the information provided by Scamalytics.

This approach made it possible to pinpoint not only where internet traffic was physically originating, but also which companies were profiting by providing hosting services for it. The dataset was further analyzed using risk indicators from Scamalytics, which draws on several open-source blacklists — including those maintained by Firehol, IP2ProxyLite, IPSum, Spamhaus, and X4Bnet Spambot — as well as Scamalytics’ own scoring system based on fraud reports and internal analysis. Those scores reflect potential risk and are not proof of confirmed fraud.

Reporters note several important limitations. The dataset only captures devices that had geolocation enabled, meaning the actual internet infrastructure supporting these compounds is likely far more extensive than what the data reflects. Additionally, Spur Intelligence Corporation, a cybersecurity firm, reviewed the data and flagged instances of ad fraud. The AP removed those known cases from its analysis, though additional undetected instances may remain.

Telecommunications firms and internet service providers can serve scam operations in multiple ways — providing basic internet access, hosting fraudulent websites like fake cryptocurrency platforms or counterfeit shopping sites, enabling VPN or proxy services to hide real locations, or simply routing internet traffic. While patterns in the data may point toward certain uses, the commercially available data alone cannot support definitive conclusions.

The four compounds where devices were geolocated are: Tai Chang, Deko Park, KK Park, and a newly identified compound near Hpakalu, Myanmar.

KK Park, like many scam operations along the Thai border, operates under the protection of the Karen Border Guard Force — also referred to as the Karen National Army, or KNA — an armed militia composed of ethnic Karen people from eastern Myanmar that is affiliated with Myanmar’s military, according to U.S. and European government sanctions documents. In May 2025, the U.S. Treasury designated the KNA as a transnational criminal organization, pointing to its role in enabling cyberscams targeting Americans and facilitating human trafficking. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control stated the KNA provided security at KK Park and profited from scam activities by leasing land to criminal groups. Myanmar’s military government launched a high-profile demolition effort against KK Park in October 2025, causing scammers to disperse — including to the emerging site near Hpakalu. The International Justice Mission found that some devices active at KK Park just before the raids later showed activity at the Hpakalu location in January 2026.

Deko Park and Tai Chang are situated in territory controlled by the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, known as the DKBA. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the DKBA in November 2025, citing its support for cyberscam centers, including the Tai Chang compound, where survivors of trafficking have reported being tortured and beaten by DKBA soldiers.

The AP also confirmed satellite imagery of 25 newly identified scam compounds in Myanmar, flagged by International Justice Mission, that have either appeared or expanded considerably since the October 2025 crackdown on KK Park and similar sites. The AP reviewed a sample of device activity at these locations between March 1, 2026, and June 1, 2026. At least 13 of those compounds showed connections using Starlink IP addresses. That data represents only a sample and may not capture all Starlink activity at those sites.

The AP provided detailed information about the timing and location of device connections to every company referenced in the investigation.

This investigation is part of a continuing collaboration between the Associated Press and FRONTLINE on PBS, which includes an upcoming documentary.

Even decades after the fact, Samar Kabouli treasures the memory of sitting among the women in her family, sharing cardamom-spiced coffee while they worked colorful threads through fabric in distinctly Palestinian patterns.

Kabouli was born in Lebanon to Palestinian refugees and had never set foot in her parents’ homeland. Yet with every stitch, she was weaving something deeper than decoration — a bond with her roots.

That craft is called “tatreez,” and Kabouli, now 48, began practicing this traditional Palestinian embroidery as a teenager as a way to earn money. Beyond the income it provided, tatreez became a pathway connecting her to the land her parents were forced to leave during the 1948 mass displacement that Palestinians refer to as the Nakba — meaning catastrophe.

During the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s founding, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven from or abandoned their homes in what is now Israel. They were never allowed to return.

Through her work, Kabouli communicates a message of endurance and survival.

“We’re still here,” she said. “All what has been happening in Gaza … and we’re still standing and we’ll not forget the cause.”

Whether in refugee camps, community stitching circles, museum galleries, or virtual classrooms, tatreez holds a significance for Palestinian diaspora communities that goes far beyond its visual appeal.

Practitioners view it as a celebration of their cultural roots, a link to their homeland and to scattered communities around the globe, and — through its many symbolic motifs — a visual form of storytelling. For many, regardless of whether they are refugees, tatreez has become an emblem of Palestinian identity and pride, a means of recording history, and an act of resistance.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, some have used tatreez to raise money for people there, while others have stitched designs intended to draw attention to Palestinian suffering in the territory.

“We had a lot of people who came and they’re like, ‘OK, we want to do a T-shirt with a Gaza chest or we want to do a scarf with the Gaza motif,’” said Ali Jaafar, general manager of Inaash Association, where Kabouli is employed. The Lebanese organization gives Palestinian women living in refugee camps in Lebanon a source of income through tatreez, while also working to preserve and promote the tradition. It markets embroidered fashion, home decor, and artwork, and presents the craft in exhibitions and museums.

Broader efforts to keep tatreez alive and raise its profile among Palestinian communities both locally and internationally are part of a larger mission to protect a heritage and a connection to history and place that many fear could be wiped away.

“Palestinian tatreez is an identity and a document of our presence in every Palestinian village and town,” said Maha Saca, founder and director of the Palestinian Heritage Center in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. She noted that antique embroidered thobes — traditional dresses — serve as evidence of Palestinian presence in specific locations before the widespread displacement of their people. “The Palestinian woman has written the story of her village through motifs from her surrounding environment and her beliefs,” Saca said. “We’re struggling through culture and saying we have roots.”

The Palestinian embroidery tradition was added to UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021.

In New York, Lina Barkawi, who runs a small business teaching tatreez, said the “constant fight for liberation and having a Palestinian identity that’s recognized globally is really what has been driving a lot of this documentation.”

In Arabic, the word tatreez refers broadly to embroidery as well as to the specific Palestinian tradition, which is typically passed down through generations — from grandmothers to mothers to daughters. Some also seek out formal instruction.

The motifs Palestinian women historically drew from their natural and cultural surroundings mean that old embroidered thobes can reveal details about a woman’s personal story, her environment, and her regional identity through patterns, design, and color, according to Saca.

In the Palestinian context, those connections to specific times and places — including areas that now fall within Israel — carry added weight as proof of what once existed. “How do we have a Jaffa thobe if we hadn’t been in Jaffa?” she said. “We write history on our thobes.”

There is also a thread of continuity running through the craft. Saca’s grandmother’s embroidered wedding thobe bears the distinctive characteristics of Bethlehem dresses, she noted. Embroideries copied from that dress were later incorporated into her own granddaughter’s baptism gown.

Tatreez can carry political weight as well, both through its preservation and its creation.

