China’s top diplomat Wang Yi has had a busy week in which two devastating conflicts have loomed large.

Wang started by gathering 14 Palestinian factions for reconciliation talks in Beijing, including bitter rivals Hamas and Fatah, before meeting on Wednesday with Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba – the first time China has hosted a top Ukrainian official since Russia’s invasion nearly two and half years ago.

The juxtaposed diplomacy – where talks were closely linked to the grinding wars in Gaza and Ukraine, respectively – came as Beijing vies to present itself as a geopolitical heavyweight in a world increasingly divided by both conflicts.

In a meeting with Kuleba, Wang said Beijing “supported all efforts that contribute to peace” – marking China’s latest effort to position itself as a “neutral” peace broker in the conflict, even as it has ratcheted up ties with Russia.

And at the conclusion of talks between the Palestinian factions a day earlier, the foreign minister hailed the signing of a declaration on “ending division.” The agreement, viewed with a measure of skepticism in the Middle East where such deals have quickly collapsed before, was a “historical moment in the Palestinian liberation cause,” Wang said.

For the Chinese government, experts say, Wang’s week of diplomacy offered a chance to play up desired optics: framing the country as a productive player in intractable conflicts – and an alternative broker to the United States.

China’s ambition is to be “recognized and accepted as a – if not the – global leader, and it seeks to do so by enlisting the support of the Global South, which is more numerous in both population and country terms than the democratic West,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London.

But it also signals some of the limits within which Beijing is operating, experts suggest, as it seeks to build a solution in Gaza without having deep influence in the region and calls for peace in Ukraine while keeping tight ties with Russia.

Kuleba’s visit was the first time in the nearly 29 months of Russia’s war on Ukraine that a high-level Ukrainian official has visited China. In contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited twice and Kremlin officials have made numerous trips during the same period.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders have previously expressed hope that China could use its close relationship with Russia to push for peace on terms acceptable to Kyiv, which unequivocally calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops and a return to its internationally recognized borders. But Chinese officials have given no public indication of doing so and have instead pushed for any peace efforts to consider “all countries’” security concerns.

Kuleba’s visit comes as Beijing is under increasing pressure from the West over its ties to Russia and allegations it’s aiding Moscow’s war effort by providing dual-use goods. Beijing denies this and says the West is fueling the conflict by supplying arms for Ukraine’s defense.

Western rhetoric is also hardening. NATO leaders earlier this month said Beijing was “decisively” enabling Russia’s war by support for its defense industrial base, and Zelensky last month accused China of prolonging – through its “support to Russia” – the war devastating his country.

That may be a topic of conversation later this week when Wang is expected to speak with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in another engagement during a regional meeting in Laos.

‘Not yet ready’

Kuleba arrived in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Tuesday saying that there would be “extensive, detailed, substantive” negotiations focused on “one issue – peace in Ukraine.”

“We will talk, we will be looking for common ground. We need to avoid competition between peace plans,” he said in a social media video post, in an apparent reference to the vast distance between Beijing’s proposed “political settlement” for the war and Ukraine’s own peace formula.

Official statements from Beijing and Kyiv after Wednesday’s Wang-Kuleba talks gave no indication that the Ukrainian diplomat had swayed Beijing toward Kyiv’s vision for peace.

Instead, Wang re-emphasized Beijing’s past statements and its call for a “political settlement.” China last year released its view on such a settlement, which backs a ceasefire without stipulating the prior withdrawal of Russian troops, a position criticized as favorable to Moscow’s illegal territorial gains. Neither side mentioned the provision of material or economic support to Russia in official statements.

Wang did appear to leave a door open for Ukraine to rely on China as a broker, saying, according to Beijing’s Foreign Ministry, that “although the conditions and timing are not yet ready,” China was “willing to continue to play a constructive role in ceasefire and resumption of peace talks.”

Kuleba, for his part, reiterated the country’s position of being ready for peace talks “when Russia is ready to negotiate in good faith,” according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, but highlighted that Kyiv sees no such readiness from Moscow.

Observers say Beijing could, at some point, play a role in any potential future talks, but is unlikely to shift its relationship with Russia.

Xi is widely seen to view China’s northern neighbor as a critical partner in pushing back against a world order he sees as unfairly dominated by the West – and does not want Russia to suffer a damaging defeat.

