Conflict Intensifies as Strikes and Displacement Escalate

Ines Schwerdtner is a German journalist and politician. She has been co-leader of The Left since October 2024. She was previously editor-in-chief of the German-language edition of the socialist magazine Jacobin from 2019 to 2023. She joined The Left in August 2023 and ran for the 2024 European Parliament election, but was not elected. In the 2025 federal election her party increased its vote share and seat count, and she became a member of the Bundestag.

José Antonio Kast Rist is a Chilean conservative politician, lawyer, and the president-elect of Chile. He served in the Chamber of Deputies from 2002 to 2018, representing districts in the capital, Santiago. Kast was a member of the Independent Democratic Union until 2016, after which he became an independent and later founded the Republican Party in 2019.

Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif is a Pakistani politician and businessman who has served as the prime minister of Pakistan since March 2024, having previously been in the role between April 2022 to August 2023. He has also served as the president of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and chief minister of Punjab three times, making him the longest-serving person in the role.

Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, also known as MbS, is the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, formally serving as Crown Prince and Prime Minister. He is the heir apparent to the Saudi throne, the seventh son of King Salman, and the grandson of the nation's founder, Ibn Saud.

Simon Harris is an Irish Fine Gael politician serving as Tánaiste and Minister for Finance since 2025, having previously served as Taoiseach from 2024 to 2025, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Minister for Defence from January to November 2025. He has been leader of Fine Gael since 2024 and a TD for the Wicklow constituency since 2011. A Cabinet minister since 2016, he previously served as a minister of state from 2014 to 2016.