Irish missionary among nine kidnapped from Haiti orphanage– www.bbc.com Source Link Excerpt:
Nine people, including an Irish missionary and a three-year-old child, were kidnapped from an orphanage near Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince on Sunday, officials said.
Gena Heraty, the facility’s director, was among those taken from the privately-run Sainte-Hélène orphanage in Kenscoff during the early hours of the morning, according to Mayor Massillon Jean.
Seven employees and a child were also taken from the orphanage, which cares for more than 240 children, some with disabilities.
“The attackers broke into the orphanage around 3:30am (07:30 GMT) without opening fire,” Jean said, describing it as a “planned act”.
The attackers had broken through a wall to enter the property, Jean said, before heading to the building where Ms Heraty was staying.
Hamas said on Sunday (August 3) it was prepared to coordinate with the Red Cross to deliver aid to hostages it holds in Gaza, if Israel meets certain conditions, after a video it released showing an emaciated captive drew sharp criticism from Western powers. Hamas said it would allow the ICRC access to the hostages but only if “humanitarian corridors” for food and aid were opened “across all areas of the Gaza Strip”. FRANCE 24’s Douglas Herbert gives us his analysis about the situation.
China is developing a powerful new weapon that could transform long-range warfare. Using a radical design capable of extreme speeds and distances, this technology could outmatch traditional missiles and defenses.
China’s military scientists have unveiled a new electromagnetic railgun concept that could dramatically alter the balance of long-range weaponry. Detailed in a paper from the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Army Engineering University and reported by multiple outlets, including the South China Morning Post and Asia Times, the system is designed to fire heavy projectiles at speeds reaching Mach 7. If proven viable, the weapon could deliver devastating firepower at far lower costs than conventional missile systems.
A New Design Tackling Old Railgun Problems
Railguns useelectromagnetic force instead of gunpowder or explosives to propel a projectile at extreme speeds. While the technology has been explored for decades by major powers, including the U.S., Japan, and China, progress has been slowed by persistent engineering challenges.
China’s latest design addresses those obstacles with an unconventional x-shaped configuration. The concept, described by lead researcher Professor Lyu Qingao, stacks two railguns inside a single barrel at right angles, each with its own power circuit. This dual-circuit setup allows the two sets of electromagnetic fields to work independently without interfering with one another.
According to the team’s estimates, the system could fire a 60-kilogram projectile more than 400 kilometers in under six minutes, with impact speeds exceeding Mach 4. Previous Chinese naval prototypes, first seen on the ship Haiyangshan in 2018, were limited to firing 15-kilogram projectiles because of the destructive effects of extreme currents on the weapon’s rails.
A Myanmar junta air strike on a rebel-occupied ruby mining hub killed 13 people on Saturday, according to a resident and a spokesperson for an armed opposition group.
Civil war has consumed Myanmar since the military seized power in a 2021 coup, sparking resistance from pro-democracy guerillas who found common cause with long-active ethnic armed groups.
Their scattered forces initially struggled to make headway, but a combined offensive starting in late 2023 seized swathes of territory, including the town of Mogok – the centre of the ruby trade.
Myanmar is rich in precious stones and rare earth elements coveted by all factions and sold, mostly to neighbouring China, to boost war chests.
A junta spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
Poland is set to have more tanks by 2030 than the U.K., Germany, France and Italy combined, after Warsaw signed another multi-billion-euro deal with a South Korean defense company to procure additional K2 tanks.
On Friday, Poland signed an agreement worth over $6 billion with Hyundai Rotem for 180 K2 battle tanks. This is the country’s second major deal with the South Korean company after the first was struck in 2022, also for 180 K2 tanks.
The new agreement will take Poland’s total number of tanks to 1,100 tanks by 2030, including 61 produced domestically.
This would give Warsaw more tanks than the combined total of the U.K., Germany, France and Italy, who are expected to field around 950 tanks by 2030.
Only two NATO member states—Turkey and Greece—will have more tanks than Poland, with 2,238 and 1,344 respectively.
The new Polish-South Korean deal comes as Warsaw and its NATO allies continue to bolster their defenses in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
A recent YouGov poll sent a jolt through American politics: Zohran Mamdani, a 32-year-old Democratic Socialist from Queens, outperformed both former Governor Andrew Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in a hypothetical general election for New York City mayor. Nationally, 24 percent of Americans say they’d vote for Mamdani—more than Cuomo (9 percent) and Adams (8 percent) combined.
The numbers are more than symbolic. They reveal just how far trust in establishment leadership has collapsed—and how eager younger Americans around the nation are to embrace ideological clarity over managerial competence, charisma over experience, and revolutionary rhetoric over cautious reform.