Chinese leaders may have decided to meet Kuleba now to show they’re trying to “push for peace” amid Western criticism of Beijing’s Russia ties and because of the impending election in the United States, according to Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore.

Kyiv is casting a wary eye on those elections that could see a plunge in American support for Ukraine’s defense if Republican candidate Donald Trump wins. Trump’s running mate JD Vance has openly advocated for ending military aid to Ukraine in favor of bolstering Taiwan’s defenses.

“Perhaps Beijing is reading this and feels that they are in a better position to push Kyiv towards a compromise that Moscow might find more amenable,” Chong said.

China’s state-linked news outlet Global Times also highlighted expert commentary suggesting Ukraine may realize that “efforts to completely isolate” Russia internationally have failed, as players like India and Brazil – both key Global South nations – have not supported a communique following a Ukraine-backed peace summit in June, which did not include Russia. Beijing has said such conferences should include both Kyiv and Moscow.

‘Reconciliation’ deal

Beijing’s efforts to be a platform for Palestinian reconciliation, meanwhile, come as it has presented itself as a leader for voices across the Global South in calling for Palestinian statehood and decrying Israel’s war and its staggering humanitarian cost, while criticizing US backing of Israel.

Wang said that Tuesday’s reconciliation talks between Palestinian factions ended with an agreement “on post-Gaza war governance and the establishment of a provisional national reconciliation government.”

The announcement comes as the future governance of Palestinian territories remains in question following Israel’s repeated vow to eradicate Hamas – and a growing push for Palestinian statehood. But it was met with some skepticism from observers in the region given the failure of past attempts at unity.

A US State Department spokesperson questioned whether the deal would “in any way have an impact on the ongoing discussions to reach a ceasefire” in the war in Gaza, adding it ran counter to Washington’s position, which is that militant group Hamas should not have a role in the governance of “a unified Gaza and the West Bank” after the war.

Within the region, there is also a sense that some of Beijing’s broader diplomacy around the conflict may be “missing out on the intricacies” of different viewpoints there, while seeking to win backing for its own international agenda, according to Jonathan Fulton, a nonresident senior fellow for the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programs.

“Of course there’s frustration with the West and in particular with the US, but at the same time nobody’s looking at China and saying, ‘well, this is the country that’s going to come and solve it,’ because they see it as very self-interested actor with a pretty shallow level of regional knowledge and expertise,” he said.

One person was killed and three others were injured at Cambodia’s famed centuries-old Angkor temple complex when a large tree was blown down onto their vehicle during a fierce rainstorm, the government said Wednesday.

The accident occurred late Tuesday afternoon at the southern gate to Angkor Thom, which is near the more famous Angkor Wat temple and part of the same archaeological complex in the northwestern province of Siem Reap, about 200 miles northwest of the capital, Phnom Penh.

The site is Cambodia’s most popular tourist attraction and in the first half of this year attracted more than half a million international tourists, according to Cambodia’s Tourism Ministry.

The tree fell on a tuk-tuk — a kind of motorized three-wheeled vehicle popular in South and Southeast Asia — killing the driver instantly and injuring its three passengers, one critically, according to a statement issued by the Siem Reap Provincial Administration.

Several statues on the balustrade of what is called Tonle Oum Gate were also damaged by the falling tree, the statement said.

The Apsara National Authority, the government agency that oversees the archaeological park, posted photos late Tuesday on its official Facebook page showing the fallen tree in front of the temple entrance. The agency later announced that the tree had been removed and the entrance was again accessible to visitors.

The Angkor site sprawls across some 155 square miles, containing the ruins of capitals of various Cambodian empires from the 9th to the 15th centuries. Scholars consider it to be one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia.

Nearly two-thirds of ISIS-linked arrests in Europe in the last nine months have been of teenagers, according to a landmark academic study, as concern grows among European security officials ahead of the Paris Olympics of the growing potency and reach in the West of the Islamist militant group and its affiliate ISIS-K.

The apparent uptick in the recruitment of young radicals to carry out acts of terror comes as European security officials express worries at a potential resurgence of organized – or “directed” – terror attacks. The Summer Olympics in Paris, which start on Friday, have been specifically threatened by ISIS-K, the Islamic State in Khorasan, an active ISIS affiliate stemming from Central Asia. The group has built a remarkable presence in Turkey over the past three years, according to court documents and analysts. In 2023 alone, 426 ISIS-K suspects were detained in 122 operations, according to Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency.

