The shareholders of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) (www.Afreximbank.com) have appointed Dr. George Elombi as the next President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the continental financial institution. He becomes the fourth President to lead the Bank since its establishment in 1993.
His appointment was one of the key decisions of the 32nd Afreximbank group annual meetings and associated events held in Abuja, Nigeria, from 25 to 28 June, with the formal annual general meeting of shareholders taking place on Saturday, 28 June 2025.
He succeeds Professor Benedict Oramah, who has served as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors since 2015, and who will be stepping down in September 2025.
A Cameroonian national, George Elombi has been with Afreximbank since 1996, joining as a Legal Officer. He rose through the ranks to become Executive Vice President, Governance, Legal and Corporate Services. Over his nearly three decades at the Bank, he has served as Director and Executive Secretary (2010–2015); Deputy Director, Legal Services / Executive Secretary (2008–2010); Chief Legal Officer (2003–2008); and Senior Legal Officer (2001–2003).
Prior to joining Afreximbank, he taught law at the University of Hull, United Kingdom.
Dr. Elombi played a pivotal role in establishing Afreximbank group’s structure, including the formation of key subsidiaries that have expanded the Bank’s capacity to deliver on its mandate. As Chair of the Emergency Response Committee, he led the Bank’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, mobilising over $2 billion for vaccine acquisition and deployment across African and Caribbean nations. Under his supervision of the Equity Mobilisation and Investor Relations department, the Bank’s total ordinary equity mobilised amounted to USD 3.6 billion as at April 2025.
In his acceptance speech, Dr. Elombi expressed a deep commitment to the Bank’s mission and future, stating:
“I have worked alongside remarkable colleagues and extraordinary leaders to help shape this institution’s vision, its mandate as well as its growth. As we look to the future, I see Afreximbank as a force for industrialising Africa and for re-gaining the dignity of Africans wherever they are. I will work to preserve this important asset.”
He accepted the shareholders’ desire as expressed by his predecessor to make the institution a US$250 billion bank in ten years.
Dr. George Elombi holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the London School of Economics, University of London, and a Ph.D. in commercial arbitration from the same university. He obtained a ‘Maitrise-en-Droit’ from the University of Yaoundé in 1989.
His appointment followed a rigorous selection process initiated in January 2025, which included a global call for applications published in international media and on the Afreximbank website. Shortlisted candidates were interviewed by an international human resource executive search firm. The top candidates were presented to the Board of Directors, which recommended Dr. Elombi to the General Meeting of Shareholders for final approval.
Under the Afreximbank Charter, a president is appointed by the general meeting of shareholders upon the recommendation of the Board of Directors for a term of five years, renewable once.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Afreximbank.
Media Contact: Vincent Musumba Communications and Events Manager (Media Relations) Email: press@afreximbank.com
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About Afreximbank: African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is a Pan-African multilateral financial institution mandated to finance and promote intra- and extra-African trade. For over 30 years, the Bank has been deploying innovative structures to deliver financing solutions that support the transformation of the structure of Africa’s trade, accelerating industrialisation and intra-regional trade, thereby boosting economic expansion in Africa. A stalwart supporter of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), Afreximbank has launched a Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) that was adopted by the African Union (AU) as the payment and settlement platform to underpin the implementation of the AfCFTA. Working with the AfCFTA Secretariat and the AU, the Bank has set up a US$10 billion Adjustment Fund to support countries effectively participating in the AfCFTA. At the end of December 2024, Afreximbank’s total assets and contingencies stood at over US$40.1 billion, and its shareholder funds amounted to US$7.2 billion. Afreximbank has investment grade ratings assigned by GCR (international scale) (A), Moody’s (Baa1), China Chengxin International Credit Rating Co., Ltd (CCXI) (AAA), Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) (A-) and Fitch (BBB-). Afreximbank has evolved into a group entity comprising the Bank, its equity impact fund subsidiary called the Fund for Export Development Africa (FEDA), and its insurance management subsidiary, AfrexInsure (together, “the Group”). The Bank is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt.
And unlike the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, when national unity coalesced around the defense of Iranian sovereignty, this time the government appeared to fight without significant public support. While accurate polling from within Iran is hard to come by, the lack of pro-government rallies, the low approval numbers for the government ahead of the war and the government’s subsequent crackdown since tell their own stories.
As a researcher of different ethnic groups within the country, I know that many Iranians – especially those from historically marginalized communities – viewed the conflict with Israel not as a defense of the nation but as a reckless consequence of the government’s ideological adventurism and regional proxy campaigns. It puts the Islamic Republic in its most vulnerable position since its establishment after the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
Hard and soft power diminished
It is worth taking a snapshot of just how diminished the Iranian government is following the recent series of blows.
Its soft power – once built on revolutionary legitimacy, Shiite ideological influence and anti-Western propaganda – has eroded dramatically.
For decades, the Islamic Republic relied on a powerful narrative: that it was the only government bold enough to confront the United States and Israel, defend Muslim causes globally and serve as the spiritual leader of the Islamic world. This image, projected through state media, proxy militias and religious rhetoric, helped the government justify its foreign interventions and massive military spending, particularly on nuclear development and regional militias.
But that narrative no longer resonates the way it once did. The leaders of Iran can no longer claim to inspire unity at home or fear abroad. Even among Shiite populations in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, support during the Israel-Iran confrontation was muted. Inside Iran, meanwhile, propaganda portraying Israel as the existential enemy has lost its grip, especially among the youth, who increasingly identify with human rights movements rather than government slogans.
It is also clear that Iran’s hard power is getting weaker. The loss of senior commanders and the destruction of important military infrastructure have shown that the government’s intelligence and security systems are severely compromised.
Even before Israel’s attack, a number of reports showed that Iran’s military was in its weakest state in decades. The real surprise in the recent war came not from the scale of the damage by Israeli and U.S. bombs but from how deeply Israel had penetrated the upper echelons of the Iranian military and intelligence sectors. The recent conflict amounted to a security as well as a military failure.
Externally defeated, internally adrift
As its power across the region appears diminished, so too is the Iranian government’s grip loosening internally. A 2024 survey by Iran’s Ministry of Culture revealed “discontent” among the population, with over 90% of Iranians “dissatisfied” with the country’s current position. Elections in November 2024 saw a turnout of under 40%, further underscoring Iranians’ discontent with the political process.
And reporting from inside Iran suggests many Iranians blame government policies for the war with Israel. “I place the blame on this country’s decision-makers,” one resident of Rasht told Reuters, “their policies have brought war and destruction upon us.”
The government has responded with a tactic it has used before: repression. According to government-aligned media, over 700 people were arrested during and immediately after the conflict, accused of collaborating with the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.
As in past crackdowns, ethnic minority regions – particularly Kurdish areas – have been targeted.
One day after the ceasefire with Israel, the government executed three Kurdish cross-border laborers who rely on smuggling goods to survive in Iran’s underdeveloped Kurdish provinces.
These executions, which were done without a trial or legal counsel, fit a pattern of how the government uses ethnic scapegoating to stay in power. And it echoes a historic pattern: When the government feels threatened, it strikes the Kurds first.
A historical pattern of repression
Kurds are estimated to number 10-12 million in Iran, composing roughly 12% to 15% of the country’s total population – making them the third-largest ethnic group after Persians and Azeris. Iran also includes significant Baluch and Arab minorities.
When the Islamic Republic was established in 1979, many ethnic groups supported the revolution. They hoped for a more inclusive and democratic Iran than what preceded it – the brutal autocracy of the shah that had frequently targeted minorities.
Those hopes were quickly dashed. By rejecting pluralism and promoting a unifying ideology centered on Shiite Islam and Persian identity, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini marginalized non-Persian and non-Shiite groups.
Other ethnic groups were viewed with suspicion, while Shiite Azerbaijanis were mainly co-opted into the system.
Khomeini declared jihad against Kurdish resistance groups, labeling them infidels, separatists and agents of Israel and the United States.
Armed with advanced weaponry inherited from the last Pahlavi shah, the government launched a military campaign in Kurdistan province. Many Kurdish villages and towns were destroyed, and approximately 50,000 Iranian Kurds were killed between 1979 and 1988.
The region was turned into a militarized zone – a status that continues today.
But instead of embracing political reform, it responded with one of the most brutal crackdowns in Iran’s history. Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, ordering the execution of political prisoners, including large numbers of Kurdish dissidents.
Between late July and September 1988, thousands of political prisoners were executed – many without trial or any legal process. At least 5,000 people were killed and buried in unmarked mass graves, according to Amnesty International.
Khomeini labeled them “mohareb,” or “warriors against God,” and criticized the Revolutionary Courts for not sentencing them to death sooner. This mass execution campaign signaled the government’s resolve to eliminate all dissent, regardless of legal precedent or human rights norms.
This targeted elimination of Kurdish leadership, combined with the mass executions of political prisoners, was a deliberate strategy to decapitate any organized opposition before it could challenge the government’s survival.
A new crisis, the same strategy
The Islamic Republic appears to be using the same playbook now, but under far more fragile conditions.
Given the precarious state of the government, it is fair to ask why there are not more protests now, especially in ethnic minority regions. For many, the answer is fear over what happens next.
Meanwhile, the overall opposition remains fractured and leaderless, both along ethnic lines and in terms of goals. The main opposition groups have traditionally been reluctant to acknowledge ethnic rights, let alone include them in any vision for a future Iran. Rather, they insist on “territorial integrity” as a precondition for any dialogue, echoing the Islamic Republic’s rhetoric.
This is a key legacy of the Islamic Republic: Its propaganda has not only shaped domestic opinion but also influenced the opposition, dividing Iranians at home and abroad. And it has long mobilized the dominant ethnic group against minorities, especially Kurds, by portraying them as internal enemies.
Shukriya Bradost does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
SANAA/JERUSALEM, June 28 (Xinhua) — Yemen’s Houthis launched a Zulfiqar ballistic missile that “successfully hit” a “sensitive” site in southern Israel, where an air raid siren was sounded for the first time since the ceasefire with Iran, rebel spokesman Yahya Saria said in an address on Al-Masirah TV on Saturday.
Earlier this week, the Houthis carried out “several military operations” against “sensitive” targets and military installations in the Israeli cities of Beersheba, Jaffa (Tel Aviv) and Haifa, using ballistic missiles and drones, he said. All operations were “successfully carried out,” Saria added.
The actions were “a form of support for the oppressed Palestinian people,” he said, vowing that the Houthis would continue their “supportive military operations until the aggression in Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted.”
In turn, the Israel Defense Forces /IDF/ reported that a rocket flying from Yemen towards Israel on Saturday morning “was most likely successfully intercepted.” –0–
The State of Qatar reaffirmed its support for the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact and its unwavering commitment to actively participating in relevant regional and international initiatives aimed at enhancing regional and global security and stability.
This came in the State of Qatar’s statement delivered by HE the State of Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani during her participation in the opening of a meeting organized by the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism. The event, held at UN headquarters in New York, was on enhancing partnerships between regional organizations and the UN Counter-terrorism Coordination Compact to support the coordination of political interventions and capacity-building efforts.
