49th Ordinary Session of AU Executive Council Wraps Up in Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa, July 29, 2026 (ENA) —A two-day 49th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Executive Council concluded in Addis Ababa after high-level deliberations on the continent’s development priorities, institutional reforms, and sustainable financing.

The session, held under the African Union’s 2026 Theme of the Year, “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safely Managed Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063,” focused on the AU’s policy agenda ahead of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government.

The meeting also explored ways to forge coordinated strategies to address Africa’s pressing development challenges while accelerating the continent’s long-term vision for integration, prosperity, and sustainable development.

The opening ceremony was attended by senior African and international leaders, including African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gedion Timothewos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Claver Gatete, and Burundi’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation, Édouard Bizimana, who chaired the Executive Council session.

Foreign ministers from AU member states, senior government officials, diplomats, and representatives of regional and international organizations participated in the meeting.

During the two-day session, ministers deliberated on a wide range of strategic priorities aimed at deepening regional integration, strengthening cooperation among member states, and advancing the implementation of Agenda 2063, the African Union’s blueprint for an integrated, prosperous, and peaceful continent.

Key agenda items included reviewing progress in the implementation of Agenda 2063, assessing decisions and institutional frameworks adopted under both the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the African Union, and evaluating achievements made under the AU’s 2026 Theme of the Year.

The Executive Council also formulated policy recommendations and draft decisions for consideration and adoption by the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government, reinforcing its central role in shaping the continent’s political, economic, and development priorities.

African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf welcomed the decision on enhanced member-state contributions, describing it as a demonstration of the commitment to financing Africa’s development agenda despite prevailing global economic challenges.

“I want to seize this opportunity to thank Kenya and Ethiopia for their decision to join Tier 1. This shows that, with the conviction of our member states to move Agenda 2063 forward, the Commission will have the necessary resources,” he said.

“I am particularly encouraged by the decision of our member states to revise the scale of assessment. I know that this decision is a difficult one given the economic situation and the impact of the current geopolitical environment on the continent. As the economic situation is difficult for everybody, these efforts are truly appreciated.”

Closing the session, Executive Council Chairperson and Burundi’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation, Ambassador Édouard Bizimana, praised the spirit of consensus demonstrated throughout the meeting and said the latest financing commitments reflected growing African solidarity and determination to build a stronger and more self-sustaining Union.

“I want to express satisfaction at a major achievement, namely the sovereign decision of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Republic of Kenya to increase their annual contribution and join the first category, Tier 1, for 2027–2029 under the Harmonized Scale of Assessment. 

This exemplary gesture of African solidarity and Pan-Africanism reaffirms their unwavering commitment to sustainable financing and strengthens our collective resolve to build a strong, united African Union capable of financing its own ambitions,” Bizimana said.

The decisions adopted during the two-day session will now be transmitted for implementation across the African Union Commission, AU organs, and member states, while also shaping the agenda for the upcoming AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government.

The resolutions are expected to guide the Union’s work on institutional reform, sustainable financing, regional integration, peace and security, and the implementation of Agenda 2063 in the months ahead.

National Dialogue Conference Delegates Say Process Catalyst for Shared Consensus, Unity

Addis Ababa, July 30, 2026 (ENA) — Participants of the National Dialogue Conference said that they are freely forwarding ideas that build the nation and bring about national consensus.

With every perspective given equal weight, this collective process is playing a pivotal role in shaping long-term consensus.

The participants emphasized that the forum will lay a solid foundation for a stronger Ethiopia, offering immense promise to usher the country into a new chapter of enduring peace and prosperity.

One of the participants, Mohammed Amin Mahadi highlighted the inclusive nature of the national dialogue, noting that representatives from all walks of life are taking part in a free discussion. 

 He emphasized that participants are freely forwarding constructive ideas that strengthen nation-building efforts and forge national consensus.

With every perspective given equal weight, this collective dialogue is playing a vital role in building long-term consensus on critical national priorities.

Mohammed added that the forum lays a solid foundation for a stronger Ethiopia, offering immense promise to guide the country into a new era of enduring peace and development.

For his part, Gizaw Kebede noted that the dialogue is progressing smoothly across all levels by ensuring that every viewpoint is integrated into the discussions and extensive are held.

 Nebiyou Mihretu underscored the inclusive nature of the consultation process, which involved broad cross-section of the society.

He added that the process is actively building trust, unity, and a shared sense of purpose as delegates work together to craft constructive solutions for the nation's future.

 Nebiyou expressed deep confidence that the talks will deepen solidarity and brotherhood among all Ethiopians, ultimately paving the way for enduring peace.

Saudi Arabia Executes 5 Ethiopians Over Drug-related Charges, Rights Group Says

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

9:39 AM EDT, July 29, 2026

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Five Ethiopians were executed in Saudi Arabia this week on drug-related charges following a trial that allegedly did not follow due process and lasted a few minutes without a translator, according to Human Rights Watch.

The rights organization said Tuesday at least 79 other Ethiopians remain at imminent risk of execution on similar charges. It cited the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, which said at least 116 people have been executed this year.

Human Rights Watch said the five were charged with possessing hashish, a type of cannabis.

“Saudi authorities are executing marginalized Ethiopian migrants after court hearings that sometimes barely last a few minutes without a lawyer or a translator,” said Joey Shea, senior Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch. Many Ethiopians migrate to Gulf countries in search of work.

“Dozens of vulnerable migrants remain at risk of imminent execution after trials that were barely trials at all, in a system that treats their lives as disposable,” she said.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia in response to the report.

Saudi Arabia is one of several countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, that can levy the death penalty on drug-related charges. The kingdom remains one of the world’s top executioners behind China and Iran.

Last week, Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry said it remained “closely engaged” with Saudi authorities on matters affecting Ethiopians. The ministry said it was looking into individuals facing legal proceedings and judicial measures but did not specify whether they included people sentenced to death for drug offences.

In May, the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church appealed to Saudi authorities to halt the execution of Ethiopian nationals.

Tsehay Wolay, whose son Kidane Angesom was executed by Saudi authorities on April 21, said she heard the news through his cellmate.

“They murdered my son,” she lamented in an interview last month. “I can’t even receive my son’s corpse so I can bury him properly.”

Kidane, 32, had stayed in Saudi Arabia for nine years, four of them behind bars. His mother never got to know what he was accused of.

“If they were going to kill him, why was all that suffering necessary?” his mother asked.

Human Rights Watch said Saudi Arabia’s use of the death penalty is contrary to international human rights law, which upholds every human being’s “inherent right to life” and limits the death penalty to “the most serious crimes.”

Ugandan Opposition Leader Besigye is Unconscious in Hospital After Collapsing in Court, Wife Says

Ugandan opposition leader and four-time presidential candidate Kizza Besigye, second left centre, arrives in a civilian court in Kampala, Uganda on Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA

4:14 AM EDT, July 30, 2026

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been hospitalized and is unconscious after he collapsed during a courtroom session of his treason trial, according to his wife and others who are urging authorities to set him free after repeated bail denials.

Besigye fell in the dock on Wednesday while protesting his trial without lawyers of his own choosing, after authorities detained his main attorney, Erias Lukwago, and charged him with alleged failure to report acts of treason.

Besigye’s wife, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, said in a post on X that Besigye is unconscious in an intensive care unit at a public hospital in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. “Before he collapsed, he cried out that he was being injured,” she said.

Ingrid Turinawe, a close confidant of Besigye, told The Associated Press that she and others were not allowed to see Besigye at the Mulago Hospital.