A UK security source said the so-called “directed terror threat” had become a greater concern over the past 18 months, with ISIS-K the most potent group under scrutiny. Young people accessing extremist spaces and media online also continues to be a significant issue, the source said.

“Groups like (ISIS-K are) specifically targeting young teenagers,” Neumann said. “They may not be very useful. They may mess up. They may change their mind,” he said, but they are “not least less suspicious. Who would think of a 13-year-old as a terrorist? One is enough.”

Neumann added that teenagers were being recruited through social media platforms like TikTok, dragged through algorithms into “bubbles” online where jihadist recruiters can reach them.

“(ISIS-K) is by far the most ambitious and aggressive part of ISIS right now,” he said, adding this meant the group could plan larger, more complex plots with several attackers, at the same time as doing “lots of people fishing for people on the internet.”

A TikTok spokesman said: “We stand firmly against violent extremism and remove 98% of content found to break our rules on promoting terrorism before it is reported to us.”

Of the 27 plots or attacks examined by Neumann, two have conspicuously involved teenagers targeting this summer’s Olympic Games.

In late May, French prosecutors indicted an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin for “terrorist criminal association,” namely targeting spectators in the city of Saint-Étienne during the Olympics, according to a statement from Lise Jaulin, a spokeswoman for French anti-terror prosecutors. About a fortnight earlier, two men, aged 15 and 18, were arrested in northeast and southern France for plotting a terror attack, the target unclear, the statement said. In April, it added, a 16-year-old from the Haute-Savoie department in southeastern France was arrested for allegedly researching how to make an explosives belt and die as an ISIS martyr, possibly targeting the Olympics, according to the statement.

German police have also publicized two incidents allegedly involving four teenagers. Officials in Dusseldorf said in April they arrested three teenagers, a 15-year-old boy and girl, and a 16 year-old girl, accused of planning a terror attack.

Another alleged plot involving a possible knife attack on a Heidelberg synagogue, which was disrupted in May, involved an 18-year-old man, a German prosecutor’s statement said.

Swiss police in March arrested a 15-year-old Swiss boy and a 16-year-old Italian boy for ISIS support and plotting bomb attacks, according to a police statement.

And in May, a 14-year-old girl from Montenegro was arrested for plotting an attack in Austria, which was allegedly ISIS-inspired, with a knife and axe already purchased.

While these alleged plots involving teenagers do not appear to involve ISIS-K specifically, the spread of the newer ISIS affiliate presents a simultaneous and novel challenge for Western intelligence agencies. ISIS-K recruits predominantly stem not from the Arabic-speaking world, but from Central Asia, and include Russian-speaking Tajik citizens.

Bordering Afghanistan, where ISIS-K first emerged, Tajikistan has long struggled with a mix of poverty, intense political repression by its government, backed by Moscow, and a broad spectrum of Islamism from across the fervently religious region. Analysts say the Tajik minority in Afghanistan is also less represented by the Pashto Taliban government, adding to the anger at discrimination felt by Tajiks across the former Soviet Union.

The ISIS-K threat has also moved swiftly closer to Europe, as a wide wave of arrests in Turkey has exposed. An 87-page indictment, relating to the detention of 18 ISIS-K suspects, many of them Tajik, for an alleged terror conspiracy involving training, support and an attack on the Swedish consulate in Istanbul, gives a rare window into the “black box” of ISIS-K plotting. It reveals how a shadowy figure, known to the detainees as “Rustam,” directs plots in the West – and training for them – from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The indictment says: “Rustam/Rüstem (K) is the Tajik who is the current head of the ISKP Foreign Operations unit.” The indictment quotes one suspect saying Rustam used multiple, changing handles on the Telegram messaging app. “Generally, Rustam deletes the telegram every 15-20 days as a precaution,” the detainee said. “After I deleted it, he would contact me with another username.” Several of the detainees refer to Rustam as an external operations and explosives director for ISIS-K. Last week, 13 of the accused in this case were sentenced for between six to 10 years for involvement in the plot, while another three were set free.

The indictment, first reported in Turkish media, also describes, through the testimony of detainees, how a conveyor belt of ISIS-K recruits moves through an array of hotels in Istanbul. Some then go via Iran to receive training in Afghanistan. Others travel freely back and forth to Russia, where ISIS-K killed 137 people in a horrific attack on the Crocus City Hall in Moscow in March.

