At least 17 people were killed and two dozen more injured on Saturday in eastern India after a stampede that was likely caused by sudden rainfall during a Hindu religious gathering, officials said.
West Bengal’s Chief Minister Suvendhu Adhikari told reporters the fatalities included a seven-year-old girl, adding that 25 others were injured outside a pavilion “in a stampede” at the Hindu festival of Durga Puja in the city of Kolkata.
“Six bodies have so far been identified,” Adhikari said.
A senior police official at the scene told AFP an announcement caused “commotion” after it started raining at night and the “crowd waiting outside the pandal (pavilion) was pushing, pulling and rushing forward and fell on the ground, leading to the stampede”.
Deadly crowd incidents are a frequent occurrence at Indian mass events, such as religious festivals, due to poor management and safety lapses.
In August, a stampede at a Hindu temple in Bihar killed at least seven people and injured 19 others.
Last year, a stampede at India’s Kumbh Mela religious fair killed 30 people and injured several others, and 11 fans were crushed to death in Bengaluru during celebrations for the local cricket team’s first Indian Premier League title.
The same year, 36 people were killed after a stampede broke out at a campaign rally of a popular actor-turned-politician in southern Tamil Nadu state.
In 2024, 121 people were killed in northern Uttar Pradesh state during a Hindu religious gathering.
Police and protesters clashed violently in Paris and other French cities on Saturday on the sidelines of nationwide marches against soaring inflation, with one demonstrator’s hand blown off, multiple blazes set, and looters breaking into dozens of stores to strip them bare.
With just months to go before the two-round elections in April and May to choose Macron’s successor, the demonstrations follow weeks of high-school student blockades demanding better learning conditions.
Macron and his government were criticised by many of the demonstrators, who numbered 500,000 across the country, according to the CGT union. Authorities did not immediately give their estimate of the numbers.
Police used tear gas and water cannon against masked protesters in Paris and other cities who were throwing projectiles and aiming fireworks. Several parked cars were torched in the capital, and more than 130 arrests were made.
In the southern city of Saint-Etienne, a male protester had his hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, a police source told AFP. His maiming came after a 15-year-old lost his hand on October 5 to a police stun grenade during another protest in the city of Lens.
Protesters stand amid tear gas smoke as clashes erupt ahead of a demonstration to protest against the “high cost of living”, at Place de la Republique in Paris, France on October 17, 2026. — AFP
The protests geared up with a handful of gatherings nationwide on Saturday morning, AFP reporters said.
In Lyon, protesters set ablaze a tourist office in the city centre, and smashed their way into town halls in the cities of Marseille and Lille, where they vandalised the premises before leaving.
Dozens of shops were looted, including many in Marseille, among them a Hermes boutique, an Apple store in Lille, several shops in Nice and at least one mobile phone outlet in Paris, AFP journalists saw.
A crowd of more than 300 protesters tried to move up Paris’s Champs-Elysees, home to flagship luxury stores. As police firing tear gas blocked their way, they yelled, “All cops are bastards”.
In the western city of Rennes, around 20 people set up a barricade using trash bins and large pallets on the outskirts of a shopping mall.
Christophe, a 47-year-old carpenter and former Yellow Vest protester who did not give his surname, said he was indignant after seeing what he viewed as police brutality against teenagers in recent weeks.
“We’ve reached the point where the repression is targeting our own children,” he told AFP.
A French national police officer fires tear gas during clashes prior to the start of a demonstration to protest against the “high cost of living”, in Marseille, southern France on October 17, 2026. — AFP
‘Macron, resign’
The looting and confrontations with police were being carried out by masked youths on the sidelines of marches that were largely peaceful and which attracted people of all ages, including families with children.
Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire stressed that “the overwhelming majority of demonstrators” wanted to “march calmly”, but “acts of vandalism” were tarnishing their protest.
In Paris, tens of thousands marched across the east and north of the city in one major march, some shouting “Everyone hates the police” and “Macron, resign”.
Protesters wearing yellow vests face police as clashes erupt ahead of a demonstration to protest against the “high cost of living”, at Place de la Republique in Paris, France on October 17, 2026. — AFP
One demonstrator, Jules Petrichor, 47, who had brought his son, said: “There was a good atmosphere and then suddenly they (the police) started gassing us, even though nothing was happening. Naturally that worsened things and the hot-heads got hot-headed.”
Another protester who gave his first name as Louis, 19, complained that police were trigger-happy any time there was a demonstration.
“We can’t protest any more, it’s frightening,” he said.
The country’s Yellow Vest movement, which eight years ago staged street protests against Macron’s government over planned fuel tax hikes, has called Saturday’s “yellow and youth” demonstrations. It has appealed to teachers and students, workers, pensioners and farmers to take part in the protests on the first day of half-term holidays.
The principal grievance was the cost of living — pushed up in part by the war in the Middle East — that has helped send inflation soaring in Europe as elsewhere. But there were other issues too.
A protestor with a gas mask holds a French flag in front of a fire at the Boulevard des Capucines during a demonstration to protest against the “high cost of living”, in Paris, France on October 17, 2026. — AFP
High school student Kamil Alahyan, 18, said he was protesting “for so many reasons — the elections coming up in 2027, politicians who lie, the ultra-rich who’ve been taking more and more wealth over the past 10 years”.
“For years we’ve had climate, economy and equality problems but the government is not doing anything about it,” said Agnes, a 50-year-old actor who did not give her second name.
Anae, a 24-year-old student who did not give her surname, said she was protesting because she did not have a “sustainable future”.
“Our planet’s burning. And we’ve got a government that doesn’t give a toss,” she said.
Le Pen blames ‘rioters’
Opposition politicians vying to succeed Macron have seized upon the protests.
Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who has sided with the police, said on X: “Looting, pillaging, attacking police — rioters have once again sullied the October 17 demonstrations over the cost of living.” She claimed that the protesters’ demands had been “hijacked by the far left”.
Her far-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon, insisted early Saturday that “everything is passing off peacefully”, while accusing television news of “flooding us with images of violence in dozens of cities”.
Several protesters sought to draw parallels with the French Revolution of 1789.
“It’s the Revolution — we’re taking the Bastille!” some shouted in Marseille during the forced entry of the mayor’s offices.
In the western city of La Rochelle, marchers streamed behind a placard reading: “Revolution or death.” And in the southern city of Montpellier, a giant blue sign reading “The people will win” was unfurled above a central square.
“The government is trembling and it’s right to tremble because when the French people are angry, they never let up,” Ryad Rani, the head of the LSU high school student representative body, told journalists in Paris.
