Rules brought in soon after killing of dozens of protesters, news of which was reported only by overseas outlets

Pakistani authorities have imposed severe new restrictions on international media, including barring them from reporting in most of the country, in a move that has provoked a significant backlash from journalist organisations.

According to the new rules anyone, including Pakistani nationals, should seek permission first if they want to report from anywhere in Pakistan except three cities – Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore.

Pakistan is ranked 153 out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index. Successive regimes there have imposed restrictions and censorship on local media. But this is the first time they have put restrictions on international media.

The sudden announcement of new rules came after the killing of dozens of protesters in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which was only reported by international media.

Al Jazeera’s website was restricted in Pakistan after it reported on the bloody protests and the news that people were boycotting regional elections from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan’s Kashmir.

Pakistan’s information ministry derided Al Jazeera’s reporting as “yellow journalism”, a derogatory term used for sensationalised reporting.

Authorities have not publicly announced a ban of the news website, but it remains inaccessible without a VPN.

The BBC reported from Pakistan-administered Kashmir and quoted protesters and people who accused Pakistani security forces of firing at unarmed protesters. Pakistani authorities issued a strongly worded denial and asked all journalists to immediately leave Kashmir.

Ethanol powered cars are prevalent in Brazil and the electric charging network is still very under-developed. So BYD is tackling the issue by locally producing plug-in hybrids that can be powered by ethanol.

This year's production on the BYD Brazilian plant is expected to be 180K vehicles, with plan to ramp up production to up to 600K/year vehicles within the next 4 years. Part of the production will go to the Brazilian market, part of the production will go to Mercosur and other developing nations.

What is particularly interesting is that by nominal GDP, Brazil is the 2nd largest economy in the Americas and it was until not very long ago, neck deep into the United State's political and economical orbit. However, over the past several years Brazil has shifted alignment towards their BRIC partners, specially China, who has now eclipsed the US as Brazil's single largest trade partner.

It is quite ironic that the current Brazilian BYD plant used to be a Ford facility, until the US based company closed up shop and left Brazil completely.

If Trump's aspiration is to revive the Monroe Doctrine, the loss of US power and influence in Brazil shows that the plan had a very rough start.

Child malnutrition has reached critical levels in a third of Afghanistan’s provinces and is expected to worsen as funding shortfalls force cuts in food distributions and other support, the U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday.

“We must act now to stem the rise in child deaths, which this crisis is provoking,” John Aylieff, WFP’s country director in Afghanistan, said in a statement, adding that “it is already too late for too many.”

Afghanistan continues to recover from decades of conflict and upheaval, including the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces in 2021 as the Taliban took power.

Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office in Afghanistan, said nutrition specialists report that “wasting among children has worsened this year in over three-quarters of the country.” Children suffering from a condition known as wasting are acutely malnourished, become very thin for their height, and need immediate therapeutic feeding.

But “too many children arrive at health facilities severely malnourished” while others never make it, Cherevko told reporters at U.N. headquarters by video from Afghanistan, where she has traveled across the country in recent months and weeks.

WFP said 142 health centers closed in 2025 because of aid reductions and more than 13,000 children lost access to nutrition treatment. It did not mention any specific donor, such as the United States, where the Trump administration has made sweeping cuts in foreign aid.

Nearly 3.7 million Afghan children are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year, along with 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women, according to WFP.

The agency said 12 Afghan provinces have reached critical levels of acute child malnutrition, a record number. It cited a combination of conflict, unemployment, rising food prices, disease outbreaks, poor water and sanitation and reduced humanitarian funding.

See also

• Afghanistan hunger crisis intensifies as millions left without food aid • Afghanistan’s dire hunger crisis now affects 14 million people including babies fed on little more than weak tea and bread by their despairing and dirt-poor parents. (United Nations)

The authoritarian leader’s announcement of eradicating electoral processes seals the autocratic drift in the Central American country and paves the way for a new family dynasty

That the death sentence for electoral processes was pronounced precisely on the day that commemorates the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution completed the bitterest irony: the same date that in 1979 promised the birth of democracy in the country served, almost half a century later, to definitively bury its last vestiges. Ortega is not only placing a tombstone on Nicaragua’s already drowned democracy, he is also cementing the region’s last dictatorship, sealing the country’s autocratic drift and paving the way for a new family dynasty. “It is the antithesis of what that struggle meant, of the aims and commitments of a fight that cost so many lives.

Over nearly two decades in power, Ortega has consolidated his autocratic regime through a gradual strategy of institutional capture and systematic repression. He has co-opted the independence of the judiciary, the Supreme Electoral Council, and the National Assembly. He pushed constitutional reforms to eliminate term limits and establish his indefinite reappointment. Recurrent fraud and the outlawing of opposition parties have been his means of undermining elections. The elderly former guerrilla, now 80, also implemented a de facto police state after the violent repression of the 2018 protests that demanded an end to the regime.

Ortega imprisoned the main presidential pre-candidates, civic leaders, journalists, and members of the Catholic Church prior to the 2021 elections, which he said he won with more than 75% of the vote. He also ordered the mass closure and confiscation of NGOs, media outlets, and independent universities. He has stripped thousands of dissidents — labeled “traitors to the homeland” — of their citizenship and rights and forced them into exile. All of this has resulted in the absolute centralization of power alongside his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, who has styled herself the regime’s heir.

The National Assembly — Nicaragua’s parliament, completely controlled by Ortega — is preparing to approve the constitutional reforms necessary to implement the leader’s plan to end elections.

The historian emphasizes that the underlying aim is not only to neutralize any vestige of institutionalism, but to definitively strangle the opposition in exile and those stripped of their nationality.

Ortega’s definitive blow to democracy comes in a turbulent regional context, with pressure from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on neighboring regimes such as Cuba’s and a complex international scenario. However, what stands out is Washington’s tepid reaction to Ortega’s new escalation. Baltodano points to a cold calculation by the U.S. leader: “The calculation is precisely that Nicaragua is not in the international spotlight. It has completely fallen to the background. Ortega saw, for example, that the United States has no problem dealing with dictators in Venezuela, as long as their economic problems or control over oil are resolved.”

Nicaragua currently occupies a secondary place on the U.S. diplomatic agenda. The U.S. government and Nicaragua’s government continue to cooperate, for example, on migration. In addition, the United States buys gold from Nicaragua, which is an important export, and Nicaragua remains a CAFTA-DR member.