Around 100 people are unaccounted for, the national disaster agency and the provincial governor’s office said, also updating the death toll from Monday’s deluge.

An AFP journalist saw dozens of people gathered in remote Parun, the capital of Nuristan province, using wooden poles and their bare hands to search for the missing.

Farid Gul Zaheer, a 34-year-old pharmacist, said he had “never witnessed such a dangerous flood”.

“It felt like there was an earthquake, and I heard children and people screaming,” he told AFP, after getting injured while trying to flee up the mountain.

On Tuesday, a bulldozer was of limited use in clearing some debris in Parun, where the flood had buried multiple shops and brought huge boulders that smashed into buildings.

Parun’s mayor and other government employees were among the missing, the governor’s office said on Monday.

Zakirullah Zaki, manager of the Spogmai Hotel, said it felt like “an act of God struck us”.

“The rest of the hotels, markets, and shops were completely destroyed,” the 29-year-old told AFP.

The Spogmai was still standing, surrounded by destruction, and the manager’s missing younger brother was found.

‘Traumatised’

Juma Khan Nayel, communications chief for the Afghan Red Crescent Society, described a “devastating situation” with water rising to unprecedented levels.

They have deployed dozens of volunteers who are working by hand, using shovels.

“Right now, urgently, we are supplying some food, water and tents for those whose homes have been destroyed,” he told AFP.

Afghanistan’s defence ministry said the military had been deployed to the area to support the relief effort, while the United Nations said it was assessing the disaster.

Zaheer, the pharmacist, said he had “lost everything”.

“Everyone is traumatised, they didn’t sleep all night,” he said.

Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable to climate change and flooding has increased, according to the head of the country’s environmental protection agency.

Environmental problems “have severely affected the Afghan people and have contributed to a humanitarian crisis in the country”, Mawlavi Matiul Haq Khalis said this month.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked and stopped two “non-compliant oil tankers” attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz, part of an effort to tighten its grip on the vital waterway while the war reignited.

Following the deaths of at least three US soldiers in the past several days, the United States launched a new round of attacks against Iran late on Monday which it said were “designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping” in the strait.

It later said that it had completed the strikes during which US forces “struck Iranian military command centres, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defence systems to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking commercial vessels flowing through the Strait of Hormuz”.

“Commercial vessel transits through the vital international maritime corridor continue,” it said.

“American forces remain postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable for unwarranted aggression toward civilian mariners seeking to freely and openly transit the strait,” it added.

Hours after the first statement, the Iranian army said it had targeted US assets in Kuwait and Bahrain, including air defence systems, radar installations and administrative buildings.

“With this radar sweep, the enemy should prepare for even more decisive and powerful waves of drone and missile attacks,” the Guards said in a statement carried by state news agency IRNA.

The Guards also said they they targeted infrastructure belonging to US company Amazon in Bahrain.

US President Donald Trump warned Monday that Iran would pay “many times over” for every American soldier killed, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the conflict had become “a full-scale war”.

Nearly 100 US servicemembers have been wounded since July 7, the Pentagon said on Monday, most with minor concussions.

Diplomatic exchanges

In the Strait of Hormuz, meanwhile, the Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday two tankers attempting to transit the strait “were hit by explosions, resulting in massive fires that brought them to a standstill”.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) earlier reported that an “unknown projectile” struck a tanker off the coast of Oman.

On Tuesday, UKMTO reported another tanker off the coast of Oman had been struck by a projectile.

Despite the latest fighting, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said diplomatic exchanges with Washington via mediators were ongoing.

Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni is in Islamabad for a two-day visit during which he will meet with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to the interior ministry.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun is set to meet with Trump in Washington on Tuesday as pressure builds for Beirut to disarm Hezbollah, Israel’s key condition before withdrawing from south Lebanon.

Red Sea threat

Yemen’s Houthi rebels entered the fray on Monday, announcing an immediate maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia, opening a new front in the conflict.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree declared the embargo effective immediately, framing it as retaliation on an “eye-for-an-eye” basis against Saudi Arabia.

The naval blockade, if enforced, could further strain Saudi Arabia’s economy by cutting off access to its Red Sea ports, which have been vital for oil exports as renewed fighting limits passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

The blockade is also expected to hurt global markets that rely on Saudi Arabia — the world’s leading crude exporter, producing over 10 million barrels per day — for their energy imports.

The announcement follows an excha­nge of fire between the Houthis and Saudi forces last week, the first direct clash between the two sides in years.

The Houthis have previously tried to cut off shipping through the Red Sea, leveraging the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a chok­epoint at its southern tip which vessels must navigate when travelling to or from the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean.

They previously launched drone and missile attacks on ships transiting the strategic waterway beginning in Nove­mber 2023 during the Gaza war, forcing vessels to take lengthy detours around Afr­ica instead of travelling directly from Europe.

Yemen shares a border and coastline with Saudi Arabia, whose Red Sea port of Yanbu has been crucial for exporting oil, bypassing Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz during its war with the US.

Saudi’s foreign ministry condemned the Houthi maritime blockade and a reasserted Riyadh’s backing for Yemen’s Aden-based government.

Thousands of protesters gathered in the heart of the Indian capital on Monday, demanding Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and wider examination reforms, in a show of force by the CJP online movement.

The CJP has won millions of followers on social media since its launch in May, fuelling one of the biggest challenges to Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he won his third term in office in 2024.

“We won’t stop. Pradhan has to be sacked,” CJP’s Ashutosh Ranka said in a social media post.

Hundreds of protesters remained camped at the Jantar Mantar protest site on Tuesday, many of them calling for wider changes in the education system.

On Monday, police fired tear gas and baton-charged protesters to stop them from marching on to parliament, in one of the biggest street rallies in Delhi in around five years.

At least 178 people were injured in clashes between protesters and security officials, Delhi Police said.

That included 118 police personnel, including senior officers, it said while criticising what it described as “unruly, aggressive and violent behaviour” by a “violent mob”.

“During the scuffle, around 60 protesters were also reported to get injured,” it said in a statement late on Monday.

Protest organisers condemned the “high-handedness” of the authorities and said hundreds of protesters had been injured.

“It’s a shameful day in the history of Indian democracy that people, honest students, who had come for a genuine issue were brutally beaten by the Delhi police,” Ranka told AFP.

Ranka, who met senior minister JP Nadda on Monday, said the government had yet to respond to their demands.

Despite rapid economic growth, millions of people in the world’s most populous nation still struggle to find stable and well-paying jobs, fuelling discontent.

The protests follow a series of examination scandals that have shaken confidence in the country’s testing system.

Some 2.2 million aspiring medical students sat for a re-examination under tight security last month after the previous test was scrapped following the leak of a question paper.

That came on top of another scandal related to the online marking system of tests taken by nearly 2m high school students.

As per the conditions of the visa, each visit would require the purchase of a service package from an approved provider on the Nusuk platform — a digital platform that lists several Umrah packages for various economic tiers.

The report added that the packages’ durations should not exceed the “remaining days available on the visa”.

“Entry is also contingent on issuing an Umrah permit via the Nusuk application prior to arrival,” the report added.

It further detailed that the visa would be deactivated after each departure and reactivated upon meeting regulatory requirements for the next visit.

However, the report said, the visa cannot be availed during the Haj season, from the first of Ziqad to the 13th of Zilhaj.

The SPA reported that the Haj ministry “affirmed that the visa enhances flexibility in planning visits and supports the integration of digital and operational services throughout the pilgrim’s journey”.

Nearly 43 million pilgrims performed Umrah in 2025, according to Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics.

In slapping import taxes on goods ranging from wine to cement and ice hockey gear, Trump invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which permits a president to impose punitive tariffs of up to 50pc against trading partners deemed to have discriminated against US goods.

That marked the law’s first known usage in nearly a century of existence.

The new tariffs, set to take effect in 30 days, would also apply to dairy products, swimming pools, furniture, fishing rods, seeds, clothing and wigs, among other items.

The US Trade Representative’s office said that the tariffs would apply to nearly $20 billion of imports from Canada. That’s about 5.2pc of the $382bn worth of goods that the US imported from Canada in 2025, according to US Census Bureau data.

“While the administration continues to secure fair and reciprocal trade deals with our trading partners, Canada, unlike other partners and allies, continues to retaliate against the United States for its efforts to rebalance trade and protect US industry in national-security sensitive sectors,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement that his government has made comprehensive proposals to resolve trade disputes with Washington, asserting that Trump’s past tariffs violated the North American trade pact.

“This trade dispute has raised costs for families, particularly in the US,” he said. “Canada stands ready to engage intensively to address outstanding issues with the US to the mutual benefit of our citizens.”