Mamdani is not, by any traditional measure, a mainstream figure. His base includes young progressives, housing activists, and online socialist media. But the poll captures something deeper than his personal popularity: a profound disillusionment with a political class seen as ethically compromised, strategically adrift, and emotionally disconnected from the public it claims to serve.
This disaffection has real roots. Adams is mired in FBI investigations, plagued by ethical lapses, and widely criticized for inconsistent messaging and underperformance on housing and safety. Cuomo, meanwhile, carries the weight of pandemic-era mismanagement and personal scandal. These aren’t just flawed politicians—they’ve become cautionary tales for a generation fed up with failure.
Lebanese journalist Khoder Taleb, publisher of the Jareeda website, and former advisor to the Lebanese Prime Minister discussed talk of a peace agreement with Israel during a July 24, 2025 broadcast on Al-Manar TV (Hizbullah–Lebanon). He asked what kind of peace can be made with “criminals” and “child killers.” Taleb said that the current situation is worse than the Nazi Holocaust in Germany, adding: “I wish the Nazis would have burned all those Jews.” He cited a hadith describing Muslims fighting Jews on Judgment Day and said that Jerusalem and Palestine will be liberated. Also appearing on the broadcast was British-Palestinian journalist Abdel Bari Atwan.
Khoder Taleb: “What peace are we talking about? Peace with criminals? Peace with killers? With child killers? I say this for history’s sake, this is worse than the Nazi Holocaust in Germany. I say this on live TV: I wish the Nazis would have burned all those Jews.
[…]
“On [Judgement] Day, the trees and the rocks will say: ‘Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’ This is what we believe in. This is our historical imperative, as Muslims at least. Jerusalem will be liberated. Palestine will be liberated. If not today, then tomorrow. That’s fine, but we must not surrender.”
ROME — ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Sunday urged more than a million Catholic youths to “spread your enthusiasm and the witness of your faith” when they return home to some 150 countries, during a Mass closing a weeklong encounter with the next generation of faithful.
“Aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are,’’ Leo urged the young faithful. “Do not settle for less. You will then see the light of the Gospel growing every day, in you and around you.”
The young people camped out in sprawling fields southeast of Rome overnight after attending a vigil service for the Jubilee of Youth on Saturday, also presided by Leo who has been ferried to and from Vatican City by helicopter.
The Vatican said more than 1 million young people were present, along with 7,000 priests and 450 bishops.
The special Jubilee celebration is part of the Holy Year that is expected to draw 32 million people to the Vatican for the centuries-old pilgrimage to the seat of Catholicism.
The week has been a joyous gathering marked by bands of youths singing hymns as they move down cobblestoned streets, praying rosaries in piazzas and standing for hours at the Circus Maximus to confess their sins to priests offering the sacrament in a dozen languages.
Irregular Warfare Center Research Bibliography No.2: Lebanese Hezbollah in Latin America– smallwarsjournal.com Source Link Excerpt:
This subject bibliography is a selection of top resources on Lebanese Hezbollah in Latin America and includes journal articles, reports, books, sections of websites, and videotaped talks. The dates of the material range from 2010 to 2025, encompassing various aspects of the terrorist organization and its criminal activities which include narcotics trafficking and money laundering. The purpose is to provide ready-access resources for the study of Hezbollah and its linkages to allied organizations—both states and non-state actors—in Latin America.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has held the capital of North Darfur hostage in a 14-month siege – blocking food or fuel from entering the locality and forcing starvation on its 900,000 inhabitants.
The entire city is currently a militarised zone as Sudan‘s army and the Darfur Joint Protection Force fend off the RSF from capturing the last state capital in the Darfur region not currently under their control.
Rare footage sent to Sky News from inside al Fashir town shows streets emptied of cars and people.
The city’s remaining residents are hiding from daytime shelling inside their homes, and volunteers move through town on donkey carts distributing the little food they can find.
Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City has been left in ruins after a 45-day Israeli military operation that flattened entire residential blocks. Residents of the area in northern Gaza described it as the most destructive incursion yet. Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili reports amidst the wreckage.
Over the past two decades, the posture of the United States towards China has evolved from economic cooperation to outright antagonism. US media outlets and politicians have engaged in persistent anti-China rhetoric, while the US government has imposed trade restrictions and sanctions on China and pursued military build-up close to Chinese territory. Washington wants people to believe that China poses a threat.
China’s rise indeed threatens US interests, but not in the way the US political elite seeks to frame it.
