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Firefighting teams attempt to extinguish a fire at the Zawiya oil refinery, the second-largest in Libya, with a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day on Tuesday.…
A former Thai MP Monday shot dead a local government official in broad daylight over a financial dispute before being arrested and confessing to journalists at the police station.The attack took place outside a government building in Nonthaburi province, north of Bangkok, just days after a school shooting in the same region that raised questions over gun control in Thailand.Flanked by police officers following his arrest, former MP Chalong Riewrang told reporters he had tried to talk to local official Thongchai Yenprasert about money. “I followed him to his car and hit his car’s window, saying I want to talk. He said he will not talk, so I pulled my gun,” Chalong admitted, handcuff-free and smoking a cigarette. “I did not aim to shoot, but his driver pulled a gun and pointed it at me so I fired.”Thongchai, who was chairman of the Nonthaburi local government administration, later died of his wounds, according to a hospital director, Sakon Sukprom. He was hit in the neck and lost a lot of blood, the director said. Thongchai’s driver was also shot, wounded in his right arm, but he successfully underwent surgery, Sakon said.Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters that no one in Thailand except on-duty officials was legally allowed to carry a gun in public, noting the last gun-carry licences were issued three years ago and were only valid for one year. Anutin said authorities will pursue “full legal action” against Chalong, a former member of the prime minister’s party. “No matter who he is, he is now a murderer,” Anutin said.Chalong had confessed to being the sole shooter during the incident, but “both sides had guns”, regional police commander Wattana Yeechin told reporters earlier. A firearm was found in Thongchai’s vehicle but had not been used, while CCTV footage showed only Chalong firing his weapon from close range, he added.Wattana said the dispute was over several million baht (tens of thousands of dollars). “It was a private issue. According to his confession, it was about money that the… chairman borrowed from him for several years, and he asked for the return of the money several times,” he said.Nonthaburi governor Chestha Mosikarat earlier told reporters the suspect and victim were “friends for a long time” and the incident likely stemmed from a misunderstanding.Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region, with around 10mn firearms estimated to be in circulation — roughly one for every seven inhabitants.On Friday, a 14-year-old boy shot dead the grandparents who raised him in Nonthaburi before killing six others at his school and then turning the gun on himself. Officials have since promised stricter gun laws, but previous pledges have failed to prevent repeated shootings. Related Story Source link
On Friday, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan signed a trilateral collective-defence agreement that treats an armed attack against any one of the three states as an attack against all, establishing a new security framework spanning the Arabian Peninsula, South Asia and the eastern Mediterranean.The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement was signed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence and expand defence co-operation across multiple military domains.The pact follows the Saudi-Pakistan Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement signed in 2025 and provides for closer co-operation in areas including military readiness, training, intelligence, logistics, counterterrorism and defence industry. Its language, however, does not specify an automatic military response or the force contributions that would be required in the event of an attack.Officials from the three countries have described the arrangement as defensive and said it is not directed against a particular state. They have also rejected suggestions that it is intended to form a sectarian bloc or trigger a regional arms race.The agreement brings together three militaries with markedly different strengths.Pakistan contributes the largest standing force in the grouping, with approximately 660,000 active personnel, more than 2,500 main battle tanks and more than 420 combat-capable aircraft, including JF-17, F-16 and J-10C fleets. Its navy operates a growing submarine force, assessed at about eight boats, while the country retains extensive experience in high-intensity operations and in training and advising Gulf armed forces.Pakistan is also the only nuclear-armed member of the arrangement. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates that its nuclear stockpile remained at approximately 170 warheads as of January 2026, although Islamabad continues to develop delivery systems and fissile-material production capacity.Saudi Arabia provides the grouping’s principal financial and procurement base. Riyadh’s defence expenditure is estimated at about $88bn, while its armed forces include roughly 250,000–257,000 active personnel, a modernising armoured force and an air arm centred on the F-15 family.The kingdom also brings substantial strategic geography. Its territory covers approximately 2.15mn sq km and contains energy infrastructure of global importance, as well as the Islamic holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. Saudi financial resources could support joint procurement, industrial partnerships, basing infrastructure and sustainment programmes.Türkiye contributes the grouping’s largest indigenous defence-industrial ecosystem and its strongest naval capability. Its armed forces include approximately 355,000 active personnel, around 2,200–2,300 tanks, about 300 combat aircraft and 12–13 submarines, although figures vary according to whether reserve, paramilitary and legacy equipment are included.An established Nato member, Türkiye also offers experience in alliance-standard interoperability and expeditionary operations. Its defence sector produces unmanned aircraft, missiles, naval platforms and electronic-warfare systems, while programmes such as the KAAN fighter are intended to expand national design and production capacity.Aggregate scaleOn commonly used 2026 open-source estimates, the three states together field:About 1.27mn active military personnel.Approximately 5,800 main battle tanks.About 14,000 armoured fighting vehicles and other armoured platforms.Between 1,000 and 1,150 combat aircraft, within a total military-aircraft inventory of roughly 3,350.Approximately 20–21 submarines, all operated by Türkiye and Pakistan.A combined land area of about 3.7–3.8mn sq km.A nominal combined gross domestic product of roughly $3.5tn, based on 2026-style IMF estimates.