“Just being able to have some of the dresses from pre-1948 is a political act,” Barkawi said.

There is also the tradition of the so-called “intifada thobe,” which featured embroidered political and Palestinian symbols including the flag. It is associated with the “first intifada,” or uprising, which began in 1987 against Israel’s occupation and was met with a forceful Israeli response.

Following the outbreak of the war in Gaza — triggered by Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel — fashion designer Hama Hinnawi channeled her grief into tatreez. The craft is typically vibrant with color, she noted, but the moment called for something different.

The outcome was black embroidery on black fabric — a statement of mourning for the deaths, destruction, and displacement unfolding in Gaza. She has also experimented with transforming iconic images from the war into new embroidery motifs.

“We have a big responsibility on our shoulders to tell this story, not to be buried for the next generations … through tatreez, through art, through speaking.”

Born in Jordan to Palestinian parents, Hinnawi set out to bring awareness to Palestinian heritage through her fashion brand by blending tatreez with modern design. To her, tatreez simply means home — “identity, pride, storytelling,” said Hinnawi, who divides her time between Chicago and Jordan.

She has created embroidery work opportunities for Palestinian women in refugee camps in Jordan and has spoken about tatreez in the United States. Before the war, she also collaborated with women in Gaza.

Barkawi leads an online community of Palestinian and non-Palestinian embroiderers, some of whom have produced designs sold to raise funds for families in Gaza. One design incorporates a “water and seeds” motif alongside an embroidered message reading “Feed Gaza Now.”

Members living in different countries also collectively recreated a tapestry that once hung in a Gaza home that was bombed, with each person stitching a section and mailing it to the next.

Born in the United States to a Palestinian father and a Panamanian mother, Barkawi said that learning tatreez strengthened her sense of Palestinian identity. Completing her first thobe took two years. She wove in motifs with personal meaning — palm trees representing her name in Arabic, and orchids, Panama’s national flower, in honor of her mother. Though technically imperfect, it became the perfect dress for her Islamic marriage ceremony.

“I embedded my story as a Palestinian in the diaspora into this dress,” she said.

Back in Lebanon, Kabouli once dreamed of owning a tatreez piece for her wedding trousseau but could not afford one. After their parents passed away, an older sister had turned to tatreez work with Inaash to help support the family, and Kabouli learned the craft from her.

Now working as a production supervisor at Inaash in Beirut, Kabouli sees echoes of her younger self in the women laboring in refugee camps across Lebanon — many in the south, a region heavily affected by the most recent Israel-Hezbollah war. The richness of tatreez often stands in sharp contrast to the difficult conditions inside the camps, where residents face restrictions on employment and other aspects of daily life. With frequent power outages, women eager to complete a piece and receive payment may climb to rooftops to catch the last light of day, according to Jaafar.

Beyond the financial benefit, Kabouli said the act of embroidering can be grounding — almost meditative. She also carries a deeper longing: to one day visit the homeland her parents came from, in what is now Israel.

For now, tatreez gives her hope.

“I don’t feel like I am far away. I keep working on Palestinian heritage, following the cause,” she said. “It connects me to my homeland, especially since we’re deprived of it.”

After nearly 40 years of calling Britain home, a man named Ali Haydor says there are days when he wishes he could conceal the color of his skin.

Haydor, who moved to Britain from Bangladesh at the age of five, has watched his home city of Southampton erupt in violent protests following the murder conviction of a British-born Sikh man. That man had falsely claimed his white victim had carried out a racist attack against him. A video showing police handcuffing the dying victim — released at the time of the June 1 sentencing — ignited public outrage and prompted politicians across party lines to call for an end to police guidance that allows for different treatment based on ethnicity.

Just one week later, gangs of masked individuals went door to door in Belfast searching for migrants, after a white man was stabbed multiple times and lost an eye in an attack carried out by a Sudanese immigrant.

Although such incidents are uncommon, they have become a rallying point for right-wing politicians and activists who have zeroed in on crime to stoke long-simmering tensions over national identity and immigration. For many ethnic minority residents, the result is a Britain that once felt like a stable, welcoming home now feels increasingly threatening.

“Anybody of colour is at risk at the moment,” said Haydor, who is 44 years old. “As much as we love our heritage and identity, sometimes (I wish) we could just hide it.”

According to the Migration Observatory, British attitudes toward immigration were more open than most of Europe in the early 2020s. However, multiple polls indicate those views have hardened since 2022. Surveys consistently show younger and more left-leaning voters tend to be more welcoming of immigration, while older and more right-leaning voters are less so.

British Social Attitudes surveys suggest much of the public concern is tied specifically to asylum seekers arriving by small boats, rather than people coming to work or study.

Reuters spoke with policy experts and 10 trade unions whose members have reported a noticeable uptick in racist incidents. These include patients refusing medical care based on a nurse’s race, an increase in racist comments in workplaces, and migrant workers describing repeated experiences of discrimination on the job.

The Royal College of Nursing reported a 55% increase in workers experiencing racial discrimination since 2022. Paul Rees, head of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, noted in 2025 that roughly one-third of the sector’s workforce is Black, Asian, or from a minority ethnic background. He said many of those workers report “they are today facing the kind of abuse they haven’t received in decades.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has repeatedly spoken out against racism in all forms and against the violence connected to it, cautioning that racist language is making a troubling comeback. But union leaders and experts argue that political messaging — from the government as well as other political figures — has helped create an environment where open racism is increasingly tolerated.

Populist political leader Nigel Farage, speaking after Southampton protesters clashed with police, claimed British institutions were biased against white people. Starmer firmly rejected that claim and accused Farage of trying to exploit a tragedy to deepen divisions.

Haydor, a Muslim who works as a private hire driver, said he had seen racism ease from the mid-1990s onward, only for it to resurface during politically charged moments — including the 2016 Brexit vote, which placed heavy emphasis on immigration. But in recent weeks, he said he has felt more uneasy than ever. Passengers have brought up the murder case and asked for his views. Two passengers told him that Muslims were “not compatible” with Britain and the West.

Hardeep Singh, deputy director of the Network of Sikh Organisations, said he reported a hate email to police that called for Sikhism to be made “extinct.” He described social media as “a cesspit of venom” and said he had not seen “anything like this vitriol ever before.”

In Belfast, the stabbing of a local man by a Sudanese refugee who had been granted permission to remain in Britain set off days of civil unrest. Rioters targeted the homes and businesses of ethnic minorities across Northern Ireland, burning properties and vehicles and forcing many families to flee.

Twasul Mohammed, who escaped Sudan’s civil war as a refugee in 2016 and now lives in the British province, told Reuters, “women and kids are terrified… I haven’t sent my kids to school since this has happened.”

