A 17-year-old who is not allowed to speak in public in her own country has won a prestigious international award for advocating for the rights of Afghan girls.

Nila Ibrahimi won the International Children’s Peace Prize on Tuesday, an award that has recognized luminaries including climate activist Greta Thunberg and girls’ education campaigner Malala Yousafzai.

Ibrahimi received the honor for her “courageous work to fight for the rights of girls” in Afghanistan, where women are being silenced by oppressive rules set by the Taliban, who seized power in 2021.

Before the takeover, Ibrahimi gained an online following after using her voice to pressure Kabul education authorities to overturn a ban on schoolgirls singing in public.

Ibrahimi recorded herself singing, and her brother uploaded the video to social media.

The “IAmMySong” campaign caught on and, within weeks, the ban was overturned.

“That was the first time that I thought, wow. Like if I do want it, if I do think this is the way I want to live, I can speak up and that can be accepted,” she said in a video statement.

Campaigning from Canada

Ibrahimi was 15 when the Taliban moved into Kabul and seized power after the chaotic withdrawal of the US and its allies following a 20-year occupation, returning the nation to theocratic rule.

With the help of the 30 Birds Foundation, Ibrahimi fled Afghanistan with her family — first to Pakistan and then Canada, where she continues to advocate for Afghan girls.

She co-founded “Her Story,” which encourages Afghan girls to share their stories, spotlighting the voices of those still in Afghanistan.

“Every single day I think of those girls who are left behind in Afghanistan, left with no hope. In Canada, I make decisions about my life and embrace the person I aspire to be, but what about them?” Ibrahimi said in a speech to the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy last year.

After the Taliban took power, they closed schools for girls over 12. Teenage girls and women are not allowed to study or work and can only leave the house with a male relative. They can’t talk in public and must cover themselves head to toe, their eyes downcast to avoid accusations of impropriety. They aren’t allowed to use parks, gyms and other public facilities. Nor can they travel without permission.

The restrictions are part of a dramatic reversal of freedoms gained over two decades since the last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan.

Last week, the Taliban carried out a public execution, drawing condemnation from senior United Nations officials who called for an immediate end to such practices.

The UN’s Special Rapporteur to Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said the execution was a “clear violation of human rights.” Bennett has been banned from Afghanistan by the Taliban, who have accused him of spreading propaganda.

Germany, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands have accused the hardline Islamist group of violating the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The Taliban has previously said it was “absurd” to accuse Afghanistan’s leaders of gender discrimination. “Human rights are protected in Afghanistan and no one is discriminated,” said spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat Fitrat.

Eight people were injured after a cable car crashed more than 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) above sea level at France’s Val Thorens ski resort on Tuesday, authorities said.

The cable car was carrying construction workers up the Cime Caron mountain in bad weather conditions when it “collided with the arrival station,” according to a statement by the Savoie region of France.

The incident seriously injured two people, and left six others with less severe injuries, the local department said.

Fire and rescue services responded to the crash, with more than 120 responders mobilized.

The region’s public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation, the statement added.

Construction was taking place ahead of Val Thorens’ ski season. The resort is set to open on Saturday, welcoming visitors until early May.

Val Thorens is one of Europe’s most popular skiing destinations, and is the continent’s highest altitude resort. It forms part of the 3 Vallées, the world’s biggest ski area with 600 kilometers of runs spread between Val Thorens and the two other main resorts of Courchevel and Meribel.

The Cime Caron mountain, where the incident occurred, has an altitude of nearly 3,200 meters (10,500 feet).

The 27-year-old son of Norway’s Crown Princess has been arrested on suspicion of rape, Norwegian police said Tuesday.

Marius Borg Høiby was born before his mother Mette-Marit married Crown Prince Haakon and became a princess in 2001. He was arrested for violating the criminal code which concerns “sexual intercourse with someone who is unconscious or for other reasons is unable to resist the act.”

Police specified that he is accused of carrying out a “sexual act without intercourse” on a victim “said to have been unable to resist the act.”

Høiby was arrested late on Monday night, police said, and was being held in a detention center on Tuesday morning. His lawyer, Øyvind Bratlien, told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that he denies the allegation.

NRK reported that Høiby has now been charged with various offences against five different people – four women and a man.

Three of the women have been in a relationship with Høiby, NRK reported, adding that he has been accused of abuse in close relationships against all three women.

In August, police charged Høiby with assault and criminal damage after a violent incident at an apartment in Oslo that allegedly involved one of the three women. This woman was in a car with Høiby when he was arrested on Monday, police said.

