MALÉ, Maldives: Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed returned to his atoll nation unannounced Monday, five months after surviving a bomb attack and undergoing treatment in Germany.
The 54-year-old pro-democracy pioneer was welcomed by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih at the Male international airport before being driven away under heavy armed escort.
“People were taken by surprise to see him arrive today,” a Maldivian official close to Nasheed told AFP. “The return was not announced in advance due to security considerations.”
Nasheed, currently the speaker of parliament, was critically wounded in a May 7 assassination attempt outside his home in the capital Male.
He underwent 16 hours of surgery before traveling to Germany in May for further treatment and rehabilitation.
There has been no claim of responsibility but Nasheed’s party has blamed religious extremists in the tiny Islamic republic, which practices a liberal form of the religion and is known for its upmarket tourism.
Maldivian authorities have arrested six people, all locals, in connection with the attack that rocked the largely peaceful nation of 340,000 Sunni Muslims.
The government has cracked down on extremism and foreign preachers are banned.
Violent attacks are rare, though a dozen foreign tourists were wounded by a bomb blast in Male in 2007.
Daesh claimed a boat arson attack last year, but there is little evidence the group has a presence in the archipelago of 1,192 tiny coral islands.
Nasheed caught international attention for holding a 2009 cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the threat of global warming, signing documents as officials wore scuba gear with coral reefs in the background.
He was toppled in a military-backed coup in 2012, convicted on a terrorism charge and jailed for 13 years.
He left the country on medical leave and sought refuge in Britain, returning to the Maldives after his nominee won the presidency in 2018.
Former Maldives leader returns after surviving bomb blast
https://arab.news/4jf66
Former Maldives leader returns after surviving bomb blast
- Mohamed Nasheed, currently the speaker of parliament, was critically wounded in a May 7 assassination attempt outside his home in the capital Male
- Nasheed underwent 16 hours of surgery before traveling to Germany in May for further treatment and rehabilitation
NZ defense minister pledges more deployments, co-operation
- Judith Collins raises the prospect of welcoming increased warship visits to the country, deepening joint training and other cooperative efforts
Defense minister Judith Collins raised the prospect of welcoming increased warship visits to the country, deepening joint training and other cooperative efforts with its traditional defense partners including ally Australia, the United States, Singapore, Japan, Britain and the Philippines.
“So we’re open for business, we’re back in the world and we’re pulling our weight,” Collins told Reuters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defense meeting in Singapore.
The New Zealand government announced in April that it would boost defense spending by NZ$9 billion ($5 billion) over the next four years, with the aim of nearly doubling spending to 2 percent as a share of gross domestic product in the next eight years amid growing international tensions.
The new spending is a significant boost to the defense budget of just under NZ$5 billion in 2024/25, and follows its first national security review in 2023.
The review called for more military spending and stronger ties with Indo-Pacific nations to tackle issues of climate change and strategic competition between the West, and China and Russia.
The USS Blue Ridge, the command ship of the US Pacific Fleet, visited Wellington earlier this month and further visits from partners could be expected, Collins said. The ship was just the third US warship to visit in 40 years.
When asked about Chinese concerns at New Zealand’s more assertive military posture, she said Beijing realized Wellington had “actually got a spine,” but “I don’t think China stays awake at night worrying about us.”
“I don’t think we’re any threat to China, or anyone else really,” Collins said, describing relations with China, an important trading partner, as “very mature.”
Regional military attaches and analysts say that after years of relative neglect, New Zealand still had to improve its ability to sustainably project power given its small, aging navy and air force but supporting its traditional relationships were key.
Nuclear-free since the 1980s, New Zealand maintains an independent foreign policy but remains part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network with the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada.
Deployments of its four new Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft are being closely watched, given how they can help other countries plug gaps in the hunt for Chinese submarines, analysts say.
Collins said New Zealand and Australian pilots now had the ability to fly each other’s P-8 and transport planes — a sign of growing “interoperability” in action.
Collins said the P-8s had already flown up toward Canada and she expected further patrols in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. “I think you’ll see quite a lot of that,” she said. “We go everywhere. Everywhere where we’re wanted we go, if we can.”
Ukraine, Russia ‘want ceasefire,’ Turkiye FM says en route to Kyiv
- Hakan Fidan: ‘I observe that the issue is beginning to take a more optimistic turn as negotiations start’
ANKARA: Russia and Ukraine both want a ceasefire to halt three years of war, Turkiye’s top diplomat said on Friday as he headed to Kyiv after holding talks in Moscow.