The extent of ISIS-K’s use of Turkey as a transit hub is acknowledged by officials in the Turkish indictment. “Central Asian Foreign Terrorist fighters could use the Turkey-Iran route in 2023, this could lead not only to prestige loss for our country but also, there is the threat that these elements could look to carry out a large scale (blockbuster/mega) action in our country,” the indictment says.

ISIS-K attacked a Catholic church in Istanbul in January, killing one, the first major assault in Turkey since 2017, after a hiatus which analysts suggested was used to regroup after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in 2021 and the fall of the so-called ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraq. A decade ago, Turkey was criticized by some analysts for its apparently lax attitude towards extremist Islamists using its border area with Syria and Iraq.

Ten migrants drowned in a flooded river near Panama’s coastal community of Carreto while crossing the Darién Gap, Panama’s National Border Service (Senafront) said Wednesday.

Senafront did not specify the nationalities of the migrants or when they drowned.

The agency said the case is still under investigation but suspects that transnational organized criminals and local collaborators led the migrants through unauthorized border crossings, putting their lives at risk.

The Darién Gap is a mountainous rainforest region connecting Colombia in South America to Panama in Central America that is a crucial passage for migrants hoping to reach the United States and Canada.

There has recently been an increase in the number of migrants willing to risk their lives and safety on the 66-mile (106-kilometer) hike required to cross it and the United States and Panama signed an agreement earlier this month aimed at closing “the passage of illegal immigrants” through it.

Since the beginning of July, Panama’s new government, led by President José Raúl Mulino, has placed barbed wire across several routes in the Darién Gap, so that migrants who enter illegally through the border with Colombia are forced to use a single authorized entrance, according to the country’s Ministry of Public Security.

“I will not allow Panama to be a path open to thousands of people who enter our country illegally supported by an entire international organization related to drug and human trafficking,” Mulino said at his swearing-in ceremony.

Senafront said the only authorized migration corridor is one that leads to Cañas Blancas, “where specialized patrols are available for their protection and humanitarian assistance.”

This is a developing story. More to come.

At least 15 people have died and more than 195 are missing after a boat carrying migrants capsized near Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Wednesday.

The Mauritanian coastguard has rescued 120 people since the boat capsized Monday, including unaccompanied and separated children, according to IOM.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of 15 migrants and the estimated disappearance at sea of 195-plus people after a boat capsized in Nouakchott,” IOM’s West and Central Africa office said on X.

Rescue efforts are underway to locate the missing.

A statement released by the IOM noted the tragedy took place amid increasing migration through what it referred to as the West Atlantic Route. It said that so far in 2024 alone, more than 19,700 migrants had arrived irregularly in the Canary Islands using this route, compared to just 7,590 during the same period in 2023.

It said its Missing Migrants Project had recorded more than 4,500 deaths and disappearances on this route since 2014, including over 1,950 deaths last year, the second deadliest on record.

Since June 2024, more than 76 boats with around 6,130 surviving migrants have disembarked in Mauritania, with at least 190 dead and missing migrants, it said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Alyoshina said she is now “ashamed” of posts she made earlier this year announcing the move.

“I wrote and said this out of fear because gender reassignment and the non-existent LGBTQ+ movement are prohibited in the Russian Federation,” she said, adding: “I was born a woman in a man’s body.”

Then, in May, Alyoshina changed her Telegram channel back to her pre-transition name and uploaded a pre-transition profile photo, saying she had decided to revert to her birth gender during Orthodox Lent, citing “spiritual anguish.”

When the court responded that it doesn’t provide explanations on current laws, she said she felt terrified that “the state repressive machine could turn on.”

“I began sleeping poorly and waking up early, by springtime my anxiety and depression worsened,” Alyoshina said. The politician also feared that she might never achieve her life’s dream of undergoing gender reassignment surgery due to the new regulations.

She also remains vocal about the challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community in present-day Russia, saying their rights are discriminated against and violated. “I hope my post will provide moral support to transgender people,” she said adding that it is currently impossible for a transgender person to change the documents even after an official medical diagnosis confirming their gender identity.