She said many minority ethnic residents feel Northern Ireland has grown more hostile since riots in 2024 — part of a broader wave of violence that swept the UK after three young girls were murdered at a Taylor Swift dance class in the English town of Southport. The attacker was initially and falsely reported online to be an asylum seeker who had arrived by boat. In reality, a 17-year-old boy born in Britain to Rwandan parents pleaded guilty to those crimes.

Shortly after the unrest in Southampton and Belfast, a 36-year-old man was charged in Edinburgh, Scotland, following a series of attacks that Prime Minister Starmer said appeared to be motivated by anti-Muslim bias.

Police-recorded hate crimes in England and Wales rose for the first time in three years during the year ending March 2025, with racially motivated offenses climbing 6% to 82,490 incidents.

Britain is home to large and diverse immigrant communities, many of which trace their roots to the country’s colonial era. According to the 2021 Census, 18% of the population of England and Wales identified as Black, Asian, mixed, or another ethnic group.

While racism has deep historical roots in Britain — connected to transatlantic slavery and colonialism and persisting throughout much of the 20th century — the country has been seen as relatively successful at integrating diverse communities, with ethnic minorities increasingly visible in public life.

Rishi Sunak became Britain’s first prime minister of color when he took over leadership of the Conservative Party in 2022. He was later succeeded in that party role by Kemi Badenoch, who was born in Britain to Nigerian parents and spent much of her childhood in Nigeria.

A 2016 EU survey found that migrants in Britain from Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and South Asia reported the lowest levels of discrimination compared to those in other European countries surveyed.

But public opinion appears to be shifting. The British Social Attitudes survey found the share of people who believe immigration benefits the economy and culture dropped from 50% in 2022 to just 32% in 2025.

Immigration was a central issue in Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union. Yet net migration climbed sharply after Brexit, as Britain brought in healthcare workers from India and Nigeria to fill staffing shortages and saw a surge in non-EU students enrolling at its universities. While net migration averaged 223,000 during the 2000s and 260,000 during the 2010s, it hit a record 944,000 in the year ending March 2023.

Farage’s Reform UK party — which has had to remove certain candidates and activists for making racist remarks — has led every major political poll over the past year. Among its policy proposals are mass deportations of anyone who arrived in Britain illegally and the removal of foreign nationals from social housing.

Interior minister Shabana Mahmood warned in March that the record immigration levels recorded under the previous Conservative government had placed serious strain on public services. In pushing for stricter citizenship rules, she cautioned that people who had settled in Britain decades ago could face a backlash if the system was not fixed.

Tougher visa regulations did cut net migration significantly in 2025 — dropping to 171,000 from 331,000 the year before. However, the number of asylum seekers arriving by small boats continued to rise, increasing 13% to 41,000 in 2025. While those figures are far smaller than the number of legal arrivals, opposition politicians and anti-migration activists argue they demonstrate the government has lost control of its borders.

For many people, all of this has contributed to a more tense and divided Britain.

Marcia Dixon, a 61-year-old whose parents came to Britain as part of the post-war Windrush generation of Caribbean migrants invited to help rebuild the country, said she worries the racism of the 1970s is making a comeback. She said parties like Reform use inflammatory language when responding to news stories involving people of color, and she expressed concern about younger people being exposed to that kind of rhetoric for the first time.

“It felt like things were improving,” Dixon said. “But some of that now feels like it’s being slowly rolled back. If I was younger, I’d probably feel more fearful.”

BEIJING — China’s armed forces and coast guard announced Tuesday that they had conducted separate patrols in the waters surrounding Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, citing the need to defend Beijing’s territorial claims over the area.

The Southern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army reported that its naval and air units carried out combat-readiness operations in the territorial waters and airspace around the shoal.

Scarborough Shoal, which China refers to as “Huangyan Dao,” is claimed by both China and the Philippines and stands as one of the most bitterly contested maritime locations in Asia.

In a separate announcement, the China Coast Guard said it also conducted law-enforcement patrols Tuesday in and around the shoal’s waters. The agency said it has stepped up patrols throughout the month and taken action against vessels engaged in what it described as “illegal rights-violation activities,” though it offered no further details.

The Philippine embassy in Beijing had not responded to requests for comment regarding the patrols by either the military or the coast guard.

The Tuesday patrols came on the heels of joint U.S.-Philippine military exercises conducted near Scarborough Shoal over the weekend. Washington stated those drills reflected a shared dedication to building regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.

China’s military responded Monday, saying it had performed a routine patrol in the South China Sea during the weekend and criticizing the Philippines for bringing in countries from outside the region, claiming such actions threaten peace and stability in the area.

In recent years, Beijing has ramped up its sovereignty assertions over Scarborough Shoal, including establishing a national nature reserve at the site — a move the Philippines condemned as a “clear pretext for occupation.”

Earlier this month, the Philippines reported that China had placed a floating platform at the entrance to the shoal in late May, which was later removed. Beijing maintained that any activities it carries out there, including scientific research, fall within the legitimate rights of a sovereign nation.

WELLINGTON — Final results from New Caledonia’s provincial elections have revealed a fragmented legislature, with the pro-France coalition winning the most seats but failing to secure a governing majority, leaving a small centrist Pacific party holding the balance of power.

The vote, which took place on June 28, was the first provincial election in the French Pacific territory since 2019. It came after multiple postponements and followed violent unrest in 2024 triggered by proposed changes to the local electoral roll — tensions that laid bare the strained relationship between France and New Caledonia’s Indigenous Kanak people.

New Caledonia sits roughly 1,500 kilometers — about 930 miles — east of Australia and is home to approximately 270,000 people. The population includes around 41% Melanesian Kanaks and 24% of European descent, predominantly French. The territory has long been divided between those who favor independence and those who wish to remain part of France.

According to final figures released by the High Commission, Sonia Backes’ loyalist alliance, Les Loyalistes-Le Rassemblement, secured 24 of the 54 seats in the Congress. Meanwhile, the pro-independence grouping — made up of UC-FLNKS, UNI-Palika, and Dynamique Autochtone — captured 26 seats.

The remaining four seats belong to the centrist party L’Eveil oceanien, which is now positioned as the deciding force in determining the direction of the next executive government.

New Caledonia’s political system requires Congress to elect the government through proportional representation. Once formed, government members then select a president and vice president from within their own ranks.

The stakes are especially high because the incoming government is expected to play a central role in shaping future negotiations with France over the territory’s political status. Three referendums have been held on the question of independence, with the most recent in 2021 returning a majority in favor of remaining part of France. However, that vote was boycotted by pro-independence parties, who had sought a postponement due to a COVID-19 outbreak and a period of Kanak mourning.

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te delivered a strong warning to graduating military officers Tuesday, telling them to stay vigilant against China’s efforts to spy on and undermine the island’s armed forces.