The Trump administration has long complained that Canada and China implemented retaliatory measures in response to the barrage of tariffs Trump has tried to impose since returning to the White House last year.

Greer has pointedly left Canada out of negotiations under way with Mexico on changes the US wants in the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade. He holds bilateral talks on USMCA in Mexico City this week.

When Trump and Carney met at the FIFA World Cup Final in New Jersey on Sunday, Trump demanded that Carney take action to contain wildfires that have sent smoke billowing across swaths of the US.

The US president last week threatened to add the “incalculable cost” of dealing with the pollution to existing tariffs on Canadian goods.

First usage

The Tariff Act of 1930 and its Section 338 are better known for massive US tariff increases and subsequent retaliation that economic historians say worsened the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Section 338 was intended to ensure countries apply tariffs equally and don’t give preferential rates to some countries at the expense of US exports, said John Veroneau, a US trade official in President George W Bush’s administration who has extensively researched the statute.

He said that some presidents, including Franklin D Roosevelt, considered imposing tariffs under Section 338, but no record could be found of any president taking such action until Trump’s proclamations on Monday.

“It is ironic, to say the least, to use this authority to impose tariffs to retaliate against tariffs that were imposed in response to actions taken by the US,” said Veroneau, senior counsel with the Covington and Burling law firm.

“These tariffs may be lawful under Section 338, but they at least violate the spirit of Section 338, which was to create a world where countries apply the same tariffs on the same goods to all countries,” he said, adding Trump has moved away from this principle “in a maximalist way.”

After World War Two, major countries created the “most-favored-nation” tariff system through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to try to prevent a return to the pre-war “beggar-thy-neighbor” economic policies marked by competitive trade restrictions and currency devaluations.

Trump’s new levies are set to take effect on August 19 and apply regardless of whether goods qualify for tariff exemptions under USMCA, although Trump exempted a range of key goods including energy, potash, fish, critical minerals and products already covered by Section 232 tariffs.

Among grounds for the tariffs, the White House cited Canada’s “protectionist” dairy supply management system as well as tariffs and quotas on cars imported to Canada from the US but not from other countries. Carney said that Canada “as is its right, merely matched” US tariffs on the auto sector that were in violation of the USMCA.

Washington also highlighted that most Canadian provinces have halted the sale of US alcohol, which they did in response to prior US tariffs.

The White House said Canadian imports of US motor vehicles dropped by 22pc and of US alcoholic beverages by 81pc over the past year.

Diamond Isinger, a former senior adviser to ex-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on US-Canada relations, said Carney would have limited ability to compel provinces to start selling American alcohol again.

“Unless there are some sort of extraordinary measures invoked here, the premiers of those provinces are the ones who decide whether to restock alcohol,” Isinger said.

ISLAMABAD: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday identified peace and security as the two key objectives for strengthening relations with Pakistan.

He made the remarks while speaking to Pakistan’s newly appointed ambassador, Imran Ahmed Siddiqui, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran after receiving copies of his credentials.

The meeting came as fresh diplomatic efforts were underway to halt the latest round of hostilities between the United States and Iran after an earlier Islamabad-mediated understanding collapsed because of differing interpretations of the memorandum agreed by the two sides, particularly regarding arrangements linked to the Strait of Hormuz.

Following the presentation of his letters of credence, Siddiqui and Araghchi discussed bilateral relations, regional developments and ways to expand cooperation across multiple sectors.

During the meeting, Araghchi thanked Pakistan for its diplomatic role in recent regional developments and said the present moment offered an opportunity to further strengthen ties between the neighbouring countries.

The Iranian foreign minister identified peace and security as the two countries’ shared objectives and stressed the importance of promoting closer bilateral relations.

Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the longstanding bonds of friendship and expanding cooperation for the mutual benefit of the two neighbours.

Momeni arrives in Pakistan

Iranian Interior Minister Eskander Momeni will hold talks with Pakistani leaders on the US-Iran conflict on Tuesday (today).

Momeni arrived in Islamabad on an official visit on Monday night.

Upon his arrival in Pakistan, the senior Iranian official was received by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi.

During his visit, Mr Momeni will meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir.

Earlier reports had suggested that Momeni was likely to engage with Pakistani officials who previously mediated a now-collapsed interim ceasefire between the US and Iran.

Pakistan and Iran share a 900-kilometre border and maintain close historical, cultural and religious links, although their relationship has periodically been tested by cross-border militant activity and regional security challenges.

Islamabad has assumed an increasingly prominent diplomatic role in this year’s US-Iran crisis, hosting talks, relaying messages between the parties and helping broker a temporary understanding earlier this year.

Beyond diplomacy, Pakistan and Iran have sought to deepen economic cooperation through higher bilateral trade, greater connectivity between Pakistani ports and Iran, and renewed discussion of the long-delayed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline.

Progress on many of those initiatives, however, continues to be constrained by US sanctions on Iran, banking restrictions and security concerns along the shared border.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2026

The incident occurred on Monday in the Himalayan state of Sikkim, where workers were constructing a tunnel for a state-run hydropower project on the Teesta river.

“We are estimating around 25-27 people were trapped,” Rajiv Roka, director of the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority, told AFP.

“Nine bodies have been recovered.”

The collapse was likely triggered by a blast, the cause of which was yet to be ascertained.

The region has seen torrential monsoon rains in recent days.

Roka said authorities were “not sure what caused the blast because it was deep in the tunnel”, adding that “it was most probably natural”.

Toxic methane gas leaking from underground rock formations was hampering rescue efforts, officials said, allowing only teams carrying oxygen equipment to enter.

“Aggressive rescue operations are under way, but the problem is there’s a lot of gas present there,” Roka said.

A specialised team trained in mining accidents had been flown in to aid the rescuers, he added.

Accidents on large infrastructure construction sites are common in India, but ecologists say excessive development projects have led to more disasters in the fragile Himalayan areas.

In 2023, 41 workers were rescued after 17 days being trapped under a Himalayan road tunnel that had collapsed in northern Uttarakhand state.

The commission is a bipartisan body of ​the US federal government that monitors religious freedom around the world and makes policy recommendations ⁠to the president, the secretary of state and the US Congress.

In a statement on Monday, USCIRF announced the unanimous election of Mahmood as the panel’s chair and of CeCe Heil as the vice chair for the 2026-27 term.

Mahmood is a practising pulmonologist, human rights advocate, and philanthropist, according to USCIRF.

“His global advocacy work and humanitarian interventions have helped save lives in crisis-stricken regions around the world, including Kashmir, Tigray, and other conflict zones,” the commission’s website states.

“As a two-term member of the Medical Board of California, Dr Mahmood fiercely advocates for patients’ rights and works to secure greater access to medical coverage for all communities,” USCIRF highlighted.

In a statement after his election, posted on the USCIRF’s website, Mahmood said, “Threats to international religious freedom are occurring every day, making USCIRF’s mandate to analyse and recommend policy solutions to the US government key to advancing religious freedom abroad.“

Separately, he posted on X: “It is a remarkable journey — from a small rural village in Pakistan to leading one of the world’s foremost bodies dedicated to defending freedom of religion or belief and shaping US foreign policy in accordance with human rights globally.”

The physician affirmed his commitment to “advocate for the rights of every person: those of all faiths and those who choose no faith at all”.

“Together, let us work toward a world where freedom of religion or belief, mutual respect, human dignity, and peaceful coexistence are protected for everyone,” he added.

Mahmood was first appointed to USCIRF by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in 2024 and reappointed for a second term in 2026. He served as the commission’s vice chair during his previous term, and has been living in California since 1999, according to his website.

USCIRF, which Mahmood will now chair, had last month urged the US State Department to declare India a “country of particular concern”, citing its 2026 assessment and hearing over “ongoing, systematic, and egregious religious freedom conditions” in the country.

In 2025, the panel also highlighted that religious freedom conditions in Pakistan and India had deteriorated over the previous year. It called for sanctions against Pakistani officials and government agencies, as well as against India’s spy agency Research & Analysis Wing (RAW).

Mahmood has also contributed to efforts to garner support in the US for incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan, particularly during the previous Biden administration.

As part of these efforts, PTI supporters have arranged seminars and public meetings and hosted numerous fundraisers for congressional leaders and senators, with one such event in 2024 co-hosted by Mahmood for then-US vice president Kamala Harris.

Additional input from Reuters

The US State Department said operations had started in “pilot zones” in Froun, Srifa and Zawtar al-Gharbiya “in accordance with the Trilateral Framework and under the auspices of the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon.”