Des colons israéliens ont attaqué, samedi 17 octobre, un convoi de diplomates européens qui effectuaient une visite en Cisjordanie occupée, rouant de coups un maire français, ont indiqué à l'AFP un témoin et deux sources diplomatiques. Sur une vidéo consultée par l'AFP, Bernard Baudoux, maire communiste de la ville d'Aulnoye-Aymeries (nord), apparaît affalé au sol contre une voiture. Vendredi, c'est une photojournaliste du Washington Post qui était rouée des coups par des colons.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that Tehran supports a “political process” to resolve the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The Houthis have repeatedly attacked Saudi targets, including energy facilities and Riyadh’s international airport, where 13 people were killed in a major attack last week.
“We support an inclusive and comprehensive political process as the only practical and sustainable way to resolve the issue,” Araghchi said in a speech at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Baghdad.
Araghchi repeated Iran’s offer to mediate between the two sides. Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh previously said Riyadh has not responded to Iran’s overture.
On Friday, Iran denied having anything to do with the Houthi attacks, after Saudi Arabia accused Tehran of encouraging the group’s escalation.
In his speech, Araghchi also said “either we build security together, or we will endure insecurity together,” adding that Tehran was willing “to cooperate with all its brothers and neighbours to achieve the first option”.
The Houthis have repeatedly attacked Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers after a truce in their long-running war with Yemen’s coalition government unravelled in July.
On Wednesday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they had targeted facilities belonging to Saudi Aramco, after Saudi officials reported a strike on a building in Riyadh housing the energy giant’s operations centre.
Powerful explosions also rattled the Saudi capital, as the coalition fighting the Houthis said it had intercepted a missile fired by the group towards Riyadh.
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia launched strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, targeting fuel and energy facilities it said were being used to support missile and drone attacks, as the Yemeni group threatened a “harsh and painful” response against Saudi airports, refineries and oil installations.
Hours later, Saudi authorities issued warnings of potential hostile aerial threats in the kingdom’s eastern province and Riyadh.
Loud explosions were heard near Saudi Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran, according to witnesses. Later, a Saudi energy ministry official confirmed the attack. Saudi Arabia’s civil defence agency said that four people — two women, a man and a child — were wounded by debris from two intercepted Houthi cruise missiles in the capital and that 15 homes were damaged.
Uma mensagem mandava-o “ir para o inferno”. Outras diziam que merecia ser preso. Choveram ameaças de morte. Asiáticos com o mesmo nome de um dos homens acusados de violar uma estudante universitária nos EUA têm sido alvo de uma enxurrada de insultos online. A alegada violação em grupo de uma estudante da Universidade de Cornell em 2024, descrita numa ação judicial recente, provocou uma onda de indignação contra os sete acusados. O caso pôs “detetives da internet “a vasculhar rastos digitais à procura de pistas para os encontrar. Um dos acusados é um coreano identificado pela imprensa norte-americana como Winston
India’s Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke was released from detention on Saturday, a day after he was detained during a police crackdown on protests against the election authority.
Dipke, 31, was detained on Friday in New Delhi as he headed to join a rally that the CJP protest movement had called in the capital’s central Connaught Place district. He was arrested to prevent a breach of the peace, broadcasters NDTV and India Today reported.
He walked out of a police station on Saturday afternoon, waving to the media and giving a thumbs up as he was driven away, an AFP photographer saw.
“Abhijeet Dipke released,” CJP legal affairs chief Ratna Singh said on social media.
Opposition parties and CJP activists have defied a security crackdown, rallying to demand the resignation of India’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar after accusing the poll body of manipulating voter rolls to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party.
More than 130 million voters were deleted during the revision. The Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol. The BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.
Student activist Neha Bora, a prominent face of the protests, who was also detained on Friday as she tried to reach central Delhi with dozens of supporters, was released earlier on Saturday as well.
“Please, spare the people of India. Impeach Gyanesh Kumar and halt SIR (special intensive revision), so that the ordinary citizens of this country can breathe a sigh of relief, feel at ease, and have their voting rights ensured,” Bora told ANI news agency after she was released.
Two other senior CJP leaders, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, were arrested on Oct 14 after entering Jantar Mantar, a decades-old protest site that police have declared off-limits for demonstrations. They remain in custody.
Members of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have long alleged that large numbers of undocumented Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh have fraudulently entered India’s electoral rolls.
Rights groups and critics, however, say Modi’s government has eroded democratic freedoms during more than a decade in power, citing pressure on journalists, civil society groups and political opponents — allegations the government rejects.
A weeks-long sit-in by supporters of the movement earlier this year forced then-education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over exam paper leaks.
Le président américain Donald Trump a annoncé, vendredi 16 octobre 2026, la levée de plusieurs sanctions, restrictions et droits de douane visant la Russie, prévus dans le cadre d'une loi promulguée le mois dernier, avant même leur entrée en vigueur.
Tous les candidats au poste de secrétaire général de l'ONU se sont vu opposer, vendredi 16 octobre, un veto par les membres permanents du Conseil de sécurité, a-t-on appris de source diplomatique. Au terme de ce vote indicatif, aucun des sept candidats n'a réussi à échapper à un veto des cinq grandes puissances qui disposent de ce droit, ouvrant la voie à d'éventuelles nouvelles candidatures.
In Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, dozens of excavators operate day and night to extract gold from the mountains where villagers and their livestock once roamed.
Thousands of miners are deployed across the Shiwa area, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of the provincial capital Faizabad, extracting gold for investors nationwide.
Some residents in the area have profited from the gold rush, only to regret it later, such as farmer Muhammad Amin.
“Before, the river was deep, the water was clean,” said the 74-year-old from Pul-e-Ziri Ban valley.
Since mining got underway, “the water of the river is not drinkable; you can’t even wash your body with that water”, he told AFP.
With tears in his eyes, Amin said the grass along the riverbank “has all gone” and farming is no longer possible due to “the wind and dust”.
Now he can only feed up to 15 goats, compared with as many as 40 previously.
Amin said he was paid half the $20,000 for which he agreed to lease his land to a mining firm that failed to fulfil a promise to restore his fields after the work stopped.
The Taliban authorities have expanded the mining sector since returning to power five years ago, aiming to tap into Afghanistan’s vast underground resources to boost state coffers.
Abdul Mateen Rahimzai, head of Badakhshan’s mines department, said they have registered “almost 650 to 700 companies, and there are thousands of people working manually”.
The World Bank said hundreds of mining contracts have been signed since 2021, with “real growth averaging 25 to 30 percent” annually according to a May report.
