World Echo

The marine organisms accumulating on the hulls of more than 1,500 ships stranded due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid tensions between the United States and Iran could be transported to different parts of the world once the vessels resume their voyages, potentially creating a global “super-spreader” effect for biological invasions. A study published in the journal Biological Invasions found that biofouling, consisting of marine microorganisms, algae, and invertebrates, can rapidly develop on the hulls of ships that remain stationary for extended periods. According to the study, more than 1,500 large commercial vessels have becomes stranded following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on February 28. The prolonged presence of these ships in the region allows local organisms to colonise their hulls, while also bringing together communities of organisms from different parts of the world on the same vessels. Read: Hormuz shipping traffic capped ami...

India's top court has ordered tough new steps to protect wild elephant herds as habitat loss and human-elephant conflict intensify, a move welcomed by campaigners on Friday. The world's most populous nation is also home to the majority of Asian elephants, a species listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and whose habitat is increasingly being sliced up by highways and railways or clawed up by mines. The Supreme Court has directed states to prevent the blockage of elephant corridors - routes used by herds to move between rapidly shrinking habitats - and ordered a survey to identify obstructions along those routes. That must include steps to end the use of any "coercive measure to divert the natural movement of the elephants", it read. A ban on "hulla parties" - groups deployed to drive elephants away using "fireballs" and burning stakes - is required, it said. Read: What makes a narwhal's tus...

Bangladeshi lawmakers elected veteran Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as the country's new president on Thursday, making the longtime opposition figure head of state after his party came to power in a major political transition. The presidency is largely ceremonial, with executive authority remaining with the prime minister and cabinet. Alamgir, 78, defeated retired army Colonel Oli Ahmed in a parliamentary vote. He is expected to be sworn in on Friday evening. The BNP returned to power in February in the long wake of the fall of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government in 2024. While the presidency is largely ceremonial, Alamgir will serve as head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Executive authority remains with the prime minister and cabinet in the South Asian nation of about 173 million people. Alamgir defeated Oli Ahmed, a retired army colonel and chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, who was the candid...

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged South Korea not to take ​sides between Beijing and Washington, saying the US should abandon its "hostile" policy toward ‌North Korea to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Wang made the remarks in a meeting with South Korea's National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac in Seoul on Thursday, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported, where ​he also met South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. "The fundamental solution to the tensions on ​the Korean Peninsula lies in addressing the root causes of the problem ⁠and urging the United States to abandon its hostile policy toward North Korea," Xinhua cited Wang as saying. China hopes South Korea will "achieve genuine strategic autonomy, refrain from bloc confrontation and ​taking sides, and develop relations with major powers including China and the United States in parallel and without contradiction," Wang said. The remarks came after US Preside...

Russian ballistic missiles ‌killed 12 people and injured more than 30 in Kyiv early on Thursday, authorities said, damaging buildings and severing power supply to some parts of the Ukrainian capital. A fire broke out, and the upper floors of a nine-storey residential block were destroyed in the ​city's Solomianskyi district, where seven people were killed, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, calling for Friday to be ​observed as a day of mourning. Two other districts also suffered damage, Klitschko said on the ⁠Telegram messaging app, with non-residential facilities, warehouses, a school and a children's hospital hit. Power company DTEK said it restored ​electricity to more than half of the roughly 90,000 homes left without power in the capital following the attack. Russia ​has stepped up air attacks on Ukraine in recent months, trying to exploit its smaller neighbour's critical shortage of interceptors to down ballistic missiles. Read: Russia hits steel plant i...

Multiple users, including Saudi-based accounts, have been sharing a video on social media platform X since August 15, 2026, showing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming he had warned Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu about the recently signed Makkah pact. However, the clip is doctored through AI. On August 7, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement in the holy city, aimed at strengthening the collective security of the three countries. The agreement provides for an attack against one member state to be treated as an attack against all. How it started On August 15, an X user based in Saudi Arabia, who had a history of sharing AI-generated content, posted a video of Modi speaking during India’s 80th Independence Day celebrations. The caption read: “‘Breaking: Indian Prime Minister Modi says that he warned Netanyahu before the KSA-Turkey-Pakistan alliance. ‘I told Netanyahu that this alliance will be formed, bu...