Her Excellency emphasized the importance of the meeting as a constructive platform for strengthening dialogue and coordination among the members of the UN Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact, contributing to more integrated and effective international efforts to combat terrorism.
Her Excellency also highlighted the ongoing partnership between the State of Qatar and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, commending the continuous efforts to enhance international cooperation and implement a shared vision for countering terrorism through coordinated and integrated action.
For his part, Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism Vladimir Voronkov praised Qatar’s leading role in supporting UN counter-terrorism initiatives, especially those focused on preventing violent extremism by addressing its root causes, primarily through promoting education and supporting sustainable development.
The State of Qatar emphasized the importance of promoting and protecting children’s right to education, especially in countries affected by conflict, highlighting its leading efforts in this field, which have received international recognition.
This came in the State of Qatar’s statement delivered by HE Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani, during the UN Security Council’s open debate on effective strategies to end and prevent grave violations against children in armed conflict, held at UN headquarters in New York.
Her Excellency referred to the State of Qatar’s key partnerships with the United Nations, which reflect the country’s commitment to supporting international efforts to protect children affected by armed conflicts. She pointed to the State of Qatar’s hosting and support of the Analysis and Outreach Hub of the Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, noting that the center continues to play a vital role in advancing child protection efforts in conflict areas.
Her Excellency also noted that this year marks the 20th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1612 (2005), which was a landmark step and solid framework for improving the protection of children affected by armed conflict. It led to the creation of a monitoring and reporting mechanism focused on children and armed conflict. She stressed that all commitments must now be translated into concrete actions.
Her Excellency expressed the State of Qatar’s deep concern over the increasing number of grave violations against children, citing the UN Secretary-General’s report that said violence against children in armed conflict reached its highest level in 2024, and added that children have borne the brunt of relentless hostilities and indiscriminate attacks.
Her Excellency also strongly condemned the grave violations of international humanitarian law committed by the Israeli occupation against children in the Gaza Strip, calling on the international community to urgently act to compel Israel to comply with international laws, end its brutal war on Gaza immediately, and address the resulting catastrophic humanitarian conditions.
Her Excellency said that it was extremely alarming what the report documented regarding the scale of grave violations against children in the occupied Palestinian territories, particularly the widespread use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas, the sharp increase in violations in Gaza, and the escalation of violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Her Excellency emphasized that it is absolutely unacceptable for children to remain victims of grave violations in ongoing conflicts, and underscored the importance of ensuring their protection in such areas.
In conclusion, Her Excellency expressed her appreciation for HE Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba, praising her tireless efforts and extensive expertise.
The State of Qatar participated in the signing ceremony of the Peace Agreement between the Republic of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which took place today in Washington, facilitated by the United States of America.
His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al-Khulaifi, Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented the State of Qatar at the signing ceremony.
In a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA) on this occasion, His Excellency the Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the State of Qatar’s welcome of the conclusion of this Agreement, as well as its commendation of the sincere will and genuine commitment demonstrated by both Parties to the approach of peaceful and diplomatic solutions.
His Excellency also expressed Qatar’s pride in contributing positively to facilitating the achievement of this Agreement through hosting several negotiation sessions between the two parties, as a result of Doha’s hosting of the trilateral meeting between His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Amir of the State of Qatar, His Excellency President Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, and His Excellency President Félix Tshisekedi, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on March 18, 2025, which constituted a significant milestone for direct dialogue and confidence-building between the two sides.
His Excellency commended the constructive role played by the United States of America in completing these efforts and reaching this significant Agreement, which is expected to enhance security and stability in the Great Lakes region.
His Excellency the Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed that these efforts are in support of the African Union’s mediation and the outcomes of the Joint Summit of the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community, which was held in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania, on February 8, 2025. In this regard, he expressed the State of Qatar’s full readiness to collaborate with all regional and international partners to achieve lasting peace that benefits the peoples of the region.
HE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi received today a phone call from HE Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Arun Hemachandra.
The call dealt with discussing cooperation relations between the two countries and ways to support and enhance them, and discussed a number of topics of common interest.
During the call, Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed his country’s solidarity with the State of Qatar following the attack launched by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, Research Fellow at the Centre for Planetary Health and Resilient Conservation Group, Griffith University
In the shadows of Python Cave, Uganda, a leopard leaps from a guano mound – formed by bat excrement – and sinks its teeth into a bat. But this is no ordinary bat colony. The thousands of Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) found in this cave are known carriers of one of the world’s deadliest viruses: Marburg, a close cousin of Ebola.
I am a conservation scientist with over 17 years of experience in wildlife ecology, monitoring and human-wildlife conflict. I’m the co-founder of the Kyambura Lion Project, which made this discovery.
For years, scientists studying how diseases spread from animals to humans have hypothesised that zoonotic diseases jump from a wildlife reservoir (like a bat) to an intermediate host (monkey) and potentially to us, humans.
For past Marburg outbreaks in Uganda, two spillover pathways have been identified: the first, involves humans coming into contact with a fruit bat habitat (namely caves filled with bat guano). Indeed, fruit bats are thought to have infected two tourists at Python Cave in 2007 and 2008.
The second pathway involves humans and animals eating the same fruit that bats have fed upon or made contact with. This second spillover pathway was identified by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists in 2023. They tracked bats from the cave entering cultivated gardens to feed.
But Atukwatse and the team of young Ugandan scientists (Yahaya Ssemakula, Johnson Muhereza, Orin Cornille and Winfred Nsabimana) have potentially found another pathway: predation by at least 14 species.
Such rich visual evidence of a viral interface – bats, predators and people – is virtually non-existent in the literature. Many theoretical depictions of this process exist, and there are isolated incidents of a monkey predating on a bat or wildlife feeding on bat guano, but Atukwatse’s discovery of this many different predators repeatedly feeding on a known Marburg virus reservoir is a first.
His discovery highlights two uncomfortable truths:
many potential zoonotic interfaces remain undocumented – often right under our noses
the people most likely to detect them first are those living closest to wild frontiers.
But the bigger message is this: global health institutions need to stop overlooking local scientists and start funding field-based detection systems across Africa and Asia.
If we want to detect the next outbreak early, we should be empowering more Atukwatses, not waiting for the next lab test.
Atukwatse had heard from nearby guides that a large bat cave lay close to the survey grid. That kind of site, he reasoned, could be perfect leopard territory: a place to hunt, rest or avoid the heat.
This is ecological attentiveness at its best – the field biology equivalent of a commodities trader spotting volatility in a geopolitical flashpoint.
Atukwatse had his radar on and acted on instinct, setting five camera traps at the cave’s entrance and along the surrounding animal trails. Just one week later, he got what he hoped for: three separate clips of a leopard hunting bats in broad daylight. He left the cameras in place in protective casing. He checked them every 7–10 days.
But that was just the beginning.
The scale of the discovery
When I first looked at Atukwatse’s videos, our joint excitement was around the leopard footage. We knew they were adaptable and could even eat small rodents , but no one had ever recorded them eating bats in Africa.
As more clips came in, we realised something bigger was unfolding. Blue monkeys were seen grabbing bats mid-roost. A crowned eagle and a Nile monitor fought over two bat carcasses. A fish eagle – typically a piscivore, which is a carnivorous species that primarily eats fish – was filmed clutching bats in its talons.
Over 304 trap-nights, Atukwatse’s traps recorded 261 independent predator events from at least 14 different species.
Then came the second shock: over 400 human visitors – many of them tourists – were filmed approaching the cave mouth without any protective gear. Some stood just metres from a known Marburg virus reservoir. Importantly, the Uganda Wildlife Authority has built a sanctioned viewing platform about 35 metres from the cave. However, tourists broke park rules and walked within two metres of the cave mouth.
It was only after I visited the cave myself to take stills of the team that we put this all together. Atukwatse had just found the first visual evidence, at a large scale in nature, of at least 14 predators feeding on a known wildlife virus reservoir harbouring one of Earth’s deadliest viruses.
This wasn’t the result of million-dollar pathogen surveillance. It wasn’t even the core aim of our leopard survey. This happened because a young Ugandan field scientist followed his ecological gut.
Why does the discovery matter?
For decades, disease ecologists have known that major outbreaks often originate in wildlife – swine flu, avian flu and even SARS-CoV-2 all trace back to animal hosts. But what’s often missing is direct observation of spillover interfaces – the exact moments when a virus jumps from a bat, goose, or other animal into new species like humans, livestock or other wildlife.
Atukwatse’s discovery may be the first large-scale visual record of such an interface in nature: a roost of Egyptian fruit bats known to harbour a deadly virus, actively predated upon by at least 14 species, with hundreds of humans visiting the same cave mouth unprotected.
This may be a Rosetta Stone moment for spillover ecology – shifting our understanding from hypothetical models to a real, observable interface.
These kinds of spillover sites exist in other places in nature: in a Chinese wet market where a civet meets a meat processor, or in a Gabonese village where a bat is butchered for bushmeat. The difference? Most of them go undocumented. Atukwatse just filmed one.
Alexander Richard Braczkowski is the scientific director of the Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust Kyambura Lion Project.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, Research Fellow at the Centre for Planetary Health and Resilient Conservation Group, Griffith University
In the shadows of Python Cave, Uganda, a leopard leaps from a guano mound – formed by bat excrement – and sinks its teeth into a bat. But this is no ordinary bat colony. The thousands of Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) found in this cave are known carriers of one of the world’s deadliest viruses: Marburg, a close cousin of Ebola.
I am a conservation scientist with over 17 years of experience in wildlife ecology, monitoring and human-wildlife conflict. I’m the co-founder of the Kyambura Lion Project, which made this discovery.
For years, scientists studying how diseases spread from animals to humans have hypothesised that zoonotic diseases jump from a wildlife reservoir (like a bat) to an intermediate host (monkey) and potentially to us, humans.
For past Marburg outbreaks in Uganda, two spillover pathways have been identified: the first, involves humans coming into contact with a fruit bat habitat (namely caves filled with bat guano). Indeed, fruit bats are thought to have infected two tourists at Python Cave in 2007 and 2008.
The second pathway involves humans and animals eating the same fruit that bats have fed upon or made contact with. This second spillover pathway was identified by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists in 2023. They tracked bats from the cave entering cultivated gardens to feed.
But Atukwatse and the team of young Ugandan scientists (Yahaya Ssemakula, Johnson Muhereza, Orin Cornille and Winfred Nsabimana) have potentially found another pathway: predation by at least 14 species.
Such rich visual evidence of a viral interface – bats, predators and people – is virtually non-existent in the literature. Many theoretical depictions of this process exist, and there are isolated incidents of a monkey predating on a bat or wildlife feeding on bat guano, but Atukwatse’s discovery of this many different predators repeatedly feeding on a known Marburg virus reservoir is a first.
His discovery highlights two uncomfortable truths:
many potential zoonotic interfaces remain undocumented – often right under our noses
the people most likely to detect them first are those living closest to wild frontiers.
But the bigger message is this: global health institutions need to stop overlooking local scientists and start funding field-based detection systems across Africa and Asia.
If we want to detect the next outbreak early, we should be empowering more Atukwatses, not waiting for the next lab test.
