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The death toll from the devastating earthquake that struck Colombia on Monday has risen to 287, while nearly 400 people remain missing.Colombian authorities said Friday that more than two-thirds of the fatalities were recorded in the cities of Cali and Pereira. More than half of those injured are in major urban centers, while rescue teams in Pereira are racing against time to recover four people believed to be trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed hotel, amid slim hopes of finding survivors.Government figures highlight the scale of the disaster, which has destroyed or severely damaged tens of thousands of homes, schools, healthcare facilities and public infrastructure across western Colombia. The widespread damage has placed significant strain on the region’s infrastructure and forced thousands of families to seek shelter in temporary facilities or remain outdoors. A series of powerful aftershocks has further complicated rescue and relief operations, increasing the risk of additional collapses in already damaged buildings. Related Story Source link
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced that one of its vessels was attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on the evening of Friday, August 14. The incident resulted in no injuries, and the situation has been brought under control, the company said.In a statement, ADNOC stressed the importance of protecting the safety and well-being of seafarers, while safeguarding freedom of navigation and maritime security.The company urged the public to obtain information solely from official sources and to avoid circulating rumors or unverified information. Related Story Source link
US President Donald Trump's envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner will visit Israel next week in hopes of bridging gaps on a Gaza plan rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, officials said yesterday.Kushner and Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza of Trump's so-called Board of Peace implementing the deal, will visit both Israel and key mediator Egypt.The trip comes after Netanyahu publicly rejected a 15-point plan announced by Mladenov in which Hamas agreed to hand over its weapons to a new Palestinian governing committee in Gaza.A Board of Peace official said Kushner and Mladenov hoped for ‘constructive conversations’ on advancing Trump's overall peace plan that began with the October 2025 declaration of a ceasefire, which has reduced but not ended Israeli strikes in Gaza.’The US and Israel agree on the end state, which is a demilitarised Hamas,’ the official said on condition of anonymity.’We will hear the concerns that have been raised and talk about next steps. What is critical is that we both agree on the desired outcome and are finding ways to accelerate progress.’The latest part of the Gaza plan, to which Hamas agreed in late July, would start a phased Israeli withdrawal from much of the Gaza Strip, according to an initial version released by the Board of Peace.Mladenov later backtracked and said that Israel would not need to pull out troops until a complete Hamas disarmament.Netanyahu had vowed no pullout and has voiced scepticism that Hamas would disarm, saying it should destroy weapons in a verifiable way. Source link
Rescuers raced against time in Colombia yesterday to free a man found alive beneath a collapsed hotel, a rare sign of hope nearly four days after one of the strongest earthquakes to hit the Andean nation in decades reduced neighbourhoods to rubble and left hundreds dead or missing.The operation in the coffee-region city of Pereira had become the main focus of a disaster response increasingly shifting from the search for survivors to the grim work of clearing debris and accounting for the missing.’Possibly there are (still) people alive, we believe so,’ rescuer John Bedoya told Caracol Television from the site, where emergency crews worked through a mound of concrete, brick and twisted metal. ‘One or two could be alive.’ The 7.4-magnitude quake struck shortly after 7:30am on Monday, with its epicenter in San Jose del Palmar in the Choco department. It toppled apartment blocks and damaged homes, schools and hospitals across western Colombia, from the Pacific port of Buenaventura to the inland cities of Cali and Pereira.Authorities said yesterday morning that 285 people had been killed and nearly 4,000 injured. Nearly 400 others were still missing.The government said tens of thousands of homes were damaged and many destroyed, underlining the scale of a disaster that has left many Colombians sleeping in shelters or outside unsafe buildings.The UN refugee agency warned yesterday the earthquake could trigger fresh displacement in a country already grappling with conflict, migration and other humanitarian pressures.’For internally displaced people and refugees who are already trying to rebuild their lives, this earthquake risks becoming another displacement on top of displacement,’ UNHCR spokesperson Eujin Byun told reporters in Geneva. Authorities have recorded scores of aftershocks since Monday, adding to the danger for rescuers combing through unstable debris and for families reluctant to return to damaged homes.The disaster is shaping up as the first major test for President Abelardo De La Espriella, who took office just days before the quake and has faced criticism for his initial handling of the disaster. He is set to make flying visits to five affected cities and towns on Friday, including Pereira, Cali and Quibdo. Source link
