The United States has fired a top military planner, US media reported, with some outlets saying the dismissal was due to the officer allegedly leaking classified information.

Army Lieutenant General Brett Sylvia was removed from his role as head of strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Staff, US media reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.

CBS and Fox both reported that Sylvia’s dismissal was related to leaks, with the former citing a Pentagon official as saying the general failed three polygraphs about sharing classified information with the media.

A spokesperson for the Joint Staff, a top Pentagon body that handles planning and other issues, initially issued a statement that confirmed Sylvia’s departure and wished him well but later withdrew it, saying: “Upon further review, we determined that the statement did not appropriately reflect the full circumstances.”

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell then said in a post on X that the Defense Department “has zero tolerance for the intentional, unauthorised disclosure of classified information” and took “necessary personnel action to protect sensitive information.”

Parnell did not identify Sylvia by name and said “no further comment will be made regarding the individual or the circumstances of this action”.

“This matter, along with others, have been referred to the Justice Department for potential further legal action,” he added.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since returning to office early last year, Trump has overseen a purge of top military personnel, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, general Charles “CQ” Brown, whom he fired without explanation in February 2025.

Renewed Iran strikes?

Other senior officers pushed out include the heads of the US Army, Navy and Coast Guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice chief of staff of the US Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to Nato, and three top military lawyers.

Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth has insisted the president is simply choosing the leaders he wants, but Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential politicisation of the traditionally neutral US military.

Hegseth said last month that the US had slashed the number of its generals and admirals by 20 per cent, in a move he said was aimed at “accountability”. He suggested the cuts targeted officers who failed to get on board with his efforts to ensure the military is focused on war-fighting rather than the “woke” policies of previous administrations, describing the reductions as an “accomplishment”.

The reported sacking of Sylvia comes as Trump is believed to be weighing fresh strikes against Iran after US midterm elections next Tuesday.

“We may do another little Epic Fury,” Trump said last week, referring to US-Israeli attacks on Tehran in February that triggered the war. He did not give any indication on timing.

Neither the US nor Iran has engaged in major attacks on land-based targets since early September, settling instead into a pattern of strikes on commercial ships.

No reason was given for Sylvia’s reported departure. His previous roles included leading the 101st Airborne Division — the US army’s air assault division — and heading a unit in Iraq.

A landslide triggered by heavy rainfall caused a rock spire to collapse in Turkiye’s Unesco World Heritage-listed Cappadocia region on Thursday, bringing the death toll to three, officials said.

Turkiye’s Cappadocia region, a magnet for tourists from around the world, is home to cone-shaped rock formations known as “fairy chimneys”, created by ancient volcanic activity.

“According to initial findings, two people were killed and five others injured in the incident,” Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said on X.

Rescue teams pulled another body from the rubble, bringing the death toll to three, Nevsehir Governor Huseyin Kok said.

The nationalities of the dead were not immediately known.

“Search and rescue teams are continuing intensive, coordinated operations to locate any other victims who may be trapped under the debris,” the minister said.

Television footage showed heavy machinery digging through the rubble as rescue teams gathered at the site in an effort to recover people. Excavators and rescue workers worked into the night at the site, using powerful floodlights as the search operation continued.

The incident occurred at 3:15pm local time (5:15pm PKT) when a landslide triggered a rockfall in the town of Goreme near the open-air museum, local governor Kok said.

The area was closed to the public following the collapse, according to reports.

Eyewitnesses described hearing a loud noise as the rock spire near a car park collapsed, sending up a huge cloud of dust.

Restoration

Turkiye’s culture and tourism ministry has launched restoration work in the region to help preserve the fragile rock formations from climate-related damage, natural erosion and human activity.

In 2024, another rockfall was reported in Cappadocia, although no deaths or injuries were recorded.

A Unesco heritage site since 1985, Goreme national park and the rock sites of Cappadocia are “a landscape of harmony combining human interaction and settlement with dramatic natural landforms,” according to the UN agency.

Some of the cones and pillars have experienced earthquake damage, but this is seen as a naturally occurring phenomenon.

“Overuse by tourists and some vandalism have been reported and some incompatible structures have been introduced,” it said on its website.

The Cappadocia region is also home to rock-carved underground cities and early Christian churches.

In 2025, some 4.5 million domestic and foreign tourists visited the region, according to tourism ministry figures.

Hot-air ballooning in Cappadocia is a thriving industry that sees dozens of balloons take to the skies on clear mornings. But concerns have been raised about safety following a series of accidents.

The European Union (EU) said on Thursday it does not want any more national-level bans on social media before a pan-European law is approved, as it blocked draft rules put forward by Austria.

Under EU law, member states must notify the European Commission to ensure their bills do not break the bloc’s rules. Austria wanted to ban children under 14 from social media, but the EU said no.