Atukwatse had heard from nearby guides that a large bat cave lay close to the survey grid. That kind of site, he reasoned, could be perfect leopard territory: a place to hunt, rest or avoid the heat.
This is ecological attentiveness at its best – the field biology equivalent of a commodities trader spotting volatility in a geopolitical flashpoint.
Atukwatse had his radar on and acted on instinct, setting five camera traps at the cave’s entrance and along the surrounding animal trails. Just one week later, he got what he hoped for: three separate clips of a leopard hunting bats in broad daylight. He left the cameras in place in protective casing. He checked them every 7–10 days.
But that was just the beginning.
The scale of the discovery
When I first looked at Atukwatse’s videos, our joint excitement was around the leopard footage. We knew they were adaptable and could even eat small rodents , but no one had ever recorded them eating bats in Africa.
As more clips came in, we realised something bigger was unfolding. Blue monkeys were seen grabbing bats mid-roost. A crowned eagle and a Nile monitor fought over two bat carcasses. A fish eagle – typically a piscivore, which is a carnivorous species that primarily eats fish – was filmed clutching bats in its talons.
Over 304 trap-nights, Atukwatse’s traps recorded 261 independent predator events from at least 14 different species.
Then came the second shock: over 400 human visitors – many of them tourists – were filmed approaching the cave mouth without any protective gear. Some stood just metres from a known Marburg virus reservoir. Importantly, the Uganda Wildlife Authority has built a sanctioned viewing platform about 35 metres from the cave. However, tourists broke park rules and walked within two metres of the cave mouth.
It was only after I visited the cave myself to take stills of the team that we put this all together. Atukwatse had just found the first visual evidence, at a large scale in nature, of at least 14 predators feeding on a known wildlife virus reservoir harbouring one of Earth’s deadliest viruses.
This wasn’t the result of million-dollar pathogen surveillance. It wasn’t even the core aim of our leopard survey. This happened because a young Ugandan field scientist followed his ecological gut.
Why does the discovery matter?
For decades, disease ecologists have known that major outbreaks often originate in wildlife – swine flu, avian flu and even SARS-CoV-2 all trace back to animal hosts. But what’s often missing is direct observation of spillover interfaces – the exact moments when a virus jumps from a bat, goose, or other animal into new species like humans, livestock or other wildlife.
Atukwatse’s discovery may be the first large-scale visual record of such an interface in nature: a roost of Egyptian fruit bats known to harbour a deadly virus, actively predated upon by at least 14 species, with hundreds of humans visiting the same cave mouth unprotected.
This may be a Rosetta Stone moment for spillover ecology – shifting our understanding from hypothetical models to a real, observable interface.
These kinds of spillover sites exist in other places in nature: in a Chinese wet market where a civet meets a meat processor, or in a Gabonese village where a bat is butchered for bushmeat. The difference? Most of them go undocumented. Atukwatse just filmed one.
Alexander Richard Braczkowski is the scientific director of the Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust Kyambura Lion Project.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, Research Fellow at the Centre for Planetary Health and Resilient Conservation Group, Griffith University
In the shadows of Python Cave, Uganda, a leopard leaps from a guano mound – formed by bat excrement – and sinks its teeth into a bat. But this is no ordinary bat colony. The thousands of Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) found in this cave are known carriers of one of the world’s deadliest viruses: Marburg, a close cousin of Ebola.
I am a conservation scientist with over 17 years of experience in wildlife ecology, monitoring and human-wildlife conflict. I’m the co-founder of the Kyambura Lion Project, which made this discovery.
For years, scientists studying how diseases spread from animals to humans have hypothesised that zoonotic diseases jump from a wildlife reservoir (like a bat) to an intermediate host (monkey) and potentially to us, humans.
For past Marburg outbreaks in Uganda, two spillover pathways have been identified: the first, involves humans coming into contact with a fruit bat habitat (namely caves filled with bat guano). Indeed, fruit bats are thought to have infected two tourists at Python Cave in 2007 and 2008.
The second pathway involves humans and animals eating the same fruit that bats have fed upon or made contact with. This second spillover pathway was identified by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists in 2023. They tracked bats from the cave entering cultivated gardens to feed.
But Atukwatse and the team of young Ugandan scientists (Yahaya Ssemakula, Johnson Muhereza, Orin Cornille and Winfred Nsabimana) have potentially found another pathway: predation by at least 14 species.
Such rich visual evidence of a viral interface – bats, predators and people – is virtually non-existent in the literature. Many theoretical depictions of this process exist, and there are isolated incidents of a monkey predating on a bat or wildlife feeding on bat guano, but Atukwatse’s discovery of this many different predators repeatedly feeding on a known Marburg virus reservoir is a first.
A leopard grabs a fruit bat at Uganda’s Python Cave.Bosco Atukwatse/Kyambura Lion Project
His discovery highlights two uncomfortable truths:
many potential zoonotic interfaces remain undocumented – often right under our noses
the people most likely to detect them first are those living closest to wild frontiers.
But the bigger message is this: global health institutions need to stop overlooking local scientists and start funding field-based detection systems across Africa and Asia.
If we want to detect the next outbreak early, we should be empowering more Atukwatses, not waiting for the next lab test.
Atukwatse had heard from nearby guides that a large bat cave lay close to the survey grid. That kind of site, he reasoned, could be perfect leopard territory: a place to hunt, rest or avoid the heat.
This is ecological attentiveness at its best – the field biology equivalent of a commodities trader spotting volatility in a geopolitical flashpoint.
A blue monkey with bat in hand at Python Cave.Bosco Atukwatse/Kyambura Lion Project
Atukwatse had his radar on and acted on instinct, setting five camera traps at the cave’s entrance and along the surrounding animal trails. Just one week later, he got what he hoped for: three separate clips of a leopard hunting bats in broad daylight. He left the cameras in place in protective casing. He checked them every 7–10 days.
But that was just the beginning.
The scale of the discovery
When I first looked at Atukwatse’s videos, our joint excitement was around the leopard footage. We knew they were adaptable and could even eat small rodents , but no one had ever recorded them eating bats in Africa.
As more clips came in, we realised something bigger was unfolding. Blue monkeys were seen grabbing bats mid-roost. A crowned eagle and a Nile monitor fought over two bat carcasses. A fish eagle – typically a piscivore, which is a carnivorous species that primarily eats fish – was filmed clutching bats in its talons.
Over 304 trap-nights, Atukwatse’s traps recorded 261 independent predator events from at least 14 different species.
Then came the second shock: over 400 human visitors – many of them tourists – were filmed approaching the cave mouth without any protective gear. Some stood just metres from a known Marburg virus reservoir. Importantly, the Uganda Wildlife Authority has built a sanctioned viewing platform about 35 metres from the cave. However, tourists broke park rules and walked within two metres of the cave mouth.
Bosco Atukwatse.
It was only after I visited the cave myself to take stills of the team that we put this all together. Atukwatse had just found the first visual evidence, at a large scale in nature, of at least 14 predators feeding on a known wildlife virus reservoir harbouring one of Earth’s deadliest viruses.
This wasn’t the result of million-dollar pathogen surveillance. It wasn’t even the core aim of our leopard survey. This happened because a young Ugandan field scientist followed his ecological gut.
Why does the discovery matter?
For decades, disease ecologists have known that major outbreaks often originate in wildlife – swine flu, avian flu and even SARS-CoV-2 all trace back to animal hosts. But what’s often missing is direct observation of spillover interfaces – the exact moments when a virus jumps from a bat, goose, or other animal into new species like humans, livestock or other wildlife.
Atukwatse’s discovery may be the first large-scale visual record of such an interface in nature: a roost of Egyptian fruit bats known to harbour a deadly virus, actively predated upon by at least 14 species, with hundreds of humans visiting the same cave mouth unprotected.
This may be a Rosetta Stone moment for spillover ecology – shifting our understanding from hypothetical models to a real, observable interface.
These kinds of spillover sites exist in other places in nature: in a Chinese wet market where a civet meets a meat processor, or in a Gabonese village where a bat is butchered for bushmeat. The difference? Most of them go undocumented. Atukwatse just filmed one.
– How does Marburg virus spread between species? Young Ugandan scientist’s photos give important clues – https://theconversation.com/how-does-marburg-virus-spread-between-species-young-ugandan-scientists-photos-give-important-clues-259806
Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:
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We welcome the signing of the peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda.
This important achievement for Africa and international security has been made possible thanks to the decisive role of the United States and personally President Donald Trump, as well as a number of countries and international organizations.
In particular, we commend the constructive efforts of the Presidents of Angola and Kenya, the African Union, the East African Community, the Southern African Development Community, and the United Nations.
The State of Qatar has made a significant contribution to advancing the peace settlement, especially by ensuring complementarity and coherence among various mediation initiatives.
Ukraine highly values the effective mediation by the United States. We congratulate U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and American diplomacy on this achievement. The active involvement of the American side in the negotiation process played a decisive role in reaching and signing the peace agreement.
We hope for the responsible efforts of both parties in implementing the peace agreement and in ensuring lasting peace and security in the Great Lakes region. This will create favourable conditions for strengthening the economic potential and social stability of the states in the region, improving their investment attractiveness, and deepening economic ties with other countries.
Ukraine reaffirms its commitment to comprehensively intensify mutually beneficial cooperation with the countries of the region, including a readiness to contribute meaningfully to achieving their socio-economic development goals.
We are confident that the United States can play a similarly decisive role in achieving a just peace and ending Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. This peace agreement demonstrates that it is possible to stop the killing and restore peace even under challenging circumstances, when the international community acts resolutely and the parties participate in the peace process in good faith.
We emphasize that the foundation of the peaceful settlement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda is based on the fundamental principles of the UN Charter, including the mutual obligation of states to respect each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty within internationally recognized borders, to refrain from the threat or use of force, to avoid interference in internal affairs, and to facilitate the return of refugees and internally displaced persons.
It is precisely these universally recognized principles of international law that underpin Ukraine’s proposals for ending the war in Europe and restoring a comprehensive, just, and sustainable peace for Ukraine.
– on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
After eight years of renovations, the Waldorf Astoria in New York has reopened and is welcoming new guests. The Waldorf – as most people know it – introduced room service, velvet ropes, red-velvet cake and Thousand Island dressing. It gave its name to a salad, a chain of lunchrooms, as well as a now obscure form of democracy.
In 1907, the novelist Henry James said the Waldorf embodied what he called the “hotel spirit”: it was a place where everyone was equal – as long as they could afford the price of admission. To James, hotels defined America’s emerging culture and ideals. He said this new “spirit” was one of opportunity; of a new elite that was accessible not only by lineage, but by money.
As the historian and journalist David Freeland wrote, the Waldorf generally made room for all who were “able and ready to pay” and who displayed a willingness to “conduct themselves properly”. The Waldorf ethos was developed by its first maître d’, Oscar Tschirky – known simply as “Oscar of the Waldorf” because people struggled to pronounce his name. “Our innovations were startling and sensational”, Tschirky said in his ghost-written autobiography in 1943, “but they were always genteel”.
Those early innovations included the invention of the “presidential suite”, which saw the hotel become an unlikely early force for American feminism when it became a hub of high-level talks between suffragists and President Woodrow Wilson.