“He is in the ICU, and he is not responding to anything,” she said, adding that Besigye’s personal physician was able to see him several hours after he collapsed.

A spokesperson for the Ugandan prison system didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The case against Besigye is controversial as Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and his son, military chief Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, have already weighed in against him.

Kainerugaba, alleging that Besigye plotted to kill his father, has previously described the opposition figure as “a dead man walking.” And Museveni himself has said Besigye must answer for “the very serious offenses he is alleged to have been planning.”

In recent days, prosecutors have moved to present evidence they say will prove Besigye and others plotted to overthrow the government. Besigye’s political party says the charges against him are fake and politically motivated.

Besigye, once Uganda’s most prominent opposition figure, last contested the presidency in 2016, later saying that elections were a waste of time in a country with an authoritarian leader who depends more on the armed forces.

Besigye went missing in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in November 2024 but was later presented before a military tribunal in Kampala to face charges related to threatening national security. The criminal case was transferred to a civilian court and the charge amended to treason, which carries the death penalty.

Besigye once was a trusted ally of Museveni in the guerrilla war that propelled him to power in 1986, and even served as Museveni’s personal doctor and military assistant.

He later became a fierce critic of the president, condemning what he saw as a descent into authoritarianism that betrayed the democratic promise of Museveni’s early years. Term and age limits on the presidency have since been scrapped.

Museveni, who won reelection in controversial polls in January, is serving a seventh consecutive term in office. Bobi Wine, Museveni’s main opponent in that election, has since gone into exile out of fear for his safety.

DR Congo Says the Death Toll in Fastest-growing Ebola Outbreak Has Passed 1,500

By PROSPER HERI NGORORA and MARK BANCHEREAU

11:05 AM EDT, July 30, 2026

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Ebola has killed more than 1,500 people in eastern Congo in the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease, data released Thursday showed, marking a 50% increase in around a week as the emergency continues to outpace response efforts.

As of Tuesday, 3,442 cases had been recorded, with 1,521 deaths, according to the latest government update. The sharp rise since last week partly reflects a backlog of cases and deaths that had not yet been confirmed or recorded, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

The outbreak, declared on May 15, has been linked to the Bundibugyo virus for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. Delays in contact tracing, difficulties accessing affected areas, mistrust from communities and violence by armed groups and some residents have hampered the response, the Africa CDC said.

The outbreak is mostly concentrated in eastern Congo’s remote Ituri province, which accounts for nearly 90% of cases, but there have been others confirmed in five provinces, including one of the country’s largest cities, Kisangani.

Neighboring Uganda declared itself free of Ebola on Tuesday following the discharge of the country’s last patient in mid-June.

Ebola is rare, but highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is severe and often fatal.

Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya said Thursday that 63% of confirmed deaths in the last two weeks occurred outside of treatment centers.

Kaseya said this is largely due to the “unsafe handling of infected bodies” by residents. Traditional burial practices in some communities involve touching the bodies of the deceased, which can be highly contagious.

The restrictions that health authorities have placed on such funerals, along with widespread misinformation asserting that the deadly virus isn’t real, have angered some residents and led to attacks on health facilities.

In Ituri’s Nyakunde health zone, international partners supporting the Ebola response had to temporarily relocate after a July 15 attack on a hospital and a treatment center, sparked by a patient’s death.

Officials say the relocation of these partners, including Africa CDC and Mercy Corps, has disrupted surveillance, contact tracing and supplies.

Dr. Désiré Duabo, chief medical officer for the health zone, said foreign aid groups and agencies had provided much of the supplies, equipment and operational support, and warned that the small stocks left are “almost depleted.”

Attacks such as the one in Nyakunde are causing anxiety among health workers and making it difficult for them to carry out their duties, said Pierre Akilimali, the Ebola response incident manager at the National Public Health Institute of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“They are working amidst risks of infection as well as risks to their personal safety,” he said.

Local health officials say security has since stabilized and are urging partners to return, with Africa CDC saying teams could redeploy as soon as next week.

The latest outbreak has killed more people at a quicker rate than any previous outbreak, including in 2014-2016 when 28,000 cases were reported, of which over 11,000 people died. That outbreak took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

The World Health Organization says the global risk of spread remains low because Ebola does not travel through the air, making it much harder to spread than respiratory viruses. Cases detected outside the affected region have so far been quickly identified and contained without leading to sustained transmission, the agency said.

In Congo, however, the risk of the spread remains “very high,” according to the WHO.

——

Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.

Ebola Outbreak Is Now the Second-Deadliest Ever, and in Record Time

The disease has killed more than 1,500 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in just over two months, causing deaths faster than officials have ever recorded.

By Zane Irwin and Stephanie Nolen

July 30, 2026

3:40 p.m. ET

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has already become the second-worst on record, and it is spreading much faster than previous outbreaks, the nation’s health ministry reported on Thursday.

The official death toll has jumped to 1,521 people in fewer than three months. Put another way, the species of Ebola behind the current outbreak, Bundibugyo, has killed more than five times as many people as previous outbreaks did in the same amount of time, officials from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said at a press briefing on Thursday.

The last outbreak, which began in 2018 and was declared over in 2020, took more than 10 months to reach the same death toll.

“I’m not in a position to tell you we are in total control of this outbreak today,” said Dr. Jean Kaseya, the director general of the Africa C.D.C.

The virus ripping through eastern Congo is on pace to surpass the number of infections and deaths of the 2014-2016 Ebola crisis in West Africa, the worst outbreak ever that killed more than 11,000 people.

On Tuesday, Uganda, which borders Congo, declared an end to its related Bundibugyo outbreak after four weeks with no new cases. There were 20 cases and three deaths in Uganda.

Swift action and rigorous contact tracing in Uganda are credited with quickly controlling its outbreak. But across the border in Congo, the situation is rapidly deteriorating.

Since the current outbreak was first declared in May, Congo has confirmed 3,442 cases. As of Wednesday, the nation’s health ministry had counted 797 people who were hospitalized or in isolation. More than 80 percent of beds in treatment centers are occupied, and officials warn they could soon be overwhelmed.

Early surveillance and testing failed to spot the disease’s emergence, delaying the response. Tracing the virus was also made harder by fighting in eastern Congo that has displaced millions of people.

Africa C.D.C. officials said on Thursday that contact tracing efforts remained far off target. More than 80 percent of new cases in the epicenter of the disease were “not linked to known contacts,” officials said.

Every confirmed case from an urban area is expected to have 40 contacts, which means the current roster of exposed people being followed should be 134,400 people. Instead, it’s only 17,558 people, just 13 percent of what it should be.

And of those on the list, about a fifth are not being followed, either because there is a lack of health personnel to do the job or because armed conflict makes it impossible to check on them regularly.

Sixty percent of those who have died of the virus succumbed in a community, not in a health center, Dr. Kaseya said, in another indicator that the virus is spreading unchecked.

Efforts to save lives and slow the virus are nevertheless progressing.

While there are no vaccines or treatments for Bundibugyo, clinical trials of possible treatments, and of a drug that could prevent infection in people exposed to the virus, have begun in Congo. More than 40 patients are testing a combination of therapeutics.

And in a separate trial, 19 people have been started on a 10-day course of an experimental anti-viral drug to prevent people exposed to the virus from getting sick. This trial aims to enroll 1,200 people. If data analysis after 600 patients show promising results, the goal will be to extend access to the drug to all contacts.

“This is the hope we have,” Dr. Kaseya said.

In addition, a clinical trial of a first-ever vaccine for Bundibugyo began at Oxford University this month, where the first of 50 adult volunteers was immunized and will be monitored for vaccine safety.