The US relationship with China needs to be understood in the context of the capitalist world system. Capital accumulation in the core states, often glossed as the “Global North”, depends on cheap labour and cheap resources from the periphery and semi-periphery, the so-called “Global South”.
This arrangement is crucial to ensuring high profits for the multinational firms that dominate global supply chains. The systematic price disparity between the core and periphery also enables the core to achieve a large net-appropriation of value from the periphery through unequal exchange in international trade.
China and Russia began joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan on Sunday as they seek to reinforce their partnership and counterbalance what they see as a U.S.-led global order.
Alongside economic and political ties, Moscow and Beijing have strengthened their military cooperation in recent years, and their relations have deepened since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The “Joint Sea-2025” exercises kicked off in waters near the Russian port of Vladivostok and would last for three days, China’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The two sides will hold “submarine rescue, joint anti-submarine, air defense and anti-missile operations, and maritime combat.”
Four Chinese vessels, including guided-missile destroyers Shaoxing and Urumqi, are participating in the exercises alongside Russian ships, the ministry said.
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Abdur Rahman Tarif was talking to his sister Meherunnesa over the phone when the voice on the other end of the call suddenly fell silent.
In that moment, Tarif knew something bad had happened. He rushed home, dodging the exchange of fire between security forces and protesters on the streets of Dhaka. When he finally arrived, he discovered his parents tending to his bleeding sister.
A stray bullet had hit Meherunnesa’s chest while she was standing beside the window of her room, Tarif said. She was taken to a hospital where doctors declared her dead.
Meherunnesa, 23, was killed on Aug. 5 last year, the same day Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee the country in a massive student-led uprising, which ended her 15-year rule. For much of Bangladesh, Hasina’s ouster was a moment of joy. Three days later, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over the country as head of an interim government, promising to restore order and hold a new election after necessary reforms.
A year on, Bangladesh is still reeling from that violence, and Hasina now faces trial for crimes against humanity, in absentia as she is in exile in India. But despite the bloodshed and lives lost, many say the prospect for a better Bang
The bloc’s economy is weakening due to reduced cooperation with Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko has said
The EU’s decision to reduce energy and trade cooperation with Moscow over the Ukraine conflict has cost the bloc more than €1 trillion ($1.15 trillion), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko has said.
In an interview with Izvestia on Monday, Grushko said the figure is based on various expert estimates of the economic consequences of the EU’s decision to impose unprecedented sanctions on Russia, adding that it accounts for lost profits from energy and trade cooperation.
According to Grushko, trade between the EU and Russia dropped from €417 billion ($482 billion) in 2013 to €60 billion ($69 billion) in 2023 and is now “approaching zero.” He added that Europe’s economy has subsequently taken a hit and is losing competitiveness.
“Natural gas in Europe is four to five times more expensive than in the US, and electricity is two to three times higher,” he said. “That is the price Europe has to pay for ending all economic contacts with Russia.”
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that refusing Russian gas supplies had cost EU countries around €200 billion ($231 billion). In late 2024, Russian officials also estimated that total EU losses tied to sanctions against Russia had reached $1.5 trillion. Meanwhile, Moscow has said it has acquired a “certain immunity” to Western sanctions.
Grushko’s comments come after the EU agreed a trade deal with the US, which commits the bloc to purchasing large volumes of American energy – which Moscow says will come at a much steeper cost than that provided by Russia – and imposes 15% tariffs on key EU exports. Numerous EU politicians have described the agreement as lopsided and damaging to the bloc’s interests.
Commenting on the US-EU deal, Putin claimed that the EU had essentially lost its political sovereignty, and that this directly leads to losing economic independence.
The EU began imposing sanctions on Russia in 2014, following the start of the Ukraine crisis, and expanded them drastically in 2022. Measures have targeted banking, energy exports, and other industries. Moscow considers the sanctions illegal, saying they violate international trade rules and harm global economic stability.
Poland has signed a new contract to acquire an additional 180 K2 main battle tanks from South Korea, with the deal marking the first delivery of tanks in the Polonized K2PL configuration.
The agreement, finalized on Aug. 1 at the Bumar-Łabędy plant in Gliwice, was signed by General Artur Kuptel, head of the Armaments Agency, and Yongbae Lee, president of Hyundai Rotem, the South Korean manufacturer of the tanks.
As reported by Interia Biznes, the signing ceremony was attended by Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back. Kosiniak-Kamysz called the moment “a great history unfolding before our eyes” and emphasized that the Polish arms industry is poised to become a key engine of the national economy.