The Waldorf, then, is an American institution – or, at least, it used to be.
It is now in the hands of Chinese owners and has been shunned by presidents since Barack Obama, worried over potential security risks. The brand itself has been watered down as there are currently 32 “Waldorf Astorias” dotted around the globe.
The story of the Waldorf encapsulates modern America’s crisis of the establishment. Few places better personify the creation of the US version of the establishment (much more about money than breeding or class). And in the past decade, the hotel’s position, like the US establishment more generally, has come under assault by a rival hotel owner, Donald Trump.
The Insights section is committed to high-quality longform journalism. Our editors work with academics from many different backgrounds who are tackling a wide range of societal and scientific challenges.
Trump has his own ideas about how to use these modern palaces to project power – and his innovations are anything but genteel. So what can the beginnings of this former American institution tell us about America today? As a researcher of political and democratic institutions, I have been examining the role of hotels in the story of American democracy. And this particular story begins with a Swiss-born waiter.
Oscar of the Waldorf
Tschirky was born in the Swiss Alpine village of Le Locle in 1866. He and his mother boarded the steamer La France in 1883, bound for New York. In his book, he recalled his mother’s announcement:
Yes, Oscar, we’re going to go to America and live with your brother in that great land of plenty where we can have everything we’ve always wanted.
That night, according to his book, was “the beginning of Oscar’s career as beloved servitor and counsellor to the great and near great of this world”.
Although it would be ten years after arriving in New York, that Tschirky would join the Waldorf (which was just about to open) as maître d’. His contract and salary commenced on January 1 1893, ahead of the grand opening of the Fifth Avenue hotel in March. He would occupy his post for the next half-century as “host to the world”.
Tschirky would remain in place as the hotel expanded in 1897 when John Jacob Astor IV built and connected the larger, taller Astoria Hotel next door. Then in 1931 the hotel was forced to relocate when its Fifth Avenue location was razed for the Empire State Building. The “new” Waldorf Astoria New York reopened on Park Avenue with the addition of its famous towers, making it the tallest hotel in the world at the time.
Tschirky was born just one year after the end of the American Civil War. It was an America of Jim Crow laws and segregation. He would live to see women’s suffrage, but not the civil rights reforms of the mid-1960s.
In this turbulent context, it appears that Tschirky did his best to keep the Waldorf out of politics. He stuck to the advice given by the Waldorf’s manager, George Boldt (himself a German immigrant) who told him that it was “not up to the hotel to settle international affairs”.
Tschirky came to understand, realise, and represent the “hotel spirit” of a new America as he presided over the establishment of hotels as American palaces: not only for visitors, but for the new American aristocracy.
A presidential palace
The Waldorf famously hosted every US president from Grover Cleveland to Franklin Roosevelt. In spring 1897, Cleveland was at the Waldorf with members of his former cabinet, who wanted him as Democratic candidate in the 1900 election. This was the first reported instance of “Waldorf democracy” – in this case, the term was used to identify this new group within (and in some respects differentiate it from) “the democracy”, that was the Democrats.
President Grover Cleveland (sitting on the far left) and his cabinet, between 1895 and 1896. Shutterstock/Everett Collection
This politics was not embraced by all. As reported in The Ohio Democrat, Congressman Edward W. Carmack of Tennessee dismissed it as “the walled-off Democracy, because they are by themselves, representing nobody, and unable to influence a vote”.
Nevertheless, political elites liked the luxury that the Waldorf offered. Presidential suites were established during Woodrow Wilson’s presidency (1913-21). In the Waldorf, this famous suite emulates the furniture of the White House and still contains several presidential souvenirs, (including John F. Kennedy’s rocking chair).
The hotel was also popular among the famous “Four Hundred of the Gilded Age” – the highest echelons of New York society. The group was originally led by Caroline Schermerhorn Astor. The Astors’ ancestral family home, the town of Walldorf, in western Germany, had even given the hotel its name. According to Tschirky’s book, the Waldorf’s grand ballroom was:
… where Teddy Roosevelt had dined, where presidents McKinley, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover had spoken historic words to the nation, where princes of royal blood had been welcomed, where the great people in every walk of life had been honored.
The Waldorf proved a suitable palace for US presidents and their entourages and Tschirky, a suitable “servant”. When interviewed by Washington DC’s Evening Star, Tschirky “wouldn’t talk about presidents except to say that Franklin D. Roosevelt calls him, ‘my neighbor across the Hudson’”.
But Tschirky, “for all his celebrity acquaintances, never forgot that he was, in the end, a servant”, as Freeland wrote. The Waldorf likewise applied the term to its staff.
Exclusivity, exclusion and ‘democracy’
The world famous hotelier Conrad Hilton, who acquired the Waldorf in 1949, recalled in his autobiography, Be My Guest:
Originally the Waldorf was said to purvey exclusiveness to the exclusive. Later [the writer and artist] Oliver Herford announced that it ‘brought exclusiveness to the masses’. But that exclusiveness remained whether the hotel catered to a convention of three thousand or a tête-à-tête between crowned heads.
The Waldorf ethos projected “taste” and imbued it in others. Tschirky “subtly schooled Americans in fine European dining”. In 1956 – six years after Tschirky’s death – the New York Times recalled that, alongside Boldt, he undertook to teach people how to spend their money. The Waldorf embodied good taste by enforcing it, for example in its expectation of “proper conduct”.
But with exclusivity comes exclusion. Hence, the hotel’s introduction of the velvet rope. According to the Waldorf’s luxury suite specialists, this was done “to create order … the fact that it created a sense of stature and separation was secondary”.
Tschirky’s statement that “all who pay their bills are on an equal footing” reflects one of his “rules for success”:
… be as courteous to the man in a five dollar room as to the occupant of the royal suite. It is an old rule, but it never changes.
We can see from this mindset how the hotel was seen to possess, as American Studies scholar Annabella Fick put it, “a democratic quality … even though it is also elitist. In that, it invokes the democratic understanding of early America, which also differentiated between land-owning gentry and the mob”.
This was not the only differentiation. Just two years after the Waldorf opened, the 1895 New York State Equal Rights Law (commonly known as the Malby Law) – which aimed to abolish racial discrimination in public places – had aroused Boldt’s indignation. According to Freeland, Boldt described the law to reporters as “an outrage, as it prevents us from making any selection of our patrons. A man who runs a first-class hotel must respect the wishes of his guests as to the sort of people that he entertains, and the law should not dictate to him.”
In his paradoxical desire for the freedom to discriminate and persecute as he wished – and on behalf of his customers, real or imagined – Boldt illustrated the exclusion inherent in exclusivity. Boldt’s statement also presaged a system of informal segregation, in which Black Americans were allowed in the Waldorf (and elsewhere), but were certainly not welcome.
Despite this the Waldorf was at the heart of a fundamental shift in American culture which “invited” ordinary Americans access beyond the velvet rope – as long as they could afford it. As James McCarthy and John Rutherford said in their 1931 book, Peacock Alley: “The average man and woman … frowned upon grand display – chiefly because the average person knew it was beyond his or her own horizon of enjoyment. The arrival of the Waldorf, however, was an invitation to the public to taste of this grandeur.”
And it wasn’t just the paying customers. During its 30th anniversary in 1923, the Waldorf elevated its staff – its servants – to the level of guests. Reporters for the Birmingham Age-Herald noted: “Practically the entire staff of the hotel were guests … the affair reached the topnotch of Waldorf democracy, for the waiters and financiers, telephone girls and captains of industry, coat-room clerks and merchant princes sat side by side and swapped reminiscences with each other.” The article continues:
Oscar sat [at] the head of his own table as guest of honor. For a brief time Oscar was no longer the solicitous host … For an hour or two Oscar was himself the guest, and the entire kitchen menage of the Waldorf-Astoria was kept hopping filling his wants and those of his fellow guests.
Oscar and his wife Louise, in the Birmingham Age-Herald above ‘Father Knickerbocker’ – a personification of New York City (hence The Knicks) – celebrating the Waldorf at 30. Library of Congress
But being a guest was a temporary experience.
The “Waldorf democracy” described during this event – of people from every walk of life and status mixing and socialising – was very different to that of the Cleveland entourage. It was not party-political, but institutional.
Democracy meant different things, at different times, within the Waldorf; just like in the broader US. The Waldorf, in turn, began to change, and perhaps even lose its meaning within the US by the time of Obama’s presidency.
Chinese ownership
The Waldorf lost its status as presidential palace in 2014. It was bought for $1.95bn by a Chinese company that was later seized by the Chinese government. Security concerns a year later prompted President Obama to stay at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel instead.
Obama’s choice of where to stay – and where not to stay – was widely discussed in the media. The decision was seen to “break with decades of tradition”. ABC News recognised and portrayed it as the end of an era, bidding “Goodbye to the Waldorf Astoria, welcome to the Lotte New York Palace Hotel”. This new era was also framed in geopolitical terms, for example by the New York Times:
With Chinese spies rummaging through White House emails, President Obama has decided not to risk making their spying any easier: He will break with tradition and abandon the Waldorf Astoria … Mr. Obama and other officials will instead take up residence a few blocks away at the Lotte New York Palace.
The same article also pointed out that “hotels have long represented a weak link in security for travelling officials and others”. In fact, Nikita Khrushchev had once got stuck in an elevator at the Waldorf, and “probably thought it was an attempt to assassinate him”.
Covering up an assassination as an “elevator accident” is probably not what Hilton had in mind when he envisaged his hotels as “a means of combating communism”. On the contrary – as Professor Mairi Maclean, a researcher of business elites, put it – Hilton envisaged hotels as a means of “facilitating world peace through international trade and travel”.
Women’s suffrage
It may not have brought about world peace, but the Waldorf did play a part in certain moments of US history because it was always seen as a key arena to lobby rulers, most notably in 1916. Women’s suffrage in America was still four years away. On one side of the debate (and the Waldorf itself) were two hundred suffragists, occupying the East Room. On the other was Woodrow Wilson, occupying the Presidential Suite.
Tschirky recalled being “appointed diplomatic courier … and delegated to carry the first communiqué of the morning … In the midst of it all I stood my ground, swearing myself an ice cold neutral”.
Though neutral on the question of suffrage, Tschirky was willing to reduce boundaries within the hotel, especially if it was good for business. Even as the hotel was being built, Tschirky remembered that “there was not, in all America, such a thing as a motor car, a radio … Nor were cocktails ever seen in private homes; or divorces tolerated in society; nor did women smoke, or wear dresses above their ankles”.
Then in 1907 a notice was put up in the Waldorf: “Women would be served in the hotel restaurants at any time, with or without male escorts.” Freeland noted Tschirky’s simple confirmation that: “We will serve women. What else can you do in a hotel?”
Crowd of women’s suffrage supporters demonstrating with signs reading, ‘Wilson Against Women’, in Chicago on October 20, 1916. Wilson withheld his support for Votes of Women until 1918. Shutterstock/Everett Collection
A few years later, discussing women’s right to smoke in the dining rooms, Tschirky said: “We do not regulate the public taste. Public taste does and should regulate us.”