On Thursday, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations announced that it would fund a Singapore-based research firm, Hilleman Laboratories, to develop another potential vaccine and make doses for testing. The goal is to get it into swift clinical trials in Congo. This vaccine uses the technology behind one made by Merck, already approved by regulatory agencies to prevent another species of Ebola.

Zane Irwin is an international reporter and a member of the 2026-27 Times Fellowship, a program for journalists early in their careers.

Stephanie Nolen is a global health reporter for The Times.

State Department Map Mislabels African Countries at AIDS Conference

Nigeria, a coastal country in western Africa, was landlocked in the Sahara, among other errors. The department said it had been “hastily altered.”

A projector screen showing a map below a title saying “Current APS Funding Opportunities.” The map shows the continent Africa, with several countries highlighted in different colors.  

A map presented by the State Department at AIDS 2026, a conference in Brazil this week. Credit...Picture Obtained By Reuters/UGC

By Remy Tumin

July 30, 2026

3:53 p.m. ET

A senior health official with the State Department presenting at an international AIDS conference in Brazil this week used a map of Africa to illustrate U.S. government funding for H.I.V. programs on the continent.

There was only one problem. The map incorrectly identified several African countries:

Nigeria, a coastal country in western Africa, was landlocked in the Sahara;

Mozambique, a coastal state in southeastern Africa, was similarly landlocked and relocated to the Horn of Africa;

Ivory Coast, a coastal country in western Africa, was made into a southern African state;

Uganda and Malawi were roughly in the correct vicinity of the continent, but the borders were inaccurate.

The legend also referenced Cameroon, but the map did not include the country.

The map appeared to show where the State Department might direct health grants during a pre-conference event at AIDS 2026, which is being hosted by the International AIDS Society in Rio de Janeiro. The session focused on the status of U.S. government relations with governments in Africa.

An analysis by Reuters, which obtained images from the session, found that the map contained an artificial intelligence watermark associated with tools from OpenAI. Screenshots of the map were first published ​in a Substack post by Emily Bass, an AIDS expert and writer, and were widely shared on LinkedIn.

The State Department called the misprint “an unfortunate error” in a statement and said it resulted from a team member who “hastily altered” a slide before the presentation. The department said it took “full responsibility” for the misprint.

Kenneth Ngure, the president-elect of the International AIDS Society, called the use of the map at the conference “disheartening.”

“African countries must be taken seriously,” he said in a statement. “The African continent continues to bear the greatest burden of the H.I.V. pandemic, and our focus must now return to advancing the H.I.V. response.”

The Trump administration’s cuts to the largest global H.I.V. program last year have resulted in drastic drops in both prevention efforts and treatment. The program, known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, supported treatment for about 77,000 fewer children in 2025 than it had the previous year, a 14 percent decline, according to a study, the results of which are expected to be presented at the conference this week.

A State Department spokesman said the department was shifting away from a “legacy assistance model” to “genuine country ownership.”

Spain Mobilizes Military as Thousands of Migrants Cross Into Ceuta

The arrivals in Ceuta, a six-mile-long peninsula on Morocco’s northern coast that Spain has governed for centuries, have fueled political tensions.

Thousands of Migrants Cross Into Spain’s North African Territory

By Jason Horowitz

July 30, 2026

8:25 p.m. ET

Thousands of migrants climbed over a border fence or swam onto the shores of Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on Thursday, prompting a mobilization of the Spanish military and fueling political tensions on the Spanish mainland.

In recent days, 1,500 migrants had entered Ceuta, a six-mile-long peninsula on Morocco’s northern coast that Spain has governed for centuries, according to the area’s president, Juan Jesús Vivas. At least 18 people have died attempting to enter the territory, a spokesman for the Spanish government said on Thursday.

The arrivals were so numerous — and the potential political and security ramifications so serious — that the Spanish government on Thursday evening said that it had mobilized its armed forces to reinforce the police in Ceuta. It said in a statement that it was dispatching military platoons to enforce border security, increasing air and naval support, and sending diving teams to patrol the waters. The European Union offered to send Spain support from Frontex, its border and Coast Guard agency, to reestablish order.

“We are in a situation of total humanitarian and social emergency,” Mr. Vivas told a Spanish radio station on Thursday.

On Thursday evening, the Ceuta government added in a statement that “this is an unprecedented situation that is testing our institutional response capacity and causing profound concern among the entire citizenry.” Fernando Rodríguez Contreras, an official in the government, said the working estimate for the number of people who had crossed was in the tens of thousands, though that figure could not be confirmed.

Migration at Ceuta, and at Melilla, another autonomous Spanish city in North Africa, has long been a point of tension between Morocco and Spain. The two areas constitute the European Union’s sole land border with Africa, and can draw large numbers of young men and other migrants seeking to enter the bloc. More than 10,000 people came over the border in two days in 2021, when the migration crisis reached its peak. In 2022, at least 23 migrants died in a stampede during an attempted mass crossing in Melilla. Many others have died at sea.

It was unclear on Thursday evening what had prompted the latest amassing of people in Ceuta. Analysts said it was too soon to draw conclusions but that Morocco, which controls migration flows across the border, may have been upset about Spain’s recent effort to deepen ties with Algeria. Right-wing critics blamed the Spanish government’s new plan to give undocumented migrants already in the country a path to legal status for attracting illegal arrivals.

What is clear is that the border, on the African mainland, has also been a major source of domestic political tension for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez — both with anti-immigrant and conservative political opponents who accuse him of being lax on border control as well as pro-immigrant advocates who criticize the government for harsh immigration enforcement tactics.

Unlike the United States and some European neighbors defined by tough immigration stances, Spain’s left-wing government has projected an image of itself as the West’s new melting pot. It has embraced immigrants, especially Latin Americans who speak Spain’s language, share its religion and understand its culture. Some activists have argued that the warm welcome doesn’t extend to many Africans, and that Spain has a complicated historical relationship with Morocco, which accounts for the largest number of legal immigrants to Spain.

But the government made clear on Thursday that the high volume of illegal crossings was not part of its vision.

“The Spanish government is fully committed to providing an immediate response to the situation in Ceuta,” Mr. Sánchez wrote on social media on Thursday, as Spanish television stations broadcast footage of overwhelmed Spanish authorities watching as thousands of excited migrants streamed by.

The right-wing opposition seized the moment.

“This is an invasion,” said Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right party Vox, who accused Mr. Sánchez’s government of purposefully inviting in the migrants, who he suggested, without evidence, were criminals and rapists and potential left-wing voters.

The leading opposition party took a more measured tone but called on Mr. Sánchez to declare a national emergency.

“The situation in Ceuta is desperate,” said Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who leads the conservative Popular Party. “The government cannot shirk its responsibilities.”

Spain, eager to keep good relations with Morocco, in part to maintain its cooperation in deterring migrant arrivals, has downplayed criticism of the Moroccan government, saying that Morocco is helping prevent more people from entering Spanish territory. The Spanish government also said in a statement that it was directing more resources to the border, where the overwhelmed Spanish police and emergency services had been forced to focus only on treating those injured during the crossing.

Mr. Vivas, the Ceuta president, said the area’s reception centers and facilities for unaccompanied minors were overflowing.

Spain’s interior ministry said human-smuggling networks were seizing on a recent Supreme Court decision to encourage migrants to try to enter Europe through Spain. That decision barred the summary return of migrants intercepted at sea ​while attempting to reach the Spanish territories.