Høiby has also been charged with threatening to kill a man in his 20s, NRK reported.

Brazilian police have arrested five people, including a former adviser to ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, over an alleged plot to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022, authorities said.

The coup plot was conceived in late 2022, before Lula took office, according to Federal Police. In addition to killing the then-president-elect, the plot also included plans to capture or kill Lula’s Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court said in its arrest order.

The order, signed by Moraes on Sunday, authorizes the preventative detention of the five suspects, including retired general Mário Fernandes.

The alleged plot also involved other military personnel with training in special forces, the Federal Police said.

“The planning drawn up by those under investigation detailed the human and military resources needed to carry out the actions, using advanced military operational techniques,” police said.

The plan envisioned the eventual creation of an “Institutional Crisis Management Office” in Brazil’s government that the coup plotters would control, according to the police.

According to the court order, the alleged plotters also considered several methods to carry out the political assassinations, including the use of poison or explosive devices.

“For the execution of President Lula, the document describes, considering his health vulnerability and frequent visits to hospitals, the possibility of using poisoning or chemicals to cause an organic collapse,” reads Moraes’ order, citing an investigation into the plot.

In addition to the five arrests, police said the suspects would be prohibited from leaving the country or contacting other people suspected of involvement in the plot, documents show.

In February of this year, Bolsonaro was placed under investigation over the alleged plot. The investigation is expected to be finished later this month, Reuters reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of the probe.

According to a police warrant carried out on Tuesday, Bolsonaro allegedly met with officials from the army and navy as well as the minister of defense in December 2022 to present a document detailing the legal framework that would keep him in power.

The former president has repeatedly denied allegations of attempting a coup. His son, Flavio Bolsonaro, who is a senator in the Brazilian Congress, suggested in a post on X that the five suspects had not committed a crime.

“As disgusting as it may be to think about killing someone, it is not a crime. And for there to be an attempt, the execution must be interrupted by some situation beyond the control of the perpetrators. Which does not appear to have happened,” he wrote.

In October 2022, Lula narrowly beat Bolsonaro in the presidential election. Bolsonaro’s supporters rejected the results and rioted in the capital Brasilia, storming government buildings on January 8, 2023.

The United States formally recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez as the country’s president-elect following the disputed July 28 presidential election, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Tuesday on X.

“The Venezuelan people spoke resoundingly on July 28 and made Edmundo Gonzalez the president-elect. Democracy demands respect for the will of the voters,” the top US diplomat posted while participating in the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.

The announcement marks a significant change in US policy towards Venezuela: up until now, the US and other countries said Gonzalez had won more votes than incumbent leader Nicolas Maduro in July but stopped short of recognizing him as “president-elect.”

“The Venezuelan people overwhelmingly and unequivocally expressed their desire for democratic change—the publicly available voting tally sheets say so,” they said.

Gonzalez on Tuesday thanked the US for the move, saying: “We deeply appreciate the recognition of the sovereign will of all Venezuelans. This gesture honors our people’s desire for change and the civic feat that we carried out together on July 28.”

In July, Venezuelan electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner amid widespread allegations of vote rigging. The Venezuelan opposition collected and published hundreds of thousands of vote tallies receipts claiming Gonzalez won with more than 70% of the vote.

Maduro remains firmly in power in Caracas and has called the opposition’s receipts “fraudulent.”

Gonzalez, who fled to Spain in September fearing for his safety, has previously said he intends to return to Venezuela in the coming weeks for the presidential inauguration set for January 10.

Iran has defied international demands to rein in its nuclear program and has increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, according to a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog seen Tuesday by The Associated Press.

The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said that as of Oct. 26, Iran has 182.3 kilograms (401.9 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%, an increase of 17.6 kilograms (38.8 pounds) since the last report in August.

Uranium enriched at 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

The IAEA also estimated in its quarterly report that as of Oct. 26, Iran’s overall stockpile of enriched uranium stands at 6,604.4 kilograms (14,560 pounds), an increase of 852.6 kilograms (1,879.6 pounds) since August. Under the IAEA’s definition, around 42 kilograms (92.5 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60% purity is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible — if the material is enriched further, to 90%.

The reports come at a critical time as Israel and Iran have traded missile attacks in recent months after more than a year of war in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, a group supported by Iran.

Adding to the complexity, Donald Trump’s reelection raises questions about whether and how the incoming administration and Iran may engage.

Trump’s first term in office was marked by a particularly troubled period, when he pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran. He unilaterally withdrew America from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, leading to the sanctions hobbling the economy, and ordered the killing of the country’s top general.

