Category: 2. World

Through AP’s support, he secured $10,000 in funding to purchase professional tents, sleeping bags and stoves, moving from improvised to structured services. Sunny Hostel has now begun working with tour operators such as OshTrips and Visit Alay, and involves young people: students volunteer as city guides to practise English before moving into jobs in tourism. “Sustainability is not just a word for us. We want to preserve nature, avoid artificial experiences and focus on real culture,” he says.

Local entrepreneurs, lasting impact

Other entrepreneurs have followed similar paths. Support from AP helped Meergul Karakozueva plan her project, set prices and establish a yurt camp in the Alay mountains. In 2019, she received two yurts and a solar panel that remain central to the camp. Electricity was added only recently, and water supply is the next priority. She later expanded her business by opening the Art Hotel in Osh city, and in 2023 received in-kind technical assistance (washing machine, built-in dishwasher, steam generator) after pitching at the Women CUP incubation programme.

Baktybek Nuridinov and his friends began by leading informal tours in Osh, introducing friends and visitors to Kyrgyz landscapes and culture. As demand grew, they joined AP’s acceleration programme, receiving training, mentorship and financing. This support helped them move from “amateur to professional tourism”, expand their tours, hire more guides and improve service quality, turning Around.kg. into a rising force for community-based travel in the region.

From high-altitude domes and mountain cottages to yurt camps, hostels and locally led tours, these and other entrepreneurs supported by AKDN are transforming the Kyrgyz mountains. Their ventures are creating jobs, preserving cultural heritage and offering lasting opportunities for communities in some of the country’s most remote regions.

A crowded ferry boat has capsized in Nigeria’s Niger State, drowning at least 32 people, rescuers said on Thursday, raising the toll from the country’s latest fatal boat tragedy.

The vessel, which had nearly 100 men, women and children on board, reportedly hit a tree stump.

It capsized on Tuesday morning on the Malale River in the North Central region of the country, Red Cross representative Abubakar Idris told AFP.

“The cause was attributed to overloading and collision with a tree stump,” the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) said.

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Raising an earlier toll, SEMA said 32 people were known to have died.

“After a thorough search and rescue operation, our men at Borgu (local district) have discovered three more bodies.

“Eight (people) are still missing and 50 survivors have been rescued,” SEMA representative Abdullahi Baba Arah told AFP.

Search operations are continuing, he added.

The passengers were travelling by river to the village of Dugga, around 15-20 kilometres (nine to 12 miles) away to pay their respects to someone who had died a few days earlier, rescue services said.

It reportedly hit the tree stump and capsized near the village of Gausawa.

Accidents are common on Nigeria’s busy rivers, often caused by overloaded boats, poor maintenance or failure to comply with safety regulations.

In late August, a boat carrying around 50 people overturned in the northwestern state of Sokoto, killing three people. Twenty-five others are missing, presumed dead.

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A month earlier, six young girls drowned when the boat taking them home from a day’s work in the fields overturned in the middle of a river in northern Jigawa State.

Police said the boat was travelling in the dark, the water level was high and there were strong winds. Security regulations were not followed and the passengers did not have life jackets.

Israel has rejected a statement from Hamas saying the armed group is ready for a “comprehensive deal” to end the Gaza war and free all its hostages.

“This is more spin by Hamas that has nothing new,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.

It insisted the war would end only once the 48 hostages – 20 of whom are believed to be alive – were released, Hamas was disarmed, Gaza was demilitarised, Israel had security control, and an “alternative civilian administration” was established.

Hamas reiterated its call for a deal that would see hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners, Israeli forces withdraw, border crossings reopened, and the start of reconstruction.

The group also said it agreed to the formation of an administration run by independent technocrats to govern post-war Gaza.

It issued the statement on Tuesday evening, hours after US President Donald Trump wrote on social media: “Tell Hamas to IMMEDIATELY give back all 20 Hostages (Not 2 or 5 or 7!), and things will change rapidly. IT WILL END!”

Last month, Hamas said it had accepted a plan from regional mediators Qatar and Egypt that would see 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 dead hostages released during a 60-day truce in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails.

Israel has yet to formally respond to the proposal – a decision that Egypt said on Tuesday reflected “a complete absence of Israeli will for de-escalation and achieving calm and peace”.