Spanish news media reports from Ceuta described some of those who had successfully completed the sea crossing as exhausted from the journey and near death, but others as jubilant, cheering “Long live Spain!” as they tossed flip-flops in the air or knelt to kiss Spanish soil.

But the footage of thousands of people, the vast majority of them young men, walking unencumbered onto Spanish territory touched a nerve for some in Spain and throughout Europe.

“The protection of the Union’s external borders is a crucial part of our efforts to fight illegal migration,” Magnus Brunner, the European Union’s commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, wrote on social media. “We are in contact with the relevant authorities on the evolving situation in Ceuta.”

Carlos Barragán contributed reporting from Madrid

Jason Horowitz is the Madrid bureau chief for The Times, covering Spain, Portugal and the way people live throughout Europe.

Mamdani Leaves Door Open to Paying Reparations to Black New Yorkers

The mayor said in recent interviews that it was important to acknowledge the city’s role in slavery but that he could not commit to payouts before his racial equity commission completes its report.

Zohran Mamdani smiles as he glances to his left while striding into a room for a news conference.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said this week that New York City’s effort to determine potential reparations was “critically important.” Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

By Jeffery C. Mays

July 30, 2026, 7:53 p.m. ET

Add The New York Times on Google 

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said this week that he supported reparations efforts in New York City but that it was too early to commit to making monetary payouts to descendants of slavery.

In a recent interview on The Root, Mr. Mamdani was asked whether he would support cash reparations if the city’s Commission on Racial Equity, which is currently studying the matter, recommended them. The mayor said he would have to wait for the commission’s report but acknowledged the city’s complicity in slavery.

“We often think about slavery and the complicity in slavery as being exclusively to certain geographic areas of the country,” Mr. Mamdani told the former New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow in the interview. “Here in New York City, we were very complicit. And so, I look forward to whatever those findings are.”

“I can’t give you an answer in advance of them,” the mayor continued, “but I can tell you that this is critically important because this is also what it looks like to acknowledge what history truly was.”

He told Mr. Blow that he stood by a pledge, written when he was running for mayor, that he would support the descendants of slavery in, as the pledge states, “rectifying historical discrimination” and “repairing ongoing inequalities.”

In another interview this week on Sirius XM’s Urban Views channel, Mr. Mamdani said that “if we are taking an honest and accurate approach to what New York City’s role was, you will see that complicity is something that cannot be debated.”

When asked about the mayor’s recent comments, Jeremy Edwards, a spokesman for the mayor, said Mr. Mamdani’s statements spoke for themselves.

There are currently separate city and state commissions studying reparations and reconciliation. In 2023, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law creating the New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies to study the legacy of slavery and the ongoing impact on descendants dealing with extreme wealth gaps and other social issues that are the consequences of the loss of generational wealth. The group is not expected to release its findings for at least two years.

The New York City Commission on Racial Equity, created in 2022 by public ballot, is also studying reparations and creating “a public process for truth, healing and reconciliation” that will offer New Yorkers a way to “publicly acknowledge the history and harm of slavery,” according to the commission.

The group is expected to issue a report on its plans for the truth, healing and reconciliation process next June and the reparations study the following month.

The Commission on Racial Equity has recently clashed with Mr. Mamdani regarding the release of the city’s first legally mandated racial equity report.

The commission criticized the administration for not including crucial elements required by city law, such as a plan to increase racial equity in budgeting and policymaking. It also took issue with the deletion of references to diversity, equity and inclusion in the report, done to avoid antagonizing the Trump administration, which has systematically dismantled diversity and equity initiatives.

Tyrik Washington, a strategist for the commission who is helping to lead the reparations study, said the mayor was right to not jump ahead of the commission as it carefully studies the issue and develops a plan for reparations and a legal and educational arm to fight for them.

“You can’t talk about the question of affordability without talking about the racial wealth gap,” Mr. Washington said. “You can’t talk about question of the racial wealth gap without talking about reparations.”

“You don’t get Mamdani without the fight for reparations,” he added.

Keris Lové, the organizing strategist for New Yorkers for Reparations, a statewide coalition, says that many people regard slavery as a “footnote that happened, instead of being recognized as the root of everything that was built afterward.”

She said she preferred an approach in which cash reparations and other changes, such as investments in housing or education, were both on the table.

“We know that there’s immediate needs right now,” said Ms. Lové. “We also know that if we don’t fix the structural issues, the next generation of Black New Yorkers will still find themselves at the bottom of the caste system.”

New York was a focal point of slavery in the country. New York City had more enslaved Africans before the American Revolution than any other U.S. city except Charleston, S.C., according to the governor’s office.

New York is the financial capital of the world in part because of the benefit it derived from the slave trade. Enslaved Africans were traded at a market on Wall Street. Banking, insurance and shipping also flourished in the city because of chattel slavery. New York abolished slavery in 1827.

Anthony Vidal Torres, the director of communications at Get Free, a group dedicated to making reparations a national issue, said, “We know that entities like Citibank, New York Life Insurance and some others that have been here since the early days of the colony that became New York directly made their founding profits on the financing of enslavement.”

Jeffery C. Mays is a Times reporter covering politics with a focus on New York City Hall.

Trump Threatens to Withdraw Blanche as Attorney General, Dealing Blow to Nomination

President Trump’s threat followed a day of fruitless negotiations with two Republican holdouts, Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis.

By Glenn Thrush Michael Gold and Carl Hulse

Reporting from Washington

July 30, 2026

6:27 p.m. ET

Todd Blanche’s nomination to become attorney general suffered a serious blow on Thursday when President Trump threatened to withdraw Mr. Blanche’s name rather than place limits on a tax immunity deal that would benefit himself and his family, as demanded by two Republican senators.

Mr. Trump’s threat, posted on social media, followed 24 hours of frenetic and fruitless negotiations among Mr. Blanche, the White House and the two senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who are not returning to Congress next year.

“I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office,” Mr. Trump wrote, in a fight that has exposed the limits of his power over Congress.

That set off a late-day scramble to rescue Mr. Blanche’s nomination, and the semblance of intraparty, interbranch comity. Mr. Tillis and Mr. Cornyn met privately with Mr. Blanche Thursday afternoon in the offices of the National Republican Senatorial Committee near the Capitol. It was not immediately clear if they broke the impasse.

Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Tillis object to a deal negotiated by Mr. Blanche and Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers to resolve a lawsuit the president had filed against the I.R.S. The deal gave Mr. Trump, his family and his businesses broad immunity against I.R.S. audits, potentially saving them at least $100 million in penalties. Democrats and even some Republican lawmakers criticized the deal as a giveaway to the Trump family.

The two senators want to narrow the deal in order to advance Mr. Blanche’s nomination, demanding that he put in writing what he acknowledged at his confirmation hearing: that the provision applies to only Mr. Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization, and that it would be limited to audits of past tax returns. But the administration so far has refused.

Mr. Blanche cannot afford a single Republican defection on the Senate Judiciary Committee if he hopes to advance his confirmation to the Senate floor. The opposition of Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Tillis leaves him two short, forcing the committee to scrap its scheduled vote on Thursday.

Mr. Trump would have ways to allow Mr. Blanche, the president’s former top defense lawyer, to effectively remain as acting attorney general indefinitely.

But the fact that some Republicans, emboldened by Mr. Trump’s declining popularity and alarmed by his lack of concern for their own political fortunes, even temporarily derailed a flagship nominee raised questions about Mr. Trump’s capacity to sustain the dominance over congressional Republicans that has allowed him to exert unmediated control over the department.

