China’s glacier area has shrunk by 26% since 1960 due to rapid global warming, with 7,000 small glaciers disappearing completely and glacial retreat intensifying in recent years, official data released in March showed.

Glaciers around the globe are disappearing faster than ever, with the largest glacial mass loss on record taking place in the last three years, according to a UNESCO report.

As the important water towers continue to shrink, less availability of freshwater is expected to contribute to greater competition for water resources, environmental groups have warned. Glacier retreat also poses new disaster risks.

China’s glaciers are located mainly in the west and north of the country, in the regions of Tibet and Xinjiang, and the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai.

Data published on March 21 on the website of the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, showed that China’s total glacier area was around 46,000 square kilometers, with around 69,000 glaciers in 2020.

This compares to around 59,000 square kilometers and around 46,000 glaciers in China between 1960 and 1980, the study showed.

To save its melting glaciers, China has used technology including snow blankets and artificial snow systems, to delay the melting process.

The Tibetan plateau is known as the world’s Third Pole for the amount of ice long locked in the high-altitude wilderness.

The dramatic ice loss, from the Arctic to the Alps, from South America to the Tibetan Plateau, is expected to accelerate as climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, pushes global temperatures higher.

This would likely exacerbate economic, environmental and social problems across the world as sea levels rise and these key water sources dwindle, the UNESCO report said.

North Korea appears to have sent at least 3,000 more soldiers to Russia early this year, South Korea’s military said Thursday, demonstrating Pyongyang’s continued support for Moscow’s war on Ukraine as world leaders push for an end to the three-year conflict.

The reinforcements, sent in January and February, add to the roughly 11,000 troops North Korea has sent to Russia so far, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. About 4,000 of them have been killed or injured in combat, according to Seoul.

Pyongyang has also sent a “significant amount” of short-range ballistic missiles and about 220 pieces of 170-millimeter self-propelled howitzers and 240-millimeter multiple rocket launchers, South Korea said. It said the North’s contributions are “expected to increase according to the situation.”

News of North Korea’s continued support of Russia’s incursion comes as European leaders and allies are set to meet in Paris Thursday to discuss support for Ukraine and long-term stability in the region, amid shaky efforts by the White House to broker a ceasefire.

Following talks in Saudi Arabia this week, the US said both Russia and Ukraine agreed to stop using force in the Black Sea and uphold a previously announced pause on attacks against energy infrastructure. But Russia introduced some far-reaching conditions for signing up to the partial truce, which falls far short of a 30-day full ceasefire initially proposed by the White House.

The Kremlin said it would only implement the agreements once sanctions on its banks and exports are lifted, showing the significant gulf in expectations between the negotiating parties.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, have been deepening security ties since they signed a landmark defense pact last year and pledged to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event the other is attacked.

Putin’s top security adviser Sergei Shoigu met with Kim last week in Pyongyang, where he conveyed Putin’s “warmest wishes and greetings,” Russian state-run news agency TASS reported.

“He pays the utmost attention to the implementation of agreements reached with you,” Shoigu told Kim, according to TASS.

Deepening partnership

The United States has warned that Russia may be close to sharing advanced space and satellite technology with North Korea, on top of military equipment and training it is already providing, in exchange for North Korean support for the war in Ukraine.

North Korean troops had been deployed to the Russian region of Kursk to repel Ukraine’s incursion since at least November. But they withdrew from the front lines in January after reports of mass casualties, Ukrainian officials said.

South Korean lawmaker Yoo Yong-won, who visited Ukraine in late February, said about 400 North Korean soldiers in Russia had been killed and about 3,600 injured as of February 26.

Since the war began, North Korea has also sent thousands of shipping containers of munitions or munitions-related material to Russia, and Moscow’s forces have launched North Korea-made missiles on Ukraine, according to US officials.

North Korean medical facilities have also treated hundreds of Russian soldiers injured in Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Pyongyang said in an interview with state-run outlet Rossiyskaya Gazeta in February.

Meanwhile, Russia supplies North Korea with coal, food and medicine, Ambassador Alexander Matsegora told the outlet.

He also said children of Russian troops killed in Ukraine had vacationed in North Korea last summer, and Russia and North Korea are developing student exchanges.

North Korean drones

South Korean officials have echoed US concerns that the deepening partnership between Russia and North Korea could facilitate technology transfers to the Kim regime.

This week, Kim oversaw a test of new AI-powered attack drones, North Korean state-run news agency KCNA reported, and directed that they be further developed “in keeping with the trend of modern warfare.”

Pyongyang also unveiled a new reconnaissance drone that could have partly come from Russia, South Korea’s military said Thursday.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Lee Seong-jun said that the aircraft model had been modified from an original North Korean plane, but the “internal equipment and such parts could be related to Russia.”

Drones have become a central weapon in the fighting between Russia and Ukraine. The number of Russian drone attacks on Ukraine skyrocketed from just 379 in May 2024 to nearly 2,500 in November.