During the Waldorf’s 30th anniversary in 1923, newspapers such as El Imparcial celebrated it as “a civic asset of unique importance. And to its other accolades must be added that of contributing effectively to the progress of feminism. It was a memorable day in the women’s rights movement when The Waldorf Astoria granted female access to the Peacock Alley.”
Nevertheless, even the naming of Peacock Alley – a corridor in the hotel that became an important place of congregation, especially for women – was a recognition of exclusivity. It was where people gathered to parade themselves. As the recollection goes in Tschirky’s memoirs: “The Waldorf Hotel was a triumphant picture of the Best People at their best”.
Trump
With their ostentatious decor and gilded interiors, Trump’s hotels could be seen as the modern incarnation of Peacock Alley.
But the tenets of politeness, respect and decorum that Tschirky set down seem like echoes from another age when compared to a recent AI video showing Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sitting shirtless at a pool with drinks at an imaginary “Trump Gaza hotel”. The video appears to have been a spoof, but that didn’t stop the president from sharing it on Truth Social, his own social media platform, and Instagram.
Like Hilton (who was immortalised in Mad Men, demanding a Hilton on the moon) hotels have always been a part of Trump’s brand. Trump recalled, in How to Get Rich, that his “first big deal, in 1974, involved the old Commodore Hotel site near Grand Central Station” on 42nd Street.
The former Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, opened in 2016, was described as “the epicenter of the president’s business interests in [the capital]”. It was also “a popular choice for lobbyists and Republican Congress members during Trump’s presidency”.
“The Trump Organization sold the hotel’s lease to CGI in 2022, when the hotel was reflagged as a Waldorf Astoria”, though Trump’s firm is rumoured to be in talks to reacquire it.
Another similarity between Hilton and Trump is their use of hotels as symbols for the nation. Each hotel of Hilton’s was envisaged as a “Little America”, “to show the countries most exposed to communism the other side of the coin”.
It had all of the ingredients of greatness, but it had been neglected and left to deteriorate for many many decades … It had the foundation of success. All of the elements were here. Our job is to restore our former glory, honor its heritage, but also imagine a brand new and exciting vision for the future.
Forbes commented that this event “could’ve easily been mistaken for a Trump rally”, for example in his statement that “my theme today is five words: ‘under budget and ahead of schedule’ … We don’t hear those words too often in government – but you will!”
Similarly, in an interview with the New York Post, Trump’s son Eric Trump used familiar Maga rhetoric: “Our family has saved the hotel once. If asked, we would save it again”.
What would Tschirky have made of all this? As a political neutral he would have decried Trump’s frequent hotel plugs during political campaigns. No doubt his behaviour would have seemed crass.
Perhaps this reflects two different eras of hotels and their intended functions. Grand hotels such as the Waldorf were shaped by European colonialism, by immigrants like Tschirky and Boldt. But as historian Annabel Wharton describes, the Hiltons “were constructed not, as in the nineteenth century, to meet an established need, but to create one. They suggest that this pressure was not produced simply by the desire for profit, but from a remarkable political commitment to the system that promoted profit-making”. I think we can read Trump’s hotels, and now his politics, in the same way.
The hotel spirit has entered a new phase with Trump’s proposals to “own, level, and develop” the Gaza Strip and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” – riding roughshod over the democratic will of Palestinians in Gaza who dismissed Trump’s vision.
Less than two decades after opening, Tschirky remarked that “many of the great events, financial, diplomatic, political, had had their inception within [the Waldorf’s] stone walls”. For him, it was “an international crossroad where men from all lands came to exchange goods and ideas” and to plan the changes in the world which he would later see come to pass.
Tschirky saw hotels as the most democratic places on Earth. But the “hotel spirit” he espoused – that uniquely American narrative within which he “became a citizen almost overnight” (a feat that seems vanishingly unlikely today) – seems to have been consigned to the past.
“I know that better times will come again”, he says in the preface to his book, “but in terms of the past, I think I have seen the best. New York has changed. America has changed.”
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Alex Prior does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
India has recorded a significant milestone in its national immunization efforts, with the percentage of zero-dose children—those who have not received a single vaccine—falling from 0.11% in 2023 to 0.06% in 2024. The achievement has been acknowledged in the 2024 report by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), positioning India as a global leader in child health and immunization.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in a statement issued on Saturday, attributed the progress to India’s robust Universal Immunization Programme (UIP), which provides free vaccines to 2.9 crore pregnant women and 2.6 crore infants annually. More than 1.3 crore immunization sessions are conducted across the country by healthcare workers, including ASHAs and ANMs, ensuring widespread vaccine outreach.
This progress has drawn global recognition, with India being awarded the prestigious *Measles and Rubella Champion Award* by The Measles and Rubella Partnership in March 2024 at a ceremony held in Washington, D.C. The award recognizes India’s sustained commitment to eliminating vaccine-preventable diseases.
In addition to reductions in zero-dose prevalence, India has also seen significant improvements in broader health outcomes. According to the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (UN-MMEIG), India’s Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) declined to 80 per lakh live births in 2023—an 86% reduction since 1990, far outpacing the global decline of 48%. The country has also achieved a 78% decline in Under-Five Mortality Rate and a 70% decline in Neonatal Mortality Rate during the 1990–2023 period, compared to global reductions of 61% and 54%, respectively.
India’s UIP has undergone considerable expansion in the past decade. From just six vaccines in 2013, the program now covers 12 vaccine-preventable diseases, including the addition of Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccine (IPV), Rotavirus Vaccine, Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine, and Measles-Rubella Vaccine, among others.
The government’s intensified initiatives, such as *Mission Indradhanush*, have played a key role in reaching underserved populations. Since its launch in 2014—and with significant intensification in 2017—the campaign has vaccinated over 5.46 crore children and 1.32 crore pregnant women who were previously unreached or under-immunized.
A targeted *Zero Dose Implementation Plan 2024* is currently underway in 143 districts across 11 states, addressing vaccine coverage gaps among migratory populations, urban slums, and regions with persistent vaccine hesitancy. India has also maintained its polio-free status since 2014 through sustained Pulse Polio campaigns, and regularly organizes Village Health and Nutrition Days (VHNDs) for community-based immunization efforts.
Digital innovations like the *U-WIN platform* are being leveraged to track immunization data and prevent dropouts. Public engagement strategies—ranging from social media outreach to street plays—are being used to increase awareness and reduce vaccine hesitancy.
Data from the WHO-UNICEF Estimates of National Immunization Coverage (WUENIC) 2023 report shows India outperforming global averages across all antigens. The country’s DTP-1 (Pentavalent-1) coverage stands at 93%, significantly higher than Nigeria’s 70%. The dropout rate between DTP-1 and DTP-3 has also decreased sharply from 7% in 2013 to just 2% in 2023. Measles vaccine coverage improved from 83% to 93% over the same period.
The government emphasized that comparisons with other countries must consider India’s massive population base. While countries like Yemen (1.68%), Sudan (1.45%), and Nigeria (0.98%) continue to report high proportions of zero-dose children, India’s 0.06% rate, despite a far larger birth cohort, reflects substantial progress.
Setting aside any thoughts I may have about theocratic rulers (whether they be in Tel Aviv or Tehran), I am personally glad that Iran was able to hold out against the US-Israeli attacks this month.
The ceasefire, however, will only be a pause in the long-running campaign to destabilise, weaken and isolate Iran. Regime change or pariah status are both acceptable outcomes for the US-Israeli dyad.
The good news for my region is that Iran’s resilience pushes back what could be a looming calamity: the US pivot to Asia and a heightened risk of a war on China.
There are three major pillars to the Eurasian order that is going through a slow, painful and violent birth. Iran is the weakest. If Iran falls, war in our region — intended or unintended – becomes vastly more likely.
Mainstream New Zealanders and Australians suffer from an understandable complacency: war is what happens to other, mainly darker people or Slavs.
“Tomorrow”, people in this part of the world naively think, “will always be like yesterday”.
That could change, particularly for the Australians, in the kind of unfamiliar flash-boom Israelis experienced this month following their attack on Iran. And here’s why.
US chooses war to re-shape Middle East Back in 2001, as many will recall, retired General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Commander of NATO forces in Europe, was visiting buddies in the Pentagon. He learnt something he wasn’t supposed to: the Bush administration had made plans in the febrile post 9/11 environment to attack seven Muslim countries.
In the firing line were: Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the Assad regime in Syria, Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon, Gaddafi’s Libya, Somalia, Sudan and the biggest prize of all — the Islamic Republic of Iran.
One would have to say that the project, pursued by successive presidents, both Democrat and Republican, has been a great success — if you discount the fact that a couple of million human beings, most of them civilians, many of them women and children, nearly all of them innocents, were slaughtered, starved to death or otherwise disposed of.
With the exception of Iran, those countries have endured chaos and civil strife for long painful years. A triumph of American bomb-based statecraft.
Now — with Muammar Gaddafi raped and murdered (“We came, we saw, he died”, Hillary Clinton chuckled on camera the same day), Saddam Hussein hanged, Hezbollah decapitated, Assad in Moscow, the genocide in full swing in Palestine — the US and Israel were finally able to turn their guns — or, rather, bombs — on the great prize: Iran.
Iran’s missiles have checked US-Israel for time being Things did not go to plan. Former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman pointed out this week that for the first time Israel got a taste of the medicine it likes to dispense to its neighbours.
Iran’s missiles successfully turned the much-vaunted Iron Dome into an Iron Sieve and, perhaps momentarily, has achieved deterrence. If Iran falls, the US will be able to do what Barack Obama and Joe Biden only salivated over — a serious pivot to Asia.
Could great power rivalry turn Asia-Pacific into powderkeg? For us in Asia-Pacific a major US pivot to Asia will mean soaring defence budgets to support militarisation, aggressive containment of China, provocative naval deployments, more sanctions, muscling smaller states, increased numbers of bases, new missile systems, info wars, threats and the ratcheting up rhetoric — all of which will bring us ever-closer to the powderkeg.
Sounds utterly mad? Sounds devoid of rationality? Lacking commonsense? Welcome to our world — bellum Americanum — as we gormlessly march flame in hand towards the tinderbox. War is not written in the stars, we can change tack and rediscover diplomacy, restraint, and peaceful coexistence. Or is that too much to ask?
Back in the days of George W Bush, radical American thinkers like Robert Kagan, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld created the Project for a New American Century and developed the policy, adopted by succeeding presidents, that promotes “the belief that America should seek to preserve and extend its position of global leadership by maintaining the preeminence of US military forces”.
It reconfirmed the neoconservative American dogma that no power should be allowed to rise in any region to become a regional hegemon; anything and everything necessary should be done to ensure continued American primacy, including the resort to war.
What has changed since those days are two crucial, epoch-making events: the re-emergence of Russia as a great power, albeit the weakest of the three, and the emergence of China as a genuine peer competitor to the USA. Professor John Mearsheimer’s insights are well worth studying on this topic.
The three pillars of multipolarity A new world order really is being born. As geopolitical thinkers like Professor Glenn Diesen point out, it will, if it is not killed in the cradle, replace the US unipolar world order that has existed since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Many countries are involved in its birthing, including major players like India and Brazil and all the countries that are part of BRICS. Three countries, however, are central to the project: Iran, Russia and, most importantly, China. All three are in the crosshairs of the Western empire.