Mr. Trump’s threat is unusual, in at least two respects. First, there is no guarantee that Republicans will maintain their commanding majority in the upper chamber, or be more willing to accede to his demands after the midterms. Second, pulling Mr. Blanche’s nomination, even temporarily, would demonstrate Mr. Trump’s willingness to advance his personal interests over the institutional stability embodied by a Senate-confirmed attorney general.

The tax deal, tacked onto a Blanche-backed plan to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who said they were victims of unfair prosecution by the government, pushed Senate Republicans to the brink. The fund raised the possibility of the government making gigantic payments to the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, and forced Mr. Blanche to declare it was dead, even as he declined to put that commitment in writing. But he gave no ground on the tax immunity deal.

At a closed-door meeting in May, several Republican senators browbeat Mr. Blanche for signing off on a wide-ranging agreement they saw as a vast conflict of interest that would be perceived by voters as an effort to line the pockets of Mr. Trump, his family and his political allies.

Mr. Trump nonetheless cast the objections as a personal vendetta against him. He accused Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Tillis of a sour-grapes revolt aimed at punishing him for withholding his kingmaker endorsement in their contested Republican primaries. Mr. Tillis decided not to seek another term after repeated public attacks from the president, while Mr. Cornyn lost his re-election bid to a challenger backed by Mr. Trump.

“John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee, who will remain, in any event, as Acting,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

Mr. Cornyn quickly pushed back, suggesting that he and Mr. Tillis represented a much larger group of Senate Republicans who had reservations about the implications of the tax deal, but could not incur the political risk to publicly oppose the White House that their status afforded them.

“There are more than just two people who have reservations about the weaponization fund and about the scope of the settlement decree,” Mr. Cornyn said. “And you know, after the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?”

“This is not popular,” Mr. Tillis said at the Capitol. “The president’s not winning on this issue. It is killing some of our candidates because they can’t explain it. And now, it looks like they weren’t being honest when they said it was inoperative.”

Before Mr. Trump’s social media post, Mr. Cornyn told reporters that he believed “higher-ups at the White House” were blocking efforts to reach a deal to modify the settlement in Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against the I.R.S.

Mr. Cornyn said he had sent a proposal to the Justice Department that included limits on the provision in the settlement protecting Mr. Trump from I.R.S. audits, a guarantee he said he needed before voting to advance Mr. Blanche’s confirmation.

“I thought we were pretty close to landing the plane last night,” Mr. Cornyn said. “But this morning there’s been some more complications.”

Doubling down on his critique of the White House, Mr. Cornyn said pulling Mr. Blanche’s nomination would not resolve the president’s problems over the Senate confirmation. “I think the D.O.J. needs a Senate-confirmed attorney general,” he said. “And Todd Blanche is probably about as good as we’re going to get.”

Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who serves on the Judiciary Committee, said on Thursday that he was not surprised that the president said he may temporarily pull Mr. Blanche’s nomination.

“Obviously, the White House did not want to comply with what Cornyn and Tillis wanted,” he said.

The tax provision, signed by Mr. Blanche and dated May 19, appeared to be twofold. It ordered the I.R.S. to drop any criminal investigations or audits of Mr. Trump, his family and their businesses, as well as any “affiliated individuals.” It also told the agency to not start any new investigations into tax returns they had already filed.

Mr. Cornyn wants Mr. Blanche, in writing, to limit who receives protection. Only Mr. Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization should be subject to the order, Mr. Cornyn has said. That would mean that other members of Mr. Trump’s family beyond Don Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as other companies they work with, would no longer be potentially covered by Mr. Blanche’s order.

Mr. Cornyn also wants Mr. Blanche to clarify that the I.R.S. must abandon only audits of past tax returns — meaning that Mr. Trump could still be audited in the future — and state that the I.R.S. is the only agency bound by the order.

During his confirmation hearing this month, Mr. Blanche, under questioning by Mr. Cornyn, verbally conceded all three points. But, so far, he has been unwilling to reflect that in writing.

Even with Mr. Cornyn’s requested changes, the audit protection for Mr. Trump would still be an unprecedented gift to a sitting president, effectively exempting him from the legal requirement for all Americans to comply with the nation’s tax laws — or face I.R.S. scrutiny.

Mr. Trump and his family members have aggressively avoided taxes for years, repeatedly facing I.R.S. audits as a result. Just one known dispute with the agency, which was still going on before Mr. Blanche’s order, could have cost Mr. Trump more than $100 million if the I.R.S. prevailed.

Andrew Duehren, Maggie Haberman and Olivia Diaz contributed reporting.

Trump Administration Reportedly Considering Military Operations in Mali

These attacks are purportedly being planned against an Islamist rebel grouping, yet the military government has been a target of the West along with neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)

By Abayomi Azikiwe

Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Wednesday July 29, 2026

Geopolitical Analysis

In a recent Washington Post article, it reports that the United States administration of President Donald Trump has been weighing possible military strikes in the West African state of Mali. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/07/22/trump-administration-weighs-military-options-mali-officials-say/)

The purported airstrikes would be aimed at the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliated rebel grouping who have been involved in numerous armed attacks on the central government in Mali.

Earlier the JNIM grouping had established a fuel blockade against the southern capital city of Bamako. The Malian government has broken military ties with the former colonial power of France and is now relying on security assistance from the Russian-based Africa Corps.

Since late 2023, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have operated under the Liptako-Gourma Charter which was formed by the AES. There is cooperation between these three landlocked states on the military, security and economic level.

Since the expulsion of French and US troops from the AES, both Paris and Washington have been hostile towards this West African alliance which has broken with the decades-old Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). However, the Trump administration which took power for the second non-consecutive term during January 2025, has engaged the Malian government around providing intelligence assistance against the JNIM.

During the early months of 2026, the JNIM launched a joint attack with the Tuareg separatist group, the Azawad Liberation Front, on several northern and southern regions of the country. The Minister of Defense was killed in the attacks. Rebels were able to penetrate the capital of Bamako attacking the airport and the military headquarters.

Although the attacks were repelled by the Malian military with the assistance of the Africa Corps, the threats still remain. Any US involvement in Mali or any other AES country should be examined critically.

There is widespread agreement among various geopolitical analysts and historians that the origins of al-Qaeda are within US intelligence during the Washington-led attempts to overthrow the socialist-oriented government in Afghanistan during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In subsequent years, al-Qaeda has taken responsibility for numerous bombings which resulted in many deaths primarily of civilians. 

The September 11, 2001 attacks which destroyed the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City have been attributed to al-Qaeda. 19 men, many of whom were from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, hijacked four planes crashing them into the WTC and the Pentagon. One of the planes went down in the state of Pennsylvania. 

Thousands of people were killed in these attacks including the entire crews and passengers on the flights. The 19 al-Qaeda operatives were all killed during the operation and therefore the hijackers, using knives and box cutters, could not be interrogated on their motivations. 

The 9-11 attacks in 2001 provided a rationale for the massive bombing and invasion by the Pentagon into Afghanistan. Although none of the individuals identified as the rebels responsible for the hijackings were from Afghanistan, this same country which had been targeted for destabilization under socialism then became the culprits in the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon then being dominated by the Taliban, an Islamist movement. 

Under the leadership of then President George W. Bush, Jr. in 2001, the occupation war against Afghanistan was launched. A US-backed regime was installed and coordinated for two decades.

In 2021, the US was forced to withdraw from Afghanistan under the then President Joe Biden. Consequently, after a 20-year occupation and the deaths of thousands of Afghans and US troops along with its NATO allies, the operation was considered a complete failure which resulted in the triumph of the Taliban whom established the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan which is still in place after five years.