“I observe that the issue is beginning to take a more optimistic turn as negotiations start. Both parties want a ceasefire. No one says they don’t want it,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on the train taking him to Kyiv, reported news agency Anadolu.
Half the world faced an extra month of extreme heat due to climate change: study
- About 49 percent of the global population experienced at least 30 more days of extreme heat according to a study done by scientists at the World Weather Attribution, Climate Central, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center
WASHINGTON: Half the global population endured an additional month of extreme heat over the past year because of manmade climate change, a new study found Friday.
The findings underscore how the continued burning of fossil fuels is harming health and well-being on every continent, with the effects especially under-recognized in developing countries, the authors said.
“With every barrel of oil burned, every ton of carbon dioxide released, and every fraction of a degree of warming, heat waves will affect more people,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-author of the report.
The analysis — conducted by scientists at World Weather Attribution, Climate Central, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center — was released ahead of global Heat Action Day on June 2, which this year spotlights the dangers of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
To assess the influence of global warming, researchers analyzed the period from May 1, 2024 to May 1, 2025.
They defined “extreme heat days” as those hotter than 90 percent of temperatures recorded at a given location between 1991 and 2020.
Using a peer-reviewed modeling approach, they then compared the number of such days to a simulated world without human-caused warming.
The results were stark: roughly four billion people — 49 percent of the global population — experienced at least 30 more days of extreme heat than they would have otherwise.
The team identified 67 extreme heat events during the year and found the fingerprint of climate change on all of them.
The Caribbean island of Aruba was the worst affected, recording 187 extreme heat days — 45 more than expected in a world without climate change.
The study follows a year of unprecedented global temperatures. 2024 was the hottest year on record, surpassing 2023, while January 2025 marked the hottest January ever.
On a five-year average, global temperatures are now 1.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — and in 2024 alone, they exceeded 1.5C, the symbolic ceiling set by the Paris climate accord.
The report also highlights a critical lack of data on heat-related health impacts in lower-income regions.
While Europe recorded more than 61,000 heat-related deaths in the summer of 2022, comparable figures are sparse elsewhere, with many heat-related fatalities mizattributed to underlying conditions such as heart or lung disease.
The authors emphasized the need for early warning systems, public education, and heat action plans tailored to cities.
Better building design — including shading and ventilation — and behavioral adjustments like avoiding strenuous activity during peak heat are also essential.
Still, adaptation alone will not be enough. The only way to halt the rising severity and frequency of extreme heat, the authors warned, is to rapidly phase out fossil fuels.
China establishes global mediation body in Hong Kong
- China establishes a mediating body in Hong Kong where it aims to settle disputes between countries and between private international entities
HONG KONG: China signed a convention on Friday setting up a global mediation body in Hong Kong, which aims to be comparable to organizations such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Beijing has taken a more proactive approach in international affairs in recent years, expanding its influence in global bodies such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization — especially as the United States has taken the opposite direction under President Donald Trump.
The move is also being seen as an attempt to shore up Hong Kong’s reputation as a leading place to conduct business, after Beijing’s imposition of a wide-ranging national security law in 2020 shook confidence in the impartiality of the city’s legal system.
Initiated by Beijing, the establishment of the International Organization for Mediation Convention (IOMed) was co-signed by 31 other “like-minded” countries ranging from Serbia and Pakistan to Papua New Guinea and Venezuela.
“The birth of IOMed will help transcend the zero-sum mentality of ‘win or lose’, promote the amicable resolution of international disputes, and build more harmonious international relations,” said China’s foreign minister Wang Yi, who presided over the signing.
Hong Kong’s government said IOMed will be the first intergovernmental body dedicated to mediation, while Wang said it would “fill a gap in the field.”
Mediation is when a neutral third party intervenes into a dispute to help two sides negotiate a jointly acceptable resolution to a conflict, as opposed to, for example, political bargaining or litigation.
The body will mediate disputes between countries, between countries and individuals from another country, and between private international entities.
IOMed “is on a par with” the United Nations’ ICJ and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, said the Hong Kong government.
One of the latter’s more well-known rulings was in favor of the Philippines against China over territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Beijing refused to take part in the proceedings and has ignored the judgment.