If Iran, Russia and China survive as independent entities, they will partially fulfill Halford MacKinder’s early 20th century heartland theory that whoever dominates Eurasia will rule the world. I don’t think MacKinder, however, foresaw cooperative multipolarity on the Eurasian landmass — which is one of the goals of the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) – as an option.
That, increasingly, appears to be the most likely trajectory with multiple powerful states that will not accept domination, be that from China or the US. That alone should give us cause for hope.
Drunk on power since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US has launched war after war and brought us to the current abandonment of economic sanity (the sanctions-and-tariff global pandemic) and diplomatic normalcy (kill any peace negotiators you see) — and an anything-goes foreign policy (including massive crimes against humanity).
We have also reached — thanks in large part to these same policies — what a former US national security advisor warned must be avoided at all costs. Back in the 1990s, Zbigniew Brzezinski said, “The most dangerous scenario would be a grand coalition of China, Russia, and perhaps Iran.”
Belligerent and devoid of sound strategy, the Biden and Trump administrations have achieved just that.
Can Asia-Pacific avoid being dragged into an American war on China? Turning to our region, New Zealand and Australia’s governments cleave to yesterday: a white-dominated world led by the USA. We have shown ourselves indifferent to massacres, ethnic cleansing and wars of aggression launched by our team.
To avoid war — or a permanent fear of looming war — in our own backyards, we need to encourage sanity and diplomacy; we need to stay close to the US but step away from the military alliances they are forming, such as AUKUS which is aimed squarely at China.
Above all, our defence and foreign affairs elites need to grow new neural pathways and start to think with vision and not place ourselves on the losing side of history. Independent foreign policy settings based around peace, defence not aggression, diplomacy not militarisation, would take us in the right direction.
Personally I look forward to the day the US and its increasingly belligerent vassals are pushed back into the ranks of ordinary humanity. I fear the US far more than I do China.
Despite the reflexive adherence to the US that our leaders are stuck on, we should not, if we value our lives and our cultures, allow ourselves to be part of this mad, doomed project.
The US empire is heading into a blood-drenched sunset; their project will fail and the 500-year empire of the White West will end — starting and finishing with genocide.
Every day I atheistically pray that leaders or a movement will emerge to guide our antipodean countries out of the clutches of a violent and increasingly incoherent USA.
America is not our friend. China is not our enemy. Tomorrow gives birth to a world that we should look forward to and do the little we can to help shape.
Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
WASHINGTON, June 28 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would not rule out further strikes on Iran if it steps up its nuclear activities.
“Without a doubt. Absolutely,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
The US president also confirmed that his administration had abandoned its plan to ease sanctions on Iran.
Later on Friday, the U.S. Senate rejected a resolution that would have limited the president’s authority to take military action against Iran without congressional authorization. -0-
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
ISTANBUL, June 28 (Xinhua) — Flights between Turkey and Iran partially resumed on Friday after a 15-day suspension due to the Iran-Israel conflict, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdülkadir Uraloğlu said.
Flights from the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad to Istanbul operated by Iranian airlines will resume on Friday, he said. “This marks the partial resumption of air traffic between Turkey and Iran after a 15-day hiatus,” the official wrote on social media.
A. Uraloglu added that the airspace over Tehran and Tabriz, located in western Iran, will remain closed until July 2.
The minister noted that talks are underway with Iranian authorities to give Turkish planes stuck in the country special permission to return. “Efforts are ongoing to fully normalize flights with Iran and return grounded planes to Turkey as soon as possible,” he said.
Earlier, A. Uraloglu said that seven Turkish airline planes were stuck in Iran as a result of the closure of airspace.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported that the Islamic Republic had delayed the full opening of its airspace until Saturday afternoon.
Iran closed its airspace on June 13 as Israel launched airstrikes on Tehran and other areas. The two sides reached a ceasefire on Tuesday after 12 days of conflict. –0–
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Sharice Davids (KS-3)
“Protecting U.S. safety and security is my top priority, and I will be closely reviewing the intelligence on whether these actions effectively addressed the threat of Iran’s nuclear program. My respect is with all service members stationed around the world. But let me be clear, President Trump’s unilateral decision to launch military action against Iran without constitutionally-mandated congressional approval puts American troops and global stability at risk and threatens another endless war. The administration must immediately provide the American people with the answers they deserve and respect Congress’ constitutional authority over matters of war and peace.”
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on the Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released a statement following her vote on the War Powers Resolution related to future offensive attacks on Iran:
“As a strong pro-Israel Democrat, I remain hopeful that the mission U.S. servicemembers carried out last weekend will ultimately lead to the full dissolution of Iran’s nuclear facilities. I remain eternally grateful for our servicemembers’ bravery and service, and I’m particularly proud that most of the pilots involved in this mission are graduates of the Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
“A nuclear Iran is a threat to the United States, Israel, and the entire world, which is why we must ensure they can never acquire or develop a nuclear weapon. While I am thankful Israel was able to reach a ceasefire with Iran and am hopeful that we are able to proceed with a diplomatic solution, I will continue to back Israel should it need to respond to a break in the agreement. Similarly, if there are any attacks on U.S. personnel in the region, the United States will always defend itself.
“At the same time, the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war and authorize any offensive attacks on other sovereign nations. The decision to go to war and put our troops in harm’s way is one that cannot be made lightly, and must be made by Congress, which is why I voted today to advance the War Powers Resolution. Let’s be clear: nothing in this resolution would prevent the U.S. from defending our servicemembers or from continuing to provide Israel with the critical support and intelligence it needs. I’ll continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure Israel has the necessary resources to defend itself.”
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on the Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released a statement following her vote on the War Powers Resolution related to future offensive attacks on Iran:
“As a strong pro-Israel Democrat, I remain hopeful that the mission U.S. servicemembers carried out last weekend will ultimately lead to the full dissolution of Iran’s nuclear facilities. I remain eternally grateful for our servicemembers’ bravery and service, and I’m particularly proud that most of the pilots involved in this mission are graduates of the Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
“A nuclear Iran is a threat to the United States, Israel, and the entire world, which is why we must ensure they can never acquire or develop a nuclear weapon. While I am thankful Israel was able to reach a ceasefire with Iran and am hopeful that we are able to proceed with a diplomatic solution, I will continue to back Israel should it need to respond to a break in the agreement. Similarly, if there are any attacks on U.S. personnel in the region, the United States will always defend itself.
“At the same time, the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war and authorize any offensive attacks on other sovereign nations. The decision to go to war and put our troops in harm’s way is one that cannot be made lightly, and must be made by Congress, which is why I voted today to advance the War Powers Resolution. Let’s be clear: nothing in this resolution would prevent the U.S. from defending our servicemembers or from continuing to provide Israel with the critical support and intelligence it needs. I’ll continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure Israel has the necessary resources to defend itself.”
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on the Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released a statement following her vote on the War Powers Resolution related to future offensive attacks on Iran:
“As a strong pro-Israel Democrat, I remain hopeful that the mission U.S. servicemembers carried out last weekend will ultimately lead to the full dissolution of Iran’s nuclear facilities. I remain eternally grateful for our servicemembers’ bravery and service, and I’m particularly proud that most of the pilots involved in this mission are graduates of the Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
“A nuclear Iran is a threat to the United States, Israel, and the entire world, which is why we must ensure they can never acquire or develop a nuclear weapon. While I am thankful Israel was able to reach a ceasefire with Iran and am hopeful that we are able to proceed with a diplomatic solution, I will continue to back Israel should it need to respond to a break in the agreement. Similarly, if there are any attacks on U.S. personnel in the region, the United States will always defend itself.
“At the same time, the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war and authorize any offensive attacks on other sovereign nations. The decision to go to war and put our troops in harm’s way is one that cannot be made lightly, and must be made by Congress, which is why I voted today to advance the War Powers Resolution. Let’s be clear: nothing in this resolution would prevent the U.S. from defending our servicemembers or from continuing to provide Israel with the critical support and intelligence it needs. I’ll continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure Israel has the necessary resources to defend itself.”
Statement by the Secretary-General on the Signing of a Peace Agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda.
I welcome the signing of a peace agreement on 27 June in Washington, D.C., by the governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda, facilitated by the United States.
This Agreement is a significant step towards de-escalation, peace and stability in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes region. I commend the United States for its leadership in facilitating this process, in coordination with the State of Qatar and the African Union Mediator, his Excellency, Faure Gnassingbé of Togo. I acknowledge the contributions of the five co-facilitators designated by the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community.
I urge the parties to honour in full the commitments they have undertaken in the Peace Agreement and pursuant to Security Council resolution 2773 (2025), including the cessation of hostilities and all other agreed measures.
The United Nations, including through the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, remains fully committed to supporting the implementation of the agreement, in close coordination with the African Union, regional and international partners.
***
Déclaration du Secrétaire général à l’occasion de la signature de l’Accord de paix entre la République démocratique du Congo et la République du Rwanda
Je salue la signature le 27 juin à Washington, D.C., d’un accord de paix entre les gouvernements de la République démocratique du Congo et de la République du Rwanda, facilitée par les États-Unis. Cet accord constitue une étape importante vers la désescalade, la paix et la stabilité dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo et dans la région des Grands Lacs. Je félicite les États-Unis pour leur rôle de chef de file dans la facilitation de ce processus, en coordination avec l’État du Qatar et le Médiateur de l’Union africaine, Son Excellence Faure Gnassingbé du Togo. Je salue les contributions des cinq co-facilitateurs désignés par la Communauté d’Afrique de l’Est et la Communauté de développement de l’Afrique australe.
J’exhorte les parties à respecter pleinement les engagements qu’elles ont pris dans le cadre de l’Accord de paix et conformément à la résolution 2773 (2025) du Conseil de sécurité, y compris le cessez-le-feu et l’ensemble des autres mesures convenues.
Les Nations Unies, y compris par l’intermédiaire de la Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en République démocratique du Congo, restent pleinement engagées à soutenir la mise en œuvre de l’accord, en étroite coordination avec l’Union africaine, les partenaires régionaux et internationaux.
Statement by the Secretary-General on the Signing of a Peace Agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda.
I welcome the signing of a peace agreement on 27 June in Washington, D.C., by the governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda, facilitated by the United States.
This Agreement is a significant step towards de-escalation, peace and stability in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes region. I commend the United States for its leadership in facilitating this process, in coordination with the State of Qatar and the African Union Mediator, his Excellency, Faure Gnassingbé of Togo. I acknowledge the contributions of the five co-facilitators designated by the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community.
I urge the parties to honour in full the commitments they have undertaken in the Peace Agreement and pursuant to Security Council resolution 2773 (2025), including the cessation of hostilities and all other agreed measures.
The United Nations, including through the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, remains fully committed to supporting the implementation of the agreement, in close coordination with the African Union, regional and international partners.