This photograph taken on July 28, 2026 shows an Afghan miner pouring water over a sieve to separate dirt and stones from gold nuggets at Gulak-Dara valley in Shiwa area of Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province. In Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, dozens of excavators operate day and night to extract gold from the mountains where villagers and their livestock once roamed. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
– ‘Better than anything else’ –
While mining has temporarily stopped in Amin’s village, not far from his home, in Gulak-Dara valley, dozens of diggers were carving into the mountainside.
With jobs scarce in Afghanistan, the area has drawn workers from across the country.
Mohammad Agha Khwaja Khail, from Kabul, has worked in mining for five years and earns 10,000 Afghanis ($150) a month loading trucks.
“It’s better than anything else… There aren’t many jobs in Kabul,” said the 21-year-old, above the din of diggers.
Shafiullah Ehsas, a father-of-five, transported his excavator hundreds of kilometres from Jalalabad about three months ago.
“In Jalalabad, the gold (mining) work hasn’t started, and it was happening in Badakhshan, so we didn’t have any other option but to bring our machinery here,” said the 32-year-old, who earns 25,000 Afghanis per month.
The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has sought to regulate the industry, with spokesman Hamayoun Afghan saying resources “used to be extracted erratically; it wasn’t done under supervision” by the previous government.
Gold mining has accelerated in the north, the ministry spokesman said, including in neighbouring Takhar province where an Afghan company was operating with Chinese partners.
Fabrizio Foschini, a researcher at the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said during earlier decades of war “mining mainly benefited insurgent groups, including the Taliban, and local strongmen with links to corrupt government officials”.
Mining firms are now taxed 20 grams of gold per hectare per month, or the equivalent in cash, no matter their profits.
– ‘Reduced to ruins’ –
Mohammadullah Mubariz, the manager of a mining company with about a hundred labourers and 20 diggers, said the team can extract “200 to 300 grams of gold” in a week.
Despite this, he said the firm was operating at a loss because of start-up costs since April.
Rahimzai, head of the provincial mines department, said last year the government collected 112 kilograms (247 pounds) of gold in Badakhshan. According to miners who spoke to AFP, their sale price per gram was around $118.
Rahimzai said that last year, “most of the mines were not registered, and there was no system to collect the fees from them”.
He has also ordered the closure of around 225 sites that caused damage, including in the Shiwa area.
“There was a bridge there, there were shops, and there was a school. All of them were buried under floodwater, mud, and debris. The area has been completely reduced to ruins,” Rahimzai told AFP.
The provincial mining chief also pledged to tackle any corruption, and ensure the “mineral resources of Badakhshan will be utilised properly and for the benefit of the people”.
Some parts of the province remain untouched, including a few kilometres from Shiwa where herder Fazil hoped the miners would stay away.
“Because it’s a place for people, for picnics, for livestock to graze,” he told AFP, giving only his first name for security reasons.
The gold industry “doesn’t benefit the local communities here”, said the 45-year-old, who has brought his herd to the mountains each summer since childhood.
As Japan marks the anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombs, its leaders are pushing for a renewed debate on nuclear weapons in a challenge to the nation’s long-time pacifist stance.
Japan’s constitution renounces offensive military force, and successive governments have maintained a decades-old pledge not to possess nuclear weapons, produce them or permit their introduction into the country.
That commitment is now under pressure as East Asian neighbors — notably China — boost their military capabilities, while doubts persist about the reliability of Tokyo’s biggest security backer, the United States.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has refused to clarify whether she will maintain the stance known as the three non-nuclear principles, and Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi called last month for a “discussion without a taboo” on the subject.
In December, an unnamed senior administration official told local media in an off-the-record session suggesting that Japan should possess nuclear weapons.
The remark was widely reported by major Japanese outlets including national broadcaster NHK and Asahi Shimbun, sparking public criticism.
“If I look at it cynically, I can’t help but think that maybe she really wants to change” Japan’s anti-nuclear commitment, 82-year-old Satoshi Tanaka, a campaigner who survived the 1945 attack on Hiroshima, told AFP.
The country marked the 81st anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing on Thursday and will do the same on Sunday to commemorate the attack on Nagasaki.
The August 1945 assault by the United States killed more than 210,000 people, including many from the effects of radiation exposure.
It remains the only time that atomic weapons have been used in warfare, and was one of the last major acts of World War II.
The Takaichi administration is undertaking a major update of the national defense strategy this year in the face of China’s expanding military ambitions.
The prime minister has already lifted Japan’s self-imposed ban on weapons exports and expanded defense spending, while pushing to amend the constitution.
Those policies have drawn rebukes from China, which accuses Japan of “new militarism” and Takaichi of bending to the whims of the far right.
They have also unnerved survivors of the 1945 bombings, who have long helped shape Japan’s post-war pacifist political culture.
Tanaka, the Hiroshima survivor, expressed frustration that current political leaders like Takaichi are focusing on military capacity at the expense of diplomacy.
“There is so much talk about national security. What about building peace through diplomacy?” he said.
Despite winning the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, they are debating whether to continue their national association as their members grow older.
As of March, Japan recognized just over 91,000 survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks, down from over 164,000 a decade ago. Their average age is 86.7.
US President Donald Trump (R) looks on as Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks in front of US Navy personnel on board the US Navy’s USS George Washington aircraft carrier at the US naval base in Yokosuka on October 28, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
The Big Worry
The focus has turned firmly towards the future of the non-nuclear principles, which date to 1967.
Takaichi’s supporters argue that the final clause needs to be changed to allow the United States to bring nuclear arms to Japan and ensure regional deterrence.
Hirofumi Yoshimura, head of the Japan Innovation Party, a coalition partner of Takaichi’s government, said the principle deserved discussion in the context of the US-Japan security alliance.
“Of course, we need to work toward building a world without nuclear arms,” Yoshimura told reporters on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.
“But when considering how to ensure the effectiveness of extended nuclear deterrence within the framework of our alliance with the United States, I believe we should…continue to adhere to the principle of ‘neither possessing nor producing’ nuclear weapons,” he said.
“As for ‘not allowing them to be brought in,’ I do think there is some room for discussion on that point.”
Critics argue that Takaichi’s hawkish approach to defense increases the danger for Japan.
After Takaichi attended the annual ceremony in Hiroshima on Thursday, she sat down for a televised meeting with survivors.
When pressed, Takaichi declined to offer clarity on whether she might change the country’s nuclear course.
“Our nation currently adheres to the ‘three non-nuclear principles,'” she said in response to a direct question from Tanaka, without discussing what she might do next.