“The commission has decided to postpone for 12 months any draft national laws overlapping with the future harmonised rules,” EU spokesman Thomas Regnier said.

The European Commission last month proposed to ban children under 13 from social media, and permit only limited, supervised access until the age of 15.

The EU believes allowing countries to move ahead with national laws would divide the bloc, creating varying age-limits among member states.

Brussels also fears EU countries will not rush to pass the bloc-wide law if they have their own country-level rules in place.

“We need to now focus on the negotiations of the EU Kids Act and to ensure an effective enforcement of our rules,” Regnier said. The commission hopes EU countries and the European Parliament will reach a deal on the new rules in the next few months.

There will, however, be exceptions to the EU’s decision.

Although the commission demanded France’s proposed law be reworked, it is not expected to be blocked because Paris notified Brussels of the law before bloc-wide legislation was put forward.

And Greece has been able to pass its own rules, drafted long before September. Regnier would not be drawn on whether France would be prevented from enacting its national legislation.

The EU has yet to deliver verdicts on bans by other EU states, including Italy and Slovakia.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc on Thursday piled pressure on Israeli Arab leaders over unproven accusations of foreign funding, in a push to neuter parties that could hold the key to forming a government after an inconclusive election.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog called for an investigation into allegations of fraud but cautioned against stigmatising the entire Arab Israeli community, who voted at unprecedented rates.

Israel was nearing the completion of ballot-counting from Tuesday’s election, in which neither Netanyahu nor the opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot looked able to secure a majority in the parliament known as the Knesset.

The Netanyahu camp’s accusations, which a key Arab party has rejected, could bring uncertainty to the electoral process at a time when the threat of a return to war with Iran looms over the region.

Israel’s election saw soaring participation by Israeli Arabs, descendants of Palestinians who stayed after the country’s creation in 1948, as outrage boiled at calls by officials such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to treat their community much as Israel has dealt with Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Following Netanyahu’s accusations of impropriety, Ben Gvir went so far as to encourage Israel to “immediately” order the arrests of Arab party leaders.

Raam party leader Mansour Abbas said he welcomed an investigation into claims of wrongdoing, adding that his party had “no connection” with the accusations.

The Arab parties together have enough votes to take the opposition bloc over the finish line, but Eisenkot has baulked after relentless attacks by Netanyahu, who warned his right-wing Jewish base that voting for the opposition would put Arabs in power.

‘Political earthquake’

Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, a conservative who heads the Central Election Commission, requested an investigation by the Shin Bet security service into allegations that Raam received money from Qatar.

“The Raamgate scandal is a political earthquake. Israel’s elections have been stolen!” Netanyahu’s Likud party said.

Government officials did not offer evidence to back the allegations, and left-wing candidate Yair Golan accused Netanyahu of attempting to stir controversy after failing to get a majority.

“Now he is trying to challenge the election results through an ugly delegitimisation campaign against the will of the people, and against the Arab public in particular.”

Netanyahu himself has long been under the cloud of allegations related to Qatar after the arrests last year of two of his aides for allegedly receiving payments from the Gulf state.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman on Thursday rejected accusations “made by certain Israeli politicians and their contacts in the media” that his country had interfered in the Israeli elections.

“We categorically deny allegations that Qatar has interfered in Israeli elections or funded any activities intended to influence their outcome,” said Majed Al Ansari.

“They accuse Qatar of buying off Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli political left and now, in this latest campaign, the Arab vote […] These accusations are ridiculous and dangerous in equal measure.”

Kingmakers under pressure

With nearly 93 per cent of the vote counted, Netanyahu’s bloc was at 53 seats and the opposition forces led by Eisenkot on 48 — both well under the 61 needed to form a government.

The two main Arab formations were on track for an unprecedented 19 seats between them.

Some observers quickly said that the allegations would help Netanyahu by making the Arab lawmakers even more toxic to Eisenkot.

Yousef Jabareen, the head of the leftist Arab-majority Joint List, told AFP on Wednesday that he was willing to cooperate with the opposition to bring down Netanyahu but without joining it in a government.

In response to the new allegations, Eisenkot said he was receiving updates and promised “utmost vigilance” against election interference.

“On the other hand, we cannot allow political actors to exploit the situation and influence the timing of the inauguration of the 26th Knesset,” he said.

One of Eisenkot’s right-leaning allies, Avigdor Lieberman, called the allegations “dramatic and unprecedented” and urged a swift investigation.

An Israeli police statement said that they would investigate every complaint about election integrity.

The great survivor

Netanyahu, who has led Israel on and off for more than 19 years, is known as a wily political operator.

He tried on Tuesday to raise allegations of fraud, saying that Arab parties were caught with envelopes of cash, and his Likud party peddled the accusations throughout Thursday.

Police said they arrested three suspects but the election commission called it an isolated local case.

Another factor that could play into the formation of a government is an attack on Iran.

Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran, with his ally US President Donald Trump signalling he was ready to attack after next Tuesday’s US midterm elections, in which his Republican Party is forecast to lose ground.

Eisenkot has warned the military that Netanyahu has no mandate and that officers must put Israel’s security over the premier’s “political needs”.

An attack could raise pressure on Eisenkot to join an emergency unity government, an option he has publicly ruled out, or keep the clock running until Israel can call new elections.

President Herzog will decide after the publication of the official results which person to task with a first chance of forming a government.

Palestinian president says hopes for peace talks with new govt

Meanwhile, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that he hoped the election of a new Israeli government would allow for the resumption of peace talks.

“For many years now, we have been extending a hand to the Israeli side in order to achieve peace with them, so that Israel and Palestine may live in security, stability and peace,” Abbas said during a meeting with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia.

“We hope that, immediately after a new Israeli government is formed, we will be able to engage in dialogue together,” he added.

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been stalled for years, despite the recognition of the State of Palestine by a growing number of countries.

Under Netanyahu’s watch, settlement construction and violence against Palestinians has soared in the occupied West Bank, where Abbas’ Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule.

Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan more than quadrupled in 2026 despite a Taliban government ban, the United Nations said on Thursday, urging that impoverished farmers needed alternatives to the lucrative crop.

Cultivated areas reached 43,000 hectares (around 106,200 acres), up from 10,000 hectares in 2025, while estimated opium production jumped fivefold from 300 tonnes to 1,500 tonnes, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report.

Long the world’s leading producer of poppies, Afghanistan was overtaken by Myanmar after a 2022 Taliban government ban crushed the trade in the country.

But rampant poverty has driven some farmers to return to the trade.

“Without opium, we cannot even afford basic food,” Mohammad, a 22-year-old farmer in Afghanistan’s northeast, told AFP.

Afghanistan’s 2022 crackdown drove cultivated areas down from more than 200,000 hectares to 10,000 hectares in 2025. Myanmar cultivated 53,000 hectares in 2025, with no 2026 figures available.

The Taliban authorities claim to have destroyed more than 22,000 hectares. But UNODC said many poppy plots were concealed among cereal crops or behind walls, making them difficult to detect.

Mohammad lives with his parents in Badakhshan, which has become Afghanistan’s main opium poppy-growing province.

“The Taliban threaten us and do not allow us to grow opium. We cultivate it with a great deal of fear,” he said, asking only to be identified by his first name.

“I want to buy a car, build a house and get married. Without opium, I cannot achieve these things,” he further explained.

‘The only way’

In May, two people were killed in clashes that erupted as Afghan security forces moved to destroy opium poppy fields in Badakhshan. Another 35-year-old farmer named Mohammad, who ploughs his poppy field with an ox, said: “If we grow wheat, it is not enough to sustain our lives. We are forced to grow poppies to earn a good income.”

Mohammad said that he is threatened by the authorities and sometimes his crops are destroyed, but he will continue. “It is the only way to cover living expenses,” he said. One hectare of wheat generated just over $770 in 2023, compared with $10,000 for a hectare of poppy, according to UNODC.

“Opium prices slightly decreased from $570 per kilogramme in 2025 to $500 per kilogramme in 2026, remaining well above pre-ban levels of less than $100 per kilogramme,” UNODC said in a press release.

“The fourfold increase in opium poppy cultivation shows the difficulty in sustaining decreases in illicit opium cultivation when poor farmers have no alternatives to feed their families,” said UNODC Executive Director Monica Juma.

The Taliban government acknowledged that the ban was not a “sustainable and long-term solution” without alternative livelihoods and economic support for farmers.

The challenge comes as Afghanistan faces the return of 6.6m Afghans since 2023, climate disasters, dwindling aid and banking isolation since the Taliban movement returned to power in 2021. With support from Japan and the European Union, UNODC has funded programmes to help farmers find alternatives.

‘International problem’

Through the NGO Afghan Aid, Zikrullah, 35, who supports an extended family of 12 in Badakhshan, received improved wheat seeds and fertiliser.

“We’re satisfied, it takes less effort than opium and we’re more at ease,” he told AFP, also asking to be identified only by his first name. A third farmer named Mohammad, 30, who has converted 80 per cent of his land to wheat, told AFP that the lack of water in recent years has affected crops other than poppy.

To curb opium production sustainably, alternative crops alone are insufficient, UNODC Country Representative for Afghanistan Polleak Ok Serei told AFP in an interview in Kabul.

“Sustainable alternative livelihood requires more than thinking in terms of alternative crops,” he said. Farmers “need access to markets, including international markets through trades. They need infrastructure, roads, irrigation, storage”.

UNODC estimated in 2025 that approach would require approximately $500m, but “only 10pc” had been funded by donors and the Taliban authorities, according to Ok Serei.