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott described the step as “a direct outcome” of talks held between Israeli and Lebanese delegations in Rome last week, adding that Washington would keep working with both sides “to implement the framework to a successful conclusion.”

The framework, signed by Lebanon, Israel and the United States on June 26 after several rounds of direct negotiations, envisions a phased Israeli pullback from positions in south Lebanon.

Rubio hails peace efforts after meeting President Aoun

In exchange, the Lebanese Armed Forces are to assume sole security control of vacated areas and certify that they have been cleared of Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure.

The pilot zones are intended to trial the approach in a handful of villages straddling the Litani River before it is extended to other areas. Hezbollah has rejected the framework, with the Iran-backed group insisting any arrangement in Lebanon be linked to wider negotiations between Washington and Tehran. It has not said whether it will resist implementation in the designated areas.

The agreement does not set a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal. Israeli officials have also vowed that their forces will remain in a “security zone” 10 kilometres (six miles) deep along the frontier for as long as Hezbollah remains armed.

Lebanon and Israel, which have no formal relations, started negotiations after Iran-backed Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the broader Middle East war by attacking Israel in March.

Lebanon’s military said last week that troops had begun intensifying patrols in several villages adjacent to areas occupied by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, including Froun. Israeli forces are however present on the outskirts of Zawtar al-Gharbiya.

In a statement shared following the state department’s announcement, the Lebanese military said troops “continue to carry out their missions in the southern regions, including the towns of Froun and Srifa.”

“In parallel, coordination is underway with the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon (MCG4L) to begin deployment in the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiya,” awaiting Israel’s withdrawal from there, the army added, warning citizens against heading to the town. The framework agreement was reached following a fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Israel still launches occasional strikes in southern Lebanon and carries out detonations in villages it occupies near the border.

Rubio hails peace efforts

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Washington on Sunday, praising the country for its “move towards peace” after the latest round of Lebanon-Israel talks.

It was the first trip to the US capital by a Lebanese head of state since Michel Sleiman was received by Barack Obama in 2009. Aoun and Rubio held talks at the State Department, and Lebanese officials said Aoun is due to meet with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2026

The European Union said AliExpress also did not do enough to stop the sale of counterfeit products and that when the platform detected illegal goods were on sale, many remained online for several weeks.

The EU found some of the products sold on the platform did not meet the bloc’s strict environmental and safety standards during its investigation into AliExpress launched in March 2024.

“Risks must be identified and addressed systematically to ensure consumers can safely shop online. Today, we are holding AliExpress to this standard and request it to take action,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in a statement.

It is the largest fine ever imposed under the EU’s powerful Digital Services Act (DSA), part of the bloc’s legal armoury to police big tech that entered into force in 2022. Elon Musk’s X social media platform received a 120-million-euro fine in December last year, while the EU slapped e-commerce giant Temu with a 200-million-euro fine in May.

AliExpress criticised the “disproportionate” fine, saying in an updated statement that the EU’s decision “ignores our sound risk management framework and the significant, proactive enhancements we have made”. The company added it would appeal the fine.

The EU said the amount took into consideration the nature of the violations, the impact on Europeans and the duration of the infringements. AliExpress is the biggest Chinese e-commerce platform in the EU with 193 million users, while Asian fashion giant Shein and retailer Temu respectively have 156 million and 130 million users.

The EU is AliExpress’ biggest market, a senior European official said. Under the DSA, the world’s most popular digital platforms including social media networks and online retailers must evaluate what risks they pose and take measures to tackle the dangers.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2026

Only mud remained where riverside shops previously stood in Parun, the provincial capital where residents were searching for their mayor among others.

Twenty bodies have been recovered so far, while more than 80 were injured, Afghanistan’s disaster agency ANDMA said.

Those casualties were reported in Parun and other parts of Nuristan, which borders Pakistan, the agency reported. Government employees including the mayor were among the missing in the town, the governor’s office said.

“Nine dead bodies are recovered,” said Feraidon Samim, spokesman for the Nuristan governor. Both he and the disaster agency said more than 100 remained missing.

Journalists who visited the remote northeastern area last month said a market, shops and other buildings were located near the riverside in Parun.

Ashiqullah Safi, head of Shpoul, an NGO in the town, said the flood had “completely destroyed the municipality” as well as hotels and dozens of shops. Residents were searching the area without equipment, he said, after floodwaters left big boulders in the town.

Dozens of people stood atop the mud while others gathered along a road beside the rushing river, according to a video filmed by another resident and shared with this news agency.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the top spokesman for the Afghan government, confirmed deaths and property damage in Nuristan province. “The relevant agencies are seriously engaged in saving people’s lives and property,” he wrote on X.

ANDMA forecast more rain and storms to come across multiple provinces, warning residents to stay away from riverbanks and other areas with a risk of flooding.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2026

“Andrew Burnham MP accepted The King’s offer and kissed hands upon his appointment as Prime Minister,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement, adding the king had asked him to form the next government.

Burnham became Britain’s seventh prime minister to move into Downing Street in 10 years, with an in-tray overflowing with challenges and little time to make his mark.

BBC reported that a large crowd of supporters erupted into applause as Burnham stepped onto Downing Street for his first speech.

Delivering his address, Burnham promised to set out new measures to help with the cost of living this week before setting out a new 10-year plan for the country later this year.

“Britain needs to show the world that we can regain our stability once again,” Burnham said.

“We have not been good enough, and we need to be better.”

Promising Britons “some breathing space now”, he said the government would set out some measures to tackle the high cost-of-living, and how it plans to fund them.

Further out, he said: “We will help more young people into work by changing the education system and giving them more support, more mental health support, and we will build more council homes.

“That is the fair and sustainable way to bring the welfare bill down, to meet our fiscal rules, and to honour our commitments on defence to our international partners.”

The new leader takes over from the unpopular Keir Starmer just two years after the outgoing prime minister led the Labour Party to power in a landslide election victory after 14 years of Conservative rule.

Burnham said his first calls would include US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that Britain’s support for Ukraine would remain unchanged under his leadership.

In a clip recorded before he was officially appointed as British leader but released after his speech in Downing Street, Burnham was asked who he would contact first and whether that would be Trump, Zelenskiy or another world leader.

He replied by saying those two would be among his first calls.

He said he would make clear to Zelensky that there would be “no change” in Britain’s backing for Ukraine and that he would support the Ukrainian leader “100 per cent” as his predecessor had done.

“President Zelensky will be left in no doubt whatsoever that Britain’s support is steadfast, it is resolute. It will be there for him, and I will be there for him personally too,” Burnham told reporters.

Finance minister Rachel Reeves quits

Britain’s finance minister Rachel Reeves left the government after Andy Burnham became prime minister.

“I wish the very best of luck to my successor, Andy and his cabinet. You have my full support, and I will continue to play my part in helping this Labour government deliver the change the country needs,” she said on X.

An announcement on Burnham’s senior cabinet appointments was also expected on Monday, with all eyes on who will replace Rachel Reeves as finance minister.

The former mayor of Greater Manchester, nicknamed the “King of the North”, has been parachuted in by the Labour Party after Starmer resigned last month, with MPs viewing him as the party’s best chance of reining in Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party.

Starmer departed Downing Street on Monday morning, insisting in a farewell speech that his two years in office had made Britain a better place.

“I am confident that Britain is now stronger and fairer than it was two years ago,” Starmer told reporters outside his central London office.

“I go with good grace, I go with a smile, and I go proud of everything that we have achieved,” he added.

Congratulations pour in

As soon as Buckingham Palace’s statement came in, leaders from across the world began extending their best wishes for the new UK PM.

In a statement, President Asif Ali Zardari expressed the hope that under Burnham’s leadership, Pakistan and the UK would further strengthen their longstanding bilateral partnership and expand cooperation across areas of mutual interest.

President Zardari reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to dialogue, diplomacy and the peaceful resolution of disputes.

He noted that, as the world, particularly the Gulf region, has been passing through a turbulent period since late February, Pakistan has “played its part in promoting peace with the support of many brotherly countries”.

He expressed the hope that the UK, under Burnham’s leadership, would also play its part in securing a cessation of the current hostilities between the United States and Iran and a return to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding.

The president wished Burnham success in his new responsibilities and said that he looked forward to working together to further deepen the enduring ties between Pakistan and the UK.

In a post on X, PM Shehbaz Sharif conveyed his “heartiest congratulations” and wished him “every success in his tenure”.

He said he looked forward to working closely with Burnham to “further strengthen the historic and deep-rooted bonds of friendship and cooperation between Pakistan and the UK”.

“These special ties are anchored by millions of proud and vibrant British Pakistanis who serve as a living bridge between our two countries,” the prime minister noted.