(The figures should be treated as indicative rather than definitive. Open-source inventories differ over the status of stored, reserve and legacy equipment, while aircraft totals can change substantially depending on whether trainers and light-attack platforms are counted). The distribution of capability is uneven. Saudi Arabia dominates in defence spending and access to advanced foreign procurement; Pakistan provides manpower, operational depth and the grouping’s nuclear dimension; and Türkiye supplies much of the industrial and naval capacity. The three countries’ munitions stocks and wartime logistics remain undisclosed.The agreement’s immediate value is likely to lie less in the creation of a fully integrated military command than in deterrence signalling, industrial co-operation and the gradual development of interoperability.Joint exercises, common communications procedures, intelligence-sharing arrangements, shared logistics and co-production could improve the sustainability of operations over time. Saudi financing, Turkish manufacturing and Pakistani operational experience offer a potentially complementary basis for such projects.The practical limits are equally clear. The signatories operate across widely separated theatres and retain different defence relationships, command structures and procurement standards. Converting numerical strength into a credible collective response would require political agreement under pressure, pre-planned reinforcement routes, compatible command-and-control systems and assured access to ammunition and spare parts.The pact should therefore be regarded as a strategic framework rather than an established military alliance in the Nato model.Türkiye’s possible return to the F-35 programme remains unresolved following its acquisition of Russia’s S-400 air-defence system. Saudi Arabia has also shown longstanding interest in advanced Western combat aircraft, but there is no confirmed imminent F-35 delivery to either country. These issues underscore the extent to which the three states will continue to depend on separate procurement channels even as they seek closer defence co-operation.The Makkah agreement gives its members a broader platform for collective deterrence. Its long-term significance will depend on whether the political commitment announced in Makkah produces deployable capabilities, rather than remaining primarily a diplomatic and strategic signal. Related Story Source link
India has opened the door for charging merchant fees for using the vast digital payments system central to its economy, used by nearly 555mn people to transfer trillions of dollars. Legislation, passed yesterday by the parliament’s upper house, paves the way to change its zero-fee model, with the government saying it could help pay for improving the infrastructure and bolstering cybersecurity.The government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is the backbone of how the world’s most populous country processes digital payments done through smartphones. UPI has rapidly grown in scale since its 2016 launch, with transaction volumes rising fivefold in the past five years — to 241bn payments worth about $3.3tn in the last fiscal year, according to finance ministry figures. The system, which allows payments to be sent across participating apps and banks, is “the largest real-time payment system in the world by volume” according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), processing more transactions than Visa or Mastercard does globally. The bill by itself does not impose fees — but provides a legal framework for banks and payment processors to allow charges on UPI transactions by businesses.“It will support the banks and fintech to invest more on infrastructure, innovation and security,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, after it was passed by the lower house last week. On Monday, Sitharaman told the upper house that the bill “does not impose any tax or transaction charge on UPI users”, reassuring that it will only be applied to large merchants for transactions above a certain threshold. “The enabling provision that we are bringing in today does not impose any tax or transaction charge,” she added. The vast majority of transactions are small-ticket transfers below 2,000 rupees ($21), according to industry figures. India’s government has heavily promoted the system since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s currency purge in 2016. This includes $1bn in subsidies over 2021-25, according to industry figures, and encouraging small businesses to adopt UPI.India’s payments industry lobby has argued that smaller stores should remain exempt and that fees should only be levied on merchants of larger businesses in sectors such as aviation, e-commerce or food delivery. The UPI model has also been exported, operating in at least eight countries, including neighbouring Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, as well as the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, France and Qatar. India has signed agreements with more than 20 other countries for cooperation on its UPI system. UPI is operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a not-for-profit company under the Reserve Bank of India and the banking industry. Source link
US President Donald Trump said on Monday it would be “a terrible mistake” to replace Gianni Infantino, the embattled FIFA president who tried, and failed, to sell off part of the World Cup to private investors. Infantino came under renewed fire in an open letter signed by three confederations — Europe’s UEFA, North and Central America’s CONCACAF and Asia’s AFC — accusing the world football boss of breaking trust “through deception”.But Trump backed Infantino, who awarded the US president a “FIFA Peace Prize” at the World Cup draw ceremony last year. “FIFA would be making a terrible mistake if, for any reason, they even considered replacing President Gianni Infantino,” Trump posted on Truth Social.Trump called Infantino “fantastic” and said he “presided over the most successful World Cup, by four times, ever presented”. “If he is gone, it will never be as successful or profitable again!” added Trump, who attended the World Cup final with Infantino last month.Trump’s backing of Infantino is at odds with US Soccer, who joined the voices lining up against the FIFA president. Infantino launched, and then withdrew in the face of scathing criticism, a plan to bring private investment into FIFA competitions, including World Cups.FIFA hit back on Saturday at efforts “to undermine” football’s governing body and Infantino. However, Monday’s joint letter from UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC retorted: “Leadership in football is not a possession. It is not about holding — or demanding — power to be held.”When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.” Source link