President Vladimir Putin signed a widely criticized law in July 2023 prohibiting nearly all medical help for transgender people including gender reassignment surgery, except for treating “birth anomalies” in children.

The legislation also bars transgender individuals from adopting children and allows authorities to annul their marriages.

This move, along with stringent laws passed in December 2022 targeting so-called “LGBTQ propaganda,” is viewed as part of Russia’s broader policy to enforce what it refers to as “traditional values” and suppress LGBTQ+ rights. These policies have been widely criticized by human rights organizations and have significantly impacted the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals in the country, leading to increased fears, marginalization and a climate of oppression.

In October 2022, when the State Duma passed the first reading of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, Alyoshina decided to resign as regional head of the centrist, liberal-democratic Civic Initiative party and end her political career.

“I have no idea how to continue to conduct public political activity as an openly transgender woman,” she said in a Telegram post at the time. However, in 2023, Alyoshina returned and announced her plans to run for governor in the Altai region of Siberia, before later dropping that campaign.

When asked what Alyoshina was hoping to achieve for other transgender people in Russia by coming forward with this statement, she replied: “I would like to convey the message: Don’t give up, keep fighting. As long as we keep fighting, we are alive.”

It’s been well over a decade since millions of Syrians flooded into Turkey en masse, seeking refuge from the civil war at home. But today, there are increasing signs the refugees may have worn out their welcome.

This month, anti-Syrian riots took place in several cities across the country. In the capital Ankara, opposition parties are calling for mass deportations, and the government is calling on the Syrian regime it once sought to topple to help resolve the problem.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now publicly seeking a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad, the man he once labeled a terrorist, to reset relations. Before the Syrian civil war, the two leaders vacationed together, but years later, after the Syrian regime brutally crushed a public revolt, Erdogan sought to oust him from office and backed local forces fighting against him.

“We believe that it is beneficial to open clenched fists,” Erdogan said this month. “We want disputes to be resolved through mutual dialogue at the negotiation table.”

Turkey is hosting an estimated 3.1 million Syrian refugees – more than any other country. Unofficial estimates are much higher, given that undocumented refugees aren’t counted.

But overcoming a bitter, years-long personal feud and extremely complex relations between Ankara and Damascus will be no small feat. Turkish troops remain in control of a swath of Syrian territory along the Turkish border where Syrian opposition groups are sheltering.

A political matter for Erdogan

For Erdogan, “immigration and refugees are the main concern,” said Bilal Bagis, an analyst at the government-leaning SETA think tank in Ankara. “It’s becoming a political argument against the incumbent government in Turkey… and it definitely has turned into something that needs to be resolved.”

Assad has long made clear that there will only be a meeting when Turkey withdraws troops from Syria, although he indicated this week that he would meet if the topic was at least on the agenda.

“If the meeting leads to results, or if there’s a hug, a scolding, or even cheek-kissing that serves the country’s interest, I will do it,” Assad said. “The problem is not in the meeting itself but in the content of the meeting.”

While there are no signs that Turkey would withdraw from Syria or drop its support for the Syrian opposition, the olive branch from Ankara indicates the pressure Erdogan is under to deal with the discontent at home.

This month, reports of a Syrian man sexually abusing his seven-year-old Syrian cousin sparked riots and violence in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri, with Turks targeting Syrian-owned businesses and cars.

The government blamed social media for fueling the unrest, which quickly spread to other cities. In Antalya, a teenager was killed and in Istanbul, an Arab man was threatened with a knife at a restaurant in an upscale part of the city. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said hundreds of people were arrested in the aftermath.

The riots exposed long-simmering tensions between Syrians and Turks that have been made worse by the economic pressures brought by Turkey’s sky-high inflation.

Unlike European nations, where Syrian refugees are being permanently resettled, most Syrians in Turkey are treated as “guests” with temporary protection and are subject to a number of restrictions.

Most Syrians cannot travel freely within the country. Fewer than 10% of Syrian adults have work permits, with the rest being limited to informal, under-the-table jobs. Untold numbers of Syrian children are not in school, either because they work or face difficulty enrolling due to rules requiring them to attend schools in the areas where they were initially registered. Only a small proportion of Syrians have been granted citizenship in the country of 85 million.

‘No acceptance of Syrians’ in Turkish society

Many Turks complain that Syrians have failed to integrate, but Syrians argue their host country hasn’t made it easy.

