Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan broke through barricades around the capital Tuesday and marched into Islamabad, clashing with security forces and demanding his release.

Authorities have enforced a security lockdown in the country, imposed internet blackouts and barricaded major roads leading into the capital to prevent protesters from entering, after Khan called for his supporters to march on parliament.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters that protesters could remain on the outskirts of Islamabad, but threatened extreme measures if they entered the city.

The latest protests came as Islamabad bolstered security for an official visit by Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko, who arrived in the capital on Monday for three days of talks with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Here’s what to know.

What’s happening?

A convoy of vehicles carrying protesters set off from the city of Peshawar Sunday as part of a “long march” with the aim of reaching the capital, about 180 kilometers (110 miles) away.

Led by Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi and Ali Amin Gandapur, chief minister in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province – where Khan’s party remains in power – the protesters planned to hold a sit-in at D-Chowk, a large square near the country’s parliament.

Protesters reached the outskirts of Islamabad Monday, defying a two-day security lockdown and a ban on rallies. Along the way, police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds and blocked roads with shipping containers to prevent them pushing through.

Video showed a police post ablaze and several fires on the highway. Reuters reported 22 police vehicles were torched just outside Islamabad and elsewhere in Punjab province.

By Tuesday morning, protesters had breached the city limits and a large crowd was gathered at Zero Point, an interchange well inside the city.

Soldiers could be seen outside key government buildings in Islamabad, including parliament, the Supreme Court and the Secretariat.

Will the protests continue?

Naqvi, Pakistan’s interior minister, said security forces had suffered bullet wounds, but police were “showing restraint” with protesters.

He warned that if protesters crossed the line, security forces had been authorized to fire back, and he could take extra measures including imposing a curfew or deploying the military.

“Rangers could open fire and there will be no protesters there after five minutes,” Naqvi said. “Anyone who reaches here will be arrested.”

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has accused the government of using excessive force, saying “bullets were fired at protesters” who it described as “peaceful.” The PTI said about two dozen protesters had been injured.

In recent days, thousands of Khan supporters have been arrested in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces as authorities tried to prevent the protest march.

Schools in Islamabad and nearby Rawalpindi closed on Monday and Tuesday, and officials and witnesses said all public transport between cities and terminals had been shut down, according to Reuters.

PTI senior leader Kamran Bangash said protesters were “determined, and we will reach Islamabad,” adding that “we will overcome all hurdles one by one.”

Why are they protesting?

Protesters are demanding the release of Khan and what his supporters deem political prisoners. They also want a new constitutional amendment to be repealed, which has increased the government’s power to select superior court justices and pick those judges to hear political cases.

Khan’s supporters also believe February elections were not free and fair, calling it a “stolen mandate.”

Khan was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in 2022 and has since led a popular campaign against the current government led by Prime Minister Sharif, accusing it of colluding with the military to remove him from office.

The former star cricketer turned populist politician has been in jail for over a year and faces dozens of criminal cases ranging from corruption to leaking state secrets, all of which he and his party deny.

Khan and the PTI – the country’s largest opposition party – remain popular, and his detention has turbocharged an already tense showdown between the country’s powerful military and his supporters.

Khan has repeatedly urged his supporters to take to the streets demanding his release, and violence has broken out in several cities.

A march to Islamabad from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in early October demanding Khan’s release was met with similar road blockades and mobile and internet cuts and ended in clashes with police.

The protests come at a sensitive time for Pakistan, which has seen a wave of sectarian violence and separatist militant attacks that have killed dozens of people in recent months.

Hong Kong has become a center for money laundering and sanctions evasion under the tightening grip of Beijing, US lawmakers have warned, calling for a re-evaluation of America’s close business relationship with the Asian financial hub.

In a letter to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Monday, bipartisan leaders of the House Select Committee on China demanded greater scrutiny from Washington of Hong Kong’s much prized financial sector, a pillar of the economy that’s home to many big US banks and accounts for more than one-fifth of the Chinese territory’s gross domestic product.