The strategy also takes time, he said.

“Thailand spent 15 years investing in alternative livelihood before starting eradicating,” Ok Serei said.

The problem extends far beyond Afghanistan, he said. “It truly is an international problem,” Ok Serei added, explaining that Afghan drugs were consumed across other continents. Afghan opium is the main source of heroin in the European Union, where approximately 850,000 people used opioids in 2024, according to the European Union Drugs Agency.

Addressing the problem requires international cooperation, the UN representative said. Ok Serei called for a “drug demand reduction strategy, not only in Afghanistan but also outside of Afghanistan”.

With a 30-year Ganges water-sharing treaty with India expiring in December, Bangladesh fears failure to strike a new deal could deepen water shortages, threatening tens of millions of livelihoods.

In Bangladesh’s parched Barind region, 72-year-old Bikash Soren remembers when the Ganges river flowing in from neighbouring India carried large boats past his village year-round.

“For almost three months a year, you hardly see the river flowing,” the Protestant priest said.

Two farmers died by suicide last season, he added, after dwindling water levels left their rice and wheat crops in tatters.

Shrinking flows in the Ganges have also slashed fish catches in the river, known in Bangladesh as the Padma.

“Where will we find fish now?” said Abu Bakar Siddique, 55, who has switched to fish farming in ponds.

“I used to catch many kinds.” The 2,525-kilometre Ganges flows through the world’s most populous river basin, home to 655 million people including more than 50 million in Bangladesh, according to the World Bank.

The 1996 treaty, which expires on December 12, governs dry-season water sharing at India’s Farakka Barrage, 20 kilometres upstream of Bangladesh.

But Bangladesh needs a new deal based on “mutual benefit and respect”, Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, a prime ministerial adviser who heads a technical committee on water-sharing, told AFP.

Water arguments over 54 cross-border rivers between India and Bangladesh stretch back decades, and the Ganges is among the most important.

Malik Fida A. Khan, a former Bangladeshi member of the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC), the body overseeing water-sharing, said India had built “additional dams” upstream.

“This time, the agreement must include provisions on climate change — and take the entire river basin into account,” he said.

Soured relations

Bangladesh said India had not responded to its request to negotiate a treaty renewal.

New Delhi’s foreign ministry said that “discussions regarding river-related matters” are a matter for the JRC commission, which held its last technical talks back in May.

The last officially confirmed ministerial-level JRC meeting was in 2022 — after a 12-year gap.

And a proposed water-sharing deal for the cross-border Teesta river has been stalled since 2011.

Relations between New Delhi and Dhaka have soured since Bangladesh’s ex-leader Sheikh Hasina fled to old ally India, where she remains, following a 2024 uprising.

Hasina, sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity, has vowed to return to Bangladesh from India in December, the month the treaty she signed expires.

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Tarique Rahman may also reportedly visit India before the treaty expires, but no visit has been confirmed.

Arguments date back to 1975, when India opened the 2.2-kilometre long Farakka Barrage. Bangladesh accused India of diverting most of the water.

The United Nations intervened in the dispute and a deal was agreed in 1977.

But water-sharing arrangements lapsed a decade later, bringing severe consequences, said Sheikh Rokon of Dhaka-based environmental group Riverine People.

“The Ganges suffered during the years without a treaty, and at least three rivers almost dried up,” Rokon said.

One was the Gorai, which carries freshwater into the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and a World Heritage site, helping limit saltwater intrusion as sea levels rise.

Bangladesh’s Ganges-Kobadak Irrigation Project, designed to water 955 square kilometres of farmland, the country’s largest, “became inoperative because of water scarcity”, Rokon said.

In May, Dhaka approved the Padma Barrage, a $2.8-billion project intended to ease shortages and include a 113-megawatt hydropower plant.

‘Disastrous’

The 1996 treaty has no automatic extension clause.

“If we fail to reach a deal, I fear the situation will be worse than what we experienced during the years without a treaty,” Rokon added.

“Demand for freshwater on both sides has increased significantly.” Even with the treaty in place, the Ganges-Kobadak project has shrunk to 550 square kilometres, according to Bangladeshi state news agency BSS.

“If the river does not carry enough water, the consequences could be disastrous,” said Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan, a geology professor at Bangladesh’s University of Rajshahi.

Bangladesh’s agriculture-dependent economy is already reeling from the impact of climate change, which compounds shifting river flows, alternating dry-season shortages and intense monsoon floods washing away farmland and villages.

In Chapainawabganj district, the river has widened by three kilometres in recent years — nearly doubling its size — according to Bangladesh’s Water Development Board.

Rehana Khatun, 50, described the “howling sound” as floods destroyed her home in Fielder Bazar village.

“The river turned wild and started swallowing everything along the bank,” said Khatun, who now lives in a bamboo shelter.

“And the trauma stays with children long after the waters recede.”