“Integration depends on two things: effort on the part of migrants, and for citizens of the country to accept them as part of society… but right now there is no acceptance of Syrians in Turkey,” said Ebubekir Hussamoglu, a Syrian who arrived in the country just before war broke out at home, forcing him to stay. He’s now a legal consultant and a Turkish citizen. His biography bears little resemblance to the average Syrian in Turkey, who is often at the low end of the economic and social ladder.

“These people have been working in Turkey for about ten years and are receiving lower wages and they are not getting their social rights, social security. This doesn’t make them feel secure here in the long run,” he said.

Recent deportee Mohammad Shbeeb says his existence in Turkey was anything but secure. He first arrived at the border in 2018, and says he was promptly detained and sent back. He says he was threatened with indefinite detention if he didn’t sign a document agreeing to voluntarily return. Many other Syrians have similar stories.

Abdullah Resul Demir, president of International Refugee Rights Association, a volunteer-led NGO helping Syrians navigate the legalities of immigration, says some people have had to leave their families behind in Turkey when they’re deported. “We have faced many examples like that,” he said.

The Turkish interior ministry said such claims are unfounded and unacceptable.

For Shbeeb, two weeks after being returned, he smuggled himself back into Turkey, but was never able to get papers to officially stay. Earlier this month, he said he was picked up by immigration authorities on his way home from work in the city of Gaziantep, and promptly deported once again. All of his belongings are still in his Turkish apartment. He is now staying with a friend in Azaz, northwestern Syria. Ankara says the city is in a safe zone controlled by Turkish troops. But Shbeeb says it’s far from safe.

“There is bombing, sometimes from (US-backed Syrian opposition forces) or from even the (Assad) regime…. so no, it’s not a safe area at all,” he said.

Shbeeb says it wasn’t easy to integrate in Turkey, but he tried anyway. He had a well-paying job in Gaziantep (he now works remotely for the same company), he learned Turkish and made Turkish friends.

“Turkish people didn’t accept the integration of Syrians in their society. I think they suffer from fear of others – Arabs, Europeans, anyone who is not a Turk,” he said. “In six years, I didn’t feel like this society could accept me.”

Living in ‘ghettos’

Integration of Syrians has been a failure, according to Cenk Ozatici, deputy chairman of the secular, nationalist opposition Iyi (Good) Party. The party advocated the creation of conditions inside Syria that are safe enough to send back all Syrian asylum-seekers. Ozatici says the government never really planned for Syrians to stay long term, and the sheer volume of people meant integration was always impossible.

“It’s impossible because of cultural differences and historical issues. It’s even impossible sometimes, because of the difference in the interpretation of Islam. I know that many Western powers sometimes just think ‘you are Muslim, they are Muslim, so what’s the problem?’, but it’s not like that,” he said.

Ozatici believes that because many Syrians end up living in what he describes as “ghettos,” and because Turkish birth rates are so low, and asylum-seeker birth rates so high, “the demographic structure and identity of Turkish society is under threat.”

He is critical of a 2016 deal Turkey signed with the European Union that saw Ankara agree to take back migrants who crossed into Europe. He’s not alone. To varying degrees, most mainstream political parties in Turkey believe the solution lies in returning asylum-seekers to Syria.

“The solution should be found in Syria, by negotiating with the regime in Syria,” he said. “I care about Syrian women and children here, because ultimately they are humans. But I also care about my country and my city.”

A surfer’s leg that was severed by a shark attack on Tuesday later washed up on an Australian beach, where a police officer retrieved it and put on ice.

McKenzie tried to fight off the shark, which severed his right leg, and was able to ride a wave back to the beach, bleeding heavily, before the quick thinking of a retired police officer on a dog walk saved his life, 7News reported an official as saying.

“He used the lead from the dog as a tourniquet to wrap around the young man’s leg and essentially saved his life until paramedics got there,” said NSW Ambulance Service Hastings South duty manager Kirran Mowbray.

McKenzie underwent surgery at the John Hunter Hospital in the nearby city of Newcastle, where he remains in stable condition, according to a GoFund Me set up a neighbor of his family.

The severed leg was also taken to the hospital in case doctors were able to reattach it, 7News reported.

McKenzie was just returning to the waves after breaking his back last year, surfwear brand Rage, which sponsors him, said on Instagram.