The proposal was said by Qatar to be “almost identical” to an earlier one from US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, which Israel accepted but Hamas rejected, partly because it did not include a guarantee that the temporary ceasefire would lead to a permanent one.

Netanyahu announced Israel’s intention to conquer all of Gaza after indirect negotiations with Hamas on Witkoff’s proposal broke down in July.

The prime minister said the military’s objectives were to defeat Hamas and free its hostages after 22 months of war triggered by the group’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Hamas now had to choose between accepting Israel’s terms or seeing Gaza “become the equivalent of Rafah and Beit Hanoun”, which have been largely flattened by Israeli bombardment and demolitions. The Israeli military was “preparing in full force”, he warned.

The hostages’ families are concerned that they will be endangered by the looming offensive to capture and occupy Gaza City, and want the government to instead immediately agree a deal that would secure their release by ending the war.

“The manoeuvring in Gaza City poses a real threat to the hostages, both the living and the deceased who could disappear forever,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum warned.

“Calls for a comprehensive agreement are coming from both sides – we demand: sit down at the negotiating table now and don’t get up until a deal is signed.”

In recent days, the Israeli military has intensified air and ground assaults on the outskirts of Gaza City, which it has said is a Hamas stronghold and declared a “dangerous combat zone”.

Hospitals said at least 23 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes on the city on Thursday, and that 15 others were killed elsewhere in the territory.

Medics said two people were killed in one strike on a tent at a camp for displaced families in western Gaza City, close to al-Shifa hospital.

At the scene, Somaya Mikdad held up a pack of nappies that she said belonged to one of the victims – a pregnant woman.

“The woman was getting ready for the baby… It was her [due] month,” she told Reuters news agency. “What is their fault? Is it a war against Hamas or a war against the people?”

The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency meanwhile said that eight people were killed in a strike that hit four homes in the north-eastern Tuffah neighbourhood.

The UN’s humanitarian office has warned that a further intensification of the Israeli offensive will “push civilians into an even deeper catastrophe” in Gaza City, which is home to one million people and where a famine has been declared.

According to the UN, aid groups say the hostilities are having “horrific humanitarian consequences” for people living in displacement sites in “deplorable and overcrowded” conditions, with debris and waste accumulating, widespread rodent and insect infestations, and inadequate water supplies.

Since 14 August, more than 82,000 people have been newly displaced, many of whom have previously fled neighbouring North Gaza governorate, the UN says. Most have moved towards the coast and only a third have left for the south, as the Israeli military has instructed.

Many families say they are unable to move due to high costs and a lack of safe space.

Others are unwilling to leave after being displaced repeatedly during the conflict.

“This time, I am not leaving my house. I want to die here. It doesn’t matter if we move out or stay. Tens of thousands of those who left their homes were killed by Israel too, so why bother?” said Umm Nader, a mother of five from Gaza City.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 64,231 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The ministry also says 370 people, have so far died during the war as a result of malnutrition and starvation, including three over the past 24 hours.

The restrictions come after the social media giants failed to meet state registration requirements, says government.

Nepal’s government has said it will shut off access to major social media platforms, including Facebook and X, after they failed to comply with authorities’ registration requirements.

The move, announced on Thursday, is part of what the government says is an effort to curb online hate, rumours and cybercrime.

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Companies were given a deadline of Wednesday to register with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and provide a local contact, grievance handler and person responsible for self-regulation – or face shutdown.

“Unregistered social media platforms will be deactivated today onwards,” ministry spokesman Gajendra Kumar Thakur told AFP.

Communications and IT Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung said, “We gave them enough time to register and repeatedly requested them to comply with our request, but they ignored [this], and we had to shut their operations in Nepal.”

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, YouTube parent Alphabet, X, Reddit, and LinkedIn were asked to register by Wednesday’s deadline.

AFP reported that the platforms remained accessible on Thursday.

‘Directly hits fundamental rights’

The online restrictions follow a 2023 directive requiring social media platforms – which have millions of users in Nepal with accounts for entertainment, news and business – to register and establish a local presence.

Only five, including TikTok and Viber, have since formally registered, while two others are in the process.

Bhola Nath Dhungana, president of Digital Rights Nepal, said that the sudden closure shows the “controlling” approach of the government.

“This directly hits the fundamental rights of the public,” Dhungana said. “It is not wrong to regulate social media, but we first need to have the legal infrastructure to enforce it. A sudden closure like this is controlling.”