Hong Kong has become a “global leader” in illicit practices, it said, including in the export of controlled Western technology to Russia, the creation of front companies to buy Iranian oil and the managing of “ghost ships” that engage in illegal trade with North Korea.

Since Beijing imposed a national security law on the city in 2020, “Hong Kong has shifted from a trusted global financial center to a critical player in the deepening authoritarian axis of the People’s Republic of China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea,” the lawmakers said.

“We must now question whether longstanding US policy towards Hong Kong, particularly towards its financial and banking sector, is appropriate,” they added.

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump revoked the special treatment Hong Kong had long enjoyed under US law, to punish Beijing for imposing the national security law on the once-outspoken city. The executive order effectively ended the city’s separate customs treatment from mainland China by suspending a 1992 law granting Hong Kong special economic status.

Since then, dozens of Hong Kong-based companies have been hit by US sanctions for evading extensive measures imposed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, including the supply of critical dual‑use goods such as semiconductors.

Hong Kong officials have previously said the city has no obligation to implement unilateral sanctions imposed by other countries – including when a mega yacht linked to a Russian oligarch sanctioned by the US, the European Union and the United Kingdom dropped anchor in the city in October 2022.

The committee’s letter cited research published this year that shows nearly 40% of goods shipped from Hong Kong to Russia between August and December 2023 were high-priority items that are likely fueling Moscow’s production of military goods such as missiles and aircraft.

The lawmakers asked Treasury Department officials to brief the committee on “the current status of American banking relationships with Hong Kong banks, how our policies have shifted to account for the changes in Hong Kong’s status and posture, and the measures the Treasury plans to implement to address these risks.”

The letter, signed by Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, who chairs the committee, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the panel’s top Democrat, highlights the growing scrutiny on Hong Kong in the escalating great power rivalry between the US and China.

It comes as Trump is poised to return to the White House with a cabinet stacked with China hawks, including Marco Rubio, who has been named secretary of state.

Rubio, a fierce critic of Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong, has sponsored legislation that sanctioned Chinese and Hong Kong officials for alleged human rights violations in the city. He has also proposed a bill now being considered in Congress to let the secretary of state strip certification from Hong Kong’s economic and trade offices in the US.

Trump has also named hedge fund executive Scott Bessent as his treasury secretary.

Isaac Stone Fish, CEO of Strategy Risks, a business intelligence firm that focuses on China, said even if Yellen declines to act upon the letter, Bessent – who in a recent interview described Beijing as a “despotic regime” – is expected to take a more hawkish approach to China.

“In fact, it appears like he’ll be the most hawkish Treasury Secretary since the 1970s. This has massive implications for US businesses with big exposure to Hong Kong,” Fish said.

“Sadly, the idea of Hong Kong as autonomous from China is now a farce … US companies need to understand that their Hong Kong operations will likely fall under increased scrutiny.”

German leaders raised the possibility that a fiery cargo plane crash in Lithuania on Monday was the result of sabotage or hybrid warfare.

The cargo plane was flying from Leipzig, Germany, and was due to land at Vilnius Airport when it crashed a few kilometers from the runway. The plane skidded on the ground for several hundred meters before hitting a residential home, authorities in Lithuania said.

Asked on Monday evening whether the crash was the result of hybrid warfare, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told public broadcaster ZDF: “We are looking at this closely, we can’t say at the moment, but it could be so – there are very many bad forms of hybrid warfare that we are seeing in Germany.”

Scholz said the cause of the crash “needs to be investigated closely. But we won’t make an accusation until we can prove it.”

His comments follow similar remarks by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock who, according to Reuters, told reporters at a G7 summit: “The fact that we, together with our Lithuanian and Spanish partners, must now seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident (or) another hybrid incident shows what volatile times we are currently living in, even in the center of Europe.”

On Tuesday, Lithuanian authorities downplayed the prospect, insisting that no evidence pointing to sabotage had yet been uncovered. “Our initial information does not indicate that we need to be investigating more serious actions,” Prosecutor Arturas Urbelis said in a statement, according to Reuters.

“We might find signs of activities of other kinds as we investigate,” he added.