An Air India Airbus A320-200 aircraft takes off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad. (Reuters/File Photo) An Air India Airbus A320 dropped about 300 feet this month, injuring 24 people on board, after the aircraft registered a loss of hydraulic pressure that briefly left key flight controls unresponsive, according to a preliminary Airbus analysis reviewed by Reuters.The August 4 incident occurred on Air India flight AI2379 from Phuket to Delhi, which landed safely in Delhi despite the altitude loss.Airbus’ initial analysis showed the plane registered losses in all three hydraulic systems, which use pressurised fluid to power flight controls and other equipment, in quick succession.For about four seconds, the pilots were unable to use the elevators and ailerons, movable parts on the wings and tail that control whether the plane points up or down and banks left or right. During that time, the aircraft pitched upward, Airbus said in a communication responding to an Air India request for an assessment.The first officer applied a full nose-down input, but there was “no direct response” from the flight-control surfaces before the hydraulic systems recovered within seconds.The assessment did not establish what caused the loss of hydraulic pressure.Airbus asked Air India to run tests on the aircraft’s hydraulic systems and the pressure sensors and switches that monitor them. It also asked for some sensors to be removed for inspection, and said further checks of the wiring might be needed.Airbus also found the aircraft experienced forces above specified limits during the sudden altitude change. It asked Air India to inspect the plane for possible structural damage caused by the abrupt movement.The planemaker also asked the airline for details of hydraulic system maintenance carried out in the past month and for more detailed accounts from the pilots, as it continued its assessment.Air India did not respond to a request for comment. Airbus declined to comment on an ongoing investigation and said it was providing technical assistance to relevant authorities under international rules governing air crash probes.SERIOUS INCIDENTAir India initially described the event as turbulence-related. Its later statement dropped that description, saying that the aircraft had suffered a sudden loss of altitude.Indian authorities have classified it as a serious incident, and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is investigating, with technical assistance from Airbus and France’s BEA. The flight’s captain tested positive for marijuana in a confirmatory drug test, according to a source familiar with the matter. No link between the test result and the altitude loss has been established to date, but Air India on Thursday began mandatory substance testing for all pilots, according to an internal memo. The incident adds to the challenges facing Air India as former Ethiopian Airlines chief Tewolde Gebremariam prepares to take over as CEO. The Tata Group-controlled carrier is trying to turn itself around while grappling with mounting losses and increased safety and regulatory scrutiny following the June 2025 crash of one of its Boeing 787s in Ahmedabad, India, which killed 260 people. Singapore Airlines also has a roughly 25% stake in Air India. Source link
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto gestures as he delivers his annual budget speech to parliament, as Vice-President Gibran Rakabuming Raka sits next to him, ahead of the…
US President Donald Trump speaking at an event in New York yesterday. AFP Would “soon” declare the Strait of Hormuz US territory: TrumpWill impose “never been seen” economic measures on Tehran: US Treasury Secretary Scott BessentUS to hit Iran hard economically: Trump US President Donald Trump yesterday said he would “soon” declare the Strait of Hormuz waterway part of US territory after defeating Iran. “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated — pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” he said with a chuckle during a political rally at a police academy in New York state. “It’s true,” he added. “We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to,” Trump said to the cheering crowd of supporters and police.Earlier yesterday, speaking to the media, Trump said that the United States will hit Iran hard economically as Washington and Tehran struggle to reach a deal to end a nearly six month conflict. His comments came a day after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US was going to apply measures that have “never been seen” on Tehran as soon as next week.”Watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country,” he said in an interview on Newsmax’s ‘Rob Schmitt Tonight’ programme.Transit through the Strait of Hormuz appeared to grind to a near standstill yesterday after two UAE ships were attacked on Thursday evening and the United States said it could maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely. A senior Iranian source said that there had been no progress in talks to build on a June agreement to end the war. As a ceasefire renewed then broke down, Iran has resumed attacks on ships it accuses of trying to transit the strait without its permission.Nine vessels passed through the narrow waterway at the entrance to the Gulf on Thursday, up from five on Wednesday but below the average for August of 12, according to ship-tracking company Kpler. There were no visible crossings by vessels seen early on Friday, according to ship-tracking data.Some ships may pass through undetected with their transponders off, but the figures are nowhere near the