“That,” Tanaka told AFP on Friday, “only explains the current situation. It says nothing about the future.
Turkey’s foreign minister said he expected Egypt to join a joint defense agreement with regional partners designed to stabilize the region that is grappling with the Middle East war.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the agreement on Friday against the backdrop of war between the United States and Iran, which has drawn in surrounding nations and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.
The war has emboldened Iran and its Houthi allies in Yemen, both of which have attacked Saudi Arabia, and a drone last month hit US assets at an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told state news agency Anadolu he expected Egypt to join the “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement”, calling the country a “natural partner on all issues”.
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“I believe that at the next stage Egypt will also be among us in the alliance. We already act toward one another as if we were alliance members,” he said in an interview.
“There are a few technical issues. Once these are implemented, there is no reason for Egypt not to be part of it.”
Fidan said the agreement does not target a specific country.
“There is no common threat that we have put in writing,” he said, according to the news agency.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Friday the pact meant an attack on any member would be regarded as an attack on all, adding it was “intended to strengthen collective deterrence”.
In the interview, Fidan said the agreement was “the most important step toward bringing lasting stability to this region”, and suggested the alliance could expand further.
“Under our president’s vision, we should not remain limited to three countries. We should grow and, if necessary, bring all countries under this umbrella,” he said.
A defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan could totally reshape the Middle East. Analysts believe that it could deter Iran, offset an unpredictable United States, and send a strong message to Israel.
This alliance binds three Sunni nations that are strategic allies of the United States with a NATO-style clause that considers any attack on one country as an attack on all.
Analysts doubt this provision will be enforced, as the trio seeks resolutions to the war, with Pakistan and Turkey acting as intermediaries.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has positioned itself at the center of this new alliance, signed in Islam’s holiest city, Mecca, but what does this agreement mean in practical terms?
Nearly six months into the Iran war, the US has failed to knock out Iran, while Tehran continues to choke off traffic in and around the Strait of Hormuz and its Houthi allies disrupt shipping in the Red Sea.
This reality has upended the region’s security architecture — forcing a rethink of decades of conventional wisdom rooted in US military supremacy.
Despite the archipelago of US bases across the region, American forces have struggled to intercept all of the drones and ballistic missiles fired by Iran and its proxies.
The new alliance shows “American deterrence has been significantly weakened and that the Iranian threat will increasingly need to be managed by regional powers,” wrote Ali Shihabi, a political analyst close to the Saudi government.
Since the onset of the war, Saudi Arabia has grown closer to Turkey, with whom it previously had fraught ties, as well as Egypt and Pakistan. The four nations have supported mediation in the conflict.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have a history of security ties and had already signed a similar agreement last year.
This Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan defense pact is less about creating a new NATO-style alliance and more about an insurance policy. Riyadh is using its financial muscle to buy military assurance from Ankara and Islamabad. The mutual defense agreement is largely symbolic — neither Turkey nor Pakistan is likely to go to war with Iran on Saudi Arabia’s behalf — but the real message is clear: the Gulf can no longer rely solely on Washington and is determined to shape its own regional security architecture.
Andreas Krieg, lecturer at King’s College London, says: “The three countries are unusually complementary. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has wealth but limited indigenous military-industrial depth… Turkey has technology and manufacturing capacity but needs markets and investment. Pakistan has manpower, military institutional depth and nuclear deterrence but needs financing and industrial opportunities.” “It is in Saudi Arabia’s interest to seek several layers of security rather than one American umbrella.”
Asfandyar Mir, Senior Fellow, Stimson Center, says: “What matters is three militarily capable states, in crucial geographies, with diverse relationships, are committing to one another’s defense. It is not intended to replace the United States. But it certainly reflects a judgment that U.S. commitment alone is no longer sufficient to ensure security and maintain stability.”
Motorists drive past a billboard displayed in Tel Aviv on June 26, 2025 by the “Coalition for Regional Security” Israeli political-security initiative depicting (L to R) Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, US President Donald Trump, Israel’s Prime Ministe Benjamin Netanyahu, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, with above the Hebrew slogan “a time for war, a time for settlement; now is the time for the ‘Abrahamic Covenant'”. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
Will Turkey and Pakistan attack Iran?
Pakistan has not done much for Saudi Arabia despite coming under attack from Iran and the Houthi militia.
“Turkey and Pakistan will not fight Iran. These countries view themselves as ‘stabilizers’ and want to create a political momentum to push for that,” wrote Asli Aydintasbas, a fellow at Brookings Institution.
HA Hellyer, geopolitical analyst, says even if it is unlikely for Pakistan and Turkey to hit Iran in retaliation for strikes on Saudi Arabia, “this pact sends a politically symbolic signal to Iran and Israel”.
Saudi Arabia has grown closer to Pakistan and Turkey as deep divisions plague the Gulf, even as it reeled from repeated attacks from Iran and its allies.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE were embroiled in a public rift even before the war, and though they recently appeared to reconcile, the UAE is likely to be wary of the new pact, analysts say.
The United States has long sought to build on the Abraham Accords that saw the UAE, Bahrain and others normalize relations with Israel, pushing for a regional alliance that integrates its close ally. But the new defense pact consolidates major US allies into an alternative security architecture that rejects Israel’s hegemony, analysts said.
Pakistan and Turkey have been vocal against Israel, while Saudi Arabia has insisted it will not normalize unless Israel agrees to a path to Palestinian statehood.
“Washington would have wanted a security architecture that includes Israel, and they’re still keen for Saudi Arabia to normalize ties. This alliance doesn’t point to that in the slightest,” said Hellyer.
The alliance, he said, “shows a desire to interrupt both the project of Iranian hegemony and that of Israeli paramountcy”.
A Saudi official said Friday that the joint defense pact signed with Turkey and Pakistan was not linked to “any nuclear ambitions” and was not a threat to any country in the region.
“The agreement does not represent an effort to establish a military axis or a sectarian bloc. Nor is it linked to any nuclear ambitions or arms race; rather, it is focused on building sustainable capabilities,” said Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Rayed Krimly in a post on X.
He said the deal “does not constitute a threat to the security of any country in the region, nor does it represent an escalation of tensions between any two states”.
Meanwhile, Turkey insisted on Friday that its joint defense pact signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan amid the US-Iran war was “not aimed at any particular country”.
“The Mecca Agreement, which is not aimed at any particular country, will strengthen the shared security and collective deterrence of the three nations… thereby making significant contributions to the preservation of peace and stability in our region,” Burhanettin Duran, the Turkish presidency’s communications director, posted on X.