Mali Operation Would Also be Disastrous

One important factor to consider involving the situation in Mali and the AES countries is the role of the US in destabilizing the state through the Washington-backed regime in Ukraine. Reports during 2024 revealed that Ukraine had provided assistance to the Malian rebels in their operations. (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/8/malis-spat-with-kyiv-is-the-russia-ukraine-war-spilling-over-into-africa)

Since the Africa Corps was aiding the Mali government of General Assimi Goita, the Ukrainian regime began to boast about its operational support to JNIM. These developments prompted the severing of diplomatic relations between Kyiv and Bamako. 

Therefore, why would the US offer to provide intelligence assistance to Mali at this stage? Obviously, Washington would want to lure Bamako back into the western imperialist camp. In previous years, Mali had housed troops from the US Africa Command (AFRICOM). In addition to the presence of AFRICOM, France had intervened with thousands of troops in early 2013 under the guise of fighting terrorism.

Yet the problems of rebel insurgencies in Mali took place after the US-backed counter-revolution in the North African state of Libya. The Islamist rebel groupings were utilized by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), NATO and the Pentagon as ground troops while the imperialists and their allies bombed Libya from the air for eight months.

Tens of thousands of Libyans were killed while two million were displaced. Longtime leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi and other Libyan leaders were killed in targeted assassinations during 2011. The US under the administration of then President Barack Obama took full responsibility for the overthrow of the Jamahiriya administration under Gaddafi and the consequent destruction of what was Africa’s most prosperous state. 

Many of these rebels then fled into Mali initiating a destabilization policy in this neighboring state as well. Therefore, the current security crisis in Mali and the other AES countries is the direct result of the interventions by the US, France and other NATO states. 

Operation Barkane, a French military and intelligence operation, brought in several regional states ostensibly to counter the rebel insurgents. However, between 2013 and 2020 the security situation in the Sahel states worsened. In 2020, Goita and his allies took power and began to reorient the security apparatus of Mali.

The Malian military government rightfully began to blame France and other NATO states as being responsible for the destabilization in the region. Russia was asked to assist Mali in security matters. Diplomatic relations were strengthened between the AES and the Russian Federation.

Any dialogue between Bamako and Washington around security questions could never be beneficial to the people of Mali and the AES. The same justification for interventions by Washington has taken on similar story line as in Mali. 

In Libya there was the false claims that the Gaddafi government was planning a massacre of the people in Benghazi where the counter-revolution was started. Afghanistan was said to have been a threat to US and world security. At present, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been accused of attempting to build nuclear weapons. The genocide against the Palestinians is falsely justified by accusing them of being terrorists. After the killings of more than 73,000 Palestinians, the US government refuses to condemn the State of Israel for violations of the Genocide Convention while still supplying the zionists with billions of dollars in weapons and diplomatic assistance. 

There Can be No Peace Under Imperialism and Neo-colonialism

The only way peace can be achieved in West Africa and West Asia is for the people themselves to take control of their security apparatus and to remove imperialist influence from these geopolitical regions. Despite the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the US and the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Trump administration does not want to accept defeat in their failed attempt at fomenting a counter-revolution in Tehran.

Mali and other AES governments have pledged to maintain their transformational process of nationalizing industries and reforming trade regulations to benefit the people of the region. Even though the western imperialists have continued to back the rebels waging war on the AES countries, the economic situation has improved in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.

The events in the AES should serve as a lesson to all 55 member-states of the African Union (AU). Until the continent can unite to form its own formidable security apparatuses and independent foreign policy and economic programs, the region will remain under neo-colonialism and its consequent indebtedness, underdevelopment and deepening impoverishment.

Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Featured on 1+1 Discussing the History and Contemporary Affairs of the Republic of Seychelles

Watch this brief introduction (part one) to an all-things Africa episode of 1+1 featuring Abayomi Azikiwe, editor and publisher of the Pan-African News Wire, along with host Youri Smouter discussing the history and contemporary affairs of the Republic of Seychelles. 

To view part one introductory remarks on this topic just click on this link: 1+1 E399 Youri & Abayomi Azikiwe on Seychelles Islands, Marxism, sectarianism, Korea & Japan 1 of 2

To watch the extended part two go to the following URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTmY9fPAcqk

The program reviews the history of the archipelago of more than 100 islands located off the east coast of Africa which can be dated back for centuries. 

After the 16th century there was the colonial intervention of Portugal, France and Britain. 

A liberation movement which represents the masses of Africans on the territories emerged after World War II. 

The independence movement after dissolving British colonial rule in 1976 soon turned left for many years. 

Despite its challenges, the Republic of Seychelles has a high human quality of life rating. The population is estimated to be 135,000. 

In addition, we discuss the theoretical development of socialist thought over the last 180 years. 

We look back on Karl Marx, Frederich Engels, V.I. Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Rosa Luxumburg, Sylvia Pankhurst, Joseph Stalin, etc. 

We continued by analyzing the imperialist invasion of the Korean Peninsula in June 1950, the role of the People's Republic of China, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the Comecon sector among other geopolitical regions.

Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Meets and Has Photo Taken with War Veterans and Persons of Wartime Merit

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, met war veterans and persons of wartime merit, who took part in the celebrations of the 73rd anniversary of the victory in the Fatherland Liberation War, and shared warm feelings with them on July 28.

War veterans and persons of wartime merit were filled with boundless emotion and joy as they were honoured to enjoy the moment of happiness and glory they had wished for even in their dreams after taking part in the splendid celebrations of the Day of Victory in Pyongyang, the capital city of the DPRK.

When the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un appeared, all the participants paid their sincere respects and gratitude to the most brilliant commander and great father who has been glorifying the tradition of victory and heroic spirit of July 27, both of which symbolize the immortal honour of the DPRK, from one century to the next and inspiringly ushering in a new era of building a rich country with a strong army for which all the generations of this land are yearning.

Comrade Kim Jong Un warmly waved back to war veterans and persons of wartime merit, the defenders who wrote the first page in the history of the great power at the cost of their blood and the benefactors who provided the spiritual mainstay of our country which will be powerful forever.

He said that the annual celebrations to splendidly mark July 27, the Day of Victory, together with the wartime generation serve as a significant occasion of steadily instilling into the hearts of the descendants the spirit of self-respect which was fully displayed in the heroic annals and the truth of sure victory which can never be bartered for anything, and as a strong encouragement to the struggle for a fresh victory.

It is a great pleasure for and encouragement to our Party, state and people that the victorious wartime generation, who recorded in history the heroic position and reputation of our country which should be glorified through generations, are still standing before us as the personifiers of and witnesses to the miraculous victory, he noted.

He had a photo taken with war veterans and persons of wartime merit to be recorded forever in the history of succession, expressing his firm will to reliably carry forward the great and excellent features and the legend of the most righteous power created amidst the gunfire of the hard-fought war in the 1950s as the lineage of the ever-victorious Korean revolution, and thus powerfully hasten the building of the prosperous power that the heroic wartime generation envisioned.

Comrade Kim Jong Un warmly shook hands with the participants who tried to be the first to meet him with their eyes in tears of emotion and repeatedly hoped that precious war veterans and persons of wartime merit, who play the role of the inexhaustible strength and spiritual mainstay that nobody can perform in their place even today when their hair turned grey, would be full of energy despite their advanced ages.

KCNA

2026-07-29

First Enlarged Meeting of Ninth WPK Central Military Commission Held

The First Enlarged Meeting of the Ninth Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea was held on July 9.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Chairman of the WPK Central Military Commission and President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, guided the meeting.