“This contract means the development of the arms industry, new jobs, and opportunities. Today, the entire government and local government are committed to building security,” he said. He also praised the K2 tanks, citing strong reviews from Polish soldiers, and reaffirmed NATO’s expectation for Poland to build competencies in armored warfare. “Poland is fulfilling this task diligently,” he added.
China’s growing engagement in the Middle East—heightened by the recent escalation of conflict in Gaza—has drawn significant global attention and speculation. Traditionally, Beijing’s regional strategy has focused on securing long-term economic and energy interests: ensuring access to vital energy resources, safeguarding major international trade corridors, and investing extensively in infrastructure, technology, and energy sectors, particularly in the Persian Gulf.Yet, despite these strategic imperatives, China continues to pursue a deliberately ambivalent and multidimensional approach toward key regional actors, most notably Iran and Israel. This carefully calibrated posture reflects broader geopolitical shifts, the erosion of US hegemony, and, above all, the mounting instability across the Middle East—developments that increasingly threaten both regional equilibrium and China’s own economic security.
In a significant development in the Indo-Pacific and and a matter of concern for India, US and East Asian Countries, China has intensified its maritime military capabilities by deploying its largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, Fujian, into the sea. As per media reports, the Fujian aircraft carrier is not only China’s most advanced but also its first fully domestically designed flat-deck supercarrier equipped with electromagnetic catapults. Here are all the details you need to know about the Fujian advanced aircraft carrier.
China’s Fujian aircraft carrier: Why India should be cautious?
Reportedly similar to the US Navy’s Gerald R. Ford-class, the deployment of the aircraft carrier marks a significant step in Beijing’s naval modernization and signals its growing strategic ambitions from the Taiwan Strait to the Indian Ocean.
Why China’s Fujian aircraft carrier is dangerous?
As per media reports, the Fujian aircraft carrier was first deployed for sea trials in May 2024 and is expected to join service by the end of 2025. More importantly, the aircraft carrier has been equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system (EMALS), making China the only country in the world after US to use an electromagnetic catapult system (EMALS) to land fighter jets on a carrier.
In the race for artificial intelligence supremacy, China’s government is doubling down on practical applications to accelerate adoption across industries. Unlike the U.S., which emphasizes foundational model development, Beijing is channeling resources into deploying AI in everyday operations, from factory assembly lines to urban management systems. This strategy, highlighted in a recent report by The Washington Post, aims to embed the technology deeply into the economy, fostering rapid innovation and challenging American dominance.
Recent policy moves underscore this commitment. Just days ago, on July 26, 2025, China unveiled its Action Plan for Global AI Governance, building on President Xi Jinping’s earlier initiatives. As detailed in coverage from ANSI, the plan outlines a 13-point roadmap targeting over 300 exaflops of computing power by year’s end, emphasizing green AI and international collaboration under UN frameworks.
Government Funding and Infrastructure Boost
To fuel this ambition, Beijing has allocated massive financial support. A new AI Industry Development Action Plan, backed by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, pledges 1 trillion yuan—roughly $137 billion—over five years, according to posts circulating on X from industry analysts. This funding is set to bolster state-owned enterprises and startups alike, focusing on scalable applications rather than theoretical advancements.
Infrastructure is another cornerstone. China aims to increase its computing capacity from 230 exaflops to 300 exaflops by 2025, as noted in reports from WebProNews. This push includes expanding data centers and promoting open-source models, enabling widespread adoption in sectors like manufacturing, where AI optimizes supply chains and predictive maintenance.
Hamas has reaffirmed that it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established, as the group released its second video in two days of an Israeli hostage.
Responding to one of the key Israeli demands to end the war in Gaza, Hamas – which has dominated the territory since 2007 – said it could not yield its right to “armed resistance” unless an “independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital” is established.
Indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel aimed at securing a 60-day ceasefire in the Gaza war and deal for the release of hostages ended last week in deadlock.
On Saturday, Hamas released a second video of hostage Evyatar David. In it, David is skeletally thin and is shown digging a hole, which, he says in the video, is for his own grave.
Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods and aid into Gaza have led to severe shortages of food and other essentials, stoking international demands for a ceasefire. UN-backed food security experts said this week that the “worst-case scenario of famine” is now playing out in Gaza.
Yemen is witnessing a sharp escalation in political violence amid a significant drop in fuel imports to Houthi-controlled territories, raising concerns over humanitarian fallout and regional stability.
According to recent reports, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government has suspended approvals for fuel shipments destined for the port of Hudaydah, a key entry point for supplies into northern Yemen.
As of late June, over 20 fuel tankers carrying approximately 500,000 metric tons of fuel were stranded in the Coalition Holding Area in the Red Sea, awaiting clearance.