Saudi, Turkey & Pakistan Sign Defense Pact
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a joint defense pact amid the US-Iran war.
Riyadh is looking to strengthen its security ties against the backdrop of war between the United States and Iran, which has drawn in surrounding nations and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea.
The war has emboldened Iran and its Houthi allies in Yemen, both of which have attacked Saudi Arabia, while analysts say Washington is now seen as an increasingly unreliable partner.
In a joint statement published by the official Saudi press agency and Pakistan’s foreign ministry, the three countries announced the signing of the “Mecca Joint Defence Agreement”.
They declared a “shared commitment to further strengthening their collective security and to promoting peace, security and stability in the region and beyond”.
The Pakistani foreign ministry said the pact meant an attack on any member would be regarded as an attack on all, adding it was “intended to strengthen collective deterrence”.
Since the onset of the regional war, Saudi Arabia has grown closer to Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan, which have been pushing for mediation and a resolution to the conflict.
Umar Karim, an expert on Saudi foreign policy at the University of Birmingham, called the deal a “highly significant development”.
The alignment “is clearly oriented towards Iran and meant to address Iran’s new strategic approach which is geared towards dominance of the broader Gulf region”.
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The fact that Turkey and Pakistan border Iran means they could “exercise a different kind of leverage” on Tehran, he added.
A source close to the Saudi military and government told AFP before the signing that although the agreement had been under discussion for a long time, “the latest developments in the region expedite it”.
Andreas Krieg of King’s College London said the deal showed a clear desire to diversify alliances beyond the United States.
“Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are not trying to replace the United States. They are building the capacity to protect their interests when Washington cannot or will not do so.”
Riyadh, in particular, he said, “wants several layers of security rather than one American umbrella”, after the shock of the Iran war.
The deal will support Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to become an organizer of regional security and diversify its defense umbrella, while Turkey and Pakistan gain political clout and access to potential Saudi investments, he said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Mecca on Friday, the Turkish presidency said on X, sharing an image of the meeting.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir also traveled to the Gulf kingdom for the signing.
“Although taking place against the backdrop of heightened tensions in the Gulf, the visit will carry significance beyond the immediate crisis and short-term considerations,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday.
The deal reflects closer ties between the three Muslim-majority nations.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had already announced a mutual defense pact in 2025, a move that drew attention because Pakistan is the Muslim world’s only nuclear-armed state.
Pakistan has also sought to mediate efforts to end the US-Iran war, while Turkey has played a diplomatic role in negotiations aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
Renewed Houthi attacks
The deal also comes as a truce between Riyadh and the Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen has broken down, with the Houthis launching attacks on Saudi soil and declaring a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia, which they have attempted to enforce by attacking Saudi tankers.
The Houthis, backed by Iran, have added pressure to Gulf energy exporters, who are already under strain from Tehran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, by threatening Red Sea shipping — another key route for oil exports.
Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the Houthis since 2015.
A truce was agreed four years ago which largely held until hostilities broke out again in recent weeks.
On Thursday, the Houthis killed at least 58 Yemeni government troops in missile and drone attacks, a military source said, in one of the deadliest days in the conflict for years.
Yemen’s civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.
China has confirmed the deaths of two sailors in a collision in the South China Sea, according to government statements nearly a year after the incident.
In August 2025, a Chinese navy vessel collided with one from its own coast guard while chasing a Philippine patrol boat near a disputed shoal.
A Chinese Coast Guard spokesperson confirmed at the time that there had been a confrontation, but did not mention the collision, nor injuries or deaths.
The People’s Armed Police Force said on social media Wednesday it had awarded four “martyrs” — including Coast Guard sailors Yi Xinyu and Cheng Long — a special title for “steadfast political convictions, exemplary deeds and outstanding achievements”.
Yi and Cheng both died on August 11, 2025 — the date of last year’s collision — in a “rights defense operation”, according to their profiles on the government’s “China Martyrs Network”.
“Yi sacrificed his life… while participating in a frontline rights defense operation in the South China Sea,” according to the website.
Cheng “heroically sacrificed his life during a maritime rights defense operation”, the website reads.
It is not clear when the sailors were given the designation of “martyr”, which awards their families special housing and medical support among other aid.
Yi was 21 years old at the time of his death, and Cheng was 25, according to their profiles on the website.
The incident had occurred near the contested Scarborough Shoal as the Philippine coast guard escorted boats distributing aid to fishermen in the area, spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela had said in a statement.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) accused China of shadowing and harassing two ships
Video released by Manila showed a China Coast Guard ship and a much larger vessel bearing the number 164 on its hull colliding with a loud crash.
“The (China Coast Guard vessel) CCG 3104, which was chasing the (Filipino coast guard vessel) BRP Suluan at high speed, performed a risky maneuver from the (Philippine) vessel’s starboard quarter, leading to the impact with the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Navy warship,” Tarriela said.
“This resulted in substantial damage to the CCG vessel’s forecastle, rendering it unseaworthy,” he said.
The collision was another series of confrontations between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost entirely despite an international ruling that the assertion has no legal basis.
The Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks — has been a flashpoint between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012.
Tarriela told AFP the Chinese crew “never responded” to the Filipino ship’s offer of assistance.
Space is no longer the empty void it once appeared. Thousands of dead satellites, spent rocket stages and shattered fragments now circle Earth at tens of thousands of kilometers an hour, turning near-Earth orbit into a crowded and increasingly dangerous place.
As Matthew Archer, Deputy Director for Launch and Space Domain Awareness, UK Space Agency, said earlier: “Most of those don’t collide with anything, most of the time. But any of them can cause significant damage or even destroy potential satellites.” “The growing number of objects is making space far more congested, so the need for this capability is growing all the time.”
Officials at Chilbolton Observatory, UK, track a rising flood of objects circling Earth.
Their data powers Britain’s space monitoring efforts. As the massive antenna swings into place, control-room screens light up with every detection: stars, working satellites, and abandoned rocket bodies.
Experts at Chilbolton Observatory, operated by the UK’s national space laboratory RAL Space, monitor UK-licenced satellites and fast-multiplying fragments of space debris swirling around them.
The space junk includes defunct man-made objects like rocket bodies, dead satellites and fragments from launches, explosions and collisions that threaten to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere or crash into functioning satellites.
According to the European Space Agency, there are more than 46,000 pieces of debris weighing a total of 17,000 tonnes currently in orbit.
“Most of those don’t collide with anything, most of the time,” Matthew Archer, deputy director for launch and space domain awareness at the UK Space Agency, told AFP on a visit to the observatory.
“But any of them can cause significant damage or even destroy potential satellites.”