more than 130 ships that daily traversed the Strait of Hormuz before the war launched by the US and Israel on Iran in February.”Alongside the threat to energy infrastructure in the region, Iran’s ability to restrict shipping through the strait is its main source of leverage in negotiations,” said Torbjorn Solvedt, principal Middle East analyst with risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters the US military has the capability to maintain a naval presence in the region to enforce its retaliatory blockade of Iran, which has inflicted severe economic damage on the country. “Indefinitely the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we’ll continue to,” Hegseth told reporters during a trip to Panama.Trump has repeatedly asserted that the US has “total control” over the strait, through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the start of the war, prompting Iranian denials. Tehran has said it will not allow the waterway to reopen until its conditions are met. These include removing economic sanctions and releasing frozen Iranian assets.On Thursday an Iranian parliamentary committee approved Iran’s plan for the strait. It includes a provision banning the transit of US-, Israeli- and other “hostile” countries’ assets and equipment, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.The US lifted its blockade of Iran’s shipping and ports for a month in mid-June but has since reimposed it, cutting off Tehran’s primary source of hard currency and compounding earlier losses from wartime strikes on its energy infrastructure. Washington previously said it would lift the Iranian blockade once Iran and Oman, which sit on either side of the strait, reach an agreement to restore commercial shipping.Trump has also repeatedly threatened to escalate military strikes and “hit Iran hard”, although he has thus far resisted deploying ground troops or seizing strategic islands and bombing desalination plants. Earlier this week, Trump suggested he would rely on economic means, rather than military action.The US has tightened economic sanctions against Iran and other individuals and entities that it says are helping it procure weapons, but the pressure campaign has not brought Tehran back to the negotiating table. Global economists have forecast a sharp drop in global growth, and potentially a swing into recession in some areas, warning that the impact would grow if the war was not ended soon.US President Donald Trump is under pressure at home to end an unpopular war, with high fuel prices dragging down his approval ratings and potentially eroding his party’s control of Congress in midterm elections in November. Source link
When he is not meeting with Nepal’s new foreign minister Shisir Khanal, to think through policy, 26-year-old Nikhil Sangroula (GU-Q ‘23) sits at his desk inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, looking out at the dome of the new parliament building across the street. Below, first-time lawmakers move quickly between meetings, with a sense of momentum that feels new. “It is highly spirited in the bureaucratic class,” Sangroula said. “There is a fresh, vibrant energy in the administrative halls. Innovation and partnership are open in an unprecedented manner. I get to speak with young bureaucrats, mostly Gen Z, who are equally hopeful that this leadership will lead them to a better tomorrow. There is no chance, no option, for this government to fail. This is a turning moment for us.”But every time he looks out that window, he remembers September 2025. A government ban on social media set off protests that spread across the country. Streets filled with fires and broken storefronts. In a single day on September 8, state security forces killed 19 young protesters in broad daylight. Then, within hours, former prime minister K P Sharma Oli resigned, and Nepal was left without clear leadership. “The state’s failure to manage the situation, and the lives lost, mostly bystanders, was a genuine tragedy,” Sangroula said. “Having lived through it, my hope is simply that Nepal never has to go through anything like it again.” Out of that moment came the youngest government in the world right now, led by Prime Minister Balendra Shah, at just 36 years old. Three years after graduating from Georgetown University in Qatar (GUQ), Sangroula now works close to its centre as a Co-ordination, Implementation and Monitoring Officer in the Foreign Minister’s Secretariat. He supports the foreign minister’s research and analysis, helps draft speeches, and connects communities and experts with the ministry. A key part of his role is gathering data to support proposed policies. Sangroula grew up far from Kathmandu’s political circles. He was born and raised in Jhapa, in Nepal’s eastern lowlands, where his parents treated education as a necessity. That commitment to learning eventually took him far beyond Nepal’s borders. He went to Doha, where he studied Arabic, majored in international economics and minored in government at GU-Q. “Nepalis have migrated across the globe in search of opportunity, and they demonstrate a genuine acceptance, a willingness to welcome people of every belief without simply tolerating them,” he said. That belief in building bridges shaped his path after graduation. Sangroula joined the Nepal Leadership Academy, where he helped design workshops for emerging political leaders and supported a cross-party caucus focused on collaboration. Some of those same figures now are the members of parliament. Inside the ministry, Sangroula leads its first internship and fellowship program, bringing early-career