“Together, we will strive to elevate Pakistan–UK relations, in particular, our bilateral trade and investment partnership, to new heights,” PM Shehbaz affirmed.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she looked forward to working with Burnham to strengthen the partnership between the European Union (EU) and the UK.

“For the security of our shared continent. And the prosperity of people on both sides of the Channel,” she wrote on X.

EU chief Antonio Costa said he hopes to press on with efforts to improve ties between Brussels and London.

“In the last two years EU-UK relations gained a new, positive momentum,” European Council president Costa posted online.

“I look forward to continuing to further deepen our cooperation for the benefit of our citizens and businesses. The United Kingdom and the European Union are stronger together,” he added.

Ukraine’s Zelensky also felicitated Burnham, wishing him and the British people “every success in addressing the challenges of today”.

“Britain has always been one of the global leaders. We are ready to work together in all possible formats. We highly appreciate the UK’s political, defence, and values-based support,” he wrote on X.

“The foundation of our bilateral relationship is stronger than ever, and we will continue to make each other stronger. I’m looking forward to our conversation later today. Thank you!”

‘Bigger, bolder’

In an interview with The Times published late on Sunday, Burnham set out his ambition for change, saying he wanted to draw a line under a decade of political turmoil.

“What we’ve been doing hasn’t been working. That’s the way I see it,” he said.

“I am going to try and do things in a different way.”

Deputy Labour Party leader Lucy Powell said on Sunday that Burnham’s mayoral experience away from the London centre of government meant he understood the “bigger, bolder measures” needed to deliver on Labour’s election manifesto promises.

Among Burnham’s most urgent challenges will be a tepid economy, high government borrowing costs, a ballooning welfare bill and irregular migrants arriving in small boats that have fuelled support for Reform.

Unpredictable energy prices due to the US-Iran war and a volatile American president in Trump also threaten to buffet his premiership.

Burnham told The Times he would take a “different approach to public spending, and to running the economy — more focused on early investment, early intervention, setting people up for success, and much less paying for failure”.

He promised “early moves to help” with the cost of living, saying that while campaigning he heard the “pressure people feel around their finances”.

Starmer announced that he would resign as prime minister and Labour Party leader in late June after a string of scandals, missteps and policy U-turns blighted his leadership.

But Burnham, who only returned as a member of parliament four weeks ago, has little room to manoeuvre amid sluggish economic growth, high public debt and strict financial rules requiring him to balance government spending against tax revenue.

‘Last chance’

Burnham was an MP between 2001 and 2017, serving as a minister for the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

He has since reinvented himself as a man of the people, melding a relaxed, folksy style with slick social media videos.

But he has only three years to turn things around, with Reform tipped in polls to win the next general election expected in 2029.

Burnham told supporters on Friday his Labour takeover was the “last chance” for the party to get things right.

Critics have accused Starmer’s government of being under-prepared for power when he was elected in July 2024.

Burnham has insisted he has a “plan”.

But his swift “coronation” as Labour leader has raised questions on how he will achieve his aims.

His first policy announcement came on Saturday when he scrapped Starmer’s flagship nationwide digital ID scheme, estimated to cost £1.8 billion over three years.

A spokesperson said the time and resources would be diverted “to where it’s most needed, such as helping with the cost of living”.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani admitted he was unsure if he had the power to order police to detain a foreign leader but said he was discussing the matter with his legal team ahead of the UN General Assembly in September.

“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America,” Trump said on social media.

“He is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The Hague-based International Criminal Court said in 2024 that it had reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu was responsible for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Israel’s offensive in Gaza following the brutal October 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas.

“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani told the New York Times on Saturday, referring to the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ). “He’s a war criminal.”

“And what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years.”

However, Mamdani said he was unclear on whether he has the legal authority to order the New York Police Department (NYPD), which he oversees, to detain a foreign leader like Netanyahu.

Therefore, his administration was still mulling whether to arrest Netanyahu if he comes to NYC in September, as expected for the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.

“Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do, but we won’t be writing our own laws to that end,” Mamdani added.

During his mayoral campaign in September 2025, Democratic Mamdani had said he would order the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu if he arrives in the city.

Netanyahu’s office also dismissed Mamdani’s stance and said the ICC was a kangaroo court.

According to NYT’s Saturday report, Netanyahu also commented on Mamdani’s threat to arrest him, saying he was not concerned. He went as far as even accusing the mayor of supporting Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

“I think he should look at who he’s condemning, who he’s praising,” the Israeli premier said during an interview this week with Sid Rosenberg, whom the NYT described as a “frequent critic” of Mamdani.

Mamdani had condemned pro-Hamas chants in January, describing the Palestinian group as a “terrorist organisation” when criticised by some circles.

Protesters were stopped by police from staging their demonstration, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in a post on X, which had videos and pictures of people holding posters and shouting slogans.

“This is only the beginning of our struggle for statehood, our rights, our dignity and everything that was taken away from us,” Abdullah said in the post.

In August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked the partial autonomy of the occupied Kashmir state, removed its statehood and divided it into two federally controlled territories: held Kashmir with Jammu, and Ladakh.

The government has since said statehood to the Himalayan region will be restored at the “appropriate time” but has not given a deadline.

Abdullah and his party, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, have said statehood should be restored at the earliest, in keeping with the government’s promise.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders claim the protest is an attempt to divert attention from what they allege are governance failures of Abdullah’s government.

“It is the misfortune of the people of Jammu and Kashmir that today we have to come to Delhi to protest and remind our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of their promise,” IoK’s Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary said, according to Press Trust of India.

“You promised the people of Jammu and Kashmir that you would restore statehood after the elections. Today, it has been nearly a year and a half, and neither the prime minister nor the home minister has fulfilled that promise,” Choudhary pointed out.

“The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announces the election of brother mujahid Khalil al-Hayya as head of the movement’s political bureau, succeeding the martyred leader Yahya al-Sinwar,” Hamas said in a statement.

Sinwar, whom Israel accused of being one of the principal architects of the October 7, 2023, attacks, was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza a year later.

Since his death, Hamas has been led by a five-member leadership council headed by long-time senior official Mohammed Darwish.

Born in 1960, Hayya survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Doha last year, though one of his sons was killed in the strike.

Hayya defeated former Hamas chief and veteran leader Khaled Meshaal in the leadership contest.

“Khalil al-Hayya was elected by an overwhelming majority,” a senior Hamas official told AFP, adding that he is expected to formally assume the role next week.

“The political bureau will meet in Istanbul within days to form committees and begin restructuring Hamas’s leadership bodies.”

The official said the current five-member leadership council will be dissolved, with its members submitting their resignations to the group’s Shura Council.

“The election process was conducted through a highly complex and secretive mechanism because of the difficult security situation and the occupation’s assassination of several political and military leaders,” a source in Hamas said.

Representatives of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, also declared their “full support” to Hayya.

Hailing from the Gaza Strip, Hayya has lost several close relatives, including his eldest son, to Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, and is a veteran member of the group.

Regarded as having good ties with Iran, he has been closely involved in the group’s efforts to broker several truces with Israel, playing a key role in ending a 2014 conflict and again in attempts to secure an end to the current Gaza conflict.

Hayya has been part of Hamas since it was set up in 1987. In the early 1980s, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement from which Hamas emerged, sources say.

In Gaza, he was detained several times by Israel.

In 2007, an Israeli air strike hit his family home in Gaza City’s Sejaiyeh quarter, killing several of his relatives, and during the 2014 fighting between Hamas and Israel, the house of Hayya’s eldest son, Osama, was bombed, killing him, his wife and three of their children.

Hayya was not there during the attacks. He left Gaza several years ago, serving as a Hamas point person for ties with the Arab and Islamic worlds and basing himself in Qatar for the role.

The protesters, mostly young students, ran for cover as police charged at them and fired tear gas shells near Jantar Mantar in the Indian capital.

They are seeking the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over exam irregularities, including question paper leaks and technical glitches.

Thousands of protesters started gathering from early Monday, defying a steady monsoon drizzle and police barricades, marking one of the biggest demonstrations in the capital in five years.

“Our country deserves a government that is bothered about what the young people have to say and is willing to correct its mistakes,” said Sumit Kumar, 18.

“The future belongs to us and not these politicians.”

The protest comes after prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk was forcibly taken to hospital on Saturday, bringing an abrupt end to his 20-day hunger strike in support of youths and the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement.

The CJP has won millions of followers on social media since its launch in May, tapping into widespread anger over the country’s education system and unemployment.

“Is this a war zone? Why is the police resorting to tear gas assault on peaceful protesters?” CJP said in a post on X.