Lai spoke at a graduation ceremony held at Fu Hsing Kang College, located on the outskirts of Taipei. The college, now part of the National Defence University, was established in 1951 — just two years after the Republic of China government retreated to Taiwan following its defeat in a civil war against Mao Zedong’s communist forces.

The institution was originally created to train military officers in political warfare and to foster a strong anti-communist identity within the ranks. That Cold War-era spirit remains very much present at the school today.

Addressing the graduates, Lai said a soldier’s honor is rooted in loyalty. He called on the new officers to be clear-eyed about who their adversaries are.

“In the face of various threats and challenges, as well as China’s infiltration, division, sabotage, and espionage activities targeting our armed forces, I ask all of you to establish a clear awareness of friend and foe,” Lai said.

“Only by resisting all forms of threat and temptation can we defend our nation’s sovereignty and security,” he added.

The president also urged graduates to oppose communism, protect against infiltration, and firmly uphold democratic values and freedom. He insisted that the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to one another — using Taiwan’s formal official name in making that point.

Taiwan and China have long engaged in mutual espionage, but Taiwan has recently reported a rising number of Chinese spying cases, particularly within its military. China, which considers Taiwan part of its own territory, has never ruled out using military force to bring the island under its control, and Chinese military activity around Taiwan occurs on a daily basis.

Inside the hall where Lai delivered his address, large Chinese characters flank both sides of the room. The inscription — “I regard the nation’s rise or fall as my own personal responsibility” — was written by former Taiwan leader Chiang Kai-shek shortly before his death in 1975. Chiang remains a divisive figure in Taiwan, condemned by some for his authoritarian rule while admired by others for his fierce opposition to communism.

During the Cold War, the college also trained military officers from other anti-communist nations around the world, and it continues to host international students today.

Among those attending Tuesday’s ceremony were the ambassadors of Belize, Guatemala, and Paraguay — three countries that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan — as well as the de facto ambassador from Jordan, which does not officially recognize Taiwan despite having maintained close military ties during the Cold War.

A large fire erupted early Tuesday morning at an oil refinery located in Haldia, India, according to reports from local media outlets.

The fire started in a pipeline that carries naphtha, a highly flammable petroleum liquid used in the refining process. Multiple workers at the facility were hurt in the incident, media reports indicated.

As of the initial reports, investigators had not yet determined what caused the blaze to break out.

CARACAS — Construction worker Anderson Daniel Salcedo had spent three months locked in U.S. immigration detention before stepping onto a repatriation flight last Wednesday. He touched down in Venezuela just hours before a pair of devastating earthquakes struck his homeland.

The 22-year-old, a passionate soccer fan, had spent more than three years living in the United States, sending money back home so his mother could build a house. After landing at Maiquetia airport near the capital Caracas, Salcedo and more than 140 fellow returning migrants — among them seven children — were transported to the nearby government-operated Hotel Santuario La Llanada, perched on a hilltop with views of the Caribbean Sea, where they were to wait for processing.

What happened next was catastrophic. Venezuela’s most powerful earthquakes in over a century tore through coastal La Guaira state, bringing the hotel down and, according to relatives, likely killing the majority of the deportees sheltering inside.

Salcedo made it out alive, but with life-altering injuries. Now, his family — along with relatives of others lost in the collapse — are raising serious questions about why returning migrants were placed at that location, and why their phones and identification documents were confiscated, which made it far harder to locate and identify survivors.

Venezuela’s Return to the Homeland Grand Mission, the government program responsible for receiving returning migrants, did not respond to questions from Reuters. Three days after the earthquakes, the program posted a message of condolence on its social media account along with phone numbers for families to call.

“We express our deepest sorrow and solidarity over the tragic loss of life caused by the recent earthquakes,” the post read. “Today we embrace each other in grief, but tomorrow we will rise stronger. We are a people of light, resilience, and hope; together, step by step, we will overcome this trial and find our way home again. You are not alone.”

Venezuelan authorities report that at least 1,750 people died in the earthquakes, which destroyed or seriously damaged more than 850 buildings, injured thousands more, and left approximately 16,000 people without homes. A website run by the country’s political opposition lists roughly 45,000 people as still unaccounted for.

Satellite images from Vantor show a large portion of the hotel reduced to a heap of concrete and twisted metal, with broken roof tiles strewn across the wreckage. Part of the structure remained standing.

Two families of passengers on the deportation flight — who connected through social media and began sharing missing-person notices — told Reuters that 12 people managed to escape the debris on their own. One family was shown an official list from the Grand Mission indicating 32 survivors from the flight.

Salcedo was pulled from the rubble 40 hours after the quakes struck, according to his grandmother, Marlene Lozano, speaking by phone from her home in Nueva Bolivia in Merida, roughly 700 kilometers (430 miles) from La Guaira. A video circulated among the families shows Salcedo being extracted from a hole in the debris by several men, his face twisted in pain as one rescuer says, “we’ll pull him right now.”

Salcedo’s family said SEBIN, Venezuela’s domestic intelligence agency, had taken his phone and identity card before the disaster. The Communications Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

“He spent 40 hours in that hole, he didn’t have an ID, they couldn’t account for him because he had no documents,” Lozano said. “We had no way to communicate with him and didn’t know anything.”

A relative eventually located Salcedo at University Hospital in Caracas and contacted his aunt. His mother made the journey to the city by motorcycle with her husband.

“She went straight to the hospital, and that’s where she found him — but they had already amputated his legs. Because he had a lot, a lot of debris on top of his legs,” Lozano said.

Salcedo remains intubated. A doctor told the family that the damage to his legs was worsened by how he was removed from the wreckage.

“Here we are praying, asking God to give him strength and courage,” Lozano said. “We are trusting in God, that God will keep him alive as he is. We know he won’t be the same anymore — he’s missing his legs — but we love him, just the way he is.”

Lozano said the family has received no official information. When she visited the local SEBIN office, she was told they had nothing to share.

Another family is facing a similar ordeal. Oswadeliz Nunez, an industrial engineer and lawyer, has been unable to get any official word about her 28-year-old son, Daniel Nunez, who arrived on the same flight. When he landed, Daniel borrowed a phone and told his mother he was being taken to a hotel and would be released to go home the next day.

“Thank God my son called me, because otherwise I would never have spoken to him again,” Nunez said.

She rushed to La Guaira from El Tigre, in Anzoategui state — about 470 kilometers (290 miles) southeast of Caracas — and was told by a SEBIN official that her son had been taken away by ambulance. She could not find him at any clinic or hospital. She was later shown an official list on which her son appears as missing.

Nunez said SEBIN personnel have been digging through the rubble by hand, and that heavy machinery did not arrive at the site until Monday.