Amid ongoing talks of a ceasefire, Ukraine and Russia have continued to exchange attacks. Late Wednesday, Russian forces launched a massive drone attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv, injuring at least nine people and damaging civilian infrastructure, Ukrainian authorities said.

“No country should have to go through this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram following the attack.

In an interview with Newsmax Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said he believes Russia wants to end the war, but “it could be they’re dragging their feet.”

In a small village in the Hebron hills of the occupied West Bank, Hamdan Ballal stood outside his house in a track suit with a black eye.

He held the hand of his 18-month-old daughter, who stood in a pool of his dried blood.

Things looked quite different for the award-winning director just weeks ago. He had flown to Los Angeles to accept an Oscar for the film, “No Other Land,” a documentary he co-directed about the violence and forced displacement of Palestinian villagers for illegal Israeli settlements in those same hills.

Ballal was attacked by a mob of Israeli settlers in front of his home, in the village of Susya on Monday evening.

“I thought they would kill me,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ballal said, Israeli soldiers soon arrived outside his home, where they shot live rounds into the air.

He said one soldier pushed his rifle into his leg and told him, “’After (shooting) in the air, I will put the shot in your body.’”

After the attack, Ballal and two other Palestinians were taken away by Israeli soldiers and detained in a military facility in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, where he said he was handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten.

The Israeli military called Ballal’s allegations that he was beaten in custody “baseless.”

Attacks on Palestinian farmers and activists in the occupied West Bank are not new.

However, the ferocity of the attack – and Ballal’s subsequent detention – made him feel that the settlers – and the Israeli military – were taking revenge for their film and its international reach.

“At that moment, I thought because of my Oscar, they wanted to kill me,” he said.

In detention, Ballal, who doesn’t speak Hebrew, said he heard the soldiers laughing when they said his name and the word “Oscar.”

The Israeli military said the Palestinian detainees were given medical treatment and “handcuffed in accordance with operational protocol.”

They accused Ballal of throwing stones at soldiers and said that he had been detained on suspicion of rock hurling, property damage, and endangering regional security.

“They change everything,” Ballal said of the military’s interpretation of the events.

“Why did the settlers come here to my house? To say hi to me? Or to give me flowers? No, they came here to attack, to kill, to push you to leave your home,” he said, adding that many Palestinian villagers eventually leave their homes after years of sustained violence.

“When they have the law in their hand, they can do whatever they want,” Ballal said of the settlers, underscoring what multiple human rights organizations have said about Israel’s role in backing settler violence – and settler impunity.

Amnesty International has called settler violence “part of a decades long state-backed campaign to dispossess, displace and oppress Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under Israel’s system of apartheid,” and that “Israeli forces have a track record of enabling settler violence.”

Behind his house, Ballal looked to his fields, where a perimeter of settler outposts were visible. He said that his family haven’t farmed much since Israel’s war in Gaza began following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

“We didn’t plow it after October 7 because of the danger from the settlers,” he said.

Settler outposts are often established by Israeli settlers on hilltops with a few caravans and sometimes livestock to mark their claim.

Such land grabs go hand-in-hand with an escalation in violence by Israeli security forces and settlers against Palestinians, paving the way for settlement expansion, which is documented in Ballal’s film.

That violence has become even worse since the re-election of US President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s settlement expansion policy in the West Bank, activists say.

In early January, Trump rescinded Biden-era sanctions on far-right settler groups and individuals accused of involvement in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. And during his first term, Trump abandoned the long-held position that Israeli settlement expansion in occupied Palestinian territories are illegal, contrary to most international law.

From January 2024 to 2025, at least 1,420 incidents of settler violence in the occupied West Bank were recorded, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Those incidents include settlers reportedly killing five Palestinians, including a child, and injuring 360 others, including 35 children, according to OCHA.

More than 26,100 Palestinian-owned trees – which are vital to the local economy – were also vandalized in that period, OCHA said.

On Sunday, Netanyahu’s cabinet approved a plan to separate and legalize 13 settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, a move that his far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich hailed as a move toward what he called “actual sovereignty” in the West Bank.

For Ballal, the assault – and Netanyahu’s moves – are even more of a reason to continue to fight for his community.

“I brought myself in this circle (of activism and filmmaking) because of my community, my villages – I need justice for them. Because of that, we made this movie, to bring attention to what’s happening in this area and what is happening there.”

Later in the afternoon, settlers brought their cows and sheep to graze on the farm next to Ballal’s land.

The settlers were accompanied by Israeli soldiers.

Ballal said that no amount of intimidation – from settlers or from the government – will push him from his home.

Standing under the sun, he added: “No other home. No other land.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada must “look out for (itself)” as the fallout over top US officials sharing military operation details inside a popular messaging app reverberates among key intelligence allies and partners.

“It’s a serious, serious issue and all lessons must be taken from any of those, including in this circumstance,” Carney told reporters on a campaign trail stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia Tuesday ahead of the country’s April 28 election.

Canada has long been one of the US’s closest allies, though the relationship has deteriorated in recent months since President Donald Trump threatened to enact sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods and annex the country as the “51st state.”