“First, your government ignored this protest for a month, and now, when we are peacefully marching, your government is attacking us. Why?”

The movement is seen as one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he won his third term in office in 2024.

‘We shall win’

Despite rapid economic growth, millions of people in the world’s most populous nation still struggle to find stable and well-paying jobs, fuelling discontent.

Some 2.2 million aspiring medical students sat for a re-examination under tight security last month after the previous test was scrapped following a question paper leak that triggered widespread outrage.

That came on top of another scandal related to the online marking system of tests taken by nearly 2m high school students.

The CJP said two of its leaders met a senior minister on Monday and submitted a letter spelling out their demands after the government reached out to them in the morning.

The internet was cut in parts of central New Delhi on Monday, with police saying they had not given their permission for the protest.

“Any person violating these prohibitory orders shall be liable for prosecution,” Delhi Police said in a statement.

Shubhi Rao, 16, said she had joined the protest to support Wangchuk and demand accountability from the government.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shown himself as someone who isn’t bothered about the youth of this country,” she told AFP.

Modi, in a public address before the start of the monsoon session of parliament, did not mention the protesters.

But Mallikarjun Kharge, a senior leader of the opposition Congress party, brought up the issue in the upper house.

“Thousands of students have gathered at Jantar Mantar. The government is trying to use force, suppress voices, and drive them away,” he said.

Slogans were also shouted inside the lower house by the opposition benches, demanding the resignation of the education minister and justice for students.

Activists set terms to end his fast

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and his supporters began a sit-in last month seeking the resignation of Pradhan. Wangchuk joined them on June 28, launching an indefinite hunger strike at the site.

In a handwritten note from the hospital posted on his X account on Monday, Wangchuk said he would end his fast if the government took responsibility for recent failures in the education system and for paper leaks, or if CJP protesters were allowed to reach parliament and lawmakers assured them they would take up the issues.

He said he would also end the hunger strike if lawmakers and leaders of various parties met him in the hospital and gave him the same assurances, since his health did not allow him to march on parliament.

The rise of the CJP reflects frustrations among young Indians over issues like high youth unemployment and frequent examination paper ​leaks, analysts say.

Unemployment in 2025 stood at 3.1 per cent among those aged 15 and above, government data shows, but was 9.9pc for those from 15 to 29. In urban areas, it was 13.6pc, and 8.3pc in rural regions.

The group did not say how it planned to impose the embargo, whose declaration came as Iran said it was back to a “full-scale war” with the United States, and as Washington and Tehran battled to control the strait.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis traded fire last week for the first time in years, threatening a 2022 truce that has held despite expiring.

The exchange of strikes was set off when an Iranian plane attempted to land in Sanaa, challenging Saudi Arabia’s hegemony over Yemeni skies.

The Houthis’ naval blockade, if enforced, could further strain Saudi Arabia’s economy by cutting off access to its Red Sea ports, which have been vital for oil exports as renewed fighting limits passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

The blockade is also expected to hurt global markets that rely on Saudi Arabia — which produces over 10 million barrels of crude per day — for energy imports.

The rebels declared “a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye’, effective immediately”, military spokesman Yahya Saree said.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general, warned that the threat from the Houthis risked an “even wider” regional conflict.

“A simultaneous crisis at Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab would produce a much larger shock than either blockade alone,” the King’s College London academic told AFP.

“Hormuz disruption constrains Gulf oil and liquefied natural gas exports, while Bab al-Mandab disruption interrupts the principal maritime connection between Asia, the Gulf and Europe.”

The Houthis previously launched attacks on ships transiting the waterway beginning in November 2023 during the Gaza conflict, forcing vessels to take lengthy detours around Africa instead of travelling directly from Europe.

Yemen shares a border and coastline with Saudi Arabia, whose Red Sea port of Yanbu has been crucial for exporting oil, bypassing Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz during its war with the US.

Earlier, Iran’s president said the country is fighting a “full-scale war” with the US as Washington expanded its strikes across the Islamic republic, including a city hosting a nuclear power plant.

Iran kept up its own attacks across the region in response, with its Revolutionary Guards announcing they had hit targets in Bahrain, Jordan and Syria, while Bahrain said Tehran had targeted its air navigation systems.

“The reality is that today the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged in a full-scale war,” said President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to a presidency statement.

He added that “we must be realistic and accept the natural consequences of this resistance”.

His comments came after state media and local authorities reported US strikes on Monday in the north and centre of the country, further than areas near the blockaded Strait of Hormuz waterway through which a fifth of world oil supplies transited prior to the war.

The Middle East war resumed after a weeks-long lull prompted by an agreement signed in June, and oil prices surged to a one-month high as the foes battled to control the vital Strait of Hormuz.

As its truce with the US collapsed, Tehran reimposed its blockade of the waterway, while Washington hit back by again blockading Iran’s ports.

All of the Iranian provinces hit on Monday host military bases and air defence systems.

In Bushehr, home to the country’s only operational civilian nuclear power plant, governor Mohammad Mozaffari told state news agency IRNA: “A few minutes ago, several locations in Bushehr city were hit by American enemy’s projectiles.”

In East Azerbaijan province in the north, the head of the local crisis management unit Majid Farshi told IRNA that “one person was martyred and several others injured” in an attack there.

Despite the latest attacks, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said diplomatic exchanges with the United States via mediators were ongoing.

“Ideas have been conveyed to us by certain mediators,” he told a press conference in Tehran attended by AFP.

Ship on fire

In Hormuz, meanwhile, sailors abandoned a vessel set on fire in an attack, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency.

The Revolutionary Guards had earlier said that two oil tankers trying to transit the strait “exploded and were brought to a halt”, according to a statement reported by Tasnim news agency.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on countries around the world to share the burden of protecting global shipping.

But Baqaei said on Monday that Tehran would not allow the strait to be used by its foes “to threaten Iran’s security and national interests”.

US Central Command (Centcom) said on Sunday that it successfully completed the ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran, while Rubio said he would “continue to try” to reach a diplomatic solution.

The fresh fighting came after a weekend in which the US announced three new US military fatalities and one service member missing in action.

Two were killed during Iranian missile and drone attacks on Jordan on Friday, while another service member died in northern Iraq during the controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone, Centcom said.

President Donald Trump said US strikes on Iran “hit them very hard” in honour of the American fatalities.

The deaths brought to 17 the confirmed number of American military fatalities since the conflict began with a massive US-Israeli strike on the Islamic republic.

On Friday, Iran’s health ministry reported that 50 people had been killed in recent fighting and more than 500 wounded.

Iran strikes neighbours

Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced on Monday that they had hit targets in Syria, Jordan and Kuwait overnight.

In Syria, Iranian forces launched “a surprise attack on the enemy special operations command centre in the Al-Tanf region”, according to a Guards statement carried by state media.

The US withdrew its troops from Al-Tanf in February.

In Jordan, the Guards said it targeted US military aircraft stationed at Aqaba Airport “with ballistic missiles, causing severe damage to a number of them”.

The Guards also said they hit US military targets based in Kuwait, including an early-warning radar system that was “completely destroyed”.

Kuwaiti air defences were “engaging hostile drone attacks following Iranian aggression”, its army said on Monday.

Bahrain’s interior ministry also said that its air raid sirens had sounded and urged citizens and residents to head to “the nearest safe place”.

Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) university announced the move late last week, saying its researchers had copied around 100 petabytes of Nasa data to the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in the southern city of Lugano.

“The sheer amount is impossible to visualise,” Reto Knutti, professor of climate physics and head of ETH’s Center for Climate Systems Modeling (C2SM), said.

It had taken approximately a year to copy the roughly six billion files, he said — the equivalent of around 20 million feature-length films, in terms of data volume. And going forward, the researchers are also planning to copy large quantities of datasets from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The datasets, gathered over decades, contain vital information about Earth systems, including greenhouse gases, clouds, precipitation and ice sheets. They will be used to help train AI models capable of swift and reliable forecasting in areas like weather, climate and natural hazards.

Though it was not the main driver for the move, the researchers said their mission was partly motivated by concern over the impact of dramatic US funding cuts for the scientific community.

ETH professor and former Nasa chief scientist Thomas Zurbuchen, who initiated the data transfer, highlighted in a statement the key role the United States had played in Earth observation for decades.

Without the extensive measurement programmes run by Nasa and NOAA, the world “would know far less about our planet today”, he said.

But since his return to office last year, US President Donald Trump has pursued deep cuts to federal climate science and Earth-observation funding, including programmes that contribute data to international monitoring networks. Knutti pointed out that “so far, the US has not restricted access to the data”.