“We are earnestly asking the international community to help us recover the bodies, because if it was God’s will that my son was there, I want my son’s body. I can’t wait one or two months until the government decides to remove the bodies,” she said.

She added that had her son been allowed to go directly home upon arrival, he would still be alive.

“They did not commit any crime. They were already in their country, they had already been deported.”

Australian Federal Police have charged a Thai Airways flight attendant with smuggling more than a kilogram — roughly 2.2 pounds — of heroin into the country after border officers intercepted the drug at Melbourne Airport.

The 26-year-old woman arrived at the airport on June 25, at which point customs officials screened 12 tote bags she was carrying. Officers discovered heroin hidden within the lining of those bags, with an estimated street value of A$500,000 — equivalent to about $343,300 U.S. dollars.

Thai Airways confirmed the woman was employed as a flight attendant at the time of her arrival. The airline released a statement saying it maintains strict conduct rules for all of its employees and that it “stands ready to fully cooperate with the relevant authorities throughout the process.”

The woman was taken into custody on June 26 and now faces one count of importing and one count of possessing a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug. Each of those charges carries a maximum sentence of 25 years behind bars. She is scheduled to appear before Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on September 14.

Australian Federal Police Acting Commander Simone Butcher emphasized the agency’s commitment to pursuing those who exploit their positions to move drugs. “The AFP remains unwavering in its efforts to target individuals who use their employment or community standing to support drug trafficking,” she said.

Australian Border Force Commander Clint Sims added that criminal organizations continue to recruit trusted insiders — including airline crew members — as a means of smuggling illegal substances into Australia.

An explosive device detonated outside a residential building in Monaco on Monday evening, leaving three people with serious injuries and sending the attacker fleeing across the border into neighboring France, according to local authorities.

The shocking incident rattled the wealthy Mediterranean principality, prompting Monaco’s ruler, Prince Albert II, to speak out strongly against what he described as “an odious act,” adding that all of the nation’s resources had been activated to maintain security.

Monaco’s top government official, Minister of State Christophe Mirmand, told reporters that both French and Monaco law enforcement are actively searching for the attacker, and that investigators are still working to determine a motive.

The blast took place at approximately 9 p.m. near the entrance of a residence close to the French border. Two adults and a child were injured in the explosion and transported to hospitals located in France, Mirmand said.

According to Mirmand, the suspect crossed into France on foot and was tracked through video surveillance footage captured in Monaco and in the nearby French town of Beausoleil.

A French national police official confirmed that French authorities are actively involved in the search for the suspect and are assisting with the investigation, though the official declined to provide additional details.

French broadcaster BFM and Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda have reported that one of the injured individuals is Ukrainian construction tycoon Vadym Iermolaiev. Ukrainska Pravda further reported that Iermolaiev was placed under Ukrainian sanctions in 2023 due to alleged ties to Russia.

Oil prices slid on Tuesday as the world watched for any developments from potential negotiations between the United States and Iran in Doha, following a weekend of missile exchanges that strained a shaky ceasefire in a conflict now entering its fifth month.

Brent August crude futures, set to expire Tuesday, dropped 1.03%, or 75 cents, to $72.40 per barrel as of early morning GMT. The more widely traded September Brent contract fell 0.54%, or 40 cents, to $73.51 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude also declined, losing 0.66%, or 47 cents, to settle at $70.32 per barrel.

Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, explained that traders are factoring in the possibility of a favorable outcome from the Doha discussions. “Investors are pricing in hopes of a positive outcome from the Doha talks, even though real normalisation of flows through the Strait of Hormuz is not yet visible,” he said.

Waterer further noted that the market remains cautious. “The market is cautiously hopeful but still hedging its bets until we see more tangible signs of de-escalation,” he added.

On Monday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told state television that Iranian and Omani experts would begin discussions in the coming days about redefining shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iran would work to block vessels operating outside those designated paths.

Despite that, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei stated flatly that there would be no negotiation sessions with American officials at any level in the near future.

President Donald Trump offered an uncertain take on the situation when speaking to reporters in the Oval Office. “The meeting in Doha is going to be perhaps important, perhaps not. We’re going to find out,” he said.

The back-and-forth underscored how delicate the June 17 agreement to pause hostilities truly is. That deal has already been shaken by renewed fighting that has disrupted global oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and created a political headache for Trump ahead of November’s congressional elections. Israel has not participated in the U.S.-Iran peace process and has kept its distance from the agreement.

Even so, oil and liquefied natural gas producers in the Middle East have continued loading shipments despite fresh attacks on vessels in the strait and recent exchanges of strikes between American and Iranian forces, according to shipping data.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote in a note dated June 29 that if Persian Gulf oil flows keep recovering at the same pace seen over the previous two weeks, output could return to pre-war levels of 23 million barrels per day as soon as early July. Shipping traffic through the region last week reached its highest point since the conflict began at the end of February.

A court in Jakarta is set to deliver its verdict Tuesday in a closely watched corruption case against Nadiem Makarim, the 41-year-old former Indonesian education minister and co-founder of the country’s largest tech startup, Gojek. Prosecutors accuse him of abusing his official authority to line his own pockets.

The ruling brings to a close a legal battle that has stretched on for months, attracting attention from prominent international figures and stoking fears that Indonesia’s judicial system may be serving political interests rather than justice.

According to prosecutors, Makarim personally profited from irregular laptop procurement deals carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in roughly $125 million in losses to the Indonesian government.

Prosecutors are pushing for an 18-year prison term and demanding he pay approximately 5.6 trillion rupiah — equivalent to around $314 million — in fines and restitution. If convicted, this could rank among the most significant legal proceedings ever brought against a former Indonesian cabinet minister.

Makarim stepped down as chief executive of Gojek in 2019 to take on the role of education minister, a position he held until 2024. Prosecutors allege that between 2020 and 2022, he steered the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome OS software for Indonesian schools in a way that enriched him by approximately 809 billion rupiah, or around $46.33 million.

Prosecutors further claimed that Makarim crafted tender requirements designed exclusively for the Chrome platform in order to, in their words, “make Google the sole controller of the education ecosystem in Indonesia.” They also argued that Google’s investment in Gojek’s parent company played a role in the laptop procurement decisions.

Google has not been charged in the case. Makarim has denied any connection between Google’s investment in Gojek and the procurement process. In January, Google stated that its investments in Gojek-related companies took place between 2017 and 2021 — before Makarim was appointed education minister.

Legal experts have raised serious doubts about the case. Tim Lindsey, a law professor at the University of Melbourne who has spent years studying Indonesia’s legal system, said the charges — which allege Makarim’s decisions caused losses to the state — rely on a legal standard that is frequently applied too broadly, blurring the line between corruption and simply taking risks or being inefficient.