On Wednesday, part of a SpaceX rocket about the size of a bus slammed into the Moon, unleashing a stream of debris. Researchers warn the growing density of space junk could trigger the so-called “Kessler syndrome” cascade of collisions.
Chilbolton Observatory feeds data to the National Space Operations Center (NSpOC) — led by the UK Space Agency and UK Space Command — that works around the clock to prevent orbital collisions and track debris re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.
“Our role is to look at everything that happens and is in space,” said Archer.
Space infrastructure underpins some 20 percent of the UK economy, said Archer. The growing “number of objects is making space far more congested, so the need for this capability is growing all the time.”
As he speaks, multiple Starlink devices — part of the constellation of thousands of internet satellites launched by US tycoon Elon Musk’s SpaceX — float by on the control room screens.
There are currently 14,000 satellites orbiting Earth, with some 1.7 million satellites planned in the coming years. SpaceX alone has unveiled plans to begin launching more than one million satellites in 2028.
The UK has pledged to invest $114 million in the NSpOC, which issues around 3,000 monthly collision warnings to satellite operators.
The researchers also monitor to ensure satellite operators are complying with their licenses and track foreign “adversaries”.
“We see examples of countries that have demonstrated the ability to get close or to fly by certain objects,” said Archer. “We do have to track … threats regularly from a military perspective.”
And when space debris re-enters the atmosphere, scientists are on stand-by to issue alerts for objects which may not burn up before landfall.
In January, Britain and European countries closely watched the re-entry of a Chinese rocket, amid fears fragments could land in Britain. The rocket eventually splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
File Image: Space Junk
Asteroids
“The whole environment is changing,” said Chilbolton Observatory’s facility leader Sarah Nash. “It really is a multinational environment, and there are so many objects that are not controllable.”
“The only way that all of this can continue to operate safely is by keeping track of where everything is,” Nash told AFP.
Another branch of their work is planetary defense, which involves identifying threats like comets and asteroids.
Last year, the UK Space Agency became a member of the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), which monitors the movement of asteroids including those that could hit Earth.
“We work in partnership with NASA and others in the US to effectively give a percentage chance that (it) might hit the Earth and when that might happen,” said Archer.
While smaller space rocks frequently burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, large orbiting rocks like asteroids are rarer.
The UK will support the European Space Agency’s 2029 mission to study a 375-meter (1,230 feet) wide asteroid called Apophis as it flies by Earth.
“Asteroids are a really interesting challenge in many ways. It’s unusual for an asteroid to come out of nowhere,” explained Nash.
The giant space rocks are generally monitored by optical sensors, as they are too far away for Chilbolton’s radar dish to detect.
“If they’re close enough for the (radar) antenna to see them, then we have bigger problems,” laughed station manager Graham Marshall.
Her voice is that of a frail, elderly woman, but ousted Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina still has the power to incite from exile, vowing to return home despite facing the gallows.
Analysts say her defiance is not a death wish, but a desperate bid to remain politically relevant, claw on to her supporters, and revive an outlawed party which once dominated Bangladesh.
To her enemies, Hasina is evil incarnate — a convicted fugitive sentenced to hang for crimes against humanity over her failed bid to crush the 2024 revolution that toppled her.
The 78-year-old told AFP in July from India that she wanted to return to Bangladesh by the year’s end.
“I may be killed. I may be arrested. I may be sent to prison,” Hasina wrote in an email sent from hiding.
“I am fully aware of my fate. Still, I want to go back because my people are calling me.”
On Wednesday, marking two years since she fled by helicopter to old ally India, she is due to address by telephone a New Delhi event entitled “Sheikh Hasina’s homecoming”.
“Sheikh Hasina’s return is important for the survival of the party — she is still a symbol,” said Mohammad Jalal Uddin Sikder, a political science professor at North South University (NSU) in Dhaka.
One senior member of her Awami League (AL) party said he believed she was genuine in wanting to return.
“She feels obligated because party members are being arrested left and right, despite having no involvement in any crimes,” he said, too fearful himself to speak on record.
“Her return is a way of repaying the party’s loyalty.”
Dhaka’s Prothom Alo newspaper suggested her vow was “part of a strategy to energize party members, build pressure for the lifting of the ban on the party, and reclaim political space”.
But former senior Awami League member Mahmudur Rahman Manna, now a fierce critic of Hasina, dismissed the vow as self-serving.
“There are people in the AL who have some degree of public acceptance. Sheikh Hasina could have given them a little space to help bring the party back after the ban. She didn’t,” he said.
“The idea that she would come back for the sake of the party is absurd.”
Hasina also knows that simply threatening to return will needle Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, who swept February’s elections in which the Awami League was barred, Sikder said.
Political imprisonment has a long history in Bangladesh.
Under Hasina’s rule, Rahman’s mother, former leader Khaleda Zia, spent years in jail in Dhaka on graft charges that her party said were politically motivated.
“The Bangladesh government isn’t ready to accept her, even if she lands in jail directly from India,” Sikder told AFP.
“Her return will create political instability… I doubt the government can handle that.”
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina at the inauguration of various projects in Bangladesh, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Source: PIB)
‘Ensure Justice’
Not so, says Zahed Ur Rahman, an adviser to Bangladesh’s prime minister.
“We want her back — please return,” he told reporters. “We have written to India. The individual we want to bring back intends to return. We are ready — let her come, and we will ensure justice.”
Hasina refused to attend her trial in Dhaka, where she was found guilty of incitement, ordering killings and failing to prevent atrocities.
Her vow to return comes as Bangladesh and India seek to repair strained ties, with Hasina remaining a persistent point of friction.
Dhaka has repeatedly requested her extradition, while New Delhi has said only that the request is being examined through the legal process.
But relations have improved since Rahman, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, became leader, and India has invited him to a BRICS summit in September.
India’s foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, sought to distance New Delhi from Hasina’s “homecoming” speech.
“The government has no involvement whatsoever in it, nor does it endorse any views that may be expressed at the forum,” he said.
But some in Bangladesh see India’s hand in using Hasina’s return threat as leverage.
Mahmudur Rahman, editor of Dhaka’s Amar Desh newspaper, told AFP he saw her threat as part of a power struggle between New Delhi and Dhaka. “Delhi wants to gain the upper hand,” he said.
“India is just playing the ‘Hasina card’ to put pressure on the government.”
Former US Vice President Mike Pence supported continued military operations against Iran and urged the US and Israel to “finish the job.”