Present there were members of the WPK Central Military Commission and, as observers, major commanding officers of the Ministry of National Defence, military and political commanding officers of the large combined units at all levels of the Korean People’s Army and officials of relevant departments of the WPK Central Committee.

The meeting discussed important political and military tasks for bolstering up the politico-ideological and military technical might of the People’s Army and bringing about a qualitative change in strengthening the combat readiness of the army units at all levels since the strategic orientation, goals and policies for building the armed forces to reflect the present military and political situation and the requirements of the times were set forth at the Ninth Congress of the WPK and the Second Plenary Meeting of the Ninth Central Committee of the WPK.

Saying that the prestige, honour and destiny of socialist Korea are unthinkable apart from the powerful defence capabilities, Comrade Kim Jong Un stated that the security and peace of the country and the people cannot be defended with the will alone and that only when we build the strong army and control all and contain threats with its powerful strength, can we achieve the true peace.

The People’s Army should invariably play a leading and core role not only in defending socialism but also in the struggle for comprehensive development of the state, he stressed, saying that the far-reaching plan for and confidence in the future struggle are based on the absolute trust in our army.

He declared that it is our Party’s steadfast policy on building a powerful army to turn the People’s Army into a strong army united in one mind sharing the ideas and intention with the Party Central Committee and to develop it into invincible armed forces by steadily strengthening its politico-ideological mightiness and spiritual-moral and military technical superiority.

Stressing the need to thoroughly put the People’s Army on a field warfare and modern basis and enhance its actual war capability, he advanced the important tasks facing the army units at all levels.

The meeting decided on the issue for upgrading the technical infrastructure of combat systems, bolstering up the nuclear force both in quality and quantity and pushing ahead with the plan for standardizing, specializing and modernizing military bases in a far-sighted way. And it confirmed the specific orientation and ways for bringing about a substantial change in the training sector and putting constant spurs to the revolution in military education.

The meeting suggested tasks and ways for expanding in a many-sided way the functions and missions of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance and Intelligence, which plays a pivotal role in controlling the potential enemies’ threats and gathering key information, and enhancing its capability of military reconnaissance and intelligence activities in a radical way.

The meeting also confirmed the direction of activities of the People’s Army and its detailed tasks to accelerate the construction of modern naval bases and the technical updating for expanding the capacity of shipyards at all levels in keeping with the start of signal transformation in our Navy’s position and role and to accomplish the great historic cause for completely remodelling the coal-mining areas across the country. And it discussed a structural measure for implementing them and a proposal for mobilizing troops.

Saying it is the greatest trust and honour given by the times and the revolution to the People’s Army that it is entrusted with the important projects, decisive of the state development and existence, Comrade Kim Jong Un stressed that the whole army should be inspired to turn out for proving once again before history that it is the trait and fighting mettle peculiar to our army to make greater and more vigorous stride of loyalty and feats as the struggle front becomes wider and larger.

Comrade Kim Jong Un signed seven written orders on the important military measures discussed and decided at the Party Central Military Commission.

The meeting conveyed the directive of the WPK Central Military Commission on the immediate military structural measure.

The meeting dealt with the organizational matter of dismissing, transferring and newly appointing leading officers for key posts of the People’s Army.

The important military measures, discussed and decided at the First Enlarged Meeting of the Ninth Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea, serve as a significant practical step for giving great impetus to the struggle for implementing the WPK’s line of building a powerful army on turning the DPRK’s armed forces into the strongest one in the world and remarkably enhancing the combat power, activity and leading role of our army in defending socialism and in all spheres of socialist construction.

KCNA

2026-07-10

Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Meets Chinese Party and Government Delegation

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, received on July 16 a Party and government delegation of the People's Republic of China led by Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, on an official goodwill visit to the DPRK to mark the 65th anniversary of the conclusion of the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance.

Present there was Wang Yajun, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK.

Comrade Kim Jong Un gladly met and exchanged warm greetings with Wang Huning and leading members of the delegation.

Comrade Wang Huning courteously conveyed the best wishes and comradely greetings from Comrade Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC and President of the PRC, to Comrade Kim Jong Un.

Comrade Kim Jong Un expressed deep thanks for it and asked him to convey his greetings to Comrade Xi Jinping.

Warmly welcoming the Party and government delegation of the PRC to the DPRK, he said with high appreciation that Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping’s dispatch to the DPRK of the high-ranking Party and government delegation headed by Wang Huning is a manifestation of the steadfast will to attach importance to the DPRK-China relations and perfectly implement the agreements made during the Pyongyang summit.

Noting that the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, an inter-state treaty defining the strategic character of the bilateral relations and indicating their strategic direction, has played an important role in defending the basic interests of the two countries and ensuring the regional and global peace and security, Comrade Kim Jong Un said that it is the steadfast policy of the WPK and the DPRK government to more vigorously develop the traditional friendly and cooperative relations with socialism as the core in different fields on the basis of the spirit of the treaty and in line with the requirements of the changing times and the aspirations and desires of the peoples of the two countries.

Expressing thanks to the Party, government and people of the DPRK for giving the delegation a cordial reception, Comrade Wang Huning expressed the readiness to comprehensively implement all the important common understanding and agreements the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries reached in the historic Pyongyang meeting and thus promote the political mutual trust and bilateral solidarity and expand and develop the mutual collaboration and cooperation.

Comrade Kim Jong Un affirmed that the WPK and the DPRK government would as ever support and encourage the socialist cause with the Chinese characteristics in the new era led by Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping, sincerely hoping that the Chinese people, who significantly celebrated the 105th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, would make greater achievements in the historic course of comprehensively building a modern socialist power and achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation under the leadership of the CPC.

KCNA

2026-07-17

China Launches New Data Relay Satellite Into Space

By Xinhua

Jul 29, 2026 10:54 PM

Photo: People's Daily

China sent a new data relay satellite into orbit on Wednesday from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan.

The Tianlian III-01 satellite was launched at 7:50 p.m. (Beijing Time) aboard a Long March-7A carrier rocket. The satellite entered the preset orbit successfully.

Tianlian III-01 is primarily used to provide data relay and TT&C (telemetry, tracking, and command) services for crewed spacecraft such as spaceships, space laboratories and space stations, as well as for medium- and low-Earth-orbit resource satellites.

The launch marked the 659th mission of the Long March series carrier rockets.

Chinese Researchers Develop AI-physical Ensemble Forecast System to Improve Typhoon Track Forecasts

By Du Qiongfang

Jul 29, 2026 03:39 PM

The remnants of Typhoon Noul create dramatic cloud formations over Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, on July 27, 2026. Photo: VCG

Chinese scientists have developed an AI-physics based ensemble forecast system for typhoons. The system combines China's domestically developed FuXi AI weather model with their proposed Orthogonal Conditional Nonlinear Optimal Perturbations (O-CNOPs) method, which generates physically interpretable initial perturbations to predict multiple possible typhoon tracks. the Global Times learned from the research team on Wednesday. 

Tests against a wide range of typhoon cases, the system has demonstrated substantial performance improvements over leading global operational ensemble forecasting systems, marking a significant step toward more interpretable and reliable AI-based weather forecasting. 

The research, conducted jointly by the research teams led by Duan Wansuo, a research fellow from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Li Hao, a research fellow from Fudan University, was recently published in the latest issue of the academic journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

Due to the atmosphere's chaotic nature, even tiny changes in initial conditions can significantly alter a typhoon's path. Therefore, forecasters must predict not only a typhoon's most likely track but also its possible deviations - a core challenge that ensemble forecast seeks to address, Duan told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

AI-based weather models have developed rapidly in recent years and run much faster than traditional numerical models. However, forecasting typhoon tracks of great unceratainty requires more than speed. To become truly useful in operational forecasting, AI must also evaluate effect of subtle differences in initial conditions and generate a range of credible track scenarios. 

