分类： world

On a Monday midday at one of Mexico’s most celebrated and heavily visited historical landmarks, a violent shooting outbreak left one Canadian national dead and 13 other people injured, according to official Mexican law enforcement and government statements. The incident unfolded at the Teotihuacan archaeological site, a 2,000-year-old pre-Aztecan pyramid complex located just outside of Mexico City in central Mexico, drawing millions of global tourists every year.

Cristobal Castaneda, security secretary for the Mexico State where the UNESCO-recognized site is located, confirmed that the unidentified gunman — whose nationality remains unconfirmed by authorities — took their own life immediately after opening fire on crowds of visitors. Of the 13 injured people, six suffered direct gunshot wounds and required transport to local medical facilities for treatment. The wounded group includes a Canadian woman, a Colombian adult and child, one Brazilian national, and two American citizens. An additional seven people sustained injuries during the chaotic rush to evacuate to safety; those injuries were treated on-site by emergency responders, and this group counts one Russian, one Colombian, one Brazilian, and four American citizens among its numbers.

Footage captured by AFPTV from the scene shows a body covered in a white shroud being carried down the steps of one of the site’s famous ancient pyramids, a stark image that underscores the violence that disrupted what is normally a peaceful cultural attraction. Responding state law enforcement personnel quickly secured the area, seizing a handgun, a knife, and a cache of unused ammunition from the site before organizing a full evacuation of all remaining tourists.

Tourism data shows the ancient pyramid city welcomed more than 1.8 million visitors in 2025 alone, cementing its status as a core pillar of Mexico’s cultural tourism economy. The shocking shooting comes less than two months before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a massive international sporting event co-hosted by Mexico, the United States, and Canada that is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors to Mexican tourist sites across the country.

Global and Mexican political leaders have quickly responded to the violence. Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand labeled the attack a “horrific act of gun violence” in a public post on the social platform X. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also issued a public statement, ordering a full, exhaustive investigation into the incident and confirming that she had deployed additional federal and local personnel to the site to support emergency response efforts and assist affected visitors. “What happened today in Teotihuacan deeply pains us,” Sheinbaum wrote in her post on X.

On Monday, Japanese public officials activated a special national warning after a powerful undersea earthquake shook the country’s northern coast, triggering initial tsunami alerts and leaving the nation bracing for the possibility of a far larger seismic event in the coming period.

The 7.7-magnitude quake struck at 4:53 pm local time (0753 GMT) in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Iwate Prefecture, Japan’s northern region. Seismologists initially assessed the event as a 7.4-magnitude temblor, before upgrading the reading first to 7.5 and ultimately settling on a 7.7 rating. Despite the significant strength of the quake, which was powerful enough to sway high-rise structures in Tokyo, hundreds of kilometers away from the epicenter, there have been no immediate reports of major structural damage or critical injuries, according to Japan’s top government spokesperson.

In an official statement, the Japan Meteorological Agency confirmed that the probability of a subsequent massive earthquake measuring magnitude 8.0 or higher in the region is now elevated compared to typical baseline risk levels. The unexpected seismic activity prompted quick action from national authorities, who issued public guidance to residents across the affected northern zone.

Speaking at a televised briefing, a senior Cabinet Office official acknowledged that there is no definitive certainty that another major quake will strike. Even so, the official emphasized that all local residents must prioritize personal disaster preparedness, under the core principle that individual responsibility plays a critical role in protecting personal safety during seismic emergencies. Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara later reaffirmed the lack of early reports of serious harm during a separate press conference, as authorities continue to monitor seismic activity across the region closely.

Amid the ongoing military conflict in the Middle East that has sent global energy prices soaring, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has flagged that tourism-reliant Caribbean economies are at the highest risk of severe economic disruption from the shock, according to Nigel Chalk, director of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department. Speaking from Washington, Chalk laid out the structural vulnerabilities that make this group of nations particularly exposed: already elevated public debt levels, extremely limited fiscal room to maneuver, and a long-standing status as large net energy importers — even after years of investments in renewable energy transition across the region. A key additional layer of uncertainty that the IMF is closely monitoring is the indirect impact of higher energy costs on global air travel and tourist demand, two critical pillars of economic activity for most Caribbean island nations. The outlook for the region already reflects divergent growth trajectories across different economic groups, the IMF confirmed in its latest projections released late last week. Overall, the 15-nation Caribbean Community (Caricom) bloc is set to post mixed growth results over the 2026–2027 forecast period. Aggregate average growth for the entire bloc is projected to hit 5.7% in 2026 and 8.6% in 2027, driven by strong performance from regional commodity exporting nations, which are forecast to see growth as high as 19.1% over the two-year window. In stark contrast, tourism-dependent economies will see far softer expansion, averaging just 0.9% growth in 2026 and 2.2% in 2027, while non-tourism dependent smaller economies are projected to grow between 7.9% and 11.3% across the two years. Breaking down projections for individual island nations, Jamaica and Grenada are both expected to contract by 1.2% in 2026 before rebounding to 3.1% growth in 2027. Antigua and Barbuda is forecast to grow 2.6% and 2.4% respectively over the two years, while The Bahamas will see growth dip slightly from 2.1% in 2026 to 1.9% in 2027. Barbados is projected to record growth of 2.5% and 2.2%, Belize 2.2% and 2.1%, and Dominica 3.1% and 2.8%. St Kitts and Nevis will see a small uptick from 2% in 2026 to 2.5% in 2027, while St Lucia will see growth decline from 2% to 1.7%, and St Vincent and the Grenadines will drop from 3% to 2.7%. Chalk noted that a number of Caribbean governments have already implemented policy measures to soften the blow of rising oil costs for consumers and businesses. Many countries have pre-existing price smoothing mechanisms that prevent the full brunt of global energy price increases from being passed through to domestic consumers immediately, buying critical time for economies to adjust. However, the IMF is cautioning against the permanent expansion of general energy subsidies, a common policy response to price shocks that Chalk says carries significant long-term risks. Broad energy subsidies are inherently untargeted, he explained, with the largest benefits accruing to wealthier households rather than the low-income groups that need support most. Beyond distributional concerns, the volatile trajectory of global oil prices triggered by the Middle East conflict makes open-ended subsidy commitments extremely risky: if prices continue to climb, the fiscal cost of these subsidies could quickly spiral to unsustainable levels, worsening the region’s already stretched public balance sheets. Instead, the IMF advises Caribbean nations to allow market pricing mechanisms to work, encouraging households and businesses to adjust energy demand gradually, which reduces overall pressure on national economies while avoiding long-term fiscal risks. Turning to the question of regional migration to the United States, Chalk said the IMF does not expect the current economic headwinds to trigger a large sudden wave of northbound migration from the Caribbean. He noted that the broader region holds relatively solid economic fundamentals with limited near-term risk of a severe broad-based downturn, which removes a key driver of mass migration. While acute migration challenges persist for specific troubled nations such as Venezuela and Haiti, there is no indication at this stage that a sudden, large-scale migration push from the Caribbean to North America is on the horizon, he added.