“This is a huge expansion of the notion of corruption, way beyond what most people and most legal systems would consider corrupt,” Lindsey said.

He also cautioned that allowing politics to seep into legal proceedings is damaging Indonesia’s standing on the world stage. “These sorts of prosecutions, combined with the increasing intrusion of the state into the commercial sector, are contributing to damage to Indonesia’s reputation among investors,” he added.

The case has drawn sharp criticism from international figures. British billionaire Richard Branson wrote on LinkedIn that Makarim “should be celebrated for what he achieved, not prosecuted on trumped-up charges that seem politically motivated.”

In a recent interview, Makarim — a Harvard Business School graduate — maintained that he is innocent and described his situation as a warning to others. “My case is scary for young people, for public officials, for procurement officers, for investors,” he said.

Makarim, who was arrested in September, reflected on his ordeal in a LinkedIn post last week, writing through his legal team: “It’s been more than nine months since this nightmare began.”

He has said he will appeal if the court finds him guilty, adding: “I’m ready for the worst.”

($1 = 17,835 rupiah)

A press conference meant to highlight a significant security and diplomatic achievement regarding Lebanon quickly transformed into the opening act of Israel’s next election season.

Standing before cameras, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel had secured an unprecedented arrangement with Lebanon, brokered by Washington, that would allow Israel to maintain a security zone for as long as Hezbollah remained armed and posed a threat. But when reporters shifted their questions from Lebanon to the ongoing ultra-Orthodox military draft crisis, Netanyahu pivoted from military strategy to political vision — announcing that after the elections, he plans to form a “broad national government.”

The timing was deliberate. Netanyahu’s government had just survived yet another coalition crisis after reaching an agreement with ultra-Orthodox parties regarding draft enforcement and the detention of yeshiva students who had ignored military call-up orders. While the deal may have extended the coalition’s lifespan, it has also placed military service — and the parties that resist it — at the center of any future government Netanyahu says he wants to build.

“I am not boycotting anyone,” Netanyahu said, describing his proposed post-election coalition as open to any party willing to accept a set of core principles. He outlined those principles as: Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, respect for individual rights, a free economy, technological and defense independence, and broad agreement on draft and judicial matters. He later added one more condition: “There is no room for two states. From the sea to the Jordan, there is no room for two states,” explicitly rejecting Palestinian statehood as a foundational principle of any government he would lead.

That position sharpened the core political question of the campaign: How can a prime minister who promises a broad, Zionist-led government continue to depend on ultra-Orthodox parties that are historically non-Zionist and that prioritize military service exemptions for Torah students?

Netanyahu’s allies frame this as a matter of necessity rather than contradiction. Likud lawmaker Moshe Saada told The Media Line that a broad government is the appropriate response to a deeply divided society. “You cannot heal the rifts with a narrow government,” Saada said. “It will deepen the divide. We have to do everything to create connections among us.”

Saada also defended the government’s decision to halt arrests of yeshiva students, arguing that criminal enforcement fosters resentment rather than enlistment. “Every arrest of one haredi prevents the enlistment of another haredi,” he said. “It creates hatred and gives nothing.” He added that it is not practically feasible for the state to arrest tens of thousands of people, calling a focus on arrests “cheap populism.”

His preferred approach is a “no service, no benefits” model — relying on economic incentives and sanctions rather than arrests. “Only the economy moves people to action. Force and coercion, in the end, produce nothing,” he said. Saada compared this strategy to past reductions in allowances that helped increase ultra-Orthodox women’s participation in the workforce without requiring police enforcement.

That argument aligns with the government’s formal justification for the proposed arrest freeze. Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs wrote to Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth that arrests were undermining efforts to bring haredi men into the military, deepening a rift with the ultra-Orthodox community, and risking what he warned could escalate into severe internal conflict — potentially approaching “civil war.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz also supported moving the issue to the committee and backed a temporary framework that would suspend arrests of yeshiva students under specific conditions.

The opposition sees it very differently. Yesh Atid’s Moshe Tur-Paz, a reservist who served in the conflict following October 7, told The Media Line that Netanyahu is not genuinely addressing the draft issue but rather trying to lock in ultra-Orthodox political support ahead of elections. “I think what Netanyahu is trying to achieve is to connect haredim stronger toward him, so he makes sure that they don’t leave him after the elections,” Tur-Paz said. “We’re seeing a terrified Netanyahu doing everything to keep the haredi parties on his side.”

Tur-Paz called the partnership “disgraceful,” particularly while Israeli soldiers continue to be killed in Lebanon and the country faces pressure on multiple fronts. “The price of … defending Israel’s borders these days is going up by the day,” he said. “Threats haven’t gone down, not in Lebanon, not in Syria, not in Gaza. And Iran is still a big enemy of Israel.” He argued the government should be expanding the pool of those who serve, not reducing pressure on those who refuse.

He acknowledged that more ultra-Orthodox men are serving in the military today than in the past, but said that progress was not driven by the haredi parties or Netanyahu’s government. “The army has done a bigger effort to bring in haredim, but nothing has been done or led by the political part of the coalition,” he said.

The issue carries real political risk for Netanyahu because it divides his own voter base. A recent Channel 12 poll found that 62% of respondents opposed the Netanyahu-ultra-Orthodox deal, while only 23% supported it. That same poll showed Likud rising to 23 seats, Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party holding steady at 21, and Naftali Bennett’s alliance slipping to 18. The coalition bloc reached 52 seats, while the opposition — including Arab parties — reached 68.

The poll numbers reveal the complexity of Netanyahu’s situation. Likud still claimed first place with 23 seats, and Netanyahu remained competitive in head-to-head matchups. But the warning sign lay elsewhere: Eisenkot led Netanyahu in prime ministerial suitability ratings, 38% to 36%, and the broader bloc numbers left the current coalition well short of a majority. That explains why Netanyahu is already talking about bringing in partners from outside his current camp — and why his phrase “broad national government” sounds less like a slogan and more like a preview of post-election deal-making.

The shift implies an unspoken acknowledgment. For years, Netanyahu’s political formula depended on a hard-right coalition with ultra-Orthodox and far-right partners. His repeated references to a future broad government suggest he is laying the groundwork for a different arrangement — not necessarily abandoning current partners, but signaling that the existing formula may not be enough to secure the stable majority he needs.

Tur-Paz did not rule out Likud as a future partner in a broad Zionist coalition — but only without Netanyahu. Saada, by contrast, did not seriously entertain the reverse scenario, in which Likud would join a government led by Eisenkot, Bennett, or another center-right figure. In his view, the most likely outcome remains a Netanyahu-led government that brings in at least one centrist party after the election.