The scramble for protective glasses has reached fever pitch across Europe ahead of Wednesday’s rare total solar eclipse, as pharmacies, opticians and other shops struggle to keep them in stock.In Spain, where parts of the country will be in the path of totality, finding certified protective glasses has become increasingly difficult, with many distribution points reporting they have run out.A notice posted at the entrance of Madrid’s National Museum of Natural Sciences said its supply of protective glasses was exhausted.The museum was among 30 science institutions across the country taking part in a campaign organised by the government to distribute two million pairs of glasses for free.Some pharmacies in central Madrid still had supplies Tuesday, generally selling certified glasses for safely viewing the Sun for between three and four euros ($4.60) a pair.But Carles Sisquella, who runs an optical shop in Barcelona, said his store had been out of stock for 10 days.”There are now a lot of people who obviously won’t be able to get glasses,” he said.Doctors warn that looking directly at the Sun during a solar eclipse can damage the retina, potentially harming the cells responsible for sharp central vision. Source link
Dozens of Indonesian schools were shuttered for a second day Tuesday to protect against the spreading haze from wildfires at the start of a long and intense dry season worsened by El Nino.On the island of Borneo, the mayor of the city of Pontianak ordered schools closed due to the smoke wafting over the city from fires elsewhere.Public records show there are tens of thousands of public school pupils in the city, which is in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province. Indonesia shares the island of Borneo with Malaysia and Brunei.Children will learn from home for as long as the air quality remains poor, mayor Edi Rusdi Kamtono said in a statement Monday, without stating how many schools were affected. “We have started to feel it, especially at night and in the morning, as haze has already blanketed the city of Pontianak,” he said.The haze also affected Malaysia. The air pollution index for Malaysia’s small eastern town of Serian, Sarawak, showed an “unhealthy” level of 190 on Tuesday. The Malaysian Meteorological Department urged locals to stay indoors, with director-general Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip blaming a “cross-border haze phenomenon from Kalimantan.”In 2015, schools in Malaysia were ordered to close for two days because of health concerns caused by severe haze from Indonesian fires. Source link
US President Donald Trump yesterday demanded Iran pay compensation for the people he said it had killed in wars, attacks and protests, raising the rhetorical stakes with Tehran as hopes faded for an imminent deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said he was responding to Iran’s earlier call for Washington to meet conditions, including recompensing Tehran for the damage caused since the US and Israel launched strikes on its territory more than five months ago. “I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts, for which they are famous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social service. Oil prices, which had risen earlier on the Iranian comments, extended gains after Trump’s post, with Brent crude up 4.25% at 1720 GMT. Trump’s demand had not previously been raised by the US in talks or statements.The president said it would be part of all future negotiations with the Iranian leadership, and would include calls for payments to the families of hundreds of thousands of protesters whom he said Iran had killed. Source link
Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah is holding his first one-on-one meetings Monday with envoys from neighbouring giants China and India, his office said.The rapper-turned-leader, 36, better known as “Balen”, has kept low profile since taking power in March, largely avoiding hosting foreign envoys individually. The landlocked Himalayan nation of 30 million people must ensure a delicate diplomatic balance between rivals New Delhi and Beijing.Shah, speaking to AFP ahead of his election, said that he wanted to “maintain a natural relationship” with both nations. He has previously only met foreign ambassadors in groups, while visits to China and India in June were made by Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal.Shah’s office said he had met with India’s ambassador on Monday morning, and would meet China’s envoy later in the day. “The two discussed various matters related to Nepal-India bilateral friendship, mutual interests, development partnership, and areas of cooperation,” his office said in a statement after meeting with India’s ambassador.India has long considered Hindu-majority Nepal as a traditional ally, with open borders along the plains. Kathmandu’s largest trading partner is India, accounting for 63 percent of Nepal’s imports, or $8.6 billion, followed by China at 13 percent, or $1.8 billion, according to World Bank figures.The meeting with China comes after a major international academic conference on Tibet, in which more than 700 delegates were due to meet in the Nepali capital later this month, was stopped from taking place inside the country, organisers said.No reason has been given and Nepal’s government has denied that it gave the order — although the country is acutely aware of how sensitive the issue of Tibet is to China. Beijing, which in 1950 sent troops to the vast high-altitude plateau it describes as an integral part of China, has long opposed international activities it sees as challenging its sovereignt Source link
Firefighters gather in a forested area during a recovery operation after a helicopter crashed near the Vista Chinesa lookout in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 8,…