Western diplomats consider censuring Iran

Iran last week offered not to expand its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60%, during a visit to Tehran by the IAEA chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi.

The IAEA said during the meetings, “the possibility of Iran not further expanding its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60% U-235 was discussed, including technical verification measures necessary for the Agency to confirm this, if implemented.”

The report said that one day after Grossi left Iran, on Nov. 16, IAEA inspectors verified that “Iran had begun implementation of preparatory measures aimed at stopping the increase of its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60 % U-235” at its underground nuclear sites in Fordow and Natanz.

The reports come ahead of this week’s regular IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna. Western countries have been considering a resolution censuring Iran for its failure to improve cooperation with the agency.

A senior diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it is possible that the commitments made by Iran during the IAEA’s chief visit may not stand in case a resolution is passed. In the past, Iran has responded to resolutions by the IAEA Board of Governors by further enhancing its nuclear program.

Iran has maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, but Grossi has previously warned that Tehran has enough uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels to make “several” nuclear bombs if it chose to do so. He has acknowledged the U.N. agency cannot guarantee that none of Iran’s centrifuges may have been peeled away for clandestine enrichment.

Little progress on improving ties

The IAEA also reported that Iran has failed to take concrete steps as of now to improve cooperation, despite pleas by Grossi, who held talks last week with Mohammad Eslami of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian.

However, Tuesday’s confidential report also said that during Grossi’s visit to Iran on Nov. 14, “Iran agreed to respond to the Agency’s concerns related to Iran’s withdrawal of the designation of several experienced Agency inspectors by considering the acceptance of the designation of four additional experienced inspectors.”

In September 2023, Iran barred some of the Vienna-based agency’s most experienced inspectors.

The report also said there was no progress thus far in reinstalling more monitoring equipment, including cameras, removed in June 2022. Since then, the only recorded data comes from IAEA cameras installed at a centrifuge workshop in Isfahan in May 2023 — although Iran has not provided the IAEA with access to this data and inspectors have not been able to service the cameras.

Last week, Eslami warned that Iran could retaliate if challenged at the upcoming IAEA board meeting. Grossi acknowledged some nations were considering taking action against Iran.

In an effort to ensure Iran could not develop atomic weapons, world powers struck a deal with Tehran in 2015 under which it agreed to limit enrichment of uranium to levels necessary for nuclear power in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. UN inspectors were tasked with monitoring the program.

Under the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium only up to 3.67% purity, can maintain a stockpile of uranium of 300 kilograms and is permitted to use only very basic IR-1 centrifuges, machines that spin uranium gas at high speed for enrichment purposes.

A year after the U.S. withdrawal from the deal under Donald Trump, Iran started to gradually abandon all limits the deal put on its program and began enriching uranium to up to 60% purity.

Brazilian police have arrested five people, including a former adviser to ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, over an alleged plot to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022, authorities said.

The coup plot was conceived in late 2022, before Lula took office, according to Federal Police. In addition to killing the then-president-elect, the plot also included plans to capture or kill Lula’s Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court said in its arrest order.

The order, signed by Moraes on Sunday, authorizes the preventative detention of the five suspects, including retired general Mário Fernandes.

The alleged plot also involved other military personnel with training in special forces, the Federal Police said.

“The planning drawn up by those under investigation detailed the human and military resources needed to carry out the actions, using advanced military operational techniques,” police said.

The plan envisioned the eventual creation of an “Institutional Crisis Management Office” in Brazil’s government that the coup plotters would control, according to the police.

According to the court order, the alleged plotters also considered several methods to carry out the political assassinations, including the use of poison or explosive devices.

“For the execution of President Lula, the document describes, considering his health vulnerability and frequent visits to hospitals, the possibility of using poisoning or chemicals to cause an organic collapse,” reads Moraes’ order, citing an investigation into the plot.

In addition to the five arrests, police said the suspects would be prohibited from leaving the country or contacting other people suspected of involvement in the plot, documents show.

In February of this year, Bolsonaro was placed under investigation over the alleged plot. The investigation is expected to be finished later this month, Reuters reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of the probe.

According to a police warrant carried out on Tuesday, Bolsonaro allegedly met with officials from the army and navy as well as the minister of defense in December 2022 to present a document detailing the legal framework that would keep him in power.

The former president has repeatedly denied allegations of attempting a coup. His son, Flavio Bolsonaro, who is a senator in the Brazilian Congress, suggested in a post on X that the five suspects had not committed a crime.