“We have a very strong intelligence partnership with the Americans through Five Eyes,” Carney said, referring to the intelligence-sharing alliance between Canada, the US, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

“Mistakes do happen, but what’s important is how people react to those mistakes and how they tighten them up,” Carney said.

Carney said the likely leak of sensitive military plans by senior US officials means Canadians must “look out for ourselves.”

“My responsibility is to plan for the worst, is to think about the most difficult evolution of the new threat environment, what it means for Canada and how do we best protect Canada,” Carney said. “Part of that response is to be more and more Canadian in our defense capabilities, more and more Canadian in our decisions, to take greater ownership.”

Other Five Eyes allies have been tighter lipped about the apparent intelligence leak.

A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted nothing was awry in the UK-US relationship.

“We have a very close relationship with the US on matters of security, defense and intelligence,” spokesman Dave Pares told the Associated Press. “They are our closest ally when it comes to these matters, have been for many years and will be for many years to come.”

France’s foreign ministry said “the United States is our ally, and France intends to continue its cooperation with Washington, as well as with all its allies and European partners, in order to address current challenges — particularly in the area of European security,” according to the AP.

“Australia and the United States engage regularly on implementation of mutually recognised standards for the protection of classified material,” they said in a statement.

A spokesperson for New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon declined to comment.

The two most important things in Jerce Reyes’s life, according to those who know him best, are family and soccer.

The former professional soccer player’s tattoos are a testament to those passions: of a soccer ball and other symbols on his left arm, as well as the names of his two daughters, which were all inked by his friend Victor Mengual.

Little did this Venezuelan player know that some of those drawings would, years later, lead to him being placed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in the United States in September.

This month, the 35-year-old was among the hundreds of Venezuelan deportees transferred to El Salvador’s most notorious prison after US President Donald Trump invoked an 18th century law to deport hundreds of undocumented migrants to the Central American country.

Part of the reasoning for Reyes’s deportation, US authorities argue, lies on his arms, which they say is evidence of his membership to an infamous Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.

But Mengual, who works as a tattoo artist in Venezuela and tattooed Reyes twice in 2018 and 2023, says this is all a misunderstanding.

Below the crown, Mengual had tattooed the word “Dios,” which means God in Spanish and is also the nickname of the late Argentinian soccer star Diego Armando Maradona.

Other tattoos Mengual drew on Reyes are the names of his daughters, Isabela and Carla Antonella, a map of Venezuela, a star, and a goalkeeper, his position on the pitch, he said.

US authorities have linked certain tattoos to the criminal group. Guidance on Tren de Aragua from the Texas Department of Public Safety states that tattoos of crowns, roses or stars are all widely used by the gang members, while two of its mottos include the words Real and Dios.

“It’s so unjust!” Mengual despaired. “I’ve read in the news that Tren de Aragua uses crowns or roses, but, so what? I don’t understand why an innocent man has to pay for it?”

‘This is not true’

In southern Mexico, Reyes’s partner denies the accusations against him.

The deportee’s lawyer Tobin said Reyes left the Venezuelan city of Machiques last March following political unrest. He arrived in Mexico and registered on the CBP One app, a Biden-era mechanism for migrants to legally enter the US.

Records show Reyes entered the US on September 1 for an appointment with migration authorities but was immediately detained, accused of being a gangster, and placed in ICE custody.

She also showed reels of Reyes’s performances as a soccer player in Venezuela’s First and Second Divisions.

In December, Reyes and Tobin applied for asylum and withholding of removal and he was granted a hearing to present his case based on the political situation in Venezuela. A few months later, Trump was inaugurated and quickly launched an immigration crackdown.

According to his lawyer, Reyes is still due to appear in front of an immigration judge in San Diego on April 17.

On March 16, Araujo started scrolling through videos shared on social media by the Salvadorean presidency showing the deportees’ arrivals at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a maximum-security prison designed to hold El Salvador’s gangsters.

Amid clips showing deportees frog-marched in white uniforms towards their cell, Araujo was able to spot someone resembling her partner.

The following day Tobin got confirmation that Reyes had indeed been deported. His name later appeared in a list of deportees first published by CBS News, as claims of innocence from the families of the deportees began to sprout across the media.

“He’s innocent, and it’s not only the family who says it, everyone who knows Jerce knows this is not true,” Araujo claims.

A community calls for his release

In Reyes’ hometown Machiques, a small, rural city close to the border with Colombia, his old club Perijaneros FC is starting a campaign to demanding his release.

In footage shared on Instagram and TikTok, children from the soccer school recite a prayer for their former coach, who left town like so many others looking for a better future abroad.

In the last decade, more than eight million Venezuelans have fled economic crisis and political repression under President Nicolas Maduro, who criticized the US and El Salvador for “kidnapping” his fellow citizens last week.

When the news broke that he had been deported to El Salvador, the community was shocked, he said.

“I don’t understand, how can you take a person and put it in a cell without a thorough investigation? How could they not look into this before condemning a person?”