The contrast is telling. The opposition is working to separate Likud from Netanyahu. Likud, at least as Saada describes it, is working to pull centrist voters and parties away from the opposition while keeping Netanyahu at the head of the table. In both cases, the same underlying question is being tested: whether Israel’s next government can be broader than the current one without first removing the man who built it.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warned that talk of a broad unity government was “very troubling” and insisted Netanyahu must form a fully right-wing government. During a cabinet meeting, after Netanyahu again stated his intention to build a broad national government grounded in Jewish statehood, defense independence, and rejection of a Palestinian state, Ben-Gvir pressed him not to exclude any part of the right-wing bloc. Netanyahu replied that there would be no boycotts.

Saada echoed that position. “Every Zionist party that fights alongside me, … I have no problem with,” he said. He rejected the notion of sidelining parties on the right out of political discomfort, arguing that anyone fit to serve alongside others in combat should not be treated as illegitimate in government. “I do not boycott any Zionist party,” he said. “Period.”

That stance becomes more complicated when the current coalition is examined closely. Saada said he would not work with parties that reject Zionism or the state itself, but he treated the ultra-Orthodox parties as a different case. When asked how non-Zionist haredi factions fit alongside a party like Likud, he argued that the gap between rabbinic leadership and the broader haredi public is larger than it may appear from the outside.

The haredi public, Saada argued, is gradually drawing closer to the rest of Israeli society, even if the process is slow and uneven. The rabbis, he said, may be less connected to the broader Israeli experience, but the public is undergoing its own evolution. “The haredi mainstream is also part of the melting pot,” he said. “It is Jewish and national. It is more liberal than its rabbis.”

For Tur-Paz, that is precisely the contradiction. Netanyahu, he said, is deepening his ties with United Torah Judaism and Shas while presenting himself as the future leader of a Zionist coalition. “People find it hard to believe when they see an Israeli strong leader doing something and yet saying exactly the opposite,” Tur-Paz said. “He is adding more and more laws that are meant to strengthen the ties with them, stop the few haredim that are going to the army, do whatever he can to help them get money from the government, and yet he says, ‘I want a broad Zionist government.’”

Tur-Paz said Yesh Atid does not rule out a future coalition with Likud in principle — but not under Netanyahu. “I do hope there is a future for Likud as a Zionist right-wing party without Netanyahu,” he said. “But that has to be proven.” For now, he argued, Likud remains defined by the prime minister’s personal leadership and by lawmakers unwilling to break from him. “You really ask yourself, is there a place for different leadership in the Likud? At the moment the answer is no,” he said.

Netanyahu’s broad-government message has also been publicly rejected by opposition leaders outside Yesh Atid. Eisenkot dismissed the idea of joining any government under him, arguing that a leader who avoided accountability after October 7 cannot lecture others about national unity. Yair Golan called on the liberal and democratic bloc to declare outright that it would not sit with Netanyahu. Benny Gantz, who twice entered unity arrangements with Netanyahu, has also expressed doubt that the offer is sincere.

Netanyahu’s supporters counter that Israel’s security situation demands a larger governing structure, not a smaller one. Saada said the Lebanon agreement itself demonstrates that Israel has entered a period in which military gains must be converted into diplomatic and internal political progress. He described Israel’s position regarding Lebanon as “dramatic,” saying it gives Israel international legitimacy to remain there until Hezbollah is disarmed. He framed a broad government as part of the same strategic moment. “To heal the rifts, you need a real broad government,” he said.

The language of “civil war” now hovers over this entire debate. Netanyahu invoked the warning of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin against internal conflict, urging unity while external enemies remain active. Fuchs used similarly stark language in his letter on draft enforcement. Tur-Paz said such language is dangerous and should not become normalized. “We could argue, we can debate, we can be very anxious about things, but we can’t afford fighting each other because that means the end of Israel,” he said.

That is where the draft crisis and the election campaign now converge. Netanyahu’s agreement with the ultra-Orthodox parties may help him hold his current coalition together long enough to reach the next political stage. But it has also handed his rivals a powerful argument: that the same leader who speaks of national unity and a Zionist majority remains bound to partners whose political demands run directly counter to the principle of equal military service.

For Netanyahu, the answer is that a future broad government could generate the consensus the current system cannot deliver. For the opposition, the haredi deal is proof that no such consensus can be built under his leadership. Between those two positions lies the opening battle of Israel’s election campaign — not merely about who wins the most seats, but about what kind of government can claim to represent a nation exhausted by war, divided over military service, and uncertain whether “unity” is a genuine governing plan or simply another campaign promise.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared Monday that a US decision to connect Lebanon to the Iran ceasefire memorandum of understanding effectively shielded Hezbollah from being wiped out by Israeli forces.

Speaking at a briefing for military and diplomatic reporters centered on Iran, Katz addressed the halt in Israeli Defense Forces operations, arguing that “the pause prevented a massive blow the IDF had planned to continue inflicting on Hezbollah. Linking the arenas saved Hezbollah from a devastating blow, perhaps even its collapse.”

Katz made clear that Israel has no intention of pulling back from its security zone in Lebanon, stating: “In any case, we would not have withdrawn, and we will not do so in the future as long as Hezbollah is there.”

While insisting Israel holds no desire for Lebanese territory, Katz said any future Israeli withdrawal would hinge on the Lebanese Army clearing Hezbollah out of areas that Israeli troops vacate. “We have no territorial ambitions in Lebanon. The Lebanese Army will have to do the job in the areas from which the IDF withdraws. The IDF will have to verify that this has happened and that Hezbollah is no longer present in the areas from which it withdraws. The current mission is to remove Hezbollah from the Litani area,” he said.

Katz added bluntly: “I have no illusions. In the end, the one that will have to do the job is the IDF.”

He also told reporters that Israel had communicated to American officials that it would not pull out of security zones in Gaza, Lebanon, or Syria, framing this as a cornerstone of Israeli strategy. “This is Israel’s new security doctrine,” Katz said. “The condition for leaving these areas is the disarmament of the terrorist organizations.”

Katz noted, as previously reported by N12, that Israel had offered to hand over responsibility for the Ali Taher Ridge to the Lebanese Army, but that offer was turned down.

He closed his remarks on Lebanon with a firm warning: “We will respond to every Hezbollah violation. We will not tolerate violations. The equation still stands: rocket fire toward northern Israel and the frontline communities will be answered with strikes in Dahiyeh.”

Turning to Iran, Katz cautioned that hostilities could restart at any time and said Israel’s military is actively preparing for another confrontation. He revealed that the IDF has been ordered to prepare for what he called a “Blue and White operation in Iran.”

“If we have definitive intelligence about Iranian decisions, we will act on it,” Katz said. “If Iran attacks us with missiles, we will respond with force, and this has been made clear to the Americans.”