Nepal has restricted access to popular online platforms in the past.

Access was blocked to the Telegram messaging app in July, with the government citing a rise in online fraud and money laundering.

In August last year, Nepal lifted a nine-month ban on TikTok after the platform’s South Asia division agreed to comply with Nepali regulations.

Governments worldwide, including the United States, European Union, Brazil and Australia, are also tightening oversight of social media and big tech, citing concerns over misinformation, data privacy, online harm and national security. India has mandated local compliance officers and takedown mechanisms, while China maintains strict censorship and licensing controls.

BEIJING — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of festivities commemorating the end of World War II, state media reported Thursday.

Kim attended a Chinese military parade in Beijing a day earlier, alongside other foreign leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim is making a rare trip outside North Korea.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that the two leaders would conduct in-depth exchanges of views on bilateral relations and issues of mutual concern.

He said that Kim’s attendance at the parade and the talks with Xi “carry great significance.”

The North Korean leader, who arrived in Beijing by train on Tuesday, was among 26 foreign leaders who watched the parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. It was the first time that he joined an event with a large group of world leaders since taking office in late 2011.

Kim, on his first visit to China in six years, brought his young daughter, adding to speculation that she’s being primed as the country’s next leader.

Experts say Kim likely hopes to restore ties with China, North Korea’s biggest trading partner and aid provider, as there have been questions about the bilateral relationship.

In recent years, Kim’s foreign policy has focused heavily on Russia. He has sent combat troops and ammunition to back Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in return for economic and military assistance. At a meeting with Kim in Beijing after the parade, Putin praised the bravery of North Korean soldiers in the fighting.

But experts say that Kim would feel the need to prepare for the possible end of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Some observers say Kim’s trip could also be meant to increase leverage in potential talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly expressed his hopes to resume diplomacy between the two countries.

China, which is North Korea’s biggest trading partner and main provider of aid, wants its neighbor to return to negotiation and give up its nuclear weapons development.

North Korea has reached out to Russia, raising some concern in Beijing, which has long been North Korea’s most important ally.

The joint appearance of Kim, Xi and Putin at the parade has sparked speculation about a joint effort to push back at U.S. pressure on their three countries. Trump said as much in a social media post, telling Xi to give his warmest regards to Putin and Kim “as you conspire against The United States of America.”

Putin dismissed that idea at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday, saying no one has expressed anything negative about the Trump administration during his trip to China.

“The President of the United States is not without a sense of humor,” he said.

Though China, North Korea and Russia are embroiled in separate confrontations with the U.S., they haven’t formed a clear three-way alliance so far.

Zhu Feng, the dean of Nanjing University’s School of International Relations, said that “ganging up” with North Korea would damage China’s image, because the former is the most closed and authoritarian country in the world.

“It should not be overinterpreted that China-North Korea-Russia relations would see reinforcement,” he said.

China used this week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to drive new energy investment and collaboration.

The SCO summit, held in Tianjin from 31 August to 1 September 2025, brought together more than 20 national leaders, including the presidents of Russia and India, alongside 10 heads of international organisations. 

A series of initiatives were announced, including the launch of SCO energy and green-industry cooperation platforms, and the creation of a new development bank. China pledged CNY 2 billion (USD 280 million) in grants to member states this year, with an additional CNY 10 billion (USD 1.4 billion) in loans over the next three years. Beijing also committed to jointly adding “tens of gigawatts” of solar and wind power capacity with SCO members over the next five years.

Beyond financing, China also plans expand technical training. Xi announced that 10 new “Luban workshops” will be set up in SCO countries within five years to provide training opportunities in renewable energy, rail and automotive technologies.

The day after the summit, the SCO energy and green-industry platforms were formally launched. Li Sheng, head of the China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute, told Science and Technology Daily that solar and wind account for around 70% of China’s renewable cooperation with SCO states, and that meeting the gigawatt-scale targets by 2030 was “highly feasible.”

Founded in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the SCO has since expanded to 10 member states and 26 partner countries across Asia, Africa and Europe. This year’s summit, the largest in the bloc’s history, also underscored Beijing’s bid to deepen alliances through investment and technology cooperation, at a time of escalating tariff tensions with the United States.

Read Dialogue Earth’s recent analysis on China’s investment in the Global South.