“But we also know that decisions in the US administration are sometimes quick, and not completely obvious.” All the data copied so far had been publicly available, he stressed. “It’s not a secret.” “Data is the new gold,” Knutti said.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2026

Four people were killed in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, and an elderly woman died in the capital Kyiv. There were two more fatalities in Zaporizhzhia in the south and one in Sumy in the north-east.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the raid on Kyiv was “one of the most massive ballistic attacks” since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.

Late on Sunday, Ukraine’s navy said five people were killed when a Turkish-owned civilian cargo ship with grain was hit by Russian missiles in the Black Sea. Russia has not commented, according to BBC News.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said it had hit three Russian oil tankers in the Black Sea, and three oil depots in the southern Stavropol region. Zelensky said they were targets that “finance Russian aggression”.

A number of areas in the Kyiv region were hit overnight. The Ukrainian military said air defences in the capital had shot down 18 out of 41 missiles. The systems also intercepted 108 drones.

Kharkiv regional head Oleh Syniehubov said a postal terminal in the city suburbs had been attacked, with four men aged between 24 and 62 killed. Several of the injured were in a serious condition.

In a Telegram message, Zelensky said in the past week Russia had “used about 1,450 strike drones, more than 1,640 guided bombs and 99 missiles of various types against Ukraine”.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which carries Kazakhstan’s Caspian oil to Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, said its terminal had been hit.

It said two tankers were damaged, prompting oil loading operations to be suspended. There were no injuries or oil spills.

The latest strikes on Kyiv involved a range of Russian weapons systems, including Iskander and hypersonic Zircon missiles, as well as 125 drones, the Ukrainian air force said.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2026

During this period, all-time temperature records were broken in several European countries, as well as for the month of June in the UK and in Switzerland.

And while the mortality statistics remain provisional, they are an early indication of the human cost of these record-breaking heatwaves, which are becoming increasingly common.

AFP analysed data on excess deaths between June 22 and 28 from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.

During this period, the height of the heatwave in several countries, around 10,000 excess deaths were recorded in these countries.

Another 2,200 deaths were linked to the heatwave in England and Wales between June 18 and 28, according to estimates released by Britain’s Met Office.

Provisional data from the European Mortality Monitoring (EuroMOMO) also recorded a significant rise in excess deaths in the final week of June: it put the figure at 14,260. Their figures for that week drew on official statistics from 24 countries, accounting for some 400 million residents.

EuroMOMO’s figures do not include parts of eastern Europe.

“The summer is not yet over,” Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, warned in a statement.

“This is not a natural disaster and it’s repeating itself every year because too many governments are still treating heat as a weather event rather than a health emergency,” he added.

“The tools to prevent most of these deaths exist. “The guidance is published. The evidence is there,” he argued.

“What governments do next is a choice, and this summer shows what’s at stake.”

‘Dramatic’

These figures indicate that this week had the highest rate of excess deaths among all June weeks since EuroMOMO began pulling these European figures together in 2020.

The only other summer week in which a higher rate of excess deaths has been recorded over that seven-year period was a week in July 2022 when Covid was still active in many European countries.

“There’s no other reasons for excess mortality that we know of than heat -- and it’s quite dramatic,” said Lasse Vestergaard, an epidemiologist at Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut and coordinator of EuroMOMO.

But he urged caution in interpreting the most recent figures -- according to EuroMOMO, it takes four weeks for estimates to become sufficiently consolidated.

The initial figures released by national bodies have often been revised upwards since the end of the June heatwave.

Thousands dead in Germany  

Different countries have different ways of compiling the relevant figure.

Spain’s excess mortality monitor MoMo attributed 610 deaths to the heat between June 22 and 28 -- nearly two thirds of whom were more than 85 years old.

But over the same period, Germany recorded 5,780 excess deaths - compared to the average of the four previous years, said Germany’s federal office of statistics, Destatis.

Compared to the two previous weeks, Destatis had recorded 7,100 excess deaths.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2026

The ferry MV Barima left the small English-speaking country at the northeast corner of South America on Saturday afternoon with 133 people aboard for a trip from the capital, Georgetown, to the town of Port Kaituma.

Port Kaituma is inland in the oil-rich Essequibo region, and the ferry travels along the coast in the Atlantic before heading upriver to reach its jungle destination.

Initial signs are that the ship flipped over after being hit by a big wave, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill said on Facebook.

The vessel, carrying 116 passengers and 17 crew, issued a distress call eight hours into its journey despite carrying lifesaving equipment

“Search and Rescue Advancing. 67 persons, inclusive of 15 children rescued so far,” he said.

The accident is a major trauma for this nation of about one million people.

The authorities are listing the other 66 people as missing, rather than dead.

Ferry survivor recounts hours adrift

Wayne Kitson, an 18-year-old who was among those rescued, said the tragedy struck while the passengers were asleep Saturday night.

Kitson told the Kiskadee Watch, a Guyana news outlet, that he fears his wife and their daughter died in the capsizing. Kitson suffered minor injuries to his arm, leg and neck, and said he spent six hours in the water until he was rescued.

The rescue operations continued Sunday as privately owned vessels joined government teams in looking for survivors.

The ship was equipped with 250 life jackets, two lifeboats and six inflatable rafts, Edghill said. It was carrying 116 passengers and a crew of 17.

The ship began its journey in mid-afternoon and a distress call was received about eight hours later, Edghill said. The ferry was built in 1939, according to the shipping website VesselFinder.

Its destination, Essequibo, measuring 160,000 square kilometers (61,800 square miles), is an area rich in oil and at the heart of a territorial dispute with Venezuela.­­

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2026

Later, Iran’s army said it had targeted two US bases in Kuwait with drones in response to American attacks on Iranian territory.

The Islamic republic’s army said it carried out “large-scale attacks with kamikaze drones against the US military’s ammunition depot at Camp Udairi and the Patriot radar system and air surveillance radar at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait”, according to a statement carried by the state broadcaster.

Before the US strikes, Iran’s supreme leader said Washington would pay for “seeking to escalate the conflict”.

US Central Command said in a statement that the airstrikes began at 6pm ET (2200 GMT), at President Donald Trump’s direction.

“The strikes are designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night,” it said, without providing further details.

Central Command later said it had completed its wave of attacks, hitting Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defence facilities.

Iran’s Mehr news agency said the US carried out an attack near Sirik in southern Iran, adding that no casualties or damage to infrastructure have been reported. The Tasnim news agency said the U.S. military also targeted a location near Shadegan, close to the border with ​Iraq, and that at least six missiles hit Qeshm Island.

The US and Iran have intensified attacks since an interim ceasefire deal signed a month ago fell apart last week, raising the possibility of a return to all-out war.

Centcom said the deaths of two US troops occurred on Friday and that a third US service member was missing in action.

The announcement brought the number of US service members killed since the US-Israeli war on Iran began to 16, while more than 420 have been wounded.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X: “Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.”

Iran targeted US Gulf allies and Jordan on Saturday after US attacks on Iranian bridges, power facilities and other infrastructure.

In a written statement carried by the official social media accounts of Iran’s supreme leader and Iranian state media, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said US actions have shown that Trump’s signature was “utterly worthless and devoid of credibility.”

The statement warned of “even heavier costs and further humiliation” for the United States.

Major General Mohsen Rezaei, a senior military adviser to Khamenei, warned that Tehran would resume “full-scale offensive operations” if US strikes continued in the coming days.

“Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses,” the general said, according to state media.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The conflict, which began when the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran at the end of February, both hoping to disable Tehran’s missile programme, has led to major disruption to energy supplies, fears over global inflation and a battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian strikes reported in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan

On Saturday, Kuwait came under sustained attack, with the armed forces saying they had intercepted Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, and that some firefighters and oil sector workers had been injured while responding to the attacks.

Iran’s IRGC said it had struck a US military support centre at Kuwait’s Camp Arifjan and destroyed a radar facility at Ali Al Salem Air Base.

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation later said one of its oil facilities had been hit in “repeated Iranian attacks”, causing significant damage and some injuries, according to the state news agency.

The IRGC also targeted a site in Bahrain where US combat aircraft were gathered at Sheikh Isa Air Base and an intelligence data centre, Iranian media said.

The Guards also destroyed at least two US fighter aircraft and three other aircraft during a missile and drone attack early on Saturday on the US base in Al Azraq, Jordan, according to Iranian state TV.

Saudi Arabia’s early warning system issued alerts early on Saturday urging residents of Al-Kharj and Yanbu to seek shelter. Al-Kharj, east of Riyadh, is home to a military base that hosts US troops, while Yanbu, on the Red Sea, has a key oil export terminal.

The IRGC made no mention of any attack on Saudi Arabia.