***
Déclaration du Secrétaire général à l’occasion de la signature de l’Accord de paix entre la République démocratique du Congo et la République du Rwanda
Je salue la signature le 27 juin à Washington, D.C., d’un accord de paix entre les gouvernements de la République démocratique du Congo et de la République du Rwanda, facilitée par les États-Unis. Cet accord constitue une étape importante vers la désescalade, la paix et la stabilité dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo et dans la région des Grands Lacs. Je félicite les États-Unis pour leur rôle de chef de file dans la facilitation de ce processus, en coordination avec l’État du Qatar et le Médiateur de l’Union africaine, Son Excellence Faure Gnassingbé du Togo. Je salue les contributions des cinq co-facilitateurs désignés par la Communauté d’Afrique de l’Est et la Communauté de développement de l’Afrique australe.
J’exhorte les parties à respecter pleinement les engagements qu’elles ont pris dans le cadre de l’Accord de paix et conformément à la résolution 2773 (2025) du Conseil de sécurité, y compris le cessez-le-feu et l’ensemble des autres mesures convenues.
Les Nations Unies, y compris par l’intermédiaire de la Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en République démocratique du Congo, restent pleinement engagées à soutenir la mise en œuvre de l’accord, en étroite coordination avec l’Union africaine, les partenaires régionaux et internationaux.
Source: United States Senator for Nevada Cortez Masto
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) issued the following statement after voting in support of Senator Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) war powers resolution to limit the Trump Administration’s ability to take further military action against Iran without a debate and a vote in Congress.
“Iran must never have a nuclear weapon, and I am eager to continue working with my colleagues to protect our service members in the Middle East, support Israel, get Iran back to the negotiating table, and keep Americans and our allies safe. As with any decision that could put U.S. troops in harm’s way or pull us into a serious international conflict, President Trump should be working with Congress. We have a legal critical role to play and I will not abdicate that responsibility to anyone.”
Senator Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) war powers resolution has bipartisan support in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate and would require any further hostilities with Iran be explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force. It does not prevent the United States from defending itself from imminent attack or supporting Israel’s efforts to defend itself from Iranian aggression.
Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
ICYMI:Senator Murray Statement on Trump Strikes on Iran
Washington, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement after voting for S.J.Res.59, a joint resolution introduced by U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) to terminate hostilities against Iran unless Congress passes a declaration of war or an authorization for use of military force (AUMF). The resolution does not constrain the President’s authority to defend U.S. troops or come to the aid of Israel if attacked.
“Tonight, I voted for Senator Kaine’s War Powers Resolution that would ensure President Trump does not start a war with Iran that Congress did not authorize and the American people do not want. This resolution reiterates that President Trump, just like any president, must come to Congress to approve the use of military force—he cannot unilaterally declare war on Iran over the objections of Congress and the American people.
“I left yesterday’s classified briefing with many unanswered questions about President Trump’s strikes on Iran, the path forward, and importantly, whether this administration is intentionally misleading the public about the success of its unauthorized operation. Congress needs to know the strategy and the end game here—and this administration must provide the answers necessary for us to exercise our constitutional oversight responsibilities.
“I will continue to demand answers from this administration and speak up on behalf of my constituents in Washington state, who do not want to be dragged into another forever war.”
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (L) speaks to the press outside the Security Council Chamber at the UN headquarters in New York, on June 27, 2025. Guterres on Friday called for a ceasefire in Gaza following the suspension of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. [Photo by William Reilly/Xinhua]
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for a ceasefire in Gaza following the suspension of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran.
The conflict between Israel and Iran has dominated headlines, but the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza must not be pushed into the shadows, said Guterres. “The ceasefire achieved between Iran and Israel offers hope. And hope is more needed than ever. So it is time to find the political courage for a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas, Israeli military operations have created a humanitarian crisis of horrific proportions — more dire today than at any point in this long and brutal crisis, he told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.
Families have been displaced again and again, and are now confined to less than one-fifth of Gaza’s land. And even these shrinking spaces are under threat. Bombs are falling — on tents, on families, on those with nowhere left to run. People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families, he noted.
“Let me be clear: Israel, as the occupying power, is required by international law to agree to and to facilitate humanitarian relief,” he said, noting that UN-led humanitarian operations continue to be strangled.
For over three months, shelter materials and fuel for critical services have been blocked. Doctors are forced to choose who gets the last vial of medicine, or the last ventilator. Aid workers themselves are starving, he said. “This cannot be normalized.”
A handful of medical supplies finally crossed into Gaza earlier this week — the first from the United Nations in months. But this only underscores the vast scale of the crisis. A trickle of aid is not enough, he said. “What’s needed now is a surge — the trickle must become an ocean. We need concrete actions so aid can reach all people — swiftly, at scale, wherever they are.”
He cautioned that any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe, referring to the aid operations of the U.S.-run, Israel-approved Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. “It is killing people.”
The problem of the distribution of humanitarian aid must be solved. There is no need to reinvent the wheel with dangerous schemes, he said. “We (the United Nations) have the solution — a detailed plan grounded in the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. We have the supplies. We have the experience. Our plan is guided by what people need. It is built on the trust of communities, donors and member states. And it worked during the last ceasefire. It must be allowed to work again.”
It is time for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and full, safe and sustained humanitarian access, he said.
“To those in power, I say: enable our operations as international humanitarian law demands. To those with influence, I say: use it. To all member states, I say: uphold the UN Charter you recommitted to just yesterday for the 80th anniversary,” said Guterres. “Let us bring in the life-saving supplies. Let us reach people where they are. And let us recognize that the solution to this problem is ultimately political.”
The only sustainable path to re-establishing hope is by paving the way to the two-state solution. Diplomacy and human dignity for all must prevail, he said.
Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy
[embedded content]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Friday spoke on the Senate floor ahead of a vote to enforce the War Powers Act, prohibiting the use of military force against Iran without authorization by Congress or an imminent threat to the United States.
“Our Founding Fathers didn’t get everything right. They didn’t see ahead of time that this chamber would be divided in two, Republicans on one side, Democrats on the other side, but they knew, having watched the course of human history, that executives in their day, mostly all monarchs and kings, had all sorts of reason to drag their nation into war. Power often came from war. The funding that could be raised for war, the loyalty commanded by war, the glory that occasionally came to the leader, the ruler, through war and through conquest,” Murphy said.
He continued: “And so this part of the Constitution with more wisdom in it than any other part of the Constitution, according to James Madison, is this section of our founding document that says it is not up to the ruler. It is not up to the executive branch. It is up to the branch of government most connected to the people to decide whether we go to war, to require that there be a debate, a conversation that involves everyone in this nation, that requires, that necessitates a collective decision as to whether to put the brave soldiers of this country and the collective security of the nation at risk.”
On last weekend’s strikes on Iran, Murphy said: “[I]n the case of the hostilities against Iran that the President began last weekend, there was no imminent threat against the United States. There was no army marching on this nation. There was no nuclear bomb that even existed that could be dropped on the United States or our soldiers in the region. And so, it was required, it is required, under the Constitution that the president come to Congress if the president doesn’t need to come to Congress to attack another nation preemptively, preventatively, absent an imminent threat, then that provision of the Constitution is dead letter, period, stop.”
Murphy concluded: “Senator Kaine’s resolution is so important because that’s the debate that we should be having. That’s the argument that we should be having in public. That debate over the wisdom of dropping bombs in a far-off land that could put our troops at risk, that could drag us into a war. That’s not a debate that the Founding Fathers thought that should take place behind closed doors, at the Department of Defense, at the CIA, in the White House. That’s actually the debate that they thought that this body should have, the United States Senate, that the House of Representatives should have, and that’s the chance that we have today to bring that debate out of the shadows, out of the secret to the place where the Founding Fathers thought it should exist. And that’s why I urge my colleagues to support Senator Kaine’s resolution.”
A full transcript of Murphy’s comments is available below.
“Mr. President, in a 1793 letter to William Cabell Reeves, James Madison said this. He said, ‘In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature and not to the executive department.’
“A few years later, in another letter, this time to Thomas Jefferson as part of their famous correspondence, Madison expounded on that very simple superlative, naming the War Powers clause in the Constitution as the most important. He said, ‘The Constitution supposes what the history of all governments demonstrates. That the executive is the branch of power most interested in war and most prone to it. It has accordingly, with studied care, vested the question of war in the legislature.’
“Our Founding Fathers didn’t get everything right. They didn’t see ahead of time that this chamber would be divided in two, Republicans on one side, Democrats on the other side, but they knew, having watched the course of human history, that executives in their day, mostly all monarchs and kings, had all sorts of reason to drag their nation into war. Power often came from war. The funding that could be raised for war, the loyalty commanded by war, the glory that occasionally came to the leader, the ruler, through war and through conquest.
“There was great risk in war, but there was also great reward in war, and there was far too much of it in the era in which our Constitution was being formed. The purpose of the founders was to give the American people a voice in government, a revolutionary idea at the time, but it was also to order our government in a way that war would become less likely, would become less frequent. They imagined a world, this new America, in which peace would be the rule, not war, as it was at the time for the citizens of Europe who lived under the rule of kings, prone to war, incentivized to war as James Madison wrote to Thomas Jefferson.
“And so this part of the Constitution with more wisdom in it than any other part of the Constitution, according to James Madison, is this section of our founding document that says it is not up to the ruler. It is not up to the executive branch. It is up to the branch of government most connected to the people to decide whether we go to war, to require that there be a debate, a conversation that involves everyone in this nation, that requires, that necessitates a collective decision as to whether to put the brave soldiers of this country and the collective security of the nation at risk.
“And so, we are here today because we still find wisdom in that clause of the Constitution. We still see great risk in moving into a world which we are quickly moving to, in which that clause that James Madison named as the supreme clause of the Constitution is dead letter, is dead letter. And that is the risk, because there are very few wars that are so planned so far in advance that there is time to come and have a month-long debate. Wars happen quickly, and they necessitate quick action according to the Constitution.
“Yes, we have always accepted that there has to be an exception, but a limited exception, to that supreme clause in the Constitution. If there is an imminent attack against the United States, of course, of course, the people of the United States want the ability of the President United States to respond to that imminent attack. But in the absence of an imminent attack, there is no exception. There is no ability to go around Congress.
“And in the case of the hostilities against Iran that the President began last weekend, there was no imminent threat against the United States. There was no army marching on this nation. There was no nuclear bomb that even existed that could be dropped on the United States or our soldiers in the region. And so, it was required, it is required, under the Constitution that the president come to Congress if the President doesn’t need to come to Congress to attack another nation preemptively, preventatively, absent an imminent threat, then that provision of the Constitution is dead letter, period, stop.
“And the most important piece of this document, according to our most revered Founding Father, is no longer operational. And if we lurch into a world in which any executive can send us to war without the participation of the American people, then we are in a world that our Founding Fathers could never have imagined.
“So, I’m very glad to be on the floor today as a big fan of the wisdom of our founders to support Senator Kaine’s resolution, and I appreciate his consistency in bringing this question before us. I don’t want to live in a world in which the greatest question that this country could envision, whether or not we send our brave men and women to fight on our behalf, is not a question that doesn’t involve the collective conversation of this body and of the people of this nation.
“So, I think it’s an important resolution to debate here, and I hope my colleagues will support. It doesn’t really have to do with whether you think there is wisdom in this action or not, whether you think the President was right or wrong. This is an opportunity for us to stand up for our responsibility under the Constitution to be a co-equal branch in setting foreign policy.
