World

For over a month, employees of the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), responsible for screening millions of daily air travelers, have gone unpaid due to a partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This has led to hundreds of TSA workers quitting or refusing to show up for work, resulting in hours-long delays and chaotic queues at some of the nation's busiest airports, severely disrupting travel and damaging morale within the agency.

NASA has announced a significant overhaul of its Moon and Mars strategy, cancelling plans for a lunar-orbit space station and instead committing $20 billion over the next seven years to build a base on the Moon's surface. The agency is also advancing plans to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman outlined these changes on Tuesday during a meeting in Washington, DC, with partners, contractors, and government officials involved in the Artemis programme, stating that the agency will increase robotic missions to the Moon and lay the groundwork for nuclear power on the lunar surface.

Russia has carried out one of the largest aerial attacks since the start of its war on Ukraine, launching 948 drones in a 24-hour period and moving troops and equipment to the front line in what appeared to be the start of a new offensive. Tuesday’s rare daytime attacks killed two people in the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk and one person in the Vinnytsia region, according to regional authorities.

A massive whale, approximately 10 meters in length, remains stranded in shallow waters off Germany's Baltic Sea coast near Niendorf in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. The marine mammal was first spotted early Monday, and rescue efforts have been ongoing since midday that day, but have so far proven unsuccessful in freeing it from a sandbank.

US President Donald Trump has insisted that “productive” negotiations have taken place with Iran to end the war he launched with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu almost a month ago. However, this narrative faces major contradictions, as Iran’s top officials, including parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, have repeatedly denied it, labeling such reports as “fake news” aimed at manipulating financial and oil markets. This clash of claims deepens the fog of war propaganda, making it difficult to ascertain the truth amid ongoing hostilities.

The US Defense Department is reportedly planning to send an additional 3,000 troops to the Middle East, escalating the American regime's military involvement in the ongoing conflict with Iran. According to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal, these forces will be drawn from the 82nd Airborne Division, which is capable of deploying anywhere in the world within 24 hours. However, officials did not specify the exact location or timing of the deployment, leaving uncertainties about the immediate operational impact.

The conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group continues, with Israeli authorities announcing potential long-term occupation of southern Lebanon. This development poses catastrophic consequences for hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians, including over 1.2 million displaced persons. According to Lebanese health authorities, 1,039 people have been killed and 2,876 injured.

The Iranian government has appointed Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as the head of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC). The announcement was made by President Masoud Pezeshkian's deputy for communications on X. Zolghadr succeeds Ali Larijani, who was killed in a US-Israeli air strike earlier this month, amid escalating regional tensions.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry announced the release of US citizen Dennis Coyle, who had been detained in the country for more than a year. In a statement, the ministry said Coyle's family had written to the country's leadership, requesting his release and pardon for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, with the Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate deeming his detention period sufficient and ordering his freedom.

US President Donald Trump's threats to "obliterate" Iranian energy facilities and Israeli airstrikes on fuel depots near Tehran have fundamentally upended the norms for starting and escalating international wars. Trump allegedly stated last week he would "massively blow up" Iran's South Pars gas field and on Saturday threatened to destroy "various power plants, starting with the biggest one first" if Iranian authorities did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Israeli strikes have created immense fireballs and thick smoke columns, raising alarms about the conflict's trajectory.

New NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has announced a major pivot in the US space agency's lunar program, stating that NASA will cancel plans for an orbiting lunar station, the Lunar Gateway, and instead focus on constructing a roughly $20 billion base on the moon's surface over the next seven years. This overhaul comes as part of changes to the flagship Artemis II project, which has faced a series of setbacks and delays in recent months, amid a renewed 21st-century race with Russia and China to return to Earth's satellite.

United Nations special rapporteurs Tlaleng Mofokeng and Ben Saul issued a statement on Tuesday, urging Israel to immediately release Dr Hussam Abu Safia, a Palestinian physician detained from Gaza. The experts warned that they had received reports indicating the doctor has been subjected to “severe torture” and other abuses in Israeli detention, with his health condition “remaining dire” due to systematic denial of critical medical examination and treatment.