“As disgusting as it may be to think about killing someone, it is not a crime. And for there to be an attempt, the execution must be interrupted by some situation beyond the control of the perpetrators. Which does not appear to have happened,” he wrote.

In October 2022, Lula narrowly beat Bolsonaro in the presidential election. Bolsonaro’s supporters rejected the results and rioted in the capital Brasilia, storming government buildings on January 8, 2023.

A vital humanitarian organization said it will suspend activities in Haiti’s capital on Wednesday following a “series of threats” by local police, in a move that threatens to bring a further deterioration of conditions in the Caribbean nation that has struggled for years with gang warfare and political turmoil.

Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), accused authorities of repeatedly stopping its vehicles and threatening its staff with violence, including death and rape.

Following that attack, the organization said it faced four additional encounters with police.

“This series of incidents have left us with no choice but to suspend our activities in Port-au-Prince,” MSF said in a statement.

In recent years, police, civilian vigilante groups and even rival gangs in the lawless capital have been repeatedly accused by doctors and medical staff of breaking into health care facilities where they suspect wounded gang members to be seeking treatment.

“As MSF, we accept working in conditions of insecurity, but when even law enforcement becomes a direct threat, we have no choice but to suspend admissions of patients in Port-au-Prince until the conditions are met for us to resume,” MSF head of mission Christophe Garnier said.

MSF said it will stop admitting and transferring patients to its five medical facilities in the Haitian capital from Wednesday, impacting thousands of people in need of treatment.

“MSF provides care to everyone on the basis of medical needs alone. Each week on average in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, MSF provides care to more than 1,100 patients on an outpatient basis, 54 children with emergency conditions, and more than 80 new survivors of sexual and gender-based violence,” the organization said in a statement.

Brutal gang violence in the capital has resulted in the kidnappings of hundreds of people, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Haitians from their homes.

MSF is the latest international group to halt operations in the Caribbean nation.

Last week, US-based airlines suspended flights to Haiti after three of their jets were struck by bullets while flying over Port-au-Prince. Haiti’s transitional presidential council blamed armed gangs for the gunfire that struck one of the flights, accusing them of aiming “to isolate our country on the international stage.”

Last month, a United Nations helicopter was also hit by bullets while flying over Port-au-Prince. And in a separate incident in October, gangs targeted US Embassy vehicles with gunfire, later prompting the evacuation of 20 embassy staff.

In late February and early March, coordinated gang attacks forced the closure of both the airport and main seaport in the Haitian capital, choking off vital supplies of food and humanitarian aid to the Caribbean nation.

China showed off its rapidly advancing military technology by unveiling a string of cutting-edge hardware at the country’s largest airshow last week.

The biennial event in the southern city of Zhuhai has become a rare public window into the military and industrial might of the rising communist-controlled superpower, while also providing international experts with an opportunity to assess its capabilities.

Many of the new Chinese weapons are seen by experts as having been developed to match the United States, as authoritarian Beijing pushes to modernize its armed forces and assert its growing military presence in Asia.

This year’s event featured a range of new weapons systems, including fighter jets and missiles. It also for the first time featured a dedicated area for drones, in a sign of their increasingly critical role on battlefields, including in the Ukraine war – and any potential future conflict over the self-governing island of Taiwan.

The six-day exhibition drew in nearly 600,000 visitors and more than 280 billion yuan ($39 billion) in global orders – as well as a stopover by Russia’s former defense chief, according to state media.

Here are some of the most notable new weapon systems put on public display at the show.

J35-A stealth fighter

More than a decade in the making, China’s much-anticipated new stealth fighter jet, the J-35A, is widely seen as part of Beijing’s bid to match the United States’ stealth fighter capabilities.

The J-35A is China’s second stealth fighter, after the J-20 entered service in 2017. Its commission makes China the second country after the US to have two types of stealth fighter jets.

Some observers have noted a resemblance in appearance between the J-35A and the US’ F-35. Though unlike the F-35, which features a single turbofan engine, the J-35A is equipped with two engines.

Its maximum takeoff weight is likely to be approaching 30 tons, Song Xinzhi, a Chinese military expert and former researcher in the PLA Air Force, told state broadcaster CCTV, hailing it a “breakthrough” for China’s new generation of medium-sized stealth fighters.

He added that the J-35A is an air force variant of the fighter. “(It) also has a twin navy variant, which is expected to be unveiled to the public soon,” Song said.

Wei Dongxu, a military commentator, claimed a key feature of the J-35A is its apparent versatility.