BEIRUT, LEBANON – Just three days into a fragile 10-day truce that halted weeks of intense cross-border conflict between Israeli forces and Iran-aligned Hezbollah, Israel has confirmed it has ordered its military to operate with full force against perceived imminent threats in southern Lebanon, and continues carrying out house demolitions in border communities that Israel claims were used as militant outposts by Hezbollah. The unilateral operations have thrown the already uncertain durability of the ceasefire into question, leaving displaced Lebanese residents divided over whether to return to their war-scarred hometowns or remain farther north.

The ceasefire, which came into force on Friday, marked the first major pause in fighting that erupted on March 2 between the two sides, a conflict that has claimed nearly 2,300 lives in Lebanon and forced more than one million people from their homes. Even before the truce took effect, it followed the first high-level direct talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials in decades, raising tentative hopes for a long-term de-escalation. Those hopes have been dampened, however, by Israel’s ongoing military activity along the border.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Sunday that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had issued formal orders for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to maintain full operational freedom on both the ground and in the air, even during the ceasefire period. “This order stands to protect our soldiers deployed along the Lebanon border from any emerging threat,” Katz said. The instructions also mandate the military to demolish any booby-trapped structures or roadways, and raze all residential homes in border contact villages that Israel says functioned exclusively as Hezbollah terror outposts.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) confirmed Sunday that demolition operations were already advancing across multiple southern border towns that saw heavy fighting prior to the ceasefire. In Bint Jbeil, a community located just three miles from the Israeli border that was the site of some of the worst clashes, the outlet reported that Israeli forces were continuing to destroy what remained of damaged and abandoned residential properties a full day after initial demolitions began. Demolitions and controlled detonations were also underway in the border towns of Mais al-Jabal and Deir Seryan, while the town of Kunin came under Israeli artillery shelling Sunday, according to NNA.

Over the weekend, the IDF announced it had established a so-called “Yellow Line” buffer zone in southern Lebanon, a security arrangement modeled on the same separation line Israel has enforced in the Gaza Strip between areas under its control and territory held by Hamas. On Sunday, the military released an official map marking its new forward defense line and a wide red zone stretching the entire length of the Israel-Lebanon border, where it says operations will continue to dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure and eliminate threats to Israeli communities in northern Israel.

The continued Israeli military activity during the truce has drawn sharp condemnation from the international community. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan denounced the operations Sunday as deliberate “Israeli expansionism,” accusing Israel of working to create a permanent “fait accompli” on the ground that alters the border status quo even before formal ceasefire negotiations can move forward.

The situation on the ground for displaced Lebanese residents remains deeply fragmented. On Sunday, AFP correspondents across southern Lebanon documented mixed movements: in the village of Srifa, some residents who had fled the fighting were seen moving their belongings – including mattresses and household appliances – back into their homes. In Dibbine, a resident inspected the severe damage his home sustained during weeks of combat, while other families retrieved only essential belongings from their properties before heading back north out of the conflict zone. Many residents remain openly skeptical that the 10-day truce will hold, choosing to wait for further diplomatic progress before committing to returning permanently.

Lebanese military officials announced incremental progress in restoring basic connectivity to the south over the weekend: a key road connecting the city of Nabatiyeh to the Khardali area has been reopened, and the Burj Rahal-Tyre bridge has been partially reopened for traffic. Israeli airstrikes targeted most bridges across the Litani River, which runs roughly 30 kilometers north of the Israeli border, cutting off most of southern Lebanon from the rest of the country for weeks prior to the truce.

Diplomatic efforts to solidify the ceasefire are set to advance this week, with French President Emmanuel Macron set to host Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Paris on Tuesday. The French presidency said the meeting is intended to reaffirm France’s full commitment to upholding the current truce and supporting Lebanon’s full territorial integrity. Macron will also press Lebanese authorities to hold accountable those responsible for a deadly attack on United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeepers on Saturday, which killed one French service member and injured three others. Both France and UNIFIL have blamed Hezbollah for the attack, a claim the militant group has formally denied.

Before heading to Paris, Salam will first travel to Luxembourg on Tuesday to meet with European Union foreign ministers to discuss the crisis, according to the prime minister’s office.