In a Fox News interview, he praised Donald Trump for directly attacking Iran and urged the U.S. President to order the military to strike Tehran’s remaining nuclear facilities and eliminate its ability to project power in the Strait of Hormuz and across the region.
“They don’t make peace with the enemy, they make peace with a defeated enemy,” Pence added.
He added that given the Islamic Republic’s positions and denial of negotiations, he is confident that a time will come when Trump will decide that enough is enough. Pence called the joint US-Israeli operation against Iran “historic” and said that now is the time for the military forces of the two countries to complete this mission.
Earlier, Trump said negotiations with Iran were ongoing despite Tehran’s contradictions, and Tehran was facing a “last chance before decapitation.”
Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said he agreed to continue to pursue talks with Iran at the request of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and other countries.
Iran’s foreign ministry denied that talks with Washington were taking place, but Trump insisted they were. “We are talking right now,” he said.
“This is a last chance for them to sign a good document,” the US president added. “I want to give them every last chance before decapitation.”
The discussions are focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which Trump said could come “literally by tomorrow,” and the denuclearization of Iran, which he said could “take a little while.”
Washington and Tehran have been at war since February 28, when the United States and Israel launched surprise strikes against Iran, though months of on-and-off diplomacy have led to periods of relative calm.
More than five months later, Iran remains able to fire missiles and drones at US and allied targets in the region and retains its enriched uranium stockpiles.
Early Tuesday, the UK maritime security agency UKMTO said that a cargo vessel was struck by an “unknown projectile” in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman.
The vessel, which was not named, reported being hit and authorities were investigating, UKMTO said, without giving specifics on damage or injuries.
Motorists drive past a large billboard pledging revenge against US President Donald Trump along Jomhouri Street in central Tehran on July 27, 2026. Iran’s foreign ministry said on July 27 that the US was not involved in recent talks with Oman over the administration of the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Traffic through the vital global shipping route has been under Iranian control since the outbreak of war with Israel and the United States on February 28. (Photo by AFP) /
In what has become a routine pattern, Trump last week had threatened to hit Iran “very hard” — potentially with renewed attacks against energy infrastructure — only to pull back on Saturday, saying the “perimeters” of a deal were there.
Iran, for its part, said it is not currently negotiating with the United States.
“Our negotiations are with Oman to secure passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” the critical oil corridor, foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said.
Hormuz has been a major sticking point in efforts to end the war. Since a ceasefire broke down, Iran has reprised a blockade of the waterway that it first imposed early in the war, obstructing vessels attempting to pass and firing on commercial ships.
Calling Tehran “duplicitous” for “openly and proudly” saying it was not negotiating, Trump wrote on social media: “Whether Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused, for decades.”
He pointed to the United States’ counter-blockade of Iranian ports, adding: “Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished.”
Before the war, there was free passage through Hormuz, but Iran now insists on retaining control and charging fees, something the United States rejects.
Tehran has refused to let ships travel any route other than one that hugs the Iranian coast.
On Sunday, Baqaei told state television that a deal was close on managing Hormuz together with Oman, which sits on the other side of the narrow waterway.
“We are now going to reach an understanding on a route acceptable to both sides — neither the northern route nor the southern route — but one that respects the sovereign rights of both sides and safeguards our national interests and security,” he said.
But he insisted that such an agreement did not mean the reopening of the strait.
The US president said at the start of the conflict that the war was necessary to deal with Iran’s nuclear program and he repeated on Monday that “the denuclearization of Iran has to happen.”
Western nations accuse Iran of seeking a bomb, though Tehran insists the program is entirely civilian in nature.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One over the weekend, Trump said he had been asked by Iran as well as regional US partners to hold off on further strikes, which he claimed would have been “the biggest attack since World War II.”
Iranian media denied that Tehran had asked Trump not to strike.
A previous ceasefire deal fell through last month. It was supposed to open the Strait of Hormuz to ships carrying vital energy exports from the Gulf to feed the global economy.
Iran’s foreign ministry has said that there were currently no negotiations with the US, but there were talks with Oman over the management of the Strait of Hormuz.
“We are not currently negotiating with the United States. Our negotiations are with Oman to secure passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei during a weekly press briefing.
Earlier, Donald Trump said that new negotiations with Iran will begin Monday after he paused strikes on the Islamic republic to pursue a deal.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that the talks would cover the Strait of Hormuz — a route for global energy supplies that has become a key sticking point in the conflict—and ultimately, the denuclearization of Iran.
For its part, Iran said it was nearing a deal with Oman over a new route through the strait, where a tanker reported an explosion nearby on Sunday, underscoring the continued volatility of the strategic waterway.
Oil prices fell on Monday at the opening of Asian trade after Trump announced the new negotiations, with West Texas Intermediate dropping 4.7 percent to $80.72 per barrel.
Washington and Tehran have been at war since February 28, when the US and Israel launched surprise strikes against Iran, though months of on-off diplomacy have led to periods of relative calm.
Following a return to strikes last month, fears had mounted that the fighting could escalate once again. Trump had threatened to hit Iran “very hard” and was reportedly considering renewed attacks, including against energy infrastructure, with US embassies across the region on alert.
Trump pulled back from that threat Saturday, saying the “perimeters” of a deal were there.
“Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, without providing details of the venue or participants in the talks.
The US president said he had been asked by Iran as well as US partners Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to hold off on the strikes, which he claimed would have been “the biggest attack since World War II.”
Iranian media denied that Tehran had asked Trump not to strike.
A previous ceasefire deal that included the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz fell through, and Iran has since tightened its control over the waterway.
The US president said at the start of the conflict that the war was necessary to deal with Iran’s nuclear program. Western nations accuse Iran of seeking a bomb, though Tehran insists the program is entirely civilian in nature.
A woman walks past an anti-USA and anti-Israel mural, in Tehran on April 21 2026, amid a ceasefire in the region. With the end of a two-week ceasefire approaching, the White House said US Vice President was ready to return to Pakistan for fresh negotiations to end a conflict that has sent crude soaring and revived inflation fears. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) /
Iranian lawmaker Hassan Ghashghavi, spokesman for the parliament’s national security commission, said on Sunday that mediators were trying to revive the US-Iran memorandum of understanding that was agreed in June.
That agreement was not intended as a final peace deal, but as a stepping stone to negotiations on a comprehensive agreement, though it did include provisions on Hormuz.
“They know that the main issue and, in fact, the key to the matter right now is the issue of the Strait of Hormuz, so yes, there is an exchange of views,” Ghashghavi said.
Posting on X, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said: “We must strive to compel the enemy to remain committed to what it has signed.”
Iran deal with Oman?