professionals into public service. He sees a generation less focused on ideology and more focused on results, impatient for better governance, but still learning how the state moves. “The country has a lot more aspiration for efficient public service delivery and stable politics,” he said. “People are looking for swift delivery on outcomes of development. In general, people are not looking for ideology or abstractions. There is strong demand for good governance and economic development.” He does not see youth alone as the answer. What changed, he said, was a growing exhaustion with stagnation. “In my interaction with bureaucrats who have lived through this transition, there is a lot of energy, vitality and proactiveness in the new political class leading the nation today,” he said. “Age is definitely a factor, but even more so were a few octogenarian leaders who had been in power for a long time, and their passivity, which led to discontent for a long time.” For GU-Q students considering public service, his advice: “A lot of people our age want fast, visible change. But every state is inherently conservative in how it moves. If you want change, you need to build consensus and bring people along. The impact of working with government is slower, but it lasts.” Source link
A Palestinian woman looks from a window, in Qusra village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank August 14,2026. REUTERS/Ammar Awad The US wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly condemn militant settlers who have besieged Palestinians in their homes in the occupied West Bank, US and Israeli officials said yesterday, as settlers pressured residents by pitching a new tent before Israeli soldiers arrived and it was taken down.Settlers have been encircling homes in Qusra for almost a week after cutting off water and electricity, trapping Palestinians in an area where rights groups say settlers are mounting a concerted effort to seize more land, further eating into territory where Palestinians aim to establish a state.Their actions have drawn public US criticism: the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee — a strong supporter of Jewish settlement in the West Bank — on Thursday condemned settlers besieging a Palestinian home as “Israeli terrorists”.A US official and an Israeli official said on Friday White House officials are pressing Netanyahu to publicly condemn the settlers’ actions.Washington began to protest after learning that the home of a Palestinian-American was among those targeted, said the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions, of which they had knowledge. A Palestinian child plays in the…
The embassy of Pakistan in Doha commemorated the landmark 80th Independence Day of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with a grand flag-hoisting ceremony filled with patriotic fervour.The event, held at the embassy premises, was attended by hundreds of Pakistani community members.Ambassador Muhammad Aamer hoisted the national flag, which was followed by a collective recitation of the National Anthem.The Pakistan Armed Forces contingent stationed in Qatar also participated in the ceremony. The Torch adorned in Pakistan colours in Aspire Zone. During the ceremony, official Independence Day messages from Pakistan’s president, prime minister, and deputy prime minister were read out to the audience.In his address, Aamer felicitated fellow Pakistanis on this milestone.He stated that Independence Day refreshes the national spirit and strengthens the collective resolve to work tirelessly for the progress and prosperity of the motherland.The envoy reminded attendees that Pakistan’s freedom is the result of immense sacrifices by its forefathers, urging the community to honour this sacred trust by upholding the core principles of unity, faith, and discipline.Paying tribute to the Armed Forces of Pakistan and the resilience of its people, Aamer specifically highlighted the recent operational successes of Operation Bunyan-ul-Marsoos and the historic stand of Marq-e-Haq against unprovoked aggression. He honoured the Shuhada (martyrs) who laid down their lives for the defence of the homeland.The ambassador also highlighted recent operational successes of the Armed Forces. On global and regional issues, Aamer reaffirmed Pakistan’s unwavering political, moral, and diplomatic support for the people of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in their legitimate struggle for self-determination.He also reiterated Pakistan’s firm solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people.In the context of bilateral relations, Aamer highlighted the special, enduring bonds between Pakistan and Qatar.He expressed deep gratitude to Qatar and His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani for their consistent support and constructive role during recent regional challenges. He also thanked Qatar for graciously hosting more than 350,000 Pakistani expatriates, praising the community as an indispensable “living bridge” whose hard work, professionalism, and respect for local traditions significantly contribute to Qatar’s development.The envoy expressed complete confidence that the diaspora will continue to project the true image of Pakistan in line with the vision of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Muhammad Iqbal. He assured the community that the embassy remains fully committed to their welfare and will continue to work with dedication and zeal for their betterment.The ceremony concluded with prayers for the peace, progress, prosperity, and solidarity of Pakistan. Source link