United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an interview at the United Nations headquarters, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024 [Pamela Smith/AP] United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an interview at the United Nations headquarters, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024 [Pamela Smith/AP] Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Guterres called President Bill Clinton from Lisbon on August 30 and September 8, 1999, to discuss the growing crisis in East Timor. The small Southeast Asian territory, which had endured a brutal Indonesian occupation since 1975, was again engulfed in violence after voters overwhelmingly chose independence in a referendum. Pro-Indonesian militias responded to the vote for independence by unleashing a so-called scorched-earth campaign, destroying infrastructure, displacing up to half a million people and killing thousands. The crisis resonated in Portugal, where linguistic, Catholic, and historical ties to its former colony helped fuel a solidarity movement. An estimated 10,000 demonstrators, dressed in white, formed human chains through Lisbon's city streets. Guterres had raised the issue before. At a 1996 summit in Bangkok, he met Indonesia's President Suharto and broached the politically sensitive topic of East Timor, offering to restore diplomatic relations (severed since the 1975 invasion) in exchange for the release of Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao. The proposal was met with an awkward silence. This time, Guterres was asking the United States to support a UN mission in East Timor, but Washington was reluctant to confront Indonesia. Guterres recalled in his 2022 biography, "Honest Broker", that he warned Clinton during the second call that Portugal could reconsider its Balkan deployments if the international community failed to intervene. Portugal's contribution to NATO was small but politically well-placed, with its troops serving in the alliance's prominent post-Cold War missions in Bosnia and Kosovo. Guterres offered Clinton a choice: risk a public falling-out with a founding NATO ally, or use Washington's influence to make Indonesia accept an international force in East Timor. The next day, amid growing international pressure, the White House stated that Indonesia "must" allow international assistance.

Newly established commission identifies 17 catastrophic threats to human health but says'realistic route to act' on each exists Humans could become extinct by the year 2100 due to malicious use of AI or nuclear conflict, according to a new global risk assessment. They top a list of 17 major threats to human health over the next 75 years, which also includes cuts to aid spending by wealthy countries, the climate crisis and childhood malnutrition. The experts behind The Lancet Commission on 21st Century Global Threats to Health said all the threats interact, meaning they must be addressed together - but stressed that there was "a realistic route to act" on each. "Decisions made by leaders today will shape the health and wellbeing of the next generation," said Prof Christopher Murray, commission co-chair and the director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington. To create its list, the commission modelled how many years in good health might be lost due to sickness, disability or early deaths due to each threat, based on current trajectories - a measure known as disability-adjusted life years (Dalys).

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At least 81 US aircraft worth up to $3.3bn lost or damaged in Iran war Share At least 81 US aircraft worth up to $3.3bn lost or damaged in Iran war on social media At least 81 United States military aircraft, including fighter jets and drones, have been lost or damaged during Operation Epic Fury, the code name for Washington's military campaign against Iran launched earlier this year. The statistic comes as part of a report released on Monday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan government agency that provides budget-related research to the legislature. The report this week highlights the growing price tag for the war, which began on February 28. A lasting ceasefire has remained out of reach as the conflict continues into its eighth month. "The asymmetries of warfare show that even small countries with small militaries can inflict damage on the world's best militaries," said Harlan Ullman, a former naval officer and chairman of the Killowen Group, a government advisory firm. He told Al Jazeera that Iran has managed to achieve a degree of success in damaging US military hardware and bases in the Middle East.

Pakistan's new drone deal is with Trump-backed firm also selling to India Share Pakistan's new drone deal is with Trump-backed firm also selling to India on social media On September 16, a delegation from Powerus, a year-old United States drone company backed by two sons of President Donald Trump, was received by Pakistan's military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, at military headquarters in Rawalpindi. A day later, the company announced it had received a "limited procurement order" from Pakistan's Ministry of Defence for unmanned aerial systems. It also said it had signed a separate memorandum of understanding (MoU) with senior Pakistani defence officials. But for analysts studying Pakistan's venture in drone technology, even bigger concerns have arisen from information that has since emerged. Less than three months earlier, the same company had given an Indian defence manufacturer the exclusive right to make and sell its drone interceptor technology in India.

Is the war entering a new phase? Ukraine has launched a barrage of drones on Moscow and other regions as Russia opened polls for its first parliamentary elections since the start of the war. More than 350 Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian capital on Friday morning, Moscow's mayor reported. With the vote potentially offering the Kremlin a measure of the public mood over the invasion, Kyiv has maintained its bid to use air attacks to have Russians feel the impact of the conflict politically, socially and economically. Only political parties that back the war have been registered to run.

Image caption, At least 156 people, including 120 children, were killed in February's strike on the primary school in Minab UN human rights experts say there are reasonable grounds to believe the US committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran that killed at least 177 civilians. A new report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, external said February's missile strikes on a primary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd constituted indiscriminate attacks causing civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure. There was no immediate comment from the US. It has previously denied striking Lamerd and said it is investigating what happened in Minab. The experts also found Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during a crackdown on mass anti-government protests in January.

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Follow this author to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens. While much talk about what the future could look like focuses on emerging and rapidly advancing technologies, speakers at the TIME Trailblazers Dinner in Las Vegas on Monday urged focusing on people. Aicha Evans, the chief executive officer of autonomous vehicle company Zoox and a 2026 TIME Trailblazers honoree, talked about how the design of her company's robotaxis--or " toasters," as she jokingly called them, in apparent reference to how boxy they look--prioritizes the rider experience and tries to eliminate the thought of driving altogether.