The US State Department issued a worldwide travel alert for Americans abroad on Saturday, citing heightened tensions in the Middle East “with the potential for unforeseen escalation”.

The advisory said flight cancellations and periodic airspace closures could disrupt travel.

Battle for control of Hormuz

Earlier, US Central Command said it had hit Iranian surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage and maritime capabilities. US airstrikes early on Saturday killed three people and wounded eight others in the southern Hormozgan province, which borders the Strait of Hormuz, while two bridges and a road tunnel were damaged, Iranian state TV reported.

Iran’s Health Ministry said on Saturday that 50 people had been killed and more than 500 wounded in US strikes on the country over the past three weeks.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei accused the United States of seeking control over the Strait of Hormuz, which usually handles around one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

Both sides have taken aim at shipping traffic, with the US saying it is enforcing a naval blockade and Iran saying it targets vessels violating its rules on navigating the strait.

Additional input from AFP

Police cited a court order and “deteriorating health condition” on Saturday when they picked up Sonam Wangchuk, who had refused to eat since June 28 in protest of alleged university exam fraud.

The activist, 59, has demanded the education minister’s resignation after the leak of test materials that resulted in over two million students being forced to retake exams.

Gitanjali J. Angmo, Wangchuk’s wife, said that she “lost faith” in the government hospital, which she said refused her desire to move her husband to a private facility.

“With around 30 police personnel stationed on our floor and well over 100 across the hospital, our movement is severely restricted,” Angmo said.

“It is not medical care. It is illegal detention,” she said, adding she asked the high court to allow her to move Wangchuk.

The hospital, late on Saturday, said that Wangchuk hadn’t yet consented for recommended medical interventions.

“Despite repeated counselling by the treating team and the independent expert regarding the urgent need for treatment, the patient has declined intravenous fluids, oral rehydration solution and all medications,” the hospital said.

India’s parliament session starts on Monday, and opposition parties have backed Wangchuk and ongoing protests in New Delhi, where a few hundred students had joined him around his stage in recent weeks.

Several political and farmers’ groups are expected to reach the New Delhi protest site, Jantar Mantar, to demonstrate during the parliament session.

The founder of satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) online movement, Abhijeet Dipke, announced on Saturday an indefinite hunger strike after Wangchuk was moved to the hospital.

CJP asked people to join a protest march towards the parliament from Jantar Mantar protest site on Monday, when other groups have also announced similar marches for other causes.

“For a Better Tomorrow, For a Better Education System & Most Importantly for Accountability!” CJP said in a post on X.

On Sunday, a few hundred people gathered around the stage vacated by Wangchuk. Many were carrying posters and photos of the hospitalised activist while others were demanding the education minister’s arrest.

Some 2.2m aspiring medical students sat for a re-examination under tight security last month after the previous test was scrapped following a leak that triggered widespread outrage and fuelled youth protests.

Confirming the visit, the Foreign Office (FO) said it would be Anand’s first trip to Pakistan since assuming office.

The FO said the visiting dignitary and Dar will hold bilateral talks “covering the entire spectrum of Pakistan-Canada relations”.

“The discussions will focus on strengthening cooperation in trade and investment, education, and people-to-people exchanges. The two ministers will also exchange views on regional and global developments of mutual interest,” the FO said.

It added that Anand will also call on the leadership of Pakistan. According to GAC, Anand is also expected to meet with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

“Canada-Pakistan relations are underpinned by extensive people-to-people ties, with more than 300,000 Canadians of Pakistani origin in Canada and approximately 20,000 Canadians in Pakistan,” GAC noted.

Meanwhile, the FO stated that both Pakistan and Canada “maintain cordial bilateral relations anchored in close people-to-people ties enriched by the vibrant Pakistani diaspora in Canada”.

“This visit underscores the shared commitment of both countries to expand mutual cooperation,” it highlighted.

Last month, Canada hosted the second round of negotiations toward a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with Pakistan.

In February this year, Pakistan and Canada emphasised the importance of cooperation in trade and investment in the sixth round of Bilateral Political Consultations held in Islamabad.

Following her visit to Pakistan, the Canadian foreign minister will leave for the Philippines to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

PARIS: The United Nations looks set to list a biblical site, Lebanese castles, an antelope migration path and the world’s deepest lake as world treasures under threat, including from war or climate change.

The 196 member states of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) are to cast votes from Friday next week on new additions to its World Heritage and World Heritage in Danger lists when they meet in Busan, South Korea.

“We may not have the means to deploy peacekeepers … but we can send a message to the entire world,” the director of Unesco’s World Heritage Centre, Lazare Eloundou Assomo, told AFP.

“These sites are important, and everything must be done to prevent their destruction.” “Safeguarding heritage allows communities that have been traumatised, victims of conflicts, to begin to come back and rebuild,” he added.

Some 1,200 sites around the globe are listed as part of Unesco World Heritage.

Making the heritage list often sparks a lucrative tourism drive and can unlock funding for the preservation of sites that can face threats, including pollution, war and negligence.

A site being qualified as heritage in danger, Assomo said, was not a reprimand but a measure meant to help states “find funding, partners and attention” to better preserve it.

Fast-tracked to ‘in danger’

Three sites, so far unlisted, are expected to be fast-tracked and voted straight onto the list of endangered places.

These could include the archaeological site of Sebastia, identified as being Biblical Samaria, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank.

The site itself is in an area of the West Bank under Israeli control.

But Palestinians in the adjacent village, which is under dual Israeli-Palestinian control, have long depended on tourist visits to the ruins for their income and fear Israel could completely cut off access.

Israel left Unesco in 2017 but remains a member of the World Heritage Committee, which has the final say on which sites are inscribed on each list.

Also to be given priority are five castles in south Lebanon, an area under fire from Israel, one of which – the Crusader fortress of Qalaat al-Chakif, or Beaufort Castle – Israeli troops captured in May.

Unesco members are also to vote on directly listing the Boma-Badingilo grassland and woodland savannahs in South Sudan as under threat from both war and climate change.

One million animals — including antelopes and gazelles — migrate through the vast wilderness located between the White Nile and the Ethiopian border every year, leaving scars on the grasslands that are visible from the sky.

Beyond these priority cases, some sites already listed as heritage spots could now further be labelled as endangered.

These include the remains of Roman baths and a second-century triumphal arch and hippodrome in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, which has come under heavy Israeli bombardment in recent months.

Also a potential candidate is the ancient Greek settlement of Tauric Chersonese on the Crimean peninsula that Russia unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Ukraine argues it is under threat from unauthorised excavations, large-scale construction projects, and the relocation of artefacts after Russia’s invasion of Crimea.

‘Ecological degradation’

In Russia, the world’s deepest lake — Lake Baikal — could also be labelled as being in danger as authorities struggle to contain damage from pollution, mass tourism, large-scale logging and lower water levels due to a dam upstream in Mongolia.

The vast Siberian lake contains 20 percent of the world’s total unfrozen freshwater reserve, according to Russia. Known as the “Galapagos of Russia”, it is home to a huge variety of flora and fauna.

But in a 2023 report, the UN agency warned that if the “unfolding ecological degradation of Lake Baikal” was not urgently stopped and reversed, it would be classified as in danger.

“Some actions are being implemented to address this,” it added, but “the mission considers that they are not sufficient”.

Other sites are also vying for a simple listing.

In France, the Normandy beaches on which the Allies landed on June 6, 1944, during World War II, could finally receive Unesco recognition.

Two theatres built in the Amazon forest in Brazil and the Tunisian village of Sidi Bou Said might also be listed.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2026

The two foreign ministers also exchanged views on the “longstanding friendly relations between Pakistan and Venezuela and reaffirmed their shared commitment to further strengthening bilateral ties”, the FO statement said.

It added that they discussed opportunities to expand cooperation across a broad range of sectors, including trade, investment, business, agriculture, IT, and other areas of mutual interest.

“Both sides underscored the considerable potential for enhancing economic collaboration and fostering stronger people-to-people contacts for the mutual benefit of the two countries,” the statement read.

It said that Dar emphasised the importance of sustained high-level engagement to “reinvigorate bilateral relations and further deepen cooperation”.

“Both sides appreciated the continued close coordination between Pakistan and Venezuela at multilateral forums on issues of common interest,” the statement said.

It further stated that Dar congratulated Plasencia on his appointment as the foreign minister and conveyed “Pakistan’s heartfelt condolences over the devastating earthquakes that recently struck Venezuela”, FO said.