The move follows allegations that the Houthis misappropriated 45 billion Yemeni rials from a special account at the Central Bank’s Hudaydah branch, diverting funds to support their military operations.
hinese researchers have reportedly developed a new electronic warfare (EW) system that can simultaneously interfere with enemy systems while keeping friendly ones untouched in a ‘null zone’. Likened to the eye of a storm, this new technology represents a significant shift in conventional EW systems.
To help conceptualize how it works, think of a storm. Everything inside it is disrupted by intense electromagnetic noise. But the center of a hurricane, colloquially called ‘the eye’, is completely calm. The new technology intentionally creates the ‘eye’ for friendly forces, even in the middle of aggressive electronic warfare.
The innovation reportedly works on coordinated drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) acting as precise jamming sources. These drones emit carefully crafted radio signals that can be adjusted for waveform, amplitude, phase, and timing (all controllable radio frequency signal parameters).
Freedom Convoy sentencing straight from anarcho-tyranny playbook– www.theblaze.com Source Link Excerpt:
You may not have heard the term “anarcho-tyranny” in a while — maybe never. But it’s the only phrase that fits what’s unfolding in Canada right now: a system that punishes peaceful political dissent while letting real criminals off easy. It’s lawfare in service of regime security.
That was true under Justin Trudeau, and it’s even more apparent under his successor, Prime Minister Mark Carney — a globalist banker who cashed in on political connections and now presides over a government determined to crush dissent.
Even if Barber and Lich are granted the absolute discharge that their lawyers are requesting, the Liberal government has proven its point: Defy us, and we will … ruin your life.
Drawn-out sentencing
Just look at the ongoing prosecution of Chris Barber and Tamara Lich, two of the main organizers of the 2022 Freedom Convoy — the trucker-led protest that captured global attention when thousands of Canadians rolled into Ottawa to peacefully demand an end to COVID-19 mandates and lockdowns.
The trial began shortly after Labor Day 2023. On April 3, 2024, the pair were found guilty of mischief, but nearly six months later, they still haven’t been sentenced. Their next court date isn’t until October 7.
That makes this the longest mischief trial in Canadian history.
Let’s be clear: Barber and Lich face up to eight and seven years in prison, respectively. For mischief. For organizing a protest. The Crown — Canada’s prosecution — has also filed a request to seize Barber’s truck, known as “Big Red,” an icon of the convoy.
After the recent Israeli war against the Iranian regime and the American attack on the Fordo nuclear site, the mullahs in Tehran are feeling the heat. This is the most fragile the regime has been over the past 46 years, and talk of regime change is spreading. For the past year and a half, some in the regime have been preparing for a plan B, in case they need to flee urgently. While that does not mean that the regime is about to fall, it is still a valid indicator of the nervousness of the leadership.
After Hamas, one of Iran’s proxies, attacked Israel by surprise on October 7, 2023, the Iranian regime and its allies have sustained major military and strategic losses at the hands of Israel. For instance, Hezbollah, from far its most powerful proxy, is just a shadow of itself after the elimination of most of its leadership, including its long-time ruthless chief Hassan Nasrallah. Therefore, apparatchiks of the regime started panicking, deciding that it was time to either turn against the regime by defecting and/or working for the Israelis or the Americans to build a life abroad.
Gilbert Achcar, author of “Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective”, speaks to FRANCE 24 about the slow shift of public opinion in the United States and Europe against Israel’s devastating military campaign in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The Trump administration has dropped federal scrutiny of several corporate mergers in recent months, according to an analysis by Public Citizen—waving through multibillion-dollar deals for companies, including many that made large donations to the Trump-Vance inauguration.
The watchdog Public Citizen examines the Trump administration’s blessing of the mergers in its updated tracker of 165 corporate enforcement actions that have been halted, dropped, or withdrawn as of July 25. The tally includes cases that were dismissed by federal agencies instead of being brought to trial, as well as investigations that were closed favorably for corporations.
Since the start of April, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) have advanced the mergers of T-Mobile and UScellular, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and rival Juniper Networks, and others that faced charges of being anti-competitive. Under President Trump, the agencies have also intervened in antitrust cases on the completed mergers of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, Capital One and Discover, and others.
“Trump’s unshackling of a rogues gallery of corporate villains and lawbreakers shows how little this president cares about the victims of corporate crime,” said Rick Claypool, research director for Public Citizen. “This is no ‘law and order’ administration—this is an administration that views cheated consumers with contempt, and workers’ hard-earned wages as fair game for corporate con artists.”