Paul Lam, Hong Kong’s secretary for justice, wrote in an article that IOMed’s establishment came as “hostile external forces are attempting to de-internationalize and de-functionalize” Hong Kong.
IOMed will start operating by the end of this year or early 2026.
As Russia intensifies attacks, Ukraine air defenses under strain
- Despite peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow, Russia has launched the heaviest assaults on Ukraine since the start of war with more than 900 drones and 90 missiles over last weekend alone
KYIV: A wave of massive Russian aerial attacks has stretched Ukraine’s air defenses, raising fears about Kyiv’s reliance on Western systems to protect its skies in the fourth year of Russia’s invasion.
As the two sides open peace talks and Kyiv pushes for an immediate ceasefire, Moscow has launched its heaviest air assaults of the war, pummelling Ukraine with more than 900 drones and 90 missiles in a three-day barrage last weekend.
Ukraine downed over 80 percent of the incoming projectiles, but more than a dozen people were killed.
Experts worry how long the country can fend off the nightly attacks if Russia maintains — or escalates — its strikes.
“Ukraine’s air defenses are stretched thin and cannot guarantee protection for all cities against persistent and sophisticated Russian attacks,” military analyst Franz-Stefan Gady told AFP.
Russia’s drone and missile attacks have become more complex — and harder to thwart — throughout the war.
Kyiv’s air force says around 40 percent of drones launched recently are decoys — cheaper dummy craft that mimic attack drones and are designed to exhaust and confuse air defenses.
Russia increasingly sets drones to fly at a higher altitude — above 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) — and then dive down onto targets.
“At that altitude, they’re more visible to our radars but unreachable for small arms, heavy machine guns and mobile fire teams,” air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat told RBK Ukraine.
In addressing the threat, Ukraine is trying to strike a balance between pressing the West to deliver new systems and not wanting to concern a war-weary public at home.
“There’s no need to panic,” a Ukraine military source told AFP.
“We’re using all air defense systems that are available in Ukraine now, plus helicopters and aircraft. We are fighting somehow,” they said.
Moscow has the capacity to fire 300 to 500 drones a day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week.
“By scaling up the use of Shaheds, they are forcing us to resort to expensive options,” military analyst Sergiy Zgurets said, referring to the Iranian-designed drones that are packed with explosives to detonate as they crash into buildings.
“This is a war of attrition that must be based on economic grounds — we must shoot down Shaheds with less sophisticated alternatives,” he said.
Ukraine uses several tools to protect its skies — from advanced Western fighter jets and air defense batteries like the US-made Patriot anti-missile system, to small mobile air defense teams armed with guns.
New technology has also become vital, such as the electronic jamming of drones to make them drop from the sky.
Increasingly, interceptors are being deployed — smaller, cheaper drones that take on enemy drones mid-air.
“We are already using them. The question now is when we will be able to scale up,” Zelensky said of the interceptors.
He too sees the issue as one of economics.
“The question is no longer about production capacity... It is a financial issue,” he told journalists.
Beyond drones, Russia is also deploying super-fast ballistic missiles, which are much more difficult to intercept.
“The biggest vulnerability lies in defending against ballistic missiles,” said analyst Gady.
A midday strike last month on the northeastern city of Sumy killed at least 35 people, while a hit near a children’s playground in Zelensky’s home city of Kryvyi Rig left 19 dead, including nine children.
To fend off ballistic missile attacks, Ukraine relies on a small number of Patriot systems.
They are concentrated around Kyiv, leaving other areas more exposed than the relatively better-protected capital.
Gady said the current supply of missiles for them is “sufficient” given the level of Russian strikes at the moment.
“But it is generally insufficient when compared to Russian ballistic missile production.”
Ukraine also faces potential shortages given delays in US output, according to Zgurets, creating “gaps” in Ukraine’s “fight against enemy hypersonic targets and ballistics.”
Deliveries of other key Western systems are expected over the next 18 months, but uncertainty is high given President Donald Trump’s criticism of aid for Ukraine.
US packages approved under predecessor Joe Biden are trickling in, but Trump has not announced any fresh support.
“Delivering air defense systems to us means real protection for people — here and now,” Zelensky said in a recent call for Western backing.
On a visit to Berlin on Wednesday, he said: “Defending our cities requires constant support with air defense systems.”