The US National Transportation Safety Board is sending its own personnel to assist with the investigation, Reuters reported, alongside representatives from Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Footage from a nearby security camera shows the plane descending, before dipping out of view behind a building. Moments later, a large fireball can be seen in the sky rising from behind the building, followed by a plume of black smoke.

One crew member died in the crash. Three others on board the flight, including the pilot, survived, along with 12 people in the house who were safely evacuated, according to local authorities.

Lithuania’s Counter-intelligence chief Darius Jauniskis told reporters at a news conference: “We cannot reject the possibility of terrorism. … But at the moment we can’t make attributions or point fingers, because we don’t have such information.”

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that incendiary devices which ignited in Leipzig, Germany and the United Kingdom in July were part of a covert Russian operation that aimed to start fires aboard cargo and passenger flights heading to the US and Canada. Some European officials later backed those allegations, which Moscow denied.

“I can state that this is part of unconventional kinetic operations against NATO countries that are being undertaken by the Russian military intelligence,” Kestutis Budrys, a national security adviser to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, told Reuters after the WSJ report.

“We note that these operations are being escalated: their focus is moving … to harming infrastructure and actions that could end up killing people,” Budrys said.

Speaking at a news conference, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the WSJ’s reporting “unintelligible hoaxes which are never supported by any credible information.”

DHL said the plane “made a forced landing about one kilometer from VNO Airport.” It confirmed four people were onboard. “The cause of the accident is still unknown, and an investigation is underway,” DHL said.

The plane was a Boeing 737-400, according to a statement from Swiftair.

According to the Vilnius mayor, Valdas Benkunskas, the plane narrowly missed hitting the house directly, crashing instead into the nearby courtyard, LRT reported.

The head of the Lithuanian Police, Arūnas Paulauskas, said the incident was “most likely due to a technical fault or a human error” but that terrorism “cannot be ruled out,” according to LRT.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

Three bodies were recovered on Tuesday morning from a tourist boat which capsized off Egypt’s Red Sea coast, and rescue teams were still searching for 13 missing people, the Red Sea provincial governor, Amr Hanafi, told Reuters.

The boat, the Sea Story, capsized on Monday near the Sataya Reef, carrying 31 tourists and 13 crew on a multi-day diving trip. It was struck by high waves and sank in 5-7 minutes.

Sixteen passengers were believed to have been trapped inside, according to a Red Sea Governorate statement on Monday.

Twenty-eight survivors were rescued with minor injuries, none requiring hospitalization. Survivors were being accommodated in a hotel in Marsa Alam, where authorities were working with embassies and consulates to provide assistance and documentation.

Hanafi said the boat had passed its last safety inspection in March 2024, with no technical issues reported. The boat, owned by an Egyptian national, was 34 meters long and had received a one-year safety certificate from the Maritime Safety Authority.

The incident occurred during rough weather conditions. The Egyptian Red Sea Ports Authority reported wave heights of 3-4 meters (10-13 feet) and wind speeds of 34 knots in the area on Sunday, leading to the closure of maritime traffic.

It was the second boat to sink in the area this year; in June another vessel suffered severe damage from strong waves, though no casualties were reported.

The Red Sea, renowned for its coral reefs and marine life, is a major hub for Egypt’s tourism industry, which plays a critical role in the country’s economy.

With a Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire on the horizon, an 18-year-old United Nations resolution has resurfaced as a blueprint for ending the war.

The 60-day cessation of hostilities aims to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, with the hope that it could form the basis of a lasting truce.

Resolution 1701 was adopted to end a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, and had kept relative calm in the area for nearly two decades. That lasted until the day after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel last year, when Hezbollah attacked in solidarity, beginning more than a year of conflict.

The resolution stipulated that Israel must withdraw all its forces from southern Lebanon, and that the only armed groups present in south of the Litani river should be the Lebanese military and UN peacekeeping forces.

The United States, which is mediating between Israel and Lebanon in the current conflict, believes a return to the principles of the resolution is in the interest of both parties, but has insisted on a mechanism to enforce it more strictly. Israel has argued that Hezbollah has breached the resolution multiple times by operating close to its border. Lebanon says Israel regularly breached the agreement over the past two decades by sending fighter jets into its airspace.