“It can not only perform air combat missions, but also … execute precise strikes on both ground and maritime targets,” he told CCTV, noting that the jet can carry a wide range of precision-guided munitions within its internal weapons bay, including small air-launched cruise missiles.

HQ-19 anti-ballistic missile system

Experts have been quick to compare the HQ-19, China’s new-generation surface-to-air missile system, to the US’ Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system.

Mounted on an 8×8 high-mobility vehicle, the HQ-19 carries six interceptor missiles and uses a “cold launch” mechanism that reduces the stress on the launcher and allows it to rapidly redeploy interceptors, according to state media reports.

China has not revealed the technical specifics of the system, and it remains unclear whether it can match the operational range or hit speed of THAAD. The US Defense Department’s annual report on China’s military in 2020 said the HQ-19 interceptor has undergone tests to verify its capability against 3,000 kilometer-range ballistic missiles.

Chinese military experts say it is tasked with intercepting ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, significantly extending the interception range of previous models like the HQ-9.

Most notably, Chinese experts and state media have also claimed the HQ-19 is capable of intercepting hypersonic glide vehicles in the atmosphere.

Such weapons are “challenging due to their unpredictable trajectory,” said PLA Senior Col. Du Wenlong of the PLA Academy of Military Sciences.

“Our radar system, however, can track these complex trajectories and guide missiles for a final strike. Many countries address hypersonic warheads by deploying multiple rapid warheads, ensuring at least one hit. But with the combination of the HQ-19 missile and our radar system, we’ve resolved this issue with a single radar and a single missile,” he told CCTV.

Drone mothership ‘Jetank’

A massive mothership drone that can carry a payload of up to six tons, Jetank has a wingspan of 25 meters (82 feet) and a maximum takeoff weight of 16 tons, according to state media, making it among the largest such weapons in China’s arsenal.

The jet-powered attack and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), features eight external hardpoints to carry missiles and bombs, as well as a quickly replaceable mission module that can carry different types of smaller drones.

“It takes the concept of an aircraft carrier from the sea to the air, enabling the deployment of numerous drones onto the battlefield by launching them in the air,” Chinese military expert Du Wenlong claimed, hailing it a “significant innovation.”

Stealth drone ship ‘Orca’

Known as the “Orca” the JARI-USV-A is a high-speed stealth unmanned surface combat vessel.

The 500-ton vessel is designed to be highly radar resistant and features a unique trimaran structure that gives it stability in harsh seas, state media reports say.

Measuring 58 meters (190 feet) in length, 23 meters (75 feet) in beam and 4 meters (13 feet) in depth, the “Orca” can operate at speeds up to 40 knots with a range of 4,000 nautical miles, allowing for prolonged missions without resupply, according to China Military Online, the official English-language news website of the Chinese military.

“As an autonomous combat vessel, it is like a mobile fortress on the sea which is capable of undertaking tasks such as beyond visual range fire strike, air and missile defense, and anti-submarine search and strike,” the China Military Online claimed in an article Tuesday.

“Such platforms can regularly carry out non-military and military operations of low to medium intensity, such as patrol and guard around strategic points, base ports, islands and reefs, and key waterways,” it added.

Equipped with four phased array radars and a vertical launch system, the vessel is said to be able to carry rockets, anti-ship missiles, air defense missiles and remote-control weapon stations. It also features a takeoff and landing platform for unmanned helicopters in the rear and a small docking bay at the stern, which can be used to launch small underwater devices or sensors for submarine detection, the article said.

PL-15E Air-To-Air Missile

China also unveiled a new version of its PL-15 long-range air-to-air missile. It comes with folding tailfins, a design that allows for more compact stowage to fit the country’s stealth fighter jets.

At the airshow, the PL-15E was displayed next to a model of the J35-A steal fighter jet.

The PL-15 is one of China’s most potent air-to-air missiles, with a range of around 200 kilometers and a peak speed above five times the speed of sound, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

It’s often compared to the US’ AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile.

Su-57 stealth fighter

Also on display at the airshow was the Su-57, Russia’s most advanced fighter jet, which made its first appearance away from home.

The overseas debut of the Su-57 in Zhuhai sent an unequivocal message about the close military cooperation between China and Russia.

Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s former defense minister who was in China for annual strategic security consultations, stopped by airshow to check out the Su-57 on display, according to the state-run Global Times.

At the airshow, the first contracts were signed for Russia to export its Su-57 to overseas customers, Russian news agency Tass reported, though it did not disclose the identity of the buyers.