He outlined two scenarios under which he believes war with Iran could resume: “if President Trump decides and we join, or if they fire at us, it will be the Third Iran War. Israel’s position is clear—there is no scenario in which Israel will allow missile fire on its territory.”

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado announced Monday that she is “willing to do whatever it takes” to get back into Venezuela and assist with recovery efforts in the wake of two major earthquakes that struck the country last week.

Speaking from Panama, where she is currently based, Machado accused the Venezuelan government of preventing her from returning home. In a video she posted on X, she declared that she “will be in Venezuela to help coordinate and encourage citizens’ efforts during the emergency.”

She offered no additional details about how she plans to make her way back into the country.

Machado had spent time living in hiding inside Venezuela after claiming victory in the nation’s disputed 2024 presidential election. Last December, she secretly escaped the country by boat, traveling to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize — an award she later presented to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Her determination to return has created friction in Washington. A White House official told Reuters on Saturday that Machado has reached out to multiple U.S. administration officials — including contacts at the White House, the State Department, and members of Congress — seeking support for a potential return to Venezuela.

The situation surrounding Machado’s future role in Venezuela shifted earlier this year when U.S. forces captured former President Nicolas Maduro in January, raising hopes among some in the opposition that Machado, 58, would step into a leadership position in governing the country.

However, Trump threw his backing behind Maduro’s former deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, stating that Machado did not have enough support to lead Venezuela in the near future.

Before the earthquakes struck, Machado had already indicated she planned to return to Venezuela before the year’s end.

“At this moment, I am willing to do whatever it takes, speak to whoever I need to speak to, in order to coordinate and serve our people,” Machado said Monday.

NEW YORK — A Chinese billionaire once counted among the wealthiest people in China has been sentenced to 30 years behind bars in the United States after being found guilty of orchestrating a sweeping financial fraud.

Guo Wengui, who escaped China a decade ago and built a new identity as a U.S.-based critic of the Chinese Communist Party, received his sentence Monday from U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in a Manhattan courtroom.

Before the sentence was handed down, Guo was given an opportunity to address the court. He complained about his treatment while in jail, telling the judge he had fainted and collapsed at 5 a.m. that morning. He said hospital doctors recommended he remain there for care, but he was transported back to jail instead, during which he vomited multiple times. He said a doctor came to see him at the jail before he was brought to court.

Speaking through an interpreter, Guo told the judge: “When I came here, I said I have a stomach ache, I need to go to the bathroom, I don’t feel well.”

He also declared: “The reason I came to the U.S. was to destroy the CCP” — a reference to the Chinese Communist Party.

Judge Torres, in delivering the sentence, read aloud portions of letters she had received from victims who described watching their entire life savings disappear, and who spoke of developing deep fear, crippling anxiety, and even losing loved ones.

“Mr. Guo preyed on those seeking to bring democracy to China,” Torres said from the bench.

She went on to say that even now, Guo “takes no responsibility for his actions and instead insists incredibly his conduct caused no loss and harmed no one.” She also noted that he “has called upon supporters to harass and intimidate those who dare to speak out against him.”

Guo had developed a close relationship with conservative political strategist Steve Bannon, and the two announced a joint effort in 2020 aimed at toppling the Chinese government. Before his arrest and detention without bail three years ago, Guo lived in a high-end Manhattan apartment with views of Central Park and had become a member of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida.

Federal prosecutors had urged the court to impose at least a 30-year sentence, arguing that his “astonishing” fraud — which ran from 2018 to 2023 — “destroyed hundreds of lives” and left behind “a wreckage of victims and families who have been devastated financially, emotionally, and psychologically,” even as Guo claimed many of his followers still believed in him.

According to prosecutors, the money Guo took from victims bankrolled “a lifestyle of extraordinary excess and indulgence, a gilded life of mansions, yachts, race cars, designer clothes and luxury furnishings.”

A jury convicted him on nine of 12 criminal counts after a seven-week trial. Prosecutors said the case exposed how Guo deceived thousands of investors through fraudulent ventures that personally enriched him.

Guo’s defense attorneys argued in court filings that their client was himself a victim — targeted by the Chinese Communist Party through a “grand, pervasive, and life threatening” campaign against him. They alleged the party enlisted powerful figures in American business, entertainment, and politics to work against him.

The defense also argued that a lengthy sentence would only serve to validate China’s smear campaign and “embolden further efforts to eliminate Chinese dissidents from public life.” They pointed out that defendants in comparable cases typically received sentences of just two to four years.

Defense lawyers also noted that a court probation officer reported to the sentencing judge that Guo — also known as Miles Guo and Ho Wan Kwok — bore physical scars and disfigurements from torture he said he endured in China, along with surgeries performed between 1993 and 2022 to address those injuries.

The Probation Department had recommended a 25-year sentence and cited what it called “astronomical losses” exceeding $1 billion suffered by victims.

The defense said Guo’s fortune was built after his family became the largest shareholder of China’s biggest publicly traded securities firm, but that he became a target of Chinese officials after exposing their alleged corruption. They said those officials then accused him of being a U.S. spy, eventually forcing him to flee to Hong Kong, then London, and finally New York in 2017.

Chinese authorities charged him with rape, kidnapping, bribery, and other offenses — all of which Guo denied, saying the accusations were fabricated to punish him for speaking out against senior Communist Party leaders.

Prosecutors say Guo persuaded hundreds of thousands of people to pour more than $1 billion combined into organizations he controlled, including his media company GTV Media Group Inc., as well as the so-called Himalaya Farm Alliance and the Himalaya Exchange.

The government described Guo as “entirely unrepentant” after taking advantage of U.S. asylum laws to build his life in America.

“He does not even offer the lip service of remorse or acceptance of any responsibility for the harms he caused so many individuals and their loved ones, some of whom have been pushed to consider suicide as a result of his crimes, and some of whom confronted him directly by bravely testifying at trial about how he brainwashed, cheated, and harmed them,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.

Police in the tiny Mediterranean principality of Monaco are on the hunt for a suspect believed to have set off a homemade explosive device Monday evening, wounding three people, according to reports from French media outlets.

The explosion took place just before 9 p.m. local time. French newspaper Le Figaro reported that security camera footage showed a man placing a backpack near the entrance of a residential building shortly before the blast went off.

French television network BFM TV, citing Monaco’s prosecutor general, identified the device as a “parcel bomb.”

Eric Ciotti, the right-wing mayor of Nice — a French city located just across the border from Monaco — responded to the incident on social media platform X, writing: “The attack committed this evening is a tragedy for Monaco.”

A representative for Monaco’s police force declined to provide any comment on the incident.

Monaco is a small, tax-free nation situated along the French Riviera and is widely recognized as a destination for the ultra-wealthy, who are drawn to the area by its luxury lifestyle and favorable financial conditions.