Before the war, there was free passage for all vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, but Iran closed the strait during the war and now insists on retaining control and charging tolls, something the US rejects.
That dispute sparked the return to strikes last month, as Tehran refused to let ships travel any route other than one which hugs the Iranian coast.
On Sunday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told state television that a deal was close with Oman, which sits on the other side of the strait, over a new route through it.
“We are now going to reach an understanding on a route acceptable to both sides — neither the northern route nor the southern route — but one that respects the sovereign rights of both sides and safeguards our national interests and security,” he said.
He insisted though that such an agreement did not mean the reopening of the strait.
Maritime trade tracking firm Kpler said Friday that traffic through Hormuz had dropped sharply.
On Sunday, a tanker off the coast of Oman reported hearing an explosion near the vessel, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre reported, adding that the vessel and crew were all safe.
A suicide bomber attacked a busy area near a police station during a protest in northern Pakistan’s Swat district, killing 13 people and wounding 22, police said on Sunday.
The blast took place at a crowded intersection near a police station in Swat during a civil society protest, police said.
“Thirteen people, including eight police officers, were killed in the suicide bombing,” Swat Deputy Inspector General of Police Fida Hussain told AFP.
He added that 22 people had been wounded and another body, suspected to be that of the bomber, had been brought to hospital.
“A suicide bomber attempted to enter the police station located at the chowk (intersection), but was stopped by police at the main gate,” he said.
The attack took place in Pakistan’s northern border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where authorities are fighting a growing insurgency by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
No group immediately claimed responsibility.
A homemade bomb blast in the provincial capital Peshawar wounded four police officers, the city’s police chief told AFP on Sunday in an attack claimed by the TTP.
A military spokesman said on Friday that militant attacks and ensuing operations had killed 819 security personnel and civilians this year.
Pakistan has previously blamed the violence in border provinces on militant activity emanating from Afghanistan. The Taliban government in Kabul denies Afghan involvement.
The accusations have sparked a bitter rift and even armed conflict between the neighboring countries. Pakistan has carried out deadly air strikes it says target militants on Afghan soil.
The Taliban government and the United Nations said dozens of civilians were killed in the latest Pakistani strikes on eastern Afghanistan in June.
File Image: (Photo by Sajjad QAYYUM / AFP)
Earlier in the week, terrorists rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan, killing 15 people—including soldiers, police officers, and government personnel—according to a military statement.
“Fifteen brave sons of the soil, including twelve military, two policemen and a government official from the Forest Department, rendered the ultimate sacrifice and embraced Shahadat (martyrdom),” the military’s media wing said in a statement on the latest attack in the border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
“The attackers rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the perimeter wall,” the statement said. “Due to the blast impact, infrastructure at the check post was seriously damaged.”
A US Marine Corps (USMC) F-35B fighter jet crashed and erupted into flames near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego on Friday morning, officials said. The pilot ejected safely before impact and suffered minor injuries.
USMC said: Emergency personnel responded this morning to an aircraft mishap on the flightline of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar at approximately 10:00 a.m. local time today, involving an F-35B assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3d Marine Aircraft Wing. The pilot ejected, was transported to a local medical facility in stable condition for evaluation and treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
The single-seat F-35 went down at approximately 10:00 am local time in the vicinity of the base’s flight line, south of Miramar Road near Mitscher Way, the Marine Corps said in a statement.
“There was an aviation mishap involving a Marine Corps F-35B in the vicinity” of the air station, base officials confirmed, classifying the incident as a Class A mishap — the military’s most severe category, typically involving the destruction of an aircraft, damage exceeding $2.5 million or the permanent disability or death of personnel.
No cause for the crash has been released, and officials have not identified the pilot.
MCAS Miramar, located about 14 miles north of downtown San Diego, is a major hub for Marine aviation and was once home to the US Navy’s elite “Top Gun” fighter weapons school, made famous by the 1986 film starring Tom Cruise.
The F-35B is the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of F-35 Lightning II, a fifth-generation stealth fighter designed for the US Marine Corps. It is also operated by the UK and Italy.
Unlike the conventional F-35A variant used by the Air Force or the carrier-based F-35C, the B model is equipped with a shaft-driven lift fan behind the cockpit and a swiveling rear exhaust nozzle that can redirect thrust downward.
This propulsion system, powered by a Pratt & Whitney F135 engine producing more than 40,000 pounds of thrust, allows the aircraft to operate from short runways, amphibious assault ships or austere forward bases without needing full-fledged airstrips.
The F-35B has an approximate flyaway cost of $109 million, making it the most expensive of the three F-35 variants.
The crash is among several F-35 accidents in recent years involving various variants, though officials highlighted the aircraft’s safety systems as pilots managed to eject each and every time.
File Image: F-35 Crash
Earlier F-35B Crashes
On September 28, 2018, in South Carolina, the first crash of any F-35 variant was recorded. An F-35B from Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 crashed during a training flight. The pilot ejected safely. Investigators determined a manufacturing defect caused an engine fuel tube to fail.
The entire F-35 fleet was temporarily grounded for inspections.
Two years later, on September 29, 2020, an F-35B from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 collided mid-air with a Marine Corps KC-130J tanker during aerial refueling near Naval Air Facility El Centro.
The pilot ejected, but the aircraft was destroyed. The KC-130 made an emergency landing, and all its crew members survived.
A year later, on November 17, 2021, a British F-35B crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after takeoff from Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier. The pilot ejected safely and was later recovered. An inquiry later found that an engine intake blank had been left in place, causing the loss of thrust.
On December 15, 2022, at NAS Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, an undelivered F-35B undergoing production flight testing crashed during a failed vertical landing attempt. The test pilot ejected while the aircraft was still on the ground and was not seriously injured. The jet was written off.
Next year, on September 17, 2023, an F-35B from Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 experienced an electrical malfunction during a training flight in heavy rain and instrument meteorological conditions. The pilot ejected near North Charleston.
The unmanned aircraft continued flying for approximately 11 minutes and 21 seconds under its automatic flight-control systems before crashing in a rural area.
The aircraft’s debris was not discovered for more than a day. A Marine Corps investigation later attributed the mishap to pilot error, while noting the electrical failures and display malfunctions as contributing factors.
On May 28, 2024, an F-35B, a developmental test aircraft being flown by an Air Force pilot, crashed shortly after takeoff following a refueling stop en route from Fort Worth, Texas, to Edwards Air Force Base, California. The pilot ejected at low altitude, sustained serious injuries, but survived. The aircraft was completely destroyed.
Despite all these crashes, the pilots managed to eject and survive, though some sustained injuries.
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