“I have my thoughts on the wisdom of this action. I’ve stated that I think it’s very dangerous when the President of the United States deliberately misleads the country about the efficacy of our military operations overseas or the threats presented to this country. It’s unforgivable any time a president doesn’t tell the truth, but it is especially unforgivable when the President doesn’t tell the truth about national security intelligence.
“I know my colleagues here come to different conclusions, but if the reporting is correct that Iran, even after these strikes, still has centrifuges and still has enriched uranium and still has scientists who know how to put those things together, then it just is not true that the program has been obliterated. That is a program that can be reconstituted in a relatively short amount of time, because, of course, knowledge is not able to be destroyed by bombs. The only way that you are going to make this country and this world safe from Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions, and they have them, is diplomacy.
“I hope that diplomacy got easier because of these strikes, but I don’t think they did. I don’t think diplomacy got closer because of these strikes, and whatever follow-on strikes may come as President Trump is currently threatening. And so, if diplomacy is the only path, if you can’t bomb out of existence knowledge, then I don’t think this is a very good week for American national security.
“But I come to a different conclusion than many of my Republican colleagues do, even some of my Democratic colleagues, but Senator Kaine’s resolution is so important because that’s the debate that we should be having. That’s the argument that we should be having in public. That debate over the wisdom of dropping bombs in a far-off land that could put our troops at risk, that could drag us into a war. That’s not a debate that the Founding Fathers thought that should take place behind closed doors, at the Department of Defense, at the CIA, in the White House.
“That’s actually the debate that they thought that this body should have, the United States Senate, that the House of Representatives should have, and that’s the chance that we have today to bring that debate out of the shadows, out of the secret to the place where the Founding Fathers thought it should exist. And that’s why I urge my colleagues to support Senator Kaine’s resolution. I yield the floor.”
Source: United States Senator for Alaska Lisa Murkowski
06.27.25
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) issued the following statement after her vote on Senate Joint Resolution 59.
“Yesterday, Congress received a detailed briefing on last weekend’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities from CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine. They made it clear that these actions were a limited, time-sensitive response to what was judged, based on intelligence, to be an imminent threat to regional stability and U.S. personnel, as required under the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
“We received confirmation that these strikes were solely focused on disabling Iran’s nuclear capabilities. While damage estimates are still forthcoming, it is believed that the strikes were largely successful in that effort. The use of force was narrowly targeted in scope and duration.
“I am satisfied that the President’s actions were justified and within his scope of authority under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which is why I voted against this War Powers Resolution. I hope this vote sends a clear message that the world will not allow Iran to become a nuclear-armed nation and provides the President with the necessary flexibility to negotiate a long and lasting peace in the region.
“If a larger offensive military operation is ever deemed necessary in the future, only Congress holds authority under the U.S. Constitution to declare war. I’m hopeful that the fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel, negotiated by President Trump, will hold and keep America and our allies safe.
“I want to again commend the professionalism and skill of the U.S. military in executing these strikes. Their actions were truly extraordinary and showcased to the international community what U.S. deterrence looks like.”
Source: United States Senator for Iowa Chuck Grassley
Q: What border security measures did you lead in the Senate budget bill?
A: As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I included significant upgrades for border security in the Senate’s budget bill that address the disastrous open border policies of the Biden-Harris administration. During the previous administration, more than 10 million illegal immigrants from countries around the world poured across our nation’s southern border, including violent criminals and potential terrorists. The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General earlier this month confirmed the Biden-Harris administration failed to properly vet all Afghan evacuees, encountering at least 55 individuals with hits on the terrorist screening database. Last fall, the FBI arrested an Afghan national for plotting a terror attack on U.S. soil after gaining entry on a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV). Following Operation Midnight Hammer on June 22 that struck three of Iran’s nuclear sites, tensions between Iran and the United States underscore the real and present danger of an open border policy. Just consider, of more than 1,500 Iranian nationals who were encountered at the southern border crossing illegally into the U.S. during the previous administration, nearly half were released into the country. The potential for Iranian sleeper cells on the ground here in the United States is a reckless consequence of the Biden-Harris open border policies. The Trump administration is coordinating among federal agencies to address this risk.
As the Senate hammered out the details for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, I led historic investments in the nation’s immigration system to support law enforcement and give frontline immigration enforcement officials the tools they need to secure the border. Specifically, the legislation would boost funding for immigration agencies; reimburse states who pitched in to protect the U.S. border during the Biden-Harris administration; expand resources for law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line to protect public safety; and bring fiscal accountability into the immigration system by raising fees to offset enforcement costs.
Q: How did open border policies impact the safety of law enforcement personnel?
A: Plain and simple, the foolish border policies under the Biden White House unleashed an unmanageable mess at the southern border. The border crisis overwhelmed law enforcement and immigration officials and empowered dangerous Mexican drug cartels to ramp up their human smuggling and drug trafficking networks. In June, I convened a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to shed light on law enforcement’s ongoing work to combat cartels and regain a foothold at the border to protect American lives and restore U.S. sovereignty. Officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations testified about their experiences enforcing the law and investigating crimes at the border, including being surveilled and targeted by the drug cartels. Our bill includes more resources for the Department of Justice to combat the flow of deadly drugs like fentanyl that have devastated too many families.
As a strong supporter of the men and women who serve on the thin blue line, I pushed to boost funding for the Byrne JAG and Community Policing Services (COPS) to support boots-on-the-ground efforts to combat violent crime in local communities. My oversight work has exposed critical gaps in the Bureau of Prisons. After hearing from law enforcement, I worked to boost funding to address staff shortages and capital improvements to upgrade deteriorating detention facilities. The bill also beefs up recruitment and training tools for the U.S. Secret Service in the wake of two assassination attempts against President Trump. The Senate bill responds to the mandate of the last election. The electorate voted for the America First agenda, and that includes reclaiming our sovereignty and rule of law at our borders to keep Americans safe.
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on June 28, 2025.
Israeli soldiers ‘ordered’ to fire at Gaza aid seekers – 70 killed across Strip Israeli soldiers have said that they were ordered to open fire at unarmed Palestinian civilians desperately seeking aid at designated distribution sites in Gaza, a report in the Ha’aretz newspaper has revealed. The report came as 70 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip — mostly at aid sites belonging to the widely condemned Gaza
RFK Junior is stoking fears about vaccine safety. Here’s why he’s wrong – and the impact it could have Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Leask, Professor, School of Public Health, University of Sydney The United States used to be a leader in vaccine research, development and policymaking. Now US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr is undermining the country’s vaccine program at the highest level and supercharging vaccine skepticism.
The ‘Godfather of Human Rights’ Ken Roth on genocide, Trump and standing up for democracy By Richard Larsen, RNZ News producer — 30′ with Guyon Espiner The former head of Human Rights Watch — and son of a Holocaust survivor — says Israel’s military campaign in Gaza will likely meet the legal definition of genocide, citing large-scale killings, the targeting of civilians, and the words of senior Israeli officials. Speaking
The sentencing of Cassius Turvey’s killers shows courts still struggle to deal with racism Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people. The brutal homicide of 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, Cassius Turvey, by a group of white men revealed the racial schisms in
Celebrities, blue jeans and couture: how Anna Wintour changed fashion over 37 years at Vogue Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jye Marshall, Lecturer, Fashion Design, School of Design and Architecture, Swinburne University of Technology After 37 years at the helm, fashion industry heavyweight Anna Wintour is stepping down from her position as editor-in-chief of American Vogue. It’s not a retirement, though, as Wintour will maintain a leadership
Antoinette Lattouf win against ABC a victory for all truth-tellers By Isaac Nellist of Green Left Magazine Australian-Lebanese journalist and commentator Antoinette Lattouf’s unfair dismissal case win against the public broadcaster ABC in the Federal Court on Wednesday is a victory for all those who seek to tell the truth. It is a breath of fresh air, after almost two years of lies and uncritical
Caitlin Johnstone: The fictional mental illness that only affects enemies of the Western empire Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone Within the storytelling of Western politics and punditry there exists a fictional type of mental illness which only affects people the US empire doesn’t like. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, its crazy lunatic government will flip out and nuke us all.
Do all Iranians hate the regime? Hate America? Life inside the country is much more complex and nuanced Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Theobald, Postdoctoral researcher, Institute for Ethics and Society, University of Notre Dame Australia From 2015 to 2018, I spent 15 months doing research work in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city. As an anthropologist, I was interested in everyday life in Iran outside the capital Tehran. I was
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on June 28, 2025.
Israeli soldiers ‘ordered’ to fire at Gaza aid seekers – 70 killed across Strip Israeli soldiers have said that they were ordered to open fire at unarmed Palestinian civilians desperately seeking aid at designated distribution sites in Gaza, a report in the Ha’aretz newspaper has revealed. The report came as 70 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip — mostly at aid sites belonging to the widely condemned Gaza
RFK Junior is stoking fears about vaccine safety. Here’s why he’s wrong – and the impact it could have Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Leask, Professor, School of Public Health, University of Sydney The United States used to be a leader in vaccine research, development and policymaking. Now US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr is undermining the country’s vaccine program at the highest level and supercharging vaccine skepticism.
The ‘Godfather of Human Rights’ Ken Roth on genocide, Trump and standing up for democracy By Richard Larsen, RNZ News producer — 30′ with Guyon Espiner The former head of Human Rights Watch — and son of a Holocaust survivor — says Israel’s military campaign in Gaza will likely meet the legal definition of genocide, citing large-scale killings, the targeting of civilians, and the words of senior Israeli officials. Speaking
The sentencing of Cassius Turvey’s killers shows courts still struggle to deal with racism Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people. The brutal homicide of 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, Cassius Turvey, by a group of white men revealed the racial schisms in
Celebrities, blue jeans and couture: how Anna Wintour changed fashion over 37 years at Vogue Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jye Marshall, Lecturer, Fashion Design, School of Design and Architecture, Swinburne University of Technology After 37 years at the helm, fashion industry heavyweight Anna Wintour is stepping down from her position as editor-in-chief of American Vogue. It’s not a retirement, though, as Wintour will maintain a leadership
Antoinette Lattouf win against ABC a victory for all truth-tellers By Isaac Nellist of Green Left Magazine Australian-Lebanese journalist and commentator Antoinette Lattouf’s unfair dismissal case win against the public broadcaster ABC in the Federal Court on Wednesday is a victory for all those who seek to tell the truth. It is a breath of fresh air, after almost two years of lies and uncritical
Caitlin Johnstone: The fictional mental illness that only affects enemies of the Western empire Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone Within the storytelling of Western politics and punditry there exists a fictional type of mental illness which only affects people the US empire doesn’t like. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, its crazy lunatic government will flip out and nuke us all.
Do all Iranians hate the regime? Hate America? Life inside the country is much more complex and nuanced Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Theobald, Postdoctoral researcher, Institute for Ethics and Society, University of Notre Dame Australia From 2015 to 2018, I spent 15 months doing research work in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city. As an anthropologist, I was interested in everyday life in Iran outside the capital Tehran. I was