“Sending love to … the toughest person that we know,” the company said. “He has been through a lot breaking his back last year, he never once complained always just got on with doing what he loved as soon as possible. He is an inspiring person.”

A long stretch of the beaches in Port Macquarie was closed for 24 hours after the shark attack, according to the town’s lifeguards, before they reopened on Wednesday afternoon.

Authorities are trying to track and identify the shark, NSW Police Chief Inspector Stuart Campbell said, according to 7News, using drones and SMART drumlines – a type of trap that can move sharks without killing them.

There are several shark monitoring devices on the coastline at Port Macquarie. These detected two white sharks in the area on Tuesday morning before the attack.

At least 18 people were killed after a small plane skidded off the runway in Nepal’s capital on Wednesday, according to local officials.

One person survived the Saurya Airlines crash, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. All aboard – 18 Nepalis and a Yemeni citizen – were employees of the carrier, according to police.

Images from Nepal police showed thick smoke billowing from the burning aircraft on the the airport runway.

The plane was en route for technical maintenance, he added.

“Rescue efforts were started immediately and the situation was brought under control,” the aviation authority said.

The crash once again highlights the dangers of air travel in Nepal, a country often referred to as one of the riskiest places to fly due to multiple factors including its mountainous terrain.

The Himalayan country, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains including Everest, has a record of air accidents. Its weather can change suddenly, and airstrips are typically sited in difficult-to-reach, mountainous areas.

Aircraft with 19 seats or fewer are more likely to have accidents due to these difficulties, according to a 2019 safety report from the Civil Aviation Authority.

While the country has made improvements in safety standards in recent years, challenges remain, and a lack of investment in aging aircraft only adds to the risks of flying.

Last year, Nepal saw its worst plane crash in more than 30 years when at least 68 people died when a Yeti Airlines flight went down near Pokhara.

In May 2022, a Tara Air flight departing from Pokhara crashed into a mountain, killing 22 people.

In early 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines flight from Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka to Kathmandu crashed on landing and caught fire, killing 51 people.

And in 2016, a Tara Air flight crashed while flying the same route as the 2023 crash.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon expressed regret on Wednesday after a public enquiry found some 200,000 children, young people and vulnerable adults were abused in state and religious care over the last 70 years.

Nearly one in three children and vulnerable adults in care from 1950 to 2019 experienced some form of abuse, the report found, a finding that could leave the government facing billions of dollars in fresh compensation claims.

“This is a dark and sorrowful day in New Zealand’s history as a society and as a state, we should have done better, and I am determined that we will do so,” Luxon told a news conference.

An official apology will follow on November 12, he added.

The report by Royal Commission of Inquiry spoke to over 2,300 survivors of abuse in New Zealand, which has a population of 5.3 million. The inquiry detailed a litany of abuses in state and faith-based care, including rape, sterilisation and electric shocks, which peaked in the 1970s.

Those from the Indigenous Maori community were especially vulnerable to abuse, the report found, as well as those with mental or physical disabilities.

Civil and faith leaders fought to cover up abuse by moving abusers to other locations and denying culpability, with many victims dying before seeing justice, the report added.

“It is a national disgrace that hundreds of thousands of children, young people and adults were abused and neglected in the care of the State and faith-based institutions,” the report said.

It made 138 recommendations, including calling for public apologies from New Zealand’s government, as well as the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, heads of the Catholic and Anglican churches respectively, who have previously condemned child abuse.

It also called for the government to set up a Care Safe Agency responsible for overseeing the industry, as well new legislation including mandatory reporting of suspected abuse, including admissions made during religious confession.

The report estimated the average lifetime cost to an abuse survivor, that is what New Zealanders would consider normal, day-to-day activities, was estimated in 2020 to be approximately NZ$857,000 ($511,200.50) per person, though the report did not make clear the amount of compensation available for survivors.

Luxon said he believed the total compensation due to survivors could run into billions of dollars.

“We’re opening up the redress conversations and we’re going through that work with survivor groups,” he said.

The inquiry also recommended payments to families who have been cared for by survivors of abuse due to the intergenerational trauma they suffered, as well as review of compensation paid in previous child abuse cases including at the state-run Lake Alice adolescent unit.

“The most important element is to recognise and acknowledge the survivors for the reality and the truth of their lives,” said Tracey McIntosh, a sociologist at the University of Auckland.