Researchers analyzed 62 typhoon cases and conducted 91 comparative ensemble forecasting experiments. Compared with the world's leading operational ensemble forecasting systems, the system performs on par with leading global operational ensemble forecasting systems in 24-hour forecasts, but outperforms them over 24 to 120 hours, reducing maximum track errors by up to 32.33 percent.

The FuXi-CNOPs system also more consistently predicts typhoon's moving speed and direction, and provides more reliable quantification of forecast uncertainty, improving uncertainty quantification accuracy by up to 29.2 percent. 

The system has improved typhoon track forecasts by precisely identifying sensitive regions, providing a key foundation of physical interpretability for reliable AI-driven ensemble forecasting, researchers said.

The system offers a new AI-physical based ensemble forecasting approach that overcomes the limitations of purely data-driven models. Unlike mainstream generative AI-based ensemble forecasting approaches, it requires no additional training of massive models, reducing computing demands and making it more suitable for operational deployment. 

Building on the current progress, the research team will continue to optimize and upgrade the system, aiming to improve typhoon track forecasts and even enhance typhoon intensity predictions. The framework is also expected to be extended to ensemble forecasting for other high-impact weather events, Duan said.

Chinese FM Slams US’ Ban on Humanoid Robots, Vows Necessary Measures to Safeguard Interests

By Global Times

Jul 29, 2026 04:32 PM

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning

A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday slammed the US' ban on imports of humanoid robots, stressing that protectionism will only harm the interests of US businesses and consumers, and China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

Mao Ning, the spokesperson, made the remarks during a press briefing when asked to comment on the US Federal Communications Commission's announced ban on imports of humanoid robots. The announcement did not name any country, though China is a major supplier of such robots, and Washington said the ban was introduced on national security grounds. 

"China has always been firmly opposed to the US overstretching the concept of national security and cracking down on Chinese companies. Protectionism will not boost US competitiveness and will only harm the interests of US businesses and consumers," Mao said, adding that China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

Separately, when asked whether the Chinese government had been in touch with domestic robotics firms over the Trump administration's ban on imports of new Chinese humanoid robots and grid-connected inverters, Mao reiterated the opposition to the US overstretching the concept of national security and cracking down on Chinese companies. 

"China will take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies," Mao said. 

Global Times

China Closely Follows Impact of Japan Kumamoto Earthquake, Offers Condolences, Vows Assistance to Chinese Nationals: FM Spokesperson

By Shen Sheng

Jul 29, 2026 03:32 PM

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning

"We are closely following the impact of the earthquake in Kumamoto. We mourn the lives lost and express sympathies to the bereaved families and the injured," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday when asked about strong earthquake that has caused casualties in Kumamoto of Japan.

Mao added that the Chinese embassy and consulates in Japan have immediately activated emergency response and issued consular alerts advising Chinese nationals to prepare for possible tsunamis and aftershocks. The Chinese Foreign Ministry and missions in Japan continue to follow the developments closely and stand ready to assist our fellow nationals whenever needed. 

The magnitude-7.1 quake struck Kumamoto at 4:27 pm local time Tuesday at a depth of about 10 kilometers, Xinhua News Agency citing Japan Meteorological Agency reported.

Twelve people have been confirmed dead following a powerful earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, while six others remain in cardiac arrest, local media reported Wednesday, citing the latest official figures, according to Xinhua.

Speaking at a disaster response headquarters meeting, prefectural officials said that 62 people had also been injured, while at least four people remain unaccounted for, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Rescue and search operations are ongoing in the affected areas as authorities continue to assess the full extent of the damage and casualties, per Xinhua.

The Chinese Consulate General in Fukuoka, Japan told the Global Times on Wednesday morning that it had so far received no reports of Chinese nationals injured in the Kumamoto earthquake. Several Chinese nationals in Kumamoto have contacted the consulate for assistance and the consulate is responding to their requests, the consulate said.

Earlier, Reuters reported that Kumamoto Airport closed its runway, as airlines diverted and cancelled flights. Kyushu Electric Power also said 48,000 homes had lost power as a result of the latest quake, while railway company JR Kyushu said that it had suspended services, including its high-speed bullet trains.

A Chinese national surnamed Li, who posted on social media early Wednesday that he was stranded at Kumamoto Airport, told the Global Times that he left Kumamoto around noon and rerouted through Fukuoka to catch a flight.

Beyond transportation, the earthquake has also disrupted regional economic activity, damaging commercial facilities and factories and affecting logistics, according to the Japan Times. Several major manufacturers, including Honda, Astemo, Sony Group and Renesas Electronics, have suspended operations at plants in Kumamoto Prefecture, while TSMC temporarily evacuated workers from its facility and has gradually resumed operations as it assesses the impact.

After the quake, fires erupted in Kumamoto City, the regional capital, which has a population of more than 700,000. At Kumamoto Castle, a centuries-old landmark in the center of the city, a stone wall partially collapsed, the New York Times reported. 

At the partially collapsed mall, about 200 people were evacuated immediately after the initial earthquake on Tuesday, according to the prefectural police headquarters. Shortly after, an explosion rocked the structure, with video footage showing smoke and debris spreading into surrounding areas, according to the report.

Regarding the shopping mall explosion, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Wednesday that three people had been confirmed dead, Xinhua reported. More than 20 hours after the earthquake, people were still waiting to be rescued, she added.

According to Xinhua, Takaichi also said about 450 evacuation centers had been opened and around 7,700 people were taking shelter, while hot weather is expected to continue and evacuations are likely to be prolonged.

Japanese Right-wing Forces Leveraging AI to Distort History of Aggression Against China an ‘Open Provocation’ Against International Fairness, Justice: FM

By Global Times

Jul 29, 2026 04:10 PM

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning

China on Wednesday expressed grave concern over Japan's right-wing forces leveraging AI in an attempt to distort the history of Japan's aggression against China, calling it an "open provocation" against international fairness and justice as well as the post-war international order, which the international community must stay highly vigilant against and firmly resist.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks at a regular press conference on Wednesday, in response to a Global Times reporter's question regarding recent revelations by Japanese media that Japan's right-wing forces are churning out disinformation by hiring operatives and extensively leveraging AI in an attempt to distort the history of Japan's aggression against China.

Mao said that after World War II, instead of engaging in profound reflection on the history of Japan's aggression against China, Japan's right-wing forces have deliberately schemed to distort facts and whitewash their historical culpability. By means of paying visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, tampering with textbooks and revising explanatory texts at memorial halls, they disseminate erroneous views of history, seriously misleading Japanese society, especially young people. 

Nowadays, Japan's right-wing forces leverage new technologies to poison public opinion in a bid to advance Japan's remilitarization, rendering their actions even more grave and harmful. This constitutes an open provocation against international fairness and justice and the post-war international order, and threatens regional peace and stability. The international community must remain highly vigilant and firmly resist such acts, Mao said.

Mao noted that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trials. Historical truths must not be distorted, and established historical conclusions brook no challenge. Irrefutable evidence abounds regarding the crimes committed by Japan during its war of aggression against China, and mounting new evidence continues to lay bare the atrocities of Japanese militarism.

China will work with peace-loving people across the world to safeguard historical truth and justice, Mao said.

Global Times