The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes last month killed about 5,000 people, according to the government, though experts including the United States ​Geological Survey, have predicted a likelihood of a final death toll of nearly double that figure. The disaster was especially devastating in La Guaira state, home to the country’s main airport, a major port and hundreds ‌of high-rise residential buildings that collapsed either fully or partially.

During the phone call, Dar “reaffirmed Pakistan’s unwavering solidarity with the government and the people of Venezuela during this difficult time and expressed confidence in their resilience and recovery, the FO statement said.

For his part, Plasencia thanked Dar for Pakistan’s message of sympathy and solidarity and appreciated its “support and humanitarian solidarity with the victims of the natural disasters, underscoring the importance of mutual support in times of need”, it said.

According to the statement, Plasencia also acknowledged Pakistan’s constructive role in promoting dialogue and de-escalation in the regional situation involving the US and Iran and commended its commitment to peace and diplomacy.

The Diet and the government must promptly and squarely consider how to ensure the continuity of the current Imperial family and expedite efforts to amend the Imperial House Law again.

A bill to amend the law was enacted after being passed by a majority of votes in a plenary session of the House of Councillors. The revised law will be promulgated soon and take effect three months later.

Succession of Imperial line top priority

Under the revised law, female members can remain in the Imperial family after marriage, but only for their own generation. Their husbands and children will remain commoners.

On the other hand, the revised law will allow for adopting male commoners who are male-line descendants of former Imperial branches, which left the Imperial register after World War II, into the Imperial family. Male children born to such adoptees will be eligible to succeed to the Imperial throne.

The amendment ended up abruptly including provisions that address the status of the husbands and children of female Imperial members as well as the eligibility of adoptees’ children for the Imperial throne — but neither of these items had been included in the “consensus of the legislature” compiled by the heads and vice heads of both Diet chambers following discussions between the ruling and opposition parties.

Currently, Prince Hisahito, the son of Crown Prince Akishino, is the only male descendant in the male line eligible to succeed to the throne in the next generation after the Emperor.

If no son is born to Prince Hisahito, the current Imperial line will come to an end.

The system of adopting members of former Imperial branches into the Imperial family could even result in destabilizing the Imperial succession. Regarding the eligibility of adoptees’ children for the Imperial throne, a statement that the order of succession will be “based on the lineage of their biological families” has been abruptly included in the amended law.

Although former Imperial branches are now ordinary households, this statement treats them as if they are part of the Imperial family by the manner in which it refers to them as those in the lineage of their biological families. One cannot help but strongly feel something is off about this.

The former Imperial branches diverged from the line of the current Imperial family about 600 years ago during the Muromachi period, and their members became commoners nearly 80 years ago. Furthermore, men in the paternal line who left the Imperial register at that time are reportedly 36 to 38 generations removed from the current Emperor.

If adopted into the Imperial family, those from the former Imperial branches who were born and raised as commoners would face various restrictions on their daily lives and rights. Will there be anyone who would wish to be adopted into the Imperial family?

Despite the enactment of the amendment bill, there must not be hesitation in suspending the enforcement of the revised law.

Meanwhile, the system to allow female members, including Princess Aiko, the daughter of the Emperor and Empress, to remain in the Imperial family after marriage is reasonable. However, their line will end after one generation as their husbands and children will remain commoners and they are not entitled to create Imperial branches.

Consideration of ‘female branches’ crucial

Female Imperial family members are treated as though their role is only to share the burden of official duties. This appears to lack respect for them.

The postwar Emperors have consistently sought to fulfill their role as the symbol of the unity of the people — as stipulated under Article 1 of the Constitution. And Imperial family members, including the current Emperor and the Emperor Emeritus, have always stood by the people during crises such as disasters, praying for the people’s peace and happiness.

Such an attitude has earned them the respect and affection of the people and solidified the system that recognizes the Emperor as the symbol of the state.

Adoptees would become Imperial family members from being commoners. If their descendants were to become Emperor and form a new Imperial lineage in place of the current line, the image of the Imperial family that people will see would be completely changed. Would such a change gain public understanding?

The system of adopting members from former Imperial branches should be scrapped and thoroughly reconsidered.

The Diet and the government must discuss measures to ensure an Imperial succession that do not rule out the creation of female Imperial branches and the possibility of the nation having female and matrilineal Emperors.

The government insists that the purpose of this law amendment is to ensure a sustainable number of Imperial family members to share official duties. Regarding the stabilization of the Imperial succession, a supplementary provision has been included in the amended law, stating that the issue will be considered in the future.

If so, a panel of experts should be set up to discuss the stabilization of the Imperial succession. A report compiled in 2005 by a government panel of experts ruled out the restoration of Imperial status to former Imperial branch members, saying that this would be “extremely difficult.” It stated that it is essential to pave the way for female and matrilineal Emperors.

Given the law amendment, if an adoption is finalized and a son is born to the adoptee, the eligibility of an adoptee’s descendants for the Imperial throne could become a fait accompli. There is no time to be slow in making moves.

Avoid inviting divisive debates

Public opinion has been divided over the adoption system. The ruling and opposition parties shared a common view that a “calm environment” was necessary for discussions, but in reality, discussions were made hastily, and both Diet chambers ended their deliberations for the amendment bill within a single day.

There must have been fears that if more time had been spent on the deliberations, the Diet would be split, making it impossible for the legislature to reach a “consensus,” and possibly causing the foundations of the amendment bill to collapse.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2026

These concerns deserve careful consideration. Any major shift in defense cooperation inevitably carries diplomatic consequences, and a responsible government should take them seriously. Yet many of the criticisms are based on an outdated understanding of international politics. They tend to view today’s world through a Cold War lens, assuming that cooperation in one area inevitably determines every other aspect of a country’s foreign policy. However, the international environment has become far more complex than that.

The first misconception is the tendency to confuse cooperation with alliance. Nato membership and defense industrial cooperation are fundamentally different. South Korea is not joining Nato. Cooperation in defense research, technology, procurement or industrial production does not place South Korea under Nato’s political authority or strategic command. Modern diplomacy is filled with overlapping partnerships in different sectors. Countries cooperate in trade and technology without becoming political allies. Defense industrial cooperation should be understood in the same way. Treating every security partnership as equivalent to joining a military bloc oversimplifies contemporary international relations.

The second misconception is that closer cooperation with Nato will fundamentally alter South Korea’s relationship with China and Russia. Beijing and Moscow may not welcome expanded Nato cooperation, and South Korea should neither ignore nor underestimate their concerns. However, it is an exaggeration to argue that such cooperation will suddenly transform South Korea into their enemy. South Korea has maintained a military alliance with the United States for more than seven decades. Its strategic orientation has long been well understood by both China and Russia. Expanding cooperation with Nato’s defense industry does not create an entirely new geopolitical reality.

Even amid growing competition, countries continue to cooperate on trade, climate change, energy security, supply chains and global health. Recent efforts by Washington and Beijing to stabilise their relationship demonstrate that strategic rivalry does not automatically eliminate diplomatic engagement. Although China and Russia have strengthened their strategic partnership, it remains far from a formal military alliance comparable to Nato. Today’s international system is too interconnected to be understood solely through Cold War-style bloc politics. No single bilateral relationship can define the entire global order. International politics today is defined by competition and cooperation existing simultaneously rather than by permanent confrontation.

This points to a broader lesson. What today’s diplomacy requires is a multilayered worldview. A multilayered worldview recognizes that countries simultaneously cooperate and compete across different policy domains without allowing one relationship to dictate all others. During the Cold War, a country’s relationship with one major power often defined its entire foreign policy. That is no longer the case. In the twenty-first century, countries maintain different partnerships across different policy areas at the same time. South Korea can strengthen its alliance with the United States, expand defense cooperation with Nato, deepen economic ties with China, maintain dialogue with Russia, strengthen cooperation with ASEAN and work with middle powers on global governance. Foreign policy should therefore reflect the complexity of the international system rather than the binary logic of the past.

The same perspective applies to concerns over South Korea’s growing defense exports. Some critics argue that becoming a major arms exporter contributes to an international arms race. Such concerns are understandable, particularly at a time when many regions face rising military tensions. Yet ignoring legitimate security needs is not a realistic path toward peace. The purpose of deterrence is precisely to prevent conflict by reducing the temptation for aggression. Deterrence exists not to wage war but to prevent it. South Korea’s defense industry has become internationally competitive because it provides reliable, high-quality systems for countries seeking to strengthen their security. Providing defensive capabilities to responsible partners should not automatically be equated with promoting war.

Nevertheless, South Korea should remain mindful of its international image. Expanding defense exports should not come at the expense of its reputation as a country committed to peace. This challenge cannot be addressed simply by reducing arms exports. Instead, it requires more effective public diplomacy.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2026