Here’s what we know about the resolution and why it is critical to a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

A brief history

Israel launched an invasion into Lebanon in 1982, sending tanks all the way to the capital Beirut, after coming under attack from Palestinian militants in the country.

It then occupied southern Lebanon for almost two decades until the year 2000, when it was driven out by Hezbollah, created – with backing from Iran – to resist the Israeli occupation.

In 2000, the UN established the so-called Blue Line, a “line of withdrawal” for Israeli forces from Lebanon. That boundary now serves as the de facto border between the two countries.

Lebanon has however claimed that Israel did not complete its withdrawal from the country, continuing to occupy the Shebaa Farms, a 15-square-mile (39-square-km) patch of land Israel has held since 1967.

Israel claims the Shebaa Farms area is part of the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria and later annexed. The international community – with the notable exception of the United States – considers the Golan Heights to be occupied territory belonging to Syria.

Resolution 1701

Israel invaded Lebanon again in 2006 after Hezbollah killed three soldiers and kidnapped two others – in an effort to compel the release of Lebanese prisoners. The war lasted just over a month and resulted in the death of more than 1,000 Lebanese, mostly civilians, as well as 170 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

On August 11, 2006, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1701, which called for “a full cessation of hostilities” by Hezbollah and Israel.

The resolution demanded that Israel withdraw all its forces from southern Lebanon, and for the Lebanese government and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) “to deploy their forces together throughout the south.” No other armed personnel would be permitted in the area.

It also called on the Lebanese government “to exercise its full sovereignty, so that there will be no weapons without the consent of the Government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the Government of Lebanon.”

A 10,000-troop UN peacekeeping force, UNIFIL is the main body tasked with implementing Resolution 1701 on the ground.

A UN-mediated prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah in 2008 saw the return of the remains of the two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006 for five Lebanese prisoners. Israel later released the bodies of some 200 Arabs.

Escalation since October 8

Hezbollah began firing at the Israeli-held Shebaa Farms on October 8, 2023, in what it later said was solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza, a day after Gaza-based Hamas launched a major attack on southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage. Israel fired back.

Between October 8, 2023 and the end of June, UNIFIL detected 15,101 cross border trajectories, of which 12,459 were from Israel into Lebanon, and 2,642 Lebanon into Israel,” the UN said on October 1, adding that “while most exchanges of fire have been confined to within a few kilometers of either side of the Blue Line, several strikes have reached as far as 130 km into Lebanon and 30 km into Israel.”

Since then, cross border skirmishes continued but were contained along the Israel-Lebanon frontier, until September this year, when Israel expanded its war aims to including the return home for residents of the north, who were displaced due to cross border attacks from Hezbollah, which said that it would only stop attacks on Israel once a ceasefire is reached in Gaza. That was followed by a massive aerial assault on Lebanon, and the October 1 ground invasion into the country.

Where each party stands on 1701

It focuses on stricter mechanisms to implement Resolution 1701 in the south of the country and on the role of the Lebanese army in doing so, the official said, adding that it also deals with smuggling routes through the country’s international borders.

The proposal also requires Israeli ground forces, operating in southern Lebanon since October, to withdraw.

But some officials in Israel have said that simply returning to 1701 is not enough, insisting that Israel must retain the right to strike Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after a ceasefire deal should violations occur.

Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right Israeli minister of finance, has said that “full operational freedom” for the Israeli military in southern Lebanon is “a non-negotiable condition.”

“We are changing the security paradigm and will not return to decades of concepts of containment and threats without response. This will not happen again,” he said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has dismissed reports of demands to give the Israeli military operational freedom in south Lebanon as “speculation,” adding that he hasn’t seen such a clause in the proposal.

Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who leads the Hezbollah-allied Amal party and is the interlocutor in talks with Hezbollah, has said that the proposal he received from the US does not include mention of Israeli military operational freedom in Lebanon, adding that the US knows that such a demand would be “unacceptable.”

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has said that “there has been an exchange of different ideas for how to see what we believe is in everyone’s interest, which is the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.”